Trust me, I used to be an Atheist

Category : Religion

I find it quite telling when the religious claim their words carry extra weight if they label themselves as “Ex-Atheist”, As if it added the same kind of Validity that comes from being Ex-Religious; It is telling because, like most of their beliefs, its based on what sounds good, rather than being based on solid ground.

We are all Born Atheist, with no pre-programmed beliefs, with no notion of a God and free from imposed thoughts; Every religious person is “Ex-Atheist”. The label offers no extra bang for your buck, It is little more than a statement of the Obvious; By being a Theist, the fact you were once an Atheist is logically implicit.

Being Ex-Religious, however, demonstrates that you have been through the intellectual imposition, that you have accepted the indoctrination like most children do, that you have had these beliefs instilled into your very core when your sense of self was at its most malleable. The extra weight comes in the fact that these individuals have had to fight against what would come naturally to them, they’ve had to question beliefs they cannot remember not having, often a cardinal sin in itself, they’ve had to go against their parents, their culture, their society and all in the name of Truth. At any moment they could of went for the easier, comfortable route, they could of hid behind a cloud of Faith and pushed uncomfortable thoughts aside; This instinct they resisted.

To offer a metaphor; One is offering to look after your child and believes to be the best choice because they have experience looking after children, another makes the same offer, thinking themselves a better choice, because they “used to be a child.”

A response in Kind

Category : Politics, Religion

Hugh Dallas, head of referee development for the Scottish Football Association has been sacked because he passed on, by eMail, a joke about the pope. His dismissal was called for by a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. This nasty little weasel is called Peter Kearney, Director of the Scottish Catholic Media Office.

Similarly, the Chief Executive of the Scottish Football Association, responsible for this craven giving-in to Catholic censorship is Stewart Regan.

It is clear to me that the Scottish Catholic Media Office and Stewart Regan both need to learn a lesson in humor, it would be a tragedy if they spent their miserable little lives with only a frown for a face.

So, take a moment of your time and send some pope oriented humor to these poor, poor individuals and organizations, so that they may know of the world of laughter they’re missing out on.

The above picture is what he was fired over, so feel free to re-send them that, or if you’re feeling adventurous, send something brand new for them to sample.

mail@scmo.org - To send some joy to the unhappy catholics.

info@scottishfa.co.uk - To show Stewart Regan just how common humor is on planet earth, and that it is nothing to fire a person over.

Please, even if you don’t send them an e-mail (though you should), Re-blog or pass this message along to anyone you know who has a sense of humour.

Thank you!

The "C" words

Category : Blogging

Some of you (hopefully all of you) will of noticed a significant change to my blog as of last night, No longer am I operating under the pseudonym "Splitting of the Adam" but have instead opted to embrace a new pseudonym; "Clever Carbon".

"Why?" I hear you ask with great interest, for a number of reasons really, some more interesting than others. "Splitting of the Adam" is long-winded and not as easy to remember as I would of wished, whereas "Clever Carbon" is shorter, catchier and comes with the bonus of having the magic of Alliteration. I'm hoping this will lead to a slightly improved Marketing situation.

"Splitting of the Adam" is also a pun and a bad pun at that, but if that wasn't enough it wasn't even my first choice of a bad pun. I initially wanted "Splitting the Adam", but some asshole had already hopped on the name, depriving me of the pleasure. Calling the owner of that blog an asshole may seem a bit harsh, but it turns out he hasn't even used the bloody blog! It's just sitting there, with no posts, no information, selfishly taking up a decent URL.

I've also decided that a pun on "Splitting the Atom" is a slight misrepresentation; "Splitting the Atom" was a scientific endeavor and my blog has yet to cover much science. What I think my blog represents is a world view, a world view that has been shaped by great people and one of those great people is Carl Sagan.

Sagan introduced me to a truth that had eluded me by hiding in plain sight, a truth which he described in his TV show "Cosmos".

"The Cosmos is also within us; We're made of Star Stuff. We are a way, for the Cosmos to know itself"

And So I embrace what I am, what we all are, we're little specks of Carbon born from the center of an exploding star, but what separates us from all the other lumps of Carbon in the Universe is that we alone know what we are. We are all Clever Balls of Carbon.

Thus, Clever Carbon

To go with this change I've also changed the Address at which you can reach me with questions or suggestions for topics (if you don't want to use the comment feature). You can now reach me at CleverCarbon@hotmail.com

Atheism Myths #2

Category : Atheism

In my previous "Atheism Myths" post about Atheism requiring faith, I lightly touched on something that I wish to expand on today. The myth in question is that secular atheists and Religious folk are the same, more specifically that secular atheists are not only actually religious but that all the "faults" they see with Religion they are also guilty of.

"Tu Quoque!"

I have found that this is one of the most pervasive and often used tactics of Religious apologists and atheists-who-think-atheists-should-STFU. Most of the time it is little more than using specific language or phrases that implies that they're being hypocrites, sometimes the accusation is slightly less superficial...though still just as insipid and invalid.

For example!

"Atheism requires faith!" falls into the latter category, but phrases like "Atheist fundamentalist" or "Militant Atheist" fall into the former. But the overall tactic is to say "You're just as bad as us, therefore you cannot criticize us. Hypocrites!".

I've always found it a little strange that this tactic is used so often by religious people (though it is not so strange when other atheists use it) mostly because it seems to me like they're cutting off their nose to spite their face. The Religious think that "Faith" is a virtue, a good thing...So why would they present "Atheists have faith!" as a bad thing? Surely thats like an Atheist saying "Religious people use REASON!" and saying it is a bad thing.

Its tacitly admitting that your own position is so undesirable that you can use "you're just like me" as a weapon.

But beyond the weird mental-acrobatics required to even use the tactic, it is demonstrably inaccurate. We've already been through how atheism doesn't require faith, so I won't go through it again, but I haven't touched on the stupidity behind "Atheist Fundamentalists" as a phrase. Luckily, though, it doesn't take long to poke holes in.

RELIGIOUS Fundamentalists Stone people to death for everything from eating a hamburger to not letting your husband rape you.

ATHEIST Fundamentalists write books on Religion.

