Five Before Chaos

I’ve long contended (with many, many other unbelievers) that it’s important to be “out” in regard to unbelief, as the less we all seem like some tiny fringe, the better. Granted, I appreciate how much more easier it is to do that in certain parts of the country; in Vermont, you don’t believe, no big deal, whereas in the Bible Belt, it often leads to harassment and social ostracization from family, friends and the community, and can get you fired from your job, too.

So of course, I was glad to read about a billboard campaign, appropriately taking place in North Carolina, that simply says, “One nation, indivisible,” with an American flag background, the larger point being that “Under God” has no place in the Pledge of Allegiance, being a religious statement (regardless of what SCOTUS thinks), and not even originally in the Pledge, being added in the 50′s during the height of anti-communist fervor.

Now, I’m not a fan of the Pledge of Allegiance and all that flag-waving tripe, nor other typically patriotic nationalist sentiments, finding them completely unnecessary. But this is a good start, and I’m glad to see something high-profile like this actually making national news. What I really found surprising was in the comments section of the CNN article (and in the local NC news station article), the dialog wasn’t overrun by Christian idiocy, which usually seems to be the norm in these kinds of things. Sure, there was a few incoherent Bible quoters and those “if you don’t like it, go somewhere else” types, but by and large, the free-thinking crowd dominated. Also surprising was the low ratio of super-smug, condescending atheist types; most were quite matter-of-fact and respectful. That said, this irreverent comment brought a smile to my face this morning:

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 an 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. Sounds legit, bro. Let’s put him in our pledge to our country.

Heh.

File under “It’s funny, ‘cuz it’s true!”

I know, I know, the blog is rather image heavy, lately. So sue me if you think I’m slummin’ it.

This guy has the answer.

There’s a good piece you should have a look at over at Pharyngula today. PZ Myers took a look at critic Roger Ebert’s recent article about Darwin. He has some nice things to say about it, but Ebert drops the ball when he breaks out the “Science has no opinion on religion. It cannot.” nonsense. This one frustrates many of us atheists, for good reason. PZ demolishes the argument quite well:

Think about it. Why can’t science address the existence of gods? Why should we simply sit back and accept the claim of apologists that what they believe in is not subject to “observation, measurement, and experiment”?

In the United States today, we have tens of thousands of priests, rabbis, mullahs, pastors, and preachers who are paid professionals, who claim to be active and functioning mediators between people and omnipotent invisible masters of the universe. They make specific claims about their god’s nature, what he’s made of and what he isn’t, how he thinks and acts, what you should do to propitiate it…they somehow seem to have amazingly detailed information about this being. Yet, when a scientist approaches with a critical eye, suddenly it is a creature that not only has never been observed, but cannot observed, and its actions invisible, impalpable, and immaterial.

So where did these confident promoters of god-business get their information? Shouldn’t they be admitting that their knowledge of this elusive cosmic beast is nonexistent? It seems to me that if you’re going to declare scientists helpless before the absence and irrelevance of the gods, you ought to declare likewise for all of god’s translators and interpreters. Be consistent when you announce who has purview over all religious belief, because making god unobservable and immeasurable makes everyone incapable of saying anything at all about it.
[snip]
God can’t do anything anymore where people might actually notice, or worse, record the act and figure out how the tricks are done. This is awfully convenient.

He says a lot more, go have a look. Really, this one is frustrating, because aside from it being complete bunk, at its heart, I think it’s more about politeness and not hurting someone’s feelings more than any kind of truth. There’s the lame-ass variation on this that says, “science tells us how, religion tells us why“. Putting aside the fact that there doesn’t need to be a why, often religion does try to tell us how – how the earth was created, how we should treat other species, how we should (or not) put our private parts together and so on and so forth. And yes, to preempt you, I know not all religions are as dogmatic and irrational as others, but no matter how one slices it, there’s no valid reason why a claim, any claim, whether it be for something that cures toe fungus, the reality of zombie Jesus, that Shaft in Africa is better than the original Shaft, whatever, is above scrutiny. No claim is above scrutiny.

