While looking through my Bible the other day, I ran across a phrase I had seen before and questioned. I questioned it so because of how ambiguous it was and the fact that one could very easily see it two separate ways. I’m not saying contradictions and confusion aren’t common in the Bible, but this section in particular made me wonder.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
(Isaiah 9:6 NIV)
Now I see this as being read in two different ways. One from a Christian view and one from a Jewish view. I would guess most(if not al) Christians would read this as a prophecy for the coming birth of Christ. Couldn’t somebody just as easily interpret this as simply a new king of Israel to unite and deliver them? This type of thing was pretty common in the surrounding text. I guess my point is that a work like the Bible is so open to interpretation because of the way it is written. Guess that happens when you have a story written by many different authors across different continents over a long period of time though. Some people would assert that I am grasping at straws here, but I disagree. It is all too common for small things like this to cause great disputes among the believers. There are people blowing each other up due to a disagreement in the meaning of phrases in a collection of stories written long ago. If there was a God, why won’t He just pop in and straighten things out? Throughout the Bible, God has no problem talking with people and making His will crystal clear. Sure it destroys that whole faith principle, but wouldn’t it be worth it to help His people? How do you feel this passage reads? Doesn’t it seem weird that so many things in the Bible seem so prone to easy distortion? I guess I’ll conclude with another fun little bit from the Book of Isaiah:
15 Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword.
16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished.
(Isaiah 13:15-16 NIV)
I just find it strange that such a loving God is also such a malevolent dictator. There are plenty of good passages you can find about baby killing, looting, pillaging and the raping of wives. Damn this is beginning to sound like a tale of piracy.
After seeing a discussion on Reddit /r/Atheism yesterday about organ donors, it got me thinking. On my license I am listed as an organ donor and frankly I don’t understand why so many people oppose it. Being an atheist, I believe that once those electrical signals we call life have terminated, so have you. I frequently ask people if they remember the time before their birth. They never do. This is what I imagine death to be. Instead of simply letting my flesh rot in the ground, I can let others live at no real cost to me.
The claim to addition burden on the family would be greatly avoided if you ensure to register as a donor before an incident. None of us plan to die young, but let’s face it, it could happen. Sure it is very stressful on the family of the deceased, but consider the benefits. Somebody else could live another 30-60 years from this decision. Is that not worth it? Personally I think it would provide some sort of benefit to the family. By giving life to another person some good can come out of an unfortunate situation. Saying that doctors would let you die is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot comprehend that some people actually think a doctor would let one human life go for another’s. Only after you are legally and fully dead will they consider you for donation. Doctors don’t scout out those who are less likely to survive and let them die for another’s gain.
Some countries base their organ donations on an “opt-out” schematic versus the “opt-in” we have in America. If you think about it, this makes a hell of a lot more sense. Just sign everybody up for it and make it the norm. If somebody vehemently opposes it they have the option to not be included. Personally, I think a mandatory organ donation program would be ideal but I doubt that would actually happen here in the States. Most people tend to be lazy and won’t express their feelings. If it means checking another box or filling out a form to sign up, a lot of people won’t do it. If instead they had to fill out a form to be excluded, I think we would have many more donors.
It is no secret that there are not enough organs and transplantable material to go around. Until we can find a way to artificially produce tissues our only choice is from other humans. Are you signed up as a donor? Why or why not?
Today I have a video from one of my favorite atheist YouTube video group Atheist Experience. Trust me, this video is worth a laugh. Watch and hear about his mother who was “halfway dead or whatever”. If you haven’t already, I’d highly suggest checking out their other videos.
Finally, I’ve had the opportunity to read God Hates You Hate Him Back. Essentially it is a full deconstruction and explanation of the Bible, or as CJ Werleman describes it “The Greatest Story Never Read”. I’ll admit that is true too. Just from personal experience, most Christians have not read their Bible and are clueless.
This book aims to explain the Bible chapter-by-chapter and it is spelled out pretty clearly. From what he says, by the end you will either realize that God hates you or does not exist. Overall, it is one of the better atheist books I’ve read recently. Werleman is funny, but is also intelligent enough to be witty without being overpowering. Many books are guilty of this and it detracts from the experience.It also isn’t too overtly offensive that it would instantly turn away a religious person. Sure his jokes can be offensive, but I think most people wouldn’t be completely turned off by them.
I personally found it fun to take my copy of The Bible and read along with this novel. God Hates You frequently has excerpts from the Bible and it is a simple matter to find them, read them and verify they aren’t taken out of context. From what I saw, he is always accurate in his descriptions and analysis. If you haven’t ever taken the time to fully read and comprehend the Bible, this book provides a great chance to do so. By the end, you will have a good understanding of it and you will have had fun. This book is one that could actually change people’s minds, something that has become somewhat of a rarity. But as Asimov said “Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived”. CJ Werleman definately provides both a proper reading and a potent force for atheism in his writing. All I could hope for next are disections of other religious texts like the Koran or the Book of Mormon. I highly reccomend giving God Hates You a chance, I sincerely doubt you will be disappointed in the slightest.
By now, many of you have probably seen the study that shows that atheists, liberals and sexual exclusive males tend to be more intelligent.
Young adults who subjectively identify themselves as “very liberal” have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as “very conservative” have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence.
Young adults who identify themselves as “not at all religious” have an average IQ of 103 during adolescence, while those who identify themselves as “very religious” have an average IQ of 97 during adolescence.
