Frivology

Dan J tossed this in my comments since it sounds a lot like Jonny-Boy and his atheist apologist friends over at the RD forums.  I have to say that joining the RD forums and actually participating in threads is the single-most best thing I’ve done as an atheist, yet.  It’s made me realize where the lines are drawn in the whole debate about whether or not atheists should be loudmouthed or quiet.  Right now, I’m throwing my lot in with the loudmouths.  Especially when I start reading trash like this… 

With religion, I think atheists have the same dissonance going on. If they really think the world would be better off without religion, they shouldn’t hate religion and call believers fools. Any successful new belief system must appreciate the beauty of what it’s replacing and strive for backwards-compatibility. If Matthew 1:1-16 hadn’t explained how Jesus’ lineage fulfills the prophecy in Isaiah 1:1-5, it wouldn’t have gotten where it is today.

via Big Tent Atheism - Boing Boing .

Personally, I think Boing Boing is an utter piece of steaming shit.  It’s the kind of place that people should go to learn what NOT to blog about.  It’s the Paris Hilton of blogs.  It doesn’t do anything well, isn’t terribly attractive, says a lot of really stupid shit and still manages to dry hump everything out there.  This is another example of why I can’t stand the place or anything like it. 

This doesn’t even make sense. 

I think closeted atheists who participate in other religious activities are the future of atheism. They know that prayer feels good without a needing brain scientist to tell them, and they know you don’t need God to want to feed the hungry, heal the sick, and provide homes for the orphaned. What if they simply stopped reciting the words that they didn’t agree with during religious services, without calling attention to it? In many places I don’t think they would be kicked out or turned upon and beaten just for that.

Let me fix that for you… 

I think closeted homosexuals who participate in heterosexual activities are the future of gayness.  They know that heterosexual sex feels good without needing a brain scientist to tell them, and they know you don’t need heterosexuality to have a family, raise kids and be a good parent.  What if they simply married heterosexuals and just quietly didn’t recite ‘I do’ during the wedding vows without calling attention to it?  In many places I don’t think they would be kicked out or turned upon and beaten just for that. 

See what I did there? 

That’s just stupid.  Deny what you aren’t so that you can fit in with the masses, atheists.  Apparently, that’s the only way atheism is going to do anything.

There’s a bit of a kerfuffle going on at Pharyngula, and I specifically use such a silly word because it’s a pretty silly discussion.  Luckily, PZ is taking it just as silly as it really is.  Short version - he linked to a site that had a poll going on, which ended up getting that poll around 4,000 new votes skewed toward his reader’s views.  The owner of the site threw a hissy fit about it and some guy - not even the site’s owner - is now threatening to tell PZ’s college and ISP what a naughty man he is by allowing people to make fun of others and use naughty words in comments.  Yeah, not kidding.  Kerfuffle.  I got involved in the tangle when the kerfuffle-starter, Jon, showed up at the Richard Dawkins forums and started to talk down to everyone around.

First… we aren’t good enough Atheists:

In my own life, I’ve spent nearly 24 years out of 40 contending with religious bigotry in my own family (and being ostracised for it), campaigning against religiously motivated politics, actively supporting pro-choice groups in Ireland, giving money and time to UK secular organisations and more recently co-ordinating with atheists locally on an arts-based music project. I’m not some silly, zeitgeist-jumping little twerp (who would probably sign-up to Christianity if it could promise to cure acne) that recently bought a t-shirt and read a book! I care passionately about atheism and humanism and I’ve had to take a real stand for both. Watching them get wrecked will not be a welcome end result.

Then, later, we see his supposedly final post in the Pharyngula comments where he insults World of Warcraft players (of which I am one) and anyone who would dare to shed insults at him (though he seems impervious to the claims that he’s giving because he doesn’t use naughty words when he insults people), all wrapped in a neat bow of implied violence. Oh yes, and lest I forget… there’s another jab at anyone who’s not as strongly atheist as he is.

Final point – a colleague at work used to play World of Warcraft and I asked him about it once. He said it was full of little dweebs (mostly kids) playing at being tough demonic-style warriors, whereas for him he had a bit of a laugh playing as a nature loving elf. Basically the characters people chose generally reflected something they didn’t get a chance to be in their lives—which kind of makes sense.

Now, that guy and myself both work as psych nurses. We’ve both earned extra money as doormen and we’ve both – a few years back—been known as people you really shouldn’t cross until we started to get a clue, calm down and grow up a bit. Consequently I think the Warcraft rule applies here. I know you daring, offensive, shocking little tykes would love to sound really brave and come over as ‘edgy’ (lol), but I also know you probably wouldn’t dare to say boo to me if you met me. Such is the unreality of the net.

If you want a real shock take your little play atheism onto the street and see what happens I’ll bring the band aids and a video-camera.

It’s all a bunch of stupidity, but the reason that I call attention to it is that wrapped up within the moronic sentiments, there is a very real and worthwhile conversation … it’s a much more strident conversation on a subject than I think I’ve ever seen - much less had the chance to participate in.  That conversation is… should atheists be loud and proud, or should we be quiet and “respectful”.

I’ll sum my position up by paraphrasing something Matt Dillahunty said on Non-Prophets Radio last week.  There are a group of people that seem to think the only way to have intelligent discourse is to shut of your distate for any position that you find stupid in the name of “respect”.  However, truly retarded positions don’t call for any respect - don’t need respect - and shouldn’t HAVE respect granted to them… period.  What kind of world would we be in today if no one ever openly scorned and ridiculed things that were stupid?

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.