Did Jesus not teach mercy?
Did Jesus not teach compassion?
Did Jesus not say "love thy neighbour" and "turn the other cheek"?
Our predominately Christian Western society has a lot to answer for.
If you really believe in your "peaceful" religion, and it is not merely a selfish comforting delusion, put an end to your own hypocrisy. You wonder why some atheists don't SEE Christianity as a positive thing when the things Jesus preached about go left forsaken. Sure, most of you try to live virtuously and apply some of Jesus' teachings to your own lives - but what's being committed in the name of your religion, in the name of your country, on the other side of the world? George Bush claimed that God told him to invade Iraq. Please listen to this song, and consider its message come election day.
Saturday 30 August 2008
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Update - 06/08/08
Though it looks suspiciously like I've been mourning the death of George Carlin since my last post, my absence has been due to a hedonistic summer's travelling.
I just wanted to make a record of something I found out upon returning home:
In my hometown in the UK, there are a group of Evangelical Christians who heavily populate a strategic location in the town center where the road acts as a fork leading to all the town's clubs, pubs and bars. These Christians are particularly infamous for their methods of attracting attention. Although the other day I noticed...where have all the Christians gone?! No promises of eternal damnation. No threats of hellfire. No "Jesus Saves!", "Repent, Sinner!" or "John 3:16" sandwich boards. The pavement where they once ominously stood was but a glorious relic to their downfall. I could still smell the sulphur. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. After a little inquiry to those in the know, to my amazement, I swiftly discovered that the group had been arrested for "Breach of the Peace", and were no longer permitted to preach in that location.
Scenes like in the image above are fairly common in UK high streets, but I never had much faith they would ever dwindle in my lifetime. Apparently threatening drunks with hellfire and damnation at night time is illegal in the UK. Obviously I don't wish these people to be stopped through legislation, I do however wish towards a society in the not-so-distant future that is reasonable and intelligent enough to not take these people seriously.
What amazes me about this country, is that I was taught intelligent design in school! In the U.S a teacher would have a hard time even mentioning God in the classroom. Here in Britain, however, we of course have "Religious Education". My experiences of R.E. were essentially of Bible stories, Bible "science", and how to apply Christianity to our lives. Every R.E. teacher in our school was a Christian. We were even forced to pray in our school assemblies. Now this was only 4/5 years ago, and as far as I'm aware the system is the same: Teaching kids one thing in the Biology classroom and another in an R.E. class from an incredibly biased perspective. A friend of mine even applied for an R.E. job and was declined, not for being an atheist, but rather for not being a Christian. It seems to me that Britain's monotheistic history lies festering in the classroom unnoticed, and people only seem to turn up their noses when it overflows into the streets.
In France, students are not taught Religious Education like we are in Britain. Instead, they are taught compulsory Philosophy from a young age, of which Religion is a small aspect of. This much more subjective and progressive method rids the French school system of theological corruption whilst providing their children with essential, unbiased knowledge of what is perhaps - what with all the street preachers - the most important thing to be well informed of in the 21st century: religion.
I just wanted to make a record of something I found out upon returning home:
In my hometown in the UK, there are a group of Evangelical Christians who heavily populate a strategic location in the town center where the road acts as a fork leading to all the town's clubs, pubs and bars. These Christians are particularly infamous for their methods of attracting attention. Although the other day I noticed...where have all the Christians gone?! No promises of eternal damnation. No threats of hellfire. No "Jesus Saves!", "Repent, Sinner!" or "John 3:16" sandwich boards. The pavement where they once ominously stood was but a glorious relic to their downfall. I could still smell the sulphur. Needless to say I was a little disappointed. After a little inquiry to those in the know, to my amazement, I swiftly discovered that the group had been arrested for "Breach of the Peace", and were no longer permitted to preach in that location.
Scenes like in the image above are fairly common in UK high streets, but I never had much faith they would ever dwindle in my lifetime. Apparently threatening drunks with hellfire and damnation at night time is illegal in the UK. Obviously I don't wish these people to be stopped through legislation, I do however wish towards a society in the not-so-distant future that is reasonable and intelligent enough to not take these people seriously.
