2018 Check In

We all still exit and are still atheist. I checked in for the first time in ages and found the blog redirecting to some other site. I don't know how long that's been going on.

I removed the two custom HTML widgets we had, the stats counter and the atheist blogroll, and the redirect went away. Both sites seem to still exist for their original purposes, so I guess one of them either got hacked or something funny is going on.

By the way, vote. In all elections. I used to blow off the local ones and the mid-terms, but no more. For all the tiny offices' candidates you can find prepared nonpartisan research by several organizations, and you can certainly find partisan research, too. Find orgs you trust, make your voting list, and go vote.

Voting early is often easier and more convenient. And there are several resources to show you a sample ballot for your specific locale before you go.

Vote.

Obergefell v. Hodges

It is a good day! Congratulations to those of you who can now marry who you want!

Sick of Movies

Currently I'm reading a book and watching a movie that both have strong religious overtones. I should say that each of them have a couple characters who are strongly religious and it's just pathetic. They're both really ridiculous and the lengths they go to to perform their little religious ceremonies is fucking stupid. This one girl floats around the prison being as nasty and hateful as she wants and at the same time spends the rest of her time performing healing rituals and preaching about how much Jesus loves them and how forgiving he is, etc. It's fucking ridiculous. The girl in the other story hears the gods talking to her constantly and they tell her to do stupid shit like tracing the lines on the woodgrain floor. She does it for hours and hours. And she also feels unclean constantly because she's unworthy so she spends tons of time washing her hands till they bleed. She's been doing it for years. This is the kind of shit that religion talks you into doing and that the rest of us have to put up with. I'm getting really really sick of seeing this shit everywhere. Just grow the fuck up already and start taking responsibility for your own crap.

Going Under the Radar

I've changed jobs recently, and the new place is very conservative and privately owned. On the upside, work travel should completely end, and my work schedule will be much more steady and predictable. On the downside, at least temporarily, I feel less secure about posting my beliefs here.

Political Fearmongering

I don't really want to get into general politics here, but I need to vent about this somewhere.

I stumbled into a conversation with a coworker this week about the job market and the need to hang on to a job. Somehow on her end this turned into a conversation about how bad things will be if Obama gets reelected. According to her, there will be widespread rioting if Obama is reelected, and she is starting to stockpile food and water.

Fucking really? Are we seriously trotting out this pony again? Last time it was that Obama was a muslim and would destroy America if elected. Now there will be riots, although I don't understand why. I was smart enough not to ask.

Still Godless in 2012

SurferJesus, Faithenate and I are still around and still atheist. Clearly we don't find much time to post much lately, but I know SurferJesus would like to. I expect Faithenate would like to, but we haven't talked about it. We all stay pretty busy.

I read my old posts here from time to time. I'd still like to try a "Testify" positive atheist testimony site. I think I might go order some atheist jewelry tonight. I still like the idea of a community science program, but I'm not sure where to start. Also, I tend to not follow through on things. But that would be a nice thing to follow through on.

Big didlo up your ass!

Same Shit, Different Judgement Day

Ah, it's another judgement day.

Many Christians seem to think the rapture will involve them being called to heaven, leaving behind their clothes.

What the fuck?

So, is everyone naked in heaven? Or perhaps the styles or fabrics are different there, and you are issued a new set of clothes upon rapture. Does heaven have standardized uniforms?

But really, all these other humans who have died and gone to heaven before the rapture have left their earthly bodies here. Why would rapture be different? Won't it be odd being one of a few (or perhaps up to a half due to population growth and technological evangelism) walking around in an earthly body in heaven? Awkward.

Pre-Life? And Interpreting the Bible

Some random late-evening thoughts:

Religious people are so focused on the afterlife. What about the pre-life? As I understand it, there is no reincarnation in Judaism, Christianity or Islam. God breathes your soul into your mortal body at conception or birth, and then you live a mortal life and then live forever after with God and his buddies in heaven or suffer eternally in hell.

So, if there is no reincarnation (which oddly seems to be a popular theme in movies...hmmm), then you and your soul don't exist before your date of birth or conception. Past lives are also popular in movies, but I digress...or do I? I was going to state that people don't have a problem with not existing before their conception, but apparently some do.

Well, the point I was trying to make with logic is that if you have no problem believing you didn't exist before birth/conception, then why would you have trouble believing you don't exist after death? However clearly there is some popular fantasy that people's souls have lived mortal lives before and may yet again.

Clearly people are neither logical nor literal about their bibles.

