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 )

HAPPY NEW YEAR! It’s 2009!

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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.

Have a great day! I’m grateful for you!

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I just don’t know where to buy my first one. Walmart has knock-off slaves. They may be the least expensive, but they don’t last more than 6 months, so it’s not worth it. I think I’ll try Amazon, they’re great for most stuff. My friend got a slave from them and it was damaged in shipping. They replaced it right away, no questions asked. Plus they throw in an owner’s guide on care and feeding. Slaves can be tricky, so that might come in handy.

And you’re probably about to lynch me for this post, aren’t you? Hey don’t blame me. PZ Myers helped me find the light of the lord. I guess the shining light of reason really goes to Jean, who really is a visionary. She’s a born again christian, who happens to also be black, which in this circumstance only makes her logic so much more compelling. I know that sounds like an ad hominem attack, but no, in fact it is merely an observation. Jean has opened my eyes. Jean is a raging ignorant whackjob moron.

I tried to muddle through her disjointed mess of logical fallacies. It wasn’t pleasant. It’s vaguely coherent, but I was so flabbergasted by her reasoning that I had to keep shoving my eyes back in my sockets with a tire iron.

What also threw me for a loop was that she’s actually right about one thing. The bible does not condemn slavery, it condones it. Of course, that isn’t surprising, slavery has been around for millennia and still exists today.

But being able to sort through and quote the contents of an ancient, poorly translated, disjointed, misinterpreted, poorly edited bunch of stories thrown together into a book does not mean Jean is right in the rest of her logic. In fact, she seems to be fantastically flawed at every turn.

I will not waste your time with tearing each of her thoughts down to expose the fallacies. Instead, I’ll let Jean speak for herself:

Just as wives are to be submissive to their husbands, likewise slaves are to be submissive to their masters.

If the bible would have condemned slavery then the gospel itself would have been robbed of its meaning on some way. If slavery is wrong, then wives should not submit to their husbands, children should not obey parents, women should became equal to men and preach in churches ( which is forbidden in the bible by the way), and mostly no one should call Jesus their master or submit to the authority of God. For this reason, the bible does not condemn slavery, because the whole concept of Christians serving God would be meaningless. Human slavery is a very difficult part of history, and the fact that godly people in the bible owned slaves, makes it more hard for people to understand.

I do not believe slavery is wrong, because a) The bible does not condemn slavery and b) Slavery makes so much sense and to say slavery is wrong we rob the gospel off its meaning and even Election. The concept of total submission and slavery is at the very heart of Christ’s gospel. In order to be saved you have to be a slave of Christ.

We are told to deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Jesus. We are told to hate our own self and love God even before our own families.

I find that people who do not understand the concept of slavery do not understand the character and nature of God Himself and they do not understand what it means to be Christian.

… if you are truly saved, you will not find the concept of slavery insulting or evil.

Oh, Jean, you poor deluded fool. Anyway, I especially like the last one because it explains where we’ll get our slaves. Born Again Christian Camps will provide us with a steady supply! Woot!

Ok, I’m still reeling from this revelation. I need to clean out the shed out back and turn it into a proper shack fit for a born again slave (makeshift altar to jesus, sackcloth mat to sleep on, shackles to make sure they truly get the full experience of being a slave for christ, you know, the usual stuff.) Ooh, I wonder if I can get a starter kit with my first slave!? That would be so much easier! We have a pentecostal church right up the street, maybe they will have a christmas sale on children, half price!

I’d better get going now, I have to bake cookies for my husband, because if I don’t have them hot and ready when he gets home I get the belt. But once we get our first slave, that will all be over! HALLELUJAH THANK YOU BABY JESUS!

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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. ….

For years, Christianity has taught man to thank god for a lot of stuff and yet neglected the very fact that it is man who did the hard work which therefore makes man more worthy of thanksgiving than god himself. ….

Tell me, when was the last time you thanked other people for the good things they did?  Have you ever bothered saying thank you to your mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, brother, sister, children, other relatives, teacher, neighbor and your household maid?  Funny isn’t it that religion teaches us to thank an invisible being in the sky and yet not teach us to thank those who we can see whom I think needs to hear the words “thank you” much more.

Thanks Mike. This is so true. Being an atheist doesn’t mean that you have to get rid of thoughtfulness and kindness. In fact, in my experience, the nicest people I know have been nonbelievers. They are good people simply because they want to be. Not because they are frightened into it by a nameless invisible man in the sky or a man in a big goofy hat with nasty threats.

What is morality for an atheist? Start the discussion on the Morality page.

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