Jul 07, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
Featuring content from thinkatheist.com, discussing humanism, and a little bit about atheist parenting.
LISTEN TO THE THE LIVE SHOW. This episode will air July 7, 2010 at 11pm EDT.
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Jul 01, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
Here in America, we’ve been a country for quite a while: around 234 years or so. I think it’s worth repeating, the great gift our founding fathers, many of whom were devout theists, gave us in this secular nation in which we live. They fought and died so that smaller minded people living today could turn the tables on their foresight with repeated attempts to undo the greatest gift that we were given.
We’ll talk about atheists in foxholes, too.
My guest for this episode is Ryan Hoffman, who also goes around under the name of NewYorkComic. He’s a funny guy, a great thinker, and a frequent contributor to the shenanigans going on in the chat room which distract me from doing the show.
If Wednesday night’s show was any indication, this one should be quite entertaining. I’m definitely looking forward to it! Join Ryan and me for a somewhat humorous take on the things that the the blowhards among us take far, far too seriously.
LISTEN TO THE PATRIOT EDITION ON BLOGTALKRADIO. This episode will air July 4, 2010 at 10pm EDT.
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Jun 30, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
ThinkAtheist Radio
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Jun 26, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show description: “Tonight we have a return visit from Kile Jones which I’m very much looking forward to. We’re planning on discussing some select topics which will include dealing with the problem of practicality in the purely academic pursuit of philosophy, and we’ll also take on the application of humanism in education and in society as a whole.”
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Jun 26, 2010 in blogging, GodNot™
ok, so you know i spend practically all my “free time” on twitter. actually, that’s not quite true. since i took this job back in October, i can’t tweet much during the day, draft blog posts at all, or do any of the coordination that i’d love to be doing for collaborations, and with soccer and taekwondo atop the work gig, plus spending at least some time each week with my kids, leaves me very little time for playing in the online world.
that having been said, i set this blog back up to at least serve as a reference point for our radio shows over at thinkatheist.com. so, throughout this weekend, i’ll be linking up individual shows from our new digs at blogtalkradio.com. i’ll also be seeing what i can do to preserve the old shows that we did over at talkshoe.com, either importing that RSS feed or something so that they’ll still be available after iTunes drops them for lack of input. and speaking of iTunes, i’ll be looking into what i can do to get our new radio show registered with iTunes as well.
fyi, i’ll be posting show links with the embedded show streams under the dates the shows were aired, so all previous shows will come up as prior to this date. after i’m done with all that, i’ll try to get some other content up on here, related to some of our….shenanigans….on twitter. 
peace.
Jun 23, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show description: “We have a couple of ‘maybes’ for guests tonight. I’ve prepared some other material, following up on the general concept of “atheist parenting,” something which, you should be forewarned, I consider to be an oxymoron. We’ll talk about that and other things of interest to humanists, secularists, agnostics and atheists alike tonight, guests or not!”
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Jun 20, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show description: “It’s Father’s Day here in the United States, so tonight will be all about fathers and fatherhood. We’ll start off with our Founding Fathers and talk about the wonderful gift they gave us of a country established on principles which clearly distinguish religion and government. From there, we’ll talk about past and current church fathers and how they obfuscate the vision of the Founding Fathers. We’ll conclude with fatherhood/parenting issues for those of us who are atheists, agnostics, and/or secular humanists. “
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Jun 16, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show description: “A bit of an open forum tonight. I have a few topics I’d like to discuss, and some plugs for the good works of a few of my friends.”
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Jun 06, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show description: “We have a special guest tonight, Kile Jones (http://www.kilejones.com/). We’ll be discussing philosophical things, in which your host is probably largely out-classed, but it should be a fun time.”
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NOTE: I greatly enjoyed the interview and time with Kile Jones. I’ll definitely be asking him to join us again.
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Jun 02, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show description: “It’s Wednesday again. The crazy meter has been leaning far to the right on Twitter of late, and it is now quite likely that the ecosystem of our entire planet has been irreversibly compromised as the byproduct of amoral, conservative politics. Lots to discuss, and I’ll be experimenting with a slightly revised format. We’ll see how it all goes starting at 11pm EDT.”
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May 30, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show description: “We’ll continue the discussion from Wednesday about some of the crazy stuff going on. I also have a (potentially) interesting analogy regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the way people act in the public discourse. If some of the regulars come by (hint-hint, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, no what i mean?), we’ll hopefully put some plans behind upcoming episodes and other things. I owe ThinkAtheist.com a bit of a plug as well, so I’ll try to briefly walk us through some of the things going on at the site. After that, I’ll strive to also split other infinitives, like that one. As we discuss some of the religious/atheist interactions going on online, I’d REALLY like to have a caller or two to faithfully (pardon the pun) represent the religious side. Remember, we CAN work together to keep such interactions respectful and above-board. I’d like an honest, open discussion tonight, not a pissing match, please. I hope you’ll join us!”
