Job Hunting in the 21st Century

In 1988 and 1989, I was performing as a professional magician and doing the stay-at-home dad thing. I went to PTA meetings and shuttled Jessica to whatever after school events she needed shuttling to. I was even part of a parent reading program intended to prep us to read with the kids, though that didn't last long because I thought Alice in Wonderland was wonderful and The Pearl by Steinbeck was an awful tale. It was a nice almost year.

Then Linda came down ill and things changed.

Chronic illnesses necessitate change.

It became apparent that Linda wasn't going to be returning to work, and our need for an income hadn't happily vanished with her good health, so…

I went job hunting and found a temp service that kept me working for a little while. After that I worked for Washington Inventory Service (WIS). After a few months working for them, my knees were telling me I needed a change. So I went job hunting again. I walked into Fred Meyer in Everett, WA. It wasn't too far from home, and I had been there only the week before to do inventory as a WIS employee.

I walked up to the manager’s desk, and started talking with the grocery manager. Told him I wanted a job, that I worked for WIS and knew ten key, and had handled money in the past. As we talked, he reached into his desk, started pulling out papers and without breaking stride, handed them to me telling me to fill them out. I looked at what he handed me and realized that these were the types of paperwork you filled out when you got the job.

I looked at him and said “So does this mean I’m hired?”

That was the start of my 15 year association with Fred Meyer.

Aw, what I wouldn't give for more of those kinds of days.

[beginning of rant]

I am once again in the job market, and oh how the process has changed. Everything is on-line these days. Want a job at Albertsons? Go to their web page. Medical offices? Go to the web page. Computer industry? Web page. Bah humbug. What a way to find people to work for you. If the paperwork doesn't catch their attention, the person never has a chance to sell him or herself to them. I get that it is a new tool, and yes, it has changed and will continue to change the way hiring is done, but I just thought I would do my old man harrumph (even though I love the tech) to get it out of the way so I can focus on getting a job.  [end of rant]

Onanism, or Masturbation, for you wankers out there.

The Roman Catholic Church (RC) has had a burr up its collective butt, for a long time on the issue of masturbation (heehee).  This goes back to the story of Onan, from which the old term for masturbation “Onanism” is derived.

In Genesis 38:1-10, we read that God didn’t much like Er (Judah’s first born) and so he did him in; killed him dead without any elaboration. So Judah says to Onan “Go into your brother’s wife and perform the duty of a brother-in-law to her, and raise up offspring for your brother.” Now Onan, not being a real deep thinker, decides that the offspring of a sexual union between his sister-in-law and himself would not be his, so he goes into her and just when things come to a head (so to speak) he wastes the semen “on the ground.” Consequently verse 10 tells us “And what he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, and he put him to death also.” Sucks to be one of Judah’s kids.

Now there is much more to this story, including the sister-in-law getting it on in the guise of a cult prostitute with Judah, and God not getting all pissed and putting him to death also for copulating with a prostitute who is really his daughter-in-law. That does not seem to bother the LORD. We are going to leave that for another time though and see if we can get a grasp of this Onanism/masturbation question. (heehee).

So the RC decides to act as though this story is real, as in, actually happened, rather than admitting it is a convoluted rough draft for a soap opera, and forbids Onanism as an affront to the LORD. Exactly why God was pissed is never explained in the story. Was he upset that Onan wasn’t following directions to get his sister-in-law preggers, or that he was spilling his seed on the ground? God doesn’t say, and Moses, who supposedly wrote this drivel, doesn’t let on either.

Now what if it was all about Onan refusing to knock-up his sister-in-law. Isn’t the RC risking God’s wrath by NOT letting demanding that brothers service the wife/wives of their deceased male siblings? I mean, what happens if God quits reading the paper and realizes that we have been neglecting our duties as brothers-in-law? BUT, and it’s a big BUT, it could have been that God was pissed about the whole spilling the seed thing, and masturbation’s wrong because it foiled the whole making babies bit that the RC is so fond of.

We may never know, but this brings up an important point. None of this has anything to do with the women. This is clearly all on the guys, and yet the RC has issues about women masturbating too.

No matter how you look at it, and trust me when I say that men have been looking at it for a long time, women masturbating does not…NOT…have anything to do with making babies. They can masturbate for days on end, and not one little egg will suffer. No seed hits the ground. There is no rational reason to forbid the gals from engaging in a little one-on-self time.

So maybe the bright lights in the RC should rethink (or perhaps just think period) the whole attitude they have against women masturbating, and while they’re at it, they should put the “Onanism” fixation on the back burner until such time as they get a memo from God clarifying the matter. Of course, given the silence from up there, that may be a while.

From Christian to Atheist: Part 6

In my last year of high school, I met Linda Glassman. Shy and quiet, I started talking with her in drama class one day, and haven’t stopped yet. I don’t remember when religion came up, but I was all about the supernatural at this point, and it wouldn’t have taken long. I just know that one day, we ended up on the subject and that’s when I discovered she didn’t believe in gods. I had never met anyone who didn’t believe in God. Didn’t even know they existed, and here I was getting sweet on someone who was raised in an atheist household.

From what I’ve seen over the years, I know that Linda and her siblings were never told they couldn’t believe in gods. If they asked questions, however, those questions were answered. When Linda and I started dating, I asked a lot of questions and made a lot of statements. I was going to convince her that UFOs, ESP, and other things that go bump in the night were real, and so we talked. And talked, and talked and talked.

Linda had two things going for her in this conversation. One was that she was not hesitant in asking questions and pointing out illogical issues and inconsistencies. Given the stuff I was pushing, she had ample opportunity to question away. Second was her secret weapon. Ned and Ginny, her father and mother, were always available to answer or ask questions that she brought to them or that might come up. And this went on for quite some time.

Linda and I kept dating through high school and married soon after she graduated. At the time we married, I still held belief in a god and afterlife, though not nearly as clear as it had once been, and not quite as central. Note that we married in a secular wedding. We specifically asked that there be no mention of gods in the service, and our music was all secular. And for two more years, thus it remained.

During all this time, I started reading books by atheists, Christians, bible scholars and skeptical writers, all the while trying to figure out what the truth was, or at least what was not the truth. The more I read, the more I realized that there was no evidence for the things I believed. I realized that when I read something, even things that I felt had solid arguments, I needed to weigh the evidence and the veracity of the writer. I couldn’t just accept what I read as the truth, because now, I knew that there were some really excellent reasons why I was wrong about a lot of the things I held onto.

