The Silly Old Bear Who Is Stuffed With Fluff

I love Winnie the Pooh. He is such a cute and adorable character. He is honest, loving, and non-judgmental. He has the innocence of a child. Children love him because they identify with him.



The Winnie the Pooh story was based upon a child playing with his stuffed animals. A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, watch his son, Christopher Robin Milne, playing and he based the books upon what he saw.

In the movie there are many examples of Pooh's blatant honesty. For example:

In the scene where Pooh wants to find "hunny" and everything he has tried has failed, he finally decides to go visit Rabbit.

Rabbit is in his kitchen when he hears Pooh approaching. Pooh is saying to himself, "I like Rabbit because he uses short, easy words like 'how about lunch?' and 'help yourself, Pooh'."

Pooh is making no effort to hide the fact that he's going to visit Rabbit for food.

Pooh calls out, "Is anybody at home?"

Rabbit: "Nobody."

Pooh, after thinking puzzlingly for a moment, says to himself, "Well somebody's there, because somebody must have said 'nobody'."

Pooh peers in the rabbit hole and sees Rabbit standing there. Instead of confronting Rabbit for lying to him, Pooh innocently comes in and says, "Hello, Rabbit!" There is no tone of anger or judgment in his voice. He really is happy to see Rabbit.

Rabbit then offers Pooh lunch with the addition to "help yourself".

Pooh hurries over to the table, puts on his bib, and grabs the knife and fork, again, making no effort to hide or disguise his purpose for visiting.

Pooh is as honest and innocent as a child. He knows what he wants and doesn't beat around the bush to ask for it.

Why share this on an atheist, ex-Mormon blog? What does that have to do with anything?

Honesty.

As I was driving today, something occurred to me. Winnie the Pooh came from the mind of an honest child.

Children are honest. Children are atheist... that is, until their parents stuff their heads with dogma.

Christopher Robin Milne was born on August 21, 1920 and died April 20, 1996. Click here to read the Wikipedia short description of his life.

Christopher Robin Milne was an atheist. And if you look at the Pooh character, you can see it all over. To be an atheist is to be honest with yourself and what better example of honesty can you find than Winnie the Pooh?

Biblical Gems, Part 1

Today's gem is found in Deut 13:6-10. In these verses, god commands the brutal murder of anyone, including family members, who worships a different god than you:

6. If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;

7. Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth;

8. Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him:

9. But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.

10. And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

That's right, folks! You can now legally murder someone! All you have to do is prove they don't believe in your god, and as long as you kill in the prescribed manner (bashing out their brains with a rock) you are guiltless before god! Yes, god delights in the brutal murder of your non-believing family members. But don't forget that he gave a completely contradicting commandment in the very same book of Deuteronomy: Thou Shalt Not Kill.

Deuteronomy is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Why? Because it contains so many damning things in it! God gives endless commandments to kill... then he turns around and commands everyone to NOT kill. Can this perfect being, who never changes, ever make up his mind?

All this and more can be found in the "perfect" word of god! Stay tuned...

Magical Temple Square

The other day I had to go to Temple Square to meet with someone. As I waited for this person, I couldn't help observe the beautifully landscaped paradise that is Temple Square.

Temple square is beautifully decorated with ornate flower beds with not a single weed, waterfalls and fountains, statues, marble walkways, and people coming and going dressed in their Sunday best. Let's not forget about the happy newly-weds just coming out of the temple, surrounded by proud family and photographers. There are workers out everywhere blowing leaves off the sidewalks, weeding the flower beds, and trimming bushes. Missionaries sporting their signature black name tags can be seen everywhere you focus your gaze.

The place is like a paradise. The temple itself looks like a fairy tale magical castle right out of a Disney movie. No expense is spared to make Temple Square look perfect. Add to that the picture perfect blue sky, light breeze, and warm sunshine.



Families with young children are touring the grounds. Parents are telling their children that someday they will go into the temple. Little kids want to splash their hands in the water fountains, some of which are very large and elaborate. At night, large lights shine on the temple, giving it the appearance of glowing. Missionaries are friendly; most of them are very attractive females. The buildings are decorated with detailed carvings. Statues of Mormon celebrities dot the grounds and tourists look upon them admiringly.



Anyone who has been brought up in Mormon culture gets an extra boost of "feel-good" at Temple Square. It is perfect there. The atmosphere is magical. It is easy to see how so many people get caught up in the illusion.

And that's all it is... an illusion. If Temple Square is perfect, then the church must be true. That magical feeling there must be the spirit telling you it really is god's kingdom.

