My upcoming epiphony

I'm all about helping out the indie films... so I am going to share with you a movie I expect will give me a revelation. A movie that will make me finally realize the error of my ways, and how damned stupid I have been my whole life. I need a movie to really preach to me and fire me up full of righteousness and piety. I think this will do it:



Oh, and read the article that led me there here:

Kinda Busy.... Started New Job

Admittedly a bit off topic, but noteworthy none the less. I not only left the best job I ever had, I joined a tiny young company that was in the midst of starting a giant legal throw down with a jaded partner. I really should not say much even with my pseudo anonymity, so I won't. It has just been very busy and crazy taking on this new role with dreams of turning this small feisty company into a stable and lucrative enterprise.

I always hope to someday take my skills into a non-profit community based venture that will be my contribution to society. I do not think all is lost, but I know much help is needed. I want my success to be a model for other godless fiends such as myself. I want to support those willing to not only voice dissent over ancient superstition, but to take some kind of positive stand to show that godlessness does not equal evil. Sure, its tempting to be a Malcom X, but I'm trying to be a Martin Luther King, Jr. here. Trying.

Glad to get something written anyway. Peace.

Numerology!

Its bullshit! But this is fun!

http://homokaasu.org/gematriculator/rate.gas

State Sponsored Intolerance

I know there is nothing shocking about an Islamic state funding religious beliefs, but there is this little piece of news that is worth reacting to. The Saudi government funds and distributes school textbooks to all of Saudi Arabia, as well as much of the rest of the Islamic world. In these schoolbooks are lessons on how to love god (the Islamic one that is), and how to hate everyone else who doesn't love god (any other god, particularly Christians and Jews). I think it is safe to say they do not care much for non-believers either.

Well, the good news is that they cleaned up the newest version from a few years ago. The old one was a little more specific with who you should hate, and furthermore who you should kill (again, the pesky Christians and Jews, who have that eerily similar set of superstitions and crazy beliefs). Good stuff. I would like to think that even here in "God's America" there would be major outrage at our children's textbooks explaining how we are allowed to kill those who work on the sabbath, or others who worship competing gods.

Read the article here.

Great Responses from the Community

I got this link from Atheist Revolution. A columnist in Georgia decided to try and subtly jab at the atheist community through his Saturday column. I'm not so much posting about the article itself, which is really just poorly written and uninformed garbage. What I'm actually impressed by is the stream of outstanding outcry that his article received.
I will credit the attention the article got to the blogger community, as I can't believe that many people actually would read this guy. Of course, I'm sure there are a lot of local columnists all over this great land that are not exactly brilliant journalists. No surprise that the article is weak... just that he is so easily and handily ripped to shreds in the comments the article gets. Go for the ignorance, stay for the slaughter.

http://www.times-herald.com/opinion/op-ed/Believe-it-or-not--507794

Louisiana Improves Science

I don't mean to pick on Louisiana in general, that has been done well enough here.
It is disgusting that another victory has been won by those who are obviously trying to push religion into schools. And let me be clear... pushing religion into public schools is a violation of the constitution, an attack on freedom from religious persecution, and an outright assault on REASON. This is inexcusable, disturbing, and wicked on multiple fronts.

I can't pull punches about this kind of thing. When Gov. Bobby Jindal signs a bill into law that allows bullshit to be fed to open minded, easily influenced kids, I have to protest. I read about this on a few of the other atheist blogs, and this is exactly the kind of thing I hope to prevent. I am not going to report on what happened, only bitch about it. Click on this or this to read good write ups.

The real kicker, the guy supposedly has an honors degree in biology. Judas!

This bill is clearly meant to back door religious doctrine into "controversial" topics, that are only controversial due to their challenging of the old scrap book of know-it-all uneducated desert primitives. At least Scientology comes from a noteworthy sci-fi hack who made some money.... the bible comes from poor nomadic ignorants, who due to the era and environment that they happen to be born in to HAD NO EXPOSURE TO SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE, or even what we know by the time we start high school. And christians make fun of scientologists wacky beliefs... its like watching 5th graders tell 4th graders how immature they are.

