Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Ten Commandments in School Classrooms?

I swear, stupid people are outbreeding smart people by a large margin! I was just made aware of a poll that the San Antonio Fox affiliate conducted on their Web site asking if the Ten Commandments ought to be posted in all public school classrooms, following a proposal by representative Dan Flynn. Thankfully, there were enough rational people voting in the poll to push the results to 1.19% Yes and 98.77% No. However, read through the comments and very quickly you'll come to this gem:

It would definitely help with so many kids taking guns to school, dishonoring their parents, lying, stealing, doing immoral things and most importantly not giving God the recognition he deserves. by Nancy

Really?! Having stone monuments posted in a classroom is going curtail gun-toting, disrespectful children in public schools? I'd love to have some of what Nancy is smoking. Oh, wait. Would that violate any of the Big Ten?

OK, so here's the problem as I see it: the introduction of the Ten Commandments in school classrooms has absolutely no purpose other than the forcing of religion into our lives. It doesn't matter how you try to word it or disguise it, the sole purpose of this proposal is to shove your religion down our throats! The Ten Commandments aren't educational, don't apply to all world religions, start off with divisive rhetoric, and will cost taxpayers money that could actually benefit the schools in tangible ways. In short, it's a lose/lose situation!

The argument that the Ten Commandments don't solely apply to Christianity is false. I'll make a blog post about this soon.

The argument that the Ten Commandments contain sound moral guidelines is false. That'll be included in my upcoming blog post.

The argument that the Ten Commandments compel people to behave is demonstrably false, ignorant, naïve, and just plain fucking stupid. If the presence of these magical rules "helped" with curtailing bad behavior don't you think the religious community wouldn't have nearly the amount of problems it historically and currently has? Are you really that blinded to reality that you cannot see this?

Let's start thinking, people. Please.

Jesus Potter, Harry Christ

I've been informed of a new project which will reach its conclusion in the near future. It's a book entitled "Jesus Potter, Harry Christ" by Derek Murphy which examines the mythos of Jesus Christ as a literary figure in contrast to Harry Potter, who has garnered much animosity and fear from Christians. I'm particularly intrigued by this idea in the wake of discovering another book, "Nailed: Ten Christian Myths that Show Jesus Never Existed at All" by David Fitzgerald.

The character of Jesus is surrounded by a haze of vague preconceptions, credulity and wishful thinking –- especially when it comes to fulfillment of prophecy and miracles. I'm looking forward to reading both of these books very soon and giving my thoughts on the matter afterward.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Facebook Faith

I have friends on my Facebook account – either those with whom I currently associate or old friends from High School – who are believers in some sort of deity. This being the United States, the overwhelming majority are, of course, Christians. These friends (not all of them, but several) will periodically post status messages proclaiming the greatness of their god, or the greatness of their faith. Some examples would be:

Scripture Quote

For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent. “Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. ps 91 11-14

Public Prayer/Praise

God IS SO SOSOSOSOSOSOSO GOOD..... still praise you when my throat is sore... you are an awesome GOD.

There's nothing wrong with you believing whatever you want. However, you should realize by now that not everyone else is going to believe it just because you do. That being the truth (and it is), you shouldn't be surprised when somebody disagrees with you and chooses to comment on your status. Since Facebook allows for commenting on statuses, you must have expected that your friends would be able to do this. So, why do you type responses like this when that happens?

Help, I'm Being Persecuted!

I think your hate for God is clouding your judgment and has cause you to become angry in the conversation. Just because you live by a different belief than me or others does not make yours right. You came on this page of someone who has faith to blast there faith in order to try and cause confusion in her mind. You have allow the devil to enter your thought system to destroy faith and I am here to help you see the what you have allowed to come into your life. If you choice to walk away from that, that is your free will. No one should ever force another to believe like them.

Two Problems…

First, why do Christians have such dreadful spelling and grammar? I don't want to flippantly draw a parallel between religious belief and intelligence, but they almost make it too easy to do so without trying. Obviously, not 100% of Christians write poorly but it's definitely prevalent enough so that I'm picking up on a pattern.

Second, how in the world do you figure I'm mad at or hate god? Does having a contrary opinion automatically mean I'm filled with hatred? That's ludicrous! This is a classic Christian persecution complex and it makes me want to pull out my hair a handful at a time. What gives you the right to project feelings onto me that I'm not experiencing? Get over yourself!

The Hypocrisy, It Burns!

All of that being said, when it comes time for me to update my status on Facebook I sometimes (more often, recently) quote a notable atheist or make my own observation about religion. I do this with full expectation that somebody will disagree and probably comment on it. I don't accuse them of hating me or some imaginary being and I don't project my insecurities onto them because they've shared their opinion. Why is it that the atheist is being more Christ-like than the believers?

Let's start thinking, people. Please.

Monday, November 22, 2010

The Problem with God's Foresight

This has bugged me for quite some time and I have yet to get any kind of explanation for it from Christians, let alone from god. Tell me this isn't completely weird, in describing an all-knowing creator:

Prior to creating the world, God set a rule for Himself that the people He was going to create for the express purpose of loving unconditionally would not be allowed anywhere near Him because He would purposely instill them with a degenerative condition to which He is allergic and which cannot be cured but only conceptually controlled by a symbolic treatment of Jesus' blood; and because He set this rule for Himself He is unable to break it even though it doesn't make any sense, causes Him grief, forced Him to kill His son, and He's omnipotent?

Weird. Let's start thinking, people. Please.

The Problem with Using Poetry as Evidence

Wow, it's been a while since I posted an entry here. My attendance at Skepticon III this weekend (which was freaking awesome, BTW) has renewed my fervor in my pursuit to educate the willfully ignorant. So here we go…

Christians, why do you constantly cite selected verses from books of the Bible such as Psalms, Proverbs, and Song of Solomon? Do you not realize that those books are poetry? Do you not realize that these poems are not the words of a deity? Are you purposely ignoring these facts?

My point is this: if you want to present evidence for your god and you absolutely have to use a book to do it, you honestly need to choose a better book than the one you've got, because I'm not going to accept poetry as fact. If I were to allow myself that practice as the norm, then I'd have to accept all sorts of ridiculous notions like, oh, every single deity ever imagined by mankind throughout history! You do realize that people wrote a lot of poetry about them too, right?

If I were so incredibly in love with a woman that I was blinded to every single one of her faults, I might write a piece of poetry like the following:

Her skin as smooth as milk,
Her hair as strong as steel,
Her eyes as deep as oceans,
All men bow at her heel.

In reality, this woman who seems to have a supernatural ability to capture the attention of every man on Earth and possess the most incredible qualities a woman possibly could possess, might look like this:

The fact that I'm so enamored with her has precluded my ability to see that this chick has a horrible unibrow, huge teeth, dry and damaged hair, a gnarly mole on her cheek, and nostrils the size of jet engine intakes. Not to mention the fact that I'm probably the only man in the world clamoring for her attention. That's fine, really. Each person ought to have the opportunity to see beauty and perfection however they see fit. But here's the rub:

Each person does not have the right to project their biased perceptions onto other people – especially if they're just waxing poetic.

Christians, please do me a favor in the future and remove Biblical books of poetry from your arguments for your god altogether. I think they're crap, other people think they're crap, and they absolutely, positively do not prove anything whatsoever.

Let's start thinking, people. Please.