Escape From Dogma

Loosing Faith in Faith!

2011-10-28T12:36:00.003-05:00

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (It’s almost certainly not Paul the Apostle, as Christians generally assume: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authorship_of_the_Epistle_to_the_Hebrews), in Chapter 11 Vs. 1 describes faith as follows:

“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

I personally agree. When a believer in any religion talks about faith in their God or Gods, it seems to me, they mean something very close to what is defined above, and give it an almost mystical quality that is taboo to attack. It is as if when someone claims his or her beliefs to be matter of faith, they expect to be immune from criticism in polite society no matter how stupid or insane the belief is. Personally I think faith is a horrible thing to value and to hold sacred.

Another term for faith or “being sure of what you hope for” is “wishful thinking”. People behaving as though they are “sure of what I hope for” are likely to spend money they do not have, as if it their bank account is constantly being replenished. They are likely to try any strange new intoxicants offered to them, have promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners, drive recklessly without fear of legal punishment or accident, quit their jobs, start fights, and behave as though they lived in a consequence free world.

Obviously, such behavior would be disastrous for the vast majority of people, since the things we hope for regarding these matters are often obviously not true. Our actions do have consequences, our money supply is finite and strange intoxicants will do us great harm, (as will actions when influenced by them). Anonymous sex will likely end in disease and unwanted pregnancy. Quiting our jobs will impoverish us, driving recklesslywill lead to death or injury, and randomly getting into fights will do the same.

My point with all this is that our uncertainty of what is hoped for is an important tool for our survival and well being. It is nice to hope for the best, but live as though the best is guaranteed is a sure recipe for the worst kind of self destruction, not to mention a good way of consistently being wrong about things. That is why, rather than going through life believing that the best possible outcome is bound to happen, I refrain from believing anything until I have a good amount of tangible evidence that an outcome is likely.
Most religious people do this too, in most areas of life except for their religious beliefs. Most religions demand you accept their claims on faith, because they lack the tangible evidence needed to convince anyone with a shred of critical thinking ability that they are true. This disturbs me a great deal, since believing based on evidence has been a major, if not primary, factor in our survival as a species, as well as the development of the technologies that we enjoy today. Believing things without evidence is the surest way to guarantee one’s actions will have the opposite of the intended impact.

That a supposed God wants us to set aside our ability to use logic and practice skepticism, and instead engage in pure wishful thinking is a huge red-flag to me!! To be clear, faith is a horrible tool for determining fact from fantasy and is the most over-rated of all human virtues. When a religious person tells me their beliefs are based on faith, the game for me is up. They are essentially saying they have no good reason to believe what they believe, but they hope that it is true, so will continue to believe it anyway. This the epitome of intellectual dishonesty and cowardice.

With this, the believer may point out that even if they are wrong, following their wishful thinking about their God and their after life will not lead to the physical harm, death, sickness, and poverty that the wishful thinking I’ve described above will. Generally speaking this may be correct for most religious people. However, there are countless examples of all these things caused by religious faith. These include the September 11th attacks, the inquisition, religiously justified slavery, incidents where children die due to their religious parents praying or seeking faith healers instead of actual medical care, and the decent into a 1,500 year dark age brought about by Christianity. To be fair the wishful thinking of most believers will not cause all this harm, but here in America it is likely to cost you: Your Sunday mornings, a 10th of your income, your human dignity (since the biggest religions hold humans in very low regard), your appreciation for the women in your life, your ability to appreciate the findings of science, your time and energy, and most of all the only life you will be sure you will ever have (which will have been wasted pursuing an after life that is probably not there).
With that I reject faith and choose to deal with reality on it’s own terms.

Christianity: It's a Religion not a Relationship

2011-10-17T14:27:00.001-05:00

Recently a Christian told me that Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship. I had heard thisbefore, and have seen it on t-shirts and in Facebook posts. The implication is that it is a relationship between the believer and Jesus Christ himself.
I have to wonder how this is not a religion. Many of the belief systems that the Christian dismisses as religions have similar ideas. I have a Hindu friend who believes herself to be in a relationship with Ganesha, the elephant-headed deity with multiple sets of arms (This being supposedly protects her from harm and gives guidance).   Then there are Bhakti Hindus who believe themselves to be in a relationship with Krishna, their deity of choice. How do I distinguish the Christian’s claim of being in a relationship from the claims of other religions? It strikes me as being a lot like the kid claiming that he has a girl-friend, but she hasn’t sent him a full-body shot yet.   In order for me to take any of these claims seriously some evidence needs to be shown that the being you are in a relationship with even exists.
Honestly, even if this being you claim to have a relationship with does exist, your worshiping of him or her still constitutes a religion. I would say the same about people who’s praise of their boyfriend or girlfriend crosses the line into worship (which apparently happens to people in relationships with cult leaders). Christians, who play the “it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship” card seem to do so because they don’t like the baggage associated with term religion. They view the term religion as implying dogmatic, and unthinking types of belief.   Which they usually are. Rather than accepting that he or she is being dogmatic, the believer seems to prefer telling herself that she has a direct line to the all-knowing creator of the universe. As far as I can tell Christians are Dogmatic, and often very unthinking. To me it seems that they are simply believing in something they were indoctrinated to believe in, usually since childhood, when they had no way of knowing reality from fantasy.
When I look at it, their relationship seems like a pretty weak sauce one, at best. Christians are supposedly communicating with the all-knowing creator of the universe, and yet all the supposedly demonstrable things he does for them are totally unimpressive. He helps them find their car keys, but if one wants a cure for AIDS or a solution to our energy problems, one has to look elsewhere. I have never heard a Christian claim that Jesus has provided guidance that they could not have come up with on their own. To me the relationship Christians have with Jesus is in no way distinguishable from the relationship children have with their imaginary friends. I’ll change my mind in the event that a Christian demonstrates that Jesus can do something tangible that an imaginary friend cannot.
Also, the idea of being in a relationship with someone who condones eternal torment for anyone who rejects him has horrendous moral implications. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to be in a relationship with such a monster, unless it’s something similar to the women who date gangsters and thugs in an attempt to stay on their good side. In this being’s eyes the believer is a vile, sinful, undeserving wretch, who needs to come crawling and begging for any shred of forgiveness he or she gets.   There is also the problem that the being you are supposedly in a relationship with, actively allows an evil supernatural being to work towards undermining your relationship. Everything about it is truly bizarre.
Anyway, I’ll simply ask all the believers out there: Why should I take the claim that you are in some sort of relationship seriously? What evidence do you have that this being exists, and that he views humans in any way other than a shallow binary: believers=1 and nonbelievers=0?

Imagine: Some reflections on Music and 9-11-11

2011-10-15T16:54:00.001-05:00

September 11th of 2001 was a day that will live in infamy, and on it’s 10 year anniversary, many of us took time to look back on it and how the events of that day rocked our world. As atheists we tend to look at it as a day that really highlights the horrors that religion can bring about. After all, it was on that day 10 years ago that a handful of deeply religious men acting in full accordance with their interpretation of their holy-book committed a horrendous act of mass murder on innocent civilians. As I have often heard it put “Science flies you to the moon, religion flies you into buildings”.

I’ve seen this message very starkly expressed in a popular Internet meme over the last few years. Simply put the meme features a picture of the World Trade Center buildings standing tall on a sunny New York day as they once did. This image features the caption “Imagine no Religion”. This phrase was taken from John Lennon’s famous song Imagine. Since nearly everyone is familiar with this song, and the lyrics are readily available on line, I won’t rehash it’s subject matter other than to say that one friend of mine said the following about it:

“No countries, nothing to fight for, no wars, nothing for men to test themselves against, no religion, no hope for a better existence beyond this, living one day to the next, no wondering about the future of humanity, no religion, no philosophy, no possessions, so no ambition, nothing to drive you, no meaning or purpose for existence, no Alexander the Great, no Churchill, no Caesar, …John Lennon you may call this a dream, but I call it a nightmare.”

Here is my response (feel free to share your thoughts):

1. No religion- since there is no evidence that any of the world’s religions are true, the world would be a better place without them. What good is a hope if there is no good reason to think it will be fulfilled? It is far better for people to make decisions about the world based on what is actually likely, rather on some hope that things will be better when they die. The realization that life is finite makes people try to live everyday to the fullest. Religion is one of if not the biggest sources of violence, hatred, pain, suffering and divisiveness in human history.

2. No wars: How can you say that without wars men would have nothing to test themselves against? We are constantly testing ourselves by improving our ability to survive longer in the natural world, in the business world people are constantly testing themselves through competition, in athletics people are constantly pushing the limits of what their physical bodies can do. In science and intellectual pursuits people constantly test themselves by pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and improve lives as a result. Wars on the other hand, destroy human lives, well-being and wealth. The fact that they give men something to test themselves against is in no way a justification for the destruction they cause.

3. No philosophy: I don’t think that one is in the song, in fact the song seems to be sharing a sort of personal political philosophy.

4. No possessions: I personally like possessions, but it is possible that Lennon meant that he preferred wealth be spread more evenly throughout society and concentrations of power be dismantled (He’s dead though so I can’t ask him & ironically he was a guy who had a great deal of possessions and wealth).In such a society people would still have ambition and be driven to innovate by their desire to make life easier for themselves, gain knowledge,and experience new things etc. Also if access to wealth is more abundant to all, it means less people will be dependent upon small numbers of elites for work, and as such will be freer to pursue what ever type of inquiry one wants. (Note: the extent to which such an arrangement is possible is highly debatable, but I think that is what the song is saying, and have no problem with someone throwing it out there.)

5. “No meaning or purpose for your existence” The purpose and meaning for your existence are the purpose and meaning you choose. There is no authority but yourself. You don’t need a celestial dictatorship to assign meaning to your life, and even if you desire one, it does not matter because there is no evidence to suggest there is one, anyway. I personally, find meaning in the time spent with my friends and loved ones and exploring this amazing world and learning more about this amazing universe we live in. For me the human experience is more than worthwhile in and of it self and the fact that it does not stretch into eternity does not change this for me.

Alexander the great and Caesar were warlords who fancied themselves as Gods and used theft and violence to gain dictatorial power and force others to pay them tribute. While their military genius may have been admirable and impressive they used it for offensive purposes and much of what they did should not be glorified.

Churchill is a slightly different case since he was fighting a defensive war against Nazi Germany. I honestly share John Lennon’s hope that one day we will cease to see attacks from regimes like Nazi Germany and not need people like Churchill, to counter them with further violence.

