Category Archives: Blog

Let the man kill his goats in peace!

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In America you hear a lot of talk about why religious freedoms are important, and people should have a right to practice their faith as they see fit. Usually when someone says this, it’s their particular rights that are being infringed, often by other religious folks who find certain cultures and practices to be both alien and disturbing. Here is an interesting article about a Texas man named Jose Merced who believes in a very unpopular religion called Santeria, and his rituals includes the live slaughter of goats, turtles, lambs and birds (dozens of them at once) in his home. The whole thing is a bloody mess, although it seems like this guy at least eats everything he kills (so there’s not too much waste).

It appears his Texan neighbors aren’t too happy with his slaughterfest, and the city is trying all kinds of tactics to prevent him from doing this within city limits. Mr. Merced fought back, citing his Constitutional right to practice his religion as he sees fit. Besides, he says, Texas isn’t exactly the safest state for animals; people regularly hunt and fish, and no one is bugging them.

I find the slaughter of animals to be a disgusting remnant of a more primitive time, but I eat meat, so who the hell am I to judge? I love it when Christians are faced with the reality of what “freedom of religion” really means. Is it surprising most people actually don’t really believe all religious customs should be respected and allowed? I’m inclined to agree with them many should not, but at the same time, how do you distinguish which ones should and shouldn’t be allowed? Here’s an idea: educate people so they stop thinking cutting the throats of small animals to appease an angry and jealous god is a huge waste of time, energy, and is utterly senseless. Once you’re done with that, also teach them that the belief in God was a way for our ignorant ancestors to explain the forces of nature in a way they could understand. If you’re not willing to do that just yet, I suggest you let that crazy bastard kill and eat all the damn goats he wants!

The Bible is not a book for all seasons

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I don’t read the National Post very often. I find their brand of economic and social conservatism makes them the “Fox News” of Canadian newspapers. In keeping with their conservative roots, an article was recently published called The Bible: a book for all seasons, where the author argues that “The Good Book” is a timeless tome suitable for all ages. He suggests which parts of the Bible to read (depending on your age), with the flawed assumption that there is anything to really learn from reading this dusty, morally ambiguous tome.

I think his funniest suggestion is for teenagers to read the story of Job. In case you’ve never read it, the story goes something like this: God’s favorite human is Job, who is a great worshiper (making the necessary sacrifice of innocent animals to appease his jealousy), but the Devil and he disagree as to how loyal Job really is. So, for the purposes of settling a cosmic bet, God allows the Devil to completely fuck Job over. His house is destroyed, his wife and children are all killed, he loses all his belongings and his physical health deteriorates. Job is not angry about this, but asks God why he has done such a thing. His (supposedly) wise response is “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?”.

I guess if you have some rebellious teenagers, the story of Job represents every parents’ response whenever confronted with a question they can’t answer: I made you, and you’d better listen to everything I say. That’s right kids, your parents are vengeful gods that you must eternally listen to and admire. Yeah, truly this is a book for all ages!

I think with all the millions of great books humans have written over the many centuries since the invention of the printing press, we can do a little better than that, wouldn’t you agree?

Rabbis fight swine flu with prayer

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Whenever there is an outbreak of a disease, you can always count on a bunch of loud religious people to break out in spontaneous fits of prayer. Here we have a group of Rabbis praying and blowing their ceremonial horns in an effort to ward off the Swine Flu, which they call H1N1 to avoid the insult of mentioning swine. If I was in that plane, I probably would have flipped out at all the yelling, chanting and loud horn blowing going on. If you want to pray in your private places of worship, you can chant your nonsense until the cows come home. Once I’m in a plane with you lunatics, however, I don’t take too kindly to all your insane noise making. Any of these morons aware prayer does absolutely nothing? If you want to fight off the disease, how about a comprehensive vaccination campaign for the young and elderly? Turns out that science is AWESOME at preventing outbreaks.

Italian atheist suing over Jesus’ existence

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Here’s a bit of weird news: an Italian atheist is suing a parish priest for repeatedly claiming Jesus Christ was a historical figure. Luigi Cascioli is a 72 year old lifelong non-believer who has grown tired of Italians blindly accepting the notion of the literal existence of God, and has decided to involve the courts.

