Sunday, October 25, 2015

FLASHBACK SUNDAY
I have nothing, and at the same time too much, for today. There's only one thing I can do, bring back the ranter.
Americans love their homeopathy. Between 2000 and 2014 the industry earnings rose 33 percent. In 2014, 1.2 billion dollars were spent on water. Confirmation bias does the trick. You drink medicinal water, and guess what, in a week or two you feel great! Must of been the magic piss water.
Various sects of christianity revel in homeopathy; scammed by myths apparently makes one receptive to being scammed by just about anything. Homeopaths know a sucker when they see one.
Every one of us knows that death awaits, except for believers of course. They will live an eternal life listening to shitty harps played by untalented fools, but for atheists we'll be gone. And here's the thing, we all know we're going to die, but none of us think it's going to happen now, today; it's always in some nebulous distant future. Yet one of these days it will be the day. For the homeopathic crowd, specifically that guy drinking piss water for his chest pain today, that day may be sooner than he thinks.
If today is your day, later bitch.
Religion kills. Christian pastors in Africa are killing children at will. Witches the young ones are, evil and worthless. "The nine-year-old boy lay on a bloodstained hospital sheet crawling with ants, staring blindly at the wall. His family pastor had accused him of being a witch, and his father then tried to force acid down his throat as an exorcism. It spilled as he struggled, burning away his face and eyes. The emaciated boy barely had strength left to whisper the name of the church that had denounced him – Mount Zion Lighthouse." A month later, he died.
"There's a scar above Jane's shy smile: her mother tried to saw off the top of her skull after a pastor denounced her and repeated exorcisms costing a total of $60 didn't cure her of witchcraft. Mary, 15, is just beginning to think about boys and how they will look at the scar tissue on her face caused when her mother doused her in caustic soda. Twelve-year-old Rachel dreamed of being a banker but instead was chained up by her pastor, starved and beaten with sticks repeatedly; her uncle paid him $60 for the exorcism.
Israel's cousin tried to bury him alive, Nwaekwa's father drove a nail through her head, and sweet-tempered Jerry – all knees, elbows and toothy grin – was beaten by his pastor, starved, made to eat cement and then set on fire by his father as his pastor's wife cheered it on."
Children outcast from family and community. When churches outnumber clinics, schools, and banks; only evil remains. Education, health, and enough money to feed your children? No thanks, we'll take religion please. The end of this atrocity is nowhere in sight, and no response from the world's "good" christians who watch in horror but take no actions. Unchecked christianity in action, disgusting, evil, and sick. Evangelical nonsense taken to the extreme, "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." 
This cannot be ignored, it is everywhere. America has a long sordid history of religious terrorists. Whether based on white supremacy, to acts of violence on government buildings, health centers, doctors; on anyone who challenges the word of god.
Here, hundreds of children have died from parents and pastors who are withholding easily accessible medical treatment. Children are prevented from getting medical attention, because faith is all they need. In 1944 the Supreme Court ruled that parents cannot interfere with a child's welfare, including for religious reasons. 38 states and the District of Columbia then created laws that protected the religious from this basic protection for children. Right to life my ass. Child Protection Services there are discouraged from reporting religious based problems and seem to turn an eye to what they see.
Religious groups who allow children to die are terrorists in their own right. 
Here's hoping that all of the clergy involved in all these, and many more, horrors leave us soon. Today should be their day, later bitches.
Muslims killing muslims, muslims killing christians, christians killing muslims, christians killing hindu, muslims killing hindu, hindu killing muslims, hindu killing christians, etc.; the list is very long. This is not a problem that is central to the Middle East or parts of the African continent, this is everywhere. 
God. God is the problem. God has always been the problem. Tribal mentality that all humans have originates with god. My god is always the real god. God is a sickness that separates humanity, for without god why would we hate our brothers? 
Tribalism is an ongoing slaughter of intellect. It tells us we are better than others, that we are superior, and that others are beneath us. It is always entwined with religion or myth, and is the primal source of conflict. God loves some of us, others he really detests. 
God's day cannot come soon enough, and we should all be happy to wish him a short farewell.
Later bitch.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

