On Eternal Life

A lot of you may be surprised to know that as an atheist, I actually believe in eternal life.

Most people regard it as an afterlife. Heaven or hell or perhaps something in between. Not me.

You see, I don’t believe in an afterlife. I get one shot. That’s it. No dress rehearsal. When I die, it’s game over, no respawns, no continues. It’s for this reason that I put infinitely more value on the life I have.

But I’ll tell you what I do believe. I will have life eternal, but not as a vagrant specter, or an ethereal sycophant, or even a tortured soul.

We already have words and an appeal for eternal life on the non-believers’ side. It’s called a legacy and a bloodline. One of these is optional, but as a secular humanist, I firmly believe that a legacy is mandatory.

I’m going to make sure that I’m going to be remembered. I will leave this world in a better state than I found it… and if everyone on this planet could follow this simple principle, you would see the end of a lot of strife.

I will live on forever through the projects I’ve completed. Through the people I’ve touched. Through the young man I’ve put into this world.

And no deity, no matter how powerful they may think they are, will ever be able to take any of that away from me.

Friendly Skies

I had to make a delayed trip to St. Louis; the winter storm a fortnight ago really messed with my travel plans. On my departure date, though, I sat down at the gate and not 2 minutes later was I told that all United flights were shut down for the day. I kind of expected it, so it looks like I had to re-book my departure for a second time. Three days later, I got off the ground with no hassle.

Upon returning, I sent United Airlines an email saying something along the lines of "Hey, this winter storm really messed up my schedule, so I paid out the ass for parking. Would it be at all possible to get compensation on the garage fees? Also, fantastic job expediting everything with the polar vortex plowing through the eastern seaboard. I know it must have been difficult with all the travelers getting stranded and what not, every staff member of yours was awesomely accommodating."

Seriously, I didn't feel like I'd been wronged, and I tried to convey that in the email I sent to their customer service, even going so far as to compliment them on it.

Today’s mail came with a letter from United and a $50 gift card. The gift card is a welcome gesture, but the letter is stunningly ironic.

The customer care rep apologized profusely… for disappointing me and apparently giving me an unfavorable impression of United’s service. Maybe I didn’t convey my concerns effectively or something?

I can’t get a copy of the email I sent them, so I can’t go back and check, and it kind of bothers me that they felt the need to apologize for something that I didn’t really blame them for.

Has anyone else had an experience like that with customer service?

Prayer-a-thon

Two explosions in Boston today at the finish line of the Boston Marathon prompted an influx of media coverage and a flood to my facebook timeline of messages of hope for those affected by the tragedy.

And given how local it is (much like the shootings in Newtown earlier this year), my heart goes out to anyone who was personally affected or knows someone who was critically injured.

However, you’re not going to see me praying about it or requesting that others do the same. Prayer isn’t going to bring the two confirmed casualties back. It’s also not going to cause the amputees from the blast to regrow their limbs. As a matter of fact, prayer is not going to do anything except bolster the self-righteousness of those who announce that they’re doing it or begging others to do the same, only so they can join in on a sanctimonious circlejerk by co-opting yet another national tragedy to broadcast their façade of piousness. The only people the prayers are really helping are those who are doing it in the first place… and even then, there’s no tangible, relevant effects.

This alludes to what I said earlier today about the National Day of Prayer and how unnecessary it is. What about a National Day of Charity, or a National Day of Science, or a National Day of Compassion? Why are the theocrats who gave birth to such a sanctimonious national holiday not encouraging something that oh, I don’t know, CHRIST would advocate? Because compassion and action are what is needed right now.

Give money, even if it’s a little. Give blood, because you’re giving life.

Because if all you’re going to give is prayer, all you’re giving is the message that you want to help, but you’d rather plea to the whims of a deity that would invariably be responsible for letting the event happen in the first place.

