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.

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. Read more…

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.

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!

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!

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.