USATHEISTS

Temporarily sporadic updates

2010-06-28T00:48:00.000-07:00

Due to an unusual amount of business travel the blog will be updated sporadic over the next two weeks.

Lawmakers propose prayer to stop oil disaster

2010-06-21T05:02:00.000-07:00

Half of the world's population is less intelligent than average. One of them is Louisiana senator Robert Adley, who designated yesterday as "a day for citizens to ask for God's help dealing with the oil disaster".

"Thus far efforts made by mortals to try to solve the crisis have been to no avail," state Sen. Adley said in a statement. "It is clearly time for a miracle for us".

Adley calls for members of all religions to pray. Why? Is he uncertain of what God exists ("might as well pray to all")? Perhaps the one true God will get upset over prayers to all other Gods and increase the oil disaster instead? What do we do then?

Well, let's see what happens. If all oil just disappears without a trace during the day I'll start to believe in God. What does it take for believers to stop believe in God?

Concerning the oil disaster there are more effective ways to help. One is to go down to the beach and volunteer in cleaning birds.

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Public school drops Judeo-Christian moral reference

2010-06-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Some positive news! The Simcoe County District School Board has dropped a Judeo-Christian reference as part of a policy change. The previous reading "the Board believes the whole teaching program should be based on the principles of Judeo-Christian morality" is replaced with the more modern formulation "delivery of moral education must be compatible with the reality of pluralism in our society."

Three trustees voted against the change. Debra Edward says she's "just not willing to quickly toss aside the little standards of morality that we have at the board of education. Education in a vacuum without any standards of morality is not ideal."

Does Edward mean that without Judeo-Christian references moral seize to exist? Moral is not absolute. It arises in inter-human relationships were both parties aim to do best possible good, taking the benefits of both parties into account. That's perfectly possible without references to Judeo-Christian principles.

Fortunately there are smarter people than Edward living among us. Jodi Lloyd's position is that "all our policies have to be representative of all of our students. This is a step to address that. We're a publicly funded education system with students of all faiths and backgrounds, and we need to be inclusive of all of them."

Of course.

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Jesus struck by lightening

2010-06-15T09:16:00.000-07:00

Jesus was struck by lightening in Ohio last night. The enormous sculpture burned to the ground.

Pharyngula develops the most interesting issue in this story:

"Here's the odd thing: they're promising to rebuild it. You would think that it's a rather unambiguous sign when your giant idol is smitten by a bolt of lightning from heaven, erupts into an all-consuming conflagration, and burns to the ground that maybe Jehovah is a little bit fed up. Yet the Solid Rock Church plans to offend God again. I guess they don't really believe."

Yepp, now we just wait for resurrection!

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Why doesn't prayer solve oil spill disaster?

2010-06-12T16:12:00.000-07:00

Christians have declared "days of prayer" and held ceremonies on the beaches, and despite of their efforts the oil spill disaster continues.

Why aren't christian prayers answered by God? What's your take - participate in a poll here! The alternatives are:

1. God is too busy
2. God doesn't care
3. God is sending a message
4. God is imaginary
5. Undecided
6. None of the above

Signature 'Bleach/Narutofan<33' says "God does hear us and though he may not always give us our wishes right now , he will in the future. Understand?"

Not really. "He will in the future"? What's he waiting for?

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Children of lesbians feel great

2010-06-09T07:53:00.000-07:00

A study comprising data material over 25-years concluds that children raised by lesbians are psychologically well-adjusted and have fewer behavioral problems than their peers.

The results surprised also the scientist who had expected children of lesbians to do as well as the normative sample (children of nonlesbian families), but not that they would do better. Children from lesbian families rated higher in social, academic and total competence, and showed lower rates in social, rule-breaking, aggressive problem behavior. This might be explained by planned pregnancies and the involvement of mothers.

The study is performed by Dr. Nanette Gartrell, who is a 2010 Williams Distinguished Scholar, UCLA School of Law, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the Center of Excellence in Women's Health for the University of California, San Francisco, and previously a faculty member at Harvard Medical School.

Christian lobbyist groups claim the study's credibility is diluted by it being funded by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy groups (however, they never consider christian research being diluted by it being funded by christians for some reason...).

The critic comes despite that the study is performed in a scientific manner by an educated Harvard-merited scientist. The study has withstood a rigorous peer review process and is accepted for publication in the well-recognized journal Pediatrics. The christian critic only illustrates the christian-lobby view of science: "it's better to believe in your fantasies, than in peer-reviewed science if you don't like the scientific findings". Intellectual honesty at its lowest level!

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CT schools appeal court decision

2010-06-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

A recent ruling bars school graduations from being held in churches. This is a natural decision for any nation where church and state are separated.

Now the Enfield School Board in Connecticut has decided to appeal the decision because of "overwhelming outcry from the community against having graduations at each school" instead of in a church.

The problem with this kind of reasoning is that it only considers the rights of the majority, while excluding the minority. That's not how human rights work. Each and every person has exactly the same rights, for example freedom of religion meaning both a right to attend churches and a right to abstain from doing so. Holding a public school graduation in a church respects only the rights of those beloning to the first category, those who want to go to church.

The human rights are not subject to majority decisions: if we saw an "overwhelming outcry from the community" that only right-handed people should be able to attend a public ceremony, would it then be legitimate to exclude left-handed people? If the community said "we don't want muslims, Afro-Americans, or blue-eyed in this state park", can these groups be locked out?

