The Antichristian Phenomenon

This summer I have been taking a few classes at the Community College in my hometown, one of which was an online Macroeconomics course. A few of you who have been reading my personal blog as of late have read at least a portion of my recent bind in this class, but I think the general ACP readers will find interest in the full story, accounted in full and in order.

Most of us never really think much of the stories about teachers and professors espousing their religious beliefs and actively discriminating until it happens directly to you. I didn’t think it would happen, or could happen, and especially not in an economics course. Yet, here are the events… (more…)

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Gematria is an attempt to validate the Bible and seek hidden revelations within using mathematical codes. It can be quite fascinating, even if it doesn’t prove much. If you want to learn more about Gematria, there are lots of interesting sources to Google, I don’t feel like writing about it right now.

I stumbled across a site that would apply the rules of Gematria to any website, so I put in the ACP. Here are our results:

So, apparently we are… good? Is that a good or bad thing?

Though, 77 is the holiest number possible with a range of 1-100..

We seem to have some high-rolling phrases, such as “”wouldn’t it be much cooler if jesus had a magic wand and shouted “you shall not pass” at those bloody green-skinned romans?“” worth 7826 points, “face it, even if you think that your brilliant theory on equidistant letter sequences will abso-fucking-lutely prove the biblical inerrancy beyond the shadow of a doubt, and even if you’ve worded it in a way that you cannot see any obvious holes, you cannot expect random people on the internet to sit and read a subject that they’re pretty certain is wrong.” worth 30870, and “widgettitle, .” worth 1169… for one made-up word.

Gematriculator ftw.

(Update as I play around with it
“Theory of Evolution, Charles Darwin” is 96% evil, while “Intelligent Design” is 99% good! I’ve seen the light!! Creationism and ID only for me from now on.)

I debated whether or not to put this under the DC series but decided against it. This is less a “debunking” or awareness article and more of a ramble. As you may or may or not know, I work a part time customer service oriented job during the summer. This is something I discovered, much to my displeasure.

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Debunking Christianity III — Of War and Manipulation

I deliberated quite a bit about whether or not to include this article under the Debunking Christianity series. I finally decided to include this with DC because it fits into my overall goal statement, which I will type up in the very near future, and should have posted before I even began the series. This is not your typical “Religion = war!1!! War iz teh evul! Stop relijuns = no more warz!111!!!” article that you might see elsewhere on this topic. It is less of a “debunking” and more of an awareness article, but it still fits.

Without further ado, here is the Debunking Christianity view of war and its ties with religion. (more…)

Just within the past few days I have been approached through comments by a Christian by the name of Brian who has a few bones to pick with my budding “Debunking Christianity” series. The comment replies became too lengthy and detailed to maintain a good comment-debate, and he expressed interest in using email as our primary form of communication. My problem with this was that it would take a topic that I would like to remain public and pulls it into the private domain, so I asked his permission if I could post our email exchange in article format for outside opinions on both sides.

This first part includes our original long comment debate, the second part will be our first email exchange. I do not know how long this debate will be or how frequent as we are both busy people, but I will be sure to make an article for each exchange so anyone who is interested can follow and contribute.

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[Disclaimer, as is most likely necessary for some readers]
Those who know me would agree that I would be the last person to play the “sexism” card. I dislike the behavior and views of anti-male feminists as much as I can’t stand misogynists. I have no desire to change “History” to “Herstory” or demand pronoun awareness where his or her/himself or herself/He or She, etc, replaces every gender-neutral “he”. While I would like to see gender gaps lessen in terms of pay rate and promotional opportunities in many fields, but I understand that we’re living in the midst an age of change. Theoretically. For an independent, driven woman, I’m not really much of a feminist, as I have trouble seeing where the alleged misgivings feminists generally cry about are. Men and women do generally have different strengths and weaknesses and trends and interests… I’m perhaps what you could call a gender moderate. I actually resent being drawn into discussions about gender because I find the entire topic completely inconsequential and inane, similar to discussions about race. However, sometimes…

