Bigotry is even better when it's hypocritical

Okay, I’m trying not to make every post about this Constance McMillen story, but I keep finding new stuff that makes me want to bang my head into my desk. Like all of the ridiculous, hateful comments Constance’s classmates have been making about her on Facebook. But that’s not even the best part. Some students were stupid enough to post photos from the secret prom on public Facebook accounts, where some ingenious person stuck them on Flickr to preserve forever. I want to point out two things:Notice the two girls wearing jeans. Now, I’m not pointing this out to illustrate how tacky it is to come to prom in jeans (hell, some of those dresses were fugly enough fashion nightmares all on their own). I’m pointing it out because the school and community were against Constance wearing a tux. You know, an outfit that has pants, because the dress code required that girls all be feminine little ladies and wear dresses. Apparently Jesus makes exceptions for straight girls.

But okay, I’ll let the pants slide. The real issue at hand was keeping the gay away right? We were told repeatedly that seeing two girls dancing together would just be too distracting for the other students. Good thing the kids at the alternative prom didn’t have to see any of that. Wait a second…OH GOD. GIRL IN THE SEAWEED DRESS IS DANCING WITH ANOTHER GIRL! AND AND AND…nobody seems to notice. Because it’s totally normal and okay for two girls to dance together, as long as they’re straight. Heck, it’s encouraged. Bump and grind away, ladies, because the guys will pay so much more attention to you! Except if you were actually lesbians, in which case that’s just wrong and you’re making baby Jesus cry.

Though, I can’t be sure. Maybe Constance has been successful in recruiting more innocents to her cause. Damn those wily lesbians!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go weep for our future.

Annual pro-life demonstrators out again

The anti-choice group on campus has a large event every spring called the Cemetery of the Innocents. Before I try to explain it, it might just be easier to show you:Yep, Memorial Mall gets turned into a giant cemetery for all those unborn babies evil women keep aborting. But only Christian babies, apparently.

I can’t quite explain how much this event gets me down. It’s here every spring, but you never can quite prepare yourself for when it’s going to happen. They change the date and keep it very secretive so pro-choice and feminist groups can’t counter protest. Only my freshman year was a feminist group able to figure it out, and set up a stand handing out condoms – a real way to reduce abortions. Though of course, the pro-lifers didn’t get it. “What does sex have to do with it? That’s so immature!” they whined.

Yeah, we’re dealing with intelligent people, here.

I guess I should be thankful they’re not the kind of group spouting Bible verses or waving signs of bloody fetuses. It’s just that this event reminds me of what the majority of Purdue is really like – conservative, religious, anti-choice, and willfully ignorant about social issues – and it kind of depresses me. Can’t go hide in my liberal atheist feminist bubble of friends when I have to walk past this thing five times during the day.

But of course, I’m a masochist, so I had to go poke around. If the signs that greeted you really wanted to be honest, they would say “Warning! Emotional arguments within! No substance or rational thought!”I approached the table where most of the pro-life students (mostly women, how sad), were standing. After gathering up some flyers (which I wish I could unread, dear lord the stupid burns), I decided to ask some questions:

Me: So, do you think abortion should be illegal?
Gal: Uh…well…we just want women to know there are other options to getting abortions.
Me: So you don’t want it to be illegal?
Gal: Well, we don’t have an official stance. I’d like it to be illegal, but even if we did people would still just get abortions illegally, and those would be more dangerous, so it wouldn’t really accomplish much. Instead we want to educate people that they have this option.
Me: So do you guys support contraceptives then?
Gal: Well, we don’t have an official stance, but I don’t believe in them.
Me: How do you plan on reducing abortions then?
Gal: We just want people to know there’s an option of adoption. People think it’s either have the baby and raise it, or kill it. A woman in her forties came up and said she got pregnant at 18, and her mom gave her the option of getting kicked out of home, or having an abortion, so she had it and now regrets it.
Me: Well, I’m pro-choice, and even I would say that’s bad. That’s not choice, that’s an ultimatum. No one should be forced into having one.
Gal: Uh…oh.

I then asked why they used Christian crosses to represent all abortions, and their response was basically “We’re lazy and crosses were the easiest and cheapest things to make.” Well, at least they’re honest.

Really though, I’m disappointed. Pro-life groups are getting a lot smarter. They know certain things that they believe will make them look cruel or idiotic, so they don’t officially make it a group stance, even though all of the members support it. They can’t officially be Christian or oppose contraception or want abortion illegal or want prison terms for females, because that would expose the world to the crazy. In the past the group would babble about baby holocausts and other insane crap.

