From FlyingFree333 on you tube.

This is a quick one.
From FlyingFree333 on you tube. I really like this. Made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside. Not sure if it is his, or from somone else, but I love it!!

Cheers AK.


I am the creator and the destroyer,
I am he that defines all worlds.
I bring life to the lifeless,
I rain death on all that lives.
My judgement is supreme.

I encompass all things,
I am the progenitor of good and evil.
I created sin,
I cause its every pain.
Hell is of my works.

I am the source of all gods.
I create gods on a whim,
I destroy gods with a thought.
I am man.

Seeing someone else become an atheist.

Many people can remember the point in time when they suddenly where no longer a believer, that moment when everything becomes clear, when hours of prayer, hymns and being told Jesus loves you finally no longer holds.

Some describe it as like finally getting a joke everyone else already knew the answer too, the penny drops. But it’s like that but to the power of a thousand. You almost want to stand up and yell “Eureka”.

But it is different for everyone. I clearly remember the moment I knew the truth, and that is why I say to people once an atheist, you can not go back.

The reason for today’s blog, is that last week I got too see that look in another person. It was an honour. We were sitting round, and we were talking about religion and gods and stuff and upbringings, there was one particularly religious person who has just found out I am an atheist, an openly one at that. One of the younger members, early twenties, similar background to me, asked what kind of atheist I was. I was not certain what she meant, so I simply said, “I do not believe in an afterlife, I do not believe in a god, that a god is watching over us, or that we are all born sinners etc… As I was saying this the penny dropped for her, I was saying what she already thought, but had not put it together quite like that before.

She smiled and said something to confirm my suspicion, it was quite moving. She also felt in company, it’s still a bit scorned at for being an atheist in New Zealand, so to realise she was not alone was a nice thought. She is not alone, I have discovered many at work are atheists but don’t say anything. The Christians on the other hand are loud and annoying. But until that point she did not know. And then she knew, she saw clearly. She found someone who felt the same as her and was not afraid to say it, and it was what she felt, and it was Atheism.

It made what had been a crap week, a great week.

Me and Social Media (Part Two)

Empire Avenue has been the catalyst to my going all social media. There a great bunch there, and I have met some really nice people.

When I first started on there I was “AtheistKiwi, Pretty much as I am on Blogger and You tube. But then it occurred to me that if I invest in a really religious person they might not like it. And figured they might not invest in me, I was not sure which disturbed me the most, generally I don’t let the risk of offending religious people worry me when I am wearing my Atheist Kiwi hat.

But this was Empire Ave, and I need a good score. Then a person from “Iran” Brought shares in me. While flattering, I was a bit worried. Could me silly call me old fashioned. But hey , it is the “Islamic Republic of Iran” while he did not seem to worried, I felt unhappy about it. So, I changed my name to The Thinking Kiwi. It took a lot of thought to come up with that one. But it could not end there, I had to change on Twitter and then finally face book.

But I have not toned down my content. I am still a bit loud and proud with my stand on religion.

And I refuse to change my You Tube account. So it surprises me when non atheist subscribe to me to help my EA score, god bless them.

I would never sub first, I think that’s a bit mean. Same with Facebook, I very really invite friends, for the same reason, I am hidden behind an alias, they are not, they most likely don’t want “Atheist” splattered on their profiles.

So I guess what I am saying is I am a nice atheist.

To be fair, I have not subbed to overly Religious users on Twitter because “Jesus loves you and died for our sins” tweets would just set me off. So if you are a religious tweeter who has subbed to me, but not I to you, please understand it’s for you own good.

Anyways, that’s part two. There will be more parts soon.

Cheers AK.

Me and Social Media (Part one)

I was up till a few months ago rather puzzled by this thing called Social Media. I had been to you tube, even joined so I could fav a really cool vid by klfly, he is a very clever Atheist Comedian, I recommend him. Very Funny.

I ended up subbing to others, and then leaving comments on videos of idiots and getting blocked, that was social media, apparently.

