Religion or no?

I really want to know... what is the problem? Why is there so much animosity between those who believe this, that or the other thing, and those who do not?
Yes, I am an atheist, and yes I would very much like it if those around me stopped believing on those gods and churches they do? I say "gods" because, in the case of catholic christianity for example, I do choose to see god, Jesus and the holy spirit as three separate entities. For the record, I capitalize the name Jesus because I see that as a name. "God" and "holy spirit" are in my mind titles, and not necessarily proper nouns.
Anyway - why do I care what religious people believe? Why does it bother me that my family had to wait for me to sit down in order to carry on with their prayer at thanksgiving dinner? Yes, it bothers me a great deal when people tell me that I should say, "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." I personally find this attitude to be offensive.
While I am talking about christians here, I would like you to understand that my remarks are also about persons and groups belonging to most other faiths as well. It is merely that christians seem to be the most vocal group in the United States, and in the media. I generally hear very little of Jewish opinion and Muslim opinion on these matters. While I know that Jews and Muslims do have an opinion on these matters, I cannot really speak to persons whose attitudes I am not familiar with.
There is a great campaign in the political right that is based on the belief that there is a war on christmas. The very idea seems insane to me. I agree with every secular humanist and every atheist who wants to see religious displays removed from government sites, including state houses, courtrooms, federal office buildings and schools. I believe that there is a very bug difference between wanting the government to cease honoring any god at all, and asking individuals to cater their own expressions of faith, or their own manner of worship, praise and celebration. No one that I know of wants to stop anyone from praying, or even congregating for religious purposes. No atheist that I know of cares if you want to praise Jesus, light candles in honor of Hanukkah, or if you want to prostrate yourself while facing Mecca at a certain time of the day.
I certainly don't care about these things. I never have. Nevertheless, I do care when the government sponsors or hosts this type of activity. This seems like preferential behavior, and whether the religious recognize this or not, I think allowing these behaviors in what are not private or religious settings is a form of pressure, especially in schools. Children are impressionable, and I don't know that anyone will deny that. To allow religious activities to become routine in a classroom is a form of social pressure. I think this is true for many people when it happens in the classroom.
There is a movement in some places to have non-religious displays placed next to religious displays in government locations during religious times. I do not think this is really wise, either. I think that the religious displays should be removed, but I also think that having atheist displays placed there for the holidays next to the religious ones is a shallow compromise.
But this is just my opinion.
On the other side of the question, I can't really comment much, but I can state what it seems to me that others are thinking and feeling.
It seems to me that some christians are offended by atheist placards in the state house, and by signs and billboards saying that some people do not believe in god. They [the christians] seem to think that simply saying, "If you do not believe in god, you are not alone" is an affront to them and an attack on them. They [the christians] seem to think that implying that people can be good without believing is god is an affront and an attack. I do not understand this attitude.
It seems to me that christians want to keep a power in this country that they sort of had in the past, but didn't really. It is largely religious groups who have led the charge against stem cell research, the teaching of evolution, the Arts, women's productive rights, gay rights at every stage, climate-change related regulation, and a plethora of other issues. Of course I recognize that it is not all religious persons who do this, and indeed not even all christians. Many religious people of all stripes are on both sides of every issue, regardless of how vocal they might be.
That being said, I really just want to find out why. In several churches that I have had the pleasure and honor of being involved with, there is a clearly stated movement to encourage others to say Merry Christmas rather than, "Have a nice holiday!" I hear this from many people every year.
In my mind, this is nothing more than an attempt to force other people to support your own religious views. Atheists don't do this. They will argue with facts, and data, and experiments, and logic to support their opinions, but they do not try to stop anyone from disagreeing. We may try to get people to defend their beliefs with facts and evidence, but that is in part because people are trying to get us to belief in what seems like nonsense without any evidence.
And by evidence we do not mean revelation (people have used that with me personally, so don't pretend it doesn't happen,) nor do we mean testimony. We mean evidence - repeatable and verifiable.

Next Blog, my ass !

