5. March 2010 by Frank.

The guy who leads the song service is a pervert. He collects kiddie porn and exposes himself to a young boy helping him with chores. He’s not Catholic, he’s Independent Baptist. He faces eight years in prison and a lifetime on the sex offender list. He’s a local.

At a small (less than 100 member) church.

Everybody knows your name and all your business. Except somehow they managed to miss this moron entirely. Put him in charge of leading the worship service. Other church members are shocked, shocked I tell you. They had no idea, he seemed like such a nice guy. His voice was so beautiful as he praised god in song. How could this happen?

Your friendly neighborhood atheist isn’t shocked.

This kind of shit can happen anywhere. This church doesn’t believe in the gift of discernment of spirits. Why should they be able to see a pervert for what he is? Even churches that believe in spiritual discernment seem unable to discern anything. Claim you’re saved and you love the lord and we won’t question anything about your behavior until it’s way too late. Say the right words or have some musical gift or ability and you can lead the worship service every week. At least you can as long as no one catches you with your pants down.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this sort of thing. At a different Baptist church, the worship leader for several years was a Freemason. He proudly wore the ring and everything. There were books in the church library that debunked and denounced Freemasons, quite clearly putting them in the cult/devil worship category. No one cared, not the pastor, the deacons (this guy was a deacon, too), or the congregation in general. Spiritual discernment? B’ah! Who needs it?

Christians are fond of saying they aren’t perfect, just forgiven. Forgiveness may be a nice thing to have but it doesn’t actually change anything. If you were a murderer before you were forgiven chances are you’re still a murderer. If you were addicted to porn you probably still are. The idea of forgiveness may give you strength to overcome it but since there isn’t actually anyone forgiving you, you’re pretty much on your own. Many christians seem to think forgiveness means they can act any way they damn well please.

You would think god wouldn’t want people like this getting into positions of leadership in his church.

You would think he would tip the pastor off. But like so many other things, god remains mute. He doesn’t intervene. He doesn’t prevent the bullshit from happening and he doesn’t keep the world from finding out. He let’s his church be exposed to ridicule. He lets his name and reputation be dragged through the muck of disgusting human perversions. It’s almost as if he doesn’t care.

Or as if he doesn’t exist.

I know I’m being rather cruel and snarky but I do feel for this guy’s family. He’s ruined their lives as well as his own. But where, may I ask, is his all powerful god? Where is his god who can not only forgive him but cure him of his predilection for sin? Where’s his god who can tame his unholy desires? Where is his god whom he worships and admonishes others to worship? Where’s his god to whom he sings?

My guess is nowhere to be found.

Couldn’t the great and powerful god at least protect the innocent little kid from this pervert?

I have it on good authority that this incident has upset the other church members. But only enough that it gives them something to gossip about this week. Life will go on. Some other great holy man (or woman) singer will rise up to take his place.

As for me, this just confirms what I’ve always known. If there is a god, he doesn’t give a shit.

The little church will go on and this unfortunate event will soon be forgotten. It should shake people’s faith to the core but it won’t. It should raise all kinds of questions but they will go unasked. Somehow this spiritual leader will be deemed “not actually a real christian” after all. If he publicly repents, he will be forgiven by the congregation and possibly even welcomed back. (Well, maybe not by the parents of the kid.) After all, he’s only human.

A very fucked up human.

Posted in wild guesses, humor, listen, hearing, emotion, religion | Print | 2 Comments »

24. February 2010 by Frank.

I was just looking at a site that claims it is all 64 bit software available to download.  While looking at their most popular and top downloads lists, I noticed a small red dot icon on virtually every listing on the first three or four pages.  Curious fellow that I am, I investigated the little red dot.

It turns out the icon means, “It is not 64 bit software.”

Rather hypocritical I must say.  It’s why I won’t dignify them with a link.  They obviously aren’t what they claim to be so there’s no way I would recommend downloading anything from them.  I wouldn’t try it myself and I certainly wouldn’t encourage you to, either.

I’m a nice guy.

So what does 64 bit software have to do with anything you come here to read about?  Absolutely nothing.  But this isn’t about software, it’s about hypocrisy, a subject which has demanded my attention lately.  I used to be quite a hypocrite myself back in my religious days and I need to confess my sins, so to speak.

It’s no great secret that religious, political, business, etc., leaders talk out of both sides of their mouths frequently, fluently, and without shame.  “I never said that,” or “I never did that,” is typically countered with, “Here’s a video of you saying or doing exactly that just the other day!”  Which quickly is re-countered by “That’s taken out of context and isn’t what I really meant or did, booyah!”

All these people are just trying to control what you think, what you believe, and what you do with your money or your vote. 

Religion is especially nefarious about it, basically trying to control your entire life.  Look at how much religion has moved into the political arena and consider what big business it has become.  If that isn’t trying to control all aspects of it’s followers lives, I don’t know what is.

