Atheist or Not: Religion is Bullshit

Atheism does not equal a love for science, or humanity, or morality, anymore than it equals ignorance, arrogance, strident personalities, or baby-eating; though some would assert that it does. When you hear the word 'atheist' you're undoubtedly thinking "that is a person who believes there is no god". But that isn't what atheism is at all. A true atheist would describe themselves by saying "I don't believe in a god". The fundamental difference being that one is a declaration of belief, while the other, a complete lack of belief.

Notice that the definition of atheism does not include any creed, dogmatic rule, or prophet to follow and worship (Sorry Christians, but Hitchens, Dawkins, and Harris, are just rad dudes, they're not prophets we follow blindly). Atheism makes no demands or claims. It doesn't entertain any specific thought, and it certainly does not abide by anything that even closely resembles a religious organization, as some have accused. However, it is true that there are a lot of like-minded people who are also atheists. Humanists, existentialists, free-thinkers, scientists: Most of them tend to be atheist, or at the very least, agnostic--But it isn't a demand of atheism to also be one of the aforementioned. Uneducated, assuming, intellectually complacent: Most of those traits belong to religious believers, but again, they are not a necessary component that precedes religious belief. Sometimes you may find a brilliant scientist who is also a Christian (James D. Watson, PhD, head of the Human Genome Project), or a free-thinking Hindu (Mahatma Ghandi).

My personal problem with religious thought is that it halts the progression of thought. It tells people to be satisfied with knowledge, and that ladies and gentlemen, is the very worst thing a human being can ever be. If every single person ever was satisfied with their own knowledge then there would be no science, no evolution, no medicine; because they would all have been happy believing the moon was an independent light source and the earth was flat. No one would ever have asked those once-dangerous questions: What if? How come? The most important trait instilled in a human being is skepticism; religion dulls that sense, tells it to remain silent.

Remember what happens when people who make claims are followed blindly into their pursuits by masses of people? It shouldn't be hard to think of some examples on your own but just in case you're drawing a blank, here are some examples: Pope Urban II starting the Christian Crusades which lasted 3 centuries, killing approximately 6,140,000. Hitler's holocaust killing 11,000,000. The Hutu leaders responsible for the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda, killing roughly 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu civilians in the resulting civil war, and the Islamic extremist followers of Osama bin Laden, who, on September 11th, 2001, massacred nearly 3,000 American civilians which spawned invasions of two countries with campaigns lasting nearly a decade, resulting in countless more civilian and military deaths.

That is religion: The quarantining of critical thought, skepticism, and reason, and the permitted segregation of people--the abandonment of human connection and the allowance to see each other as inferior creatures. I don't think everyone should be an atheist, but I definitely stand by my viewpoint: Every human should disregard religion and everything it stands for. If that means you abandon your spiritual beliefs then so be it.


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Don't Agree With Abortion? Read This:

There seems to be a lot of confusion about abortion in the public discourse currently and I'd like to help clear it up. Before we get started I have one rule: If you are against abortion for religious reasons then kindly go fuck yourself. Understand that your religion has already done enough to suppress the rights of women, we don't need anymore white noise confusing the minds of honest, decent people, cool?

First of all, no one says that you have to agree with abortion...We're just asking that you support a woman's right to choose (that means that she has control over her reproductive cycle). Some examples of countries where women don't have control over their reproductive rights? Iraq, Afghanistan--both of which are countries that we invaded because they threatened freedom--kind of hypocritical to demand that they be free and then strip our own citizens of that same freedom we seek to install.

An example of disagreeing but still supporting: I feel that the term 'unborn child' is a real thing. Therefore, if I had it my way, I would (pending extreme circumstances) prefer adoption if I was unable to bring a child into this world and be its parent. However, I recognize that 1) I don't have ovaries and thus will never carry a child in my womb, and 2) That it is not my decision whether or not a female on the other side of the country chooses abortion or not. How do I know that this person hasn't considered all the options and intelligently come to the decision that abortion is the best course of action? I couldn't possibly know, and neither can you. When people use the "girls abuse abortion so it should not be allowed" argument they are really saying "I'm an idiot and I forget that people abuse every institution, this one being no different". There will always be those people, but they are a very small minority of women who receive abortions. (Don't believe me? Then go fuck yourself, and when you're done, do a quick Google search and find out for yourself what the actual statistics state)

Abortion gives me the shivers, it creeps me out; but I am researched enough to understand that it must remain legal and accessible. Abortion has been legal for a very long time and it needs to remain untouched in its current legal status. You don't have to like that it's legal, but you do need to think critically about the issue. If you're still having a hard time accepting that it is a necessary function in society then ask yourself the following question: "Am I smart enough, insightful enough, experienced enough, to tell every woman in my country what they can, and can't do, in regards to their reproductive cycles?"

