Up Late

 Disclaimer: This post was written at about 2 AM on 21 Jan 2011. It might be explicit/offensive. Try not to take that too personally. My "nice" filter isn't active when suffering from insomnia.


After midnight is really when I start having the weirdest thoughts.

At two AM, in a quiet house (where not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse), I feel completely alone in the world, and in a way that is true.
I have a feeling of detachment from this world, not unlike the feeling I get when I stare up the stars (my favourite thing to look at).

Though I'm no stranger to detachment, it always strikes me as an odd feeling, as I get awfully philosophical about things, and it usually brings about some of my weirdest thoughts. Although, my most useful thoughts and ideas come to me in the shower - running water must be conducive to good ideas.
Tragically my paranoia thrusts me back into the real world - every small sound I hear is over-analysed (particularly annoying since sound travels much further at this time of night, so I'm constantly bombarded with eerie noises which I have no other choice but to try to explain the origin of to myself).

Right now, however, the paranoia seems to be conducive to some rather logical thoughts.
I've been thinking that I should really take a survival/combat course, or at the very least educate myself in that field.
If civil war were to break out, or I became a victim of this awful country's ever-present crime, I wouldn't be very self sufficient. That seriously worries me - such is the nature of my paranoid mind.

Though my thought process isn't completely random, and I've been inspired in a line of thought by Lenny Bruce (whose autobiography I'm in the process of reading).

Here is what I want to know:

How do Christians, particularly Catholics, justify their ridiculously hypocritical behaviour?
Let me clarify.
How many priceless works of art are in the Vatican? How much gold, and how many jewels are in the pope's possession? How much money do these con men make, while preaching a message they are clearly not following.
My only conclusion is that these people have never read the Bible themselves, and have no idea what kind of person Jesus was.
With the majority of Africa living in Poverty and starving, how is it right that the Pope lives like a king?

I guess it's explained by the fact that the Pope couldn't give a shit about Africa (not even a shit in the woods). This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that he came to Africa, the part of the world most ravaged by AIDS and told people not to use condoms.
That's pretty much murder through terrible advice.
Although again, the Pope is used to causing pain, seeing as he likes protecting pedophiles (why isn't he being arrested? Knowingly hiding criminals is illegal, you know).


Most people who know me are well aware of the fact that I detest religions. I'm a lover of logic and rational thought, so naturally I have a problem with people believing what are clearly lies (Catholicism is clearly made up - we know enough of the history of that church to know all it's traditions were made up to make it more appealing to pagans).
Though I find it stupid to believe in this nonsense in the first place, I find it even more stupid to not even follow it correctly.

If you're going to be deluded, at least RTFM!

As an example, most Christians - particularly in the USA - are against homosexuality, as the Bible says it's a big no-no. The strange thing is, the same people aren't actively stoning adulteress women - even though it says you should do so in the same book of the Bible that says homosexuality is a sin.
It doesn't make sense to me that these people pick and choose what parts of the bible to believe.
Most of the ten commandments aren't even followed! The Catholic church doesn't seem to get what idolatry is, seeing as they do it so much even though they shouldn't by their own rules. Yes, they do justify it, but with a completely ridiculous argument.

The majority of Christians haven't even read the Bible - which is absolutely retarded. How can you say you believe something, but you have no idea what it is, other than the tiny bits that have been carefully selected for you to hear in church? How do Christians think they're so morally superior, when they hold arguably the most barbaric book ever written as sacred.

I can't remember Sunday school telling us about how Lot gave his daughters to a mob to be raped, in order to save two angels from being raped (you'd think angels could protect themselves...), but that's in the bible. Details like that are curiously left out of sermons.
The most ridiculous part is that when you inform a believer of those barbaric parts (that's just one example from a selection of hundreds of awful passages), they justify it with nonsense and STILL think their religion is morally superior.

It's not surprising then that their is an inverse correlation between IQ and religiosity. That is, the more religious a person is, the lower their IQ tends to be. You really have to be stupid to believe some of this nonsense.

You have to be an even bigger idiot, however, to use this nonsense as a basis for legislation.
Would you believe that there are parts of the world where saying "There is no god," could get you arrested? It's true. It's ridiculous that the majority of the human population holds bronze age fiction so high in regard.

Yes, it's clearly fiction. There was no global flood, there was no exodus of Jews from Egypt.

The religious clearly live in their own little world. Even when presented with hard facts, they will stick to their lies, and use faith as their reason.
Sadly, society holds faith in such high regard. Faith is seen to be a good thing for a person to have. If you think so, I'm sorry, but you're retarded.

Blind belief in something is stupid. It's not something you should brag about. It astonishes me that so many people take pride in being stupid.

We will never advance as a species so long as these ridiculous lies, and bronze age fairy tales keep being put into childrens' heads and told that they're true. You know, there is as much proof behind the existence of Santa, as their is behind the existence of God. Yet if I told you that I'm 20 years old, and believe in Santa, you'd laugh at me.
Well guess what, I laugh at people who believe in God, simply because it's a childish, easily disproved delusion, which causes so many problems for our world, and they believe it with such an unquestioningly, naive fervor, that they kill and die for it.

Actually, as I laugh at individuals for being so stupid, I weep for humanity as a species.
It's incredibly sad that this is what millions of years of evolution has produced.
My hope is that religions will fade away. This would leave our planet a better, more peaceful place. It's sad that fundamentalism is on the rise, but I'm glad to see that so is atheism. Perhaps there is hope for this species yet? Though I will not believe it until I've seen it.


Well...this post really took a sudden left hand turn into Rantville. I really did not expect to be typing for half an hour.

I shall now attempt to get some sleep, though I expect this to be futile for perhaps another hour or so.

Insomnia sucks.

God Is Not Great

As many people will know, on the 15th of December 2011, the great Christopher Hitchens passed away after a long battle with cancer.
I had always been aware of Hitchens, through seeing videos of him on YouTube, but until rather recently I had never read any of his books (University can really interfere with that sort of thing). I had actually meant to pick up his book God Is Not Great a few weeks before his death, but I didn't have enough cash on me, so I was saddened by his passing as I just wanted to get into getting to him.

So anyway, after being a fan of his brilliant speaking and debates, and being saddened by his death, I decided to finally start reading his books.
I picked up God Is Not Great, and after that I could hardly put it down.

I've been an atheist for years; actually, I describe myself rather as an anti-theist, so I was well aware of the many issues and ridiculous argugements relating to religion, but I must say that this book was an eye opener.
I had always known of the terrible acts caused by religion, but Hitchens went through example after example, showing clearly the terrible nature of religion. I suggest that any theist who thinks their religion is all about peace, that they should read this book, and see the truth!

Hitchens held no punches when it came to exposing the truth. He wouldn't just ignore certain facts for the sake of "respect", and everyone from Mother Teresa to Gandhi had their short comings exposed by this brilliant author, in the most eloquent manner I've ever seen.

The world has lost an incredibly talented author, a master of the English language. His beautiful prose and never ending vocabulary were masterfully employed in order to show how morality was independent from religion, and the majority of the time better off without it.

I realise that this post is not all that great, it was written sometime in the middle of the night and has been in my drafts ever since then. I've decided to publish without editing too much, as although it might not be all that great, the feeling behind it is genuine.