Who does an atheist thank on Thanksgiving?

By popular demand (OK, one of my readers asked) I am re-posting my 2008 Thanksgiving blog.
It's as relevant now as it was then, and as it always will be.  Enjoy... and a wonderful, safe, and godless Thanksgiving to you and yours.

There are all kinds of stories, real and embellished, which speak of the earliest thanksgiving feasts in the 17th century. In 1863 Lincoln proclaimed it an annual event "…as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.” Uh huh.

So, every fourth Thursday in November believers bow their heads, and presumably mumble some words of groveling thanks to their super being for allowing them to have their turkey, their homes, their jobs, their freedoms, their families, indeed everything that makes America good and life worth living.

As an atheist I mumble not. I have no need of a single day of praise to thank a magical being whose non-influence due to his non-existence has had no effect on anything for which I am thankful. Instead, I have many days of thanksgiving:

- Every Election Day as I cast my vote, I thank our Founding Fathers for their bravery and foresight.
- Every Veterans Day and Memorial Day I thank every fallen comrade and every vet who ever fought to acquire and retain our freedoms.
- Every Columbus Day I am conscious of the contribution of that great explorer.
- Every Lincolns Birthday, and Martin Luther King Day I remember men whose words and deeds set people free.
- Every Independence Day I remember to thank those men and women who risked their lives, fortunes and sacred honor in order to bring this Great Experiment to fruition.
- Every family birthday, every anniversary, and each Thanksgiving Day I am thankful for my family… and thank them for being the people I love and who love me.

Yes, thanks are due, but not to some boogie man, not to some mythical sky being, not to some imaginary thing that hovers above, or within, or about, or below. Thanks are due to genuine human beings; real physical men, women, and children, past and present, whose sacrifice, foresight, commitment, dedication and love make our country unique, and our lives worthwhile. That’s who I’ll be thanking this Thanksgiving.

But, if you just can’t deal with reality, and must bow and grovel to some unseen god may I recommend Garuda, the Hindu bird god. He’s as close to a turkey god as you can get.

Prayer in the face of “Freewill”: The bugaboo Christians don’t want to hear.

I was reading about a Christian pastor who is imprisoned in Iran for promoting Christianity.  Naturally, the Christian community has been praying their knees to the bone for the past year or so for his release, with zero luck.  In fact, he was just transferred to the most hideous prison in Iran for their troubles. 

On the same day I read a tragic story about a Youth Pastor in California who lead a prayer meeting calling on god to end gun violence.  That evening he was shot dead in the street.

Both stories had reader comments explaining how it wasn’t the failing of prayer that has caused these unfortunate predicaments.  No, it is the fact that god gave man “free will,” and its man’s evil use of freewill that is the problem.

The religious always seem to have an explanation for why things don’t work out the way they wish / pray / or are promised they would. It’s easy to do because - unlike reality - the supernatural is as fluid as a puddle of mercury.  When in doubt, just make it up, who’s going to prove you wrong?    But this time they stepped into a pile of steaming prairie pizza that is inescapable. Here’s why:

If as Xtians say god gave man free will, then by praying for the incarcerated pastor to be set free they  are imploring the god thing to intervene and take back / over rule the free will of his Iranian captors.  Similarly, by praying for gun violence to stop, they are imploring their god to intervene in the evil actions of freewill-possessing-gun-toting-criminals.

Now here’s the paradox: If god thing can revoke freewill, impose his preference on man, based on prayers of the faithful then it's not free will at all; it’s simply an illusion of free will ... thus freewill is a lie.

On the other hand, if free will trumps prayers, and thus god doesn't / won’t intervene to change man's mind/behavior, then why pray for world peace, or pray for an end to abortion, or pray for non-believers to come to jebus, or pray for any condition that is controlled by human thought and action?

Now, reason tells us you can’t have it both ways. Prayer is either effective in getting god thing to cloud mens' minds and turn their unkind acts or alter their preferences; or prayer is ineffective in the face of freewill.  

When posing this problem to a believer one encounters only the usual mindless platitudes (i.e. “God is good ALLLLL the time!!!!!”); or the inevitable cry of “CONTEXT!!!”; or the endless quoting of some totally unrelated biblical verse in an effort to divert the issue.   I have yet to find a Christian capable of reasoning through this dilemma and rendering an intelligible response.   See if you can find one. Good luck.

But it’s not their fault. They are condemned by their mind virus to endlessly try and defend a befuddled, defunct, contradictory and utterly absurd doctrine.

Silly Christians.  

