So He Hates Non-Christians

Alabama, you are one of the worst states in the union, somewhere between South Carolina and Mississippi. We all know you are full of inbred, redneck, racist, homophobic asshats, but you really didn’t have to go out and elect the asshat. I am speaking about your new Governor, Gov. Bob Bentley of course.

''But if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister."

Bentley added, ''Now I will have to say that, if we don't have the same daddy, we're not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I'm telling you, you're not my brother and you're not my sister, and I want to be your brother."

I honestly don’t care what this guy says. I prefer him not consider me any part of his family. He can stand at the podium and scream about the Christian State of Alabama and how he hates everyone who isn’t a white Christian man. I actually appreciate this guy’s honesty. He has a conviction that all non-Christians are not part of his “family”. I am glad he had the balls to stand up and say it out loud.

Here is the catch: this guy is a douchebag. He loves feeling superior to everyone else and thinks that he is in good company, so why not say it? Well, let me tell you why. The reason that Alabama is a horrible state is because they keep electing bigots like this guy. This guy is just a representation of what the people of Alabama are like: old, white, and bigoted. I don’t think that Gov Bentley is to blame. That would be too easy. It is the people of Alabama who are to blame. They voted this guy in because he best represents the values of Alabamans.

To be fair to Gov Bentley, he did apologize… to a rabbi. I am shocked and surprised that he went that far.

Catholics In The UK Are Babies

So I am going to summarize this article and this article:

UK Secularists: We don't want children to receive religious indoctrination at school.

UK Catholics: Why are you making fun of us?! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Although, I would trade all of your crazy Catholics for a Ray Comfort and Ken Ham.

South Carolina's New List Of Businesses I Will Not Visit

Oh South Carolina, you never cease to amaze me with your pointless religious idiocy. We have found a couple of rubes from York County who want to start a Chamber of Commerce. What’s that you say; York County, SC already has a chamber of commerce? Oh, I forgot to mention that this would be a Christian Chamber of Commerce.

As proposed, the Christian Chamber of Commerce would have many of the benefits secular chambers offer: marketing assistance, mentoring, networking and educating business owners through speakers and seminars.

What would be different is the accountability and encouragement that comes from a community of believers, he said.

"As a business owner, if you have a problem, you have to make it happen," Barry said. But with a Christian-centered business, your concerns are directed to God. "If God wants it to happen, he will pull it together," Barry said

I didn’t know God was in the business of business. Is he going to bail out businesses that are failing, or is it one of those “if you fail, it’s gawds will”? If it is the former, then maybe God can do something about the unemployment rate. If it is the later, then WHAT FUCKING USE IS IT?

If nothing else, this will be a list of businesses for me not to visit. Thanks for making it easy, South Carolina.

A Call And A Survey

I received an interesting phone call on Friday. I am not sure who referred this man to me or how he got my cell phone number (maybe Jesus gave it to him), but that is really beside the point. This guy called and wanted to talk to an atheist. I am thrilled that I am the representative for atheism to this guy.

He told me that he had been tasked with his preacher (oh, no) to find an atheist and talk to him (yes, him, not her) and find out why he (being me) does not believe in a god, specifically the Christian God. Then he was to give me his conversion story and get my response to it. I didn't really have anything better to do at the time, so I said "Sure, what do you want to know?"

We actually had a nice conversation. He thought that I was going to argue with him, which I told him that I don't argue. I get my point across, and if the other person doesn't like it, they can move along. So we had some rules right off the bat; no one was going to argue.

He started by asking me why I don't believe in God when there is so much evidence for him in the Bible. I told him that for starters, I could write a book that said I was the creator of the universe and use that as evidence of me being the creator of the universe. This is called circular reasoning. Then I went into the type of being that would have to exist that was described in the Bible would be either a contradiction in itself, or would exist outside of our physical reality which would render it useless for our universe.

