Civilisation vs religion

We're in an odd place in our evolutionary journey.

We're almost civilised.

In only 40,000 years, we've gone from the first known cave art in Altamira, Spain to the moon.

That is a testament to our creative and practical genius.

We are on the verge of many scientific breakthroughs that could end hunger, make us live many times longer, inhabit Mars, and actually understand the universe's origins and how it all works.

But... (there's always a but with us humans,) we are not all on the same evolutionary timeline when it comes to science and reason.
Some of us continue to believe in gods and, in the name of their gods, would have us all believers.
They would have us regress our social timeline to 1400 to 2000 years ago.
They would have us give up our lofty scientific pursuits because they contradict their religious texts.
They would have us put half of our population, (women), into near slavery.

Enough.

If you are a feminist, a humanist, a gay rights activist, anti-prejudice, or pro free speech, the time for you to act is now.
Religious groups are defying all international laws, all national laws, and they have decided that their gods are more important than human rights and the lives of millions.
Their goal is nothing short of ending civilisation and returning us to the dark ages of superstition and religious tyranny.
They seek a global theocracy.

This is not just a difference in beliefs to be politely debated.
If you don't believe as they do, they want to cut off your head.

To some, beheading the non Islamic is the moral thing to do because the Quran says so.
When an entire culture is indoctrinated into a violent religion, the violence is seen as morality.
It is primitivism and barbarism on a cultural and religious scale.

To others, burning black churches and calling for the death of gays and lesbians seems moral because the Bible says so.

The Bible and Quran are hate inspiring books, yet are touted as the beginnings of modern morality, as if there was no human morality prior to their writing.

We're in an odd place in our evolutionary journey.

We're almost civilised.

Religion is the number one thing keeping us from becoming civilised.

Why do atheists defy religion?

To be alive and aware is a rare and precious thing.
Being human is knowing that you are part of an unimaginably vast universe of 100,000,000,000 galaxies of 100,000,000,000 stars, yet also knowing that stubbing your toe makes it all seem unimportant for a minute or two.

A religious man and an atheist each stub their toe.
The atheist cries, "Ow! That hurts!"
The religious man cries, Ow! That hurts! God... stop the pain!"
Both toes hurt for about a minute.
The atheist says, "Whew! That hurt!"
The religious man says, "Thank you God!"

When reading the above, an atheist will think, "The religious man believed God stopped his pain but it would have stopped anyways."
The religious man will think, "The atheist doesn't understand that God stopped his pain."

Who is right?

If we use scientific evidence as a means of proving who is right, then the atheist will be right.
If we use pure faith as a means of proving who is right, the religious man is right.

Scientific evidence vs faith.

The atheist argues evidence.
The religious man argues faith.

The arguing is futile.
Nothing is changed

The problem begins when the religious man insists on telling the atheist that he must believe in God. He insists in varying degrees, from concern to the atheist's well being to physical violence for being an atheist.

You cannot force belief.

This is why atheists defy religions. Because if we don't, religions will again attain a position of power over us. And that has historically been a very bad thing.

We live in a time where many humans have free speech and the right to say, "No," to religious oppression.
Religions call this an attack on freedom of religion but it is, in fact, merely the right of freedom from religion... a right religions do not believe in and will use violence to prevent.

I am an atheist. I defy religions.
I defy them for my rights to free speech, for the rights of children to grow up without being terrified into believing in gods, for the rights of women to be equal in society, for the rights of all people to be free of oppression.
I defy all gods because all gods are inventions of man.

Do you hear me religion? Do you understand that I will never believe? That I will never convert? That I will never hear the word?
Speaking of the word... I want to have a word with you. It's a simple word but you will not hear it. You will not believe I am sincere in stating it. You will not believe my solemn word because you are so full of your God you cannot understand that others do not believe.

It is an unchangable word.
The word is... No.

I refuse you the world. You cannot have it. The world is for the future and the future belongs to reason.

No.

We"ll have a gay old time!

Most Christians in North America are not suffering, but you'd never know it to hear them whine.
They claim persecution loudest when their ability to persecute is removed by law.

Listen, ya prehistoric crybabies... atheists are currently persecuted far more than Christians... by Christians!
And the level of atheist persecution by Christians is at an historic low!
Atheist are happy to be persecuted so little, when there were times when we were mercillessly hunted, tortured, and killed for our logic and  reason.
If you want to see persecution, look at the way you treat black people!
THAT'S persecution!

So, you lost the ability to discriminate against gays in one more way? Well, tough titties! It only gets worse for you from now on!

I read posts where Christians are praying for another 911 to cleanse the USA of gays.
I have only one thing to say about you religiously ignorant hypocrites... you are not followers of Jesus Christ.

Oh... and all those homophobes claiming they're moving to Canada to get out of a country where gay marriage is legal... gay marriage has been legal here in Canada for 10 years. And we don't want to live with racist homophobes anyway.
Maybe you should just go live in a cave?

Who will feed the hungry minds?

You are not going to teach atheism to the masses using words and ideas they do not understand.
You're not going to teach anybody anything unless they want to learn.
People want to learn because they are filled with wonder.
Lives are shaped by those who satisfy the wonder.
Science and religion are in a struggle to feed the hungry minds of billions.

I'm a reasonably smart man and English has always come easily to me. I enjoy writing and reading has been a passion since I picked up Jack London's White Fang as a young boy.
Though uneducated in science, I have taught myself some of it. I'm fascinated enough by nature to learn and I can do so because of my fluency in English.

There are billions of people who cannot or will not learn science. Some are refused the right. Some are unable due to lower intelligence. Some refuse science as it clashes with their religious beliefs. Most just never had the chance.

If atheism is to reach these people as an idea they might embrace, we must learn to write and speak to be understood by them.
I'm not advocating talking down to people. I'm advocating the education of people who have never learned how to learn.

The greatest weapon in the struggle for freedom from religion is education. There is infinitely more wonder in the universe than in any holy book.

If we are to awaken the sense of wonder in those people who may have never known it, we must be able to communicate with them.

And as much as I love that scientists are now speaking out for education and reason, it must be admitted that their language is often so heavily influenced by their professions and higher education that they are nearly unintelligible to a far too many people without formal educations.

Christopher Hitchens was a great public speaker but his words were not for the uneducated. He often used words I had to look up to glean their meanings or to see how they were used in a particular context.
And I do well with English.

Are his words to be only for those happily educated people of the world? Or should we have books to explain his words, as there are books to explain Shapespeare's words?

There are some who will take knowledge only from those who are obviously in a higher social and educational station in life.
Others are hungry to learn from anyone or any thing.

