Irony of Ironies

I find it amusing that people like Ye or Andrew Tate claim they have exposed the matrix and have awakened from reality, yet they are devout Christian and a recent convert to Islam, respectively.

These organizations are the epitope of matrices and the founders of thought control, spreading their entropic ideas while standing firmly on the foundations of them.

This is no different from “waking up” and then switching from democrat to republican, or visa versa. Which side your in matters not to them—it is that you pick a side that matters. The discord that ensues is the program.

Curious if what Ye says is true, that blacks are the real Jews? Moses and Paul, who were Israelites, were mistaken for Egyptians. Egyptians were black Africans. For some, the fact that Ancient Egyptians were Black could be new information and sound outlandish.

But our history is pleat with whitewashing history. Even Jesus was white, right?

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Jesus Camp

“I can go into a playground of kids that don’t know anything about Christianity, lead them to the lord in…in a matter of just no time at all—and moments later they can be seeing visions and hearing the voice of god”.

“Because they are so open—they are so usable for Christianity. 1/3 of all people are children under the age of 15. Where should we be putting our efforts? I’ll tell you where are enemies are putting their efforts—they’re putting it on the kids”—Becky Fischer, Jesus Camp Pentecostal Children’s Minister

I wonder if the children realize they’re are being targeted for mass manipulation? Or is this a good thing? What is the benefit to these children?

Not “Q”anon—Qanon—Kanon—Canon, The rule of law—Sharia law

Is it any coincidence that qanon (qanun) is a word primarily of middle eastern usage? Of course it was borrowed from the Greek about 1000 years ago, but today it’s primary use is elsewhere—with the Q spelling.

In Azerbaijan (98% Muslim) Qanon means blood. In Uzbek (88% Muslim) qanon means law, or canon. See HERE for some other interesting Arabic connections, like sharia.

Maybe qanon is a clue in plain sight? Who else would love to divide the great whore of all the earth more than that?

As for the alternate spelling, there is no “o” sound in Arabic, but the “oo” as in boots. hence the u in qanon; qanun

And I thought it was just a cool spelling for my last name, hijacked to rouse the gullible.

A massive study analyzed every major contested news story in English across the span of Twitter’s existence—some 126,000 stories, tweeted by 3 million users, over more than 10 years—and finds that the truth simply cannot compete with hoax and rumor. By every common metric, falsehood consistently dominates the truth on Twitter, the study finds: Fake news and false rumors reach more people, penetrate deeper into the social network, and spread much faster than accurate stories”

Belief Analysis—

So, you’ve decided to join (insert worthy cause or religion here) but your not sure if you really understand everything just the right way. A friend finally tips the scale with some wise words—”what the hell, just give it a try and see what’s up—you’ve got nothing to lose”. So you employ the time tested wisdom of the ages, deciding on hormones and a hunch.

This is the very scientific technique most humans use to abandon using the scientific method of inquiry. This is how my parents joined the John Birch society back in the 60’s. It was a perfect fit as all their fears were realized by highlighting everything the group opposed, as central to the doctrine.

“Hatred is the most accessible and comprehensive of all the unifying agents. Mass movements can rise and spread without belief in a god, but never without a belief in a devil.”—Eric Hoffer, 

It is important now and then to scrutinize your own beliefs to make sure you are fearing the right things, but how to be objective in this process requires two things. First, find out what the opposition says and vehemently disagree with it. Second, convince yourself these are your beliefs that simply mirror the group—or is it the other way around? Now you forget (a pinch of doubt stirred, can go a long way, trust it)

Can anyone for one moment be the Buddha, unbelieve for a time and be the observer? Hardly likely, but the key to clarity is unbelief, so what to do? Employing the scientific method to belief (the problem) is a difficult task. For one, you have already decided the outcome by belief, skewing the interpretation of data. No, if you want to know what you believe, we must ask someone who doesn’t believe it.

“To continuously evaluate whether a being is good requires moral judgment, which requires moral autonomy, therefore it is not possible to continuously evaluate if a being is good while also worshipping it. Therefore, worshipping necessarily requires abandoning one’s moral responsibility, which is immoral“—James Rachel

Surpassing belief, which is simply withholding judgement until the outcomes of those beliefs are scrutinized by a third party (falsification) is the first step to liberation. Unless you’ve scrutinized your beliefs with the scientific method, an opposing view and an outcome based analysis, your beliefs are merely cans of hot air—in fact they are not even yours, or you, but the views of the group that through osmosis has hijacked your mind by a meme you’d swear was your own—until it isn’t.

To identify the real you, we must step away from belief mode—and like magic you will see the things you believed and fought for were not you at all. So distance a moment and relax—letting hormones make your decisions in haste adds a whole extra layer of insanity to conformity.

Surpassing belief mode and it’s limitations is likely the greatest challenge ever facing humanity. The appeal to belief in faith as a virtue appears to be the root problem of all problems.

Gaining a Deeper, Mature Faith

About a year ago Loy used the words, “maturing in faith”. Another reassuring catch phrase is, “deeper faith” or “deepening faith”, but what actually is the cognitive process of obtaining a deeper, more mature faith and why is it important to put effort to it? Why deconstruct doubt to reconstruct faith when you know it simply requires additional mental wrangling and dismissal of, or in many cases, spoliation of evidence?

Isn’t maturing in faith actually an increased commitment to self doubt after another exhaustive mental tug-o-war and rewording? Or, is it merely preserving bias longevity by simply ignoring doubt, bypassing evidence to cradle another attempt at belief into a smoother, steadier, methodical release of DHEA or relaxin? Maturing in faith is simply re-accepting your surrender, giving another try at reforming your thoughts—relax, god is testing your ability to lose an argument between your true self and your anchoring bias.

Painting on a house near me

Redoubling efforts to challenge doubt conforms one to a far more meaningful faith. One that frees your mind from the burden of original thought, for all religion creates copycats—soldiers of prepackaged t.v. dinner dogma by convincing yourself it’s actually a freewill thought. The choice is yours, but in trying to keep faith most will succeed. The reward is in the backslapping and camaraderie of thinking you get it, when you don’t.

Maturing in the gospel is simply an erroneous effort that lowers expectations of the benefit gained through faith.

Where All the Bad People Are

“Americans grapple with evil amid the decline of religious faith”—The Heritage Foundation

Roaming through some end-time prophecy (the doom and gloom stemming from Christian belief) when it struck me that I don’t really know any bad people. End-times are actually better times than ever before.

Even this mild “prophecy” is at odds with observations.

“Even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased“—Daniel 12:4

“I Just love this sign, because it is clearly pointing to our day today, and it cannot be refuted by anyone”—End-Times Website. We actually have an information explosion, while the depth of individual knowledge is likely at an all-time low.

I also disagree on other points. Prior civilizations have also had varied types of advanced knowledge compared to what we currently have today. Certainly we have a different type of knowledge than at other times, but is there actually more knowledge? And the explosion? What we have is “A handful of real innovators and a planet full of end users”.

“The world is going to hell in a handbag”—yet life expectancy is up, infant mortality down, and extreme poverty is down, (way down by billions over the past 50 years) Your chances of living out your natural life (and even beyond that) is greater now that ever before. Seems that god is punishing us with long and prosperous lives in this “wicked and perverse” generation.

I suppose the real fate of the world the rests on the transgendered and homosexuals refusing therapy or celibacy. The True Christian© morality doesn’t seem to be accurate here either, as we embrace the lives of every human life gets better.

I have traveled around this great county to all but one of the fifty states. Good people outnumber bad 100 to 1—no, I dare say 1000 to 1. Rarely ever have I crossed paths with a human that wasn’t just awesome in one way or another. It’s the best of times, but you’ll never hear that from the pulpits or the news selling fear. The Bible prophecies and the preachers are at complete odds with the way the world is trending.

Where on earth are all the evil people?

Extended Phenotypes

Genetically predisposed to do something useful, the beaver naturally builds a dam with no training from its specie. Some of the ingenuity is quite amazing, being copied in principle by human engineers and hydrologists.

Birds also build nests operating automática with no training required, it’s hardwired and as natural as eating.

Humans build shelters too, and take notice when it is lacking. “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” Luke 9:58

So what is it that humans naturally do, or even usefully tend to with no training? What are we programmed to do?

Through the course of religion we have been trained to wait, to believe empty promises that have yet to come to fruition. To ignore what we see, in favor of words. To propagate wishes as truth, and most importantly, place more importance on what we don’t know than what we do. Maybe we don’t know anything, and that’s the problem.

In a recent study interviewing patients in palliative care, the number one regret was what they worried about when life was good. Humans like to worry—though we all know the uselessness of it so we nobly call it concern, then live a life fighting back nature vs accepting things as they are, infighting our lives away over two false premises—out of worry panted by another.

Left or right, or which religion most closely aligns with what I’ve been conditioned to believe—then fight for it, all distractions from being you, which when we finally learn to do it, is pretty awesome all in itself.

“Man, sometimes it takes a long time to sound like yourself”—Miles Davis

Is Four Old Enough?

In a survey by the International Bible Society — indicated that 83% of all Christians make their commitment to Jesus between the ages of 4 and 14, that is, when they are children or early youth. The Barna Research Group surveys demonstrate that American children ages 5 to 13 have a 32% probability of accepting Christ, but youth or teens aged 14 to 18 have only a 4% probability of doing so. Adults age 19 and over have just a 6% probability of becoming Christians.

Because the 4-14 age period slice of the pie is so large, many have started referring to the “4-14 Window.” Many people serving as career cross-cultural missionaries have testified that they first felt God calling them to missionary service during that 4-14 age period.

It’s a fair question. How old were you when you accepted Jesus?

Where is God—A modern Invention

Of all of the most important things one would scribble on a wall, seems like god would be one of them.

32,000 years ago an artist lived in what is now modern France. Not some pre-enlightened hominid, (for by their works you shall know them) but a talent renown.

200 such paintings in the Chauvet cave alone. Recently discovered caves in various parts depicting hominid and wildlife motifs also show the hand of an accomplished artist. They also show that life may have been very different than we imagine—and the hands of the artists too.

Scenes depicting more modern and also extinct animals, human hands, landscapes, mermaids, sailing ships, but the most important thing (one would think) is gods. Where are the priests and deities in these 20-30,000 year old efforts? Funny how we label the ancients as “primitive” but quite possibly the ideas of god are strictly a modern invention we project in reverse, presupposing because our brains have been ruined by the idea.

What is Spiritual and Why it’s Not

Why do humans treat things they can’t see with more reverence than things they can? Spirituality is the act of making holy the voids in human perception through imagination.

Faith is the act of assigning honor to things you wish were real as if believing them actually meant something. Unsatisfied with Providence and what minimums it provides, we fail to live in the moment through supplemental prayer, always looking ahead and hoping because we have settled for mediocrity—belief someone or something else can make it better. Proving really, that humans can see a much better solution than the framework “god” has provided his pinnacle of creation through religion.

After careful scrutiny we find anything that persuades belief before thinking, is doctrinally sound. Anything doctrinally sound will never be settled without faith.

Who would do that but a manipulative genius who preyed on the weaknesses of human psychology? Religion is basically reverse psychology for grownups, inflicted on our youth to prevent them from becoming grownups—to lead a dependent life.

There is a difference however, between the regular, know-nothing Christian who is trying to make his way through life with tools that have been forced upon him by persuasion and fear, and the apologist who is an apologist because he knows better, but won’t face the failures of religion with integrity.

There is one good reason no man has ever seen god. Anyone want to take a shot at why?

Indian painted rocks, Spokane WA 7/20/19

Tests of Faith—Then vs Now

What exactly today is the greatest test of faith? Strong faith, promoted as a self sustaining virtue of religious belief, is the cornerstone, the footing, the walls and the capstone of religion. None stand to keep the whole intact without faith. We’ve discussed how mental trickery and indoctrination is used for faith gained, but how is it tested?

There are stories of Abraham, Moses, Jesus on the high mountain, as well as the apostles that had tests of their faith. But in what way is faith tested today? What is it measured against? What is it today that is the ultimate test of devotion? —your resistance against knowledge.

Abraham had it easy. He was tested to see if he would kill his only son in a time of brutality. A violent social normalcy that was already laden with superstition. He heard voices, and followed the (accepted by the day) promptings, and at the last second had woken from his trancelike state and withheld his hand. So what? In a time where little was understood about disease, gods accounted for everything from rain to floods, lightening to drought, God was interwoven into the psyche and dreams of everyone for every thing. His command to kill his son was difficult, but acceptable to him as a means to appease a god.

Other stories of zealousy are quite easily attributed to the times and the passion of religious fervor and power. Knowledge was shunned, separated, imprisoned, suppressed, and heretical so faith could thrive, only on an uneven field in a vacuum. Very uneven!

Today the faithful are tested at every turn with facts—overwhelming explanations that replace god, so warnings resonate from the pulpits and broadcasts, poisoning the well ahead of academics, indoctrinating young and old with continuous barrages of false oppression—all to guard them against embracing knowledge—for in the face of evidence, chronic denial and mediocre scholarship is the key to maintaining faith.

The Splendor of Belief—

Faith leads to this. I cannot sum it up any better than to direct you to the secret comments between believers about faith—do not deny! HERE

The comments are particularly good. Gods chosen are judge and jury. Of course they have relinquished there own moral autonomy and know longer no better.

“Backyard in the lowering sun”

To the True Churches

Years ago when I was a True Believer © (AD, DDa, AWOB), I purchased a piece of property for farming. It was 20 acres below the high-line canal and approved for flood irrigation. It had a swale in the middle sloping down a bit to one side and had to be leveled. Three or four days on a tractor and a laser—or embarrassingly, maybe I could just hold up my hand and command it in the name of Jesus!

—It didn’t work.

After a few days of dozing I came to my senses—I didn’t believe hard enough…God was testing my faith.

It is said that all churches which are founded in error and imposter will come to a shameful end. But if Jesus Christ intends to say that he has established a society of followers who will not fall either into vice or error, these words are absolutely false, as there is in Christendom no church, no society, and no sect which is not full of errors and vices viruses [sic] especially the Roman church though it claims to be the purest and the holiest of all. It was born into error, and even now is so full of delusions which are contrary to the intentions, sentiments, and doctrine of its founder (Paul, P-peter) Because it has contrary to his intention, abolished the laws of the Jews of which he approved and which he came himself and said to fulfill them, not to destroy. It has fallen into the errors of idolatry of paganism, as seen by the idolatrous worship which is offered to its god of death (and child abuse)

And nobody’s is moving any mountains.

“Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them—Mark 11:23

I didn’t doubt it, or I wouldn’t have done it. —Enter Explanations

Every Christian thinks the other are doing it wrong. In this I agree.

Sounds of A Raindrop—Evidence or Imagination

My blanket lay at the edge of the edge of the beach, right where the sand turns to sparse grass—and the clouds, a high and milky white mess on a hazy blue background.

The forecast called 40% chance of rain today, but nothing looked imminent. I closed my eyes and the world around me started to dissolve. My senses heightened in their fading and hearing beyond the crowd to the surf, the waves blended into a monologue of eternal, blissful siesta.

A distant dog-bark echoed my direction long away through a gentle breeze. A pre-dreamy, drowsy calm invaded my physical being and time seemed a stand still—then it happened—I heard it. Like a bullet parsing through time-frozen air molecules, a shwooshing sound with the grace of a high-speed zipper in slow motion. Then, it hit me—a single rain drop on the inside of my forearm.

Wetting my stratum corneum, somatic receptors fire a signal through a thousand miles of road-map nerves at light speed, landing in my well mapped sensory cortex, eliciting a preconditioned response from an altogether, other part of my brain, the frontal cortex (which is unique to humans) Aah, god is good (from the memory banks of indoctrination—our belief)

“Beliefs originate from what we hear – and keep on hearing from others, ever since we were children“—Indian Journal of Medicine

I have no evidence it rained that day, but I felt it, I know it. The news said there was no precipitation, but I know—I even heard it gently censure me from near slumber.

This is exactly the evidence for god—because it was trained and ingrained. Did it rain and did I hear the drop coming, or in my hypnogogic, near-sleep state, did I dream it? My first response is proof something is off—I don’t even believe what still lingers from all those years, but like habits are—in the neurons like a ping-back from a children’s blog you quit enabling many years ago.

Springtime Oregon Grape. Mahonia aquifolium in juvenile yellow.

Improvements I’d Like to See

1. Faith insurance. As part of a nationwide tithing settlement, a portion of every donation would fund mental health counseling and current believer vertigo
2. Graduation from church. Mandatory time limits for your church to meet its objectives. A good church would cut you loose but they depend on your tuition to ruin you
3. Get out of religion free cards. More or less a monthly hall pass to get your bearings
4. Tithing refunds—For those of us that saw it for what it is—and isn’t. We want our money back!
5. Reparations to deconverts funded by a tax on religion
6. Post traumatic religious syndrome: federal recognition that the duping you received caused you trauma.
7. 4D vision-proof glasses. For looking beyond the veil to see there isn’t one.
8. Religious Life-lock for identity reconstruction. Find yourself again on the church’s dime.
9. Prophet sharing [sic] on religious revenue. Every good investment gives revenue sharing and dividends. Religion isn’t one of them.
10. Warning signs on chapels and a two verse limit. Religion served on the premises, no children allowed.
11. Minimum age limit (21) for baptism or any contractual membership.
12. Embarrassment—that goes with the territory when the charade is over—sorry, only time will heal your chagrin

Finding your life groove outside of the myopia of belief.

Abortion Laws—No Help Yet for the Forcibly Born.

My Daughter came home from high school today ready to fight! Anti-Abortion laws are religious laws and have no place in state constitutions. However, 20 states are attempting to pass ridiculous “heartbeat laws.” Georgia and Ohio’s just passed theirs. Ohio’s new law prohibits rape and incest victims from having an abortion. In Georgia, having a miscarriage could result in an investigation. Is this really true? Or reasonable?

Ohio governor Mike DeWine signed the state’s Human Rights Protection Act, which bans abortions as soon as doctors can detect a heartbeat—about six weeks. A law that protects 1/2 of the parties involved, one of which is not yet alive.

The fact that many women do not yet know they’re pregnant is irrelevant to the good governor. Actually, that’s part of the plan—ignorance is embedded in the design of the legislation.

Also from the religious right of contradictions; isn’t it odd how financial and pro-life conservatives generally don’t support government assistance to mothers that can’t afford children, yet do everything in their power to make sure they have the baby anyway. Born baby born! What happens after that is if no concern.

Fear Play—

A healthy amount of fear is normal. Skepticism allows us to make our way in the world without being suckered, while religion attempts to alleviate those fears, then ersatz the trivial everyday with existential death anxiety—not terribly afraid to die, but afraid of what will happen after you do—and a fear of separating from loved ones you never knew before life happened.

On advisement we relax and let Jesus take the wheel, then fear is directed at our performance and we’ve taken the bait. We all have fears—which ones, seem to make all the difference finding personal peace.

“Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom“—Luke 12:23 KJV

Have I got a deal for you! Do you want to see my puppy? I have ice cream—any flavor you want—like the taste of hell… Even as a believer this made me a little squirmy, but few seem to be able resist it.

I was having a conversation the other day and the gentleman said, “we get the most out of religion when we allow our faith to be vulnerable“—in a sense, letting down your guard in belief.

Allowing your faith to be vulnerable is like lowering your expectations to be happier. After all, getting a C- when you were expecting a D can give a lot of hope, but it doesn’t take us anywhere meaningful. I know, I grew up being suckered.

So how does one go about deciding the right amount of vulnerability? It can be comforting to be a part of a flock full of deception you can trust—until you no longer think like they do.

Christianity—Holding on to the past while hoping the future ends—until it’s their future.

Why should I fear death?
If I am, then death is not.
If Death is, then I am not.
Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not?”

Epicurus, letter to Menoeceus

Truth about God—Yes, Even That One

It doesn’t take a lifetime to figure this out. I got into this quest about two years ago and part-time have easily disproved any semblance of god, backed by the best reproducible research and study—then easily answered the hardest questions by mere observance. From all the available research and laboratories around the world—and from mere reason, there is no god or gods.

We have a problem with perception—purely bias, easily indoctrinated, deceived from the time we can breath, then required by command by people who lie to us to trust, have faith, just hang in there. For what? What has it produced but deeper conjecture and division? How long does religion deserve to prove its objectives?

Mans search to solve what are actually the quirks of neurology and perception has spent over 100 generations seeking truth since the Jesus myth, and who-knows how long before that. Impressions, dopaminergic rewards and other hormonal responses have been neatly illusive to comprehend. The fact is we are easily fooled, easily persuaded, easily gathered, and by belief in another plane of omnipotent existence we have divided humanity into groups.

The red writing in the Bible is right about one thing—faith has power. The power to overlook obvious contradiction, lies, truths, and through belief the “men of words” of the world have controlled nations—and we’ve paid them to do it.

The reality is that ever-changing neurologies and circumstance is hard to pin down. Everyone sees something different, even in the physical sense, let alone from the corner of their eye in a darkened environment—or a church hall. Humanity is unstable. Faith is too easily rewarded as shown by mans desires to believe in anything at all. Believing gets you the good-boy award for doing what can’t be helped by our physiology. If there is a god he’s laughing his ass off at his fuck-up. Life is to be lived people. There are no secrets. There are no mysteries of heaven or god. 10,000 years of the best minds have found nothing—not a damn thing! And who thinks that finally now we will find what we’ve been taught to search for, that no one else has ever found?

In the end everyone decides what kind of god they are willing to accept. Fundamentalism is pure whack job—the smug call that orthodoxy while the rest (even the normal believer) see real religion as a cancer. Water it down and at least it’s tolerable—barely.

Perceptions In Reality—A Walk on the Beach

Competition amongst the gods we imagine leaves an ominous gap in interpretation of existence, nature, and purpose.