RELIGIOUS Fundamentalists Fly planes full of innocent people into buildings full of innocent people.

ATHEIST Fundamentalists promote science and education unapologetically.

RELIGIOUS Fundamentalists Kill their own children because they think that going to a doctor would be "Against God's will"

ATHEIST Fundamentalists start summer camps for children of secular parents/children with an interest in science.

RELIGIOUS Fundamentalists Stand in the way of Justice, liberty and human rights wherever they go.

ATHEIST Fundamentalists write blog's on the internet. Like this one.


If you can't see how the comparison is ridiculous, then you can't see.

Protest the Pope - Protesters eye view

Category : Religion, Activism

A friend and ex-classmate of mine, Liam "Kroaky" McGuire (Youtube channel here), recently descended on London (along with a few thousand other people) to protest the Pope's state visit for the aptly named "Protest the Pope Rally". Whilst there are lots of video's circling the Internet, making their rounds in the blogosphere, they often don't show the scale of the protests very well which I feel is a shame. Luckily for us, however, Good old Kroaky brought his video camera along and shot some great footage from within the very heart of the march.

Enjoy!

The Story of the Forgetful Pope

Category : Religion, Stupidity

So as you may, or may not, know The UK is currently paying a deluded man, in a hat the size of his torso, £12,000,000 pounds to wander aimlessly around England and Scotland spreading his delightfully insane and often hateful message to any who will listen. You may of heard of this individual, to people like me he goes by the name "Joey the Rat", but he more commonly goes by the name "The Pope".

Today I will be ignoring most of the plethora of ironic holes that Mr Rat digs for himself on an hourly basis...such as Telling people to put their fate in the hands of God whilst standing behind bullet-proof glass, Preaching tolerance whilst labeling homosexuals as inherently evil and Claiming the Moral high ground whilst being at the heart of a world wide, decades long Child Rape cover-up...Instead I will be focusing on one in particular.

You see, Mr Rat is clearly not happy with the level of controversy that he's involved in. He may be responsible for the deaths of tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of deaths in Africa by stopping the distribution of Condoms to places with incredibly high rates of HIV/AIDS, He may be an Enabler of Pedophile priests, But today he showed that this is not enough by recanting a version of both history and the present day that managed to break my bullshit-o-meter.

"Even in our own lifetime, we can recall how Britain and her leaders stood against a Nazi tyranny that wished to eradicate God from society and denied our common humanity to many, especially the Jews, who were thought unfit to live. I also recall the regime’s attitude to Christian pastors and religious who spoke the truth in love, opposed the Nazis and paid for that opposition with their lives. As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the twentieth century, let us never forget how the exclusion of God, religion and virtue from public life leads ultimately to a truncated vision of man and of society and thus to a “reductive vision of the person and his destiny”"

Seems like Mr Rat needs to brush up on his history! Which is certainly very Odd considering he wasn't just alive and in Germany during the Nazi regime, but was actually a part of the Hitler youth.

He should know that the Catholic Church quite liked Hitler, had good relations with Nazi Germany, That Hitler was actually catholic for a good deal of his life (though he later adopted things from eastern religions, he kept his Catholic/Christian roots) and that none of the Catholic higher-ups in the Nazi party were ever excommunicated for their actions...except for Goebbels who's unforgivable sin was marrying a protestant. So first and foremost, he's somewhat overlooking the Catholic church's lurid involvement with the Nazi's. He's also definitely forgetting Catholicisms long and illustrious history of antisemitism.

But the main point of contention is Hitlers supposed "Atheism". If he really was an atheist, then these seemingly endless quotes by him beg to differ

If he really was an Atheist, then he wanted to be the only one! Seeing as he outlawed all Atheist and Freethinking groups in 1933. He even Beheaded one of the Chairmen of the German freethinkers league.

I'm sure there is plenty of other evidence that not only rebuts any claims of Hitlers Atheism and confirms his solid belief in God and having quite a bit of love for Christianity...But I think that simply pointing out Hitlers own words and actions Is good enough for a quickly written blog post.

Swing and a miss Mr Rat.

Swing and a miss.

An Atheist at a Funeral

Category : Personal, Religion

My Granddad died 2 weeks ago and today was his funeral.

This is only the second funeral I have ever been to and though I did not have a blog for the last one you can consider the content of this blog post to cover both, as every complaint and observation that I have today could be applied just as equally to the last one.

Now call me crazy, but when I go to a funeral I expect to hear about the person who has died. I'm going to go as far as even saying that I pretty much ONLY want to hear about the person who has died. I don't care about the weather, I don't care about the economy, I don't care about what's on TV; When I'm at a funeral, the guy in the casket should rightly be the center of attention, I was also under the impression that such a belief would be commonplace. So what the fuck happened Christianity? Since when did it become appropriate to hijack a funeral and since when did the average populous accept said hijacking as par for the course?

In order from "Most talked about" to "Least talked about", here is what was talked about during the 20 minute service

1. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
2. God's mercy, God's love, God's rippling body.
3. My Granddad

Without any hyperbole, without even the smallest exaggeration, My Granddad was the least talked about thing at the whole goddamn funeral. The only way you can bump my Granddad from the bottom of the list is by including the two short hymns that were sang; Both of which, you guessed it, centered entirely around praising God.

And I've really got to stress how often the vicar/preist/man-in-dress-and-collar went on about Gods mercy, It was like it was the word of the day. At first I thought I was just noticing the words that stood out because of the context, like at my nan's funeral the vicar kept going on about how we should fear and love God and I was seemingly the only person to find such a commandment to be eerily (and accurately) reminiscent of a Tyrannical rule when the peasants have had to convince themselves that fearing their Tyrant is a good thing. Imagine if your next Presidential/Prime ministerial candidate's main platform was "Fear me, Love me, I shall be your lord", how quickly would he get shut down as both an Ego-maniac and a psychopath...

BUT The more I listened, the more often he seemed to say it. I started counting about 10 minutes into the service (after a number of mentions of "Mercy") And by the end I had counted 14 mentions of "Mercy" or "Merciful". Now, Correct me if I'm wrong but you only describe someone as merciful, or as showing mercy, if in ordinary situations the consequences would be far worse and usually those worse consequences are resulting from an impersonal system.