God needs your money.  If I would have been successful at starting my own church I would have begun by claiming that god would provide all the money I needed to get such an endeavor off the ground.  Eventually, I would have to admit that god didn’t provide directly as I assumed he would.  I would then have needed to come up with some sort of teaching to convince my followers to give or give more than they were.  10%?  Not enough.  You weren’t really giving until you gave more than your tithe, it wasn’t counting toward your hundredfold return.  Oh, yeah, I have no doubt I would have been forced to go down that path by my own ambitions.

One of the very first things I saw after becoming a christian was the church trying to control a couple of young people’s sex lives.  The girl had been divorced (which is a big biblical no-no) so the pastor and deacons felt they needed to intervene in her relationship with the new guy.  They insisted god gave them authority to make sure no one got into a sinful relationship which would condemn the young lovers to hell for eternity.  Essentially they said she could be forgiven but that she should either go back to her former husband or remain celibate.

Naturally when I came on the scene this young woman (and her boyfriend) befriended me strictly as a friend.  She was truly trying to make me feel welcome in the group, there was no misunderstanding of her motives or desires.  Nevertheless, one of the deacon’s (they preferred to be called elders instead of deacons) wife felt it was her duty to warn me about getting involved with this young woman.  Forgiveness, my ass.

This church, which was just starting, was trying to get into a teaching called “headship” that was widely popular in the early 80’s.  What it was, was an organizational structure that put the pastor at the top with the elders underneath him and then group leaders underneath them with all the ordinary folks in total submission to those over them.  You didn’t just answer directly to god, you had to go through the men (yes, it was all men) who were in authority over you.  Your wives and daughters had to go through you.  It was the foundation of a cult but they vehemently denied that every time it surfaced.

Yes, I started out with the really ugly side of christianity.

Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) I studied the daylights out of the bible they gave me and became convinced their interpretation was wrong.  It was supposedly based on Moses and Judges after coming out of Egypt.  It was obvious to me that a rigid leadership structure was necessary to control a few million people but not a 100 person church.  I was all set to leave when they tried to implement their plans.

Like most churches, this one had a constitution which they called a covenant.  It was supposedly ironclad and could not be easily broken.  The pastor and his motley crew had bound themselves by it but the ordinary folks had not, yet.  They were having closed meetings to lay the groundwork for the new format when the same deacon’s (I mean elder’s) wife who had warned me about the divorced woman stood up in the meeting and accused the pastor of being demon possessed.  It seems she wasn’t too happy about being forced into submission and being required to be responsible for the other women.  Quite the shocker.

The very next day we were informed that the pastor and the elders had released themselves from their ironclad covenant.  The elders all turned tail and ran, never to be seen again.  No apologies, no explanations, no anything.  Six months after being saved, my church destroyed itself instantly, right in front of my eyes.  Why I stayed with christianity after that is a book length story all by itself.

Were all these people hypocrites?

Yes, they were.

Love, forgiveness, submission, covenants.  Love as long as you submit or toe the line.  Forgiveness if you obey but conditional at best.  Submission to those in authority over you, who are more mature in the lord than you.  Covenants that can’t be broken but which it turned out could be easily ignored.  What did it all amount other than a desire to control other people’s lives down to the most minute detail?

I’ll admit not every church goes anywhere near as far overboard as this church did.  But I want to point out that these elements are all present in all churches; the emphasis may not be the same but the goal still is.  They want to control what you think and what you believe.  That gives them control over what you do with your money.  It gives them control over what you do with your body and your relationships.  It gives them influence over your politics.  It gives them some measure of control over your entire life.  Maybe not as blatantly but far more than you might realize.

You reject all this and you risk becoming a societal outcast.

Reject the god of the godly life the majority around you submits to and see what happens.  You will find yourself alone in the wilderness without love or compassion from the godly.  They will condemn you.  They will treat you like cancer; something to be removed at any cost.

I know this because I used to be one of them.  I knew how to manipulate, to apply guilt.  I knew how to change people’s minds.  I knew how to control.  When I woke up and realized all that, I was ashamed of myself.  I never wanted to control anybody and yet I did exactly that.  I was actually quite good at it.

I was a hypocrite.

I’m not anymore.

Getting free of religion was the best thing I ever did.  That’s why I write this blog.  I bowed down of my own free will and I stood back up of my own volition.  I’m not out to change your mind.  If you want religion that’s fine by me.  Live it to the fullest of your abilities.  But know this, it doesn’t work for me anymore.  I intend to declare that to the world and I refuse to shut up.

Being an atheist is a pain in the ass.

But I’m not ashamed of it.

WYSIWYG!

Posted in interpretation, humor, wild guesses, listen, emotion, hearing, religion | Print | 3 Comments »

19. February 2010 by Frank.

My memory is full of gaping holes since the stroke.  Large parts of my pre-stroke life are completely gone.  My current short-term memories are rather limited, to say the least.  I generally have to rely on some random stimulus to get access to some forgotten memory.

I realize there’s nothing particularly unique about that, it works that way for pretty much everyone.

But what do you do when detailed events, including names, don’t elicit any response at all?  I believe I mentioned it back when it happened, but my father was reminiscing about my early teen years in the neighborhood.  He was rattling off names and describing how the whole neighborhood came over to our house to play football and other games because we had quite a bit of land out back complete with a pond full of fish.  I recognized a lot of the names because they were neighbors for many many years.  But I couldn’t come up with a single memory about doing anything with any of them.

