Is it a Matter of Opinion, or Just Being Willfully Ignorant?

This came up in a conversation with someone today about a person who is extremely Christian and likes to try to convince people who do not believe in a god that they are wrong. The matter of discussion is the person I was discussing it with said that my Atheist stance and their Christian fundamentalism was a matter of difference of opinion. This is not the case, in fact. To believe that the Bible is the unchanging true word of god is to be willfully delusional and ignorant. The proof that the bible is completely wrong in so many areas is there, but people choose to take it as fact and write off clear evidence that it is nothing more than myths written by people with an agenda.

To disprove the credibility of the bible you only need to take a science class, preferably a Biology class. To be a fundamentalist Christian you must believe that everything the bible says is a fact and we should follow the literal translation of it. All you need to do is take your bible into the class, read the first 2 chapters of Genesis about the creation of man. Before you even open the Biology book you will have noticed that the 2 versions of the creation story do not even match up! The order in which the animals are created and named and when man comes about are not consistent. Why is this? If it is the inerrant word of God, as so many people say(think) it is, why would god make such mistakes in his own account of how he created everything?

Moving along, the Biology book will contain a chapter entitled: Evolution. This chapter is something that is agreed upon by scientists around the world from every country, every race, every religion, and every University you will ever attend, absent the Christian universities, which in reality, are there even science classes in these universities that are really science if they don't teach Evolution? This chapter will give you a basic explanation of how Natural selection occurs, there are many ways that populations become isolated, and adapt and change over time, and eventually become so different they can no longer reproduce, this is Evolution. Decent with modification, over millions and millions of years. This is backed by almost countless numbers of fossils and DNA evidence, and is being confirmed more and more everyday by the discoveries in genetics.

The Theory of Evolution is now even so undeniably backed by evidence that the Vatican themselves have confirmed that this is where modern animals came from! How can they be given any credibility now that their holy book has been proven to be made up? I digress, back to the point: So to deny that evolution is a fact is just plain ignorant. That being said, if you believe that the bible is unchanging and the literal word of god and should be literally interpreted, then you are ignorant, We know that the creation story told in the bible is by no means a fact, and is just a fairy tale made up by people who did not have science, or anyway of discovering DNA, fossils, or putting scientific evidence together to discover the truth of where we came from.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in debunking the superstitions of the bible, but my point is, the facts are there! Look for them! Stop believing what a preacher tells you, stop reading a book that hasn't been relevant since it was written! How can we get anything out of a book that was changed so many times that we don't even know where they really came from or what the original said?! To ignore facts that are in front of you is to be willfully ignorant. If a jury was in charge of a murder trial and there was as much evidence that the murderer was guilty as there is that evolution is the correct way we came about, every single juror would vote guilty without hesitation! Funny how DNA is used in court to prove guilt and innocence, but it's not good enough to say we evolved along with apes and chimps from a common ancestor?! What kind of logic is that? It isn't.

If you believe that god created one man, one woman, and a talking snake that was such a smooth talker that he convinced Eve to bite a forbidden fruit and THAT'S why childbirth is painful, and why people suffer, then you, my friend, are willfully ignorant and delusional. There may not be any proof for or against a god, but one thing is for sure: the bible has no credibility to our modern scientific society, and should not be taken any more seriously than the Lord of the Rings, which I feel is much better written, at least it doesn't contradict itself hundreds of times! So, it is clearly not a matter of different opinions, my stance is one based on facts, the stance of Christian Fundamentalism is based on ignorance. This ignorance is one based on fear of the unknown and an indoctrination of unquestioning blind faith that they have received at a young age.

Don't agree? Tell me why!

Good Without God?

