Wish becomes Fact

I know, it's been forever since I've blogged. I've just had so much to do. I'll try to do better, I promise.

But the good news is I actually have something for you today... a couple stories.

First of all, my ex (I know, here I go again). I heard my daughter on the phone with her the other day talking about how she doesn't like history and math in school. And for those of you who don't know, my ex has gone mega-xtian. So I hear my ex telling her that history is basically useless and that all the history she needs is in the bible. Fucking Really? That's what you've got to say to your daughter about history? You really can't think of anything useful that isn't in the bible? Now I know you're a holy-roller and all, but do you have to be such a fucking idiot too? Then she went on to say how much she hated math and how glad she was that she didn't have to ever do math again. I don't even have the strenght to tackle that one fully except to say that I'm trying to keep my kid IN school until she graduates and I'm sure hearing her mother constantly say that she hates and never uses anything she's learning just undermines everything I'm trying to do.

Here's the other story. I'll tie these together at the end.

Ok, actually I started this yesterday and I got busy. But I have to tell you this story before I get into the other story. I was on the phone with my mom today. She was saying that she couldn't believe that my grandmother, being such a staunch xtian, made me a devil costume when I was little. I agreed that it did seem a little out of character. And she said, well, that, yeah, and just that anybody would do that. I said what do you mean, anybody? The rest of the talk went mostly like this:

mom:
Well, I don't see how anybody could ever want to dress up as the devil, much less do that to a little kid.

me:
I'm not sure what you mean, you mean that just because it's the devil, and nobody should aspire to glorifying such an evil figure?

mom:
Exactly. Why would you want to honor the devil. Do you really wanna teach your kids to grow up acting like that? I mean, even if you don't believe in the devil.

me: Well, the devil is a xtian concept. So how could it be such a bad thing if you don't believe in him?

mom:
Because he's evil. He's bad to the core. Why would you want your kids growing up learning to emulate that?

me:
But you have to problem with dracula, the mummy, frankenstein, etc.

mom:
Well, that's different. They're not really real and can't really do any harm.

me:
Hah, well maybe so, but they're still all bad guys. Do you want your kids growing up emulating dracula? Do you really want him to become a creature of the night?

mom:
They're not as bad as the devil.

me:
So it's ok to dress like someone who's really really evil as long as they're not the ultimate evil.

mom:
It's just different.

me:
How is it so different?

mom:
Well, at least they didn't grow horns!! The devil's so evil he grew horns.

me:
Really? You wanna go there? OK, dracula grew fangs!

mom:
Well still... it's just different.

So anyway... that's just a ridiculous discussion we had and I had to pass it along.

Here's my other story though:
I was also talking to my mom about people driving by with their radios too loud. And she said that cops in her town will ticket you the first time you play your music too loud and the second time they'll take it away for 2 wks. And the 3rd time, they'll sell your radio.

Now this one I just can't let pass. I said, there's just no way the police can get away with stealing your stuff. She said... well it's not stealing because they warned you. Now you're just being stupid. If I warn you that I'm going to come over and steal your stuff while you're on vacation it's still stealing.
She said, well I guarantee you they do that kinda thing out here (in the country). I said, no they don't because there are still laws in this country and you can't steal a radio just because you think it's too loud. I don't care who you are.
And she said, well they'll still give you a ticket.

Um, yeah, they'll give you a ticket, that I'm sure of.

So look here's the deal. I know all of us would like to take someone's radio away when they play it too loud and I know it sounds very attractive to a xtian that all the history you ever need is in the bible, but wishing doesn't make it so.

Xtians wish all kinds of things about the world and about god. And they spill that shit out to their kids like it's fact. But again, wishing something doesn't make it fact.

Importance of Religion

I've seen a couple posts about why athiests are always so concerned with god and religion when we don't believe in it. And that's a pretty stupid argument, but I'll address it as succinctly as I can.

The reason it's so important to is is because it's so important to you assholes and you have a history of holding religious beliefs against people who don't believe exactly what you do. Take a look at Bush (that douche). He's trying his hardest to turn this country into a theocracy. And when that happens, nobody's safe because it's the beliefs of whomever's in charge at the time that are going to rule. So that means that gays will be thrown in jail, abortionists are going to be locked away, and anybody who speaks out against god in any way will be locked up. And even if they're not locked up, this country will come to a halt because the prejudice that will ensue will be worse than anything the blacks ever thought of facing. Good people won't be able to get jobs because they're not the right flavor of xtian. And forget muslims. They'll be lucky to get out with their lives. I believe that more murders will be excused because religion tolerates that kinda thing a lot more. Well your honor. He told me that he was muslim and god sucked. Then he took out some wires and started making a bomb that he said he was going to throw into my church. What else could I do?

