Wrath Via “Natural” Disasters

I know that Chick Tracts aren’t exactly a sterling representation of Christianity, but every once in a while I find one that I could never see anyone believing. I know, “Christians believing in weird stuff and taking crudely-presented information at face value.” Not a realistic concept.

And Chick Tracts? Who can’t take seriously little cartoon booklets left in public restrooms for innocent (yet doomed to Hell) passers-by. Chick even redrew one of their famous anti-Islam cartoons to better suit black audiences. They aren’t just trying to save souls with their crude and predictable story lines, they are targeting specific market segments. Even the most popular tract, This Was Your Life, has been redrawn to include black angels and a black god.

The tract I want to focus on here is one that attempts to equate natural disasters caused by God’s wrath. What incurred God’s wrath, you say? Why America turning its back on Israel is what!

J. T. Chick reminds us that the Jewish people are untouchable and any nation that turns their back on them is doomed to fall apart. Blah blah blah.

Note the shifty Arab in the last cartoon telling who I can only assume is George W. Bush that Israel has too much land. Imagine that — religious people trying to tangle themselves with politics.

There are more than 750 tornadoes and more than 1oo tornado-related fatalities every year. There have been more than 270 hurricanes that have struck th United States since 1851 that have caused countless fatalities and countless millions of dollars in property damage.

Are we to believe that each and every occurence of bad weather in the world is a direct result of God’s intervention? More specifically, are we to believe that each hurricane and tornado is a punishment for poor relations with the nation of Israel?

I smell bullshit.

Tags: chick tracts, disasters, evangelical extremism, fundie writing, holy land, israel, wrath

Social Bookmarking for Atheist Websites

For those who may not be familiar with The Atheist Spot, it is a social bookmarking site, a la Digg and Reddit, exclusively for stories that we are likely to enjoy.

The site, whose tagline reads “In our minds we trust”, allows users to submit links that are voted up and down the news hierarchy. There are a variety of subcategories including Interviews, Video & Audio, Science & Technology, Events, and Books within which users can better classify their submissions.

There are three ways in which users can submit links to the site: through the “Add News” link on the website, through a javascript bookmarklet that can be accessed in your browser’s toolbar, and through embeddable image widgets that can be added to blog posts or new stories on your own site. I have the Sociable Wordpress plugin installed on my site which uses PHP awesomeness to create dynamic submission links for each new blog post. Try it out below your favorite story on here to add it to The Atheist Spot for other users to enjoy.

Whether or not your submit links to the site, there is a wealth of great links on the site for all atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers.

Tags: atheist writing, inspiration, logical response, politics

Poll Results: Winter Celebration

I ran this poll for just a little over a month, and after 111 responses, I decided that it was time to report on the results. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to cast their vote in this poll.

I asked, “What do you celebrate this time of year?” The results of the poll are as follows in descending order:

• Christmas (secularly) – 68 votes
• Nothing – 18 votes
• Winter Solstice – 13 votes
• Christmas (religiously) – 8 votes
• Festivus – 3 votes
• Hannukah – 1 vote
• Kwanzaa – 0 votes

I can’t say this particularly surprised me. All of the atheists that I know personally celebrate Christmas for what it is, a secular holiday centered around family-togetherness and gift exchange. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my mind. When you start mixing in a fat man in a red suit and the birth of a magical being, then it starts to cross the boundary into insanity.

I was glad to see that celebrations of some kind were the majority, because with all of the religious tripe in everyday that cannot be utilized for the enjoyment of all, it is nice to have a holiday that has become so secularized as to allow involvement from all. Sure, every year the religious crazies try to claim Christmas as their own and reintroduce the term “War on Christmas” into the vernacular. However, see that for what it is: a failed attempt to apply religious meaning to a holiday that began without religious meaning.

So when I go to work today, I will continue to say “Merry Christmas” to everyone I see, and watch people squirm as they ponder whether or not it is politically correct or not.

Tags: poll, Polls

Follow this site on Twitter

If you are on Twitter, you can now follow the site. Simply click the image directly below the RSS icon to the right.

You can also be my friend on MySpace and Facebook.

If all of these things like “Twitter”, “MySpace”, and “Facebook” are foreign to you, I’d love to say, “Get out more!”, but I suppose I should say, “Stay inside on your computer more!”

Once you have added me on the social network of your choice, as always, I would appreciate a quick shoutout to your friends/followers letting them know of a place where they can read up on atheist/agnostic/non-religious happenings.

If you’re in the Bible Belt like me, you can’t have too many allies.

Tags: atheist writing, social networking

Kentucky Calls Upon God to Protect Homeland

A 2006 piece of homeland security legislation passed by the Kentucky legislature stressed God’s role in protecting the state from evil-doers. The legislation contains a clause the dictates that a plaque be posted in the Office of Homeland Security that states that the state’s safety “cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”

American Atheists has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove the offending verbiage. I don’t really care to discuss the actual legislation. What bothers me more are some of the comments posted by viewers of the WKYT website on this particular story.

Check out some of the bits of wisdom from the loving citizens of Kentucky:

This is Proposition 8 all over again. It isn’t a matter of 10% controlling the laws. It’s about 90% remembering that the 10% does, in fact, EXIST. We’ll work on respect for the 10% later. I’ll be satisfied with a recognition of existence for now. (Odd, huh? An atheist seeking recognition of existence.)

I don’t even have words.

Will it?

That’s interesting. I have a quote from Thomas Jefferson that says, “Shake off all fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” What about one by James Madison that asks and answers an important question, “What has been Christianity’s fruits? Superstition, Bigotry and Persecution.”

I’ll leave you with that one. Please visit the site and read some more of the comments. Feel free to post a comment with your favorite reader nonsense.

Tags: bible belt, evangelical extremism, fundie legal system, fundie writing, religious discrimination, theocracy

Republicans Think They Are So Funny

I found the following joke while searching the interwebs. The little snippet that Google showed me on the results page was pretty telling, but I had to click through to check it out. It should come as no surprise that the site is titled “Republican Operative.”

FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY : In Florida , an atheist created a case against the Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians and Jews observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized day.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, “Case dismissed.”

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter & others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah. Yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays.”

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, “But you do. Counsel, your client is woefully ignorant.” The lawyer said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.”

The judge said, “The calendar says April 1st is ‘April Fools Day.’ Psalm 14:1 states ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God.’ Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.”

Is it even really worth the time to pick apart all of the things that are wrong with this? No? Well I’m doing it anyway.

• What atheist would be lobbying for a holiday? I know there are some crazy atheists out there, because atheists are human after all, despite what people who thought this joke was funny might think. I don’t think the main point on any atheist’s agenda is to petition for an officially recognized atheist holiday.
• Quite possibly the most disturbing part of this is that the judge used scripture in his decision, and no one is outraged!

If these “Republican Operatives” found themselves awake in a jail cell in the Middle East, how happy would they be if the judge cited the Quran in his decision? My guess is that they would not be very happy. However, Christians rarely take a moment and examine these sorts of things before turning an important issue, like atheists seeking a fair and secular society in which to live freely, and turning it into unfunny tripe to forward to their entire email address book.

Tags: fundie writing, religious discrimination, theocracy