To preface:
Salt Lake Tribune story:
http://www.sltrib.com/utahutes/ci_13887313
Deseret News story:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705348028/Halls-pain-a-reflection-of-self-betrayal.html
Now that the 2 sources for the same story are up (one liberal one conservative), I will elaborate.
This may seem a little biased seeing that I am registered as a student at the University of Utah, however, these comments are sickening AT BEST. And, just so no one wonders, I do respect that both teams played exceptionally well and BYU just barely managed to get those last few points to beat the U.
"Asked a rather innocent question about whether the 26-23 victory redeemed him for last November's five-interception game in a loss to Utah, Hall said, "A little bit, yeah. I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, I hate their fans, I hate everything."" (Salt Lake Tribune)
What is this shit? Is this really what a university owned by the Mormon church teaches their students/players? If it is, I hope to anything out there (God, Buddha, Yahweh, Flying Spaghetti Monster), that I NEVER EVER receive any sort of service from them. Now, I know that not all of them are bad, but to make so many "hate" comments...I'd almost call for him to be subject to the new hate crimes laws.
"For more than year, he apparently swallowed bad feelings about an incident involving his family. He said Ute fans threw beer on them during last year's game at Rice-Eccles Stadium. It was, indeed, a disgusting act that apparently ate him up inside." (Deseret News).
O_o The fucking hell is he talking about? Both the University of Utah and BYU are DRY campuses. That means they do not sell a single drop of alcohol on campus (and last time I checked the football stadiums are on the campus grounds). When you go into the games, security makes sure you aren't bringing in anything either. So...unless someone was tailgating and did it, I can not see any possible way this asshat can justify being so hateful of someone throwing beer on his parents. Better yet, did they do anything to provoke it?
Deseret News:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705348166/Hall-reprimanded-by-MWC.html
Well...it seems the MWC pussied out...again on a serious issue. I don't see how issuing a reprimand will help to rectify such vile comments as the ones he said after the game. In reality, the best punishment would be a couple of things:
1) Hall's suspension from the BYU football program indefinitely.
2) The win for BYU against the U retracted as being neither a win or a loss for either school.
3) BSC to reconsider BYU for a bowl game this season and possibly even to not even give them one to reflect on the team and how it needs to help build up, not be a tool of vengeance.
Of course, none of this will happen, it will just be a simple little slap on the wrists and everyone goes on happy with their lives while someone who so blatantly was quick to attack an entire institution is allowed to continue playing. If that's how it goes, someone should've scared the shit out of Hall and told him to get lost. Without violence however.
And personally, I think he should be kicked out of the entire Utah higher education system, and told that he also has to pay back EVERY single scholarship he's had and if he wants to continue his education in Utah, then he'd better apply for ITT or the University of Phoenix, etc.
On a final note, it's kind of sad that he feels so proud of beating a first year quarterback. Then again, someone like this would use religion as a crutch and would do anything he could to be a good little godbot.
Who I am
- Sakura
- I am an atheist, in fact, I describe myself as a Humanist for I believe in the good in people, not mythical beings.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
What is your gender?
I saw this on Andrea_TheNerd and her post on Gender Identity.
COMPONENTS OF GENDER
A core component of Queer Theory is that gender is performative, but if this was necessarily so, it would invalidate transsexualism from the outset. Since the treatment of gender identity disorder recognizes that the brain cannot be sufficiently changed and that the body must be altered so it aligns with the mind, it seems that at the very least identity is a factor of gender outside the sphere of performance.
Androgynes are a sort of transgender people with the gender identity of both a man and a woman or neither. For them, the notion that sex is between the legs while gender is between the ears is key. Because they are neither men nor women, these non-binary gender variants are most expediently differentiated as male-born and female-born. The remaining categories are intersex, M2F (male-to-female transsexual), and F2M (female-to-male transsexual). For more on androgynes, http://androgyne.0catch.com is recommended.
