tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90677554609112003082024-02-20T14:37:06.546-08:00The Bad Secretary: Religion, Atheism & Childfreedom, Oh My!<p>Musings and information on things that interest me and probably bore you. Poor you. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-84261175504016889682012-10-17T13:00:00.003-07:002012-10-17T13:13:24.920-07:00Should feminists marry?[<i><a href="http://apracticalwedding.com/">A Practical Wedding</a> has the best information on marriage and wedding that is sane, true and balanced for a multitude of opinions and lifestyles. They are awesome. For many quality posts on feminism, check this out: <a href="http://apracticalwedding.com/?s=feminism">'feminism' keyword search</a></i>]<br><br>
My opinion on the institution of marriage has gone all over the place the last few years, from believing it is instituted by God with specific duties for husband and wife, to all but opposing it, and now I think I've settled on a final opinion.<br><br>
This is important to talk about, because as modern-day feminists, we can feel like sell outs if we do decide we want to marry. And that's totally legitimate. I want to share why I think marriage is ok, even for the feminist.<br><br>
A funny thing happens when you break away from religion--or at least the very negative parts of religions: freedom. You are free to investigate, learn and decide based on evidence and your own preferences. There's no one telling you what to do. You have to make your own decisions. It's very exciting, but scary because there's no cookie cutter road map of How to Live anymore.<br><br>
Marriage has a rather disgusting history for the most part. The religious right currently likes to pretend that marriage is one man, one woman and has always been that way. But that's just not true.<br><br>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVq5kwZuvoCUJ2MMdpBWejc_BO6Qglg0cFX1lE1G6i_BIA6i9by7qPr6tirECYo0l9d1r46d-3cFAX1kLY1ycJ7TzcxIhfY5nqMBT-nf_nHmB_XIQiFEGoqXqzUNIdGvAT5C9bi5BOJyp1/s1600/biblical-image-of-marriage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVq5kwZuvoCUJ2MMdpBWejc_BO6Qglg0cFX1lE1G6i_BIA6i9by7qPr6tirECYo0l9d1r46d-3cFAX1kLY1ycJ7TzcxIhfY5nqMBT-nf_nHmB_XIQiFEGoqXqzUNIdGvAT5C9bi5BOJyp1/s400/biblical-image-of-marriage.jpg" /></a></div><br><br>
Even when marriage is for one man and one woman, historically women were traded as property, a servant forever dependent on some man to provide for her. In any culture, before effective birth control came to be, a sexually active woman was guaranteed a life of housework and childrearing. How could there be any time for any further pursuit?<br><br>
Thankfully, things have changed. Nowadays women can (in most modernized countries) do and be anything they want, for the most part. Unless, of course, fanatical politicians succeed in making abortion and birth control illegal, but let's set that aside as I am talking in huge generalities here.<br><br>
My point being: in a free society, marriage is what YOU make of it. It can be a religious marriage. A childfree marriage. A same-sex marriage. A polygamous marriage. An "open" marriage. Whatever.<br><br>
Marriage has been many things and will continue to be many more things because it evolves with people and their cultures. What it boils down to is that marriage is an agreement between 2 (or 3, 4, 10...) consenting adults, and each marriage is different because the people are different. <i>What other people do in their marriage has no effect on you and yours, nor does what has happened in the past concerning marriage define yours.</i> We are free to make our own rules. <b>I think marriage is basically a legal and/or relational contract between consenting adults, and what that contract contains is up to them to define.</b><br><br>
There are several aspects of marriage: legal, spiritual (if you're religious) and what I call relational (if you're not religious). Let's set aside spiritual marriage for obvious reasons. Relational marriage is defined by the individual relationship; for example, I feel and behave as if I am married, and I frequently call my partner "husband", because we completely share our lives together and are completely committed to being together. To me, that's my marriage. It's an agreement between ourselves and what makes us happy. I know several other couples like us, and I'm sure you do too. You don't have to be legally married to be married in your heart (i.e., emotionally). This relational marriage is what's most important, I think, as marriage really only takes place between the people in the relationship. I don't have to use the word married to describe my relationship, but sometimes I do, because that's what it feels like to us; we have reached that level of happiness and commitment and neither of us plans on going anywhere.<br><br>
I also don't believe marriage is till death to us part, unless you want it to be. I will only stay married as long as I am happy and the relationship is healthy; if it ceases to be both of those things, I will no longer be committed to it for my own sake, and I extend the same courtesy to him if he is not happy and healthy. When I was at Catholic Pre Cana, the hostess said that, "Marriage is like this big, beautiful house that has all these really cool rooms... but once you go in, you can't ever leave that house." I beg to differ! I see no point in voluntarily suffering. When that house is rotting and unfixable, leave.<br><br>
Legally, of course, can be the can of worms everyone is worried about. It is a risk, yes, and it's not for everyone. Personally, it's right in my situation because 1) I have a high level of trust and love for him, 2) I'm comfortable with this risk because of #1, and 3) I have a batshit crazy family and don't want them to have control over my assets should something happen to me. #3 is what is really behind my making my marriage legal. BTW, this is NOT to say that because someone doesn't get married that they don't love and trust their partner. It's just that because of my family, his fairly dangerous job, and our level of commitment, that I'm ok with making it legal.<br><br>
Originally I was going to do all the necessary paperwork to make him my beneficiary, and medical power of attorney, etc, but when I looked into the legal forms it made my head spin. The laws are crazy, and they're so different for each state. I would have had to hire a lawyer to make sense of it all. And guys, I'm lazy. I realized that I was committed to spending the rest of my life with him anyway, and marriage is just easier because it does all that crap in one fell swoop and is recognized in all states. Plus, we get tax and health insurance benefits. That process gave me much more empathy with my same-sex brothers and sisters who are in my position, and are <i>pointlessly</i> denied their rights to do so.<br><br>
For this feminist, marriage is a good choice. My partner and I get to define what marriage is to us, and we will not stay married if we are unhappy and so will never be trapped. It is an equal partnership and a mutually beneficial one. There are financial risks if things don't work out but I am well aware of them, and I'm comfortable making things legal because I strongly believe I know who he is and who I am and that we are a good fit for life. The benefits outweigh the risks. Obviously, it's taken years for me to get to this point with myself and with him, as it should. We are old enough to be settled into who we are and our beliefs and habits, and ready for one life partner.<br><br>
After my first marriage, I vowed against being in a relationship ever again because they completely took away your freedom. And don't misunderstand--being single is awesome and you <i>are</i> more free single than you are in a relationship. But I've found someone who makes my life better when I'm with him than when I'm single, and I loved being single! It's a conscious choice that I made, and re make every day, to give up some freedom for the benefit of my life partner.<br><br>
This has been incredibly long and for that I'm sorry, but I hope it helps my fellow feminists, or any person struggling with the question of marriage, see that marriage can be a good, and happy thing (officially legal or not!), when freely undertaken with someone right for you.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-89151245063944619492012-06-25T09:26:00.000-07:002012-06-25T09:26:33.489-07:00Then why call him God?Oh, man. What a past few months it's been.
I am still here. I have not forgotten about my blog! I've been extremely busy! It's getting better. I'll post more soon, but want to share this gem: <br><br>
<center><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zZLtv6zzwm66S3DRJecbMe6vjdoPAkgRgvssPhO_rBNd_PUyCGm9DtZXhZryMwSZymrRXvEcqNcTCPZ7LUijAZTB_oZQ8j2IGJ4LMpgXv2IsnllD2UNZHqM4SHQfv7ekEfHA7I9YW34_/s1600/521367_386766068052038_360397992_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1zZLtv6zzwm66S3DRJecbMe6vjdoPAkgRgvssPhO_rBNd_PUyCGm9DtZXhZryMwSZymrRXvEcqNcTCPZ7LUijAZTB_oZQ8j2IGJ4LMpgXv2IsnllD2UNZHqM4SHQfv7ekEfHA7I9YW34_/s400/521367_386766068052038_360397992_n.jpg" /></a></center><br><br>
Isn't that the truth? It really is the quick and easy guide to God. I know, I know, logic hurts. It's painful, but it's gotta be done. Theists will go down the arguments in this chart, and conclude that "God works in mysterious ways." Well, that's just bullshit. If he is almighty, all knowing and all good, working mysteriously serves no point. It is just a cop out that theists give God; they try to pretend that all the pain and suffering is part of a Master Plan.
God is all knowing, all powerful and all good? Ok, fine. Take a look at this picture:<br><br>
<center><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZlNlZujQ9HZPZSY_YOJ1UHbmlLRTBrka-Q4zPqe-2k0-qj_lfpd1fzkp_2cKiHV9XBZPwYX2ySd7_pc8jI1XnHsKtoQzsNPgOJF-_mIQyb9nl-NbYasQPP67A18Z-LAoM2UMNQtR9dlhs/s1600/starvation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="264" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZlNlZujQ9HZPZSY_YOJ1UHbmlLRTBrka-Q4zPqe-2k0-qj_lfpd1fzkp_2cKiHV9XBZPwYX2ySd7_pc8jI1XnHsKtoQzsNPgOJF-_mIQyb9nl-NbYasQPP67A18Z-LAoM2UMNQtR9dlhs/s400/starvation.jpg" /></a></center><br><br>
Look at it. Really look at it. If you are a theist, understand that the God you believe in sees this too. He knows about it, and all the other horrors of the world.<br><br>
<center><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE6osVqFVs3aGSgMPSLgID-g7n9FxbXCLpptujAjBaMEFpS_2vEw4vWiEM3ec1_LUIqxH1L0yBKdQeoSThjDDgH6XLbKArUIEkUQUpOTatrX5nNDFPU6sGNSLqYj3BwYIrr2MZeQ1i_il5/s1600/animal_cruelty_brown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE6osVqFVs3aGSgMPSLgID-g7n9FxbXCLpptujAjBaMEFpS_2vEw4vWiEM3ec1_LUIqxH1L0yBKdQeoSThjDDgH6XLbKArUIEkUQUpOTatrX5nNDFPU6sGNSLqYj3BwYIrr2MZeQ1i_il5/s400/animal_cruelty_brown.jpg" /></a></center><br><br>
He sees this too. He knows about it, and he can change it, but he doesn't. He is so powerful and so loving, that he does nothing.<br><br>
If he was lonely and created us, he could have made us to be completely perfect. He could have designed the world in any number of ways that would have not made suffering and evil possible. If you had the power God has, wouldn't you abolish suffering? Or would you keep it around, just to be mysterious, because it works into some nebulous Master Plan concept?<br><br>
If that's God's plan, it sucks. I don't care how powerful and loving he is--if this is the best he can do, God is either not very powerful or a complete sadistic asshole. Under what circumstances is it ok to allow these things to occur? None.<br><br>
If there were a man who knew about his child being repeatedly stabbed, for example, and this man could put a stop to the stabbing and immediately heal all his wounds, but he just... didn't... we would be outraged. The morality is the same. God doesn't get his own custom morality unless you want to believe that morality is relative. But since God's law is eternal, unchanging and just, I doubt many theists believe that morality is relative (and for the record, I don't either, but for different reasons).<br><br>
<i>Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then He is not omnipotent.<br>
Is He able, but not willing? Then He is malevolent.<br>
Is He both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?<br>
Is He neither able nor willing? Then why call Him God?</i> - EpicurusUnknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-3375585166624461182012-04-04T14:56:00.016-07:002012-04-04T15:19:46.741-07:00You're so vain, you probably think this post is about youIf you haven't heard about the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124246/Samantha-Brick-downsides-looking-pretty-Why-women-hate-beautiful.html?ito=feeds-newsxml">Samantha Brick debacle</a>, you should. That shit is hilarious. I apologize in advantage for indulging in some "celebrity" trash.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-utF1hq8d4cWDci-NrU2NQzMqLdy-GYqPfbdwxlJlFFGZIivnIh0q6kbZG8vxcbMw-cTOaxjVvCx7KZcD0Io5YnNMvUGVrdOY_PjBbOqcrN3QP7N6j_9vcCd-jIb6dxoqqS7QUUDcUpM/s1600/samantha_brick.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 306px; height: 379px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-utF1hq8d4cWDci-NrU2NQzMqLdy-GYqPfbdwxlJlFFGZIivnIh0q6kbZG8vxcbMw-cTOaxjVvCx7KZcD0Io5YnNMvUGVrdOY_PjBbOqcrN3QP7N6j_9vcCd-jIb6dxoqqS7QUUDcUpM/s400/samantha_brick.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727672167757159762" /></a><br /><br />I am not one to downplay anyone's beauty--I am regularly teased for finding people pretty when others do not--but <i>come on</i>, Ms. Brick! In the pictures I've seen you range from pretty to pretty average. I think what makes you lose friends is your unbelievable arrogance. I have friends more beautiful than I, and I am more beautiful than some of my friends... that's very normal. But never has there been any difference in the way I've been treated, or the way I treat my friends, nor have I ever even heard of the catfighting that you describe. My friends trust me, and I trust them! I can't even crack a joke about American girls vs. British girls, because there are some damn hot English chicks out there.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIeyM63yI20ySMpCpol45XTKtsK92-gldsM1RTdfImQnlTaWbmP-CIyFp2bDmO8zfr02YUif8l4pY3hmEFgJbGXGflhMGckz8-8lu0GFaZc8MBUr3T81xdyFkU7LRR5T-BUcfUTLRuNwTc/s1600/samantha_brick3.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 290px; height: 385px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIeyM63yI20ySMpCpol45XTKtsK92-gldsM1RTdfImQnlTaWbmP-CIyFp2bDmO8zfr02YUif8l4pY3hmEFgJbGXGflhMGckz8-8lu0GFaZc8MBUr3T81xdyFkU7LRR5T-BUcfUTLRuNwTc/s400/samantha_brick3.