Irritating, braindead governor violates Constitution

This article lays out the story. An atheist was upset when "he discovered nine Gideon bibles in the cabin he had rented with his family at Amicalola Falls State Park in north Georgia. When he complained, park managers removed the Bibles while they sought a legal decision from the Attorney General's Office."

That was the right move: take them out. The bibles represent government sponsorship of a particular brand of religion. (And, surprise, surprise! That brand is Christianity! Who could have guessed?) Unfortunately, Georgia's braindead governor, Nathan Deal, reversed the decision and the Gideon Bibles were returned to the rooms.

Here's the fun part. When Deal did this, he said "any religious group was welcome to donate literature." Indeed. So now an atheist organization -- American Atheists -- has offered books on atheism and insisted they be placed inside the rooms, alongside the bibles. The state response is (ahem) allegedly forthcoming.

Listen, American Atheists is doing exactly the right thing. But those Gideon bibles should not be in Georgia's cabins and lodges. And nothing can make that right.

The only time a bible should be in one of these travel residences is when a dingbat religious person brings his or her own bible into the room. And then, as is the case with dog droppings, the religious person should be responsible for bagging the bible and taking it out of the room when they leave. You can't just leave filth behind for others to find.

Governor Nathan Deal is a caveman and he's violating the constitution. That should be clear to all.

We need five new planets

Now that the human race has bifurcated into opposing factions, and there seems no hope of mending the rift, we need a new idea. Wouldn't it be great if we could divide the population into groups and send each group to a separate world?

Can't you just see Jesus World now? Every house would be constructed like a cross, sex would be outlawed, there would be priests galore and new saints would be minted every year. Heaven!

Allah World would be a sunny world of dusty streets, where no one accomplished much of anything. Science and its child, medicine, would not be allowed on Allah World. Given the lack of medicine, people would die early and rush off happily to meet their 70 willing virgins. (What happens when the women die, by the way? Please tell me their bodies are not refurbished so they can play the role of after-life virgin.)

Wingnut World would house the GOP, along with all the rich people in the US. They would have no government at all, having drowned it in a bathtub, and every house would have a "Get off my lawn!" sign in red, white and blue. Huzzah!

Old-People World (okay, there's some overlap here) would be a nice, safe shuffleboard paradise where the TV reports only on yesterday's news and never today's, to avoid surprising or frightening sensitive viewers.

And finally, Science World would house all the intelligent people, atheists, people of color, and kind people. All the new inventions would come from Science World and any that didn't give people the ability to kill, would be sent to the other worlds (except Allah World, of course).

So that's the deal. We need five more planets. This one's already a goner so we'll just abandon it. No more global warming for us. And by migrating, we'll leave all our unspent nuclear fuel behind. This is a win-win thing. But we must find these planets within our current lifetime.

Then again, we may need six planets. From a post yesterday by digby:

Non-college white men are the only constituency that opposes a ban [on assault weapons]. 

Looks like this group will need a planet, too. We'll call it Gun World.

Too much pain

I think what happened in CT yesterday is even more painful for atheists than believers. At least the latter have delusions to distract them. But atheists know those children lost the only lives they'll ever have. That's the reality of the situation and it's too painful to bear.

If the parents recover from this blow and go on to live meaningful lives, they have my utmost admiration. No parent should have to suffer like this. But of course it goes much further than the immediate families of victims. The kids who survived will never be the same. And the echoes go out from there, spreading far and wide. Will any kid in a U.S. elementary school ever feel safe again?

I have so much anger. Radio silence for the rest of the day.

Unaware person of the day: Bill Donohue

Bill Donohue, Christian blowhard, actually said this:

"We as Christians never harass, intimidate or insult atheists."

Really, he said that. (Warning: Fox News link. If you've just eaten, don't click.)

The National Christian Football League

What's up with all this Christian nonsense on the field? It's bad enough that in baseball, players make the damn sign of the cross before every catch, pitch, hit, run, etc. But in football, it reaches new extremes.

The other day I was watching a game. I'm not sure who was playing. One of the players got hurt and both teams hustled themselves into a circle, knelt and prayed while holding onto one another. Awwww, now isn't that cute?

No, it's not. It's disgusting. How do you think non-Christian players feel when this sort of nonsense happens? There is real pressure for them to drop to their knees and join the idiots in the circle, and that's wrong. 

I'm going to do my human-rights trick and switch categories, so readers can see what's going on here. Let's suppose a whole bunch of gay players made it into the NFL. I'm sure there are many already, but let's suppose the number gets larger and all the players are openly gay.

How would straight fans feel if the gay players were always kissing each other on the field, and when they scored, they pulled out gay flags and waved them proudly? How does that seem to you?

Of course they shouldn't do that. There's no place for gayness on the field because it's a football game, not a gay get-together. It's the same damn thing with Christian prayer. It doesn't belong in sports, period.

If players want to pray, they should go to church more often and get it out of their systems so they don't feel compelled to foul the field with prayer. It's not an inclusive activity that welcomes all players into the fold. Undoubtedly, it makes many non-Christian players feel sick to their stomachs.

Prayer in any sport is wrong. Sports are about athletics, not a magic man in the sky. Players need to shove the prayers back in their asses and get on with the game.

One stupid thing that believers say

Believers have a hope, an expectation, a promise of eternal life in heaven, while atheists have, well, nothing. I believe that the Bible is telling us that there is more awaiting Believers after their lives on earth have ended. Ultimately if it turns out there is no God and no heaven, Believers would have lost nothing while atheists have lost everything.

-- Anonymous commenter quoted by Ed Brayton on his blog.

