RagingRev

If you’ve never been exposed to the annual deluge of commentary from Christian pundits and lay persons alike, consider yourself lucky. In America today, especially in the Bible Belt (where I so begrudgingly abide) you can’t look twice before you find someone claiming that there is some sort of “War on Christmas or Christianity”. I wouldn’t have a problem with people like Glenn Beck or Bill O’rielly if they actually had a leg to stand on when they make these egregious claims, but the simple truth is that they do not. Today I am going to explore not only why these consistently bad claims are entirely incorrect but also give a surprising retrospective view of my own position on Christmas and other traditionally Christian holidays.

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I’ve always been a relative extremist, somewhere in my genetic code is the overwhelming desire to be right and to make my correctness known to mankind. This explains the evangelical nature of my Christian faith, as well as the nature of my atheistic stance. Ever so slowly I have recognized the folly of extremism and attempted to reconcile my competing worldviews with a more balanced position. I’m nowhere near perfect at this,  I still consider myself a strong atheist and feel a moral obligation to make reason a more acceptable worldview. Balance has defined my politics for longer than it has my views on theism however.

When I was 18 I joined the Democratic Socialist Party after reading the Communist Manifesto in combination with the  Acts of the Apostles (I realize now a bit better about the communal nature of the early Christian Church, so lets not turn the comments into that). My ideals still hold that above all things people should be free, fed, healthy, and informed – something I do not believe capitalism will ever provide. I have also dabbled greatly in the world of conspiracy theory and the underground occult which shaped my worldview during the Bush administration as a member of the 9/11 Truth Movement (again, not debating that here). Through that movement I noticed all the conspiracy nuts (of which I don’t think I belong any longer) rooting for the Presidential campaign of one Dr. Ron Paul. Through Ron Paul I discovered the roots of the Republican Party, I began to realize that the GOP was  not what theocrats  like Jerry Falwell had made it out to be and instead was about individual freedom, self guiding markets, States Rights, and policies that did not cause havoc in the lives of the people of sovereign nations. Not a list of things that I agree with 100%, but I find them to fit a political ideal that is realistic. When Ron Paul didn’t get the GOP Nomination I voted for Barack Obama as opposed to having Sarah Pahlin anywhere near the White house. Currently my political views are a strange conglomeration of Socialist, Communist, Republican and I consider myself a lover of freedom. I strive to explore  all sides of a debate before I make any commentary or form a strong opinion and I think that is how I came to be such a plethora of political contradictions.

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Save Me From Myself - courtesy Amazon

About two years ago Brian “Head” Welch , former guitarist of Korn, made headlines when he turned from the “Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll” lifestyle to accepting Jesus and becoming a Christian. Since then Head has released a Christian album  and book called Save Me From Myself.

More recently Korn’s bassist Reggie “Fieldy” Arvizu has given his life to Christ as well. He, like Head,  has a book that just released on March 10th called Got The Life to tell about the kind of person he used to be before he made the decision to follow his own understanding of God.

Got The Life~courtesy Amazon

These types of conversions, from a life of extremes and drugs, happen every day among peoplethat are not nearly as well known. In fact there are multiple nation wide ministries dedicated to inducing this sort of addiction intervention – you’ve probably seen the guys from Teen Challenge at your local Wal-Mart asking for donations. The question regarding these events for me though is whether or not accepting the drug of Jesus  (or insert religion here) is an improvement on an addiction to methamphetamine (or insert drug here).

Is it?

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I think I have dealt with this before on this blog, but things seem to have escalated around here at my small Georgia town. My wife and I seem to increasingly be the subject of random conversation with people that we don’t even really know.

To be completely honest, one of the things that prompted me to start RagingRev and move my blog from Livejournal was that the rumor mill was running wild around these parts. My former Pastor approached me at the gas station one day telling me that he heard I was in to “Satanism” and things like that, at the time I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the title of Atheist but once I settled into those shoes I felt the need to dispell some of the ludicrous things that were being falsely derived from my Livejournal at the time. Quite simply put, someone (I don’t know whom) read a few of my entries wherein I express an interest in the Occult, and decided that I must be a Satanist…how silly!

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As I said earlier I was sick most of the weekend, I had an overall icky feeling, stomach aches, a good cough, and sore tonsils. The Stomach pains all but went away yesterday, but my throat has still been hurting, so I was taking Tylenol Cough and Sore Throat to help that, and it works wonderfully.

