Tag Archives: Religion

04.14.16
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The Bulbous Nosed Twit Finally Gets Something Right

Our great Governor of Tennessee, Mr 4.5′ tall Bill Haslam, vetoed the ignorant bill proposed by ignoramuses, which would have made the Holy Babble the state book of Tennessee.

Finally, after all of these years, a Goddamned Republican got something right.

Although he had to add some vapid stupidity, (It helps if you can visualize a nasal whining tone like that of a nerdy 13 year old when you read his quotes) : “my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text. If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance.”

Oh no, of course not, we should be recognizing it for being a Magic Book! A big magic book of the most ass backwards shit I have ever read.

At least despite his religious leanings and/or pandering to his religious constituents, he was able to correctly determine the unconstitutionality (damn thats a long word) of the bill.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/apr/14/gov-bill-haslam-vetoes-bible-bill/360215/

02.10.16
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Texas Gov. Supports Crosses On Patrol Cars

That’s like saying there hasn’t been an ounce of good sense in Texas for a long time.

Our good governor Gregg Abbott (R) said “In addition to its religious significance, the cross has a long history in America and elsewhere as a symbol of service and sacrifice.” Service and sacrifice? Bullshit. The cross has always been and always will be a religious symbol dedicated to Chistianity. Nothing more, nothing less. Service and sacrifice my ass. There has been a great deal of service and sacrifice in and for this country, it need not be represented by one over zealous religious cult.

The gov did not respond to the query if he supported other types of religious displays on patrol cars. I find that curious.

The gov. was also quoted as saying “The symbol of the cross appropriately conveys the solemn respect all Texans should have for the courage and sacrifice of our peace officers.”

Apparently he has not met the same cops I have met. I agree they have a tough job, and deserve some respect. Right up until they do something stupid, like overstepping their bounds and killing unarmed civilians perhaps. Which there seems to be a lot of lately especially if you are the wrong color. Solemn respect? Sorry, they have a great deal of work to do on their public image…

And what the hell is solemn anyway? If not a religious conotation?

Apparently the FFRF has been on the case, as it states in the story that a Brewster County Sheriff requested state officials if they could keep their religious displays. Ill quote this:

“The request followed a complaint by the Freedom From Religion Foundation which called on the sheriff to remove the crosses, arguing no government official has the right to promote his or her religious belief on government property.”

…and this:

“Whether it is a cross, a star and crescent, or a pentagram, law enforcement must remain neutral on matters of religion in order to foster public confidence in their impartiality,” the nationwide group that promotes the separation of church and state, said in a statement.

Which I agree with wholeheartedly. May reason win out over outdated superstitious nonsense.

http://newsdaily.com/2016/02/texas-governor-says-he-supports-crosses-on-police-cars/

 

02.04.16
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Yeah, They Called It The Dark Ages

RighteousPeeps

This is from the same people that I did a piece on a while back. Perhaps you recall the “Lisa Davis, In Jail for Christ” sign? These people would praise their gods all the while they were oppressed. They would burn the heretics and witches. They would glady torture, maim, and kill those different from them. They would rejoice drenched in the blood of their enemies and their enemies would be many.

Either they know not what they do, or they are total friggin deranged lunatics. Either way I am sure they see themselves however, as pious pillars of the community.

 

01.21.16
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Quote of the Month

Damn this could be the start of something. I can perhaps feel the tug of the keyboard upon my fingers, even if only for a short burst. In any event my blog sloth is under an attack from both duty and desire. The QotM is back, this time with a quote from James Madison. Madison was our fourth president and had a busy hand in the writing of our constitution. Indeed he is considered the father of our constitution. Not only that but Madison basically set the stage for how our government operates.

For most of my regulars you all know this series is dedicated to the common trope that our nation was founded for x-ians by x-ians. This oft repeated lie you will hear echoing throughout our great land and beyond. It is my job, nay my duty to point out this little fallacy when I can.

Without further ado, our quote from James Madison :

“Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.”

