Graduation

Ok, I haven't updated this thing in a while but it's not like anyone reads this anyway. On June 16th, I had my high school graduation. The students had to come in at 8 am to practice walking so we don't screw up in front of thousands of people. After two tries, we finally figured it out and the administrators were satisfied that the class of 2006 will look decent.
After practice, I didn't want to spend gas and money to drive home and I didn't really have anything to do, so Lars and I went up to his house up in the mountains to try to find a deer that was eating his vineyard. We decided that there's no other choice but to kill it, so I armed myself with a baseball ball, Lars got a giant wrench and a bow and arrows. We spent a good hour looking for the stupid animal, but it was nowhere to be found. Deer hunting, or more like deer looking, was good exercise and a good waste of time.
So after changing into graduation clothes, we drove back down to Los Gatos for graduation. The way the ceremony was conducted was very strange. A group of students would sit in a classroom until their room number would be called. At that point, we would meet with another classroom and merge with them. And then, these two lines merge with two other classrooms. So starting from a single-file line in a classroom, we end up on the front lawn marching 4 people at a time.
The ceremony started with the singing of the national anthem, of course. Then, 3 students gave their speeches. The speeches were decent, but nothing to write home about. The best part of the ceremony, in my opinion, was giving high school diplomas to two Los Gatos High School graduates from the 40s. They did not recieve their diplomas because they were sent to an internment camp shortly after Pearl Harbor. But now, they are able to claim their diplomas.
After some tear-jerker speeches, the names of the first seniors were being called. I was in the second to last row, so it would be an hour until my name is called. There were 450+ seniors graduating with me, so the whole thing took quite a while.
In the end, there were lots of hugs, handshakes, congratulations, and many many pictures.

A few hours later, Grad Night would start, but that's for the next post.

P.S. I don't have time to spell-check or edit this post, so if there are some mistakes, I'm sorry

My full speech

I view the world in a different way than you, for I am a free thinker, an atheist. For answers to unsolved mysteries, you turn to your God, while I use reason, logic, and science in search of answers to the unexplained. I am not bound by the rules established thousands of years ago. My future is shaped by the choices I make.

If you believe that the Bible is God's word, then you must also believe that God is very hypocritical and sadistic. You cannot claim that the Bible is inspirational and morally uplifting when there are dozens of examples of mass murder in the Bible which are condoned by God. Examples such as King David's massacre. "And he brought forth the people that were therein, and put them under saws, and under harrows of iron, and under the axes of iron, and made them pass through the brick kiln: and thus did he unto all the cities of the children of Ammon." How some people who believe in an infallible Bible can accept this verse as God inspired, or morally uplifting can only give evidence to the blinding nature of belief. These verses should insult the intelligence of anyone who thinks that God possesses a loving nature. In the bible God condones murder, rape, slavery, and incest (you could find verses for all of these in here), yet for some reason women, blacks, and homosexuals are evil. The most obvious explanation for this is that the bible was written by white heterosexual men, who wrote this nonsense to preserve their dominance for centuries.

In regards to Jesus, around the world he is portrayed as a great humanitarian and a pacifist. Many politicians, primarily from the Republican party, who are almost all Christian, are running under the slogan of family values. Well, if they're Christian, they should know this verse. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." These words crush the idea of a pacifist Jesus and the modern concept of "family values."

If God does exist, I have some questions for Him
Why do you let your followers kill and rape?
If you are all powerful, please stop people from killing each other.
Why do your followers wage war in your name?
Why do you let your own Catholic priests molest children?
Why did you let 9/11 happen?
Why didn't you prevent the genocide in Darfur?
Why did you look on and do nothing when 11 million people were killed in the Holocaust? Actually, since God claims to be all powerful, that means God created the Holocaust himself. I don’t understand how people can be so foolish. Millions of people died after spending the remainder of their lives in gruesome conditions, meanwhile still believing in God, still praying to God, still hoping He will help the chosen people like He did in Egypt. To me, this Star of David is not a religious symbol, it’s a representation of my culture, my traditions, and my support of the Zionist movement. I do consider myself Jewish, but not in the religious sense of the world.

This brings me to my conclusion about religion. From my point of view, there are two possible classifications of religious people. There are those who did not read the bible completely, but still believe in God because they're gullible and follow the example of those around them. And then there are fundamentalists like Pat Robertson that read the bible from cover to cover and wholeheartedly believe every single word of it. They embrace the hateful messages the bible sends and use this book to bolster their agenda. Coincidently, every atheist I know is without exception a very ethical and peaceful person.

I am an atheist and this is my manifesto.

I believe...

Our final project in English class consists of a 4-5 minute speech about what we believe. I absolutely hate assignments like this. There are just some things that I can't share with anyone, yet Mr. Wong expects us to 'tell it all' in front of a class of people whom I barely know.

Well, since I probably won't see these people ever again, I'll say what I always wanted to say on the issue of religion. Here's the beginning of the speech:

I view the world in a different way than you, for I am a free thinker, an atheist. For answers to unsolved mysteries, you turn to your God, while I use reason, logic, and science in search of answers to the unexplained. I am not bound by the rules established thousands of years ago. My future is shaped by the choices I make...

And I will end it with I am an atheist and this is my manifesto.

I plan to bring in a bible as a prop and read one or two passages from the bible. I especially like these two about women:

Corinthians, 14:34-35: "Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law. And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church."

Genesis 19:30-38: "And Lot went up out of Zoar..., and his two daughters with him; ...and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. And the first born bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day."

Thanks to ethicalatheist.com for finding these.