A Poem: God never loses at the craps table

Posted on April 15, 2014 by AZAtheist

This entry comes from a new friend. He is Reverend Andy and he wanted me to share it with you. Andy is new to Tucson and he’s enjoying the weather and glad to be here. He left New Mexico where he spent a great deal of time helping and caring for others. Last night, he attended his first Skeptics of Tucson meeting. The conversations and the company made him decide that he’ll be coming back for future meetings. Welcome aboard, Andy.

God never loses at the craps table

I am the almighty creator of heaven and earth.
I will rule your life; force you to obey my every word.
You will bend, bow, and kiss my holy feet.
Sub-servant and weak, to death you will be.

I created you, yet I will not interfere.
I will give you free will, to watch you stumble, fall with no care.
If you are good, I will hog all the credit.
If you are bad, I will blame you, say you are evil.

You will fight among each other, killing, raping, burning, and pillaging.
You will crave power, doing anything to get it.
Hopelessness will ravage the whole of the land.
Being God is so cool, whatever happens, I can’t lose.

I will bring wolves, who will sing you my illusionary song.
They will enslave your mind; promise you a heaven in the sky.
Like mindless sheep, you will follow them, even when you know it’s a lie.
Glory be and alleluia, if I have my way, true humanity will never have its day.

Rev Andy
Without love, human society is in a difficult state;
Without love, in the future, we will face tremendous problems.
Love is the center of human life.

 

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Arizona Atheist Sends Letter to Local High School

Posted on April 9, 2014 by AZAtheist

Sometimes being the Arizona State Director of American Atheists requires direct activism. On occasion, I receive complaints about violations of church and state that I have to address. Most recently the mother of a student that attends Sahuarita High School contacted me to let me know that there was an outside group handing out Bibles on the grounds of the high school. Her son was intercepted on his way to the bus loading area and handed a small book with a “cutesy” locker picture on the cover. Obviously, the book was specially published for handing out to students. She sent me pictures of the book and an annotated map of where the violation took place. She also included the names of the principal, the superintendent, and an assistant superintendent. She was afraid to bring up the situation because of possible repercussions and that’s why she contacted me. It’s too bad that the situation occurred in the first place, but it gives me the opportunity to take action. For one thing, it gives me a chance to dust off the letterhead stationery provided by the American Atheists. She gave me all the information I needed: the day, the time, pictures of the material, maps, and the names and mailing addresses of the folks I needed to contact. Perfect!

The first thing I did was look at other similar situations and the resulting court decisions. It is clear that handing out religious materials in school and on school grounds by outside groups is illegal. It is less clear when the distribution is done by students attending the school. There are gray areas, of course. Can the outside group stand on the sidewalks near the school? Are the sidewalks public or are they on school property? This whole situation reminds me of a couple of kids playing “I’m not touching you” games in the back of the family SUV. Whether or not it is legal in a particular case, there are several reasons that distribution of religious material by outside organizations on school grounds is a bad idea:

  • Students might not realize that the school itself is not endorsing a religious message. School officials must take affirmative steps to make certain that students understand this.
  • Students that reject the religious material in front of other students may confront peer pressure, coercion, and ostracism.
  • It is possible that a religious group, in its zeal, may harass students and force material and views upon the students.

     

In addition, parents have the right to decide what religious training their child receives. Teachers and administrators are limited in what and how they teach. Outside organizations cannot be held to the same government standards and parents have no control. Once a student climbs on the bus or disappears through the gates of the schoolyard, the parents should be safe in the belief that their children are free of religious proselytization until they step back off the bus or leave the school grounds.

 

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Is there a Creator?

Posted on April 7, 2014 by AZAtheist

On occasion, there are a few minutes of spare processing time available in my brain and it wanders off to pick through scraps of well-worn thoughts. Bits and pieces are tossed in along with incomplete arguments not important enough to finish but too dear to toss out. Among the sad disregarded concerns, I hear Ray Comfort’s annoying New Zealand accent as he says, “Every human knows intuitively that the Creator is evident because of creation.” This scrap of thought is strangely annoying. It’s like a cactus spine I picked up on a trail. I forget it’s there but once in a while I’ll bump into it, feel the almost unperceivable sharp pain and know that soon it will be festering. I realize that eventually I’ll have to deal with it. There is something fundamentally wrong with the argument. I feel it more than know it. What is it?

