Heroes

I posted a comment on the Friendly Atheist, which I occasionally (ridiculously) do, under one of two aliases.  As usual, my opinion was not only condemned, but I was condemned, even though no one knew who I was.  No big deal, in a way, except, as I told another atheist, who tend to be prickly.  We disagree a lot.  We look down on theists.  We're obnoxious.

The great atheist heroes of the ages are not necessarily my heroes.  I admire Michael Shermer, Hemant Mehta, and sometimes Sam Harris.  Who else?  Dawkins.  I'm not sure.  Hitchens?  Definitely not.  Atheist feminist bloggers?  None so far.

The good thing about the experience is that I've decided to revive this blog, to comment more on the stupidity I see in the atheist world, to research and read more, and to write more posts.  I've also decided to disable comments, because commenting can take place on other blogs.  I get wrapped up in Twitter wars and negative commenting, but I don't want to do that here.  I want to be honest, and I might censor myself if I think a post will receive criticism.  If someone wants to comment, they can do that on their own blogs.  Trackbacks will be allowed.

I am re-reading the only atheist tome I encountered as a teenager--Why I am not a Christian by Bertrand Russell.  I'm going to re-read what I remember as idiocy written by C.S. Lewis.  I'm going to comment on theists and atheists, the Bible and other religious writings, and stop being the cowardly atheist I've been thus far (although my vehicle does sport an atheist bumper sticker).  

Christian brag

Last month, my neighbor died.  She was in her 80s, and she'd been ill, although she was still plugging along.  I delivered a eulogy at her funeral, and I couldn't stop crying.  The funeral was a strange, low key affair at the local senior center, with recordings of my friend singing and playing the guitar, and everyone from her brother to her fellow band members playing and singing tributes.

Then this old lady got up who barely knew my neighbor, and she told us that Clara was now in heaven, and she knew this because she'd read the Bible 87 times.

I turned to my mother and said, "So that's the lady who brags about reading the Bible."  My mother nodded. I'd proofread a biography of this person's life, and all she could talk about was God, not about her family or what she'd done that was worthwhile--just God.

Eighty-seven times.  She wears it like a badge.  She acts as though that gives her special insight.  She brags about her knowledge.  If she weren't so old, and if she weren't talking about the Bible, I can imagine someone slapping her across the face for her arrogance.

When I grew up in a church, humility was a big deal.  You didn't go around bragging about having read the Bible however many times.  You just did it.  You read it in Sunday school; you read it at bedtime; you read it so many times, sometimes all the way through, sometimes in snippets.  You'd try to memorize verses, but not to win a prize, but because they meant something to you.  Thus, when I'm decluttering, I find myself reciting "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth..."; when I find clothes with holes, I find myself singing "Holy, holy, holy."; when I want to stay in my room and avoid the world, I remind myself of the parable of the talents.  If you asked me right now to preach a sermon on any topic, I could do it without any preparation, because it was ground into my brain.  That's not bragging; it's just a fact.

Hypocrisy is an important word to Christians, and hypocrisy is something you want to avoid.  You want to be honest, forthright, and good.  You don't want to be like that woman, getting up before a crowd of people, bragging about how many times you've read the Bible, and giving a "message" that my friend is in a "better place" and I "will see her again."

I cried throughout my eulogy, and maybe people were surprised because they didn't know how much Clara meant to me, but at least I wasn't a phony old lady who met her once.

What it's like to be the working poor

Although I have a master's degree and a half, I've spent most of my career in underemployment.  When I was unable to obtain a decent job during this latest economic depression (I quit a soul-sucking job that paid little), I gave up, substitute taught for a year, and retired.

When you retire early, you take a lower rate of retirement, but in my state, our public employees' retirement also offers health insurance, so we are insured again at the moment--my sons until they reach age 25.  I still work at one part-time job as an independent contractor; I write occasional book reviews for pay; and I still get child support until next July, when my son turns 19.  I settled for a lower-than-legal amount of child support because it was easier than arguing with my ex-husband, and although he pays it late every month, at least he still pays it.