He also asked me about the origins of the universe and people, how I grew up, and if I had ever read the Bible. I think I had some pretty good answers for him, and I answered the personal questions honestly. I have read the entire Bible through numerous times, just as I have read the Koran through completely. It is kind of hard to argue with someone when you don't know what they believe (even though he admitted he had never read the entire Bible). We even had a short side conversation about the death penalty and how it doesn't jibe with his view that God is the only judge. If you can't tell, I am against the death penalty.

He called me again this morning to say that he enjoyed our conversation and was wondering if he could send me a short survey that he could use in his Bible study class on Monday. Why not? This is a first for me. So here are the questions that he sent me. After reading over them, I had to say that there were no short answers for most of these questions. I know it hurts Christians heads when we can't give them a one-word answer for the nature of the universe, but the universe is a complicated place. How would you answer these?

----------------------------------------------------

1. How do you believe we arrived here? Were we, as the Bible says, created by God and Jesus?

2. You commented to me that technology has proven that the Bible is not true. My response is that technology was not existent when we were created. In your opinion, what is it that technology has proven? (Just a quick note: I did not say that technology made the Bible a lie. I said that that the people, as described in the Bible, believed what they believed because they didn't have any other mechanism to find out the truth, i.e. science)

3. What are your thoughts on heaven and hell? According to the Bible, we have a choice.

4. Describe your father's ministry - ultra conservative, liberal? What denomination?

5. Explain your views on the word "reprobate."

6. As Christians, we know that Jesus is our shepherd, and we can trust that he will protect us, provide for us, and guide us in our everyday decisions, etc. As an Atheist, do you feel pressure and stress knowing that you are alone in your thoughts and decisions, and have complete control of your destiny?

The 70's Caused Catholic Priests To Rape Kids

Over the insanity of the holiday, I missed this horrific, stupid, and disgusting story about our favorite head-pedophile, Pope Benedict. The problem of pedophilia in the church was not due to an environment that put men in too much control of children while telling them that they can't have sex. No no, it was due to the society of the 70's.

Victims of clerical sex abuse have reacted furiously to Pope Benedict's claim yesterday that paedophilia wasn't considered an “absolute evil” as recently as the 1970s.

In his traditional Christmas address yesterday to cardinals and officials working in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI also claimed that child pornography was increasingly considered “normal” by society.

“In the 1970s, paedophilia was theorised as something fully in conformity with man and even with children,” the Pope said.

I am going to try to remain calm here. Fucking children has never been considered normal by modern society. It hasn't been considered normal to anyone accept the whole child-raping lot of priests who made it normal in their own cloistered lives. There my have been free love in the 70's that spilled over from the 60's, but it didn't translate to children. What kind of society does the pope live in? Oh, that's right; he is the head of the whole child-raping institution.

This man is a ghoul. Instead of taking responsibility for the string of abuse scandals, the Pope has decided to shift the blame from one thing to another. “It's the 60's. No, it's the 70's. No, it's because of atheists.” Tell me, what part of 70's society makes you want to rub your penis on a child? Was it the Vietnam War, the Nixon Administration, the flattening of the economy, the massive loss of jobs, or the oil shortage?

You had better find somewhere else to shift the blame, because the press is coming for you.

The latest controversy comes as the German magazine Der Spiegel continues to investigate the Pope's role in allowing a known paedophile priest to work with children in the early 1980s.

I know it will never happen, but how awesome would it be to see this guy put on trial for facilitating a known child rapist?

Donating To Religious Institutions

Recently my wife and I had to get rid of some old furniture from our daughters room after doing a little holiday remodeling. The furniture sat in our dining room for a few days while we tried to find a place that helped the needy that was also secular. Easier said than done.

In Gastonia, NC, I am convinced that the only secular place in the area is my house. There are a few places around that help the needy, but they are all religiously oriented. I can't justify driving 30 miles to Charlotte just to drop two car loads of good off. The price of gas and the environmental impact of unnecessary driving is reason enough.

After checking a few of the local places out, I found one place that gives goods to needy families and the only way you can tell that the place is religiously oriented is the name and the Bible verse that is scrawled on the back wall in a sad, lazy fashion. No one proselytizes or asks you where you go to church. All they seem to care about is helping other people.