From my own perspective as an androgyne, gender's makeup is comprised of gender identity, gender presentation, gender performance, and gender role. Gender identity concerns how you think, gender presentation how you look, gender performance how you act, and gender role how you contribute socially. Any of these aspects of gender can be mutually exclusive of another depending on the individual and/or circumstance. Gender presentation is like the flipside of Bornstein's gender attribution, since it hinges on how you yourself -- rather than others -- interpret your gender cues.
While gender role tends to go with gender identity, it doesn't always. For example, there are male nurses and librarians and female security guards and construction workers who arguably have a traditional gender identity. It is also entirely possible to have a gender identity and gender role that does not match up with one's gender presentation and gender performance. Just because someone feels a certain way and performs certain tasks doesn't mean they have to look or act the part.
Copyright 2006 Stephe Feldman
Survey!
1. What is your gender identity - how you think?
2. What is your gender presentation - how you look?
3. What is your gender performance - how you act?
4. What is your gender role - how you contribute socially?
My answers:
1) As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I identify as the T in LGBT. This means that my gender identity is Female. Everytime I am looking at something, thinking about something or just trying to figure out how to get things done, if someone were to psychoanalyze it without seeing me, they would think a girl is doing all that.
2) My current presentation is less than favorable. This is because I have some extra stuff that I don't wish to have (this is numerous things, not just the main 3). However, I do dress feminine every chance I get and have also grown my hair out as well.
3) In pretty much everything I do, I always take a female perspective and hence act accordingly - feminine. While I'm sure this comes off to people in the everyday public that I'm gay or something like that (which has been voiced a few times), I feel it's better for people to see me acting the proper way I feel.
4) This, unfortunately, is a VERY convoluted subject matter for me. While my physical appearance is that of a male, I'm expected to act accordingly, socially speaking. However, since I do not take a male perspective (and never have actually) and act female, I try to contribute to social circles in the way girls do, not fully as I do not like the societal standard that is still placed on women (stay home, have kids, cook, clean, be subservient to a male's every wish that is head of the house, etc.). I will contribute on an emotional empathic level and try to help out those around me as often as I can. Unfortunately I don't suffer stupidity or idiocy very well and may come off as a bit apathetic, though, if there is a reason behind it and the individual is not just being stupid or idiotic, then yes, I will help them
I would encourage any readers of my blog to take a look at these 4 questions and to look at yourself using these 4 questions. You may be surprised what you learn, others may find out something they've already known. But what I would ask people to take away from this, is an understanding that not everything around fits into a standard mold of what is societally acceptable.
COMPONENTS OF GENDER
A core component of Queer Theory is that gender is performative, but if this was necessarily so, it would invalidate transsexualism from the outset. Since the treatment of gender identity disorder recognizes that the brain cannot be sufficiently changed and that the body must be altered so it aligns with the mind, it seems that at the very least identity is a factor of gender outside the sphere of performance.
Androgynes are a sort of transgender people with the gender identity of both a man and a woman or neither. For them, the notion that sex is between the legs while gender is between the ears is key. Because they are neither men nor women, these non-binary gender variants are most expediently differentiated as male-born and female-born. The remaining categories are intersex, M2F (male-to-female transsexual), and F2M (female-to-male transsexual). For more on androgynes, http://androgyne.0catch.com is recommended.
From my own perspective as an androgyne, gender's makeup is comprised of gender identity, gender presentation, gender performance, and gender role. Gender identity concerns how you think, gender presentation how you look, gender performance how you act, and gender role how you contribute socially. Any of these aspects of gender can be mutually exclusive of another depending on the individual and/or circumstance. Gender presentation is like the flipside of Bornstein's gender attribution, since it hinges on how you yourself -- rather than others -- interpret your gender cues.
While gender role tends to go with gender identity, it doesn't always. For example, there are male nurses and librarians and female security guards and construction workers who arguably have a traditional gender identity. It is also entirely possible to have a gender identity and gender role that does not match up with one's gender presentation and gender performance. Just because someone feels a certain way and performs certain tasks doesn't mean they have to look or act the part.