Join me along the pier for a quiet mid-week stroll. See the snow-capped mountains in the distance while the gentle waves lap against the pilings. Feel the warmth of the sun washing ashore in a whispering, summery breeze, watching an orca, otter, and bottle-nose dolphin frolicking around a piece of large, weathered driftwood. One might call this a spiritual experience. I may say—god is magnificent; or, the creator certainly knew what he was doing, perhaps, pleased with his creation. We could all agree that together, we saw all those things and experienced them in an emotional, or inspirational way. Beauty is a stimulant that we all appreciate. It stimulates our senses (and hormones) while rendering thoughts of contentment. One thing we would all concede in our discussion is we saw a whale, a dolphin, an otter, and breathtaking scenery.

A discussion might follow; god is great, the master creator, followed by nature is amazing—obviously the god of love made this for us—while the scientist mind may imagine eons of selfish genes, double helixes, cataclysms, and the intricacies of diverse life that evolved from the primordial ooze over millions of centuries in different ecosystems and evolutions.

One of these ideas can be proven.

At once, without warning, the whale thrashes the otter into pieces, shaking it violently, tossing it high above the surf, then swallows it nearly whole.

The excitement stimulates the immediate ecology, and a passing salmon is chomped and swallowed without chewing by the dolphin. Reason would immediately favor the scientist. The religious could then pull-start their apologetic motors whirling about higher purposes, the ways of god are mysterious, or god knows best.

The facts suggest that differing neurologies and experiences create vastly different interpretations and perceptions of everything we view. All of us are different, and that is obvious we create our own belief. Some desire a creator (or succumb to the idea) from their training and influence, then manufacture an ideal that suits their purpose, adding personal touches to make sense of the senseless.

Each congregation has as many beliefs as there are people. Take away the churches, and the same would be true. It is you—not god that has generates purpose. I create my own—the believer inherits purpose through conformity and lives a life of pseudo-reality—by choice. And the evidence that shows how hard it is to escape your past indoctrinations.

Brainwashing or Conversion?

I recently read a blog where a woman was asking the audience if she should join Islam, the religion of her boyfriend of six years—his family didn’t know she was an infidel, and they were scheduled to meet the parents in a few weeks. Should she join with the Muslim faith to appease her boyfriend? I reviewed these steps to religious conversion after posting my reply.

In no precise order, and often overlapping:

1. New Identity—Although not always mandatory, a name change is required if her given name was an affront to Islam (Christina) It is common in many religions to assume a new name after conversion. Catholics, muslims, mormon, Hindus, and more. If no new name is officially or ritually given, aligning with the group is done voluntarily. Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Mormon, etc. Giving up your old identity and assuming a new, is just part of the program.

2. Guilt—You are bad. You are born a fallen sinner. Your sin is so grievous in fact, is as though your sin is driving the nails in Jesus’ hands and feet. As a sinner you are eternally separated from the presence of god. Your body is a temple that you have defiled with the ways of the world. You continue to make the lord suffer by your disobedience. He loves you.

3. Self-betrayal—Agree with me that you are bad. Once the prospect agrees that they are worthless without god, they can begin to see their own dilemma before the lord—not a highly evolved organism, but a child of god. Don’t you know what you are? You want to come from monkeys?

4. Breaking point—I am a sinner. I am not a good person nor could I possibly live a peaceful life knowing I am worthless. I need to be saved.

5. Leniency—You can be forgiven of all your sins if you simply believe, confess your sins, repent and be baptized. You want to be forgiven, don’t you? You want to return to god.

6. Compulsion to confess—Confess your sins, often to a clergy member, or authority. I am a sinner lord.

7. Channeling of guilt—the investigators guilt has lost all meaning—he’s not sure what he has done wrong, he just knows he is wrong. Things he didn’t know were wrong, are now wrong. This confusion creates something of a blank slate that lets the teacher fill in the blanks.

8. Releasing of guilt—It’s not me; it’s my beliefs. The embattled soul is relieved to learn there is an external cause of his wrongness, that it is not he himself that is inescapably bad—he was born this way because of the act of another. This means he can escape his wrongness by escaping the wrong belief system, or lack of one. All he has to do is denounce the people and institutions associated with that belief system, and he won’t suffer guilt anymore. The investigator has the power to release himself from wrongness by abandoning his old belief system. With his full confessions, the convert has completed his psychological rejection of his former identity. It is now up to the teacher to offer the prospect a new one. Scapgoating…placing your burdens on another to make you whole. Relief and salvation. I am saved, and I will now be a faithful follower.

9. Progress and harmony—Friendships and alliances form. New family, friends, phrases, I belong here. This is good. Backslapping, hugs and joy. You’re in!

10. Final confession and rebirth—I choose good. Contrasting the agony of the old with the peacefulness of the new, the convert chooses the new identity, clinging to it like a life preserver. He rejects his old or non-belief system and pledges allegiance to the new one that is going to make his life better. At this final stage, there are often rituals or ceremonies to induct the converted target into his new community. This stage has been described by some brainwashing victims as a feeling of “rebirth.”

You may have guessed by now, but these are not conversion tactics listed in the numbered headings, but brainwashing techniques discovered by Robert J Lifton used on POWs in N Korean and Chinese camps. Conversion merely follows the same steps.

Here is one version of the sinners prayer. Don’t worry, I’m not fooling you into salvation…but it contains the elements.

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner and there is nothing that I can do to save myself. I confess my complete helplessness to forgive my own sin or to work my way to heaven. At this moment I trust Christ alone as the One who bore my sin when He died on the cross. I believe that He did all that will ever be necessary for me to stand in your holy presence. I thank you that Christ was raised from the dead as a guarantee of my own resurrection. As best as I can, I now transfer my trust to Him. I am grateful that He has promised to receive me despite my many sins and failures. Father, I take you at your word. I thank you that I can face death now that you are my Savior. Thank you for the assurance that you will walk with me through the deep valley. Thank you for hearing this prayer. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

—Why Religion Fails

Positive changes in religion are slow but happening. This improved faith bolsters an all-time low attendance with a lagging morality resistive to catch up to what decent people already know. They are inching their way towards the ultimate truth—all the while holding the book of books that for centuries has held all the answers to life’s important questions—that never came to conclusion. How long shall we give it to prove it’s efficacy? 2000 more years? 3000? “Just have faith”—then, just have more faith is is approaching eons of prophetic adjustments and obvious ostriching.

Thanks to the Bible, Quran, Bhagavad Gita (and some really nifty commentary) we know how the universe was made, how man was created, how to create a self-serving excuse for a system of morality, what happens when you die, and most importantly, why—why the gods created this artificial world and subjects to worship itself with all vainglorious self-admiration—in his glory, of course.

When starting any endeavor, is it wise to start with the worst possible, violent, ambiguous, contradictory vision statement and SOP? Especially how to treat your slaves and concubines (bonus material). Today we have workers rights posted at every business. Thanks to the Bible and 2000 years of tries, we got a new morality based on the demands of mere people and unions.

Religion fails because it is designed that way. Where it succeeds is convincing you of its own importance then inspires perpetual tail-chasing, thereby stalling equality and true freedom, crippling the minds of men from doing what any three-person committee, or mom and pop could do on their own—only better.

Religion is failing because it is false. It fails because it is based on dreams, spectral evidence, pseudo-facto temporal lobe seizures and superstition. If fails because it is inceptualized by control freaks, dreams, guesses, men of words and power. It is an imagination that no longer can be rationalized as reality.

It is evidenced by vast numbers wanting to break away to try their own versions. Every single person can do it better with their own ideas of right and wrong—and that’s the way it should be.

We alone hold the power. Whatever the initial intentions were, religion is now a self perpetuating fraud. No one knows who’s started it, no one knows how to shut it down. That, is up to us too. And it will happen—bit by bit.

Deepfakes—Audio-Visual Technology and Fake News

“Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it”—Jonathan Swift. I was just reading about deepfakes in video and audio technology creating authentic-looking fake news. Why does my mind continually compare this to religion? The original creators of fake news still have the largest following of old and new absurdities. Fake news, with its Christian roots have mastered the technique in bible colleges and seminaries worldwide, perpetuating (often unknowingly right up to the point that they do know, then do nothing to stop it) the greatest hoax in the history of humanity.

While computers can now replace the facial expressions with actual, authentic voice matches in real time, manipulating the very words one is speaking is even fooling lip readers. Apologetics continues to change the meaning of simple phrases without flinching, blinking, or detectable changes in pixel density, all while maintaining the mental heirs of actual density.

Why does one continue perpetuate the fiction even after they know it’s bs? Why do they continue to publish a fake news story, even after it is retracted?

See study HERE. “The massive new study analyzes every major contested news story in English across the span of Twitter’s existence—some 126,000 stories, tweeted by 3 million users, over more than 10 years—and finds that the truth simply cannot compete with hoax and rumor. By every common metric, falsehood consistently dominates the truth on Twitter, the study finds: Fake news and false rumors reach more people, penetrate deeper into the social network, and spread much faster than accurate stories”. Sounds very Christian to me—the greatest of all deepfakes in human history has conditioned its members to be gullible and believe anything.

The Slave Bible—The Trick Inside the Trick

For quite some time I have been baffled by the devotion of the black church. I understand the sense of community and unity, but…

Using deception is nothing new to religion. Tampering with the words and chapters of the Bible, even in their own book is grounds for a trip to hell (another neat invention).

“A new exhibit at a Washington, D.C., museum featuring an abridged version of the Bible sheds light on how Christian missionaries converted enslaved Africans to Christianity by teaching them the Gospel… except the parts about freedom, equality and resistance”.

Today’s Christians do the same. Cherry pick a few feel good parts and bear testimony, manipulate emotion and herd instincts, declaring any positive emotion god-sent, while leaving out the ugly. Like I said before, compile the relevant parts of the Bible and you could produce it in a pamphlet.

It amazes me how an oppressed people can celebrate the rule of their past and present. Why there is one Black Christian on the planet strikes incredulity and head scratching. A host on another blog, Harry, told me one reason; it was a black man that carried jesus’ cross—another propaganda—Cyrenes were Jews and Greek) Welcome to the faith! The next life will make it all worth the prison sentence your mind has endured. Once the culture and language and history was destroyed, they are now set to assist the mental oppression through faith.

The church will use any omission, wordbending, or outright lie to convert, coverup, or enslave any person. Thank humans for secular humanism to fight this nonsense.

We’ve seen the tradition continue today. There is nothing the apologists won’t hide or deflect or defend to bring one to Jesus. From the point of a sword to deleting points in the word, no deception is out of bounds—for Christ sake!

Believing We Don’t Believe

Isn’t it strange that testimony is to be taken at faith value, while lack of faith requires an explanation?

I do not believe there are any god(s) or a God or GOD (somehow the spelling matters) in any dimension in or outside time and space. Yonder heavens? Nope. The evidence is not compelling, the story too bizarre, nonsensical, and violent. And the promises…no signs follow anyone that believes.

I would offer this though, “if” there was a god, if this were a test, the ultimate test to prove your worthiness is this; do you have the integrity to not believe against overwhelming majority, in spite of being naturally superstitious, human herd instinct, and massive indoctrination to follow the crowd—to call out the immoral morality of the Bible for what it is, and to separate yourself from a doctrine that espoused suffering of any kind?

Do you have the decency to call the genocides of god or his people what they are without excuse, despite repercussions of mistrust, labels, constant pressures and fears? Simply the word atheist conjures a myriad of falsehoods aimed relentlessly at the person who simply won’t align himself nor suck up to a god/belief system that is the lifeblood of contradiction and conjecture, division and hate.

“Straight is the gate and narrow is the path, and few there be that find it”. Are we the few? This is the test. This is the sacrifice. Many of us have lost all our friends and family by distrusting a system that calls god good, while all along we see the the exact opposite and refuse to adopt the mantra and blatant contradictions.

L’esprit de l’escalier

At the end of every debate we all have moments where we wished we’d remembered to say one final thing—that final nail in the coffin. If only... The French call it stairwell humor—L’esprit de l’escalier, or what you thought to say after the door closed. English doesn’t have a precise word for after the fact, so we’re allowed to borrow from time to time.

We each have unique experiences that led us to here and now. Mine is different from yours, although all equally valid to diffuse the soldered neurons we no longer accept. We literally have a hundred different reasons for abandoning belief.

In debate, some say what we wish we had said—why didn’t I think of that? And others, (including our own statements from time to time) we sigh, look away from the screen, feel the implosion of dumb after hitting the send key, even if it’s just a typo. But, have you ever heard the opposition fall short of convincing, only to know that if they had thought just one step further, they would have had you dead to rights—like an opponent in chess missing his easy checkmate?

This was the feeling yesterday. Loy (as several other before him) had one more line he could have used to hands-down win the argument. It was synthesis of a subtly abrupt clause, one that would automatically turn every atheist into Loy’s corner, but he failed to seal the deal. One time (possibly in his entire life) he had the the opportunity, but chose an aposiopesis of thought, one that could change his life forever, unwinding years of neuronal fixation, causing every comment to be reread in full—I don’t know, you win! Have you ever heard such a thing?

Christianity is the ultimate example of the Tagalog word Layogenic: from far away, it’s OK, but up close it’s a big old mess, leading us to what the Germans say—Fremdschämen (a cousin to Schadenfreude) meaning vicarious embarrassment. I feel for the wasted potential of a life in servitude to an imagination revealed by those in power. Those who have never lived within its regulations themselves. One win that was easily won, and got away.

aposiopesis–

—How Old is Too Young?

My wife teaches at a supplemental home school program sponsored by the public school. Some of the kids have trouble in a regular class settings, while most are out of public school for religious reasons while dabbling in the fringe of structured education.

Monday in her science class they were covering the circulatory system, covering the basics of arteries, veins, and the heart. She showed the direction of blood flow into the atrium and the ventricles when a six your old student blurted out, “the only true blood is the blood of Jesus. I’m covered in the blood of Jesus!”

Human sacrifice is a messy game. So messy in fact, that visual would not be allowed in any PG movie in the secular rating system. It’s really not for kids.

Next week they cover the human reproductive system. Notes are already coming in to exempt certain kids from class, and guess who turned in the first letter?

Surprised? Why would a six year old need this in his memory banks? Jeezus! Once again man’s self governed morality trumps biblical influence. It always does!

Horrible Ideas Inspire The Most Philosophy—Faith

The simplicity of the gospel has publishers rolling in cash generated from Christian publications.

Before self publishing access boomed in the early 2000’s, about 7500 new Christian titles every year crowded book stores shelves in USA English with cluttered explanations on every jot and tittle. This is when publishers could filter out the weak from the sellable versions. Now the numbers are around 786,935 English language books published are assigned a catalog number per year in the U.S. on Christianity alone. Finding new and improved ways to exonerate the confusion and simplicity of the gospel is a competitive cash-cow of cleverly worded conjecture.

One publisher stated, “Most of our (traditional) publishers are trying to figure out how to get more out of fewer books“. It’s the same story over and over—good luck with that.

We often turn to the Greeks for their wisdom and eloquence in presenting wordsmithing sense into religion using philosophy. Remember, it is a cleverly worded failure from a collapsed society that mixed religion and politics with the grandest, most beautiful of explanations. We still look to anything scribbled in Greek to conjure up validation. They were so eloquent in their words that even fiction has spawned archaeology hunts.

If shear volume of religious commentary are any indication of another society in the brink, Christianity today is ripe for collapse. And someday, hopefully, we’ll all write about surviving that blessing. The most declinitive words to ever influence the numbing of human thought, leading whole civilizations to their celebrated stagnation—Do you believe in god?

The Words of Lana

After a successful day of hive hunting with the kids, I stumbled upon a queen-bee (Lana) that hadn’t left the hive yet for hibernation. I think she finally may after today.

This is the most arrogant and egotistical of all the arguments I’ve been blessed with. From her post “Right…” which she has removed and deleted David K and my comments after tagging atheism in settings.

“When you truly know God and have a close relationship with Him you don’t have to worry about keeping faith. Only a false Christian would lose faith”

And…

“I stand by my words. No true Christian loses their faith. You may question God sure, but you never leave Him. You were never one to begin with Jim. It sounded like you tried to win favour so hard by works yet we are saved by grace when we love God and surrender”.

After my courteous reply about ego, arrogance, and judging others level of faithfulness, she told me “shame on you for running an atheist blog” and closed comments down. I don’t think her faith is as powerfully strong as she implied. Zealots are rarely mentally ready for the big leagues.

Her background in the occult, yoga, and new age, coupled with her surrender to Jesus, is a neurological trap sprung from gullible tradition, suckered by the feel-good lies of TB’s.

Primed first as a child, left jesus to practice various sorcereries. To return to the God she grew up with was an easy neuropathway to reconnect, floods of dopamine (I mean the spirit) confirming old habits die hard—she will be an atheist before New Years if she’s not already. That’s how she came in to the world, that’s how one should leave it. Those that spout the hardest have the most doubt, and she pulls no punches when it comes to seeking validation. It’s obvious she only knows the words…Here’s her latest post if your interested (I’ve given it a half star rating just for the conspiracy crap)

One thing about religious convictions—they are beautifully suited to the arrogance of the week [sic]. I do feel for her as faith crisis is a troublesome time, but when you finally leave the ego/god complex behind, true love emerges for the first time and freedom rings. But first…growing pains. It’s hard to admit you’ve been suckered.

Great eyes for hives. She found both of them

And a happy crazy-eyes bee-hive hunting grandson! Why does he always do that? Lol

A beautiful day in the fall mountains.

Sell it by Zealot—The Analysis

Perusing last night I came across this comment. It is amazingly simple to the observer, then why so complex to the user? This one is overripe with easy explanations.

Yes, I believe in God with all of my heart! When I was 13, my Dad got a new job in Illinois. We moved from Colorado and the house we moved in to was possessed by a demon! We lived with that evil all through my high school years. It was terrifying and yes, heaven and hell are very real. We were delivered from that demon when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior! I rebuked it out of our home and our lives in the Name of Jesus and we never had any more problems after that!

I accepted Christ in 1996. In 1998, I had two angel encounters in the city of Denver, Colorado (USA), and in 2012 I stopped breathing due to anaphylactic shock, but God saved me by the power of the Holy Spirit and put me back in my body! I wrote a book about all of this, which is published on Amazon, called “One Man’s Very Strange Supernatural Life.” I email free copies of my eBook to anyone who wants one!

I just wrote about the day I stopped breathing and came back to life in a post titled “My Lazarus Moment.”

I used to hate Christians and I did not want anything to do with God. I used to party and drink heavily, but the Lord Jesus rescued me from all of that!

Grace and peace to you! May God bless you and reveal Himself to you in new and mighty ways!

“That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Brief Analysis?

• Trauma of a move at 13 and moving into a strange house and willing to try anything to fit in
• Do Demons live in Illinois ?
• Neurological compromise, astral projection, asphyxiation,
• Mixing youth and adulthood experiences, near death, drinking, god to the rescue (appears more than once) and I have received none? I thought god was everywhere… This person is unstable
• There are no angels in Colorado
• Existential death anxiety
• Others?

Prosperity Gospel

The founders and the missionaries of the old world set a precedent by flaunting their prosperity. “Paganism was a faith that was largely geared to gaining material prosperity. There were gods for the crops because they wanted their crops to grow. They had gods for cattle so that they would produce more milk. When these pagans looked at the wealth and power of Christian Europe, they were impressed: the Christian God was obviously one who could deliver the goods. Christians built bigger buildings, made more beautiful jewelry, possessed better ships, and so on. Many pagans were not adverse to converting to Christianity because they believed it would, in fact, give them more material prosperity than had their gods”. (1)

To appreciate this point, note how Christian missionaries fared in sixteenth-century China. Here was a non-Christian culture that was in many ways superior to the West. In that context, Christianity makes practically no headway.

In Europe, we see evidence that this wasn’t a by-product but a deliberate tactic of missionaries. When the bishop of Winchester sent his pupil Boniface to evangelize Germany, he stressed that Boniface should remind the pagans just how rich and powerful the Christians were.

Prosperity gospel is the cartucho that sets the poor on a course to prosperity in jesus. Now, popular in the poverty culture of Christianity is to give their mite to the wealthy ministers in hope for wealth through faith—

Professional audio, sound, and lighting guaranteed to bolster the spiritual experience with calculated speech patterns to ultimately deceive its audience my manufacturing emotions—with of course phone apps to request prayers and donate money. Copeland’s net worth is now $760 Million on the backs of the poor. So much for living like Jesus?

I couldn’t donate to anything with this face attached to it.

Psychosomatic Head Lice, Illusory Truth Effect…ahh, Religion

Did you feel that? I remember many years ago watching the missionaries in my home, teaching “without purse or script” ((winging it) by the spirit of god that was in them. After a prayer to invite god into the room, one missionary was quoting select scriptures and telling stories to invoke emotions. After what may or may not have been a lie, one of the missionaries interrupted “oh, did you feel that? The spirit is strong in here today”. The other missionary said, ” yeah, I feel it too”. This went on for a little while and the the investigator was asked to pray with them. She declined offering the prayer (first instinct) so the missionaries prayed. They laid it all out there in the prayer, asking for god to show his love and touch this room with his spirit, and to let the investigator know the truth of their words. Their emotions were strong, all in it, and after the prayer they convincingly, kindly, asked if she could feel it too? “Yes”, she could feel it. ” The lord has brought us to you today to share his message. Can we come back and visit with you again?” The gal was baptized two weeks later. She eventually swam out of it a couple months later after some internet research and a little help from her friends, and being away from those who “feel it too”. Turns out she didn’t feel it when the missionaries were away. “The sting” was on their shoulders like rid-away to psychosomatic head lice, illusory truth effect needed more repetitions to take root, and the psychosomatic influence wained. More repeated exposure was needed.

