Woman assaults Salvation Army bell-ringer who said ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’

An Arizona woman, who’s also a bell ringer for the Salvation Army, says she was assaulted for saying “Happy Holidays’ instead of “Merry Christmas.”

According to Kristina Vindiola, a woman hit her outside of a Wal-Mart store. She said, “Happy Holidays” to the woman.

Vindiola explained, “The lady looked at me. I thought she was going to put money in the kettle. She came up to me and said, ‘Do you believe in God?’ And she says, ‘You’re supposed to say Merry Christmas,’ and that’s when she hit me.”

Vindiola says the woman hit her in the arm and then went inside the store. She told a manager who then called police.”

One woman said, “I’ve finally gotten used to ‘Happy Holidays’ and it’s a ‘Happy Holiday’ or a ‘Merry Christmas,’ I’m good with either one.”
Another shopper said, ”I’m a Christian, and that is what it means to me, you know it’s a celebration of Christ’s birth.

Vindiola now plans to take legal action.

She said, “She should’ve just been happy I said ‘Happy Holidays,’ but I got hit because I didn’t say ‘Merry Christmas.”
The Salvation Army says it doesn’t have a policy on which greeting a bell ringer should use.

For me, either one is good, but just don’t hit me.

Some people are taking a greeting too seriously.

Slavery in the Bible

When I say slavery was ended, I mean it in the pejorative sense. I completely understand that slavery has NOT been abolished in all of its forms. Many in the comment sections list sex-slavery, child-labor, and economic slavery. I am not speaking of those particular branches of slavery, but am referring more to the generic concept.

-43alley

David's SINsus

- In the second animated segment, the Bible citations at the bottom right should say "II Samuel" instead of "I Samuel." I can't think of a good excuse why that happened, so I'll say God did it. Then at a later date, I'll revise this and say that Satan did it.

- On God or Satan ordering the census ...
This video is only concerned with God killing 70,000 people. The topic of who was behind getting David to do the census is a much more interesting question that will be in a future video. I will say for now that Satan's appearance in 1 Chronicles is the first time Satan, as an independent cast-out rival of Heaven, makes an appearance in the Hebrew Bible.

The Unreliable Birth Story of Jesus

An Atheist Reads the Bible 9. Narrated by dprjones & DarkMatter2525.

Jephthah

TEXT:
The Book of Judges, Chapter 11
Several verses are skipped to shorten the story without taking away. The following verses were omitted because I feel that the omission does not affect the story at all:

Verses 7-10 (more talk between Jepthah and the elders about Jepthah becoming their leader)
12-28 (Jephthah sending messages back and forth to plan for battle)

Jephthah's Daughter by Neil Gaiman and Peter Rigg from Outrageous Tales

Sticks & Stones

Lot's Daughters

An atheist opens the Bible, and in the very first book he finds a horrific story that the religious wish wasn't in there ... if they even know about it.

Bible text: Genesis 19

Plenty O' Material - Episode 3: Gabbing With God

A rare peak into god's top rated radio show, "Gabbing With God"

Plenty O' Material - Episode 2: Deluvian Delusions

Genocide! Destruction! Extinction! It's a kid's story! Hurray for Noah's Ark!!

Plenty O' Material - Episode 1: Foreskin Faux Pas

David brings back a pungent souvenir to King Saul. 1 Samuel 18:27.

Bible Slavery: TOTALLY DIFFERENT

Whether you're a believer or non-believer, when confronting bible slavery, don't let anyone throw up this ridiculous smokescreen that says that the slavery instituted in the old testament was so completely different to, say, pre-civil war US slavery. The usual tactic is to throw facts and rules about Israelite indentured servitude around, to throw you off the scent of a Yahweh-mandated form of slavery EVERY BIT as bad as anything we've seen in recent centuries. This line of argument is so prevalent that I'm confused as to whether its proponents actually believe it or not; but either way, this video is my attempt to inject a bit of reality into this very important area of discussion.
The god of the bible mandated oppressive life-long slavery of foreigners - pretty much a concise description of one of the worst forms of human rights abuses the world has ever had to grapple with. It's as simple as that.
No, I don't hate God for mandating slavery, and no I don't believe that God is evil for mandating slavery. I don't believe that THIS god, the absurd god of the bible, is even extant, let alone worthy of any adjectives beyond that! This god's inhumane and ridiculously cruel commands say nothing about the god that they are ascribed to, simply because they are so obviously ascribed to a god by the men in whose image this god was made.
Deal with it folks; your god is the brainchild of some particularly awful humans. The bible simply and clearly gets this very easy human rights question utterly wrong.
Abandon it, and keep looking for answers. You'll be ever so glad you did.

-NonStampCollector

Yahweh's Amazing Test (Abraham, Genesis 22)

I think it's very important to remember that a god can do whatever it wants - a god could even come up with a better thing to be impressed by than a human's willingness to stab and burn their own child. A god could, instead, choose to give rewards for doing... you know, .... things that improve the world.

I'm trying to think of what, about this story, would impress a modern-day courtroom that Abraham was a stable, balanced member of society that deserved rewards for his actions. Obviously - none in the civilized world ever would. Does that mean that "civilization" is completely immoral? We would put anybody who fully obeyed the god of the bible in prison. What. Does. That. Tell. You?

As I ask in the video - if agreeing to stab and burn your own child is a test of righteousness, then WTF would a test of psychopathy look like?
Why do people look to the bible for righteousness?
IT'S GOT THE WHOLE THING COMPLETELY FUCKING BACKWARDS!

-NonStampCollector

Yahweh's Perfect Justice (Numbers 15:32-36)

Numbers 15 : 32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

The god of the bible is a sick, inhumane, barbaric character. That is, unless you think that He's loving, kind, perfectly fair and perfectly just, - in which case He's that. Never mind what He's apparently told us about Himself.
This is actually a re-make of one of my first videos, from 2008. The original video had, at the end, footage of an actual stoning that had taken place somewhere in the Islamic world, taken on a camera phone. The video was banned and taken down in 2009, and I didn't dispute the ban.
I could never get around to drawing a stoning scene that I thought would have the same impact. A few months back I came up with the idea of seeing if people would like to draw cartoon pictures of a stoning that I could include in this remake. I made a quick video calling for submissions, and you can see the results here.
I'm so happy that my request was met with such wonderful replies.
Thank you to all those who responded - there were many more than I could include, time-wise, in the video itself.

