Christian Child Acts Like An Ass

Christianity prides itself on being a religion that quickly molds its youth into slave-like automatons. Within mere years, Christian children are professing their absolute love for Jesus in order to fit in with their friends and go on ski trips.

Basically this child is just mimicking what he (I think it’s a “he” anyway.) sees the adults do at church, and he’s making about as much sense. What bothers me the most is the audience reaction. Instead of some light chuckling, the crowd is actually cheering the child on as they would the preacher. Also, how much time is this kid spending in church for him to be picking up the mannerisms of the preacher?

GodisPretend.net is 4 Years Old!

I hadn’t really realized how long I had been running this site until I looked up a few older posts a few weeks ago. This website has changed shape, servers, and domain names in those four years, but the central theme has stayed the same: religion is inherently violent and has no place in modern civilized society. As sort of a blast from the past, I present to you the first four blog posts I ever made on this site.

Subservience of Women
“What better move to make when writing the bible than to include a post to keep women in submission for all of time than to include the obligatory “men are better than women” verse.

The first epistle to Timothy brings us this travesty.” (Read More)

Evolution vs. Creation
“Life. Where did it come from? What does it have in store for me? What can I expect after life on earth?

Don’t know. It depends. Decomposition.” (Read More)

Don’t Pray For Me, Argentina
“I’ve got to hand it to Christianity. They have a pretty good racket setup. What most likely started as a simple way to keep the uneducated working class in check has become a self-perpetuating machine with all the right gimmicks built right in. Such as ‘We are right. Everyone else is wrong.’ Gotta love that one. No tolerance for diversity, no compassion for your fellow man, no ‘love thy neighbor’ (wait a tick…)” (Read More)

What Foxholes?
“You’ve probably all heard it. “There are no atheists in foxholes.” Oh really? What foxholes? And why wouldn’t they be down there? Are foxholes lined with Holy Water or some atheist repellant? I understand what this message is trying to convey, but that doesn’t make it anymore based in fact. The fact that people keep repeating this drivel only continues to lend to its credibility.” (Read More)

Guest Post: A Closer Look at The God Warrior

She's not a Christiaaaaaaaaan-uh!!

The following is a guest post from my friend Megan.

As you probably recall, there was an earlier post about the crazy God warrior woman from Trading Spouses. As luck would have it, I was fortunate enough to catch the entirety of this episode earlier today. If you have not had the pleasure of catching this episode, let me fill you in on a couple of things.

First off, let me give you a brief synopsis. The two spouse that switch are Margaret Perrin and Jeanie Flisher. Margaret is an overbearing mother and wife who is pretty much terrified of anything that isn’t Christian. Jeanie is a hypnotherapist who is very much into astrology and other New-Age things. Jeanie has an ok time, and Margaret has a meltdown from all of the horrors she experienced while in the Flisher house.

So what are these horrifying and “dark sided” things that this poor woman Margaret was forced to endure?

  1. There were Mandala (Tibetan sand paintings) on the walls of the house.
  2. There was a star (not a pentagram, but a regular old star) on the side of the family’s barn.
  3. There were Tibetan flags in the house.
  4. She met a psychic.
  5. She went to a Solstice party.

Sounds terrifying, doesn’t it?

To me, the most interesting thing about this episode is the clash between two completely different belief systems. Now in my opinion, astrology and Christianity are equally ridiculous systems of belief, and yet it is only the Christian woman who is closed-minded, angry, judgmental and downright crazy. This episode pretty much brings to light everything that is wrong with the Christian faith. Here are some examples to illustrate:

Jeanie told the family that their house was beautiful.

Margaret freaked out about decor like Mandala and stars.

Jeanie met Margaret’s friends, who were cold to her because she wasn’t a Christian, and she still maintained a good attitude.

Margaret panicked because she had to go to a party to celebrate the moon and freaked out when she met a psychic even though he was also Christian.

