Idiot of the week - Susanne Atanus

Sigh.......I feel before you read this, you need to look at something pleasant like a puppy.

 

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The idiot this week is Susanne Atanus, as really how can anyone believe that autism and dementia are punishment for supporting gay marriage equality and abortion rights? I thought this was common sense that their was no link between an illness in one persons body when a person a hundred miles away decides to have sex. This may seem a far stretch but this is what she is saying, nothing more and nothing less.

The really sad part, is that she seems to think she can be a good representative for the people of Illinois. This person with a completely irrational mind seems to think that they have the ability to represent others in a position where they can make decisions on health, welfare, education etc. This is just another idiot fundamentalist that seems to think god is the answer, when god is never going to turn up to the party.

I am pretty sure the people of Illinois will never vote for her, but this is a good reminder to keep vigilant as theism tries to push its way further into society.

Riley from the Boondocks on God

I enjoy watching animation, and I thought I would share the view of a character I really enjoy watching. This is RIley from the Boondocks on God.

Here is his brother Huey on Christmas, and how people listen to the truth about Christmas.

Hope you enjoyed these two clips.

Philosophy (Theism), science and human advancement.

You may or may not know that I reject a lot of philosophical ideas/"proofs" about the god concept. The reason is simple, there is just no rational reason to accept them. As such I thought I would explain in detail why these ideas are not good for the advancement of mankind.

Basically, Philosophy (Theism) was developed a long time ago to explain things that at the time we didn't understand. I think the most important thing you can take from this sentence is the phrase "at the time." Think about the concept of the atom which was developed by the Greek philosophers to explain matter. This concept is no longer accepted as realistic as the scientific evidence has shown it to be false.

In a similar way the God concept was used to help people understand things that they could not comprehend all those years back. Things like earthquakes, tornadoes, droughts and the seasons which could not be understood as concepts as simple as the Earth revolves around the sun were not determined.

Now we have science, which has shown that earthquakes are caused by seismic activity due to tectonic plates that build up stress as the plates move on the fluid mantle. We have tornado early warning systems and countless lives have been saved. We now can transport people out of severely drought stricken areas or send food aid. We understand why the seasons exist as we know the Earth tilts and revolves around the sun. In short,  we understand and we no longer need gods or bad philosophical ideas.

Theism is retarding human advancement and that is why I am against it.

The raving lunatic that is John Piper

John Piper, I never knew about this guy until I read about him at the ramblings of Sheldon. Honestly I try not keep up to date with fundamentalists, so when I saw the name I decided to click on the link and see what he was about. The following clip is what I was linked to and I don't think I can say to much besides that he is a lunatic if he honestly believes that God has the right to slaughter people as he wills. The reasoning is that God has the right to do this as God can do no wrong ever.

But then I got to thinking, even if he is a lunatic he is correct in his beliefs as this is what the bible teaches. Pretty much this is the same attitude that the Westboro Baptist Church has, he and they are biblical literalists. The problem is his (and their) beliefs are based in the stone ages and have not developed to reflect society as it exists today. 

On a side not at least he is not against the use of anti depressants. The reasoning is good on this, and this is why John Piper is so dangerous as he is smart enough to use the correct words in the right places.

This is what counts as evidence for god?

Highlight of the week from most probably one of the dumber things I have read.

Here is the real reason water is denser than ice.
"Water freezes from the top down and floats, so fish can live in the winter."

This gem of knowledge comes from a website with the twisted name everystudent.com which does imply some amount of learning and logic. But what actually caught my eye was a link called Does God Exist and it gives six reasons why God exists. So I thought I would look at the evidence, as this is what is claimed. "Just once wouldn't you love for someone to simply show you the evidence for God's existence? No arm-twisting. No statements of, "You just have to believe." Also this list is created by an ex-atheist so surely this person would understand that evidence actually means evidence.

1) "The complexity of our planet points to a deliberate Designer who not only created our universe, but sustains it today." The Fine tuning argument basically. So this is not so much proof as rather what you think about the fact that water exists, or that the Earth is in the Goldilocks zone, or the brain is awesome, etc etc. In other words not evidence and not a good start.