I had heard of Twitter, never been there, I had heard of Facebook, ended up there after google searches on occasion, but would never join. I like the anonymity of the internet, I like the fact no one can find me, if I sound like a miserable bastard, you may be right.

And as for this blog, I only started it because I thought I was way cool having the You Tube Channel AtheistKiwi and needed the blog to match.

Then that was about it for a few months, a couple of pointless blogs about the Bible and that’s it.

Then one Friday night, after a few beers and almost ready for bed, just checking youtube to see if this Christian person had replied with more pointless reasons to believe in god when I spotted in my subscriptions a video from Dusty, good vid maker Dusty. A lot of the time worth watching, so I watched. It was about Empire Avenue, wow, we could trade in each other. It was fun. A lot of fun, but if I wanted to do well I was going to have to become a social media person.

But I have stayed anonymous, why? Because I don’t want to be found. But, hey, I got to make friends with others, new people, a global community of like minded people.

I even started to twitter and joined face book. I have now started to flickr, which is great because I have thousands of photos to post.

So far I have about 50 new friends on Face book and 141 followers on Twitter and even my you tube subs has passed 20. And I have got to do something I really love, and that is write. I used to write a lot, I have journals full of crap. I read back sometimes, if I can cope with the cringe, I have tons of letters I wrote to my mother when I was travelling overseas, she lent them back to me a few months after I got back, I have been to chicken to read them. It’s been 20 plus years, I will get round to it one day, before the insects eat them.

Well that’s part one, I will write part two in the next few days, a bit rough, but hey, it’s about traffic and activity on Empire Ave.

Yay, another blog.

AK

Blog Update

Hey Hey all
I had hoped to do 1 or 2 blogs a day, but today was mad. I will attempt to doone latter. Also I want to blog NZ stuff. After all I am in NZ. But I will warn readers with NZ Stuff in the title.

That's it really, and oh yeah, go join www.EmpireAvenue.com if you have not already !!!!



Cheers AK

If god loves us, why do bad things happen?

One of the things many atheists talk about, and I am sure I have mentioned it myself, is the way a theist believes that if they ignore what you said then it will go away. Well it does not.

They believe that if they say something then that’s it. Like for example I am currently debating a Christian who gets grumpy when ever I mention science, he keeps telling me that religion and science are compatible and showing what science has done does not mean anything.

My reasoning is this: If god did make everything, and he loves us so much, why do we have illness like cancer, mumps, scarlet fever etc….

Now to my reckoning many cancers are now curable and treatable, not because of prayer, not because of miracles, but because of medical science.

Our life expectancy has doubled, not because we attend church, but because we go to a doctor when we are unwell. I have been very ill in the past (actually several times), I now take regular medication to treat my illness, so that I can have quality of life. If I had got this 100 years ago, I would have had a very different outcome. I may not have died, but my quality of life would be dismal. A 1000 years ago, I dare not imagine.

If we had had the treatment just 60 years ago that we have today, both my grand fathers would have lived long enough for me to meet them.

I know my “If god loves us why do bad things happen” is a very simplistic argument for no god, and is even raised by the youngest of children, but it is a bloody good one. I have heard many many reasons as to why god does this, but I am afraid they are all mental answers. Cop outs, quick excuses that are meaningless. Convenient passages in the bible. Lots of those.

Science and reasoned investigation has given us the quality of life many of us enjoy. The most religious countries are the ones that have more disease, poor quality of life, lack of education and a lot of corruption.

I know I am not the first to say any of this, many others have and will continue too, lets hope that one day the religious listen, and realise there simply is no god, we are all alone, there is no after life, this is the only life you get, and thanks to science and geographic location, it’s now twice as long as your great, great, great, great grand uncles and aunties.

Another rant over, I feel better.

Love, the gift from god, WTF???

An argument I have heard many times for god and one that I have also come across in debates with theists, is that love is from god, and without god there would be no love, and we do have love, therefore there must be a god.

