Death becomes you

Troy Davis. recently executed by order of the state for a murder. There have however been 36 executions, all by lethal injection in 2011 so far, 36 execution in relation to 44 murders.

Not a lot being said or mentioned about any of these people. Seems the outrage is only reserved for special occasions. I'm not belittling Troy Davis or his circumstance, I'm not saying anyone was incorrectly executed, I'm just saying that we're pretty selective about what out outrage is reserved for.

State execution is seems is the elephant in the room.

Since 1977 there have been 1270 state sanctioned executions, of which only 12 were females. 712 Whites and 441 Blacks and 16 Native Americans.

The Total Number of Death Row Inmates as of January 1, 2011: 3,251



The Total Number of people on Death Row continues to rise




State ordered executions continue to be problematical, on many levels. Eye for an eye is all well and good, but it's painfully obvious that time needed or being taken to get from a jury trial verdict, through statutory appeal, to further appeal and then carrying out the sentence isn't as big a deterrent as it's supposed to be. Incarceration of the adjudged guilty with the knowledge that they have any number of years waiting for sentence to be carried out seems a cruel and unusual punishment in and of itself. Leaving aside the fact that state sponsored execution is the sentence.

Am I a liberal on this? Is incarceration enough? Does death become the guilty? Does that help anyone? What closure is that?

What Atheists Have to Believe.

I got listening to a couple of podcasts and the subject of atheism comes up now and again.

But the answer to "What atheists HAVE to belive" can be summed up in a couple of words. Well no that's not true, the answer is not in the question which isn't worded particularly well. The thing that I, an atheist, has believe in,  and this is all, is that "There is no God".

That is it. I don't have to not belive in the Christian God, any God will do not to belive in.

I dont have to believe in  Zeus, Hermes, Hades, Hera, Aphrodite,
or Iuppiter, Mors,  Terra,
or Odin, Thor, Loki, Njordr,
or Krishna,  Vishnu, Kali, Ishvara,
or Shangdi, Mazu, Shou  Xing, Tu Di Gong,
or Izanagi-no-Mikoto,  Izanami-no-Mikoto,
or Cernunnos, Damona, Epona,
or Ra, Isis, Anubis, Osiris,
or An, Ki,  Enlil, Enki,
or Sin, Marduk, Ishtar, Nabu,
or Simurgh, Rostam, Gaokerena,
or Bunyip, Kurreah, Mutjinga etc

not a one do I have to belive in. There is no God.

Being an Atheist does not mean I have no moral standards, or moral code of right and wrong, I don't find it odd to help my fellow-man, nor do I covet my neighbour's wife or oxen most of the time.

I have one thing as an atheist to belive in. That is all.

I don't have to apologise for evolution, I don't have to explain the uncausable cause of the big bang, I don't have to belive in an eternal after-life anywhere for any reason. I don't have to belive that what I think or what I do has any repercussion other than to me and those my actions affect. I don't have to belive in a judgement book.

Mostly however I don't have to belive that I will vilify you, ridicule you or otherwise insult your belief in something. If you have personal experience of a God then good for you!, but that's you and what you saw, I can't measure it, you can't replicate or prove it, but I'm not about that you prove it to me, especially not with a Bible of doubtful origin and content, that would be circular reasoning.

Should a God come visit with me and prove they are God then I'll happily change my mind.  In the meantime I believe that you have a right to what you think, even if you have no basis for that belief, and I'll continue with mine, based on what I've reasoned to be a reasonable position. After all "God did it" is not a reasonable excuse for anything that happens to you, anyone you know or any event in the world that you are too ignorant to think through an explain. Is it?

Related articles

• Atheist vs. Atheist - What?!


• Atheists require blind faith

 

Not a good day to be a minor league tall poppy. #1 in a series.

Today we bring you  Rabon Khan  and  Rachel Smalley

(1) Raybon Khan. Who seems to set himself as Mr.People, some brainpower gifted individual who urbane toss-offs speak to and for the people.

Well he is a comedian, makes his money with humor, or a sort. The tweet is an inference, and that is all. It's implied that it's Germanic, therefore Nazi, therefore Jewish. And frankly that is indeed what it is. Doesn't make it less humorous. Gallows  humor is important.

(2) Rachel Smalley

Rachel got confused about what she is, and what her tweeting account is. You can't be both a corporate tweet and a person. You're either for your or you are you. It's no good having 999 tweets about good a talking head you are on TV if then in some kind of faux outrage pick a fight with someone, about something you know nothing of, but have formed an opinion on based on your privileged position of being "in" the media. Rachel Smalley is a talking head. She reads an autocue device for a living. That is all.

So what will happen?

Well Raybon will throw himself at the public mercy, "Don't read it" he'll cry, which makes him seem like he's 11 years old.

Rachel Smalley. Well TV3 needs a talking head, she has broad appeal which equals money, and will bring out the same "It was me talking" line that isn't really an excuse when 99.99% of everything else she tweets is for her not about her.

So two rather minor poppies who've brought a collective passing eye-roll towards them that has kept a small part of the nation occupied in the colonies. Nothing in their somewhat small and limited appeal career with change, they're not people you get favors from or rely on to do you favors. They have passing and fleeting influence as a talking head, but that glitter fades quickly.

#FauxOutrage at it's best then

Checklist - or if it worked who would use it

This made me smile when I first saw it, and makes me smile when I see it again.

via jenna b.

I have a friend who's very religious

A JW, who is convinced that he's one of the 144,000 or whatever number it is. Don't ask me how he can be, that door closed long ago. But you know that with any cult based religion you change the rules as it suits.

Anyway someone who didn't know his fervor tried to ambush him with, starting with creationism. Trouble is that it quickly got to the big bang, and according to JW guy that was completely and utterly in line with doctrine, the un-causable cause.

Just because we can't grasp the nothingness before creation, and this is his quote, "much like we can't graph infinity", then the obvious answer is a creator.

Obviously.

Not to be beaten the ambusher soldiered on, let's try evolution again;

to which we get from  JW guy creationist nonsense about "you never see a simpler thing evolve into a more complex thing" and "why don't dogs give birth to cats", but he seems to have given ground in the years I've known him to "intelligent design" by which he means that creator made things that have adapted.

Not evolution since man did not evolve from a monkey, but that creator gives them a nudge now and then

"How about" says ambusher "Contradictions in the Bible". I hung my head

"Show me one" says JW guy. It was like bringing a knife to a gun fight. Of course there are many and varied inconsistencies and contradictions, I know from reading and research that there are, but I can't quote chapter and verse. If I was really fired up about the dumbness of religion and people's faith I possibly would be, but each to their own. If you believe the bible in toto then you do, it's not a negotiation. Besides which bible thumpers tend to be very picky about which words from which verse and in which context they use scripture, it's not a whole story, it's a soundbite.

There is no winning any argument about faith and belief, neither party is going to change their mind, as if over a coffee you're going to have an epiphany or something.

But I've done my thinking and yes there was nothing and then there was something. Yes perhaps we can't grasp the nothing, and because we are material we can only construct largely what we are familiar with, that which we know. There is stuff, it came from somewhere, there can't have been no stuff, and suddenly then stuff, that would be silly, we don't have experience of that happening. But to then go "ah God did it" is even lamer than just shrugging shoulders and going "it is what it is"

Finally we finished coffee with JW guy saying "what if you are wrong, what do you think will happen when you die" I said "worm meat". I wasn't really helping either cause.

Related articles

• Faith is a Great Thing, Religion is a Dangerous Thing.


• The danger of inerrancy