For the latter, we must find a way to feed their hunger, or else they will fall into the hands of those who abuse such hungers to teach their brand of knowledge.
A hungry mind must be fed. Who will feed it?
Every person who learns the wonder of nature and science is one less mind wasted in religion.

"I can prove that God is real...

but first you have to prove that God is not real."

I have had this strategy used on me in a variety of ways.
It means they will claim to have knowledge but refuse to reveal it because you will not answer their (insert impossible question.)

It is at heart an admission that the debater can't prove that God is real, so he puts forth an impossible task to his opponent and avoids conceding his lack of proof.

In a current debate, in which I have asked several questions of my opponent, I was given a prerequiste question, "What is your idea of a Christian?"
The answers to my questions would not be given until his question was answered.

I answered, "There is no one definition of a Christian. There are thousands of sects and all are different. There are many different Christian bibles."

He asked the same question several times more and I gave him the same answer.

He refused to answer any of my questions. I believe it had nothing to do with disliking or not accepting my answer.

He had no intention of answering my questions. He couldn't, not just because any claim of a god is unprovable, but because he could not admit to himself the unprovable nature of gods, so this self protecting, unbeatable strategy is used as a shield.

I have seen this many times and it no longer surprises me that Christians are unable to debate their religion. It is very plain to see that they do not know their religion very well.

These kinds of Christians are what Richard Dawkins tweeted about.
 "Yes yes, there are indeed good Catholics (and good Muslims) all over the world. They're the ones who don't take their religion seriously."

They may have read parts of the bible, but their religious experience is based on a loving Jesus Christ and the modern mythology that has grown from the New Testamant into a sort of whitewashed version.
It goes something like, "Jesus loves me and Jesus is God because Jesus loves me and Jesus is God."

They won't actually debate anything because previous debates have taught them that what they see as proof of God is actually just their feelings. Then they claim victory because, "You're a sinner and a tool of Satan and you're going to Hell!"

It's getting harder to find an honest debate these days.
I'm starting to think that if I asked a Christian how his day was going, he'd fake a nose bleed to get away from me

Religious belief is a mental illness

There is a reason anti vaxxers are often religious. The same encouraged mindset that disbelieves the science of vaccinations is the very same mindset as that of a religious believer that disbelieves in science because it contradicts the bible.

A steadfast disbelief in evidence is necessary to believe in fiction.

I find this spreading of the religious denials of evidence to be unsettling.

If you walk the streets telling people that you're Napoleon Bonaparte and that you are the Emperor of the world, you're going to get some psychiatric attention.
But if you walk the streets telling people that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and that an invisible old man in the sky has told you that his son who was crucified 2,000 years ago is due to return any day now and take only those that believe this to an invisible place of unending happiness in the sky, the majority of people will accept you, in spite of the lack of any evidence for your claims, or any evidence that disproves your claims.

This must stop.

Religion is responsible for a very large part of the pain and suffering in the world.
We will not be rid of the evils of religion until we are rid of religion.
We must treat it as the mental illness it is and use every humane method at our disposal to cure it.

"A mental illness? That's a bit harsh," I can hear some of you say.

I say it's accurate.
If a person believes in something with no evidence and disbelieves any evidence that contradicts the belief, then that person is delusional and mentally ill.
This disbelief will allow the religious to invent all sorts of outlandish explanations to rationalise advances in science and let them believe in their religion's stories, such as dinosaurs on Noah's Ark.

If that same person believes that the rest of the world is out to get them because of their delusional beliefs, then they're paranoid and mentally ill.
Sometimes, they even make up words to describe those who don't believe as they do... Islamophobia, for example.

The sooner we admit that religion is a curable mental illness, the sooner we'll be on our way to becoming a species united in moving into the future in health and peace.

"You should fear Satan!"

You obviously don't understand atheism.
I am an atheist. I don't believe that the characters in your fictional religious texts are real.

I'm not afraid of Satan, the angel that your all knowing, all powerful god defeated and cast out of heaven, along with a third of all the other angels.

I'm not even afraid of your god.

Neither of those fictional characters elicits any more fear in me than Pennywise the clown from Stephen King's IT.
In fact, Pennywise was a good deal scarier because he was created and written by a much better writer.

So if you want to try and scare me into your religion, you're going to have to do a lot better than Satan.
You're going to have to do a lot better than Pennywise.
They're both fiction.

Personally, I don't think you have the creativity or the writing skills to scare me more than what I consider to be Stephen King's scariest book.

But don't feel bad about your lack of creativity. You gave it up in the blind belief that your god will take care of everything.

Your god and devil don't scare me.
The frightening thing is that the majority of humans actually are scared by such things, and that religious leaders control them through that fear.
I also find it very sad.

I hope to help you see the truth by showing you evidence and showing you how primitive and silly it looks from an atheist's perspective.

Because crying, "Faith!" whenever you see or hear evidence is childishly closing your eyes and putting your fingers in your ears.

Look. Listen. Grow up.

The Pope, "Climate change is caused by sin."

The Pope:
“We have grown up thinking that we were her owners and dominators, authorized to loot her.
The violence that exists in the human heart, wounded by sin, is also manifest in the symptoms of illness that we see in the Earth, the water, the air and in living things.”

First off, how did we grow up thinking we owned the Earth?
The bible:
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

It is disingenuous to state that our belief in our ownership of Earth is wrong, when the bible gives us that belief as the word of God.

Sin is a strictly religious word.
There is no sin, other than that created by religion.
We are not created as sinful creatures; we are born innocent and trusting.
Then religions use that trust to make us believe we are sinful and that the only way to absolve ourselves of sin is to live our lives by their rules.

Mankind's sin is the cause for climate change?
By that reasoning, the Pope is stating...
If sin causes climate change, then being Catholic will heal the Earth.

Let's see... how can we use the greatest problem mankind has ever faced to our advantage?

He takes a scientifically proven process like global warming and applies superstition to it, for no other purpose than to bolster the failing attendance of the Catholic church.
In the guise of a modern, intelligent Pope, he continues to try to keep mankind in the dark ages of religion.

Different Pope. New topic.
Same goal as ever.

I am not enamoured of this Pope as others seem to be. They see the Pope's words as if he is saying what they believe.
He isn't. Look deeper at his words.

If I say, "That's a pretty dress," then that's all I meant.
If I say, "That's a pretty dress. It will look good at church on Sunday," then I'm not simply complimenting the dress. I'm adding an expectation of the wearer of the dress.