Would any of you give anything to a religiously oriented charity organization if it was either that or the trash? I am sure that some people would rather throw the furniture away than to let a Christian group dole it out, but I would rather someone get some use out of the stuff that could use it. What would you do?

Do Not Define Me, You Arizona Dirt Worshiper

One thing that pisses me off a great deal is when other people try to tell me what I believe. The ideas that they have in their thick, Neanderthal-like skulls all sound the same and sound like something from a Chick Tract. It came as no surprise to find that this letter that was posted to a news paper came from Arizona, a land replete with morons and the super-religious (same thing).

Follow the link and read the letter. I shall not sully my blog with its vapid contents. All I have to say is ATHEISM DOESN’T MAKE ANY STATEMENTS. Atheism is simply a lack of belief in a deity. Now, if this dirt worshiper from Arizona would like to debate the origins of the universe with an evolutionary cosmologist or debate the intricacies of biogenesis with, I don’t know, a biologist, perhaps he should do just that. Something tells me the conversation would be very confusing for one of the participants.

A person can be an atheist and not have a degree in biology or quantum physics. It doesn’t take Einstein to see how stupid the idea of a creator is. However, since we are defining each other here and making demands, I want to know where Steve Miller’s (the author of this letter) proof is for a 6000 year old universe? What papers has he written to prove that Adam and Eve gave birth to the world population? I am pretty sure he would have a hard time finding proof outside of the Bible.

I know we say it often and it pisses of the mental midgets of religion, but when you make a claim, you had better have some goddamned evidence to back up that claim. Atheism doesn’t make a claim. Religion on the other hand is nothing more than a series of claims with either no evidence or evidence to the contrary. I’ll stick with atheism.

Atheist Don't Understand Religion?

What a boring piece of tripe I found on the National Post. Charles Lewis wrote a 'scathing' article against atheists, telling us the he doesn't care what we think. Then he goes on a bitching binge for a few paragraphs about how he is all mad and bothered that atheists criticize religion.

But the debate is useless for one simple reason: most atheists do not have a clue what religion is about. They see religious people as blind sheep following a series of incomprehensible rules and dogmas and then scoff at their lack of enlightenment. They find the flaw in the painting and say it is all now ruined. Atheists are utopians who believe a perfect society can be built if only religion was not in the way.

I skipped over quoting this highly quotable square of toilet paper to make one thing clear: most atheists have been religious and know exactly what it's all about. I am never left without wonder when I here the religious idiots say that 'atheists just don't understand because they don't believe in god.' Well, I don't believe in the tooth fairy or the easter bunny but I can come up with a list of logical reasons why they don't exist without still believing in them. I'm not even sure his statement makes any sense.

Are the religious 'blind sheep following a series of incomprehensible rules and dogmas'? They have had thousands of years to prove they are not and a mountain of evidence that says they are. I will stick with the evidence on this one.

By the way, the way to show that you don't care what someone thinks is not to write an article in the National Post.

Lack Of Basic Understanding Strikes Again!

Lack of basic scientific knowledge has struck again! Some buffoon named Parrish Myers wrote in the Gainesville Times that atheist don't believe in god, but we believe in air, gravity, and magnetism. I think this guy has been listening to too much Insane Clown Posse.

You can't see air, yet you breathe it and it sustains your life. You can't see gravity, but jump off a building and you'll find out just how real it is. Germs are too small to see with the naked eye, but get one and it will make you sick. Magnetism is an invisible force, but it attracts and repels whether we see it or not.

Personally, I have never known anyone who has denied the existence of things such as air, gravity, germs and magnetism. Yet I have known plenty of people who have denied the existence of God. The reason they deny his existence? Because they cannot see him.

OK you troglodyte, here is the difference between the list of things we can't see and god: we can actually observe the effects of gravity directly, we can observe the force of magnetism directly, we know what air is and can observe it, and we can see germs. Anyone with a third grade science education that wasn't given in a Christian school would be able to tell you that. Just so there is no misunderstanding, let me direct you to the Wikipedia entries on air, germs, magnetism, and gravity.

