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God-Goggles. Kinda Like Beer-Goggles, Only Whinier. (video)

New York Mayor Bloomberg successfully resisted pressure from religious groups, and held a secular remembrance for the families of 9/11 victims.

Predictably, the godder reaction was outrage. Failing to invite them is the same as attacking them. According to Richard Land, who leads the public policy arm of the Southern Baptist Convention:

Nobody was turning religious leaders away from the scene 10 years ago. Why are they being banned from the 10th anniversary? The only answer, pure and simple, is anti-religious prejudice. Continue reading “God-Goggles. Kinda Like Beer-Goggles, Only Whinier. (video)”

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9/11 Reader: FTB’s ‘The X Blog’

Worth reading:

But the scary part is what comes out of it, and by now you have probably guessed my point. The Tea Party and things like the Tea Party. Strongly held anti-social illogical destructive beliefs with no hope of critical self evaluation, in a large and organized part of the population. It is obvious why this happened in the Republican Party and not the Democratic Party, but people on both sides of the political aisle have contributed. Literalist, libertarian, paranoid, self-centered, easily frightened, reactionary, sub-average in intelligence, deluded in self worth and unmovable in conviction and belief despite all evidence to the contrary.

 

It isn’t just that the terrorists won on that day; It is much much worse than that. First they beat us, then they recruited us to do ourselves in.

 

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Earthman’s Journey – Part 8 (of 8)

[ Part 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ]

The Final Doorway

The payoff of going through the transition from the House of the Tribe to the House of Humanity is very large. If we can make it across the painful threshold from our small but formerly comfortable dwelling space into this new and grander place, we gain an entire fascinating WORLD of people.

People to learn from, to visit, to photograph, to love, to sing to, to listen to, to argue with, to trade with, even to combine talents and efforts with, so as to accomplish great and noble tasks. The United Nations, the International Space Station and the Olympics are all House of Humanity works – absolutely impossible to accomplish in any smaller House. Continue reading “Earthman’s Journey – Part 8 (of 8)”

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Remembering 9/11

Have you ever been stabbed in the back? By which I mean, really betrayed by someone you trusted?

You feel hurt at first, but afterward angry. The level of trust betrayed probably defines the level of anger.

You get into a business deal with friends, and you later discover they’ve not only fucked you over royally, they intended to fuck you over from the beginning. Or you’re married and you find out your husband is boinking another woman. Worse, he picked up a disease from her, and has now given it to you. Unbelievably worse, that other woman was your own sister.

Yeah, like that. In either case, you’d be SERIOUSLY pissed. Continue reading “Remembering 9/11”

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The Bite of the Camel

Daniel Fincke of Camels With Hammers sent me an email asking me if he could quote and critique a comment I left on his site (“The Moral Argument for Free Will“) a few days ago.

I thought your second comment on my free will post yesterday raised a lot of important points for clarification and I think I want to base a post around replying to it. I often do this with my commenters’ remarks. In this case, though, since you’re one of my peers here at FTB, I’m cautious because I want to make sure you’re comfortable with remarks you make in the comments section (which sometimes aren’t as considered as an actual blog post) being put up prominently in the body of a new post and scrutinized and countered in detail. I don’t want to come off as picking on you. I am just excited because you are a gifted writer who can eloquently put the “blue collar redneck” case against “too much philosophical analyzing” and I like the idea of putting that case up and showing my philosopher’s reply to that.  But I worry about it coming off as patronizing or something.

Scrutinized and COUNTERED?? Dan, you madman, you think you can COUNTER my simple homespun redneck wisdom?

Do your worst, sir! Go ahead and be a phil-ossi-fer if you like!

Expect a visit from a couple of friends of mine, though. You’ll recognize them by the overalls and gappy teeth.

And banjos.

Dee-dee ding-ding-ding-ding-ding ding-dang.

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Taxing Churches

 

Written by a former minister, and worth a read:

In nearly every city in America, there are giant churches sitting on prime real-estate or agricultural land and they pay absolutely nothing in property tax even though they benefit from taxpayer-funded services like roads, law enforcement, schools, and fire protection. In most cities, when churches sponsor evangelical activities, they demand and receive police officer-assisted traffic control and often block off public streets for their events. Who pays for the police officer’s overtime pay for such events? Taxpayers foot the bill with property and sales tax dollars that they are not exempt from paying because they are not special and are not doing god’s work.

 

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Earthman’s Journey – Part 7 (of 8)

[ Part 1 — 2 — 3 — 4 — 5 — 6 – 7 — 8 ]

The Houses of Man (cont.)

As you’ve probably already figured out, there are other steps in this bigger-house progression. At some point we discover the door to yet another Outside, and find that our original family home is only a small part of a bigger place – our neighborhood or culture. For want of a better name, call this dwelling place the House of the Tribe.

Again, there’s an uncomfortable period of adaptation in settling-in to this larger space. To become a full member of our tribe, we have to learn to say the right things at the right times, to sing the right songs and make the right pledges. We have to wear the right clothes – the right boots, pants, shirts, hats and belt buckles. We have to learn the right secret handshake – and so many more things. We may even have to have the right parts of our bodies ritually scarred, or tattooed, or cut off. Continue reading “Earthman’s Journey – Part 7 (of 8)”

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Hear, Hear, Well Spoken Bruce!

Fellow FTB blogger Jason Thibeault, the Lousy Canuck, just gave me an “I couldn’t have said it better myself” moment with his repost of “Why don’t atheists just shut up and stay home?”

Well worth a read:

We atheists have been silent for a very long time; our voices are understandably rusty. For every encroachment into our personal space — for every incentive that discriminates against faithless — for every demand that people be allowed to share their love of God with others — we are being told to shut up, to stay silent, to dare not demand the same right to share our love of reason, our love of logic and our love of science. We do not speak up to evangelize atheism, for that is antithetical to our position, and we have bigger issues presently — buffering an outright attack on us by the religious.

Your right to swing your fist ends at the point of my nose, yet when your fists connect with the noses of atheists we are told to accept it and dare not swing back. I am tired of being a punching bag. I am tired of being told that I am immoral, that I am evil, that I am an abomination against society.

That is why I do not merely allow people to preach their faith on my doorstep without an answer. And that is why, when I AM at home, I reserve the right to occasionally shut the door on their faces. And that is why when I am NOT at home, I reserve the right to counter people’s vociferous shouting or unfair double standards or ridiculous pandering or antiscientific nonsense with my voice — rusty though it may be. I reserve the right to scream out, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more!”

My voice is the only weapon I have against this encroachment and viral spread of religion and antiscientific thinking. And short of death, my voice will not be silenced.