The Plague and the Renaissance

Not sure where this is going, but I'm beginning to wonder if the cycle of innovation throughout our history was triggered by plagues, followed by religious fervor which exacerbated the plagues until finally people turned toward science for answers.

This cycle seems to be repeating itself.

• Chicago Tribune 03/29/2020 Hundreds ignore ban on gatherings to attend church in Louisiana, where more than 3,500 people have tested positive for coronavirus 
• NBC Chicago 03/28/2020 Several People Who Attended North Chicago Church Revival Contract Coronavirus 
• The Christian Post 03/27/2020 43 people fall ill at Pentecostal church after revival, 10 test positive for coronavirus 
• WLS Chicago 03/27/2020 Naperville Calvary Church pastor hospitalized after positive coronavirus test 
• Fox News 03/30/2020 Churches hold crowded services in defiance of government coronavirus guidance 
• Hamilton Journal-News 03/29/2020 Solid Rock Church continues public worship services during coronavirus outbreak 
• CBS News 03/30/2020 Florida church jammed for Sunday service despite pandemic 
• Bloomberg 03/29/2020 Some Megachurches Are Still Packing In Crowds 
• South China Morning Post 03/30/2020 Coronavirus cluster emerges at another South Korean church, as others press ahead with Sunday services 
• NBC News 03/26/ 2020 Nearly 3 dozen who attended Arkansas church event test positive for coronavirus 

Why on Earth do they feel so mistreated, vilified or discriminated against? Isn't it obvious?

Public Education in The United States of America

It's a crazy conspiracy theory that education is deliberately stifled in the U.S. right? Wrong. First and foremost, I was never taught critical thinking skills in District 186 in Springfield, Illinois. I was never even taught that there was such a think as "critical thinking" until I went to college.

So, what purpose is served by deliberately limiting or suppressing knowlege?

A primary law of economy states that a product's value is inverse to it's available quantity. In other words, the more you have of a product, the cheaper it's value.

In accounting, labor is an expense. Since labor is people, people who are employees are held by business owners and managers as costs which should be reduced by any means possible while still being able to accomplish the goals of the business.

Since all businesses cannot reduce the cost of labor by eliminating the workforce entirely, all businesses collectively seek to reduce the value of the workforce, by generating a surplus of workers.

Through the control of public education curriculum, businesses managed to create a surplus of labor skilled in basic trades such as construction, health care, law enforcement, and many other skills that are dependent upon money, rather than independent survival skills such as subsistence farming, fishing, hunting, or starting a business.

It is not in the best interest of existing businesses to allow for the creation of competition. It is in the best interest of businesses to create a surplus of dependent workers who compete with each other by sacrificing wages and benefits, thereby reducing the value of labor.

Since democratic government is run by politicians who are supported in their campaigns primarily by businesses, politicians are beholden to businesses for their basic survival needs. Observe the obvious positions of employment rewarded to former politicians, and the obvious positions of government rewarded to business persons who have the finances to make themselves known to enough gullible voters, to get themselves elected.

Businesses, through proxy of government, dictate public education curriculum. Observe the behaviors of the Texas Board of Education and its selection of textbooks as the most glaring example of dumbing down public education.

Religious persons are set apart as the most desirable of employees for their limited skills, dependency, rejection of critical thinking, and their devotion to concentrated hierarchical leadership.

Politicians consistently appeal to the religious and mass media promotes religion and vilifies independent critical thinkers in western culture.

The economy in the United States is dominated by employees with limited skills who are in a surplus that is unsustainable, because they only have enough funds to supply themselves with food, transportation and shelter, because they agreed to work for less and less pay.

The only businesses that remain will be farmers, grocers, landlords, transportation and energy producers. Nobody here in the U.S. can afford anything else except clothing, and fashion is a luxury extinct as well.

So, if you are a young student going to public school, save your self by rejecting the idea of getting a good job, and instead concentrate on starting your own business.

Do not allow yourself to be distracted by entertainment that is not educational.

Only be interested in your own mental and physical fitness, do not be distracted by sports of which you do not participate.

Ignore any history lesson that reinforces racism by teaching about the history of race relations. Human beings are human beings, nothing more, nothing less. Everyone is equal.

No matter how benign the communication, any message that creates groups of people based on physical traits is counter-productive and designed to divide and conquer not only the individuals who are the subject of the message, but you too, by creating the impression that certain people belong in certain groups.

If you are religious. Shun religion. You don't need it. There is no such thing as a soul that can be punished or rewarded in an afterlife. Free your mind and embrace science and survival skills.

In the next election, use the write-in option and vote for "No Confidence" because politics is a fraud run by businesses.

Join your local Freethinkers Meetup Group by searching for atheists at meetup.com. Visit atheistnexus.org and the other atheist and freethinkers sites found at my blog. And look for me on Myspace too.

Facebook poll shows future of religion

It could not be put more plainly.

