I had quite an interesting debate with several fundies on the AskMeHelpDesk message board. Of course it wasn't a real debate since that would require intelligent thought on both sides and informed statements from both parties. And of course real debates do not involve one person telling another person that "Jesus is crying for you."
I also had my first accusation of being a Satan worshipper. I felt like a true member of the atheist fold, being accused of being of having Satan "in my heart" and all. It's amazing that the nuts I debated had such a hard time accepting that there are actually people who don't follow their beliefs for good reason. Their only recourse was to make personal attacks and to appeal to their argument that if their god isn't "in your heart" then their other god (Satan) is. It's funny that not only do they want you to accept that 4 different gods exist, but that they try to tell you which one to stick into your heart muscle. Sounds painful.
They also take offense that they must prove anything. So they use the rationale that we nonbelievers just "don't want to accept" or that we "don't like what the bible says" or that we "don't want to get rid of the sin in our lives," and that's why we don't just believe and read the "word" and "open our hearts."
It was also amazing to see the lack of intellect from the opposing side. After all, one of the biggest insulters couldn't even spell the word "merely." It wasn't like it was a typo since the guy did this about 12 times. There is a spell-check feature on the posting function. Furthermore, he actually claims to have a PhD, but it's from a diploma mill, and it's in holistic health. Oh boy! He's sure is a smart one! I'm guessing he wrote that dissertation with a combination of potato stamps and scrapbook pictures.
It's also not a good sign when one of your opponents has a name like "Tammy Sue" or "Betty Mae." It's pretty much a given that she and Jesus are gonna be pretty tight, and that anyone who dares criticize belief in the risen saviour is just a sad, pathetic devil worshipper. I guess if belief in Jesus helps her make her trailer payments, then so be it. After all, it must be hard holding down that job at Walmart and making time for bible study and taking care of her fifteen-year-old daughter's three kids (I'm just guessing, but I'm not usually way off on this one). No wonder she looks forward to a "heavenly reward." Anyone who puts their focus on acquiring academic credentials or financial security tends to not need a "heavenly reward," so that makes her want to glorify her poverty and social hardship. I might feel sorry for her if she weren't such a bitch.
I'm guessing that one day I'll actually have a back-and-forth with someone educated enough to know about Greek mythology, history, anthropology, geology, and other subjects that are dismissed by the fervently jesus-y. It would also be nice to debate someone who has actually read the Christian bible and knows what's in it as opposed to quoting a few verses that their freaky preacher has told them will "convert people and weigh on their hearts if they don't."
I was pretty nice after all and didn't mention everything about nut #1 and his Paypal link that he set up so that people could donate money to him. He claimed to be an ordained priest or something. It's pretty scary when a person is so desperate for money that they pretend to be an "expert" so that the stupids of society will give away their Walmart checks to further the cause of an offshoot of the Catholic church. I'm guessing that the money already in place to teach little boys how to give good head and how to take it in the ass without making too much noise isn't as lucrative as it was.
Here is a link to the thread:
http://www.askmehelpdesk.com/christianity/reliability-bible-truth-just-fantasy-173533.html
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Friday, November 2, 2007
Instead of Donkey Raping... Triceratops Raping Instead?
One of these days I'm gonna get disgusted enough to actually go to the Creation Museum. Well maybe not actually go, but really think about it. You see, these people actually believe that dinosaurs and man coexisted in the bible together. Really. Seriously.
I find the concept of the "creation scientist" to be laughable. What is this person? Some inbred preacher/community college graduate who made enough money swindling old people out of their Social Security checks to build a "museum" and he thinks he has the credentials to challenge those with real ones? Or is it someone who has a Ph.D., but it's from somewhere like IluvJesusUniversity with a minor in TheDevilMakesFossilslookReal?
It's funny that they discount real science while making up their own. These dingdongs wouldn't know real science if it poked them in the rectum with an unlubricated finger. But the real travesty is what they are teaching children. Kids are growing up thinking the world is 6000 years old and that "Evolutionists" are wrong and deluded.
I realize Jurassic park was fiction, but I don't think the viciousness of some of those dinosaurs was overdone. How in the world do those wing-nuts explain how Noah got those things on the ark? With prayer?
