DangerousTalk

One of the most common attacks that Creationsists make is that “Evolutionists” are responsible for Hitler’s Eugenics program. This is of course ridiculous and in reality is no different than claiming that Gravitiests are responsible for the crimes of murderers dropping people out a window.

First, I take issue with the term “Evolutionist.” Evolution is a scientific theory, not a life philosophy or a religion. Gravity is also a scientific theory and so it makes as much sense to call someone an “Evolutionist” as it does to call someone a Gravitiest. Creationists use the term “Evolutionist” as an attempt to lower those who accept the science of evolution down to their level of faith based thinking.

Second, Just because someone like Hitler didn’t understand the is/ought problem and decided to use the science of evolution as an excuse for his nationalism does not mean that evolution leads to eugenics. Evolution is not a moral philosophy; it is an observation of the world.

Gravity is also not a moral philosophy and just because someone throws someone out a window because they expect them to plummet to their death does not mean that Gravity is to blame for those deaths. “What comes up must come down,” is not a statement about morality and either is the often misused statement, “Survival of the fittest” which really isn’t what evolution is about anyway. Evolution would be more accurately described as “survival of the best able to adapt.”

Related articles

• Evolution Isn’t a Moral Theory (Except When It Is) (daylightatheism.org)
• Dumbass Quote of the Day [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] (scienceblogs.com)
• Evolution Survives Assault on Louisana Textbooks (wired.com)

Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Creationism, culture war, evolution, morality, Religious Manipulation, science | 1 Comment »

My friend and aspiritual leader, Jake recently wrote a post on his blog, AfterFaith.com, that reminded me about an issue I’ve been wanting to write about for some time. Lately, I have been getting a lot of e-mails from recent de-converts from religion and I wanted to talk about the betrayal many of them feel.

Jake’s blog post was an open letter to new atheists, not to be confused with “New Atheists.” In it, he talks briefly about the resentment and betrayal that many recent de-converts feel when they break free of the indoctrination and manipulation of religion. This feeling of betrayal is natural. It can be helpful sometimes to motivate atheists to fight back against religious oppression, but it can also cloud our judgment and prevent us from thinking rationally.

One recent de-convert messaged me on facebook telling me that he was de-friending all the Christians on his page. I can understand the anger and frustration he feels, but it just isn’t productive to do that. It is easy to de-friend someone on facebook, but you can’t really de-friend someone outside of facebook so easily. We have to live in the world together whether we like it or not. If someone recently leaves religion, they probably still have a lot of friends and family members who are still religious. Shutting them out is not helpful.

Another re-cent de-convert wrote me saying that she feels that her whole community lied to her. Loved ones who are still in the religious community didn’t lie on purpose and they are not stupid either (I get a lot of those e-mails). They were indoctrinated the same way many atheists were at one point. It takes time and a great deal of thought to de-convert and for a long time people begin to doubt while they still consider themselves believers. Leaving religion is hard and we have to realize that it isn’t going to be any easier for anyone else.

Anger toward those in the religious community is misplaced. Religious people aren’t to blame here. It isn’t their fault. They are victims of the system. Don’t hate the play’a hate the game. We need to use the anger that we feel about being betrayed and focus it on the system of religious belief. Education and critical thinking are the solutions. Jake said it well when he said, “Just be a good person, do good things, be helpful and kind, and eventually, they will wonder how someone with no god, can be such a great person. That’s when a real discussion can take place.” It is okay to be vocal about your disbelief, but don’t go looking for a fight. Let them come to you and address their questions thoughtfully. You might inspire someone to start down that long road of doubt.

Related articles

• Leaving Religion (dangeroustalk.net)
• How Can They Believe This Stuff? (dangeroustalk.net)
• Atheist Support Network (dangeroustalk.net)
• Recovery Retreat January 7-9 in Berkeley, CA (new.exchristian.net)

Filed under: atheism, conversation, de-conversion, Decline of Religion, Religion, Religious Manipulation, Self-Help | 3 Comments »

Fundamentalist Christians often talk about Bible predictions and how Jesus fulfilled all of them. Aside from the fact that there really aren’t any messianic predictions, the Bible does make at least one prediction and surprise, surprise, it didn’t come to pass.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus talks about the end of the world. Interestingly enough in verse 13:30, Jesus says this, “Verily I say unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done.” What things is Jesus talking about here? Well, let’s look at the context. In the earlier part of chapter 13 of Mark, Jesus rolls off a litany of calamities starting with the destruction of the Temple and continuing into the moral decay of society, natural disasters, wars, false prophets, the sun and the moon darkening, cats and dogs living together, etc.

According to Jesus, even he doesn’t know the exact moment, but all this will come to pass before that current generation ends. The rest of the chapter confirms this too. Jesus warns to stay alert and to be ready for this. Jesus is clearly predicting the End of Days to be soon.

In Matthew 16:28, Jesus again talks about the end times although the context is a bit confusing. He may have only been discussing the crucifixion itself. But that seems unlikely because telling the crowd that some of them may live to see his death is not much of a prediction and from Jesus’s tone, he clearly intends this to be a prediction. It is akin to me predicting that some of the people reading this blog will live longer then I.

Later in the Gospel of Matthew (Chapter 24), we see the same conversation Jesus had in Mark. Again, he says that a generation shall not pass until all these things come to pass. Those things are again the long list of doomsday warning signs.

The point here is that these are not just a verse or two taken out of context. This is the message that Jesus is trying to convey. He is predicting that a single generation will not pass before the End of the World. Verily he says it. This is a prediction that Jesus made in multiple Gospels and it did not come to pass.

Jesus did not mean that a generation for a state of Israel, he did not mean that a generation according to God will not pass. He clearly meant that a generation as in a generation of human beings living at that time will not pass. Some of the very people standing there listening to him will still be alive to see the End of the World. Jesus was WRONG!

Filed under: End of Days, End of the World, prophecies, Religion, The Rapture | 11 Comments »

I have often written about the psychological reasoning for the born again experience and the path in which many religious people take towards losing their religion. But today I want to talk more about the trends involved in the exodus from religion.

There are two pretty interesting trends that I have noticed in regard to the rise in atheism. The first and less significant trend is that in today’s society many religious people are actually not all that religious. Mainstream religion is fairly secular. This is a category that I fit into. My parents were religious believers, but they really didn’t let it affect their lives much at all. Aside from synagogue on the holidays and making me go to Hebrew School three times a week, religion really didn’t motivate our lives. My parents valued education and science over faith and tradition most of the time.

Many atheists grew up in a similar type of environment as I did and so it is only natural to continue to value science and reason. Of course, once the value of science and reason is focused toward religion, it becomes obvious that such superstitions is… well exactly that, superstitious.

More often then this scenario however are the atheists who are brought up in the super fundamentalist families. They see first hand the craziness which is religion. Often times they are indoctrinated into this craziness themselves and even go out of their way to debate and discuss religion with atheists. But at some point they begin to have doubts and they start to take the long road of educating themselves and thinking critically about their own beliefs.

