Saturday, November 3, 2007

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Debate Tonight on C-SPAN's BookTV at 7pm

Dinesh D'Souza, Christopher Hitchens, Marvin Olasky, What's So Great About Christianity?

From The King's College in New York, Dinesh D'Souza, author of What's So Great About Christianity, and Christopher Hitchens, author of God Is Not Great, debate the question,

"Is Christianity the problem?" The debate is moderated by Marvin Olasky, The King's College Provost and World magazine editor-in-chief. (Saturday 7 PM ET)Book TV is channel 14 on Insight Cable

A Gold Mine of Quotes from Thomas Jefferson for use in the argument on the "moment of silence" in public schools.

Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

The impious presumption of legislators and and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath stablished and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time: That to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical;...
-- Thomas Jefferson, expressing concern over the authoritarian interpretation of religious views, and advocating, rather, that states allow an individual to use her or his own reason to establish or settle these opinions, in the opening passage to Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom (1786), quoted from Merrill D Peterson, ed., Thomas Jefferson: Writings (1984), p. 346


To preserve the freedom of the human mind then and freedom of the press, every spirit should be ready to devote itself to martyrdom; for as long as we may think as we will, and speak as we think, the condition of man will proceed in improvement.
-- Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Green Mumford, June 18, 1799

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/jefferson.htm

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Journalist Links Atheists to Child Pornography

Amanda Rogers, freelance investigative journalist, wrote an article published in the American Chronicle about the vigilante group Perverted Justice which worked in the past with the NBC news program "To Catch a Predator."

In her article she details the exploits of Perverted Justice and the trouble into which they are getting themselves and NBC.

After the gruesome details, she quilts in this little generalization:

"Other discoveries are that almost without exception: each Perverted Justice member is either an Atheist or a Wiccan/Pagan. Many of their websites contain pentagrams and images of witchcraft."

Now her readers can infer that all atheists and Wiccan/Pagans are child pornographers.

This renders the entire article defunct as objective rational journalism.

Here's the article:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=36133

Thursday, August 23, 2007

On "God's Warriors"

Christiane Amanpour presented a brilliant program on Muslims, Jews and Christians, however, the alleged "Secular" was only included as a minor part of the subject matter, and were mostly presented from religious perspectives. The behavior that was presented as "Secular" by people interviewed in the series was not secular at all.

The Secular agenda is merely a platform of individual freedom of choice. The religious only rail against the abnormal behavior occurring on the other side of the platform, then blame the platform.

Of course, defining what is abnormal is entirely subjective to one's own culture or subculture. The Secular understand this and can learn to participate in a respectful manner in multiple cultures, within reason. This opens passages for people to explore different belief systems and make their own choices.

The extremists of the three religions are struggling for dominance over each other and the rest of the world, while the moderates tolerate the extremists and the semi-practitioners and non-practitioners.

The Secular (perhaps not all) see moderates as a cauldron of homogenization between the extremists and non-practicing members of each sect. Sort of like an engine that allows a religion to maintain its existence. If the moderates suddenly migrated toward the semi-practitioners, the extremists would lose their sense of authority, and rituals might fade out of existence.

When a religion must use fear, force or deception to keep a hold on its flock, it's a false religion. The winner is the religion with the most people who were allowed to learn about other cultures, and chose of their own free will, their paths.

To religious people, there is a Fifth Horseman of their apocalypse, and its name is Freedom.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

House and Senate on Break

Our U.S. Senators and Congressmen are on their August break. You might see them around your district. We, the people expected change after the 2006 election, and the rumors going around are that the Democrats have rolled over and have not been effective since they have become a majority.

But, we, the people rolled over. We only gave the Democrats a simple majority, not an overriding majority. For the Democrats to be effective against the onslaught of warmongering predatory capitalists, an overriding majority is needed, a better than two-thirds majority that can override a Presidential veto or some other arcane parliamentary procedure.

So we have nothing to complain about but our own inability to elect an effective majority of legislators different from those who dominated our government for the last six years.

