By god, this has to be a confused rationale for a poll

Some days, I feel like the whole issue of the mention of God on our currency is trivial and stupid, and I really don’t care anymore. And then I see an ‘argument’ like the one in this argument defending keeping “God” on our money, and I realize that…YES, I DO CARE. I care very much that people are so deeply infected with religion that they actually think this is a clever defense.

The word “God” is not comparable to an organization, a building, a philosophy or a religion. God, unlike an establishment of religion, is a concept to atheists and believers alike. The believer perceives God as the living creator of all. The atheist perceives God as an unfortunate fictional concept that causes war. Either way, this country was founded on respect for a higher power than man — an entity generically referred to as God in the English-speaking world. The laws of our land protect our right to revere or disavow God, but they do not protect us from hearing and seeing the term. Believer and non-believer alike make up one nation under God, because the first law of the land protects belief or disbelief in God, the right to talk about God, and the right to make God the highest authority in one’s life.

Because we’re a nation under God — with God as a concept we are free to love as truth or disavow as fiction — we have never been one nation under Washington, Lincoln, Reagan or Obama. We are a nation that elevates God — whatever God means — above any human authority because we are a nation that elevates an individual’s choices above the agendas of authorities.

Get that? Believers like God, atheists think god is an “unfortunate fictional concept”, but either way, we have respect for a higher power. And because we are free to disbelieve in God, it is symbolic of our freedom to honor God. His god. That Abrahamic tyrant.

If they’re all interchangeable and we just need to honor a generic concept, then why not have alternating mintings where “God” is interchanged with “Allah” and “Cthulhu” and “Satan” and “Mammon” and whatever? It shouldn’t bother this author. After all, he suggests we just use our imaginations to insert whatever meaning we want.

When annoyed by currency, atheists have the option of interpreting “in God we trust” as “in a fictional concept we trust” for the sake of limited government.

I don’t care what you think of the issue, but you should vote for reason and against sloppy supernaturalist lunacy.

Should “God” be stricken from U.S. currency and the Pledge of Allegiance?

Yes, lose the references to God
43%
No, keep God on currency and in the Pledge
53%
I don’t know
0%
I don’t care
4%

If it helps, you can try interpreting “Should ‘God’ be stricken from U.S. currency and the Pledge of Allegiance?” as “Should gibbering lunatics like Wayne Laugesen be stricken from the editorial pages of the Colorado Springs Gazette?” For the sake of liberty, freedom, and justice for all. Amen.

The Canberra Cabal

Everyone knows already why I was off in Melbourne this past week — it was the Global Atheist Conference — but why did I hare off to Canberra for the weekend? It was another conspiracy.

Many years ago, the locus of all things evolutionist on the interwebs was found on Usenet, in a group called talk.origins, where a motley mob of ruthless science proponents regularly mocked and crushed creationists and honed their skills at rhetorical combat. I came out of that particular culture (and, by the way, the commenting rules here, with a policy of limited interference with the substance of people’s comments, grew straight out of talk.origins). Talk.Origins still exists as a discussion group, and evolved into a very useful web site, as well, and many of the regulars who haunted Usenet have since branched out into blogs, suchs as The Panda’s Thumb.

Oddly enough, quite a few of the illustrious and honored masters of talk.origins are Australian. So, as long as I was there in Australia, we had to meet up and share our plans for world domination. It was kind of like a meeting of the Illuminati, only we’re mostly poor academics and civil servants, and our only magic power is our obsession with flooding the internet. Here’s one photo of the group:

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They are, from left to right in the back: Cartman (respect our authoritah),
John Wilkins (master of sowing confusion with philosophy),
Chris Ho-Stuart (the milquetoast atheist),
Jim Foley (most definitely a hominid),
PZ Myers (biggest mouth), and
Chris Nedin (biggest Dick (seriously, he showed us the award) (and photos of the real thing) (it’s over a meter long!)). In front is Ian Musgrave (best beard). You should be reading their blogs! Especially if our plans for world domination come to fruition, since you will want a leg up in flattering your masters.

Also, while I was in Canberra, I spoke at a Skeptics in the Pub meeting, which was held in a very classy pub, King O’Malley’s. It was rather interesting in that more people showed up than was convenient (several hundred), and they were sort of draped into all kinds of nooks and crannies. It was also one of those talks where I gave a short introduction (literally, I read the intro to the book I’m working on), and then didn’t get to the rest because we just ended up doing a long Q&A for the rest of our time.

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I am not in that picture. I’m somewhere way off screen, hiding from the mob, I think.

Mary’s Monday Metazoan: Next time…

I’m home at last, after about 48 hours of airports and airplanes and long drives. I haven’t slept at all except for these peculiar intermittent blackouts, I’m flat-out exhausted, I’ve got this +5 Flaming Rod of Lancing Agony in place of a spine, and the Trophy Wife™ (who is at work, so I haven’t even seen her yet) sends me an email with this picture, suggesting that it hints where I ought to go next.

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I guess she didn’t mind my absence that much.

But you should be!

Answers in Genesis has begun a goofy little campaign called I AM NOT ASHAMED — they’re apparently collecting videos of people declaring their shameless adoration of Jesus. Ho hum. All I can say is that they should be deeply embarrassed to endorse something so absurd.

They use a little unfortunate language, though.

WE WANTED A MESSAGE THAT WOULD OFFER A CLEAR CALL TO CHRISTIANS AROUND THE WORLD TO STAND UNASHAMEDLY AND UNCOMPROMISINGLY ON THE BIBLE.

Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes is willing to oblige. You too can send in photos of yourself standing unashamedly on a Bible — you don’t even have to wipe your feet.

Episode XLI: Aloft and offline and still babbling

Oh, save me. I’m trying to escape Australia, but apparently a nation of convicts knows how to keep a fella locked up. I’m sitting in an airport in Melbourne, waiting and waiting and waiting for my flight, so that I can sit trapped in a can for hours and hours, with the prospect of a 6 hour layover in the most wretched airport in America, LAX.

I may not emerge from this sane.

Anyway, here’s a terrifying video of me, speaking to a bunch of students at the Freethought University Alliance earlier this week. It may be my last words, since after this trip I may just be reduced to speaking in tongues from the safety of my straitjacket.


Parts 2 3 4 5

Now continue as you were, talk as if I weren’t there.

Oh, right. I’m not.