Remembering Kristallnacht and what Christianity wrought

It’s a pretty safe bet most of us didn’t notice that Saturday, November 9^th marked the 75^th anniversary of the beginning of what is arguably the worst case of religiously inspired genocide ever recorded on the planet.


Seventy-five years ago in Nazi Germany, persecution of the Jews became officially sanctioned genocide when brown shirted Nazis and like thinking German civilians smashed windows of Jewish businesses’ (hence the name “glass night,” or more succinctly The Night of Broken Glass), burned seven thousand Jewish businesses to the ground as well as one-thousand synagogues, and destroyed Jewish homes and belongings; culminating in the death of at least ninety-one innocent German Jews.

The government of Germany did more than fail to prosecute the perpetrators of this supposedly impromptu, but well organized, act of antisemitism against their own citizens; they actually rounded up 30,000 Jews and sent them off to concentration camps. Kristallnacht marked the transition from Jewish persecution to Jewish extermination.   And so began the Holocaust.

Wait. Did I say that began the Holocaust?  I misspoke. No, the beginnings of the Holocaust can be traced back almost 1,800 years before Kristallnacht, and laid right at the feet of the creators of anti-Jewish thought: the Catholic Church and their doctrine of collective Jewish guilt for the supposed death of their make believe Man-god.

The New Testament is rife with anti-Jewish sentiment. Paul, realized the Jews weren’t buying the Messiah-ship of Jesus and weren't going to be the source of growth  of the new cult. Thus, in his effort to recruit pagan Romans to Christianity, he shifted blame from the Roman execution of a seditious Jewish monarchist onto the Jews themselves and away from the Romans, thus removing direct responsibility for Jesus’ death from his prime recruiting target. The rest is, as they say, history.

Shortly thereafter, with the growth of Christianity, Jewish lives were worth less than Christian lives.  During the crusades Jewish lives were barely more valued than Muslim’s lives. Good Christian knights slaughtered Jews wholesale as they rode to the Holy Land.  Jews were blamed for plagues.  They were banned from craft guilds; barred from Europe’s universities; forced out of their places of birth upon threat of death or torture; taxed for their Judaism; forcibly converted to Christianity on pain of death; herded into ghettos. Spontaneous cases of pogroms, Jewish persecutions and killings, became the norm throughout Christian Europe for centuries.  The list of atrocities and injustices is mind bending.  

That’s not to say The Catholic Church was the sole guilty party.  The Reformation bred protestant cults that hated the Jews just as much, or more… they used the same Bible after all. Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism, was a rabid anti-Semite and fanned the flamed of Jew hating.

Is it any wonder then that most of the monarchies of Europe, then Hitler saw Jews as just another pestilence worthy of extinction? Hitler after all was raised in the Catholic Church.  He knew the Church doctrine well. Thus, no coincidence that when the time came to purify Germany and cultivate the Aryan Race the Jews were the prime target.

In a recent poll of US Christians, 27% blame the Jews for “killing God.”  I’m surprised it’s that low.  In fact, I highly doubt that even scratches the surface.  While Pope Francis and some recent popes have professed Jewish collective guilt to be wrong; and the Lutheran church is embarrassed by Luther’s call for Jewish expulsion and persecution and murder - they can’t undo what the Christian bible says, and what the Church has so effectively implanted and cultivated in the minds of Christians and the world for nearly two-thousand years.

Until the New Testament is purged of the fable and hate it promotes (and while they’re at it they can fix the scientific fallacies and contradictions) the remaining 27% of Christians who openly admit they blame and hate Jews, and the perhaps the other 50% who are just too embarrassed to openly admit it, are the “True Christians.”  

I hope its 2,000 years more before the Jews forgive the Christians for the horrors and misery their mindless cult caused the Jewish people. Even then, it would be too soon. It would do us all well to never forget Kristallnacht for it is proof of what religion brings.    

Atheism, Arrogance & the Center of the Universe.

”Every atheist I have met has been a very arrogant person. Yet even in their arrogance, they have trouble believing that they are greater than God. So instead they just say that God does not exist. That way they don't have to deal with it and they can be the center of their universe.” – Vidmagic

This tiresome platitude filled analysis was proffered by a very confused religionist trying to make sense of why atheists are. Sad and remarkably silly, although he did get one thing right.  I attempted to set him straight: 



Arrogance? Perhaps. I'll admit to being arrogant at times. But my studied opinion after almost a half century of discourse with people such as you is that I have much to be arrogant about.

I doubt you have met many atheists, if any at all. I have over 2000 atheist friends (real and on fb), and belong to a number of national freethinker organizations. I've yet to hear even one atheist ever even intimate that they aren't greater than a god, yours, or any of the others. Man created his gods in his image, thus no god can be greater than man.  As human beings we're all greater than your imaginary supernatural being, Vidmagic,  because we exist.

