Pole Dancing for Jesus

While one is tempted to simply laugh at the ridiculous nature of this concept, the real point here is that people will do ANYTHING to deceive themselves into believing that their own, personal preferences can be shoe-horned into the paleolithic worldview of the Bible, Koran, etc.

The Bible doesn't even want you to get a divorce, of any kind, ever for any reason. Do you really think that pole dancing would be OK? Why try to claim that your provocative (nothing wrong with that) workout is Jesus-centric?

Oh yes, the money...

Christian Pastor asks Atheist for Challenging Questions For His Discussion Group

A Christian pastor recently contacted one of my favorite atheists (The Friendly Atheist) to respectfully request challenging questions for his religious study group.

Good for him. He at least has a little courage.

I would like to share the offered questions because they go to the heart of what atheists simply fail to understand about believers, and vice versa.

When considering questions about your religion, do you have lower standards for evidence and sound argument than the standards you use when buying a used car, or sitting on a jury, or considering a religion different from yours? If such standards don’t apply to questions about your religion, why not?

Are you completely unconditional about the answers to which these questions may lead you, or are certain answers off-limits, and you’ll abort the questioning if that is where it seems to be leading?

Are you willing to be never fully satisfied with any answers, never rest on the laurels of an answer that soothes your doubt, but might still be false?

The worst atrocities in history have been committed by people who rendered themselves incapable of doubt. Absolute certainty was their addiction, and “absolute truth” was their drug. Can you see that doubt is not an enemy, and become comfortable with it as a good and constant friend who keeps you honest, humble and human?

People are Better than "God"

I do not understand how educated people can hold the 10 “commandments” in reverence. 1-4 are silly, 5 & 9 should be conditional at best, 6-8 are common sense without need of divine inspiration, and 10 is a vile thought-crime on the level of a police state. These are the directives of a primitive sheep herding society and not the basis for any modern sense of morals or justice. Plus this so called fount of morality doesn’t deal with very important ethical issues: rape, genocide, economic exploitation, slavery. In fact the Bible actually condones each of these.
Almost ANY moderately educated person can do much better. For example:

From Chris Hitchens

1. Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or their color.
2. Do not ever even think of using people as private property.
3. Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations.
4. Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child.
5. Do not condemn people for their inborn nature. (“Why would God create so many homosexuals, only to torture and destroy them?”)
6. Be aware that you, too, are an animal, and dependent on the web of nature. Try to think and act accordingly.
7. Do not imagine you can avoid judgment if you rob people [by lying to them] rather than with a knife.
8. Turn off that fucking cell phone.
9. Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions and terrible sexual repression.
10. Reject any faith if their commandments contradict any of the above.

From Richard Dawkins:

1. Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you
2. In all things, strive to cause no harm
3. Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.
4. Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.
5. Live life with a sense of joy and wonder
6. Always seek to be learning something new
7. Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.
8. Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.
9. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.
10. Question everything

Go ahead and give it a try. Almost any human can come up with a better list than ancient sheep herders who like to talk to shrubbery.

Christian Group Executes Santa

A repost from the "Friendly Atheist"

It seems that the "War on Xmas" has two fronts

"Don't Ask Don't Tell" Repealed - A Victory in the War for Reason!

Seventeen years ago, then-President Bill Clinton had a crazy idea that all of the men and women serving in the United States Armed Forces were human beings, regardless of their professed sexual orientation. Clinton was motivated, in part, by a man named Allen Schindler, a radioman in the U.S. Navy who was stomped into unrecognizability and, ultimately, murdered by two of his fellow sailors because Schindler was gay. And so he promised to undertake a massive effort to make it so that gay soldiers could serve in the military without fear or discrimination.

Read more here.

So, What Does the Bible Say About Rape?

Think that the Bible is a source of morality? I beg to differ.

The following is courtesy of the recommended http://www.blaghag.com/

(click on pic for larger image)

A Personal Report from a Christmas Parade

Yesterday, my nuclear family and I attended the Christmas parade in one of the better “to do” suburbs of the smallish city we inhabit.

By mere happenstance we claimed a spot of sidewalk in front of one of the many minor mediocrities of architecture that operate as a church. Early in the proceedings a man who had been handing free hot chocolate gave me the most ridiculous little pamphlet called, “Which Way Are You Going?” published by the Liberty Gospel Tracts; an Orwellian name for an organization whose main goal was to invite you into slavery.

(On their website, they offer an "Ask a Question" section. The section has some helpful advice for female visitors, "If you are married, we must biblically direct you to your husband first. I Corinthians 14:35 deals with women having questions in church, and instructs them to ask their husbands at home. If your husband does not know the answer, you might encourage him to write to us here. The Bible also instructs the older women to teach the younger women, in Titus 2:3,4. If you write to us with a question, we will pass it along to one of our ladies here, who will help you to find the answer from the Bible." For it's awful humor, read previous responses to questions...)

This will teach me to accept free drinks from strange men.

As simple and bald as the little broadside is, it really does encapsulate the entire position of the religious establishment. Specifically, after establishing that there are no other options in life other than subservience to the celestial “capriciously malevolent bully” or to suffer for aninfinite time in a torture shop run by his enemy on page 1, page 2 ensures us that we are unable to help ourselves lead better lives, page 3 says that even if we are successful through talent, education and self-discipline, that such personal victories are without meaning unless we abase ourselves are the non-existent feet of a jealous god.

I was very tempted to refuse his offer of “literature” or at least tell him that I had already decided, at least in general terms, my course of life; thanks but no thanks. My inherent politeness forced me to mumble a thank you and turn away. I had after all taken the drink.


However, the question one is confronted with is what if the roles were reversed?

Would a dedicated Christian accept a free hot chocolate on a cold day in exchange for a pamphlet extolling the virtues of logic, reason and humanistic compassion, during their attendance at a Darwin Day parade?

I am guessing that the whole scenario would be unlikely.