Facebook Has ADD

I remember when I first joined Facebook back in 2006, it looked like a great way to connect with people in my life and share my thoughts, musings, and reminisce with them. Seven years later, it feels like it’s strayed so far from that. I have to wade through my news feed to see posts made by friends and acquaintances… the rest are advertisements, pages, “SHARE THIS NOW” spam, unimpressive pictures, and sometimes unfathomable stupidity.

It’s like reddit, except it takes up more room.

Facebook, for me, was a much simpler way for me to connect with people. It’s not something I can do as easily out of doors; I can’t just go to a bar or club and strike up a conversation with a total stranger. Hell, I can barely keep up mindless banter unless I’m with people I’m really close to.

It’s left me to wonder… what has become of Facebook as we once knew it? Do people really connect on it as much as they used to, or is it nothing more than a medium for pushing pictures of cats and pay-to-play fetchquest game requests? I added “things I like” to my profile so that my friends and acquaintances could find discussions through common interests, but as it turns out it’s just inundated my front page with things I’d rather just scroll past.

First there was Friendster, then there was Myspace, and now we have Facebook and Twitter. These our our social networks, but I can’t shake the feeling that my generation is ready to move on at this point to something better, just like we did 7 years ago.

Or maybe I’m just getting old.

In Defense of Marriage

I’ve said it on facebook, but it bears repeating. I’m a heterosexual, unmarried, humanist male. I don’t really plan on getting married anytime soon. Thing is, I don’t think it’s fair that I have a right to get married, but all my LGBTQ friends don’t. I’m not better than them. Why shouldn’t they have the same rights as other, heterosexual married couples?

Oh, what’s that? You’ve got reasons? Let’s see if I haven’t heard them before.

“God/The Bible says…”
No. Let’s just stop right here. I don’t give two flying shits about what your god or holy book has to say on the matter, because it’s irrelevant. We can get into a massive theological discussion about all the heinous stuff your god does allow, but most theists conveniently ignore when it doesn’t suit their agenda.

In America, especially, we have this fantastic thing called the Separation of Church and State. Not only does it mean freedom of religion, it means freedom from religion. It means that the government must remain neutral in affairs that have anything to do with religious belief. So if you’re against same-sex marriage because “God says it’s wrong", then so far you haven’t much of a leg to stand on in this country. God also says that eating shellfish is wrong, but that probably doesn’t stop your trips to Red Lobster.

“Marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman. It’s a religious institution. This country was founded on Christian principles.”
Really? I guess you fell asleep in 4th grade history class, then. Marriage is really supposed to be a business transaction between landowners, given that young women, in the time where the practice originated, were viewed as property as well. Religion simply assimilated this tradition (like it has done for so many others) and redefined it to be about the commitment between a man and a woman. Governments decided that it would be a good idea to legally recognize these commitments and bring with them all sorts of benefits. And when you start getting into government, you start having to think about civil rights issues.

“Gay marriage will destroy the sanctity of marriage.”
What “sanctity”? Where is the sanctity of marriage in a country where the majority of them end in divorce? What’s so sacred about Kim Kardashian’s $10 million wedding that ended in divorce only 72 days later?

There are plenty more arguments out there that I’ve heard, but all of them, even the ones that are probably being thrown around in the SCOTUS right now, are as ridiculous as these three.

If you don’t agree with me, and you’re against same-sex marriage, then there’s probably nothing I can say that will convince you to change your mind.

Not that I need to. You’re just plain wrong. Just be wrong quietly. Same-sex marriage does not affect you. At all.

Obligatory NC Amendment Apoplectic Fit

I feel privileged to know every single person that has the ability to see this post. Because NOBODY on my friends list has made a timeline/wall post in SUPPORT of the amendment passed in NC. For that, you keep my faith in humanity leveled. If you do support it, though, leave your reason why in the comments so I can tear you a new asshole.

This is a fight that has just begun. We may be winning so far in RI, but the battle is lost in other parts of our country. Now we know that our President is behind those who stand for human rights. Flush the bigots and the homophobes out of the woodwork. For everyone on your Facebook/Twitter list that has supported NC’s decision, call them out. Get people riled up.

