Christian Empathy: Where is it?

My friend Joe, an agnostic Christian, and I had a nice chat on the phone last night. We had not seen each other over the Holidays and were discussing our Xmas family experiences. During the course of our conversation, he relayed an incident which happened at a soup kitchen that his church sponsored.

It seems that one of Joe's church friends has recently 'gotten the spirit' and become a very vocal evangelical. Joe attends a rather liberal Methodist church - extremely liberal for our area - and there aren't many holy warriors who are his fellow parishioners. During the soup kitchen, a young Guatemalan family entered; a dad, mom and two young children. Joe and his newly Jesus’ed up friend walked forward to welcome them. Joe attempted to welcome them in Spanish and make them feel at home. Joe's evangelical friend immediately bent down one of the kids and said, "Hi, do you know Jesus?"

Joe said that he simply walked away in disbelief but now wishes he had said something immediately to his friend. To his credit, Joe is going to tell his friend that he thinks that his actions were completely inappropriate in that setting - a soup kitchen. Joe raised the point that his friend evidently cannot imagine what it would be like to have someone push their religion on you in those circumstances. In other words, his friend cannot empathize. I laughed and told Joe that I had met very few Christians who seem capable of empathy with people of other faiths or non-believers.

If you examinethe major conflicts between the secular world and religion, in the United States in particular, I believe that you will find a lack of empathy on the part of the Christians to be a major contributor to the problem. Most Christians can't imagine what it would be like to be in a minority viewpoint and have symbols and reminders of the majority constantly paraded in front of you and shoved down your throat. Most Christians can't empathize with the Jewish or Muslim child who comes home in tears due to the inevitable attacks that children who are 'different' suffer at the hands of their peers. Most Christians don't see why non-Christians get so upset that Christian symbolism and phrases are printed on our money and used in our official, supposedly secular, political procedures.

Is it really so hard for Christians to, for one second, imagine if they were the minority and it was the beliefs and rituals of someone else that were constantly promoted and sometimes forced upon them? Do Christians simply not care? Is it a 'evangelize at any cost' mentality that governs? Is it simply the nature of a majority to behave in a manner akin to fascism?
I have to say that the vast majority of Christians I know have a major failing when it comes to having empathy for those of differing religions. Most of them have zero empathy for those with no religious beliefs. Perhaps Christians love playing the victim so much that possessing or demonstrating empathy is simply contrary to the role. I really don't know. My thinking now is so far away from that narrow, dark and frightened place that ruled it when I was a believer that trying to decipher the motivations of the faithful now is almost impossible for me.

By the way, when the 'war on Christmas' is over, will someone tell me?

Tagged as:'war on christmas',christian,atheist,atheism,religion

An Atheist Christmas

My wife and I will be leaving later today for a weekend at my mom's home and the home of my wife's parents. And if you are wondering, the answer is yes; we will be celebrating and having a good time with my Christian family even though my wife and I are atheists. You see, Christmas to us has always been a time for celebration and good cheer and not a celebration of the birth of a religious leader. I know that a lot of Christians seem to have a really hard time dealing with that fact, but I am afraid that this is the case with millions around the world. In the case of my wife and I, we love the holiday season (Christmas or whatever you want to call it), we just don't believe in Jesus Christ. We love the holiday lights, we enjoy giving gifts, we put up a Christmas tree, we decorate our house, we have a few egg nog, we fellowship with our friends. We do everything you Christians do without once considering that we are doing it for or in the name of a particular deity.

Like millions in the millennia before the stories of Christ, we find that the time near the Winter Solstice and the New Year is a great opportunity to celebrate life and love, to remember those who are no longer with us and to wish our friends and family well.

If you are looking for a 'war on Christmas', you won't find it with my wife and I. If most people behaved in the manner that they behave from Thanksgiving through New Years Day, then the world would probably be a better place. The world could use more good will toward mankind. We simply don't see religion or superstition as being a part of that good will and we don't think Christ or Christians have a monopoly on the season.

