In The Mood For One-Liners

I’m not saying that my wife is moody, but….
….she could start a fight in an empty house.

When she speaks….
….you never run out of things to listen to.

I sabotaged an origami contest….
….The judges are waiting to see what unfolds.

Being Canadian is never having to apologize….
….for saying you’re sorry.

If you don’t take the time to pack your parachute properly….
….you’re jumping to a hasty conclusion.

The entire world sucks….
….If it didn’t, we’d all fall off….
….People don’t understand the gravity of the situation.

Dear Optimist, Pessimist and Realist: While you guys were arguing….
….over the glass of water, I drank it, The Opportunist.

I contracted mood poisoning….
….must be something I hate.

The Bible verse I love….
….Lunch: 11:30

What exercise program do you use to get The Body of Christ?….
….CrossFit.  Nailed it!

My deaf wife was talking in her sleep last night….
….Nearly took my eye out.

I told myself that I should stop drinking….
….but I’m not going to listen to some drunk who talks to himself.

I went to the worst faith healer ever yesterday….
….He was so bad, some guy in a wheelchair got up and walked out.

My dermatologist friend….
….started his career from scratch.

I got kicked out of the Peripheral Vision Club….
….I didn’t see that coming.

Why did the Vegan cross the road?….
….To tell someone that he was a Vegan.

Google Translate – Thoughts and prayers….
….= I don’t give a fuck.

My new year’s resolution is to read more….
…. So, I’ve permanently turned on the TV subtitles.

Ideas for getting more exercise this year….
….Move the cookies.  Buy a heavier kettle.

Fold your worries into paper airplanes….
….Turn them into flying fucks.

I went to a costume party at a bar, dressed as a tennis ball….
….I got served.

Tardy Response To A Theme Prompt

What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?

When you know as little as I do, and forget much of it before I even get up from my computer chair, I am forever searching for something – often, several simultaneous somethings.

Sometimes, my online research is not just for the information, but also for some entertainment irritation.  When things have been going too smoothly, the wife has not been biting my ass, and my grip on reality’s throat is slipping, I resort to research.  It usually works.

Our chiropractor/massage therapy clinic is in a strip-mall.  To add a hearing-aid department, they moved two stores up, to a double-width unit. At our last visit, I noticed that the old unit now has a window sign that says, “Coming soon, El Tico Restaurant.”  I made a note to find out what ‘tico’ meant.  The next day’s paper had a local-interest story about a Costa Rican family who were the proprietors.

I went to Google Translate.  Across the top, there are the three languages that I’ve most recently looked at – usually French, Spanish, and German, and a spot that says, Detect Language.  I had been researching Hebrew, so the ‘Spanish’ had disappeared.  I clicked ‘detect language.’  I knew that ’el’ means ‘the,’ so I just typed in tico.
English detected
From English, translated to English, Tico = Tico

GNUNGA!!  I woke up on the wrong side of my patience this morning afternoon.  Don’t press your luck. No, it doesn’t!  ‘Tico” is a slang term for someone from Costa Rica.  English speakers occasionally say or write it, but it is not naturalized.  It’s still slang Spanish.

I clicked on ’Spanish’ and entered tico.
Spanish detected
From Spanish, translated to English, Tico = Tico

I don’t care if you are just an AI chatbot, I will slap you so hard that all your little 1’s and 0’s look like Ø’s!  I entered ‘el Tico.’  “The attic.”  Well, why didn’t you say that in the first place??!  It’s an ironic name for a strip-mall business with no second floor.

You should have heard the argument I had with Bing about “Cheap hotels in Uhrichsville,” over entries that were 50 and 75 miles away.  Or a “Cheap restaurant in Uhrichsville,” that had four “sittings” a night.  Perhaps in another post.  🙄

One-Track One-Liners

I was going to tell a railroad joke….
….but I lost my train of thought.

If you can’t hear a pin drop….
….there’s something wrong with your bowling.

Everyone is saying that stealing is wrong….
….Personally, I don’t buy it.

