All go

Just thought I'd add a quick note about what I'm up to and why I've not been replying to comments. I've spent a few days in England. I returned back home to Spain just in time for my birthday and went out for dinner with my new girlfriend. It was all very nice. To my complete surprise some friends turned up at the end of the meal with a huge space cake, which meant things then turned into a party. It really was a potent cake resulting in everyone having a good time, numerous conversations that will never be deciphered, some extremely bad dancing and finally one guy taking a little trip to hospital. He was fine and the visit only led to further laughter since one of those responsible for the cake is also a member of the ambulance service. The following day saw another party - no casualties.

So, it's all been good fun and I've just not been spending time online because I've had other things to do. Thanks to everyone that's left comments. I'll be responding over the next couple of days. Rhology has left some incredible nonsense on the "Might is not Right" post below which might even warrant a dedicated article. We'll see.

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Coming out to you family

It's not something I personally had that much of a problem with, but it's difficult for some.

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Christianity Explained

(Text copied from this amusing image)

Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that's present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

Unrelated video

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Might is not right.

One of the biggest issues I have with the pious faithful is the hypocritical claims they make about how good they are for worshiping their gods. Although I've mentioned it before, including recently, I think this point deserves more attention. One deconversion I achieved was because I highlighted that according to a friend's beliefs, I will burn for all eternity in hell. She thought of me to be a good person by my actions and she simply couldn't accept that I deserved to go to hell. My question is who does?

I've burnt myself a few times. Probably the worst was when I got a metal cylinder heater stuck to my arm but I've never been hospitalised for it. Getting burned really hurts. Out of all the pains I've experienced its right up there just above do-it-yourself home dentistry and considerably worse than the time I split my scrotum open in a bike accident. One might even say it hurts like hell. So let's imagine now the same pain, spread over all your body, your eyes, your face, the soles of your feet, the tips of your fingers, your slightly scared scrotum, your ears, inside your nose, inside your mouth, between your toes, the head of your penis, or your clitoris for female readers, your scalp, your throat, your nipples, well, everywhere – no breaks, no rest, and absolutely no escape – EVER!

Now to me, that is a pretty primitive view of Hell as it's purely a physical thing. There's still so much more that could simultaneously be done with the mind, but regardless, it is still unimaginably bad. And it serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever than to make you suffer. There's no rehabilitation here. It's just mindless, infinite torture.

Who deserves that?

In my mind, nobody does. Not even Hitler. Not even Stalin. Not even the worst child murderer ever. Not even someone that thinks someone else deserves it! Not even the worst criminal of all time, the one that has and will continue to put billions of people into that very same suffering if you happen to believe he exists, god! That's right – not even god. The suffering is so pointless and so extreme that it is literally too bad for anyone – even the one creating it.

So what I can't for the life of me figure out is how anybody can think that another human being deserves that fate simply for not saying "Thanks Jesus. You're the man. I'll be your obedient pet forever". This, my friends, does not compute.

Now, it seems a no-brainer to me that I, not being an immoral man, do not deserve that torture either. I am generally kind and conscientious. I don't steal. I don't act violently towards others. I even respect the boundaries of other people's relationships. That's right – I turn down offers from women that are already involved. I don't want to be involved in hurting people emotionally or physically and I control my actions to try to make sure that I leave people unharmed. So how can I deserve and eternity in hell?

So, all you believers out there please answer me this. Pick any one you know that is not a Christian. Pick absolutely any nice person you know or have ever met that is not a Christian, or if your experience is so limited that you don't know anyone then pick someone famous. Someone nice. Someone that worked on the Sabbath, like a doctor for example. Now please tell me how you can honestly say that this person deserves eternity in hell, burning in infinite agony, forever? Tell me honestly, do you think that is right?

How about for family members? How about for your own children? The thought of what you will accept as right just because of your belief in the might of your god staggers me. How the hell can you justify hell to yourselves? Or are you really just such scared little puppets that you can't possibly risk the independent thought of determining for yourselves that such cruel retribution for non-existent crimes is morally wrong?

My son is 13 years old and an atheist. He's one of the best behaved and considerate children I've ever known. My daughter is 12 years old and an atheist and she is actually the best behaved and most considerate child I have ever known. She has quite a reputation for it. If they die now they go to hell by your beliefs. What sickness of the mind do you have that can make you think that is deserved? What poor excuse for morality do you aspire to if you haven't the courage to disagree with your god on that simply because your god is stronger than you?

In my mind you are truly weak or absolutely inadequate as moral human beings if you do no object to a god that would inflict such torture by at least saying "Hey god. I don't want to be part of that particular plan. Whatever the reward, the price is too high!"

So come on, please loving Christians, explain to me the value of your love when the cost of your reward is the unparalleled evil of billions of your fellow man in eternal and infinite suffering? And furthermore, explain to me the frequency with which so many of you gleefully squeal your approval, in fact delight, at your predictions that so many will burn for all eternity in hell?

Just because you can't win a fight would never make it right to join the wrong side. And that is exactly what you have done. You are cowards no matter how much love you may try to give in your lives because you will never stand up against the worst of all the fates you believe to be the truth.