I worked at a new school a few years back. On of the teachers started having respiratory issues and told us all he thought there was mold in the school. Evidently this was all new for him and he needed some resolve. Air quality in schools is a fairly well monitored science here in the states, and a crew was called out and did a test. Nothing was found, and air quality exceeded the state standards. The teacher was not satisfied, and began wearing a mask to school. Within two weeks, most of the staff and students were wearing masks to school. Illness swept through the campus and the school was closed. Teams of lab rats combed the school, literally every nook, cranny, and crawl space was tested. The building air and ducting was all evacuated. Anti fungal and germicides were pumped through the system and a complete mop-up and retest gave the school another clean bill of health. News was out that everything was A-ok, school resumed and life was good again. There was nothing ever found, There was nothing ever there, but psychosomaticism.

If your head doesn’t itch before you hear about the lice, you don’t have lice.

If you feel the spirit (define that) only after others feel the spirit, you don’t have it. Nobody does, but positive emotion feels good, and for some it’s addictive and must be shared to get validation.

Because someone says it’s true, doesn’t make it true. In fact, if someone has to tell you something is real, most likely is not true.

Repeating a lie makes it true to those exposed to it. ” From the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established”.

Illusory truth effect.

In 1977 Villanova and Temple universities did a misinformation study where falsehoods were publicized, repeated, and then tested. Through repetition, students were convinced beyond rationality that certain things were true. Things that had no scientific or reason attached to them.

What if I told you that the best canoe for open water must be at least 15 feet long? I repeat the information on a semi-regular basis, then in a random survey ask a multiple choice question about canoe length and open water. The answer of 15 feet is used by the majority of those surveyed, even though it is a fantasy fact.

Feeling the spirit (positive emotion) confirming a lie, illusory truth, turning falsehoods and psychosomatic reactions into reality. Welcome to christianity in a nutshell.

—The Observers

Through luck, genetics, and circumstance of just one astute individual, test group A had became aware early in the experiment…by employing natural psychology and manipulating the foibles of human nature, exploiting group B would be a cinch. Though a simple idea, subjugation would occur on their own terms—with a willingness and endurance unseen in the history of humans.

Creating a god for all to believe while secretly excluding themselves, they would grow in power, wealth, and control while the rest of humanity stagnates in endless debate over choices that are neurotic imaginations—and easy as fear-teaching to a child. They now sit back and just laugh, having no idea at the time just how successful they would become. They would control the world for millennia, all on the choice of the enslaved, while their own pretentious facade of faith would guarantee unfettered loyalty and support.

“I would have to say the early missionaries did quite a number on the world, especially the preachers and priests who accompanied people like Marco Polo, Columbus, de Gama, Cook, Cartier, etc. They spread their lies to almost every corner of the world, and now we are paying the price—rawgod

The syndrome is so bad that prophets imposters pop up from time to time claiming new contact and information coming directly from the illusion itself. A powerful psychosomatic response we’ll be lucky to survive as a species.

What Is The Meaning of This?

“What’s obvious is that you have no understanding of this verse”—Mel Wild

This is the answer I was searching for. All my life I sought for truth, only to have a book secretly placed in my hotel room by an unknown—a Gideon of the gospel to answer life’s riddles. Now my quest—to find meaning outside of myself. Who am I? Where did I come from? Is this life all there is? Where do I go when I die? As an idiot not trained in the correct ways of god, I thought it best to give reading the nod. I had heard so much about “The Good Book” I couldn’t wait to read it, when it mysteriously appeared in the top drawer of my night stand—appearing like a thief in the night.

It was a real page turner as my mind eyelids raced to keep up. I had always imagined if there was a god he would be really cool, like a good teacher, but it seems I was wrong. Vagued by subtle omission, plagued by violent commission, varied in different renditions, the Bible was a complex, but obvious penning of disturbed control-men with massive egos. The LORD it seemed he was a curse, to opened eyes on every verse, with ramblings of severed foreskins, the fever churned out new revelations to the nature of this paranormal being we strive to emulate. This unseen god commanded authority and men were convinced to do the things his parents would never allow, nor would he do on his own. Mass murders were a way of life, while wives came in scores, but were treated like whores. So I moved on to the Quran.

There was no Muslim book in my extended-stay-express, so I google the book and gave it a test. I called a toll-free and wondered to him, “why no Quran in the nightstand herein,

He gave me an answer, this kind Muslim man, told me of why there was no Quran.

“because guests may take it to the bathroom or other improper place.”

Ah said I, after reading some terse, my thoughts exactly after an hour of verse.

So, Torah and testaments old and the new, Quran and the commentary of some old Jews, stories of Moses who didn’t exist, Noah and Jesus and YHWH’s iron fists, to distance myself from the odd violent word, and all contradictions that flowed so absurd, a snapshot from time of a long distant caste, from authors and prophetic dreams of the past, where violence was king and oppressions reigned true, alone I decided was the path I should choose.

No premixed learning of religious odd ways, no groups on Sundays and limitless praise, no dogmas laundry would I choose to embrace, and rather than sell for integrity lost, I’d call my own shots at no matter the cost.

That verse came in question so plain to be read, but requires a doctorate explanation instead, to offer the grandest of oblique excuse, that not even one such as Satan would use.

Young Life– What the Hell?

Zoe posted a young life story and link that struck a nerve with me. I have family affected by this cult.

Her comment–—As for (kids) shutting you down, it’s common. Cultish teachings alienate followers from their families, talents and community. They teach that anyone outside the group (you) doesn’t understand, can’t understand and won’t understand. They see themselves as the highest ideal and others as non-enlightened.

Then it becomes all about getting everyone else in the group. In other words, the cause of Christ. They martyr their own identity and authenticity believing they will be rewarded here and in the after-life. It’s insidious and over-whelming and it becomes the focus

my comment—It got my nephew. It’s sickening. He’s oozing with Jesus all day long and life is passing him by. It hard to be around him any more. Everything is young life, young life this, young life that. My brother, an atheist of forty years let him go to camp with some friends. Bam! I don’t care what kind of belief you have, this type of zealousy is the product of a cult. My neuronal compassion goes out to them.

The Next Einstein

Oops. The lottery on child birthing foreordained spirits has just placed the next Einstein in a Christian home. His room, all ready for next months due date, is blue. Above the crib sits a mobile with jesus and twinkles with children’s hymns. The walls are adorned with bible verses and pictures of Moses parting the Red Sea, Jesus praying in the garden of gethsememe, and Abraham praying up to a cloud. The boys name will be Daniel, after the prophet.

—fast forward 12 years. After showing excellent aptitude for math and science, his parents question his devotion to god and distract his convictions with innuendos and smugness. They correct him with comments about pseudoscience and how faith is the answer to all of life’s questions. They openly criticize climate science, and other ungodly, intrusive left wing conspiracies. Those who believe in science have more faith than Christians. They continue to read select bible verses and tell the creation story, and that we all know that truth comes from the Bible and from god—the answers to life’s questions are in scripture. Bible camps and Sunday worship, youth choir and is now president of his Sunday school class. He can quote 50 scriptures. He is a good boy. His neurons are off the chart smart. He memorizes the King James Bible. He is a prodigy.

At graduation he leads the school in an unsanctioned prayer, even catching his parents by surprise. They are so proud. He is a leader. Perfect GPA and smart as they come—he will do just fine in life and be a good husband and a godly man. On the side he is applying the sciences—quantum mechanics—his true love. He’s been accepted to Liberty University and plans to major in divinity. His parents are so proud.

At 21 his love for science remains, but the pace of college life and an early graduation, student debt and a baby on the way, he takes a job at a church in Tulsa. Moving expenses paid and a little house on the property, he begins the rest of his life. His ideas of quantum mechanics are never published or reviewed. His math is getting rusty, and the equations he had memorized he can no longer decipher. They sit in a “get to it later” moving box as his life begins. He now does a local Christian radio show Saturday nights. Q and A and a memorized bible. He’s fantastic!

Religious side-tracking is delaying progress in the world. Statistically, 80% of the greatest scientific minds we’ll never hear of. Distracted with faith, belief, and fable, the windows of opportunity close and what could be, would be great, becomes mere baggage to the few that are pulling us along toward greatness. Fill the mind with something great, but anything will do if you’re starving it.

And if you think christians are indoctrinated, what do you think of their cousins?

“Is it true that Muslim children can RECITE the whole Quran? How?

Yes! It is true. Our children can recite the Quran by age 5–12 years. Around 90% children in Muslim households memorize more than 6000 verses and can recite Quran from memory”. Literally millions from each Muslim country have done this. And the cultural pressure for these “Hafiz” is great. They must maintain the memorization through there life leaving little time for advanced learning.

Although an impressive feat, it is also a discouraging look into the future of practical knowledge from the former breadbasket of higher learning.

When that’s all you know, it must be true. There is no time for anything else when culture dictates a life filled with one topic that designs your every thought.

Plug and Play Religion

Forget about your natural instincts and curiosities. You don’t need to work anything out in regards to your own spirituality, someone has already figured that out for you, but the choices are limited.

Each person is born unique and curious. Flowers, trees, rocks and streams are all natural wonders to be learned anew to each generation—just watch a toddler play in the dirt, interact with wildlife, pick flowers or gather pinecones. They are fascinated with the newness of life and the natural world, but the first thing everyone religiosos want to do is rush them into a belief system with christenings, baptisms, circumcisions, and blessings before they even know what the hell is going on. Heaven forbid if they would bring their own fresh perspective and possibly add their own inspiring vision of life. Only when they are older can they be loosened and encouraged to think outside the box—the box that has already been closed and tied with a neat bow—a box called conformity, unconsciously hamstringing potential for the rest of their life. The best of the best will continue to forgo their greatest chance for opportunity and learning, not of any choice of their own, but by cunning ignorance of parents and preachers.

In a world where the importance of bloody manners and cultural etiquette are the standard of moral behavior, they continue chipping away at potential breakthroughs because it may be different, or as if those things are morally important, trapping our children in their formative years into becoming believers. Not only in religion, but in society’s systemic conditioning that what lies on the surface is merely to camouflage the real you, and you must wear it at all times in the name of morality. This is the crime of religious influence.

Christian culture is a facade. On the surface is where we are pressed to live, openly displaying who we are not, our lives are spent hiding who we really want to be. Out of constant fear of judgement and prejudice we perjure ourselves and whither inside as the life in us passes by like a dream. Only after learning to conform are we allowed to further education, where the same schools of thought are taught all over the world. Religious diplomas to the ministry keep hammering away with slight variations of the same worn out inscrutability. And the university, the last, great bastion of free thought where 90% of the students and faculty all vote the same way, where in reality there is a third way—a better way. A new system yet to be discovered and embraced because of unwittingly conditioning our children to conform. Only then comes the tried and true standard of learning which continues to elude greatness at every turn. Religion is the pillar of tried and true failure. Our societies are laced tighter than a Victorian corset with religion. After thousands of years of failure I’d say it’s time to move on. But alas, we get plugged into a system the minute we are born and learn through predetermined fear how to live our lives like everyone else.

Geno-Phenotypes vs Religious Nurture- A change in Physiology

I can’t help but notice from day to day how so many can completely ignore the contradictions of religion. Could it be faulty wiring, or are they compelled in some way by their physiology to align with obvious duplicity due to faulty programming? Where but institutionalized patients in state hospitals can you see such a broken bridge between reality versus what is believed? —Religious conditioning

A genotype is an organisms full hereditary information, while phenotype is the organisms actual observed properties. Additionally, an extended phenotype would include what the organism does, such as nest building for birds or dam building for beavers, who change their environment due to genetic programming.

Religious genotypes, phenotypes, and morphology could easily be expounded in analogy with more time, but your natural conclusion can easily see what I am alluding to. It’s obvious to everyone that has not been indoctrinated. The constant denial of the obvious is more than a decision to believe, but they are forced to ignore simple logic by physiology. Here’s how-

A key difference between a religious genotype and natural organic genotypes is one of nurture versus nature. While family traits can be passed on from generation to generation with no effort but copulation, religious traits must be routinely hammered into the newcomer without their choice or consent. After several years of indoctrination, subjects begin to take on the traits of the abuser parent and lose the natural discernment of contradiction due to shifted nueropathways. While religion through fertility is a common occurrence, retracting from nurtured thought duplicity is quite rare. The ability to ignore contradiction has become physiological.

Neurotheologist Dr. Andrew Newberg writes; “As to what’s going on in their brains, he says, “It depends to some degree on what the practice is.” Practices that involve concentrating on something over and over again, either through prayer or a mantra-based meditation, tend to activate the frontal lobes, the areas chiefly responsible for directing attention, modulating behavior, and expressing language.

In contrast, when practitioners surrender their will, such as when they speak in tongues or function as a medium activity decreases in their frontal lobes and increases in their thalamus, the tiny brain structure that regulates the flow of incoming sensory information to many parts of the brain. This suggests that their speech is being generated from some place other than the normal speech centers” The Metaphysical Mind

Research also shows that routines and habits actually create new neuro-pathways. A study in the Oct. 20 issue of Nature, led by Ann Graybiel of MIT’s McGovern Institute, now shows why. “Important neural activity patterns in a specific region of the brain change when habits are formed, change again when habits are broken, but quickly re-emerge when something rekindles an extinguished habit — routines that originally took great (pressure) effort to learn. We knew that neurons can change their firing patterns when habits are learned, but it is startling to find that these patterns reverse when the habit is lost, only to recur again as soon as something kicks off the habit again,” said Graybiel, who is also the Walter A. Rosenblith Professor of Neuroscience in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS).

Forcing religious habits into young minds through repetition has a two-fold effect One, essentially taking away freewill of the indoctrinated, and two, manipulating/changing actual neuro-physiology in each subject. Undoing these manipulations requires a long break in the routine to readjust the neurons to achieve clarity.

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”. Why? Because his neurophysiology has been manipulated—It almost takes a miracle, or some good luck.

Here again we see contradiction in the religion of freewill. They appear to be the ones without it. After physiological changes in the brain seal it by indoctrination and repetition, they simply cannot undo the connections. We would just as well teach a beaver to build a birds nest. No matter what you do, he’ll still end up back at the water.

God or Math

I suppose not much is more irritating than a Calvinist evangelical with advanced math, science, and theology degrees—and teaches university New Testament. Enter Vern Poythress..The argument is that mathematical laws, in order to be properly relied upon, must have attributes which indicate an origin in God. They are true everywhere (omnipresent), true always (eternal), cannot be defied or defeated (omnipotent), and are rational and have language characteristics (which makes them personal). Omnipresent, omnipotent, eternal, personal… Sounds like God. Math is an expression of the mind of God”.

I say 7+5=12 irrespective of a god, anywhere, anytime. The idea that we are explaining a completely incomprehensible being that has grown in grandeur to the point the faithful have given up, acquiesced to the level they cannot even comprehend comprehending. It’s a sad state of affairs when a myth overrides the desire to gain knowledge. “We lie when we claim that unexplainable things are in fact explainable. God is transcendent and beyond even the shadowy wisps of imagination in our finite minds. The Trinity, for instance, is not as simple as a metaphor of water (ice, water, steam) or an egg (shell, white, yoke). Sometimes I think we would be better off if we just said, “These ideas are so beyond me that if God did reveal them to me, I am pretty sure my brain would explode.” (1)

The line of reasoning in Christianity is defeat, and here we see the blind assignment of god to the trivial and the true, the obvious and the obscure—just because a unimaginable construct of human minds, that in itself is contradicted the moment we wonder about the nature of god. We disprove this unattainable jargon with imagination, theory, and testing. We have unlimited capacity to learn and understand. They just have no god to actually present. Christian faith promotes self defeatism of knowledge.

“Augustine expressed interest in perfect numbers, which have a curious connection with Mersenne primes. A perfect number has the property that it equals the sum of its proper divisors. For example, the number 6 is perfect because its proper divisors are 1, 2, and 3, and 1 + 2 + 3 = 6.” Therefore, god had to create the earth in six days, not by planning, but because he had to. He had no choice but to be perfect. That is the line of connection faith deludes.

I say 6 is sequentially ordered after five and before seven because it is. Even before the universe came into existence it had “perfect” properties as perfect prime numbers do. There is no magic or god about it.

I can imagine a being so grand he controls billions of light years of space. He travels by mere thought in yonder galaxies checking in from time to time to see see if your burka covers enough or if you cut your hair. He helps when you need to find a contact lens, but turns his back on the hungry. He is deeply concerned if you play with yourself, but condones genocide using “divine command theory” to let his worshippers off the hook. Religion is a huge excuse for the masses to smugly sit back and administer cruelty because god said so. The only math I see that stems from religion is where divisions are multiplied. The mere fact that we can see we have a problem is hope that maybe we can fix it. At least that is on our side.

Eliciting Emotions—The Goal of Religion

Subjective feelings cannot be observed; instead, the person experiencing the emotion must describe it to others, and each person’s description and interpretation of a feeling may be slightly different. For instance, two people falling in love will not experience or describe their feeling in exactly the same ways.

Physiological responses are the easiest part of emotion to measure because scientists have developed special tools to measure them. A pounding heart, sweating, blood rushing to the face, or the release of adrenaline and other hormones in response to a situation that creates intense emotion can all be measured with scientific accuracy.

People have very similar internal responses to the same emotion. For instance, regardless of age, race, or gender, when people are under stress, their bodies release adrenaline; this hormone helps prepare the body to either run away or fight, which is called the “fight or flight” reaction. Although the psychological part of emotions may be different for each feeling, several different emotions can produce the same physical reaction.

Lies also elicit emotion. Enter the public speaker, motivational speaker—the preacher. Clever wording and fabricated stories verbalized in just the right manner, accompanied with personal testimony of other “feelings”, such emotions are then described/assured to be the ‘Spirit of god‘ moving in them. Reassuring tones and velvety prose from the preacher (or downright showtime) who himself has been duped by his own physiology, demands that you need his brand of salvation through obedience, and to save all of mankind requires one thing—Money.

Money alone is the vehicle to reach out to the world, with small profits held aside to perpetuate the machine to the tune of billions. Mansions and jets setting popularity is but a mere byproduct of starvation and poverty. The stricken or afflicted of the world supply the fuel, while prayer apps and lying sermons bring it all back home in a circulus web of of a fouled downrigger, holding the bait and the fish at the bottom, drowning in a sea of lies fueling even more chemical reponses and fear of the reality of life and death, which is nothing like the warning signs suggest.

It’s actually the safest time in know history to be alive. People are also less religious than ever before. Makes ya wonder, doesn’t it?

Clinically Dead vs Biologically Dead

Clinical death occurs when the heart stops beating and the blood stops flowing. Clinical death precedes biological death by 4-6 minutes, whereas clinical death is reversible with intervention, but biological death is not.

Since religion is always the opposite of what we hear, so it is with its death. Christianity is biologically brain dead, but it’s members are pumping on the chest of the corpse and counting compressions as heart beats while claiming a code save. Not sure if you’ve ever done CPR, but it takes a lot of energy, resources and strength to keep a clinically dead person from slipping off into biologically dead. It’s a tiresome process that requires you pass off to other rescuers to keep compressions efficient.

Ceasing resuscitation efforts is difficult at times. Family and friends often urge you to keep trying, go one more round on the algorithms to get a shockable rhythm for a chance of spontaneous heart beat and respiration. At some point you have to call it off. Religion has been in asystole for quite some time, but the members are too attached and too full of need to recognize their beating a dead horse—one that is biologically and clinically dead. It’s time to lay this one to rest.

Titius-Bode Law- A Religious Type

Titius-Bode Law is a formula that suggests, extending outward, each planet would be approximately twice as far from the Sun as the one before. While the theory sounds intriguing, the six known planets at the time out to Saturn, only loosely followed the law (the theory was presented when there were only 6 known planets).

As more plantes were discovered, it was also discovered that the law didn’t accurately depict correct spacing. Neptune and Pluto, and the discovery of the asteroid belt removed Ceres from the list of planets as well, and the distant planets were way off the mark. It was time to abandoned the old premise and regroup. Turns out some of the planetary spacing is just coincidence and no real pattern is predictable. However, that doesn’t stop some circles from trying to prove its validity.

What was theorized to be true was changed and the journals are no longer accepting papers trying to prove Titius-Bode. I appreciate that about the scientific community. The ability to discover and rediscover in the quest for accuracy is more important than clinging to a false premise.

Religion too, has been superseded by knowledge. What was maybe the best explanation of its day in the life of an ancient sheep-herder, is not the best explanation today. Religion must employ faith and belief and promises they are unable to keep to hold any ground at all. We are at a crossroad, and as every belief in ancient gods has been met and eventually defeated, so too will the current models. Here’s to hoping it’s sooner than later. Just because something sounds good, and you wish it were true, doesn’t make it a reality.

The Mysteries

Nothing unravels the mysteries like unbelief. That is the key. They want us to believe, then have us solving unsolvable puzzles the rest of our lives that are easily thwarted without faith. They say with god all things are possible—the opposite is true as always.

The blinders of belief in god are the ultimate distraction to a fulfilling life. The mysteries of god are but a controlling distraction designed to waste time in conjecture. Religion is the divisive wedge that separates. It’s only complicated with faith in the absurdities of a god.

Modern Religion

To sum up what we’ve inherited—we have a machine we never asked for and have no idea who made it. We’ve never seen it actually do anything productive but curiously have no courage to turn it off. We see no actual usefulness for it, but are convinced forced to live with it at every turn in our life using up precious energy and thoughts. Attempts to disengage the machine are met with raised eyebrows, skepticism, and accusations of evil while those dependent on its psychological hold can’t seem to live without the constant hum of what they won’t believe they can’t live without. The machine has no actual usefulness. Its constant whir numbs the beauty of life with useless tinnitus and distraction, blocking human potential as waves of tv white-noise and cooling fans of the purposeless motor soothe the soul like a dripping faucet they are just to lazy to turn off.