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727672364284797378" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I can't imagine the balls to be so wonderfully average, and to agree to have an article published about it! And did you seriously <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124782/Samantha-Brick-says-backlash-bile-yesterdays-Daily-Mail-proves-shes-right.html">just compare yourself to Angelina Jolie?!</a> What the <i>fuck</i> are you smoking?!!<br /><br />I don't care if you are physically more attractive or less than I am, and I don't think most women do either. Even if you were the most gorgeous woman in the world, this arrogance, so amazingly public, would be ugly. But it sure does make it funny when you are pretty average!<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3eLR-oJj-HLjmX2aphigO08Y519BOmIdL8nkYBlE_31G8xZT5K6UfAI_6fQ4777Q83Is20AvXboWJlP9O5f439xZBBUgbJUr9E_v3tkeqY-OybHCn0UpXIAFzKy8oJmnER-96U_r-EVN/s1600/samantha_brick2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 283px; height: 160px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij3eLR-oJj-HLjmX2aphigO08Y519BOmIdL8nkYBlE_31G8xZT5K6UfAI_6fQ4777Q83Is20AvXboWJlP9O5f439xZBBUgbJUr9E_v3tkeqY-OybHCn0UpXIAFzKy8oJmnER-96U_r-EVN/s400/samantha_brick2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5727672458123306226" /></a><br /><br />Cheerio!!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-46525146371772049292012-04-03T07:52:00.006-07:002012-04-03T09:47:45.373-07:00Death is the departure of the soul, or is it?My mother once defined death as that moment when the soul is ready to depart this world.<br /><br />There are probably millions who would agree with this, but do you know how ridiculous that idea is? Let's run down the top 10 causes of death (in the U.S.):<br /><br />1. Diseases of heart.<br />2. Malignant neoplasms (<i>cancer, tumors, growths</i>).<br />3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases. <br />4. Cerebrovascular diseases (<i>limited or no blood flow to the brain, such as a stroke</i>).<br />5. Accidents (unintentional injuries). <br />6. Alzheimer’s disease. <br />7. Diabetes mellitus. <br />8. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (<i>disorders of the kidneys</i>). <br />9. Influenza and pneumonia. <br />10. Intentional self-harm (suicide).<br /><br />This is from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), published January 11, 2012 of the <a href="http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr60/nvsr60_04.pdf">2010 National Vital Statistics Reports</a>. <br /><br />Do you notice a pattern? In all instances of death, to explain it very broadly, there is a dysfunction or cessation of a biological process. If these biological causes are in fact results from the soul choosing to "meet its Maker", then why are not all the causes the same? Wouldn't it make more sense that only one cause would happen, over and over? But I think it would make the <i>most</i> sense that there were no biological causes at all, and death was spontaneous, random and without an external effect. What care would the soul have if it left the body because of heart disease, or because of kidney failure? There is no purpose for a spiritual entity to have any concern with a biological cause of death. That would be like my houseplant caring about what kind of car I drove!<br /><br />If death is a result of the soul leaving the body, then we can easily conclude that the soul or its departure has some kind of connection to biological processes, since 100% of the time, a biological process failure <i>also</i> occurs at death. The goal then becomes to establish the connection between the soul and the body. How does one do that? This is where we find the problem. There is no evidence, no footprint, residue or trace elements left behind to examine. The soul can't be touched, smelled, seen, tasted or heard. It can't be examined, tested, observed. Why? Because we cannot find it! It is nowhere. It is invisible, intangible, inaudible. There is no essence or substance that we can grab onto. We are assured very much of its existence, but we have to take it on faith. Conveniently, the only experience we will have with being just a soul won't happen until after we die, after we are gone, and only when it is no longer possible to communicate with those still living a physical existence.<br /><br />Theists don't see this as a problem. Of course the soul is intangible and invisible! The spiritual plane is a separate (but parallel) universe to our visible, physical plane. Just like God. We have to take it on faith that all these claims are true, because the tradition of the religion, the church elders and doctrines, and the religious texts say so--human expressions, all of them. If God and the soul are these invisible puppeteers behind the scenes, how can I possibly distinguish between their completely invisible/intangible/inaudible existence, and their non-existence? I can't! There's no possible way, except for "faith". Faith is poetically defined as hope in things unseen, but I define it as belief in things without any reason.<br /><br />If you are a reader of this blog, you know where I am going with this. If I can't distinguish between a thing's non-existence and a thing's invisible/intangible/inaudible existence, then that thing is completely meaningless. It is completely pointless. It is a belief that exists only in our heads--oh, it's not? <i>Show</i> me. I don't insist on physical proof because I am short-sighted. <i>I insist on physical proof because it is the only measure of <b>reality</b> that we have.</i> <br /><br />Physical proof is the only thing that is logical. If you want to believe in things that you understand are illogical, that's fine, but don't insist that anyone else do so, don't judge them if they don't, and don't have a double standard. If you believe in illogical, unproved things in one aspect of your life, be open to illogical, unproven things in all aspects of your life. Why <i>don't</i> you believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Clause, leprechauns, paganism, buddhism, Zeus, or whatever it is you don't believe? What is your process for determining what's correct, and what's not? What idea wins out over another and why? How? How did you establish the reality of one, and the fantasy of another? Why are Christians wrong, and Muslims right?<br /><br />And why, oh why, does God (whoever he is) not come down from the heavens, right now, in modern times with video cameras, Facebook, Twitter and instant photography, and prove to us all that he is real and what [insert religion] teaches is true? It would be a bit like this scene from the tv show called V (2009), in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbL3KmFwVSo&feature=related">this clip</a>, where Anna turns the sky red over the entire earth and her spaceships are seen all over the world. She communicates with earthlings in all their languages, everyone can see (and visit!) the spaceships, and it is covered on the news. And guess what! Not a single person earth can ever deny the existence of aliens.<br /><br />Again, if we are to rely on faith, or believe things solely because of faith, how can you compare and contrast two faiths (or more) against one another? If you cannot demonstrate that one is more correct than the other, how can you demonstrate that one is correct at all? There is nothing to hold onto, to show, to illustrate, to compare. <br /><br />The soul, in any definition, is a nice idea, but one that has no substance. We are but temporal, temporary beings, and there is nothing wrong with that. There is still morality and immorality, justice and injustice--but all the battles are fought here. All of love, laughter, learning and exploration happens here and now. Enjoy <i>this</i> life! If there is an afterlife--and there could be--we have to be honest and accept that there is no evidence for it, and stop fighting each other, insisting that <i>our</i> story is true, and everyone else has it wrong.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-43221527710239019552012-03-27T14:49:00.003-07:002012-03-28T13:01:21.801-07:00Unintelligent DesignIntelligent Design "theory" is one of the dumbest ideas out there, for multiple reasons, but today I am going to focus on only one. If you are going to say that god exists because everything appears to be ordered and designed, then you need to own up to the fact that truly <i>everything</i> is designed by god. Theist always cop out and leave the dirty work to the devil, blaming Lucifer for everything malicious or imperfect. But that is just way too convenient, and hello! there is no evidence of this invisible power war going on, just a bunch of ridiculous humans trying to rationalize the universe with religious fantasies. The Universe is the way it is, and that is that. There are reasons for everything, some of which we even know.<br /><br />Do you know what the #1 reason is that I don't believe the universe was intelligently designed? UTIs. That's right, urinary tract infections, baby!<br /><br />In the hilarious words of Neil Degrasse Tyson, " It's like an entertainment complex in the middle of a sewage system--no engineer would design that at all!"<br /><br /><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4238NN8HMgQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />DO watch the full talk on YouTube <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti3mtDC2fQo&feature=related">here</a>. It is fascinating and entertaining.<br /><br />Being a female, getting UTIs is ridiculously easy. In fact, most women experience them up to several times a year. It's pretty much a given. Among other possible reasons, the biggest is that, well, the back door and all its bacterial glory is inches away from your hoo-hah! What intelligent being would ever design it this way? Why, as Tyson also points out, do we eat, breathe and communicate out of the same hole in our face, accounting for thousands of choking deaths per year (as well as social faux pas)?<br /><br />Simple questions, simple answers. We are not designed, at least not intelligently. We are the product of billions of years of nature's trial and error. We have the leftover body parts in our genetic code to prove it, like appendices, coccyges and wisdom teeth. Look at all the birth defects, and these are just the ones that are still here! There must be hundreds of thousands that nature has edited out by now.<br /><br />Theists define what they believe, and then try to warp the evidence to make it seem to fit what they what it to say. Let's be honest. Let the evidence speak for itself, and tell its own story.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-11191492596763889742012-03-07T13:25:00.004-08:002012-03-07T14:10:16.344-08:00It's hard not to be smugIt's only because breeding is the norm and default (and frequently a religious mandate) that is seems so strange to not do it. For those of us childfree who came to it later, we feel like we won the lottery. We're free, yippee!!!!! It's like being handed a million dollars. It's this <i>huge</i> burden lifted off our shoulders. We thought we knew two things: we <i>had</i> to have kids at some point, and we didn't <i>want</i> to, thus a major conflict that can take years to sort out. When we finally realize that breeding is completely optional we are happy and at peace. This mindset has been considered immoral, bizarre, selfish and unusual and it wasn't until the last few decades that this is beginning to change.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQec7iIYZH41AXehrCXoS3C5ioTLLdW4nJnfCxRQynX-XsPANK_ra61Zi47SZ-HF3uNHyopXmYgFuFCiJNzW0uA7DsclXk2VI02X5NNRFVE_0FJR3zTNYyMyjZHYcTMkjjpcPUnmX5opo/s1600/baby_blues.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 127px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyQec7iIYZH41AXehrCXoS3C5ioTLLdW4nJnfCxRQynX-XsPANK_ra61Zi47SZ-HF3uNHyopXmYgFuFCiJNzW0uA7DsclXk2VI02X5NNRFVE_0FJR3zTNYyMyjZHYcTMkjjpcPUnmX5opo/s400/baby_blues.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5717280950202756674" /></a><br /><br />This is generally how we see ourselves, and how we see our childed friends and family. Many childed believe that the childfree are bored, selfish, unfulfilled and miserable; many childfree see the childed as frazzled, overworked, unpaid, unappreciated, stressed, boring, mentally stifled... I could go on.<br /><br />I often wonder why there are such vast differences in mindset when it comes to having children. Are we just wired differently? Why do some women have baby rabies and some women are repulsed by children?<br /><br />I have friends whose dream it is to become mothers. In one case, it's nearly an obsession. I just can't relate. I can't fathom throwing away my time, my body, my energy, my money, my happy relationship towards such a miserable endeavor. There's not even a guarantee that your children will be healthy, productive, or even good people! Those are HUGE factors. Every murderer, rapist, serial killer, oppressive dictator and thief is someone's child. Every clueless idiot who doesn't have two brain cells to rub together is someone's child. Every disabled, mentally ill, suicidal, paraplegic, cancerous person is someone's child.<br /><br />Still this compulsion to breed is very strong. It's got to be biology. What person in their right mind would want to take such a risk? Who wants to fix breakfast, lunch and dinner for someone else 3x a day, 365x a year for at least 18 years? Who wants to sacrifice romance in their relationship? Who wants to deal in spit up, vomit, poop, drool, pee and frequent illness for each child? Who wants to worry about a child's education and entertainment, and all the time and expense that goes into those? Parents do, apparently. To the childfree, all that looks like hell.<br /><br />And parents, you guys make it easy to see the misery to anyone who is paying attention. If you have baby obsession and your eyes glaze over at the sight of a child, you're hopeless. But to anyone who analyzes child rearing critically, it's pretty obvious that shit sucks. Parents, we see your tired eyes and saggy boobs. We know that you moms pee a little when you sneeze, and that your vaginas are now as spacious as a grand hallway, and your husbands' penises the proverbial hot dogs within them. We see your kids tugging on your shirt, whining for something, and throwing tantrums. We hear about your adventures in vomit, poop and mysterious illnesses on your Facebook statuses. We hear about your marriage problems because you have neither time nor energy to maintain your relationships, not to mention major disagreements about money and child rearing. We know that you miss the happy, energetic woman your wife used to be, and you resent having to work to support her SAHMness, even though the house is always gross and kids are brats.