Posted on

Bow, Yield, Kneel — Everywhere A Sign

Came across this church reader board yesterday while I was driving. It’s in front of the Calvary Assembly of God castle in Amsterdam, New York.

I know you can’t read it. The pic was taken with my cellphone camera, through a dirty windshield, and while I was stopped at a red light.

It says “TO YIELD TO GOD’S WILL MEANS TO SURRENDER YOUR OWN WILL.”

The message was instantly repulsive. Surrender your will?

I mean … surrender your will? Who teaches that?? Continue reading “Bow, Yield, Kneel — Everywhere A Sign”

Posted on

Brainwashing, Jesus … and Fascistic Creep

What better way to brainwash people than to stress them, exhaust them, force them to go without food and sleep? And THEN jump in with your message, the thing you want to force into their unresisting minds, when they’re at their most vulnerable?

I’m describing the brainwashing tactics of Stalin, or Mao Tse Tung, right?

No. I’m talking about U.S. Military chaplains. I’m talking about the brainwashing of U.S. soldiers to become Christians, and Christian evangelists. All of it paid for, by their own proud admission, by our government. Continue reading “Brainwashing, Jesus … and Fascistic Creep”

Posted on

Duh, Idiot Me — or: Why The Catholic Church Soldiers On

Reading this article on Papal infallibility — Postponing Self-Destruction of the Catholic Church — I just now learned the real reason why the Catholic Church doesn’t update its outworn policies on things like contraceptives, marriage, or human morality.

Because, really, who hasn’t thought about how much good this huge worldwide organization could do if it reversed its stand on condoms and contraceptives? Rather than waiting for tardy governments to act, it could simply began distributing condoms and teaching how to best prevent the spread of HIV. It could give a kick in the head to overpopulation by telling Third World men and women that it’s okay to use contraceptives, okay NOT to have more and more and more children they can’t feed. Continue reading “Duh, Idiot Me — or: Why The Catholic Church Soldiers On”

Posted on

Reason Not to Rest

I’m reading the book American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic, by Nancy K. Bristow.

It’s pretty good by the way, well worth a read. It’s amazing reading about how many people were dying, and how the public reception, including media coverage, was so casual for so long. And really, how the thing mostly vanished from the public mind after it was all over, despite its impact.

Wikipedia says “Between 50 and 130 million died, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.” Continue reading “Reason Not to Rest”

Posted on

A Day to Draw Mo

Speaking of anniversaries (re: PZ’s 10 years), today is the second annual anniversary of Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.

From the Wikipedia entry, here’s a paragraph honoring people who live in some alternate universe in which the concept of freedom of expression is poorly understood:

Law professor and blogger Ann Althouse rejected the Everybody Draw Mohammed Day idea because “depictions of Muhammad offend millions of Muslims who are no part of the violent threats.” James Taranto, writing in the “Best of the Web Today” column at The Wall Street Journal, also objected to the idea, not only because depicting Mohammed “is inconsiderate of the sensibilities of others”, but also because “it defines those others—Muslims—as being outside of our culture, unworthy of the courtesy we readily accord to insiders.” Bill Walsh of Bedford Minuteman wrote critically of the initiative, which seemed “petulant and childish” to him: “It attempts to battle religious zealotry with rudeness and sacrilege, and we can only wait to see what happens, but I fear it won’t be good.” Janet Albrechtsen wrote in The Australian, “As a cartoon, it was mildly amusing. As a campaign, it’s crass and gratuitously offensive.”Writing for New York University’s Center for Religion and Media publication, The Revealer, Jeremy F. Walton called the event a “blasphemous faux holiday”, which would “only serve to reinforce broader American misunderstandings of Islam and Muslims”.

Anyway, if you’ve got something to contribute, I’m here for yuh. Send it!

Also, the end of the Wikipedia piece says the originator of the event, Molly Norris, “has since changed her name and gone into hiding.”

That REALLY just pisses me off.

Posted on

Short Stack #13

[Apology in advance: Some of these may be repeats.]

Jesus praying to God is the same as masturbation.

______________________

New Superstitions for the Modern Age: If your oatmeal has black specks in it, and if you eat the black specks, you will sicken and die. Eight-year-olds, take note.

______________________

Why, yes, you’re right. It IS a “mute” point. Probably best to say no more about it. Continue reading “Short Stack #13”

Posted on

In Case You Missed It …

This is the piece that appeared in the Albany Times Union newspaper this last Saturday, in the Voices of Faith column on the Faith & Values page. (Interestingly, it used to be the Religion page, and I suspect the change reflects some sort of sea change in understanding that “values” can come from someplace other than religion. Which is progress, and which I attribute directly to newly-vocal atheists making that very point.)

The two other main stories on the page were “Pope orders crackdown on nuns” and “Faith lost, then found, strengthens Troy mayor.” (Troy is a local city, a once-upon-a-time industrial giant located next to Albany.)

I titled my piece “Being Good Without God: The Option of Atheism” / the editor renamed it Atheists Aim for Goodness. Continue reading “In Case You Missed It …”

Posted on

God Without Spellcheck

I love/hate this kind of thing. Either way, it’s often worth a laugh.

I’m sure you have your own unfavorite misspelled signs, posters, etc., from the goddy demographic. Send me some links! Let’s start a collection.

Posted on

Small-Town Blowhard Kills Jesus

I wrote a piece for my local newspaper some weeks back, and it came out today in the Times Union newspaper of Albany, New York: Atheists Aim for Goodness.

Anytime you have a letter or an opinion piece on atheism in your local paper — something well worth doing, by the way — you get a storm of letters in response. Nice Christians diligently explain why you can’t possibly be right, and how you have no logical basis for your atheism, and even how there are no such things as real atheists.

The following week, some nice local priest, or a nice rabbi — both sure to have actual college degrees in the finer points of religion — point out the desperate flaws in atheism, which is, after all, a religion just like any other. Besides which, Hitler and Stalin.

But meanwhile, if you’ve done it right, somewhere out there a 15-year-old girl reads it, or a 19-year-old guy, or a 35-year-old mother of two, and goes, “Exactly what I was thinking! I’m not alone!”

Or at least “Hey … um. I never thought of that. Hmm.”

__________________

By the way: If you’re a Schenectady or Albany resident and got here via the link at the end of the article, you may want to know about these three local organizations:

Capital Region Atheists & Agnostics

Capital District Humanist Society

Capital District Skeptics

Each of these groups is filled with bright, kind, interesting, involved people who can answer questions, tell you more about what they do, or help you get involved at the local level in helping us make a better world.