Freethinker's corner

I will not go quietly into the night!

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  • Let us Pray

     

    All over this nation millions of Christians say "let us pray" every day. To these people prayer is a path through which something can be done to affect things which are to transpire. For some it is believed fervently. The individuals who believe fervently sometimes end up on the six-o’clock news. These are the families that forgo medical treatment for a family member and instead that family member is prayed over. Ending up on the six o’clock news has always meant that the family member has died of the illness, usually an easily treated illness, it has never been for the purposes of reporting a spontaneous and miraculous recovery.

    http://rationallyspeaking.blogspot.com/2006/04/nothing-fails-like-prayer.html

    I support the freedom to pray. Even today students in school can bend their heads and pray before every test. (It is only organized prayer, paid for with taxpayer monies that is forbidden). Prayer can fill a person with a calmness, an assuredness, that all is as it should be. These gentle people are no threat to anyone.

    Some people however, begin to receive answers to their prayers in the form of voices in their heads, or decide for God, what God wants. They go off and sometimes become a menace to society in an attempt to carry out what they fervently believe is God’s will. As an example: An abortion clinic bomber.

    The problem with prayer is that unless you are certifiably insane you do not hear God’s voice in your head. You have to try to reason out what it is that is God’s will. To do so many consult a book that is millennia years old. This book, ancient and open to interpretation, is totally disconnected from today’s modern world. So, once again, you are forced to guess what it is that this "good" book says. Sometimes what a person decides the scriptures mean may determine whether someone lives or someone dies.

    http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2008/04/relying_on_prayer_instead_of_medicine_pa.php

  • Grasping for Straws

     

    What do you do if your entire life has been undermined? Your belief system shattered. Your livelihood slipping away. You have to try to preserve it the best you can, and any way you can. Even if it means acting in a manner unbecoming of those very belief systems.

    In the case of Darwin’s work on evolution an entire lifestyle is threatened. Fundamentalists who believe in a straightforward meaning to the Bible have been up in arms since the 1859 release of Charles Darwin’s great work.

    What to do? Since it cannot be legitimately refuted the fundamentalists have decided to lie. They have linked it to Nazism by saying it is what inspired Eugenics. It doesn’t matter that the true father of Eugenics was Sir Francis Galton who formulated the field. Citing Galton would not serve the purpose of denigrating Darwin.

    After all, though, there are many cults of Christianity, many of which have decided that "lying for God" is fine and dandy.  

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics

  • Charles Darwin’s Day

    On this day 200 years ago a great man was born. In celebration I ask everyone to think: Is it so bad to be the fifth ape? Gorillas, chimpanzee, orangutans, gibbons, humans.

    It is a much more wondrous trip we have made than that described by myth where you take a piece of clay and add water and abracadabra, you have a human being. The struggle to this magnificent point through millions of years of minute changes is indeed something to behold. 

    We are indeed  made from the materials produced by stars. We are indeed like the Universe come alive in an attempt to understand itself. Nothing can be as wondrous as that.

  • Happy Birthday Darwin!

    Darwin’s 200th birthday occurs Thursday February 12th. Also the 150th anniversary of his seminal work," On the Origin of Species", occurs November 24th of this year. This book generated much controversy when it was published as it contradicted the creation myths that prevailed at the time. Despite the overwhelming voluminous evidence supported by science, political and religious challenges continue to this day. Preceding it’s publication Darwin himself was hesitant for he knew what its implications would bring.

    I for one am glad he decided to go ahead with it’s publication. One of the most important scientific advancements of mankind.

       darwin_poster

  • Obama’s All-Inclusive Policy

    In an effort to draw all of America together President Obama is attempting to be all inclusive of the many factions in this nation.

    On the one hand he will do something he knows the Far Right will applaud. The Far Left cries foul and denounces what he has done. Then the next day he puts into action something he knows the Far Left will praise. The Far Right exclaims that he is a servant of the liberal left.

    Both the Far Left, and the Far Right want their agenda to be the only agenda. The rest of the spectrum between Right and Left have varying degrees of agreement and dissension.

    Obama is trying to unify America by being all-inclusive. The Far Right and Far Left make very bad bed fellows.

    Perhaps Obama should learn that old axiom: "You can’t please everybody".

  • Abortion is Murder?

