Anath faithfully confessed:

After reading Waldheri’s moving confession, I have been inspired to make one myself. I realized that I have not been the most saintly, and I need to make my peace. After all, one may not know when the time shall come! I could die in a car crash tomorrow, I want to be going to the right place.

First of all, I am deeply sorry for not knowing my rightful place in your world, lord. I know that you want me to submit to the will of my Twin, and I am sorry that I fail to see that I am weaker and a lesser being and need them to guide me. I can’t believe that my Twin and I regard each other as equals and come to mutual decisions instead of letting him, as the man, take the lead. The idea of inequality and submission based on nothing but possession or lack of penis really bothers my sense of righteousness and justice, but please help me overcome that hurdle and accept what you decree.

Lord, it follows that I have also committed another travesty in a similar vein — working towards a career instead of a family. I apologize whole-heartedly for not resigning to the fate of a baby-factory, and instead hoping for greatness myself, and as a result being blasphemous and irresponsible in my choice to use multiple birth control methods during intercourse and attend college for a degree. It is not my place to hope for employment instead of attending to my holy duties of the laundry and cooking and cleaning and driving a minivan to soccer practice and being pregnant, and I hope I can be forgiven as I cast aside my dreams and desires to live according to Your teachings.

It is also to my great displeasure that I confess to the heinous sin of cross-dressing, every day. While I have found that man’s pants have amazing pocket room in which I can put not only my cell phone but pencils and erasers and keys and a wallet and even the average-sized paperback so I don’t have to carry a moronic purse, the only all-black athletic sneakers on the market are also men’s, and men’s dress shirts make awesome overshirts in mid-temperature weather, I understand now that choosing my own clothing is abhorrent in your eyes, and I humbly repent.

I am also sorry that I have made friends with such dogs as homosexuals and bisexuals, accepting them as equal human beings and supporting their sexual choices, as well as encourage my other female friends not to follow your Holy Way, relying on a male for support, but to be independent human beings. I have also made great acquaintances with atheists, agnostics, satanists, pagans and the irreligious and see nothing wrong with them or their beliefs (or lack of), and have not wished to turn them to Your light.

Lord, I must also confess that I am a philosopher. Not a theologian-philospher in your employ, but a free-thinking existentialist informed by nihilism and other blasphemous philosophies which are combined into a worldview that does not require any sort of God. Now that I see you for what you are, I must confess the fallacy in my ways. In no way can a man make his own destiny or choose his own person! In no way is subjectivity the base of everything but rather objectivity of YOU is reality! Man can not form his own morality and concepts of ethics! Everything finds its meaning in You! Nietzsche is Dead! God is Alive!

I must also confess that I am a scientist. I believe the dogmas of evolution, quantum mechanics, and genetics, I believe in the scientific method, and require verifiable evidence while rejecting the pseudoscientific conjecture that is Christian Science and Intelligent Design. I realize now that all of my “knowledge” was not really true but rather a mere “belief” and just theories, and I beg of you to please cleanse me of these evils and allow me to learn anew the truth with the instrument of your knowledge that is the Bible!

I also confess that I have not read your Holy Bible properly. I have been reading it as literature and folk lore of an ancient culture, not as Your infallible Word, still fully applicable and relevant today. I have been repulsed by much of what is written there when I should have been singing your praises and glory. I also do not pray to you, Lord. I have discovered prayer to be a self-fulfilling cyclical delusion with the occasional placebo effect and rejected its use, even at the dinner table with family.

I have also disobeyed my parents, and spoken back to my elders, and challenged authority. I have not kept the Sabbath holy and do not attend church. I do not accept the concept of the Trinity, venerate the saints, or believe that you died on the cross for my sins because there is no Original Sin to be saved from. I do not love my neighbor and I do not turn the other cheek when deeply wronged. There is much more for me to confess to you, my Lord… but as the all knowing and wise being you are, you know it all already. Please forgive me… I know not what I do.

Short after jorrizza had this to say:

I am sorry Lord, for I have sinned. I regret my choices and I will do anything in my power, with your blessing, to find my way back onto the blessed path.

It all started in my childhood, Lord. My parents, friends and family all tried to teach me the gospel. But I would not listen. All the biblical miracles were laid down in front of me. The great flood, the cursed people of Egypt, the massacres of the unfaithful. All of this evidence and I still did not want to listen. I am sorry Lord, for I have lost faith at a young age.

