A friend of mine posed the following question in his own journal:

I’m doing a project, and I’d like to hear from all of you why you’re not a Christian. I’m looking for thoughtful, heartfelt replies and not, ‘because I’m Buddhist instead’ - why are you Buddhist and not Christian? Also, please do not send ‘because christianity is dumb’ or ‘christians r dumb’ or ‘u r dumb’.

The easiest answer is because my heritage is Jewish, by genetics and by religion. My uncle had a bar mitzvah and my mom was Jewish until she married a Christian (my stepdad) when I was four years old, at which time we converted to Unitarian Universalism because it was a “middle ground” for my parents. (Okay, this is kind of oversimplifying it, but this isn’t the point.)

I was raised Unitarian Universalist, and I’m glad for it. One thing I like about UUism is the freedom to believe. I don’t want a large faceless entity telling me what to believe and how to think. I choose to make those decisions on my own. Having always been an outsider, my perspective on Christianity is that you must believe a certain way, or something bad is going to happen to you. I sometimes entertain belief in karma (do good and life will reward you) but I also sometimes believe that life is just whatever it is, and sometimes you get stuck with crap. Believing in a negative, though, goes against the hope I have for humanity. Nobody is doomed to any fate, regardless of their sins against society. I don’t condone murder, obviously, but I also don’t think murderers will go to hell - I simply don’t believe in hell.

I don’t believe in God, either. Growing up I was always an agnostic, and I deeply questioned the existence of a “big policeman in the sky.” Today I am an atheist, because I don’t believe in any power higher than myself and other human beings. We are all gods unto ourselves, and there is nothing mystical or supernatural controlling the path of our lives.

I will admit, though, that I sometimes wish I were religious, that I did believe in God. I see people blame God for their illness, the death of a loved one, and other bad things. I would love to have that ability to blame someone other than myself (or bad luck) for things like that. But again, I don’t believe in God, so I pretty much have to figure “well, shit happens” if something isn’t going well for me. However, in addition to envying those who can turn to God for support, I also applaud that they can do so. If someone’s child is dying and they feel praying will help the child get better (in addition to medical care), they should absolutely pray. I don’t begrudge religion or prayer to anyone - I think it is a wonderful resource for many people, it’s just not the thing for me.

This is a quiz/meme/survey that I actually found worth doing. It’s a concise way to share some of my beliefs.

Religion Definition
are you mono or polytheistic?	polytheistic atheist
do you subscribe to a major religion?	not anymore
how do you feel about Jesus?	he was a great teacher but nothing more
what holy book do you feel is most accurate (Bible, Koran, etc)	Kama Sutra
do you believe in reincarnation?	undecided
do you believe in the traditional heaven and hell?	no
do you believe in ANY heaven and/or hell?	no
do you think the god(s) are vengeful or nice?	some are vengeful, some are nice
do you believe in angels?	no
do you believe in miracles?	not in the religious sense
do you believe in predestination?	uncertain
do you believe in original sin?	no
do you believe in freedom of will?	yes
do you believe in souls?	uncertain
what do you think will happen to you when you die?	mmm, worm food
do you think there will be an armageddon?	no
why do you think we exist?	to love one another
do you believe in life on other planets?	yes
do you believe in evolution?	yes
do you think religion and science will always oppose the other?	always is an awfully long time
what would you say to God if you met him/her/them today?	not applicable
anything else we should know?	I’m far too busy for religion
create your own survey

This page from ReligiousTolerance.org is a nice concise explanation of the Church of Satan, as founded by Anton LaVey. I didn’t know that Satanists were explicitly anti-Wiccan, or that they are permitted to use their forms of magic to harm others. An important on-site link is to the page about pseudo-Satanism, which is probably what Maggie Gyllenhaal’s character from Cecil B. DeMented was into.

My mom posted an entry about people responding to a single junk message on a mailing list by flooding the list with discussion about the junk message - essentially, spamming about spam. That reminded me that I recently got some really inappropriate spam from somebody I am only remotely acquainted with.

The entire list of employee e-mail addresses for my company is available to all employees, and even to the public if you know where to look. I have occasionally gotten e-mails from my co-workers that I can tell have been sent to the entire staff, as well as other addresses I don’t recognize. Basically these employees are mining the list for their own purposes. The other day, I got one that rather offended me.

Allah or Jesus?

by Rick Mathes

Last month I attended my annual training session that’s required for maintaining my state prison security clearance. During the training session there was a presentation by three speakers representing the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Muslim faiths, who explained each of their belief systems.
I was particularly interested in what the Islamic Imam had to say. The Imam gave a great presentation of the basics of Islam, complete with a video. After the presentations, time was provided for questions and answers.
When it was my turn, I directed my question to the Imam and asked: “Please, correct me if I’m wrong, but I understand that most Imams and clerics of Islam have declared a holy jihad [Holy war] against the infidels of the world. And, that by killing an infidel, which is a command to all Muslims, they are assured of a place in heaven. If that’s the case, can you give me the definition of an infidel?”

There was no disagreement with my statements and, without hesitation, he replied, “Non-believers!” I responded, “So, let me make sure I have this straight. All followers of Allah have been commanded to kill everyone who is not of your faith so they can go to Heaven. Is that correct?”

The expression on his face changed from one of authority and command to that of a little boy who had just gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He sheepishly replied, “Yes.”

I then stated, “Well, sir, I have a real problem trying to imagine Pope John Paul commanding all Catholics to kill those of your faith or Dr. Stanley ordering Protestants to do the same in order to go to Heaven!”
The Imam was speechless.

