I am strongly biased against evangelicals.  I am more firmly biased against Roman Catholics.

What I don’t understand is that so many professing Roman Catholics don’t accept all the nonsensical teachings, yet continue to support the institution.   Why?

Brother said there’s too much hate in my blog, so he doesn’t read it.

I report on hateful, ignorant, stupid, abusive things going on in the world.   Many people prefer to ignore what’s going on “over there”, but (in my opinion) that’s how America and the rest of the world has got into the position it’s in now: ignoring social problems and not accepting responsibility for changing things.

I write about things that are important to me.   Nothing wrong with that.

• 38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”

• Asked about the origin and development of life on earth without injecting humans into the discussion, and 53 percent said it evolved over time, “with a guiding hand from God.” They were joined by 15 percent who agreed on the evolution part, but “with no guidance from God.” About a fifth — 22 percent — said life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time.

• Most of the Texans in the survey — 51 percent — disagree with the statement, “human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.” Thirty-five percent agreed with that statement, and 15 percent said they don’t know.

• Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs? Three in ten Texas voters agree with that statement; 41 percent disagree, and 30 percent don’t know.

How can anyone believe there is a god (without evidence), and that a god created humans (and everything else) in the same form as they appear today, just 10,000 years ago?

And how can people think that humans co-existed with dinosaurs, when we already know that dinosaurs were extinct about 65 million years before the first known human predecessor about 7-8 million years ago?

We know that no god has ever been found, nor is there any valid evidence of one, so it is safe to assume none exists.   The natural universe has developed over billions of years.  Why is this such a difficult concept for people to grasp?   Sadly, Texans would rather remain ignorant than take the time to understand how we got here.  And most of them don’t even know why they should be embarrassed at their lack of awareness.

Scanning the gathered crowds, it is impossible for my brain to imagine that many people at one time for one event.

Recently the AP reported that there were an estimated 230,000 lives lost in Haiti’s earthquake, including as many as 170,000 who were buried in the rubble and may never be fully accounted for.  There is no way to accurately count the loss, but the estimates give a pretty good approximation.

As I was looking at the crowds gathered for the Olympic ceremony, I was struck by the fact that there were about four times that many people who were lost during or because of the earthquake in Haiti.   Think about it — that’s a horrendous number of people.

Hearing numbers on the news reports is one thing.   Seeing that many people assembled together helps to visualize the human loss.

Hasbro is marketing a special PINK version of their Ouija board.   They’ve been around over a hundred years, and a popular pastime for slumber parties and other such things.

But critics are making outlandish, ignorant, and downright stupid claims about it:

some say the mysterious product is a “dangerous spiritual game” that opens up anyone, particularly Christians, to attacks on their soul.

“Particularly Christians”?   Why is that?  Do you think it might be because Christians are particularly steeped in woo-woo supernatural stuff and might fall prey to someone else’s woo instead of your own brand of woo?

“There’s a spiritual reality to it and Hasbro is treating it as if it’s just a game,” said Stephen Phelan, communications director for Human Life International, which bills itself as the largest international pro-life organization and missionary worldwide. “It’s not Monopoly. It really is a dangerous spiritual game and for [Hasbro] to treat it as just another game is quite dishonest.”

Phelan, who has never played the game, said the Bible explicitly states “not to mess with spirits” and that using a Ouija board will leave a person’s soul vulnerable to attack.

“All Christians should know, well everyone should, that it’s opening up a person to attack, spiritually,” he said. “Christians shouldn’t use it.”

“Spiritual reality”?    Really?   Hasbro is treating it like a game BECAUSE IT IS JUST A GAME!  And this Phelan person admit he’s never played with a ouija board, yet he is some sort of expert and professional spokesperson for what might or might not be acceptable for others?  Fuck him.  He’s a liar, just like all the other Christians.

Unlike what was shown on last night’s episode of Ghost Whisperer, the planchette does NOT move by itself.   And it doesn’t much move with just one person, either.   Two (or more) people put their fingertips on the planchette, ask a question, and try to ‘encourage’ the planchette to move about the board, spelling out a response. There are no spirits (evil or otherwise) manipulating the planchette.   The planchette is moved by the people touching it.   Whether consciously (as is usually the case) or subconsciously, the operators are already thinking of the desired response and are causing the planchette to move.   Largely it depends on who is more able to direct its motion without signifying to the other(s) who exactly is causing the planchette to move.

My life was seriously fucked up at age 13, but NOT by the Ouija board.  It was fucked up directly because of the alcoholic, drug-addicted, superstitious person on the other side of the board, who was also into pendulums, ‘automatic writing’, and other forms of spiritualistic woo. I lost my childhood and youth in one fell swoop, and never got to pass through the normal teenage rites of passage that my peers did.  It was a scary time for me, but not because of the Ouija board.

