Continuation...

More room to type, I guess. I mean, I'm not very interested in blogging here anymore, to be frank. I love to talk to all of you, but lately my interestes lie elsewhere. What spare time I have is mostly focused on my inner world lately, and blogging about it on my other blog, "A WORLD OUT OF MIND," devoted to my Salvia Divinorum experimentation. Sorry, I know most of you couldn't be less interested in that. I'll be around, so feel free to talk... and Pboy, I'm still depressed about your bird. Talk to you later.. -St. B PS: I remember Jerry telling me that I was unhappy because I wasn't writing about my passion, or something like that. He may have been right; this is more fun, and the christians depress the living fuck out of me. I still 'do battle' from time to time on Huffington Post, but less and less. My skull is metaphorically dented all over from trying to get through their brick wall of idiocy, and after all these years trying I'm pretty certain that it can't be done. PPS: Pliny, you being my most scientifically-minded critic here, I wonder what you think of my latest post on the other blog. You too Pboy. It has progressed a great deal since last we spoke about it, the SD thing I mean. Getting objective third-party results on a consistant basis. I value your criticism and your grounding influence. I swear that I'm not 'losing it' in any way. I suppose that the testimony of the person in question that may be 'losing it' has little value, but I haven't changed. My visions have, however. Love all of you people... take care... I'll be around, floating in the ether or something like that.

Punitive God Makes Ya Crazy

"Many people find comfort in religious faith, but a provocative new study links certain beliefs with emotional problems. The study, published April 10 in the Journal of Religion & Health, showed that people who believe in an angry, vengeful god are more likely to suffer from social anxiety, paranoia, obsessional thinking, and compulsions." >>> Isn't this kind of obvious? Does it really take a study to establish this? It seems rather obvious to me. What this article calls a "Punitive God" is virtually identical to what I call "coercive morality." People that believe in or are drawn to that kind of belief, either are already sick or will soon become so, since it confuses love with hatred, good with evil, and morality with immorality, and it does so with the imprimatur of the Deity, so you'd better fucking damn well listen and believe every fucking last word of it scumbag, or your're screwed forever, sitting in a fiery hellscape with demons playing tictactoe on your taint with razor blades, all because you didn't believe that God loves you more than you can imagine. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/24/religion-mental-health-angry-god-brain_n_3097025.html?utm_hp_ref=science

Bringing A Knife To A Gun Fight

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/09/lone-star-stabbing-texas-community-college_n_3045991.html Lone Star Stabbing: Suspect Arrested After Texas Community College Attack CYPRESS, Texas — A student went on a building-to-building stabbing attack at a Texas community college Tuesday, wounding at least 14 people before being subdued and arrested, authorities said. The attack about 11:20 a.m. on the Lone Star Community College System's campus in Cypress sent at least 12 people to area hospitals, including four people taken by helicopter, according to Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Robert Rasa. He said several people refused treatment at the scene and all the wounds were consistent with stabbing... (more) READ THE COMMENTS SECTION Many, many people saying that "Now Obama will ask for knife control" and so forth, ignoring how this proves our side of the argument, because if it had been an AR-15 with extended clip we wouldn't be reading about 14 wounded; more likely forty dead. They make no sense whatsoever, and don't even seem to try.

WTF Is The "Naked Communist?"

I was arguing with a right-wing nutbag on Huffington Post yesterday and he threw this at me: 25. "Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as normal, natural and healthy". 26. "Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting homosexuality, obscenity, and pornography in books, magazines, motion pictures, and TV." The lefist social engineering machine is working well. -His comment. So I dispute that anybody on the left would ever write such a thing, and he insisted that "a leftist wrote it, and it's in the Congressional Record!" So I looked it up. The Naked Communist From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Naked Communist is a book written in 1958 by conservative United States author and faith-based political theorist Cleon Skousen.[1] The book posits and seeks to describe a geopolitical strategy by which the Marxist–Leninist Soviet Union was attempting to overcome and control all the governments of the world that were not members of the Communist bloc. At the time that the book was published, during the Cold War, fear of communism was common among people in non-communist nations. The list of communist goals contained in the book was read into the Congressional Record by U.S. Congressman Albert S. Herlong, Jr. of Florida, on January 10, 1963.[2] The following is the list of Communist goals contained in The Naked Communist:[2] (Note: there is no such list in the original edition of the book.) U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war. Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party. Do away with all loyalty oaths. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks. Gain control of all student newspapers. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms." Control art critics and directors of art museums. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy." Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch." Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state." Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man." Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. Infiltrate and gain control of big business. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity, masturbation and easy divorce. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use "united force" to solve economic, political or social problems. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government. Internationalize the Panama Canal. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike. WTF???????????????????????????????????? They're still believing sixties propaganda!

