Holy Crap I've Been Busy

Sorry for the disappearance all, I've been crazy busy at work, I've been planning a wedding (which may get scrapped for purely financial reasons), and most of my internet time has been sucked up into the World of Warcrack.

All in all though, things are getting better, and calming down a bit, so I may actually post more often. Shock! Awe!

All in all though, its been fairly quiet on the religion front for my part. I've not seen much politically that has shocked me, and other people like Personal Failure and Ziztur seem to get to the good stories significantly faster than I find them. I'll find something. Might even get that book review done.

Once again, I am alive

Wow... its been way too long since I've updated this. The problem is, I usually update this when its slow at work, and it hasn't been slow for about 3 months. I do plan on getting back to the blog, I swear. It isn't a dead blog, and I am hoping I will get back to very regular updates. The only issue I'm running into right now is material. The subject of religion, irreligion, counter-religion, non-religion, has been pretty well covered by many people, so its often difficult to feel like one is bringing fresh material to the plate. As a result I'm considering doing some things more anecdotally, and going more into the history of religion. That is of course once i really get things moving here again.

Because of Real Life(tm) I haven't been able to do much in terms of research for quite some time, and its about time I dusted off my academia.

I'm Back

Well, apparently I really needed a break from the religion topic, because a couple weeks off has done me wonders of good. It really is an interesting thing, because no matter how important it is to keep fighting the ideas of religion and theocracy, sometimes we need to step away. This seems particularly evident when one is surrounded by it. As many of you know, I live in Texas, and as far as religious saturation that's about as deep immersed as you can be in the US outside of Salt Lake City.

More than anything I think I tried to put out too much content too quickly and became a bit obsessive for a while. Hopefully things will start to pick up, but we'll see. I am still planning on doing my reviews, there have just been some life setbacks that have kept me from really getting into a new book.

Crazy Christian Lies

Thanking Slacktivist for the Link to the Site...I just had to say, I love this shirt. I mean, its so completely true. Except when it isn't.

Taking a week off

Having made it to my hundredth post I'm going to take a little time off from the blog so I don't burn myself out. It'll give me some time to get my creativity back up. Might do some posts if I see something that screams needing a response, but other than that, I'll still be on SMRT.

100th Post: The Septuagint and Eternal Punishment

So, I'm already at my 100th post. Arbitrary marker, I know, But I decided I'd make this an interesting one. I want to discuss eternal punishment with you. Why eternal punishment? Because eternal punishment in hell is one of the most commonly used methods of intimidating people into believing the lies of evangelical christians.

The evangelical christians love the idea of eternal hell. It puts the impetus on a potential convert to either choose to believe or be potentially tortured forever. Its a great big initimidation con, and no doubt gets alot of weak converts from those who are afraid of that potential torture. That said, even so, I will set out to show that the idea of everlasting punishment is not only ridiculous as a doctrine, but completely unbiblical.

In this instance we should look at both the New and Old Testaments, but first the new. Yeshua, in those scriptures, which as best we can tell were initially published in Greek used the words Aionoios Kolasis to describe the eventual comeuppance of sinners and unbelievers. Now, while kolasis does equate to some kind of punishment for a crime or the rehabilitation, aionios is a bit trickier,a nd far more at odds with the fundies.

Aionios means "long enduring" based on all the greek sources that I can muster. It does not imply everlasting, and can be as short as a few years or a few centuries, but it is not eternal even in its implication. The term aionios is used dozens of times in the Septuagint (which Yeshua quoted from) in fact, and every single time it is in its meaning of "long enduring" not eternal. At least, not until you get to the New Testament where translators in the late Roman era and early middle ages decided that it meant eternal.

Highly conservative churches of course hate this idea, because it smacks of Origen's ideas about universal salvation, and of course, if you're going to be saved in the end regardless, alot of people aren't going to back the church, and the church's purpose of getting people to their salvation is completely shot, and many people would lose their purpose of living while not actually having to contribute productively. The very idea of universal salvation was very prevalent in early Christian communities, in fact, and even Augustine makes note of such doctrines and their popularity.

So, maybe I've misread something, but I cannot find anything to dispute this. Even if hell were to exist, I would not fear it because I would know it to be only for some time. Of course, as I don't believe in hell at all I fear it even less. But I highly recommend hitting fundies with that one every once in a while, as they really need a reality check, and watching them twitch in the throes of their cognitivie dissonance can be terribly amusing.

While I was researching all this I came upon a book called The Jerome Conspiracy which I recommend people check out. Its not a long read, and puts this all in a more comprehensive narrative. I actually wish I had come upon this source first, since most of my information is also therein.

Amusingly Sad

So, back in the very beginning of this blog I made a post regarding a particularly idiotic creationist moron. Apparently the genius that he is, Sye decided to make a covert post on there 2 months after I originally posted it. I don't check the archives for random comments terribly often, though every once in a while I find something. My nihilism discussion pulled in a troll that I never even noticed until this morning, and that was only a day after the post had slipped beyond my usual viewing.

