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Tuesday, 27 March 2012

  • The Founding Documents Are Secular

    This will be a follow up to my last post. I do not doubt that the founders of the United States believed in a creator. There is evidence in their writings that they believed there was a god. I’m not sure that all of them are Christians but that is irrelevant. If a group of Christians gets together and writes a document, that document is not magically endowed with the principles of Christianity. An overwhelming majority of congress members are Christians. This doesn’t mean that every piece of legislation that is churned out reflects the values taught in the Holy Bible. You wouldn’t pick up a large volume of federal tax laws and say they were written based on the principles of Christianity or the teachings of Jesus.

    We can agree that the authors of documents like The Declaration of Independence and The U.S. Constitution believed in a creator god. That much is obvious. In fact they believed our rights were given to us by a creator. At the time, there was no alternative explanation for the origins of life and human beings. It would be extremely bizarre for them to believe otherwise. What we do not find in these documents is a reference to any specific god. Even if all the founders were Christians (which I doubt), there is no mention of that in any of the documents. They purposely represented god in a way that is vague and open to interpretation. It’s clear they did not intend to exclude any particular religious view from these documents.

    The idea that The Declaration of Independence itself is a Christian document and as such proves that the idea of individual human rights is a Christian principle is ridiculous. There is no indication in the document that it was intended to be a religious document. The fact that it mentions a god does not make it a religious document. If president Obama thanks god or asks for god’s blessing in a speech that does not magically transform his speech into a religious sermon. It is very clear that the founders of this nation thought that a person’s religious preference was a personal matter. At the time it was written, the U.S. Constitution was heavily criticized specifically because it did not declare Christianity as the official religion of the nation and because it specifically bans requirements for individuals to pass religious tests to hold office. At the time such tests were rather common. 

    What are the principles that this nation was founded on? A few examples would be freely elected leaders, a government whose power is derived from the consent of the governed, equal and inalienable individual rights (at least for white men).  None of these ideas come from The Holy Bible. Any claim that these ideas were assimilated into Christianity proves my point that Christianity has provided nothing new or unique in terms of morals, ethics, economics, government, or human rights. It has provided nothing of value to humanity that has not or could not come from a secular source.The "teachings" of the Holy Bible do not present any wisdom that any human being living at the time couldn't have thought up.

Monday, 26 March 2012

  • God's Law Vs. Man's Law

    Many times I have read comments or been told by a Christian that The United States was founded as a Christian nation. Although The Bill of Rights and several other official documents show that the government does not endorse a particular religion, Christians argue that our foundation was built upon Christian morals. When I ask exactly which Christian principles or morals that our nation was founded on, I rarely get a convincing answer.

    Many point to the ten commandments. Out of the ten only four are actually illegal or could incur some form of penalty. These are murder, theft, adultery, and lying. Murder, theft, and lying are generally accepted as being undesirable behaviors throughout every culture in the world. These principles predate Christianity by many years. They can also be found in primitive tribes who are not even aware of the idea of the ten commandments. The 10 commandments have provided nothing unique or of a particular value to our nation.

    There are 613 laws in the Torah which is known as the old testament to Christians. Most of them even the most fundamentalist Christians would find to be ridiculous. These laws cover everything from how you should get your haircut to how you should prepare offerings for the lord. These laws have not really made their way into the law books of the United States. We tend to think it's unethical to put unruly children to death. Every once in a while somebody wants to ban something or someone so they open up the book and find a law that appears to mean what they say it means. These laws in no way form a foundation for our way of life.

    There is a set of laws that predates the Holy Bible. This set of laws is known as The Code of Hammurabi. The Code of Hammurabi is a set of 282 laws and includes specific punishments. It introduces the idea that punishments should somehow fit the crime that was committed. In The Holy Bible the punishment for most transgressions is death. Our laws are not directly derived from The Code of Hammurabi but the code does surpass the Torah in terms of complexity and common sense. I am simply providing another demonstration that Christianity has provided nothing unique to humanity or the formation of the US government.

    The foundation of our government is actually based heavily on ideas that were first introduced by the ancient Greeks. Yes, pagans helped provide the foundation for our country. This is apparent not only in the structure of our system of government but also in the architecture of our government buildings. The founding fathers were also heavily influenced by ideas that arose during the enlightenment. This was a period of time when reason, science, and philosophy were favored over superstition. We must also remember that many of the principles that went into the formation of this country came straight from the minds of the founding fathers. They had radical ideas that the world had never before seen and that is what made the United States a model for freedom around the world. It has nothing to do with Christianity. Christians seek to restrict the freedom of anyone who is different from them.

Sunday, 04 March 2012

  • How Absolute Is religious Freedom?

