Fear of marriage equality

     It is with great regret that I observe people discriminating against others mainly because they are different. Those same people who claim to not tolerate injustice would deny equal rights to those who act differently than they do. I cannot stand this amount of hypocrisy and fear mongering. This, of course, is yet another post about marriage equality and LGBTQ rights. People of this community are just that, people, who are no different than you and me. They love, grieve, enjoy things, are hurt, and simply want the same rights heterosexuals enjoy in marriage. The main arguments I hear against it, aside from old reliable: "The Bible calls it an abomination!" (which can easily be refuted by stating that the very same Bible only mentions homosexuality as an abomination 4 times, whereas it mentions several times that eating shrimp is detestable to the Lord), is that the age of consent is going to be lowered to accomodate pedophiles and then bestiality will be allowed. Do keep in mind that those very same arguments were made against interracial marriages, and they still haven't happened. Those religious professional fear mongerers are simply attempting to terrorize people with their own bigotry and cannot be allowed to gain power. Those same members of the clergy who continuously push their religious views onto a SECULAR government obviously forgot that, as Thomas Jefferson put it, the First Amendment was put in place as a WALL between church and State.

     Those very same people run their religious institutions as corporations and use their money to lobby the government to favor their particular myth over another. If you want your particular delusion of a magical sky daddy to lobby the government, go on ahead, nobody is stopping you... though we will have to treat your institution as a corporation and tax the ever living shit out of it... freeing up some of the estimated $71 billions a year subsidized into religious institutions. That's right, you can't have your cake and eat it too! For crying out loud you worship a fucking hippie who provided free healthcare for those who asked and promoted socialism, while there are some religious institutions who provide services to their communities through soup kitchens and lodging, most aren't and those that are always have the idea that by doing so they have the right to preach  to those they help in order to gain more money... it is an investment, not in the so called kingdom of they favorite flavor of sky fairy, but in the very pockets of the ministers in charge. Everytime I have presented this idea, I have been called naive and unrealistic but here goes: why don't all members of the clergy do their duties for free, and try to have an actual job on the side, while the church is ran by volunteers. All income is to pay the utility bills, and the rest of the money donated to charities for helping those in need, not in house (because of possible fraudulent activities), but through those organizations that are already established? I mean it certainly has biblical precedent as I believe it was Paul who worked as a tent maker. If your god is so powerful, then he can provide you with a job, and with the strength to perform your calling along with this job! No congregation should allow for remuneration of their leadership!!!!!

    I would also like to point out that countries who have legalized same sex marriages do not suffer any of the predicted consequences cited earlier. Do you want to know why? MARRIAGE IS BETWEEN CONSENTING ADULTS! The age of consent is in place to protect those who cannot fully understand the consequences of their actions and the repercussions they may have, so children cannot make lifelong decisions (that includes baptism by the way douchebags) without being educated in all the possible repercussions which we set fot 18 as it is the time, in our society, when teenagers start to become adults and are educated enough to make their own decisions. Animals CANNOT express their consent with human beings as there is limited communication and our understanding of other animals' cognitive abilities is still rather limited, regardless, they cannot be educated in our ways so much as their behavior is being modified to fit our perception of what they should do. Sadly enough, it is exactly what churches do, and, if you allow me the analogy, If Jesus is the good shepherd and his Church is the sheep, but also his bride, then your religion, at least in its rhetoric condones bestiality when it comes to sheep - Yay Bronze Age mentality!!!!

Venting--- Caution this will involve an incredible amount of foul language...

     So this is somewhat of a continuation of my last blog on stupid crazy shit I am tired of hearing, namely questions. I must obviously go to the argument I repeatedly make regarding the second amendment. For the record, let it be known that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination anti guns, though the argument made against gun control is always the same: The founding fathers wrote the second amendment so that, should the people need to rise against their government through violence, they should be able to do so... here is my typical response: You can have all the assault rifles you want... what in the fuck is it going to do against an f-18 Hornet, or a fully equipped tank? Not a goddamn thing... now if you want to possess a gun because you enjoy it, or for protection against whatever potential danger you might encounter, the more power to you and may you have it to enjoy or rely on in your time of need. But be fucking honest with yourself and with the rest of us. Your pea shooter isn't going to protect your civil liberties; it sure as hell isn't going to protect you against tyranny.
  