And speaking of bibles, why is there so much effort at interpreting the bible and disagreements over it's interpretation? This god guy clearly had some issues with clear communication! You'd think the creator of all would be able to get his point across unambiguously.

Act Now and We'll Throw In Jesus For Free!

I think the most compelling evidence against religion for me is that it has to be sold from one person to another. There is no independent verification process. Another person has to tell you which goods are god, which evil is not, and what is just part of god's mysterious plan for a better, bigger purpose than us. But you do have this handy book to guide you, although someone else has to tell you which parts are currently iron law and which are parables and can be largely ignored.

I was going to go on, but sometimes less is more.

A Week of Religious People Again

After existing happily secularly for quite a while I had a rash of religious folks around me this past week. A group I was working with got to talking about going to church in their youth. One was apparently beaten if he was late for church or showed up smelly because he was working and rushed to church without a shower. Another was Pentecostal and went to church daily and participated in every Pentecostal revival that came through town. I gather they aren't as devoted as their parents, but they did get to talking about the power of prayer and their strong belief that it "works". I had the good sense not to join these conversations.

I fail to see any supernatural cause and effect between prayer and events, although I've previously compared prayer to affirmations and meditation as a mind discipline. But one man in my workgroup this week was positively convinced prayer of others saved him from a bad lifestyle that would have ended in his early death and expressed incredulity at the thought that anyone wouldn't believe in the power of prayer. Again, I stayed out of the conversation as a work environment it not the proper place for spiritual debate.

On my flight back home I once again had a cute girl next to me. I had spotted her in the gate waiting area and was mildly infatuated with her backside, and she was cute from the front, too. To my surprise she had the seat next to me on the plane, and she was wearing no ring, and she appeared to be an appropriate age for me. But I was completely turned off when she pulled out her bible and was taking notes about her reading. There's a conversation I didn't even want to start that day, so I started dozing while the plane was still boarding.

There were also two or three ladies on the plane that were either Amish or nuns...I couldn't decide which. They had rather plain dresses with white hats with the fabric hanging down the back. I had recently been in an Amish store (complete with computer-printed labels, cell phones, and they took AMEX unlike some of the other local businesses, but nevermind) and the hats were a little different, so I started thinking maybe they were nuns' habits. One of them was seated in the row behind me and sang semi-quietly the entire flight.

Test of Faith

For various reasons I have not been following news well lately, and I completely missed what's been happening in Tunisia. But I've come in a little late on what's happening in Egypt.

The first articles and TV reports I saw about it were discussions of the Muslim Brotherhood who reportedly want a less secular and more Islamic-style government. I found myself worrying about such a transition and how it could make the world less safe for Israel and the U.S..

It quickly occurred to me that I was mentally taking the side apparently against the will of the people of Egypt, against democracy and for a reportedly oppressive government that doesn't allow free speech, controls the media and shuts down the internet and other communication services. That doesn't sound like me!

So I'm a bit ashamed of myself that I allowed—however briefly—my fear of religious oppression to overcome my belief in freedom and a representative government. Just because I've never seen compelling evidence for the existence of god(s) doesn't mean I want those who do believe in god(s) to suffer; however I wish they'd be more rational I don't realistically expect the world to suddenly shed its religions.

Then my cynicism kicked in, and I realize that the stories in Western media strongly implying a new Egyptian government that would concern many/most Americans are probably being made for the purpose of making the U.S. fear an Egyptian revolution. Whether the current government of Egypt is seeding those stories to discourage support of a regime change, or the U.S. government protecting a somewhat ally or just the Western media looking for talking points to catch our attention, I think we shouldn't allow these stories to frighten us.

After all, how does freedom and a representative government happen? Do dictators and otherwise powerful governments dole out power and freedom? No, the people revolt, and a peaceful revolution is a great way of doing it. Discount the fear of extremist Islam taking over the Middle East, and imagine freedom and democracy spreading through it like wildfire. Damn, how could that not be a good thing? Okay, I can actually think of one or two ways, but I can imagine mostly good ways for that to turn out. Power to the people! Let the people speak openly!

I fear religious influence on governments, but I believe that open communication is overall a positive thing for people everywhere. Writing in general was a technological leap; suddenly there is a species that can spread and retain experience and knowledge. The Gutenberg press really accelerated this, and then later postal services, radio, TV and the Internet allowed faster and wider dissemination of information so that now we are virtually a global community able to instantly react to happenings anywhere and communicate with people anywhere. If anything is more powerful in making people tolerate each other than communication, I don't know what it is. And toleration—live and let live—is one of my core beliefs.