We need to appeal this decision; human rights is not a matter of voting. I didn’t vote on your marriage; we don’t call it “heterosexual” marriage. As Aziz Ansari so eloquently put it, let’s face it. If you’re still against gay marriage at this point, you just plain don’t like gay people, and you want to “stick it” to ‘em. That’s all there is to it.

Within the past couple of years, two of my cousins have stepped out of the closet, and I could not be more proud of them. I hope that they never had any doubt in their mind that I nor anyone in our family would reject or disown them; we love them just the way they are, and it’s not “unnatural” or an “abomination”. And I know that they have the power and the social graces that are necessary to make a stand.

I sincerely hope that marriage equality will become a societal norm long before I die. Personally, I refuse to get married until everyone in this state has the right to marry who they choose. Until then, I stand with many others both in cyberspace and reality who are defending reason and human rights. Sure, it’s a bit of slacktivism, but awareness is the first step.

I Saw the Sign

My route home usually doesn’t include driving down 146, but I was on an errand. Not too far from the 95 southbound exit to 146 is a billboard.

For those of you who don’t feel like opening up your Bible, the passage cited (Jn 3:36) is as follows:

He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

One of the Bible’s most blatant threats to non-believers, but paraphrased unapologetically on a billboard… in Rhode Island, of all places. I’d expect to see something like this in the South, but certainly not in Providence.

As I drove past it, I stared in stunned disbelief, but then my brain started going into overdrive; not out of fury, but of simultaneous disappointment and amusement.

I could launch here into an ideological diatribe about how stupid this billboard is, but I won’t. There is a simple answer to the question posed by this advertisement of absurdity: neither, as they don’t exist.

I’m sure, however, if I were to dial the number on the billboard and give them that answer, it would be a complete waste of my time. I dare someone to do so and share your results with me.

Soy un Perdedor

It’s not easy being me. Many of you can probably say this with a straight face, I’m betting. And it’s the truth. Life is a zero-sum game, no matter which way you decide to look at it.

I’m going to come clean with everyone, in case it hasn’t been readily made apparent already. I was diagnosed a while ago with Asperger’s, a personality disorder that can be classified under high-functioning autism. What it basically means is that out of all my quirks, empathy is my lowest trait. I have an extremely hard time with it. You can guess what this leads to.

I’ve been pontificating a lot lately, and I never seem to write it down. Shit is perpetually hitting the fan, and only now am I deciding to actually chronicle it.

As I said before, life is a zero-sum game. It’s a game that is on the hardest difficulty, you aren’t allowed to stop playing it, and none of the rules are written down. Oh sure, people think they’ve written down the best rules possible, but it’s impossible for everyone to be right at the same time.

It’s one part of the reason why my alias is Red Mage. My life is a game; a neverending series of obstacles, missions, objectives, and the occasional annoying NPC. Happiness is not a state of mind here; it’s an achievement. And I don’t mean achievement like a successful outcome, I mean an achievement like that little point-value blip that you get on your screen when you’re playing a game and do something cool or reach a milestone. And like that blip, happiness is fleeting and temporary. Some people live for those moments; I see them as nothing more than an occasional ray of light in a world marred by figurative darkness.

I’ve gotten to the point where my status ailment has significantly lowered my initiative and ability to take actions. The items that are sold to remedy this don’t take effect until several weeks after they’re taken, and quite frankly I’m too busy fighting demons and completing mandatory missions to bother with any of it.

In the meantime, my strength and constitution decline, my intelligence exponentially rises, and my mana is derived from anger instead of goalsetting. I’ve had way too many instances where I’ve wanted to just drop the controller or quit the game entirely, but something pushes me forward. Whatever it is, I both detest it… and am eternally grateful that it’s there.

And then I realize that I’m the one holding the controller. My thumbs are getting sore.

Mage Chronicles Game Reviews – El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron

This gorgeous action-adventure platformer is loaded to the brim with ambiance, eye candy, and things to hit, but don’t expect much more than that.