Under careful examination decisions are made. Do I clip the red wire, or the white wire, or just live on hearing it do nothing but interfere with ones clarity. The best I can do is distance myself from the blast zone and hope it runs out of fuel.

Raised by Deception

If you observe even just a little and split through all the talk, things are rarely what you’ve been told. Most of our children begin their lives being deceived at every turn, hidden from realities while imaginations of santa, tooth fairies, Easter bunnies, birds and bees, and religious superstition are ingrained from birth. At what age are they supposed to think for themselves? But no, they carry it forward to their own children who are extremely trusting creatures and raise them in deception—Why?

Tom–”Yes, just about all of us were raised by deception, through deception. It is so very tragic, really. I had, in high school, one wonderful teacher who had us study Walt Whitman’s poems in depth. That one teacher was the exception. I am so very glad for it!

Toms Nature Up Close

Tom had one teacher he remembers that cut through the crap and helped him see things for what they were. Exposure to a great author that thought for himself changed his life from superstition to reality and fulfillment.

3% Neanderthal

A second high-def complete Neanderthal genome has been sequenced from a 52,000 year old bone found in the Vindija Cave in northern Croatia (take that young earthers) remarkably well preserved, it has a story to tell about its own immediate ancestry and living arrangements.

Other than native Africans that carry none, most people carry about 1-2% Neanderthal DNA, much more than originally thought possible. My daughters boyfriend just got his DNA results and found he is 3% Neanderthal—30% more than the high average. If he is just a glimpse of life as a Neanderthal, they were carefree, goofy, a little bit of Alfred E Neuman, and no care for the future or the present—Blissfully traipsing through life without existential fear of death and what lies beyond.

To date the earliest known encounter with modern humans out of Africa was about 100,000 years ago, then died out as an independent species about 30,000 years ago, while many scientists believe the arrival of modern humans aided in the extinction of Neanderthal. Weird. Seems to be a long standing trend. I wonder if it had something to do with Neanders inability to adapt to the superstitious man’s need to run everyone’s lives with unbelievable religion or your life is not worth living. A tradition that carried on well into the 21st century.

Religious Carbon Monoxide Poisoning.

Carbon Monoxide has a 250 times higher affinity to hemoglobin than Oxygen. CO poisoning can be fatal, and when poisoning is survived it takes about 6 hours to remove half the CO from your blood stream, then gradually over the course of days you release the rest. It bonds in the same place as an oxygen molecule, therefore limiting the bloods ability to carry enough oxygen to organs and tissue.

We are born as a blank slate, but during our youth we are susceptible creatures with a high affinity to believe what we are told. As superstitious as we are, a sudden realization eventually unfolds that we have been tricked along the way. From the birds and the bees to Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy, we are tricked as children at nearly every turn—especially when it comes to gods. Religious indoctrination has a high affinity to human thought, and even after calling BS on the whole game, it can take years to purge all the nonsensical belief from our systems. Religion is every bit as dangerous to our mental health as CO is to our physical. Although they both effect our lives in similar ways with irrational confusion, dizziness, nausea, and making you perpetually weak. I am confident you can hold your own just fine without believing in something phony that says you need it, but in reality is a curse to your development.

Self Awareness

You may not be what you think you are. You may not be as clever or adept as you think you are either. According to this study done at Cornell, people with the worst skills in the different areas of the study thought they performed the best, while those with the highest skill levels were also more accurate at estimating their ability. The mere fact that you are seeking and evaluating yourself as an individual, is a good sign that you may be a little more savvy than the average joe.

As an atheist, as well as most atheists I am aware of, we have gone through critical phases of self evaluation. We all wondered if we were crazy for doubting, crazy for believing, and sought answers to difficult dilemmas in contradictions of the gospel, then sought information outside of our indoctrinated upbringing.

Breaking away from the numbing effects of acquiescence when so many are rolling along in a near stupor of acceptance of a thousand things that add up to zero. Zero evidence that god is good, god is love, god is merciful, or god is in control. When compared to what is seen in the real world the opposite is true, “if” there was a god. Microanalysis of prayer to seek a smidgen of answers adds up to pure rationalization for its ineffectiveness, then we accept a non answer as gods will. What is gods will? Well, nobody really knows, but a lifetime of indoctrination leads us down the path of excuses.

The study concludes that all hope is not lost if you are one of the trouble spots. With education the numbers changed to a noticeable improvement, but how do you get someone stuck in the trap to look outside of what they already know, which apparently isn’t much when it comes to knowledge outside what they want to believe.

“It didn’t even help the poor performers to be given a benchmark. In a later study, the most incompetent participants still failed to realise they were bottom of the pack even when given feedback on the performance of others”.

Most of us have lived the religion side and learned enough to walk away. Maybe it’s time they walked in our shoes to determine if our views have merits, instead of hand waving and discrediting the reality that there is no god.

God Works Through Doctors/Scientists

I’m sure god has already thought of everything, then at the right time to keep up with the needs of his children, he puts the thought “out there” for some laboring scientist heathen to have an “aha moment” of discovery, thus benefiting all mankind and saving the day—But, as always, too late.

So far 25million people have died from aids, and even amidst the prayers of Christian opposition we are making progress towards a cure. But I guess god knows best when to end a life here to spend the rest of the eons in hell. God is compassionate.

Roughly 8million cancer deaths per year, and WHO is anticipating 84million more deaths over the next 10 years. God has revealed the cure bit by bit, but research scientist are just to caught up foray of equations and just don’t get it. More prayer is needed for scientific clarity and also to justify the rise of childhood cancers. But, he knows best—He is kind.

In the 14th century god decided to take a half day off. The plague killed half the worlds population, and the discoveries by Yersin and the Simond led to eventual vaccinations and things stabilized—500 years later—Gods timing is perfect.

“If” there was a god, drip fed scientific advance and drip fed morality based on the demands of secularism is the ultimate in immorality. THE All knowing, all caring, always loving, and always dead last when it comes to human advances, especially in morality—God is just…Just what?

Ask Mel….god is obvious— He’s everywhere!! Yes I say. I see him for what he is, if he were real. Remember, faith NEVER adds up to what it’s propped up to be when you look past the whitewashing

Perpetual Motion Machine

The search for an endless, free energy source has been discovered and as usual, it’s been under our noses for quite some time, or in this case, our fingertips.

Christian apologists have been recruited GE Office Systems for developing a hands-on, in-home prototype using electricity generating keyboards. Since there is no end in sight to the rhetoric and excuses generated, apologists in key population bases have been scheduled to present their arguments for god during “peak voltage demand” based on their time zones. Each apologist will receive metered credits on their power bills, and substation attendants will receive overtime for after hours, long winded diatribes when keystrokes exceed power demand.

While the current prototype generates a substantial, unintelligible-vacuum sound, is is anticipated to blend in nicely with the already numbing tones that whisk their way across the world at light speed from existing modems. As existing arguments for god are at a millennials-long standstill, frustration has trended upward only raising the flurry of apologetic banter.

Looking Gift Horses or Licking

Mom used to always say, “Never lick a gift horse in the mouth”. She was from Mississippi, so there was a little bit lost in translation. I didn’t know “lick”, was “look” until I was about 20. But is it good to take a gift horse without looking it over first? Usually gift horses have something wrong, and often expensively so.

Looking in the mouth can help you approximate the age and feeding ability. Do the teeth need floating or other care you may not be able to afford? If the horse is 35 and not 25, it’s going to die soon and that’s a whole series of problems when you have to deal with a thousand pound carcass. If your gift horse is a cow-hocked, ring-boned, spavined and foundered, maybe it best you don’t accept the gift after checking it out. Enter Religion.

It too is a “free” gift of salvation from sin. Sin you didn’t even know you had. Pointing out faults is a great way to make friends. Free to attend meetings and they’ll even throw in a free bible if you ask. But maybe first you should look under the hood? It is a money trick, and if you don’t “look”, be ready to take your “licks” when you find what’s below the surface. Just remember what free actually means to them, when to be in good standing you eventually have to pay. And you have to check your thinking cap in at the door. They’ll even tell you what to say, and everything else to believe. Don’t take my word for it, but do your own checking and remember if it’s a good deal, it will still be a good deal after you check it out. Missionaries will never tell you what the internet can.

Old Skill and Wisdom

Some of you know I am writing a book about some of my previous experiences and the history that prevailed in the area. I can’t help but be in complete awe of the skill and fortitude of the men that mapped the Pacific Northwest. We easily take for granted the raw practical knowledge of the times. Here one map from the area circa 1901. These contours and elevations are still used today and extremely accurate. On foot. Unbelievable.

Today we have a lot of information, but knowledge is fleeting. How many alive today could produce a map like this? Really quite astonishing when you think about it.

I remember during the same generation that these maps were created, Ernest Shackleton took a lifeboat 800 miles across the Weddell Sea to rescue his men. He had a handful of sunny days and a sextant to measure the horizon and some charts, then crash-landed his boat on the wrong side of South Georgia island. The Weddell Sea is essentially the headwinds of the world and some of the most treacherous waters on the planet —Remarkable use of practical knowledge to say the least.

Mark Twain also is from the same time period, and though not a surveyor or explorer, possessed equally savvy smarts in history and knowledge of the ways of the world. He was every bit as skilled as Shackletons navigation or A.E. Murlin was at topography. He was raised in a time of fierce religious revival, but was smart enough to call BS on religion —and see what was obvious in front of him, instead of listening to salesman with a blank bill of goods and a promise. While reading “Letters from the Earth” it has occurred to me to trust your good senses and if you compare it to some form of practical knowledge, you’ll see it for what it is. Look around you, and don’t be afraid to see things as they really are. Twain didn’t buy into the delusion of faith, and neither am I.

Christians Needed

Sponsors of a double blind study on healing faith are searching for healthy christian volunteers to apply etiological methods to find causation of Conviction Syndrome. Religious conviction rarely never coincides with truth, as faith and fact are diametrically opposing forces. Conviction Syndrome has maintained pandemic proportions for millennia and its time to do a reality check. I had a patient one time tell me she was supposed to be taking placebo, but she was out and that’s why she was calling the ambulance. Mama did raise a fool, now didn’t she?

• Belief is not fact nor truth
• Feelings canbe are manipulated
• Lies confirm testimony
• Truth can be boring or unpleasant, but necessary
• Reality promotes real progress
• Emotions are not the spirit
• Prayer never works. Period
• Need makes people gullible
• Preachers lie to keep you tithing
• Fear sells
• Missionaries never tell you what the internet can
• Placebo is a psychological trick. Religion is placebo
• If you try to succeed on your own, your road to success will be much faster without prayer and waiting.
• There is no substance in ontology
• Validation is the number one reason people share their faith
• If a religious explanation requires further explaining, it’s bullshit.
• Religious truth spew is philosophical wording to convince with flattering speech.
• Religion is detrimental to human growth and unity.
• If your faith has you questioning the worth of others, it’s wrong

If you need to have faith in something that makes you think you are worthless without it, that is an abusive relationship. Get out

If you qualify to participate in this study, you are part of the problem. Seek help from an unbeliever.

Chess Club vs Religious Faith

According to Chess.com, there are an estimated 600,000,000 active chess players in the world. There are various club styles and sizes, but through the modern ages, chess has maintained a relatively stable membership size. The tactics can be aggressive, and teach skills in strategy, memory, reasoning, and trickery. In the past 1500 years, there have been no chess related mass suicides, even though popular figures have been emulated and copied to achieve the highest understanding of the game. Thanks to the internet and the availability of high level competition, there are currently almost 1600 grand masters; The most in history. Differing opening styles of play like the Ruy Lopez, Sicilian Defense, and the Queens Gambit are copied and transformed by players into a sophisticated middle game the world over. Enter Religion.

Each sect begins with the same opening, but over time develop their own styles and middle game. The board becomes confusing, incoherent, incongruous with normal play or known styles of happy living, but the purveyors of the game insist that they know what they are doing. It is obvious going into the end game, that each of the 45,000 denominations are floundering in a checkers game, but insist they are still playing chess. They are using scrabble terminology to play spiritual ouija, and as confusion is their friend, they keep you at bay with guessing and grand terminology the normal person cannot keep up with and keep a regular job at the same time. Thank you Mel.

While the Koolaid is flat with inert, non beneficial ingredients and the the flavor confusing, the end game is still the same as a Jonestown child. Only now they are sipping their way to intellectual confusion and the death of reason using faith in nothing but religious wordiness and sophistry. Here’s to a quick end game.

Rubidium

Rubidium is an alkali metal with an atomic weight of 85.4678. The half life of rubidium is 49 billion years, meaning it will take approximately 3 times longer for it to be worth half its value, than the universe itself is old. The universe has been dated by multiple disciplinary studies at 13.799 billion years old, +/- 20 million years has been the consensus of averages. Using observations of decay rates and math, we see how old each element is and can project its duration.

Through new research techniques, rubidium was discovered in 1861 using flame spectroscopy. Prior to then it was unknown. It was found by two men that used multiple techniques to imitially detect and name the unknown element just by looking. -Enter Religion.

Religion has a known objective. Discovering god has been a focus of more people than any other project in the history of the world, Billions of people, including scientists, have sought evidence of god and have come up empty. -Nothing. Yet we can easily find many other elements that were unknown, just by looking. Imagine for a moment that those billions of searchers, were actually applying themselves to reality? Where could we go? Advances have only begun recently, by very few people, pressing forward in spite of religion, and will continue to do so. Religion has had its day and failed. Time to move on to making this world a better world without time waning failed religious oppression.

Bonzippa and the Religious Model

When I was a kid my neighbor and I got into dirt biking. I started out buying a minibike with money I had saved from a paper route. It was a 1970 honda 50 trail bike that I would like to have back about now. Later I got a TM100, and at 15 I got a CR 125. Screaming machine!

My neighbors dad Mr-T, is an old blues guitarist, friends with the late BB King, and I learned to play on his wine red Gibson ES330, the most beautiful guitar on planet earth. Anyway, when I rode my moto to his house he would call me Bonzippa. “Who’s Bonzippa” I asked. He explained who this character was, and it described something like this photo below.

This “Bonzippa” would ride wheelies and speed around the country like a mad man. Mr-T would always tell stories about crazy things this moto nut would do on his bike, and I would try to imitate it the best I could. Later, I told my kids about Bonzippa, and referred to them in the same adoring, storytelling manner until Bonzippa was as real to them as he was to me. -Enter the internet.

Turns out there are no google hits that I can find anywhere for Bonzippa. He didn’t exist. Mr-T made it up, and I passed it on, all the while telling my kids about the heroic riding of the great Bonzippa. It would be a great story, but nothing more. -Enter Religion

How far can story telling can go in my little world? Imagine if Mr-T had a pulpit and ten minutes of fame? Religion is expert and storytelling lies to induce positive feelings with fables. “Go te into the world, and preach my gospel”. Say whatever you want, just link it to Jesus and it will be so.

Blood Oaths

When I was twenty I went to the LDS temple for what is called an endowment. In Mormon lingo, the endowment is where you receive your “spiritual gifts”, that enable you to pass the sentinels and enter the presence of god. Washed and anointed with oil, pronounced clean and blessed to be a “king and a priest unto the most high god, to rule and reign in the house of Israel forever” The endowment ceremony is about an hour and a half where you rehash the creation!story and make various covenants that are sworn to secrecy with signs, special handshakes, and followed by an oath to never reveal the signs and tokens or suffer your life to be taken. As you made the oath, you symbolically slit your own throat in one phase, and disembowel yourself in the other. All the while wearing the robes of the priesthood and a fig leaf apron to cover your nakedness.

Besides having to agree to all the covenants by acting out a blood oath it happens BEFORE YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THEY ARE. It was shockingly strange, but you move along to the veil and use those key words, signs, and tokens to pass through and enter the presence of god in the “celestial ” room. Hushed tones and reverence rule, and discussing these things is vague and symbolic in nature. Everyone around you congratulating you and telling you how wonderful it is. It wasn’t. But, trusting those that have gone on before, convinced that you just lack understanding, and being reassured that the more times you go (the next times in behalf of the deceased that missed this opportunity) the more you understand the wonderful significance of it all.

To anyone who thinks this is even remotely normal, you have a problem. The ceremony now, some 35 years later, has been dumbed down to be less offensive, but the one I went through had already been lightened several times before. The initial ceremony was vastly more ghastly, but as times changed, so did people’s ability to tolerate it. While some fought the changes, apparently god is changing how important this is to have it exactly right.

Mormon culture is a persuasive closed system, where open criticism is the road to apostasy, and questions about anything inside the approved doctrines are unwelcome.

In most cases (mine being extremely rare where my wife left with me) the mere mention of unbelief deems you an outcast, failing your priesthood and your family. Tell your wife and extended family you don’t believe, and you are told to pray, study, do not doubt, trust me, trust us, and the fear of hell from denying your testimony, losing every friend, spouse, kids, and practically every sense of your life is on the chopping block. I have one friend left after 50 years of church. But it was worth it.

Psychological Fact; Casting Away Your Burdens Works

“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭55:22‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Several years ago after a painful divorce I was going through a very rough time. It was bleeding over into my work and my trouble coping had reached a point I didn’t know what to do. I went to see a psychologist. He was a family therapist and had a good reputation. The very first visit, he had me write down all my problems on paper. He told me I have only one hour a day to deal with it in an efficient manner. the rest of the time was off limits. Then, after my time was up I was instructed burn the paper. Then, as issues arose, I could write them down the next day on a fresh piece of paper so I wouldn’t forget, then deal with them again in the next allotted hour.

I only had to do it once. This ceremonial and symbolic gesture is a way of releasing your burdens, and sending them away, back into the universe or wherever they go, or essentially destroying them from your psyche.

Enter the church. The churches play on your human psychology to cause a release of burden and troubles that can be accomplished easily in a routine therapy session, or even on your own if you know the technique. First, be convinced you are worthless and filled with sin.

1. Confess all your sins or troubles

2. Write them down (during the scrutinies)

3. Shift away the burden in a symbolic gesture or absolution. Allowing “Christ” or the priest to take away your troubles.

In the Bible the same principle applies using a scapegoat, in which an animal is ritually burdened with the sins of others is then driven away. The concept first appears in Leviticus, in which a goat is designated to be cast into the desert to carry away the sins of the community.

When you do this inside of a church doctrine, in a counselors office, or privately at home, the troubles you are facing leave you feeling freedom from what ails you. It simply works.

It is the same reason I burned all my religious items and books when I left the faith. I walked away and never had an ounce of remorse about the decision one time. -No lamenting needed. When someone feels the burdens lifted in a ceremonial confession, it is not a god that is relieving you! It is you, ridding yourself of unwanted trouble and walking away. Nothing more. In the Catholic Church, priests have become overburdened with reconciliations turning into counseling sessions. For those that use it, it becomes addictive. Humans are fairly complex creatures. I am not sure about the psychology of how in the neurons this works exactly, but the churches have mastered it and use it every single day. Get it all out! Confess regularly, cast your burdens to the lord and it makes you feel good. Nothing has actually changed, but it is a mental correction that affects us in a positive way and people swear by it. In the LDS, confession is a regular occurrence in the bishops office, and that works as well.

Save yourself 10% and cut out the middle man. You got this!

Agenda Driven Earth Day

As a Christian earth day was touted as another oppressive tactic by the left to raise taxes and submit personal freedoms. The right wing propagandize it as a ‘hippie-dancing-around-the-may-pole’ pagan earth worship day. My church stayed neutral officially, but the overtones were obvious enough to cause discussion amongst the members. Wow! How wrong they were! Earth day has been a tremendous success! I was in first grade on the very first earth day I can remember. We planted a tree in the courtyard of our new school, all as a group we surrounded the event and it was a fun moment. I cannot really tell you anything else that happened in first grade. Go plant a tree! Create a memory. Love your home and show it. I have planted numerous trees since that first day. Happy Earth Day!!

Much more on earth day origins here with Eileen Thanks for the idea.

Letter to Mark Twain

dear mr clemans, after reading part of your book, ‘Letters From the Earth’, I think you are a disgusting man. I know your real name, and I am warning all of my good christian neighbers not to read this gross expose’ of our god. We cannot, and will not allow you to espouse such truths and spread your cancerous words into the puritan ears of this community. We demand you retract your words.

The fact that heaven is composed of all the things we hate is true, but only for now. Who are we to judge gods wisdom. The fact that all of the things we love are absent is true, but only for now. I imagine that endless harp music and choirs singing praises to God might seem like a torture to you, but god knows what is best for us. If he says it will make me happy, I believe him, regardless of the apparent absurdity of eternal noise and worship. You see where you are lacking mr clemens? You have no faith. Faith is where I get to decide what is true. Faith will let me live in eternity with god and be happy with no intellect. It is intellect that has caused you to own these blasphemous truths. Your words are temporary mr clemens, but gods word are eternal. You are a dirty man exposing the christian heaven as a sexless heaven. You are a heathen now, and probably have sex for fun, but god knows what is best for us. If he needs to manipulate our natural tendencies to control the heathens, then I trust god to do so. We won’t need these things in heaven because we will be wrapped in jesus’ arms in eternal embrace, singing and praising god, and bathing his feet in our tears of joy, while you mr clemens, will be in hell.

75 cents for this 1962 edition. Best $6 I’ve ever spent. Should be mandatory reading for all.

God Is Love.. What is Love?

My wife is super cool. She goes out of her way to do things for me, is a hard worker and manages the family like a pro. Every day she tells me she loves me, and every day she is there, doing things that ease my life and make it better.

If she told me she loved me, did nothing to show it, laid around for years on end telling me how inadequate I am and worthless without her, all the while doing nothing herself, I would not believe that she actually loved me. Saying it is not enough. Love is an action verb. It is nice to say, but without any effort or action, it is null.