What amazes me about this country, is that I was taught intelligent design in school! In the U.S a teacher would have a hard time even mentioning God in the classroom. Here in Britain, however, we of course have "Religious Education". My experiences of R.E. were essentially of Bible stories, Bible "science", and how to apply Christianity to our lives. Every R.E. teacher in our school was a Christian. We were even forced to pray in our school assemblies. Now this was only 4/5 years ago, and as far as I'm aware the system is the same: Teaching kids one thing in the Biology classroom and another in an R.E. class from an incredibly biased perspective. A friend of mine even applied for an R.E. job and was declined, not for being an atheist, but rather for not being a Christian. It seems to me that Britain's monotheistic history lies festering in the classroom unnoticed, and people only seem to turn up their noses when it overflows into the streets.
In France, students are not taught Religious Education like we are in Britain. Instead, they are taught compulsory Philosophy from a young age, of which Religion is a small aspect of. This much more subjective and progressive method rids the French school system of theological corruption whilst providing their children with essential, unbiased knowledge of what is perhaps - what with all the street preachers - the most important thing to be well informed of in the 21st century: religion.
Monday 23 June 2008
George Carlin
George Carlin died yesterday.
The man spoke more truth than anyone.
It's hard to summarise the extent of his influence on society. It's now up to the rest of us to continue to fight the tyranny he spent his entire life exposing.
He will be missed.
The man spoke more truth than anyone.
It's hard to summarise the extent of his influence on society. It's now up to the rest of us to continue to fight the tyranny he spent his entire life exposing.
He will be missed.
Thursday 5 June 2008
Baby Bible Bashers
I can't be too sure how widely seen this disturbing documentary by award-winning director Amelia Hann is other than in the UK, but I can safely say it's not enough.
I wanted to write a blog entry on why raising a child as religious is child abuse, but upon remembering Baby Bible Bashers, aired in the UK a few months ago, I recalled how utterly shocking it was. Such a fantastically made documentary highlights the disgusting consequences of the belief system of such dogmatic and pious parents far more effectively than I can hope to.
The other day I heard a Christian child sitting behind me on the bus asking his mother what would happen to his Muslim friend when he dies, the mother answered with a predictably self-righteous "He'll go to hell". This documentary highlights why religion should never be drilled into children at such an intellectually naive and easily susceptible age. Watch it.
I wanted to write a blog entry on why raising a child as religious is child abuse, but upon remembering Baby Bible Bashers, aired in the UK a few months ago, I recalled how utterly shocking it was. Such a fantastically made documentary highlights the disgusting consequences of the belief system of such dogmatic and pious parents far more effectively than I can hope to.
The other day I heard a Christian child sitting behind me on the bus asking his mother what would happen to his Muslim friend when he dies, the mother answered with a predictably self-righteous "He'll go to hell". This documentary highlights why religion should never be drilled into children at such an intellectually naive and easily susceptible age. Watch it.
Saturday 24 May 2008
"I looked up my family tree and traced it back over 200 years..."
"...and could not find anyone who ever had fins or scales."
Wednesday 14 May 2008
Christian Terrorism
In today's society, the word "terrorist" has certain connotations. Most of us, thanks to a biased media's propaganda, an unjust war and increasing immigration problems, now think of bearded 
Muslim extremists in caves plotting the destruction of Western capitalism through senseless violence, subsequently spreading their backwards religion across the globe. There is, however, an overlooked group of terrorists, whose equally archaic and dangerous religion has already reigned supreme across the globe for hundreds of years, and has been holding our society back right from under our collective noses. This festering religion is Christianity. Spread by the sword, Christianity and its inevitable fundamentalist extremists have bombed and murdered their way well into the 21st century. I find it painful to witness people lampoon Islam and criticise Muslim immigrants for being solely responsible for spreading hatred and intolerance in our society, consequently diluting our culture, whilst there has been an ideology just as evil festering within our culture this whole time.