The more easily manipulated a person is, the more likely they’ll actually believe the bullshit coming from a Ouija board.   Religious people are already susceptible to that sort of thing, so it’s understandable that leaders of one kind of woo don’t want their gullible followers to be lured into some other thing.   But it is all the same bullshit, whether it is spiritualism, Christianity, or some other silliness.

These idiots who wail about “spiritual attack” and warn against the woo are the very same ones who tell their followers to “pray and trust God”.   WTF?   It is the EXACT SAME THING!  It is nonsense telling people not to fall prey to superstition while at the same time insisting they practice superstition.

There is absolutely no danger in a Ouija board.  It is an inanimate object, neither good or bad by itself.  Any fun (or danger) encountered is the responsibility and invention of the people using it.  That’s all.  Once you know what you’re doing, the fun is NOT from trying to guess “the message of the spirits”, but trying to feel the planchette to determine which of your companions is moving it.

Please, Christians … wake up and get a fucking clue already.

I would love to be able to sit and observe the entire trial, and hear what is being said.  But, then, I would probably be escorted out of the courtroom.  I don’t easily sit still when liars are making up shit about me, or about an identifiable group to which I belong.

What really gets me is that some people actually and sincerely believe they have the power to determine the lives of others.   White men in power sought to control the lives of black Americans, for example.    Straight religious people still try to control the lives of gay folks.

There are certain things that cannot be left to majority rule.  Religious bigots can have their opinions, but those opinions cannot determine the lives of other people.

I am hoping the Prop 8 Trial shows that Proposition 8 was, and is, unconstitutional (a foregone conclusion, of course).   The reality, however, is that whichever way this judge rules, it will be appealed back and forth until it lands in the Supreme Court.  Ultimately, civil marriage will be extended to all people equally because that’s the only possible outcome that makes sense under our Constitution.  DOMA will be repealed.   Religious fools will be upset, but so what?

Those who don’t get it, won’t be swayed by my words.   Those who appreciate his contributions to advancing social equality don’t need me to remind them.

I AM rather disappointed that Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s Birthday were combined into Presidents Day, but I’m not against honoring King as well.  People of nearly every race have contributed to making the United States as good as it is.

Is America as good as it could be?  Certainly not.   But because the work is unfinished is no excuse to fail to acknowledge what has been achieved so far.

In the last week or so, much attention has been given to Haiti and the overwhelming need for aid to recover from the earthquake.  It has overshadowed almost everything else.

But we continue to deal with buffoons.    Not all Christians are idiots, but most of the visible idiots are Christian.  And most Christians are liars.   Pity.

Based on all the available evidence, we can say with a safe degree of assurance that:

• There is no god; and therefore,
• No god created the universe

Lovely to see this principle illustrated so neatly.

Religions have tried for ages to claim this or that god created it all.   Unfortunately, there has been no evidence offered to support these silly claims.  None.  So, do you really believe that there is a god, and that your god is somehow responsible for this universe?   Why?

Indeed.

If fully understanding the message of God depends on doctoral level classes explaining language and culture, doesn’t that kind of diminish the message?

And if only those with theological training can really understand God, it means all these other people don’t really have a relationship with God, but have a second-hand experience filtered through preachers.  A real friendship, like any other relationship, requires active participation of both parties.   This is impossible with Christians and their ‘best friend’, because their best friend is a figment of their imagination, fed and stoked by reading about God, but not really having any contact or interaction with God directly.

What?  You say you have a relationship with God?   You’re a liar, straight up. The God you claim to know is not the same as the God other people know.   Not the other people in your church.  Not the other people in your religion.   And definitely not the people in other religions.   You’re all just making it up inside your own heads.  You read your sacred texts and invent your own Gods in your own ways.   That’s how it has always been, and you cannot prove otherwise because it cannot be otherwise.

If there were a God, then everyone who actually experienced God would have similar testimonies.  This is not the case, clearly.

So, when you tell me about your friend Jesus, you are telling me about your imaginary make-believe “friend”, not someone real.

I don’t have to read about my friends.  I don’t have to study about them in some book in order to build a relationship with them.  I go meet them directly.  We go out together.  We actually talk.   And if someone is standing nearby, they can verify the conversation — both sides of it.   That’s real.   Your talks with Jesus are not real; when you talk to Jesus or pray to God, you are merely talking to yourself.  You need to get over it, and wake up to the fact that the God you believe in simply does not exist, and never did.