quietAtheist

So much for religions coexisting

Slugsie — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:56:13 +0000

So the Saudi Grand Mufti was recently asked what Islamic law had to say on the subject of Christian Churches in Arabic nations. He declared that according to Muhammed the Arabic peninsular was to only exist under a single religion – which was obviously Islam. Thus certain factions with Kuwait took that to mean that all Christian churches need to be destroyed.

http://rt.com/news/peninsula-saudi-grand-mufti-701/

So much for the public face of interfaith peaceful coexistence.

Can you imagine for a moment the outcry (and IMO rightly so, even I as an Atheist would agree) if a western religious leader suggested destroying all Islamic Mosques, or Jewish Temples etc? You just know that certain extremist elements would be calling for the removal, or worse, of this person, and more moderate followers would be strangely silent.

You really have to love a religious double standard.

In support of Rebecca Watson

Slugsie — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 10:48:00 +0000

Several months ago there was a little ‘scandal’ that rocked the sceptical world that came to be known as Elevatorgate (gawd I hate it when people add ‘gate’ to the end of things). To anyone who is at all involved in the sceptical community they will already know what happened and I have no desire to go over the events here.

As someone who exists largely on the fringes of the sceptical and atheist communities I pretty much stayed out of the debate. I figured that it was all just a storm in a tea-cup and would blow over soon enough. Indeed, as the weeks turned into months the story slowly faded from my sight, only occasionally popping up. Just as any big story does in the press.

Because I wasn’t really paying attention, and I usually switched off when I realised a blog post was about this event I never fully understood the levels of depravity some dirty low-life scum were still sinking to, and how there were treating Rebecca.

Until I decided to read this post:

http://skepchick.org/2011/09/mom-dont-read-this/

I am in utter disgust with the way that some people are treating not only a fellow human being, but also a fellow sceptic. The hate that Rebecca has had directed her way is utterly deplorable, and completely uncalled for.

If sides are being taken, and I really wish they weren’t, then I want to make it publicly known that I am absolutely, 100%, behind Rebecca Watson here.

Today is Blasphemy Day 2011

Slugsie — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 09:28:16 +0000

(Can’t think of anything more appropriate than my 2009 post on this subject)

As you may, or may not, be aware, today is International Blasphemy Day, and to that end, here is my little bit of Blasphemy… (edit: and dreadful comma abuse, sorry)