Saturday, August 4, 2007

Religous Impunity

A recent letter to the editor in August 3, 2007 that was titled “Might be surprised at who we don’t see in heaven,” demonstrated how selective some people can be using quotes from the bible to validate their sense of superiority or “infallibility.” I was also struck by the last sentence of the letter. The author said he was one of the worst sinners to walk “this sod” but that Jesus died for him and he was “free, praise the lord, free at last.” I had an epiphany.

As an atheist I have no “Get out of Hell Free Card” in the form of Christ being crucified. I must take stock of other people’s feelings all the time. I have no comfort of Jesus Christ with which to snuggle away guilt for having mistreated other people. I have no luxury of washing my hands of my misdeeds every holy day. I must treat other people as I would want to be treated, and I expect nothing less from everyone else.

Unfortunately, there are people out there who feel they can run to their place of worship and wash away their guilt by enveloping themselves in their symbols and rituals of blissful forgiveness on a regular basis, leaving behind those they wronged who are ultimately duped into thinking the wrongdoers will be judged by God later, so they take no action.

It’s not about extreme actions or behavior; it’s about basic social attitudes in a country that is supposed to protect and nurture diversity. There’s no sense of ecumenical community, it’s all team rivalry that fomented the 9/11 attacks. It’s time to let religion to go altogether, it’s nothing but trouble.

The competition between religions is bad enough without people treating their neighbors with a sense of religious impunity.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Faith-Based Job Termination

Dear ACLU and Illinois HRC

I'm temp employee with _____________________. Last summer I joined a Freethinkers group and gradually felt empowered enough as a member of the group to display a "Darwin Fish" emblem on the back of my vehicle. (The Darwin Fish is similar to the Christian symbol of the fish, but has feet added to depict evolution, and the name Darwin within.)

Recently I was temporarily assigned to ________________________ to help ______________________________. One day I was asked by an employee about the emblem on my car, and I explained that I was an atheist.

They didn't seem to have a problem with it at first, but gradually I noticed more people were ignoring me, or they would stop talking when I was nearby. It became obvious that word was spreading about my non-belief. People started openly talking about their Christianity. I was told that some of the upper management at Horace Mann were very religious.

On ___________________ I was called by my representative at _______________ and told that my assignment was terminated. He said that people at ________________ claimed that I complained about doing what I was told, that I was too slow, and that I had a bad attitude.

During that time there was not a moment that I complained about doing a task, not a moment that I did not do what I was told, and I absolutely deny having a bad attitude. I believe that someone at _______________________ fabricated claims against my work ethic to have me removed from my job.

I never received any complaint about my performance in person or in writing until I was told by ______________________ that my assignment was terminated.

As a veteran of the military I have an outstanding record of dedicated service to my country. I earned an Associate degree and a Bachelors degree with higher than average grades, and I have a work history without so much as a written warning or recorded disciplinary action.

I know that I am not alone in facing this kind of situation. As a veteran of the military, I am highly offended that U.S. Constitution, for which I served, could be shirked by those who claim its protection for their religious freedom.

If you feel from this that I may have a case, more detailed information can be made available regarding names.

Your participation will go down in history regardless of your actions following the receipt of this email.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Investigator finds reasonable grounds for claim of atheism firing

An article in the Boston Globe lends itself as evidence that Human Rights and Christian Rights appear to be unequal:

LEWISTON, Maine --An investigator for the Maine Human Rights Commission has found reasonable grounds for a manager's claim that he was fired from his job at DeCoster farms because he's an atheist.

Cacy Cantwell says Austin "Jack" DeCoster told him before he was fired that they might have to "part ways" because Cantwell didn't believe in God.
[http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2007/05/04/investigator_finds_reasonable_grounds_for_claim_of_atheism_firing/?p1=email_to_a_friend ]

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Are you supporting your troops?

I went to Victor J. Stenger’s presentation at the Route 66 Hotel on June 5, and received a signed copy of "God: The failed hypothesis." Not many people showed up because most of the flyers were torn down the same day they were posted.

Why would someone feel the need to tear down those flyers? Certainly if one had faith in one's own religion, one would not be intimidated by them.