Example - A thief is caught by a policeman, but because it was his first offense, even though the Law (a system which the policeman has no control over and did not create) says that he should be taken into custody, the cop decides to be merciful and let him off with a warning after confiscating the stolen goods. That is mercy.

However, God DOES have control over the systems he is displaying mercy over, and in fact put them in place, so he is only merciful through his own design. Putting a system in place where EVERYONE is bound to hell, regardless of crimes or lack thereof and then saying "Oh but i'm merciful, i'm loving, all you have to do is worship me and i'll spare you" is NOT mercy, it is manipulation, it is blackmail, it is extortion.

BUT God's mercy was only number 2 on the list, What we really heard about the most was Jesus. Jesus this, Sacrifice that, Resurrected this, Savior that.

EXCUSE ME, you deluded Christian assholes, but you have been going on non-stop about your favorite dead guy for the past 2000 years. Do you think that you can spare 20 fucking minutes, of time we've PAID you to spare, to talk about my granddad who died 2 weeks ago? Do you think you can manage that without turning it into a Jesus-ass-tonguing festival? Did the fact that we arrive on a Thursday, not a Sunday, and walking behind a coffin not tip you off to the fact we are NOT HERE TO LISTEN ABOUT JESUS? Do you think you could wipe Gods Cum off your face for just a little while?

Best part though? It turns out, and these paraphrased words came out of the vicars mouth during the service, that no one knew if My Granddad had any religious faith or beliefs of any kind. Nobody had a clue whether he even believed in God, let alone specifically in Yahweh, Let alone in Christianity. God and Religion had been so important in my granddads life that he never mentioned it to anyone, yet the majority of his funeral was taken up with kissing the Ass of a God my granddad almost certainly did not give a fuck about. I swear I could of took a dump in the font.

Christianity is a vile religion, even the completely benign version I encountered today, which has shown time and time again that it will exploit any circumstance, any grieving person, any pulpit to spread its propaganda.

I will be making sure that Any funeral I have will be void of such bullshit, disrespect and superstition.