But really, why would anyone bother posting 2 months later? I could easily have gone months without noticing that even peripherally. Frankly, Sye isn't really worth my time, but I replied anyway. I'm sure he'll be back.

Away For a Weekend

I don't usually post on weekends anyway, but I did want to tell people who stop by regularly that I will be gone for the weekend. I will be in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia and Elizabethtown. I'll be out there celebrating my great grandmother's 100th birthday.

I will be trying to get ginG done within the next week so I can move on to other projects. I will probably take a week or two off before starting in on Ray and read a novel or two in the interim. Don't worry, I won't be reviewing novels here. Just wanting to read something fun before touching Comfort.

As for my format this time around...

I expect God Doesn't Believe in Atheists is broken up into chapters unlike his most recent book which, while it has chapters uses an easy to break down Q&A format. I intend for this review to once again be comprehensive, but unlike my ginG review, I expect it will be alot more sarcastic and possibly melodramatic. We'll see. The book sounds awful enough that I expect I'll be doing whatever I can to make it fun.

Pharyngulation of Ray Comfort Book Possibly Held Off

Ok. So, my fiance is less than supportive of me destroying a book of any sort, even the garbage of Ray Comfort. Sadly this means that I will either not be destroying God Doesn't Believe in Atheists after I'm done with it, or doing it anyway at somewhat of a relationship cost. I'll probably put up a non-binding poll for that once the current poll is done.

To ExpatMatt

Remember this guy? You really pissed him off. Must be the thinnest skinned evangelical I've ever seen on teh intarwebz

Buona Pasqua?

I realize there's alot that could be said about today's particular religious trappings and history, but each time I try and write something it seems trite and insignificant next to the body of work on the subject. That said, I'd just like to wish all my fellow skeptics and atheists a Happy Zombie Jesus day. Hopefully I'll be able to think of something really worth saying tonight. 

Playing With Matches Around a Straw Man

Ok... what part of this is satire, and not just blatantly idiotic?It lacks understanding of the scientific method and how peer review works. Satire exposes something and is either ironic or sarcastic. This is just sarcastic hyperbole.

"Please note that this evidence is conclusive because it is going to be published in a scientific journal which is always 100% accurate."

Seriously? You think we believe that scientific journals are 100% accurate all the time? Hate to break it to you, but we all know very well that science makes mistakes. So let's try this from the reverse perspective, simply because I think we know which case is stronger.

I found a dinosaur bone. After long hours of analysis, fact checking, and reading my bible I came up with some fascinating conclusions!

Firstly, of course, I wanted to date the bones to find out how old the fossils I was dealing with are. Well, I ran some tests, and wow, guess what? The dating method said the fossils were at least 65 million years old. But then i thought to myself, no way. That's not possible. The earth is only 6 thousand years old, so I revised the dates, and decided there must have been something in the great flood that caused the apparent age to be much greater. So with estimates modified, i found the fossil was still amazingly about 5800 years old! Fantastic, its almost as old as the Garden of Eden!

Secondly, I examined the DNA of the fossil to analyze it further and found that it had DNA remarkably similar to our own! Clear proof that God designed all his creatures from a similar base. That makes total sense. So much more than common descent!

Finally, looking at the bones i couldn't determine a cause of death. I found this perplexing, but then realized it must have died in the flood. How fortuitous to find such amazing proof of the deluge. Why else would it be bured like that? No possible way could it have been because of thousands of years of sediment and tectonics andbuilding layers on layers. That's absurd.

Also, please note that this is all completely reliable because it fits within biblical interpretations of reality. I even got it posted on AiG! Also, don't worry. If any parts of the bible are contradictory its ok, because God is infallible and there has to be a reasonable explanation why it doesn't fit with actual history.

Wow. Isn't building straw men fun?

Weekly Poll Reminder

Just a reminder, particularly for those who may be new readers. Please vote in the poll for what I'll read/review next. As is, its pretty heavily in favor of Ray Comfort with over half the votes. Still quite a bit of time left though, so we'll see how it bears out.

Opine Silence

Interesting how quiet Opine Editorials has been about the whole Iowa deal. They must still be in a state of shock. I know -I'm- terribly amused by their silence.

Weekly Poll Reminder

Any new visitors, please remember to vote in the poll set up. The more input the better, and the more likely interested readers. Currently its looking like I'll be suffering through Ray Comfort. I'm sure any of these choices will be enjoyable froma certain perspective.

New Poll

I'm not even close to finished with god is not Great yet, but I want to plan ahead. If you have any interest in what you'd like to see me take on next, please place a vote. I'm interested in reading any and all of the books listed ont he poll. I don't have a write in at this time, but fully intend to on future polls. Your input is appreciated. If you wish to suggest a book for future consideration just post here in comments. 

Thank you for reading!

Some changes

I made a few minor edits to the layout and side content. Any suggestions are of course welcome, as are opinions of the current setup. I'd like to make it as generally pleasant to look at as possible as well as (hopefully) providing quality content.