Oh, Jesus! I'm So Blessed!

The other day the mail came and there was an unexpected package from my friend Jenny. After having the dogs sniff it for bombs and drugs, I emailed her to see if I could open it. She said yes and lo, what did my wondering eyes alight upon, but my very own Jesus action figure! And he talks! But only in Spanish! He's so awesome!

Fresh out of the box, Jesus is in a nice linen dress with frayed hems. His hair is very neat, and he looks like a surfer or like one of those soulful hippie guys who drink cappuccinos in the local cafe while they write poetry to their mothers.

He also looks worried, doesn't he? I do like the attention to detail in his dress, for example the neckline.

Of course I had to see what he looked like naked! Was he anatomically correct? Inquiring minds need to know! I looked up his dress and there was a note up there! This is what Jenny had left me. HA!

Proud To Be Brainwashed

I walked past a shop in town the other night and saw a yellow sign for sale in the window. In big letters, the main message said, BRAINWASHED. It definitely piqued my interest so I walked over to read the small print. It ended with a bible quote and I laughed out loud. So now Christians are proud to be brainwashed? Oh, the irony!

There was a website on the bottom of it - Kerusso.com. I went there and found all kinds of glorious products, including a version of Brainwashed on a t-shirt. You know I'm getting this for my husband for Christmas! HA!

Before I show you my favorites though, I wanted to share some of their mission, and how best to use their products, according to their home page:

Kerusso Christian [products] provide Christians the ability to share the Good News of Jesus. Today the great commission is being fulfilled through the simple act of wearing Christian Apparel.

Kerusso Christian [products are] created with one thing in mind, and that is to give the one wearing it (or giving it) the opportunity to share their faith.

As you consider the type of Christian [item] you will be wearing, remember these three simple things and make sure your next Christian [item] has them:

• Focus quickly on the quick message of salvation – remember you only get about 3 seconds for the reader to see the design and read the message, so make sure it's eye-catching.
• Make sure the Message is easy to understand. You want your Christian [item] to share the Gospel with a non-believer in a clear way that is not confusing.
• Make sure the whole message can be communicated. Over 3,000 people will read your Christian Shirt, and some only about a dozen will approach you with a question. Make sure you can convey the message completely in order to reach as many people as possible.

Good to know! I will keep that in mind with my blasphemous godless t-shirts that I make.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Which ones will you buy for Christmas for your loved ones? You can do all your shopping at this one site! (there are even more there to choose from if this isn't enough)

BRAINWASHED:

God’s Word has an amazing cleansing power - read it every day and your mind will be squeaky clean!
Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. -Romans 12:2

US Law and the 10 Commandments

The following information was offered by my awesome husband Butch to a friend on Facebook (we'll call him Enoch), regarding the 10 commandments. This is what Enoch said:

Why is it when a political candidate is openly religious, people bring up the "separation of church and state?". Read the words. It doesn't say that you can't have a picture of Jesus in a school or the ten commandments in a courthouse. It just says that there will be no government sponsored religion (read Henry VIII establishing the church of england because the Pope wouldn't let him get a divorce). It just means the government can't make you go to a particular church, or any for that matter.

Butch replied:

But putting religious symbols on government property equates to governmental endorsement of that religion.What if the phrase "In God We Trust" on our money, or "Under God" in the Pledge were replaced by "Allah Akbar?" Would you be OK with that? Would you be OK with Naqibs being part of a school's uniforms? Or, if they displayed every religious symbol with equal time & space, would you be OK with an islamic flag & a star of David flying above a cross?

Enoch said:

This country was (partly) founded on the basis of religious freedom. The ability of the individual to worship as they see fit, or not at all. I don't believe that these symbols are an endorsement of religion. You can make the argument that the ten commandments are the basis in one way or another of all of our laws (and the placement of a copy of the ten commandments in a courthouse could be considered an endorsement of judaism, since they are found in the old testament of the bible, which is an interpretation of the jewish torah). True muslim teachings believe that christians and jews are people of the same god, that jesus was just one of the series of prophets like those in the old testament, and that Mohammed was a prophet that followed Jesus. Christians and jews are only infidels because they have not followed the teachings from God handed down through Mohammed. And no, I would not be ok with the replacement of in God we trust or under god (which was added to the original text of the pledge). But a display of multiple religious symbols being given equal time/space I would not have a problem with. The point I was trying to make, however, is that we should be able to look past a political candidates openly displayed choice of religion and look at the greater issues involved. The constitution states that you won't be forced to worship one way or another. We are a country of many faiths, christian, jew, islam, buddhism, etc. And for the argument that it will start I will even state that atheists are people of faith, for they wholeheartedly believe that there is no God. That is an even greater faith than any religion, for even believers can have a lapse of faith while atheists never will.

