I've even raped and killed a mountain panda in the hills of Shaanxi.

Somehow the library system fucked up its hold list and let me check out God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. I blazed through it in one night and am currently reading it more leisurely, for such gems as this:

Actually the "leap of faith" - to give it the memorable name that Kierkegaard bestowed upon it - is an imposture. As he himself pointed out, it is not a "leap" that can be made once and for all. It is a leap that has to go on and on being performed, in spite of mounting evidence to the contrary. This effort is actually too much for the human mind, and leads to delusions and manias... Now that religion's monopoly has been broken, it is within the compass of any human being to see these evidences and proofs* as the feeble-minded inventions they are.

Also of course the chapter "Why Heaven Hates Ham."

* including arguments from design, revelations, punishments, and miracles.

People don't want their beliefs challenged, they want them supported.

With that in mind, I give you God Is Imaginary.

With such gems as Jesus Was a Jerk.

Luke 14:26: Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.

OK, so if we hate everything, we can be Jesus' disciple. That's a great message from someone who elsewhere says, "Love your enemy" and "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." And don't forget that one of the commandments is to honor your father and mother. So which is it Jesus? If we want to be your disciple, should we love our enemies, our neighbors and our parents, or should we hate them? Only a jerk would create a totally contradictory set of requirements like that.

thought of the day:

just because something makes you "uncomfortable" does not make it "immoral"