Happy New Year, Heathens!

Here's to an interesting year coming to a close, and the beginning of a fresh new year full of change and promise.



I hope you're all having fun with your celebrations and being safe getting to and from any parties.



This change is really just an arbitrary moment in time. A time to take stock, and a time to celebrate.

Next year will be awesome. I know, that's my optimism speaking, but we'll make it the best year it can be. :)

Thank you for helping me be my best this year. Luvz U guyz!

Aww, damnit, I was aiming for posting at exactly midnight. But my awesome husband just called to wish me a Happy New Year. Damn, I love that guy. Ok, thank you again for being such great readers and commenters. Suggestions always welcome, as are guest posters. :)

Since I'm already late, how about one more lolcat? Let's see if I can find a really good one. (actually the optimist pessimist is one of my favs at the moment :P )

HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's 2009!

My Wickedness Shines Through

I wonder how I come across to all you fine people who read my humble little blog. Do I seem like a nice atheist with a heart of gold? Do I seem like a malignant troll? Evil beyond measure as I try to corrupt impressionable minds and turn them from god? It's interesting to ponder how others see you.

Anyhoo, enough self-examination. Let's get on with what I have for you today. Sheer mischievous wickedness, I'm afraid. Please don't mind the fact that there is also a bit of shameless self promotion. That is quite unintentional. This is really about the mischievousness. And the wickedness. Don't forget that too. :P

As you may know, my brilliant husband Butch and I make t-shirts. A lot of them are anti-religious in nature. Recently we made one entitled Slave to Fairy Tales. Here it is on a t-shirt:

Slave to Fairy Tales by SirLeeTees

It says: "Slave to Fairy Tales? Might I suggest something with a better story line and more believable characters, like Mother Goose or Aesop's Fables?"

I also put it on a sticker:

How Many gods Are There In The Bible?

If you read the old testament, you will soon come to realize that god was jealous because he hated his competition. This is interesting because he went to so much trouble to be the "one god" for Abraham and his "chosen" people.

Thousands of years later, though, billions of people believe it as gospel truth that there is one god and that it's always been that way.

As a side note, I also find it irritating and interesting that christians cherry pick so much of what they believe, and conveniently write off the rest of the bible, their one and only book. For example, exodus contains the 10 commandments. So they choose to follow those. And genesis contains the infamous beginnings of the universe and creation of man nonsense. They love that stuff too. But all the ridiculous and petty rules from leviticus are dismissed. Funny how that works.
But I digress.

There are 13 instances in the entire bible that say that there is only one god. Some of those are a bit weak, though. Like Deuteronomy 32:39 - See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me.

Church: No Brain Activity Required

It seems that all major religions share the experience of transcendence. Personally in my religious indoctrination as a child, I never felt it. But lots of people have. It's a feeling of being one with god where you lose your sense of self. I would guess if you ever felt like you were one with your god, that would strongly increase your faith. Right?

Well, now scientists at the University of Missouri have shown what happens during such experiences. When a person experiences transcendence, there is decreased activity in the right parietal lobe of  the brain. This area has to do with your senses, such as orienting yourself in space.



Note that people who have injuries to the right parietal lobe also report increased levels of spiritual experiences, which would further substantiate the findings of this study.

I Need A PrayerMAX 5000!

I saw this commercial for the PrayerMAX 5000 awhile ago on Pharyngula, but I was busy and never actually watched it. Silly me! This is awesome! I need two of these things!

Happy Winter Solstice! Let's Celebrate With Lolcats!

It's that time of year, my friends. The Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year for us in the Northern Hemisphere, has arrived.

99% of christians Are Hypocrites

I think if you're a christian, the most important parts of the bible would be Jesus' teachings. So why are there churches? Why do christians demand that there is prayer in school and insist on praying openly? Why are there TV evangelists openly crying out, "In Jesus' name" every other slimy sentence? Because they are all Blasphemers and Hypocrites.

Matthew 6:1-7. Read it, christians. Take it to heart, or do you have more hypocritical lies to twist the words of your own savior so that you can do what you like?

Warmth and Generosity

Ohmygosh, I am not feeling well. I feel like a used litterbox. Ew. I just grossed myself out there. Anyhoo, I've had something I wanted to share with you, but unfortunately I've not been up to posting it in the detail you deserve. Instead of holding onto it even longer, I'm going to be brief and let you know of this neat study.

