Wait, what? Yeah, you heard right. Help Fred Phelps & his Westboro clan of deluded, life-wasting, really-shitty-sign-writing hate-mongers (and their hapless children, for whom I have the greatest sympathy). Joe Brummer has the scoop: Fred Phelps’ clan is coming to Boston! The “God Hates Fags” Westboro Baptist Church is coming to picket…
…but do I give a toss?
Recently, atheist bus ads have popped up in the UK and the US to much acclaim from freethinkers and much tiresome bitching & moaning from the usual suspects. Buses are so hot right now! However, an attempt by an Aussie atheist group to have their own ads on our buses has been unsuccessful. The Atheist Foundation of Australia wanted to buy ad space, the ad company, APN Outdoor, refused to sell it to them. And it seems they didn’t explain why. I certainly don’t see the harm in slogans like “Sleep in on Sunday mornings” or “Celebrate reason”, but I guess APN have their reasons. Such as – they’re a pack of bastards with double standards higher than Israel’s separation wall. So, yes, it’s disappointing. Even annoying! And refusing to take someone’s freely-offered money is just damned un-Australian.
Not to mention that glaring double-standard: the article explains that APN had buses in Adelaide plastered with the Bible verse John 3:16 – that’s the one about God loving the world so much that he had himself (in the form of his hippy son) tortured & executed to forgive us all of our sins, especially the original sin committed by Adam & Eve, the guilt of which apparently extends several millennia onto every last one of us, from birth – conception – no less, giving us no damn choice but to accept the hippy as our saviour. Nice. World’s oldest protection racket – “Say, that’s …
I read this post by FriendlyAtheist, and thought that I’d expand on it. It cites an op-ed by Jim Griffith in Georgia:
Thanksgiving must be a terrible time for atheists. They have no God to thank.
They do not have the privilege of gathering with family and friends to express gratitude by saying: “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
Think about it. The Pilgrims were indebted to and grateful to the (arguably atheist) Indians for life itself. They couldn’t admit that. So they thanked their sky-daddy instead. This mindset is still here. If something good happens, thanks be to deity. If something bad happened, either it was because of sin, or just Mysterious Ways (woo-oo).
So who do Atheists have to thank for a warm home, loving family, and bountiful harvest?
How about the builders, the farmers, and all the other human agents who work together to make it all happen? We’re thankful for the bounty we have because of human discovery. We honor the massively useful inventions that came about not because of, but in spite of Biblical wisdom. Like plaster walls that finally banished fleas from homes. Like glass that lets in light but keeps out wind. Like cast iron radiators or rolled sheet metal air ducts to keep us warmer than any fireplace, or even for the design of smokeless fireplaces from the 1780’s. Blessed be those warmongers who needed nitrates and financed the research into producing fertilizer from fossil fuels, now feeding millions from …
First in London, and now in D.C. The campaign to make it okay to publicly be an atheist is spreading. Now it is right in your face, on buses in two capitol cities. The London group is found at AtheistCampaign.org, and the U.S. campaign is funded by the American Humanists,…
As expected, certain mouths are already looking for ways to tear down Obama and all he stands for, even though---perhaps especially because---they don't know just what that is. It is disheartening. It makes me want to sit them down in a chair from which they cannot move and ask them,…