I had the unfortunate pleasure of watching the news the other night. You see, I don't enjoy watching the news and it's not for the reasons you probably suspect. It's not that the bad news is the problem, the world sucks and there is lots of bad news out there if you insist on wanting to hear about it. No, I don't watch the news because I am of the firm belief that the word "media" is simply simple way of saying "money grubbing, panic inciting, idiocy spreading propagandist".

At any rate, I was listening to these hacks talk about nonsense and they started taking about this story of parents and their child raising tactics. Now, this was a pretty extreme story so naturally it caught my attention. This mom and dad were apparently having sex and masturbating in front of their 8 or 9 (I can't remember) year old kid.

I was chatting with a friend of mine and he brought up some points that I think are pretty interesting. We were talking about how we were raised in regard to religious preference.

I have been what most consider to be an atheist since my early teens. My mother struggled with her faith all of my life, so I was never propperly indoctrinated into a particular set of beliefs. This left me sort of in limbo, dangling just outside the realm of faith but with no ideological structure to turn too.

I made a friend who was passionately atheist, anarchist, racist, you name it. He was a powerful figure. I was old enough to realize that his racism was not any good and that anarchism is a complicated issue... but he was unabashedly atheist. Now that was pretty exciting! I did not really learn to have much of an opinion about the topic of religion until years later, but I had already learned that I should not believe everything I hear. I was a skeptic.

The Virginia shootings are tragic, this is undeniable. People are so fricken nuts; it's amazing.

So, what do we do now?

We pray.

Huh?

That's right, we pray.

But why?

Because we need Gods help now more than ever.

Woh woh woh, hang on there sport. God? The same guy that had absolutely no power to stop the tragedy in the first place?

Yeh, him.

The guy that knows everything, the guy that knew this was going to happen and just let it? That sadistic prick?

Yep.

But...won't he just ignore you now also? I mean, if this dick ever had the power to grant wishes he sure has been pretty lax lately. Yunno, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, wars all over the world etc.

I keep hearing "but why are you guys trying so hard to end religion?" and "why do you hate Jesus so much?". I've seen this in each and every interview with all outspoken atheists. Do a search online and see if you can find an interview with an atheist in which these questions do not come up.

I don't hate Jesus and neither does anyone with the RSS or any other free thinking human that has half of a brain. How could we possibly hate something that is not real? What opinion would even be worthwhile about an imaginary idea? If someone were trying to argue with me that Lord of the Rings was true and that there is some alternate dimension in which these events took place I would not suddenly HATE Gandalf. Gandalf isn't real ... the issue is the assertion that he is. The only people that have a feeling about imaginary beings are the ones which believe they have some relevance.

It's funny that whether we are religious or athiest, it's our belief system that makes us superior to the other.

I think whoever has the most money and women should win.

This is a REAL "blog" entry.
2 weird things happened today, both had to do with religion and atheism.

First one: I went to the local independent book store. This girl was there, and she's really, REALLY cute. So she asks "can I help you?" I say "yeah, I'm looking for 'The End of Faith' by Sam Harris, and I can't seem to find it in "religion". Do you have it in another section?" "Yeah!" (much more enthusiastic than she normally is to me) and goes and finds it. I decide to get that book, and order in another copy, as one copy is going to my youngest brother for his birthday. We then talked a bit about the book. She asked "have you read it?" and I said

I'm not really surprised, but it seems one of the most religious developed nations is also frighteningly ignorant of what they believe.

Links to digg:
http://digg.com/politics/Americans_believe_in_religion_but_know_little_about_it

A very interesting article from the Washington Post exposes the obvious fact that people who are ignorant of religion are more prone to believe in a religion. The abundant un-knowing in such a large population reminds me of the Catholic Church only allowing the bible to be in Latin during the Middle Ages.

It's very easy to manipulate people if you keep them ignorant of something that they believe can cause them eternal pain. They will come back to you since they think you're the only one who can keep them safe.