Dehumanized In The Shadow of Belief

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , on March 5, 2010 by RJ Evans

(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 03/05/10)

Dehumanization… to deprive of human qualities or attributes; divest of individuality

It was 2003 when I freed myself from the shackles of religious belief. It wasn’t a neat and tidy affair.  It came with great pain, anguish and despair.  But, it also became a paradox as freedom, peace and joy also washed over me.  The duality of walking out of one life and into another simultaneously was bittersweet as the results of years of dogma, combined with an ever inquisitive mind laden with reasoned questions, fought for my core.  Not surprisingly, reasoned questions and logical answers won.  But, sensibility didn’t come without a price.  My freedom from religion, as with all freedom, came at a cost.  The price I had to pay was steep.

My family has never been a close-knit entity.  It is wrought with division, dysfunction and vitriol.  In fact, it is light years away from the iconic American mythology of what a family is supposed to be.  Torn apart by a divorce in 1974, what was once a faux peace neatly concealed from the children, became a lifetime war of words, accusations, hate, and lies, and the children became the roadkill of rage.  And most of it came special delivery from my birth mother.  So, when I announced my de-conversion from the Life Saver roll of religious hack – the way I was brought up incidentally – my birth mother immediately bared her fangs and tried to deliver a venomous strike.  For some reason she seemed to think I would recoil from her.  Instead, I merely sidestepped her attack and ignored her.  After the phone call, she disappeared into the din of everyday life, never to be heard from, nor cared about again.  Is this part of the price?  In some ways , yes.   In many more ways, no.   She had always been ambivalent toward me.  As the oldest of her three sons and a daughter, I was not a concern.   She never really gave a shit.  To me, this was simply an easy wash.  But, there were other family members with whom I’d had a fairly civil relationship over the years.  Albeit distant, but civil.   These relationships went south fairly quickly and permanently upon my announcement.

Relationships really are at the mercy of freedom from dogma.  They bare the brunt of the non-religious view.  It seems that once a person discovers the positive aspects of a religion free life and announces it to the world, the audience quickly grows disturbingly quiet. So quiet, in fact, that it is truly deafening.  The process of dehumanization of the non-believer begins.  And, with each tick of the clock, the believer separates the non-believer from humanity.

My wife and I moved to Oklahoma in 1997.  I made a lot of friends quickly.  My friends and I had a great deal in common and thought our friendships solid.  The fact is that we were living an illusion created by shallowness, faux civility, and masked as brother and sisterhood.   Not unlike my caustic family structure, my friendship structure was being eaten away by its own acidic dysfunction.  I fretted a great deal over my announcement that I had de-converted from religious belief to non-belief.  To make matters worse, I was angry at the world, in general, for misleading me, for conditioning me to believe in the unbelievable, the impossible, the archaic and primitive.  People I trusted, blind themselves I would later discover, had stolen my freedom.  Anyway…  When I made the declaration that I no longer subscribed to a skydaddy, history repeated itself.  Just like my family, the facade of peace and harmony shattered into a million pieces, jagged, cutting and painful, then dissolved into the acid it created.

Religion touts itself as a uniting force, capable of bringing together all people.  Well, I have news for you.  It ain’t true. Indeed, religion does feed the social animal, and following the pack is the name of its game.  But, much like lions, tigers and bears, religion is easily provoked into attacking its own over dominance, or anyone who ventures into or out of its territory.  And, just like lions, tigers and bears, if woken from its mythological slumber, it will attack quickly and with ferocity.  My announcement woke the beast.  People I considered friends responded quickly.  Most were quick to attack, to judge and condemn… the fundamentalist approach.  Others took a more gentile tact, choosing to question gently, then withdraw to the safe haven of prayer and faith that I would one day return… The apologist approach.  A very few came forward, joining me in my declaration and assuring me that I had indeed found rational, reasoned thought.  In any event, I found that the price of freedom wasn’t cheap.  But, then again, was it really all that expensive?

The price I’ve paid is truly bizarre.  On one hand, I have lost something that was shallow and trite, but strangely comforting… a delusion, an illusion, a dream like state of hidden toxicity.  One the other hand, I found peace and assurance in logic and reason, skepticism and science.  But, even though the benefits of these trade-offs are logically positive, the highest price paid is loneliness, isolation, and stigma.  The fact that Atheists are considered to be more dangerous to America than terrorism isn’t lost in my mind.  We are considered to be a threat to the American way of life by a majority of people according to a Gallup poll taken just after 9/11.  No, I understand the hate and fear that permeates the religious mind.  Remember, I was once one of them.  I do understand.   But, what really concerns me is the instant dehumanization of Atheists and the danger that this poses to freedom.  If people allow restriction of thought in favor of a prescribed dogma based in myth, what atrocities could they be capable of given the right group of dogmatic, charismatic, religious caricatures?  The table is already set for a religious feeding frenzy the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the Inquisition.  Indeed, losing friends in favor of  freedom of thought and inquiry is simply a painful symptom of something more sinister and painful.  Dehumanizing those who don’t follow a particular religious path, one specific to the ruling class, is already happening.  And, it’s happening at the same time religion is claiming to love all.

The most painful aspect of gaining freedom is yet to be paid I’m afraid.  The path to enlightenment is difficult already, given the terms it must abide.  But, when one takes a closer look at the details, the fine print on the financial contract, one has to wonder if human beings are truly destined to repeat vile history ad nausea m.   And, it is dehumanization, at the hands of religion, which hides effectively in the fine print of this contract which even the faithful readily ignore in their zeal to close the deal with a myth.

Brutally Honest Rant on the Austin IRS attack

Posted in Uncategorized with tags on February 20, 2010 by David 2

(The following is the transcript from the February 20th show “Brutally Honest” on ShockNet Radio pertaining to the February 18th attack on the IRS building in Austin, TX.  The transcript appears with permission of David 2.)

This past Thursday, a disgruntled American boarded his single-engine airplane and flew it into a federal building in Austin, Texas.  Specifically, the offices of the Internal Revenue Service.  The resulting explosion engulfed the whole building, but thankfully the loss of life was limited.

