Interview with Jessica Ahlquist

Yesterday I posted a video of Jessica and her fight with Cranston West High School in Rhode Island over a prayer banner she sued to have removed. I thought she was so brave for doing this she deserved to have her interview posted, especially after I noticed that it only received 30 views so far. Surely we can do better, people!

United Nation fail

When I was a younger ideologue, I used to think the the United Nation was a force for good in the world, providing aid and protection to citizens of countries ravaged by war, famine, and instability. I have since realized this institution is a bloated corpse, capable only of furthering the interests of the few countries who have a permanent seat on the security council. If anyone else in the UN decides to do anything at all to try and improve the world, they usually allow racist, bigoted countries the right to reduce the protection of sexual minorities, or even defend religious violence by declaring no one is allowed to speak out against them. That’s according to Staffan di Mistura, Special Representative and Chief of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of offending culture, religion, traditions, especially when there are so many of us, both civilians and frankly military, in many parts of the world and particularly in Afghanistan. So I think the main blame we have is about the irresponsible gesture that was made on that case. The proof is that those who entered our building were actually furiously angry about the issue about the Koran. There was nothing political there.”

So Staffan, what the fuck is left? If freedom of speech doesn’t include “offending” religious traditions, am I left with only the ability to criticize politics? What am I supposed to do when the two are invariably intertwined, especially when it comes to Islam??

Freedom of speech means people are allowed to offend others. That’s kind of the point. Without the ability to offend, free speech has no teeth and it’s completely ineffectual. Whether it’s burning a Koran or a Bible, people should be able to say what they want when they want. Without this ability, how can we even be sure we live in a just society?

20 year old bigot thinks he speaks for God

Don’t you just love how Christians, convinced they are humble and meek, claim to speak for God? Even if such an entity did exist, why does this 20 year old dummy think he’s qualified to speak on “his” behalf? How is that not the height of arrogance?

“God makes Kings, and the rules by which they govern”. Hey kid, we actually rejected the notion of kings for the stifling, freedom killing bastards they were. Of course, if it was up to you and your buddies, we’d still be living under the yoke of dictators, albeit celestial ones.

Penn: Agnostics suck!

I agree that agnosticism is annoying as hell, especially those that start accusing non-believers of being dogmatic. Yeah, because rejecting a poorly constructed cosmogony means that you have a closed mind…How about showing me some fucking proof? That’s all we want. Until then, my own agnosticism will remain open to the possibility of someone showing evidence of an all powerful entity, and that’s about it.

Only criticism: the back and forth camera shit makes me dizzy, honestly.

Neil Tyson on how Islam destroyed progress

Religions claim not to be the enemy of science, but the history of all faiths is a testimony to just how antithetical they are to progress. Neil, school these religionists please!

Please stop asking me to “tone down” the language

I got another email today from a new fan of the show who felt that my use of language was preventing him from being able to tell friends about it, and that I would be better off not swearing at all:

I think it’s a pretty cool serving for young and or less discerning people but if I can make a suggestion, if you slow down on talking speed (this will allow you to choose your words more carefully) and the swearing (I have wanted to introduce your podcast to some friends but had to be careful about who as it contains bad language. It’s difficult enough to convince religious opponents without still attacking their idea of moral language

That’s EXACTLY the reason why I swear. The whole idea of “moral language” is just Victorian era bullshit that I have no time for. That’s why I’ve let Stephen Fry make the case for me. I will never stop swearing, and there’s nothing anyone can say that will convince me of it. You might as well make me shave my eyebrows off so they stop scaring little children!

I don’t have enough brains to be an atheist

Where do I start with this ass clown? I feel like he’s trying to sell me a used car or something. Let’s quickly examine his claims, shall we?

1. Does Truth Exist?
I think you’ll find this is a loaded question when it comes to religion. For them, truth means only their specific beliefs are true, rather than admit an objective truth outside their schema is possible. This would involve the possibility of believers being wrong, and they just can’t accept that.

