The peicurmudgeon, also known as John Underhay is just your average mentally ill, atheist, left wing libertarian, SCUBA diving, snorkeling, biker.
How I travel
I like to think of myself as a sceptic, especially of the supernatural – as in anything that people try to explain by ignoring the laws and rules of physics, chemistry, biology, or by being otherwise contrary to our natural world. I post about science, pseudoscience, politics, religion, or anything else that intrigues, angers, or interests me.
If you landed here searching for the 1998 movie, I am not Jackie Chan.
I’m a 6th generation Prince Edward Islander, living on a disability pension and just getting crankier as I age.
Just wanted to say that it is great to see another Atheist here on PEI, living in Summerside right now and the number of the faithful here is staggering. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for reading. Summerside can be a bit on the religious end of things alright.
Hi Mike I am an athiest living in Summerside.Wouldn’t mind chatting with you sometime.
Hi John, I just wanted to share my experience with you about what happened to me. While I was working at linkletter park in Summerside 2001 on a shift from 12pm to 8am working security I had to deal with bad prayers taped to the doors, religious books left out in the open. I took down prayers everynight. This was posted there by the forewoman and co-worker. There was also a larhe sign God Bless You on the laundry room door. Went to see my M>L>A> who I found out has prayer meetings at her home twice a week. I ended up quitting my job and got drunk after 20 years of being sober.Went back on August 4th 2012 to another prayer on the door. Here it is
Heavenly father, look down on us your humble servants
who are doomed to travel this earth, taking photograghs mailing
postcards, buying souveneirs and walking around in drip dry underwear.
Give us this day divine guidance in the selection of our hotels that we
may find our reservations honoured, our rooms made up and hot water
running from the faucets. We pray that the telephones work and the
operators speak our tongue. Lead us dear Lord to good inexpensive restaurants
where the food is supberb, the waiters friendly and the wine included in the
price. Give us the wisdom to tip correctly in currencies we do not understand.
Forgive us for undertipping out of ignorance and overtipping out of fear.
Make the natives love us for what we are and not for what we contribute to their
wordly goods. Grant us the strength to visit museums, and castles listed as musts
in the guide books.And if per chance we skip a historic monument to take a nap after lunch
have mercy on us, for our flesh is weak.
FOR HUSBAND ONLY- Dear God keep our wives from shopping sprees and protect them from”bargains”
they do not need or can’t afford. Lead them into temptatation for they know not what they do.
FOR WIVES ONLY Almighty father keep our husbands from looking at foreign woman and comparing them to us.
Save them from making fools of themselves at nightclubs and cafes. Above all DO nOT forgive them their trespasses
for they know not what they do.
AMEN
Put a claim into human rights on August 9th, and they sent a letter to the forewoman and the co-worker and to the provincial park manager.
Like to hear your thoughts on this. Thanks
WEST
Hi Curmudgeon,
Do you know that the term “athiest” is self-refuting? If there is no God, then why use a word meaning he doesn’t exist? It makes no sense. A more honest word would be to call yourself an agnostic because, let’s face it, even you don’t know for sure and in you last breath on earth, you will be wondering if you might have been wrong. Some food for thought. An athiest is really just someone rebelling against God, who hasn’t really looked at all the possibilities.
You may want to read “The New Athiesm and the Erosion of Freedom” by Dr. Robert Morey which explains all of this and uses very logical thinking on the existence of God, etc. and how, without God or a higher standard to live by, there are no absolutes, i.e. no right and wrong. It goes very deep if you think about it. Who built the hospitals, schools, churches? It wasn’t the athiests. What have they added to the world? Oh ya, there was Hitler, but without right and wrong, he would be okay. Do you think Hitler was good? If so, then God help you. How do you explain creation, our planet, the stars, their alignment, the sun? You can’t claim evolution, because it’s already been debased, though a lot of the non-thinkers cling to it because they have nothing else. Even Darwin denied it on his death bed. So, you really need to have a lot of faith to be an athiest, so much more than anything else. Good luck with that.
How many times will you have to write the word atheist incorrectly before you realize that you are spelling it wrong?
Ok, I’m going to give this a shot.
1. Atheist means the disbelief in all claims of a deity that have been presented.
2. Most Atheists are Agnostic which means that if there is supporting evidence for a God they would alter their view.
3. What if you’re wrong and it’s one of the other jealous Gods.
4. The reason you think we are rebelling is because you believe you have a personal relationship with your non-manifesting friend, it doesn’t apply to the rest of us.
5. The moral lawgiver argument is less than impressive once you’ve realized that empathy is beneficial to human survival.
7. Why not scientists who have more than doubled the life span of the entire human race? Most of them are atheists, there are more scientist named Steve who accept evolution as a fact than scientists who don’t. We’re going with Hitler? Really? Are we going to ignore the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, 9/11, or the Pope telling Africans that condoms cause AIDS, just to name a few.