Nothing.

My dad covered several years but I drew a blank for the entire period.  It was as if he was talking about the experiences of some other person.  It was an awkward conversation.  And it was weird.

Especially weird since I do think of myself as a different person than I used to be.  That guy I was as a teenager doesn’t exist anymore. (Big surprise.)  That guy I was up until the ripe old age of 43 doesn’t exist anymore.  (Here’s where the weird comes into play.)  I have some similarities to him but I’m not him.  Why should I expect to be able to access his memories?

That’s why I tend to use the same stories over and over, I’ve got limited material to work with.

It’s also why I tend to go in random directions with this blog.  Often I’ll read something which triggers memories which I tend to write down before I forget them again.  Kind of like LSD flashbacks to the 60’s and 70’s.  Of course, I try to encourage that by having random PINK FLOYD songs come up on Pandora while I’m trying to write.

Music is one of the few things that my memory gaps don’t seem to cover.  Although I have to admit I really don’t understand why I used to like URIAH HEAP so much.  Similarly, I’m not sure if it’s memory or maturity which makes me wonder how I could ever have thought BLAZING SADDLES was actually a funny movie.  I guess that’s not really abnormal.

I used to read a couple of hundred books a year but in the last 12 years I’ve only read a handful.  (I still read a lot but it’s almost all online.)  Music is still important but I used to buy two or three albums a week.  Now I might buy a disc every year or two whether I need it or not.  Movies have remained the most consistent from the old man to the new man.  I still prefer science fiction/fantasy/action/adventure to everything else although I indulge in quite a few musicals and (gasp) chick flicks.  My taste in TV shows is the same as movies but I don’t have a clue what night or network anything I like is on.  I don’t watch TV on my television, I watch a few shows on HULU.

The thousand pound gulley cat in the picture, however, is religion.

I was fully planning on becoming a full time preacher.  I was even convinced that in order to do that I might have to start my own church.  Gung ho doesn’t begin to describe my attitude.  I was a fanatic of the first degree.  Nothing could stop me including multiple setbacks thrown in my way by other preachers intimidated by my style and passion.  I was so into living by faith that I nearly killed myself by refusing to take essential medicines to control my blood pressure.  I was an all or nothing type.

I still am.

I don’t understand this wishy-washy, agnostic, I’m not quite sure, stuff.  You are either a believer or you’re not.  Hot or cold.  Lukewarm will get you spit out, read your bible.  You don’t actually think that you can believe just a little just in case and be able to fool god into thinking you’re the real deal?  You don’t actually think just saying the magic words without any real conviction will get you in and keep you in without requiring all the other obedience necessary?

Seriously, folks, according to the bible, god has shown up in undeniable ways before and people still didn’t believe in him.  Study out some old testament Hebrew history.  If god were to show up today all over the earth at once, billions of people still wouldn’t believe he was really god.  Because if any little preconceived notion about him proved wrong, you would reject him; you would not automatically accept any new evidence, no matter how powerful.

Quite a few atheist bloggers like to claim no real atheist isn’t willing to be persuaded by some real proof.

Nonsense.  Jesus was god’s best statement to mankind.  Here’s a guy wandering around for three years speaking a few words of wisdom and performing some relatively minor magic tricks.  Supposedly the religious leaders didn’t recognize him but the common people did.  Those same common people turned right around and called for his condemnation when stirred up by the priests.  Those same common people did not rise up and save him from the Romans. 

Do you really think if he appears again that all the atheists, Hindus, Muslims, etc., are going to rise up and proclaim him king?  Now that there are actual explanations for how things work and technology has reached a point that it would appear godlike to any primitive person, do you really think any of god’s simple tricks are going to be sufficient proof?

I look at religion now and all I see is superstition.  Primitive fear.  Ignorance.  How could I have devoted myself to it for so long?  I first accepted the message when I was at the absolute lowest point in my life.  I had no resistance to the appeal of someone who would forgive me, cleanse me, make me whole, and become my best friend.  Why do you think they use funerals to preach their salvation message?

How can so many people be so blind to the fairy tale aspect of their holy word?  God gets so disgusted with sin that he wipes out all life except an impossible collection on an ark which includes people who are still sinners.  It took no time at all for sin to reclaim the world.  Bad plan there, god.  But we are also told that Jesus was the lamb slain from the beginning, he was the eternal plan for salvation.  If that’s the case what purpose did the flood serve?

Or how about the tower of Babel?  Do you really think they could have built a skyscraper taller than anything that exists now back in those days?  God was so threatened that he came down and confused the languages of men to stop them.  We have probes going to other planets and my computer can operate in multiple languages.  You can carry a little device in your pocket that will let you translate languages.

That may have impressed some primitive goat herders but what’s the big deal now?  I’ve been on the moon Pandora which was cool as hell, but it was all technology.  Think about it, we have moving pictures (with sound!) that come right out of thin air and we think absolutely nothing of it.  It’s perfectly normal and no big deal.

