Good Christians don't revolt.

Most people, including myself, when they refute the claim that [begin southern accent] "America is a Christian nation," [end accent] usually go to the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence or other documents of the time. This never works to convince the faithheads. It's never enough.

Let's trying looking at it from the other direction. Instead of asking the Founders what they thought about Jesus, let's ask Jesus what he thinks about them. The answer can be found in Romans 13:1-2.

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

This was actually written by Paul, not Jesus (Jesus, apparently never bothered to write anything down), but there it is, the inspired word of God. Revolutionaries go to Hell, and a country founded by such Hell-bound sinners should not be so confident in its Christianly status.

The Gall of the Apostle Paul

This is a good one. If you can find a way to work this into a conversation with a fundamentalist, just sit back and enjoy the show.

Colossians 1:24

Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.

(Emphasis added.) Do you understand what Paul is saying here? In general, he's just saying that he's been called upon to build Christ's church, and though the task is sometimes trying (he was in a Roman jail at the time), he is happy to suffer for our sake. That's all well and good. But what's this business about the lacking of Christ's afflictions? Paul has made it clear that [born-agains, cover your eyes] Christ's sacrifice was not enough. The church is also necessary, and without it, the suffering of Christ alone would not be sufficient. Paul's suffering, for the sake of the church, completes the task. So it would seem ye Christians have two choices: 1) accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior AND the Church as necessary for salvation, or 2) continue to think your personal relationship with Jesus will be enough, and that St. Paul either didn't know what he was talking about, or he was an uppity blasphemer. Happy deciding!

Template Change and the Big Red A

I changed the template of the blog. I really like the way the photo sits flush with the header. I think it's neat.

I also added a big, red 'A' to the sidebar. Click it to find out why. Here, too.

Update: I also put spaces in the title. That was long overdue, I think.

Moses: another mass-murdering pedophile

I just had to share this in case anyone out there thinks the Bible is a good source of morality and family values.

Numbers 31:17-18

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

Those were the days, weren't they? No pornography or rampant homosexuality to threaten our wholesome Judeo-Christian values... like genocide and sexual slavery of children. Bring America back to God. Otherwise He just might kill your sons and rape your daughters.

So who was this Joshua character?

And that day Joshua took Makkedah, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof he utterly destroyed, them, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain: and he did to the king of Makkedah as he did unto the king of Jericho.

Then Joshua passed from Makkedah, and all Israel with him, unto Libnah, and fought against Libnah:

And the LORD delivered it also, and the king thereof, into the hand of Israel; and he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein; he let none remain in it; but did unto the king thereof as he did unto the king of Jericho.

And Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, unto Lachish, and encamped against it, and fought against it:

And the LORD delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, which took it on the second day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein, according to all that he had done to Libnah.

Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua smote him and his people, until he had left him none remaining.

And from Lachish Joshua passed unto Eglon, and all Israel with him; and they encamped against it, and fought against it:

And they took it on that day, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls that were therein he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.

And Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, unto Hebron; and they fought against it:

And they took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof, and all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon; but destroyed it utterly, and all the souls that were therein.

And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and fought against it:

And he took it, and the king thereof, and all the cities thereof; and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly destroyed all the souls that were therein; he left none remaining: as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir, and to the king thereof; as he had done also to Libnah, and to her king.

So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the LORD God of Israel commanded.

And Joshua smote them from Kadeshbarnea even unto Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even unto Gibeon.

And all these kings and their land did Joshua take at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel.

Joshua 10:28-42

Apparently he was a mass-murdering dick.

I'm a big kid now.

Some atheists don't like the word atheism because it gives too much credit to theism. After all, we don't have special words for people who don't believe in Zeus, gnomes, or the Easter Bunny. One alternative a lot people like is humanism, which just sidesteps the whole deity question and focuses on human issues. The trouble with that is that there is more to life than just other humans. Others like naturalism. This is my personal favorite. Naturalism is a philosophical viewpoint that simply rejects the supernatural. If what you're saying has no basis in nature and observable reality, you shouldn't be taken seriously. Even if there were an omnipotent yet short-tempered sky-god who created our world, he would be a natural, albeit incredible, being. All of his powers would have a natural explanation, just like David Copperfield's. It's a great philosophy, in my opinion, but the problem with it is if you tell someone you're a naturalist, it sounds more like you're a 19-century artist than an atheist.

There's nothing out there that really sums up what we all want to say in one word: Well, if you must know, technically, I'm an atheist, but I resent even being asked such a primitive question in the 21st century. While were at it, what are your views on Hercules as a half-human/half-god savior or the Shinto creation story versus evolution?

But I think I've finally cracked it. Who believes in ghosts and goblins, witches and trolls, spirits and fairies, unicorns and Santa Claus? Who believes in these fairy tales? Children. When you realize that belief in Jesus Christ and Heaven is no more sophisticated than belief in the Peter Pan and Neverland, it seems like overkill to make up fancy words for disbelief. We already have a word for people who don't believe fantastic stories for children: adults.

So the next time someone asks me my religion, I'm going to say something like, "I know I look young, and thank you for asking, but I'm an adult. I stopped putting my teeth under that pillow a long time ago."

No more teenagers for me

No, I'm not referring to my New Year's resolution to stop preying on Japanese schoolgirls. I'm talk about my job, which also happens to involve a few hundred Japanese schoolgirls (and boys). My last class as an Assistant Language Teacher in Kitahiroshima Town ended less than an hour ago. To be honest, if it is bittersweet, it's a lot more sweet than it is bitter. I was only at this particular school for one term, so I didn't really get to know any of the students very well. Also, this school is a bit bigger than the others, so there are quite a few little assholes who make working here more difficult than it should be. Japanese kids are generally more well-behaved than their American counterparts, probably because of the conformity factor, but they're still people, and some of them are complete jerk-offs. The problem in Japan is there's a serious lack of discipline in school even when it is sorely needed. The system is just not designed to account for bad behavior, as if no one wants to acknowledge that not all Japanese kids are perfect little automatons.

Actually, I'm glad I was able to teach at a place like this, especially right at the end, and only for a short time. It will help to take the edge off my sadness when I leave Japan. As much as I'd like to stay here, and as much as I'm not looking forward to living in the Heartland, working at this school is something I will not be missing, except the free coffe and tea, of course.