So as we prepare to leave for a secular celebration of Christmas with our Christian families, I would just like to with all of you Christian readers a very Merry Christmas!

And to my atheist readers; You are all going to hell!

Tagged as:'war on christmas',christian,atheist,atheism

Evil Secular Progressive

I've been quite busy lately and have not had the time to post as much as I would like but I at least had some time today to try to catch up on some blog reading. I promise to get back to a full posting schedule after the holidays. I was also catching up on some log file reading - checking where I am being linked and seeing who is referring to my site. I found this interesting bit of information: Of the keywords or phrases that Google refers to my site, the phrase 'Evil Secular Progressive' puts me at number one. I am not sure how I should feel about that, but I am happy to score number 1 again with the phrase "10 reasons to be an atheist". And oddly enough, I score top billing for the phrase 'how to become 'ungay'".

Hopefully I will soon have more time to devote to the blog and I won't have to resort to 'fluff' posts (like this one) as often. Forgive me please.

Atheist Bumper Sticker Ticks Off Xtian in Poland

This has to be the best bang-for-the-buck that I have ever recieved from of a freethought bumper sticker. Normally, the bumper stickers on the rear of the utility trailer used in our business will only piss off the religious nut-jobs who are in the immediate vicinity. But I have just had the pleasure of annoying a religious whacko in POLAND! How is that for effective advertising?

If any of you have questioned the need for advertising our position, this should be an example of the effect that it can have. I have just effected someone who is an Ocean away with the simple few words and ideas conveyed on these tiny billboards.

I will have to write more on the effect that out-of-the-closet atheists have on the narrow-minded religious types, but in the mean time you might want to read the reaction from Poland here. Scroll down to the replies.

The most frightening part of this guys reply is that he is a teacher! Yikes. Oh well, I am off to a meeting of the FFRF!

Tagged as:
poland,christian,FFRF,religion

I Am Late to the 'War On Christmas'

Hey, what's going on here? Why didn't some of my fellow evil atheist, secular, progressive heathen friends let me know we were having a 'War on Christmas'? I always am the last to find out. Here I have been enjoying the Christmas lights on neighbors homes, shopping for a present for my wife, planning a trip to visit my Christian family for the holidays .... only to find out that there is a freaking war that we are waging! Now what am I supposed to do?

Well, now that I know, perhaps someone can tell me what our strategy is. It seems that we have ultra-conservative corporations such as Walmart on our side, which is very surprising to me, as well as the US Postal service - a shock! I had no idea that these guys were evil atheists also. I am also a bit surprised that we (atheists, secularists) started a 'war'. I thought it was the Christians and conservatives that loved 'wars' so much (war on drugs, war on terror etc).

I have been a bit busy so it would help if some of you could post our secret secular atheist plans in the comments. I have to call my family to let them know I won't be visiting, have to take my wife's present back to the store and have to start breaking all my neighbors wonderful outdoor light displays. The work of an evil secular progressive is never done.

Tagged as:
war on christmas,war on,atheist,secular,walmart,humor

That Is Satanic

This is a note to all religious fundamentalist out there. When you refer to something as 'Satanic', it is as if you were to wear a sign above your head reading 'I AM AN IDIOT'. It is rather odd to observe what is considered Satanic and where.

Islamic Extremist: Iraq Vote 'Satanic'
(AP)
Al-Qaida in Iraq and four other Islamic extremist groups denounced this week's parliamentary elections as a "satanic project" that violated God's law, but they stopped short of an explicit threat Monday to attack polling stations.

Read entire story

satan,islam,atheism

Letter to Lamar Advertising

The following is a copy of a letter sent to the executives of Lamar Advertising (see previous post). I will update when I receive a reply. I would highly suggest that we let this company know that we will not support their advertisers as long as they support bigotry and intolerance against us.

Dear Lamar Executives,

I am an American and I am a non-theist. My wife and I travel in our self-owned business and depend upon billboards often in order to accommodate ourselves while traveling. Your recent actions and inconsistencies concerning community standards has, I am afraid, put us in a position in which we feel obligated to not support businesses that advertise on your billboards.

