...He Stood By And Watched
The recent crisis unfolding in the island nation of Japan is frightening and heartbreaking to witness. In this age of hand-held computers and instant communication, we are able to see first-hand the destruction our planet is capable of. We can use our phones, netbooks, game consoles, and other devices to offer monetary aid and coordinate relief efforts.
Yet, there are many who use this technology to do something that is a lot less helpful. Twitter tweets, YouTube videos, and Facebook comments have exploded with droves of prayers. The religious-minded in all countries have looked at this tragedy and in lieu of lending money or a helping hand to clean up, have instead turned to -- in their mind -- a deity who has all of this under control.
As an atheist, I get laughed at when I ask the simple, "Where's your God now?" questions to theists. They don't seem to appreciate the logic and instead take it as an emotional attack. But I'm serious...where was God when the TÅhoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami slammed Japan, killing 20,000 and washing away entire villages? You'd think that for a being of unequaled love, keeping that way of reaching the shore would be a no-brainer. If you could have stopped it, would you? I know I would, and yet an All-Loving being is supposed to be overseeing -- or at worst, planning out -- this kind of destruction.
And yet, religious people everywhere seem to perform backbreaking mental gymnastics to rationalize to themselves that the All-Powerful creator of the universe has His/Her/Their reasons for not intervening. Free will and mysterious ways are high up on the list, for not only things like earthquakes, but also rape victims, or those afflicted with childhood leukemia. For an All-Loving God, he seems to be on the sidelines a lot.
...He Commanded Hatred
Since I'm in the bible-belt of America, I'll address what I hear most about this "God" thing everyone seems so keen on sharing. More importantly, I'm to aqueous to His love for me and my fellow man, and "trust only in Him". But love and trust are earned, and so far God's track record does not show a loving being. (It actually shows a world operating without such a deity, but I'm getting ahead of myself.)
The testament to this God's supposed love is found in the Holy Bible. A book where, even a cursory read should show atrocities that would anger a rational person. Genocide, mass murder, and other forms of hatred are not only committed by God, but are commanded by him. If God loved the world so much, why did he drown nearly every living thing in it?
...He Created Atrocities
But many of the religious will holler, "That's not my God!". Indeed, many theists don't profess the bible has any bearing on the nature of their deity -- even if they do call themselves "Christian" or "Jewish". But even if your god is a Magic Hamburger in outer space, you probably subscribe to the idea of a deity who created the world. This deity created rainbows, gravity, puppies, and the laughter of babies. But this deity would then also have had to create birth defects, cancer, and scores of viruses that can kill us in ways that would give you nightmares. Perspective again seems to be lost on the theist.
...He Never Existed At All
So instead of falling victim to a fallacy or wearing yourself out trying to jump through the hoops it takes to make a 100% Good God do evil things, instead comfort yourself with the thought that there was never any divine plan for it in the first place. You'll see that the universe wasn't made for us, but we have what it takes (so far) to be in it. You won't have to try to come to grips with why God won't heal your dying mother of cancer, something that is truly comforting. It's nice to know that no one's intending for bad things to happen, or that someone is deserving somehow for the ill that befalls them.
We're in this boat together, and it's up to us -- not any gods or magical creatures -- to do what's right, to help, and to provide. Please, give $5 to help the people of Japan, or find other ways to help. We don't need God, we need you.
Happy 3/16
-STA
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The Future Looks Bright
Greetings friends! Due to enumerable setbacks, including family emergencies, computer trouble, house-hunting, and the preparations for a new addition to the family, I've been unable to contribute anything of value as of late. But do not fear...family members' members are mending, computers have been upgraded, and houses have been located, and after a few more days I will be able to post more, make more videos, and continue to educate and discuss all things atheist-related. Thanks for your patience and understanding, and don't forget to read the back-catalog to keep yourself sated on STA.
And here's a fantastic video to ease your sorrow:
And here's a fantastic video to ease your sorrow:
-STA
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The Reason
It's that time of year again, isn't it. The time when we come together as family and friends and express our love and appreciation toward each other. Many of us celebrate family traditions of one type or another in a festive and happy atmosphere. There are some, however, who are frothing at the mouth and angry over how others choose to spend these several weeks in the middle of winter. They are the ones who rant about "the reason for the season" and how everyone is ruining the "true meaning of Christmas".
What these folks fail to realize is that most of what they believe constitutes the "true meaning" is actually an aggregation of many different traditions and rituals from multiple religions, pagan customs, and secular sources.
Deck the Halls
Take for instance, the iconic Christmas tree. The practice of cutting down a tree and bringing it indoors during the cold winter nights is derived from several solstice traditions. The Romans decked their halls with garlands of laurel and placed candles in live trees to decorate for the celebration of Saturnalia. In Scandinavia, apples were hung from evergreen trees at the winder solstice in remembrance that spring and summer will come again. The evergreen tree itself was the special plant of their sun god, Baldor. In fact, the Christian bible expressly forbids believers to practice this tradition or act like the pagans do. As late as 1800, devout Christian sects like the Puritans forbade the celebration of Christmas because it was thought of as a pagan holiday.