This is something I don't understand. People try to say we need religion because people are by nature bad. I don't know why anyone would think this! Some of the most crime-free nations are atheist nations, meaning the majority of their populations are atheist, or do not have a belief in a god. I think it is proof of natural selection that we are moral creatures because, as the saying goes, "What's good for the goose is good for the gaggle," or in human terms, if it helps me to not commit crime it helps my chances of survival. If this were not true and people relied solely on the commandments and god to tell them what is right and wrong, then we would not be here at all! People would have killed each other off LONG before the story of Moses getting the 10 commandments! We are just doing what comes natural, we are surviving.

This is also shown in nature, apes have their own sets of morals as do lions and any other animals that live in a pack. After all, we are nothing more than highly intelligent animals. Our morals come from many millions of years of evolution.

I agree with Richard Dawkins in that I fear the people who base their morals on a god that has ordered genocides, rapes, murders, slavery, and incest. What happens then if they feel the need to exercise their god's orders that they feel was given to them in the name of their god? I'll tell you, look throughout history, almost every war and horrible act throughout our history is in the name of religion and their morals.

If you say that the bible gives you your morals, then how do you pick and choose? Religious hate gays and cite Leviticus, but a few verses over and it says that you should stone children to death for disobeying their parents! Again, how do you pick and choose what to live by? I'll tell you, your natural instinct tells you what is right and wrong, not the bible!

The world will be a better place when we treat religious texts just as we do the ancient Roman and Greek Myths, as works of fiction, and that is all the bible is, a work of fiction. Just because a story is set in an actual place and contains characters that happen to be real people does not make it a true story. If that were true people would take modern books set in a real city as a historical fact and there would be religions popping up all around about Stephen King novels.

On a side note, I often wonder if 2000 years from now after some cataclysmic some archaeologist will dig up a copy of the Lord of the Rings and read it and go, "Holy crap, I found the history of the world!" and then start converting people to Hobbitism and Elfism and study the languages in there. Would they fear the return of the Orks if the sacred ring was ever found and they feel as if Gandalf is up there looking down on them watching to make sure that they are all protected? Silly isn't it? Well apply that to the bible and you have the same ridiculous reality we live in today with people believing in an invisible wizard who has a plan for us and is all powerful. But not powerful enough to just let us into his wonderful heaven, he had to send his son(who is also himself) down to be butchered by the people that he is trying to let into heaven. He saw no other way to accomplish this than to sacrifice his only begotten son... See, silly isn't it?

Back to the heart of the matter. Why do we as humans feel the need to create a god? It's simple, before our modern era, and before science we had no way of explaining the wonderful things around us. We are a naturally curious animal that feels the need to find meaning in everything. So when we see a world that appears to be created, just as we create things, we assume there must be a creator. As with life and our bodies we now know through DNA and fossil records where we came from. It's not a mystery anymore. There are still mysteries of course, but the answer is not in a book written when they thought the earth was flat and the center of the universe and that the sun revolved around the earth. The bible is a book of speculation, placing answers on questions they had no way of ever knowing, superstition was their only means of figuring it out. If you were to go back in time with a camera or a computer or a machine gun you would be treated as a god! The only explanation for these things in their primitive thought process is that you are some sort of god, how else would you possess such power?

So the original question was "Can you be a good moral person without a god telling you what to do?" The answer of course is yes. And people are more likely to do good because it is just right to do rather than for fear of an invisible dictator.

Comment as always!

The Pope Deserves Jail Time

With the recent events going on in Germany, it has come to light that the current Pope was involved in the cover up of the molestation of hundreds of children, no surprise there for me! This is just another notch on the evil belt of these horrible people. Whether it was the Spanish Inquisition, the denial of the Holocaust, the condemning of condom use in Africa(which promotes the spread of AIDS and kills thousands of people), or the proactive hindrance of scientific progress for thousands of years, the church is responsible for unspeakable evils in the name of god. I have no idea how people who live a moral everyday life can send money to such an evil organization and think it's gonna get them to heaven! If ANY PERSON sexually or otherwise abuses a child they should spend time in prison and be forbidden to work with children EVER AGAIN!