~

The other day I heard of a study reported in the journal Science about holding warm or cold coffee. The researchers found that holding warm coffee led people to judge others to be more generous and caring. If they held iced coffee they'd think of them less nicely.

They also found that if asked to hold a warm pack, they'd be more generous and give something to someone. If they held a cold pack, they'd be more likely to keep something for themselves.

Which means, physical warmth leads us to see others as warmer, and leads us to feel more generous, while physical cold gives colder results.

The same researchers had previously shown that physical distance between people influences their judgments about that person.

How cool is that!? You can listen to the report of the news item and read more details at the Naked Scientists Science News.

I've been an atheist for around 8 years, most of which I've spent in the religious closet, so to speak. Before that, I was an agnostic, searching constantly for answers but not positive that there wasn't some kind of god out there that created everything.

In all that time, I kept my godlessness relatively private, telling very few people. Mainly I wanted to avoid confrontation. I didn't really know how to debate or defend myself, so I felt it was a personal issue and kept it to myself.

In the last 8 years though, I've watched this poor country polarize itself in politics and religion to an alarming degree and wallow in gross ignorance. I've realized relatively recently that being in the closet wasn't helping anything.

I couldn't be myself when talking to people because being a skeptical atheist is a huge part of my life. I guess when I fully and finally sloughed off the dead weight of god, religion and superstitions, I also lost a large part of the foundation of my belief system. It really rocked me. I realized a lot of what I believed was nonsense and lies.

So I've had to rebuild what I believe in, my atheist worldview, so to speak.

The thing is, being in the religious closet has only served to isolate me from other people of like mind, as well as keep ideas limited to just what I read or experience personally. Then I discovered the atheist and skeptical world. I realized I wasn't alone, and I finally came out of the damned closet.

This will inspire you. It sure inspired me. 40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Let me know what you think of it.



I wrote a transcript because it's so awesome:

Yesterday I wrote a post called the Burden of Proof Lies With The Claimant in which I talked about the burden of proof and who is responsible for it, namely the person making the claim or complaint. I talked about how theists believe in a god, so it's up to them to prove that god exists, since it's an extraordinary claim which requires extraordinary evidence, none of which has ever been forthcoming.

The first comment I got on the post was from a man named Brian. When I got up this morning  and read his comment I was inspired to reply. After a few minutes I realized my response was quite lengthy and decided a follow-up post was in order. After his comment you'll find my thoughts.  So here is his comment in its entirety:

There are a string of points here, but let’s just just address one of them which is the position of unbelief.

You see the world though a pair of glasses of unbelief. Everything is skewed and interpreted from that framework.

My guess is that your belief that God does not exist is so strong that you would not change that under any circumstances.

If God turned the sea into blood, swiped the stars from the sky, turned the moon blood red and blocked out the light of the sun (which is exactly what He WILL do) there will be millions of people that STILL refuse to believe what the Bible says.

Burden Of Proof Lies With The Claimant

As an atheist, it's important to understand what the Burden of Proof is, and how it works. Why? Because theists misuse it against us. In return, we need to be better educated and set them straight.

The burden of proof (latin: onus probandi), falls under the maxim 'necessitas probandi incumbit ei qui agit' or, "the necessity of proof lies with he who complains". The burden of proof usually lies with the party making the new claim, in terms of law.

But where we are much more interested is in science, where the burden of proof lies with someone suggesting a new theory or stating a claim. They therefore must supply evidence to support it.

So if someone makes a bold claim, it isn't another person's responsibility to disprove it, but rather the responsibility of the person making the claim.

Also, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, meaning the less reasonable a statement seems, the more proof it requires.

One Lockstepping Jackboot Closer To a Theocractic Police State

I'm sure you've heard of this insidious law in Kentucky, by now. State Rep. Tom Riner, a southern baptist minister, tucked a provision in a homeland security bill in 2006 that lawmakers overwhelmingly approved.

Apparently you don't need intelligence or common sense to hold a government position in America these days. You certainly don't have to adhere to the Constitution or the Bill of Rights.

The statement begins, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon almighty god."  Basically, Homeland Security's religious duties come before everything else, including how to spend the millions of dollars ($28 million this year) they get from the federal government and whatever possible threats they might think they have in the middle of nowhere.

A Sacri-licious Experiment With The Body Of Christ

Stumbling around the intertoobs, my husband found a page titled, Body of Christ? Not So Nice! I cracked up laughing and thought I'd better share it with you. I haven't gone to church in about 27 years, so I don't remember what Jesus tasted like. The christian churches I went to served Jesus wafers with red grape juice (pansies), so I never even got to wash down the lord with the real stuff - red wine.

