Showing posts with label Hemant Mehta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hemant Mehta. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Hey Gordon Klingenschmitt, Challenge Accepted

A school in Wisconsin was recently told that they could not have their graduations in the church they'd been having them at because it was obvious violation of the Separation of Church and State.

Republican candidate for the Colorado General Assembly, Gordon Klingenschmitt, had an interesting response to this.



If the atheist complainer is so uncomfortable when they walk into a church that there's something inside of them squirming and making them feel these feelings of hatred toward the cross of Jesus Christ, don't you think it's something inside of the atheist complainer that's wrong?
I have a solution.  Let's do an exorcism and cast the Devil out of them and then they'll feel comfortable when they walk into church.

I'll leave the correcting of his errors to Hemant Mehta, who's already covered it better than I could, because I have a different response.

Challenge accepted.

I welcome Mr Klingenschmitt to come to Nebraska and perform whatever exorcism he likes (within legal & medical limits, of course) on me.  We can record the process if he wants.  I will go to any venue within 50 miles of Omaha, Nebraska for the event.  If he's any good at it, he should be guaranteed to leave the event fully satisfied that any demons currently in me have left.

While, I'm obviously comfortable enough inside a church to attend services occasionally, I am regularly offended by things I see there, and I do have my own fights on Separation of Church and State.  I challenge Klingenschmitt to come to Omaha and perform an exorcism on me.

If he has any faith his ability to exorcise demons, or in his god, he should have nothing, including failure, to fear.  Or is he afraid that I'll still be an atheist/secular activist after he gets the demons out of me?

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Omaha Has A Few Crazy Ass Religious People

I'm a weird atheist.  I listen to Christian radio.  I go to church[1].  Not only that, but I'm an atheist who feels bad when he goes too long without going to church.  But it's not so much guilt as it is regret in missing a show that seems like it would be fun.  Plus, it's guilt for not working on a project I care about continuing.

Recently, I've had an abundance of places I'm interested in visiting.  A local church's banner recently got the attention of Reddit.  I made it to that place and wrote about it[2].  But there's a few other, less open minded churches, I'm still eager to investigate.  I still need to make it to Candlewood Church, the people behind the creepy[3] UNO student group The Rock[4].

I was mildly curious about Wellspring Lutheran Church before Hemant first wrote about their crazy ass pastor[5].  That made me quite interested in seeing them up close.  My interest grew when their pastor caught Hemant's attention again[6] by thinking magic is real.

Now another church in Omaha that I was mildly interested in has been moved up to the top of the list, Westside Church, in Omaha.  One of their members, Amber Dee Parker, has written a book for kids to teach them to hate[7].


Endorsed by the American Family Association[8]?  If that was all you knew about this book, that would be enough to know it's anti-gay.  The fact that this woman used an interracial couple[9] for this hate-pushing book is deliciously hilarious.

I'm eager to see what her church is like.  I've got a feeling she's far from the only hateful person in there, which makes me sad because it's a massive building.

Her promotional video[10] for this piece of shit has garnered  a couple of responses on YouTube.


Thanks to that video, I now know what she looks like.  If she's there when I am, I might get to call her a hate monger to her face.  That should be fun.

And if church members see this before I get there and kick me out, then it'll simply be a different kind of fun.

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1.  http://allthesepiouspeople.blogspot.com/
2.  http://allthesepiouspeople.blogspot.com/2013/04/moderate-christians-cognitive-dissonance.html
3.  I've heard some very disturbing stories from students describing them as very cult-like.
4.  http://youtu.be/ab2WyM6osZI
5.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/05/30/christian-pastor-claims-to-have-irrefutable-mathematical-proof-for-christianity/
6.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/07/12/christian-columnist-really-believes-magicians-can-levitate-because-of-satan/
7.  http://journalstar.com/news/local/same-sex-marriage-debate-comes-to-children-s-book/article_6e1e675a-192b-5c90-9f50-06dc201cbe96.html
8.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/search/label/American%20Family%20Association
9.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2011/06/24/16-of-white-evangelical-christians-oppose-interracial-marriage/
10.  http://youtu.be/vuWLeqAe5iY
11.  http://youtu.be/aw1ZLsTSVzc
12.  http://youtu.be/JSCA42uOCac

Monday, March 25, 2013

Why I Am An Atheist

Patheos challenged its bloggers to write 200 words or less on why they are the religious view they are.
Hemant Mehta shared his[1][2] and a couple others[3][4].  Hemant asked if anyone else had one to share, and I thought it would be worth trying.  So, here's mine.
I am atheist because I've never known how to be anything else.

