Sad to see Edwards go

I see that John Edwards has dropped out of the Democratic Presidential race. It's too bad. I felt he was the most qualified out of those who were left. I still haven't made up my mind, but Obama is sounding very presidential lately. I won't be providing any references just yet but I think he may be the right guy at the right time. Don't get me wrong, I really like Clinton too. Being a lady senator automatically makes her a very attractive choice to this feminist.

On a side note, I was so happy to see that my faith in the intelligence of the American people was spot on. For whatever reason, be it the veterans or the "over 65" crowd or even the evangelicals, but most people have seen through the facade of the Rev. Mike Huckabee. Sorry guys, but it's not about God. It's about power and money. As we've seen with GWB, not even a man of God can navigate the waters of corruption safely. In fact, they seem to be pretty bad at it. We only have to look at Falwell, Haggard, Robertson, Sharpton, a whole bunch of Catholic priets, etc. Just because one puts "Rev." (or Father) in front of his/her name doesn't automatically make them a good, moral person. In fact, I could argue that it gives some people power to do unimaginable horrible things.

What's It Gonna Be?

I found this over at frisbeesANDflipflops;a bright star in the Atheist World. She's been featured on Pharyngula as a great example of positive atheism. Check her out, but in the meantime, enjoy this crazy music video. It was a great start to my day!

Back from Holiday

I've been on holiday since last Friday getting back last night. We stayed at a very nice resort on the island of Ambergris Caye in the English speaking Central American country of Belize. Except for 2 days, the weather was hot and nice. I took a great book with me.

I'm going to have to figure out how to make this picture just a little bigger. Anyway, the book is The Portable Atheist edited by Christopher Hitchens. It's the first personal book that I've felt the need to use a highlighter on. There are so many great passages that I want to be able to find them immediately!

Also, on a much more solemn note I've been getting comments from a nasty Christian troll on my post about Tony Snow. I finally had to let her know that she should seek help for her mental illness and that attacking my family was off limits.

On the subject of Christian nut jobs, there are several in my extended family that are just like this troll. Full of venom and hate while hiding behind the righteous facade of Jesus. Christians like these people make their religion look bad and, in fact, will drive people away. The Christians in my extended family hate me with a capital HATE, there is no love and "crying for my lost soul" by these Christians. The ones that might be feeling sorry for me don't let me know that they feel this way. That's fine with me. In fact, I'm glad they don't call or email me with pleas to join the sheeple.

If I was to give this troll any advice it would be to let her know her tactic doesn't work. Normal people don't want to be around you, especially atheists. People like you are one of the many reasons I am an atheist. People like you give good Christians a bad name.

How I feel about Republicans

If I was to rate the Republican presidential candidates I would put McCain first, because of his experience in the Senate; and Romney second, because of his experience as governor of Massachusetts. Ron Paul and the Rev. Mike Huckabee have both proven to be ill informed about the history of our government and out-of-touch with the voters in this great country so they are not qualified to be on this list.

BTW, I will not be voting Republican this year so I haven't been keeping close tabs on these guys. Ask me about the Democrats and I can be more specific. The number one reason I'll be refraining from Republican politics is they seem to blur the line between Church and State and, if they knew the history like a presidential candidate should, they would be educating people about this instead of pandering to them. I find them blatantly dishonest. Especially, but not exclusively, the Rev. Mike Huckabee.

The founding fathers of this country would've been horrified to hear the statements made by the Rev. Huckabee last Monday.

Although not a founding father, Abraham Lincoln had this to say about people who try to subvert our government:

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

Another memorable quote:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Thomas Jefferson

What it would take to change the Constitution: Constitutional Amendments - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net

I don't heart Huckabee

The US presidential race has gotten more interesting. The Rev. Huckabee revealed exactly what he intends to do with our country:

As we all know The United States Constitution never uses the word "God" or makes mention of any religion or denomination. However, Republican presidential candidate the Rev. Mike Huckabee thinks it's time to put an end to that. If you don't want to see him say it in the above video here is a quote:

"I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution," the Rev. Huckabee told a Michigan audience. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that's what we need to do -- to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view."

