Playtime with the westboro cultists!

Being as I live about 20 minutes from the Xcel Center I can't help but go to the Republican Convention next week. I've mentioned in the past that I hope to get some good audio to use for the show (I'll definitely have pictures if nothing else) and I plan to stick to that.

I've been poking around the web and making phone calls to find out who's going to be where and at what time. It seems 11am Monday, on the steps of the capital, is the place to be. A number of groups have coordinated to meet, then march to the Excel and have a party later in the evening. I question the usefulness of protest in this day and age, especially at an event like this, so I'll be there hanging out but not actively protesting beyond being another body in the crowd.

This was my plan until this morning: Go, talk to people, get some pictures and video, hang out and have a good time. That is still on the agenda but while trolling around the web it was brought to my attention that the westboro baptist cult is planning on making an appearance. They'll have a contingent of loonies out there all week but from 12:30 to 2:30 PM on Monday falls right into my schedule...it's an opportunity I can't pass up.

Ahem!

Just a quick note to let you know we're joining the Atheist Blogroll, so direct your attention to the shiny and new link on the right sidebar. :D I might not have the right code installed yet, but hey, I'm not that much of a geek.

My company arrived safe and sound, so I don't have much free time. Don't forget, we're looking for YOU to post to HDC! Whether you want to post something just once, occasionally, or you'd like to do something more regularly, let us know!

Social Obligations and Avatars

What on earth is Neece on about with that title? Well, I have to ask you a question and I need to let you know that company is coming into town for a week or 10 days or some such nonsense.

Ok, first, I want an avatar! I have no idea how to get one. Can someone please tell me the mystical woo secret of having one when I comment on my own goofy blog? LOLz... ok.. so I'm not the sharpest stick in the tiger trap. :P

Anyway, my husband's family is descending en masse tomorrow (actually tonight now that it's after 2 am) sometime in the evening. So, his two sisters are staying here for over a week and I won't get much time to be in front of my beloved computer.

Hopefully I'll at least gather together some good bible thumping vs atheist banter for you since we'll be surrounded by "good" catholics. At least the food is delicious! LOL!

Wish me luck. I really don't like having company. :( Oh well. Social Obligations and all that nonsense!

Why Didn't *I* Think Of That!?

I stumbled upon this Craigslist posting for Kansas City. When I realized what I was looking at, my jaw dropped. Why didn't I think of that!?

The offer is for pet care services for "good" christians. Apparently over half of America's population has worried over what will happen to their beloved pets when the rapture comes. Jesus hates animals, so of course, they'll be staying down here with the smart atheists.

So why not offer a pet care service to "good" christians? I wonder if an ad like this would get pulled on eBay? Or my local classifieds paper! I could try that. It's got bible quotes in it and good wholesome stuff, so I'd have a great target audience.

What do you think? Worth a shot? :P Here's the craigslist listing.

The Catholic Church Supported Hitler

I was always under the vague impression that Hitler's hatred of the Jews was more than culturally motivated, but until recently I wasn't' aware that the catholic church supported Hitler and the Nazi party. I was never taught in school (and this was back when education meant something in this country) that there was anything religious involved in WWII.

Then again, I was never taught that Japan bombed Australia at the same time as they bombed Pearl Harbor, so I know I have a lot to make up for in my education.

My husband finds me the neatest stuff. He found me a website that I want to share with you. NoBeliefs.com has a whole page on Nazis and religion.

When you realize that the Nazis mixed government with religion and religious fervor and then look at where we're heading today in America, it makes you sit up and start to take notice.

If there is no god...ohnoes!

Fundamentalists news websites, how I love thee, especially WorldNutDaily. WND never ceases to provide amusement in the form of fundie logic and wacky advertisements. Claiming itself as a 'news source' this beyond right-wing rag makes Fox news look like the Disney Channel. I used to get pissed at the B.S. they sling but I've come to embrace it for what it really is; satirical humor. Some people can take this stuff with a grain of salt and some can't, so steer clear if you're easily aggravated by ignorant bible thumping and rhetorical, fallicious logic. If you can stomach it ignore the 'news' links and head straight for the commentary pages. With scathing insights from the likes of Anne Coulter, Pat Boone, Hal Lindsey and Chuck Norris (yes, that Chuck Norris...sorry kids, he's a hardcore creo-bot) you know you're in for a treat.

In all fairness, there are a small handful of decent commentaries to be found if you really work for it. They have to print a few things that aren't completely batshit crazy if they want to call themselves "credible".

