I'm Back For Seconds

I'm kind of back. But I won't be blogging as often as I did.

There's things left unsaid, I think, from before the very long hiatus. I've still got bits and bobs of thoughts floating here and there, but I haven't had the time to actually write it down properly.

So in the meantime, I'll just go on like before, on the top of my head, and no punches pulled.

In spite of how my tone has been for a lot of the entries, I don't think the world is so black and white. There's no good and evil people. People never think they're bad, or that they're doing the wrong thing when they believe in something.

Of course thinking they're right and believing what they're doing is good is not necessarily a good thing. For example, Hitler. He believed what he did was helping the Jews, putting them out of their misery of their 'sub-human' existence. He truly didn't think what he was doing was wrong. Yet in hindsight we knew what he did was unjustifiable, horrific and inhumane in the grandest of scales.

A study a few decades ago on mafia dons in New York revealed that these bosses thought they were doing the community a service. That they had their justifications for doing so. Yet we would never accept their justifications, simply because our instincts say that murder, violence and terror cannot be justified with anything.

Do I sympathise with these people? No. Do I understand how they could've been so blindsighted? Yes. It takes some kind of neurological disorder or self-denial for them to be able to justify their motives and their actions.

The thing is, we do this too, albeit on a much smaller scale. Have you ever done something bad to a person intentionally, and then justify it by saying "he/she deserved it" or "it's just for fun"?

If you have, you're guilty of the same technique. Special pleading. This is when you give yourself the privilege of being excused the reality of your actions. If someone else were to do to you the same thing, you would never give them the same excuse. You would maybe even instantly label them as bad people.

People do this all the time. It's in our nature. If we're late, we can easily explain away our lateness. If someone else is late, we tell them off for their rudeness. If we get told off for being late, we'll talk behind the person's back and make them out to be unforgiving, uptight and unreasonable.

There's a reason I use the pronoun 'we.' Because I'm sometimes guilty of it too.


In other news. And at risk of contradicting myself.

I do find this ridiculous.

"I think of those in religious orders and some of the clergy in Dublin who have to face these facts from their past which instinctively and quite naturally they'd rather not look at. That takes courage, and also we shouldn't forget that this account today will also overshadow all of the good that they also did." - Rev Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster

Sure, it sounds okay. But when we put it in context, it sounds utterly ridiculous.

This is the response to the reports of sexual, physical and emotional abuse in Irish Catholic churches. So you're saying it is courageous for the Church to acknowledge that your priests are fucking molesting the children? Fuck, I'd call that too fucking late.

You know what courage is? It's fucking handling it when it's going on. Not after a third party reveals it to the whole fucking world. That's not courage. That's fucking damage control.

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/20/irish-catholic-schools-child-abuse-claims]

This is quite narcissistic, really. Think about the fucking children! Oh wait, the priests are already thinking about fucking the children!

I shouldn't really depend on the Church to be doing the right thing. Or acting with consideration or reason anyway.

The Church has excommunicated gays and pro-choicers, but it is funny they've never excommunicated Robert Mugabe or Adolf Hitler (both are Roman Catholics), even when they have been repeatedly called upon to do so. So apparently homosexuals and pro-abortionists are worse than mass murderers and power-hungry dictators.

Of course now they can't excommunicate Hitler because he's dead, but the Church has never tried to stop or say anything against Hitler in World War II even when it was clear Hitler was a practicing Roman Catholic. Now the same thing is going on with Robert Mugabe, but they've not said anything.

So why not excommunicate the paedophile priests?

Wait, if you've been reading this wondering what the fuck is an excommunication, here is its definition:

(noun) the act of banishing a member of a church from the communion of believers and the privileges of the church; cutting a person off from a religious society

Wait, did I just target on Christianity rather than Islam? I surprise myself.

My Name Is Jack

You know what made me laugh?

Sections of the Jewish and Muslim community thinking swine flu validates their beliefs.

"What did we tell you? Pigs are dirty! Now they've got a virus and you still keep eating them. Islam is the one true religion! We've warned you all along!"