Anyone with an eye for seeing beyond the facade that is religion can see that, but few could have said it better. It seems every time I do one of these I am struck by the way the truth was as evident then as it is now. Only those willing to shed the blinders of religion get to see that ugly and shallow truth.

My quote source: http://freethought.mbdojo.com/foundingfathers.html

A little more history on James Madison and the Virginia Plan that eventually morphed into what we see as our government today: https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constitution-amendments/james-madison/

 

 

12.30.15
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So I’m Watching The News Last Night

…and this ignorant ass story comes on about a guy who found a real live sign from god on his lawn. Now you should know the news ’round here almost always has some lame god bothering piece because, well, this is the south after all. But this one really stuck out like a sore pecker in a monastery.

This guy saw a rainbow, that was “apparently” touching his driveway. See here:

rainbow

Now, that thar rainbow appears to me to be quite some distance from this guys yard, but let’s not let that ruin a sign from god.

Upon arriving home this guy (Eric) found an image of an angel holding a baby in his yard. See here:

angel

Yes, yes I can see how everyone with an ounce of sense would interpret that as an angel holding a baby. Anyone who can’t see that must be some sort of baby eating atheist. I’m looking at you oh Divine One 😉

Now while this all seems a tad silly, and to be sure it is, but this is just the beginning of the story. Mr. Eric has a daughter that has had and I quote “several” miscarriages. Which in and of itself is quite tragic on a personal level, but let’s face it these things happen daily, and many people (even I) have been affected by this kind of purely natural event. I can relate, and I feel for anyone who has endured this kind of tragic loss. We find a way to cope.

But our good pal Eric? He took his daughter to some preacher to be prayed over, because every woman this guy has prayed over has had babies! That’s incredible folks! It’s almost like magic or something! Or perhaps it is a bit like praying for rain… Sooner or later you will get it right. Praying for something that is bound to happen eventually and claiming some sort of success is pretty damn cheesy if you ask me. And intellectually dishonest to boot.

I don’t know, it seems to me there are as many gods as there are religious people. Each and every person tries to interpret the world through the gods in their heads. This is surely evidence for that.

Just in case you think after such a long time with little or no posting from yours truly, and you thought just maybe I had to make something up to write about…

http://www.wsmv.com/story/30839538/seminary-man-claims-sign-from-god-left-on-his-yard-on-christmas-eve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10.21.15
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Picture Day

It is high time I got off my butt and posted something. I have been meaning to post some pics, I’m always looking up because their is often cool stuff to see up there, I like nature too and get pics of critters when I can. Or if I just see something that interests me I try to get a pic of it. Let’s go.

First some interesting religion themed pics. The first one had some message they were trying to convey, but if you caught it at just the right time you got (“Hate Within”, cameras really do not like these digital signs):

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This next one I just love. It is a church steeple, in a scrap yard!

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Next up, one day after a strong storm moved through, this was the view of the clouds:

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Spot the Buzzards!

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This next one is a con trail that has decayed in a spiral fashion, I thought it was cool and got a pic.

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Moon over a bean field.

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This next one, the boys and I were fishing when this flock of birds flew in the bay. They were making quite an audible fuss, splashing about and carrying on, kinda hard to see them, a lot of these pics were taken on an iphone.

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The next two are similar cloud formations, the second one was atop a pretty nasty storm.

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Spot the squirrel!

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This next one is strange, look for the dark streak moving vertically from close to the taller tower. I’m still not sure what this was, but I think it has something to do with a decayed con trail that left a dark streak in the sky.

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Spot the dead deer with an atypical rack! This was shot through the windshield of the car (obviously).

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I was about to go into a Lowes when I looked up and saw this.

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Spot the rattlesnake! This little guy may have been 18″ long or so, small but deadly.

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This one was just an interesting cloud shot.

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Finally a rainbow from the front porch. Oddly enough we didn’t even get any rain…

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That’s it till next time. I hope this post finds you all well. 🙂

07.01.15
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Stupid Creationist Argument Given A Dose Of Science

You know the one about the human eye being too complex to have evolved? Yeah, that one:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-07/cifa-mpe062915.php

I’m making a short story out of an article well worth reading, so click the link if you want to see more.

