Man gouges eyes out during church service

I heard about this one last week, and since thoughtquake is back up and shaking, I had to put in my two sense. This hits me as sad, not because this man lost his ability to see, but because he lost his vision a long time ago.

A man has gouged out his own eyes in the Northern Italian town of Viareggio while attending a religious service at the local San Andrea Cathedral, local police have reported.

According to witnesses, the man, who is originally from England though he has been living in the Tuscan town for the past few years, was attending mass when he suddenly "stood up, started to shout and pulled out his eyes with his bare hands."

According to Police, the man later told staff at the nearby Versilia hospital that "a voice" had told him to "gouge out his eyes". He had been rushed to emergency services but doctors have been unable to save his sight. Source

This is a clear-cut example of how mental illness can be hidden by religion. The scriptures didn't cause this man to rip out his own eyes. It may have contributed, but I have to say that gives FAR too much credit and power to the preacher. The truth of the matter is that this man was obviously mentally ill, and as such, needed psychiatric help.

This is why it gets to me when people can call religious belief "innocuous" or "harmless." even in situations when it doesn't lead to cult-ship or bigotry. This man could have gotten help, he could have been institutionalized, and if that had been the case, he would still have the ability to see. There were probably many red flags where someone could have pointed and said, "I think this man needs help." These now obvious signs I'm sure were dismissed for the excuse of "He's just very religious." If your delusional to the point of mental damage, there is nothing worse than associating with a group of mentally healthy people who are also delusional. This man being in this church was like pouring salt on a wound. Instead of people telling him to be rational or logical, he had an entire congregation that I can only assume did nothing but unintentionally encourage his illness. This idea that religion can somehow be therapy makes me cringe. It would be like if you took a schizophrenic conspiracy theorist and put him in a group of people who look for bigfoot. It's never good to replace one delusion with another. Or I should say, Crazy should be cured, not redirected. That's a pretty good quote. I think I'll write that one down... oh wait...

I may get some flack for this post. It just frustrates me that, without the guise of religion, this man's condition would have been easily recognizable, and this whole gruesome scene could have been avoided. It truly is a tragedy.

~Zach

Ask an Atheist and NO MORE HIATUS!

Alright guys, the gloves are coming off. I don't know if this is going to become a podcast, or if it will stay as written word, but as far as I'm concerned, ThoughtQuake is officially OFF HIATUS!

I just had a great conversation with the folks at Ask an Atheist about Atheist blogs and internet presence and I am convincved I can make this work. I would love to add to the Atheism visibility movement. Me and my fellow writers are going to do as much as we can. Check those guys out, they are a key figure in giving us a voice.

This isn't a blog about what Atheists believe, because trust me, Atheists have the largest gambit of all. We very from VERY conservative to VERY liberal. It will mostly be about religious skepticism. But worry not, as you can see from our previous posts, we will be writing content about political issues, and multimedia, and anything having to do with religion. I don't plan on being impartial. This is an opinion blog, and as such, the writers here will be doing our best to bring you compelling writing, slightly angry rants, and other fun reads. and maybe even a PODCAST!

Me, Jeremy and others will be giving you fresh perspectives, and our opinions on critical issues. We hope you'll join us!

Introduction

Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is Jeremy Sims and I've been recruited as Zach's Newest addition to the Thought Quake team, which currently consists of Zach and myself.

I promise to offend lonely old ladies inadvertently and brandish my wits before my peers.

I grew up in Texas, exposed to the united Methodist Church as a child and followed its teachings during my younger years. Later on I began wondering about the legitimacy of the mythology of the bible when I fully read through it. The bible can be interpreted in a million different ways and because of it's vagueness it would be logical to say that the only thing that I believe about it is the unwavering uncertainty of the bible that is often reflected by its followers. As a result of vagueness there are millions of different factions who don't even agree with each other. The Bible simply exists, as Marx called it, to be an opiate for the masses like any other religion and preachers use the Bible as a tool of exploitation. Nothing on this world has caused more strife, more suffering, more violence, and more pain than the Bible.

Now, preaching is as easy as blogging but you don't see door to door atheists on your front step because the "church of atheism" doesn't care about conversion, just epistemic conversation. This is not meant to be anything more than an outlet in a world where, while many people don't methodically practice the method, I still often feel scrutinized for many of my thoughts on religion.

For the old ladies out there, I'm visualizing you going "That's SO WRONG there are so few truly religious people today! We're a dying breed!" while sipping a teacup full of valium in underpants flirting with your armpits. Not true. There are more than 9,000,000 regular united methodists in America alone, and even more in Europe when it was founded. And I'm only showing one division of christianity. Even though people don't go to church regularly there are still many who consider themselves religious. The catholic church even counts anyone who doesn't outright abhor them. I'M even considered a part of the united methodists larger statistic because I was baptized.

While old people are in fact dying sooner than others, you can rest easy gentlemen. Thought Quake has a whopping 2 regulars and I doubt you'll see us picketing a church anytime soon.

I remember a time when I had a piece of paper with a coloring book style image of Jesus on it and I tried to make him look as badass as possible so I made him breathe fire, shoot lazer beams, have big bat wings, a pointed tail and horns. Put that in your communion wine and drink it.

