Lost.Coast.Atheists

Wow.  Lierre brought me my copy and signed it for me.  She's a very nice woman.  We didn't have a lot of time to chat, but I look forward to speaking with her again.

Anyway, I'm 2/3 of the way through the book and I have a small problem:  The title is misleading in a way.  This book isn't only about Vegetarian and Vegan diets...not at all.  It's about farming of all types.  It's about nutrition.  It's about population.  It's about deception and tactics.  It's about truth.  It's about politics.  
It's amazing and powerful and important.  Please read it.




UPDATE:  Ok, I'm done. I do have some negative thoughts as well.  Here goes:


The end of the book is political and really delves into feminism as a radical movement...it sort of lost me there.  I just don't identify with it.    But I'm a man, so, go figure.  


Anyway, there was one glaring line.  One simple sentence that really sort of pissed me off.  In a book so informative, so important, so full of critical thinking and reason, this one sentence just sent me for a loop.  See if this bothers you too:


"...But the core of dominator religions will always remain authoritarian, fundamentalist, hierarchical, and biocidal.  It's my conclusion that these religions need to be abandoned.  It's up to those of you who think otherwise to prove me wrong."


I'm sorry, Lierre, no matter how much I agree with your assessment of big religion, you're the one making the claim and therefore YOU bear the burden of proof.  Your detractors aren't responsible for your opinions.  

If she'd simply left that last line out I would have practically nothing negative to say.


One other tiny issue I had was the mish-mash of information.  The major chapters are:


1.  Why this Book?
2.  Moral Vegetarians
3.  Political Vegetarians
4.  Nutritional Vegetarians
5.  To Save the World

I found it difficult to know, by subject matter, which chapter I was reading at any given moment.  I think the material in each chapter could have been more strongly separated and concise.  


Other than those 3 things, I found the book worth reading...and I plan on reading it at least one more time cover to cover, then I'm sure I'll be referencing it constantly.


And by the way, if you're B, you LOVE this book.  If you don't know what I mean by that, read, "The Story of B" by Daniel Quinn.

Lierre is coming by my shop tonight to bring me my signed copy!  I can't wait.

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     I grew up in a very Christian household for the most part.  Between my mother's house (not religious) and my father's house (extremely religious), I've had Christmas both ways.  And you know what?  In my memory there was absolutely no difference.  


     I spent most of my time at my father's house after age 8.


My mom's house:
     We put lights on our house, and decorated the inside.  We left cookies and milk for Santa near the heavily decorated tree (we actually strung popcorn too!).  We hung stockings and we wrapped presents for each other.  We had a large dinner with friends and family.  It was  festive, fun and Christmas carried no religious connotations for me whatsoever.  I don't think Jesus was ever mentioned at all.  We didn't even pray before dinner.

My dad's house:
     Christmas morning we went to church, just like on Christmas Eve.  But we went to church every Sunday morning and Wednesday night.  We had prayer circles on Tuesday and Thursday nights.  We had Saturday services often and even in school, we had church on Wednesday mornings but we called it "chapple".   We prayed before every meal and pretty much constantly otherwise.  It was just how life was in my dad's house.
     As far as Christmas went though, to me it was the same as at my mom's house. The decorations, the gifts, Santa, dinner, etc.  
     The Christmas part of the day was, as far as I can recall, a secular event.  The religious part was just the norm there.  I ignored it as much as I always did...as much as possible.


     So even though I'm an anti-salvationist and even though I despise the Christian faith with a passion, the word "Christmas" carries almost no meaning to me other than the secular holiday with which I relate it.  


     I considered trying to call it Soltice, but then I'd have to constantly explain myself to practically everyone...and since I put Paganism in the same category with Christianity (religion is religion), I have no soft spot in my heart for a farmer's religion.  


    I considered trying to call it something new and different, but that would require just as much explanation and uncomfortable silence.  So I've come to the conclusion that "Christmas" is fine with me.  It has no religious meaning to me or my family.  My Christmas cards are secular and bastardize as much of the holiday sentiment as the Christians did when they usurped the winter solstice.


So, Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all had great family togetherness, food, gifts and fun!

To make a long story short, I really want this book!  I've read the sneak peek Kraig posted, plus more which the author posted. 


So I began looking for it.  It's not at Borders...I was told by an employee there that the book would be too controversial.  Whatever, "The God Delusion" was displayed at eye level directly behind me while she told me this. 


Anyway, my mother looked at the BookLegger in Old Town...not there.  I called a few book stores in Arcata and Eureka, nothing at all.  Nobody stocks the book locally!


I checked Amazon and they have it.  Borders has it for on-line orders only.  


Here's the funny part:  While trying to find the book I came across an email address for the author.  I sent off an email requesting a list of locations where the book could be purchased locally instead of ordering the book.  


Within an hour Lierre emailed me back and told me that she lives in Arcata and that none of the local book store will carry her book.  She did not elaborate.  I suspect it has something to do with the LARGE vegetarian/vegan population.   She also told me she would bring me a copy herself!  How cool is that?


Next I received an email from her asking to whom to sign the book!  I never asked for a signed copy.  This will be my first signed book and I'm excited to get it!

You know, it's getting harder and harder for me to present a positive side of atheism to the world.  In fact, I'm becoming less and less ABLE to do so.  

The only advantage that I can see to presenting atheism in a positive manner is that it tends to create less controversy.  It doesn't alleviate controversy, just lessens it.  And what does that accomplish?

I'm beginning to feel that all out war against invisible "friends" is the way to go.  In my experience polite, rational arguments go nowhere at all.  All the theist needs to do is say two of the most ridiculous, stupid words and all debate comes to a screeching halt:  blind faith.  They can even leave out the "blind" and "faith" is enough that all momentum is instantly lost.

I demand better arguments so I'm constantly accused of being a fundamentalist, closed-minded, hard-headed, disrespectful or unwilling to hear a different point of view.  When I ask simply, "what do you believe and why?" I sometimes get the answer to the what but it seems to be nearly impossible to get the why without the stupid regression into the whole, "you just gotta have faith" crap.


The meme is so pervasive that even non-religious people can have a sense of guilt at not being religious.  They often feel like outsiders or like they're missing something.  So they turn to less "hard" religions like Buddhism and Wicca or to self help spirituality and other senseless crap.  Why?  Because they think they must NEED something to believe in because society tells them they do.  It's basically a form of peer pressure.   

Salvationism is the belief that humans are flawed, innately flawed, and that without some form of salvation, Hell awaits.  If not Hell, then some other undesirable eternity.  Of course this is all pure speculation and there's absolutely NO EVIDENCE supporting it.  But that's not the point.  The point is that it's a meme which is part of the foundation of our culture and it is taken for granted by nearly everyone alive today.

And on top of that, there are the atheist who don't know they're atheists.  I recently was told, "I don't believe in God, but I'm no atheist!"  I'm not kidding or exaggerating at all.  And this came AFTER I explained very specifically exactly what atheism is!

She so fear/hated/distrusted the word, "atheist" and had such a violent reaction to the mere POSSIBILITY that she might actually be one, that she went on the offensive against me.  All the while, she continued to perfectly prove my points and somehow couldn't see it.  The meme is strong.

I also know that this young lady isn't stupid.  She ignorant of the facts, which I'm in the process of clarifying for her.  And the ONLY way to reach her is to grab her and shake her with harsh words.  The giant, electronic slap in the face just might wake her up, as well as anyone reading quietly.

http://www.poodwaddle.com/clocks2.htm


This World Clock is fascinating to explore.  Please do.  

I put up some polls so we can have an idea of what member would like. It's anonymous and fast, can't argue with that.