This is one of the first things I read this morning. It made me smile.
The Atheist Alliance in Spartanburg collects items for the homeless throughout the month.They have an Amazon wish list. Please donate if you can. I did.
They meet on the third Saturday of every month and donate what they have collected to about 100 homeless people.
- via The Independent
My old friend Dr. Louie Savva of everythingispointless.com turned me on to his new podcast, The Existential Files. I listen to a few episodes this morning. I like it. I thought you might too. Enjoy.
Episode #35 with Yannick Jacob, the programme leader for the MSc Coaching Psychology at UEL and he also teaches and lectures on the topics of existentialism, coaching, mediation and positive psychology.
Episode #32 with Professor Christopher French, head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit at Goldsmiths College,
I found this Youtube channel, Bad Preachers, via a comment on my blog. It’s interesting. Enjoy.
I find de-conversion stories fascinating. Pathos has the de-conversion story of The Order of Elijah and its lead singer Shannon Low.
…he [Shannon Low] found Christians rationalizing the awful behavior instead of denouncing it. But he still held tight to his positive image of Jesus.
Low did some reading… It looks like The God Delusion helped him make up his mind.
Welcome to the ATeam!
I’ve always had about a thousand friends of Facebook. I’m at 1,035 at the moment, but lately I’ve been cutting ties with lots of people. It started with ego centric posts that grew intolerable. These are people who live for minor celebrity status in our small little atheist community. I moved on to people who start dictating what I can post or how I can comment. These people are usually aligned with the victimhood movement. Somebody who suffers from depression and cannot tolerate a post that may trigger her unease about said aliment. Or somebody who posts a list of memes that are off limits. Or somebody who comes out as transgender and starts a round of pronoun wars. We are warned, “If you dare to post something I find offensive, I will ban you from commenting or unfollow you.” Or worse, “I will unfriend you."
I’m not sorry about this but… fuck you all to hell. Let me be the first to unfriend you. I friended you in the first place because I liked your ideas, you art or your activism. I some cases I friend you because you are just interesting. I don’t have enough energy to keep track of what content or subject offends which friend. I really don’t. Who does?
Case in point; I posted a list of books I’ve read so far in 2016. One book, The Deep Blue Good, A Travis McGee Novel, by John D. MacDonald, apparently raised the hackles of a feminist who messaged me to express her dismay that I would read such a horrible book. She suggested that I edit it out of my post so as not to offend others. The protagonist, Travis McGee, is an epic mansplainer sure, but the story was written in the early 60s and I’m a big boy. How would reading it offend some feminist friend? I don’t know, nor do I care. I have a solution though. Unfriend…
I don’t pay much attention to big name atheist. I’m just not interested, except for when they do something stupid. Richard Dawkins did something stupid.
Dawkins did not dispute that Mohamed should not have been arrested, but questioned whether the boy had truly “invented” the clock, as has been reported. He tweeted : “If this is true, what was his motive? Whether or not he wanted the police to arrest him, they shouldn’t have done so[.]”
- via www.rawstory.com
Who actually thought that Ahmed Mohamed invented anything? We all winked, thought it was cute and then dismissed it with a good laugh while shaking our heads and saying, “Kids.” We’ve all been there. I invented a paper airplane back in middle school. The school even allowed me to patent it. Of course Ahmed did not invent anything, but who needs to point that out? Only the idiots among us it seems.
I recently attended a Catholic memorial mass for a friend. He was a Lutheran, but his wife was Catholic. I thought it odd that priest would perform a memorial mass for a man from a religious sect that was formed in protest of the Catholic church. I don’t understand how that works.
I sat in the back, wearing a suit and my dark sun glasses, while the service played out. I did not want to engage with others, although I was joined by a fellow malcontent just before the service started. My friend was loved by many and most came. It was touching.
I was not comforted by the mass. Others were. I could see that by the reactions on the faces and bodies of those around me. I was asked to alternately stand, sit or kneel throughout the service. I kept wondering how any of this made sense. Stand and repeat the following words. Sit or stand and listen to a sad song. Kneel and pray. Stand and pray. Shake a bunch of hands. Eat a wafer. Get a blessing. I was not raised Catholic, so the rituals are a mystery to me, but even Protestant rituals baffle me, I find the them troubling in that they only mean something if you invest the time to learn them.
