The Wayward Willis My Life Without Faith

8Feb/122

Facebook Affirmations, Vol. VI

In my news feed on Facebook I will be served a daily dose of Christian affirmations from friends.  In this series of posts, which I call "Facebook Affirmations™," I will post and discuss some of these gems. Here's the affirmation for today:

Jesus Is My Plumber

Satan plugged my pipes.

8Feb/122

Hyper-Patriotism

I downloaded an app for my iPhone called "Thumb."  This app allows you to ask questions and get answers from random strangers, with thumbs-up and thumbs-down ratings.  It's mindless entertainment, as are most social apps.  Anyway, while thumbing through questions I stumbled across one depicting a Marine Corps drill team with the caption, "Respect and honor????"  I'm not sure why so many question marks were necessary.

7Feb/120

Spiritual vs. Imaginary

Believers have long argued for the existence of beings in the "spiritual realm" which affect the physical universe but cannot be physically detected (except in very certain circumstances and with very few exceptions).  This is convenient, of course, because the believer is free to posit whatever entity he or she wishes without having the arduous task of defending that assertion with actual evidence.  What does "spiritual" mean though?  The dictionary defines it as follows:

1. of, pertaining to, or consisting of spirit; incorporeal.
2.  of or pertaining to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature.

That doesn't really tell me much.  If we're talking about incorporeal things apart from the physical nature, how is this any different from being imaginary or fictional?  Why do we make such a concessionary definition for a word like "spiritual" when the end result is really the same?

26Jan/120

Mind Your Manners

JT Eberhard's contributor, Christina, wrote today of an article regarding atheist billboards in Colorado and the reaction of a "research fellow" from Focus on the Family named Glenn Stanton.  He calls the billboards "bad manners" because they mock the beliefs of no less than 70% of Americans.  The billboards read as follows:

God is an imaginary friend; Choose reality, it will be better for all of us.

24Jan/122

Facebook Affirmations, Vol. V: Pro-Life

In my news feed on Facebook I will be served a daily dose of Christian affirmations from friends.  In this series of posts, which I call "Facebook Affirmations™," I will post and discuss some of these gems. Here's the affirmation for today:

Pro-Life Facebook Post

Think of the children!

I don't often weigh in on abortion because my views on it are complicated and it's an even more controversial topic than religion.  Since I will never personally know the joy -- or terror -- of being pregnant I feel that any view I adopt regarding a woman's reproductive rights ought to be every bit as compassionate as it is logical.  Ultimately I feel it comes down to an individual woman's right to decide whether or not her body will be used as an incubator for a potential human being.  Let's discuss the post above.