Who Was Not Nice To Whom?

Like many others on Twitter, I track certain keywords in discussion. I saw the following message posted by @nicks_fix on Twitter yesterday.

RT @johnsykes1035 The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank. – Dante Gabriel Rossetti

I responded to her with a simple truth. For her, I’m sure “truth” means something else, but for me, it means “representing reality.”

@nicks_fix When does this ever occur? I am thankful most of the time, and I thank those around me that make my life better every day.

Her response:

@godispretend That is wonderful! We all find our own path, & i’m glad you have found joy in yours 🙂 Have a great day!

Nice enough, but my purpose in replying to her wasn’t to point out that I, as an individual, have been able to be thankful. My point was that she was promoting hateful ideas intended to classify atheists as people with no joyful expression in their lives. So I responded.

@nicks_fix I just hope you realize how elitist you sound when you make blanket statements about those with different beliefs than you.

(Yeah, I said elitist.) She got offended and immediately flees to the moral high ground where she is safe and cozy.

@godispretend You know, I answer u back in a kind way & u clog my stream up by calling me elitist #notnice

So apparently, one reply to call her on her bullshit “clogs” her stream. She must not get very many @ replies. And it’s not surprising. If you check out her tweets, it’s nothing but a shitload of retweets from Tea Party assholes and Fox News. Out of curiosity, I headed over to TweetStats to see how many original ideas she actually contributes to the Twitterverse. 88.24% of her tweets (at the time of posting) are ReTweets. 11.76% are @ replies to other users. That leaves… anyone?… ZERO PERCENT of tweets that are not other people’s words or referencing other users. If one of us is doing anything to “clog” Twitter, it is her.

Happy Easter (Zombie Jesus Day)!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter. I know most people on this site will not have celebrated Easter like the majority of people that I saw and heard from today. Some people reading this may be offended to even hear me say Happy Easter. To those people, I can only stress that you must take deep breaths and not get so worked up about verbal expressions.

I celebrate Easter much like I celebrate Christmas: as a time to be with family and eat larger-than-average amounts of food. To me, there’s no shame whatsoever in calling the holiday “Easter”, since it has little to nothing to do with Christianity in its origins. Christians are the ones who look like assholes celebrating the day with chocolate bunnies and plastic eggs. After all, aren’t they supposed to be celebrating the resurrection of the man that made the ultimate sacrifice for them? Seems like Pagan fertility icons wouldn’t fit in very well with the whole “dying for your sins” nonsense.

Online PhD has information on degree programs for people who are looking to further their knowledge about topics like religion and philosophy. Of course it’s well documented that atheism is more prominent with people holding advanced degrees. Make up your own mind. 🙂

Either way, I hope everyone had an enjoyable day. If you speak to any Christians tomorrow, ask them how they reconcile the Pagan origins of the celebration with their intended meaning. Maybe it’ll make them think twice in December before they launch another War on Christmas campaign for their evergreen trees and twinkle lights on Jesus’ birthday.

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?