Why are you Atheists so Smug?
I’ll start with the short answer: we aren’t.
Now for the longer answer.
Why is it presumed that if someone chooses to explain what they believe and why that they are smug? I say that I’m an atheist because I think it is tremendously important for other atheists to know that they aren’t the only one and that it is OK to conclude that there is no god. Is that smug?
Is the simple choice to stand up and be counted smug?
No, of course it isn’t.
Now if I go further and say that I believe all religions are equally wrong, have I crossed over into smug territory? Do I sound like I’m saying I’m better than all those religions because I’m so sure I know everything about god (or the non-existence of god)?
Well, no. But I expect I need to go into more detail.
Alphabetical Movie – Look Who’s Talking
I think I set a record with the Look Who’s Talking trilogy.
As has happened a few times before, I was gifted this trilogy of films by a friend who enjoys the fact that I’m a stickler for the rules of the Alphabetical movie project. If I own the movie, I will watch it.
Even if I hate it.
So what better way to screw me over than to give me a trilogy of films that get progressively worse until you reach one that is inexplicably awful. How it failed to kill John Travolta’s career (again) is beyond me. Kirstie Alley’s career has always been beyond me.
I’m getting ahead of myself.
Alphabetical Movie – Lolita
Since Lolita is a story about pedophilia, I’m going to tell a story about pedophilia.
Doing Vilification Tennis at the Renaissance Festival is a dicey proposition. We are doing a show that is pretty vile and vulgar and the audience likes it that way. However, we are doing it at a venue that is advertised as appropriate for all ages. That means you have to walk a pretty mean balancing act between offensive humor and trying to ensure parents who are walking by don’t have to explain too much to their kids later. Because parents hate that. More on that later.
Most days I think we do an admirable job of walking that tighrope. Every now and again, though, there is a complaint. I take the complaints seriously and I do my best to keep the performers from getting out of hand. Our show is best if we flirt with the line without merrily skipping across it.
On occasion, we get an instruction from the festival management about the kind of material they would like us to avoid. Most of the time, the request is a little odd and when I ask for clarification, I find it was one joke that caused the problem.
Geeks Without God, UNCENCORED!
This week features the second episode we were able to record at Skep-Tech this year. We sat down with Zach Weinersmith from Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and we talked about censorship. Zach gave a talk about censorship at the conference and his talk served as the springboard for a lot of conversation about when (if ever) censorship might be a good thing.
We were able to record in front of a live audience, which is, for me at least, my favorite way to record the podcast. We managed to get much better sound quality for this one versus our last Skep-Tech panel although I really need to work on getting some better equipment for panels like this. Perhaps there is a rich atheist out here just itching to give a group of godless geeky comedians a thousand dollars for some ace equipment.
But I digress. Zach was a really great guest and I’m very happy with the episode. Make sure you listen to our five questions because we get to work on unlocking the gay agenda! Enjoy!
Alphabetical Movie – The Lodger
Hitchcock’s The Lodger is loosely based on the story of Jack the Ripper. It seems possible that the ripper will continue to be the most famous serial killer of all time for the simplest of reasons – he was never caught.
How many stories can you tell about Ted Bundy or Jeffrey Dahmer? One. There is no rampant speculation about who they were or what they did. We all know.
You can make one movie about Ted Bundy and you’ve pretty much covered the story.
Jack the Ripper, on the other hand, could be anyone. He could be a time travelling alien! He could be professor Moriarty! He could be a lady! He could be Abraham Lincoln (the assassination was faked so he could emmigrate to England and fulfill his darkest desires)!
Shit that Pissed me Off This Week 4/19
Eric Rush Engages in Classic Overreaction and States we Should Kill all Muslims
I’ve come out as being pretty uniformly against organized religion. I thikn it is a tool by which people push their own agenda onto others rather than a pathway to god (if there is one).
