Are You Concerned?

I am concerned. I’m concerned that our country is legislated at all levels by people who put faith in front of reason. I’m concerned that children are deluded into believing nonsense during their earliest stages of development by equally clueless parents. I’m also concerned that if something isn’t done to stop the viral spread of religion and other disastrous ways of life, our way of life, not to mention our world, may be in serious danger.

These are not the same things that Kirk Cameron is worried about. See the transcript and my responses to Kirk (in blue) after the jump.

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Black Holes Exist

Black holes exist. And one of them has a television show on Fox News. All reason, common sense, and rationality are sucked in and crushed to nothingness in a blowhard singularity. While some black holes emit radiation, this particular one emits bullshit and bigotry.

The first part is a little slow, and while I agree that the media often portrays things contrary to how they exist in reality, to state that the people on the edges deserve no voice is tyrannical. Of course, if you watch Fox News or CNN on a regular basis, you probably aren’t concerned with too many viewpoints other than those within your comfort bubble anyway.

GlennBeck copyIt’s only mentioned briefly in the video, but Glenn is so upset because of media attention that surrounded the use of the word “God” in the presidential oath of office. Old news, I know, but the principle is still important. He goes on to say that “89% of us believe in God” and “89% want the phrase ‘under God’ to stay in the Pledge [of Allegiance].” Unless two polls just happened to produce identical results, I think Glenn is making an incorrect inference. I know of several theists personally who dispute “under God”‘s presence in the Pledge of Allegiance, as it was added as an afterthought and does nothing to truly unify the people of this nation. Of course, what Glenn is really saying is that he doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the 11% of Americans who don’t believe in his definition of god.

Just another example of the elitist, blowhard babble to come from a talking head that claims to respect the voice of the unheard, except he takes the easy route by redefining the group of people that he think ought to be heard more.

Atheists Are Happy People

Sorry for the recent absence. I’ve been thoroughly distracted from this website, Facebook, Twitter, and everything else that presents even a minor escape from reality for the last month. Since things are now “looking up” (please do not even TRY to insinuate a pun here) for me, I thought that the following news piece would be highly relevant.

Found at BeliefNet.com, this article examines how non-believers are just as happy and content as their religious counterparts. Really? Ya think? It’s sad that it takes a psychological study for people to realize this, but I’ll just be happy for now that this truth is even being published.

The study suggests that those who are absolutely sure, one way or the other, about the existence of God are most likely to be satisfied with their lives and emotionally stable. It’s the spiritual seekers who tend to be unstable, according to the report.

This makes sense to me. Non-believers are happy in their realization of the absurdity of the religiosity of their counterparts and happy in their acceptance of the natural world as a product of complex changes over time. Believers, however, are happy because they have a steady supply of Kool-Aid to which they have been thoroughly addicted since their indoctrination. It’s the in-betweeners that tend to experience the turbulence and uncertainty. This too makes sense because you either have someone who has been exposed to religion seeking to justify it rationally, or someone with little to no exposure to religion checking it out to see what it may have to offer, as was my case back in the day.

Whatever your case may be, I think the fact that there was even a study commissioned on this topic reveals just how much Christians and other believers believe they have a stranglehold on happiness. It also illustrates their delusion in that they think that no one could possible find happiness in anything other than contradictory Palestinian mythology.

Solace comes in many forms. I choose to take solace in things that are based on facts, i.e. real things.

Islam a Religion of Peace? Excuse Me While I Laugh

I am not a troll. I do not search out internet fora, Facebook and MySpace groups, or any other online community with the intention of creating inflamatory comments or rousing rabble of any sort. That doesn’t mean that I’m not tempted to do so from time to time. Usually, I just like to gain some perspective, see how people debate and support their positions (on all sides), and sometimes get some good ideas for blog posts.

I came across a doosie of a group a while back while browsing MySpace groups about Islam. There is a section devoted to the groups “rules”, some of which are very telling about not only the religion of Islam, but the sacred protection religion thinks it deserves in discourse.

The first few rules are reasonable enough:

  • No hate speech
  • No bigotry
  • No attacking another person’s religion

While I do not think that there is any such thing as hate speech in the way it is typically defined, I don’t think that every forum should have to be a stage for debate. No big deal so far, but the next few are quite revealing.

  • Non-Muslims are welcome and will be protected
  • Non-Muslims have the right to ask anything they wish. However if they abuse their privileges they will be banned!!!!!!
  • Anybody insulting my religion of Islam or my holy prophet Muhammad (saaw) will be banned !!!!!!!!!

It doesn’t say great things for your religion if you have to reassure non-adherents of their protected status when joining for discussion. Oh, and as for that discussion, ask anything you want, but don’t abuse those privileges. What the hell does that even mean? Is this like Scientology in that they will answer questions until one of the questions pisses them off or makes them reveal something embarrassing or heinous about their belief system? For instance, if I wanted to ask “How does the holy prophet Muhammad taking a child wife and consummating the marriage with intercourse when she was only 9 years old fit in to traditional Arab marriage roles during that time?”, I would probably be banned.

Even though it is a perfectly valid question whose basis is well document in the Hadith (Sahih Bukhari Volume 7, Book 62, Number 64), this question would almost certainly be seen as an affront to Islam. As a non-adherent, this is a topic on which I would like more information, and what better place to ask questions than in a forum of Muslims?

Well, thinking about all of this again got me wanting to visit the group and put forth my two cents. Having bookmarked the link, I clicked through only to find that the group is no longer accessible. The group still shows up in search results, but cannot be viewed, which could possibly mean that the group has been made private. I’ve included the link in case it should ever be accessible in the future.