It’s a fairly amusing tactic, but since the burden of proof is on Cascioli to disprove the existence of Jesus, it’s likely he won’t win (just try disproving the existence of fairies why don’t you?). Rev. Enrico Righi has already pulled out the “Josephus and Tacitus” card, claiming these two historians, who lived decades after the supposed death of Jesus, wrote vaguely about a ‘Christus’ figure, therefore somehow proving his existence. As to the supposed God like powers of the guy, there’s no mention of it.

I’ve always argued that although someone may have existed by such a name, it’s unlikely the person identified in the New Testament ever existed at all. The fact none of his supposed miracles are ever mentioned outside the Bible should tell you it’s about as accurate as Homer’s The Odyssey. Is it surprising that people who exaggerate or confabulate stories in order to make it more thrilling? Have you never watched a movie “based on a true story” before? They usually don’t stick very much to the source material, if you know what I mean.

At the same time, I don’t like the idea of courts getting involved here. I admire Luigi’s tenacity and sheer gumption, but I don’t feel it is necessary for a court of law to decide whether or not priests are allowed to make historical claims about their deities. It smacks me as very totalitarian to force conformity through the mechanism of law. It’s best that people come to their own conclusion that all religions are bullshit.

Go to Church, Gays!

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I had a vision the other night. I was reading an article about Christian ecumenism (which means interfaith dialog), and I realized the issue of homosexuality will, in the long run, destroy the progress that various branches of Christianity have made in “getting along”. In a nutshell, ecumenism is a way for different faiths to show respect towards one another, and to have progressive dialogs with one another. Since the common ground of all Christian faiths is belief in Jesus, a greater tolerance has been possible between faiths that used to be openly hostile towards one another.

Of course, the issue of homosexuality is still something the various branches of Christianity have had trouble reconciling with. Some faiths are beginning to show more tolerance, while others are taking a hard stance. Most churches try and take a “don’t ask don’t tell” policy, but as gays begin to make their sexual orientation a matter of public interest, and because of our growing understanding and compassion regarding gay and lesbian issues, parishioners will continue to pressure church authorities to take definitive stances.

In the long run, this can’t be good for Christianity. It will divide them, essentially destroying their interfaith dialog they have worked so hard to create. In other words, the cohesion of Christianity will fall apart and crumble in the face of the issue of homosexuality.

A significant portion of gays are also very religious, as this article points out. This means as gays gain more confidence and pride, and numbers, their churches will have no choice but begin to change their doctrine and beliefs to accommodate this new important demographic. This compromise will in turn make various faiths draw the battle line, and in the end, as the dialog disintegrates, the loser in all of this will be Christianity.

So, I want more gays going to church, and to challenge their fellow parishioners to force their priests to take some sort of stance on homosexuality. With you guys doing all the work, us atheists will be free to just sit back and watch as this storied institution crumbles under the weight of such controversy. It’s gonna be sweet!

The Catholic Church trying to prevent child sex abuse laws in New york

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There’s a bit of legislature floating around that is having a hard time becoming law. It’s called the Child Victim Act, and here is a great article talking about how the New York Catholic Conference, a Christian lobby group,  is pushing to kill the act. The CVA is designed to extend the statute of limitation on child abuse by another five years, thus allowing abuse victims a longer “window” to come forward. Anyone who has ever been abused as a child will tell you how difficult a process this is, and the extra time is designed to accommodate for this difficulty.

Of course, Catholics are crying bloody murder, saying this extension will basically bankrupt the Church because of all the settlement payments they are having to dish out. Even if that was true, why the fuck should we care? Perhaps they should have thought about that before they started shuffling child molesters instead of bringing them to justice. No religion that practically institutionalizes child abuse should be exempt from the laws of the land. The fact the Church is even fighting this goes to show how they really feel about children.

The saddest thing is the collusion of the some of the faithful in vilifying the victims, and accusing them of trying to take the Church’s money. It’s a sad day when people identify more with the abusers than the abused. (thanks Kylyssa for the correction there) I’m not sure any of those people would feel the same if their own children were victims of abuse. Child abuse ruins people’s lives. That the Catholic church is fearful of losing money should concern no-one. If you’ve done the crime, you need to do the time. That’s all there is to it.

