What Would Jesus Do? He’d Kick Some Ass

In a lovely display of Christian love, dozens of robed priests attacked each other with brooms and stones at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity yesterday. Several holy men were seen with blood running down their faces as they left the building.

How nice. But what could have gotten them so agitated? Look here, here and here.

The Agitated Atheist

Roland S. Martin Shows How Religion Stops A Thinking Mind

In a commentary on CNN.com today Roland S. Martin carries on the myths that there is a, ‘war on Christmas’, and that Jesus is the, ‘reason for the season’. If only the religious paid attention to facts once in a while they wouldn’t make such damn fools of themselves so often. Roland shows us in this and many of his other commentaries how well religion divides people while purporting to do the opposite.

Roland looks like a black man to me, maybe he should find out why most African Americans are Christians, and how it came to be that they lost their motherland religions. Here’s a hint for Roland; the evil white man whipped it into your African slave ancestors. You should be working at FOX ‘news’, not CNN Roland.

In today’s commentary he states:

"This whole push to remove Christ from the Christmas season has gotten so
ridiculous that it's pathetic."

And:

"Because of all the politically correct idiots, we are being encouraged to stop saying "Merry Christmas" for the more palatable "Happy Holidays.""

Some thoughtful comments to his idiotic rantings were:

Rand - He says -- "In fact, Americans are so ignorant of other faiths" -- and he's an award-winning journalist? Americans ARE other faiths. We aren't all Christian. Get with the program.

Charles Cates - "whole push to remove Christ from the Christmas season"
"backlash against Christianity"
I'm confused; are you talking about the United States? Where anyone running for public office talks more about their religious beliefs than any other subject? Where televangelists are courted by politicians and the media? Where polls indicate almost 75% belief in Jesus as Christ the Savior and 25% believe he's coming back this year? I thought you just started working at CNN. Don't expect Fox News to hire you away immediately.

Aaron - I'd suggest that Mr. Martin needs to study up on his history before he opens his ignorant mouth on the subject again.
1.The X symbol is an ancient Christian abbreviation for Christ.
2. Saturnalia and Dies Natalis Solis Invicti were both celebrated on December 25th before the supposed birth of his so-called savior.
3. The Christmas tree? The Yule log? Pagan symbols.
He needs to quit complaining about non-existent attacks on his usurped pagan holiday, and worry about keeping his own well-furnished, tax-exempt, house clean.

And here are some idiotic comments to his idiotic rantings:

Mike - Last year Wal*Mart tried to be politically correct in saying Happy Holidays. This year, they realized that Jesus is the reason for the season, sorry for the cliche. This is what true and proud Christians should do! Wal*Mart rules. Politically correct people drool!

Susan - Thank you,thank you, thank you.... Mr. Martin is right on target. Oh ....MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Orlando - Whether we want to admit it or not, this nation was founded on the principles of Christanity. I would classify us as a Christian nation which encourages freedom of all religions. However, make no mistake about it our founding fathers were very Christian in there beliefs and it was reflected in the way the Constitution was drafted. We have been blessed as a nation and it is evident by how far we have come in just 200 some odd years. However, we are flirting with fire by eliminating Christ from public discussion. Its CHRISTmas, its the celebration of the birth of Christ and as Mr. Martin stated he is the reason for the season.

Holy crap! I am very agitated!

The Agitated Atheist

Religious Tolerance Is An Oxymoron

Hey, all of you religious nut out there, listen up. (and by, “nuts”, I mean any religious person who takes their superstitious beliefs so seriously that they bring up their faith in public.)

From your point of view, everyone else’s religious beliefs are nonsense and of course your god and religion is the only true one. Your supposed compromise of having tolerance towards one another’s nonsensical beliefs does not seem to be working out very well. Take for example the goings on in the Middle East, in the Presidential race and on the Q train yesterday.

Here’s a synopsis of religious tolerance at work on the New York City Subway:

It all began when Walter Adler, his girlfriend, Maria Parsheva, and two other pals boarded the subway at Canal Street bound for Brooklyn and someone in another group wished them "Merry Christmas." Adler and his pal Angelica Krischanovich responded: "Happy Hanukkah."

Apparently, the Jesus lovers didn’t like that:

"And almost immediately, you see the look in this guy's face, like I've called
his mother something," Adler said. "And I see the way this guy looks, and I see
the way that this guy wants to fight me, and I look, and I see another guy right
in front of me, another guy. And I see the crowd moving in."

"They just came at us so fast. The first thing that came into my mind was, 'Yeah, this is going to be violent,' " said Parsheva, 20.
One of the other group immediately hiked up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of Christ.
"He said, 'Happy Hanukkah, that's when the Jews killed Jesus, you killed him, you killed Jesus, you killed him on Hanukkah, you dirty Jew, you fuckin’ Jew," said Adler.
The group of about 14 men and women then allegedly began taunting Adler and his pals as "dirty Jews" and "Jew bitches." "At first, I got hit, but I wasn't
bleeding," Adler said. "It was one of those sucker punch, shock punches. But by
the second time, there were like people stomping me."

So this religious tolerance crap isn’t working too well. The Agitated Atheist suggests another approach at getting along. How about religious indifference? That’s where no one talks about or flaunts their religious superstitions then maybe they’ll all go away.

P.S. Doesn't the fact that Atheists are never in the news for becoming physically violent towards others because of their religious beliefs, don’t start wars or commit genocide or any of the other disgusting things that seems to follow organized religion around, yet are almost always portrayed as the evil ones. Think about it, oxymorons.

