Avatar: Demonism, Satanism, Paganism

My friend Megan sent me a video two weeks ago that I have just now got around to watching. It is a preacher by the name of Mark Driscoll of the Mars Hill Church ranting about how Avatar is contrary to the teachings of Christ. Now, I never knew that Avatar was presenting itself as the Christ-alternative, but perhaps I’ve missed that in the advertising. I did finally see the movie without knowing what to expect. Not only were the visual effects stunning, but I was rather pleased at how good of a job the producers did at making me believe that I wasn’t just watching another rendition of Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves.

One thing I did notice was the obvious allusion to a Pagan or Earth-centric (Pandora-centric?) belief system. There was a sense of connectedness with all living things and one’s surroundings. This preacher believes that not only is this movie promoting (that’s debatable) Paganism, it is Satanic and demonic and any good Christian should distance themselves from its poisonous effects.

Pastor Driscoll seems to have forgotten the meaning of the word “fiction.” I bet he creamed his jeans when the Harry Potter and Twilight series came out. After all, those both market themselves as convenient alternatives to Christian belief, don’t they?

Not only do I believe that this man doesn’t actually have a clue what “Pagan,” “demonic,” and “Satanic” mean, I think he thoroughly believes that his sheep will turn into James Cameron’s sheep if they see this movie. He knows that the people to whom he is speaking will swallow ideas like a fish swallows bait, which is fine, as long as it is his ideas that they are swallowing. Where I think he underestimates his huddled masses is in their ability to distinguish fiction from reality, a feat that he obviously struggles with himself.

He believes with all of his heart that mere exposure to something less-than-Christian will lead to a complete internalization of a new worldview. I could understand that if the problem was people being lured into a cult, but the problem – for him – lies in a piece of fictitious cinema. “That any Christian could watch that without seeing the overt demonism is beyond me,” he says. Aside from confusing Paganism with the fictitious demons of his own twisted beliefs, he is suggesting that Christians cannot enjoy a film which presents a different idea of god and society. They must immediately be insulted and enraged that such sacrilegious filth is even allowed in theaters.

Apparently, a film that takes place on a different planet, with a foreign indigenous species, is supposed to follow the same religion that only a fraction of our own planet follows.

“The visuals are amazing because Satan wants you to emotionally connect to the lie.” That quote alone shows that this man cannot be reasoned with in any way. He genuinely believes that Satan is working through the evil producers and directors of Hollywood to bring anti-Christian propaganda to the big screen for the sole purpose of converting all viewers to a sin-laden lifestyle.

I can’t possibly speak any more about this man’s belief that fiction is taken seriously by all that view it. He believes that people will view a fictitious lifestyle and try to reconcile it with their own religious beliefs, instead of doing what normal people do, which is regarding it as a story with moving pictures and lots of bioluminescence.

Of course to solidify that this man is a charlatan and a profiteer, he admits that he has two home theater systems and three Tivos. I’m happy for him and all, but does his congregation not realize who bought him all of that way cool stuff?

Funny or Die: You Decide.

I recently received an email from Jason Sereno promoting his newest video on Funny or Die. He said, “I have a new comedy short on the front page of FunnyorDie.com today titled “Jesus Is Everywhere.” I think the video fits along great with your content. Feel free to post it to your site or anywhere else if you enjoy the clip.” I’m not reposting it because I enjoyed it per se. I’m reposting it, because I want to see what others think about the video.

The video was humorous enough. I especially enjoyed when the guy mouthed “son of a bitch” when Jesus was hitting on his girlfriend. However, the ending ruined it for me. If it is attempting to lampoon the whole footprints motif, it’s not doing it clearly enough. To me, any satirical message is diluted with the hokie pseudo-religious message at the end.

In my email response to him I said, “Thank you for the link. However, I must disagree with you when you say that this video fits along great with my content. The end of your otherwise humorous video ends in a very religious fashion with the all too cliche “footprints” text. Now if you had had the guy punch Jesus out for being a creeper and following him everywhere (not to mention, stealing his girlfriend), that would have fit in a little more closely with the theme of my website.”

What do you think? Funny? or Die?

My Body is (not) a Temple

Comic illustrator Jeffrey Rowland of Overcompensating hit a home-run with his lampooning of vestigial organs and some of the not-so-intelligently designed parts of the human body. This comic is aptly titled “A Temple Constantly in Need of Repair.” Make sure to drop by his site and subscribe to his updates in your favorite feed reader.

Pastor Wiley Drake A Modern Sorcerer?

Pastor Wiley Drake is fairly new to my radar. I remember him being mentioned after the murder of George Tiller, but I never really did much research on him. This man is just as certifiably nuts as any of the other more “popular” biblical literalists. He and his “prayer warriors” use imprecatory prayers to wish harm onto those who invoke his ire. This is nothing more than a modern attempt to curse people. Yes, you read correctly – curse. The Wikipedia entry for “imprecatory prayer” even redirects to the page for “curse.” The same thing that Lord Voldemort does to those unfortunate enough to cross his path in the Harry Potter series is being done by an American pastor and former leader of the Southern Baptist Convention.

His latest shtick revolves around wishing death upon U.S. politicians, including the late Rep. John Murtha and Pres. Obama, for… you know… not doing what he would like them to do. While most of us would take the logical route and join a letter writing campaign, support the opposition in an upcoming election, or lobby our elected officials directly, Pastor Drake takes the traditional Christian easy way out and simply prays — for swift death. Lucky for anyone on his shit list, prayer is pointless, and thus, causes no harm. It should serve to illustrate how bat shit insane the man is though.

