My grades are all in, and I can consider the semester done, done, done. Then what do I discover in my mailbox, to the envy of the staff there, but this lovely sight:
All I know is that the return address is to Jesus in California. Could it be…? Nah.
Praise Jesus, anyway!
Someone named Carlos murdered Wanda Lopez in Texas. Carlos Hernandez. Someone named Carlos was arrested near the scene of the crime. Carlos DeLuna. Good enough! So after a hasty trial with a cheap and incompetent defense lawyer, Texas executed Carlos DeLuna.
Hernandez had a mustache and was wearing a grey flannel shirt, DeLuna was clean-shaven and wearing a white dress shirt. Hernandez was later arrested for another murder, and confessed to killing Wanda Lopez.
Didn’t matter. Texas had a Carlos.
There can’t be that many Hispanic men named Carlos, right? Just round ’em all up.
Once we’ve cleaned them out, we can start on the Juans.
Man, it’s like Texas took all the flaws of America and blew them up to ten times the size of anyplace else, and is proud of them.
When I really look back and think about where I started becoming an Atheist, it’s a bit funny. I never was raised explicitly Christian- I did go to a Methodist preschool, but I didn’t retain a thing save for the fact that there was apparently a God and Jesus, which I never questioned- it was just a thing that was true and mentioned very rarely, as we never went to Church after I finished preschool. Nevertheless, I certainly was Christian, if only because I didn’t know there was a choice.
Anyone from Iceland reading the blog?
Congratulations to Life Before the Dinosaurs for reaching the one year mark. He’s aged before my eyes — now he’s 8.
He has good taste, too. He lists his favorite fossils, and puts Anomalocaris in first place.
I’m spoiled. I’ve been playing on easy mode all my life, but now I’d like my superpowers. It’s not going to require joining the Republican party, is it?
Why do cult leaders and religious fanatics try to insult atheists by comparing atheism to a cult and atheists to religious fanatics?
Zealous atheists resemble religious fanatics.
Rabbi Dow Marmur
#Atheism is a cult with a small following.
Deepak Chopra
I really don’t get it. It’s as if I were to sneer at creationists by calling them scientists, or clobbered seminaries by referring to them as research institutions (those are things I would not do, by the way).
Rabbi, you’re a guy who has dedicated his life to learning arcane and largely irrelevant nonsense from holy books. You go through weekly (probably daily) religious rituals, you believe in improbable foolishness, you wear special garments — you’re a religious fanatic. My profession is educator: I spend every day putting together information and evaluating the work of my students. I dress as I will. I have no rituals, other than the deadlines dictated by the academic calendar. That I reject your brand of theology (and all brands of theology!) does not make me religious, nor does it make me a fanatic.
Chopra, you’re a guy who peddles feel-good woo to the gullible. You’ve got bizarre, unsubstantiated beliefs about a conscious universe that aspires to fulfill the desires of individual humans; you rake in big speaker’s fees and sell empty fluff in books to the fools who follow you. You’re a cult leader. Atheism tells people to think for themselves and learn about reality; we have a few people who rise to prominence in the movement by their words and actions, but they aren’t exactly leaders — they get barraged constantly with criticism by their fellow atheists.
So I’m a bit lost at what point those two loons are trying to make. Their comments don’t seem to fit atheists or atheism at all, but do apply with a vengeance to themselves.
Aaargh, grades are due tonight! And I’m about to sink into hours and hours worth of administrative meetings! And then I looked at my flight schedules, and realized…I’m flying away on Friday to begin a nonstop round of travel and talks to Canada, Germany, and Iceland, and won’t be back home until 4 June!
MADNESS!
RAVING FIERY MADNESS!!
OK, taking deep breaths. Focusing. Engaging discipline. Must finish grading. Must complete paperwork.
Don’t bother me for a while, gang. Warning to trolls: cyberpistol set to disintegrate.
Divorce is a good thing: when a couple can no longer find happiness with each other, there’s no point in clinging to a damaging relationship. Move on. Especially when one of the partners in the relationship is a deranged fabulist with a long history of abusiveness, separation is the only reasonable choice.
So I’m happy to see that the secular Norwegian government has moved to sever its long historical ties to that psycho, Lutheranism.
All parties stand united when the Norwegian constitution is changed, so that the state will no longer be a part of the Norwegian church. The amendment is to be presented Tuesday.
The amendment which will be passed later in May, historically changes the state’s relationship with the church. Parliament will no longer appoint deans and bishops, and Norway will no longer have one offical state religion.
I was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, but not into a Mormon family. My parents could both be best described as agnostic. I was encouraged to attend the Mormon church by my many friends as I grew up, but I usually refused because the services were so deadly dull. However, this did leave me vaguely believing in the idea of god and heaven.
At the age of 10, I was playing dangerously in my backyard and my father yelled out the back door at me to stop it. I remember the conversation very clearly because it was the start of my atheism. He asked me, “What if you fall off that thing and die?”
