New Meme: Can You Remember The Day That You Officially Became An Atheist?

Can You Remember The Day That You Officially Became An Atheist?

For this question I am using the standard definition of atheist: Answering the question "do you believe in God" with a NO.

I can't remember. I can't even remember if it was before I was married or slightly after. By the way, I was 29 when I got conned into marriage. I honestly can't remember what I believed in when I was in my early 20's, outside of the usual occasional late night worrying about what happens after death, and that the end of my consciousness (soul) was the most probable outcome.



Do you remember the day you officially became an agnostic?

Again, my answer is no. Probably in my teens. I think it had to do with a combination of the fact that religion answered nothing definitely, but science answered lots. Coupled with the vastness of the universe, existential literature I was exposed to in high school, and just the thought of the life of bugs (why God would create insects that would live for a day (to mate and die), and where does God draw the line when it comes to afterlife? Humans? Our beloved pets? Highly intelligent mammals like chimps and dolphins? Insects?


How about the last time you spoke or prayed to God with actual thought that someone was listening?

I can pin that one down a bit. I remember when I was in my teens, praying for a family friend who was diagnosed with cancer. Unfortunately, God chose to ignore me.
Maybe it was because I was asking, "if you exist, can you make it so that Mrs. X survives her cancer." In other words, I was still agnostic when I last prayed.


Did anger towards God or religion help cause you to be an atheist or agnostic?

No. I was never very religious, so it really didn't affect my thought process.


Here is a good one: Were you agnostic towards ghosts, even after you became an atheist?

My honest answer is yes, for a little while I think. But I don't believe that ghosts are possible anymore, probably because I've become more of a militant skeptic atheist type, reading lots of science stuff and all in the last 5 or 6 years.


Do you want to be wrong?

Of course I want to be wrong, but I'm not, and I'm as sure as sure can be about it.


I'm going to be brave ambitious here, in my tagging of five bloggers: Deep Thoughts, Atheist Revolution, Friendly Atheist, Stardust Musings, and The Atheist Blogger.

The Elections, Toronto Real Estate Prices, The Market, Firefox GMail Tip

Every now and then I am compelled to make a non atheism related post (OK, there is some atheism related stuff here). Just want to get a few of my predictions out of the way on stuff that is making the news.

The Canadian Elections
We are pretty happy here. Low interest rates, good housing prices (right now, but just wait), and low unemployment. The stock markets are down (but us Canadians know it will go up again eventually) This isn't the climate for a change. The Conservatives are a lock to win, and hopefully they will get a majority.
Stephen Harper has always kept his Evangelical Christianity views away from his policies. He respects separation of church and state, and I respect him for that.
Plus, we don't have nukes aiming all over the place, so he couldn't start Armageddon and fast track The Rapture if he wanted to.
John Tory tried to blur the line between church and state in the last Ontario election by proposing the funding of all religious schools. I had to grudgingly vote Liberal because of it. The Conservatives wound up getting clobbered, and hopefully learned a very valuable lesson.
Canada is a very secular country (including 23% atheists). Fundy Christians can beat their chest that we are a Christian country, but we are not anymore. We've risen above it.
The Green Party's name is appealing, but the problem is that they really don't have any realistic policies. And I would hate to have them deal with things like today's wicked international financial problems, which does have an affect on us Canucks inevitably.
As for the Liberals. Well, I'm no fan. They have a few Hamas loving MPs and there is no need to raise taxes here right now. And Liberal policy means cost of living increases. Their Green Tax Shift to me just spells out more bureaucracy, and more money out of my pocket, with the promise to get money back at tax time. I hate political promises, because I don't trust them.
The NDP is full of Left Wing nutballs who want to turn our country into a welfare state. I don't like unions, I don't like welfare mothers, I detest the NDP.
Canada is a capitalist society with a dose of needed socialism. I don't think the socialism is bad here. I don't think too many people actually really feel we pay too much taxes. Some Socialism is needed to have a good health care system, and I just don't trust everyone to have to take out their own sufficient health insurance. People just can't be trusted that way.
Every Canadian has the opportunity to become filthy rich. In fact, I'm halfway there. I've nailed the filthy part.