That is why, this September, let’s not take for granted the struggle that took place to make the life you live so much nicer and more comfortable than that of your ancestors, and the role that science and technology contributed to this. Also, let’s try to be more mindful of how harmful dogmatic, rigid belief systems can be and try to be more open to the possibility we all could be wrong about even our most cherished beliefs.

Why Does the Christian God Send people to hell

2011-10-12T14:48:00.000-05:00

A while back I was conversing with a Christian friend who was outraged that Evangelist Rob Bell declared, in his most recent book, Love Wins:

“It’s been clearly communicated to many that this belief (in hell as conscious, eternal torment) is a central truth of the Christian faith and to reject it is, in essence, to reject Jesus. This is misguided and toxic and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus’ message of love, peace, forgiveness and joy that our world desperately needs to hear.”

He was outraged because for him hell is very much a real place, and by implying that it is not, my friend feels that Bell is really undermining an important and biblically supported piece of Christian Doctrine.

As a response, I stated that I agree with him that the bible, does support the concept of a hell, but it is for this reason (and many others) I find the bible to be morally and logically absurd and repugnant. Additionally, I said that the fact that Mr. Bell is inclined to reject this is a reflection of how divisive religions are and how much they tend to fragment. Also it is a reflection of the fact that Christianity as a whole is under pressure to adapt the norms and morals of our post-enlightenment era, just as it has had to adapt to a heliocentric solar system, evolution, the germ theory of disease ect. I have heard it said, and agree that “Christianity has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th/21st century.” and I’m glad it no longer burns witches or tortures heretics. For a religion that is still in need of dragging see Islam and certain sects of Mormonism.

At this point my friend pointed out that it is his belief that the eternal punishment of people in Hell “is necessary for people who reject Christ’s atonement for their sin.”

My question for Christians, then is Why should that even be necessary?: If this God is truly the all -powerful, all-knowing all-benevolent being of love he is claimed to be, he should be able to forgive everyone with out a brutal blood sacrifice. After all, nothing is too much for a God that is all powerful, all-knowing, and all-benevolent. The messed up thing about this theology is that this God created us such that in his eyes we are worthy of nothing but eternal torment in a place worse than anything the Nazis ever created. That’s important. If we are all wretched sinners it is because either:

A. He created us as such (& punishes us for it)

B. He created us with the full knowledge and intention that we would become such (and punishes us for it, which is just as bad as A).

Either way hell is simply God’s way of punishing us for being the way he created us (which is insanely immoral). But it gets more messed up, the God of Christian theology has decided that to prevent himself from punishing some subset of people this way, he would have come down in human form, and in a disturbing piece of theater allow humans to brutally murder him. This way HE could act as the blood sacrifice HE demands in exchange for His own forgiveness. That is of course forgiveness for being the way HE created us. The catch of course, is that the only way you can obtain this forgiveness is by setting aside your ability to think critically and be willing to accept that such a wild, bloody, immoral and nonsensical story is true.

That’s the scary thing. This God’s decide who gets sent to this eternal torment he created not on the basis of the quality of our character but on what we happen to believe at the time we die (which is a rather trivial thing to judge someone on). Christians can argue that God has a right to judge us however he likes, and they’ve got a bit of a point. If he exists I can stop him from judging me, but that doesn’t make it in anyway just. It certainly doesn’t justify sending me to a torture chamber forever. If an earthly dictator did this he would rightfully be declared a tyrant and a monster. Why then is it something praiseworthy that a God would do it?

Podcast List

2011-02-24T01:46:00.004-06:00

Many people have asked me about atheist and skeptical podcasts to listen to, so I thought I'd share my list of podcasts that I like.

These are all the atheist/skeptic podcasts that I listen to. I have them rated with 1 - 5 stars (my opinions on each). I suggest that you check out the 5 star ones first...

***** The Amateur Science Podcast
* American Freethought
****Ask an Atheist
***** The Atheist Experience
*** Atheist News
*** Chariots of Iron
The conspiracy Skeptic
The Critical Eye Podcast
**Digital Bits Skeptic
***** Dogma Free America
Equal Time for Freethought
*** For Good Reason
*** Freethought Radio
***** Geologic Podcast
**** The Good Atheist
Humanist Network News Podcast
* Infact with Brian Dunning
***** The Infidel Guy Show
* Intelligence Squared
***** Irreligiosophy
*** Little Atoms
***** Living After Faith
* Monster Talk
* New Humanist Podcast
***** The Non-Prophets
**** The Pod Delusion
*** Point of Inquiry
*** Quack Cast
The Rational Factor Podcast
Rational Radio
*** Rationally Speaking
**** The Reality Check
*** Reasonable Doubts Podcast
** Righteous Indignation
** Secular Nation Podcast
Skepchick Podcast
**** The Skeptic Zone
** Skepticality: The Official Podcast of Skeptic Magazine
**** Skeptically Speaking
*** Skeptics with a K
*** The Skeptics Guide 5X5
***** The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
*** Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena
*Stuff You Should Know
Token Skeptic - Making Sense from Superstition
** The Unbelievers
** Weird Things

The Source of Human Morality Debate with Matt Dillahunty

2010-11-20T16:35:00.000-06:00

Many people I know are fans of Matt Dillahunty and the shows that he appears on, namely the television show The Atheist Experience, and their internet radio show The Non Prophets (both of which are available on iTunes in podcast forms). Well most of us who are familiar with Matt Dillahunty have been awaiting the internet release of his recent debate, which took place at the University of Maryland. They began uploading the video segments to youtube the other day, and they have finally posted the last one today, so I'll compile them here for all of you to see.
I thought Matt handled himself quite well, even though it seemed that his opponent, Father Hans Jacobse, developed Nazi tourettes someway through the debate! Well, I guess that's enough of me talking about it. Let the debate speak for itself....

1 of 9:

2 of 9:

3 of 9:

4 of 9:

5 of 9:

6 of 9:

7 of 9:

8 of 9:

9 of 9:

The Latest Mr. Deity

2010-04-19T00:09:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted in TWO MONTHS, wow! I'm sorry to have just stopped like that, but life got in the way and now I'm trying to get back to it. And to start off, here is the latest Mr. Deity episode, and it is a good one:

Happy Darwin Day!

2010-02-12T14:26:00.002-06:00

   As many of you probably are aware, today, February 12th, is Charles Darwin's birthday. This was 201 years ago, and it's almost 151 years since the publication of his theory in On The Origin of Species. Since then, with all the mountains of evidence we have today, of which has become the basis of all modern biology and modern medicine, much of which would not be possible if it were not for our understanding of the process of evolution by adaptation through natural selection. And there is so much more that we have learned since Darwin's time. Not only have we made numerous discoveries that have added up to mountains of evidence that proves Darwin's theory was right, but we have filled in the gaps in what Darwin didn't know, such Mendell's discoveries of heritability and since Watson & Crick discovered DNA which led to modern genetics. Darwin did not know anything about genetics in his time, it hadn't been discovered yet. And Darwin's ideas, which led to the modern scientific theory of evolution as we know it today, not only reveal to us how amazing and beautiful our biological history is concerning how we got here, but has made possible so much of what modern medicine can provide us with today which has allowed human beings to now live longer on average than human beings have lived ever before in history!
   Darwin's ideas were some of the most important discoveries in scientific history, and therefore I agree that he is a man deserving of remembrance. This is especially true considering that now, over 150 years since his book was published, there are still huge numbers of history deniers here in America and around the world who are basically denying history and clinging to their fundamentalistic world views like children clapping their hands over their ears and wailing "does not! does not! does not!". This leads to so many children being denied a good education in science and the reality of the world around us and the history of our existence.
   There is more I would like to say on this, but I have to get to class, and then work after that. I will however leave you with a couple of good videos.....The first one is Richard Dawkins speaking about Darwin's Universal Impact, the second is Michael Shermer speaking on "Why Darwin Matters, and the third one is President Barack Obama, this time last year, speaking about the importance of science and Darwin at the end. Enjoy......

The New and Old Testament in a Nutshell...Good God, Bad God

2010-02-10T08:35:00.000-06:00

The story of the Christian god, Ha ha ha ha :-)

A Busy Week, And the New Mr. Deity Episode

2010-02-09T03:00:00.000-06:00

   My apologies for the lack of posting the last few days. I've been pretty busy with work and school, and this week I have at least two exams that I need time to prepare for (between work, classes, etc). So, postings may be a bit slow for a couple more days. I will however, do my best to post at least something once a day. I have come across some funny stuff, I just haven't had the time to post.
   That being said, I appreciate everyone who is subscribed and still enjoys reading my little blog. Now I'll leave you with the new episode of Mr. Deity. Enjoy...

   Oh, and here is a funny video that I watched the other day, it's the story of Noah's Ark, put together by The Thinking Atheist. And you should also check out some of the other videos on his YouTube Channel, good stuff :-) Now I am off to the little bit of sleep that I still have time for before my behavioral neuroscience class class in the morning (I love that class, by the way. Very interesting.)

A First-Person Account of the Scientologists Shenanigans in Haiti

2010-02-04T13:29:00.000-06:00

I have to go to class asap, but I thought I'd leave this here for you to read in amusement (amusement desperately needed after the anger my last blog post caused me to feel). It's a first-person witness account of someone who was with the kooky Scientologists who went to Haiti, to get in the way of other people and organizations who were there to offer actual help and aid. Click here for the article....

The Power of Prayer

2010-02-04T13:01:00.000-06:00

There is not a lot that really upsets me in so much a way that it makes me nauseous and angry to think about it, but this type of story is one of those things that do. I'm speaking of an article from examiner.com, that I got a link to from a post on the Swift Blog, on the JREF website. The article was concerning the trial of Jeff and Marci Beagley, who are facing charges for the Negligent death of their 16 year old son, Neil. Neil died in June of 2008 with complications that arose from a urinary tract blockage that doctors are saying could have been easily treated.
The Beagley's are followers of Christ Church, Oregon City, a fundamentalist church who teaches the literal interpretation of scripture, which includes denying medical treatments, and instead turning to prayer and faith healing. And Neil's parents just allowed him to die from a commonly treatable ailment, without ever seeking medical attention. As Alison Smith stated in her Swift Blog post concerning this case:

"Neil Beagley didn't die in a hospital. He didn't die surrounded by doctors who were stumped regarding his next stage of treatment. Sixteen-year-old Neil Beagley didn't die peacefully with an IV in his arm pumping in morphine to lessen what must have been excruciating pain. He died in his grandmother's bed, without having received any medical treatment of any kind. Doctors say that Neil's illness was treatable right up until the day he died."