Here’s the problem; Tylenol Cough and Sore Throat DAYTIME  and Dollar General Generic Sore Throat NIGHT TIME come in the SAME BOTTLE, are the SAME COLOR (blue), and have almost exactly the SAME FLAVOR. So this morning before I went to work (a 45 minute drive)  I took two huge gulps (almost half the bottle) of the NIGHTTIME formula. Needless to say it was a long drive, combine NPR with sleep inducing medicine and you have a recipe for disaster. I was all over the road and I had to slap myself alot to stay awake. My boss realized how bad off I was so she took me off the phones and had me shadow over the new guy and let me leave at 2 when everyone got back from lunch. I was very intoxicated and if I would have had to do a sobriety test I would have promptly failed.  I didn’t find the NightTime portion on the label until I got to work BTW

So today’s lesson? Read the labels, no matter how similar things may seem, they can very well be different.

So as I said yesterday, last night Monica and I went to a Between the Buried and Me and He is legend concert at the Macon Venue Project. Before the show we went by Cheddars and ate–if you have never been there, the Monte Cristo is awesome, and so are the buffalo chicken wraps, and almost everything I have ever had there, I tried a Blue Moon wheat beer (with orange slice) and it was absolutely wonderful (so try it if you haven’t yet).

We then ran by the Pet-Smart store down the road and bought some food for my rats—we were running late at the time and since I am anal retentive when it comes to being on time I almost lost it with the lady that had 50 cans of cat food that had to be rung up by the ONLY FREAKING CASHIER in the place. Alas, we did make it out of there, and after we finally found a parking spot we waited in line for about 45 minutes at the venue.

Consider this your warning: There is some strong language past this point…if you are easily offended don’t read on, if you are easily offended and you still read it, don’t gripe at me about it. Capiche?

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A short one here…first of all, we have our debate and our topic picked out, look for that real soon…this one should be fun for both sides.

Now…i have been frequenting a forum called “Christian Doctrine Discussion” for about 3 weeks now…its a tiny forum and I started going there because a friend said they were open minded—boy was I wrong. I just got banned last night, no warning given…nor a reason..and the last message addressed to me is by Rick, the administrator saying:

And preferably not to RevOxley_501 who wants to convert you into believing the devils scam.

The context was that a Christian was struggling and being encouraged to find someone to talk to…i told him that I certainly understood the doubts he was enduring as well as anyone there…that post has been deleted.

Thought i would share that with you, since I was nothing but kind at that place and tried to understand everyone’s point of view…Christian love is once again invisible and unseen.

Think I was probably rude?  here are all my posts—I may have shown some confusion as some really hard to understand English, but I think I was more than respectful. What do you think?

Well anyway, Rick was supposed to be compiling evidence for me that the Bible was trustworthy as a source…he said the Holy Spirit told him he could—i guess the Holy Spirit changed his mind?

So , for the christians—here is a tip, if an ex-Christian comes up to your forum one day…talk to him, he might be a nice guy…im over my bitter stage I think…maybe you can learn from him, and him from you…give us a chance, and at least pretend to love us.

It’s that time again folks, Entrecard Top Droppers for the Month of November are listed below. Once again, thanks for dropping AND reading my posts…sorry they have been so scarce lately. I’m working on a post in a few minutes to put up after this one though.

Computer Aid

Room 237: Origins

The Matthias Chronicles

joanjoyce

The Way I See It

Web Blog of Greg Mathews

My note’s

Mind Relaxing Ideas

Veramore

From the Eyes of my Heart

I suggest everyone visit these kind blogs…i actually read most of these on occassion. Despite not agreeing with everyone here on everything, they are definately good reads and seemingly kind folks.

Its Black Friday, and this is my post:

Yesterday was Thanksgiving…. I don’t get into the sappy family thing much but here are some things i am thankful for:

1: My wife–she is pretty cool most of the time

2: Freethought–it has brought me to the happiest point in my life thus far

3: A job–as much as i hate it at times, alot of folks are without them currently

4: This blog–i would be nuts without some sort of place to air my greivances (get the Festivus reference there?)

Since i feel the need to complain just a tad today, some things I am NOT thankful for:

1: Christmas–I hate christmas

2: The war on Christmas-Yea, im sick of it—just to annoy those of you that take up this cause every year because someone wants to say Happy Holidays and be all inclusive IM gonna call it Xmas—there it is, X mas…no jesus there haha!

3: Christmas Music—if you like it then you may be worse off than first thought

4: Christmas lights— gaudy and wasteful

5:Christmas Shopping—its just …i hate it. People, like my wife, right now, blackfriday shopping with money they dont have buying things they and I don’t need or on credit they cant afford.

Read more: This is a letter to the editor i wrote last year @ xmas time

Relavent Rhino has a good post about the war on christmas–check it out (!Language Warning!)

The Atheist Experience is a weekly live call-in television show sponsored by the Atheist Community of Austin .

In the following sound clip a Christian calls in trying to support the idea that God (YHWH of the Bible and Jesus) is morally superior to mankind….I think the hosts of the show make some wonderful points here as to just how that might not be the case. Enjoy!

The Atheist Experience-Morality