Christians Are Arfraid of Atheists

I did an internet search to see if others had already begun atheist, rational or critical testimony, but all I can find are "ex-atheist" and other conversion testimonies. For some reason this congealed a thought that has been vaguely in my head for a long time: Christians are afraid of atheists. I suppose this should have been obvious, but it hadn't really occurred to me on such basic terms.

It would explain why they react so strongly to atheists. If testimony, faith and coercion are the only tools you have to attract people to and keep them in your religion, then someone using critical thinking to challenge your faith and beliefs must be terrifying.

Perhaps that is why testimony of atheists returning to religion seem to be so popular among Christians.

By the way, the closest thing I found to atheist / rational testimony in my searches so far is this video of Ricky Gervais. It is in the spirit of my rational testimony idea.

Testify!

I woke up in a rural / small city hotel after being suddenly diverted out of town for work, and then I headed downstairs for their free breakfast. In most of my travels I find Fox News on in the breakfast area, but this time it was the 700 Club on the telly. OMFG.

When I walked in there were a man and a woman praying over letters and telling people they were healed by Jesus...yeah, go back to the doctor, and they will tell you you're healed. Then there was a story about an orphaned child in Africa taken in by the ministry mission, and he caught the African "super virus" that was supposed to give a 10-day fever. But they prayed for him and the fever was gone in a day. Hallelujah.

Then they answered a letter from a young boy who was upset that his older sister no longer believed in god. They told him it's not his job to argue with her or pressure her (I'm glad for that much at least), but it was his job to periodically share with her how god helps him in his daily life. That is his testimony, they tell him.

Ah yes, testimony. As the only evidence presentable for the existence of god, testimony is a key element in spreading the word of god. When someone wants to convert you, they ask if they can give your their testimony. Christians give their testimony when speaking in front of a group.

But the way the 700 Club guy presented the instructions stuck a chord with me. The message of testimony is a personal, positive one. Hey, isn't that what I've been whining about in this blog? My failure to promote atheism in a positive manner? Haven't I been wondering how I can do so? Well, here it is: atheist/rational/critical testimony! Through testimony I can provide personal, positive messages about how my reliance on rational and critical thinking and the fruits of the scientific method help me in my daily life.

This is still in the idea phase, but I like it. Possible venues for my testimony include a Twitter account, a blog, and I am toying with the idea of a webcast, only I would want to be anonymous. Tricky, but not impossible. I don't think this blog is the place for such testimony as this is where we come to vent and mock. I need a new, pure, happy place to share my rational testimony.

Angry Atheists

It surprised me at first how much anger comes through in our blog here. It wasn't part of the original idea to have a blog to spew anger, but that's what came out. I figured it would subside after a time, but it's usually when I get angry about something that I think to blog about it. There is also the problem that Christians close to us caused a lot of evil and hid behind their religion for guilt-free forgiveness without regard to the recipients of the evil acts. And the purported use of religion by those distant to pursue evil acts worthy of reporting far and wide.

My big message I wanted to get across in the blog is that you can live a good, happy and moral life without a belief in God. I don't think I'm doing a great job of it, but oh well. Whenever I hear atheism discussed by religious folk they speak as if love and morality disappears if you have no God to believe in. That's the idea I want to change. Love, morality, caring, meaning and fulfillment are not tied to any religion or God.

I guess I also want people to quit using religion as a tool to manipulate others, because that's what I see when I look at organized religion. It's a means of few people controlling the thoughts and ultimately actions of many others. The flock react to the preacher, not to God, because God is just a feeling of validation you have when you feel good about what your thinking, and that is reinforced by your peers and leaders in the church.

I wish I could be more like Carl Sagan in my attitudes. In reading his book I love his approach in speaking about God. He says something like "I see no compelling evidence for God". Heck, I'm not even sure he was an atheist. He just speaks about his (and science's) observations and the accuracy of their predictions compared to religion and pseudoscience without anger or accusation.

The Friendly Atheist also has a good approach. In a recent video he speaks of reaching out and speaking with people he is at odds with to good effect. A woman who outed his atheism to all his management at work and released press releases further out him eventually complained about a nasty email she received from an angry FA reader. He apologized for it and pointed out an unfounded incendiary speculation made in one of the press releases, and they started an apparently cordial dialog and met in person. I doubt either altered their beliefs and opinions, but here are two people talking and agreeing on fair play and free speech rather than spewing anger at each other to no effect.