Prior to his Kamikaze flight, he posted a very lengthy diatribe online explaining WHY he did what he did.  He focused his anger largely at the IRS because of the ongoing problems he had with them over taxes, but from the tone of his manifesto, he was largely angry at government in general.  He was angry at how big corporations would get billions without strings, but ordinary people would get the shaft.  He was angry at the ongoing status quo in Washington, despite the numerous elections and promises, and he recounted how he lost most of his money due to the games being played in government.  After he posted his manifesto, he set his house on fire, and then hopped on his plane to personally deliver what he called his “pound of flesh”.

As with previous tragedies, I’m not going to give his name on my show.  I’m not going to dignify what he did by saying who he was, even though his name is now a household word thanks to the media.

I understand his frustrations.  I understand his growing bile for how the system is.  You’ve heard me vent the same kind of frustration on this program.  But this guy crossed a line that should not BE crossed.  He went from being a victim of the situation into a villain, and he expected other people to do the same.

And I got a problem with that.  I would have had more respect for him and the burdens he carried if he crashed his plane into his own house.  If he crashed his plane into a hillside.  If he crashed his plane into a lake.  If he just took his own life, I would have had more respect for him and the burdens that he carried.  He would actually have gotten far more support and sympathy for what he was going through if his was the only life that he tried to take.

But he didn’t do that.  He deliberately targeted a building full of people.  He committed a deliberate act of terrorism.

Yes, that’s right, you heard me… TERRORISM.

Terrorism in the same light as the act committed by Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols in Oklahoma City.  Terrorism in the same light as Ted Kaczynski, aka the Unabomber.  Terrorism in the same light as Eric Robert Rudolph, the bomber of the 1996 Olympic Games.  He didn’t have to belong to a group to be a terrorist any more than the Unabomber was.  He didn’t have to survive to be called a terrorist.  He did what he did because he wanted to take as many lives with him as he could and to incite others to do the same.  He WAS a terrorist.

And let’s get brutally honest here… as soon as he did that, he LOST his argument.  He was no longer the victim of the evil government and evil corporations.  It stopped being about the system being screwed up and the story became what HE did.  HE became the bad guy.  HE became the villain.  HE became the monster of the story.

Worse yet for him, he left a wife and daughter behind, who now have to live with the fact that their husband and father died not a hero, but as a terrorist.  They now have to apologize for his actions.  They now have to try to justify what he, by his actions, made unjustifiable.  THEY are the victims in this story.  Not just the people who were attacked, but also his own family members, who now have to shoulder the burdens of HIS actions.

His actions were inexcusable, but the circumstances that led him to this level of despair and hate was not isolated to just him.  And I think that was the reason why he believed he could inspire other to follow his course.

I’ve said it before on this program and it is always worth repeating… this recession is being paid for IN BLOOD.  I do not wish that this was so.  This is not something that I would WANT to have happen.  I would rather this situation be resolved BY the people we elected into office to do just that.  But if there is anything that can be done to prevent this kind of tragedy from repeating itself, it HAS to come from the people up top.  This HAS to come from the politicians, the game-players, the banks, the Wall Street Masters of the Universe.  They have to look at this tragedy not as some macabre disjointed form of entertainment but as a serious red flag that things HAVE gone too far.

THEY are the ones that can put a stop to this.  It has always been within their power to do it.  The real question is how many other forms of tragedy will we collectively have to experience before they do their jobs?

Jesus wrapped in swaddling…breasts?

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on February 20, 2010 by RJ Evans

(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 02/19/10)

Breasts.  Memories of the warmth of a mother’s bosom.  It brings visions of caring, nurturing, tenderness… it warms the heart and soothes the mind.  How wonderful!  Yeah.  Right. Try this on for size!

Let’s talk about Jesus, the crucifix, tits and porn.  Yes, Jesus, the crucifix, tits…and porn.  I noticed something not too long ago.  Something that I was surprised hadn’t cratered my cranium many, many years earlier.  I was checking out some hot amateur women on the net.  Nothing out of the ordinary for any guy who actually likes women and his penis.  In fact, I really like checking out hot chicks and depressing myself over the fact that I’m too old for the vast majority of them, and the other fact that they wouldn’t have anything to do with an elder statesman such as myself to begin with.  Anyway… mid-tug I suddenly realized that over ninety percent of the smart phone photos I was looking at had Jesus bleeding profusely, dying in agony, hanging from an ancient torture device at the end of a chain and tightly nestled between two heaving, gorgeous tits.  Tugus-Interuptus!  Mind you, I wasn’t disparaged by the fictitious tragedy of Jesus.  No. The fiction got what he deserved anyway.  No. I was distracted away from my orgasmic bliss by my own hysterical laughter.  The blood that had inhabited my phallus was being detoured to the amusement center of my brain.  My funny bone stomped all over my love bone.  The juxtaposition of a religious icon at the center of self-righteousness, bigotry and hate…that proclaims ethical and moral superiority over all… that attacks human sexuality with more ferocity than any other human biological function other than taking a piss or shit… against the backdrop of the most obvious sexual organ other than the vagina (which is typically hidden from view), was too much for me to take.  This unexpected moment of compare and contrast destroyed my libido, and left me wondering if this moment was simply a coincidence, or a plague of hypocrisy the likes of which have never been seen before. I decided that if I were to ever get a hard-on again without breaking into gut wrenching laughter, I needed answers, and I needed them quick.

It’s not often that I go in search of tits and porn for matters other than pleasure.  But, this was one of those rare times when my hands were twiddling the keyboard as opposed to twiddling myself.  I was dead set on visiting as many porn related sites as possible and examining as many photographs as my eyes could handle, in the quest to find Jesus.  And boy, did I find Jesus!  From the tame to the extreme, Jesus loves porn!  In fact, it could be argued that Jesus is most likely the biggest male porn star of all time.  His likeness can be seen in so many photos, movies, e zines, posters, novelties… The Jew is one hell of a stud!  As I cruised the net and found Jesus, I had a revelation.  I wondered if this might be a better way for people to find Jesus?  I mean, he’s everywhere, he’s really a chick magnet, and what better way to save the sinner than to partake in the sin?  Everywhere I looked, there was Jesus, or the instrument of his death.  Gold, silver, bronze, jeweled, macrame, tattooed… the diversity of presentation was astounding.  And yet, with each page and with each photo representation of this icon of self-righteousness, I found my laughter growing exponentially.  And, then I saw it.