8. The “Darwin denying evolution” rumor was started decades after his death by a woman his family claimed was never there in the first place.
9. The big bang is a sound theory for the origins of the universe, is it 100% fact as is evolution? No, but just supposing a God did it gets us nowhere near the truth.
10. Faith is belief in something in the absence of evidence, it is not a virtue. Faith does not apply to skepticism.
Thanks for your time, hope this helps.
I particularly like your comment that faith is not a virtue, especially when it exists in conflict in facts. I read a comment earlier today that belief that your car will get you to Mars is a sign of illness; belief your care will get you to Toronto is quite reasonable.
You apparently haven’t seen my car, I’d be lucky to make it to Moncton. Great to see other free-thinking Islanders by the way, Happy George Carlin Day!
An atheist is someone rebelling against god without looking at all the possibilities? Lol, how ironic, you sir are a moron. People like you are a cancer to this world! If you are stupid enough to blindly believe in religion with your talking snake and 900 year old man building an arc then I truly believe you have no right to have children or to be allowed in public.
Charlottetown militant athiest,
Mark corrigan
Mark, clearly your misinterpretation of the bible is skewing your view of it. Obviously, a 900 year old man building a boat big enough to carry all the various kinds of animals would be ridiculous. Noah was a lithe and chipper 600 years old when the flood came.
http://bible.cc/genesis/7-6.htm
Food for Thought – I was going to write a rebuttal to your comment, but then realized that it would be a complete waste of time. You have just posted two paragraphs in which virtually every sentence contains at least one falsehood. Do some homework and come back.
The ignorance and lies of people like Food for Thought is simply astounding. Keep up the great work, John. PEI needs all the rational help it can get!
I’ve dealt with folks like that before, on the net and in RL. definitely agree with you.
Thanks for the kind words
Thanks Dan, for leading me here.
PEI needs more people who can think, rather than “Food for Thought”, who apparently starved their thinking processes long ago.
Once FFT debunks the other thousands of gods in conflict with their specific belief system, including the variants of their own theology, I’ll be happy to hear them out. But until then, the site content is much more interesting than the rambling foolishness of a theist who doesn’t even bother checking their “facts”.
John – have a proposition for you. Can you ping me at this email address?
Nice blog! I’m an islander and fellow skeptical atheist but living in a land far far away. Out of curiosity I googled PEI atheist groups and came across your blog.
Is there any sort of group presence around here? ‘Skeptics in the Pub’ or the like? Could use something like that around here, certainly.
I don’t know of any skeptical/atheist groups, but I’d be happy to meet for a coffee or beer some day.
We have a SITP in Halifax now. It was started about a year ago. The guy who started it also started a CFI group here, but I think the whole SITP thing need not be associated with any particular group, if you were to start one up. Or if you’re ever in Halifax, look us up
http://www.meetup.com/CFI-NS/
Was just searching for folks who were blogging about Kandace…interesting read, your blog. Keep it up. Will be back
Homer: “But, Marge, what if we’re going to the wrong church, and each week god is getting madder and madder?”
matt
Of course even a skeptic can understand that The Laws of Physics have revealed there must be a Creator Who exists outside Time and Space, Who created The Laws of Physics, to begin with:) As to how a Creator can exist outside Time and Space, that is a great mystery and beyond our human comprehension.
No, the Laws of Physics have demonstrated that there is absolutely no need to use the supernatural to explain anything about the beginning of the universe. I recommend Stephen Hawking’s book “The Grand Design” if you are looking for an explanation. It is only those who do not understand physics who believe in the need of a creator.
Hey there, just stumbled upon your blog. Nice to see another fellow Islander blogging! I am faithful, actually considered Catholic, but I really don’t have any use for Religeon, and kind of think the whole Bible thing is a sham. I actually like to chat with atheists and hear their views. I am open minded and respect their views and mine, but it always seems that atheist are great conversationalists, whereas the bible thumpers are a little scary to talk to. They get all huffy and angry. Anyways, I’ll keep reading!
Melissa
Thanks for the kind words, although you’d better watch out for me, as I’ve been known to get a bit huffy and angry myself.
Eek! I’ll try my best, lol.
I just wanted you to know that I enjoyed your stuff. I am an athiest living in Summerside myself and it is sure a lonely existence. Sure would love to chat sometime. Thanks
Bumped into you over at Rebecca Hamilton’s blog. Sorry, can’t suggest you pop over to my blog as I took it down last week. But It might be subject to Ressurection (sic
) at some stage.
I am thoroughly enjoying reading your posts.
The one you wrote about oral removal of a child’s foreskin for religious purposes freaked me out. Great post, nonetheless. And the post on ivory was excellent.
Thanks. Always happy to get feedback – especially posivie.
hi john in regards to the prayer and humanrights their answer tourist prayer is a humorous representation of a belief system that no reasonable person would find offensive west
A very unfortunate reply. I guess the only reply is to suggest the entire belief system is humorous and no reasonable person would believe it.