posts from 2008.10

I’ve been an atheist since I reached the age of reason and I realized that my grandmother’s claims that “there were no dinosaurs” were filthy Christian lies, but recently I’ve decided to become a lot less tolerant of theists. After all, tolerance is counterproductive when the thing you are tolerating has caused more wars and killed more people than anything else throughout history, and when it threatens to weaken society by teaching children myths as facts and restricting personal freedoms.

Much of my inspiration for this choice came from (of course) Richard Dawkins and his An Atheist’s Call to Arms lecture from a while back:

The real impetus for this post, however, came from an atheist blog I’ve been following lately, Pharyngula, and a video by a busty young lady explaining why atheists do, and should, care about the stupid blathering theists do:

I haven’t seen Religulous yet, but I plan on seeing it sometime this weekend.

Know this, if you are a theist, I do not and can not respect you, no more than you would respect an adult who believes in the Tooth Fairy. To me, you are no different than any other insane cultist- something to be shunned and mocked, and maybe to feel a bit sorry for. I will probably leave you alone, as I know there is little sense in arguing against insanity, and I would hope you would extend me the same courtesy, but I imagine you don’t feel the same way.

No, the only threat to you I pose lies in my existence, and that I am not alone.

edit, 2008.10.23:
People seem to be slightly misinterpreting me, here.

Let me clarify by reposting part of my reply from there:

As I’ve said before, people can believe in any nonsense, invisible pink unicorns, flying spaghetti monsters, teapots orbiting Mars, that they want. As long as this belief stays a private thing, it doesn’t affect anyone else, I’ve no problem with it. But as soon as it enters public policy, affecting laws, the way children are taught, or personal freedoms; or as soon as someone decides to go to war over it; it becomes a blight upon society that needs to be removed.

Which is the whole point of militant atheism, really- not to actually forbid people’s private beliefs (who cares?) but to ensure a secular society, one that has more of a basis in science, rationality, and fact than superstition and myth.

Why do believers automatically assume that others always want to convert them, seriously? Not everyone is a missionary. Chances are, if I don’t know you personally and you have no say in my life I really couldn’t care less what nonsense you believe. That latter bit is the important bit: religion should have no say in my life. It can have all the say in your life you want it to, as long as that say is from internal sources, not external (i.e., governmental) ones.

I found this bug over at Neatorama, and it warrants spreading.

Curiously, as far as I can tell this company isn’t really selling much of anything. Not much of anything I can see on their website, anyway, and certainly nothing that appears to be worth buying. It seems to have something to do with buying “premium booklets” at a head shop. Certainly not the stuff of infinite nightmares that their advertisement would imply, anyway. Unless of course lung cancer is the stuff that fuels your nightmares.

Why haven’t I seen this movie yet? It doesn’t appear to be on Netflix, that’s probably a good reason. Must still be a VHS-only movie :(

It seems right up my alley, what with all the sillyness, and the zombies, and the stupid religious zealots getting (I imagine) eaten. Plus, the ridiculous comedy / horror / song mashup seem to be along the same lines as the wonderful Cannibal! The Musical, which, as you may know, I loved.

Here’s one of the musical numbers, which I found today on ectomo, and which prompted this post:

Edit: Found it on DVD!

I went to a Roller Derby match for the first time ever today, to support Beth, who is co-captain (Cruisin’ B. Anthony). I went alone, because most of my friends who I asked to go suck. I did end up seeing Will there though, who doesn’t suck.

But no matter! It was still fun! And we won, 115-96. Here is a crummy quality cell phone video I took of part of the first period:

Look! Circles! Listen! Cheering! No one flipped out and killed anyone or broke anything in this segment, but things like that are hard to plan.

Anyway, I was told by two separate people that I should try out for the team (none of who were on the team, of course). There may be something to that, as this is probably one of the few sports where lack of depth perception really doesn’t matter. Now if only I were better coordinated…

Seriously, if you don’t register to vote, and then actually vote, you deserve whatever shite state of affairs we wind up with. Not that the current mess we are in isn’t bad enough, but all that could have possibly been avoided if things had gone differently 8 years ago. So please please please don’t let them keep going the way they are going.

Here’s some inspiration!

Via