While I find this interesting, it is important to take this with a grain of salt. It makes sense that many who would declare themselves as atheists tend to be smarter, as most atheists use a system of logistical thinking versus faith based. Remember these are just statistics though. Personally I know many atheists who have shown themselves to be incredibly stupid.I also know many highly intelligent religious folks. You can’t just look at these numbers and begin to judge others. I realize that to say we are “all created equal” is bullshit, but that doesn’t mean we can’t treat each other like its true. At least until others give us a reason not to. I’m not trying to say this study isn’t great news, I’m just worried some people will use it as “scientific ammunition” to backup their foolish elitist beliefs.
I’m sure you are familiar with the phrase “One bad apple spoils the bunch”. It seems like we may have another case of this unfolding. Just because somebody is an atheist, doesn’t mean they want to burn down churches. Of course, that won’t stop the media from misrepresenting things and putting atheism and demon worshiping together.
One of two East Texas church arson suspects kept books on demon possession and atheism as well as assault rifles and guns, and may have left graffiti offering inside information about one of the attacks in a local store bathroom, according to court records.
Jason Bourque, 19, was under police surveillance on Feb. 13 when he went in the bathroom of a ranch store in Tyler, according to one search warrant affidavit filed in Smith County District Court.
Investigators later found an upside-down cross topped with flames carved onto the store’s bathroom wall, the documents said. Beside the cross were the words “Little Hope was Arson,” an apparent reference to the first of 10 churches burned in the spree that terrorized three East Texas counties.
…
A search of Bourque’s home after his arrest recovered books titled Demon Possession and The Atheist’s Way.
Also seized from Bourque’s residence were a Chinese-made SKS assault rifle, a Ruger 7 mm rifle and two .22-caliber rifles, a GPS and several pairs of brown shoes.
The thing is, it doesn’t even explicitly say the guy is an atheist, but he very well might be. I mean I own a copy of the Bible and a book about alchemy, but that doesn’t make me a Christian Alchemist. Unforutnately, I’m betting the average Bible-Belt American will make that connection. I see this all the time when I’m asked if I “worship Satan” or if I “dabble in dark magic”. Atheism is not connected with any supernatural phenomena. I don’t merely reject Yahweh, I reject his counterpart Satan equally. It is completely unfair to blame the actions of one fool on atheism in general. Personally, I’d never burn down a church or anything like this. Clearly the media is once more trying to make atheists out as the “bad guys” and I fear they may succeed.
I have added a new page on the little header bar titled “comments”. It shouldn’t take too much imagination to determine what that is about. I just wanted to set some basic guidelines for commenting here. As an effort to help publicize this, here is the text from that page: Here are some basic guidelines to commenting on my site:
1.Don’t Be A DumbFuck
This is the most important rule. If you have something to contribute, at least give it an honest attempt to make sense. Repeatedly posting on a 2nd grade level will get nobody anywhere.
2.Don’t Worry About Being Censored
Provided you post isn’t in violation of #1, I will NEVER censor anything. Ever. I don’t care if you disagree with me. In fact, I encourage it! A good conversation is ideal. I highly believe in the principle of free speech and never wish to infringe upon your right to speak your mind. Unless it is spam.
3.Spam Is Bad
Please no spam. What is spam? I consider writing a sentence and then linking to your blog, without contributing, spam. Or just posting nonsense. Or repeatedly posting the same thing over and over again. Use common sense here.
I hope this makes things atleast a little more clear. I sincerely hope I never have to ban or block somebody from commenting on this site, but repeated violations of (what I think to be) simple rules will result in that. Obviously, if you make an honest mistake or something like that I won’t just go and ban you. It is those who are repeatedly delinquent. Please try to contribute in an intellectual and interesting way.
So it isn’t really a secret(If you follow me on Twitter…) that I’ve been out for the last week due to illness. I apologize. Anyway, now I’m back and I hope to make some changes around the site. Most will probably be behind the scenes and hopefully yield better load times and the like. I also plan on launching AtlantaAtheistAd.com within the next day or so after the domain name fully propagates. We are already 10% of the way there and a full website should expedite things.
Today I read about this in an email from the AA. It is quite a loss to the “atheist community”. If anything, she was truly an inspiration to anybody who wants to be an activist. For those of you not familiar with the name, she is also the co-founder of the Camp Quest program.
Here is the AA article:
Kagin was a heroine and activist in the Atheist movement. Along with her husband, attorney Edwin Kagin, she co-founded Camp Quest, a summer camp for the children of nonbelievers, which has grown into an international outreach. She and Edwin were frequent guests at various conventions, and belonged to several freethought groups.
In 2005, Helen and Edwin were named “Atheists of the Year” at the National Convention of American Atheists. Helen was active in the Free Inquiry Group of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. She worked closely with Edwin and others organizing countless demonstrations and meetings, including the Rally for Reason which attracted hundreds of pro-science supporters who peacefully protested outside the opening of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY.
She was an outstanding wife, mother, friend to so many; and Helen also had an illustrious career as an anesthesiologist
We will miss her infectious laughter, her wonderful friendship and stalwart support for the cause of Reason and state-church separation.
Helen Kagin will be cremated. Edwin Kagin asks that expressions of sympathy in the form of donations be used to send kids to Camp Quest. There will be further announcements, including details of a Memorial event.
As an atheist and evolutionist, it feels like my duty to take a moment and commemorate Charles Darwin’s 201st birthday. His book, The Origin of Species, was a game changer. Take a moment to think about all the progress that has been made recently in conjunction with the information derived from this.
Darwin Day expresses gratitude for the enormous benefits that scientific knowledge, acquired through human curiosity and ingenuity, has contributed to the advancement of humanity.
In Darwin Day, we are able to recognize the diversity among us, while celebrating our common humanity and the universal understanding we share.
Be sure to tell your friends and enjoy all the benefits rational thinking and scientific discovery have brought us!
P.S.- I know I’ve post this before, but it is truly a great image:
