Unscrewing the Inscrutible: I Second That!

Brent Rasmussen has something to say about the notion of "Atheist Blogging." Go, Brent!

We need to STOP identifying ourselves as "atheist bloggers". That's a stupid way to identify a blog. I am an atheist who happens to blog. My reasons are my reasons. I do not agree with all of the other atheists out there who also happen to blog - and it frustrates the heck out of me when I am called to task for something some other wackjob said - just because they also identified themselves as an "atheist blogger".

I'm just sick to death of it.

Abso-freakin' Lutely!

Mondo 53: Storytime with Aunt Bertha

Sting of Death 1
Alleee1--Jean-Jacques Perrey--The Savers
Ed Sanders--Maple Court Tragedy--Sanders' Truckstop
Sting of Death 2
Bellport High School Jazz Rock Ensemble--Joy to the World with the Mello tones--Bellport HS Jazz-Rock Ensemble Vol 3
Jeri Kelly--Hide and Seek
Pastor Deacon Fred--Pets
Bobby Christian--South Seas Beach House
Troy Cory--Rinky Roo-Rah
Sting of Death 3
Vicki Belmonte--Heaven in a Pair of Wooden Shoes
Unknown Taiwanese Child Singing a Children's Song
Sting of Death 4
Dondero High School Acapella Choir--Fox on the Run
Lucas--Buttons and Bows
Pastor Deacon Fred--Lucaswatch
Franz Mozart's Toy Symphony--Taiwanese Children's Cassette
Lucas--Fartin' Partners
Sting of Death 5
Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts--My Ding-a-Ling
Dondero High School Acapella Choir--Roundabout
Sting of Death 6
Brandenburg Big Band--Symphony in G Minor--Classics in Rhythm
Noel Anthony--Zombie Jamborie
Pastor Deacon Fred--Demons in Your Rectum
Sanjalice Marioneta--Lutca Na Koncu
DJ Shadow and Dan "The Automator" --Satchidananda--Bombay the Hard Way: Guns, Cars and Sitars
Sting of Death 7
Richard Chaimberlain--Three Stars Will Shine Tonight (Theme From "Doctor Kildaire")
Alleee2

Ok now, turn the record over. It's time for more singtime singalong songs!

Homosexuals: Do you REALLY Want THAT Book to Endorse Your Sexuality? Are you INSANE?

The billboard claims “Jesus affirmed a gay couple.”

A vandal’s own statement — the words “Lie, lie, lie” spray-painted in red — delivered an opposing view above them.

Would I want a crazed, murderous maniac to tell me that I'm a good person, and I'm ok in his eyes? Hell, no! And hell is only one of the reasons. The book the Jesus Metropolitan Community Church defends, says that morality is subjectively contingent on the whims of a being who slaughters the entire population of the world in order to see His vision of an "honorable" human race for a couple of weeks, only to destroy it again in fire. This book the Metropolitan Church claims needs to endorse them, says that the whims of a being who gives us two outcomes for eternity: eternal hedonism, or eternal suffering, is the ultimate good.

Thanks, bible, but no thanks. Nobody needs an OK from you. It's you (the bibble) that obviously needs acceptance from homosexuals. Like most normal western idiots, they give it to you.

The Answer to the "but Hitler and Stalin were atheists!" problem

I know why Richard Dawkins didn't have much of an answer for Bill O'Reilly on his so-called "interview." It's because Dawkins has the same problem most atheists have with this statement.

They share the same belief: Statism.

Not that Hitler was an atheist. We've gone over that crap. Hitler was catholic, Hitler hated atheists, etc etc. But Hitler believed in Germany. Hitler believed that the State implied moral obligation. So do many, many atheists, who believe religiously in Democracy.

So how can we expect atheists to be able to answer this assertion about the worst tragedies of recent history? It wasn't atheism that murdered so many. It was belief that Might Makes Right. And as long as most atheists hold onto that belief they share with the Christians who point fingers at them, Christians will have the upper hand in the Game of Suffering. The answer to the immorality of Stalin, Hitler, the Inquisition and the Crusades?

The moral argument.

