Since I have been a member of a certain semi-private social network website, I can’t tell you how many times I have read “please pray for . . . ” or “we will pray for you”, “we will keep you in our prayers”, etc. Just today someone posted that her little baby grandson is going to be having heart surgery on Friday and requested prayers. A good friend is awaiting a kidney transplant so that she will not die. She requests prayers. The list of comments that follow is quite long with extreme deity invoking that somehow makes my “you’re in my thoughts” seem insufficient. It would be terribly inappropriate for me to say what I want to say….if your god is willing to help you now, then why did he not prevent you from getting these diseases and problems in the first place?

I truly and genuinely care about my god-believing family and friends, and I want to offer support but I always feel that language fails me at such moments, and that I end up not really knowing what to say that sounds as concerned or caring as the magical incantations. There’s often a very fine line between appropriate and offensive which we must be careful of in people’s “time of need”. What we really want to say would be cruel when people are worried, sick and needing their god crutch.

So, what is an appropriate thing for the atheist to say? I try to direct my comments to the doctors and staff, that I am sure they will do all they can for the person who is ill. If a person is going through some sort of life crisis, financial or otherwise, all I can say is “I hope things work out” and that would be the honest truth. There is no way I could ever bring myself to be a hypocrite and write that they are in my prayers or whatever like everyone else.

What should an atheist offer instead of prayers?

It’s not only the muslims who are into self-flagellation and masochistic acts, many Christians do it too. They love being a martyr for their imaginary friend. And it’s all so utterly unnecessary. When religion isn’t involved when people hurt themselves, they are usually put away in a mental institution for their own protection. When a crazy person hurts himself in the name of religion, they are recommended for “sainthood” instead of the funny farm.

This story caught my eye when browsing the headlines today. Respected leader of the Catholic Church, John Paul II used a belt to whip himself:

VATICAN CITY – Pope John Paul II whipped himself with a belt, even on vacation, and slept on the floor as acts of penitence and to bring him closer to Christian perfection, according to a new book by the Polish prelate spearheading his sainthood case.

*snip*

At a news conference Tuesday, Oder defended John Paul’s practice of self-mortification, which some faithful use to remind them of the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

“It’s an instrument of Christian perfection,” Oder said, responding to questions about how such a practice could be condoned considering Catholic teaching holds that the human body is a gift from God.

In the book, Oder wrote that John Paul frequently denied himself food — especially during the holy season of Lent — and “frequently spent the night on the bare floor,” messing up his bed in the morning so he wouldn’t draw attention to his act of penitence.

“But it wasn’t limited to this. As some members of his close entourage in Poland and in the Vatican were able to hear with their own ears, John Paul flagellated himself. In his armoire, amid all the vestments and hanging on a hanger, was a belt which he used as a whip and which he always brought to Castel Gandolfo,” the papal retreat where John Paul vacationed each summer.

While there had long been rumors that John Paul practiced self-mortification, the book provides the first confirmation and concludes John Paul did so as an example of his faith.

Other international aid organizations are rushing food, water and medicine to Haiti’s earthquake victims. A moronic United States religious group is sending Bibles — solar powered ones. Since many poor can’t read, now they are going to try to deliver the delusion electronically.

Solar-powered Bibles sent to Haiti

But these aren’t just any Bibles; they’re solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.

The Faith Comes By Hearing organisation says its Bible, called the Proclaimer, delivers “digital quality” and is designed for “poor and illiterate people”.

Faith (delusion) comes by hearing delusional people give a fluffy puffy fantasy message that some invisible sky daddy is going to take care of things, especially when disaster strikes and the poor have nowhere to turn and are vulnerable to people taking advantage of the situation. This god never comes on his own, the god message only comes from sly idiots who want to get as many to board the Jesus train as they can.

It says 600 of the devices are already on their way to Haiti.

The Albuquerque-based organisation says it is responding to the Haitian crisis by “providing faith, hope and love through God’s word in audio”.

How about some real food, water, blankets and helping to build shelters, hospitals, clinics, etc?

The audio Bible can bring the “hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy,” a statement on its website says.

But this god does not bring them their homes back, does not bring back their dead parents, children, friends and family. This god does not bring the money they need to pay for what was lost. No god came to prevent this disaster in the first place. No god ever comes. When will people stop and realize there is no god to help and humans depend on the help of other humans alone.

“The Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or … even on the moon!”