If one respected the U.S. Constitution one would leave those flyers alone. Those flyers were posted legitimately on public bulletin boards.

As a veteran of the military, I am deeply saddened that someone would violate the constitutional rights of others in my own country. Tearing down flyers because you find them offensive is no lesser an offense than spitting on the graves of those who died fighting for your liberty and your right to free speech.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

God and Gays: Bridging the Gap

Here we see how religion has such a grip on the minds of some people that they will shut out their own children. Victims of religious persecution desire to cling to the religion only because they imagine that their families will finally accept them. What should be the stronger bond, religion, or family?

Friday, May 18, 2007

The Language of Dominion

One upon a time, reading and writing was a luxury to be experienced only by land and slave owners, but this is a basic fact in all cultures so many thousands of years ago. It was common then for conquering rulers to try completely erasing the language of the conquered and replacing it with their own.

But, one of the earliest giant leaps of human development before being able to depict three dimensional perspective, was the jump in language from iconic to symbolic representation, in other words, the giant leap from cave drawings through Egyptian hieroglyphs to alphanumeric expressions.

Thousands of years ago we had to adopt a common language for survival, but whose language? Remember, there were no public schools back then. Literacy was a privilege for those few who had amassed fortunes and had no need for work in the fields. They were the masters of slaves and the descendants of masters of slaves.

As the race for domination through proliferation of symbols and language was well underway three thousand years ago, along the way, symbols such as Egyptian Hieroglyphs were no longer used, replaced by the concept of a simple alphabet of symbols representing sounds people make to communicate meaning.

Instead of communicating the direct meaning of things through icons (a picture of a bird meaning a bird), we began to communicate using someone else’s symbols that showed how their mouth moved to make the sound they uttered which they taught us to mean something, like the word “Bird.”

They taught us this because they dominated us. Your language comes from some ancient king who commanded an army to slaughter your original tribe. Do you think that your language is still viable after so many thousands of years of human development? What other ridiculous notions did this king thrust upon your ancestors?

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Thinking of destruction?

The FBI is arresting people interested in causing severe death and destruction. Those who are considering such action should immediately cease all fantasies, dreams, emotions, notions, and hankering for chaos and destruction. If you’re working on a novel about 9/11 you better give up and burn your notes.

If anyone comes up to you and asks you if you want to buy guns or bombs, tell them “no thanks.”

Some men in Miami(1) were talking about blowing up the Sears Tower in Chicago, but nobody said who started the conversation. If you have a new member or members in your group who try to talk about committing crimes of any kind, you may have an agent provocateur(2) among you.

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune was published in the aftermath of the alleged terror plot against Fort Dix,

…authorities acknowledge that the case has underscored a troubling vulnerability in the domestic war on terrorism.”

“The primary threat now comes from an unknown number of people with no criminal background and few if any ties to militants overseas. In recent years, authorities have arrested about 60 people from the much larger pool of angry and disaffected people, charging them with terrorism, according to federal officials, many of them do not fit an easily identifiable profile.”(3)

It Looks like a resurgence of the paranoia from McCarthyism which coincidentally, “Threatens Michael Moore”(4)for his work on a new production called Sicko(5) about the healthcare industry in the United States.

Written in The Burlington County Times, “They were roofers, a taxi driver, a baker and a pizza deliveryman, apparently living the American dream in Philadelphia and on the tree-lined streets of suburban South Jersey.” (6) It’s implied that they could be your next door neighbor and it appears that a deliberate attempt to make the public frightened enough once again to vote Republican in 2008 is afoot.

----
(1) CNN.com: "Indictment: Suspects wanted to 'kill all the devils we can'"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/06/23/miami.raids/index.html
(2)Agent Provocateur: Somebody employed to gain the trust of suspects and then tempt them to do something illegal so that they can be arrested and punished. (Encarta Dictionary: English)
(3)"FBI says domestic extremists big threat"
Josh Meyer, Tribune Newspapers; Chicago Tribune: 5/13/2007 page 3
(4)McCarthyism threatens Michael Moore
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/5268/1/258/
(5) http://michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=207
(6)http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/112-05132007-1345920.html

Friday, April 27, 2007

What happens in the mind of a non-believer?