Unfortunate Side Effect

I say "gosh" quite a bit now. This is mainly due to my effort to remove all references to a Christian belief from my vocabulary. The thing is, as I'm sure my fellow non-believers can tell you, you do not realize how much "The Lord" and "God" and "Jesus" and "Holy" are all part of our regular collective vocabulary. Even non-religious quasi-theists are regular mentioners of holy things, or so I've noticed.
So the first to go was "bless you". That's a no brainer, but for years I felt some kind of obligation to say that out of kindness. Now, after not saying it for a couple of years, I still feel like a dick when someone (mainly a chick) sneezes and I say nothing. I would like to submit alternatives to "bless you" and "gesundheit" (which is just silly sounding, no offense to Deutsch land), such as "shut up" or "cover your mouth".
So now I'm saying "gosh". Not "oh my god" or "god!" or "good god", etc. I will hold on to "god dammit!". That one is just too powerful, and it is kind of fun. Think if you really had the power to command an omnipotent super-being to damn anything at your whim. "God, go DAMN that. Now". "YES MASTER".... It would be like walking around with a Hulk you could command to go smash things (yes, I'm excited to go see the movie and it's leaking out in my writing... sad).
So, there are my harmless and cute observations about not uttering references to my former invisible buddy in the sky. Maybe if I stop bothering him by uttering his name, he will find time to stop Chinese earthquakes, tornadoes in the mid-west, floods, genocide... you get the point. The Christian god is on the rampage, and we all going to hell on his watch.

Delete your Mindset! Move out of your Stronghold!

Wow. What a stinking load of horse shit. As I sit in my hotel room, I can't help but watch this Joel Osteen douchebag unload his snake oil for the believers. It is truly amazing how he can continously speak and not say anything. He barely breathes, as he draws out his southern lispy soft-spoken gibberish.

Shift into a new season through the Lord.
Break the stronghold.
I am a vicTOR and not a vicTUM
Delete that mindset!

So apparently, ignorant optimism and mindless belief in the supernatural will SOLVE ALL OF YOUR PROBLEMS!

I know, this is too easy, but I can not help it. As an athiest, I find myself listening to more of these idiots than I EVER tolerated in my half-ass theism.

"Why can't I write this BOOK that GOD PUT IN ME"!!! He actually said that!

EVERYONE is supposed to be a fucking superstar. No one is SUPPOSED to be mediocre. Its your weak faith to blame for your shortcomings. He is all about shortcomings. Feed off of their self loathing... there is no short supply of that.

Attention All Fighting American Soldiers: Stop Looking at Dirty Pictures.

Those sick bastards have really gone too far this time. I am officially outraged. I am logging in on a business trip and going strong after a 15 hour day of travel and work. Finally able to drink a beer and catch up on email, then I read about the Army crackdown on smut magazines. Of course, the Republicans have found something new to ruin... and to take away from what tiny little bit of escape these boys (yes, I am focusing on the male soldier here) have.

Look, I was a soldier, and I don't need to get into the details. Those magazines are not a LIFE saver per se, but they certainly help with morale and to get through those horribly lonely days and nights. Sure, midevel knights and vikings didn't have porn mags, but they did a few more damaging things than your standard issue Army soldier. For example, pillaging has been pretty much eliminated (pretty much).

The real problem is that the Republicans have demonized another morality issue, and they are going after our troops. The chanters of "SUPPORT THE TROOPS" who do more to put them ill-equiped into the receiving end of IED shrapnel, and more to take them away from their families by endlessly extending their tours, those very same hypocrits are taking away their shiny, mindless spank-magazines.

It is noteworthy that publications like Hustler and Penthouse are fiercely critical of the wars and the right-wing agenda. I don't think that is a big secret, but it has to make you wonder. Do they really actually think that porn magazines lead to aggressive acts towards women? Just like how TV and video games INVENTED violence. They are obviously to blame for the holocaust and the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition.... OOPS. I came full circle, put the blame back on where it belongs... sick extreme ideology birthed in the womb of religious dogma and impossible to interpret tennents of faith.

