POST 13: ASTROLOGY and the ORIGINS of the JESUS MYTH

The Eye of Horus

I ran across a fascinating series of videos on religious myths in the pre-Christian world, which illustrate some of the remarkable "coincidences" between those myths and the ones of the bible. This is the first video.  Here is the second, and finally, the third.  The narrator, AakashaEssa, goes a bit off point at the end when he strays from the origins story to pontificate on religion, but I can't argue with much he says. Hope you find it as educational as I did. 

POST 12: I COULD'VE TOLD YOU THAT....

According to this article, describing a survey of 126 historical texts from from the time of the alleged life of Jesus, the Nazarene never really existed.  There are no verifyable, contemporaneous accounts of the fabled life and exploits of the "Son of God".  Seems odd that historians and political leaders in that part of the world wouldn't have mentioned a man allegedly performing remarkable miracles.  Even if he was seen as a threat to the religious and political order of the day, they surely wold have written SOMETHING about him, right?  That's the way I see it, anyway.

Here's the article - file it under "stuff I pretty much knew but is nice to see confirmed."

POST 11: YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SH@T UP.... YUMMY JESUS

Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction.  And you just can't make up the sh@t that often spews forth from the pulpit.

Let us discuss, for example, the Yummy Corpse of Christ.  Not familiar with that doctrine?  Sure you are.  Turns out, Jesus is Delicious.

I remember being appalled at the whole concept of "transubstantiation" when I was old enough to understand it - the insane notion that somehow a cup of wine (or grape juice) LITERALLY becomes the blood of Christ with a few prayers/incantations uttered.  That's revolting.  Disgusting!  And you want me to drink that?!  F*cking degenerate vampires.  Ritual ghoulism (body) and vampirism (blood).  

And the apologists say "It's only 'ritual' vampirism/ghoulism.....

Not long ago, I ran across a comic from one of my favorite strips that makes the appropriate level of fun at this bizarre and ghoulish notion. If you are not famliar with Rob DenBleyker's "Cyanide and Happiness", do yourself a favor and get so.  Enjoy this unexpected intersection of Catholic ghoulism and in-your-face homoeroticism (not that there's anything wrong with that...).

This one's pretty good, too.

POST 10: THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

I started this blog as a vehicle to spread the 'good word' of atheism, and to provide an outlet for my own musings on the subject.  In part, the mission of this blog is educational, and in the interest of spreading enlightenment, I recently composed the following History of Christianity.

Here's Christianity in a nutshell: Once upon a time, there was (probably) a charismatic rabbi in Palestine named Jesus. Either he claimed to be the fulfillment of the Old Testament (Torah) prophesy of Emmauel, or others claimed that of him after his death. Regardless, some decades (in some cases centuries) later, his followers began to write down the tall tales told of his life, embellishing them more and more ridicuously as time went on (think of the game "Telephone"). In the 4th century, a bunch of 'Jews for Jesus' had a convention and voted on which tales of his life to include in his official "canon". The rest of the stories were labelled as apocryphal "fan fiction", and adherents to these stories were labelled as heretics and probably burned at the stake. Eventually, the Cult of Jesus became powerful enough to take over the governance of western Europe - that period was known as the Dark Ages. Science withered and died, and superstition reigned. After the Reformation and Renaissance wrested political power from the Church, mankind began to progress again, and in the 1700s a new nation, founded on the secular principles of democracy, freedom and human rights arose in the Americas. Since that time, the forces of superstitious nonsense have tried to take control again, but those of us with an understanding of how religion poisons everything resist this to our utmost, with varying degrees of success. In the 1990s there arose a phenomenon known as "The Internet", shining the light of truth into the darkened corners of religious dogma and nonsense.  It is the fervent hope of many of us that the ever-widening availability of information will cripple the continued propagation of religious delusion, around the world.

POST #9: SEATTLE PRINCIPAL FIRED FOR MARRYING HIS MALE PARTNER

Of course, it's a Catholic School, and they fired him, because, sin.  But my favorite part is where the nuns offered to let him keep his job if he divorced his partner. So... divorce is ok now with the Church this week (when it suits them), but homosexuality is out?  OK, got it... Good luck to the students in their protest, but trying to get the Church to enter the 19th Century (let alone the 21st) is like beating your head against a wall. What say you, Pope Frankie? You ok with the gay-divorce cure for this "problem", too?

Thanks to Hemant Mehta of "The Friendly Atheist" for turning me on to the story. 

POST # 8: SAYING GRACE AT THANKSGIVING

If asked to give a blessing or say grace at Thanksgiving this year, this is what I will say:

"Instead of bowing our heads in submission to thank the One who cannot be seen, I'd like us all to turn and face the generous person/people who prepared this meal for us. Thank YOU for this bountiful feast, for your hard work and your time. And more broadly, let us thank all the others who contributed to this meal: the scientists who developed the crops in labs and fields over the centuries, the farmers who raised this food, the workers who picked, packed and shipped the food, and those who sold it to the people who prepared this food for us today. To all of you, we express a most sincere "Thank You" this Thanksgiving season. Now, let's all enjoy this wonderful meal!"

How about something like that?

POST # 7: A COUPLE CLASSIC VIDEOS

I love these two videos.