God would have to pull off the biggest stunt ever to convince the whole world and even then it would not do it.  But read your bible.  God doesn’t work that way.  His miracles and his power keep getting smaller and smaller in his own book.  His followers keep getting more and more simple minded.  God makes appearances in grilled cheese.  That’s not exactly big time proof.

I look and I wonder.  Why didn’t these things jump out at me back in the day?  Why didn’t the absurdity strike me?  Why didn’t I question the things I was taught?  The man of god said that god’s word said that’s how things are and I believed it. 

If only I could remember why I was so gullible.

Posted in interpretation, technology, humor, listen, hearing, religion, emotion, education, stroke | Print | 4 Comments »

8. February 2010 by Frank.

(This was supposed to post several days ago but I’ve been on a mini-vacation (a wonderfully refreshing mini-vacation) made possible by an insurance payout from my late father-in-law.)

My job is deteriorating at an alarming pace.  Some truly bizarre plans and programs are being instituted at higher levels which can’t possibly bode well for a peon like me.  My particular store is apparently on very shaky ground despite decent sales numbers overall.  It’s certain key stats, however, that aren’t good enough.  Yes, that’s right, it’s the annual store is going to close scare.

This is the seventh or eighth time in the last ten years that this hoary old chestnut has been reused.

As usual, I’ll believe it when I see it.  I spent 17 years trying to convince myself you have to believe it first then you get to see it.  That’s what faith is, the evidence of things unseen.  You have to believe god’s promise first, believe you have already received the answer before there is an answer.  Then it will come to pass because god’s promises never fail.  Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.  Got that?  Faith is substance and evidence of the invisible.  Word of faith bible teaching at its best.

If you refuse to believe something until you see the evidence of it, well, that’s not faith.  It’s just an observation.  But if you believe it just because god (or one of his minions) said so, then you have great faith.  If you believe without any evidence at all you can work miracles.  Just ask Jesus.

Except that it doesn’t work.

Even the people who teach this stuff know it doesn’t work.  Baptists and other mainstream denominations know it doesn’t work so they try to alter the meaning of the verses or add all sorts of conditions.  Pentecostal types tend to declare the verses in question are absolutely true but almost without exception the people are full of sin and prevent them from working.

God’s humble followers always have an excuse why god never does what he says he does.

The believer is always at fault or god has some mysterious purpose why they must suffer.  But there is always an excuse.  We always want the answer right now but it isn’t always god’s time, he operates on a different level at a different pace.  But rest assured that all the shit in your life is happening for a reason, a real good godly reason.

I tried to convince myself of that when I got sued, I tried to persuade myself when my wages were garnished, I knew god had a plan when he let my wife drive our new car into the side of a building, I tried real hard to believe all those times and more.  But guess what, I still can’t fathom any plan in any of those events even thirty years later.  None of them made me a better person or a better christian.  I didn’t learn any valuable life lesson.  I gained no understanding, I didn’t become wiser.  And my faith most certainly did not grow stronger.

So what divine purpose could there possibly have been?

Faith was my life despite all those failures, which shows how far gone I actually was back then.  My faith convinced me that I could beat my ridiculously high blood pressure without medication.  Surely god would honor my faith in his healing power instead of the chemicals of men.  I most certainly had more faith than a mustard seed.

God was busy elsewhere the morning the morning of my stroke.  My blood pressure was so far gone I should have been dead.  I had no symptoms, I felt absolutely normal, there was no warning.  I was full of faith, praising god.  I was completely convinced I was right.  But my heart couldn’t pump blood to this small part of my brain.  The  oxygen it carried couldn’t reach the brain cells that were dying by the millions.  And suddenly, I lost control of the right side of my body.  Some fundamental component of who I was died as the brain tissue died.

My old life was over.  There was a new man in his place.  This new man had no faith and didn’t care.  But that didn’t matter.  This new man was a better man than the old man.  He wasn’t deluded.

In August I will have been living with this for twelve years.  Twelve years of pain daily, continually.  Twelve years of being unable to concentrate long enough to read a book by an author I love.   Twelve years of not caring.  Twelve years of altered perceptions.  Twelve years of being unable to remember large chunks of my life.

But it’s also been twelve years of not trying to make all this crap fit into my belief structure.  That’s the big BIG difference.  In many ways life is much simpler than it used to be.  Back when I believed god was in control and he had a plan for my life, I had to work very hard to make all the random disasters that kept befalling me fit into that plan.  Which is very very difficult (if you think about it) because god never seems very willing to let you in on just what that plan actually is.  A wrecked car here, a financial disaster there, a horrible illness on the one hand, an untimely death on the other.  All of them have to fit some ill-defined plan that you’re only guessing about in the first place.  It’s a stress producer.

I always used to wonder why so many church people needed to be refreshed from daily life every Sunday.  How could they get so burdened down every week?  Why did they have to show up for mid-week service so they could get through to Friday?  At least for me what was happening was the exact opposite.  All the praise and worship and sermons and teaching were in reality just loading me down with more sin and guilt and more worry that secular life was going to corrupt me even more during the week.  So I rushed back to every service to get the strength I needed to cope with life.  But what I was really getting was reinforcement of what a wretched sinner I was and how desperately I had to cling to god.  And to church.

