Huckabee and the Atheist Delemma

[Charlie Monoxide]

I saw a Huckabee ad they're running here in Kansas City (Mo) that ran during the news hour time slot (5pm-6:30pm) on TV. He talked how his faith is important to him (I'm paraphrasing here from memory) and the reason faith is important to him is that "he doesn't have to get up in the morning and decide what to believe in".

Has anyone here ever had that nagging problem of getting up in the morning and wondering what they should "believe in"?

I guess most adults have given up on Santa and the Easter Bunny. Although Elvis is kinda iffy.

Me, come morning I don't wonder what to "believe in". I calmly accept a naturalistic, rational world view, unencumbered by myths and fairy tales. I do wonder what I'll eat for breakfast and fiercely pray that the good great god has provided me with coffee to brew up ....

Charlie (douchebags for Huckabee!) Monoxide

[BPSCG]

It's Friday night. I believe I'll have another glass of wine.

[Charlie Monoxide]

It's Friday night. I believe I'll have another glass of wine.Only one?

Charlie (keeper of big wine glasses) Monoxide

[UnrepentantSinner]

It's that sort of smug, pretentious crap from evangelicals that drives me crazy.

First off, what the hell does it mean? Does every person wake up a tabula rasa each morning until they decide on a philosophy and worldview.

{groggy wakeup thoughts}
Hmmmph, 8am. I should get up. Now, how did I feel about murder, theft and a womans place in the home again?
{/groggy wakeup thoughts}

Second, it's bon mots and slogans like that which demonstrate for me how vapid evengelicalism is. Will Rogers was a humorist, not a philosopher.

Finally, if being evangelical means waking up every morning thinking the Earth is 6,000 years old and evolution is a giant conspiratorial lie by scientists, I'll pass on that sort of surity.

[Dr Adequate]

Has anyone here ever had that nagging problem of getting up in the morning and wondering what they should "believe in"? No, I always do that late at night when drunk.

[UserGoogol]

Sometimes when I wake up after not having gotten much sleep I spend some time in the shower staring at the soap dish and trying to figure out if, in fact, the bottle of shampoo is God and what the metaphysical ramifications of washing myself are. (When I wash myself, am I merely "adding clean" to my body by rubbing soap which is the manifestation of cleanness, or am I merely removing filth?)

Ultimately however, I come to the same conclusion each morning that no, the shampoo is not God.

[LawnOven]

"President Huckabee", go on, say it out loud a few times. Just... imagine it.

[Cello Man]

"President Huckabee", go on, say it out loud a few times. Just... imagine it.

I'd rather not imagine the White House looking like the illegimate love child of "Hee Haw" and "The 700 Club." It's too close to that as it is.

[LawnOven]

I'd rather not imagine the White House looking like the illegimate love child of "Hee Haw" and "The 700 Club." It's too close to that as it is.

Oh, how I wish his first name was "William Robert".

[Puppycow]

What's the matter with Kansas? They voted for Huckabee. I guess we shouldn't be suprised, this being a state that decided to teach creationism in its biology classes.

ETA:
"I know the pundits, and I know what they say: The math doesn't work out," Huckabee said Saturday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington. "Well, I didn't major in math, I majored in miracles. And I still believe in those, too."
linky (http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/09/feb.9.contests/index.html)

[Kopji]

Why do you want to hurt atheists?

[Charlie Monoxide]

What's the matter with Kansas? They voted for Huckabee. I guess we shouldn't be suprised, this being a state that decided to teach creationism in its biology classes.I was in Kansas today (I live about a mile away).

You could smell the delusions and ignorances ....

Charlie (allowed 2 ad homs per month) Monoxide

[Lisa Simpson]

Has anyone here ever had that nagging problem of getting up in the morning and wondering what they should "believe in"?

I've never been really religious, but even when I was kinda, sorta religious I never woke up and thought that. Now, as an atheist, I wake up and wonder if I should rape, pillage, plunder, eat babies or sacrifice goats today. So much evil, so little time.

[shuize]

I agree with the comment above regarding pretentious evangelicals. This is exactly the sort of stupidity that makes me happy not to be religious. Hard-core evangelicals honestly seem to think that those who do not buy in to the the Sky Daddy tales must struggle with "not knowing what to believe in" every single minute of our lives.