The Pope says climate change is real and everyone cries, "Hooray!"
Wait a minute... didn't you see that he placed the blame on sin? Didn't you see the shift from the problem to proselytisation?
He is portraying a new kind of Pope on the surface, but he's the same as the all the others.
This Pope just smiles better than the others.
This is the same Pope who when discussing Africa said, "Aids is bad but condoms are worse."

Different problem. Same selfish thought process.
"Screw people. Screw the planet. What is best for the Catholic church?"

If the Pope wants to get into scientific topics...
Scientists do everything in their power to disprove other scientist's hypothesis to either discredit or validate it.
Why can't we look closer at the words of a leader of a religion renowned for its cruelty, falseness, and self importance?

Or...
He has a kind face. Let's trust what he says and believe that he just wants everything to be flowers and puppies.

Becoming Pope is harder than becoming POTUS. It is a ruthless political procees involving all sorts of power accumulation.
Make no mistake. This Pope is as ruthless and power hungry as they come.
Do not underestimate him!
And always look at all his words with the same scrutiny as you would any hypothesis. Don't just hear the words that seem to agree with your ideals and share them as if they were true.
If anyone's words ever needed to be scrutinised for their message, it would be the words of a Pope.

Islamophobia vs atheophobia

Islamophobia is a made up word to use PC to silence those who speak against crimes committed by Islamic people.

Islamophobia, (An irrational fear of Islam), is a ridiculous word. It implies that anyone who speaks against beheadings, floggings, stonings, subjugation of women, or any part of Islam or the Quran, is irrationally afraid of Islam.

There is quite enough in Islam to be rationally afraid of; we need no irrational fears.

"I am an atheist. I don't believe the Quran is God's word."
"You're an Islamophobe!"
"You're a atheophobe!"
"What? That's not even a real word!"
"It is more real than Islamophobe!"

Islam fears atheism much more than atheism fears Islam.

Christianity fears atheism more than it fears Islamic fundamentalism. That was proven when the Pope said that religion must not be mocked.
He put religion... even a terrorist religion... ahead of freedom of speech.
He said there was limits to free speech when it comes to religion.

NO!
NO! NO! NO!

The Pope understands very well that if religion is allowed to muzzle free speech regarding religion, then they've won.
If religion cannot be mocked, or argued, or debated, or made to defend itself against crimes, then atheism is doomed to be attacked with no recourse or defense.
Laws will be passed.
Stiff sentences will be issued.
Blasphemy will be a crime.

Islamophobia is as silly as Christianophobia, for both have hunted and killed atheists for hundreds of years.

Why?

Because atheophobia IS real. It is an irrational fear by irrationally religious people of the nonexistence of God. They fear that truth, logic, evidence, and free speech will end the misused and violent power wielded by Abrahamic religions that has plagued our species for millenia.

Fear of death causes religion.
Fear of death is spread by religion to convert the fearful.
Fear of death is used by religion... it's called terrorism.

Religions fear atheism more than anything.
Atheists don't fear religions; they fear violence by religions.
If you doubt this, ask yourself one simple question...

Who is afraid of free speech?

Holy Cow!

I've got a beef with the bullshit of belief.

I prayed for a cow's milk to flow again.
It flowed: Praise be to God!
It didn't flow: God has a plan.
It flowed, then stopped: God chooses the time.
It flowed, stopped, then flowed again: God blessed that cow twice.
It flowed, stopped, flowed again, stopped again, and... well, you get the picture.

God acts the way the people want him to act... but always after the fact.
Can you tell me something God told you before it happens?
It doesn't have to be as dramatic as the date for the end of all things. Tell me a day before I fall and break an arm. Tell me before I open the carton that the milk I bought had gone sour.

No?

Then don't tell me that God speaks to you because he doesn't. Everyone has that little voice in their head and it's YOU! That's your voice, your mind, your conscience, and your ability to deny what you don't like.
People die? "No, they go to heaven."
People starve to death? "Yes, but the church is helping them."
God is just a myth? "No, he speaks to me through my heart."

Give me some 'before the fact' information about what God will do.
And don't give me that, "God helps those that help themselves," bullshit!
That's the biggest bovine brownie ever plopped onto the mental farmland of self delusional believers!

People that help themselves... help themselves!

"God works in mysterious ways," is another way of saying, "We don't know what the fuck is going on, but we still have faith!"

Here's another hackneyed haypie from the back 40, "God hears all prayers. Sometimes the answer is "No.""

Have a little self respect, believers! These win-win answers are no better than patting yourself on the head and calling yourself a good little Christian!

Try this... God already answered you, but you're not yet ready to understand His divine answer.
Or... God said no to test your faith.

Sophistry!

I could plop out these taurine treats faster than a herd with the trots.
They're meaningless drivel, used by the self deluded to make themselves feel like their beliefs have some kind... any kind... of validity.

In truth, they are baby pacifiers; they might make you feel like you're getting your spiritual milk right from the teat... but you can suck on that thing with all your spiritual might, believe with all your faith, and pray for milk until the cows come home... but honestly, way down deep in your core belief system, you know there's no milk in that thing.

Christianity Lite

Christianity Lite is the fine tuned cherry picking of only the parts of the bible you want to follow... all the parts about loving Jesus and your fellow humans and none of the parts like stoning non virgin wives, praying only in private, and wearing religious icons like the cross.

Once you fall into the trap of believing in God and disbelieving in evidence, it's all too easy to take it a step further and ignore the parts of the bible you don't want to follow.

Ignoring those inconvenient bible bits is part of the whole self delusion necessary to be a Christian in the modern world.
It's become a comfortable religion that doesn't require too much effort... or thought.
Doubt is the only sin and bullshit is swallowed with a shrug and a prayer.
Jesus and faith; two Christian words that magically dispel doubt for no apparent reason.

The odd part is that the further Christians get from even the common bastardised versions of the bible, and the crazier their rationalisation get for disproven bible stories, the more loudly they seem to proclaim that the bible is the ultimate truth, as if volume and vehemence is akin to proof.
They're becoming caricatures; angry, frothy mouthed zealots who live against the words of Jesus instead of with them, then loudly proclaim, "We'll do as we please because Jesus!"

Christianity Lite is like Beer lite; you can get drunk on it, but you have to swallow a lot of crap.

A symbol of...

See that photo? It's a letter from Gandhi to Hitler.

Yes, that Gandhi and that Hitler.

I find this... incredible. I had never heard of this letter and I find that my respect for Gandhi has increased.

The letter is dated July 23, 1939. 86 years ago, at the start of WWII.
86 years and we have evidence that the world knew Hitler was about to start a global war.
We waited, hoping he wouldn't, in vain.

