The Half Baked Lunatic

Many years ago, a neighbor of mine had a miscarriage after trying to get pregnant, unsuccessfully, for many years. It was very hard for me to see her go through such a terrible time. She was distraught.  I was upset.  Her husband was trying very hard to comfort her, and kept telling her “it was the will of god”. He didn’t know what else to say. Statistically, over 30% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage before the end of the third month, what’s medically known as a “spontaneous abortion.”  The number might even be higher, there is substantial evidence which says that many women don’t even realize they are pregnant if the miscarriage occurs about the time their next period is due.  Usually, a woman just assumes she is “late” by a few weeks.  The body just decides there is something wrong, and the pregnancy is terminated on the spot. So here’s my point. There are many who believe that all life is sacred, and that abortion is a sin, yet a “spontaneous abortion” which ends over 30% of all pregnancies worldwide is “the will of god”.  How come it’s ok for god to kill all these unborn children? He must be quite the bastard and the ultimate sinner.  If I were an angry, uninformed, born again Christian, I would have a real problem with this.  I mean, if it’s ok to kill a doctor who performs abortions, then the Christians must have solemn duty to kill god.  After all, he’s responsible for the deaths of more innocent babies than anyone.  Even Hitler wasn’t able to keep up with the number of outrageous murders that this god of theirs commits! But seriously, I can honestly say that I hope that no one is actually “pro abortion”.  It doesn’t matter if it’s “spontaneous” or an “induced” medical procedure, the net result is just the same. It’s a horrible way to end a pregnancy.  It’s difficult for both the mother and father, it’s expensive, and it’s just a messy process to have to go through, emotionally and physical... [More]

How’s that for a title to a blog post?  So what do you think ... does the pope believe in god? Seriously.  The one thing we can be sure of is that the pope believes in power, influence, control, politics – and huge amounts of wealth.  And he gets all of those things by making sure that OTHERS believe that there is a god. It’s a great system – the church has countless laborers all across the globe who have embraced a life of poverty, yet they spend their time recruiting new members and collecting donations for the church.  Sure, half of it gets used for local charity, and some (certainly not all) of these projects actually do some good, but a large percentage of the money goes all the way to the top. It’s the greatest scam ever invented! Way better than any other pyramid scheme – they’ve even managed to make it tax deductable! I’m not saying the pope isn’t a smart guy.  It does take a certain degree of intelligence to work your way to the top of such a powerful organization.  But, as you probably know, the more intelligent someone is, the less likely they are to believe in god, and all the other fairy tales that the world’s religions make up for fun and profit. I made a joke on another posting when I was “wondering why it seems that about 50% of the global population is below average intelligence.” (of course, half the people on the planet are below average – that applies to height, weight, foot size, as well as intelligence). But it really seems that the stupider someone is, the more fiercely religious they are. I was copied on a widely broadcast email a few weeks ago, which was encouraging everyone to reject the new dollar coins being released by the U.S. Mint because – according to the email – the words “In God We Trust” has been removed from the new coins (which unfortunately is untrue – it’s just printed on the e... [More]

  I was looking back through some of the comments on my November 4 posting of "Same Sex Marriage - Why is this an Issue?" and I'm amused by some of the banter.  As a very devout "Born Again Atheist", I don't have much patience for religious ramblings.  Christianity is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned - religion is just a tool to pacify and control the populace, and there are a LOT of weak-minded people that just love drinking the cool-aid.  It's unfathomable that people still believe in this (excuse the expletive) crap. Religions get their power from telling people pretty much any story that will control the downtrodden (and open their wallets, of course) - with no regard for what the "truth" may be.  Over the years, they've gotten really good at making people believe that these random bed-time stories in the Bible (or Koran or Torah, take your pick) have some significance, and they fight like hell to protect the belief in their stories whenever anyone shows any little bit of actual evidence to the contrary.   As an example, it was pretty obvious in the 1600's that the Earth moves around the Sun - but one of the many freelance contributors had written "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved" in the bible (translations vary, but that's the general concept).  Sure, at the time it was written, it was a good theory. But when Galileo publicly proposed the idea that the Earth not only moves, but revolves around the Sun, the Catholic church freaked. They didn't disagree with the data, they just didn't want to admit that something in the bible was wrong, which could mean losing their chokehold on the population. Galileo was imprisoned, his work was banned, and worst of all he was made to listen to Christmas carols all year long. It was 359 years before he w... [More]

  Here is the second of my two talks that I gave at the Seattle chapter of the Ethical Culture Society, this one is from November 4, 2004. (See yesterday's post for the first ...) * * * * * What do you believe? David Workman   People can be very fervent in their beliefs.  I’m talking about the good old fashioned argument of science versus religion.  By religion, I mean the organizations whose purpose it is to evangelize a monotheistic God. What do you believe in?  Is there a god?  Is there a controlling “force” in the universe?  Is our existence and our future pre-determined for us? Our beliefs are based on our own experiences, what our parents and teachers teach us, what we read, whomever we decide is telling us the truth. And what about our sometimes irrational interpretations of all of the above?  We often choose mentors, consciously or unconsciously, whom we look up to and whose opinion we respect – and they have a great impact on what we believe in.  Sometimes the respect for another person’s opinion is based on a logical presentation of cold hard facts, sometimes on fear, sometimes on the charisma of the presenter. As a parent, I am continually afraid of someone “filling my kids head with a bunch of crap”, if you’ll pardon the popular expression.  Every parent feels this way – but every parent’s idea of “crap” is different.  For many parents, religious opinions are just the tip of the iceberg; you don’t dare talk to their kids about politics, off-color humor, sex education, the right to bear arms, or if the Cubs will win the World Series next year. Ultimately, we need to guide our children in the beliefs, ideals, and ethics we think are important, but let them choose their own path.  Oftentimes, the harder you force a particular point of view, t... [More]