Tonight this little gem caught my eye: If there is no God.

Webster's Dictionary is Biased Towards Christianity

Words and how you use them are very important. The pen IS mightier than the sword in many respects. For example, 99.999% of atheists are stamped with the militant label wrongly. People hear that word and then wrongly associate atheists with the idea that most of us are fighting and being aggressive against believers. With that one word, they've labeled us as waging a "war" against them.

This is ludicrous and terribly backwards. By labeling us, they have started the "holy war" against atheists. Not us. In my 39 years, I've never met a militant atheist. But I have seen and dealt with many militant, close-minded, hateful, fundamentalist religious folks.

So words are very important.

Hess was looking up synonyms for atheist on Dictionary.com for our new project (as you can see, we settled on Heaving Dead Cats) and pointed out something rather irritating.

De-Christianizing

One of the things I noticed not long after becoming an atheist was how much christianity and religion is soaked into the fabric of society. Here are a few glaring examples:

• Taking Sundays off


• Blue States where they won't sell alcohol on Sundays


• Saying "bless you" when someone sneezes


• Christmas, Easter, St. Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Halloween, All Saints Day, etc., etc....


• Common expressions like oh my god, jesus!, jesus christ, damnit, damn, holy anything, etc., etc...

As an atheist, I wonder, is it necessary to remove and de-christianize ourselves as much as possible? My husband sneezed this morning and I said "bless you." It's a habit to say it. I apologized and said, "you're so good looking" instead. (A Seinfeld episode reference.)

You Don't Have To Pass An IQ Test To Be In The Senate

Stumbling around the web, I found this snippet of Bill Maher's interview with Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas for the documentary, Religulosity:



So this senator, who helps run the country, believes in a snake talking to Eve in the garden of eden 5,000 years ago. The senator makes a funny though. Yeah, really funny.

Why I'm An Atheist, Not An Agnostic

Stumbling around the web, I came across a page at lukeprog.com titled The Arrogance of Atheism. I almost moved on, but then I saw the subtitle: Why I'm an atheist, not an agnostic. Luke writes a page that is simple and concise, yet totally makes sense. I contacted him and asked him if I could share it with you. So here it is in its entirety:

The Arrogance of Atheism
Why I’m an atheist, not an agnostic.

When I tell people I’m an atheist, they say, “How can you be so arrogant to think that you know God doesn’t exist? At least say you’re an agnostic and admit that you can’t know for sure one way or the other.”

Atheism! How arrogant!

But is it?

My Name Is Neece And I'm An Atheist

It seems in America today, being an atheist is tantamount to being unpatriotic. We're constantly labeled "militant" by christians. My friend Hess did a blog post about it which I thought made a lot of sense. He defined militant and passionate. I agree with him, I'm a passionate atheist. And I've honestly never met a militant one. I have met angry ones, though. But personally, I get angry too. I think we have a lot to be angry about.

Anyway, I've been quiet about my atheism for 8 years. I keep my mouth shut. I never confront people, I never even mention it to people. It's a personal thing. Or it has been. I'm not ashamed of being godless. I just don't care for confrontation, and I don't like offending people.

But why should I have to hide who I am? It's more acceptable to be gay than atheist now. But maybe if all of us closet heathens came out and showed that we're here and we're.. uh.. not queer necessarily.. uh.. relatively nice ethical people, it won't be so polarized.

Ok, so that's a pipe dream. But since I started Believers Anonymous, and now Heaving Dead Cats, I realize it's time for me to stand up and be myself.

So instead of going by Fruitloop, I'm going to use my name. I'm Neece. And I'm an Atheist. And I'm a Good Person. Deal with it, christians. :D

Even More Skeptical

Recently, I talked about being skeptical. I wanted to show the importance of thinking for yourself, and not taking everything at face value. It's an easy concept to understand, but it can also be easy to slip into gullibility or false reasoning.

In my article yesterday, I made some assumptions and didn't clarify my reasoning, as well as only did some surface work on the research. A perfect example of falling into the exact trap that needs to be avoided when trying to break free of false belief systems!

Lesson learned, and thank you for the excellent comments.

Soylent Brown is RATS?

I don't think I'm ready to eat rats. Hell, I can't even eat squid or oysters. Rats? No, not gonna happen.

But over in India, they lose half of their grain stock to the vermin. And people over there are poor and hungry, so maybe it's not such a bad idea? Vijay Prakash, secretary of the state's welfare department has come up with a plan to put rat meat on menus even in prestigious hotels.