God is love. Spoken from every pulpit in Christianity like a broken record. What this means, is you need to love others for god to get any credit. If you do nothing, like God personally, then gods love is absent. Why doesn’t he do any of the loving himself? Why doesn’t he feed the poor, but counts on us to do it for him? He is all powerful, yet nothing. But, if you go out of your way to help someone, he gets the glory, even if your an atheist.

The words are great, that god is love, but history has shown since the beginning, that god does not love, that god is absent, and that the preachers are counting on you, from the beginning, because he has refused countless times to do it himself. Or he simply is not real, and never has been.

Don’t forget to look around. Things in religion rarely show themselves as they say, and requires continual words to prop it up.

The “Holy”Rivers

This, by Professor Taboo, five years ago is more relevant today than ever before. “Over at least the last four centuries the Holy River has become the most polluted river in the world.  The very children, who suckle from her spiritual nipples, turn around and contaminate the very milk from which they suck oblivious to how tainted their holy water has become from the headwater of the Himalayas to the poisonous outfall into the Bay of Bengal. See the whole story HERE. It won’t disappoint and it applies to the entire planet today in an alarming way. Great work and effort here!

Faith

The best meme I’ve seen for a long time. “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭17:20‬ ‭KJV‬‬

And civilizations, and witches, and mentally ill, and children, and women, and indigenous tribes and adulterers, and….

Atheism As A Side Job

We all have real lives and are real people. In our spare time we call out the contradictions of religion, its woes and deficiencies, while the minister is fighting for his livelihood.

There lies the chasm between reason and unreason. Who wouldn’t defend their business, promoting it as a competent force to make it the best it can be. Religion is a business the same as Taco Bell or Apple. If you knew the politics and civil wars in the Congo over tantalite deposits to build a smart phone, you would know why Samsung, Apple, and Google don’t promote that dirty side of the business.

The preachers do the same. Show the good stuff, and get one committed before the deep and dirty comes to the surface. We have come to depend on smart phones, so we look the other way. Religion is a business, and those that have invested in it will look the other way, because they see no other way to resolve the dilemma. Religion is as toxic as a Chinese landfill, and it’s tolerated poisons are overlooked due to invested time and money. Under this parklike setting sits the dirty remnants of a past religious shimmering light, but is nothing more than topsoil and grass covering mounds of miserable history, control, cover-up and cruelty.

Accidental Amoebas and Neti Pots

The popular nasal flushing Neti Pot, also seems to be a nesting pot for the Amoeba. Homemade nasal flush with non medical grade saline or tap water can be breeding ground for the amoeba, and nasal irrigation is a quick pathway to the brain. Amoebas and brains do not mix well, causing slow miserable death to the victim, and eventual death to the amoeba.

Another popular toy that has devastating effect on the human mind is religion. What may seem harmless, or even recreational, claims to solve life’s problems, but in reality only creates more problems. Hey, why limit yourself to an amoeba, when you can prolong your misery with religion?

Or, you can have both. Then you can try out the efficacy of prayer and see if that will kill the amoebas. Make it quick though, it’s hard to pray through a feeding tube. Be skeptical of what goes into your mind. Religion poisons human potential.

Nothing’s Changed. All is Well. Well?

The manifesto of the LDS church, says “The Lord will never permit any Prophet of this Church to lead you astray”. I guess not allowing children of gay couples to be members of the church slips in behind this prophecy. It is hurtful, and one of many missteps of the church leadership. Spending most of my life in the church, hearing is believing when it comes to the faith, and only approved sources will suffice. I have been out a few years now, but yesterday I ran across this thread on FB, and the sheep are alive and well. These comments are in response to a book recently published about problems with Mormon culture.

“Read the conference talks and follow church leaders first”

“Honestly, I think you’re getting a bit big for your britches. I am looking for messengers from my father. I’ll be passing on this one and sticking to authorized church publications”

“None of you seem to understand anything about the problem with this … these writings are identifying a perceived issue with LDS society / culture and pronouncing a fix … This is exactly squarely in the realm of why we have a prophet and apostles … it is their key job … Do any of you ever wonder why a man not called to the position would choose to do the exact job our church leaders are called to do … To espouse this mans work is a full on admission that our leaders and by extension Jesus Christ failed to give us “ enough “ information or the “ whole “ story … Were I to write a book or dissertation the last place on earth I would seek a subject is in the realm squarely where our church leaders operate … like I would have some “ additional “ information to add … but this is where this man feels he needs to operate”

Heaven forbid if your narrow bubble of belief should be challenged, scrutinized, or improved upon. If and when you decide to take a real and honest look at what your doing, leave me a note so I can help with your new atheist blog.

Synesthesia -The Religious Model

Synesthesia is a real condition of crossing senses. Someone may see a color that hurts their ears, while another may see numbers in different colors. It is an interesting phenomenon where senses cross neurons in visual/cerebral perception, and may attribute smells to pain, or shapes such as a triangle may physically perceptually be seen in yellow. Below is one example. A “normal” acuity would see all black, but a synesthesia patient may see green or red. .

And if a subject sees W’s as a color, this test takes less than a second.

Synesthesia is not only seen and present in religion, it is promoted. Seeing a cross can cause tears of pain or joy, hearing a lie can cause belief, and talking out loud followed by an amen, can fondle hope in religious subjects. But this type of behavior is learned, and once believed, it is tolerated.

While most synesthesics feel what they are seeing as normal , 98% of the population sees it as an enigma. To someone that believes in the supernatural god, it may seem natural or necessary, but it is not. But to the theist or the synesthesiac, it requires an outside observer to recognize the flaw.

Thousands of gods have dissipated into near oblivion. Where are they now? They are parked in the annuls and history books, but those from the time thought them to be immortal. While red may be a color, it also may have a smell. Whatever your eyesight tells your mind, deconversion has a sweet ring to it.

The Other Creative Mel. Not Wild

It seems the name Mel is a trigger for creativity. Mel Blanc, the versatile, multi-voiced actor who breathed life into such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety Pie, Sylvester and the Road Runner. In the 1960’s he also contributed to the Flinstones, and in that series he did the voices for both Barney Rubble, the dull-witted neighbor of Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and Dino, the Flintstones’ pet dinosaur. Quite a Wild array of voices.

The other Mel has his own array of cartoon characters in his supporting cast, that also breathes life into the make believe world of faith. How can you go wrong with the likes of InsanityBites, BrainYawn, ColorStorm, Wally, and of course, the main man himself Melvin Wild. While Mel only does his own voice, what comes out is an array of changing character roles and dogma, slipping down the slope to deism as his pet Brainyawn clings to his voiceovers like a parasitic twin mimicking the change as he attempts to keep up, memorizing the bias with the skill of a used car man.

And creativity? Wow!! Threads that confluence, eddy about, upstream, downstream, over the falls and back up again, all the wild is woven into a masterpiece of contradiction and code winks, reaching for the safety line of obscurity, in the belief that blanket vagueness will stop the easily defeated beliefs, that his god is the god, and still fail to explain the why.

Deconversion Science- A New Element

The periodic table has a new element. Chemist at International Labs London (ILL), have discovered a new compound derived from basic, inert, random samples of ambiguous contradictory neurologic impasses. Failed synapse syndrome, (FSS) has been baffling neuroscience for decades, and removal of this newly discovered element is as easy as flipping a switch in the affected religious parties. Element “B” has an atomic mass and weight of zero, carries no electrons, but has a high affinity to synaptic dead space. Early studies show removal of element B causes instant cognitive restoration, and eliminates test subjects ability to rationalize obvious contradiction.

Test subject volunteers from the Four Square Church and the United States Bible Belt have seen instant results using a osmotic reverse cerebral cleanse, applied in a suppository pill form. Atomizers are currently being developed for nasal administration.

Evangelical chemists at Godwins institute dispute the veracity of the claims, and have directed the institutes science department to consult with Hindu Vedas and Puranas experts to counter the findings. “We know god is in there somewhere”, said one researcher. And, “this Biblio element makes no sense at all” said another. The plea for help dealing with these scientific issues has been ignored.

Basic Botany-The Christian Model

Each plant, no matter how simple, requires several elements to maintain health to grow to maturity and become useful. See the chart below, as each part plays a role in getting good health to the table.

Mental health is the same way, but one large segment of our society seems to think the one ingredient approach will lead to happiness, so one element it is. Bible. It has no mental nutrition. It is filled with fabled hear say and less net caloric benefit to the brain then chewing gum. It keeps your mind and thought separate from reality, and poses contradictions that drain the mind of creativity and rationale. It does polish your ability to make excuses though, which is why the Bible Belt leads the nation in obesity. Spiritually fattened cells store noxious, venomous rhetoric that is useless to society when dormant, and a drag on society when it’s not. Here below is the problem.

The Christian literary diet contains 66 books, all with the same ingredients, and videos about the books. It’s the equivalent of trying to live on cotton candy. It looks good, has flavor, but has no nutrition and is never filling. For desired mental health and balance, one ingredient is a disaster, growing pretentious brains unable to see clear or decipher fallacy and deception, and live in fear. But it certainly makes one “think”, they know it all. The cure? That’s easy, but it’s hard, as the medicine requires one to broaden their mind, while having a small mind. Very challenging. Realizing your potential requires one to reach out and yearn to learn about the world around us. It’s ok to try it. There’s a lot of brain food available, you just have to take it in.

Twenty Minutes

I did this analysis twenty years ago with an apologist mindset, then I went on to explain how for god this was fair. I’ll let you judge for yourself, as my hairsplitting defense of gods wisdom overshadowed sensibility.

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.”

2 Peter‬ ‭3:8‬ ‭KJV‬‬

If a one day to the lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day, the average human living 70 years, has roughly 20 minutes of the lords time to decide his eternal fate here on earth. Some much less time, while others just a bit more. Hardly seems like a fair enough amount of time, considering about 7 minutes of that is spent sleeping, 7 is spent working, 5 is basic living, recreation, sex, weekends, vacations, family time, schooling, and so forth. Probably about 1-2 minutes thinking about religion and scripture. Decide quick! Take no chances. Go with the flow, and don’t forget to tithe!! Making love takes about twenty minutes on average I guess, so shouting out jesus at this time may count towards confessing. But don’t shout to early.

“If” any of this were true, how could judgement and sentencing for eternity be fair based on Bible math?

Raised in Religion, Born a Heathen

This theme has popped up a few times this week, so I thought it worth a look. Apparently all the apologetics and convincing in all the world is another contradiction. God chooses you to be his servant, you cannot choose him. He will appear to you in some form or another and make you his believer. “Many are called, but few are chosen” (MT 22.14) and you were chosen and anointed even before you were even born. (Jer 1:5)When I hear Christians tell me that I was never truly converted or I would have never left, I just had to laugh. I was a “by the book” obedient servant, and called upon god daily, read the Bible and kept the commandments. Repented often, and he never came. I was a heathen, born to a religious family. I wasn’t called. Two of my brothers are heathens too, for they never felt god call them. They were smarter than me, and bailed young, but my parents were so proud of “the good son”, I couldn’t let them down. But I never felt it either. I had convinced myself, but no light came on. “Big day for a chosen servant of God comes when God reveals Himself to His servant for the first time and sends her/him. God comes Himself; He does not send anyone” Article Here. This is just one of countless Christian articles on this topic. So, until god shows up, you are all off the religious hooks, so to say, and I commend you for your goodness without god. And apologetics is pointless, proverbial bs, with the end game a predictable neurotheological response. In your head. This is another point to set one above the other with a smugness and a wink, “that you know”, and people do lie, and say they have felt it too because of peer pressure and personal inadequacy. A psychological card is played at this point. “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” The natural man is the unbeliever. So the word of God is telling us, unbelievers cannot receive in and believe in the spiritual truths that lead to salvation. The spiritual truths include such things as Jesus dying for sin, Jesus being God in flesh, Jesus physically resurrected from the dead, etc. An unbeliever can understand the concept, but an unbeliever does not accept them and received them. So, if a person who claims to be Christian acknowledges these types of spiritual things, that is a sign of his regeneration. Only regenerated people are saved”. Anyone in the church care to admit they are not a saved one? Tell me I can’t understand until I believe, is a mind game to pad the rolls of the churches. Now that I have left, how can it possibly matter since I was never selected in the first place? “He may appear in His countenance or you hear His voice call and speak to you”. So until that happens… Adieu.

A Logical Version

Because of the sin of Adam and Eve death came into the world, and the resurrection of Jesus was supposed to reverse the “wages of sin which is death, and grant immortality and eternal life. If the story of Jesus were true, after his death and resurrection showed the victory over the grave, everyone should automatically be immortal. No more death. Wouldn’t that be the logical conclusion?

Anybody want some crazy?

Here is my final comment to a post here This is a little like Mel, but narrower. Here’s my final reply. We’ll see if it moderates.

Difficult for you to see the humor,

Once I was in your shoes,

Everything so serious,

So much of you to lose,

So much time invested,

In the fable you call god,

That good sense out the window,

Won’t call a fraud a fraud,

For if I may I’ll be so bold,

And try to do with tact,

But everything your selling off,

Has everything but fact,

It has the how’s with maybe’s,

Conjectured ambiguity,

Guesses based on hopes and dreams,

Fails you in realities,

Your quick to point a finger,

But observations firm,

Don’t forget to look around you,

There is so much more to learn,

The books you read are narrow points,

Funnels dropped of religious care,

But faith requires no good sense,

As lone disciplines can attest,

A skewed vision of life and love,

You think you have it all,

Your good book’s made your messy mind,

And you want me to take the fall,

I may not have all the answers yet,

With that I’m not concerned,

With your head shoved so far up your ass,

You’ll fail where others learned.

Technology Updates

TCA Science Update 3-31-2018

Mental health experts in co-dependency and Nano-3D printing technology has inadvertently discovered through reverse engineering models of human brains, an isolated cerebral diencephalic, mini-cortex tissue they are calling “the gullible region”. Under intense magnification, scientists have found what appears to be a pointless bridge denoting a cross-configured, double conjectured loop where archaic information is stored and transferred, restricting adrenal output and limiting “fight or flight” capabilities during religious indoctrination. Using accelerated computer models to view time-lapse evolutionary advancement, it was noted in 35% of test subjects that, “thought processes contrary to adhered beliefs actually atrophies the bridge”, allowing the subject to think for himself and gain immediate discernment. As 3D nano printers advance, coupled with microwave synthesis, researchers are certain a co-dependency cure will be forthcoming, and will soon be as routine as a lasix procedure. “Crossing the blood- brain barrier is the next step in nano research”, as for now a small incision is required. “Think of it as an uncircumcision incision, that is much less invasive than the purported benefits”.

This article is sponsored in part, by Poe’s Law, reminding everybody to wink wink for Easter Fools

“Prove all things, hold fast to that which is good” 1Thess 5:21

It’s not the churches. I can tell you Christianity is a calculated, money making machine that will say Anything to keep you on the rolls. Scientifically calculated music and lighting, voice roll speeches and lies from the pulpit to induce trance-like positive feelings and call it the spirit.

Most of you know my story, and I put this scripture to the rest. Not one thing works as it’s presented. Ambiguous beliefs and morality coupled with endless attempts to validate faith, and bogus prayer that is a waste of time. It was even in the dogma. “Pray like everything depends on god, work like everything depends on you”. Do yourself a favor….just skip the first part and go to work. The entire church experience is a propped up shell game of non answers and conflicting “beliefs” from every denomination. Nothing can be verified, and nothing works as it is supposed to. So go ahead. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”Don’t feel guilty for looking.

‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:21‬ ‭KJV‬‬

If Jesus Was Truly a Carpenter

Many if you may know I am also a carpenter. My dad was a carpenter too, and since those days have built six of my own homes. I am pretty proud of having designed all of them, and also did most of the work. The house we are in now was done by myself. Plans, foundation, framing, wiring, plumbing, everything. Here is the first house I designed and built in 1996 when I was 33. Still a favorite.

When Jesus was 33 he was just finishing a teaching gig. He gave up carpentry work to preach full time. Preaching full time makes most people a little batty, and historically is a dangerous profession because your always in other people’s business or trying to prove them wrong in their own house.

Jesus was supposedly a carpenter, and as a god he must have been a doozy. Can you imagine the potential craftsmanship of a god? You could cut any angle just by guessing it. Gold inlays…done! If you had any gap or twisted lumber, just use the spiritual force, or whatever it’s called, to fix it.

In reading the Bible, I’m trying to imagine what a house of his work would look like, based the scriptures he “revealed” to men. This house would be forever incomplete and in a case of constant remodel. Plans would be out of focus and not meeting code using unknown measurements in a foreign language. Each generation of visitors has seen fit to change the layabout at their whims, so much so that the beginnings and the ends are an unrecognizable, incoherent, with vapid, circular architecture of embarrassingly out of square walls that don’t line up and even contradict each other. All opposed by a set of stairways that lead nowhere. I’ve been on jobs where the owner keeps making changes. It comes from bad planning and impractical ideas. There is a reason everyone keeps changing religion. It was a bad idea to begin with.

More Wild Turkey (not Mel) A Religious Model

15 second video

It’s pretty fascinating to watch the similarities between religion and a Rooster like Mel here. He shows up and throws his weight around, disrupting what is peaceful and trying to force others to comply to his way. This Tom turkey here, appears to have also studied the Quran. He is abusive and carries an air of dominance. Side note: Hens lay eggs even without him, and some (40%) are asexual and don’t need a rooster (religion). The numbers even match up to what we see in humanities need for a higher power. “Almost all vertebrates reproduce sexually, i.e. the sperm and egg join to form an embryo. Vertebrates that reproduce asexually are exceptionally rare, however turkeys are one such species that can do so. Many explanations are given as to why turkeys reproduce asexually on occasion (as high as 40% of offspring are products of parthenogenesis): low sperm count, male unavailability etc. I’ll offer one of my own. Female turkeys see males (photo above) and think, “No way in hell am I having sex with that!” Their heads are blue during breeding. It appears to have a lack of oxygen to the brain. They are very vulnerable during mating season.

dedicated to Ron

The Perfect God (and tom turkey)

Why, if god exists, does he have to be perfect and omnipotent? What would be the problem of a “not all powerful god”, but one that had a skill for creating things? The insistence on a perfect and kind, loving god is contradictory to scripture and the natural world.

Aaannd, the first tom turkey showed up in the yard this morning. Very cool. He reminds me of god a little. He’s all puffed up for a big show, but up close he’s an ugly dude. Struts around bossing everyone when they were doing just fine before he showed up.

Courtesy of Professor Taboo-

Sound Effects

New Portable EEG

Edinburgh University, Scotland has developed a prototype EEG and has tested it on 95 volunteers over the age of 65. The study is recording brain activity in everyday situations in different urban settings from busy streets to parks.

I am imagining the implications here, and as an irreligious writer I am eager to get this device into the hands of neurotheologist researchers. Can we strap this baby on to some Pentecostal regulars and mega church parishioners? Can we get Mel to volunteer to wear this during a blog fight? This image shows average brain regions for 22 subjects during testing. Blue areas represent brain regions more active when telling the truth, red areas, when lying. How much red inside the head? Can we get some prayer? Can somebody please record the conversion process and confirm what part of the brain started this mess? Oh the implications are grand, and to get this everywhere to corroborate the overwhelming evidence that brain function creates spiritual experience? The floodgates are about to open. The field is ripe, and ready to harvest. Maybe we can end this debate once and for all. Here is a great 2 min video of right brain left brain with separated corpus callosum.

Making One God From Three

The Bible is quite clear that more than on god is depicted in the text. Years of explaining and funneling pinpoints has convinced the Christian world that three is really one. Fourth century philosophers and emperors agreed the final say in a confusing creed to say once and for all, that three gods is one god is “The God”. Why?

Most of you know the power of observation. Untrue knowledge is a chisel in the stone of common sense, and weak individuals without true knowledge, are easily controlled and manipulated. On the ruling side, three gods are less influential than one all powerful and frightening god with no one to reason or ration his ultimate power.

Nature can prove the point better than I, as you see the three maelstroms are seemingly insignificant. But combined they are a force to be feared, and grow to dangerous self serving entity that suck down everything in its wake.

Above is three finding their footing, and then they combine into this one below.

Left unchecked, or avoided all together, it sucks away everything in its path. That’s the importance of having one versus three. Monotheism is a danger to mankind. Here below two ships fight the whirlpool while fighting each other. Sound familiar?

Reducing Religion Dream Act 2018

The IRS, the FDA, and the APA, are taking what it calls a “historic first step” toward eliminating religions’ addictive properties and concerns of mental health longevity by seeking comments on the impact of lowering non provable belief levels, how lowering of these levels might be accomplished, and whether doing so might have unintended consequences. Non-Profit status of churches and the ongoing mental health threats have forced the IRS and the FDA to combine efforts with the APA in combatting addictive, propagandized religious benefits.

The agencies said that they would eventually propose faith reduction as part of a comprehensive overhaul regulating religions’ unfounded claims. Today’s announcement came in the form of an advance notice of proposed rule making — essentially, a document designed to elicit comments and show what direction the agencies might take if it were to require higher provability levels, and setting a “burden of proof” standard of passed-on and written information. Given the combination of toxicity, divisiveness, addictiveness, prevalence, and the effects on nonusers, religions are in the category of damaging belief that causes the greatest of public health harm,” said James Zell, Director of the APA.

“Religion is the only legal entity that when used as intended will reduce the intelligence and mental wellness of the lives of all long-term members prematurely,” he said, adding, “We’ve known for decades that religion is highly engineered and designed to get users addicted, and euphoria at these levels are regulated in every other industry”. The FDA said it envisions “the potential circumstance where piety levels in faith do not spur or sustain addiction for potential converts. This could give addicted believers the choice and ability to quit faith more easily, and it could help to prevent experimenters (mainly youth) from initiating regular attendance and becoming regular attendees.”

