In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011)

I found out about Hitchens' death yesterday morning, when I wake up and came to my PC to check for news, new stuff while sipping my morning coffee. All day yesterday, and it seems today as well, the internet has gone viral with the sad news of Christopher's passing.

I offer my small tribute to a great personality with this blog post. I am offering my sincerest condolences to his family and friends. A lot of people around the world, including me, were hoping that he would manage to fight his cancer. I was hoping to catch him in Melbourne in April, in the Atheist Convention.

I first learned of Hitchens when I came out as an atheist. My story is not very long nor very interesting, and definitely not important at the moment, but for anyone who would like to read it, the blog post is here: God? No, thank you. I first read Prof. Dawkins' book "The God Delusion", and I started frequenting the RDF forums. There I learned about the Hitch and other prominent skeptics and atheists. Needless to say, I bought his book "God is Not Great", and I also bought a copy for my sister as a present.

I liked his style. I may not have agreed with everything he said, especially some of his ideas in politics, after all, nobody agrees 100% with everyone else; however, I agree about his stance against religion and any kind of bullshit out there. Staying silent or being respectful of bad ideas is not the answer. Going against bad ideas, explaining why and not being condescending but fighting actively is the way to do it.

Christopher was quite a character. He had a unique personality, he knew how to talk and write, and he left us a big legacy. I am saddened by his death, but I rejoice in the fact that he will always live in the memories of people like me, and like you. He left us his writings, his debates and talks, but most importantly his ideas and stance on life. Let's embrace life, let's live it to the fullest of our abilities. That's what he did, and that's what he would want everyone else to do.

Church bells and trash.

I am an atheist and I am out. I don't hide it, and everyone knows my dislike of religion, and that at times I am a militant atheist. I have respect for people, but not for ideas or actions. If someone does something I find to be right, whether they are fundies or atheists or whatever, I will applaud them. If someone does something I find to be wrong, whether they are fundies or atheists, I will berate them.

This is a post about something despicable that a greek atheist woman did. Something that shows an uncivilized person, someone who has a lack of education and culture, someone who is literally a dirty person. Church bells in Greece (and in most countries) are sometimes a nuisance and create sound pollution. This girl is vacationing near a church that rings the bells every hour. As is natural, she was not happy with it. But what she did is what I find totally wrong. She went and emptied trash in front of the church door, and left a note.

I understand the note part. You can write a note and be polite, tell them about noise pollution and try in a civilized manner to make them stop ringing them every hour. I have some church bells that are being rang at inappropriate times like 6 and 7 o'clock in a Sunday morning, when I want to sleep a bit longer. But I would never empty trash in front of the church door, or anyone's door for that matter. I agree with leaving a note.

I disagree with the trash part. That shows a lack of respect for other people. She did not think of the cleaning lady that will have more work only because of pettiness. She did not think of the people that go in and out of the church and see that spectacle, of the children that may touch the trash or fall into it, and maybe put their hands in their mouth. The act of emptying trash in front of a church door, shows lack of respect for other people.

The extended environment we live in, has to be protected and kept clean. Whether we live in a forest or in a big city, we have an obligation to try and keep it clean and pretty. Throwing trash in the street or wherever for any reason is a sign of people with a lack of culture and education, of people without respect for themselves and others. I don't think I need to show pictures of the dirty sidewalks in Athens...

What if you were asked to pray by someone dying?

On facebook's page for the Greek Atheists and Agnostics someone asked the following question:

If someone who is dying, asked you to pray with him would you do it? 

A whole lot of people answered, and there was a debate going because I was one of the few people who answered that I would have said NO. It does seem to be cruel and unkind, but it's not. Not at all. Let me elaborate on this point.

I am an atheist. I do not believe in any god(s) and I will never accept such fantasies without some kind of scientific evidence. Most of my friends and relatives know of my atheism. Those who don't, is just because the subject has not been discussed. However, everyone knows that I will not go to church unless it is for a wedding, or a baptism, or a funeral. And those have to be about people that I am close to. Otherwise, I will not go to any wedding for a relative that I see once or twice per year. I dislike orthodox church hymns to the point of hatred.

So my answer, was no, I would not pray with anyone and for any reason. Not even if that person were dying. I am an atheist, and proud to be one. I do not change my practices and become hypocritical because someone is dying. That would be betraying myself firstly and my lack of beliefs, and being dishonest and a hypocrite towards the dying person. If it were me the dying person, I would prefer truth and honesty from people. So, it is not just about me and my lack of beliefs, but it also is about being honest and truthful to someone else.