The thing is that the starting places for these two scenarios pretty much account for the starting place of all believers. The difference really is the willingness to learn and think critically about religion.

Related articles

• Why Religious Believers Are So Desperate for the Atheist Seal of Approval (alternet.org)
• How Can They Believe This Stuff? (dangeroustalk.net)

Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, People of Reason, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »

If there is one thing that Christians really hate, it is when atheists compare God to Santa Claus. I do not want to do that here, however I do want to make a point about God using Santa Claus.

There are obvious differences between God and Santa Claus. While Santa Claus knows when you are awake and knows when you are naughty or nice, God apparently knows everything. Santa Claus may have his elves create toys, but God is alleged to have created the whole universe. So there really isn’t a comparison to make between the two, except for this. Neither can be falsified.

When an atheist says he or she does not believe that a god exists, Christians are quick to point out that you can’t prove a negative. In order for an atheist to know that God doesn’t exist, we would have to claim to know the entire set of facts that is the Universe and see that God is not among those facts. So Christians will assert hat we can’t prove that God does not exist.

We’ll in January of next year, I will unveil my Ontological Proof for the Non-Existence of God, but that is beside the point. The point here is that by the same logic that Christians claim that atheists can’t prove there is no god, atheists are claiming that Christians can’t prove that there is no Santa Claus.

In order to claim that there is no Santa Claus, Christians would have to claim to know everything in the universe and know that Santa Claus is not among those things. This is of course absurd and that is the sole point in comparing God and Santa Claus. In other words, many atheists are as sure about the non-existence of God as atheists and Christians are about the non-existence of Santa Claus.

Related articles

• The Origins of the Santa Claus Myth (seantheblogonaut.com)
• Santa Claus Detector (neatorama.com)
• Yes, there is a Santa Claus! (dakotavoice.com)

Filed under: Christmas, faith, god, Projection, Religion | 4 Comments »

Earlier in the week, I talked about how Margaret Downey of the Freethought Society is asking people to put a Tree of Knowledge in their homes this year, take a photo of their trees, and send them to her. I will be doing this hopefully next week. But in the meantime, I have created a virtual Tree of Knowledge to get people excited about the project.

My virtual Tree of Knowledge is a 2010 addition in that all the book covers on it are from books published in 2010. Most of them are from well known authors by major publishers. However, there are a few book covers on there from lesser known authors who have either smaller publishers or have self-published. I encourage everyone to check them out.

I should also say that I discourage atheists from self-publishing atheist books because it is important to get atheist books in the bookstores and visible to the general public. Without further ado, I give you the 2010 Dangerous Talk Virtual Tree of Knowledge:

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• URGENT ACTION ALERT: Tree of Knowledge (dangeroustalk.net)

Filed under: atheism, culture war, free speech, humanism | No Comments »

Last week, I was having a conversation with another atheist who isn’t as vocal as I am. She asked how Christians can believe this stuff and commented that they must be stupid. I found myself in the odd position of defending Christians.

It is not that Christians are stupid, but rather that the system that has been created over the past 2000 years exploits people’s weaknesses. Most people are indoctrinated in religion and even if they never really buy into it, the indoctrination hides in their subconscious waiting for the moment of weakness to reassert itself like a virus.

When people are overly emotional, the logic center of their brain gets over-ridden and all that indoctrination and the pervading religiosity of society helps to give people the “born again” experience. Since there are moments in life in which even the most rational of us can get overly emotional, religion could really infect ant one of us. The only protecting against this virus is knowledge. Intelligence has very little to do with it.

So even though the Christian religion has more plot holes than a Michael Bay film, even very smart and intelligent people can be suckered in. Once they are in, it is very hard to get them out. At this point, knowledge alone isn’t enough. At this point they need critical thinking skills and the willingness to use those skills on their religion.

It’s easy for atheists to look at religious people as look at the ridiculous beliefs that they have and conclude that they must be stupid, but then we should realize that most atheists were once believers. Some may have even been strong fundamentalist believers.

Related articles

• Christianity Is a Religion of Hate (dangeroustalk.net)
• Tree of Knowledge Saga Continues (dangeroustalk.net)
• Why Do Atheists Know More About Religion? Ctd (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)

Filed under: anti-intellectualism, conversation, de-conversion, discussion, ignorance, Religion, Religious Manipulation | 14 Comments »

It was thirty years ago today that John Lennon was murders. Lennon was not only a great musician with the Beatles and on his own, but he was also a strong activist for social change. He took an extremely optimistic view of Humanity and was the world’s most visible Humanist and atheist.

John Lennon wrote and performed atheist songs too. His most popular song promoting atheist has also been embraced by mainstream culture and is arguably his most famous song altogether. Fundamentalist Christians even alter the words of the song when they sing it… and even they sing it.

So in memory of John Lennon, I give you Imagine:

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• Imagine | 30 Years Later (onemann.blogspot.com)

Filed under: atheism, culture war, Personal | 1 Comment »

The central message of the Christian religion is that all humans are evil sinners and deserve to be tortured for all eternity. While Christianity does offer the only solution to the problem that it creates in the form of vicarious redemption in Jesus Christ, there is no escaping the first part of this proposition.

I disagree with this initial premise. I don’t think all humans are evil sinners deserving of being tortured for any amount of time let alone all eternity. As such, I am not in need of any kind of redemption let alone a blood sacrifices through vicarious redemption. It also seems to me that this is primarily a message of hate. It is a hatred of one’s fellow human beings.

Many Christians tend to focus more on the solution to the problem then problem itself and I can’t blame them for that. However, the solution is unnecessary if one rejects the premise that everyone deserves to be tortured for all eternity. This is a message which isn’t just repeated over and over again in the Christian Bible, but also amounts to the nuts and bolts of the religion. It is hard to genuinely consider oneself a Christian without accepting this ridiculously hateful message.

Let me put it a different way. What if someone came up to you and told you that you are a horrible person and that you should be tortured mercilessly because you are so horrible, but if you dedicate your like to worshipping [insert you favorite fictional character], you can be forgiven for being such a horrible person. Some Christians may dress up this hateful message but at the end of the day this is what the belief system amounts to.

Christianity is a religion of self-hate and a hatred of humanity. So why is it that when atheists point this out, we are labeled the hateful ones? I don’t hate Christians. I don’t hate anyone. I don’t think humans are perfect, but we certainly aren’t evil and no one deserves to be tortured for any reason.

I will admit that I tend to view humanity in a more positive view than most other atheists, but I still think one would be hard pressed to find any atheist who would advocate torturing everyone on Earth for any amount of time. That would be mean and hateful.

Related articles

• Hate-spewing “Christians” need to listen up (fakesteve.net)
• A misguided sense of victimhood (washingtonmonthly.com)
• Why Do Atheists Know More About Religion? Ctd (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)
• Tree of Knowledge Saga Continues (dangeroustalk.net)

Filed under: hell, Religion, sin | 10 Comments »

For too long, Christians have claimed the monopoly on the winter season. While they have allowed Jews into the club despite the fact that Hanukkah is a relatively minor holiday. A few years ago many in the atheist community made our claim for inclusion in the winter season with the holiday of Human Light and the Tree of Knowledge winter display.

