About  Charlotte's Web, from Wikipedia "The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig" ) in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live."

We've been told all our lives about how 'good', 'perfect' and 'without sin' jesus was said to be. The truth is, we don't know because the four pamphlets that comprise his only biography are at best sketchy about his personal life and decidedly slanted for the public view. He may have been (if he existed at all) a pretty good guy. Or, he may have been given to banging two shekel hookers by the dozen while swilling his own miraculous wine and performing the epic 'pull my finger' miracle for the boys... we just don't know.

Let's see how 'good' Jesus was.
"Luke (2:43-49) When Jesus' parents begin the long trip back to Nazareth, the twelve year old Jesus stays behind, without asking their permission. Mary and Joseph search for him for three days and when they finally find him, Jesus doesn't apologize. Rather, he blames them for not knowing that he was doing his father's business."

I don't know about you guys, but if one of my kids, at 12 had disappeared for 3 days, 'good boy' wouldn't have been one of my descriptives. Thoughtless, arrogant, and narcissistic all come to mind.

And how about this?

The priest holds the heart of the victim dripping blood up to the gods as an offering, an appeasement. They believed that this act would bring the rains, make the crops grow, make the land and the people prosperous. Other cultures such as the early Canaanites would offer up their children to their god, burning them on a ritual fire. The Celts favored fire as well, burning criminals in huge constructs called 'wicker men'. The Etrusions, the Minoans, the Gauls, even the Romans believed that the gods could be swayed by the offering of human life. We shake our heads at the barbarity, the cruelty of these acts.

Sometimes we make them into a cliche, a joke... the cartoon of a group of Islanders about to toss a girl into a volcano with a caption "Wait!, I'm NOT a virgin, ask Mobimbo, ask Huwali, ask...." We shake our heads and marvel at the primative and superstitious nature of these murderous beliefs.

Unless of course, we are talking about the human sacrifice that is the root of our most prominent western religion, Christianity. Then it becomes a beautiful and moving act. One that essays, books, even entire careers have been built around, extolling the virtue of a death on a Roman torture device. A favorite of the artist, thousands of paintings have lovingly detailed the blood and gore, the sense of suffering. Millions of little children wear the image of this near naked man hanging in torment, dieing on a torture device, around their necks.

I hear it all the time...

"What keeps you from being a child raping axe murdering drug addict if there is no god?"

Homo Sapien Sapien is a herd animal, tribal and needing to function in groups to survive. Survival depends on certain ingrained principles, the primary of which is to not allow members of the herd to kill each other willy nilly. All the other 'moral' injunctions follow this simple imperative as violating them can lead to violence and killing, thus wrecking the group cohesion.

My ethics and morality derive from the culture in which I was raised and reinforced by the pressure of my peers. As I grew, I incorporated much of what in had been taught into my world view, rationalizing and reasoning out the purpose and place of the various ideas, making them part of my essential character. On top of my personal ethic, we have laws, society's way of codifying a common ethic. Even if one lacks an ethical stance on certain issues, the fear of societal retribution tends to keep most in line.
Morality is mutable, changing with time and custom. I knew several people in my youth who were only a generation removed from slavery. Once slavery wasn't immoral, it was in fact validated by the holy scriptures as right and moral. Once, a wife could not refuse her husbands sexual advances, the concept of marital rape was unimagined. We've changed, we've grown as a people.

Skeptic; Noun (skep-tik)

A blog was written today on the implosion of CFI Canada.  As long as we keep having these accomodationist vs confrontationalist arguments we will continue to have implosions. Frankly, it disgusts me that we have done this. I felt the wrath of the accomodationists when I was known for being a confrontationalist. I probably will still have the perception of being one. Even though I am creating a feel good project that supports all atheists.  I think I am a blend of both.  I hope you are too.  

Being able to adjust your method depending on who you interact with is a strong suit.  And if someone sees you are confrontational, why must they label you as always confrontational?  It is also highly hypocritical to be an accomodationalist but be confrontational on the issue of confrontationalists.  It's time for us to elevate our game.  This division has gone on long enough.  We must think critically and with reason.

Wow Darrel Ray is brilliant. He nails it on "First generation leadership." Because of my type-a personality and my inability to trust easily I was unable to spot future dedicated activists when they aligned with me early in their activist "careers." Ashley Paramore and Shelley Mountjoy were by my side at the beginning. If I could have known to expand their leadership role early enough, they might have never needed to go become superstars elsewhere. 

Check this article out if you would like to learn more about how atheist groups function, and how we can improve them.

Shamelessly ripped from: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/health-topics/sex-101/masturbation-23901.htm : because I'm too much of a lazy fag and do my own fucking research on this.

Parent Claus is bringing the kids presents?  Don't want to hear O Holy Night while you shop for those gifts?  Want to help support online atheism while buying Grandmom a necklace for the Winter Solstice?  

Please shop at Amazon and they will help pay for our new server!  This really works and it's a huge help.  We are on the cusp of something great, help push us over the edge.  This is a great way to help the cause while buying stuff for yourself.  The customer service at Amazon is incredible, they won't let you down. 

I saw someone ask a facebook group to state when they became agnostic/atheist.  First of all, please feel free to answer the question yourself, in the comments below.  I responded, and then I expanded on it briefly for facebook.  After 30 minutes it's got a bunch of likes and comments, I realize it's a moving story to some and so I'll expand just a little more about it here.  But I also ask that anyone who has a similar story share it below.  I know I am not unique, religion has caused the destruction of millions of relationships over time.  

I was born an atheist,  at 5 I was sure God existed because I was told by the person I trusted the most that God existed.  As I learned about the bible and started to understand the world I became a little more agnostic on the idea and was an agnostic catholic at 8.  At 13 my mother decided the Catholic Church wasn't exciting enough and we joined a born again Christian Church, I was 13.  I said the special password prayer you need to say to let Jesus know you want in to heaven.  Literally, this was the argument and justification, say this prayer and you won't burn in hell, you'll go to heaven.  What 13 year old that still trusts his mother wouldn't do that?  I did it... I was an agnostic Born-again Christian.  I talked to Jesus at night before bed, and I tried to get my father on the proper path as well.  I was tortured over the thought of him going to hell.  

I just had the chance to listen to the new Syqnys album.  I was surprised to see I could listen to the whole thing free online.  That's smart, it made me buy it.  His messages we're on point.  He said lots that made me think, and lots that made me want to go back and hear it a second time.  Syqnys once wrote a song called "I am Rational Response Squad."

Syqnys had all kinds of original thought in his album, which usually makes it one of those albums that you can listen to over and over.   You should check it out, listen to it... then buy a hard copy for $10, once you buy the hardcopy you get the download for free. He also allows individual downloads for $1. I told Syqnys that my readers would want to know more, so I asked him a few questions and here is what he had to say:

What is the main theme of your new album?