<br /><br />Knowing that this is a choice, and as adults we are able to think about the decisions we make, I don't feel bad for parents and I truly hope they are happy with their choice. Many of them are, though I can't understand it personally. One man's trash is another man's treasure, I suppose.<br /><br />But it's impossible for me to not feel really happy with my choice when I see all these things going on around me. There's nothing about children or the child-raising experience that could ever make all the bad things worth it for me. Every time I see my friends' Facebook posts about having to take their baby to the doctor 5 times in 1 week for his ear infection, or a rant about a teenager's rebellion, a big smile creeps up on my face. When I come home to my clean, quiet house, I rejoice. When I sleep through the night, every night, and sleep in every weekend, it feels great. When I drink wine in my bubble bath, I'm not missing anything. When I don't trip over toys, or don't have to ever cook for kids, when my furniture stays in good shape, my body intact, my relationship happy... I don't miss a damn thing.<br /><br />I can take vacations and spend money without have to worry about babysitting, kid-friendly crap or budgeting for my kids' needs and wants. I have time. I have freedom. I have peace. I have financial security, and can plan for my later years. I have time to nurture friendships and experience life. I have more of myself to give to charity, being able to reach out of my daily bubble, because I'm not wrapped up in my own little world of daily child rearing. I am not adding any more to environmental devastation and overpopulation. I can zip through my errands and grocery shopping without hauling a kid around, dealing with temper tantrums or hassling with diaper bags and car seats. I am efficient. I don't miss work unless I want to. Sticky toddler kisses and occasional Kodak moments aren't worth it. I don't have to listen to kids' music or TV shows 500 times a week.<br /><br />I think I'll go enjoy a bottle of fine wine and fancy cheese, and read in my quiet home.<br /><br />It's hard not to be smug. /schadenfreude.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-84156708943585657852012-03-07T10:37:00.005-08:002012-03-07T11:37:15.102-08:002012 so far & some reflections on death and the futureLife has been kicking my butt this year. I've had some high points, and some very, very low points. I wrote about this before, but my grandmother passed away in January. That has been hard, but it has been a normal, peaceful process of grieving as she was in her 90s and we had known for years that any day would be her last. I was lucky to be able to say goodbye to her before her mind was completely gone, and spent her subsequent years loving and appreciating her, and knowing she did not suffer is enormously comforting. But what has devastated me deeply is the death of my chocolate lab 10 days ago. This has hit me like a ton of painful bricks. It is still so fresh it is hard for me to talk about; he was my best friend, my child and my confidant. He went from perfectly fine to completely paralyzed in a week, and it was not pretty. He was in pain, was extremely anxious, and couldn't control any body function. When he was correctly diagnosed with a spinal tumor, we knew he was only going to get worse, and quickly. To date this has been the worst and most heart-wrenching experience of my life, far exceeding my divorce, the death of my human child in my old life, and near-complete ostracization from my family. I had to make the decision to put him down in order to spare further suffering, and though intellectually I know it was the best, emotionally I am racked with guilt. Fortunately I have friends who have been here, too, and their understanding and support is invaluable.<br /><br />In the midst of all this pain, two things become very clear: 1) Life is precious, and 2) I have a much more personal understanding of why people believe in the comforting fairy tales of life after death.<br /><br />I wish it were true, and I certainly hope it is, that we all go to some utopian place after death and are reunited in eternal bliss. The reality is that there is no real <span style="font-style:italic;">reason</span> to believe that this is so. I would love to be wrong, and I hope I am, but I have to deal with reality on reality's terms. Well, I suppose I don't <i>have</i> to, but I chose to, rather than believe whatever marshmallowy fluff feels good. It would be easy to stick my head in the sand and believe something sweet and sugary; but it is such actions, such mental atrophy, that ultimately place barriers in our path to knowledge (see <a href="http://whyisthesecretarysobad.blogspot.com/2012/02/top-one-reason-religion-is-harmful.html">my recent post</a> for specific reasons why). When you believe you have the answers, then a quest for attainable knowledge becomes completely meaningless. Curiosity becomes meaningless. Ambition to push the limits of our abilities becomes meaningless.<br /><br />As it is, death is final. We don't yet know if there is anything beyond it, or any way to end it. I have hope that as we continue learning about the Universe and the origins of life, we will be amazed at the beauty and possibility that is out there. Maybe one day death will be optional--I sometimes see this in the future, with the advances in medical technology, especially witnessing the baby industry of lab-grown human organs. Maybe one day we will discover Earth-life planets that can sustain life, and we will have the ability to travel to and from there. Maybe one day we will meet intelligent, extraterrestrial life. Maybe one day humans will evolve to despise conflict of all kinds, and we will become a unified, kind species that loves knowledge and art. Maybe one day there will be no poverty, no politics, no suffering and no hate.<br /><br />Maybe these are pipe dreams, but I believe that all those things <i>are</i> possible, at least in a small scale. Surely, though, none of it will happen if religion--and its pointless rules, and insistence on unsubstantiated dogma and invisible beings/places--continues to be considered a positive institution. Thankfully, this is changing. As knowledge increases, religion changes to an ever-more nebulous idea with a God whose only power is to fill in the gaps. From our primordial goo, humans--at least many of us--have evolved to think critically, to seek knowledge, and to respect each other and our fellow animals. I have hope that this can continue.<br /><br />Even if we outbreed our planet's ability to nourish us, I have hope. If we don't change our behavior globally, we are certainly headed that way, but even so, Earth will survive and we humans will experience a great natural culling of our species. If that happens, maybe after the dust settles and we die off until we reach a sustainable population level, maybe then we will have learned our lesson. Humans are famous for making some really huge mistakes with horrendous consequences, but over time we generally <i>do</i> learn from them. Maybe, just maybe, we will finally learn that God isn't going to swoop down and care for us; we have to take care of ourselves. Maybe we will see that our choices are to choose to breed less, or breed carelessly and wait for a natural culling, wars, and mass excessive suffering.<br /><br />Knowledge is the key, as is perseverance. Don't give up.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-29605680468248850152012-02-18T08:09:00.000-08:002012-02-18T08:40:33.900-08:00DisappointedA few weeks ago I ordered Penn Jillette's <i>God, no!</i> book, and when it finally arrived I was so excited. I really like Penn Jillete for many reasons, and consider myself a fan. I'd already known that he is brazen, profane, and insanely comfortable with anything explicit--still, though, the near-constant usage of fuck, cunt, cock, dick, pussy and whatever else was distracting. And annoying. It's not that I was offended; I use those words too, but they quickly get annoying and lose their value when used so repetitiously. I just found it annoying. Did I mention it was annoying? <br /><br />With the title of <i>God, no!</i> and the tagline "Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales", I was expecting a book about atheism in some fashion. Instead, it is a book full of random ramblings about anything and everything. It has no focus. Very quickly into the book I found myself thinking, "What the fuck is this about? Why is he talking about this? Where is this going? Is there a point to this story?", but I plunged ahead thinking that surely he would bring his stories full circle and they would have some sort of relevance to atheism or a related topic. But God, no, it never happened.<br /><br />Admittedly, I haven't finished it and I doubt I will. I made it to the Scuba Fucking story--an underwater tale of how he spent many days screwing a model multiple times a day, twice underwater to win a bet that said he couldn't orgasm at 40 feet--and that's when I finally gave up on, at least for now. The lurid details of her nipples, how they greased up each other's genitals with coconut oil, her screaming multiple orgasms and the quantity of his ejaculations...I just don't give a shit. Why the hell is that story, and all the other ramblings, in there? Magic has always bored me (I know, I'm weird) and so I really would glaze over when he got to talking about that industry and the people in it (which was frequently).<br /><br />I do like his atheistic Ten Suggestions set in contrast to the Bible's Ten Commandments. The truth is, though, this is really his memoir. It's a collection of thoughts, stories and random experiences of his life--occasionally there is thrown in a little atheistic philosophy. Looking at it from that perspective, I understand it and like it a lot better. It would be where disorganized conversation would flow if you were enjoying a few beers with Jillette (though he doesn't drink), and it would be a lot of fun then. I just wish I knew that was what it was about! I was expecting to learn about why he doesn't believe in God, and the signs that I may already be an atheist.<br /><br />Buy the book if you want to know about Penn Jillette and some of his crazy experiences, as told with his vibrant personality and shocking vulgarity. Don't buy it if you want to learn about atheism.<br /><br />I remain, however, a fan of Penn.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-3295907846516854482012-02-07T12:54:00.000-08:002012-02-08T07:06:54.730-08:00The Top One Reason Religion is HarmfulIf you do nothing else today, read this post. It is from Greta Christina (<a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/">http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/</a>). I found the entirety of the article about a month ago on a religious forum, but it was posted without an original URL and without credit to the author. The essay is freaking brilliant, simple, and does an excellent job of explaining concisely everything you will ever learn from my little ol' blog.<br /><br />Today I finally got around to trying to locate the original source and I was thrilled to discover it was Greta Christina who should really be called Great Christina, because she is just that awesome.<br /><br />If you want to read the original post, it is <a href="http://www.alternet.org/belief/143912/the_top_one_reason_religion_is_harmful_?page=entire">here</a>. It is so damn good, though, that I am copying the whole thing here, and bolding my favorite lines. It is lengthy, but soooo worth your time.<br /><br />"The Top One Reason Religion Is Harmful" by Greta Christina, November 13, 2009.<br /><br />So what is it about religion -- exactly -- that's so harmful?<br /><br />I've argued many times that religion is not only mistaken, but does more harm than good. But why do I think that is?<br /><br />Sure, I can make a list of specific harms religion has done, from here to Texas. I've done exactly that. But that's not enough to make my case. I could make long lists of harms done by plenty of human institutions: medicine, education, democracy. That doesn't make them inherently malevolent.<br /><br />Why is religion special -- and specially troubling? What makes religion different from any other ideology, community, system of morality, hypothesis about how the world works? And why does that difference makes it uniquely prone to cause damage?<br /><br />The debates about religion usually come in two types: "is religion accurate or mistaken," and "is religion helpful or harmful." And ever since I put together my best "mistaken" arguments, my Top Ten Reasons I Don't Believe in God, I've been trying to wrap up my "harmful" arguments in a similar nutshell.<br /><br />But I'm realizing that I don't have ten arguments for why religion is harmful. I don't even have 57,842 arguments.<br /><br />I have one.<br /><br />I'm realizing that everything I've ever written about religion's harm boils down to one thing.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">It's this: Religion is ultimately dependent on belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces, and events and judgments that happen after we die.<br /><br />It therefore has no reality check.<br /></span><br />And it is therefore uniquely armored against criticism, questioning, and self- correction. It is uniquely armored against anything that might stop it from spinning into extreme absurdity, extreme denial of reality ... and extreme, grotesque immorality.<br /><br />(I can hear the chorus already. "But not all religion is like that! Not all believers are crazy extremists! Some religions adapt to new evidence and changing social mores! It's not fair to criticize all religion just because some believers do bad things!" I hear you. I'll get to that at the end, after I make my case.)<br /><br />The Proof Is Not in the Pudding<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">The thing that uniquely defines religion, the thing that sets it apart from every other ideology or hypothesis or social network, is the belief in unverifiable supernatural entities.</span> Of course it has other elements -- community, charity, philosophy, inspiration for art, etc. But those things exist in the secular world, too. They're not specific to religion. The thing that uniquely defines religion is belief in supernatural entities. Without that belief, it's not religion.<br /><br />And with that belief, the capacity for religion to do harm gets cranked up to an alarmingly high level -- because there's no reality check.