"There, there mama T-rex. Don't rip off ole Noah's head. The Lord in his infinite mercy will strike you dead, you scaly Jezebel! For man hath dominion over beast, and you sure are a smelly one!"
"Give me back my arm, you bitch!" AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Oh Lord, why hast thou forsaken me.......Lord?............Are you there?.............Lord?..........."
I find the concept of the "creation scientist" to be laughable. What is this person? Some inbred preacher/community college graduate who made enough money swindling old people out of their Social Security checks to build a "museum" and he thinks he has the credentials to challenge those with real ones? Or is it someone who has a Ph.D., but it's from somewhere like IluvJesusUniversity with a minor in TheDevilMakesFossilslookReal?
It's funny that they discount real science while making up their own. These dingdongs wouldn't know real science if it poked them in the rectum with an unlubricated finger. But the real travesty is what they are teaching children. Kids are growing up thinking the world is 6000 years old and that "Evolutionists" are wrong and deluded.
I realize Jurassic park was fiction, but I don't think the viciousness of some of those dinosaurs was overdone. How in the world do those wing-nuts explain how Noah got those things on the ark? With prayer?
"There, there mama T-rex. Don't rip off ole Noah's head. The Lord in his infinite mercy will strike you dead, you scaly Jezebel! For man hath dominion over beast, and you sure are a smelly one!"
"Give me back my arm, you bitch!" AAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Oh Lord, why hast thou forsaken me.......Lord?............Are you there?.............Lord?..........."
Thursday, November 1, 2007
What Do The Fundies Have Against Halloween?
We had a great time with the Halloween festivities in our neighborhood last night. Even though my town is full of religious people, it's not nearly as bad as when I lived in the shithole of Mississippi. You know, the state that has more churches than libraries and museums. Specifically, more Southern Baptist churches. And every year, some twat would raise ten different kinds of hell about the evil of Halloween.
Those people had so much time on their hands that they got into debates about whether it was ok to even propose an alternative, "Christian" event for their followers. Some of the more righteous thought that even acknowledging the day at all was as bad as drinking the blood of newborn children. Well, they didn't say that exactly, but I can always tell by that look the fundies get in their eyes when they're worried about the "souls" of the world, that that's what they meant. After living around them for more than thirty years, I can pretty much read their small, Jesus-loving minds. Just go into one of their houses. There will be copies of "Home Life" magazine and "Christianity Today" next to the toilet. I mean, these people can't even take a dump without thinking about Jesus.
But still there were those who participated in Halloween, but they had their "rules". Their kids could only dress in pleasant costumes that weren't scary or "demonic". You could usually spot the backsliding Christians because their kids wore the "Scream" costume and would run around trying to scare the Spiderman, Fairy Princess, and Fireman kids. The latter were the children of parents who were a little less uptight than the abstainers, but they still avoided any of the Disney characters, because, if you remember, Disney promotes the "homosexual agenda".
So this year, my little devil-worshippers really wanted to look sinister. Except for one of them. She wanted to be a beautiful ballerina. The other two were just downright crazy looking. The one in the middle is an old hag, with fake granny boobs hanging down to her waist (her idea). And the one on the right told me she was a "Creature of the Darkness". The two crazies told me they would be looking for soft, juicy children to eat, sort of like the witch from Hansel and Gretel. They're only 11 and 13, but already they have a wicked sense of humor.
Oh how fun it would have been to have taken these guys out into the neighborhoods in our old town back in Mississippi. Just thinking about the terror we could have brought into the hearts and dim-witted minds of our fellow residents brings a tear of joy to my eye.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
A Bit of Blasphemy
http://www.divine-interventions.com/baby.php
This, my friends, is the "Baby Jesus Butt Plug". Kinda cute, huh?
My mother always told me I never acted like the "Holy Spirit was living through me". Whatever in the hell that means. I guess it's that make-believe ghost that some Christians think possesses them and makes them do "good things" for the glory of the Christian god. Well, as I mentioned in a previous post, this little mental illness of theirs can also make them do very bad things. I'm sure my mother was letting the "holy spirit work through her" every time she grabbed me by the head and shook me while pulling my hair and hitting me. I guess this "spirit" also told her to threaten me with a knife to keep me in line. You know, I must have been a really awful kid since I never seemed to act the way she wanted me to.