My Granddad deserved better.

~~~~

On a lighter note, I now have twitter! You can follow me here @CleverCarbon. Don't expect me to make sense, because I don't plan on making any.

And, as ever, you can contact me directly at splittingoftheadam@hotmail.co.uk

Atheist Blogroll

Category : Administration

Splitting of the Adam has become a proud new addition The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar which lists over a thousand Atheist and agnostic centric blogs from all over the blogosphere. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist and Agnostic bloggers, so that they may share their opinions with the world. If you would like to join please visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts, who spearheaded this initiative, for more information.

I hope that this will bring a few new faces to this blog and bring you a few new blogs to show your face at.

~E pluribus unum ~ Out of many, one

Karma Chameleon

Category : Strange Beliefs

I'm not exactly sure why I've been thinking about Karma recently, maybe I just want an easy target to vent some frustration on, maybe I subconsciously feel that the last time I encountered the subject of Karma I didn't shine a big enough light on the flaws I saw. Who knows? What I do know is that, if Karma does exist, Karma must of done something really bad to deserve the whooping it is about to receive.

First, however, I need to verify what version of "Karma" we're going to be discussing. Just like with gods, there are many different types, some of which barely fit the description of "God", some are supremely vague and some are curiously specific (such as knowing what gender God is, or what God thinks about 'Family Guy'). So, just so there's no confusion, I will be dealing with westernised Karma because It is the version I hear described the most often and the version I mainly encounter. I'm well aware that this version of Karma can be very different from other versions of Karma, but if Karma wasn't so bleeding vague it wouldn't have to worry about being misrepresented, would it?

westernised Karma is, as I've said, what I've encountered the most frequently and its traits are seemingly agreed upon by those who share the belief (IE, of all the people I've encountered who believe in "Karma", none of them have dismissed or challenged the following description as inaccurate), These traits are as follows

• Karma Is a natural force of justice/balance that exists in the universe.
• Karma affects people while they are alive, not after death
• The affect of Karma is that good actions lead to good rewards, bad actions lead to bad consequences. IE If you do something good, Karma will see to it that something good happens to you and Vice Versa.
• In some variations the consequences of actions are "Multiplied". Some state that something "3x better will happen to you if you do something good" some state that "3 good things will happen to you for every 1 good thing" and Vice versa.
• There is no time limit on Karma, the consequences can happen whenever, but they will always happen.

And that's pretty much it. Westernised Karma is pretty shallow and bland. Though, from what I've been reading about eastern views on Karma, what it lacks for in mysticism and "depth" it makes up for in being straightforward. It is easily tested, easily examined, easily disputed at length...So easy, in fact, that It should be embarrassing to anyone who actually believes it.

But, alas, people aren't embarrassed to believe it and here are some "Examples of karma" that have been given by believers. These are all true testimonials but have been paraphrased.

- 2 High school kids gang up and beat up another kid because he's gay (once, minor injuries). The next day one of them had a trip, broke his arm and had a severe head injury resulting in minor brain damage, at some other unspecified time the other broke his leg in a motorcycle accident.

- Having helped tutor failing students for 18 weeks, some of who were mentally challenged, they find a $100 bill on their drive way.

- Employee 'A' was talking badly about employee 'B' behind their back, Employee 'A' was also stealing from the business. Employee 'A' was fired, lost her home, became bankrupt, is now living on the streets and (judging from a description) has had a complete nervous breakdown due to those circumstances.

- Girlfriend cheats on boyfriend, then dumps boyfriend. Later gets herpes from new boyfriend.


Quite a diverse list, isn't it? Though it doesn't take much critical thought to spot some common themes.

First of all, they're all completely disproportionate. A girlfriend is unfaithful and Karma gives them an incurable disease. A co-worker is bitchy and a thief, so Karma takes absolutely everything from them; their job, their home, their money, their mental health, everything. 18 weeks of selfless work, rewarded with someone else's money. If Karma existed and these were examples of Karma in action then to call it a force for "Justice" or "Balance" would be outrageous, It would be more accurate to call it a force of merciless vengeance or shallow bribery. Which brings me to observation two.

Karma is as sadistic as the sadists who believe in it. In all of the negative cases (IE bad things happening to the "bad"** people) the individuals who described them were all happy those things happened, some were overjoyed, practically high fiving themselves. They were unashamedly taking pleasure in the suffering of others and expressed exactly zero problem with the consequences or the nature of their suffering. To break it down into something more specific, something was injuring, infecting, stealing and destroying people on someone else's behalf without any given consent, without there being any form of recourse and those who are having this force act on their behalf are perfectly okay with this system.

Apply those actions to a human being, rather than some ineffable cosmic magic, would we see those actions as just? Would we hold them up as morally idyllic? Would we be happy to let this person carry out these judgements and actions?

NO

We would quite rightly condemn them as a tyrannical, amoral, psychopathic, egomaniacal Vigilante. Hell I wouldn't be so sure that "Terrorist" sounds so out of place.

And therein lies the source and the major fault with believers of Karma; None of them have thought about it for the minutest of moments and it is as obvious as these straightforward conclusions. Karma appeals to our feral nature, our mob mentality, our innate desire to see a version of "Fair" that selfishly favours ourselves and it plays directly to our pattern seeking brains. It is a base belief that is easily thrown off, but only if believers attempt some higher thinking.

To draw back on the examples, and in fact almost all examples of karma I have ever been given, they always amount to very localised, very minor occurrences in the believers life. But what about the rest of the world? If Karma were a truly universal force, it would not be localised, it would not only work some of the time. In a universe where Karma existed as anything more than a sadistic, selfish delusion, it would be impossible for "bad" people to get ahead in life and it would be impossible for a "good" person to be left behind. No tyrant could kill and destroy his way through life, selfishly hoarding everything for himself whilst others suffer, only to die happily at a ripe old age without ever having to suffer a single consequence. No innocent child could suffer for their entire life, only for it to end without respite, without a happy ending.

Yet, that is undeniably the unfair, unfeeling, uncaring, reality with live in; A reality which cannot be explained or co-exist with Karma as described. Personally, I'm glad we live in this reality rather than one governed by the malicious, unbalanced, unaccountable force that people call Karma.

Perhaps if we lived in a universe governed by the Karma they describe rather than the Karma they present then perhaps I would wish to live in it. Perhaps.

But in this reality? In this universe? There is no Karma. There is only the selfish, wishful, uncritical thinking of Sadists and the cold unfeeling nature of chance.




** I'm aware things like "Bad" and "good" are purely subjective, but I will qualify it as actions which negatively or positively, but demonstrably, affect a persons rights, well being, prosperity, success or relationships.

- - -

If you'd like to see posts more often e-mail me with topics/stories/articles/discoveries you'd like me to cover! You can reach me at splittingoftheadam@hotmail.co.uk

Female Priests are as bad as Child rapists

Category : Religion

That, at least, is the now official stance of the Catholic church