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May 26, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show description: “Synthaetica is on a mission. Things will be said. I figure it this way: if the religious right
can ‘wage war’ on atheism, then atheists can come out fighting. ”
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May 23, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
from the show intro: “Synthaetica is back after a a brief hiatus. Some hardware problems had to be tackled, along with some scheduling issues. Tonight, we’ll talk about the Texas Board of Education and the general dumbing-down of the American education system: something which should be of importance to us since it stems from fundamentalist religious roots. We’ll also cover some recent events, not the least of which is the creation of self-replicating synthetic cellular life, the Westboro Baptist picketing of the Dio funeral, and other “fun stuff”. We look forward to your participation and have high hopes for some diverse participation tonight. The education issue alone should be of grave interest to persons of all (non)religious persuasion. I’ll explain why tonight.”
Please visit ThinkAtheist.com and if you’re not a member, join our growing community of free thinkers, movers and shakers.
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May 09, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
the second installment of the ThinkAtheist Radio Show at our new location. i was still having some sound issues and had to use the cellphone. that’s my bad, not the host.
The permanent home for this episode is here.
May 02, 2010 in GodNot™, RadioShow
our opening show on blogtalkradio.com. more of an introductory thing, no set format or intent. i was also having equipment trouble and had to use my cellphone, so my apologies for sound quality.
The player below will play the most recent episode of our show on blogtalkradio.com.
Apr 17, 2010 in GodNot™, humor
the following was originally published at my personal blog before i “resurrected” this one this past Oestre-tide. because i was rolling like that at the time. This is probably a more appropriate category for this blog, however, so consider this a kick-off to a new series.
Abraham: Hey, son, let’s take a walk.
Isaac: Cool, dad. I’m tired of driving everywhere, anyway.
Abraham: Great. Hey, grab that bag for me?
Isaac: Sure, dad. What’s in this thing?
Abraham: We call it “Awesomesauce,” son.
Isaac: Can I try some?
Abraham: Hahahahaha…No.
….
Trudge, trudge. Gulp. Trudge, trudge. Gulp.
….
more trudging, gulping.
….
Abraham: Ah, let’s rest here for a bit.
Isaac: Good idea, dad. You’re pretty much all over the trail.
Abraham: Don’t be a punk, smartass. Why don’t you go get me some wood?
Isaac: Why do you want some…
Abraham: DON’T ASK ME QUESTIONS, BITCH! GET THE DAMNED STICKS!
….
Rummage, rummage, rummage.
Elsewhere…swig, gulp, fart.
Carry, drop, sigh, rummage.
Isaac: Is that enough yet, pops?
Abraham: You stop when I tell you to stop, boy.
Isaac: {sigh}
Abraham: Don’t you sigh at me, boy! I’ll beat you so hard your momma loses teeth!
….
rummage, carry, drop, sigh, rummage.
swig, gulp, fart.
etc.
….
Isaac: Dad. There’s no more sticks within a three mile radius. Is that enough?
Abraham: Shit…thassalotta sticks, boy. What the hell ya doin?
Isaac: DAD! You TOLD me to get the sticks!
Abraham: Did not!
Isaac: Did too!
Abraham: Son, donchu be tellin me what I did and didn’t do.
Isaac: ….
Abraham: Go get th’goat, boy.
Isaac: What goat?
Abraham: Nebbermind. I’ll get th’goat. You stack up these sticks real nice for a fire.
Isaac: Gah. Yessir.
….
(sound of Abraham peeing somewhere not far off)
grumble, stack. grumble, stack. sigh. grumble.
enter Abraham, sans goat, scowling.
Isaac: What’s wrong, dad?
Abraham: Nuttin’.
Isaac: Aw, c’mon, dad…the goat get away?
Abraham: Yeah, that, an’ I’m outta booze.
Isaac: Outta what?
Abraham: Awesomesauce.
Isaac: Oh. So what’re we gonna do?
Abraham: Uh…I’m thinkin…nap-time.
Isaac: Sounds good to me, I’m tired after all this work!
Abraham: Stop yer ‘plainin, boy! Shaddup’n lay down on them there sticks.
Isaac: Do what?
Abraham: You go ahead and lay on th’sticks. Looks comfy. I’ll jist curl up over here….
Isaac: On the sticks? You’re serious?
Abraham: Yes, I’m serious.
Isaac: The sticks where we were gonna sacrifice the goat.
Abraham: Well….yeah.
Isaac: On the pile of flammable wood.
Abraham: Yes!
Isaac: Made for a sacrifice.
Abraham: YES!
Isaac: Where things….die.
Abraham: Get on the sticks, boy, and don’ gimme no more’f yer damn lip!
