Things That Need Some Answering

Bible verses...there are good ones, moderately confusing ones, bad ones and some WTFOMFG I can't believe someone put this on paper and thought it was kosher (heh, I crack myself up).

While browsing around reddit I found this handy little list of questionable Bible verses.

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/q863w/some_bible_verses_to_use_as_comebacks_in_arguments/

1 Corinthians 11:14 (Men should not have long hair)
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (Women should remain silent in church)
Deuteronomy 13:6-16 (Death penalty for Apostasy)
Deuteronomy 20:10-14 (Attack city, kill all men, keep women, children as spoils of war)
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (Death penalty for a rebellious son)
Deuteronomy 22:19-25 (Kill non-virgin/kill adulterers/rapists)
Deuteronomy 22:28-29 (Pay virgin’s parents for raping her)
Ecclesiastes 1:18 (Knowledge is bad)
Exodus 21:1-7 (Rules for buying slaves)
Exodus 35:2 (Death for working on the Sabbath)
Ezekiel 9:5-6 (Murder women/children)
Ezekiel 23:19-20 (A whore who had sex with men hung like donkeys)
Galatians 5:2-4 (If you are circumcised, Christ has nothing for you)
Genesis 1:3,4,5,11,12,16 (God creates light, night and day, plants grow, before creating sun)
Genesis 3:16 (Man shall rule over woman)
Jeremiah 19:9 (Cannibalism)
John 3:18 (He who believes in Jesus is saved, he that doesn’t is condemned)
John 5:46-47 (Jesus references Old Testament)
1 Kings 7:23 (Pi equals 3)
Leviticus 3:1-17 (Procedure for animal sacrifice)
Leviticus 19:19 (No mixed fabrics in clothing)
Leviticus 19:27 (Don’t trim hair or beard)
Leviticus 19:28 (No tattoos)
Leviticus 20:9 (Death for cursing father or mother)
Leviticus 20:10 (Death for adultery)
Leviticus 20:13 (Death for gay men)
Leviticus 20:15 (Death for bestiality)
Leviticus 20:18 (No sex with a woman on her period)
Leviticus 21:17-23 (Ugly people, lame, dwarfs, not welcome on altar)
Leviticus 25:45 (Strangers can be bought as slaves)
Luke 12:33 (Sell your possessions, and give to the poor)
Luke 14:26 (You must hate your family and yourself to follow Jesus)
Mark 10:11-12 (Leaving your spouse for another is adultery)
Mark 10:25-25 (Next to impossible for rich to get into heaven)
Mark 16:15-16 (Those who hear the gospel and don’t believe go to hell)
Mark 20:21-22 (Sell your possessions and give to the poor)
Matthew 5:17-19 (Jesus says he has come to enforce the laws of the Old Testament)
Matthew 6:5-6 (Pray in secret)
Matthew 6:18 (Fast for Lent in secret)
Matthew 9:12 (The healthy don’t need a doctor, the sick do)
Matthew 10:34-37 (Jesus comes with sword, turns families against each other, those that love family more than him are not worthy)
Matthew 12:30 (If you’re not with Jesus, you’re against him)
Matthew 15:4 (Death for not honouring your father and mother)
Matthew 22:29 (Jesus references Old Testament)
Matthew 24:37 (Jesus references Old Testament)
Numbers 14:18 (Following generations blamed for the sins of previous ones)
Psalms 137:9 (Violence against children)
Revelation 6:13 (The stars fell to earth like figs)
Revelation 21:8 (Unbelievers, among others, go to hell)
1 Timothy 2:11-12 (Women subordinate and must remain silent)
1 Timothy 5:8 (If you don’t provide for your family, you are an infidel)
Zechariah 14:2 (Women ravished when city is taken in battle)

 From now on when someone askes me about coming back to Christianity I will simply copy/paste this list and inform them they need to answer for each verses stupidity and in what context they are ever morally right.  If completed to my satisfaction then we can talk.

Unshakable Faith

So, a senior high school student and newspaper editor for her school had an article rejected because it talked about her atheism and how she feels discriminated against on a daily basis. Apparently the schools excuse was that the article may cause a “disruption”.
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/feb/23/lenoir-city-high-school-wont-publish-atheist-on/

And here is her actual article:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/2012/02/23/lenoir-city-hs-refuses-to-publish-atheist-student-editorial/

Now, I could agree it could cause a disruption and mainly for people who are ignorant as to what an atheist is or don’t even believe they exist…but so what? Maybe this type of article is a little out of the realm of normal high school newspaper topics… but so what? She is part of a wrongfully vilified minority who simply wants to tell her story (which takes incredible guts for a person her age in a setting like high school). What if it was an African American student wanting to express the hardships of being a “Negro”? I don’t think the disruption that could cause would be enough to make school officials put a stop to the article being published.