When I became an atheist, I didn’t do so because it was trendy or cool, or because I wanted to do evil and unspeakable things, or because I was upset with gods/God. I was always willing to give gods the benefit of the doubt, and even today, I find that hard to put aside. About a year before Jessica was born (about 1977), I realized that I no longer believed in a deity. I demanded proof, and none was forthcoming. Faith wouldn’t hack it. I required proof for evolution, for medicine, for many other things, and gods would be so much bigger than any of those things, so they needed proof too. God had finally lost the battle, and I was an atheist.

Still, it was about five years before I also gave up on an afterlife. I didn’t want to “not exist”, and when I realized that, I knew it was not a good enough reason to ignore the science and keep this one last bit of faith.

I have to be always watchful of what evidence I accept, because I still have that believer lurking around inside my head.  He wants to latch onto anything that will allow him to make an argument for an afterlife, and I know this because, he doesn’t care at all about whether the argument supports a god or not. The only real concern is, can I believe in an afterlife? And before you ask, no, I will not accept a belief system that supports an afterlife, just in case there is a chance it’s real. Pascal’s Wager fails. Evidence wins out.

I have made my peace with the notion that one day, just like everyone else who has lived and who will come after me, I will die. I will cease to be. Period. This is actually more comforting that the idea that I will be singing hosannas to Jesus for eternity. Really think about it. What would you possibly find to do for eternity? Maybe a few hundred years; heck, I would even consider living a few thousand (with a new and healthy body), but I have to admit that even that would be a pushing it. What do you do for two thousand years? When I was born, I had only one certainty, one guarantee. One day I will die. Till then, I intend to enjoy the ride whenever I can. Ups and downs, it’s an E ticket ride.

From Christian to Atheist: Part 5

At the point that I was a senior at Royal High, I had effectively stopped being a Christian. I still believed in a god, and an afterlife, as well as a whole lot of other things, like ESP, ghosts, UFOs and chances are if it was even vaguely “mystical” I was a believer. I even gave the Bible a selective pass on some of the things in it if there were explanations that fit what I had come to see as within the psychic/mystical. Ezekiel’s visions were UFOs, Jesus could perform miracles…but so could many other “mythical” people of the time. If monks could fly, Jesus could walk on water. If there was Kool-aide to drink, I drank it.

Around this time the Jesus movement was really getting big on campuses all over the States. They had high jacked the coffee house/hippy vibe and created a kind of “cool” atmosphere for young Christians. Hell, they even took Beatles songs like Nowhere Man and tried to make that carry a Jesusy feeling.

Now it’s important to understand, before I go further, that I was done with Christianity. While I might have been near certifiable regarding all the other crap I bought into, I had realized the Old Testament was full of holes and The New Testament was nearly as easy to dismiss. That was not a ride I was going to buy a ticket for again. So naturally, at some point along the way I discovered that the person I thought of as my best friend had bought it “hook, line and sinker”, and somehow had not bothered to tell me about it. I was not a happy camper.

Talk about a catch-22. Jim couldn’t have honestly come out of this without looking bad no matter what he did. On the one hand, he’d kept the whole thing from me, and on the other hand, I wasn’t going to drink from that cup again. Period. Ever. A "Kobayashi Maru" situation with no cheat possible. As it turns out, there were several other members of the circle we ran around in that had been sucked into the abyss along with him. I think the effect could have been less bothersome (or hurtful) if I had been invited near the start of the thing and simply turned it down, but that didn’t happen, and truthfully, I don’t know that I would have responded any better.

I thought of Jim as my best friend, but I honestly don’t know that Jim felt the same way. I was certainly on the list of his friends, and maybe near the top, but perception is usually a one way street. I would often find myself being brought into things he was doing after they were already in motion. Again, I have to be careful here because what I saw as so, might have not been so. I was not a very good reader of social situations. 

But I felt betrayed, and it was the beginning of a string of events over the next few years that would ultimately cause me to close the door on that friendship. As I said, I don’t know that he stood a chance.

What all that did was make me uber aware of the things I saw in the Christian community that were false, and cautious about the overly “happy” nature of Christians in general. There was everything in that movement that clambered cult or brain washing to me. The idea that these kids (or any adults I saw involved in the Jesus movement) were any better off or different was silly. I went to school with them, and push come to shove, they hadn’t really changed all that much. They had just decided that now that they believed in Jesus, they were happier than everyone else, and while they could cheer about forgiveness, they were still the same in most other ways. I didn’t buy it, and it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I really was done with organized religion by this point, but I wasn’t done with belief, and I still had one more major influence that I haven’t talked about yet. This last influence was the one that would set me on a path toward atheism, because this is, I think, the first time the word came up in any conversation for me. Next time, I talk about Linda.

From Christian to Atheist: Part 4

In high school, I was on a full roll with the whole ESP/UFO/Supernatural thing. I remember one of my teachers and I having a talk about it after class. Robert Pierle was my history/social studies teacher at Royal High School in Simi. I liked him. He managed to make history and social issues interesting, and to some extent repaired the damage a social studies teacher at Sinaloa managed to do. We were talking about the things I believed, in this case, ESP and telekinesis, and he wasn’t buying my arguments. The problem for me was, I still had no evidence for any of this stuff. I had bought many books on how to develop ESP and psychic powers, how to contact the dead, how to test for ESP (even managed to get a deck of Zener cards from Duke University) and still nothing. He told me that when I got my proof, or could demonstrate one of these abilities, to come back and show him. Then, and only then, would he accept it, because then I would have evidence.

Royal is where I was when I started losing my belief in Jesus. I still attended church, and still enjoyed Rev. Talberts sermons, but as I examined religion, and explored other areas of belief, I found it harder and harder to hold on to the basic beliefs of Christianity. Given how far out some of the other things were that I latched onto, it seems odd that an old staple like Jesus would crumble, but Jesus didn’t survive the conflict with evolution and the age of the earth. I had long ago accepted that evolution had occurred, and that there was no historical Adam and Eve; no Garden of Eden. It took me a while to put all that together and realize that without those two things, and without original sin, there was no real reason for Jesus or his alleged sacrifice.