Might is right in your book and your loving super hero is the same monster that promises a Hell not mentioned a single time in the entire Old Testament*. Might, for you at least, appears to be the sole qualifier of right.

Apologists, on your marks! Get set! Apologise!


* Before you try to tell me I'm wrong about the OT you should know that the OT originally states "Sheol" (Hades) as the destination for everyone. Sheol is the Hebrew word referring to the common grave of all mankind. In KJV it is translated 31 times as "Hell", 31 times as "grave", and 3 times as "pit". But the OT itself contains not one reference to the unrighteous going to a different Sheol than the righteous. Hell is a New Testament invention. It's the invention of your loving Lord Jesus Christ. In the New Testament it is referred to a "Gehenna" (Matthew 10:28, 23:33; Mark 9:43). Note: Matthew 11:23 portrays Hades (Sheol) as distinct from Gehenna. Case closed, unless you want to disagree with the bible of course.

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Skeptic Love Tag

Previously I've written a little about love before in a post called Lost. If you've read that post you may have noticed that I'm somewhat of a cynic and can't ignore the statistics when it comes to claiming how special someone is. Despite being a cynic and a relatively critical thinker I am not imune to emotion. Even though I was once described as the "closest thing to a vulcan in the atheist blogsphere" (thanks BEAJ – I liked that one) from time to time I suffer from the same irritating softy-fluffy-wuffiness as everyone else. Now is such a time. And so what better time to start a new tag on the subject.

Here's the deal.

Love that is not madness is not love – Pedro Calderon de la Barca

In my experience that is one of the most accurate statements ever made. So, in search of some advice, the task I'm passing on to other bloggers is to answer the questions below and then pass the tag on to as many skeptical bloggers as you like.

1. Do you consider romantic love from an evolutionary pair bonding standpoint within your own relationships or do you avoid thinking about it that way?



2. Has thinking about romantic love from a critical angle ever caused you to say something that has upset your partner and if so what?
   
   
3. Does understanding a little of the chemistry going on inside your brain make you in anyway less susceptible to that chemistry and if so please elaborate?



4. As people thought that explaining the rainbow removed its beauty do you think that understanding the evolutionary origins of our emotion of romantic love decreases its value or beauty for you?



5. What advice would you give to a highly skeptical, critical atheist in knowing when to shut up and just enjoy being an ape?

My Answers:

1. In every relationship I have ever had I have thought of it this way. I can't separate my life from what I continue to learn, in fact the thought of trying to do so horrifies me.
   
   
2. Constantly. All of my ex-girlfriends found me to be both deep and romantic. There seems to be much more to depth than there is to romance and one invariably gets in the way of the other. Deep, since it must be based on intellectual honesty, always wins. Also, it irritates me when I am supposed to submit to stupid sayings I absolutely disagree with. One ex was mega-pissed off that I refused to agree with her on the vacuous statement that "Love is the highest thing". I told her it was a meaningless statement and that it ignored the causes of the emotion and had no context.



3. I think so. I find it impossible to believe that someone I meet in a club for instance is anyone special which makes it impossible for me to pretend that she is. I need evidence. I have to have reason beyond a throbbing groin to make that fantastical leap. I literally think more along the lines of "Hmmm, everything I have so far learned about you is entirely average. I could pretend that you fascinate me physically, emotionally and intellectually but you do not". As I'm sure can be imagined, I absolutely suck when it comes to picking someone up. I'm just not sufficiently motivated to lie enough. This is so common that I have at times been mistaken for a prude.



4. Not at all. It is an absolutely fantastic feeling and the cause of some of the greatest happiness I have experienced in my life. But I don't see why I have to deny understanding the importance of vasopressin receptors in pair bonding in voles and the likely similarity in our own brains. I don't understand how people think love is more valuable (it's certainly less honest) if you ignore the data and view it as something mystical.



5. Having been absolutely terrible at this I really can't give anyone any advice other than try to find someone that also accepts critical thinking as a great methodology for living life. Never shut up.

Tagged

I'm going to tag two bloggers I know are married:

Sacred Slut over at A Whore in the Temple of Reason
Tommy over at An Exercise in Futility.

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Hitler was a Christian

To be honest I'm tired of all the times I've had to discuss the claim that Hitler was an atheist when the evidence that he was in fact a Christian is overwhelming. There is argument to be made that Hitler was no fan of organised religion, but even this is put on uncertain ground as there is a strong case the quotes upon which that assertion is made were forged by Bormann, the anti-Catholic editor of the writings known as Hitler's Table Talk.

Anyway, here's a nice stash of photo's showing Hitler relating to Christ and his filthy wizards.

Update:

Thanks to Matt M for this link to a great list of Hitler quotes on his faith and Christianity.

And here's another good resource regarding Hitler's table talk and other extraneous sources. In fact NoBeliefs.com has an impressive section dedicated to Hitler's Christianity.

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5000 Years of Religion in 90 seconds

Behold, the flash map of 5000 years of religious expansion in 90 seconds.

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