I once heard that a true Christian faith is unshakable and has nothing to fear from worldly attacks… well why the hell are Christians so afraid of another point of view? Oh yea! It’s because unshakable faith is bullshit. Santorum has my back on this issue:

"I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoctrination mills, absolutely … The indoctrination that is going on at the university level is a harm to our country."
He claimed that,"62 percent of kids who go into college with a faith commitment leave without it," but declined to cite a source for the figure. And he floated the idea of requiring universities that receive public funds have 'intellectual diversity' on campus.”

Well, I don’t know where he is getting his numbers, but obviously 62% is bullshit, if that was true there would be a ton less Xtians in America (one could only wish). But I extend a sincere thanks for trying to help me prove my point Santyface.

Burning Koran's for funsies

Yawn, and again we are reminded that you cannot reason with people who take the act of blasphemy seriously.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/23/us-afghanistan-korans-idUSTRE81K09T20120223

Rick Perry, the Republicans' Messiah?

I'm going to start a compilation of Rick Perry shit here.


By Kathleen Parker

August 26

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rick-perry-the-republicans-messiah/20

11/08/26/gIQAGnY5gJ_story.html?hpid=z2

Rick Perry's rapid lead over previous Republican front- runner Mitt Romney was predictable. But it is not a good sign for Republicans hoping to reclaim the White House and further highlights the crucial battle within GOP circles: Who is the godliest of us all?

That's the mirror-mirror question for Republicans.

Forget charisma, charm, intelligence, knowledge and that nuisance, "foreign policy experience." The race of the moment concerns which candidate is the truest believer.

This was always a tough hurdle for Romney, whose Mormonism is reflexively distrusted by Southern evangelicals. Even so, in the absence of a better candidate, Romney had a fighting chance to win his party's support. Then came Perry.

Talk about a perfect-storm, composite candidate. Combine Elmer Gantry's nose for converts, Ronald Reagan's folksy confidence and Sarah Palin's disdain for the elites - and that dog hunts.

Perry doesn't just believe, he evangelizes. He summons prayer meetings. He reads scripture while callers are on hold. Not incidentally, he's a successful governor.

Perhaps most important, he's a wall-scaling fundraiser whose instincts make him a force of nature in the political landscape.

If you're Romney, Perry is a nightmare that's still there in the morning. If you're Barack Obama, maybe not so much?

Perry's political instincts were in evidence when he timed his entrance into the race just as everybody else was trying to grab straws in the Iowa poll. If life is high school in adult relief, Perry is the guy who shows up in a truck with a winch and pulls the car out of the ditch while those other guys are looking for a jack.

Whether you like his politics or not, he emits a pheromonal can-do-ness. Apparently, plenty of Republicans do like his politics, which has much to do with the very devil-may-care attitude that eventually will become Perry's cross to bear. Gallup's recent polling shows him not just passing Romney, but dusting him. Among Republican voters, 29 percent now swear their allegiance to the Texas governor, almost double the 17 percent for Romney.

Huddled around the exhaust pipe are, you got it, the jack handlers: Ron Paul (13 percent) and Michele Bachmann (10 percent), followed by Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman in the single digits.

Perry's campaign strategy is to talk only about jobs- jobs-jobs, no matter what the question. That's both smart and necessary, but jobs-jobs-jobs isn't the money trinity with his base. Perry already hit that station with his prayer rally and various dog whistles to the

congregation: He's not sure anyone knows how old Earth is, evolution is just a "theory" and global warming isn't man-made.

That we are yet again debating evolutionary theory and Earth's origins - and that candidates now have to declare where they stand on established science - should be a signal that we are slip-sliding toward governance by emotion rather than reason. But it's important to understand what's undergirding the debate. It has little to do with a given candidate's policy and everything to do with whether he or she believes in God.

If we are descended of some blend of apes, then we can't have been created in God's image. If we establish Earth's age at 4.5 billion years, then we contradict the biblical view that God created the world just 6,500 years ago. And finally, if we say that climate change is partly the result of man's actions, then God can't be the One who punishes man's sins with floods, droughts, earthquakes and hurricanes. If He wants the climate to change, then He will so ordain, and we'll pray more.

Perry knows he has to make clear that God is his wingman. And this conviction seems not only to be sincere, but also to be relatively noncontroversial in the GOP's church - and perhaps beyond. He understands that his base cares more that the president is clear on his ranking in the planetary order than whether he can schmooze with European leaders or, heaven forbid, the media. And this is why Perry could easily steal the nomination from Romney.

