And starring @AngusTJones as @4runner777′s bitch!

I don’t give a shit that Angus Jones is a Christian. I don’t even care that he’s an Adventist. I’m a little disappointed. He’s a cute kid with a well-funded future ahead of him, and it’s always my hope that young people don’t get swept up in indoctrination, but he has and it’s his life.

There were, however, a couple of bits that stuck out to me about this:

“I like black people. I’m not afraid to say it.”

–Angus T. Jones

Uh huh. Why would you be afraid to say it? Because it’s controversial? What, is this 1955? What a fucking weird thing to say. And notice how uncomfortable The Forerunner looks. Like, “Get off the ‘black people’ thing, kid. You’re digging yourself deep.”

“And I think that day, he showed me what the Bible taught about Hell… It’s there in the Bible. It’s there. And there’s no evidence for the opposing views.”

–Angus T. Jones

What he Hell?? (Ha ha.) At first, I thought he was saying that because the Bible is clear on Hell (I disagree), and because the opposing views have no evidence, that, therefore, Hell is real. Now I’m not so sure. It’s possible he was referring to any or all opposing views to Adventism. And I can’t really comment if his statement were that general because I’m neither an expert on Christianity in general nor on Adventism in particular.

But I can comment on Hell. It’s a well-documented fact that the concept of Hell evolved over the centuries starting with the vague notion of the grave/the abode of the dead (Sheol), to closer to a place for the wicked, based on the burning garbage heap of Gehenna which lay outside Jerusalem, to finally the modern concept, heavily embellished by extra-biblical narrative such as Dante. So this whole “what the Bible teaches about Hell” is only a piece of the story.

And it’s bullshit.

My conversation with Jen P. on 3/9/12

This one was fun. And I’m finally getting around to it. After my first conversation involving Jen P., I wrote to her directly. I wanted to take her up on specific claims, facts, suggestions, etc. she was making. My text is in italics. Hers is in bold. Comments are [in brackets].

Hi Jen,

I promise I won’t pester. I just wanted to let you know that I was absolutely serious when I said I’d be happy to speak with your pastor. Please feel free to pass my info along to him. I understand he may not have the desire or the time to speak with me, but if he does, I welcome it.

Also, I encourage you to watch the following video. It’s all about “open-mindedness.” Feel free to hate it, but, per you, I encourage you to “keep and open mind.” That, and it’s only a couple of minutes long. In exchange, I’ll happily check out whatever you’d like to pass along.

Best,

Anton.

Open-mindedness
http://www.youtube.com
A look at some of the flawed thinking that prompts people who believe in certain non-scientific concepts to advise others who don’t to be more open-minded. m…

Thank you, #theatheistpig, for your comic about #Christian plumbers!

As illustrated above, something similar happened to me a number of years ago when I was frequenting this little sandwich place a few feet away from my apartment. It was a delusional place to start. The proprietor kept claiming it to be a “family restaurant” when, unlike actual family restaurants like IHOP, it had little space, poor kid- and family-friendly branding, and a menu that simply wasn’t that inspired or long. But the proprietor insisted. “Family restaurant!”

One day, after buying a sandwich or slice of cake or something, I made some not-worth-remembering remark about some not-worth-remembering subject. Maybe it was some polite, bullshit question. The
proprietor’s answer was, “Well, we’re Christians!” all nice and excited.

What??

How did he expect me to respond? “Oh, that’s a relief! I thought you were baby-eating Satanists! Imagine my relief to now know that you instead worship blood sacrifice, vicarious atonement, and other stupid bullshit!” Did he mean, per the above comic, that being Christian made his food, service, work ethic, or anything else better than if he weren’t? Didn’t his boisterous self-praise automatically imply that those who weren’t Christian were thus either at least not what he was claiming of himself or at most the opposite?

Wait a minute! It was a socially-scceptable personal slight! Of course he didn’t know that, but it would have been structurally no different had he said, “Well, we’re teeth-pluckers!” Yes, theology and incompetent dentistry are different things, but the implication, that what he was claiming of himself and that such a claim was superior to alternate claims, was no different than had he declared himself an amateur dentist.

It’s also a pretty fucking stupid thing to do unless you know that your client or potential client is of your ilk. Because, petty as it may be, I never went back as long as I knew he was there. I figured if you’re willing to broadcast your beliefs presumptively to belief-incognito customers, then fuck you. You have no sense of customer relations and you don’t deserve my business.

Had the “restaurant” sign read something with “Christ” or “Christian” in it, then it’d be a different issue. It’d be my choice to enter an establishment with proprietors proclaiming their beliefs. And if I’d taken any offense, that would’ve been my problem entirely.

But that’s not what happened.

Like so many other religious, this idiot assumed that everyone would or should agree with him. He went bankrupt within weeks. (And yes, I know there’s no causative relationship between his idiocy and his lack of business acumen.)

My conversation with and Jen P. and James I. moderated by Benjamin H. on 10/10/11

Following is the second half of a conversation that finished up a couple of days after the first half started. Jen P is the (presumably) born-again who’s admitted that she believes in Satan and demons, and who since this conversation has directly admitted that she isn’t open-minded (after pleading that I be with her bullshit claims). James I is an admitted young Earth creationist (more on that later). My text is in italics. Theirs is in bold. My comments are [in brackets]. And comments following.

Anton Hill ‎@James You say “Then look for it…” in regards to evidence. It’s not my job to prove your claim. It’s yours. You’d have to prove “thousands of years” as, last I heard, the nearest Christian and secular estimate was just over 2,000 years for all books. As for “several continents”, if you include the MIddle East as different continents, I guess. But both of these are irrelevant in regards to claims made. I find it fascinating when believers claim fulfilled prophecy and then either attempt to explain away often very vague verses that, like tarot cards, could “mean” just about anything, or they ignore the fact that if Book 2 was written after Book 1, then there’s nothing stopping the Book 2 author from writing his book in such a way as to comply with what Book 1 claimed. If you have a prophecy which you can prove, not assert and insist, but prove has been fulfilled, and you can prove how, and I can go and verify your evidence through reproducible experiment, then by all means, please do so.

Thank you, #TaylorX04, for your delightful and informative video “The Origins of #Satan”!

I’m one of the lucky ones. I was never indoctrinated into a belief in Satan. Thus, I’ve always found the whole notion a whopping load of horseshit. The great bit of this is that I’ve never suffered the fear that I’ve heard believers and one-time believers lament. The downside is that I’ll never understand said fear.

In fact, I’ve heard many self-identified atheists say that even as much as they hold no belief in any gods, they still harbor a fear of Hell because they were told such a thing was literally real and told this at such an early age by authority figures who were otherwise completely trustworthy.

A friend reports of being terrified of Satan, demons, and Hell during childhood not only because of the concepts themselves, but also because it seemed that almost anything this friend might do would be a one-way ticket straight to Hell. How the indoctrination of children to so greatly fear such a ridiculous thing is such a socially acceptable form of child abuse, I will never fully understand.

But this isn’t about that.

Because of my fascination with the notion of Satan, I’m equally fascinated with the character’s origins. Thus, the following video and this right here.