secularsoapbox-blog

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Times That Us Men Can Make Decisions About Abortion:

If/when we become pregnant.

That's it

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Is it just me, or is Satan the only reasonable character in Christian Mythology?

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"Freedom of Religion" is by definition, all-inclusive...

Y'all want Jesus in our government? Legally and morally speaking, you need to make room for Satan, Allah, and everybody else too...

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My rebuttal to this statement would be somewhere along the lines of:

I believe some of the greatest truths in the universe are that there is no God and that life has no true or universal meaning.

However, that is exactly why life has meaning in my opinion and interpretation. Not in spite of a lack of God or meaning, but directly because of it.

There is no God or plan and therefore my life and the lives of others can find meaning in whatever pursuits we most identify with.

My current personal meaning and purpose are simply to be happy and to further the happiness of others when and if I reasonably can.

Because I believe there is no God and no specific meaning, as a conscious being I am free to make this life whatever I want it to be, thus simultaneously making life both the most meaningless and most meaningful thing in existence while being firmly on the side of atheism.

“Even if we question whether life has meaning, none of us can live as if it had none. We care for our loved ones and value them. We oppose immoral acts such as rape and genocide. If you take life to have any meaning beyond your immediate experience, then you are on the side of theism against atheism. Follow that up.”

— Douglas Groothuis

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Bias in atheism

Atheists say they don’t believe in God because they don’t believe there is evidence of God. Obviously overlooking the arguments that could be given to suggest the probability of God, atheism itself believes things without sufficient proof. I could give many examples, but I will give two.

First, atheists believe in evolution. I’m not saying I don’t believe in evolution, but, we have never once observed macro-evolution, especially in a natural environment. We observe what we believe is evidence of macro-evolution having occurred, much like the evidence we believe proves God, but still, we have never actually scientifically observed evolution.

Second, many atheists believe in aliens, even though there has never been any proof found to support the existence of life anywhere else. The odds of life existing on our planet are so incredibly small it shouldn’t have happened, let alone the prospect of it happening again (without God). And yet, atheists believe in aliens without having any evidence. 

But there is substantial evidence for the existence of God, including, but not limited to: morality, consciousness, life, DNA, existence, the laws of the universe, philosophy, supernatural events, prophecy, experience, sense of purpose, the inner desire for more.

If atheists would use the same standard for all their beliefs as they do for the rejection of evidence for God, either they would become Christians or they would stop believing in modern science - theoretical or otherwise.

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And also kind of a dick...

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For me personally, the scariest part here is the evolution in this story from "God" legitimizing the holes in our knowledge, to the holes in our knowledge legitimizing "God."

The God of The Gaps

The God of the gaps is a simple concept that points out that God was created by man to explain what we did not understand. Since the era of enlightenment or the age of reason (1685-1815), God has been asserted by religious people to account for any natural phenomena that is not yet understood. Even Isaac Newton, who figured out the laws of gravity that governed the planets, reached a point where he could not comprehend the laws of physics and he said that must be where God steps in.

Over time the intellectual community and religious authorities (mostly) have stopped claiming that God makes the Sun rise and the storms come. However, modern religious scholars, and the common believer especially, have not given up on this argument that God is evidenced by what we cannot explain. Today, people point to three major things: consciousness, the creation of the Universe/beginning of life, and sometimes dark matter. FYI, Bill O’Reilly still thinks we are unable to explain the tides of the Ocean.

While people today think their arguments, such as Intelligent Design, to be more sophisticated, but the fact is that they are following the same pattern of their predecessors from antiquity and simply attributing anything not fully understood to God.

Even worse, some people in our modern society still practice what is known as the witchcraft causality theory. This is when people attribute common occurrences they cannot explain on either God or actual witchcraft (or any other form of supernatural force). Remember, the concept of witches in western culture comes from The Bible. People claim that storms are punishment for sodomy, that climate change is God’s will and cannot be understood, and they won money because of karma. 