I read one of those things this morning that really pissed me off, and reinforces even more the idea that atheists need to really step up the criticisms of the ridiculousness of religious belief. It’s discrimination against atheists seems to be the one area that is still universally accepted in this country. This time, it’s from an idiot Illinois congresswoman:

Rep. Monique Davis (D-Chicago) interrupted atheist activist Rob Sherman during his testimony Wednesday afternoon before the House State Government Administration Committee in Springfield and told him, “What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous . . . it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!

“This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God,” Davis said. “Get out of that seat . . . You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.”

You can listen to the audio here. I can only imagine the public outrage had the tables been reversed and it was an atheist congresswoman talking to a Christian activist about how harmful his beliefs were or how they destroy the intellect or something. We really need to start fighting back harder. You can contact the congresswoman here.

Well, folks this is a hard post for me to write, in that it’s my final one. Yes, you’ve heard right. Blogging doesn’t really do it for me anymore, and between the Clinton fatigue and Michael Colby running for governor, I really can’t go on. I know, I’ve accomplished a bit here, and at the very least, entertained some of you. But there’s something else going on here, that isn’t so easy to explain.

This is gonna be hard for you believe, but I’ve accepted Jesus Christ as my savior. Yes, it’s true. I know, it’s the atheists that fall hardest. As I go back and read my atheistic rantings and such, I’ve increasingly seen the rantings of a hollow ideology, bereft of any wonder or awe. I’ve been blindsided by science and such, and lately I feel that some force has been telling me I need to change my ways. The fact that things can be irrefutably proven, such as evolution and such, are really just articles of faith, aren’t they? Seriously, what are ‘facts’ and ‘proof’ and ‘evidence’? Aren’t those really just subjective terms anyways? Doesn’t the voice in my head that grows ever louder prove something? I just know it’s true. It’s all the evidence I need. Besides, I’ve often found that I know my Bible better than a lot of so-called “Christians” do, so why not put that knowledge to good use?

I’ve questioned myself constantly over this… I mean, it’s pretty batshit insane to believe most of this Godstuff, but it sure feels so good. I just hope the Lord can forgive me for all of the nasty things I’ve said about Him and all his glory, for doubting all the miracles. For calling Easter “Zombie Jesus Day”, or for saying that that bastard baby Jesus owes me some money. I am shocked and appalled that I said those things, and it was painful to just write them here, but perhaps that’s my penance.

It came to me the other night, as I was shitfaced drunk and high as a kite, when my judgement was a bit clearer than usual. I felt this presence deep inside of me… not in like there was something in my ass or anything…it was deeper than that, even. As I came to accept what I was feeling, I was wondering if I had perhaps fallen and hit my head or something, but a cursory examination of my scalp showed there was no injury to be seen. I really felt it was the Lord telling me that something had to change. His warm goodness embraced me with a love even stronger than my dog has for me, if you can believe that. That’s pretty intense.

So no more blogging for me… I feel that FBC is tainted, and will keep me from doing the Lord’s true calling. I can’t really spread his message when there’s posts of me illustrating the various ways his followers are deluded fools (in hindsight, undoubtedly Satan’s influence over me) or the mountains of historical and scientific evidence that make the case for no God. Solid cases as they were, I just don’t believe them anymore. I JUST KNOW. It’s such a burden to release, that constant “thinking” and “analyzing” and “fact-checking” and such. I won’t trouble myself with that anymore… it’s apparent that that’s not what the Lord wants.

So that’s the start of it. Jump below the fold for a few more shocking revelations. Hard as they may be for me, I feel that I owe it to you, my readers, for sticking it out with me for so long. I can’t expect that you’ll follow me as I walk down my new path with the Lord, but nevertheless, I feel I need to say a few more things.

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This kid is awesome. (h/t to Pharyngula)

Lemme tell ya’, this being soooper busy every day thing is starting to take its toll on me. Hardly any time to read non-school related stuff, watch movies of questionable quality, and of course, blog. It’s killing me. So I’m taking a quick minute here to give you a linkdump. Not as satisfying for either one of us as a Christofascist Idiot Watch Update, I know, but hey, I still care.

First up, CREW releases its 22 most corrupt members of Congress list. 19 Republicans, and 3 Democrats…, are you surprised? And you right-wingers, no, it’s not CREW’s fault. Suck it up.