I blatantly misinterpreted your holy message, and soon after started campaigning against it. I have kept people who were close to me out of the church, kept them from hearing your divine message. I have been an obstacle in many righteous paths. Keeping them from finding true salvation in your hands, Lord. During this campaign my own path got separated more and more from your intended direction. I have lost sight of the light and headed towards the darkness. But I see now Lord, that you have never lost sight of me, for I can clearly see the light now.

A few years ago my campaign lead me to the end point. I had reached full darkness. My soul belonged to the devil Lucifer. Oh, I long for the opportunity to go back in time to correct that mistake. I have joined a group of sinful people who seek their salvation in your arch rival Satan. I had it all backwards. I called myself god in my position as servant to you, Lord.

I indulged in several lustful activities. I repulse myself thinking of laying with women who were neither my wife nor my servant. Every day I have committed one of the worst sins, oh Lord. I have laid my eyes upon other women with these activities in mind. I was convinced it was natural. But it was just foolish of me to assume so, for your law clearly prohibits this sinful behavior.

Every time I saw a man who had achieved more in his life, drove a nicer car, had more knowledge or had a higher social status, I envied him. It motivated me to achieve at least what that man had achieved. It was selfish and sinful to even think I should achieve anything in my life, Lord. I see that now. Serving you as my Lord and Savior should be the only goal in my life. I wish you could give me some hints about how to survive a life of faith.

I am sorry for allowing all kinds of people in my house. Atheists, Muslims, Satanists, Pantheists, Wiccans, Pagans, whores and even homosexuals. I did not hold any grudge against them. Thanks to your divine blessing of the gospel I will send these false prophets straight to Hell, in your name, before letting them step into my quarters.

Many more sins I have committed, Lord. You have witnessed one of your children stray from his path. I thank you, Lord, for bringing me back to where I belong. Thank you for sending the Christian voice to the ACP through your divine servants.

LeaTelamon couldn’t be left behind in the darkness and repented:

Oh Lord, I have committed a great Sin, one which does not ever make me a Christian, and for that I hope for Your Great Forgiveness. All throughout my life, I have felt that there is something which is amiss with me, something which made me not feel comfortable with the gender I was born with. I understand now my Lord that it was wrong denying what You intended me to be, which is of course, how silly of me, a woman. I refused to understand why I should be weaker than anyone else, I admit my Lord, I wanted to be a man and I envied men for being men. Not only does it make me break one of the Ten Commandments, but it also made me question my own gender, although I now realize, that I was never supposed to be a man. Lord, I ask You for Forgiveness, because in my mind, I still would prefer to be a man, please understand this great human fallacy in me. I am struggling every day to accept the one You intended me to be, which is a woman, one who should stay home, one who cooks, one who cleans, give birth to children and marry another man. I find it very hard Lord, that you put me through this arduous task, because I am not interested in any of those things my Lord. I have always thought that I was free to choose who I wanted to be, because that is how my parents raised me. I now understand the errors of my ways my Lord, but does my Sinful thoughts make me a homosexual? Do I even have the Right to still Pray for Forgiveness? Please answer me my Lord, because I have now found the right path but now I am not sure whether it is too late. If it is, then I will accept the Damnation awaiting before me at Judgement Day. Please help me cast out the Sin in me and accept me as a human being. I promise to never commit any Sins ever again.

• VampyreAngel gives his personal salute to Arthur C. Clarke as one of the greatest visionaries of our time. I sincerely concur of course.
• LeaTelamon tackles what the Pop Music label really means and goes in depth into responding to another last.fm user who labels all Power Metal as pop. The article explains how Pop is not really entwined with a specific label but rather has to do with the attempt of the artist to appeal to popularity.
• fakitol is really wondering at this point, why a specific Viral video is so funny. I haven’t had time to watch it myself but apparently the Video is not only funny, but the reason why it is so, is something that most people cannot define
• nemo_tribe has a nice little rand about Emo (and who doesn’t really) where he pretty much explain how Emo is just Radiohead fans that dislike him. Jokes aside, it’s hard to argue with the man. Emo is the one thing most of us Love to hate
• LeaTelamon once more this time dissects melodic death metal for our pleasure. Oooh, Innards…

And that’s all for today folks. There weren’t so many Journals this time as people seem to enjoy writing silly games about their 1000 track or what they ate for lunch yesterday (and then tagging everything with popular band names so that they spam for readers) instead of thinking.

Here’s to more good journals in the future.

The True Enemy

Institutional religion, or religion itself?