When I was young, I felt like a male, trapped in a female body….
….then I was born.

Do gun manuals have….
….a troubleshooting section?

Taco emergency?….
….Call 9 Juan Juan.

I just heard that the government is banning Roman numerals….
….Not on my watch!

My dad always said, “Work till your bank account is a phone number.”….
….After years of hard toil, my balance is $9.11.

I’m not very good….
….at self-deprecation.

Theists keep telling us that Jesus is coming back….
….but he wasn’t nailed to a boomerang.

Arguing with your wife is unwise….
….Even if you win, you lose.

It’s better to be pissed off….
….than on.

If you don’t know what introspection is….
….you need to take a long, hard look at yourself.

What’s the difference between a good joke….
….and a bad timing?

Shouldn’t cookies….
….be called ‘Bakies’???

What’s the hardest part of being a Vegan?….
….Apparently, keeping it to yourself

Dim light bulbs, or bright light bulbs….
….Watts the difference?

I told her my name was Heath.  She said her name was Heather….
….I said,  ”This isn’t a contest.”

Bacon is 73% fat, and very salty….
….Me too, bacon!  Me too!

What kind of lights were on Noah’s Ark?….
….Floodlights.

“Your resume says that you take things too literally.”….
….”When the Hell did my resume learn to talk?”

God Is A Failure

I just hope that God opens his eyes.

Pray that God will open whose eyes?? Kenneth Copeland’s??
He’s a famous, intensely popular, televangelist with a mega-church, and tens of thousands of followers and adherents. Are you implying that there are some people who preach the Bible, teach Christianity, and offer salvation, who are mistaken or lying??!  👿

We all know there is. Most of mainstream Christianity is nothing more than a bunch of well-seasoned snake oil salesmen, who trick poor needy people into financing their lifestyles. These hypocrites end up making it hard on others whose heart is truly desiring to help mankind. Thanks for stopping by.

Thank you for confirming what we all knew.  The next time some Good Christian Apologist demands to know why I don’t believe in God, I will mention your name, and present this argument.  If only there were a reliable way to tell the real from the fake, without having to rely on your fine-tuned intuition.

I am sure that Copeland did not mean it, the way it appears in the above image.  He was responding to non-believers’ arguments that his God clearly appears to be a loser, with the rather circular argument that God could not be a loser, unless He admits that He is a loser.  If He were real, He wouldn’t need the likes of Copeland, or anyone else, to defend, justify, or explain Him.

While Copeland managed to slip God’s name into this little quotation, it sounds more like a self-confidence building quote that a motivational speaker would use, to justify his fee.

Fee, fie, fo, fum.  I smell the blood of another couple of Liars For Christ.

There is no portion of the text in that image which is the truth – except your sadistic delight in believing and spreading it.

Unless of course you believe the Bible is truth. Then you have to decide one way or the other. You either believe in hell and fear it, or you take a gamble with your self-learned knowledge that you have obtained through books from people just like yourself and hope and pray to whomever you pray to, that you’re right. Quite a gamble. What if you’re wrong?

What if you’re wrong, and face Allah, and the Muslim Hell??!  It’s far worse than the Christian one.  😈
I do not believe that the Bible is truth.  It contains some good things, and some true things.  It also contains a disturbing amount of evil things, and false things, as well as many unproven claims.  I do not pray – to, or for anything.  I deal with reality as I experience it.

Humility goes a long way here…let’s see if there’s anyone who might be humble enough to admit that their beliefs are wrong.

It can be difficult – a strain – but I have, I do, and I would – only, not just because you claim they are. Besides humility, it takes honesty.  🙄

Have you read my article on blood clotting? It take overs (sic) 100 different processes to clot blood so the organism doesn’t bleed out. Kinda impossible for evolution to get all that right without millions of years of trial and error eh?

Nice non-sequitur!  Pay no attention to that claim behind the curtain.