One night, shortly after sundown, I went outside and stood in my back yard next to the juniper bushes on the patio, and while I was thinking about religion, Jesus, God and a few other things, I said, out loud, “I don’t believe Jesus is the Son of God”. It was the first time I admitted this aloud, and waited a beat for any special effects like lightning strikes, but none came. I was no longer a Christian. I still believed in a god, though he was morphing out of necessity. After all, I had just fired his son, and that kinda left me with the understanding that the Bible must have a few holes in it if it was wrong about Jesus (which is what the entire second act of the Bible was all about.) Of course I also had major issues about many of the events in the first act as well, so no surprise that it was all falling apart rather quickly.

During this time, I started picking up other ideas about gods, powerful beings and what happens after death. God started taking on a less defined form and became more an entity of power. There were people who were advanced spirits and such. All of this was still mashed up with ESP, UFOs and way too much other stuff to account for it all. If my beliefs had been on a map, they would have covered several counties, if not a few states.

My last year at Royal became an important one in all of this. I met my future wife Linda, and found myself feeling abandoned by my best friend, both of which played their part in my continued move toward atheism. I still attended church, and still, even with my belief system all over the place, was a believer, just not a Christian. A bit more to go before this story is done.

Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion

In the U.S. there is this balance between religion and free speech. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and other religious bodies are allowed a greater freedom than perhaps anywhere else in the world, even though they do tend to insert themselves into the political process and try to make their religious views into laws that the rest of us non-religious (or non-whatever-they-are) have to follow. The worst offender in the U.S. is, of course, Christianity (of which there are an annoyingly large number of varieties) due to the fact that they are the largest body of religious folk in the country. The Christians here even make a point of trying on occasion to harass other religions into silence and often present themselves as having a special right to dominate all other views.

Now I think our Founding Fathers were insightful about this process re: religion, and by making it clear that we didn’t have a national religion, and that there would be no involvement between the government and the “church”, they made it possible for a big bright shiny light to enlighten the occasional entanglement of the two. We are now, and always have been, a secular state. And I am just as much a defender of freedom of religion as most Americans (often more so, because I don’t think Christianity is any more special than any of the others). If religions want to sell their goods to the public, good on them, but there is a wrinkle in the ointment.

Freedom of speech.

I’m only one of millions of Americans that openly criticize religions, and point out how ridiculous they are. I have no problem saying that if Jesus existed, he was in no way like the several versions of him in Matthew’s, Mark’s, Luke’s, or John’s propaganda efforts of near 2000 years ago. The Jewish stories present a violent and extremely unlikeable god that, if it were real, and interacted with us in today’s world, would scare the crap out of people and likely incite a revolt. And Islam, currently the most violent and hateful religion would have fared better if it hadn’t had a war mongering pedophile as its founder.

Lately, Islamic thugs have been using threats of violence and lies to shut down anyone who would say anything about their founder or religion, and the moderates are not standing up to them. We don’t hear from the moderates because the fundamentalists are more violent and willing to intimidate to shut them up. They are walking out of medical school classes because the schools teach evolution and it offends their poor religious feelings. They shut down a meeting at a London event by pushing and bullying their way in and using cameras to record those present, then threating to kill or harm anyone who said anything they didn’t like. This is what real fundamentalists look like.

In the U.S., extremist Christian groups use pressure to keep law makers in line, and to secure a spot at the table where they can try to force their agenda. It’s true that they do not, for the most part, partake in the level of violence exhibited by the Islamic nut cases. They prefer to shut the opposition up, and make heroic stands against 16 year old girls. When billboards go up that make simple and reasonable statements like, “Millions are good without God”, they ratchet up the rhetoric and lament the evil atheists and the collapse of American society. But the results of success by these Christian warriors would not do anything to strengthen this nation, and is constantly at odds with the Constitution.

And still, I think we would be worse off if we were to turn our back on the Constitution as well, and shut them up. We are better off knowing who these people really are, and holding up their actions for the moderate Christians to see and ask, why aren’t you saying more against these nut bags. Why aren’t you standing up and demanding that they stop claiming to represent all Christians? Why the bloody hell do you let them highjack Jesus?

It is pretty clear that I don’t think much of religion. The idea of gods was one of the single worst ideas man has come up with, and the foundation of organized religion has done more harm than good. And still, I think freedom of religion is the best way of going about things. Why? Because I also have the right of free speech, and can point out just how incredibly ridiculous gods, angles, demons, cherubs, heavens and hells are, while pointing  to the actions of the religious thugs (and the lack of actions by the liberal/moderate religious) . I can trumpet the fact that however slowly, the American public is losing its religious beliefs just like the majority of western European first world nations. Because of freedom of speech, I can point out (as can all the other atheists, freethinkers, agnostics, non-religious, and nones) the egregious efforts to put religious myths into the science class rooms of public schools by anti-science know nothings that also can’t wrap their heads around the dangers we face from manmade global climate change.

Now I also have quite a few relatives and friends that are believers of one type or another. Mostly Christian. Mostly conservative Christian. And for the most part, they are good people. I don’t think for a second that their beliefs in gods or Jesus, or whatever have anything to do with that. Take away the fairy tales that make up their peculiar religion and they wouldn’t suddenly run out and start raping and pillaging. They wouldn’t cease to love their children, and lose respect for those who have earned it. The vast majority of them wouldn’t suddenly lament a lack of an afterlife and lose all hope. They would go on living their lives and making sure that there was a future for their children.

I can say this because every day, men, woman and children become aware of just how silly it is to believe in this nonsense and stop being religious, and they don’t fall apart and go to the “dark side”, whatever that would be.  They may come to realize how important a good grounding in science is, or decide that religious objections to civil rights is wrong. But they would for the most part, continue their lives without a dramatic scene. It happens all the time. And that is the reason that free speech is important and why freedom of religion is too. If you force people to give up religion, they will resent it. If they see for themselves that it is hogwash, they will give it up and get on with life, and that is much more likely to stick.

From Christian to Atheist: Part 3

In 1966, I graduated from elementary school and moved on to Sinaloa Jr. High. One of the things that happened at Sinaloa was that my reading level was evaluated as being very poor. Lucky for me, though most people would have suggested that I was just lazy or “slow”, others considered the possibility that some students just needed honest help in learning to read. The Science Research Associates (SRA) reading program created by Dr. Don H. Parker in the 1950s was available in my new school and I was enrolled in the class.

I am dyslexic and that has affected my ability to read my whole life, the effect of which was, I was a slow learner when reading was involved. I am sure that before Sinaloa, I read, but I suspect it was mostly school assigned works and comics or cartoons. SRA changed all that, and I am sure that my new found interest in books helped me along my way to questioning the world around me, including my religious beliefs.

