Hail Storm book review

Operation Hailstorm by Brett Arquette

I have never been a huge fan of spy tech novels. I have always thought of them detailed just short of tech manuals.

But this book won me over. 

 The main characters were both likeable and damaged, which made the intrigue and tech more palpable. Still suffering after losing loved ones in a coordinated terrorist attack on five airliners (known as The Five), you wonder how they are not only functional, but have used their obsession with finding the killers toward the greater good.

I feel that the events in this book are relevant to many Americans, namely the tragedy of The Five and looming war with North Korea. And, dare I say gives skeptics like me a sliver of confidence in our country.

While this book has its fair share of specs that would excite any self-respecting geek, I still felt invested in the story. The tense climax is capped off with a Mission: Impossible type ending, that was amusing and just enough of a cliffhanger to make me anxious for the next book.

The Bible: The #1 book about Child rape, murder and sodomy

You 've seen them. The passive aggressive action of the devout: 'type amen if/to/for [fill in whichever cause of the day]'. I had recently seen a meme that asked me to type 'amen' if I believed everything in the bible to be true.

I'm going to make it simple,  because this concept seems be widely misunderstood amongst theists: For something to be true, it has to be verifiable. Just because you say it doesn't mean it's true. It should be an objective observation, if not observed first hand, then through a trusted source.

Take the virgin birth, for example. Before we even get into the details of the story, it doesn't take a diehard skeptic to question the trustworthiness of the story. What is a person called who has not had sex? A virgin. How are babies born? Conception via sexual intercourse (back then, there was only one way to get knocked up-- there were no turkey-baster babies). So, if you believe in the virgin birth, I would venture that you don't put much stock in science. 

Here's where I have a problem with this concept...aside from the obvious that there needs to be sperm and egg and fertilization and all that scary science stuff to make a baby...belief in the virgin birth propagates the evil of sex. The tree of knowledge included Adam and Eve knowing each other's bodies, or carnal knowledge. What happened after they ate the apple? They were made to be ashamed of their nakedness, their sex, and began to wear clothes.  They became wise. 

If you believe that the trinity, then you believe that the father, the son and the holy ghost are one (if you believe everything in the bible is true, that includes this). The father and the son are the same, or Jesus is his own father; then Jesus is the holy spirit and Jesus is god. Fifteen year old Mary was Immaculately conceived by god and Jesus and the holy spirit. Namely, the whole Christian religion is based off an incident of child rape. 

Vulture Droppings: Death is Nothing

I firmly believe when you die, there is nothing. When you die, there is nothing. When you die…you die. I believe, like religion (and maybe because of it), life after death is just a security blanket against the cold and scary darkness. People do not want to admit that the darkness is not dark and it is not scary because when you die, all you know and feel will stop. There is no other way to describe it because no one has ever experienced it and told about it. 

There have been the tunnels with the bright light and relatives greeting them, but I firmly believe that is all wishful thinking. They merely saw what they wanted to see when they died.

I would say death is akin to blowing out a candle. But I think that is not entirely true. When you snuff out a candle, there is a lingering of heat and smoke that is just not there after you die. 

Lets' say there is life after death. I know that Catholics preach it. Why is death such a horrible thing? Why do they lament over a loved when when they die? I believe funerals are a selfish thing developed to make people feel better, so they can better deal with something they do not understand. 

It is contradictory. The church preaches eternal life after death, but allows its parishioners to mourn the deaths of loved ones. 

*Vulture Droppings are, for lack of a better term, rants. 

The awakening of an atheist

God Concept was dead for me a long time ago. I remember questioning it during mass when I was younger, maybe around the age of 12. I listened to the sacrament of Eucharist, and that’s when it started to make me feel uneasy. All throughout Catholic school, I had been taught the word of god is right and true. So, the church’s attempt at wiping away the blood had become clearer to me, and I thought, ‘why?’ Why give yourself to your children in the guise of flesh and blood? Why was eating their flesh a sign of your love and gratitude for them?

It wouldn’t be until much later that I started to connect its rites and customs with those of religions that predated christianity. For many years, I could have given a shit about jesus, god or anything to do with religion. It was something I had been indoctrinated into and did it to appease parents, grandparents, clergy, etc. Growing up, we were never overtly religious as a family, unless you counted the fact that my brother and I went to Catholic school for twelve years. Unless I had to do it for school, I never read the bible. I read it more now than I did in all my twelve years of Catholic school. When I went to college, I went to church on the weekends, and later not at all.

It wasn’t until after my first son was born that I really started to take a hard look at religion and its role not only in my life, but in the lives of those around me, then society and the world as a whole. My father had asked me when were we going to baptize our son. My wife and I had talked about it before the baby came, but this was the first time that faith had come up when I was an adult in anything remotely resembling a conflict. He asked me if we were worried about his soul, that if it would go to hell. I told him that is not what we believe and that is something we want him to decide for himself. And that was it.

That, I think, was the beginning of my real research. In college, prior to being married and having the baby, I had written a paper on Simon de Beauvoir for a writing class. I read quite a bit on existentialism and religion. So, as an adult I had a starting point: existence. This was when the flood gates opened. I started to question everything.

What was our purpose here? How did we come into being? How did the world come about? What about the universe? Is there a god? As an adult, I hear the normal, ‘thank god,’ ‘god bless you,’ other sayings that I had always taken for granted as just part of everyday speech.

In a nutshell, that's how I 'became' an atheist.