I am referring specifically to this billboard which you own which can be viewed here.
http://pharyngula.org/images/lunatic_atheists_sign.jpg

This billboard refers to atheists as 'God Haters', 'Anti-American', and 'Traitors' and makes a thinly veiled threat of violence termed as a 'Civil War'.

My question to you is as follows. How can you suggest that ads critical of a Congresswoman, ads promoting tolerance for homosexuals and ads that promote animal welfare are against community standards while running a billboard which makes a direct threat against a group based on their religious affiliation? Am I to understand your position as democrats, atheists, homosexuals and animal rights activists are not acceptable to your community standards, while hate-mongers such as Rev. E.F. Briggs are acceptable? I am sure that you are well aware of the billboards that I refer to in my question to you.

Obviously, your definition of 'community standards' is very different from the definition of most tolerant and decent Americans. I feel I have no choice but to let your advertisers know that I will not patronize their businesses because your company, Lamar Advertising, does not meet my community standards.

There are millions of Americans who are non-theists. There are millions who are homosexuals. Your actions seem to indicate that you consider these two groups as unacceptable to the communities in which you operate, or worse, you help to promote outright hatred towards them. Surely you cannot think that such an attitude on your part will not result in some reaction? I would hope that some rational thinking about your policies would prevail above what seems to be an ideological mindset concerning your business practices.


Sincerely,

Alan (the atheist)
Rome, GA

Tagged As:
atheism,atheist,American Family Association,
hate, Lamar advertising,gay
billboard,democrat

Lamar Advertising: Hatred Meets Community Standards

Lya's post inspired me to do a bit more research on Lamar Advertising, one of the countries largest billboard advertising companies. I had noticed in the past that a lot of the 'God' billboards were owned by Lamar as were several with rather rude 'with us or against us' post 9-11 messages that seemed to be temporary placeholders on billboards that were not sold. I had suspected that this Louisiana based company was headed by wing-nuts, and now I am sure.

The company has just violated a contract with the Democratic Party in refusing to run ads critical of congresswoman Jean Schmidt after her attacks on decorated war veterans. The reason that they indicated for the breach of contract was that the ad was negative. However, as Lya points out, this ad (see below) referring to atheists as Anti-American, Lunatics and Traitors is evidently NOT a negative ad in their eyes. And that is not all.


They have bowed under pressure from the right-wing Christian hate group, The American Family Association to pull billboards in Pennsylvania that the group disapproves of.

And in Georgia, they have refused to run ads for Georgia Equality, a GLBT support group. The ads which depicted doctors, firemen and professionals with the slogan, We are Gay and We are your Neighbors, was refused because it violated local community standards.
So according to the reasoning of Lamar Advertising, it is a violation of community standards in Georgia to be gay. They have run ads, however, for groups promoting 'gay therapy' to help the poor gay and lesbians of America to become 'ungay'.

And yet again in Georgia, a Lamar executive, Chris Story, refused an ad for the animal rights group, PETA, on the grounds that, "Their whole campaign is to shock," and that "It's not in line with community standards." Story says that his criteria for decisions regarding which ads to refuse is this; "The way I look at it, what would you put in front of a 5-year-old on their way home from school?" Take another look at the hate-spewing billboard at the top of this post. This billboard is OK for a 5-year-old to see on their way to school, is not negative and meets community standards? I evidently have different 'community standards' than Lamar Advertising. Or perhaps it depends on what school your hypothetical 5 year old attends. I suppose a school that teaches hatred, intolerance and bigotry would approve of such ads.

Lamar is obviously using the excuse of 'Community Standards' in order to push a right-wing agenda. It should be no surprise that they contribute dominantly to the Republican party.

I would encourage all free-thinking bloggers to post about this in order to let our readers know that we do not appreciate Lamar advertising's support of hate, intolerance and threats of violence.