I'm taking a different view than most of my fellow secular humanists on this. If the Rev. Huckabee wants to waste our tax dollars and his valuable time as President to change the Constitution then he will be fighting a very long and hard battle. Voting for a man who will work to change our country to a theocracy, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, is irresponsible and the American voter is more intelligent than to let that happen. For one thing, even the most religious person in our country will realize very quickly that the Rev. Huckabee's version of "God's standards" may be very different from theirs. From what I've read in the Bible, the word of God as defined by Christians, the Rev. Huckabee not only will get an opportunity to redefine marriage and abortion, which BTW are not mentioned in the Bible, he will also get the chance to change the way you eat, the way you raise your children, and the way you dress and style your hair.

Fortunately Mike had revealed exactly what he wants to do and has now become unvoteable. Thank Reason!

Came out to a friend

Last night Mr. Squirrel and I went out to dinner with friends. Granted, these friends aren't your usual Houston fair, she is a professional involved in a family medical business and he's a corporate lawyer. They are both Catholic and both Republican.

After a few glasses of red wine our lawyer friend starts talking about the religious right. In the middle of a sentence he remembers that he really doesn't know how religious we are and asks. I assure him he's doing alright and he proceeds with his part of the conversation. A few minutes later I approach him and tell him that not only am I not religious but I'm an atheist. He's a little surprised and even said he wasn't aware of my non-belief. Then with a quick smile he leaned into me and said "Give me a few minutes and I'll make you a Catholic!" I smiled back and said, "I doubt that but you're probably closer to me than you think!"

Then the evening went on as if nothing spectacular happened.

I think I'm going to do this more often. The secret is the timing!

New Jersey billboard

Long ago it would've made me a very happy person to see this sign. Being raised in a very religious, irrational family, knowing other people felt the same as me would've enabled me to come out much sooner. This billboard will help many people, young and old, realize that they share feelings with millions of other people and give them a resource in which to start.

Another Brilliant Video from Pat

I think he actually got tiffed while making this video, which made me like him so much more.

Damn I'm good!

Go to Ultrasound technician schools

Smack them Christians down!

Gratuitous Porsche Picture

Mine's the one on the left.
Enjoy, 'cause I sure do!

My cousin is confused

My cousin is a very religious person who cannot fathom the world without his precious deity. It shows in his response to my last post:

Admittedly, your reasoning makes my head spin. I am having a really hard time following your logic. I have come to the conclusion that we approach the whole question about the existence of God from such different positions, that it is like we are speaking two different languages.

This doesn't surprise me. He has never been in a position to think outside the Christian mindset so this kind of logic is foreign to him. I wrote back and used a family scenario when a parent treats one child as special and yet ignores the other child and tried to get him to think of God in those terms. In other words, why would God treat some people better than others for no obvious reason. Here's part of what I wrote, which you may recognize as the problem of evil:

My point is if God is the loving, benevolent, omnipotent deity that Christianity claims he is there shouldn't be any evil in the world. Since there is evil in the world in the form of horrible diseases, genocide, wars, criminals, etc. then it makes sense that either God doesn't exist or he doesn't care. For me the world looks like there is no Christian God.

The Christian answer to this problem is free will. But inserting free will into the equation doesn't answer the question. So what if he gives us free will, just remove evil from the world. God can figure a way to remove evil while still having free will. He is all-powerful, right? Problem solved again, but curiously he doesn't do this.

So when we discuss criminals and you say "I believe as long as a person is alive, there is hope for them. I believe that God can work miracles and can redeem anyone at any time, thus there is always hope"
then I have to say "Really? Being omnipotent, benevolent, and he loves us, why are there criminals anyway? Just create all of us as good, law abiding people." Viola! Problem solved!

Since that doesn't happen to every criminal then I have to conclude that either God doesn't exist (as defined) or he doesn't care.

I won't delude myself in thinking I'm going to reach him this time.