Both sons are in college now, attending with a combination of Pell grants, modest savings from jobs, a few scholarships (even the salutatorian failed to get any truly cushy full ride scholarships--oh, well), and student loans.  They'll both graduate with debt, but their father says that if the market improves, he'll sell one of his four houses to help them out at some point.  At the moment, though, he gives them nothing.

To give an example of how meager my income has been, during all of their school years, we were eligible for free and reduced lunches except for two years (interestingly, the income eligibility guidelines are online for many years here:  http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/governance/notices/iegs/iegs.htm).  Most of those years, we were a family of three, although for the last five years, there was always an extra teenager here--one was a refugee from an abusive mom (and from Mormonism); another stayed here because he didn't like his stepfather of the week.  I fed them, but the only rent they paid was helping with chores.

One of my sons has asthma, and he has been the trickiest to help without insurance because he needs medication.  It costs too much to get a health checkup, but fortunately, they offer sports physicals for $30, so even though he doesn't participate in sports, that's how he'd get a checkup and a prescription.  His medication cost between $35 and $85 for a refill.  For two years, he went without a checkup because the physician's assistant we'd seen was kind enough to renew the prescription when the pharmacy called him.  This last year, we took advantage of the free medication service offered by some drug companies, so he was able to get a three-month supply at a time.

Once a year, I get a fairly large tax refund, based on earned income credit.  The tax refund is spent like this:  1)  dentists  2) optometrists 3) new shoes, a pair of pants, underwear, socks, and two t-shirts for each son 4) belated Christmas presents 5) debt reduction and 6) living expenses.  A decent tax refund might last us into May or June, helping with high winter heating bills (I could average those, but it's always a relief to pay less in the summer, so I pay the higher rate in the winter).

I've visited doctors for myself three times in the last ten years.  Once, I requested a tranquilizer so I could attend my sons' band concerts (I have agoraphobia & social anxiety).  The visit cost so much that I never did fill the prescription.  Once, I was seeing spots before my eyes.  The doctor ordered blood tests and found out I was low on potassium and other essential elements/vitamins.  He ordered follow-up blood tests, but the first ones were so expensive, even with insurance, that I never went back; instead, I tried to improve my diet and I take an occasional multivitamin and the spots went away.  The third visit was a month ago, where the doctor (who was recommended) didn't seem to care, and so learned almost nothing about me.  It was a hellish experience for a recluse, but it was covered by insurance.  I may never go back, even though I have insurance.  Or maybe I'll hear about another doctor who's worth a try.

In Colorado, most towns offer a version of the 9 Health Fair, where you can get inexpensive blood tests and other health screenings.  Unfortunately, you have to wait in line for hours to receive these benefits.  I tried it once, but my anxiety over standing in line, then entering a room crowded with people got the better of me.  I left that year without getting any health screenings, and I've never tried again.

All of our immunizations take place at the county health facility, a 5-minute walk from my house.  Immunizations generally cost $10 to $15 and some are free.  A few years ago, I stepped on a nail, so I went to the county health office for a tetanus booster.  They were closed, attending a special immunization festival of some sort in a town 60 miles away.  I didn't want to drive that far, so I went to the local doctor's office.  They said that they couldn't squeeze me in for a tetanus shot, so I'd have to go to the emergency room.  That visit would cost me $185, so I drove the 60 miles for the $10 tetanus shot.