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Any other ideology or philosophy or hypothesis about the world is eventually expected to pony up. It's expected to prove itself true and/or useful, or else correct itself, or else fall by the wayside. With religion, that is emphatically not the case. Because religion is a belief in the invisible and unknowable -- and it's therefore never expected to prove that it's right, or even show good evidence for why it's right -- its capacity to do harm can spin into the stratosphere.</span><br /><br />Let me make a comparison to show my point. Let's compare religious belief with political ideology. After all, religion isn't the only belief that's armored against criticism, questioning, and self- correction. Religion isn't the only belief that leads people to ignore evidence in favor of their settled opinion. And contrary to the popular atheist saying, religion is not the only belief that inspires good people to do evil things. Political ideology can do all that quite nicely. People have committed horrors to perpetuate Communism: an ideology many of those people sincerely believed was best. And horrors were committed by Americans in the last Bush administration ... in the name of democracy and freedom.<br /><br />But even the most stubborn political ideology will eventually crumble in the face of it, you know, not working. People can only be told for so long that under Communism everyone will eat strawberries and cream, or that in an unrestricted free market the rising tide will lift all boats. A political ideology makes promises about this life, this world. If the strawberries and cream and rising boats aren't forthcoming, eventually people notice. (The 2008 election was evidence of that.) People can excuse and rationalize a political ideology for a long time ... but ultimately, the proof is in the pudding.<br /><br />Religion is different.<br /><br />With religion, the proof is emphatically not in the pudding. <span style="font-weight:bold;">With religion, the proof comes from invisible beings, inaudible voices. The proof comes from prophets and religious leaders, who supposedly hear these voices and are happy to tell the rest of us what they say. It comes from religious texts, written ages ago by prophets and religious leaders, ditto. It comes from feelings in people's hearts that, conveniently, tell them what they already believe or want to believe. And the proof comes in the afterlife, after people die and can't come back to tell us about it. Every single claim made by religion comes from people: not from sources out in the world that other people can verify, but from the insides of people's heads.<br /></span><br />So with religion, even if God's rules and promises aren't working out, followers still follow them ... because the ultimate judge and judgment are invisible. There is no pudding, no proof -- and no expectation that there should be any. And there is therefore no reality check, no self-correction, when religion starts to go to the bad place.<br /><br />In fact, with many religions, that idea that you should expect to eat the pudding is blasphemy. A major part of many religious doctrines is that trusting the tenets of your faith without evidence is not only acceptable, but a positive virtue. ("Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." -- John 20:29)<br /><br />In other words: The belief in invisible beings, undetectable forces, and events that happen after we die, provides a uniquely effective armor against the valid criticism, questioning, and deflation of ideas and institutions that do serious harm.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">And religion builds on this armor with layer after layer. Among these insulating layers: The idea that letting go of religious doubts is a liberating act of love. The idea that skepticism and questioning are the same as cynicism, nihilism, and despair. The idea that religion operates in a different realm from the everyday world, and it's unfair to hold it to normal standards of evidence. The idea that criticizing religion is inherently rude and intolerant. </span>The "Shut up, that's why" arguments so commonly marshaled against atheists: arguments meant not to address questions about religion, but to silence them. When coupled with the fact that the core belief is by definition unverifiable, these layers armor religion even more effectively against valid questions ... thus undermining our ability to see when it's become comically absurd, or wildly implausible, or grotesquely immoral. Or all three.<br /><br />I want to give some specific examples of how this armor works. I want to talk about some of the most common -- and most harmful -- ways that religion causes harm. And I want to show how the invisible, unprovable, "don't show me the money" nature of religion either causes that harm or makes it worse.<br /><br />The Armor of God<br /><br />Inspiring political oppression.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Religious extremists -- whether the Taliban in the Islamic world or the Christian Right here in the States -- don't care about separation of church and state. They don't care about democracy. They don't care about respecting other people's right to live differently from them. In very extreme cases, they don't care about law, or basic principles of morality, or even human life.<br /><br />None of this matters to them. What matters is making God's will happen. In their mind, God created everything that exists... and therefore, God's will trumps everything.<br /><br />And since God's will is invisible, inaudible, and entirely unverifiable, there's no reality check on this dreadful path. There's no reality check saying that their actions are having a terrible effect in the world around them. The world around them is, quite literally, irrelevant. The next world is what matters. And since there's no way to conclusively demonstrate what will and won't get you a good place in that world, or whether that world even exists... the sky's the limit. There's no way to test the assertion that God wants women to wear burqas and have clitoridectomies... or that God wants us to ban same-sex marriage and teach children dangerous lies about sex. The reality check is absent. The brake lines of morality have been cut.</span><br /><br />Perpetuating political oppression.<br /><br />The unverifiability of religion leads to political oppression in another way. It makes religious leaders and organizations uniquely powerful in the political arena -- because their followers are typically taught from a young age to implicitly believe whatever their religious leaders say. They are taught that their religious leaders have superior virtue, with a hotline to God and his all-perfect morality. Indeed, they've been taught that trusting their religious leaders is a great virtue, and that asking them to support their claims with evidence is a grave insult: not only to the leaders, but to the entire faith, and even to God himself.<br /><br />Here's a specific example of this one.<br /><br />In the United States, when same-sex marriage has been up for popular vote, it has, as of this writing, never, ever won. It has been consistently defeated at the ballot box, even when a well-organized, well-funded campaign has been behind it. It has been consistently defeated at the ballot box largely because the full force of several organized religions, especially the Catholic and Mormon churches, have been marshaled against it. It has been defeated because these churches have been willing to tell grotesque, shameless lies about the effects of same-sex marriage -- from "churches will be forced to perform weddings they oppose" to "kids will be taught explicit gay sex in public school."<br /><br />And it has been defeated because the followers of these churches implicitly trust their leaders. When faced with a newspaper editorial saying, "Same-sex marriage won't affect public education" -- and their beloved priest saying, "Same-sex marriage means your children will be taught about gay oral sex in third grade" -- they believe their priest.<br /><br />Even though their priest is lying through his teeth.<br /><br />And because religion has no reality check, it is extraordinarily difficult to counter its flat-out lies... because ultimately, its claims rest on an unverifiable belief in an invisible God, who has yet to appear on CNN stating his political views. And when you combine this lack of reality check with the unquestioning trust in religious leaders, you have a recipe for religion to have grossly disproportionate power in the political arena. A power that is uniquely armored against questions about what really works to improve life and alleviate suffering and create justice in this world -- the questions that politics are supposed to be about.<br /><br />Succumbing to political oppression.<br /><br />In the same way that religion's unverifiability means there's no check on oppressing other people, it means there's no check on people accepting their oppression. At the hands of religion, or anything else.<br /><br />If people believe they'll be rewarded with infinite bliss in the afterlife -- and there's no way to prove whether or not that's true -- people will let themselves be martyrs to their faith, to an appalling degree. More commonly, if people believe in infinite bliss in the afterlife, they'll be more willing to accept an appalling degree of oppression and injustice in this life. From anybody. Oddly, this is often framed as a plus -- "Religion gives people hope in hardship" -- but I fail to see how encouraging oppressed people to suck it up until they get pie in the sky is a good thing. For the oppressed, anyway. Why it's good for the oppressors is crystal clear.<br /><br />Again: Because it's a belief in invisible beings and events and judgments that happen after people die, religion short-circuits our reality checks. Including the reality check that looks at how we're being treated and says, "This is bullshit."<br /><br />Justification for violence and war.<br /><br />Ditto.<br /><br />But more so.<br /><br />In the same way that religion drowns out the reality check saying that oppression and injustice is wrong, it drowns out the reality check saying that hurting and killing people is wrong.<br /><br />And the untestable belief in the afterlife is the biggest obstacle to this reality check. If you believe in a perfect eternal afterlife... then who cares about pain and death in this world? Compared with the eternal bliss/ torture of Heaven or Hell, pain and death in this world is a stubbed toe. Isn't carrying out God's will more important than a stubbed toe?<br /><br />Kill them all. Let God sort it out.<br /><br />Vulnerability to fraud.<br /><br />When people are taught that believing things without proof or evidence makes you a good person, they become far more vulnerable to fraud, manipulation, and deception.<br /><br />Not just from religious figures. Not just from phony faith healers and prosperity gospel preachers and authors of bestselling psychic self-help books. (Although them, too.)<br /><br />From everybody. From every Ponzi schemer and Nigerian email scammer and shady purveyor of Florida real estate.<br /><br />When people are taught to let go of difficult questions and trust whatever religious authorities tell them; that it's better to trust their feelings than their critical thinking skills; that evidence and reason are less important than faith; that "doubter" is a synonym for "sinner"... they become vulnerable to every cheater, chiseler, swindler, con artist, and late night infomercial huckster who's lucky enough to cross their gullible paths. <span style="font-weight:bold;">The idea that belief without evidence is a virtue doesn't just inspire people to trust their religious leaders blindly. It inspires people to trust <i>anybody</i> blindly. Including people who are trying to rob them blind.</span><br /><br />Quashing science and education.<br /><br />Do I even need to explain this one? Do I need to explain how the untestability of religion -- and the idea that untestability is a positive virtue -- undercuts science and education?<br /><br />Not just in a general, "making people value science and education less" way -- but in specific, practical, harmful ways? Hamstringing stem cell research? Forcing abstinence-only sex education on kids? Teaching creationism in public schools?<br /><br />When religion teaches that believing in the invisible is more important than understanding the perceivable... that personal faith is more important than critical thinking... that letting go of questions is a liberating act of love and trust... that believing things with no evidence is not only okay but a positive virtue... that unfalsifiable hypotheses are just ducky... that what God supposedly says about the world is more real what's in the world itself...<br /><br />Do I need to explain this any further? Do I need to explain how the "Facts take a back seat to faith" trope hammers science and education into the ground?<br /><br />Terrorizing children.<br /><br />And again, we come to the matter of priorities.<br /><br />If we prioritized this life, we would never terrorize children by telling them they'll be tortured in fire forever if they don't obey our rules. We would never tell them to imagine putting their hands in a fire, to imagine the crackling and burning and screaming pain... and then to imagine doing that for a minute. An hour. A day. A lifetime. Eternity.<br /><br />Not unless we were horribly abusive.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">But when people think the next life is more important than this one -- when people think the infinite burning and torture is really going to happen if their children don't obey God's word -- they'll gladly give their children nightmarish visions of pain and torture, dispensed by the Fatherly God who supposedly created them and loves them.</span> They'll do it without a second thought. When people prioritize their belief in an afterlife that, by definition, is impossible to prove or disprove, they effectively cut the reality check begging them to not terrorize and emotionally abuse their own children.<br /><br />Teaching children about hell is child abuse. Nothing but the unverifiable promise of permanent bliss or torture in the afterlife would make loving, decent, non-abusive parents inflict it on their children.<br /><br />I could go on, and on, and on. I could talk about justification for bigotry. The quashing of medicine and public health. Individual abuses by religious leaders: financial, and sexual, and otherwise. But I think you get the idea.