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.