How many lives have been ruined by the Catholic church? The answer is most likely staggering, and I do not think it is even possible to quantify it! Throughout history, wars have been fought in the name of religion, people were murdered and tortured by order of the church! Where does something like that fit in with our society today? It doesn't!

People a few years ago were outraged to find that there was a group called NAMBLA(The North American Man Boy Love Association), I ask you this: What is the difference between that organisation that openly admits to having the urges and practicing sexual acts with children and the catholic church that covers it up and moves the priests to another parish to allow them to start over in an area where no one knows they are a pedophile? The difference is, NAMBLA admits it, the church hides it and millions of Americans line the pockets of these sick bastards and turn a blind eye to what's going on because they are shamed into believing that these are men of god.

Which brings me to my next point. What kind of a person could give thousands of dollars a month to a church that condones such things?! My parents are very active Catholics, their church brings in $12,000 a WEEK, that's right, a WEEK, in tithe money, some of this money goes to funding food, shelter, transport, and the relocation and covering up of child molesters. This is unacceptable! Any given day you can take those people to a website, show them pictures of known child abusers in their neighborhood and watch their faces snarl in horror at the sight and thought of these demented people and their acts. But on the other hand when you mention that their church supports this same behavior and they send their kids to the lions den every Sunday to meet with a priest, they get mad and call you a blasphemer and make excuses for them. What a double standard! But are we really surprised by this?

The reasons that I am not surprised is because I was raised religious, on both sides actually. I was sent to a cult of a Baptist school, and my family are very religious Catholics. So before you think I'm just picking on Catholics, I am not! At my school, our computer teacher, who was married to our english teacher, was arrested and convicted of child pornography, and the founder of the church and prized missionary at Trinity Christian Academy was arrested and thrown in jail DECADES after committing child abuse on many many young women, so I am not letting the Baptists or any other Fundamentalist churches off the hook. Those churches are just as guilty of doing evil things in the name of religion. I have seen and heard first hand the kind of propaganda that these religious figures pass off as god's will and god's work.

Religious people suffer delusions, they believe that there HAS to be something more than this life, and that there HAS to be a higher power looking after them. They are right in a sense, there is a higher power looking over you, you pay tithe to that higher power, and in turn it uses your money to make your life a living hell, and in turn tell you that there is a better life to look forward to after this one, but to get there you gotta keep sending your money their way! Do you see that? They use the idea of a god to scare you into giving them money!! The POPE himself is involved in the cover up of raping children and then sending the pedophile to a new parish to keep raping children!! WAKE UP!!!! You are supporting a terrorist organization! I don't know but I don't think your idea of a god would want you giving your money to such an evil empire.

It's time to throw out this idea of religion, it's time we just started being good because it's in our nature to, not because we think there's someone watching us 24/7. We do good because it benefits us not to kill each other. We need to stop living for the next life and enjoy the one you have! Stop doing stuff because your parents did it, so it must be true. The facts are there, look at them, throw out your bible and just do the things you would want to be done back to you. It doesn't require a god to be good to others. If that were true I'd be in jail, the last 8 years of my life have been godless, and i am very happy without religion.

Please comment and share!

So My Letter to the House Representative of Forida Was Answered!

Here is the reply I received:

Thank you for your e-mail regarding school prayer. I appreciate the
opportunity to learn of your thoughts and concerns on this issue.

Please understand that I respect the ability of all students to voluntarily
and respectfully practice their constitutional right of free speech. Be
assured that I will carefully consider your comments and the comments of
other Floridians as this bill moves through the Legislative process.