Christian believers, you have a choice: either defend the story of this man's being killed by having an angry mob of barbarians pelt him with rocks as being the holy justice mandated by a fair and just god of perfect love,...
or join the rest of the world in rejecting any deity's involvement in the story as a piece of insane fiction dreamt up by savage people hoping to convince somebody that their barbaric cruelty was mandated by a holy and unquestionable moral authority. It wasn't: it was fucking sick, AND YOU KNOW IT.
The bible is bullshit. Look elsewhere for perfect love.

Isn't it funny, that if you took a random sampling of people from around the world, it would most likely be the CHRISTIANS amongst them, not the atheists, that would voice any disagreement with a statement declaring that stoning is, and always was, a monumentally unnecessarily cruel and inhumane form of punishment. As an atheist, I can say outright that it's a sick and disgusting method of execution- and the standard Christian response to that would NOT be to say that they agree with me, because that would condemn their god. Rather, the response I usually get is for them to say that since I don't believe in their god, that I don't have a moral framework upon which to base such a statement.
Well - if the only option is a moral framework that declares stoning anything other than fucking barbaric, then I'm happier with the one that I have (or don't have)!!!

If you are convinced that there must be a god - a source of love and life and joy and morality and hope - then keep looking. Yahweh is about the worst candidate for that job that there could possibly be. Read the bible for more proof of that.

-NonStampCollector

The King of Kings' Speech [Bible Slavery]

So, who would most likely be responsible for Leviticus 25:44-46, a Lord of Love, or a demonic Satan?

By their fruits shall ye know them: and think of how many thousands, or millions of lives have been utterly ruined by the fact that that passage exists in a piece of scripture that a whole bunch of people think has something to do with morality.
Slavery is just about the easiest human rights issue imaginable, and the bible gets it wrong. What an embarrassment. In fact, practically any human being who has ever been born and survived to the age of 8 or so could come up with a better and more ethical set of instructions on how to behave and run a society than the bible. It would not have ownership of PEOPLE as part of its core tenets.

Why did humanity have to wait thousands of years for the Emancipation Declaration? Couldn't Yahweh have delivered it himself? Couldn't Jesus? Peter? Paul? Nup - no one gave a shit about that sort of thing. Not when there were people keeping their foreskins, water to be walked on, and women speaking in churches!!

Script and music and performance and drawings etc (everything) by ME!!

If you haven't seen The King's Speech (Best picture Oscar winner, 2011), then you won't get this.

Sorry to the non-native English speakers or those who'd like to translate it - sometimes the ideas that come to me just don't lend themselves to subtitling or even voice-over.

-NonStampCollector

The Ten Commandments (The Basis of our Laws and Morals)

Are the biblical Ten Commandments REALLY responsible for our laws and morality, as many Christians claim? Do we owe anything to them at all?
Should they be considered significant? Displayed in public buildings such as schools and courts?

Yahweh, the old testament god, looked into the future and discovered that the mighty western civilization was getting by without paying all that much attention to his commandments, so he thought about changing them a bit in order for them to be reflective of the actual laws and values we hold to.

"Tablet", get it? Get it?
Remember -Noah threw his iPad (YahPad) at the wall and smashed it (in Noah's Ark Part 2), so Moses got a more durable one (just with less functionality).

Some may argue that my claim of "three out of ten" is inaccurate, and that from a certain viewpoint it more be more like four. I can live with that. I did cross reference a number of articles on the net of people claiming it's three, others four. Either way - the purpose of the video is to show that it's closer ZERO than it is to TEN!

-NonStampCollector

Noah's Ark (part 2 of 2)

Part 1


This one has been more than a year in the making.
The first take recording went for 28 minutes. Trust me: everything you think I ought to have included in this, I probably did at some stage. I had a very, very hard time cutting this down, and in the end, had to split it up anyway, because youtube viewers simply don't click on much above about 4 minutes, let alone 16, which is about what this has ended up as.
***I'm getting requests to hear the first take: it's gone. Chucked it out weeks ago. Listening back to it, it was flabby and slow. What you're hearing here is most of those ideas, whipped into shape, turned into one-liners rather than passages, and a few long lists of animals had to be dropped. I really wish I could have included the list of 40 or so Australian animals, but it was just too much of a halt on proceedings.

Research on animal behaviors and numbers of species was not carried out in accordance with the strictest of academic standards, I freely admit. I went all over the net following leads on interesting animal facts FAR too much to ever keep records of where I'd been, and where I got each "fact" from. There's probably a few minor numerical and mathematical errors in here, but I am not making any claim to inerrancy so I hope you'll forgive me.
Noah's long rant at the end came mainly from various articles on Wikipedia.

-NonStampCollector

Noah's Ark (part 1 of 2)

Part 2: http://begone-religion.blogspot.com/2013/12/noahs-ark-part-2-of-2.html

1 Corinthians 13

Well, having just gone through the process of getting married, I thought I'd pull out an old idea that I've had for ages, and adapt it to a marriage context. People were asking me if my wedding was going to be a traditional church wedding - well, no. :)

The point of the video - the bible is as good a source of information on the topic of LOVE, as any ancient desert scribblings. Sure, taken on its own, 1 Cor 13:4-7 is very nice, but not as nice as other descriptions of love that human beings have come up with. And anyway - would you take advice about love from someone whose biography revealed them to be an appallingly UNLOVING character in the first place?
The bible demolishes itself as a useful source for anything, other than an anthropological study in the history of metaphysical wonderings, superstition, ignorance, and delusion. When you read the words on the pages of the bible, what you actually see is horror, fear, violence, anger, rage, jealousy (fuck it, I think jealousy is a pretty low emotion/characteristic), pettiness, death, fear, - the very worst of human nature.