Egads! Let's see how Butch retorts:

I don't really have a problem with any religious candidate, what I DO have a HUGE problem with is a candidate who even hints that US law should be brought into line with their particular interpretation of biblical law. I feel that once they say that, even if caught accidentally in a private conversation, they should IMMEDIATELY be disqualified from holding any kind of elected office. Again, would you want your Representative or Congressional delegate to be a mullah? I wouldn't. As for the 10 commandments being the basis for the laws in this country, I'm afraid you're mistaken. Regarde: 1)No other gods before me: There is no law anywhere that says you shall have no other gods before the god of the OT. Quite the opposite, in fact, as it's the First Amendment. 2) No graven images: No laws against Idolatry, either. 3) Don't take the lord's name in vain: No law anywhere forbidding using the lord's name in vain. Once again the 1st Amendment. 4) Keep the sabbath holy: No law requiring the honoring of the sabbath either. 5) Honor your father and mother: No law requiring you to honor your parents. 6) Don't kill: Laws against murder predate the OT. It's illegal in non-JudeoChristian countries as well. 7) No adultery: No laws against adultery, otherwise there'd be no porn & 95% of Congress & the Senate would be in prison. 8) Don't steal: Refer to #6 9) Don't bear false witness: The only time it's illegal to lie is when you're giving testimony in a court of law, otherwise refer to #7. 10) Don't covet: Our entire economy is in direct conflict with this one. The entire marketing industry is based on peoples' desire for "better" things. Lastly, saying atheists have faith is wrong. There are too many different types (I'm a skeptic, personally, which means any claim presented to me needs solid evidence as proof) to lump them all together.

I will write about what atheism is and is not next, because this is a common myth.

How the Other Side Thinks

I don't like the idea of 'taking sides', but the following five quotes from my cousin's Facebook status disturbed me to the point that I can't help but see that we are in different universes, never mind on a different page. When I talk to her I try to find the common ground, and I seek to understand where she's coming from and her worldview. And in person we really don't talk about religion. But her view of Christianity, God and Jesus is, well, tell me what you think.

Here are the five most recent quotes.

"God disciplines us because he loves us too much to let us continue down a destructive path." -- loving my God and Savior because he brought me back on a path that glorifies Him first.

"Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain." - Touche, 2 Corinthians 7.

"You will not find My peace by engaging in excessive planning; attempting to control what will happen to you in the future." ... (Proverbs 16:9)

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. -- Isaiah 26:3-4 ... taking comfort and rejoicing in knowing that God's plans for me are greater than any I have ever had for myself.

Praying constantly with the help of Galatians 5 today. 'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.' - Galatians 5:1

I didn't leave any comments to these. My cousin is 18 and has shown a lot of respect to me regarding my atheism. So we are mutually courteous. It's hard to read such things from such a smart, wonderful person. What do you think of what she is saying?

An Evening With Heathens

Sunday evening my group, Morgantown Atheists, had an evening at the local UU church to talk about heaven and hell around the world throughout time. We had a good turnout, including a Christian and a WVU professor of history, both of whom had never been there before. We all thought it was rather funny that the heater had been turned on in the church sometime before, so it was 99°. At least it was a dry heat. So we were sort of practicing in case we were wrong.

One of our regular members, Jason, brought his wife, Alise, who is a Christian. I actually met Alise in the blogosphere when she wrote that excellent article awhile ago called Surviving a Conversation With An Atheist, about what stereotypical assumptions not to make when you talk to one of us. So it was really neat to meet her in person then go out to dinner afterward with everyone and talk a bit more.

Unfortunately we didn't do much more than scratch the surface of what Alise believes, but my main goal was to make sure she was welcome and that she had an opportunity to at least share what her church teaches. (I should also note, Alise is extremely well spoken and seemed perfectly capable of handling her own!) But sometime over coffee I'd love to know more about what Alise believes herself, which she says is "complicated".