“Every human being knows intuitively that the Creator is evident because of creation.”

This is the kind of pithy tripe that makes the president of the Living Waters Publications appear to be in control of every discussion. It is somehow simultaneously undeniably right but actually wrong. Firstly, not every human being intuitively knows anything. Science tells us that our intuition is often wrong. For example, intuitively we feel that the sun rises in the east but we know scientifically that the Earth is spinning about its axis and the Sun is relatively fixed in space. There are many examples of things that we intuitively “know” that are demonstrably wrong. Science keeps us on the right path to knowledge when our intuition fails us. Early humans might have survived without scientific knowledge but now we live in complicated societies that cannot. Science is like the instrument panel in an aircraft. It tells us what is really happening when flight conditions are less than perfect and we can’t rely on our senses and intuition. A pilot will become spatially disoriented and likely to die in a crash in less than three minutes without the aid of instruments when weather requires them. Intuition and “gut feelings” are no help and actually worsen the situation.

The second part of the statement is equally troubling. It is circular. Ray calls everything a “creation” then says it must have a creator. Let’s just back the truck up, shall we? With a small change in terminology this statement will appear as ridiculous as a New Zealander holding a banana in front of his mouth. Let’s replace the word “creation” with “something developed over time.” Realize that the word “creation” is often tied to God in its connotation. When discussing the existence of God or gods or the actions of God of gods it would be best to use more neutral language. However, there is no direct single word substitute. While that’s unfortunate, it’s not the end of the discussion. Creation is the wrong word for many reasons. It also implies instantaneous existence. Nothing we observe was created instantaneously. Everything we come in contact with was developed over time and nothing we see has a single creator. Take a car for example. Does the car have a single creator? I think not. Let’s just take a piece of the car. Take the tires. They were developed over time. They are now made of petroleum products and natural rubber but they started as rubber hoses wrapped around wooden wheels. Over time, improvements were made until we arrived at the steel belted, radial chord, and high performance device now mounted on our highly polished Aluminum alloy rims. There was no creator, not in the Biblical sense, but a series of people and events.

Cars, tires, and bananas were all the results of developments over time. They don’t have “creators” as much as developers. If you feel that I’m being too hard on Ray Comfort, just remember that he wrote the book, “You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence but You Can’t Make Him Think.” Intuition is not evidence. Tricky word play is not evidence. I’ve yet to see ANY evidence presented that supports the existence of a creator god.

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An Atheist Looks at Noah

Posted on March 27, 2014 by AZAtheist

Members of the oppressed religious majority of this country are preparing to boycott the release of “Noah” the movie. Muslims hate it because it depicts a religious prophet. They get cranky about such things. Kathleen Parker, an opinion writer for the Washington Post, says that Noah would be an enjoyable movie to those that liked any two of the following: “Braveheart,” “Gladiator,” “Star Wars,” “The Lord of the Rings,” “Indiana Jones” or “Titanic.” The producers are already calling it a “blockbuster” but since the definition of the word means “commercial success” and the movie won’t be released until the end of March, we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll probably see it eventually and enjoy it. It appears to be a huge production and an action filled movie. The original story from Genesis 5:32 through Genesis 10:1 is roughly 2400 words so there has to be some artistic license.