Copyright 2006 Stephe Feldman
Survey!1. What is your gender identity - how you think?
2. What is your gender presentation - how you look?
3. What is your gender performance - how you act?
4. What is your gender role - how you contribute socially?
My answers:
1) As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I identify as the T in LGBT. This means that my gender identity is Female. Everytime I am looking at something, thinking about something or just trying to figure out how to get things done, if someone were to psychoanalyze it without seeing me, they would think a girl is doing all that.
2) My current presentation is less than favorable. This is because I have some extra stuff that I don't wish to have (this is numerous things, not just the main 3). However, I do dress feminine every chance I get and have also grown my hair out as well.
3) In pretty much everything I do, I always take a female perspective and hence act accordingly - feminine. While I'm sure this comes off to people in the everyday public that I'm gay or something like that (which has been voiced a few times), I feel it's better for people to see me acting the proper way I feel.
4) This, unfortunately, is a VERY convoluted subject matter for me. While my physical appearance is that of a male, I'm expected to act accordingly, socially speaking. However, since I do not take a male perspective (and never have actually) and act female, I try to contribute to social circles in the way girls do, not fully as I do not like the societal standard that is still placed on women (stay home, have kids, cook, clean, be subservient to a male's every wish that is head of the house, etc.). I will contribute on an emotional empathic level and try to help out those around me as often as I can. Unfortunately I don't suffer stupidity or idiocy very well and may come off as a bit apathetic, though, if there is a reason behind it and the individual is not just being stupid or idiotic, then yes, I will help them
I would encourage any readers of my blog to take a look at these 4 questions and to look at yourself using these 4 questions. You may be surprised what you learn, others may find out something they've already known. But what I would ask people to take away from this, is an understanding that not everything around fits into a standard mold of what is societally acceptable.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
George Washington's ghost?
So I got into a debate with my dad last night (though I'm sure if my sister were there she would've called it an argument) mostly about religious beliefs.
It started with me commenting on this pic http://www.mcnaughtonart.com/artwork/view_zoom/?artpiece_id=353 . In particular the part on the professor "He tightly holds his "Origins of Species" book by Charles Darwin. This represent the liberal lefts control of our educational system." ...the liberal lefts control? The fuck! Liberal left control my ass, public school in this country (K-12) is neither conservative or liberal, it's exactly what we've allowed it to degrade to.
However, it was from that, that my dad made the comment that this nation was founded on Christian beliefs. =_= So, I had to explain some things.
I started off by simply saying that NOWHERE in either the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence does it mention God either directly or indirectly, all it says is the first amendment. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". That's the freedom of religion, that people can/not believe what they want and the government will not recognize one over the other (no thanks to the bullshit of McCarthism in the 50's "In God We Trust" my ass). He of course had to IMMEDIATELY try to refute that saying yes it was. My simple reply "show me where it says in either document the word God directly or indirectly".
He had no reply to that...instead he decided to take a different...and rather absurd route.
He picked up a book he had on the table next to him "65 Signs of the Times Leading Up to the Second Coming" written by David J Ridges. He started to go off saying how he's written about interpreting all the crap that's in revelations in the bible. I responded by saying how all that stuff has happened multiple times since the book was supposedly written (personally I liken the book of revelations to that of a 5 cent fortune telling machine). His only response "no, it's happening now". Hmm...interesting...I don't recall anything being in there, either literally or euphemistically, about the decline of the dollar, an "attack" by Islamic extremists, the US going to war (illegally I might add) with another country, the socialization of our health care. But he wouldn't say what exactly it was that the book said is happening now.
Since he obviously couldn't win that point, he went on to an even more absurd point. Apparently David writes in the book the the spirits of the founding fathers of this country came to one of the presidents of the LDS church asking 1) Why things were happening and 2) if they could be baptised into the church. =_=* Ok...this is the thing that fucking irritates the outright living hell out of me with the LDS church. Fucking baptisms for the dead...WHAT THE FUCK!!! Personally, if I'm dead, don't you DARE make the decision to baptise me into some bullshit cult (as defined by Belgium). So to say that they came to him asking that is just completely fucking STUPID!