   Furthermore, this is not the first time this family has been responsible for this type of negligent death of a child! Their grandchild, 15-month-old Ava Worthington (the daughter of their daughter, Raylene Worthington) died in March 2008 as well from an easily treatable combination of pneumonia and a blood infection. It is amazing that the family learned nothing from this first death, only 3 months earlier. And, the worst part about Ava Worlington's case, is that her father (Carl Worthington) spent less than two months in jail for the death of his daughter!
   Now, the Beagley's have been found guilty and sentenced to 16 to 18 months in prison. This, in my opinion, is far to small of a sentence for two parents who let their child die in excruciating pain, with no medical attention, "as his body filled with urine".
   And this is something that we hear about all the time, like the case of Estelle Walker, convicted earlier this month for starving her four children, and telling them that "God would provide". As the article (linked above) stated: " At one point, they said, they went 11 days without food. By July of that year, when a neighbor called police, an 8-year-old daughter was down to 34 pounds". Furthermore, it pains me to say that I know that I could probably find many more recent cases like this with a quick ten minute google search. It puts tears in my eyes right now just thinking of all of the children that have been practically tortured, many times to death, by parents who refused to get their children medical treatment for commonly treatable ailments. All this because they think that there is some magic man in the sky who will wiggle his ears or something and make all the bad stuff go away. I mean, are you kidding me?? What the F%#K is going through these people's heads as they watch their children die?!?!? Oh yeah, God will provide, God will provide, God will provide. Yeah, well, I could only say one thing to those type of people...."If there was some chance that I am wrong, and your god does exist, then he doesn't give a shit! Now stop reaching to the sky, like some kind of schizophrenic person talking to a lightbulb, and start dealing with reality."
   All I know is that these religious zealots allowed their children to die painful deaths while they just watched and hoped that an imaginary magic man in the sky would make it all go away, when they could have helped their child at any time by getting him medical attention. These types of people don't deserve to have children, and they should be locked up for far longer than the few months that they get sentenced to.
   And they say that religion doesn't hurt anybody................

LOL, Teach Both Sides!

2010-02-03T01:13:00.000-06:00

This is spoof, but I can't say how much it reminds me of so many of our popular news media (especially one, that will remain nameless, but let's just say that it rhymes with "Box", lol). And I'm sure that anyone who watches this who promotes this "teach the controversy" crap about teaching non-science (a.k.a. history denial) in the science classroom as an alternative to the Theory of Evolution, would watch this and be completely blind as to how closely it portrays their arguments. However, it is really funny, and fits what goes on far too often to a T.....

Ha Ha Ha, Snake Oil Salesman Get's Laughed Off the Stage

2010-02-02T03:29:00.001-06:00

I came across this wonderfully funny video via a tweet by Richard Saunders of The Skeptic Zone Podcast. This is hilarious, especially funny to watch in the wake of the 10:23 protests. I hate to see "snake oil salesman" preying on uninformed, suffering people just to make a buck, and was thoroughly entertained to see this, lol.....

(it is my understanding that this was originally passed on by Chris, and the JREF)

After the 10:23 Overdose, Homeopaths Publicly Admit it's Just Water

2010-02-01T17:03:00.000-06:00

Looks like the 10:23 protests which took place all over the UK and a couple places in America payed off a bit already. The New Zealand Council of Homeopaths have now openly admitted that their products do not contain any "material substances". People pay huge amounts of money for these homeopathic remedies which are sold in many drug stores right next to real medicine and most people don't know that it is just water. Not only is this fraud, as well as a huge wasting of people's money, but it endangers sick people who take these useless homeopathic remedies instead of real medicine.
Hopefully this will be the start of a movement that will bring into the public's view the scope of the fraud being committed by the people endangering the lives of people by pushing this worthless crap. I definitely urge you to take your business to somewhere more ethical if you discover your local pharmacy selling homeopathic products.

Justice Served for George Tiller's Murderer

2010-01-31T01:46:00.000-06:00

I'm happy to say that Scott Roeder, the man who shot and killed Dr. George Tiller was convicted for murder. Apparently the DA is seeking to give him life, with a "hard 50", which means he'll have to serve a minimum of 50 years before he is eligible for parole. The man is 51 now, so that is a life sentence, period, and I couldn't agree more. As Martin said on The Atheist Experience Blog, "Never fear, Scott. Once they're done with you in there, at least you won't need an abortion."

I kinda like this song.....

2010-01-30T23:38:00.001-06:00

I just came across this song, "The God Delusion", by Markella. I like what she's saying....

Click on the "read more" link below this line to see the lyrics....

I had a dream

Of a peaceful place

And the peaceful place was here

No gods to love

No people to hate

For the hate would disappear

But its not like that

Gods people rule

And Gods people rule with fear

And Im not afraid

They cant have my mind

For my mind will persevere

I am just one voice

But with others just like me

Well fight the fight of reason together

Everyones a player in the game

No one can escape the god delusion

Everywhere I look I see the same

People overwhelmed with god delusion

Everyday I feel the shame

of centuries of god delusion

Everybody shares the blame

For a world still plagued by god delusion

All I see around me are the casualties of god delusion

Everyone bamboozled with the certainties of god delusion

Why cant we have freedom from the cruelties of god delusion

Save us all from god delusion

Time is running out

To destroy the gods

The gods no one can see

If we dont want to die

And we want to live

We cant live with theocracy

You cant silence us

We are everywhere

And everywhere well be

We will mock your gods

Well proclaim the truth

And the truth is blasphemy

I am just one voice

But with others just like me

Well fight the fight of reason together

Everyones a player in the game

No one can escape the god delusion

Everywhere I look I see the same

People overwhelmed with god delusion

Everyday I feel the shame

of centuries of god delusion

Everybody shares the blame

For a world still plagued by god delusion

All I see around me are the casualties of god delusion

Everyone bamboozled with the certainties of god delusion

Why cant we have freedom from the cruelties of god delusion

Save us all from god delusion

School Bans....Dictionary?!?!?!?!? Seriously?!?!?!?!?

2010-01-27T03:01:00.001-06:00

It's bad enough that I sometimes hear about crazy right wingers trying to get some school some school libraries to ban some works of literature that they don't agree with. That makes me angry enough that they are literally cutting children off from learning in an academic environment, which is the last place where censorship should take place in literature. However, I am still suprised to hear a school banning the Webster's Collegiate Dictionary from their shelves! I mean, seriously? A dictionary?
But yes, Oak Meadows Elementary School in California has removed the dictionaries from their shelves after a parent has complained about one term in the dictionary! I mean, this kind of thing coming from an academic institution really makes me shake my head in embarrassment to have these kinds of educational institutions in my country. Seriously, if they banned every book that had one word that some crazy parent didn't like, they wouldn't have many books at all......yes, it burns :-(

Slip and Slide, LOL

2010-01-27T02:18:00.000-06:00

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

"Mr. Deity and the Promised Land" - New Mr. Deity Episode out...

2010-01-26T02:04:00.003-06:00

I love the Mr. Deity show. I hope that one of these days he gets a deal for a full TV series. The show is hilarious. Well, here is the newest episode, "Mr. Deity and the Promised Land", enjoy:

Oh, and if you've never watched the show before, it's halfway through it's third season now, and you should go to the Mr. Deity website and watch the back episodes. Here are a couple of my favorites on youtube: Mr. Deity and the Skeptic (with Michael Shermer), Mr. Deity and the Evil, Mr. Deity and the Identity Crisis, & Mr. Deity and the Science Advisor (with PZ Meyers!) just to name a few. There are many more to check out on the website too. Enjoy :-)

New Podcast, D.J. Grothe Interviews James Randi in First Episode

2010-01-25T13:08:00.000-06:00

D.J. Grothe, who is now the President of the JREF, has now recorded the first episode of his new podcast called "For Good Reason", where he interviews James Randi. According to the shows webpage:

"James Randi discusses his health and cancer treatment pseudoscience. He talks about JREF’s future, including expansion of the Million Dollar Challenge, a renewed focus on the skeptic grassroots, and international expansion of The Amaz!ng Meetings. He also reacts to the arrest of bomb dowsing huckster James McCormick on fraud charges, stressing the real-world implications of the skeptical outlook.…"

I haven't listened to the show yet, as I just saw the announcement on twitter. However, I loved D.J. Grothe's "Point of Inquiry" podcast, and (although I was sad to see he won't be hosting it anymore since he left the Center For Inquiry to take his new position as President of the JREF) I'm sure I will enjoy his new show, which I will be listening to tonight :-) Furthermore, I can honestly say that I've never heard an interview with James Randi that I didn't enjoy. He's definitely one of my heros.

So, that being said, you should all go to their webpage and listen to the show, or if you use iTunes, like I do, search for "For Good Reason" on iTunes and subscribe/download the show there. I'm certainly looking forward to listening to it this evening.

Guide to Creationist Arguments

2010-01-25T12:45:00.000-06:00

Ha ha ha, this diagram sums up almost every creationist argument I hear, lol.....

9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People Finally Available!

2010-01-24T23:12:00.000-06:00

If you are a skeptic like myself then you probably remember hearing about "9 Lesons and Carols for Godless People", which took place in the UK this last December. Well, someone just posted it on YouTube in the last few days. Also, thanks to The Skeptic magazine for tweeting about it with the godless link for everyone. Anyways, I have been waiting for a month for someone to post it online so that I could check it out. Furthermore, as expected, it made my night...I thoroughly enjoyed it.The full lineup consisted of: Robin Ince, Richard Dawkins, Brian Cox, Mark Steel, Richard Herring, Shappi Khorsandi, Ben Goldacre, Simon Singh, Barry Cryer and Ronnie Golden, Robyn Hitchcock, Jim Bob and Baba Brinkman.

Robin Ince was funny and awesome throughout being funny and skeptical and intellectual all at once, Brian Cox was inspiring while discussing the immensity of the known universe, Mark Steel was funny, Robyn Hitchcock sung an inspirational piece about skepticism, faith, and silly beliefs, Simon Singh (who I was definitely glad to hear) was great talking about the silliness of bible code, Shappi Khorsandi was delightful, Baba Brinkman performed a great piece of scientific hip-hop, Richard Dawkins was inspiring as always, Jim Bob sung an incredibly moving piece of skeptical music (which I enjoyed immensely), Ben Goldacre gave a wonderful fast paced presentation of skepticism, Richard Herring told entertaining stories of youthful imaginativeness, and finally , Barry Crier and Ronnie Golden sung a closing song of PEACE AND QUIET, LOL :-) And without further delay, here is 9 Lessons and Carols for Godless People 2009...I hope you enjoy this godless entertainment as much as I did......

Part 1 of 8

Part 2 of 8

Part 3 of 8

Part 4 of 8

Part 5 of 8

Part 6 of 8

Part 7 of 8

Part 8 of 8

I hope you enjoyed these godless bits of science, skepticism, and all around good entertainment, and I can't wait till next years production :-)

Atheists Helping the Homeless Just Had Their Biggest Giveaway Yet!