Thank you again for writing to me. If I may be of assistance to you in the
future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,

Larry Cretul
Speaker

Oh my, what a cop out. He clearly is missing the point. If kids want to pray, they need to establish a prayer meeting on their own time, not on the state's time! Free speech is fine, but not on the state's funding(The Constitution forbids sponsoring any one religion) and not while there are other students to feel pressured into participating in a superstition they do not believe in. I wonder how they'd feel about Charles Manson getting up in front of a class and exercising HIS free speech to the children before every class? Hm, doesn't sound the same? It sure is, Christianity is a cult, just as was Manson's family. Both prey on ignorance and take advantage of people on false truths. I sure hope we continue to speak out and keep this Skeptic/Humanist/Atheist(or whatever you want to call it) Movement growing.

I encourage everyone who is a non-believer to stand up for reason and logic, and don't just stand by and let the delusional people who worship an invisible god who by their own book is racist, homophobic, misogynistic, homicidal, jealous, flawed, vengeful, and orders rapes, genocides, incest, infidelity, and acknowledges that he is only in favor of his followers being ignorant and following blindly without challenging or asking questions, because if we do nothing and stand by we will be standing by watching our freedoms and constitutional rights as Americans being stolen away one by one. Just look back to the last 10 years and see how many of our rights have been taken in the name of religious fear and "terrorism." Be assured that the Christians in this country would love nothing more than a state sponsored religious dictatorship. They would love nothing more than to have your children indoctrinated as soon as they understand language, and no one able to be free from the oppression of their religion. They are not standing by, they are proactive in their quest. This is why we must too be proactive to protect our rights. I'm not trying to abolish religion, I'm simply trying to get freedom from these superstitions that are forced upon us every single day. If you live in the Southern united States then you know what I am talking about.
Write to your Representatives and Senators!

I was so moved by the bill proposed in Florida yesterday that I had to take time to write a letter to my Representative! Here's the article that I saw:


Florida bill would allow majority to promote their religion in public schools

Bills were introduced into the Florida House and Senate today that would allow students to vote on whether or not they want to hear a prayer and which student they want to hear it from.

In the Senate, Stephen R. Wise, a Republican Baptist, proposed SB-1580 which states:

"District school boards are authorized, but not required, to permit the delivery of an inspirational message, including a prayer or an invocation, at a noncompulsory high school activity, including a student assembly, a sports event, or other school-related activity, if a majority of the participating students request the delivery of an inspirational message and select a student representative to deliver the message."

The companion bill in the Florida House is H-0031 and was introduced by Republican and Baptist Brad Drake and is cosponsored by his fellow Republican Baptist, Greg Evers.

The bills were referred to committees. In the Senate, to the Education PreK-12 and Judiciary committees, and in the House to "PreK-12 Policy (EPC); Civil Justice & Courts Policy (CCJP); Policy Council; and Education Policy
Council"

Both bills claim as their purpose to "solemnize and memorialize" such events. Strangely, all three sponsors of these bills are Baptists. And yet, it is clear that the purpose of this bill is intentionally false. The true purpose is to allow Christian students to promote their religious views to captive audiences of their peers, who must submit if they want to participate in what should be a fun and inclusive school function.

WOW! And here is the email I sent to the Representative:

Dear Honorable Speaker Larry Cretul,
I am very much opposed to the bill SB-1580 which would allow the saying of a prayer in school. This is in direct violation of the constitutional rights of people of different faiths. I myself am an Atheist, and support the right of anyone to have any religion they may like, however, to call a vote in a classroom for a prayer, and having the vote come to favor a majority is discrimination against those students who are not of the religious majority in that class and who also, like myself, might be atheists. As you well know, separation of church and state is something that defines our constitution, and forbids the government from favoring one religion over another. To have any form of prayer in public schools which is funded by taxpayer money from many different people of different religious backgrounds is a violation of their Constitutional rights. The government cannot be either for nor against any religion. The duty of teachers is to educate our youth, and not to infringe on or promote any religious practices they might have. I thank you for your time, and I very much hope that you will not vote to pass this anti-American bill, as this would be dirt in the face of our Founding Fathers who sought to put an end to such practices. Thank you once again.
Sincerely,
Christopher Wester

So as you can see I am offended that this is even a bill being proposed! What do you think? Let me know! And if you're a Floridian, please do the same! Comment!

