Atheist De-Baptism (my rough draft response)

Wow! I just ran across a...well...interesting article. It is shocking, though not surprising, to my Catholic sensibilities. Read on.

"Wielding a blow-dryer, a leading atheist conducted a mass "de-baptism" of fellow non-believers and symbolically dried up the offending waters that were sprinkled on their foreheads as young children. "

Me: Though I appreciate the tongue in cheek humor that this probably arose from, I can't help flinching at this blatant reversal. It smacks slightly of inverted crucifixes to me. I'm sure there are Hellworms loving this particular human antic.

"[Edwin Kagin, American Atheist's national legal director] has reportedly called out parents who subject their children to strict fundamentalist religious education, referring to it as child abuse."

A Cincinnati woman said, "I was born atheist and they were forcing me to become Catholic."

Me: So baptism is now child abuse!? It is not enough for a person to submit to the wisdom of their parents as children and be legally free of their official influence at 18 years of age. Will it become illegal for parents to form their children at all? Is this seriously what these people want? I know there is a spiritual undercurrent here. Of course this is what "they" want. This group just doesn't believe "they" exist. Has no one ever read "Brave New World"? Goodness, even "Ender's Game" would provide a glimpse as to how this would play out. Perhaps they read them, and saw them as paradises, not nightmares inclement.

"They are practicing child abuse in teaching that the world operates in ways other than it does," he told the convention crowd. "And in my opinion, they are engaged in terrorism by weakening our nation and our understanding of science and things with which we can defend ourselves and progress. If it had not been for these fools we could have been at the stars 2,000 years ago."

Me:
2 points:
1)WHO is teaching that the world operates in a way other than it does!? Same could be said of you people.
2) He obviously doesn't know his history very well. Though I will grant that the "2000 years ago" part is dramatic exaggeration, it is actually the irreligious who have held back progress. May I suggest reading "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" by Thomas E. Woods Jr., Ph.D. One example being that King Henry VIII's suppression of Catholicism and his act of closing down monasteries in the 1530's may very well have delayed the industrial era and it's related wealth, life expectancy and technology by two and a half centuries. English monks were making major technological breakthroughs around the time they were all cast out of their monasteries by the king. See chapter 3 of Dr. Woods book.

Kagin said religion should not be used to determine how people ought to live their lives. "They're doing harm to women who want to control their own bodies and their own reproductive rights," he said. "They're doing harm to a great number of people and they're saying that 'what we're doing is sacred and inviolate. We can do whatever we want to your rights, and you can not react.' That's what they're doing."

Me: Irreligion should not be used to determine how people aught to live their lives. Who says you, Kagin, are the right one here.
Rights. So easily invented. Natural law. Rights have become a definition for anything a person or group thinks it should be able to do because they think it will make them happy. You can jump off a cliff right after declaring that flying will make your life better and thus you declare your right to be free from the oppression of gravity. That doesn't mean that is the way the world objectively works. Gravity will still kill you.
They are saying that they should be able to decimate civility, stability, and human biological and psychological science and you religious/logical people should not be able to react to us.


"He recited a few mock-Latin syllables, to the audience's amusement. An assistant produced a large hairdryer, labeled "Reason and Truth," and handed it to Kagin. The man who'd elected himself to be de-baptized stood before him. Kagin turned on the hairdryer, blowing the hot air in his face in an attempt to symbolically dry up his baptismal waters.

"Come forward now and receive the spirit of hot air that taketh away the stigma and taketh away the remnants of the stain of baptismal water," Kagin shouts."

Me: "Jadedness and self delusion" maybe the label should have been. Yeah, I'll agree with the "hot air" part. *Giggle*

"Atheists poke fun at baptisms in this ceremony, saying they believe their waving around a hairdryer holds the same level of magical and spiritual powers as does the baptismal ceremony."

Me: I have no doubt. Such a blatant denial of Christ certainly shows your defiance as surely as the fallen angels refusal to serve. You think it all means nothing. We know it ALL means something.