They say they’re providing an option, but they also think they’re right and if you chose incorrectly you’re a horrible murderer who will be doomed to a life of guilt and suffering. That isn’t an option, it’s an ultimatum. They just hope people who come up to their table will be distracted by the cute little plastic fetuses and succumb to their emotional arguments.

I gave up asking them questions, because it was obvious I wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of anyone. Wasn’t holding my breath that someone would have an answer to overpopulation, caring for all of these unwanted children, the lack of families willing to adopt, rape, disease…

Lesbian teen sent to fake prom

Remember the story of Constance McMillen, the Mississippi high school senior who wanted to go to prom in a tux with her girlfriend, and then the school canceled prom? And then how the ACLU sued their ass off and the judge said she had to be allowed to go? Oh, well they sent Constance to prom alright...a fake prom.

A lesbian student in Mississippi who sued her school for the right to bring her girlfriend to the prom said she was sent to a fake prom instead.

Constance McMillen, 18, told The Advocate that last month’s invitation to an alternate prom was a sham, saying that most students attended another dance organized by parents at a secret location.

“They had two proms and I was only invited to one of them,” McMillen told the magazine. “The one that I went to had seven people there, and everyone went to the other one I wasn’t invited to.”

“It hurts my feelings,” she said.

Itawamba Agricultural High School cancelled its prom over the controversy sparked by McMillen’s attempt to overturn the school’s policy banning same-sex prom dates.

Las month, a federal judge ruled that the school district violated McMillen’s constitutional rights, though did not reinstate the prom.

According to McMillen, the prom she attended was at a country club. She said of the five other students at the country club, two had learning disabilities.

“They had the time of their lives,” McMillen said. “That’s the one good thing that come out of this, [these kids] didn’t have to worry about people making fun of them [at their prom].”

…Fulton, Mississippi is officially the most horrible, bigoted, stupid town in the United States. How can you hate someone so much because of their sexuality to do this? This isn’t some neighborhood party where a couple of kids tricked Constance into going to the wrong place. These are parents and community members being cruel to a teenager. Just send all the undesirables to another building. Absolutely despicable.

Constance, get the fuck out of there and don’t come back. Use that scholarship to go to a good college, educate yourself, and rise above the muck that you happened to get stuck in. These people don’t fucking deserve you.

Atheism in 7 minutes

I’ve been invited to be on a religious diversity panel for a large class (200+ people) at Purdue. I’m representing non-theists, and I’ll have a maximum of 7 minutes to explain atheism & agnosticism to a room full of agriculture students. This will probably be the first time many of them have heard about atheism (at least, other than stereotypes), so I don’t want to screw up this opportunity.

If you had 7 minutes to explain atheism to someone, what would you include?

EDIT: These were the general guide lines I was given about the presentation:

– Who or what is God for you? (or what are your main objections about God)
– A summary of what you believe: Your faith
– What is your faith based on?

Yep, I get 7 minutes to explain a philosophy that took my whole life to understand. Awesome!

For realz: Reverend Jon Weyer’s talk at Purdue

So for those of you who are slightly confused, my previous post was a little April Fool’s Day prank. No, I haven’t suddenly seen the light – I’m still the same skeptical atheist you all know and love. I got a kick out of how many of you I actually made worried – I even had people emailing me out of concern, haha.

While I’m still a godless heathen, I wasn’t joking when I said that I really enjoyed Jon’s talk. And before I talk about it, I have an important side note to make. Every time we’ve had an atheist speaker on campus, something has gone wrong. It was raining for Hemant, snowing for Greta, and PZ‘s flight got delayed. Jon? Arrived early on the first beautiful, sunny, 70 degree weather day of the year. I think this is a sign…

I first met John at the Secular Student Alliance conference where he talked about how Christian groups can cooperate with atheists. We’ve kept in touch, and he has the honor of having the one Christian blog I follow. And like at his blog, he does a wonderful job of talking about Christianity in a way that’s a lot more understandable to atheists, especially ones (like myself) who were never Christian. One point that Jon made in his talk is why I like him so much – that he’s all about dialogue, not debates. He’s someone who will actually listen to what you have to say, and conversations don’t devolve into stubborn debates.

The bulk of his talk was about stereotypes people may have about Christians – that they’re anti-science, hypocritical, the morality police, etc. His main point wasn’t exactly revolutionary – that yes, some Christians do these bad things, but it’s not all Christians. But I’m mostly glad that he’s willing to admit this. Far too many people that I’ve talked to seem to think that Christians are infallible, but not Jon.

Though I will have to disagree with him on one point. When talking about certain Christian extremists, he remarked that he didn’t want to start “bashing Christians.” But I disagree. Okay, maybe not quite “bashing” – but we need more moderate Christians like Jon to speak out against Christian extremists. We all complain about the loud, obnoxious groups that get disproportionate media coverage, but moderate Christians need to start actually doing something about it. Do they see it as being traitorous towards their fellow Christians?

