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A Source For Helpful Movie Reviews

Anyone can go to IMDB for a movie review these days. Or, like me, you can read the little blurb on Netflix and make your decision that way. Usually I just want to know the basic premise of the movie, who’s in it, and who directed it. I don’t listen to the opinions of many people (famous, friend or family) when it comes to recommendations and the like because most people don’t know me very well. All they can tell me is what they thought of the movie for themselves, not for me. And I’m an Odd Duck, to be sure. I don’t like a lot of things that are raved about. And movies or things that most people don’t care for I think are great. I don’t often agree with popular opinion.

Why am I going on about this? Well, there is one thing I absolutely have zero tolerance for; a bible thumping movie. I can’t stand religious propaganda shoved down my throat. Not long after Left Behind went to DVD my dad rented it thinking it was Sci Fi. (we used to go out to dinner and watch a movie afterward as sort of a regular family night) I saw that Kirk Cameron was in it, thought that was a bad sign, but gave it the benefit of the doubt and promptly wasted 2 hours of my life to that dreck. That night Butch (my nearly perfect husband) and I made a pact never to sit through a horrid movie again.

So when I see a movie preview that could look like it’s a “God Movie” I would rather steer clear. Unfortunately a lot of god movies mask it in the previews, and some movies that really don’t have a strong pro-god/pro-religion tone might look like it in the previews.

Enter Christian Answers Movie Reviews! My friend Dan shared this site with me and now I am passing it on to you because I actually found it useful.

I picked a movie I was leery about, The Book of Eli, and here’s what I discovered. First, they describe a lot of scenes so it is a bit of a spoiler. Second, I learned it’s a pretty god-heavy movie that would probably set my nerves on edge. Here’s part of the review: Read the rest of this entry »

Rise of the Gnostic Atheist: A Deconversion Story

Alias: GMNightmare
Name: Jesse
Date: 29 July 2009
Birth: 1988 C.E.
Gender: Male

In my beginning, I was born to both a new mother and new father. My birth was a rather large event to my extended family, for I was the very first great grandchild. As my mother’s family is very close, of course many made an appearance. Near birth, I was blessed and baptized by my great grandfather under Christianity.

Under such pretenses I assume many would suspect that I was raised under a very religious setting. This was luckily not the case. It is worth mentioning that my mother’s ancestors stem from a long line of clergy, and they are all fairly religious… And while my mother is also mildly religious, my family couldn’t seem to find a church that we fit into.

Sure, my family tried—I understand that we were almost sucked into Mormonism. In the end, the situation basically turned out to be a lax kind of religious attitude. There was definitely more church attending during my younger years, but we went less as time progressed. Both my parents worked difficult and long jobs, and Sunday just needed to be an actual day of rest… as well as spending time with their kids.

I vaguely remember somewhere around the age of 10 or so… well, actually quite clearly, a day dining at a restaurant. My parents posed a question, of what we (the kids) thought of hell. My personal response gave the more “good” you where in life the better you would live in heaven… Hell didn’t really exist to me even at this point in my life. My sibling’s response was far cruder; basically amounting to saying a certain relative of ours should go there.

At this point, my parents informed us that our great grandfather had done some “research” into it (Biblical studying hardly amounts to research) and came to the conclusion that hell didn’t really exist as a place. All hell basically amounted to was nothing, you died and that was it. Much like the atheist point of view of death in general actually. This certainly made more sense at the time to me than some torturous place. Read the rest of this entry »

Betty Bowers and Edward Current Educate Us

It’s time for some educational videos, my friends. Luckily these will hopefully make you crack up as well as teach you something.
Here’s Edward Current in My Cat Is A christian, which of course, Miss Delilah is, otherwise her life would be meaningless! 1:56 minutes of hilarity.

I’ve heard of Betty Bowers but have never experienced her until just the other day. She’s America’s Best Christian, and she can teach us all quite a lot!
First, awhile ago she did this video explaining prayer to everyone else. Persistence counts, people! It’s very informative and helpful. I’ll have a bigger house with a real dishwasher, a maid, and a fireplace in no time! Woot! 4:07 minutes long.

Then a more recent, better edited video from just the other day, Betty takes the time to explain traditional marriage to everyone else. I thought I was happily married, but now I know the truth. Oh well. 4:14 minutes chock full of helpful information. Thanks, Betty!

Now we’re all properly educated and blissfully informed! Yay! I had some silly old scientific studies to share, but when you are a good christian like Betty and Edward, you don’t need stuffy old science at all!

How To Talk To A True Believer About Atheism And Religion

As you know, I have recently given up and gone back to Facebook (and Twitter). Twitter is not verbose enough. I see peoples’ tweets and links on my page and I don’t follow them because I have no idea what they are about. But I find that I like Facebook. I have found friends (a lot of you from here have befriended me, which I LOVE!), and those friends put up links and stories that I then look into, which is awesome.

Recently I decided to see about finding a few friends from high school. I found one, we’ll call him Pete. We have been chatting on Facebook and it was looking like maybe we could be friends again. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Well, then I mentioned that I went to a group meeting this past Sunday. I realized after mentioning it that the very name of the group would open up the discussion of religion and I tried to change the subject. I didn’t want to lose a friend before even getting him back.

The meeting I went to was for Morgantown Atheists. I’ve become rather active with them, as they are local, seem quite friendly, and hey, they’re atheists! Yay! Well, Pete immediately asked me, why am I an atheist? I started to tell him. I said that there’s no evidence for any gods. He said he had proof of god and the afterlife. I was intrigued and asked him for details, and to tell me why he is a christian, and he then told me 2 stories from his past, which have made him a believer.

He has a very unusual set of beliefs, culled together from different christian ideas, but mainly filtered down to only be the happy stuff. The stories he told were very much not happy. So I guess it makes sense for him to see the afterlife as a good thing.

As he told me more and more, I realized that if I said anything at all, to shine the light of logic and reason onto his stories and perceptions of god and the afterlife, that I’d alienate him as well as make him mad. He apparently derives great comfort from his beliefs, and I didn’t think it was appropriate to burst his bubble with talk of evidence, especially since it was clear that he felt he had more than enough proof. In fact, at one point he asked me if he had freaked me out. I had to say no, and that it wasn’t going to convert me either.The thing is, he ended the conversation and I haven’t heard from him since. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine a World Without god!? OH NOES!

What if god disappeared? This informative video (3:33 minutes long) will give us all an idea of what would happen if we lived in a world without god. Please watch it. Thank you, Edward Current for taking the time to educate us.

This was so helpful to me. I forgot how lonely, hopeless and desperate I am as an atheist. Now I guess all I have left is to go kill some kittens and babies. Be right back!

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver – My Favorite Poem

morning geese by zeneece

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting—
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

Why am I sharing this? Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

A Source For Helpful Movie Reviews

Rise of the Gnostic Atheist: A Deconversion Story

Betty Bowers and Edward Current Educate Us

How To Talk To A True Believer About Atheism And Religion

Imagine a World Without god!? OH NOES!

Wild Geese by Mary Oliver – My Favorite Poem

Webster’s Dictionary is Biased Towards Christianity

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