Last year, as my son was climbing down the wooden ladder from his room, he got a splinter under his fingernail, which went all the way to the base of the nail.  I knew I couldn't extract it, so we drove to my mother's house, but she was unable to extract it.  The next step was the after-hours clinic, which is supposed to be my town's inexpensive alternative for poor people with minor problems.  The nurse took one look at the splinter and said that we'd have to go to the emergency room.  My son was becoming faint from the pain, so there wasn't an alternative.  I left him there because I had to work, but I sent my daughter to sit with him.  Maybe if I'd been there, I would have found out that you can get a 50% discount if you pay half the bill within 15 days.  They gave him a local anesthetic, cut out the splinter, and he came home.  When I received the bill,  it was $866.  I paid it off in hundreds, seventy-fives, and fifties, over a period of 10 months.  Now we have insurance, but it isn't the best insurance.  It's supposed to pay 20% of the costs for emergency care, and there's a $6,000 deductible per person ($12,000 for the whole family), so I'm not really sure how much it would have helped with the cost of the splinter removal.

A 19-year-old friend of my sons works part-time (the only job he's been able to get) and suffered from a health emergency that cost several thousand dollars. He used the option to pay within 15 days, so he reduced the bill by half, but it wiped out his savings, so now he's back at square one trying to build up his savings so he can attend community college part-time.

What's good about health care in this country for the working poor?  Not much.  There's now a "free" clinic in my neighborhood, but to use it at a discount, I would have to make an appointment with the financial person in that town sixty miles away, drive to see her, and fill out copious forms.  I know this because my daughter followed this path, which is too difficult for me.

Someone in my town wrote a letter about how outrageous it is that students get free and reduced lunches, yet they have new shoes.  When I read that letter, I had just purchased my sons their new shoes for the year, and I shook my head at her ignorance.  It's sort of like Romney's ignorance when he says that we provide free care for poor people when they have a medical emergency.

Both sons needed braces.  My ex-husband actually pitched in and paid for the first son's braces, but I paid for the second at the rate of $157 a month, but at least they had a financing program, so it worked out even during the years that we didn't have dental insurance.

I haven't been to a dentist in a decade, and there's one at that free clinic, also a five-minute walk from me, so I've been plotting how I could get over there now that I have dental insurance.  With insurance, I shouldn't have to drive the sixty miles to go through the paperwork gauntlet, so that should help.  So far, though, I haven't been able to figure it out.  Does anyone provide a safety net for mentally ill people who are afraid of dentists? I wouldn't even know how to find out.  I don't have friends, so there's no one to ask for help, but hey, I'm smart, so I'll probably figure it out before I die from an infection.

In contrast, my daughter is attending school in the UK for a year, working on her master's degree (she's paying for it with thousands of dollars in loans, but it's still cheaper than attending a master's program here).  She's able to use the national health system because she's staying for a year, so she went for a checkup (her first in a long time), and they gave her a physical and excellent advice on asthma management, and when she asked how much it cost, they replied that it was free.  Free health care.  Yes, you have to pay for it with taxes, but imagine never having to worry about how to pay for a splinter.

After looking at Mitt Romney's 2010 tax return, I understand why he doesn't understand poverty. He doesn't even have to work to make money. He's never experienced the balancing act that comes from not having enough--how you have to use a patchwork of services to make sure your kids can see a dentist, get glasses, eat, get needed medications, visit the doctor, and still get a new pair of shoes every year, let alone the struggle to get them into college.  He didn't attend public schools, so he has no idea that many public schools are actually good--in fact, that's a message that no one ever states.  No one ever says, hey, this is what's right with public education.  The lives of the working poor are more complex than Romney could imagine.

Leviticus 20:22-27

Since my random Bible verse generator spit out Leviticus last week, this week I’ll finish discussing the rest of Leviticus 20, verses 22 to 27.

These verses are mainly concerned with God’s desire for people to keep true to the covenant he made with them.  If they obey the laws, they will possess “a land flowing with milk and honey.”  If they break the laws, they may be “vomit[ed] out” of the land.  The way to set yourself apart from other people is to eat only things which are clean, not unclean.  Thus, verse 25 says “Do not defile yourselves by any animal or bird or anything that moves along the ground.”  There’s more about what you can eat and what you should avoid elsewhere in Leviticus (chapter 11), but here’s an interesting verse that no one pays attention to:

Leviticus 20:27  A man or woman who is a medium or spiritist among you must be put to death.  You are to stone them; their blood will be on their own heads.