<br /><br />Yes, Even Moderate Religion Still Does Harm<br /><br />Now, many believers will argue that the harm done by religion isn't religion's fault. Many will point out all the wars, bigotry, fraud, oppression, quashing of science and medicine, and terrorizing of children done for reasons other than religion. And many will argue that, even when this stuff is done in the name of religion, it isn't really inspired by religion at all. It's inspired by greed, fear, selfishness, the hunger for power, the desire for control... all the things that lead people to do evil.<br /><br />And they'll have a point. I'm not saying that religion is the root of all evil. I'm not arguing that a world without religion would be a blissful Utopia where everyone holds hands and chocolate flows in the streets. (And then we all die, because the chocolate is drowning us and we can't swim because we're holding hands.) I don't know of any atheist who'd argue that. I know that the impulses driving evil are deeply rooted in human nature, and religion is far from the only thing to inspire it.<br /><br />I'm saying that religion provides a uniquely stubborn justification for evil. I'm saying that religion is uniquely armored against criticism, questioning, and self-correction... and that this armor protects it against the reality checks that act, to a limited degree and in the long run, to keep evil in check. I'm saying that religion takes the human impulses to evil, and cuts the brake line, and sends them careening down a hill and into the center of town.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Yes -- even moderate religion. Not to nearly the same degree as extreme religion, of course. If all religion were moderate, ecumenical, separate from government, supportive of science, and accepting of non-belief... well, atheists would still disagree with it, but most of us wouldn't much care.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">But moderate religion still does harm. It still encourages people to believe in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces, and events and judgments that happen after we die. And therefore, it still disables reality checks... making people more vulnerable to oppression, fraud, and abuse.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What's more, moderate religion is in the minority. The oppressive, intolerant, reality-denying forms of religion are far more common, and far better at perpetuating themselves. And moderate religion gives these ugly forms credibility. It gives credibility to the idea that believing in things there's no reason to believe is valid, and actually virtuous. It gives credibility to the idea that invisible worlds are real, more real and important than the visible one. It gives credibility to the idea that our seriously biased personal intuition is more trustworthy than logic or verifiable evidence. It gives credibility to the idea that religious beliefs, alone among all other ideas, should be beyond criticism; that the very act of questioning religion is inherently intolerant. (It also, I've found, has a distinct tendency to get hostile and decidedly un-moderate towards non-believers when questioned even a little.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Without religion, we would still have community. Charity. Social responsibility. Philosophy. Ethics. Comfort. Solace. Art.</span> In countries where less than half the population believes in God, these qualities and activities are all flourishing. In fact, they're flourishing a lot more than they are in countries with high rates of religious belief.<br /><br />We don't need religion to have any of these things.<br /><br />And we'd be better off without it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-19987667626855859792012-02-07T12:40:00.000-08:002012-02-07T12:51:40.360-08:00Love, Joy, FeminismLast week I discovered a delightful and intelligent blog by a very brilliant, liberated woman Libby Anne: <a href="http://lovejoyfeminism.blogspot.com/">Love, Joy, Feminism</a>.<br /><br />Libby Anne describes her experience as from a happy Quiverfull home (isn't that an oxymoron?!), dedicated to her beliefs, but woefully unprepared for the diversity and critical thinking she began to discover in college. She is one of the lucky ones, but had to fight to get where she is.<br /><br />Her story, and others like it, touch me deeply. I really feel for these women, and I am filled with hate at the patriarchal beliefs that rob young women of their potential. I relate very closely to many parts of her story... like her, I was completely well trained and thought I had all the answers; I didn't start to unravel until college. For me, and I think Libby Anne too, a large part of that was simply exposure to People Different From Us--gays, liberals, atheists, people with tattoos, people who have sex, etc.--that opened our eyes to seeing that all those Others are real people, and usually good people. Naiveté and brainwashing are unbelievably powerful things! The real world, critical thinking and scientific evidence tend to shoot holes in religious extremism pretty quickly, thankfully.<br /><br />I encourage you to read her blog. Learn from it, and share!<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-66160601574606318072012-01-30T13:43:00.002-08:002012-03-07T11:32:34.458-08:00An Atheist Goes to Church!That's right, folks. I've seen the light. I'm going to Mass tonight!<br /><br />HAH.<br /><br />Well, I <i>am</i> going to Mass, but it is for a funeral remembrance. My grandma passed away two and a half weeks ago, I am sad to say. Her funeral was out of state, but the Mass is today and it is local. Of course I went to the funeral. But I've debated on going to this or not, for a variety of reasons... in the end I decided to suck it up and go, for the sake of family unity. If you've read my posts before, you are probably somewhat acquainted with my familial situation (to sum it up, they are all hardcore Catholics and have essentially estranged me because a) I'm divorced b) I got a boyfriend before I had my annulment c) I am now living with said boyfriend and d) I'm... *gasp*... no longer Catholic. They didn't even wait around long enough to find out that I am an atheist, to boot, but surely they've picked up some hints over the past couple of years. Anyway. Since my grandma's passing they have been marginally better. I even got an apology from my brother! That is a huge deal--as big as if the earth started spinning backwards. Or Michael Jackson being black again. Or JFK being, y'know, <i>not</i> assassinated.<br /><br />They are still pretty insane, especially my mother, but that's a whole 'nother can of beans.<br /><br />There is a good possibility that I will get called out on my not receiving the eucharist by the priest. This is the priest who has baptized all 6 of the children, performed my uncle's last rights, did my grandma's confession/communion/confirmation, aaaaaand who married me. So I guess you could say he is the family priest. Oh, this is going to be so much fun.<br /><br />Everything has been really crazy and stressful lately, and there are several things I have been wanting to talk about that I have not had time to post. This is the first time I have had an experience with death since becoming an atheist, and I want to write about what that was like, especially in contrast to the experience as a Catholic theist. Coming very soon.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-65844516821589047962012-01-05T07:30:00.000-08:002012-01-05T08:14:16.702-08:00Review and Ad that Shows Parenthood SucksI was reading an article by childfree psychologist Ellen Walker yesterday, <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/complete-without-kids/201105/are-there-disadvantages-being-childfree">Are There Disadvantages to Being Childfree?</a><br /><br />I've read some of her other articles and liked them, but I did not care for this one at all. She lists 5 possible disadvantages to being childfree:<br /><br /><li>Being a misfit among ones peers<br /><li>Increased need for social support<br /><li>Needing to plan one's estate more carefully<br /><li>Too much free time<br /><li>Need to identify meaning in life<br /><br />...and I disagree with them all. I'll review each one in brief detail, but first I want to share the inadvertent irony I noticed. It wasn't till after reading the article that I paid attention to the advertisement on the right hand side: <br><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaNA8jL4k8bIWUKII5Q9es3mXd450-xENPsK9iuHAYqgL7ESDqPX_jvFL6zl8sEqvDJ7r2SAEg41_RETfLVUZa-2-WhgM7Pij2Rpsdg1Y3P-Nb7nKj_xcjJguutgYw9AOPfFkt98uMR6AH/s1600/daughter.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 248px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaNA8jL4k8bIWUKII5Q9es3mXd450-xENPsK9iuHAYqgL7ESDqPX_jvFL6zl8sEqvDJ7r2SAEg41_RETfLVUZa-2-WhgM7Pij2Rpsdg1Y3P-Nb7nKj_xcjJguutgYw9AOPfFkt98uMR6AH/s400/daughter.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5694173289525870242" /></a> Hmmm... if it's a disadvantage to not experience my daughter turning to drugs and alcohol at an alarming rate, sign me up! It's ads like these that reveal that parenting truly sucks.<br /><br />Back to Walker's list of disadvantages to being childfree:<br /><br /><b>Being a misfit among ones peers</b>. This just does not resonate with me at all. I care very little what other people think about my choices. It would be a waste of my life to worry about that. But if I did, I suppose I could make an effort to surround myself with peers who also do not have children, but I just don't care that much. If they treated me poorly that would be different, but as a rule I am not friends with people who are judgmental snobs, parents or not. Like Walker, I usually have very little in common with stay at home mothers, and struggle to even make interesting conversation. I usually find them to be very boring, uninspiring people. But feeling like a misfit? Hell no. Different, sure. It's different in a good way, though; I have more time, money, sleep, energy, and creativity than my parented peers. My life is so much better that theirs (in my opinion), and I enjoy the choice I made.<br /><br /><b>Increased need for social support</b>. She has a point here, but I see no social support that cannot be gotten from friends or paid assistants. In fact, I think it's really wrong to expect my children to be built-in helpers when I am sick, injured or old. Children aren't a guaranteed safety net. I think that due to the fact that I will have more time, money and energy to take care of myself, in general I will need less social support anyway. And I would never trade my life for parenting as insurance for bad days.<br /><br /><b>Needing to plan one's estate more carefully</b>. Ehhhh...not so much. I don't need to plan it more carefully, I just need to plan it differently. Instead of giving my assets to my children, they will be left to my spouse, nieces and nephews, friends or charity. I'll have thousands more to leave them. This is really a non-issue.<br /><br /><b>Too much free time</b>. What?! This makes no sense! How is that a <i>disadvantage</i>? My free time is spent working, getting enough sleep, traveling, learning, reading and enjoying life. I could never possibly run out of things to do. Walker even says, <blockquote>When interviewing adults without kids for my book, I expected to find that people were bored with too much time on their hands, but this was simply not the case. These childfree adults were busy with hobbies, careers, and personal relationships, plus they had more time for healthy meal preparation, exercise, and sleep.</blockquote><br /><br />Bored? No way! I have no patience for people who are bored, whether they have kids or not. If you're bored, it means you have no imagination, no desire to learn and explore, and you need to change your life. If you're bored, you are letting yourself be a victim and I have no respect for that way of life. If you're bored, get off your ass and do something, learn something, make something happen.<br /><br /><b>Need to identify meaning in life</b>. Oh, please. Walker is right in the sense that we all need to understand who we want to be as people and to know what we want from life. But I take offense at the suggestion that if you're not a parent, you have to work really hard to fill in the gaps and find a way to define yourself. For the childfree, there is nothing missing and there are no gaps. We make our own meaning in life, and obviously we place a higher value on titles other than Mother and Father!<br /><br />*sigh* I was disappointed by this article. I agree that there are differences and consequences to choosing to be childfree, but this article makes me have the sense that Walker feels like some things are missing from her life. All of her disadvantages I see as either positives, or neutrals with better alternatives out there.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-55888107346466127612011-12-30T13:02:00.000-08:002011-12-30T13:19:10.448-08:00Shit My Kids RuinI was a kid once. I've ruined a few irreplaceable family portraits and tubes of lipstick in my time. If only I knew the power of devastation that lay at my fingertips if I just tried a little harder. I salute these Satanic children for ruining far more than I ever did:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.shitmykidsruined.com/">Shit My Kids Ruined</a>. Photographic reality of day-to-day parenting (that you never see in the movies).<br /><br />I have several friends who are pregnant or planning on being pregnant soon. They all idolize parenting and children, and have lengthy discussions on how they will do such fabulous jobs of parenting their children. They'll never be angry, they'll never miss a soccer game, and they would never, ever leave their child unattended. (That woman whose toddler died because she got up from her nap, took her mother's car keys, and locked herself in the car during the summer while her mother was sleeping--shame on that woman for ever taking a break!) Oh no. Those people who complain of their DVD players being ruined or walls crayoned, why, they're just poor disciplinarians who don't keep an eye on their children.<br /><br />I just laugh, because in this regard, my friends are idiots. Their children <span style="font-style:italic;">will</span> hurt themselves, and they <span style="font-style:italic;">will</span> destroy things. Many things.<br /><br />Prepare to have crayons, paint, shaving cream, peanut butter, sodas and candy smeared into your chairs, cars, carpets, computers and walls. Hope you didn't care too much about that TV, or laptop, or couch--oh, and sorry about your car. Get used to pee, poo and vomit on pretty much everything, and set aside many hours a week to clean and repair. Oh, it's all so worth it.<br /><br />Yeahhhhhhh, think I'll pass. My home and my vehicles are a safe haven of calm and order, and I prefer my life that way.