Heaven is for Men Only

Here is a short but sweet video showing an entire audience being bitchslapped about their beliefs in heaven:

People who believe in the afterlife never take the time to really figure out how it all works. A person who believes in the right god and worships him the right way goes to heaven, no matter how horrible a person he might be, while people who are good, kind, and decent go to hell because they don't believe in that god. Where is the fairness in this? Not only is it lacking in evidence, it is stupid, and deserving of mockery.

But I was most intrigued whole idea of heaven being invented by men who imagined a world that THEY would want to live in, one where they can have as many wives, concubines, and little virgin girl-slaves as they want. This might be heaven for men, but for women, it will be nothing but another form of slavery. Not only are women oppressed, downtrodden, abused, often deprived of education, equal rights, and equal pay in the work place, and generally made to feel like something men like to scrape off their boots, but they will be similarly made to feel like shit once they reach heaven. Religion has been created by men and for men, and heaven likewise favors them.

This is true for Christians, as well, but in a different way. They are so scared of sex that they have devised a heaven completely lacking in sexual activity and even marriage! Jesus was supposed to have remarked, "At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." (Matthew 22:30) Paul, himself, wished that every man could be unmarried like himself, and that sex should be between married couples only, and then out of necessity (1 Corinthians 7:1-8)

I do not know how Christians can live with such a depressing thought. In heaven, they will no longer be married to their husband or wife whom they have loved for decades. If for some reason they never married despite longing for a spouse with whom to share their lives, they have no hope of ever finding their one, true love-- not even in heaven, which is supposed to be eternally joyful.And if you love sex, forget about it. Sex is good only between married couples, and since marriage does not exist in heaven--well, there can't be any sex, then, either. This is perfect for the sex-fearing men who dominate the religion, especially Catholics with their stodgy old priests who, if they have ever fucked anyone at all, it is young boys and frightened nuns whom they could easily dominate and force to shut up about it.

Every version of heaven I have ever heard of is equally depressing, always lacking in some ingredient that I would consider essential to human existence. Being creative, inventing new things, discovering new ideas, improving one's life and the lives of others...all of this is denied to the people unlucky enough to go to heaven, hell, or any other kind of afterlife. Seriously, what do believers think they will be DOING for the rest of eternity, anyway? I guess they imagine they'll find fulfillment in sitting at God's feet all day, every day, constantly stroking his ego by telling him what a great guy he is. These are people who can barely tolerate an hour of church on Sundays, yet they think they'll be happy spending eternity in church! Talk about self-deception.

OH NOEZ!! Teh Gay causes cannibalism!

Well, it does according to this loon:


This would be hilarious if it weren't for the fact that there are undoubtedly a LOT of people who believe him--and every one of them is some variety of religious wingnut, generally Christian Fundamentalists. They're nuttier than most other Christians, with their heads thoroughly lodged up their fundaments, hence their name.

Anyway, the guy that Ministro Loco is referencing, is one Rudy Eugene, whose vicious assault on a homeless man in Miami left everyone wondering what the hell kind of drug could have produced such horrific violence.  Speculation about Rudy's behavior included LSD, "bath salts," or other powerful drugs, but the only drug found in his body was marijuana, which does not produce such symptoms. (They do admit, however, that no single test exist to detect all possible combinations of drugs in the body.) If anything, cannabis is a mellowing-out drug. But what would it do to someone who is already insane?

Well, we can get some idea of that from reading this May 29th article in Miami's Huffington Post.

"I wouldn't say he had [a] mental problem but he always felt like people was against him type of attitude," ex-wife Jenny Ductant told Local 10, saying the marriage ended when Eugene became increasingly violent. "No one was for him, everyone was against him."

So, he was paranoid, a symptom of mental illness. Looking further, we can find this little tidbit in the June 27th issue of the Huffpost: 

Records show Eugene had been arrested 8 times since the age of 16, including 4 instances involving marijuana. But though he was once accused of threatening to kill his mother, friends and family members alike say they never expected such violence from Eugene, who was participating in a Bible study, reading the Koran, and telling friends he wanted to stop smoking marijuana. 