What do you think evolution is?? – other than millions of years of trial and error?  And it didn’t start with a large, fully-developed creature like a deer, or a human, who would bleed out with the smallest nick.  It started with microscopic life-forms with no circulation.  They could not grow larger and more complex in the competition for survival, until genetic mutation solved each/all of those 100 processes, sequentially, before moving on.

Definition Of Disbelief

She started off by claiming that Atheism was a faith – an unfounded faith.  Things went downhill from there.

Atheism is not a conclusion based on evidence, and therefore is a faith.  You can’t prove to me that God doesn’t exist any more than I can prove to you God does exist.

Christians (And other religious) insist that a God exists. Therefore they expect Atheists to, just as firmly, insist that no God exists! A slim few Atheists do insist that, and it’s a faith, just as strong, and just as needful of proffered proof, as Christianity.
Most Atheists merely state that they are not convinced by your claims/definitions/description (Or any other such claims) that your particular version exists. No faith is required to feel that you are wrong, deluded, gullible, and/or unconvincing. Proof of strong belief of existence, is not proof of actual existence.

Your first paragraph is accurate.  That most atheists are quiet about their beliefs may be true also.  When it comes to a “feeling” for which “no proof is necessary” you are defending agnosticism, not atheism.  Now you’ve blown off your steam.  Go away.

Agnosticism is about knowledge. I don’t know that no God exists – and don’t make that claim. Atheism is about belief. I do not believe that any definition of God which has ever been presented to me is true, or possible. I accept the label “Atheist,” because it is the most commonly known one. I am actually an Igtheist because I have never heard/read a coherent, convincing definition. Almost every Christian has a different one from every other Christian. They can’t all be right – but they can all be wrong.

Apparently, to Igtheists, the words “go away” have no meaning.

They mean that you cannot, or will not, defend claims that you have made.

I direct your attention to the reality that the most recent pollution of uncomprehending and therefore entirely egregious as well as inaccurate ugliness offered by you as a “comment” has been erased.

I do so to save you the trouble of excreting any more of them, as they will meet the same fate.

LOOOOOVE you, BROOOOTHER.

None too innocent bystander:

You do seem to get cranky when you are shown to be wrong.

I get cranky when I prove myself right and am ignored in favor of small minded persistence is circular and unproductive mutual dissention.

You now qualify for this category, so please take your need to insult and to argue someplace (there are many) where it will be appreciated and responded to in kind, instead of deleted, as it will be if you continue to feel the need to deposit evidence of it here.

Supportive commenter

Regarding to my own experiences, no one is discussing more often about religion than atheists.

I am truly bewildered!! Please explain why you made this comment. Even if it were true…. SO WHAT??! Precisely what are you attempting to imply – and what, if anything, does it have to do with this discussion??

To commenter

This idiot doesn’t even deserve your spit. He denigrates, you praise. He dithers, you act. He destroys, you build. Ignore him.
Michael, my friend: You will have received notification of a second reply from this parasite ~ I trashed it, no need to waste your time communicating with someone who only wants to argue. Just keep up with your wonderful work ~ you are very loved.

To me

It’s bad enough you afflict me with your vapid negativity. Please refrain from verbally assaulting my readers. One more time for the very. Very stupid:

GO.

AWAY.

If you go out in public, people will see your warts!  This is a public forum.  If you don’t want public discussion, do as other frightened Christians do, disable comments, or do as you did above, and delete any that you don’t agree with or don’t like!
BTW:  I didn’t ‘assault’ your reader.  I asked a respectful question to gain understanding.

That’ll teach those rascally Atheists and other questioning non-believers!  Just delete any comments that you don’t like, and can’t refute.  Justify it by calling them hateful.  BTW: While you were busy going all Cancel Culture, you forgot to call Atheists, “Woke.”  The level of vituperation was just astounding.  Hell hath no fury like a Christian scorned.  🙄

 

Sick Of Fibbing Friday

Pensitivity101 gave us some sickness last week.  I’m returning it here.

