Asceticism

If you're like me, you've wondered why so many (if not all) religions assert that asceticism is a virtue. This is due to the fact that we have an ironic evolutionary instinct dubbed the Guilt of Indulgence. You know the felling, like when you're about to dig in to the largest slice of chocolate cake you've ever seen but your subconscious tell you not to be so hasty.

This is the same feeling that's been translated in such similar ways into every major religion

in existence. For the monotheists, it give credence to the fact that the wicked gluttons are going to be punished later on, while for the eastern religions it teaches that self-sacrifice is the key to

true enlightenment and happiness. It is why rich chocolate is sometimes described as "sinful" and why Buddhist monks elect to own

nothing save for a saffron robe and begging bowl. It is also the main reason the so many of the catholic deadly sins are indulgent in nature and why most of the several virtues urge temperance. If you think about it, the virtue of asceticism has been incorporated into almost every code of morality ever created. The main exception is hedonism which I'll come back to.

It is interesting to note that Satanism is actually less of a worship of the devil as perceived by the christian church and more of a rejection of the christian god accompanied by a plethora of indulgences: food, alcohol, mass orgies, occasional violence, etc. This is why atheists are sometimes referred to as satanists only with less indulgence and why radical muslims regard America, land of the gluttonous, as "the Great Satan".

The instinct originated in man's hunter-gatherer past which we are not at all yet separated from. Dawkins argued in "The Selfish Gene" how a number of moral values could have evolutionary origins (blog post on this topic to come) and it makes sense that the basis for so much of our ethics would have similar origins.

Imagine a tribe of wandering homo sapiens. Being a few generations' worth of descendants from a common family member, they are all fairly closely related. One of the hunters in the tribe kills an animal for food. Do his genes have a better chance of being passed along if he consumes the entire animal himself, or if he shares the spoils with the rest of the tribe? Obviously the answer is the latter, but if you'd like a better explanation of the scenario, I suggest reading the first few chapters of Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene".

The gist of the argument is that we are instinctually programmed to want to pass along our genes to another generation, and seeing as that we're all at most 40th cousins, we stand to gain at least a little for every selfless act we perform.

So what should you do with this information? Wheatever you want; it's a perk of being a rational person, remember? Just keep this in mind the next time someone tells you that it's impossible to be good without god.

Main Blog

I am considering making Atheist Daily my main focus. I feel like this blog has more potential/support and I feel like I have a lot better ideas for what to do here.

I want to give credence to my notion of Passive Atheism. It's the idea that one can be a militant atheist in the proper setting-with other atheists, in a debate, etc.-but a normal uncaring citizen when religion is brought up in everyday conversation. The key would be to recognize exactly when the proper setting arises. This would go a long way toward benefiting the public relations of the atheistic movement and ultimately the movement as a whole.

It would mean less people saying (shortsighted) things like this:

The ultimate goal for the movement is calm, clear, rational thinking on the part of the entire population. This means never deluding oneself when the answer is readily available. For example, 2+2 does not equal five, the moon landing wasn't faked, and there is no God. Or ghosts, witches, Satan, Pagan Gods, Nirvana, the Tao, Bigfoot, or any number of supernatural occurrences. In fact, the very definition of supernatural should imply nonexistence, at least until sufficient observation by the scientific community has been done.

So this blog and many other sites will exist as focal points for atheism and anti-theism in pursuit of a brighter future.

God's an Atheist

Apparently not even God believes in an afterlife

Not to mention that the Old Testament only mentions a hell-like place called Sheol once in passing. have christians even read the bible?

I'd Rather be in Hell

-AND-

If there were true justice in the world, the roles would be reversed.

If only Hell existed...

'Nuff Said

Can He?

Great News Everyone! Apparently God can do anything! I never knew.

And here I was thinking that God was powerless to prevent

• natural disasters
• cruelty
• suffering
• war
• aids
• poverty
• Pandemics
• strife
• famine
• disease
• douchebags
• headaches

etc. But I guess I was wrong this whole time. Thake THAT, Epicurus!

Then again, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is similarly capable of the same things. So it seems that the FSM is the one true god. Praise His noodly appendage!

O'Reilly Meme

Daily process for Bill O'Reilly: Step One, Open mouth. Step Two, Insert Foot.

It seems that O'really? has recently completely failed at a basic science question that your average fifth grader could explain, and in doing so has been made into a meme. The twist was that this question was concerning god's role in creating the moon.

O'Reilly's fallacious argument for justification for his belief in god: "The tide comes in, the tide goes out. Never a miscommunication. YOU [Dave Silverman, President of American Atheists] can't explain that."