I deny the existence of Agdistis or Angdistis
I deny the existence of Ah Puch
I deny the existence of Ahura Mazda
I deny the existence of Alberich
I deny the existence of Allah
I deny the existence of Amaterasu
I deny the existence of An
I deny the existence of Anansi
I deny the existence of Anat
I deny the existence of Andvari
I deny the existence of Anshar
I deny the existence of Anu
I deny the existence of Aphrodite
I deny the existence of Apollo
I deny the existence of Apsu
I deny the existence of Ares
I deny the existence of Artemis
I deny the existence of Asclepius
I deny the existence of Athena
I deny the existence of Athirat
I deny the existence of Athtart
I deny the existence of Atlas
I deny the existence of Baal
I deny the existence of Ba Xian
I deny the existence of Bacchus
I deny the existence of Balder
I deny the existence of Bast
I deny the existence of Bellona
I deny the existence of Bergelmir
I deny the existence of Bes
I deny the existence of Bixia Yuanjin
I deny the existence of Bragi
I deny the existence of Brahma
I deny the existence of Brigit
I deny the existence of Camaxtli
I deny the existence of Ceres
I deny the existence of Ceridwen
I deny the existence of Cernunnos
I deny the existence of Chac
I deny the existence of Chalchiuhtlicue
I deny the existence of Charun
I deny the existence of Chemosh
I deny the existence of Cheng-huang
I deny the existence of Cybele
I deny the existence of Dagon
I deny the existence of Damkina (Dumkina)
I deny the existence of Davlin
I deny the existence of Dawn
I deny the existence of Demeter
I deny the existence of Diana
I deny the existence of Di Cang
I deny the existence of Dionysus
I deny the existence of Ea
I deny the existence of El
I deny the existence of Enki
I deny the existence of Enlil
I deny the existence of Eos
I deny the existence of Epona
I deny the existence of Ereskigal
I deny the existence of Farbauti
I deny the existence of Fenrir
I deny the existence of Forseti
I deny the existence of Freya
I deny the existence of Freyr
I deny the existence of Frigg
I deny the existence of Gaia
I deny the existence of Ganesha
I deny the existence of Ganga
I deny the existence of Garuda
I deny the existence of Gauri
I deny the existence of Geb
I deny the existence of Geong Si
I deny the existence of Hades
I deny the existence of Hanuman
I deny the existence of Hathor
I deny the existence of Hecate (Hekate)
I deny the existence of Helios
I deny the existence of Heng-o (Chang-o)
I deny the existence of Hephaestus
I deny the existence of Hera
I deny the existence of Hermes
I deny the existence of Hestia
I deny the existence of Hod
I deny the existence of Hoderi
I deny the existence of Hoori
I deny the existence of Horus
I deny the existence of Hotei
I deny the existence of Huitzilopochtli
I deny the existence of Hsi-Wang-Mu
I deny the existence of Hygeia
I deny the existence of Inanna
I deny the existence of Inti
I deny the existence of Iris
I deny the existence of Ishtar
I deny the existence of Isis
I deny the existence of Ixtab
I deny the existence of Izanaki
I deny the existence of Izanami
I deny the existence of Jesus
I deny the existence of Juno
I deny the existence of Jupiter
I deny the existence of Juturna
I deny the existence of Kagutsuchi
I deny the existence of Kartikeya
I deny the existence of Khepri
I deny the existence of Ki
I deny the existence of Kingu
I deny the existence of Kinich Ahau
I deny the existence of Kishar
I deny the existence of Krishna
I deny the existence of Kukulcan
I deny the existence of Lakshmi
I deny the existence of Liza
I deny the existence of Loki
I deny the existence of Lugh
I deny the existence of Luna
I deny the existence of Magna Mater
I deny the existence of Maia
I deny the existence of Marduk
I deny the existence of Mars
I deny the existence of Medb
I deny the existence of Mercury
I deny the existence of Mimir
I deny the existence of Minerva
I deny the existence of Mithras
I deny the existence of Morrigan
I deny the existence of Mot
I deny the existence of Mummu
I deny the existence of Muses
I deny the existence of Nammu
I deny the existence of Nanna
I deny the existence of Nanna (Norse)
I deny the existence of Nanse
I deny the existence of Neith
I deny the existence of Nemesis
I deny the existence of Nephthys
I deny the existence of Neptune
I deny the existence of Nergal
I deny the existence of Ninazu
I deny the existence of Ninhurzag
I deny the existence of Nintu
I deny the existence of Ninurta
I deny the existence of Njord
I deny the existence of Nut
I deny the existence of Odin
I deny the existence of Ohkuninushi
I deny the existence of Ohyamatsumi
I deny the existence of Orgelmir
I deny the existence of Osiris
I deny the existence of Ostara
I deny the existence of Pan
I deny the existence of Parvati
I deny the existence of Phaethon
I deny the existence of Phoebe
I deny the existence of Phoebus Apollo
I deny the existence of Pilumnus
I deny the existence of Poseidon
I deny the existence of Quetzalcoatl
I deny the existence of Rama
I deny the existence of Re
I deny the existence of Rhea
I deny the existence of Sabazius
I deny the existence of Sarasvati
I deny the existence of Selene
I deny the existence of Shiva
I deny the existence of Seshat
I deny the existence of Seti (Set)
I deny the existence of Shamash
I deny the existence of Shapsu
I deny the existence of Shen Yi
I deny the existence of Shiva
I deny the existence of Shu
I deny the existence of Si-Wang-Mu
I deny the existence of Sin
I deny the existence of Sirona
I deny the existence of Sol
I deny the existence of Surya
I deny the existence of Susanoh
I deny the existence of Tawaret
I deny the existence of Tefnut
I deny the existence of Tezcatlipoca
I deny the existence of Thanatos
I deny the existence of Thor
I deny the existence of Thoth
I deny the existence of Tiamat
I deny the existence of Tlaloc
I deny the existence of Tonatiuh
I deny the existence of Toyo-Uke-Bime
I deny the existence of Tyche
I deny the existence of Tyr
I deny the existence of Utu
I deny the existence of Uzume
I deny the existence of Venus
I deny the existence of Vesta
I deny the existence of Vishnu
I deny the existence of Volturnus
I deny the existence of Vulcan
I deny the existence of Xipe
I deny the existence of Xi Wang-mu
I deny the existence of Xochipilli
I deny the existence of Xochiquetzal
I deny the existence of Yam
I deny the existence of Yarikh
I deny the existence of Yhwh
I deny the existence of Ymir
I deny the existence of Yu-huang
I deny the existence of Yum Kimil
I deny the existence of Zeus

I deny the existence of any god or gods that I’ve missed out on that list.

I consider anyone that follows any of them to be at best deluded, and at worst psychotic.

I hold the religions that have sprouted up around any and all gods in contempt.

I consider those that try to force their religion on others are morally bankrupt.

I consider those that deny the evidence of science in favour of faith as idiots.

