Dec
22
Dec
22
We have an everyday sense of interfaces. The computers we use all have interfaces, both in software and hardware. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t be able to use them (of course, some interfaces are clearly better than others). But interfaces aren’t just for computers—every tool or entertainment device has interfaces. For instance the size and [...]
Dec
21
Ah… the beloved icons of the Christmas celebration bedeck homes, churches and public places throughout the Christian world announcing the coming of their second most holy day. The décor, the symbolism, the holy date itself heralds the advent of the holiday they so adamantly defend against secularization and atheist derision; the one they insist must be acknowledged by “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.” I’d wager not two in ten Christians realize that their holy day and all its trappings have as much to do with their fabled Jewish man-god’s birth as does Ground Hog Day.
Xmas tree: Roman celebration of the feast of Saturnalia (Dec 17-23); Pagans decorated their houses with clippings of evergreen shrubs. They also decorated living trees with bits of metal and replicas of their God, Bacchus.
[ I wonder how Xtians reconcile their most beloved symbol of Christmas with the Bible’s admonishment against the use of trees as a religious rite:
Jeremiah 10:2-4 KJV "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." ]
Yule / Yule log / holly / mistletoe: winter festival of Norse pagans. Ceremonial log, herbs, and decoration associated with nature worship and winter solstice celebration.
Santa Clause: see Odin
Gifts in stockings: Norse god Odin filled children’s shoes with goodies.
December 25: The celebrated birth date of the pre Jesus gods Dionysus, Osiris, Tammuz, Sol Invictus, Attis, and others observed by various pagan religions who worshipped the Winter Solstice event on or about Dec 25.
Virgin Birth: The gods Horus, Tammuz, Perseus, Mithra, Krishna all preceding Jesus.
[ Early apologist and church father Justin Martyr argued that Satan intentionally created pre-Jesus virgin birthed gods to confuse future Christians: "When I hear that Perseus was begotten of a virgin, I understand that the deceiving serpent counterfeited also this." ]
Xmas tree: Roman celebration of the feast of Saturnalia (Dec 17-23); Pagans decorated their houses with clippings of evergreen shrubs. They also decorated living trees with bits of metal and replicas of their God, Bacchus.
[ I wonder how Xtians reconcile their most beloved symbol of Christmas with the Bible’s admonishment against the use of trees as a religious rite:
Jeremiah 10:2-4 KJV "Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." ]
Yule / Yule log / holly / mistletoe: winter festival of Norse pagans. Ceremonial log, herbs, and decoration associated with nature worship and winter solstice celebration.
Santa Clause: see Odin
Gifts in stockings: Norse god Odin filled children’s shoes with goodies.
December 25: The celebrated birth date of the pre Jesus gods Dionysus, Osiris, Tammuz, Sol Invictus, Attis, and others observed by various pagan religions who worshipped the Winter Solstice event on or about Dec 25.
Virgin Birth: The gods Horus, Tammuz, Perseus, Mithra, Krishna all preceding Jesus.
[ Early apologist and church father Justin Martyr argued that Satan intentionally created pre-Jesus virgin birthed gods to confuse future Christians: "When I hear that Perseus was begotten of a virgin, I understand that the deceiving serpent counterfeited also this." ]
Star Sign: foretold the birth of Julius Caesar (100 yrs before Jesus), Krishna (1400 yrs before Jesus). Also Pythagoras, Isaac, Solomon, the Queen of Sheba, David, Micah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Elijah, Zechariah, Balaam, Balak, Malachi, Aaron, Elisheba, Miriam and Moses all had mysterious stars associated with them.
Wise men/Magi: Three wise men announced the birth of the Egyptian god Osiris; Magi brought gifts at the birth of the Persian god Mithra.
Yep, let’s celebrate the reason for the season: a gaggle of mythical pagan gods; nature worship; the Winter Solstice’s promise of more daylight and the “rebirth” of spring. And let’s stop them from hijacking the true meaning of the season and attributing it to some mythical Jewish kid. Call it by its real name. Say it loud and say it proud! “Merry Saturnaliadionysusosiristammuzmithrakrishnasolinvictusattiswintersolstice-Mas” Or, you can just say “Heathen’s Greetings” for short. Have a safe and happy one with your family.