Prayer is also supposed to be addressed to someone or something one holds to be a deity. Who would I even trying to pray to? And how can I even utter some phrases and be serious, when faith itself is ridiculous to me? Some people said, to pretend. But I cannot pretend to pray to someone/something I don't believe in. It would be insulting both to the dying person and to myself.

Another thing to note, is that I do not know any prayers. I just know the first couple of lines of one prayer. I stopped praying when I was a little girl, and never looked back. I did try and ask for some favours as everybody else has done, but those prayers were never answered, as is usual. People said to ask him what that person wants me to say. True, that could work, but the other problems remain.

What I could do though, is tell that person the truth. Tell him/her that I do not believe, that I am an atheist, and thus it would be dishonest of me to suddenly pray. It would be hypocritical and insulting for both of us. But, I would add, that I can stay silent and listen to that person praying. I would not mock or ridicule a dying man, and if his/her praying provides some comfort, I would not take it away.

What would you do in that case? Would you pray or not?

Online classes

At work today, just an ordinary day. Every day we get about 5 to 15 calls per day, from companies and people promoting their products and services. And of course, today was not different in number of calls. However, there is one call which stood out.

I answer the phone, and there is a woman's voice on the other end of the line, saying "Hello". So, I say Hello as well. The woman continues in atrocious English, or rather in a language that tried to sound and resemble English. Anyway, she said that she was calling from Spain or Pakistan... (yes, her language skills were that atrocious.) And what does she sell?

Online Qu'ran classes!

I am not joking. Anyway, I answered her thus: "No, thank you. I do not believe in god, allah or any of that other shit. Good bye." The woman managed to say "bye" before I hang up the phone.

And seriously, I do not know whether to laugh or cry at the above...

Pharyngulated!

It's official.
The greek atheists' english version of the blog is online and you can read it here: http://english.atheia.gr
The very good news is that we got pharyngulated: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/10/greece_has_got_atheists.php
Thank you PZ, for reading my e-mail and promoting our efforts.

Of quotes and the Bible

In another post for this blog, namely the one on Small Gods, a member of blogger and probably fundamentalist Christian, has quoted a verse from scripture as a comment. You can quote all the scripture you want at me. I am not going to change my mind because of a book of myths!

Believers, and most notably fundamentalists, use circular logic in using the Bible as evidence. They argue that the Bible is the inerrant word of god. But when asked how they know, they answer, that it is written in the Bible! Where is the external confirmation that the Bible is the word of god? Where is the evidence that the Bible is the word of god?

If I am going to change my mind about the existence of any god(s) then it should be because of evidence. And not just any kind of evidence. Scientific evidence. The evidence on which computers and nanotechnology are built upon.

Saying that you have personal experiences of god(s), does not impress me. There are a lot of people out there who have varying degrees of personal experiences of the paranormal sort. Some see ghosts, some hear voices in their heads, etc. etc. And everyone who happens to have the personal experiences with god(s) usually communes with the kind of god s/he believes in. Never a Muslim has had a personal experience of Jesus or a Christian a personal experience of Buddha or anything similar. Christians commune with Jesus, the Virgin Mary or the Holy Spirit or some saint or other, but always of the same religion. And the same is true for every religion there is. So, no, personal experiences are not even remotely convincing evidence.

Another argument is with miracles. What miracles? I have not seen any miracle today. Some lightshows, where people see mysterious lights around a church or a holy place, and pareidolia, where people see the face of Jesus or the Virgin Mary with baby Jesus all over from Kit-Kats to toasts... No, that is not evidence either. Lightshows are usually explained by science. As for pareidolia, I am certain that I can see the face of David Bowie and Darth Vader too... Just our brains wired to see patterns. Our brains are wired to recognize patterns, and many times we see patterns even where they do not exist, or recognize some familiar things all over. Like in the clouds. how many times have we seen cloud formations that are similar to a familiar shape? That is also pareidolia, but we do not worship the clouds. So, no neither the lightshows or pareidolia cut it for me.

There are miracles of the medical kind. Sick people getting healthy and similar. And most of the times, because the doctors and nurses did everything they could for those people. Some ailments were due to psychological factors, and people believed they were cured when they in fact were not ill. Just their brains playing tricks on them. Some other "miracles" are not documented; people just say that this person or that got well because of the prayers, blah blah. But when asked for the evidence, mainly the medical records of these patients, they are non-existent or most of it is missing. And let's not forget that the human body is not as fragile as some people want us to think. We have an immune system and that system can be activated to fight off a number of diseases, even cancer. Yes, Virginia, there are people whose immune system fought cancer successfully. So, no miracles do not exist. There is no evidence of such.