That is not the same thing as stating that everyone who adheres to a religion should be killed. Because that, my friends, is crazy talk. That is the sort of thing bigoted, ignorant people say.
Bigoted, ignorant people like this guy!
We don’t know yet if this bombing was the work of a Muslim extremist (Glenn Beck does) but even if it was, killing all Muslims is not a viable or reasonable solution. It is, in fact, far crazier than the act that just took place.
When you blame millions of people for the act of one, your priorities are seriously messed up.
Note: Reports this morning indicate the suspects were from Chechnya, which is predominantly Muslim. Preliminary evidence suggests they are Muslims. It still means millions of other Muslims had nothing to do with it.
Alphabetical Movie – Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
It isn’t often that I watch movies in English with subtitles. The accent needs to be pretty thick for me to give up on my own powers of comprehension.
I don’t actually need to watch Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels with subtitles. Not anymore. Those first couple of times watching the film were pretty challenging, though.
I don’t know what to make of Guy Ritchie, honestly. This film and Snatch are an awful lot of fun. I like his Sherlock Holmes films. But I just don’t feel like he produces great movies. Fun movies, sure, but fairly slight.
Geeks Without God gets Super Geeky this Week
We’ve had so much other great stuff going on at Geeks Without God that we haven’t talked geeky boners in almost two months. This week we make up for that shortcoming by spending lots of time discussing our latest geeky obsessions. We talk about movies and for once, I didn’t even bring them up. Instead, I spent a ton of time talking about tabletop games. And I mean a ton of time talking about tabletop gaming.
After serious talks about alcoholism, it was nice to kick back and just geek out for a while. Listen to our geekiness here.
Shit that Pissed me off This Week – 4/12
North Carolina Republicans are Pushing a Bill for a Two Year waiting Period on Divorce
Explain to me how this is less government again?
Now I have to be honest. I think couples who are considering divorce should have a cooling off period. They probably should get couples therapy to see if they can work out whatever differences they have. Unless there is abuse, of course, then I think that the marriage needs to be ended as quickly as possible.
That opinion, by the way, is not shared by the authors of this bill. There is no exception for spouses trying to escape abuse.
No matter what my personal opinions may be, however, I don’t think that the state should be the one that gets to decide when a couple has tried hard enough to keep their marriage together. To be blunt, how the fuck would the state know?
I’m not so sure gay people would want to get married in North Carolina
The law in question may even start the clock over if it can be proven the couple has had sex after filing for divorce. So let me get this straight – you want them to make sure they work on their marriage before they call it quits but if, in the natural course of working on their marriage, they have sex, they will get punished by having to remain married longer. The logic is completely idiotic.
Work on your marriage.
NOT THAT WAY!!!!
I’m sorry – now you are going to have to work on the marriage more.
Geeks Without God Chat it up at a Convention
This past weekend, my Geeks Without God compatriots and I were asked to host a panel at the Skep-Tech convention this weekend. Thinking it was cool to be invited as guests to a convention, we happily accepted. We were given an all-star lineup that included Chelsea du Fresne, an evolutionary biologist and one of the convention organizers, Greta Christina, author of “Why are you Atheists so Angry: 99 Things that Piss off the Godless,” Tim Farley, creator of What’s the Harm and Zach Weinersmith, writer and illustrator of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.
We were a little unsure of what to do for a panel so we decided to just do a talk about skepticism and technology. It was interesting but of course immediately after the panel, I came up with a much better topic! We should have talked about skepticism and entertainment!
Damn it!
I hope they ask us back next year (if there is a next year) so we can do that.
So there were some technical challenges recording on this one. I had to record from a table mic in a gigantic room where the panelists were using microphones. For all the challenges, the sound turned out far better than I feared.
There are a few edits on this one because a few audience members asked fairly long questions and they were too far away from the mic to be understood. I cut a few of those out just to get rid of what was effectively dead air.
So listen if you like! Our panelists were super interesting!
Grail Diary 