And also why he probably can't win a national election, in which large swaths of the electorate would prefer that their president keep his religion close and be respectful of knowledge that has evolved from thousands of years of human struggle against superstition and the kind of literal-mindedness that leads straight to the dark ages.

Faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, but Perry makes you think they are.

Dawkins on Perry -

There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today's Republican party is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today's Republican Party 'in spite of' is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory.

Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.

If God is real and I ever meet him. I will expect some answers...

The "problem of evil" argument often leads to questions about why God lets children die. This picture illustrates it much better than anyone could ever say...Well, maybe not Sam Harris, but he is magic.

VIA REDDIT/ATHEISM

I have Found the Mecca of Religious Debates

So, with all the blogs and research sites I visit there are times when my eyes come across the name of an apologist, or a scientist, or an atheist, or a citation for a debate that I want to know more about. LukeProg over at Common Sense Atheism created a one stop page on his blog for those times when you want to look up debates for any person you have become interested in researching more. I have used it a couple of times and would like to give it the proper recognition it deserves on my site!

500+ Religious Debates:
http://commonsenseatheism.com/?p=50#latest

PZ Meyers and Aron Ra Take on Some Islam Creationists

Fast-forward to 10:50 and listen to Aron Ra back them into admitting that "you can't be punished for being a non-believer unless you are told about Allah"...the whole audience pipes in.

Offending Religious Sentiment

Here in America you can be charged with a crime if you impersonate a government official.  And It matters weather or not you were just making fun of the type of official, (that would be a freedom of speech violation) unless you tried to get special treatment to attempt illegal shit while doing so. Which makes sense, and its purpose has nothing to do with possibly offending any officials. But for some reason in Maltese Nine people might be charge with a crime. The same type of charge we have here...but it extends to church and religious officials. Why? Seriously, why?

the behavior was “not simply a case of people dressing up as Christ or the saints” but more a question of public indecency and offending religious sentiment.

Offending your religious sentiment? What about your religion offending and completely disregarding gay sentiment? What about verses in your bible calling for the death of homosexuals? What about unequal rights for women all over the world? What about its advocation of slavery, stoning, genocide and technological deceleration? No, you don't deserve a "don't pick on me" card. As long as you get your morals from a book that leads to and advocates beliefs that keep society from evolving and making itself better you will be mocked...and I will laugh.

P.S. Tim Minchin doesn't like the Pope.

Bastrop High Gets A Letter In The Mail

www.bastropenterprise.com/archive/x2085346315/file
So yeah, I was waiting for this letter to be sent. I really feel for the kid who got this ball rolling, and I hope he sues the pants off the school district for being a bunch of ignorant jebus-twats thinking they are the only people in the world.

Oh, here is a Christian explaining why everyone should be against ritual prayer in schools.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46828
"I would say in love to my Christian brothers and sisters, before you yearn for the imposition of prayer and similar rituals in your public schools, you might consider attending a football game at Wahiawa High School. Because unless you're ready to endure the unwilling exposure of yourself and your children to those beliefs and practices that your own faith forswears, you have no right to insist that others sit in silence and complicity while you do the same to them."

Faith is not a virtue and Harold Camping used it to be a douche'

First off, it's important to point out what the hell faith is. It's a word that's been twisted and shat upon by various groups of people to help get convoluted points across. "But when I talk about my faith I mean my religion" Well then you're just replacing the word religion with another word. I could say "My faith is Muslim" or "My cantology(art of singing) is Muslim" and it's equally as silly. Just because a religion encompasses various forms of cantology and faith, it doesn't mean you should be word shuffling to make your voodoo sound accurate.

Well then what is faith? Simply put, it is believing something without evidence. But it's even more philosophically honest to say that faith is a belief held on bad evidence or no evidence at all, bad evidence being an important distinction later on. Also important to note is the fact that beliefs and faith are not mutually exclusive. Anyone is free to believe anything their mind can come up with. It's what you base that belief on that dictates whether or not other people on Facebook are going to mock you with impunity. Basing your beliefs on solid grounds is good and basing your beliefs on bad or no evidence is bad. Making important decisions based on hunches and faith is an irresponsible way to live your life.

Which leads me to the main point.

Harold Camping (Lets call him H.C.) and his campaign of bullshit slinging needs very little introduction. But what does need explaining is how hundreds of thousands of people could be conned into believing something so fucking stupid, not to mention the fact that the manner in which he "derived" the date itself is so very asinine.