That is so funny. You'll have lost nothing by believing in god if it turns out it's all hogwash? You've lost your life, you idiot! You didn't see anything around you because your view was muffled by layers and layers of lies. You missed the meaning of life --  totally. It amazes me when I hear people talking about how atheists have "nothing". Duh. It sure doesn't feel that way to us. We've got everything but god -- which pretty much describes all of reality.

What if we highlight the fog?

Blurry guy.

This is one of those "what if" posts. What if newspapers were run by rational people who decided to highlight the fuzziness of religious people's brains by blurring their heads in every photo in the paper, while printing clear photos of atheists? Wouldn't that be fun?

It would be a public service that truly helps readers by telling them which people are dealing with reality and which have never heard of it.

My only question is this: should we blur the popey guy's vestments and hat? Or just give him a fuzzy head? I say leave the vestments alone. They're a resoundingly negative element of the popey guy's image, reminding onlookers that he lives in a big, gold palace. What's your opinion on this very important topic?

Accommodating the religious

Some atheist writers try not to upset those who are religious. There seems to be this idea that religion is wrong but believers are just poor slobs who, well, believe. So we shouldn't pick on them. This is nonsense.

Mind you, if the person concerned is less than 16 years old, I say fine to this proposition. Let's leave the kiddies alone. But everyone else who believes in god is, in my book, culpable. They do wrong by believing in god. They are failed human beings.

When we were lesser beings and didn't have our current mental faculties (I'm speaking of our evolutionary ancestors here), the idea of gods must have cropped up for the first time. Sure it was fuzzy but I'll bet it was there. Pre-human primates invented god.

Once these nascent minds reached a point where they could think about the world, they undoubtedly tried to come up with explanations for the things they saw. And this line of thought brought them to the idea of gods. They made it up and then they believed it. Probably all sorts of primates were religious -- and more power to them. In their own way, they were trying to think. It's kinda cute.

Paying my debts to fictional characters

So what's been going on around here? Nothing? Same old, same old? Well, I've been editing and something new cropped up. It's interesting.

Morality is a huge chunk of the story of Xmas Carol. My idea was to present atheists in utterly strange situations so people could see that they have no problem identifying the right thing to do -- without resorting to any god nonsense. Well, I've decided this heightened sense of morality produced certain debts that I, as the author, must pay to my characters.

Up till now, I had left two background characters out at the end of the story, as if what happened to them was inconsequential. I've decided they deserve better so I'm crafting conclusions for their personal stories. I don't want to leave anyone out; that would be rude. Just because they're fictional doesn't mean they don't care. Truly, the debt feels personal. I know and like these characters. What could I have been thinking, omitting their endings? Anyway, problem rectified. Everybody's got an ending now.

So, anything new around here? Anybody want to de-lurk or tell a story? Maybe reveal a secret? Hit the comment button.

This atheist's spirituality

I used to say that spirituality was a word without meaning. And in most senses, I still stick by this statement. There really is no such thing. But there are feelings that seem spiritual.

I realized this when I was helping my sister raise my nephews. Protecting them, caring for them, even feeding them -- was a spiritual experience. When I gave the children water, it quenched my thirst. And when I saw them sleeping, I was less tired. Giving to them fortified me and that experience seemed spiritual. Something came over me, a role defined by evolution, and I slipped into this comfortable, ancient garment with ease. We all do (or most of us, anyway) when the time comes. So in a sense, parenting is a spiritual thing.

But it's not supernatural; nothing is. These feelings are the result of chemicals being produced within our bodies, and genes being switched on in response to a birth in our proximity. Evolution came up with this "spiritual" gambit to get us to rear our young. (Not really, of course; evolution has no intentions or goals, but in effect this statement is true.) These feelings are nothing more than a tool of nature, and it's a tool that works. Just look around you at all the defenseless children who manage to survive in this odd world of ours. This parenting/spirituality must be some strong juju.

But the kind of spirituality I hear people talking about all the time? Nonsense. They're looking at paintings inside their heads. The only spirituality in this world is the sort that nature provides. And you know what? It's enough.

What to thank when things go right

I thank the sun for not going nova.

This is a tough one for rational humans. Religious fools thank god for everything, of course. But they're not alone in this impulse. It seems all humans feel thankful when things go well. Even we evil atheists feel this emotion now and then.

Perhaps we've been trained to do this by a society that is so heavily influenced by religious nitwits. But on the other hand, it could be part of our evolutionary heritage. Maybe animals tend to be thankful. Seems to me I've seen some mighty thankful animals in my day. I don't think we've got the market cornered on this one.

So what is a rational atheist to do with all the damn thankfulness she feels? Who or what should she thank when good fortune comes her way? Well, let's see . . . she could choose to remain trapped within this "thankfulness" meme and look around for something or someone to thank. Or she could step outside the boundaries and merely be thankful. Why does there have to be an object or agent involved in thankfulness? We are thankful; period. That pretty much does it for me. No need to whip up some spooky being and kneel on thumbtacks in front of a statue of it.

Yet I must confess that at rare moments, even I want to thank something. So what I do is thank the universe.

I try to envision everything that exists, and I tip my hat to it. But I don't thank it for being benevolent; the universe is not some kind, caring creature that watches out for us. On the contrary -- it's a harsh and violent place with not a whit of kindness in its nature.

I thank the random events that gave us a sun that hasn't gone nova (yet). I thank the vagaries of chance that have allowed us to escape extinction for so long. I thank luck for enabling life to thrive on this lovely planet that's not too warm and not too cold. And I feel intensely grateful to be here, to be allowed to exist. This last item is the greatest prize of them all.

Works for me. How do you handle thankfulness in your life? What do you do with it?