Edit: Sorry, left out the links and the places to find your representatives and senators!

Original Article: Here
Representatives: Here
Senators: Here

Please write them!

I'm Changing my Approach to This

As most of you know, I am a very outspoken Atheist. No surprise there. Well, I've become more interested in the direction this country is going. It scares me living in the south and seeing the blind faith that people have now days when truth and information is right there for you to get with a click of a mouse. So I hope that people will see past their preacher and see past the crap people say is fact, when it is nothing further from it. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm making this a blog about Atheism and how religion is dangerous, and giving you links to people who are great people, some Atheists, and some Agnostics, and I hope you learn things here!


My first post is about Angie Jackson(on YouTube: AngieAntiTheist, on Twitter: @AntitheistAngie ), she recently found out she was pregnant, and posted the results on twitter. She was also told after the birth of her son that if she were to get pregnant, carrying to term would most likely kill her. So, naturally, she would not want to die and leave her son motherless, she decided to have an abortion. This is legal, and a right that women have in the United States. Instead of hiding it like it was disgraceful, she put it out there for the world to read on Twitter, and to see on YouTube. This is very brave of her! Her intentions are to de-mystify the experience so other women would be brave enough to get it done if they needed to. Of course, as you can imagine, the backlash from the religious community was enormous! She's had death threats and personal attacks on not only her, but her son and boyfriend as well! Angie has been thrust into the national spotlight by the religious who are on a witch hunt who would love nothing more than to stone her and burn her at the stake! I'm proud of her for standing up for her rights, and the rights of women all around the world! She has been an inspiration for women even in other countries lately, she's been in the news in Finland and Russia, and many other European nations.


Follow her on Twitter, and watch her on YouTube! I'll post links to both here:

YouTube
Twitter



Please comment! I'd Love to Hear what you think!

Continuing on about the 4th of July night

So now the fireworks are dying down, and the finale has passed, I just realize that my phone has died and my cousin and her boyfriend are meeting me! My car is about 10 blocks away and they are due any minute! So without even saying bye to my buddy's cousins( I just remembered this fact about 2 seconds ago, actually!), I hop on my bike and realize, "woah, I'm really, REALLY, really drunk", so I head out anyways! Don't worry, there were many intoxicated people on bikes around, that's what opening day and 4th of July at the beach is all about around here, Bikes and Boozin'! I'm not sure just how far away I was, possibly 12 blocks or so, but I do know that it was crazy hard to avoid families and other bicyclists!

So I get to my car and realize in my haste I have dropped the Dorito's, bottled water, and sunflower seeds that I had purchased earlier! HAHA So I pop my iPhone on my car charger and load up my bike(I'm guessing because this is all really hazy LOL), and I got 5 texts all at once which say things like, "WTF WHERE ARE YOU" and "Why did you turn off your phone asshole?!" and possibly, "Drunk ass call me back!" So I did! and explained that my phone had died, and told them where I was and conveyed how drunk I was(I'm assuming this wasn't news to them because I could hear myself slurring! HAHA That's sad!) So they say We'll be there in about 45 minutes. YESS! Time for a nap!

So I recline my car seat and close my eyes for what seemed like 10 hours, and woke up to someone saying, "DUDE! He's passed the F*#@ out! HAHAHA", this is Chris, my future cousin-in-law, and my best friend, and his excitement is due to the fact that I'm usually the LAST person to get drunk and pass out, yeah, really funny! HAHA

My cousin opens my door, and says get up lame ass time to go out! I jump out, TOTALY rejuvenated and ready to go, I was like a phoenix of beer rising from the suds of a tapped keg! I dug around in my car found some different shorts and a collared shirt and jumped in their truck!

So, we're walking up to the bar, I realize, I left my ID in the car... DAMMIT! Luckily, for Chris, we met friends who rode their bikes up there, so I took one another 14 blocks to my car and back in what seemed like minutes, just in time to get a Corona with lime mmmmmmmm.