El Shaddai was a game that drew my interest the first time I read the preview in Game Informer. It looked like a gorgeous title with a plot based upon the Judeo-Christian mythos, a realm that would normally make me think of the light-blue unlicensed Nintendo cartridges that unfortunately weren’t worth the plastic housing they came in.

So, unlike my review of Lords of Shadow, let’s turn to the light, shall we?

You play (for most of the game) as the Biblical character of Enoch, who, if the game is correct, is God’s scribe. Your mission is to return the fallen angels, who have been corrupted by darkness, to Heaven. Guiding you on your way is Lucifel, who is one letter away from exactly who you think he is. He’s the narrator of the story, but for some odd reason he’s also the intermittent save point. You’ll know when he’s close because his cell phone rings and it’s God on the other line. No, I’m not making that up.

Graphics: 10/10

Seriously… the Japanese guy responsible for the visuals must have been acid tripping 24/7. Every level looks like it was designed on mushrooms. Still, it’s just so gosh darn pretty. Nothing, however, is detailed. Not even the faces. Everything just seems to meld together like it’s a pastel watercolor. The picture in this post doesn’t do it justice; search for images and you’ll see what I mean.

There’s no HUD, which I kind of like; your “health meter” is basically denoted by the status of Enoch’s armor plating. If it’s completely gone, a few too many hits will kill you.

Story: 4/10

I skipped over the part of the Bible that has Enoch’s tale, but the reason you’re getting the fallen angels back to Heaven is to prevent the worldwide flood. Helping you along the way are four Archangels, one of which actually becoming your Limit Break of sorts; after enough bruises, you can summon him to augment your combos with firy strikes.

Other than that, though, the story completely lost me. You’re going up floors of a giant tower, fighting the same fallen angels a few times, losing your damn mind, and then coming back after some time. The story is hard to follow and it doesn’t really make all that much sense. What do you expect out of something Biblical, though?

Gameplay: 7/10

If the graphics drew you in, then you only might be inclined to stay for the rest. The only other things that El Shaddai has going for it, aside from the music, are the platforming and the combat. There is nothing spectacular here, though.

Combat is one-button. Hold it down to charge a counterattack, and delay presses to break guards. Other than that, it’s your standard hack-away-and-defend. You get three “drops of God’s wisdom”; a sword-like weapon called the Arch, a ranged projectile weapon called the Gale, and a big ol’ shield called the Veil. Enemies wield these weapons as well, and the three have a rock-paper-scissors thing going on in terms of advantages and abilities. You can steal these weapons from enemies to suit your situation.

When you’re not slashing/shooting/beating the living tar out of enemies that were conceptually porcelain and clay, the rest is either 2D or 3D platforming at its most basic level. Seriously. It’s Mario-style jumping shit. They didn’t even have the common courtesy to combine the two; at no point while platforming are you in danger of being knocked off by an attacking foe, just misjudging your depth. Good thing the game is awfully purdy, though, or all that jumping would be boring as hell.

Sound: 6/10

Not the best music I’ve heard in a next-gen title, but it’s not bad, either. The voice acting is fairly decent, but internationalization refused to make the speech match the mouth animations so it not only feels like a Japanese game, it looks like one too. Lucifel is the most guilty of this; listening to him is like watching an old Godzilla movie with English dubs.

Overall: 6/10

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron isn’t the best thing to happen to the next-gen consoles, but it certainly isn’t the worst. This game could have been just as successful on the PS2 or XBox given its gameplay, even with mediocre graphics. It’s a great timekiller, but don’t buy it. Rent it, put a controller in your hand, and take a bong hit. I’m betting the game is three times more fun and much easier to understand that way.

A Vote of No Confidence

As a wallaby I once knew said, “Moving Day… is a very dangerous day.”

This past weekend has been a busy one in the sweltering heat; it drained me of my finances, my physical energy, any trace of optimism, and quite possibly what you could call my spirit. After this weekend and all it encompassed, a previous facebook post I made rings true; from this point forward, I’m not going to assume that any new people I meet are actually competent.