2) Simply titled "The universe had a start - what caused it?" This is a question, this is not evidence.

3) Again a question "The universe operates by uniform laws of nature. Why does it?" Again no evidence.

4) "The DNA code informs, programs a cell's behavior." So DNA "codes" the cell, but this means DNA "codes" the cell. This is not evidence for god this is just an assertion of something scientists have known for a very longtime.

5) "We know God exists because he pursues us. He is constantly initiating and seeking for us to come to him." In other words anything that happens anytime is God actively seeking you out. This is basically the reason why this ex-atheist became a theist as she felt that God was there and that irrational feeling is all the proof she needed.

6) "Unlike any other revelation of God, Jesus Christ is the clearest, most specific picture of God revealing himself to us." Again not proof just mindless assertions.

So Iets go back and see what we were promised.
"Just once wouldn't you love for someone to simply show you the evidence for God's existence? No arm-twisting. No statements of, "You just have to believe."
What did we get?
Nothing, just another pathetic attempt and more lies about offering evidence that was not there. All we ever get is you have to believe, pathetic really.

Idiot of the week - Yahweh and his secret lover.

This weeks idiots are a special pair. It goes to a Nun that did not know she was pregnant and the father of the child Yahweh.I mean if she did not know she was pregnant and was wondering why her stomach ache was so bad then the natural conclusion surely must be that God knocked her up. That sneaky God running around having sex with nuns and then leaving them to look after his illegitimate children. Maybe he has a fetish for the uniform, and that's cool but own up to responsibility!

Have you seen this man? He is wanted for not paying child support.

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I am sure most people know god is not a moral guy what with the slaughtering all the Amalekites. Maybe Interpol will go after him and hunt him down and prosecute him in the Hague.

Or.....

The Nun is an idiot.

Another reason Catholicism is dumb.

Continued support of the Catholic church is shocking in light of the sex abuse that is rampant and all the cover ups. Yet people still cling to their beliefs and say that the priests were tempted or however else they justify rape and/or sex abuse. If you don't believe me here is just a short list of posts that bloggers I follow have reported on the criminal organisation that is the Catholic Church.
atheistrev
bitchspot 1
bitchspot 2
republic-of-gilead

Now I want to give another reason why it is absolutely idiotic to be part of the Catholic church. But first lets get a few definitions out of the way.
Pope: The successor to Peter and the leader of the Catholic Church.
Papal infallibility: Is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope is preserved from the possibility of error.
Infallible: Not capable of being wrong or making mistakes.
Keep this in mind and we continue with this post. Actually to help out here is a picture of someone who is infallible.

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If this is true then why have to separate popes predicted the end of the world? That is right, there are at least two Popes that we know off that have made these crazy assertions about the world ending. So how is the world still around when an infallible person (sorry 2 people) have made these predictions?

Here are the predictions:
Pope Sylvester II predicted the end of the world in 1000 AD.
Pope Innocent III predicted the world would end 666 years after the rise of Islam. Islam started in about 620 AD, that means the world should have ended in about 1286 AD.

So guess the Catholic church is just as ridiculous as those other end of the world religions which never come true. Or if the Pope is Gods voice on earth, God is wrong.

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The atheist label

A while back I did a post on labels over at Canadian Atheist. Since then a lot of people have talked about the atheist label and what it means exactly, enough so that I think it is worth mentioning again. When I mean a lot I mean podcasts and blogposts and more.

So what is an atheist?

Its simple really, and its the common answer atheists give to theists all the time. An atheist is a person who rejects belief in a god/deity. In other words, it is nothing more and nothing less, it does not include any extras like liberalism/conservatism/feminism/etc.

Now on this blog I do talk about things besides atheism like evolution/chemistry/pseudo science/etc. However, the problem is that these are not related to atheism and readers should realise that. I mean these are the reasons why I became an atheist and things that I see as evidence as why people should dismiss deities or deity concepts. I think the blog title gives it away iamanatheistandthisiswhy.