Just because there are a couple of nice sentences scattered throughout it to doesn't make up for the bulk of it being so revolting.

It's not as if nobody has ever come up with a better description of love than St. Paul. Anyone could. Many have. Let's leave the bible in the dustbox of history.

A few weak points in this video? Yeah, probably. eg, the fine line between envy and jealousy, whether or not god condones smashing babies to pieces on rocks. They're certainly worth bringing up, and it's not as if the bible isn't already an impossibly mistranslated, confused self-contradictory document. I'm not claiming my video is infallible, just making a point. And anyway - smearing shit on people's faces? WTF? Deuteronomy 28? WWWTTTFFFFFFF???
Once again, let me assure my critics that I know christian doctrine rather well, and that I've read the counter arguments, for ex this one regarding whether or not God keeps a record of wrongs:
http://www.gracecentered.com/does_God...
I know you can point to all sorts of examples of God being nice - but that's kind of the point, isn't it. There are examples of niceness, and also of the worst and most appalling cruelty. I'll happily admit the former, I have nothing to lose from it. Just please admit the latter, without making shit up out of thin air about how those traits of this god are less important. The old testament is fucking BRIMMING with them. God must have been very deliberate in seeing to it that those elements of his character were recorded and preserved in such VOLUME!

- NonStampCollector

Genesis (take #2)

Yahweh still can't seem to get the universe working the way he really wants it. Here's another attempt that He has to end up scratching.

Here's His first attempt: Genesis Take #1
http://begone-religion.blogspot.com/2013/12/genesis-take-1.html

So, here's to Yahweh: the deity that's SO OMNIPOTENT that he can't even say "NO" when the epitome of evil decides it wants to enter the universe of matter, energy, space, and time, and cause suffering and destruction.

I said on the last video (Hitler Quiz Show) that I was done for the year.
But I got the idea for this on Saturday afternoon and wanted to prove to myself that not all my videos have to take scores of hours to create. This one is borrowing old pictures, admittedly, but only took about 4 or 5 hours to make.
So I'll say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year again, but it probably won't be the last time this year, as I just love breaking the 9th commandment. (and the seventh, tenth, first, third, fifth, second, and fourth.) (But it's not my fault, Yahweh decided to let the fucking Prince of Darkness into the physical universe to tempt me to such evil.)

-NonStampCollector

Hitler: The Atheist (Quiz Show)

So here I go again, addressing the absurd claim that Nazi atrocities are inextricably linked to atheism.

Maybe Hitler was indeed an atheist. I don't know. Who can? But given what he said on the subject throughout his whole life, I'd find that position pretty hard to defend. And what it had to do with his evil acts... well you get the idea of what I think of that argument.

Astute viewers will notice that throughout the movie I don't blame Hitler's actions upon his being a Christian. Indeed -- was he a Christian?! Some may differ with me on this, but I say No, he wasn't. Not in any practical sense of the label.
Saying his evil actions are linked to his status as a Christian either way would be as stupid as saying that they are linked to his moustache, or his atheism.
Indeed -- that's the point. Atheist or theist, Christian or Hindu, Catholic or Lutheran: none of it matters. HE WAS A NAZI: ISN'T THAT ENOUGH?
He was a frigging NAZI, with incredible political power that he'd achieved through shrewd statecraft over many years. Obviously THAT is the lethal combination. Not his moustache, not his vegetarianism, not his atheism/religion.
As close as I could come to linking religion with his actions was actually a portion of the script that didn't make it to the final cut, in which a description of totalitarianism is read out, the contestants are asked to identify what is being described, and it plays out that after all, totalitarianism and religion sound an awful lot like each other.
Initially I had intended to put the laugh segment last, but was afraid that the other sections might be too slow and boring to sit through, and people might leave before seeing all those fantastic quotes of Hitler talking about his love of the Creator etc. So -- if you think the vid goes downhill a bit after that, I kind of agree. It's just the best format I could come up with, and I tried them all, I think!

Great thanks to those who responded to my call for voice extras to carry out quite a task: recording themselves laughing their heads off for a full minute. The response was fantastic, and very very funny to listen to and mix.

Also, to those who helped me find videos of people claiming that Hitler was an atheist and did his evil in the name of atheism. ***Especially OGJimbo.*** The clip of Father Jonathon from FOX News I had in mind from the start. What an unbelievable twat to say what he said. Fuck you, Fr. Jonathon.
And to the others featured in the ads (anyone who'd put themselves in front of a camera and declare that Hitler acted out of atheism deserves to be ridiculed. The ad breaks are my contribution to that ridicule.) : if you DMCA me for including your clips, despite their certainly coming under FAIR USE for criticism; I'll put the video file on mediafire and it will be mirrored on hundreds of channels within a few hours. Shoot yourselves in the foot if you really really want to.

That's it for me for this year. Thanks very much for sharing and rating my vids. Happy 2011.

-NonStampCollector

Genesis (take #1)

Here's what I suspect happened. Yahweh secretly had a practice run. It didn't work out, it bored him to tears, and He decided to try again.
Well, you tell ME - why did it have to be a delicious, attractive fruit? Could the knowledge of good and evil NOT be magically stored in something else? Wouldn't it have been wise to NOT place the thing that's going to fuck up the entire universe IN THE MIDDLE OF A GARDEN, DISGUISED AS A FUCKING FRUIT?
What was Yahweh asking for? Seriously?!

and adults alive today believe Genesis literally.

I produced the music in this one, too. I've just figured out how to use Garageband.
And it's the first time I've attempted dialogue in a woman's voice.