Here we have a predatory single celled organism with an eye much like a human eye, an interesting quote: “The single-cell marine plankton, a predatory microbe, bears a dark purple spot known as an ocelloid. It resembles the multicellular eye of animals so much that it was originally mistaken for part of an animal the warnowiids had eaten.”

With further study they found:  “this eye-like structure contains a collection of sub-cellular organelles that look very much like the lens, cornea, iris and retina of multicellular eyes that can detect objects — known as camera eyes — that are found in humans and other larger animals.” How’s that for some cool beans? I do wonder how an eye so complex could have evolved in a single celled organism? The creationist argument says something like the human eye is too complex to have evolved these traits, therefore jeebus. Or some such shit.

Now here we have a single celled organism much with eyes like our own. I guess jeebus loves his special little single celled creations as much as he does humans? I didn’t see anything along those lines back when I took it upon myself to read the bible, maybe I missed that part?

Scientists are unsure exactly how these eyes work, they still have some difficult work to do, but I think we have another creationist claim laid to waste, by science. 1,000 stupid claims to go.

I will finish up with another quote from the article: “The work sheds shed new light on how very different organisms can evolve similar traits in response to their environments, a process known as convergent evolution. Eye-like structures have evolved independently many times in different kinds of animals and algae with varying abilities to detect the intensity of light, its direction, or objects.”  Yes, new light that sends the cockroaches scurrying along to look for another unsupported claim to bolster their attempts to appear scientific. Good luck with that…

05.14.15
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Those Poor Wittle Christians

Some kid in Singapore was just found guilty of insulting x-ians. What a joke. X-ians insult themselves.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/05/12/singapore/27161987/

I guess it’s better to be found guilty of insulting those pathetic x-ians in Singapore than it is to be a free thinking blogger in Bangladesh. I’m sure most of my regular friends here will have already seen this.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/12/asia/bangladesh-blogger-killed/

There is no place in this world for people who feel so insulted that they feel the need to defend their non existent gods. If their gods were so hot, they could damn well defend themselves. Right after they showed up of course.

Religion deserves ridicule. It literally has nothing going for it but “we said so, therefore it is true.”  That’s all they have got. They have built their empires, their hopes, their dreams and desires upon a foundation of nothing. Then they demand respect? They demand not to be insulted? They demand to be taken seriously? When you silly religiots stop believing in your invisible friends, then perhaps you can sit at the table with the grownups. Then perhaps we can take you seriously. Then perhaps you deserve some respect. Until then, you deserve all of the mock and ridicule you get. And then some.

I should add, that I don’t make a habit of insulting anyone. Religious or otherwise, I got no beef with anyone who wants to be religious. Right up to the point where you want to legislate your religion upon me. Right up to the point where you want your fantasies taught in school. Right up to the point where you make fools of yourselves for being insulted.

03.14.15
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Clearly There Must Be Something Wrong With This Study

I can’t quite put my finger on it, oh wait now I see it. This study does not jive with what any of my readers would already know. The study title and its claim?

“Nearly 70% of evangelicals do not view religion, science as being in conflict.”

http://news.rice.edu/2015/03/13/nearly-70-percent-of-evangelicals-do-not-view-religion-and-science-as-being-in-conflict/

Firstly if 70% of evangelicals do not see a conflict, then they are simply very good at deluding themselves. This must be the major determining factor at play here, which would offer a meaningful explanation for the result. You could probably throw in a questionable sample issue among other things that must be skewing things.

This finding is biased, or incorrect in some fashion. I have seen too much to clearly indicate that the claim here does not fit the evidence. When you have buffoons all over the country denying evolution, decrying climate science, screaming they didn’t come from no monkey, claiming fossils are of the devil, and claiming their magic book is factual, I think there is some apparent conflict with the study.

When you have an entire political party making outrageous claims clearly against the evidence, and then when questioned resort to “I am not a scientist” I think we have a problem with this study.

When you have an entire nation full of hateful, bigoted, homophobic, racist, assholes who claim their bible is the source of their inspirations, I think we have a problem with this study.