APA report says “stop converting gays”

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OK, I’m paraphrasing here, but the APA concluded yesterday that there is no evidence therapies meant to change someone’s sexual orientation are effective or healthy. In fact, their findings showed lasting changes were unlikely, and asked mental health practitioners to stop suggesting this kind of therapy.

The article seems to tap dance around the real reason why these types of therapies exist: Religious conservatives feel homosexuality is a travesty, and a closer relationship with Jesus will somehow make gay men straight. The ‘therapies’ they’ve devised aren’t based on any real scientific understanding, but rather on the spurious reasoning that sexual orientation is a choice rather than an orientation. The APA suggests that people remain ‘creative’ when dealing with this issue, but they seem to ignore the elephant in the room: so long as religious bigots continue to crusade against homosexuality, these types of bullshit therapies won’t go away.

Is this surprising to anyone with half a brain? If you’re heterosexual, how likely is it that a therapy session would convince you to start finding the same sex attractive? In a universe with no God, where human evolution is the product of mutation and change, why is it so surprising that some humans might be born feeling attraction to the same sex? We predictably see this type of behavior in nature (gay penguins anyone?). Hey Christians, stop trying to convert gays and let them get back to giving straight people makeovers or something. That’s what they all do, right?

Tired Christian Claim #4: Atheists are mean and offensive

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In Grand Valley Texas, a group of atheists have been trying unsuccessfully to buy billboard space from a company called Lamar Advertising. It seems the owner finds the ads to be offensive and inappropriate, this despite the fact he’s recently allowed the escort service “MyPlayBunny.com” to broadcast their sleazy (and sexy) service.

The accusation that atheism is insulting and offensive is getting a lot more popular as a defense these days. Whether it’s a bunch of Fox News anchors complaining about how atheists are ruining Christmas, or a BBC special asking the question of Are Atheists Intolerant, I can’t help but feel all of this is because of the growing popularity of the atheist movement. Although we may be winning the debates on the existence of God, the media has decided the most important story is the one about how upset people are when told there is no Supreme Creator.

Atheism is a fairly recent phenomenon; not because humans don’t have a history of doubt (hey, even one of Jesus’ disciples doubted him), but because the punishment for undermining the authority of the Church was usually brutal and swift. Religions don’t tend to prosper very long when apostasy or dissent is tolerated. Atheism is nothing new: the Old Testament acknowledges nonbelievers, calling them fools for refusing to believe in their God. The fact this same book also suggests friends and family members who believe in something different should be stoned to death, makes me believe it was still quite rare for anyone to “come out” of the atheist closet very often. It would have been pretty foolish to tell anyone around you about how you really felt about God, especially if there were large rocks around.

The idea that anyone believing in God would need to defend their beliefs is such a recent phenomenon that many Christians are beginning to feel persecuted. This is not a faith accustomed to challenge. Even internal doctrinal conflicts usually resulted in deadly conflict, and any heretics would face severe punishment or death for even questioning the supremacy of the Church (they only recently pardoned Galileo for his crime of denying the Earth was the center of the universe, so one could say they tend to hold a bit of a grudge).

The fact these now more tolerant Christians are complaining about hurt feelings is a historically meek response when compared to what the reaction would have been if the Atheist Movement (as it exists now) had started a few decades ago. I suppose in this light, being told we are “mean” is such a measured response that we should feel lucky that we haven’t been tortured, burned alive, or killed for debating with these guys. Yet.

Of course, that doesn’t suddenly mean we should accept the accusation we are being intolerant for openly discussing religion. I haven’t met a single atheist who thought religion should be banned, or that anyone should be forced to abandon their most sacred beliefs. Our real dispute is with the religious right and their attempt to undermine scientific progress. It’s already plainly obvious to us most Christians will continue to believe what they do DESPITE any evidence to the contrary. If you want to live in a bubble of delusion, we really couldn’t care less. But when you start making claims we know are false, that’s when we atheists start getting fired up.

So stop trying to play the sympathy card, Christians; you don’t exactly have a history of being very open to discussion and debate. Sure, you may feel uncomfortable being told your beliefs are wrong (it must also burn pretty bad that the smartest guys seem to be on our side), but it doesn’t mean the people debating with you are doing so simply for the sake of hurting your feelings. Christians just have to get used to the fact they aren’t controlling the narrative anymore. Scary, isn’t it?

