DarkMatter2525

Why does anything matter?

"If you're an atheist, then you believe that after you die that's it. There's just nothing. Same for everyone else. Everything you'll ever do will eventually amount to nothing, so why bother? Nothing ultimately matters. Why do anything? Why does it matter? Why does anything matter?"

I'm so tired of theists who say stuff like this. I've heard this for decades and I've addressed it in different ways, but my rhetoric was usually pretty serious. This time, I wanted to mercilessly ridicule the stup...

The Future of Morality

This part of the bible was always disturbing to me, but the apologetics I got from people of modernity were even more disturbing. I tried to answer them before, but in looking back, I was unhappy with my tone (too arrogant). I wanted something more serious, grave, stern, something to evoke empathy. This was the result. Thank you so much for enabling me to do this.

One issue I had this time was that I got so caught up in my work that I neglected to post regular updates for this animation. I'm s...

Thanks for the input

The pics above are some of the settings I created for my next animation. My previous post was a script for the animation, and many of you offered some questions and advice that I have considered and used to significantly alter the script. Some changes were inspired specifically by the following patrons: Lars Erik "Kvagram" Grambo, Sashadrago, Sally Ferguson, Eric Sage, LenurdTheJokeGnome, and ANTIcarrot. I also thought of how it would tie in perfectly with Power Corrupts, but I won't explicitly ...

The Future of Morality

This is a script I recently wrote and will likely be my next animation:

*A man from the future appears in the 21st Century and approaches a pastor in his church*

Futureman - Pastor, Mrs. Johnson forgot her purse.

Pastor - Oh, she’s probably still in the parking lot, I’ll run it out to her.

Futureman - No need, she’ll be back to get it in exactly 3,2,1…

*Mrs. Johnson enters*

Pastor - How did you…

Futureman - She’s actually going to wait here for a...

God's Road Trip

I hope you don’t mind supporting a mindless comedy video this time. Sometimes I just want to tell some jokes and get away from anything heavy, and levity can attract new people too. The world has been getting so heavy. Time for a little break! As always, your input is welcome. If you’d like to see something specific from me, don’t hesitate to let me know. I read it all. Thanks, everyone. 

Old School

My last couple videos were pretty heavy and I had a desire to get back to some more lighthearted stuff for the next upload. The next animation won't make any brilliant points, but I think it'll be pretty funny. God and Jeffery go on a road trip and antics ensue. I was thinking of doing several such videos where God tries various things and gets into antics because of the way He is (God tries ASMR, God Learns to Swin, God Tries Pole Dancing, etc).

Just 2 Days?

Most of the views from my channel happen over the long haul, as they're not hot topic news items that rise quickly and then stop mattering. So, initially, they might not attract a lot of attention, but since this topic always matters to people, my videos tend to have longevity. They'll matter 10 years from now and continue to get views. My last video, however, rose much more quickly than most others I've made. 100,000 views in just 2 days is really good. As such, a couple dozen new patrons have ...

The Greater Insult

Thank you, patrons, for supporting my work and enabling it to continue. Here's my latest.

Even though I’m a nonbeliever, would I be scared to learn that God really does exist? No. Far from it. The belief that God desires praise, worship, and violent retribution, comes from a lack of understanding about what it’s like to be an enlightened being. It is ignorance projecting ignorance.

The theist view of God is actually far more insulting than the atheist view. It i...

A Complex Character

Today was all about mouth animation, 10,000 frames of mouth animation. This requires going through each syllable of dialogue and deciding which mouth shapes best convey the sound happening in that fraction of a second (notice how in the timeline above, there's one second when I had to change the mouth shape 10 times - fast speech is a nightmare!). As tedious as that is, it's actually easy compared to drawing all the mouth shapes, 12 for each position (3/4, profile, and front), 36 mouth drawings ...

Next Animation Spans the Universe

This will be my second video utilizing Space Engine to generate several of the environments (the first video was "If God Exists"). Thanks to you, I purchased a commercial license for this software. It's an accurate recreation of the known universe, even down to the meteors and comets we know of, and it allows you to visit these bodies. Beyond the real astronomical data utilized, the unknown areas of the universe are procedurally generated. Any star or galaxy you see can be clicked on and visited...

The Afterlife

This image is north, south, east, and west. I envisioned an endless plain. Three people die, two religious and one nonreligious (Christian, Muslim, & Atheist). They pass through the entire universe and awake on this plain, confronted by god. Each of them was wrong in their own way, but only one of them was inoffensive in his wrongness - the atheist - ironically, because he was the one most likely to offend in life. Though god was disappointed that the people of faith believed he was a monste...

Is Atheism a "Bankrupt Religion"?

I've been wanting to upload something answering that article for a while now, and this is the final result. It's not a typical upload to the DarkMatter2525 channel, as it's not an animation, but it was still a lot of work and I'm glad that this is finally off my chest. Thank you so much for your support. I really can't do it without you. Pay close attention to the final moments, when your names are displayed. We're making progress in this world.

Big Video Coming Soon

Because I can't shut up when I get...animated, it took me 46 minutes to answer that insufferable article that demonizes atheists and the religiously unaffiliated (my 2nd longest video ever). I just have some finishing touches in editing and then I'll upload it over the weekend. As I said in my previous post, this will be the first time I post two videos in one month since 2015. I still have about $4K left in income taxes to pay on my credit card, and this video will help wipe that out entirely i...

A Call to Arms Against Atheists?

In my next video, I will be refuting the article: “Unmasking Atheism as a Bankrupt Religion” which encourages Christians to fight back against atheists (as if they haven't always done that). While the article doesn't explicitly encourage violence, I see how it could easily be interpreted that way. Here's a link to it:

https://www.newsmax.com/anthonydeste...

