Will Gets Knocked Down

My boy took his first real punch today. This wasn't just any punch either - it was one of those  I got  punched in the head and dropped on my ass variety. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The dojo (karate school) saves a few days out of the month so that the students can sparr. For those of you not in the know, sparring involves two students getting into the center of the studio and, well, attacking each other. It's not a cage fight by any means. The students are armored with face/head, chest, feet, and hand protection. One may score two points with a successful kick and one point for a punch. When one of the kids lands a punch or kick the sensei (teacher) makes a note of it and separates the two, and the fight begins again. This continues until someone has five points.

Oh My God! - My Five Year Old Finds The Almighty

Ali, my five year old, has discovered God. All of my efforts to inoculate her from the God meme has come to naught. For the last few weeks she has invoked HIM regularly.

I cooked her a cheese omelette the other day.

Oh my God! I love this!

I told Ali she was going to her first karate lesson this week.

Oh my God!

Ad Hominem Arguments - Just Say No!

This is a shortened defintition of the ad hominem fallacy taken from the Skeptics Dictionary,

Ad hominem is Latin for "to the man." The ad hominem fallacy occurs when one asserts that somebody's claim is wrong because of something about the person making the claim. The ad hominem fallacy is often confused with the legitimate provision of evidence that a person is not to be trusted. Calling into question the reliability of a witness is relevant when the issue is whether to trust the witness. It is irrelevant, however, to call into question the reliability or morality or anything else about a person when the issue is whether that person's reasons for making a claim are good enough reasons to support the claim [emphasis mine].

... Rather than criticize a person’s premises or reasoning, one asserts something about the person’s character, associations, occupation, hobbies, motives, mental health, likes or dislikes.

I was reading a post on Godless Girl today and it made me think about how common ad hominem fallacies are.

LiP

Hypocrisy - Old Testament Style!

The Good News is that you can be a hypocrite.

I'm reading through the Book of Judges, having just finished Joshua. The period of Judges refers to the time between Joshua's death and the Israeli monarchy. During this time the tribes were in a confederation, and constantly, well, not living by the standards of YAWEH. The structure of Judges is fairly straight forward: Israel worships the gods of the native population (See, that's what you get when you don't ethnically cleanse your homeland 100%); God sends some baddies in and persecute the chosen people; Israelites realize who butters their bread and ask the Sky Fairy for help; God chooses a military leader (a judge) and that leader throws off the yoke of the oppressor (you know, the people who the Israelites tried to wipe out in the Book of Joshua). This occurs over and over and over again.

Top Ten List Of Stuff I'm Doing For The Rapture

I was on Heaving Cats earlier today, reading a post about the upcoming God-event on May 21, 2011commonly referred to as ...pause to heighten suspense... the rapture.

There has been a lot of hype about May 21, but I have been on the Cuckoo for Christ site WeCanKnow.com and I have good news! Even though the Christians will be raptured (is that a word?) on May 21, the end of the world isn't going to happen until October 21, 2011.

Do you know what that means?

Pole Dancing For Jesus

You read the title correctly: Pole Dancing For Jesus.

My favorite part is when the instructor says that the heels are worn for muscle development.


Pole Dancing For Jesus - Watch more Funny Videos

New Poll

There's a new poll up and it's about what you'd like to see more of. I'm always interested to see what readers are interested in.

Feel free to place a comment with your thoughts on this topic.

Thanks.

LiP

I am new to the Blog-reading world, and I would like to know how advertisements end up on your site. I was happily reading away, and really starting to like you, when a giant add to "Defund Planned Parenthood" popped up and burst my bubble. Boo.

This was an anonymous question left on the Ask Me Anything page

Gggggrrrrr... let me tell you I have a love-hate relationship with these bloody ads. I do not pick the specific advertisements that go up here. I signed up for Google Adsense about six months ago and there has been a wee bit of a learning curve for me.

At first there were a lot of religious ads from Scientology and the Mormons. OK, that wouldn't do so I figured out how to get rid of that category of advertisement. That's why you don't see "... and I'm a Mormon" propaganda on Purgatory.

