be offended

Everyone should be offended when the US government supports religion in any way. Everyone. Even if it is supporting your own religion. No one should be happy to see the Ten commandments posted in a government building, for example. Why? Because nothing lasts forever, including your stranglehold on the religious of the majority of Americans.

What if tomorrow, a significant proportion of Christians decided that your god had sent a new prophet. And what if this prophet said that you've all been doing everything wrong, and must convert to Islam at once? Don't tell me it couldn't happen. If gods can send prophets to ignorant, superstitious desert tribes, they should be able to send prophets to modern people, right? Shouldn't they? Or can't the god(s) do that sort of thing anymore? If not, why not?

So say this prophet gets 60 percent of Christians to convert to Islam. Now they're going to go rip down all the Judeo-Christian crap you've posted everywhere and replacing it with Koranic teachings and Sharia law. Are you still ok with majority religion being slapped all over the government?

What if it wasn't Islam? In fact, what if it wasn't an Abrahamic religion at all? What if the sky opened up tomorrow, and the goddess Diana appeared from above? What if voices in the yearly California brush fires told firefighters that they'd better start worshiping the Hindu gods or they would end the world?

The truth is that you can't count on your religion always being the majority. And if you disapprove of someone else's religion being splattered all over the government, they why is it ok when it's yours?

Or maybe you're just pining away for an Evangelical theocracy. In which case, not only does religion get involved in the government, but now the government is getting involved in your religion. Do you really want that? You don't trust them to provide you with free health care, but you want them messing around in your religion? How does that make any sense?

there are no words...

There are no words, I say, to describe the awesomeness of this essay.

Warning: Gravity is "Only a Theory" by Ellery Schempp

Seriously. There are just no words. I think I am in love with this guy. And as a bonus, Wikipedia says he lives in Boston. Too bad he's like 30 years older than me. LOL. The guy had a PhD before I was even born.

Creationists are funny

A couple of hours ago, some guy responded to a several-months-old blog post where I was following the comments. The original post wanted an explanation for the weirdness of human teeth that went with the creationist standpoint. This guy, like SO many creationists, made a typical in-the-camp-of-the-enemy comment. He wanted to know where the universe came from if there is no god.

Well, there is no god. Why does that make me a cosmologist? I have a basic understanding of Big Bang Theory. But I don't have a degree in theoretic astrophysics, nor am I omniscient. But my reply to him was "where did god come from?" It's like they think atheists have never heard that one before. Funny.

attributing tragedy

I've noticed that whenever someone "miraculously" survives a tragedy, somebody is usually there saying a god saved that person. For example, if a plane crashes, and there's one survivor, someone says their god must have been looking out for that person (but apparently he wasn't bothered much about the rest of them). So I was just wondering. If a plane crashes and everyone but one person survives, does that mean their god hated that person? Does it mean he didn't figure into the god's plans? And would anyone say that on the news? Like, you would hear this headline:

Car Flips Over and Bursts into Flames: One Person Walks Away Unscathed; Says God Has a Plan for Her

But not this one:

Car Flips Over and Bursts into Flames: Four Uninjured, One Dead; Relatives Say God Didn't Have a Plan for Her

Why is that? Could it possibly be that religion just tells us what we want to hear?

redistribution

The other day I was talking about how the religious right people are always complaining about "redistribution of wealth." Well, apparently that only applies if it's being redistributed away from them. According to this chart from the Tax Foundation, they need to STFU. Apparently most of the red states get back more federal aid money than they pay in taxes in the first place. Meanwhile, the blue states are getting less than we pay. Hmmm. How is that not redistribution??

Here in Massachusetts, we're getting back $0.82 on the dollar. Whereas, say, Mississippi, is getting back $2.02 for every dollar they send in tax money. Why do they even get to vote? They're not ever paying taxes. They get double their money back! California only gets $0.76 back per dollar. No wonder they're broke. They're supporting half of the red states by themselves.

Recently, Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN), who is running for governor of Tennessee, was whining that if we don't vote the Republicans into federal offices and overturn health care, then states might have to "consider separation from the government." Excuse me? You want to talk treason and secession? Go ahead. Buh-bye. And kiss your $1.27 return on $1 taxes paid goodbye. If enough of you leech states leave, maybe we can bail California out of the republican mess it's in.

I guess this is good...

...even though I never heard of him before. Is there a sci-fi version of this thing?

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Can't make this shit up

So over on Facebook, The Raw Story put up a post about ol' Glenn Beck's latest faux pas. (HAHA FAUX NEWS, FAUX PAS!!) I wrote about what he said the other day. But anyway, their take on the story was that Beck was siding with the Nazis, claiming that the Jews killed Jesus, rather than the Romans. Which, you know, now that they mention it...

But anyway, the Christians were having an argument about "Paunches Pilot." Hello? Pontius Pilate, kids. And yeah, I'm pretty sure he was a Roman. And anyway, aren't they supposed to be happy that Jesus was tortured to death? Isn't that the whole point of the death cult? Human sacrifice, martyrdom, cannibal wafers and blood wine? Because of how he wanted to plagiarize Odin with the sacrifice myself to myself theme, right?

I will never understand this religion.