“I don’t understand” is not equal to “Not True”
A little while ago, I wrote a post about the book “Divinity of Doubt” by Vincent Bugliosi. I’m very happy that Bugliosi’s book exists as I think one of the things frequently missing from the atheist/theist debate is agnosticism.
I’m not happy with Bugliosi’s reasoning on several points, however. While he spends much of the book railing against the seemingly nonsensical beliefs of Christians (I’m with him there), he also spends some time criticizing atheists. He’s writing a defense of agnosticism and as such, that is entirely appropriate. My issue is with how he structures his arguments.
Shit that pissed me off – 2/10
The autotuned “Time of My Life” by the Black Eyed Peas
I know this song has been around for a long time but the new radio station at work has this blasted thing on a heavy rotation and I want to cause physical damage to the speakers every time it is on.
I don’t mind cover songs at all. The original of this song is hardly one of the greatest songs every written. What it does have, however, is voices that sound like they feel something close to the emotion conveyed in the song lyrics.
Try this: turn on your computer’s voice simulator and have it say “I love you.” Now have your significant other do the same thing (preferably right after you’ve helped them have an orgasm). Which do you prefer? If you answered “a,” you will probably love the version of the song above. If not – stick with the original.
Shit that pissed me off this week – 2/3
My biggest problem with Dayton is his lack of fire. Like most Democrats, he caves when the stakes get too high (and by “stakes get too high” I mean “there is a conflict of any sort”). Here, though, he tells it like it is. Anderson stepped down from her seat in the legislature to take this position and the confirmation should have been a slam dunk.
Unless you have a bunch of partisan jackasses in charge who want to make a power play. Dayton points out that their excuse is complete bullshit but that doesn’t matter. They already performed their hatchet job as a way to flex their muscle.
My conservative friends will point out the Democrats made similar moves when they were in charge. Yes, they absolutely did. I didn’t like it when the Democrats did it either. Elected officials should do their fucking job – not use it to engage in petty partisan power plays.
Maybe Dayton will use this as an opportunity to finally call the Republican Legislature out on their Bullshit. A Guy can Hope.
The First Cause Argument
I’ve been reading a book called ‘The Divinity of Doubt: The God Question” by Vincent Bugliosi. It is a book that argues – poorly, I think – for Agnosticism as the only “logical” position to take on the god question. While much of his book is used to poke logical holes in the concept of God as accepted by Christians, he spends a few chapters tilting at the atheism windmill as well.
I think before I address a part of his book that I found particularly problmatic, I need to discuss the concept of atheism vs. agnosticism. What, exactly, do I believe on the question of god?
Boys will be Boys – Even when they Shouldn’t
In my traditional act of commenting on something on the internet long after everyone is done talking about it, I have finally started to collect my thoughts about a recent post on Skepchick.org about guys being idiots on Reddit.
The initial post by Rebecca Watson was in response to a Reddit thread in which a 15-year-old girl posted that her super religious mom gave her a Carl Sagan book for Christmas. I personally think it is fantastic that a very religious mother gave her atheist daughter a book that was all about her daughter’s interests rather than her own.
The Persistence of Complaining about Time
2011 is drawing to a close. In the annuls of recorded history this will be the first and last time this event will take place.
The passage of time is absolute but the way we mark it is arbitrary. Why don’t we mark the new year as happening on the solstice? Because we don’t. Yes, there are a lot of reasons why we mark time the way we do but in reality, we mark the passage of the year the way we do because we are used to marking it this way.
Also, I know that time is relative but just go with me here.
Taking the Christ out of Christmas
I’ve read a lot of cranky posts from atheists who are annoyed by the Christmas season and I can totally understand why. In my grinchiest of moods, I see how the December holiday season is entirely about convincing a whole lot of people who don’t have very much money to buy things they don’t need.
At the same time, certain members of the Christian right raise a hue and cry about “taking back Christmas” from those who choose to say “Happy Holidays” because, you know, Christmas isn’t the only fucking holiday happening right about now.