From Atheist Insurgency

Quick thoughts on morality

I was in a discussion with a friend who complained that the Republicans who tout "Family Values" are still behaving contrary to Christianity. He listed some of the traits that define "Christian" as helpfulness and charity, which are contrary to the conservative belief of "absolute self-sufficiency, all others be damned."

He had a point. That contradiction is a glaring indication of deception and contempt for the public in general, and until just now I didn't think about it, instead I was focused on my friend's glowing accolades on Christianity.

I basically told him that "Christian," or any religious affiliation serves only as group identification. Group identification serves only to create boundaries, reinforce xenophobia, discriminate, marginalize, and motivate intra-organizational competition for status and power.

MORALITY = EMPATHY + ABSTRACT REASONING

Morality can be defined as having the ability to put ones self in the position of someone else for the purpose of understanding their feelings regarding the consequences of ones own actions, having the capacity to distinguish the difference between a problem, and symptoms of problems, and having the ability to understand that one's actions have long-term consequences.

For example, crime is not a problem. Crime is a symptom. You must take the time to ask "Why?" One of the "W"s that journalists often ignore.

Saudi Arabia is picture of America's future

The continued coddling and patronizing of religion by Government will have an end result similar to what is being staged in the middle-east.

What you don't know won't hurt you! : Abstinence Only

George didn’t believe in driver’s education, he didn’t want to have anything to do with it.

Never mind how he learned to drive, his biggest fear was that his children would get hurt if they learned too much about it in advance, but he knew his children would one day drive a car when they reached the legal age.

Until then, he decided, his children would be allowed nowhere near his car or even see the keys, and especially not one of those rules-of-the-road books, that would be just irresponsible in the eyes of George’s community.

Mike had a safe full of guns and ammunition. He liked to target practice and hunt, but he absolutely didn’t want his children to know anything about any guns until they were old enough, but how old is old enough?

Sarah has a motorcycle but she absolutely didn’t want any of her kids to even think about riding a motorcycle, ever.

Okay, what is wrong with these people? They all use the notion of “Abstinence-Only,” which means simply “Stay away and ignore it, and maybe it will just go away.” Or “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” Does it make sense? Will their children be safe from exposure to driving a car, shooting a gun, or riding a motorcycle?

The United States Federal Government seems to think so, and so do most of the United States governments.

I received an email from Planned Parenthood of Illinois this morning asking me to send an e-mail to Governor Quinn stating the following: [edited for clarity]

“Reject federal funding for Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage programs!

In your FY 2010 budget proposal you included a continuation federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage (AOUM) funding. I urge you to reject this federal funding. These programs do a disservice to Illinois youth.

A federally-funded, nonpartisan study of the effectiveness of AOUM programs has found these programs to have no impact on the sexual abstinence of youth. The students' AOUM education had no effect on the age of first intercourse, number of sexual partners, or condom usage. Continuing to fund ineffective AOUM programs is throwing good money after bad.

Teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are important problems. Comprehensive sexual health education programs (which include information about abstinence, contraceptives, and sexually transmitted infections in addition to other key elements) are proven to delay sexual activity and prevent disease among young people. While stressing abstinence, comprehensive sex ed provides students with the information they need to stay safe and healthy.

Again, please reject the federal Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage funding so Illinois can move forward with positive programs that protect our youth.”

The Illinois Governor has an opportunity to accept or reject funding that will go to such programs in the states, but I challenge President Barack Obama and Congress to suspend that program’s funding altogether on the grounds that it is a violation of the separation of church and state.

United Nations working against atheism

Back in November, CNSNews.com posted a story about the United Nations (UN) drafting a resolution protecting Islam from discrimination. Here's a link to the article:

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=39915&print=on

Now National Public Radio (NPR.org) has reported that the UN will rubber stamp protections against criticism and mockery for religion in general.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98321049

The American Civil Liberties Union treats religion as an equal to atheism.

http://www.aclu.org/religion/govtfunding/index.html

Religion is always about making up quick, cheap excuses for parents who wanted to cover up their own stupidity when their children kept asking them questions about nature. From there, it just went out of control.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

I don't know if you saw this already, but it's a nice tidy summary of religion presented at YouTube in three parts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koK1z1YnBIQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFQlV6pdJ78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_82kd0UAYHA

PART I


PART II


PART III


... AND THERE'S YOUR RELIGION.

Seperation of church and state being erased in the military

Major Moves Against Televangelists

Impudent Strong-arming of televangelists may or may not shake out another GOP endorsement beside's Pat Robertson for Rudy Giuliani. I can almost see Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) grimacing and bearing his teeth at the Finance Committee hearing. You gotta tune into C-SPAN more often. The theatrics just keep getting better as election day looms.

Paula White's one of several TV preachers accused of taking church money and spending it on their own lavish lifestyles. White and her ex-husband ran a TV church out of Florida.

The president of Oral Roberts University, facing accusations he misspent school funds to support a lavish lifestyle, resigned on Friday, officials said.

The multimillion-dollar televangelism empires built by Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn and four other media ministries are under investigation by a Republican U.S. senator concerned by reports of lavish mansions, Rolls Royces and private jets.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.