While paying our tab, we notice this really really drunk dude next to us, so us being the nice people we are, we laughed at him for about 10 minutes, then invited him over. His name was Doug and we found out just how drunk he was... about 10 times more than I was, I mean this guy can't even speak! I say, "Doug you're coming with me buddy! Go wait out front and get some fresh air while I pay my tab!" He mumbled something about Tangueray(which he was drinking on the rocks, BARF on a biscuit!) and went outside, where I found him sitting on the ashtray by the door, you know the one full of sand and only gets cleaned when it rains.

We laugh then pick him up, start to go to the next bar and Doug starts to cry, "I miss my exxxxxxxx!" Here we go... My cousin says, "What's her name, or his name? haha" He replied, "Anthony ******", who we actually know and is the owner of one of the more famous gay clubs in Jacksonville, we all look at each other and chuckle at the coincidence, just in time for ol' Doug to wrap his little arms around my neck and latch on smiling. I stagger back to find my cousin and her boyfriend hysterical with laughter, so not to disappoint I say, "What is your ex a short Italian guy too?!" The lose it, and I laugh too, but Doug is really too close and the Pine Sol smell of Tangueray is really reallymaking me sick, I let him stumble to the wall next to us.

Doug, as helpless as he is is really not our problem, and becoming belligerent so we flag down a cop that Chris knows from high school, and go to point Doug out to him to help him out and all at once say, "Where the hell did Doug go?!" He booked it!! We found him, sitting by a palm tree, trying to pass out! So I go to flag down a cab to send him on his way, when I get back with a cab, they decided to call an ambulance, I agree with that descision.

While waiting for the ambulance, Doug is laying by a very populated sidewalk, so people naturally are laughing and pointing, and we laugh until one guy comes by with a group of friends and really being harsh, so Doug pops up his hand and flicks the guy off! HAHA The guy gets pissed saying, "F*#@ YOU CRACKA I'LL STOMP YOUR ASS!" and getting too close to him, saying this over and over got to me after a second, so I said "NO F*#@ YOU!" Stunned this guy turns around and said, "What?!" I shouted back, "You heard me, leave him alone!" and the crowd around him turned towards me(mostly female), "AHHH HELL NO HE DIDN'T!" I smiled and said the usual, "Yeah, keep walking" and all that the guy was too shocked a 5'4 "Cracka" stood up to him and kept going! LOL

So the paramedics start to work on Doug, he's down for the count, until he realizes that the paramedics are gonna haul him off to the hospital, and he bolts AGAIN! So another 30 minutes the paramedics decide to let him walk off and he really burnt his bridges with us, so we take off! We hit up a little bar, play some pool, and head back to the truck.

The bars are letting out so we people watch for a while, and when we get to the truck we do some drive by's. The funniest thing in the whole world is about to happen! The cop directing traffic tells us to stop, so we do, the crowd is walking all around us and our windows are down. We're laughing and joking in my friend's truck with big wheels and a slight lift on it(of course), when the cop signals us to go. As I look out the window when he lets off the brake and eases on the gas I see and hear a *BAM*, then a shrill OWWWW!!! the mirror folded back to reveal a head with hands grasped around it! We whacked a girl that was obviously too close to a vehicle with the side mirror!!! My cousin bent the mirror back as we rolled off, and then... silence for about 5 seconds. "We just hit a chick with the mirror..." I said. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA we all died laughing barely able to breathe in between laughs!! This went on until I got home, my abs still ache!

I know this sounds horrible, but you definitely had to be there, and in retrospect, WHY was she so close to the truck!? We couldn't see her!! It's a BIG truck!! I'm LMAO right now!

So that was my 4th of July night, and I know I said I'd try to keep these short and sweet but it's just too much stuff to leave out! Hope you enjoyed! See you soon! Comment away!!