I had to check out a side of porn that really has no interest to me.  There’s nothing at all wrong with it.  But, for me, it just isn’t…well…me.  I went to a gay men porn site.  And there, low and behold, was Jesus!  Yes, Jesus is not only a stud with the women, but he’s also a fag!  Queer as sunlight and too hot to handle!  Jesus loves fags too!

I logged off the computer.  I had laughed myself into a potential puking fit.  My stomach was cramped to the point where I actually developed a temporary six-pack, my eyes were blood red, and my head pounded so hard it felt like I was being hit across the forehead with a baseball bat.  As I gathered myself together and slowly relaxed, I realized that I had indeed found Jesus and he wasn’t behind my couch.  He was on the Internet, and was the king of porn! What’s more important was that I was saved… saved from the excruciating pain of endless laughter and tugus-interuptus.  Now, I could go back to my daily biological routine, never the worry for my salvation, for Jesus was jizzin’ with me.

On a serious note…

What does this say about religion?  Well, for one thing it is another in a string of hypocrisies that reveals the lies of religion.  Because religion is so heavily focused on human sexuality, the compare and contrast of religious sexual morality with human sexuality is amazing.  The very idea that any believer is better than, or superior to, anyone outside of that belief system when it comes to sex is beyond ludicrous.  It is beyond laughable.  It reaches the realm of asinine.  Judge not lest ye be judged.  Yeah.  Right.  Keep in mind the judgment doesn’t come from me.  I could care less if you believe in a skydaddy and fuck like a bunny with Jesus as the third wheel.  But, I have to ask…  Since when do you have a right to tell me, or anyone else who, what, why, when, where, how, they can fuck, suck, jerk, work and flirt?  Yeah, you!  The bitch with the icon of self-righteousness hanging between your globes?  Who are you…the closet fag who declares that homosexuality is an abomination, but hangs your hat in a dirty bathroom stall, running your hand under the divider in hopes someone will stick their dick through the hole to satisfy your desires?  Who are you… the priest, reverend, pastor, who chooses to proclaim moral high ground while distorting normal sexuality, comparing it to child molestation while you threaten hell fire and damnation to get your dick sucked by an innocent child?
Who are you Jesus lovers?  I’ll tell you who you are.  You’re human.  You’re no better than anyone else.  You have the same sexual desires as everyone else.  And you also have the potential to abuse sexuality just as easily as anyone else.  The only difference between you and the rest of the world is you make claims to shield you from you and the world around you.  Your fear, your self-loathing, your denial…these are the things that make you a reprehensible human being who’s self-worth is wrapped tightly in a two thousand-year old self-righteous tantrum of ignorance.   So, while you wrap Jesus tightly between your tits, while taking it up the ass… While you secretly praise the King of Porn while sucking another mans dick… Jesus don’t really give a shit.  Want proof?  Check out a pair of tits.

‘IM GAY’

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , , on February 16, 2010 by RJ Evans

No. Not me. And, would it really matter if I was? No. But, a fellow human being who lives in my home town is gay. Not extraordinary by any means, but suddenly in the spotlight of local politics, and soon national headlines. His name is Keith Kimmel. I just talked to Keith for the first time on the phone this evening. He’s 28 years old, a college student, and living in one of the biggest backasswards States in the Union. Oklahoma. Some call it the ‘Buckle of the Bible Belt’ while others call it a throwback to the ignorance and bigotry of the Civil Rights era. I choose to call it home as does Keith Kimmel.

A good friend of mine called me tonight during Rock & Roll Diner, a show that airs on my Internet radio station. My friend works for one of the local television stations in Oklahoma City. He happened to mention a story about a man suing the State of Oklahoma Tax Commission over their denial of a vanity license plate that he wants for his car. ‘IM GAY’ My friend thought it was odd that the State would deny this plate when they were more than happy to grant me a vanity plate that reads ‘ATHEIST’. He mentioned this fact to some of the folks in the newsroom at the station, and no one wanted to believe him. They didn’t want to believe that the State of Oklahoma would grant me ‘ATHEIST’ but deny ‘IM GAY’. Some speculated that maybe the State had denied the ‘IM GAY’ plate for reasons of safety, protecting the vehicle owner from religious bigotry, hate, and possible physical harm. But, my guess is far from that. And, in fact, it is my position that the State of Oklahoma is using religion and hypocrisy as a guide.

I’ve jumped into the fray. Why? Well, more than anything, I can’t stand discrimination, bigotry and hypocrisy. And, in this case, there’s plenty to go around. The State already has a piss poor record when it comes to LGBT rights, and they are far from friendly to anyone who isn’t a rednecked, skydaddy fearing, ignoranus. Yes, I said ignoranus! But, what prompted me to contact Keith Kimmel was an honest desire to stand up for the rights of a fellow human being, AND defend not only his rights and my rights, but human beings rights. You see, I have a plate that says ‘ATHEIST’. Yet, when I talked with Keith, I discovered that the State had denied ‘GODLESS‘ in the past. Pretty fucked up huh? Indeed! The State has also seen fit to grant ‘VIBR8R’ and ‘KILLER’, the latter being issued to a pest control company owner. But, at issue here isn’t so much the words as the interpretation. Subjectivity and religious bigotry are really what is on trial here. And, in the end game, individual rights must prevail.

The State of Oklahoma Tax Commission uses subjectivity to determine what can be displayed on a vanity plate. Objectivity is nowhere to be found. Keith has discovered that there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of plates that could be subjectively found to be offensive. Yet, ‘ATHEIST’ is not as offensive as ‘GODLESS’ and ‘VIBR8R’ is not as offensive as ‘IM GAY’? Where’s the logic? There is none!

Keith Kimmel has graciously agreed to appear this Friday on my show American Heathen®. He will be in-studio to talk about this insanity and about LGBT rights in Oklahoma. In the meantime, I’m going to dig a little deeper into the rabbit hole of Oklahoma in Wonderland to see what other strange goings on are worming their way through the halls of government. While I break out my shovel, stop by Keith’s Facebook Fan Page and join others in lending your support. This issue is just getting its feet wet. Trust me when I say that this will be hitting the national scene very soon.

American Heathen®  This Friday!  8pm ET, 7pm CT LIVE on ShockNetRadio.com

(simulcast on FreethoughtRadio.com)

-EDIT - My license plate…

How Absurd!