The worst thing that could possibly ever happen would be for this country to go the theocracy route. So yeah, you're goddamn right I care about religion. It's a pretty hot topic for me right now because I know I'm one of the ones who'll be on the chopping block if I don't stand up and scream the name of everyone's favorite fairy. And yeah, my ex will be leading the charge against me.

So everyone should care about how this country handles religion. And you xtians out there, you just wait. It sounds like a good idea now to run this country as a theocracy, but you just wait until the next guy comes into power and he decides he doesn't like your flavor. You'll be just as outcast as the rest of us. It never ends.

Today's Sermon

Tadpole just got back from her mother's. This weekend was like any other, she said: movies, video games, church. For the fun of it, I asked her what they talked about in church. She told me the story of Legion, more or less as follows:

"There was this guy who was really mean because he had a lot of demons in him, and then Jesus asked the demon his name, and he said 'Legion', and he told them to get out. Because there were lots of them in there. And the demon said 'Please don't kill me.' And Jesus told them to get out again, and I don't remember what happened next." What happened next was the demons all came out of the guy and went into a herd of pigs, and they ran into a lake and drowned.

I asked her, what was the reason for telling that story in church? What did they want you to learn from it? She said, "I guess not to let demons get in you." "Well how would you keep that from happening?" "I dunno."

A) Way to educate the children. The point was evidently well received by one and all. Or, you know, not.

B) This story sounds WAY weirder to me than it did when I heard it in church.

Finally an Original Post: Get Busy Living

Well, not "original" at that...this was inspired by Life, the Universe, and Everything's Square Pegs post.

While talking this post over with SurferJesus, he mentioned how bad his ex wife's christianity is for his daughter (Tadpole). The ex involves her in all the Christian stuff and is terribly into death. She keeps talking about the imminent end of the world, and on and on about death, and it's really disturbed Tadpole quite a bit, and given her nightmares. Remember, this kid is still aged in the single digits.

It suddenly struck me anew how completely hereafter-focused Christians are. This life sucks, we suck, this is a test, this is only a test. Everything gets started after death: the big party for us, the big punishment for the people we don't like. Earth is the last class before summer vacation. What a completely shitty way to live your life.

One of the benefits of atheism is getting to focus on the here and now. THIS is the party, here we are! Let's boogie!

And I get it's not like that for all xtians. God's a big comfort in times of trouble, take joy in God, all that. But like so many other things in the faith, God as a joy in life always seemed really forced to me while I was a believer. This has the feeling of trying to hold on to the Santa Clause story to your 17 year old. It just doesn't fly easily.

By the way, you should also check out LtUaE's Creationist Caught Speeding...simply delightful.

My Other Tangent

In my other post I got off on a tangent and forgot my original point.
It was simply that my ex (the mega-xtian) let's my daughter see all kinds of movies that are way too old for her.

I think it's funny that she's the one who's morally superior and I'm the one who doesn't want to corrupt the kid. However, I suppose that she has better insight into morality than I do and any time I do something right it's either by chance or through her influence.

What the fuck ever.

Extreme Christian Violence

One of the things that's always completely discredited religion for me is how hypocritical they are. And I realize I'm not saying anything new here, but since I've been a father (3x now) it's really been hitting me hard how xtians (or any religion) deals with violence.

It basically goes like this... xtians abhor any kind of violence, sex, language or any other kind of inappropriate material unless it's in the bible.
Again, my ex (the strict souther baptist and ex porn and titty dancer skank) has let my daughter see more rated R movies with more violent content than I would ever dream. Some of it she's let her see because she doesn't see anything wrong with it, and others because it was religious. Of course, the religious part was the showing of the Passion at her church. Of course, they didn't watch the whole thing, just the 20-something mins of torture. I'll tell you what... I don't give a fuck who's getting beaten, don't show it to my kid. And looking at some of the other verses in the bible it's some really sick shit. There was this one that one passage from Faithinate's last post:

EZEKIEL 23: "19 Yet she became more and more promiscuous as she recalled the days of her youth, when she was a prostitute in Egypt. 20 There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses."