It's not an answer that favors a Movement, friends, not even atheism. It can't, ever. You want to oppose those atrocities? You have to be anarchist. If you favor monopoly of violence, especially from imaginary entities like God or the State, the Moral Razor slashes it to pieces. Atheism is just a first step to possibly understanding the material reality of morality. It cannot answer the tyranny of man.

Episode 52: Pastor Deacon Fred

Mondo 52

Pastor Deacon Fred's 60-Second Sermons

Pastor Deacon Fred--Sissy Christians
Alleee1
Chuck Aherns--Wallace Cannonball
Pastor Deacon Fred--Breastfeeding
The Moog Machine--You Keep Me Hangin' On
Da Mokettes and the Incredible Q Band--Palolo Valley Girls
Pastor Deacon Fred--Does Jesus Watch Me Go Poopy?
Floyd Cramer--Making Our Dreams Come True (Laverne and Shirley Theme)
Six Flags Over Texas--Six Flags Song
Deacon Speaks in Tongues
Synthesizers Unlimited--Pip Pip--Electric Bazaar
Zeb Scott--You've Got the Style, Girl--Big Dipper
An Easter Message--Pastor Deacon Fred
Swing Family--Musical Stars
Flavia and the Motonets--Pecesito
Pastor Deacon Fred--Fearsong
Harold Smart--Wedding of the Painted Doll
Dondero High School--Livin' Thing
Pastor Deacon Fred--Announcement for "Welcome to Jesusland"
Colgems--Solaris from "Murderer's Row"
Preacher--Jesus is Knocking at Your Door
Pastor Deacon Fred--Languages
Alleee2

Download Here All You Sinners

From Atheist to Fundie: Pious Fraud, or S&M Fantasy?

The story of A.S.A Jones can be found on his site, ExAtheist.com.

A.S.A (Artistically Spreading Antitruths) Jones was a SCIENTIST! For real! A big old materialist who read philosophy and went to college and everything! He really was "one of us!" Then he "saw the light" and realized that premarital sex was evil, homosexuals were abominations, and that he was, too. Amazing how someone can completely empty his ego and retain self-obsession!

I graduated from college with high honors and my prized science degree, but I had lost any motivation to apply that knowledge. I recalled staring at a swarming mass of termites one sunny day, thinking that, from a comparative distance, there was little difference between them and us. I smashed a few dozen with my shoe and ground them into the dirt. What did it matter if these died? What did it matter if they all died? People died every day. The end result would always be death for both the individuals and, eventually, the species.

Humanity had become nothing more to me than an organized network of molecules and enzymes. I viewed people as mere organisms going through their daily routines of metabolizing nutrients and expelling wastes, ovulating their eggs and ejaculating their semen. I knew the psychology of humans almost as well as their anatomies. The hidden things that pulled them this way and that were very evident to me. They were like guinea pigs, only more predictable, and my chief form of entertainment was to see how skillfully I could manipulate them. I knew that I was supposed to care about them, but I didn't. I couldn't. If mankind's goal was to alleviate its own suffering, a bullet to the head was more efficient and made more sense in my thinking than screwing around with medication or disease control.

I read the whole thing and posted a bit about it on Normal Bob Smith's MySpace blog. (Click on " ATHEISM TO CHRISTIANITY - by A.S.A. Jones" on the right-hand column under his blog entries.) Here is the main post:

Long Post...

This is where I stopped reading and knew this to be at least mostly false:

"I tried several other atheist philosophers (he doesn't mention any names other that Sartre? Hm...--alleee) who tried to assign meaning to a life created by chance and I decided that they were all full of crap. If our life is the result of randomness and chance, it is meaningless, no matter how we try to convince ourselves otherwise."

No scientist who understands evolution would intelligently claim that "our life is a result of randomness and chance." Yes, there are some who don't, and perhaps chemists don't. I don't know. My question is: what part of "natural selection" implies random chance?

"I set out to take advantage of moral relativism and effectively destroyed any of my remaining conscience."