To make a long story short, I assisted a friend of mine, Alison, in moving from Burlington, CT to a condo in Norwich, CT, where from this point forward I will be residing with her, my girlfriend, and my son. Oh, and three cats, two of which are deathly afraid of me. (They should be.) It was necessary, but as fate would have it the move was on the hottest weekend of the summer, so it was a sweat-stained affair to do all this.

With our wallets drained, I’m afraid that being able to feed my family is going to be rather difficult with what little food we have and with what money we owe that is due two weeks from now. I’m sure many people around me will say “I’m sure you’ll be fine” or something similar, but I only wish I shared the same kind of foolish optimism.

We moved into a 3-floor condo on the outskirts of downtown Norwich. When we arrived, the place was filthy. Carpets weren’t vacuumed, toilets weren’t working, and things were just all-around busted. Poor Jennifer has to now waste time taking care of things that should have been done before we set foot in the door. As stated previously, it’s fucking hot. The central air cooling our abode would have been nice, had it been working for the past 3 days.

Then Comcast shows up to hook up our cable connection. Great, except that there are no settings to configure closed captioning, which is a must considering that Alison is Deaf. Even someone as technically oriented as me couldn’t figure it out.

On top of that, everything just seems to be going… wrong, you know? And I’m not the kind of person who can keep their chin up that easily. I have a positive charge, which means I only seem to attract negative things. I don’t trust anybody, and to be honest I think that’s for mostly good reasons.

Maybe this move will be a good thing. I’ll tell you one thing, though… don’t color me surprised if it isn’t.

A Transparent Shield

I found this little tidbit on Reddit that I thought was worth sharing. I corrected the spelling and punctuation.

I'm a 19 year old college student, atheist, at a private Baptist university.

Today in my (mandatory, but tolerable) Christian Heritage class, the professor posed the question "Do you believe that a baby is a sinner, without the knowledge of what "good," "bad," or "sin" is?"

A girl immediately raises her hand and says "Well if they don't know it's sin then it's not real sin. But we don't really know. We're not God; none of us are, so we can't really answer it. I know if it was my baby, I don't want to think of it being damned to hell just for ignorance."

I asked her, "So your entire belief rests on the theoretical? You would LIKE TO THINK of this certain way in an optimal scenario, so that's how your faith is based? What you think you believe to be true?"

She said "Exactly, thats how faith works."

I ask, "So why bother asking? Why try? Why even argue about it in a class right now, why teach it, if we're NOT God and we cannot possibly KNOW, if its only faith and best guesses?"

She paused for a moment, and said "Well why believe in anything if you look at it that way?"

"Exactly. That's how intellect works."

"Faith". It's the fail-safe word when a religious person is backed into a corner. Dan Barker was right concerning what he said about faith; it's nothing more than a cop-out. When you use the word 'faith', you're freely admitting that the beliefs you hold can't stand up on their own merits, and because these beliefs are a part of your faith, they deserve to be free of criticism.

Faith, on one hand, is something that is very comforting to people. We know this. Many people in our country regard faith as something sacred to them, something personal that pulls them through tough times, because they feel that a higher power is watching over them at all times.

We cannot deny, however insulting as it may sound, that faith is the result of a weak mind. It is nothing more than a clear plastic shield, wielded by its bearer to protect them from a little something called reality. As Mark Twain puts it, it's "believing what you know ain't so." It takes a lot of faith to believe that the earth was created in six days, that your loved ones are living on forever in eternal paradise, and even that Hitler is serving some cosmic justice in Hell, burning in agony for his deeds on Earth. It takes a lot of faith to think that you have seen and communicated with a millennia-old Jewish zombie and his deified father. We know this, because we're humans too, and none of these things happen or have happened in real life.

The belief that if a baby dies, since it is imbued with Original Sin, that it goes to Hell, is nothing short of completely barbaric. One is completely within their rights to hold such a belief, but unfortunately one is completely within their rights to rationalize it away such as the girl did in the above example.