Many psychologists believe that the human mind inherently behaves under the preconceived idea that there is an internal audience. Most people behave in private under the assumption that there are spirits or angels watching their every move, and every thought is believed by many to be spoken clearly in thought so as to be heard by God, angels, ancestral spirits, or aliens, in a private conversation called a prayer.

One can easily imagine yelling or whispering in thought, applying anthropomorphisms to their imagined self. Most people apply imaginary physical rules on their minds where none exist in reality, in effect, chaining themselves down to an imaginary floor, under intense imaginary gravity.

The internal audience that is widely accepted among psychologists is a product of generations of forced belief in omnipresent intelligent deities that eavesdrop on their lives. Most will take comfort in their government listening to their private conversations and exclaim “I have nothing to hide.”

What happens when one stops believing in such nonsense? The operational structure of thought changes entirely.

The thought processes that force internal decisions to be articulated in imaginary voices begins to fade and thinking becomes even faster than before. Symbols in the mind like so many roadblocks fade away. Soon you will be able to read without thinking of a voice speaking each word. I call it “losing the mental narrator.”

Some believe they never had a mental narrator in their head slowing down their reading skills. Once they start on the road to non-belief, they begin to realize it was there all along.

External behaviors change. The anthropomorphisms that are often attached to inanimate objects lose their luster. Aggression aimed at doors, walls, and objects underfoot soon fades away. Shaking one’s fists, while looking up at the ceiling, becomes pointless.

Cursing becomes useless as well, especially when there’s nobody around to empathize or be shocked. Energy that was once thought of as anger becomes proactive and productive.

The mind is released like birds to the sky. The internal psychological environment becomes flexible and more efficient. You begin to see things more clearly than ever before and you find that you can do more to change your world for the better.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Intelligent Design: The “Stargate” Hypothesis

Design requires intelligence. Intelligence requires life, therefore life designed can only be created by other life. Life denotes non-deity status. Therefore no gods exist.

The Stargate Hypothesis is based on the plot of the movie and the subsequent television series. Aliens enslaved early humans and kept them under control simply by bedazzling them with their technology.

This bedazzlement was easy enough to accomplish by the Spanish Conquistadors because the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean, and Continental America were still using stone and bone tools. That, plus the Western European skin tone first impressed the natives because they revered whiteness with mysticism. Perhaps because of the clouds.

The simple association between colors that appear in the sky (rainbows, clouds, etc.) and the colors that clothed the Europeans was easily made at that time. One must consider that bright vivid colors could be seen or chipped from rock, but not actually created through chemistry. There may have been certain herbs that created some color, but nothing like that mastered by the Europeans who had access to the Silk Road trade.

The human mind was developing beyond the point at which nature allowed all other species to develop. The human mind was starving for new information and novel experiences. When a native first saw the sky reflected in a mirror he or she must have imagined that it was a hole instead of a reflection.

One wonders what the natives must have imagined when the Conquistadors used mirrors to direct the sunlight toward them. How often does the image appear in art, of a person holding a spherical object emanating rays of light? Or the image of an eye in the sky surrounded by rays of light?

I imagine that the tops of Egyptian pyramids were polished with gold-leaf, and that perhaps it worked to keep the population under control, at least for a little while. Someone should check to see where the sun’s light might have been reflected if indeed the tops of the pyramid in Giza were polished in such a way.

But to try to bring religion into intelligent design is just sheer stupidity.

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Humanity's "Mulligan"

Humanity’s “Mulligan”

There is a significant date in our history when suddenly our brains were capable of articulating the third dimension of our visual perspective. But this is only the tip of the Iceberg. This is a leading indicator of a giant leap forward in our intelligence as a species, and a surge in scientific discovery and creativity that went unrecognized as a symptom of human evolution.

The Renaissance was fought at every turn by the religious elite whose personal enrichment relied on maintaining a dependent population through illiteracy and bearing too many children. As the religious elite lavished themselves with the tithes of the huddled masses, there finally arose out of Feudal Europe, a peasant war that brought about the reformation.