Anyway, she sent me a message this morning saying that she had blogged about her evening out with us heathens and it was so well-written I wanted to share it with you. Here it is, in its entirety:

Heaven and Hell with Atheists
by Alise Write

I've been meaning to attend a meeting of the local atheist group with Jason for a while now, but I've been unable to make it work due to conflicting schedules. When he told me that the group was going to be discussing heaven and hell this week and in light of some of the reading I've been doing recently, I thought it would be interesting to go and see what these folks had to say (the 99 degree temperature in the church where we met was cause for much mirth throughout the evening!).

Defining the Nature of God

As you know, I’m an atheist. Actually you could also call me a polyatheist because there are tens of thousands of gods I don’t believe in. But there is one god in particular that most of us allude to when we use the big “A” word. We mean Jehovah, Yahweh, THE LORD, the god of Abraham, Jesus’ dad, the god of the bible.

This god does triple duty for the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims. But who is he? How can we define him?

I’ve found that if you ask 10 people about God, you will get 14 different answers. Even believers will contradict themselves when they define the god they worship.

But if we distill it down, what do we get? What is the essence of this supposedly supreme deity?

First let’s look and see what God calls himself in his book. In Exodus you can find the following:

• God is cryptic: God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14) – Isn’t that what Popeye used to say?


• The second of the 10 commandments: You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me. (Exodus 20:5) – to the fourth generation! How spiteful!


• God’s name is Jealous: Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. (Exodus 34:14) -

God is often defined by his attributes:

• Unchanging – if God is unchanging then you can look at the old testament to get a good picture of his heinous character. It’s not very flattering. He’s barbaric, cruel and murderous.


• Perfect – and yet there is nothing perfect about anything that is attributed to him. Isn’t that telling?


• Omnipotent – If he’s all powerful why doesn’t he just fix some of his millions and trillions of mistakes by humane means? Why does he let such suffering continue? Why won’t he heal innocent children of birth defects, at least? Why won’t he do anything at all to help his creation?


• Omniscient – Even in the bible he doesn’t really know everything. There are several instances where he is surprised by what is going on. And knowing everything but not doing anything about it is not really very good, is it?


• Omnipresent – Again, there’s no evidence of this. If God is here with me now, it certainly isn’t tangible in any meaningful way.


• Loving – this is the one I get the most from Christians. What is the evidence? Certainly not from “the good book”. Just read it in its entirety and count up how many people God murdered, not to mention the innocent animals that he insisted be slaughtered and roasted in his name to purge people so they could be acceptable to this hateful deity. If you look at God today, again, there is no evidence that he is loving. I can’t think of anything. What you do find is people being good to each other. Why not use Occam’s Razor and look at the most logical reason for human altruism. As an evolutionary advantage? As a cultural adaptation? Do we really need to add a supernatural element? I find it dehumanizing to thank God when a human does something heroic. Thank the person, not the invisible sky daddy.


• Jealous – see below. He calls himself jealous. If he were perfect, he really wouldn’t need to be jealous.


• Angry – see below. He is the epitome of angry. If he were perfect he wouldn’t be angry.


• Murderous – So if you count up all the people in the bible that God murders, you get approximately 24,634,205. If you count up all the people in the bible that Satan kills you get 60. 

Is God Love?

When I was a child, I was raised to believe that God and Jesus loved me, but that I was a terrible sinner. I was told over and over that Jesus had to die for me, and that I had to accept him into my heart and then be baptized if I wanted to avoid eternal hellfire and damnation. I was baptized three times in three different churches because I was so terrified of eternal torment.

In the past year I have talked to Christians and Catholics who have a very different experience of God than I did. If I mention the hellfire and brimstone preaching of my childhood they tell me how different it really is. They all say the same thing. God Is Love.

Last year my local atheist group (Morgantown Atheists) went to a megachurch together to experience it. While the preacher didn't say God Is Love, the message was very clear. In fact the first emcee guy even said he was there to make our experience as pleasant and comfortable as possible. There was mention of Jesus dying for our sins, and that we needed him, but no mention of hell, no mention of anything negative. It was all very wishy-washy and watered down, all very pleasant and positive.

