I normally find blog memes silly, and I’ve never been tagged before, but vjack just tagged me with the book meme. Since it’s vjack, I’ll participate. I will not, however, tag anyone else. If LBBP wants to do this and pass it along, he’s free to do so.

A book that changed my life:

The Bible. I was an agnostic until I read it for the first time. After that, I was a firm atheist.

A book I’ve read more than once:

The Bible. I’ve gone through it three times and counting. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it. It’s terribly entertaining. Imagine how much fun it would be to read The Silmarillion if Tolkien had claimed it all to be true.

A book I would take with me if I were stuck on a desert island:

Uh… probably something that teaches you how to build a raft. Call me a pragmatist. If we’re ignoring utility, I’d probably have to go with The Lord of the Rings if I were there alone. If I were shipwrecked with a Christian, I’d take the Bible. It’s only fun if you have someone with whom to argue.

A book that made me laugh:

The Bible. There are several bits that make me chuckle. I crack up when Jesus kills the fig tree.

A book that I wish I had written:

The End of Faith by Sam Harris. I had that book in me and was somewhat disappointed that it was already out there.

A book that I wish had never been written:

The Communist Manifesto. Communism is such a perverse idea, and so many have suffered and died in an attempt to bring about a utopia that in reality looks a lot like Havana.  Runners up include the Bible and the Qur’an.

A book I’ve been meaning to read:

The Catechism of the Catholic Church. It’s a daunting volume. The United States of America operates based on a four page document. The Catholic Church needs a rule book as long as the Bible. Speaking of the Bible, isn’t that supposed to be the rule book? I think the Catholics had Talmud envy.

I’m currently reading:

Dune by Frank Herbert. I’m only half way through, but I’m enjoying the way Herbert uses religion in conjunction with politics in setting up the motivations and conflicts in his universe. I took out The Complete C.S. Lewis Signature Classics from the library last night. That will be next. I read the first two pages of Mere Christianity, and I’ve already found at least four reasons Lewis was a jackass.

~I AM~

Little Old Lady Loses Her Marbles

“They were right here.” says Surely Deranged of suburban La La Land.

“Well you are 81 years old, you don’t think maybe you misplaced them?”

“No, no, they were right here on the shelf, and now they’re gone.”

“Uhm, are these them over hear on the table?”

“Well no, they couldn’t be, my marbles were up on the shelf!”

“OK, what if I just put these marbles on the shelf?”

“Oh my, look you found my marbles!”

“Well, not all of them.”

–

Woman Believes What She Wants to Believe

“The sky is red.” says Klinically Insane of Wacko, TX.

“Actually, it’s a beautiful blue with white puffy clouds.”

“Now your just being silly”

–

Woman Sees Virgin Mary on a Turtle“I told some of my friends, you know, ‘I got a turtle,’ and I said it has the image of the Virgin Mary on it, and I said it’s getting plainer and plainer.”

“Oh, Shirley, you’re getting nuts; you’re 81 years old.”

“There’s no doubt,” McVane said. “You can’t doubt it’s the Virgin Mary. You know it’s there, and that’s all.”

“Uhm, it just looks like a regular turtle to me.”

“She came to a holy house. I think she came to visit us so God knows she’s happy and safe.”

“Yeah, ’cause if God wants to let us all know that the “Virgin” Mary is safe, he’ll announce it through a turtle, right.”

–

No, none of these are news. Yet somehow, at least one of these stories is making headlines.

LBBP

I stumbled upon an article at FindLaw, that highlights a new book by Michelle Goldeberg about the rise of Christian nationalism. I have not read the book yet, though I think I will order a copy, so I can’t really speak to the validity of it’s claims. However, the snippets from both the FindLaw piece and the authors site suggest that it may be worth reading.

The FindLaw piece starts out this way:

If more Americans would read works like Michelle Goldberg’s Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, the longevity of our democracy, as we know it, would be more assured. I say this because the more people who understand the thinking and agenda of the growing forces of “Christian nationalism,” the less likely it will be that these forces will succeed. Not many people want to go where Christian nationalists want to take the country.

The last 6 or 8 years have already shown us what we can expect from a Christian nationalist government; holy crusades fought at the expense of the tax payers, the suppression of scientific and medical research in the name of perceived biblical doctrine, and the steady dismantling of individual rights. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg for what the Christian nationalists (CN) really want.