The Vatican today made the "attempted ordination" of women one of the gravest crimes under church law, putting it in the same category as clerical sex abuse of minors, heresy and schism.

Yes it seems that The Vatican has made another step towards its vision of a world time-locked somewhere in the mid 14th century by making women in the priesthood a notion that should be greeted with the same disgust as the rape of children. It's also worth pointing out that, considering the RCC's recent conduct, the RCC likely finds the ordination of women a much more heinous crime of that of child rape.

After all, a priest now caught trying to ordain a woman will now be excommunicated, whereas priests caught sexually abusing a child are just sent to a new parish! And what about in cases where it's not a priest? Well THEN there are excommunications...of the victims family.

But the most disheartening part of this whole story? That the introduction of this rule means that there are women, catholic women, who want to be an official part of this unashamedly misogynistic organisation. I can't grasp how any sentient person could be so taken in, so enveloped by their indoctrination, that they would not see this for what it is; It is like a Jew wanting to join the KKK, it's like a Vegan running a Slaughterhouse.

But that's not the only thing.

The pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, stressed that the changes applied solely to canon, or church, law. They had no bearing on whether suspected offenders should be reported to the civil authorities.

To translate that from PR-code into regular spoken English, The Church has no opinion on whether crimes, or people suspected of committing crimes (like child rape) should be reported to the police/civil law/Secular law. An organisation which prides itself on morals (lol) and justice, does not care either way if child rapists ought to be reported to the police.

Charming eh?

This is just another Item on a long list of reasons why I am amazed that there are regular people who are catholic. If I was catholic, and had a sense of morality, I would be deeply ashamed of my church and vocal in opposition to its hateful stances. Sadly, Catholics are seemingly neither.

Atheism Myths #1

Category : Atheism

So it has been a while since I've (metaphorically speaking) spat into the ocean of opinion that is the internet blogosphere and I thought the best way to remedy this would be, rather than wait for inspiration to hit me or to stumble across something that hasn't already been pounced upon by PZ Myers, to start a little series of posts that I can churn out fairly quickly that deal with popular and/or commonly accepted myths about Atheism. Without further ado, lets look at myth #1!

"Atheism Requires Faith!"

Now I'm sure that any atheist who happens to be, or is in close proximity to an atheist, involved in a debate with a theist then the above sentiment is almost bound to come up at some point. Usually right around the time when the whole unfortunate (for the theist) reality of "You have no evidence for any of your God claims" rears its, frankly, beautiful head. Perhaps you've heard it expressed in a different way, possibly with more expletives, possibly said in a tone dripping with condescension. Rest assured, it is said with exactly zero understanding of atheism and from a position of complete ignorance.

Atheism, in and of itself, is not a claim. Atheism, in and of itself, is nothing more than lacking belief in theism; A- (without) -theism (a belief in God). You would think, considering the clue is in the word itself, that people would not make this aggressively stupid mistake over and over again.

But, as we will go into in subsequent 'Atheism Myths' posts, this is but one of the many tactics that apologists use to smear atheism as being "No different than us". A tactic that only works in the minds of theists.

In terms of faith, Atheism cannot be described as being a position of "Having faith in the claim that there is no God" because that asserts that atheism is, falsely, making a positive claim rather than rejecting/not accepting a positive claim. Atheism, therefore, could be more accurately described as lacking faith in the claim that there is a God. From this we can deduce that anyone claiming that Atheism requires faith is essentially claiming that you need faith to lack faith; A notion that truly is a stupid as it sounds.

Atheism does NOT require faith - QED

Stay tuned for more

PS. If you'd like to see posts more often e-mail me with topics/stories/articles/discoveries you'd like me to cover! You can reach me at splittingoftheadam@hotmail.co.uk

Why can't we all get along?

Category : Anti-theism

"Why can't we all get along?"

It's a sentiment I hear an awful lot, a lot more than I would like to, in discussion surrounding the harm of idea's and beliefs. Its a phrase often accompanied with many other clichéd sentiments like "you shouldn't attack peoples beliefs" or "Judge someone's actions, not their opinions" and so on and so forth until the word "ACCOMMODATE!" is practically being written in the sky in 100ft exploding letters. Its the idea that until someone starts doing something wrong (such as flying planes into buildings) We should let them believe any falsehood, hold any ideal, express any opinion without criticizing it because that's just too confrontational, too personal, or we might even (gasp!) take away the comfort that the individual found in those beliefs.

Let me be very clear in my rebuttal - That is Absolute Bullshit.

But the funniest thing, the most ironic thing, is that damn near every single person I know who has expressed such an accommadationist stance has ALSO been known to take a very antithetical stance to such "idea's, beliefs and opinions" that include

Racism
Sexism
Homophobia
Pro-war
Anti-Abortion
Pro-Capital Punishment

Etc, etc, etc.

And Yet when it comes to religious beliefs, to supernatural opinions, all of a sudden you are told that THOSE beliefs are off limits! "Where's the Irony?", I hear you ask; Religions across thousands of years have propagated, justified and defended all the beliefs that I have just listed under a single umbrella. Its a little bit like being an environmentalist, who hates companies that cut corners, who thinks that drilling for oil is wrong...but then going out of your way to defend BP.

It is about time that Accommodationists realized the hypocrisy of their stance and stopped looking down from their ivory towers whilst yelling at the people below to stop hunting Elephants.

If they want to tell me that people should let people believe whatever the hell they want without fear of it being attacked? Fine! But I expect you to stop attacking bigotry when you see it, I expect you to be able to get along with someone who thinks you're inherently inferior because of your skin pigmentation, and not only that, I expect you to defend every sexist, racist, Homophobic individual who has ever had their beliefs challenged. After all, as long as they don't ACT upon it, they can believe what they want without fear of reprimand, right? We've got to accommodate views we completely disagree with, right?

It does not matter how much comfort a belief brings to someone, it does not matter whether they're physically harming someone by holding their beliefs, it does not matter how "nice" the individual who holds the belief is - Nothing bars you from criticism, from mockery, from having your beliefs held under the worlds biggest spotlight so that people can prod and poke around to see just how valid or vacuous or disgusting it is.

Also, just as I quick Side note. It's also funny how Accommodationists, in their attempt to justify their stance, often erroneously try to point out that Religion "Inspired" or "Invented" Things like "Don't murder" or "Don't Steal" or any other law/rule/social ideal that is deemed a pillar of a moral society - That is absolute Bullshit too and only serves to underline their ignorance of Morality, or the rise of moral law within Civilisation.

Religion didn't invent, or inspire anything of the sort, it does what it has always done; Assimilate something it had nothing to do with into its dogma and claim all the credit.

Tone is incredibly important. Fr Srs.

Category : Atheism

So this poor excuse for an Article was posted over at RD.net and I just had to piece my brain back together after the inanity contained in this article blew it up. Has this guy managed to travel from an alternate universe where Atheists are tyrants? Or is he just another "Reality is optional" deluded moron?

"There is something profoundly un-American about demanding that people give up cherished, or even uncherished, beliefs just because they don't comport with science"

