Sacrifice?

We always hear how Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for the good of mankind and ,indeed, Easter is the one holiday where this event is brought to the forefront of every Christian's mind.  It is the most important holiday in the Christian faith, for without the resurrection the whole religion would fall to pieces.

Jesus was tortured, crucified and rose from the dead three days later to atone for mankind's sins.  This is seen as the most noble act ever performed through the eyes of Christians.  

But wait...

First of all, it is clear that Jesus was aware of the events that would occur after his execution.  That is, after three days he would basically become a Superman to rule over humanity from Heaven with his Dad, or just him, or whatever the hell the holy trinity is supposed to mean.

That said, if Jesus knew he would be the saviour of humanity, which he clearly did,  and that his death would only be temporary my question is, HOW THE FUCK IS THIS A SACRIFICE!?  He sacrifices jack shit and if anything he benefits.

Here we have a living God "dying" only to have himself "resurrected" after a "brutal" three days.  And this is all instrumented by a God(who may or may not be Jesus as well)  in order to create a loophole in the stupid rules he himself created for humanity to follow.

And this is seen as a noble and selfless act...

This just goes to show how absolutely poisonous religion is on the mind.

Does that seem right to you?

Fair trade Chocloate

I'm not writing much here, just linking to a quick blog post by PZ myers.  Just another reason why one should buy only Fair Trade Chocolate.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/04/death_by_chocolate.php

Pretty much how it is...

http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=820

There are atheists in foxholes

The classic phrase touted by religious nutbags throughout the World time and time again is "there are no atheists in foxholes".  This obviously speaks to the supposed inability to cope with the high levels(understatement) of stress and danger involved with being in the military.  This inability to cope, however,  is only supposed to exist unless one believes in an invisible babysitter in the sky.


Clearly this whole stereotype of the absence of atheists soldiers is bollucks.  Three months ago the organization MASH(Military Atheists and Secular Humanists) was founded by Sgt. Justin Griffith in  response to the overwhelming christian ideology present in not only the United States in general, but especially in its military.


Their number one mandate is: 


To serve the vastly under-represented non-theist population of Soldiers on posts across the world. To this end, we hope to ultimately establish an official tie-in with the every base’s Chaplaincy. We’d like each chapter to have some meetups on post, possibly even in the Chapels. Additionally we want to be officially recognized and listed on the Chaplain’s schedule of services that currently caters to Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and even Pagans.


Indeed, to publicly come out as an atheist is somewhat risky in parts of the US(even in many Canadian communities I'm sure) but to come out in the military speaks to the tremendous drive and courage of these men and women.   The group has been gaining some public momentum recently, which is pretty cool (check out the recent article here (seriously check it out! its very cool)).


To be honest, I'd take soldiers with no presuppositions of god, an afterlife or any kind of divine protection or supervision over those who do any day.   I mean, realistically, do we want soldiers who could possibly think they have some sort of holy protection/support or those who are thoroughly grounded in reality?  The consequences of the former can lead to disastrous results.


Does that seem right to you?

A quick thought on Hip Hop..

I love Hip Hop.  To me, there is no greater musical style that has the potential to  effectively convey ideas, opinions, worldviews and just plain old stories in a way that is both entertaining and thought provoking.  I say "potential" because I find it wasteful for good beats and rhythms to be wasted on rapping about cars, booze, getting high, getting drunk and stuff like that (that said, I love Dr. Dre's new song "Kush").

Maybe that's a little cynical of me, as there is a place for that type of Hip hop and, of course, everything mixes together anyway.  But I get my true enjoyment from lyrics that really mean something.  A good track not only has a good beat, but lyrics that transcend simply rapping about getting high.  A good MC makes you think, not just passively listen.  When you listen to a track there should be meaning within the words, or the possibility for you to impose your own meaning onto them (like most songs).  Indeed "Shad" (a Canadian rapper) says it best: "you can't be everything to everyone, let me be anything to anyone".  

If you're going to waste time rapping about nothing but partying and the like, what is the point of saying anything at all?   For the record I said "nothing BUT". Rap about that stuff, just not every fucking song.  Indeed there are many great rappers who switch it up now and again(I'm thinking Kid Cudi off the top of my head)  To be fair, I think most artists generally lead away from the generic stereotypical Hip hop that plagues the minds of many older generations.

But Hip Hop at its best, in my opinion is something like this:

Artist: K-os

Hip Hop done right can say more than the most eloquent speeches and the most detailed novels.

I'll probably go back to Hip hop later but for now, does that seem right to you?