When we have potempkin village science pretenders with religious based ideologies, building enormous facades dedicated to the denial of science and evolution, I think we have a problem with the study.

Anyone want to help me look for a grant to do a better study?

EDIT:  Son of a bitch. I just noticed the study was done with a grant from the Templeton Foundation! Now I get it…

NUTHER EDIT: I left a comment there, I wonder if it will stay up?

AND ANOTHER EDIT: Since my comment hasn’t been posted yet (if ever) over there at the source of this bogus study, I thought I’d drop a rough recreation (didn’t save the original) of my post there, here.

“Please explain then the existence of AIG, The Discovery Institute, The Templeton Foundation, And the ICR.

Oh wait, I just noticed your study was done with a grant from Templeton. Case closed. Major fail.

Perhaps you should go back to scratch and start over. This time without using a grant from an institution dedicated to blurring the lines between faith and evidence based science.”

I got a shiny new nickel says my comment will not get posted. 🙂

 

01.25.15
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Quote of the Month

I almost pissed around and let this month get by me. I only have a few days left, so let’s get this done 🙂

I found this quote, and it intrigues me, as I have always kind of felt this way. I found out long ago that professionals in the mental health biz had an escape clause for the religious. If it is a widely held delusion it is somehow allright. This has always bothered me. The quote:

“When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called a Religion.”
Robert M. Pirsig

While I tend to agree with this quote personally, no one diagnoses the religious as holding a delusional belief. They get a free pass.

So what is a delusion? Here are a few dictionary definitions:  A false belief or opinion.  A false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact. Or simply, the state of being deluded.

Let’s focus on the second one there, “a false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact.” That pretty much accurately describes every religious person I have encountered, or heard about. But as I said the religious get a free pass from being categorized as mentally ill. Why is that? What makes a delusion an acceptable one? I think culture is the answer, but I don’t care for that excuse. Culture, “The arts, beliefs, customs, institutions, and other products of human work and thought considered as a unit, especially with regard to a particular time or social group.” I don’t see anything in there that should assume people can run around believeing all sorts of nonsense, or to freely allow one to believe in things non existant without question.

When I found out that the word delusion does not apply to religion, I thought about that and came up with this notion, it is from memory and not word for word. But here goes…

There’s a guy let’s call him Joe. Joe is Irish. Joe thinks there are leprechauns in his garden. He is always looking around for them, and quite sure they are there. Is this a delusion? I’m not sure a fanciful belief that leprechauns in your garden is a full blown delusion just yet.

Now, Joe’s belief in the leprechauns has grown a bit, to the point where he is actively looking for them. He is looking behind rocks and trees, and constantly peering out his window in hopes of seeing one. Is he deluded yet? I’m not sure but I think we are getting there.

Finally Joe is so sure of the leprechauns he is building traps trying to catch one. He is also talking to his pals at the pub about them. Despite his friends assurances that they do not exist, and the fact that he has never seen or caught one, Joe still believes leprechauns exist, and live in his garden. Is he deluded yet? Yes, I think so. But because he is Irish and the leprechaun tale is part of his particular culture, he gets the free pass from being delusional? I don’t think so.

Somewhere between having a fanciful belief and actually acting upon that belief despite no evidence at all supporting that belief, delusion has crept in. Joe is fucking delusional.  Being Irish is no excuse. The only reason no one will make this diagnosis is probably because of one of two things. Either the clinical professional suffers from the same delusions, or is fearful of the backlash that would be initiated from such a diagnosis. They are either complicit, or chicken shits.

This is my non clinical opinion.

EDIT: I am going to expand on this issue a little bit. I think one could consider my little story about Joe as a simile for 3 separate stages in the progression of a religious person. The first paragraph you could call a likeness to a deist. Someone that believes in an all powefull supernatural being of some sort, but has no affiliation with any denomination or group.

Paragraph two is the same person who has moved on to prayer, and perhaps associating with some denomination or group…

And paragraph three where the person is attending church regularly, following their rituals, and participating in group activities.