thought of the day.430

“To live sustainably, we must live efficiently--not misdirecting or squandering the earth's precious resources. To live efficiently, we must live peacefully for military expenditures represent an enormous diversion of resources from meeting basic human needs. To live peacefully, we must live with a reasonable degree of equity or fairness for it is unrealistic to think that, in a communications-rich world, a billion or more persons will accept living in absolute poverty while another billion live in conspicuous excess. Only with greater fairness in the consumption of the world's resources can we live peacefully, and thereby live sustainably, as a human family. Without a revolution in fairness, the world will find itself in chronic conflict with wars over dwindling resources and this, in turn, will make it impossible to achieve the level of cooperation necessary to solve problems such as pollution and population.”

~ Duane Elgin, Voluntary Simplicity

thought of the day.429

We’re all born atheists so to be “born again” is to come full circle.

thought of the day.428

Rather than responding to theistic terminology, it seems better that atheists consider themselves naturalists and theists, a-naturalists.

thought of the day.427

An atheist may want to believe God exists but doesn’t based on the lack of evidence whereas a Christian may doubt the existence of God but believes anyway—just in case.

thought of the day.426

The Magic Blue Monkey

Would you believe me if I told you there was a Magic Blue Monkey that made the world, loves us and has a plan for us to come join him on his magic planet when we die?

I suspect not. And you would be completely justified in your refusal to believe my proposition. In fact, you would be less than rational if you did so....

What if I were to say the evidence of the Blue Monkey’s existence is all around us and explain that he shaped the first man and woman and all the animals out of dirt about 5,000 years ago and furthermore, I, and countless others have for 2,000 years, personally experienced the presence of the Blue Monkey?

Still not buying my story? Good. You shouldn’t. I have offered no evidence to back it up and science contradicts several of my assertions with compelling evidence.

What if I were to say, we have a book that explains all this. It is a special book. A divine book. A book inspired by the Blue Monkey himself? It is full of wisdom and tells—with eye witness accuracy — the historical account of the Blue Monkey’s precious child coming to earth in the form of a man to die for us so that the Blue Monkey would not have to throw us all into his chamber of horrors. Isn’t that wonderful?! Isn’t that loving?! All you have to do is “believe”.

Still not convinced? But why? I have given all kinds of evidence and besides, what do you have to lose? If you do believe and there is no Blue Monkey and torture pit then when you die you’ll have nothing to worry about. If I’m right though, won’t you be glad you believed?! Of course you will! You would be foolish not too. Yes, it will demand many hours of your time and yes, we give 10% of all our money to the Blue Monkey Brotherhood but the sacrifice of time and money is so worth it.

Boy, still not willing to accept the Blue monkey into your heart and make him Lord and Savior of your life? You are being close-minded. You must open your mind and your heart. The Blue Monkey loves you so much and wants to have a personal relationship with you. I promise you, he will change your life!

I have provided multiple reasons for you to believe and yet you don’t. You know, you actually have just as much faith as we believers do. You cannot possibly know that the Blue Monkey does not exist for you are not all-knowing. You have faith that he doesn’t. Seems we are both believers but I have the benefit of a Blue Monkey that loves me, has a plan for my life, will cuddle me forever when I die and you my friend, will become a human candle.

Well, it’s not really my job to convince you but simply share the good news. The Holy Monkey Spirit must come upon you. I will pray every day that it does.

thought of the day.425

“Pretending to be someone or something else is just another alienating message to your soul, your psyche, your essence. Every time you deny who you are becomes a little death. I say, choose life and suffer the consequences.”

~ Dean Wrzeszcz

thought of the day.424

Christians praise a God who had a plan for every child throughout the Bible. The children of Noah’s time? Drown them. The children of Sodom and Gomorrah? Burn them. The first-born of Egypt? Kill them. The children of the Anakim? Annihilate them. The children of the Amorites? Erase them. The children of the Amalekites, Canaanites, Hittites? Butcher. Butcher. Butcher. The children of the Perizzites, Hivites, Horites, Jebusites, Zamzumim? Destroy without mercy. Disobedient children? Stone them. Innocent children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of wrong doers? Curse them.

Gn 7:21-23, Ex 19:24, Dt 7:16, Dt 2:20-22, Js 11:21, Dt 20:17, Dt 25:19, Dt 12:29

thought of the day.423

Evidence Christianity Warps Common Sense/ Child Slavery

Christians worship a God who thought so little of children that he allowed them to be enslaved for life. Need some extra cash? Sell your daughter to the horniest/highest bidder!

Leviticus 25:44-46, Deuteronomy 20: 10-14, Exodus 21:20-21, Ex 12:29, Tit 2:9, Eph 6:5, Ex 21:4, Col 3:22

thought of the day.422

Evidence that Christianity Warps Common Sense / Religious Terrorism

Christians praise a God who demanded a man bash in the skull of his beloved wife and turn the smiling face of his brother, child and neighbor into an unrecognizable hunk of bloody flesh for merely suggesting worshiping another god. Note: For large scale religious terrorism, God prefers the sharp edge of swords over stones.

Dt 13:6-15, 18:20

thought of the day.421

Evidence that Christianity Warps Common Sense / Violence Against Women

Christians praise a God who promised to have pregnant women ripped open with swords; made rape victims marry their rapists; demanded hordes of men stone women unable to prove their virginity and allowed men to beat women to death without punishment as long as the women suffered a day or two before expiring.