The priest spoke like he knew my friend would be with God in heaven. If I understand things correctly, the priest would have absolutely zero confidence that a non-Catholic could make it to heaven. Yet he spoke like it was all good. He spoke lies though. Every word was a lie.
A friend from the true church (or so he says), a Coptic Christian from the Orthodox Church of Alexandria, sat across the isle from me. He seemed as baffled by the service as me. I noticed that he did not go up to receive a blessing. We both watched as almost everyone else did though. Why would an atheist take a blessing? What purpose would that serve?
I sat among strangers, friends and political enemies. We shook hands at one point as it was part of the ritual. People muttered platitudes while offering a hand. I shook a man’s hand that I would just as soon punch in the nose, all with a tight-lipped smile. It’s a week or so later as I write this. I’d still rather punch him in the nose.
The service took an hour, half of which was dedicated to getting ready for and performing the Eucharist. It was a performance. Let’s call it religious theater. First you wash the dishes, then you set the table, then you pray, then you eat, then you feed the masses, then you clean, then you put pretty things away, and then you pray. The service continues on after this though; on and on with more praying and more songs.
The priest told us only that good Catholics could take the sacrament. He seemed pretty damn serious. One must be a Catholic in good standing and have gone to confession, otherwise it was a sin to take the wafer. Like I said… serious and oddly out of context given the nature of the service.
I don’t mean to sound sacrilegious or trite, but I just don’t get it. I know the service means something for others, but it was meaningless for me. I hugged my friend’s wife and told her to reach out if she needs help. She only speaks Spanish, so I’m sure my gesture was lost on her. I’ll follow up though because I meant what I said. There are no prayers in me, but if she needs a lift to get the car fixed or a hand around the house, I’ll be there for her.
I shook a few hands and slapped a few backs after the service. It was good to see a few old friends. All too soon I felt the normal social awkwardness creep back into my mind as people pressed in around me and starting asking questions, so looked for an excuse to leave and took it. I snuck out a few minutes later and had lunch with a friend.
One of the more popular comments I receive when posting on the arrests of religious hypocrites is this, “Why don’t you post on the arrests of atheists?”
The answer can be found in this Google News search. The short answer is that there are few arrests of anyone who identifies as an atheist. We don’t see headlines that read, “Atheist teacher arrested.” Atheism does not carry the same weight as theism. There are no atheist pastors, Sunday school teachers or deacons. We don’t operate this way. We are not a religion.
What did show up in the Google News search?
Third Atheist Blogger Hacked to Death in Bangladesh
The group who are terrorizing a country
Ed Arnold and the Flying Bandit
Defying Taboo, Middle East Atheists Launch TV Channel
When an atheist is arrested, believe me, I will post on it. Hypocrisy is hypocrisy.
Religious men, even ones who regularly read about deities sanctioning violence in their holy books, don’t usually feel the license to kill, of course. In fact, you might expect the opposite. After all, religious people are more likely to do good than other people. They volunteer and donate blood more often than non-believers. They give more money to charity. In most psychology experiments they are more generous and less dishonest than atheists, and in the real world, they commit fewer crimes and abuse illegal subtances less, too. In fact, in the majority of the 39 countries polled by a 2014 Pew study, people say that a belief in God is required to be a moral person. That opinion was most common in poor regions such as Central Asia, and West Africa. But 53 percent of Americans also agree that religious belief makes you more ethical.Really? Religious men who regularly read about deities sanctioning violence are more generous and less dishonest than atheists. What the fuck? What study says that? None of this is true.
"If I"m ever around an atheist, I think I'm gonna get hit by lightning or something. I just done' even want o be in the room with them." - Shaun Robinson, host for Access Hollywood.
Conservative Christian actor Kevin Sorbo and Access Hollywood host Robinson engaged in what many might consider hate speech on the August 12 edition of Access Hollywood.
Sorbo was appearing on Access Hollywood to promote his movie, “God is not Dead.”
Source: Access Hollywood host attacks Atheists by Michael Stone.
She apologized later. Pfft.
I wrote a small post recently called Thought Crimes and the Atheist Movement. In it I talked about the role people have who are offended by the creative efforts of others. I pissed off a few people who thought my photography projects that dealt with the homeless was something I should not do because I might offend the homeless (or others). I feel otherwise. My work has helped others and helped bring attention to the problem. If I had listened to critics, I would have never taken the photos. It's a horrible thought.
