Wolf in Wolf's Clothing

Do atheists hate Christians? Ray Comfort would have you think so. Ray Comfort, like most Christian "enthusiasts" like to paint a picture of atheists that:

* We hate God.
* We only say that we don't believe in God so that we can do evil things.
* We are narrow-minded and dogmatic to doctrines (whatever those are).
* We hate Christians.
* We think Christians are evil.
* We claim to know that no god exists.
* We do nothing charitable and are wholly ungood.

I'd say those are probably the top items. Ray claims Christians are like sheep, and he searched for "sheep attacks man" and found no instances (of which I am skeptical). But tell me Ray, did you search for any of the following?

* Sheep run for political offices and use ceaseless rhetoric about freedom requiring faith?
* Sheep protest removing "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance which links patriotism with faith?
* Sheep pass faith-based legislation which erodes the First Amendment?
* Sheep endlessly pursue legislation to ban sodomy and gay marriage?
* Sheep promote an anti-science agenda?
* Sheep discriminate against atheists in the workplace?
* Sheep discriminate against atheist students in the classroom?
* Sheep pursue political office to push their religion on to others?
* Sheep denigrate the great atheist veterans of America by using the hideous slogan "no atheists in foxholes"?
* Sheep erect religious monuments in courthouses?
* Sheep shun and castigate atheist members in the military?
* Sheep link atheism to pedophilia, molestation, rape, drug addiction, and murder in speeches?

No? Well, it seems it isn't a true comparison after all. Besides blindly following the herder, I fail to see any similarity.

But do atheists hate Christians? Well, atheism is not an organization, has no doctrines, and has no philosophy. Atheism is simply responding to the question "Do you believe in a god or gods?" with anything other than yes. As such, I couldn't speak for all atheists, but I can speak for myself and also say that every atheist I've ever met likely shares the same feelings.

Unlike Christians who claim to hate the sin and love the sinner, I really do hate Christianity and love the Christian (depending on the Christian -- no Pat Robertsons for me). Take homosexuality, look at the hullabaloo they raise over that. "Good" Christians take every chance they get to link homosexuality to pedophilia, murder, rape, and beastiality. "Good" Christians beat, bash, and lynch homosexuals. "Good" Christians denigrate the love homosexual couples have for one another by calling it immoral, sinful, and an abomination. That seems much more like hating the sin and hating the sinner more.

I don't think Christians are evil, unlike Ray thinking atheists are evil. I generally like Christians and find them generally to be wonderful people. I generally like jews and find them generally to be wonderful people. I generally like atheists and find them generally to be wonderful people.

I hate the product of Christianity. Ray says that "some" Christians are "even" politicians! The vast majority of politicians are Christians. And you know what? I don't have a problem with that in the slightest -- well, besides that I would like to see a bit more diversity among politicians. Some of my favorite politicians have been Christians. Do you know what I hate though? I hate when Christians like Rick Perry link atheists to pedophiles, molesters, and rapists in speeches. I hate when Christians like George Bush promote egregious faith-based programs. I hate when Christians continually infringe on the rights of others, most recently of homosexuals. I hate when Christians erect monuments to Christianity in our courthouses, on our money, and in our Pledge.

And I also hate when Christians like Ray promote an anti-science agenda. His blog is filled with anti-science propaganda. Ray and Ben Stein's crowd of Christians would have you think that "science leads you to killing people." Science is absolutely vital to our survival and well-being. And yet, we've all but lost the edge to other countries. Science liberates the mind and betters all mankind, such as eliminating smallpox and almost eliminating polio and measles. And yet, Ray, you viciously attack it and show a blatant ignorance of it in your blog and in your videos and in your books. It is vile.

If that's what a "genuine Christian" is, that are far from harmless and have an evil agenda indeed. I do hate that type of Christian, but on general I am really quite fond of Christians, as I am humans in general. I am out of town to attend my best friend's wedding. She is a devout Christian, attends church twice a week, never swears, has nothing but kind words for others, strives for excellence in all her endeavors, and tries to adhere to the principles of her religion, at least those which promote love and peace. So, if Ray is the standard, she is most definitely not a genuine Christian.

But then again, that assessment is coming from an evil, pedophile, murdering atheist. According to Psalms 14:1, I do no good, and Ray takes every occasion to remind me.

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232 Years Ago...

we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Today is my favorite holiday. When I was a child, it was because I got to play all day with firecrackers, and then watch the light show at the end of the night. Nowadays I appreciate it for what it is. It is sad that Independence Day has gone the way of Christmas Day. With the former we are supposed to be celebrating the birth of this nation while the latter Christians are supposed to be celebrating the birth of their religion. Just as with Christmas, Independence Day is nothing but another commercial holiday.