This is why the Rhode Island Atheist Society, and other groups like it, exists. The views of atheists are views that, the majority of the time, correspond with the reality that can be observed and empirically tested. These archaic, Bronze-Age myths have given rise to beliefs that are destructive in nature; not just physically, but mentally as well. (Case in point? Listen to last week's episode about how a religiously-fueled woman killed a puppy.)

We need to stop treating faith as if it were something righteous, virtuous, and sacred, and instead exposing it for the fragile religious escutcheon that it is. Intellect, reason, and skepticism are valuable tools that we must put on a pedestal in its place.

I Swear I’m Not Scrooge

I had made a facebook post earlier today that I will definitely be discussing on next week's edition of Freethought Rhode Island.
This is in regards to a recent billboard:

People think we atheists are attacking Christmas and calling it a myth and such. We're not. Christmas is very much real. The birth of Jesus is not.

Apparently, my first missile has been launched here. My mother decided to respond, and one thing I admire about my mother is that although we are on opposite ends of the spectrum regarding spiritual beliefs, we can actually have civilized discussion about such things. We always do after every show I'm on.

She responded to the post with this:

Must say that I disagree; I believe the birth of Jesus is VERY REAL. I think what you meant to say is that atheists do not "believe" the birth of Jesus is real. Just as many believers do not have "proof" that Jesus was in fact a man that lived, I don't think an atheist has "proof" that he was not. While I totally respect your opinions, please be careful how you choose your words so that you don't "offend" the opinions of others. ;)

Facebook is not really the place to be having long debates about this kind of thing, so that's why I'm moving it to my blog, where there is more of a personal forum.

Well, not really a personal forum, just a place for me to go to the furthest extent of my pedantry, I suppose.

I think what you meant to say is that atheists do not "believe" the birth of Jesus is real.

No, I meant to say what I meant to say. Some atheists do believe that the birth of Jesus was an event that happened, because it has nothing to do with belief in a god.

However, a lot can be said about this alleged event. Even the birth of this legend is quite similar to the story of Mithra, a Zoroastrian god-man that predates the Jesus story by about 600 years; Mithra himself was born of a virgin on December 25th, and like Jesus, had 12 disciples and was called “the way, the truth, and the light”, amongst other similarities.

Just as many believers do not have "proof" that Jesus was in fact a man that lived, I don't think an atheist has "proof" that he was not.

My mother usually has the very good reasoning and logic, but unfortunately this falls flat. The burden of proof isn’t on the one rejecting the claim, and it isn’t possible to prove a negative. I don’t have to provide proof that there is not a ceramic teapot orbiting Neptune.

While I totally respect your opinions, please be careful how you choose your words so that you don't "offend" the opinions of others.

At this point is where I will launch my final salvo.

I’m not going to water down my words to prevent somebody from being offended. I am a full-fledged advocate of free speech and the idea that nobody has the right to not be offended (including myself… freedom of speech is far more important than my own comfort). It is ethical to respect you as a person if you have earned it, but it is not mandatory that therefore I must respect your ideas and opinions. These things are not sentient; they do not have feelings, and not only should they be subject to scrutiny by others, but also by the person that holds them. I, along with the other hosts of the radio show, may seem brash and abrasive at times, but it’s only towards the absurd claims that people make regarding their religious beliefs. If you don’t want to be ridiculed, refrain from saying ridiculous things that ostensibly have no basis in reality.

Take a look at the billboard that was recently installed at the end of the Lincoln Tunnel in NYC:


Now I’m sure most of you reading this will regard this as in-your-face and aggressive. How is this any more aggressive than a billboard that reads “When you die, you will go to hell unless you believe in God”? (And yes, that was an actual billboard here in RI for a little while over in Cranston.) This billboard is nothing more than a tool for stating the obvious.

…unless you mean to tell me that a gigantic star led some old wise men to a manger in which a baby, who was the son of a god and was conceived without the act of sexual reproduction, on the night of December 25th.

