Bart Centre as Dromedary Hump - The Atheist Camel Rants Again!: More Arguments and Observations from the Atheist Front

Copyright 2011 Bart Centre
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 1460933915
EAN13: 9781460933916
E-Book ISBN: 978-1-4392-8744-6
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011902801

Cover concept by Susanna Sharp-Schwacke

Bart Centre
as Dromedary Hump

Dedicated to atheist activists and freethinkers
past and present who have paved the way
for freedom of thought.

I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerousif they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.

Robert G. Ingersoll, The Ghosts

Contents

T he visibility and influence of religion on the cultural front hasnt much diminished since the publication of my last book, The Atheist Camel Chronicles. Evangelical preachers continue to make proclamations that attribute deaths from natural disaster and war to their Gods disappointment with mans lack of morality and impenitence. A conservative pope continues to dip his fingers in the blood of millions as he ignores science and condemns condom use.

The clergy remains in the headlines as new evidence of Church complicity in ministerial child molestations is unearthed. Theistically inspired school board activists continue to distort history and proffer pseudo-science to promote their religio-political agenda. Jihadists, both Muslim and Christian, continue to demonstrate, rage, burn, threaten, and kill in the name of their deity and prophet. Given these realities, it is disheartening and difficult to see any light for civilization at the end of a dark religious tunnel.

But advancement is not always the product of cataclysmic events. Much like evolution, it often comes in slow, subtle, incremental changes. Organizations such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation have scored many significant wins against creeping theocracy and religious oppression in the US. More wins than losses wins that help establish precedence for reason over religion. We owe the leadership and membership of these watchdog protectors of our rights and defenders of the Wall of Separation a great debt. That debt is best repaid by joining and supporting their tireless efforts.

On a smaller scale, but just as importantly, freethinking authors, bloggers, local and college humanist and atheist groups, and individual atheists continue to raise awareness, shake apathy, and inspire activism. Even those who must suppress their acceptance of reason over myth and keep it hidden lest it impair relations with family, friends, or co-workers serve the cause. By strengthening the foundation of their rationality through readings, by subtly questioning and challenging theist Truths, and by encouraging the next generation toward self-reliance and independent thinkingthey also serve. I salute them and commend them for their courage.

Throughout this book you will find that I use the term fundie and fundies. For the uninitiated, it is a shortened version of fundamentalist. These are Christians (and, where applicable, also followers of other religions) who view their scripture as inerrant, infallible, written by God or with his divine inspiration; their belief in Creation, all the stories of the Bible, and all its miracles are taken as fact, not parable. The abbreviated term fundie is not used as an epithet in my writings, just a convenient abbreviated descriptor. I use other terms that cannot be mistaken for anything other than epithets.

Similarly, I use of the term Xtian and Xtianity randomly throughout the text as an abbreviation of Christian and Christianity. This tends to enflame fundies as being disrespectful. Unfortunately, it isnt disrespectful albeit I have no particular reason to show respect for Christianity. The term Xtian is actually ancient and goes back to the Greek letter chi being used by the early Greek Christians as an abbreviation for Christ. The symbol for the letter chi is X.

Finally, this book is not written for believers unless they are on the fence, dangling their feet onto the side of rational thinking. If these essays help ignite their boldness and give them a push, excellent. It is not intended to try to win the minds of hardcore religionists to reality. While I may toy with and engage them on the net, I have long ago come to realize that proselytizing to those to whom reason is the enemy and to be avoided at all costs is a waste of my time. Thus, to those who question how I could possibly expect to break through to religionist minds and win them over to reason with my unrepentant, sometimes mocking, and unapologetic style, the answer is plain: I dont.

If these essays can assist freethinkers in debate, challenge thought, raise awareness, prompt more activism, provide some modicum of wisdom and guidance in a religionist majority society, or just make them laugh, this offerings objective will have been achieved.

Bart Centre

AKA, Dromedary Hump

Atheism = Communism = Immorality: The Mantra of the Theistically Confused

24 Mar 2009

T he theist propensity to equate Communism with atheism and vice versa is a function of two things: basic lack of understanding of what Communism is and what atheism isnt.

Joseph Stalin killed millions. A psychopath and paranoid, he embodied the strong-man, iron-fisted methods used by tyrants to retain power since time immemorial. One need only think of the biblical story of the pharaoh killing all first-born Hebrews to understand. The pharaoh didnt kill them because he was a pagan, or even because they were Hebrews. He acted to prevent a prophesized leader from emerging who would free the Hebrews, to ensure his power base and the Hebrews continued enslavementa simple question of economics. How do we know this? Because had his mythical actions been intended to eradicate the Hebrews, he wouldnt have stopped with just killing the first-born.

It wasnt an issue of pagan immorality vs. monotheistic moralityit was a political imperative. How different that is from the Hebrew Gods commandment to eradicate all pagan tribes in their territorial path: men, women (except the virgins), children, and livestock.

While Communism embraces atheism, it does so in order to establish the State as the sole authority. Its a quasi-religion with the tyrant as its primate. It also recognized that the Church had a cohesive effect on the peasantry, and thus represented a potential threat to the States exclusive power. Stalin never killed in the name of godlessness; he killed in the name of retention of one-man rule and the omnipotent power of the State.

Uncle Joe didnt just single out the religious for his murderous purges. He feared intellectuals, homosexuals, and anyone with a political perspective different from his own, including differing interpretations of Communism (note the similarity to the Churchs targets of persecution for centuries: other religions, Protestant sects, and upstart cults like the Cathars). He had Trotsky removed and ultimately killed, along with untold thousands of other potential rivals and challengers.

Was this because of his lack of belief in God/gods? Was his rallying cry to his faithful followers, Kill the theists in the name of atheism? Hardly. Theists werent even the primary concern. One may as well blame Stalins education in a seminary for his genocidal acts.