[fuelair]

On the other hand, last evening on the PBS news thing, one of the stories looked at the Huckster's use of codes for stories he apparently uses to "secretly" alert his sheep to the message and therefore to his deep knowledge of Xtianity. Turns out that when one of PBS's reporters went out in the street with four of the quotes, almost none of the xtians they stopped could i.d. the story or it's meaning. and only one got all four (an evanger from Idaho or Iowa). Interestingly, one other person recognized all four as they came up - me!! Thing is, they were all one's xtians are raised on - learned with the other myths in Sunday school. Specifically (quotes approx) "a small man with a shiny round stone killed the big man with thick armor" (David and Goliath), "the little boy (that made no sense as rest followed)who fed the crowd with five loaves and two fish" (Jeebus
feeding the multitudes with a miracle),"the old man looking for a king" (Samuel going to David+s father, seeing all sons, asked if anymore "Only my youngest, David , watching sheep in the fields" S. goes out , finds David, annoints him king.). [One other which I have conveniently forgotten). Gotta love that a big (if no tricks) number of xtians don't even know their own mythology.

[Charlie Monoxide]

I've never been really religious, but even when I was kinda, sorta religious I never woke up and thought that. Now, as an atheist, I wake up and wonder if I should rape, pillage, plunder, eat babies or sacrifice goats today. So much evil, so little time.Do not deny these impulses. Get out there and cause some evil and mayhem. When they catch you and do the "perp walk", make sure you tell the media that you are a godless atheist ....

Charlie (and more importantly a Huckebee denier) Monoxide

[Darth Rotor]

I was in Kansas today (I live about a mile away).

You could smell the delusions and ignorances ....

Charlie (allowed 2 ad homs per month) MonoxideI've lived in Kansas.

That was cow manure you smelled. There may also have been the delusions and ignorances.

DR

[Dorian Gray]

"President Huckabee", go on, say it out loud a few times. Just... imagine it.
Campaign Slogan: I <3 Huckabee!

[UnrepentantSinner]

I got of work this morning and went to bed about 11am. When I woke up this evening I was paralyzed. I didn't know whether I should believe I could get out of bed and walk on my own or if I needed an angel to help me do so. Scarlett was meowing for some dinner and I had no idea whether she merely wanted some fish bits and gravy or if she was telling me to start shooting people parked on lovers lanes. I felt I needed to pee, but couldn't decide whether that was my bladder telling my brain to get rid of urine or if it was the Devil telling me to touch my johnson. When I turned on my television, I had to decide whether I believed I was watching it, or it was watching me. Diet Coke is my normal pick me up, but when I went to the 'fridge, I couldn't decide if I wanted that or the blood of aborted babies.

If only I had the surity of belief that Mike Huckabee wakes up with every day.

[Darth Rotor]

If only I had the surity of belief that Mike Huckabee wakes up with every day.
On the bladder thing, I'm guessing he wears Depenz, so he doesn't have to think about it.

DR

[pgwenthold]

Unfortunately for Huckabee, there is truth to his statement. However, it's not about what happens "in the morning" it is about life.

As a religiousbot, Huckabee has never had to stop and think about what he believes nor why. It has always been spoonfed to him.

While it's not an exercise every morning, as an atheist I have had to tried to figure out why I do what I do, and work it out for myself. Yes, I have had to think about what is right and what is wrong. I can't just say, "This book says it, therefore I do it."

I'm trying to figure out if Huckabee thinks it is really a virtue that you don't have to think about figuring out right and wrong. Blind obedience to a 2000 year old book is not something I consider to be a positive trait.

[unlikely_ghost]

I was in Kansas today (I live about a mile away).

You could smell the delusions and ignorances ....

Charlie (allowed 2 ad homs per month) Monoxide

Flush twice, Charlie...It's a long way to Wyandotte County...

Unlikely (I can smell it all the way out to Independence as well) Ghost

[Pardalis]

The first thing I do in the morning is scratch my ass. That's probably the only spiritual or religious thing I do the entire day.

[Darth Rotor]

The first thing I do in the morning is scratch my ass. That's probably the only spiritual or religious thing I do the entire day.
Jesus rode an ass into Jerusalem, so you have more in common than you might think, particularly if he scratched his ass between the ears in an effort to keep him in a good mood.

You know how bad it is when some ass is in a bad mood, right? :cool:

DR

[chris epic]

I guess most adults have given up on Santa and the Easter Bunny.


Well I haven't, but its bedtime. I'll decide that when I get up in the morning; sometime between eating breakfast and getting ready for work.