Isaac: {sigh}
….
shuffle. climb. {sigh}
….
time passes.
….
Abraham: You sleepin, boy?
….
Abraham: You ‘wake, boy?
….
Abraham: Dammit.
….
shuffle, shuffle.
….
Isaac: DAD! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT KNIFE?!?!?!
Abraham: Ummmm….
Isaac: HOLY SHIT, YOU FUCKIN DRUNK BASTARD!!!!
Abraham: Aw, I was just kiddin’, kiddo. C’mon….don’t be such a prick.
Isaac: Jesus, man.
Abraham: C’mon, git down. Let’s go home.
Isaac: Gahhhhhh…..
….
trudge, trudge, trudge.
….
Isaac: Dad?
Abraham: Yeah?
Isaac: You’re the best daddy ever!
Sep 04, 2009 in GodNot™
Reminder: ThinkAtheist.com Weekend Podcast on September 6, 10p Eastern. This Sunday’s general topic is Traditionalism. We’ll discuss several forms of traditionalism that are pervasive in our lives, especially these minor forms of religious traditionalism that are quite transparently fixed in our secular lives. There’s a possibility that Dr. Frink will be with us, so keep your fingers crossed! ThinkAtheist.com members: Please RSVP on the event page linked above!
NEXT: Un:Enslaved contributor and fellow twitter-whore, @MovingToMontana, has designed something that every card-carrying atheist needs: the card to actually carry. Download yours today, tonight, or at some other convenient time for you. I’ll eventually get that link into the sidebar, too.
and lastly….what i actually came here to do today….
Look. I’m fine if you want toworship a non-existent “God”, even if your only real reason for doing so is the gross combination of “that’s what you’ve been told to do” and “that’s the emotional crutch you need to have.” Really, it’s okay.
But. Each and every abrahamic religion is premised upon one common concept: FAITH. Without faith, your religion has no meaning, no purpose, no relevance whatsoever. And, functionally speaking, faith is the opposite of fact. So when you start spouting elements of your faith as fact, you have ceased contributing to the formative discussion. And worse, when you spout the “God is Love” stuff, you actively undermine the entire premise of your own faith.
Think about that for a minute. This isn’t a new argument from the atheist standpoint, but this is the exact problem with every abrahamic religion: your God is NOT “Love”. Your God is not even nice. Your God, according to your own Holy Books, is an insensitive, insecure, vituperative ass, wholly and exclusively interested in exactly one thing: the undying devotion and ego-massaging of vast numbers of human beings.
And what’s REALLY ironic about that is the fact (the proven, irrefutable fact), that the God described in your Holy Books is actually just a construct of human thinking. The irony is nearly overwhelming. You ultimately choose to believe in an imaginary God because certain persons from the Bronze Age who sought a slightly more insidious way to control the population (as opposed to simple, direct militarism) made up some quaint fairy tales for you to believe in. And worse than that, a lot of those stories are far from “quaint”. According to your Holy Books, your God is responsible for the deaths of millions, directly ordered the rape and murder of hundreds of thousands of women and children, and even struck down his own people for being as gullible as he supposedly made them.
Yeah, I know, you’ll cast that all aside and argue at me with the other self-contradictory stories from your book of fairy tales. And that’s okay. Just understand that when that’s all you do, when that’s the sum and total of your apparent ability to form cohesive thought, it becomes increasingly difficult for me to swallow the condescension. And yes, when you willfully confuse the concepts of faith and fact, I don’t even try.
Sep 01, 2009 in rambling
It’s Tuesday, folks, and you all know what that means! That’s right, it’s time for me to ramble semi-uncontrollably on several potentially-related-but-probably-not subjects. Yes, yes, welcome to the mental ramblings of a forty-something untreated ADHD sufferer/channeler/user/whatever.
Okay, actually, you probably didn’t see that one coming, but it’s about time I started some sort of meme over here, so T.M.R. (Tuesday Morning Rambling) it is! Besides, TMR is almost like TMI, but all piratey and shit. Truly, what could be better?
1. So, speaking of piratey things, I want to thank Cap’N Dyke for keeping me listed as her official “Snarkalopicus” (see her sidebar) despite my long absence from snarky things here, there, and really most anywhere other than Twitter.
2. Actually, related to the previous, be advised I am still working on fleshing out the blogroll over here. I’m being very prudent this time, however, and selecting those whom I already very much admire, whether I knew them from previous blog incarnations and have been reading them all along, or whether I met them more recently on Twitter. To be perfectly honest, to be in my blogroll here should “mean a lot”. Current listings constitute less than 5% of those whom I at least skim on a regular basis, and these ones, I read every posting every day. They are golden. Subscribe to their feeds!