 Interesting. Eight arrests since the age of 16, four of them for marijuana use, and he once threatened to kill his mother. Yet friends and family claim they never expected violence from him? How is this possible? How can a man threaten to murder anyone, let alone his own mother, and everyone around him responds by pretending that he isn't capable of violence? EVERY TIME someone commits a crime of this magnitude, we hear the same thing: "We never expected this. He was such a nice guy." And then it turns out that they weren't nice at all, just really good at fooling the gullible. There were signs all over the place that Rudy was bound to commit some kind of violence, but everyone was ignoring them. In his picture, he certainly looks normal. He doesn't have that Charles Manson craziness in his eyes. But, you know, threatening to kill his mother, being arrested multiple times from a young age...yeah, I'd say the guy was headed for a fall and nobody wanted to admit it.

Please also note the importance of religion in Rudy's life. This is reiterated by his girlfriend of four months, in this article: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/06/gloria-allred-yovonka-bryant-rudy-eugene-press-conference_n_1574887.html 

Allred said Bryant, who met Eugene in March, was not aware of any mental illnesses her boyfriend may have had and only saw him smoke marijuana once. Religion was important to the two of them, she said, and they watched a Bible ministry television show in the mornings and read the Bible and the Koran together.

In no article I have read have I seen any indication that Rudy was gay, as the ranting fucktard in the video claims he was. However, he WAS very religious, to the point of following two religions' holy books. Hey, nothing like getting on God's good side from both angles, right? It's such a shame that, of all the religions on Earth, he had to pick two of the most violent ones around. I wonder how much of his mental illness was fueled by the imagery and instructions contained in these books. The Bible may have a message of love here and there, but by and large, it is all about violence--of people towards each other, and of God towards humanity. God meets every problem with violence and threats. The end times prophecies are nothing but one vision after another of human death and destruction at God's hands. We'll probably never know the extent to which Rudy was influenced by stuff like this, but one thing is certain: it couldn't have made him feel any better about himself or his fellow humans, not when he already had the desire for murder in place. Add drugs to the mix of religion and crazy, and it's a wonder he didn't go on a rampage sooner.

Not only was Rudy not gay, he was also not a cannibal. No human flesh was found in his stomach. He didn't eat the flesh of the homeless man, he just...removed it and spat it out. The attack was not about homosexuality OR cannibalism, it was brutal, mindless savagery fueled by mental illness, religious nuttery, and a dose of drugs.  Just goes to show, you can't trust what most preachers say about anything.

Nuns go on a bus tour to bring attention to poverty issues

Religious people so often get things horribly wrong, that it is easy to miss the stories of when they do something right. These nuns are definitely doing it right.

You might not be familiar with their whole story, but it all began when they received word from the Vatican that they were spending too much time focusing on social issues (poverty, economic equality, women's issues, etc.) and not enough time opposing gay marriage and generally being homophobic fucktards like the Pope. These are women who dared to not only try to help the poor and the disadvantaged, but even to speak out against bishops who attacked health care reform.

 This kind of behavior absolutely is not acceptable in the Catholic hierarchy. Women are subservient to men, and they are supposed to obey, without question, their male superiors. Questioning the Church is tantamount to questioning God.

These women said "Sod it" to all that, bought themselves a bus (or maybe prayed for it, and it fell out of the sky), and took to the nation's roads to spread their message of health care reform even more. SUCK THAT, Congressman Ryan!

These nuns, headed by Sister Simone Campbell, have taken a stand in favor of helping the poor and being accepting of homosexuals and trying to make the world a slightly better place than it was before, and for that, they have received reprimands and anger from their superiors. These ladies deserve better than that. I think their religion is as nutty as a squirrel's nest, but they are doing the best they can with what they have, and perhaps making a few people think more highly of their God as a result. If all religions did this, and did it all the time, I wouldn't have as much of a problem with their existence. If believing in imaginary entities made every believer a nicer, kinder, more generous person, that would be great! A lot of the time, though, this isn't the case.