1. What is rubella?
   It’s the “Happy Ending” that lonely guys get, at those special massage parlors.
   
   2. What is Winter Fever more commonly known as?

The Mother of Spring Fever – not to be confused with The Mothers Of Invention.  A steam train engine is an invention – therefore Necessity is its Mother.

3. What is Scrofula?

It’s another term of endearment that the wife gives me, if I don’t brush my hair immediately upon arising.  People who live in glass houses…. Should buy thick drapes.

4. What is Grippe?

A French guy’s moist handshake.   🙄

5. What is Quinsy?

It was a highly successful TV show about a guy who hung around with dead bodies.  Americans will watch anything!  Where is Magnus Pike when we need him?? Still doing Thomas Dolby videos?   😕

6. What is St Vitus Dance?

It was the 19^th century name for what became the 21^st century’s rave.

7. What is Dropsy?

It’s a term to describe the result of my age-enhanced essential tremor at the dining table.  When I finish a meal, it looks like I passed the food up through the tablecloth.  😳

8. What is Croup?

It is the shortened, familiar name that Americans have given to the casino employee who rakes away your losings with a window-curtain rod, at a blackjack table.

9. What is Ague?

It’s a spirited discussion about whether or not there should be a letter R in that word.

10. What is Apoplexy?

It is trying to read something through the bottom of a soft-drink bottle.  That’s why very near-sighted people are said to have ‘Coke bottle glasses.’

Proving God

Christian Apologists seem eager to prove the existence of God.  Or have the existence proved, since many of them spend more time and energy trying to prove nonbelievers wrong, than in proving their own claims right.

How could it be done??!  In my humble opinion, it can’t!  There is no way to prove an immaterial, supernatural being, in a naturalistic, material world.  It’s a fools’ game, though there’s no shortage of fools trying.

In the mid/late 1800s, there was a Philosopher – a debater, who never lost a debate.  There was another, lesser debater who he had taken a particular dislike to.  He had challenged him many times, but was never accepted.  Finally, he offered to take a position contrary to his oft-stated belief.

He was tall, handsome, well-dressed, intelligent, well-educated, had a broad vocabulary and a powerful voice.  He emoted.  He projected his voice.  He waved his arms and hands – and he won the debate!  So, philosophy, logic, and debate are useless!  😳

I have seen two different Mathematics Professors, using two different sets of algebraic equations, PROVE that 1 = 2, in clear violation of observed reality.  So, mathematics, that pure, sweet language of the cosmos, is useless.  😳

I once read a paper from two Aeronautical Engineers.  They had studied bees, and found that the bees’ wing surface area, compared to their weight, was not large enough – they could not fly.  The bees of course, continued to do so.

With the advent of high-speed cameras, something called rectilinear flexion was discovered.  Bees don’t just flap their wings.  They cup the air the way that swimmers’ hands cup the water, for extra propulsion and lift.

When the top speed in the quarter-mile drag races was approaching 175 MPH, two Automotive Engineers calculated the top limit.  One pound of weight on the drive wheels, equalled one pound of forward thrust.  No-one could exceed 177 MPH.

When the speeds went to 179 and 180, they blamed technological malfunction – the timing lights were misaligned or the primitive electronic speed calculator malfunctioned.  When speeds approached 185, they finally climbed off their slide-rules and discovered directional friction.

So, education, intelligence and Engineering are useless, unless you can be sure that you have all the relevant information.  😦

As a wordsmith, I have noticed that many of the problems, either accidentally, or intentionally, come from language misusage and misunderstanding.  They make claims that sound like they mean one thing, while their definition and belief is something quite different.

There can be no meaningful discussion until all the terms are coherent, clearly defined, and agreed on.  This is not likely to happen in an endeavor where obfuscation is a growth industry.

So, my beloved English language is so misused as to be useless.  😦

Those who say, Oh, you wouldn’t believe, even if someone presented proof. are being disingenuous.  They are admitting that they don’t have convincing evidence.  I know a secret, but if I told you, I’d have to kill you.  It’s a good excuse to never have to present a verifiable, falsifiable argument.