Who wants to buy a Creationist Theme Park?

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If you’ve never heard of Kent Hovind, then allow me to relieve your ignorance. My friend Jeff practically had an obsession with the guy, and I’ve watched hours of videos of this creationist moron trying to prove the Earth is only a few thousand years old. Kent had a Creationist Amusement park for a while, but he failed to pay any taxes for a decade (he claimed he was employed by God, and therefore exempt from taxes), and as a result, the IRS threw his sorry ass in jail.

After years of limbo, a federal judge has finally cleared the government to seize the property in order to sell it. That means any enterprising person with half a million dollars to spare can become the proud owner of “Dinosaur Adventure Land”. If you’re not sold on the idea, just check out their winning sales pitch taken directly from their site:

DAL is not an amusement park, for “amuse” means “to not think,” and we want people to think. Rather, it is an amazement park. Come and stand amazed at the truths of the Creator and Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.

Yes, clearly there’s a lot of thinking going on in a Creationism theme park, and now you to can own this steaming pile of ignorance for the low price of $430,000, and be intellectually dishonest to children for generations to come!

*(NOTE: The website has since been taken down and is no longer maintained)

The Free Money Movement

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Here’s an interesting new little “movement” that might interest some of you guys. It’s called the “Free Money Movement“, which admittedly is a little less awesome than the name suggests. The idea is to cross out the words “in God We Trust” from all US currency as an act of civil disobedience. As many of you may already know, the addition of this phrase is a relatively new phenomenon; Congress only made the motto “official” in 1956. It’s clearly a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, but the Supreme Court in their infinite wisdom, declared Government recognition of God does not constitute the establishment of a state church. Right, and including it in the pledge of allegiance must also not violate the establishment clause, right?

It’s supposed to be a federal offense to deface money, but from everything I’ve read, no one has ever been arrested for this act of defiance (presumably because of the degree of press it would generate). The debate about the use of God on American Currency needs be re-opened. For a country that prides itself on the separation of church and state, this motto is an insult to your Constitution, to your Founding Fathers, and is generally an embarrassment. There might be more important issues to tackle, but I’m always up for a little social upheaval. Bring on the Sharpies, people!

LDS Church warns against dangers of MMORPGs

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If you are a Mormon, or have ever been one, you know full well the Church is not a live and let live organization. They are involved in every aspect of your life, from dictating what kind of food you put in your mouth, to the choice of underwear. In this article, the Church warns of the dangers of MMORPGs, which they consider to be an idle waste of time.

“One of the ways Satan lessens your effectiveness and weakens your spiritual strength is by encouraging you to spend large blocks of your time doing things that matter very little. I speak of such things as sitting for hours on end watching television or videos, playing video games night in and night out, surfing the Internet, or devoting huge blocks of time to sports, games, or other recreational activities.”

If the Church had it their way, you would be spending your time doing something more “useful”, like praying, thinking about Jesus, or reading the joke they call The Book of Mormon. I could tell you that the real waste of time is bothering to talk to your invisible friend all day instead of learning about the world around you, but who the fuck am I to judge what the hell you do? At the end of the day, anything could be considered a waste of time. So long as it makes you happy and doesn’t hurt anyone else, I really don’t see the harm

Now there will always be people who abuse a good thing, and that’s just a fact of life. You can’t save people from themselves, but like all addictions, people will eventually get bored and try something else. Let’s just hope they don’t turn to a religion that thinks Native Americans descended from the Jews. What a stupid waste of time that is!

Christians burned alive in Pakistan

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A small Christian village was attacked by thousands of angry Muslims in Pakistan, and among the dead was a 7 year old child. Local religious leaders enticed their young Muslim followers to murder after it was reported that an important Christian leader had defiled the Koran. Armed with guns and fire bombs, the group set fire to a number of houses. While many Christians managed to escape, some were caught in the fire and burned to death.

This is perhaps what separates most atheists from our religious counter-parts: this kind of act disgusts us. I may not like Christianity, but what I hate more is the senseless killing of innocent lives, regardless of their creed. We distrust religion because it gives absolute power to the corrupt and vile; preachers and imams who fuel the fires of hatred, and command their flock to murder.