- NonStampCollector

Yahweh's Amazing Miracle

Yahweh: He's either miraculous or 'mysterious'. It's a pity -- if the rest of us were as 'mysterious' as Yahweh we'd deserve to be in prison for crimes of omission.

a guy and his family was in a light aircraft whose pilot DIED in the chair, and credited the fact that everybody else on board didn't die to JESUS having been looking out for them in their hour of need -- Jesus was his co-pilot. Just amazing tunnel vision -- Yahweh/Jesus is responsible for all the good, but absolutely NONE of the bad -- and there was a hell of a lot of bad in that guy's story; the pilot actually DIED, and they very nearly all met their doom. The guy who landed the plane was an experienced pilot too - (MIRACLE!) and the air traffic control helped out - but it was FAITH that got them through! With a dead frigging pilot in the plane! THAT, of course, had nothing to do with Jesus.
It's hard for me to remember when I had such a ridiculous world view, but I know I did once!

This video provided me with an opportunity to discuss the whole thing about the lack of thought that is SO EVIDENT in theists who think that if there is a god, (which they view as a necessity for there being anything in existence), then it must automatically be THEIR god. Or even that it must be a god that has rules and ethical standards (let alone standards of what to make your clothes out of or whether to keep your foreskin).
I'm a pretty weak atheist in this regard -- I'd be pretty easily convinced that there must be some kind of starting force or originator -- (don't quote-mine me -- I haven't said that I believe any such thing). I certainly don't rule it out, but I haven't really come across any evidence to give me any idea of even the most basic characteristics of that "force", if it exists. But by no means does such an acceptance (or vague feeling) necessitate believing anything at ALL about the character of the creative force. There could be a creative force that we know absolutely NOTHING about! Why do people automatically assume that the character is knowable? Just because it says so in a ridiculous old book? Maybe the creative force is US!! Perhaps this life is what it's like when gods get drunk! Ever thought that? Or maybe it's fucking Yahweh! WE DON'T KNOW! None of the "evidence" presented up til now has been any good for ascertaining ANYTHING like a factual understanding of the situation.

- NonStampCollector

Christianity Debate

With the flourish, in recent years, of popular and widely accessible debates on this subject, the arguments coming from the theistic side have very quickly become predictable, stale, old, and even less convincing than they may have been the first time they were used. 

This debate has to change. Theists - when all of your arguments have been debunked, and you keep spouting them anyway, congratulations - you're not convincing anyone except the credulous and weak minded. Are you proud of that?

I've often thought of opening up a second channel on youtube, on which I could engage in some debates with other users, but every time I ponder the idea I realise that 90% of the time I'd just be bringing people up to speed on what has already been answered a million times in the past. Screw that.

The way I see it, this debate ended a few decades ago. Everything that had been brought to the table then is what we're still seeing being brought to the table now. What we "new" or "affirmative" atheists are doing is trying to knock some nails into the coffin so that this whole thing can be put to rest in what Sam Harris so eloquently calls "the vast graveyard of mythology". 

Theists - you simply must educate yourself before you go opening your mouth about all these tired old topics. Evolution. 20th century killers. The U.S. constitution. Atheism and atheists, and what it actually is that they DON'T believe. When you spout them- you get knocked down by the sheer force of facts. When you spout them and then get corrected and shown convincingly that your argument is in fact false, --- and then spout them again - I'm lost for words. Where is the virtue in that? Where? How can you be proud of that? How can you support others whom you see doing that?

I just simply, truly, and sincerely don't understand why christian theists aren't red with embarrassment that in these debates, their side so constantly and obviously relies on misinformation, falsehood and ignorance. How many times does one need to be told that 2 + 2 = 4 before they will stop insisting that it = 7?
I. Just. Do. Not. Understand. This. Situation.

Why. WHY!?!?!? 

Of course not all christians are like this. And not even all of the christians who engage in debate are like this. To those sensible christians, I have this to say: 
Why not join us in criticizing intellectual dishonesty like this even when it comes from your side? People who knowingly proclaim falsehoods from the podium (or pulpit) are not doing your side any favors in regards to spreading your message or enhancing your side's credibility (which is, you might have noticed, in crisis). People who do it are a liability to you. 
One commenter suggested that I should have revealed at the end of the video that the moderator was in fact a christian, concerned with honesty and veracity. I wish I had included that. It would have made the video a hundred times better, but alas - 'tis too late.

- NonStampCollector

Tribute to Kent Hovind

Lyrics:

Yeah we all know this guy,
He's a friggin' ass.
Yeah he calls himself a doctor
but he hasn't passed a science class.

But even though he says that evolution
is just a made up claim
I don't know about you
but that is fucking lame.

Yeah the Flintstones were real,
Just like the taxes he didn't steal

You're a fucktard aren't you, Kent?

And the way that he tries
to prove is made up shit, (his made up shit)
he says that science is a lie
and the Bible proves it, (the bible proves it)
But what he doesn't seem to know is that Bible,
that he's claimed to have read (It really sucks)
Has about as much facts
as Evil Dead. (I'll swallow your soul)

Yes, God is for sale.
I hope that you fucking rot in jail.

(chorus)

Kent you are the biggest ass in the world,
yes you are.
Kent you're a Dick.

Version 2

Kent Hovind: Still A Liar [Portal Parody Mirror]

Still A Liar (Soap For Two)

This was a failure.
I'm making a note here: HUGE MISTAKE.
It's hard to understate my education.
Amateur science...
I lie to the sheep because I can.
Ripping off the gullible
Even the ones who are dead.

But there's no sense crying
I just gotta have hope
And I pray to Jesus that
I don't drop the soap.
And the taxes get paid
And I serve another day.
But inside you know I'm
still a liar.

I'm not even angry.
I'm being so sincere right now
Even though you caught my ass and jailed me.
And put me in prison
And threw my diploma in the fire.
As it burned it hurt because I typed it all by myself!

Now these rows of cages make a beautiful line.
If I drop my soap I'll take it in the behind.
And my butthole will burn
Like the degree I didn't earn
But the sheep won't know I'm still a liar.

Go ahead and leave me.
I think i prefer to stay in jail.
Maybe you'll find someone else to cheat you.
Maybe Joel Osteen!
THAT WASN'T A JOKE, HA HA, it's true.
Anyway this soap is great.
So very slippery and moist...