In addition, the very book he used his woo-woo math on tells him he is wrong and any serious claim to know is considered "testing Yahweh". What H.C. did, was make a claim and asserted a belief, based on BAD evidence on some points and NO evidence on others. The equation he pulled out of his ass was bad evidence and the claim of it being on the anniversary of the great flood was a claim with NO evidence at all. (Genesis is such complete bullshit that I consider it non-evidence). With so many things working against H.C. on his claim, he is reduced to telling his mindless followers "Have Faith".

Well, that turned out well.

With people giving their entire life savings, kids' college funds, vehicles, homes and any other number of monetarily valuable things under the guise of: WTF do we need money for? Jebus is coming back. Or old scripture like Malachi 3:10 and crap in the new testament praising being poor.

No matter how much you try to fluff up shitty old sayings like "Blessed be the meek" or "The poor man is rich in spirit", it does not make them true! Monetary based happiness claims are WAY more complicated than trying to sum them up in a single sentence or "the old saying" (topic for another day).

H.C. played these people like a bunch of flutes. Are they complete idiots for believing him? Not necessarily, but I will still make fun of them. Also, what happened to these people to allow them to be so duped? Well, I can answer that. The same reason and logic they use every day, when driving their car, making a big purchase, offering non-religious advice to a friend and trashing other gods they don't worship, was not used when presented with outlandish rapture claims. Yeah, I think we can call them idiots. I think we can call H.C. a fucking douche' bag. Above all, I think faith isn't something to be used...Ever.

I apologize for being an ignorant twat all those years ago.

This is via a recent facebook note I put up. Content pending, I'll be equally sharing all posts here with my facebook notes.

A common occurrence I've seen among "enlightened" people, including some of my favorite philosophers, is a public apology for any transgressions that may have occurred at a time in their life when they "had all the answers".  This is my "oh shit, sorry" letter.

I apologize:



To gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people:  When I was younger I preached your hearts were filled with gross perversions and it was through your own free will and sin that you were gay.  I participated in "Cure the Gays" prayer circles.  I stood by as ridicule and hate were spewed from people I chose to look up to or call my friends, even if I felt it was wrong. I was told it was God's will, which is much more important than ours. I shamefully passed down these horrible points of view to younger generations of youth and I sincerely hope that they see reason now after my unsubstantiated bigotry.  I apologize for signing multiple petitions to prohibit gay marriage and suppress gay rights.  I deeply apologize for saying these things with no rational justification what-so-ever.

To Non-Christians and atheists:
I ridiculed or tried to convert on mission trips.  I was once pig-headed enough to think that my reasons for believing in something were better than anyone else's... they aren't.  I was confused and it never truly occurred to me why I disapproved of other peoples gods. If I had ever stopped to think about it, I would have realized why they don't believe in mine*. I'm sorry I said that you are going to hell to be tortured forever. That was bullshit. (put simply)  I now find it morally reprehensible to assert that someone disserves anything of the sort for simply holding different beliefs under the same evidence as I hold mine and I refuse to put any stock in a God who would do something even close to that.

To the Wiccan girl who was made fun of by my friends and me for an entire school semester while adults did nothing to shut us up:  We inflicted upon her a mental torture that some kids experience, but not for that length of time without any outside help.  I very deeply regret the stupid and ignorant things that were said.  I realize this technically fits into the apology above, but I'm convinced it deserves its own space due to its content.

For not investing more time and money into worthwhile charity work:  I've spent most of my life tending to the comforts of my own mental and physical state.  Since my college days, after all my comforts have been taken care of on a weekly basis, there has been plenty of either money or time to spare.  I give myself no real excuses and will strive to give more of my excesses to those who cannot provide themselves simple comforts.

For allowing and accepting sexual repression in various forms including women's rights:  I'm sorry for signing a petition to stop funding for Planned Parenthood. I'm sorry for aiding the struggle to encourage young men to feel ashamed for masturbating.  Making someone feel sick inside for doing something so natural (even more awesome when done with a partner) I am ashamed of.

I'm truly sorry.  I once thought it was a good thing for the world to push my own beliefs, I now view as dangerous, unto others.  I wasn't making the world a better place, I was making it a bitter hate-full place and being a bigoted douche' bag while I was at it.  It is now my prerogative to ensure that "my" absolute certainties of belief and faith are replaced with reason, logic, facts and sound moral thought.

From Craig to Dawkins, from Buddha to Nietzsche, from The Bible to The Koran, they all point out some of the very same simple facts:  I am born, I live (for a short while), then I die and what I do during life is extremely important.  For me it is deciding that my importance in this life is to chase knowledge in all its forms while helping all others in their chase of life and liberty.

From the pinnacle of my intelligence (from the bottom of my heart is to imply
I think with my feelings, which I no longer do) I apologize.

Sincerely,
JoeNavy