I have never needed a god to know right from wrong; and I reject the notion that a god, who condones slavery, can be an arbiter of morality.

Faith is not something I am capable of.  I cannot believe something for which there is no evidence. A comforting lie is no comfort and is still a lie.

I am an atheist because I know no other way to be.

I am an atheist because it’s all I am, all I’ve ever been, and all I ever can be.[5]
It's not perfect, but it's mine[6].  What's yours?

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1.  http://twitter.com/hemantmehta/status/315877503623368704
2.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/03/24/why-i-am-an-atheist/
3.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2013/03/a-bottom-up-universe/
4.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/hallq/2013/03/why-i-am-an-atheist-my-response-to-a-patheos-challenge/
5.  Yes, I ripped off Sagan.  Deal with it.  http://youtu.be/3lqsG9_ughU
6.  And Minchin.  http://youtu.be/dg3PberzvXo

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Saturday Morning Shares - 03-02-2013

Here's the links & tweets to share from the last week:


Not At All About Religion:



10 Myths About Introverts


Partly About Religion:


Are You a Woman In Your Twenties? Do You Know Your Rights Are Being Eroded? (The Pragmatic Progressive )



Secular Coalition of America's Weekly Update:


National Secular Movement Update Call | Secular Coalition for America


About Religion:


DontHateTheGeek.com


Atheist Group Created at Christian School Wants Official Recognition



Asshole(s) Of The Week:


General Funniness:

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Saturday Morning Shares 02-23-2013

Here's what I found to share during the last week:


Not At All About Religion:


Calvin and Hobbes Photoshopped Into Photographs of Real




And some about our friends at the Vatican:


 Papal resignation linked to inquiry into 'Vatican gay officials', says paper

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Many Many Links, Without Comment (Except For The Comment)

I don't know how some of the bigger bloggers manage to publish so often.  I'm terrible about bookmarking more things to share than I can find the time to write about.  I've decided to start sharing them as a group on Saturday mornings.  Sometimes they'll be timely news stories (give or take a week).  Other times they'll be random, older bits I've come across & just want to share.

But first I'm gonna drop a bunch of things I had bookmarked to share that still seem worth sharing.  And, even with sharing this much crap on Thursday evening, I've got some stuff already on the post for Saturday.  This should be an interesting experiment.


Teen Denied Communion After Marriage Equality Facebook Post


Kids Without God

Christian Group Says Demon Sex Makes You Gay



Atheist Census




And Some Stuff About Billboard Vandalism:


Wednesday, February 13, 2013

1 in 4 Nebraskans Is Non-Religious

Earlier today, Hemant Mehta shared[1] Gallup's new poll[2] about the most & least religious states.  It breaks down how you would expect, with the most religious states being either in the South or Utah.  


The "very religious" column is particularly disturbing, with even the least religious state, Vermont, having 1 in 5[3] people who chose that option and another 1 in 4 choosing "moderately religious".  But, in the spirit of my first post of 2013[4], I'm choosing to focus on the good news from this, like more than half of Vermont identifying themselves as non-religious.

This is why, while I'm bothered that my home state of Nebraska had 44% identifying as very religious, I'm happy about the non-religious column having 29%.  I think this bodes well for the future of groups like Omaha Atheists[5] and the rest of the member groups of the Omaha Coalition of Reason[6] and the conference we sponsor together, Apostacon (September 20-22, 2013)[7].

