Sunday 27 October 2013

Atheist Book Haiku

Bad Atheist Rap

Here's my full Bad Atheist Rap in Tweet form:

I am an #Atheist
I don't believe in #gods
All 3000 of'em
You can give'em to the dogs

#BadAtheistRap 1/5

#Yahweh, #Allah, 
#Zeus & #Odin too,
None can be proven
So none are likely true

#BadAtheistRap 2/5

#Science has evidence
Checked by peer groups
#Evolution says we came 
From primordial soups

#BadAtheistRap 3/5

It took billions of years
To climb up from the goo
We Adapted, We changed, 
Natural selection picked a few

#BadAtheistRap 4/5

Our ancestors are common
With Gorillas & Chimps 
But somewhere down the line
Humans turned into Pimps!

#BadAtheistRap 5/5

Saturday 19 October 2013

I AM an Ally

Lets start by offending someone.  As a member of the LGBT or radical feminist communities, you are not in a position to know what words, phrases, slang, or colloquialisms are more likely to help convince cis-men to soften or discard their homophobic, transphobic, anti-feminist stance. Many in the LGBT and feminist community like to claim that if you are not part of their community, you have no right to decide what language or actions can be used in support of their cause.

I say the opposite.

As a white-cis man, I am in exactly the right position to have a better idea of what will help other white-cis men to change their views. How do I know this? I've proven it. I have seen my homophobic, racist brother slowly change his views over time; largely because of discussions I've had with him. Had I used the language and words others seem to think I should have used, or viciously attacked him for his views (I have admittedly been borderline attacking at times), I doubt I would have had the same success.  So I ask, whats better - not using "offensive" language, or actually changing someone's perspective on these issues?

I am an ally to the LGBT and Feminist movement whether you like it or not. I fight everyday to change the views of those around me. You may not like the words I use or the tone I take but I honestly don't give one flying fuck. I have proven that I am an ally with my actions and my results. If you can't get over the fact I use certain words as weapons in my fight, that's your issue. If you can't look past my verbiage to appreciate and respect my intent and the results I have achieved, then you have a problem I cannot help with.

Please keep in mind that if you attack an ally, there is always a chance they may become an enemy. The LGBT and Feminist movements don't need any more enemies - please learn to graciously accept the ones you have, even if you disagree with their methods, and lets work towards equality for all humans.

Tuesday 17 September 2013

Keeping my "Faith"

I recently tweeted this story out. I wanted to save it for posterity:

I'm going to tell the story about this tattoo I have on the inside of my left wrist - there to be closer to my heart.


The Kanji character means "Faith". I got it when I was "Spiritual not Religious" and held Faith in fairly high regard at the time.

There is a problem with this character however. The tattoo artist made 2 mistakes on it.


The template used had the Stroke # that shows what order to draw the character in traditionally.  He didn't keep the picture in front of him while inking. He avoided the obvious #'s but when these 2 got smudged, he just inked over them.

I didn't realize the 1st error, at the top, was a mistake. I thought so, but wasn't certain so kept quiet. "This guy knew what he was doing".  But when he started inking the 2nd, I knew that was a mistake & spoke up. 

The guy almost shit himself when he realized he fucked up my Tat.  He was apologetic. He offered to pay for laser removal of the spots. He acted appropriately to the situation. No hard feelings on my part.

I originally planned to get it fixed. But the more I thought of it, the more I liked the idea of my "Faith" tattoo being wrong.  I started seeing it as a life lesson. I put my Faith in this tattoo artist that he knew what he was doing. But it was Blind Faith.  

That Blind Faith, resulted in these errors in my Tattoo. Just as Blind Faith leads to so many of life's mistakes. So I've kept it as is.  A permanent reminder to myself of the pitfalls Blind Faith can bring. I still hold Faith, but I call it "Educated Faith" now.