     Secondly, what is it with all the fucking falsehoods propagated by the Church about how the Bible isn't allowed in schools, about how prayer is illegal? Those fucktards propagate the idea that the government is anti-Christian... yea that's fucking great, except that your religion has no less rights than any other. Do not mistake the idea of a government waging war on a religion with the government not letting you dictate what others should do. Last time I checked (and there may have been yet another translation of the Bible which contradicts this statement), your holy text, the book that you claim to follow, obviously condemns liars, of any kind... and guess what, that includes jokes, that includes any falsehood propagated through your writing, art, voice, and expression of any form. Here is what the government banned regarding the christian faith in schools: TEACHERS (you know, those guys that apparently are supposed to raise your kids for you) CANNOT mandate prayer or scriptures in the schools as representatives of the secular government... STUDENTS may (and quite often do) initiate prayer groups, Bible study sessions etc... The fucking government isn't out to get you, it just doesn't allow you to indoctrinate kids on their dime. How the fuck would you feel if teachers were to tell your kids to pray 5 times a day facing Mecca, or to observe Ramadan? Yes, I thought so, you'd raise hell and cite the fucking first amendment... Where is that same text when it comes to YOU infringing on others' liberties? How about you shut the fuck up and be a fucking honest member of society?
   
     Third, how in the fuck are you actually claiming to be a religion based on love? "God loves you soooo much that if you don't love him back he will send you to a special place of torture for all eternity!" Yea how about an infinite punishment for a finite crime to define perfect justice? Hitchens, one of the great writers of the 20th/21st century said, and I cite: "Most religions now come before us with ingratiating smirks and outspread hands, like an unctuous merchant in a bazaar. They offer consolation and solidarity and uplift, competing as they do in the marketplace. But we have a right to remember how barbarically they behave when they were strong and were making an offer that people could not refuse." These words resonate in me; they express what I think about religions. Indeed, now that secularism is on the rise, religious people tend to come at us, not through accusation (though some of them still do and are repeatedly made fun of), but rather attempt to lure us with (poorly composed) music, (badly written) texts, and (horribly executed) promises of love and completion. Though in times when it had power, and in places where it still does, religion infringes on basic human rights. For Americans who read this blog, the Declaration of Independence, while not a legal document, is still a very influential text revealing the intent of the founding fathers for this nation, telling us that every man is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. What makes me happy is the truth, not the delusion of an imaginary friend, be it a bearded sky-daddy, or a fucking fairy riding a dragon, and wielding an elemental rod of shitstorming...
   
     Lastly, for this entry, I am sick  and fucking tired of religious people's logical fallacies, especially post hoc ergo propter hoc. For those not versed in debating terms, or Latin, this fallacy is simply: This happened after this, therefore the latter happened because of the former. In other words: You were misdiagnosed and do not have cancer, I prayed after the original diagnostic and God must've healed you. NO! This is not how it fucking works. First, you have to determine causation. If I were to say that Bob, in London will eat lunch tomorrow, and some dude named Bob eats lunch tomorrow in London, this does not make me a fucking prophet. Or stating that we live in the fucking end times because the Bible fucking states that in the end times there will be wars and rumors of war... guess the fuck what, as long as people have lived in factions (probably before we had acquired our recent cognitive skills) there were wars and rumors of wars in our bands, over control of resources. Or the infamous Bible Code where by looking at different letter intervals in the original language, we can find shit that happened in the past; do you know what that proves? The Bible contains a lot of characters recognized as letters. I find it interesting that those fucking messages and prophecies are only found out after the fact by fucktards who are looking for those particular items.
   
     Anyways, I am getting tired of shit from religious douchefucks, now I am not saying that everyone of them is a douchefuck... but I will state that every follower of a religion, any religion, is seriously mislead. I consider myself a seeker of truth, whether it is convenient or not. Life is not about convenience, it is about facts. The distortion of those facts by unscrupulous social rejects who vow to control those who rejected them by interpreting a doctrine created by goat fuckers in the bronze age in order to fuck women and profit from their neighbors is sickening to me and will be met with not only resistance, but counter attacks.