FAITH IS DEATH

We've talked many times about "enablers;" those that support religion at any cost. Liberal theists who are more accepting of reality than their conservative brethren seem to be harmless, but they take no real action to stop the more harmful elements of their chosen religion. The pacifists always back down, they have to. You cannot both be religious, yet not support the religious. There's always an area where they think all belief should be respected, which is why many think the enablers are as bad, or possibly even worse, than their more aggressive counterparts. 
The "No True Scotsman" fallacy is another way of covering up religion's crushing grip on the world. If a believer takes an action that horrifies the world, they are not a true theist. Theists refuse to take responsibility for the actions of those of faith, the actions that many times are caused by that same faith. To continue down the road of faith and madness, you really must blindfold yourself to the evils that are created by belief.
Religion  effects humans on a global scale, more so now than ever in our short history. The conflicts brought about by whose god is better than the other has always been a blight on humanity, but as technology becomes more commonplace it allows the insanity to spread quickly. What was true in the past is still true today, religion fights science in every manner conceivable. That fight is leading us to to the annihilation of our species.
Climate change is one of the biggest threats to this planet. Religions are starting to embrace the science sporadically, but as always it's too little too late. Pope Francis embraces Climate Change as a fact; that's really nice of you but you're decades late. And herein lies the problem. While the faithful fight reality, we lose our chance to take the actions that would counter the problem. Religion has us shackled with a ball and chain that slows our need to react to the world's problems.
An American problem is the foul unity of politics and religion. A Handful of republican presidential hopefuls have rebuked the science of climate change. The ones that accept the findings still have no plans on doing anything to combat the crisis, they are in the pocket of our local billionaires who make millions polluting the earth. American evangelicals who are always at the front of the anti-science movement, seem to be leaning towards the stewardship angle in the last year or so, but again, they vote for those who have stated they will do nothing to combat the problem. And even as some of the faithful decide on action, there is still a large group that states any action will bring harm to the poor while not really accomplishing that much.
Here again we see the ignorance of faith. Faith only concerns itself with what technology is available at the moment, and doesn't look forward to investing into new technology that may help. Politicians put science in the poorhouse, if you don't have the money for research, you can't help us. Life sciences are under attack in the states.
Evolution, such a center part of all the life sciences, is still debated by theists. There is no debate unless you are one of the faithful. The only reason to deny the obvious is because of god. Our lives right at this moment would be enriched if religion never came into play. We'd be living healthier and longer lives, excepting for the incredible battle that has been waged against us by the believers. Our suffering is directly related to the obtuse thoughts of the brainwashed. It is on their heads, the blood is on their hands. Disease is their gift to humanity.
We need to understand how species react to environmental changes to minimize our threat to the planet and to help save endangered species. We need to know how parasites evolve to keep us healthy. Cancer research, agricultural techniques, mutagenic substances; every part of life on this planet benefits from embracing this reality. Again though, the faithful would rather embrace death and disease than to admit their god did not create man.
In 1859, Darwin's "On The Origins of Species" was released. Sixty years ago the catholic church started to embrace that reality, even though they're still jumping through hoops trying to reconcile that thought with their god. But we're still talking almost a century before the church would acknowledge the science. A hundred years of progress restrained by belief.
The beginnings of our universe has always been a battle. As recently as in the 1980s, the pope admonished scientists against studying the moment of creation, since it was holy. Regardless of which view holds true, whether there is a true beginning of the universe, or it has always been in place, why would anyone want to stop research? It does no harm except to unprovable beliefs that restrict humans in every endeavor. 
I think Stephen Hawking replied to those who need a divine creator correctly. "What was god doing before the divine creation? Was he preparing hell for people who ask such questions?"
Exactly. Understanding the universe can only help us understand who we are. There is no need to answer why, that would be silly at best. There is no need for a "master plan" created by as savage god. There is no need for a theist's desire for "meaning," that we create ourselves. 
As long as the believers need to fight for their belief by denying reality, faith will be the death of us all. 

