Atheism, Kentucky Style

A pro-atheist summer camp for kids called Camp Quest has been in the news lately, largely because of the involvement of Richard Dawkins.

Camp Quest is the brainchild of Kentucky attorney Edwin Kagin, who also hosts an internet radio show called Answers in Atheism and a blog called Blasphemous Blogging. Mr. Kagin is apparently one of the organized Atheist movement's leading proponents, and he does so from his law office in Union, KY.

I tried to read the voluminous body of writings on his blog, but couldn't even begin to wade through it. I find long philosophical diatribes against religion to be every bit as dull and pointless as long philosophical diatribes for religion. Maybe more so, in fact, since religious rants can often be quite bizarre and colorful in their fanciful idiosyncracy. Atheist treatises, however, leave me cold, even when dealing with potentially juicy topics. Here's a sample:

Moralists have declared war on reason. With aborted fetuses emblazoned on their shields and chastity belts secured, the armies of God, like ancient pestilence, are marching to stop forbidden sex and to ensure all products of ill advised copulation be born. The births proclaim the truth that the only reason sex is lawful at all is to make God's babies.

According to the theocratic understanding of biology of the anti-choice movement, at the moment the sperm penetrates the egg, the mythical "soul" is placed in the zygote, presumably whether it is in a uterus or a petri dish. That which God has infused with soul may not be removed by the mere mortal choice of not wanting a baby. This notion of a soul inhabiting a collection of cells that may, barring accident, abortion, or whatever, become a child is rather new in mythological thought and bears analysis.

As I'm so fond of saying: anyone who wants to know that knows it already. I already hold these truths to be self-evident, having already sorted all this stuff out for myself by the age of 18. Are religious zealots annoying? Of course they are. Are anti-religious zealots equally annoying? I say yes, most assuredly, yes.

I wish Kagin well, though, and he seems to be doing just fine. According to his website, he has a new book called Baubles of Blasphemy, "as seen on ABC's Good Morning America", and has many debates available on YouTube for your perusal, just in case the subject of God's existence hasn't already been utterly talked to death to your satisfaction.

Me, I think worshipping nothing is a drag, man, a king-sized drag. Me, I worship lots of stuff, from Ernest T. Bass to Hydrothermal Vents to Fudge Stripe cookies to Sgt. Fury comics, and all with a laserbeam pinpoint fervor and intensity that could only be classified as religious in nature.