Infidel

One November morning in 2004, Theo van Gogh got up to go to work at his film production company in Amsterdam. He took out his old black bicycle and headed down a main road. Waiting in a doorway was a Moroccan man with a handgun and two butcher knives.

As Theo cycled down the Linnaeusstraat, Muhammad Bouyeri approached. He pulled out his gun and shot Theo several times. Theo fell off his bike and lurched across the road, then collapsed. Bouyeri followed. Theo begged, “Can’t we talk about this?” but Bouyeris shot him four more times. Then he took out one of his butcher knives and sawed into Theo’s throat. With the other knife, he stabbed a five-page letter onto Theo’s chest.

The letter was addressed to me.

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Whether you a re a person of faith, an agnostic, or an atheist, I highly recommend Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali grew up in Africa (born Somali), the product of a Muslim upbringing, ultimately bravely abandoning her roots and becoming a controversial member of the Dutch parliament. Her story is one of incredibly bravery and an amazing capacity to overcome all obstacles. At the same time, it is a painfully clear indictment of Islamic misogyny, absolutism, intolerance, and the price we all pay for religious beliefs that contribute to insane actions.

Some of her criticisms could just as easily be leveled at any other organized religion, but her critique is certainly most scathing of Islam. But she holds back no punches against the West for failing to address the fundamental conflict between Islam and the West. For example, she faults multiculturalism:

“We in the west would be wrong to prolong the pain [of the transition of Islam to the modern world] by elevating cultures full of bigotry and hatred toward women to the stature of respectable alternative ways of life.

This is not just a critique, however. This is her personal story. It is filled with vivid detail, personal trials, the charming and beautiful moments of adolescence, the tragedy of war and her conflict between faith and reason. It is both tragic and uplifting

I found this book so compelling I am reading it all over again even though I just finished it. This is one of those books which, when you close the final chapter, you ask yourself “what exactly do I have to complain about? Wow …”

I also recommend looking her up on YouTube.

Puddle Logic

THOSE People…

I have nothing against religious people. Hey, some of my best friends are religious. It’s nobody’s business what sort of ignorant, superstitious rituals they perform in their own homes and churches. No one should care what sort of bizarre mythical creatures they worship, or what kind of “holy” objects (statues, icons, and / or books) they revere.

Of course these religious people do need to show some restraint in public. I’ll give you an example: I was at a nice restaurant with my wife the other night. There were these two guys at a table next to us. They looked fairly normal, but I thought by the way they dressed, and the way they styled their hair that they were “that way”. So I kept my eye on them. Sure enough, as soon as their meals came they started praying right there at a table not ten feet away from us. How were we supposed to eat with that going on? Don’t those people have special clubs or something where they can go?

What I really hate is the way they influence the media. I’m not talking about the ones with their own shows. I can spot those a mile away, and avoid them. I’m talking about the ones who sneak their insane agenda into supposedly factual news stories. How often have you seen something like this on the news?

Reporter: “You’ve just lost your house and everything you own. How do you feel.”

Victim: “I just thank the LORD everyone made it out okay, especially my little foofoo.”

Meanwhile, in the background you see the firefighter who actually saved little foofoo being treated for his injuries, with the LORD nowhere to be seen.

But I digress. My point is that we shouldn’t hate these people, but pity them. We should try to help them see past their delusions when we can. When we can’t help them, we should just leave them alone…unless they run for public office, or want to teach in a public school or…

CLOSED CAPTIONED FOR THE HUMOR IMPAIRED

The preceding was a satire of the way people, even some liberals, talk about alternative lifestyles, especially homosexuality. Did it hurt? make you angry? Now do you understand why “those people” get upset when you think you’re being perfectly reasonable?

My thanks to James Huber.

14 MPG Increase, Continued

BASELINE

This whole experiment started all because of one small incident. My company moved its’ commercial division from a location that I lived quite near to (meaning, literally, one block away from), to a place 55 miles away. At the time, I was driving a ‘92 Audi 100S. I loved that car. Leather, heated seats, rear fog lamps… You get the point. One problem, 19MPG. I had to get a more fuel efficient vehicle. Read more

How I Added 14 Miles to the Gallon

I am short on time right now, but when I get home I plan on reviewing the methods of how I got a 14MPG increase out of my vehicle. This has been a 4 week test that I hope you all will benefit from. I know I have! Check back tonight for the whole story.

Sex in Exchange for Your Child’s Christian Education?

Talk about some cheap enrollment opportunities! And you thought that Christian Private schools were expensive…

Why Hate Religious People?

Sometimes, as someone who is an “unbeliever,” I am asked why I hate believers; why am I so against their beliefs?