Some use the fine-tuning argument. Really? The universe is fine-tuned for life? Oh, well then, we should be able to find conditions suitable for life everywhere! But wait, we know of exactly one planet with life: Earth. And then there are millions of things that are trying to kill us! From bacteria, wild animals to radiation from outer space, and more. So, where is the fine-tuning again?

Some others will use the morality canard. That we cannot be moral without a god of sorts. Oh please! Do you really need the fear of punishment and eternal torment to be human? To follow the humanistic principles? Do you need an oppressor and sky daddy, a tyrant, to tell you that you should not kill? Can't you think for yourself? And as for other moral issues, a lot of religions make me sick. Their stance on abortion, on homosexuality, on womens' issues is totally inhuman, racist and hateful on their part.

I am pro-abortion. The decision, the final decision, lies with the woman. What would a woman do with a baby she does neither want nor can take care of? There are many issues to consider, and I am certain that most women do not take this decision as lightly as some people may think. As a woman myself, I am glad that in my country, I have the option of doing an abortion. Of doing it with a proper doctor and not some quack out for a quick buck. That I can do it in a hospital where any complication can be treated properly. After all, it is my body and my choice in the end.

As for homosexuality: I do not care what anyone does in their private lives, as long as it is between consenting adults. Homosexual couples have, in my opinion, the same rights and obligations as heterosexual couples. They should get the same benefits, they should be able to adopt, they should be able to live their lives free from any prejudice. And most prejudice and racism against homosexuals comes from religion.

I will not go into the misogyny of most religions. Just read the Bible and the Koran, and there is not much else one can say or do. It is as if the people that wrote these books hated women.

So, no, I do not need a god to be moral. I do not need to be afraid of hell and punishment, to be moral. I do not need to be saved from sin. I don't believe in sin. Sex is not a sin. Neither eating meat on Friday is a sin. And the whole sin edifice collapses when we see that the original sin is nothing but a myth.

I adhere to the humanistic principles. Why? Because I am human, I grew around humans, and was educated by good people. I am not a sinner; I do not believe in sin. I am human. I made and still make mistakes; but I try to learn from them. And that is part of being human; that is part of life. I am not afraid of making mistakes; but I am afraid of not living my life, of being oppressed to worship some non-existent mythological being. I am afraid of not being able to express myself because of insane religious laws and practices.

I will not go into the whole creationism vs. science debate here, because, if I start on that there will be no end in sight for this post. Another time, I'll probably write about the creationist canards, especially when it comes to astronomy and physics which are more my passion. But let's just say, that creationism is full of holes, and the more someone tries to fill the holes, the more laughter ensues, with the stupidity and idiocy of creationists.

I am proud to be an atheist. I am proud of being able to think for myself, of not being afraid of a big tyrant in the sky. I am proud of using my brain constructively, of being able to really think critically.

Small Gods - Terry Pratchett

If there is just one Discworld book that anyone should read, I would recommend this one: Small Gods. This is definitely one of the best Discworld books, and its subject is religion.

Brutha is a wanna-be priest and devout believer in Om. He is about the only true believer Om has. And that's what makes Brutha special, to a lot of people and supernatural entities. Om wants him because of the flame of belief, Vorbis and the Quisition because he will not question them, but what does Brutha want?

This is a book about religion, and its practices. Pratchett criticizes harshly both religion and the quest for power using religion, and rightly so. Even the story of Jesus Christ does not escape Terry's expert pen, and made me laugh! But this is something that readers should find out for themselves.

This is not a book to be read by fundies or anyone that cannot stand criticism to religion. Because Pratchett here, does show, through satire and comedy, the true nature of religion and gods. It is not we, the people, who need god(s); but god(s) and religion that need us. Because religions survive because of their followers, and devout believers. And this is the truth that Brutha will find in his journey and adventures. From devout believer to a kind of atheist Prophet, Brutha will be shown the truth about the nature not only of his god, but of all gods.

As for the rest, read the book. I highly recommend it. This is the best book I have read this year so far. There is not much more that I can say about the book, other than that I agree with Pratchett about his criticism of religion, about his attack on dogmatism, through the pages of Small Gods. Because gods are the product of people's imagination...