Mistletoe, another iconic "Christmas" tradition, finds its roots as an ancient Druid custom during the winter solstice, complete with the concept of kissing underneath it. Mistletoe was considered a divine plant and it symbolized love and peace.
The Scandinavian solstice traditions had a lot of influences on our celebration besides the hanging of ornaments on evergreen trees. Their ancient festival of Yuletide celebrated the return of the sun, during which the Yule log (the center of the trunk of a tree) was dragged to a large fireplace where it was supposed to burn for twelve days.
Oh Holy Night
The "birth of the sun" was an integral part in ancient times, because the concept of year-around food was unattainable. The hope of an early spring and the return of long days of bright warm sunlight were things anyone eeking out a meager existence in freezing cold climates with no central heating would wish for. The early Christian church was tired of trying to get the pagan believers to stop celebrating the birth of Mithras, the Persian sun god (a deity of light and truth). So in 320 C.E., Pope Julius formally selected December 25 as the official birthday of Christ, to circumvent Mithraism. If Jesus was born at all, it would likely have been some time midsummer.
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Even our traditions of Santa Claus have little, if nothing, to do with Christianity. The 14th century St. Francis of Assisi is the likely model of Santa, a benevolent character who is popular for giving gifts to the poor and needy, mainly women and children. The name Santa Claus is derived from the Sinter Klass, which is the Dutch pronunciation for St. Nicholas, who is said to be the patron saint for many groups of people including children, orphans, thieves, sailors, students, pawnbrokers and countries like Russia and Greece. He did a lot of work to spread Christianity among the people of Rome. This may be part of the reason why Santa Claus is similar in nature to the stories of Jesus, and the legends and myths that expound from such historical events can easily become pseudohistory for those who do not wish to investigate it. Flying reindeer too likely come from Norse legends of Thor flying through the sky in a chariot pulled by magical goats called Gnasher and Cracker.
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
The Roman celebration of Saturnalia provides a large part of our modern traditions, including large feasts and gift-giving. The pre-Christian holiday of merriment honored Saturus, the god of seed and sowing. The festival was marked by the exchange of good-luck charms and other gifts, and great feasting in which even the slaves would be allowed to participate. God bless us, every one indeed.
The Reason
Many of our current traditions began more than 4000 years ago, and even their beginnings were more than likely the result of other superstition and traditional beliefs that came before them. So the next time you hear about how Walmart or atheism is destroying the meaning of Christmas, remember this: the SEASON is the reason for the season, not a bronze-age myth that has been formed out of the debris of myths that preceded it. After all, you're not a Celtic who takes to animal sacrifice to ward off evil spirits, right? So why celebrate Halloween? And, you don't hunt colored eggs or eat chocolate bunnies to celebrate the fertility and advent of springtime in honor of the Saxon goddess Eostre or the Norse equivalent Ostara, do you? So why celebrate Easter? And even if you don't want to celebrate the birth of America, having a reason for picnicking and shooting fireworks is enough to party on July 4, isn't it?
For whatever your holiday, for whatever your reason, at the bare minimum you should acknowledge it as a time to be close to the one's you love, because we're all only here for a little while. Have a great solstice, everyone! And may the New Year bring you joy, peace, and reason.
-STA
What these folks fail to realize is that most of what they believe constitutes the "true meaning" is actually an aggregation of many different traditions and rituals from multiple religions, pagan customs, and secular sources.
Deck the Halls
Take for instance, the iconic Christmas tree. The practice of cutting down a tree and bringing it indoors during the cold winter nights is derived from several solstice traditions. The Romans decked their halls with garlands of laurel and placed candles in live trees to decorate for the celebration of Saturnalia. In Scandinavia, apples were hung from evergreen trees at the winder solstice in remembrance that spring and summer will come again. The evergreen tree itself was the special plant of their sun god, Baldor. In fact, the Christian bible expressly forbids believers to practice this tradition or act like the pagans do. As late as 1800, devout Christian sects like the Puritans forbade the celebration of Christmas because it was thought of as a pagan holiday.
Mistletoe, another iconic "Christmas" tradition, finds its roots as an ancient Druid custom during the winter solstice, complete with the concept of kissing underneath it. Mistletoe was considered a divine plant and it symbolized love and peace.
The Scandinavian solstice traditions had a lot of influences on our celebration besides the hanging of ornaments on evergreen trees. Their ancient festival of Yuletide celebrated the return of the sun, during which the Yule log (the center of the trunk of a tree) was dragged to a large fireplace where it was supposed to burn for twelve days.