Well, since the "Holy Spirit" isn't inside me, I thought that having Jesus inside me might be the next best thing. I'm not into ass-play, but the parents I no longer speak to just might get an email from me to let them know that I'm on the "straight and narrow". You know since I've "found Jesus" and all. And what do you know. He was on the internet all this time.
Breaking the Spell of Belief
The following are my thoughts about why it is so hard to break the spell of Christianity in some people. Now I don't go around trying to de-convert people, but I know of many who really would abandon their "beliefs" but don't for the following 3 reasons:
1. Fear
Fear is a powerful motivator. It will make a person do things they wouldn't have done otherwise, such as pick up a gun and kill an intruder, leave their home in the middle of the night with no money and no place to go, or think that when they die that they will burn forever in a fiery lake of hell for not having certain beliefs.
This last fear is normally instilled in most people at an extremely young age. Humans are born with two instinctual fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Any others are learned. This fear of hell is normally taught at age 5 or 6 in most Christian denominations as the consequence of not believing in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It's interesting that if the information is provided to them at a much later age--say 12 or 13, the fear of hell is much less profound. Although they are still afraid of hell, it doesn't traumatize them as much as it would if they were introduced to it as kindergartners.
2. Ritual
Many Christian parents will start teaching their children to put their hands together to pray at around the age of 15 months. This is usually done to train them to "bless their food". The child has no idea what he's doing, but he knows that mommy or daddy wants him to do this, and he must do it before he eats. He is also told that this person named Jesus loves him. He has no idea who this Jesus is, but he loves hearing that people love him, so in his immature mind, this sounds terrific! So he repeats everything mommy and daddy say about this Jesus person. So as he gets a bit older, and they tell him about this Jesus getting killed because of the bad things that people do, well, that just sounds awful! So he hears about this every Sunday at church since he's gone there EVERY Sunday since he was 3 weeks old. After all, it's so fun to go to McDonald's and other restaurants after church. And besides, he gets to see his friends at church.
When a tradition has been a part of his life for so long, he thinks that everyone else does it too. If they don't, then they must be dysfunctional in some way. Even if he starts questioning certain beliefs as he gets older, the idea that Sundays would be for anything besides church attendance would seem completely foreign to him.
3. Guilt
One of the essential tenets of Christianity is the belief that no matter what you do or how "good" you are, you still can't get into heaven without Jesus. So our little kid hears this from a very young age. He also hears that his god knows what he does and what he thinks all the time. If he's a good little Christian, he knows that he must ask god to forgive him for even thinking a bad thought. He grows up thinking that he is nothing but a dirty, rotten, sinner. He also thinks he can't do anything good without his god's help. Talk about mind control!
So how do these three issues continue to affect people into adulthood? Even lapsed Christians? Well, for one, that fear of hell will continue to haunt them until they abandon all belief. It's the last to go. It will make them keep a scrap of belief "just in case" all the bleeding Jesus stuff is true. They will also remember how scared they were when they learned about hell and how scary it sounded. But unlike monsters in the dark and alligators under the bed, the fear of hell didn't go away with growing up.
Secondly, people are creatures of habit. They love the idea that there's somewhere they belong and something to do on the weekends. Of course, there are nice people to meet at church, activities for the kids, musical programs around the holidays, and food gatherings for all to enjoy. So what's the fun in buying pretty dresses in the spring if there's no church service to which they can wear them? What kid needs all of those nice shoes unless he goes to church every Sunday? After all, it's what their parents' moms bought for them. It's like a department store fashion show in the closet!
So you could be compassionate and think of people like this as though they are drug addicts who still use and participate in a needle-exchange program. It's similar to the idea that they have a disease and we might as well try to help them not hurt themselves anymore.
And to be honest, how many of us were in their shoes before we got to where we are today?
1. Fear
Fear is a powerful motivator. It will make a person do things they wouldn't have done otherwise, such as pick up a gun and kill an intruder, leave their home in the middle of the night with no money and no place to go, or think that when they die that they will burn forever in a fiery lake of hell for not having certain beliefs.