    After a long hiatus my plan was to talk about where morality comes from but something has come up. I got caught up in a debate about religious freedom. This is something that has been coming up recently on everything from gay marriage to contraceptives and everything in between. Every time I see some politician or right wing pundit on TV talking about someone violating their religious freedom it makes me want to reach through the screen and rip their fucking heads off.

    Contrary to popular belief, the laws in this country are not given to us by an invisible man in the sky. They are written by men and women in the halls of congress and each law SHOULD (because they don't always) be an attempt to make the United States a better place for every citizen regardless of sex, race,religion, or sexual orientation. Lately a particular political party has been trying to pass legislation or block legislation based on the rights of only those who believe in their particular version of the old man in the sky.

    I haven't read the latest bill that everyone is up in arms about but from what I understand the controversial provision involves medical insurance companies being required to provide contraceptives. I want to talk about the religious freedom aspect first. It is not a violation of anyone's religious freedom to be required to cover the cost of contraceptives.For one thing you are not being forced to take contraceptives or even sell them. Your company just has to pay for it because it is a medical expense and you provide medical insurance. Secondly, your religion does not give you a free pass to avoid obeying laws that go against your belief and that is a good thing.

    I know most of you knuckle-dragging christians won't believe me if you can't read it yourself so the location of the following verse is Deuteronomy 22:28-29:

    “If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.”

    For those too stupid to see where I'm going with this, I will drive my point into your thick skulls like a railroad spike. This verse does not come from some obscure, little known third world religion. It comes from the Torah or Old Testament which means jews and christians both believe it is god's law. This isn't something that the pope just pulled out of his old raggedy ass.This is written into the text. It is the infallible word of your god.By locking up any christian rapist you have taken away their religious freedom. Instead of being put in prison their religion says that they should pay fifty pieces of silver and be forced to marry the victim. I don't see Rush Limpdick talking about getting the rapists out of prison on his show. I don't see him saying that any rape victim who won't marry her attacker is a slut and prostitute.

    I was particularly pissed off this morning because I saw an article about a religious freedom that is taking the lives of innocent victims. A jewish ritutal that involves a rabbi using his mouth to suck blood from a circumcised baby's penis has left another baby dead from herpes. I'm not making this up here is the link people:http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/infant-death-maimonides-hospital-linked-circumcision-article-1.1032432

    I remember how enraged I was last time I read about this individual. Not only does the practice itself disgust me but it actually has a death toll. They say religious freedom is what allows this rabbi to suck blood from a baby boy's penis. How far does religious freedom go? How far do you want it to go when it is not your own religion that has the freedom?

Thursday, 18 August 2011

  • Insane Christians

    I was watching some videos from www.rightwingwatch.org and found these clips from Rick Perry's prayer event The Response. To me it looks like a bunch of Christians rambling on nonsensically while people in the audience cheer.







Monday, 11 July 2011

  • Remote Viewing

    I must have been about 16 when I found the book. Even at 25 I'm still developing critical thinking skills but when I found that book I had none. I used to believe that aliens had visited Earth and abducted people, there were government conspiracies to cover up everything, ghosts existed, and psychic powers were real. I found a book about psychic warriors. It not only revealed the history behind a top secret government program to develop psychic soldiers but it also provided information to become one yourself.

    It included information on telekinesis, precognition, postcognition, remote viewing, and other "skills". I was most interested in remote viewing. The ability to see any place on Earth from the comfort of my home seemed very attractive. I hadn't even thought that I would be able to see far into the reaches of the galaxy. Some remote viewers have claimed to be able to do just that. This wasn't something that I just spent a couple days thinking about. I believed the accounts in the book and I believed I had it in me to be a remote viewer.

    I searched online for more information. I found forums about remote viewing. I even found websites that give you "targets" to test yourself. I spent a good deal of time testing my remote viewing skill and refining my method. Basically I would clear my mind of everything and focus on the target waiting for a shape or color to appear. A few times I actually thought my remote viewing power was increasing. Nothing much ever came of it and I just quit trying. I also attempted astral projection and manipulating psi energy into balls. Nothing ever came of those either.

    A couple years later I saw an episode of Penn & Teller Bullshit that dealt with remote viewing. People were actually paying money to learn remote viewing and getting duped by this phony. It wasn't just this particular episode but the show in general that introduced me to what it means to be a skeptic and why it is important. To this day I still wish that remote viewing was possible. It really would be awesome. Thanks to critical thinking I know it's a ridiculous idea and I no longer pursue such fantasies.

AtheistInfidel

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About Me

  • I am an atheist and I have conclusively proven that the Christian god does not exist. I want to eradicate all religions from the earth starting with the Christian scum.