This is long overdue, but this week’s Cool Atheist of the Week is awarded posthumously to George Carlin, who veiled his insight into humanity under the guise of being a comedian — as in Shakespeare’s plays, the Fool is the one freest to speak to the King without fear of retribution.
You know who I pray to? Joe Pesci. Two reasons: First of all, I think he’s a good actor, okay? To me, that counts. Second, he looks like a guy who can get things done. Joe Pesci doesn’t fuck around. In fact, Joe Pesci came through on a couple of things that God was having trouble with.
For years I asked God to do something about my noisy neighbor with the barking dog, Joe Pesci straightened that cocksucker out with one visit. It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a simple baseball bat.
So I’ve been praying to Joe for about a year now. And I noticed something. I noticed that all the prayers I used to offer to God, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same 50% rate. Half the time I get what I want, half the time I don’t. Same as God, 50-50. Same as the four-leaf clover and the horseshoe, the wishing well and the rabbit’s foot, same as the Mojo Man, same as the Voodoo Lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat’s testicles, it’s all the same: 50-50. So just pick your superstition, sit back, make a wish, and enjoy yourself.
While we’re talking about Carlin, he made an appearance on Mad TV shortly prior to his death — and I only found out about it recently, via biblioblography.
In the blogosphere, the 102nd Fighting Bloggers and the Third Column Evangelists are gearing up for the annual, traditional and protracted War On Christmas. Greg Laden reposts an older salvo in the war to get us motivated for the fight.
There are so many mythological and real historical figures whose mythologies include elements that the Christians ripped off in building their Übermensch Messiah mythologies that sometimes it’s easy to lose track. However, never fear! Listverse put together a convenient top-ten list of the most-similar mythologies. And by similar, I mean:
_____ was born on December 25 of the Virgin ____. He was considered the savior who was slain for the salvation of mankind. His body as bread was eaten by his worshippers. He was both the Divine Son and the Father. On “Black Friday,” he was crucified on a tree, from which his holy blood ran down to redeem the earth. He descended into the underworld. After three days, _____ was resurrected.
Five letters in the first blank, four letters in the second. Any guesses? Check the link to find out!
The Avangelism Project has a series on finding an argument that will most likely affect Christians, considering their internalization of their dogmas. Here’s their excellent discussion of SPAG: self-projection as God.
The recent Bergman-Myers “debate” on intelligent design was covered recently by PZ as participant and Greg Laden as audience member. Wish I’d been there to amplify the jeering at the last-second violation of Godwin’s Law after Myers could rebut.
August Berkshire put together another interesting bit of debating-prep material, on the 15 most common excuses used in the “problem of evil” line of argumentation. Well worth a read.
Over at New Humanist magazine, Halil Arda wrote an expose on Adnan Oktar, better known as Harun Yahya — the Muslim creationist responsible for The Atlas of Creation.
An Australian senator has stated outright, for probably the first time ever by anyone that wasn’t immediately sued into the ground for defamation, that Scientology is a ‘criminal organization’. I happen to agree with this assessment. This agreement will probably lead to some form of threat or another — which is criminal. It’s pretty well a self-fulfilling prophecy!
The atheist bus campaign in the UK has escalated their campaign by producing an ad asking that people not label their children as being of a particular religion, given that doing so is about as ridiculous as calling their children atheists, or Democrats, or anarchists. Coincidentally, the photos of the children used in the ads were obtained from iStockPhoto.com, and it turns out their parents are “committed Christians” who describe their children that way as well, completely missing the point of the campaign.
The campaigns are obviously attracting attention, as some of the US billboards are being moved after threats are made. Evidently us godless have rubbed some nerves raw merely by reaching out to our fellow heathens.
Personal deconversion stories are always great, but there’s a tinge of horror that goes along with the fascination in this story about Jehovah’s Witness beliefs.
And finally for this week, theists have been proving how loving they are by engaging in a campaign to pray the Imprecatory Prayer for President Obama — asking God to make sure he dies quickly, his wife become a widow, and his children beg on the streets. Boy, if that’s love, I’m so glad we atheists are apparently incapable of it (according, anyway, to our favorite troll).
Have another excellent week, and don’t forget to be good to one another, for goodness’ sake!