The holiday decorations are now going up right after Halloween and it is only a matter of time before Labor day becomes the date that stores start devoting some of their space to holiday decorations for folks who like to plan ahead.
If you don’t believe in the religious mythology that surrounds the season, you have to accept that you are going to be bombarded with it anyway. From a “Glee” Christmas special that includes a bible verse to nativity scenes on neighbors’ lawns, it is there. Like it or not, this season is about religious holidays (yes – more than one) and you are going to hear about it.
I totally get why some members of the atheist community get cranky around this time of year. Read More…
3-2-1 Contact
Roger Ebert has a very good series of essays he calls “The Great Movies.” In it, he writes about movies he personally considers the greatest films ever made.
Most of his choices are fairly indisputable. Films like Citizen Kane, Singin’ in the Rain and Casablanca are, if not universally loved, at least universally respected. He does make rather controversial choices, though, and his latest is one of those.
This week, he posted an article about the 1997 film Contact. My immediate response was “Great film? Really?”
Games People Play
I was sent a link this morning about a fundamentalist video game where you can either convert or kill Jews and atheists. This game is apparently over five years old and somehow I completely missed the fact that it existed. It’s kind of like Grand Theft Auto for fundamentalists.
The game divided the Christian community into the “yes I’m totally OK with this” and the “what the fuck is wrong with you” camps. Not for long, of course, because how can you really take a game like that seriously?
It would appear the initial report, to which I linked above, that had the player killing “Jews and atheists” was based on early reports because the final version of the game allowed you to kill or convert “secularists” but not Jews.
The army of the antichrist also consisted mostly of UN peacekeeping forces and Rock and Roll guitar players. The only thing missing is rainbow clad drag queens carrying around pamphlets pushing the gay agenda.
I’m not going to go into some righteous rant about how some fundamentalists think that it is completely OK to design a video game in which you kill “secularists” if you can’t convert them. I mean, yes, that bugs me. But it doesn’t really work me into a froth because I find myself completely baffled by the level of delusion one needs to believe in this sort of craziness.
Yes, I know it is a video game. It is a game, however, made to be marketed to the armies of crazed fundamentalists who genuinely believe the rapture is going to happen any day. These are the same folks who genuinely believe that the UN is an evil entity that is doing the work of satan.
It isn’t that they don’t like the UN. It is that they are of the opinion that the UN is a tool of the Devil.
It completely escapes them that if the Devil was going to pick a tool, he’d probably pick something that is – you know – more effective.
When one begins to look into things like insane Fundamentalist Christian video games, it turns out there are quite a few of them.
There are lots of insane games out there, though. There were Nazi board games so parents could help their Hitler youth practice rounding up the Jews.
The thing about these games is that they are all being marketed to people who think this stuff could really take place. When I play Legend of Zelda, I’m well aware that there is no boomerang in existence that can pick up a bomb and deliver it into the mouth of my enemy with deadly accuracy. I’m not so sure that the folks capping “secularists” for Jesus view their game as a fantasy.
I think they look at it more as practice.
I mean, the game may not be all that unrealistic. I mean, if the rapture actually did take place in my lifetime, you could probably convert me at that point. At the very least, I’d “convert” so I could have some words with god about how much of an asshole I believe him to be. At which point I would, undoubtedly, be cast into the lake of fire. It’d give me something to be smug about as I received the same punishment as Hitler and John Wayne Gacy.
I could also complain about the fact that “Afterlife,” a Sim City like game where you punished or rewarded souls based on their sins or virtues, was a complete failure when it came to preparing me for the actual afterlife.
I’m pretty sure you don’t know what you are talking about
As an atheist, I get furious any time someone dismisses my point of view as “just another religion.”
I think such a statement fails to recognize what atheism is and further fails to understand religion in general. The statement, ironically, is typically uttered by agnostic/non religious people as a way to imply their point of view is “superior” to the more “Dogmatic” atheist perspective. Those who are religious seem to immediately realize they are in a glass house the moment they observe that what someone else believes is “just another religion.”
Grail Diary 