Think of all the mediums we put up with in modern life, from Sylvia Browne to Pat Robertson, from astrologers to psychics.  According to Leviticus, you can kill them by stoning and do so without the consequences of going to jail or, in the afterlife, hell.  I wonder if anyone used this is a defense against murder charges in Biblical times?  “But, your honor, that person was a medium!  The Lord commands us in Leviticus to kill all mediums.”  

As with most Bible verses, believers pick and choose.  An Orthodox Jew still keeps kosher, but he doesn’t murder astrologists.  A fundamentalist Christian claims to follow the Bible, but he ignores the verse about loving one another in favor of the verses that seem to condemn gays.  And to those of us on the outside, deriving meaning from the Bible makes no sense.

Leviticus 20: 1 to 21

It seems as though it would be much easier to re-read the Bible and write about it if I were actually reading the part I like--the Old Testament--instead of the New Testament, which I find boring (not as many battles, JC says a lot of weird, conflicting things, Paul hates women, and so on).

So I'm thought of following the old practice of picking up the book, closing my eyes, opening it and pointing to a passage, at least as a way to jumpstart my writing.  The trouble is, I can manipulate the results, so I've decided to use a random Bible verse generator.

Yeah, this is definitely more fun.  The verse that the Random Bible Verse generator gave me is this one from Leviticus  20:7-8.  "Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.  Keep my statutes and do them; I am the Lord who sanctifies you." Leviticus is a book of laws, and it establishes God as a strict guy.  A lot of the laws concern the commandment that the Israelites should worship only one God.

Let's play a game and see how many of these laws I've broken:

Leviticus 20: 2:  "Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molek is to be put to death.  The members of the community are to stone him.  3:  I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molek, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name.  4:  If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molek and if they fail to put him to death, 5: I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molek."

No problem there.  I don't worship god, let alone Molek, and I've never sacrificed anyone, let alone one of my children.

Leviticus 20: 6:  "I will set my face against anyone who turns to mediums and spiritists to prostittue themselves by following them, and I will cut them off from their people."

No problem there.  I don't believe in mediums and "spiritists" any more than I believe in God.

Leviticus 20: 9:  "Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.  Because they have cursed their father or mother, their blood will be on their own head."

I am not fond of my parents, but he seems to be talking about cursing them like a witch would.  I had no role in their deaths (one is still living), so there's no problem here.

Then we go into laws related to sex.  Verse 10:  commit adultery, but both the adulterer and the adulteress to death.  Verse 11:  Have sex with your father's wife, both will be put to death.  Verse 12:  Have sex with your daughter-in-law, both will be put to death.  Verse 13: A man has sex with a man, both will die.  Verse 14:  a man marries both a woman and her mother, they all have to be burned in fire.  Verse 15:  a man has sex with an animal, kill both.  Verse 16:  A woman has sex with an animal (or, as it says "approaches an animal to have sexual relations with it", kill both.  Verse 17: A man marries his sister and they have sex, they are to be publicly removed from their people (wow, at least aren't stoned or burned).  Verse 18:  A man has sex with a woman while she's menstruating--cut them off from their people.  Verse 19-20:  Have sex with your aunt, and you're held responsible.  the punishment?  They will die childless.  Verse 21:  Marry your brother's wife, that's impure, and you won't have children.

We were taught in Sunday School that the laws in Leviticus were designed in part to minimize conflict in a nomadic tribe.  I suppose it's good that they spell out clearly what's forbidden and what the punishments were, but since there is no god, I wonder how they made people die childless?

Next time, I'll write about the rest of Leviticus 20.

