"A liberal is a man so broadminded he wouldn't take his own side in an argument." -- Robert Frost

"From the point of view of the United States, engraving the names of citizens who died in the Vietnam War on an immense marble wall in Washington was a just act. From the point of view of the Vietnamese killed in the US invasion, there are sixty walls missing." -- Eduardo Galeano (Uruguayan journalist,
1940-present)

When I think about Karl Rove making talking points for Bush, this quote also comes to mind: "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly...it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over." -- Paul Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister 1897-1945

This is the start of what I hope to be a nice long series of small thoughts. Hopefully some of the ideas expressed in this new category "Thought of the Day" will be further expanded upon in later entries.

Remember September 11th:
On September 11th, 1973, Augusto Pinochet, with the backing of the CIA, led a coup in Chile -- overthrowing the democratically elected Salvador Allende. The US feared Allende because he was Socialist--even though Allende agreed with the Chilean Congress to uphold its constitution.

The following is a paper I wrote for 2005 College Student Essay Competition held by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. If I remember correctly, the writing prompt was that we were to describe growing up as an atheist or agnostic. I gladly took the opportunity to talk about religious freedom. A PDF version of my essay Growing Up Atheist is also available. You might also notice I reuse some of my prior writings from this website.

Growing up living with my grandparents, with my dad in prison and with my mom no where to be seen, I was always the odd kid. Of course, my thick glasses and skinny person did not help matters. My grandparents never brought up religion. I never was indoctrinated into a church. I would be lying if I said that I would be comfortable becoming a religious person. I have had numerous influences in my life growing up, but have finally found my place in this universe. And feel at peace with myself and my beliefs.

I grew up watching Sesame Street, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, The Letter People and other kids television shows. Given my thick glasses, I identified with and idolized the scientists in television shows, seeing as how people looked up to them. I loved learning, soaking up every bit of information I could get. Sometimes I would catch the beginning of other shows like The 700 Club. The cynical among us might say that it was no wonder I later came to identify myself as an Atheist. Television was my first exposure to religion of any sort. Television also served to be my first introduction to the term "Atheist."

errorlevel has had this account made for me for a while now, so I guess I could start using it. ;)

As a Christian, many see me as a hypocrite for supporting this idea. However, that couldn't be farther from the truth. I support Separation of Church and State not to protect the government from the church, but to protect my church from politics.

Politics is corrupt by it's very nature. Making the church involved in it can only serve to make the church corrupt. We saw a small example of that with the church who expelled it's members who voted against Bush in the '04 elections. Involving the church in politics would involve it with everything that comes with it...

Many people that claim to be pro-life claim to be so because they want to support the life of the child. How is it, they suggest, one can claim that the being inside the mother's womb is not a human? This is nothing but a strawman argument set up to equate abortion to murder. Once abortion can be equated to murder then the case can be made for outlawing it, much like murder. However, outlawing abortion would do nothing in the interest of a person that is really Pro-Life.

I was reading an article titled A Culture of Death, Not Life on Common Dreams that spoke of the Right-Wing's handling of recent events such as the Terri Schiavo cases and the death of Pope John Paul II, and I couldn't help but to notice that the author alluding to the Right-Wing and Christians being almost synonymous. This caused me to remember how I used to be.

There was a time at which I would see anything done by racists, bigots, and warmongerers and see the act as being part of being Christian. If someone wanted to restrict peoples' freedoms in the bedroom, it was because that someone was a Christian. When an abortion clinic was bombed, or evolution (or science in general) was derided, it was a Christian doing it. All the wars, suffering, library burning, and progress-stifling were the fault of Christians.

Many people have fallen into the trap of assuming that religion is the only source from which one can obtain morality. As an Agnostic Atheist, it doesn't settle well with me that since I do not believe in a god nor follow a religion that I would be considered amoral. Therefore, I would like to share what I have developed as the basis of my morality and hopefully show that it is possible to have morality without religion.

We shall begin the long journey of describing and explaining the reasons behind my views on the world. This article shall hopefully provide a basis for later articles delving into morality, religion, politics, freedom and the world in general.

It started out when I was a child, I would always hear of people referring to this "god" thing. I never quite understood what it was about. I was never indoctrinated into any church, I was never taught anything about religion and I never really cared. When people around me would say that they believed in "god", they would say that they believed because they "just knew" or "there has to be one." I was never given any real, tangible explanations as to what god was or why I should believe in it. (I say "it" because "he" and "she" both assume I have knowledge of god.) The weirdness of my situation really started to sink in when I heard a grown woman say that she still believed in Santa Claus. By that time I had finally weened myself away from the idea of a jolly fat man in a flying sleigh going around to all the world's houses on Christmas night so that he could take credit for the presents the children's parents bought them. I thought to myself, "if this woman can still seriously believe in Santa Claus why should I trust her or anybody else's belief in this god thing without some form of proof?"