Look at me still talking when there's lying to do.
When i look out there it makes me glad im not you!
And this soap will keep me clean till the year 2015
But I'll never change I'm still a liar.

And belive me i am still a liar.
I'm raping science and im still a liar.
I feel fantastic and im still a liar.
When I'm dying ill be still a liar
And when I'm dead i will be still a liar.
And when I'm burning in hell pants on fire.
Still a liar
Still a liar

Quiz Show (Bible Contradictions)

This is a video response to all those people who claim that the bible is free of contradictions

Context!!!!!!

Here are a few kernels of truth, wrapped liberally in extreme exaggeration. I know. It's pretty over the top. But so is the assertion that the bible is a holy book. That's a massive exaggeration. Most of it isn't even "pleasant".
The bible is revolting. It is sickening. It is nowhere NEAR as nice a book as what an ethical human could come up with, so why on earth does it have this reputation as having been written by the very author of love itself? It wasn't. It was written by human men - and pretty horrible men by the sounds of things.

And why is it that it only ever seems to be the ugly bits of the bible that are ever taken out of context? Why don't we ever hear christians complaining of John 3:16 being taken out of context?

Look, I know it's possible for things to be taken out of context. Creationists do it all the time, and it bugs the hell out of scientists and rationalists. Even I've been quoted out of context. Sure, it's annoying. But no context is large enough to write off some of the horrors of the bible. I mean - is September 11, for example, completely justified by recourse to a larger "context"? No, and neither are some of the horrors mentioned in the video.

The Eye of the Python

Right! Stop that! It's SILLY! Dear friends, if you're not familiar with the timeless genius of Monty Python then this one might be a bit over your head. It's an adaptation of the following classic sketch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npjOSL

I got the idea for this from, unsurprisingly, reading Richard Dawkins' The Greatest Show On Earth. Particularly the chapter which deals with the enormous amount of evidence pointing to life having NOT been designed by an intelligent agency, given all the incredible design flaws that can be seen throughout all of biology. The vertebrate eye is a very good example of this, for the reasons you can hear herein.

I usually like to give detailed references where I can, but the research for this one was just a wild goose-chase around the net picking up bits of info here and there, mainly from Wikipedia. So tough, you'll have to take my word for it.

Yes, yes, its all a bit exaggerated. I am very grateful for my eyes and am in fact one of the lucky ones who cannot complain of any eye weakness of any kind.

Special Investigation - Evolution

One of the most fascinating things for me about the whole religion debate, is the quality of the arguments that come from the religious side in response to the atheist/anti-theist kickback of recent years. Quality? It's too positive a word. The quality of the arguments is dreadful.

It truly fascinates me to see these desperately bad arguments, so easily debunked and deflected, coming back at us time and time again. I dealt with one of them in a recent video called "Atheists Secretly Believe in Yahweh", and this video is a similar thing, about creationism's terrible arguments (if you can call them that).

I know next to nothing about science - really, only what I've learnt by being interested in this debate for the last few years. And what is fascinating for me, is that the anti-science (creationist) side have such amazingly bad arguments. Their arguments are rarely, if ever, any better than utterly wrong. They're either flat out wrong, or make things up, strawman style, and then when their errors are pointed out, - they NEVER admit their mistakes, and seem to go on arguing the same things. It is just too plain to see to be a mistake - it's clear that as long as theyve got a flock of believers to preach it to, they'll keep on going like this, even when they are knowingly lying.

So this is based on a debate I recently heard between Kent Hovind and a christian who accepted evolution. Hovind just bulldozed his way through, spouting things that EVEN I know are wrong, and that, I have no doubt whatsoever, he has been corrected on time after time after time.

Its also based on P.Z. Myers famous debate against Geoffrey Simmonds (early 2008) - a guy with doctoral qualifications who didnt know the scientific meaning of the word theory, and used it as a pejorative. Quite a few elements of the script came from that exchange (whales, ignorance... etc).

There are so many "arguments" or "tactics" that they use repeatedly that I just couldn't squeeze into 11 minutes.
This video also came about by me realising how easy it is to get educated about evolution. I cannot recommend Dawkins' The Greatest Show On Earth highly enough. It is full of jaw-dropping information. It is an unbelievable privelige to be alive at a time that allows us to know so much about our universe. If I believed in a god, I'd be thanking it for allowing me to be alive at such an incredible stage in history, where so many mysteries are being, or have been, solved. Only a few hundred years ago - people didnt even know what stars were! Let alone dating rocks with atomic precision. Amazing.

Creationists - get educated before you argue about these things. And when you're corrected, try to learn something. Can you imagine if Dr. Finch here refused to be corrected about Moses or Noah, and spouted the same mistakes the rest of his life, like Hovind is SURE to do once he gets out of prison?

Offensive!!!!!!!

I suggest that christians just fucking get over it when we use words like fuck, shit, fucking, fucker, and all that. Please also realise that your religious beliefs are extremely offensive to some people, too, and that your religion has caused more trouble in the world than a million people screaming CUNT at the top of their lungs all day could ever cause.

Special Investigation - Atheist Alert

Here are Ray and Kent again with another Special Investigation, using all the available information to draw reasonable conclusions about what it means to not believe in their specific deity.

Special Investigation - 20th Century Killers

Please note: this video is NOT about whether the German leader was or was not a Christian, atheist, Hindu, or Buddhist. Please don't argue about whether or not Hitler was, a Christian on this video. Please don't miss my point that much, I'll be depressed that all my work was for nothing.

Note to apologists and fundamentalists who still don't get it: for the millionth time-- the German, Russian, and Cambodian tyrants did not believe in kinestheology, pixies, the Loch Ness Monster, Amun-Ra, Osiris, the Spaghetti Monster, or any other entity that has been proposed and pushed with no supporting evidence. Maybe if you watch this video about a million times, their true motivations for their terrible acts will begin to become apparent to you. They have more to do with things that they DID believe, rather than things they DIDN'T believe, -- is that such a stretch that you can't get your head around it?