Atheist Union of Greece

On May 2010, some of the people and members of the greek Atheist blog and forum, have proceeded to form an official union of Atheists, with the purpose of promoting secularism, atheism, religious freedom, skepticism, science, rationality, critical thinking, etc. in Greece.

I am announcing the formation of the Atheist Union of Greece. For anyone interested, you can contact the secretariat of the union at the address: contact at atheia dot gr

The website of the Union is being built, and as soon as any more interesting news on the Union are published, I will make a new announcement.

Last but not least...

Following the death of the RD forums, there has been a lot of hype over the internet. The news travelled fast, and if you search you will find a lot of posts in blogs, in articles and more. Peter Harrison was contacted by journalists and more, but whatever we, the old mod team, had to say has been said. In our blogs, in various forums, in various comments in blog posts.

But we don't want to blow this out of proportion. Because what a lot of people have not understood, is that it was never about the proposed changes. It was about the way both the mod team and the members of the forum were treated. As Sciwoman, an admin on the RDF said, this was a classic example of how not to do it.

I do not want to post any more on this, nor do I want to go to any more sites that are reporting the events. All I wanted, was to get the truth out about what happened. This has been done, by many people. I wish to thank anyone out there who helped to put the record straight. It is now time to move on. 

Goodbye RDF, and Welcome to Rational Skepticism. Most of the old mod team is now on Rational Skepticism, and for anyone still out there from RDF, but also anyone else interested in science and reason, we welcome you to the new forum. 

Death of a forum: An ex-admin blogs about the defunct RD.net forum

Peter Harrison was for a very long time a moderator and admin of the forum. He put on a lot of his personal time and work to make the forum the incredible place it was. Peter was also the moderator that tutored every newbie moderator about the moderator control panels, what to do and what not to do, and many other things. He was the first person to congratulate me and tell me how happy he was that I would be moderating the Debunking Creationism subforum. I have a lot of respect for Peter, and last night he wrote a wonderful piece about the forum and how Josh Timonen and Andrew Chalkers killed the forum and the community.

The article can be found here: Death of the Dawkins forum - The world's busiest atheist forum closes

He has told the story much better than I could. The previous articles I wrote were more of a rant and an obituary. A rant because of the way both members and staff were treated by Josh Timonen and Andrew Chalkers; an obituary because those two site techs killed the forum totally with their actions.

I would like to say a big thank you to the moderating staff of the Richard Dawkins forum, all of them, from the ones that left before I joined, to the ones that were "sacked" on Monday. Thank you to all of you for making the forum what it was, and I am proud to have been given the chance to contribute as a moderator and member.

I would like to say a big thank you to all the members of the forum. You, people, were the heart of the forum, and what made it what it was. It was the busiest atheist forum on the net, maybe even one of the busiest and most active forums on the net.

Goodbye Richard Dawkins forum.

Death of a forum: death of the RD.net forum II

The Rd.net forum user hackenslash put this video up on youtube:

Death of a forum: death of the RD.net forum

Good morning everyone,

A lot of people may already know that until yesterday I was a global moderator on RDF and went by the same name as I write here: Darkchilde.

The RDF staff had no idea what was going to happen; we only knew that there was going to be a new site, and nothing much else. We made a couple of threads in the moderator's subforum, trying to pitch on ideas about the new forum, what we would like to see and other similar things. We also tried telling Josh and Andrew what the forum community is. But they did not listen, I think they were even worse than creotards in that respect.

Anyway, I  don't know if a lot people know what has happened; Josh and Andrew have deleted the New Forum discussion, because both members and staff were very unhappy with the decision, and were speaking their minds. Also because of this they took the forum down last night. Now members cannot post anything, just use PM.

This is going to cost to the RDFRS cause a lot, and the fools do not understand it. I am sorry, but I will not be supporting it any more. The site techs and admins have shown that they do not respect the people that have contributed so much there. I am not going to get involved in the new sanitized and borged new area of theirs. I like the chaos and feel of forums, I like the live community of forums, the banter, the silly threads, the serious threads... After all I am human, and that's what a forum community is about: being human, being able to let go and many times say things you were not able to say in your every day life.

For me, the RD.net forum became over the 2 years I have been there, like a second home, somewhere where I could let off steam, I could talk to like-minded people, and more. It also was a place that helped me get through the first anniversary of my little sister's death, in 2008.

I am sorry that Josh and Andrew feel they had to axe the forum. I don't know why, and right now, I don't care why. All I care is that I am so angry and frustrated, and going totally in emotional circles. Because I had invested a lot of work in the forum, I knew certain areas of the forum quite well, and the community therein. A lot of people contributing hours in order to post a rebuttal to creationist posts, or to debunk alien conspiracy videos... Hours to write one essay for the science competition Mazille started, and more.


