Geeks Without God Does it Again
What do we do again? We have a brand new episode up on a Tuesday morning! Talk about consistency!
For this week’s episode, we talked with our friend Porter right after the riots in Libya and Egypt and we found ourself getting pretty focused on Islam for the first time. It kind of mystified all of us that anyone (of any religion) would kill someone in the name of god. Because we focus so much on Christianity in America, we don’t always recognize that other parts of the world are faced with different religions doing the same thing.
We also talked about deep fried bacon.
It was a very interesting conversation. Have a listen if you wanna!
Shit That Pissed me off This Week – 10/5
I don’t care how you feel about it – voter fraud is a red herring in the Voter ID debate. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud and further, no evidence that voter ID laws will prevent fraud.
Also, we’ll need to draw some blood.
What Voter ID laws will do is make it more difficult for college students to vote without getting a new drivers’ license in the state where they attend college. It will make it harder for seniors who no longer drive to vote. It will make it harder for a lot of people to vote and that pisses me off because voting is one of the most basic rights we all have in this country.
We shouldn’t make it harder to vote. We should make it fucking easy to vote. That way more people will vote.
All that aside, isn’t it a bit suspicious that the party who is most strongly pushing for voter fraud is responsible for voter fraud? I know it’s just one guy but that proves my argument. This sort of thing is not widespread.
What are they really trying to do with these amendments? Because it would seem what they aren’t trying to do is stop voter fraud.
New Geeks Without God Episode is Live!
This week’s episode is just the three of us talking about atheism. We spent some time talking about the differences between “atheist” and “non-believer” before we moved on to talk about the Atheism Plus movement. We also found time to read through another set of listener questions. There’s a lot of big ideas and we didn’t really have time to get in-depth but it’s an interesting conversation about what is going on in the atheism movement right now.
Or at least a month ago when we recorded the episode. If you choose to listen, I hope you enjoy it.
My First Author Reading!
Hey everyone! I’ll actually be taking part in a public reading of something I wrote this October.
Specifically, I will be joined by five other contributors to “Atheist Voices of Minnesota” at the Roseville Barnes & Noble at 7:00 PM on the 10th of October. We will all read from our work and answer questions and once you have been dazzled by our writing, you will have the chance to buy the book (conveniently pictured in this very post)!
If you can’t make the reading, you can still buy the book from Amazon or Barnes & Noble.com in paperback form or for your eReader.
But you really should come out and see this. It’s probably the first and last time you’ll have a chance to see me doing a public presentation where I’m completely out of my element!
If you’d like to know about my other creative endeavors, you can always check out my Upcoming Performances page.
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week – 9/28
A Story from Inside the Westboro Baptist Church
The Story is one of the finest radio programs on the air. Dick Gordon is one of the best interviewers I’ve ever heard and he finds amazing subjects every single episode. If I didn’t have a life, I would be listening between 9:00 and 10:00 PM every night.
This week he interviewed Nate Phelps, one of Fred Phelps’ sons. I’ve said for a long time that I’m going to maintain strict radio silence where the Westboro Baptist Chuch is concerned because talking about them gives them power and attention and that’s exactly what they want. I’m breaking my vow of silence to talk about the one thing we don’t really understand about these people.
Listening to Nate talk about the history of intellectual and physical abuse that he was subjected to at the hand of his father, I came to understand the tragic nature of the world Fred Phelps has created. He creates hateful, awful people by creating a world that makes that behavior seem normal.
Kids don’t think this without a trusted adult force feeding it to them
When you hear Nate’s description of that insular society, you almost feel sorry for the people who have been, quite literally, brainwashed into doing what they do. Worse, every one of them is being taught how to make sure the next generation does the same thing.
It’s a never ending cycle of hatred and we all feed into it by hating them right back. I wish I knew the solution. I wish I could figure out how to rescue these kids from the cycle of hatred and abuse that Fred Phelps has created.
I don’t know how to do that. I just fear that every time those hate filled people are met with (deserving) hatred and anger, we are perpetuating the problem.
You want to know how I define evil? Fred Phelps.
Shit that Pissed me Off this Week – 9/21
Rick Santorum Doesn’t Like Smart People
We all know what I think of Rick Santorum, right?
Santorum basically believes the “intellectual elite” just want to run the lives of everyone that is dumber than them. He seems to believe that smart people are all mad scientists who believe that if the world will just submit to their will, we’ll all be a lot happier.
Yes! If I am successful, I will FORCE THE WORLD to never have cancer again! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!
The wave of anti-intellectualism in this country is staggering. It’s the reason people with no knowledge of biology will spend hours arguing with biologists about the evidence for evolution. Santorum is not the cause of this wave. He’s a symptom.
I can’t understand why anyone, Conservative or Liberal, wants to live in a country where we dismiss the brightest among us simply because they happen to be smart. Maybe I’m the only person who views Idiocracy as a cautionary tale.
I look at people like Rick Santorum and I think that he could very well represent the smartest of our future politicians. If that doesn’t fill you with horror, you are probably already too far gone.
New post over at Geeks Without God
I’m moving some of my “atheist blogging” over to the Geeks Without God website.
Today, I’m posting a blog that explores the “atheism is a religion” debate. I’ve talked about it a few times on this blog but the one thing I keep wondering is this: If Atheism is a religion, what isn’t?
Alphabetical Movie – Jamaica Inn
I can pretty much bet this post will get about ten views because nobody has heard of Jamaica Inn. The film is an early Hitchcock talkie and I don’t think it is fantastic, although it does have Maureen O’Hara in it and I’ve always been a little bit in love with Maureen O’Hara.
The thing with Jamaica Inn is that she is, for me, too young.
A Very Special Birthday Episode of Geeks Without God!
Today is my birthday. It is also time for a new episode of Geeks Without God! Of course, I took some time to geek about the fact that the Indiana Jones Blu-Ray set was released for my birthday. We also talked about the manned space program in the wake of Neil Armstrongs passing and we had our first set of listener submitted answers to our five questions! It made us feel all important and stuff! Go over and have a listen!
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 9/14
Christian Mother Looks for Advice after her Daughter Comes out as an Atheist
Here’s the problem we face in this country. When a child comes out as an atheist, a parent immediately views the situation as a parental failure.
This woman says she tried to instill her children with “good Christian values” and the problem I see is the fundamental question of what “good Christian values” might be.
If she wants her daughter to treat others with respect, she can do that if she is an atheist.
If she wants her daughter to value her life and strive to live it as best she can, she can do that if she is an atheist.
If she wants her daughter to discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation, she can do that if she is an atheist. She probably won’t but she can.
Instead of being upset, this young woman’s mother should be proud. Her daughter is growing up and making her own choices. No parent will like every choice that their child makes but at some point, we all need to allow our children to make them. If her thinking wasn’t so clouded by her religion, she might recognize that she hasn’t failed raising her daughter. She succeeded.
Grail Diary 