That has nothing to do with atheism and everything to do with belief. Moral relativism is a position that is far more compatible with Christianity and other monotheistic beliefs than "atheistic philosophy." Note he didn't mention Ayn Rand. Any atheist turning to philosophy worth his salt at least cracks open some Rand. Who hated moral relativism. Hate her all you want--she was VERY flawed--but she was definitely against moral relativism. As was Kant--and Nietsche. How many atheistic philosophers ARE moral relativists? I can't think of any. Anyway, here is why christianity is morally relative. All moral no-nos, dos and don'ts, and all laws--are subject to God's whims. If he changes his mind, the morals change. Yet He is not subject to those very laws. This is basically Might Makes Right. Christian morality is meaningless--no such thing. Morality is about making judgement, and Christians are prohibited from judgement. Just obedience. So I don't know what this moron is talking about. If he is for real, his studies took him in a ... retarded...direction. Leading to Christianity.

"Materialism means life is meaningless." Again, not a position of atheistic philosophers, and directly opposed to the uplifting philosophies of the greatest atheistic and agnostic SCIENTISTS out there: Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins. If he had read the most prominent works of contemporary atheists, he would know that. If he had dipped his toe in the koi pond of an ancient and yes, ATHEISTIC RELIGION, Buddhism, he would know that. Did he live under a rock? Public school? No internet? Or perhaps the self-important ramblings of AN UNDERGRAD? Hmm...


Here's where my brain started rotting. A Being Authored Morality. I can feel the grey matter leaking. The glurge of this urban-legend-type prose rises. He falls to his knees, he humbles himself, he gets all wet and covered with tears, the Dominus--I mean, the Christ pointing an accusing whip--I mean, finger, at him. It's practically sexual, this hedonism. Science provides him no Funnyland, no way to expell the built-up ego that was yearning for spirituality. He couldn't find a way to make it himself. He found no enlightenment from facts, which never owed him enlightenment in the first place. Which he would know, had he taken a little peek at Buddhism, Carl Sagan, etc, etc.

Which proves something important. Atheism is not The Answer. It means nothing in and of itself. When one is a seeker, a reactionary position has no answers, nor does it owe anyone answers. It just is. A negative position cannot be a positive position, no matter how hard you wish upon a star.

I don't have the answer either. Atheism just says "the answer does not lie in belief, and it does not lie in surrender." However, what it CAN do for some people is to wipe away the fog of belief, in order to clear a path for thought. It can't make you happy, or give you what you want. But it can help you be free to do so. Some people just don't know that they are free.

Anyone interested, we have a site about reasons to be atheistic, http://www.graveyardofthegods.org .

I kept going, as my curiosity and frustration rose: was it real or was it fraud? My conclusion is that anyone can become a fanatic. I believe his acceptance of moral relativism helped him accept the moral relativism of Christianity, although he posts against moral relativism on his site. I hope he enjoys his "humility."


P.S. I enjoyed his post called "THE GAME DESIGNER ARGUMENT WHY GOD'S MORALITY IS OBJECTIVE "

(What is wrong with that phrase? Anyone? Anyone? Hint: "God's Morality.")

In this post, he calls our purpose a game God designed. Life is a game. Yet he says that atheists' lives have illusionary purpose, because they have to make it for themselves. Only a God can give meaning. Presupposition. Sorry. My life is not a game--it's real. I can't even apply a fallacy to this, because it's not an argument, just an assertion.

Episode 51: Bad Bible

In which Alleee cracks open a bible, and Christians cover their eyes.


2 Kings 2:23 Elisha and the She-Bears
Alleee 1
Paul Mark--Mr. Golden Beetle--Kokeshi Shindig
2 Samuel 12:13 David confesses
My Cherie Amour
The Ukeleles of Halifax--Country Roads--Ukelele Yes!
Deuteronomy 13--Stone Unbelievers
Omar Khorshid--Ah Ya Zen--Rhythms from the Orient
Britt Ekland--Do it Once More (With Feeling)
Deuteronomy 13:12--Turn in Unbelievers and Kill Them
Winchester Cathedral
The Almonds--Sukyaki
Hosea 13:14--Rip open pregnant women
Everybody's Talkin'
Webley Edwards--Beauty Hula--Fire Goddess
Numbers 15:32--Penalty for working on the Sabbath
Hare Krishna
Madeleine Chartrand--Ani Kuni--Total Freakout
Numbers 31:9--Poor Midianites!
Ananda Shankar--Streets of Calcutta
David Bowie--Lieb Mich bis Dienstag
Numbers 5:9--Forced abortion by the State
Asplar--Şans Çocuğu
Eva--De Polo A Polo
Psalms 137:7--Happy is He
Preacher on the Street
Chenard Walcker--Voudon
Song of Solomon 8:8--Cedar Bar Contraceptive
Ghana Post Office
Alleee2