Tens of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents are living outdoors

“The Proclaimer”???? So their god needs electronics made by humans now to make himself be known via audio of a human reading a book that was written by humans. And them living outdoors makes it easier for the fundies to force their message on people in their time of despair and need.

How utterly despicable! I have no words strong enough to illustrate how disgusting this is. This is taking advantage of people in the face of their loss. There should be laws against these kinds of con artists.

Christopher Hitchens tells it like it is. I referenced many of the things that Hitchens has said in debates and discussions with my god believing friends and family members. The believers squirm, they make up responses, and finally get frustrated and say they know there is a god, know what they believe is true without providing one lick of evidence, and turn away from the conversation. For every religious email I get from now on, I am sending them this video link in return.

Christopher Hitchens on the ignorance of believers

I’ve been reading the news and looking a the video footage and photos. Horrific. Just shows how vulnerable we are to natural disasters and nothing we can do to prevent them. But I am always amazed how humans from every walk of life and every belief come together in times like this.

Please donate to help the people of Haiti…every little bit helps. Here is a link to a reputable charity, or you may want to choose one of your own to help send aid for disaster relief.

Oxfam – Haiti Earthquake Relief

Christians love to make up warm and fuzzy sayings and stories about their imaginary friend. I received a religious email today that contained several of these dumbass quotes that are the romanticized inventions of delusional folks who think they are the special pet of an invisible god who controls all that they do, say and think while looking down from “up there”, (wherever “up there” is).

Here are a few from just the one email I received today:

“Whenever God Closes One Door He Always Opens Another, Even Though
Sometimes It’s Hell in the Hallway”

So, we are going along fine in life and this sadistic god slams it closed, tortures the shit out of us only to open another one? This statement just shows how much thought this was given….none.

A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.

No, a coincidence is a coincidence. A miracle is when human beings can’t stand not knowing an answer as to why or how something happened, so they make shit up. No grand cosmic puppetmaster is pulling any strings while playing hide and seek.

How about this one?

All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows this love upon his fellows.

Christians choose to disregard the fact that the god of their Bible is a sadistic, evil, destroying bastard. Examples of love and affection come from other human beings. Not from the god who had to create a son for himself to sacrifice (who is also supposedly himself at the same time) to allow to be tortured and murdered (and to commit suicide) in order to appease himself. In addition, many Xians are just nice to other people because they think that will make their god happy and they get extra reward points when they get to Heaven or something.

Here is another one:

“Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.”

I think the correct word here would be “deluded”, not blessed.

This is a good time to go ahead and get all those ghastly religious emails out of your systems.

Go ahead and vent. After enduring the religious holiday season, I am sure many of you will welcome the opportunity for random venting.

Dobson Unretires: Religious Right Honcho Plans New Radio Show

James Dobson retired back in April, but that didn’t last very long. And though he is ending his radio show in February, he is simply starting up another one.

Now Dobson has announced that instead of puttering around the house and playing golf, he is teaming up with his son, Ryan, to do a daily radio show called “James Dobson on the Family.” Some retirement!

Dobson announced on Facebook that he will end the Focus on the Family broadcasts in February and will start broadcasting with Ryan the following month. The Associated Press reported, “He says his new show, which will air in March, will cover many of the same topics, including marriage, child-rearing and national issues.”

In other words, we’ll get the same extremism but on a different channel.

The reason? Rob Boston gives a possible answer:

My guess is that Dobson, who is really unhappy with the political situation right now, never intended to stop popping off about it. After all, gay people can get married in Iowa, abortion is still legal, some people continue to believe in evolution and not everyone is a right-wing, dogmatic fundamentalist Christian. There’s lots of work to do!

Which means that there is still a lot of watchdogging of these nutjobs for us to do. It never ends.

The Great Flood (Christian Flood Myth)
Thanks to The Atheist Jew for this one. OMG, too funny because it’s now in a place where all my Bible literalist friends and relatives can watch it, if their retinas aren’t burned out by the word “atheist” in the title first. Beaj came along and interjected this little gem below in a comment thread under a news article I posted about Hubble capturing the earliest image yet of the universe — just 600 million years after the Big Bang.

LOL! My bet is that they don’t get through five seconds of it before they turn it off and start praying for us. Too funny. But the sad part is that this little cartoon presentation brings up some very good questions to consider before taking the flood myth literally. But sadly, most fundies choose to remain willfully ignorant.