Well due to the unfortunate fact that almost everybody who graduated kindergarten could, in fact, explain that, O'Reilly's stupidity has caused him to be made into an advice-dog style meme, with his face and text superimposed over a colorful background.

O'Reilly deserves all the dishonor he receives and then some for his use of a childlike infinite regressive fallacy. I therefore choose to share with you every picture I have saved ridiculing this disgrace to American society.

Yes it was a relatively long post, but I can't help but feel that this man's shame is worth it.

Ask An Atheist

For anyone and everyone who has ever had a burning question fro a non-believer but didn't have convenient circumstances in which to ask it, now there's Ask An Atheist:

talkatheist.org

Heretical representatives will be standing by constantly to answer any and all queries you may pose on the subject of the divine (or lack thereof), the supernatural, or even the scientific and rational. Enjoy!

Ever Notice?

The Microbial King

Microbes outnumber multicellular organisms overwhelmingly. So to say humans are made in God's image is nothing short of ignorant.

A Quick List of Gods

Agdistis or Angdistis

Ah Puch

Ahura Mazda

Alberich

Allah

Amaterasu

An

Anansi

Anat

Andvari

Anshar

Anu

Aphrodite

Apollo

Apsu

Ares

Artemis

Asclepius

Athena

Athirat

Athtart

Atlas

Baal

Ba Xian

Bacchus

Balder

Bast

Bellona

Bergelmir

Bes

Bixia Yuanjin

Bragi

Brahma

Brigit

Camaxtli

Ceres

Ceridwen

Cernunnos

Chac

Chalchiuhtlicue

Charun

Chemosh

Cheng-huang

Cybele

Dagon

Damkina (Dumkina)

Davlin

Dawn

Demeter

Diana

Di Cang

Dionysus

Ea

El

Enki

Enlil

Eos

Epona

Ereskigal

Farbauti

Fenrir

Forseti

Freya

Freyr

Frigg

Gaia

Ganesha

Ganga

Garuda

Gauri

Geb

Geong Si

Guanyin

Hades

Hanuman

Hathor

Hecate (Hekate)

Helios

Heng-o (Chang-o)

Hephaestus

Hera

Hermes

Hestia

Hod

Hoderi

Hoori

Horus

Hotei

Huitzilopochtli

Hsi-Wang-Mu

Hygeia

Inanna

Inti

Iris

Ishtar

Isis

Ixtab

Izanaki

Izanami

Jesus

Juno

Jupiter

Juturna

Kagutsuchi

Kartikeya

Khepri

Ki

Kingu

Kinich Ahau

Kishar

Krishna

Kuan-yin

Kukulcan

Lakshmi

Leto

Liza

Loki

Lugh

Luna

Magna Mater

Maia

Marduk

Mars

Mazu

Medb

Mercury

Mimir

Min

Minerva

Mithras

Morrigan

Mot

Mummu

Muses

Nammu

Nanna

Nanna (Norse)

Nanse

Neith

Nemesis

Nephthys

Neptune

Nergal

Ninazu

Ninhurzag

Nintu

Ninurta

Njord

Nugua

Nut

Odin

Ohkuninushi

Ohyamatsumi

Orgelmir

Osiris

Ostara

Pan

Parvati

Phaethon

Phoebe

Phoebus Apollo

Pilumnus

Poseidon

Quetzalcoatl

Rama

Re

Rhea

Sabazius

Sarasvati

Selene

Shiva

Seshat

Seti (Set)

Shamash

Shapsu

Shen Yi

Shiva

Shu

Si-Wang-Mu

Sin

Sirona

Sol

Surya

Susanoh

Tawaret

Tefnut

Tezcatlipoca

Thanatos

Thor

Thoth

Tiamat

Tianhou

Tlaloc

Tonatiuh

Toyo-Uke-Bime

Tyche

Tyr

Utu

Uzume

Venus

Vesta

Vishnu

Volturnus

Vulcan

Xipe

Xi Wang-mu

Xochipilli

Xochiquetzal

Yam

Yarikh

Yhwh

Ymir

Yu-huang

Yum Kimil

Zeus

Just a quick list. Demonstrating that your God is no more believable than the rest of these glorified imaginary friends.

Burden of Proof

I have an apple in my hand.

Now, do I really have an apple in my hand? You can't know for sure until I show you my hand holding an apple, right? You might take my word for it, but that's only because it really doesn't impact you very much. But you sure wouldn't be willing to bet your life on it until I showed you an apple inside my hand.

Now what if I told you this apple was in fact Omniscient and outside the bounds of time and space?

