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Religion vs. Science and Roads Not Taken

Any serious writer could tell you: Not everything you write ends up on a page somewhere.

Some of the stuff just isn’t good enough. Some of it is good enough, but not germane to the piece you’re currently writing. And some of it is good enough but … just doesn’t fit anywhere.

This is a piece of a piece that never made it into my book. It’s sort of a double reject — the chapter in which it appeared was edited out of the book, but even before that decision was made, this bit was edited out of the chapter. Still, it struck me as worth saving. So, here: Continue reading “Religion vs. Science and Roads Not Taken”

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Are We There Yet? Well, Yeah. Pretty Much.

“The Rapture” — by Robert Bissell

I was in a Schmuckapalooza supermarket in my hometown in upstate New York, at 6 p.m. on May 21, 2011, when I realized the end was coming.

I remember it exactly because a Christian minister, Harold Camping, had predicted that precise time and date for the Rapture. According to Camping, 200 million Christians would be spirited into Heaven at just that moment. The rest, the left behinds, would live out their days on an increasingly violent Earth until the entire planet was destroyed just 5 months later. Continue reading “Are We There Yet? Well, Yeah. Pretty Much.”

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Brutalized, Simply BRUTALIZED for Their Faith

In a country filled with a strong majority of Christians — 85 percent or so, last I checked — the “downtrodden Christian” meme still resonates with epic appeal.

Loosely, the reasoning behind the thing seems to be:

 

I am a devout Christian.
Christians are savagely threatened for adhering to their faith.
Therefore, I am a hero.

Anita and Rick Perry, Downtroditorians from Texas, have now brought the meme to the Republican presidential race. Continue reading “Brutalized, Simply BRUTALIZED for Their Faith”

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It’s Long Past Time For A NAP

Those of you in the U.S., you’ve probably heard about this  by now. But in case you haven’t, there is now a political party for unbelievers.

The National Atheist Party is forming RIGHT NOW, and is probably going to sweep like wildfire across American society.

Whether it does or not, though, we’re going to see some very serious shit come down in the near future in the U.S., and it’s time WE had some say in how things go.

We’ve left all the big decisions to the godders for the past several thousand years, and look at how THAT turned out.

We are an American political party, uniquely formed as a true, constitutional movement, reaching out to all who seek a secular government as outlined in the First Amendment to our United States Constitution. Our mission: To politically represent U.S. atheists and all who are drawn to our mandate, in a political process that has thus far marginalized and ignored one of the largest and growing segments of the U.S. population.

The National Atheist Party is a diverse, all inclusive, progressive, secular political movement and a response to the lack of representation for all free thinking people who are legal, law abiding citizens of the United States. We demand emancipation from the religious dogma that has infiltrated our government and has unfairly influenced political decisions and policy making. We are for the people, by the people, and therefore incorporate the right to use the power of the people to restore equality to our Democracy using reasonable, rational and non-violent means.

If you’ve got some extra time, lots of energy, and a desire for a very different future from the one we seem to be sliding towards, get involved.

Oh, and if you have that “we atheists don’t get involved” thing in your head …

First of all, I think that’s shit. It’s not a carefully reasoned and necessary part of atheism, it’s a remnant of all those years when godders would kill us just for speaking up, much less trying to convince others to abandon religion.

Second, this is not about converting people, it’s about demanding the political power that our segment of society deserves. We’ve been ignored, mistrusted, hated, feared and laughed at …

… but now it’s time we were RESPECTED. Given some say. Allowed to enjoy equal rights to express ourselves, be represented, and given our just portion of time at the podium when decisions are made.

This is it, kids. The next step.

Time to make a difference.

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27 Secret Gays in Congress

Read this and see how it makes you feel:

The president of a gay rights group says that there are 28 members of Congress who are gay or lesbian, but only one of them feels comfortable revealing that fact.

Gay Coalition of America (GCA) president Bob Silverman told The Guardian that his group was aware of many members of Congress who weren’t ready to make their orientation known.

“Privately, we know that there are 27 other members of Congress who have same-sex attractions and relationships,” Silverman claimed. “But we don’t ‘out’ people.” Continue reading “27 Secret Gays in Congress”

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Granny’s Hands & Travelin’ Dog — Part 3

Part 1 — Part 2 — Part 3

Devout Christians will probably always assume that atheists are simply denying publicly what they know deep within to be true: that God exists and watches over us all in a sort-of benign Big Brother bit. They will assume that atheists really do believe, but avoid admitting it for their own selfish, sick, sinful reasons. They will always believe that it is impossible to not-believe, that our god-created human minds are not capable of it.

For me, at least, they will always be wrong. For me, eventually, all the last shreds of belief, the last suspicion that there might be a god watching me and judging me, drained away and vanished.   Continue reading “Granny’s Hands & Travelin’ Dog — Part 3”

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Granny’s Hands & Travelin’ Dog — Part 2

Part 1 — Part 2 — Part 3

Okay, here’s the second part. This is an email I got from friends in Texas:

GRANDMA’S  HANDS  (A “must read” )

Grandma, some ninety plus years, sat feebly on the patio bench. She didn’t move, just sat with her head down staring at her hands.

When I sat down beside her she didn’t acknowledge my presence and the longer I sat I wondered if she was OK.

Finally, not really wanting to disturb her but wanting to check on her at the same time, I asked her if she was OK. She raised her head and looked at me and smiled. ‘Yes, I’m fine, thank you for asking,’ she said in a clear voice strong. Continue reading “Granny’s Hands & Travelin’ Dog — Part 2”

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Granny’s Hands & Travelin’ Dog — Part 1

Part 1 — Part 2 — Part 3

In this 3-parter, here are two bits of writing, a Christian piece and a secular piece, similar in their heart-tugging content, followed by a short comparison of the two in which I make a point about a certain religious sales strategy.

The SECOND one is the text of yet another email I got from my Texas friends Donna Sue and Billy Ray.

But this first piece is my own, something I wrote a few years back. It’s one of my favorite pieces of my own writing. (You may recognize part of it from another piece,  Chardy At the End of His Life.) Continue reading “Granny’s Hands & Travelin’ Dog — Part 1”

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I Get Emails

I have some dear friends back in Texas, two people I went to high school with. Call them Donna Sue and Billy Ray.

Billy Ray was rodeo people, rowdy and bawdy as hell. More than once I saw him breeze through the front gate of a rodeo arena on a Friday night and 15 minutes later breeze out the back with one of those little poured-into-her-jeans Texas cowgirls, headed for the nearest horse trailer for what Lonesome Dove’s Gus McCrae would call a “poke.”

After Billy Ray and Donna Sue got together, that part of Billy Ray’s wild days ended, but other stuff, equally wild, went on for a bit. Continue reading “I Get Emails”