Am I Evil?

There is no doubt that I am a person who is able to embrace my darker side. That is something I am comfortable with. I like to drink, have wild sex, party, etc... that constitutes about 2% of my total time on this earth. I think about doing those things another 30% of the time, or so. I have regularly posted that I feel I am also a great father, loving and loyal husband, and well respected professional. So what is the deal? Am I good or bad?

So the point is that I'm neither. There are few absolutes in life, especially when it comes to the complexity and contradictions of human behavior.

I happily revel in my ill behavior. At my job I am regularly joking about how reckless I was at a party, or how I crashed a wedding, got thrown out of a bar by my own friend, or how I.... you get the point. I also am quietly open about my lack of belief, as many of my coworkers are quietly and respectfully open about their theism. We all get along, work well together, and like each other for the most part.

So here is the fun part, the "oh shit!" moment, the "Luke, I am your father" part. My brother is a born again evangelical Christian, and an active member of his church. He is mentoring troubled kids while playing bass for a Christian metal band. They are pretty good.

My brother has had his share of tough luck, bad decisions, addictions, and general debauchery. He is really a good person with good intentions. However, he does not do well with drinking or any type of controlled substance... 2 things he has done quite a bit of. He came out of his latest incarceration as changed as I have ever seen him. He had a purpose and conviction to make a difference, get his act together, and stay clean.

I'm proud of my brother. I respect his decision. Do I believe in the same fantasy? No. Do I think he is out there doing good things? Yes. Am I doing as much as he is. No. I donate to charity. The rest of my wife and my paychecks go to living our slightly better than average lifestyle. Do I plan to change this... That doesn't matter. This blog is my difference, or at least a start. And this post, is just the beginning of that conversation.

Monique Davis: Unleashing Christian Hate!

The RichardDawkins.net website is asking Chicago area voters to protest this representative to the Illinois General Assembly, after her hilariously uncensored and hateful shouting at an atheist activist named Rob Sherman.

I had to listen to this little clip from the website, and I have to say I am impressed. This just reeks of someone who is so convinced of their righteousness and piousness, that they are able to dehumanize someone who does not believe as they do. The hostility that comes from this elected official is disturbing, especially with her linking of atheism to some desire to wish children harm!

Now, I could be taking this out of context... which is done enough on both sides of this argument. Regardless, the hostility felt here is genuine, and Mr. Sherman remains composed and quiet while this woman runs all over him with accusations of wanting to "destroy all this state was built on", or some such insanity.

This is the article: http://richarddawkins.net/article,2441,Get-out-of-here-atheists,PZ-Myers-Pharyngula

Read and bleed for yourself.

super-Dad businessman warrior poet renaissance ninja bad-ass.

So this Mary.com site sponsors a personality test that is supposed to tell you that you may believe in god, EVEN if you DO NOT, because of your GENETICS! Its religion piggybacking on the confusion brought on to the masses by science... it is bullshit in one of its higher forms.

This is worse than white teens rapping and dressing like gangsters. This is blue trying to be red. This is disgusting. And they didn't even bother to acknowledge (clearly) that they ripped off Myers-Briggs blatantly for religious purposes.

My genetics make me believe in god, but my brain makes me rational. Maybe I outgrew it.

Yes, I fell for clicking on one of those links that make it into atheist sites google ads.

Yes, I am dumber now for suffering that shit. It was pure masochistic curiosity that made me sit through that 20 minute pile of shit.

I am confident.
I feel for others pain.
I love my kids.
I don't hate.
I am rational.
I love art and poetry.
I love science and reason.
I enjoy others.
I lead.
I am fair.
I am social.
I take initiative.
I follow through.
I am sympathetic to the human condition.
I am successful.
I am happy.
I love life MORE than someone waiting for the BIG PAYOFF
I am KING SHIT OF FUCK MOUNTAIN, why would you want to fuck with me?? (Bob Odenkirk)

Assholes.

