Feeling the Pressure

Wow, I’m really starting to feel the pressure of being in the bible belt.  We decided to put a bid in on a house and it’s on the corner lot of 2 major streets.  And the other THREE corners have fucking churches on them.  So I’ll be completely surrounded by the enemy if I take this house.

As well, I just took a job that turns out to be for a southern baptist org.  Now, it’s a huge company so perhaps it won’t be that bad, but just being surrounded by all of that makes me sick to my stomach.

I’m just getting really sick of having to justify things to people who don’t want to do take certain actions because of an invisible man in the sky.

Jesus Soccer

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written guys, but life really steps in sometimes and it’s hard to make time for things I really want to do.  Anyway, I have a brief topic to get me started again…

My wife signed up our son for soccer at his school.  What she didn’t check was that it’s run by the YMCA.  He had his first soccer game yesterday and they actually made them swear an oath to God before playing.  Now, he’s only 4 and barely pays attention to anything going on around him, but it just makes me sick to even think about him being pulled into that sickening shit so early.  So just to be able to kick a ball around with his friends he’s got to swear an oath to the invisible man.

And what’s even worse is that while it makes me sick, there’s nothing I can do about it because it is the YMCA afterall, and just because she didn’t pay attention to that doesn’t mean that I can change it.  What would you expect from them?  So now I’ve got to just sit back and let it happen for the rest of the year and hope he loses interest next year.  If not then I’ll have to find a way to reverse any damage they’ve been doing.  And yeah, I really do think that even that seemingly innocent prayer at the beginning of every game will do damage if unchecked.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now, and I’ll try to keep writing.

Hey, let's build another church!

I keep noticing how many churches there are, but what really gets me is new church construction. There are so many damn churches around here I can't figure out who gets together and says "nah, none of those work for us, let's just build a new one."

Why Does God Need To Advertise?

On a recent road trip I noted the ubiquitous human-placed crosses on hilltops and several billboards of the "Jesus Saves" variety, and I'm wondering why God needs to advertise. Come to think of it, why did God have people scribbling on rolled-up paper and leave humans to invent of the printing press and the internet thousands of years later?

Faith In Movies: Avatar

Minor spoiler alert!

I finally got around to seeing Avatar. Aside from the Pocahontas / Gaian environmental theme I notice they switched themes mid-stream on faith versus science. During the middle of the movie they were describing the communicative bonding between Pandora's life forms as a planet-wide network for sharing and storing thoughts and memorie. Later they seemed to decide that inside the network lived Gaia a sentient god "Eywa" who actively "maintains balance" in nature. Apparently she does this by giving quite specific instructions to previously dumb animals.

I could've gone with the Pocahontas-like "live in harmony with nature" theme. The planet-wide bio-network idea was a pretty damn cool idea worth exploring more, and it could lead to some cool sequels and video games. But the deus ex machina of validating their religion at the climax was pretty lame.

Even during the mass ritual where they were sitting and swaying in concentric circles I was imagining that they were either consciously or subconciously manipulating the bio-network rather than simply ritualizing faith. Oh well.

See also: Faith Themes in Movies, although I now think I was trying to hard to include Kung Fu Panda in this topic.

Charlie, the She-Lord, Cometh?

I won't try to explain the dream, for as most dreams the people, places and plot change from moment to moment, but at a particular moment a man who was then a pastor and was trying to tell me things while I was leaving his church (which wasn't a church when I was in it) that Christ will be reborn this year (it had something to do with a full moon and clear weather...), and her name will be Charlie. (Or Chuck...I forget exactly.)

It was funny enough to remember after I woke up. And yes, even in the dream it was a ridiculous proclamation on all counts.

God of Convenience

A few vague inspirations over the holidays have culminated into a new god divinely inspiring me and the rest of us here at The God Dam to spread his word. At our convenience, of course. Because, behold, I witness to you the God of Convenience! (Dramatic music: duhn duhn DUUUUuuuuuhn!)

I now realize this god was trying to inspire me back in March 2008. He appears to atheists—yeah, ironic, I know—as a blue monkey (otherwise not much unlike Curious George) offering us the power of convenience. In March of 2008 he was offering me the validation of a god so I could win arguments with bible-waving Christians.

More recently during this past holiday season I was struggling with how to handle the holidays. Do I mock the Christians who have co-opted Pagan holidays? Do I celebrate a secular holiday such as Festivus? No! I needn't be burdened with such questions anymore, for as an atheist with the power of the God of Convenience behind me I have divine support for celebrating whenever the hell I feel like it! Rejoice and be free! Tonight was January 7 of 2010, in which I celebrate by watching football and baking bread. I do this in celebration of the God of Convenience and his flexible scheduling.

Moses brought you commandments. His blue-monkiness has instructed me to pass on holy Accomodations to you. Tonight I shall impart to you just one, because I was otherwise busy, so GoC said I could work on the rest later...at my convenience.

Here it is: You may put any other gods before him or even cast away divinity altogether. (Let's face it, there are times when Jeff, the God of Biscuits or John whom is worshiped at the porcelain throne is much more needed than GoC.)

He also said that should I wish to portray an image of him—although I didn't have to because it wasn't really a big deal, after all—that a search of "blue monkey" at Wikimedia Commons would be a particularly quick and free way of doing so.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Akrotiri_blue_monkeys.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Manky.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blender_suzanne.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DaySign_Chuen.svg