Born an Atheist

Often I read a criticism aimed at Christians who proclaim to once have been an Atheist and now they have found god that they were never really an atheist. Kirk Cameron the banana man's side kick is a classic example.

Now as an atheist who claims to have once been a Christian, it would be easy to claim I was never really a Christian. Now by all accounts I know I was one. Very much so.

So lets investigate the "they were never really an atheist." claim.

By default we are all born Atheists, we then are raised in our nice christian family, going to church and being told how lucky we are that Jesus loves us etc....

But what about the child not born into a religious household. How legit is their claim on Atheism?
In the USA they are currently debating the use of "in god we trust" on currency and in the court system. And the use of God in the President's pledge.

Here in New Zealand, while we are officially a secular state, (I need to confirm this) religion and god is everywhere. The first word of our national anthem is "God". In fact the whole anthem is really a prayer.

So our child from a non religious family is, from birth, being indoctrinated whether their parents are aware of it or not. Go to girl guides or scouts, and god is right there. Funerals and weddings, god is there, though there is a definite increase in non secular funerals and weddings, but even at secular events, god will creep in.

In popular media, god is mentioned all the time, in the most subliminal ways, I wonder if the journalist even knows they are doing it. I was reading an article on mobile phone companies in New Zealand and at one point the journalist asks something along the lines of "Are they really aware of the pressure of the competition that is coming, god help them if they don't".

You see so much more when the Christian goggles are taken off.

The Govenrment will perform prayer at the drop of a hat, be it a new government building, a new manager, a new vision statement and anything else they can think of.

My daughter, who is now 7 and only been in a church twice, once for a funeral and once for a school Palm Sunday service even has the god fundamentals down pat. She knows enough about god to be able to pray when she wants something to happen her way. It was not from me, or her mother, we do not practice Christianity of any type, though we are not over the top atheists at home either, in fact we are way too moderate. But I know that the best thing I can do, is what my lovely christian mother taught me to do, teach her to question everything and believe nothing without evidence.

My mother was the first christian apologist in my life, and I never knew it. She had a lot of hard questions to answer.

So was our new found christian really an Atheist? Unless raised in an evangelical atheist house, probably not.

I will return to this one again sometime, I think it is a really interesting topic.

In the worhsip of Thor

I have been researching Thor.

What a great God, awesome God. I need to read more.

So what happened to Thor? Christianity. That's what. He was not proven to not exist, we still see his will in thunder. In fact, I am thinking the reason for the increase in electrical storms is because Thor is pissed off we don't have temples to him anymore.

From about the 8th century onwards Christians started to move into Northern Europe. This was an area of Germanic Pagan religion. Where the likes of Thor, Wotan and Frey where worshiped.

Real Gods.

How did we loose them, fundamentalism.

The Christians started to build churches and once they had established themselves they went about converting the locals, and what better way to do that than to destroy the things that represented Thor, they destroyed Temples and Statues and even cut down an ancient oak known as Thor's Oak, so who did these atrocities? Well Saint Boniface cut down the tree, and Saint Olaf had a thing for destroying statues. Oh, blessed are the Saints.

Well fuck them, I am so pissed at this, all through my study in History all I have seen is reference after reference to things destroyed by Christians, the library of Alexandria, the Inca and Mayan scriptures, the Easter Island Tablets, and now I learn about Thor among many many more.

The more I learn about Christianity the more I feel repulsed by it.

If Jesus did return, I think I would crucify the bastard again myself. Though, hang on, it was not Jesus, it was his dumb ass followers.

There is a question that often goes around, "If you could go back in time and kill someone who would it be", most often the answer is "Hitler". For me it would be sweet baby Jesus, 'cause look at all the shit that has been done in his name, then again Jesus more than likely did not exist. Who am I kidding, if not Jesus, some other drop kick would have been worshiped in his place, there was no shortage of nut jobs claiming to be messiahs or prophets at that time.

Anyway, getting back to Thor. He rocked, while I am still to confirm it, he did not wipe out cities, or cause plagues or demand child mutilation in the worship of him.

I like Thor, I really do, I think if I ever start to believe in a God again, it will be Thor.


Note: 18-06-2010
Thor has made it known he is seriously had enough of Christianity by destroying a 6 stories high statue of Jesus in the USA. Go Thor!!!!


The Young Turks Channel Report


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianization_of_Scandinavia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor's_Oak
http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/rongo2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_of_Alexandria

Douay Rheims Version

Hey, cool I have settled on a version to read, unfortunately to buy its going to cost about US$50 which is about NZ$90 or so. So I am reading it from a TXT download. It has way more books than the NIV or KJV so makes for a wider perspective, I think I might do a blog post on the history of the bible, though if you google history of bible you will get an amazing amount of contradictory versions of the history, some are way out in the left field.

Found a new website, http://www.carm.org oh I wish they had a comment section after their verse explanations.

I might include some of their explanations in later blogs, very funny and often avoiding the point.

I looked at their explanation of Cains wife. It was his sister, apparently, which make no sense becasue the bible does not say Adam begat Cain, Able, and Molly. It clearly shows that after Cain killed Able it was 130 years before Adam new his wife eve again, a bloody long time to go without a bonk if you ask me. And that is when he begat Seth, after Seth he begat many sons and daughters.

righto then, off to read more bible.

Which Version

I have been reading the Good News Version, I am up to Exodus 27.

I decided to go and have a gander at other versions. There is a big difference.

Gen 4:16 From Douay-Rheims
And Cain went out from the face of the Lord, and dwelt as a fugitive on the earth at the east side of Eden.

And from King James Version
And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

From the Good News Version
And Cain went away from the Lord's presence and lived in a land called "Wandering," which is east of Eden.

See the issue here?

KJV is the coolest, I mean, who would not want to go to the land of nod.


Anyways, which version? I guess I will just keep reading the good news version, I own 2 copies. Why buy another.

Basically the bible is just too stupid for words.

You Tube

What a nightmare of a place. Great place to go and play. But for someone like me, it got a bit much.

I am referring to the Religious corner of course, 300 million users, and in one corner maybe 250,000 loud Atheist, Christians and Muslims. I guess maybe more.

The Atheists, as a rule take themselves way to seriously, but what makes me laugh is that they are so shocked when they discover they don't all agree on everything.

The good ones are NonStampCollector, 1god1jesus (also stripyhead) and atheistAussie, anyone would think I like Australians, struth, no way. Also HairyReasoner, great guy and Tenneral is brilliant.

The only others really worth listening to are philhellenes and PatCondell.

The rest I subscribed to are good also, but those I have mentioned deliver really good stuff, have a bit more pep to it. Claire and her Fatassed cats also deserve a mention, love "coffee with Claire".

Well that's my rant for tonight, I am stepping back from You Tube. Going to concentrate on reading the bible and writing this blog. And go to you tube for a Laugh.