A new group, The Faith and Freedom Institute, has decided to fill in the vacuum of evangelical leadership created by the semi-retirement of James Dobson. The FFI will combat “satanic wickedness” and will return America to a foundation of Biblical principles.
I have written about the failure of Abstinence Only Sex Education here, here, here, here, here, here and here (and I have touched upon it in other posts). Now, courtesy of the Texas Freedom Network, we have further proof (I found it through the Americans United website) out of the great state of Texas.
Texas has long been held up as the poster child for abstinence-only sexuality education. In fact, Texas consistently leads the nation by a wide margin in federal abstinence education dollars more than $18 million in 2007 alone. What has not been known until this study, however, is what public schools are actually teaching students about sexuality education in their classrooms. And the news is not good. (from the TFN site) Read the rest of this entry ?
(((Wife))) and I just returned from a 450-mile trip, in the rain, on I-80. Round trip. And we came back with my (((Son))), his fish (the snail (named ‘Raoul’ (no, I have no idea why)) did not survive), and all of his clothing (dirty). I did see a few things which struck me as amusing: Read the rest of this entry ?
I’m sure that some of you have heard that certain Republican governors (cough which sounds like Jindal) are planning to refuse some of the money in the Democratic economic stimulus package. Why? Well, in Jindal’s case, it is because he is running for President in 2012 and wants to solidify his base early. Read the rest of this entry ?
One of the Methodist Churches in our valley has the following sign posted out front:
God Answers All Prayers:
Yes, Not Yet or
I Have A Better Plan
So if I pray to God and ask for something, I might get what I want. Or I might not. Or something completely different and/or unexpected will happen. Oddly, if I ask the Invisible Pink Unicorn, or John McCain the honorable Republican, or the Great Arklesiezure, or any other mythical being, I might get what I want. Or I might not. Or something completely different and/or unexpected will happen. Or, if I live my life as if there were no mythical beings, exactly the same thing will happen with exactly the same ratio.
Prayer Does Not Work . Or, at the very least, it works at exactly the same rate that random chance would indicate. It’s almost as if those mythical beings listed above don’t exist. No. I take that back. It is exactly as if those mythical beings listed above don’t exist.
Yesterday, I posted a long (and somewhat rambling) rant describing the ways in which John McCain has sold out, thrown away whatever honour he still had, and dropping his principles, and giving some thought as to why he sold out. In short, I consider the theocratic bent of the Republican Party, as illustrated by McCains sudden move from the far right to the extreme right and his pick of Palin as his running mate, to be orders of magnitude more dangerous than the Democratic Party’s willingness to use religious groups for community organizing. I now realize that I could have been far more effective at stressing the danger of McCain/Palin by just pointing out this fact: Dr. James Dobson now loves McCain.
Need I say more? (Not to worry. With the election two months away, I’m sure I’ll revisit this.)
Theocracy: (th
–
k
r
-s)
n. pl. the·oc·ra·cies
1. A government ruled by or subject to religious authority.
2. A state so governed.
Republican: See above.
Republican Party Candidate John McCain has a minor problem. It’s the same problem Bob Dole had. The problem? He has put in his time and it is his turn to be President of the United States of America. But now he’s afraid that he may not get to the promised land — the Oval Office.
When McCain ran for President back in 2000, he was a Republican oddity. He was, if not pro-choice, at least ambivalent about abortion. He (correctly) called the religious right ‘agents of intolerance.’ He claimed there was a special place in hell for dirty tricksters like Tucker Eskew(the man who orchestrated the ‘push poll’ suggesting McCain had fathered a black child out of wedlock). The McCain of 2000 was a slightly right of center, not-too-bright candidate with a good story (did you know he was a POW for five-and-a-half years?). Unfortunately, he is not the same candidate running for President now.
John McCain has now become a true Republican: his job is not to govern, it is to win. Win at all costs. Win no matter how many different ways he has to sell his honour. No matter how many times he must pander.
Early on, McCain was considered a front-runner for the Republican nomination. Then he did some stupid things (well, stupid in terms of the Republican Party) including an immigration reform bill that was actually, you know, reforming. And his poll numbers dropped through the floor.
Now that might not have bothered the John McCain of 2000, but now, at age 72 (of which over 5 years was spent as a POW), he knows that this is his last chance. If he does not win this year, he will never get another chance. If he does not win this election, he will be too old to run in 2012. So what does he do? Does he go down gracefully, standing on his honour, upholding his principles? No this edition of John McCain. He just sold his political honour and did pretty much the same thing to his principles that Enron did to their stock: made it worthless.