I will be focusing on the female end of this issue as that is the side I identify with. Hopefully comments will provide us with a male perspective. Additionally, my experience is based strictly in America, as that is where I was born and raised, and perspective on both genders from other countries may be a bit different. I can not say definitively. Keep in mind also that the religious portion is only one part of this problem. I am not saying it is the only contributer, just a major one.[/disclaimer]

Despite the fact that most of us living in the developed world are adapted to living in a post- feminist society, used to seeing women working in positions previously dominated by men, actual gender roles are still a hurdle. There is no front I see this promoted more on than on the religious front. However, here I will not be discussing the horrors of female circumcision or the outrage of Muslim law, but rather two cute little Christian children’s books I found on the shelf of K-mart last week.

Its a sad and quite inaccurate misconception that all little girls love pink, frilly Disney princesses, Barbies/Bratz/etc., jewelery and makeup, waiting for their princes on white steeds to slay the dragon, and all little boys love sports and Tonka trucks, Transformers, video games and Legos, slaying dragons for the (weak) little girls. I’m sure many readers here broke the stereotype in one way or another. Personally, I never fit the little-girl stereotype. Not once.

I was more interested in classifying Dinosaurs, illustrating stories, and reading fantasy novels than anything else, and had more fantasies about slaying (or taming) the dragon myself (while wearing bloody, blackened armor, usually with powerful magic or in league with some dire wolf companions) than having a knight in shining armor do it. STILL I am repulsed by the color pink and the cliche “feminine” niche I was expected to fill through middle school and high school, and even to a small degree in college (though honestly at an art school, gender lines basically do not exist). I, and many like me, do not want to grow into the cliche female gender niche, our primary purpose being the bearing and raising of children, taco night, shopping for fun, and enjoying what luxuries our husbands bestow on us. And honestly, in this age, the pressure to grow into that niche is significantly less, especially as the SYF (single young female) lifestyle grows more prevalent. So why is it that girls growing up today DO feel pressure to conform into this lifestyle, and are impressed upon to enjoy the pink and frills and wait for their knights in shining armor? Similarly, why are boys impressed upon grow into protectors and providers for the weak and needy (read: females), fixing things around the house, disarming the robbers, bringing in the majority of income, and so on?

Here, we’re forced to look back into the child’s upbringing. It’s a simple fact that childhood affects adulthood, as is easy to see in the indoctrinated, and the propagation of religion and belief systems within family structures. Tradition maintains subtle but important aspects of interaction such as gender roles. Again, it is arguable that these roles have become obsolete and more of an illusion in society today, between gay rights movements, women’s move into the workplace, and similar movements in conjunction with acceptance of previously unusual or “dysfunctional” family structures. In these previously unusual structures we can see men and women switching roles, as stay-at-home dads come into existence–males doing housework and fixing dinner while women bring home the bacon, or there are two men/two women in the house instead of a traditional heterosexual relationship, single moms or dads, or even the woman holding a higher paying job than the man.

However, it is on religious fronts, not the social, that we see the obsolete concept of the stereotypical, concrete, gender role persisting. I’m not going to take time to go into Islam here, we already know and agree that they are medieval in their beliefs, honor-killing women for showing skin in public or falling in love with the wrong person. No one except the Muslims themselves would agree that this is acceptable behavior. Just as many of us will deny that moderate Christian beliefs are a destructive force in society. They’re not the crazy fundamentalists teaching their kids that the world is 6000 years old, or sending them to Jesus Camp, etc. They’reкомпютри just good, average citizens, promoting good strong values in their children. They’re probably also buying their kids books like this: God’s Little Princess Devotional Bible and God’s Mighty Warrior Devotional Bible.