I would guess that both kinds of churches still exist today. I'm sure southern baptist and maybe pentecostal are more about hellfire and brimstone, putting the Fear of God into people to keep them on the straight and narrow. Maybe the fundamentalist churches too, but that's a guess.

I wonder which kind of message is more prevalent today? (I know some of you Google-mad geeks can help me come up with the perfect terms to search here!) I have a feeling it's the feel-good God Is Love message. It's certainly very pleasant and seems to embrace more people and accept them. But I am definitely an outsider on this so I am not sure.

Please feel free to share your church experiences: Which churches have you been to? What was the fundamental message? God is Love? or Fear God? Or some weird twisted combo package? Or something else entirely?

But is God Love? I've read the bible more than once. The god of the old testament is most definitely an angry, jealous god. He says so himself. In fact even his name is Jealous. (Exodus 34:14)

Do We Choose To Not Believe?

A couple of weeks ago I wrote Spot On!, which was about Alise Wright's list of assumptions for Christians not to make about Atheists. I thought they were excellent.

There was one little thing that she said though, that has spurred a follow up post on her own blog, about Free Will and Faith. She said,

Most atheists who have “deconverted” from a religious background have studied it and other religions thoroughly before choosing not to believe.

Mikespeir, in the comments, called attention to this:

If I have any reservations at all about this, it’s that “choosing not to believe” hung off the end there. I never chose not to believe. Once I realized I didn’t believe anymore I chose not to keep practicing the Christian religion. That was the choice involved.

I agree with Mike. I never chose not to believe.

Of course, I agree with Alise that we seem to have some say in our actions. We choose to read certain books/information (the bible¹ and/or Dawkins), attend different events (either church or TAM²), and we choose the people we associate with.

I have to throw in here, that this assumes that we have free will. I have learned in the past year that we most likely don't. We are determined by a myriad of previous factors. But I won't get into that here. 

Spot On!

I found this article the other day that I want to share with you. As an atheist I often get religious people making some pretty big assumptions about me. I'm sure you do too. They are boringly common, tediously repetitive and astoundingly stereotypical. (I freely admit though, I am just as guilty of making assumptions about religious people and people in general. It's a common thing to do)

So this woman, Alise Wright, is married to a man who deconverted. She said she made some pretty big assumptions when he told her he didn't believe in God anymore. So this is her advice to other Christians on dealing with us godless heathens. I think they are really great!

Surviving a Conversation with an Atheist

1. Please don’t assume that they’re evil. ...The idea that because someone doesn’t believe in God means that they will become a murderer is very frustrating, particularly as the wife of one of “those people.” C.S. Lewis suggested that one of the proofs for God is our common morality. To assume that because someone lacks belief in God means that they no longer possess a sense of right and wrong strikes me as a strange way to prove God’s existence.

Her thoughts here, the last sentence especially, are really excellent. I would add that people get their morality from society and their role models. Atheists, humanists and freethinkers discuss and try to improve their ethics as society evolves and matures.

2. Please don’t assume that it’s just a phase. Most atheists who have “deconverted” from a religious background have studied it and other religions thoroughly before choosing not to believe. Painting it as a “phase” denies the seriousness of both their study and their decision. I would certainly not want to have any encounter with God resulting in a closer devotion to my faith called a phase and neither should we use that terminology for those who have left the faith.

Right! Most atheists deconvert after much study of the religion they are leaving, as well as other religions of the world. It's a tough decision to make, and most do not take it lightly.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It

And I feel fine. (thank you REM)

Let's get serious, now. As of today, we only have 57 days left before the Rapture.

So I thought one thing we could do is look at the bible and see what it says about the Rapture, Armageddon and the End of the World.

The End of the World

The SAB does a great job of summing up what the bible says about the end of the world.

The most important thing is that Jesus said in Matthew (twice), Mark and Luke (twice) that people of that generation would still be alive to see the fulfillment of the Son of Man coming, and the Kingdom of God.

Then it was changed from the end coming during the lifetime of Jesus' followers to within the lifetime of the new testament authors.

This is found in 1 Corinthians (twice), Hebrews (twice), 1 Peter (twice), 1 John and a few other vague references.