An atheist's despair

I took a long-term job subbing for a high school English teacher, and one of the topics we covered was the Bible as literature.  In spite of the teacher's warning (she came into the class to deliver this warning in person), the small class divided itself into believers and non-believers, and the believers were highly offended when one of the non-believers described the Old Testament God as an asshole.  Of course, the offended Christian was too passive to mention it that day--instead, she brought it up the next day, causing all discussion to end, and causing me to deliver a written lecture to them.  One of the examples I gave in support of God being an asshole was this verse, Deuteronomy 6:15:  "For the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land."  Sounds pretty obnoxious, doesn't it? Then I spoke for the Christians and said that they would like the non-Christians to know that their conception of God is that he is a loving God, and that the covenant changed with the New Testament.  At least after I read that, they started talking to each other again, but really, how could that girl get upset--God *is* an asshole in the Old Testament--in fact, that's the point.  An omniscient, all-powerful God is going to get grumpy.  He even becomes grumpy enough to flood the planet. This is one of the most annoying traits of Christians--their inability to hear a description that doesn't fit with what they're taught. In this case, it led to oppression of free speech, and to everyone feeling bad, or at least tense.

Notice on this list that the nature of God is described in many different terms, but they leave out grumpy asshole (hey, they even leave out angry, even though God describes himself that way): http://www.godonthe.net/evidence/atribute.htm  

Christopher Hitchens

I never managed to finish a Christopher Hitchens book, and in general, I found that his voice had a droning quality which put me to sleep. But in case you like Hitchens, you might be interested in the links featured on the C-SPAN video library blog.

Prayer

Have I ever prayed? Yes. I grew up in a church, so we prayed a lot.

There was the formal prayer that we said every week--was it before or after communion? The Lord's Prayer. There were sung prayers--the Doxology, which we sang every week. Hymns either took a position about life--e.g., "Count your blessings"; tried to teach us how to be Christians--e.g., "Have thine own way, Lord"; or were about hanging out with Jesus--"I come to the garden alone", but quite a few were either prayers or designed to teach us how to pray.

We prayed at Sunday School. In movies, we saw images of people who prayed before meals, although in my family, we only said a "thank you" prayer, a grace, on Thanksgiving.

One of my childhood books was a book of prayers which included that bizarre poem (at least to a 20th century kid) "Now I lay me down to sleep" since it was about children dying before we woke up.

And during one years-long OCD-infested period, I prayed every night for everyone. It took 45 minutes. Breaking free from that prayer was as useful as finally coming to terms with my lack of belief. Life became simpler after that.

Last week at my temporary job, a temporary colleague said, when she saw my wet hair, "No wonder you have a cold." I told her that it was an old wive's tale that you could catch cold from having wet hair, and she disagreed. I know better than to do the research that would prove her wrong. I've tried that tack before. If she is 50-something years old and still chooses to believe in the fantasy that going outside with wet hair will give you a cold caused by a virus, she isn't going to change her mind now. That's the way belief is--it's like a bad cold that keeps you from thinking clearly because your head is stuffed with nonsense.

The idea that asking for something from a non-existent being could change things--it's nonsense that I outgrew a long time ago. "I'll pray for you" or "I'll pray about that" or "God answers prayers" is such nonsense, but at least it gives you a clue about the person who makes the statement, and warns you away from revealing your true self to the one who prays.

Dinosaur, Schminosaur

If this doesn't work when you try to play it, turn off the auto option.

Atheism and faith

I read a lot of atheist blogs, which might be why I haven't posted in such a long time. I'm constantly annoyed by things I read, by other's perspectives, by plans by atheists to "convert" others to their points of view. I subscribe, then unsubscribe, and sometimes *re-subscribe* to blogs like Pharyngula. It's as though I have a desire to connect with other atheists on some level, but I'm easily appalled by actions and viewpoints of other atheists.

This is probably why I'm an atheist in the first place--I seem to be incapable of agreeing with anyone else about faith, religion, and atheism. One of my colleagues explained my atheism to another person this way (interestingly enough, he was a still-believing former minister): "She's an atheist because she *thought* about it."

