The Twelve Step Program for Today's Fungelicals

(1) Proclaim existence for that for which there is no evidence.
(2) Dismiss that for which there is evidence.
(3) Reject all scientific results except those that support your agenda, even if they use the same source.
(4) Refuse to directly respond to uncomfortable questions.
(5) Always inject God when you can't answer a question.
(6) Support logic, reason, and critical thinking, except when they are applied to your beliefs, then praise ignorance and blind faith.
(7) Always try to muddy the water during a discussion; it will tire your opponent and give you a meaningless victory. 
(8) Label any challenge to your beliefs as intolerance and persecution while simultaneously being intolerant and persecuting others that believe differently.
(9) Frequently use condescending or misleading statements like "Hate the sin, love the sinner", "It's not religion, it's a personal relationship", or "Jesus believes in you even if you don't believe in Him". 
(10) Remain willfully ignorant while projecting arrogant certainty.
(11) When caught in an uncomfortable question, mention God's Mysterious Ways or point out humanity's limited capabilities and frailties when it comes to understanding the universe. 
(12) Never admit you could be wrong, especially to yourself.

Don't Mistake Passion for Anger

Many people think that outspoken atheists are angry, bitter people that lead depressing, miserable, unfulfilled lives.  Sorry to disappoint.   We are well-adjusted, productive members of society with normal home lives and the normal level of ups and downs, anger and compassion, just like everyone else.  What you are doing is confusing passion with anger.  

We are very passionate about what we see as an inappropriate and often dangerous mix of religion and politics, or religion and science, or religion and medicine, etc.  We are very passionate about calling out injustice, ignorance, and absurdities that cause physical, mental, or emotional harm or limit the rights of others.  In writing, it often looks like anger.  Even in discussion, passion can get the best of all of us and appear as anger, but passion it is.  We cannot sit by silently and watch others negatively influence the lives of others...it is out of comPASSION that we speak.

I am not angry just because I vehemently disagree with you, but if I think your actions are causing harm because of willful acts rather than simple ignorance, then yes, in that case you just might be right - anger it is.

Which Is More Moral, Mercy Or Justice?

Mercy: the discretionary power of a judge to pardon someone or to mitigate punishment.
Justice: the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness.

If a man commits terrible crimes like rape or murder, or even lesser offenses such as theft or assault, but at the end of his life recognizes the error of his ways and comes to sincerely repent before the Christian god, he gains entry into heaven.  This is claimed by Christians to be evidence of their god's mercy.  You cannot earn your way into heaven; God must grant his mercy.

However, if another man has lead an exemplary life, one without crime and full of compassion for his fellow man, but simply cannot see any reason to believe the fantastical tales of the Christian religion or their savior, he does not gain entry into heaven, but faces an eternity of punishment.  No mercy here; and no justice in either outcome.

Of course, the Christian may say that all have sinned and any sin is abhorrent to their god, so both men are equal in the eyes of their god.  The one man receives mercy because of his honest acceptance of Jesus.  That's right.  It doesn't matter how heinous your crimes or how trivial your missteps, they are viewed as equally reprehensible to God. I find it disgustingly laughable that the being directly responsible for the deaths of millions, perhaps billions in the Bible finds even the most gentle, compassionate, and honest citizen of this planet too sinful to accept.

Of course, he can accept the good person, the rapist, the pedophile, even the mass murderer, if they pay the right price; absolute belief in God and along with it their intellectual freedom as well as their sense of fairness.  Turn over your life and place complete faith in a being that has demonstrated that he is far worse than you and you can be forgiven anything, but live a good life of reason and compassion and deny this being and there is nothing that will save you.

There is no justice in this Christian view of God.  In fact, it looks more like a religious version of organized crime's protection money scheme: "Pay me now, with your unquestioning faith, or something bad might happen and neither one of us would want that now would we?"

Blasphemy Laws be Damned.

The recent push by Islamic nations to have a United Nations treaty to ban blasphemy is ridiculous - and unfortunately gaining traction.  It is a pressure to which the United States must never succumb.

I live in the United States were we have both freedom of religion and freedom of speech; two rights which I deeply cherish. Other countries do not always have these rights; however, I support anyone in those countries or the U.S. who demands them and fights for them.  While I am an atheist, I will strongly defend anyone to have whatever religious beliefs they wish.  I may not support how they act upon them if they result in oppression of others or cause harm, but I support their right to hold such beliefs.  But we must also have free speech if we are to have the freedom we require to express our religious beliefs.  This may involve expressing ourselves in ways that offend others of differing viewpoints.  Too bad.  You have the right to believe what you wish and to express those thoughts, but you do not have the right to not be offended.  Sorry, but that is the price you pay to have the right to freely express your religious beliefs.

As an atheist, I am constantly subjected to hate speech that could be taken as offensive.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  I wouldn't want any government to stifle the speech of the theists that attack my morality - or lack thereof in their view.  My task is to quiet them by convincing them that they are wrong, not by legislating their silence.

In my opinion, any country that does not guarantee the right to free speech is not properly free.  We should never bow to the pressure of other countries, no matter what the risk, if it compromises the core principles on which this country was founded.

Related Quote:
“This crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves” - Robert Green Ingersoll

Intolerant, Loving Christians

A pro-atheist billboard in Cincinnati was removed due to threats to the owner of the land where the billboard was located.  The message was simple and not offensive at all: "Don't Believe In God? You are not alone."  And yet some thin-skinned, hypersensitive Christians had to spread their Christian message of love and compassion, intolerance and bigotry and threatened the landowner. Why?  This billboard did not say there was no god or say anything malicious about religion - contrary to some Christian signs that I have personally observed which tell me that I am damned to burn in Hell for eternity (just travel to Arkansas or Mississippi sometime).


This situation reminds me of an Ingersoll quote that I have on a T-shirt: “This crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves”


If Christianity (or any other theistic religion) was true, it wouldn't need to be defended by blasphemy laws or ignorant thugs.