Somewhere about this time I discovered a book called “How to Make ESP Work for You” by Harold Sherman. I would guess that it was mom’s book, but I don’t remember. It was all about how to use and develop your ability to do ESP, and I bought it hook, line and sinker. This was the beginning of my years as a believer in ESP and all things supernatural, including UFOs and other non-sense. I wasn’t alone, of course. Millions of Americans would admit to thinking there was something to this UFO explosion, or that ESP was something they might have experienced themselves. I was just another member of the junior league of paranormal wackos.

Oddly, this didn’t seem to change my core belief in a god, and Jesus was still the central character in my religious story. But now, I had developed a strong interest in reading. I ordered books every month from the Scholastic Book Service and this period was also the beginning of my interest in science fiction. Add to that my continuing interest in space and science, and things were bound to get really convoluted.

My parents, my brother Paul and I had also started going to another church around this time, and that was also a game changer. The Shepherd of the Valley United Church of Christ was a more liberal church than the Southern Baptist ones I had attended earlier. Bruce Talbert was the minister, and I enjoyed his sermons which were laced with humor and seemed worth listening to. The result was that I was in a place and time when I could explore other ideas, and explore I did.

Though I wasn’t aware of it then, I can look back and see that I really was a believer. I believed in belief.  I just hadn’t nailed down the rules that I was going to live by yet, but they were there in the rough. Somewhere along the way, I had developed a science based rule that insisted that all my beliefs needed to be plausible at the very least, and probable at best. This is one of the things that caused me to work so hard at proving ESP, finding legit reports of UFOs, and exploring the supernatural for life after death proofs. The biggest problem was that my source material was too often lacking in scientific rigor. Popular books by authors who would sell their mother as Bigfoot if they could get a book deal out of it, writers who were true believers impervious to reason or proof, or publishers who would print the most outrageous lies to sell magazines and books were too often where I got my material, and that always makes for poor conclusions. I still had a way to go before I was willing to even think about giving up on religion, and now, I had mixed in so much more.  

Things That Can Happen In School

So before I continue with the story about my deconversion process, let’s make one stop at 6^th grade and the perils of being a kid 45 years ago in a system that was not prepared to deal with issues like the one that follows.

I was not the most self-assured child in the Simi Valley school system, and was susceptible to any attention given by adults and teachers. There were, of course, many children like me in grade school, and even higher grades. When the teacher from next door (to the class I was in) decided to give me that much wanted attention I was ready to take it. I was invited to come into his class after school and clean the chalk board, as well as help with other small tasks. This made me feel great. Here was someone who knew I could help out and gave me a chance to do so. But the motive for this request for my help was  not as innocent as I would have hoped it would be.

During one of those sessions where I had finished the board cleaning, the teacher invited me over and had me sit on his lap. There was no reason not to do so, so I climbed onto his lap and we talked. He was thanking me for my help and had his arm around my shoulder so I wouldn’t slip off his lap, and while we talked, his free hand took a restful position on my right thigh. As he talked he gave it a fatherly pat. Then a somewhat less fatherly squeeze, and then the hand drifted to my crotch where there was even less fatherly attention. (And here, I am using the term “fatherly” as in a child/parent relationship and not as in a Catholic “father” priest. That’s a whole ‘nother can-o-worms).

I was uncomfortable, but I know that this happened at least one or two more times, because it was easy enough to suggest to myself that what happened was not intentional. Back in those days, no one, and I mean NO ONE, talked about child molestation in polite company. Hell, they didn’t even talk about it in impolite company. I was probably 12 or 13 when this happened, and I didn’t know what was going on. Needless to say, I did stop going to his class, and the memory would only occasionally crop up, though it did so often enough over the years to stay well planted in my mind.

Many years later, while visiting my parents place, I was reading the local paper, and there was the story of a teacher who had been arrested and was on trial for following a 10 year old girl into the bathroom and fondling her. My exclamation of “Ha, They caught the son-of-a-bitch” surprised the people in the room (family all) as did the story that follow with my explanation of why I was glad they had done so. Now to the best of my recollection, this incident didn’t ruin my life. There may have been some things going on that I was unaware of, and maybe still am, but I really didn’t focus on this. Still, it was there in my memory, and is one of the events in my life that I have clear and visceral reactions too.

This kind of thing happened all the time, to a lot more people than we ever let on, and it still does. First, please get it out of your head if it is in there that this was a gay teacher. He wasn’t. He was a pedophile, and this child molester liked little boys and little girls; an equal opportunity bloke. Second, don’t think that this is no longer a problem. This happens all the time, and though we are better at prepping our children for this kind of thing, we must still keep our eyes and ears open for this kind of off kilter behavior. We are all too willing to give the benefit of the doubt to a trusted adult, and I get that, but less so where our children are involved, please. Just something to think about. This PSA is now over.

From Christian to Atheist (Part Two)

A Transitional Period.

In my last year in elementary school (6^th grade) we were given the assignment of doing a book report presentation. At this point in my life, I was not much of a reader yet. I had struggled with reading (and spelling) from day one, and was unaware of what dyslexia was. Still, I had been given an assignment, and so looked for a book that interested me. What I found was a book on hypnosis. I’ve no clue where I found this book, though it is possible that my mother had it, or that it came from the library.

What a concept; the control of another’s actions and thoughts, in the hands of a twelve year old boy. I’ll bet the author hadn’t thought that one through. I read the book and wrote out my report, but this was a book on hypnosis, and screamed to be performed before the class, not merely talked about. I got a friend (I think her name was Jackie) to be my subject and practiced a few times on her before the day of the book report presentation. She was a natural subject and by the time I presented my report could be put under very fast .

She was subjected to the usual “tricks” of the hypnotic art (at least as performed by a 6^th grader) including lack of feelings from pinching, and arms that couldn’t be lowered or raised except on command. Thanks to her being perfect for the job, and my having learned the rules for putting someone under, I aced the book report and the presentation.

This was also the start of another part of my journey from Christian to atheist. This book report was my first real step into the area of the workings of the mind, and the fringe studies of ESP, ghosts, magic (as in “real” magic), UFOs , and in general, “things that go bump in the night.” I started to discover that all these things were being talked about and, from what I could tell, they were the subject of real investigations. And I had, after all, experienced the “power” of mind control over another person, so there may just be something to these many claims. Thus began my foray into the world of the paranormal.