In other words, do not assume someone supports feminists or liberal views if they are an atheist. If a person identifies as an atheist the only thing that you can be sure of is that the person rejects the belief in a deity. Some atheists believe in some really stupid stuff, but there is one thing they do not believe in and that is a god.

Idiotic Islamic Fatwas

Since my post of podcasts I like to listen to, I have been catching up on some new podcasts and I can across this list of idiotic fatwas from the Geologic podcast. So while I know this is an old story I thought I would still talk about it as it is another example of what a belief in an imaginary sky person does to peoples thought patterns and how it makes their prejudice seem more justified.

So turns out in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood or the religious idiots associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt have decided that certain actions are not to be permitted and have made laws against them. In essence a Fatwa is the legal judgment of the interpretation of Islamic law, so these judgements can be in issues such as gender, sex, food, recreation etc.

Here are a highlight of some of the best
1) When a women goes swimming, as the word for sea is masculine, when "the water touches the woman's private parts, she becomes an 'adulteress' and should be punished.
2) Some of these fatwas also forbade women from eating certain vegetables or even touching cucumbers or bananas," due to their phallic imagery, which may tempt women to deviate
3)  It is unacceptable for women to turn the air conditioning on at home during the absence of their husbands as this could be used as a sign to indicate to neighbors that the woman is at home alone and any of them could commit adultery with her.
4) a marriage is annulled if the husband and wife copulate with no clothes on

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So this is so called intelligent people, that have determined that a women getting hot at home can lead to sex. But the way they say it sounds creepy as anyone could have sex with this lady, so its not the ladies choice if they have sex. Or hang on ladies should not swim in the sea, as the sea is going to have sex with her? What does this even mean, why does this sound so stupid? For one simple reason, it is dumb.


Islamic laws again show how stupid a belief in a god is.

Charitable contributions

Recently, I got asked to donate money to a charity. So for the first time in my life I asked the important question that I believe all atheists should ask when donating money. I asked, "Is the charity associated to a religious body?"

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Its not that I don't want to give money to charity, its that I do not want to give money to a charity that has an agenda. There are charities that give food to the needy that require them to listen to a sermon first. I don't want anyone to listen to rubbish about any god if I am giving money for them to eat. I don't want to give money to a charity that is meant to be helping out in a destitute country when they are encouraging a homophobic or any other agenda.

Some charities do not deserve money from anyone as they are evil. Some charities lack the understanding of giving. Giving means you get nothing back and that's what charities are about. This is why I refuse to give to some charities and I unfortunately paint all religious charities with the same brush as I do not have time to research every charity I get asked to contribute to. There are good religious charities out there but the bad ones spoil it for me.

In closing, sometimes you have just have to be a dick and ask deeper questions about charities. I.e. are the related to any religion.

A matter of perspective

Its amazing how different theists and atheists see things. Recently a few of the bloggers I follow have been talking about debating theists and the waste of time it can be when the cycle starts to  repeat itself. I myself have been having these types of debates recently, and it occurred to me that religious debates are all a matter of perspective. The theist is coming from their god x is true position, and the other theist (or atheist) is coming from a position that is 180 degrees removed. These two positions are impossible to reconcile until one person in the debate is actually willing to concede that they are wrong (or could be wrong) and they need to look at the evidence.

An example of this recently was a theist creationist asking me "if humans evolved from monkeys, why are monkeys still around today?". This argument is ridiculous as anyone that has ever bothered to pick up a book on evolution will know that this is not what evolution says. Our perspectives are completely different, and as such we cannot have a constructive debate until one of us changes our views on some elementary aspects i.e. the theist actually picking up a book on evolution and reading it instead of spouting answersingenesis crap. Now people will say, this is biased, but its not for two reasons I have read Behe and science is on my side. I know the arguments that creationists are using, I understand them as I have studied them to see if they can be true. In other words I have applied rational thinking and found them wanting.