I asked him for the witnesses to this event as that's how EVERYTHING in the LDS church works...he had no answer and couldn't find it in the book. Hmm...sounds like this book is as bad as Ray Comfort's version of the Origin of Species.
After that he kept just saying how all the stuff in revelations is going to happen, and that George Washington and ensemble came to the president and all this. Basically he took the standard Christian approach: When you're confronted with facts that you're wrong, just keep repeating what is wrong until it's fact. Too bad that tactic doesn't work for me.
He finally just stopped talking about it after trying to mention some random stuff out of the book of mormon and the bible. Though, each time he did, I quoted what was said in each book and pointed out some other fallacies about it. The one that really got him is when I mentioned that Paul wrote that Jesus would be coming back BEFORE Paul died...hmm...we're at...what...about 1900-1950 years past that? Yeah, I think that was another bullshit prophecy from someone who was probably huffing donkey piss and wanted something to fap to sleep to.
But, that's more or less the end of that little episode...not that he'll change, but I'll keep presenting the evidence...especially when he makes idiotic statements like "Origin of Species is nothing but a big fairytale" (hence where one of my quotes came from). How he hasn't figured out I'm an atheist...I guess shouldn't be too surprising, he's not the sharpest crayon in the box...and the box is missing it's sharpener.
It started with me commenting on this pic http://www.mcnaughtonart.com/artwork/view_zoom/?artpiece_id=353 . In particular the part on the professor "He tightly holds his "Origins of Species" book by Charles Darwin. This represent the liberal lefts control of our educational system." ...the liberal lefts control? The fuck! Liberal left control my ass, public school in this country (K-12) is neither conservative or liberal, it's exactly what we've allowed it to degrade to.
However, it was from that, that my dad made the comment that this nation was founded on Christian beliefs. =_= So, I had to explain some things.
I started off by simply saying that NOWHERE in either the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence does it mention God either directly or indirectly, all it says is the first amendment. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". That's the freedom of religion, that people can/not believe what they want and the government will not recognize one over the other (no thanks to the bullshit of McCarthism in the 50's "In God We Trust" my ass). He of course had to IMMEDIATELY try to refute that saying yes it was. My simple reply "show me where it says in either document the word God directly or indirectly".
He had no reply to that...instead he decided to take a different...and rather absurd route.
He picked up a book he had on the table next to him "65 Signs of the Times Leading Up to the Second Coming" written by David J Ridges. He started to go off saying how he's written about interpreting all the crap that's in revelations in the bible. I responded by saying how all that stuff has happened multiple times since the book was supposedly written (personally I liken the book of revelations to that of a 5 cent fortune telling machine). His only response "no, it's happening now". Hmm...interesting...I don't recall anything being in there, either literally or euphemistically, about the decline of the dollar, an "attack" by Islamic extremists, the US going to war (illegally I might add) with another country, the socialization of our health care. But he wouldn't say what exactly it was that the book said is happening now.
Since he obviously couldn't win that point, he went on to an even more absurd point. Apparently David writes in the book the the spirits of the founding fathers of this country came to one of the presidents of the LDS church asking 1) Why things were happening and 2) if they could be baptised into the church. =_=* Ok...this is the thing that fucking irritates the outright living hell out of me with the LDS church. Fucking baptisms for the dead...WHAT THE FUCK!!! Personally, if I'm dead, don't you DARE make the decision to baptise me into some bullshit cult (as defined by Belgium). So to say that they came to him asking that is just completely fucking STUPID!
I asked him for the witnesses to this event as that's how EVERYTHING in the LDS church works...he had no answer and couldn't find it in the book. Hmm...sounds like this book is as bad as Ray Comfort's version of the Origin of Species.
After that he kept just saying how all the stuff in revelations is going to happen, and that George Washington and ensemble came to the president and all this. Basically he took the standard Christian approach: When you're confronted with facts that you're wrong, just keep repeating what is wrong until it's fact. Too bad that tactic doesn't work for me.
