Do Something For Atheism

I know it may seem that I am getting lazy about the blog, but honestly, I am in the middle of some legal BS and a very busy work season to boot. But I have found time to make some positive differences for atheism in my little red neck Bible-belt town.

A few months ago my wife noticed that one of the local Comcast trucks had a Jesus Fish on one side of the back bumper and a God Bless America on the other. We called the regional office and emailed and got a prompt very polite and seemingly interested response. The person even followed up later to say that they had started an investigation of the matter and thanked us for bringing it to their attention. BTW, the Fish was never seen again.

Then two weeks ago I was in our local B&N Bookseller and noticed a display table with the sign "Religion and Spirituality". In browsing the titles on the table, there was not one other religion mentioned other than Christianity. There was one book about Islamic terrorism. No Judaism. No Wicca. No Buddhism. I asked to see that manager and pointed out the rather biased display and noted that they could just perhaps change the sign to say 'Promoting Christianity' which would be more accurate and honest. This manager didn't seem too thrilled at having to talk to me and at one point when I said that I was not a Christian she interjected "Obviously Not'. However, in revisiting the store a week later, there was now a little improvement. There are a couple of books on Judaism, a few on Buddhism but all of the Christian books are still there. I think I will pursue this one over the local managers head.

Lastly, inspired by a story I read on another blog concerning complaints to public libraries about lack of atheist literature, I visited my local library. I was not holding my chances as being very good and my first meeting with the head administrator was less than friendly. However, she referred me to the person who actually orders the books and what do you know - she is an atheist! Well, agnostic at least! Holy Shit. We talked for a half hour about all the Bible Beaters in our town and about good atheist books. I gave her a list in writing today of my complaint and the books I would like the library to order and expect to see them on the shelves soon. However, she did point out that many of these books disappear or are checked out and never returned.

So, this just goes to show that with a little effort anyone can start to call attention to our atheist cause or at the very least the inequities of many businesses.

Have any of you had success lately in any of this?

An Atheist With Guts

I just happened across this post at Doug Ireland's blog. Please, please watch this clip and read the article on his blog. We need more atheists with the guts to say what this brave woman said on, of all places, Al Jazeera telivision.



Read the post at the Direland blog here.

They Molest Children in Ireland Too

Well, surprise surprise. Priests in Ireland are child molesters also. Who'd of thunk it. To tie in with my previous post concerning abortion, I now understand why the Catholic church encourages fetus worship; they need more Catholic children to molest!

102 Irish Priests Suspected of Abuse

By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer

The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Dublin said Wednesday that 102 of its priests are suspected of sexually or physically abusing at least 350 children since 1940 Â? the biggest such admission to date in Ireland.

The office of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said it was publishing its findings ahead of this month's expected formation of a government-appointed commission to investigate the history and handling of such abuse in Ireland.

This predominantly Catholic nation has been rocked by waves of church sex-abuse scandals since 1994.

The archdiocese said it conducted a two-year review of the personnel files of more than 2,800 priests who have worked in the Dublin archdiocese, either as parish priests or in religious orders, during the past 66 years.

It found that eight priests in Dublin were convicted of abuse, while 32 priests have been sued for damages by 105 victims at a cost to the archdiocese of $7 million. That figure includes about $2 million in legal bills for both sides.

But the report said costs were expected to increase significantly because 40 cases remained unsettled, while church authorities had positively identified at least 350 abuse victims and "a possible further 40 persons who may have been abused but who it is not yet possible to identify or trace."

Martin, a veteran Vatican diplomat appointed here in 2003, said he believed the archdiocese would have to sell off some of its properties to cover the mounting compensation bill. He called that a necessary sacrifice to right past wrongs, as much as was possible.

"It's very frightening for me to see that in some of these cases, so many children were abused. It's very hard to weigh that up against anything," Martin said.

"On the other hand, I know that the vast majority of priests don't abuse, that they do good work, that they're extremely upset and offended by what's happened."

religion,abortion,catholicism

Fetus Worship

I had been considering a post on this subject for some time, but this story from Mexico has prompted me to delay no longer.

There is a dangerous cult in this country and around the world. This cult attracts not just the naive religious types, but also those who consider themselves to be critical thinkers. The cult is that of the "Fetus Worshipers".

This cult lives under the delusion that early stages of embryonic human life are full grown human beings - living and breathing and due rights that no one else in our society hold. Most of the members of this cult are religious, with some exceptions, and most are conservatives. Most cult members not only worship the fetus, but they hold some form of disdain for women or the rights of women in general. In the view of many fetus worshipers, the fetus has the right to take the life of a woman if it is inside her body. Rapists are encouraged by the fetus worshipers to impregnate women and form more glorious fetuses which a woman must carry within her body for nine months. It is a bizarre cult indeed.

The cult has the idea that premature human forms have desires and thoughts. They do not. They do not desire to be born. They do not desire to destroy their mother or endanger her life. They are not rational, thinking, fully formed humans. They are fetuses. Get it?

This cult is personal to me because most of my fundaMentalist family belongs to this cult. My sister, who is just over 40 years old, recently remarried and decided to try to have a second child. She knew the risks and made the decision to try anyway realizing that the odds were substantial that the pregnancy would not mature. She became pregnant, but after about 2 months began having complications. She prayed. She went to the doctor and was told that the fetus was dead. It was not alive. She was devastated. She was told that she would need to have the dead tissue which was this fetus removed in order to avoid serious health risks. But being a fetus worshiper, she could not bring herself to have it removed. She bled for over a week before the majority of the tissue exited her body. She could have died because she worshiped this fetus so much and believed, I suppose, that 'God' could somehow bring it back to life. Having the procedure was too much like having an abortion in her view. She would have rather died than have this dead tissue taken from her body. It makes me so angry and so sick. This fetus could have robbed me of my little sister.

Here is my view on 'Fetus Worship'. If the fetus is so grand that it actually the right to prosecute an assault (look it up here) , then I say let it appear in court as a witness. Let it walk right out of that uterus and state it's views. Ridiculous you say? Isn't this what fetus worshipers believe? That the fetus is a consciousness – a thinking human with as many rights as an actual living breathing person? If you want to save a fetus, then we will have aborted fetuses sent to you and you can have them put into YOUR body. Women who are denied to right to end a pregnancy and control their body will send you their unwanted children and YOU can raise them. Or the state can just send all of you fetus worshipers the bill for all the unwanted and uncared for children.

So what does this have to do with atheism as atheism has no one view on the subject and obviously some atheists are as rabid anti-abortionists as the most idiotic believer? In my view, if you don't believe in the idea of a 'soul' and you understand basic biology, then you would have to understand that a fetus is not a fully formed human. It is at it's essence a parasite of the host - its mother. It is what it is. It is not what it might become. It has no potential outside of its mother’s body. If you believe that 'God' is the only one who decides what life should live or die (unless of course he directs his followers to murder), then you would be inclined to have a child you might not want or to coerce or force a woman to bear an unwanted child.

Also, if you are religious, you are taught that sex is bad. Pregnancy, for many, is the unintended result of sex. So to make sex less of a risk with birth control or even abortion is wrong. While I would not condone abortion as a first line means of birth control, it is odd that the anti-abortionists almost all oppose trying to prevent the pregnancies in the first place.

Growing up as little Baptist conservative, I was naturally a rabid anti-abortionist. I understand the naive views of those who worship the fetus because I have been one of them. I am glad that as an adult I have managed to care more for my fellow living and breathing human beings, my family and my wife, and worry less about all of the fetuses.

religion,abortion,atheism