A bit about me

I thought it might be time for me to write a bit about myself and perhaps you the reader can get a better understanding of why I'm a bit snarky towards American Christianity. 

As a child I didn't grow up in a particularly religious household, however my aunt was a very serious Jehovah's Witness.  In the summertime when I would go and spend a week or two over at her house with my cousins, I had to make sure I brought something nice to wear as she would drag me to their meetings.  I enjoyed reading the stories, but I have to admit that the idea of actually believing in the god that they do pretty much escaped me.  When I got a bit older, probably around 13 or so, I realized that I didn't believe a single word of it.  Yet, I do have to admit, the concept of 'God' was interesting to me but I didn't really pursue it. 

When I got in my early twenties, I met my now ex-husband who was an Evangelical Christian.  And to just make a long story short, I swallowed the whole thing hook, line and sinker.  A couple of months after meeting him I became "born again".   For thirteen years of my life, I was a bible-thumping, tongue-speaking, "holy ghost" filled Charismatic Christian.  I'm talking, anointing the opening to my home to keep out demons, the whole weird wacky spiritual bit.  If you had met me back then, you'd probably would have walked away very slowly, turned and then ran away as fast as you could.  Towards the last couple of years of my Christianity I taught sunday school, sang on the worship team, did various other theatrical programs and was about to go to school to become a full-fledged pastor.

So, what started me on the path towards Atheism?  A book.  Just a book.  Not the bible, but Harry Potter.  I  have to admit that I was right there on the wagon, with all the other Christians who were screaming that Harry Potter was evil and full of black magic and was leading children to Satan.  I can remember reading a letter that the secretary of the church put up on the bulletin board about Harry Potter.  Saying it was fully of 'real spells', Satanism and cannibalism.  It was probably the cannibalism that caught my attention. 

Why would any parent read that to their children if it was as horrible as the author of the letter was claiming?  I mean really.  It was making Harry Potter sound more like a Stephen King novel than a children's book.  And it really got me thinking.  I was condemning something I really knew nothing about.  I was just taking everyone's word that it was horrible and needed to kept as far away any good Christian as possible.

I realized I had become a blind faith follower, accepting anything I was told without question.  I didn't like that one little bit. 

So I went out the very next day and checked out Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone from the library.  I read it cover to cover in a couple of days.  Hmm....  there was nothing horrible in it.  No "real" spells, black magic, no reference to Satan at all and no cannibalism.

Okay....  maybe its in the movie.  I convinced my now ex-husband to rent the movie that weekend.  And guess what?  We enjoyed it and no demons came screaming out of the tv at us.

From there I realized I needed to question why I was drinking the Kool Aid.  As soon as I started to question other teachings that before I just accepted, my eyes began to open to the hypocrisy of the church and the two-sided-ness of those within it.  The contradictions and double talking in the bible, the flat out cherry picking of scriptures to fit what the speaker is preaching about.  And especially what I like to call the fuzzy bunny slipper wearing, warm fuzzy giving Jesus that Christians embrace today, is not the Jesus of the bible and it certainly is not the god of the old Testament. 

After realizing all that, it wasn't to far of a journey to Atheism. 

In future blogs I will discuss some of the biblical teachings that led to me to the conclusion that the Christian god is full of hooey.  Heh, I said hooey. 


                                          Happy Halloween!

Image borrowed from: Atheist Bliss on Facebook

But.....

I had a completely different topic I was going to write about this morning, but as usual reading and researching things on the interwebz has led my brain down a rabbit trail.  And what is on my easily distractable brain this morning is the concept of 'I love you ....but....."  "God loves you.... but....". 

Religion of varies types seems to enjoy putting restrictions on people, the major acceptation being perhaps Pagans/Wiccans whose only major rule seems to be "An it harm none, do what thou wilt.".  (A great website for an unbiased overview of religions is: Religious Tolerance ) Back to my train of thought here, there seems to be an awful lot of restrictions based on gender and of course sexual preference.  And it seems to come back to "I love you.... but... you're gay."  "I love you... but... you're a woman and I'm the man so you have to do what I say." 

But American Christians are sooooo very fond of "God's love is unconditional.  He loves us no matter how horrible a sinner we are."  They are proud to say that even a murdering child molester can find forgiveness with Jesus.

"God loves a homosexual as long as they repent of it, ask for forgiveness, be born again and then deny that part of their nature for the rest of their life."   (Obviously a generalization, not all Christians or other religious people feel that way.  Just the majority.  And don't you just hate it when the majority speaks for all?)

Wait... but you just said...  God's love is unconditional.

"God loves women, but the head of the household is the man.  And a wife should be subservient to her husband." 

Oh wait, yeah that's just from "the Old Testament" it doesn't apply today.  Along with its okay to offer up your daughters to be ganged raped to save all powerful God's wimpy little angels who couldn't fend for themselves.  Its alright to force  your daughter to marry her rapist as long as the rapist pays you for her. 

