Trust

Religionists talk about trust,
how only their views are just.
If your moral guide's
that ass in the sky
I'll treat your views with disgust.

The headline is "STUDY: RELIGIOUS PEOPLE TRUST ATHEISTS ABOUT AS MUCH AS THEY DO RAPISTS".  They get their morality from a book that endorses slavery and says that a rape victim should be forced to marry her attacker. I get my morality from the idea that this is the only shot we have at life, and we should treat each other like it's their only shot as well. The idea of the Golden Rule, treating other people as you would have them treat you, is a central idea of religions and belief systems across the world, and predates Christianity by millennia. I prefer Confucious's version, personally:

"Zi Gong asked, saying, "Is there one word that may 

serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" 

The Master said, "Is not RECIPROCITY such a word?"

I touched on the reciprocity idea almost 4(!) years ago in a limerick. Not as eloquent as Confucious, but I think it gets the point across.

A Fart In A Hurricane

Lim’ricks don’t fall from a tree
I’ve been at this for a year (or three).
There’s naught good to say
for toiling away
in anonymous obscurity.

I posted this limerick on Camels with Hammers, a philosophy site with Freethought Blogs, along with this post:

I once harbored delusions that skeptical limericks would make it possible for my voice to be heard, to meekly rise above the din of thousands of others whose opinions echoed mine. I still have a voice, and have (or, had) a unique way of expressing myself. Alas, life got in the way, and I stopped producing limericks for a time. Now Cuttlefish has been doing his Headline Muse, and I fear that I will be seen as a copycat, attempting to cash in on the work that he has done.

I will keep doing what I have been, however, and be grateful for those readers I have.

But what is a (not-so) humble limerickist to do?

I still harbor a delusion that in the "Phase III" of PZ Myers' plan for atheist world domination, that I will soon get an email from Ed Brayton, benevolent overlord of FtB, asking me to join the fold. I quickly push those notions aside because, as overwhelmingly grateful as I am for the 50 pagehits I get a day, I am just a fart in the hurricane that is Freethought Blogs.

JT Found A Place.

Congrats, JT, on your new home.
It's shiny, like new polished chrome.
You're more than a cog
in the Freethought Blogs
and now you will not have to roam.

JT Eberhard is a blogger and secular activist, who just got a new spot at Freethough Blogs.

Love Or Hate: Which Does Your Deity Prefer?

More on the culture debate:
It seems that I make them irate.
While their god above
goes on about love
Christianists focus on hate.

A poll that is not surprising
tells us who god is despising.
Just read your bible
you might be able
to see your beliefs demising.


Jon Rosenberg, of Scenes From A Multiverse fame, reminds us exactly who the most hated group in America is.


PDF of the study

Perry Fiddled, Now Texas Burns

The only thing growing in drought?
Wildfires burning about.
Send prayers to the sky?
Texas stays bone dry.
With Jesus he has little clout.

Trying to water with prayer, he
might as well wish on a fairy.
But he never learns
as his home state burns:
Brought to you by Dick Prayer-ee.

In April, Dick Perry prayed that the drought in Texas would end. In May, Texas had plans to cut the state budget by $34 million, including the budget of the Texas Forest Service, the agency that is currently battling the wildfires plaguing the state. That budget went into effect September 1st, as fires raged out of control. Almost immediately after proposing that budget, Dick Perry begged the federal government for $52.5 million dollars to cover the cost of fighting the fires. I guess government expenditure is bad, except when it can help him.

They did, however, add a $40 million "rainy day fund", that they can use to pay one time costs. That will not help them in the future, though. Awesome planning from someone who thinks he should lead the whole country.

Great job, Dick.

Possibilities, Possibilians

Existing with fragility,
and reasoning ability.
This life's all we got.
Yep, just this one shot.
God? No possibility.

I have adaptability,
and mental flexibility
On a bible I'd swear
there is no god there.
That's said without hostility.

We have mental fertility
and thinking capability.
Kick religion out
and say without doubt:
God? No possibility!


Possibilianism has to be one of the most stupid things this side of creationism. Can we ever be sure of anything?  No, of course not. Does that mean that it is possible that there might be a deity as described by any one of the hundreds, perhaps thousands of religions that have existed since humans began thinking about things bigger than the next meal? Absolutely not.

