Been quote mining for the single best comments, atheist and science pages on Youtube—I also top it off with a side of sister rant–hope you enjoy! 🙂
Tag Archive | bible
JACKED UP BIBLE VERSES VIDEOS
Started doing this series which will explore some of the more mind numbing insanity found in the good book:
WAAAH! FREE THINKING IS VICTIMIZING RELIGION!!!
I did a new podcast that you guys may want to check out casue–well this shit pissed me the hell off:
PODCAST:
http://sistahatheist.podbean.com/2013/09/03//
Folks, I am hopping mad tonight, enough to post a new podcast ahead off schedule. I saw a video by a beautiful young atheist lady named Jaclyn Glenn where she examined the dumb ass claim that Christians, THE MAJORITY in this country, are being *sniff, sniff* victimized. In stupid, dishonest YOUTUBE vids like THE THAW and INDOCTRINATION they scream that people having the ability to vocally express beliefs counter their own is somehow keeping them from practicing their faiths. Funny thing too, since there is a church on every corner that no one is barring their way into. THIS from a group who sends out and amens mass emails about punching out professors they don’t agree with in the name of the lawd! THIS from individuals who send out forwards where the tagline reads., “We’re in the majority, so lets tell that 14 % to shut the hell up?” THEY ARE THE VICTIMS…???
Yeah, here’s the world’s tiniest violin for ya Hoss…
Tonight I am one mad as hell Southern Belle….
What Equality Means–A Humanist View
Equality is quite the buzzword in modern mainstream society, but like the terms feminism and atheism, I don’t think folks know what equality means. Now, before I go further, allow me to back track and clarify something. I don’t identify as a feminist. Not that I disagree with feminism in ideal and indeed, I support many of the concepts of it. I look at feminism in much the same was as I do the MRA. Both are sex-centric rights organization with a mission to protect the segment of society they represent. No harm, no foul. I can see the appeal of picking a side to fight for and I don’t denigrate anyone for doing so. For my own personal tastes however, I choose to pick up the cause for the LGBT community as well as champion the rights of both men and women. In that regard, I also choose my battles accordingly. Indeed, I can feel the same kind of righteous indignation when I hear that a man has to automatically pay alimony after a divorce regardless of his circumstances, as I would for a woman who is publicly slut shamed on a college campus cause she was wearing hot pants.
Unfortunately, I find that, in spite of my attempts towards reasoned balance (of course I am a bisexual woman so the injustices that affect me personally will get more of a rise), whenever I champion a female cause I am automatically labelled a feminist. This is strange, seeing as, when I stand up for male rights, just as vociferously, I might add, I am not thought to be an MRA member. Couple this with the fact that feminism has now became a dirty word because of the likes of Rush Limbaugh and even fellow Atheists like T. J. Kirk, and I know that the aim was to demean my point. What an individual, male or female, hopes to gain by rendering my viewpoint null and void in this way, is beyond me.
Which leads me to my focus on equality, and in particular, gender equality.
When I encounter woman hating atheist types who says insane things like, “Well, you’re the ones who wanted equality…” after a woman has some kind of misadventure, or “woman want equality but they don’t want to pay for their own dinners and open their own doors,” I just have to cock my head to the side in confused little puppy fashion. This dismissive sleight of hand manages to misrepresent what feminism and equality are all in one fell stroke.
People, I just have to ask…
1) What is wrong with wanting equal treatment under the law? What in the hell does, “Well, you’re the ones who wanted equality!” even mean? That is like saying, “Well, you’re the ones who wanted to eat, breathe air and drink water.” Of course we want legal equality. Just what do you mean by equality here anyway? The equality most feminists, the MRA and humanists like myself are fighting for is the idea that we have the freedom to make our own choices, for our own lives that we are given the same opportunities in life across the board. Yes, I am smart enough to know that equal opportunity doesn’t mean equal outcome, but if you block my way to those opportunities, how will I know what kind of outcomes I COULD have?
2) What does the opening of a door or paying for dinner have to do with desiring basic human rights? In this regard, the “go make me a sammich” brigade is truly missing the point. The reason many women hate that whole “Get in the kitchen bitch” type o’ thing is because the Christian Right would often say things like, a woman’s place is in the home or in the kitchen. This was the mantra of both men and women when ladies desired to join the work force and get into positions that had been long held by men. The term barefoot and pregnant comes to mind. When guys, who think they are being cute and counterculture, say things like, “get in the kitchen, ho” they are saying the equivalent of “get back into the cotton fields niggah”, to a person of color. Which leads me back to the ideas of equality in the dating world. What are you trying to say with your admonishment of supposed female privilege here? That some women, many of whom are probably NOT feminists, who enjoy courtesies like a man opening a door or paying for dinner shows that chicks really want to be stripped of life options and relegated to a life of making sandwiches? I don’t get it.