He finally just stopped talking about it after trying to mention some random stuff out of the book of mormon and the bible. Though, each time he did, I quoted what was said in each book and pointed out some other fallacies about it. The one that really got him is when I mentioned that Paul wrote that Jesus would be coming back BEFORE Paul died...hmm...we're at...what...about 1900-1950 years past that? Yeah, I think that was another bullshit prophecy from someone who was probably huffing donkey piss and wanted something to fap to sleep to.
But, that's more or less the end of that little episode...not that he'll change, but I'll keep presenting the evidence...especially when he makes idiotic statements like "Origin of Species is nothing but a big fairytale" (hence where one of my quotes came from). How he hasn't figured out I'm an atheist...I guess shouldn't be too surprising, he's not the sharpest crayon in the box...and the box is missing it's sharpener.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Addition to the Atheist Blogroll
This is me and what I think has been added to The Atheist Blogroll. You can see the blogroll in my sidebar. The Atheist blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to Atheist bloggers from around the world. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information.
Mormonism in teen years
This post will highlight my teen years (13-18) as a Mormon.
Following up from my last post about growing up Mormon, we start half way through my time as a deacon. For those that don't know much about Mormonism, when young men in the church turn 12, they're given a blessing by their bishop and become a deacon, at 14 the same thing happens and you become a teacher and lastly at 16 it happens once more in your teen life and you become a priest.
Within a few months after I turned 13, I was fairly active with the church and also with the Boy Scouts of America. It was also about this time when I was "called" to be the deacon president, though, I wouldn't call it "being called" so much as all the boys who were older than me had turned 14 and I was now the oldest person in the group...so it was more of a succession than a calling.
When I became the president I was more active and more trying to fool myself into doing it (partly cause I had nothing better to do and because my parents expected it). Then again, I also ran it like a business, not a church group. If I asked someone to do something I would approach it as though I was the CEO of some multi-national. Admittedly this has made me a rather strict person when it comes to business, but I'm not an asshole about it. Regardless, I made it a point we had business to do first and foremost and then we could play around.
The neighborhood I was living in pretty much had the Boy Scouts and the church fully integrated, there wasn't a single boy scout who was NOT Mormon. This meant that ALL the stuff we did as scouts started AND ended with a prayer. Now, there are some useful things I learned as a scout (mostly how to save my ass if I get stuck in the wilderness...and I do like to camp), however, outside of my neighborhood, most of the scouts I interacted with weren't exactly faithful Mormons.
This pretty much continued on like this until I was 14 and became a teacher. This is when I started to become rather disenchanted with the magic of Mormonism. I was still attending my meetings regularly as well as still doing scout related stuff (and at about 14.5 years I got my Eagle scout award). However, as I was attending these lessons, I started to realize that they were a repeat of the lessons from before. Other than this there wasn't much difference when I was 14.
When I turned 15 and entered the 9th grade as well as started taking seminary classes at my junior high (which I wasn't asked about, I was just signed up by my parents after they were handed a slip from our bishop). I had my seminary class before I started my normal classes...something I still to this day wish that I hadn't had and took this world history class taught in German instead. It was shortly after I started school that I also became president of the teacher's group. However, I was not as actively involved as I was a deacon. This time around I was still kind of strict but I didn't really make myself out to be as much of an asshole about it.
In church I started to sleep during lessons and would usually have my chair propped against the wall so I could rest against it. Since I had already figured out that the lessons they were teaching were nothing more than a repetitive bore, I decided I would start to snooze in class. This would usually drive the teacher nuts, but what could they do? Pull the fundie Christian card and say I'll burn in hell forever? I doubt it since the concept of "hell" to Mormons is rather askew from mainstream Christian mythology. This is when I started to not care about what the church was offering or it's messages.
