Every now and then I'll see a debate going on somewhere about whether or not the founding fathers wanted us to be a "Christian Nation". The secular side will bring out the Treaty of Tripoli, which in part of it states in Article 11:
ARTICLE 11.
As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,-as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,-and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
The secular side also brings out that "god" is not mentioned anywhere in the Constitution.
But wait!! The Christians will say that God or "God Almighty" is mentioned in EVERY states preamble! Doesn't that make us a Christian Nation?
What I am saying today is that it DOES NOT MATTER if the founding fathers said or stated in someway that we are a "Christian Nation". The Constitution is not a set in stone/static document that can never change. Times changes, new information is discovered, societies morals change.
Here is an example. When the founding fathers drafted the Constitution, owning slaves was a very common thing, and really wasn't seen (at least by the majority of the time) as a bad thing. Our founding fathers could have easily put something in the Constitution that our nation was a "slave nation" and all people in the country had the right to own at least 2 slaves per household.
Do you believe that in the year 2009 we'd still have slaves just because it was written in the Constitution? Of course not. We would have had amendments passed that would have changed all of that.
And what does it really mean to be a "Christian Nation"? Would that mean that it would be the official religion and you couldn't practice any other religion? If you did would you go to jail, or get fined perhaps? Would that mean that the laws would be based on the Bible only? Would that mean that the only science taught had to conform to biblical teachings only? I really don't see why it matters whether or not we are Christian Nation or not. I just don't see our actions and behaviors being much different than they are now.
So all of you STOP IT with the Christian Nation stuff. It just doesn't matter.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Google Ad Sense is nuts
I wanted to start a blog to post my thoughts about my life and more specifically my atheism.
I thought "hey, why not moneytize the blog, everyone else is?". So I setup a Google Ad Sense account.
Instead of "atheist type ads" they have "religious type ads". Why would someone come to my blog and want to go somewhere that supposedly offers proof of God's existence? My reading audience (all TWO OF YOU! thanks by the way!) is to smart for that. I wonder if I called Google they would change it just for me...probably not.
I thought "hey, why not moneytize the blog, everyone else is?". So I setup a Google Ad Sense account.
Instead of "atheist type ads" they have "religious type ads". Why would someone come to my blog and want to go somewhere that supposedly offers proof of God's existence? My reading audience (all TWO OF YOU! thanks by the way!) is to smart for that. I wonder if I called Google they would change it just for me...probably not.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Atheist's - Please start having more children!!
Have you ever noticed that the HUGE families are always Christian? Have you noticed that whenever someone is "blessed" (cough, gag, cough) with quadruplets/quintuplets and now the latest octuplets (to show how crazy this is, "octuplets" is not even a word that Blogger recognizes in the spell checker), they are all some sort of denomination of Christian?
The simple answer to why Christianity is still a driving force in this country is that the Christians are the one having the babies. It gets passed down the generations.
Now, I know you atheists out there are responsible people and don't want to have more children than you can realistically support. I applaud you for that. BUT, until we have a law in this country that says women can have so many children (please don't hold your breath) it's going to make the uphill battle of fighting the religious zealots that much tougher. So atheists, if you feel you can have that 3rd or 4th kid please do so. Let's raise as many critical thinking children as we can.
The simple answer to why Christianity is still a driving force in this country is that the Christians are the one having the babies. It gets passed down the generations.
Now, I know you atheists out there are responsible people and don't want to have more children than you can realistically support. I applaud you for that. BUT, until we have a law in this country that says women can have so many children (please don't hold your breath) it's going to make the uphill battle of fighting the religious zealots that much tougher. So atheists, if you feel you can have that 3rd or 4th kid please do so. Let's raise as many critical thinking children as we can.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Army of God PJ's
For the Christians that want to give their kids some protection against the scary noises coming from the attic, and the invisible monsters ready to pull them under the bed to eat them....you now have the ARMY OF GOD PJ's!!! (ominous music starts to play in the background)
If you are not familiar with this here is the website. Go over there, but I must warn you it may cause some nausea (fair warning). Come back here if you're able.
http://www.armorofgodpjs.com/
Ok, I hope you're ok, glad you made it back.
There is a thread over at Facebook which some people claim that this is some form of child abuse. I guess it all depends on your perspective. As an atheist I do believe it's a "form" of mental abuse because it perpetuates not understanding and knowing. I think a better way to handle scared kids at night is to continually convince-show them that there is not anything hiding in the closet or under the bed. Take them up in the attic and show them there are no monsters living there. Kids eventually grow out of that stage, and by giving them some sort of "magical armor pj's" you're not fostering good critical thinking skills which will be beneficial to them later on in life.
