It’s that time of year again – and if you’re anything like me, you probably have a few Xmas jingles doing a dance step inside your head (due to the incessant playing of said tunes on the radio and boob tube).

I get a tad maudlin this time o’ year, probably due to the decades of conditioning and fond childhood memories. So humor an old man, willya?

I was about eight years old, when I discovered there wasn’t a Santa Claus. I stayed up late, and snuck out quiet as a mouse (thinkin’ I was the only thing stirring, to paraphrase the rhyme), hoping to catch old Kris Kringle in flagrante delicto as it were, and with my little eye, I did spy…my folks assembling our presents.

That next morning, I demanded the truth. My folks fum-fahed, and finally admitted – there was no Santa Claus!

Delighted by my discovery, I (almost) immediately divulged this bit of info to my closest friend Greg, who lived across the street from me…and was rewarded with a bloody nose. My first foray with truth versus fantasy was greeted with fists. A harsh lesson, indeed.

So here I am, some forty-odd years later, a little smarter, somewhat more mature, and just a bit better at dodging the odd punch.

I still celebrate it. Yes, it’s hard to be a major buzzkill this time of year, after years of celebrating a family tradition. (Good thing I haven’t joined the alleged ‘War on Christmas’.) Let’s face it – it’s a good excuse to take some time off, rub shoulders with those annoying folks you call relatives, and maybe come away with something other than a hangover. I confess, I rather like Xmas. Just strip away all the religious nonsense, please.

And of course, the Grinches come out in droves, ranting their usual nonsense about our cultural traditions (hey, traditions change, most notably along with the increasing diversity of a country), carrying on in the style of your standard conspiracy wackjob, and altogether or separately, making complete and utter asses of themselves.

Maybe no one’s noticed, but the Huffington Post has declared the ‘War is over! (Imagine me snickering into my palm like Muttley.)

Somehow, the phrase ‘wag the dog‘ springs readily to mind.

I’m all for renaming it Winterval - this exclusivist attitude on the part of the religious is irksome, to say the least. We hear this all year round, don’t we? It’s our country, it’s our gwad, it’s mine, mine, mine, you can’t have it, let alone complain or criticize it.

“Peace on earth, good will towards man” – when exactly did the escape clause get worked into that? (Another symptom of how deeply religion’s entrenched in our culture – I can pretty much sing the lyrics to that nod to the ‘on high’. Blecch! ‘Mercy mild’ my homesick ass.)

Anyways, y’all have a wicked Winterval, y’hear?

That’s like Elton John, right? Anyway, stiff upper lip, wot?

First off, a right-wing nutbag from Parliament has coined a new word and promptly called for a debate on it(from the Beeb):

“Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for The Wrekin, Shropshire, said “Christianophobia” of the “politically correct brigade” also ran the risk of Christianity being hijacked by extremist parties.”

snip…

“He told the BBC: “The debate is not about doing God or theocracy. It’s about ensuring that the Christian tradition of our nation is recognised.

‘If mainstream political parties do not recognise and protect the Christian tradition of this nation then other more extremist parties will.

If that happens, we are in danger of Christianity being hijacked by these ambitions.’

Mr Pritchard said the debate was particularly topical, as recent findings suggested four fifths of schools were not staging Nativity plays this year.”

Fortunately, a Mr. Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society is there to remind the errant MP that.

“The head of state is a Christian, the prime minister is a Christian and almost all the cabinet are self-identified Christians. How on earth can anyone imagine that Christians are disadvantaged or pushed to the margins?”

Mr Porteous Wood also said: “Christians are not being pushed out of public life, if anything they are over-represented.”

Meanwhile, also via the BBC, the Archbishop of Wales weighs in on “atheistic fundamentalism“:

The archbishop said ‘atheistic fundamentalism’ was a new phenomenon.

He said it advocated that religion in general and Christianity in particular have no substance, and that some view the faith as ’superstitious nonsense’.*

As well as leading to Christmas being called ‘Winterval,’ the archbishop said ‘virulent, almost irrational‘ attacks on Christianity led to hospitals removing all Christian symbols from their chapels, and schools refusing to allow children to send Christmas cards with a Christian message.’”

*- So here’s my question; Since religion in general and christinsanity in particular do have no substance and are superstitious nonsense, what part of pointing that out is fundamentalist?

Oh, and do any other seagoing mammals have their own archbishop?