Yep, let’s celebrate the reason for the season: a gaggle of mythical pagan gods; nature worship; the Winter Solstice’s promise of more daylight and the “rebirth” of spring. And let’s stop them from hijacking the true meaning of the season and attributing it to some mythical Jewish kid. Call it by its real name. Say it loud and say it proud! “Merry Saturnaliadionysusosiristammuzmithrakrishnasolinvictusattiswintersolstice-Mas” Or, you can just say “Heathen’s Greetings” for short. Have a safe and happy one with your family.
Dec
20
“spiritual” because they also identify as atheist. It reminded me of the argument about gay marriage somehow devaluing heterosexual marriages. Here religious Buddhists seem to fear the devaluation of their practice and beliefs by ...
Dec
18
Dec
17
Dec
17
When atheists say that God does not exist, religions are unwanted, spirituality is a fraud, etc. they are marked as reactionaries have nothing original to say without referring to the trendy religions and theism. This is right, up to some extent but not in its wholeness. In fact, they negate theism only because these are keeping a strong hold on the humanity and the humanity need be pulled out of this grip to have subscribers from the humanity. After all, they will not create anybody outside of humanity to be their supporter. So, the 'reactionary' label on the atheists is correct but there is nothing wrong in being a reactionary.
I have always been insisting that atheism is humanism while all religions divide the human society into fragments which go against the spirit of humanism. Theism has introduced competitiveness to human society while the humanism brought social order to itself through rejuvenating cooperation which was in peril in the days of wandering humanity.
The cooperation evolved by humanism is being thwarted by theism through religions for serving vested interests. Thus, even theism is also a reactionary development against humanism. Indeed, there was no need for coining the word 'atheism' to counter theism. What people against theism were needed to do was and still is to insist on humanism to suppress theism.
Humanism is basic and original to humanity and theism was created to oppose its spirit of cooperation in the humanity. It is same as science being original for humanity and faith created to oppose the spirit of science. Science is basically the process of knowing through senses, while faith is not knowing but believing what others say. Thus, tussle between humanism and theism is same as tussle of science versus faith, and now the tussle between atheism and theism.
Another difference between science and faith is that the science evolves out of curiosity of humanity and so is dynamic while the faith is constructed and the construction remains static. For this reason, all faiths have remained the same after their origins while the science has been continuously evolving adding more and more to knowledge base of humanity. This however gives advantage to faiths for the human inertia to adapt to changes. For this reason, today the faiths have more subscriber while the sciences have a few. In the democratic world where numbers matter rather than quality, faiths have gained supremacy over sciences.
In-spite of the apparent supremacy of faiths over sciences, no human-being is living without getting advantage of the scientific developments while the faiths are ditching the humanity by raising partitions within each society and group of people.
I have always been insisting that atheism is humanism while all religions divide the human society into fragments which go against the spirit of humanism. Theism has introduced competitiveness to human society while the humanism brought social order to itself through rejuvenating cooperation which was in peril in the days of wandering humanity.
The cooperation evolved by humanism is being thwarted by theism through religions for serving vested interests. Thus, even theism is also a reactionary development against humanism. Indeed, there was no need for coining the word 'atheism' to counter theism. What people against theism were needed to do was and still is to insist on humanism to suppress theism.
Humanism is basic and original to humanity and theism was created to oppose its spirit of cooperation in the humanity. It is same as science being original for humanity and faith created to oppose the spirit of science. Science is basically the process of knowing through senses, while faith is not knowing but believing what others say. Thus, tussle between humanism and theism is same as tussle of science versus faith, and now the tussle between atheism and theism.
Another difference between science and faith is that the science evolves out of curiosity of humanity and so is dynamic while the faith is constructed and the construction remains static. For this reason, all faiths have remained the same after their origins while the science has been continuously evolving adding more and more to knowledge base of humanity. This however gives advantage to faiths for the human inertia to adapt to changes. For this reason, today the faiths have more subscriber while the sciences have a few. In the democratic world where numbers matter rather than quality, faiths have gained supremacy over sciences.
In-spite of the apparent supremacy of faiths over sciences, no human-being is living without getting advantage of the scientific developments while the faiths are ditching the humanity by raising partitions within each society and group of people.