There is no god. No God, Allah, Odin, Jupiter, or any of the other numerous deities humans have created. I do not reject the FACT that there are things we do not yet know about our universe, but I reject every single supernatural creation devised to explain things we do not yet understand.

Were you Raptured as well?

The Rapture I guess passed us by
It's not hard to figure out why:
The christianist dopes
are selling false hope
and offering pie in the sky.

Posted here on Pharyngula

A Visit From PZ

There was a Professor from Morris
who gathered the cast and the chorus.
And we all headed down
to visit the clowns
and the bibleists that all abhor us.

As day broke, sunny and grand,
the heathens from all o'er the land
north, east, west and south
all by different routes,
for reason we'd take a firm stand.

To Kentucky we all did flock.
Racing so we'd beat the clock
so if we were inclined
we might head up the line
so we could be the first to mock.

With ticket and button in hand
we followed through with our plan:
for ourselves to see
the insanity
of Ken Ham's folly first hand.

As soon as we walked in the door:
Behold! A large pterasaur!
Graceful and free -
or not. It could be
it evolved to stay off the floor.

The next thing we saw was bizarre -
a grazing and growling brontosaur!
Then we saw what they did
with the raptors and kids.
The Flintstones can't be too far!

The Grand Canyon was, so they say,
carved by the flood in mere days.
If you ignored all the facts,
or hit your head with an axe
or replaced your brain with mayonnaise.

They said if we came we'd believe,
but not after Adam and Eve!
We laughed, not from spite -
we could tell from first sight
that this place was built to deceive

Next was Noah and his Ark.
The departure from fact was stark!
While the rain quickly poured
God put the dinos on board
but didn't have room for the shark.

Heaven forbid if you doubt them
cause no one's more honest than Ken Ham!
He said “You can trust us!”
“We're just lying for jebus!”
and the creo-zombies echo “Amen!”

If there was one part of that twaddle
that kept me from coming unraveled
was the sight of PZ
gloriously
on the dino that was wearing a saddle.

While there we laughed and we learned.
We left wondering how facts could be spurned.
The day went as we thought.
The science was naught.
So we vowed we would never return.

Here is the moral of my tale:
stay away from this shrine to fail!
But if visit you must,
to hide your disgust
go filled up with whiskey and ale.

Edited to fix the spacing.

Letter to the editor

A letter I wrote to the editors of The Columbus Dispatch

Editors,

Amidst all of the letters concerning the editorial written about John Freshwater, some seem to have missed the point completely. Yes, it was wrong of him to proselytize in the classroom, especially a science class that students are mandated to attend. Not one non-theist that I know would advocate leaving religion out of school, but it should be taught in an elective course, such as comparative mythology. They can spend a day on each of the creation myths from around the world, and hope that they can cover them all in one school year.

The biggest problem here is the branding. I can’t fathom the mindset of a person who would do such a thing. This is a person who took the teachings of his supposedly loving god, and twisted them to the point where it was okay, in his mind, to harm a child who believed in something different than him. That is not a free speech issue, it is a n issue of child abuse.I am left to wonder why he is not in prison, and the school board brought up on child endangerment charges for having let this go on for so long.

Richard Stage

Skepical limericks? What a neat idea!

The Skeptic's Circle is hosting a limerick edition on Action Skeptics. Why didn't I think of that?

Since when have limericks been news
for espousing skeptical views?
For quite a while
(with a complete lack of style)
I've had rhyming and idiocy suffused.

Perhaps I don't write enough
on current events, and stuff.
It has been some time
since I've posted a rhyme
about the credulous fluff.

Check it out and see what you think.
What? I swear it's a harmless link!
Limericks are still dandy
even when they aren't randy,
and Action Skeptics' are like a cool drink.

PZ's contest limerick

From here, trying to win this book. I'm still not sure why I might want it.

I'm not sure that I want this book,
though it might be fun to have a look.
It would be helpful to me
as I get my Ph.D.
on how life evolved from a fish hook.

And then here, after I (thankfully) didn't win.

I was about to post in this thread.
Damn! Cuttlefish got here ahead!
Now see, here's the thing,
Cuttlefish is the king.
I might visit the birdie instead.

Scott Hatfield will, I am sure
(if his arms from the strain can endure)
use this book and its weight
for an appropriate fate
and thump the thumpers with their own words.