Then, more vague references to the end of the world, with no mention of exactly when (but the language repeatedly says it will be 'soon'):

Philippians 4:5 The Lord is at hand.
James 5:8 For the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
Hebrews 10:37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Revelation 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.
Revelation 1:3 The time is at hand.
Revelation 3:11, 22:7, 22:12 Behold, I come quickly.
Revelation 22:20 Surely I come quickly.

The Rapture

The Rapture comes from the following verse by Paul:

Spam For Christ

I found this in my inbox of my Heaving Dead Cats email yesterday and I thought it was so odd I wanted to share it with you. Obviously this person has no idea that I'm a card carrying godless heathen.

I like how he gets so specific about what he wants. I would think beggars shouldn't be so picky. Do you think people will actually do it? I bet they will if they are christians and feeling charitable. Which is sad. People need clean water, healthy food and decent shelter, and then they need education, not god and superstition.

Look where he lives. He says there is hunger and crisis, but their god keeps them fed and safe. Why doesn't god feed everyone? Why does god let so many people suffer? Anyway, here it is, in its entirety. Pretty ballsy, if you ask me!

Dear Friends in Christ,

I greet you out there in Jesus Lovely name. I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh to the Father but by me John 14:6. Jesus Christ is our salvation! I was searching for a study material when I came across your email and convinced you are a Christian.

Please do not be angry at this letter and undermine me because I am reaching you through the internet. God led me to your email and I know I’m blessed having to know you. I am a member of Living Faith Church. By His grace I’m a believer born again and blood bought( blood of Jesus). I am married with six children. I have a great passion doing the work of the master especially now I work on my own having not to be disturbed like when I was working 10 hours in the clerk office work.. I am not rich in this wordly riches but rich spiritually in Christ. I came to know Christ in 1984 and since then serve Him with commitment. I live in an area where there is much hunger and crisis but the Lord keeps us from them all. Our church is a small church with about thirty people. I am the church secretary as well as Adult Sunday school teacher. As you can see I can speak and understand English well as we are British colonised country.

Seek and You Will Find

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (NASB)

Ok. Awesome. The bible says all I have to do is ask. All I have to do is seek.

Oh, will you look at that, it's in the following passages as well! (Bear with me. Feel free to skip down a bit.)

Luke 11:9-13 "ditto"
and
Matthew 18:19 Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
and
Matthew 21:22 And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
and again...
Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.
and again...
John 14:13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
wait there's more...
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
and again...
John 15:16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
and again...
John 16:23 In that day you will not question Me about anything Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.
Ho Hum, even more...
James 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
This is really getting repetitive...
1 John 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
Finally, the last one!
1 John 5:14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Whew! Sorry for going biblical on you. But obviously if the "good book" repeats the same message twelve times, it must be important and it must be relevant. I should be able to believe in it as a Christian. Right?

I guess this is why people rely on prayer so heavily, even in this day and age when it's pretty obvious that prayers aren't answered any better than chance. But I digress. I have a point to make.

The Afterlife and Sentient Rocks

Last night our local group of heathens and extended friends had our Winter Solstice/Festivus/FSM Holiday/Christmas/Hanukkah party. It was fun. The conversation was very interesting and incredibly diverse. Here are two topics I discussed.

I was talking to a Buddhist physicist who works for NASA part time. He started talking about how the earth and rocks have sentience. I disagreed, of course. He had this weird logic that was completely flawed. He said something about how humans are sentient, and we need the sun and the earth so they are sentient too. Um, what? And he works for NASA?

My friend Eric works for NASA. He went to his office christmas party where they prayed at the beginning "in jesus name".

This is fascinating and disturbing. I had this idea that people in places like NASA are rational and critical thinkers. But I guess you can be smart in one area and compartmentalize your beliefs and faith in the supernatural in another, and blithely eschew critical thinking. I think early and lifelong indoctrination is definitely a factor. It is disheartening, though.

~

One of my friends, Jim, is a grief counselor so he and I ended up talking about death and the afterlife. Cheery, huh?

We both agreed that as atheists, there is no fear of death. Being dead is natural. It's the end. For about 14 billion years before you were born you didn't exist. Now you do. Eventually (hopefully later rather than sooner, after a rewarding and wonderful life) you will die. We all die.