Some people are trying to save a lot of the threads there. There are threads, like the debate threads, and the huge flood debate thread that should be visible and accessible to everyone on the net.

And all that for what? This is not just a rant, but an obituary. An obituary about the death of a wonderful community.

Goodbye forever, forum.richarddawkins.net

PS. RDF = Richard Dawkins Forum


Update: it seems that Josh Timonen has deleted one of the science mods, Mazille along with all the posts he made, just because he spoke his mind aloud. Mazille is one of the newest mods, and the one who made the science competition happen.  More updates on the situation as information comes in.


More blogposts about the RD.net death: Jerome - The End of an Era: Richard Dawkins Forum to Close


Update 2: Josh also deleted another user's account, CJ, along with all his posts. CJ was a global moderator until October of 2008. Seems like Josh really doesn't like all the criticism he is getting.

Frankly, after all this, I would not go back to the forum if it was reopened unless Josh and Andrew were fired, and people who respect the community are hired. Josh has shown that he is not interested in the membership, nor the volunteer staff, like me, like Topsy, Sciwoman, Ilovelucy, Mazille, Gallstones and more. However, with decisions like this he is hurting the Foundation, because most members were also a driving force that actively supported the Foundation. Don't count on any contribution from me on the next fundraiser, if things go like this. Josh has shown no respect for me or the other staff, and this is the only way I have of making my displeasure known. By blogging and by withdrawing any support for the foundation.

Oh, and please join me and other staff from RDF over at rationalia: http://rationalia.com

Is the Doctor more ethical than God?

What sparked this admittedly silly comparison is a thread on the now defunct Richard Dawkins forum, titled Is the Doctor More Ethical than Jesus?. Most people who voted, said Yes, the Doctor is more ethical than Jesus. But I take it one step further, and I thought to compare the Doctor with God himself.

As the Doctor himself has said, Timelords are living gods. They understand the fabric of time and space much better than all other races, and they traveled spacetime, correcting mistakes, helping people. At least, until the last Time War.

My answer is that the Doctor is more ethical than Jesus or God himself. Why? First of all, the Doctor would never committ genocide. He respects all life, even that of the Daleks, as he tried to help them on some occasions. He was very crossed with the Human Doctor in Journey's End, when he destroyed all Daleks, thereby committing genocide. The Doctor even tried to save Davros on that occasion, but Davros himself refused. As opposed to the Judeo-Christian god, who, according to the Bible, has committed genocide more than once. One example: in Numbers 31, god orders Moses to completely destroy the Midianites!

And to take this one step further, he does not punish the Human Doctor. He tells him that his actions were wrong, and finds him a place in the universe to be. He lets him be with Rose, the woman he loved, in a parallel universe.

The Doctor has no problem with people's sexuality. Jack Harkness was an omnisexual, as he was born in the 51st century, and he accompanied the Doctor on some of his adventures. The Doctor has no problem with homosexuality, as the Judeo-Christian god seems to have. There are a number of passages in the Bible, where homosexuality is considered a sin, homosexuals are considered monsters and are condemned to death.In fact these are some passages from the Bible that reveal the homophobia of christianity:

Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

There are more where the above came for,  and it shows the inhumanity of many of religious views. 

How about women? The Doctor respects women, and has had many of them as his travelling companions. Just in the new series, he has had three: Rose Tyler, Martha Jones and Donna Noble. He respected and loved each one for their own worth. In fact, he tells Donna that she is more important and is worth much more than she thinks; he even snaps at Donna's mother because she always criticized Donna, and should offer her a word of support. 


What about god then? Oh the Judeo-Christian god is a misogynistic prick, who thinks that women are only worth for reproduction. That, we, women are inferior only because our genitals are found inside our bodies, and not externally... What a character! And how does this start? Because of a stupid myth, the one of Adam and Eve. The Bible is full of misogyny, and sexism. Let's look at just one example, in Deuteronomy:


22:23 If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; 22:24 Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.

So, if a woman is raped, and does not cry out she is to blame! Is this real justice?

I could go on and on, but this is a silly post and I know it. But in the end, the Doctor is more ethical than the Judeo-Christian god. And he is usually much more handsome, at least in the latest incarnations of Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant...

Religion and Free Expression II

A few days ago I had written the first part of this post. But there are new developments which happened just today, and I am really angry and sad at the same time. But let me first explain what happened.