Some may consider my words a little harsh, so I took the liberty to add up all the major attempted and successful Islamic terrorist attacks from 1989 until 2008: 144. This number includes all murders, suicide bombings and hijackings, amongst many others, across the globe. What interests me, is when you compare this number to the number of Christian terrorist attacks, and their comparative prominence in the media. Take a look at the following chart:
This chart shows the numbers of Christian terrorist attacks on abortion clinics alone, in the United States. In the exact same time period, the number of violent attacks accumulates into the thousands. Isn't it strange how our society feels the need to address the "problem of Islam" before addressing the more dangerous "problem of Christianity"? You'd think that since one of these two evils is already so deeply rooted into Western society it poses a much larger threat to our freedom. Consider the Christian preclusion of some of the most basic human rights throughout history, and how progression of those basic rights was hindered by groups such as these Christian terrorists. It's ironic that, in our society, Christians have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the level of tolerance and compassion that they claim to hold such a monopoly on.
I know not all Christians want to blow up an abortion clinic, just like not all Muslims want to blow up an aeroplane. I just believe the injustice of the media focusing on Muslim terrorists is a ridiculous farce, especially whilst our entire Western culture is so much at the mercy of the evil that is Christianity that it becomes unacceptable for anybody in the media to speak ill of the religion. Of course, because we all think religion deserves undue respect, for some reason.
Sources:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_viol.htm
http://ballyblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/03/terrorists-are-muslims-list-of-islamic-terrorist-attacks/
Muslim extremists in caves plotting the destruction of Western capitalism through senseless violence, subsequently spreading their backwards religion across the globe. There is, however, an overlooked group of terrorists, whose equally archaic and dangerous religion has already reigned supreme across the globe for hundreds of years, and has been holding our society back right from under our collective noses. This festering religion is Christianity. Spread by the sword, Christianity and its inevitable fundamentalist extremists have bombed and murdered their way well into the 21st century. I find it painful to witness people lampoon Islam and criticise Muslim immigrants for being solely responsible for spreading hatred and intolerance in our society, consequently diluting our culture, whilst there has been an ideology just as evil festering within our culture this whole time.Some may consider my words a little harsh, so I took the liberty to add up all the major attempted and successful Islamic terrorist attacks from 1989 until 2008: 144. This number includes all murders, suicide bombings and hijackings, amongst many others, across the globe. What interests me, is when you compare this number to the number of Christian terrorist attacks, and their comparative prominence in the media. Take a look at the following chart:
This chart shows the numbers of Christian terrorist attacks on abortion clinics alone, in the United States. In the exact same time period, the number of violent attacks accumulates into the thousands. Isn't it strange how our society feels the need to address the "problem of Islam" before addressing the more dangerous "problem of Christianity"? You'd think that since one of these two evils is already so deeply rooted into Western society it poses a much larger threat to our freedom. Consider the Christian preclusion of some of the most basic human rights throughout history, and how progression of those basic rights was hindered by groups such as these Christian terrorists. It's ironic that, in our society, Christians have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the level of tolerance and compassion that they claim to hold such a monopoly on.
I know not all Christians want to blow up an abortion clinic, just like not all Muslims want to blow up an aeroplane. I just believe the injustice of the media focusing on Muslim terrorists is a ridiculous farce, especially whilst our entire Western culture is so much at the mercy of the evil that is Christianity that it becomes unacceptable for anybody in the media to speak ill of the religion. Of course, because we all think religion deserves undue respect, for some reason.
Sources:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_viol.htm
http://ballyblog.wordpress.com/2007/07/03/terrorists-are-muslims-list-of-islamic-terrorist-attacks/
Monday 12 May 2008
Why I Am Not Religious
In various attempts to discredit atheists, religious people have a tendency to make sweeping statements that contain very little, if any, truth in them. I myself have been told many times that the only reason I'm an atheist is due to my "arrogance", my "ego", or my "unwillingness to know the truth". So to prevent this, I want to address why I'm an atheist, so angry theists might have the decency to stop being so condescending, and stop assuming they know more about my beliefs than I do.
