The Good Atheist

If you’ve never read Sam’s book, then you need to get your ass to the bookstore and pick up “The End of Faith“. It’s a great read, and Sam is both eloquent, thoughtful and interesting. You can’t be a “good” atheist without reading it!

I am sick and tired of every wannabe journalist with nothing interesting to write about making pronunciations on things they don’t really understand. Today’s annoying article comes from Rob Dreher at twincities.com, where his article entitled “You don’t have to be religious to be a fundamentalist” argues that many atheists display characteristics of religious fundamentalism.

As you’ve probably guessed, he brings up the Nazis and Communism as “proofs” that atheism can be just as deadly as religion. These tired claims have already been dealt with in some of my other articles, and the only response I have towards these accusations is this: how does a lack of belief in God lead human beings to commit atrocities? It’s fairly obvious that people will kill one another if they want REGARDLESS of religious belief. Yes, humans can be savage, cruel, and even monstrous. Does anyone naively think that if Stalin had been a Christian, he wouldn’t have been as cruel a despot?

I’m also tired of people claiming that science and religion somehow don’t conflict. Science is a way of understanding the natural world, while religion is a way of denying physical reality in favor of mythology and wishful thinking. In the US, we’ve seen the kind of impact belief has on scientific progress; you don’t see a lot of other industrialized countries having “debates” over evolution.

I obviously realize that for some, superstitious belief seems hardwired in our brains, but this idea is easily refuted by the fact that a significant portion of the world is made up of non-believers (there are roughly 1 billion of us. Surprising, no?). Sure, when we are uneducated, we are bound to believe in primitive myths, but luckily over the centuries we’ve devised ways of understanding the natural world without the need to rely on supernatural forces. We call this technique “science”, and the results have so far been amazing. You live twice as long as your ancestors did because of advances in our understanding of the world. Now that we’ve grown accustomed to all the benefits of science, we take it for granted. Therefore, there will always be plenty of morons who feel that their specific religion must somehow be greater (since it gives some a “purpose” in their lives), even though the only thing they seem very good at is taking people’s money and shunning, excluding, or sometimes even killing those that don’t believe in the same myths. Yeah, religion sure is awesome…

(props to superfan Paul for the find)

Ok, I was tempted to make fun for what this guy is saying, but he is literally incomprehensibly insane. I think he says Jesus Christ a total of 12 times in less than 3 minutes. He wants people to work for a dollar a year (and fire anyone who says no), and claims that as mayor, he’ll refuse to work with anyone connected with Satan. This Glenn Moon character should forget about running for mayor, and instead look for a job with Fox News.

Also, don’t you love how much he yells? Is he running for Mayor or coach of a little league team?

Here is a scene from Liam Neeson’s new movie “Five Minutes of Heaven“. This monologue should probably be listened to by every moderate Muslim that hasn’t spoken out against all the violence and killing that goes on in the name of their religion. Seems like this movie will have a lot of interesting things to say about terrorism. Looking forward to it!

Ray put this link on his blog, arguing that because this amputated man is making something with his life, that this is one of “God’s miracle”. I don’t think I need to remind everyone that prosthetic limbs are actually an invention of science, or that a loving God would have made his limb grow back (now that would be a fucking miracle!). Man, religious people sure look for any excuse to thank God, don’t they?

Also, don’t you fucking detest the way that Fox News people are always pushing the military in our faces? It’s all propaganda to make dumb, well meaning kids sign up for service and get their legs blown off in the worst quagmire since Vietnam. They can’t say enough good things about soldiers and war. How about you return people home without missing limbs guys? I’m sure they would rather that than a bunch of fucking service medals.

(props to superfan Kate for the link)

The question was whether or not religious leaders are co-opting religion to try and get health care reform to be accepted. Father Morris (you may remember this idiot struggling to answer the question of whether Adam and Eve had belly buttons) then proceeds to co-opt God to undermine health care (making the host’s question burn with delicious irony). Don’t you want to strangle him every time he opens his annoying little mouth? Not a big fan of this jackass…

I wonder which part of the Bible he follows. Do you think he would stone kids to death for being disobedient, or swearing at them? There’s also a chick superhero in the group. I bet whenever she’s on her period, the others ask her to stay out of their secret fortress or something (hey, I din’t make the rules here!). The show is apparently geared to 6 year olds, which goes a long way to explain why it looks so goddamn terrible.

Ryan and I will be recording a show later today about the “coming” apocalypse of Dec. 12 2012, and I thought I’d include this video so you could get pumped about the podcast. Here’s my favorite quote: “History has a surprisingly accurate track record for those who say the end is almost near”…Uh, what the fuck does that mean? How can anyone have been accurate about improperly predicting the end of the world? I think the very fact that we are still here seems to prove that statement to be, oh, I don’t know, entirely MADE UP!!!

There are only two churches in Willaimsville, Illinois, and after a tornado destroyed one of them, residents are saddened by their angry deity’s decision to test their faith by collapsing the roof and walls of a church that was considered a “cornerstone of the community”.

Ok, I’m actually making that last part up. All of them seem to think that it was just a natural phenomenon that took the church down (would they have felt the same way had a tornado destroyed a gay bar?), but I have to believe that there are a few people that might suspect that this was the handy work of their Old Testament vengeful God. Maybe they’ll blame homosexuality for the loss. It’s a popular scapegoat these days.

Well, this incident only goes to show that no amount of prayer and worship will guard a person (or a building) from getting annihilated from the forces of nature. We just have to live with the fact that every once in a while, Mother Nature goes apeshit and destroys everything, regardless of what silly religious denomination you belong to.

Religious devotees are so much more righteous than us lowly atheists, don’t you agree? How else can you explain the fact that they are less likely to commit a crime, have a divorce, or abuse of drugs. Oh wait, that’s actually the opposite, but hey, who’s counting?

The latest story of delicious impropriety on the part of the faithful comes from Compton, where Rev. E. Joshua Sims has been arrested after he was suspected of embezzling almost a million dollars of the Double Rock Baptist Church. He also threatened some of the church members that had begun to question his finances, during his sermons (for some suicidal reason).

Hey, don’t be so surprised when your beloved pastor ends up being a con man, people. Is there ever been a sweeter con than religion? Guys like Peter Popoff and Jim Bakker know full well the financial gains one can acheive from tricking the faithful. They would practically sell their kidneys on the black market if they thought they could be closer to God as a result.

Human beings are mostly confused, superstitious idiots that are easily shepherded by individuals who have only their own self interest at heart. I think it’s time people stop blindly trusting those who claim to hold a special place with God; they tend to either scam you out of your money, molest your kids, or both!