About 3 months ago, my niece's teacher gave them various small projects to do. My niece's project was about the myths of Italy. Along with my sister, they sat down, and found three beautiful myths from Italy. Today was the day that my niece would present the project. The school owner, though, does not want my niece to present her project, on religious grounds yet again, because, in the myths, there were witches, ghosts and the devil! She now wants to look and read through the projects so she can "religiously" approve them!

I really don:t know what to say about this person, who is trying to make children into dogmatic soldiers for Jeebus, who is trying to impose her own dogmatism into children, who is forbidding every expression of imagination and inventiveness...

I do not care what that fundie believes. She can believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster for all I care! But she has no right to impose her own religious views, her own ideology, her own fantasies to anyone, not to my niece, let alone any other child!

She has no right to hurt not just my niece but any child in this way, she has no right to terrorize children in this way, she has no right to treat children in this manner, as if they are non-existent, as if they are nothing. And all the above because of religion! Children have their own characters, their own personalities, and they must be respected.

And yet again, my niece does not fully comprehend why. How can anyone explain to a 9-year old girl about people having attitudes like the fundies, and are trying to impose those on others without any respect for the individual? How can anyone explain to her what dogmatism and fundamentalism are? And what they do to people? How can anyone explain to her that this person is living in a fantasy world, one very much removed from reality?

I never understood, and still do not understand, why the Abrahamic religions need to impose their views, their ways to others. Why you are considered a sinner or whatever if you use your own logic, your empathy, your sensibility. your critical thinking skills, and find your own way in this world. I don:t want your religious views or your ideology; I don:t want to be preached at; I do not want you to judge me before you get to know me in person; I am not a soldier for Jeebus or Allah or whatever deity you believe in, and don:t want to be. I want to be free to choose and decide for myself; I want to be free to think for myself!

Religion and Free Expression

This article is a response to an event that happened to my 9 year old niece, who is attending a school in Athens Greece. Unfortunately, schools in Greece are not secular, and neither is the state secular. We still have a Ministry of Education and Religion, the constitution says that this is a christian country and part of our taxes go for the salaries of the greek orthodox priests! To explain a bit, even in state schools we have a class called "Religion", which actually is a propaganda for the Greek Orthodox religion.

When she chose the school that my niece is attending, nobody told her that it was a religious/faith school; it was understood that it was just a good school where religion was taught as part of the curriculum, just like in every other school. Nor was it in any way written anywhere that there would be any kind of religious problems or anything else religious except for the usual religious crap that all schools have to abide by.

My sister has explained to my niece that most of the things she is being told in the "Religion" class are myths and legends, and that they are not true; that there is no evidence for mystical resurrected zombies or parthenogenesis in humans...

Anyway, to continue with the story, my niece wanted to dress up for the annual school carnival party as a little devil girl, nothing frightening for other children. The owners of the school, though, forbade her the costume on religious grounds! They said that it is blasphemy to dress as such! Blasphemy again, the "protector" of religion from any kind of criticism, from logic, from critical thinking, from being human even, as it seems, from having fun! I wrote my ideas about blasphemy in a previous article in this blog, when I criticized the new blasphemy law of Ireland.

This is a clear fundamentalist attitude and as such my sister has complained but to no avail. Those people are set in their illogical, superstitious, irrational, dogmatic mind set, they have been lobotomized by religion and cannot think outside the box.

Of course, my sister's family will not be attending the school party; entrance per person was priced at 28 euros, and since my sister has 3 kids, you can understand how much these cost for a total of 5 persons.

One of the worst things is that they run a school which is supposed to give an education to children. But the worst of it all is the way they made a 9 year old child feel. My niece at this moment has been hurt, is feeling humiliated. All I can do, as her aunt, is to try and explain some things, but she does not understand why she cannot dress as a little devil in the school party; she does not yet understand religion and its implications.And right now she is wondering why she was forbidden to dress as a little devil, and she is angry at the school's owner.

Of course, the school will lose not just one student but three, as my sister has 3 children in all and none will be attending that particular school.

Children need to be free from such attitudes, they need to be free to think and express themselves; parents and the surrounding environment, have the responsibility to guide them and help them think logically, think critically, to use their empathy for other people, to be human.

How are children going to develop logic and critical thinking skills, when religion is superstitious and dogmatic? How are they going to be free and to express themselves, when religion limits that freedom? How are they going to learn to be responsible for their actions when religion teaches people to put responsibility to mythological beings (god and satan)? How are they going to learn to be human, to have empathy and to care for others when religion teaches them that they are sinners, and thus bad, and ugly? How are they going to be responsible citizens and be sensitive to major current events, when religion teaches "Have faith in God"? How are they going to consider themselves as an equal member of society, when religion teaches misogyny and racism?