If the God that so many of them claim to believe in actually exists, He would know exactly what it would take to convince me of His existence.  The fact that He has never done so, either means that He doesn’t exist, or doesn’t care if I believe.  Do unto me, as your God has done unto me.  Go away, leave me and other non-believers alone, take a pill, and dial back the anxiety.  If I’m wrong, it won’t be the reason you don’t go to Heaven.  😦

Smitty’s Loose Religious Change

Actually, there’s not much change left.  The God-botherers want it all dropped in the collection plate.

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” – Epicurus circa 300 BCE

The God of the Old Testament is a vindictive, bloodthirsty, misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capricious, malevolent bully.

1. If God exists, God is perfectly loving.
2. If God is perfectly loving, then God is always open to personal relationship with finite persons.
3. If God is always open to personal relationship with finite persons, then if any person fails to believe in God, it must be because they are resisting God.
4. Therefore, if God exists, there are no nonresistant nonbelievers.
5. There are nonresistant nonbelievers.
   Conclusion:
6. Therefore, God does not exist.

The Roman Catholic Church is losing followers faster than Donald Trump.  In mid-July 2022, Pope Frank came to western Canada to make nice to the Indigenous natives, apologize for the Church’s past actions, and hopefully get more paying people in the pews.

I saw a televised interview with the Bishop of Regina, talking about Papal Bulls.  At first, I thought he meant that His High and Mightiness was doing some trick-riding at the Calgary Stampede, using techniques he’d learned in Brazil.

He started babbling about how the Pope was going to issue a Papal Bull, officially rescinding previous Papal Bulls on the Discovery Doctrine, and colonization, like this first one, below, to build bridges, and bring the relationship between the Church, and the Canadian Indigenous, more in line with current social conditions.

AD 1493; Pope Alexander VI issues a papal bull or decree, “Inter Caetera,” in which he authorizes Spain and Portugal to colonize the Americas and its Native peoples as subjects. The decree asserts the rights of Spain and Portugal to colonize, convert, and enslave. It also justifies the enslavement of Africans.

The interviewer asked if this document was in process right now.
Well, no.  Not yet.
When could we expect it?
Well, he didn’t exactly know.
Turn around and face the other way, Bishop.  It’s hard to understand you when you’re just talkin’ outta yer ass!
***

Overheard on the Interwebz

Human beings eat meat and vegetable matter.  Vegans don’t eat meat, just vegetation.  If the Big Bang created humans, it wouldn’t have known what we would eat, so it couldn’t have created anything for us to eat – therefore, God created us, because only He would know what we would eat.

I don’t know how anyone could be this dumb, and not be on life-support.  The Big Bang was an occurrence, it isn’t/wasn’t A Thing, and it didn’t create human beings – or anything else.  It was the unfolding of a singularity, into the Universe we now inhabit.  Abiogenesis created the first primitive life forms, and evolution through thousands of intermediate forms, finally produced human beings.  At every step along the way, each form ate meat of some other form and/or vegetable matter.  It was what was available – no planning ahead (or God) needed.

***

I live up here in Washington State.  Some of the teenagers do stuff like get their nose pierced, or dye their hair blue.  There aren’t any real Atheists, just people desperate for attention, who claim they are.

Are you related to the fool above??!  There might be the faintest of possibilities for that, if Atheism were visible or obvious.  Unlike having blue hair, or gauged earlobes, Atheists don’t run around with signs, declaring their (lack of) belief, or shouting it in your face.

You won’t know whether I, or anyone else, is an Atheist until you ask, or make some stupid, unsupported claim and get argued with.  My Atheism is not like a trendy jacket that I just put on when I want to impress someone.  It is as much a basic part of me as my name, or my Scottish heritage, and I am far past the teenage – or Christian – need for attention and peer support.

Book Review #29

Constantly curious about what Theists believe, but more importantly, WHY, I recently took advantage of the offer of three free books of explanation.  One was an actual printed paperback, while the other two were pdf downloads.