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-91058203548734390532011-12-15T09:10:00.000-08:002011-12-15T09:21:09.974-08:00Children are so expensive!<a href="http://visualeconomics.creditloan.com/how-much-does-it-really-cost-to-raise-a-kid/">VisualEconomics.com</a> put out a nice chart on the cost of raising a kid:<br /><br /><p><a href="http://www.visualeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/kidcosts-FINAL.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-large wp-image-4911" title="kidcosts-FINAL" src="http://www.visualeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/kidcosts-FINAL-1024x917.jpg" alt="" width="516" height="472"/></a></p><br /><br />These numbers are based on 2009 figures. It is considerably more conservative than solely the estimate from the USDA of $280K.<br /><br />I think I'll pass.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-31634732226674629592011-12-15T07:31:00.000-08:002011-12-15T09:02:25.522-08:00Most of the credit goes to you!Time after time you will hear religious people praise God for his help in the accomplishment of their successes. Let's ignore for now (and this is difficult!) how frequently God completely ignores millions of other cases of starvation, abuse, disease and destitution. But never you mind, he's busy.<br /><br />These people will say that they did something by the grace of God, or that God blessed them, or that they would be nothing without God--any number of variations. When I hear this, I get extremely frustrated, especially when it is directed towards me. I feel a lot like Eliza Doolittle, actually.<br /><br /><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-RT3cx1b9ZM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />In this scene from My Fair Lady, the men are congratulating themselves exuberantly for having pulled off their goal: training the cockney Eliza well enough so that she passes for an educated Englishwoman at the ball. They completely ignore the accomplishments of Eliza herself. "Now wait, now wait, give credit where it's due. A lot of the glory goes... to <i>you</i>!," Higgins says to Pickering, ignoring Eliza while she is standing right there.<br /><br />Last week my partner's father was commenting on how "blessed" we are. We live in a beautiful house, make good money, are generally very healthy and have a good relationship. We take care of our house, our bills, our cars, eat well and have some very nice furniture and such. He kept on and on about how everything we did was because Jesus had our backs.<br /><br />The truth is, we are "blessed" because well, yes, we have gotten lucky, but <i>mostly</i> it's because we have been wise in managing our money, and have worked very hard to get where we are. It took me over six years to finish my college degree because I worked my way through and did not take on any student loans. We both have very little debt, and what we do have is for vehicles. We both have two vehicles, and one of each is paid for--the second could be sold to pay for itself if need be (that being said, I will never take on debt again as my financial philosophies have changed, but that's another story). We have a fully furnished office, fully furnished guest room, a 65" tv, baby grand piano, pool table, an exquisite China cabinet, and a high-end gun safe for our pistols and other valuables.<br /><br />We <i>rarely</i> buy anything new. All of our vehicles are used, though you wouldn't know that by looking. 90% of our furniture is used, and we don't buy it unless we practically steal it. You would be shocked at how little our furnishings cost. We scour Craigslist, eBay, garage sales and antique shops, and trust me, it pays off. Practically everything used always needs a little TLC, but we're very handy, and our things look brand new. I have things that are 10 times nicer than my broke friends who don't realize they can buy used. All but a few of my fine jewelry items are pawn shop finds. I buy my clothes on eBay, at Goodwill, and at discount shops like Marshall's. If a business is going out of business, we are there to get some deals on things we need. We haggle and barter for <i>everything</i>. We buy one thing at a time, and it's taken us 3 or 4 years to get to where we are. I hope it is only the beginning. I drink my wine on my $75 leather couch from my $0.25 Goodwill wine glass, and look good doing it.<br /><br />My point is, of the things in life that can be controlled, we can and do control them. We are very responsible. We are creative when it comes to problem solving. Sure, we have fun too, and we definitely buy stuff we don't need, but it's kept to a responsible minimum. We have not saddled ourselves with debt, and we have not burdened ourselves with children.<br /><br />Nothing that we have done, have accomplished, or will accomplish in the future has anything to do with God. As Higgins says, we must give credit where credit is due, and the glory of our "blessings" is from our own blood, sweat and tears. We have worked our butts off, made [mostly!] wise choices, and it has led to a nicer life.<br /><br />My father-in-law had the audacity to claim that my partner's life was saved because of Jesus protecting him. When he was a kid, he fell down a hill and collided into an edge of a picnic table with his throat. He's lucky to have not bled to death, let alone still have a voice. It was extremely traumatic for him and his family, not only physically but financially and emotionally. He had to have multiple surgeries over several years. And his own father can seriously look us in the eye and say that Jesus "protected" him. Jesus is a shitty protector, then. Maybe next time he could just prevent the incident from happening at all? My partner was saved because of receiving quick medical attention, and having some excellent surgeons. Humans did a hell of a lot more to help him out than God, and they were able to do so because of their own hard work and sacrifice for years to get their medical training.<br /><br />I wish people would give themselves credit for the good things that they do. The idea that God is a silent, invisible puppeteer is beyond ludicrous. I can't tell the difference between him being his silent, invisible self, and him not existing at all. God is gratuitously given credit for all the good things, but for the bad things God is mysterious, or everything happens for a reason, or some other excuse. Convenient, isn't it? It makes no sense at all to congratulate God for my good job when others are starving. Why am I worth more than them? Why can I eat and they can't? If God works in mysterious ways, then he needs to get hit shit together, and quick, because that system is not working.<br /><br />God protects and heals you... but you still need doctors and medicine.<br /><br />God will get you a good job... but you still have to gain experience, get an education, prepare a resume, apply and do an interview, and you still have to show up and do quality work.<br /><br />God will hear your prayers and help your relationships... but you still have to listen, compromise and show respect.<br /><br />God will help you with your financial woes... but you still have to work, get your money organized, be on a budget, pay your bills and set goals.<br /><br />God will help the poor and abused... but you still need to volunteer at shelters, donate money to charities and the church.<br /><br />It seems that <i>we</i> are doing all the work here. God is like that irresponsible guy you get stuck with in speech class for a group project, who is never around to help study or prepare, yet on presentation day he wants credit for his half. And if God were really looking out for you and your family as a result of your prayers and worship to him, then statistically, believers would have better health and lives than non-believers.<br /><br />If I am able to buy a car, it is because I worked and saved up money and paid for it. If I am injured and surgery saves my life, it is because of competent medical professionals and my own body's natural defenses.<br /><br />There is no reason to believe that there is an almighty, all-knowing, silent, invisible being floating around, ensuring all your successes yet is mysteriously absent for failures and hardships. You'll do much better to recognize the reality of your own power and creativity, hard work and ingenuity.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-24586224242206561412011-12-06T14:57:00.000-08:002011-12-06T15:13:43.305-08:00The Baby TrapI began reading Ellen Peck's <i>The Baby Trap</i> book today, and so far am enjoying it very much. Though originally published in 1971, I am so far blown away by how current it feels, 40 years later. I will have to write a better informed review later, but I came across this quote and just had to share it:<br /><br /><blockquote>"Being mature assumes a certain amount of personal power, and the right to decide in what way that power will be exercised. And selfishness, in the sense of being aware of, and proud of, the <i>self</i>, is certainly a factor in a balanced personality. It's the weak personalities that completely resign themselves to the role of consumer of child-centered gee-gaws who are in trouble. Being aware of one's <i>own</i> adult sensuality, personality, and material preferences is good.</blockquote><br /><br />Peck wrote this in a response to people thinking that people who want adult things (a den, zebra throw, bar and a woman) and not child things (baby shoes, cradles, musical potties) are immature and selfish. I just love her meticulous response to what we childfree call a "bingo". <br /><br />You can read <i>The Baby Trap</i> in its entirety, for free, <a href="http://www.archive.org/stream/The_Baby_Trap/BabyTrap#page/n0/mode/2up">here</a>.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-32849614425029755412011-12-05T10:35:00.000-08:002011-12-05T11:08:06.857-08:00Thought of the dayDo you want to know yet another reason why I am an atheist? No? Well, too bad. Here it is.<br /><br />If God were real, he would make himself known, make himself seen and heard. There would be interviews with God on the BBC, David Letterman and Fox News (CNN does <i>not</i> get first dibs, are you kidding?).<br /><br />But God is not visible, audible or tangible. The best believers have to go on are ancient texts, ancient stories, traditions, dogma, "personal experiences" and feelings. I'm not impressed. All of this "evidence" reeks of humanity.<br /><br />Instead, the fact that we can't actually discuss questions with God, get clarification for anything, settle disputes, or hell, feed starving people and inform murderers in the error of their ways? stop wars?--these things indicate that either God has no care about earthly suffering, or doesn't exist. However, <i>not</i> caring about these things is completely contrary to any concept of the character of God of which I am aware.<br /><br />Do you really think that God is so petty, so butt hurt, that he sits up there in heaven and refuses to help people because they're not perfectly good, and he's pissed off about it? So he sits there, lip stuck out, refusing to help people--except football players and actresses in their acceptance speeches--and is content to let us believe that while he loves us SO GODDAMN MUCH that he sent his only son to be sacrificed for our own salvation, he has to stick to his mysterious plan and let us suffer? One would think that the author of the plan could change the plan and <i>come up with a better plan that doesn't include pain and suffering!</i> This God is an asshole, or woefully inept.<br /><br />Think of all the religious disputes that exist or have existed, from minor theological quabbles to violent wars. God appearing, making his existence known and administering commandments, would stop the chaos instantly. We wouldn't argue over dogma, or have religious wars, and the possibility of atheism would be ridiculous, laughable! We would have no choice but to, at the least, believe in the one God.<br /><br />The theist is sitting here reading this, saying to himself, "Oh, God could do all these things, <i>just doesn't want to</i>." Well, to hell with that! Dare I ask, does the same moral code apply to humans? So I can stand by and watch people starve, be raped, murdered, etc, and take a picture for my scrapbook? If God does it, so should I. Supposedly God is perfect and benign and unchanging, so his moral code must be totally awesome.<br /><br />If I had the power that God supposedly has, I would eliminate all suffering and wrongdoing immediately. I would appear to my people, get to know them and let them get to know me, and take everyone to heaven and have a wonderful, blissful eternity. I'm human, and I can imagine what I would do with that kind of power--yet we are expected to worship and believe in someone who can do all that things, and simply doesn't?<br /><br />God is supposedly benevolent, loving, just, merciful, all-knowing, omnipotent, etc. I'm pretty sure that someone with those character traits would be able and willing to make the universe a perfectly lovely place, regardless of free will. Free will shouldn't be a cop out for God to let things be shitty, especially for innocent children who have no ability to help themselves. <br /><br />He either doesn't give a shit, or he doesn't exist. The latter makes much more sense.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-31213152455487777062011-11-28T09:53:00.000-08:002011-12-06T12:42:20.340-08:00How Many People Can Live on Planet Earth?<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dN06tLRE4WE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />This is an <i>excellent</i> BBC documentary on overpopulation, conservation and consumption of Earth's resources. Maybe this sounds like boring stuff to you, but it's quite necessary to your survival. The fact is, humans are reproducing at an alarming rate and we are currently at that point where our resources are strained, and people are beginning to suffer greatly because of it.<br /><br />Think about your daily life. The clothes you wear, the things you drink, food you eat, showers you take, your cleaning, care of your pets, the things you do for fun... all of these things require food and water directly or indirectly. It is a simple math problem--the amount of water on the planet is static, but our population is increasing by leaps and bounds. Something has to give.<br /><br />Ideally, we will do three things to avoid death, suffering and wars over resources: 1) improve technology to make better use of the limited resources we do have, 2) conserve, conserve, conserve! 3) have fewer children--or better yet--no children at all. We can survive this if we do these three things, and do them aggressively.