The theist and atheist perspective on gods are different yet only one is correct. The problem is that theists and atheist come from different perspectives and often (more so for theists) the opponent in a debate has not and will not consider the the other persons position. Until your opponent is prepared to sit down and read the evidence presented and admit their perspective could be wrong, there is no chance for a constructive debate.

To see an example of perspective just look at this video made by a theist regarding a call to the atheist experience. Your perspective and the theists perspective are probably very different. There are loops in the video, which are irritating but it makes the point even clearer.

Buddhists Gone Bad Or Have They

No idiot this week, or should I say there are always idiots just no one made me really rage this week except for Dennis Rodman, but then he apologised. So while I thought I would rage on him, I decided to give him a break. BTW he has lost the plot.

Anyway I found this story from Australia and decided to share it.

There are some people down-under that are dressing up as Buddhist monks and then begging for money. Now this is technically not illegal according to the police, but some people are saying its fraud as people think when they give to Buddhist monks its going for a good cause. Guess these people don't know about the drinking and sex fiend monks in Korea and Thailand.

So I was thinking about this, and honestly why should we care?

Everyday people are giving their money to Buddhists, or Catholics, or Muslims etc. My personal opinion is that people do this is to ease their conscience. In other words if you are giving it to a beggar or a priest what difference does it make. The real priests are getting rich on falsehoods so why cant the fake priests be getting rich on falsehoods. Either way you are parting with your money for an imaginary dream.

Best part of this story, the one monk actually whipped out a card machine, when someone claimed they did not have money. Awesome swindle.

What I have learned debating theists

Thought that counts sometimes

This is an extremely difficult post to construct, so bear  with me.

I have read a lot about the use of the "greeting/farewell" phrases Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays recently. Then while listening to the  Atheist Experience a caller said "God Bless You" to one of the hosts. So I thought I would weigh in with my opinions on these phrases and other religious based phrases.

I think as atheists it is important that we do not always be dicks, and I can be a dick most of the time so I am including myself here. When a theist says one of the following phrases : Merry Christmas, Happy Easter, God Bless You, Bless You (when you sneeze) they are just expressing kindness towards you. These phrases have become so common even a lot of atheists unintentionally use them everyday without thinking. My point is do not be a dick to people that are trying to be nice to you when they something like this. Even if they are expressing it through a third person (God Bless You?), often its their upbringing that has determined the use of these sentiments and as such we should not be angered when someone uses them.

Now, there are other sentiments that are more antagonistic such as: Jesus Loves You. Again the person is just expressing a sentiment, and most often do not have a bad intent. Even this phrase does not bother me, so I also let it slide. In fact to irritate atheist friends I will sometimes say it, just to get a rise out of them (see told you I can be a dick).

The only phrase I have a problem with is the following one as it implies there is something wrong with me. The phrase in question: "I will pray for you."When someone says this be a dick, as an insult is an insult and you have a right to point out the stupidity of an idiotic belief. I believe its the hosts on the Atheist Experience that reply "I will think for you" when someone says "I will pray for you".

By the way I am not saying do not use these phrases as openers to tell people about what you believe and why, but you do not have to be a dick. As humans we know when someone is been disingenuous. In those cases say something, at other times there is no point to be antagonistic towards someone who is just trying to be nice.

Belief, its all a big conspiracy

Recently, I have been having a discussion about the existence of UFOs. To clarify I do not believe in UFOs, however this does not mean that life outside of our planet is not possible. What strikes me about UFO proponents is that they really and truly believe there is ample evidence for the existence of UFOs. This is exactly the same position that theists hold with respect to the existence of a god, they believe there is ample evidence to prove their god.

Yet, there is no evidence for UFOs, every shred of evidence can be explained using natural phenomena. Additionally, the sightings of UFOs are becoming less and less as the technology becomes more and more advanced to test the existence of UFOs. In the same way for theists god was hiding in prayer and creationism, but now evolution and prayer studies have shown that god does not exist there.