One person even thought he was making some kind of sarcastic point, maybe even a strawman, I don’t know, when he asked me if I say to my wife on Valentines Day, “Darling I have a strong chemical reaction in side my head for you”. I told him he was actually right, and if he goes and studies the links he will find that much research agrees with him. He did not take that too well can continued to argue that love was from god.

Even when shown clear evidence that love, be it for a lover, or a family member for a stranger or for a member of a different species, is a chemical process, and was probably a big factor in evolution that allowed us to develop into what we are today.

Even with plain clear evidence, a theist will not drop a silly argument for god. Love has allowed us to form groupings, both family and of friends. That grouping allows survival, achievement and for successful outcomes that benefit the whole group.

Ever lost a close pet? man that hurts, and can make a grown man cry. It’s from a bond we form with the animal, a kind of love. Why the f*ck would an all powerful being want me to have such a strong bond with a cat, only so I hurt when it dies. No, the bond is there so that the cat will provide company, catch mice, and hurl fur balls on the kitchen floor and I will feed it and give it somewhere to sleep for 22 hours a day. We both benefit from that bond, though replacement cat might not draw tears when he dies. The new cat (had it four years now) is mean, it bites, attacks and has even been known to head butt you if you move him off his favourite chair so you can sit there.

Well anyways, love is NOT a gift from god, it’s a chemical process that evolved along with us. Feckn closed minded idiots.

“Where did love come from”, “Huh, you don’t know”, “So it must have come from god”.
“Yes, I do f*cken know, and no it did not come from god, now fuck off”

I am glad I got that off my chest.

AK

The Chilian Miners Rescue

Just a quick one.

It has been interesting following the debate about god’s role in this on Twitter.

One Miner has twitted that there was not 33, but 34 down the mine, because god never left them. My first reaction to this was, "I hope they left him down there".

I think over the following weeks the Theists and the Atheists are going to get a lot of mileage off this one.

The reality is, engineers, Nasa experts, many many different experts in different areas of knowledge and a lot of Chilean currency rescued these men, and putting it on god is really sad and disrespectful.
Six men put their own lives in danger to go down the shaft to be with the miners during the rescue.

Any ways, I am sure the reader understands what I mean.

If god is so wonderful, why did he not save the other 30 plus minors who have died in Chilean mines in the past year?

Fortunately a growing number of people worldwide know the answer to that one.

And another post goes live.

Viva Empire Avenue.

AK

Definitions

One of the major issues when theists attempt to dismiss the arguments of Atheists is that of definitions.

Atheism for a start is one of contention.

This is something many debaters of Christians have struggled with. Some Christians have the misconception that it is a world view, in similar way communism, or indeed Christianity, can be seen as a world view.

With these two examples comes whole works of doctrine and teachings. Even within these world views there is a huge canyon of disagreement on what is and what is not, part of that world view.

For example the creation myth, some Christians fully believe that the world is around 6000 years old and evolution is wrong. Then there are others who are fine with evolution and a 4 billion plus yr old earth.

The inner working of a world view can be debated and discussed.

To keep things clear many atheistic debaters have resolved this problem with a simple defamation of Atheism:

“Atheism is a rejection of a claim, the claim being that there is a god or gods.”

This is a good definition; it’s clear and to the point. So why are there problems otherwise.


Here is the definition from : www.dictionary.com

“One who disbelieves or denies the existence of God or gods.”

So what is wrong with this definition?

It’s the use of the word deny. Dictionary.com has 8 definitions for the word deny. See below. 7 of them are very similar. 1 is not.