Where I have problems with death is the actual act of dying. I really don't want to suffer. I don't like pain. I don't want to lose all of my dignity. As Jim said, though, we are really working on that.

Anyway, if you're religious, you are led to believe that there is an afterlife. Well, some religions anyway. Apparently the jews don't hold to that notion. So if you're a muslim and you do good deeds like kill a bunch of innocent infidels you and 72 members of your family go to heaven where you get 72 virgins (see inside label for details).

If you're a christian, you get two choices (well, catholics get purgatory, too). You're going to hell unless you get saved and accept jesus as your savior (rules and restrictions may differ for your denomination. See insert). Then you get to go to heaven to worship god for all eternity.

I'm Being Prayed For!

A pastor in Ohio has taken it upon himself to add me and a bunch of  "lost" godless heathens from Facebook to his prayer wall on his website. Why? Well, remember the rescue of the Chilean miners? My friend Mark made a poster and posted it on Facebook:



I commented on the picture and said I was going to share it with my friends, which I did on my HDC Facebook page. The pastor, Jeff Bobb, took it upon himself to have his congregation pray for us by name and asks that we be prayed for every day, to bring us before the throne.

I was added to the list the last week of October and I have to admit I've had my doubts lately about Christ. And I've had a terrible pain in my neck when I try to sleep. I think it's working! I think I'm cured of this horrible atheist affliction!

Followup with Leah And The Case For Christ

I heard from Leah the other day! You might remember that she is my husband Butch's 18 year old cousin who asked me to watch The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel. (Initial post which started because of a Facebook exchange (discussed here)) and (Second post)

One of my friends recommended this article and podcast episode from Brian Dunning: Emergency Handbook: What to do when a friend loves woo. After reading this article I reflected on Leah, her beliefs, her lifestyle and her happiness. I had never had the intention of deconverting her, and I'm glad I replied honestly with facts to what she wanted me to watch. I think that it was a good way to handle it. But while I waited to see if Leah replied, I decided how I'd handle seeing her over the holidays. I didn't really expect to get an email reply after several days went by.

I decided to come up with one sentence to let her know that there was no pressure and we didn't have to talk about religion again if she didn't want to. I never came up with the best wording, but I was looking for a way to let her know it was water under the bridge, and that I wanted to focus on our relationship in a positive way, that was what is important to me, not our religious differences.

But she did reply. It wasn't what I expected. Somehow, she turned around what I was saying about the video to being questions I had about Christ, that I was seeking answers to. So she was seeing me as lost and confused while I see her as indoctrinated and, well, delusional. How interesting! So here is what she said:
~
Know that 1) regardless of if you were family or not, nothing you could say would change the fact that I love you. Being family is merely icing on the cake. 2) You are not at risk to "deconvert" me. I have had too much happen in my short life already to confirm what I believe to be true for you, or any one else, to ever take that away from me. The faith I have in Jesus Christ has never been stronger, and I am completely sold out and in love with Him. It would take a lot more than a lengthy email or two to even put a dent in my relationship with Christ.

Atheists Know Best: US Religious Knowledge Survey

If you don't live completely under a rock, you've heard about the US Religious Knowledge Survey by now. Atheists are "lording" it over everyone else that we know more about religion than the religious. Which is true, according to the survey and my personal experience. But the Jews are a very close second, and Muslims are a close third.

~EDIT: One thing the survey doesn't show is why are atheists/agnostics so knowledgeable about religions? You can't tease out causation from this. The only thing I can offer is my own experience.

I studied many world religions looking for one that wasn't a hypocritical mess of nonsense. I couldn't find any. Then I studied the big three religions in search of understanding them and how they began. Then I studied history to understand the world as it was when the modern religions of today were created. Then I finally realized it really all was about people wanting to live forever, and about power and control of those people.

So for me, I learned about religions and then became an atheist when I realized they were all created by man out of fear and wishful thinking. I think a lot of atheists I know would say something similar. But, to complicate matters, as an atheist activist now, I study religions to know how religious people think and what motivates them. So maybe it's both the chicken and the egg.

Either way, it shows that education and understanding of religion is a powerful tool that could help people free themselves of dogma. It certainly worked for me and many of my atheist friends. Of course, many people will cling to religion no matter what. It's comforting to them.

