Alex's Journal

This is absolutely absurd! Led by Muslim nations, the United Nations has actually voted 23-11 in a vote “that urges member states to adopt laws outlawing criticism of religions.” What kind of smelly horse poop is that? How can the United Nations vote to restrict the criticism of religion? Does that mean I will go to jail for saying that Christianity is a mirage of meaning for the intellectually challenged? For saying that Islam is a hallucination of righteousness for the morally impaired?

Here is a portion of the article:

Freedom House condemns the UN Human Rights Council for undermining the universal right to freedom of expression by once again passing a resolution that urges members to adopt laws outlawing criticism of religions.

The “defamation of religions” resolution, introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), passed today by a vote of 23-11, with 13 abstentions. Muslim nations have been introducing similar resolutions since 1999, arguing that Islam-the only religion specifically cited in the text-must be shielded from unfair associations with terrorism and human rights abuses.

You can read the entire article here.

The past couple of days have been agony and torment for me to some degree with my head spinning around contradictions, frustrations and the overall irony of the present situation I find myself in. About a year ago when I was spending my year abroad in Germany, I met this Dutch girl whom I fell head over heals for. We had an amazing amount in common, she was bright and beautiful and we never tired of each other’s company. The biggest problem though is that she is insanely religious. I don’t mean to the point that she goes around praying all the time or trying to convert other people to her religion (to her religion is a deeply personal thing), but I mean it in the sense that she is vocal about it in private and that when we talk, she will occasionally go off on these religious tangents that drive me nuts.

Anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis or has read a number of my previous posts can tell right away that I am a stark Atheist. I can’t buy into the belief in some sort of supreme being who has unlimited powers and controls us all through blackmail. I just can’t do it. Before I go on, however, I would like to make it clear that I am not so dense as to not understand or even respect other people’s beliefs. I am simply stating my view point on this situation.

To get back to the story, since I have been back in the US, we have consistently been talking on instant messenger — usually several times a week. A couple of days ago I was talking to her when she mentioned that she was watching a documentary on TV about the evolution of bears. I knew things were going to get bad from this point because whenever some who is religious brings up evolution, you’re bound for an argument. Well, we did have a pretty big discussion about it because she started going into this crazy creationist stupor condemning the theory of evolution as an unprovable dogma which people blindly buy into. Do you already see the irony in this argument?

I suppose it really wasn’t much of a discussion since, because I care for her quite a bit, I didn’t really say much. I did what I usually do and passively let her rant until she gets bored and drops it. Then I take the pent up frustration and spill it out here or to friends who have the same viewpoints as me. It’s not that I’m afraid she’ll hate me for it — in fact, I don’t think she would mind the debate at all and might even enjoy it — it’s that I know how she strongly she feels about the whole thing and I want to respect that. Besides, that’s what blogs are for. I can take it out here without running the real risk of hurting anyone’s feelings personally since it’s written for a general audience.

According to the White House Blog:

“Instead of driving us apart, our very beliefs can bring us together,” President Obama said yesterday at the National Prayer Breakfast.

E pluribus unum, in other words.

After the breakfast he announced an executive order establishing the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and talked about the role faith-based and secular community organizations will play in our economic recovery.

“People trust them. Communities rely on them. And we will help them,” he said.

The President named Joshua DuBois to lead the office, and also announced the creation of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships — a group of 25 religious and secular leaders, listed below.

“Whether it’s connecting groups that are training people to do new jobs, or figuring out the role of faith-based organizations in combating global climate change, this office creates those partnerships in a way that’s responsible, constitutional, and — bottom line — helps those in need,” DuBois said.

“An executive order establishing the new White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and talked about the role faith-based and secular community organizations will play in our economic recovery.” What is that?!?! Last time I checked the constitution, religion was supposed to be entirely separate from the government.

Obama said that “instead of driving us apart, our very beliefs can bring us together,” but the problem is that their beliefs and their insistance on religion does not bring us together. On the contrary, it drives us apart because those of us who do not subscribe to the old dogmas of fictitious supernatural beings controlling every aspect of the universe are suddenly given the cold shoulder by the American government. Quite the opposite to “bringing us together” I would say.

On another blog I read called Pharyngula, I read about an absolutely absurd thing that happened to Richard Mullens, a teacher in Texas. He was fired from his teaching job because he was suspected to be an atheist and too liberal.

Then on January 7th, a student in my classroom in second period left my class, went to the Principal’s office, and told him that there was an inappropriate discussion in my classroom. I was informed by the principal, Richard Turner, that I needed to talk to her mother because she was very upset. Her mother came to class on January 7th, came to the school January 7th, very upset. She made some threats to me in the hallway. And then on January 8th, Mr. Turner informed me that I needed to call the parent, Mrs. Lowe. On January 9th, I had Vicki Smith, the school secretary, call “REDACTED” on my behalf to arrange a conference at 10:35 Monday, January 12th. Monday the 12th, I met with REDACTED and School Principal Richard Turner in his office. REDACTED was very angry. She accused me of being an atheist, saying I was too liberal, and that I allowed the students to talk about inappropriate things in the classroom. I told her that occasionally students would get on topics and say things, but I was unable to censor them before they were able to say them. She said that I called her daughter a name and I denied the accusation. But then she said that I didn’t believe in god and shouldn’t be teaching. She also said that she had spoken to 3 other board members who agreed with her that I shouldn’t be teaching because I was too liberal and I was an atheist.