I choose to remember this day as it is when perhaps the greatest document in history was written. The Declaration of Independence contains more moral statements and wisdom than the whole sum of the Christian Bible. In its original form, it even included a moral indictment against the Christian King for his role in the slave trade:

He has waged cruel War against human Nature itself, violating its most sacred Rights of Life and Liberty in the Persons of a distant People who never offended him, captivating and carrying them into Slavery in another Hemisphere, or to incur miserable Death, in their Transportation thither. This piratical Warfare, the opprobrium of infidel Powers, is the Warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain.

He has prostituted his Negative for Suppressing every legislative Attempt to prohibit or to restrain an execrable Commerce, determined to keep open a Markett where Men should be bought and sold, and that this assemblage of Horrors might want no Fact of distinguished Die

On this day, 182 years ago, the greatest American to have ever lived, Thomas Jefferson, also died. Jefferson has profoundly shaped the person who I am today. When I was in junior high, I attended a school named after the great man. As a member of the school's equivalence of a student government, I was first exposed to him by going through pages of his quotes to cut out and hang around the school. I can still, to this day, recite the first thing I had ever read by Thomas Jefferson:

In matters of fashion, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.

I was quite fascinated with this man, but I was of the age twelve and not quite committed to such serious studies. It wasn't until the next year when I was chosen to write an article for the school's newspaper entitled Thomas Jefferson: To Whom We Dedicate Our Honor that I really started reading what he was about. The vast achievements of Jefferson astounded me, and the eloquence of his pen was profound.

No man has greater shaped this country than Jefferson. I have half a shelf of books on Jefferson in my office. I enjoy reading collections of his letters every now and then to take a break. I had purchased another biography on the great man to read this Fourth; however, I failed to remember to bring it with me on my trip.

I rarely take offense to things people say, but when I hear people incorrectly speak of him having sex with slaves, or incorrectly speak of his views on slavery, or incorrectly speak of his views on the equality of humans, it does cause me discomfort. Not only because of the widely believed misconceptions, but because they are widely taught as well. When I was in high school, I had at least two teachers I distinctly remember having taught that when Jefferson wrote "all men are created equal" that he meant only white, property only men. This is to pervert his writings and to expose sheer ignorance and lack of education on the founding of this country and the Founding Fathers. It is likely a statement to also come from those people who insist the Founders were Christian.

So, take some time today and familiarize yourself with some of the writings of this man. He has written on just about every subject. I find his personal letters most fascinating. Of special interest is his First Inaugural Address, if you have never read it. He also published a brief autobiography which is worth reading. Or, if you are in the mood for something religious, check out the Jefferson Bible.

But most of all, join me in my annual tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence and marvel at this document and remember what America was really founded on: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Today's Theist Memory Verse, VIII

The Setup

A bit of a long one today. The host, who has a virgin daughter, has taken in a Levite and his concubine.

The Passage
I've emboldened key parts of the passage if you wish not to read it all.

Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, [...] Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place. And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. (Judges 19:22-29)

The "Moral" of the Passage

Yet another passage of misogyny and homophobia. The story is very reminiscent of the incestuous tale of Lot from Genesis. The passage is vile. Rather than suffer his male guest to be raped (or in some translations "met"), he offers of the guest's concubine and his own virgin daughter! How wicked of a passage is this.

The mob of perverts, at least, refuse the host's daughter and instead take the concubine and gang rape her and abuse her all night. Her fate? To die at the door of the host's house. Then, in a bizarre twist on the story, the guest dismembers the concubine and sends her to the coasts of Israel.

The legacy of this passage, and also the passage of Lot, is disturbing. Are you familiar with those institutions which try to rehabilitate homosexuals? This is a passage they use. The homosexual mob were offered women to have sex with and they took a woman and had sex with her all night.

This passage also continues the theme from the past few memory verses of the value of women. The daughter is nothing more than property to the man, so why would he not think to offer his daughter to be gang raped so that they would not take his guest?

Don't Quote Psalms 14:1

If there is one theist argument or statement that you never had to hear again, what would it be? What is something that is just so shockingly idiotic, ignorant, or asinine that it causes you physical pain; something so wrong and logically flawed that it makes you wonder if they are all parroting from the same source. What would it be? Pascal's Wager? Morals from religion? Arguments from design? Arguments from authority? Atheists claim to know there is no God? Which would you eliminate from the laundry list of statements which induce a head throbbing pain?

I would eliminate Psalms 14:1. If you could find an atheist in America who has never read even a single verse of the Bible, I bet they could recite Psalms 14:1, word-for-word. It is a favorite of Ray's which he brings up at least once a week, as he did in his latest post. It goes something like this:

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

What is going through the minds of people like Ray who quote this at atheists? What conversation do they imagine in their heads?