Look at the billboard again. Is this a European depiction of Jesus as an adult? Heck, can you see Jesus anywhere in the picture? I sure can’t, even in that manger. The most pronounced features of the billboard are the three men on camels, the star, the ass, and maybe the palm trees if you’re that observant. But another focal point is the word “KNOW”. Knowledge is something that’s practical and supported by good evidence. It’s not something you take on “faith” or unjustified belief.

Some atheists celebrate Christmas. Some don’t… some have a Festivus for the rest of us. Some, who are Jewish by tradition, actually might celebrate Hanukkah instead. Christmas, in the way it is celebrated these days, is not at all religious. However, if you want Jesus to be the reason for your season, then by all means. I have no problem with that. I do have a problem, however, with your whining and bitching about people using “Happy Holidays”. If your faith is so insecure that you snivel at people who use that phrase in place of “Merry Christmas”, then I pity you.

What I don’t want to do with this post is make it seem like I’m downplaying Christmas. I’m not. Christmas is a wonderful time of year, despite the fact that it’s 90% stolen pagan traditions (and nowadays, commercialized consumerism). Heck, I’m not even sure if I agree with “celebrate REASON for the season”. Reason isn’t anything to celebrate, but it is something that should be utilized throughout the whole year. What I do know is that Jesus certainly isn’t the reason for the season, either.

This season, celebrate life. Celebrate friends and family and togetherness. Celebrate love.

Delaware Has an Easy Senate Vote

For those of you who have just discovered my blog from the Freethought RI blog, a few things. First, I would like to thank you for being a loyal listener to the show! I had made a facebook post a while ago about wanting to get the topics that you, the curious listener™, want to talk about. Leave ‘em in the comments or send Dan an email. If you’re new to Mage Chronicles, check the archive in the sidebar or follow the tags for any posts that you may be interested in.

For those of you who are coming here from my facebook status updates, thanks also, and I really hope you keep reading! Now, on to the meat of the post. There’s a lot of meat here, so grab your utensils or what have you.

The residents of Delaware now have a very easy decision to make regarding their Senator this year; their Democratic candidate, Chris Coons. In a recent debate held before an audience of law students (remember this, it’s important), his opponent, Republican Christine O’Donnell, failed to the third degree. I’m not all that knowledgeable about politics, but there are a few things that I do know about that I would expect elected officials to have at least a rudimentary understanding of.

The exchange came in a debate before an audience of legal scholars and law students at Widener University Law School, as O'Donnell criticized Democratic nominee Chris Coons' position that teaching creationism in public school would violate the First Amendment by promoting religious doctrine.

I really don’t get what’s to criticize here. He’s absolutely correct, and he made the same point about Intelligent Design when O’Donnell brought it up and attempted to assert that it is a completely different entity. It’s not. We all know that Intelligent Design is just creationism in disguise.

Furthermore, before that:

"Talk about imposing your beliefs on the local schools," she said. "You've just proved how little you know not just about constitutional law but about the theory of evolution. Because the theory of evolution is not a fact, it is indeed a theory.”

This woman owes me a new irony meter. Secondly, how many times have we all seen “evolution’s not a fact, it’s a theory”? Once more, with feeling… in the scientific community, the two terms are indistinguishable. Evolution is a fact and a theory. I won’t explain that here, it’s done on TalkOrigins.

Coons countered correctly again by mentioning the separation of church and state. O’Donnell’s counterpoint? This little gem.

When Coons responded that the First Amendment bars Congress from making laws respecting the establishment of religion, O'Donnell asked: "You're telling me that's in the First Amendment?" (emphasis mine)

If you watch the video, the audience audibly titters. I’m sure many of them proceeded to facepalm. I certainly did. Let’s face it… there are a lot of political and legal debates out there about our Constitution and what it says, but I was under the impression that everyone understands the whole “freedom of religion” thing as well as our Establishment Clause in our First Amendment.  Everyone, it seems, except for fundamentalist Christians and right-wing pundits who assert that because the phrase doesn’t appear in the Constitution, we should throw out the principle entirely. Well, guess what? “Thou shalt not kill” isn’t anywhere in the document, either. I’m-a go get my gun.