Maybe that's why I lost the faith! I didn't get the right jesus juice! I was cheated, and now I'm just a lost heathen. AMEN!

Anyway, this guy Kevin decided to try different toppings on the eucharist crackers. This was back in 2005, so I guess he beat PZ Myers to the sacriligeous punch, so to speak. Here's the intro to Body of Christ? Not So Nice!

A Grateful Atheist

I learned about a study through Scientific American yesterday. Psychologists, writing in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that people keeping a weekly gratitude journal exercised an hour and a half longer per week than those who kept a complaining journal.

Basically, once a week for 10 weeks, people in the study would write down up to 5 things they were grateful for. It could be as simple as "waking up this morning". By the end of the study, they were working out an hour and a half more per week than a group that wrote about life's hassles, like "stupid people driving".

Ironically, I've had trouble being motivated to exercise and keep a food journal since Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd give this a shot. Last night I wrote down 5 things I'm grateful for. It was pretty easy.

But that got me thinking. It smacks of "counting your blessings", doesn't it? I just wondered, if I'm not grateful to someone, how does that work?

Gratitude: noun - the quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful.
Origin: 1400–50; late ME < ML grātitūdin- (s. of grātitūdō) thankfulness, equiv. to grāt(us) pleasing + -i- -i- + -tūdin- -tude

Ok, so I guess I can be grateful, and it doesn't have to be to anyone in particular. I guess I was thinking it was more like the christian idea of counting your blessings and thanking god. Blech!

Being free of god, I wasn't sure about how gratitude worked. I guess it's just an acknowledgment of what is good in your life.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the study with you. Aren't you lucky, you get my thoughts that go with it as an added bonus. :P

Have a great day! I'm grateful for you! :)

Your god is Not Omnipotent

Why can nobody answer the question "Can God create an object so heavy that even God cannot lift it?" and postulate the answer for it?

I ask again why?

You know, it would be cool if some preacher out there somewhere actually had the brains to answer it but alas, nobody has. Really, the answer is easy--a breeze to anybody who can actually think for themselves. Okay I fibbed, it's not that easy... but all a religious person has to do is pray to their god for the answer. I mean there are numerous examples in the bible I can quote saying that all they had to do was pray. Indeed, the fact that this question has not been answered correctly by a theist yet proves that personal gods do not exist. Yes you read that right, the fact that it hasn't been answered correctly proves it, not the question!

I just can't improve on Pat Condell's brilliance.

I've seen his videos in the past, but I didn't realize he has been so prolific. (I know, I live under a rock). He did this latest video about a month ago and it's awesome, as usual. I decided to do a transcript mainly for myself because I agreed with just about everything he said. So I thought I'd add it here. Thanks Pat, you really did nail what I think! :)

Godless and Free by Pat Condell

Somebody pointed out to me recently that by focusing on what I don't want, namely religion, I'm attracting more of it into my life, which I agree would be a very unfortunate irony if not for the fact that I'm focusing on what I do want, and that's freedom, and lots of it.

The Christian Questionnaire

This is so clever, I have to share it with you. We all need to keep copies of this to hand to those pesky christians trying to convert us to their cult: The Christian Proselytizer Questionnaire:

If you're reading this paper, it means I've given it to you because you were proselytizing to me and you are a Christian. I'm giving you this paper to save us both some time; you see, I'm not a Christian, although I used to be. I'm a secular humanist, and I became one for both logical and emotive reasons.

Since I've been a Christian, I do know quite a bit about the religion, although I might not know much about your particular sect. (I use the word sect instead of the word denomination because I think it unfair that Christians get denominations, which is a nice-sounding word, while everyone else gets sects, which is an evil-sounding word.) I became a non-Christian because I didn't like what I knew about the Christian religion. If you want to even begin attempting to convert me, you have to settle those problems. Specifically, you have to answer the questions below. Answers to each question should be typed or neatly handwritten on a separate sheet (or sheets) of paper, and no answer should exceed 100 words. This is because one of the reasons I left Christianity is that it was so complex, and I've found that the simplest answer to a question is usually the right one. Quotes from scripture count for bonus points as long as you can refute other quotes from scripture that contradict the passage that you are quoting. If you return this paper to me personally, or if you mail it to me, and if I think that your answers justify my return to Christianity, then I will get in touch with you.