<br /><br />It's not about being a treehugger nutjob. It's a matter of selfishly wanting to survive. The poorer nations will be the first to suffer--they already are. But it will get the wealthier nations eventually too, if something isn't done. THINK, don't breed.<br /><br />We can turn this around in one generation... every couple has 0-1 children, and things will get vastly better. It's that simple. Easy? No. But simple. It's an emergency situation, and the time is now.<br /><br />Do you want to go to war for water? Do you want to see your kids suffer because they don't have enough to eat? Do you want your entire existence shrunk down to an obsession for survival only? I doubt it. So act.<br /><br />God is not going to come down from the heavens and save us from all this if we pray hard enough. If he were, he should have been here already. He's not coming. We are on our own. Oh, and overpopulation does not mean "not enough room to fit people"--we have plenty of space. (I was actually taught that overpopulation meant not enough space) It means not enough food, water and energy. Duh.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-68115212233011778102011-11-08T12:45:00.000-08:002011-11-08T13:16:48.050-08:00Brief Commentary on Gay RightsI'm not gay. I'm as straight as they come. But I'm vehemently pro-gay rights, because gay rights are civil rights.<br /><br />It's supremely disgusting that in America, in this modern day, we even have to have this discussion. I mean, seriously. I'm not even going to get into the "arguments" against gay marriage and employment rights right now because they are asinine and baseless and even a 3-year old could understand that the LGBT are people, too. There shouldn't even have to be the term LGBT, because it should be as boring and unremarkable as hair color. I don't care about nature vs. nurture. Doesn't matter, from a legal perspective. Even if it were 100% a lifestyle choice and not a biological impulse, that's completely and totally A-ok.<br /><br />I'm straight and pro-gay not only because personally I believe they are regular, every day people who have equal rights to everything that I do; I'm also pro-gay because of more selfish reasons. I have the brains to realize that if society can legislate opinion, they are free to legislate and discriminate against any group of their choosing. And that could include me. And you. And him and her. Everyone. The only way to ensure safety and freedom is to PROHIBIT ONLY THOSE ACTIONS THAT ARE DETRIMENTAL TO MEMBERS OF SOCIETY. The only way to ensure safety and freedom is to PROTECT THE RIGHTS OF EACH INDIVIDUAL.<br /><br />Is "pro-gay" even the right term? Honestly, I don't know. I am pro- anyone having full and equal rights.<br /><br />Have you seen this poster? It sums things up pretty well:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXF3H2Y3vh5jaK_m-xInnnRTB1JPYWnLJS9D6IKOv03y-2y7i2y8l2IkZ-9y_0L1jep8SG5JJOFu8WWHM6PZGKy2V54h709xTxiUhH1FX6hMpEvvNA6uULUljNP4AUH8lkmAmKDdoV57c/s1600/Prayer-in-school.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 256px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmXF3H2Y3vh5jaK_m-xInnnRTB1JPYWnLJS9D6IKOv03y-2y7i2y8l2IkZ-9y_0L1jep8SG5JJOFu8WWHM6PZGKy2V54h709xTxiUhH1FX6hMpEvvNA6uULUljNP4AUH8lkmAmKDdoV57c/s320/Prayer-in-school.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672733505899786194" /></a><br /><br />This is exactly why we don't legislate morality, folks--at least, morality other than, you know, not killing and stealing and the like. <span style="font-style:italic;">Keeping church and state separate protects everyone.</span><br /><br />I've heard so many times about how wrong homosexuality is because it's unnatural. It's a disorder. Gay people can't naturally have children, which automatically means they are going against God's will. They might--<i>gasp</i>--adopt children and ruin the children's lives. No one ever seems to have an answer on what exactly gays would be ruining (and don't we all know that heterosexual parents are consistently wonderful). Gays would be ruining children because they might...make them gay? And this is a bad thing, why? I don't get it. Besides, straight people keep having all these gay kids. They're all worried about gay people being parents, when those same people don't give a damn about any other kinds of parents. It's like they think that sexual orientation is the only litmus test for parenting. Bitch, please. All the discrimination is baseless, and points to nothing more than "I don't like it so you can't do it", with no real reason behind any of it.<br /><br />The day it can be proved that homosexuality is harmful to its practitioners, and/or harmful to children, is the day I will be anti-gay. But that's not going to happen because homosexuality, in and of itself, is completely harmless, just like heterosexuality or asexuality. Do I even have to actually say this? For Pete's sake! This is common sense.<br /><br />If you don't like something or don't agree with it, that's great! But things that do not cause others harm should not be illegal. Not that homosexuality is illegal--thank the FSM--but it is greatly discriminated against.<br /><br />Bigotry will probably never be eradicated. We can't legislate morality, nor should we. We can't legislate opinion. What we can and should legislate, and the only focus of law, is the complete freedom of citizens.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-16368324295198764142011-10-28T16:09:00.000-07:002011-10-28T14:09:36.378-07:00God Hates ShrimpThis website is fucking genius:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.godhatesshrimp.com/">God Hates Shrimp</a><br /><br />It is a <i>beautiful</i> parody of the people who believe homosexuality is wrong because of the passage in Leviticus about it being an abomination.<br /><br /><blockquote>"Shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, mussels, all these are an abomination before the Lord, just as gays are an abomination. Why stop at protesting gay marriage? Bring all of God's law unto the heathens and the sodomites."</blockquote><br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-52434822659545246732011-10-28T15:33:00.000-07:002011-10-28T14:09:04.856-07:00Before and After My AtheismLately I've been observing more closely the ways in which my life has changed since I've become an atheist. When I was researching belief systems and realizing that nothing made enough sense, and that it all seemed so transparent and man-made, the idea of atheism kept nagging at me. I kept trying to ignore it. Atheists, after all, were evil, irrational, sinful baby-eating monsters. So I want to share how life has changed for me, in an effort to offer a realistic view of a day-to-day atheist perspective (and hopefully a positive one).<br /><br /><b>Result of my Atheism #1:</b> <i>Freedom</i><br /><br />This is a fun one, because time and time again theists accuse atheists of rejecting God claims only out of a desire to do all that fun sin shit. Holy hell, would you guys give that one up already?!<br /><br />I am a truly free person today (well, other than having to pay taxes). What this means for me is that I am not confused and bound by the shackles of religion anymore. I don't have to abide by pointless, arbitrary rules that have no actual consequences if they are broken. I can eat meat on Fridays. I can have sex without being married. I can use birth control. I don't have to tithe. I can be accepting of gays. I can think for myself instead of running to the Catechism/Magesterium for answers. And this is a biggie--I am completely accepting of the possibility that I may be wrong about things, because I know now that learning is an ongoing process, and I no longer expect neat, pat answers from my religion. I have learned to stop and examine <i>everything</i> carefully, and find justifiable reasons for believing things.<br /><br />Theists, pay attention to this part: my freedom does not mean I am free to violate the rights of others. My rights end where yours begin, and yours end where mine begin. Because I am an atheist does NOT mean that I have a right to rape, murder, steal or otherwise disrespect other humans and animals. It <i>certainly</i> does not mean that I want to do those things. I don't, and I don't know any atheist who wants to either--and I've done a lot of research into the matter. Atheists are social humans just like all humans are social humans. This means that we generally prefer to live in harmony with others and not be violated, and in turn don't violate others because that would give them a free pass to fuck with us. Much more on morality to be posted later, but for now, I just want people to understand that atheists are generally peaceful, kind people who do <b>not</b> want to violate others.<br /><br /><b>Result of my Atheism #2:</b> <i>Humility</i><br /><br />Now that I don't believe in a god, I've become a lot more humble. I used to believe that as a human, I was extremely special, and had dominion over the earth and other animals. I used to believe that God was behind every mundane detail of my life, and that he had a special purpose for me, and I would be able to glorify him (and myself) by following his will. If I was late for work and thus avoided a car wreck, I took that as confirmation that God was protecting <i>me</i> (and, to be logically consistent, God would have had to be out to get someone else that day, i.e., the poor schmuck who died in the wreck--but I guess I was more special). I tried not to get a big head about it, but it was hard not to when you're constantly trying to translate God's signals (and interpreting them however you want to, but convincing yourself it was God).<br /><br />Also, understanding that I am simply another animal was humbling and empowering at the same time. It was humbling because I realized that humans' superior brain powers are the only reason we have become what we are, thinkers and doers and problem solvers/causers in society. It has made me much more respectful of animals because I no longer have an Us vs. Them mentality. I was always taught that God put animals on this earth for our use and enjoyment (but don't ask what the hell was God thinking when he made the mother fucking mosquito--God works in mysterious ways). I don't treat animals differently necessarily but my perspective has changed. It was empowering because I could understand myself better and everything makes so much more sense now. <i>Nature</i> makes so much more sense. I never before understood why God made mosquitos, or sharks, or poisonous snakes? Why did he bother with the complex systems of the earth like plate tectonics that result in mountains and earthquakes and volcanoes, why make a world plagued by blizzards and hurricanes and tsunamis? Couldn't he just make everything safe and benign? I could come up with a better world system in mere moments! For an almighty creator, God sure did overcomplicate things.<br /><br /><b>Result of my Atheism #3:</b> <i>Reliance on Reality</i><br /><br />There are a lot of things I wish were true. There are a lot of things I have felt were true. But I've come to disregard all things that are not reasonable, and are not grounded in reality. There very well may be flying spaghetti monsters, or gods that impregnate virgins, Xenu the intergalactic warlord, spirits and souls and angels and demons... but is there real evidence for these things? Could you imagine using these things as admissible evidence in court cases? Hah! There's a good reason we don't. All these things are based on faith--they're intangible, inaudible, invisible, and thus <i>indistinguishable from nonexistence</i>. If you can't tell the difference (and no, ancient religions and texts don't count as "evidence") between nonexistence and faith, what is the point? How is your faith any more factually true than the faith of another? You can't tell the difference! We can believe things because we choose to just to choose to, or we can believe things because they are reasonably demonstrated to be true. Personally, I prefer to believe in as many true things as possible. If you want to stick your head in the sand, that's fine, but I don't want to. It's much better above ground.<br /><br />I enjoy seeing things for what they are. I enjoy the freedom from having my thoughts policed over frivolous things. I enjoy dealing with problems and solving them with real solutions in reality. I accept that some things just plain suck, and some things are beyond horrible, but I don't believe in a fairy tale of cosmic justice for the world's maladies. If it's true, great! But I can't see any reason to accept it as true. I can't find good reasons to accept any religious or spiritual claim as true, and so sometimes I have to say, "I don't know!" but that's ok. I am finally honest.<br /><br /><b>Result of my Atheism #4:</b> <i>Scary Movies</i><br /><br />Scary movies are fun! I used to believe that demons, evil ghosts and hell were real and I would break out in a cold sweat just thinking about them. I thought that if I watched scary movies or otherwise thought about those things, it gave them a power to "get" me. I've never been one for gore because it's just damn stupid and boring. But I love scary thrillers like the Ring, the Number 23, 1408, things like that. I love scary movies that have plots, and give you something to think about. I can even watch them by myself late at night. No nightmares!<br /><br /><b>Result of my Atheism #5:</b> <i>Life and the Environment</i><br /><br /><i>Everything</i> is precious now. The universe is glorious and mysterious and I get lost learning about it. Before, I thought God made everything and believed that when I got to heaven I would have the rest of eternity to learn everything and explore the universe. I recognized beauty but didn't go searching for it; I figured I would get my fill at some point no matter what. If I was confused by something, no big deal; God would explain it all after I was in heaven. Now, one of my biggest regrets is that I won't live long enough to acquire all the knowledge that ever was and ever will be. I want to know everything! I want to explore! I have accepted that I'll never be able to know everything that the future holds (*sigh*), but the next best thing I can do is learn and dream as much as possible here and now. I have an itch to travel like you wouldn't believe. In my free time I watch science documentaries. It's like being a child again where I am curious about everything! Lots of fun. I explore different religions and authors instead of sticking to only those who agreed with me.