I’ll admit that “shit happens” isn’t always a very satisfying way to think but it is worlds above “I wonder what god’s plan (purpose) for this disaster was?”  It doesn’t require any great anguish or soul searching. No mental gymnastics required.  No trying to figure out a plan that doesn’t exist except in your own imagination.

Shit happens.  I’m screwed.  Let’s get on with it.

Simple.

I like it that way.

Posted in listen, interpretation, humor, hearing, education, religion, emotion, stroke | Print | 2 Comments »

25. January 2010 by Frank.

I went with my wife to church today because she was going to sing a special.  She did good.  The pastor, however, didn’t.

His main topic was prayer with faith being a secondary reinforcement.  Unfortunately for him his choice of verses quite clearly state that the prayer of faith WILL heal the sick.  This does not fit in with his beliefs or the doctrines of his church so he was forced to add conditions and alterations to the verse to make it mean something it did not say.  At the very least this is rather dishonest.

It’s also why it is no use trying to use logic and reason to refute these people; they are masters of making contrary statements fit their own preconceived notions by any means possible. 

Part of his elaboration was that in order for god to be god there had to be mystery involved.  Our minds are so petty that they can’t conceive the things of god.  His will is a mystery, his reasons for our suffering go beyond our ability to understand.  And since there is such mystery we can’t assume the prayer of faith will actually do what the bible says it will do.  Why?  Because we’re all sinners with tiny little pea brains.

Besides, it’s more about spiritual healing anyway.

What, may I ask, is spiritual healing?  Seriously, go in any church and try to get someone to actually explain what your spirit is in comprehensible terms.  I guarantee getting a straight answer is next to impossible.  Get them to tell you what’s the difference between spirit and soul.  If anyone has an answer it will be some variation of only the word of god can divide the two.  It is one of god’s mysteries.

Let’s just go with a basic definition; your spirit or soul is that part of your consciousness that makes you you.  Simple enough?

Now then let’s ask someone such as myself who has suffered brain damage what they think that means.  Any  small amount of research will show you that brain damage (injury, stroke, disease, drugs) can radically alter your personality.  It can change what makes you you in such a way that you can no longer even recognize yourself.  It can baffle other people so much that they will literally withdraw from you because they can’t comprehend how different you are.

If simple physical damage can change who you are and how you think how can there be some immaterial spirit being who is the real you?  How could I go from a fired up christian fanatic to a complete unbeliever without even trying?  I have a clearly defined dividing line between who I was before the stroke to who I am after.  There’s no grey area.  Faith was everything before and it’s nothing now.

Not that I just accepted that.  No, I studied relentlessly to find an explanation.  I studied different doctrines, church history, different philosophies; works I never would have looked at before.  I looked to science and medicine and found out about brain damage and what it could do.  I found actual, real, physical, natural explanations for what I was convinced was a spiritual problem.  And I learned to cope with it.

I found the truth and the truth set me free.

The truth wasn’t the bible.  It was cold, hard facts.

What I want to point out to people is simply this; if your faith and beliefs require you to add words or alter their meanings from your own sacred texts, then, obviously, your texts aren’t quite so sacred as you claim.  You know the verse doesn’t work but you can’t admit that.  So you throw in some mystery.  You add some variable that allows you to fail so that you can claim god’s word didn’t fail.

If the bible was really the word of a real god it wouldn’t need such dishonest help.

Would it?

Posted in wild guesses, interpretation, communication, listen, hearing, religion, emotion, stroke | Print | 3 Comments »

8. January 2010 by Frank.

This is the fifth post I’ve written in the last two weeks but it is only the first post I’ve posted out of all of them.  Why?  Because I didn’t like the direction they were going. 

That direction was “nowhere”.

Not that they weren’t interesting, mind you.  They were just too much a reflection of my curmudgeonly anti-holiday / anti-tradition rantings that I do every year at holiday time.  In other words, I was following my own tradition of griping about other people’s traditions.  And, somehow, that just seemed wrong.

I do expect to get an earful of new material next week when I attend an “end of the world” seminar with a friend.  I’ve never heard of the speaker at all but I do know he’s Seventh Day Adventist so I have a pretty good idea of the direction he’ll be heading.  Yes, I know, I’m a glutton for punishment, but sometimes this sort of thing can be amusing if not informative.

I was always a fan of end of the world science fiction and that didn’t change when I became a christian.  I just traded mankind, aliens, and natural disasters for god, the devil, and demons as the cause of worldwide destruction.  The christian variations on the theme weren’t nearly as entertaining as the science fiction stories but I gave them more weight because they were based on the bible.  And since the bible was the word of god they had to be true and accurate.

Yeah, right.

I read multiple dozens of such books back in the 1980’s.  They were full of all kind of dire warnings and predictions stated with much bravura and unquestioned certainty; after all, god’s prophecies never fail.  Well, that was 30 years ago and hardly any of those declarations came to pass.  In fact, the average science fiction story by some hack writer was far more accurate in its predictions than anything the christian hack writers ever came up with.