Then there was a sudden surge in creativity which gradually brought about revolutionary discoveries in engineering and science. (Some would say they were re-discoveries due to the destruction of the Ancient Royal Library of Alexandria, which is thought to have fallen victim to the decree of Theophilus in 391 .

The human mind at this point made enormous strides forward in Europe. The Chinese had long since invented the compass, paper and gun powder, but even then their art still depicted visual perspective using symbolic references as a means of distinguishing foreground and background objects.

"The laws and principles of perspective were first clearly described by Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) in his Notebooks, where he outlined a suitable course of study for the artists including, as well as perspective, the arrangement of surface muscles, the structure of the eyes of man and animals, and botany. He called perspective 'the bridle and rudder of painting,’…" -- R. L Gregory Eye and Brain: The psychology of seeing. 1973 McGraw-Hill, New York, NY

It is at this point in history that men should have reevaluated the cognitive abilities of the ancient writers, because the ancient writings of divinity were made by men incapable of properly perceiving the world as we do today, and those that could were quickly tortured into submission or killed by the likes of the Spanish Inquisition.

The early Renaissance represents a sudden neurological development in humans that passed unrecognized by historians who only recently began to add Psychology to their equations.

This period also brought about revolutions in music. So sudden was the world introduced to amazing talent in such a brief period, it’s amazing how no one wondered how dim the human senses were for so many thousands of years before the Renaissance, or even the depth of that dimness through the progression backwards through history. Nobody had sense enough to build lenses before the 1500’s.

The ancient writings of basic history and the writings of how we should treat each other must be immediately called into question, because we are using documentation from inadequate primitive thought processes.

Religion was for a primitive species of man.

Using my favorite golf term as a metaphor, humanity does deserve a “Mulligan,” but not religion.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Newt and Bill

The cultural relativists are outraged that Newt Gingrich gets a free pass for having an affair while Bill Clinton was impeached. But, Bill Clinton was impeached not because he had the affair, but because he lied about it.

So the only difference between Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton is that Newt came forward about his affair and asked for forgiveness. He got his forgiveness from Jerry Falwell and James Dobson.

As much as we would like to claim hipocrisy on Gingrich who supported a family values agenda as a political candidate while pointing at Clinton and carrying on affairs, we have to remember that the whole issue is about lying, confession, and forgiveness.

So have all the affairs you want as long as you have the guts to occasionally confess and ask for forgiveness from people you think might make you feel better for having asked their forgiveness.

It shouldn't be difficult for President Bush to ask for forgiveness for lying about weapons of mass destruction and Yellow Cake Uranium sought by Saddam Hussein in Nigeria. I'm sure that Fallwell and Dobson will gladly initiate a nice group hug with Bremmer, Wolfowitz, Cheny, Rumsfeld, Rove, and President Bush.

Saturday, March 3, 2007

The Faith War

The Faith War is the struggle between groups for possession of mortal souls. The victory of the Faith War will precipitate the emergence of one leader for all the faithful followers, subservient conscripts, serfs, peasants and slaves*.

Atheism breaks down the structure of leadership and causes chaos. Everyone is treated equally. Most people would consider it Communism, but the model of Communism to which we have become familiar (the Soviet Union) failed because of corruption among the high communist party leaders.

The Pack Mentality of standard hierarchy is a naturally occurring neurological function among lower animals and primitive humans.

The feeling that one gets of entitlement, the emotion that one has earned a right or privilege beyond other members of the group is an inescapable consequence of primitive human organizational thought.

It is also an inescapable primitive thought to accept that others, who are perceived as leaders, have special rights and privileges.

The Atheists have escaped such primitive thoughts. If not, they are aware that such thinking exists. The concept of leadership is out the window because the very foundation of leadership is faith and belief.

*Slavery is condoned in most religious doctrine because the doctrine is old enough to date back to a time when slaves were considered lifestock.

War on Belief

Coming soon there will be a website which will bring news of the Atheist Insurgency, its progress, and reasoning.