August 29, 2004
Sunday sermon.
"The essence of the Liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held,
but in how they are held: instead of being held dogmatically, they are held
tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment
lead to their abandonment. This is the way opinions are held in science,
as opposed to the way in which they are held in theology."
[Bertrand Russell, "Unpopular Essays"]
August 22, 2004
Sunday sermon.
This is a huge church near the center of town. It had many missing windows, part of it's roof was missing and the cross on top of the bell-tower was close to falling off.
The bell still rings though.
-------------------------------------
"God doesn't follow the linear projections of computer models," (Jeb) Bush told reporters here outside the emergency management center, whose roof caved in during the hurricane. "This is God's way of telling us that He's almighty and we're mortal."
*Nod to the fabulous Mark Lane for pointing out that gem of wisdom.
August 09, 2004
It is very hard to discuss religion
with family.
I made a post on Sunday like I always do and I call it my sunday sermon.
I asked people to share their views with me on what they believe and it was not nor is it still, a way for me to argue or debate with anyone. I thanked everyone for their views or opinions and I tried to keep it civil.
Continue Reading »
August 08, 2004
Sunday sermon.
I read at a blog yesterday about someones beliefs or lack there of in God and then how they explained that it wasn't so much a disbelief in God but a disbelief in the bible.
So I got to thinking about that and then came to the conclusion that you can't have it both ways.
I know you think you can. Your mind tells you that the stories in the bible are pure poppycock and full of lies and myths but you want to believe that God exists.
Well, God only exists in the bible.
If the bible had never been written, the story of God would just be a myth, a legend, handed down from person to person or then again, maybe not.
Imagine that.
So here you sit in total disbelief of the bible, not falling for the parting of the seas and the burning bushes and the talking snakes and all the wonderfully scary stories of the bible but yet you will still believe in God whose only 'proof' of existence falls in it's pages.
Fascinating.
And I know people who only believe in God because they say it's better to be safe than sorry.
Ha!
That is so funny.
'I don't really know if there's a hell but just to be safe, I'm gonna say I believe because in the end, I don't wanna burn. Just in case.'
So if you're up to it, tell me what you believe without writing an essay. I mean you can if you want to but maybe you can just do it in a paragraph.
Like, I believe in both God and the bible because...
Or I don't believe in the bible but I do believe in God because...
Or I don't believe in either because...
I'm just very curious as to how many more people believe in God but not in the pages where that god was created.
August 01, 2004
Sunday sermon.
The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
July 29, 2004
Why is it
that when something really cool happens like a bunch of strangers help a person in need, that someone always says that god did it?
God didn't tell anyone to do anything.
People asked people and people came together and did the deed because people wanted to.
That big invisible thing up in the clouds gets far too much credit for things that real live human beings right here on earth are doing.
July 25, 2004
Sunday sermon.
"The memory of my own suffering has prevented me from ever shadowing
one young soul with the superstitions of the Christian religion."
[Elizabeth Cady Stanton, "Eighty Years and More"]
July 18, 2004
Sunday sermon.
Those of us who were brought up as Christians and have lost our faith have retained the sense of sin without the saving belief in redemption. This poisons our thought and so paralyses us in action. - Cyril Connolly (1903-1974)
English literary critic, essayist, novelist
July 15, 2004
I love going shopping in the morning.
All those bright eyed and bushy tailed employees not expecting the terror that is headed toward them in the deli.
In the deli area, they have rack of books, all christian in nature and everytime I go, I make a point of either turning them cover facing in so no one can read the title or making a conversation, even if it's just to myself, about how only one faith is represented on the rack. All faiths should be represented because it's not just christians who shop for food here. I have seen other nationalities and we have a very diverse community here.
It's offensive to not include everyone.
It's a grocery store and not a privately owned one at that so why be so singular?
Well, I did it again this morning and the deli clerks just sorta looked at me like what? You mean you want us to cater to all faiths? They get this dazed, semi confused look on their faces like they can't believe that some shopper may not be a christian (oh the horror of a non-christian in the south!) but of another faith. I never come right out and say atheist, I always just let them know that there are those of us who are different faiths.
I once turned all the book covers around on the whole rack, every single book and a manager stood and watched me and then as soon as I left the area, he turned them all back around. I mean, what are they gonna say to me, ma'am, please don't turn all the books around, you're upsetting the christians?