2010-01-24T13:34:00.000-06:00

   As I have said before, not only do I value humanist ideals and strongly believe in doing community service and helping others, but I think that it is important for atheists to openly do community service while proudly saying that we are atheists because it counteracts the idea that atheists are immoral and don't care about others. I know it sounds silly, but I am always taken back by the number of people who seem to think that atheists don't care about others, which is not the case. In fact, most atheists I know care quite a bit about helping others.
   Well, that being said, I was glad to hear that the Atheists Helping The Homeless group here in nearby Austin, Texas just had it's biggest giveaway to date. I'm happy to see that they are doing well and growing and I am also pleased to see more groups like them springing up all over the country. I would urge you to look around and help your local group, as well as checking out Atheists Helping The Homeless and maybe send a few dollars their way if you can afford it. The biggest thing groups like this need are donations, no matter how small, every little bit helps. However, if you really can't afford to help financially then simply help by spreading the word to others about AHH and groups like them.
   Anyways, here is a video of their latest giveaway, showing a bit of what they are doing...I also encourage you to check out their website (linked above) and help out if you agree with what they are doing.

Jim McCormick, the Guy who Sold the Dousing Rod "Bomb Detection Devise" was finally arrested and James Randi has a Few Words to Say About it.

2010-01-23T20:59:00.000-06:00

This is a story that pissed me off quite a bit when I first heard about it. Basically what happened is the Iraq Military had been buying and outfitting their soldiers (who were manning checkpoints and searching for bombs passing through the checkpoints) with bomb detectors that were essentially dousing rods! Phil Plait, the then president of the JREF, wrote an article about it back in November of last year. Now,the main reason that this upset me so much is the fact that arming the soldiers with bomb detectors that don't detect anything will probably lead to the deaths of many innocent people.
Well, long story short, James McCormic is the guy running the company who sold $85,000,000 worth of these useless devices to the Iraqi Military, and probably others. Now it is being reported by the BBC and others that McCormick has been arrested and charged with fraud. Furthermore, I hope that they throw the book at him, because his useless devices have probably already let many bombs through checkpoints that have killed and injured innocent people, many of which would have probably been stopped with real bomb detectors, bomb sniffing dogs, etc. Well, I just read about McCormick's arrest on the JREF website (linked to above) and James Randi (who is awesome by the way) had a few of his own words to say on the matter...and I couldn't agree more.......

Something Interesting to Look Forward to at the End of this Year

2010-01-13T03:33:00.000-06:00

   The First Annual Freethought Film Festival will be held in Florida in November this year! I'm excited to hear this. I love independent films and film festivals, and it would be awesome to see a film festival focusing on films with freethinking, atheist, skeptical, and secular humanist values. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this turns out. Here is a quote from their webpage:

   "FFFF planning for the First Annual International Freethought Film Festival event in Tampa, Florida. (target date November 2010) is well underway! The mission of the FFFF is to promote reason, critical thinking and freedom of inquiry through the medium of film. With support from freethinkers who have viewpoints that are agnostic, atheist, humanist, secular humanist, rationalist, skeptic, of "Bright" mind, non-religious or otherwise non-traditional; we can produce a focused means through which freethought ideas can be presented to the community. Such focus and collaboration on a single project for freethinkers is what will make this a success."

   So, keep this in mind any of you who may be in Florida that time of year, and if you know anyone who is involved in making films of this type then certainly give them a heads up for a submission. And, for those of us who probably can't afford to be in Florida this November, I hope that they have ways for us to acquire the films to watch ourselves. Also, they have a facebook page, so click here to visit their page, become a fan, and keep up with what's going on with this.

Sometimes it Hurts to Be Reminded How Stupid Many of Our Leaders Are....

2010-01-13T02:51:00.000-06:00

Every so often (actually quite often, to be honest, lol) I see something involving individuals that participate in the leading of our nation that is an unfortunate reminder of how stupid and insane many of our elected leaders really are. I saw this video the other day, I think it happened on December 17th, and it was just another of it's kind that made me say "what the @%$# ?" Here, have a look for yourself...

I mean, come on! I know that there are incredibly stupid, ignorant, and deluded people out there, but to be reminded that people like this who are in control of the laws, rules, and policies that govern my life. But then again, it's why there are so many laws, rules, and policies that I disagree with. However, it is particularly disturbing when I see them sincerely arm-waving and praying to their god that he ends healthcare reform (apparently it must be a sin to help everyone get access to healthcare). I guess that they must just want poor people to stay sick and desperate so that they will keep praying to their imaginary friend and putting what little money they may have into these bastards hands in exchange for a bit more false hope. Furthermore, what saddens me more than seeing our nations leaders doing something so ignorant and counterproductive, is the fact that they have enough deluded supporters in our population to keep them in office. It's not surprising, just sad to be reminded of.

One final note....things like this should definitely serve as reminders of how important it is that skeptical, empirically rational, reason based thinking individuals do what they can do to participate in politics and getting our voices heard, as well as supporting members of the skeptical and atheist community in getting elected to public office. We cave constant reminders of how hard it is to change things, but it takes time. We are however, among the fastest growing groups in America, and our influence is growing. So, my fellow skeptics, atheists, and all members of the reason based community, keep it up. I know we've got a long ways to go, however we have already come very far and there are no limits to where the future can take us.

I'll be back!

2009-12-31T20:47:00.000-06:00

I offer my apologies to all of you who have been following this blog. I've been out of town visiting family for a bit and then I was sick for a bit. I'm back now, and I will be posting new topics ASAP. I just got off work and I'm exhausted, but check back...I'll do my best to start posting again tomorrow.

The Tree of Knowledge

2009-12-14T23:25:00.000-06:00

I love this. Brian Sapient of the Rational Response Squad made this video about a project sponsored by the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, The Tree of Knowledge. I think it's an excellent idea...

This Kid Has Definitely Earned the Darwin Award!

2009-12-10T01:43:00.000-06:00

I got this from Skeptic Magazine. It's sad, but a definite candidate for the Darwin Award right here. The article can be found here, and I will just post the text below. Talk about an unusual way to go:

Ukraine - A Ukrainian chemistry student who had the bizarre habit of chewing gum after dipping it in citric acid, has been found dead with his jaw blown off.

The student's jaw was believed to be blown off by exploding chewing gum.

Officers found citric acid packets and a similar-looking unidentified substance, believed to be some kind of explosive material, on a table near the 25-year-old's body, Russian news agency Ria Novosti said.

Investigators suspect the student confused the packets and put gum covered with explosive material into his mouth.

Wow...just, wow.......

The Oxymoron Reading Room

2009-12-09T18:08:00.003-06:00

   I had to snap a picture of this. I call it the Oxymoron Reading Room. I live three blocks from campus (it's really nice to live so close, that way I rarely have to put gas in my truck), and this is one block from campus. I walk past it every day. You can't see it, but the walls on both sides have book shelves containing all sorts of logical fallacies and pseudoscience that is being presented as real science. I find it quite laughable. Although, I am happy to say that in the last year since I've been here, I don't think that I've ever seen anyone in there, lol, so that's is definitely a good thing.

   And, I also wanted to apologize to any of you who have been following this blog for not posting very often this last week or two. It's the end of the semester, and I've been busy on last minute projects. Next week is also finals, so it will probably still be a bit slow till the middle of next week.
   I do want to thank all those who have been reading and commenting. I'm happy with the amount of visitors who have showed up in the short time since I've been writing. So, thanks to everyone :-)

The Crazy Fundamentalists Were Shouting Their Nuttiness on Campus Today

2009-12-08T21:33:00.000-06:00

Well, look at the nutjobs who were in the middle of my University campus the last couple days. These guys looked like Christians from the far nutjobiest end of the Christian spectrum. I had headphones in my ears and was running late for a class, so I didn't have any time to stop. I just snapped a couple pictures as I passed by. But I could hear this guy from a block away, shouting fire and brimstone and hellfire. However, I was glad to see that there were other students there who were telling him how full of shit he was.
I looked up this guy's website. He calls himself Brother Jed, and he's been doing this for 30 years, preaching on college campuses. It sure is sad, in my opinion, when someone spends so many years telling everyone that they're going to hell and preaching this hateful type of message when there is so much joy in life that they are missing out on. It's just sad that people can be this demented. You can search "Brother Jed" on YouTube and find plenty of his craziness. I do think it is pretty funny that, although you probably can't see it in the picture above, that little blue bumper sticker on the leather bag is a "Palin 2012" sticker. It's fitting, wouldn't you say?

I must say that a person has to be pretty twisted if they think that we all deserve to be burned and tortured forever in pain because of such trivial things. And, to devote your life to preaching such hatred is an utter waste.
I don't care if someone believes in something utterly stupid, or even if they waste their life on it, even if I think it's a waste and they're missing out on reality. However, I do take offense when they tell me that they think that I deserve to be burned and tortured forever for not agreeing with them.

D.J. Grothe is the new President of the JREF!

2009-12-07T17:06:00.000-06:00

Just to let you all know, in case you hadn't already heard, D.J. Grothe has just been named the new President of the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation). P.Z. Myers said that Phil Plait is stepping down to pursue a TV career, and although we're all sad to see him go, I hope it all goes great for him. I have been listening to D.J. Grothe on the podcast Point of Inquiry, (great show, by the way, I highly recommend it) for The Center for inquiry for a long time now, as well as serving as vice president of the organization for like ten years now, and I think that he will do an excellent job at the JREF in his new position.

Tis The Season, and Atheists are Jealous of the Holiday

2009-12-06T23:30:00.000-06:00

   Yup, it's that time of the year again, time for the war on christmas, and Bill O'Reilly, along with others from FOX News are already spouting their stupidity. That's right, in responding to the wonderful way that so many humanist and atheist organizations have been posting billboards, bus ads, etc., in the attempt to simply let many non-believers (who may feel rather alone this time of year if they don't have any other freethinkers to relate to) know that they are not alone, are simply jealous and they "want more presents".

   These people, like FOX and Friends, dictate to the far right population. Most people who eat this up are christians, but are blind to reality and the fact that this holiday season is not theirs. Christianity stole the celebration of the season from other cultures before them. In fact, there have been many different celebrations from all cultures which take place this time of year since long before Christmas, or even Christianity were invented. Most originating with the winter solstice, which is a good reason to celebrate (also a practical reason) because the harvest and the changing of the season were what a population's survival depended on long ago. Apparently, FOX News and their followers don't realize that they don't own the month of December. Roy Zimmermann (gotta love him) made a good song for the season :-)

   And if you don't already know who Roy Zimmerman is, I'll also share with you one of his songs that got me liking his music. It's his song about creationism, "Creation Science 101" (click here to listen)

   And finally, yes, it IS that time of year. So, happy holidays, whatever you do or do not give a shit about, and happy winter solstice, or just happy december, to you all..........