Never mind that it's still unclear where the virus originated from. Most unlikely it did not originate from pigs at all, the reason why they're renaming it the H1N1 virus. And funnily enough, the first case this year about the infected pigs was suspectedly because a human being (yes, a fucking homosapien) infected the pigs. So by that logic, human beings are dirtier than pigs. Which is of course what the Christians have been saying all along.

"Men are full of sin! Jesus saves. He died for your sins! We fucking told you! You ungrateful bastards."

Funnily enough, when you think about it, Jesus is a bastard, literally. I mean Mary and God weren't married to each other. Heh.

I have no idea where I'm going with this.

I really do miss ranting here.

I've been watching a lot of Bill Maher lately. I like him, he's occasionally funny. The thing is, sometimes he doesn't have to make an effort when it comes to making fun of religion. Really, religion just makes fun of itself most of the time. Sometimes he just needs to say it matter-of-factly and it'll be plain hilarious. But there is one thing I don't like about him. Just this one particular thing. He dismisses all religious people as stupid and irrational.

You know what I think? He's partly right. But it's not that black and white.

People are irrational if they think a guy can split a moon in half and make it go through both his sleeves. I mean if I told you someone survived days inside a whale's stomach (where it's impossible to live in, despite numerous cartoons saying it's possible) and he came out unharmed, would you believe me? If I told you someone just woke up from a 1000-year slumber in the caves in Sarawak, you would think I was making things up.

Fairytales gain credence when it's associated with religion. It's ridiculous. I mean if I replace Jack with, say, Adam, and make him climb the beanstalk, we would be saying "oh how marvelous of God to have given Adam the magic beans."

That's what I think. Is that really that controversial?

How To Be A (Non-)Believer

I saw this posted on someone's Facebook. From the tone, I'm thinking it's supposed to be satire. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a bit biased, but this isn't funny at all. I've read some Christian comics and some are actually quite funny. This, not so much.

Source is here

http://ourdailythoughts.com/2009/04/13/how-to-be-an-atheist/

How to be an Atheist:

1. Refute everything in the Bible because men wrote it.
2. Believe and quote other writings of men to prove that the Bible is wrong.
3. Completely ignore the inconsistency between steps 1 & 2.
4. Call yourself a “freethinker” and “open minded” but don’t practice such virtues when it comes to Christianity.
5. Try to laugh out loud every time a Christian makes a statement about what they believe even if you don’t think it’s really that funny. This helps avoid a “serious” conversation.
6. Always bring up Zeus, Allah, and Santa Claus to prove that if you must believe in one God then you have to believe in all of them otherwise it’s just not fair.
7. When referring to the Bible use the word “myth” as often as possible and call believers whatever names you want because the goal is to frustrate the Christian so that his sinful nature comes out and he gets angry and then you can call him a hypocrite.
8. Set your own moral standards very very very low so that you’ll never look like a hypocrite yourself. The lower the better.
9. Never answer a question directly but quickly change the subject to make a completely different point. If you’re asked why you keep changing the subject just repeat this step as necessary.
10. Be as argumentative, loud, sarcastic and verbal as possible – there is no need to make sense or use logic in your arguments – just keep arguing.
11. Use words like “strawman,” “ad hominem,” “fallacy,” “red herring” and non sequiturs” against every argument whether you understand those terms or not.
12. Claim that atheism is rooted in “common sense” even though less than 10% of the human population claim to be atheists.
13. Reject all notions of faith even though you must put your faith in pilots, cars, food, doctors, evolution, and the next chair that you sit in.
14. Always ask for evidence for God but never accept anything presented to you. At the end of a discussion remind them that all you needed was some evidence for God.
15. Quote only the Bible verses that make God look mean and unfair.
16. Talk about being a good person remembering that you are allowed to define good however you would like because there is no objective moral standard.
17. Say that you have read the Bible and that you understand what it teaches whether this is true or not.
18. Only pick on Christians – you don’t want to get killed in a Jihad. However, be sure to say that there is no difference between Radical Muslims and Fundamentalist Christians.
19. Always use the crusades to make the point above.
20. Remember that you are looking for faults in other worldviews not trying to defend your own – do not try to prove atheism! Remember, it’s much easier to destroy than build up.
21. Make the claim that you only have one life and don’t want to waste it on religion.
22. If your conscience begins to bother you because of moral guilt you can numb it with drugs, alcohol, sex, or pride. You can give up the first three but never give up your pride.
23. Everyday feel free to thank God that you’re an atheist – just in case.