I was in K-mart when I walked by these. Read the product descriptions. Remember my ramble earlier about “stereotypical” boy and girl interests? Don’t these seem a bit familiar? Click around on a few of the recommended girls books, too. “Gigi - God’s Little Princess” and “Will - God’s Mighty Warrior”, all receiving four or more stars, all promoting the stereotypes I outlined earlier.

Will: heroically rescuing his sister, adventuring through the jungle, doing anything with God’s protection! He goes on a creepy-cave adventure and pretends to be a pirate with his friend
Gigi: Learning to dance beautifully to make God proud of her! Confidence because she is a daughter of the King! She has a tea party and becomes cheerleader of a soccer team!

Why?

Anyway, of course, I must have just found flukes, right? I’m sure these were the exceptions because we, as moderate Christians, clearly do not espouse such outdated values in this day and age. We’re enlightened and progressive!

Gigi, God’s Princess, also has an animated show, a doll, a pop up purse, a sticker book, and is recommended right alongside Veggie Tales and an Aslan necklace on Family Christian Stores, as well as BooksforChristians.com and countless other sites that I just don’t have the time or interest to explore. Her books all have 4+ stars and reviews gushing with praise. The author, Shiela Walsh, also writes devotional bible studies for women (as opposed to men or everyone?) and inspirational books on prayer, as well as Christian-friendly romance novels. If these books had been printed in the late 80’s/early 90’s, they would have been presents from relatives. My brother would definitely have had a Will Warrior book (that I would have read jealously). This is not a fundamentalist publication by a crazy extremist author, and the stereotype divide is not alien to Christian children’s publications and movies, even today, in this “progressive” age.

Ok, so what? These are great kid’s stories, have wholesome messages at heart, and promote the Faith in a family friendly, non-violent, safe way! Getting worked up over something so innocent seems a bit reactionary and unnecessary, right?

Maybe it IS just a personal issue, the fact that I personally can never relate to Gigi, religion totally aside for sake of this argument. Maybe it is my personal belief that a human should be self defining, not defined by who their father, mother, or spouse is. Gigi is told to be proud that her FATHER is a King, not that SHE is a princess. Its technicality of language here, but the two mindsets are totally different. One mindset promotes the idea that you should value yourself based on your relationships with others, and the other promotes the idea that you should value what you are. It just so happens that women in the past have been defined based on who their father or husband was rather than on their own terms. This is an outdated mindset that no self respecting person should take on in the 21st century, and these “wholesome” Children’s books are encouraging it!

The other problem that might be considered more of a “personal” problem is that I can not relate to any of the activities Gigi does. I am more interested to read about Will’s pirate adventure or the creepy cave than Gigi’s tea party or dance class. But I am not the target audience of the Will books. I struggled with this sort of thing as a kid — to come to terms with interests outside your gender can be very difficult, and creates unnecessary tension throughout adolescence. I’m not just referring to crying about getting the wrong toy in a Happy Meal, but deep-seated issues such as sexuality and morality. When it is imprinted beginning in childhood that is “wrong” for a boy to like pink and flowers and “wrong” for a girl to enjoy questing and dragon-slaying, what will a boy or girl think when they find themselves drawn to the forbidden interest? What about the boy who would rather have a tea party, or the girl who would rather explore the creepy cave? Are they “wrong”? Obviously, looking at this from a mature perspective, the answer is a resounding “NO”, but from the child’s perspective, it is not so clear. Children should not be worried about fitting into traditional gender roles anymore! There is absolutely no need for the anxiety or alienation from peers that sometimes results, nor the guilty soul-searching that results through adolescence, when the family and culturally impressed perception of “wrong” conflicts with reality and the child becomes old enough to understand the nature of the conflict and its potential moral consequences. Am I wrong in other ways? Am I evil? Am I a monster? Why don’t I fit? Am I gay (sometimes yes, sometimes no)? Am I sick? I’ll never find another like me. I’ll never be accepted. Etc… etc… All based on the inability to conform to the illusion of gender roles.