Foaming At The Ass/The Art of Stupid (Rant-O-Rama)

..........."Go away! Go to your own planet. You even took our rainbow away. What is a child supposed to think when they look at it? Dykes & Homo's? Whoever opened up that first closet really opened up Pandora's Box. Look at Phoneywood where people take this situation. Half of them are half a fag and the rest die of AIDS! Oh cry me a river. A man's private's belong in a woman. Not another man's butt. Women? What were you afraid of in life? No excuse. Disgusting! Not normal being's. What is normal? Not what your sect is doing. So all of you can get on the Big Ship Lollipop and enjoy your weirdness while your ship takes you away from the normal people in life. There you can print in your schoolbooks it is normal where you live. As for us, again, GO AWAY!!!!!!"............. Anti-Gay Marriage Rant on comment boards at Huffington Post... There's just so much to love in here! I especially like the 'rainbows' part... Poor Judy Garland can never get back to Oz now! And let's never forget, a man's privates belong in a woman! Why, in my opinion, he should never take them out!

Pope-A-Dope

Habemos Papam! We have a new pope, and this one's just wonderful. Anti-Gay, anti-Woman, anti-liberal-priest-who-he-might-have-helped-kill... Another old man in a dress... at least he chose a sexually ambiguous name... someday maybe he'll be Saint Francis the Sissy. Well, my kid's diaper needs changing... Habemos Poopoo!

The Past Is Still Real

Here's a puzzle that I want you all to consider:

(at least, I find it puzzling, or at least worthy of consideration and much thought...)

I've read Brian Greene's two books, and looked around a bit more, and from what I've read (feel free to help me out here and research this yourself; I'm open to correction) quantum physicists seem to mostly believe that the past is real, as real as the present is. That's what the math indicates, and they don't seem to have too much of a problem with it.

Can I humbly ask you to digest that for a minute?

Can that be true?  Can you accept that to be true?  What does it mean if that is true?

If the past is as real as the present, even if we can never go back in time and visit the past, it means that in our personal pasts, all the things we remember about our pasts (plus all the things we don't remember) are still "out there" hanging in space as it were, being REAL.

If the past is real, as real as the present is, then our personal pasts are still real.

Pick a memory, say your favorite one, if one such exists.

Somewhere "out there" you are living that moment. Now. (Your "now," in that moment)

That first kiss?  You're still kissing it.

I'm being serious here.

Think about it.

What this means is that, if you could remember the past *perfectly,* then you would not be able to differentiate that perfect memory of the past, from the present.  It would all blend.

The fault lies not in reality, but in our memories.  If our memories were perfect, we would experience both the past and the present, as the *now.*

This is what the statement "The past is still real, as real as the present" means.  These are the implications.

If the past is all real, all still real, all still as real as the present is, then take the total mass of this universe, and multiply it by every moment, every microsecond, every Planck Time micromeasure of time, and *all of that, taken together, exists NOW.*

If the past is all real, as real as the present, if you really think about it, and then think some more, and then really, REALLY think about it...

The only logical conclusion is that all of reality is thought.  Consciousness.  For nothing that we consider *real* could possibly be so malleable, versatile, and re-creatable over and over again, from microsecond to microsecond, as to produce a reality in which all moments, all micro-moments, every single thing that ever has happened, co-exists somehow in some universal "now." Only undifferentiated pure consciousness could possibly accomplish something like that. 

Saint Brian has spoken.   

Just more room to type...

See above. 


The running subjects seem to be of course the amazing density of the typical right-wing christian, and the behavior of photons. 

Both of which defy all reason.

Gunnilingus

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/weirdnewsvideo/9787261/Deport-Piers-Morgan-petition-creator-Alex-Jones-in-pro-gun-CNN-rant-at-British-presenter.html

Alex Jones Gun Rant at Piers Morgan

This is an amazing video.  We rarely get to see the raw unbalanced emotion of the extreme right wing on display like this.  It reveals much about their side of the argument.  It's about them believing that a few assault rifles will protect them from the US Armed Forces.  As if!  They think they're in "The Bourne Legacy!"

Rarely do the demented display the fact that they're demented so openly and without care. 

It's really something to watch.  I especially love the raw flow of righteous indignation and searing anger.  I was waiting for his head to just pop like an overfilled water balloon.  If only mouth-foaming were an Olympic sport!

Dumb-Fundied

Fundies are amazing. One time a couple of years ago I was pointing out to one of them that other previous religions had saviors that died and were re-born, whose birthday was December 25th even, gods that said almost the same things as Jesus, such as Tammuz and Mithras and others, and what I got back blew my widdle mind... I've actually heard it more than just the one time since then, too... they were actually so stunningly idiotic as to say that since Christianity was the One True Faith, those other previous faiths *copied Christianity before it even existed!* That since Christianity was so huge and important, reverberations and premonitions of it's glory went back in TIME and so those other previous faiths merely copied it beforehand!

Stunningly stupid. Amazingly gullible. Laughably ridiculous... but they believed it. Somehow.

So I was thinking...  I was wondering what your own stories are of stunning fundie ignorance on proud display.  What was the most ignorant thing that you've ever heard a fundie say? 

Think hard, I know there's so much to choose from.

And to my religious readers, you also may participate, by telling us the dumbest thing an atheist ever said to you, or what you think science is most wrong about, or whatever you think is the dumbest thing about our side of the conversation.

Personally I'm thinking that the dumbest thing we on this side do, is attempt to show your side what isn't dumb.   It's unfair, like asking my pug to do my taxes.....