HUTTAREE

after two days I'm surprised to see that this story is not getting more attention.in fact my local news barely mentioned it.and i cant seem to wonder if it is getting a pass because they are christian.not that the court system will go easy on them,not with all the handy videos that they so thoughtfully shot for the prosecution.
no, i wonder if the Media and the American culture is giving them a pass.
just because they are christian.by that i mean if they were Muslim the news would be camped out in front of the court house,and any where else they could think of yammering on about the "sleeper cells" that were hiding in plain site.how terrorists are infiltrating the Midwest E.T.C.
the sad fact is that terrorists are infiltrating the mid west,AND THEY ARE CHRISTIAN!
i saw on CNN how the other militia groups are distancing them selves from the huttaree saying "they aren't real Christians" and "real militias aren't like that."and i cant help but think that I'm going to take the huttaree at their word,they say they are christian and their web site says they are christian ,than they are christian.
i don't blame the other militias from distancing them selves from the huttaree,if i had a violent anti-government group and one of my buddy's was stupid and got busted,and i wanted to fly under the radar so that i could still carry out my plans to attempt
to over through the government i would distance my self too.
i hope the F.B.I is smart enough to keep following up on the militia movement,from what i have seen they are melding with the tea party,and are being fed by the far right christian Conservative movement as well http://www.alternet.org/news/145796/
the militia wants to overthrow the government,and the christian right wants to establish a theocracy. the two combined are a dangerous monster hiding under our collective beds.
i for one don't want to look at a smoking pile of ruins and hear some talking head on T.V saying"why weren't we warned?" well we were.many just weren't listening,because no real christian would do that! Wanna bet?i will leave off with one last thought,...the federal building in Oklahoma city. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing
if the links don't work copy and past to your search bar.

god and morality

a seeming innocuous title but one that has been mistaken for a long time,to be honest it is my personal opinion that the two are mutually exclusive.or one having nothing to do with the other. ill start with the stuff closer to me than the other.
CENSORSHIP. now that is the main way that Christians have been dealing with challenges to their supposed authority.in fact i started to get vocal after some pages on face book got taken down,because they did some thing wrong? no they were just not christian and had the audacity to say so.they have been taken down and put back up several times now.other religious sites have been plastered by Christians trying to recruit /convert others over to their religion.on you tube,pro evolution and pro atheist videos are routinely flagged as offencive,bot attacked,and have had false DMCAs filed against them.all in an effort to prevent an alternative view from being seen.so much for "teach the controversy"and i my self have had complaints lodged against me for promoting hate speech on face book.i don't know who but if you don't like what I'm doing you can always unfriend me,or block me,or better yet debate me.CENSORSHIP IS IMMORAL!
SOCIAL INJUSTICE.from deaning homosexuals equal rights,to deaning science.those in the god camp are trying to force their way of thinking on all of us even those who don't share their point of view.i mean the establishment clause says explicitly "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion".but when "gay"marriage is made illegal isn't that what is happening? the only reason to be against "gay rights" is based solidly in religion.there is no rational argument against "gay rights"that is not based in religion.
as for deaning science,that is an attempt to keep people ignorant,because they know that knowledge leads to rational thought,and that leads to intellectual freedom.to put it bluntly the more you know the less you need god,and so they try to get creation"science"taught along side real science. they try to foster distrust in science like the fear of vaccines,endangering lives. SOCIAL INJUSTICE IS IMMORAL!
and last but not least.....
the leadership of religion is immoral from the top down.from the pope and his brother engaging in sex scandal and cover ups,to all the priests molesting children,to the American preachers speaking out about the evils of homosexuality,...untell they are caught doing meth off their gay lovers ass.
and lets not forget all the fraud cases brought up on the American clergy like hovind,and baker,..ETC.
when you package that up with the fact that American prisons are between 70 to 80% Christan,the reasoning that god and morality have any thing to do with one another falls apart.I'm not saying that atheists are any better I'm just saying that believing in a story doesn't automatically convey morality.

