The Truth About Religion in the U.S.

Religion is harmful.  This is just fact.

I've been more than mildly irritated by Facebook lately because of two images that popped up back to back on a friend's newsfeed.

The first was this:

Is it true that atheists are suing for the removal of the cross from the 9/11 memorial?  Absolutely it is.

An organization called American Atheists is suing the memorial, demanding that the cross be removed.  Here is what the president of American Atheists said to CBS News about the lawsuit:

"This shrine is a cross," Silverman told CBS News on Thursday. "It was picked up, trimmed, polished, the word 'Jesus' was carved on top of it, it was prayed over in front of a church for five years, and then it was installed in the WTC memorial with no warning by a priest in a religious service where in the ground was consecrated. This is a working Christian shrine in the memorial and then they had the gall to say it's not religious in nature, that it represents everybody. That's not true. It does not represent Jews, Muslims, Mormons or atheists, and they all had deaths on 9/11."

Silverman said that the museum should either remove the cross or acknowledge everybody else who died in the tragedy in a manner equal to Christians. "We're talking about public lands, we're talking about public funds, we're talking about congressionally ordered public funds. We're talking about an 18-foot memorial, this is grossly inappropriate. We feel very strongly that this is an attempt to Christianize 9/11, to make it about Christians, even though it's not about Christians at all."


Here's what I don't understand.  Why is this a miracle again?  Oh, 3,000 people died horribly painful and brutal deaths.  But there's a cross, so Jesus loves us!  If Jesus loves us so much, why the fuck didn't he prevent the disaster in the first place?  How do you call the death of 3,000 people a miracle?  You know what that cross is?  It's a piece of metal that happens to be shaped like a cross, because that's the way steel beams are shaped in the infrastructure of buildings at every point where they cross one another.  Go look at any building that's under construction and you'll find a few hundred crosses.  That doesn't mean God is speaking through every building that was constructed in the last hundred years.

Also, Mr. Silverman left one more obvious point out of his argument.  If there was no religion, there would have been no 9/11 in the first place.  Muslim religious extremists perpetrated the bombing because we in the U.S. are viewed as infidels.  Of course, Christians may argue "that's Muslim faith!  Christians are peaceful and loving and would never do such a thing!"  Yeah?  Tell that to the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition or the  Westboro Baptist Church.  Religion has done more harm to this world and been responsible for the deaths of more people than any other single entity, yet the flocks of God/Allah/Yahweh press on, completely unable to see the harm they leave in their wake.  It's more than a little disturbing.
Here is the second image that set me off. 

I've heard this argument again and again over the years.  Unfortunately, born-again Christian e-card makers aren't known for their excellent fact-checking abilities.

Fact: Catholics/Protestants make up 75% of the U.S. Prison population.  They make up about 76% of the U.S. population (51% Protestant, 23.9% Catholic, 1.7% Mormon).

Atheists and those who identify as "no religious affiliation" on surveys make up less than 0.3% of the U.S. Prison population.  They make up about 15% of the U.S. population.

So, if atheists are so evil, and if God is so good, please, someone tell me, why are atheists almost non-existent in the United States prison population?  Shouldn't we make up about 15% of it?  I guess we aren't pulling our weight.

It seems to me that this picture has it backwards.  A little less bible reading and holy rolling will probably keep you out of prison.  Why, you ask?  Let me tell you.

Let's address the old-schoolers first.  By this, I mean Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans and the rest of the sit-down-and-listen-then-stand-up-and-sing-a-hymn churches.  How many people do you know that went to Catholic school?  Because those are some of the most guilt-ridden fucking people I've ever met.  The same goes for anyone who goes to any kind of "Christian-oriented" school.  By the time they get out of that place, their self-esteem is so low (and generally their education is so poor) that it's no wonder that a decent percentage of them go out and rape the first girl they can find or stab the first convenient store clerk that comes across their path.  This type of religious education damages people.  Sometimes beyond repair.  It's psychologically harmful, and more than just a little bit in many cases.