However, I cannot read the story without noticing a whole lot of stupid. Is it really necessary to point out that the whole thing is ridiculous? Isn’t it obvious? Currently, the oldest living person is 116 years old. Check out the list of the verified oldest people. The longest lived person on the list died in 1997 at 122 years of age. According to the Bible, Noah didn’t start having kids until he was 500 years old. His sons were near 100 years old when the flood began. The Ark sailed on open water for almost a year before Noah makes a window and releases a dove. The bird came back with leaves from an olive tree. Does anyone want to make an educated guess as to how long an olive tree can survive underwater? In the end, God tells them to repopulate the world and don’t kill anyone ever again. I love the part where Noah after landing on Mount Ararat takes some of the “clean” animals that he’d just saved from a worldwide flood and burns them up in a sacrificial fire so that God could smell the burnt flesh. Perhaps Noah wanted to smell something other than the inside of his dung filled floating zoo. But it was a good thing that he did because the sacrifice made God promise to never hit the reset button on the Earth again. The story could have ended happily there. There were rainbows but no unicorns. The Irish Rovers explained that in their song and it would have been better for Canaan. Noah’s first order of business was to build a vineyard and make wine because he was “a man of the soil” which is Bible speak for someone who likes to get drunk and sleep naked which he did. He was passed out in his tent when Ham walked in and saw his dad in his altogether nakedness. Noah gets pissed because Ham saw him naked and so he cursed Canaan, Ham’s son, to a life of slavery. The End! Except for the part where the 100 year old sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth get busy populating the world. By the way, Noah lives for another 350 years and dies at the age of 950.

I’m sure that’s not the movie Kathleen Parker saw.

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An Atheist in the FreeThought booth at the Tucson Festival of Books

Posted on March 23, 2014 by AZAtheist

Last weekend was a busy one. There was the Tucson Festival of Books, a presentation by Hector Avalos, and a concert by Roy Zimmerman, all of which were sponsored by FreeThought Arizona. The book faire went well with plenty of books and free periodicals. We passed out close to 400 refrigerator clip/magnets with information of coming FreeThought Community activities. The presentation by Hector Avalos at the UMC DuVal auditorium was well attended. Roy Zimmerman’s concert at the Unitarian Universalist Church made our “Blue Dot” community forget for a while that we were floating in a sea of “Red.” On Monday, 32 Tucson Atheists met for their normal 3rd Monday meeting at Denny’s. With the exception of the book festival, all gatherings were as you might expect: friendly, supportive, and non-confrontational. To be fair, the book festival was also mostly non-confrontational. Most people not interested in FreeThought Arizona and its mission of support for Secular Humanism would simply pass by without comment. There were rare exceptions. These are the negative reactions I observed. Bear in mind that these were rare occurrences:

Before the opening ceremony on Saturday, an older gentleman stopped by long enough to determine that there were quite a few books on Atheism on display. He spit out some barely audible insults and quickly trotted away. He didn’t give anyone a chance to address his obvious concerns.

Later on a younger, bearded, tall man expressed quite loudly that there was “no way” that he could be an Atheist. I asked him why he felt so strongly. He replied, “Unless you can tell me where logic comes from, there is no way I can be an Atheist.” I asked him if it was logical to believe that way. Is it logical to say that Atheists have it wrong just because they don’t know? He looked at me and apparently decided that there was another place he needed to be and trotted away.

That’s the way it goes sometimes. At its heart, freethought involves thinking. Knee jerk, emotional responses to the mere existence of an alternate viewpoint will never win the day and there are those that would rather run away than address the apparent conflict.

One of the most contentious interchanges that happened at the book faire came from an older gentleman who thought he was being socially acceptable by referring to something that “a friend” told him. He said, “Someone told me that Atheists believe that they are responsible for their own creation and end up worshipping themselves.” To which I had to respond, “A preacher noticed I was wearing an ‘Atheist and proud of it’ shirt. He told me that all Atheists think they are their own creators.” It is NOT OK to talk about what Atheists believe or don’t believe. Speak for yourself. We’ll get along a lot better that way. He decided that it was time for him to “get along.” A few in the booth objected to my curt response and chastised me for not considering that he was “trying to be friendly.” But it’s a bit like someone covering up an obvious insult with the phrase, “I’m just saying” like that should make everything fine. In the final analysis, he delivered an insult but didn’t receive one in return.

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A Weekend of FreeThought Activity in Tucson

Posted on March 14, 2014 by AZAtheist

This weekend could be a busy one for the freethinkers of Tucson. FreeThought Arizona is sponsoring three individual events. On Saturday and Sunday, we’ll be at the Tucson Festival of Books. Our double booth (#335 & #336) will be in a similar location as last year, just in front of the Library on the south side of the U. of A. Mall. The circus area is right behind our booth. This year we’ll have volunteers standing by to answer your questions along with literature to hand out. Last year, our booth was very popular with a wide variety of visitors. We’re hoping to have a similar experience this year.