Would you take my word for it?

Hypocrisy at its Finest

Anybody who knows the History of the Protestant Church also knows that one of the largest problems that Martin Luther had with the Catholic church is the fact that they sold "indulgences" which were basically tickets into heaven.

Martin Luther was under the impression that "Salvation through Grace alone" was the answer for entry into heaven. So it would stand to reason that Martin Luther's church would nowadays have nothing to do with accepting donations from its members for the purpose of reaching heaven.

But this is wrong.

It turns out that the current system that is in place is almost completely funded by its tenants. Also, one of the most holy acts that can be done by a human being is to give to charity. So therefore when one gives any amount of money to the church, they then have a better chance of getting into heaven. The same practice that Martin Luther so railed against.

Hypocrisy at its finest, ladies and gentlemen.

White Jesus

Picture Jesus in your mind. What do you see? Some semi-Anglican white man with flowing hair and a full beard, right?

Something like this?

Well, my friend, you are completely normal. For thousands of years, the (perhaps) most influential man in European history has been portrayed exactly how the Europeans want their religious savior to be depicted as similar themselves as possible in order to be able to relate to the image.

But isn't this detrimental to the worship of the man himself? One would think. However, apparently the collective Christian churches don't mind that the object of their worship was drastically different than how they perceive him.

He actually looked something

like this.

Yes, that's Jesus. That's how he most likely looked during his time on Earth according to a group of very smart people.

Do you think Christians would hold Jesus in the same regard if they normally pictured him how he really looked?

And from a different angle: does man create his god?

Book Burning (not by me)

I realize I promised new content yesterday, but you see the Muses were not upon me. I feel that most of my blogs should come from a source of inspiration, rather than a point of school essay- style forcing out of my tired head.

Today I have found inspiration.

The picture you see above may look harmless at first glance. It is simply three books being burnt side-by-side on a porch banister. Next to a dog bowl.

But how would you react to find out that two of these books are the two best selling books in history? That's right, one is the Bible and one is the Koran.

Now don't immediately be shocked or offended. It is for a noble cause. Besides, the third book is "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins.

But the Ultimate purpose of this demonstration was to expose the extreme intolerance of the religious. Fundamentalists from both religions will instantly find themselves willing to resort to violence to defend their personal collection of words. Atheists, meanwhile, are much more likely to consider the implications that such an action would mean.

The ultimate point is that this action must be viewed rationally. Every one of these books is nothing more than a specific arrangement of ink and paper, nothing more. To be offended at the destruction of an arrangement of paper is irrational. Nothing can be made sacred if we are to move forward in life.

Pretty Much Sums it Up

This video has pretty much everything there is to be said in it. It's beautiful, really.

I promise more content tomorrow. So follow me now for more.

Being An Atheist

I'm surprised at the amount of people I talk to who misunderstand what I mean when I tell them I'm an atheist. It doesn't mean I worship the devil (I don't even believe in him); it doesn't mean I am a Pagan, Wiccan, Buddhist, or anything of the sort; it doesn't necessarily mean that I am part of a rising tide of youths who are sick of the religious controlling our every thoughts and actions and restricting our freedoms.

But I am.

But that's a story for another post. Today I discuss why atheism is, as a great atheist once said, not a denial of Theism but instead a close, personal relationship with reality. The great Christopher Hitchens is given credit for saying, "That which can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence." This is certainly applicable in the case of every major religion whose creeds involved accepting some sort of higher power, or "God" but refused to grant any evidence beyond, "Well the Earth is kinda nice to live on, so a god must have designed it!"

Today we know this is due to millions of years' worth of mutation, adaptation, and evolution. We also know now that less than one millionth of one percent of the universe is habitable to humans. Turns out that all-powerful and all-knowing magic man in the sky was pretty inept after all.

God has hidden in many places beyond man's ability to perceive. In pagan days, God(s) was/were used to explain the rotation of the sun around the earth. Once Galileo came along, God was then used to explain natural phenomena such as earthquakes and hurricanes. But then once plate tectonics and meteorology came along, God began hiding before the creation of the Universe. What happened? Apparently in Old Testament times God was a fairly common visitor to the human race. Nowadays we'd have to cross dimensions just to catch a glimpse of the guy.

But soon those dimensions will be crossed. And God will run out of places to hide. The younger generation is largely waking up to this fact. But, as I said, that is a post for another day.

Inspirational Video

This man may be better than God.

I promise I'll have more content during the week. It's Sunday so it's my day of rest. And by rest I mean homework. So follow now for upcoming awesome updates!