Oh Holy Night
The "birth of the sun" was an integral part in ancient times, because the concept of year-around food was unattainable. The hope of an early spring and the return of long days of bright warm sunlight were things anyone eeking out a meager existence in freezing cold climates with no central heating would wish for. The early Christian church was tired of trying to get the pagan believers to stop celebrating the birth of Mithras, the Persian sun god (a deity of light and truth). So in 320 C.E., Pope Julius formally selected December 25 as the official birthday of Christ, to circumvent Mithraism. If Jesus was born at all, it would likely have been some time midsummer.
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Even our traditions of Santa Claus have little, if nothing, to do with Christianity. The 14th century St. Francis of Assisi is the likely model of Santa, a benevolent character who is popular for giving gifts to the poor and needy, mainly women and children. The name Santa Claus is derived from the Sinter Klass, which is the Dutch pronunciation for St. Nicholas, who is said to be the patron saint for many groups of people including children, orphans, thieves, sailors, students, pawnbrokers and countries like Russia and Greece. He did a lot of work to spread Christianity among the people of Rome. This may be part of the reason why Santa Claus is similar in nature to the stories of Jesus, and the legends and myths that expound from such historical events can easily become pseudohistory for those who do not wish to investigate it. Flying reindeer too likely come from Norse legends of Thor flying through the sky in a chariot pulled by magical goats called Gnasher and Cracker.
Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire
The Roman celebration of Saturnalia provides a large part of our modern traditions, including large feasts and gift-giving. The pre-Christian holiday of merriment honored Saturus, the god of seed and sowing. The festival was marked by the exchange of good-luck charms and other gifts, and great feasting in which even the slaves would be allowed to participate. God bless us, every one indeed.
The Reason
Many of our current traditions began more than 4000 years ago, and even their beginnings were more than likely the result of other superstition and traditional beliefs that came before them. So the next time you hear about how Walmart or atheism is destroying the meaning of Christmas, remember this: the SEASON is the reason for the season, not a bronze-age myth that has been formed out of the debris of myths that preceded it. After all, you're not a Celtic who takes to animal sacrifice to ward off evil spirits, right? So why celebrate Halloween? And, you don't hunt colored eggs or eat chocolate bunnies to celebrate the fertility and advent of springtime in honor of the Saxon goddess Eostre or the Norse equivalent Ostara, do you? So why celebrate Easter? And even if you don't want to celebrate the birth of America, having a reason for picnicking and shooting fireworks is enough to party on July 4, isn't it?
For whatever your holiday, for whatever your reason, at the bare minimum you should acknowledge it as a time to be close to the one's you love, because we're all only here for a little while. Have a great solstice, everyone! And may the New Year bring you joy, peace, and reason.
-STA
Monday, November 29, 2010
Season's Greetings
I just wanted to stop by and wish everyone a festive and happy holiday season. I've got a lot on my plate, not counting the additional stress/workload of the holidays. I'll be writing again before long, but in the meantime have a look through some of my past holiday blog posts, like
Be safe, be happy, and take care of each other. I'll talk to you soon.
-STA
Be safe, be happy, and take care of each other. I'll talk to you soon.
-STA
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Pickin' Cherries
Do you like Red Lobster? What about homosexuals?
Most bible-believing Christians don't realize that the same chapter that condemns homosexuality also prohibits eating shellfish. The point being that many Christians (as well as believers of other religions) pick and choose what they believe. They'll say "well, that was the Old Testament" whenever atrocities such as genocide, rape, incest, slavery, or murder are brought up. Yet, they'll cite things such as the Ten Commandments or the condemnation of homosexuals without care that they're referencing the very same Old Testament.
I've been thinking a lot about this buffet-style approach to faith recently, and I'm sorta on the fence. One the one hand -- and this is probably due to an afterglow of my once held faith -- but I generally tend to look down on wishy-washy believers. (Here's an old semi-tongue-in-cheek post on moderates.) They can't commit to the whole meal that they ordered with their chosen faith. It's like saying you're a KKK member only because they have great barbecue parties, and ignoring "all that bad stuff" they do. They can't stomach the evil or idiotic doctrines in their faith, so they pretend like they're not there.
To me, you should be aware of the where and the why for the things you believe about your god. Those who claim to be "not religious but spiritual" come to mind here. It's strange to think that someone can have all these words, phrases, and ideas without realizing where those things originated, regardless of how much the believer alters them on their own. In a way, it's just rebooting and rebranding a story, and I guess that tends to irk me (thanks, Hollywood).