A few opening points to acknowledge initially;
1 - Nobody is born with an innate idea of God, therefore everyone is born an atheist.
2 - The only thing that affects whether or not we believe in God is firstly our family, and secondly our society.
The first criticism atheists get is that we, like the many victims of theological indoctrination, have merely been subjected to atheism from an early age, poisoned against Religion as a child and therefore are too narrow minded to ever accept the idea of God.
Here's my story: My family is a very traditional, British, (and much to my embarrassment) predominately conservative, Roman Catholic family. Despite this, I - a particularly liberal atheist - was very much encouraged throughout my childhood to think for myself. And why did a conservative Christian family allow themselves to raise an atheist son? Because my parents were good parents, and forcing your child to follow your own religious beliefs is child abuse.
The second criticism atheists get is that we have some personal vendetta against religion, and we are self-righteously riling against the pious and devotedly theistic members of society to fulfil our own biased agenda. To this, as I have already demonstrated, I can only say that I have no personal reason to dislike religion. In fact, my tolerant upbringing in the hands of a group of devoted Catholics is unrivalled as a pro-religion experience. No oppressive family members ostracising me for my heathen beliefs to get my knickers in a twist about here; no personal reason for me to be anything other than tolerant or even embracing of organised religion.
The third criticism is that we are merely ignorant of religion, and that if we just knew more about it we would simply crumble under the weight of all the evidence and accept that our peccant atheist lifestyles are based on a lack of morals and false evidence.
The truth is that most atheists are very much interested in theology. I myself have been to many church services, spoken to Catholic and Protestant Christians and priests and Evangelicals, and Creationists...one of my oldest and closest friends is a Muslim, his family is Muslim and I've spoken extensively to them all regarding Islam, I've explored religious philosophies of the Far East as well as some of the peculiar Hindu denominations...my life has always been greatly influenced by and involved with religion. I've always had good reason to explore my own spiritual side, and have never rejected the idea of a God before knowing about what I was rejecting beforehand. But of course I have never claimed to know that there is no God. By his very nature, God is unfalsifiable. Atheism doesn't mean you know there isn't a God, just that you believe there isn't one. If you can offer me a tangible, empirical proof of God, be it of Yahweh, Allah, or Zeus for all I care; be my guest.
A fourth criticism is that atheists who oppose organised religion are no better than the hate-filled extremists they harp on about. That by speaking out against religion you are spreading hatred.
Though I agree that it is a slippery slope; (take a look at how hatred for Islam has had unjust effects on majority views on asylum seekers and immigration) I - and I can only speak for myself - don't hate anyone just because of their religion. Its the archaic ideology and the effects that has on our society that I hate. Organised religion holds a society back. It restricts the natural evolution of morals, and thus is responsible for an immeasurable amount of oppression and hatred throughout history. Want proof of how it still happens today? Look at the Christian campaigns against homosexuality, just like how Christians used the Bible to oppose the progression of women's rights 100 years ago, or to justify slavery 150 years ago. Deeply religious countries in the Middle East subject their citizens to such intense backwards intolerance because of their archaic religion holding their society back; which is why so many desperate people seek asylum in the West in the first place.
The obvious conclusion to this 4th criticism is that speaking out against something you believe to be wrong, is spreading hatred against those that believe in it. Which is simply a ludicrous proposition. Religious people are so used to their beliefs being treated with such unchallengeable respect that they throw their toys out of the pram whenever an atheist says "Hold on a minute, what you're saying is a bit unfair."
If you want to follow an archaic religion that has no place in the 21st century, be my guest. Go ahead. It's when you people start enforcing your fucked up beliefs on the rest of us, and start not just spreading prejudice against, but actively discriminating against those that you believe to not comply with your divine moral code that you're going to start hearing people speaking out against you. No matter how many of you believe it, and no matter how loud you want to shout about it, there's always going to be someone there to say to you "Wait, this isn't right."