Four years ago, Margaret Downey, president of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia suggested the Tree of Knowledge display. At the time, I was a board member of the organization. I have to admit that I did not really like her display idea at the time. However, I over the last four years I have really started to like this symbol.

The Tree of Knowledge has been on display at the Chester County Courthouse next to the Jesus Crèche, the Christmas Tree, and the Menorah for the last three years. Each year it has been a fight. This year, we lost the fight.

If you are not familiar with the situation, I have been writing a lot about it on my Examiner page. Over the weekend, The Freethought Society created a new display that we put up in front of the Courthouse for a few minutes. That display was the Human Tree of Knowledge which served as a protest for the County Commissioner’s actions to exclude us from the winter displays.

Margaret Downey is now asking for atheists to adopt the Tree of Knowledge display in their homes, takes photos and send them to her. She really wants people in the greater atheist community to start to use the Tree of Knowledge in celebration. I think it is a good idea however I don’t think it should be part of the legal case that the Freethought Society is building to secure our right to be part of the community.

The County claims that atheists don’t really celebrate the Tree of Knowledge so there is no reason to include it on the county lawn. But this really isn’t the issue. Atheists do celebrate Knowledge and for most atheists we don’t have the means to put up a personal Tree of Knowledge. You can’t go to the store and buy laminated book covers and many atheists have family members who push for the more traditional Christmas Tree.

For now, the Tree of Knowledge on the County Courthouse Lawn serves to being the greater atheistic/Humanist/Freethought community together and serves to dispel the myth that the County has endorsed the Judeo-Christian religion. Some how the County thinks that putting up a choo-choo train will do that, but what they forget is that we have built a tradition with the Tree of Knowledge over the last three years. Passing a law that deliberately excludes us is unconstitutional.

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• Tree of Knowledge in jeopardy (skepacabra.wordpress.com)
• Chester County, PA commissioners move to eliminate freethought Tree of Knowledge (secularnewsdaily.com)
• Atheist “Tree of Knowledge” barred from Pa. site (philly.com)

Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Atheism NOT Religion, Christmas, church/state, culture war, Current Events, free speech, humanism, Neighbor, People of Reason, Personal, Tree of Knowledge | 4 Comments »

One of the most common claims that Christians make is that the Old Testament perfectly predicts the rise, fall, and re-rise of Jesus. Christians often ask how it is possible for a book (the Old Testament) to so perfectly predict Jesus unless God wrote it all as part of his divine plan. The answer is simple. It doesn’t!

Let me start off by saying that even though I have had about ten years of Hebrew School in which I have studied the Old Testament in some detail (which is about ten years more than most Christians have had), I am still not really qualified to address this current topic. That is why I will be referring to someone who is more of an expert.

Let me introduce you to Rabbi Skobac. In an eight part YouTube lecture he pretty much destroys the claim that the Old Testament foretold of Jesus in any prophecies. In fact, he even points out that the Old Testament doesn’t give any prophecies relating to a singular messiah at all. It is well worth the 90 minutes (the next video will play automatically).

Still not convinced? Not a problem. To be honest, I don’t agree with the Rabbi on a great many things either. But as far as his knowledge and expertise in the Old Testament goes, I think his is pretty much on the money. But we can investigate this topic on a deeper level.

The fact is that the Old Testament isn’t all that old after all. It isn’t much older than the New Testament. Let me introduce you to historian Karen Armstrong. Like Rabbi Skobac, I don’t agree with her on a lot of things either, but in her book The Bible: A Biography, in which she talks about how the Old Testament was put together, she is right on the money.

Both Skobac and Armstrong believe in God and while I disagree with their conclusions, I still think they have a lot to teach Christians. I think they specifically have a lot to teach those Christians who claim that the Old Testament contains prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. That simply isn’t true.

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Filed under: Biblical Scholarship, prophecies, Religion, the bible | 4 Comments »

A few days ago, Christopher Hitchens went up against the former Prime Minister of England, Tony Blair to debate the proposition that, “religion is a force of good for the world.”

The thing about debates is that after they are over, both sides usually claim victory. However, this debate was done a bit more scientifically. The audience was polled before the debate to see where they stand and then polled after the debate to see who was actually persuaded. This way both sides can’t claim victory because it all comes down to the numbers. With that said, both sides won this debate.

I noticed that a lot of the people covering this debate from the atheist perspective are claiming that Hitchens won hands down. He did after all get 68% of the votes at the end of the debate. But this is really misleading. At the beginning of the debate 57% voted that religion is NOT a force of good for the world (Hitchens position). Only 22% agreed with Blair from the start and 21% were undecided. At the end of the debate, Hitchen and Blair pretty much slip that 21% of those undecided between them. So if the claim is that Hitchens won, that might be the case, but it was only by a small margin of less than one percent.

On watching the debate, it was clear to me that Hitchens was at his best and really kicked some ass. Blair pretty much relied on one argument which he used over and over again. His argument is that Hitchens is correct that religion can be used for evil, but that it can also inspire people to do good. Blair was nervous, out of his element, and sounded like a broken record. Hitchens was funny, excited, and in top form despite the cancer. At one point he had to stop for a moment for a drink of water and then came back with “fire in his belly” as they say.

Hitchens made the strong counter point that it isn’t that people do bad in the name of religion, but rather that they do bad because of religious scripture. Blair even conceded this point. Where I think Hitchens could have been stronger (Thursday morning quarterbacking as it were) is that he should have talked more about the ease in which religion can be used to inspire good people to do massive amounts of bad things like oppress women, gays, and others. I think he could have talked more about the mechanisms that religion uses rather than just an abstract concept. I would have really emphasized the divide between faith and skepticism as well as the hope that science and reason brings to the world.

Personally, I am really surprised Blair was able to convince anyone in this debate, but the numbers don’t lie. On the other hand the undecided people may have.

Related articles

• The Hitchens-Blair Debate: It’s Was a Tie! (sandwalk.blogspot.com)
• The Christopher Hitchens/Tony Blair Debate on Whether Religion is a Force for Good (friendlyatheist.com)
• Blair v. Hitchens poll (scienceblogs.com)
• Christopher Hitchens 1-0 Tony Blair. (politics.ie)
• Blair v Hitchens: Religion debate (bbc.co.uk)

Filed under: atheism, debate, Hitchens, humanism, morality, Religion | 2 Comments »

As a critical thinker, I criticize a lot of ridiculous ideas. 9/11 Truthers, grand conspiracy theorists, ghosts, aliens, psychic powers, etc. are all things which I am critical of even though I actually believe in some of them to some degree. But when it comes to religion everyone gets offended.

