Religion impeding on anything that effects the non religious infuriates me such as opposition to Gay Marriage, Stem Cell Research.. etc. However I find that I often agree with many things on the other side as well, the side that has things that I despise.

I will give a couple examples of what I mean first being Gun Rights. I believe that the constitution clearly states that Americans have the right to own firearms. The fact that it gets so diluted when the verbiage is obvious is ridiculous. States such as my home state, Massachusetts restrict guns like crazy. If you want to own a firearm in Massachusetts it must meet specific requirements and be on a list of approved weapons.

Similarly if you want to conceal carry your weapon in MA you need to get permission from the local police chief to do so. In most cases the Police Chief isn’t the friendliest and most rational of individuals.

Another example is our current administration and state of affairs in the USA. Now I hated George W due to some of the BS he pulled. I could not bring myself to vote for John McCain because of Sarah Palin’s views. It angers me that this whole Health Care thing is happening and I do not believe that giving people free hand outs is what this country is about.

When Obama was running we had people saying “I wont have to worry about putting gas in my car anymore” What kind of garbage is that? The Government should not be in the business of supporting people in ways that we are about to see happen. Because with all due respect, the Government has not a clue what it is doing.

So therein lies my conundrum. Unfortunately, I doubt I will ever see a candidate I will be able to vote for without things changing significantly. If I want gun rights and in most cases (not all) smaller government I have to vote Republican. If I want gay rights and medical advancement I have to vote for a democrat.

It sucks really, and I know I am not alone in this country.

I was settling in tonight watching the Nightly News as I do every night and there was a segment on their recent NBC News Wall Street Journal Poll.

I was pleasantly surprised when the following result came up. 41% of people favor same sex marriages up from 30% in 2004 (source). Now we still have quite a long way to go as proven by another poll number 40% of the 49% strongly oppose it where as only 26% of the 41% strongly favor. But it is good to see that some progress is being made on one of the most basic rights as an American. We have heard time and time again that Marriage is defined as a union between one man and one woman. The awesome thing is that we, as humans write the dictionaries and are able to redefine words for the common good. The thought that it is between only a man and a woman and nobody else comes strictly from religious beliefs and the bible, something which has no place in the laws of the USA.

The awesome thing? It has been redefined already by Merriam-Webster

1 a (1) : the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2) : the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage <same-sex marriage> b : the mutual relation of married persons : wedlock c : the institution whereby individuals are joined in a marriage
2 : an act of marrying or the rite by which the married status is effected; especially : the wedding ceremony and attendant festivities or formalities
3 : an intimate or close union <the marriage of painting and poetry — J. T. Shawcross>

It’s awesome to see progress being made on this front. Marriage is something that allows quite a few rights such as being able to see your spouse in the hospital if there is a major accident. The religious will often say “What is to prevent a man from marrying a pig if we make this change” the answer to that is so simple it’s hard to see how people can use it as an argument. A pig, is not a knowing willing participant in a marriage. Where as a human being has the unique ability to choose who they mutually want to spend the rest of their life with.

I logged on tonight to discover that my beloved Scarlet Letter was broken! So I went over to Out Campaign to see what was amiss and noticed that the location had changed. And where is it hosted? Why the Rackspace Cloud of course. Kick ass! Since this is a rather short post I figured I would post a quote I found earlier today that I rather enjoyed:

I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.
–Mark Twain

I’m sure many of you have seen it but it was my first time.. great quote!

As you may have noticed things have been rather sparse here the past several weeks. It turns out things are dramatically changing in my life over the next month as I have accepted a new job offer in Texas! I head out next week to move for good. As such the blog will be quiet for another month or so until I get situated in my new home and job.

Tonight I was reading my feed on Twitter my newest addiction.. ahem. I started following Rainn Wilson the other day not long after I joined up and tonight he tweeted this article titled “It’s a great day to be an Atheist”

I’m alive now—today. Hopefully, I will be alive for a while, not just to get under the skin of the nonbelievers who refuse to accept that I’m really an Atheist, but to experience an ongoing sequence of amazing chances: the chance to question, to observe, to experience, to be subject to the beauty of humankind, and to fight against its evils.