If you would like to complain here are some numbers:
Write to:
Mr. Kevin P. Reilly, Jr.
Chairman & CEO
Lamar Advertising Co.
5551 Corporate Blvd.
Baton Rouge, LA 70808

Call: (225) 926-1000.
Fax: (225) 926-1005.

Lamar Pres and CFO and CEO contacts:

kreilly@lamarhq.com
sreilly@lamarhq.com
kistre@lamarhq.com

Tagged As:
atheism,atheist,American Family Association,
hate, Macon,Lamar advertising,gay
billboard,democrat,Jean Schmidt

Find the Religious Nut

Post your guess in the comments. Extra credit for identifying all of them. Have fun!
Now pardon me while I go and shave.

Tagged As:
atheism,atheist,saddam hussein,
religion, mel gibson,humor,beard
osama bin laden

Atheist Rear Ends

I thought that I would share an image of the rear of my vehicle and utility trailer. Click here for a larger view. The utility trailer has become a bit of a legend in the circle of artists in my industry. I've noticed several of them as well as several members of the general public snatching a photo with their digital cameras or cell phones. I feel lucky to work in an industry where this type of public statement is almost always met with a positive response.

By the way, this is the trailer that almost had my wife and I killed by a believer near Chattanooga, TN (see previous post).

I had never been a fan of bumper stickers, but after the 2000 elections, I felt I had to make a statement in any way possible. I would challenge all non-believers to 'show your colors', perhaps in a more understated way than I have to be sure.

Let's see some of your rear ends!

Reginald, one of our cats, admires the Darwin fish. Larger view.

Tagged As:
atheism,atheist,God,
religion, chattanooga,Bumper Sticker,

Atheists, Watch Your Backs

I wish that it was not necessary to write on this subject, but recent events in the news and posts on atheist and Christian blogs have made it so. Violence and intolerance, either considered, threatened or acted upon, is becoming more of a reality for vocal non-believers as the culture war in America continues to heat up.

I am going to offer several recent examples from the news, thoughts from a Christian bloggers point of view as well as a personal story of violence I have felt firsthand for voicing my views.

The first example is chilling. A Kansas professor, who was openly critical of the Kansas School Boards decision to treat creationism as science, was assaulted on a rural road. His story garnered a lot of attention when an email he sent referring to 'fundies' was made public.

The second is a video clip from a reality show demonstrating the mindset of some 'fundies' when they are forced to be in contact with non-believers.

Here is a nice little ditty composed of the meltdown of the 'God Warrior'.

The I'm The Mama blog made me aware of this next item. It is a post on a Christian bloggers site. This Christian considered causing an accident with the car in front of him when he saw that the car had a bumper sticker which read "Proud to be an Atheist". Of course, he was only considering causing the accident so as to be able to witness to the poor unbeliever. You can read the post here.

The blog owner, Mr Barlett has since done some back-tracking and apologized for his poorly worded post, which is thoughtful of him, and I am sure that he didn't seriously consider causing an accident. But the fact remains that thoughts such as he had upon seeing that bumper sticker do go through the minds of even reasonable Christians. Imagine the thoughts that go through a rabid fundies mind. I did find one other post on this site that irked me a bit pertaining to a 'prank' he pulled on a fellow worker. Not to pick on you, Mr Bartlett, but you did title the post, Is This Wrong?

And finally I want to share a personal story of what I consider to be an attempted murder upon myself and my wife.

We were returning from a business trip in Chattanooga, TN on I-75, a very busy and fast 3 lane section of interstate highway. The back of the utility trailer that we take on these trips is covered with anti-religion and anti-bush bumper stickers. A car with a lawnmower in the trunk and a Jesus fish decal passed us in the center lane then slowed and pulled in front of us. I was forced to enter the middle lane to pass him. He then sped up and entered the center lane in front of me and suddenly slammed on his brakes. I was forced to swerve to the left lane to miss him. I passed him and switched back to the center lane. A few moments later he passed us once again and again got in front of us and slammed on his brakes. I am amazed that somehow I managed to miss him this time. I nearly lost control of the vehicle. I accelerated in order to stay in front of him. As I passed him, blowing my horn continuously, he rolled down his window and flipped me off and said something - I assume he was reciting the Lord’s Prayer or the beatitudes. I did not let him in front of me again and he exited at the next exit.