Okay, that's all Old Testament stuff and doesn't apply, so why cling to ONE old "rule" and say it applies today.  I forgot, today's Jesus is all fluffy bunny slippers and warm fuzzies.  He's just a hippie dippy dude, in a hippie dippy world.  Peace, love and potlucks.  He just "hates fags".  (Why is it no one ever says anything about Jesus traveling around with a group of men and just not hanging around with many women?  And the disciple "whom he loved", the "beloved" disciple.  There is a lot of debate about just which disciple Jesus loved, but its there none the less. Things that make you go hmmm....  I'm not going to finish that thought, I'll just let you the reader draw your own conclusion.)

Really?  Have you even read the bible?  Beyond what a church tells you to read?  Jesus said the Old Testament law doesn't apply anymore?

“For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass the law until all is accomplished.  Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:18-19 RSV)

"It is easier for Heaven and Earth to pass away than for the smallest part of the letter of the law to become invalid."  (Luke 16:17 NAB)

I really have no idea how this became Christian orientated, but I guess there's no way around that.  I specifically wanted to look at a varity of religions that act this way. 

Anyway, to sum it all up. 

There is no 'but' at the end of "I love you", if you really mean it.

Blind Faith

When does blind faith go too far?  I read a story this morning about a man in Indonesia whose village rested on the slopes of a volcano.  He was the "spiritual caretaker" of the volcano, he made offerings into the volcano to keep the spirits appeased so his village would be kept safe.  His dead body was found Wednesday Oct. 27th covered in white ash from the volcano's recent eruption.  Right next to his body was the body of a Red Cross worker who had been trying to get him to leave.

I have nothing to say about his beliefs, there were his and I can respect that.  Where I stop respecting someones blind faith in any spiritual path and it goes too far is when it impacts other people.  Others in his village stayed because they believed that he could keep them safe and when the eruption started they fled in a panic.  Now, after all is said and done, some of the other villagers are calling him a "hero".  He's a hero who got himself and an innocent Red Cross worker killed because of that blind faith. 

In the USA once again coming to the forefront of the news are religious people following blind faith that leads to the death of the innocent.  You have parents killing their babies so they can "go to heaven and be with Jesus" and letting their children die without doctor's care because the parents choose to pray instead.  Or a religious ceremony inflicts harm on another, babies drowning during baptisms and children dying during 'excorisms'.  And let's not even touch on the Catholic Church and its record with keeping innocent children "safe".

If you are an adult, you have the right to live or die in a way you see fit.  If you want to pray for yourself instead of seeking a doctor's care that is your right, or kill yourself so you can "go home and be with with god", again that is your right as an adult.

But if you are making that decision for a child, or it effects another innocent life.  NO ONE has the right to force their religious beliefs on another person, or allow harm to come to someone else because of what you think is the "truth".


Spiritual Caretaker of Volcano Dies

Apples... who can resist one?

The other day I was having a conversation with a friend who just happens to be a Christian, about why I'm an Atheist.  We had a civil, pleasant conversation.  I explained how I viewed the Christian god as an abusive parent.  "Love me or I'll punish you!" 

When I got home that night I thought more about this as I was cutting up an apple.  That got me to thinking about apples, well one apple in particular.  (Yes I know 'techincally it necessarily wasn't an apple, it was just called a fruit.)  Anyway.....  Why would a parent give their child such a temptation?  If  you were a parent would you tell your child "Hey I just put this magic apple on the kitchen table and you can't have it.  But I'm going to leave it right here on the kitchen table where you can easily reach it but you can't touch it.  Alright I'm leaving now.  Leave the magic apple alone."

It doesn't take a genius to figure out what would happen the moment you left and that door closed.  Even if you have a perfect child who always does what they are told, lets throw in the kid from across the street who causes trouble and they tell your child, "It would be awesome to eat that magic apple, maybe it will grant you wishes!  Go for it!"  So they eat the apple and you come home to an obviously eaten apple and a guilty feeling child hiding from you.

So do you then kick them out of your house?  Drive them down to the desert and leave them there to fend for themselves?  Do you then tell them that they are being punished for eating your apple and not only them, but you'll punish their children and their children's children for all of time because they ate your apple?

On top of that, if you as parent know what will happen if they do eat the apple and know for a fact that they will eat it, why do you leave it out for them to be tempted by it in the first place?  No parent I know of would let such a thing happen to their child. 

Why then did the Christian god put that fruit tree in the garden of Eden?  To my way of thinking, its cruel and abusive.  "I'm punishing you for something I knew you would do in the first place.  I know that it will bring a lot of pain and misery into the world.  But I did it so that you will have free will to choose to love me.  But if you don't love me I'm going to punish you some more and for all of eternity.  But its free will, its your choice.  Just choose wisely or you'll be sorry."

Really?  We have to "choose" to "love" him or be punished, but we're being punished anyway with sickness and death because two people ate a fruit left out in the open?  Not only that, but god knew they would eat it and the horrible things that would come about from that one act? 

Lets say that you the parent know that if your child ate the apple YOU left out in easy reach, it would not grant them wishes but give them terminal cancer, would YOU leave it out for your child to eat?