Sunday, October 4, 2015

GOD LOGIC

Every so often a nice theist joins the site. The conversations always seem to have an aura of friendliness at the beginning, but then they quickly turn into a never ending defense of belief. The arguments are not new, just rephrased to confuse. Apparently it works, since we all jump in to defend an atheist viewpoint, and it always seems to confuse us for a few days until we finally come up with the answer. We do not spend our days studying for a conversation that has no end; the infinite debate will continue with or without us. There should be an answer though, regardless of our lack of enthusiasm to engage.
For atheism to exist, there would seem to be a reason needed. Absence of belief is a fine definition for the word, but that definition would seem to require an argument; an argument that defines the definition. Speaking in circles isn't just for theists. 
For religion to exist, a network of falsehoods must exist. Lies must be told: 
According to Tm Mazur:"Immanuel Kant said that lying was always morally wrong. He argued that all persons are born with a ‘intrinsic worth’ that he called human dignity. This dignity derives from the fact that humans are uniquely rational agents, capable of freely making their own decisions, setting their own goals, and guiding their conduct by reason. To be human is to have the rational power of free choice; to be ethical is to respect the power in oneself and others… Lies are morally wrong for 2-reasons: First, lying corrupts most important quality of being human: the ability to make free, rational choices. Each lie told contradicts your moral worth. Second, lies rob others of their freedom to choose, rationally. When a lie leads people to decide in ways other than the way they would had they known the truth, you harm their human dignity… Kant believed that in order to value ourselves and others… we must avoid damaging, interfering with, or misusing our ability to make free decisions, in other words: No lying."
Certainly, that premise exists only if you give in to a theist's certainty that free will exists to some degree. Without free will, the theist doesn't have an argument on morality to make, so wasting time trying to convince otherwise might be a, well, waste of time. Might as well skip the heart and head straight to the brain. Free will's added benefit to an argument could be Kant's view regardless, so catching a theist in a lie would be the same as said theist partaking in an immoral act, and theist's arguments for god containing falsehoods become repetitive instances of evil. Case closed.
We need to clear up our arguments. It should not take days or weeks to file the bible in the fiction section. It shouldn't take days or weeks of allowing circular arguments to control the debate to exorcise the fantasy from our collective thoughts. It shouldn't take days or weeks to refute the theist's statements. Logic should be the simple answer, but the theist takes that as well and twists it into proof of god. 
Hundreds of years before jesus, Aristotle delved into how we process reason. The three basic laws of logic, though already a given, were given a more formal expression. For the purpose of creating a discussion, do these basic laws not negate religion without going any farther? Is there a need to look at all the different ways religion tries to deafen our sensibilities with arguments, that on the outside, may seem meaningful, but when deconstructed become nothing more than a cloak for faith?
Any of us that lay claim to being reasoning humans probably know the three basic laws of thought, even if we don't vocalize them. 

1. The Law of Identity.
  Everything is the same as itself. Whether a thing, or a proposition, A = A. 
Without going any farther, this would seem to trash religion immediately. Asking for a definition of god should be enough to show the proposition is nonsense. 
William Lane Craig seems to be one of the focal points enlightening us with the latest ontological definition of god. The first premise usually goes like this. "God is the greatest being conceivable. If you can conceive of a greater being, then that is god." To me this states that "A" does not equal "A." A proposition is true or it is not. If "A" changes, then it is not "A", and we cannot have a reasonable discussion about "A" because "A" has not been defined. God of the old testament is different than god of the new testament, and everyone who describes god has a different definition according to his or her own biases, so god does not exist.
Even if an argument could be made that the tree in my back yard is still the same tree as it grows - like god can change and still be god - that glass doesn't hold water. Everyone has the same definition of a tree, yet all are different when it comes to god. 
2. The Law of Non-Contradiction. Nothing can exist and not exist at the same time and in the same respect; or no statement can be true and false.
Again, if the definition of god changes depending on the mind that has created him/her, then the statement describing god is certainly false.
3. The Law of the Excluded Middle. Something either exists or it doesn't exist; or every statement is true or false.
Once again, if a definition changes, then the statement is always false.
This seems simple enough, yet we get caught up in debates that should be nullified immediately.
Is there a need to go further when it comes to logic? We ought be informed, reasoned, and ready for any attempt by a theist to proselytize the site. We should be able to be courteous, informative, and respectful to the theist, but not necessarily to his ideas.
If anyone cares to play, tell us why these statements are false.