Hitler, On Chiropractic Evidence

2009-12-06T22:35:00.000-06:00

Ha ha ha, I thought this video was funny. It's the same old scene from the Hitler movie that I have seen many versions of where people put all sorts of funny subtitles on, but this one is very funny. Also, because the word chiropractic could be replaced with any of the other baseless claims that people apply pseudoscience to, such as homeopathy, naturopathy, faith healing, etc. Anyways, laugh it up :-)

An Atheist Finds God

2009-12-05T14:33:00.001-06:00

Yeah, you heard me right, an atheist finds god! And, if you're like me, you may already be getting your feathers ruffled. But, hear him out, and wait till he starts presenting his evidence. In fact, I think I will pray to the same god from now on........

Jesus in a Can

2009-12-01T15:02:00.002-06:00

You think you have everything? I think not. You want a portable savior that you can take anywhere? Well, now you can, with Jesus in a can! And, as if that wasn't enough, now, and for a limited time,you can get 20% more jesus per can!!!!!!

Well, at least we now know how he got on the iron that was in the news the other day...

(personally, I think it looks more like the Mona Lisa, but that's neither here nor there)

Also noteworthy, it appears that the Flying Spaghetti Monster wanted to remind us all of his noodly goodness and how we all have been touched by his noodly appendages in one way or another, and he's made an appearance recently as well......

Apparently the sauce is strong with Tim Morgan, Ramen!!!!!!!

Talked to a Street Monk Today

2009-12-01T01:52:00.000-06:00

   I was approached by a street monk today, on my walk home from class. Apparently this guy was from one more popular Hare Krishna movements here in the U. S. Well, I didn't mind hearing what he had to say for a moment because sometimes I find these kooky types somewhat amusing, also he was offering a copy of the Bhagavad Gita (while asking me if I was interested in knowledge, lol) that looked like a decent quality copy, and I've been meaning to get one to add to my collection of holy books. I like to have as many religious texts on my bookshelf as I can find for both novelty purposes, and for reference when some religious person wants to use a particular text in an argument.
   Well, moving on, unfortunately, the guy asked for a donation for the book. I gave him a few dollars, which I don't feel to bad about because it's a decent quality hardcover, and like 870 pages with good color pictures of famous paintings in the center, information on sanskrit pronunciation, glossary, etc. But, what I found very funny, after I got home and flipped through it, was when I noticed that there was a little ribbon bookmarker tucked in the middle. I opened to the marked page and had a bit of a chuckle to the idea that these guys must have marked this place on purpose, being that they were giving these to college kids.
   And the text where the ribbon was placed, which is Text 15 of the Bhagavad Gita, states:

"Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, who are lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons do not surrender unto me."

Ha, ha, ha, and the page explaining this verse goes on to explain that those philosophers, politicians, scientists, educators, administrators, etc., who do not surrender to the lotus feet of the supreme god, are not actually philosophers, scientists, etc., but only pose as such for material gain! Ha, ha, ha, I do find this insult to be quite amusing. It doesn't stop there either, it goes on to explain the "atheistic planmakers" are the ones referred to as miscreants in the verse, and that there are 2 classes of miscreants. 1), the mudhas, are those who are grossly foolish, and 2) the naradhama, or the "lowest of mankind". These naradhama are explained to be "socially and politically developed, but have no religious principals". So, us atheists, skeptics, and otherwise rational thinkers are, according to the Bhagavad Gita, the lowest form of mankind.

I got a laugh out of this because lots of these older religious ideas, although kooky and silly, have poetic nature in their texts, and also are relics of our evolutionary history as we, as human beings, evolved our morals, values, and knowledge about the world around us. However, it's funny how all theologies, no matter how innocent and seemingly peaceful they look on the surface, all encourage and teach that it is wrong to use your brain and critically examine their doctrines, teachings, and the rest of the world around you. If you do, you would find that the natural world functions fine by itself, without all these fairy tales. Not only that, but the endless discoveries of the natural sciences reveal a world so many more times more amazing, beautiful, fascinating, and awe inspiring, than anything that primitive man had ever dreamed up with our ancient ideas of golden clad gods and mythical spirits.

Porn is More Powerful Than I thought

2009-11-30T01:57:00.002-06:00

Apparently the Indonesian Communication Minister, Tifatul Sembrig, is claiming that the availability of porn and the like, is responsible for the natural disasters such as the recent earthquake which killed over 1,000 people and the tsunami of 2004. Wow.
You should probably make a phone call or two because, if you're like me, you probably have a friend or two that you need to go warn before a tornado drops down right on top of their house!

Fundie Friday (On Sunday)

2009-11-29T17:21:00.001-06:00

Sorry everyone, being out of town to see family for turkey day, getting back worried about schoolwork deadlines, and finals coming up, have got me all out of whack, and I forgot to make a Fundie Friday post. Well, here, I'll post a belated Friday Fundie to make up.....

This one comes from a post on Pharyngula, it's not text taken from a message board, but a photo taken from a church sign in Arkansas. So, it's still an actual statement made publicly by fundamentalists.

It sounds crazy, but these types of statements are made to religious followers, who eat it up, and we wonder why a believer closes their ears to a logical, rational, reasonable argument.
It's funny, because I can remember the leader of our church while I was growing up, saying that we should leave much of the hard research in the bible to the Pastor and Elders in the church, who Yahweh has given the proper understanding to interpret the scriptures. Otherwise, he said, you'll "study yourself right out" of the church. Ha Ha Ha, and looking back...it's just so sad :-(

A Reason to Celebrate

2009-11-25T02:50:00.001-06:00

Today (or technically yesterday, considering that it is 2:30am here in Texas) is definitely a reason to celebrate, and a reason to celebrate reason. November 24th 2009 is the 150th aniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species. I don't have much to say, because it's late and I'm exhausted, but I just thought I'd put that out there. Just to remind everyone how much of modern medicine and biological research and discovery would not be possible if we did not understand The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. So, just remember the value of standing up for truth, like Darwin, Galilelo, and Socrates, who were put through a lot of shit just for standing up for the truth.
And remember, believing in what makes you happy, rather than what is true, gets us nowhere.

They are Angry, Simply Because We Say that We Exist

2009-11-24T16:11:00.003-06:00

   I was really impressed by this video. Furthermore, if you like it, you should subscribe to Philhellene's youtube account and give him some support. He talks about the recent popularity of atheist billboards, and shows how people with religious people are getting offended and lashing out toward them.
   Just the fact that people are being offended by us and those like us speaking out and simply stating that we exist (and if you are one of us then you are not alone, and there is a community you can relate to) is angering these people, shows just how important that campaigns such as these billboards are.
   And, with that I'll say no more because he says it all so well in this video:

   If you agree, then please show support to organizations who are putting up billboards, organizing atheist communities, and doing things like running atheist outreach programs (like Atheists Helping the Homeless that I talked about in an earlier post) and donate if you can, contact them and help out, or even start your own local atheist community.

They Want Us to Pay For Their Prayers!

2009-11-23T13:42:00.002-06:00

I just read an article that was posted in the Washington Post today, about fundamentalist Christians trying to get prayer forced into the healthcare reform bill, as something that they can force insurance to have to pay for!
Here is the first couple paragraphs in the article:

The calls come in at all hours: patients reporting broken bones, violent coughs, deep depression. Prue Lewis listens as they explain their symptoms. Then Lewis -- a thin, frail-looking woman from Columbia Heights -- simply says, "I'll go to work right away." She hangs up, organizes her thoughts and begins treating her clients' ailments the best way she knows how: She prays.

   The woo-woo purveyors who are attempting to push this type of worthless faith healing charge $20 - $40 for this crap, and they are trying to get this put into the new healthcare reform bill so that we all will have to pay for it! Furthermoer there are powerful politicians and others who are allied with them, helping to push this into the Senate Bill. It was originally stripped out of the House Bill that was recently passed, and now they are trying to get it put back in before it is passed by the Senate.
   The article states that "She doesn't see most of the patients she treats. That isn't necessary, she said, for her prayers to be effective.", and they want our tax money to be forced to pay for this? That really bothers me. Not only are they wasting our tax money, and at the same time putting money in the pockets of complete quacks who are taking advantage of people, but calling labeling this as healthcare is risking the lives of people, including children who fall for this sort of nonsence!
   You should click on the link in the text above, or click here, and read the entire article. These Christian "Scientists" (I wince at the use of the word "scientist" to describe these openly ANTI-SCIENCE people) use writings by people like Mary Baker Eddy as key tennets of the type of healthcare that they are advocating. Here is what the article has to say about this:

In her book, Eddy lays out an alternative system of health care, one with prayer practitioners and nursing facilities where attendants bandage and comfort but do not provide drugs or perform procedures as basic as setting bones.

Today we have antibiotics, vaccines, advanced diagnostic procedures, and advanced treatments that are able to heal more medical problems than ever before,, and our average lifespan is higher than it ever was in the history of our species. Now, these people want to ignore our constitutional seperation of church and state, implement an alternative healthcare program that uses treatments from the dark ages, and pray the broken bones back into place! And they want to force all of us to have to pay for it, you have got to be freaking kidding me!!!

If you can contact your local senators, write letters, do what you can to stop government sanctioned prayer, and dangerous anti-healthcare practices. Write letters, do what you can. This worthless crap does not belong in our healthcare bill.

The Kirk Cameron Action Kit!!!!

2009-11-23T09:46:00.001-06:00

If you are like me, and was annoyed by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron's deceptive tactics of coming to your campus to distribute their mutilated copies of On The Origin of Species a day earlier than they had announced, I bet you wish you would have had this:

The Kirk Cameron Action Kit!!!

This Kid is Awesome: 10 Year Old Student Stands up Against Bigotry

2009-11-22T18:16:00.002-06:00

This kid is awesome! It's so refreshing to see a ten year old child that can use his critical thinking ability to discern something complicated like bigotry and civil rights, and then then to openly make a statement to stand up for freedom, liberty, and justice for all.......

Also, check out this video of the last episode The Daily Show With Jon Stuart, where Jon offers Will Philips, the ten year old boy, the protection of wrestler Mick Foley...ha ha ha, I'm glad that this boy is getting all this good media support.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Gaywatch - Peter Vadala & William Phillips

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

And here, Kyra Phillips on CNN had something to say to anyone who wants to bully Will Phillips...