Download or Be Stoned

I Love Silent Movie Star Wars (YouTube)

Comin' Out on YouTube--for real?

I would give this advice: make sure you get all the financial support you can, as a minor, from your parents while you can. This goes for gay kids. Parents are stupid, especially religious ones. They are also dangerous, because they hold an amazing power imbalance over you. They can destroy you, legally, because America and Canada give Special Rights to religious people and parents. Parents hold a preferred status in North America. Keep your mouth shut as well as you can, get that money for college, and then, man, LIVE. Move the hell out and LIVE. Being poor is heaven compared to being stuck at home. Working a shit job is heaven compared to being beaten, sent to youth camp or military school, or trying to work your way through college.

Once you support yourself, there's not shit they can do about you being an atheist, or gay.

Religious Fairyland Believers get really mad, because if you say you're an atheist, it becomes entirely about them. They see it as an assault on them. They couldn't be more wrong, of course. Religious people are very self-centered, and care about feeling good and being right. They are also a very frightened people. Their religion is based on the hedonism of heaven and the threat of hell. And here you go, saying you're an atheist, and, as they see it, accusing their lives of meaning nothing. Accusing them of living a lie. You have to kind of humour them, mollycoddle them.

Make peace, get the support you have rightfully coming to you as their child, and get the fuck out as soon as you're eighteen, or seventeen, or whatever the age of consent is where you live.

Mondo 50! Mondo Ye-Ye

Mondo 50! Yes, 50!

Mondo Yé-yé
Pepe Le Pew 1
1. Alleee 1
2. Christine Pilzer--A Hem Ho Uh Er
3. Alicia Granados--El Juguette Extraordinario
4. Dani--Fille a la Moto
5. Reggy Van der Burgt--Eenzaam Op't Leidseplein
Chevalier 1
6. Ariane--Tu Voudrais Que J'oublie
7. Gemelle Kessler--Su Su Giu Giu
8. Cleo--Les Fauves
9. Hedika--L'amour c'est tout ou rien
10. Aline--L'Education
Chevalier 2
11. Les Flechettes--Les Gens
12. Anna Karina--Roller Girl
13. Silvinha--Risque
14. Laura Ulmer--Amoreux d'une Affiche
15. Stone--Seul
Pepe Le Pew 2
16. Christine Laume--Rouge Rouge
17. France Gall--So Einen Jungen Mann
18. Charlotte Leslie--Les Filles c'est Fait
19. Beatlettes--C'est Grâve À Toi
20. OP4--Attention aux Garcons
21. Brigitte Bardot--Ne Me Laisse Pas Aimer
22. Marisa--Christine
23. Alice Dona--C'est Pas Prudent
24. Chantal Goya--Il Court Les Filles
25. Nicole Paquin--Mon Marie C'est Frankenstein
Alleee 2

Télécharger ici

American Fundies: Scarier, wackier than in the Middle East

From Random Ramblings

The Mid West is More Religious than the Middle East

**EDIT (3:25 3/5/07):- To clear up a couple of things. I do come from a upper middle class family but I don't think i suffer from elite isolationism. Two of my really good friends were sons of cab-drivers and another one learn't the entire Koran by rote. His goal was to grow up to become a mullah. Look this article is not about how religious countries are as a whole or which country is a better place to live but it is about how people as individuals are wrapped up in their religion. **


All right I am writing this article because of this comment thread on reddit.

