Carnival of The Godless 119

Welcome to the Carnival of the Godless 119.

One of my favorite quotes attributed to our former president George W. Bush is “One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.”

He surely would have said the same of blogs if he knew what a blog was.

The Philosophy of the Socratic Gadfly presents a poem titled Waxing Science, Waning Religion

What would Earth by like without that Moon?
No science of Galileo and Apollo landings,
But no madness of Middle Eastern myths.

I am guessing without the moon we would have been spared a great many things…  I’m not much of a poet, myself, so I can’t even go there.

Universal Heretic talks to us about The Ark, Yahweh’s Throne

It was mythically used as a storage vessel for the broken pieces of the Ten Commandments and carried before Joshua’s army into battle. Oh, yeah, and God sat on it.

Well, God has to sit somewhere, right?

Andrew Bernardin at Florida Freethinkers muses about the idea that the bible may have been mistaken regarding Jesus’ occupation in Was Jesus A Stone Mason?

Personally, I stick with Homer Simpson on this one:  “Wait, I’m no missionary!  I don’t even believe in Jebus!”

.

A Dark and Sinister Force for Good gives an opinion on the American Taliban.

I will say, it’s starting to become noticeable that SO many “pro-life” people really don’t seem to care too much about life…

The stupid among us have resorted to violent acts in defense of their irrationality for decades. In the name of their nonexistent god, they have set off bombs among innocents; set fire to homes, businesses, and other property; assaulted people at work, home, and church; and have even killed.

Speaking of the American Taliban, we also get to check out Only Muslims Can Commit Terrorism from State of Protest.

I won’t bother trying to define terrorism as it seems too many people have different definitions of what comprises terrorism. Is a single heinous act terrorism? Perhaps. Are multiple acts toward the same target terrorism? Definitely.

Landon Hendrick Blogs gives us a piece titled How Gullible Could the Disciples Have Been? Turns out, pretty damn gullible…

The fact is, ordinary people can be tricked all the time, and they often end up believing all sorts of things.  …  Can we say the same of the earliest Christians?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and give a resounding ‘yes’…

Okay, it is seriously difficult for me to spell Aardvarchaeology, which contributes No Meaning to Life…  Very much in line with how I think.  Also, I was pretty sure that Monty Python has already answered this.

So to my mind, and I know I’m far from the first to come to this conclusion, the question of the meaning of life is meaningless. What is the meaning of life? What is the kliboque of zatanareho? Urdle boing foosu yukyuk? Who put the ram in the rama-lama-ding-dong?

Rust Belt Philosophy has found a doozy of a subject in Friday sheer stupidity blogging:  how not to derive an “ought” from an “is”.  It does happen to be true that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Ouch.

I also wonder where he gets the idea that computers used for illicit purposes physically wear out faster than others: if that were true, wouldn’t we see a suspiciously high rate of hard drive failures among adolescent males?

it is what it is sent me this nice essay titled Willful Suspension of Belief

In 1987, then-Vice President Bush said to a reporter, “I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God”. At this year’s national prayer breakfast, President Obama twice mentioned the existence of non-believing citizens and acknowledged their right to abstain from religion.

I’m not even going to try to hide the fact that I am very jealous of everyone who was able to go to the inauguration.

Do I keep the swear, or not?  Oh, okay, I’ll keep it.  Sowing Seeds in the Winter sends me their Friday Fuck You:  Irish Catholic Schools Investigated by the Ryan Commission

There is nothing that gets my blood boiling more than something like this: a cover-up spanning over decades of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse of hundreds of girls and boys by people who they should have been able to trust to keep them safe – nuns, brothers, and priests.

Couldn’t agree more.  I feel the f-bomb is totally appropriate in matters such as this…

Common Sense Atheism presents the ever so handy chart of Gods You Don’t Believe In.

Part of the issue is, religious people still don’t get it even after seeing the giant list, because none of those listed are the one true god…

Some of my favorites? Pratibhanapratisamvit, Buddhist goddess of context analysis. Or Acat, Mayan god of tattoo artists. Or Tsa’qamae, north american god of salmon migration.

Whiskey Before Breakfast… The Blog writes a snazzy little number called The Bigotry of New Atheism. I’m trying to think of something to say, but now I’m just singing Dead Milkmen songs.  Sorry.

And pointing out that claims with no substantiating evidence behind them are not compatible with science–you know, the discipline of substantiating claims–is just an honest appraisal of the facts at hand, not bigotry.

Atheist Gravy gives us a person opinion piece on the issue of social issues:  Abortion:  My take

Personhood at conception is the argument I often hear these days from anti-choice adherents; unfortunely, it has massive issues. If aborting even a zygote (fertilized egg) is murder, then all women who miscarry would have to be imprisoned for manslaughter or, at the very least, facilitating a suicide.

I usually equate embryos with tumors, but people really don’t seem to like that very much.

Atheist Revolution gives us an Exclusive:  Indiana Library Patron Who Challenged Nativity Scene Successful.

It is so tempting to simply ignore these situations, even when a flagrant violation of the law is right in front of us. Tyson had the courage to stand up for separation of church and state. Not only did he complain, but he persisted in making sure that those who trashed him for doing so were held accountable.

How Much of a Holy Book Must Be Read to Accurately Assess It? asks You Made Me Say It.  I would guess not too much, although I have read quite a few holy books cover to cover, some multiple times.

So I would love for the religionists out there to think twice before telling a critic of their holy book and religion that they’re poor scholars and haven’t read or studied enough. I would also hope they ask themselves if they ever make such accusations of their cohorts, or even if they hold such scholarly standards for themselves.

Oh, Greta Christina. How do I love thee?  Let me count the ways.  One, Is It Okay To Mock Relgion. I say yes, of course.  What does Greta say?

There’s mockery that has a point. There’s mockery that shines a spotlight on inconsistency, hypocrisy, stupidity, greed, arrogance, close-mindedness, sloppy thinking, and flat-out evil. (The kind of mockery than Jon Stewart is king of.)  And then there’s mockery of the “Janie is a doo-doo-head” variety.

Intelligence Vs. Obedience from the Personal Web Guide. Although the author admits this isn’t necessarily geared toward atheism, let’s face it:  We’ll be able to take gems of wisdom from this kind of post to use in our own thinking and to help us understand others.

If you can find an individual who can think critically, act on their own accord, and is immune to social conditioning, then you’ve found one of the most dangerous people out there.

Mormons?  Do you understand them?  I really don’t, which is why I’ve included the Online University Reviews: The Top Ten Mormon/LDS Bloggers. Seriously, I need to brush up on this, those undies look HOT.

(Hot as in scratchy, not sexy.)

Lastly, have you ever wanted to see PZ Myers in SIM mode?  I wasn’t sure if I did or not, but hey, he looks kinda cute!  Thanks much to Blag Hag with the post Sim Atheists.

Very entertaining.  I needed some laughs after compiling all of this, it takes time to actually think about it.

Fun, fun, fun.  Your next carnival can be found at (((Billy))) The Atheist.    See you there!

Submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of the Godless using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.