Ok, that's just crazy. Rat meat under glass with new potatoes and rice? Hmm.. NOT. Apparently there are places in India where people eat rats regularly. But I think the fancy restaurants and hotels might be pushing the idea a bit far.

Well, it does solve several problems at once though. The rat population is diminished by eating them, so people would have a new source of protein in their diet, and the grain stocks would not be eaten so much so more grain would be available.

Still, the whole idea is quite unappetizing to me. Then again, I'm not in India and I'm not hungry.

Found here at UTI and Here.

Smoke Is Pouring Out Of My Ears

Today has been a great day for building foundations. I'm working on a good follow-up to Be Skeptical, but I really needed to put more time into it than I was able to allow. So it's half done, waiting for some quiet time where I can get the information and my thoughts together properly.

Rome wasn't built in a day, after all! :P

Just wanted to let you know that I'm working on that as well as some other historical information. Comments and suggestions or questions for what you'd like to see go up next are most welcome. So let me know what interests you!

Have a great day! :D

Hello world!

The liberation of the human mind has never been furthered by dunderheads; it has been furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all men that doubt, after all, was safe - that the god in the sanctuary was finite in his power and hence a fraud.

H L Mencken, in The American Mercury, January, 1924

Actually, here is the full quote, in context:

Of a piece with the absurd pedagogical demand for so-called constructive criticism is the doctrine that an iconoclast is a hollow and evil fellow unless he can prove his case. Why, indeed, should he prove it? Is he judge, jury, prosecuting officer, hangman? He proves enough, indeed, when he proves by his blasphemy that this or that idol is defectively convincing—that at least one visitor to the shrine is left full of doubts. The fact is enormously significant; it indicates that instinct has somehow risen superior to the shallowness of logic, the refuge of fools. The pedant and the priest have always been the most expert of logicians—and the most diligent disseminators of nonsense and worse. The liberation of the human mind has never been furthered by such learned dunderheads; it has been furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all men that doubt, after all, was safe—that the god in the sanctuary was finite in his power, and hence a fraud. One horse-laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. It is not only more effective; it is also vastly more intelligent.

H L Mencken, in The American Mercury, January, 1924 - p. 75.

A Solar Revolution In Our Future

In a giant leap for clean energy, MIT professor Daniel Nocera and his team, have developed a simple method to split water molecules and produce oxygen gas. This paves the way for large scale use of solar power.

Getting energy from the sun isn't the hard part, it seems. It's storing that energy that has been a problem.

These guys at MIT were inspired by how plants perform photosynthesis. Their revolutionary method uses abundant, non-toxic natural materials.

I won't get into all the details, but I just wanted to share it with you because it seems pretty important and wonderful.

Here's a link to MIT where they have a video of Daniel Nocera describing the new process and a lot more details.

This is just the beginning though. It's still not really cost effective, but other scientists will be able to run with it and we'll see where it all leads us in the near future.

Nocera hopes that within 10 years, we'll be able to power our homes in daylight through photovoltaic cells, while using excess solar energy to produce hydrogen and oxygen to power our own household fuel cell.

Of course, the power companies will not like this. But hopefully it will all happen anyway. :)

Be Skeptical

My friend sent me a link to the Times Online this morning, to an article titled Red Bull gives you wings - and heart trouble?. My husband drinks Red Bull, and my friend thinks I do too. I don’t actually. I drink Java Monster. It’s delicious and is in a 16 ounce can instead of the paltry 8 ounces you get from Red Bull. So of course I read the article because I don’t want my husband and I to be harming our health unknowingly.

My friend - we’ll call him Sam to protect his identity - said that he always knew this stuff was bad for you. And that was that for him. Case closed. I said I wanted more data. He said, “I don’t.. that stuff’s loaded with enough caffeine to explode an elephant’s heart… no more data needed.”

What? Are you kidding me?

Scoutle Makes Networking Effortless

So there's this new networking tool called Scoutle.
I'll let this 4 minute video explain it, since it does a very good job:



If you join, find us, we're HDC. Make a connection with us and we can support each other effortlessly. :) Here's a link to the Atheist Network on there. You can also go to our widget in the sidebar. :)

When And Where World Religions Began

Here is a bit of history for you. It's a chart of world religions. I find this helpful because it shows that they were all created over time, and implied in this is that they were created by men.

This chart is interesting because obviously a lot of religions and religions-turned-myth are not on here. Also interesting is the fact that most of these are still being practiced. Though this chart doesn't show it, it seems that since the dawn of man, there has always been a yearning to understand the mysterious, and to name and personify it in some way by creating gods and stories.

