Posted on

Earth Day 2012: Thoughts Like Falling Leaves

[This is a reprint of a piece I did several years ago, slightly edited for 2012.]

Leaf One

Con games and sleight-of-hand magic work because, one, we humans only have so much attention to spare at any one moment, and two, they direct that attention deliberately in one direction. If you look at where the finger points, you miss … well, everything else.

Like the movie teen backing through a darkened doorway in the serial killer’s lair, we focus intently on one thing while something more important takes place just outside the sphere of our focus.

I’ll give you a real-life example that has bugged me for a long time. Continue reading “Earth Day 2012: Thoughts Like Falling Leaves”

Posted on

Reason Rally: The Speech That Didn’t Happen

This is the speech I would have given, if I’d been asked to speak at the Reason Rally. No, there’s no reason anyone should have asked – I’m not well enough known just yet – but that didn’t stop me from wanting to be up on stage anyway. Saying this:

Hank’s Reason Rally Speech

Just as we still talk about the Enlightenment, or the discovery of fire, a thousand years from now, people will still be talking about this moment.

Because this is the moment when civilization left the launch pad. This is the moment when we broke free from the restraints of unreason, when the umbilical of religion finally fell away, the moment when the rocket of our true capabilities really began to thrust up into the sky.

There’s still that long, long journey ahead of us. But this is the moment when we made our final break from the insanities of the past, and people a thousand years from now will know it, and talk about it.

Or … they won’t. Continue reading “Reason Rally: The Speech That Didn’t Happen”

Posted on

Throwing Out Leftovers, Civilization-Wide

I’m gonna tell you about four things I used to do. Four actions – habits – I picked up when I was a kid and continued at least into my early adult life.

First, I used to eat large amounts of ice cream and other rich, fatty foods at every opportunity.

Second, I used to actively avoid stepping on cracks in the sidewalk when I was walking.

Third, I used to vigorously snap my towel when I stepped out of the shower and pulled it off the towel rack.

Fourth, I used to look both ways when I stepped out into the street. Continue reading “Throwing Out Leftovers, Civilization-Wide”

Posted on

Doing My Part: Christopher

[ This is a response to Doing My Part for the Godless Future. If you’d like to submit one of your own — what you’re doing to help the world, or just yourself, get free of religion — email me via the link in that post. ]

__________

My very small part is to reply to xtians who use the “Love the sinner but hate the sin” in the same way I did to my sister when she stated that Jesus said, “Love the sinner but hate the sin.”

So I asked her, “When did you become Hindu?” “Whaa?” she said.  Then I informed her that, no, Jesus didn’t say that, even though far-too-many xtians do, that is a quote from Gandhi.  Makes a nice little wake-up punch, a real two-fer: plops them into a religion that many of them consider paganism, and shows they don’t even know what their bible says. Continue reading “Doing My Part: Christopher”

Posted on

Fanboy Does ‘Wrath of the Titans’

Wrath of the Titans: Whoo-boy, a serious action movie, with some beautiful special effects.

Fortunately, the Titans production team threw a bit less at us in the way of breathtaking visual intricacy — such as that of the too-frenetic Transformer movies, which I sometimes had a hard time following and lost interest in as a result.

Good stuff:

Special Effects. Being me, I HAD to like the flying horse, but there were some other effects that were even better. Continue reading “Fanboy Does ‘Wrath of the Titans’”

Posted on

Murderous Purple Panda Terrifies Terrified Children

Sorry, can’t help but laugh at this. ABC News reports on an incident at Pennsylvania’s Center in the Woods preschool.

“Mr. McFeely” (the name alone made me laugh; sounds more like a Catholic preschool character), apparently a delivery man on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, introduces the kids to special guest Purple Panda. As the costumed character enters the room, Panda-monium breaks out: The kids scream and run.

Posted on

Doing My Part: Cory Brunson

[ This is a response to Doing My Part for the Godless Future . If you’d like to submit one of your own — what you’re doing to help the world, or just yourself, get free of religion — email me via the link in that post. ]

__________

I do a lot of the familiar stuff at the personal level: I sit at Ask An Atheist tables, i write letters to the editor, i regularly post religious commentary on Facebook. I cross out “In God We Trust” on dollar bills and write in “E pluribus unum”. These things matter. but they feel reactive, and marginal, like online comments on an op-ed.

Here’s something i wish more people would do: Continue reading “Doing My Part: Cory Brunson”

Posted on

Doing My Part: Stephanie

[ This is a response to Doing My Part for the Godless Future. If you’d like to submit one of your own — what you’re doing to help the world, or just yourself, get free of religion — email me via the link in that post. ]

__________

I’m 25 years old and I’ve been calling myself an atheist officially since I was about 19. I stopped believing in God before that, but the word atheist was scary at first – so final. It’s understandable to me why people are afraid of atheism. I was at first, in my early teens when I couldn’t understand what I was doing wrong and why everyone had told me God was real when more and more evidence was piling up in my head to the contrary. I feel like religious people clutch their religion to their chests like a child with security blanket. The blanket is all ratty and worn out and dirty. So an adult goes to them and says, Continue reading “Doing My Part: Stephanie”

Posted on

Doing My Part for the Godless Future

Read Dear Friends, Bloody on the Highway, before you read this.

In this followup post, I’d like to ask readers what we’re all doing to make that better-time-to-be happen.

I hope to raise consciousness among the people who read this …

First, that fellow readers are taking various actions in their own lives. In other words, that you and I, ordinary people, CAN do things that make a difference.

Second, that each of us really NEEDS to be doing something to make  a difference. Continue reading “Doing My Part for the Godless Future”

Posted on

Dear Friends, Bloody on the Highway

As I’ve said here in the past, I still get emails from old friends in Texas. Some of those people have gotten so goddy over the years that we seem to have nothing at all in common anymore.

Every time I get one of these things, it’s like waking up in a cold cabin with the fire gone out. I remember how warm it used to be, and some part of me hopes there’s still an ember in the coals. Thinks that if I go back to Texas someday and feed it new fuel, the flame of our friendship will burn again. Continue reading “Dear Friends, Bloody on the Highway”