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Let's look at the survey and see what it says. By the way, CNN has a short 10 question quiz that you can take. I took it and got 10 out of 10. But honestly, if you don't know a couple of the questions, it might just be that you haven't learned anything about Indonesia, for example. The world is a big place. We are all ignorant of much more than we actually know. What matters is that we keep learning and growing.

Better yet, The Pew Forum has a 15 question quiz that will compare your answers to the actual survey. Also, the questions are worded a bit better than the CNN quiz. I just took that one and got 14 out of 15. I got the last one wrong. I had never heard of it. Apparently only 11% of the respondents got that one right so I guess I shouldn't be too devastated.

Go take the quiz and come back. Because I want to talk about the questions of the survey. I'll wait.... (insert cheesy hold muzak here)

Now, remember, only 3,412 adults were surveyed. It's not a huge sampling, or at least it doesn't seem huge to me. And since the breadth of the 32 questions were all the major religions, it's probably understandable that a lot of people don't know when the Jewish Sabbath starts. Some of the others, well, they're pretty important, like what public school teachers are allowed to do in class.

Basically, America is one of the most religious countries out of the world's developed nations, with almost 60% of adults saying religion is "very important" in their lives and about 40% saying they attend worship services at least once a week. But they don't know very much about the major religious traditions. While they don't know much about their own religion, they seem to know even less about others. Many people also think the constitutional restrictions on religion in public schools are stricter than they really are.

Let's go over the questions. Here is a link to a pdf with the actual questionnaire. It's very interesting, explaining how the people were screened (asking for the youngest adult male or female in the household; oversamples taken for Muslim, jewish and atheist/agnostic to get a fair sampling of these small populations; political and science questions, etc) some of the questions were scrambled.

Is Being A Martyr A Good Thing?

I love my husband's cousin. She's 18, bright, full of life and has the whole world in front of her. We'll call her Leah. She wrote the following on Facebook yesterday:
'The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.'
I felt I had to keep my mouth shut. She's very religious, idealistic and young. Her mother is religious but in a quiet way. Her mother accepts Butch and I as atheists without open judgment and we never talk about religion out of respect for each other. The relationship is more important than fighting over differing world views. By default we have the same relationship with Leah, but lately she has started putting uncomfortable, self-sacrificing, mindless bible verses on Facebook. This is really hard to take. I want to say something but I want to be courteous of my relationship with her.

So on Heaving Dead Cats' Facebook page I put the following:
‎'The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.' (someone I know wrote that as their status update. What does it mean to you? If you were a religious person, would YOU find comfort in that?)
I got several responses. No one liked it. Barbara was kind enough to Google it, though, and commented with the quote in context:
"And then there is the love for the enemy- love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured’s love for the torturer. This is God’s love. It conquers the world.’”

Leah eventually told me she read the quote in a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. "Crazy, relentless all-powerful, radical love." Eek. I feel queasy now. A self help book about how to fall in love with God.  I won't even go there with how insane it is to fall in love with an invisible, intangible nothingness. My love of coffee is more meaningful.

I Didn't Get Struck By Lightning

So I didn't get struck by lightning when I went to church this morning. But I do feel like I'm catching a cold from the exposure to all those christian strangers. I guess I've been smote by the rhinovirus of GOD!

The first thing I noticed was 2 cops directing traffic. Butch commented on taxpayer resources being used for such a purpose, but they were definitely needed. This was a big church with lots of cars. The building looks more like a school than a church, if you ask me.

Here's where we went: Chestnut Ridge Church. None of us got a good estimate of how many seats there were. It was set up like a theater with a big stage, a 6 piece pop music band, 2 giant screens where they put the words to the songs and the bible verses from the sermon, and movie theater seating. The control booth is state of the art, like you'd find for a rock concert.Free coffee was served before people went in and each seat had a cup holder like in a movie theater. There were no crosses, no crucifixes, no representations of Jesus at all, nothing that made it seem church-like. It was very casual, very relaxed.

Everyone was very pleasant and nice. We had to shake hands and everyone made eye contact. Children were all well behaved and not too many babies cried much. The TV monitors counted down to the start, then they just basically began with a rundown of the schedule, then everyone said hi to their neighbor then 3 or 4 songs which people were encouraged to sing to, with the karaoke lyrics on the screens.