I’m navigating the here-and-now with absolutely no idea as to what’s out there waiting for me. There are zero guarantees and little explanation. That’s why today is a great day to be an Atheist: It’s another step forward into a sublime mystery. And I’d reckon to say there’s no greater leap of faith than that.

That sums it up niceley that’s how I live each day of my life. Check out the full article over on Soul Pancake.

Great news came out of Iowa yesterday that a law defining marriage between a man and a woman only was struck down. The opposition had this to say:

“It’s, quite frankly, a disaster,” said Brian English, a spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy Center, a nonprofit research and educational organization committed to strengthening the family.

“Obviously, we’re extremely disappointed,” he said. “We’re saddened. Perhaps a little bit surprised in the unanimous decision that the court handed down.”

Yea isn’t it sad that the government actually allowed them the right to marry their partners regardless of their sex. Isn’t it sad that they were allowed the equal rights they are guaranteed under this great nation’s constitution.

Marriage may be defined as between a man and a woman in the bible. But I have news for these people fighting people’s rights: this country is not a Theocracy. Marriage is defined as whatever we want it to be defined as, we wrote the dictionaries remember?

I am happy to see this news but I am sad that it is taking so long to get people the rights they deserve nationwide. Catch a video after the break.

Video via Atheist Media Blog.

I am proud to announce that I have joined the Atheist Blogroll. It is a community service offered free of charge to the Atheist Blogging community around the world. You can see links to other site’s in the blogroll on the right sidebar. At the time I was accepted there were over 890 entries in the blogroll, I am proud to join the list which has some of the top Atheist blogs on the net.

Special thanks go out to Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for putting the time in to run the service!

Something that has always bothered me personally is the usage of terms like “Miracle” in media news outlets and just in general. There’s always the token interviewee who claims that someone was saved or avoided death only by a “Miracle”. The very definition of the term Miracle suggests divine intervention. Tell me why is this something that should be used regularly by news outlets and ignorant politicians to describe people who survived unbelievable accidents?

I will use the recent plane crash of flight 1549 in the Hudson River as a prime example, compared with the also recent plane crash of Continental Flight 3407.

In the first case everyone on board survived. They did this because of the extreme piloting skills of Captain Sully Sullenberger and not a miracle as the NY State Governor David Paterson said  “We have had a miracle on 34th Street. I believe now we have had a miracle on the Hudson.” Allot of news outlets ran with the headline “Miracle on the Hudson” That is a pure insult to Sully and the people who helped save those lives. Those people were saved because a human with amazing skills as a pilot saved them. He is the true definition of the word Hero which is another term abused often.

Now what of Continental Flight 3407? That plane went down near Buffalo NY on a cold night in early February of this year killing all 49 people on board. Tell me why is it that the people on board that plane (One a September 11th widow) didn’t deserve the mercy of god? A Christian (for example) would tell you that it is satan who is responsible for this act. That is the typical cop-out that is used by theists, god is responsible for everything good that happens in the world and the devil everything bad. Pretty good childhood fantasy isn’t it? In actuality it was probably ice buildup on the plane that caused this accident, we won’t know for sure for some time.

There is no such thing as divine intervention.  When you get into a car accident for example you are at the whim of the random number generator (for lack of a better term) the second you smash into an object you are at the mercy of gravity, mass, and most of all just pure dumb luck. You survived? Good for you! It wasn’t god’s hand that cradled you from injury. It was the safety features of the vehicle you were driving in combination with everything working out just the way it had to. And when I say that I don’t mean that something had to be in control of it for it to work out “just right” as creationists would try to make you believe about the origins of mankind for example.

Next up I will discuss people who “Thank God” for their abilities.. but that’s for another entry.