The God Given Right To Persecute

This is a short post just to clarify a bit of Christian religious dogma. From my reading of the Bible and the teachings I heard as a former Christian, it seems clear that the Christian God directs his followers to routinely persecute, kill, maim, rape, torture and deny rights to various groups of people who he, for whatever reason, does not like.

If one of these persecuted (not yet killed) groups were to stand up and perhaps complain about being persecuted, raped, maimed, tortured or denied their basic civil rights, then are they not denying the Christian their right to worship and practice their religion? Are we not denying the Muslim fanatics their religious rights by preventing them from killing the 'Great Satan"?

I think I understand this eternal Christian victim status now. If they aren't actually being victimized, then denying them the right to victimize others is, in fact, victimizing them. Is that right?

Photo of Christians who have been victimized into determining the end of life choices of a woman. Note the particuarly 'love filled' messages on their signs and the poor children some whackos brought to this freak show. Gotta love the fat guy in the black shirt though. What a genius!

Tagged as:faith,christianity,atheist,atheism,religion

Why Christians Lie (and believe lies)

(From the beginning, let me point out that this post concerns my personal experience with Christians. I am certainly not saying that all Christians lie on a regular basis or as a habit. I am suggesting, however, that Christians -by definition- are more susceptible to believing lies and ignoring the truth.)

There is something that has become so obvious within the last year that I feel the need to comment on it. Christians seem to have a really hard time with truth. They don't like truth. They try to redefine truth. They hide from the truth.

You only need to look to the current state of affairs in our American government to see clearly how right-wing, flag waving Christians in power use lies as a tool to accomplish their goals. Lying seems to be second-nature to vocal Christians. Many vocal Christians seem to feel empowered to lie and immune from the truth. A certain President comes to mind.

The debate over evolution in this country is also a good example of this. When scientific fact disagrees with religious dogma, the science has always been attacked. The Christian school board members in Ohio who were promoting creationism, went out of their way to try to pretend it had nothing to do with religion. Why did they do this? Why did they lie? Why would you promote creationism if you weren't religiously motivated? Did these IDiots, who were all voted out of office, really think for a moment that anyone was going to believe this? Do Christians who try to distance religion from ID and creationism not realize how transparent their illusion is?

When faced with the facts of disasters, starvation and the deprivation of human life over many parts of the world, Christians have to find some safe haven to hide from the ugly truth. The truth that their all-loving God allows this to happen - wills this to happen. What will it be? Will of God? Original sin? Free will? All of these things are lies. Just keep repeating them to yourselves believers, and maybe all of the truth and reality of our world will simply go away.

Of course, the problem of truth is not always so benign as to be limited to the conscience of believers and the moral contradictions that their faith bestows. Christian dishonesty seems to me to be a going concern.

In my business, every fish-wearing, obvious Christian that I have ever had dealings with has lied or attempted to rip me off; Every single one. Now I am only referring to those who had a picture of Jesus on their wall or wore a fish emblem on their shirt or jacket. I am sure I have dealt with Christians who didn't feel the need to literally wear their religion on their sleeve who have not behaved dishonestly. For my part, it certainly would make my business dealings a lot more simple if all Christians had to wear a fish. At least I would know to be on my guard in dealing with them.

In my area there is a car dealership, Nice Cars, that has a whole school of little Jesus fish across their billboards and on all of their marketing. They even put the fish on the back of the cars on the dealer label. Used car dealer: Christian. Hmmm. A nice fit in my opinion. On the same tack, I have also found right-wing Christians to be some of the most greedy people I have ever met. For a group of people who have an exclusive deal for immortality, they certainly seem obsessed with gaining as much 'worldly' wealth as possible and holding onto all of it.

I have wondered why so many of the Christians that I have dealt with behave this way: dishonestly. The answer I found is actually quite simple and obvious. If a person bases the entire worth of their life on a lie, then naturally objective truth and objective morality suffer. It is my opinion that any believer, at least those above a minimum intelligence, who really thinks honestly and completely openly about what their religion teaches and states as truth will have to reach a conclusion that, at a minimum, a great deal of what they believe are lies. In order to save their faith, they must reject their own common sense, their own morality when it comes to the atrocities of the bible and the obvious contradictions and factual errors, and lower themselves to a level which allows the worship of a oddly humanly flawed and mistake-prone God.

Is it any wonder then that this crosses over into their every day lives? One of the major reasons that I started this blog is that I firmly believe that religion, Christianity dominantly in my country, has a negative impact on individuals, families and cultures. The bad far outweighs the good, and the good could be accomplished without the lies. Let me be blunt. When I say lies, what I mean is faith. Faith is nothing more than allowing yourself to believe lies. Where is the morality in that? Where is the good in that?