Now, I don't care you who are; that's just fucking sick. And this is what they recommend our children read?

Here's my own bible verse. And it's ok because I'm talking about God and how he has saved us from sin.

And Jesus looked upon her to watch her bend over and take her lover's hard manhood inside her just as the devil had instructed her to do with the horse the time before. Then Satan whispered to Jesus, "You know, she looks like she could use a cock in her mouth." Jesus refused and admonished her as a filthy whore. She then, fully consumed by the devil, tempted Jesus by giving lay with another woman. She spread her legs and tongued her labia like a ripe mango. She then placed her tongue all the way inside the other woman's tail as the other woman screamed with in a Satanic voice. She then invited Jesus to join them promising him all the pleasures of both their bodies. Jesus again admonished her as a whore, then excused himself to reflect in private in the woods.

Hey, I could write a bible too as it turns out.

Law and Order

Man, did any of you guys see the new Law and Order this week? I don't know when it comes on because I have Tivo, but I watched it last night.

You see this couple kind of arguing in the street. Next thing you know, these huge pieces of hail start falling. One of them catches this dude right in the face. Well it turns out to be large rocks instead, and they were falling off of one of the buildings. And I mean large rocks... they averaged the size of your fist. Those smooth gardening rocks... ok, enough about the rocks...

It turns out this lady was stoned to death on the roof. Messy business.

I'm not going to recount the whole episode for you because I don't wanna spoil it. But it turned out to be this mega-intense xtian group who's waging war on all non-believers. They were taking these little kids and bringing them up and extreme radicals. You should have seen it... these kids were insane. And kids will pretty much believe anything you tell them so there's no help for them.

This one really hit home with me because there are so people like this. Hell, I'm fairly convinced that my ex is getting like that.

But it did get me thinking about a conversation I had with Faithinate one time. Since we were both raised xtian we both have the same tendencies when it comes back to that whole thing. Whenever something bad happens we fall back into starting to pray sometimes. I think I do it a lot less than she does, but still. But that's how much more powerful emotion is than reason. Emotion stays with you forever, but reason get resolved right away. Think about it... do you remember who made fun of you in school? Of course you do... we all do. I remember the name of every bully who ever even looked at me. Now answer me this... do you remember any of the questions on your final math test in the 5th grade? Again, of course you don't. So emotion is much more powerful. And it's for this reason that even though we truly believe that religion is complete bullshit, we still fall back into it sometimes. I've worked hard to change my language because that's where it starts. I try not to say things like oh god, and god willing... I try to say oh dog, and dog willing, or moon willing, etc. Hey, it's a start.

But if people as dedicated as we are have trouble breaking out of the cycle, just imagine how hard it is for an entire society. You could actually prove to these people that God doesn't exist and they would still pray and go to church and kill people who don't believe. There's just no stopping some things. However, I do look forward to a day when the xtians are the extreme minority and they're the ones who have to hideout on the internet and write in secret. With any luck though these people will slowly die out. This won't happen in our lifetime, but it's possible. Imagine all the scientific discoveries that were initially shot down. The detractors eventually all died and science was free to flourish.

And the reason why religion is so much more popular than atheism is because they yell louder. We're not currently free to shout our beliefs from the mountaintops or start killing people because they believe in God. Nor are we really even allowed to say we don't believe in party conversation. It's that whole emotion vs. reason argument, right? Typically, atheists don't believe as a matter of reason so we don't have anything to shout about. I think the times are changing though. We're getting tired enough of the rhetoric and it's starting to take a real toll on our country so we're being forced to get emotional about it.

I was reading this blog today talking about how religion is keeping us out of the forefront of a lot of new technology. And while that's more true than anybody knows, it'll be a long time before anything's done about it because the xtians shout louder. Just a fact of life.

Fine, I'm going to Church!!!

As I mentioned in a previous post, My ex said that she was really worried for our daughter that we don't take her to church.
I was surfing around on the internet as a SurferJesus is bound to do, and I came across the Church of FreeThinkers. It's an athiest church. Wouldn't that just roast her? Frankly, if I weren't so into getting my sleep on sun, I'd consider going on a regular basis just so I could say, but you're the one who wanted me to start going to church with her. Not only would she eat shit, but she would shit out the she from the shit that she ate and make more shit to eat.