Do you know why you have never met anyone who denied the existence of air, etc? Because we have proof of such things existing. They actually do have a measurable effect on the physical world. What about God? Anything? Can anyone give me any kind of proof that doesn't amount to a feeling they get or some grand delusion that is all in their head? I'll be waiting, but I won't hold my breath.

Atheists are not a group of babies who have yet to develop object permanence. We understand that on a cloudy day that the sun is still there just as we understand that the air we breath is real and the force of gravity is real. I wonder if Parrish Myers would lock himself in a closet somewhere, would anyone believe he still existed? Let's give that experiment a shot.

MomLogic: Actually Something Logical

I thought this article I found on MomLogic was going to make me scream, bash my face against the pavement, and set my leg on fire. The title made me cringe in a very uncomfortable way. However, after reading it, it actually gave me a warm fuzzy.

...and I told her something I learned in therapy -- which is my church; the place I seek wisdom. I explained that good and bad exist in all of us. It's not either angels or demons. We choose who we are, we choose our lives and goodness comes to us not because we prayed for it, but because we shared it and reached out for it.

Bravo, godless child. It takes a lot of guts to say there is no god, even more so at the age of 11 (if only I had been so smart/brave at the age of 11). I think the mother did a good job on her part also. I think it is interesting that after years away from the church, the mothers gut reaction was “did I do something wrong?” Brainwashing at its best.

A Case Of Atheist Discrimination

During most of my life as an atheist, I have heard a few of the same statements made about discrimination when it comes to being an atheist. “At least no one is killing atheists here”, “You can't get fired for being an atheist”, and “Why can't you just be quiet about your beliefs” are three of the most common statements (which have all been said to me during to course of one 10-minutes long radio interview). I have become proof the second statement is false.

In my day job, I deal with customer relations. I have spent a lot of time building a good working relationship with my customers over the past 5 ½ years. I have had nothing but glowing reviews (which they have to give periodically). Needless to say, I found it quite odd when I was called into a meeting with my manager and informed that the customer no longer wanted me in their warehouse. This happened about 3 weeks after I appeared on TV and the radio, on my own time, promoting the billboard.

I will not divulge the name of the company that kicked me out, mainly because I don't want to be sued, but it is a very large company that produces undergarments. I had my suspicions as to why they didn't want me in their building, but they were confirmed when one of my supervisors pulled me to the side to let me know what happened during the meeting with the customer. They didn't like what I was promoting on my free time. They thought I was doing them a disservice by being in their building and being an atheist, I guess.

This is very serious because in my job, if you are dismissed from a large account, your job pretty much has a 3 month lifespan. The only reason my job is in danger is because I refuse to believe in fairy tales and I refuse to be quiet about it, especially in a place like Charlotte, NC that names every other road or building after Billy Graham. I never talked about my personal life while at work because its personal. I do not talk to my coworkers about my family or my friends and vice-verse.

I am reminded of the radio interview I did with Tara Servatious, our own local Glenn Beck. She made the comment that atheists were just playing the victim and no one every really discriminates against atheist. It's against the law and as we all know, businesses never break the law. Well, here is your discrimination. I now have first-hand knowledge of what it is like to be in danger of being fired at any moment for a lack of belief. No matter what is said, it still isn't OK to be an atheist in America. Land of the free, indeed.

Has anyone else seen this type of, or have been the object of,discrimination like this?

Lessons From The Billboard Campaign

I have learned a few lessons the hard way, which seems to be the only way I am able to learn anything. The billboard that we put up in Charlotte on Billy Graham Parkway was one of those hard-lessons-learned. I found out some depressing, interesting, and wonderful things about our fair city, which can be described as having one foot in 2030 and one foot (and the brain) in 1330. The city seems to want to march towards the future, destroying all of its old landmarks to make way for the new. The religious, however, are stuck. Their religion doesn’t change. It doesn’t progress. It feeds on the hopes of good people and turns them in to scared, irrational, and hate-filled pawns. So, I guess you could say the first thing I learned was resolve. I will wear my atheism on my sleeve and will not let anyone scare me back into hiding.