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , on February 13, 2010 by RJ Evans

(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 02/12/10)

His home is at the Northern Pole of planet Earth.  He’s married, has 8 flying reindeer, gives away lots of free name-brand toys to children all over the world, and more importantly, he delivers them in person while checking through a list of millions of names to see who deserves a gift.  He doesn’t use a delivery truck.  He travels by flying sleigh, pulled by, the previously mentioned, 8 flying reindeer.  Absurdity number one.

He was born of a virgin, healed the sick through miracles, lived thirty-three years, was executed,  only to rise from the dead and ascend into a place called heaven to sit at the right hand of his father, an entity that created everything, knows everything in advance, hears everything, see everything, and on top of all that, demands worship and praise.  This guy’s Dad is always fighting another supernatural entity, one that is supposedly evil, over the souls (i.e. spirits that inhabit biological forms) of his Dad’s creation.  Yet, depending on who you talk to, this evil supernatural entity might have been his Dad’s brother, or it could be that his Dad created this evil entity to have someone to argue with.  Absurdity number two.

Absurdities.  There are a lot of absurdities in the world.  The two I’ve just mentioned have a great deal at stake when it comes to believability.  Both have financial stakes, and they are both equally absurd stories.  One is based on the other, yet the irony is that a majority of adults don’t believe in one of them, but absolutely believe the other.  They also spend a lot of cash on both, one spending cash for the fun of it, the other is considered essential spending to further the cause.  Children, of course, are easily led to believe both…at least until they discover that Daddy’s the one eating the cookies and drinking the milk, and the handwriting on the brightly colored package tags looks suspiciously like Mommy’s.  But, I digress…
Notice how ridiculously easy it is to use one absurdity to sell another?  And,doesn’t it make you uncomfortable to know that one of these absurdities is laughed and scoffed at by adults, while the other is taken at face value?  And, what about one of these absurdities being manipulated time and time again when it is decided that the story needs more flair, pomp and circumstance, or when some part of it is ridiculously weak?  Welcome to the absurd.

Absurd.  The meaning of the word absurd, according to the dictionary is as follows:

–adjective
1.     utterly or obviously senseless, illogical, or untrue; contrary to all reason or common sense; laughably foolish or false: an absurd explanation.
–noun
2.     the quality or condition of existing in a meaningless and irrational world.

The world of the absurd is fraught with example after example of human ignorance and idiocy.  In the absence of logic and reason, in a world of total stupidity, absurdity runs freely through our collective existence.  It does not beg for acceptance, it receives it without question.   Basically, people will buy into anything as long as it’s easy and doesn’t require any effort.  Much like going to the gym to exercise our bodies, effort is avoided to exercise our brains as well.  It’s as if we are anxious to get life over with, to see it through in the easiest way possible,  totally void of any effort to learn and understand our reality.  But, here lay the greatest irony.  As people sit on their collective asses, denying the obvious in favor of the absurd, they still demand that someone give them what they want in terms of making their lives even more absurdly easy!  They want  technological advancements that simplify their already oversimplified lives.  They want to make things even easier.  They like dumbing themselves down to the point where everything is done for them, where they never to have to raise a finger, never to have to make even the slightest effort.  And, at the same time they demand technological solutions to their laziness, they reject any  technological advancement that reveals the absurdity of their mindless absurdities.  The whole thing is absurd in absurdity!  But, as I said earlier, welcome the absurd.

Today’s practical application of absurd is really no different from that of yesteryear.  Absurdity still migrates freely through the human condition.  It worms its way through all people, places, things.  It manifests itself best in politics and religion.  It is here, in these two ideological strongholds, that absurdity thrives in an environment tailor-made for it.  It is here that absurdity masquerades efficiently as truth.  It is here that absurdity finds its greatest achievements through its destruction of common sense, reason, logic, science, civil discourse, honor, integrity, nobility and dignity.  Absurdity even openly defies these human tenets, choosing to spit in their faces and piss on their purity, all the while laughing with delight.

Politicians openly embrace absurdity.  A recent example of political absurdity are the Congressmen and women who oppose financial stimulus while openly begging for more money.  Absurd huh?  Of course, religion is the king of absurdity.  Thousands of years of practice have given religion the honor of wearing the putrid robes of absurdity. How is this for a recent example?  A place called Cherry Hill Seminary supports the Separation of Church and State.  Sounds fairly reasonable right?  But, take a look at the following quote from James Bianchi, Attorney at Law and a Cherry Hill Seminary professor who teaches on the subject of religion and the law.  In a recent article on talktoaction.org, Bianchi defends Separation of Church and State against WallBuilders Inc. in an amicus brief filed with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of the Rev. Patrick M. McCollum in McCollum vs.California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.  Bianchi states “The whole purpose of the First Amendment was to prevent the kind of civil strife which occurs when one religious group appears to dominate the political structure to the disadvantage of other religious groups. This is when churches burn; this is what our founders foresaw and wanted to prevent. Voltaire said ‘Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.’ This is why education is so vital to maintaining a democracy.”

Do you see the multiple absurdities in Bianchi’s statement?  A Christian theologian and attorney, quoting Voltaire, and using this quote, “Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices” is truly absurd!  If you don’t see the absurdity, then I guess I’ll have to spell it out for you.  Voltaire, a man who is arguably a pantheist – which is basically atheism light – has made a glorious and factual statement against religion of any stripe, and yet his quote is used as support for moderate Christianity?  Even more absurd is the fact that religion of any flavor is an absurdity in and of itself, and  it is devious and hypocritical to imply by quoting Voltaire that moderate Christianity is incapable of committing injustices!  Voltaire’s declaration against people having the power to make someone believe absurdities is not a nod and a wink to one version of a skydaddy!  It is a blanket indictment of ANY absurdity of belief.   But, Bianchi expects us to believe the absurd idea that their particular brand of Christianity isn’t absurd and is  incapable of committing injustices.  Sure thing!  Let me bend over and let you shove your dogma right up my ass while I smile for the camera.

Welcome to the absurd my friends.  Welcome to the big top. It’s the greatest absurd show on earth. By the way… If you have a taste for the absurd, simply look in the mirror.  You see, you are the reason absurdity continues to thrive.  It is people who refuse to acknowledge to themselves how absurd they are in not calling absurdity to account.  And, quite frankly, that is the most absurd thing I know.   How absurd?  You tell me!