If you can honestly answer "yes" to that question then I encourage you to leave a comment telling me why, so that I may be forever enlightened and can stop supporting women's rights and join your cause.



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"There Are Only Two Types of People In The World..."

Typically I do not take kindly to people who attempt to classify humans in a basic or generalizing manner. The age-old "there are only two types of people in this world..." adage comes to mind. However, I think that when it comes to mourning, there are truly only two types of people in the world. You either fall into the category of not understanding it, or you make up the lonely few that have a thorough knowledge of what it means to be in mourning, which can (in the simplest forms) be synonymous with grieving.

The former, of course, makes up the majority of people around me, while the latter is (fortunately and not-so-fortunately) a much smaller group of people. I say that it is both a positive and a negative that people understand loss because of two things. 1) It is a terrible truth of life that people die, and with the exception of a few awful individuals here and there, those people who die are missed dearly by those whose lives have been impacted by them. On the positive side of things; 2) Some people who have lost a loved one are capable of turning their own pain into comfort for others, a sort of feathered pillow for the tired, sad, lonely individuals suffering from grief to lay their heads upon and rest their own weary selves.

People who do not understand what it is like to feel the desolate sense of loss can be further broken down into two groups; those who try to acknowledge your suffering, and those who do not. In basic words, the empathetic, and the apathetic. Those who have experienced the death of someone very important to them will understand what I mean when I say that "I'm sorry for your loss", "Don't worry, they're in a better place", and my personal favourite, "I know exactly how you're feeling" are all a sign of inadequacies: When someone tries to comfort you but ultimately ends up presenting themselves in an ingratiating, almost pathetic manner. You, the griever, are in pain. You appreciate their attempt at doing the best that they can (who can, whether having personally experienced your pain or not, do a "good" job at supporting you through such a difficult time?) but you usually silently reproach the person's attempt at comfort anyway.

On the other hand, those who are apathetic to your pain are much worse. These are the people who expect you to 'get on' with life. To show up everyday and present the best side of yourself. These common-folk love to act as if they are somehow better than you are for not ever having to deal with such a tragic situation. They act as if they are impervious to pain and imply, both directly through words and actions, and indirectly through backroom whispers and snide remarks, that you are somehow weak or lesser than they are. People that look down on others for feeling pain are an interesting bunch because is it really such a bad thing to be a human being and acknowledge that you are in pain? Is it really the place of these people to act as if they are the authoritative voice on surviving the death of a loved one?

Truthfully, surviving is the only thing you are doing. What happens when you experience a situation involving the death of a loved one is that you are being transported from the land of happiness, the one where things seem infinite, to the land of the joyless, where the population consists of mothers and fathers and siblings grieving their sons, daughters, and brothers and sisters, best friends missing their best friends who have been snatched too early in life, and servicemen and women (paramedics, firefighters, nurses, doctors etc) who have seen death so frequently that they are completely broken down from it. You survive, but barely, day-by-day, hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute. There is no "It Gets Better" for the people who live in this realm--things never get better, or easier, everyday is a struggle just to get out of bed--their goal each day upon waking is to find an excuse to continue living life and their mission each evening before bed is to justify why suicide isn't the best option to end their pain, often ignoring the question of taking one's own life by drowning their ability to think with alcohol and drugs. Grief is ultimate, absolute, and unfathomable; until you are the person grieving.

I don't blame people incapable of understanding, but I do wish that they would shut the fuck up from time to time and let people be sad. After all, haven't they earned that right? The price they have paid for such a status is what is known throughout all the world's military's as "the ultimate price to pay--death". The world will continue turning, life will go on, this is all true; but can we not afford them their own private time at which they can be who they were forced to become? A person suffering from the most potent poison that exists on the planet, that which is surviving the death of a loved one.


