why i am an atheist

i've mentioned a few times that i have no truck with religion. here's why.



because almost all religions:

• are intolerant of other religions;


• are intolerant of homosexuality while covering up for their priests' homosexual (and heterosexual) paedophilia (not just the roman catholic church here, folks, for those of you who want to have a go at the r.c.s alone);


• intolerant of extra-marital or pre-marital sex while covering up for their priests' sexual adventures;


• have practitioners who are appalling hypocrites, preaching e.g. peace and love while encouraging the lynching of those they oppose (see pat robertson calling for the murder of hugo chavez);


• have murdered those they claim are witches (i believe most religious practitioners to be only 10 minutes from burning their next witch, even if they've not burned one yet, iyswim);


• talk about "tough love" as if it's something good. it's not. it's bullying.;


• oppose evolution theory 'cos it makes their childish creation myths look silly;


• try to enforce conformity of actions and thoughts;


• try to enforce the power and influence of their practitioners (priests as politicians);


• try to prevent the separation of church and state;


• try to prevent the evolution of new technological methodologies;


• try to prevent scientists from being scientific;

here's the one that should give pause to all people capable of thought:

• expect me to "believe" in their god(s) without evidence.

now, call me a bit of a pedant, if you want, but how can anyone believe anything without evidence? (i put the dictionary link in there for those who don't know the difference between pedant and another word and end up beating the crap out of a paediatrician 'cos they think she's a sex offender).



it flies in the face of all logic.



it's like telling me that i should believe black is white, green is pink, up is down, left is right.



i know that all those terms only have meaning because we humans give them that meaning, but that's true of gods, too. they only exist because people make them exist. because people want or need them to exist in order to make some sense of an otherwise somewhat bewildering universe.



but, sorry, if you can't cope with the world without gods, go and live in a cave somewhere and worship the sun. that's much more sensible that trying to pretend that there's an all-seeing, kindly old gent sitting up there in the clouds, with angels around him doing his bidding and keeping us all safe.



we're not safe because the world is an unsafe place; we have tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, wars, house-fires, car crashes, psychopaths, rapists, paedophiles, resident cunt bush, anthony charles lynton bliar, dick-head cheney, suicide bombers, the c.i.a., the f.b.i., joe mccarthys, joe stalins, adolf hitlers, adolf eichmanns, general custers, attorneys general, genghiz khans, armed robbers, armed police and loads of other things that make it unsafe.



no fantasy god sitting in his / her heaven is going to stop any of those things being bad for our health and fitness, so stop believing.



without the rose-tinted specs, the world is a dangerous but marvellous, sensuous, wondrous place where we can experience intense joy, intense pain, laughter, happiness, sadness, love, our child's first words, our mother's smile, our father's love, our grand-father's horse-play, our grand-mother's indulgence, our lover's kiss, all without filtering them through a load of religious bilge-water whose effect is to take the shine off them all and make them less intense, less meaningful, less wonderful.



by "wonder" i mean "awe-inspiring, "astounding", "astonishing", not puzzling.



we don't need religionists fucking-up the world for us.



summary : nice legs, shame about the boat race.

state of their nation

let's have a little look at the state of the good ol' u.s. of a.



its resident (sic), stole two elections, was (and is) a member of the "skull and bones" fraternity when at harvard. he says he's "honoured" to be and have been a member. he's held a reunion for his fellow "skull and bones" members at the whitehouse. the rituals of the initiation into this fraternity constitute a "black mass" in all but name, see lewis alper's article. as a declared christian, what the fuck is he doing saying he's "honoured" to be in a fraternity which holds black masses?



its resident lied about why he wanted war with iraq. the "downing street memo" shows that he (and bliar) lied, yet he's still in office? why?



its attorney general's main body of work was memos justifying torture.



its vice president makes loads of money out of the corporations which he has appointed to "rebuild" iraq (for "rebuild" read "milk it of its oil").



its leader of congress has been indicted for perjury before a grand jury.



its central intelligence agency has been kidnapping foreign nationals and dumping them in either foreign countries which torture people to get confessions to crimes they didn't commit or in guantanamo bay concentration camp, where they are tortured by americans until they confess to crimes they didn't commit.



its resident (him again) has refused to ratify the kyoto agreement on global warming, has reversed previous legislation forcing vehicle manufacturers to reduce emissions from their vehicles and increase their fuel efficiency, has pushed for antarctica and alaska and other wilderness areas of the u.s.a. to be opened for oil exploration, has helped oil companies all over the world to combat justified opposition by locals to their actions, has watched oil prices rise to all-time highs, has watched the u.s.'s energy consumption soar; all while the rest of the world tries to do the opposite.



its secretaries of state (both powell and rice) have lied to their own congress and senate and to the rest of the world about their reasons for attacking iraq.



its resident's father (then resident) armed both iraq and iran during their bloody war, was extremely accommodating when saddam hussein wanted american chemical weapons, but then attacked iraq when iraq invaded kuwait after the americans had told saddam they were happy for him to invade. why? what had saddam done in the meantime to piss him off?



its resident is a dry drunk. one who has stopped drinking but never sorted out why he drank in the first place. one who will turn to drink again when put under any stress. is he still capable of remaining sober while making life-or-death decisions that affect all of the rest of the world?



its attorney general (again) is trying to remove the right of habeus corpus. this means that any american or person living or holidaying on american soil, can be locked up forever on the whim of the executive and never, ever, ever see the light of day again, 'cos without habeus corpus, no trial can take place because no-one knows where the detainee is, what they're charged with, or even that they're detained. indefinite imprisonment on a whim? fuck off.



its troops demolished the city of fallujah, killing unnumbered civilians, targetting its hospitals, schools, water supplies and food supplies. all in direct contravention of the geneva conventions. bloody murderers.



its resident (yawn), its resident's father and grandfather, are (were, in the case of the dead one) all tied up with nazi sympathisers and nazi war crimes.



i could go on and on and on giving examples of why that nation under its current government is a pariah. a bloody empire to rival the bloodiness of the romans. governed by a bunch of devil-worshipping, nazi-sympathisers who care nothing about whether anyone else lives or dies as long as their cabbal make loads of money.



truly sickening.

mike whitney : hugo chavez vs the king of vacations.



i have a real soft spot for hugo chavez. we need many, many more like him as an antidote to fascistic bastards like bliar and cunt bush.

karma nabulsi : arafat the obstacle has been exposed as a myth.



anyone with a brain knew that that was just a myth perpetrated by the u.s., israel and the u.k.

privatising education

william keegan : reverse is his favourite gear (labour once wanted to abolish public schools but under bliar it seems keener on privatising our entire educational system).



well, what can one expect when one makes a lawyer, ex-public-schoolboy into a prime minister?



the 'lawyer' bit says you'll get someone who can't tell the truth, the 'ex-public-schoolboy' bit says you'll get an elitist.



hardly the person to do away with public schools, then.

tariq ali : bliar defeated on terror laws.



the beginning of the end for this vain, treacherous, deceitful man and his fascist policies?



one can but hope.