All of these ideas are being systematically put to rest by science and modern education. As we understand the world better we gain real explanations for both the good and bad. There is not cosmic force behind misfortune or disaster.

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Small Town Witch Trials?

So, I’ll be frank with you, this story isn’t actually about witches.

However, it is about the Salem Witch Trials mentality sneaking its way into my rural small town here in 2020 and it scares me.

So, about a year or two ago, we had this homeless man appear in our small town. This originally wouldn’t be a big deal, it’s a small railroad/freeway town and we get homeless passing through quite often.

The weird part here is that this man was/is ALWAYS in a clean/unstained completely white outfit. White beanie, shirt, hoodie, pants, and shoes.

His clothes were never dirty and he immediately stood out. We began calling him “The Man in White.” Rumors and gossip immediately began spreading about him. People began speculation immediately.

Some approached him and asked about him. He said that “God wanted him here in this town to help the children” and that he’ll “know when it’s time” or something along those lines.

People immediately began speculating about him potentially being a pedophile and whatnot. We have a Facebook group for locals and EVERYONE uses it for gossip/debates constantly.

Eventually, he began loitering at the local Starbucks often and a young female employee told a local that he makes her uncomfortable. Now, I understand, and I want people to feel safe in their workplace, but remember that this man never did anything wrong other than being homeless and constantly talked and speculated about.

Shortly after, said local made a post in the group about how the town needs to team up and protect our children because the police and Starbucks aren’t going to do anything about him. Thus began a campaign to complain about him as much as possible to Starbucks management and even higher ups outside of the store. 

Eventually, Starbucks and police informed him he was not welcome and that he would be arrested if he came back. My memory is foggy here but I believe he may have been arrested for loitering here some time afterwards if not that very day.

Either way, he was given the same treatment at all of the local restaurants and fast food places and was much later arrested at Taco Bell for trespassing as well. Keep in mind, every time he was arrested he then walked back to our town which is about a 14+ hour walk back.

So far, the only crimes this man committed were going to restaurants/fast food businesses, being homeless, and I believe smoking weed in public once. The rumors continued though. Every arrest was blown out of proportion and the subject of heavy gossip.

Throughout this time, the pedophile theory kept coming back up as well. Someone found a homeless man on Megan’s Law that looked a lot like him and everybody KNEW it was him. Except, it was not, he actually hung out with that man and there are pictures online of the two of them together. 

We know his legal name now, both from him and from the arrest reports. The man on Megan’s Law is certainly not him, yet many in our town never got the memo. I have to correct locals and show proof constantly because these damn Gen Xers believe everything they read on the internet once as long as it goes with their bias.

So, as far as the town is concerned, hes a dangerous homeless drug addict pedophile and their minds will likely never be changed.

The reason I began this rant today, is that he was jumped and badly beaten the other night. Two men in ski masks appeared out of the darkness and beat him bloody. Some rumors even claimed that they shot his dog but that part has since been debunked.

The most sickening part? The Facebook group is ECSTATIC about it. Memes, bragging, thanking, jokes about doing it again. It’s sickening. I asked the reason why this happened and the main response was almost always something along the lines of “We need to protect our women and children.”

These people are constantly laughing, bragging, and posting updates about his black and bloodied face and his eye swollen shut. They’re already making jokes about a phase two and things like that. 

They love it and it’s disgusting. 

I’ve still yet to uncover any reasonable proof that he did anything other than one person claiming that he heard from someone that they heard from someone that he was threatening women and children.

Is The Man in White guilty? I’m honestly not sure, he’s super weird and if the town didn’t turn him into a martyr I’d probably have far less positive feelings about him personally. He certainly could be a bad and dangerous pedophile, I won’t deny that. But what truly sickens me is that we don’t know. 

There are few things more terrifying to me than the idea of an innocent living thing being punished for something it didn’t do, especially so harshly.

“Innocent until proven guilty.”

Please, don’t profile, don’t jump to conclusions, and definitely don’t put ski masks on and gang beat an elderly man in the dark. 

This has been my soapbox.