But these gals...they're trying. And I can only hope that it will result in a lot of good, and that the shitbags who run the Church--the bishops, the cardinals, the priests, that worthless pile of shit in the Pope's hat--will be made to look like the mean, rotten, bigoted old jerks that they really are.

Here is their website, if you want more information or to make a donation:  http://nunsonthebus.com/

Awful Bible Verse of the Day

Deut. 22:28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, ²⁹ he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

I am told, by many, many Christians, that the Bible's laws were given by God, himself, to an unruly nation so that they would know his justice and mercy, and understand that they are just evil sinners in need of divine guidance. If this were true, then we would expect those laws to be the epitome of justice, fairness, and moral excellence. Instead, we find exactly the opposite. What we find are laws such as this one, which not only provide no justice whatsoever for the girl who has just been brutally raped, but actually REWARD her rapist by giving him permission to rape her again and again, as he has to marry the girl. Her misery will never end, either, as she has no grounds for divorce. Women generally had no rights in the fucked-up Hebrew society, anyway, but this law simply confirms that, as far as God is concerned, women are nothing more than the possessions of men, their playthings to do with as they please. There is no excuse or explanation that Christians can give that will justify the existence of this law.

The failure of Crystal Cathedral Ministries

Here is a picture of the Crystal Cathedral:

 For those who don't know about this glass monstrosity (which apparently is more earthquake-resistant than it looks), it was built in 1977 for Rev. Robert Schuller at a cost of $18 million. Try to imagine what that amount of money would buy, even now in today's dollars. Schools and school supplies, food, clothing, shelter, the funding of crops and cattle for the poor through organizations such as Send-a-Cow, medicines and hospitals, shelters for the homeless...I can think of a lot of things that would be more worthy of a Christian's time and money than a shiny glass building where people can gather merely to HEAR about helping the poor without actually DOING it.

By 2010, Crystal Cathedral Ministries had accumulated a debt of around $55 million. Creditors naturally began demanding their money back for things like providing air time for the Hour of Power TV show. From Wiki: "The church's board filed for bankruptcy on October 18, 2010, citing $43 million in debt including a $36 million mortgage and $7.5 million in other debt." Oh my goodness! All that debt! What happened to "the Lord shall provide thy needs," and other such pablum that is fed to the masses from this very ministry? If God cannot supply the needs of Robert Schuller, then what hope does a single mom have, trying to feed her kids on a part-time job and Welfare?

Unable to retain his shiny, happy church in the face of such huge debts, Schuller was forced to file for bankruptcy and put his beloved creation up for sale...and it was bought by none other than the Catholic Church. Yes, the very same Catholics whom Protestants are always saying are not "real" Christians, even to the point of calling them the whore of Babylon! (A reference to some bullshit in the Book of Revelations.) The hilarity of this cannot be understated. Can you imagine the humiliation of admitting that you have to sell out to the CATHOLICS just to keep from being dragged into poverty by your ever-mounting, greed-fueled debt?

You can find hundreds of articles about this event. (Here is one from USA Today. ) It seems they don't like to bring up the bleeding obvious, which is that this ministry gives no indication whatsoever of being guided and directed by a Divine Power of any sort. In fact, it exactly resembles every other big-name business across the globe that has ever filed for bankruptcy, or gone through an unwanted takeover by another company, or simply failed because the times are changing and people don't want their product anymore. In other words, it is just another money-making business created, owned, and run by human beings.

There is no God-power involved here. If anyone thinks so, they are fooling themselves. Maybe they are thinking that it was all worth it, to glorify God. But I can't help but think that God, if he existed, would be far more pleased by the lives that would have been changed had that $18 million been spent on helping the poor, who could then help other poor people, and so on. That is the worst failure of Robert Schuller, and always will be.