Unfortunately, the ideal where these questions need not be asked is not the reality yet. I was not the only girl who slew dragons as a child, and those who did have similar stories of alienation and the feeling of “wrongness” throughout adolescence and at the age of reason. While good Christian publishing houses release family friendly children’s publications promoting a clear stereotypical gender line will fly under the radar and help keep this illusion in place.

After all, didn’t Susan, the queen of Narnia (who filled the niche of a strong, independent girl), get dramatically rescued by Prince Caspian anyway, while her brother, Peter the High King, fought the Big Bad Guy to protect the land?

In the ACP Last.fm forums there are a number of long-running threads that are fairly consistently updated, most specifically the threads “Best Antichristian song ever…?” and “Christian stuff - Post and ridicule here”. While usually the updates are a bit mundane and can be repetitive, or in the case of Christian Stuff occasionally good for a quick laugh, occasionally there are real gems. Such was the case with Christvertising (links open in separate window, be sure check it out before reading the rest).

Christvertising is an effective means of advertisement, but not for the reasons Dr. Ed van Pelt claims. Basically, Christvertising claims to take intercessory prayer into the realm of business. This is theoretically a good idea for owners of Christian businesses. Who wouldn’t want God to “Bless your brand”, and over a million people to pray for your success? If you are a Christian or a “god-fearing” individual of any sort, you most likely believe in the power of prayer. You’ve been reared on it, brainwashed to it’s “power”, and maybe you’ve even experienced a few good coincidences to bolster your belief. While perhaps there is a positive placebo effect for the praying individual or a form of meditation inherent, this personal benefit does little good for say, Jesus Books Inc. or Smellgood Deodorant, two imaginary start up companies that have decided to throw in their lot with Christvertising.

Lets say we started this company, Jesus Books Inc., with the hope of distributing comic book tracts, bible commentaries, and touching personal stories from “real” Christians to “real” Christians. Since a lot of our product is free or very cheap, production costs and lack of advertising begin to take its toll. Then we partake in Dr. Ed van Pelt’s “variety of refreshments”, hear a talk similar to that on the website, and throw in our lot with Christverising. Since we believe in the power of intercessory prayer, no matter what the New York times says, we believe that it is the prayer that will work. Dr. Ed van Pelt smiles in our direction and assures us that over 1 million people will be diligently praying for Jesus Books Inc. to succeed. Over time, sales rise! The prayer must have worked!

Meanwhile, our rival, Smellgood Deodorant, hears the same talk, drinks the same coffee, and is also assured that they will succeed with 1 million people praying for them. But Smellgood Deodorant never mentions their “little secret”… their product is a knockoff product produced by child labor with poor quality goods. It does smell good, but there is little “good” about it; or at least little good that any self-respecting Christian or God of Christianity, the religion of love, would support. Regardless, their sales also rise! God must have blessed their brand!

From a quick glance, this seems too good to be true, but what is really going on beneath the cross waving and Amens?

office furniture in Bulgaria

Over 1 million people have just been directly exposed to your product. Whether they pray for it or not now is irrelevant. Over 1 million people learn of its existence and of its approval by Christvertising, who they would likely trust if they are offering prayers for the company. Over 1 million Christians have learned of another Christian publishing company, are interested in its product, and when they find the product worthy of time and money, are willing to recommend its publications to their friends. Over 1 million people have heard of a new brand of deodorant, and the next time they go to the store are more inclined to pick it up, and when the product is good, pass the word on. Based on these facts alone, the prayer aspect of Christvertising is unnecessary. Dr. Ed van Pelt may as well just say “I’m going to introduce your product to over 1 million people” and leave the God aspect out of it, as anyone who has ever even causally watched how advertising, exposure, and sales correlate can tell you that this type of exposure to a product; from a “trusted friend” or “random stranger” (van Pelt, Christvertising) results in a higher probability of purchase. Television commercials, radio ads, and expert testimonies just don’t work the same way they used to; what is needed today is primarily brand exposure. How many of you buy what shampoo you are used to,  pick up the soft drink your friend recommended, or give the cleaning product that lady on the train raved about a chance instead of grabbing an obscure middle-of-the-road product you’ve never heard of? Again, prayer aside, all van Pelt is really doing is providing the brand with exposure. It is likely that a product looking to delve into the “Christian” niche will go to Christvertising, and Christvertising will provide those who are supposed to pray for products with an assortment of new products “geared for them”.

