The Atheist Blogger

Yes, it’s time for another YouTube Thursday, highlighting some random videos I thought were pretty cool on YouTube this week. The first is a collection of Christian fundamentalist quotes, read (word for word) by a bunch of guys (I guess from a secular student group). Amazing how some of these people actually think…scary too.

The next is a playlist created by YouTube user lordhathor, documenting the fall of YouTube fraudster and fundamentalist Christian VenomFangX, who conned hundreds of people out of money meant for the sick kids hospital charity. Certainly a good watch for anyone who doesn’t know about the story, but also for anyone who has seen it play out on YouTube and wants to know some more information. Very well presented, and a great effort.

Finally, a short interview with Dawkins on the 5 people he would have to dinner, science, and philosophy. An excellent 5 minute video that you should watch when you have a spare moment!

That’s all for now. More next week!

Whenever a documentary is made of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC), it always focuses on the church members, and hardly ever on people who have left the church. This is probably because those who did leave don’t want to talk about their experiences, but a journalist by the name of Trevor Melanson was astonished to discover that his taxi driver was none other than Nate Phelps, the son of Fred Phelps, and brother to Shirley Phelps-Roper.

An interview took place afterwards, and many things were revealed about how children are brought up in the Phelps household, which included regular beatings.

The mattock, a close cousin of the pickaxe, is used to dig through tough, earthy surfaces—it loosens soil, breaks rock, and tears through knotted grass. Its handle is a three-foot wooden shaft, twice the density of a baseball bat and its dual-sided iron head is comprised of a chisel and a pick. It was Pastor Fred Phelps’s weapon of choice when beating his children according to his son, Nate Phelps.

“The Bible says ‘spare the rod, spoil the child,’” explained Nate, “and he would be screaming that out as he was beating us.” One Christmas night, Pastor Phelps hit Nate over 200 times with a mattock’s handle, swinging it like a baseball player.

Nate left the household when he was 18, before returning 3 years later, and then leaving again when it became too much. What is uplifting about this story is how even those brought up in such harsh conditions can come to the side of rationality.

Nate agrees with prominent atheist and scientist Richard Dawkins, who has said that religion can be “real child abuse.”

…

“The threat of eternal Hell is an extreme example of mental abuse,” Dawkins says on his website, “just as violent sodomy is an extreme example of physical abuse.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” asserted Nate. “In so many different ways we have abused children with religion over the centuries.”

…

“I do declare myself an atheist now,” affirmed Nate, “although I’m willing to admit that there’s stuff in life that I’m not real clear on yet.”

Although Nate still lives with anxiety caused by his childhood suffering, he has a strong positive outlook for the future, saying “I just want peace. I want to not wake up fearful every morning”.

The full story can be read here, as well as the comments (the first is by Shirley Phelps-Roper and is a laugh). In other WBC news, it seems a non-existent being hates Barack Obama:

I’ve read a few of the current “Atheist Thirteen” meme posts that are going around, and that got me thinking. What would a fundamentalist Christian say if they had to answer the questions? Probably something like this:

Q1. How would you define “atheism”?

Satanism, devil-worship, false, Godless, infidels, idiotic, Hell-bound, unethical, evil…there are many words I could use. Atheists are evil wicked people with no morals who deserve Hell more than any murderer or rapist!

Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition?

Naturally. I was born a Baptist Christian and still follow our Lord Jesus Christ today. As a child I attended church every Sunday, and as I grew older I was born again and began to participate in church events, regularly attending services mid-week and at the weekends.

Q3. How would you describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word?

Truth

Read more…

The Amiable Atheist reports on a blog post written by pastor / “Professor” Tony Beam entitled “Knowing The Enemy and How We Must Fight“. In it, the pastor argues that neo-atheism and Islam are the enemies of Christianity, and we must be stopped.

I find it quite amusing that the first paragraph talks about how Beam had trouble writing the title. He argues that Christ did say “Blessed are the peacemakers”, but Paul wrote “fight the good fight”. Wow…taking Paul’s words over God’s??? That might not go down so well with the big “G” and the big “J” to be honest…but it does show the idiotic nature of these people. They will go through the entire Bible, ignoring anything said by Jesus or anything contradictory to make a point against something.

So what does Tony Beam conclude from the threat of Islam and atheism?

We must replace “Regressive Christianity” with the mystery of an aggressive yet gentle faith that is firmly grounded in God’s Word and faithfully demonstrated in the lives of God’s people.

Great, so even more fundamentalists trying to enforce their religious dogma on innocent people.