“… if ‘Atheist Gulf’ aggravates the Muslims …”
Isn’t there something in christian doctrine about confession being good for the soul? It rather seems that this confession might have the soul whisked straight to Circle 8, Bolgia 9. Guess who is already there!

So until we invented god, we were all atheists – though there would have been no need for the term.

If people stop hiding behind childish wishful thinking, and god is consigned to the history books, the term ‘atheist’ will be too – we’ll just be people.

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I’m all over that action.

But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I’m no welcher. The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished.

Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen “Crossroads”? Or “Damn Yankees”?

If I had a thing going with Haiti, there’d be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox — that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it — I’m just saying: Not how I roll.

You’re doing great work, Pat, and I don’t want to clip your wings — just, come on, you’re making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That’s working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

Ah, but I was! Let’s recap:

On top of existing rifts, a dispute over the name for a body of water arose. The east side Musselmans called it by a name that had been around for about 2500 years, to the annoyance of the west side Musselmans, who preferred their 50 year old name. It seems that the dispute became a gulf, and any semblance of unity vanished.

Then along came Jos, proposing the name “Islamic Gulf”. Emetic nature of a faith-based name for a nice secular thing full of haram beasties aside, it seemed an entirely rational suggestion to solve the problem – a kind gesture from a (presumed) infidel.

(I’d rather call it the Sea of Mo or the Mo Sea –
We can mosey
By the Mo Sea
And feel sand
Between our toesies
- ‘course it wouldn’t rhyme in the local languages, and if dogs are frowned upon, then doggerel must be doubly dastardly.)

Have I got it so far?

RC proffers “Nah, they should call it the Christian Gulf; we were there 1st…”

Sounds like something I’d expect from Ann Coulter.
Now let’s consider the statement.

“we where there 1st”: Also sprach Zarathustra, “Das is nicht richtig!” (Ja, ja, Zo didn’t speak German). By at least 500 years not correct. Considering the proximity to where humans and chimpanzees kissed their common ancestor goodbye and went their separate ways, it seems likely that the first humans in the area were atheists, or at least worshipers of the local natural world rather than of a remote figment of imagination.

So, the statement is clearly untrue.
Does the statement offer a solution, comparable to Jos’, to aid restoration of the lost Islamic solidarity? Enhance peace in the region, and by extension, to the rest of the world? Well, um, uh, awe gee, uh, … no!

So, with no discernable merit so far, it seems to come down to a question of why the statement was made.

Is the statement simply shoving an oar in? A Jesusian oar. Probably. Religion seems to foster that sort of thing. Still, orders of magnitude less revolting than Annie’s get your gun, kill all their leaders and convert them to christianity foul remark from a few years back.

Is it legitimate to call something that is common a muck “astounding”? I guess not. But then, there are algae that are very common that I regard as astoundingly beautiful. Lightning is no less astounding for its ubiquity. Stet.

there’s a funny email going around from Satan to Pat – telling him it’s okay to blame god, but not to besmirch Satan, since cleary, any country that has a pact with him wouldn’t be poverty stricken, and that Pat doesn’t want to renegotiate his own pact.

Islamic solidarity games… it’s Orwellian stuff

just in case people doubted that the current situation is the 10th Crusade?

A maker of gunsights for the US military has been putting references to Bible passages in its gunsights. So when you’re about to kill someone, you can remember that Jesus brings light to the world!