Then of course I went to the pop tart aisle and they didn't have the pastry swirls for which I had a coupon so I bitched about that for two more aisles.
One of these days, they are gonna throw me right the hell outta that store.
Oh yeah, I found this fun link over at Yvonnes.
Click yes if you are a christian and no if you aren't.
I failed miserably but it sure was fun to hear Kirk Cameron get some passages of the bible all wrong.
Oh, and I think I want this book, God Doesn't Believe in Atheists: Proof That the Atheist Doesn't Exist. It's advertised on the site I just linked.
They wrote a whole book telling me I don't exist! I'm so excited.
I mean, wow. I have been alive all this time thinking that I exist but they can prove that I don't. How fascinating.
June 27, 2004
Sunday sermon.
Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends. There are some things we don't want to know. Important things.
-- Ned Flanders
June 14, 2004
Son of Sam has a journal.
The website is set up and maintained by a church. The Official Home Page of David Berkowitz
Berkowitz has no web access at all. He types out an entry every month and mails it to the church.
Both Berkowitz and the church say that God has forgiven him for the murders he committed. He found god and has asked forgiveness and you know how it goes from there.
Well, the family members of some of his victims are outraged that he has the ability to express himself even though the constitution gives him the right to do so and no judge has ever told him he can't write letters or have things published.
I find it completely fascinating and totally understandable at the same time, the outrage the families feel.
This is one of those situations where it doesn't matter if you have found god.
People come to my door and stop me at bus stops and tell me that I need to be saved. That I need to open my heart and let god in and all my past sins will be forgiven and life will be anew.
If you are a killer, serving a life sentence, with no hope of ever getting out, all the saving in the world isn't going to make it all better.
People, no matter how strongly they claim their faith in god is, are still going to hate him and wish his death on morning news shows.
Thoughts?
June 13, 2004
Sunday sermon.
"Salvation for credulity means damnation for investigation."
[Robert G. Ingersoll]
May 23, 2004
Sunday sermon.
"If you have a faith, it is statistically overwhelmingly likely that it
is the same faith as your parents and grandparents had. No doubt soaring
cathedrals, stirring music, moving stories and parables, help a bit.
But by far the most important variable determining your religion is the
accident of birth. The convictions that you so passionately believe
would have been a completely different, and largely contradictory, set
of convictions, if only you had happened to be born in a different place.
Epidemiology, not evidence."
[Richard Dawkins]
May 16, 2004
Sunday sermon.
"For god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, for whosoever beliveth in him would believe anything."-unknown.
April 25, 2004
Sunday sermon.
"Lord, there's danger in this land.
You get witch-hunts and wars
when church and state hold hands."
[Joni Mitchell]
April 18, 2004
Sunday Service.
We owe almost all our knowledge not to those who have agreed, but to those who have differed.
-- Charles Caleb Colton
April 11, 2004
Sunday Service.
"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."
[Oscar Wilde]
April 05, 2004
The kids watched the Ten Commandments last night.
I watched it with them, it's been many years since I watched it in all it campy goodness.
They were utterly fascinated with this story and sat in bewilderment and asked me questions like, " People believe this stuff?"
To which I replied, "yes they do."
Mark being the most curious said things like but nothing like this stuff has ever happened ever ever again so how can people still believe it?
These are stories in a book mom how can people be so stupid.
I said that people have faith that these stories are true even though there is no evidence to back them up. They simply trust with everything they have that these things happened and follow every word.
Mark says to me, "Mom, Moses was on that mountain for 40 days and then he comes down with these 2 tablets with writing on them. How do we know he didn't carve those words himself?"
I said, "Mark, that is more than likely what happened but people would like to think that God took his time over a period of 40 days to write those words in stone yet they also believe that he created earth and all it's inhabitants in 7 days."
Then he said something funny and we laughed and I won't repeat it because it's a mommy son bonding moment to cherish.
The he said, "hey! Didn't Metallica have a song about the Pharaohs' son?"
"Yes, it's called Creeping Death."
The lights in his head fired up again and he started singing loudly, "So let it be written, so let it be done, to kill the first born pharaoh son
I’m creeping death!" with a little James-es-que growl going on.