Nebraska has some awesome non-theist groups.  And now we have a reason to think there's plenty of people here, more than a fourth of our state, who could benefit from them.  That's the good news I'm taking out of this.

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1.

2.  Mississippi Maintains Hold as Most Religious U.S. State
3.  Numbers are rounded to fit into the fractions, of course.
4.  Positive Approach In 2013
5.  http://www.omahaatheists.org/ (this website is currently in a transitional phase, so please forgive them any gaps in content)
6.  http://unitedcor.org/omaha/page/home
7.  http://www.apostacon.org/

Friday, February 1, 2013

Some Opportunities For Writing

If you're interested in writing, but don't want to be responsible for an entire blog, here's some opportunities for you:

Hemant Mehta, aka The Friendly Atheist, is looking for contributors for a variety of topics.
Book reviews (~1 post/month)
Law (~1-2 posts/week)
Pop Culture (~1-2 posts/week)
Interviews (~1-2 posts/week)
Politics (~1-2 posts/week)
These would be regular contributors, but he's also looking for contributions of single, longer posts.  He does have some requirements, but would also provide compensation.  See his Submissions page for more details.

Another option would be the Guest Blog Storms of Atheos is currently working on getting going.  It wouldn't pay anything, but the criteria for getting something published is much lower.  To submit a guest post there, just e-mail stormsofatheos@gmail.com.

(Credit to @hemantmehta)

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Twelve Apostates - JT Eberhard


JT Eberhard, author of the popular blog WWJTD, is a fast rising star within the atheist community.  He knows it but doesn't behave like it, and I do not think he ever will.  It's just not something that seems within his personality. 

JT co-founded Skepticon, the largest free atheist convention in America.  Of the few I've been to, it's my favorite, with the exception of the Reason Rally of course.  Their speakers have included Richard Carrier & PZ Myers (who have both been at all 5), Dan BarkerMatt Dillahunty, Hemant Mehta, Brother Sam Singleton, and more.

He also spent some time with the Secular Student Alliance, helping kids in high school start SSA chapters at their schools.

At Lobby Day, the day before the Reason Rally, there was some buzz about the fact that he was there participating.  Although, that was mostly centered around comments about him and his girlfriend being excessively cute together.  If you've seen them together, you know what I mean.  Especially if you saw his talk at Skepticon 5.


As good as that talk was, his workshop on activism, earlier the same day, was better.  It was informative and fun, which fits his main point about how to do activism effectively.  Make it fun.  This attracts both attention to the cause and people to participate.  I previously said the debater I most wanted to emulate was Christopher Hitchens, but the activist I would choose to emulate is JT.  I'm hoping to get him to Omaha to do that workshop for the people here, who I already know are interested in activism.

I doubt JT would like being put on a list like this one, but having met him a few times, and being aware of what he's done for the movement, I wasn't left with any other choice.  He's done amazing things for the movement and will likely do even more.

It's those things done that has him on this list.  He's not content just to write a popular blog, which he does well.  He's not content just to debate Christians, which he does well.  As he once put it (in a post I was hoping to link to but could not find), he's out there doing shit.  We should all be so motivated.  After all, we know he's doing shit for a very worthy cause.



Find JT on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Only 83%?

Hemant Mehta posted today about a study on why people oppose or support gay marriage.


Hemant correctly inferred that the answers, that didn't specifically reference religion, were still really about religion.
So basically, many people who oppose marriage equality do so for religious reasons, not rational ones.
You already knew this, of course.
But I don't think he want far enough.   While the option about civil unions and the "Other" & "No opinion" do leave room for them to be considered as something other than religion, do you think the people who answered that way actually have non-religious reasons for their opposition to marriage equality?

We cannot flat out say those reasons are also religious, because of intellectual integrity, but what else could they be?  The only times I've ever heard any reason provided other than religion were an obvious troll (or possibly just a moron) calling into the Atheist Experience and Russell Glasser referencing some e-mails.  I would love a chance to have a conversation with a non-religious homophobe.  Although, I don't expect their reasoning to hold up any better than the other bigots.


Credit:  @AtheismResource