Hitler had a swastika flag. He had the stylized SS logo. He stole the Olympic salute.

Gandhi had the image of himself, spinning. No flags. No logos. Just a hope for peace and freedom.

If your intent is peaceful it will resonate in most people and you will not need symbology to remind, to worship, to fear, or to intimidate.

Now ask yourself... why does the rebel flag still fly in South Carolina?

Why don't atheists find God?

God does not reveal himself to just anyone. You have to go looking for him.

What an ingenious and horrifically devious ploy!
It says that until you forcibly will yourself to believe in spite of no proof and in spite of evidence to the contrary, you will not find God.
You must deceive yourself to find God! You must believe even though you know there is no God.

This is a mindset that thinks  the illogic of believing without proof is so wrong that it can only be right, because faith is the way to God. You know there's no God but that's just a test of your faith.

And here's the truly cunning part; faith is the highest virtue a Christian can have! It is higher than truth. It is higher than evidence you can see. It is so high that it is never to be questioned!

This is how we get people who believe there were dinosaurs on Noah's Ark, how we get people who believe that the Earth is 6,000 years old, and how we get people who believe that faith is more important than proof.

This is why people vote for the religious party, knowing full well that the religious party will tax the poor and give to the rich,  will cut food stamps, will increase poverty, and will ruin the USA by giving everything to the richest people in the country.
They vote for this party knowing full well that the party will act in a most unChristian manner.
But their faith allows them no choice in how they vote because they have willed themselves into believing that faith must never be questioned, must never be allowed to falter, and all other views must be rejected without thought.

It's fear. Fear of dying and not having an afterlife.
Fear of being responsible for your own life with no God to blame when bad things happen.
Or worse, fear of knowing you could be so much more than you are but crediting God for successes because it means you don't have to strive to be better.
You can thank God when you ace a test, as though your 40 hours of study were nothing.

Faith is nothing more than fear fed denial.

Atheism is a rejection of fear and an acceptance of responsibility for one's own actions.
We don't find God because we're not looking for him. Instead, we're looking for answers.
We question. We don't believe.

An open letter to the USA

Americans,
I am a Canadian, your neighbour. We share the longest unprotected border in the world and we have long been friends on the global scene.
But I don't understand you.

For all your tough talk and warlike tendencies, you let your black citizens be gunned down by police for no reason and there's rarely any consequences.
And you do not act. There's over 300 million of you and you do nothing while another person is shamed, or beaten, or killed. Do you not get that they are you?
I don't understand you.

Your country has the potential to be the greatest country in the world, to lead the world to the stars, but your country is being bought from under you. You elect politicians who sell your country, then elect them again.
I don't understand you.

Today a young white man killed black people in a church in South Carolina.
They caught him. Alive.
I honestly believe a black man guilty of a far lesser crime would not have been taken alive.
He said he did it because he is racist. The press heard this but called his motives unclear.
Unclear?
I don't understand you.

I'm not asking you for an explanation. I'm not asking you to defend your national pride
I'm asking you, just for myself...

Please stop killing black people.
Please stop killing.

Let's Do It!

How many times in a single day do you hear the argument by an atheist that they know more about the bible than Christians because they've actually read it?
It seems some atheists are not entirely innocent of similar infractions.

Check this out.

Almost twice as many +1s as people that read the blog!

I'm not going to tell you that you have to read my blog. I write more to educate and entertain myself than for any other reason and while it's nice to be appreciated, I'd write even if nobody else read my words.
But I have always shied away from unwarranted praise.
Getting +1s from people who haven't read my words is like a woman telling me I'm a great lover before we sleep together.
I'm really not writing for the +1s, just as I don't sleep with women in the hope of being called a great lover.
For both, I usually don't stop until I'm pleased with my efforts.

Can we at least wait until the process is complete? Then +1 my blog... or then tell me I'm a great lover.

Either way, everyone gets to finish and we'll all sleep better.

Shut up or pay up!

Can anyone tell me why religions do not pay taxes?

They can in no way be called charitable organisations!

The only reason I can see is that it is intended to keep religions out of politics...

Yeah, I know... it's not working!

Religions should pay taxes.
They should pay back taxes.
It's not like they're going to pack up and leave if we make them pay taxes. They'll pay... though they'll cry persecution the whole time.

So what? We've heard it before. They've been crying religious persecution while in power for 1700 years! Nothing will have changed but billions more in tax revenue.

Look at the Republican party. Every major candidate is an over the top, right wing, fundamental Christian zealot, who wants to replace evolution with creationism in schools, end women's reproductive rights, introduce blasphemy laws, introduce bigotry enabling laws, and turn the USA into a theocracy.

You want to cry freedom of religion while undermining freedom by open involvement in politics?
Phhhhtttt!
Tax them. Tax them hard.

"You atheists are so strident!"

For 1700 years or so, Christians have been claiming their religion is being attacked.
This has rarely been the case.
For most of those 1700 years, Christianity has been growing to become the biggest religion on the planet but it never outgrew the claims of religious persecution.
They claimed persecution during the dark ages, during the Inquisition, during the witch hunts, during the Crusades... during their entire history.
Why do you suppose that is?
I think it's because of a simple maxim; never drop a winning strategy.
Christians will continue to whine, whinge, and beat their chests loudly, all the while screaming their outrage at being persecuted for their beliefs... because it works.
And they will continue to persecute all others while they scream of their own persecution.

Now Muslims have adopted the tactic with, "Islamaphobia!" whenever anyone calls them on the latest terrorist attack or beheading or female genital mutilation or flogging a rape victim for being raped.

But if an atheist asks, "Please keep your religion to yourself?" we are called strident in strident tones.
We are accused of censorship as a means to censor.
We are called bullies as we are bullied.

This is not a matter of religions feeling slighted, offended, or persecuted.
It is a planned and executed attack on the freedom of all peoples.

When are we going to wake the fuck up and stop coddling these fucking evil people?
For some reason I don't know, governments will not stand up to them.

It's up to us. It's up to the people.
Our most powerful weapon is the freedom of speech that allows us to tell the truth about religions. And this is what cries of religious persecution and Islamophobia are all about; reducing your free speech... little by little, in pieces you'd hardly notice... unless you put all the pieces together and saw how much was already taken away.

First we defend free speech because all freedoms come from free speech... even the right to claim persecution.
If you think free speech is important, then use it because we face the very real possibility of losing that privelege.

And you can't complain about losing any other freedoms once you've lost freedom of speech.