I consider any laws that attempt to promote any religion, religious belief, or any religious leaders above any other or at the expense of any other as being unjust.

There, that should cover most of it.

Just to add a note of fairness…

I respect the rights of the individual to freedom of thought, and freedom of expression.

Evolution

Slugsie — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:05:45 +0000

Just posting an image I found on the intertubes that every evolution denier really should see.

Evolution from blue to red

Click for full size.

Site problems

Slugsie — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 11:16:58 +0000

For some unknown reason at some point early on in June the site went down. I don’t know exactly when, and I still don’t know why. I’ve managed to track it down to a possible issue with the theme that I was using, so I’ve reverted to the basic WP theme in the meantime and that has at least allowed the site to be visible.

Sorry if that has caused my 3 readers any problems.

P.S. Is it a coincidence that it happened only shortly after we were all supposed to be raptured?

Still here?

Slugsie — Sat, 21 May 2011 17:01:00 +0000

Well, either I’m not going to be raptured, or it’s not going to happen.

So, when do the excuses start?

Apocalypse or STFU!

May 21st

Slugsie — Fri, 20 May 2011 15:31:31 +0000

So, according to Harold Camping tomorrow is the day of the rapture. Are we all prepared?

About a week ago he did an interview with the Beast, you can list to it here. This is the first time I have actually heard Harold rambling on, and he sounds exactly like he looks. He also sounds like a typical fundamentalist loon, especially when he talks about not even entertaining the idea that he might be wrong.

I get the suspicion that one way or another we won’t have a Harold Camping on May 22nd. That would be a shame as I am really looking forward to the back-pedalling and excuses that are inevitably due.

Draw Muhammed Day Flickr Stream

Slugsie — Wed, 18 May 2011 09:57:03 +0000

Thunderf00t has setup a Draw Muhammed day Flickr stream and web site.

http://dmd2011tf.net/

It seems that occasionally the embedded stream flakes out a little. In which case just click through to the website liked above and view it there.

Draw Muhammed Day 2011 is coming up

Slugsie — Tue, 17 May 2011 10:37:22 +0000

So here is my entry.

Buddy Muhammed in a Burqa

It’s May 20th in case you’d forgotten. In fact, it’s the day before the rapture. Hmm, surely that can’t be just a coincidence?

What are we to God?

Slugsie — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 10:08:07 +0000

Today I Stumbled upon this article from AtheismResource.com, and it got me thinking a little. One question popped into my head – “What are we to God?” Being a Sunday morning and my not being in church it seemed appropriate to briefly explore this.

Firstly, lets accept the premise of the article, that it turns out that the Abrahamic religions are correct and God/Yahweh does exist, and shortly after we die we find ourselves confronted by God and needing to give an account of our lives.

The questioner in the article asks:

Will you say the magic words and suddenly I’ll understand how a child being raped, murdered, and left in a ditch fits in with you infinite benevolence? Will starvation and disease make sense?

It’s at this point that my mind wandered a little, and I tried to see if I could figure out a way that an apparently all powerful supreme being could be so callous as to allow things like rape, murder, disease and general suffering to exist when they could wipe them out in an instant. A moments cogitation, and the answer hit me.

We’re irrelevant!

Just as we think nothing of killing an ant on the sidewalk as we walk to work, or taking antibiotics when we’re ill and wiping out whole colonies of bacteria, God just doesn’t care about us.

It’s not too surprising when you really think about it either. He apparently created this unimaginably immense universe, that according to currently observable evidence is 93,000,000,000 light years wide. Given that our minds can’t properly understand even the size of our own solar system that’s just mind bogglingly big. There must be so much stuff going on in that whole universe that we’re not even a blip on a blip on a blip on his radar.

When you’ve got the ability to observe stunning galaxies coalesce, grow, merge, and die, and you’re a being for whom galaxy forming time is no more than a few minutes is to us then the entirety of human existence (even if you accept Creationists assertion of 6-10 thousand years) is nothing.

Source: Hubblesite.org

The Sombrero Galaxy. Quite possibly my favourite galaxy.

When you have the ability to watch things like that, why would you care what is happening to Joe Smith?

Aliens or God?

Slugsie — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:43:47 +0000

Does it really make a difference?

Christian foster couple lose ‘homosexuality views’ case

Slugsie — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 09:43:49 +0000

So, a couple from Bristol have lost a court case against their local council because the council wouldn’t consider them suitable for fostering kids because their ‘Christian’ views prohibited them from saying that a homosexual lifestyle was acceptable.

From:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-12598896

Apparently this all kicked off because a social worker expressed concerns that the couple might not be able to be fully supportive of a gay child. As you might expect the usual tropes have been trotted out, they’re just good Christians with an orthodox view. This is just promoting an anti Christian view point. It won’t be possible for Christians to foster kids in future etc. It’s all BS of course.