"Kagin said he thought some people might get overly offended by his poking fun at religion. "If someone is so secure in their faith, why are they the least bit concerned about some little atheist mocking them?" he asked. "I think the reason they are worried and concerned is the very deep fear that if everyone doesn't believe it, maybe it isn't so."

Me: Concern for your soul maybe. Concerned that you might to impose your version of "morality and reality" on us all by taking legal steps as an organisation, yes. If everyone doesn't believe it, maybe it is not so? This doesn't worry me. Not everyone will believe it. We have free will.

""I don't lose much sleep over [it] because everyone has the right to do what they want to do within the law," he said. "That's what I believe in."

Me: Well, there are no laws saying you are required to baptise your children. Baptism isn't intrinsically evil. There should never be a law to criminalize baptizing your children. Okay. I might ask, what makes "law" the absolute for you Mr Kagin? If there was a law that required you to baptize your children, then what? You would lay down and concede, give up because it is "the law" and "you can do what you want to do WITHIN the law"? You will do nothing if you believe that law is wrong!? I don't believe you would. If you didn't oppose a law you thought was unjust, I would be disappointed in you as a human being, Mr Kagin. You should be outraged at the Christians who don't oppose Roe V Wade if "LAW" has a value and a standard it must represent and isn't arbitrary. You may not agree, but you need to decide on a few definitions. All things are not definitionless.

"Kagin said that he saw the conflict between atheists and believers as America's religious civil war. He said bad manners are a reasonable weapon in that war, but he said it was unlikely that atheists would emerge as the victors.

"Atheists have no chance whatsoever of prevailing in a direct confrontation with believers," he said. "There are far too many [believers]."

Me: Yes, bad manners make those offended reflect on why they think something is wrong... or they just get angry, which is not the ideal reaction for an intelligent person. Reflection and reasoning out one's beliefs are a good thing... on both sides of your religious civil war.

Atheists will not loose because of numbers. They very well may win or at least gain ground for a time. They will ultimately lose because their view of reality is false. God will win in the end because He is God and Truth is not relative.

-Anna Truckey

Source. Supposedly you can learn more about all this tonight (Saturday July 17, 2010)on ABC's Nightline.

Mother Carries Us All

Fetal microchimerism.
Ever heard of it?

Women retain cells of every child they have ever conceived. Every child. Not just the children she delivered, but the children she miscarried or aborted also.

Have you ever noticed that many children who have older siblings seem emotionally attached to them, EVEN when they never knew them personally? Twins who lost their sibling in utero or shortly after birth often feel a strange sense of loss. I have heard people talk about these effects in children. Did you know that some of the cells retained by the mother through fetal michrochimerism are passed on to each consecutive child the mother conceives. Thus the youngest child in the family carries part of every sibling their mother has ever carried. I am the oldest child and have found this to be a reason to envy my kid sister. I am not saying these emotional reactions are due only to fetal microchimerism. I am saying that the coincidence is very thought provoking and a little haunting.

My kid sister, Teresa, is my youngest sibling. My mother miscarried a child before Teresa was conceived. We do not talk about that missing sibling very often. However, Teresa has always remained very conscious that our family is missing a person. Since she is the youngest, I have always found this odd. My brother and I were old enough to grieve when mother miscarried Joseph Michael and yet Teresa, who was born after the incident, seems the most affected.

In the case of miscarriage, fetal microchimerism can be very comforting. A part of that child is always with the mother and younger siblings carry part of their missing sibling with them always. However, I have also thought about how haunting this idea can be when it comes to women who have chosen to abort their children. Part of those children remain with the mother always. Is it any wonder that there are post abortion healing programs for mothers, like Project Rachel? If one cannot be rid of all the physical evidence that they conceived a child, now missing, how can one presume that emotions about the event can be shrugged off?

I have found this very interesting. I am no scientist. I just hear information presented and ponder it.