Let’s start with Christianity. I probably spend the most time criticizing Christian ideas and ridiculous beliefs. As soon as I start criticizing Christianity, Christians complain that I spend so much time “attacking” them personally. I have to inform them that these criticisms are not personal attacks but rather criticisms of ridiculous ideas which can and often do become dangerous. In fact, I think Christianity is the most dangerous set of ideas humans have ever conceived.

This is when Christians whine about being persecuted (despite the fact that 80% of the nation identifies themselves as Christian) and bitch that I never criticize other religions. The truth is that I do criticize other religions and when I do I get other forms of whining.

Enter the Muslims. I criticize the religion of Islam often enough and when I do, I get more liberal Muslims whining in much the same way more liberal Christians whine when I point out the absurdities in their holy book. I also get Christians and even atheists warning me of the risks of criticizing Islam. Yet to date I have received more death threats from Christians than Muslims.

But the religion that is the most taboo to criticize is the very religion I left so many years ago. Judaism cannot be criticized and Israel can do no wrong apparently. Whenever I do attempt to criticize either I receive massive amounts of hate mail labeling me “anti-Semitic” despite the fact that I was born into the Jewish culture and indoctrinated into the ridiculous ideas of the Jewish religion at near birth.

My issues with Judaism as a religion are criticisms of the ridiculous beliefs that Jews are supposed to hold. The fact is that most Jews in America find much of those beliefs as ridiculous as I do. Many just believe in some vague higher power concept (rather than he character described in the Torah) and follow traditions which have become just a meaningless part of their culture. It is when I point out the meaninglessness of those traditions that many Jews get annoyed. Also, when I point out that much of the culture that was taught through the Torah is actually not true many Jews get offended.

For example, the Jews were NEVER slaves in Egypt. The book of Exodus is a total and complete lie. It is fiction and when Jews use that fiction to incite guilt I have to call them out on it. As for Israel, that is a little more complicated because the Nazis were real. Christianity did start the belief that Jews were no longer God’s chosen people because Jews killed their imaginary savor, Jesus. As a result, most countries in Europe did not like the Jews for that reason and do continue to discriminate against them even today.

Ideally, the Allies should have forced Germany to reintegrate the Jewish population the way the North forced the South to reintegrate former black slaves after the civil war. The US even offered a small part of Alaska to the Jews. But ultimately, the Jews wouldn’t settle for anything less than the worthless piece of desert that their imaginary God promised them. Unfortunately, that same imaginary God promised that same worthless piece of desert land to the Palestinians.

When I point out the ridiculousness of this situation and inform people that God (which doesn’t exist) did not promise that land to either group and that both groups should relocate, I become the anti-Semitic. For the record, there is actually real anti-Semitism out there. There are real people who hate Jews because they believe that the Jews killed Jesus or for some other reason. But when some Jews and former Jews throw that term around at anyone (including a former Jew) every time the Jewish religion, culture, and/or the state of Israel is criticized, they dilute the term and attempt to stifle legitimate criticisms.

Related articles

• A Jewish Apostate (dangeroustalk.net)

Filed under: atheism, conversation, culture war, ignorance, islam, jews, Mainstream Christians, Religion, Religious Manipulation, Skepticism | 8 Comments »

So lately the media has been obsessed with the TSA’s body scanners and pat downs. I am pretty sure that the body scanners have been in use for months but have only filtered down to the news media’s attention recently. In any case, we don’t really need either the scanners or the pat down. It is really easy to prove to the TSA that you are not a terrorist.

First, it is important to note that America is really sexually prudish, but not nearly as prudish as our Islamic fundamentalist enemies. It seems that we allow warrentless wiretapping, permit torture, are willing to fight two very costly wars which are in large part responsible for our deficit problems, but when it comes to a detailed x-ray like photo of our private parts, we have to draw the line.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the full body scanners either, but I drew the line much earlier. While TSA promises that those photos can’t be saved, many have already circulated around the internet. If a celebrity goes through one of those things, it would be on TMZ or PerezHilton in two seconds.

This brings me to two recent incidents which may not have filtered down to the media’s attention. The first is from Germany. It is a protest of these full body scanners. Those protesting dropped their pants and took off their shirts and protested in their underwear. Take a look:

The second incident might have started out a little bit more ambitiously. American porn star and blogger FurryGirl planned to get naked for the scanner. As it turned out TSA would rather she cover up. Her video of the incident was a bit on the lame side. I was really expecting much more… or should I say, much less. Still, it was an interesting attempt. You can read about the experience on her blog, Feminisnt.com. Oh, and she’s a vocal atheist.

In any case, these pioneers have shown me that the best way to prove to TSA that you are not a terrorist is to strip down and get naked. Let’s face facts here. TSA are primarily worried about Muslim terrorists and contrary to popular belief, not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are Arabs. So the old racial profiling thing doesn’t really cut it. Getting naked is the only way to prove that you are not a Muslim terrorist.

Now I know not all Muslims are terrorists, but being prudish because of religion is stupid anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think TSA should force anyone to be naked, but I do think that if we were to voluntarily get naked, it would really prove to TSA that we are not Muslim terrorists.

As for the scanners and pat downs, they are stupid. If America was really serious about stopping terrorism, we would educate people about science and be much more critical of ridiculous religious ideas. Take religion away from the terrorists and we problem miraculously goes away… no gods necessary for that miracle.

Related articles

• Daniel Cubias: The TSA Protests: Hypocrisy in Action? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Why the TSA pat-downs and body scans are unconstitutional (washingtonpost.com)
• “Colbert on the TSA’s Full-Body Scanners” and related posts (ccinsider.comedycentral.com)

Filed under: Authority, culture war, islam, Politics, sex | 1 Comment »

Over the weekend, I attended a family function. It was my Uncle’s 90th surprise birthday party and it was being held at a Knights of Columbus Hall. The Knights of Columbus is like the super Catholic Freemasons.

Outside the Hall was a lawn sign which read, “Keep the Christ in Christmas.” So right away I knew this was going to be fun. Inside, there were crucifixes everywhere all complete with a detailed Jesus being tortured on them. It’s a pretty violent image. While I didn’t really examine it all that much, I am pretty sure Jesus was bloody too.

In the main room, there were photos of various priests and other Catholic officials. Over the doorway to the main party room (where my Uncle’s party was) there was a photo of the Pope featured prominently.

Between the gory Jesus and the photos of priests I’m surprised kids don’t get nightmares for life upon entering this place. The whole time I felt like I had infiltrated enemy headquarters. I did make sure I parked close to the front of the parking lot so that every car driving in and out would have to pass my atheist bumper sticker. Other then that, I just quietly snickered to myself and stayed on good behavior. It isn’t every day an uncle turns 90. Besides, he isn’t all hat religious any way. I just hope his 100th birthday will be someplace more festive.

Filed under: Catholics, culture war, Personal, Religion | No Comments »

Thanksgiving is a few days away and that means for many atheists an uncomfortable long weekend with religious family members. The question is always the same, how vocal should an atheist be during Thanksgiving?