He got a good giggle and some laughs over the seen with the burning bush and the whole I am speech.
He said "What was that Rufus said mom? you know, in Dogma?"
I said "he said 'We were sent by Him who is called I Am.'"
We laughed some more.
He went around during commercials singing in low baritone like Cam from Ferris Bueller, "let my people go."
Bwahahaha.
Please don't send hate mail.
It was a mommy son bonding moment that I won't soon forget.
What was Sebastian doing? He fell asleep around 9. Right before all the really good and funny stuff happens.
April 04, 2004
I need one of these.
So when I do have to go out and ride the bus, the JWs will know for sure, that I am a heathen and they can approach.
Tee hee.
April 04, 2004
Sunday Service.
All these people talk so eloquently about getting back to good old-fashioned values. Well, as an old poop I can remember back to when we had those old-fashioned values, and I say let's get back to the good old-fashioned First Amendment of the good old-fashioned Constitution of the United States -- and to hell with the censors! Give me knowledge or give me death!
-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
On a different note, I hope you remembered to spring ahead or you're late for church or breakfast or your morning jog in the sun or getting the morning paper or feeding the pets or whatever it is you do on a sunday morning.
April 03, 2004
When will parental guidance be good enough?
Laptop Lobbyists and the AFA and Million Moms have tried to shut down NormalBobSmith.com because of jesus dress up.
It's a funny little thing to do. Slap some clothes on Jesus. What is so wrong about it?
They say it's making fun of jesus. Not true. It's just having fun.
Are christians the only ones who get to do something with the horrid symbol of a man on a cross which is disturbing all by itself?
Apparently.
They throw that symbol around like we are supposed to be frightened of it and bow down to it.
If parents don't want their kids to play with the magnet set that Urban Outfitters will no longer carry due to the pressure of religious organizations, then parents need to monitor their kids a little better.
They also need to watch what their kids are doing online if they don't want their kids looking at Normal Bob Smiths site.
Why do they think that it's ok for them to try and shut down a site simply because they don't approve of it?
Because they think it's wrong?
There are millions of people who think that site is funny and entertaining.
They are spending all this time and money trying to shut down a really funny site when they could be doing some real good and getting porn off the net or make porn all in one place on the net.
I enjoy the site. It's funny. He's a character, he's great.
Go check it out now that he is back up. They actually got him shut down but he found new hosting and is back online.
The AFA group wants you to boycott MTV and stop shopping at 7eleven and wants you to support a ban on gay marriages and a whole slew of other things. They want you to not rent movies at movie gallery too because they rent some porn. *yawn*
The Million Moms want That 70's Show taken off the air due to sexual and drug innuendo. Uh, hello? If you don't want your kids to watch that show, change the fucking channel or better yet, watch tv with your kids so you know what they are watching. It's a great show.
They have an issue with McDonald's because I guess they support MTV. Don't want MTV in your house? Quit paying for cable.
They take issue with Fox Tvs new show Wonderfalls.
They take issue with a lot of things. Go check them out.
I feel a few nasty emails being penned by myself a bit later on their parenting skills.
Our ability to choose what we watch, listen to and do in our own time is being threatened folks.
Not just by the FCC but by groups who say they are better parents than you are.
I have no cable mainly because I can't afford it but when I was doing well, I had cable and then shut it off because I did not want my kids watching certain shows that were on certain channels.
I made that decision all by myself.
Can you imagine?
A parent making a parental decision about what their kids are doing without being told by some group of so called do gooders that we need to boycott something.
Support the petition to stop the fcc by signing it yourself and start making decisions for your family and what you watch, listen to and read by telling these so called groups to mind their own damn business.
Original story about Normal Bob Smiths situation found at Stupid Evil Bastard.
March 28, 2004
Sunday Service.
In the Bullshit Department, a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman. 'Cause I gotta tell you the truth, folks. When it comes to bullshit, big-time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims: religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told.
Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man -- living in the sky -- who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time!
But He loves you.
He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!
-- George Carlin
March 21, 2004
Sunday Service a little late.
Bob: “I never believed in God. No, I didn’t even as a little kid. I remember this. I used to think even if he exists, he’s done such a terrible job, it’s a wonder people don’t get together and file a class action suit against him.”
