"As scarce as the truth is, the supply is always greater than the demand."
Josh Billings

Sin and Sinner

"Love the sinner, hate the sin."

Unfortunately, we will be hearing this ridiculous crap a lot more over the next several months. Maine will in all likelihood have a referendum on same-sex marriage. I have already heard various conservatives and narrow-minded theists drag out this old phrase as if it has any connection to reality. Science has a little way to go to definitively prove that homosexuality is biological but the link is very strong. A variety of studies on genetic and hormonal links have already produced a huge body of data that all leads to the conclusion that homosexuality is not a "choice."

Basically, religion's favorite dodge when it comes to discrimination, persecution, and just being assholes has been pretty well demolished. When it comes to homosexuals you cannot separate the "sin" from the "sinner."  Being homosexual is an innate part of their humanity. If you hate their supposed sin then you hate them. If opponents of gay marriage want to openly admit to being hateful I would be fine with that. It would make it easier to deal with them and their barrage of lies and bullshit.

I, however, am fed up with their denials of reality. If we had a functional media the general public might have a better idea of just how full of shit these purveyors of lies and hypocrisy are.

No Fury Like a Pissed-off Theist

I found Jonathan Ree's review of Navid Kermani's Terror of God pretty interesting. I may have to find a copy. I have never understood why theists insist on slamming atheists for criticizing religion and God when it is theists who tend to be the biggest whiners about all things theological. At least when we complain there tends to substance. When theists go at each other or some sacred text or God it tends to be over comparatively petty details. Theist critiques of religion also come across as rather silly to me since they're the ones who created what they then turn around bitch about.

God the Economist

It seems that God is not only a bungling creator and dead-beat dad he is also an incompetent economist. In another absurdly amusing piece on Huffington Post one of the more liberal theists blogging there attempts to connect God to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Rev. Lewis' "In God's Economy, Everyone Has Enough" suffers from the same predictable disconnect so rampant in most theistic thinking. She references wage discrepancies and violence but never in any way associates them with God (creator and source of all things) then turns around and makes the statement, "Just when I feel overwhelmed with the violence of poverty, I find inspiration and instigation in the picture of God's Economy in Christian Scriptures."

What?! First off, what is the source of this "violence of poverty"? The freewill dodge is old, tired, and thoroughly debunked. If God isn't the source how can any Christian even attempt to claim that God is perfect and all powerful. Second, the scriptures are not the shining example of equality that most Christians have deluded themselves into believing. Christ himself on more than one occasion acts like a selfish prick. He also endorses in a few places an "us and them" mentality which last I knew is not a particularly good way to promote equality. This all, of course, leads to the question that if "God's Economy" exists at all why is it not showing better results?

"All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education."
Sir Walter Scott