The US Elections
Barack Hussein Obama is a lead pipe cinch to win in a landslide this year. Most Americans aren't happy with Iraq because victory was pretty much promised by the Republicans, and now the tune has evolved so much, victory isn't even a possible outcome. And now with the fall of Wall Street, making a change in political leadership is as natural a guy fantasizing about having two women at once.
I'm not fan of Obama, but Palin is just plain scary, and the fact that McCain could get sick or die in office is very real. Not only is Palin's intelligence is in question, her religious beliefs are very frightening. Factor in that the average woman enters menopause at 47, and couple that with her Rapture/Armageddon beliefs, and then think about her finger on NUKULER bomb buttons.
As for abortion, she is anti-choice. As for gays, she is as tolerant towards gays as Hitler was towards gays and Jews. And it all boils down to her religious beliefs that she wants to push onto America.
Obama and Biden may say they are against gay marriage, but they also seem to not even want to define the word marriage. In other words, they aren't about to get involved in the issue.
Obama may be right for right now. I think he is mouldable, and I have faith that the American people will keep him fighting Islamic terrorism, just like the American people kaybashed Bush's Dubai Ports Deal. WTF was he even thinking?


Toronto Real Estate Prices

This is going to get ugly. Finally, the bubble has burst. Real Estate prices in Toronto have dropped 6% from a year ago. There are 37% more homes on the market than a year ago too.
Lots of speculating going on (though our rules in Canada are a lot tougher than the rules that lead to the financial crisis in the USA), the flippers can't fix a house up and flip it for a substantial gain anymore, in fact, they won't even be able to break even for a long long time.
And flippers don't look long term, and they hate making too many mortgage payments. They will bail as quickly as they can. And from here, we should see a substantial drop in prices over the next 4-6 months as even potential buyers will mostly wait.
Also, there have been tons of condos going up. Speculators were making lots just buying early and selling before completion. But its over, at least for a long time.
Tulip Mania in the real estate market has ended. I expect to see 2002 prices within 18 months.
I'll admit, I've been predicting this bubble to burst for a couple of years now. I'm off a bit.
As for the rest of Canada, I think Calgary and Vancouver are going to have real ugly downtrends as well. Smaller towns will be affected as well, but not to the same magnitude.


The Financial Markets
Scary, scary, scary. We have not reached the point of capitulation YET. Lots of analysts are saying it is a great time to bottom fish. Good chance is that we will be lower (probably not by a ton) 4 months from now.

And if you think prayer is going to help any of the above, you are simply wasting your time. I had to get an atheism dig in:)


FIREFOX GMAIL DEFAULT TIP
I mostly use Firefox and Gmail now. I've even figured out how to direct my emails from other accounts into my main gmail account (I only bring this up because I'm a borderline retard when it comes to figuring out how and why computers work).
I often email pages to my work associates and friends, but my email default has either been Outlook Express or Incredimail (I stopped using Incredimail because a computer geek friend of mine told me it isn't very secure).
I wanted Gmail to be my default. I started doing some Google searches. Lots of complicated resolutions.....not interested in those. Finally, I came across a simple one. Here it is:
While you are using the Mozilla Firefox browser, click "tools," then click "options," then click "applications," then type in "mailto" in the search box there, right click the action associated with "mailto" and then highlight Gmail.
Done and done.

Bill Maher Is Pissing Me Off A Bit

I really like the fact that Bill Maher is doing the circuit right now to promote his movie Religulous. I do think he is going to get many theists to question their beliefs and the real history of the bible, and perhaps even create many more atheists and agnostics in the process.

I've seen him on four shows now, and he has pretty much used the same material on each which is understandable. In case you haven't seen him, this interview is pretty much what he says more or less in a nutshell.

But it is the following that irks me:

When replying to this statement by an interviewer, "I guess that brings us to the topic of "Religulous," which I read as this effort to get agnostics and atheists out of the closet in American society," Bill Maher came back and said,
"That's certainly one of the goals. I don't use the word "atheist" about myself, because I think it mirrors the certitude I'm so opposed to in religion. What I say in the film is that I don't know. I don't know what happens when you die, and all the religious people who claim they do know are being ridiculous. I know that they don't know any more than I do. They do not have special powers that I don't possess. When they speak about the afterlife with such certainty and so many specifics, it just makes me laugh."

