Frivology

This went out last week or the week before in the atheist community, but I wasn’t really paying much attention as I was getting over a short weekend vacationa nd catching up on work.  I finally got to finish watching it today. 

Apparently the father jumped into the beginning of this thread on RichardDawkins.net, then immediately disappeared.  There’s so much to say about Deborah, I honestly have no idea where to start.  The first of which that caught me so shocking is … is evangelical Christianity just a giant excuse for people to act incredibly superior and judgmental to others?  No wonder she has no friends.  I wouldn’t want to be her friend, either.

…and cool hair! This is pretty cool, actually. Come to America, Susi! School our school kids.

Picked it up on iTunes and watched it the other night.  It’s a really good film.  I may just watch it again over the weekend.  Here’s the end monologue: 

The irony of religion is that because of its power to divert man to destructive courses, the world actually could come to an end. Plain fact is: religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge, and having key decisions made by religious people, by irrationalists.  By those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken. 

Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It’s nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith, and enable and elevate it, are our intellectual slaveholders - keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction. Religion is dangerous, because it allows human beings who don’t have all the answers to think that they do. 

Most people would think that it is wonderful when someone says: “I am willing Lord, I will do what ever you want me to do”, except that since there are no Gods actually talking to us, that void is filled in by people, with their own corruptions, and limitations, and agendas. 

And anyone who tells you that they know what happens when you die, I promise you, you don’t. How can I be so sure? Because I don’t know, and you do not possess mental powers, that I do not. 

The only appropriate attitude for man to have about the big question is not the arrogant certitude that is the hallmark of religion, but doubt. Doubt is humble. And that is what man needs to be considering that human history is just a list of getting shit dead wrong. 

This is why rational people, anti-religionists must end their timidity, and come out of the closet, and assert themselves, and those who consider themselves only moderately religious, really need to look in the mirror and realize that the solace and comfort that religion brings you actually comes at a terrible price. 

If you belong to a political party, or a social club that was tied to as much vicartry, misogyny, homophobia, violence, and sheer ignorance as religion is, you’d resign in protest. To do otherwise is to be an enabler - a mafiawife. With the true devils of extremism that draw their legitimacy from the billions of their fellow travellers. 

If the world does come to an end here, or wherever, or if it limbs into the future decimated by the effects of a religion inspired nuclear terrorism - lets remember what the real problem was: that we learned how to precipitate mass death, before we got pass the neurologist disorder of wishing for it. 

That’s it. Grow up, or die. 

It really muddied up my already muddied views on whether or not Atheists should be “militant”, which is exactly what I’ve been thinking about all this week, no matter what I’ve been listening to or reading.

via: Atheist Media Blog

At the very end of this, you get this gem:  “…and which suggests that the universe is essentially purposeless and undirected, and one where people have perfect moral freedom to do exactly what they want because there’s no higher purpose to which they’re accountable.”

Every time I hear this argument I bristle.  Again, it is a denunciation of the power of mankind.  By announcing that we MUST absolutely have a higher authority to respond to otherwise we’ll go bonkers and do all sorts of crazy things, we’re saying that we have little to no faith in ourselves.  Mature humans are smart enough and reasonable enough to understand that actions have reactions associated with them.  You can’t just run about and murder everyone you don’t like, or someone you don’t like is going to murder you.  You can’t go around stealing everyone’s money because eventually someone will steal your money.  Then, there’s empathy with others, a trait, again, shared by mature humans.  If you hurt someone in some less tangible way, say by cheating on them in a relationship, you empathize with their pain and naturally think ‘what if I were in her shoes’?

I think, personally, that religion short-circuits our natural ability to form natural morals by giving people an easy out.  That’s why you see people running into crowds and blowing themselves up in the name of god, but you don’t see atheists doing the same thing.  If you’re religiously motivated to something it’s right, even if the rest of your nature-given intelligence tells you otherwise.

Then there’s purpose.  Purpose is something given to you, either by yourself or by another human being.  If your ‘purpose’ is to earn enough brownie points with god to get into heaven, that’s not something divinely attached to you.  It’s given to you through your church which is run by humans, not deities.  Those of us without belief in god still believe in purpose just as that definition – it’s just that we give ourselves our own purpose rather than waiting for someone else to come along and give it to us for us.  Again, in this case, religion short-circuits nature.

via: Atheist Media Blog

Glenn Beck is my new Public Enemy #1 (Jake Tapper is old news).  Not only is he a jerk, but he’s a fucking ignorant jerk.  As many in the Atheist community know, last week Illinois ruled their school’s “Moment of Silence” law unconstitutional because:

The "teacher is required to instruct her pupils, especially in the lower grades, about prayer and its meaning as well as the limitations on their ‘reflection,’" Gettleman ruled.

"The plain language of the statute, therefore, suggests and intent to force the introduction of the concept of prayer into the schools," he said.

Listen above to how Glenn spins this to make “10% of Americans push around the other 90%”.  He claims and Dobson claim that the kids didn’t have to pray, they could do whatever they want… except that they weren’t, and that’s why it was dubbed unconstitutional.  He also goes on to say that God gave us our rights, and if we take God out of the State, then the State will be the one who gives us our rights.

What country do you live in, Glenn?  The State IS what gives us our rights, and the state IS what takes them away.  If you break the law, it isn’t God who will put you in jail for it – it’s the state!  Common sense, idiot.  I’m so sad that you’ve procreated.  Maybe your daughter will become an Atheist and torture you for the rest of your life.

But here’s a question for Glenn and anyone who disagrees with this ruling.  Is your faith, your belief so fragile that in order for it to exist you have to force it on others?  Is it so delicate that you can’t possibly allow your child to go to school for eight hours without having to have some reminder to believe during those eight hours?  If your belief really is that fragile, if you have to continually brainwash your kids in order to get them to think the way you want them to, maybe your belief isn’t as strong as you thought it was.

Also, if you’re going to complain about this you have no right whatsoever to state that you should be allowed to raise your children the way that you want to.