A closer look reveals more, however. Black, circular domes containing video cameras are carefully monitoring everything that happens. Men in suits wearing earpieces and sunglasses keep a close eye on things. And Temple Square is surrounded by a 15 foot-high wall. A close look at the carvings on the temple and other structures reveals pagan and satanic symbols.

This place is the epitomy of the "wolf in sheeps clothing" concept. It is a lion's den enclosed in a beautiful rainbow-colored bubble. It is a Venus Fly Trap or some other snare that allures prey by displaying a tempting offer. Once you are caught in its grip, you can rarely escape.

The LDS church is a cult. They hide their lies and deceptions behind beautiful flower beds.

Childish Creationist Arguments

Evolution... you probably can't accept it as a fact because you are too insecure with the thought that humans are really just animals with reason and that a bacteria is your great, great, great (a million times) grandfather.

Evolution... a complete series of total random events, right? Wrong!

Just because you can't see evolution happening, doesn't mean that it's not. A common creationist argument is "show me". They claim they will believe when they see it. Personally, I find it funny as hell that they use that argument when it is a great reason to NOT believe their nonsense.

Anyway, they seriously try to make the argument that since you can't see it happening, then it isn't. Dumb, dumb, dumb! It is impossible to witness evolution. It happens very slowly over millions of years. Since a human life is only a split second on the timescale of the universe, we only have a teeny fraction of the entire picture.

So their arguments of "show me" is just a pathetic cop out. They know you can't show them and so they feel that they have won the debate.

I watched a televangelist once. His argument, that he wanted all his listeners to use when confronted with evolution, was "Were you there?" What a weak and pathetic argument! Was he there when Jesus was nailed to the cross? No, no one was there, but the animals were and they left traces and clues of their existence.

Their "were you there" and "show me" arguments are like trying to argue that China isn't there because you've never seen it. It's childish, immature, and very pathetic.

And yet, when atheists use the very same argument right back at them, they claim it's all faith based and since theirs is faith based, ours must be too.

The reason it is okay for an atheist to use the "show me" argument is because they (creationists) are defending a position which has no evidence.

Evolutionist to creationist: "Show me the evidence of creation."

Creationist: "I can't because there is none. God wants us to take it on faith."

Evolutionist: Rolls his eyes and can't believe that there are humans beings who are this foolish and gullible!

When the scientific community makes a claim, the non-scientific community wants to spout their opposition and call it a debate. No. You can't debate something you know nothing about. It's like me trying to tell a Chinese person how to speak Chinese. That person won't take me seriously for a second because I know nothing about the Chinese language.

And then the religious community whines and throws a fit because science won't "include" them and take their views seriously. They want so badly to have their made up fairy tales hold as much weight as scientific, empirical evidence.

It ain't never gonna happen!

Then the really funny thing is that since they can't beat science, they try to discredit it anyway they can. All of a sudden it becomes "illogical" to believe in evolution and to be an atheist. Wow! That's the worse case of the kettle calling the pot black that I have ever seen! Yes, it is totally illogical to base your beliefs on evidence, and, on the other hand, it is totally logical to believe in a magical sky daddy. You got us! We surrender to your overwhelming arguments!

At least that's what they think. They can spout their irrational beliefs and quote scripture verses all day, but in the end, their holy book is a work of fiction and their god is pathetic. He's so pathetic that he can't even come down and end the debate once and for all. Any god who bases the eternal salvation of his children on "faith" is a moron! If you take a wild stab at something, hope for the best, and put all your "chips" in, chances are you're gonna get burned big time! Human kind could (and has) dream up a million different gods and paths to heaven. What are the chances that YOU got it right? Your teeny, one-in-a-million chance has some pretty high stakes! But it's logical to blindly believe...

"God's ways are higher than our ways" is just an excuse for the everyday things that happen. Having been on both sides of the fence, I can truthfully tell you that my life has been NO DIFFERENT since I kicked god out of it. My lack of faith does not bring any curses or hardships that I did not have as a believer. My luck hasn't changed. I still have ups and downs just like everyone else. I've stopped praying and nothing is better or worse.

Why invest all that time into such a one-sided relationship? Why devote your life to god when he requires you to take it all on blind faith? It seems that god is a "do as I say and not as I do" type of figure. Add that to my list of reasons to not worship his pathetic ass.

When the religious community learns to speak scientific "Chinese" that is when they will be taken seriously. That will never happen because it means they will have to admit they were wrong and that is something that we all know will happen on the day when pigs sprout wings and fly. Their god is never wrong, so they stand in the face of evidence and deny it until their faces are blue!

The only thing they are accomplishing is proving to the world how childish they are. I've never heard one good, solid reason to believe.

And I suspect that I never will...