Kim Davis Memes

Who wore it better?

I’m being lazy by posting these, but they’re funny and (gasp!) actually make legitimate points so… if a picture is worth a thousand words, this is a full essay for me. Enjoy (or scream and rant and rave, whatever floats your boat).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~V

 

Book Banning: The Joy of Censorship

You can burn a book, but you can’t kill an idea

There are certain groups of people who seem to love banning books and censoring thoughts and language. Among the most notorious are conservative Christians and Nazis. (Although we could throw in Muslims as well, to be fair). Interestingly, while conservative Christians aggressively try to ban or censor anything they find that is objectionable to the Christian faith, they have no problem at all with defending freedom of speech when it comes to insulting Islam.

Over the years, many classic books as well as many benign children’s books have fallen under strict religious scrutiny and have drawn the ire of religious zealots who feel it is their duty in life to protect the rest of humanity from itself. Take a look at a sample of books that have been banned over the years:

I’m a Victim, You’re a Victim, Wouldn’t You Like To Be a Victim Too?

I’ve been told by numerous Christians that they are the most persecuted group in America and after checking the facts on this, I have to agree. For example, though it’s hard to imagine, there are still places in this country where loving heterosexual Christian couples are not allowed to legally marry. This is due to extreme intolerance from the gay community who feel that heterosexual marriage defiles the very sanctity of the institution and claim that marriage should be defined as one man and one man or one woman and one woman ONLY! The result of this is that many straight couples are unable to enjoy the legal benefits of marriage that their gay counterparts enjoy, such as being able to cover a spouse under health insurance and… wait… hold the phone. Let me just check something… Oh. Oh crap. Ok well… nevermind. Forget that first example. It seems I got my facts mixed up. Turns out it’s the other way around. It’s gay couples that can’t get married in some places and it’s Christians that are intolerant. Whoops. My bad.

My Moral Compass is Broken

Which direction is “Good”?

If you’re an Atheist, Jesus may love you but his fans aren’t so understanding. Recent comments by  two older, conservative Christian men have been making news. Phil Robertson, from the cable TV show Duck Dynasty is reported to have made some disturbingly violent comments about atheists. As reported by Right Wing Watch, Robertson was giving a speech at the Vero Beach Prayer Breakfast when he said the following:

“I’ll make a bet with you, two guys break into an atheist’s home. He has a little atheist wife and two little atheist daughters. Two guys break into his home and tie him up in a chair and gag him. And then they take his two daughters in front of him and rape both of them and then shoot them and they take his wife and then decapitate her head off in front of him. And then they can look at him and say, ‘Isn’t it great that I don’t have to worry about being judged? Isn’t it great that there’s nothing wrong with this? There’s no right or wrong, now is it dude?’”

An Argument for Agnosticism

Spin the wheel and win a prize

Ok, so if you’ve read my other posts you’ve probably decided I have a somewhat liberal view of the world. In my curious and inquisitive approach to life I have searched for answers that probably will never come. I’ve explored numerous religions and philosophies, from Christianity to Buddhism and from Socrates to Nietzsche. I’ve picked up bits of what I consider to be wisdom from all sorts of places. I like to collect the thoughts of others to remind me of all the little lessons in life. Mark Twain, Bertrand Russell, Carl Sagan… they all have contributed to my growing understanding of the world in which we live. And as I grow older I become more convinced that my pursuit of knowledge will never yield “The Answer”. I now firmly believe that human beings cannot, will not ever understand with any certainty the wholeness of life. Our greatest minds, Newton, Einstein, Hawking, Tesla and others have scratched small etchings on the surface of the great mystery but our poor amazing brains simply cannot conceive what the cosmos displays before us with such candor. We can speculate and postulate and observe and measure and test and retest and in the end if we are truly honest, we can only be left with the humble realization that we know almost nothing. And that is now why I consider myself Agnostic.