religionisbullshit.net

The server this site is on has just had its php upgraded. This has had the interesting effect of stopping everything from working properly. I'm currently trying to get it all sorted and, hopefully, have a bit of a tidy up around here. In the meantime, feel free to look around - there is actually some good stuff hidden in this mess of a website.

It would have been nice if all the people who have been foaming at the mouth following the recent comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury on Sharia law recently had have found out what he actually said first.

He's still wrong thought, for the reasons highlighted in this post by the Pub Philosopher. I don't always agree with Pub, but here he points out exactly why religious groups should never be given any power, even as an "alternative" authority that is available to certain sections of society (the post also shows how in many ways the state is what allows freedom, something that most conservative/right-wing people don't seem to understand. But you don't want to get me started on that subject ...)

It seems that the UK's "ancient, discriminatory, unnecessary, illiberal and non-human rights compliant" blasphemy laws - which are generally ignored anyway - are likely to be abolished [BBC News story].

Although certain religious groups will be seriously pissed off by this, it seems that many high profile Christians are in favour of the law being abolished. Lib Dem MP Evan Harris points out the obvious:

"The Almighty does not really need the protection of these ridiculous laws and that's why large numbers of people of a religious perspective share the view that these offences need to be abolished".

... it's been a while. Thought I'd give the place a new coat of paint before adding any new content.

I doubt that this blog will be updated very often - it's just too frustrating to write. There are only a certain number of times you can point out the flaws in Pascal's wager, or point out that evolution is not about things "all growed by random" - before going completely insane, and keeping up with religion in the news is impossible (in some ways all the don't know whether to laugh or cry at stories are encouraging - the fanatics and nutters are shouting louder because religion in the mainstream is becoming more and more irrelevant, at least in the UK).

There are other things I will be doing soon though; writing an FAQ page (to send people to instead of having to answer the same questions over and over again), adding more of the responses to the questionnaire, adding a page in response to an atheism section I found on a Christian website, and probably some more articles.

In the meantime, Brother Jeff appears to be back (I'd like to draw attention to this post - I like Marcus Brigstocke and hadn't heard this before) so pay him a visit if you're bored. Or, you could visit the recently opened Religion is Bullshit store (yeah, I know, but, well, you know ... and, well, why not?) to help spread the word ...

And, as an experiment, comment moderation is off. So, feel free to tell me that Jesus loves me and/or I'm going to hell and all that - you might give me more material for the FAQs.

P.S. help spread the word further with these printable flyers!

Hey everyone, this is JGJ, but you can call me Jim if you like. I decided to make a post after a long hiatus. Hey! I actually had time to devote to one as I wait for the new carpet in my house.

So, anyway, here it goes.

I am a relativist. I am a classical liberal who believes that people are entitled to their own beliefs, especially when it comes to belief in a god or not. You may be wondering why someone like me is posting in a blog called "Religion is Bullshit" and claim that people are entitled to their beliefs. Easy, religion has little to do with belief in a god and everything to do with the 'establishment' or the business we know as religion. Maybe more on that later.

When I meet someone and they start talking about religion, I mentally classify them as one of three things, Christian, Agnostic, or Atheist. From there, I break it down even further. For example:

I categorize Christians in two groups. There are Strong Christians and Weak Christians. Strong Christians are those Bible-thumping, door-to-door salesmen of the Holy Word, Missionaries who get thrown into Turkish prisons, go to Church, Bible Study, Bible Camp, etc. and wear a t-shirt with some kind of Christian slogan like “Got God?” These are the progenitors of such lame excuses for death, catastrophe, and atheists like: “I’ll pray for you,” “Jesus still loves you,” and my all time favorite “Hope you enjoy your special place in Hell.” There are several other clichés, they are just too numerous to list here. You see these people standing on corners preaching on their soapboxes to the passing masses. Holding prayer vigils in public places and showing the world their faith like a teen girl at a Christian Rock concert. I tell you this, they have their reward. These evangelistic people fail to realize they do not even follow Jesus; they follow the latter day writers who ended up in the Bible. Jesus warned against preaching to the Gentiles and recommended only preaching to the lost sheep of Israel, Jews. Strong Christians have religious fundamentalist leaders like the late Jerry Falwell, John Calvin, Pat Robertson, St. Augustine, and Oral Roberts. These people are usually politically conservative.

Christians who bounce back and forth between the two ends are those who attend Church off and on, perhaps even every Saturday/Sunday. They do pray aloud in church or at the dinner table, but all-in-all they are not very intrusive into others lives. When confronted with death, catastrophe, and atheists, they usually either just stop talking to you or spit out weaker, less insulting clichés like, “you have to believe in something,” or “I found Jesus, why can’t you?”, or my favorite “what happened to make you hate God?” These are probably the most uninteresting type of Christians there are since they aren’t freaks and although they will sometimes put up a fight with an atheist they usually end up frustrated and say things like “You have already made up your mind and there is no point in trying to convince you.