The books:
What Time Is Purple?
Answering Atheism
Proof of God

The Authors:
Tom Hammond
A blogger who only identifies as A Bit Of Orange

The reviews:
Nothing new – Same-old, same-old!  They disappointed equally, and to the same degree as all previous similar publications.

The purple book was a tiny, but expensive artifact – thick, glossy cover, only 46 thick, glossy pages, illustrations.  A copy was mailed to me from Maryland, by a blogger who calls himself HillFaith (Good News for Congressional staff).

The author began by inviting us on a journey to discover Truth.  A little reading quickly showed that all he really wanted to do was to find, or fabricate, evidence that somehow made his beliefs and presuppositions appear to be true.  That is not the same thing!

Even his title shows his prejudice.  The very fact that someone could question his unsupported claims was so alien to his vigorously-held, religious worldview, that he found it as strange as asking, “What Time Is Purple?”  Again and again, he would make unfounded statements and claims, and be bewildered that others would not simply accept them.

Bitter Mr. Orange Rind was no different.  His biggest, and constant, complaint/claim was that those rascally Atheists, Agnostics and Dictionaries – would not go along with his definitions and descriptions, so that he could blow those strawmen away.  He wanted to know what the number 5 smelled like.  They must all read from the same script/prayer book.  From his own, homemade, definitions, he fabricates claims about Atheists like, “Also, most of them manage to confuse Islam with Catholicism and attack the one with descriptions of the other.”

Like a short row of dominoes, he set up six, sequential premises to prove God.  Premise 1: God must exist by necessity – therefore premise 2 – therefore premise 3 – therefore premise 4 – therefore premise 5 – therefore God exists.  If you begin your circular argument with an unfounded claim that God exists, of course you’ll end up with that as an unsupported conclusion.

If you start with the assumption that Hillary Clinton is running a child sex-trafficking ring out of the basement of a cheap pizza joint, of course you’ll prove that it’s tr….  Oh, wait.  That one could be investigated, and was proved false.  When I ran into Nietzsche, Adolph Hitler, Hillary Clinton, Democrats, and Atheists, all in the same sentence, I was sure of who and what he was.  He apparently named his Bible-thumping blog-site after his favorite superhero.

He wanted Atheists to admit that they couldn’t be absolutely, positively, 100% sure that no God exists, so that he could stick the thin edge of his Christian arguments in.  I find the likelihood of God/gods to be slightly less than the existence of a square circle, owned by a polygamous bachelor.  If he can produce one of those, I will help him locate and present his God.

He kept making blanket claims that, (All) Atheists say this, Atheists believe that, Atheists claim….  While some – a few confused, uneducated Atheists make unsupported statements, I have never, personally, encountered any Atheist who said what he implies that ALL Atheists do.  He writes that, By necessity, Atheists must be Nihilists, but when observed reality clearly contradicts his view, he merely inverts his claim, and insists that Atheists do not really exist.

My Dad told me the tale of the Ginchee Bird, which flies around in ever-decreasing circles, until it disappears up its own ass.  I wish some of these Apologists would disappear up their own asses.  They pull out enough shit.  There should be room.  Ah well, it was cheap entertainment.  All I learned was that they were both charter members of the Lying For Jesus Movement.

If they worked half as hard at proving their claims to be true, as they do to try to prove others wrong, they might not be quite so desperate, but my past history has shown that that result seems to be impossible. I think they know that, and don’t want to admit it – but that’s the same argument they use against Atheists.  Damn the counter-arguments!  Full assumption ahead.  😳

Dr. Who’s Questions

The Doctor (He doesn’t say, ‘of what.’) claims that he just wants to ask some respectful questions of Atheists – no trick or gotcha ones.  He wants to amass the information, and sift and sort it, to produce a published report.  When asked when he might submit it, and to whom, he was delightfully vague.

He and his wife were Atheists, until each of them had a revelation from the Christian God, and they became Jews For Jesus.  His questions natter on and on – and on, full of presuppositions and leading statements.  Another blogger graciously simplified the list, although I included part of his number six, for context and clarity.  I thought I’d have a go at them.

