Tuesday, March 02, 2004

Jesus Scores!

At the box office, that is.  $125 million to date.  Now, can someone please explain to me what the hell is so “daring” about putting up one’s own money to produce a Jesus movie - especially a pro-Christian Jesus movie?  Not only is Mel making a killing on actual theatre attendance, but as with any blockbuster Hollywood film, there’s the requisite licensed official merchandise.  And then the DVD, and on and on… it’s what Hollywood’s about.  Jesus is NOT difficult to market… or has no one been paying attention for the last 20 fucking years?

I won’t go see The Passion of the Christ.  Call me crazy, but watching a man be tortured for most of an entire movie can’t possibly succeed in making me accept the fairy tales in the Bible as magically true, any more than seeing pictures of aborted fetuses will.  Fixating on death and sacrifice is just creepy…

A comment I made even inspired Les (who’s a much better blogger than I!) to post about the marketing of Jesus over at his place: Stupid Evil Bastard: Making Cash from Christ’s Crucifixion.  SEB’s yet another great place I stumbled upon whoring around on the Yahoo! boards… nuggets of gold buried in piles of manure… ah life!

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Jesus Saves?

If the couple who killed their 6-year-old daughter in what appears to be a botched attempt at exorcism are an example of folks who have benefited from salvation, I’ll pass.  More evidence that morons should not be encouraged to participate in the fantasy called Christianity.  It’s cruel enough to raise your children to live their entire lives based on lies, but the sad reality is that there are actually parents who’ll go beyond that cruelty and progress to child abuse and murder.  Something’s terribly wrong with a religion that makes people so fucking paranoid of Satan and demons that they feel justified in “beating the devil out of” a 6-year-old.  I wonder if she’d have been “demon-free” had she lived through the exorcism.

Now, I won’t be surprised to see these folks end up with reduced sentences for their crimes… some lawyer will be smart enough to point out that their belief in such fanatical Christian ideas are proof positive that these “parents” (and I use the word loosely) are obviously too psychologically damaged to be held responsible.

Here’s a tip:  If you truly believe that Satan or demons can enter and take over the body of a child, and that an “exorcism” can be accomplished by beating, strangling and stabbing that child, please check yourself into the nearest looney bin.  Better yet, just kill yourself, because we’ve already got FAR too many ignorant, deluded psychopaths walking among us, and we intelligent and rational folks don’t want you to BREED!!!

Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Embracing My Inner Atheist

Board Whore that I am, I spend quite a bit of time and energy in debate with religious people.  Not only does it provide me with entertainment and a chance to write, it makes me think.  So between arguing with Christians on Yahoo! and another board, and finding NormalBobSmith.com—where I read the Hate Mail from Christians over Bob’s creation Jesus Dress Up, and Bob’s awesome rebuttals—I’ve been thinking and talking about my own beliefs, as well as others’, quite often.

I’ve always been fascinated by religion, and the effects it has on adherents.  The effects it has on our Laws and our rights.  In the past I’ve identified myself as affiliated (if always rather loosely) with one or another of a variety of religions; one I was born into, and a few others I tried on for size.  I’m even a minister!

But lately I’ve had a no-bullshit conversation with myself, and realized that in spite of reading so many books, going to church or participating in rituals, I’ve never REALLY believed in any of it.  I must admit that I find the whole notion of some sort of independent, sentient being/s who give a tinker’s damn about life here on Earth to be utterly and completely impossible for me to accept as in any way true.  I simply cannot suspend my disbelief enough to allow it to happen.

Dennis Miller, in his “Raw Feed” special, was talking about televangelists; but he could’ve been describing many “average” Christian Americans.  He said something along the lines of, “It’s fun to see if you can tell who was raised a Christian, and who just did so much blow they had to convert before they blew their own heads off!” I almost pissed myself laughing, and thought, How true! So many of the Christian “testimonies” I see/hear include how Jesus “saved” people from their addictions… It’s not fucking salvation, it’s substitution!  “I used to be addicted to drugs, but now I’m addicted to Scripture!” Unfortunately, the addiction extends to QUOTING it, and not just READING it, obsessively and obnoxiously.

Y’know, I partied my ever-lovin’ ass off between the ages of 17 and 23, and I did a fair bit of it up until 28 or so.  With the exception of emotionally unavailable or otherwise fucked up men, there has been NOTHING that I allowed myself to become enslaved to.  And I never even considered a need for Jesus to have the strength to walk away (not even from the men I loved, or thought I did), even as a good number of my loved ones embraced the Faith and begged me to follow.

On the one hand, I do admire strength of faith in believers - and of course I support their rights to believe and practice as they see fit - but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile that admiration with the feeling that I’m in some way enabling what I consider to be a handy political tool for the enslavement of Americans: more religion.

What I believe in is the power of the human mind, and the human will.  We need no gods to fix things around this joint, what we need are people… smart, rational people who believe humanity’s worth saving IN THIS LIFE.  What anyone does in the next one is their own damned business.

Saturday, August 10, 2002

Silver Linings

Sometimes a freethinker (there are a few on AOL), will post a truly awesome link on a board, like Q’s Note to Christians.  Her Pledge Rant is outstanding as well. 

I wish I had time to write more… but I’m ever so glad to know that someone out there feels the same; and eternally grateful for the ability to hyperlink!

I am in remodeling HELL, and would rant about it if only I didn’t have to clean up… again.  *sob*