One such book I remember was “When Your Money Fails” by Mary Stewart Relfe.  Not that it was a good book worth remembering.  It was a book full of all sorts of actual photos of diabolical mark of the beast money fantasies.  Well, at least, they were actual photos until you got to the last page where the author admitted they were all fakes (in very very very small print) designed for illustration purposes.  What’s remarkable is that there’s a website for this right here.  I only looked at the first page but can anyone say conspiracy theory?

Be very afraid of those embedded microchips.

Something far more plausible and disturbing is the retina scanners that deliver up tailored to the individual advertising in the movie MINORITY REPORT.  One of my blogs back in the day allowed for advertising so I put Google’s Ad Sense on it (this was when they first started promoting it).  It scared me to death when it started displaying ads that were about the exact same subjects as my current posts.  It didn’t take long to understand the technology behind it but it was quite eerie at first because I had never seen anything that uncanny.  Tailored advertising is here; tailored to the individual isn’t that far off.

Be afraid of that.  Especially if advertising works well on you.

Conspiracy theories seem to abound these days but they are really nothing new.  It’s when they are tied in with religion and right wing politics that they become really scary.  Because, unfortunately, otherwise ordinary people eat this stuff up.  The last time I went to one of these seminars there were over a thousand people there.  The one next week is in a much bigger building.  Even though I can’t remember the guy’s name I fully expect the place to be packed.

Don’t worry about me.  I am already practicing my eye rolling and covering my laughter with sneezing fits.  Not sure what to do if snoring occurs.

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22. December 2009 by Frank.

With an 83% rating on RottenTomatoes, AVATAR, James Cameron’s latest masterpiece can best be described as awe-inspiring.  In 3D.  I don’t know if it has the same impact in 2D (apparently it does, a friend tells me he thinks it is the best movie ever made and he only saw the 2D version).  I wish it was convenient for me to go see it on an Imax screen in 3D, I would probably be trying to think of more superlative words than mere awe-inspiring.

I’ve seen 5 or 6 digital 3D movies and while the technology is impressive (very mild headaches instead of bleeding eyes) the movies themselves really gained nothing by the third dimension.  Cool but hardly worth the extra expense.

AVATAR is completely different.  It is what you would expect 3D to be, real depth and actual physicality.  The movie takes place on the planet Pandora which is the most real, super detailed, living, breathing sci-fi/fantasy world ever created.  I never once felt like I was not in a real place.  Pandora is real, fantastic, and totally alien.  The overwhelming size of everything, from the towering heights of the Hometree to the seemingly miles deep vistas of canyons, waterfalls, and floating sky islands, staggers the imagination.  The incredibly vibrant colors of the various flora and fauna are beautiful to behold.  I saw one review mentioning that he/she thought Cameron had invented some new colors, I think that’s probably true, I’ve never seen anything that looks so breathtakingly gorgeous.  Did I mention how real it was?

I never once thought I was looking at computer animation, I was completely immersed in the planet Pandora.  Nothing seemed to be just a gimmick like every other 3D movie ever made.  There weren’t any sharp pointed objects leaping out at you just to startle you.  The film uses 3D like it was natural, it’s just how you see things.  It created incredible heights and amazing depths, none of which seemed forced or faked in any way.

The story is very simple.  There isn’t anything wrong with that like some critics imply.  It’s simple and powerful.  I don’t think a complicated or convoluted plot would have been appropriate with the sensory overload the lush gorgeousness of the planet produced.  Consider the basics of any epic fantasy and it’s all there.

It works because the Na’vi are real characters.  They are real people with intense expressions and emotions which are beautifully portrayed by their facial expressions.  One of the big complaints with computer animation is the eyes, until now no one has gotten them quite right.  You’ll never even notice in this movie which means they look entirely natural.  I never felt I was watching special effects moving around.

I bought everything that was happening as if it were all real.  Filmed on location with some great native actors.

I’ll have to see the movie several times before I get all the words and the names figured out.  I definitely want one of those flying dragons for my very own even though it would try to kill me to let me know it chose me.  Again, I never thought of them as special effects.  The Na’vi’s relationship with the animals was very intense and personal.  Once bonded, no one else could ride it.  They were equally bound to the forest and all the other life that abounded there.  Very native American in many ways.

To say that the final battle is spectacular is a vast understatement.  You will not be cheering for the humans and their advanced spaceships and weaponry.  Their motive is simple greed and that greed justifies what amounts to genocide.  It’s disgusting, watch their faces when they get their marching orders and then watch closely when they realize what they have done.  Truly epic.

Best movie ever made?

Yes.

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18. December 2009 by Frank.

Even the completely Christian christian in our little group of retail employees agreed that Oral Roberts was a conman.  There’s no arguing that particular point, it is an unbiased fact.  This guy could not leave it at that, however.  He felt it was necessary to point out that Roberts was responsible for getting the word of god out to millions of people.  God still used him in spite of his greed and excesses.