Listen to the audio below of Pastor Drake speaking as a guest on Alan Colmes’ radio show. (Video from CrooksandLiars.com)

IM Conversation from Long Ago

This may not make that much sense, as this conversation most likely transpired at odd hours of the morning, however, I hope it correctly illustrates the ridiculosity of the nomenclature people insist on using for their time-honored traditions.

Megan: may the lord be with you
Me: wait, do i want the lord or his son
Me: if jesus is the king of kings, does that makes god the king of the king of kings
Megan: or just the father of king of kings
Megan: maybe mary had the royal blood
Megan: maybe she is the queen of king of kings

On a separate note: I have completed my move. The positives include: not living out of boxes and enjoying less stress in my life. The negatives include: I’m still in the Bible Belt so I probably won’t be enjoying less stress in my life.

Naming 14,000 Types of Ants… Fun!

I’m in the process of moving, so my next update may not be for a few days. You know how fun packing and cleaning is, don’t you?

Unsolicited Email

I receive a lot of unsolicited email. Most of it could be easily categorized as “hate mail”, and I archive it away without a second thought. Rarely do I get email from people who appear to have intelligence. I appreciate email from people who have opposing viewpoints that respect that I’m not likely to be converted to their belief system. However, I dislike getting into long philosophical debates over email. I would much rather have these discussions in person, if at all. It’s not that I hate philosophy, I just hate that 9 times out of 10, people turn into self-righteous cunts when they get philosophical.

My goal with this website is to address modern day concerns of atheists and other non-believers. My goal is NOT to ponder the origins of the universe. You will not likely ever see the word “epistemological” or “intrinsic” on this website. That’s just not my purpose. There are plenty of websites out there if that is your thing.

This is rather long, so I’ll save my front page readers with a break tag. For my feed readers, I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for you.

Hello,

Just came across your website and was interested in starting a conversation with you about religion, the existence of God, or the lack thereof.

I noticed your website seems to be based on a distorted definition of faith, at least according to Christianity. Faith isn’t something that’s blind – that’s called wishful thinking and superstition. When it comes to religion, faith is something that is built on facts and evidence, at least according to the Bible (Hebrews 11). Blind faith isn’t faith, nor is it rational. It simply doesn’t make sense to believe in something there seems to be no evidence for. Faith is when we know by evidence and facts that what we believe is true. We can’t see God, which is where faith comes into place, but our belief in God needs to be heavily supported by facts, or it doesn’t make sense and isn’t true faith.

I understand many Christians out there are under the same mistaken idea that faith is somehow blind and belief against proof. Biblically at least, that’s far from the truth.

Second, you seem to strongly advocate science. Nice. So do I. But the presence of science doesn’t = the absence of God. Science, by its very nature, is never capable of proving anything doesn’t exist. Science operates on inductive reasoning, which means it observes the world, and then draws conclusions based on those observations. Therefore, it can only draw conclusions about things that can be observed in the physical world.

Also, science and religion address different categories. Science addresses the “how,” religion addresses the “why” and “who.” Ok, the world formed billion years ago in a Big Bang. But why? And who? What is the purpose?

I believe in evolution as much as the next intellectually equipped person. But even evolution doesn’t make sense without religion. What endows these organisms with a will to survive? Why do they want to live? What’s the point of living? Who or what gave them the will to live?

Your site seems to capture very well the present time’s separation of critical thinking and religion, but it doesn’t have to – and is not supposed to be that way. Religion is supposed to involve rational and logical thinking. So what you’re really taking aim at are the people who practice religion, and not God.

I’d love to hear your response.

Matt

Continue reading Unsolicited Email…

E-I-E-I-Ooooh!

I have such the temptation to do this to my friends’ religious bullshit

Another Hit for SMBC

Original comic found at Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

One Jihad Coming Up!

I usually despise email forwards of all kinds, funny or not, but my father brought this to my attention and I just couldn’t NOT pass this along.

————————————-

A Muslim dies and finds himself before the Pearly Gates.
He is very excited, as all his life he has longed to meet the Prophet Mohammed.
Having arrived at the Gates of Heaven, he meets a man with a beard.

“Are you Mohammed?” he asks.

“No, my son. I am Peter. Mohammed is higher up.”
And he points to a ladder that rises into the clouds.

Delighted that Mohammed should be higher than Peter,
he climbs the ladder in great strides,
climbs through the clouds coming to a room
where he meets another bearded man.
He asks again, “Are you Mohammed?”

“No, I am Moses. Mohammed is higher up.”

Exhausted, but with a heart full of joy.
he continues to climb the ladder and, yet again,
he discovers an even larger room
where he meets another man with a beard.
Full of hope, he asks again, “Are you Mohmamed?”

“No, I am Jesus…You will find Mohammed higher up.”

Mohammed higher than Jesus!
The poor man can hardly contain his delight and climbs
and climbs, ever higher. Once again, he reaches an even larger room
where he meets a man with a beard and repeats his question:
“Are you Mohammed?” he gasps, as he is, by now,
totally out of breath from all his climbing.

“No, my son….I am God. But you look exhausted.
Would you like a coffee?”

“Yes, please, my Lord.”

God looks behind him, claps his hands and calls out:
“Hey, Mohammed, two coffees!”