Then we have the "New Christians."  The Southern Baptists, the Pentecostals, and pretty much any church that calls itself "non-denominational" in this day and age.  These people...oh, these fucking people.  They do what they want, when they want, how they want.  Why?  Because if you sit your ass in a pew on Sunday and repent, none of it matters!  These fuckers actually believe that if you stab someone on Saturday and repent on Sunday, you get to go to heaven.  They believe this crap to the point that they completely take their life on earth for granted, since they believe they get an eternity in paradise to make up for any lost time here.  Even the majority that don't go to prison spend half of their time praying and wasting their life away for God.

So why is the atheist population in prison so low?  Because we believe we have one life to live.  There is no eternity, no paradise.  I only get 60-80 years here, so why would I want to blow any of that time in prison?  Our morals are determined by the society we grew up in, not in a bronze-age book that is barely applicable to modern society.  We have no conflicts between societal law and biblical law.  With a combination of evolution and societal mores, we have reached a point where we don't need a religion to tell us what is right or wrong.  One look at the prison population statistics makes it obvious the Bible is less effective at moral education than the human intellect is.

So, surprise, once again a horribly inaccurate picture based on no fact whatsoever gets 150,000 shares on Facebook and I'll either get flamed for this blog or no one will ever read it.  C'est la vie.

The Top Five Reasons Why You Shouldn't Post About Politics on Your Favorite Social Networks

It's the day after Election Day, and we're all a little butt-hurt.  Even if your favored candidate won, you're still a little butt-hurt.  Why?  Possibly because you blacked out from that electoral vote drinking game you invented, or possibly because you made the dumb-ass mistake of logging into your favorite social network on a day like Election Day.  Bad move, buddy.  Bad move.

1.  Let’s face it, if you have a Facebook, there are between 20-100 people on your friends list that you don’t even like.  Like that guy from high school that used to whip your ass with a wet towel after gym class, but added you three years after graduation and then never acknowledged it when you accepted.  Even though you added that guy so you could see just how badly he’s failing at life, that guy doesn't really like you either.  And all those people that don’t like you are going to find any reason they can to tear you a new one.  And after you work your way through their badly spelled post and discern its message, I bet you’ll feel that wet towel just cracking you on the ass all over again.

2.  On Facebook we all have a few people, and on Twitter some of us have hundreds, who we don’t know at all.  Posting about politics on a social network opens the door for that crazy guy who lives in his mom’s basement and who graduated with your third cousin back in 1992 to tell you what a douche you are, and how he doesn’t even know you anymore, and how his hamster said you’re the devil.  Then there’s always the chance he’ll show up at your house.  With a chainsaw.

3.  There are going to be a few people that you actually care about (most of us have at least 5 out of several hundred contacts) on your social network friend list.  Half of those people love you unconditionally.  The other half are waiting to pounce like a rabid bobcat the second you say something they don’t like.  You hang out, you bar hop together, you pick up chicks/dudes together, you tell each other all your secrets and give each other advice.  Then you post about politics and your bestie is angrily commenting on the status and telling you how stupid you are.  Then you post back, and they post back, and you post back again, and suddenly all those secrets you told said bestie are known to the whole world.  Don’t you wish you’d just complained about Disney buying LucasArts some more instead?

4. Let’s be honest.  You aren’t going to change anyone’s mind.  Nobody ever changed their political stance over a 140 character tweet, and nobody reads those long Facebook statuses you write anyway.  By getting up on a soap box and preaching your political views, all you are doing is wasting your time.  You’ll get a dozen comments telling you that you’re right, half a dozen telling you that you’re a dick, and everyone walks away thinking the same things they were thinking before you posted. 

5. The solution is clear.  We all need to get out more.  Next Election Day, let’s not spend 14 hours cussing out our loved ones (and that weird guy who added you that you don’t know, but always comments on your cleavage pictures) on our favorite social network.  Let’s go to the bar and watch the results come in on TV while we get piss-hammered like our parents used to do.