Y'know, call me crazy, but that sounds to me like a very manipulative and negative way of describing education. After all, pretty much everything I learned in school was allowed to be taught to me because it had passed through the filter of science.

'Science' gives us the most accurate description of reality, the use of the scientific method informs us of what we know, what we don't know and how well we do or don't know something. If your beliefs are at odds with the endeavours of scientific rigour you'd better have a damned good reason beyond "Well I reckon...".

But returning to my original point; he just described Education. When you go to school you're taught, you're told what IS and what ISN'T and they will fail your ass for not learning what they teach you. IE. They demand you give up your beliefs and replace them with knowledge. Is this idiot suggesting that education is Un-American? If he were to offer himself up as an example I might be inclined to agree.

"...allow people "the right to be wrong," especially when the beliefs in question do not interfere with us. Nothing is gained by loud, self-promoting and mean-spirited assaults on the beliefs of fellow citizens."

He seems to be suggesting that Atheists are trying to take away, forcibly, people's rights. I'm fairly sure that unless you're less intelligent than a small puddle of piss that I don't need to explain why that is patent BS.

But what I will point out is the hypocrisy in his statement. He is essentially saying "You shouldn't and can't silence people, just because you think they're wrong" whilst suggesting that Atheists should STFU.

And you'll excuse me for laughing milk through my nose at the last sentence. I think he'll find that religious groups are louder (they have control of education boards, have huge political pull), more concerned with self-promotion (Churches, Mosques, Statues, Indoctrination of Children) and EASILY a billion times more mean spirited (Anti-homosexual laws, 'you're going to hell', death threats over billboards) then any atheist I've ever known.

People have every right to be wrong, But I have every right to call them wrong.

This article is full of nothing but distortions of reality, arguments from authority (in the cases of the Nobel prize winners) and is just ANOTHER insipid article that is more worried about tone than content. I swear, I would not be surprised if these kinds of people would praise Osama for being so calm in his videos and tapes; since tone is just that important.

Far more important than content.

Draw Muhammad Day

The Results are in

Category : Politics

So Election night happened, which turned into election early-morning, and the results are in!

We have a well hung parliment! Yay?

Honestly, this was the most likely result that I would of thought possible, It would of been nice to see the lib dems gain power but, as it turns out, no matter how much momentum and popularity they had going into the election absolutely none of it transferred into votes and they did as well as they always have - Poorly. This came as quite a surprise, but then It seemed less shocking when took off my "Optimist" hat, and put on my "Realist" hat.

There HAS, however, been quite a scandal with the polling stations, as many hundreds of people all over the country ended up being unable to vote, for various reasons including "Ran out of ballot paper" and "Only had 4 voting booths for 30,000 people"; ie, incredibly poor organisation. This will most likely be the hot topic for politics, Political reform, now that the election is over.

In the End the conservatives had the most votes, won the most seats, but didn't get enough of either to win an outright majority AND with a Hung parliament, comes the rare opportunity for a coalition government to be formed and this is pretty damn good news for the lib dems.

The short version of what any of that means is this - Party's need 326 "Seats" in parliment to be able to take power on their own. The Tories got just over 300 and Labor got just over 250 meaning that to make up the remaining seats to take power, they have to join forces with ANOTHER party. So now the Lib dems can essentially bargain with the Conservatives OR Labor to give them some things they want in exchange for the seats they won...basically making the lib dems the king makers.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this plays out.

No longer a Voting Virgin

Category : Politics, Personal

So today I voted for the first time, i've looked into the grizzled yet eager face of Democracy and shook it firmly by the hand.

And I even managed to learn something new during the process! I knew that I was partaking in two votes; One for my local MP and One for the Parliamentary elections. So I expected to see one voting form with the names of my local MP's up for election, unfamiliar names next to more familiar party logo's, and another voting form with the names of the Prospective Prime ministers on them, more familiar names that would make me feel accomplished by simply knowing who the hell they are. But I was Wrong! Kind of.

I was right about the Local MP electoral form, it was just a list of names I've never seen before and their parties BUT To my dismay I found that the parliamentary electoral form had equally obscure names all over it! Apparently, in this crazy System of voting that we have, I at no point vote for the prime minister; I vote for his underlings.

Tomorrow is the Big day

Catergory : Politics

Tomorrow, May 6th, is the big day; Election day.

Although there is not quite as much electricity in the air as there was during the last American Election, There is certainly more than you would expect coming out of our isolated little island. For the first time this millennium, British politics has finally managed to peak its head just above the waters of 'interesting' and is thoroughly enjoying a few well needed gasps of air; It can't last, but I intend to enjoy it while it does.

If you're able to vote tomorrow, do it. Forget how unfair the system is, push aside that nagging thought that tells you that your vote is worth slightly less than spitting in a river and exercise your democratic right to have a say in who runs your country. Human beings have not had such a privilege for long, and indeed many still don't, so don't squander your freedom.

On the subject of who to vote for, Might I suggest this interesting website if you are unsure, on the fence, or just want to see which party lines up to YOUR values. But whoever you vote for, make an informed decision, think for yourself...and whatever you do don't 'vote tactically'. If you want a particular party in power, vote for THEM, not the party which is similar, but worse, but more popular; If you want to see YOUR party in power then how the hell is voting for someone else ever going to help? People, and the media, pay attention to the parties which garner the most support and it's very hard to show support for a party whilst voting for another.

Have fun being democratic

How much my vote counts

Category : Politics, Equality

As you may, or may not, know it is election time in the UK. Come May 6th Democracy will find itself, once again, under the scrutiny of nations as we, the people, decide who will be running the UK on May the 7th. One person, one vote, right?

Wrong.

I had always known that our electoral system was more complicated than, in my opinion, it should be, "One Person, One Vote" Seems to me to be both the fairest and the most accurate way for democracy to be run. But although I'd always had an inkling that the electoral system was unfair I never knew how it was unfair, or indeed just how unfair it really was...After all, politics (up until 6 or so months ago) Was mind-cripplingly uninteresting to me.

But today I was shown http://www.voterpower.org.uk/ and all of a sudden, in the plainest of ways, I have been shown just how unfair the UK Electoral system is, how much my vote counts and why my vote counts how much it does.

According to that website, everyone who lives where I live does not get a vote equivalent to "1 vote". According to that website, My vote is worth exactly 0.342 votes.

I, as a person living in a modern democracy, am worth slightly over a third of a vote. And, according to that website, I'm pretty lucky to have that paltry amount of power as the average voter in the UK is worth 0.253 votes...and the spectrum is as varied as it can get.

Depending on where they live, an individuals vote can be worth a pathetic 0.002 votes to an exaggerated 1.308 votes. Or to put it another way, for the crime of being born in Knowsley it would take 654 votes to counter ONE vote from Arfon.

