Month: December 2008

Wrath Via “Natural” Disasters

1055_01I know that Chick Tracts aren’t exactly a sterling representation of Christianity, but every once in a while I find one that I could never see anyone believing. I know, “Christians believing in weird stuff and taking crudely-presented information at face value.” Not a realistic concept.

And Chick Tracts? Who can’t take seriously little cartoon booklets left in public restrooms for innocent (yet doomed to Hell) passers-by. Chick even redrew one of their famous anti-Islam cartoons to better suit black audiences. They aren’t just trying to save souls with their crude and predictable story lines, they are targeting specific market segments. Even the most popular tract, This Was Your Life, has been redrawn to include black angels and a black god.

The tract I want to focus on here is one that attempts to equate natural disasters caused by God’s wrath. What incurred God’s wrath, you say? Why America turning its back on Israel is what!

J. T. Chick reminds us that the Jewish people are untouchable and any nation that turns their back on them is doomed to fall apart. Blah blah blah.

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Note the shifty Arab in the last cartoon telling who I can only assume is George W. Bush that Israel has too much land. Imagine that — religious people trying to tangle themselves with politics.

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There are more than 750 tornadoes and more than 1oo tornado-related fatalities every year. There have been more than 270 hurricanes that have struck th United States since 1851 that have caused countless fatalities and countless millions of dollars in property damage.

Are we to believe that each and every occurence of bad weather in the world is a direct result of God’s intervention? More specifically, are we to believe that each hurricane and tornado is a punishment for poor relations with the nation of Israel?

I smell bullshit.

Social Bookmarking for Atheist Websites

logo_atheist_spotFor those who may not be familiar with The Atheist Spot, it is a social bookmarking site, a la Digg and Reddit, exclusively for stories that we are likely to enjoy.

The site, whose tagline reads “In our minds we trust”, allows users to submit links that are voted up and down the news hierarchy. There are a variety of subcategories including Interviews, Video & Audio, Science & Technology, Events, and Books within which users can better classify their submissions.

There are three ways in which users can submit links to the site: through the “Add News” link on the website, through a javascript bookmarklet that can be accessed in your browser’s toolbar, and through embeddable image widgets that can be added to blog posts or new stories on your own site. I have the Sociable WordPress plugin installed on my site which uses PHP awesomeness to create dynamic submission links for each new blog post. Try it out below your favorite story on here to add it to The Atheist Spot for other users to enjoy.

Whether or not your submit links to the site, there is a wealth of great links on the site for all atheists, agnostics, and freethinkers.

Edit: I no longer use Sociable. I use SocioFluid which does not as easily allow for one to code in a custom bookmarking site. AtheistSpot is still pretty rad though, and you should totally use it.

Poll Results: Winter Celebration

pollresultsI ran this poll for just a little over a month, and after 111 responses, I decided that it was time to report on the results. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to cast their vote in this poll.

I asked, “What do you celebrate this time of year?” The results of the poll are as follows in descending order:

  • Christmas (secularly) – 68 votes
  • Nothing – 18 votes
  • Winter Solstice – 13 votes
  • Christmas (religiously) – 8 votes
  • Festivus – 3 votes
  • Hannukah – 1 vote
  • Kwanzaa – 0 votes

I can’t say this particularly surprised me. All of the atheists that I know personally celebrate Christmas for what it is, a secular holiday centered around family-togetherness and gift exchange. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that in my mind. When you start mixing in a fat man in a red suit and the birth of a magical being, then it starts to cross the boundary into insanity.

I was glad to see that celebrations of some kind were the majority, because with all of the religious tripe in everyday that cannot be utilized for the enjoyment of all, it is nice to have a holiday that has become so secularized as to allow involvement from all. Sure, every year the religious crazies try to claim Christmas as their own and reintroduce the term “War on Christmas” into the vernacular. However, see that for what it is: a failed attempt to apply religious meaning to a holiday that began without religious meaning.

So when I go to work today, I will continue to say “Merry Christmas” to everyone I see, and watch people squirm as they ponder whether or not it is politically correct or not.

Follow this site on Twitter

If you are on Twitter, you can now follow the site. Simply click the image directly below the RSS icon to the right.

You can also be my friend on Facebook.

If all of these things like “Twitter”, “MySpace”, and “Facebook” are foreign to you, I’d love to say, “Get out more!”, but I suppose I should say, “Stay inside on your computer more!”

Once you have added me on the social network of your choice, as always, I would appreciate a quick shoutout to your friends/followers letting them know of a place where they can read up on atheist/agnostic/non-religious happenings.

If you’re in the Bible Belt like me, you can’t have too many allies.