Pathogen’s Quest

There was a point in my life where I believed in the power of prayer. Sure, god moved in mysterious ways which usually resulted in my prayers never being answered in a way that I wanted, understood, or could even recognize. I also recognized early on that prayer seldom made me feel better about a given situation. I’d like to think that I avoided the vapid, selfish, shallow types of prayers being lampooned in this video. But I also know better. Hell, what’s the point of having a direct line to god as a good Mormon boy if not to ask for some special treatment every now and then?

I managed to get to my early 20s before I put two and two together and realized that praying and not praying pretty much resulted in the same outcome. I know; I’m a slow learner.

I was “called” as an elder’s quorum president for the branch I attended while stationed in Okinawa. I was young (too young); at 23 years of age, barely married, enlisted (this tended to matter in terms of politics in the church), and having never served a mission, I was put in a precarious position to “lead” men in my church that were in some respects much older, more experienced and knowledgeable, and I felt better geared for that calling. I’m not sure what the branch president or the district president were thinking at the time, but they felt I was the best choice; selected by god, of course. It was bullshit.

Regardless, I accepted the calling because, well, that’s what good Mormon boys do. I was always taught in church that you don’t turn down callings. If the church leaders go through the trouble of selecting you, then it’s already ordained by god. I wasn’t happy to take it, but I put my faith in them and god. However, I was promised one thing. And this was a doozie: given my age, rank, and status, I was guaranteed that whomever I prayed for and called as my first and second councilors, the branch and district president would accept my choices without push-back. Oh how naive was I?

I prayed diligently for the two men that would best help me lead this quorum. When I was confident that I had made two solid selections and felt comfortable with my choices, I approached my elders and was almost immediately denied. God apparently had plans for these two men that He didn’t bother to tell me about in all of my prayers. And so it would go with my next four selections. That’s right; I had been denied not only my first and second choices, but a third as well. At no point did I ever get the sense that I was choosing poorly. Not only that, I was flat out lied to by my elders. At no point did they indicate that things had changed or that there were others they had in mind. What the hell was the point of the whole exercise of me going home, praying, choosing, and then coming back only to be slapped down?

Looking back, that situation was the solidifying moment where I realized that prayer is an absolute farce. I didn’t realize it at that time, of course. I maintained my commitment. But I would be lying if I didn’t say that my faith had been shaken by that whole ridiculous scenario. I continued to pray for a while after that. I even prayed after I left the Mormon church; for a period, any way. I prayed because I still believed in a god; particularly the Christian god. Personally, I don’t have anything against prayer for others. Anything that helps you get by in this world is fine with me as long as it doesn’t hurt other people. Just don’t expect any outcome other than what would happen had you not prayed at all.

I know I sound bitter; and maybe there’s some lingering about. I just hate wasted effort.

Or what I’d like to call someone else doing the heavy lifting.

Steve Wells, creator of the Skeptics Annotated Bible, Qur’an, and Book of Mormon has generously donated the full contents of his website to the Reason Project. Using this as a foundation, we intend to make the Scripture Project the best source for scriptural criticism on the Internet.

There’s nothing better than using someone else’s words against them. I’m married; it happens to me all of the time.

Be cool like me and sign up for an account to The Reason Project.

Now I’m off to learn why it’s cool to stone gays but not cool to be a stoned gay or why it’s not kosher to lay with your wife while Aunt Flow is in town.

Joe not-a-Plumber weighs in with his form of compassionate conservatism when he waxed poetic about not letting his children near his gay friends because, you know, they’re queer. It’s true. Look up the word “queer” in the dictionary like JTP. That’s all you need to know about gay people. They’re weird. But not like Joe; who’s perfectly “normal”.

‘Joe the Plumber’ on Dobson, theocracy and GOP hypocrites…and gays being infectious queers

I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children.

Remember what good’ole Jon Stewart says about this: you can’t catch gay, but gay can catch you. Apparently JTP hasn’t figured this out, yet. Or maybe he has. *snort*

Two things:

1) JTP has gay friends? I almost broke a rib laughing at that possibility. If he’s not lying (highly doubtful), they’re not going to be his friends for long.

2) What are the odds that this dickbag runs for office? You just know someone is salivating at the possibility of running this simpleminded fucktard out there for all of the Palin Brigade to swoon over. It’s like Idiocracy’s going from being a poorly executed comedy to something prescient.

Let’s ignore all of the other bullshit about god and whatnot from this clown and focus on this tidbit about Palin:

I like Sarah Palin a lot, actually. I just don’t know if that’s where God’s leading her. I just know the Republican Party’s done its best to blackball her.

Bullshit. The Republican Party didn’t blackball her. They saw the national polling numbers and determined that America was having none of it. “It” being the marketing package that was Sarah Palin that wasn’t even worthy of a junior college intro to marketing class. They threw her out there and America gave her the collective finger. Of course Joe loves her, though. She’s him in female form. Dumb, plastic, fake, shallow, vapid, with a transparent story built on lies, god, guns, and queer bashing.

But if the Reeps want to keep themselves in the fringes of politics, keep putting guys like JTP out there. For although it seems like the RNC learned its lesson with Sarah Palin, they still haven’t figured out how to shut up this nimrod.

Finally, JTP completes the trifecta of ironic idiocy when he professes his love of the Republican party because the “Founding Fathers based the Constitution off of Christian values” and “individual freedom should not be legislated by the federal government” only to follow up with him being okay with discrimination. Just as long as it’s at the state level with regards to gay marriage.

At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong.

Sorry, Joe. It’s going to be a “federal thing” fairly soon if bigots like you keep pushing discrimination at the state level. Also, Ohio banned gay marriage a few years ago. I guess that did nothing to save his marriage, though.

