Saturday, January 09, 2010

Labels: atheism, local flavor

15:03 cdogzilla

Thursday, December 10, 2009

ARTICLE VI:
"Sec. 8. Disqualifications for office.

The following persons shall be disqualified for office:

First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God."

Not that I was planning on it or anything but still ... it would've been nice to think I could run for public office in NC if I wanted to.  I guess I'm lucky they let me vote.

Labels: atheism, local flavor

22:43 cdogzilla

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Emmanuel Faye’s Book Questions Status of Heidegger - NYTimes.com
Whether, as the Pythons asserted, he was a boozy beggar or not, the question seems to be: could a dyed-in-the-wool Nazi really think anyone under the table.

On a tangentially related note, this reminded me of a dude I was in line behind in a coffee house in Cary a while back who, chatting up the barista, declared with hep solemnitude that he was getting his Masters in ... get this ... Theology. While the young lady professed admiration, it was all I could do to suppress guffaws. I mean, I could see if this were Europe in the Dark Ages, but in the 21st century they're still giving out advanced degrees in Santa Claus Logic and Easter Bunny Studies? It boggles the mind.

Labels: atheism, philosophy

23:39 cdogzilla

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

What I've learned from debating religious people around the world. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

Labels: atheism

20:21 cdogzilla

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Random Book, Random Passage #1
Now that all my books are within arm's reach, I can play grab, flip, and share. I have a lot Mark Twain, so it's fitting that when I lurched towards the left-most bookcase and grabbed a book it turned out to be The Innocents Abroad. It's a Signet Classic edition from 1966. Obviously a used bookstore purchase as it's got "J. Borell" scrawled in ink along the bottom (the part that sits on the bookshelf) but I don't remember when or where I picked it up. Probably while in high school or college, so the off-campus bookstore in Storrs or the great used bookstore in Manchester (the name of which frustratingly escapes me right now Books & Birds) are likely candidates. Flipping and stopping at pg. 120 I let my eye drift to the first paragraph break and read:

I only meant to write about the churches, but I keep wandering from the subject. I could say that the Church of the Annunciation is a wilderness of beautiful columns, of statues, gilded moldings, and pictures almost countless, but that would give no one an entirely perfect idea of the thing, and so where is the use? One family built the whole edifice and have got money left. There is where the mystery lies. We had an idea at first that only a mint could have survived the expense.

I love it. Note where the mystery doesn't lie. It warms my atheist heart.  As with all expenditure of resources and time for religious purposes, I wonder how much better the world might be already if yesterday and today's wealthy elites decided to pour that wasted energy into building quality public schools or other infrastructure improvements for the common good instead.

Labels: atheism, Books

14:24 cdogzilla

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Sex abuse rife in other religions, says Vatican | World news | The Guardian

Labels: atheism

21:54 cdogzilla

Monday, September 28, 2009

Advice for atheists? : Pharyngula

Labels: atheism

22:29 cdogzilla

'Music festival's atheist ties stirring controversy' by wistv.com - RichardDawkins.net: Least controversial "controversy" I've ever seen.

Labels: atheism, local flavor, music

18:20 cdogzilla

Friday, September 18, 2009

FF X-posting

Labels: atheism

23:28 cdogzilla

Saturday, September 12, 2009

20 coolest atheist T-shirts for sale on the web - Telegraph

Labels: atheism

20:51 cdogzilla

Friday, September 04, 2009

Pre-Holiday Link Dump
Clearing out the starred items in my Google Reader to hold us over through the long weekend. Happy Labor Day, y'all.
11 More Companies Flee Glenn Beck [News Hounds] - If Murdoch wants to keep putting these rantings out there, let's make sure he's paying for it.
Animator Emily Hubley Plays Volleyball in Her Living Room [Vulture] - Georgia's sister gets a little pub. For hardcore Yo La Tengo fans.
Long before Hideo and Ichiro, there was Masanori Murakami [Big League Stew] - A little baseball history/trivia.
"Crisis and Hope," Noam Chomsky [Boston Review] - Sobering reading.
Can Atheists Be Parents? [Time] - It's an article from before I was born. Still I feel like slapping the judge that said, "no."

Labels: atheism, baseball, Conservative Goons

23:09 cdogzilla

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Music: Newswire:KRS-One writes 600 page hip-hop Bible; blueprint for rap religion:

Hip-hop legend KRS-One has never been afraid to court controversy and provoke strong reactions. Now the Boogie Down Productions legend has topped himself by writing The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument, a mammoth treatise on the spirituality of hip-hop he hopes will some day become a sacred text of a new hip-hop religion.
Laugh if you must, but people laughed at Joseph Smith and L. Ron Hubbard when they set up their own religions. They're still laughing, and pointing, and giggle-snorting so hard milk comes out their noses.

Not that the world needs another religion. Still, it's KRS-One. Takin' titles and breakin' idols.

Labels: atheism, music, youtube goodness

22:13 cdogzilla

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Texas public schools now required to teach the Bible: "(August 19, 2009) - As of the 2009-2010 school year public schools in Texas are now required to offer a high school elective course on the literature of the Bible and history of that era."

So many thoughts, objections, observations about this it's difficult to even start. In the parlance of the times: Srsly? WTF?! Yes, it's an elective, but a mandated offering elective, to public schools. Keep your church out of the state for crying out loud. Look, I'm not saying there's not a place for study of comparative religion or even of religous texts for literary value, but it's the Bible in Texas schools, I don't think that's what's going on here.

Let's mandate Texas schools also offer elective courses on the Koran and the history of that era. Likewise the Book of Mormon, Dianetics, and any other ludicrous load of crap somebody thinks is divine.

If your term paper is full of logical inconsistencies, errors of scholarship, outright contradictions, historical inaccuracies, moral turpitude, and page after page of tedious imaginary genealogy, does it does it get an A for showing you've grokked the Holy Writ?

I hope atheist and free thinking kids sign up for that elective in droves, study their Harris and Dawkins so they're well prepared (though common sense is all they really need) and then sue the bejeebus out of the school system every time they receive anything less than an A+ for holding the lesson plan to the same standard as any other literature or history class.

Labels: atheism

22:29 cdogzilla

Monday, April 27, 2009

More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops - NYTimes.com

Labels: atheism

22:24 cdogzilla

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Terry Eagleton: The liberal supremacists | The Guardian: Wasn't Eagleton considered a big shot intellectual at some point? This article reads like one of those postmodernist bullshit generators programmed to equate atheism with authoritarianism and racism. The comments are a heady mix of sycophancy and theist (anti-atheist) idiocy with just a few spot-on barbs mixed in with the rubbish.

Labels: atheism

17:33 cdogzilla