The Atheist Blogger

I’m back from Egypt, and I haven’t had the time to watch any interesting YouTube videos that I could share with people, however I just watched one that I have to make a comment on. It’s called “Converting an indian to christianity -- don’t let the devil win” by some YouTube newbie, and it is either a display of outright ignorance, or a hoax.

The video is a discussion between two American kids and their friend “Saraa” who is Indian. In it, they discuss Indian culture and the Hindu religion, before attempting to “convert” poor Saraa to Christianity. If you don’t have time to watch the video, here are a selection of face-palm quotes you might want to peruse:

This is just an epic fail in geography.

Molly: [Saraa's] Indian. It’s like…an African country in Asia.

This is plain ignorance, not to mention quite racist.

Molly: Do you consider yourself Asian or African?

Saraa: Asian.

Molly: Because you look African…but you’re Asian.

Rachel: Why are you so dark then?

Saraa: Because I’m from Asia!

Molly: Why aren’t your eyes pointy…or slanted?

*pause*

Molly: It’s ok, I know you can be what you want, but it’s not what you look like.

Rachel: Yeah, I think she’s lying to us.

Yet more ignorance regarding race.

Rachel: It’s like, if an African and an Asian had a baby.

Then they move onto religion.

(After Saraa explains she is Hindu and doesn’t believe in Jesus)

Molly: But why don’t you change if you’re wrong? You know that believing in multiple gods is a sin?

No amateur discussion of religion is right without one mention of Pascal’s wager.

Molly: Ok, how about this. There’s a chance…well, a very good chance that Christianity is the right religion, and that’s the religion that has a hell, so if I’m wrong in your religion I don’t go to hell, but if you’re wrong in my religion then you go to hell.

So why do I think the video might be fake? It’s just an inkling I get when watching it, perhaps because I’ve seen so many Poe’s in videos, but it doesn’t come across as how actual conversation goes. Especially at the end when Molly tells Saraa that she can’t be her friend because she’s not Christian, and Saraa sort of just accepts it and says “I need to go home to eat rice”.

I’ll leave it up to you to decide.

So there is a new PC game coming out called “Heaven: The Game“, made by a company called Genesis Works. It features a fully explorable version of Heaven, complete with angels, gold lined streets, and even Jesus! The website for the game (which I linked to above) is entirely flash based, and although that alone makes me want to throw my laptop across the room, the content is really even worse. Seriously, if these guys really wanted to please the Lord, how about buying a spell checker? There are spelling errors on literally each page of the site.

The game features list is ridiculous though, because it contains a load of useless references to pretty common game standards:

Animated lens flares!!!! OMG!

360 degree panning world with stereo sound? Yeah, that’s in pretty much any game with a 3D world these days. The next 3 points are all about video animation, and thus are all simply padding for the list. A “game feature” has nothing to do with how cut scenes are shown (at least in my opinion).

No idea how their 3D menu interface is unique, but it doesn’t need mentioning unless it’s as awesome as the implementation in Sauerbraten.

Animated lens flares? Seriously??? Personally, I find lens flares very annoying in video games unless you have a very good reason for them. If your character has a visor, then sure, it adds to the realism. I have no idea why anyone would be wearing a visor in Heaven though, unless you are a Christian astronaut that died whilst on a mission. Of course, that also means that when you die you don’t get to change clothes. Christian Top Tip: Wear something casual when you die…you’re stuck in it forever remember!

Same thing applies to “animated game cursors” really. It’s just not a game feature. Powerful Biblical content is though, and I reckon there could be a heck of a lot of that. The game features list really doesn’t tell me anything about the actual game, only that it has a explorable world based on Biblical heaven, and you have to complete several levels (who reckons most of them involve worshiping the almighty?).

Did anyone spot the 5 spelling errors? Answers revealed when you click the button below (JavaScript needed):

Ray Comfort, who recently changed his blog name to “Atheist Central”, has revealed he is writing a new book. It will have a chapter on atheism, and he wanted to know a few things:

I have a new book coming out soon. There will be a chapter on atheism. Tell me, what do atheists (officially) believe about:

God:

The Bible:

Heaven & Hell:

Sin:

Salvation:

Jesus:

Firstly, unlike Christianity we don’t have a doctrine telling us what to believe, so I can only answer the first of that list definitively. The others are down to personal beliefs, and I shall define my own.

God: All atheists disbelieve in all gods.

The Bible: I think the Bible is simply a book of stories and rules, written by man. It has no divine meaning (see above point about God). It was written to try and explain the unexplainable, but also to control people and make them easier to govern, using the threat of death and hellfire. In a modern society it should not be taken literally at all.

Heaven & Hell: I do not believe in either because I don’t think there is any valid reason why we would have an afterlife. However, I know some atheists who do believe in an “afterlife” of sorts, citing that the conscious mind could go on after death. I don’t think any atheists believe in Heaven & Hell in the Biblical perspective, because it goes against the point about God (again, see above).

Sin: I do not believe there is such a thing as sin, mainly because I do not believe that the Bible is anything other than a load of stories. If there is sin, then there must be moral absolutes, which do not exist because our stance on morality has changed over time. Homosexuality was originally thought of as fine, then the Christians decided it was evil, and now most of us think it is fine again. A continually evolving morality does not have sin, unless the sin were to evolve with it, which makes the entire point of it useless.

Salvation: Seeing as I do not believe in an afterlife, the concept of salvation seems ridiculous and unnecessary to me.

Jesus: Whether Jesus existed or not we may never know. I have mixed opinions on the subject. If he did exist then I think he was probably a very good teacher, who had interesting philosophies. If he claimed to be the Son of God then I would think he was mentally unstable, and probably got a load of followers the same way modern day “messiahs” like Michael Travesser do.

So there you go Ray, I have answered your questions. Feel free to put my answers in your book. My only demands are that I am fully cited (the entire url to my blog post in a footnote or something), and if possible, a free copy of your book when it comes out. You can contact me here.