Dec
16
Dec
16
It’s no secret that the US has a major problem with childhood obesity. Thirty percent of our children are overweight or obese. While much lip service has been paid to the issue one man of God claims to have the ultimate answer.
The Right Reverend Doctor Jackie Butkes runs the Praise Our Redeemer King Youth Kamp and Indoctrination Depot affectionately referred to by its clients and campers by its acronym PORKY KID. Located in Ft. Myers, Florida “Porky Kid” promises to bring your chubby youngster closer to God, and closer to the weight of a non-porcine species. During Reverend Dr. Butkes’ annual recruiting tour of New England I had the opportunity to interview him with an eye toward finding out the secret to the success of his camp. His only stipulation was no microphones and no notes. So naturally I recorded it.
Hump: Reverend, I understand that your camp guarantees significant weight loss through a personal relationship with Jesus. How exactly how do you accomplish that?
Rev. B: Find Jesus!
Hump: Uh, sorry Reverend, I’m not in the market for proselytizing and I’m not sure how that’s relevant to…
Rev B: No, No…that’s how we do it. We have the kids find Jesus!
Hump: So, sort of a combination of New Testament Bible study and intensive reading of Biblical criticism, the transcripts from the Jesus Seminar, and various perspectives of the Church’s founding fathers to give the children the sense that the power of the Lord will help sustain them through their weight loss crusade?
Rev. B: No. One of our counselors dresses in a beard, sandals and a diaper and hides somewhere on our camp grounds. We tell the kids to go find Jesus or they get no food that day.
Hump: That’s pretty Machiavellian. You’d think parents would be a little disturbed by that technique.
Rev B: Nah. The kids don’t tell their parents. We tell ‘em if they tell that Jesus won’t love them, that God will send a pair of bears to tear them apart, and that their parents will die and go directly to Hell.
Hump: Seems a little harsh, coercive, and even abusive.
Rev B: Hey, we guarantee the fat kids will lose weight. This works. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Jesus said that.
Hump: No he didn’t. But never mind. Is that the whole weight loss program--.hide and seek with a fake Jesus?
Rev B: Not hardly! One of our most effective methods is playing “Wander the Desert Or You Get No Dessert.” That’s where we drive the kids out into the middle of our ten square mile compound blind folded. Then we take off the blind folds and tell them to find their way back to camp.
Hump: With a counselor and water I assume.
Rev B: Did Jesus have a counselor and water with him when he wandered the desert for 40 days and 40 nights? I don’t dang-diddly-doo think so!
Hump: But it’s Ft. Myers Florida. The average day time temperature in July and August is like 90 degrees with 90 % humidity!
Rev B: That’s right. We like to give our campers a taste of the Holy Land along with a relationship with Jesus.
Hump: But it’s dangerous; kids could die out there!
Rev B: And they have. It was God’s will. We tell their parents that they were Raptured ahead of everyone else because Jesus was so impressed with their sleek new body.
Hump: And the parents believe that???
Rev B: Of course they do, they’re Christians. Believing is what we do. Besides, what’s better ... having a slim but constantly hungry and whining kid who you know is just gonna get fat again; or having a kid in great shape playing dodge ball with the Lord and hobnobbing with the angels? Plus, the significantly reduced food expense seems to console them.
Hump: Yeah. Uh ... well, one last question. What about this promise of a closer relationship with Jesus? Nothing I’ve heard so far suggests you do much to promote that.
Rev B: That’s ‘cause you haven’t been to our camp after lights out, and listened to the kids in their individual “Tomb of Jesus” bunk rooms. I doubt you’d have to wait more than five minutes before you’d hear the kids praying to God and whimpering for His divine intervention. In fact, talking in tongues is not uncommon among our campers.
Hump: I imagine food and water deprivation, mental and physical abuse, and being enclosed in a one person cave each night might be the predominant factor.
Rev B: Oh ye of little faith! Did not Jesus say: “Suffer the little fat ones to suffer -- for verily it is better to look good than to feel good.”
Hump: No, he didn’t. Actually the last phrase of that sentence was said by a Billy Crystal character on Saturday Night Live about 20 years ago.
Rev B: Whatever.