I’m pretty lucky in that my family pretty much knows where I stand and expects me to be vocal. Most of them aren’t even all that religious any more. So for me, I will be enjoying the long weekend and taking a break from Dangerous Talk stuff until Monday. I will however be posting a few new articles on Examiner over the break including one about Thanksgiving.

But many atheists aren’t as lucky as I am. Many have very deeply religious family members and it may be considered rude to vocalize their disbelief about religious matters. I wish I could just tell those in that situation to always be vocal despite the appearance of rudeness. After all it is the religious who are the ones who are rude enough to assume everyone worship as they do. However, that is not a reality. In some cases the consequences far outweigh the principle. Each situation is different and every atheist has to make that judgment call as they see fit. Still, I would be curious to know how some of you deal with such situations, so please feel free to comment and leave your stories here.

This Thanksgiving I really would like to thank all of you who continue to read, comment, and share my blog posts and Examiner stories. It really does mean a lot to me and I couldn’t ask for a better audience. I would especially like to thank those who donate financially to Dangerous Talk. Those donations really do help keep the site running. Those who have donated this year will also be put on a special holiday card list. That means that you will get a specially made Dangerous Talk holiday card guaranteed to offend most theists.

Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Turkey Day, and Happy Tofurkey Day.
-Staks

Related articles

• Thanksgiving Without God (friendlyatheist.com)

Filed under: conversation, Offensiveness, Personal, Religious Manipulation | 1 Comment »

Over the weekend, the latest Harry Potter movie came out. While I will hopefully be seeing it later in the week, it did remind me of a conversation I had with a fundamentalist Christian friend. In the conversation, he demanded that I tell him why I don’t believe in Jesus Christ. Before answering his question, I asked him why he didn’t believe in Harry Potter.

I know it sounds silly, but it really is a valid question when you think about it. Both are characters in a series of books. There is absolutely no evidence that either exists or existed, and there is a convenient way to explain that lack of evidence.

For Christians, there is no evidence for Jesus because that would somehow negate free will. Belief in Jesus must be through faith, not evidence so God through his divine power and plan made sure there was no evidence for any of the miracles of Jesus. The fact that there are no contemporary accounts of Jesus must just be part of God’s divine plan.

As for Harry Potter, he lives in the Wizarding World which is shielded from Muggles (us) through magic. The Ministry of Magic is made up of some of the most powerful wizards and they have to make sure that their existence is hidden from the Muggles. So of course there is no evidence for Harry Potter’s existence in the Muggle world.

Okay, it is true that we know that a woman named J.K. Rowling wrote the books and that she claims they are fiction. But who is to say that someone from the Ministry of Magic didn’t put a spell on her making her say that? The authors of the Bible on the other hand are largely unknown. We know that Paul wrote much of the New Testament, but we also know that much of the Bible has been changed over time. For the record, Paul never claimed to have met Jesus (at least not in the flesh) and that the Gospels which do claim first hand encounters with Jesus were not even written by who they claim to be written by. Doesn’t that make their accounts just a little suspect?

My point here is that there is just as much evidence and reason to believe in Harry Potter than there is to believe in Jesus. So why don’t Christians believe in Harry Potter?

Related articles

• Magic, Faith, and Belief in Harry Potter (theotherjesus.com)

Filed under: delusion, god, Harry Potter | 5 Comments »

Yesterday I was watching part of the debate between Christopher Hitchens and Intelligent Design proponent Dr. William Demski of the “Discovery Institute” (which for the record has yet to discover anything). In any case, Demski made a particular claim that many other Christian make, but not as forcefully as Demski did. He stated that “Humans poison everything.”

This was obviously a play on the subtitle of Hitchens’s book God is Not Great: How Religious Poisons Everything. But Demski’s remark really does cut right to the center of the Christian/Humanist divide.

You see, Christianity sets up a dilemma and then offers the only solution. The dilemma is you! According to the Christian belief system people are inherently evil. We live in a “fallen world” as Demski put it.

As a Humanist, I reject this view. I am not claiming that people are perfect, but I am claiming that people aren’t evil. The way I see it, we are all trying to be the heroes in our own story, but get sidetracked along the way. Often times we do bad things not because we are evil, but because it is sadly all we know. We observe others doing bad things and so we get conditioned into thinking that it isn’t that bad if everyone else is doing it too.

The point is that people don’t generally go around thinking, “What evil deed can I do today?” The issue between Christians and Humanists is a matter of focus. I see the glass as half full, while Christians see the glass as completely empty.

Then they pull out the old, but God loves us even though we are the most repulsively evil creatures imaginable. They often belief that this gives even more praise to their deity, but in reality it just shows how incompetent their god really is to have created such evil creatures when he perfectly planned to create the perfect creatures. But it isn’t God’s fault that you are an evil sinner, it is our fault because Adam ate an apple (yes I know it wasn’t literally an apple).

The point of this elaborate story is that Christians are self-hating. They don’t just hate themselves though, they also hate you. “Humans poison everything” as Demski put it.
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Filed under: Alternative Worldview, atheism, Evils of Christianity, humanism | 11 Comments »

Unlike Christians, atheists have no support network. If an atheist is suffering emotional, financial, or even physical distress, they have no one to turn to. Christians on the other hand can go to any church and get help. We need to start building an atheist support network.

Earlier this week, the President of the Freethought Society gave a speech. In part of the speech, Margaret Downey talked about how when she was young, her family was poor and her mother changed religious based on what they needed. If the Baptists were giving out food, her family was Baptist. If the Methodists were giving away clothing, her family was Methodist, etc.

Now I am not expecting the atheist community to use food and clothing to de-convert people like Christians use charity to convert people, but I do think that we should have a support network to help out other atheists.

Every time I bring up this issue I get people telling me that the only thing atheists have in common with each other is a disbelief in deities. This may or may not be the case, but it has nothing to do with the issue at hand. We can be the lone wolves if we choose, but the Christian pack will destroy us. It is more reasonable to band together and help each other when we can.

Earlier this week, an atheist online friend of mine sent out a message about someone in the atheist community who had lost his job and had his ex-wife and still close friend kill herself. So aside from the emotional distress, he was left to pay for her funeral arrangements and is now in desperate need of money to help him keep his home.

Now as a community we should all help him. Even though I lost my job in 2009 and am strapped for cash these days, I realized that I still could donate a little bit to help someone else in the greater atheist community. I’m not asking you to help out this one person necessarily, but I am asking you to start helping out other atheists (whether it is Jeff Randell or someone else) that need help. We need to support each other. We need to really start building a community and an atheist network of support.

This isn’t going to happen overnight, but we need it to happen. If we are going to get more people to leave religion, we need to have a community (similar to Church) to fill those functions for those people who need the community services that Church provides.

And now for my shameless plug: Support The Spread of Reason

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Filed under: atheism, humanism, People of Reason, Personal | 1 Comment »

Every year for at least three years now, the Freethought Society (of Greater Philadelphia) has put up a Tree of Knowledge outside the Chester County Courthouse in West Chester, PA. The tree is a large evergreen decorated with the laminated book covers of various atheist, scientific, philosophical, and even religious books. Every year there is always a fight. This year we may lose that fight.

