I been following the controversy with Carl Benjamin, AKA Sargon of Akkad and his sudden permanent ban from Patreon. I’m a little late to this only because I was just made aware of it in the last few days. I found that odd, not that Carl is the greatest guy on the planet, and I’ll be honest in saying I rarely watch any of his videos anymore, but I had never known him to be so out of place as to be banned in any way, by anyone.
I think we have gone too far in what many believe are basic human rights without considering what actually are those same. It’s troubling to me that people say that healthcare, housing, education, yes even food is a basic human right but how do we implement these “basic human rights” for all when there are only a few that pay for them?
I’ve been thinking for a while about how we, as atheists interact on social media, mostly Twitter. There are some really great, exceptionally intelligent people out there that, to be honest, I find by accident. By that I mean I see them in a conversation of someone I currently follow. I look at their profile, and a sample of their tweets as well, and then decide whether I want to follow that person or not.
I’m not sure how everyone may feel about this, but I decided I would go ahead and give my opinion anyway. Comments are of course welcome. I read a post recently from Atheist Revolution titled Skip the Boy Scouts Christmas Tree. It was originally posted in 2017 and there are some good points made but I think that overall it misses a key aspect about the Boy Scouts, which I’ll get to in a moment.
It never seems to end that whenever I think I’ve convinced someone that atheists aren’t evil, tools of Satan, I find out that there was actually no one listening at all. I don;t approach others, they always seem to come out of the woodwork at times and places I mostly find inconvenient, but if I think someone is really interested I will actually take the time to explain, in the simplest terms, what atheism is all about.
One question I never seem to hear from anyone this time of year is should we, in the U.S., actually have designated a holiday for Christmas? Think about it, it’s a sectarian celebration, and with the federal government designating December 25th as a national holiday, are they not in fact in violation of the Establishment Clause of the 1st Amendment?
Many people come to moments in their life when they are faced with a choice that can have life altering consequences. Whether it is a decision to move away and leave friends and family behind for a job opportunity or to decide to have a surgery that could correct a dangerous health condition or cost your life if it doesn’t work out. It seems when you are faced with these types of decisions the road ahead can appear the most unstable or treacherous while remaining in your current state can provide some type of brief but temporal relief or security. The temptation to stay put or not at for the temporal security is very strong.
This time of year, when I hear Christians start discussing the War on Christmas, I always have to ask, what war? I’ve never witnessed anything that I would consider a war on the upcoming holiday and if it’s just the idea that not everyone happens to say Merry Christmas, then I have to call foul because that’s a ridiculous reason to make accusations against anyone.
I have to be honest, not just with myself but my readers as well. If you read here long enough you realize I’m a conservative. But insead of being some evangelical, I’m an atheist. How is that possible? How can someone claiming to be a conservtive, you know one of those nasty, ill informed people, actually be an atheist? Why are you claiming to be something you cannot possibly be?
I have to say I was disturbed recently by the response a friend of mine received from a post she wrote. Many of you know of Courtney Heard, AKA “Godless Mom” and that she is a fierce anti-death penalty advocate. She has been communicating, via mail with a man on death row in Texas for a crime that is suspicious in that none of the evidence seems to prove that this man, awaiting execution, actually committed the crime he has been sentenced to death for and remaining there for decades while his case is being appealed.
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