On January 15th, there was a board meeting. Nothing was on the agenda concerning me. During the open forum, several audience members spoke to their concerns that I was an atheist and I was too liberal. On January 16th, I was called to Mr. Richard Turner’s office (my principal), and he informed me that I had been put on administrative leave with pay. The reasons, as stated to me by Mr. Turner at the time, were that I was accused of being an atheist and teaching atheism in the classroom, and I was too liberal. On January 23rd, Mr. Turner and members of the board met behind closed doors concerning my suspension and allegations that were directed at me. On January 24th, I received a certified letter from Mr. Turner that stated that the causes for my suspension apparently had been changed to inappropriate contact with students and comments.

Pharyngula took the article from another blog, which can be found here.

This is extremely embarrassing for those of us who live in the US!

Atheism

For those of you who don’t speak German, let me do a bit of translating for you (from top to bottom, right to left):

• Deutschland – Germany
• Frankreich – France
• Italien – Italy
• Großbritannien – Great Britain
• USA – USA
• Mexiko – Mexico

• Ich glaube nicht an Gott. – I don’t believe in God.
• Ich weiß es nicht, ob es einen Gott gibt, und ich glaube nicht, dass man es herausfinden kann. – I don’t know if there’s a god and I don’t think that we can figure it out.
• Ich glaube an keinen personalen Gott, aber an eine höhere Macht. – I don’t believe in a personal god, but in a higher power.
• Manchmal glaube ich an Gott, manchmal nicht. – Sometimes I believe in god, sometimes not.
• Ich habe Zweifel, aber denke, dass ich an Gott glaube. – I have doubts, but I think there is a god.
• Ich weiß, das Gott wirklich existiert und habe keine Zweifel. – I know god exists and have no doubts.
• Nicht sicher – Not sure

If you looks carefully at the chart, you’ll see that 70% of the people surveyed in the US chose the “I know god exists and have no doubts” answer. That’s sick and makes me want to puke a little. We are only surpassed by Mexico at 80%. Only 2% of the people surveyed in the US choose “I don’t believe in God.”

A great comic:

Atheist Bashing

I found a very humorous blog entry about the Mormons continuing to posthumously baptize Jewish Holocaust victims into the Church of the Latter Day Saints. The author’s idea for revenge is quite cruel when looked upon from a Mormon’s point of view, but quite hilarious when looked upon from another point of view. The author proposes to convert dead Mormons into homosexuals. A quote from the blog entry:

Dear God of the Homos,

With your great and everlasting love that blessed the covenants of Achilles and Petroclus, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, and of Jonathon and David, bless then the soul of Joseph Smith of Sharon, Vermont with your divine penis. Let it pierce the anus of his soul, and let you be forever joined to him, since on this oppressive earth, he was denied the pleasure of the male sex.

Forever and ever, our brother Joseph Smith has now joined our family (We Sing the Hymn to Praise God of the Homos!).

Blessed be God of the Homos,

Amen

You can read more about it here.

I consistently follow the blog Pharyngula by PZ Myers. He is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Minnesota and he writes quite a bit about Atheism and religion. Today he was interviewed by a German website called the hpd about his blog, Atheism and its cultural acceptance in the USA. Here’s a section of it:

4. The United States were founded as a secular nation, yet it turned out to be the most religious of all western democracies. What, do you think, are the main causes of that development?

Europe tossed out its craziest and most extreme and most religious elements, and sent them abroad. From our founding, we’ve been built of disparate colonies that were often initially established to shelter religious oddballs.

We also have a constitution that guarantees protection of religious belief, broadly defined. It meant that this was an environment in which the wildest ideas could be expressed and sheltered by the government, so we’ve actually had the opportunity for a little natural selection of religious ideas, and the most extreme have done relatively well.

5. How worried are you about the future of secularism in the United States?

Very. I think we’re at a tipping point here; we could correct the slide into irrationality and become an Enlightenment state once again, or if the crazies succeed in demolishing our educational system, we could be on a one-way slide to third-world status in the next few generations.

You can find the full interview in English here.

Something was brought to my attention that I find quite hilarious actually. It is an interview with the author of “Atlas of Creation,” Harun Yahyaha. The interview itself is from Spiegel Online and is in German, but a paraphrased version is available in English. And I quote from the author of Pharyngula:

Adnan Oktar/Harun Yahya has been interviewed in Spiegel Online (that’s in German; you might want to read this short paraphrase in English). He says a number of, umm, interesting things.

- He dislikes Intelligent Design intensely, and sees it as a dishonest form of creationism.

- The Islamic terrorists aren’t actually Muslim—they are all foreign-educated Darwinist atheists. That includes Osama bin Laden.

- In the 2009 Darwin year, he plans to celebrate the collapse of Darwinism. I don’t think so.

- He claims that he can finance sending out free copies of the Atlas of Creation because he doesn’t accept royalties, so the publisher profits heavily. Uh, wait — how does the publisher profit off books that are given away?

As is commonly discovered, arch-creationists are very wacky people.

Some people are just crazy…

I’ve posted another post in my Manifestly Absurd blog. It’s about religion in general.

You can find it on either of the following blogs depending on your preference:

WordPress – http://manifestlyabsurd.wordpress.com
Blogger – http://manifestlyabsurd.blogspot.com