A little about me

I figured the best way to get restarted on this blog was to explain my worldview and my beliefs, since they will be the topic of most of my posts.

Atheist:

I do not now, nor have I ever believed in the existence of an almighty God that loves us and watches over us. There was a time when I was a child that I attended church, and really wanted to believe those things. As I got older, it became harder and harder to reconcile the idea of a "Loving God" with all I saw going on in the world around. In my teens, I realized without a doubt that the reason the whole nativity story sounded like a fairy tale, is because it is a fairy tale. In my late teens, I had an epiphany. We were studying civilizations in a high school history class when it dawned on me. If I were a ruler, there is nothing better at helping to control your subjects than religion. If you can convince people to be obedient because a higher power is watching and will punish them eternally, your job just got a whole lot easier.

Although I am a devout Atheist, I am not militant. It is not my goal to convert all the misguided. I understand that some people need religion in order to make sense of the world. As an Atheist, I just don't want religion forced upon me, or legislated into my life.

My Atheism is major point of conflict in my life. Primarily because I married into a Mormon family and have since brought my wife over to dark side. She had struggled with the LDS dogma for years, but I still get blamed for her leaving the church.


Liberal:

Being a Liberal in Utah County is almost as difficult as being as Atheist here.

I believe in a woman's right to choose. I am not pro-abortion. I think adoption is a much better answer, but there are times when that is not an option. As a man, I will never be in the situation where I have to make that kind of choice. What right do I have to tell a woman that she cannot decide whether or not she is prepared to carry a child for 9 months?

I support gay marriage. Marriage is between two people that love each other. I do not care whether homosexuality is decided at birth, or happens somewhere along the way. Love is love. If two people of the same sex want to have the same kind of dedicated relationship my wife and I do, I believe they should be entitled to it. Its amazing to me that the Supreme Court is more than happy to give human rights to corporations, but not homosexuals.

I won't bore anyone with my economic ideology, other than to say it borders on socialism. Corporations are bad. They need to pay their fair share of taxes, as do the wealthy.

Environmentalist:

I cannot stand climate change deniers. Pollution has a price. We have to realize that when we throw something away, there isn't really an "away". I have no children, so I do not need to preserve the Earth for my progeny. I am 36 now, so things will be tolerable for the most part for the rest of my life. In the end, the Earth will recover, we just won't be around to enjoy it. We don't need to destroy and develop just because we can. I am studying Environment Science with the hopes that I can help in some way to stop ourselves from this destructive path.

I guess that gives a general idea of how I see things. With my worldview, there is no shortage of things to comment on, especially here in Utah.

So long, and thanks for all the crap!!

We finally did it! As of a week ago Saturday, we are without any type of broadcast television. The woman at DirectTV just wasn’t really able to comprehend it. She kept offering deal after deal to beat their possible competitors and retain our business. (Just an FYI for those of you trying to save some money, call to cancel your satellite and see what kind of deals they offer.) I had to keep explaining over and over again that I am fully capable of paying for my satellite service. Fortunately, I am not in any type of a budget crunch. I even let her know that I was in no way dissatisfied with them as a company or any service I received from them. The problem lies with the creators and programmers of the stations they broadcast. I told her that DirectTV can only offer me what is currently being made, and 99% of it is complete shit!

I had a couple of realizations that helped drive our decision. First, broadcast television used to free, you just had to sit through the commercials. Now, not only are commercials taking up more and more time, the products are also strategically placed throughout the programming, and I pay over $85 a month for it. It occurred to me that it is similar to buying full price, full version software, but getting the free version that is full of ads. Secondly, what motivation do the networks have to provide quality programming? We as consumers have shown them that we are perfectly willing pay the same for the cheap, reality based shit they are serving as we would for quality, meaningful programs. I mean, why serve steak, when your customers will pay the same price for hamburger, and you make a lot more profit? My wife and I decided that we could no longer be a part of the silent majority, and would voice our displeasure by ending our decades old reliance on television for entertainment.

Thank you CBS!

My wife and I made the decision several months ago that after football season, we would cancel our satellite service. You have no idea how big a deal this is for both of us. Megan has been a football widow for almost 15 years now. During football season, she did not have to wonder how I was going to spend my Sundays. The NFL has been as close to a religion as this atheist ever gets. In addition to my regular satellite service, I have been subscribing to the NFL Sunday Ticket package since I moved out of my team’s home market 7 years ago. From 10 am until 9 pm, I was glued to all things football. That started to change a little this year.

First, I just couldn’t tolerate watching my favorite pre-game show anymore. As much as I hate to admit it, the Fox Pre-game has been my show of choice of years. I just really like the hosts and how they interact with each other. This year, the rampant corporate sponsorship just got overwhelming. Every single segment was sponsored by a different company. During the entire show, a picture of a certain make and model of pick-up truck adorned the front of their desk, since it was the show’s main sponsor. Yet even with all this commercialism, I have been a little nervous about the end of our television watching lives. I had started looking into antennas in order to get free digital and HD over the airwaves. At least that way, I could still catch a few games.

But then, CBS made the decision a true no-brainer for me. In case you somehow missed it, during the Super Bowl, CBS has decided to air a Pro-life commercial paid for by James Dobson’s Focus on the Family and starring Tim Tebow. As it turns out, the “true” story they are going to retell is most likely a lie, but that isn’t the issue. The Super Bowl is not the forum for this type of message. It is about fun and football. Divisive social and political issues have no place here. We watch the commercials solely for their entertainment value, not to get a sermon from some holier than thou athlete.

Even as I develop the thought, it feels so strange to me, but for the first in over 25 years, I don’t think I am going to watch the Super Bowl.

Merry Hypocritical Christmas!!

Facebook can be an addictive site, and I don’t mean the games and quizzes. What I find most interesting are the status updates and biographical information that your friends publish. By “friends” I am of course referring to those people you have “friended” on Facebook, not that many of them are actually your friends. I am constantly amazed by the amount of people I went to high school with, nearly 2 decades ago, that add me as a friend on Facebook. These are people I hardly knew at the time, and almost 18 years have passed since we graduated and went our separate ways.

Sometimes, I read about them and what they have to say and it makes me wish I had gotten to know them better at the time. More often, however, I am amazed at the vitriol they spew and their right wing ideologies.

Obviously, today is Christmas. It’s a day when even Christians try to do good, or at least fake it. Here is a status update from one of my “friends”:

“Well my only Christmas wish was a nuke to blow up an in session Senate. Didnt happen. We are healthcare bound! Stupid Fu*ks!”

Of course, he proudly lists his religious views as “Christian”. At first I thought, what a hypocritical thing for a so-called Christian to say, to mark the supposed birth of his savior with such evil, hateful words. Then I remembered, Christians have been killing those that didn’t agree with them for centuries. So I guess he was just honoring the true meaning of Christmas.

P.S.

All you really need to know to judge someone on Facebook, is what they list as their favorite books. Here is what is in the profile of the “friend” I was just talking about:
Favorite Books: The Savage Nation but its probably the only one that held my attention for more than 20 pages.