Did I ever tell you about the time I worked at Publix as a bagger? Worst job ever. And I used to wash dishes at SBarro’s.

But seeing something like this would have made that job infinitely more enjoyable.

Maybe he got tired of women talking back to him.

People are fucking weird.

This is site is so full of win: Defender’s Guide to Science and Creationism

This Defender’s Guide is my own small contribution, in which I try to offer brief and readable analyses not only of nominally “scientific” creationist assertions, but of moral, philosophical, and theological ones as well. This is a one-man project and a part-time effort, so it has definite limitations, but I hope it will serve you well.

According to the editor’s byline, Mark I. Vuletic received a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007, for a dissertation on the conceptual foundations of quantum mechanics.

Sounds like a smart guy. He also has a section on Atheology (anti-theology) and Philosopy on his site’s main page.

While doing a bit more digging on Dr. Vuletic, I found this: From Believer to Atheist

Most telling from his recount of his deconversion from believer, there was this tidbit at the bottom of his piece that I found very interesting. He states in the postscript the following:

…one of the Christians in the audience went so far as to tell me afterwards that I was the most Christ-like person he had ever met. When a Christian can say that about an atheist, it is impossible for me not to be optimistic about the prospect of peaceful co-existence between our two communities.

As someone that can be as belligerent to believers as Hitches on a bender channeling the late, great Carlin’s vitriol, I’m somewhat encouraged that I’m still able to maintain the friendships with the believers in my life. Although I highly doubt anyone, believer or not, would mistake my character for anything resembling Christ-like. I’m a heathen through and through.

I’m seriously looking forward to reviewing the rest of his site and blog found here: The Atheologian

I’ve worked downtown for the past eight years; just down the street from the DTE building you see throughout this short documentary, in fact. Yet most of my time here is spent huddled inside of the secured confines of my work place. And even though I recognize many of the sites that are featured in this short piece, I realize how little I actually know about my city.

This video is both sad and beautiful. You truly get the sense that the echos of the past have not yet let go of this once great city, but the glimmer of hope is still present. Detroit doesn’t need to be a great city once again; just a good one.

Detroit Wildlife from florent tillon on Vimeo.

Apparently a lot. He’s like every asshole boss I’ve ever worked for.

Hugh does, however, have a fair point with regards to the moderately religious. I don’t think moderates provide a pass for extremists to get away with their hateful nonsense. I look at the people around that would consider themselves moderate, if not devout in their personal beliefs. They offer no quarter for the Phelps and jihadists of the world. And oftentimes they’re as critical, if not moreso, than outspoken atheists like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins.

Beyond that, however, Hugh fails to defend his position. Sure I’m biased in my assessment given my belief structure, or lack thereof. He speaks from a position of irrationality. All devoutly religious do. It’s in the very nature of their convictions to suspend objectivity and disbelief and take the leap of “faith”. In this regard, Sam Harris owns this discussion.

Hewitt is unfortunately reduced to telling Harris that he’s simply not that smart. He might as well have sat there and said “nuh huh” for ten minutes.

And I plan on celebrating this one by kicking the ball around with some friends, knocking back a few beers, and enjoying the remainder of the evening with my better half.  This sounds so much better than sitting around in a church listening to the ancient drivel of goat herders.

Too bad I couldn’t have gotten the day off of work.  Oh well.  You can’t have everything.

And remember kids: Jesus died so pictures like this could be funny!

…and she did.

Mother kills son, self at shooting range

A mother has pointed a gun to her unsuspecting son’s head at a shooting range and pulled the trigger, killing him in front of shocked bystanders.

Marie Moore, 44, then turned the gun on herself.

In her notes, mostly addressed to her boyfriend “King”, Moore insisted that God and the Devil and [sic] turned her into the Anti-Christ, and that when she died “a thousand years peace” would reign on Earth.

She signed herself off as “Failed Queen”.

“I’m sorry to leave you like this,” she said on one of the tapes. “It’s a horrifying thing to do.”

Horrifying is a tremendous understatement. It’s too bad she won’t be around to see that her sacrifice will have no difference on the level of peace or turmoil in this world.

Imagine for a minute that this woman had never been introduced to the concept of god, the devil, heaven, or hell. Then imagine her son still alive. Imagine her getting the proper care for her paranoid schizophrenia instead of people trying to pray away the demons that gripped her mind. Imagine that you never witnessed something as horrifying as a mother killing her own child because she was certain he’d go to a better place.

There’s so much wrong here. From the mother actually following through on this gross act to the poor people that had to witness it to the failure of the people in this young man’s life that did not properly educate him about his mother’s condition. What son with any understanding of his mother’s psychosis would go to a shooting rage with her?

I know that I’m inferring a lot. But I firmly believe that something can be learned from all tragedies. If it’s true that this Ms. Moore had been previously banned from the gun range, then they hold some culpability in what happened. There was obviously a failure on the part of the gun range to protect its other patrons, not just Ms. Moore. What other measures, legal or procedural, can and does a gun range have in place for determining who’s mentally fit to use their facilities?

Additionally, what’s the obligation of this young man’s father to educate him about his mother’s mental health and what, if any, are the precautions that he should have been given? How far can we go to restrict someone’s freedom of movement that has shown a willingness to hurt themselves in the past?

Sadly, maybe there was nothing that could have been done to prevent this. Maybe she fails to succeed at the gun range, but manages to gain possession of a firearm elsewhere. Maybe this kid never had a chance.

And maybe, just maybe, she would have been just fine never knowing a damn thing about religion. And perhaps I shouldn’t be turning this tragedy into an anti-religion screed. Perhaps I can’t help myself.