    There is a group of people here in Mansfield that have found it necessary to picket the local Planned Parenthood facility. Among the many signs they carry I am sure is one that proclaims abortion is murder.
        I wonder if they are prepared should they win the day and achieve their goal to make abortion illegal once again. The question they must then face is what they should do about the women who obtain illegal abortions. Some of them would probably suggest counseling for these women, however, if abortion is murder, shouldn’t they be put on trial for murder?
        Do not fret, the task will not be as daunting as might be imagined. Surely a number of these women will perish at the hands of a back alley butcher and not be available for trial.

  • Methinks the Christian Doth Protest Too Much!

     

    Many years ago I was investigating William James for my philosophy class. This is many years before I found that I was indeed an atheist. In that time they had these immense catalogue card cabinets wherein the books were carefully indexed. Finding the particular book on William James that I wanted to possibly check out I proceeded to the stacks of books. I found that this book and all other books on William James were missing and in their place these awful Christian tracts were carefully placed. At the time I thought it peculiar, but I did not draw the connection to William James apparent atheism. I really knew nothing about his atheism. I knew only that he was a philosopher. After failing to find the needed books a couple of months in a row I went to the check out desk to find out where they were. Although at the time I suspected it had something to do with Christianity it still seemed odd that people were checking out the book and leaving their names at the desk to be the next one to check it out. I wouldn’t have been able to check out any book for months on William James as these "wonderful" Christians had them all tied up.

    Now to the present: I decided to do a web search for "proofs of evolution". Instead what came up were multitudes of references from desperate Christians presenting proofs against evolution. Evolution is indeed anathema to Christian believers, and with good reason, as it completely invalidates the Biblical account of creation.

    Yes, you do the search, and you will feel the desperation of these pitiful ignorant people. Please do not pity them, for even though they are ignorant, they are ignorant by choice. They have grown up or at least prefer to live in a fantasy world. They will not accept any fact that might pull them from their fantasy. They have invested their lives heavily in this fantasy. I suggest that you leave them to their fantasy as long as their belief system does not endanger others. It is futile to try to rescue someone from a river when they vehemently want to drown. Why risk your own life, or even waste a moment of time, trying to rescue those who do not want to be rescued.

  • No Fundamentalist Should Ever Hold High Office

    There are many religions. All religions were created by mankind in an effort to understand the natural forces at work on Earth and to explain the reason for human existence.

    To believe in any of these "created" religions today requires either ignoring many of the past beliefs of these religions and picking the best of the beliefs or ignoring a preponderance of facts.

    Those that believe without the qualifications of ignoring some past beliefs of their religion are called fundamentalists and are the most dangerous of all. If they truly believe then they must work towards making their religious dogma come true. Usually, this means making doomsday a reality.

    For this reason, no fundamentalist should ever hold high office. The exception might be the deist who believes that a God may have created the world, but then left town.

                                           (09013116.10)

  • Human Rights

    The United Nations is being used in an attempt to curtail the individual rights of citizens worldwide. The OI C, the Organization of the Islamic Conference is pushing the United Nations to pass resolutions combating the "defamation of religions". These resolutions encourage U.N. member states to limit free expression out of respect for religious beliefs, particularly Islamic beliefs. It is expected that the O I C will expand the resolution to cover incidents of criticism, satire, ridicule, and sacrilege.

    Unfortunately, European courts have historically  ruled to protect Christian and Jewish sentiments from offense and it will be argued it would be only fair to extend the rulings to include all Abrahamic faiths.

    The United Nations over the years has been used by many countries hostile to the United States. It has become a tool of these enemies of freedom.

    It is time for the United States and all free nations to leave the United Nations. It is time for the United States to tell the United Nations to get out and to stop financial support of it’s anti-American  agenda.

  • The Petri Dish is Filling Up

    In the city I live in a group of religious "do-gooders" are picketing the local office of planned parenthood. These people claim that abortion is immoral and should be banned no matter the reason.

    Here we are, humans, on a world that is rapidly becoming overcrowded, and these "do-gooders" think they are doing the world a favor by marching up and down the street in front of the Planned Parenthood Center, day and night.

    Whereas, these people believe abortion is murder, I believe abortion should be available, though limited.

    What is heinous about these people is that most often they do not believe contraception should be used either. Also, whereas they believe abortion is murder, these people most often believe in capital punishment for criminals.

                                           (09012713.40)