Stop claiming that disbelief in your deity caused them to do terrible evil deeds. How arrogant can you be?

High Stakes Intelligent Designing

This is my theory on how it all happened, and since you cant prove that it DIDN'T happen this way, it must be correct. (Just an idea that came to me on the bus one day.)

Just for fun, this one. Nothing too serious here. Although I'm looking forward to the creationists' defense of the wacky things inherent in our sexual biology. There are far too many to put into one video. Not to mention the reasoning behind Yahweh's attitude to things like foreskins and dead goats.

Christopher Hitchens & Richard Dawkins - We'd be better off without religion (2007)

Jephthah (Judges 11)

Yahweh apparently demonstrated kindness to Abraham by changing his mind about whether he wanted Isaac sacrificed. What happened when it was Jephthah's daughter's turn under the knife?
I made this new video to remind everyone of what a lovely character the god of the bible is.
I'm sorry, folks, it is just too easy to pull out verses, chapters, and even books, to show him up as an insane psychopath.

And in case you're wondering - yes, I read all of the arguments that claim that Jephthah's daughter wasn't sacrificed at all, whilst I was researching the video.
Sorry, apologists, those arguments just don't hold water. If they did, you'd think at least ONE team of biblical scholars would have come up with a bible translation that suggested as much. None have. Take it up with THEM before you bother with me. And in the meantime - please inform the christians and jews of the world that their bibles are inaccurate after all, if that's what you believe.

The Great Debate

Inspiration for this one came from listening to a debate between Christopher Hitchens and Frank Turek, co-author of "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist"
(Geisler, N and Turek, F. Crossway Books, Wheaton Illinois, 2004).
Turek's first 20 minutes were very much like the first three of this video ie, the arguments from cosmology, teleology (the apparent designed nature of the universe), and morality. Some parts of it are direct quotations, other parts are paraphrased, and others I picked up from other theists' videos/writings. To be fair to Turek, he acknowledged that these arguments did NOT lend credibility to the bible on their own, and invited Hitchens to a debate that would deal with the reliability of the bible. I ask, though if you're going to admit that the cosmological argument doesn't prove what you want to communicate, then why bother using it? Christians arent REALLY interested in making atheists into DEISTS, are they? (That's certainly NOT what they're called upon to do in the bible).

These cosmological-type arguments are just so broad and general, that it is a MASSIVE LEAP to go from them, to suddenly arguing for a deity whose name you know, whose values you know (on such things as dietary restrictions and opinions about how you should cut your hair, and, of course, opinions about foreskins), and who apparently has called you into a personal relationship with it. A leap SO MASSIVE, in fact, that no Christian would ever accept it from a Muslim, or vice versa, let alone from a Hindu or a devotee of ancient Egyptian gods.

So this video is not aimed at, or attempting to parody, Frank Turek, but is aimed at those in the youtube Christian community who seem to think that their faith is defended by recourse to the cosmological argument.

What Would Jesus NOT Do?

We always hear about the many amazing things that Jesus of Nazareth apparently did, but nobody ever asks about the things that Jesus supposedly COULD have done, being omnipotent, but either didn't bother to do or didn't think were all that important. You know, things like... reducing human misery and suffering... that kind of thing.
It occurs to me that if indeed the miracles recorded in the bible were in fact true, and really did happen... then that only shows Yahweh/Jesus to be an even MORE malevolent and cruel being than we see in the old testament, and that's saying something. If the miracles somehow prove that Jesus WAS in fact a god in human form, but all he could be bothered to do was turn water into wine and heal only a few hundred, or even a few thousand people with his magic saliva, then really - what is the use or good of such a god? Think of what a visiting, omnipotent deity COULD have done - but in this case, apparently, chose not to!!!!!

And this is meant to be that god's main advertisement of its existence! Walking on water in front of a few of his mates, for the benefit of billions and billions of people who, if they don't believe in his divinity and surrender control of their souls to him, will be sent to burn in agony for eternity.

A Personal Relationship with Jesus

Is it possible for three people to have a common friend, but have wildly different views about him, his views and his character? Wouldn't that indicate that at least two of them, and possibly all three of them, were mistaken, or lying?
Well, why can't people who claim to have a personal relationship with Jesus agree on what he wants and what he's like?
Well, there's an answer to that question that is obvious to most of us.

The thing that made the things for which there is no known maker.

Every painting needs to have had a painter, and every building needs to have had a builder.
Every thing for which there is no known maker, needs to have been made by something.
Maybe, thousands of years ago, a conversation like this took place... and brought theism into the world. I wonder if the dogmatism came along as quickly as in THIS example?

This is definitely one for the atheists and anti-theists. I don't expect religious folk to really get this one.

Yahweh's Delicious Creation

Perhaps this is what it looked like when Yahweh was deciding upon the details of his creation.
Lucky us! We get to live in it!

Inspiration for this one came from a few different sources that ought to be credited:
- the Mr Deity series (look for it on youtube- devestatingly funny)
- the Mr Creosote sketch from Monty Python
- all the Christians who seem to think that there was no other option for Yahweh than to set up a system in which eternal torture would be the inevitable outcome for billions of people, and that Yahweh is himself terribly sad, in some way, that this is the case.

What Would Yahweh Do?

Lets just be thankful that people dont remind themselves to act in accordance with the answer to the question What Would Yahweh Do?.
Christians can be thankful that Jesus himself didn't do that. (However, with the invention of eternal punishment in hell, one could argue that existence under Jesus is worse than under Yahweh: at least with Yahweh, once you were dead, he was finished with you!)

What's certain is that we can only pity the people who lived in a time when the law of the land was based on Yahwehs ideas about justice and love.