Tony Blair explains that his faith and values are important to him and affected his decision-making, but he draws the line at someone who believes they have a direct line with God (yeah, because *that* would be crazy). It's gibberish, but he seems not to notice.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man

People are interested in the latest prediction of the end of the world--perhaps not because they believe in it, but because someone has the audacity to make a prediction and, as has happened before (see William Miller), the one making the prediction has followers.

Every Christian knows Matthews 24:36-44. In the King James version, the verse reads: "But of that day and hour knoweth no man." So if you're a believer, and you dare to make a prediction of the rapture, it seems as though that alone would negate your prediction. Atheists are having a great time making fun of the prediction. See Friendly Atheist here and here. But not all Christians think the prediction should be taken seriously. See: Varieties of end-time believers and Why there will be no rapture. I frequently think that atheists without a religious background find it easy to disparage all of Christianity because they view it as a monolithic entity, ignoring the diversity of opinion, interpretation, and belief that has splintered the Faith since the Reformation.

Matthew 24: 36-44:

³⁶ “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³⁷ As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ³⁸ For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; ³⁹ and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. ⁴⁰ Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. ⁴¹ Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

⁴² “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. ⁴³ But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. ⁴⁴ So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. (Matthew 24:36-44, New International Version)

High school graduation

Friendly Atheist posted today about a student who complained about graduation prayer and is suffering hatred from his classmates. I quit my last job because it was impossible for me to feel comfortable in that public school with its prayer, not just at flag poles, but before track practice, at football games, and at graduation; with teachers who taught US history, but didn't mention Watergate and seemed to have never read the Constitution; and from Christians who frequently expressed frustration with the persecution they suffered, but who openly professed their faith while the atheists could never have "come out" safely in that school.

Right on, Damon Fowler. Well done. I'm glad that atheists who are wealthier than I am are pitching in to give you a college scholarship.

Matthew 5:1-12

Another rather fun passage of the New Testament is the Sermon on the Mount.

What makes it fun are the strange, contradictory, and confusing statement Jesus makes. Christians spend a lot of time and energy analyzing the Sermon on the Mount, but a lot of it doesn't make sense. A believer might pray for understanding, or believe whatever their denomination says.

Verses 3 through 12 are called the Beatitudes, or blessings. Basically, the beatitudes say, hey, don't worry, if you don't have it now, you'll get it later. If you're poor in spirit, you get the kingdom of heaven; if you're in mourning, you'll be comforted; if you're meek, you'll get the earth; if you aren't getting righteousness, you'll get it later.

Those verses--3 through 6--cover people who are lacking something. In verses 7 through 11, Jesus addresses people who have good qualities and says they'll be rewarded. So if you're merciful, you'll be shown mercy; if you're pure in heart, you'll see God; if you're a peacemaker, you'll be called children of God; if you're persecuted because you do the right thing, you'll get the kingdom of heaven.

In verses 11 and 12, he expands on the idea of people who are mistreated. "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." I'm sure this verse brought solace to centuries of Christian martyrs, but I've also had it quoted at me by Christians who felt I wasn't getting their message. Encouraging martyrdom in this life because things will be better in the next (imaginary) life after death was one of Jesus's worst ideas.

Matthew 5

Pope John Paul II is apparently now a saint

I suppose it's because I was raised as a Protestant, but this strikes me as exceptionally silly:

Joyous Catholics celebrate beatification of John Paul II

Yeah, right, and miracles really happen. Prove it. Actually, the Vatican examines miracles, and apparently they are proven to their satisfaction.

I found out because of the photos posted on this blog.

I realize that this makes a lot of people happy, but to me it is disgusting.

