Congratulations!

Congratulations Sir Elton John and David Furnish, and all other gay/lesbian couples who have made their loves official today across the UK. Enjoy your lives together!

Maybe one day The United States, a self touted superpower of the world, will look at itself and see the hypocrisy of trying to rid the world of civil rights violations while not holding itself to the same standards.

Don't talk to me...I'm busy being offended.

When did this whole idea of never uttering a single word that may, in any way, potentially offend a single other living person on the planet, come into play? I used to think it was an entirely American phenomenon but it appears other countries are also having issues. Don't get me wrong, I understand the concept of not intentionally offending someone, but how did this concept get so far out of hand? It's one thing to enact anti discrimination law, anti hate laws, and require workplaces to be devoid of harrassment, but man do we have a snowball rolling out of control now!

We have bred a generation of people who seem to think it is their inalienable right to never encounter anything they find even vaguely disagreeable. It is to these people, those living in a constant state of offense, that I direct the following rant.

Shut the hell up! The clerk at the store wasn't trying to strip you of your Jewish heritage by wishing you a Merry Christmas. Maybe if you walked around with a sign around your neck that reads "I'm Jewish. Oh, and I have the reasoning capacity of your average two year old" it would clear up any future confusion, because obviously you are incapable of either giving a polite response such as "and a Happy Hannukah to you" or simply nodding your air-filled head and going on with your day. I don't believe in religion at all, but you don't see me flying off the handle and demanding compensation every time someone blesses me for sneezing. Why? Because I'm pretty sure they weren't trying to strip me of my right to freedom of religion with their sly niceness. Here's another news flash for you.

Black people are NOT African-American. Not unless they JUST FRIGGIN GOT HERE! Having ancestors that were dragged here unwillingly on a slave ship multiple generations ago does NOT make you an African-American. Your nationality is American, period, and I hate to be the one to give you such shocking information, but until we list 15 different shades of brown for you to choose from, your skin color is black. Do you see me listing my skin color as Irish/Italian/German-American? No. Why not? Because it's friggin stupid. Answering "What race are you?" with where your great great great grandparents came from makes about as much sense as giving your age as "Yellow"

If you deliver my mail you are a mailman, and I don't care what genitalia you're sporting. If you seat me on the airplane you're a damn stewardess or a steward. If that offends you, you should have taken a different job. You are mentally retarded, not mentally challenged. The offense there comes from the stigma of being retarded, not from the word. We need to work on the social stigmas we attach to things that are out of our control, such as mental disorders, not change the words we use to describe them. You're fat not big boned, or chubby, or plump. If the term offends you, tough. And before the whines start, I'm 200+ pounds myself, way over the line for fat. The truth hurts sometimes, that doesn't mean you can magically make it not true by using different words. Not everyone finds every joke funny...but guess what? You don't need a court, 3 lawyers, and 10 million dollars to deal with it. I'll leave you with another phrase I say to my kids at least once a day "Why don't you worry about what you're doing, and let other people worry about what they're doing" Seriously people, grow up.

No one can offend you if you don't let them. It's a choice, and I feel nothing but pity for people who choose to take offense at everything they encounter. It must, truly, be a miserable existance.

If Not God...Then What?

Since I've denounced God and Christanity as fantasy, I suppose it's only fair that I discuss my ideas on it all. Unlike many christians and other religious followers, I don't profess to have all the answers nor do I ask anyone to accept anything I say as fact. I challenge every person who reads my blog, now and in the future, to think and reason for themselves.

I'll begin with a scientific theory called conservation of energy. This theory states, in simple terms, that energy is neither created nor destroyed. Keep in mind, while it is still technically a theory, conservation of energy has been well observed and documented and there has been no observation or proof to refute the theory despite many attempts. However, that does not mean the theory will never be refuted, nor should you make the mistake of accepting it as fact.

Using that theory I've developed the idea that perhaps life is an energy source all it's own. If energy can not be created nor destroyed, then it stands to reason that life energy is recycled. Put aside your notions of reincarnation, that's not exactly where I'm going here. Pulling numbers out of a hat, for example's sake, let's say a human male has 100k life energy, while a human female has 120k life energy (perhaps another time we'll get into why I feel women have more life energy *grins*) Now, let's say both of them die. We now have 220k life energy on the loose. Conservation of energy tells us that this energy can not be destroyed, only reused or changed into another form. My theory is that this life energy is put to use, in new people. A type of reincarnation, but not in the sense that a soul moves from one body to another, more in the sense that each unit of life energy is an independent thing that can join with other units of life energy to form a living being. The life energy in your newborn might be from 10 deceased beings. This theory explains why some children know things they haven't learned yet, or have an unnatural ability to learn in one specific area. Perhaps they got a majority of life energy from someone who was proficient in that area. This theory ties in closely with the theory of evolution. As humans evolved into more complex beings, they required more life energy to operate and function their more complex systems, therefore they evolved internally as well as externally. So what does this theory do to help explain how it all began? Perhaps life energy didn't begin as life energy. Perhaps billions of years ago there were only a few types of energy, and the energy itself began to evolve and come together. Perhaps there was no big bang, no spontaneous creation of a living earth. Maybe Earth evolved and continues to evolve.