The State Of Unbelief, The Stance of Disbelief, The Honor of Logic

     It is with great clarity that I write this post, I thought about writing on the skeptics' need to become militant, but I soon realize that our burden is not to convince those around us who do believe, ours is to simply live our lives and fight in order to get our rights respected. We should not have to answer to those who make an irrational claim!
     I have recently  been painfully made aware of the sheer amount of ignorance and repetitiveness coming from theists regarding the state of unbelievers. Yes, like most overqualified retail workers, I am used to answering idiotic questions, though I often grow tired of the same ones coming up. Here is a short list of the short bus questions I get upon revealing my lack of belief in a deity along with some typical responses (though the smartarseness of my response does not show well in written form, I beg of those of you who know me to please add my regular attitude towards lack of intelligence in my responses):

But what if you're wrong? (Pascal's wager... ahhh a classic)
Well, this question is malformed  as every myth claims to be the one truth and that anyone who does not share in its theology is damned to an eternity in a very displeasing place, typically a place of eternal torture known as hell. The only real answer to this question is to return it! There are over 6,000 different religions, over 30,000 different denominations of Christianity alone, each claiming that the others are false doctrines, how do you know you are in the right, as those who believe in different doctrines will defend their stance with every bit of righteousness and conviction as you? You are an unbeliever when it comes to  all of those other deities except for (insert number of magical sky fairies believed in), I just go (use same number of mystical creatures as before).

But where do you get your morality? (Friends this is where we get the moral high ground)
I get my morality from myself, as a member of a society,  I understand that such a lifestyle depends solely on our ability to get along with each other, and to better our lives in community and in our social conventions. I do not need a higher power (or other pejorative word describing a mythical sky daddy) to tell me what is right and what is wrong as I have my own understanding of those matters and know that I should not harm those around me in order to get ahead. Of course, sometimes it is harder than others, but my morality comes from me and not out of fear of punishment or hope of reward. If something is detrimental to society, I do not do it. Though I may not say the same about theists who would do anything the voices in their heads tells them to (refer to Abraham's test in sacrificing his son).

How can you support homosexual marriages? (Not necessarily for atheists but a good chunk of us are in favor)
Well, they are human beings, they deserve the same treatment as any of us. What makes a bronze age doctrine made up by goat herders the authority on how to treat other human beings? But the Bible says that...(Leviticus) That very same book claims that eating shrimp and wearing two of the same threads are an abomination, and according to Matthew 5, not one jot or tittle of the law (meaning of course the Pentateuch) shall be taken until Heaven and the Earth have come to pass. (Romans) Paul, in his letter to the Romans clearly states that man shall not lie with man, that is true, though I could argue that Paul was rejected by the early Christians due to his heresy in contradicting Jesus. He was not, according to the Bible, directly appointed by Jesus, but rather hallucinated on the road to Damascus - no doubt haunted by the faces of those he persecuted- and changed his ways, making shit up as he went along.

But your world view must be so bleak, I mean you believe that when you die that's it, how can you live that way?
I find wonder in everyday life such as the love of my family, the expanse of the universe, the complexity of nature. There is plenty to live for, to grow human knowledge, whether it is useful or not (yea most of what I know is useless). If you know you are going to heaven, yet your loved ones are in hell, how can you be truly happy knowing that they are suffering for all eternity while you're drinking wine and having a good time? If you don't care then you are dehumanized.

But there can be no justice without God, he created everything, how can you deny that?
Justice? Really? The deity portrayed in the Bible (for this example) is, at best, a capricious child whose will and deeds are not as mature as those of a 5 year old. He kills on a whim for the most stupid, most insignificant crimes such as making fun of a prophet, or a man spilling his seed on the ground, hell, even disagreeing with those who believe in him is a crime punishable by death! But we have grace now. Grace, by definition is the suspention of justice, therefore your god is either perfectly Just, or perfectly Merciful, he may not be both as those are in direct opposition of each other. He also is one of those Zeus types: do as I say not as I do, as apparently, it is ok for him to be jealous (though it is against his own law) and also it is ok for him to ravish a betrothed young lady in order to give birth to himself so he can sacrifice himself to himself so we can be saved from him... yea a truly logical, not paradoxical god at all you got there!

So this is a small sample of those questions I typically receive, at least twice a week from those around me who find out I am a non believer. I do hope you enjoyed my answers and if you find a better response, or would like to share your own answers to stupid questions, please comment.