• Is Your Atheism Based on Study or Experience? …

Yes!, to both.  As young as seven or eight, I regarded stories that started with “In The Beginning” to be no more believable than those that began, “Once Upon A Time.”  I didn’t realize until I became an adult myself, that other children, and adults, took them seriously.  I became curious enough to begin a long-term investigation.  I spent a great deal of time looking at arguments for or against God’s existence, and eventually had to conclude that there just wasn’t any evidence for God that stood up to examination.

• Do You Have Purpose and Destiny? …

Yes.  I have had many ‘Purposes,” and will probably have more before I die, but each of them was created and affixed by me, or those close to me, not by some supernatural entity.  I believe that I have a destiny.  It’s just that I am not enough of a fortune-teller to see far enough into the future to get a clear glimpse of what it might be.

• Does God Exist? …

This might seem a strange question to be asking of Atheists.  In the original long-winded version, he wanted Atheists to provide total, complete, 100% proof, that there was absolutely no chance that God exists.  This is the philosophical equivalent to home invasion.  There are almost no things that can be utterly proved not to exist.  He appeared to want a tiny gap, where he could wedge his definition of God into.  I consider the possibility of God existing, only slightly more likely than the existence of a married bachelor.

• Can Science Explain the Origin of Life? …

Science has explained the origin of life!  There is one major, largely-accepted (by biologists and related scientists) theory, and a couple of minor variations.  They all entail the chemical soup present in early Earth seas, with geothermal energy and solar radiation fueling and mutating the chemical reactions, until self-replicating RNA strands evolved upward to cells and DNA.  All that free energy powered the increasing DNA complexity.

• Have You Questioned Your Atheism? …

Constantly and continuously!  I have never been convinced that I can’t be wrong.  Over the years I have done considerable reading and study.  Now, with YouTube, I can watch debates and lectures.  Atheism is merely the lack of belief in God/gods – the failure by theists to provide sufficiently convincing evidence.  (See above) With all the research and investigation that I have done, I continue not to be convinced that God is guilty of existing.

• Are You Materialistic? …
  Are you completely materialistic in your mindset, meaning, human beings are entirely physical, human consciousness is an illusion, and there is no spiritual realm of any kind?

First, a pedantic language lesson, I think that phrasing should be ‘are you a materialist?’. ‘Materialistic’ refers to someone who prioritizes obtaining money and possessions!  I believe that humans, and all else within our Universe, are material.  I don’t think it makes much sense to say that consciousness is an illusion.  I think a more accurate phrasing of the materialist position on consciousness would be that it’s the product of material things/physical laws.  I continue to see no evidence of a spiritual realm of any kind, except in the hopes and dreams of the gullible.  I do not believe in tarot, Ouija boards, crystals, ghosts, mind-reading, fortune-telling, or a miracle-producing God.

• Would You Be Willing to Follow the God of the Bible?

It depends which part of the Bible you’re talking about when you say ‘God of the Bible’.

From reading the earlier part of the Old Testament, I remember a god laden with petty jealousy, orchestrating hideous mass deaths, with archaic views on rape and slavery and some strange gaps in his scientific knowledge. The existence of this god would be bad news.

In the later part of the Old Testament, I glimpsed a different and better kind of god; the god of Ezekiel 18 and similar passages, expecting us to take personal responsibility but also willing to see our virtues and our efforts and to judge us fairly. The existence of this god would be good news, and, yes, I would follow and honor him.

In the New Testament, we get the most hideous god of all; the one who condemns all non-Christians to an eternity of torment, who blames the Jews for sticking to the laws that He himself strictly instructed them to keep to forever, who expects us to overlook the ways he acted back in the early books, and who tries to convince us that all these things are really signs of great love and concern on his part. The existence of this god would be terrible news. And, to answer the question, I could never honor such a god, and while I suppose I’d follow him because ‘Or burn in hell’ isn’t really much of an option, it would never be willingly.