The interesting belief statements I find

Every now and again, I run across some Xian boards while I'm surfing. Generally, it's in response to something a fundie said. I was doing my daily surfing tonight, and ran across the "Rapture Ready" bulletin board. One of the posts is their doctrinal statement, and I found this just too good to pass up:

Article X. ”ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER

Because of the eternal purpose of God toward the objects of His love, because of His freedom to exercise grace toward the meritless on the ground of the propitiatory blood of Jesus Christ, because of the very nature of the divine gift of eternal life, because of the present and unending intercession and advocacy of Jesus Christ in heaven, because of the immutability of the unchangeable covenants of God, because of the regenerating, abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of all who are saved, we and all true believers everywhere, once saved shall be kept saved forever. God is a holy and righteous Father and that, since He cannot overlook the sin of His children, He will, when they persistently sin, chasten them and correct them in infinite love; but having undertaken to save them and keep them forever, apart from all human merit, He, who cannot fail, will in the end present every one of them faultless before the presence of His glory and conformed to the image of His Son.

(Emphasis mine)

Basically, it's saying that once you're saved, you're always saved, and nothing that you can do will change that. Since I was at one point a Xian, I can do anything I want. I can blaspheme against the holy spirit all day long, then go out and rape little children, kill my neighbors, and finish it all up with a nuclear bomb and still go to heaven.

This kind of doctrine is exactly what I see as wrong with the Xian faith. Most people that I see following this faith in any kind of true sincerity are the biggest hypocrites I've ever seen. They consistently tell you that the religion is a religion of peace and justice, and yet they are some of the most vile, evil people. Check out Orcinus' list of baptist predators.

The news is full of televangelists and evangelicals who constantly rally against homosexuals, then later turn out to be not only homosexuals, but homosexual pedophiles, or homosexual druggies. I give you Foley and Haggard. What right do these people have to tell me how to run my life when I've dedicated my life to saving others lives and all they do is spout their hypocritical bullshit and get rich of the teats of gullible believers. Even getting caught in their hypocrisy doesn't matter. People just shrug and say "Eh, they're human!" This is just after the hellfire and brimstone service where they advocate, nay, celebrate the eternal torture of homosexuals.

But it's okay. They're saved, and they're still going to heaven...right? Right! Yeah...right.

Merry Krismas

Image via Christmas-pictures.org

Merry Krismas (oh, and happy holidays) to all you seculars out there!

It's this time of year, especially lately, that I find myself looking at December 25th as just another day in the 365 days (or 366...) of our year. I still find it enjoyable to spend time with family, but for various reasons, my family really doesn't get together for Krismas anymore. It's usually just my me, my wife and her mother (who I don't really consider close family; she's just convenient). There is no real gift exchange between my wife and myself, no real magic to the day. In fact, today has turned out to be the sunniest day we've had in a week here in the Rogue Valley.

The only thing different about today is that everything is closed. I always thought the toy stores could make a killing if they'd stay open on Krismas, with all those kids with freshly-given gift cards and money in hand. Ahh, well.

When I have children, I'm sure I'll feel differently, as the magic of Krismas seems to apply to kids and those who have them more than anyone else. Until then, Happy 359th day of the year!

Comedy

Image via Last.fm.

If you don't know Roy Zimmerman, you need to get acquainted. He's a wonderful musical satirist. Here's one of my favorites of his, it's called "Thanks for the Support."



As a veteran myself, I can definitely appreciate this song. We go out and put ribbons on Hummers and the Xians pray for the troops in church, but no one is really doing anything to support the troops the way we should, by taking them out of harm's way, out of this unnecessary war that the vindictive sky-fairy apparently told Bush to start.

UPDATE: KY Atheist Group Sues to Revmove Religious Language from Department of Homeland Security

(From Kentucky.com)

After the last story a few days ago, I wrote letters to the Governor, the Lt. Governor, the Attorney General and the Justice Department of KY. Hopefully at least a couple of those were read by someone who cares. It is nice, however, to see that someone in KY actually cares and is raising a stink about this.

Way to go, American Atheists!

No further comment needed.

(h/t: AnnieC)

The Values of Christmas

Christmas has become entirely too commercialized in our modern world. The conservative xians in the world can complain all they want to about how the evil atheists have taken the "christ" out of "christmas," but I'd be will to wager a bet that the real folks responsible identify themselves as at least some branch of that cult.

A worker at a WalMart in New York was trampled to death yesterday, and several others were injured trying to help him. Here's the story on Yahoo! News.

My favorite part:

Other workers were trampled as they tried to rescue the man, and customers stepped over him and became irate when officials said the store was closing because of the death, police and witnesses said. [...]

Kimberly Cribbs, who witnessed the stampede, said shoppers were acting like "savages."

"When they were saying they had to leave, that an employee got killed, people were yelling `I've been on line since yesterday morning,'" she said. "They kept shopping."

Not only did these people trample the poor WalMart worker to death, they got pissed when police told them they had to leave because they'd done it. Not one person in that throng of 2000 people stopped to help the poor guy. They all just trampled him or stepped over him.

This is what "Christmas" is about nowadays. It's not about love, peace, goodwill, or any of those pinko commie concepts. It's about getting the best deals on crap for your home. It's about making sure that little Johnny gets that coveted action figure or stuffed animal before anyone else. Don't worry, just kill anyone who gets in the way. It's getting to the point that we're going to have to call in the National Guard on black Friday, just to keep people from killing each other.

At the WalMart by my house, the majority of the people who shop there or work there identify as Christian, and a lot of the employees attend the megachurch just outside of town. The question I have is this: How many of these people who just walked right over the poor guy were "christian?" Odds are that there were perhaps one or two atheists or agnostics who were in the crowd, but I'll bet that most of those people so concerned with getting the latest gadget or toy were christian. And not one lifted a finger to help. How's that for morality?