Blasphemy in Ireland; The new law is a blow to humanism and secularism.

I was appalled when I heard about the new blasphemy law in Ireland. And here I thought, that despite the religiousness of a lot of Irish people, at least the government was secular. But I couldn't be more wrong. The new blasphemy law, fines anyone who blasphemes against christianity with a 25.000 (twenty-five thousand) euros!

This is a very dangerous law. It is a law that brings Ireland back to the days of the Spanish Inquisition, back to the days when even saying that the Earth revolves around the Sun, was blasphemy. Where do you draw the line? Why is it that religions are the only ones to cry "Blasphemy" every time someone uses their critical thinking and logic to dismantle their irrational claims?

This is a law that limits individual freedoms, the right to free speech. People have a right to free speech, and if they want to blaspheme, that is their right! Why do the religious find it okay to bash homosexuals, for example? And then, they will find it blasphemous to reply to this hate-mongering? How about the oppression of women in many religions, including christianity? Would it be okay to say that in the Bible god is a misogynistic prick? Which is backed up by evidence, from the religious holy book? Or it will be considered blasphemous?

How many books and movies have blasphemy in it? A lot of them. And if fundamentalists have their way, even science will be affected by this irrational and dangerous law. Evolution is considered, only by the religious, and especially the fundamentalists, to be a controversial subject. That man evolved is considered blasphemy to the fundies, even though the scientific evidence for evolution is overwhelming. And that is only one of the sciences that can be affected by the law.

And what is next? Would teachers be affected in their teaching of evolution, of the Big Bang, of everything that is contradictory to the holy book of christianity?

Ireland is paving the way back to irrationality, dogmatism, oppression, through this law. Because blasphemy is one important stepping stone backwards to the time of the Middle Ages, and the times of the Spanish Inquisition.

As a response to the new law, the Irish Atheists have put up in their blog 25 blasphemous quotations from famous people, including Jesus Christ, and are asking for everyone's support so that the new law can be repelled:

25 Blasphemous Quotations

God? No thank you.

I am an atheist, and I am OUT. I am a moderator in two atheist forums, one is the Richard Dawkins Forum, and the other is a greek atheist forum, atheia.gr, and in both I am known by the name Darkchilde.

There are some questions that come up all the time, and I thought of starting to collect them and answer them in my blog.

The first question I would like to address is: Why are you an Atheist?

Well, the first and main reason is that there is no scientific evidence for any god(s).

I rejected christianity and other forms of religion since I was a little girl. I remember being around 9-10 years old, and thinking how stupid the stories of Adam and Eve, and Noah's flood were. I was lucky in the fact that neither my mother nor father were very religious, and the only one trying to force religion down my throat was my grandmother.

I have been baptized an orthodox christian, which is the main religion in Greece, where I was born, raised and currently reside. Orthodox christianity is a bit different in some practices than other christian branches. First of all, the way the hymns are sung to my ears sounds more like noise than music. They are very loosely based to Byzantine Music, but to a child they mostly sound awful. And they did sound awful to my little ears as a child.

Not to mention that church is boring! You have to sit tight and listen to all that awful music, and to bible passages I did not understand! The Bible read in the orthodox churches, is in an old Greek language, a mixture between Ancient Greek and Modern Greek, which is not understood by the majority of the population. In fact, a translation of the Bible in Modern Greek did not exist for a very long time, having been translated and published in Modern Greek only in 1997!

Then there was the fact that my grandmother wanted to take me to church at every opportunity when I wanted to do something else, especially the 4-5 weeks before Easter. Each Friday in those weeks preceding Easter, there is a church service. Trouble is that, a certain year when I was a child still, every Friday on TV there was "Space 1999". And one of my favorite branch of literature/TV/Movies is Science Fiction and Fantasy, and it has been this way since I was a child. So, there comes this Friday a few weeks before Easter, and my grandmother wanted to take me to church for the service. I wanted to stay home, and watch "Space 1999". Of course, my grandmother being the elder and "more sensible" she won that round. However, I won the war! Because, I was constantly whining at church and for some time after, that I lost that episode, and how was I going to watch that [this was at a time before there were even VCRs!], and similar things. That episode I finally watched it at a much later date, on a VCR. Of course, now I have it on DVD!