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The 25 Lamest Super Powers

1. The ability to perfectly imitate the sounds your grandparents make when having sex.


2. The ability to instantly, and irreversibly, make all of your friends and family hate you.


3. The ability to drink alcohol but never feel its effects.


4. The ability to hook up with whomever you want, but only at a funeral.


5. The ability to piss blood on demand. (Submitted by @WorthlessAdvice)


6. The ability to have a seizure every time you orgasm.


7. The ability to shape-shift, but only into a pile of shit. (Submitted by @AshBeacs)


8. The ability to name off, in alphabetical order, the name of every single pornography film ever made.


9. The ability to instantly hate anyone who tries to befriend you. (Submitted by @RobynJRobyn)


10. The ability to grow stretch marks but not get rid of them.


11. The ability to speak in every language the person you're speaking with is unable to communicate in.


12. The ability to shake exactly 2 Aspirin out of a bottle, every single time.


13. The ability to transform into your mother's wash cloth.


14. The ability to impregnate any female you look at. (Submitted by @RobynJRobyn)


15. The ability to turn into a ginger kid on demand.


16. The ability to smell period blood within your immediate vicinity.


17. The ability to spontaneously combust and die.


18. The ability to grow your nipple hair to any length, on demand.


19. The ability to smell strongly like any type of Doritos.


20. The ability to reach out and find your glass of water in the dark beside your bed, every time without having to look.


21. The ability to smell people's breath from miles away.


22. The ability to make kites fly even if it isn't windy.


23. The ability to always lose at everything you do. Sports, video games etc.


24. The ability to assume the form of a cockroach.


25. The ability to projectile vomit every time you say something funny at a party.

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Funny Easter Pictures

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Facts About Bottled Water

70.8% of the Earth's surface is covered in water.

But out of all the world's water, only 2.5% is fresh water. Unfortunately, over 98% of that total fresh water is frozen in remote, difficult to reach areas. In other words, fresh water is becoming so scarce it has become a commodity, and like with any sought-after-product, corporations are going to control it to make a profit.

Through the last two decades, studies have shown that because of a few isolated incidents, North Americans have become increasingly worried about the safety of their tap water. This, along with information promoting 'healthy, active living', has created an enormous boom in the popularity of bottled water.

Pepsi and Coca-Cola have actually created the tap water scare. Using their massive control over the market, they have bullied restaurant owners into no longer giving out tap water at all. As well as paying newspaper and magazine companies to publish articles about the very few-and-far-between cases where someone is made sick from tap water. "...when we're done, tap water will be relegated to irrigation and washing dishes" said the Vice President of Pepsi in 2000.

Bottled water appears convenient, is seemingly affordable, and is the second most popular beverage in North America right now. In fact, Americans are now drinking more bottled water each year than milk or beer. Incidentally, as North Americans have embraced this past decades "health kick" by drinking less Soda beverages than ever before, they have turned to alternatives like bottled water, which are being sold by Soda companies themselves. Did you know that Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestle created and promoted the bottled water fad, and are the people responsible for flooding the information waves with facts about how unhealthy their own products are for you? If you've ever heard anything in the media that claims Coke is unhealthy, the odds are that Coca-Cola paid for that to be there in the first place, in order to promote its newest product: bottled water.


In reality, the seemingly convenient bottle of water isn't really all that convenient when you consider the fact that one bottle of water takes over 700 years to decompose.


As far as being affordable is concerned, it appears affordable to the average consumer, when in fact:
-tap water costs $0.0015 per gallon
-bottled water costs $10.00 per gallon
-that's 10,000 times the cost of tap water


Coca-Cola doesn't need Coke to sell, owning bottled water companies is their new targeted source of income:
-Americans consume over 9 billion gallons of bottled water annually (53 billion gallons consumed globally)
-Which generates over 61 billion dollars per year


Take into consideration that an average bottle of water holds 19 ounces = 6 1/2 bottles of water per gallon. That means that in one year, 318 billion bottles of water are consumed. This is leading to a global waste catastrophe unlike any that has ever been seen before.

Why you should stop drinking bottled water:


-with water becoming harder to access in developing countries, water has been deemed "Blue Gold" and the phrase "Water Wars" has been coined. Buying bottled water is feeding corporations money they need to further promote water as a commodity, which will feed the coming Water Wars -- access to water is a basic human right


-bottled water is not tested as often, or for as many things as tap water is (E.Coli is tested for in tap water, but not in bottled water). In fact, bottled water is allowed to be tested in-house, by the same companies that sell it. Self-regulation does not work, history has proven this to be true time and time again.


-40% of all bottled water is from municipal sources (you're getting ripped off)


-22% of all bottled water that is tested (which is less than 70% of the total distributed bottled water each year) contains contamination levels well above the strict health regulations these companies are exempt from


-17 million barrels of oil are used in the manufacturing of bottled water each year, which is enough to fuel 1 million cars for an entire year


-due to the production process, it takes 3x the amount of water to produce a bottle as it does to fill it


-companies brag that "all plastic water bottles are recyclable" but statistics collected show that only 1 in 5 water bottles are ever recycled


-where do the other four go? They help contribute to the 3 billion pounds of waste that water bottles create every year


It is outrageous that while developing countries struggle to find clean drinking water, developed countries like the US and Canada (who have their own already-provided clean drinking sources) waste more water and other resources, for the sake of greed; by selling even more clean water to people who already have it, at a further increased cost.


