Everyone does.

Justice, Mercy, Hope, Love – these are fairy tales. Their only physical manifestation is a set of signals and chemical states in the brains of people – same as religion.

Science can tell us what actions have what consequences, but it doesn’t tell us what consequences we should want – what the goals of our life should be. For that, you will need a system not based in empirical evidence. Non-religious systems are perfectly valid, but even these systems are not empirically verifiable.

None of this alters the fact that O’Reilly’s an asshole.

Now sure, you can make excuses for his omnipotent impotence. But it’s not god’s fault. Really. SUPER BEINGS DON’T EXIST, AND IF THEY DID THEY WOULDN’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOUR LIFE.

Sorry for the shouting. But did you get it that time? It’s a silly just-so story. There is no “god”, and grownups shouldn’t live their lives as if there was. This is embarrassingly silly, and we need to get past our medevial fears.

I, for one, am virulently anti-religion. This is silly. There is no evidence for god, and every time we make a discovery it pushes god farther back into the margins. We call it the “god of the gaps”. You can google it.

You need to make a grown up, big person decision. Do I want to believe in fairy tales with absolutely NO empirical evidence and no universal requirement for this thing’s existence, or are you willing to put childish mythology aside and face the world as it actually is?

mikey

But I’m starting to get a bit more militant because of shit like this Prager column. Or O’Reilly’s insane obsession with “secular progressives,” “wars on Xmas,” the poor persecuted Xians who, until the midterms, controlled all branches of govt and the largest cable news network.

Dear Mona:

Interesting, you are basically describing my exact take on religion as well. I’m not crazy about millitantly anti-religious people or statements, even though I really am an Atheist. In addition, I know a lot of people, in my family and elsewhere, who are both religious and quit reasonable.

However, the sheer amount of bullshit coming from the Religious Right, the Bill O’Reillys and their kind, the out-of-nowhere attacks on “secular humanism”, the absurd rhetoric of the ‘War on Christmas’, it all makes me want to fight back. And so I find myself fighting back sometimes.

It is good, however, to hear from folks like you, to keep me from veering off on the “fundamentalist atheist” path. So I thank you.

Who knew? I bet he didn’t.

Here is the correct analogy: Suppose carrot-eaters are filthy mass murderers, and we, as proud worshipers in the broccoli branch of the broader Cabbage-istic denominitaion (all proud descendents of our Divine Teacher, Brassica oleracea, or Wild Cabbage) were engaged in a righteous war to kill as many of those filthy Carrot-ers and showing the rest of them who the Boss is.

Unfortunately these filthy, mass murdering Carroters are reflecting negatively on all of us vegetarians, so some people are starting to think, “hey, what exactly is wrong with having steak for dinner?” This has helped some meat-pedplers to sell some meat-promoting literature, which would never had happened if it was not for those filthy carrot eaters.

The sooner we kill, incarcarate and intimidate as many of those carrot eaters as possible, people will come back to their senses that broccoli is the only reasonable nutrient and all these steak and lamb-chop peddlers will go crawl back into their holes.

If they don’t, however, we will use whatever means are necessary (all options are on the table) to shut these meat-peddlers up, as ultimately this is all about Good (brocolli) vs. Evil (everything else, especially filthy Carroters, but meat-eaters, too, and for that manner tomato-eaters, who remind me a little bit of carrot eaters, since tomatoes are red and carrots are orange, while everyone knows that the only righteous food is colored green… note to self: come to think about it, tomato-eaters maybe even worse than the filthy carrot-eaters, why don’t we, as a temporary measure, arm and train the carrot eaters and pay them money to kill some tomato-eaters, that sounds like a smart strategy, doesn’t it?)

As Yogi Berra might say if he cussed more and were a theist (I don’t know his religious beliefs … I’ve always figured he must be playing for the H-team like I am, but if he were, this would be a known fact … so I guess he ain’t one of my tribe): it ain’t all of us theists that are being assholes … just the assholes. While I’m sure you would have plenty to about which disagree with this theist on many other issues (given your “libertarian” self-identification) — and probably our disagreements will relate to our underlying disagreement as to God’s existence — remember that you have many theists on your side when it comes to the crap written by the likes of Prager, O’Reilly, et al. Remember they’re calling my kind of theists “evil secularists” too. So no need to get all Dawkins or even O’Hare on us ;)

Anyway, remember what O’Reilly’s code words mean — they are code for old-fashioned anti-Semitism. Why someone like Prager makes common cause with these types, I don’t know. Could he really be that stupid?

But I’m starting to get a bit more militant because of shit like this Prager column. Or O’Reilly’s insane obsession with “secular progressives,” “wars on Xmas,” the poor persecuted Xians who, until the midterms, controlled all branches of govt and the largest cable news network.

I’m nearly at the point of doing a Madalyn Murray O’Hare, whereas for most of my life I was happy to live in peace with the theists and thought her, um, shrill. But that road simply does not run both ways.

Perhaps the reason why religion is so much stronger in America is because religion, never having state power here, has been prevented from making an ass out of itself. And yet you want religion to have more of a political role here? Even though that discredits religion? So who’s anti-religious now? Us moonbats or you?

Indeed it is virtually impossible to distinguish between a liberal Christian or Jew and a liberal secularist. Neither holds any text to be divine, both get their values from their hearts and minds, and they come to identical conclusions about virtually all moral issues. The liberal Christian, the liberal Jew and the liberal secularist all regard the human fetus as morally worthless; regard the man-woman definition of marriage as a form of bigotry; and come close to holding pacifist beliefs, to cite but a few examples.

Anyway, speak for yourself, Bucko! This liberal Jew does hold the Bible to be divine (if not exactly l’Moshe b’Sinai) … do I get my values from my heart and my mind? Well maybe — but where did the Tannaim get their values? Seems to me they got them from their minds and even excommunicated R. Eliezer b. Hurcanus for appealing to God in the matter of whether a certain oven could be Tamei rather than using his mind. And as to getting your values from your heart? Nu? Didn’t God say to “set these words which I command you on this day to be in thy heart” — so shouldn’t we get our values from our heart since that is where we have set the words which God has commanded us? I guess Prager pulls his values out of some other body part? Certainly he does seem awful ignorant not only of liberal Judaism, but Judaism in general … I certainly wouldn’t trust him if he told me that my oven were incapable of being rendered Tamei.

Anyway, I don’t view the fetus as morally worthless. I just view a woman, e.g. a pregnant woman, as of infinite moral worth and hence even her health concerns trump the life of the fetus, which has finite moral worth. This is not the “liberal Jewish” point of view, it is the Jewish point of view. Again, would you trust Prager to tell you whether your oven were Tamei? I shouldn’t make this comparison though — R. Eliezar was a great Tanna, if a bit of a fundie nut who nonetheless didn’t care enough about the laws of ritual cleanliness … and Prager is not R. Eliezar.

Of course, as a liberal Jew, I question the ability of the state to make decisions of moral worth anyway, which is why, even in cases where Judaism would forbid abortion I think it should still be legal. After all, if both God and R. Eliezar can be wrong about the ‘aknai oven, how can we trust the likes of Prager and politicians to be right about telling us when abortion is immoral vs. when it is actually the most moral thing to do?

As usual, through his mouth.

Christ, what a pussy!

Christ: what a pussy!