The Agitated Atheist

Mitt Romney Fights Anti-Mormon Bigotry with Anti-Atheist Bigotry

Im Mitt Romney's wonderful little speech the other day;
He said: "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom".
He meant: "To hell with the separation of Church and State, and Atheists suck".

By Romney's definition of freedom, Sweden, where 50% of the population, does not believe in God, cannot have a proper democracy. But of course Swedish democracy is in many respects superior to that in the United States.

Romney’s insistence that you need religion for political freedom, is a load of crap. Organized religion may have some virtues, but pushing for political liberty is seldom among them. Religion is about controlling people. No religiously based state has ever provided genuine democratic governance. You want religion in politics, go to Iran.

This piece, written by Austin Cline, should be required reading by all religious Americans.
Hopefully some of you will begin to see what a great job religion does at dividing people and what a great job religion does at stopping critical thinking dead in its tracks.

The first comment to this piece by someone called ‘Candid’, illustrates those points perfectly.
Then read Austin's civilized reply to this ignorant Christian.

The Agitated Atheist

Top Ten Signs That You Are An Unquestioning Christian

This has been going around the Internet for a while, but is worth reading again. (Especially for you Christians.)

As far as I remember, Hollyberry’s blog, “The Art Of Imperfection”, is where I saw it first.

Top Ten Signs That You Are An Unquestioning Christian:

10- You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of your god.

9- You feel insulted and ‘dehumanized’ when scientists say that people evolved from lesser life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8- You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Trinity god.

7- Your face turns purple when you hear of the ‘atrocities’ attributed to Allah, but you don’t even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in ‘Exodus’ and ordered the
elimination of entire ethnic groups in ‘Joshua’—including women, children, and animals!

6- You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about god sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who
got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5- You are willing to spend your life looking for little loop-holes in the scientifically established age of the Earth (4.55 billion years), but you find
nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by pre-historic tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that the Earth is a couple of generations
old!

4- You believe that the entire population of this planet wi th the exception of those who share your beliefs—though excluding those in all rival
sects—will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet you consider your religion the most ‘tolerant’ and ‘loving’.

3- While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor, speaking in ‘tongues,’ may be all the evidence you need.

2- You define 0.01% as a “high success rate” when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1- You actually know a lot less than many Atheists and Agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history—but still call yourself a “Christian.”

The Agitated Atheist

John McCain, You Are A Moron

My agitation level has just been kicked up a notch.

When a presidential contender starts talking out of his ass, it should be clear to everyone that the whole electoral system needs some serious overhauling. When the best that this once great nation can do is to elect a semi-retarded, alcoholic, Jesus freak, (not once but twice no less), then maybe it is time to re-think the two party system.

Mr. McCain, so do you honestly believe that, and I quote you, "...the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation."

You sir, are an idiot. Have you ever read the Constitution? Should a presidential candidate be required to know something about our most important written document?

There is no mention of God, Jesus or Christ in that entirely secular document. Do you know what secular means, Mr. McCain? Have you ever heard of Thomas Jefferson, Mr. McCain? Well here’s a Jefferson quote that you probably never heard:

“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.” Letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814

Here’s another:

“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.” Notes on Virginia, 1782

Now it seems to me that TJ, arguably our most influential founding father, thought of Christianity as nothing more than a cancerous affliction on mankind.
May God bless our Christian nation, you moronic idiot.

The Agitated Atheist.

Wasteland of the Free

It is times like these that can agitate those who are already agitated.

A couple of quotes come to mind:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross.

Sinclair Lewis

Folk singer / social advocate Iris Dement outlines many of the problems in the USA today in her 1996 song, ‘Wasteland Of The Free’, from the album ,"The Way I Should":

We got preachers dealin' in politics and diamond mines and their speech is growing increasingly unkind.
They say they are Christ's disciples but they don't look like Jesus to me
And it feels like I'm livin' in the wasteland of the free

We got politicians runnin' races on corporate cash, now don't tell me they don't turn around and kiss them people's ass
Now you may call me old-fashioned, but that don't fit my picture of a true democracy.
And it feels like I'm livin' in the wasteland of the free

We got CEO's makin' 200 times the worker's pay, but they'll fight like hell against raisin' the minimum wage
And if you don't like it Mister, they'll ship your job to some third world country 'cross the sea
And it feels like I'm livin' in the wasteland of the free.

Chorus:
Living in the wasteland of the free, where the poor have now become the enemy
Let's blame our troubles on the weak ones, sounds like some kind of Hitler remedy
Living in the wasteland of the free

We got little kids with guns fightin' inner city wars, So what do we do, we put these little kids behind prison doors
And we call ourselves the advanced civilization, but that sounds like crap to me
And it feels like I'm livin' in the wasteland of the free

We got high school kids runnin' 'round in Calvin Klein and Guess, who cannot pass a 6th grade reading test
But if you ask them, they can tell you, the name of every crotch on MTV
And it feels like I'm livin' in the wasteland of the free

We kill for oil then we throw a party when we win, some guy refuses to fight and we call that the sin
But he's standin' up for what he believes in, and that seems pretty damned American to me
And it feels like I'm livin' in the wasteland of the free

Repeat Chorus

While we sit gloating in our greatness
Justice is sinking to the bottom of the sea
And it feels like I'm livin' in the wasteland of the free

I’m so agitated right now, that all I can say is that there are four groups that I'm familiar with, (and donate to regularly), who are only a small thread of defense between our freedom and the return of the Dark Ages. They are: The American Civil Liberties Union, The Freedom From Religion Foundation, the People For The American Way and Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

The Agitated Atheist