But what’s even more troubling is that O’Donnell actually seemed perplexed by this. She seemed genuinely ignorant of the fact that the principle behind the separation of church and state is derived from our First Amendment. A little further into the video clip, O’Donnell actually had to be reminded about what some of the Amendments were and whether she supported them.

No surprise to me is that she’s a Teabaggin’ Party favorite. This is the best of what they have to offer, folks. These people are so outraged at what they are currently seeing in public office, that I guess they’ve decided to see what happens when they bring the whole system crashing down.

An Obligation to Etiquette or Ethics

The VP of the company is not my direct supervisor, but he's pretty much my boss. The good thing is, he's a great guy. Last week, he lost his sister to breast cancer. The most happy-go-lucky man I know came into our office nearly in tears to give us this news, and my heart sank because of it. It's bad enough that my fiancée's father is dying of lung cancer.

I decided to get him a sympathy card to be passed around our office. I knew everyone would sign it. I don't care whether or not he thought it was from me, but I'm guessing that the telltale sign would be the handwriting on the envelope.

Anyway, one of the other supervisors sent out an email encouraging the staff to leave early today to attend the wake. Being the godless heathen that I am, I opted out and stayed at the office for the remainder of my shift. I made sure that the card traveled with someone who did decide to go.

So here's the point of discussion... was I justified in not going to the wake? If you are an atheist or you are not religious, even if the wake/funeral was for a loved one, would you still go?

Impressed and Disgusted

Yesterday, a counter-protest was held at the RI State House for the National Organization for Marriage's (NOM, and yes, go ahead and make the Cookie Monster reference) summit stop in our state. Much to NOM's surprise, around 170 protesters showed up:

...most wearing red T-shirts — [they] rattled plastic bottles filled with coins as a distraction, the group’s president pointed to their tactics as yet another example of why same-sex marriage should not be legalized.

You know what? That's proof that their group's president was acting like a complete dickhead. There is a reason why these people were drowning out your words of bigotry and hate.

Personally, I am pro-gay marriage. And I'm a straight man. I've heard all the arguments against gay marriage, and none of them hold up. What's more telling is that a good portion of them come from people with a religious axe to grind. Case in point are the NOM representatives at the State House themselves:

“I love you,” one man with the National Organization for Marriage said as he walked toward his opponents with open arms. Later, he and another group member linked their arms and began passionately praying for the devil to leave their adversaries.

I really have no idea what these people are so afraid of. They are spoon-fed lies that gay marriage will tear down the fabric of American society and that marriage as an institution is under attack.

Really, now? I've heard it before, and I'll say it here. If you don't like gay marriage, don't marry a gay person.

NOM needs to get it through their heads that they do NOT represent all Americans, and they certainly do not represent all Rhode Islanders. They certainly do not represent me, and I deplore any such efforts to push the opinion that they do. This organization is egregiously religiously motivated, and the response to the counter-protest on Sunday is very telling of that.

If you would like to see pictures and hear stories of the counter-protest, attended by my friends Paul Ruggieri and Jennifer Curley (who spearheads Queer Action RI), let me know. Give them your support and feedback.

The necessary post about Haiti

Solar-powered Bibles and e-Meters? If you take advantage of a crisis to promote your agenda (Yes, I'm looking at YOU, Pat Robertson), then you're only compounding the problem. This isn't about beliefs or ideologies or politics.

This whole earthquake thing? It's new to these people. And now it won't be... two aftershocks were recorded today. How would YOU feel if suddenly the earth beneath your neighborhood started quaking, and all the houses on your block were destroyed? Now multiply that grief by a factor of a few thousand.

If you can, give. I don't care to who; just make sure the organization will send it where it needs to go. I'm sure they won't mind me hotlinking.

Doctors Without Borders

American Red Cross