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness.
But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice.
It is dominion we are after. Not just influence.
It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time.
It is dominion we are after.
World conquest. That’s what Christ has commissioned us to accomplish.

- The Changing of the Guard: Biblical Principles for Political Action by George Grant

This is the type of religious imposition that we need to guard against most stringently. Sure, being subjected to “in God we trust”, “under God”, or the Ten Commandments is annoying, but all that pales in comparison to what this country will be like if the CN succeeds in their quest for “dominion”.

How do they intend to do it? The strategy has already begun. They are systematically breeding, training, deploying, and installing judges into the US legal system in an attempt to adjudicate the conversion of our country from quasi secularism to full blown theocracy. Again, from the FindLaw piece:

Reconstructionist leaders see federal judges — probably correctly, Goldberg notes — “as the only thing protecting American secularism. They know that if they can take the courts, they’ll have the country.” Their strategy to take the courts is twofold, although, as Goldberg notes, it’s also “somewhat contradictory” — and it envisions a protracted battle.First, Christian nationalists plan to pressure politicians “to pack the bench with their ideological allies,” and they are “training a new generation of home schooled jurists who will approach the law with a Christian worldview.” […]

Second, accompanying the attempt at court-packing, Goldberg reports that Christian nationalists are “trying to strip the courts of much of their current authority” while “railing against judges who override the popular will.” Or as Goldberg nicely summarizes Christian nationalists’ strategy, they “are simultaneously fighting a war for the judiciary and a war on it.”

Goldberg cites two right-wing judges nominated by President Bush as the kind who would satisfy the court packing plans of the Christian nationalists. Both judges — William Pryor and Janice Rogers Brown — initially provoked Democratic filibusters. Unfortunately, my quick search of the debate in the Senate on these two highly controversial nominees does not reveal that anyone in the Senate opposing these nominees was aware that behind them, lurked the hand of the Christian nationalists.

The CN is a small segment of our society, but they are very well funded. Millions of saps pouring money into the coffers of Pat Robertson and company, all in the name of “gifts to God”, generates allot of cash. I am certain that most of those people assume their money is going to feed little Misha or Alina or to help convert Godless “Moslems” in Indonesia. If they really understood that their money was also being used to fund a covert takeover of the American government, I wonder how many of them would still be so generous. The CN are well organized and hold regular meetings. No they don’t meet under the club name “Christian Nationalists”, but they all meet up every Sunday and receive their marching orders. They also control large segments of the media, many many blogs, have a plethora of radio shows, and several TV shows.

I have often thought that atheists need to get their own TV shows. It would be particularly good if it could come on right after the 700 Club. To be acceptable, it would have to have a title that’s more palatable to the general public, so the Angry Atheist Hour, or Religion Sucks!, though accurate, would probably not go over very well in our current society.

The CN is why I started blogging, and why I vote, and I encourage other atheists to do so as well. Atheists should never allow themselves to give in to feelings of apathy or inevitability. Every atheist should be a constructive, active, voice in their local community. There are quite a few atheists that prescribe to the notion that government itself is illegitimate and invasion of personal rights. Whether that is true or not, I will not try and argue in this post. However, I can say with complete confidence, that if we adopt and maintain an abstinence approach to government, the Christian Nationalists will step in and take over.

LBBP 

Well, I have to admit, I feel a little like a warm-up band going out to play to a sell out crowd that’s been kept waiting several hours by the headliner.

Since there are undoubtedly many people who don’t know much about me, I thought I would take a moment to introduce myself before diving into other topics. As ~I Am~ kindly mentioned, I have been posting on my own blog Skeptic Rant, for a little over a year now in it’s current incarnation. I started blogging as a vehicle to voice my outrage at the social trends brought into glaring light shortly after the 2004 elections.

I have made statements of disbelief at SR in the past, but think it would be appropriate to start by restating them here. When asked about religion, I find it simpler to start from a position of strong atheism. So, for example, when I get my quarterly knock on the door from the local Church of Later Day Saints, I tend to respond with, “Hey guys, save your breath, I’m an atheist. I don’t have time to save you from a wasted life of devotion to a non-existent deity right now.” Then I shut the door.