2. Does God exist?
Apparently they use 2 scientific arguments to “prove” there’s an all powerful loving God that created the Universe. How many of you are willing to bet it’s just more pointless “anthropic principle” shit they think they understand?

3. Are Miracles Possible?
This is where these clowns try and pretend there’s scientific evidence that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, and is therefore your Lord and master. Yeah, can’t wait to be blown away by this fucking science…

4. Is the New Testament true?
That’s your final question? Christians are hilarious sometimes, don’t you think? They want so desperately to have proof of their provincial, entirely unimpressive God. You have to love his slippery slope line of thinking: if I can prove truth exists, God exists, and miracles are possible, it must mean the NT is true! Actually, no it doesn’t. Even if the first three propositions were true, it certainly doesn’t mean a contradicting piece of mythology is. Sorry bro, but it turns out you’re just not smart enough to be an atheist.

Pastor Can’t keep track of his own bullshit

Watch Robby as he attempts to dodge every pertinent question from a real journalist who isn’t content throwing him softballs. The best he can muster is this answer:

“Christians have built whole dogmas about what happens when you die and we have to be very careful that we don’t build whole doctrines and dogmas on what is speculation”

Umm, you wrote an entire book that is nothing BUT speculation, dude! Even some of your equally deluded buddies think you’re a heretic for suggesting it’s not necessary to convert to Christianity in the here and now.

Kudos to Bashir for asking him why he doesn’t believe in some of the different views of early Christianity. It’s a topic you won’t find many modern Christians willing to answer. Why do you believe in the specific dogma you do? Because morons like Rob Bell keep filling people’s mind with utter nonsense.

Sam Harris on the Afterlife

I still have lots of people who visit the site and comment on an old article I wrote about Dr. Jeffrey Long, and his book claiming the afterlife is real. He based this on thousands of web interviews he conducted over the span of a decade, and he decided, rather unscientifically, the commonality of their experiences somehow proved there was life after death. The comments normally range from someone calling me close-minded for not accepting his pathetic “research”, to accusing me of being ignorant on the subject since I don’t have a PhD.

Well, here’s someone with a formal education who has something lucid to say on the afterlife. Hopefully it’ll shut up these morons that keep showing up on the site.

Sam Harris vs Deepak Chopra

Sam Harris does his best to spank Deepak and his pathetic attempt to understand concepts he either fails to grasp or twists them for his own purpose. I actually think it’s the former; Deepak strikes me as more of a dummy than a scam artist. Watching him try to defend his knowledge was a great little fail moment I’ll be basking about all day.

“I want to address the human question” is another way of saying “I’m about to spew a bunch of rambling thoughts that sounds, to my ears at least, highly credible.” Jean Houston will make you want to pull the hair out of your head. Luckily for me it’s already mostly in my hairbrush.

The story of Lot

The messed up thing in all of this seems to me to be the fact that rather than head to the nearest town to find some eligible guys (non-Jews), Lot and his daughters decided to “keep it in the family”. Oh, Biblical incest: you have so much to teach the world!

Christian morality in all its glory

Man, talk about a spanking…No wonder Christians think we’re all terrible sinners: they keep attracting scumbags to their organizations!

Sam Harris doesn’t want you to identify yourself as an atheist

What’s the solution to not accepting the label of atheist, Sam? What does “fly under the radar” mean exactly? I assume it’s not something anyone gets paid massive lecturing fees to do, quite honestly.

I’d love it if we could all somehow agree non-belief isn’t a “thing” either, but so long as we’re clearly identified as atheists simply for refusing to believe in the norm, the name has a purpose. We don’t get to choose what we call ourselves, since the religious have already decided we should have an identification label.

Prince tried the whole “I’m a name but not a name” shit and everyone realized it was ridiculous.

The New Tithe

I can’t imagine a bigger waste of money than giving it to churches. Seriously. It would actually be more productive if you threw it away in the garbage, since at least in this instance some poor homeless guy might actually find some of it.

The image we have in our head of where the money goes (like homeless shelters, adoption agencies, etc) doesn’t match the reality. Even if it did, do you honestly want a bunch of nonsense mixed in with such essential services? I sure don’t.