The FA also makes a distinction between debates and discussion in public speaking. I like this. I don't think I've ever seen a debate or argument change someone's opinion. It just polarizes people over the issue and separates people. A discussion, however, still doesn't change opinions, but it can result in fairer play, lower aggression and bring people closer together even if they disagree on such things as God and morality.

Another problem in getting along with people when realizing I was an atheist is that formerly respectable religions begin to sound as stupid as UFO cults, voodoo and pseudoscience, and it's hard to maintain respect for people who believe in them. It's hard not to start feeling smarter and superior to people who believe in ludicrous stories with no actual supporting evidence. And a lot of other atheists seem to come to the same thoughts, because there seems to be a sport in other atheists mocking believers. Sometimes amusing, but probably not constructive.

I sometimes ask myself how to be more like Carl Sagan or Hemant Mehta—The Friendly Atheist. I don't really have a good answer. I suppose I need to get over the anger. That will be hard to do, and I find it's helpful to spew it out here rather than to hang onto it.

After posting this I realized that my last blog is based on a video series titled "Why Do People Laugh at Creationists", and my last tweet links to "The Bible: Evidence That God Is Evil?" I found both amusing and validating my beliefs, but they certainly wouldn't open a door to friendly discussion with someone of differing beliefs, would they?

Jesusland

I can't coalesce my thoughts on this topic long enough to type intelligently about it, but check out this video about the dangers of Christian and Islamic fundamentalism—specifically in the case of creationism suppressing the results of the scientific method—to our country.

The video is part of a long well-made series debunking creationists.

I'll babble a bit about what's on my mind. The current transition from periodic media like newspapers and TV news to the internet is going to have some growing pains I fear. In general what takes the place of trusted journalists? More specifically I'm concerned that religious interests will try to overpower the voice of science and reason in the new media and risk slipping into a mini dark age.

I am not against free flow of information of course. I think in the long run the evolution of instant global communication will be great for humanity, but I worry about the bumps in the road along the way.

Edited to add: I like this video, too, by the same guy. It also points out the danger of muting science in favor of religious beliefs. I also love this text from a Despair.com-style poster shown in the movie:

Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove and evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree... yeah, makes perfect sense.

Godwin's Gays and Mel Brooks

The first several times I saw Mel Brooks' "To Be or Not to Be", I assumed the homosexual being rounded up by the German occupiers and being compelled to wear a pink triangle was just a gay joke. After all, if Jews wore yellow Stars of David, surely gays would wear a pink emblem, ha ha. I was taught history in school—grade, middle, high and college. We covered WWII several times, and nobody ever taught me that any group besides the Jewish were systematically rounded up and taken to concentration camps.

The last time I watched was the first time it occurred to me to do an internet search to see if there might be any truth to the concept. Holy shit, this was real. Gays were compelled to sew pink triangles into their clothing, and about 10,000 - 15,000 gays were sent to concentration camps. Far fewer, of course, than the 6 million Jews murdered in such camps, but how shocked was I that this part of history was simply omitted from my many years of heterogeneous—and apparently exclusively heterosexual—schooling.

Recall the George Carlin bit about bad words and the differences between "fart" and "fuck"? On TV they could say neither word, but there was much talk and action revolving around fucking, while nobody spoke of farts. Television was a fart-free zone. (Clearly this has changed in the past 20 years; I have to suspect Carlin's observations helped this along.) In school I learned all sorts of nasty history about wars, genocide, oppressive rulers, mass murder and rape, and Republicans. But I had no knowledge of the concept of homosexuality until I was 14, and then I was so naive I thought it was a new thing. Okay, so gay people didn't all come from the United Gay Republic on the continent of Gaydia, with their own skin color and religion, but still, this is a group that has been repeatedly identified, singled out and harassed or oppressed by rulers and governments over the years, but there was nothing about it in my schooling. It makes me wonder what else was left out.

It has actually been a while since I've seen To Be or Not to Be, but I was reminded of the internment of gays by a news radio report. A gay man who was sent to a concentration camp and survived has recently decided to tell his story. I guess part of my brain still thinks homosexuality was invented in 1984, because I was surprised to hear him speak of openly gay clubs and an active gay community in his pre-WWII hometown.

It reminded me of our more paranoid reasons for starting this blog anonymously. Sometimes I get to thinking that it's "okay" to be atheist. But the gays' recent and continuing persecution is a good example of what could happen to us, even in America, even in these modern times. Look how many people are trying, and how hard they're trying, to make/keep gay marriage illegal. Seriously what the fuck do you care? From all the fuss you'd think gays and lesbians are trying to pass laws compelling straight Christian families to bring homosexuals into their living rooms to have exhibitionist gay sex in front of their children. No, they just want the same life partner arrangement that heterosexuals have access to.

