This must be why there are so many warped priests in the Catholic church

Italics are mine.

1 Corinthians 7:1-2
Yes, it is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman; yet to avoid immorality, every man should have his own wife, and every woman her own husband.

So there. TO AVOID IMMORALITY!!!! no less. Pfft enough said

Gays have a point there

Picked up on the net from a Gay Marriage protesting march.

I guess they CAN quote the bible too :-)

An introduction

Since I am now listed on the Atheist blogroll it was suggested that I write a short note to introduce myself to the blogroll readers. I submitted it to the Atheist blogroll, but here's a copy.

If you got here from the blogroll, thanks for visiting, there's a lot more fun things to see below.

THE INTRODUCTION

Like many other atheists, I was raised in a religious household in a very religious family in a small village in Canada. I never questioned our faith and practiced “religiously” well into my twenties.

In my early twenties, I chose to become an electrical engineer and was introduced to critical questioning by many of my teachers and professors. Nothing to do with religion but more to understand before I applied something I learned. To understand, one has to question, to study, to analyse and I was turned on to this approach.

This brought my religion into question. Why this and why that. How does THIS make sense? Is it reasonable to believe A, B or C? So as a matter of course, I decided to study further into my own Roman Catholic religion and took it upon myself to obtain a certificate in theology from the University of Montreal. A “certificate” is one of many potential degrees one can get towards a full Bachelor’s degree. Students are assigned to a mentor, in my case a most intelligent and articulate priest who was assisted by a deacon. For 3 years, I learned the foundation of religions, of faith and of my own religion. In order to obtain a certificate, students are given “missions” or responsibilities. I was assigned to accompany the dying and those who were left behind. Not a fun assignment but with God’s help, I was sure I could make it work.

My first very deep question came one night when I was visiting the parents of a 3 day old baby who had died before being baptised. The mother told me: ”What hurts the most is knowing that he will never enter heaven, that he will linger in limbo for the rest of time and that we will not see him for eternity” I had no intelligent, or even “faith based” answer to this one. I could not believe it myself but this was the teaching of our Church. “I am sure God will see to it that your child will join you when the time comes” I said. “But this is not what the Church teaches”, the mom said.

I went home that night with the seed of doubt firmly planted in my soul.

To tell the rest would take too long but my faith slowly ebbed, my reasoning took over. Regularly, I saw inconsistencies and contradictions in the bible and in the Church’s teaching and actions. I did not set out to prove I was right; I simply looked for things that would make sense. Finally, I simply stopped asking questions (to myself and to others) and just let this part of my pass fade away.

Two years ago, my son gave me “The God Delusion” from Prof. Richard Dawkins. That was the key that opened the floodgates. It EXPLAINED, in simple terms why religion is wrong, why evolution is right and why “there is probably no God”. I then read Sam Harris’ “Letter to a Christian Nation” and “The end of faith” which put a different color on the subject and then Christopher Hitchen’s “God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything”, which put a totally different twist on the whole thing. Since Mr. Hitchen is a lot more confrontational and direct than either Harris or Dawkins, his message comes off a lot stronger. His position that it is morally wrong, even abusive to teach religion to children is totally aligned with my own point of view.

I therefore decided to “come out” and simply, without patronizing, confirm that I was an atheist. I joined the “Out Campaign” and even translated Prof. Dawkin’s introduction letter to the campaign. The next logical bit was to add these elements to my already existing blog which has now taken a definite turn presenting the wrongs of religion, the abuse of so called “religious models” (such as priests molesting little boys – a far too common occurrence). In my life, I have simply stopped “respecting” religious people just because they were religious. I have started to speak to people who want to represent me in our governments (local, school, provincial etc) asking them what their stance is on the separation of church and state.

One of the most important events of my atheist life was brought to me again from my son, and his girlfriend when my grandson was born about a year ago. They decided that he would not get baptised. This is important in that his parents are the first of their generation in our family to live by their true values. If he wants to adopt a religion, he may do so when he’s grown up – hopefully he won’t, but that will be HIS choice, not an inheritance from other people’s beliefs.

Well I do run off at the mouth don’t I?

All this to say that I thought I would share this bit of life with you dear reader. Nothing earth shattering, nothing that will change your life no doubt. Just another drop in the ocean of disbelief and of rejoicing in the amazing beauty of nature, of life IN THIS LIFE and in the liberating feeling one gets in “coming out”, simply stating who I am and why.

If you want to know a little more, just visit my blog. It's not all about atheism. It's about humor, photography and the quirky things I see here and there.

References:

The God Delusion on Wikipedia.

Richard Dawkins web site

Same Harris' web site

Christopher Hitchen's web site

The Out Campaign

Fishing pelican

Pictures of a fishing pelican near our condo in Pompano beach.

The whole series is quite amazing if I say so myself.

Rear ended a dwarf

Heard on the radio.
I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny?
Yeah, well I couldn't believe it.... He was a DWARF!!! He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, "I AM NOT HAPPY!!!"
So, I looked down at him and said, "Well, then which one are you?"

Search the bible

http://www.biblegateway.com/

And if you dare, read it AS IT IS WRITTEN, not as you would LIKE IT to be written .

For example: My comments in red
Judges 15 (New King James Version)
Samson Defeats the Philistines
1 After a while, in the time of wheat harvest, it happened that Samson visited his wife with a young goat. Why the goat? And he said, “Let me go in to my wife, into her room.” But her father would not permit him to go in.
2 Her father said, “I really thought that you thoroughly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn't this rich??? Is not her younger sister better than she? From her own father no less. Please, take her instead. I'll trade you the one you hate for a better one.”
3 And Samson said to them, “This time I shall be blameless regarding the Philistines if I harm them!” So Samson is mad at his father in law and will go to the Phistines for revenge. And the the story goes on to say that he caught 300 foxes, set them on fire and let them loose in their wheat field.

I tell you, this bible reading is very entertaining.

I'm on Atheist Blogroll

Imagine has been added to The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.

Avoiding snakebites

Isn't this just GREAT advice?

I'm glad i could be of service to you this fine day.

I'm an ordained priest

Of the chuch of the Latter day Dude. We are here: http://dudeism.com/

I was ordained on June 25th but hey, shit happens and I forgot to let you all know.

So sit back, relax, nothing important is happening these days anyways.

Dad admits killings to reporters, blames crime on 'spirit'

The sheer stupidity and evilness of some men astounds me, outrages me.

In a CNN report, a man is reported to killing his wife and 5 kids but will not commit suicide because god won't let him into heaven.

Can you fucking believe THIS SHIT!!!!!

On this day - September 11

"Imagine no religion, it's easy if you try"

Lennon (of course)

I can hardly believe this!

Reposted from an article on Michael Nugent's blog.

It appears that in Ireland, the Catholic church can sell "mass cards", whereby one can PAY THE CHURCH to say a prayer in one's benefit to get a "get out of purgatory" card and thus get to heaven faster. I would suppose then that the poor can't get into heaven as fast as the rich which, from memory, goes straight against the teaching of Jesus. Once again, God may be all powerful, all knowing and omnipotent..just can't handle a budget it seems.

It is not being challenged to prevent people from selling offers of intercession with the creator of the universe to bereaved and vulnerable people. Instead, it is being challenged to allow a wider number of people to sell such unverifiable claims and to remove this monopoly from the Catholic church's grasp.

Original article from the Irish Times here.

As seen on Twitter

If the trinity walks into a bar, does it need one stool or three?
Any ideas?

I'm involved in Richard Dawkin's web site

Richard Dawkins is sponsoring the "Out Campaign" with a goal of helping atheists come out of the closet. I translated professor Dawkin's introduction letter and you can find it here on the site.
Here is the first paragraph:
Pendant la période de la grande noirceur de 1940, le gouvernement pré-vichy a reçu un avertissement de ses généraux: « Dans moins de trois semaines, l’Angleterre se fera tordre le cou comme un vulgaire poulet ». Suite à la Bataille d’Angleterre, le premier Ministre Winston Chruchill a répondu de sa manière bourrue: «Tout un poulet, tout un cou! »

I invite you to go take a look at the site

Catholic church sees "hope" for unbaptized babies.

In this article from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp (CBC), it appears that pope Benedict is looking at changing centuries old roman Catholic LAW that unbaptized babies will never get to heaven and spend ETERNITY (that's a loooooong time folks) in limbo for :

• a sin they did not commit
• by people who did not exist
• to a god nobody's ever seen and who most probably doesn't exist.

Now someone tell me. What happens to the supposed souls of babies who are NOW in limbo (supposedly) and to the religious parents of those babies who have been living a world of torture, anguish and pain 'knowing' their dead unbaptized babies would never meet them in heaven?

Religion is probably the most cruel human practice I know of.

The scarlet letter "A"

Un article intéressant et une opinion (en anglais) sur l'utilisation du signe "A" pour nous faire reconnaître comme Athées.

An interesting article on the use of the scarlet letter "A" for Atheists to be recognized.

Fun toy - BUT it's just a toy.

I found this link (forgot how) - a birthday calculator. Hey its fun even though there is a lot of horseradish in it - which I will gladly point out.

Your date of conception was on or about 14 May 1953 which was a Thursday. Impossible, my dad worked nights and didn't speak to anyone until saturday when he woke up. Unless Mr. what's-his-name down the street visited my mom.
You were born on a Thursday under the astrological sign Aquarius.
Your fortune cookie reads: It doesn't matter. Who is without a flaw?
Not the last one I read. It read in fact "You love Chinese Food" (no shit Sherlock, it actually said that.)
The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2434777.5. I have a DECIMAL in my date of birth? I couldn't even be born on an integer day? Goes to show why I can never make up my mind.
The golden number for 1954 is 17.
The epact number for 1954 is 25.
The year 1954 was not a leap year. Well, even "I" knew THAT
Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/3/1954 and ending 1/23/1955.
You were born in the Chinese year of the horse.
Your Native American Zodiac sign is Otter; Yes I'll buy that. I like to swim on my back while I wash my food. That's me.
Your plant is Fern. Disagree. Fern was a friend of mine and he was no plant lemme tell Ya!
You were born in the Egyptian month of Parmuthy, (See you learn something. This word doesn't even come up in Wikipedia) the fourth month of the season of Poret (Emergence - Fertile soil).
Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 1 AdarI 5714. Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 2 AdarI 5714. In February, in the province of Québec, the sun shines about half an hour. So I was probably born after sun down. Now what happens if I was born before the sun rose? Does that mean I was born that yesterday? Jewish dates are so fxxx up!
The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.0.4.13 which is12 baktun 17 katun 0 tun 4 uinal 13 kin - I'll have to remember that when I visit Mexico. It might become handy.
The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Thursday, 30 Jumadiyu'l-Avval 1373 (1373-5-30). Can someone tell me why we have calendars based on religion? OK I guess we had to start somewhere, but if I was Jewish, Muslim or Catholic, I wouldn't have a clue when my birthday was.
The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 18 April 1954. I'll have to take your word for it, I was only 2 1/2 months old.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 2 March 1954. THAT, suffice it to say, is not the REAL New Orleans Mardi Gras. It is another mumbo jumbo religion date.

Now the violent part begins...
As of 7/15/2009 2:17:02 PM EDTYou are 55 years old.
You are 665 months old.
You are 2,893 weeks old.
OK enough of that, this list actually continues the torture to the amount of SECONDS you've been alive.

Starred for life

Starred for life my ass.

This girl obviously has some problems and they're not all on her face.

Just to think that people like that get to vote scares me.

Only in America!

Recently, Michelle Obama went to serve food to the homeless at a government funded soup kitchen.

Cost of a bowl of soup at homeless shelter $0 dollars

Having Michelle Obama serve you your soup $0 dollars

A homeless person who is receiving government funded meals taking a picture of the first lady using his $500 Blackberry cell phone... Priceless

And this is what our hard earned money goes to? (Well not MINE I'm Canadian I know but I'm sure we get this shit here as well)

Gabon wealth meter

I'm told that in Gabon a man's wealth is measured by the number of wives he has or has had. Exactly the opposite of western culture I think.