The Earth is Flat! And Other False Beliefs Based on Dogma and Pseudoscience that Stress the Need for Critical Thinking

2009-11-22T15:59:00.000-06:00

   I was having a discussion with a couple of friends this morning at a local coffee shop about the prevalence of dogmatic beliefs in our society. Beliefs that involve the outright denial of logic and rational thinking that takes place when arguing against things like the theory of evolution in the face of the wealth of scientific knowledge that we, as human beings, have gained in out short history of existence on this planet (just a blip on the map, compared to the approximately four and a half billion years since our planet was formed). I find it hard to imagine that a person in this day and age can actually believe in things like the denial of evolution, the embracing of fundamentalist religious ideologies, supernatural existence of things like ghosts and ESP, etc., with not only a complete lack of ANY evidence for these beliefs, but mountains of documented scientific evidence that indicates these things to be so highly unlikely that the probability of there being any truth to these beliefs is virtually nonexistent.
   That being said, I was reminded of something that I overheard in a discussion that two people were having while I was waiting at the plasma center last week. (I am a poor college student at the moment, and I donate plasma every week for some extra gas money) I was sitting there and overheard a 29 year old woman telling her friend how she had just learned that the earth was round! Hearing that, my first reaction was to assume that the woman was not being serious. However, upon a little further listening to her discussion, I am convinced that she was being serious. She even said at one point that she had always thought that the world was flat, and was amazed to learn that it was in fact round.
   I understand that this woman obviously held her beliefs about the world being flat out of ignorance. However, upon hearing things like this, I am constantly reminded of the fact that there are still people in the modern world who either don't understand the facts, or outrightly reject the evidence of reality for their deeply held dogmatic beliefs. This has me constantly being reminded of how important it is to fight against those who continually attempt to push pseudoscience into the school classroom, as well as getting classes in critical thinking into the required core curriculum. It is so sad that there are so many people out there who live their whole lives without ever questioning their own core beliefs, and the fact that there are still people out there who believe that the Sun rotates around the Earth is a testament to this. Here, in this video is a good example. In the video is an Iraqi "Researcher on Astronomy" who is debating with a physicist and arguing that the world is flat, based on Koranic verses:

   This dogmatic belief in the infallibility of the Koran in it's description of the natural world is the faulty premise that he is basing his argument on. This belief that the Koran is infallible is a dogmatic belief that does not stand up to scientific scrutiny when examined, as do the holy books of most religions. This just goes to show how important it is to employ the scientific method, and examine even our most deeply held beliefs, or else the dogma of the past can always lead us down the path of ignorance and halting our moral, ethical, technological, and societal advancement.

Fundie Friday

2009-11-20T13:27:00.000-06:00

This quote came from here, at www.fstdt.com, where they have huge collections of quotes from religious people taken from actual internet message boards.

"After holding back and just reading the comments I feel that I must post yet again. Say what you will but homosexuals are not even human. They are diseased, degenerate creatures who mock humans. The goal that they will freely admit to is to erase any trace of decency or humanity from the planet until we are all wallowing in filth and disease like them. If you are religous at all you recognize that this is the work of satan and that they have no souls, just lust for each other. Someone mentioned that it was Lamda who filed the suit, not Nambla. What is the difference, perversion is perversion, and if you don't think that the ACLU won't soon be filing on behalf of pedos then you are the one being foolish. The ACLU exists for purpose only, to destroy America. Hopefully one day there will be a test to determine if the fetus is gay. Then you could abort it since it is not human. Only the then will we wipe this scourge from the world. Until then we will have to do it one at a time."

T thought Fridays would be a good day to post outlandish comments from religious people. I was going to call it "Funny Fundie Friday", but some of the quotes like this one are just not funny. This one is more sad than anything. Christians claim that their beliefs are all about love and peace, but look at the hatred for another human being that her beliefs have caused her to express, all because that human being was born different than her.......so sad.
Seeing that the previous quote was quite sad, I'll end this with another quote, located here, that reminds me how Christians can compartmentalize and ignore their rational mind, or any thought at all for that matter...

"That's the beauty of Heaven... we can leave our brains behind"

Atheists Helping the Homeless

2009-11-19T10:54:00.001-06:00

Over the last decade of two, atheist groups composed of individuals who are proud to come out and say that we don't believe in a god or the supernatural. The benefit of all of these best selling books, billboards, and other media grabbing phenomena, is 1) to let all of the unbelievers who feel alone in their disbelief know that they are not alone, and there are many rational thinkers like themselves out there, and 2) to let the general public know that we are a significant part of the population, that we do deserve respect, and that we are not going anywhere.
The next step, which was also the overarching there of the 2009 Texas Freethought Convention that I attended last weekend, is that we create real communities for atheists and freethinkers to be a part of, and to lend our support to each other, which is in itself a huge reason that people stay a part of their local church communities. And, we are doing it. Hundreds, if not thousands of atheist communities are emerging throughout the country, not just to get together and talk about religion, or not believing in a god, but to interact, have fun, and create real communities of likeminded individuals. I'm really happy to see that we now have a camp quest here in Texas! I mean, I has really happy to hear that announcement at the Convention.

   This brings us to another area that we, as atheists need to be focussing on. We need to be contributing to our surrounding communities. We need to show the the population at large that atheists are good, compasionate people. Show people how rational, secular morality, without rules passed down from some holy book, creates moral, compassionate, good people. And I'm happy to see that is happening around the country. I'm seeing more atheist groups doing community cleanups, charities, helping the homeless, etc, and openly saying that we are atheists and we care. The logo lo the left above is, and I'm proud to say, is representing a local group here in Austin, Texas called Atheists Helping the Homeless (check out their website). I am happy to say that they are doing wonderful work in helping the homeless in Austin, Texas. It's starting out small, but it is growing, and as atheist organizations, and the general public, learn about it, it will grow and grow. Here is a video talking a little about what they are currently doing:

   I urge anyone who can spare a few dollars to help them out, and if you have the opportunity, emulate this type of thing in your local towns and communities. Most atheists that I know are charitable people, and do care, and help out. But, unlike religious organizations, we don't say that we are atheists when we do it. That's all good, but it is good to start doing things like this, as openly atheist individuals, because of the false belief that is popular that atheists are immoral, and don't care about others.
   So, come on fellow atheists and freethinkers, step up and show that atheists are compassionate people who do care about their communities and other human beings in general. But, mainly do it just to help out your fellow human being. Also, check out the Atheists Helping the Homeless website and donate a few dollars, if you can spare it. The more support they can get, the more they can do to help.

Here is a video of their last giveaway on November 8th:

Minnesota Tea Baggers Get Pwned

2009-11-17T23:23:00.003-06:00

You have got too watch this, it's just too damn funny. I know that most of these tea bagging, fanatical right wing nut jobs are not strong critical thinkers. I know that they latch onto whatever propaganda fits their pre-conceived world view and ignore all rational thought. But damn....this video just shows to what extent it is. This guy that speaks in the video Robert Erickson, and he's speaking at a Minnesota tea party against amnesty. There were over sixty people in the audience from what I understand.
Somehow I don't think that most of them realized that Mr. Erickson was not really on their side...check it out...

In case you didn't catch it all, I put the transcript of the actual speech here, below the fold. After you watch the video, just click the "read more" link below to see what he said, ha ha ha

This is the transcript of the speech:
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Hi, my name is Robert Erickson and Im really excited to be here. Its people like all of you, and events like this that make our country great! Give yourselves a round of applause!

I just want to talk about a couple themes this afternoon because I love this country and I want to see America be the best place it can be.

Mr. Gutierrez is getting ready to propose an immigration bill in just a few short days, and we have to make sure he knows that we want a bill thats tough on immigration. Now is the time for us to stand up and make our voices heard!

In Minneapolis, where Im from, we have a huge immigrant population thats been causing a number of problems. With the economy in recession, and so many people getting laid off, and unable to find work, immigrants should not be competing for the few jobs that are out there. Its just not fair to the folks who have a claim to this land and the right to be here. All across America, they are contributing to the flooding of our job markets making it hard for Americans to find jobs. Well Im fed up and its time to let our politicians know that enough is enough, and were not gonna take it any more!

We need to secure our borders to protect our country. We need to restore order and put an end to the anarchy thats sweeping the nation. We need tougher immigration laws to make sure that we send these people back where they came from. We need to protect the sovereignty of the real Americans. We need to hold our politicians accountable.

Its no secret that with an invasion of immigrants, comes waves of crime. We see them involved in massive theft, in murder, and bringing diseases like smallpox, which is responsible for the death of millions of Americans. These arent new problems though, they have been going on for hundreds of years, and continue to this day.

I say its time for us to say enough is enough! Are you with me? Are you with me? Lets send these European immigrants back where they came from! I dont care if they are Polish, Irish, English, Italian, or Norwegian! European immigrants are responsible for the most violent and heinus crimes in the history of the world, including genocide and slavery! Its time to restore the sovereignty of people native to this land! I want more workplace raids, starting with the big banks downtown. There are thousands of illegals working in those buildings, hiding in their offices, and taking Dakota jobs. Let's round them up and ship them out. Then we need to hit them at home where they sleep, I dont care if we separate families, they should have known better when they came here illegally!

If we aren't able to stand up to these European immigrants, who can we stand up to? We need to send every one of them back home, right now.

Thank you very much, and well see you in the streets!

Columbus go home! Columbus go home! Columbus go home!
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Ha ha ha ha, and these people are just blindly cheering, lol.

Oh no! We're attacking Christians again!!!

2009-11-16T15:29:00.000-06:00

They just put up another one of those evil atheist billboards in San Deigo!

Watch this CNN report about it, we're attacking the christians, lol

Ray Comfort Anounces that he's Proud to be called an Ignorant Fool

2009-11-16T02:45:00.001-06:00

We all remember Ray Comfort, a.k.a. the bannaman (if not then click here for a clip of his banana argument) for silly shenanigans running around with his sidekick, Kirk Cameron spouting off horribly laughable arguments for the existence of god. And then, well...for a while now he's been making news since he announced his plans to distribute almost 200,000 copies of The Origin of Species with his own 50 page anti science, history denialist introduction. He had originally announced to give away 50,000 copies, but now it's up to 194,000. (here is an episode of The Atheist Experience where they discuss it a bit)

Well, a recent article written from an interview with Comfort said that:

When outspoken atheist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins called Ray Comfort "an ignorant fool," Mr. Comfort put that "glowing endorsement" on the cover of his latest book.
"To be called that by Richard Dawkins is a badge of honor," Mr. Comfort said in an interview this week.

