Evolution for children, or Dummies

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/07/14/331328580/sex-death-and-evolution-nursery-rhyme-style

Why wait for an Afterlife?

Calling all Science Blind Religious: 

http://www.nairaland.com/attachments/1148355_religion_meme
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When you finish plugging your ears and singing your invisible friends praises so loud that you can’t hear anything remotely resembling facts, the Universe will still not care about you, the Cosmos will still be too vast for you to grok, and your unavoidable ending will still be imminent.

 

 What will you do with your incredibly short life? We Atheists think you should live it as if God doesn’t exist, even if you insist on believing in Gods and your religion’s promised “after-life”.

Now before you say “impossible” I ask, just what do you think Atheists are doing with their incredibly short lives?

We may not spend our Sunday mornings or other days of the weeks in prayer or other religious gatherings but we do socialize with other people, and work at jobs: pursue causes, do hobbies, shake our heads over headlines, and we write music or do other creative things for the joy these activities bring us. We have friends and date nights, children and pets. We have to go to the doctor and pay taxes just like everyone else. And we end up taking the big dirt nap just like religious folks.

(And yes there are Atheists in foxholes, risking their lives even though they have no expectation of another life after death. (If anything, Atheists wonder why the religious are hiding in the foxholes, since they must surely believe God will protect them, right?))

Depression and the Stupid sign so many wear on this subject

http://www.museyon.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/
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The last painting he did before he killed himself.

Depression and Suicide

This is no laughing matter.  I only touch on this subject because of two reasons, the Christian religion’s penchant for claiming that those who kill themselves are going to hell, and the fact that so many seem to believe that all Atheists must be pessimists and depressed all the time since they don’t believe in God.

When religiosity drives someone to make the claim that a depressed person who killed themselves is in hell or was a coward and deserves to go to hell, at that point in this modern age I think whoever is hearing this from them should just hand them the stupid sign a la Jeff Foxworthy’s comic riff, and then stop listening to them.  Unfortunately, as revealed by this recent sad loss of Robin Williams, it seems that some of these stupid people are in the media and are influencing large numbers of people with their ignorant babbling.

People need to educate themselves about this serious mental illness and other related disorders that are caused by brain chemistry that has gone awry.  It takes so little effort to learn about this disease, and then to use your empathy and to try being compassionate, to try to understand how those who suffer from these afflictions might be feeling.  Instead, we get religious judgement, what was that Christians’ about “Let he who is without sin throw the first stone?”

With shit like this happening, with people being this stupid it is surprising I’m not more depressed myself.

Alpha and Omega?

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Alpha, and the Omega

 - ah moral boondoggles. .   

In the beginning there was a massive cloud of dust coalescing, . . no, no .. .before that, no keep going back, ah, a big bang! Possibly not the only, but the only one we know about, so far.





Of course we don’t know what we don’t know yet do we? So maybe scientific advancements will give us evidence of another universe like a beautiful bubble next door, or maybe it will reveal what caused the big bang, or maybe the universe is inside of something else, maybe many layers like some epic fractal matryoshka doll, or some other thing that we don’t have a word for yet.

Thinking like this we could imagine that we’re as tiny on a macrocosmic scale as we perceive the smallest microscopic particles are to us. (Horton hears a hoo, Anyone?) Do you feel small yet?, because just from what already has been revealed about the massive size of the Universe, I know I can’t help but be filled with awe. We are, from what scientific observations have shown, very small, very insignificant. The scale is so vast that if discovery of another Universe requires us to travel to the edge of our own then you won’t have to worry about it happening anytime soon because on that scale we won’t be the same species by the time we do manage to cross that distance, if our species hasn’t snuffed out like a birthday candle. Yes life is that fragile when you think of things on a cosmic scale. When you think like that, the time evolution takes to happen seems like a summer romance. 

(Here have a video or two to help you feel the awe of the size:

Awwwwwwwwww!

Awwwwwwwwwwww!

Look it’s someone completely missing the point!   http://www.science20.com/writer_on_the_edge/blog/scientists_discover_that_atheists_might_not_exist_and_thats_not_a_joke-139982
 

Atheists don’t deny being human or having emotions and all the baggage that comes with being human either. What we don’t do is expect our entertainment to be true to life. We might enjoy a morally grey area or a villain protagonist being successful sometimes, but we never expect our reality to be indistinguishable from stories. 