Or what if this is it? What if we begin when the sperm hits the egg, and we end the moment we die? What if there is no greater purpose, no life after death, no reincarnation, no...anything? Everyone wants to find "the answer" to life, but maybe they're asking questions that don't have an answer. Is it so unreasonable to believe that humans have no more reason for being alive than an amoeba?

Perhaps there IS one higher being who watches Earth from a distance and laughs at our childlike floundering for the meaning of life. Maybe we're just a video game played by beings 10 times our size. The fact is, no one knows for sure, and nothing has been proven. To say you have all the answers because you believe you have all the answers, is ridiculous. That's the exact logic religion uses. Anyone who points out flaws in their beliefs, or questions their teachings, is told that they need to have faith, that God works in mysterious ways. However, ask those same people why they don't believe in evolution or the big-bang theory and they will tell you that too much is left unexplained. Huh?! So it's ok to have a theory full of holes and unexplained things, as long as you have FAITH that you're right?

My true belief about life, and the only thing I can guarantee you is absolutely one hundred percent correct, is that we don't know. No one has the answer. At best they're making an educated guess (scientists) at worse they're telling fairy tales as fact (religion) Think for yourself, keep your eyes open, and don't take something as fact just because someone else told you it's true!

It's a Cult I Tell You!

Let's start off with something big and controversial, shall we?

You'll see a good number of brave souls who are willing to stand up and say they do not believe in God, but not many who are willing to go all the way and say in plain english what is so obvious. God is a fantasy, the Bible is a work of fiction, and millions upon millions of people are a part of a well organized and heavily funded cult.

Woah there! Did I just say what you think I said? Yes I did, my friends, and I'm not just blowing smoke into the wind. I have valid reasons, well thought out and pondered for many years, for believing the way I do. Please, before you storm away or let loose a furious tirade on my comments section, continue reading.

Let's start with something simple. What makes a cult, and how do those signs apply to Christianity?

Cults have:

• A charismatic leader that is believed to be able to lead all the followers to wherever it is they all want to go -- Such as a priest, preacher, or reverend leading their followers to salvation, heaven, redemption...etc
• A strict set of 'rules' or beliefs that every follower must adhere to -- Such as the ten commandments, and the entirety of the Bible
• A handbook -- Such as the Bible, and other religious texts
• An exclusionary belief system that pits followers against the "non believers" -- Every subset of Christianity believes they are the one true religion and that everyone else is damned in some form or another.
• A method of recruitment -- Every form of Christianity teaches their followers that they should be spreading "god's word" and sharing their beliefs with everyone, including trying to get the non believers to attend church/mass etc.

I could go on and on, but the important lesson here is that there is only one aspect of a cult that Christianity does not fulfill. Cults generally operate on beliefs and practices that are outside those held by the majority of society. Since the majority of society in The United States, holds christian beliefs, Christianity is not commonly perceived as a cult. I call bull! Just because "most" people believe it, doesn't make it true, and society as a whole has proven this time and time again. In Galileo's time it was commonly known that the Earth did not revolve around the sun, and the moon revolved around the Earth. They were all wrong. In 1692 nineteen men and women were executed because the majority of Salem Massachusettes believed that the very real physical illness of a group of children was caused by witchcraft. They were all wrong.

The Bible is a tremendous work of fiction. I say tremendous, not because it's a great read, but because of it's longevity and power within both the Christian and secular world. The full text of the Bible wasn't divinely spoken to Moses on Mount Sinai, the Bible didn't magically appear whole and intact as if given by the hand of God. It was written by men. Not only was it written by men, but many different versions were written, calling into question the belief that any one version could be true or accurate even *if* one believed the story of Moses. The various religions basically just picked a version they liked and ran with it. You might as well be basing your entire life on a play written by Shakespeare.

So why do I care if people want to live on faith and believe in Christianity? I don't! What I do care about is when the law mirrors fantasy beliefs just because they are held by the majority of society. What I do care about is being lectured and preached to when my beliefs or lifestyle choices do not reflect those of the majority of society, even though my choices and beliefs do NOTHING to harm anyone else. More people have died and been killed in Christ's name than have died or been killed in any other manner, yet we continue to let the most violent and zealous cult man has ever known rule our country, simply because the majority believe in it.

And so it Begins

Welcome, my voyeuristic friend, to my world. I'll try my best to keep things interesting around here! Be sure to check back often to see where my rambling mind has run off to.

~Aya~