3. If you, or anyone you know, are looking for someone with a couple of decades’ experience in Software Development from the Quality Assurance perspective, please put them in touch with me. Being who and what I am, I try to keep my professional life somewhat distinct from most of my online presences, and I would truly be peeved for this to stand in the way of that. Discretion is recommended.
4. Tune in this Sunday to the ThinkAtheist.com Weekend Podcast hosted by yours truly. Since it’s Labor Day weekend, I fully expect drunken discourse on virtually any topic under the sun, but the theme for the night is traditionalism.
5. Do you Twitter naked? Good for you!
6. I’m genuinely curious: How many of you are using social networks such as Twitter to find like-minded people in your local areas for friendship or romance? Is the process successful? And if it is, do you tweet to these friends/relations more or less since you found them? Answers in the comments if you would please be so kind.
7. Same question as the above, without regard to local proximity. In other words, if you use Twitter, etc to find friends/romance, is it all about location, location, location, or are you willing to move around a bit? Again, answers in the comments if you would please be so kind.
8. Do you blog naked? You fucking sicko! Put some damn clothes on!
9. Nine is actually the loneliest number. If you don’t know why, you don’t need to ask.
10. You all realize, of course, that what we really need is a national health care system, don’t you? Of course you did. Let’s make it happen, folks.
11. I see in the stats that some of you have begun browsing or even pulling feeds based on my categories/topics. That’s cool, but pulling in my old posts from the otherwhirled pretty much screwed all that up. After I get my favorite folks into the blogroll, many of the categories, and a lot of the tags, will be munged together a bit. too many is too distracting. You have been warned, hah.
Alright, that’s it for now. Peace, out, and remember, be careful out there ‘mong them xtians!
Aug 27, 2009 in thoughts
Yes, I know, this blog is supposed to be about freeing oneself from mental slavery, and ironically, the bulk of my efforts here to date have involved the stuff we do on Twitter. It’s funny how that works, yes, but there’s a reason why it’s happened that way. It’s not just my own mental slavery to Twitter, but the several types of mental slavery that essentially equate to gainful employment and taking my job seriously.
All of which changed last week when I resigned my position. I’m not terribly thrilled with the prospect of having to choose between restarting my former business (19 months ago, I quit 16 years of self-employment to take that job), or putting my head back on the chopping block known affectionately as “job hunting,” but it was exactly this concept of mental slavery that prompted me to leave. I’ve never been totally thrilled with the idea of playing by the rules, and when the rules are written by people who really don’t understand the paradigm, following those rules becomes even more bogus.
And that’s about all I’ll say about work. They’re good people, but the industry they serve will hopefully go away with national health care reform anyway. My own bitching and moaning about our health care system was a bit duplicitous on certain levels.
Anyway, late last Thursday and most of Friday were spent in reflection on the various things in my life for which I have forced myself into strict and/or linear ways of thinking. I don’t have a set rule or methodology for this kind of self-analysis. Partly, it’s a bit of compare/contrast with similar past experiences and also between the various things I have going on right now. It’s also just a general assessment of where my mind is at, and how the thought-patterns I use when I’m teaching could be applied to other situations. In short, I discovered several aspects of my life weren’t exactly being approached in an unenslaved way, and that was quite frustrating for me. I try to be holistic about these things. They’re not just good ideas, you know.
Ironically, one of the most enslaved ways of thinking I believe I undertake is this belief that I don’t have time to blog. That’s really just not true, but I make it true, since I don’t take the time to do this very often. See where I’m going with this thought? We make our own realities; we enslave ourselves in these ways. At least, I do, but I really doubt I’m alone. But we do this all the time, in love, in activities, in all sorts of things. We tell ourselves that we don’t have time to do a thing when really, we’ve simply put other things first, or we want a rest, or….whatever. But since we repeat the lie of “not enough time” to ourselves so often, we believe the lie, so “not enough time” becomes real.
Which, of course, is quite easy to say, now that I do have the time. Except that I don’t. I take job-hunting pretty seriously, and when it’s done right, it’s like the most time-consuming job there is! Nevertheless, I’ve resolved to blog and vlog here more, hopefully with a semblance of consistency, because I do have several subjects that I want to communicate on. The trick for me will be finding a new job, or a set of contracts For example:
Those are just a few of the things I hope to undertake here in the upcoming weeks. I will (hopefully) no longer hold myself bound by this get-nothing-done mental slavery.
Peace.
Jul 23, 2009 in thoughts, Video
the next in my mini-vlog series at twitcam.com.
there is an element to social networking that some of us refer to as “the pretendy”. in essence, “the pretendy” is the fact that we never really know how much pretense lies behind what we place behind our online personas. not that total honesty is necessary or required, but when it comes to judging the quality of our interactions, “the pretendy” works from both directions and obfuscates things. i simply encourage you to give that some consideration.
