posts tagged with: atheism
This made me LOL, mostly for the baby eating. Also, I have that shirt. And that book. But I’ve always preferred the Invisible Pink Unicorn to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, personally.
This is great because it applies to so many things!
I’m rather late to the party here, but this must be done! It had never before occurred to me that this is something I should do- I wish I had thought of it myself, and that such a thing were happening in the US.
I’ve always thought it’s very unfair that children have something as personal as religion decided for them at an age where they have no say in the matter- in my opinion, it’s akin to slavery. After reading The God Delusion and learning about babies being clandestinely baptised without their jewish parents consent then being stolen from their parents by the Church (as they had the “right” to be raised Catholic), I feel much more strongly about it.
So while magical splashes of water don’t actually do much of anything, making a big stink about them DOES raise awareness of something I find objectionable, so it’s certainly worth the minimal effort.
I Theresa M. Solow, having been subjected to the Rite of Christian Baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out. In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged ORIGINAL SIN, and the evil power of supposed demons. I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.
Of course, babies have to deal with greater unconsented grievances than magic water, but I think the tide is slowly turning against those already.
Is much more likable than most children. That’s probably because she is smarter than about 80% of the adult population of the United States:
At least there’s hope for the future of Germany.
Via Pharyngula
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 just got a cool new Star of David (though I enjoy calling it a hexacle) pendant in the commons. I’m not particularly Jewish (1/8 on my father’s side, so it apparently doesn’t count for squat; plus, I’m an atheist and all), but the way I see it- it’s no different than a non-christian wearing a cross for the purposes of fashion- and a lot more unique, at that. Here it is:
Hey, Siouxsie did it! Sure, she was retaliating against the skinheads and neo-nazis who thought she was supporting their cause (which was her own fault, really), but I still think her response was awesome. Speaking of which, I intend to purchase this shirt (the “Israel” one, about 75% down the page) once it comes back in stock, for similar reasons, despite my disdain of band shirts in general.
I think this is a brilliantly entertaining rant. Of course, my opinion on the matter is rather predictable. (via Metafilter)
Excerpt:
There are a lot of people I love dearly and respect wholeheartedly who believe in religion. I hate to do this to them. But we have killed far too many people, wasted far too much time on this nonsense for us to keep going in this direction for fear of offense.Jesus was a lunatic. God is not coming to your rescue. He hasn’t come to anyone’s rescue in thousands of years, including Jesus. Mohammed was a power hungry, scam artist and ruthless conqueror. Moses and Abraham were figments of the imagination of some long dead rabbi. He would probably laugh his ass off at all of you who still believe the fairytales he made up thousands of years ago. He probably wouldn’t even believe it if you told him.
…
How long are we going to dance around the 800-pound gorilla in the room? The world is run by madmen. It’s not just Bush and bin Laden. It is the leader of all of the countries in the Middle East, almost all of the Americas and most of the rest of the world.
Have I offended you? That’s too bad. Stop killing each other in the name of false and ridiculous Gods and I will stop ridiculing you. Trust me, your offense is much worse than mine.
Personally, I feel that if people want to believe in magical fairy-tale creatures, there are far more interesting (though slightly obscure and clearly less destructive) options.