Don't be a part of the problem, be a responsible citizen.




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Religious Belief Does Not Grant Us Permission To Hate

Keeping up with the latest fad of using religion as a curtain to mask personal homophobia, or promote it further and better relate it to a much larger audience, I would like to find a halfway point for religious people to understand that homophobia (unlike homosexuality) is a personal choice. Before every Christian or Christian-bashing person scrolls to the bottom to quote me the verses of the Bible that condemn homosexuality, rest assured that I am no stranger to the Bible and what is written inside of it (as is demonstrated from my finely written previous posts located to the right hand side of your screen). I would like to try and find a middle ground so that religious people can be educated on the fact that it is their own ignorance that makes them homophobic, not their religious doctrines.

Maybe once people understand that religion should not be used to protect ridiculously outdated views, they will (a) start to take responsibility for their own actions and (b) start to understand that their is no legitimate justification of homophobia--least of all one that was written in a book several thousands years ago. Hopefully both, as well as forming an understanding that blindly doing what you're told is never the right answer; but then again, asking people to think critically might be just a bit too much.

Even the most basic, superficial examination of the three largest monotheistic religions of the world can rapidly point out some major fundamental problems with using them to justify homophobia:

Christianity: Jesus had two dads and he turned out fine, wouldn't you agree?

Islam: According to the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, homoerotic activity was thought of very positively. In fact, there was so much poetry written about man-on-man action that it nearly competes with the amount of recorded male-to-female poetry. If that isn't convincing enough, how about the adage 'there are bigger fish to fry'? Islam perpetuates pedophilia, honour-rape, stoning people as acceptable punishment for things like speaking out of turn or dressing like an 'emo kid', the suppression of women, and a disgustingly large plethora of other despicable acts. So really, who are you to condemn the love between two consenting adults? Shouldn't Muslims be addressing the fact that they are responsible for some of the most heinous displays of religious indoctrination in the modern world ever, before they start attacking cultured people who just want to live their lives? Like a true Canadian, I would like to finish my critique of Islamic-fueled homophobia by stating "it's aboot time to move on, eh?"

Judaism: The 'Reform Judaism Movement' (the largest group of Jewish people in America) has been openly accepting homosexuals into its schools and religious congregations since 1990. That means that non-accepting Jews are now officially 22 years outdated, yikes! I don't typically give merit to the "everyone's doing it" approach to life, but I certainly like to review an issue and think on it critically if, indeed, everyone is doing it. Speaking of what lots of people are up to, want to know what a lot of people aren't doing? Joining the Jewish faith. I wonder if that has to do with the fact that two of the three major Jewish organizations in the world are still clinging to the belief that their faith is better without homosexuals within it.

Let me be perfectly clear, I reject all religions and the willful abandonment of reason that they promote, equally. As I've written before, it is because I believe that they perpetuate Sin, an imaginary sickness, in order to sell you an equally-as-manufactured cure, a sort of 'rescue remedy' if you will, this is known as Religion. Sin, the fake illness, along with Religion, the fake cure, write the greatest prescription for permission to hate that this world has ever seen.

If your religion tells you to hate, discriminate, put-down, look down on, or just generally be an asshole to other people, then it's wrong (and you're an idiot for listening to it). Remember that disregarding someone else's rights to equality, whether it be divinely warranted or not, is still wrong.

If you want to disrespect people for their inborn nature then go right ahead, you can even say it out loud (lets see how strong these bigots remain when they no longer believe God is on their side). One thing there is no tolerance for, however, is to claim that you're acting like a pathetic cave-dwelling creature for any reason, especially one based on faith, aside from the fact that you're too lazy to educate yourself on an issue you don't understand. You've chosen to be ignorant and not exercise critical thought--fine, but don't drag down everyone else in your faith because of it. Like I've stated, I do not support religion or religious thought, but I do not hate people for disagreeing with me on the subject of religion's importance in the world. In fact, the only religious people who I personally do not get along with, are the ones who follow their faith blindly. It appears to me that the most educated and intelligent religious individuals think very much alike the most intelligent and educated non-religious individuals; blind faith is wrong in any form, and using faith to justify hate-speech and hateful actions is a pathetic display of what it means to be a human.

I have written much harsher critiques of religion, but I want to find a middle ground so as to quickly forge an understanding among religious and non-religious people that homophobia is a personal, not faith-based, choice. My goal was simply to 'shut up' those "my religion tells me to" people, for once and for all. 


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