It is times like this that it makes me wonder if there is a point voting at all, but then I stop and think about it; YES it IS worth it. It may not effect anything in the coming election, true, I may be only worth a third of a person right now, true, But change is not made in leaps and bounds. By doing nothing I am certain to change nothing, but by doing something, no matter how small or trivial that thing is, it will have an effect.

And whats more, is that if every person who has convinced themselves "There is no point in voting" actually voted, they might just find that they swing more power than the current system would like to give them.

Come May 6th, I hope that everyone who has the power to Vote in the UK does.

And I hope you vote for the Lib Dems.

Up until the election, I will most likely be blogging about the election (But not exclusively)

Tim Minchin Does it again

Tim Minchin has gloriously ejaculated another brilliant song into existence and It would be a crime for me not to share with you this morsel of creative genius.

By the way, if you're at work, or your mother is in ear shot, you may want to wait until you're in a more private setting.

My choice lyric from the song is thus

"But if you find me more offensive than the fucking possibility
That the Pope protected priests when they were getting fucking fiddly
Then listen to me motherfucker, this here is a fact
You are just as morally misguided as the motherfucking
power hungry
self-grandised
Bigot in the stupid Fucking Hat"

Old man in Funny hat and dress Demands to be taken Seriously

Category : Religion, Humour

When God made woman, he took a rib.

When God made Catholics, he took their sense of humour.

In my last post, we looked at the disgusting, amoral, unethical, sub-human side of the Roman Catholic Church in vomit inducing detail. But that was rather depressing wasn't it? There were no laughs to be had there! Countless children's lives have been ruined at the hands of RCC Priests, desperately trying to "Save them from Sin" by making them "Get on their knee's and accept their blessing".

BUT it seems that the RCC has heard my silent plea for comic relief and has provided some with haste! They may be centuries behind in terms of science, civil rights and moral integrity but they are like lightning when it comes to making a fool of themselves; they can't act quick enough.

But look at me whittle on while you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about.

A list of proposals for the Pope's itinerary when he visits Britain in September (written up by some junior civil servants) found itself being distributed far further than it was originally intended and, to the shock disgust to all that read it, it was full of violent threats, was grossly offensive and it was written in the blood of baby kittens.

...

Sorry, I meant that it was a list of 90% serious and relevant proposals (in bold) with a few tongue-in-cheek jokes thrown in that are only slightly more 'Risqué' than brushing your teeth in the morning. But you wouldn't think that, considering the reaction it garnered.

"David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, was “appalled” to hear of the proposals, according to a source close to him, and blamed “a colossal failure of judgement” by officials involved.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “This is clearly a foolish document that does not in any way reflect UK Government or Foreign Office policy or views. Many of the ideas in the document are clearly ill-judged, naive and disrespectful.

The Foreign Office very much regrets this incident and is deeply sorry for the offence which it has caused"

7 slightly off collar jokes and people are treating the ‘incident’ like they planned on handing this to the pope with a straight face. The memo that list of proposals was included with even came with the following note: -

"Please protect; these should not be shared externally. The ‘ideal visit’ paper in particular was the product of a brainstorm which took into account even the most far-fetched of ideas."

Here is what I think happened.

There was a brainstorm meeting, everyone’s ideas were written down, some of the participants had the audacity to make a few jokes and had even more audacity to share those jokes within their inner circle, knowing that the joke proposals would probably receive a titter from a few co-workers (distracting them momentarily from their reality of working for the government, thinking up ways to occupy the time of a man in a dress as he wanders aimlessly around the country) before the OBVIOUS joke proposals being removed in subsequent revisions. Sound about right? Of course it does.

But the fun doesn’t stop at a few apologetic politicians who can’t be seen to be making jokes! The Catholics find out, and man, they are they pissed off.

One highly-placed source in the Vatican said: “This could have very severe repercussions and is embarrassing for the British government - one has to question whether the action taken is enough.

“It is disgusting. Britain’s ambassador to the Holy See has been in to see the Secretary of State and explain what happened and this will all be relayed to the Pope.

“It’s even possible the trip could be cancelled as this matter is hugely offensive.”

That’s right! They’re considering cancelling their visit over a few jokes shared at their expense! Way to take the high road, Catholicism.

“I hope all concerned are ashamed of themselves and it leaves a very unpleasant taste.”

D’aww, the RCC is upset that someone dared point out how ass-backwards, anti-scientific, sexist, homophobic and criminal the church is, and they’re upset about it. Diddums!

And there are quite a few interesting parallels that can be drawn here, a few delicious morsels of hypocrisy to be nibbled on happily.

The RCC, as has been established quite firmly, has been at the heart of a GIANT child abuse scandal where pretty much no one in the church’s hierarchy has been punished for their crimes (quite a few innocent groups have been scapegoated though) and their entire repentance amounts to a single poultry apology...yet here they are claiming that, because no one was fired for privately writing down mild satire, “one has to question whether the action taken is enough”.

It’s enough to make my jaw propel itself towards the centre of the earth.

You know, It wouldn’t surprise me if they were looking for any excuse to cancel the visit to England, considering that the pope may face the possibility of being arrested. But hey, if he doesn’t come, great! That will be 20 million pounds saved that can be spent on something other than providing hospitality to a Monster.

The Pope Vs Justice

Category : Politics, News, Religion

Fiat justitia ruat caelum - "May justice be done though the heavens fall."

In recent months (and indeed years) It has come to clearer and clearer light that The Roman Catholic Church has been at the heart of the single largest child abuse/rape scandal that has ever had the misfortune of blighting our species. Over countless decades, in countries spanning the face of the Earth, hundreds..If Not thousands..Of children have had their lives ruined by Catholic priests and then have been abandoned, threatened, silenced or bribed by the Church in the name of Public relations and the conservation of power; The same church that is a source of morality, guidance and example for over a billion people worldwide.

The depth and detail of the churches crimes are too great for me to delve into without needing hours to write this blog, so instead, here are some links to articles that offer some small view of the totality of recent events

Starting from The Murphy report, released in 2009, which was "commissioned by the Irish government to investigate the way in which the church dealt with allegations of sexual abuse of children by priests over the period 1975 to 2004. It concluded that "the Dublin Archdiocese's pre-occupations in dealing with cases of child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the Church, and the preservation of its assets"

(the following links are in chronological order, and you'll notice they snowball as people find the courage to speak up, and, i have left a significant number of articles out so that you don't have novels to read)

-BBC Article, 9th Of March, Described as "One of The worst cases in the Murphy report"

-An Article from 'The Independant, 15th of March, an analysis of scandal in the church as more sexual abuse cases emerge

-Christopher Hitchens in "Slate" gives a summary of the charges the Pope and RCC face (as of the 15th of March)

-Cases (over 150) of Sexual abuse arise in German RCC, March 16th

-Cases spring up in Brazilian RCC, March 17th