I have written about the Tree of Knowledge struggle in previous Examiner articles HERE and HERE. This year, the County Commissioners are trying to change the rules to purposefully exclude us from taking part in the winter season. Christians think they own the month of December and the entire winter season and they don’t.

Tomorrow the Commissioners are going to vote on some new rule “Resolution 58-10” which they think will exclude us from the winter displays. One of the Commissioners is a Democrat and sympathetic to our side in this, but she is outvoted 2 to 1.

This is what I need you to do. We need to call and send e-mails to the Commissioners TODAY!!! You don’t have to live in Chester County, but you should let them know if you do.

1. Tell the commissioners NOT to pass Resolution 58-10, which will unfairly exclude many different groups including the Freethought Society.
2. Tell them that it is unfair and illegal for them to give special treatment and secret information to one group (namely, “The Pastor’s Network”).

Call the Commissioners office at:
(610) 344-6100

Send email messages to:
Republican Carol Aichele – caichele@chesco.org
Republican Terence Farrell – tfarrell@chesco.org
Democrat Kathi Cozzone – kcozzone@chesco.org

PS –  Please report back on how your communication went in the comments section.

UPDATE: I just posted an Examiner article on this which includes my letter to the commissioners and a link to the Online Petition. Please sign it!

Filed under: atheism, censorship, church/state, free speech, People of Reason, Tree of Knowledge | 8 Comments »

So last night I was at the monthly meeting of the Freethought Society and our President Margaret Downey was speaking about how she de-converted and got active in activism. Afterward, she invited others to briefly give their de-conversion tale. So when I was up, I talked about how I came from a mostly secularized Jewish tradition which celebrated the traditions and holidays but didn’t really take the religious stuff all that seriously. Here is my full de-conversion story. In any case, a few others who are still respectful of the Jewish tradition got up and started a Jewish culture love fest. I was really tempted to get up again and declare that I am in fact an Apostate to both the Jewish religion and the Jewish culture.

I didn’t want to be a Debbie Downer and some of the former Christians started to get up and praise the Christian traditions (such as Christmas) as a way to competing with the Jewish love fest. But I do want to make it clear that I do not support the Jewish religion any more than I support the Christian religion. Both religions are false and both if taken seriously are extremely dangerous (although Christianity is more dangerous in my opinion). The main difference is less people by percentage take the Jewish religion seriously. In America, there are very few Jews who take their religion anything close to serious (my cousin being one of the exceptions).

As for the Jewish culture, that too is mostly bullshit. Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of positive aspects that Jewish culture teaches. When people are oppressed or discriminated against, mainstream and secular Jews are usually among the first to stand up for those being discriminated against or oppressed. This is largely because of our cultural experience with the Holocaust and the Jewish belief that we have always been discriminated against. That second part is not as true as the first.

The idea that Jews were once slaves in Egypt was drilled into my head throughout Hebrew School. This was said to be the “historical part” of the Bible. Even if you don’t accept the idea that God sent the plagues and Moses parted the Red Sea, culturally we still were taught to accept the historical fact that Jews were slaves in Egypt and we were always discriminated against. This however is a lie. The Jews were NEVER slaves in Egypt.

I also renounce the idea that we must remain pure through blood. As Aryan as that sounds, the religious part of the Jewish tradition teaches that the Jews are the chosen people of God through maternal bloodlines. Even those who reject this religious garbage are often indoctrinated through culture to marry within “the religion” and to distrust non-Jews to some extent.

So I no longer identify myself as Jewish religiously or culturally. I was both at one time, but now I am an Apostate to both.

Related articles

• The Fraud of the Prophets (new.exchristian.net)
• Did Jewish Slaves Build the Pyramids? (skeptoid.com)

Filed under: atheism, de-conversion, jews, Personal, Religion | 3 Comments »

Over the weekend, I had the interesting opportunity to visit a discount Christian bookstore. Whenever I can, I like to take a look at what Christians are selling and buying. I just find it fascinating. I feel like a anthropologist studying a primitive culture.

For starters, I love how the store was open on Saturday (the Sabbath Day). This of course is one of God’s big 10 rules that he wrote in stone and are punishable by death. But I digress. I walked around the store with a grin on my face and feeling like an undercover agent on a reconnaissance mission. I was secretly hoping that the young guy with the large wooden cross around his neck who worked there would stop me and ask if I was looking for something in particular. I would of course asked him if they had the Moral Landscape by Sam Harris or perhaps if I wanted to be even more provocative, I might ask about The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. But alas, he didn’t ask.

I did notice that there was a surprising amount a fiction in the store (while everything in the store is technically fiction, I am referring to what Christians consider fiction). They only had a small section for inspirational and self-help. I didn’t see any apologetics (which is really what interests me most in a Christian bookstore).

I did find an interesting book which I seriously considered getting, “Left Behind for Kids.” It was only a dollar, but I couldn’t justify the expense morally.

Related articles

• Reading for the Nonbeliever: Five of the Best Contemporary Books For Atheists (godlessblogger.com)
• Atheists and Christians Should Be Friends (godlessgirl.com)
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Filed under: atheism, culture war | 2 Comments »

Now that election season is over, most of the campaign signs have been taken down. Yet while I was driving the other day, I saw some signs still up at the intersection of a few major roads. Wait a minute, those weren’t campaign signs they were signs promoting the End of the World.

The signs warned that Judgment Day was coming on May 21, 2011 and then directed people to listen to Family Radio WKDN 106.9 FM. Now, I have listened to Family Radio WKDN 106.9 FM before and as a former radio guy, I know all about this station. This was Harold Camping’s radio station.

In fact, in college, I used to go over to my friend Greg’s dorm room and listen to Camping warn everyone that Judgment Day was coming on September 23, 1994. Greg was a Christian and a believer in Camping’s prediction. I still talk to Greg every now and then and while Greg is still a wacko fundamentalist Christian who loves talking about the end of the world, he no longer is a follower of Harold Camping.

What I find ridiculously funny is that Harold Camping has made these predictions before and has been proven wrong and yet he continues to make them and he continues to have followers. I doubt very much that he flew to the Philadelphia area just to put up a few signs on the side of the road. He has followers who live in this area and they are putting up these signs for him. He also has a book out in which he lays out his twisted reasoning on this.

Related articles

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• John R. Coats: What’s Real About the Rapture? (huffingtonpost.com)

Filed under: anti-intellectualism, End of Days, End of the World, God Fearing, Religion, The Rapture | 4 Comments »

Today is the day that everyone thanks all the veterans for their service and if you are a thoughtful person who doesn’t think that every single veteran deserves thanks, you are un-American apparently. Last year I wrote a similar blog and some people didn’t bother to read what I wrote and just labeled me a veteran hater. So let me try this again.