In case the object below doesn’t play well, you can also view it at twitcam.com
Jul 23, 2009 in thoughts, Video
in preparation for turning this site over to something that suits me a bit better, i have begun toying with some mini-vlogging over at twitcam.com.
This series of vlogs is about how atheists conduct ourselves on Twitter. Not that i think i need to tell anyone what to do, but because i’m a patttern-recognition guy, and i see certain patterns that lead to certain thoughts. i’m simply sharing those thoughts.
In case the object below doesn’t play well, you can also view it at twitcam.com
Jun 08, 2009 in thoughts
Luke 6:31
My Background:
About 4 or 5 years ago now, I realised that the perfect antidote to my near constant frustration at being offended by religious interference in my otherwise perfectly happy life, was to fling open my virtual windows and shout, “Jesus, save me from your followers!” at the top of my lungs.
In the time since then I’ve come to realise that there is far more to the subject of religion than the provable lies of educationally subnormal inbred evangelical creationists.
I now spend the majority of my time blogging on my ever expanding understanding of various sciences, via my own blog howgoodisthat.wordpress.com, where numerous characters from the wacky world of Christian faith in faith and evangelical belief in belief, rant uncontrollably in my comments section until they’re blue in the face about how God loves me almost as much as he does them, and if I don’t like it he’ll prove it, after I’m already dead, by forcing me to in fact carry on living only this time for eternity and in permanent agony. Which is ideal, since I’m also quite partial to a bit of BDSM. Wait, did I type that or think it?
I presume from this rather contradictory account of what constitutes perfect love, Yahweh is no fan of evidence, British humour or, indeed, the very freewill his followers claim he gave me in the first place (although quite how you give freedom to someone on the proviso they only use it to enslave themselves is never quiet explained). Regardless, I assert with full confidence that not only is the whole hell for all eternity scenario a complete load of steaming fresh dog’s eggs, but that even if it were possible for people who claim to know something for sure based upon the say-so of a two thousand year old book plagiarised from Pagan astrology myths, I can’t personally imagine anything more like hell than spending eternity surrounded by Christians–and am therefore fairly indifferent to the whole “thou shalt” thing regardless of the threat to my just as non-existent soul they claim I’m dabbling with, by thinking for myself instead of being told what to think.
Anyway, one regular Christian reader / commentator of my blog recently asked me to pose some of best toughest questions. I suspect a hack job blog entry of some kind, somewhere in his future, but I thought I’d share the list of questions / observations I sent him as an opening salvo.
- Where is the archeological evidence of the exodus?
- If Jesus was a liberal pacifist, why is he working for the Americans?
- If God is omnipotent, omnipresent and omnibenevolent, who is the devil?
- Why doesn’t prayer heal cancer?
- When did Jesus say “do unto others as you would have them do unto you, unless you’re a white middle class conservative Protestant”?
- Why did God allow a devout practising Christian to discover and prove that there was no supernatural causation to human evolution?
- If it is the unalterable perfect word of the creator of the universe, why doesn’t the bible once mention penicillin, dinosaurs, bacteria, radiation, electromagnetism, DNA, gravity, aerodynamics or special relativity but has detailed descriptions of how those who don’t follow Yahweh should be enslaved, tortured, raped and murdered?
- Why did Yahweh ignore the screams of Auschwitz but listen intently to Rick Warren?
- How many atheists have planted bombs outside school yards in the name of rational secularism?
- Which part of every single peer reviewed falsifiable data on palaeontology, archeology, genetics, anthropology, geology, cosmology, quantum electrodynamics and the principal of maximum entropy do young-earth creationists not understand?
- Why is faith in a lack of evidence a virtue, but a belief in the truth an attack on morality?
Well, nice meeting you all and I hope to communicate with you all soon. Twitter me!
Jun 06, 2009 in sciolism
The following was originally titled “Because Theocracy Leads to Permissible Extremism, THAT’s Why!” and posted at the otherwhirled and Mock, Paper, Scissors on March 23, 2008 in support of the Blogswarm Against Theocracy. This short series of posts is still pertinent today, I believe.
I cannot recall how many people I’ve spoken with, either via blogs or in-person, who reacted with the word “But nobody wants a theocracy in America” whenever I bring the subject up. And indeed, until recently, there wasn’t really a specific push to alter our Constitution in any formative way, and the only reason the American public has come to recognize that there are some minority movements in that direction is because of the thankfully-failed presidential campaign of Mike Huckabee. Thanks to his “charming” southern style and disarming smile, however, even given the suddenness of the our coming to understand that conservative fundamentalists DO want to turn this nation into a Christian Nation, many still don’t realize the true threat that impetus represents. And since nobody in that campaign ever used the term “theocracy”, these very same people who were “a bit put off” by Huckabee’s stance on altering the Constitution still don’t believe that anyone is creating, or has ever made any attempt to create, a theocratic state.