Filed under religion.
March 19, 2004
So Tammy Faye has cancer.
MSNBC - Tammy Faye says she has lung cancer and people are happy about it.
What is wrong with all of you?
Maybe she deserves it like some of you say but come on, you're happy about it?
Do you honestly wish such a horrible illness on anyone?
I find that in situations like this, you see the true nature of some people.
I have read how happy people are about this on several blogs today and frankly, it makes me sick.
I don't even know what else to say except that it makes me upset that anyone at all out there would wish cancer on anyone.
No one deserves cancer people.
No one deserves the kind of pain and suffering it brings.
Filed under religion.
March 14, 2004
Sunday service.
So, when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, if you go for all these fairy tales, that "evil" woman convinced the man to eat the apple, but the apple came from the Tree of Knowledge. And the punishment that was then handed down, the woman gets to bleed and the guy's got to go to work, is the result of a man desiring, because his woman suggested that it would be a good idea, that he get all the knowledge that was supposedly the property and domain of God. So, that right away sets up Christianity as an anti-intellectual religion. You never want to be that smart. If you're a woman, it's going to be running down your leg, and if you're a guy, you're going to be in the salt mines for the rest of your life. So, just be a dumb fuck and you'll all go to heaven. That's the subtext of Christianity.
-- Frank Zappa
Filed under religion.
March 10, 2004
Please go vote here.
The AFA, the same group who a few months ago wanted to know if you support gay marriage, has a new poll up about who you are voting for for president. Go here, the link it self dies I guess so copy and paste it in your browser. http://www.onlinepolls.net/pollv1/default.aspx?pid=10 to vote.
They have added a new feature, a small code you must enter after you vote, because after the gay marriage poll they had, they simply could not believe that that many people wanted gay marriage. They think it was a script or hack that put through that many positive votes.
No, the people are not as bigoted or hateful as you and the pres AFA.
So go vote, show them that you really do exist and it's not a script. Tell the AFA who you are voting for.
Filed under religion because they are anti-gay, anti-mtv, oh my gawd, they are so against so many things and they say it's all for god.
They want to ban the 'F' word. Pulease!
Continue Reading »
March 07, 2004
Sunday service.
LOKI
Leaving 'Alice in Wonderland' aside, look closely at 'Through the Looking
Glass' - particularly 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' poem: what's the
metaphorical meaning?
NUN
I wasn't aware there was one.
LOKI
Oh, but there is - it colorfully details the sham that is organized
religion. The Walrus - with his girth and good-nature - obviously refers to
either the Buddha, or - with his tusks - the lovable Hindu elephant god,
Lord Ganesha. This takes care of the Eastern religions. The Carpenter is an
obvious reference to Jesus Christ, who was purportedly raised the son of a
carpenter. He represents the Western religions. And in the poem. what do
they do? They dupe all the oysters into following them. Then. when the
oysters collective guard is down. the Walrus and the Carpenter shuck and
devour the helpless creatures, en masse. I don't know what that says to
you, but to me it says that following faiths based on these mythological
figures insures the destruction of one's inner-being.
BARTLEBY sits amongst a row of seats by one of the arrival gates. He eats
popcorn and stares at...
A steady stream of TRAVELERS, exiting the gate, meeting loved-ones, family.
OC LOKI
Organized religion destroys who we are or who we can be by inhibiting our
actions and decisions out of fear of an intangible parent-figure who shakes
a finger at us from thousands of years ago and says "No, no!"
Bartleby smiles at the meet-and-greets, warmed. Loki saddles up beside him,
kneeling on one of the seats, facing the Nun.
LOKI
'Through the Looking Glass' - a children's tale? I think not.
NUN
(really dazed)
I've... I've never really thought about it like that...
(beat; shocked; off her cassock)
What have I been doing with my life...?'.
LOKI
Don't look back. Just get out there and taste life.
Filed under religion.
March 06, 2004
I was issued a challenge.
I was issued a challenge to read an online sermon found here.
This is very long, I apologize and feel free to skip this entry entirely. It was a challenge and I took it.
After all, he called me his favorite atheist.
I did and here is my response.
"DEATH
Because we are human, we will all die. But long before our hearts stop beating, we will experience other kinds of death.