I don’t have too many specific remarks to make about the talk, but I definitely left feeling a bit uplifted. Not because I had seen the light, but because I remembered that there are Christians out there that I can talk to and be friends with. They’re not all right wing anti-evolution homophobic teabaggers. Jon and I definitely disagree on theological issues – I don’t agree with the concept of everyone being bad/sinners, or the whole… well, God thing. But we don’t feel the need to push our beliefs on each other, so we can still enjoy having a beer together and geeking out about Lord of the Rings.

Thanks, Jon, for coming and visiting us at Purdue! I know I enjoyed it, and so did others. Sorry I didn’t get to talk to you much at dinner – I’m sure our other members kept you entertained. Or more likely, somewhat frightened.

If you were there for Jon’s talk, please feel free to add to the discussion in the comments! Mike already has a good review up, as well.

—————————-

And as an aside,

Me: *leading the group to the restaurant, decided to take an alley for a short cut*
Member: Why are we going this way?
Me: It’s quicker.
Other member: *points ahead, we’re headed straight for the back of University Church* OH GOD, IT’S A TRAP! SHE’S TAKING US TO CHURCH!
Me: *evil cackling*
Member: He got to her, noooooo!
Me: You should have known this was just a plan to convert you all!

For realz: Reverend Jon Weyer's talk at Purdue

So for those of you who are slightly confused, my previous post was a little April Fool’s Day prank. No, I haven’t suddenly seen the light – I’m still the same skeptical atheist you all know and love. I got a kick out of how many of you I actually made worried – I even had people emailing me out of concern, haha.

While I’m still a godless heathen, I wasn’t joking when I said that I really enjoyed Jon’s talk. And before I talk about it, I have an important side note to make. Every time we’ve had an atheist speaker on campus, something has gone wrong. It was raining for Hemant, snowing for Greta, and PZ‘s flight got delayed. Jon? Arrived early on the first beautiful, sunny, 70 degree weather day of the year. I think this is a sign…

I first met John at the Secular Student Alliance conference where he talked about how Christian groups can cooperate with atheists. We’ve kept in touch, and he has the honor of having the one Christian blog I follow. And like at his blog, he does a wonderful job of talking about Christianity in a way that’s a lot more understandable to atheists, especially ones (like myself) who were never Christian. One point that Jon made in his talk is why I like him so much – that he’s all about dialogue, not debates. He’s someone who will actually listen to what you have to say, and conversations don’t devolve into stubborn debates.

The bulk of his talk was about stereotypes people may have about Christians – that they’re anti-science, hypocritical, the morality police, etc. His main point wasn’t exactly revolutionary – that yes, some Christians do these bad things, but it’s not all Christians. But I’m mostly glad that he’s willing to admit this. Far too many people that I’ve talked to seem to think that Christians are infallible, but not Jon.

Though I will have to disagree with him on one point. When talking about certain Christian extremists, he remarked that he didn’t want to start “bashing Christians.” But I disagree. Okay, maybe not quite “bashing” – but we need more moderate Christians like Jon to speak out against Christian extremists. We all complain about the loud, obnoxious groups that get disproportionate media coverage, but moderate Christians need to start actually doing something about it. Do they see it as being traitorous towards their fellow Christians?

I don’t have too many specific remarks to make about the talk, but I definitely left feeling a bit uplifted. Not because I had seen the light, but because I remembered that there are Christians out there that I can talk to and be friends with. They’re not all right wing anti-evolution homophobic teabaggers. Jon and I definitely disagree on theological issues – I don’t agree with the concept of everyone being bad/sinners, or the whole… well, God thing. But we don’t feel the need to push our beliefs on each other, so we can still enjoy having a beer together and geeking out about Lord of the Rings.

Thanks, Jon, for coming and visiting us at Purdue! I know I enjoyed it, and so did others. Sorry I didn’t get to talk to you much at dinner – I’m sure our other members kept you entertained. Or more likely, somewhat frightened.

If you were there for Jon’s talk, please feel free to add to the discussion in the comments! Mike already has a good review up, as well.

—————————-

And as an aside,

Me: *leading the group to the restaurant, decided to take an alley for a short cut*
Member: Why are we going this way?
Me: It’s quicker.
Other member: *points ahead, we’re headed straight for the back of University Church* OH GOD, IT’S A TRAP! SHE’S TAKING US TO CHURCH!
Me: *evil cackling*
Member: He got to her, noooooo!
Me: You should have known this was just a plan to convert you all!