This is the second time a reader has mentioned the obnoxious political ads on the blog. I'm just going to block the entire category from here on in.

I appreciate you taking the time to contact me. I hope you'll continue to visit Purgatory.

Illegalize Religion Poll Results

I wanted to go over the results from the last poll : If you could, would you illegalize religion?
Here is the breakdown:

Yes - 17%
Only for those under 18. - 29%
Only fundamentalist religions would be illegal. - 7%
I'd  illegalize Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. -  1%
No - 41%

91 total votes.

Erroneous Christian Thinking - Example #231

You. Won't. Believe. This.

I found this on the Christian site Credo House Ministeries.

Please feel free to comment.

I just want to say that my crappy pictures are better.

Pope Announces New Entrance Policy For Heaven

Here is an article I'm placing on my other blog The Newest Newsy News.

Vatican City - Pope Francis I stunned the world today by revealing a recent divine revelation: Everyone can go to heaven except for homosexuals. The Pope states that the Holy Spirit approached him during an engaging round of spin the bottle with Italy's Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and several underage prostitutes that are in Silvio's retinue. (The Pope officially stated that he did not actively participate in the game because the girls were too old and the wrong gender.) The Spirit had  great news that heaven is open to everyone.

The Book Of Joshua - A Book Of Wacky

I'll wager that you think of the book of Joshua as simply a tale of blitzkrieg warfare and genocide.  And when I speak of blitzkrieg and genocide we all understand that the good guys/Israelites were engaging in said blitzing and slaughtering. That you can get, if nothing else, from my previous post The Book Of Joshua - A Snippet.  I have to tell you, there are just strange parts of the book, and those are the parts I wish to share with you.

Praying Isn't Going To Get The TV To Work

Praying doesn't help. I know that. Probably you know that too, dear reader. But my eight year old son isn't 100% sure on the concept. Our TV stopped working last night, probably due to some overly motivated cleaning around that Bermuda Triangle where all the wires are that allow the TV to "talk" to the dish/satellite (we just switched over from cable because it's less expensive).

 Inspired by this famous Winston Churchill quote:

Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.

LiP

Fight Against "In God We Trust"

I just got this email from Zachary Bos. It's important enough to spread the word.

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee will vote today on whether to reaffirm "In God We Trust" as the national motto of the United States, and encourage its public display in all public buildings, public schools, and other government institutions. The text of the resolution says in part, "... in times of national challenge or tragedy, the people of the United States have turned to God as their source for sustenance, protection, wisdom, strength, and direction." Some Americans have found in their religion the strength to bear up against difficult times; others have found reason in their religion to deny medical care to children, to commit murder, to collude with terrorism, to deny other Americans their equal part of civil liberty, and other anti-social behavior.

This Is NOT The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See

You may have already seen this, but I just saw it for the first time. Not only is it a clever argument, but it is packaged in a way so that an intelligent layperson can understand it.

However, a majority of the American public does not fit into that category known as "intelligent". Luckily for us, a vocal minority has been known to steer policy. 

My beef with the short is the title : The Most Terrifying Video You'll Ever See.

How can this be the most terrifying video when there are no zombies?

Happy John 3:16 Day!

I was on Deep Thoughts this morning and read a post about today being John 3:16 Day. You know the Bible verse,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Here is my response. I posted this last year, and think it's the right time to show it again to celebrate this august occasion.

Enjoy.

Would You Illegalize Religion?

I am putting up a new poll. It is a simple one that will have only a five possible choices to choose from. This is a simple thought experiment, and I'd like you to answer it honestly.

If you could, would you illegalize religion?

Here are your choices.

1. Yes - as in Hell yes!
2. Only for those who are under 18.
3. Only Fundamentalist religions would be illegal.
4. I'd illegalize Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. 
5. No

Don't worry, there is no way the thought police can find out how you voted. Your privacy is guaranteed.

However, it would be far more interesting if you left the reason why you voted in the comments for this post. For those of you who wish to be anonymous it is possible to comment that way.