First, the late, great Christopher Hitchens on the historical offenses of the Catholic Church.  Give 'em hell, Hitch.

Second, this woman is my hero: Maryam Namazie on the retrograde nature of Islam and religion.  Per Google, Maryam Namazie is an Iranian-born activist, commentator and broadcaster. Namazie was born in Tehran but left with her family in 1980 after the 1979 Iranian Revolution was suppressed by the Islamic movement.

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"Science works, bitches."  -- Richard Dawkins (paraphrased)

POST # 6: FOX NEWS SAYS ATHEISTS SHOULD LEAVE

Today I caught wind of this little gem from Dana Perino (link), one of the many intellectual abortions over at Fox "News".  Seems Ms. Perino is "tired" of atheists, and is further of the opinion that if atheists don't like "under God" in the American pledge of allegiance, they should just leave the country.  

Isn't that special.  Here's a little note I dashed off to Ms. Perino this afternoon:

You may want to actually READ the First Amendment sometime, Perino, and contemplate that not everyone believes in the same mythical sky wizard that you do. That amendment protects your right to believe whatever religious nonsense you want.  However, realize that there are also millions of patriotic Americans who have no belief in gods whose rights are equally protected by the Establishment Clause.

Non-believers pay taxes, vote, and have as much right to live in this remarkable country as you do.

If you do not support the First Amendment of our secular U.S. Constitution and its Establishment Clause, then I suggest YOU leave the country and find yourself a nice theocracy in which to live.  Just remember to bring your burka, though, and realize that you'll have to leave the political pontificiating to the men-folk.

The fine folks over at "The Young Turks", and in particular host Cenk Uygur, put her in her place nicely here.  

Couldn't have said it better myself.  Keep doing gods work, Turks!  And to the folks at Faux News who think atheists should just leave the country - after you, ladies.

POST # 5: FACEPALM

So, I decided to see what would happen if I Google'd this blog, to see if I could actually "find" myself out there among the interwebs.  I plugged "Reality Based Life Form" into Google, hit enter, and saw that yes indeed, this blog shows up out there - the miracle of the Inter-connected Networks!

(Didn't you always wonder where the word "Internet" came from?)

However, also listed by the Lords of Google were a couple other, un-related entries.  It appears there is (was) another Blogger site floating around out there with a similar name, called "Reality-Based Lifeform" - note that this other title is hyphenated (mine is not) and that it is a singular 'Lifeform' (mine is plural). The beauty part is that this blog appears to be inactive - its last post was in 2005, so I doubt much traffic is going there these days that might be confused by my existence here under an unfortunately similar name.

If that isn't bad enough, however, there is also an older (2003) predecessor of the blog above, entitled "Reality-Based Lifeform" on the Angelfire platform.  

Do you think it woulda been smart for me to do this BEFORE I named my new blog?

FACEPALM.... <------shakes head.

Total rookie blogger mistake.  I will apologize right now for anyone who WANTED to go here who ends up there (and even more so for those who wanted to go THERE but landed HERE instead).  Apologies also to the creator(s) of those other blogs for stepping on their toes with my clumsy name choice.

The author of the Blogger site above is listed as "The Reality Based Lifeform", but I cannot see a more detailed profile of that user while in Internet Explorer or Google Chrome.  However, on the mobile version of the Blogger site the author is listed (also unhelpfully) as "RBLF" - which is, of course, the abbreviation I use in my blog's URL. Grrrrrrrr! I cannot see a user profile or author listed for the Angelfire blog, but it clearly appears to be the same person.

Lastly, I also stumbled across an active "Reality Based Lifeform" user profile on TheBlaze.com.  

So again, apologies for all this confusion.  Should it ever actually cause anyone any REAL confusion, then please let me know via comment below, and if it becomes enough of an issue, I will consider changing my title.

POST # 4: HASIDIC D*CK SUCKERS and RITUAL PEDOPHILIC FELLATIO

Joshie Berger, on a recent "Atheist Nomads" podcast, discussed the Jewish practice of metzitzah b'peh, i.e., "sanitizing" the circumcision wound during a bris by having the mohel place his mouth directly on the boy's penis (!) and sucking out the blood. Yes, you read that correctly - you cannot make this sh*t up. This vile practice is frequently performed by the Hasidic and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities of New York City (among other places).

This bizarre, archaic and frankly disgusting tradition sometimes results in the transmission to the baby of severe and even fatal infections, including the Herp.  Due to their poorly-developed immune systems, babies are unable to fight off the multitude of microbes found in the human mouth. The City of New York has been fighting to require Jewish parents to sign a "consent form" before metzitzah b'peh is practiced, stating that they have been informed of the risks inherent in the practice and are ok with proceeding. To date, New York has faced tremendous pressure from supporters of the practice and the city has been unable to implement a consent form requirement.

Here's an idea: since babies are catching serious diseases (and even dying) from this practice, how about we freaking outlaw it on public health grounds? Hell, we ought to outlaw it on moral grounds.

It's not bad enough that the god cults insist on carving up the genitals of little boys (and girls) - this particular cult has to follow that up with a some good old-fashioned ritual pedophilic fellatio.  Nice work, degenerates!

You can read more about this grotesque ceremony on this Wiki page, and on New York's efforts health concerns and the consent form here.

"It's just religion, what's the harm?"