You couldn't be here if stars hadn't exploded.
To the question, “Why me?” the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply, “Why not?”
Atheist: Natural Morals, Real Meaning, Credible Truth

27 February, 2012

Why I'm Going to the Reason Rally

Currently not planned but really want to go!

Liz and I would really like to go!

http://www.reasonrally.org/about/

22 February, 2012

I get email « Why Evolution Is True

I wish I could write this well...

"
Posted February 22, 2012 at 12:55 pm | Permalink

Sorry, [Name and phone number regretfully redacted], but your obsession with Jesus’s bones is as childishly idiotic as an obsession with Harry Potter’s scar. You can’t explain that scar without Voldemort’s magic wand, can you? Huh? Huh?

What you need to understand is that what you take for the utmost in journalistic standards — the Bible — is nothing more than a very late anthology of anonymously-authored stories that did nothing more than reset well-worn Greek mythology in Judea.

And you can very easily confirm that by examining the actual evidence for yourself.

You’d think that the people living in the area at the time the greatest story ever told happened might have noticed something, no? And yet, though we’ve got copious documentation from just those people, not a one noticed even a hint of everything. The Dead Sea Scrolls are literally an entire library’s worth of original pieces of paper written before, during, and after the time by Jews living in and around Jerusalem; not a hint of Jesus or the events of the Gospels. Same story with Philo, brother-in-law of Herod Agrippa (the King Herod the Gospels mention as reigning at the time of the Crucifixion), the philosopher who first incorporated the Logos from Hellenism into Judaism, Jewish ambassador to Rome, and a prolific author. Or the Roman Satirists, whose stock in trade was political intrigue and humiliation (think of the fodder Pilate offered!), or Pliny the Elder, or any of dozens of others.

Instead, what we have are the Gospels, which talk about events that didn’t happen until the Roman conquest of Judea in 70 CE and which were, most realistically, written a century or so later still. And we have the Pauline epistles, apologetically dated to a number of decades after the “facts,” and in which the author describes his hallucinations and offers up as biography rituals indistinguishable from then-common pagan religious ceremonies.

And we have a small smattering of fifth-hand (or worse) accounts from pagans not even born until well after the “facts” and who are only describing the beliefs and practices of Christians — Christians whom they described the same way you’d describe a modern lunatic whack-job cult like the Raelians.

So, sorry to break the news to you, but Christianity is pure bullshit. The only thing it’s got going on all those other religions you don’t even have to think about to know they’re bullshit is that the lunatics took over the Roman Empire, got their cult turned into the state religion, and made membership compulsory with the power of the greatest pre-modern empire the planet has ever seen.

The good news is that, if you stop wasting your life on that childish nonsense, you’ll free up a great amount of your own resources and have the opportunity to make the world a better place. And chances are good you’ll be happier for it, too. Growing up is scary, but only to those who’ve yet to grow up.

Cheers,

b&

  • Claimthehighground
    Posted February 22, 2012 at 1:22 pm | Permalink

    Oh and [name and phone number regretfully redacted] here is a bible verse you might want to re-read: “When I was a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish things.” Go thou and do likewise, my son."

19 February, 2012

Stephen Colbert Interviews Neil deGrasse Tyson at Montclair Kimberley Ac...

To the question, "Why is there something instead of nothing?"


"Words that make questions

May not be questions

At all."


~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

17 February, 2012

Santorum: Satan is Systematically Destroying America

Of all the GOP candidates, Santorum scares me the most. He looks normal and acts normally but he says the craziest things. A religious crank in the WH to me is really bad news. Not that there haven't been any in the past, but now is a bad time.

14 February, 2012

The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Vagina Ideologues - Sean Hannity's Holy Sausage Fest
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogThe Daily Show on Facebook

Jon Stewart nails it again. Again the GOP leadership looks stupid, inept, and a roadblock to any progress as long as Obama is President. The GOP is being laughed at. Stewart points out the anarchy of what they want, but then they want failure. This is why Obamacare should have been a single payer health plan with NO private insurance. Employers should not be in the business of providing health care!

13 February, 2012

Daily Kos: Republicans Have Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Daily Kos: Republicans Have Narcissistic Personality Disorder

A person with NPD has the following traits:
--No empathy whatsoever
--Monstrous entitlement issues
--Bedrock belief that he/she is "special"
--Bedrock belief that he/she is exempt from all rules and standards of behavior
--Problem telling the truth, to the point that lies and truth are indistinguishable
--Only gets close to people who "pay tribute" to him/her
--Everything is image; there is NO substance

Sounds like every Republican in congress.