Richard Dawkins at IU

I made the drive from Goshen down to Bloomington. It was definitely worth it. It was standard rhetoric for Dr. Dawkins and I enjoyed every minute of it as he read passages from his new book "The Greatest Show on Earth." He took questions from two microphones. My favorite response of the night came when asked how to handle individuals who ask if we came from something akin to a chimpanzee, why are there still chimpanzees. He responded, "If atheists came from creationists, why are there still creationists?"



I was very excited to snap a few shots on my way up to get my book signed. I hope that explains the blurriness. ;)

Religion Defined

So they're finally admitting it. Good. I can hear the sermon now...
"Stop letting brainwashed individuals brainwash you every Sunday morning and Wednesday evening."

Not so "daily"...

So I'm not so "daily" after all. Well, instead of annoying my friends with the weirdness of the world, I'll just jot it down here. My birthday passed recently and - ok, for you scientists, it's not really my day of birth, it's an annual birth date - I received a card. Of course who didn't sign it? My Jehovah's Witness coworker. It's really hard to follow all those rules. No signing birthday cards, but I can make jokes about the fat gal who wears coke bottle glasses when she's not around. Is that what Jehovah would do?

Gays, Lesbians, Bisexual, and Transgender

We had a lovely meeting in Goshen, IN at the high school. A vote passed 4-3 against legislation that would offer protection to LGBT individuals. According to some, homosexual acts are intrinsically evil. There were an awful amount of theistic references used as leverage to vote against this legislation. There were even business owners that stood in front of the microphone and stated that they would not hire these people. There were plenty of slippery-slope arguments too, like "this is the next step toward gay marriage" or "what's next, pedophilia?" Though I can't find a good reason to say that gay marriage is wrong, obviously pedophilia has nothing to do with this. I think we need to have another meeting to make women wear head coverings and skirts again and take all the cell phones away from the Amish.

Not so happy birthday.

Jehovah's Witnesses don't sign birthday cards??? News to me. Yeah, a co-worker of mine is JW. That's quite a shame that it's their practice to not squiggle their name on a card with a little smiley face. I can hear Satin's voice as he's reading the list, "...lied to wife about her weight, had 3 pieces of pumpkin pie over Thanksgiving, signed a birthday card...".

Good News

I finally got hooked up with some friends on Facebook. I should tell my age so that everyone has a perception. I'm 33. People my age are leaning toward open-mindedness when it comes to religion [thank god]. Actually, there seems to be more objective thinking in general... a good thing. I never thought there would be a President in the White House when I was younger. Now I think that before I die, the majority of the population of the U.S. will be non-religious.

Day 17: Undermining Intelligence

Family recently got together for brunch. Some were from out of town so it was an opportunity to catch up. One of the topics mentioned was the tornado that went through Napanee. The tornado's path crossed over some guys car at work. He had intended to leave before the incident, but decided to go back inside due to the weather to phone his wife.
Now, I'm careful about my use of the word "zealot", but I feel that it's appropriate in this case. It was mentioned that this guy saw the clouds, was aware of the rapidly changing weather, and decided it was in his best interest to head inside and phone his wife. I call this common sense, or intelligence, not "God's hand." There's no miracle here, it's just chance. And if he died, I probably would have called it natural selection. It seems that the zealot here doesn't feel complete unless they insert the word "God" into every instance where chance and natural phenomena meet.