Oh, you think this is a stupid question?

I disagree.

Religion is dangerous. Even the theists who read this blog will acknowledge that religion has aided and assisted real evil in the world - especially the religions that one does not belong to. It's my contention that if parents stopped indoctrinating their children today into Sky Fairyism then religion would cease to be a political force within my life time (in the US and with the rosy hypothesis that I will live to be an old curmudgeon). What about radical Christianity? If Blacks were the majority in America during the 1920's it's difficult to imagine that they would have allowed America's home grown sect of violent Christianity, known as the KKK, march in Washington DC.

Usually when the current poll is finished I just let it sit there for readers to check out the results. This time I'll do a follow up post.

Enjoy.

LiP

An Atheist's Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there were a species of monkeys. These monkeys were as happy as monkeys could be. They were born, and lived typical monkey lives of eating, defecating, and fornicating. Of course, everything was not happy in monkey land, because some monkeys were a**holes.

It was as if the only thing these evil monkeys lived for were to screw with the other monkeys. Bad monkeys. Bad. Bad. Bad.

Overtime, the smart monkeys had more babies than their intellect-challenged brethren. Soon, there were a lot of smart monkeys.

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH ALL THOSE MONKEYS???

Evil monkeys (yes, some smart monkeys were evil) had a series of ideas: 1. All these monkeys have stuff; 2. Evil monkeys want that stuff; 3. How to get that stuff?; 4. Trick the other monkeys to voluntarily give you that stuff, AND work hard to give evil monkeys more, more, more.

But how?

How can you get all the other monkeys to work hard all their little monkey lives for the whims of evil monkeys?

Easy.

MAKE STUFF UP! 

Things like... 

HEAVEN!

GOD! 

AND

THE DEVIL!

Whew! I'm glad that was just a fairy tale...

in Purgatory.

Hitchens Unleashed

I found this on Alphaville and had to share it with you.

As an aside, I am reading through Hittchens' memoir, Hitch 22. What strikes me so far (currently at page 86) is that the adage: The future is won by people who are passionate and work hard, is true. Hitchens has consistently talked the talk as well as walking the walk. If he had simply been a worker bee and not passionate about human freedom then he could have spent his life writing drivel for a readership more interested in Charlie Sheen than the systematic evil known as religion.

That's what I've been reflecting on - at least when I'm not thinking of cheap jokes.

Enjoy.

A New Venn Diagram

NOTE: I couldn't get the circles any closer.

Top Ten Things Jesus And I Don't Agree On

Jesus' Dad

10. Hanging out and saying nice things about his abusive dad. This is obvious, but needs to be said: If Jesus was such a great guy then why does he hang with his murderous father? Dad kills someone for picking up sticks on the sabbath. Dad sends bears to massacre some mouthy kids. The list goes on. If that was my dad I'd cut off any contact, move away while not leaving a forwarding address, and change my name to to William Zinn (that's my favorite nom de guerre).

God + Skeptic = Funny

Here is a funny episode of Mr. Deity guest starring Michael Shermer, Executive Director of the Skeptics Society. This has a really clever back and forth illustrating the skeptic's point of view.

Enjoy.

Why This Atheist Cares About God.

I was on Atheist Revolution today and read a post about an English Professor who says that the uber-atheists, Dawkins and Hitchens, waste time "enumerating his [God's]  flaws". It has been my experience that this is a common theist reaction to atheists who point out the abusdity of the Sky Fairy: Why talk about a being that you don't believe in?

Here's my response from Purgatory.

I'm, like, living in a freakin' Zombie movie!

Reagan Heir To Run For President

I WILL make Congress roll over!

Hey everyone, I just got home from DC and thought I'd share this bit written for my other blog The Newest Newsy News. Enjoy.

Rex the IV, the great-great grandson of Ronald Reagan's Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, became the first Republican to confirm his plan to run for President of the United States. Rex made the announcement on his daily radio program Flees, Democrats, and Ticks: America's Pests. He stated that America needs the Gipper's spirit, and he is the right dog, at the right time to make Congress sit down and obey.