The Manumissionary Position

The fact that some people think we

have stopped evolving, or have never evolved, is to me indicative of either great stupidity or great arrogance, though I grant the two are not mutually exclusive and may in fact be often found walking hand in hand in rural fields, wrinkling their noses and stepping carefully around the irrational bullshit found in the religious mind.

Ah yes, religion. The last bastion of self imposed ignorance and faith fuelled disbelief of even the most basic scientific theories.

To deny evolution in this day of incredible amounts of easily accessed knowledge, carried on a portable device by most people, is an indication of purposeful and extremely stubborn stupidity.

The sheer arrogance of denying evolution is a telling and inculpatory sign that one believes in the face of Himalayan evidence that a patchwork book written by primitive con artists to prove a previous bible correct knows better than peer reviewed scientific theories.

This is called faith and is held as a virtue by those without the courage to question their own religion, and so must disbelieve obvious truths.

I am incredibly happy that religious beliefs are falling by the wayside as new discoveries continue to erode the most heinous lies ever believed by the foolish and the fearful.
It appears that truth will out, even if some will kill or die to prevent its manumission... perhaps because of such rage fuelled fanatacism.

Ironically, this is evolution in action.

Mama needs no ID

Everything that lives grows from

something small, lives its life, and dies forever, leaving behind a new generation.

Everything.

Even people.

That's natural.

I mention this because it seems that to believe in an afterlife, you have to see yourself as something outside nature.
Whether this is because a holy book told you so, or because you believe in a soul that lives after your body dies... it is an unnatural idea.
And we have not, in all the time humans have been looking for such answers, found one scrap of verifiable proof of the supernatural. Everything is natural.

In a universe of 100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) galaxies averaging 100,000,000,000 (one hundred billion) stars each, we are a tiny speck.

And you want to tell me some supernatural being created all this just so he could ghost write a book rife with inconsistencies, allow it to be mistranslated, misunderstood, misconstrued, to tell a few of only one type of primitive mammals on one small world that he would let them come to supernatural heaven if they worshipped him as slaves, but not until the world ended?

Really? You actually believe this?

I got ID checked at the pub until I was nearing 30 years old because nobody would to believe I was over 19 without evidence.

"I'm sorry God, I'm gonna need to see some ID.
No. I don't care if you have friends inside.
I don't care if you know the band.
I need to see some ID!
...
No ID?
Please step to the side. Mother Nature wants to come in.
Hey Mama! Lookin' good!
What's that God? ID Mama? Hahaha! Everyone knows Mama! Maybe you could stand a little further from the doorway... a little more... thanks."

Or else?

I am not unaware that I can be one

irritating son of a bitch when I put my mind to it.
(MacBitseach is Irish Gaelic for son of a bitch.)
So, when street preachers tell me, "You should accept Christ as your saviour," I'm going to finish their sentences with, "Or else?"
It never goes as well as this but it would be nice if it was something like this...

"You should accept Christ as your saviour."
"Or else?"
"Excuse me?"
"You said I should accept Christ as my saviour. I asked if that was a threat."
"No! It wasn't a threat!"
"Ah! Good! Now what happens if I don't accept Christ as my saviour?"
"But you must! You'll go to hell if you refuse Christ!"
"So it was a threat?"
"No! Christ loves you! Just take him into your heart!"
"Or else?"
"No! Not or else! Christ is all about love! Just love him back!"
"Or else?"
"There's no or else! Just love!"
"And I go to Hell if I don't love him back? That doesn't sound like a healthy relationship!"
"You're a sinner, aren't you?"
"Wasn't I born a sinner?"
"Yes, but you can change! Just accept Christ!"
"Or else?"
"Look. You're starting to bug me."
"So what? You have to forgive me. Jesus said so!"
"Do not use Jesus' words against me!"
"Or else?"
"Oh fuck off!"
"Or else?"
"Stop talking to me!"
"Or else?"
"I'm leaving."
"Good! I didn't want to be threatened by a sanctimonious Jesus freak in the first place!"
"I didn't threaten you!"
"No, Jesus did!"
"Jesus did not threaten you! He loves you!"
"He loves me so much he's going to send me to Hell!"
"YOU are sending yourself to Hell! All you have to do is follow Him!"
"Or else?"
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!"
"Or else?"
"YES! OR ELSE!"
"If you didn't want to talk to me about Jesus, why did you stop me on the street?"
"I just... just leave me alone."
"Or else?"
"Please?"
"No. You stopped me... you interrupted my life to preach your bullshit and I beat you at your own game. YOU walk away!"
...
"Fine."

As he was walking away, I'd dance a little jig.

Free Speech > PC

Sir Tim Hunt is 72, and won a Nobel

prize in physiology or medicine in 2001.
In 2015 he made some inappropriate comments... by today's standards.

"Let me tell you about my trouble with girls.
"Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry."
His apology was basically a confession that he meant what he said.
He is 72, raised in a different time, and with different cultural mores.
When you are 72, you will not agree with everything the young people of the day think. Should you be allowed to voice your opinion? Or should you be branded a chauvinist and publicly shamed?

As I said... inappropriate comments by today's standards.
But I believe he had the right to make them, even if they don't fall into today's PC rules of what you can and can't say without social media coming down on you like a house of bricks.

I don't support what he said.
I don't support the hordes of angry people attacking his character for one misguided comment.
I support the right to speak freely.

People aren't angry that Sir Tim Hunt believes he is correct. Nor are they arguing his points. They want to silence  something they don't agree with. They want him censored.

How many posts have you seen refuting what Sir Tim Hunt said?
How many posts calling him an asshole?
How many posts asking if he cried when he resigned?
How many posts telling him to shut up?

Censorship does not stop ideas. It drives them to silence so that a favoured idea is the only one heard. It is the activist's voice that censors with bullying tactics and all other opinions are silenced.
What Sir Tum Hunt said is irrelevent.
The number of people that don't hold the same view is irrelevent.
He has the right to speak his mind.

I am for free speech before any other cause, excepting violence or the inciting of violence.
Free speech is the start of all freedoms. If you don't have free speech for all, you don't have free speech, and you cannot have freedom.

I am a New Atheist, but I believe people should have free speech regarding religion, just as atheists should have free speech to denounce religion.
I would love to see religion silenced... but not by censorship!
I would rather have religion in our society than the censorship of one non-violent voice.
And the voice of a 72 year old Nobel Prize winner who is out of touch with modern mores is infinitely less dangerous than religion.

Have I Got A Deal For You!

Hello kids!