A Matter of Convenience

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , on February 7, 2010 by RJ Evans

(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 02/05/10)

Opposing viewpoints aren’t always welcome here.  It really depends on the strength of the opposing argument.  Unsubstantiated rhetoric, lack of credibility and integrity, play a large role in my decision as to whether an opposing viewpoint makes it to my blog.  Religious dogma does not qualify as a valid opposing view.  Otherwise, it’s the same old arguments, sometimes with a new twist, but never backed up by anything more than the Bible and someones “feelings”.  Excluding dogma, I make every effort to recognize opposing views by evaluating them carefully and with an open mind.  I don’t sweat publishing an opposing view on my blog if it is void of dogma.  Ever.

A couple of weeks ago the Americans United for the Separation of Church and State (AU.org) blog page disappeared.  If anyone tried to visit it, they would get a message that said the site was down due to technical difficulties.  I suspected from the get go that AU.org was most likely making a change to the way the blog is used by readers.  I was sure an effort to quell, or even deny the opportunity to publicly respond to AU blog posts, was in the works.  Why?  Well, the blog’s comments section had seen some very heated exchanges between hard-core fundamentalists and non-believers for several months.  These exchanges became a one-sided insult fest initially, the fundamentalists taking charge of the ad-hom arena as usual, unable to argue on facts and evidence.   But soon, even the non-believers and secular crowd jumped on the insult bandwagon.  Although, to their credit, the non-believers weren’t nearly as nasty and brash as the fundamentalist crowd.  Most of the non-believer retorts were benign jabs at the intelligence quotient of the fundamentalist mentality.  In any event, it became apparent that AU.org was growing concerned with some of the vitriol and decided to post a disclaimer at the head of the comments section of the blog.  Censorship also played a role as some words like “socialist” and “socialism” found their way into a dirt pile of other objectionable words that were apparently considered unproductive to the AU.org agenda.

The AU.org blog comments section is now gone.  None of this is surprising to me.  While AU.org strives to defend freedom of religion, they are doing so as an absolute matter of survival.  They are, in fact, founded by the Reverend Barry Lynn, and as such are concerned with religious freedom and faith as opposed to freedom from religion.  Indeed, it is this very idea of freedom of religion that is the main focus of the organization.  It is about freedom to believe in a myth.  While as a matter of course AU.org is compelled to defend their religious agenda, they certainly do not go out of their way to embrace the non-believer any more than they have to.  They simply must  support their skydaddy belief.

Comments posted to the AU.org blog by non-believers that defended Separation of Church and State, but at the same time were critical of religious belief, may have been the impetus for shutting down the comment section.  I say may have been for I do not have evidence to substantiate this.  Indeed, there is also reason to believe that the vitriol of the fundamentalists may have been a contributing factor as well.  I choose to deduce that the decision to shut down the comments section was the result of both camps, and the politically correct way for AU.org to walk away from controversy.  But is it really surprising that a political organization, designed to defend freedom of religion, runs scared when fundamentalist bullshit, and non-believer facts and evidence threaten to undermine their particular skydaddy vision?  No.

Herein lies the problem with religion.  Selective belief and selective exclusion.  AU.org really has no choice but to defend itself and its moderate interpretation of a skydaddy.  That’s also why it embraces other moderate Christian versions and other moderate religions.  But, in order to further its agenda, it also has to grudgingly embrace non-belief.  I say grudgingly because after several years of reading AU.org articles, the non-believer is always referred to as an afterthought.  An example of this is a common statement  in a large number of AU.org articles – usually in parentheses – that reads “…and those who don’t believe”.   It’s kind of like having a little brother or sister.  You can’t stand them, but you tolerate them because Mom and Dad (read the U.S. Constitution) says so.  You have to take them in tow, or you’ll be grounded.  But, once again is this really surprising?

AU.org has an agenda.  And, even though they may support the Separation of Church and State, they do so because they believe in a skydaddy and MUST defend their right to do so.  The only reason they defend the non-believer is because they have to, ultimately for their own benefit.  Period.  To expect anything otherwise is ignorant, and unrealistic.  Keep in mind that skydaddy worship is a pick and choose proposition, and it comes with blinders.  It can’t take criticism, and it doesn’t work through proofs of evidence.  Ultimately, any support for Separation of Church and State, from any religious organization, is not concerned with reality, but with the survival of  fiction.

AU.org really doesn’t care about non-belief.  To them, it is a little brother or sister that must be defended out of self-preservation.  While they claim to love all beliefs, they only tolerate non-belief as long as it keeps them from being grounded.  As far as freedom of speech… AU.org is a private, political, non-profit religious organization.  They can do whatever the hell they want.  Yeah, we don’t have to like it, but that’s the way it is.  Just as my blog has an agenda of facts, proofs of evidence, science, reason and logic, AU.org’s agenda is to further belief in the absence of facts, proofs of evidence, science, reason and logic.  Keep that in mind.  For AU.org  it’s simply a matter of skydaddy convenience.

Proofs of Evidence, Hypocrisy and Lies

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , on January 30, 2010 by RJ Evans

(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 01/29/10)

Hypocrisy runs rampant in the faithful.  Not only do they preach a superior moral dictum, but they declare that any political or religious world view, other than their own, is invalid without proofs of evidence.  When presented with mounds of evidence supporting the opposing position, they reject it all and at the same time, and with a straight face, demand so-called “real” proof.  Not surprising then that the words “proof” and “evidence” do not possess any “real” meaning in their reality.  They are quick dispose of any rebuttal to their dogma as biased, tainted, skewed, left, bogus, lies.  They easily discard facts in favor of pre-selected, pre-screened, pre-determined, pre-ordained, carefully crafted “truths”, tailor-made and finely woven by like-minded minions whose sole purpose is to win at all costs and proofs of evidence be damned.

It really is about winning.  To the zealots, lies in the name of a skydaddy are merely a means to an end and are absolutely justifiable in their use against an “evil” world.  It’s the faithful against the godless.  It is the pure against the tainted.  It is fighting fire with fire in hopes of driving the unrepentant to hell.  There is no real logic to any of it.  But, then again it isn’t supposed to make sense.  It’s the greatest “baffle them with bullshit” crusade purposely designed to give the believer the advantage.  They make the rules as they go along.  And, that is how the  religious, and religions, survive.