I will continue this later.

Tagged as:faith,christianity,atheist,atheism,religion

Is God Dead In Europe? I Hope So!

I came across this story written by a Christian author who seems disturbed by the trend away from the church, Catholic Church to be precise, in Europe.

Read the whole story here.

The article was interesting but confused me. The author believes that a growth beyond a need for a God is 'not the right path for America', yet in the entire article he does not mention a single negative consequence of the secular predominance in Europe. The best that he can do is to state that the birth rate is below sustainable levels in many countries. In other words, the population is decreasing.

Oh Christ! What! The population is not increasing?! Fewer Children are being born into poverty?! Average income and quality of life is rising?! Pollution is decreasing?! Fewer people need to be on social welfare programs?! People are actually planning families rather than just screwing like rabbits and suffering the consequences?! What are we to do?! Our Catholic Christian world plan is failing!

The authors Christian demeanor eventually came through loud and clear in the article. He states that abortion and homosexual marriage are contributors to the population decrease. And yes, he is a Catholic of course which explains why a decreasing population and increase in wellbeing is so alarming to him. It also indicates why he is against equal rights for homosexuals. I should thank the author for validating all of the negative stereotypes of Catholics that I hold. What a moron. If homosexual marriage and abortion are contributing to the advancements and happiness of the people of Europe, then maybe we need more of those and less of 'God' over here!

This article is yet another demonstration of the utter stupidity of religious thinking. If this jerk can't come up with better arguments for God than an increase in the well being of a culture, then he needs to just keep his mouth shut or join the other side.

Note to reader: You are not imagining an increase in rude labels in this post. Hereafter in my postings I will refer to all jerks as 'jerks', assholes as 'assholes', morons as 'morons' and idiots as 'idiots'. If this is offensive to you, then don't come back - asshole. ( :

Tagged as:christianity,catholocism,atheist,atheism,religion,Europe,James P. Gannon

Pedophiles Against Gay Rights

I thought that this image was rather funny.

Not Losing Steam

I just wanted to make a quick post to let my readers know that I am a bit tied up in work and some legal mumbo-jumbo right now and am not able to post at my normal rate. I am also falling behind on my usual reading of all the great atheist blogs that are out there. I have at least a dozen blog entries in que to be finished and will be posting those as I have the time needed to make them at least somewhat entertaining or intellectually stimulating (ha - who am I kidding).

So please don't think I am burning out on the blogging. Real life and business are just taking a bit more of my time right now.

Did Jesus Exist? Court to Decide

How nice to see this headline concerning a court case brought by a former seminary student in Italy. The entire story is printed below.

I think that too often we atheist, in trying to find some middle ground with believers, will become too agreeable with some aspects of the believers superstitions. Take the existence of Christ for example. If you weigh the actual historical evidence of the existence of this biblical character you will find that the evidence does not support his existence. It is really that simple. The evidence doesn't support the existence of Sherlock Holmes, Robin Hood or Santa Claus either. There is, in fact, a measure that you put to the existence of characters in literature, yet Jesus seems to be exempt from these test by not only believers but many atheists.

Why is it that we (atheists) should even entertain the notion that Jesus did in fact exist? Further, why should we acknowledge that he was a 'great teacher' or a 'good role model'? The evidence does not support any of these claims, yet I hear many atheists who will say such things in an effort to accomadate believers.

I think that it is time that we all face the FACTS that Jesus is no more an historically accurate character than Bilbo Baggins. It is not our job to make believers comfortable or to stretch our credulity to make some common ground. For anyone interested, I would strongly suggest watching The God Who Wasn't There , a very personal documentary concerning the actual existence of Jesus Christ.

Did Jesus exist? Italian court to decide

By Phil StewartWed Jan 4, 10:28 PM ET

Forget the U.S. debate over intelligent design versus evolution.

An Italian court is tackling Jesus -- and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago.

The case pits against each other two men in their 70s, who are from the same central Italian town and even went to the same seminary school in their teenage years.

The defendant, Enrico Righi, went on to become a priest writing for the parish newspaper. The plaintiff, Luigi Cascioli, became a vocal atheist who, after years of legal wrangling, is set to get his day in court later this month.

"I started this lawsuit because I wanted to deal the final blow against the Church, the bearer of obscurantism and regression," Cascioli told Reuters.

Cascioli says Righi, and by extension the whole Church, broke two Italian laws. The first is "Abuso di Credulita Popolare" (Abuse of Popular Belief) meant to protect people against being swindled or conned. The second crime, he says, is "Sostituzione di Persona", or impersonation.

"The Church constructed Christ upon the personality of John of Gamala," Cascioli claimed, referring to the 1st century Jew who fought against the Roman army.