He suddenly discovered he was vehemently anti-abortion and anti-stem-cell-research. He suddenly discovered that the immigration bill he had sponsored was too extreme for his Republican base. He suddenly discovered that the troops did not need education or health care. He suddenly discovered that drilling for oil everywhere was the key to all our energy needs. He suddenly discovered that voting against alternative energy research brought in the big bucks from the oil companies. He suddenly discovered that torture wasn’t actually torture. He suddenly discovered that America is a Christian nation. And yet, aside from big oil, the Republican base (read that as the radical right wing Christianist, Dominionist, Fundamentalist faithful) was still lukewarm.
John McCain knows that he still has the same problem. It’s his turn to be President, and, because he embraces all that Bush II stands for, and has no ideas of his own (tax cuts, stay the course, fight them there so we don’t fight them here), even Rovian numbers don’t add up to a Republican victory. He desperately needs the right wing agents of intolerance.
Enter the 11th hour (hell, 11:59:59 hour) Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska. This can kill two birds with one stone — all of the Hillary PUMA’swill flock to her (she has ovaries) and, with her anti-environment, pro-oil, anti-education, anti-choice, anti-helping-teen mothers, pro-capital punishment stands, she will please (to the point of orgasm) the religious and social right wing wackos. Add in her connection to the secessionist Alaska Independence Party (which will bring in the anti-government right (including the ‘we never lost the Civil War’ groups)), her pro-gun and pro-hunting-from-airplanes, and all bases (pun intended) are covered.
But a funny thing happened. McCain’s Rovian minions left the vetting to the newspapers, television, and the tabloids. Bristol Palin’s pregnancy, abuse of power, attempted book banning, a Dominionist church and a juicy divorce (the attempt to seal the divorce proceedings of her best friend failed today) and the press goes into a restrained feeding frenzy (imagine the press reaction had Sarah Palin been a Democrat).
Then she reads an acceptable attack speech at the convention (some right-wing blogs are claiming (blatant lie) that the teleprompter broke and the acceptable speech was done from memory). The right goes into religious ecstasy. And, best of all, the ‘vicious left wing attacks’ by those ‘evil left-wing fringe lunatic bloggers’ and the ‘liberal media’ (which is just the press doing its job) give the Republican faithful and Republican mouthpieces and the media’s best friend John McCain a chance to attack the press for doing their job.
The Presidential candidate gave a speech which was long on John McCain, and short on America. He presented no policies or proposals save for a continuation of the last four years. It is all about John McCain and that to which he is entitled.
John McCain, through his speech and his cynical selection of Sarah Palin, has managed to mobilize the Republican Party in a way that amazes me. Despite the economy, the war, the deficit, the spending, the corruption and the abject failure of 30 years of modern conservative influence and power, some of these faith-based asshats actually think that they could win and, having won, govern effectively. John McCains desperation has given him the excuse he needed to ditch his principles and all of his vaunted (though fictional) maverickism.
John McCain thinks he is entitled to be President. He has faith (which, of course, trumps reality) that he must win. He cannot accept that he might lose the election. His last-ditch attempt to win the election has been a cynical sell-out to the worst of American right-wing politics — social extremism, Christian extremism, anti-government extremism, and anti-education extremism. He has pandered, sold out, compromised his principles, defiled his honour and done everything short of kissing George W. Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s asses in an attempt to win what he believes is his — the Presidency of the United States of America.
John McCain and Sarah Palin would make Bush and Cheney look good in comparison. His sell-out to the theocratic right-wing makes him extremely dangerous. Extremely. McCain and Palin are a long-jump towards an Iranian-style theocracy.
Well, not really. But when coincidences like this happen, its almost enough to possibly make someone wonder about the remote possibility that there is a minute chance of an infintessimal that a god may possibly have a tiny chance of existing. Either that, or the odds caught up.
Back near the beginning of August, I wrote about an asshat video producer from Focus on the Family who asked the sheeple to pray for rain when Barack Obama accepts the Democratic nomination outdoors at Invesco Field. Well, there’s really not much chance of rain for the outside performance. However, inside is a different story.