Christians and their Persecution Complex

I know Christians are fond of saying that they are being horribly persecuted, but the fact is, here in America, at least, they have plenty of freedom. They can go to church any time they want to, or have friends to their homes for Bible Study. They can go door-to-door asking to talk about Jesus, or stuff flyers under your door inviting you to their churches. They have shops devoted solely to Christian-oriented books, music, and gifts. They can preach on street corners, pray in public, or have public events to raise money for their charities or churches. In all of this, nobody is stopping them. The police are not breaking down their doors to drag them away for believing in Jesus. They are free to go to school, get an education, and have any job they want regardless of their religious beliefs. Hell, they even meddle in areas that are none of their business--politics, education, sexuality, and medicine--so who the hell is persecuting them??

NOBODY, that's who. The "I'm so persecuted" complex is just a lie that they tell each other and everyone else to try and make the rest of us feel sorry for them. I am sick of these types of Christians and their lies. Persecuted? They wouldn't even know what the word means. Just read up on the history of Christianity and one can easily see that, for most of the last 2000 years, it is CHRISTIANS who have been doing the persecuting. I think I need not go into gruesome details about the Inquisitions, Crusades, and witch hunts that they inflicted upon humanity in the Middle Ages. Thousands were rounded up, accused of heresy, witchcraft, and other trumped-up charges, and then imprisoned, tortured, and executed. These punishments often were inflicted by Christians against each other, because they can't stand any little disagreement among themselves. (This holds true even today, with each denomination insisting it is right and the others are wrong. If they did not believe this, they would amalgamate into one big denomination instead of thousands of little ones.)

It is Christians, not atheists, agnostics, or anyone else, who annoy other people with their door-to-door attempts at selling Jesus. Hey, did you guys ever stop to think that people might have better things to do than invite some stranger inside to discuss your religious nutbaggery? Or that some folks have to work at night and sleep in the daytime?

Did you ever think that maybe others don't give a crap about your beliefs, and do not want to discuss them on the bus, on the airplane, on a street corner, at the library, or anywhere else you care to proselytize?

Did you ever think that, since it's okay for you to plaster Jesus and God all over the landscape in the form of billboards and bus advertisements, that you should give equal consideration to atheist groups who put up their own adverts?

Did you ever think that, while many of us find it irritating to see you taking up public space with your churchy events, we still tolerate it, albeit grudgingly; but if there is ever an atheist event, or a gay event, or a pagan event, your tolerance level is pretty damn near zero and out come the protest banners?

Of course not, you just selfishly think it's okay to do as you please, whenever you please, because you have this imagined God-given right to walk all over other people. You call that persecution? I sure don't. Yes, I know that not all Christians are like that, and I am grateful for them and their ability to put differences aside and learn to live peaceably with people of other beliefs and ways of life. The rest of you need to look in the mirror for the real persecutors around here.

Awful Bible Verse of the Day

 

 

Matthew 5:39 (NIV) 

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 

How can this be an awful Bible verse? It is always quoted by Christians as one of the best instructions Jesus ever gave. If someone is mean to you, don't be mean back to him, just take it on the chin like a good little follower of Jesus. He was a peaceful man, who never raised a finger against those who persecuted him, and we should all strive to be just like him. Right?

The truth is that this is a shitty piece of advice. Seriously, who in their right mind would NOT resist an evil person? If a teacher were abusive towards the children in her classroom, would you allow her to continue teaching your kids? If someone broke into your house, stole your possessions, and beat you senseless, would you allow him to go free? If someone mugs you on the street, will you not call the police? There are many situations where turning the other cheek is a stupid idea, and when resisting evil is our duty in order to protect ourselves and others. 

Christians know this, too. There are hundreds of thousands of them in the military. They even boast about it, regard it as a badge of honor to kill people in the name of Christ. And they certainly will resist evil when it is on their doorstep, trying to hurt them or their children. Hypocrites that they are, they give lip service to the teachings of Jesus, but "do not resist an evil person" flies out the window whenever it suits them. They know, as well as any nonbeliever, that Jesus sometimes gave dumb advice.