The problem with the whole "keep your religion to yourself" argument, briefly

If you believe fetuses are people, I sure hope you will impose that belief on others and try to prevent people from killing fetuses. If you refuse to impose this belief on others, you probably don't believe it very strongly. Mr. Ryan has every right to want to impose his beliefs on others, as long as he lets us know so that those who don't share those beliefs won't vote for him. Mr. Biden is clearly less catholic, so obviously he has my support. Bottom line: This is why it's necessary to question politicians on their religious beliefs. Keeping religious beliefs "separate" is not reasonable or beneficial. All beliefs should be subjected to the same critical analysis. And as long as I'm rambling, I'll throw in that religious organizations should pay taxes. I feel like that's related somehow. I would write a more well-constructed post, but I don't have time for that shit right now. Anyway, here's an interesting article: http://newhumanist.org.uk/2823/down-with-secularism. Enjoy!

Edit: Turns out abortion is a bad example. Is personhood of the fetus relevant? I always thought it was, but after reading this blog, reading a few of the 400+ comments, adding my 2 cents, being called a "fuckwitt," and reading some more of the comments, I'm starting to understand why it may not be.

The long-awaited and highly unoriginal Reason Rally post

I have finished M1, which means I can finally take the time to write about a rally I attended two months ago. YAY. First I must point out that I've come to terms with the fact that I'm not going to be a famous atheist blogger and activist. I do, however, want to let my small group of followers know what this rally was all about and why I think this stuff matters, mostly by highlighting some of the speakers who already explained it better than I could.

So, what was Reason Rally? Basically, tens of thousands of atheists gathering on the national mall to stand up for human rights and science. Many of these people were openly identifying as atheists for the first time. People traveled from all over the country, carpooling and sharing buses with strangers, to become a part of a community and be themselves in a way that never felt safe before.

Then there were people like me--already quite vocal about our beliefs, usually surrounded by plenty of other freethinkers. Sure, my friends and family don't always understand my radicalism, but I've never faced discrimination because I'm an atheist. I was there for those people who have faced discrimination, or have been silent out of fear, to show them that they are not alone in their beliefs.

Of course, I was also there for Tim Minchin, who graced us with his music, stand-up, poetry, and fiery mane. Here's 'Pope Song.'

You may sense a bit of anger beneath the hilarity. Greta Christina, probably my favorite speaker of the day, explained that atheist anger wonderfully. Here's an excerpt:

Atheists are angry because we see millions of people being terribly harmed by religion, and our hearts go out to them, and we feel motivated to do something about it.

And now that I've captured your interest, here's the full speech. Greta is preceded by Adam Savage, who was also excellent, but if you don't have 18 minutes, skip to 9:00 or so for Greta. Greta is required viewing.

And now, I leave you with this quote from Adam, in case you skipped over his part, or even if you didn't, because the quote is so good I'm sure you want to experience it again:

I have concluded through careful empirical analysis and much thought that somebody is looking out for me, keeping track of what I think about things, forgiving me when I do less than I ought, giving me strength to shoot for more than I think I am capable of. I believe that they know everything that I do and think and they still love me, and I've concluded after careful consideration that this person keeping score is me.

P.S. For tons more videos, just search for "reason rally" on YouTube.

Why I dislike this guy's video but love that I got to watch it and write about why I dislike it

Perhaps you've come across this video a few hundred times by now:

As the title implies, this guy claims to hate religion but love Jesus. He hates religion because, for example, it encourages blind following and self righteousness and incites violence. I'm with him on that one, though even I don't make such strong, broad generalizations as "I hate religion." But it doesn't take long to realize that this guy doesn't hate religion--he hates the way other people practice religion. This guy knows Jesus. He knows how followers of Jesus are supposed to act. His faith is not man-made like all the other religions. The fact that his concept of Jesus comes from books that are thought by some to be historically accurate despite their unverified accounts is incidental. His interpretation of these books is right; everyone else's is wrong, plain and simple.

People will always interpret things differently, but at least when ideas are backed up by reproducible evidence acquired by repeatable methods, subjected to rigorous peer review, and capable of being studied further, we can have productive debates.

[Note: religious ideas do not seem to qualify. Neither do this guy's ideas, whether or not he calls them religious.]