Actually, true stories, no matter how accurate, always have holes or bias and slant often leaving little room for an interpretation other than what the author intends – unless they are really inexperienced with story-telling. What? You think I’m calling people liars? Well if the shoe fits. . . (Rashomon!) The components, the ingredients for crafting a good story are well known and satisfaction from hearing a well presented story has been documented too, but some people are better at presenting them than others. The fundamental thing that gives a story power though, is how it grabs the reader emotionally, how it inspires our empathy and of course, if you like a character who is suffering because of something a villain did, it’s not surprising you’ll want them to get justice in some way. That’s not just Karma, that’s our sense of right and wrong, or our morals in action.

And of course Karmic stories feel good! The villain gets punished, the hero exalted. To not have it go that way invariably creates the “it’s not fair!” disappointment in the audience but, who said life was fair? - that is just as much a part of our culture, an acknowledged difference between reality and fiction, the very definition in fact. If there weren’t tons of evidence against the existence of God already, just the fact of people indulging in that feel good Karma about their God, would be enough to raise red flags for those of us who accept that life is a gamble, and not fair.

Truly! We non-religious are wondering why every random bright spot or mishap has to have some deep meaning for the religious! A horrible natural disaster causes tons of suffering, and you’re sitting there thanking God that he spared you and your loved ones. What the hell!? Why do you have to make it all about you?!

 

Arrogant ugly American’s spout political nonsense with the tag line of “God Bless America!” really? Why should God favor one nation over another? (or your team over the other sports team?) Calling on God for his blessings or thanking him for what is really luck or just results from earnest hard work speaks to a very egotistical and ignorant view of the world. A view that ignores just how many other people are suffering, and how equally worthy they all are of blessings and good fortune that the religious egotists think God is conferring, when in reality it’s all just luck, skill and for nations, levels of societal economic success. And this view, this religious pomposity shows religion for what it is: rationalized nationalism and rationalized racism.

So yes, Atheists as human beings, have brains which encourage certain behaviors, urges, including an inclination to look for patterns, to want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves and to believe in something bigger than ourselves. However, none of this precludes an Atheist’s ability to be in awe, or to have feelings of spirituality and connection with something bigger or greater than themselves and yet we do not feel the need to worship it or call it “God”. Because, guess what, we are a part of something bigger than ourselves and we do feel connected to it and purposefully aware of it too. All of humanity is a part of this world, a part of this biosphere we call Earth. There’s a lot about this world that we’ve already learned, quite enough to be in awe with, quite enough to feel connected to, and no worship or faith is required to feel this awe.

So to say Atheists can’t exist if they can feel awe or spiritual about anything, to quote polls that hang their results on a couple of leading questions, to point to a few aspects of the study of the brain and consciousness to support your argument belittling what the anti-religious stand for – this all says to me that what we have here, is sensationalist religious pandering, and someone who completely misses the point of what we mean when we say we are Atheist.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson quote

Words, words, Words!

The facts are yes, Atheist, and Atheism are just words. Words we use to describe a point of view, and an opinion about the nature of the universe that we still have questions about, we still have questions, while many of the religious’ claim to have all the answers. Words are useful for communication but if you’re going to doggedly refuse to learn what they mean and just hitch them to whatever misconception matches the particular case you’re trying to make, then maybe Human’s

Harry Potter and the Religious Worry Warts

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Harry Potter and the Religious Worry Warts

 Excerpt from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_debates_over_the_Harry_Potter_series

The debate has inspired at least two satirical Internet urban legends. In 2001, The Onion, an American satirical newspaper, published an article entitled "Harry Potter Sparks Rise in Satanism Among Children," which said that the "High Priest of Satanism" had described Harry Potter as "an absolute godsend to our cause."^[24] This article was actually copied into a chain letter and circulated among Christians as "proof" of their views.^[25] The following year the Canadian daily the National Post released a similar spoof article in its satirical column Post Morten, saying that "Rowling—or, as she shall henceforth be referred to and credited as, Mrs. J. K. Satan—said that as she sat in a coffee shop one grey day, wondering what to do with her empty, aimless life, it hit her, 'I'll give myself, body and soul, to the Dark Master. And in return, he will give me absurd wealth and power over the weak and pitiful of the world. And he did!'" This article was also copied into a chain letter and released as "truth" onto the web.^[26]

With ridiculous behavior like this, I really don’t need to work hard to find humor in Religious’ activities.

Atheists on the Internet

There's many of us on the Internet - makes me wonder if Net Neutrality fails to take if that will make it harder for Atheists to afford to be out here.  So for now enjoy the youtube videos that do exist.

This channel has good and funny pointed videos:

http://youtu.be/ZyFM0_AhIYA