There are many veterans who serve this country. Many of them serve with honor and distinction. Many veterans are true heroes. Many veterans risk their lives because they believe in the principles of freedom and democracy. But many don’t.

My uncle is going to turn 90 years old soon. He is a veteran of World War II. He has received the Purple Heart and is a true hero. I want to honor him for his service, but I don’t want to lump him in with some of the soldiers who have joined our military for less then honorable reasons and/or who have acted dishonorably while serving. To do so would be a disservice to those true heroes who are honor worthy.

Let’s face facts here; some soldiers can’t wait to go to Iraq and/or Afghanistan so they can shoot people for fun. Some soldiers have no problem killing civilians just for sport. Some soldiers act dishonorably. Some soldiers are just assholes. Some soldiers are not fighting for any noble purpose, but rather just want to blow shit up. That to me is not the same as the genuine heroism of other soldiers who are out there fighting for the principles of freedom and democracy and serve with honor and distinction. It isn’t fair to them to praise and thank all soldiers unilaterally when some really deserve it while others don’t.

My point here is that not all soldiers are the same. Some are genuine heroes who fight because they have a sense of honor and duty while others are just bullies with guns. So on this Veteran’s Day, I have a more nuanced thank you to those veterans who I think truly deserve it. So for all the veterans who have served with honor and distinction and who fight to protect and preserve our freedoms and democracy I want to thank you genuinely for your service and your sacrifices. You know who you are.

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• Veterans Day 2010: 7 Heroes From ‘Medal Of Honor’ (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
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• Veterans Day (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

Filed under: blood sacrifice, Current Events, Personal, Veterans Day | No Comments »

Yesterday the American Humanist Association launched their big multimedia campaign. I think it is a great time to talk briefly about their campaign and about where the focus of these groups should be going. If you haven’t heard about this campaign please check out my Examiner article on it.

For starters, I have been critical of the AHA’s Billboard advertisements, but was told that they were more of an after thought. The main campaign is the print ads. Those ads are pretty good for print, but I think the Islamic quotes are useless unless they are put next to Biblical quotes. The Billboards are far too wordy. In order for them to be strong effective billboard ads they should only have 7 or 8 words so that they can be easily read while someone is driving past. I am also not a fan of the commercials. They don’t really capture people’s attention.

The campaign itself however is pretty good. I like the general idea of it, but think they could probably have found better quotes. Maybe I am nitpicking here. The important thing is that we are out there.

It seems that advertising campaigns like this one tend to be done on a more national level and I think atheist groups should do more of these things on a more local level too. The UnitedCoR campaign had the right idea by funding a campaign that supports the local groups. For example, many of the larger national atheist groups have local chapters. The AHA for example has a local Philly chapter called The Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia (HAGP). Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) also has a local chapter here, although the Freethought Society is growing to be a more national group in their own right. The point is that we need to get more people involved on the local levels as well as the larger national groups.

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• Consider Humanism [Pharyngula] (scienceblogs.com)
• FFRF debuts ‘Out of the Closet/Meet Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist/Agnostic’ campaign (secularnewsdaily.com)

Filed under: atheism, billboards, culture war, humanism, Media, People of Reason | 1 Comment »

Awhile ago, I wrote about the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel. I really like that blog and I am feeling a little lazy today so I am re-posting it:

“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top [may reach] unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” – Genesis 11:4

I was recently reminded of the story of the Tower of Babel and more particularly this verse. There is of course the central issue of this story which to me is an attempt by bronze-aged people to understand why it is that people speak different languages. Today, sociology makes it pretty clear that since people live in different areas of the world, they develop their own languages and when communities interact, languages between them share different aspects, words, and root words. Most of the western languages are off shoots of Latin for example and so English tends to share common root words with French, Spanish, etc.

But back in the day, those bronze-aged people had not studied sociology or language and had to account for the fact that different nations and tribes had different languages. And so the story of the Tower of Babel came about. Obviously it would be pretty ridiculous for Christians to take this story literally today. Most of the mainstream Christians recognize that it is simply a story with no basis in historical fact. However, there are still a surprisingly large number of people especially in America who hold that this is an actual historical account of how different languages developed.

Those who do believe that this was an actual historical account also have to address the issue that has come up in this particular verse. That issue being that the writers of this verse clearly thought that God lives in Heaven and that Heaven is not in some sort of different dimension or plain of existence, but rather is up there is the sky. The Tower was to be built as high as possible so that the top should reach into Heaven.

According to this account, Heaven is in space. It is a physical place which can be reached by building a high enough tower. The problem is that since that time, we have build ships that can reach as high as Heaven and yet no God was to be found.

To deal with this problem, the apologists might try to turn to word games. These apologists might quickly claim that the Hebrew word used in this passage is Shamayim, which literally means “sky” or “The Heavens” referring to the physical universe and not to the Kingdom of God. However, this argument really doesn’t work out for the apologist since there are passages in the Bible which are clearly referring to the place where God dwells as Shamayim. The fact is that the Hebrew word Shamayim means both “The Heavens” and “Heaven” because the ancient Hebrews thought they were the same thing.

Even Paul thought that when we die, it wasn’t just our souls that were going up to Heaven, but our entire body. Heaven was thought to be a physical place up there in the sky. Now of course, we have been there up in the sky and so Christian apologists who take this passage literally need to change what the Bible meant.

Another point to consider is that God was angry because humans of different tribes all got together to build this tower out of pride. They wanted to reach God. God punished them by giving them different languages so that they could not work together. Today, we have Google. Google allows us to translate languages from one to another so that we are no longer “babbling” to each other. Now humans can work together. And we have done so in the form of the International Space Station currently in the Heavens. We have done this out of the pride of humanity just like in the story. Where is God now? Why hasn’t he taken Google away and stopped us from building our modern day Tower of Babel?

If you ask me, the International Space Station is a giant fuck you to the Christian God. Our pride in science and human achievement is much greater than that of those in the story of Babel. The fact that people can read this blog from China in Chinese using the Google Translator is evidence that the story of Babel is fiction.

Of course as I stated in the beginning of this blog, mainstream Christians already know that it is fiction and yet those same mainstream Christians still often claim that other aspects of the Bible (which are ridiculously more unbelievable than this story) are real historical facts. That is like saying that while we all know that planet Kypton doesn’t exist, Superman is still real.

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Filed under: anti-intellectualism, Babel, Biblical Scholarship, Blasphemy, delusion, Disproving God, language, Religion, the bible | 3 Comments »

Last Tuesday was Election Day and I spent the entire day at the polls as Minority Election Inspector. Toward the end of the day after the polls had closed, I got into a short conversation with a Republican poll watcher who was hanging out waiting for the results. The topic was on the role of Judges and she got schooled.

This woman had commented about “judicial activism” by stating something along the lines that “Republicans need to stop judges from overturning the will of the people.” She kind of mumbled it and didn’t expect to be challenged on it. But I couldn’t resist.