I almost started to argue that it was pathetic to think god wanted his word spread by false teachers.

Then I remembered this passage from the bible:  “It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill.  The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.  The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains.  But what does it matter?  The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached.  And because of this I rejoice.”  (Philippians 1:  15 – 18)  That’s the apostle Paul while he was in prison.  (Emphasis mine)

As long as Christ is preached it doesn’t matter what the preacher’s motives are.  The ends justify the means.  It is the word of god.  So my fellow employee was correct in his assessment of Roberts, he was a conman but he spread the word to millions so what does it matter.

I still think that’s pathetic but there I go again thinking I’m more moral than god.

I don’t suppose it would do any good to point out that the gospel Roberts preached was the “healing and prosperity” gospel which is not the same thing as the “salvation” gospel (entire denominations won’t have anything to do with each other over those differences.)  I don’t suppose that pointing out the bible also says not to have anything to do with false teachers or anyone who brings some other gospel.  If you let them in your house you share in their evil work.  Seems like a blatantly huge contradiction to me.

I would have thought god had higher standards than that.

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6. December 2009 by Frank.

8 hours a day all week long.

Nothing but christmas music.  Songs from back in the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s.  Repeated 3 or 4 times a day.  The company I work for is trying to turn my brain into a giant mushy pile of goo and make my ears bleed.

All the while trying to freeze me to death in the backroom since there’s been no heat back there for over a month now.

Not that they aren’t trying to fix it, every time the guy comes in, he manages to short something else out.  He then orders more parts which won’t be in for yet another week.  Rinse and repeat.

Naturally, my car breaks down to the tune of nearly $700, thus insuring that no one gets nuthin’ for christmas again this year.

And, yes, Virginia, my wife threatened me with burning in hell for eternity if I don’t stop swearing and start going to church.

This has been a really fun week.

We also got our first ice storm of the season.  I love sliding through intersections and slipping down roads flanked by 5 to 8 foot deep trenches with no guard rails.  Next week, they are already warning about a massive Winter storm expected to hit Tuesday or Wednesday.  Joy.

My wife is planning on joining the new church she’s been going to so she had a copy of the church constitution in the car.  I, of course, decided to read it on my lunch break one day.  I only got part way through it but there was so much wrong with it that I never would have agreed to it even when I was superchristian.  Right off the bat, one of the main tenants was that you have to support and uphold the constitution.  It’s a nondenominational church but it is very anti-pentecostal.  The first thing I would have had a huge problem with was the declaration that there are no “supernatural” spiritual gifts in effect anymore such as speaking in tongues or prophecy or healing (except under special circumstances as god sees fit).  Only “natural” spiritual gifts such as teaching, preaching, and helping are for the church today.  Notice the contradiction of terms.

This church is also of the once saved always saved variety.  You can check out anytime you like but you can never really leave.

They also declare that the bible is the inerrant, literal, actual words of god in the “originals” which is far more common than you might realize.  The major problem with that is simply that there are no originals.  No one has ever seen the originals, just copies of copies of copies of copies.  How does anyone know what’s in them?

Naturally, they cite plenty of scripture to support these doctrines.  I can easily refute every one of them with other scripture which completely contradicts the ones they use. 

The one killer doctrine they hold is the universal depravity of mankind.  You’re conceived in sin, born in sin, live in sin, you have sin flowing in your veins.  I find that vastly amusing.  All those precious little christian bundles of joy are really hideous agents of satan just waiting to bust out.  No one actually believes their baby is full of sin so they have all sorts of implied doctrines to excuse that oversight.  Everyone must have Jesus as savior, even the little children but there’s special consideration for those too young to have any ability to understand.  Universal depravity is a thorn in christian sides.

Something else rather amusing is that they carefully associate themselves with a group that represents nondenominational churches but leave themselves a detailed “out” in case that group decides to do something they don’t like.  As I read that section, I couldn’t help but wonder why god would lead that group in a different direction than the church.  Why would he allow there to be disagreement about his will?  Shouldn’t all churches be going the same way?

None of this is new.  It was going on back in the day.  It’s a pity there’s been no improvement in the last 3 decades but I shouldn’t be surprised.  There’s been no improvement in the last 2000 years.  It’s as odd as the whole prenup agreements nowadays.  You start with the assumption of failure.  That’s no way to succeed.

The bible says god never changes.  Then it turns right around and says that he does.  I guess his followers have to be ready for that.

I couldn’t see how absurd all of this could be back in my fundie days.  Now, it’s so patently obvious. 

It seems as if the month of December shines a spotlight on all these things.  It’s supposed to give you the warm fuzzies but all it does is make my head hurt.

My score?  Season 1:  Me 0

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23. November 2009 by Frank.

I’m getting tired of being told no real atheist is 100% certain there is no god.  I’m sick of hearing the words “trope” and “meme” as if they magically expressed some deep truth.  I’m quite exhausted by all the logical arguments.

We’re not all college age debate squad members.

