Lay Theism

Here I am.  Still blogging two years later… still a non-believer.  For sure.  I have too seen much evidence that directly contradicts an all-powerful God that interacts with the concerns of this mortal coil.  I saw a child’s mother die of terminal cancer on Christmas Day, I saw a baby mauled by a pit bull brought to the hospital, I saw a man cheat on his wife for weeks while he worried about how it affected his faith.  Are you fucking kidding me?

Shit happens, and bad choices happen, and the two are frequently causal. Interestingly, the more bad choices you make, the more shit happens.  Ergo, if a friend goes to his friend’s in your new car, drinks 3-4 generous drinks an hour, and then takes off in your new SUV (OK, this story is about my car), then he has certainly made a bad choice… and so have I.  Well, guess what this genius didn’t clue in on: he is driving an unfamiliar vehicle, drunk, and might not drive well… because he’s drunk.  He did hit someone from behind.  Cops came.  Arrested his ass and threw him in jail.  Impounded my car ($9,000 damage).  He basically refused to cooperate.  Guess what… automatic one-year license suspension and virtually guaranteed DUI conviction ($2000-4,000 either way just to defend).

Several bad choices above, but it NEVER EVER fails.  Make good choices (not godly choices)… just smart, moral choices, and good things will tend to happen.  That’s very karma-like, and it works.  There are exceptions, but it’s not God doing anything one way or the other.  Several people had the power to prevent this problem or change the outcome, and it’s not God working in a mysterious way.

Don’t let this happen to a friend or family member this holiday season or ever.  Don’t let people drink and then drive.  Give them a bed or a cab.  It’s just the right thing to do.  We are lucky that the douche nozzle in my story didn’t kill anyone.  Relatively minor damage, but $16,000 in repairs and legal fees later (and 30 days of work release jail) is a tough lesson.  Don’t live that way.  This “friend” is someone that I can’t just walk away from (unfortunately), so I am stuck helping him.

Ironically, or not, the major tool in this story is a Christian.  He drowns his sorrows in booze regularly because he can’t make sense of a fucked up world that God doesn’t seem to care about and he has thoroughly wrecked his life….  well, no shit.  Easier to blame the bastard deity that did it versus your own dumb ass and poor choices.

Hope to write more on these real world things in 2010.  Still trying to get the game plan together.  Hang in there, and if you ARE out there, please comment.  I haven’t a clue what you folks are interested in talking about….

Atheism DUI, DWI, ethics, holiday, honesty, intregrity, jail, morality

I finally was able to skate through Christmas without attending a religious service.  In a family full of Christians, it’s pretty tough to not get roped into a evening service or a choral presentation or some other faith-based celebration.  Because of a scheduling fluke, my wife and I were able to bow out gracefully and head home to prepare dinner.

It’s been an interesting year for me…  Next year I want to open up more via this blog.  Seems the best blogs to me are the ones where people reveal a little about themselves and their life experience.  I like several “link puke” blogs, but I really like the ones where people have something to say or something to share that I might learn something from their point of view, or at least be entertained!

Many things that took place in my life this year will allow me to open up more next year, to my readers, and to my family.  I hope you have a happy, healthy, prosperous next year, and if you care one way or the other, please let me know.  I promise to be interesting, if you promise to tell me when I suck.  All the best…  Hugh.

Atheism, Religion Christian, church, doubt, holiday, honesty

I have been looking for a simple reference to cover the basic ideas of God’s existence and found this handy reference.

http://www.400monkeys.com/God/

Use it frequently and try to commit as much as you can to memory.  It should be helpful as you continue to pursue truth and good in life.

Best of luck!

Agnostic, Atheism, Religion, Science belief, existentialism, faith, god, reason

But not without creating some serious confusion among humans already present on Earth:

Members of the earth’s earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God, the Lord Almighty, created Heaven and Earth.

According to recently excavated clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform script, thousands of Sumerians—the first humans to establish systems of writing, agriculture, and government—were working on their sophisticated irrigation systems when the Father of All Creation reached down from the ether and blew the divine spirit of life into their thriving civilization.

“I do not understand,” reads an ancient line of pictographs depicting the sun, the moon, water, and a Sumerian who appears to be scratching his head. “A booming voice is saying, ‘Let there be light,’ but there is already light. It is saying, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass,’ but I am already standing on grass.”

“Everything is here already,” the pictograph continues. “We do not need more stars.”

Article continues at The Onion.

History, Religion, Science clever, comedy, conflict, evidence, funny, news

Evangelist Oral Roberts dies at age 91
Evangelist Oral Roberts, who rose from tent revivals to found a multimillion-dollar organization and an Oklahoma university bearing his name, has died. He was 91.

Love the comments on this video.  Too funny. Click the YouTube logo to watch it over there (and read the comments).

Religion, Video charlatan, crook, death, mountebank, snake oil, swindler, thief