Agenda as follows:

1. Harmful short and long term effects of early indoctrination.

2. Mental illness stemming from guilt, peer pressures, and counter-intuitive learning.

3. Contradictory learning. How giving the obviousness of credulity stunts academic reasoning.

4. How resources and time could be focused on actual fact-based scholarship.

5. Recommendations on faith based non factual learning materials. Fiction/Nonfiction advisory labels and age restriction guidelines.

6. Possible taxes or fines to be levied against churches for compensation to deconverts to assist in recovery efforts and long term psychological therapy.

in a joint meeting next Friday, leaders from all three camps will implement an emergency discussion called “cessation session” to create formal documents to present to Congress. (Hey I can dream, Right?)

TCA Newsflash 3-16-2018

Washington State

TheCommonAtheist

Have You Heard the New Testament is Better?

You ever find that your thinking has been all wrong, and had an epiphany that Christianity is all what it is purported to be? Yeah, me neither. A reoccurring theme, that after the Old Testament Jesus fulfilled the law and all the bad god parts were done away with. So we look to the words of Jesus, to “right the ship” of all that had gone wrong wth Abrahamic religion. The New Testament is a kinder, more loving, and gentler version; a higher law, if you will, wiping away slavery, racism, bigotry, oppression, and more. The mean god of the old testament had a change of heart….or did he?

A handful from of a full basket of NT scripture is enough to show that this is complete BS. Modern Christians are banking on you never reading the full text, and if you do they have the tools to whitewash it. A select sampling of scripture is just enough to give you the warm and fuzzies of faith to conversion. Dig a little deeper and find the origins are less than godlike.

Slaves are instructed to obey their masters, (Eph 6:5) and societal decline is greeted with anticipation in Revelation and the gospels, “the end is nigh”, and any day now believers are to hope for the return of Jesus to wipe out all the wrongs of the world, leading Christians to apathy about the health of our planet. Jesus is coming, only after things have gotten terribly wrong, so wrongs are praised as an ushering in to redemption.

Women are still to be silent, men are socially superior to women, demons take the blame for medical problems, owning humans as property is still endorsed, eternal punishment for thoughts of lust or feeling anger is equal to murder and sends you to hell. Now even your thoughts can get you sentenced. Death penalty for children reaffirms OT way of thinking. “He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.” Matthew‬ ‭15:1, 4‬ ‭KJV

And finally, the central point of the New Testaments, is that human sacrifice is a great way to solve your problems.

An old saying that I still love today; You know that little white speck that is on top of the chicken shit? Well, that little white speck is chicken shit too

Slight of hand rewording of bad doctrine is the core of Christianity.

God for a Day

My old medic partner won “CEO for the day” contest of a billion dollar company. It got me thinking, what if I could be god? What would I be, and what would I do? Well, I only have one day here every few thousand years. I can’t be everywhere and I’ve got a hundred million galaxies to take care of. I care about my creation and it would be nice to take the best care of it, so I would leave good instructions. Hiding out for no good reason would get pretty old.

The first thing to do, is have my tech guys fix the transmitter. Clear communication to everyone free with online support and a top notch customer service team. I would have a worldwide live news conference and spell out line by line without ambiguity of what was to be expected for civility and fairness and love to all people. This would take about 10 minutes. It would also eliminate the middle man (preachers) but I have something else for them. 🔥 I would not monitor everyone’s sex lives, but warning, the earth is only so big. Easy now. There’s still cause and effect and consequence. Nothing I can do about that. You know who I’m talking to!

Hour number two, food distribution to the hungry. Here goes, “Let there be food to all the hungry”. And it was good. I would end the waiting and answer the prayers that the other guy has been ignoring. I’m not a big fan of prayer anyway, so we’ll add extra support staff that you can actually see and count on, and just have a good life. No more games.

Childhood cancer, and all other cancer and disease…Gone. Poof. I am all powerful, and I don’t see a need to inflict misery on people to prove a point they don’t understand.

I would end animal cruelty and using animals for food. Then I would teach you alternative options to provide safe, heathy and delicious food without having to slaughter everything that moves. They should be able to enjoy their lives too.

I would end pollutive technologies and show you safe alternatives to even cooler stuff.

I would eliminate all taxes and healthcare would be free. I have ways to show you this is totally possible, and actually quite enjoyable. I have ways to look at things you haven’t thought of, so I’d get you up to speed.

Lastly, I would tell the catholic guys they misspelled a word. The word was “CelebRate”. With an R.

It is hard to talk about being god, without using the word “I” a lot. Is this a display of his narcissism, or is it just me?

And as for that question why do all this trouble? It’s just always been this way. I’m no different than you. “If” there was a god, why the game of hide and seek and misery? Why not just be really cool?

Are We Getting Any Better at All?

In 1918 world population was 1.8 Billion people. The world record 100 meter dash of 10.6 seconds was set by Donald Lippincott from the United States. 100 years later with 7.6 Billion people we have managed to shave off one second, bowing to Usain Bolt from Jamaica. With all the advances in science and nutrition and training. 1 second! With 6 Billion more people to choose from!

Maybe, we’re more intelligent? Have we learned to discard the notions of childhood fable and superstitions? With almost all available knowledge at our fingertips, not much has changed.

In 1910 approximately 34.8% of the world population was Christian. In 2010 that number was about 32%. A 2-3% decrease. Islam is up 10% but with a population growth of six billion people worldwide, number went from the 225,000 range to 1.5 billion Muslims, with Christians coming in at 2,260,440,000. Muslim fertility rates are much higher, and projections show a dead heat by the year 2050 Muslims and Christians will be near parody [sic] with equal percentages at about 30% each of the world population. CHARTWhy is it so hard to abandon the superstitious god worship? I know that conversions are down, and most of the growth comes from fertility rates as islam has reached a self perpetuating critical mass, just as Christianity did in the past. It’s going to be up to our kids to get us past this stunt in our growth. Press on, but be patient. I think we’re close to big changes in the next few generations.

“I contend that we are [all] atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours”. Stephen Roberts

Ancient Desalination Discovery

TCA Newsflash 3-9-2018

Eastern Turkey

Hikers near the cradle of Mount Ararat, Turkey have found what appears to be a massive prehistoric pontoon style desalination plant. The incredible discovery happened while evangelical researchers were trying to locate Noah’s Ark, which was spotted by another group of evangelical Christian explorers in 2010.

With modest estimates, the ark would have contained a range of 8000 to 14,000 animals requiring approximately 20,000 to 35,000 gallons of water per day during the over year-long drift at sea. (378days) Evangelical scientists have been working out the details for centuries; just how did Noah provide enough water to all those animals? The find answers a boatload of questions, that until today just seemed like a fairy tale.

While the eight survivors would have had their hands full, each feeding a thousand or more animals per day, calculations estimate each person would have had to feed 70 to 120 animals per hour round the clock, 7 days a week for a year. Feed them what? Just the two elephants alone would require approximately 150,000 pounds of food for the journey. Two lions would consume 40,000 pounds of meat for the trip, as well as the tigers and bears. Polar bears could be sent out on reconnaissance to hunt seals and other aquatic life, so that is no problem. But food for the other 7,996 pairs might have proved problematic. Even if every animal only averaged eating one pound per day, that would be over 3,000,000 pounds of food for animals. Not including the eight survivors.

Mathematicians have calculated about 14 years for the sloth to arrive at the ark from Central America. Kangaroos, while excellent swimmers, must have built their own boat to make the trip from Oz, or to Oz after the landing on Ararat.

Evangelical scientists are confident the discoveries will come. Real scientists have been criticized for demanding photos and physical evidence, but none to date are forthcoming.

Listening for the Spirit

When I was a boy I was told this quote as part of a larger story. “The first order issued by a commander mounting a military invasion is the jamming of the channels of communication of those he intends to conquer.” Paraphrasing now, The devil has influenced this culture of noise and hustle and loud music that blocks out the still small voice of the spirit, and in order to receive the spirit and personal revelation, we were instructed to find places of quiet in our lives to listen to the promptings of god. Careful study and thoughtful prayer and meditation to hear the prompting of god yielded nothing. I went out in the woods and found solitude, humbly prayed as best as I could, and never heard a damn thing. Nobody does! They give it their best to find answers, and finally realize if you want answers, we would have to make our own way in the world, not dependent on proven time wasting techniques as prayer.

Keep trying they say, and it will come. The truth is , you can convince yourself of anything if that is your focus. I remember a couple of years ago, Victoria (neuronotes) had a piece on praying for what answers you want. It was compelling evidence that finding truth with this premise in mind gave you the answer you desired, not an answer in reality. Prayer does not work.

S.O.A.P. For Atheists

Developing observation skills are of key importance when working as a paramedic. About 25,000 times I had responded to assess, treat, and transport patients in various stages of life and death. In our state we use the SOAP format to document patient contact.

S: Subjective is what you are told by patients, bystanders, witnesses, police, other personel. Also patient history, meds, allergies, and so forth. Clues like medications and last time they went to the doctor for the current problem can tell you a lot about you patients underlying conditions, and if this ever happened to them before, and so forth.

O: Objective is what you find during a detailed exam from head to toe, ECG, blood draw, labs, vital signs or other modalities as needed.

A: Assessment/Diagnosis

P: Plan is what you have done to treat the patient. Airway, splints, procedures, medication IV’s, shocks, etc. Preferably all documented in order.

The first two, the S and the O, are the focus of today’s topic.

In Christianity we are told many things of Gods love and his eternal goodness, perfection, wisdom, protection and so forth. God is love, and god answers prayer and cares for your needs. What we actually see is a completely different story. Our examination does not match the nature of the call.

What we find in scripture, the physical world, and from the pulpits is another story altogether. And if the followers of god are trying to be like him, we are in for a world of vanity, jealousy, incoherence, miscommunication, arrogance, ambiguity, murder, slavery, genocide, contradiction, oppression, eternal torment, shifting morality, lying preachers, pious racism, land grabbing, famine, fear, guilt, and diplomatic tension. But this will be good. “Very good”

What I found when comparing what I was told in the church, to what I actually saw as obvious evidence of how things really were, nothing was as advertised. Short Video of Chief Dan George and a salesman.

Christian Incoherence

At least 5 times we were accused yesterday of making incoherent statements regarding the origins of morality. Incoherent? They keep using that word. I don’t think it means what they think it means.

You want incoherent? Try delving into the world of a blood cult. Explain religious genocide, rape, plagues, slavery, war, animal sacrifice and burnt offerings, causing that sweet smell that dissipates into the nostrils of the loving but jealous warlord in the sky, and call it scripture. Then ultimately worshipping a cross symbolizing human sacrifice. They essentially are paying homage to an old book while chanting in unison that conjures up images of the Temple of Doom. Christian incoherence begins by deifying atrocity, and then trying to justify it and make it look pretty. Incoherent? Celebrate a man that sent his wife and son into the desert to die, then goes back to his other son to sacrifice him to an invisible god and then mutilating his penis. If you want to here incoherence, listen to religion try to explain how this was all good…Very Good. And perfectly infallible.

Bully Sticks and Converts

My son in law has a beauty of a German shepherd pup. He’s 8 months old and just untrained, goofy, and overly friendly. They have been giving him bully sticks for chew treats and he just loves them. I’m happy the dog is happy, but does he know he’s eating dehydrated bull penis? I don’t have the heart to tell him, but would he understand anyhow?

Christian newbies can also be full of zeal and eager to share their recent conversion in praise to their lord. But do they know what the ingredients are? When one finds out the inner fallacies of the church and the discrepancies and excuses, what kind of taste is that going to leave in his pallet? One can try to spruce it up with seasonings or cut it up and add it to a stew, but deep down he knows he’s still digesting a line of BS. If he tells his friends the bowl is full of bull penis first, do you think there would be any takers. The facts of religion must be disguised to be palatable for human consumption. And once you know what’s in it, you won’t want to try it no matter how you slice it.

Common Sense

The term “common sense” is used frequently, mostly due to the the “lack of it” in other people. The majority of people think they have it and others don’t. While common sense has been studied as far back as Aristotle, and various definitions or applications can be noted, here is my definition. “Common sense is the ability to solve problems by applying a wide variety of experiences or learning to accomplish or complete a new task, or the ability to integrate or adapt by applying prior knowledge from a variety of experience or disciplines.

This being said, most people do get along fine in the world. Each finds their niche and have their own way of doing things. But here’s where the problem lies; In religion and other superstitions the “common sense” passed down from generation to generation stunts human potential. The Common knowledge that is part of the molding of common sense is off the mark and makes rational decision making impossible. I once had an eleven year old foster daughter whose mother was a mentally ill and superstitious religious woman. The girl could not make a rational decision of any kind, and often quoted her mother about various topics. It was a real life waterboy situation. Her baseline was skewed with certified confusion, only not to her. In her mind we were wrong, mom was right.

Raising children in superstition and religion can be an awkward awakening when actually faced with reality, where what you know conflicts with the real world. It can be a psychological mindbend, and for many the only way to swim out is complete reversal and abandonment of the old ways. One foot in and, one foot out is a forever unbalanced act of will.

Here is a pretty good wiki page about the history and concepts of common sense.

Finding My Faith Groove With So Many Choices

I once had the difficult decision of selecting the right faith. I really like the Seventh Day Adventists. Nice people, eat right, and family values. But worship on Saturdays is just a big red flag right from the start. Bama Football is on Saturday, so I looked for a Sunday church. Plus the fact that Saturday worship is so important that sinning against it meant going to hell. I thought it was a little early for that!

Mormons seemed pretty cool, but the meeting put me to sleep. Funeral home ambience is the closest I can get to an accurate description. If that is the requirement for conviction, I just don’t have the stamina. Wow they cry a lot.

So many people are becoming Muslim these days I thought I’d give that a quick look. I signed up and got a free monogrammed prayer rug for my five a day devotional prayers. Sounded pretty cool, but highly impractical as a teacher. Word got out to the parents that I would drop and pray during class time and later that week I attended the longest school board meeting in the history of school board meetings. A hot topic for sure, was the kids didn’t know what the hell was going on. Two of them stopped, dropped, and rolled, and 9 of them got under the desks for earthquake drill. And I learned too, that we live in a Christian community and carrying a Janbiya to school is a nono. I didn’t know there was a difference being all children of Abraham. But wow! I did manage to keep my job though.

Unification Church sounded pretty cool. I mean, who doesn’t want to be unified? I went to the first meeting and they took my phone and I spent three days in a locked conference room with little food and no contact with the outside world. I learned some cool chants and was able to “send out” and “receive” a fair amount of love and actually got to act it out. The “insertion” part was cool. There was a calm aura all around. The Handkerchiefs, Holy Garments and Holy Water thing was weird. I can’t throw it away! Where do I keep this shit? When I got done for the weekend I felt like I’d been spiritually flattened and needed to check into a rehab somewhere. I still haven’t told my wife where I was.

So I guess the search continues. Next week I check out Assemblies of God to see if I can get rid of this limp, and then I’m doing the Jehovahs Witness. Hoping to get in on the “144,000” thing. I wonder if I get a special poker chip or something to save my spot? I am hesitant to go into a building with no windows though.

33,995 Christian denominations and 37,000,000 others to go. That shouldn’t take too long since they all claim they’re right.

No Wrong, No Doubt

Honesty and Christian apologetics is the fifty first shade of grey. Advancing the lords work requires the utmost skill and knowledge, and serious fudging of the truth from time to time. “I don’t know” is an ok answer, but confirming any personal doubt or lack of knowledge is not the apologist way. No chink in the armor of god can be displayed.

As I can only speak for myself, here is why I immersed myself in apologetics–Doubt, Doubt, Doubt! Doubt is what puts you into apologetics. After many years of innocent faith you investigate below the surface and come to the crossroads of doubt. Next, spend the rest of your life trying to prove you’re not naive and gullible. I spent 20 years reading Qumran, Nag Hammadi, Dead Sea scrolls, and miles of Bible commentary and scripture trying to find proof and validation. I never did. But in Christianity the conversion process is to “believe” before you know the details, then apologetics takes the rest of your life wading through cleverly worded arguments trying to prove yourself right. Faith, them knowledge, then doubt, is the fuel that keeps Christian apologetics alive. And doubt is inevitable when there is no substance but supernatural hearsay.

Archeologists Discover Massive Water Valve

TCA Newsflash 2-17-2018

Happy World Flood Day!!

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Northcoast Oil And Hydrocarbon (NOAH) geologists coupled with geophysicists and a Johannesburg based archeological team unearthed a massive water valve south of Addis Ababa during an open pit oil investigation. Dubbed immediately ” The fountain of the deep”, the valve measures 30 meters in diameter and is made of an unknown metal component. The valve is free of rust and appears operational.

“This is no coincidence ” says team leader Jorge Medirás. The discovery occurred on world flood day, commemorating 4365 years since the great flood. A memorial service is planned to honor the 8 survivors.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep were opened up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭7:11‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Archaeologists are currently deciphering curious markings indicating at least 12 additional pre Babylonian valves are in existence at various global locations. No windows have been discovered. More to follow.

How to Separate the Facts from the Myths?

Some excellent points from Ark in yesterdays post, and some unanswered questions from Mel, who is not taking a fundamental approach to believing the Bible, such as the Adam and Eve story or Noah’s ark, but we are to believe in the virgin birth and the resurrection. Other than some place names in the Bible that we know exist, how can we determine which is fact and which is fable?

Science is a Matter of Trust, Not Faith

I may have cracked the code on this one.

Trust – reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.

Faith- “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews‬ ‭11:1‬ ‭KJV‬‬

I do not have an iota of faith in science, but I do place some trust and confidence in science and scientists because of the prior and continued successes all around us. It has a track record of measurable performance. Religion still has none. The paradox of religious faith is also found in scripture. Let this next part soak in a second.

“If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?” John‬ ‭3:12‬ ‭KJV‬‬

Was Jesus a scientist, or better yet, astrophysicist? The Greek word for heavenly is Ouranos, pronounced (oo-ran-os) meaning – heaven, the visible heavens: the atmosphere, the sky, the starry heavens. I digress.

Monotheistic premise today does not believe the earthly obvious, but holds to faith to explain what is otherwise clearly known.

Fundamental knee jerk resistance to science is holding the religious hostage to faith. If they won’t even admit to proven basics, how will they understand more complex disciplines like physics and evolution?

Better off Without the Law

Adding burdens to an already busy life is the Christian way. They can’t help but share, but are we better off not knowing? Without the law we cannot come under condemnation from their god?. “Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭4:15‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“So, according to Bible, if you don’t tell me, I am not accountable. So why are you telling me? I have a guess…but please,…

I feel compelled by the sprit to make a word correction to a popular verse. What is promised versus what is real are most often two different things.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you stress”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:28 KJV‬‬

Adding a new form of tactical manipulation filled with ambiguous writings and hidden meaning is not peace. Nor is sifting through endless interpretations excusing archaic morality and promoting divisions a form of rest. Quite possibly at the end of the verse it should say “the rest”. “The rest”of the story is adapting to a new way of life making excuses for unanswered prayer, or excuses for immoral scripture, or belief in 6 day creations, or unicorns and talking snakes, what day is the sabbath, and constant threat of hell and apocalypse. Rest? How about anxiety and non-answers to an already difficult life. Adding a new discipline takes time and effort. Living with Abrahamic religion always ever-present hell threat and manipulation promising relief if you can just “do it right” (if you figure out what that is in 30 years) is not rest. It is psychological tail chasing. And don’t get me started about prayer!! And don’t forget to shake the dust off your feet when you leave.

How we do it?

First we pray and wait for the Holy Spirit to inspire us. Then, based on conflicting messages we choose the answer that best suits us. When things don’t work out we ponder what god really meant, then usually stick with our bad decision based on initial inspiration and ask others to pray too. We don’t want to admit prayer doesn’t work, or give off the message that god is wrong. That would be near blasphemous.

The Way it Was

I, Having been indoctrinated and guided carefully into belief and faith most of my life, and having studies most lengthy and focused in one particular area of religion I have come to the point where the things I believe, even though preposterous, I believe are true. They will stand the test of time and scrutiny, for my knowledge of these beliefs is vast and as solid as the very foundation of reason and right. I cannot be swayed in my faith, for god has shown me through revelation and feelings and the persuasion of his servants the truth, and now it is my obligation to share that truth with you. To push and persuade you to believe as I believe because I am right! My singular disciplinary approach has not given me the “well rounded” preposterous man made knowledge base to blend experience of the world and science causing a man made “common sense”, but my knowledge is directly linked to god through his prophets by his holy word. How can you doubt the truth when it is the most useful thing in the world to maintain order and peace? Through fantastic miracle, god has used regular men to convey his word in a most uncanny and unlikely fashion. He has used deplorable sinners, forgery, and money grubbing lying preachers to pass his truths and to preserve his words for all the world. Who could do this but a god? Who could circumvent the physical world and the learning of men in such a way as to bind their very tongues with his absolute truth and authority and perfection? My presuppositional truth will dare to challenge your very existence with an ambiguous, morally elastic, fraudulent piece of imperfect, infallible literature that causes the entire world to endless conjecture and debate. You will believe this “one” all perfect god has revealed himself, not to all his subjects, but to only those few that believe in him without any proof of existence. Neither spiritual nor physical evidence is needed. You will believe based on my word and the confusion the words create. You will believe in spite of doubt because of fear and persuasion of the most loving kind. This is the blindness of faith in gods. This is where a person stays without careful scrutiny of the facts and an ounce of self awareness. This is the prison of fear to peek outside the lens if faith and see the world is not as they said, and the courage to see inside the faith is not what they said either. This is the nonsense of being raised in faith. Professing wisdom they remain fools.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” -Aristotle

“You have the right to defend the belief that you are right, but in the end belief is not truth. Why is appearing to be right and self validation more important than truth?” You have nothing to offer to the discussion when all you have is belief. Jim

Trichoglyphs, Behavioral Traits, and a Russian Fox

Who would think the common hair whorl could spawn such genetic and behavioral implications?Trichoglyphs, or hair whorls in horses and cows and the direction of the whorl can predict certain behaviors such as left and right handedness and temperament. The higher the hair whorl in a horse, the more flighty and unpredictable the horses behavior. Dressage and jumping horses tend to be highly athletic and ambidextrous and double hair whorls are common in the sport. The clockwise or counterclockwise rotation of the whorl can also determine handedness in horses, and in K9’s making dog selection for guide and service dogs an important predictor in success. Right eye dominant dogs are less distractible when being led, and choosing the correct dog for such purposes can save time and training costs. “Dogs are both left- and right-handed, he explained, and this has an influence on their selection as guide dogs for the blind because the dogs are trained to work on a person’s left side. He cited a 2012 study in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research that showed that success was higher for right-preferent and ambidextrous dogs, and that the presence of a whorl on the dog’s left side of the head and thorax was associated with a right visual bias.

