Sunday, May 6, 2012

Why Mike Bermudez is an atheist...

Mike Bermudez pens a guest post on Pharyngula on why he's an atheist. His post, with my commentary:

Why I’m An Atheist – Mike Bermudez


I perhaps had it easier than most. Actually, I’m quite sure I did. While my father took me to a Roman Catholic church when I was little- at least from the ages 7 to 10 -I never paid attention.
Unlike most young kids, who listen in rapt fascination to Mass.
Quite frankly at the latter stages, I was quite uncomfortable with the whole thing.
Unlike most kids, he fidgeted.
Bored out of my mind for one and having to dress up in cloths that I never cared to wear. In fact, one time I asked my dad if I could bring a book on dinosaurs to read. You know, in case I got bored.
I let my youngest read books on dinosaurs. It's hard to sit still for any reason for an hour when you're a kid. Unless you're playing video games...

I later figured that my father was doing this solely at the behest of my grandparents. I’m not sure why he stopped going and thus my not going, but it was quite nice. The nightly prayers stopped too- what a bore those were.
Mike's life is centered around evading boredom...

My mom on the other hand had become Buddhist or perhaps had been for some time- I’m not sure. She would take me to weekly meetings and would have me sit with her at our home alter. Not only was I already bored with religion in general, but now it’s in a different language. Oh joy.
Children should never be asked to participate in things that don't entertain them...

The weekly meetings were much more fun than the Catholic church.
Whew!
There were kids to play with, I could read whatever I brought with me, sometimes if it was held at someone’s house, they might have dogs for me to pet! Oh and I often had to do my homework. Never seemed to escape that. This too stopped being a common occurrence. Again I’m not too sure when, although I believe I was in the 6th grade. It was also around this time that I started to slowly learn about religion, but it wouldn’t be until High School that I really got into it.
Notice how nearly all "Why I'm an atheist" posts consist mainly of atheists telling us how boring church was to them when they were kids. P.Z. should expand his selection of posters beyond 12 year olds.

My “indoctrination” into mocking religion came in the form of “No-God.com”. If you’ve never been and wish for a 90s flash-back, I highly recommend it. This website had a great mix of humor and facts. Very dark and twisted humor. Perfect for a high school student engrossed in all things Metal and GWAR.

Mike put a lot of thought into his rejection of God. A "90's flashback" God-mocking website, Metal and GWAR. I'm waiting for Mike's views on Marilyn Manson's take on the cosmological argument and Jesus' atonement for our sins...

GWAR, along with Marilyn Manson, led to some new websites and interesting people/ideas.
Mike reasoned that any universe that spawned Marilyn Manson couldn't have been intelligently designed.
The “Church of the Sub Genius” is one of them as well as the “Church of Satan”.
Nice bit of candor there...
Satanism is just as boring to me as Christianity,
Satan bores Mike. I doubt that Mike bores Satan.
although at the time was certainly something fun to heat people up with in a hurry. Aside from cheesy websites and religions, I didn’t much pay attention to it all. In fact, I’m not sure I was too familiar with the term “Atheist” at the time.
It doesn't seem that Mike was familiar with anything except GWAR, Metal, and Satanism. Time to expand your horizons, Mike...
I believe my standard reply to the question of my religious affiliation was: “I don’t have time for any of that.”
Why do I have the feeling that Mike's problem with Christianity was that it told him that there were some things he shouldn't do?


After discovering Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and PZ Myers, it became quite clear to me that Atheism was here to stay in my life. Not only that, but it helped me gain confidence in what I believed in and a confidence to be open and expressive about it. I feel very free about life and much more excited about the natural beauty of the world because of it.

Mike Bermudez
Fnord
Mike's pablum is common in Myers' "Why I'm an atheist" series. A kid is bored to death by church or is exposed to fundamentalist views that are in conflict with accepted science. At that point, thinking seems to stop. The dejected tween declares himself a skeptic or atheist or whatever, and his mind closes like a trap, never coming to grips with the serious arguments for God's existence or with genuine encounter with God in prayer. Atheist fundamentalism is a good word for it, except that it is an insult to Christian fundamentalists, who are far more thoughtful and perceptive and who are right about the things that matter.