For thousands of years, as long as religion has existed, men have sought to rule other men.  In their quest to dominate and subjugate the masses to their whims, these men have mastered the art of myth and human ignorance to their advantage.  Whether these self-appointed leaders of men have suffered from delusions of gods and goddesses, and as a result somehow felt compelled to conquer out of these psychotic visions, is reasonably debatable.  Chances are that many have, and continue to, travel such a path.  But, the primitive idea of a supernatural being, all powerful, all knowing, all seeing, has to be the most self-serving psychosis of all time.  What better way for a small group of men, or even a single man, to hold absolute power, to declare total dominance, than through a flood of fear, magic, and trickery that is religion.

Lies, lies, and more lies… layer upon layer of lies, repeated for centuries.  The gods and goddesses of the past most likely met their fate in the tangled web of lies the faithful spawned that eventually couldn’t stand up to the forceful winds of knowledge and progress.  Lies were exposed, treachery was lost to proofs of evidence, and yet somehow, another human ego would step forward in defiance and weave yet another tangled web of religious lies that would, again,  be broken from it moorings on the winds of knowledge and progress.  But, as time has gone by, the moorings of each successive religious web have grown stronger, but only by shoring them up with more lies.  Layers of lies… layers and layers of bold, defiant, utterly ignorant, sometimes ridiculous, lies.  Lies that bind religion to the frame of life and create an alternate reality for the faithful.  It’s the only way religion can stand up to the winds of knowledge and progress, proofs of evidence.  Religion must create more and more threads of lies.

We all know that when caught in a lie, the worst thing we can do is to cover a lie with another lie.  Religion ignores this fact.  It just keeps pumping them out, and then forgets what its last lie was.  Eventually religion lies itself into a corner, and then concocts another tall tale, another lie worse than the one earlier but nonetheless effective enough to distract attention from the one previous.  It’s a game of misdirection, smoke and mirrors, magic and deception.  The answers are simple,  without proofs or evidence.  Yet, the lies always catch up with religion.  The lies are revealed in religion’s hypocrisy.  And it is hypocrisy that lays final judgment upon religion.

When I demand evidence for a skydaddy, religious hypocrisy always reveals the lies.  The religious backtrack, dodge and weave, jump and duck, do the rope-a-dope.  They make every effort to distract and divert.  And when all else fails, they throw in the towel, head for their corner, wipe their wounds, ice their knots, and call a press conference afterwards to claim they were robbed, cheated… that the ref was bias, bought off, part of a conspiracy.  Yep, persecuted.  The truth is they have been caught in another lie.  The religious do not do what they say, nor do they say what they do.  And, their hypocrisy reveals the lies of their dogma.

That’s what religion’s hypocrisy shows us.  It exposes the lies.  The layers and layers and layers of lies used to weave the web of religion.  Even the most devout believer will strangle themselves in the web of deceit that their religion weaves.  Any interpretation of any holy book is hypocritical.  It requires the believer to interpret, ascribe to, and live by a constantly changing view.  One that is re-defined with each moment of worldly interaction.  Why must one interpret the words of a being that is supposedly intelligent, created us, and wants us to worship it?  Why isn’t this entities’ existence painfully obvious to the entire population of the planet?  Why has this entity turned life into a game show?   You see, there is no sense, logic or reason here.  And, with each interpretation and declaration made by the faithful, the playing card deck of lies grows thicker, deeper, and more complex without any adequate explanation.   After 2000 plus years of the big three dogmas, and who knows how many hundreds of re-writes, how many guesses does it take to get to the center of a skydaddy anyway?  With each interpretation comes fragmentation, more bias, discourse, and lots and lots more lies.  Ultimately leading to the logical, reasoned question, ‘Who is telling the truth?’  Religion isn’t.  But, science, reason and logic DO tell the truth.  And, it is evidence and proofs that uncover the secrets of life’s questions.

Evidence, proofs… this is for the honorable, the dignified, and the noble.  Proofs of evidence speak loudly, with credibility and force.   Qualities of honor, dignity, and nobility will never come from the religious.  And they know it.  It is therefore imperative that all of us who trust in the proven ideals of science, reason and logic, continue to expose the hypocrisies of the religious and of religion, wherever and when they show themselves.  Demand proof, demand evidence, demand logic and reason.  And when the lies of the religious become too much to bear for them, they will retreat to faith, and faith is yet another hypocrisy, and hypocrisy always exposes the lie.

We Need Your Help!

Posted in Uncategorized on January 24, 2010 by David 2

RJ and I have been doing everything we can to help spread the word about ShockNet Radio, the blog site, and all of the shows.

But unfortunately we both hit plenty of roadblocks, because a lot of the places that we try to spread the word to will NOT allow us to promote ShockNet. When we do it, it’s considered either “self-promotion” or else it is treated as out-and-out SPAM. Either way, we are turned away because we cannot promote our own projects.

That is why we need your help. We need you to help spread the word about ShockNet and the AH blog site. If you see one of the stories here that you really like, please share it with your social networking groups, or with any Internet-based news services you may have access to like Current.com or any various newsgroups or message boards.

RJ and I can only do so much to help spread the word. It really is up to you to help do the rest.

On the Demise of Air America

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , on January 24, 2010 by David 2

(The following is a rant by David 2 on his January 23rd broadcast of “Brutally Honest“. It has been posted here with his permission.)

On Thursday, January 21st, Air America Radio announced that they would be closing their doors and shutting off operations.

Tonight, as this show is airing on ShockNet Radio, Air America is running repeats of previous programming.  Their staff has already been let go.  As of 9pm Eastern time on January 25th, Air America will be officially off the air for good.

And with it the last liberal syndication network will disappear.

Conservative and neo-conservative talk show parrots are reveling in this news, of course.  They know that their icons still have a job.  Their dominance on the radio dial is still intact.

What they FAIL to comprehend, though, is that they NEEDED a liberal syndication network like Air America to be on the air even more than the liberals needed it.