Head in the sands, their worldview is written on the backs of their eyelids, and its name is sciolism. But I’ve already spoken enough about that.
When the Buddha was destroyed in Bamyan by the Taliban back in 2001, everyone here in America seemed taken aback. But at least on the part of some of us, that incredulity was largely feigned. After all, we already live in a society which unapologetically and unabashedly forces galleries and museums not to display works of art that are uncomplimentary to the Christian Deity and Its Holy Progeny. We already live in a society which disallows admittance to certain schools to those who are openly homosexual, refuses military service to the same and withholds benefits to service men and women whose homosexuality becomes known. We already live in a society where religious-sponsored abstinence-only education is taught in public schools, where religious-sponsored “alternatives” to centuries-established science are required to be taught alongside the scientific curriculum, and where educators must mark as correct responses from students whose religious doctrine define the Universe as a 6,000-year-old mechanism created and overseen by the Christian Deity. We already live in a society in which the government sets up programs exclusively available to religious organizations, and subjectively requires candidates for political office to publicly hold at least some form of religious belief that is not Muslim, Wiccan, Satanist, or Pagan.
In many ways, America is already not very far removed from being a theocratic state. Hence this blogswarm and the absolute important it holds to those of us who recognize the potential impact of the things I detailed in the paragraph above. And of other things, I’m sure. One of the things that frightens me the most about the permissiveness with which religious bigotry is handled in our society is the impact it has on our children. Even in what has become a largely progressive society on many levels, these children still grow up thinking that only members of their religious denominations will share the “Kingdom of Heaven”—in some cases, only members of their particular congregation. Children are being home-schooled in higher numbers, and this only produces more insularity, more misunderstanding, and a greater sense of that misplaced entitlement that is already so pervasive in our world today. I do honestly look upon this treatment of our children as a form of child abuse. They are not prepared for the world at large whenever they do leave home, and that is the gravest error any parent can make: worse even than the rote teachings of intolerance, bigotry, self-righteousness, and duplicity they are given before they leave the house. And as adults, these children live in a society in which their intolerance and bigotry is tolerated, even encouraged, by the news media, by politicians, and of course by the company they keep in their insular segments of the society. In turn, those who do not eventually see the silliness (or perhaps the abject cruelty) of their ways, will start the cycle all over again with their own children.
What the Taliban did to Buddha in March of 2001 in one brazen act is no different than what conservative fundamentalists in America do each day to our nation as a whole through a measured, implacable series of legislation. The reason why we blog against these acts is to make people more aware that they even exist. Since ours is a society largely defined by convenience, attempting to recognize the patterns left behind by the religious fundamentalists takes work, and work is awful inconvenient. Even those who recognize these issues largely feel that anything they could do about them would be too limited, too small of a scale, to have any impact. That’s not true.
This is just the third blogswarm on the topic of theocracy, and if I’m not mistaken, sometime during yesterday, we surpassed the number of posts from the last one. We blog, people read, people begin to understand. We are not helpless in our fight against theocracy, for our readers begin to recognize that the theocratic movement has many faces, many subtle nuances, and the most recent public expression of that desire was probably communicated out of sheer ignorance on behalf of Huckabee. The fundamentalists like to work in the dark, behind closed doors, sending hand-picked groups out into the open to whine and complain and argue and fight, knowing that they cannot be trusted to reveal the true mission, couching it instead in the simple terms of “Freedom of Expression”—the very same Freedom, in fact, they would hope to deny so many others.
So, over this weekend we have blogged again. But we are reaching a point where blogging, helpful as it is, is by no means enough. I believe it is time to do more than blog. I believe it is time to actively, even proactively, fight the elements of theocracy in our courts, our schools, our universities, and yes, even our churches, synagogues, and mosques. Religion has no formative place in our government. We can be proud of the fact that many religious people fought and died to earn this country its independence without having to hold every election under a cross. We can celebrate this country’s Judeo-Christian roots without turning every courtroom into a prayer service. And we can remind our friends and neighbors who have no problem with the efforts to make this a Christian Nation exactly where such ideas got the people of Afghanistan. Help them envision what life would be like without the Freedom of choice, the Freedom of expression, the Freedom of Art.
Here are some helpful questions you can ask those who don’t think this is a real issue:
Our freedom is at stake. Let’s not just leave it to a collection of postings once or twice a year.
cross-posted to Mock, Paper, Scissors
Jun 06, 2009 in sciolism
The following was originally posted at the otherwhirled and Mock, Paper, Scissors on April 8, 2007 in support of the original Blogswarm Against Theocracy. This short series of posts is still pertinent today, I believe.
Ah, you came back. Thanks for that. This won’t be so long, because the thing that makes a group of people tend towards the dismissive is fairly easily identified.