This is an interesting question, especially for a group calling themselves Antichristians. One would assume that the “Enemy” is the Christian religion but by judging from the replies of the members inside, this is not actually the case.

In the end, is there an enemy? I used to think so in the past but presently my thoughts on this are more fuzzy. Lets explore some common themes that Antichristians might consider as “the enemy”

Religion

Is religion, by itself, to be combated and eliminated? Most of us would answer an emphatic “No” to this question. A religion, by itself, is no more harmful than a delusion. Sure, you might believe you are talking to invisible pink unicorns that make you happy, or you might believe that your great Sky Daddy is always watching you take crap. These delusions by themselves however do not constitute a threat to anyone else other than the afflicted.

Sure, a problem might occur if these delusions lead a person to perform some kind of wrongdoing, like flying an airplane onto a skyscraper or ambush and murder a homosexual in a dark alley. These acts however will not be prevented by taking religion away. Like violent video games and actual violence, the link is usually a deeper issue, like a dementia on the part of the afflicted by the particular religion meme. Lacking religion, it is still quite probable that he might have done the same or similar crime, under another guise, like the aforementioned violent games.

The cure, then is not to take religion away, but rather to introduce checks in which the people that display this dangerous potential, might be caught.

Religion, by itself, is harmless. The real problem arises when it transforms into the more dangerous…

Organized Religion

Getting into details on all the problems that a religion creates when it gains organization and power will just derail this post so I’ll assume you are aware of them (If not, just research Scientology).

Should it be treated as an enemy though? Many would confirm and this is actually what I labeled as “the enemy” in the past myself and I still retain much of the same passion against it. However I cannot in all honesty label it as an enemy of mine. Sure, I despise the ridiculously corrupt ruling class of “holy men” who are granted authority and respect without doing anything to deserve it. Sure, I despise the political muscle that they wield to force whole nations to give them extra benefits than anyone else.

I do not fight them like an enemy however, for that is a lost cause. There is nothing that most of us can do to actively “fight” organized religion and acts like isolated offensives of church burnings and the like only serve to strengthen the resolve of their flock and grant them more power as their persecution complex is vindicated. For example, as much as I like and enjoy what Anonymous are doing, the more I see how hopeless it would be if the opposing religion was bigger and stronger.

An enemy like that, is an enemy you are bound to lose to and thus better not to declare as an enemy at all. Rather, you should strike at the weak point of this structure and the only place where you cannot be accused of being a bigot or a hate monger. This is the actual thing that I’ve realised is the true enemy of not only Antichristians but of Humanity as a whole.

Anti-Knowledge

Or ignorance if you like. Unfortunately that term has different meaning for different people. A Christian might accuse you for example of being ignorant of the “True meaning” of their religion.

Anti-Knowledge is a much more fitting term for what all religions are based on. The mentality that lack of knowledge (blind faith) in your drug of choice belief is a virtue. This is a very strong memetic trait of the same magnitude as children brainwashing that provides the religions that teach it with a large competitive advantage. Unfortunately, this ideology, not only serves to fill the ranks of the organized religions, but allows people to fall for any belief that “sounds right” to them.

The proverb “If you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.” (At times changed to “If you don’t believe in God, you’ll believe anything.”) only really applies to people who have had their mental immune system, AKA critical thinking, compromised. Unfortunately the percentage of people who are thus conditioned is large. And thus you observe people not leaving religion altogether but rather jumping from one to the other when they are not comfortable with the last. Just witness the quick rise of Islam in many countries, not only as a result of immigration but also because as a religion it has a larger competitive advantage than Christianity in the memetic war.

Not only that but the lower the education, the easier it is for this meme to replicate. It is very easy to discard what you never had and save yourself of the effort to educate yourself by grasping at the easy choice of believing what your authority figure tells you.

This is our true enemy. I have found that most of the time, the effort to convince someone that their beliefs are wrong is just too large. This is especially true if these beliefs have been their basis for all their life, like most major religions are to the less fortunate.On the other hand though, teaching people to embrace critical thinking and love of knowledge is usually a much easier task. As long as you take care to avoid their delusions, you can show them how greater knowledge will benefit them and why critical thinking can save them from scammers and other who would take advantage. Hopefully, when these two ideas have been implanted in them, they will eventually notice the gaping holes in their previous ideologies and slowly open their eyes.

A look at how people usually discard their delusions will quickly show you that, most often than not, it’s not arguments and rhetoric that change their mind but rather a long, difficult process of soul searching and questioning that they do themselves. Usually this begins once they are free of the groupthink in their previous communities (like, say, by going to college) and once they start thinking more.