It’s a funny question. Maybe I come off arrogant and intolerant. That’s entirely possible (I’ve been known to be so), and if that is the case I must apologize both to people of faith, and atheists. I apologize to the people of faith because I really don’t mean to project hate. I apologize to the atheists because I don’t want to contribute to the stereotype “angry atheist” that is often portrayed.

Let me be perfectly clear: I don’t hate “believers.” I hate their beliefs.

What people of faith are probably picking up from me is impatience and my discomfort with an absolute certainty on their part, and a double standard.

Somehow, it is okay to question and debate someone’s beliefs about physics, astrology, medicine, politics, psychology, parapsychology and astrophysics. Yet it is (as far as I can tell) not acceptable to debate someone’s religious beliefs.

Here I am simply re-phrasing Sam Harris. None of this is new to atheists, though I am sure it is new to some people of faith. For them, I would suggest reading Mr. Harris, or at least spending twenty minutes watching him here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=J3YOIImOoYM

He’s not perfect, and I don’t agree with everything he says.

But I do think he makes quite a few good points.

Let me be clear: I don’t hate religious people. I just hate their religion. I’m not entirely sure how different this is from “love the sinner, hate the sin.”

I hate what religion does to people. I hate the evil that has been committed in this world in the name of God/Allah/Jehovah — whatever.

To be honest, that’s kind of a funny thing because I don’t believe in evil. Let me quote Robert Jay Lifton of Harvard (visiting professor of psychiatry):

“…one has to be aware of any claim to absolute virtue, because it’s absolute virtue that you call forth to kill large numbers of people. It may be impossible to do that without that claim.”

I’m hard-pressed to come up with a more apt description of the horrors of history.

Most of the evils of the world can probably be traced back to such sentiments. It is the adherence to absolute virtue, the belief one is serving God, that provides us with the means to commit unspeakable horrors. Some evils can be traced to selfishness, competition for resources, exploitation, racism, untreated mental illness and just plain stupidity. But I still believe the majority of the atrocities that have taken place on our planet were done in the name of “absolute virtue.”

I’m posting this on an atheist site, obviously. I suppose I am posting this to ask all of you atheists to recognize that we don’t hate people, we just hate what their beliefs have contributed to.

In a future post, I’ll address the popular belief that atheism has given us the dictators of the world. What makes that ludicrous is the belief that atheism is a philosophy that has adherents.

But for now, let’s agree that people of faith are not people to be hated, and we (atheists) don’t hate them. We just don’t like the bi-product.

I’m new here. But ….. Is that a fair start?

Atheist Blogs Unite!

I opened up my email today and received an invite to Social Spark, from the Izea, the people that brought you Bloggers Choice Awards. You can find my account here. If you are a fellow atheist and own a blog, I would encourage you to give this new service a try. It promotes a Stumble like community while allowing you to earn some cash for your blogging effort. Currently, there are only 4 users that have tagged themselves as atheist. Sign up, add me and let’s get our community started!

Ray Comfort’s Blog

I love how the team members from WOTM (Way of The Master) write their blogs. I find them to be a whimsical read, at the very least. Ray Comfort provides some of the most humorous reading material of them all, in my opinion. Let’s take a look at the entry that I read today.

In this post, Ray speaks of a lunch meeting that he had with a leader of an atheist club. After the lunch, Ray goes to the atheist club to answer some questions. Personally, I feel that the questions that were asked were too basic, but hey, let’s take a look. Read more

I want the Witnesses to leave me alone!

I can’t stand it anymore! I came home from the store the other day and found my husband standing at the back door talking to a young lady. In the driveway, blocking my way into the garage is a minivan being driven by a young man dressed in a suit. Great, I thought, another one. My husband and I have lived in our new home for less than a month and this is the third time we have had a Witness on our door step. The first thing that I wanted to do was whip the door open and apologize to the girl, maybe tell her that he was visiting for Easter from his group home or something…anything to save her from all of his questions. The poor girl had no idea what she had gotten herself into when she knocked on our door. None of them ever do. She finally left after stuttering a little about Easter and her beliefs. I don’t know if she cried. Maybe she got into the van and they all prayed for our family. Maybe (please please PLEASE) they crossed us off the list of places to stop. Either way, we got noticed, for you see, I am married to a special man. My husband is TJM admin, and the Witnesses will never leave me alone. First I was invited to the memorial service for Jesus, and then they had a meeting of some sort to talk about who was qualified to rule the world. I would have LOVED to go to that one. I can’t remember why this poor girl was here this time. She told him that she had talked to me before, so I guess I am in her precinct. I should go back and read the “Porch Monkeys” article again. When we were first married we lived literally right next to a meeting hall. We would watch those little 6 year olds run into the building carrying their little brief cases. We were there for 4 years and were only visited once. I miss those days. My hubby told me that those “No soliciting” signs don’t work either. Did you know that? They aren’t solicitors. I guess I will just have to let TJM admin keep answering the door! Poor little Witnesses…

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