Its late, I'm tired. I am worn out from being super-Dad businessman warrior poet renaissance ninja bad-ass.

Raising Secular Children: Part 2

My daughter is just over 2 years old now. She is picture perfect, as doll-baby as a little girl can look with big brown eyes, a tiny chin and mouth, and the Japanese cartoon girl look that her mother has given her. She is very talkative at this age, and beginning to understand counting, spatial relationships, colors, the alphabet, you name it. Today, she sneezed and in the most adorable little high-pitched mimicking of adult language, she said "bess-yoo".

I can not help but laugh, she has done this a few times now. I of course realize that she does not know the meaning of this, but it is a great example of how our society promotes this behavior and begins the programming early on. You see, she no doubt got this from our daycare provider.

We have only been with this woman for about 4 months, but in this time our daughter has made leaps and bounds in language skills and word meanings. Her knowing that sneezing requires a "bless you" is new, she doesn't get it from her family. The provider is pretty good, and a necessary evil for my wife and I to live in our beautiful home and enjoy a higher quality of life. So yeah, we're greedy, and my wife is not a "housewife" at heart... she wants to work to a large extent.

So we have daycare, and we are at risk of Christian indoctrination of our daughter. I am not afraid. I chose to allow my son to make his own decisions, trying my best not to let my beliefs be obvious. I allowed him to challenge religions (why do people kill each other over religious beliefs? which leads to "who's right?). I refused to tell him what I believe outright, but I will say that you should consider all the options and take away the good concepts from all of them (although a disproportionate amount of the good comes from eastern philosophy religions, not the partisan sectarian contradictions of sky-god religions). My son told me almost voluntarily a while back that he doesn't believe "any of it". My twelve year old does not think he is going to heaven when he dies, and he is OK with that... he does believe in ghosts still. That is much more believable than gods, devils, arcs, prophecies in his eyes. I don't take that away from him, some of the most fun I had as a kid involved what I thought to be supernatural occurrences.

Hell, he is still young, and may embrace Jesus or Muhammad when he is 14, then worship the devil when he is 18 (why not? the devil is way less evil than sadistic bastard Yahweh, and maybe he can turn it into a sweet death metal career). Meanwhile, I will giggle and wait when I hear my daughter say "bess yoo" in her adorable little perfect girlish voice.

Children and work are my immortality. Parents are gods in the eyes of children, there is no more real god than that.

Expelled again...

Ben Stein and the ID goofballs are on the move. The release date for "Expelled", the pro-creationist movie portraying a persecution of ID supporting scientists, and the ID community in general. Now, the funnier part... biologist PZ Myers, who is interviewed in the movie and thanked for his involvement, was asked to leave before the film began by the movie's producers. Embrace the irony... a movie called Expelled about rejecting non-conforming belief booted a noted biologist who WAS IN THE MOVIE from the movie, which thanks him for his time. Apparently, the event was open invitation and Myers was accused of gate crashing.

Anyway, the story is best told by Richard Dawkins who was with Myers at the screening, and was not removed, which is in itself very strange. If I were on the other side of this argument, I would probably be quite afraid of Dawkins being there over about anybody, but I digress. Click here or here for either side, and here for a link to the video.

As for everything else in life, I have been quite busy working the equivalent of two jobs over the past month or so. I am happy to say that things are going very well, and may end up resulting in the ability to expand my time and resources towards this cause. I really can not imagine anything better in life rather than contributing towards a brighter future for humanity. This is what raising children is all about to me, and it is what education and open-mindedness are all about to me.

Good resource

I took a whole 10 minutes to find this historical essay of the bible. Very interesting and easy to read. This is an appetite-wetter for my dive into all the major religious books (Bible, Koran, Dianetics, the Book of Mormon, etc).

http://www.bidstrup.com/bible.htm

Imagine

There are the few things that bring a smile to my face, the little things. The Columbus Dispatch ran an article in the obligatory "Faith and Values" section, titled "Billboard Carries Challenges by Atheists".