On Sunday, at the U. of A. University Medical Center in the DuVal Auditorium at 10:30 AM, Dr. Hector Avalos will present A Historical or Mythic Jesus? An Agnostic Viewpoint. Scholars of Jesus usually divide themselves into Jesus historicists and Jesus mythicists. Historicists believe that there was a real historical person behind the Jesus of the Gospels, even if there are many legendary additions to his biography.

From his Wikipedia article, “Dr. Avalos is an internationally recognized opponent of neo-creationism and the intelligent design movement, and is frequently linked to Guillermo Gonzalez, an astrophysicist and proponent of intelligent design who was denied tenure at Iowa State University in 2007. Avalos co-authored a statement against intelligent design in 2005, which was eventually signed by over 130 faculty members at Iowa State University. That faculty statement became a model for other statements at the University of Northern Iowa and at the University of Iowa.
Gonzalez and Avalos are both featured in the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (2008). Avalos is an atheist activist and advocate of secular humanist ethics.”

In addition to Dr. Avalos’s presentation, at 8:15 AM, Café FreeThought Get-together for a lively discussion of issues dealing with the intersection of religion, politics and culture. Bring Your Own Coffee. Dr. Gil Shapiro is the moderator. Announcements and Music follow before Dr. Avalos’s presentation. Lunch is available in the UMC cafeteria followed by a movie in the DuVal auditorium.

Tucson is part of Roy Zimmerman’s “Blue Dot Tour.”

On Sunday, at 6:00 PM in the UU Church of Tucson, Roy Zimmerman will be giving a concert. Roy Zimmerman sings satirical songs – original songs about class warfare, creationism, same-sex marriage, guns, marijuana, abstinence, Republicans (a lot of songs about Republicans), ignorance, war and greed.

People who grew up with Tom Lehrer will enjoy Roy’s performance.

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Irritating a Critical Thinker

Posted on March 10, 2014 by AZAtheist

Ever heard a question like this?

Question: What has four legs, two horns, gives milk and barks?

Answer: Obviously, a cow. (I threw in the “barks part” just to make the question harder.)

Is that exchange irritating? I’ve seen these types of questions on tests where the instructions include “choose the most correct answer.” I’ve always found them irritating. They hurt my brain! Many Atheists have given up religion because they CARE about truth. I want my beliefs to be true not just mostly true. Perhaps there is a creature that has four legs, two horns, gives milk, and barks but it’s NOT a cow. As far as I know, a cow doesn’t bark. The correct answer is “I don’t know.” Or “I know of no such animal.” There is nothing wrong with “I don’t know.” Apparently, that’s not a universally held belief. However, lack of knowledge is NOT a sign of weakness. Not every question has a simple answer and our heroes are not always right. Sometimes, there is more than one right answer. Some of the most interesting experiences come from challenges to what we believe to be true. Fellow Atheists that have been raised religious should know this more than anyone but, believe it or not, they don’t. It’s tempting to slip into the “No true Scotsman” fallacy here, but people that leave religion then hook their wagon up to the next charismatic freethinker to come along are not critical thinkers.

Last year, on another blog, I published my opinion on Sam Harris’s position on the word Atheist. I believe that Sam Harris is very important to Atheism in general, as I stated in the article. However, I believe he’s wrong in telling us not to use the word Atheist as an identifying label. We need recognizable, unambiguous labels to identify and support others that agree with our world view. The Democratic Underground reprinted my blog entry and it generated 8 replies. Half seemed to accept or at least understand the point I was attempting to make while the other half replied with knee jerk reactions that did more to attack me than address the contents of the article. They were attacking me for attacking Sam Harris when, in fact, I never attacked him. I was simply disagreeing with his premise that we should avoid all labels and “go under the radar.” In the most irritating replies there were claims of knowledge about my character that couldn’t possibly be gleaned from a 500 word blog article on why we shouldn’t shy away from using the word Atheist. The illogic! It burns. Additionally, I wasn’t aware that my blog was reprinted in the Democratic Underground forums, so I couldn’t provide a timely response. Had it not been for a “vanity search” on Google, I wouldn’t have known about any of this. Never-the-less I don’t like people taking pot shots at my character, even if it did happen a year ago. People should concentrate on points actually contained in my writing, not assumptions about my character.

