Who's More Crazy? A Post (non) Rapture Reflection.

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I know we are all sick of hearing about Harold Camping's rapture predictions. So I will attempt to make my point in as few words as possible.

Here is the question that the rapture media frenzy has left me with: What makes Mr. Camping all that more crazy than all the "normal" believers out there? Over the past three weeks I have observed so many believers, primarily those that we would call "moderate Christians",  exclaiming their opinion that Camping is a nut-job; that predicting the date and time of the rapture and posting it on billboards across the continent gives all Christians a bad name.

It's as if we have all forgotten about the subject of Mr. Camping's prediction and the one thing that his fellow Christian naysayers generally have no problem with: the return of a dead man, said to be the son of God and a virgin ,sent  to bring all of his followers into heaven while leaving us non-believers to suffer and  die in his created earthquakes followed by an eternity of  suffering in hell. Sure Christians of varying sects and degrees of belief may have variations on this story but the essence is the same: that Jesus will return from the dead, rapture his believers, leaving the non-believers to struggle in hell with Satan.

But what element of Mr. Camping's proclamation do believers feel most tarnishes their own Christian beliefs? May 21, 2011. 6pm. A date. A time.

I don't know, call me crazy, I have a harder time with the rapture part.

A pre May 21 Question

Okay, so let's play make-believe and say the predictions of the May 21 rapture are true. How many of you think that Jesus will accept into his eternal kingdom, atheists who have treated their fellow man and planet with deserved respect?

And before you proclaim that I am worried, I leave you with this: send me to hell if you must Jesus, because I still don't believe in your heavenly father.

Come on people, leave some comments on this one. It's not very often you are faced with a rapture.

Keeping It Simple on a Day of Extravagance.

While Will and Kate push this day over the top, I figured it would be a nice foil to go back to basics. This is what being Atheist means to me.

I don't believe there are any supernatural gods. I don't know that there aren't any supernatural gods but my commitment to applying logic to what I believe leads me to a conclusion that there is a much stronger probability of the inexistence of gods than the existence of gods. I am not afraid of being wrong and hence don't feel compelled to close my mind to the possibility (albeit incredibly unlikely) that a god exists. What makes me, and I suggest all non-theists, different than believers is that the foundation of my non-belief is based on that which is objectively probable, while their belief is based on a faith with no objective probability. This is not a judgement statement, just an indisputable observation.

Simple as that. My deeper value set and how I choose to treat the world and its creatures doesn't come from my lack of theism just like a theist's approach to life doesn't stem from his or her non-belief in the thousands of gods outside of their chosen faith. How shallow would that be? My chosen life approach comes from an innate desire to treat my world with deserved respect. An inherent feeling that it is just "right" to do good. Call it humanism if you must label it.

That's it. If this sounds like you, embrace it openly.

Enjoy the wedding and congrats William and Kate. You seem lovely.

When 2+2=5

Newt Gingrich

(Credit: Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Likely Republican Presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich (he of two failed marriages and extramarital affairs, self-attributed to "passion for his country") recently prophesied that America is at risk of becoming a secular atheist country ruled by radical Islam. Here are his exact asenine comments taken from Politico, "I have two grandchildren -- Maggie is 11, Robert is 9. I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American." 

 Okay Newt, I am going to send you on a scavenger hunt. I want you to find me some black white people; a couple of German Mexicans; and a dead living person. Having trouble? Well, so too will it be to have a secular atheist nation dominated by radical Islamists. If you think your current flock of Jesus-lovers have a tough time with Atheists, ask your "elite" opposition to explain  what radical Muslims think of non-believers. It isn't pretty.

There's a reason people like Newt fear "elites" and academia, who he claims aren't brave enough to defend America's Christian values: they provide the truth that derails  fear campaigns. Oh and Newt, be careful not to ostracize the people that made that cue card for you.