Yeah, like, I’m sure this will just shock the hell out of all of you…

Military Evangelism Deeper, Wider Than First Thought

For US Army soldiers entering basic training at Fort Jackson Army base in Columbia, South Carolina, accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior appears to be as much a part of the nine-week regimen as the vigorous physical and mental exercises the troops must endure. That’s the message directed at Fort Jackson soldiers, some of whom appear in photographs in government issued fatigues, holding rifles in one hand, and Bibles in their other hand. Frank Bussey, director of Military Ministry at Fort Jackson, has been telling soldiers at Fort Jackson that “government authorities, police and the military = God’s Ministers[.]” Bussey’s teachings from the “God’s Basic Training” Bible study guide he authored says US troops have “two primary responsibilities”: “to praise those who do right” and “to punish those who do evil – “God’s servant, an angel of wrath.” [...] The Christian right has been successful in spreading its fundamentalist agenda at US military installations around the world for decades. But the movement’s meteoric rise in the US military came in large part after 9/11 and immediately after the US invaded Iraq in March of 2003. At a time when the United States is encouraging greater religious freedom in Muslim nations, soldiers on the battlefield have told disturbing stories of being force-fed fundamentalist Christianity by highly controversial, apocalyptic “End Times” evangelists, who have infiltrated US military installations throughout the world with the blessing of high-level officials at the Pentagon. Proselytizing among military personnel has been conducted openly, in violation of the basic tenets of the United States Constitution. [...] In July, the Pentagon’s inspector general (IG) responded to a complaint filed a year earlier by MRFF that accused Pentagon officials of violating the federal law governing the separation of church and state. The IG did not address the church/state issue, but he issued a 45-page report admonishing several high-level Pentagon officials for participating, while in uniform and on active duty, in a promotional video sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ’s Christian Embassy group. The IG report quoted one high-ranking military official as saying he believed his participation in the video was acceptable because Campus Crusade for Christ had become so embedded in the Pentagon’s day-to-day operations that he viewed the organization as a “quasi federal entity.”

So, I guess this adds a bit more information to the question of why people think “there are no atheists in foxholes” — i.e., (a) people might think this because all the insane-I-really-love-to-kill-stuff-with-guns-xians have all joined the military and have coerced others into swallowing (pretending to swallow) their bullshit; or perhaps (b), any atheist who finally gets out of this evangelical bootcamp-bullshit and into actual combat is probably scared shitless when fighting next to these people as an atheist, because these xian idiots just might kill you as an unsaved non-xian. (I’m sure there are other options — but these are disturbing enough as it is.)

How nice.

Yes, as I said, shocking. You’re all surprised, I’m sure.

Fuckabee…I mean Chuckabee…wait Huck…FUCK HUCK! If you haven’t seen the television commercial, here it is. Huck says “Are you about worn out by all the television commercials you’ve been seeing, mostly about politics?” I’ll tell you what I am worn out by. LIES! And I’m all worn out hearing the Republicans banter back and forth about who is their god’s candidate and who is the most gawdly among them. Call it what it is. Kissing the asses of the religious right.

The AP article states: Huckabee stands by Christmas ad

“If we are so politically correct in this country that a person can’t say enough of the nonsense with the political attack ads could we pause for a few days and say Merry Christmas to each other then we’re really, really in trouble as a country,” Huckabee said.

What a crock of crap! This was clearly a political ad geared to kiss the ass of every evangelical Xian in this country.

“Catholic League president Bill Donahue said Huckabee went beyond wishing people a joyous holiday. Donahue said he was especially disturbed by the cross-like image created by a white bookcase in the background of the ad, saying he believed it was a subliminal message.”

Sumliminal? It was right out there! it was clearly a cross and there was nothing subliminal about it.

“Huckabee said the bookshelf is just a bookshelf and shrugged off the controversy: “I will confess this: If you play the spot backwards it says, ‘Paul is dead. Paul is dead.’”

Yeah, real funny…NOT!

Another good one from Pat concerning the ever-growing religion crap in the U.S. Presidential campaign.

Added note: “Who’s the biggest pimp for Jeebus” about sums up the efforts of the Republican party. (And the Dems are forced to join in the “who loves Jeebus most” game.)

Celina Texas: “An Abilene man who recently moved to Collin County said he wants to share a gift from his own personal dark recesses with North Texans. Terrance Cotton said he strained on what he thought was simple constipation inside his Abilene outhouse while playing with himself. The object headed septicwards at lighting speed, he said. ‘There was this loud cracking sound, and it really hurt,’ Cotton said.

‘After I changed my drawers, I heard a voice, and it said, ‘Look at your doings and see if you can see a face,’ he said. ‘And I looked, and I saw an image of Jesus Christ.’

It made headlines in Abilene when it happened almost a year ago. Dozens of people come to his home to see it.’I've had people look at it, and they can’t look at it anymore; it’s too much,’ Cotton said. ‘And I’ve had people come in and say they can’t see the beatific topography for the loveliness of the turd.’

Cotton said he has seen the changes in his life. He is at peace and taking fiber supplements five times a day, he said. He hopes the Holy Cotton Apple can be studied.

‘I believe science needs to take a look at this and study it to see what it means,’ Cotton said, grimacing at the thought of a colorectal screening.

He had scientists from Hardin Simmons University look at his Mighty Spoor and confirm it is real.

Several Evangelical coprophiliacs have offered to buy it for thousands of dollars, Cotton said.”

_{Real story by knbc5i, embellishment by yours truly…}

“Neurotics build castles in the sky. Psychotics go and live in them. Psychologists charge rent.” – Unknown.

Right on the heels of my prior post, more bedlam erupted in the form of a lone shooter in Colorado. Another senseless tragedy.