In developing this blog entry I found Characteristics of Critical and Uncritical Thinkers. Since I’m going to my Skeptics of Tucson Meeting tonight, it might make a nice handout. It might go well with our mission:

Mission Statement of the Skeptics of Tucson

We are a social support group of diverse individuals who share a common interest in promoting the understanding and application of critical thinking skills and scientific methodology in the explanation of human experience — from the ordinary to the unusual.

“We don’t advocate WHAT to think, just to THINK CRITICALLY”

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Arizona’s SB 1062: Religious Freedom Restoration Act—Vetoed!

Posted on March 7, 2014 by AZAtheist

Arizona’s religion and politics dust ups are occasionally reported in the U.S. national news. Recently, the spotlight fell on our governor, Jan Brewer, when she was faced with signing the very controversial SB 1062. The bill had recently passed the state senate and its idealistically similar house version HB 2153 had passed. It was set to become law. The governor had five days to decide. She decided to veto it.

The Center for Arizona Policy (CAP) strongly supported the bill. CAP is a highly effective group of lobbyists pushing their “values” agenda through the Arizona legislature since 1995. They claim they are responsible for getting 123 bills signed into law since their inception and 60 in the last five years alone. Now they are being challenged. An opposing group the Secular Coalition for Arizona (SC4AZ) is standing up to the CAP to maintain what’s left of church/state separation here in Arizona.

The Secular Coalition for Arizona is a fairly young organization. Its mission is to represent non-theist organization operating within the state. SC4AC works directly with the legislature and is mainly a lobbying organization, like CAP. Unlike CAP, SC4AZ is correctly classified as a non-profit, 501c4 organization. That means donations made to SC4AZ are not tax deductible. Fifteen individual organizations make up the coalition. SC4AZ also works with other groups outside the coalition such as Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.

The Center for Arizona Policy has occasionally received negative news coverage. For example, a complaint was made that they were violating the IRS regulations on non-profits. Also, in 2012 an article blamed CAP, “A Homophobic Group,” for killing an anti-bullying law. After the governor vetoed SB 1062, articles appeared that exposed their incredible political power. But these minor setbacks are not doing enough to stop the evangelical Christian organization. Therefore, it’s up to us to support the Secular Coalition for Arizona and its component organizations. Let’s keep up the pressure. We must thwart CAP’s religious policy assault.

One veto shouldn’t lull us into complacency. There are plenty of other battles yet to fight. CAP is behind other potentially harmful bills. We’re concerned about HB 2481 which defines state employees able to perform marriages as ministers able to discriminate based on “deeply held religious belief.”

Perhaps, if we win a few more, we can take the battle to them and reverse some of their recent gains. There is one issue, above all others that non-theists hold in high regard—the separation of the church and state. Religious people may be treated special by their god after they die, but here on earth, in this country, in this state they should hold no special privilege to tell others what to believe or how to live their lives. If your “deeply held religious belief” says you have a right to tell me what to do…So what? My deeply held belief says, “Mind your own business!” If you don’t like gay people, don’t date them. If you don’t feel abortions are right, don’t have one. If you serve the public with your business, follow the rules of the society and treat people equally or get out of that business. Church rules apply only to church members. Seems simple enough.

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An Atheist visits a Liberal group meeting.

Posted on March 6, 2014 by AZAtheist

Last night I got the chance to address our Tucson Drinking Liberally group. The title of the talk was “Atheism and Liberalism” and was to be focused on what Atheism and Liberalism have in common. Originally, I was asked there to promote a Roy Zimmerman concert sponsored by FreeThought Arizona but found out that I would be the featured speaker at the meeting. No problem. I give prepared PowerPoint presentations to my groups every month.