I have a feeling he is just trying to appeal to the masses by not labeling himself as an atheist. A term that causes many a theist to flinch. By labeling himself as agnostic, he is just trying to be accepted.

It is evident in everything he says beyond avoiding the atheism label, that he is an atheist.

An atheist doesn't have to say "there is no God, or no afterlife." Most of us say or think that "there is no evidence for God or an afterlife, so why even consider something that has no evidence to back it up?"

It is a cop out for Maher to say "I don't know what happens when we die." It is like saying "I don't know if Leprechauns live in Ireland and avoid being seen by humans." I'm sure that he is completely certain that since there is no evidence of an afterlife and since nothing else supernatural ever appears to happen, and since one can't trace back their existence before one is conceived, it a mathematical certainty that when we die, our consciousness dies with us.

The thing that pisses me off the most is that he is dissing atheists by misrepresenting what most atheists are, by equating atheism with religion, implying a religious fanatic and an atheist are equal when it comes to the person's certainty. An atheist does not have to be certain, just as someone doesn't have to be certain that an actual Tooth Fairy doesn't exist. Religious people buy into something based on zero evidence, while atheism is a position that doesn't accept things that have zero evidence.


Here is an interview I just watched for the first time this morning (I'm up to 5 interviews now):

I preach the Gospel of "I don't know." I don't buy it Bill. And either do you.

Although, he has stated that he considers Gods existence, I'm almost positive it is only for PC reasons to keep his audience as large as possible. If he realizes that believing in the bible is childish, he has to realize that the same line of reasoning applies to believing in any God. He doesn't consider that the bible could be real, so where exactly is the doubt?

See also, Bill Maher Is An Atheist, Whether He Knows It Or Not

I Feel Much Smarterer Now

Hey I'll be first to admit that I know a little about a lot of things (I do know a lot about a few things, but that is a different matter). I'm always searching for knowledge though, on things I know a little about, that either interest me, or are in the news. I probably Google 50 times a day on average.

I like 101 summations. The simpler the better. If I want to pursue the matter, at least I have the basic knowledge.

Two things that I will guarantee most people hear about currently, but know very little about are Climate Change, and this bailout thingy in the US.

Happily, just in the last couple of days, I have been enlightened on both subjects, and now it us to anyone reading this post, to enlighten themselves.

First is Climate Change aka The Global Warming debate. Potholer54 gives what I think is the most sincere and factual account of what the heck is going on with our atmosphere in completely understandable words. Seriously, this is worth the 10 minutes out of your busy schedule:

H/T The Atheist Media Blog

Now for the Freddie/Fannie mess? How did it happen? Got 3 minutes?

H/T The guy behind Eye On The World

What? It wasn't caused by the 6 Jews who control the world? How can that be? Oh yeah, Fox news is controlled by those Jews. What was I thinking?

I Do Attract My Fair Share Of Lunatics

I'd like to think that most of my readers are as sane and rational as myself. In fact, I know this is the case because I do read the blogs that have me on their blogrolls.

But I do have nuts that visit. And some of them are so "impressed/shocked/disgusted/etc." by my postings that they write a post about me or at least quote me in their posts.

My site meter is a good source to see if I'm being mentioned, as sometimes I see a few hits from a site I'm not familiar with or a site I normally never get any hits from.
Lots of times a post of mine is linked in a message board. Heck, that is why I blog in the first place. I want to be read by as many people as possible.

I also do a Google Blog search every few days of "atheist Jew." Sometimes I find blogs that have no following write about me (thus no site meter hits), or someone who mentions me but doesn't link to my blog.

Recently, just in the last few days, I've become really popular amongst the nutters.

First, this 9/11 denying nut bar who has a blog named The State Of The Mind (Spreading the Truth about God) dedicated a post to me called 'The Stupidity of "the Atheist Jew"'

Here is what his main gripe is:

Now wait a minute. First of all, there’s no reason to capitalize “Gods,” because “gods” is not a proper noun. Second of all, where exactly do we get the rule that someone is “Jewish” if their mother is Jewish? From Judaism! But what is that to someone who doesn’t believe in Judaism? By accepting this definition of a Jew, he is accepting Judaism as a valid religion, because there is no reason for a non-Jew to accept this definition of a Jew. What an idiot.