Then I tried to reply, using the exact same devices this person applied. But hey, as soon as I pressed 'Submit,' the words 'awaiting moderation' suddenly popped up. So there I was thinking, wait, there's a chance my reply will be moderated out. So here I've posted my own.

1. Believe everything in the Bible because ‘God’ wrote it.
2. Believe and quote the Bible to prove that the Bible is infallible.
3. Completely ignore the inconsistency between steps 1 & 2.
4. Call yourself a “tolerant” person and “open minded” but don’t practice such virtues when it comes to Atheism.
5. Try to laugh out loud every time am Atheist makes a statement about what they don’t believe even if you don’t think it’s really that funny. This helps avoid a “serious” conversation.
6. Always bring up the existence of everything to prove that there is a God and ignore the argument that this is a ‘God of the Gaps’ fallacy.
7. When referring to the Bible use the words “accurate” and “historically” together as often as possible and call unbelievers whatever names you want because the goal is to frustrate the Atheists so that his sinful nature comes out and he gets angry and then you can call him a hypocrite.
8. Act as if your moral standards are higher than everyone else. Stereotype atheists as morally-suspect people and cast them as evil.
9. Never answer a question directly but quickly change the subject to make a completely different point. If you’re asked why you keep changing the subject just repeat this step as necessary.
10. Be as ignorant, close-minded, dismissive and verbal as possible – there is no need to make sense or use logic in your arguments – just keep arguing.
11. Use words like “sin,” “hellfire,” “saviour,” “Satan” and “Jesus loves you, no matter what” even when the other person clearly doesn’t believe in them.
12. Claim that Christianity is rooted in “faith” even though faith is just another word for blind belief.
13. Try to use the “faith” argument back to the atheists even though science is not faith, it is a method of finding truth through rigorous experimentation and rationalism.
14. Always ask for evidence for the non-existence of God but never accept anything presented to you. At the end of a discussion remind them that all you needed was some evidence for the non-existence of God.
15. Quote only the Bible verses that make God look good and fair.
16. Talk about being a good person remembering that moral standards have change dramatically over the centuries.
17. Say that you have read the Bible and that you understand what it teaches whether this is true or not.
18. Believe that people only pick on Christians – Christians are the victims! We all know Christians have been discriminated against more than Atheists.
19. Always use Hitler to make the point above. Even though Hitler was actually a Christian.
20. Remember that you don’t have to prove the existence of God, though the burden lies on you, the person who is making the claim.
21. Make the claim that you have an afterlife, so you can waste your life on Earth worshipping a God instead of the hundreds of other Gods out there.
22. If your conscience begins to bother you because of moral guilt you can numb it with the Bible. The Bible justifies a lot of the nasty stuff.
23. Everyday feel free to thank God that you’re saved – just in case.



I'd like to think I'm a good person, and I know most Muslims and Christians are actually good people. But so are a lot of atheists I know. So from the evidence so far, goodness has nothing to do with religion.

And yes, if you replace the Bible with the Quran, and Christians with Muslims, my reply would also make sense. Except of course. Hitler. He's still a Christian.

But again, Hitler being a Christian is not really a proof against Christianity, is it? If he was an atheist, it would also not be a proof against Atheism. I mean, Osama bin Laden is not the sole representative of the whole Muslim population. Funnily enough, people have been using Hitler as a retort to anything. The funniest one is actually against vegetarianism, when in fact the Fuhrer actually loved Bavarian sausages. Sure, he loved animals. Don't many of us?

Actually, I'm still on hiatus. Maybe. Is this the right time to come back? I don't know. We'll see.