The Apostle Paul put it this way in today’s reading from Ephesians: "In the past you were spiritually dead because of your disobedience and sins."
Spiritually dead because of my disobedience and sins?
Ok, let's talk about that.
I am not a spiritual person, this is true but I am not dead inside.
Who is it exactly I am supposed to be obeying and what sins have I committed?
I know that I am supposed to obey the law, which I do and I obeyed my parents because that is what you do when you are a kid and when I was young and went to church,
I obeyed the word of God as it was told to me.
I feared big fish swallowing me if I argued with my sister. I feared walking along and getting spoken to by a burning bush.
I feared lots of things.
Continue Reading »
March 01, 2004
This is todays TOP news story?
Virgin Mary Image Vandalized - from TBO.com
Give me a break Channel 8. This is not a huge news story.
This is an act of vandalism against a water stain that is being heralded as a message sent from God.
Since 1996, this water stain has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors.
The stain was created by water sprinklers.
People believe that the water stain, in the form of "Mary" by some viewers, was a message from God.
Click this pic for info on the shrine in Clearwater.
People have been flocking to the building all day to mourn the loss of a water stain.
This image is clickable.
People have the right to believe whatever they want but I am saddened that this was the top story on the news this evening.
A 79 year old woman was attacked on the college campus in Lakeland.
That story placed second.
Water stains are much more important than a human being beaten and robbed I guess.
Hrmph.
Filed under religion.
March 01, 2004
I was supposed to go out.
I had something I needed to do but my back decided halfway up the street that that was a very bad idea.
I basically crawled back home.
I will try again tomorrow.
So anyway, I'm laying down and trying to give the pain meds a chance to work and knowing that it will put me to sleep when there is a knock on the door.
I open it.
Me: Hello?
Jehovah woman:Oh, I'm sorry, did we wake you?
Me:Are you from a church?
Jehovah woman:Yes.
Me:I'm in a really bad fucking mood and I'm an ATHEIST! GET OFF MY FUCKING PROPERTY NOW!
Jehovah woman: *running*
Ok. So that was mean and normally I am much more polite about it all but in the 5 years I have lived in this house, they have never come to my home.
At the bus stop, I am a prisoner of circumstance and timing.
In my home, I don't want that shit.
The weather is getting nicer and in my opinion, with movies like the Passion and GWs recent religious pushes, they feel they have a right to come to my home.
No.
Not today.
Not ever.
I really am usually much nicer to them and say no thank you and please don't come back but today, I just snapped.
I have never in all my years of being a non-believer, just walked up to someone at a bus stop or their home, and started talking to them about why I don't believe and how I think they shouldn't either.
I know the bible says for them to spread the message but not in my home.
They have no right to come to my home and tell me I'm a sinner on my own fucking property.
I don't ask for it.
I stay to myself.
At the bus stop, I have headphones on, I'm not bugging anyone but they seem to think it is ok to tap me on the shoulder and interrupt me from my peaceful mood and deep thoughts to tell me that I need to be saved.
I don't know where I'm going with this but I just don't like it.
Filed under religion.
February 19, 2004
I just could not decide which category to throw this in.
So I'll slap it in religion and see what happens.
The movie, The Passion of the Christ, is getting a ton of press. Good, bad, just boatloads of it.
I'm hanging out watching ET and what do my wondering eyes grasp?!
Passion Jewelry.
Now YOU can wear a nail around your neck. Click it and make it bigger. :)
I actually want one of those. Not because I am religious (have you been following along even with all the site mishaps?) but because it is just so anti-religious in my opinion.
I know a lot of people are gonna get some and wear them around proudly with a hey, look at my nail! I am a true christian because I am wearing a nail that represents how they hung him to the cross along with my cross necklace and ear rings.
Folks, it's tacky.
T.A.C.K.Y.
Tacky.
But, you know me. I'd wear it for the tack factor.
They need to sell some rocks from the era too. Maybe little jars of dirt, vials of "his blood."
You know, tie it all in to the marketing package.
You can watch the movie while wearing your Passion jewelry and drinking from your Passion coffee cups while handing out your Passion witness cards.
It's a movie and I have to expect that there would be products to market to go a long with it but I really wasn't expecting a nail.
Filed under religion.