This ruling is simply saying that bigoted people shouldn’t be allowed to influence young minds in their care. If you are accepting and nurturing to all (isn’t that the Christian view that Jesus himself supposedly espoused???) then there will be no issue, and there will be no discrimination.

I loved this quote from the end of the BBC article from the Christian Legal Centre:

The organisation said the judgment "sends out the clear message that orthodox Christian ethical beliefs are potentially harmful to children and that Christian parents with mainstream Christian views are not suitable to be considered as potential foster parents".

Yes, if the orthodox beliefs in question are bigoted, divisory, and discriminatory then I have to completely agree.

Oh, and the couple that lost the case are black. There is a certain amount of irony there.

Happy Christmas everyone

Slugsie — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 21:52:43 +0000

Just a quickie to wish everyone a Happy Christmas whatever your beliefs. I hope you all get to celebrate how you wish, and do what you feel is appropriate at this time of year.

Geordies Burning Korans

Slugsie — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:21:26 +0000

When I first read about this on Thursday it left me steaming mad. So much so that I decided to go and steam in the sauna at the local gym and think about it for a few days before posting.
So, it seems that a bunch of lads from Gateshead (not that far from where I was born) decided to burn a Koran in memory of 11th September.

[Who knows how long the overly sensitive types at YouTube will let that last?]

OK, these lads are idiots. They are also apparently racists. But as far as I can tell they’re perfectly within their rights to burn the Koran. It was (it seems anyway) their own book that they had paid for. So no big deal huh?

Except Northumbria police have arrested the six men for ‘Inciting Racial Hatred’. Bollocks! Islam/Muslim is not a race, it is a religion. One is a choice, one is not – I’ll give you three guesses which is which, and the first two don’t count.

In a joint statement, Northumbria Police and Gateshead Council said:

The kind of behaviour displayed in this video is not representative of our community as a whole.
Our community is one of mutual respect and we continue to work together with community leaders, residents and people of all faiths and beliefs to maintain good community relations.

Mutual respect? How about respect for the individual, and their rights to freedom of speech and expression? How about their rights to do what they want with their own possessions – so long as they don’t endanger life and property of others?

I sincerely hope that these men are not convicted of any crimes. If they are then I suspect that there will be civil uprising against such state stupidity.

Apologise for Hitler

Slugsie — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 10:51:44 +0000

According to Bill Donohue of the Catholic League we atheists should apologise for Hitler, seeing as how he was an atheist, and so obviously not a Catholic – no not at all.

ATHEISTS MUST APOLOGIZE FOR HITLER

September 16, 2010

Catholic League president Bill Donohue reacts to the way British atheists are handling Pope Benedict XVI’s trip to their homeland:

The pope cited Hitler today, asking everyone to “reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist extremism of the 20th century.” Immediately, the British Humanist Association got its back up, accusing the pope of “a terrible libel against those who do not believe in God.”

The pope did not go far enough. Radical atheists like the British Humanist Association should apologize for Hitler. But they should not stop there. They also need to issue an apology for the 67 million innocent men, women and children murdered under Stalin, and the 77 million innocent Chinese killed by Mao. Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all driven by a radical atheism, a militant and fundamentally dogmatic brand of secular extremism. It was this anti-religious impulse that allowed them to become mass murderers. By contrast, a grand total of 1,394 were killed during the 250 years of the Inquisition, most all of whom were murdered by secular authorities.

Why should atheists today apologize for the crimes of others? At one level, it makes no sense: apologies should only be given by the guilty. But on the other hand, since the fanatically anti-Catholic secularists in Britain, and elsewhere, demand that the pope—who is entirely innocent of any misconduct—apologize for the sins of others, let the atheists take some of their own medicine and start apologizing for all the crimes committed in their name. It might prove alembic.

[Quoted just in case it magically disappears]

OK, here goes.

I, the quietAtheist, do hereby issue an apology to the human race for that abomination of the 20th Century – Adolf Hitler, who was after all another human being.

As human beings we must shoulder some of the blame (apparently, according to Christian Doctrine anyway) for the actions of other human beings no matter what they believe, why they believe it, or even how long ago they believed it. Despite the fact that he died some 25 years before I was born, the burden of his utterly evil acts lies with myself – and all the rest of humanity.

Mind you, at least I personally haven’t been involved in the cover-up of heinous crimes against humanity. Maybe I have driven down the motorway a tad fast once or twice but I don’t think that really counts.

So, yet again I apologise for Hitler. And Stalin. Oh, Pol Pot, better do him as well. I’m sure I’m forgetting someone.

So Bill, your turn?