Hump: Frankly, Reverend, I think what you’re doing is patently deceptive, cruel, brutal, primitive and barbaric!
The Right Reverend Doctor Jackie Butkes runs the Praise Our Redeemer King Youth Kamp and Indoctrination Depot affectionately referred to by its clients and campers by its acronym PORKY KID. Located in Ft. Myers, Florida “Porky Kid” promises to bring your chubby youngster closer to God, and closer to the weight of a non-porcine species. During Reverend Dr. Butkes’ annual recruiting tour of New England I had the opportunity to interview him with an eye toward finding out the secret to the success of his camp. His only stipulation was no microphones and no notes. So naturally I recorded it.
Hump: Reverend, I understand that your camp guarantees significant weight loss through a personal relationship with Jesus. How exactly how do you accomplish that?
Rev. B: Find Jesus!
Hump: Uh, sorry Reverend, I’m not in the market for proselytizing and I’m not sure how that’s relevant to…
Rev B: No, No…that’s how we do it. We have the kids find Jesus!
Hump: So, sort of a combination of New Testament Bible study and intensive reading of Biblical criticism, the transcripts from the Jesus Seminar, and various perspectives of the Church’s founding fathers to give the children the sense that the power of the Lord will help sustain them through their weight loss crusade?
Rev. B: No. One of our counselors dresses in a beard, sandals and a diaper and hides somewhere on our camp grounds. We tell the kids to go find Jesus or they get no food that day.
Hump: That’s pretty Machiavellian. You’d think parents would be a little disturbed by that technique.
Rev B: Nah. The kids don’t tell their parents. We tell ‘em if they tell that Jesus won’t love them, that God will send a pair of bears to tear them apart, and that their parents will die and go directly to Hell.
Hump: Seems a little harsh, coercive, and even abusive.
Rev B: Hey, we guarantee the fat kids will lose weight. This works. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Jesus said that.
Hump: No he didn’t. But never mind. Is that the whole weight loss program--.hide and seek with a fake Jesus?
Rev B: Not hardly! One of our most effective methods is playing “Wander the Desert Or You Get No Dessert.” That’s where we drive the kids out into the middle of our ten square mile compound blind folded. Then we take off the blind folds and tell them to find their way back to camp.
Hump: With a counselor and water I assume.
Rev B: Did Jesus have a counselor and water with him when he wandered the desert for 40 days and 40 nights? I don’t dang-diddly-doo think so!
Hump: But it’s Ft. Myers Florida. The average day time temperature in July and August is like 90 degrees with 90 % humidity!
Rev B: That’s right. We like to give our campers a taste of the Holy Land along with a relationship with Jesus.
Hump: But it’s dangerous; kids could die out there!
Rev B: And they have. It was God’s will. We tell their parents that they were Raptured ahead of everyone else because Jesus was so impressed with their sleek new body.
Hump: And the parents believe that???
Rev B: Of course they do, they’re Christians. Believing is what we do. Besides, what’s better ... having a slim but constantly hungry and whining kid who you know is just gonna get fat again; or having a kid in great shape playing dodge ball with the Lord and hobnobbing with the angels? Plus, the significantly reduced food expense seems to console them.
Hump: Yeah. Uh ... well, one last question. What about this promise of a closer relationship with Jesus? Nothing I’ve heard so far suggests you do much to promote that.
Rev B: That’s ‘cause you haven’t been to our camp after lights out, and listened to the kids in their individual “Tomb of Jesus” bunk rooms. I doubt you’d have to wait more than five minutes before you’d hear the kids praying to God and whimpering for His divine intervention. In fact, talking in tongues is not uncommon among our campers.
Hump: I imagine food and water deprivation, mental and physical abuse, and being enclosed in a one person cave each night might be the predominant factor.
Rev B: Oh ye of little faith! Did not Jesus say: “Suffer the little fat ones to suffer -- for verily it is better to look good than to feel good.”
Hump: No, he didn’t. Actually the last phrase of that sentence was said by a Billy Crystal character on Saturday Night Live about 20 years ago.
Rev B: Whatever.
Hump: Frankly, Reverend, I think what you’re doing is patently deceptive, cruel, brutal, primitive and barbaric!
Rev B: Hey, what did you expect? … It’s a Bible camp!!
Dec
15