Christians tend to jump on the most common use definition of deny, which is to deny someone something, or hold back on making it available: e.g. deny an employee a pay raise. A pay rise is possible, it’s just being denied. Parents not letting a child have an ice cream. The ice cream is there, the child is simply not allowed it. And it is here that Christians mess up, they think that because Atheists deny god, that is evidence for existence, in the same way ice cream exists, the child just is denied it, or a person on a diet may deny themselves a hamburger. The hamburger is there, they are just denying it to themselves, and that, sadly, is how most theists see this definition of Atheism. Whereas the first definition of deny is clearly what Atheists mean. “to state that (something declared or believed to be true) is not true”.

And that is the problem with Christian’s belief that our denial is somehow proof. It is not. Simple English. This is why it is important to not use the word ‘deny’, unless you are prepared to educate theists on its many meanings.


1.
to state that (something declared or believed to be true) is not true: to deny an accusation.
2.
to refuse to agree or accede to: to deny a petition.
3.
to withhold the possession, use, or enjoyment of: to deny access to secret information.
4.
to withhold something from, or refuse to grant a request of: to deny a beggar.
5.
to refuse to recognize or acknowledge; disown; disavow; repudiate: to deny one's gods.
6.
to withhold (someone) from accessibility to a visitor: The secretary denied his employer to all those without appointments.
7.
Obsolete . to refuse to take or accept.
—Idiom
8.
deny oneself, to refrain from satisfying one's desires or needs; practice self-denial.

A UFO sighting.

Ok, I know, two posts in one day.

I am going to relate an experince I had back in the late 80s.
A friend and I were driving back to or small town from the city after having been at the cinima, can not remember what we saw, does not matter.

We pulled off a long country road on to another long country road that run towards the coast. In the distance we could see the flashing light of an aircraft, maybe out over the ocean. As we drove towards the coast the aircraft appeard to be heading towards us.
It was then heading towards us very fast. It shot by very high and very fast. I stopped quickly and we both got out to see if we could spot the aircraft.

To our minds we had seen a high altitude aircraft heading at an extremely fast speed head from the coast, towards us and then past.

We both stood on each side of the car stareing at an arcing electric fence about 30 metres behind the car and up on a bank.

There was silence for awhile, and then my friend said "That was fucken freaky".

So why raise this, well simple, if we had chosen not to stop, instead driving on, we would have seen or fast aircraft disappearing in the mirror. And we would have wondered what on earth was travelling so fast and so high.

Instead we investigated. And a simple explanation was found for what we saw.

Without an explanation, our perception of what we saw would have been so far off as to be rediculas.

Cheers AK.

Quick Update

I was going to do a big rant, but then not much point, I still pretty good about last weeks one.

So, a quick update. Empire Avenue is going well. I am on there as (e)Kiwi.

Saw a great video on "Openmindedness" I must admit it answered a few questions for me around why some of the christians I debate with think they are openminded and I ain't.
Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T69TOuqaqXI well worth the time.

I have a couple of unfinished blogs to finish and post, one is on the word "Deny" this is an interesting word because it almost has two distinct meanings. Another is on my Catholic upbringing. My very happy, non-molested, very wonderful experience with the Catholic Church.

Thats about it, I have been off work with a cold, hopefully back tommorow, also, the dam speel check on my Firefox is not working. So sorry for all the spealling mestakes.

All the best AK

Identity Crisis??

First it was on EA and now on Twitter. Yes I have changed my Names. On EmpireAvenue I am now e(Kiwi) The Thinking Kiwi. And on Twitter, I am not EA_Kiwi. The EA of course stands for “Evil Atheist”.

So why the change?

Simple, I am now following and investing in people not from the Atheist Community. And while an Atheist, I am not just an Atheist, I am also a lot of other things. I am slightly over weight, in denial about some things, have bad taste in clothing and drive an old car, not old enough to be cool, but not new enough to look good.

Anyway, my point is, as much as I do not like Religion being stuff down peoples throats, I do not think I should stuff my non religion down peoples throats.

You Tube and Blog Spot are safe, if people visit these sites, they can expect an Atheist.

So, I hope that has sorted out any identity issues.

I am going to be bogging non religious stuff soon, but I will keep that on here.