This is compliments of the folks at Freedom From Religion, and well worth a mention in my prestigious diary.

God for President

I don't think anyone with a brain and some knowledge of matters political saw this coming. Romney dropped out, McCain is pretty much the Republican front runner, Huckabee is doing what he does best.... win over rural and religious voters, and Clinton and Obama are in a dead heat. Where do we go from here? It almost does not matter at this point, and I love it.

Bush and his administration has done about as much damage as one man can do to this country, and other countries. The Republican juggernaut is broken, split, and confused. Their closest front runner is their biggest renegade. He's the man that they allowed Bush to beat in 2000 because of his rogue behavior. The religious right is backing Huckabee, but Christian conservatism is not pulling in the financial conservatives and moderates that the Republicans were able to get the last two elections.

And the Democrats.... who knows. Which way will we make history? It has already been made. The real question now is who is most qualified.... just kidding!! The real question is who is most electable. Who can beat McCain / Huckabee.... or whoever. Probably not Hillary.

These are interesting times we live in, whether or not you give a flying fuck about who will be the next leader of the free world, and whether we will see the first black or female president. Just let me see the first rational and accomplished president in my life time. I can honestly look a the span of my life and say that it was between Reagan and Clinton, and that is nothing to brag to grandkids about....

Jesus Christ!

Due to an unforeseen resurgence in my social life, I have not been able to post in some time. Well, that on top of the normal not having time to post. I have been going back and forth since I started this thing, and I just can not seem to settle on what I want my approach to be.

Funny?
Mean?
Sarcastic?
Super pissed?
Serious?

I need to get my head together. My son pretty much had decided he does not believe in God. That would be worth talking about. I would like to expand on how I am pretty sure he came to that independently. I am sure he has picked up on my feelings, I can't independently observe without influencing the results.

Oh, and I have to thank fine people at the Jesus 1st website (actually promoting Jesus) for that crazy fucking picture on my profile.

Militant Atheism

I'm all about promoting like-minded atheist sites, as non-like minded as we tend to be. This site is pretty anonymous, but has good content from what I've seen thus far. Check out Militant Atheism.

I will say, I'm a sucker for good in your face quotes... and these are some of the best I've seen.

Fry in Hell!

Hell to me is living my only mortal life faking a belief in the unbelievable. Then, if the Christians are right, I will fry in hell for eternity for not believing. This is all despite my productive role in society, parenting skills, general humanitarianism, and friendly persona. All I am asked to do, is believe that a bearded homeless guy in sandals cured diseases with magic, and would walk on water to show off. If that is true, then Yahweh/Abraham/Allah/God is a real asshole.

So this is what I wrote. All that is going on in the world, and this is what I have to offer. Hah!

Huckabee took Iowa! Save me Jebus!

I don't even know where to start on this one. I can't wait to see what Christopher Hitchens has to say about this after his last rant about the caucuses. The whole system is so screwed up, it elevated that bible believing hick into front runner of the Republican party. This makes me sick.

I was trying to explain to my wife how much of a fundamentalist he was, which led me to google his thoughts on evolution. I found the following:




After the initial shock wore off and my wife went into all the usual intelligent reactions to an answer like that (how can he defy the foundation of all known science and biology for a hundred years... all for an old book???), I began to read the comments for the reactions.

ALL POSITIVE. Oh yeah, the United States has an evangelical born-again majority. See these results (found on Adventures in Frickentardistan), just one of many Gallup Polls that have indicated that most of our country is not only extremely Christian, but likely not educated in the bible or even literate. That's okay, Muhammad wasn't literate, but it did not stop him from translating the pure word of Allah! You go, eventual spiritual leader of millions!!