The people of Charlotte had always seemed a mixed bag to me. I knew that there was a huge religious population here, but I also knew that there were some very loving and understanding people. I thought, somewhat naively, that our message would be seen for what it was: a positive message to let the city know that we, the Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics, are here. However, our mere presence in this city is seen as an affront to all religious people, which brings up the same old question of “What is it about atheist that people hate so much?” So, my second lesson that I learned is that people don’t often act as we hope, they are more likely to act as we fear.

There were some horrible things said during this billboard campaign. We were told that we weren’t real Americans; we were told that we should leave this country and go to Russia, as if that were some sort of utopia to strive for; we were told that we were bad people, not because of our actions but because of our existence; and we were told by others in the atheist community that we had brought this one ourselves by being vociferous with our obviously offensive sign. Some of our members received death threats of a nature too brutal to mention in detail. Their security was threatened and their children were threatened. My third lesson is that people are depraved and willing to kill over belief and that which scares them. Not fear in a tangible sense, like having your family’s life threatened, but in the sense that everything they believe could be wrong.

There were some wonderful messages from across the country in support of our message. Christians, Hindus, even one case of a man who described himself as a devout Muslim, came out and said “We agree with your message and it needs to be said.” The support from the religious community has been surprising and welcome. My fourth lesson is that there are a surprising number of religious people who understand the issue of church-state separation. The people that understand this issue need to grab the reins of power from the god-fearing, hate mongering leaders of their community if they wish to be taken seriously. Living in a 1330 mindset is going to do nothing more than expose the frauds of the religious community to be nothing more than rabble-rousers, inciting good people to do terrible things.

Our community here has grown tremendously since the message went out that there are atheists in North Carolina. Membership in the Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics has grown to over 800 members. I have heard countless stories of the “I thought I was alone” or the “I couldn’t imagine other freethinkers living in North Carolina” type. When you hear the relief in the voice of someone who knows that there is a community of people who will accept them, it makes the whole campaign worthwhile. There are people who had given up on finding others like themselves, feeling forced to smile and nod at the religions that were foisted on them every day. They now know that there is a place for them to vent, and place to be happy, and a place to find support when dealing with the mega-church that is Charlotte. My final lesson is that hiding our true nature leads to a solitary life, which is no way to live. People need to be comfortable with who they are without someone in a pointy hat telling them they are bad for thinking, or some guy in a turban telling them they need to cover themselves, or someone in a suit and tie telling them they are going to burn in hell for being human.

This campaign was a success. It was worth every bit of hate-mail, every late-night call from some 13 year old girl reciting the pledge of allegiance, every death threat, and every bit of vandalism. We have made it through an interesting time and are stronger for it.

We are atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists, and freethinkers. We are here to stay.

Arrogance and insignficance

Theists always talk about atheists as being arrogant and full of themselves. They tell us that we think we have all the answers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Science isn't about having answers; it's about asking questions. And once you put anything supernatural into the equation, all questioning stops and the world stagnates.

Now try this on for arrogance:

The total volume of the universe is 1.1 x 10^31 cubic light years.*

Because we have been broadcasting radio signals for about 100 years, the entire range of human influence on the universe is 4.2 x 10^6 cubic light years.

That means we have had an influence on 0.000000000000000000000038% of the universe.

Yet theists somehow manage to think that the universe was created for the benefit of mankind.

How arrogant is that?
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*If you think in terms of miles, that's 2.15 x 10^69 cubic miles.

Godless Billboard Vandalized In Charlotte, NC

In what can only be called an act of hatred and cowardice, the "One Nation Indivisible" billboard on Billy Graham Parkway has been vandalized. Who would have guessed that Christians could have enough hatred, or time, in them to do this? I mean, we are talking about the group of people responsible for the Crusades.




I can't wrap my head around this. What is so horrible about the billboard; the unity part or the patriotism part? I suppose that we could expect no less from a group of dullards that need to have the word "god" written on everything they see. I was also surprised to see a lack of creativity. That was the best the vandals could come up with? What a sad state of affairs the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System must be in.