What if it fails? What if Jesus Books Inc productions just aren’t that good, and the spike in sales was merely temporary? Dr. Ed van Pelt is safeguarded against this. He simply says “God must not like your brand.” No one can check on the validity of this, and no one can argue with it either. The entire premise behind Christvertising is to get God to like your brand and ask for His support, so either he supports it or he doesn’t; either Christvertising works for you or it doesn’t. Who can really go to God, provided he exists as a conscious entity, and ask whether he prefers Coke or Pepsi? Not even priests can agree on what “he” wants.

In conclusion, Dr. Ed van Pelt and what he represents may be aggravating and frustrating, but quite plainly, the man has perhaps unintentionally had a stroke of genius. If he believes deeply in what is written on his site, we’ll say its unintentional, as he clearly could not have understood what he was really doing, believing prayer is the full reason a company with Christvertising would succeed. However, if he understood the real reasons the companies he supports succeed, even if he allots them as secondary, there is no doubt he has found an incredibly inventive way to tap into the belief factor on a potentially large scale. What he is doing is legal and profitable. What he is doing costs him relatively little effort. He is safe behind the shield of a god’s “preference” when things turn nasty. He is untouchable.

Hello all loyal readers! Its been quite some time since we’ve posted here, me especially. I have been quite busy for a long time, but fortunately, I’ve got something to post tonight that I’m quite proud of; the Philosophy paper I took the polls in the last.fm forum to write.

Since I already wrote an article on the topic of “Satan” and “Evil”, this Debunking Christianity serves more as an extension of that article than a new topic. Sadly, I did not get a chance to address Satanism due to time constraints and a stolen laptop.

For those who didn’t see the last.fm poll the assignment was this:
The class split into “forum” groups, which each chose a topic and took a pro or con side. Then, using a philosopher we studied in class (Oops, it appears I didn’t; Nietzsche was surprisingly not discussed. Didn’t effect my grade though), support your side of the debate. Then present it orally and open discussion to the whole class. Unfortunately due to time constraints, my forum got no discussion. I didn’t even get to finish my talk… But oh well; here’s the paper, in MLA format with sources cited and referenced for your researching pleasure. Perhaps there will be more opinion and discussion here or on the last.fm boards.

Enjoy!
–Anath

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We now have Muslim Creationist fundamentalists pushing their agenda, in a very dramatic way.

Read the full story here .

My biggest question is, where is the funding for this coming from? Clearly this guy isn’t funding it himself, and “donations” is quite vague. Is the money coming indirectly out of our own (or American) pockets? Is it a byproduct of black market trade, perhaps with our own countries? Personally, I’m more concerned with this than the bullshit message they’re attempting to propagate, since that message seems to be largely ignored by the scientific community they ship the books to, and so far the school systems treat the books like toxic chemicals (Keep Out of Reach of Children!). I know what kind of groups would love to fund a project like this (does this or this look about right? How about this guy?), and they don’t have very clean money.

Again, I am repulsed by the methods of “religious” types. I don’t even know what to say about this anymore.  I feel sick.

These are the Antichristian Phenomenon authors’ answers to a short questionnaire for their profile page. Actual profile pages for individual authors will appear on the site shortly. The pages will include the answers to the questionnaire and potentially a picture. We may change the layout of the pages over time.

If you are an author and you don’t see your answers here, you need to go to my post and fill it out. Then, PM or email it to me (anath(at)antichristian-phenomenon.com).

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