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Following this line of reasoning, I have to wonder why religion is not considered a conspiracy theory as it has so many of the same characteristics. There are the preachers who tell their flock that there is so much evidence yet the evidence is found lacking. Also, as for conspiracy theorists science is the enemy and the real science is getting hidden away as its all a cover up.

When will people realise that atheists do not have a hidden agenda? All that has happened is that atheists have looked at the evidence and have concluded there is no god. Just as many theists look at the evidence for UFOs and conclude their are no UFOs, its not a conspiracy its logical reasoning.

What do you believe?

Hello Kitty a tale of a famous cat

Hello Kitty, hate it or love it there are some things you need to realise. Millions of people worldwide really love Kitty. Hello Kitty is a big industry, really big, and that's why I want to talk about it with respect to religion.

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Hello Kitty started in a small country called Japan back in 1974, but since then Kitty Mania has spread to the four corners of the globe. This is phenomenal by any animations standards and I cannot think of any other animated character that has been as widely spread or influential as Kitty. It is so influential it is even used on credit/debit cards, airplanes, video games, movies, TV series, CDs etc. Additionally, Hello Kitty has a well documented history of been born in London, England and he loves music, art and English. Basically, you should realise that Kitty is the best and only animation character worthy of praise.

Sound familiar? Theists always tell you their God is correct for reasons that make their God the only true one. Sad truth is that these reasons are usually personal ones and not necessarily rational ones. Just as some people believe Hello Kitty is the ultimate animated character others will tell you its Mickey Mouse. The fact is these opinions are likely based on where you grew up and what you are exposed to.

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Hope you enjoyed the post

Idiots of the week - Sister Hatune Dogan

These two reports are the basis for this weeks idiot of the week.(link, link) This award shows that you should be careful what you say and who you say it to. For this reason Sister Hatune Dogan is the idiot of the week. Please watch the two minute video, observe the editing and witness the lunacy.

Video has been removed, sorry.
 
The report sounds fantastic, but it is all hearsay from a person who apparently did these killings in Syria. Then we learn from the sister that these bottles of holy Christian blood are sold on the black market and reach prices of  100,000 $. Why you may ask is it so expensive, well this blood drained from a pure godly Christian is used in a ritual hand cleansing by Muslims so that they can go to heaven. This is apparently the only way to heaven for Mulsims, I didnt see this in the Koran and I have to wonder why.

 There is no doubt this is a bullshit story. These fake news outlets cannot even get their story correct, one says Syria, the other says Saudi Arabia. All these "news outlets" are doing is trying to prove their god is real by profiting of the delusions of a lunatic.

However, even if it everything in this story were true. Ask yourself this simple question, why would a Muslim believe Christian blood will send them to heaven? This is reason enough to doubt the validity of the story, and something I would expect from Alex Jones or David Icke.

For this, WND, Sister Hatune Dogan and the people that believe it deserve to be idiots of the week.

If you think this makes sense, please see a doctor

Been thinking about Neolithic people recently as I was reading a great book called A New History Of Korea by Ki-Baik Lee. Yes, I am a geek I cant help it. :) I was also thinking how this ties in with the answersingenesis people and their beliefs.

Anyway this is not a story about Korea, this is a story about the Neolithic people. Now it  should be noted that the Neolithic age lasted from about 10000BC to between 4000 BC to 2000 BC. This is the time in Human evolution when pottery, weaving and animal domestication was happening. This was the time of human evolution when we started to do cool stuff like make stone tools and stone tips for spears and axes. At this point we did not have advanced mathematics that was to wait for the Greeks and Arabs. Here are some picture of what tools were used during that time.

(source)Some more stone tools can be seen here.(link)

Oh this is also the time when Noah made the ark, in fact to be exact and according to answersingenesis, it was in approximately 2348 BC in other words right at the end of the Neolithic age. This is when this group of eight people built this huge ark using these rudimentary tools.

Okay scroll up look at the neolithic tools links, and then look at this picture below. Think that this was made using stone tools with no mathematics, by 8 people.

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If you think it was possible for Noah to build this ark, you need help.