Neoconservatives are very quick to dismiss the “Blogging Against Theocracy” endeavor as one born of fear. We are apparently so afraid of Christianity, that even allowing a piffle—a tish, a skosh, a teeny bit—of it in our lives is too much to bear. Yes, yes, I know. It’d be a wonderful life if everything were so obvious! But of course, despite its inherent untruth, this argument is the most commonly chosen because it is the one stance with which they can readily identify.
One of the things which continually strikes me as I discuss “faith” with my religious friends, is that they tend to forget the entire premise of faith: that that in which they believe might well not be true. For if it was inherently true, there would be no need to have “faith” in its truth. If all the elements of a religious belief were known, scientific fact, faith would cease to exist, replaced by knowledge. And yet repeatedly, evangelicals speak about their “faith” in terms of what they know. They know the Word of their God is Inspired. They know He died for their sins. They know He rose from the grave. And yet, somehow, they wrap it all up and refer to this supposed knowledge as faith, implying that their knowledge may well be unfounded!
Yeah, have a sip of that wine or beer or whatever. This stuff makes my head hurt, too.
This happens because so very many of them practice their one true universal talent of sciolism on themselves. Oh certainly, there are many believers who understand what their faith is about, and who appreciate the inherent risk of believing in something that others don’t believe in. But there are many more whose faith amounts to the steadfast belief that what they think they know is right and true and pure and immutable and holy and…and…and…well, it’s just right! Because they’ve been taught that it is right in Sunday School, told that it is right in their households, and instructed that nonbelievers (and oftentimes those who practice the same religion in different ways) are simply wrong and going to Hell. I can’t even count the number of times during my own childhood when I was frustrated with my friends for not believing in our own cultish practice of Christianity, that I was told something to the effect, “Oh, don’t worry about them. They’re not going to share the Kingdom of Heaven with you.”
Answers like that, and the rebuttals you see to this endeavor from the evangelicals, are easy. I don’t think they’re malicious by any means—and let’s do keep in mind that most of these people merely do what they believe is the right thing to do!—but such responses are a form of fear-mongering. And fear is the root of sciolism. After all, the most formative periods of growth in any religion are during those times when it’s being persecuted. It’s a human nature thing: we perform more efficiently, and often more effectively, under duress. And goodness knows that with the ease of making a few Moslem extremists look like an entire religious society (a theocracy, no less) is set against “America” (which to fundamentalists means “Christians”), the neoconservatives are under a lot of duress. Even acknowledging that there is at least one religion in the world that is practiced by more people than those who subscribe to the tenets of their own faith must have been difficult.
One last sip. We’re almost done.
So now, they claim their religion is being attacked on all sides. All they want to do is have a little prayer, and we “unfairly” want to keep them from doing so. Read Bob’s interpretation of the tenets of this endeavor that I shared with you yesterday. It is written from fear. We’re out to get them. We’re out to force them to change their ways. We’re out to undo all the good they’re doing. We’re out to redefine their definition of “good” and “right”. And it’s oh-so-easy, and ever so disingenuous, to describe us in this manner, because Bob and people like him honestly fear the fact that responsible members of society might hold a faith that differs from their presumption of knowledge. That’s a by-product of sciolism, for they have failed to understand what we’re talking about, just as they fail to understand the true intent behind the actions of church leaders on the national level. People like Bob may not intentionally be wanting a theocratic state (and for what it’s worth, I believe his assertion in this regard), but I do not believe the same is true for those for whom neoconservatism is a business.
But what is most striking—and of most concern—to me is the depth to which these fundamentalists fear themselves. If they truly had faith in their religion and their ability to teach and enforce its tenets, then what would they have to fear by not infusing public education, political discourse, and state and federal legislation with their religious beliefs, practices, and interpretations? If their God is truly all-powerful, what risk is there in leaving the religious education of their children to home and church? Let us not forget, that no matter what happens in the world at large or in their private lives, they will say that it was God’s Will that whatever-it-was came to pass. And if that’s really true, what is the harm in leaving science to scientists, literature to academics, and religion to the priests and ministers?
If they truly have faith in their chosen way of life, then people like myself would simply be targets for that “Go Ye Therefore” doctrine, right? We wouldn’t be “the enemy”, and neither would anyone else. Instead, due to their sciolistic review of their own religion, “preach the gospel” has become “make up a new ‘science’ and try to teach it” and “attempt to pass anti-abortion legislation instead of trying to extend the definition of ‘life’”. Because those things are easier to do, dismissively treating dissenting views as reactionary.
It’s easier, you see, because that way, proponents of their “faith” will band together and work harder for their “cause” under this manufactured duress, as opposed to having faith, even in themselves. Fear has become the new faith for them, and Fear is a much more demanding god than what they had before.
A pity, that.