And at the end of the day, what the fuck are these idiots fighting over? It’s obvious that without the strong influence of Enlightenment values, religions still war with another over the most trivial issues. Way to prove that peace and religion are still incompatible! Couldn’t have made a better case myself.

Indian witchdoctor beheads 5 year old girl

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Superstitious beliefs are deadly. I know most of you in the Western World barely give this a second thought, but in many parts of the world, ancient and deadly rituals are still being practiced. In a small village in India, a 5 year old girl was lured into a field where she was decapitated by the local witchdoctor. He killed poor little Vandana Kumari in order to help a local man produce a male heir. Because a number of young boys had died in early childhood, a human sacrifice was apparently needed to “get rid of these problems”.

In rural parts of India, these kinds of superstitious rituals are still practiced, and the results are always tragic. When will human beings stop believing in the completely absurd? Why the fuck would chopping off a little girl’s head help someone have a male child?

The three men involved have been arrested, so I hope there will be justice for little Vandana’s parents. I would have preferred she lived a healthy productive life, but I guess I’ll have to settle for these douchebags to be in jail for a long time instead.

Young women in India plow fields naked to bring rain

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Most of the time, religious superstitions are just silly, stupid, or dangerous. There are plenty of apartment buildings in my city that don’t have a 13th floor for no other reason then people are annoyingly superstitious. Obviously, irrational thinking will make you do irrational things. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know.

Once in a blue moon, however, you come across a particular superstition that is so strange that you can’t help but crack a smile. Take this story in Patna, India, where farmers have been asking their unmarried daughters to plow the fields naked in order to embarrass the gods enough to make it rain.

Now I’m normally the first to tell people this kind of nonsense is ludicrous, but I find this kind of thing too funny to even criticize. A bunch of young, naked chicks plowing the fields is a sight I would PAY to see, so I guess I’ll keep my mouth shut until I can see this ritual for myself. They may not bring much rain, but I’m sure they aren’t going to stay “unmarried” for very long doing this kind of sexy activity.

Can belief in God be a good thing?

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I received this email from long time fan of the site James, who recently had an experience with his mother he thought was worth sharing. I’ve received this kind of question pretty often, and I thought it might be good bring it up again to clarify my position. Here is James’ letter:

I really liked yesterday’s TGA bonus episode. Couldn’t agree more that End of Faith is my favourite of the books you mentioned. Letter to a Christian Nation is a close second, mainly because it’s kind of a quick-reference handbook of decent retorts to ridiculous Christian arguments. The show made me think of a recent conversation/debate I had with my parents, actually… it kind of made an impact on me so I figured I’d share.

Just for background: My dad’s a Catholic who grew up in Montreal North in a family of 8 kids, with a VERY devout mother, and a few aunts who were (still are) nuns (they must be doing something right because they seem to live forever). Anyway, he pretty much gave up his faith at a young age when a flood destroyed their home and the Church (to which his parents donated a large percentage of their extremely meager earnings) refused to give them any help, effectively leaving a family of 10 on the street until the Red Cross stepped in. He basically shares most of my viewpoints on religion, but takes a bit more of a Deist perspective when it comes to the creation of the Earth/Universe (fairly harmless as far as beliefs go)… but he tends to keep it all to himself because of my mom.
My mom is a United Protestant who likes going to church but doesn’t go as often as she would want to, and I was raised United as well. We pretty much went to church at Christmas and Easter, said prayers before bed, and grace on special occasions. I never really thought of my mom as particularly religious, until a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago kind of threw me for a loop.

They had come out to visit me in Calgary and we were sitting at a restaurant having dinner, about a bottle of wine in, when the topic of religion somehow crept into the conversation. Being someone who both loves a good debate, and has trouble keeping his opinions to himself, I started going off on how ridiculous the idea of a “sky god” was, while my dad sat uncomfortably silent, and my mom looked at me with a combination of anger and shock. She then told me that belief in God was a personal opinion and that I should respect people’s right to believe what they choose, to which I gave her the standard atheist response of  “if you told me you believed in unicorns and tree fairies, would I be expected to respect that belief without question too?” I think I also threw in something about intellectual laziness just for good measure. Anyway, completely unexpectedly, she started to get extremely emotional – tears started welling up in her eyes and her face started turning bright red. Stifling a sob, she choked out “someday, when things get really tough, you might find that you need that faith in God and Heaven”