But, I digress. Someone over at Facebook thinks this is no big deal and thinks us atheists are blowing it way out of proportion. They're just fricking pajamas he says. He does have a point, in the same way that if a Klu Klux Klan member dressed his kid in pajamas with a picture of a negro hung from a tree, the kid wearing a hood over his head, and instead of a shield which says "Faith" holding a rope shaped like a noose, they're just pajamas right!?
It goes back to perspective and social acceptance. Unfortunately (at least from MY perspective) we still live in a world where promoting the "god meme" is completely ok to pass on to your kids. We do not live in a world (at least most of the world) where it's ok to pass along that hanging a negro is ok. I dream of a world where the former is not ok as well.
If you are not familiar with this here is the website. Go over there, but I must warn you it may cause some nausea (fair warning). Come back here if you're able.
http://www.armorofgodpjs.com/
Ok, I hope you're ok, glad you made it back.
There is a thread over at Facebook which some people claim that this is some form of child abuse. I guess it all depends on your perspective. As an atheist I do believe it's a "form" of mental abuse because it perpetuates not understanding and knowing. I think a better way to handle scared kids at night is to continually convince-show them that there is not anything hiding in the closet or under the bed. Take them up in the attic and show them there are no monsters living there. Kids eventually grow out of that stage, and by giving them some sort of "magical armor pj's" you're not fostering good critical thinking skills which will be beneficial to them later on in life.
But, I digress. Someone over at Facebook thinks this is no big deal and thinks us atheists are blowing it way out of proportion. They're just fricking pajamas he says. He does have a point, in the same way that if a Klu Klux Klan member dressed his kid in pajamas with a picture of a negro hung from a tree, the kid wearing a hood over his head, and instead of a shield which says "Faith" holding a rope shaped like a noose, they're just pajamas right!?
It goes back to perspective and social acceptance. Unfortunately (at least from MY perspective) we still live in a world where promoting the "god meme" is completely ok to pass on to your kids. We do not live in a world (at least most of the world) where it's ok to pass along that hanging a negro is ok. I dream of a world where the former is not ok as well.
When does ignorance become an answer Part 2
Earlier this week I said I'd comment on the following blog entry from the atheistexperience.blogspot.com website.
http://atheistexperience.blogspot.com/2009/03/when-does-ignorance-become-answer.html
Go read the above and come back.
Ok, nice to have you back.
I wanted to expound on what Traci is trying to say. Her point can be summed up in a few words. Basically she is saying that Christians in general, when they don't have an answer for something, just make something up that "seems right", or perhaps, makes them feel comfortable.
I will agree with that completely. However, I don't believe that her example was a good one. Her example about fairies in the garden is not at the same level of "understanding" as the origins of our universe. We do have explanations for how plants grow that can be easily understood by most people. I would venture to say that most Christians can "wrap their brains" around the mechanisms that allow plants/gardens to grow.
Unfortunately what happens when a Christian is presented with something that they can't explain, and as far as they know NO ONE else can either, (or they are not satisfied/comfortable with the explanation) they fall back on "god must of did it" explanation. Of course, this is not a good answer as it really doesn't answer any questions, then you have the questions of how did the god do it? Where do the god come from? Basically "god" becomes a place holder for things yet not understood.
As, I mentioned in a previous post, we are not going to advance as a species if we do not try to figure out the "seemingly" tough questions that we still do not yet fully understand. History has shown again and again that things that were once unknowable are now knowable. 20,000 years from now if we don't kill ourselves off there may be some things that are still not known. I would hope that they don't just punt, give up, and go home. We must keep plugging away to find the answers.
http://atheistexperience.blogspot.com/2009/03/when-does-ignorance-become-answer.html
Go read the above and come back.
Ok, nice to have you back.
I wanted to expound on what Traci is trying to say. Her point can be summed up in a few words. Basically she is saying that Christians in general, when they don't have an answer for something, just make something up that "seems right", or perhaps, makes them feel comfortable.
I will agree with that completely. However, I don't believe that her example was a good one. Her example about fairies in the garden is not at the same level of "understanding" as the origins of our universe. We do have explanations for how plants grow that can be easily understood by most people. I would venture to say that most Christians can "wrap their brains" around the mechanisms that allow plants/gardens to grow.
Unfortunately what happens when a Christian is presented with something that they can't explain, and as far as they know NO ONE else can either, (or they are not satisfied/comfortable with the explanation) they fall back on "god must of did it" explanation. Of course, this is not a good answer as it really doesn't answer any questions, then you have the questions of how did the god do it? Where do the god come from? Basically "god" becomes a place holder for things yet not understood.
As, I mentioned in a previous post, we are not going to advance as a species if we do not try to figure out the "seemingly" tough questions that we still do not yet fully understand. History has shown again and again that things that were once unknowable are now knowable. 20,000 years from now if we don't kill ourselves off there may be some things that are still not known. I would hope that they don't just punt, give up, and go home. We must keep plugging away to find the answers.
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