And I know for a fact that the average church goer does not seek out unbelievers to use logic on them.  Nor are they likely to understand logical arguments if they do encounter one.  As much a deal is made about witnessing and saving the lost, the vast majority would rather just let the pastor do it.  I was in church, in ministry, for 20 years; I know whereof I speak.

So why are so many atheist blogs so big on trying to debate and prove wrong theologians and apologists?  Seriously, where does one go to find the local theologian, the wise holy man who knows all the arguments for and against?  There aren’t any mountaintops here in Michigan to make a pilgrimage to.

If it makes perfect sense for people to reject every god except one, then how is it that when one rejects that final god he still isn’t allowed to be 100% certain there are no gods?  What?  Have we got an additional supply of gods we don’t know about?  Am I being facetious?

Definitely.  I get tired of being told what I can and cannot think.

Practically everyone I know is some form of christian.  I do not debate any of them, I have no desire to do so.  I could show them so much proof their beliefs are wrong from their own holy bible that you would think anyone would be convinced I was right.  I don’t bother because it’s futile.  Anything I say goes into a very selective filter so that the christian never hears anything they don’t want to hear.

You can’t even get a Baptist to hear a Pentecostal belief correctly.

What chance would an atheist have?

There’s a time and place for debate and anyone can blog about whatever they want.  I actually enjoy some sound logic now and then.  What I resent is being lumped into groups that I’m obviously not part of.  We do that to the religious all the time and think nothing of it.  But they aren’t all the same, they don’t all agree, they certainly don’t all think alike.  Atheists don’t have any common bond other than a lack of belief in god(s) and yet we still try to put labels on each other and define how we all should think.  Sorry, that doesn’t work.

I read.  I come across words and phrases constantly that I have never heard anyone use in conversation.  I am reasonably sure I would have to define those words to whomever I was talking to, if I were to use them myself.  Meme and trope are two such words.  Atheist blogs use these words with alarming frequency and yet I have never heard them spoken by anyone.  I come in contact with a lot of people.  Atheist bloggers seem to think that everyone sits around thinking about these concepts if not all the time at least most of the time.

But what in the world is a meme?  From Dictionary.com, “Richard Dawkin’s term for an idea considered as a replicator, especially with the connotation that memes parasitize people into propagating them much as viruses do.”  Or “Ideas can evolve in a way analogous to biological evolution.”  Heavy stuff.  College professor speak.  Atheist bloggers picked up on the concept and obviously ran with it to the extent that one of them is mentioning a meme every time you look around.  I find it odd that my spell checker knows meme but apparently hasn’t heard the obvious sounding but totally obscure parasitize.  Put simply, memes are thought viruses.

Now that we have that straight, what’s a trope? From Dictionary.com, “any literary or rhetorical device, as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and irony, that consists in the use of words in other than a literal sense.”  Don’t be embarrassed, I had to look up metonymy and synecdoche, too, although my spell checker does know them.  Let’s just say figure of speech shall we?  I used to get in trouble when I was a kid because I enjoyed reading the dictionary.  I was delighted to find cool sounding words that no one knew the meaning of.  I stopped doing that a long time ago but obviously other word nerds didn’t.

The point is, nobody talks like this in normal conversation.  What are we doing, trying to sound intellectual?  Or just trying to give the impression that we’re all a bunch of deep thinkers compared to our religious targets?

I do have to admit that there are quite a few atheist bloggers I read that actually are college students.  But outside their little groups who actually talks like this?

I have the misfortune to be related to some people very heavily involved in politics, law, and big money.  Occasionally I have been in their presence when they are communicating in political, legal, and wealth language that I barely understand.  I politely listen, keep my mouth shut, and manage to get the gist of what they’re talking about.  It isn’t pleasant and, again, most people don’t talk like this.

It’s also extremely obvious that nothing I think or say would be of interest to any of them.

I get the same feeling with quite a few atheist bloggers.  That’s what I’m ranting about.  I haven’t read all the relevant books, I don’t know all the right words.  I understand all this stuff far better than you might think but I don’t find it useful in dealing with other people.  Logic and reason are wonderful things but beating people over the head with them doesn’t work.  Someone struggling with losing their faith isn’t necessarily looking for cold hard facts, they may need some kind of emotional empathy more than that.

I had to deal with my stroke altered life and my loss of faith at the same time.  I didn’t have anyone to turn to, no one stepped in to help me or lead me to someone who could help.  My doctor knew nothing of stroke effects beyond his PDA and textbooks.  If there was any kind of support group in the area, no one referred me to them.  Not one but two churches turned their backs on me, there was no spiritual counseling either.  There weren’t any atheist blogs back then and, in a way, I’m glad there weren’t.  All the memes and tropes and logical arguments thrown around today would have left me cold back then.  I needed cold hard facts.  I needed solid reasons and explanations for what happened to me.

I didn’t need word games.

I certainly didn’t need anyone to tell me what to think or to believe.  I didn’t need to be assigned some label or to be put in some category.  I didn’t need to be alienated from the very people who actually could understand what I was going through.

That’s what disturbs me about a great many atheist blogs currently.  They seem hell bent on alienating the very people they claim to be trying to reach.

Lighten up, people!

OK.  Rant over.

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