A few opening points to acknowledge initially;
1 - Nobody is born with an innate idea of God, therefore everyone is born an atheist.
2 - The only thing that affects whether or not we believe in God is firstly our family, and secondly our society.
The first criticism atheists get is that we, like the many victims of theological indoctrination, have merely been subjected to atheism from an early age, poisoned against Religion as a child and therefore are too narrow minded to ever accept the idea of God.
Here's my story: My family is a very traditional, British, (and much to my embarrassment) predominately conservative, Roman Catholic family. Despite this, I - a particularly liberal atheist - was very much encouraged throughout my childhood to think for myself. And why did a conservative Christian family allow themselves to raise an atheist son? Because my parents were good parents, and forcing your child to follow your own religious beliefs is child abuse.
The second criticism atheists get is that we have some personal vendetta against religion, and we are self-righteously riling against the pious and devotedly theistic members of society to fulfil our own biased agenda. To this, as I have already demonstrated, I can only say that I have no personal reason to dislike religion. In fact, my tolerant upbringing in the hands of a group of devoted Catholics is unrivalled as a pro-religion experience. No oppressive family members ostracising me for my heathen beliefs to get my knickers in a twist about here; no personal reason for me to be anything other than tolerant or even embracing of organised religion.
The third criticism is that we are merely ignorant of religion, and that if we just knew more about it we would simply crumble under the weight of all the evidence and accept that our peccant atheist lifestyles are based on a lack of morals and false evidence.
The truth is that most atheists are very much interested in theology. I myself have been to many church services, spoken to Catholic and Protestant Christians and priests and Evangelicals, and Creationists...one of my oldest and closest friends is a Muslim, his family is Muslim and I've spoken extensively to them all regarding Islam, I've explored religious philosophies of the Far East as well as some of the peculiar Hindu denominations...my life has always been greatly influenced by and involved with religion. I've always had good reason to explore my own spiritual side, and have never rejected the idea of a God before knowing about what I was rejecting beforehand. But of course I have never claimed to know that there is no God. By his very nature, God is unfalsifiable. Atheism doesn't mean you know there isn't a God, just that you believe there isn't one. If you can offer me a tangible, empirical proof of God, be it of Yahweh, Allah, or Zeus for all I care; be my guest.
A fourth criticism is that atheists who oppose organised religion are no better than the hate-filled extremists they harp on about. That by speaking out against religion you are spreading hatred.
Though I agree that it is a slippery slope; (take a look at how hatred for Islam has had unjust effects on majority views on asylum seekers and immigration) I - and I can only speak for myself - don't hate anyone just because of their religion. Its the archaic ideology and the effects that has on our society that I hate. Organised religion holds a society back. It restricts the natural evolution of morals, and thus is responsible for an immeasurable amount of oppression and hatred throughout history. Want proof of how it still happens today? Look at the Christian campaigns against homosexuality, just like how Christians used the Bible to oppose the progression of women's rights 100 years ago, or to justify slavery 150 years ago. Deeply religious countries in the Middle East subject their citizens to such intense backwards intolerance because of their archaic religion holding their society back; which is why so many desperate people seek asylum in the West in the first place.
The obvious conclusion to this 4th criticism is that speaking out against something you believe to be wrong, is spreading hatred against those that believe in it. Which is simply a ludicrous proposition. Religious people are so used to their beliefs being treated with such unchallengeable respect that they throw their toys out of the pram whenever an atheist says "Hold on a minute, what you're saying is a bit unfair."
If you want to follow an archaic religion that has no place in the 21st century, be my guest. Go ahead. It's when you people start enforcing your fucked up beliefs on the rest of us, and start not just spreading prejudice against, but actively discriminating against those that you believe to not comply with your divine moral code that you're going to start hearing people speaking out against you. No matter how many of you believe it, and no matter how loud you want to shout about it, there's always going to be someone there to say to you "Wait, this isn't right."
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