...they [the Roman Catholic Church] for example thought that slavery was perfectly fine... absolutely okay, and then they didn't, and what is the point of the Catholic Church if it says, “oh well we couldn't know better because nobody else did”? [To the affirmative team] Then what are you for?!

-- Stephen Fry, answering a question during the 2009 Intelligence Squared debate, “Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?”



Of course, slavery was okay to…

Sometime in early November, 2009, an atheist friend of mine on the now-defunct Experience Project website directed me over to a relatively new site called Atheist Nexus. There, EVERYONE was an atheist, and you didn’t have to worry about believers crashing the party and constantly trying to convert you. Gee, I thought, I should have a look, and I did, and what I found was a lively, vital community of freethinkers who had no problem with stating their points of view in boldface.…

I attended my first German Baptist wedding yesterday, and it was quite the experience.

German Baptists in my north-central part of Indiana are a mix of old and new ways of living. They drive vehicles and have cell phones, but don't own televisions, for example. The women put their hair up in bonnets and wear long dresses. The men all have beards and wear black.

Lorene, the bride, has worked on my farm for 6 years (along with several other GB girls). So she invited me to her…

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been hanging out at Hemant Mehta's Friendly Atheist website, reading and commenting on his multiple daily posts.  This afternoon, while scanning an entry regarding an art teacher who was criticizing students whose work offended her Christian sensibilities, someone posted the following graphic, which I thought was particularly disturbing, especially considering its source:…

This is an open letter to certain people … people who are supposed to work for the government on our behalf in an official capacity. It can be a cop or a judge or a district attorney, a mayor, governor, or even a president. Judge Roy Moore comes to mind ... and more recently Judge Tammy Kemp. If her name doesn’t ring a bell, think “Amber Guyger.” Kim Davis qualifies here as well. As to presidents, use a little imagination and at least one or two should come to mind. Regardless, this is…

Anywhere and everywhere we find thousands of people in utter penury, some begging, some eating one meal a day, offspring with malnutrition facing imminent death, womenfolk exploited by affluent by molest , bond labor , and what not, a sea of infinite pain and unendurable suffering spanning millions of people. Who are they? Why they are in such condition?

For academic discussion we ignore Darwin theory of evolution and presume there is God, as envisaged and presumed by…

I have recently learned that, in the Democratic Primary Debate, scheduled for tomorrow, 12 September, 2019, ABC News has once again opted not to air the following commercial, sponsored by the FFRF:







Sadly, there is little new in this decision, being that none of the major networks are given to offering air time to the FFRF. That does…

My dog, Dot, tags along when I go on long walks on county roads. She often gets distracted in her curiosity. The other day, she fell behind and never caught up. Since I went around the 4 mile block, I didn't see her on my return. I waited all day for her to come trotting home.

About 6 hours later, a young lady knocked on my door and asked if I'd lost a dog. There Dot was in the back seat of her small car. Relief! The lady asked her neighbors (in a small town of about 100 people over a…

Sadie was never the friendliest cat I’d met from the time I first ran onto her in my gal’s apartment. She always had a bit of a ’tude about her, best characterized by her meow. “AAAAOOOOWWWW,” as in “Who you think you messin’ with, bud?” Her attitude mellowed at least a little with the years and the move from the apartment to the house. She allowed herself to be groomed by Morris, our Maine Coon and would even come up in my lap for a pet-pet, but there was always that grumpy cat underneath…

There are more and more people who are tech rapturists, who have simply substituted technology distraction escape obsessions where Jesus or Mohammad Jabadad or Buddha or name-your-sky-god-here or sprit animal or generic miracle maker or philosophical transcendence were the distraction escape obsession du jour in their parent's generation. Pinning existential escape on tech so makes one no more scientific than did existential escape through god .

The distinction is motive.

Has…

So I open my digital copy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer the other day (3 July, 2019), and after passing the first couple pages, what do I get confronted with on Page A5 but the following:





The text that followed was pretty predictable: quotes from founding fathers, congressmen (no congresswomen, I noted!), Supreme Court justices and some other…

The Universities and Colleges I am going to list here are actually Buddhist. I did a little investigating and turns out that Buddhism is Atheistic! The only problem is that there aren’t that many out there in the United States. But other than that let me start listing them and I will put locations and links next to them and so here they are! 

Dharma Realm Buddhist University- California - https://www.drbu.edu

Naropa University-…

13 June, 2019



Congresswoman Nancy Patricia Pelosi

Longworth House Office Building

15 Independence Ave SE

Washington, DC 20515



Dear Congresswoman Pelosi:



For the past not quite two and one half years, we have watched the presidency of Donald Trump unfold, entirely too often with the pattern of undoing, controverting or negating standards of operation or behavior which virtually any other occupant of the Oval Office would treat as sacrosanct. He…

Samwell Tarly: Why just us? We represent all the great houses, but whoever we choose, he won't just rule over lords and ladies. Maybe the decision about what's best for everyone should be left to ... well ... everyone.



The war in Westeros is over. King’s Landing has been wrested from the hands of House Lannister. As Game of Thrones wound down toward its end and a council is assembled to choose a new king or queen, perhaps the saddest part of this…

The Horrible Treatment of Women in the Bible (I'm not dead--Yet)

This one is for you, ladies.  You know all those years you have struggled to become equal in the world.  Voting, wages, and so on... well, you were going against God's word.  So if you are Christian, and believe in the Bible, either get out of the church or become…

Ever hear the one about the Arab and the camel? Well, the short version goes like this:



An Arab is in his tiny tent in the desert while his camel is tethered outside. It's a cold night and the camel asks the Arab if he can stick his nose in the tent to warm it. The Arab assents ... but then the camel's ears are cold, and then his neck, then his hump ... and the next thing you know, the camel is in the tent and the Arab is out in the cold.



I submit that something…

Today is another National Day of Prayer, a day when all Americans are supposed to talk to their imaginary friend (who never answers).  The President, like his predecessors, shamelessly merges church and state and reaffirms, for the world to see, that we are still a nation awash in religiosity, still clinging to the notion that our imaginary friend hears it all, will somehow will be affected by the prayers, and change his immutable plan to grant every one of the zillion wishes that come his…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksmGt2U-xTE

Happy Birthday '19

_________________________________________

You can't Print that I AM the Creator you Bloody dumb Fucks

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/talk.origins/TXzHSbtglNc

Oy! the CIA leaked to MI6 where Baptist JOHN and Christ JESUS hid...…

[I thought this was worth re-posting on this very special day, especially since some fellow heretics may not have seen it. Hope you agree.]

“In your Easter bonnet, with all the frills upon it,

You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter Parade…

On the Avenue, Fifth Avenue, photographers will snap us

And you’ll find that you’re in the rotogravure…”

Irving Berlin

“They tried to nail him down, but he…