Whoever spares the rod hates their children...

He that smiteth his father, or his mother, shall be surely put to death. -- Exodus 21:15

He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. -- Exodus 21:17

I can't help but wonder exactly what part of the Bible 7 year old Roderick "R.J." Arrington failed to read that caused his stepfather, Markiece Palmer, to beat him so severely that he slipped into unconsciousness and died the next day. It probably wasn't one of the two verses above because most people like to pick and choose the "feel good" parts of the Bible and ignore the rest.

There's not much I can say about this story without getting upset, so I'll keep it short. These are rules set out by god for you to follow. They come right after the 10 commandments, so the old those were different rules for a different time argument won't fly.

Kidnapped Woman Finds Real Mother 23 Years Later; Jesus Takes All The Credit

Innocent Victim / Selfish Shebeast

A few facts about this case:

In August of 1987 a woman brought her sick(with a high fever) 3 week old daughter to the hospital where she was subsequently kidnapped by Ann Pettway.

23 years later, feeling like something in her life was wrong, she contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and was reunited with her family.


At 2:17 in the video a crying woman is shouting "Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, praise his holy name!", and surely many of you agree that God brought that family back together.

I don't understand why God gets the credit for the good things that happen to people but never gets blamed for the bad things. Or, we get the "God works in mysterious ways" answer, but you already know how I feel about that.



Her aunt said "She(Pettway) destroyed my family", and her father said "...it's hard for her to cope...", her parents missed watching their child grow up, she missed growing up with her siblings, she was physically abused by Pettway- I could go on, but I think the point is made.





Feeling especially invisibly pink today,

The Invisible Pink Unicorn

Weekend at Bradley's

Except the zombie in question is Jewish

Last weekend I headed down to Peoria, IL for the event being put on by the BU Skeptics. It was a whole weekend's worth of activities but I was only able to attend on Saturday. If you want a full run-down of what happened, Russell Glasser and Matt Dillahunty(who were a big part of the weekend, and hosts of the evermore popular show The Atheist Experience) have summed the whole thing up nicely.

I think fun was had by all, and it was definitely an experience to remember. I don't know where or when the video will be released, but I know there was a guy there with a camera and I believe he was affiliated with the college or the group. If I hear something I will post an update.

Since Matt and Russell did a great job with their recountings of the weekend, I will just post some pictures from the meeting for all to see. Enjoy!

Mclovin and company talking to Matt afterwards

My Problems with God

I've never read any of the holy books in their entirety. I've read bits and pieces of some, the Christian Bible more than any other, but not very much of any of them. I've had people tell me that if I've never read insert your favorite holy book here, that I can't possibly begin to comment on it's truth value. I'll set aside the idea that all of these supposed holy books have one thing in common: none of them have evidence to back up the miracles and deity to human communication that all of them claim to have happened. I'll do that because I can, for the sake of argument, assume that a god does exist and still have many monkey wrenches to throw in the gears that are their arguments.

There isn't a need to list them because even if none of those can convince you(and I know they won't) I can take a step back and say that even if any of those gods do exist, I wouldn't worship them. I would curse that god every day, telling him he is a coward like none other. I would dare him to show his face. Any theist who has ever heard me say that always replies the same way; when you stand in front of god, you WILL bow before him. I have always thought that could mean that I would either be so scared or awestruck that I would have to bow in his awesome presence or that he would force me to bow with his godly power. Maybe it's the tone of smug glee that comes standard with the aforementioned statement, but I really feel theists believe their god isn't above forcing someone to bow before him. That is a scary thought.

The Lord is my shepherd(if shepherd = pimp)

About a month ago, I had to drive up to Wisconsin and spend a few hours inside a church. While I was there I saw two kinds of hymnal books; one that looked like every other hymnal I had seen in any other church I had ever gone to while the other was quite unique. Curious, I grabbed one from a pew and opened it up.








While seeing such self deprecating language is neither new nor particularly shocking, the cover of this book puts everything in a different perspective.

That's right folks, statements such as "I am not good enough for [Jesus] to come to me." are being spoken by children before they're to participate in communion.

I invite theists of all stripes to help me understand how a child that is being given information like that from trusted individuals at such an early age allows for the child to have a fair and objective shot at making unbiased decisions on spirituality or lack thereof.

Just a thought: The overwhelming majority of people that ever accepted the premise that supernatural beings could exist were children.

The Unicorn has spoken.

It's not about how many times you fall down...

In an effort to stave off obesity I joined a flag football team this fall. I played exactly two games before I tore the ACL in my left knee. I had surgery to replace the damaged ligament, then spent the next seven weeks in a Vicodin haze. I tried to record a video for YouTube, but zombie isn't a good look for me.

I kicked the Vicodin, did some physical therapy, and now I'm well enough to start posting on a regular basis again. I'll be going back to school for the spring semester, but I don't expect that to make too much of an impact on what I do here.

Tomorrow I'll be back with more Rational Thoughts for Atheists, and I hope you'll join me.

The Beginning of Atheism for Beginners

Although this is the inaugural set of thoughts for what I consider to be a blog about Atheism, I believe it will inevitably lead down many paths which may or may not be related to Atheism. Hopefully they will be interesting enough to capture an audience.  I am quite new at this and have never had any interest in blogging before. I guess this is the part where I give you the backstory. Here goes...

I've never been a "believer". I mean, I've done the church thing and the praying thing (mostly in bad times) but outside of that I never gave it a moment of my time. Something just seemed inherently wrong about the way religion worked. It felt like the ultimate bribe/threat. So my life was what it was. Ignoring God till I needed "him" (him being some form of comfort), then discarding "him" as quickly as I had taken "him". That all ended a few months ago during one of my youtube sessions when I found  a video of a brilliant gentleman by the name of Richard Dawkins talking about evolution. Clip after clip, more information was being given to me that made all the things I've always thought deep down make more sense than ever before! Rational thinking in the face and against the grain of popular thought? Unapologetic use of logic? This man was an obvious rogue, not afraid to proclaim as proudly as any theist his stance on the matter. So what did I do? I took notes. 

This being an introduction to me, I'll allow this page to be just that. In parting, I would like theists as well as atheists to know that all opinions will be heard so long as they are brought to the table with a purpose. If you believe something someone says or does makes them a coward, you have the right to say so. Personal attacks for the sake of stoking the flames will not be tolerated. The Invisible Pink Unicorn has spoken.