I hate atheist pseudo-Jews. I told you: it’s the bacon-eating, Sabbath-violating, don’t-know-much-about-Judaism “Jews” that are the problem; not the real Jews, or those who sympathize with the real Jews. And of course, he’s Leftist in his views. Surprise me not.

Of course, my attempt to explain (in his comment section which he conveniently edited to suit himself) how the concept of an atheist Jew is completely valid was just wilfully denied by this yo yo.

Honestly, I don't think there are too many atheist Jews out there who do not acknowledge themselves as being ethnic Jews. Even by almost every definition, the world, most rabbis, Webster's, Jew haters, my neighbours, and even my God believing family members and friends, I will be a Jew from the day I was born until the day I die.

Even Richard Dawkins recently called himself a cultural Christian. So I think he gets it too.


Lets move on. I recently got a mention from this guy:

'Bill White, is the self-appointed leader of the American National Socialist Workers' Party and the administrator of the antisemitic (and racist) website Overthrow.com.'

He quoted me in a post named Breaking White Nationalism's Rules. You can almost sympathize with this kook as he seems to realize that he and his ilk have no following. Here is my quote he uses:

“The reason you feel censored is because you have no audience.”

I was talking about a different white separatist/supremacist, but you can paint them all with one brush in this instance.

He did say something that I found really funny (funny that it is true and funny that he actually realizes it and doesn't just say to himself, "what the hell am I doing with my life?"):

"I see the morons that compose the “white nationalist” “movement” in this country and I just hand my head in shame that someone might mistake my views for having something in common with them. As I reflected this evening, waiting outside the home of a recalcitrant tenant to collect their paycheck from them when they got home from work, it occurred to me that I’ve done three things wrong in relating to other white-ish activists:

1) I’ve rejected lunacy;

2) I’ve rejected homosexuality;

3) I’ve rejected pedophilia.

If you combine the last two into “queerness”, I’ve only done two things wrong, but with the same effect.

What I have come to realize, having sat in meetings of everything from communists to Democrats to Republicans to white nationalists to all sorts of bizarre offshoots, is that most people who get involved in political groups, regardless of stripe, are lunatics. The question is just whether their lunacy is useful to the people in power, as to how far they get with it. Most rank and file members of the two major parties are as crazy as communists and white nationalists, and one only has to read the DailyKos or FreeRepublic to know it.

What I’ve also come to realize is that by rejecting lunatics and sexual deviants I have written off perhaps two thirds of the white movement right off the top.

"

He seems somewhat intelligent, but he is totally out to lunch when it comes to his outlook of Jews. You have to wonder what made him turn out that way.

He came to the realization that John de Nugent is a lunatic, maybe he is intelligent enough to look in his own mirror and give himself a slap in the face when it comes to scapegoating Jews. I sum up the insanity of the Judeophobe in this post on my other blog, Judeophobe Watch.



Finally, The Jewish Conspiracy Exposed has written a post about me called "Jewish blogger claims that Judeophobic web sites don't allow critique in their blogs, has all comments moderated by Jewish admin"

This person is a real conspiracy believing nut case:

'Oddly Jews always manage to accuse Goyims of crimes that they do themselves. Now this one Jewish blogger claims that anti-Semites never let God’s chosen ones to refute their claims. But truth is that you cannot see any real critique of Israel or Jews in MSM, which is owned by Jews. But when you visit few blogs and forums that allow

Actually you can go to Stormfront.org and be a Jew and debunk, refute, chastise and debate with them. I have no moderation at all in this blog, only spam filter that might caught suspicious postings. But this Jew who says that anti-Semites don’t let Jews to debunk is just typical Ghetto Jews, full of Jewish lies. Jews have given me death threats thru my comments, and I didn’t start to moderate comments. I think it’s good that kikes will post to my blog, and then people will see what soulless creatures they really are.'

I pointed out many anti-semitic web sites that don't allow my comments. I also explained why I used comment moderation for the longest time.

Like him, but for different reasons obviously:), I like it when I get nutters to comment on my blogs, and I always publish them as long as they are on topic. These whackjobs make for excellent entertainment, and I want as many people as possible to be informed they actually exist, and get entertained at the same time.