I continued, “I also have problem with being your friend when you and your brother clerics are telling your followers to kill me. Let me ask you a question. Would you rather have your Allah who tells you to kill me in order to go to Heaven or my Jesus who tells me to love you because I am going to Heaven and He wants you to be with me?”
You could have heard a pin drop as the Imam hung his head in shame.

Needless to say, the organizers and/or promoters of the ‘Diversification’ training seminar were not happy with Rick’s way of dealing with the Islamic Imam and exposing the truth about the Muslim’s beliefs. I think everyone in the US should be required to read this, but with the liberal justice system, liberal media, and the ACLU, there is no way this will be widely publicized. Please pass this on to all your email contacts.

This is a true story and the author, Rick Mathes, is a well known leader in prison ministry.

I was shocked that this was sent to me. How dare somebody send such a message to a whole list of people, some of whom she barely knows? She hadn’t used the bcc field at all so I could see that many other employees from my company had received the same thing, as well as people I don’t know. Previous messages from co-workers weren’t enough to spark me to action, but this time I’d had enough. I posted the following to the online message forum we use at work:

My fellow terps … PLEASE do not include me on any mass mailings that you are sending out on ANY subject other than deafness or interpreting. I already get a LOT of mail as it is (200+ messages/day) and I just can’t deal with the additional goofy jokes, religious lectures, and political messages. If you have already included me on a mass list, PLEASE remove my name ASAP. Thanks in advance!

But I wanted to send a personal response to the person who sent me such a horribly rude message, so I did:

I have just posted a message on the [company] board asking everyone to please remove me from their lists. I hope you will not send me any more messages of this kind. As a Unitarian Universalist and an atheist, I have absolutely NO interest in these messages. I find religious messages offensive and do not care to receive them. If you have things to share that are related to deafness or interpreting, I would welcome them, but other subjects do not interest me to receive mass mail.
Thanks for your understanding.

So far I haven’t gotten a response from her, and I haven’t heard from anybody else about this. I hope they don’t do it again.

I went to a church service yesterday for the first time in many years. I’d been to the local UU church when I first moved here, and MK&R were married there last year, and I’ve substitute-interpreted for a girl in one of the Sunday School classes, but this was the first time I went to a service. It wasn’t a good service for a first-timer new to Unitarian Universalism, as it was led by the sixth-grade class, but I grew up UU so I’m used to that kind of thing! I had gone with the ulterior motive of talking to the minister about Paddle with Pride, so I was a little disappointed that he wasn’t leading the service, but I definitely enjoyed the kids and their presentations. Afterward I went with some of the young adult group (ages 19-35) to a barbecue/ribs place near the church. The food wasn’t good - I got a pretty lousy salad - but it was nice to make some new friends; I think A and I will join them for their game nights and other events in the future.

While waiting for my food at a Chinese takeout recently, I read a teen magazine’s article about Krista McDaniel. When she was 16 years old, she participated in a robbery of an Amoco gas station at Fast Point (I don’t remember the state) that resulted in the murder of the station’s working employee. She’s presently in jail, leaving her baby - whom she gave birth to at 16 - in the care of others; it’s interesting to note that Krista’s mother had her when she was just 15. Krista’s sentence is up in the air (or was when the article was written), and this is what she has to say about it:

I don’t want to do life, but I don’t want to die. But I’d rather die and go to heaven than stay in here the rest of my life.

This statement puzzles me greatly. If someone believes in heaven, surely they must also believe that murder is wrong. (For that matter, I’m an atheist, and I think murder is wrong, too.) But how can a murderer possibly go to heaven? Even if her God is merciful, can a killer really be accepted into the kingdom of God? What if she repents and is “saved” while she’s on Death Row - does that mean she gets into heaven? It’s all a big mystery to me and it sounds rather contradictory.

If anybody has more recent information about Krista McDaniel, please let me know. I don’t remember which magazine carried her story.

The Ask Yahoo! question for today is Why is Judaism based on maternal lineage? The response begins:

It’s been said that Judaism is “more like a nationality than like other religions,” because traditionally, a person must be born Jewish or go through a lengthy conversion process. The strictest definition of a Jew is one whose mother was Jewish.

And that, my friends, is why I am Jewish. Yes, I was raised Unitarian Universalist. Yes, I am an atheist today. But I will always be Jewish. I don’t even have a specific national heritage - my ancestors were among those who settled in eastern Europe (like the starring characters of Fiddler on the Roof), but I’m not Polish or Russian or anything like that. I’m just Jewish.

DeafQueer.org has a newsletter called Flash, which today referenced a Christianity Today article about the designer baby controversy. I went to look for the article, and came across two others of interest.

• Adult ADHD - This is from the Nov/Dec 2000 issue of Today’s Christian Woman, and it is way off-base. I’m glad they’re recognizing that ADHD isn’t always something kids outgrow, but they claim depression is one of the symptoms. What?!
• Don’t Let Your Kids Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer - This one is subtitled But you can tape it and watch after they go to bed. Huh. Okay.

Morning squirrel count: 0


This morning as I left the metro station I encountered a woman from Rock of Israel. I was heading for the mailbox so I steered clear of her and she ignored me, but then as I crossed the street I noticed a guy was also handing out pamphlets on an opposite corner. I guess I looked at him too long because he extended a pamphlet toward me and said “ma’am?” I responded with “do you have a permit for that?” and he said “no ma’am” as I walked on by. I didn’t mean to sound rude, I just wanted to know if he had a permit. I don’t know if he even needed one, I was just wondering if he had one. I picked up the pamphlet from a park bench anyway.


And after finding somebody selling a kayak in the City Paper classifieds (and sending an e-mail), I’m now finding myself looking at other generic classifieds sites for the same thing. Eventually I will actually get, um, work done.