Horror Story Author, H.P. Lovecraft, on Atheism

Though religious themes were common in his written works, a letter written to Robert E. Howard in 1932 confirms the following:

"All I say is that I think it is damned unlikely that anything like a central cosmic will, a spirit world, or an eternal survival of personality exist. They are the most preposterous and unjustified of all the guesses which can be made about the universe, and I am not enough of a hair-splitter to pretend that I don't regard them as arrant and negligible moonshine. In theory I am an agnostic, but pending the appearance of radical evidence I must be classed, practically and provisionally, as an atheist.”

Hasidic Jews Pressure the City of NY to Accomodate Their Religious Traditions

Photo Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times

"Needing to abide by their tribe’s traditions of modesty, Hasidic women want the city to post a female lifeguard during a women-only swim session at a municipal pool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and have lobbied a local councilman to take up their cause.

On another front, Hasidic matzo bakeries, citing ancient Jewish law, have insisted on using water from groundwater wells rather than from reservoirs in preparing the dough used for matzos and have found themselves tangling with health officials worried about the water’s purity.

And on a public bus service that plies a route between the Hasidic neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Borough Park, Brooklyn, men sit up front and women in the back, hewing to the practice of avoiding casual mingling of the sexes, even after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg condemned the arrangement.

While these episodes may not have reverberated beyond New York’s Hasidic enclaves, taken together they underscore a religious ascendancy confronting the city’s secular authorities in ways not seen in decades.

Says {deputy general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty,} Eric Rassbuch, "Because of differing birth and adherence rates, the future of Judaism in New York City increasingly appears to be Orthodox.”

Y
ou can read the full article at the link above.

You'd never know it looking at most people.

The happiness of credulity.

“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality of happiness, and by no means a necessity of life.”
―George Bernard Shaw, "Androcles and the Lion"

"We are dust and shadows."

"Pulvis et umbra sumus." What else is there?

-Cassandra Clare "Clockwork Angel"

Is God ashamed of us?

Phillip Pullman, renowned English fantasy author and author of the book, The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ, has something to say about whether God really approves of his followers' behavior.

“I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away. Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them.”
―Philip Pullman

Why are religious organizations tax exempt?

I've always felt that the good works that churches do can't make up for the billions lost in tax revenue that could do so much more. Imagine if churches paid taxes and still went on missions to rebuild homes and donate clothing and organize food drives. We'd all be so much better off.

I am my own God.

Henry Charles Bukowski (born Heinrich Karl Bukowski; August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994) was a German-born American poet, novelist and short story writer."

“For those who believe in God, most of the big questions are answered. But for those of us who can't readily accept the God formula, the big answers don't remain stone-written. We adjust to new conditions and discoveries. We are pliable. Love need not be a command nor faith a dictum. I am my own god. We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our educational system. We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” ― Charles Bukowski

Good advice.

I have to remind myself of this...

OFTEN.