So, I read in the blogging mews section of the website you are now looking at that the "Next Blog" button, when licked on (if you are not signed on as a member, perhaps you don't see it) is designed to take me to other blogs that demonstrate similar interests and topics to those I write about. This seems like a fairly nice little feature. However, as in so many things, the practice is so far from the theory as to be worthless and laughable.
Think about it, blogger.com, I am a gay atheist, whose primary interests are really music, literature and atheistic writings. So, please explain to me how somebody, or some piece of computer software, thinks that I would be interested in blog after blog featuring little more than baby pictures and diaper advertisements. Id this simply some really bizarre glitch in a program, or is it a rather nasty and UN-subtle homophobic joke?
In any case, I am not amused. It isn't that I hate babies. I don't. To cite a rather droll joke commonly repeated among many of my real peers, "I love babies, usually with Hollandaise Sauce."
But seriously, don't you think this could just possibly be taken as an insult? To whom do I complain?

Well, 1 down, two more to go...

That is, two more weekends of Willie Wonka, the show I am working on now. We have three shows (Friday & Saturday @ 8; Sunday @ 2) next weekend, and two (just Saturday & Sunday) the weekend after that. Then, of course, I get paid the balance. Not that I will get to actually enjoy the money.
Tomorrow, I will be at the High school first in the a.m. for a rehearsal for the elementary shool concert, then later in the afternoon for auditions for their spring show (Grease.) In between, I need to make sure I get the cover letter and resume to the County Library.
More of the same type stuff throughout the week.
I got a message from the guy at the Episcopalian church. He asked me to do their "Carols and Lessons" service next Sunday, so that's another $100. I can count on. That will please the family.
Not much else really going on.

Traffic problems predicted...

My hometown is predicting a traffic jam, and it is therefore deemed wise to avoid a certin intersection at a certain time. The web post that warns us of this potential problem does not mention the particular reason that they are expecting this traffic problem. Our town is to be bleesed with a visit from our friends at the one and only Westboro Baptist Church.
My first reaction upon hearing of this pending visit was to check to make sure my camera batteries were all charged. My natural inclination is to go there and start some trouble. But no, it is not to be. For one thing, I do not see how any trouble I could cause would do any good for anyone. Besides that, I am sure that the asshats at the WBC would like nothing more. They are, after all, simply a collection of attention seeking wing-nuts, so any response they get will only validate their own desires for notoriety and feed into their neuroses. So upon further consideration, I have decided to sleep in that day (which I would probably be doing anyway.)
Then, of course, I saw this. While I can ill afford to give money to anyone, I will do it just the same. A dollar for every minute the WBC spends in front of Cherry Hill HS East. The actual protest is scheduled to last for 45 minutes, but I do not know how long it takes for them to set up, and remove themselves. I do know that they are expected to appear elsewhere in town very shortly after the East appearance, so if they are as prompt as they are f**ked in the head, I will probably not have to spend much more than 45 dollars. I will gladly do it, though. I think these people are well deserving.
I would like to see this sort of response continue. If the Matthew Shepard Foundation then sends a thank you note to the WBC for their efforts in fund-raising for the MSF, I'd really get a good laugh out of it.
And isn't that, after all, the point?

Please, America...

...listen to this story. THINK. Do you really want Bishops, or any other religious figure, dictating public policy?

Perhaps you simply don't care enough that churches are leading and financing the fight to keep gay marriage illegal. Perhaps you believe that abortion is immoral, and that it is therefore only right that every effort be made to make it illegal as well. Perhaps you are not in favor of stem cell research that will very likely save the lives of many of your descendants. Perhaps you do not think it is important that there are religious people who do not want your children to think critically - that it is much more important for them to blindly believe in nonsense like "Intelligent Design."

But don't you realize that this is not where the religious will stop.

How will you feel when the authorities decide that YOU are immoral. Marriage is a divine mandate, and divorce is unacceptable. Women should submit to their husbands. These are also beliefs that many religious people still hold. Do not, for a minute think that your own rights cannot be abrogated. Where, in the constitution does it say that women were created equal? It certainly does not say so in the bible. Divorce? An aberration

Birth control? You know the church does not approve of that, either. Can you seriously believe that life was simpler, or better fifty years ago?

Did you know that women had equal rights in Southern France prior to the 11th century, but that the crusades obliterated almost an entire population there, only to enforce the church's and the Northern French King's power there? Did you know that they had a thriving culture of equality and peaceful co-existence with their arab neighbors in Spain and Africa? A peaceful, thriving, enlightened society in the "dark ages." It was the church, and the government that destroyed that.