Myers of course fosters all of this callow atheism. You'll notice that his own arguments against God are merely the same arguments as the bored adolescents use.

New Atheism is intellectual degradation.

13 comments:

  1. Further proof for the connection between Autism and Atheism?
    Note how he made his way to Atheism via Satanism.
    Satanists LOVE Atheism. It is the second best route down the 'left hand path' in their teachings.
    Excellent insight into the mind (or carcass of one) that inhabits this poor fool's skull.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I clicked on the link to Pharyngula and saw a crocobird, indeniable proof that Darwinists are right when they say birds came from dinosaures: they have a picture to prove it! :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Or maybe it was a birdcodile! Anyways the picture is authentic...

      Delete
    2. Pepe saw a picture!

      Delete
  3. I was raised Catholic but I don’t remember believing in any of it.

    I was already a little skeptic when I saw a picture of a nuclear sub surfacing at the North Pole. At that moment I had proof positive that adults try to teach children things that aren’t true. I couldn’t help but see the parallels between Santa and God. Both keep track of who’s naughty or nice, are all knowing and omnipresent, reward virtue and punish sinners, and do things that are physically impossible. It was clear that big “G” God was simply Santa for adults without the disprovable house at the North Pole and a preference for eternal torture over lumps of coal. Santa serves as a little practice God for children, getting them comfortable with accepting a big lie. The only thing more sophisticated in a belief in God over Santa is the effort put into apologetics and politics to keep the faithful in line.

    I remember explaining to my mother that if dinosaurs and an old earth are true, then Noah’s Arc is a fairy tale and the bible was wrong. Simple. End of story. Any bright 7 or 8 year old can understand this. Fortunately my mother was cool, and never tried to stymie my interest in science and history, which of course have only served to reinforce my long held beliefs.

    Or maybe there is an evil super-demon loose on the world and I’m his unwitting pawn, hehe. Seriously, what a truly child like notion; there may as well be a monster under your bed.

    -KW

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Talk about throwing the baby with the bath water. And then KW will say that it is us who see the world in black and white!

      PS: ...throwing the baby with the bath water... is just a figure of speech, don't REALLY DO IT KW!

      Delete
    2. @KW:

      So not everything you were told as a child was true. Therefore God doesn't exist and the universe has no purpose.

      Tight reasoning, that.

      Delete
    3. Tighter than yours, that's for sure.

      -KW

      Delete
    4. So, does the fact that my parents never taught me to believe in Santa (and Dad took me on the roof to show me the chimney) make your argument irrelevant, and that I'm evidence to the contrary?

      (Not that the sentiment of Christmas isn't sweet, but I have to agree I'd rather parents didn't start their children's life lessons with a pretty and false story. That's kind of what I have against evolution.)

      Also, for some reason, St. Nick, Santa, a big hearty red man and a confluence with pagan tradition, always made me think of the Catholic/TV Satan, for some reason. Not God. How did they invent the name?

      ___

      And I'm YEC myself (these days), but I don't see how an old earth and dinosaurs has anything to do with a global flood. I don't remember having any problems with it when I was OEC.

      Delete
  4. Oh, wait, is Egnor conceding that Noah's arc is a myth? What else is a myth in the Bible, Mike? Tell us. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. So you picked a six month old post from Pharyngula to discuss here. Seems like you're spending quite a bit of time meandering through that blog's archives desperately hoping to find something that you can latch on to in order to give your blog some relevance. Smear on a little bit more clown makeup Egnor, maybe then the world will pay attention to you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What's this with the "clown makeup". Everyone of your comments ends with a "clown makeup" line.

      Did a clown frighten you when you were a baby?

      Delete
    2. Its a metaphor for your desperation for attention. You are a preening narcissist frightened by your own irrelevance and so you jump up and down smeared with greasepaint hoping that someone, anyone, will make you feel important by paying attention to you.

      Delete