Let me preface what I am about to say with this - I was born, and spent the first 8 years of my life, in India. Next I spent a year in Kenya, a year in Saudi Arabia, 7 years in the UAE and now 3 years in Kirksville Missouri doing my undergrads. In between I have visited, on vacations, somewhere near 23 countries (including Germany and most countries in the Middle east). I don't mean to state all of this as a boast but merely to illustrate that I am not speaking from a limited or narrow experience.

Coming to the US my biggest shock was how seriously people took religion. It was a form of religious intensity that I had never encountered. In Saudi I had endured a totalitarian theocracy (is there another kind?) but I had never seen the man on the street be so wrapped up in their religion. I had never met people who defined themselves, first and foremost, on the basis of their religion. Yeah living in the Middle East I was aware of all the extremist fundamentalists. But they were the fringe. They were like UFOs. You only heard of them, you never actually met them in real life. None of my Muslim friends listed the Koran as their favorite book. They never included any suras as their favorite quotes. Sure there were Muslim mullahs on the TV but no one really actually listened to those programs. Anyhow they were TEACHING the Koran as opposed to PREACHING it.

So when I came to the US I was shocked, absolutely stunned at just how absolutely people believed the Bible. This was the first time in my entire life that I had a religious text cited to me during a scientific debate. When one of my dorm-mates tossed out the "Evolution is an unproven theory whit a lot of holes" line at me I didn't even realize that it was the opening line for a serious debate. For a second I thought it was a throwaway one-liner. He doubted evolution! Not just one odd guy, but dozens upon dozens came at me that night. I actually have met 3 different people since that night who actually doubt that the earth is more than a few thousand years old. I still can't wrap my head around this concept.

Another thing that has shocked me how strongly people feel about converting non christians to Christianity. This driven by the constant overarching belief that all non christians are wrong and are going to go to hell (something I have been told bluntly to my face). There is an inability to conceive of the fact that they might be the ones who are wrong. No one, not one single person in my 8 years in the middle east ever tried to convert me to Islam. Not once did anyone suggest that not being Muslim meant that I was going to suffer.

The problem with the mid west is the sheer homogeneity of it. Growing up in a culture where everyone is of the same religion as you, where everyone shares the same believes as you, i can see how anything different maybe considered strange or unnatural. Growing up I ate at iftar during Ramadan with my friends. They burst firecrackers with me during Diwali. We all went to Christmas parties. There was no awkwardness in celebrating religious festivals of a different religion. it never felt weird. But here in the US I cannot think of celebrating christimas. It somehow feel strange. And I am not the only one to feel so. Thats why Kwanzaa and Hanukkah are sort of celebrated/marketed as the christimas alternatives. Thats why malls are afraid of hanging up signs that say 'Happy Christmas'. Hell malls back home (in in the UAE) had gigantic banners saying merry Christmas, no one thought that was strange or somehow offensive.

Perhaps it come with being the worlds only super-power, but somewhere along the line the people of the US started taking themselves too seriously. Somehow the words 'under God' in a pledge have become so important that the Supreme Court needs to rule on this. I went to an Indian school where we recited the standard muslim prayer every day. Then we sang a prayer that appealed to a single almighty god. At no point did this offend the sensibilities of the mostly Hindu student population. We understood that emphasizing one religion does not necessarily denigrate another. 'Unity through Diversity' after all was the motto for India. Somehow this is a lesson that US has not yet managed to learn.

Amen, brother. I'd like to add to Newt Gingrich that this is the world of bilingual education, not "the ghetto" that he cites. Almost everywhere else in the world where they educate their kids, they are aware that other countries exist, and they might even speak several languages. This makes people smarter. Sorry, Americans, that's just how it is. That's why Canada, with all of its faults, has far superior societies. Canada is not the white-faced aw-shucks place Americans believe it is, or want to believe it is. They speak several, not just two languages, and, as the above article noted, are just not that into religion. They are much better off, and American societies can just wallow in their self-important ignorance.

Mondo 49; Fundies are funny!

