Monicks: Unleashed

Tag: God

  • Justice has been served

    Justice has been served

    The sophomore at Cranston High School West in Rhode Island Jessica Ahlquist, who fought her school’s administration to have a Christian prayer banner (that has been displayed there since the 1960’s) removed from the gymnasium, on the grounds that it was offensive to non-Christians, has won her lawsuit.

    Many aspects of this story deserve our attention:

    First of all, the bravery and tenaciousness of this young lady are qualities for all of us to emulate, not only did she stand for what she thought was right, but also has set a precedent and made this sort of endeavor easier for everyone else who tries to make a difference.

    Secondly, the awesome support she got from JT Eberhard, and many other prominent, and not-so-prominent atheists; one of the many reasons everyone should be open about their disbelief.

    Furthermore, congratulations are in order: Jessica Ahlquist has been added to the list of Reason Rally speakers!

    Unsurprisingly, the reaction from offended people who though bullying Jessica was the best way to defend their faith, didn’t fail to show up — proof that Christian love and tolerance are awesome, as long as their religion is allowed to step on the Constitution, and the ideals and worldview of everyone who disagrees with them. Here’s a quick example:

    [slideshow]

    Can you feel the love?

    Thank you for your efforts, Jessica. You are my new hero.

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  • What I Believe

    What I Believe

    This entry was originally posted by my friend Joshua McGee (@mcgeesorg) at his website.  I am reposting it with his permission.

    What I Believe

    Regarding the shared bits of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mormonism, etc., here it is, in second person:

    I believe that your God was the favorite tribal deity of a polytheistic, nomadic, historically insignificant Bronze Age people living in North Africa and the Near East.  Through a bizarre historical accident, a tiny messianic doomsday cult of this people was adopted as the state religion of the most powerful empire on the planet, despite the utter failure of any of the doomsday prophecies to transpire in the allotted time.

    I believe your shared “testament” is a heterogeneous anthology of self-aggrandizing revisionist history, stolen legal codes, institutionalized bigotry, justifications for ethnic cleansing, “Just So” stories, the ravings of the mentally ill, census data, a sprinkling of common sense, and some truly beautiful poetry and children’s literature, all of which was rolled together and authorship attributed to a deity, which means to many of you that it has to be 100% factually accurate, even when it’s internally inconsistent or demonstrably wrong.

    I believe the premise and existence of the modern state of Israel is at least as bizarre as if my family declared ownership of the British Isles, invaded, subjugated the citizenry, imposed martial law, renamed the nation “Gondor”, and declared war on Western Europe.

    I believe that were we to argue theology, I’d argue to the point where we agreed that your god is undetectable, untestable, unpredictable, inelegant, unnecessary, paradoxical, and at least one of impotent, malicious, and completely incomprehensible, not to mention just plain weird, at which point I’d consider the topic not worth any further thought, you’d declare ineffability a feature rather than a bug, and I’d look at you as if you’d turned into a walrus in front of my eyes.

    I believe people who “sort of” believe in God, “don’t really think about it”, “guess they do”, or find it the path of least resistance, are pussies leading unexamined lives.

    I will, however, fight tooth and nail for your right to engage in your superstitions in your own home or normally-taxed buildings, or very quietly and personally in public.  I believe it is your right to live an unexamined life, in the same way that it is my right not to exercise, even though I know failing to will contribute to my early death.  I get it, kinda: we all have mental blocks.  I will even tolerate you indoctrinating your own children, although I really wish you wouldn’t, in the same way I wish Jews would stop mutilating the genitals of their male infants and Mexicans would stop piercing the ears of their female infants.

    So there.

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  • The Necessity of Atheism

    The Necessity of Atheism

    If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him?
    If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future?
    If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers?
    If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him?
    If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses?
    If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them?
    If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him?
    If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable?
    If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees?
    If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him?
    If he has spoken, why is the universe not convinced?
    If the knowledge of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest?

    — Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism

     

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