Stardust pointed out rightly, here, that there was an immense silence from on high – no intervention (outside the perceived nonsense that survival of this, or any incident, is indicative of such), no parting of the heavens, no blinding light, no angels stepping in, in short, no miracles whatsoever. Just another sloppy sentence in the book of humanity’s history.

I’m not a big fan of the idea that religion impels folks to commit unspeakable acts, or enact tragedies. I’m of the mind that these incidents would’ve occurred regardless of epistemology.

My main peeve, is that obviously deficient world-view that religion improves people, when in fact, all one has to do is scan the news feeds (or even historical events) to put the lie to that sentence.

Augustine is quoted as saying, “Never judge a philosophy by its abuse.” Which, as far as I’m concerned, is an unmitigated load of crap. How else are we supposed to judge it then? One may as well argue that every system has its good points, regardless.

My other major issue, is that a system based on the supernatural tends to overlook obvious symptoms of mental illness. If a hereafterian meets with someone who claims to have visions (read: hallucinations), has glossolalia (read: blathers gibberish) or hears voices (read: schizophrenia), and overall makes claims to have some sort of alternate reality that’s agreeable to the listener, the possibility that the exponent of these ‘worldviews’ is unhinged is (usually) glossed over.

Again, history is rife with these examples. Indeed, one has only to scan any religious texts to find evidence where lunatics were not only given a free hand, they were actually applauded for misconduct (I’d link to a few examples, say like this little ditty, or perchance this one, but knowing this readership, well over a hundred such instances will get trotted out anyways).

Time to trot out a bit of objectivity:

I have stipulated elsewhere, that I used to hear ‘voices’. It’s actually fairly common in most folks. Despite its commonality though, there’s a stigma attached. It tends to isolate people. Left to our own devices, we then have the habit of rationalizing why we are the sole recipient of these auditory hallucinations. There’s even a movement for those folks (I’m voice-free now – so I’m on the outside looking in).

And, in fact, hallucinations of many varieties are common among the rational and irrational alike.

So there doesn’t seem to be any really clear-cut definition as to what signifies mental illness – I’ve always maintained that everyone is something of a ‘lunatic’, there are simply degrees of acceptability.

So when does it become unacceptable? How about here? (Note the religious language – ‘haunted by demons’ is so much more fraught with romantic meaning than being a squalid crazy.) How about this little event? Or this one?

In my humble (amateur) opinion, I think that the issue rolls around the ability to anchor oneself to reality. It is one thing to daydream, to have fantasies (large and small) that harm no one, it is another thing to live in accordance with those fantasies, and it is entirely something else again to force them on others.

Repeating myself: it is harm inferred and harm incurred that is the yardstick we use. In the case of Murray, we see that, even though he was a few shades more irrational than the crowd he sought refuge with, his symptoms match some of those we’d find in any ascetic fanatic living in the desert.

So, nutshelling it:

There are numerous examples that illustrate that as a species, we see, hear, touch, taste, and even smell something illusory – and on a small scale, this is somewhat acceptable (it kind of has to be).

On the broader scale; religion tends to sanctify the borderline lunacy, and throw roses at the chemical imbalances, proclaiming a deus ex machina – that is, until the marginal mental illness blossoms into something of a nepenthes rajah writ large and prone to cannibalism.

And the sheep wander about with that nonplussed look on their faces, because no one saw it coming. After all, they prattled enough to the unanswering sky, didn’t they? Their shepherd certainly loses enough lambs, does he not?

This is the Apostate, signing off.

(Cross posted at The Uncredible Hallq)

Get this: recently, there was a flap about the director of Texas’ science curriculum was fired for forwarding an announcement of a talk by Barbara Forrest. William Dembski responded with a bet-hedging post, claiming the details of the case weren’t clear, but agreeing that if the the director (Chris Comer) had been fired “solely for supporting Forrest,” it would have been wrong. Rather than challenge that, he opted for some derisive remarks about Forrest that Ed Brayton aptly exposed. But then yesterday, he came up with a post with the eye-catching title Chris Comer’s Actual Email, revealing the shocking fact that… the Center for Inquiry (”a virulently atheistic organization”) sponsored the talk. So, it’s wrong to fire someone just for telling people about a talk by someone you disagree with, but okay to fire someone for telling people about a talk sponsored by an organization you disagree with? WTF? I’m also not sure what Dembski means by “virulently.” CFI is indeed an atheist organization, but they hardly spend all their time giving fiery denunciations of religion. I went to a CFI-sponsored talk by Forrest this summer, and the focus was entirely on the details of the Dover trial. She even showed Dembski’s famous “farting Judge Jones” video for him! And we appreciated it! Thought it was hilarious! (Though I admit we weren’t exactly laughing with Dembski there…)

Now on to the kicker: a week before Dembski’s first post on the subject, PZ Myers had already made the text of the e-mail public, complete with sarcastic comments along the lines of “Oh no! CFI was involved!” Bill, it ain’t a good sign when your enemies crack jokes about you and you quickly go do what they imagine you doing in the jokes.