It is thus no surprise that organized religions, along with totalitarian regimes, are perpetuators of ignorance. To them, Knowledge is anathema.

As antichristians, nay, as humans, it is imperative that we fight the true enemy, and not it’s symptoms.

It’s also been a while since I posted in the “Jesus Rocks” group where they implemented a rule to stop arguments between christians and non-christians. I only joined that christian group to reply to that thread. Thanks then to Last.fm’s reply tracker, I was notified that I had a new response today.

Since I am no longer a member of that group and nor do I wish to join to discuss that there, I was getting ready to reply in IM when I thought it would be better to reply through the ACP and perhaps have some actual dialogue in the process.

What follows is the reply I received and interjected are my responses to porkchop1234′s points:

db0 the problem isnt always from us as you seem to believe.

I suggest you check my profile and look into my forum posts and you will see for yourself a member of your group namely ISos has in the past trolled past threads when it came to debate over God and religeon. Of coarse when I went to the anti christian phenomenom forum the first thing I see is a posting in the main forum heading page saying this group takes no responsibility for the actions of its members. How quaint. Then in the shoutbox of your forum i see the comment from one of your members and i quote ‘ENOUGH TALK LETS GO BURN SOME CHURCHES’

First of all, I don’t see how Isos has trolled and I find it hard to believe that he has. Please provide evidence.

Secondly. Yes we cannot be held responsible for the members of our group. We are not an organization ffs and nor are we going to be stalking our members to see who behaves (even if we wanted to). If you have a problem with someone, take it out with himself, not with his groups. Do you hold his other groups responsible for his actions as well or is the ACP just a suitable target?

Furthermore, I find it strange that you mark a loosely knit group by the actions of its members. Does that mean that I should judge Christianity by the actions of pedophile priests, wife-beating husbands and born-agains? This is Great! I didn’t realize that discrediting Christianity would be so easy.

But of course it isn’t and you know it. Just as I cannot judge christianity solely on the actions of their few bad apples, other than say that christianity does not automatically make you a better person, so it is mistaken to judge the ACP by a few members that misbehave. Especially when we have a history or attacking idiotic behavior and reliefs, even within our ranks.

With stuff like that CAN YOU REALLY BLAME US for being suspicious of you and your members? I have just joined this forum and I dont approve of this rule AT ALL. I also point out that your forum shares part of the blame. There has been ATTACKS on christian forums by some of your members Ive seen it.

I don’t blame you for being suspicious. I just couldn’t care less. However If you judge someone from what you believe his affiliations mean instead of what they really stand for, then you are plainly ignorant.

As for attacks on christian forums, once again, provide evidence and we can discuss it. This being a forum, such a task should not be difficult.

If you really want open debate I suggest you learn to control some of your membership and kick out the trolls. You have a responsibility for the actions of your members just like the owners here have when it comes to their members.

Next….these are not my words people so dont get mad at me. Im sick and tired of seeing users from the anti christian phenomenom putting up posts where at the bottom they have crap like F God F Christ etc. You want to debate us STOP insulting our God and acting stupidly and maybe we will take you seriously.

I don’t care about people’s signatures insulting your senses. I don’t generally care on anyone’s feelings being insulted as you can see on the “On Respect:” series of mine. If you are so thin skinned that a signature makes you stop talking then you’re obviously not meant for dialogue and you’re better off having another hobby. I can guarantee you that some of our member arguments can make a two-line signature look like praise to God in comparison.

Furthermore, if you want to censor anti-religious signatures, are you for censoring anti-muslim, anti-hindu and andi-nordic ones as well (Fuck Odin!)? Should we censor, say, cartoons? How about books? Is this sinking in already or should I make it more clear?

As for holding our members responsible, see my reply above.

And finally dbo I have no reservations in defending my faith whatsoever. I have done so many times since Ive joined LastFm. In one of your past posts dbo you said we dont want people to think and know the truth. One thing I will tell you right now though is that GOD IS TRUTH. You want to reject that belief then the problem is yours not mine.

There see people me and dbo are debating God. And I have no complaints about it and I CAN hold my own against him. We all can. There is nothing to fear from these people.

Right then. I’m waiting for you to take on some of the articles in here.

I’ve decided to do everyone a favour and then gather the best ones that were posted between the times I checked them and provide a link here. For this first roundup, I’m going far back in the ACP’s past and digging out all the interesting posts.