The third type of Christian is probably the most common type these days. The Weak Christian rarely goes to church but does not consider themselves as agnostic. Religion is more of a social thing. Something to mark on a survey instead of “None” because they believe denying the existence of God is too risky, or going to church every week interferes with their weekend. They may stop in from time to time, a few times a year, or make promises to themselves that they will go, but generally they don’t follow through with it. When confronted with death, catastrophe, and atheists they can be angry at God, confused at how God could let something like Katrina happen, or when confronted by an atheist can be curious and may even share their own doubts. They are the most tolerant of the Christians when exposed to other religions and atheists. Politically, these people are usually liberals.

After Christians come the Agnostics. There are two basic kinds of Agnostics, Weak and Strong. Weak agnostics are sometimes theists, believing in an unknown “higher power” or believe it is possible there is some kind of “creator deity” out there who created the universe and perhaps abandoned it. But in both cases they have no idea if what they say is true or not, only the possibility is there since we could never know for sure unless God came to dinner. These people are fun because they are constantly in a state of flux and doubt and you can throw logic at them which can completely befuddle their brains. Their beliefs can be compared to those who think we are actually in some kind of Matrix computer simulation since their lackluster logic has the same premise.

Next you have the Strong Agnostic. Strong Agnostics are think we can’t know, it is impossible to know, and so neither confirm nor deny. Of course, you can’t know a lot of things. I can be agnostic about what is going to happen tomorrow, but I’m not sticking an agnostic psychic label on myself because of it. You can know (currently disregarding the philosophical arguments of what it is to ‘know’) God exists because belief in God is a leap of faith, and faith doesn’t require solid knowledge. You can also know God does not exist by not taking a leap of faith. But, it doesn’t mean you have to disregard everything you don’t know for sure, and can’t know for sure, but believe anyway. Like belief in scientific theories, anything involving quantum mechanics, etc. doesn’t require you actually see the individual molecules first hand or experience ‘spooky action at a distance’ with your neighbor’s wife; it just requires believing the data and evidence delivered to you is accurate. It too, is a leap of faith. Christians would say, well if you can make the leap for science, why not God? Easy, at least someone has some evidence for scientific theories, all you can say about God is because something exists, God exists. That is not evidence; that is religious faith. A requirement of religious faith is that you cannot test it, tempt it, or doubt it, and must go to it like children running to a strange man holding a puppy.

An atheist is one who disbelieves in one or more supernatural beings. All those people I have listed above are atheists of some sort. There are at least four different kinds of atheist. Strong, weak, implicit, and explicit atheists. Strong atheists will fight Christians tooth and nail to get their belief of “no supernatural deity exists” and will sometimes shun any religious fundamentalist as sub-human. You could even say that Strong Atheists are Non-Religious Fundamentalists. They are fundamentalist in the sense they are strict adherents of being without a belief in any form of god.

Weak atheists are those who deny specific deities. They are members of all religions, except those who follow Hinduism. Hindus accept all names and descriptions of god, because they all represent the many faces of god. But, that is as far as they will go; you usually won’t see them at Mass or fasting for Tammuz. Of course, there are those who know nothing of gods, demons, spirits, and the like which brings us to implicit and explicit atheists.

Implicit atheists are those who do not believe in gods, etc. because they don’t know there IS a belief in god for natural reasons. They may have never exposed to it, be a newborn, or have been raised by wolves in the Canadian Rockies. I have only met the newborn kind, so there is not much to say about these people except they are lucky bastards.
Explicit atheists are a group which encompasses all forms of conscious denial of gods. Strong and Weak atheists, and all but Hindus are Explicit atheists because they have a choice to believe or not.

I hope this post gives my pal Ben something to ponder, or even just a well deserved break. But this is how I categorize people whenever the subject of religion comes up. It is all pure opinion and whether or not you agree with it or disagree with it is your own opinion and I respect that. After all, I’m a relativist.

Criminy, I've never been tagged before. Scandalous, I know. The rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Rules 4 and 5 can piss off for a start. I'm like Dear Deirdre offering to accept chain letters from sadsacks unable to believe they won't come a cropper if they don't forward it on. Also, I don't know 8 other bloggers well enough to tag them. If anyone wants to join in in the comments though, go nuts - and I'm in a good mood, so that includes RHF if he's still around, bless 'im.

Random Facts/Habits.
1. I make me own sushi.
2. If someone (ie Anna) distracts me whilst I'm locking the front/car door, it takes precisely 11 seconds for me to become convinced I didn't do it. Many's the Saturday you can see me scurrying back across Tesco's car park to check.
3. There is no god but Nintendo.
4. I say the phrases "it's sort of like" and "yeah I was gonna say" far more than is healthy.
5. I have tasted bird shit. Not deliberately, mind, but that's hardly saving face, is it?
6. One day I will return (possibly triumphant) to New Zealand.
7. I am quite possibly incapable of writing a blog post without referring to New Zealand.
8. My grandma and grandad know Engelbert Humperdinck.