I think that this makes the point of the billboard. Just the very act of letting the public know you exist is enough to draw their scorn and their mentally damaged vandals. The message is needed, so I am going to reiterate it here:

ATHEISTS LIVE IN NORTH CAROLINA
WE WILL NOT BE BULLIED

The billboard will be fixed and so will our resolve. We will continue to promote our positive messages that we are one country and you can be good without that figment of the imagination that some call god. I think this really proves our point: obviously Christianity doesn't make you a good person. How many church billboards get defaced in the name of atheism?


This shit happens all of the time. Christians constantly rail against all things immoral, but when someone does something like this, there is a wink and a nod. Obviously we atheists were asking for it, what with wanting to be treated like everyone else. I am so glad that atheists aren't discriminated against, otherwise we would see billboards like this:

Stay classy Charlotte.

Godless Billboard Above Billy Graham Parkway

The Charlotte Atheists & Agnostics are pleased to announce their sponsorship of the new "One Nation Indivisible" billboard that now stands tall above Billy Graham Parkway and Boyer St.

The billboard will be up for four weeks and is part of a larger state-wide campaign that has billboards in Asheville, Greensboro, Wilmington, Raleigh, and Winston-Salem.

"This is a positive message of unity and inclusion for all Americans," said Joseph McDaniel Stewart, vice president of FreeThoughtAction. "It is designed to bring atheists and theists together as patriots in a shared society."

Stewart added: "When the words 'under God' were inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance between 'one nation' and 'indivisible,' they made a lie out of both those ideals because you can’t have an indivisible nation if you draw a line between the godly and godless. We all belong here."

It is about time we have a billboard in Charlotte that isn't peddling some bronze-age superstition. Find out more by visiting the North Carolina Secular Association.

Lakeland, Florida City Council Meeting 'Hijacked' By Atheists

In what would be the first instance of atheists hijacking anything (it is usually the religious hijacking thinks like planes and trains), a city council meeting in Lakeland, Florida was brought to a halt after atheists 'hijacked' the meeting. That would be awesome if that is what happened.

What seems to have really happened is that the city council didn't like the fact that the Atheists of Florida were protesting the prayer before the city council meeting because it is unconstitutional. Then a member of the audience told (screamed at) the atheists that they had no right to speak. That is when the city council called the police.

Seriously people, stop doing unconstitutional shit during your meetings and this won't be a problem. The atheists were exercising their first amendment rights and were quieted when the council didn't like the results. Instead of allowing public discourse, the hick town council just shut the atheists down.

Discrimination: Absolutely.

Does God Have A Future?

This was an interesting debate on Nightline. Notice how Deepak Chopra keeps referring to the metaphysical universe. If something can't be directly or indirectly tested, then what good is it? Also, I was offended to hear Mr. Chopra refer to scientists as "Jihadists". I can live with it thought. Shermer and Harris did a bang-up job of completely shredding him. You owe it to yourself to watch this entire video.

There is...

no god. Just sayin'.


Sorry all two of you who read this blog. I have been sick lately and will hopefully be back to 100% this week.

Simple Advice on Dealing With Your Ultra-Religious Family

The Southern Experience of a Gentleman Atheist

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Will, and I am the Southern Atheist Gentleman. I will warn you all, though. I am a gentleman in name only. I guess that would make me a GINO... which is unfortunate. I want to explain who I am and why I am writing this blog. I was born and raised in Charlotte, NC by a very religious family. I don't think the last part was necessary, but I threw it in there in case someone didn't know that the south is like Taliban-controlled Afgahnistan, only with more racism.
Speaking of which, I am married to a black woman. And I am white! I know, right? Crazy! I met her while stationed in Camp Pendleton, CA. Oh yeah, I was in the Marine Corps for 6 years. That was an experience that I am sure I will write about one day.
I will put this out front: if you are easily offended, you are in the wrong place. I am a social progressive, an atheist, and I'm bi-sexual. Don't expect me to be nice to conservatives, the religious, or the homophobes. I have enough of those in my own family to be nice to. I will try to post every day, even if no one reads. It will make me feel better.

Until soon,
Will