• Metalmicky wishes us all a Happy Winter Solstice and explains how the Christmas tradition is a mash-up from earlier pagan celebrations and was created with the purpose of making the transition of Pagans to the Christian religion easier.
  Obviously this is something that most people who have studied history have known all along but it’s nice to state it again for the christians that are unaware (and there are many of them)
• LeaTelamon explains to us what engative stereotypes for Metal exist and why he is different than you. This is quite a long post but interesting to take a view in a scene most people don’t experience. In the same vein, SpHaer also wants to explain What Metal is (to Him) and goes more into depth on the various aspects of it.
• TheWiseDragon brings to us a Parable on Worrying. I don’t agree with what he says, mostly because I do not believe you should worry much about anything, for it does no one any good. However it might incite a discussion so I think it’s worth linking to.
• Tsatthoggua explains what his group “Fuck you Christ” stands for and why he hates Christianity so much
• The MetallicMadman, explains why the Metal Scene rules this world and how it was alwayd been the spearhead of progress in music
• Out very own Anath, gives us a rundown on what constitues Good and Bad Music and why it is labeled as such.
• For a bit of laug, Vortus gives us two comics, or rather one comic and an animated gif
• And finally, Gingerpip informs us of a little treat where his solo project, Final Coil, is giving away music for free. I will admit I haven’t listened to them but it may be worth checking it out if you have the time

I mean, I knew it was a bad start when someone started a thread with the title “What about Jews then?” at the forum of the ACP, so we even put up a warning that we would not tolerate racism behaviour as A. It is plain wrong and B. it is against last.fm policies. We hoped that would be enough.

I mean, I ridicule the jewish religion as much as any other Abrahamic religion. Hell they even have less a leg to stand on since they don’t have the New Testament to fall back on as a proof of their “religion of peace”. Their whole fucking holy book is just a record of a whiny-arsed sociopathic God and the stories of his power hungry “chosen people” and their hillarious antics.

So yeah, not much respect there. Anyway, we had some initial discussion pretty much on the same vein (They’re not much worse than Xtians etc) but then the Conspiracy theories and anti-semitism started creeping up and things just went downhill from there.

It started with people attacking the ethnic group, something that was quickly smacked down by ACP regular, but then the really low scum started bobbing up. Just look at this beauty:

Awnsheghlien: I’m a racist and strong antisemit. The fall of White race is connected with christianity, and christianity is jewish religion. All is simple.

It is really difficult to understand how someone would admit to something like this in a day and age where everything is searchable. I just can’t wait until Arthur’s family and future employers get a sniff of his beliefs. Of course, his blatant racist dump only served as a steamy step for the other braindeads.

Daoi: Yes there is, I keep saying that and you ignore me because it’s not the truth you want… pathetic. I never said that the White is superior, although we do poses 3 extra intelligence genes (that blacks lack for instance). Every race is perfectly adapted for its environmen

This along comments supporting Eugenics, “Goals of Nature”, and Holocost denying (did I mention that he promotes the IHR as the true history?). The most amusing thing was his cries of persecution for his “Political Incorrectness” (You honestly have to laugh) from the American indoctrinated (he meant me – you should see my friend laugh when I told them that).

Now, I don’t know if it’s the Norsk Arysk Black Metal (Graaah) that draws these fucktards to join the ACP but it really gets me riled when they decide to spew their racist bile in the forum and hope that there are others out there like them. I’ve seen this before actually, not this blatantly of course but now and then some Fascist (always teenager of course) will come around, post some BS, get owned and never be heard from again.

It is disappointing however to see even this many of them. It really makes me wonder wtf their family has been teaching them (Of course I wonder that with any racist/fascist). I am especially interested why so many of them are drawn to Black Metal and how being fascist fits with being being an anti-theist. .

It just goes to show once again, that atheism has nothing explicit to do with a specific ideology. As a matter of fact, if you were to consider atheism a kind of ideology you would be very hard pressed to find anything unifying about us as you find us in all political and ideological spectrums. From Fascism to Communism and from Socialism to Objectivism, Atheists can be discovered. If it’s even possible you can discover pro-life atheists, (which in all honesty, took me quite as a surprise) but still, it just goes to show…

As for the racist pricks, well I guess I’ll keep making fun of them, especially when they promote eugenics and then accuse me of not understanding genetics because I don’t realize that black people are less intelligent than white because they are missing genes. How can I resist such powerful arguments

PS: A friend asked me “Is there a good case of racism?” so I thought I’d clarify. You should read the title as similar to “a bad case of the flu”