The Historical Jesus

I'm watching Introduction to New Testament History & Literature with Professor Dale B. Martin, one of Yale's open courses. It reminds me of being back in Sunday School. In small town USA in the 1960s, the only moderately intellectual pursuit open to an intelligent kid was Bible study, so I spent hours studying the Bible. I especially feel like I'm back in Sunday School when Professor Martin asks us to "Open your hymnals to..." (a mistake he's made three times when he meant to say, "Open your Bibles to...").

This isn't a class you can watch in the background while you're cleaning; you actually have to pay attention.

As an atheist, I found the most recent episode interesting and worth other atheists' perusal, so I'm embedding it below. If you don't want to watch the program, however, you can read through the transcript, which is online as well. My favorite quotation?

Now there's no way you can basically get these two narratives to fit together in any respectable historical way. Does that mean that nobody's ever tried to do it? No, of course you've got all kinds of very, very smart fundamentalists who believe that the New Testament has to be accurate in every historical and scientific detail or they believe then it can't be scripture. They will figure out some way to try to make sure that both these narratives can be fit together, but what I'm telling you is that no reputable historian will accept this because you just have to fudge the stuff too much; you have to fudge the data.

Easter

When you're an atheist, a religious holiday sneaks up on you. Someone on Freecycle asked for plants and I offered her one of mine. I told her she could pick it up any time. "Oh," she emailed. "I don't want to interfere with your Easter. I'll pick it up sometime on Tuesday."

I replied that we don't celebrate Easter, so she could drop by any time.

Life is easier without silly holiday celebrations, whether secular or religious.

When I was a kid, the day started early with Easter sunrise service at 6 a.m., followed by a special breakfast served the men of the church, then a brief break for secular Easter egg hunting, then back for Sunday school singing, then the major big deal church service, then an afternoon of sleeping. It was both fun and exhausting: exhausting because we got up so early; fun mostly because we sang the "Gravy Song" (Up from the grave he arose) and "Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia."

The last time I attended church on an Easter, they didn't bother singing either of those hymns.

When I was a pre-teen, I wrote a joke in my Bible: "Easter's been cancelled; they found the body." I see that you can now buy a t-shirt with that saying.

If church were just about the singing and the songs, it would be a great place to hang out. But throw in potlucks, baptism, sexism, and a requirement in faith, and you lose me.

Matthew 4: 12-25

In Matthew 4:12, Jesus heard that John had been put in prison so he withdrew to Galilee. Here we have Jesus hiding out again. Herod threatens--time to head to Egypt. John the Baptist is arrested--time to head to Galilee. Specifically, Jesus headed to Capernaum, which Matthew says fills another prophecy from Isaiah which shows that Jesus is the Messiah.

Capernaum is one of those words that has always bugged me because of its pronunciation. One would think it would be straightforward, but you can hear it pronounced here. How do you get a "knee" sound of "n-a"? As a kid, I always figured that Capernaum must be roughly in the same location as Capernium, so it was annoying to find out they were the same place. At any rate, Capernaum is a pretty place to hang out and conduct a ministry since it's on the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus starts collecting disciples, the twelve guys who'll hang out with him throughout his ministry. Either Jesus is extremely charismatic or the disciples are tired of their jobs, because they all readily drop their life pursuits to follow him. He meets two of them, Simon Peter and Andrew, fishing and says, follow me. So they do. In the version I'm reading, the New International Version, he says Come, follow me, and I will send you to fish for people. Fish for people just isn't as poetic as the King James version: I will make you fishers of men.

He gathers a couple more disciples, Zebedee and John, who again drop everything and follow him.

Jesus teaches in synagogues, tells everyone that the kingdom of God is at hand and he heals sick people. It's the healing of the sick that makes him famous. Verse 24 lists the type of people he heals: those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy, according to King James, or those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed according to New International.

In the diverse thousands of denominations which are part of Christianity, you end up with a lot of interpretations about demon-possession. Some denominations feel that the times of demon possession are past; others interpret demon possession broadly to cover problems ranging from disbelief to the perils of modern life to the kind of possession that you need an exorcist to cast out. I view these denominations on a scale of fairly rational people to absolute whacked out crazies. But hey, they all get tax-exempt status on church property and even when they don't respect each other's beliefs, we, as atheists, are supposed to respect (or at least tolerate) them all.