Atheist: I don't believe there is a God or the Bible being true.
Theist: The Bible says in Psalms 14:1: "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."
Atheist: What? Really? The Bible says that? It must be true, then. Well, I don't want to be a fool, so I'd better believe the Bible is true and that the Christian God exists.

The inanity is breathtaking.

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About.com Atheism/Agnosticism (my choice falls under #4)

A Bloody Mess

The ignorance of his latest entry is astoundingly discomforting. The comment concluded that Ray was like a boyfriend who beats you and then buys you a necklace the next day. Nay, it's more like the boyfriend who beats you and tells you that you deserve it and it's for your own good as he does it.

What's remarkable about this post is he likens himself to a doctor in an insane asylum and atheists are the patients with delusions and psychological problems. Seriously? I mean, really, seriously? How many people in an insane asylum are there because they believe that there are evil squirrels out to kill them? I couldn't quote statistics, but it is likely more than the number of people in an insane asylum because they don't believe that there are evil squirrels out to get them. Or how about the number of people there because they believe aliens are manipulating the weather patterns and one day will take over Earth? Again, I don't have the hard numbers in front of me, but roughly more than the number of people there because they don't believe.

And yet, Ray, by your own admission, you believe that a magic man is manipulating weather patterns and will one day take over Earth. And I should be there because I don't believe that? The role of the doctor at such a hospital is to serve a dose of rationality and get them to see that they are delusional and anything they point to is simply coincidental, confirmation bias, irrelevant, or better explained by something else. The doctors are the only people in the insane asylum who don't believe such fantastic claims of the supernatural, delusional, and magical variety. Like so many other things, Ray, you get the definitions all wrong. The person claiming that aliens, the government, witches, warlocks, or magic are manipulating the weather patterns aren't called the doctors; they're called the patients.

He concludes the entry by pulling out his classic gem of ignorance:

Any thinking person who denies God’s existence will admit that he doesn’t know for certain that there is no God, because someone in the universe (in the evidence he hasn’t yet come across) there may be ample evidence to prove that He does exist. He is therefore forced to say "With the limited knowledge I have at present, I have come to the conclusion that there is no God, but I really don’t know." So he cannot truthfully say "There is no God." He’s not an atheist. He’s actually an agnostic--someone who doesn’t know if God exists.

It's not that hard, Ray. Allow me to be the twenty millionth or so atheist who has tried to get these simple, basic definitions and distinctions through your skull:

Theist (n): one who believes in a god or gods.
Atheist (n): one who lacks the belief/doesn't believe in a god or gods.

Gnostic (n): one who claims to know that that which they claim to believe is true/knowable/provable.
Agnostic (n): one who doesn't claim to know that that which they claim to believe is true/knowable/provable.

If you'd like some extra credit, Ray, Iron Chariots has a nice, brief article clarifying the two terms.

Atheism and agnosticism are not mutually exclusive as they have basically nothing to do with one another. One addresses one thing while the other addresses another thing entirely. Agnosticism is not unsure atheism. Everyone, theists and atheists, should be agnostics. You can combine these terms into four labels:

Gnostic Theist
Agnostic Theist
Gnostic Atheist
Agnostic Atheist

Ray likes to define atheism as "knowing there is no God" so that he can build up a straw man to beat down with his whole "only God is omniscient" shtick.

Belief and knowledge are two different things -- epistemology 101. Let me consult my handy dictionary for you Ray, something you should really invest in:

belief (n):
1. something believed; an opinion or conviction: a belief that the earth is flat.
2. confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof: a statement unworthy of belief.

knowledge (n):
a (1): the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association (2): acquaintance with or understanding of a science, art, or technique b (1): the fact or condition of being aware of something (2): the range of one's information or understanding knowledge c: the circumstance or condition of apprehending truth or fact through reasoning : cognition d: the fact or condition of having information or of being learned

And let me submit something to you, Ray. You do not know the Christian God. You believe he reveals himself to you, speaks to you, answer your prayers, etc. But you can't know that it is really the Christian God doing the revealing, speaking, and answering, though. How could you? Because he tells you that he is Jesus/God? You can't verify it. While Jesus/God would tell you that it is him who is revealing, speaking, and answering to you, it would also be the sort of thing a prankster alien, a prankster spirit, or a demon would say to you as well. And since you have no way of verifying or "knowing absolutely" (as you would put it), you can't possibly know. Therefore, Ray, you are not a theist; not a believer. You are "actually an agnostic--someone who doesn’t know" if your Christian God exists.


Your analogies are as ridiculous as your logic is faulty.

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About.com's Atheism / Agnosticism (over atheism vs agonosticism)
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