I'm so immoral!

Your morality is 0% in line with that of the bible.

Damn you heathen! Your book learnin' has done warped your mind. You shall not be invited next time I sacrifice a goat.

Do You Have Biblical Morals?
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I'm no better than heathens like PZ Myers!

Things to write about

I have a variety of ideas of things I'd like to post about but I never seem to find the time to get my thoughts in order. Here's a list of what I'd like to post about in the coming months (this serves more as a reminder to me since when I DO have time to write I draw a blank!)

• Create a series of posts detailing why I'm NOT in this or that particular religion. Using the "outsider test" that John Loftus has talked about.
• Talk about how I resolve the differences between me and my parents.
• How does the religious climate in this country effect an immigrant?
• Book reviews! I listen to at least one audiobook every week or two. I should be talking about them.
• When I hear a good podcast episode I need to comment on it.
• How do you raise a child to be tolerant of all of the belief systems yet not succumb to any of them?
• 2012 is approaching and it ought to make for some humorous analysis of this temporal woo woo.
  
• How do arguing about God and arguing about the best strategies in World of Warcraft relate? LOL...yeah...I think about some silly stuff.

There's more. I'll update this as I think of them and let this serve as a guide for the coming months.

edit - ok I remembered another one - "Woo in my life", examples of things I have believed that turned out to be crap.

My Darwin Donations

Last month I posted a suggestion that we turn Darwin day into a charitable event. Well, today I made my Darwin Donations.

I donated 20.74 each to Doctors Without Borders and to this family to help with their medical costs. I added the 74 cents to note that it was a Darwin Donation and he was 74 when he died.

Regardless of the reason or the time of year I hope you all find the time and money to lend a hand somewhere. All of the people, including myself, who made a difference donating small amounts to the Obama campaign can do the same with charities.

*puts on Sally Struthers plea*
For the price of a triple venti non-fat latte you can make a difference!

Obama Throws Us Another Bone

The unbelievers were mentioned again! OMG! This time it was during a prayer breakfast of all things!

Obama throws secular organizations a bone!

I never liked the idea of the federal government funding church groups. That was Bush's brainchild. Let's suck up to the religious right and get some votes by putting money in their pockets.

But what about secular groups who want to help out communities without indoctrinating them into a religion? NO SOUP FOR YOU!

But now Obama has widened the scope of the faith based support to include any organization that wants to help their communities.

This is his prayer...

I like this part:

The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another – or even religious groups over secular groups. It will simply be to work on behalf of those organizations that want to work on behalf of our communities, and to do so without blurring the line that our founders wisely drew between church and state. This work is important, because whether it’s a secular group advising families facing foreclosure or faith-based groups providing job-training to those who need work, few are closer to what’s happening on our streets and in our neighborhoods than these organizations. People trust them. Communities rely on them. And we will help them.

Some of the talk seems a bit "pie in the sky" but at least he seems to be making an effort at removing the us versus them mentality that penetrates this country so much:

I raise this history because far too often, we have seen faith wielded as a tool to divide us from one another – as an excuse for prejudice and intolerance. Wars have been waged. Innocents have been slaughtered. For centuries, entire religions have been persecuted, all in the name of perceived righteousness.
There is no doubt that the very nature of faith means that some of our beliefs will never be the same. We read from different texts. We follow different edicts. We subscribe to different accounts of how we came to be here and where we’re going next – and some subscribe to no faith at all.

But this part I disagree with:

But no matter what we choose to believe, let us remember that there is no religion whose central tenet is hate. There is no God who condones taking the life of an innocent human being. This much we know.

Um...read the old testament! How many babies are slaughtered? So, yeah, he's kissing ass and ignoring the bullshit to try to form a happy consensus. Pie in the sky? Time will tell.

For those that think this whole thing should be disbanded, imagine if there were no faith base initiative created by Bush and Obama came along and wanted to form something similar but entirely secular. People would be screaming SOCIALIST! OMG! HE WANTS US TO BE COMMIE ZOMBIES! At least this way he can try to do some good at the community level by hijacking Bush's brainchild. And for that, I think he's a smart man.

A Pedophile's Paradise

Well, if we had a shock-jock DJ discussing religious controversies he would have something to talk about in the morning:

A Pedophile's Paradise

This morning, 43 Alaskan Natives filed a lawsuit against the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), claiming a widespread conspiracy to dump pedophile priests in small Alaskan towns and shelter them from exposure.

Well, now, isn't that just peachy?

What would happen if your public school system did this? Find out a teacher is abusing children? Ship them off to Alaska! Don't you think that entire school board would be in jail?

WTF??????

Wanted: Atheist Shock Jock

I'm not a big fan of the vitriolic (thank the American Freethought podcast for getting that word stuck in my head!) Sometimes people who should seemingly be the levelheaded spokespersons of free thought end up simply being the sharp tongued critics of the simple closed minded.

I keep wanting people like Richard Dawkins or PZ Myers to "take the high road" but they don't. Sure, it's OK for them to act how they want, but I feel what is needed is more good-cop/bad-cop interaction and let the intellectuals remain intellectualish sounding.

Sort of like a radio shock-jock and his/her trusty level-headed sidekick. Think of combining PZ Myers with Howard Stern. Offset that with someone who is good at debating the closed-minded without losing their cool. (re-reading this I realize that PZ is actually very level-headed and does keep his cool, so maybe my analogy isn't correct)

I personally can't stand Howard Stern because he is doing the same thing he did when I was in high school in the 1980's. But imagine if his shtick was bashing the hypocrisy of the religious right (or the left in Obama's case)? Have guests from all points of view but stack the deck against the pro-religious the same way Sean Hannity cherry picks his left-wing callers.

I can imagine the ratings would jump simply from the controversy. Every time there is a new cult leader found abusing children (I include Catholic priests in that description) there would be a new topic to rail on. People would protest the radio station to have them taken off the air. The FCC would fine for saying god damned a lot. And if the ratings dipped they could have some lesbians on (Stern loooooves lesbians!)

So, forget atheist ads on buses....what we need is an in-your-face shock-jock on the radio...

What do you think?

Darwin Donations

February 12th is Darwin Day. And what better way to celebrate our evolved sense of empathy than to make a donation to our favorite charity in the name of Charles Darwin?

Darwin died at age 74 so you could make your donation end in 74 cents. If you can donate in someone's name then use Charles Darwin.

Lets see if we can put our money where our mouth evolved and do some good for the world?