Gasland

I just watched Gasland. It's more or less obligatory if you live in Garfield County, Colorado, since we're featured in it, although I more or less doubt that any of these people will watch it:

http://www.garfield-county.com/board-commissioners/index.aspx

These three Republicans do not care about the environment. These three Republicans want growth, growth, growth at all costs. Let's have fewer regulations! Bring on the gas wells!

Oh, well. I've never figured out how to be a happy environmentalist Democrat in Garfield County, Colorado.

Brilliant--the Garfield County Republican party website has a link to the "2010 CENCUS" Right on, dudes, keep up the good proofreading. You're trying to prove to me that you're ignorant illiterates, right?

The Civil War

I read too many blogs, in part because of intellectual curiosity, but in part because I feel that I should try to understand all sides of every issue. Silly me.

On the atheist side, there's Friendly Atheist, who posts too much but hey, it's Hemant, he's cool, and how else would I know about the latest atheist billboard? or, every time he posts something about vegetarianism, I would miss reading the virulent viewpoints of meat-eaters (carnivores are as ADAMANT about meat as atheists are about NO GOD).

There's Pharyngula, who thrives on being a total jerk, but occasionally posts a nice photo of a cephalopod and encourages us to Pharyngulate stupid online polls (which is fun to do). Without Pharyngula, I would never have (briefly) subscribed to Ken Ham's blog, so I wouldn't know that Ken Ham is crazy.

On the Christian side, there's a blog by one of my former ministers, a man who is nice enough, but gees, he created 3 children, and two are ministers (girls can't be ministers in the denomination I was raised in, so his daughter married a minister). I read his little mini-sermons on sex in marriage and the importance of family and how he scrubbed the floors before company because his wife was ill, and I know where's he coming from because I was raised in that church, and I always wonder why some people believe that silly book and others leave.

Christian bloggers don't offer me anything. I've been there, done that, and left decades ago. I may be mildly interested in re-reading the Bible, but there isn't much point in finding out Christian opinions about it. The world isn't about an epic struggle between good and evil; the world is about shades of gray. Life isn't about meaning; it just is. We will NEVER agree, we will always be at war, and our illusion of meaning will disappear.

Matthew 4: 1-11

I'm back after a long hiatus due to illness. It wasn't enough for me to catch something--I then took care of my mother, and caught her illness too. But all is well now, so I'm back to posting more regularly.

While I generally think of the New Testament as a vast, boring, contradictory wasteland of nonsense, much of which makes me angry, it turns out that I do like a few New Testament passages. Matthew 4, verses 1-11, is one of those. In this passage, Jesus is tested by Satan in the wilderness. Jesus is "led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil" as the New International Version puts it. He fasts for 40 days and nights, so naturally, he's hungry, but when the devil says, "Hey, Jesus, why don't you use your powers to turn these stones into bread?" he replies "Man does not live by bread alone..." Then the devil says, "Hey, you're Jesus, throw yourself off the temple because God will send his angels to save you." Jesus replies, "Nope. We're not supposed to test God." So then Satan says, "I'll give you all this great earthly splendor stuff if you'll deny God and follow me" and Jesus replies, "Heck no, I'm only going to serve God."

Why do I like this passage? For several reasons. It starts with the 40 days and nights of fasting. That always reminded me of American Indian vision quests, and it also alludes to the 40 days and nights that it rained on Noah, and the 40 years that the Israelites spent wandering in the wilderness. I also like that Satan tests him 3 times, which is the same number commonly used for tests in fairy tales. In fact, the fairy tale aspects of these verses might be my favorite part.

I also like the language, from stones being made into bread to "Man shall not live by bread alone."

You can read the entire passage here: New International Version or King James Version.