I have had many other incidents with gestures or yells from those Bush lovers or Christians who don't appreciate my views, but this incident could easily have taken my life, my wife's life and the idiot believer’s life.

I offer all of these examples merely to say that we should continue to be vocal, but also careful. I will never muzzle myself in regards to my belief or lack of belief regardless of threats or attempts on my life. The reckless and moronic actions of believers will only strengthen my resolve to voice reason and to reach out to those believers who still manage to hold on to some form of dignity.

I would love to hear from some of you regarding these types of incidents or simply your encounters with annoying believers.

Tagged As:
atheism,atheist,God,
religion, chattanooga,Paul Mirecki,Kansas
God Warrior

Islamic Family Values

I know that we atheists are already aware of this fact, but it is very frustrating that all the faithful in the world can't see the damage that religion does. If they could, they would understand why we are fighting to remain a nation that is ruled by secular laws based on reason and compasion and not on dogma and superstition. Here is a recent sampling of brutality courtesy of the Islamic faith.

(via Reuters )
London -

Rukhsana Naz was 19 when her mother pinned her to the floor of their family house and her brother strangled her with a length of plastic cable.

Sahjda Bibi, 21, was preparing to celebrate her wedding when her cousin stabbed her 22 times with a kitchen knife. The father of 16-year-old Heshu Yones slit her throat because he disapproved of her Western habits and non-Muslim boyfriend.

View entire story

Tagged As:
atheism,honor killing,
religion,Islam,London

Revealing Myself

It is more than a little ironic that I make my living as a photographer, yet I have a phobia of having my photograph taken. There are literally no photographs of me in our home, that is until last Christmas. My wife managed to get a copy of a photograph taken of me by my sister sometime around 1975 at our high school.

In trying to be more revealing of myself on this blog and to put a face with all the rants and opinions, I thought that I would share this photo with everyone else. I have made a few comments myself and would welcome others. I would also challenge the rest of you to open yourselves up to such humiliation!

I want to remind you that this was pre-atheist. I was a church-going skinny little Baptist hell raiser in 1975.

This female student is totally checking my ass out!



A few notes:

1. Note the double zippered pants for easy access when needed.
2. Nose is in full adult size at age 13 (and you wonder why I needed double zippered pants - you do the math)
3. Hair by Robert Plant
4. Macramé beaded necklace (pre-hemp days)

Perhaps I will get past my fear of being photographed someday, but at least you now know where that fear was founded!

Is Bush the Worst President in History?

You can guess my answer to this question, but this article offers the view of actual historians.

Read the entire article.

Here is a list of what some of them had to say, some of them self-identified conservatives:

He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process;

He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the rich;

He has deliberately and dangerously attacked separation of church and state;

He has repeatedly "misled," to use a kind word, the American people on affairs domestic and foreign;

He has proved to be incompetent in affairs domestic (New Orleans) and foreign ( Iraq and the battle against al-Qaida);

He has sacrificed American employment (including the toleration of pension and benefit elimination) to increase overall productivity;

He is ignorantly hostile to science and technological progress;

He has tolerated or ignored one of the republic's oldest problems, corporate cheating in supplying the military in wartime.

Tagged As:
politics,iraq,
religion,bush

Almost an Atheist

There have been a few post recently asking atheists what 'spark' starting them down the road to atheism. In conversing with many open-minded (to a degree) believers on this site, I realize that many seem to be on that same road that we once traveled, but they are perhaps stuck due to doubts or social pressures. Therefore I thought I would tackle the subject of deconversion from another angle with this question.

What was the final hurdle (mental or otherwise) that you had to overcome in order to finally reject faith and 'come out' as an atheist?

This question is obviously aimed at atheists who were once believers to one degree or another, but I would love to hear from those who never were of 'faith' also.

Tagged As:
atheism,atheist,God,
religion