An Atheist in Congress

Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) has admitted that he is an atheist. Until recently such an announcement would make it virtually impossible for you to get elected to any political office in the United States. Pete Stark is however in a fortunate position. He has been continuously re-elected to Congress from his district since 1973. He has a safe seat and is in no danger of losing it.

All this came about after The Secular Coalition for America "the only organization in the nation whose primary purpose is lobbying Congress on behalf of atheists, humanists, freethinkers, and other nontheistic Americans." offered a $1,000 prize to the person who could identify the "highest-level atheist, agnostic, humanist or any other kind of non-theist currently holding elected public office in the United States." A member of American Atheists California nominated Stark. He was asked to fill out a survey and responded with the following e-mail statement clarifying his views:

"When the Secular Coalition asked me to complete a survey on my religious beliefs, I indicated I am a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being. Like our nation's founders, I strongly support the separation of church and state. I look forward to working with the Secular Coalition to stop the promotion of narrow religious beliefs in science, marriage contracts, the military and the provision of social services."

Pete Stark has been listed as Unitarian in previous Congressional religious tabulations. For a religious breakdown of all of the members of Congress, up to and including the 109th (2005-2006) check out this site

The 110th Congress has even more diversity with the inclusion of the first Muslim, Keith Ellison, two Buddhists, Mazie Hirono and Hank Johnson and now the first declared Atheist Pete Stark.

Kenneth Eng - In His Own Words

Kenneth Eng has finally come out to express his views in his own words, well sort of.....He was interviewed on "The Big Story With John Gibson" on Fox News. For a transcript of the interview click here.

The one thing about the interview that impressed me was his ability to turn the question: "Why do you hate Blacks?" into a discussion about his science fiction writings and every time John Gibson tried to get a straight answer out of him he went back to referencing his dragons.

At one point he asked John Gibson......you probably want to know why I call myself the god of the universe as well.....to which Gibson replied......No, I wasn't going to ask you about that. Well Kenneth wasn't going to let that stop him from answering his own question.

"if there is such a thing as god, then he's me. Either worship me or, you know, forsake religion."

Here is a video clip of the interview

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=TK4fjMhGn-I]

Who is Kenneth Eng?

The following was taken directly from Kenneth Eng's own blog and presumably written by Kenneth himself.

Biography
Kenneth C. Eng is the youngest published science fiction novelist in America. He has written the novels Dragons: Lexicon Triumvirate, The 0th Dimension and Reincarnation. His work has been published in Philosophy Today, Bewildering Stories Science Fiction Magazine, Sequart.com, Newsday and a few minor magazines. Formerly, he worked at Marvel Comics, Paramount Pictures and Crossroads Films. Graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Presently 22 years of age.
Interests
Ascertaining absolute certainty in the universe, creating balanced symmetry and aesthetics in the cosmos, striving against the mass of conformity that is the flesh all around me, and writing.

He apparently left out a few things about himself:

He is a Racist who hates just about everybody who is non-Asian and even some Asians as well. He has written a number of articles about race hatred: 1. Why I Hate Black People 2. Proof that Whites Inherently Hate Us 3.Why I Hate Asians all of which have been published by AsianWeek magazine.

He is omnipotent and calls himself God of the Universe: From Foreword magazine

“Reincarnation is not limited in time, space and material,” says Eng. “I could essentially be anyone living in the present, past, or future, or any imaginary being drawn from the Omnitemporal Realm. All consciousness is one. I am in everyone, friend or foe.”

He is an Atheist: Religion is for the Inferior

"Religion is sick. Religion is disgusting. Anyone who practices religion should be forced to wear a shirt that says "stupid". I'm not fu*king joking. I'm really serious."

He likes to Masturbate: Religion is for the Inferior

"I don't know about you, but I masturbate all the time. It's not going to affect me in any way, aside from making me need to take baths more often"

He may be Mentally Ill: Diary of an Attack
The police sent him to hospital TWICE after being involved in a fight:

"However, instead of arresting any of the attackers, they had me sent to a hospital. Not because I was injured, but because they thought I was insane. (I have a voice recording of one of the officers admitting this.)
I lectured him as well about how he should perform his duties, and then I commanded that he tell me why nothing was done. Instead of giving me an answer, he (not surprisingly) called the hospital again to have me institutionalized."

His views got him in trouble at school: Discrimination Against Asians

I was later asked to speak to the Tisch Chairman David Irving about my conflicts. At first, he seemed like a rational man who could be reasoned with. However, when the conversation shifted to my controversial views, I told him that I thought Hitler was not a coward and that African Americans were receiving unfair aid from the American government at the expense of Asian Americans. He immediately called the dean, furiously wanting to get me expelled. In fact, when I spoke to Irving again, he blatantly informed me of his own orders to have professors watch out for and report any of my renegade activities. As if it weren’t bad enough that students were stalking me, I now had professors who were watching me as well. The only person who wasn’t going after my head was the dean.

He is Pro-Suicide: Suicide the Healthiest Choice

When most people hear of suicide, they typically think of depressed losers, misfortune, injustice and other negative things. What most people don’t realize is that suicide is not necessarily something unfavorable. In fact, it can be a useful tool. I’m not trying to be cynical here; nor am I ranting. I am simply trying to elucidate a point I have made in many of my books – a life without a mission is one not worth living. I say if you’re going to be alive, do what you really want to do, and if you lose, shoot yourself. It’s better than hanging onto existence for no reason other than to exist.

I am not sure if Kenneth Eng is mentally unbalanced or just living in his own little fantasy world. There is an article by "The Wily Filipino" that attempts a two-part analysis of Kenneth Eng. Click on the following links: Kenneth Eng part1 and Kenneth Eng part2

World Religions - Atheism

Atheism is the state of disbelief or non-belief in the existence of a deity or deities. It is commonly defined as the positive denial of theism (i.e., the assertion that deities do not exist), or the deliberate rejection of theism (i.e., the refusal to believe in the existence of deities). However, others—including most atheistic philosophers and groups—define atheism as the simple absence of belief in deities.

There are over 1 billion people who do not believe in God or gods. It is the third largest "religion" after Christianity and Islam. Paul-Henri Thiry, baron d'Holbach was one of the first Europeans to support Atheism. In 1761 he wrote Christianity Unveiled, in which he attacked Christianity and religion as counter to the moral advancement of humanity. His most famous work: The System of Nature (Le Système de la nature) was written in 1770 in which he declared:

"man is a production formed in the course of time, and peculiar to the particular globe he inhabits," and that every living thing changes according to time and place".

What is so remarkable is that this work was published 65 years before Charles Darwin's "The Origin of Species" in 1869, in which Darwin made the case for Evolution and Natural Selection as the process by which humans (and all other living things) came to exist and not Creation. Denying the existence of a deity, d'Holbach saw in the universe nothing save matter in motion. He also declared: The foundation of morality is happiness: "It would be useless and almost unjust to insist upon a man's being virtuous if he cannot be so without being unhappy. So long as vice renders him happy, he should love vice."

Today there are many proponents of Atheism. Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris blame religion for notorious events in history and many of the world's current problems. In this video clip Sam Harris discusses the conflict between religion and science. He also attempts to dispel some of the Misconceptions about Atheism. In his best selling book The God Delusion Richard Dawkins is very critical about religion. In this BBC Interview he explains his position and answers viewers questions.

Here are some more sources of information on Atheism.

Religion & Ethics - Atheism Positive Atheism The Atheism Web Atheism on Yahoo