-Pope publishes "Letter of Apology" to Irelands catholics ("We raped your kids and covered it up, Sorry!")

-March 24th, Pope refused to defrock priest that raped 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin

-March 26th, Similar cases to Wisconsin scandal appear in Italy, French Catholic priest claim the scandal is being used to attack the Pope Personally (Even though the Pope has been heavily implicated and evidenced in the cover up, silencing, aiding and abetting of Rapist priests)

-March 26th, The Pope blames the Media for "attacking the Church"

-March 28th, Pope calls global sex scandal "Petty Gossip", and is upset that the Church is being criticized

-April 2nd, The Popes personal preacher compares criticism of the pontiff and Church over child abuse to "collective violence" suffered by the Jews

-April 4th, New information arises implicating that the late Pope John Paul also covered up the Abuse of Children

-The Bishop of Tenerife blames Child abuse on the Children (Seriously. Seriously)

-April 10th, The Pope loses all ability to deny knowledge or involvement as more evidence, with his signature on it, arises. Pope lets convicted child rapist back into church to repeat offend

-April 11th, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins Prepare legal case against Pope for when he Visits Britain in September

-April 12th, Popes second in command blames the Scandal on Homosexuality

And that brings us pretty much up to date, as far as major events go, but bare in mind, as I said before - This is just the summary, there is plenty more detail that I have had to leave out because I want to sleep tonight and I don't think I could stomach any more of this right now.

I should not have to write a long argument as to why the Pope, and more than a handful of priests and bishops, should rightly be facing the courts. I should not have to write even a short argument over why they should end up in the docks.

Pope "Joey Rat" Benedict has committed crimes, terrible crimes, against his fellow man; Some of which constitute as crimes against humanity - There should be no question, no hesitation...And yet there is.

Catholics are not speaking up, and those that are tend to be protecting and defending the Pope and the Church's actions, in fact, the ONLY true outcry over this has been from humanists, secularists, atheists...The same people that Catholics and the religious alike often claim "Have no Morals", the same people that moderates claim "Are no better or worse than Religious people". Such Irony has not escaped me and nor will it be forgotten.

Worse still, because us Godless heathens are seemingly the only voices crying out for Justice against the white noise of Evil being defended, It is being claimed that our actions are being driven by our "Hatred of Religion"

NO.

We are driven by our will to see that Crimes do not go unpunished, that no mortal man is above the law, that no position in any institution can exonerate you from your actions. Perhaps, To all those who claim that Our calls for Justice are veiled attacks at religion, you should not be questioning our motives for speaking out, but questioning your own motives for remaining silent.

- Fiat justitia ruat caelum

Retail Academy

Catergory : Personal

Have you ever been in a situation that has given you no option but to sit back and take stock of your life? Forced to analyse the metaphorical trajectory of your life to make sure you're not going to go flying into the side of a mountain (or an Icelandic Volcano)? Well I was almost in one of those situations today, but fortunately my twisted sense of humour saved me from staring too long into the abyss, as today I started "Retail academy" a place where the damned people go to learn about how to break into the retail sector. Or, more accurately, it's where people who have been unemployed for too long are sent by the Benefits office to get them a job as quickly as humanly possible. 5 weeks of classes on how to sell shit to shit munchers; marvellous.

"But why the almost-self-reflection?" I hear you ask enthusiastically, Well i'll tell you.

The majority of the people who are on this course have less than 5 GCSE's, the equivalent, for you Americans, would be them essentially failing high school, and barely graduating middle school. I, on the other hand, have 11 GCSE's, College qualifications AND a University Degree (College isn't the same as University in England), Which means I've spent 5 years extra in education, have amassed many thousands of pounds of debt in tuition fee's and yet i'm no further up the "Career's ladder" than people who I was more qualified than back when I was 15.

I could barely stop myself laughing out loud.

But don't get me wrong, everyone on the course are a lovely bunch of coconuts and I imagine I will get on quite well with all of them.

All Except one.

On the course we have two teachers, Allison and Tina. Allison is regular and sane and therefore inconsequential and uninteresting. Tina, on the other hand, is so fecking irritating that she could teach things to thrush.

First of all, she's been in retail for 30 years and she makes sure we will wake up in the dead of night chanting that under our breath by repeating that fact every 30 seconds or so, but what's worse is that she seems so proud of it to the point of absurdity, she's practically bragging about it; I wouldn't be surprised if she often fantasized about walking up to Voltaire, Leonardo da Vinci and Norman Borlaug and spitting "I've worked in Retail for 3 decades, the FUCK have you ever done?". And of course 30 years of customer service related work takes it's toll on the human psyche, especially so when the human involved can't seem to get enough of it.

You know when you go into a shop, and the clerk/sales assistant/greeter is so chirpy and happy to see you, you know it's fake (or at very least exaggerated)? Well Tina has managed to internalize that to the point where it is no longer forced, but natural, yet it retains all the qualities of someone forcing themselves to be ridiculously happy...And she does this by turning everything into a mini-performance; "Tina" Written by "Tina" Performed by "Tina", with gusto.

First we'll get a small morsel of information about retail, followed by an improvised and camp scene of her "comically" acting out that information, followed by an anecdote involving that information, followed by her "Comically" acting out that anecdote, followed by the part of me that loves comedy dying a little. Rinse repeat ad infinitum.

But i've found a way to make it bearable - I just imagine she's some clever street performer who has swindled their way into the position and has decided to brilliantly parody the entire retail business through heavy use of straight-faced sarcasm. In that scenario, Tina is a fucking Genius.

But really i'm just blowing off steam now, I'm sure she's an excellent teacher, is clearly qualified for the job and seems a perfectly friendly and pleasant person. But i'm quite misanthropic, so the moment something can be described as a "Person" i'm already cynical about how much i'll enjoy interacting with it.

New blog about the pope to come later today! (hopefully)

Welcome, untiring wanderers..

Category : Personal

Just what the Internet needs! Another blog!

If you're reading this you're either part of the special group of people that are going to join me on our journey through time, space and the Internet from the very beginning, OR, you're searching through the yet-unwritten archives of my blog from way in the future. If you happen to fall into the latter - HELLO FROM THE PAST! Has 3D television taken off or has it shown itself to be just another fad?

The reason I've decided to start this blog is actually pretty simple, I used to do video's on youtube under the name "DeusExNihilum" (Click here to visit my Youtube channel) but I've been finding it increasingly difficult to make video's for various reasons which I won't bore you with, Needless to say, starting a blog means that I can still produce content AND I can produce more of it in less time, so who is the winner here? Why you, of course!

As with my videos, this blog will be covering topics such as Science, Scepticism, Secularism, Politics, World News, Godlessness and anything else that happens to take my fancy, all delivered in a neat package of English dry wit and humour. In other words, without exaggerating too much, this is going to be the most perfect blog that has ever graced the internet.

And since I'll always be looking for new content to comment on, if you find anything interesting (news stories, blog posts, articles, etc) and you'd like me to have a look you can e-mail me at splittingoftheadam@hotmail.co.uk!

First entry to come soon!