This also coincided with a shift on the religion front. I don’t know why or what caused this, but my dad had decided to leave the Southern Baptist Church. This didn’t bother me much, and we spent many a Sunday visiting churches all over the valley, until we came upon The Shepherd of the Valley (United Church of Christ). This was big in my development because this was not a highly dogmatic congregation. That’s not to say there weren’t a few folk who were more or less literalist, or perhaps conservative in their beliefs, but not anything like the Baptists. It was very freeing, and without the dogma to demand my acceptance of much of the Bible claims, they were going to suffer. One of the reasons why was that I was starting to question the Bible stories, and this would not have been easy in a more conservative environment.

So along with moving to a more liberal church, hypnosis was one of the catalysts to my questioning ways, and if I had known what atheism was back then, this might have been a shorter story, but that word was still not in my vocabulary. Nope, I still had a ways to go before I got there. I had, after all, discovered the paranormal. I suspect even atheism wouldn’t have stood a ghost of a chance, until I got that out of my system.

From Christian to Atheist (Part One)

When I was about 11 years old, I sat in the pews one fine Sunday, as most Sundays are in Southern California, and listened to the sermon given by the preacher at our local Southern Baptist Church. I’ll be honest and say that I don’t remember the details of the sermon, except that it was on evolution and the Biblical creation story, and how the Biblical story wins. It was about Adam and Eve (one bit I do remember) and various other elements of the war being fought by Bible literalists and non-literalists (and non-Christians). I do remember being shocked at what an idiot the preacher was, really and honestly shocked that anyone could be so ignorant. When we got home and were walking up the path to our front door, I made a remark about it within the hearing of my parents. Being a thoughtful and intelligent child at that age, I may well have used the word stupid to describe the preacher and his views. This did not go over well with my dad, who immediately scolded me for my choice of words, though I don’t think he followed through on any opinion of the sermon itself.

I’m not sure why that memory sticks with me when so many others do not, but it is clear to me, with my pre-teen/early teen focus on science, the space program, and dinosaurs, I had already seen the light shone by the scientific method. And sure enough, that light would come back to bite me on the butt many times in the future. In many ways, I am a believer, or at least, I want to believe. I remember that somewhere near this time, I decided to take that long walk down the aisle one Sunday morning and “accept Jesus as my Personal Savior.” Several of my friends had done the same thing, and I suspect that my young mind objected to not being included in that special club. I remember being very uncomfortable about changing in the room before and after the baptism (so much for Jesus being first on my mind), what with the preacher being there too. The result was sitting through the rest of the service (what there was of it) with wet underwear. Everyone seemed awfully excited and happy for me, but I don’t remember being or feeling any different.

So I was certainly willing to have the stories I had heard in Sunday School be real, but there were limitations. Adam and Eve, the talking snake, the Garden of Eden, and many of the other tales were rather hard for me to take in whole without choking. The blood baths ordered by God seemed easier to believe, and most of the non-miraculous entries had that ring of truth given the state of humans and civilizations back in Biblical days. Heck, we had just been through the Cuban missile crisis, and JFK had been shot, and I could watch WWII movies and T.V shows almost every night, so a bunch of wars fought for God seemed within the realm of reason. Clearly, as a believer, I had a ways to go, but Jesus seemed like a sure thing. Everyone I knew believed in Jesus; that had to count for something, and I didn’t even know that not believing in God (or gods) was an option.

Of course, there was nowhere near this level of analysis done by me at eleven. The stories of Old Testament miracles seemed unlikely and had that fairy tale quality, while the New Testament Jesus stories were miracles of a more manageable level, and seemed more personal. All that said, I still had my doubts, and the notion of a God watching over me 24/7 was a little eerie, at least when I thought of it. So to sum up, I believed in God, Jesus and had no idea what the Holy Ghost was supposed to do, was shaky in my belief of the larger O.T. miracles and more accepting of the more personal miracles including those that were done to help the Hebrews/Jews/Israelites get what they were promised.

Who knew that in only a few short years, I would begin to question everything I had been taught and begin my path to freedom from Christianity and religion?

Trying again.

We are about to start a new year, and I am going to try blogging again. I am attending college (at 58 yrs) and am at break, so this may be the best time. Around February I will be attending classes again, so we’ll see what happens then.

I think my goal is to write short essays. Mostly about atheism and religion, or maybe I’ll be a bit broader about subject matter. We’ll see. In the meantime, I hope you all have a happy New Year celebration and a good year ahead.

Creationist Christians

Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort have made a video talking about the program they are promoting, where by they will give away 100,000 copies of “The Origin of Species”, by Charles Darwin. They will be doing this on collage campuses across the country on November 19 (Thursday) to “celebrate” the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Darwin's book.. To get out their Christian message of creationism Ray Comfort has put a 50 page forward in the book that tells the “truth” about Darwin and evolution.

I'm not going to address the nonsense in his forward in this post. There are more than a few blogs that have put the lie to Mr. Comforts fantasy attack on atheism, Darwin and evolution. I want to put some of the comments of his and Cameron's fellow Christians out there. But before doing that, I will point out that not all Christians are like Comfort or Cameron, or like the people whose comments I will address here. I understand that many Christians accept evolution, and are not like the right wing nuts that are in charge of the GOP.

Read the comment on TMZ, and please feel free to watch to Cameron's video.

Kate says:

“[Cameron is] saying he wants two perspectives given in the classroom. Why does that scare evolutionists so badly?...You may be wrong. Do you want to be wrong? I don't.”

The classroom Kate is referring to is the science classroom, where evolution is taught. Cameron and Comfort both want creationism taught side by side with real science, but creationism is not science. It's religion. Evolutionists are not scared, they are tired of the lies, misinformation and constant politicizing of science.

Scientists do get it wrong sometimes, maybe a lot more than they, as individuals would like, but that's what happens, when you have to test out your ideas in the real world. And just in case Kate is really talking about being wrong about gods, how typical that she is so sure she is betting on the right horse.

Francie says:

“...Darwin's "theory" doesn't have an evolutionary leg to stand on. If subjected to today's modern scientific and biological knowledge his "theory" would be instantly debunked and revealed for what it is, some delusional attempt to discredit the Creator of the universe who has eternity in his hands. It's your choice where to spend it.”