The first step was to go to the meeting a week before I was scheduled to speak, which I did. It was a location that I’m familiar with but I needed to see what happens at their meetings and what I can expect by way of audio visual support. Even with all the preparation, there were the normal glitches but I got through all of them to deliver the message that Atheists and Liberals have a lot in common and we should be working together when our goals line up. I must say, however, that they were some of the most nit-picky people I’ve ever met and that is NOT a problem. I had fun answering the challenges but it made my 10 minute presentation a bit longer than planned.

Here is one of the questions I got. “What do Atheists discuss at your meetings?”

This is a very common question. “What do Atheists talk about?” and before I answer I usually point out that our regular general meeting is once a month. In comparison, Christians meet once a week and they only have the contents of one book to discuss. The answer is that we never run out of subjects. For example, we might discuss how an Atheist comes out to other family members or how to tell your grandmother that you no longer believe in God or gods. How does an Atheist handle family holidays? What experiences lead you to becoming an Atheist? There are many, many more examples. I’ve kept track of every subject covered since September 2008:

YYMM Subject of the meeting

0809 What if we’re wrong (about god)?

0810 Report on the Atheist Alliance International Convention on the Queen Mary

0811 How do you know that there is no god. Why is the evidence lacking?

0901 Holidays and family, coming out as an Atheist.

0902 Darwin and Evolution, Dr Masel’s Presentation on Evolution (at CFI meeting)

0904 Report on the American Atheist Convention, what should Atheists agree on?

0905 Atheist Activism: Guest lecturer Earl Wesley Jernigan, an anthropologist

0908 Atheism defined, Atheist or Agnostic, least trusted group in America

0909 Atheism and Skepticism, Skeptical education, logical fallacies, arguments for religion

0910 Report of AAI convention in Burbank, the roots of Halloween

0911 The Atheist Split, Paul Kurtz in the news, old guard vs “New Atheists”

0912 “Solstice Party”, no meeting

1001Holiday family experiences, plans and prediction for 2010.

1002 Are science and religion compatible?

1003 Are Atheists happier, smarter, and more moral?

1004 American Atheists Convention and Atheist Scruples

1005 This I Believe

1006 God and the Constitution

1007 Is Atheism a Religion?

1008 OK, You’re an Atheist, Now What?

1009 Militant Atheism

1010 Guest Lecturer, William Farris: “Clifford Algebra”

1011 Guest Lecturer, Mitchell: Replacing Religion

1012 Winter Solstice Party

1101 Ethics and Animals (Guest Lecturer: Jamie Massey)

1102 Building Coalitions

1103 Someone is wrong on the Internet

1104 Why is Atheism Important?

1105 How Should Atheists Handle Loss

1106 Atheist Heroes

1107 Will Atheism Replace Religion?

1108 Is Atheism Gaining Acceptance?

1109 Coming Out

1110 The Mythology of Atheism

1111 Humanism

1201 Separation of Church and State (Ben Butterfield)

1202 Sociopaths are Atheists and that doesn’t say Atheists are Sociopaths

1203 Should the government get out of the marriage business? Mitchell Timin

1204 The out of control Arizona legislature

1205 What would a religious free society look like?

1206 Ashley Paramore from Secular Student Alliance and “What’s an Atheist to do?”

1207 Atheism on the Rise in America

1208 Faith

1209 Eric Paul Lunsford guest lecturer: The Righteous Mind: How God People are Divided by Politics and Religion

1210 Mormonism

1211 Where do we go now? Activism in 2013?

1301 Does being an Atheist make you happy?

1302 Is modern science due to Judeo-Christian influence?

1303 Is religion dying in the US?

1304 Atheism: past, present, and future

1305 Are Christians being persecuted in America?

1306 Tolerance

1307 Personal Stories

1308 Feminism and Atheism

1309 Divisive Against Atheism

1310 The Benefit of Firebrand Atheism

1311 Tom Mates: Belief and Non-belief—A Look Across the Divide

1312 Winter Solstice Party!!!

1401 Things for Atheists to do in the new year

1402 Evolution and the “Ham on Nye debate”

Yes! We have plenty for like-minded unbelievers to discuss each month.