And yet, most scientists and great thinkers, the great minds, are and have been atheists, agnostics or deists.

Reason and Polls

I just posted an interesting piece by Sam Harris that I found regarding the truth about atheism. It was written in 2006 for the LA Times and holds some ideas as to how atheists as a general rule view the world, and how religious people view atheists.

Here at Believers Anonymous, I want create a place for folks with a "believing problem" to be able to easily find resources, whether that be an article that concisely talks about atheism, opinions and "testimonies" of other people finding their way, or well, just about anything that might be helpful to you.

This is a journey for me as well, because, while I've been an atheist for a long time, I've come to feel that I need to be a bit more proactive about my lack of faith. Hence the creation of this site, obviously. I'm comfortable in my godlessness, but you might need facts, information and/or support to help you with your beliefs. That information isn't always easy to come by, so it might take awhile.

Anyway, I'm on a Quest for this information. (Any tidbits or suggestions are always welcome, by the way... or help even.. I would love that too!) As I find it, I'll present it to you as best I can. This brings me to a couple small things I want to talk to you about.

The Truth About Atheism

On December 24, 2006, Sam Harris wrote a piece for The Los Angeles Times called 10 Myths - And 10 Truths - About Atheism. I found it just the other day and wanted to share it with you in its entirety:

SEVERAL POLLS indicate that the term “atheism” has acquired such an extraordinary stigma in the United States that being an atheist is now a perfect impediment to a career in politics (in a way that being black, Muslim or homosexual is not). According to a recent Newsweek poll, only 37% of Americans would vote for an otherwise qualified atheist for president.

Atheists are often imagined to be intolerant, immoral, depressed, blind to the beauty of nature and dogmatically closed to evidence of the supernatural.

Atheism, Politics and Friends

I’m reading a book that is so good, so interesting, that I’ve highlighted almost every sentence. It’s a gold mine of ideas and information, a real treat to read.

If you looked at my book list, you’ll notice that I haven’t read all the “traditional” books that all other atheists seem to love. That’s not to say that I won’t, but I became an atheist when most of those books didn’t exist. Once I reached the point where I was ready to shed the oppressive mantle of religion, I was so relieved and felt so free, I didn’t have a need to read anything else on the subject for a long time.
Since I let go of god - all gods actually - a lot of books have finally come out about atheism. At the time, I didn’t even notice them. It was nice that it was being talked about, but I was happily god-free and in no need of conversion anymore.

Free Online College Classes

College is expensive. But if you look around, you might find that education can be free. We live in a world full of information, but sometimes you just have to know how to search for it.

A friend of mine wrote about MIT and their free classes online. It sounds great. The only catch is, you don't get credits for the classes you take, so it can't get you towards a degree, but it's Free Information. It's pretty hard to beat.

While looking into MIT, I found a lot of other great colleges and universities are now doing the same thing. Here's a brief list. I'm sure there's much more out there if you look:

An Inadequate Supply of Cold Hard Facts

Here at Believers Anonymous, when it comes to providing you information, only the cold hard facts will do. In some cases, this is not as easy as it may seem, as I've found out today.

I've just spent the last 2 days looking for information on something that I think will be helpful to you. It's about the symbols and stories of christianity and how many if not all of them are merely taken from other earlier religions and myths.

While I know that such things as the cross, the fish symbol, wedding rings, the virgin birth, the resurrection, the trinity, the crucifixion, the theft of all the pagan holidays, the christian vestments and the baptism were all stolen, I don't have any cold hard facts to cite for you.

I've found several sources. Unfortunately they are either laden with agenda and biased, or simply not cited and lacking any validity. While most of those sources basically say the same thing, that doesn't make it fact.

This might be one of those areas where there just isn't a lot of hard evidence. This is stuff that happened thousands of years ago, not to mention that pagan religions and myths were targeted by the church in an attempt to get rid of them during the Dark Ages and at other periods. Also the original texts of the bible have been cut and edited, rewritten and improperly translated so they aren't all that reliable either.

So, I'm on a Quest of biblical proportions (pun intended) to hunt down some great historical information for you. If you happen to have wonderful texts sitting quietly on your shelves, secret stashes of links to great sites that contain hidden treasures of historical facts, or anything else that might be useful, please comment or email me at heavingdeadcats@gmail.com

Stretchable Silicon Camera "Eye"

[caption id="attachment_332" align="alignleft" width="232" caption="Photograph of the electronic eye camera after integration with a transparent hemispherical cap and a simple, single component imaging lens. - Photo by John Rogers"][/caption]

The University of Illinois and Northwestern University have developed an "eye" camera. It combines stretchable optoelectronics and the design is inspired by nature. The layout is based on the human eye, so this camera is the next step towards an artificial retina, a la The Terminator.