On the other hand, I see it as the only possible way a sane human being can live in this day and age and still believe in the nonsense of religion. As Matt Dillahunty frequently points out, science has dragged religion kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. Just look at Galileo, the man that proved the earth rotated around the sun and was not, as the Church vehemently claimed, at the center of the universe. Now, in the modern world where things like the germ theory of disease and the heliocentric theory are practically common knowledge, you see religious people trying to claim that they had it right all along, and that those other people weren't True Believers™. Religious people in the modern civilized world are bearing such a huge cognitive dissonance that they almost always have to cherry-pick parts of their faith's cannon in order to function. Imagine a religious doctrine that goes something along the lines of "Water can't freeze. Everything in this book is the word of the creator of the universe, and is 100% correct." Now think of the mental hoops that someone living today would have to jump through in order to adhere to that belief and still be an otherwise rational, sane person. When you know for a fact that certain claims made by religions can be proven wrong to a monumentally high degree of certainty, but you believe with all your heart that the evidence is contradicted by what you think is the direct word of God, there are only so many ways the situation can resolve itself.
For many, realizing those claims are a mix of fairy tales, folklore, misunderstandings, allegories, and attempts by ignorant people to explain nature is enough to drop the "100% Truth" label altogether. For others, their interpretation concludes with some of it being allegory and some being truth, and the current unknowns get to remain "true" until science show them to be otherwise, then they get become "allegory-all-along" in the believers mind without skipping a beat. The moment science advances and shuts a gap that God had previously filled, the believer must either accept reality or ignore it. Often enough, once ignoring it becomes impossible, they claim their religion had it right all along.
So yeah, I find myself coming down on both sides: you should be a fundamentalist if you're going to believe in a thing. Don't half-ass it; try to understand everything it encompasses and do everything that entails. On the other hand, it's a good thing to be a moderate believer. You're showing that you're not a complete nut-ball, and that you understand how reality can be determined.
-STA
Most bible-believing Christians don't realize that the same chapter that condemns homosexuality also prohibits eating shellfish. The point being that many Christians (as well as believers of other religions) pick and choose what they believe. They'll say "well, that was the Old Testament" whenever atrocities such as genocide, rape, incest, slavery, or murder are brought up. Yet, they'll cite things such as the Ten Commandments or the condemnation of homosexuals without care that they're referencing the very same Old Testament.
I've been thinking a lot about this buffet-style approach to faith recently, and I'm sorta on the fence. One the one hand -- and this is probably due to an afterglow of my once held faith -- but I generally tend to look down on wishy-washy believers. (Here's an old semi-tongue-in-cheek post on moderates.) They can't commit to the whole meal that they ordered with their chosen faith. It's like saying you're a KKK member only because they have great barbecue parties, and ignoring "all that bad stuff" they do. They can't stomach the evil or idiotic doctrines in their faith, so they pretend like they're not there.
To me, you should be aware of the where and the why for the things you believe about your god. Those who claim to be "not religious but spiritual" come to mind here. It's strange to think that someone can have all these words, phrases, and ideas without realizing where those things originated, regardless of how much the believer alters them on their own. In a way, it's just rebooting and rebranding a story, and I guess that tends to irk me (thanks, Hollywood).
On the other hand, I see it as the only possible way a sane human being can live in this day and age and still believe in the nonsense of religion. As Matt Dillahunty frequently points out, science has dragged religion kicking and screaming into the twenty-first century. Just look at Galileo, the man that proved the earth rotated around the sun and was not, as the Church vehemently claimed, at the center of the universe. Now, in the modern world where things like the germ theory of disease and the heliocentric theory are practically common knowledge, you see religious people trying to claim that they had it right all along, and that those other people weren't True Believers™. Religious people in the modern civilized world are bearing such a huge cognitive dissonance that they almost always have to cherry-pick parts of their faith's cannon in order to function. Imagine a religious doctrine that goes something along the lines of "Water can't freeze. Everything in this book is the word of the creator of the universe, and is 100% correct." Now think of the mental hoops that someone living today would have to jump through in order to adhere to that belief and still be an otherwise rational, sane person. When you know for a fact that certain claims made by religions can be proven wrong to a monumentally high degree of certainty, but you believe with all your heart that the evidence is contradicted by what you think is the direct word of God, there are only so many ways the situation can resolve itself.
For many, realizing those claims are a mix of fairy tales, folklore, misunderstandings, allegories, and attempts by ignorant people to explain nature is enough to drop the "100% Truth" label altogether. For others, their interpretation concludes with some of it being allegory and some being truth, and the current unknowns get to remain "true" until science show them to be otherwise, then they get become "allegory-all-along" in the believers mind without skipping a beat. The moment science advances and shuts a gap that God had previously filled, the believer must either accept reality or ignore it. Often enough, once ignoring it becomes impossible, they claim their religion had it right all along.
So yeah, I find myself coming down on both sides: you should be a fundamentalist if you're going to believe in a thing. Don't half-ass it; try to understand everything it encompasses and do everything that entails. On the other hand, it's a good thing to be a moderate believer. You're showing that you're not a complete nut-ball, and that you understand how reality can be determined.
-STA
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