In the end, all human beings want to be treated like, well, human beings. That is the basis for human rights. Of course a woman wants the right to choose between being mother or giving her life to mission work. No one wants all their choices made for them, or have their life arranged and mapped out without their input. That’s called slavery. Man, woman, gay or straight, we want our chance at the pursuit of happiness promised to all of us in the Bill of Rights.
The special treatment, dinner argument just never makes sense to me anyways. Equality is not a tit for tat exercise. For example, if you gave me an apple and I gave you a pear, you can’t then scream, “That’s’ not equal–you gave me a pear! I gave you an apple! How can you want equality when you treated me so differently!”
Dating scenarios and rituals are a different animal outside the human rights landscape. Couples can and should decide for themselves how to handle a given situation and believe it or not many women can and do pay for their own shit, especially feminists. I often joke that the men who have an issue opening doors or paying for meals should date a feminist. Feminism is a concept not only based on the idea of female equality but also, female self-sufficiency. Most will give you a hard look if you open a door for them, or smack your hand if you dared to pay for her dinner.
But, I am not a feminist and I love being treated to a night out. Does this mean I don’t believe in feminine equality? Not at all. I deem the opening of a door as a courtesy that has little to do with gender roles. I open doors for women, men and kids. Why? So the door doesn’t smack them in the head as I exit the building. It is a courtesy. Giving everyone equal regard under the law, doesn’t mean we do away with basic civility and common courtesy.
Now, I completely get that it is unfair that men have to automatically pay alimony in most cases, but men need be aware that women often pay alimony to ex spouses too. I do think the laws need to change to either eradicate spousal payments altogether or make them more strictly case by case. Example, if financial assets are built up during the marriage due to the hard work of both spouses, then there should be a fair and equitable dissolvement of those assets. But, if you bring gazillions into your marriage, you should be able to leave with your gazillions, unless you yourself feel inclined to do otherwise (not all divorces end bitterly). However, let’s say a married couple decides to have a kid. The man agrees that the wife makes more money than he does and leaves his job to stay at home. Yes, I know it is often the other way around, but I actually do know of a couple who did this. The woman was a CEO and he had a high paying repairman gig. They both believed that one parent should be home with the kiddos and had already discussed the fact that who ever was the biggest bread-winner would keep their job when they decided to become parents.
They honored this idea when the first babe was born and dude became a stay at home dad. The couple is still happily married, but I can’t help but ponder if, lets say, they were heading towards splitsville. what would-be fair here. Would it, for example, be fair to just toss dude out with the bath water with no means of support after he gave up his own livelihood to stay home with their offspring? In such a case, I think an award of alimony would be fair for a short time until the man could get a job in his chosen field and support himself (if that hadn’t already occurred).
This is what I would call a decent and fair moral decision backed up by the law, but this STILL doesn’t fall under the real of basic human rights and legal equality. Separate things.
Lookit–I am aware that a woman just can’t bench press the same weight as a man…but if a woman wants to try, let her. If she fails in the attempt — so what? Does this fact mean I should go back to the days when all decisions for a woman’s life was made for her?
Humans are not all equal. Some are better looking than others, some are tall while others are short. There are folks who are smarter, faster, bigger, richer, stronger, weaker, more privileged, than others. The idea that we are all equal is a fallacy. Even so, this doesn’t mean that the beautiful, privileged, tall man gets to have more opportunities than the weak, short and unnattractive short man. The short man should have the same rights as a tall man under the law. What happens outside of that is well–I dunno…the general fluctations of life?
Getting back to the dating ritual thang, I will say this. My hubby and I both agree that the individual doing the asking should pay. When I was single, I asked men out and when I did so, I picked up the check. But to the fellahs reading this, please ask yourself what is really behind this anger at treating a woman to a night out and displaying courtesy by opening a door. Do you really have to get a complete, I do this, you do that, tit for tat out of it to enjoy the night? What does that say about your true intentions?
Dating is a getting to know one another, social process. It ain’t marriage, nor is it a fast track to easy sex. Go into it with minimal expectations and pure intentions and you will have less of a chance to get all bitter and claim both sides have so-called “privilege”.
Folks, please, let us stop getting distracted by the dumb shit and keep our eyes on the prize. Equality is about choice–our own individualistic choices–all the rest that goes along with that is what gets sorted out in the mix once the goal of across the board equality is achieved.
That will be very happy work should that day ever come.
“Oh, God!” Post-Faith Habits are Hard to Break, but Why Should You?