When biblical references are given in this video, Yahwehs eventual responses are either direct quotations from scripture, or accurate representations of the scriptural accounts of the actions he took. (eg, although he didn't say 'frigging' in the Bible, he DID cause a wall to fall, killing 27,000 people, and he DID order that children, infants, and camels be killed, etc).
I confess to an error though: Yahweh did not send his spirit to help Samson kill just 30 more people. Samson's last murderous act was a massive suicide attack, and "he killed many more when he died than while he lived" (Judges 16:30). I noticed the error when putting the finishing touches on the video, so I apologise to both Yahweh and Samson for not giving credit for so successful a massacre where it was due.

Yahweh's Perfect Justice: PART 2

Here is what Yawheh (who never changes) used to think was good and appropriate punishment for rapists.
"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."
Deuteronomy 22:28-29

Yahweh's Perfect Justice (Numbers 15:32-36)

Numbers 15 : 32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him.
35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.

Jesus and the Interpreter. A modern-day christian helps Jesus get started.

Modern-day Christians know Jesus so well, that this one decided to travel back in time to help Jesus get his message across right from the start. Those people back in Jesus' time might have mistaken Jesus' own words as actually representing what he really meant! And we wouldn't want that!

Let's see how modern interpretations stack up against the words as they are spoken.

This was made because the few videos I made just before this one (and a lot of my subsequent videos) dealt with the brutality of the old testament, and I was getting many comments telling me that christians DON'T follow the old testament, but that they follow the words and teachings of JESUS instead!
This video is my way of saying "No, you so obviously don't".

Rather than admit that you don't actually obey Jesus' instructions, perhaps instead you could leave a comment telling me that I am ignorant, and that I could never have been a Christian. Or, ignore the content of the video completely, and threaten eternal damnation to all God-hating atheists like me. Or why not use that old stand-by you always use when your religion is exposed as ludicrous: argue about evolution!

ATHEIST!!!!!!!

Free Will - "God Style" PART 3; Finale

Perhaps by now youve heard it all before. The first two installments generated debates that each led to the next one being written, in order to demonstrate the illogical nature of the arguments I kept getting.
Most argumentative responses focused on words. Free and choice were bounced back and forth again and again, from dictionary to dictionary It seems that apologists for the Bible are happy to accept a choice that is almost identical to blackmail, as long as it can still bear the label choice, which, yes, blackmail does too, I guess. The other main response Ive gotten is the charge that Im angry at Yahweh for giving us such a loaded, coercive choice. Ahh no, I dont believe in Yahweh, I dont believe Yahweh has ever done anything, so Im not angry at him. Do you deny Santa because youre angry at him for not giving you presents at Christmas any more?

So, this final part is intended to acknowledge that yes, in fact, blackmail, coercion, threats, and extortion ARE categories of choice. It is focused on what KIND of choice one might expect from an infinitely capable, infinitely loving, and infinitely wise deity. If nothing else, I hope it demonstrates that the free choice that Christians praise Yahweh for is nowhere near as free or loving as what a perfect being could offer. Its more like that free choice (YES, OK, it IS a choice!!!) given by the store robber pointing the gun at the guy behind the counter and demanding that he hand over the cash. Therefore, if we follow logic (ahem) we come to the predicament of acknowledging that Yahwehs choice doesnt measure up to anything LIKE being worthy of being credited to the divine, in fact it fails dismally, and therefore, the whole damn thing is a bunch of bullshit.

Do you find this video offensive? Well, Im offended that throughout history, and even still today, people have been, and are being, paralysed with fear of being condemned to an imaginary torture chamber after death- indoctrinated from childhood that they need to grovel and beg for mercy, and that nothing they can humanly do can save them from endless pain and suffering. Im offended that people I know, love and respect have had these bullshit ideas put into their heads, and had it influence their choices ALL their lives, constantly weighing their thoughts and actions against the need to please the imaginary slave master who alone can rescue them from the imaginary torture that he himself threatens to dole out.

An honorary mention will go to the first person to make a comment claiming that I am angry at God.
Another honorary mention will go to the first person to make a comment saying that Im saying theres no choice in Yahwehs arrangement when in fact, in a dictionary sense, there actually is.
And a third honorary mention will go to the first person to try to correct my position by quoting a merciful-sounding bible verse, whilst ignoring all the bloodthirsty, torture filled ones about Jesus judging us and sending us to hell.

Cooking with Yahweh

“Now, son of man, take a block of clay, put it in front of you and draw the city of Jerusalem on it. Then lay siege to it: Erect siege works against it, build a ramp up to it, set up camps against it and put battering rams around it. Then take an iron pan, place it as an iron wall between you and the city and turn your face toward it. It will be under siege, and you shall besiege it. This will be a sign to the people of Israel.

“Then lie on your left side and put the sin of the people of Israel upon yourself.[a] You are to bear their sin for the number of days you lie on your side. I have assigned you the same number of days as the years of their sin. So for 390 days you will bear the sin of the people of Israel.

“After you have finished this, lie down again, this time on your right side, and bear the sin of the people of Judah. I have assigned you 40 days, a day for each year. Turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem and with bared arm prophesy against her. I will tie you up with ropes so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have finished the days of your siege.

“Take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and spelt; put them in a storage jar and use them to make bread for yourself. You are to eat it during the 390 days you lie on your side. Weigh out twenty shekels[b] of food to eat each day and eat it at set times. Also measure out a sixth of a hin[c] of water and drink it at set times. Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.” The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”

Then I said, “Not so, Sovereign Lord! I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have never eaten anything found dead or torn by wild animals. No impure meat has ever entered my mouth.”

“Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”

Free Will - "God Style" PART 2

The script for the taxman in this video is made up of Christians' responses to my first "Free Will" video, in which I made the point that the "choice" that Jesus apparently gives us is woefully unfair, loaded, and far from "free". Basically I copy/pasted their arguments from the comments page, adapted them to a new scenario, the "choice" to pay taxes, to see if they stand up to scrutiny in a different context. You can be the judge of how they fare.

Free Will - "God" style: a gift?

We are always reminded by Christians that God gave us free will. Indeed, the wrongful exercise of free will back in the Garden of Eden was what stuffed up all of creation.
But is it free will if it so closely resembles blackmail?
Is it free will when someone has a gun pointed in your face?

