Jeff Hanneman of Slayer dead at 49

       The band announced via Facebook on Thursday. Hanneman, who had been taking a break from the band to recover from an illness that affected his liver, died of liver failure, according to the announcement.

“Slayer is devastated to inform that their band mate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. He was 49. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed.”

“As you know, Jeff was bitten by a spider more than a year ago, but what you may not have known was that for a couple of days after he went to the ER, things were touch-and-go. There was talk that he might have to have his arm amputated, and we didn't know if he was going to pull through at all. He was in a medically-induced coma for a few days and had several operations to remove the dead and dying tissue from his arm. So, understand, he was in really, really bad shape...”

* In the July 1998 issue of Guitar World magazine, on page 196, Jeff Hanneman of the band Slayer is mentioned by the writer of the interview as being atheist.

Fail healing

I read a story about 4 years ago about a couple in Pennsylvania who prayed
their child to death. Herbert and Catherine Schaible were given ten years of probation after
this faith healing incident in 2009. The most important condition of that probation was to seek medical care for their remaining children.

Once again they have allowed their fundamentalism to get in the way of taking action. They lost their 8-month-old son, Brandon, last week after he suffered from diarrhea and breathing problems for at least a week, and stopped eating. Prayer working to no avail once again.

These situations are only made possible by fundamentalist religion. So if anyone is ever wondering how people get to an atheistic worldview here is a perfect example. Fairy tales do not make good guides to real life.

Steven V.

The storytelling of science

Part 1

Part 2

Quick thoughts on debates.

I have watched many debates between theologians and atheist scholars. These debates, although not always changing minds, do open the minds of both sides. This is beneficial to both sides of the argument, it softens the atheist to an understanding p.o.v., while giving the theist a perspective from outside the "bubble". I originally was a Catholic and converted to Baptist during these moments I was surrounded by teachers and authority figures whose word I trusted... Until I began asking questions that is. I asked my pastor one day; "When we go to heaven will we remember our life here?" His answer to put it bluntly was "NO". This was the moment I was introduced to debate. I asked him "why would god put us through this life just to have us forget it?" He could not answer my question without saying "It is gods plan" and that I needed to "pray to god for the answers". That was the conversation that started my journey toward realization. 10000 religions and 1000 gods later, I have made my decision that these gods and religions are all man made.

"Exactly what you would expect to see from a primate species" - Christopher Hitchens

We are still cast against each other...

Since the first humans ran into each other after a few thousand years of change we have been at war. Technology, historical records and information have changed the face of our planet. We evolved ourselves by changing our environment to suit our needs. In less than 150 years we have evolved our environment faster than our evolutionary process ever could have adapted us naturally.  

The point I am getting to is humans are still animals. We still have the same aggressive nature, territorial obsessions and sexual tendencies as our cousin species. Although we have created a society we still live in a tribal mindset. Our large numbers create large and small offshoot groups with different beliefs. Skin color was one of the first types of noticeable difference. Now we have politics religion and other unnecessary group think situations. People need to have something or someone to follow. Occasionally an individual or a group of people take advantage of these "follower types". 

Propaganda machines control large masses of people into believing things that are unlikely and unreasonable. "People are literally being programmed" These top down hierarchies are terrible for societal progress, especially if the top group is considered infallible. Natural segregation is occurring, mostly in major cities with heavy urban population. More and more people with more and more differences is a recipe for war. We have small wars that take place "tribal like" gang violence. Larger groups are involved in political or religious wars. The wars on drugs, terror, thought, free enterprise and religion are all superficial. What lies beneath is good old fashioned bigotry and hatred. Traditions holding on by a thread. I am sorry but repeating history is kind of out of style these days.

"Ignorance is a choice in an information age."

Pat Robertson at it again...

Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson has been a voice for conservative Christianity for some time now. Pat has made many controversial statements throughout his career things like:

1. About Haitian earthquake... "It may be a blessing in disguise. ... Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. Haitians were originally under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it's a deal. Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other." –Pat Robertson

2. About women..."I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period." –Pat Robertson

3. About gays in Disney "I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you, This is not a message of hate -- this is a message of redemption. But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It'll bring about terrorist bombs; it'll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor." –Pat Robertson

So god does not provide miracles based on intelligence now. I always thought it was a simple as miracles don't actually happen. Well this guy is so full of great informative assumptions based on dogmatic speculation that I find myself unable to deny this awesome logic... NOT

With education comes less miracles is definitely a true statement but not for the reasons "Pat" describes. We know more and can actually answer real questions now using real science Patty boy, so we don't recognize claims unless they are tested and proven. That's why miracles happen less here, we just don't believe the bullshit stories people make up as they go along. If anything hallucinations may occur and regression to the mean situations may take place. For example: if someone is being treated for cancer by a doctor and that cancer eventually recedes IT WAS THE DOCTOR AND THE MEDS! not a miracle.