<br /><br />What's not so fun, though, is finally understanding that the Earth <i>does</i> have finite resources and us humans are consuming it all. We are nearly at 7 billion people now. This is becoming an increasingly serious problem, and will lead to much death and suffering if we continue on this path. I used to think that God wanted more and more babies (After all, "a baby is God's sign that the world should go on") and if you believed in him, he would always take care of you. God never gives you more than you can handle, I was fond of saying.<blockquote>"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life, whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them" (Matthew 6:25-27). </blockquote>I took that <i>very</i> seriously. I knew God wanted me to be responsible, of course, but I floated through life believing that God would guide me and provide for me as long as I was faithful to him. I suppose it was good that I did not worry very much even during some very tough times, but I also was pretty purposeless. I made life decisions based on whims and feelings and experiencing "calls" to this or that from Jesus. *facepalm*<br /><br />Now I realize that Jesus isn't going to swoop down and provide us with food and water, especially if we've had 18 children in his name. We have to take care of ourselves.<br /><br /><b>Result of my Atheism #6:</b> <i>Gay Rights are Everyone's Rights</i><br /><br />I admit it, I used to be a homophobe. I never openly said anything rude to a bad person or treated them any different, but internally I looked at them with disdain. That is, until I got to know one. I was very careful to not get close to anyone I found morally incompatible with my beliefs. My first semester at art school was difficult. I came very, very near to quitting. Everyone around me seemed to be tattooed, pierced, gay and had hair every color of the rainbow. And most of them smelled like pot. But I held on and over time, as I got to know and befriend these people, I realized that--hey!--they are people too. They were no better or worse than me. We are all just different, and the differences are interesting but not negative. They don't really matter, and shouldn't be a big deal. I have dozens of gay friends and acquaintances, and do not DARE say something derogatory about being gay around me. I will set you straight. Art school was the reason I stopped being a judgmental, prude bitch. I wasn't born like that; it was taught to me.<br /><br />Sadly, there are many idiots out there who think that homosexuality is a big deal. A very big deal. A deal worth beating people over, discriminating against them in utterly horrible and asinine ways. They try to restrict these peoples' rights, and spread lies about them. I don't give a damn if you are gay, straight, black, white, whatever--we should all be equal in the eyes of the law (and of course I'd rather that culturally we are equal, too). I think we're getting there and it's getting better, at least in many countries, but it is not where it should be. That people even have to take two seconds to debate whether or not homosexuals should have the right to marry, or have kids, or have the same jobs.... it blows my mind. I can't fathom why people are so opposed to it, any more than I can fathom how <i>anyone</i> actually mistreated people because they were black. How the fuck can you justify any of that?<br /><br />Homosexuality is natural, and even if it weren't, that would be ok too. If straight people suddenly decide to become gay, that's totally cool! The nature vs. nurture argument really means little to me in terms of it determining someone's rights. Anthropologically, it's very interesting, and I can't tell you how much it rocked my world to find out that there were gay penguins. I used to firmly believe it was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. *sigh* HOW was I so stupid?! Gahhhhh. The sad thing is, not <i>once</i> did anyone correct me or challenge me. Not once.<br /><br />If religions, society and the law can discriminate against gays or blacks, they can discriminate against anyone they dislike at a particular time. Law should not be so arbitrary, obviously. Law should not be a tool to control those you hate and reward those you love. The rights of individuals must be protected at all costs. If one of us is unsafe, then none of us are safe. An attack on gay rights is an attack on everyone's rights.<br /><br />The religious bigots who fight so hard to have prayer in schools and forbid gays from their civil rights need to think really hard about what they're doing. I'm fine with Christian prayer in schools, as long as Islamic prayers, Jewish prayers, and Satanic prayers get equal airtime. Oh, that's not what you want, bigots? Perhaps you should separate church and state and thereby protect the people's rights, including yours.<br /><br /> If God is real, he has to be a real lame son of a bitch to care about whom people love and with whom they have sex.<br /><br /><b>Result of my Atheism #7:</b> <i>Carpe Diem</i><br /><br />Seize the freaking day. Be as happy as possible. Don't put up with crap if you can change it. Accept that life isn't perfect, but it can be damn amazing, and enjoy as much as you can. Respect others' rights, and demand yours be respected. Don't do stupid shit because it just wastes the little time you have and hurts everyone. Don't worry about others' opinions. Be strong. Be independent. Love. Live. Laugh. Learn. Give. Explore. Dream. You only get one shot. This is it.<br /><br />There are things that haven't changed, but mostly I am an entirely new person. The world is a new, exciting place and I feel reborn. I feel free. I don't waste my life with senseless dogma and drama. I live. My family has disowned me, and that experience has been probably the worst in my life and I'll never be over it, but I wouldn't trade my life for the world. I am happier than I've ever been. It was worth it because I am honest, for the first time in my life. <br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-75610580034954149512011-10-27T06:56:00.000-07:002011-10-27T07:21:28.105-07:00Put Down the Pacifier Day<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/h3cJXMXB2Ug" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br />That's right, folks. November 4, 2011 is officially Put Down the Pacifier Day. This is bad news for toddlers and infantilists alike.<br /><br />Even my worst days are better than if I were a parent having to deal with the myriad of problems parenting entails. Three cheers for being childfree!<br /><br />No sooner had I posted this on my Facebook than a breeder took notice. I posted it because I find it ridiculous and hilarious that 1) parents can't get their kids to give up the pacifier, and 2) they need to put their kids in front of the TV so that a fictional character can tell them what to do. Hmmm, seems that Elmo has more parenting abilities than the parents. Anyway. This breeder commented, "omg. thank you sooo much for putting this up. i need Emily* to give her's up and she absolutely loves elmo. i hope this helps us." *facepalm*<br /><br />*sigh* Glad I could help.<br /><br />--BadSec<br /><br />* <i>Name changed</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-55243083147291653632011-10-26T11:15:00.000-07:002011-10-26T11:26:58.047-07:00Not so fast, slimeballs!As seen from my handy dandy iPhone on October 21, 2011:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi96A3RMqc7wpf9x35NOK3hG32l_cHFUOpy6qS887Oj1SExdsmAHbXNNzJkiuTu9XF4y0BOqk4ZYiiApGQeSMNMxI-QV3qOaPEebKJZt06WVja4cgslW67GiocxCGym_SUQO6yvWgWfsncS/s1600/IMG_8063.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi96A3RMqc7wpf9x35NOK3hG32l_cHFUOpy6qS887Oj1SExdsmAHbXNNzJkiuTu9XF4y0BOqk4ZYiiApGQeSMNMxI-QV3qOaPEebKJZt06WVja4cgslW67GiocxCGym_SUQO6yvWgWfsncS/s400/IMG_8063.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667868193139778818" /></a><br /><br />And today, October 26, 2011:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwLJg9dffGi398HqGNcfAH-F-Kts-04RjzoTh8SSxdxmvjg-LFr_dAaEvg7-DWdRugeKzF-4-OWTk7I6SDZCR0Dpy6yK7TqT0UALTmTo4BxqLwBr7oMjvZ0y_k8Oe-SWYl01WZPUINUdQv/s1600/IMG_7995.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwLJg9dffGi398HqGNcfAH-F-Kts-04RjzoTh8SSxdxmvjg-LFr_dAaEvg7-DWdRugeKzF-4-OWTk7I6SDZCR0Dpy6yK7TqT0UALTmTo4BxqLwBr7oMjvZ0y_k8Oe-SWYl01WZPUINUdQv/s400/IMG_7995.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667868293211786114" /></a><br /><br />Mhmm. That's what I thought.<br /><br />Interesting that after the End of the World came and gone, they lost 3 followers and 61 tweets. Someone did some <i>serious</i> housecleaning.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-4672186114798262472011-10-24T12:12:00.000-07:002011-10-24T12:41:20.909-07:00Theists, Your Ignorance is Showing!An acquaintance posted this to her Facebook over the weekend:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWtoNaZWUklhucjXh2x_5FlmnxQjCXqKCmCWDx-PRrerw9pBX8IhI6VlQulRe2-uSoTPk1I-tpHW08bw-5PFMpYP9nxTHhmY_lXwrXxGAi5sNEHh_yB62mSG5HyTE1Q6PwwOznInfXr9D9/s1600/atheism.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWtoNaZWUklhucjXh2x_5FlmnxQjCXqKCmCWDx-PRrerw9pBX8IhI6VlQulRe2-uSoTPk1I-tpHW08bw-5PFMpYP9nxTHhmY_lXwrXxGAi5sNEHh_yB62mSG5HyTE1Q6PwwOznInfXr9D9/s320/atheism.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667138906243968290" /></a><br /><br />"Atheism: The belief that there was nothing and nothing happened to nothing and then nothing magically exploded for no reason, creating everything and then a bunch of everything magically rearranged itself for no reason what so ever into self-replicating bits which then turned into dinosaurs. Makes perfect sense."<br /><br />*facepalm* Where to start? For one, this is NOT atheism. NOT AT ALL. If you run around promoting this idea, you are an ignorant jerkface. <br /><br />All together now, children: Atheism is the lack of belief in a deity or deities. Nothing less, nothing more.<br /><br />Atheism is not a belief in anything. It's a <i>absence</i> of belief. Furthermore, I don't know of any atheist who claims that there was nothing, and everything came from nothing, and all that bullshit. The truth is, we don't <i>know</i> exactly why the universe came into existence. We know a lot of things and learn more all the time, but the intellectually honest answer is to say "I don't know" and not "god did it." Did you notice that this is separate from "believing" in all that nothingness? Obviously there are causes for the existence of the universe and everything in it, but there is no evidence for the nature of the cause(s) being supernatural or spiritual. Thus, based on the lack of evidence, atheists believe that the causes for the universe are natural in origin.<br /><br />Let's also point out that this idiotic poster clusters atheism together with evolution, cosmology, and the Big Bang theory, and has a piss poor understanding of those as well.<br /><br />Theists like this only flaunt their ignorance. If they spent an hour reading something other than antiquated religious texts, they might experience what's known as education.<br /><br />This, however, is perfectly accurate. It's funny, but I'm being serious--I used to believe this exactly, the only difference being I labeled it with prettier words and spent a bit more time trying to make it look like serious business.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8uBQ3II9YJrJUVo326R59ELYFRhlLGIv6eGapCDro_0SqyOqh8YSVVoCWvtjsv96pA_uJQY-sg0xCEZax6niBQj5EcCH1vZA1mTeB3WueRQLoxjXJFkCH9MvQZ6XNsN8RmqjhuvpG4SQK/s1600/Christianity+motivational-poster+%25281571%2529.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8uBQ3II9YJrJUVo326R59ELYFRhlLGIv6eGapCDro_0SqyOqh8YSVVoCWvtjsv96pA_uJQY-sg0xCEZax6niBQj5EcCH1vZA1mTeB3WueRQLoxjXJFkCH9MvQZ6XNsN8RmqjhuvpG4SQK/s320/Christianity+motivational-poster+%25281571%2529.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5667144102773728722" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9067755460911200308.post-68139267416869143552011-10-21T08:52:00.000-07:002011-10-21T09:18:40.101-07:00It's the End of the World as We Know It, I Feel FineOh, Harold. How I adore your asinine predictions. It is, finally, the End of the World today. I'm really excited to see how this shit goes down, but I'm a little irritated that I'll miss by birthday Monday. Bugger.<br /><br />Let's enjoy this last day, 1990's R.E.M. style.<br /><br /><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z0GFRcFm-aY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /><br /><a href="http://www.wecantknow.com/">We Can't Know</a> is still going strong with their Countdown to Backpedaling. Tomorrow will be glorious, and hopefully full of embarrassed excuses and explanations. This is my nerdy, atheist equivalent of a kid being excited for a trip to the candy store.<br /><br />We Can't Know has an excellent link on their page to <a href="http://askanatheist.tv/2011/05/23/the-backpedaling-is-here-no-really-it-happened/">The Backpedaling is Here: No, Really, It Happened!</a> from Ask an Atheist. We're making history here, people. Years ago, it was possible for religions and prophets to make ridiculous claims and they were affording the luxury of fading away into obscurity. Not anymore. It is the Information Highway, baby! Their malarky is meticulously documented and will be remembered until the real end of the world. Historical documentation has reached its golden age and skepticism is improving. I can feel George Carlin smiling down on us from heaven.<br /><br />This is truly beautiful. All of you need to visit <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/05212011">Family Radio's Twitter Page</a>. Here are some yummy ones:<br /><br /><blockquote>OCTOBER 21, 2011 IS THE "END" OF THE WORLD/UNIVERSE! OCTOBER 21, 2011 ALL THINGS SHALL CEASE TO EXIST! OCTOBER 21, 2O11 GOD TAKES VENGEANCE!</blockquote><br /><blockquote>Hear Ye!, Hear Ye! -- OCTOBER 21, 2011 IS THE "END" OF THE WORLD!. The day of God's vengeance on sinful human is here!. Pray for your Life!.</blockquote><br /><blockquote>OCTOBER 21, 2011 IS THE END OF THE WORLD/UNIVERSE!. GOD SHALL BRING EARTHQUAKE, RAPTURE, & ANNIHILATION FIRE...IN A SINGLE DAY! GOD SAID SO!</blockquote><br /><blockquote>*OCTOBER 21, 2011 IS THE "END" OF THE WORLD/UNIVERSE!. GOD DEGREES EARTHQUAKE/RESURRECTION/RAPTURE/ANNIHILATION FIRE,.. ALL IN JUST ONE DAY!</blockquote><br /><br />I delight in the use of periods after exclamation points, the letter 'o' in 2011, and the unique spelling of decrees. Unfortunately the Bible does not teach grammar, nor does it offer spellcheck. Also unfortunate is the apparent lack of education from the Twitter poster.<br /><br />Did it never occur to these people to get their noses out of that antiquated, corrupt book and examine the Universe in reality? For shame, no. And so we will continue to be amused by their ramblings.<br /><br />I cannot wait to see what they say tomorrow.<br /><br />--BadSecUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0