And then, there was my love of science. And I am still in love with science. My influences when I was growing up included Isaac Asimov, and not just for his science fiction novels, but also for his popular science books, and Carl Sagan, with his series Cosmos. Watching Cosmos made me want to become an astronomer. Reading Asimov, made me want to study technology, specifically computers, and AI.

Then there was the question of gender inequality in religions. And since I am of the female gender, I could not understand why I was thought to be inferior in everything to males. And I was really angry when they told me that my goal in life should be to just find a man and get married and have babies! Just become something little better than a slave! I hated and resented that. And all that just because my reproductive organs are to be found inside my body...

The main attraction of the whole religion show in my childhood though was Sunday school. Well, that was still when my grandmother used to take me to church on Sunday, and then I would stay for the god lessons. I hated going to church on Sundays, even more. At the time, I had school Monday to Saturday, so Sunday was the only day I could sleep a little more and not have to wake up early.

But back to Sunday school. I never liked it. Why? because I never got a straight answer, and of course, the Bible teachers there did not like me too much either. So, after a few Sundays, it was commonly decided that Sunday school was not the best choice for me. That was before the Easter "Space 1999" trouble though.

And when I got to puberty? That was what was even worse. Because that's when the misogyny from religions strike. It wasn't because of sex, my parents explained to me all about sex, and what happens. It was because of my intellect as opposed to other people's. I have logic and critical thinking skills and applied them. Which meant that I outright rejected the orthodox church and christianity, to the dismay of my grandmother especially. I still though thought at the time, that we should respect religion, and still believed at a universal force behind everything.

I never was religious from that time on, and if I happened at church, it was because of a social event. I never gave it a thought about religion, as it never played a role in my life, other than my fights with my grandmother about it.

Another big influence on me, and never realized how big it was until recently, was my science professor in high school. Her name was Mrs. Casotti. Most students disliked her probably because she was quite strict. But I do now understand that she was also fair. She taught us real actual science, including evolutionary theory. I remember we had a whole session on Lucy, the Australopithecus Afarensis skeleton found in 1974.

I never remembered it until recently, that Mrs. Casotti had said that she was an atheist. And that was back in the second half of the 1980's.

How then did I realize that I was an atheist? In a period of 4 years, I lost 4 of my dearest people. I lost my grandfather to Alzheimer's; my grandmother to natural causes; my father to cancer, and the blow of blows for me, my then 26 (now would be 29) years old little sister.

At the time I was angry at everything and everyone; I thought that this was some cosmic joke against me. Then in my anger, I said that I don't believe in god or any universal force or whatever you want to call it. Even though, those were words of an angry spirit, of a person in a lot of pain, they were essentially true. And that, because in essence, I had never actually believed in any god(s) or any universal force(s)! But before I realized this, I still had to let go of the anger I felt.

That was a very slow process, that came about with the help and support of my family and friends. Although most of my family was devastated from such losses, we still held through. A couple of months later, I was on my way to healing and had started to let go of the anger. The pain mellows with time, but there is always a hole and a scar left from such huge losses.

About January 2008, I received an order from Amazon, which included the book "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins. I had heard of Prof. Dawkins as an eminent biologist, and was curious about the book.

The book did not tell me anything new; I had argued a lot of the same arguments with my grandmother and other religious people. What it did though, was to put my thoughts and my ideas into a logical order, to make me say that "the god hypothesis does not compute" and to make me realize, that all this time I was really an atheist. I just did not call myself that and I was clinging to a notion of god, of higher power that made sense to me and me alone! I also realized that I had to let go of my last irrational taboos, that I held to them for no other reason than to please others and not myself.

So, I left behind any notion of fasting: I was doing it purely for traditional purposes, and not for myself. I wasn't eating meat for a week, only to please some irrational old tradition, and was going hungry, and resorting to eating all sorts of crap food just to make up for the growling of my stomach! Since I stopped doing it, I am much happier with myself.

Then, it was the time for blasphemy: but I had blasphemed a number of times, when I had criticized religion for the irrationality of the stories in the Bible, for the misogyny, and for many other things. What was then different about religious figures in comparison let's say to the Star Wars characters? [Okay, I admit it, DARTH VADER IS GOD!] Religious figures feature in a book and are the protagonists of a book. And I held them in respect because ... of convention! So, now I am finally free to complete blaspheme! And yes, Sweet Fucking Zombie Jesus!

Thus I realized, that I had been an atheist since I was a teenager, since I had rejected religion, any religion, and I always followed the evidence...