Did you know that all of the philosophical, artistic and scientific discoveries of the ancient world were almost erased, and would have been had the arabs not controlled a large part of the ancient world?

This is called history, and it is a history that our founding fathers wanted to avoid. You can pretend that the political right is just that, right, but you are treading a very dangerous path, and it can and will turn on you to bite your ass.

Don't listen to me. I am nobody. I know that I am not nearly good enough a writer to convince you.

Read... think... learn... have faith if you must, but not in the churches. Have faith in each other. Let gays marry. Let people have control of their own bodies and their own destinies. It was said somewhere that what you sow, you shall reap. Life is funny that way.

Please, America. Do something.

fb chat

I spent some time on facebook tonight chatting with a friend who had some personal problems he needed to talk about. Not being a professional, I tried to offer what advice I could, and what seemed sound to me. He seemed to find it helpful, and I hope it was. I mention this only because I was also talking to a career counselor this (well, technically yesterday) afternoon, and we were discussing various job options and even jobs I would like to be an option, even if they weren't. One of those jobs, which I doubt would be feasible, requiring as it would years of schooling, was counselor.
Now, I do not want to pretend to actually know anything about what a good counselor does, but this is not the first time in my life by a long shot, that someone has come to me to talk about their personal issues. It is not the first time I have listened, and offered what little advise or insight I could; and it was not the first time someone has said to me that I was really very helpful and that I would make a good counselor. I've also been told I'd make a really good teacher.
I know this sounds vicious, but sometimes I wonder if people are off their skulls.

YouTube II

The Being Human videos that I was watching on YouTube were removed, so I am very disappointed. I was hoping to watch another episode or two tonight (or this morning) before retiring. I guess I will have to find another way of viewing the series.
I have an appointment with the optometrist tomorrow. While I am grateful to my younger sister, who has kindly offered to pay for said visit, I am really rather annoyed with my oldest sister's husband. Not only did he insist I should see his optometrist friend in Pennsylvania (meaning I have to drive an hour to get there,) he won't tell me the address. He apparently feels I must be accompanied to the place.

YouTube

I am in the middle of Series 1, Episode 2 of Being Human, a british show about a werewolf, a vampire and a ghost who share a flat while trrying to control their baser natures and form a bond in the face of great peril. It's rather entertaining, actually, not least of all because the vampire is totally hot. It does have quite a lot of funny lines in it, and of course the british accent is charming to an american like myself.
While I have not seen or read any of the Twilight series (and am not in the least tempted to do so) I have always been enthralled with vampire films and shows - ever sinve 1966 when dark Shadows came on the air. Even as a child I found Barnabas Collins to be attractive. Now I look back and think otherwise. I was also very much taken with the series of vampire novels by Anne Rice to a point. I don't remember which of her books was the last I read, but I think I am rather satisfied with the first two. Her witch novels only marginally kept me satisfied. The Mummy, which was a completely "romantic" story about (what else) an eternally living (and apparently completely sull of the sexy) Egyptian pharoah who was changed into a mummy by some witch in a cave. It was rather trashy, basically, but I certainly did enjoy it anyway.

Tech Week for Willie Wonka...

...is not going too badly. Not, in any case, as badly as some were predicting. The first "orchestra" (Read: 6 piece band) run-through did go on for about 4 hours, which did not exactly thrill my band-mates. Sorry, guys. There are some issues, still, but there almost always are in community theater.

The show itself is piffle, but it isn't nearly as horrible as some I've done recently. I will not mention any in particular, but only because I am getting ready to go to bed, and I don't want to have that in my head. There are some very talented young people in this production, and that is refreshing. The adult cast members are a talented lot as well, so that's all good.

I am looking forward to it's completion, but mainly because I need to get paid.

Next week, we are doing auditions for Grease at Lindenwold HS. Again, not a favorite show, but so few of them really are. Grease does have some almost decent music in it, if you are into the whole 50's thing. Regretfully, the choreographer is very excited about adding the two songs from the movie version that I really hate - "hopelessly devoted" and I forget the name of the other one for the moment. It was just on the tip of my tongue, but I do have a tendency to quickly forget things that make me want to shudder. I do, however, really enjoy working the Lindenwold shows, so I am looking forward to it, even if I can't stand the actual show. And there are so many I hate much more.