This last fear is normally instilled in most people at an extremely young age. Humans are born with two instinctual fears: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Any others are learned. This fear of hell is normally taught at age 5 or 6 in most Christian denominations as the consequence of not believing in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It's interesting that if the information is provided to them at a much later age--say 12 or 13, the fear of hell is much less profound. Although they are still afraid of hell, it doesn't traumatize them as much as it would if they were introduced to it as kindergartners.
2. Ritual
Many Christian parents will start teaching their children to put their hands together to pray at around the age of 15 months. This is usually done to train them to "bless their food". The child has no idea what he's doing, but he knows that mommy or daddy wants him to do this, and he must do it before he eats. He is also told that this person named Jesus loves him. He has no idea who this Jesus is, but he loves hearing that people love him, so in his immature mind, this sounds terrific! So he repeats everything mommy and daddy say about this Jesus person. So as he gets a bit older, and they tell him about this Jesus getting killed because of the bad things that people do, well, that just sounds awful! So he hears about this every Sunday at church since he's gone there EVERY Sunday since he was 3 weeks old. After all, it's so fun to go to McDonald's and other restaurants after church. And besides, he gets to see his friends at church.
When a tradition has been a part of his life for so long, he thinks that everyone else does it too. If they don't, then they must be dysfunctional in some way. Even if he starts questioning certain beliefs as he gets older, the idea that Sundays would be for anything besides church attendance would seem completely foreign to him.
3. Guilt
One of the essential tenets of Christianity is the belief that no matter what you do or how "good" you are, you still can't get into heaven without Jesus. So our little kid hears this from a very young age. He also hears that his god knows what he does and what he thinks all the time. If he's a good little Christian, he knows that he must ask god to forgive him for even thinking a bad thought. He grows up thinking that he is nothing but a dirty, rotten, sinner. He also thinks he can't do anything good without his god's help. Talk about mind control!
So how do these three issues continue to affect people into adulthood? Even lapsed Christians? Well, for one, that fear of hell will continue to haunt them until they abandon all belief. It's the last to go. It will make them keep a scrap of belief "just in case" all the bleeding Jesus stuff is true. They will also remember how scared they were when they learned about hell and how scary it sounded. But unlike monsters in the dark and alligators under the bed, the fear of hell didn't go away with growing up.
Secondly, people are creatures of habit. They love the idea that there's somewhere they belong and something to do on the weekends. Of course, there are nice people to meet at church, activities for the kids, musical programs around the holidays, and food gatherings for all to enjoy. So what's the fun in buying pretty dresses in the spring if there's no church service to which they can wear them? What kid needs all of those nice shoes unless he goes to church every Sunday? After all, it's what their parents' moms bought for them. It's like a department store fashion show in the closet!
So you could be compassionate and think of people like this as though they are drug addicts who still use and participate in a needle-exchange program. It's similar to the idea that they have a disease and we might as well try to help them not hurt themselves anymore.
And to be honest, how many of us were in their shoes before we got to where we are today?
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Being Good Without A God
Oh the debate, the discussion, and the disgust. If only it were possible for the religious to see that it is truly commonplace for the rest of us to do the right thing without influence from what should qualify as a psychiatric disorder. Belief in an invisible, unverifiable god. Some make-believe essence that supposedly influences the thoughts and actions of believers and guides their lives down to the minute detail. Imagine, hearing a voice that "tells" you to feed the hungry or to donate money to the poor.
David Berkowitz, the infamous Son of Sam killer, allegedly heard the voice of a demon coming from a dog telling him to kill people. So I postulate that if the religious are supposedly using a supernatural influence to guide their behavior, then it is just as likely that their "divine influences" could be used as motivation for other things--some of which may not exactly qualify as moral. Where supernatural belief is concerned, no one can verify what a person's god has "told" him to do, so if he rolls around on the ground mumbling incoherently or shoots a gynecologist for performing abortions, then how do other believers know if he was acting on divine inspiration or not? It's quite simple actually. They don't.