Francie is funny. Ask 99.9% of modern biologists and other scientists and they will tell you that evolution theory is the basis of modern biology. Really, does she think that the last time anyone looked at the theory of evolution, was 150 years ago? Sheesh. Scientists will even point out that Darwin got a few things wrong. The truth is, that every time a new method of testing, and investigation comes along, like the study of DNA, biologists start testing evolution in hopes of being the first one to discover some new fact that supports or weakens some aspect of evolutionary theory. Talk about a carrier maker, being the one to shake Darwin out of the cat bird seat.

And once again, we have veiled threats about hell. Some Christians seem to want us to go to hell if we're wrong. I mean some of them really want it.

Debbidy says:

We Christians have no connection with Hitler.....If you remember your history...We, Christians, have been killed for our beliefs. Would you die for yours....

This reference is the result of the creationist claim (and that of Cameron and Comfort) that Hitler had an “undeniable connection"to Darwin and Evolution. An atheist commented that,

“Christianity has an "undeniable connection" with Hitler, racism has an "undeniable connection" to Christian Fundamentalists, and Krk [sic] Cameron has an "undeniable connection" to willful ignorance.

The uncomfortable truth for Christians is that Germany was a Christian country. Members of the Wehrmacht wore buckles that said, “Gott mit uns ” (God with us) and there is no evidence that Hitler ever stopped believing in God. There is also no evidence that Hitler ever thought about evolution, much less accepted that his superior race evolved from apes and blacks that were the first examples of humans on earth.

But let us, for a moment, accept all the misinformation presented about Hitler and Darwin. The truth is that not one thing would be changed in the evolutionary theory. It is still factual science. That it might have been badly used (were the claims true) is irrelevant. After all, Christianity has been used badly by despots and killers for centuries, and that is history. That Christians were occasionally killed (mostly early on) for their beliefs does not make them right. Only dead.

Kathy says:

“...In his own words: Darwin confessed, "To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest degree." Even Darwin thought his theory was faulty - and that's why it's just that - A theory and nothing more.”

I am going to give Katy the benefit of the doubt, and assume that she has never actually read Origin. If she had, she would know that Darwin follows that statement with several pages explaining just how the eye could have developed with evolution. Creationist leaders cherry pick Darwin's quotes the same way they often cherry pick quotes from the Bible. Out of context. Darwin did not think his theory was faulty,.

As to the ol' chestnut, “...and that's why it's just that - A theory and nothing more.”, Kathy continues to misunderstand science. A scientific theory is not “just” anything. The theory of evolution, has 150 years of science to back it up. Science from multiple disciplines and hundreds of thousands of tests and predictions. The mountain of evidence for evolutionary theory will not crumble to the likes of creationism. Theory in science is the best thing to be..

Wombat says:

Not even athiests [sic] believe what they babble about. They are just depressed disenchanted people who have to lash out at others because they do believe in a God. But you can't believe in a God can you? Because then you would'nt [sic] have anything to talk about. You'd be the totally uninteresting person at a party of people who all root for the Dodgers. Others believe in God, so you have to NOT believe in God. You are like a walking talking coffee table book, or a tattoo, or a cute dog on a leash you walk thru the park in hopes some girl will talk to you...constantly seeking something to make yourself interesting...because otherwise you are just a dimwitted angry person.

LOL...why do you think athiests [sic] run around babbling their nonsense and trying to get others to STOP believing? If an athiest [sic] really believed in what they say they do, they'd just stay quiet and laugh at us who do believe. Instead you have to fight about it with every breath you take.

Also, you might try realizing that being an athiest [sic] and showing some common courtesy and manners are not alien to each other. Maybe then you can post something one day which is not filled with hate, insults ...and a whole lot of clues to your immaturity.

Now...I will let you get back to scouring the internet for something to scream and rant about with your 5 year old mentality.

Wow. Just Wow. Now I will admit that Wombat was taunted by someone that called her/him a “F*cking hypocrite.”, wow. The turning the other cheek love just flows...not. Apparently, Wombat has trouble with the notion that an atheist can be an intelligent and thoughtful person. But for the record I'm not depressed or disenchanted; I'm did not become an atheist so I could be interesting; I am most definitely not a dimwitted angry person; and while I'm am vocal, there are several reasons and one of them speaks to why so many atheists are speaking out now. I know that Wombat and others would like for us to just stay quiet, but that isn't their choice. With folks trying to put creationism into the science classroom, and trying to make laws that reflect their Christian beliefs, rather than the broader social make up of the country, more and more atheists see the need to make sure that we are counted too.

And quite frankly, I'm tired of Christians telling me what I should think, do, or say as an atheist. As for “filled with hate, insults...”, etc... time to look in the mirror, Wombat.

Chris says:

“Kirk isn't shoving anything down anyone's throat, he is simply trying to give people a chance to decided for themselves what they believe. On college campuses across the U.S. and in public schools only one side is given to students.

Why can't both sides be presented and then give each student the FREEDOM to decided what they believe and don't believe?...I say let him hand out his book, let both sides be presented and give American's the freedom to decided for themselves.”

What isn't being pointed out by Chris is that Cameron does want creationism shoved down the throats of students by putting it in science classes, where it doesn't belong, but in the science class we don't teach opinion. If you mix the right two chemicals together, you get a chemical reaction. That isn't opinion or a matter for letting the student decide for themselves. Science is not democratic. Gravity exists, and if you want to believe otherwise, fine, but that we should teach the “controversy”, where someone might differ is foolish. Notice that we do not teach holocaust denialism in history classes. The holocaust occurred, and while we can present the evidence for it, we also say clearly, that 6 million Jews were killed. Period.

Evolution is a fact. It is the basis of modern biology and in a properly taught science class, the facts are presented, experiments performed and children (including collage students) are taught the basics of how to do science, and why things are they way they are. Creationism does not make predictions, has no facts to support it, and performs no experiments, so it is not science. There is no controversy, and no alternative of a scientific type to evolution.

Josh said:

“The point of the Hitler remark, the racism remark is plain to see. Evolution gives supporting rationale to racism because it is assumed that people will evolve in different ways and at different rates. You cannot embrace a theory such as evolution and insist that all people are equal, it is impossible by definition. If we simply rose from pond scum, if we are simply carbon sacks of water with electricity, we have no intrinsic value other than what power we hold and those with power deem us to have; Survival of the Fittest.”

Evolution does not give support to racism, and does not assume that “people will evolve in different ways and at different rates.” This is a perfect example of someone who doesn't have a clue what evolution is. If we (humans) continue to evolve, and that is a real possibility, it will be as a species, not as single individuals. That is how evolution works. On populations, not one person at a time.