As a newly outed atheist who only began wearing the label less that a year or so ago, I have found it a bit hilarious how hung up people can be about a non believer using the word god. Many Christians will say things like, “You guys bring up/say God more than we do!” Really? If true, man, that’s just sad. I doubt it’s true though. This admonition usually comes up when theist and atheists have theological discussions and a skeptic tosses out an actual bible verse. They wouldn’t, for example, want to answer the charge levied at them that was backed up by said verse. Instead, they sneer at their supposed attacker with a weak ass insult like “How dare you…read…a book!”. Well, surprise, surprise, godless heathens know the bible too. In the end, I truly believe that this particular complaint is a fall back counter when a Christian knows they have lost and are left with nothing.
This knee jerk reaction to the word “god” being used in a certain context isn’t limited to Christians however.
During a sex related topic in an atheist thread, I happened to mention how I still shout out, “Oh God” during the big “O”. Obviously bothered by that, an atheist poster then asked me if I could find a better word to use during coitus. Uhm…Does he really think that I am going to go through some kind of mental Rolodex in order to locate what kind of exclamation would now be suitable during sex? Should I be screaming, “Oh, invisible entity I do not believe in, ohhhh, big bang theory, EVOLUTION! Abiogenesis! Abiogenesis!?”
Not. going. to. happen.
Even a longtime gal pal of who happens to be a person of faith pulled this particular card, but in a different way. See, “Nancy’s” a Mormon (pause for a moment of awed silence) and she and I often go at one another rather playfully on Facebook. After trotting the rather tired, “You’re just an atheist cause you want to sin without shame.” bs., (pause to make penis whackin’ hand gesture) I countered, “Yep, Nanc, yah got me, I am just out here living it up in sinville flush with the mounds of cash I obtained from all those banks I always wanted to knock over but never did cause Jesus stopped me. Me and the hookers are having a great time starting up that sex traffickin’ ring as well — sky’s the limit.”
“Okay sure, sure,” She wrote back, “you laugh now, but just you wait–if you ever get into a car accident, “Oh, God” will be the first thing flying out of your mouth!”
Now, I know we were just sorta dickin ‘around, but that comment annoyed me more than the, “you just want to sin” crack. Not like I hadn’t heard that whole “atheist in a fox hole” argument before, but I suppose the implications are what bothered me most. The concept borrows heavily from the apologist viewpoint that atheists really know there is a god. They assert that if and when a skeptic encounters any kind of life trouble, he will be reaching out to God to save him.
That crap is insulting on so many levels it’s hard to know where to start.
There seems to be this idea that using the word “god” as an exclamation, is some kind of literal entreaty to the almighty himself. Ridiculous. When I stump my toe and say “Oh shit!’ I am not invoking the existence of excrement. Likewise, when I yell out “Oh god, oh god, don’t stop, don’t stop!” I am not expecting ye olde heavenly father to show up and bestow upon me a mighty orgasm. I also highly doubt that any christian ladies that are having sex (and believe me plenty of Christian ladies have sex) and crying out “Oh, God” are thinking that either. Her very actions indicate this, as I certainly don’t think she would indulge if she thought the Lawd was going show up. Can you imagine having to explain to god why you decided to do the deed before marriage during the very commision of the act?
Awkward!
We live in a highly religious culture, one in which all atheists grew up…we all said “Jesus!” when something startled us, or “Oh, God!” when we felt compelled to sit on the edge of our seats.
So what?
It was simply a way to highlight an emotion for greater impact and the utterance has no real religious significance outside of prayer. When I use the word “god” as an atheist, it is in the same manner in which I might shout “Holy Cow” or “that’s’ the shizznit!”
If I am ever in the unfortunate position of being in a car accident, I will yell, “Oh, God” out of reflex, not as a plea. I am sure if I lived in an Islamic society, I’d be screaming, “Allah”, seconds before my ass ran into that tree.
And if I happened to be an atheist at the time of impact, that declaration would be just as meaningless.
Contrary to what theists would have you believe, many atheists, skeptics, and unbelievers die without asking god to take them into his loving arms. My father was never an admitted atheist, but he was far from being a believer. As he died of AIDS in 2004, he would slip in and out of consciousness. When somewhat aware, he’d joke around with the doctors or talk to my sister and I about the things that I suppose meant the most to him. I’d say, in light of all he was going through, he put on a rather brave face.
He never asked us to call for a reverend or a priest, and he never once did he say, “Oh, god.”
So, there yah have it apologists. It is very possible to not only die without asking to be saved, it is also wholly possible that atheists don’t hold the term “god” in the same regard as you do. Who’d have thunk it.