I mean, you just can't make this stuff up! Creationists like Ray Comfort who spout utter nonsense to people, denying scientific evidence, denying history, and denying reason and rationality, just don't seem to care about the truth at all, if it doesn't fit their pre-concieved dogma, then they just make shit up to yell from the street corners in the hopes of attracting enough people whom which to trick into supporting their lies because they don't know enough of the facts to see through the Creationist propaganda.

This type of stupidity and ignorance being preached on our campuses can be extremely annoying, however there are things that many of us can do to fight this type of spreading of mis-information. For example, as this article states:

The Secular Student Alliance, based in Columbus, is encouraging its affiliates nationwide "to schedule protests" and "host speakers" to discredit Mr. Comfort and Mr. Cameron.
"We believe the best way to respond to misinformation is with a positive, educational campaign," August Brunsman, SSA's executive director, said in a statement.

Also, here is a link to the Secular Student Alliance's page discussing how to help. I myself am in the process of getting our local group affiliated with the SSA, so that we can be more active in areas like this, as well as in other areas of the community and the academic world. The site should have information as to where to find out if they will be coming to a campus near you. So, I urge you to be active, and do what you can. If you don't have a group nearby, then you should think about starting one yourself. Look to groups like the Atheist Alliance International, the Secular Student Alliance, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, amongst others, for information, assistance, and affiliation to help grow your local freethought community.
Finally, It sure makes me laugh to see Comfort announcing that he is proud to be called a fool...let him keep opening his mouth, but let us speak out as well to show how much of a fool he and others like him really are.

And, by the way, February 12th of this year would have been Charles darwin's 200th birthday, and the 24th of this month is the 150th anniversary of On The Origin of Species. So, remember this month to keep in mind how much of modern medicine and biology would not have even been possible without the understanding evolution and Charles Darwin's wonderful theory of evolution by natural selection, which has illustrated to us all how beautiful and amazing life really is.

More on the Texas Freethought Convention

2009-11-15T14:04:00.008-06:00

Continuing on with the rest of the speakers at the 2009 Texas Freethought Convention......

   After more socializing, Stuart Bechman, the President of the Atheist Alliance International (AAI), spoke about building freethought communities. He started out by outlining the mission of AAI as to help local atheist and freethought organizations to grow and thrive. These types of growing atheist communities have already been a phenomenon that has been gaining speed, making large strides over the last 20 years or so.
   Bechman went on to make it clear that one of the biggest walls that we face is that most people don't know what kinds of people atheists really are, and we need to concentrate on becoming more noticed and visible as a community and a part of out society,or...as Matt Dillahunty had stated in a brief introduction to Bechman, that we need to get the word out that we are not baby killing monsters! The AAI, Bechman said, is focusing on being a face for atheism and focusing on doing this from the grassroots. In fact, the AAI is actually actively working around the globe to have an international effect in showing the face of atheism and humanism.
   The Out Campaign, originating from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, is an example of our campaign, as atheists, to be as visible as we can and be out there. And campaings like The Out Campaign or the atheist billboard campaign (like the ones put up around the country by the CoR) are not just to say "hey, look at me, I'm an atheist", and start trouble. No, these types of campaigns are to get more visible, and get the word out that we are a large community of normal, decent people that deserve our place in society, that we have a voice, and we are here to stay.
   Bechman states that AAI looks at atheism based on such aspects as moral values, compassion, and living a valid life of integrity. He stressed the fact that we've had no strong history of secularism in this country and we, as atheists, are used to being inundated. However, the truth is that atheism is a world view based on knowledge and rationalism. Furthermore, freethought is about saying, "I think that there is a more moral way (to raise kids, family, etc.)", and we can't rely on the supernatural...it's all up to us. And finally, we are here to let society know that we are here, that we should and we deserve to be respected, and that our views should be respected.
   Bechman continues by bringing to mention that, although many don't realize it, the United States military is actually the largest exporter of religion to the rest of the world. Proselytizing our soldiers and sending them out to proselytize to the rest of the world is a huge enterprise in the US military. US military chaplains, for example, used to be expected to cater to all faiths, not just their own. This changed however, when the Regan administration passed legislation, unnoticed by many, which ended this. Now, decades later, the US military is the largest purveyor of christianity in the world. Soldiers are given coins with bible verses on the back of them and bibles all to be passed out where they are at, and a huge piece of the military budget actually is spent on this.
   In closing, the talk turns to these "faith based initiatives", put in place by Bush, and continued by Obama, which upon a closer look, reveal some disturbing aspects. This year AAI applied for a grant to help with AIDS/HIV medicine and treatment in Uganda, and was astonished to find that amongst the quidelines were requirements to:

NOT talk about condoms!
DO talk about male circumcision
Get permission slips from the top 5 religious groups in Uganda
To show how we will be encouraging local citizens to look to their local religious leaders for medical advice!

These are amongst the reasons why we need be a part of this movement, be open, get out there. Nothing will be done without us getting out there and letting officials know that we are out there, we are organized, and we have political power. Atheists all need to speak out and become role models in our communities.
Bechman then took questions before closing. In all, his talk was inspiring, and the type of message that needs to get out to atheists and freethinkers everywhere. Get in tough with organizations like the AAI and others, organize freethinker communities, and not only get our presence known, but do something to show that we are part of the community.

We took a dinner break, after which Dan Barker, President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), who is also a wonderful musician, played some songs, the first of which I really liked and was called Beware of Dogma (his CDs can be purchased through the FFRF website). He played a few songs, all of which I enjoyed, and went on to tell his story of his history of de-conversion after spending decades as an evangelist minister. I got distracted and didn't take many notes on Barker's speach, and I wouldn't want to misquote him, but I found a youtube clip of him telling part of this story here, and this page, which tells a bit about his story and has links to his books which tell his story in more detail.

Here is a clip from the Convention, with Dan Barker playing Beware of Dogma

I love it, fits perfectly with the title of my blog :-)

After his talk, Dan Barker took questions and closed, and they set up the stage for a panel question and answer session with all four speakers plus Clare Wuellner, from the Center For Inquiry and all, in turn gave their answers for several final questions before the close and the end of the convention.

Back from the Texas Freethought Convention with Keynote Speaker Victor Stenger

2009-11-15T09:45:00.005-06:00

Well, it's Sunday morning, and I'm happy to say that I attended the 2009 Texas Freethought Convention in San-Antonio yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a good turnout, about 200 people, A good panel of speakers, an open bar (free booze...*yay*, even though I didn't drink), and plenty of time in between presentations to schmooze with presidents, co-presidents, and representatives of some of the largest atheist and freethought community organization and activist organizations in the country, including as well as atheist celebrities such as the keynote address by author Victor Stenger, Matt Dillahunty (and other Atheist Experience Co-Hosts and crew).

The first speaker was Kathleen Johnson, Vise President of American Atheists, as well as the Vice President and Military Director for American Atheists, and the Founder of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers (MAAF). She was in the military for 23 years and was even an MP. Now she works for the military running an evidence room and doing crime scene technician work (collect ing evidence, etc.). She has been working on the scene of the recent Fort Hood tragedy, and the first part of her speech was explaining what happened, though not much can be said for sure yet because investigations are still in progress, and highlighting the heroic actions of the officers that brought the situation to an end and the emergency medics who saved many lives. She also talked about the religious discrimination in the military as well as what she and the MAAF have been doing as far as advocating for adherence to the military's equal opportunity regulation, and how the military has a strong history of oppression against anyone who is not an evangelical christian. She also talked about how much the military proselytizes, which is actually illegal.

I was distracted, therefore I only had limited notes to the details of Kathleen Johnson's speech, but she gave a very good speech, then took questions from the audience about various aspects of her military experience as a woman, MP, atheist, and activist.

The keynote speaker was Victor Stenger, author of many books including God: The Failed Hypotheses, Quantum Gods, and his newest book, The New Atheism.

He started his talk mentioning kids preaching and proselytizing in school as an example, and talked about how we, as atheists really have no objection to this proselytizing when it is confined to church and religious institutions. We do however, object to it when it is pushed in our face, when it comes to school, and when it causes death. He spoke briefly of the beginnings of the movement now termed the "new atheism", which jump-started with the publications from the five most popular authors of the movement, Dawkins, Hitchens, Dennett, Harris, and himself over the last ten or 15 years.

, Stenger pointed out how, even in the population of atheists, there are even many prominent atheists who disagree with this "new atheist" movement, in terms of it's attitude and methods, as well as some prominent scientists. The discenters tend to disagree with our openly disagreeing with and confronting of religious beliefs.

He pointed out that what the new atheists are advocating is for everyone to stop giving special treatment to religion (as it has been treated as an off limits subject, beyond questioning with science and reason). However, Stenger points out, we are in a time in our society where religion and religious leaders are looked to for answers to difficult decisions, even by the top officials in our government. Faith is given this high value of wisdom to be looked to, whereas faith is really belief in the absence of evidence,

and a mind who holds this type of reasoning highly should not be looked to for huge decisions.

Moving on to Stengers discussion of his new book, The New Atheism, he mentioned how a common argument from believers is that "a lack of evidence is not evidence of absence". However, Stenger states that in his book God: The Failed Hypotheses focused on showing how a lack of evidence is actually absence! His book showed how the universe looks just like it should if it was not designed according to all the evidence we have from the sciences, astronomy, physics, biology, neuroscience, etc.

Stenger went on to state that "if faith is belief without evidence, then science is belief with evidence", which uses rationality to examine what is what. What is rationality? It is making observations, analyzing the data, looking for evidence, etc.

Stenger mentioned the claims from theists and the NAS that science cannot look at the supernatural. He argues however, that Science can however, look for the observable effects that would pertain to claims of what these supernatural things do. He then covered many of the common claims such as the argument from design, the argument that material things cannot produce immaterial things (such as thoughts), the argument based on the anthropic principle, and the cosmological argument, all of which fall apart under the observation of the scientific evidence concerning these claims. (if you want to know what these arguments entail, they can be found here, at ironchariots.org). The evidence plainly presents a strong argument that the laws of nature, as well as all of observable nature came from natural means. Also, the only reason that these arguments are still used is because the proponents of these arguments know that most of their audience does not have the technical knowledge to see through the arguments.

Stenger closed stating how physics shows us that something is really more natural than nothing, because nothing is highly unstable. He then took audience questions about these topics. All in all, stengers talk was engaging, informative, and inspiring, to keep on fighting for rationality, science, and living in reality, instead of a fairytale. I had the opportunity to meet Stenger personality, he is a really nice guy, and wonderful to talk to. I'm also happy to say that he signed my old copy of God: The Failed Hypotheses, and took a photograph with me, which I'll post later.