Reverend Jon Weyer’s talk at Purdue

So as you all know, last night Reverend Jon Weyer came and gave a talk at Purdue called Kicking the Christian Strawman: What Christians are really like. It was nice to have Jon come to Purdue, since we met at the Secular Student Alliance conference and have chatting since then. It was really interesting, especially to us atheists who weren’t raised in Christian households. I kind of live in a self-reinforcing atheist bubble here at Purdue, so it was great to hear what Christians were really like from an actual Christian, not a raving atheist.

During the course of the night, he went a bit into why he believes what he believes. I have to say, this was the most enlightening part. A member asked about people who take the Bible literally, and his response was the first answer I’ve heard that finally made sense. That parts of the Bible are meant to be metaphorical, but they aren’t just arbitrarily choosing what parts they like – that there are contextual clues to help us figure that out.

The more he talked, the more…I don’t know, it felt like something had clicked. Like that spiritual experience everyone says they feel? Like how they say if you just open your mind a little you’ll see the way? I…felt that. Maybe I hadn’t felt it all along because I was raised atheist, but I realized that Christianity isn’t all about people riding on dinosaurs and Jesus performing magic tricks.

…I dunno, I’m feeling pretty confused right now. I need to do some introspection before posting any more. It’s just strange – for the first time ever, I had that nagging feeling in my gut that maybe this God stuff is right.

Reverend Jon Weyer's talk at Purdue

So as you all know, last night Reverend Jon Weyer came and gave a talk at Purdue called Kicking the Christian Strawman: What Christians are really like. It was nice to have Jon come to Purdue, since we met at the Secular Student Alliance conference and have chatting since then. It was really interesting, especially to us atheists who weren’t raised in Christian households. I kind of live in a self-reinforcing atheist bubble here at Purdue, so it was great to hear what Christians were really like from an actual Christian, not a raving atheist.

During the course of the night, he went a bit into why he believes what he believes. I have to say, this was the most enlightening part. A member asked about people who take the Bible literally, and his response was the first answer I’ve heard that finally made sense. That parts of the Bible are meant to be metaphorical, but they aren’t just arbitrarily choosing what parts they like – that there are contextual clues to help us figure that out.

The more he talked, the more…I don’t know, it felt like something had clicked. Like that spiritual experience everyone says they feel? Like how they say if you just open your mind a little you’ll see the way? I…felt that. Maybe I hadn’t felt it all along because I was raised atheist, but I realized that Christianity isn’t all about people riding on dinosaurs and Jesus performing magic tricks.

…I dunno, I’m feeling pretty confused right now. I need to do some introspection before posting any more. It’s just strange – for the first time ever, I had that nagging feeling in my gut that maybe this God stuff is right.

Zombies live forever…and so will you!

“Zombies live forever…and so will you!” That’s the slogan I saw on the chalkboard in one of my classes today, followed by a date, time, and location. Hmm, vague yet intriguing slogan, with no identifying information? I turned to my friend Ben.

“I totally bet that’s a religious group.”

And after five seconds of Googling, I found out I was right. Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship at Purdue is putting on the event. I have to give them props for their marketing. Humans versus Zombies (effectively a giant, nerdy, insane game of tag involving nerf guns) just got done at Purdue. It was incredibly popular, and they’re working off of our zombie fascination. And the whole dishonest lack of information about what the event is really about – ah, ingenious and typical religious marketing (and not to mention, against Purdue student organization rules).

But I have to say, I’m pretty excited. I never knew that Christianity preached that we all turn into zombies when we die! Well, other than Zombie Jesus, of course. On the other hand, zombies aren’t really alive, so maybe they’re a tad bit confused…

Seattle, here I come!

While I alluded to it in a previous post, I still wasn’t 100% sure. But now it’s official – I’ll be going to the University of Washington to get my PhD in the Department of Genome Sciences in the fall!

That still sounds crazy when I say it. I’m going to go get a freaking PhD. Who knew that would happen ten years ago, when I was still amazed by the simple puzzle of a Punnett square, or when I still didn’t quite grasp the whole evolution thing. I’ve come a long way.

So come September, I will have officially escaped the Midwest. Wooooo! Though I admit, I’m nervous. I’ve lived in Indiana for the past 21 years (lived 5 minutes across the border in Illinois when I was an infant), and I’ve never lived in a big city. Purdue is only an hour and a half from my home town, so I was still close to family and retained some of my old high school friends. It’s kind of terrifying knowing I’ll finally be completely on my own. It’s like I’m an adult or something!

If you have any tips about grad school in general, the University of Washington, or Seattle, now’s a good time to let me in on all of the secrets. Or you can just use this post to celebrate along with me. Hurray!