Jeanie took one of Margaret’s daughters shopping for jewelry because she noticed the daughter was being ignored.

Margaret made Jeanie’s family to go to church and tried to force Jesus upon all of the kids.

When it came time to allocate the money, Jeanie gave the bulk of the money to the gastric bypass surgery that Margaret wanted.

Margaret gave Jeanie’s family a bunch of Bibles.

Margaret’s family missed Jeanie when she left.

Jeanie’s family did not miss Margaret.

What really made me mad about this episode is that Margaret didn’t even try to understand this other family. She immediately assumed they needed to be saved and forced her beliefs on them with zero regard to their interests and beliefs. As one of Jeanie’s kids pointed out, “Margaret kept talking about Jesus but we couldn’t talk about astrology or anything she didn’t believe in so it wasn’t really fair.” Margaret jumped to conclusions about the family without even asking them what they believe. Unfortunately, Margaret is not a unique case. There are many Christians out there who feel and act the same way she does, and that is what is truly horrifying.

If you would like to contact Megan, you can comment on her blog.

Glenn Beck is a Douche

First, let me state that Glenn Beck is a worthless blowhard that does not belong on any network. He makes flimsy arguments, and in true one-sided pundit fashion, he only ever has guests on to support his worldview to his sheep-like audience. On the off occasion that someone of a differing opinion joins him on screen, he treats them just like his network’s papa bear, Bill O’Reilly, and never lets them get a sentence out edgewise amid all of the interruptions, sour looks, and instant, fallacious refutations.

Glenn Beck is to logical discourse what the bubonic plague was to medieval longevity. He wouldn’t recognize a concrete argument if it sat on his face. I get douche chills in my spine just watching this short segment.

As with many examples of fundamentalist ideology that I present, this one is also replete with more flaws and fallacies than can reasonably be addressed given my limited time resources and the internet’s limited bandwidth resources. But as always, I’ll touch on a few of the more glaring cases.

“90% of us believe in God yet we seem to be pushed around by 10%”

This type of ignorance can only come from being deeply ethnocentric, as a fair amount of religious folks tend to be. When exactly have Christians been pushed around? It seems to me that when you send your children to a public, government-funded school, it doesn’t really matter what your opinion is on any matter, because in the end, the government will dictate the agenda for said school. Don’t like it? Send your kids to private school. Then they can pray all day long, have Bible study, do stations of the cross, play wholesome Christian sports, and learn to be a bigot in entirely new and creative ways.

“blah blah some people want to remove God from this country altogether. Right here. This nation under God.”

We have only officially been a “nation under God” since 1954, when that phrase was legislated into existence after pressuring from religious groups. To quote the Rev. George Macpherson Docherty:

“These words [‘under God’] will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.”

Riiiight. Or they will be used by religious fanatics to insist that this country has been officially blessed by an all-knowing God, thus making us his second group of chosen people.

“You can’t even use the word ‘prayer’ in school.”

Wrong. You are wrong. The decision of the judge in Illinois did not ban prayer from schools, or ban the use of the word ‘prayer’ in schools. Children can do whatever they like during moments of silence. If they want to pray, that should be something that they would have wanted to do with that time anyway. They should not need to be instructed on the various ways in which 30 seconds can be used. Leave them to their imaginations. I’m sure toddlers can figure it out on their own. If their depth of faith is so great that they want to submerge themselves in prayer, they will do so. If they want to color, they will do so.

“Are the children of atheists so fragile that the idea of prayer could actually warp their minds?”

No they are not. Children of atheists, for the most part, already have a good foundation in logic and critical thinking. However, all children are extremely impressionable, and were it not for their parents dictating to them what they must believe to go to Heaven after death (another concept they probably haven’t even fully come to terms with) they wouldn’t even espouse such beliefs.

That’s it. I’m spent. I’m only 1:17 into this video, and I can’t suffer any more. What is your favorite piece of ‘wisdom’ from Glenn or Jimmy Dobs in this video?