You see, the key to the success of conservative and neo-conservative talk radio has been the abolition of the FCC’s anti-American policy fraudulently known as the “Fairness Doctrine”.  It was a policy that neutralized political discussions on radio and television as long as there was no “equal time” provided for opposing viewpoints.  For every Gene Siskel giving a “Thumbs up”, you HAD to have a Roger Ebert to give a “Thumbs down”, or else you weren’t allowed to give either one.

Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingram, and all the others would NOT be allowed to give the kind of shows they provide today if the “Fairness Doctrine” was still in place.  They’d still be doing ZOO Radio, hawking prefabricated Top-40’s bubblegum music, or playing morose country music about losing your home and your dog to a cheatin’ heart.  Or else they would have to actually work WITH and give equal time to their liberal counterparts, watching as their collection of cleverly-worded cheap shots and intellectual twisters are sabotaged on the spot.  They certainly wouldn’t be the shinning superstars that they are now.

And the eternal response to the criticism of talk radio has always been to simply follow their example.  Okay, if you don’t like conservative-dominated radio shows, then do what they did!  Go ahead!  Find a backer, set up your own syndication network, get some affiliates, and do your own radio shows.

Never mind, of course, that the big syndicators gave away the candy store for a few years, offering their headline shows at no cost to the potential affiliates in exchange for getting the audience hooked as well as listening to plugs from their national sponsors.  Never mind that this was done at a time when there really was such a thing as local radio stations and not corporate-owned corporate-cloned puppet stations.  Never mind that trying to get liberals to do anything as a collective group is like trying to herd cats, while conservatives are more prone to the cultish mindset.  NEVER MIND those things!  Just do what the cons and neocons did and liberals should be fine!

And that is what the people behind Air America did in 2004.  They found a backer, they set up shop, they got some affiliates, they brought in talent like Al Frankin and Randi Rhodes, and they launched Air America Radio.

And right from the start, the cons and neo-cons were saying it won’t last.  They don’t have a message.  They don’t know how to do a radio show or how to retain an audience.

Unfortunately they were proven right.  Air America couldn’t survive as it was.  Even when a second liberal radio network, Nova M Radio, was launched, it too lost money and went out of business.

But Limbaugh and others shouldn’t be laughing about this.  They should be worrying.  They should be regretting poking fun at the liberal stations and wishing them ill.  Because with the fall of Air America Radio, liberals now can go back to their fallback position of trying to restore the anti-American policy known as the “Fairness Doctrine”.  And with a Democrat in the White House and the Democrats in control of Congress, they have a chance of pulling it off.  Because if THEY can’t succeed in talk radio, then they want to make sure that NOBODY succeeds in it either!

And I gotta tell you folks, despite my own ongoing criticism of conservative and neoconservative programming, despite me calling them out on their cultish partisan tactics, despite me calling them trained parrots and paid puppets, I understand and appreciate that this has been a highly successful business for them.  They rake in MILLIONS in contract deals and book sales and speaking tours.  I can’t help but be envious of their success.  I would love to get even a fraction of what they make in a year.

But even though I continue to condemn the message as well as castigate the messenger, I certainly would not wish ill upon the MEDIUM itself.  Because the MEDIUM itself is a powerful tool, no matter which political faction uses it.  The key is being able TO use it.

Even though Air America failed, they still were able to get their voices out.  They still managed to raise enough of an audience to help get a comedian like Al Franken elected to the US Senate.  They provided the platform for Rachel Maddow to go on to be a star on MSNBC.  They gave a voice to groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation.  They reassured like-minded people that they’re not alone, that they’re not crazy when they saw all of the lies and hypocrisy of the cons and neocons, that they don’t have to listen to an endless parade of the same recycled talking points and the same cultish mantras being churned out by the cons and neo-con talent in-between commercials for diamond dealers and gold marketers.

That is why I make this appeal now to any liberal who is hearing this show: don’t give up on the medium.  There IS an alternative to the conservative and neoconservative propaganda machine.  There IS a platform that the conservatives and neoconservatives cannot claim as their exclusive monopoly.  You are listening to that alternative right now.

Let’s get brutally honest here… whether you know it or not, and whether the conservatives and neoconservatives want to accept it, Internet radio IS the next generation of this medium.  And it is a digital OCEAN full of messages and ideas that CANNOT be co-opted by the conservative and neoconservative propaganda machine.

Sure there’s digital satellite radio… Sirius/XM… which is a government-endorsed monopoly already contaminated with conservative and SOME liberal programming.  But that method is and always has been a temporary measure.  A stopgap idea.  A corporate-run way to fill the gap between the Internet and terrestrial radio.  It goes where the Internet could not… in cars and in homes without a computer.

However that gap is closing.  During my visit to the ShockNet Studios last November, I was riding around the streets of Norman and Oklahoma City with ShockNet Radio coming out the car’s speakers.

Yes, you heard me. ShockNet Radio, an Internet-based radio station, was being heard INSIDE A CAR!

And with more and more vehicles being made with Internet access and smartphone access, it was only a matter of time before it would be possible to hear Internet radio stations from your car.

Anyone who has an iPhone or any other smart phone that has web-browsing access to the Internet can now hear ShockNet Radio’s live streaming audio feed anywhere they have coverage.  This is not hypothetical.  This is not the fleeting fantasy of futurists.  This is real.  This is happening right now.

WE ARE THE ALTERNATIVE!  WE ARE the answer to the conservative and neoconservative domination of terrestrial radio.  WE ARE the future.  They are the past.  They are the dinosaurs, and eventually they WILL go the way of the dinosaurs.

My challenge to the former listeners of Air America Radio… my challenge to the former listeners of Nova M Radio… my challenge to any liberal out there who feels like they’re being shut out of the medium is this: forget about the “Fairness Doctrine”.  Let it remain the closet monster for conservative and neo-conservative media personalities.  Don’t turn to the government to resurrect some antiquated dictatorial rule that belongs in the same trashcan of history as the Edsel.  Turn to us.  COME to ShockNet Radio!  Come over to Internet Radio itself!

This is MY definition of a “Fairness Doctrine”: if you don’t like what you hear on Internet Radio, you can always create your own show.  You don’t need an FCC license.  You don’t need to worry about broadcast towers.  You don’t have to worry about speech restrictions.  You don’t even have to worry about ratings or sponsors.  When I got started in Internet Radio back in 1999, I worked with a low-end computer, low-speed computer access, two Walkman players, and ten-year old audio equipment that I bought at Radio Shack.  ANYONE can start their own Internet radio show.  ANYONE.  THAT’S FAIRNESS!  THAT is “equal time”!

