By Yak ~ I want to talk about anger. Just a short spin through these forums reveals a constant undercurrent of strong anger. I don't believe that our anger is misplaced, and I think it is definitely justified. Real or threatened loss, including betrayal and deception is a strong basis for anger. But, being both a mildly introspective non-theist and counseling professional, I have to ask questions about our anger.   My questions are: (don't spit blood; read it through) Are we angry because we wish it (god) really exists? Are we really angry because we were told that there was a real "father" who actually "cared" for us, the way we had hoped as children? Perhaps like a dad who would back us up and soothe our hurts, listen and dispense wisdom when we were confronted by the vagaries and ugliness of life? But then, we inevitably discovered or finally admitted to ourselves that what we were told isn't true. In other words, we were deceived, got let down or ...

By Yak ~ I f I were a Christian I’d be afraid. Very afraid. Mainly because of their extraordinary claims about the Universe, and more importantly, their view of how it will end. Keep in mind that only a few of their beliefs about "the end" actually come from their book, the bible. The rest of the dramatics and theatrics, and especially their fear-mongering comes from people throughout time who have added their own imaginative twists to the florid prose they use to frighten people with. An example. They believe that this rather wide, old, busy and populated universe will come to a rather theatrical and catastrophic end. Their Jesus will show up completely pissed-off at everything and everyone, just like his genocidal father (Remember the maniac git with the kill-everything-that-lives-whether-they-deserve-it-or-not flood? Yup. That’s his pop. My friends say that apples certainly don’t fall far from the tree in that family…) –and he causes mayhem: thunderous trumpets to ...

By ~yak ~ A rthur C. Clark said one time that one of the great tragedies of history was the hijacking of morality by religion. But what really is this "morality" when the religious use it? Christianity and a few other religious regimes have even gone as far as saying that without their religion, morality cannot exist. What is self-evident and verifiable by history is that religion, while making such boasts, is one of the most immoral institutions ever made by man. Christianity alone is a shadowy hive of continual criminal conduct. The more obvious constants include institutional predilections toward rampant pedophilia , corruption, criminal coverups, extortion and religious, emotional and physical torture, adultery and more. Despite the near weekly revelations of these and other crimes against fellow humans, Christians across the board deny their existence or they minimize them, saying that it's only a few bad people , a few isolated instances. The facts,...

By Yak ~ C hristians like a good lie --and They'll Go To Hell if They Don't Believe it. I was recently out on the Internet doing some research and happened across a link to a shame-on-us article about Ted Haggard , the infamous, scooter-riding, arrogant Mega Church preacher who on was outed for Riding the Baloney Pony and doing Meth on the side with his gay prostitute. The article (link below) is from Christianity Today (CT), a very conservative and influential Christian magazine. (The article on CT is currently open to posting comments...) http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2012/december-online-only/going-to-hell-with-ted-haggard.html Haggard made himself all the more famous in the world's eyes by his outspoken, arrogant and violent attitude toward Richard Dawkins and his camera crew, and by his anti-gay and anti-drug rhetoric that he spewed as if he was an authority of righteousness. Every day he duped thousands of people into thinking that what he said w...

By Yak ~ Yet Another Representative of Christ Shown to Keep Toxic Secrets: http://news.yahoo.com/priest-fathered-child-removed-york-church-170202021.html T he old adage that "The fish rots from the head-back" certainly proves itself to be both true and relevant on an on-going basis. Secretly fathering a child while in the institution of higher learning that "forms" priests in their role as spiritual leaders, "pastors," confessors, truth-tellers and even judges of other people's faith (ever been told by a christian pastor/priest/minister/teacher that "your conscience wasn't formed correctly" when you took issue with their crazy-making?) Famously, (and joining the long, distinguished and rapidly growing list of religious vow-takers-and-breakers) Thomas Merton , a member of the Catholic " Trappist " or " Cistercian " monastic order -- one of the golden boys of their religion -- also fathered a child while at sc...

By Yak ~ F or all the world to see: a moving, timeless Christmas message by several christian leaders in Bethlehem , the place where Jesus was said to have been born, during the celebration of his birth! Christians doing what they do best: acting like Christians! In this news video christian leaders (trained priests and monks) at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem go at each other in a melee that rivals some of the best hockey fights that I've seen in recent years. Each of these guys should receive a medal for going balls-out to put on what can rightly be called, a Christmas " Passion Play ," by hurling sticks, brooms, bottles, rocks and just about anything within arms reach --at each other-- all for their jesus-turf. Hats off to these christian leaders who are doing their dead-level best to demonstrate how christian faith actually works and how to emulate their leader --who had legitimate anger management issues himself. (Remember that time in the gospe...

By Yak ~ T his past week a volcanologist with LiveScience leaked a small story of what started as monitoring a relatively normal, dormant volcano in Bolivia, but turned out to be a 40-mile wide area of ground uplift due to the extraordinarily rapid filling of the magma chamber beneath it. A forty-mile diameter area of the Andes is rising at nearly an inch a year due to magma pushing its way toward the surface. Image by einalem via Flickr The area of ground that is rising is a little smaller than Yellowstone caldera , but larger than Long Valley caldera , both colloquially referred to as "Supervolcanos." The magma chamber is filling at the rate of 1 cubic meter per second. There is bona fide concern that a new large caldera, or "supervolcano" is in the process of forming. A full-on eruption of that 40 mile diameter magma chamber will create an existential challenge to all life on the planet. In today's vernacular, if it erupts, it could easily create a...

By Yak ~ I was enjoying reading some reviews on the final installment of the Harry Potter series of movies when I came across a "rebuttal" to an article on the final Harry Potter movies that was written in World Magazine Review by Rebecca Cusey on July 30, 2011. This "rebuttal" or, as I now refer to it, an attack by a Arrogant Religious Addict ("Dr." Paul Jehle) who was (even further) out of his mind after smokin his Jesus Fatty is below. I'll be back under the text in quotations below. http://www.movieguide.org/articles/main/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-2.html#2 by Dr. Paul Jehle Rebecca Cusey, in her “It all ends here” review of the eighth and last Harry Potter movie states that in spite of controversy within the Christian community the story of Harry Potter is “that of a boy growing to manhood and accepting the responsibility to resist evil, even at great cost.” She states that “wands and spells” simply replace “guns a...

By Yak ~ I was at a book festival recently perusing a very interesting book on the Casey Anthony "case" written by scholar and ex-prosecutor Wendy Murphy when a middle-age christian walked up to me and began staring at me. He was intense --remarkably like what I think of as Dr. Mesmer when he was about to hypnotize someone. I looked up and he asked me if knew who killed Caylee Anthony . Now, after reading Wendy's book, I discovered that I wasn't sure of who it might have been, due to questionable circumstances and statements made during depositions. I said as much to the christian. His eyes grew more dark and intense and then he informed me that it was Satan killed the child. In spite of the reasonable doubts expressed by a seasoned former child abuse prosecutor (Ms. Murphy), it never crossed my mind that anyone other than a deeply troubled human with a nefarious agenda caused her death. I said as much to the christian and his face became like a storm ...