I personally don't think we are “simply” carbon sacks of water with electricity, with no intrinsic value. We are social animals that got where we are together as a species, and we either survive as a species or we don't. Survival of the fittest refers to the species that can adapt to it's environment and thus survive where others might not. If we, as humans, can't adapt to changes in the world around us, we could be replaced, and it wouldn't have to be an intelligent species that replaces us in the niche we now fill.

The above examples are why atheists and scientists are so tired of people who speak about things they don't understand. It has always baffled me that so many Christians think the person to talk to about evolution is a preacher, or an actor who hasn't a single degree in the sciences. Which is why I would be the first one to say, don't take my word for it. Go to some of many web sites or blogs maintained by biologists and read what they have to say. Read books written by evolutionists and work to understand what they are saying and why.

And as for us atheists, we live right along side you, and have the same rights to speak out as you do. I refuse to apologize or shut up just because what I say bothers you.

The Backward Whale

Things keep turning up in the fossil world. Scientists have gone and dug up another transitional fossil for the whale, this one called the Maiacetus.

The oldest fossil is the Sinonyx, a wolf-sized critter. Then there is the Pakicetus (the oldest cetacean) followed by the Ambulocetus natans (the walking whale that swims). At about 46 to 47 million years ago the Rodhocetus lived, and this same time period is where the Maiacetus lived. Then the Basilosaurus and
the Dorudon left their marks.

All this information (minus the Maiacetus) is in an excellent article by Raymond Sutera called The Origin of Whales and the Power of Independent Evidence.

For Information on the Maiacetus check out The Backward Whale at The Loom blog, Fossil foetus shows that early whales gave birth on land at Not Exactly Rocket Science. And Maiacetus, the good mother whale at Laelaps. And lastly Amazing Fossil Finding: Proto Whales Gave Birth on Land, not at sea at Greg Laden's Blog.

For all information evolution, go to The TalkOrigins Archive.

The God Delusion

I just finished reading The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. This is a nice read. Dawkins writes in a clear and straightforward manner, and presents a calm argument for rejecting belief in a god. He also presents the problems of religion and responds to arguments about the problems of atheism.

After reading The God Delusion, I have to admit to being baffled by the notion that he comes off as an "angry atheist". His tone to me was not angry. Firm, yes. Decisive, yes. Even argumentative at times, yes. But angry? (Madalyn Murry O'Hair was angry. By comparison, Richard is a pussy cat.) The only time I see anything remotely like anger is when he talks about children and religion, and here is argument is more about child abuse. He argues that children are not Christian, Jewish or Muslim (or any other religion for that matter) but children. Children are not Democrats, Republicans or Communists, but the children of
Democrats, Republicans or Communists.

He argues that children should be protected from the religious views of parents when those views threaten to harm the child. That he sees religion as a harm in the education of children, and in their mental development is something that he argues rather well. What the answer to this problem is, would be a worthwhile discussion for anyone.

That children are harmed and killed every year because of the beliefs of their parents put into action is something that can not be denied. Children who suffer painful deaths because mom and dad would rather
believe that prayer should save them, when a simple shot or two would save them should not be in that position. If that rankles people of faith, then so be it. Let us make sure that no ones religion can interfere in children getting proper medical attention. Even the parents of the children. If that kid decides to become a practicing bible thumper at 18 and wants to believe that prayer will cure rather than avail him/her self of proven medical care, then let them reap the rewards of their beliefs, but not before that.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone out there. It is a good introduction to atheism.

Makers of gods

I have been in arguments and discussions about religion since I was 13 years old. That's when I started the journey that led to my becoming an atheist. It was an 11 year journey, because I didn't decide that I was an atheist until the year before my daughter was born. I was 24.

Many different things led to making that decision. One of them is the realization that we (meaning humans) insist on answers to all our questions. If we don't have answers, we make them up. Here's how I think it might have gone, long ago in a quiet cave late one night when a few of the folks inside couldn't sleep.

Tuggi: It's dark out there.
Farg: Have you noticed that that big shiny thing doesn't stay up there?
Tuggi: Well, Duh!
Farg: What do you mean, Duh? I'm just saying, it doesn't stay up there?
Garph: Where does it go?
Tuggi: That way. (Tuggi points west)
Garph: But why?
Farg: Don't know, do we?
Tuggi: Speak for your self. I have it all figured out.
Garph: Really?
Farg: No not really. He's full of beans, he is.
Tuggi: Am not. There's two of them, you know.
Garph: Two of who.
Tuggi: Two of the great and powerful beings in the sky.
Farg: Oh come on.
Tuggi: The one only comes out at night, and he's not as strong as the day other.
Garph: How do you know?
Tuggi: During the day, you can't look at the bright one. He is that powerful. But during the night, you can look at the face of the other. And he changes.
Farg: He's making this up you know.
Garph: Shhh! I want to know more.
Tuggi: Not making it up. You have seen his change from whole, to partly whole, down to nothing.
Farg: And where does he go when he's nothing?
Tuggi: He goes and gets his light back. The bright one steals it.
Farg: Does not.
Garph: That makes sense. The bright one steals it and the other chases him across the sky.
Tuggi: Exactly.
Farg: Buggers. Your full of bean gas.
Garph: (Hits Farg on head with rock.)
Tuggi: Why'd you do that?
Garph: He doesn't see the truth in what you say. Had to bash him.
Tuggi: Ah. He'll listen better when he wakes up.
Garph: Truth.

So there you have it. The beginning of the gods. The names were changed to protect the innocent.

Now think about it. There are a bazillion gods. Everyone has one, they make new ones from old worn out gods, and have been known to construct them out of whole cloth. Gods explain good and bad weather. Good and bad luck. Victory and defeat. Heck. Gods even explain ugly babies. Gods are everywhere. In trees. Rocks. Holes in the ground. Really good weed. (So I've been told).

I've been told that there is only one true god. Of course, I've been told this by people who define this one true god differently from the others who define him/it/her. Everyone is convinced that their explanation for this god, his history if you will, is the right one. And all the histories are different, too.

All these gods are there to explain things that we otherwise didn't (or don't) understand. Don't have an answer? God did it. And if you can make up answers for what gods did and didn't do, you can make up answers for other things you don't understand. Just ask the creationists. They make shit up all the time.

And all this wouldn't be so bad if people just kept it to themselves, but they don't. They want to teach it in the schools and pass laws.