Out and About

The reason why I didn't post yesterday is that I'm in Washington DC. The wife has a conference here and I'm tagging along to sow my particular brand of subversive mayhem. What are my plans today? I'm glad you asked. I'm doing the day long power tour of the secular sights of our secular republic. One of my favorite places to geek out is the Air and Space Museum and without those children to slow me down I can comfortably spend several hours checking out the V-2 rocket, Goddard's rocket, etc, etc, etc.

Top Ten Items on God's To Do List

10. Shoot Charlie Sheen an email stating how much you admire Charlie's kick a** winning, always winning, and win by winning, ways.

9. Decide where to place the next earthquake. Pick a place that has Christ or Islam in its name. Irony is key.

8. Check out the new iPad, and think of new reasons why technology can never replace God. Focus on arguments that can not be proven and use ambiguous terms that no one can really agree on the meaning to.

Check Out This Ad

I found this on Debunking Christianity.







I am a bit peeved that they didn't mention the benefit of eating babies when you're an atheist.

From Christian to Atheist

I was reflecting on how I developed from being a Christian to an atheist. I thought I'd use the power of free art to illustrate my journey.

On the left, is my conception of Christianity before the age of six. Everyone has happy faces! Check out all the stars. Look! There is the miracle: a huge gaseous fusion engine is sitting on top of the manger.

Hallelujah!

Oh, that guy on the right? He was pretty important too. You can pray to Jesus, but Santa delivers.

This is what happened at age six. No happy faces. Crying, weeping, and a fairly graphic depiction of how that baby (remember him?) later got nailed to some wood.

The silver lining?

He did it just for me.

Wow...

What a thing to tell a six year old. I would've done anything as long as I didn't have to think about that!

Here I am hauling faith in a Christian mine during my preadolescence years. Indoctrinating children into a superstitious belief system takes work - for the kid. Memorizing bible verses, reciting the books of the bible, doing youth choir, not just knowing that Jesus loves you, but HOW MUCH he loves you... you get the idea.





Photo by YemeniteCamel



Do you know why there is so much faith based work to be done when you're a kid?

One word...

Puberty.

Theoretically, all those bible verses I memorized were supposed to keep me from masturbating. Final score?

Biology: 1,000,000,000 

Christianity: 0

                                                                                                           

Then I met this guy, Carl Sagan. Carl visited every Sunday night on PBS with his series Cosmos. Even though I had known about the dinosaurs, evolution, and the Church's persecution of historical uber-smarties (Copernicus, Galileo, etc.), Sagan packaged those ideas together so that the idea questioning the existence of God was acceptable - even necessary. 

If I belonged to a rational species then the path would've been fairly clear.

However, there is no such animal. So...

I was generally confused. My head wasn't really on straight. I had all varieties of woo-ish ideas ideas knocking around in my head.

College helped.

Travelling helped.

But a lack of information wasn't my problem.

I was still confused. God probably didn't exist. But I still didn't get my mind around what that meant.

What I needed was a moment of clarity. Having children gave me that clarity. Many people revert back to their faiths when they have kids.

Why?

 Because they are scared sh*tless. Having kids are scary. People revert back to what they know under pressure.

Me? I was scared sh*tless, too, but I'd been in enough crisis situations to figure out that praying wasn't going to help. No. Figuring out what my role is an atheist and a father and following through was the solution.

And here I am.

That's my story...

from Purgatory.

New Blog

I toy around with different ideas. If you've been following Purgatory you probably know I've been doing some fake news stories for Spoof.com (my Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan getting paid to have dysfunctional children story was quite popular). I decided to go solo (though I plan to do more stories for Spoof.com) and launch a blog that does fake news stories Newest Newsy News. Newsy News, I'm hoping, will attract a broad audience with its focus on current events aqnd biting satire. I have placed a link to Newest Newsy News on the right column of this blog, just above the Spoof.com stories.

Yes, I plan to keep my focus on Purgatory and will continue to post on my regular schedule.

Why?

Because I love doing this stuff.

LiP