If you are interested in reading Victor Stenger's new book, you can find it on amazon.com, or probably at your local bookstore. There were also two other wonderful speakers at the convention, which I will write about in a later post because I have somewhere to be right now and I'm running out of time....my local group, Bryan/College Station Atheist and Freethinkers group is meeting this morning. Also, I should mention that if anyone is in the area and interested in hanging out with likeminded people, email me, or leave a message. We'd love to see you there..........

Tweeting from the 2009 Texas Freethought Convention Tomorrow

2009-11-14T02:56:00.000-06:00

Well, I had a couple things to talk about today, like the fact that our country will soon have it's very first all christian prison. Which on the one hand brings up all sorts of church/state separation questions (though it will be a private business), and also something about how they plan on focusing on work crews which they will not be paying the workers the standard wage that is the rule for most prisons, but the bare minimum wage, which will probably start pouring large amounts of money from cheap labor into the hands and greedy pockets of nutjob fundamentalist types. (reminds me of the warden on the movie: Shawshank Redemption").

Well, I did have a lot more to say about that and a couple other news items, but I worked late and I have to get up early in the morning to head out to San-Antonio for the 2009 Texas Freethought Convention, which I am increasingly looking forward to. And I do plan on tweeting about it the whole time I am there, so you should follow me (EscapeFromDogma) on twitter, there is also a link in the sidebar to my twitter feed.

Well, that being said, I will leave you with this lovely little venn diagram, enjoy:

Gotta love ZOmbie Jesus :-)

Public School District Censors Atheist Websites

2009-11-13T02:43:00.001-06:00

The FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation) has responded to taxpayers from Indianapolis after the Indianapolis public school system has enacted a policy to censor atheist related web content. The FFRF said:

"This policy does not prohibit or even mention religious views such as Christianity. A website like FFRF.org, which educates on freethought and nontheism, would, however, be blocked under this policy. This promotes religion over nonreligion, which is forbidden under the Establishment Clause.
In her letter, Foundation Staff Attorney Rebecca Kratz pointed out that, in addition to the illegality of the policy, it discriminates against the 15% of the population that is nonreligious, the fastest growing segment of the American population"

   This type of discrimination in out taxpayer funded education system is the type of thing that we all need to stand up against. It aggravates me to no end that in the place that our children are supposed to be learning how to think critically enough to be able to think for themselves as they get older is doing everything that they can to cut them off from any views that disagree with their own views.

   The sad thing is that my state of Texas isn't much better with the battle that we have been having over the history deniers trying to push their pseudoscience creationism into the science curriculum and textbooks, but the FFRF is asking for as many people as possible to send letters to the school board urging them to end this discrimination, check this webpage if you want to help.

Atheist Billboards and More Examples of Religious Morality

2009-11-13T01:31:00.003-06:00

I know that we've all become familiar with the atheist billboards and bus ads that have been going up over the last year. And one thing I have been happy to see is that these billboards have all been respectful, most of them not insulting theists, but simply letting non-believers know that there are many more out there who feel like them. Most of these saying something like "Don't Believe in God? You Are Not Alone", or "There's Probably No God, So Stop Worrying and Get on With Your Life", or "Not Religious? You're not Alone".

I wholeheartedly support these billboards because not only are they letting non-believers who may feel isolated, "stuck in the closet", and totally alone about their atheism, that there are groups of like minded people nearby and that they are certainly not alone. These billboards are also getting the message out to the general public that we are atheists, we are living among you, and that we are decent, normal people.

Well, the funny thing is that, although I see billboards about God all the time (some of which are even threatening hellfire to non-believers), but everywhere that these billboards have went up there has been huge amounts of controversy, complaints, vandalism, and threats from religious individuals against these billboards.

The picture above is of one such billboard that was put up in downtown Cincinatti recently. Nonetheless the billboard had to be taken down within a couple days after the owner of the building began receiving violent threats, and told the billboard company that it had to be removed.

Fortunately the billboard has been relocated to a place along the highway heading towards the suburbs that is owned by the billboard company, not a private building owner. Now all the intolerant, hateful bigots who want to complain can complain to their hearts content.

Shawn Jeffers, from the Cincinnati Coalition of Reason (the group who sponsored the sign) had this to say:

"Everything that has happened shows just how vital our message is," Jeffers said. "It proves our point, that bigotry against people who don't believe in a god is still very real in America. Only when we atheists, agnostics and humanists come together and go public about our views will people have a chance to learn that we too are part of the community and deserve respect."

A Christian's Views of His Morality Without God

2009-11-12T11:59:00.001-06:00

   Wow, I must say that even though I know that not EVERY Christian would answer this question the way the caller in this video does, but it both amazes and saddens me when I hear a person claiming moral superiority over me. This is a video is a clip from last Sunday's Atheist Experience:

   Even sadder, this is not the first time I have heard a christian say this sort of thing, and I find it very sad. First off, the judeo-christian especially seem to constantly drill into everyone's head that they can't think or reason successfully for themselves without some dogma to consult and blindly follow. I find it hard to see how people can hear others saying that they would kill their children if Yahweh told them too, and call this type of dogmatic faith moral and rational.

   This is one of the types of examples why I am of the opinion that positive promotion of faith based beliefs, especially when it changes your whole lifestyle and how you view the world around you, is a harmful thing. Anytime you have people conditioned to just accept things without rational evidence and reasoning it can lead to people being conditioned to abandon their morality completely when the dogma gets in the way.

"If God kills, lies, cheats, discriminates, and otherwise behaves in a manner that puts the mafia to shame, that's okay, he's God. He can do whatever he wants. Anyone who adheres to this philosophy has had his sense of morality, decency, justice and humanness warped beyond recognition by the very book that is supposed to be preaching the opposite. " -Dennis McKinsey

Video Debate: Is the Catholic Church a Force for Good in the World?

2009-11-12T03:33:00.003-06:00

In case you haven't seen it already, there was a debate between sponsored by Intelligence2 between Christopher Hitchens & Stephen Fry v.s. Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Anne Widdecombe MP (two representatives of the Catholic Church). They were debating over the question of whether or not the Catholic Church was a force for good in the world. The video below is part one of five videos (the rest should play automatically).

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I am happy to announce that they took a poll before and after the debate asking people weather they were "for", "against", or "don't know"concerning the motion, and I must say that the difference before and after were quite large. I'll let you watch the video yourself to see it, but I will say that I really enjoyed it, and I recommend that you all watch it, at least for entertainment purposes. I promise, you will definitely enjoy it.

Texas Freethought Convention

2009-11-12T03:03:00.002-06:00

   I'm happy to say that I'm looking forward to the second annual Texas Freethought Convention in San-Antonio Texas this Saturday, November 14th! If you are in Texas, and if you have the time and the means to go, I would certainly recommend it (for more information, click the image above to go to their website). They will have all sorts of activities including lectures, social events, live music, food, fun stuff for kids, and plenty of conversation with other freethinkers and other like minded people. I'm really happy to see these kinds of events happening here in Texas, and I hope to meet many new friends this weekend.
   There should be a fine selection of speakers at the convention, including Dr. Victor Stenger, author of "God: the Failed Hypothesis", "Quantum Gods"and his new book, "The New Atheism". By the way, The Infidel Guy did a show last week, interviewing Dr. Stenger about his new book, and the controversial subject of "the new atheism" (click here to listen to an audio streaming version of that show). I can't wait to see if I can get him to sign my copy of "God: The Failed Hypotheses". I really enjoyed that book. Also at the convention, other lectures will include the president of Atheist Alliance International, the co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the vice president of American Atheists, among others including representatives of the Center for Inquiry.
   For those who can't come, but would like to, I'll definitely take pictures, and notes for posts about the topics discussed. I'd love to do some livebloging during the event, but my laptop is down at the moment. However, if I get the opportunity, I may give it a shot.
   I haven't had the opportunity to attend a convention of this kind before, and I'm looking forward to it. Also, I hope to see some of you there.......

The Blogroll

2009-11-12T02:00:00.000-06:00

Escape From Dogma has been added to The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

Blogging From a Sea of Red

2009-11-11T23:43:00.001-06:00

My name is Shamar. I'm a 28 year old psychology major, and I live in the middle of Texas, or as some like to say "in the middle of a sea of red". The reason that I mention where I live is because I am an atheist, a freethinker, and a huge fan of the outspoken science and skepticism community, all of which is a bit of a minority here in Texas. There are however, a few concentrated bastions of liberalism here in texas, such as Austin, and small areas in some of the larger cities like Houston. For example, Austin is the home of the ACA (Atheist Community of Austin), who hosts the increasingly popular call-in cable t.v. show (and podcast) The Atheist Experience. If you haven't already seen it, you should check it out, it's quite educational as well. You can also find clips of the show uploaded by fans all over youtube. However, I don't live in Austin or Houston, and throughout most of this state are huge amounts of conservatives and fundamentalists, and these are the types of people who make our laws, run our towns, our schools, etc.

For an example of this religious dogma that effects us all, is one memorable mark of shame on my state. First off, last month (around the beginning of October) a man named Khristian Oliver was sentenced to death after the jury consulted the bible while deliberating to decide his fate. Here is an account of what had happened:

At a hearing in June 1999, four of the jurors recalled that several Bibles had been present and highlighted passages had been passed around.

One juror had read aloud from the Bible to a group of fellow jurors, including the passage, "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death".

Now, first off, allow me to say that I will agree that this man apparently did a horrible thing, and there doesn't seem to be any question over whether or not he committed the crime. However, it seems unthinkable that in our modern judicial system a jury would be allowed to use the dogmatic rules of some old bronze age religious text to decide the fate of someone convicted in the court of law.

Moving on to the present, I am saddened to say that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the decision, and Khristian Oliver was killed last week. I must say that, no matter how I feel about the fact that this man was guilty, it scares me when the state allows a jury to pick and choose dogmatic rules from such an archaic book that contains many immoral rules as well. Rules that allow you to stone disrespectful children to death, condones slavery, sexism, and many other types of immoral decisions that do not belong in our society today.

That was one example of the type of thing that reminds atheists and freethinkers like myself how much faith, religion, and dogma, effects our lives in this state, and in many places across America. This is why atheists like myself, and other members of the science and skeptical community are speaking out more and more against dogma, woo (a term coined by The Amazing James Randi, and has become quite popular in the skeptical community to describe pseudoscience and any ideas pushed on us that are not based on real evidence), and other forms of faith-based pseudoscience. We do however, have a way to see through the dogma, and see reality, by applying the rules of logic and the scientific method. These tools, powered by skeptical thinking and a bulk of modern scientific knowledge, are our keys to escaping from dogma.