I told her that it was the job of judges to strike down unconstitutional laws. The people can’t for example make a law that says that only blue eyed people can vote. She agreed and then I said that gay marriage is the same thing. That shut her up.

The thing is that the Right Wing has coined the phrase “Judicial Activist” and the real issue is “Agenda Judges.” We have judges on the Supreme Court now that don’t need to even hear a case before they have already decided that it doesn’t fit their agenda. They don’t need to look at previous case law, the Constitution, or how the law will affect actual people. Instead, laws are now decided either by the Justice’s religious beliefs or their corporate agenda.

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of hearing Michael Newdow discuss some of the Church/State cases he had been and will be involved in. He talked about how even though some of the Supreme Court Justices understood that certain things were violations of the Constitutional principle of Separation of Church and State, they still upheld that agenda because it would affect their own religious sensibilities.

I guess my point today is that we ought to start labeling these judges as Agenda Judges in much the same way that the Right Wing labels judges that do their job as “Activist Judges.”

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Filed under: church/state, culture war, Current Events, Law, Political Activism, Politics | 2 Comments »

Earlier this week, I got an e-mail from a Christian asking me if I would believe in fundamentalist Christianity if every Christian on Earth suddenly disappeared. The reasoning being that they were “obviously” all raptured up to Heaven, so that must be evidence that it is all true, right?

I responded with a one word answer of, “No.” First, even if the obviously ridiculous “rapture” story popularized by the Left Behind series were true, not every Christian would be raptured away. Only those “True Christians” who take the Bible as fundamentally true and as literally as the law would allow would be magically whisked away to Heaven bodily.

But I digress, if these fundamentalists suddenly disappeared, my first thought would not be, “oh, I guess they were all right and I missed the trip to magic happy-land.” It would probably be closer to, “I knew fundamentalist Christianity was a suicide cult.” I would look for the most naturalistic explanation that would fit with the observations and facts. In this case, mass suicide would make much more sense than magic happy-land.

But let’s say that after analyzing the data, it was clear that it was not suicide and was in fact some unexplained mystery. I would still consider alien abduction before raptured to Heaven. But let’s rule that one out and say that it all the evidence some how indicated the raptured to Heaven conclusion (how I don’t know). Would I believe?

I guess I would believe, but I still wouldn’t follow. The God in which these fundamentalist Christians worship is immoral and no magic sign would convince me to worship such a being. If such a deity wants me to worship him, he has already proven that he is not worthy. The desire for worship is vain and unbecoming a just deity.

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• Christian Nation: The Other Fundamentalist Perspective, Part 4 [Dispatches from the Culture Wars] (scienceblogs.com)
• Heaven: a selfish gift (new.exchristian.net)
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Filed under: Alternative Worldview, Real Christians, The Rapture | 18 Comments »

There is nothing worse than sitting in a firehouse for 13 hours being forced to listen to church gossip. Tuesday, I had to sit in my polling place all day as the Minority Election Inspector and all my coworkers were Catholics.

First, I want to say that one was a liberal Catholic and the others were moderate Catholics. While I made it known that I was a non-believer, I didn’t push the issue too much because I have to work with them all day and there are already political tensions in the air. Religious tensions would have just been too much to handle.

I did push a few issues in a lighthearted manner though. I told them that I don’t know much about all this Catholic stuff (which is partly true) and I asked them about some of the wackier stuff like the Eucharist actually transforming into the literal flesh of Jesus. I even brought up the case in which a young girl was gluten intolerant and the Pope wouldn’t let her eat a gluten-free wafer. The response was that the Pope should have allowed her to eat the gluten-free wafer. I even explained the issue in more detail to them as for why he couldn’t. It seems they don’t believe in the literal transubstantiation of the Eucharist either.

All day long, other church members came in to vote and I had the torturous experience of hearing more church gossip. Complains that one pastor spent too little money making the church look nice and complains that another pastor spent too much money making the church look nice. When I heard one person complain that she had a bad feeling about one pastor, I asked if she had thought that he was “transferred around a bit before coming that their church” implying some child sexual misconduct. She didn’t think so, but wasn’t offended or even surprised by my insinuation. That’s good; it shows that they recognize the problem.

I even mentioned to them the content of my last Examiner article dealing with the Pope trying to dictate how people vote. They all pretty much said that the Pope has no business in our elections and that he may be God’s representative on Earth, but he isn’t infallible.

At one point, I really thought about commenting that I can’t really see how anyone could still be a Catholic considering the way that the Pope has acted in relation to the child sex scandals, but I bit my tongue on that one. I would probably have been too confrontational considering that most of my co-workers are really involved with the church. Maybe next year I’ll push the issue a little more.

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• Spokesman for Belgium’s barmiest Catholic has had enough and quits (freethinker.co.uk)
• Is The Catholic Church Doomed? (dangeroustalk.net)

Filed under: Catholics, Church, conversation, culture war, Election, Personal | 1 Comment »

I don’t know what was more discouraging yesterday, the Republicans winning in so many places or top progressives like Alan Grayson and Russ Feingold losing.

In my state of Pennsylvania, the Republicans really won big. They took the Governor position. Crazy former Constitutional Party wacko Pat Toomey defeated my congressman Joe Sestak for Senate. Bryan Lentz lost Sestak’s old congressional seat and my friend Barbara McIlvaine Smith lost her state house seat.

Not only did Proposition 19 lose in California, but three Judges from around the nation who have ruled in support for gay rights were all defeated as well.

But the worst part is that some Democrats are still trying to make the case that Obama did a great job in his first two years. I hate to break it to these people, but the time to make that case has passed. You can’t wait until after the election to start campaigning for that election. The fact is that Obama should have made that case during the summer when the Tea Baggers were having their racist rallies. Instead, the Democratic Party waited until two months before the election to say anything and we are still waiting for them to do something.

Some people say that this election will be a wake up call to Obama to stop trying to work with the Republicans and to actually fight back, but I don’t think he is awake just yet. The most discouraging part of last night’s election wasn’t really the huge losses, but the sad truth that the Democrats won’t learn from their mistake. They will most likely try to do the same thing and expect a different result. They will attempt to appease the Republicans and to try to seek compromise despite the fact that the Republicans have yet to compromise and have stated that when they retake the House they will not compromise.

The Republicans are the Party of no. The scary thing is that since the Democrats don’t seem to understand what that means, in two years the Republicans will probably be the Party of yes… to large corporations and the Christian Right.

Related articles

• GOP takes full control of Pennsylvania Statehouse (philly.com)
• Toomey at Helm of a Republican Wave in Pennsylvania (nytimes.com)
• U.S. Senate race between Joe Sestak, Pat Toomey too close to call (pennlive.com)
• Patrick Meehan cruises past Bryan Lentz in Seventh Congressional District (philly.com)
• Toomey narrowly defeats Sestak to win Senate seat (philly.com)
• Pat Toomey Defeats Joe Sestak In Pennsylvania Senate Race (huffingtonpost.com)

Filed under: church/state, Election, Personal, Politics | 3 Comments »