On A Lighter Note

Some people are just brilliant and funny at the same time. George Carlin was one of those people.

Here is a video (about 10 minutes long) from one of his standup specials where he talks about how religion is bullshit:

About the Holy Bible

"Someone ought to tell the truth about the Bible." This was written by a man back in 1894. His name was Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll and he was a Civil war veteran, an American political leader and an orator during the Golden Age of Freethought.

His radical views on religion, slavery, woman's suffrage, and other issues of the day effectively prevented him from ever pursuing or holding political offices higher than that of state attorney general. Illinois Republicans tried to pressure him into running for governor on the condition that Ingersoll conceal his agnosticism during the campaign, which he refused on the basis that concealing information from the public was immoral. (this is obviously a foreign concept in today's day and age!)

Anyway, in 1894 he wrote "About the Holy Bible" which I found Here.

Here it is in all its timeless brilliance:

Birth of a Religion, Yummier Than Before!

How does a religion come into being? Well, in this day and age, maybe by instant message between two friends, late at night, while surfing the internet for interesting stuff…

Here's the recipe for Hess and Neece's (aka Fruitloop) Religion:

serves: Humanity

2: godless heathens

1: internets (can substitute 1 intertoobs, 1 webbernets or 1 ripe interwebs)

1: news article detailing wacky fundamentalist training camp

Chat and let simmer for 3-4 hours (cooking times vary in high altitudes)

Let cool then cut into squares.

Hessenroots: " TheCall Institute exists to equip, disciple and commission an emerging generation of radical Nazirites to prepare the way of the Lord by embracing a lifestyle of prayer and fasting that is energized by intimacy with Jesus. " http://www.thecall.com/

Fruitloop: oh jesus. That’s rather scary.

Hessenroots: yeah, no pun taken.

Fruitloop: :P pun intended

Hessenroots: "International House of Prayer University" abbreviates itself IHOP! http://www.ihop.org/

Fruitloop: ROFL!!!!

Hessenroots: I do love me some pancakes

Fruitloop: I love their crepes. I sing hallelujah every time I go in there :P

Hessenroots: anyway, sorry...this is just too amusing/scary for me to stop reading. The name of their campus - " IHOP Missions Base"

Fruitloop: oh jeez

Hessenroots: strategic pancake operations in a secret underground bunker!

Fruitloop: it's the french toast underground!

Hessenroots: it's the yummiest revolution ever!

Neece’s Book List

*Or how a hapless believer lost her faith and became a happy atheist. As you can see from this list, I didn’t read the traditional books to shake off the shackles of my faith.

Saying Thanks

In my electronic travels today, I stumbled upon a blog post from this guy Mike. He talks about how he used to thank god for everything good that happened to him, such as praying at meals, for his good grades and all that kind of thing. He's an atheist now, though.

Here is an excerpt:

I forgot to thank so many people for the so many good things I had in life and yet I managed to thank a god that I don’t see and is high unlikely to exist. ....

The Founding Fathers - Atheists and Freethinkers

Several of the Founding Fathers of the United States were Freethinkers, even Atheists. I've collected a small sampling of quotes from them. When faced with the tired argument that America was founded as a christian nation, this is a primer on refuting that lie.

6 Places to Find Free Online eBooks

Books can be quite expensive. Sometimes, especially when doing research, it's also great to be able to search through the book easily, like you can do with an ebook. This list is partly done for selfish reasons, so that I can easily find these sites again for myself. But for you, my friend, here is a list of 6 great places to find ebooks for free.

Bartleby - providing students, researchers and the intellectually curious with unlimited access to books and information free of charge on the web.

The Internet Public Library - Huge selection of more than 20,000 books to read online.

Many Books - Over 21,000 free ebooks available here.

Project Gutenberg - Over 25,000 free ebooks in their online catalog.

Refdesk - Quality, credible and timely online resources available for free, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, calculators and much more.

The Online Books Page - Over 30,000 free books online, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.

This list is compiled from Here where 40 sites are listed. But most of the links either didn't offer much or didn't seem quite as free as they appeared at first glance, so I've pared it down.

There are many other resources out there. But these seem like the best of the bunch. If you find more places to get great books online for free, leave a comment.