A club level box at the Pepsi Center was flooded by a malfunctioning sprinkler system. The high priced box had recently been renovated so that a “news” network could use it. The box was flooded by 50 to 100 gallons per minute until the Denver Fire Department was able to deal with the problem.
Guess what “news” organization was in that club level box? What major network is the mouthpiece of the Republican Party? Which network has embraced the religious right’s culture war with a vengeance? Which network would fall under the heading of ‘poetic justice?’ If you haven’t got the answer yet, have some coffee.
The high-end box was for the use of Fox News. Yes, folks, the pravdaesque 28%ers, the ones whom Focus on the Family use for their press releases, got flooded out.
Maybe god(s) exists. Maybe the sheeple prayers worked. And god(s) is telling the sheeple that Faux News have spent just a little to much time bearing false witness. And lying.
So what are the chances of the sprinkler system malfunctioning? What are the chances that it happens in Faux News’ box? And how many Fascists for the Family sheeple prayed for the rain?
Had an interesting conversation with a friend over the last few weeks regarding atheism and death. His comments (condensed version here (and he agrees with my condensed version)) echo what I have read on the internet: “With no eternal life, you must feel hopeless. If you aren’t living your life for God, what’s the point?” I’m not going to repeat the entire conversation (I don’t think I can even remember the whole conversation), but I am going to riff off of it.
Four points in those two short sentences:
1. “With no eternal life.”
I am now 42 years old (okay, plus 8 months). Everything that happened before January, 1966, is before my time. I expect to live another 30 to 50 years (longer, hopefully). Everything that happens after my death is after my time.
Eternity is infinite time, a duration of time without beginning or end. Given that the universe is about 13.7 billion years old, and the earth is about 4.54 billion years, that’s a long time. Humanity evolved to its present form, Homo Sapiens sapiens, around 80 to 100,000 years ago. Prior to that time, we did not, as a species, exist. The earliest human burials date to around 35,000 years ago (burials would tend to suggest a belief of an afterlife). Christianity, in a recognizable modern form, is only about 1,700 years old.
Seventeen billion years is a long time. So is (to a human lifespan) 1,700 years. But it still is not infinite. For any human, living in the 21st century of the Common Era, to have a magic eternal life, that human would have to not only predate Christianity, but also predate belief in the afterlife, humanity, mammals, the earth, and the universe. My friend’s claim to an eternal soul which will live on in heaven brings up an interesting point: he claims to have already lived an eternity prior to his birth.
What was he doing all that time? I would tend to think he was drinking beer (invented about 5,000 years ago) and eating chicken wings (chickens were probably domesticated around 8,000 years ago in Thailand). The math works if he is a Young Earth Creationist; but he’s not. He accepts evolution and, though he confesses to not understanding the math, accepts the Big Bang Theory as an acceptable (and probable) explanation for the beginning of the universe.
So he has lived an eternity. But is about my age. And doesn’t have the wisdom (sorry, X) which an eternity of life before birth could have given him. He agreed to think about the absurdity of eternal life.
2. “You must feel hopeless.”
I’ve always found this one of the more interesting theist views about atheists: that we have no hope. Theists (and I mean primarily Christians (because that’s who I have the most contact with)) seem to think that, without an afterlife, there is no hope, no point, in life itself.
So why should belief in an afterlife give hope? It’s always seemed to me that, given the impossibility of actually following all of the rules in the Bible, Christianity itself is hopeless. It is a game which is impossible to win. Stone someone to death for working on God’s day and you seem to run up against ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ Try finding clothing which doesn’t mix threads. Does the right-wing worship of Ronald Reagan count as a violation of ‘Thou shalt have no gods before me’?
I discussed with him, at length, the impossibility of living up to the standards set forth. We also discussed the contradictions. We both agree that the Bible is muddled. His take on this now: “The Bible was translated by man, so it has mistakes.” My take is: “The Bible was created by man, so it has mistakes.” I view this as progress.
3. If you aren’t living your life for God.
Who actually lives their life for god(s)? A priest, nun, pastor, hermit, the crazy guy with the signs? Someone who goes to church daily? A couple who have decided that ‘be fruitful and multiply’ is the most important teaching?
One of the most useful things my father ever said to me was: “The key to happiness in life is find something you like to do and then find someone stupid enough to pay you for doing it.” In America, people really can choose what makes them happy and pursue that happiness. I love history and have found a job in public history.