Mondo 49: Fundies are Funny!

supersillystring_lol_123, help.com – No One's a Good Person
Roger Roger—Charlie 1925
Alleee 1
Goldwin Express—1-800-JESUS
Glorybound, CARM –Viper in the Lawn
Mike Melvoin—One—The Plastic Cow goes MOOOOG
Wally George—America, Why I Love Her
Brian Purkiss, Blog –Circular Reasoning, TM
Don Powell/Ennio Morricone—Cannibal I Cannibali
Marjoe Gortner Age 8—God's Blockade
Corey M. Davis, The Thinker's Podium – Stuck on Ape
Idalgo Ferri—Alla Turca
Peter Gault and Amy Rachelle—Cosmic Vagina
Patsy, MySpace –Orb of Filth
Little Markie—john 3;16
Solak—Einstein Darwin Memories of the Dark ages
Marksman, T4C –Children of Israel
DJ Clive$ter—Bouge De La Polka
Max and Ada Rogoff—Travelling Thru New jersey
Carl, Usenet : misc.health.aids –Homosexual Activity
Thomas Stephen Smith—Fresh Start
Saul T Peter—She Sits Among the Cabbages and Peas
Don H, Yahoo Answers Religion & Spirituality –What Part Of
James Last—Popcorn
Malajube - Pâte Filo
Red Savior, Myspace—Face It
Mr. T—Be Somebody
RICH Bob Jackson—Small Assassin
tammy, Rapture Alert –Satan Shall Defeat
Gunshaver—Too Many Knives—Homestar Runner
Alleee 2

Download, if you BELIEVE

Anti-Religious bigotry Protected as a protection against anti-religious bigotry

...as long as the bigotry is religion-based.

Schools have avoided teaching the Holocaust and the Crusades in history lessons because they are concerned about causing offence to Muslim pupils or challenging "charged" versions of history which children have been taught at home, government research has found.

A report for the Department for Education and Skills found that a history department in a northern city had avoided selecting the Holocaust as a GCSE topic for fear of confronting "anti-semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial" among some Muslim pupils.

Another school decided to teach the Holocaust despite anti-semitic sentiment among students, but avoided the Crusades as "their balanced treatment of the topic would have directly challenged what was taught in some local mosques".

The report, Teaching Emotive and Controversial History, also revealed that one school was challenged by Christian parents for teachers' treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

A DfES spokesman said: "It's up to schools to make a judgment on non-compulsory parts of the national curriculum. It is a broad framework and there is scope for schools to make their own decisions."

Teaching of the Holocaust is expected to become compulsory under the new national curriculum from next year.

Holy Dick Nicked

Someone stole Jesus' penis!

NEW YORK — Someone stole the penis from the nude, anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ that had been scheduled to go on display in New York tomorrow night. The theft was discovered early this morning by a custodian at the Lab Gallery in the Roger Smith Hotel, where the exhibition was to have taken place.

A gallery official who announced the cancellation of the exhibit explained that there wasn't enough time to re-sculpt the missing part before tomorrow night.

"Jesus was big for his age," said Geoff Bolton, creative director at the gallery. "You didn't find many six-feet-tall men with a size thirteen sandal in his time, and getting the details right in a correspondingly large penis takes some doing. Besides, part of the Lord's left testicle was damaged in the theft, so his entire kit would have had to have been re-hung."

Mr. Bolton pointed out that artist Cosimo Cavallaro had used two hundred pounds of chocolate in crafting the sculpture.

"That works out to thirty-three pounds a foot. At three-quarters of a foot for the penis, we're talking twenty-five pounds of chocolate."

Catholics reacted angrily to the defacement of the "My Sweet Lord" sculpture. Will Montague, head of the watchdog Catholics for Christianity League, called it one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever.

"I was privileged to see the sculpture at a sneak preview last week," said Mr. Montague. "Believe me, that penis was so lifelike. Its eye seemed to follow me around the room."

Cardinal Connor O'Malley of the archdiocese of New York hinted that a homosexual might have been behind the theft.

"I don't think I have to say that only a sexual pervert could do such a thing," said Cardinal O'Malley. "I shudder to think where the Lord's member might wind up."

Although Christians and art fanciers alike were incensed by the theft, many New Yorkers found humor in the situation.

"Imagine waking up and finding that in your Easter basket," said dock foreman Vic Longhesi, who had come to the Lab Gallery with a few of his co-workers to view the copulating bunnies display.