---------------------

"Cutting the umbilical cord doesn't necessarily sever the physical link between mother and child. Many cells pass back and forth between the mother and fetus during pregnancy and can be detected in the tissues and organs of both even decades later. This mixing of cells from two genetically distinct individuals is called microchimerism. The phenomenon is the focus of an increasing number of scientists who wonder what role these cells play in the body." Source.

Inform Thyself

Heard of Vicki Thorn?

You might want to.

JMJ Media… Google it.

If I were being less lazy I’d give you a link.

Maybe one that looks like this…

Link!

If you have a daughter, check her out. If you are married, check her out. If you are a woman, check her out. If you are single and want to know more about how the human body works, check her out.

If I had to pick one audio CD to recommend that you pick up, it’d be

“ The Biology of the Theology of the Body: The Biochemistry of Sex”.

(^-^)

FYI

Down and Then Some

Heavenly Father,

I sit. The house is empty. TV silent. The floorboards are quiet. The fridge hums in the kitchen. Words on the page feel like so many threadbare socks to my mind. The cat sighs. Thank God for that. I wait for an email, a phone call, a letter, or the door to open. However the world in busy and I am tethered by too much gravity. I yearn. I don't live alone. I might as well.

I long to share. Let us break the bread, let us stretch our neural networks over a book! Or a poem. Or an article, or a broadcast, or a stray thought. Iron sharpens iron. A sword in a corner is a meaningless thing. Perhaps it has a past. Perhaps it has a future. However, the present is the only real thing, and the present is empty. Am I real at all?

I startled myself the other day. I giggled. It so suddenly broke the silence that I felt embarrassed. If there is no one else to hear the sound, could it have just been imagined? Perhaps more startling, I read a joke today. It was very funny, but I didn't laugh. I didn't smile. My eyes didn't even crinkle around the edges.

The sun has been falling like ash on the windowsill. Perhaps I should close the shade. My cereal tastes like dust on my spoon. I know making eggs won't help. My ideas feel like lint in my brain pan. I'd get as much fulfillment from contemplating the beige ceiling as I would from painting. Or drawing. Or whatever. There is nothing inside.

My sister went to pick out her engagement ring. She took my mother and my sister, and though I stood right there, I was not invited. I said nothing. I am a coward.

Sometimes it is all I can do.

I know summer is beautiful.
I know life is a magnificent thing.
Perhaps I am blind this season.

Sometimes writing helps.

Amen

Spill Forth

This urgency to spill forth ink
is almost embarrassing.
Without burning bridges
I want to be moved.
With blue tinted vision
I'll accept this freedom
as the closest thing to closure I'll get.
If you want me to.

Concerning the way it was,
the landscape of human love
is a terrain of violent gray.
Yet a song of faith springs forth
with life off the lips
of someone searching for the last goodbye.

I am nothing but the sum
of one life lived
questing after the banner of a lost cause.
One honest confession
can own my very substance,
Breaking my heart for the better.

Dreams

There is a litany of lost dreams
sung by a choir.
Their hope is gone.
Wizards in a Narnian winter.
In Your mercy we are broken
and falling up.
We pray to Love's might
and remember
that everyone is like me.

We lay down our pride
like the queen of the night
we ask, "Are you real?
Like a Siberian sleigh ride?"
Under oath,
reinvent your exit
for the sake of your brother.

A lonely bell has the power
to open wounds and to toss the wisdom
of the snow
from the skillet into a day of fire.
The song of the river is out of control.

Sooner
or later
we will come back to reason
when the boatmen
ring the evening bells.

Yet let this one stay,
for it has different wings.
They float on the apparitions of
a melody.

Rite of Passage

Raise your fist and rail
against this cacophonous land.
Does anyone ever receive
a fair chance
and solid ground?

Am I a better me for
having broken wings?
What if Grandpa had lived?

Life is a search
for the joy I had,
but I am turning away my chances
to march forward into the mystery.
The weeds around my feet are ready
for the storms of change.

Have I had enough of limping
down the trail of the survivor?
Closing down,
will this love be enough to carry me on?

-ShadowSong