More Communist than the Communists

I thought about renaming this to something like “Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, Oh My!” because I’m not sure if the current title implies there aren’t communists who dislike those dictators, so if you have an opinion on it, let me know. If you’re an atheist who has engaged in the God debate for a while, then you’ve likely been linked to those awful dictators ad nauseam. I made this cartoon, because I think the Abrahamic God is a far more apt comparison. As atheists, we can denounce those ...

Enjoying Heaven?

In my next animation, Joe is overjoyed to explore his new mansion in heaven, that is until he questions the whereabouts of his beloved mother. Fortunately, God had some new LG widescreen TVs installed and Joe is able to see his mother on channel 6, burning in hell for eternity. God is none too pleased with Joe's reaction, because Heaven is supposed to be a happy place.

Videos To Come

Where have I been?! I’m sorry I haven’t been active, but that’s about to change. I’ve had family visiting from out of town, and the house has been filled with kids. I did plenty of writing during that time, and now that everyone is home, I’ve begun animating again too. I have plans for three videos. I’d like to finish two of them in April, and the third (still mostly unwritten) in May. As far as Patreon, I’d like to strike a better balance here. I don’t want to be as ina...

"God Isn't Allowed In Schools"

Here’s an old school God & Jeffery animation. I get a lot of requests for these. I couldn’t help but include some of my disgust with the current political climate. I hope you like it.

Video and Book Updates

I decided to make the video about the claim that shootings occur due to God “not being allowed” in schools. There’s not much to show you, as it’s mostly a conversation between God and Jeffery, but I’m happy with it regardless of its simplicity. The comedic aspect of the cartoon centers around the absurd implications of the claim. At the end, though, I seriously explain that it’s not a response to the tragedy, but a response to the response. I want the bad ideas mitigated so ...

"...because God isn't allowed in schools"

I'd like to know your thoughts on this.

I was picking up my 6-year-old son from school (we live in Florida) when I heard about the Florida school shooting, so it shook me. A common statement I've been seeing is that this didn't used to happen because God was allowed in schools, but now He's not. There's a few things I have to say about that:

1. Far less religious countries don't have these mass shootings.

2. There's a US National Church Shooting Database, showing that church shooti...

Worse than the Wolf

Finally, here is the 12th installment of Power Corrupts (S2E2). I always found it interesting that Jesus chose analogies for heaven and hell in which the end result for the wicked and the righteous was identical: the destruction of both. He could have used art as an analogy, for example. The sculptor chips away the marble (the wicked) until he has the statue he desires and cherishes (the righteous). In such an analogy, the statue is cared for, while the old marble is swept away. In Jesus' analog...

Final Update

It's finally done. The latest episode of Power Corrupts ("Worse than the Wolf") should go live on Tuesday at 5:30pm (est) if all goes well. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. There's also an announcement for the book at the end of the video, which is the first time I'm revealing it beyond Patreon. Hopefully, people will be excited about it.

The image you see here was an alternate thumbnail. I usually create several thumbnails and choose my favorite. Since it was so hard to choose this ti...

Back in Time

In the next episode of Power Corrupts, Jeffery examines a moment that happened long ago in Yahweh's simulation. Rather than suddenly appearing there, I created these different backgrounds that flash by, as he travels back through the ages.

The book, I think, will be better than the animations. I'm able to add all kinds of details and themes that would've been far too much to animate. I'm also able to make some changes here and there that strengthen the story, sealing up potential plot holes. A...

Symbolism

There's a lot of symbolic imagery in the next Power Corrupts episode. For instance, in this scene, the tower separates these two, like a barrier between one world (the hill) and another (the plain), and between people who come from different worlds. The tower connects them. How? That will be explained in the episode.

The brevity of my previous animation has given me the time I need to be more meticulous and shape this episode with care. I've gotten a lot done before February. I hope you'll all...

The Warning

These are the two versions of Jeffery in the next episode of Power Corrupts. The version on the right is how he looked circa 28AD. Half the episode takes place in the future, and half in the past. Future Jeffery remembers something from his past, something he eventually recognizes as a very important warning. This will be the episode that introduces Jesus for the first time into Power Corrupts. He may not be what you expect.

The End of the World

The next episode of Power Corrupts will have some major plot developments as Jeffery begins to implement his plan to stop Yahweh.

The One True Moral Compass

I hope you don’t mind supporting a short animation this time (though I do think the message is important), because there is much more work going on right now that you won’t see the fruits of until a bit later. I’m working on some major developments with the next episode of Power Corrupts, which I have planned for February. Not only that, but I’m working on the book as well. In a way, you’re also enabling me to write it by supporting these videos, however short this one may be. So, I th...

Animated Short Coming Soon

The previous script I posted, about a short argument concerning morality & God belief, is well on its way to becoming an animation. If the atheist character on the left looks familiar, that's because it's NoelPlum99, who I've enlisted to play the role, and he did a fine job.

Major Announcement

Power Corrupts is going to be a book. I'm not sure when it will be done, but I will occasionally update you. It's going well enough to know that this is a safe announcement. When it finally does come out, I will make it free for Patrons at or above a level comparable to the price of the book.

Animated Short Answering a Common Argument

Just because you believe in an objective God-given standard of morality, it doesn't follow that you're privy to it, thus the theist isn't free from moral quandary, and remains in the same boat as the nonbeliever. That is a concept I've repeated ad nauseam to theists who think God belief is a solution to questions of moral concern. By far the most successful way to illustrate my point has been to invoke opposing God believers. This illustrates how theism doesn't get them where they think it will....