Abnormal and multiple trichoglyphs are common in birth defects in humans. Most notable in correlation with brain function abnormality. Hair follicle develops at the same time and from the same material as brain development in embryos.

Russian Fox Experiment

Dmitri K. Belyaev, a Russian scientist, may be the man most responsible for our understanding of the process by which wolves were domesticated into our canine companions. Article Here

Belyaev domesticated 40 generations of silver fox, retaining only foxes with mild temeperment towards human interaction. Not only did the foxes eventually behave like domestic dogs, but their physical characteristics changed as well. Drooping ears, changes in fur and odors were significant as well as cranial and jaw structures.

“Even Darwin noted, in On the Origin of Species, that “not a single domestic animal can be named which has not, in some country, drooping ears.” Drooping ears is a feature that does not ever occur in the wild, except for in elephants. And domesticated animals possess characteristic changes in behavior compared with their wild brethren, such as a willingness or even an eagerness to hang out with humans. If you don’t think evolution is possible, look at how one simple seemingly harmless invisible trait can virtually change the whole animal in a relatively short time frame.

What about us?

As we began our own “domestication” process 12,500 years ago, what were we like? Who were we? What changes in physical features and thought have happened to us? What caused us to collaborate our superstitions into groups defending and promoting a god? Has “civilizing” turned us superstitious and neurotic, or were we always that way?

Cherubims, Flaming Sword, Tree of Life In Bible Codes

TCA Newsflash

2-4-2018

Cypress Hills, Saskatchewan from google earth. Potential site of Garden of Eden has the arial appearance of marijuana, shedding additional light on what really happened with Adam and Eve.

Recently discovered clues in Bible codes apparently transcend one language translation to the next, proving god works in mysterious ways including in Japanese. Using a new supercomputer Tokyo biblical scholars have cracked a code in Genesis 3:24 from the New Interconfessional Version translated from the KJVe specifically to align with Japanese culture. The English text clearly shows an accurate description of what actually happened at the end of Adam and Eves tumultuous departure from the garden. It reads as follows.

“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭3:24‬ ‭KJV‬‬

The New Interconfessional Version reads like this.

“かみは人ひとを追おい出だ

し、エデンの園そのの東ひがし

に、ケルビムと、回まわる炎ほのお

のつるぎとを置おいて、命いのち

の木きの道みちを守まも

らせられた”

As you can clearly see from the Japanese translation the Cherubims and the flaming sword mentioned in verse 24, and using every second syllable of every fourth word identifies the exact location of the east end of the garden of eden. (If you missed it, don’t forget horizontal Japanese is read right to left) The CFOBR (Center For Oriental Bible Research) has a team of experts on the ground in two unspecified location in Canada. Wikileaks’s has identified a previous location and researchers are investigating the correlation. One team is at a bakery in Vancouver, the other in Saskatchewan.

Why Does The Word Worship Bother Me so Much?

Images of myself sitting at someone’s feet in continuous homage while they express their love to me as I obey their every desire. Prostrating routinely as they enter my presence so I can give sips of wine and hand feed grapes placing one at a time in the mouth of a superior being while softly singing songs of praise and greatness. Blessed be thy name oh holy god. All the while being very conscious not to mention any of the other gods, for my sweet everlasting is a jealous god and vengeance is looming. Eternal reverence and adoration. How heavenly as we look down at all the suffering fools that didn’t believe while coddling the majesty. Anyone want to join me in worship? 6:00 Tuesday PST. BYOB.

American Atheist Converted at Medjugorje, Bosnia

One of my very best friends went to the pilgrimage at Medjugorje, Bosnia while vacationing about five years ago to see Our Lady of MedjugorjeHe went as a skeptic. I want to give you just a short history of one of the smartest people I know. He has the best memory recall of anyone I have ever met, loves to study the sciences and religion and many other disciplines, and he is currently active in coaching and teaching at a collegiate level.

He went up to Medjugore completely convinced it was nonsense and looking to see what all the talk was about. He came down as a believer. He saw the apparitions and the images dancing in the sun. He could look directly at the sun and suffered nothing. He felt something special he can’t explain. Raised catholic but operated as an atheist since late teens. Now he is an active catholic and a 100% believer. He can’t explain it. Can you? I can’t help but believe there is a logical or psychological explanation. One thing I do know, the Catholic Church regards the first visit to the children a miracle. They are remaining skeptical about the continued messages delivered by Mary.

Phil also stated that “not everyone that goes sees it. Only those meant to see it I guess” Another question I would pose, do people that have no prior knowledge of the site see the miracles? It’s not obvious what your mind is going to do with the stored knowledge and expectations or reservations of any specific event. Here is some good read and video if you haven’t seen it, and this is an email answer I got from Professor Taboo. “Bottom-line? Neurological and endocrinological explanations are quite plausible in all cases of ‘paranormal’ activity and visions/hallucinations. The pilgrimmage/hike in Medjugorje, Bosnia contributes to those physiological conditions…. as they do in other parts of the world. When large groups/crowds all participate/perform the “worship” together, it makes it all even MORE intense — the Placebo-effect.”

Further reading and Other Insights

What is it They Want?

“I shall speak forth my sentiments freely, and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the house I consider as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfil the great responsibility which we have. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense?” –Patrick Henry-

How long must we bow to the untestable, ambiguous, immoral, misinterpreted, oft quoted pseudo knowledge of divisive fable of a god that is created to control minds of the superstitious and believed by the gullible masses? How many prayers must be offered into the vacuum of space without a hint of reciprocity before we can open the minds of those masses and reach meaningful human potential?

If sensible people don’t have a sensible discussion, stupid people will have a stupid one.

Believers and Make-Believers – Is there a difference?

Believers in Make-Believe were congratulating themselves after two hours of debating and attempted grandeur. Is it possible to “win” a debate when all if your evidence is complete horse shit and smug showmanship? I read where John Lennox “wiped the floor ” with Dawkins. With what? Make-believe? The pluralistic ignorance of religion is strong. has some sweet history of success in other arenasNorth Korea is the current leader several Muslim countries all tied for 2nd place. Keep moving and agree. It’s safe there. But nowhere on earth can beat the USA in pluralistic ignorance about biblical histories that have been debunked years ago. Accepting fraudulence is a way of life for make-believers. Remember the story that broke about gold plated chariot wheels found in the Red Sea. “What they found strewn across the bottom of the reed sea has shaken the religious and scientific community,” says Rood. “Cameras mounted on remote-controlled submarines revealed coral-encrusted chariot parts, horse and human remains strewn like battlefield wreckage on the bottom of the reed sea.” Years later they are still working the story which was fake news. Snopes. But there are new stories still on the web pushing this. Is it only here you can “be all that you can be” by hanging on to the disproved and claim a cover up is hiding the truth. Only in Christianity can you quote gospel commandments as gods law given to a prophet that didn’t exist. If you’re wondering “am I the only one?” No. You’re not!

The Gospel Behind Apparitions

TCA News Podcast Script 1a

2-2-2018

Apparitions caused quite a stir in out last segment, so let’s follow up with some explanations. Our first caller stated “The only reason I converted to Christianity in my teens was because I saw the face of Jesus in a tortilla”.

I wasn’t sure if the caller was being sarcastic or not, so we’ll address this on a serious note. “Your welcome. Was it a corn tortilla or flour? Tortilla de maíz or “corn tortilla” would signify Christ as a Latin American figure, while flour has a broader range of ethnicities and we could justify a white Jesus using that logic. Was the tortilla already cooked? Post resurrection apparitions are demonstrably more prevalent in cooked tortillas, whereas uncooked could have a range of 33 years to work with and could be a juvenile apparition ranging up to the bearded version we see the most. I’m happy you had such a spiritual encounter.It is remarkably as justifiable as any other I’ve heard”.

Other factors come into play here, but as the caller took the answer off the line, I’ll have to assume a few follow up questions here. Was the tortilla an authentic variety or store bought? Store bought tortillas are uncommon for verifiable apparitions second to a strict assembly line structure. Authentic hand-made are more common as the transfers of belief systems can spiritually influence the potential outcomes. For the atheist homes, use a hot iron type press to maintain apparition free tortillas.

Branyan Apologist

TCA Newsflash

2-1-2018

Christian apologist and ego-fed blogger John Branyan made the pages of the world renown Urban Dictionary today from his Indiana home. Branyan, famous among locals as the “little apologist that could”, had few words for reporters, which is rare for the “eager pleaser of the man from Nazareth”. Fame and notoriety are nothing new for the man known as “Brain Yawn”, in certain blogging circles. Branyan Apologist! It’s official! Congratulations John. Although not accustomed to having anything approved, Urban Dictionary set a new approval speed record of 28 seconds. Seems they knew you were coming, lurking, watching, waiting to pounce and mine out any potential opportunity for conjecture. Congratulations!

Famous Apparitions

How much more proof do you need?

Debate Terminology

The Branyan should not be confused with the Gish Gallop nor confused with Argumenteum ad Nauseum in which the same point is repeated many times. In a Gish Gallop, manybullshit points are given all at once, while the Branyan conveys as many non-points as possible in the most amount of comment space and is impervious to self-contradiction.

synonyms– word salad,

Family Farm

I know some of you are animal lovers. For 3507 years now my family has been keeping a pretty big flock of a mixture of special animals. We saved them as kind of a hobby. When the book of Job came out, Behemoths became the rage. My dad bought one at an auction and he’s had it ever since. He said it may be a collectible some day. Man he got that right. I don’t think it will ever die. The thing is cursed or something. Our hay bill is outrageous, but since we feed it instead of tithing it’s probably cheaper in the long run. I did some sketches since they don’t like being photoed. Ever since dads daguerreotype caught on fire they hide from the camera.

He also bought a Leviathan as a baby. We kept it in a small pool so it didn’t get big. They’re like goldfish and stay small if you hold back the food and keep the pool small. It’s a nasty little thing but dad likes it since it talks a lot. I’m pretty sure this would be the beast from revelation, so keeping it small is probably the best thing.

When dad was just a kid he picked up a serpent looking thing in the garden. He says it used to talk to him, but sometimes I just think dad talked to it a lot when he was little. It’s about as smooth as a used car salesman though.

His pet dragon is the coolest of them all. Frickin thing is ancient and still lays eggs. I was raised on them. We never need matches or anything. I tried to get dad to convert its stall to a thermal breathing heater but he never did. All that energy wasted all these years. He says he bought it from a guy on Patmos Island? Where is that any way?

Well, there’s more but I have to go out and feed. I lost a finger last week to that fuckin cockatrice so I feed it last just to piss it off. Little bastard!

Masterpiece!

This here piece from my Ugandan connection to the atheist world. Dr. Seggy just gave a perfect glimpse to religious devotion. Well worth your time! Bravo Doc! Sometimes someone else just nails it for you!

Panama Apocalypse

It happened again. A 5.7 quake in Los Santos Province of Panama near my home there. The world is ending and god is coming to wipe out the sinners and wrap the believers in his arms for eternal hugs and stuff like that. My evangelical neighbors down there are hoping to be alive to see it all play out. And they hope its soon and they will be lifted up in rapture to god while massive bloodshed and revenge and vengeance for all those wicked homosexuals and atheists unfolds. Not sure why they want to be around to see all the carnage other than the mind of a blood-cult, pious, holier-than-thou baptist saint shouting out SEE, SEE. We told you so!

I think if god existed he would judge Christians for the way they treat gays and unbelievers and other faiths. One of their core tenets is that in the end god is coming to destroy all of us. They pray for it. They welcome it. It’s in the doctrine. Meanwhile nothing gets solved while they sit and wait behind a line of piety drawn in the sand of self righteous racism and bigotry. They fight every social advancement and scientific progression. That’s who they are. That’s why I write!

Were Abraham and Muhammad Primatologists?

What distinguishes Abrahamic Religion from the apes? The apes could not write their ideas of territory, food, male dominance, and sex into law. It was all about protecting what they had and staying at the top of the clan.

Mixing Science and Faith

Maybe Christianity could adapt some scientific principles. They could claim it as gospel like they did paganism and mythology. But I don’t believe the two will ever mix because science is unprejudiced. Don’t forget their core! They are waiting and praying for god to come back and slaughter all the rest of us. That little tidbit says a lot about how they really feel. It’s a religion that is divisive and racist and prejudice to its core, and piety sets dividing lines to fight every step of social equality or scientific advance.

Wrought for Change

Sounds like the humanist-pig natives lost this round. Columbus wrote “the natives are so naïve and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone.”

He also wrote,

“I believe that they would easily be made Christians, because it seemed to me that they had no religion.”

“The European settlers took a free society without possessions, property, currency, hierarchy or written religion and replaced it with today’s America – the world’s shining beacon of selfish materialism, where every square inch of land/water/airspace is publicly or privately owned, taxed, and governed through a corrupt hierarchical system of laws and regulations where Mother Nature’s gifts are treated as personal possessions to be bought, sold, owned and defended. Howard Zinn “A people’s history of the United States ”

They also threw religion at their feet and forced them to comply or die.They stripped them of their heritage and language and families, and stole all that was left of their land and resources. It amazes me that there is one Native American or African Native Christian on the entire planet that carries on in this belief system that destroyed their beautiful ways of life. It is beyond me. I’ve had this question on the back burner for several years. Long before I was an atheist it amazed me how enthusiastically the black and native communities embrace Christianity. Why? How was this done?

The Requermiento, a document that offered the Indians a choice between salvation and slavery, helped the Spanish “benevolently” force various Indian groups into the missions. The basic mission plan for Catholic missionaries followed a structure repeated by later groups and based on Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, which outlined a plan for Christian communities. Mission life revolved around and resembled rural European Christianity as much as possible, creating communities of Indians who ate, slept, and worked under the aegis of Christianity. Most missions had compulsory attendance at matins and masses, required all able bodies to work within the mission, and set up systems of governance using the patriarchal family as a model. Every day, Indians went to matins, worked in the fields, went back to church, worked in the fields, and then went home to a system where fathers and men ruled and met as councils, mimicking European societies more than biblical ones.

Essentially by eliminating the non compliant, it turned into generational compliance by remaining natives. Why are they still in it? And particularly, why are African Americans still in it so strongly? We all know their history here.

Richard Dawkins on The Cosmos

“Even if we don’t understand how it came into existence, it’s not helpful to postulate a creator because a creator is the very kind of thing that needs its own explanation. It’s a hell of a lot harder the explain how a god came into existence than to explain how a simplicity came into existence”.

Oxford Museum of Natural History Dawkins vs Lennox

Fascinating Deconvert of Islam

I read this tonight, and knowing very little about Islam it was fascinating to read some of his posts to see an inside view of a different than Christianity twist from an Iranian Atheist. Very interesting read. http://decentatheist.com/2018/01/24/why-is-god-so-angry/

Religious Feel Right

William James says “conversion indicates the process by which a consciously wrong, unhappy and previously divided self becomes consciously right”.

A study in the psychology of conversion

Why do Hard When Simple is Hard Enough?

I used to write a lot of songs and they just kept getting more and more complex, when finally my buddy said, “why do hard when simple is hard enough”? Musicians have made great music with two and three chord songs. Simple is beautiful. Perfecting simple is outstanding.

It is easy to get mired down in the weight of all the information trying to sway you this way and that. Try this: Go someplace quiet. Throw all your preconceptions and indoctrinations in a big pile and burn it. Think what it would be like to face everything you ever learned about religion was a lie. It’s a pill that needs to be swallowed. Think how easy this is without someone trying to influence you in order to validate themselves. Try to show a little self awareness and open your mind. You don’t need convincing circular conjecture and apologetics to know the truth. The truth rarely needs a footnote, or, an explanation to an explanation. You can’t justify one iota of doctrine, or one miracle or prayer unanswered without rationalizing the deficiency of god or being outright deceived. The cliches don’t solve your problem. They are these; “You pray in your time, and god answers in his time”. “We can’t imagine the wisdom of god”, or “He is testing your faithfulness. We just can’t comprehend god”, or “he wasn’t meant to be healed because god is testing his faith”. Why would god need to do that? These are some of the most common excuses for god, passed on from generation to generation. When you look at the objectives there is nothing here but excuses and ambiguous text of archaic language allowing for multiple interpretation and confusion. By design.

I know. I was in it for 50 years and nothing added up. I had several “spiritual” experiences that were based on lies. Positive emotion is not the holy spirit testifying to you. Feeling good by passing off your responsibilities to another entity is psychological feel good. Nothing more. Nothing has changed but the feeling someone is watching over you. They aren’t.

You don’t have to know the science behind it. I didn’t. All you have to do is face the reality that you might be wrong, and look at the failures of religion openly and honestly. It’s about three things. Power, control, and money. Every institution is corrupt. You think religion has escaped unscathed? Hell, they’re the ones that initiated all the corruption. Pointing fingers, deflecting and distracting. The devil has no horns. That is the trick. The devil wears a suit and tie and holds a microphone. Quit making excuses for gods and failed preachers and let’s start working towards something productive instead of wasting millennia of time running in circles chasing hidden meaning of ancient writing that doesn’t come true.

Why do hard when simple is hard enough? Life is pretty peaceful since dumping the hope of an invisible being that instills guilt and racism and has a history of mass destruction and murder. Why do hard when simple is where you find true peace. That is a motto to live by.

The Gods are Doin Their Thing

I’m a little upset with Boreas today. Snow is too wet and trees are down all over the property. Hoping all of my Dryads are safe and sound. I checked my Yggdrasil and it is doing ok. Yggdrasil is my immense mythical tree that connects the nine worlds in Norse cosmology.

And the turkeys came for a visit while I was cutting two trees off the road to the house. They love dinner rolls.

Thank Artemis they are good. Today I am a god. The god of snow shoveling.

2 James 6-9 found! New scripture Predicts Trump

I came across these while rummaging through some old papyrus I found in the basement.

6 Thus saith the LORD, Verily verily I say unto you in the last days one shall rise up in a choice land across the great waters and perform secret works of darkness upon all nations of the earth. And in those days all men shall use one voice to be heard every man in his own tongue like a river to every dwelling upon the face of the earth.

7 And secret works of darkness, and lascivious defilers of their own selves at war with many nations. And no man shall know the truth as all things are confusion and strife with knowledge abounding and fleeting truth as a slippery serpent.

8 Many shall cry lo here, and lo there, as the death of all nations creeps inward, the groaning earth will rock to and fro like a ship tossed on the waves of the deep. And the rulers of men work secret combinations to ensnare all the inhabitants of the earth with gold and with silver and with precious stones while blackness pours from all the deep places filling the earth with smoke and dust in all the waste places where no man shall hide.

9. Hear ye, hear ye children of the most high god. Repent for the hour is nigh that all the valleys will be raised up, and all the mountains shall be swallowed to the great depths, and all those that slumber shall open the earth wielding the sword of justice to all those that cast their lots for the son of evil masking as righteousness as the dawn trump sounds, boasting in the wisdom of a fool.

10 If any man adds or takes away from these sayings, blessed be his name for creativity sake. Hell why not? The scribes did it all the time. Interpretation is the key to good scripture. On an interesting note, neither America or the internet are in the Bible. How did they miss that? It’s ok. I fixed it.

Sex – vs – Violence

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard someone talk about a movie and say “there are no sex scenes, only violence”. Viewing killing has just become a way of life I guess, and what comes natural to all species is sinful to lay eyes on. Studies show most people have to be trained to kill. The military uses simulations and repetitive virtual killing of humans to condition soldiers to “hit” enemy combatants. In WWI and WWII trigger pulls per soldier were quite low, along with soldiers not aiming at the enemy. Essentially having to be trained to kill. “S.L.A Marshall did a study on the firing rates of soldiers in World War II. He found that the ratio of rounds fired vs. hits was low; he also noted that the majority of soldiers were not aiming to hit their targets. This was a problem for the US military and its allies during World War II. Soldiers were reluctant to kill another human even while under attack. New training implements were developed and hit rates improved. The changes were small, but effective. First, instead of shooting at bulls-eye type targets, the U.S. Army switched to silhouette targets that mimic an average human and killing increased dramatically. After implementing virtual reality simulation, and research shows that the more virtual people you kill, the easier it is to devalue other human life. A high percentage of soldiers today have killed thousands of people before ever enlisting in the military. Kids today are a shoe-in for high trigger pull ratios as they are desensitized to the reality of how horrific killing naturally is. They’ve already done it. Is war like a video game? Prince Harry of Wales thinks so. The Telegraph reported that Prince Harry compared piloting an Apache to playing a video game. He said,

“It’s a joy for me because I’m one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think I’m probably quite useful,” prince Harry stated. As a downtown medic I was on the front lines of urban death far too long. I remember my first, and I remember the last and every single one in between. The violence leaves a wake of panic and hysteria to the family left behind tying to make sense of it. It is ugly and senseless.

So, sex is labeled throughout the pious world as the great sin, while violence gets a pass. Hell, it even makes you a star!