A court in Viterbo will hear from Righi, who has yet to be indicted, at a January 27 preliminary hearing meant to determine whether the case has enough merit to go forward.

"In my book, The Fable of Christ, I present proof Jesus did not exist as a historic figure. He must now refute this by showing proof of Christ's existence," Cascioli said.

Speaking to Reuters, Righi, 76, sounded frustrated by the case and baffled as to why Cascioli -- who, like him, came from the town of Bagnoregio -- singled him out in his crusade against the Church.

"We're both from Bagnoregio, both of us. We were in seminary together. Then he took a different path and we didn't see each other anymore," Righi said.

"Since I'm a priest, and I write in the parish newspaper, he is now suing me because I 'trick' the people."

Righi claims there is plenty of evidence to support the existence of Jesus, including historical texts.

He also claims that justice is on his side. The judge presiding over the hearing has tried, repeatedly, to dismiss the case -- prompting appeals from Cascioli.

"Cascioli says he didn't exist. And I said that he did," he said. "The judge will to decide if Christ exists or not."

Even Cascioli admits that the odds are against him, especially in Roman Catholic Italy.

"It would take a miracle to win," he joked.

Tagged as:jesus christ,christian,atheist,atheism,religion

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

The article below made me think about the motivation behind a lot of hatred and intolerance in this country. That motivation is fear. More specifically, the fear of parents of being forced to talk to their kids about subjects that they are not comfortable with. The reason that certain subjects are uncomfortable for parents is, in my opinion, due to the social stigma attached to certain areas of our life by religion (sex, sexuality, differing religious beliefs).

In two seperate statements in the article, parents objected to the presence of the 'swingers' mainly due to the fact that it forced them to talk to their kids about subjects that they were uncomfortable with. Now I am not condoning the actions of the swingers at this hotel nor criticizing the complaints which may very well be legitimate. My problem is with the motivation for the complaints.

As an atheist, I know that my mere existence creates a feeling of discomfort with many of those of faith. The fact that I am proud of my faithlessness and vocal about it compounds the issue. Most believers would rather not be faced with examples of individuals who make it through life without superstition. I believe that the same motivation is the cause of much homophobia. I know from first-hand experience with my religious family that homosexuals behaving as normal couples (holding hands, kissing etc) in public is a major issue. If you ask most religious homophobics to get the the root of their opposition, I believe that you will find that many hold the attitude that they object to public displays of homosexuality (being gay in public) more than private acts that individuals may participate in behind closed doors.

In other words, keep your differences in the closet please. If you aren't a Christian, please just shut up and don't complain as our democracy becomes a theocracy. If you are gay, don't do anything or say anything that will force me to talk to my children about sex. If you are not ashamed of your body or uptight about sex, don't let me know or force me to deal with it. Get it?


Parents Fume: Kids, Swingers at Same Hotel

Some teenage soccer players and their parents saw more sights than they wanted when they stayed at a hotel where about 200 swingers were having a New Year's party.

Paul Camporini brought his wife, seventh-grade daughter and eighth-grade son from Safety Harbor and said he had to "delicately explain to my Catholic school children that swingers change partners during the evening."

"My biggest gripe is that the hotel had two distinctly different groups under the same roof," said Camporini, 49. "A soccer team and middle-aged swingers should not have been booked together."

The families said the sexually adventurous partygoers sometimes flashed breasts and bare buttocks in front of the children as they sashayed through the hotel atrium. The parents described the dress at the Crowne Plaza Hotel-Airport in Orlando as "raunchy, despicable and worse than prostitutes."

"We thought we were coming to Orlando, not the Las Vegas Strip," said Mark Gilbert, the father of a boy who plays on the Clearwater Chargers, a group of 13-and-under players from Florida.

The teams booked the $92-a-night rooms for Disney's Soccer Showcase, and said hotel management did not tell them about the swingers' party or try to keep the partygoers away from the children.

Hotel managers did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Tuesday. All of the swingers had checked out of the hotel by late Sunday.

"We're not prudes by any means," said Rob Young of Greenville, S.C., who said his two daughters, Leah, 13 and Lauren, 11, asked questions he struggled to answer. "We would have liked to have been informed when we checked into the hotel so we could have made other arrangements.

"The kids could see through the glass atrium into the ballroom where naked people were dancing. There were exposed breasts, thongs and see-through dresses on women who were not wearing any underwear."

Young said he complained to hotel management and to John Hollis, an off-duty Orlando police officer hired by the hotel for a New Year's Eve security detail. He said neither did anything to help.

Lt. John Mina, a watch commander for the Orlando Police Department, said Hollis didn't witness anything illegal.

Tagged as:homophobia,sexuality,atheist,atheism,religion