So what about people who are devoting their lives to god(s)? Dobson enjoys telling people what they can and cannot do, telling people how to vote, telling people who to hate, and he has found a way to do that and get rich. Many people find happiness in church — it tells them they are the good people, they are the saved, the elect. Admittedly the payment for all that church time will come later (if at all), but it makes them happy now.
I would submit that people who are (in their own mind) living their life for god(s) are pursuing happiness the same way that I pursue happiness in my history books. The same way Ric pursues happiness through writing, cats and vermouth. The same way PhillyChief pursues happiness through sports and art. The same way the Ordinary Girl pursues happiness through sunrises, and the Exterminator through wordplay and his wife.
People try to do what makes them happy. A person living their life for god(s) is just as selfish as anyone else on earth. A minister has found his calling? Bullshit. A minister has found an occupation in which he or she is paid for doing something he or she enjoys.
If you are doing something you dislike because you think that it is god(s) plan for you, that you are living your life for god(s), you have my sympathy. Find something you enjoy and do it. My friend likes the idea (and he said “I’m good at drinking beer and eating wings. Who’ll pay me for doing that?).
4. What’s the point?
As I’m sure most of you know, I am a naturalistic atheist. If I do not understand a process, I look for the answer in the natural world. I do not insert god(s) into the gaps of my knowledge. For me, as for any other life form on the planet, the point of life is simple: procreate. Yes, folks, I just said that fucking (or whatever sexual activity creates the young’uns) is the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.
From the smallest prion (which may or may not be alive (last I checked, the jury was still out on these self-replicating proteins)) to protozoa to plankton to flobberworms to planeria to earthworms to squid to elephants to me, (((Wife))), (((Boy))) and (((Girl))), our biological purpose, the point of our life, is to create the next generation ((((Boy))) and (((Girl))) — it doesn’t have to be (and better not be) right away!). (((Wife))) and I have already done our duty to the gene pool. We have inflicted the next generation upon the world. We can die now. We are (along with rats, mice and other rodents) the most successful mammals on the planet at procreating.
But humanity has evolved a brain which is able to learn, remember, and plan. So what is the point of living past my reproductive years (which were artificially limited after (((Girl))))? My point in living, my goals, are goals which make me happy (see number 3 above).
I want to leave the world a better place than it was when I arrived. I know that all I can do is nibble around the edges of the world’s problems — I have no illusions about that. But through my job, my writing, and my firefighting, I am able to make small, yet useful, improvements to the world as a whole.
My friend still insists that his only goal in life is to make it to heaven. To him, improvement on earth — better medical care, better food and food storage, clean energy, wliminating poverty — do not matter. None of these will get him into heaven. But prayer, attending church, and believing will.
I view his life (and I have told him so) as pointless. He is willing to ignore the problems of the world, the problems of his neighbors, because it does not help him get to heaven. I have told him so, and he disagrees.
He lives his life for god(s). It makes him happy to do so. Fine.
I view his life as selfish. He is so wrapped up in trying to get to heaven that he is willing to leave the world worse-off than when he was born. And he considers atheists selfish because we deny ourselves to god(s).
My friend and I disagree on the basics of reality. I see a natural world explainable through natural means. He sees a godly world with natural processes explainable through god-created natural means. I see atheism as a natural position. He sees atheism as hopelessness — a living death. I see his beliefs as absurd and self-contradictory. He will create excuse after excuse to explain away the contradictions and absurdities. I view his life as inherently selfish, living his life for the greater glory of god(s). He views my life as inherently selfish, living my life for immediate pleasure and screwing god(s). Dying scares me, but death does not. I did not exist before I was born, and will not exist after I die. He is not scared of dying, but I think death scares the shit out of him because the idea of eternity is just so large it intimidates him.
He is my friend. I will continue to try to guide him to rationality, reality and naturalism. He is my friend. He will continue to try to guide me to a god(s) centred life.
The only reason it works is that we both have a sense of humour about it.
Christians view themselves as saved. They will be magically transported to heaven, their body made whole, all injuries and sickness and pain gone, to spend an eternity basking in the glow of the eternal god(s). But Christianity is tricky.
Early religions focused upon ritual. Burn the right part of the goat and the gods will be pleased. Offer wine and grain at the temple, the gods are happy. Set aside part of your crop, the gods are pleased. Burn incense, the gods are pleased.