Heaven,Hell.and Eternity.

these concepts seem to play a heavy role on modern religion these days. well i think that it is time for me to put my two cents in.Ive thought about this a lot for the last few days.As i have stated in the last post this "Hypothesis"depend on whether one believes that a story is true.if you "BELIEVE/HAVE FAITH"in this story you will get to live forever,.....after you die.
now just where are you supposed to "live"?HEAVEN! "YEA!" there are two models of heaven that i can tell.the "candy land" and "praise land" first up,"CANDY LAND"
now candy land is where you get to meet all your long lost relatives/loved ones,everything is a Happy sunny day,all your wishes come true,every thing is perfect for all eternity.
i call this model of Heaven candy land because it is like a kid being stuck in a candy store,fun at first but after all the candy you can eat you stop appreciating candy,and it kinda makes you sick.my own analogy to this is when i worked in a donut shop.i loved donuts,until it was my job to make them.it was store policy that you could eat as much as you wanted.in the beginning i was thrilled,but after two hundred thousand donuts i couldn't stand the damn things.eleven years later i still don't like them very much.
candy land heaven seems to me like this,nice at first but after a while just sickening.
the second model "PRAISE LAND" says that in heaven you get to spend all your time praising the lord,all the time. just praise him,praise him,and praise him,...well that just sucks.had this room mate once(back in the donut days in fact)and he had a friend who was a total ego-maniac. when he would come over he would literally spend hours telling the whole room just how great he was,and when he got tired of that he would literally look me in the eye and say"I'm tired of talking about me why don't you talk about me for a while.",and he meant it! he wanted me to tell him how great he was!he seriously thought that was just the ticket to spending a super evening!
needless to say i hated this guy,always needing his ego stroked. i see praise land as being just like this,for eternity.i see god as just like this,only you can't threaten god with a knife and make him go away.
and now "HELL" if you don't believe the story you go there,where after you die your spirit gets taken ,and,... physically tortured.i have no idea how this works. what i do know is that when the bible mentions hell they are really talking about "Gehenna"which is a garbage dump outside the original gates of Jerusalem.in this dump they would burn garbage,and that is where the ultra poor and diseased would congregate.as Christianity developed they added hel from the Norse myths,hades from the Greeks,and a few other pagan myths.HELL was never an original concept of Christianity,but the founders felt that they needed something to reign in the masses,and make them fear not belonging to the church more than the black plague and death which was all around them any way.
and now eternity,i don't think that any theist has given any serious thought about this.eternity seems like to much reword/punishment.just for believing/not believing in a story.i mean eternity is a really long time,really really long time.
the best analogy i can give is one i saw on YouTube,i cant remember who did it but I'm going to steal it any way.
imagine a ball of brass the size of the earth just hanging out in nothingness,and once every 24 hours a dove fly by gently brushing this ball of brass with its wing.when this ball of brass has been worn down to nothing that would be the end of the first day of eternity.
can you picture any thing lasting that long? at that time scale even the most generous reward would become torture . i for one would not want any of this.and i cant imagine any mind who would.

"it must be so scary without faith!"

This condescending phrase has been said to me by more than one person,and more than one time,and it always gives me pause. how can it be "scary"to not believe in something that isn't true? I have thought about this for some time now,and as i was watching "Star Wars" this weekend it came to me."how scary it must be to not have faith in the FORCE?"that all pervasive energy connecting all things.it helps that more and more people are identifying them selves as "Jedi"and it is becoming recognized as a legitimate religion.of course "Star Wars" is a fictional story and right now no one disputes this,in two hundred years,....who knows?with enough time and a willingness to believe... but i digress.the mind set to utter such nonsense as "It must be scary to not have faith" and "atheists have nothing to look forward to,it must be so depressing."come from the same arrogance that Leeds Evangelists to believe that they can "save" some one from themselves.this person actually thinks that they are better than all those who don't think like they do.although they wont admit it they look down on any one who doesn't agree with them.where does this mindset come from? i think it is a type of Solipsism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism) basically they cant conceive of some one not thinking like they do. this is mostly because they are afraid of a life that does not have them in it.the total of their reality is one that is egocentric.it is all they know,and so they cling to the belief that if one believes in a story,than that person will live forever,....after they die.it is an unwillingness to contemplate a universe where all that you know isn't all that there is,and that the ego is not permanent. it is like the old adage"when you point a finger you have three pointing back at you"their condescension comes from their own fear,they don't under stand it is not scary to know that our time on this earth is limited,in fact it makes the time that we have all the more precious.this time that we have will never come again.to have eternity waiting in the wings dwarfs,and belittles the finite quantity that is life.what we do hear is all that matters.there is no heaven,no hell,no after life,no second coming,this life is all there is,and it is not scary,or depressing.it is liberating,and exhilarating.life is concentrated by its sacristy,not diluted by eternity.