The actual depth of my disbelief is somewhat more complicated. I am a bit of a closet Thomas Paine fan, and much of my thoughts on religion are influenced by Paine’s The Age of Reason, with some pretty big caveats. Paine takes the existence of one true God as a given, though he does not believe that any of the churches of man represent the true nature of God.

“Each of those churches show certain books, which they call revelation, or the word of God. The Jews say, that their word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face; the Christians say, that their word of God came by divine inspiration: and the Turks say, that their word of God (the Koran) was brought by an angel from Heaven. Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all.”

My affinity for Paine (hmmm that sounds really bad if you read it out loud) has led me in the past, to call myself a strongly agnostic deist. The ambiguity of that position has since forced me to abandon it. I unequivocally disagree with any assertion that any “God” participates in any aspect of our world. I further unequivocally deny that there is anyone, anywhere, that really knows one way or the other. So, while Paine denies the authority of the worlds churches, and embraces the concept of a personal relationship with God, I feel that perceived relationships with God have all been wishful thinking, delusion, or fraud. Anyone claiming otherwise, is deluding themselves, or their audience, or both.

I do acknowledge the possibility that I could be wrong, and that there are most certainly many things in our universe that we do not comprehend. I also understand that people have a right to their own beliefs. The reason I don’t usually start conversations from this point of view though, is that it tends to encourage would be evangelists to use that as an opening to preach, or try to convert me. I do enjoy a spirited debate about religion, but I don’t want to give the false impression that I am on the fence on this issue. I am not.
What really pisses me off, is when people try to impose their beliefs on others. I strongly feel that religion has no business in any aspect of government, and that the inclusion of religion in world government has been the single worst tragedy of human history. Again, Thomas Paine perhaps said it best when he wrote:

“The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum.”

Sadly, this is more true today than ever.

I have not always felt this way. I was raised Episcopalian, and my father is a Father, so to speak. That is, he is an Episcopalian priest, now retired. My parents never forced us to be active in church. I was a willing participant. I attended youth group activities, went to Sunday school, became an acolyte, and was confirmed (a religious coming of age ceremony). When I went off to school, I pursued a degree in Environmental Science / Biology before switching to theater. It was during this time that I came to regard religion with skepticism (thus confirming the worst fears of evangelicals everywhere that science is evil) and that skepticism has only strengthened as I grow older.

It is because of my father (the Father) that I write under a pseudonym. Not because he doesn’t have a sense of how I feel, but rather because I wish to avoid rubbing it in his face, or embarrassing him by one of his colleagues or parishioners easily stumbling across my writing unexpectedly. I am also not particularly concerned with people finding my real name, I just don’t wish it to be an easy search connection.

I was asked when I first started commenting here what LBBP means. The rather boring answer is that it is an acronym for a former business name that I liked, and just held onto. Now, I tell everyone that it’s a Disney acronym for Large Bean Bag Plush, without any further explanation. The virtual quizzical responses are much more amusing that way.

Finally, I am not ~I Am~, nor will I try to be. I am excited about this opportunity and I hope you all will find my writing at least almost as interesting as ~I Am’s~. I have long felt that the conversations that have developed in the comments on this site are a large part of it’s popularity. So, if nothing else I hope to be able to offer topics for further conversation. Thank you all for the kind comments in the last two posts. I hope I can live up to the high standards set forward by ~I Am~.

LBBP

I have an announcement to make that is the biggest thing to hit this blog since its inception. As you all know, I’ve been slacking off of late, depriving you all of content, and that’s not right. So, I’ve come up with a solution. The great and powerful I AM is taking on a partner. Think of it as polytheism if you like.

Effective immediately (or at least as soon as he writes something), LBBP from Skeptic Rant will be posting in this space. He is amongst my favorite atheist bloggers but has never managed to build the kind of audience his writing deserves. I’m pleased to give him access to a larger forum, and I’m sure those of you who are not familiar with him from anything other than his comments here will soon understand why I chose him.

So, you get twice the evangelical atheism, and we’re not even raising the price of admission. That’s quite a bargain in a world where it costs you $35 in gas to drive to the grocery store. Here at EA, we’re all about value.

~I AM~