People seemed to enjoy the music which was very loud. The audience had very little lighting, just enough for me to see my notebook and for people to see if they wanted to get up. But the stage had concert lighting including a smoke machine. The babies didn't seem upset by the incredibly loud music and the bass was really cranked up on the drums. People seemed to enjoy it but no one got "into the spirit" or did anything crazy, just a bit of keeping time and singing, stuff like that, maybe a bit of clapping when prompted.

We guessed the seating to be around 1500 but that's a very rough guess. It was about 85-90% full, mostly young people (teens to 30's, as a rough guess), about 99.9% white. One of my heathen friends saw one black man in African garb in the parking lot when we were going in. Other than that, I only saw white people. Then again, West Virginia is very white if I recall the statistics, so it doesn't mean too much.

Unexpected Friendship With A Palin Lover

Sometimes you can learn something when you least expect it.

My sister-in-law (we'll call her Martha) has been dating this guy who we'll call Steve. I met him the night that she and Steve were reacquainted at the high school reunion last year. It was one of those big affairs where 10 years of classes were invited. Anyway she and Steve have basically been dating ever since. She hasn't had the best luck with guys in the past but she's head over heels in love with him and is very happy, which is good.

The night I met Steve, I mentioned to him that I was reading a great book called Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life. It's a fantastic book that I highly recommend. Butch was there and chimed in that it's all about evolution, which it is, in a very cool, observable way. Steve rolled his eyes and scoffed. Scoffed! I didn't want to get into it since we were heading home but I immediately found myself feeling cold toward him.

So, when Martha brought Steve to a family BBQ the next day I was polite but really didn't have anything to say to him. He seemed nice enough though.

Time went on and I learned from him that he likes Sarah Palin. He thinks she's got some good ideas. (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth there) Martha told me he's a full on conservative republican but that they don't talk about politics. As I do with most people, I was also refraining from political  - or religious - talk with him as well.

To this day we've stayed clear of those two topics. But we've gone out to dinner quite a few times, hung out at family gatherings, and he even invited us over to watch some MMA on a channel we don't get next month (Woot!) He's a genuinely nice guy. He's not stupid by any means, can hold a conversation, has a good sense of humor, and seems to be making Martha extremely happy.

Why am I talking about this? Well, to me, Sarah Palin is a stupid, vapid pentecostal nutcase with only enough brain cells to rub together to help her wink and flap her mouth when someone pulls her puppet strings. The fact that people give her 2 seconds of their time, combined with her views on Armageddon and the end times, makes her extremely dangerous. Usually when confronted with someone who likes Palin, I run the other way.

A Source For Helpful Movie Reviews

Anyone can go to IMDB for a movie review these days. Or, like me, you can read the little blurb on Netflix and make your decision that way. Usually I just want to know the basic premise of the movie, who's in it, and who directed it. I don't listen to the opinions of many people (famous, friend or family) when it comes to recommendations and the like because most people don't know me very well. All they can tell me is what they thought of the movie for themselves, not for me. And I'm an Odd Duck, to be sure. I don't like a lot of things that are raved about. And movies or things that most people don't care for I think are great. I don't often agree with popular opinion.

Why am I going on about this? Well, there is one thing I absolutely have zero tolerance for; a bible thumping movie. I can't stand religious propaganda shoved down my throat. Not long after Left Behind went to DVD my dad rented it thinking it was Sci Fi. (we used to go out to dinner and watch a movie afterward as sort of a regular family night) I saw that Kirk Cameron was in it, thought that was a bad sign, but gave it the benefit of the doubt and promptly wasted 2 hours of my life to that dreck. That night Butch (my nearly perfect husband) and I made a pact never to sit through a horrid movie again.

So when I see a movie preview that could look like it's a "God Movie" I would rather steer clear. Unfortunately a lot of god movies mask it in the previews, and some movies that really don't have a strong pro-god/pro-religion tone might look like it in the previews.

Enter Christian Answers Movie Reviews! My friend Dan shared this site with me and now I am passing it on to you because I actually found it useful.

I picked a movie I was leery about, The Book of Eli, and here's what I discovered. First, they describe a lot of scenes so it is a bit of a spoiler. Second, I learned it's a pretty god-heavy movie that would probably set my nerves on edge. Here's part of the review: