Huh?

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My mother talks to strangers. She should know better.

Yesterday she struck up a conversation with a shop assistant and talk got around to the Japanese earthquake.

"It proves that there is a God" says the shop assistant.

"Really? How's that?" asks my Mum.

"Well, only God could do something that big!"
...

Misplaced Love

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Him: Jesus loves you.

Me: OK.

Him: No, really Jesus loves you.

Me: Really, that's OK. I am comfortable with that.

Him: Do you love him?

Me: No.

Him: You should. He loves you.

Me: That's nice. What would happen if I don't love him.

Him: Then you wont be saved.

Me: Would that be a bad thing?

Him: You would go to Hell.

Me: Would that be bad?

Him: You would suffer for an eternity.

Me: Hang on, let me get this straight. Jesus loves me?

Him: Uh-huh.

Me: But if I don't love him in return, this person who loves me will make me suffer forever?

Him: Yes...

Me: And how is that different to a guy who lusts after a girl in the neighbourhood and, when she wont return his love, kills her so nobody else can have her?

Him: Well...

Me: Sounds a bit warped to me.

(Scene fades...)
...

No kidding.

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Pope Benedict XVI has called for Pakistan to repeal its anti-blasphemy law and demanded that governments in predominantly Muslim countries do much more to protect minority Christians from violent attacks.

Speaking in his annual address to diplomats in the Vatican City, the pope said the law was a pretext for violence against religious minorities.

But isn't all religion a pretext for suppressing minorities?

Graffiti

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None of the fun of the fair.

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Humans seem to have an innate need for the universe to be fair when quite clearly it isn't.

The good die young. The wicked prosper. Children get incurable diseases and the elderly lose their marbles and their dignity.

At least, as an atheist, I can reconcile this lack of fairness as being just a function of the lottery of life, the interplay of competing organisms and the general decay of a system in stress.

When enough stuff is happening, stuff happens.

The religious I know, and it is a dwindling group, have on occasions tried to tell me that a seemingly senseless death, such as the death of a grandson to influenza, is God's way of testing their faith.

Some God. Some test.

The whole nonsense that is the idea of Hell is build on the idea that if the bad seem to get away with their despotic life, they will get caught in the final net and be slow roasted for eternity as a balancing of the ledger. That way the religious flock are kept from rebellion against the despots in the smug but unlikely belief that 'they will get theirs' in the next life. The flaw in this is that someone who lead a blameless life but didn't join a religious tribe will suffer the same fate on the sulphurous spitroast of Satan.

Hardly seems fair, does it?

◊◊◊

And what prompted this reflection? The news that a young lass in our office, 30, engaged to be married next May, has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Now, that's not fair.
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Who's minding the shop?

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So, let me get this straight: God, all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipotent God, decides to return to earth as a baby.

Really?

A baby. A small helpless, speechless, baby?

So who was minding the shop in the meantime?

If the celestial Public Service kept things ticking over during God's second childhood, perhaps we don't need him at all.
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The face of evil

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This man, with the brain power of an un-evolved newt, thinks that performing a stunt where he denigrates another religion by burning their sacred book, the Koran, will bring peace love and harmony to this planet.

Dumb, dumb, dumb.

I mean, you Christians out there, would you toe the Muslim line if some mullah burned the Bible?

Of course not.

If I was God I would rid the world of all religions but in the mean time I would settle for a decent bolt of lightning to turn Pastor Terry Jones into a bbq reject.
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Go!

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This is Steve Fielding, the one and only Family First Senator.

He is up for re-election on August 21st.

I really hope he loses - the legislative chamber is no place for a creationist.
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Thor Point

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I was recently asked how I could possibly not believe in God.

My response was "How do you feel about the existence of the Norse God, Thor?"

The answer was "Thor was just a mythical God!".

"Fine, capture that feeling. Now you can begin to understand how I feel about all Gods."
...

Well, Bless my soul!

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A computer game retailer revealed that it legally owns the souls of thousands of online shoppers, thanks to a clause in the terms and conditions agreed to by online shoppers.

The retailer, British firm GameStation, added the "immortal soul clause" to the contract signed before making any online purchases earlier this month. It states that customers grant the company the right to claim their soul.

"By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions."

GameStation's form also points out that

"we reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act. If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant Us such a license, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction."

The terms of service were updated on April Fool's Day as a gag, but the retailer did so to make a very real point: No one reads the online terms and conditions of shopping, and companies are free to insert whatever language they want into the documents.

While all shoppers during the test were given a simple tick box option to opt out, very few did this, which would have also rewarded them with a £5 voucher, according to news:lite. Due to the number of people who ticked the box, GameStation claims believes as many as 88 percent of people do not read the terms and conditions of a Web site before they make a purchase.

The company noted that it would not be enforcing the ownership rights, and planned to e-mail customers nullifying any claim on their soul.
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Gone. If there was a God, he'd know where.

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The bus of reason comes to Melbourne.

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Sign on some buses around Melbourne.
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A miracle?

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Simon was sitting in the front lounge room, reading (believe it or not) "Religion for Dummies".

When he stood up, he saw the above image on the couch.

True, he seems to have a broken nose, but surely a remarkable image of...who?

Jesus? Mother Teresa? Joe Bugner?
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Child Abuse

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Is forcing a child to follow religion mental cruelty? Psychological child abuse?
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Well, it worked once...

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