Today I'm gonna to talk to you about the best deal you're ever gonna get!
For today only, I'm gonna let you have salvation for the low, low price of just one dollar!
That's right! The salvation of your eternal soul for just one little dollar!
Here's what you're gonna get.
You get salvation; that's a free pass to heaven! It's just like a free ride pass at the fair but it never runs out!
You also get this wonderful King James Bible, lovingly and faithfully translated directly from the lips of God Himself just for your personal salvation!

But wait! There's more!

If you buy your salvation before this program finishes, (Remember you also get the free Bible - that's real leather binding. None of that cardboard stuff for you!) I'll throw in this glow in the dark cross with a little Jesus nailed to it so you'll remember he died for your sins. That's a full two inches of Christ's light showing you the way! Jesus will see you crossing the road and keep you safe!

That's the personal salvation, the leather bound bible, and the glow in the dark Christ on the cross - Hallelujah!
All that for the incredibly low price of only one dollar.
Wake your parents! Tell your friends!
Oh! I almost forgot!
See right here where Jesus' feet are bleeding from the nails? (Not the toenails. The hammer in kind of nails.) If you press his holy bloody feet, your glow in the dark Christ on the cross will play the Hallelujah Chorus from start to finish!
Do you want to be the coolest kid in church? Do you want to show those nasty kids that make fun of you for loving Christ that Christ can be cool?
All you need is one dollar!
(And nineteen dollars shipping and handling.)

Tell you what, send the money right now and I'll send you TWO Christ on a cross, Hallelujah singing, glow in the dark crosses!
TWO! That's on top of salvation!
I must be out of my mind to make this deal!
Don't wait!
You can often find money in the sofa, in dad's pants, or mom's purse. (Remember, it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission!)
Ah heck, I forgive you before you even send the

money - just 'cause I like you!
Send the money to
X_TEL
PO Box 1111
Yourtown, USA
66666

Offer void where prohibited, which is only in strict Islamic countries. Anywhere else and you're good to go, because this is religious iconery. Ha! We don't even pay taxes! What a great gig!

WARNING!
If your priest wants to examine your Christ on a cross, Hallelujah singing, glow in the dark cross more closely, take a parent with you... just trust me on this one.

How Dare You Call Atheists Immoral!

A teacher has sex with a student, is tried, found guilty and sent to prison and put on sex offenders list.

A Boy Scout leader has sex with a child, is tried, found guilty and sent to prison and put on sex offenders list.

A priest has sex with a child and is moved to a new parish, where the trusting kids and parents don't know what he's going to do.

This is a list of publicly accused priests in the USA.
103 priests! Look at their postings. They were moved often.
http://bishop-accountability.org/priestdb/PriestDBbylastName-A.html

Here's a link to a 2013 story about Reverend L.C. Murphy, who abused boys at a school for the deaf. Such evil is... it robs us all of decency.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/06/1184888/-Tree-Climbers-Mea-Maxima-Culpa-Silence-in-the-House-of-God

These are the people who claim morality is only available through God, and that atheists cannot possibly be moral people.

If any atheist I've ever met knew of another atheist's child abuse, he would report him to the police and protect other children from the pedophile.

Tell me again about the morality of Christianity.
Tell me how atheists can't be moral.

And understand why I hate religion.

Freedom Is Courage

People are religious because they fear.

Fear of death. Fear of being shunned by the tribe. Fear of endless torture in Hell. Fear of the end of everything.

People elect those they fear least.
This one will keep me safe in my nice house. This one will let me keep my job. This one will protect me from my fears. This one belongs to my religion.

People follow laws in fear of penalties and police.
If I do this I might go to jail. If I do this a cop might shoot me. If I do this someone might call the police.

Religions control populations with fear.

Politicians control countries with fear.

Police control citizens with fear.

We're controlled by those who cause and advocate fear.
We make decisions in fear. We stay in a hated job in fear. We stay in a bad marriage in fear. We eat, sleep, fight, and fuck in fear.

We must have courage to make changes for the betterment of humanity.
Courage is not a lack of fear.
Courage is to act in spite of your fears.

Freedom is not a lack of fear.
Freedom is not allowing your fears to make your decisions.

We can end war, religious abuses, police brutality, bullying...

We can be free.

All we need is the courage to do so.

The Faith Mindset

The necessary companion to belief in a god is disbelief in evidence and history.

If people claim belief in a god, how do they reconcile evidence that proves claims of their religion to be false?
They do not reconcile it; to all evidence and doubt, they close their minds tighter than that jam jar in the back of the fridge.

Noah's Flood.
If all the ice covering Antarctica, Greenland, and in mountain glaciers around the world were to melt, sea level would rise about 70 meters (230 feet). Water would cover all the coastal cities and land area would shrink significantly. But many inland and higher cities would survive.
But the world would not be covered by water, nor would all people not on Noah's Ark die.
And...
What about all those other people who owned boats?
How much fresh water could a boat that size carry?
And how many thirsty animals?
What did the predators eat?
What did the herbivores eat?
The whole story is bullshit.

The bible is filled with bullshit stories that could possibly be believed by bronze age people but today we have evidence that proves a lot of these stories to be impossible. Yet, there are creationists alive today who insist that dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark about 6000 years ago.

No... really!

They are entirely ignoring evidence and rewriting history to allow themselves to continue to believe in the bible, as science persistently disproves its contents.
Calling the bible, "Historical evidence," is a creative, though false statement.
Historical evidence is a made up phrase that means, "We have all the evidence we need in the bible, thank you very much. Stop bugging us with verifiable evidence!"

It's one thing to claim belief in a religion. It's another to be presented with scientific evidence against a religious claim... and ignore it. Or simply claim it is wrong with no evidence for your denial other than faith.

In this age of knowledge, one simply cannot believe in a god without disbelieving in evidence and history.

A Christian will default into a faith mindset whenever doubts occur or reasonable arguments are given against Christianity.
The faith mindset successfully repels all doubts and arguments because it is nothing more than putting your fingers in your ears and shouting, "NA NA NA NA NA NA!"

Applied Reason Immune Deficiency

Religion is ARID.
(Applied Reason Immune Deficiency)

(John Lennon's Imagine, (instrumental), plays softly in the
background.)