ThinkProgress reports that our dipshit-in-chief was meeting with some military bloggers recently, and said something along the lines of that “he expressed envy that they could be there, and said he’d like to be there but “One, I’m too old to be out there, and two, they would notice me.” Uh-huh. He failed to mention number three, the more obvious one about a high likelihood of getting fragged or caught up in a bit of friendly fire. Perish the thought.

This one sounds nutty as hell, but there’s a ring of truth to it…Nebraska State Senator Sues God:

State Sen. Ernie Chambers sued God last week. Angered by another lawsuit he considers frivolous, Chambers says he’s trying to make the point that anybody can file a lawsuit against anybody.

Chambers says in his lawsuit that God has made terrorist threats against the senator and his constituents, inspired fear and caused “widespread death, destruction and terrorization of millions upon millions of the Earth’s inhabitants.”

The Omaha senator, who skips morning prayers during the legislative session and often criticizes Christians, also says God has caused “fearsome floods … horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes.”

He’s seeking a permanent injunction against the Almighty.

Can’t say he’s wrong there. Good luck to him, because God’s got a helluva lawyer, I suppose, with all the murderin’ and such that he’s always up to, he always seems to get off scott-free.

In more atheist-related news, a soldier is suing the Defense Department for preventing him from having a meeting for atheists and other non-Christians. Good for him.

The “D” in Democrats stands for “disappointment” more often than not, so you can never tell with these things, but some good news seems to be in the making. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is saying that there are no more Iraq bills coming that do not have a firm withdrawal timeline. Now, if one of the Senators running for the Dem nomination (especially a particular one that likes to talk about how he’s the “change” candidate, without offering much meat to the argument) would just take the lead and filibuster the shit out of any Iraq legislation without a timeline, they’d make a huge difference, and would probably increase their chances of winning the White House tenfold. But they never listen to me, do they?

Finally, they’re excited about “riding the SLUT” in Seattle! Who wouldn’t be?

Hopefully, you won’t have to wait another week here for something new. And by November, life returns to some semblance of normalcy. Stay well and thanks for stopping by.

It’s always funny how most celebrities who win awards have to throw in the obligatory thanks to God, as though it was God itself that got them that good agent or whatever. Comedienne Kathy Griffin won an Emmy award on the E! television network recently and had this to say:

In her speech, Griffin said that “a lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus.”

She also said, according to her website, “Can you believe this shit? Hell has frozen over. Suck it, Jesus, this award is my god now.”

Ah, the things that make an atheist smile. Of course, this has Catholic hatemonger/homophobic/racist William Donohue’s panties in a wad. What is it with these far-right Catholic types who view any criticism of their myths as “hate speech”? Donohue would know, he’s got hate speech down to an art form. And the E! television channel is keep in Griffin’s “offensive” remarks out of the final broadcast, to make things even more ridiculous. It’s not like she said “fuck” or something. And she’s a comedienne, for Chrissake… many of them make their living offending people. Anyways, kudos to her for speaking up.

I haven’t mentioned bestselling atheist author Sam Harris lately. I used to, but recently, I reached a point in my (un)belief where hearing people like Harris and Dawkins, althought I agree with most of what they say, is really speaking to the choir. Yes. religion is a mind virus and a delusion, and it’s safe to say that most athiests agree, some more vocally than others. As I did a lot of study on the psychology of religion this year, I have widened my perspective a bit. The thing that Harris, Kurtz, Dawkins and other seem to consistently miss the mark on is understanding on a deper level why people believe these crazy, irrational beliefs.. you know, the search for meaning, higher purpose, etc. I don’t struggle with those issues, but at least I understand them. I don’t think that those authors are going to get any new unbelievers until they start to address that in a less condesending way. Not all of the believers would have that void filled with the wonders of science. And frankly, a lot of em aren’t too bright to begin with, so that needs to be taken into account as well.

Anyways, my biggest beef with Harris is his Islamophobia and what seems to be his defense of torture. It’s what keeps me from really taking everything he says too seriously. His basic presise, that religion is ridiculous and should be held up to the same intense public scrutiny as anything else, well, I’m behind that 110%. But I can’t get past his stance on torture. It’s deplorable.

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