In the evangelical Christian denominations, members are encouraged to give their god the "glory" for every good thing that happens to them, but they are forbidden to blame it for any misfortune. They are also taught that they perform good deeds because their god is "working through them". So does this mean that if a Christian volunteers at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, he's only doing it because he feels possessed by his god and can't help but do what it wants? Or is it because he feels obligated to his god to do something for the poor that he wouldn't have done otherwise? I wonder what the starving, homeless person would think if he knew that it was just possible that the Christian serving him a hot meal might have told him to go "get a job you lazy bum" if not for the restraints of his religion. But the Christian remains quiet because he knows his god would be displeased by him using inappropriate language.
So is it just possible that believers do need religious motivation to do a good deed? I have often wondered this through the years, even before I became a rabid nonbeliever. When people in my hometown would endure hardship, loss, and suffering, the prevailing attitude among those I knew personally was that "you give as much as you can because that's what the Lord expects of you". This was said and done with an attitude of "Oh, well, I had better things to spend my money and time on, but the Lord rewards the faithful and the charitable". And of course, competition among churches for charitable giving notwithstanding, the air of "it's just what's expected of you" was the way of life. There was no joy in helping out one's fellow man. No peace of mind to be obtained in knowing you had helped a child go to bed with a full stomach. Only the desire to reach out to others in the attempt to increase the membership of the church.
"Fill their bellies so we can fill their hearts with the word of the Lord". This was a saying I heard more than once. It's a double-edge sword for the needy. Accept help from the local church, and soon your kids are being carted off to Sunday School to be "educated" and provided with a "sound moral upbringing". After all, poverty is a result of immorality and bad choices, either directly or indirectly, according to the prevailing wisdom of the church. Children without fathers are missing spiritual leaders of the family. To anyone else this is an economic issue. A single mother on her own trying to make ends meet to take care of the kids is an economic hardship, not a spiritual one. To the churched, it's an issue of morality, a "breakdown of the family" that needs to be cured by the teachings of their church. So when the single mother shows up at a service, it's the Christian god who gets credit for helping less accepting members hold their tongues about her life choices. And it's the Christian god who supposedly motivates the members to help this mother by easing her struggles.
Compare the above-mentioned, typical, evangelical Christians to the typical atheist. And by atheist I mean one who has no god-belief. This means "agnostics", humanists, and anyone else who has no belief in any god, whether it be Jehovah, Zeus, Satan, Jesus, Poseidon, Venus, Vishnu, Gaia, Apollo, Loki, or any of the thousands of others from which to choose. The atheist has no god telling him what to do. Now contrary to what the religious majority in our society may believe, this does not give the atheist a "free license" to do as he pleases.
Now these following comments are just a sample of several that either I or friends of mine have heard from the faithful:
It must be nice to live the way you want to and not worry about the consequences.
I can't imagine what kind of person I would be without God (referring to the Christian god).
Be good all you want--the road to hell is paved with good intentions!
God (again the Christian god) has always been there for me. Doing what he wants me to do is just a small thing to repay him for sacrificing his son for me.
Well, I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point. What they don't seem to realize, even after a lengthy debate where they just get mad and start talking about "faith" or "better safe than sorry", is that their goodness is based on sinking sand. It's kind of like a couple of two-year-olds fighting over a toy, and their mother comes over to referee. She makes one child give the toy to the other and says, "Now you share." The kid is shooting daggers out of his eyes at the other kid, but mom told him to do it, and she's in charge, so he does it. This is my point. The atheist, on the other hand, does the good thing because he wants to. He knows that it is morally right and that someone else will benefit. Not because he thinks he has surrendered control of his life to an imaginary supernatural being that must have its way.
However, not everyone agrees that the atheist is even moral to begin with. He doesn't go to church, so how can anyone even trust him? His morality isn't built on "Christian principles", so how does anyone know that he won't rape the local children or steal their lunch money while they walk to school? In some parts of the country, atheists have lost their jobs or apartments when their lack of belief was discovered because people feared that they had no morals. People know that atheists don't believe in the Christian god, but they wonder what an atheist does believe.