"Hello. I'm a good looking celebrity you almost remember, asking for your help fighting a terrible disease.
This disease has been plaguing mankind for what seems forever and it affects people worldwide.
It's called ARID and with your support, we can end this terrible disease.
Often beginning in desert climes, ARID is usually passed from parents to children. Some highly contagious places are churches, mosques, and synagogues, though no place is truly safe from this disease, which attacks the reason and doubt portions of the brain.
It is often contracted through blood, though it can also be contracted verbally or in written form.
Just some of the symptoms of ARID include cognitive dissonance, an inability to question this disease, and a nasty superiority complex.
If you know some insufferable people, you may know some ARID sufferers."
(Spokesperson tears up a little.)
"Please help while there's still time. We've made some real progress with medicines from Four Horsemen Pharmaceuticals with drugs like Hitchslap, Dawkicillen, Harrisoid, and Dennicene, but there is so much more we can do.
New medicines are needed to reach the billions affected by ARID.
Talk about ARID at work and among friends. Get the word out. ARID does not grow well near the light of truth and reason, which are natural ARIDicides, so the more you talk about it, the better our chances at finding a cure.
With your help, we can beat this dangerous, highly contagious, and inevitably annoying disease.
Thank you for your time."

(Uncomfortably loud and poorly sung cover ...) "Imagine all the people, living life in peace..."

Religious Die Back Is Only Natural

We are wired to be tribal. It's built into us as a survival trait as naturally as sheep flock together or
wolves hunt in packs.

A lone wolf's chances of survival are far less than those of the pack, so wolves travel and hunt in packs.
Sheep flock together and watch while one is chosen, culled, and hunted by the wolf pack.
The survivability of sheep is reliant on numbers and continual replenishment of the flock.

Why did the Pope support the reasons given for the violence of Charlie Hedbo?
Because shepherds will always help defend another's flock because they know whose flock could be next.

Why did the Pope say that aids was bad but condoms are worse?
Because condoms decrease the rate of Christian raised children. More sheep means more individual security and a future for the flock.

Atheists have been lone wolves for a long time, mostly because atheism was likely to get you killed. In many places, that is still true.
Religions distrust and often dislike each other, but they will not suffer an atheist to speak... until recently that is. Modern laws allow us to speak openly about atheism in spite of religious objections.
And atheists are beginning to form groups, clubs, organizations... wolf packs.

Shepherds will often band together to drive away a lone wolf, even a small wolf pack. But when there's too many wolves, the shepherd build a pen and keep the sheep from multiplying.

This is the way of nature. If there's not enough prey, the wolves die back. If there's abundant prey, the wolves grow strong and plentiful and the prey die back.
The proliferation of outspoken atheists is an obvious sign that there is about to be a die back of religion.

It's only natural.

"Faith Is A Virtue Above All Others."

How is faith considered a higher standard of a person's character than reason?
Some of the things I value most are honour, truth, courage, and justice.
None of these attributes are welcome in religions.

Where is the honour in ignoring evidence to allow yourself to believe in the god you have chosen? If you see evidence that counters the existence of your god and refuse to acknowledge it as real, you are dishonouring yourself by being untruthful to yourself.

It takes a lot of courage to question your religious faith. If there's one thing religions do their best to discourage, it's the questioning of faith. They want you docile and believing.

God gives man free will, knowing man will use it, then punishes him for it. God commands you to love him completely, (What an egomaniac!), or else! Is this justice?
Where is the Justice in religion, when a pope who preaches love sits in a palace of ridiculous wealth while millions starve? When pedophile priests are sheltered from the law in Vatican City? When churches pay no taxes but constantly meddle in politics to create laws that support their religion?

Religions have told people for so long to believe or they will go to hell, they have come to believe that not questioning their beliefs is the highest form of morality. Self delusion based in fear has become more desirable than reason.

Yes...  cowardice is considered a more worthy attribute than the courage to see and act on reason.

When you decide on faith over reason to avoid going to Hell, you are saying, "I will love you God! I will obey you God! Just please don't torture me!"

God is not love. God is a bully.
Faith is not a virtue. Faith is cowardice.
Faith is mean nothing word. It is a nonsensical mantra used as a shield to protect the faithful from the realisation that they are not moral people; that they are cowards.
What else could you possibly call a person who fearfully and wilfully turns their back on evidence, so they can continue to believe a lie that keeps them is a relationship of brutality and fear disguised as love?
They are cowards and they are lost in the fear that their religion purposely and maliciously implanted in them as children.

I have debated hundreds of faithful Christians. Not one had the courage to truthfully look at why they believe in their god or why they thoughtlessly and habitually dismiss evidence that might test their faith.

Not one.

The sad part is, Christians will think that's a good score.

Godmakers

"If God isn't real, who made the universe?"

The universe was created by a series of natural occurrences, as was the Earth.
We can see evidence of how the Earth was created, how it was impacted by another object,causing the moon to break off and become a satellite. We can see these things in radioactive clues and using our scientific expertise.
We don't have to be there to see what happened. There is always evidence left of the past.


Always.

Archeology, geology, biology, and other sciences all agree that dinosaurs walked the Earth some 66 million years ago. Some evolved and became birds. Most died out due to a meteor strike off the Yucatan Peninsula. We have solid evidence from multiple scientific fields to support this theory. Fossil record shifts, a layer of iridium, etc.

In fact, we are getting closer to solving the origins of the universe.
We ask questions, find answers, and move on. Sometimes the answers take generations to uncover. Sometimes we just don't have the necessary technology to get the answer... Yet.
We're a young species. We'll get there.

But we have found absolutely no evidence of any gods for all of the universe's history.
Not one of the almost 4,000 gods left a clue behind.
Not one clue.
Not a footprint, fingerprint, bit of DNA, or a fossil. Not one bit of supernatural ectoplasm from another realm, not one single item that wasn't man made.

Nothing.



The only 'proofs' that anyone or anything made the universe are unsubstantiated miracles, claims by 'prophets', and texts written by people.
Look at today's televangelists. They are the same kind of people that started religions, wrote holy books, and lived off the work of others. Fear mongers and parasites, every last one of them. If it wasn't for the easily duped, they'd be in the welfare line because not one of them ever did an honest day's work.

The only logical conclusion is that nobody made the universe and that gods are a creation of man.

In Defense Of Atheism

There is a growing anti intellectual movement in North America that refutes science with pseudo science based on religious beliefs.
This pseudo science takes their religious belief and creates a science to fit the belief. It uses 'Historical Science' to explain the nature of the universe. Historical Science is the stories in the bible treated as actual events and is neither history, nor science.

There is also a growing backlash to this anti intellectual movement. Scientists, people of reason, and other atheists/agnostics are challenging religions in ever increasing numbers.
Dawkins, the late Hitchens, Harris, and Dennett are the Four Horsemen of the Anti Apocalypse. Of the four, only Hitchens was not a scientist, but a writer and orator of great skill.