What do gay marriage opponents fear? Is it dick-in-asshole? But preventing state-recognized marriage doesn't prevent dick-in-asshole, and allowing state-recognized marriage doesn't bring dicks in assholes any closer to you. I can relate to not liking dicks in assholes, because as open-minded and accepting as I am, I just don't want to see dicks in assholes, I don't want my dick in an asshole, I don't want my dick in a man's mouth or hand, and I want nothing to do with another man's dick. I still have lingering homophobia about those things. But I don't give a flying fuck if other mentally well-balanced, responsible adults mutually consensually do with their dicks, assholes, pussies, mouths and hands at the appropriate venues.

I tend to project my phobias onto other people, and I should really stop doing that, especially with people who behave so differently from me. The more I think about it, the more I think it is about control and conformity. They don't subscribe to "live and let live". They want you to conform to their actions, their beliefs, their thoughts, and they'll be damned if you can be nonconformist and not be punished or at least shunned. So yeah, I think people would try to disallow atheist marriage if they could. And I think many Americans would persecute atheists if given the chance.

Hell, maybe they already are, but that part of history was left out of my text books.

I still can't get over that. A group of people systematically identified and interned by German occupation forces in WWII, and after 17 years of schooling and many years of cable TV history shows I had to learn of it from Mel Brooks, who by the way is a brilliant man. I am in awe of how he attacks the Nazis, racism and other general dickishness with such satirical ferocity and makes it entertaining.

Faith-based Fitness

This is probably one of the most ridiculous things I've seen in quite some time.  I just found a faith-based fitness program.  And as they say, you can combine your desire for fitness with your love for the lord into the perfect fitness program.  And they even go so far as to say "You have great workouts, a great meal plan, and the lord on your side.  That's a winning combination."

So as it turns out that's why America is so fat because when they go to the gym they're not taking the lord with them.  It has nothing to do with the fact that they're not working out effectively, or that they're stuffing their faces with fastfood as soon as they leave.  The problem is that they aren't glorifying god while they do sit-ups.

What a fucking joke.  Religion is a placebo that they convince you you need before anything you do will be successful.  Can't manage to drop those extra pounds?  You need god.  Can't get that promotion at work?  God can help.  Can't seem to make an A in physics?  Forget study, turn to the lord.  Wanna become a hot rapper singing about fucking dozens of girls and killing cops?  God can help you with that. 

ASSHOLES.

Anyway, here's the link.  Be sure to watch the video.

Facebook Proselytizing

Message from our FB overlords: "[Facebook 'friend' I haven't seen in 20 years] liked Radical Love Book on Facebook and suggested you like it too."

My god-dar twitches severely. Might as well check it out. Yup, it's some god crap book somebody wants to share with me.

I am momentarily tempted to see if The God Delusion has a fan page I can recommend to her.

Yay! Freethinker Camp!

I am happy.

Kids wrestle with religion at Camp Quest

http://www.camp-quest.org/

I read about this at the Friendly Atheist

Trinity on Facebook

I recently scanned and uploaded a bunch of old photos to Facebook, and they got a lot of attention from "friends" and "friends" of "friends" (who the fuck are all these people, anyway?). So naturally I do a little Facebook stalking on the women types, and I ran across a bunch of bible quotes and self-descriptions saying how lost they would be without God. Jesus Christ! Er, I mean what's up with that?

I totally get all the photos of kids, friends and inane status messages, but I still never get why their belief and devotion to God has to be publicly plastered everywhere. Isn't that really between them and God?

Perhaps I should have a Facebook description proclaiming how glad I am that some of our ancestry started approaching the world rationally and developed the scientific method, sanitation and medicine. Those three things are probably the most responsible for my quality of life. And perhaps the evolution of political and economic theory, and state diplomacy, but it's harder for me to quantify those effects on my life.

Now that I think about it, I'm particularly fond of refrigeration, also. I need to think of a way to put that one on Facebook without betraying where the thought originated.

That reminds me, I've seen the theme of abandoning technology and living naturally—read primitively—come up randomly a few times lately, as if rolling the clock back a few hundred or few thousand years would make life so much more simple and enjoyable. I always think—and sometimes say—"really? Life would be so much shittier without sanitation and medicine in particular. You have no idea." Infant mortality rates alone should make most anyone shudder at the thought of rolling back the clock more than a few decades. And World War II and the Cold War should make anyone shudder at rolling the clock back even that far.