What they fail to realize is that the foundation for a moral society and the foundation for an atheist's morality has been around for tens of thousands of years. Long before the bible. If only believers would pull their holy heads out of their sanctimonious asses long enough to see an example of a typical atheist's moral code. Here are but just a few examples:
Don't kill. Simple enough. That was common law in many civilizations before the Ten Commandments were supposedly written. After all, how would the human race have survived if murder was condoned or even allowed without punishment?
Don't steal. No problems here either. Also pre-dates the Big 10.
Be nice to people. Be courteous. Let the person with 2-3 items go ahead of you in the supermarket checkout when you're pushing a cart full of stuff.
Don't hit your kids. It's bad for them, and it doesn't make them act any better. This is probably why atheists are on the shit-list of many religious groups. We threaten their "god-given right" to beat children. Nothing challenges the bible like a visit from a social worker.
Recycle, conserve water, support local farmers, try not to use so many chemicals in your house. The earth isn't a "gift from a god". It's not ours to rape and pillage. Regardless of what that cunt Ann Coulter says.
Teach your children to think for themselves. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Especially one imprisoned by the barbarism of religion.
Never stop learning and growing. Use every day and every experience as a chance to learn something valuable, possibly change a life, and make the world better by being a person of integrity and conscience.
Never forget that your actions affect others. Always remember that the things you do and say can affect someone or hurt them more than you realize.
Help those who are less fortunate than you whenever you are in a position to do so. Especially in hands-on ways that show them that there are people in the world who can do good without being blinded by religion.
So perhaps it will take many more years for the world to see that atheists do indeed have principles by which to live that are actually anything but "living like there's no tomorrow". Maybe it is in society's best interest for Christians to continue the way they are doing. After all, they seem to have no true moral code. To expect them to abandon the values their faith requires them to practice would leave them acting according to their own true natures. And that to me is even more sinister.
David Berkowitz, the infamous Son of Sam killer, allegedly heard the voice of a demon coming from a dog telling him to kill people. So I postulate that if the religious are supposedly using a supernatural influence to guide their behavior, then it is just as likely that their "divine influences" could be used as motivation for other things--some of which may not exactly qualify as moral. Where supernatural belief is concerned, no one can verify what a person's god has "told" him to do, so if he rolls around on the ground mumbling incoherently or shoots a gynecologist for performing abortions, then how do other believers know if he was acting on divine inspiration or not? It's quite simple actually. They don't.
In the evangelical Christian denominations, members are encouraged to give their god the "glory" for every good thing that happens to them, but they are forbidden to blame it for any misfortune. They are also taught that they perform good deeds because their god is "working through them". So does this mean that if a Christian volunteers at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving Day, he's only doing it because he feels possessed by his god and can't help but do what it wants? Or is it because he feels obligated to his god to do something for the poor that he wouldn't have done otherwise? I wonder what the starving, homeless person would think if he knew that it was just possible that the Christian serving him a hot meal might have told him to go "get a job you lazy bum" if not for the restraints of his religion. But the Christian remains quiet because he knows his god would be displeased by him using inappropriate language.
So is it just possible that believers do need religious motivation to do a good deed? I have often wondered this through the years, even before I became a rabid nonbeliever. When people in my hometown would endure hardship, loss, and suffering, the prevailing attitude among those I knew personally was that "you give as much as you can because that's what the Lord expects of you". This was said and done with an attitude of "Oh, well, I had better things to spend my money and time on, but the Lord rewards the faithful and the charitable". And of course, competition among churches for charitable giving notwithstanding, the air of "it's just what's expected of you" was the way of life. There was no joy in helping out one's fellow man. No peace of mind to be obtained in knowing you had helped a child go to bed with a full stomach. Only the desire to reach out to others in the attempt to increase the membership of the church.
"Fill their bellies so we can fill their hearts with the word of the Lord". This was a saying I heard more than once. It's a double-edge sword for the needy. Accept help from the local church, and soon your kids are being carted off to Sunday School to be "educated" and provided with a "sound moral upbringing". After all, poverty is a result of immorality and bad choices, either directly or indirectly, according to the prevailing wisdom of the church. Children without fathers are missing spiritual leaders of the family. To anyone else this is an economic issue. A single mother on her own trying to make ends meet to take care of the kids is an economic hardship, not a spiritual one. To the churched, it's an issue of morality, a "breakdown of the family" that needs to be cured by the teachings of their church. So when the single mother shows up at a service, it's the Christian god who gets credit for helping less accepting members hold their tongues about her life choices. And it's the Christian god who supposedly motivates the members to help this mother by easing her struggles.