I recently watched a video by photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally and poet Susan B.A. Sommers-Willet. This multi-media project explores poverty in Troy, New York using photography, video and poetry. Take a moment and watch the video.
It is uncomfortable to watch. Poverty is ugly, although I find photos hard to view, I do so anyway and I am made better by the experience. The individual photos are even harder to look at, but they serve a purpose. The project, called Update Girls, has attacked a lot of criticism. If photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally had listened to her critics, this 10-year-long project would have never happened.
Ms. Kenneally’s forceful images drew a lot of attention. More than eighteen thousand people shared the Slate article on Facebook and hundreds commented on Slate’s Facebook page. Another 387 commented on the original post. Tweets criticized the subjects and the photographer.
The comments were harsh. Many expressed outrage that Kayla would smoke while holding her baby. (This photograph, singled out with especially virulent criticism, has since been taken down at Ms. Kenneally’s request.) Others remarked that poor people couldn’t afford to waste their money on cigarettes, that the houses pictured were filthy and the occupants slovenly, and that the food visible in some shots was unhealthy. Commenters wondered how poor families had money to buy their children video games. There were accusations about welfare checks and snide remarks about contraception.
If she had listened to her critics, this important sociological work would have never been created. Why listen to critics? Why let them ruin your creative efforts? Why give them the power to derail individual creativity? I just don’t understand this type of thinking. I never will.
Our creative efforts are our own private domain. If I listen to people who are offended by my work, I would never have written this blog. I would never have helped dozens of abused children and adults find justice. I would never have helped anyone out of a wrong-headed concern for Christians who might have been offended by being held responsible in some small way for their acts of hypocrisy. My hate mail goes to the trash unread. I do the work I must do anyway.
By the way - once small case, a young girl who was being abused by her pastor, made all ten years and 6000+ posts worth the effort. I was able to help the girl and her parents. I consider it one of my proudest moments and it is one of the reasons I’ve started to post again.
I have been told by a few Christians that I will burn in hell for all eternity because I’m an atheist who has rejected God. I've always thought that was a lie told to children, now I'm sure of it.
What Jesus talked about when He Talked about Hell via Benjamin L. Corey of Formerly Fundie
The first discovery one will make on such an investigation, is the inconvenient truth that the word “hell” didn’t exist in first century Israel. This brings up one crucial problem when translating/interpreting the Bible apart from any scholastic work: we see English words that have specific linguistic and cultural connotations and meanings, and read those meanings into an ancient text which may, or may not, have intended to send the same meaning.
Fascinating.
AtheistTV is a premature concept. Am I supposed to say that? Watching episodes of The Atheist Experience and recycled documentaries is not entertaining, informative or even worthy of my time. I'm not the only one to notice.
Via Daniel D’Addario of Salon I spent a day watching AtheistTV — and it was horrifying
“If you know why your God is so stupid,” he said, “feel free and call us.”
The show did field one call, from a young man whose thoughts were so muddled (he was introduced as devout, then explained he was questioning his faith, then said he’d been dead for a week, then said he often thought the world would be better off after he died) that it’s not really fair to criticize. But it’s worth noting that Dillahunty repeatedly suggested he was dealing with a prank caller but refused to disengage and make time for a caller who might have done a better job of representing himself; it was more important to score rhetorical points off someone clearly not equipped to play.
I have a hard time listening to the Atheist Experience as a podcast. It makes me uncomfortable. Watching it as a TV show seems odd since it consists of a couple of talking heads. Although, I have done so simply to put a face with a name. From a professional production look alone, the show is marginal. It looks like what it is, an amateur production on a local public access TV channel. I am sure that with better funding, the show would look better. If this show is intended to anchor the AtheistTV brand, we are well on the way to becoming the industry laughing stock. Hitting bottom may be hard with Sarah Palin TV in the mix, but we are competing for the bottom by launching with marginal content.
We only get one chance to make a good first impression with the target demographic. Why use recycled marginal content? Why start without at least one good show in the can already? Why start in a weak position.
I’m looking for content made for AtheistTV that has an appeal outside of the confrontational niche that the Atheist Experience prospers in. I would also like to see content like the Atheist Experience, but with higher production standards. I hope that is the direction AtheistTV takes.