I’m a Goddess and I Can Prove It!
What do Christian apologists like William Lane Craig, Kent Hovind and Ray Comfort all have in common besides a surprising amount of supportive followers and an appalling lack of critical thinking skills?
This: The fact that they routinely assert that they have unbiased, sound and irrefutable proof that the bible is the inerrant word o’ god…only to default to the tired old song and dance of using the bible as that very evidence.
Circular logic anyone?
Dude, been there, done that, bought the t-shirt and the “WE ARE NUMBER ONE” sippy hat.
But , I say, hold on a cotton pickin’ minute … maybe I am being a bit too hasty in my condemnation, after all, it is by this very same reasoning that I can claim to be a goddess.
No, really. Stop laughing. I am a bona fide goddess!
How can I verify this? Simple.
See, a year ago I bought this beautiful leather-bound diary that I entitled THE BOOK OF ALICIA.
In it I wrote down three irrefutable facts.
Fact 1: on December 15th, 1978, Michael D. Roach, my husband, was born in McDonough Ga.
Fact 2: in 2013, a person of summer, in a room without walls, would eat a grilled cheese sandwhich
Fact 3: Alicia Norman is a Goddess.
It all adds up.
So, are you convinced? No?
Ah, I see you need more. Okay, try to follow me here.
THE BOOK OF ALICIA plainly shows that I am a Goddess because:
Numero Uno — the Book of Alicia mentions a documented , verifiable, historical fact. Michael D. Roach, was indeed born Dec 15, 1978! How is that for accuracy? I invite you to look that info up for yourself! Once you see that Michael D. Roach was indeed born on that date, and in that city, you will have to concede that I am a living goddess.
But wait–there’s more!
I was able to foresee the future. Seriously. Stop laughing.
On May 12, 2013, I observed a woman in a yellow shirt (yellow of course signifying–what else? SUMMER!) eating a grilled cheese sandwich. Get this! She was sitting at a small white table on a restauraunt veranda! You know–a room with no walls. Huh? Huh?
Last irrefutable fact–the BOOK OF ALICIA says Alicia be a goddess, dudes, what more do you want?
I am a goddess and the book that says so proves it.
Now, If hard hearted, non believers want to challenge these facts, they are truly blind, immoral and corrupt people who simply don’t want to give me the reverence I am due! I mean, come on, the truth is simply staring yah smack dab in dah face, all like, BAM!
Goddess…
Yah got your accurate, historical, verifiable fact which somehow makes all other claims in my book true, you got an “easy-to-apply- to-any-given-future-situation” prophecy AND an unfalsifiable claim. Holy triad baby.
NOW are you convinced?
Yeah…I didn’t think so.
***Special shout out to my good friend and fellow digital artist Camecoz of Deviant Art for taking a truly plain old picture of me and making it all mystical like. Thank you mah brother.
A Bi Black Woman’s Journey Towards Skepticism
As my agnostic hubby recently pointed out, skepticism has always been hard-wired into my DNA. Still, as I grow older and I hope, wiser, I have to ponder the route that lead me towards self-imposed Christian rule in my younger days.
My youth was a convoluted jumbled mess that I will sort out as the blog rolls along. Suffice it to say my journey towards faith and, subsequently, away from it, was probably not the norm. I had no fanatical parents pushing me towards belief. I was merely a child seeking meaning to a chaotic, uncertain life. Mom and Dad were pendulum swings of diverse dysfunctions that I don’t think WordPress has enough space to write about, but hey, I loved them and they, me, in their way.
The folks often tried, with varying degrees of success, to balance their demons alongside the rearing of two young girls. Still, as I fumbled along, my world began to seem darkly wondrous yet also cold, and alienating. This was perhaps why, at the tender age of eight, I fell into the god trap.
How can I lie? I felt very happy for a time. Things were neat and ordered. I had all the answers I ever needed about my reason for being, my goals in life, what the purpose for existence was, at my pudgy wittle finger tips in the form of a kiddie bible given to me by a well meaning friend! Years flew by and MY BOOK OF BIBLE STORIES would later became a full-fledged leather-bound King James tome. As I matured, I was soon drawn to the musings of Voltaire, Aristotle, Thoreau, Dunbar, Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson. It was then that reason began to rear its head and whisper the kinds of things that rattle faith.
In my teens, as I awkwardly started walking towards young adulthood, a new voice emerged. It was this–this THING that kept knocking from behind my eyelids and yelling, “Damn, wake up girl…. you are better than this. Stop lowering your eyes, put up your dukes and confront the world head on!”