As I mentioned before, I was also enrolled in seminary at m junior high...that REALLY showed me the attitudes of other Mormons. Namely how they were petty lying self-serving assholes who had nothing better to do than to try and be an ass to others. The entire year of seminary, a majority of the class felt the need to pick on people, however, they had absolutely no backbone and instead of taking an issue with someone up with that person, they had to write crap where everyone could see it. -_- It actually culminated by the second parent-teacher conferences around April that I finally confronted them only to have them deny they did anything wrong...gee, shocker to that reaction since a vast majority of church goers have that attitude. So I decided to take it up with the teacher who also had the same attitude...right up until I also mentioned that I could charge it as harassment...oh, then all of a sudden there was an announcement made to the class to stop the crap...it's sad I had to resort to that...but I guess they were just taking their Christ-like behavior from how he acted according to the bible...a complete asshole.
When I was 16, I was now a sophmore high school and still taking seminary. I was less inclined to go to church now that I was 16 and started to really not give a damn about church. I started to attend on a much less than frequent schedule. Maybe once or twice a month now. As far as seminary went, I still went to my daily classes, but, it was all show, plus, I figured out how to make things work in my favor there. This is also the time when I got my drivers license and started driving places (as well as making new friends, some who were not Mormon).
When I became a junior in high school and turned 17, this is when my church attendance dropped to every other month. I attended seminary but didn't really pay attention at all. This was also when I started using the internet at the school and learning of things beyond Utah other than what was taught in the classroom. It opened my eyes to the rest of the world at large and I started understanding things a LOT better than I had before.
I turned 18 shortly after I started my senior year of high school (we'd start the end of August on average and my birthday is in November), but by now, I already had some great distrust of the church (both church and seminary on that point). As the year progressed I started caring less and less about any of the meetings or any reason for still going. Once I graduated from high school (with a 3.3 GPA I might add), I actually had a normal reason to not go to church, I had a job and it required I work on Sunday...much to the dismay of my parents (particularly my dad).
By now I was more than disenchanted by the mysticism and mythology of the Mormon church and felt that it wasn't right...but decided to still please others (mostly my parents) and continued to go to church on Sunday when I wasn't at work. I also started going to a few parties here and there and started to meet people who I could tell didn't let religion rule their life and I found them to be VERY interesting.
That concludes the teen years and as you can tell I started to wise up to what the church was trying to do to it's members and had great disinterest in those plans. In my next post regarding my growing up as a Mormon, I will highlight from when I was 18 ALMOST 19 and will cover into who I am today and how I arrived at my decisions for my thinking also.
Following up from my last post about growing up Mormon, we start half way through my time as a deacon. For those that don't know much about Mormonism, when young men in the church turn 12, they're given a blessing by their bishop and become a deacon, at 14 the same thing happens and you become a teacher and lastly at 16 it happens once more in your teen life and you become a priest.
Within a few months after I turned 13, I was fairly active with the church and also with the Boy Scouts of America. It was also about this time when I was "called" to be the deacon president, though, I wouldn't call it "being called" so much as all the boys who were older than me had turned 14 and I was now the oldest person in the group...so it was more of a succession than a calling.
When I became the president I was more active and more trying to fool myself into doing it (partly cause I had nothing better to do and because my parents expected it). Then again, I also ran it like a business, not a church group. If I asked someone to do something I would approach it as though I was the CEO of some multi-national. Admittedly this has made me a rather strict person when it comes to business, but I'm not an asshole about it. Regardless, I made it a point we had business to do first and foremost and then we could play around.
The neighborhood I was living in pretty much had the Boy Scouts and the church fully integrated, there wasn't a single boy scout who was NOT Mormon. This meant that ALL the stuff we did as scouts started AND ended with a prayer. Now, there are some useful things I learned as a scout (mostly how to save my ass if I get stuck in the wilderness...and I do like to camp), however, outside of my neighborhood, most of the scouts I interacted with weren't exactly faithful Mormons.
This pretty much continued on like this until I was 14 and became a teacher. This is when I started to become rather disenchanted with the magic of Mormonism. I was still attending my meetings regularly as well as still doing scout related stuff (and at about 14.5 years I got my Eagle scout award). However, as I was attending these lessons, I started to realize that they were a repeat of the lessons from before. Other than this there wasn't much difference when I was 14.