For a time I classified myself as an agnostic but really that just means closeted atheist. Partly the reason that I thought this way was because I've read so many different religious mythologies. The Bible is a great one to take with the same bag of salt that comes with anything else dogmatic and full of hype and I enjoy reading it occasionally. The Asatru is another beautiful one, as well as Greek Mythology (which really gets you questioning whether or not the gods are worth so much trust) The Tao Te Ching was intended as a harmonization of living an enlightened state of being and over the years Lao Tzu has been declared a reborn god and was tied in to Buddhist religion. And Buddhism is like the eastern version of Christianity but different in mythology and teaching. So getting to the point of these, I found I disagreed with something fundamentally essential to each one, and really none of them can be taken seriously past fiction because they're marinated in creative license. So I finally came to this conclusion: There's this HUGE VAST thing that's so big it's beyond our ability to comprehend and made of things so small there's another whole universe in the moon of my pinky. It's so complex and sophisticated and for a brief time we all get to be a part of it and that's it, that's all we get and there's no reason why. I don't know about you but it makes me want to have a field day and do crazy fun stuff like blog about atheism all night.

So what I plan on writing about is mostly going to be either the Bible as fiction, raising awareness of certain sections of Christianity that exude a Froidian diagnosis of the crazies, and ranting about how atheism and nihilism are two very separate things. More to be added to my objectives as they come to me.

I'll leave you on one of my favorite T.S. Eliot poems.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS

by: T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

HE broad-backed hippopotamus

Rests on his belly in the mud;

Although he seems so firm to us

He is merely flesh and blood.







Flesh-and-blood is weak and frail,

Susceptible to nervous shock;

While the True Church can never fail

For it is based upon a rock.







The hippo's feeble steps may err

In compassing material ends,

While the True Church need never stir

To gather in its dividends.







The 'potamus can never reach

The mango on the mango-tree;

But fruits of pomegranate and peach

Refresh the Church from over sea.







At mating time the hippo's voice

Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,

But every week we hear rejoice

The Church, at being one with God.







The hippopotamus's day

Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;

God works in a mysterious way--

The Church can sleep and feed at once.







I saw the 'potamus take wing

Ascending from the damp savannas,

And quiring angels round him sing

The praise of God, in loud hosannas.







Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean

And him shall heavenly arms enfold,

Among the saints he shall be seen

Performing on a harp of gold.







He shall be washed as white as snow,

By all the martyr'd virgins kist,

While the True Church remains below

Wrapt in the old miasmal mist.

Oh We're not upset that WE have to pay, just that our Church does...

So, I began this blog to get my thoughts, rants and things onto the internet. I couldn't so much as cough in the airways without stumbling into this little gem.

Fox News: Taking Away Liberties

Are you really surprised? I'm beginning to think that getting material for this blog from Fox News may be a bit too easy. Maybe I should take a challenge, something worthy of me scouting around a bit...

naaaah, I'm living in the middle of the Apocalypse right now, so I could use an easy outlet.

He said the government can tax your life and can tax your death, but they’re not supposed to tax your church.

And that’s exactly what he said is happening in Mission.

“The city of Mission is taxing churches,” he said. “And that’s clearly unconstitutional.”

This is one of the many reasons I rage so hard. not only is it ignorant, it's an absolute lie, spread entirely by those that live in this so called "Christian Nation." If these people would pull their heads out of their asses for two seconds, maybe, just maybe they'd stop cherry-picking documents to suit their fancy. Here's more

The purpose of the “Transportation Utility Fee” is to raise money for public works projects in Mission like street construction and road repair.

It’s unpopular among residents, some of whom have put up protest signs on their yards.

But it’s particularly controversial because the town has included churches in the program.

GOOD! This is a GOOD thing. A step in the right direction. CHURCHES SHOULD BE TAXED. The Idea that some building shouldn't be taxed because it makes people feel good about themselves is asinine. Now, I'm not saying that this TAX is a good thing. I think taxing buildings for driveway traffic is kind of ridiculous. What pisses me off, is that Fox News seems to be upset that churches don't get some miraculous free pass. The Tax exempt status of churches has gone on unchallenged for FAR to long. to quote the constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

The tax exempt status of churches certainly falls under the "respecting an establishment of religion," part of that sentence. If your going to use the constitution as the backbone of your argument the LEAST you can do is not insult the document with your ignorance. The government is suppose to neither support nor deny any particular religion. The tax exempt status is exactly what is unconstitutional. These people are so thick headed about their religion being the most important thing in the world that not only have they stained our country with it's name, but they have somehow convinced themselves that regardless of how many times it is read to them and presented to them, that the constitution is in their favor. The "Clearly Unconstitutional" Tax is absolutely anything but. Erik Stanley, next time you spout off a word like "Clearly," Make sure it doesn't come back to make you look like a blissfully ignorant prick. ~ZU

First Post.

This is a speculative project. Right now it's simply a place for me to express my thoughts, but maybe it will amass various writers and an editor, and become a bigger thing than one of the nameless thousands of blogs. Anyway, Thoughts on various issues coming, hopefully soon, once I catch up on the other blogs I'm writing. When I have free time, expect content to start accumulating.

So what is this about?

My name is Zachary, and I was raised a Christian. due to various reasons, I began skeptically analyzing my faith and realized it had no bases in evidence. The question, Why is faith good? eventually got me thinking. Now I am a strong atheist, and seem to have no outlet for my rants, opinions, and religious-based frustrations. That is,

Until now. I hope to be responding to various news events and other types of posts, and I hope that an audience will stick with me. PLEASE NOTE!

This post will be the most Politically correct post on the blog. This is an opinion based blog, and as such, I take no prisoners and make no apologies. I would even go as far as to say I'm funny. Stay tuned and I will see you next post. It will probably be regarding the Earthquake here in Japan, as I'm currently abroad in Tokyo.