so what is wrong with religion any way?

well that is a question i do get asked.usually by some one who is pissed that i don't think like they do.where to start?the fact that it can easily be shown to be false? yes.that it can be shown that Jesus is likely a mythical figure? yes. but id like to focus on the most dangerous aspect,"UNQUESTIONING FAITH"this scares me more than any thing else.the dictionary describes "Faith " (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof.there is another word that describes that way of thinking, Gullibility, easily duped or cheated
— gull·ibil·i·ty to believe without questioning, is a trait that is dangerous to the society that allows it to persist.you see religion requires unquestioning faith in dogma.even moderate religion.in order to participate you must accept their dogma,anything else is unacceptable.that is what makes it scary.you see between seventy and eighty percent of the American population subscribes to some sort of "faith",they are willing to believe without proof,or evidence.history has shown that when a population shares this way of thinking, all it takes is one charismatic leader to turn an entire country into one that can embrace,and condone all kinds of atrocities. with the growing element of creationist/evangelical ideology it is a matter of time before they finely get around the roadblocks to instrumenting there faith into American law.so far they have failed,but their politicians continue to get elected,there policy's continue to get pushed.the first amendment gets assaulted,and more people fall under the spell.i cant count how many people i have run across who are otherwise intelligent,but than turn around and say "Evolution is only a theory."and than go on to describe how the earth is only six thousand years old and, humans and dinosaurs lived together "before the fall" and Noah's ark is true,all because they have unquestioning faith.arguing with them is impossible.i Even had one person tell me "I don't care how much scientific proof you show me! I want to believe in GOD! you will never change my mind!" these people vote,are on school boards,contribute vast sums of money,are a large and growing political force.right now the religious extremists are still a minority,but the unquestioning faith of the moderate leaves them open to the extremest ideology.and to it they do fall. will America become like Afghanistan?you know,with the Taliban,and AL-Qaeda?i hope not.but i see the religious right growing,asserting that "America is a christian nation!"and i am afraid that it is possible.i don't want to live in a theocracy.and not just because i an an atheist,but because that kind of government retards science,restricts freedom,and oppresses all,and because of unquestioning faith those who are subjugated cant see their oppression. that is what is wrong with religion.

why am i picking on god?

that's a good question.I'm not so much picking on god as trying to understand why people still believe these obviously false story's.for more on why these story's are false see the videos in my January postings.for this post id like to talk more about neurobiology and brain chemistry.now with the disabilities that my wife and son have i needed to learn about neurology and genetics,and some of the things i have learned were enlightening.to start with when i was learning about seizures i found out about "Gershwin's' syndrome"a curious sub set of temporal lobe epelpsy(t.l.e)it seems that one of the symptoms of this type of t.l.e is strong religious hallucinations.it seems that Joan of arc,Saul of tarsus,and Mohammad all exhibited symptoms of this type of t.l.e.now Joan of arc used her "visions"to lead France to Independence from Britain,and the reinstatement of the king of France.Mohammad (of course)invented Islam,and Saul was instrumental to the new testament of the christian bible(see acts,and Romans)all of this based on hallucinations.i then thought about my own experiences with feeling "the spirit"it turns out that prayer,mediation,bio-feed back,magnets,drums,thunder(any sound in the ten to twenty hertz range)can trigger alpha waves in the brain,waves that are the same as when a person is dreaming.when these waves start the brain cant tell the difference, and start to produce the same effects,triggering endorphins and adrenalin. this accounts for the feeling of "GOD"that people experience.in short it is a type of hallucination.there are some interesting hypothesis as to why humans evolved this trait(read Dawkins)but i need to do a Little more research on that.but the fact remains people have been deluding themselves and using the dilutions to hurt,terrorise,and control others for thousands of years,it doesn't matter what religion you practice.from Zeus to Osiris to Christ.belief has been the same for all this time,based on a hallucination.if it weren't for the denial of science i would probably let it go,i can't do that. science is the salvation of the human race,and i cannot stand by and let people in the throws of delusion bring about the extinction of the human race all because they cant brake free of their fantasy life.I'm not picking on god,I'm trying to stop a dooms day cult.(see revelations)there is no god,no heaven,no hell,no second coming.this life is all we have,it is precious,and i won't have it squandered for an hallucination.