If you don’t like what you hear on ShockNet Radio, you can always come up with ideas for your own show and speak with RJ Evans about hosting it.  You don’t have to be live.  This show is proof of it.  You don’t have to be in the studio if you’re not living in the Oklahoma City area.  Again, this show is proof of it.  The beauty of the Internet allows you to broadcast anywhere and to be heard anywhere you have access.  And I mean ANYWHERE on the planet!  THE ONLY limitations are access and your willingness to actually BE the voices that you so desperately want to have heard.  And that access is spreading more and more as technology allows us to be heard from smart phones, from smart cars, and even from smart homes.

But more importantly, if you hear something that you like, then you need to HYPE IT UP to your friends, to your family members, to your neighbors, to people that you know.  That’s the real reason why liberal talk radio fails.  Even if conservative syndicators did cut a few corners to get where they are, that just means you have to work twice as hard to make sure that you can beat them at their own game.

Yes, I do mourn the loss of Air America Radio, like I mourned the loss of Nova M Radio, because they helped to provide the alternative to the conservative and neo-conservative propaganda machine.  But just because the networks couldn’t survive the harsh realities of business doesn’t mean that the medium needs to suffer for it.  The alternative exists!  You just have to step up and embrace it.

Respect Religion?

Posted in Uncategorized with tags , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2010 by RJ Evans

(Editorial Comment from the American Heathen® radio show – Air Date 01/22/10)

Respect.  It’s something that is earned.  It is acknowledging something or someone that is deserving.   Built in character, experience, history, truth and honor, it is a nod of the head, a wink of the eye, a firm handshake, a warm hug, or a gentle kiss.  Respect is not given lightly or in excess, and it requires no extraordinary effort.  It is given freely as it is labored for.  It is not a mandatory requirement, nor is it a law.  Respect is given on equal footing, balanced by its deeds and its words.

I respect my friends. They have earned my respect.  My keen eye has judged them to be worthy of my respect. Through careful observation, conversation, and character analysis, I have measured my friends with the ethics of humanity and their contributions to it. I measure them by their honor, integrity, and loyalty to human principles.  I measure them on their honesty, forthrightness, and strength of character.  Indeed, they have earned my respect.  They do what they say, and say what they do.

This brings me to religion.  Should religion get a free pass when it comes to respect?  Simply for existing, does religion warrant special treatment, absent of all requirements because it claims a supreme being as the world’s master?  What has it done to earn my, or anyone’s respect?  Deeds?  Religion feeds the poor.   Religion shelters the homeless.  Sure. But, don’t forget the fine print.  There’s always a catch.  Much like a weekend for two at a luxurious resort, all expenses paid… all you have to do is sit through the high-pressure presentation.  But, more importantly, deeds are hollow without honor.  Deeds are hollow without integrity. Deeds are hollow without loyalty.  Deeds are hollow without truth. Deeds are hollow in the arms of hypocrisy.  Religion thrives on deeds in order to compensate for its lack of truth, and then demands respect for those deeds and its ego to cover its fallacy.  Religion has no integrity, nor truth.  If it did have integrity and truth there would be evidence to prove its claims.  But, there is none.  Religion has no loyalty.   If it did, it would embrace humanity freely, without exception or expectation, demand or condemnation.  But, it does not. Religion has no honor.  There is no honor among thieves who seek to steal away human freedom, and rule those who do not ascribe to their thievery.  Their is no honor when fairness is left in the wake of bigotry.  There is no honor when there is no foundation in logic and reason.

Non-believers are constantly under attack for not “respecting” religion.  We are maligned as intolerant.  Indeed, we are intolerant.  Religion, in and of itself, is a despicable, vile, reprehensible cancer on the face of humanity.  It deserves no tolerance.  In the absence of evidence and reasoned logical thought… in the face of hard science and intellectual scrutiny, religion has stood defiantly against humanity.  It does so out of spite, malice and fear.  It champions bigotry, hatred, and racism.  Religion promotes cultural and racial superiority and dominance.  It claims a moral and ethical high ground as its foundational canon out of the same mouth that pukes the bile of its own hypocrisies.  I no more respect religion than I do the child molester, serial killer, or a megalomaniac tyrannical dictator.

Religion deserves nothing.  No respect, no free pass.  And those who claim religion as their foundation will always fear these words.  I do not respect your religion.  Period.  I no more respect your beliefs in a skydaddy than I do in anyone who believes in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, or the Boogeyman.  They are all myths.   Religion is not sacred, special, or untouchable.  It is not above reproach.  Today’s religion is a fallacy, no different from all religions of the past, of the gods and goddesses that came long before the big three, and who – not incidentally – are easily disposed of by you, the believer, in favor of your monotheistic skydaddys of today.   Religion is religion.  Your “beliefs” are irrelevant, insignificant, insufficient and repulsive.  They do not deserve, nor will they ever earn, my respect.

I will continue to mount an assault on your religion, all religion.  To me, religion is the enemy of freedom.  But, not you.  No.  Not you as a person.  As a fellow human being, I will not deny you your right to believe.  That would be wrong.  Why?  Because that is telling someone what to think.  But, I will challenge you any time you try to tell me what to think.  I will challenge you to produce testable, scientific evidence.  I will meet your babble with reason and logic.  I will endeavor to put the smack-down on your ancient anachronism and show you the gaping, cavernous flaws of your dogma.   I will force you to look into the mirror and see the hypocrisy, bigotry, and hate your religion harbors, and how it is manifested in your self-righteousness.  Then, when I have finished breaking you down to the core of your humanity, I will reach out with my hand and offer you my friendship. And if you reject me, in the absence of verbal confrontation… in the absence of your civility… I will still stand by your right to believe.   I respect humanity.  I have seen civil, compassionate, empathetic, ethical, reasoned and logical humanity.  It does exist in all of us, somewhere.  It does not come from religion.  And, it is not the product of a skydaddy.  It is the product of evolution, knowledge, and hope born of ambition to progress.  I respect your human rights,  not your beliefs.  And, I will defend your human rights, and mine, at all costs.

Religion.mp3