Compare the above-mentioned, typical, evangelical Christians to the typical atheist. And by atheist I mean one who has no god-belief. This means "agnostics", humanists, and anyone else who has no belief in any god, whether it be Jehovah, Zeus, Satan, Jesus, Poseidon, Venus, Vishnu, Gaia, Apollo, Loki, or any of the thousands of others from which to choose. The atheist has no god telling him what to do. Now contrary to what the religious majority in our society may believe, this does not give the atheist a "free license" to do as he pleases.
Now these following comments are just a sample of several that either I or friends of mine have heard from the faithful:
It must be nice to live the way you want to and not worry about the consequences.
I can't imagine what kind of person I would be without God (referring to the Christian god).
Be good all you want--the road to hell is paved with good intentions!
God (again the Christian god) has always been there for me. Doing what he wants me to do is just a small thing to repay him for sacrificing his son for me.
Well, I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point. What they don't seem to realize, even after a lengthy debate where they just get mad and start talking about "faith" or "better safe than sorry", is that their goodness is based on sinking sand. It's kind of like a couple of two-year-olds fighting over a toy, and their mother comes over to referee. She makes one child give the toy to the other and says, "Now you share." The kid is shooting daggers out of his eyes at the other kid, but mom told him to do it, and she's in charge, so he does it. This is my point. The atheist, on the other hand, does the good thing because he wants to. He knows that it is morally right and that someone else will benefit. Not because he thinks he has surrendered control of his life to an imaginary supernatural being that must have its way.
However, not everyone agrees that the atheist is even moral to begin with. He doesn't go to church, so how can anyone even trust him? His morality isn't built on "Christian principles", so how does anyone know that he won't rape the local children or steal their lunch money while they walk to school? In some parts of the country, atheists have lost their jobs or apartments when their lack of belief was discovered because people feared that they had no morals. People know that atheists don't believe in the Christian god, but they wonder what an atheist does believe.
What they fail to realize is that the foundation for a moral society and the foundation for an atheist's morality has been around for tens of thousands of years. Long before the bible. If only believers would pull their holy heads out of their sanctimonious asses long enough to see an example of a typical atheist's moral code. Here are but just a few examples:
Don't kill. Simple enough. That was common law in many civilizations before the Ten Commandments were supposedly written. After all, how would the human race have survived if murder was condoned or even allowed without punishment?
Don't steal. No problems here either. Also pre-dates the Big 10.
Be nice to people. Be courteous. Let the person with 2-3 items go ahead of you in the supermarket checkout when you're pushing a cart full of stuff.
Don't hit your kids. It's bad for them, and it doesn't make them act any better. This is probably why atheists are on the shit-list of many religious groups. We threaten their "god-given right" to beat children. Nothing challenges the bible like a visit from a social worker.
Recycle, conserve water, support local farmers, try not to use so many chemicals in your house. The earth isn't a "gift from a god". It's not ours to rape and pillage. Regardless of what that cunt Ann Coulter says.
Teach your children to think for themselves. A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Especially one imprisoned by the barbarism of religion.
Never stop learning and growing. Use every day and every experience as a chance to learn something valuable, possibly change a life, and make the world better by being a person of integrity and conscience.
Never forget that your actions affect others. Always remember that the things you do and say can affect someone or hurt them more than you realize.
Help those who are less fortunate than you whenever you are in a position to do so. Especially in hands-on ways that show them that there are people in the world who can do good without being blinded by religion.
So perhaps it will take many more years for the world to see that atheists do indeed have principles by which to live that are actually anything but "living like there's no tomorrow". Maybe it is in society's best interest for Christians to continue the way they are doing. After all, they seem to have no true moral code. To expect them to abandon the values their faith requires them to practice would leave them acting according to their own true natures. And that to me is even more sinister.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Living By The Bible
My parents are Southern Baptist nutcases who, against my wishes, took my children to church any time they visited my parents' house. To make a long story short, my children don't believe any of the shit they were taught, and they think religion is just stupid.