I have faith scientists are following proper procedures. I have faith other drivers will stay in their lanes. But I have past experience that provides the evidence to support this Faith. I don't know the other drivers won't crash into me, in fact it happens all the time to people; but not often enough for me to live in fear of this but I pay attention, I honk if they get close. I don't have Blind Faith. 

So yes, as an Atheist, I do have Faith, it's Tattooed onto my skin & it is a daily reminder that we need to check the evidence to ensure I'm not acting in Blind Faith. To ask questions if something doesn't seem right & don't assume that expert knows what he's doing.

- @atheist_eh

Some great responses I received:


This is a back & forth I had with someone who had a similar experience:


So that's that. Stay cool Mehniacs!






Thursday 18 July 2013

If Religion were a Science Experiment

Just imagine for a second that the search for the gods is a giant science experiment. In this experiment, the various Religions throughout time have been the 'tests' humans have been conducting to try and prove their own god-theory and/or falsify other peoples god-theories; almost like a peer review. 

I have to imagine that the first 'test' in this experiment was conducted by cavemen. Which branch of the Homo Species did the first one is likely lost in time, but it is irrelevant to the point at hand. I imagine it likely involved some form of Nature, Sun and/or Moon worship as those are some of the most common themes amoung ancient religions. My guess is that because of this comon theme, many of the subsequent tests in this experiment were variations of, or built upon the results of previous tests. As one was falsified or mostly falsified, people would take the bits that remain, modify the details a bit & have another go at it.

Over millennia, these tests have been refined, reimagined, redone over and over agan. As time marched on, each test has failed or was falsified (i.e. when your nations success is tied to your gods power, and your nation fails, that god-theory has failed and needs revising). Eventually, entirely new tests had to be created because the basic god-theory seemed to be the only possible explanation for the many wonders these primitive people experienced each day, but all the previous tests had failed.

Even to this day, the religious 'scientists' (priests, pastors, shamans, Imams, clerics, etc) continue with these tests. Individuals conduct their own tests by creating personal gods & goddesses that may or may not be based on someone else's test. These are the 'spiritual not religious' or the people that believe in Jesus, but not Religion; nor do they follow the tenets of the bible.

Each 'scientist' tends to lay claim to success based not on real evidence, but simply that their god-theory "sounds better".  They also lay claim to have falsified the others tests. This, in effect, falsifys them all.  Unfortunately, unlike real modern science, the religious 'scientists' have often killed each other as a means of keeping their test from being falsified. 

After tens of thousands of years, not one of the 3000+ known, formal religious tests, nor any of the countless personal testshave yielded one shred of tangible evidence. It goes without saying that the innumerable religions/god-theories that have been lost to time can be discounted as fully falsified.

If a real scientist were to claim Theory n and conduct 3000+ experiments in an attempt to prove Theory n, most sane people would accept that Theory n is either wrong or completely unprovable. Whichever view you took on Theory n, you surely wouldn't live your life as if Theory n was true.

Lets say Theory n was that drinking elephant pee would double your life span.  Would you take a sip knowing that many others have (call them Drinkers) before you and yet none of these Drinkers had an appreciably longer life than non-drinkers? Knowing some have even died from drinking too much? 

Of course there would be the Drinkers that survived a car crash at forty, gave credit to the Elephant pee and when they live to eighty, claim it doubled their life.  Others would believe this and give it a go.  This is because crazy knows no limits, but the vast majority of sane intelligent adults would scoff at the idea as ludicrous.

Now, what if you were taught Theory n was true from childhood? You'd probably be putting elephant piss in your morning coffee instead of cream.

So what does all this tell us about this grand experiment to find the gods? To me, it says the god-theory has been tried, tested, peer-reviewed and in a way, even undergone double-blind studies & yet has failed every time without any solid, conclusive evidence. In all cases, it is people simply presenting their hypothesis on the god-theory & claiming its true. (Trust me, have faith, etc)

Isn't it time we give up on this failed experiment & stop living our lives as if its true?