They are the origins and  impetus of the New Atheists, who lead the voicing of opinions of those who no longer keep silent when religions do terrible things.

The question often asked by religious people is, "Why do you feel the need to attack religion?"
My snap answer is, "Accusing atheists of attacking religion is like blaming a long bullied kid for finally fighting back."

The New Atheists argue strongly with logic and reason, showing the true nature of religions; how they misrepresent their purpose, how they amass billions while claiming to help the poor, how they ritually abuse children, and how their religious texts are so full of inconsistancies, that they could only be written by bronze age men to control local populations.
They argue with words. Atheists don't kill for atheism.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia recently made a proclamation, part of which stated that atheists talking about atheism are terrorists and will be arrested and tried as such.

A woman in Wisconson asked the American Humanist Association to stop her son's primary school teacher from illegally handing out bibles.
She had to take her son out of school and received threats like, "Snitches end up in ditches."
Their house is now up for sale and she's leaving the district for safety reasons.

I could cite hundreds of recent cases of religious bullying, but you get the idea.

There was a story in the news a few years ago about a 65 year old man walking alone on a British Columbian mountain logging road.
A cougar jumped him from behind and they wrestled to the ground. The cougar was on top, biting his arm and trying for his face. When the man needed both hands to open his knife, the cougar bit his face.
The man's knife was sharp and he cut the cougar's throat, killing it.
Literally holding his face together, the man walked two miles to a logging camp, where he received help. He got several hundred stitches.
A brutal and savage tale of survival.
We were talking about it at work, and one woman hotly asked, "Why did he have to kill the cougar? That's just mean!"

Did you just roll your eyes or shake your head?
That's the exact feeling atheists get when they're accused of attacking religion.
Atheists do not attack. We defend.

Have You Heard The Word?

The late Christopher Hitchens coined and promoted a word for those fighting the harmful and evil effects of religion.

Antitheist.

I'm a fan of Hitchens' work, but I was wondering if there was an even better word, so I did some digging.

Atheist is simply one who does not believe in any gods. It implies no action against religion. It's simply non belief.
It doesn't say what you are, but what you're not.
I am an atheist simply because I don't believe in gods.

Religiomist contains mis. Mis is the prefix for misogyny and misandry, and means hater of... I find religiomist awkward and unclear.
Also, it sounds like some kind of holy fog.

Misidiotate means hatred of stupidity. I'm a misidiotate but even I can't make that big a stretch to apply it to all religions.

Misotheist is hatred of a god or gods. I don't believe in them, so how could I hate them?

Mistheist is one who has little trust or faith in any religion.
It's too bad this is already a word, because with the prefix mis, mistheist should mean hatred of religion. That would have suited me well.
I'm tempted to co-opt mistheist and apply hatred of religion to it, spread it far and wide, and make it so popular that it becomes the new usage.
In its current usage, it's rarely used and mostly meaningless.

Mistheist, (as hater of religion), is the only word I can find or convert that would be better than Hitchens' antitheist. It not only states it is against religion but why.
It seems to be these days that a group of people can claim any word to call themselves.
I'll cite gays as the first example that popped into my head.
If you think we should co-opt mistheist, let me know.
atheistthing@gmail.com

So, it's antitheist or mistheist. I prefer mistheist. It's one less syllable and has added meaning.
Hitchens, of course, found the best word available for use.
I think we should co-opt mistheist, no matter if we have to put the old meaning into disuse.

In the spirit of Christopher Hitchens, I also claim the right to ridicule, hate, and feel contempt for religion, for it has earned all of these in the past and continues to do so.

Faith Is Evil

When a person places faith before reason, that person is setting aside their ability to think logically and replacing it with an unproven belief.
That's a personal choice and while I find it sad and don't agree with it, I don't have the right to tell you what to believe.

The problem arises when your faith tells you that you must teach in public schools that your faith is the only truth, that the country must be run according to your faith, and that you may deny basic human rights to those who do not share your faith.

When my son was in Kindergarten, he was taught a song.
"We thank you for the food we eat,
We thank you for the world so sweet,
We thank you for the birds that sing,
We thank you for everything."
It is the child's mealtime blessing/prayer with the word 'God' removed.
The next morning, as the parents and kids waited for the classroom door to open, I asked the parents if any of them had a problem with the song's religious nature.
One of the mothers said, "The song didn't say anything about God!"
The way she said, "God," was a warning. I could hear the reverent tone in that one word.
"Then who are the kids thanking?"
That was the end of the discussion. She blew a gasket and started shouting about the persecution of Christians and how as soon as God was mentioned, someone had to start trying to kill Christianity.
I just stared in shock. Here's this woman screaming at me and I just couldn't bring myself to go back at her in front of fifteen or so kindergarten kids, some of whom were now scared and hiding behind their parents.
All I could do was shake my head in a sort of resigned acceptance of her bullying.
None of the other parents spoke up.

In 1985, I attended a year of college and studied Fine Art.
I remember a discussion about religion that I had with a girl that must have lasted three or four hours. She was a quiet girl, plain, humble, studious, smart, and very Christian. She prayed every day in private and I got the impression she would be a fierce friend. I liked her company and though we discussed many topics in our eight months of schooling, this one stuck with me all these years.
It was a pleasant and polite discussion. One of us would make a point and the other would counter it and when all was said and done and I had argued her into a corner, she fell back on, "I suppose you just have to have faith that God exists."
I used to pat myself on the back over that concession but now as I look back, I see that nothing had changed. In spite of her inability to counter all my arguments about the false nature of her religion, she would believe because she wanted to believe.
There is no logic or reason that can shake faith.
The necessary companion of belief in a god is a disbelief in evidence.
In the end, she was willing to cast all evidence aside if it got in the way of her faith.

Throughout the years I have had similar discussions with other people but that particular discussion opened my eyes to the fact that for some religious people, faith comes before friends, family, and society.
Their unfounded belief, their "relationship with God," is more important to them than anything else.
But faith does not simply come before reason. To have such strong faith, reason must be entirely cast aside as an enemy of faith.
I find this a sad waste of a mind.

We now see lots of people who are uneducated in even basic science making decisions that affect the climate of the world. They promote the cutting of funds for NASA and for science in general because it conflicts with their faith.

Faith promotes ignorance and shouts itself as the only truth. It demands that all humanity dumb itself down in order to accept the ignorance of faith.
No!
We must never succumb to this ridiculous notion that faith is a virtue above all others.
It isn't.
Faith is a rejection of reason and must be called out for what it is. It is not a virtue. Faith is an enemy of truth and the greatest lie ever told.
Faith is evil.