Too thick to accept the fact that gays and lesbians are the way they are because they were born that way? No trouble, go to the Bible, Koran, or other book of ignorance and it will tell you they are bad. It may not say why, except that they are (insert something awful here) in the eyes of someone's god. Never mind that most of these rules were written by bronze age people who didn't have a clue about genetics, brain chemistry or development, or even the slightest understanding of what makes us tick.

Good god, these people thought a snake could convince a woman to eat an apple. They accepted stories of talking asses. Worse. They accepted stories from talking asses.

Really folks, it is time to put all these poor explanations for understanding away. We have science. We are getting more answers all the time, and these come with real evidence that supports them. Do we still have questions? Yes. What to do? Look for answers and not just say, god did it. In the mean time? Not a problem.

Just say, "I don't know".

More on Death

You know, once you touch on a topic, it can be hard to put it down altogether. I have two other thoughts on the subject. Both have a humorous element (to me anyway).

First is a recurring thought about T.V. shows and holiday breaks. Smallville is a good example here. One of my favorite shows that has gone on break till January 15th. It's at least a two parter, "to be continued" type. My thought was "Oh Great! What happens if I die before the conclusion? I'll never get to see the episode." Heh...

Because I live in the now, because I, like most people can't really get my mind around not having one (a mind that is), I feel like I will "miss" the show. Of course, I won't even miss me, much less missing the conclusion of a two parter, but there is still that little voice that has to have its way.

The second thought has to do with those who have died before us. In my extended family, my mother, father, several aunts and uncles as well as a cousin or two have all "gone on before" me. In short, they have died.

So what do we hear the believers say at important moments in their lives? "I wish my mother was hear to see this...", which is where I would stop but not the religious, "...but I know she is watching from heaven." At which point they look up and usually follow with, "This ones for you Mom."

Now I have several reactions to this kind of statement:

1. I can understand the feeling behind it. I reacted with a serious depression when my mother died 15 years ago next Friday, and I did miss her seeing my accomplishments big and small. I would have loved for her to live long enough to meet her great grandchild.

2. But let us assume for just a moment (before we stop assuming when done with this exercise) that mother is up in heaven right now. What in hell makes you think she has time, or the inclination to be looking down on you at this very moment. Wouldn't she have more important things to keep her busy without spending time looking in on what is going on elsewhere in reality? Doesn't God have Memorex? And time, not being an issue as far as the whole linear thing is concerned should allow one to view all those "important" moments in one sitting, don't you think?

3. And then there is this last issue. What if...what if it is really true that our mothers, fathers and other loved ones are sitting in heaven, (are they in the cheap seats, all the best ones taken by this time?) "watching down on us" all the freaking time? I mean really. I don't want to have to deal with the image of my mother watching me in the john, having sex or for that matter watching "Debbie does..." anyone. I would quickly cease being able to do the simplest damn thing in the toilet or the bedroom. Who in hell thought that up, and what makes them think that is an image anyone with half a mind would want.

I'm Just Saying...

Christian and Muslim

I read a number of blogs and articles on-line, and because I am an atheist, I often end up on an atheist, or atheist friendly site. If you are an atheist blogging, or writing, and make an effort to point out the silliness, absurdity, or downright lies and evil in the lives of many in the Christian church, you will find that sooner or later, someone is going to comment on your blog, respond to your article, or make their own podcast pointing out that you are a coward. And why are you a coward?

Because you are not attacking Islam. You are not pissing on Mohammad the way you are pissing on Jesus, or the way you are pissing on their crackers or ritual. You are not pointing out just how silly Islam is. And why are you not doing this? Because, say the Christians, you know that the Muslims will kill you. Then they dare you to prove how brave you are by challenging you to piss on Mohammad.

Now I can understand that when a Christian sees his beliefs attacked, he responds as poorly as anyone else would who is holding on to something that is baseless and tenuous. He responds like a kid in grade school.

"I bet you won't go in there."
"I bet you won't stick that in your mouth."
"I be you won't jump."

Knowing that there are factions of Islam that are totally unstable, and that there are indeed absolute nucking futs out there who would really kill you because you pissed on there version of the make believe world, the nut ball Christians, dare atheists to say the same mean things to even bigger nut balls.

P.Z. Myers in response to rabid Catholics who were threatening the life and education of a Florida college student placed a "cracker", or what is more commonly called a Eucharist, in his trash with a nail pierced through it, and photographed it. He was told the cracker was blessed, which means that if you are a Catholic, you likely believe that the cracker was the body of Jesus. See what I mean by nuts?

P.Z., like so many other atheists was told that he was a coward because he only attacked Christianity. He was told this then, and is told that now, and yet if you look at the photograph, or even bother to read the caption, you will note that also pierced by that rusty old nail was a page from the Koran, and not to be out done, he included a page from atheist author Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion.

And all the above is almost beside the point. The point here is that it is clear that some of the people have Islam envy. They honestly seem to be upset because they don't get to shoot people who blaspheme, or who pick on them. They don't get to burn them alive, or beat and kick them, or behead them. They're impotent little wankers and it bothers them.

Now every day that goes by, I hear Christians make callus and downright nasty remarks about atheists or atheism, and you know what? That's O.K. I can live with that. If it bothers me, I will post here on my blog, or question the speaker, or write to the miscreant, but I won't harbor a desire to see them killed, maimed or injured. Telling me there is a god, doesn't hurt me. Telling me I'm going to hell just doesn't worry me. The only time I get bothered is when Christians try to make their beliefs into laws I am supposed to follow. Then we will have a problem.

Oh, and the reason we don't always say something about the Islamist nut jobs, is because we live in a country whose religious makeup has a majority of Christians. We focus on the bigger pest, thanks to the extremist right wing Christians, it's easy to know who that is.

4 Seasons

Another Photoshop Creative project, this one being a tutorial. You start out with the picture of the Tree in the field and all else is done in PS. This took the better part of the night. Still fun though.

Photoshop Creative

Photoshop Creative is a great magazine for Photoshop users who want super tutorials, tips, ideas and tools. This magazine is published in England. I got it at Barnes and Noble.

They have a readers contest that provides six images which you can use anyway you want to create your own art work. Use one, two, all, any combo, and feel free to add your own to make something unique. The four images above are the ones I used to create the work below.

I don't think I'm done with this one, but you can never tell. I like it.

Keith Olbermann on Prop 8