[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Put First Breath After Coma to tape. On keys and bass. Tell me what you think.
I know you at the Ministry of Education are very busy people, so let me assist you in educating our next generation about Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transgender. Hopefully I can gift whatever little I know about these people who are obviously alien to the Ministry’s mouthpieces.
I know that they’re our brothers, sisters, children and friends. They’re the people we work with, who make our nasi lemak in the morning and drive the bus at night. They are our bosses and our subordinates at work, our classmates at school. We see them everyday on the street, though they don’t have a sign on their heads screaming “FAG” or “PONDAN”. They are our neighbours, our colleagues, our countrymen.
They share the same wants and needs we do. They want a stable income and career, a happy life, and a place to call home. They want to live, just as we do, have children (for some), take care of their parents, love their significant others.
That last part makes them different, but it is the only thing that makes them different. Yet you presume that only thing shapes their lives any more than any other point above. It doesn’t. Two people loving each other or feeling uncomfortable in their bodies does not make them evil. A person with eleven fingers does not have an agenda, neither does someone who diets. Neither do they want to prey on our children or convert them. I think the Catholic Churches and bomohs have got that covered.
The only agenda the LGBT have is the same agenda we all do. We want to be loved. We want to live, to pursue happiness and belonging. We want to be free to do what we want. And we want to be part of a society that accepts us as one of them.
That’s the gay agenda. Nothing more. And I will stand with them and say, nothing less.
"
A survey of Malaysian Muslim youth conducted at the end of 2010 showed that nearly three-quarters back the idea for the Quran to replace the Federal Constitution as the country’s highest law.
The survey in Malaysia by independent pollster Merdeka Center revealed that about 72 per cent of Muslims aged 15 to 25 support the Islamic holy book as the highest law; 25 per cent disagreed.
About 71.5 per cent support the cutting off of hands as punishment for convicted thieves, 92.5 per cent agree to the death sentence for murderers and support for whipping as punishment for those who drink alcohol is at 92.4 per cent.
While the young Muslims surveyed appear to be religiously conservative at first glance, only 18.1 per cent said they read the Quran often and 28.7 per cent said they perform the compulsory five daily prayers.
"— http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/umnos-young-ulama-ready-to-contest-ge/
What constitutes a patriot?
(Been nagging me for a while now, might as well put it down before I forget?)
It becomes clear to anyone following any extreme political debate is that one side or other starts accusing the other of being unpatriotic or un-(insert your country). The standards flow from the arbitrary to the ridiculous, usually most easily exemplified by symbols like a flag or a song. Great, if that makes you happy.
But singing the national anthem loud enough or waving some symbol around is about as effective as prayer, and works around the same way; it makes you feel good, but I I don’t think it actually makes anything better. The State is an abstract entity, it exists only in the minds of humans, and if those humans all die somehow, the State would die with them.
But the people in that state are alive and living. I live in Malaysia. So do my parents and most of my friends. My children will most likely be born here. It is by luck that we all were born here and not somewhere else, but now that I’m here, I want to try and make it a better place. I want to clean the air and the land so my sinus doesn’t go nuts every time I go out. I want the hospitals to stay running, the traffic to be smooth, the education standards to prepare our next generation for the future. I want to see people lifted out of poverty by some way other than having money thrown at them.
I don’t want a flag or an anthem, nor a political statement as hollow as an oil drum. I want shit to be done. And anyone do accomplishes something for the betterment for this country is a patriot. I’ll take the guy who fights for the poor over the guy swinging the flag like a bayonet.
A little rant for Reason Rally
Its always a little difficult to explain to people why you’re a nonbeliever. Especially if, like me, you just sort of drifted your way into realizing you can’t bring yourself to believe in gods and demons and the supernatural. “Why don’t you believe in God?” “Because it don’t see any reason to.” And that’s it, because within the reason of logic, having no evidence for God is good enough reason to discount his existence.
But its never enough for most believers. There must be a cause of some kind. “Oh you’re still young.” “Did you get abused as a child?” “You’re being bitter!” Yeah because you leave the realm of reason and into faith, which is by definition the absence of logic. I can’t go there. I can’t “feel” God the same way others “feel” God, or maybe I “mistake” it for my enjoyment of life and things I do. But a purely logical stance for not believing is not enough. So the condescension and the insults start.
My point is, the difficulty in explaining why atheists exist leads to a difficulty in understanding why some atheists feel the need to speak out. For the most part, I don’t agree that humans crave the institution of religion. Though I do agree we do form groups to fulfill Mankind’s need for social bonds as well, there is a simpler, deeper reason for speaking out as an atheist.
Because the billion or so atheists on this world share this Earth with the almost 6 billion other nonbelievers. We have a stake in this world and whatever someone does somewhere in the world affects us all. And most atheists I think will agree that there are religious elements holding us back, people who will turn to their holy books as a reason to kill, maim and destroy. Most of us want to live in a better society where most of us live comfortably; notably the exceptions tend to be religious extremists who’d sooner use fear and authoritarianism to rule over all. Case in point, many atheists who don’t live in countries will free speech face imprisonment or death for thought crimes.
Atheists can provide a counterbalance to this destructive philosophy. And on this point most liberal theists should have more in common with us than with the fundamentalists.
Theists who consider themselves moderates thus need to recognize us as a key element of society, here to stay, and with our valuable ideas to contribute. Too often atheists speaking out have been met with derision, or much worse; this has to stop. There will be more of us in the coming decades. We are your children, siblings, coworkers, the men and women who run the shops, run the life-saving research, and generally do everything theists do with no difference except for what’s in the mind. We are not your enemy.