{published on Mock, Paper, Scissors as well}
<Technorati Tag: blog against theocracy>
Jun 06, 2009 in sciolism
The following was originally posted at the otherwhirled and Mock, Paper, Scissors on April 7, 2007 in support of the original Blogswarm Against Theocracy. This short series of posts is still pertinent today, I believe.
Sit back, grab a beer or a glass of wine, turn the lights down, put on some quiet music, and imagine with me for a moment:
Imagine a world where people of diverse ideas can discuss important topics without burning straw men. . . .a world in which our natural, innate curiosity is shared by adult members of all political and idealogical persuasions. . . .a world in which it is by no means satisfying to glance at a thing—an idea, a principle, a philosophy—and consider it known. . . .a world in which a dismissive attitude towards the things which question one’s sense of normality, emotional security, or even personality, would be a foreign concept.
Imagine a world, in other words, devoid of the vagaries of all those things which have become the hallmarks of neoconservative philosophy: hypocrisy, duplicity, intolerance, sanctimony, deceit, guile, pretense, and sciolism.
Now, take a sip of whatever that is you chose to drink for this, and bear with me, because I’m about to address something that most, if not all, of us participating in this Blog Against Theocracy have been tap-dancing around, to our collective detriment. For in our attempt to be respectful and considerate, we have left this relatively indefensible word, “theocracy”, dangling out there, ripe for the picking. After all, there is, to all perception, no overt movement to set aside the First Amendment, so when we use this word “theocracy”, it is easily dismissible by those invested with a solopsism so self-definitive that they truly do not understand the relevance of differing opinion. And as a result, our mission is undermined at the outset, victim to the sciolistic tendencies of evangelicals, who honestly believe that in cursorily perusing a few posts relating to this endeavor, they understand not only our mission, but our impetus and our history.
And I’m very sorry, but there’s really only one religion in America which attempts to suborn the separation of Church and State instead of confronting it directly. I don’t need to name it. Theirs is a facile stance for argument, you understand, because it inherently makes all counter-arguments reactionary, and our being reactionary is something the more juvenile among them take great pride in pointing out.
Another sip, if you will, because I must beg your patient indulgence in explaining this.
I know that I was very clear [ed: Clean Cut Kid went dark in early 2008], when I announced on Clean Cut Kid, that I would be participating in this endeavor. I said:
I believe that this is an important endeavor to support, and please note the careful wording of the intention behind this movement. We are not anti-religious, or even necessarily predisposed against any particular relgion. [sic, sorry]
Oh, they included a description of what it is they’re against. It isn’t any stuff that constitutes a theocracy, but they’re apparently so repulsed even a whiff of Christian beliefs being expressed publicly or informing public policy that they’re calling it “theocracy”:
* religious discrimination (not sure what this means–disparaging those who worship government?)
* end-of-life care (i.e. kill the disabled and infirm at will)
* reproductive health decisions without legal restraint (i.e. kill your baby if it interferes with your sexual fulfillment)
* academic integrity (i.e. vehemently reject anything the Bible says, no matter how much scientific sense it makes, in favor of anything that fits an atheistic worldview, no matter how little sense it makes)
* sound science (i.e. embrace naturalism)
* respect for all families (i.e. whether they’re a family or not, let them call themselves one, because feeling good trumps all facts or truths)
* the right to worship, or not (a right guaranteed and enjoyed by all Americans, unless you are a Christian who wants to express your faith in public)
But my point here is not what or how Bob thinks. Far from it, for Bob and everyone else are quite welcome to their own thoughts. Bob is merely an example of how certain people think, or fail to think. I don’t even care that he is a devout Christian, for even more fundamental than that, Bob is a sciolist. That is, one who indulges himself in superficial knowledgability, both to his own detriment, and to ours. A rational discussion on this subject cannot actually be held with sciolists, for they do little but utter rhetoric while pretending such utterance invests them not only with holiness, but with the right to expect all others to subscribe to their belief in what is holy. Sciolists will skim over a dissenting writing, or worse yet, just hear about it, and presume that not only can they rationally refute it, but that they can also argue the dissenting point and play “devil’s advocate”.
It is in this way that our discussion of the imminent theocracy in America is immediately curtailed, for when we talk, or write, or post, we are precluded from effective communication by the very act of intentional, willful, directed ignorance—sciolism, in more succinct terms. And as long as Bob and people like him indulge themselves in this sanctimonious pretense of understanding things which they dismissively ignore and impugn, we will continue to have to operate on the same level as political extremists. And what is most aggravating about that is the fact that working to protect the First Amendment is at least philosophically as centrist as one can be.
Oh, by all means. You need another drink? No worries. I’ll wait for you. Like I said, this will take a while.
Next: the roots of sciolism ~ {these posts are all mirrored at Mock, Paper, Scissors, by the way}
<Technorati Tag: blog against theocracy>