When I turned 15 and entered the 9th grade as well as started taking seminary classes at my junior high (which I wasn't asked about, I was just signed up by my parents after they were handed a slip from our bishop). I had my seminary class before I started my normal classes...something I still to this day wish that I hadn't had and took this world history class taught in German instead. It was shortly after I started school that I also became president of the teacher's group. However, I was not as actively involved as I was a deacon. This time around I was still kind of strict but I didn't really make myself out to be as much of an asshole about it.
In church I started to sleep during lessons and would usually have my chair propped against the wall so I could rest against it. Since I had already figured out that the lessons they were teaching were nothing more than a repetitive bore, I decided I would start to snooze in class. This would usually drive the teacher nuts, but what could they do? Pull the fundie Christian card and say I'll burn in hell forever? I doubt it since the concept of "hell" to Mormons is rather askew from mainstream Christian mythology. This is when I started to not care about what the church was offering or it's messages.
As I mentioned before, I was also enrolled in seminary at m junior high...that REALLY showed me the attitudes of other Mormons. Namely how they were petty lying self-serving assholes who had nothing better to do than to try and be an ass to others. The entire year of seminary, a majority of the class felt the need to pick on people, however, they had absolutely no backbone and instead of taking an issue with someone up with that person, they had to write crap where everyone could see it. -_- It actually culminated by the second parent-teacher conferences around April that I finally confronted them only to have them deny they did anything wrong...gee, shocker to that reaction since a vast majority of church goers have that attitude. So I decided to take it up with the teacher who also had the same attitude...right up until I also mentioned that I could charge it as harassment...oh, then all of a sudden there was an announcement made to the class to stop the crap...it's sad I had to resort to that...but I guess they were just taking their Christ-like behavior from how he acted according to the bible...a complete asshole.
When I was 16, I was now a sophmore high school and still taking seminary. I was less inclined to go to church now that I was 16 and started to really not give a damn about church. I started to attend on a much less than frequent schedule. Maybe once or twice a month now. As far as seminary went, I still went to my daily classes, but, it was all show, plus, I figured out how to make things work in my favor there. This is also the time when I got my drivers license and started driving places (as well as making new friends, some who were not Mormon).
When I became a junior in high school and turned 17, this is when my church attendance dropped to every other month. I attended seminary but didn't really pay attention at all. This was also when I started using the internet at the school and learning of things beyond Utah other than what was taught in the classroom. It opened my eyes to the rest of the world at large and I started understanding things a LOT better than I had before.
I turned 18 shortly after I started my senior year of high school (we'd start the end of August on average and my birthday is in November), but by now, I already had some great distrust of the church (both church and seminary on that point). As the year progressed I started caring less and less about any of the meetings or any reason for still going. Once I graduated from high school (with a 3.3 GPA I might add), I actually had a normal reason to not go to church, I had a job and it required I work on Sunday...much to the dismay of my parents (particularly my dad).
By now I was more than disenchanted by the mysticism and mythology of the Mormon church and felt that it wasn't right...but decided to still please others (mostly my parents) and continued to go to church on Sunday when I wasn't at work. I also started going to a few parties here and there and started to meet people who I could tell didn't let religion rule their life and I found them to be VERY interesting.
That concludes the teen years and as you can tell I started to wise up to what the church was trying to do to it's members and had great disinterest in those plans. In my next post regarding my growing up as a Mormon, I will highlight from when I was 18 ALMOST 19 and will cover into who I am today and how I arrived at my decisions for my thinking also.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
And despite it being labeled a "dangerous cult" you want to say?
http://www.standard.net/topics/featured/2009/11/20/belgium-family-seeks-asylum-practice-their-religion-freely
That story was pulled directly from the Deseret News (a local paper here where I am that's also owned by Mormons). In it, it details this family who fled Belgium because of religious persecution they were receiving because they are Mormon...What the hell did they expect when Belgium has listed Mormonism as a "dangerous cult".