Then came Christianity. The early years of Christianity were, to be blunt, chaos. During the first two hundred years, there were Christians who thought Jesus was all human, or all spirit, or a mix of both, or all bothat the same time. There were believers who insisted that to be a Christian, one first had to become a Jew (complete with circumcision). Others viewed the Jews as completely irrelevant. Some viewed Jewish dietary restrictions as essential for Christians, others saw these restrictions as superseded.
As these different versions of Christianity warred with each other, the rhetoric was heated. The term heresy was invented. And every different version of Christian was called a heretic by the adherents of the other versions. The arguments for and against the different gospels (and the different versions of the gospels) provide much of the early history of Christianity (the arguments about who got to run the different churches fills in other parts).
These arguments were of supreme importance: Christians claim that only the correct belief will save the soul. If a ‘Christian’ believes one thing that is wrong in the eyes of God, to hell with you.
Winners, however, write history. The idea of balanced history (exploring all the different views of an event) is a very recent development. The surviving writings are only those the winners (Erhmann calls this group the proto-Orthodox) chose. As many of the other writings as possible were destroyed in the name of preserving orthodoxy — right belief.
All of modern Christianity, whether Appalachian snake handlers, Russian Orthodox nuns, high society High Episcopalians, Polish Roman Catholic grandmothers, or Southern Baptist pastors, follow the same basic teachings. The Nicene Creed layed out exactly what must be believed in order to be a Christian. All the other versions lost (though it may have taken until the 8th or 9thcentury for some of the Gnostic sects to disappear). The trinity, the death and resurrection, the forgiveness of sin through the suffering of Jesus are all part of this document.
Of course, it didn’t take long for Christians to start arguing over what the Nicene Creed actually meant. First came the break between Catholic and Orthodox. Later came the Brethren, the Lutherans, the Anabaptists, and all the other sundry splinter groups of Christianity. And each and every group has (explicitly or implicitly) decreed that all the other groups are heretics.
So, Christians: how do you know that your version of Christianity is the one and only proper way to be saved? After all, the Nicene Creed did away with hundreds, possibly thousands, of other beliefs. What if one of them was the one truth? There are now hundreds of different versions of Christianity. Which one is correct? They can’t all be right as Christianity is based upon believing exactly the right thing about exactly the right things.
I am an atheist (in case you didn’t already know by looking at the title of my blog). I recognize the limits of my knowledge. I learn new things every day and continuously revise my view of the world. Today, for instance, I learned about a possible 9,000 year old burial on the shores of a lake in what is now the Sahara Desert (Hat tip to Pharyngula). Wow. I didn’t know that during the Holocene, the Sahara Desert was a grassland dotted with lakes.
I accept that I will never know everything about anything. I pursue what interests me. I also hold a profoundly naturalist view of the world. All that is, all that was, can be explained through natural processes. We may not have figured out these processes yet, but I have confidence that we will at least be able to form theories to explain all phenomena. Since I see no need for god(s), since I see no evidence for god(s), I am an atheist.
But what about death? I remember when I first realized that I would die. I was around six or seven, living in Arizona. I experienced my first taste of true horror. I will die. Someday, but I will die.
As I matured, and my knowledge base increased, I was able to compartmentalize that thought. As an agnostic (I have no way of knowing, so why worry) I was much more relaxed about death. I realized I am really an atheist only eight months ago and have been surprised at how relaxed I feel about death.
Dying scares the shit out of me. I don’t like pain. I don’t like the idea of actually going through that process. Death, however, is nothingness. Before I was born, billions of people lived and died and I was nothing. When I die, billions, maybe trillions, of people will live and die after me, and I will be nothing.
The Christian obsession with death has become more clear to me. Death and dying scare them. Dying because of pain and uncertainty. Death scares Christians because, no matter how much a Christian believes, no matter how much they tithe, no matter how many prayers, how many sermons, how much selective reading of the Bible, how do they know? Christians claim to have faith in their belief.
So if there are hundreds, even thousands, of different versions of Christianity, how does a Christian know that they have chosen the absolute one and only right teaching — the right orthodoxy. Seems to me that a Christian has a minisculechance of being right, no matter how much faith is invested.
I may be wrong about god(s). God(s) may exist though there is no physical evidence, no proof. However, if I am wrong, at least I haven’t pissed off the almighty by believing the wrong thing. I just don’t believe.
Come on over to the safe side. Embrace rationality and embrace atheism. You’ll piss god(s) off a little less.
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(((Billy))) The Atheist 