I guess I have always been able to tolerate the fact that a large number of the human population is basically stupid. This is not hard to believe... everything in nature follows the bell curve, including human intelligence. Half of are dumber than the other half. Now consider that the dumb half have been tapped into by the engineers of the evangelical movements. That is almost a freebie. There is more susceptibility for easy to understand and touchy-feely ideas. They want to believe with their heart, and not understand and accept that they may have evolved from slightly simpler, yet impressive and beautiful creatures in their own right. It is hard for a very informed person to truly understand the scope and magnitude of the theory of evolution, let alone the uninformed, under educated, and easily confused.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to stop there. Plenty of the average intelligent people (which is most of us) and very intelligent are afraid to give up the beliefs of their parents. Afraid to give up heaven, immortality, magic, devils, demons, ghosts, a history resembling the Flintstones, or what have you.



I call this one "Huckabee's Ancestor Gets Home from Work". Then Fred begot Elmer, Elmer Begot Steve, Steve Begot Joe, who forgot to Beget at first, then finally got around to Begetting and Begot Spray. Spray begot Susan, who was drown for being female... Oh shit!

I used to enjoy that I did not seem to think like many people. I currently enjoy that the people who claim atheism, agnosticism, skeptics, free-thinkers, and even Brights are a select bunch. No one comes and recruits us, but we come here on our own. We are the wise men and women seeking the light of sanity and progressive thinking. We gave up seeking the baby king of the Jews who would some day bodily return from Heaven and save whoever had the sentience and exposure to specifically believe that he would do just that. I know Christians have made efforts to explain how my innocent and pure 23 month old daughter won't go to hell with me, just because she doesn't have the mental capacity to "believe" in what they tell her to believe in.

If Jesus would have showed up in 1989, I would have been packing my bags for a one way ticket to silver clouds, golden harps, and cherubs floating about. Maybe, I was still pretty skeptical, but it was probably the most I ever honestly did believe in a personal god. A few years before that, I also thought a man with a white beard gave me a shitload of expensive and unnecessary toys because I was a good kid. Not because I was fortunate enough to be adopted by hard working middle class parents who wanted to give me as much as they could afford.

I am much more impressed that my parents worked so hard to provide what they could, rather than a magical system of material karma rewarding me with plastic toys and mindless video games. I am also more impressed by the mysteries of the cosmos and the sub-atomic realm than by a confusing book of who begot whom, which is the victim of 2000 years of reinterpretation for personal and political gain, poor translation between languages, and numerous sects of varying interpretation.

Maybe, just maybe... Huckabee will take the Republican nomination and we will see an uprising and uniting of the secular and progressive. Or, we will dive 4 more years into de-evolution. I just built a house in Ohio, but I'll seriously consider moving to Canada, Australia, somewhere to get away from that.

Moved In. Back at it. Happy New Year! Ron Paul Doesn't Believe in Evolution!

So yeah, I'm finally fucking moved in. 2 grueling and miserable weeks. My hands are split and chapped from the overdose of physical labor. It has been a few years since I've done much more than walk up the stairs to my office. I'm getting soft.

Not to dwell on that terrible subject, it is over and I am finally settling back in to the groove. I did my usual rounds to my frequent sites (like us bloggers like to do apparently, preach to the choir). Also as usual, it didn't take long to find inspiration for a post.

A good lifelong friend of mine has recently put a lot of support into Ron Paul, in philosophical terms for now as far as I know. I have been trying to pay more attention to him because I do think his points about our government spending are spot on. He and Kucinich are just snipers when it comes to calling out the "mainstream" candidates, and I love it.

However, Paul just lost major points in the science department. We need a lot of things in the new president. We need fiscal responsibility, a sensible foreign policy that is not driven by corporate interests only, and we need someone with a respect and knowledge of science. When Ron Paul declares his belief that "evolution is just a theory", he is speaking in Christian fundamentalese... which takes its usual ignorant and defiant tone towards science.

From there, it's not much of a leap to assume that he questions the validity of global warming. This of course carries heavy and serious consequences that we can not continue to ignore. I will have to do more digging into this, as I need to be more informed. Not to be a one issue guy, but I can not support another science idiot. Thanks to vjack and mojoey for spreading the news on this.