I'm guessing you have no trouble perceiving yourself to be greater than Thor; greater than Isis; greater than Moloch; greater than all the thousands of gods man's inventive mind has created, save one. How hard is it then to take a tiny step forward into advanced thought and understand why an atheist would have no issue with expressing precisely the same degree of greatness over those gods plus the one god that you still embrace?  If you can muster some intellectual honesty you’d understand that, and wouldn’t need to go through such  convoluted gyrations of religious non-think.

As for the "center of the universe", what a peculiar and remarkably vapid statement. Neither atheists, nor theists, nor any imaginary omniscient god/gods are at the center of our world; humanity and nature is. If more people exalted humanity, our planet, our environment, and the other species we share it with - not some imaginary boogie man - earth would be a better more peaceful and verdant place.

Ruminate on that, in between your self flagellation, prayers, and denial of reason.

Why Zombies and Vampires are so Appealing to Americans.

I walked into the gun shop the other day and bought some gun powder to keep me busy reloading ammo over the winter.  The clerk, a friend, asked “Will that be enough to cover your needs for the zombie apocalypse?”  They also sell full color zombie targets, in various poses, genders and species, as well as a brand of ammunition specifically for Zombies. [ No, not kidding. Here:  http://www.hornady.com/ammunition/zombiemax ]

Seems you can’t flip through the cable channels, or browse a book store without finding walking dead show, vampire show, or books on the same. The Twilight franchise has generated over $6 billion in sales. The Walking Dead’s new season episode drew in 16 million viewers, a cable TV record.   
With Halloween just around the corner it’s a good time to ask:

       “WTF is with American’s obsession with zombies and vampires?”. 
 
I’ve seen a few theories. The most touted is the sexual implications associated with Vampires …all that lust, and male on (mostly) female bare neck salivating and such. But it goes much deeper than that. Besides, there’s nothing too erotic about rotting corpses…well, at least to those of us who don’t practice necrophilia.  Other countries don’t obsess over the un-dead as much as America does. The Japanese for example tend to prefer giant city destroying lizards and insects, or spirits and ghosts out for revenge for some perceived wrong done to them in life. 

So what’s up with this American fixation? My hypothesis is that America’s fascination with the undead is tied to it being the most religious (read: Christian) Western / Industrialized nation on the planet.   

 

Christians have this thing about eternal life. They fear the finality of death, thus reject it for the promise of eternal life.  Anything that promotes the continuation of life after death is to be admired, embraced. Jesus created zombies by bringing back the dead, and was a zombie himself three days after death. If Jesus can do it then it must be good, after all he was perfect! 
 
But it doesn’t stop there. Less obvious, but equally important - zombies like to eat brains, the organ devout religionists find utterly superfluous. Its intended use  causes questioning and reason thus is an impediment to the blind acceptance and spreading of belief.  Christians voluntarily refuse to use their brains to reason so it atrophies from lack of exercise. Thus brainlessness is a Christian sacrament. [You'll recall Martin Luther’s quip on reason being the enemy of Christianity.]  

As for Vampires - Christians have been symbolically drinking the blood of Christ during communion ceremony for almost two millennium. It’s doubly important to Catholics who actually believe the wine IS blood. And think about the reason vampires are traditionally frightened by a crucifix is: if your leader was nailed to one would you want one thrust in your face just before dinner?  Drinking blood is like mingling your DNA with the  Eternal Zombie’s, a veritable guarantee of eternal life.  My proof of this?  … Have you ever seen a Christian come out of  church after mass, slap himself in the forehead and exclaim: “I could’a had a V-8!” ?   I rest my case. . 

Hey, what could be more appealing to Christian Americans than blood drinking, brain eating, pre-programmed and fully predictable eternally undead with limited vocabularies and utter disregard for reason? (try reasoning with the undead or fundie Xtian and see how far it gets you).

So when the Zombies and Vampires make their annual appearance at your door this Halloween, as you drop the candy into their bags be sure to tell them:  “Thanks, but I’m not interested in giving away my brain or bodily fluids, or reading The Watch Tower … lurch on.”  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Tramped to Death for Allah & Islam’s Version of Respect for Life

Thus far this year 50 Muslim faithful have been trampled to death on their pilgrimage to Mecca.  But this isn’t so bad.  A few years back 244 of them were crushed to death while performing the ritualistic stoning of the Devil. 
The latter story included this wonderful quote from an Islamic cleric:

 "All precautions were taken to prevent such an incident, but this is God's will."

whole story here:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-207155/Hajj-stampede-death-toll-reaches-244.html#ixzz2iZBS7mPs

It was Allah's will these people died in 2004 throwing stones at an imaginary Devil, and it was Allah's will that only 50 died this year walking around a big cube with tens of thousands of mesmerized people peeing in place.

