Religious Bullshit

And Speaking of Crazy

Frank sold me a copy of his book pretty much from, "Hello."  And when you get to the line about the village and the village idiot, it's OK to experience a sort of burning envy that you didn't think of it first. 

Crazy Mothers

Crazy.  Right here.  See for yourself.  Muy loco.  To quote the great philosopher Forest Gump, That's all I got to say about that right now. 

God Hates Smelly Feet

The "homo sex is sin" zealots have been out protesting at a local farmer's market.  No doubt they enjoy the discomfort they cause, reminding us all of impending torment in hell when all we want to do is taste the organic tomatoes and pluots.

But I can't help but wonder why these nutjobs are always doing the hate thing.  How come they're never out there just loving the be-jesus out of everyone?  Jesus spent a lot more time loving and peace-preaching and "sell everything and give it to the poor"-sermonizing than railing against sodomites and lesbian clit-lickers. 

Where's the love, people?

So here's my plea to the loonies: come out next weekend and wash everyone's feet, Jesus-style.   Take a break from hate, just for a day.  Later you can buy some fresh green peas or make a cobbler with some nummy blueberries.  Even God took a day off -- you can get back to hating on Monday.

MIchael Vick, Sam Harris, Hitler and Harvey

Sometimes, being rational is exhausting.

Sam Harris was on Bill Maher about three weeks ago.  In kicking off the interview, Bill offhandedly said something to the effect of, "I don't have that many friends who are atheists.  I wish I did, but I don't...."

In my case, I actually do have a few atheists friends.  Then there's my wife, who recently called me "The Hitler of Atheism."

So here's the context.  I'd just watched Bill Maher.  I mentioned how much I love Sam Harris' books, and how I am in complete agreement with his assessment that the recent confirmation of Francis Collins as Director of the National Institutes of Health is cause for grave concern.  After all, Collins is one of the foremost representatives of science in the United States, and yet he is on-the-record as to his firm belief in totally unsupportable religious bullshit.  (Read Harris' NY Times op-ed, here.)

My wife was stymied.  Utter disconnect.  How in the world could I suggest this guy shouldn't have his job?  I talked Establishment Clause, I tried to lay out my case, talking about the complete incompatibility between the scientific method and religion.  No matter.  "You are so mad about this stuff.  You want to get rid of anyone who is religious.  You're like the Hitler of Atheism."

Sometimes it makes you just want to stop.  Reading.  Blogging.  Thinking.

To be clear: my wife is no zealot.  We don't go to church (nor do our kids.)  This is a completely secular house.  But my wife, like many, has a very broad notion of "spirituality," as in "there has to be a reason, there has to be more after death," etc. etc.  She's also, I should note, a wonderful woman who literally takes bugs outside rather than killing them.  Religious people, in her view, should be left to believe as they believe. Live and let live.

I, on the other hand, kill the bugs.  You get the idea.  Mad about religion-->kill bugs-->kill religious people.  I guess....

When you can't connect with an almost entirely rationale life-mate, well, what the fuck hope is there for rationalism?

Back to the bugs.  If bugs are so important to my wife, just imagine dogs.  We have three of the beasts (and two cats).  We adore our pets.  They are family members.  Still, in my view, they are dogs. Nothing--other than religion, of course--drives me more ape-shit than people who treat their dogs like people.  Yes, I am an atheist who values human life infinitely more than other species.  I would sacrifice every dog on the planet to save one baby's life.  (I can lay out that rationale, but I won't in this post.)

So somehow we got onto Michael Vick.  I think the guy is a douche-bag and I'm glad he got convicted and did his time.  Now that he's done that, though, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be allowed to play football.  My wife argues the "role model" thing.  I get that, but I don't think it holds water as social policy.  As compared to, oh, the importance of role models in fields like science....

So, Francis Collins should have his job; Michael Vick needs to seek other employment.  

As I alluded to earlier, sometimes this is just too tiring.  I feel like Jimmy Stewart's character in Harvey, in reverse; everyone but me sees the giant rabbit.  

Towards the end of the interview, Sam said to Maher, "Reason is bigger than atheism.  We have a problem of good ideas versus bad ideas.  The real double standard we suffer from is religious bad ideas can't be criticized with any energy."

Indeed. If you can't take on religious bad ideas in your own secular household, we have a long, long way to go .