We have many discussions about different religions since I do believe they need to know about the world religions and why people choose to be a part of them. Of course, my children think anyone who is religious is also stupid, but I just keep my mouth shut when they express their opinions. No need to keep them from expressing themselves, right?
Well, today we were talking about some of the craziness in the Old Testament, and the girls decided to check their clothing labels. As it turned out, only one of them would have been spared a painful death (according to the bible) because she was wearing 100% cotton. The other two were wearing cotton/poly blends. We were making fun of this fact, and I also informed them that I was supposed to kill them for disobeying me. They laughed and laughed, and asked me how I was supposed to do this. I said I wasn't sure since I wasn't a regular bible reader (you know, I like to keep my lunch down and all), but perhaps I was supposed to pelt them with rocks or something.
So they posed some interesting questions. I was intrigued since after all, they are only 9, 11, and 13. They asked how Christianity could be so popular in our culture when it is so violent. And why so many people go to church, and why don't they teach any of these unread verses in church. And why do they just pick out the "being gay is bad", and "men are the head of the family" stuff? I told them that those people only do what is convenient and self-serving, and that they have no real sense of morality or compassion for their fellow man. And that they look for someone to blame who is different from them. Someone who doesn't obey mindlessly, and so it drives them crazy.
And besides, if people truly practiced Christianity the way the bible intended, they would be in prison! And that they need their daughters to clean their houses and look cute at church, so they can't sell them into slavery. And besides, many Christians think slavery is for black or brown people anyway. And you can't have voluntary submission from a slave. The wife has to do it on her own. Yeah. Right.
Now I realize this is an oversimplification, but when you think about it, the drivel that is written in the bible is so insane that you have to make jokes about it. Who but an absolute nutjob would dare take it seriously? And why would anyone think that a person who believes any of it should have a higher moral code than a person who rejects it?
It just goes to show how messed up our society is. And I think my daughters are right. Religious people are stupid. And so are the people who support them or allow them to continue to have free rein to poison the world.
We have many discussions about different religions since I do believe they need to know about the world religions and why people choose to be a part of them. Of course, my children think anyone who is religious is also stupid, but I just keep my mouth shut when they express their opinions. No need to keep them from expressing themselves, right?
Well, today we were talking about some of the craziness in the Old Testament, and the girls decided to check their clothing labels. As it turned out, only one of them would have been spared a painful death (according to the bible) because she was wearing 100% cotton. The other two were wearing cotton/poly blends. We were making fun of this fact, and I also informed them that I was supposed to kill them for disobeying me. They laughed and laughed, and asked me how I was supposed to do this. I said I wasn't sure since I wasn't a regular bible reader (you know, I like to keep my lunch down and all), but perhaps I was supposed to pelt them with rocks or something.
So they posed some interesting questions. I was intrigued since after all, they are only 9, 11, and 13. They asked how Christianity could be so popular in our culture when it is so violent. And why so many people go to church, and why don't they teach any of these unread verses in church. And why do they just pick out the "being gay is bad", and "men are the head of the family" stuff? I told them that those people only do what is convenient and self-serving, and that they have no real sense of morality or compassion for their fellow man. And that they look for someone to blame who is different from them. Someone who doesn't obey mindlessly, and so it drives them crazy.
And besides, if people truly practiced Christianity the way the bible intended, they would be in prison! And that they need their daughters to clean their houses and look cute at church, so they can't sell them into slavery. And besides, many Christians think slavery is for black or brown people anyway. And you can't have voluntary submission from a slave. The wife has to do it on her own. Yeah. Right.
Now I realize this is an oversimplification, but when you think about it, the drivel that is written in the bible is so insane that you have to make jokes about it. Who but an absolute nutjob would dare take it seriously? And why would anyone think that a person who believes any of it should have a higher moral code than a person who rejects it?
It just goes to show how messed up our society is. And I think my daughters are right. Religious people are stupid. And so are the people who support them or allow them to continue to have free rein to poison the world.
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