logical response

Shady Land Deal in the Bible

I came across an interesting Bible passage today. Matthew 13:44 states, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the whech when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.”

This, to me, seems to be very un-Christian behavior. Finding treasure on someone else’s land, concealing it, withholding knowledge of such from the rightful owner, and then buying the property to gain ownership. This reeks of dirty dealing, secrecy, and back stabbing; things I was always led to believe were not becoming of good Christians. Moreover, the man that said the above quote is Jesus himself. So God (via his son) condones this sort of behavior.

Say the above happened, and this asshole bought the land with the treasure. I would like to know if any kind of mineral rights existed in ancient Palestine. Would simply purchasing the parcel of land entitle one to any treasures that were contained below the surface? If petroleum, gold, silver, uranium, etc. are to be considered precious commodities, then certainly a treasure comparable to heaven would be included in such rights.

Yes, I know that is an absurd comparison, but, to me, it illustrates that people, including Jesus Christ himself, will say anything to make the prospect of an afterlife as appealing as possible. By appealing to mankind’s lust for treasure and conquest, Jesus lays out a situation in which an underhanded transaction takes place with clearly concealed ulterior motives with the goal of enjoying a treasure while excluding others from said enjoyment. If this passage is to mean anything else, then it could have been written so many different ways.

Of course, no matter how much Jesus was trying to wow his starry-eyed observers, he certainly resorted to an appeal to force mere passages later with, “So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 13:49-50)

When push comes to shove, if the promise of treasure can’t convince someone to do something, threatening to burn them eternally should prove a useful tool of persuasion.

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?

Religulous Available Soon on DVD

So I finally saw Religulous while it was in theaters. Granted, I had to drive over 100 miles each way to see it, but every mile was worth it. I’m not a patient person, but I had no problem braving urban traffic in the rain knowing that I was going to see this film. My friend Megan was along for the ride, equally excited to see the film and equally angry that the film was not being shown anywhere in our state (it starts with “A” and ends with “labama”).

Like many of you, I am anxiously awaiting the release of the DVD, so that I may begin showing it to everyone who enters my home. I do this with another documentary as well that I won’t mention due to its political nature. However, I will say that I have opened a few eyes as a result of my screenings. I intend to do the same with this film. No concrete release date has been publicized at this time, but given the average turn-around time from screen to shelf, I’d say it has to be sometime fairly soon.

You can pre-order a copy of the DVD at Amazon at this time for $20.99. A cool feature that Amazon has is their Pre-Order Price Guarantee, which will refund you the difference in price if the price drops before it is actually released. You can also grab the Religulous cloud poster and toast poster if you want to decorate your room in a secular motif.

One last thing I wanted to share. I had copied this clipping (I don’t remember the source) from some time ago.

Bill Maher’s anti-religion documentary Religulous is on track to become the highest-grossing documentary of the year by next Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Wednesday). The film had already grossed more than $7 million in its first ten days at just 568 theaters. Ironically, the film is due to displace Expelled, Ben Stein’s creationist documentary, which grossed $7.7 million during its domestic run earlier this year. (It opened at 1,052 theaters.) In reporting on the box-office success of the two films, the Times commented that it “just does to show that when it comes to religion and movies, the box office is agnostic.”

Not only is it fantastic that it performed so well in it’s first ten days of limited release, but I am happy to report that with a total box office earnings of $12,995,673, Religulous has well surpassed Expelled which capped at $7,499,617 (Source: Yahoo Movies).

Pre-Order Religulous Today!

Social Bookmarking for Atheist Websites

logo_atheist_spotFor 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.

Edit: I no longer use Sociable. I use SocioFluid which does not as easily allow for one to code in a custom bookmarking site. AtheistSpot is still pretty rad though, and you should totally use it.