Theres something wrong about Gods free will, as described in the bible. It doesnt look very free. If any human parent or friend can give free will to others better than God can, then that doesnt say much for God being perfect.

It could just be that the whole thing is a bunch of bullshit designed to scare children and blame the victim.

Here are the biblical verses which I referred to and quoted, and which Im sure people are going to accuse me of having misinterpreted and taken out of context.
Rev 3:20
John 5:22
2 Timothy 4:1
Revelation 20:15
Luke 16:24
Romans 6:13
Romans 5:15
Rev 20:10

Intelligent Design wins! (now stand by for details)

Imagine what it would look like for science to admit to a such a monumental error, and concede defeat on the evolution / creationism front.
So is it game over?
Perhaps the Intelligent Design proponents still have their work ahead of them.

Note - a lot of the text in this video is quoted directly from Wikipedia's page entitled "Creation Myths".

The Creation (c. 1896–1902) by James Tissot

God's voice, Abraham, and child murder.

Abraham is a hero of Judaism and Christianity, for his show of faith in agreeing to murder his child.
That's right. He acted on a voice in his head telling him to murder his kid.

What would we think of someone who did that nowadays?

Not very virtuous. Not a pillar of human morality. Not an example of righteousness to which to aspire.

"God spoke to me, your honor! I murdered my son with a knife because God told me it would please him! C'mon! What was I supposed to do?!"

How amazing is God's Forgiveness? Not very.

God established the physical laws of the universe, then some moral laws. And decided that the penalty for disobedience would be death, and that he would not forgive any transgression at all.
But he didn't like the outcome. Everybody deserved to die.
So rather than just forgiving, like any decent human being could do, he decided that he really wanted someone to die, so he murdered someone who didn't deserve it, which made him happy, so now he can forgive us, and we are meant to thank him for it.

Christians like to be amazed at God's power to save us. And to be eternally grateful for saving us.

But he's only saving us from himself. Are we meant to be grateful for God just not changing his mind, but insisting instead that he gets a death sentence?

He sacrificed himself to himself to save us from himself. We are meant to view it as mercy, when what it really is is stubborn obstinance, and, rather an absolute UNwillingness to forgive. There had to be death. Coz God said so.

Forgiveness, Grace, and God's Death Sentence

There are a few elements of this video that I ought to change, a few word choices, that kind of thing. I get a bit of flack from christians about the finer details of this, and they're probably justified to some extent.
The thing is, though, the corrections that they say I ought to have included originally DON'T MAKE THE THEOLOGY ANY MORE SENSIBLE! If I had the time, I'd be more than happy to re-make this movie, with whatever corrections christians would have me include. I could do it as true to christian theology as any christians would like me to (that is, if more than a handful of christians could agree on elements of the theology enough to give me a good consensus).
I'd be happy to, because the whole story of vicarious redemption comes out looking just as frigging ridiculous as the 'chocolate/punishing the other siblings until they apologize' scenario.

If Jesus died to save us from the wrath of his Father, angry that humanity is less than perfect, then that only shows what a selfish, vengeful, unjust and malevolent being he must be.

Conversation with Yahweh

A non-believer comes face to face with the God of the Bible.

Saudi Pedophiles Are Buying Syrian Child Girls in Jordan Border

This is from a German documentary film on German television.

Louis CK - Animated: If God Came Back

Louis CK's bit on God coming back to earth. "What is a job??"

Hands Off! (Our Bloodthirsty Bible)

We love the book of Deuteronomy. So much good stuff to pattern our lives by.

Foreskin Follies (Our Bloodthirsty Bible)

How To Beat Your Slave (Our Bloodthirsty Bible)

It's one of the age-old questions that nags at all of us. Fortunately, the Holy Bible provides some helpful guidelines.

The Bald Avenger (Our Bloodthirsty Bible)

The prophet Elisha gets some divine assistance when a group of children insults his pride.

Pics expose hate preacher as boozing party animal

HATE preacher Anjem Choudary is today exposed as “the biggest hypocrite around” — by ex-student friends who knew him as a drunken, womanising buffoon called Andy.

Choudary’s old pals spoke out as the Muslim fanatic tried desperately to get embarrassing photos deleted off the internet.

Laughing ... student Anjem Choudary as pal looks at soft-porn magazine

Solent News and Photo Agency

The pictures show the young Choudary boozing, playing drinking games and laughing at a soft-porn mag.

One former student at Southampton University said: “He always turned up late for lectures, if he turned up at all, and sat at the back mucking about.

Boozer ... fanatic Anjem Choudary downing a pint

Solent News and Photo Agency

“He lived with some other guys who had the reputation for being the hard-drinking party crowd who did very little work. I used to see him stagger out of a nightclub pretty much every weekend.

“Choudary lived in an area of Southampton called St Mary’s, which back then was very seedy with a lot of prostitution and drugs. It is staggering that he’s pushing for sharia law. He is the biggest hypocrite and loser around.”

Change ... hate preacher Anjem Choudary downing lager

Solent News and Photo Agency

Dad-of-four Choudary, 46 — who gets £25,000 a year in benefits — has repeatedly called for the strict law in Britain, with all women forced to wear burkas, drinkers given 40 lashes in public and adulterers stoned to death for sex outside marriage.

But his uni peers said Choudary had sex with numerous non-Muslim girls while studying from 1987 to 1990.

Hate preacher now ... Anjem Choudary

One former pal added: “Before he grew his beard and turned to fundamentalism we knew him as Andy and he was famed for his party piece which was downing a pint of cider in seconds.”

The Sun is leading a campaign for Choudary to be arrested for his sick rants on terrorism.

The photos emerged after he said Brits live “like animals in a jungle” amid booze, gambling, prostitution and porn.

A follower revealed humiliated Choudary was furious at the images showing him flouting the strict laws. The source said: “Anjem is deeply embarrassed.
"

 Less: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4962080/Young-Anjem-Choudary-exposed-as-drunken-womanising-buffoon.html#ixzz2Vo9gnmEz