This voice grew louder, stronger as time wore on, so I decided to drown it via the bible, as I was certain it was simply Old Scratch trying to tempt me away from a loving god. Things pretty much went south from there. All I can say is this; nothing can create more atheists faster than actually sitting down and reading the ENTIRE bible. Which I did. Three times…oh the flashbacks! The VISIONS. Dah humanity!
Dude, I came across so much stuff that I simply couldn’t explain away that I had to put it aside for a time just to retain faith.
The mind fuck that haunted me the most can be found in the Book of Genesis 19:36 , namely:
Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father (KJV).
Now that was a big “say what”. You see, like most dutiful Christians, I had always stopped at the part where Lot’s wife was turned into pillar of salt. Don’t get me wrong, I always thought that was kind of jacked up but figured–well–God has his reason right…RIGHT?
But oh no, the story doesn’t end there. At some point, Lot’s daughters, sure that the end of the world had come, decide to get dear old dad drunk and have sex with him so they can get knocked up. They both bear him sons, Moab and Ammon, founders of the Ammonite and the Moabite nations.
Again–say what?
For yeeears that shizznit bothered me! I was like, “Hold up, hold up…sooooo, god destroys an ENTIRE CITY with fire from on high, the fabled Sodom and Gomorrah, for sexual immorality, but apparently thinks it is a-okay for two daughter’s to essentially rape dear ole dad and have kiddos with him?”
Oh yeeeah, biblical fucked-up-ed-ness did not end there, but again–Wordpress doesn’t have enough room…
With this kind of stuff pecking at me, I stumbled onwards with faith, even exploring numerous church denominations. Now, what did I do that for? This only blacked an already swollen eye…
It was in the churches that I noticed that pastors seemed to be willfully misrepresenting what the bible said. You see, having read the damned thing cover to cover three times, I could tell when quotes and verses were taken shamelessly out of context. Also, why was it that most preachers stopped just shy of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah, but NONE OF THEM ever revealed that Lot had sex with his daughters. To date, it is the single most unknown fact of the bible. Most Christians do not even know it is there and will even TELL you that ain’t in the bible, even when you produce the actual verses…LOL!
To add all kinds of insult to injury, around this time, I was starting to notice that I was sexually attracted to both guys and gals, something frowned upon by many churches, although the good book never addresses this particular issue head on. Also, as black female, I grew alarmed by the sheer volume of churches that embraced doctrines fostering the idea that folks of dark skin were deserving of second class status. How curious is it, that a supposedly benevolent being would create a race of sentient, emotional beings just so they can be subservient to others. Even more curious, is how many black Christians appear to meekishly accept this doctrine either without question, or via willful ignorance.
Own a vulva? Furgittabout it! You were royally screwed in Yahweh based religions. Heck, MOST religions.
Fact after fact after fact began to pile up against the sanity of continuing on with a life philosophy that was so immoral and flawed. Now, more often than not, that once occasional, annoying little voice grew louder, and louder…
…and LOUDER.
I eventually encountered a crossroad where I had to face my fears and make a clear choice. I was, at that juncture, an admitted bisexual female quasi agnostic and Christianity was not longer an acceptable pathway towards truth for me.
To be fair, this knowledge didn’t mean I immediately called myself a skeptic or an atheist. I remained an “agnostic” for years until I finally had to admit that I simply do not believe in god concepts or claims.
It took a while, but, here I stand today, a loud, proud atheist and skeptic, as well as a humanist with a somewhat paradoxical misanthropic outlook. Indeed, I have this kind of love/hate with humanity that I need to resolve. I hope to get a place of balance and peace where love wins out the day.
To any Christians who stumble across this blog, do feel welcome to engage my little self in debate, but I will tell you right now that invocations of hell, blatant bigotry, or threats will not be tolerated. I don’t mind spirited discourse, but this little corner of the world is MY voice. Besides, there are more than enough Christian forums and blogs you can converge on to get your daily dose of hallelujah. You shan’t get that here, just straight talk with no hand holding. If you can deal with that, then have a seat.
Here, I am gonna talk about atheism as it affects me personally. I’ll also discuss political topics and dissect the kind of Christian apologetics that actually helped propel me further towards non belief. I invite conversations from any and all with a mind towards truth, so long as we can agree to disagree. Besides, conflict is the whetting stone of reason — it hones the wit and makes one more prone to seek out uncomfortable truths. This is my journey towards skepticism and the letting go of old habits that appear to die hard even after faith.
I invite any and all to walk with me, challenge me, argue with me, agree with me — laugh with me.
But mostly, I just want us to kinda sit on the dock of the bay and think about what makes us all human, cause, in the end, we still need one another, regardless of what we see when we look up at the sky.
Sistah Atheist 