WORDS!!!
       Steven V.

Blue Collar Heathens Online Radio by Blue Collar Heathens | Blog Talk Radio

Blue Collar Heathens Online Radio by Blue Collar Heathens | Blog Talk Radio

Another attack?... always with the attacking!

Here we go with another attack! on Christianity?

From what I understand a bunch of conservative people were pissed off today. Why? you ask... well I am going to tell you why, Cesar Chavez... that's why! You see there's this search engine called Google (you know the most famous search engine/household name/ verb) did not happen to advertise Easter on Easter. I know what your thinking {I thought Christianity was the only religion?} That however is not the case.

President Obama declared the 31st to be Cesar Chavez day. "I call upon all Americans to observe this day with appropriate service, community, and educational programs to honor Cesar Chavez's enduring legacy." Sounds like we just lost another day off...

So that brings us to why... From my own perspective, I do not see this as Google attacking anything. I see a widely used product. Every type of person uses Google, religion is not universal. Many other people who do not subscribe to Christianity may be just as offended as these Christians who were not given their special attention. According a Google spokesperson said "We enjoy celebrating holidays at Google but, as you may imagine, it's difficult for us to choose which events to highlight on our site. Sometimes for a given date we feature an historical event or influential figure that we haven't in the past."

Since March 31'st was recently adopted as Cesar Chavez day that was the focus. I checked out the Google doodles page and saw they had one in 2000. I have not heard complaints before, then again I probably was not paying attention then. 

Word up!

         Steven V.

Spring Celebration time (a.k.a. Easter)

Today as I sit and contemplate our humble beginnings, Easter is put into a different perspective. For some, Easter is the celebration of Jesus' (zombie like) resurrection. For others Higan ({japan}spirits crossing over to nirvana) as well as Nowruz ( Iranian new year, stems back to Zoroastrianism) are celebrated around the same time. These events are well known in the areas they are celebrated, as Easter is to us.

I mention these holidays because their roots are older than all of these religious traditions. 

Our ancestors living on the plains of Africa 60,000+ years ago also did some egg decorating. Pagan rituals have been passed down through thousands of generations, celebrating the coming of spring and the rebirth of life. We used animal symbols to represent fertility like eggs and rabbits. Humans began to celebrate spring to welcome back food and warmth from the depths of the winter. The rituals also helped us with agriculture, timing when to plant seeds and when to begin hunting and gathering again. Our ancestors began to track these seasonal changes and taught the next generations how to remember by using rituals like these. Eventually we developed dances and story telling about amazing things that took place behind the scenes of nature. These amazing stories about the inner most workings of nature quenched our thirst for answers. 

Now in the twenty first century however we know the answers. We have discovered the true under-workings of nature. We know what spring is and that it arrives every year and why it arrives. We no longer need to assert magic is the cause. Yet... every year these celebrations continue to give thanks and pay homage to stories we created to answer a question we could not properly answer at the time. 

Over and out,

          Steven V.

Worried about your package not arriving? Try being an atheist!

Recently in Germany a shoe company titled Atheist shoes tested a hypothesis using the 

United States postal service. 

“We have lots of customers in the USA, but sometimes the shoes we send them take longer than they should to arrive, or even go missing,” the atheist shoe website declared “And when some of our customers asked us not to use ATHEIST-branded packaging tape on their shipments, we started to wonder if the delays were caused by the US Postal Service taking offence at our overt godlessness.”

They tested this theory by mailing two packages to 89 United States customers in 49 states, one box with the ATHEIST tape and one without. 
The packages with ATHEIST tape took 3 days longer to arrive and were 10 times more likely to disappear. They also conducted similar experiments in Europe, these tests showed no bias. 

“Interestingly, this seems to be a national problem — traditionally less religious and more liberal states also saw high levels of delay and disappearance,” they wrote. “Sadly, many of our customers who took part in this experiment were not surprised by our findings, even thought tampering with post is a Federal Offence.”

The results of the company did show some statistical significance, so they have decided to stop using the ATHEIST packing tape on all American shipments. The company's delivery times are already improving.