 

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An Atheist in Arizona

Posted on March 3, 2014 by AZAtheist

In this blog, I can’t speak for every Atheist in the state but I can relate my personal experiences. As Dirty Harry says, “A man’s gotta know his limitations.” It’s no secret that Arizona is sometimes screwed up politically. The state legislature is goofy and sprinting into the dark ages. Recently, Rachel Maddow took time off of her continuous coverage of the New Jersey Bridgegate scandal to talk about Arizona SB 1062. Thankfully, the governor stepped up and vetoed the bill but for a brief point in time the 48th state was the center of the national attention before returning to talking about a traffic jam.

What’s it like being here? First, understand that things are improving in Tucson and Phoenix. The Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix opened a beautiful Humanist Community Center in December 2010 (or the year 4 AGD—After the God Delusion). The Phoenix Atheists Meetup Group, just one of several Phoenix freethinking groups, has over 1800 members and is hosting 15 separate events during March alone.

Here in Tucson we have a burgeoning robust freethinking community which includes: FreeThought Arizona, Tucson Atheists, Skeptics of Tucson, the Secular Student Alliance Chapter at the University of Arizona, and the Tucson Chapter of Recovery from Religion. Every organization was either created within the past five years or has undergone an explosive growth in membership. For example, Tucson went from a couple of dozen members in 2005 to over 700 today.

But we have a long way to go.

One of my favorite sayings is, “We don’t make Atheists, we just support those who are already non-believers.” We also are a source of answers for those who are curious. Godlessness arises naturally once someone allows himself to question. We have a podcast that is currently on hiatus. I’m paying to keep it alive but we haven’t had any new episodes for a while. I hope that it returns before the year is out. Part of the name is an acronym. AIR stands for Atheists Inquiry into Reality. The key word is inquiry. If more people asked questions, would there be a lot more Atheists?

There’s a new movie that is soon to be released—Noah. It stars Russell Crowe. It’s said to be a $125M blockbuster and it will be out in theaters at the end of March 2014. It’s a bit presumptuous calling a movie a blockbuster before it is released but someone is convinced that it will be a commercial success. The story of Noah is a fantastic story in the true sense of the word, “imaginative or fanciful; remote from reality.” So many questions.

I decided to look into the story and read the part of the Bible that covered the Noah story with new eyes but then I’d be starting at Genesis 5:32. To understand the context, it is better to start at the beginning of the chapter. The story is in Genesis 5 which is about Adam’s family line but the unanswerable questions start almost immediately. Therefore, I’ll not be able to cover all of them. I would “Gish Gallop” myself into frustration so I decided to take the first three questions that should be asked. Perhaps it will spark enough interest to get others to look at the source and ask their own questions.

Let’s begin with Genesis 5:1 “When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God.”

Are we to assume that this verse says humans look a bit like God? If God created mankind to look like him, wouldn’t we be invisible? Just saying! Let’s make a note to get back to this later. At this rate, we’ll never get to the start of the Noah story.

To continue: Genesis 5:2-5 “He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them ‘Mankind’ when they were created. When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image: and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.”

I’m at 700 words already and nowhere near the start of Noah’s story so it doesn’t look like I’m going to get to it. These four verses are so chock full of wrongness it’s going to be tough to go much further. When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son? You have to go back into the previous chapter to realize that Seth was a blessing given to Adam to replace Abel but I don’t want to bury the lead here. Adam had a son when he was 130 years old? Perhaps that may be possible. After all, the demands on men for producing offspring are not very daunting. Let’s forget for a moment that Viagra hasn’t been invented and he’s 130 years old…The bigger question is how Eve could handle having a baby at such an advanced age. As I recall, Adam and Eve were either born created on the same day or at best a few days apart, depending on which chapter of Genesis you prefer. Therefore, she was also a bit old to be having kids…

By now, I think you get the point and this has run on for too long already. Unfortunately, I didn’t get anywhere near to the Noah story…

Please read your Bible again and this time read it critically. The world could use a few more Atheists!

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