At that point, a couple of things hit me. The first was the confirmation of my belief that crying truly is the female default setting, and anything else is only a temporary state of disequilibrium. But more importantly, from what she said, I realized that her belief in God must stem almost entirely from her intense desperation to someday be reunited with her father, who died about 10 years ago, and whom she was extremely close with and respected immensely, when she passes on. That got me thinking. Setting aside my preferred viewpoint of dealing with death when it happens, realizing its finality, mourning, and eventually moving on, I started wondering if belief in God for that reason was really so bad. Yes, it’s a crutch that she is using to help her deal with difficult emotions, but ultimately, so what? I suppose it all kind of harkens back to the “there are no atheists in foxholes” cliché; If you need faith for no other reason than to keep you going, and you’re not hurting anybody else, who am I, as a devout non-believer, to try to convince you that my way of thinking is the right one?

If all religious belief were that innocuous, I really wouldn’t have any reason to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can as to why God doesn’t exist, because it ultimately wouldn’t matter. Unfortunately, I think Bill Maher’s right (one of the few things I agree with him on) when he says that if things keep going the way they are, humanity’s in for a rude awakening.

So I’m wondering, do you think my “so what?” interpretation of her belief is reasonable, or am I missing something? I know she would fall into Sam Harris’ hated “moderate” segment, but that said, I fail to see how trying to convince her, or anyone of similar belief, of anything different would in any way make the world a better place.

It’s can be difficult to know just what to do in these kinds of situations. Odds are most of you have close family members who believe in God, and I don’t doubt most of you skirt talking about it just to avoid a situation like the one James was in. A newspaper in Colorado once asked me if I thought it was OK for people to believe in God. Naturally, I said “of course it is”, curious as to why he would ask such a stupid question. I don’t imagine I could ever really tell someone straight up that they weren’t allowed to think perhaps there was a God in this universe, one who granted people’s wishes and prayers, and who offered the reward of eternal life for those who chose to believe.

The sad truth is for all of it’s beauty, life can be breathtakingly cruel. Here we are, adrift on a large cooling rock orbiting a ball of nuclear fire, trying to live out our lives in peace and tranquility. We get to meet others like us, befriend them, make them part of our lives, and spend the rest of our lives with them. The problem, of course, is we are terribly fragile, and mother nature is a cold hearted bitch who will smack your ass into an early grave if you give her the chance. So invariably, the ones we care the most about will lose their lives. Their absence fills us with grief and pain. For some, it’s too much to bear. In our moment of weakness, the attraction of religion cannot be denied. They will chose to believe in it, even if it doesn’t make sense, simply because it “feels right” to them.

What would I gain from tearing down their belief system? Not much I imagine. It doesn’t sound like your mother was trying to brainwash you with her religion too much, and the fact that you still have a relationship with her despite your “godlessness” at least proves she can live with the fact you are a non-believer. This is perhaps the most important factor here. I don’t mind someone believing in God; I object only when that belief prevents people from forming new meaningful relationships with other human beings (religious hatred is a bitch). At the end of the day, we should all acknowledge the hubris of our own thinking, and finally admit we really don’t know shit.

I wouldn’t tell a dying man begging for his last rites there is no God. It certainly wouldn’t do him any good. What is he going to do, contemplate his non-existence after he dies? The whole reason I hate religion is because of their dead certainty there is a God. I accept the fact that so far, the evidence is severely lacking, but that doesn’t mean I don’t recognize the limits of my own knowledge. That’s what bugs me the most: when people aren’t willing to question their own assumptions.

I always sympathize with people. I can’t help it; I’m a big softy at the end of the day. If someone believes in God but keeps that belief private, who am I to criticize them? I object to the influence of religion on public affairs, but I’m perfectly happy discussing it in the context of theology alone. If your mom really does believe in God because of her need to reconnect with her father, I cannot help but feel sympathy for her. I would tell her that I am inspired by her love, and that I wished what she believed really was true. Perhaps that is the redeeming thing about belief in God: at the very least, it demonstrates how powerful our hope is we will meet our deceased loved ones again some day.