The religious madness of this annual assembly, the self induced ignorance that subjects the faithful to play Russian roulette of self imposed human sacrifice every year, the cavalier attitude of the defenders of the absurdity and the waste of human life for the sake of superstition .. ..such are the wages of religious ignorance and delusion. It disgusts me, and anyone with a modicum of respect for life and reality.

The respect for life and reality isn’t something the devout Muslim values. I commented on this issue on the Huff Post’s story covering the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca  (they fail to mention the deaths thus far, presumably as it seems to be something Muslims would prefer not be discussed).  In response to my commentary on the acceptance of this wasteful dance of death and Islam’s apparent disregard for or devaluing of life I received this reply from “OneTrueLight” who took exception to my perspective:

”Regarding respect for life. I tried to save a baby squirrel who was hit by a car today. It still weighs on my heart. She lay on her back in the middle of the road waving her arms around, I didn't get to her in time.

The Prophet said, ‘No human being kills a sparrow or something larger, without right, except that Allah will be asked why on the Day of Judgement.’”

Never mind that he screwed up that last sentence, I get the gist of it.  My reply was brief and to the point:  ”Save a squirrel, kill an apostate. Yup, sounds perfectly moral & sane to me.”

Three days and thus far and no retort.

I’d like to think he’s pondering that.  That he is wrestling with the incongruity of it all.  But that would be wishful thinking. My guess is he’s still thumbing through the Koran, or Hadith to find a pithy verse that will make that obscene in-congruence seem perfectly moral and reasoned. Maybe he’ll cry “Context!” like Xtians do when faced with an embarrassing biblical verse.  Or maybe I drove him to declare a fatwa on American camels, or behead an infidel, or beat his circumcised and burqua bedecked wife out of frustration. 

If you see a guy wearing a rag on his head,  giving CPR to a squirrel,  while toting an AK and carrying a sign saying “Death to apostates and those who don’t think Islam is the religion of peace” , please… give OneTrueLight the finger for me.

“I Hate Religion!” says the religionist. What’s behind this non sequitur?

If you spend any time following  Xtian news and the reader commentaries on line, you will eventually come across the hyper-religious fanatic who declares  “I hate religion too.”    You’ll even come across this absurd “God Hates Religion” message through-out the internet. 
 

This patently contradictory disclaimer makes sense to the fanatic because they are attempting, through word games, to separate their own flavor of religious delusion from the religious delusion, dogma, rituals and politics of established denominations.  They will even go so far as to admit the damage and horror religion has caused over the centuries. But this is a falsehood – either intentional or as a result of self delusion - for at least two reasons.
First, by definition their Xtian belief and acceptance and adherence to the belief system of Xtianity is by definition a religion.

re.li.gion
 : the belief in a god or in a group of gods
 : an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies, and rules used to worship a god or a group of gods

:  the service and worship of God or the supernatural

:  commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

:  a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

hhttp://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/religion

Note that while they’d like “religion” to be defined as belonging to an organized sect, or denomination, and boiled down to “… ceremonies, rules … or institutionalized system”   religion obviously means much more than that.  In fact as we can see, those elements are the least important aspects of the definition for religion. The meat and potatoes of the definition are a personal belief in god/gods, acceptance of the Xtian doctrine/set of beliefs, worship of said god/gods, devotion to and observance of that faith, and a personal set of religious attitudes, beliefs and practices.  This is precisely what the devout believer embraces. Thus, they are religionists / practitioners of religion.

Second, whether or not they identify with a sect or denomination and that sect’s  prevailing social or political perspective or the activism of some sects, if they perceive their scripture to be against homosexuality, and it prompts/guides/ justifies their homophobia, they don’t have to be members of notoriously homophobic denominations (Catholic, Baptist, Mormons for example) to be thus influenced by ancient scripture. Their perspective of this (and other) hot button social or political issues is in fact religiously driven…they are just “unaffiliated” or perhaps better stated: they are freelance religious bigot homophobes at god’s behest.   

Even if their interpretation is that scripture does not condemn homosexuality, if they are establishing their more liberal social perspective on religious scripture they are by definition religionists / practitioners of religion.

No, word games not withstanding,  there is no escaping being a religionist by cherry picking what parts of the definition of religion one prefers.  And if you’re a Xtian and  truly “hate  religion” you may be schizophrenic and in a love hate relationship with yourself.  Get some professional help.