Dt 22:20-21, Dt 22:28, Ho 13:16, Ex 21:20

thought of the day.421

Evidence that Christianity Warps Common Sense / Animal Sacrifice

It was asked, “Could a being create the fifty billion galaxies, each with two hundred billion stars, then rejoice in the smell of burning goat flesh?” Christians certainly think so. They praise a God so pleased by the smell of burning flesh that he demanded a daily sniff for all time. Ah, but don’t dare offer an animal whose testicles have been “crushed, cut, bruised, or torn off” — this God demands his genitalia intact.

Lv 4:27-31, Lv 1:14-17, 1K 8:62-63, Lv 22:24, Lv 4:4-12, Lv 1:5-9, Lv 7:31-35

thought of the day.420

Evidence that Christianity Warps Common Sense / Disease

Christians praise a God who promised to torture children with horrible diseases and cause flesh, eyes and tongues to rot away.

Dt 28:56, 2 S 24:1-16,Zec 14:12, Nu 25:7-9, Lv 26:15-16, Is 10:16, Zec 14:15, Ex 9:10

thought of the day.419

Evidence that Christianity Warps Common Sense / Cannibalism

Christians praise a God who’s idea of a good punishment is to starve people to the point that parents eat their children, children eat their parents, and mothers eat their newborns — afterbirth and all.

Ez 5:9-10, Dt 28:56-57

thought of the day. 418

Evidence that Christianity Warps Common Sense / Killing Children

Christians praise a God whose “holy” book demands that parents stone, burn and stab their children to death. Any wonder why there’s more child abuse in Fundamentalist Christian homes than atheist’s?

Dt 21:18, Lv 21:9, Zech 13:3

thought of the day.417

Evidence that Christianity Warps Common Sense / Human Sacrifice

Christians praise a god who ordered a child sacrifice, accepted a child sacrifice, used child sacrifice as punishment, collected a “tax“ of virgins who are either sacrificed or enslaved and made human sacrifice a law.

Gn 22:2,12, Jg 11:30-39, Ez 20:26, Nu 31:25-41, Lv 27:28-29

thought of the day.416

Wanting to keep abreast of the latest nonsense spewed by the enemy, I tuned my car radio to one of the conservative Christian radio stations. Thoughts on forgiveness were being delivered by a Dorothy Bennett who apparently has been enlightening her listeners for three decades now. During Ms. Bennett’s “Daily Devotional” she mentioned spousal and child abuse. What wisdom had she garnered from a lifetime in the ministry? What insights had she gained from speaking with her LORD? Reading her holy book? Christian Conferences? In a nutshell...abused wives should forgive their husbands and ask God to do the same. Likewise for abused children. No suggestion that the behavior should cease. No suggestion that justice be sought. Just a message of submission, forgiveness and obedience. Just poison.

thought of the day.415

Following the Argument Wherever it Leads

Excerpt from a tribute about Antony Flew, 1923–2010

“As a species our hunger for answers is insatiable. So desperate are we to understand the universe around us that for untold centuries we have refused to accept any “gap” in that understanding. Unexplained phenomena are the spawning grounds for ghost stories, sea monsters, grassy knolls, and a Divine Mind.

Antony Flew understood this as well as anyone. He devoted a lifetime of vigorous intellectual argument against presuming God. Today we are asked to accept that he has changed his mind. With asterisks in hand, we accept.

Could we make a cogent argument “pointing to” his age and capacity as factors that might mitigate a change of this magnitude? We could. Are there uncertainties that could warrant a tenable challenge to the motives of those individuals surrounding Flew, with regard to his “conversion” and the curiously construction and authorship of the book? There are. Should the publishers bear any responsibility for preventing misperceptions concerning the disclosure of would-be ghostwriters? They should.

There is little hope of ever reconciling the Antony Flew of 87 years with the Antony Flew of 27 years. Did he change his mind, or did his mind change him?

History will record Antony Flew as a deist; Annis Flew confirmed that for us all. History, I fear, becomes an unwitting conspirator, forever defiled.

With so many varied aspects to this story, it is easy to forget that which matters most. Antony Garrard Newton Flew, philosopher, professor, author, atheist pioneer, and devoted husband, is now gone. For more than 60 years this thinker, this man of great intellect, marched to a different drum and followed the argument. We owe him much.

The last of the old guard, Professor Flew’s festschrift deserves to be written with admiration and respect for a distinguished philosopher. As Annis said to me, her accent reminiscent of British Royalty and her voice never wavering, “I am so very proud to have known him.”

~ Kenneth Grubbs

thought of the day.414

Christians I have spoken with have suggested atheism leads to Stalinesque mass murder. That it requires belief in God to be good. But unlike Christianity whose scriptures reveal a God who commits, condones, or commands ecocide, genocide, infanticide, murder, rape, slavery, destruction of property, torture, and so on, atheism is simply the lack of belief in such a wicked character. Seems praising such a character as holy and perfect is much more likely to lead to similar acts.

thought of the day.413

“There is not sufficient love and goodness in the world to permit us to give some of it away to imaginary beings.”

~ Friedrich Nietzsche

thought of the day.412

While conversing about the believer’s trauma of abandoning the practice of praying to a deity, my friend Stephen Marley noted the benefits of a “Transition from begging for guidance or favors from a mythological hero to an act of pure introspection and a positive appreciation for the realities of life.” This seems far healthier, more honest and nobler than fooling ourselves into thinking we have the ear of an invisible King of the Universe anxious to use his omnipotence to answer our petitions.