Celebration Occasion

After 88 years my old high school friend’s dad finally accepted Christ in his life. They are ecstatic and praising god. Although cumbered with terminal illness and a morphing pain pump, the hospice nurses at the facility were gracious enough to let the family sing to him and pray for him and read scriptures to him. He was reborn!! He accepted Jesus. Praise god! Finally at the end of his life he saw the light. Can one be saved in this altered condition? The poor guy finally caved in. They posted pics of kids and grandkids reading verses and singing to their bedridden captive audience. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. But I did see it plastered on FB 2 days. Thoughts? Am I a sacrilegious bastard?

Here’s just one of the comments “He didn’t believe until now. We have had MANY conversations over the last 37 years, talking about the validity of the Bible, the statistical evidence. Once you understand those things, it almost takes more faith NOT to believe. ❤️ He finally was able to reconcile his science background with faith in Jesus, understanding they didn’t conflict”.<

All I can say is sarcasms sanctity surely swirls swiftly since Saturday’s savorous save. Jim

Ten Commandments

Which of the ten commandments has been most effective at preventing crime? Which one has stopped the most carnage, adultery, lying, and so forth? Do you have a personal experience where in a heat of passion and you were just about to kill someone, and you thought, wait! That’s against the rules?

Where is the Insane Asylum??

This must be the new go to argument against atheism. Twice in two days. I just learned from A bit of Orange that because I don’t eat my young I have already rejected atheism and I’m ready to be saved. Don’t bother checking his site as he blocks any comments he can’t answer. Here ya go.

“I don’t doubt that you and your family love each other. I merely point out that atheism offers no basis to give value to love or priority to your duties as a parent or spouse. On atheism, there is no good and evil, so the difference between loving your children or killing and eating them differs only in the normative evolutionary path our species has taken thus far, and the moral code AGAINST killing one’s children forced on western culture by the Biblical worldview. Other animals eat their young, why should YOU not do so if we are merely animals as Atheism claims?

Also, your love for each other is merely chemical brain states, such as being hungry. When you tell your children you love them, then if they were REALLY atheists, they ought to respond, “Oh, you are?”

Here’s my point- if you love your family and know that loving them is BETTER than killing and eating them, then you have already rejected Atheism. I believe you do love your family. I just want you to see that you are already rejecting atheism. After that, you may see that you have a heavenly father who loves you, and is waiting for you to come home”.

#JesusLovesYou

And JB poses this beauty only in order to sidetrack the conversation as he does. “Where do you get the idea that Christians shouldn’t kill natives”? Because of evolution and atheism we we would actually justify the stronger spaniards in killing pacifist natives that don’t comprehend killing. It wasn’t natural for them, and he can’t see that it is unnatural to use a law/bible to justify slaughter.

He doesn’t really know that it is mostly natural to not kill. Only a law splitting Christian can master that.

Why would anyone reject a humanist view that protects life and promotes freedom better than religion?

i would like to explore a solid answer to these thoughts though.

H.G. Wells

“Investigations into the beginnings of religion have accumulated steadily throughout the past half century. It is only by great efforts of censorship, by sectarian education of an elaborately protected sort, and the like, that ignorance about them is maintained.”

H. G. Wells

The Finite Human Mind Cannot Comprehend

I’ve heard this one before, but I just want to know who gets to determine what I can comprehend? I think we’re ready now. Go ahead. Explain it.

Now I know how few people depend on Answers dot com for their religious questions, but this did get 7200 confidence votes from a guy named fowl1. Good job. Thanks for the material Christians.

Wednesday Affirmation

Hubble Captures Distant Images of Temples on Other Planets

According to an anonymous insider, The Vatican along with NASA’s HST division are withholding critical images proving that Mormonism is indeed more than a world religion. God has created “worlds without number” and recent Hubble images have captured LDS temples in other distant solar systems. LDS temple alignment and curious symbolism is literally a “modern day Mormon stargate “. Below are some codings in alignment from specific LDS temple architecture.

LDS officials routinely open these gates using a stellar map and detailed compass aligned with a curious sword that was deposited in the Hill Cumorah in upstate New York and retrieved by the prophet Joseph Smith.

Officials state ” we’ve had the answers for quite some time”, although common members are not currently participating in intergalactic travel because of “unbelief”, Church officials do commonly visit other planets to coordinate the various second coming scenarios soon to unfold.

“There’s only one Jesus, so these things take a little planning “. LDS doctrine teach “Christ’s atonement was for all of gods children, and in the big picture, that is a lot of worlds and a lot of people that need saving”.

Current leadership is also in pursuit of the Erdapfel globe. “We want it back”, for as rumored the globe is not a 15th century creation, but a much older relic of precolombian mesoamerican mormonism.

Why Fasting is Important

The first Sunday of each month the LDS have fast and testimony meeting. Members fast 24 hours as a general rule. Typically you would have dinner the night before, skip two full meals, than have dinner again the following evening. Somewhere between the 15-20 hour mark you’d have your testimony meeting. Mormons tout the health benefits and spiritual awareness of fasting, but rarely is the caveat considered. Fasting alters brain chemistry and sugar uptake Opening brain fazes to a more programmable state. During this drowsy state of weakened physiology you listen to 20 or so people tell you they know the church is true, and other anecdotal Mormon doctrine and testimony. The science of Physiology works! So does monthly brainwashing.

The Sunday Meme

Really?

It’s not even a very good hoax. Who is it that leaves all their sensibility at the door for a poorly written hearsay of a long ago past? It is now the grown equivalent of a massive federation bureaucracy driven by incoherent laws with rogue outposts crying “lo here” and “lo there”. Their making this stuff up! The only thing keeping it afloat are the gullibles that won’t look at real knowledge to change it, and the other passengers that are driving the ship with the zeal of a half eaten library book. Just the way it was planned.

Sunday I have a very special post that would appreciate your input. Thanks so much.

Desperation

raging ragged desperation keep the charade alive, stoke it fan it stay in overdrive, never sleep oft repeat the same words that you heard, soon you must prove but your proof is absurd, and waning thoughts need fresh blood to pump energy to the veins of the craft, when all else fails turn out gullible youth to prove your tales-the best remedy not always true and tried, but new with lies that have felt the heat of a perfectly staged revival without real knowledge can keep the flame alive.

Sell it by zealot!

Theism

Spotting a liar

I follow a blog by psychologist Dr Perry, and this week his topic is spotting a liar. Here is number 2 on the list, but the entire article reminded me of some apologists that frequent our blogs. 2. They don’t answer the specific question that has been asked. A person who is lying will avoid answering the question and will instead make a convincing statement. The statement may be true but it is not an answer to the question. For example, when you ask your child if they skipped school and they answer by saying “I would never do that. I am a good student.” In another example, say you are missing money at work and ask your coworker, “Did you take the money that was here?” and they answer by saying, “I have been working here for years and am a good person.” These statements might be true, but they are not answering the specific question that has been asked. The person is trying to convince instead of convey the truth. Convincing statements are a strong indicator of lying. You might need to ask more questions to get to the truth”. But that doesn’t mean you’ll ever get a straight answer.

Salivation

“After the revolution in Russia, Lenin was quick to see the potential of applying Pavlov’s research to his own ends”. See article here about mind manipulation. My wife was sharing some of her prior experience as a catholic and what happens each Sunday. My first thought was Ivan Pavlov, his salivating dogs, and conditioned response. First the ringing bells get everyone’s attention and they line up to do Eucharist or sacrament. The process creates a warm fuzzy feeling and contentment. She said everyone really looked forward to it. Salivation preceding salvation. In the article it delves into techniques used by professionals to help preachers get converts. Well worth the time.

Illegal Atheist

Here’s what happens when the church runs the state with tight control and coerced belief in god. Believe or die! I had a comment a few weeks ago from Indonesia and he stated that he had to use careful wording or be accused of blasphemy. Saudi Arabia atheist are declared terrorists.

Even some US states have laws on the books forbidding atheists from running for office. Christianity’s moral high ground is to demonize non believers and elevate themselves with accusations instead living with integrity. Atheist represent 0.1% of prisoners in the US. We’re not that bad. Really!

How do you make someone believe something they don’t?

What to buy next?

When I commented the other day on a blog comparing the fallacy of atheism compared to Christianity, the guy fired back that I sound like a disciple of Dawkins and Ehrman, and then he blocked me. But the truth is, I have never read either of them. If the reasons I left faith are the same as they’ve written about, I guess you can figure it out on your own using you good old fashioned brain, minus what’s lacking in religion with sugarcoated faith. Prayers don’t get answered. Ever! But you all know the excuses. “God knows best”, or “he’s just testing your faith” or ” you pray in our time, but god answers in his time”. B frickin S! Then the scripture is an elastically moral fraud that demands ones full attention and years of endless debate and conjecture. The unsolvable religious Rubiks’s cube. I gave it my full attention. The reason I left is simple. Things never added up the way they were supposed to. Nothing made sense unless it was explained over and over. Then someone would explain the explanation so the explanation made sense. But in the end it is a charade that people believe only because they want to. They feel the need to. If you have a quiet few days you can figure this out. Looks like I need to buy some Dawkins and Ehrman? I really got a lot from John Zande’s 2 books and am science and physics fan. What should I read next as a relative newbie?

Go Away My Wayward Son (really)

What do you get when you cross a porn addict with a preachers son? Read on! (Equation Answer below)My area is pretty heavy with SDA, JW, Mennonite and a sprinkling of evangelicals, but SDA has the market cornered on truth because they do Saturday worship. (I heard the sermon many times). One particular family we’ve gotten to know pretty well is SDA. All of their problems come from god because “he tests the most faithful”. He really said that! He has also personalized his brand of SDA for, according to him, “they don’t quite have it right”. He was the wayward son of a preacher but now he’s back with a porn addiction (his wife confided this to my wife) and desperately seeking the respect of his father. He poses deep religious questions on Facebook then his friends spend hours enlightening each other as he sits and watches, but not responding. They have their 3 kiddos on a tight leash and rule over them with godlike love and a wooden spoon, and have absolutely nothing in the house that is not SDA related. The kids are all under 8 and they’ve never seen a video or story book that is secular or scientific of any kind. They homeschool, which in their case revolves around watching church videos. I think you’re getting the picture. None of them can read a word. It is pathetically hard to watch them cripple these kids to the theistical beliefs and growing up to think that without Jesus they are nothing but sinners laden with guilt and shame. Total indoctrination. Total rule. Physical discipline, and withholding valuable necessities to help them cope in the world. Total dependency. It’s disgusting. What happened to free will? What happened to trusting god? Where is the faith? They are so insecure in their faith they have to force the kids single line theology to protect them from the evil in the world while at the same time dispensing ignorance and evil. He’s determined his kids will never sew their wild oats and obsesses that they never do what daddy did. He talks openly about the enormities of his youth like a serial killer revisiting his dead bodies, but forbids the kids any leeway to make decisions or mistakes that would help them grow into human beings. It’s part of the Christian way. It’s disgusting. but who am I to judge?His family and friends commend him for his godlike parenting. I think he should just go away. Go away my wayward son. There was peace but now there’s none.R is religion, P is porn, guilt is represented here by the infinity symbol, 0 squared = overcome and overcompensate. the answer = BAD PARENTING

Benevolent Force

Forged pointed lessons-

Insecurely forced love weighs-

Heavy on young minds-

Haiku Under Control

Tight Confined boxes-

When lighted seen as darkness-

Embracing bondage-

Inside Out

Usually you all know nothing about how your efforts here in presenting Atheism and Humanism can affect just one person once in a while. But you all have stuck with it. I see many familiar names from when I was posting religious spew on your blogs a few years back. I was pretty nice about it but was curious too. Having my own belief questions I wanted to see how my arguments stood up outside of the faith. I tried to have an open mind and really see things from another vantage point.

One day I was asking some questions and interjecting my beliefs, and I mentioned I was really just trying to understand but would never leave religion. Violet (I think was the name) jumped in and said “you will”. “That if I really was serious about learning about life outside of faith that I would eventually leave it”. That really stuck with me and I stewed on it for quite a while. She knew if I saw what was real outside of that lens that I would at least know a decision had to be made. Believe it or don’t believe it. It was a choice! How right she was! That moment was pivotal in my deconversion.

I have always sought truth the best I know how. I don’t care to be right, I just want the truth wherever that may be. If I’m wrong I’ll admit it. I won’t defend a position I know in my head is wrong. That moment started a long search outside of the church and its approved doctrines and materials. Actually took about three weeks of full time searching and trying to justify staying in the faith. Once I peeked at the reality and reasoning there was no going back. After 50 years of church and Jesus I walked away. My wife and kids were in Panama City on vacation during that time. When they came back to the jungle I told them what I wanted to do and why. My wife had done her own looking and promptly agreed. We gathered up all of our church crap, the manuals and home school religious items and scriptures and burned it all. I burned books! Never regretted it for one moment. Free baby!

Anyway, I just wanted to thank you all for your insights and mentoring me in your blood soaked heathenistic pagan smart ass ways. Sometimes good sense does rule the day. Life without church is life indeed! Glad somebody told me! Is an excellent example of how I felt. Thanks Shiarrael!

Where is Violet anyway? Haven’t seen her in quite a while. Give her my regards if any of you know her.

Born Theists Lite Version

Bill the Bad Atheist has a short follow up over at his site if you want to take a peek. Be curious to see what some of you have to say. My overall feeling on the topic is we are comparing something with nothing, and wind up with a riddle as an answer.

Radical Atheistology

Four things or five you need to start deconverting from any invisible mythical sky god religion.

1. Read. Read more than just the official versions your church allows. You’ll be surprised what they hide from you. If you all ready know? Shame on you and skip to step 2. Stop apologizing for them. Read something contrary. You’ll be surprised at the common sense kindness of the atheist community. Smart, accepting, and reasonable. Not for power, not for money, not for control. For a free mind and acceptance. For peace. Really!

2. Observe. Even the simplest observation on your own time can easily overturn the miles of apologetic writing your church has split hairs to write. Don’t forget to look around you. Take a hike in the canyons. The earth is older than that. Cmon man! And there’s more!

3. Critical thinking. For instance, the jesus story has been told almost verbatim by several ancient civilizations long before Christianity. Virgin birth, half man, half god, dies to save everyone, celebrated at Christmas time and they were gods. But hey! This time it’s for real. Right! Think about it. Look it up. It’s all out there. Just peek outside the box. You’ve been duped! And there’s more!! Way more.

4. Whiskey. Relax. The world is not coming to an end. No one is coming out of the sky to save or rapture you. It’s up to us to fix our situation. So let’s put away the waiting for Jesus and praying for the end to come soon and get to work. We’re wasting time. A lot of time. Enjoy life and be brothers and sisters. Religion divides what otherwise would be whole. Try it. What is there to lose. What you’ve been doing is not working. Give it a chance! Peek!

If you’re still here this might be for you. I have a secret surprise I’ve waited for the end, and this is very typical of the folks I’ve met. They are liberated from guilt and they are happy. They have a high moral standard based on natural laws and consequences and we love the earth. A true deep desire to preserve the world. Our way of life

Follow some atheist books and blogs. The basics will get you by, but there is a world of good reading and real knowledge out there.

I was a follower for 50 years I’m sorry to say. I’m actually a little embarrassed by it. I walked away a few years ago from the mind games, guilt, ambiguous doctrine, cover ups, brainwashing, poorly translated mythology I was supposed to analyze and work out my salvation. If I guess wrong? Oops. Sorry jim. You’re going to hell. It was all a trap to keep me payin and prayin and obeyin. Believing a stifling dogma has consequences that restrict growth of the mind and well being. And I defended it!

respectfully–jim, the common atheist

Did I miss anything?

Are we Born Theists?

Bill the Bad Atheist has suggested here that we are all born theists and need to be taught to be atheists. I commented my feeling on his blog, I would love to see what you more experienced non believers have to say about his hypothesis. I think this is worthy of a discussion.

Acronyms and DSRD

I was training a newly hired EMT to enter his reports in the computer, and shortly after writing a practice report we got a call to go out for an MVC. We transported a minor injury patient to the hospital and since the new guy tech’d the call, he wrote the notes. Medical people use a ton of acronyms, and as I was reviewing his report I noticed some strange ones I’d never seen before. He stated ” PT found in FPS, A/O X4 PWD, airway intact. Pt with MLLUA and ALSOF. I thought “huh”? I called him back to the office for a minute to explain. “Oh, FPS is front passenger seat”. And MLLUA is mild laceration left upper arm”, and ALSOF is “abrasion left side of face”. I said “Aaron you can’t just make shit up on these reports. No one knows what these mean except you”. There is a long list of accepted acronyms and I gave him a copy to work from. Heres a small sample.

Aaron appears to be mixing religion and work here, since “make it up as you go” is a common tool for building credible rapport in the churches.

I’ve heard some faith promoting whoppers during my time in the church. I felt the spirit (emotion) over outright lies and fabrications. I’ve seen the faithful tie silly things together that show god is with them every step of the way. From found car keys to successful surgeries, god gets the credit. When things don’t go your way he gets a free pass. If uncle Eddy survives the heart attack,”praise god”! If he dies, god took him home to heaven. He knows what’s best for you. Right?

WARNING– What you about to read might cause you to think.

Preachers tell lies and twist stories to convince you that god is real and their religions are right. They desperately want you to believe what they believe. They will tell you things to drive your emotions. That feeling is not the spirit. It is a manipulation tactic to get devotion and keep you in faith to give themselves power and money. Do not believe it. You have been tricked by professionals that prey on people during vulnerable times in their lives. Do not buy it. You already possess everything they have to offer. It’s already in you. You can do this without the bs of a religious dogma. Waiting for god to answer your prayers is a waste of time. Time that could be spent working out your own future, free of charge and free of mental bondage.

DSRD = dumb stuff religions do

Faith + Fiction = Miracles. Here have a bible

Free Jeep Rental $50

Cozumel is usually a pretty good idea. We stayed at an all inclusive resort with the dive club, and of course while you’re in they try to get you to the timeshare presentation. Usually I won’t go to these, but we had nothing going on for the day so we figured “what the heck”? Get a free jeep for the next day and just say no to everything in the sales pitch. What could it hurt?

I’m a math guy on just about everything, so I did the calculations and we could buy this timeshare for what we were already paying as regular guests. Not a great deal. It was like the Outlaw Josie Wales and Ten Bears. ” I’m ain’t promising you anything extra”. So we walk with our Jeep coupon and the next day go to the counter. With tax and other fees it was $50. $50 for a free Jeep. Hey! This reminds me of church! We had to pay for something you’re supposed to get free. Being an exmo, going to long boring meetings and was a way of life, and getting pressured to do things you don’t want to do is really the way of life. In the end, what was supposed to be free from jesus cost 10% of your income or no blessings. No exaltation, no temple marriage, no important callings. Nada. It’s the equivalent of buying free tap water. Pretty good scheme.

Many thanks to everyone here for sharing your insight, knowledge, and cynical as hell anti- religious wisdom. WP was a big part of my deconversion.

Why the “What have you done for me lately Church” is hard to leave

As soon as I was old enough to safely go to church my parents brought me before the congregation and I was given an official name and a blessing. A name which would be recorded in the records and make me an official unbaptized member of the LDS. I was about a month old! Hey, thanks for that. Of course I don’t remember this, but those blessings take place the first Sunday of each month just before Fast and Testimony Meeting, where the members share their beliefs with the audience. This was the beginning of the indoctrination of Jim, as for the next hour I would listen to many testimonies that day about how true the church was, and how god played a role in various members lives that week. “I know this church is true” was proclaimed from the pulpit and into every rooms intercom. Even while I was in the mothers lounge, i could hear the testimonies of those who would soon be raising me in the church. Hey! No second opinions allowed either. Whenever a stray Mormon would stand up to bear his soul, and offer how he really felt about the church he would be escorted out. No second opinions needed! This is the true church!

At home it would continue. Exposed to everything mormon. Pictures of jesus and prophets and primary songs. Family home evenings every Monday for twice weekly indoctrination. Family prayer morning and night along with personal prayer. They even taught me what to say. How thoughtful.

Progression of church member Jim

Baby blessing –check

Baptism at 8. -check

Priesthood at 12 -check

Early morning Seminary 4 years. Check

Higher priesthood at 19-check

Temple endowments -check

Mission -check

Marry in the temple- check

Children -check

Memorize countless scriptures and songs – check

Endure to the end– hmm. Not so fast.

Pay Pray and Obey

Keep paying

Questions. Not allowed

Endure to the end, endure to the end

Learn the things you weren’t supposed to learn.

Be bold enough to question

Church court and discipline

Attend in shame.

Fade away. Resign the church. Lose all your friends. All!

In the Mormon faith you are taught if you don’t endure to the end, keep the commandments and keep paying your tithes til the day you die you won’t be saved. You can lose your salvation. Everything done to the children is focused on member retention. Keep you engaged. Don’t give you time to think. Here is how they did it to me

Scoutmaster 15 years. That’s an extra day at the church every week

Early morning Seminary teacher entire school year 8 years total

Home teacher to multiple families each month 30 years

Young men’s presidency 6 years

Adult Sunday school teacher 4 years

Ward missionary 4 years

Finance clerk 2 years

Membership clerk 2 years

Elders quorum presidency 8 years

Multiple tours in some of these callings. Oh!, and work a full time job to support my family.

I was also a pretty good speaker so I would give talks frequently on Sunday.

Frequent temple attendance

Temple initiatory worker 4 years

Veil worker 4 years

By the time I was 50, I had done about 75 years of service callings in the church. This is fairly typical, but not good enough. Pray pay and obey til you die if it will account as nothing.

It’s no wonder it is so hard to see the fallacy of your ways when it is all you know. Variety makes things right.

Don’t forget to look around you. Be humble. You might be wrong