For more information: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Cults_and_governments_-_Belgium/id/1273542
So now they're all worried about going back and dealing with that. Know what I say to that? GOOD. Get it through your head that they have done nothing but brainwash you and are literally just using you. Plus, I also have to admit it's nice to see an entire country list Mormonism for what it really is...a cult.
I can't begin to say how glad I am that I am no longer part of that brainwashing project.
BTW, if any Mormon does come across my blog, ask your leaders and teachers about how Joseph was nothing more than a liar who put stones into a hat and could find treasure. He was actually sued by a land owner who stated after multiple attempts Joseph failed to produce any treasure. Oh, and btw, the Urim and Thummim he used was a set of rocks that he put into a hat to read the golden plates. Hmm...how VERY coincidental.
That story was pulled directly from the Deseret News (a local paper here where I am that's also owned by Mormons). In it, it details this family who fled Belgium because of religious persecution they were receiving because they are Mormon...What the hell did they expect when Belgium has listed Mormonism as a "dangerous cult".
For more information: http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Cults_and_governments_-_Belgium/id/1273542
So now they're all worried about going back and dealing with that. Know what I say to that? GOOD. Get it through your head that they have done nothing but brainwash you and are literally just using you. Plus, I also have to admit it's nice to see an entire country list Mormonism for what it really is...a cult.
I can't begin to say how glad I am that I am no longer part of that brainwashing project.
BTW, if any Mormon does come across my blog, ask your leaders and teachers about how Joseph was nothing more than a liar who put stones into a hat and could find treasure. He was actually sued by a land owner who stated after multiple attempts Joseph failed to produce any treasure. Oh, and btw, the Urim and Thummim he used was a set of rocks that he put into a hat to read the golden plates. Hmm...how VERY coincidental.
Friday, November 20, 2009
The Christians are invading
=_= Alright, this story just irks the living hell out of me:
http://ffrf.org/action/2009/youcanrun.php
So..we're a "Christian nation" funny...doesn't say that in the constitution or the declaration of independence, and even then, there's only 2 Christian groups that are larger than Atheists anyways. But that's not the part that irks me.
It's in the first paragraph of the group's purpose that irks me. What fucking right do they have to go into a public school (a government entity) saying they're gonna teach kids to not use drugs, but then turn around and try brainwashing them into their fold? They have none not to mention they have also lied to the government. It's groups like these that I would consider domestic terrorists cause that's EXACTLY what they are.
This group should be marked as a cult and ALL of it's members arrested for treason and given the ONLY penalty allowed by the US for treason. Death. And personally, I think it should be televised so that all the other asshat super right Christians who think they'll do the same will know EXACTLY what'll be coming for them. And sorry, Jesus isn't going to save them anymore than Superman can, cause they're both fictional.
To hear any updates about this, follow the Freedom From Religion Foundation on twitter @FFRF or their website: http://ffrf.org/
http://ffrf.org/action/2009/youcanrun.php
So..we're a "Christian nation" funny...doesn't say that in the constitution or the declaration of independence, and even then, there's only 2 Christian groups that are larger than Atheists anyways. But that's not the part that irks me.
It's in the first paragraph of the group's purpose that irks me. What fucking right do they have to go into a public school (a government entity) saying they're gonna teach kids to not use drugs, but then turn around and try brainwashing them into their fold? They have none not to mention they have also lied to the government. It's groups like these that I would consider domestic terrorists cause that's EXACTLY what they are.
This group should be marked as a cult and ALL of it's members arrested for treason and given the ONLY penalty allowed by the US for treason. Death. And personally, I think it should be televised so that all the other asshat super right Christians who think they'll do the same will know EXACTLY what'll be coming for them. And sorry, Jesus isn't going to save them anymore than Superman can, cause they're both fictional.
To hear any updates about this, follow the Freedom From Religion Foundation on twitter @FFRF or their website: http://ffrf.org/
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