Let's remind ourselves that Afro-Americans were not too long ago subjected to this kind of discriminating treatment, when the "overwhelming outcry" was allowed to define who had human rights and who had not. It was a disasterous project. Constitutional and human rights are not a majority decision.

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Stephen Hawking: science will win because it works

2010-06-09T01:08:00.000-07:00

ABC has an online interview with legendary physicist Stephen Hawking. When asked about religion this is how Hawking responds:

"What could define God [is thinking of God] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God. They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."

On the question whether there was a way to reconcile religion and science, Hawking says:

"There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works."

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Christians and jews join radical muslim views

2010-06-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

Did you think muslim extremists were the only ones to support blasphemy laws and bans on freedom of speech? Nope, now conservative christians and jews are joining the choir.

The Citizens Against Religious Bigotry organization has sent letters of protest to over 250 leading television advertisers, imploring them not to sponsor Comedy Central's new comedy about Jesus. The show is called "blasphemous".

L. Brent Bozell III, the founder and president of the Media Research Council conservative watchdog organization, said Thursday: "Anyone who advertises on this show will be a sponsor of anti-Christian bigotry in our view."

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, says he "thinks this can be done in a nonviolent approach" but the message is the same and just as fanatic as that of radical muslims: limit freedom of speech and ban criticism, satire, and humor in religious contexts. Prohibit anyone from "disturbing" religious groups by questioning or portraying their imaginations in any other way that the one they wish to see them in.

A support facebook group for freedom of speech has been established.

"It's not on the air yet. It's not shot yet. There's no pilot yet. There might not even be a script yet. But Comedy Central's plan to develop an animated project about Jesus Christ has the Christian religious community's panties in a bunch."

Join in here.

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America is becoming unrecognizable

2010-06-06T05:55:00.000-07:00

Baptists are worried that America will become "unrecognizable" if a movement of God does not occur.

"If we don't have a revival that becomes an awakening and ripens into a reformation, many of us -- if we live out our full lives -- are going to walk the streets of our neighborhood, drive the roads of our city and our state, and, oh, we'll recognize the place names, but the America we've known will be gone," said southern baptist Richard Land, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "We'll be strangers in our own land...."

Among the problems that follows from abandoning christianity are divorce, child neglect, illegitimacy, crime rates, and sexual rebellion. I thought these things occured primarily because of (lack of) healthcare and social security, education, poverty, unemployment, and other socioeconomic factors. Such an explanation would make much more sense, as there are countries on this planet much less religious than America that ranks higher on human development indexes.

For 2009 the United States is ranked 13 on the International Human Development Index. The Scandinavian countries are world famous for having the largest fraction of non-believers (for example over 80% in Sweden). Despite that four out of five Scandinavian countries outperforms the US (and the fifth is right behind) on human development. Also the other outperformers are secular countries with Ireland as the only exception.

Looking at human development by US states we find all the bible belt states at the very bottom...

Troubled living conditions has nothing to do with whether you believe in ghosts or not. Let's move on and focus on how we can improve living conditions in more effective ways. Providing everyone with healthcare is a good start.

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School graduations and human rights violations

2010-06-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

In a previous discussion on church graduations I have made the comment that, for example, children with experiences of sexual abuse in religious environments have good reasons for not wanting to attend a graduation in a church, and that such graduations violates their right to freedom of religion.

In a comment yesterday, Mr./Mrs. Anonymous claims that my reasoning is invalid as children who are sexually abused in schools and by parents don't have their rights violated by being forced to go home or to school.

Let me therefore (once again) explain the obviously difficult construction of human rights, especially the part of these going in either one or two directions.

First, it's a human right not to be abused (UDHR, article 5, CRC principle 2 and 9), regardless of where it takes place. Children abused by their parents have the right to protection from child protection services, to receive new guardians or to be placed in a new home. Forcing children to stay in an abusive home would violate their right to protection, of course. I don't know how Anonymous views this: is child abuse alright when parents exercise it?

When comparing abuse in school and abuse in churches we need to apply a different reasoning for each case, as the human rights are specified differently for education and religion.

Education is a human right that goes in ONE direction only (UDHR article 26, CRC principle 7): everyone has the right to education and it is compulsory. Thus, no one has the right to opt out of education, that would constitute a violation of the human rights as well. Freedom of religion is a human right that goes in TWO directions (UDHR article 18): a right to be religious and a right to avoid religion, thus it includes a right to opt out.

Therefore you cannot apply the same reasoning to a sexual abuse situation in a school as in a church. Sexually abused children have a right to be educated, while sexually abused children in a church have the right to continue attending religious services (perhaps in another church) OR opt out of everything connected with religion.

The one-sided right to education but not from education is one of the reasons why controls are made to ensure that pedophiles are not employed in schools in the first place, and when it occurs anyway they are quickly removed (teachers are usually removed only on the accusation even though they haven't been convicted). Children have the right to new teachers, a new school, psychological support etc but not to opt out of education. The same standards are (unfortunately) not applied in churches, but on the other hand the victims have the right to opt out and never return.

Because freedom of religion goes in two directions and allows an opt out, holding graduation services in a church violates freedom of religion.

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CT: no graduation in churches

2010-06-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have previously been writing about an ongoing conflict in Connecticut, where the school board has decided that this year's graduation ceremonies are to be held in a megachurch.

After complaints from students and their parents that the decision violates the constitution, the conflict has now been settled in court.

U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall ruled on Monday that graduation ceremonies in churches are indeed an unconstitutional endorsement of religion, and therefore prohibits the school board in Connecticut to hold ceremonies inside churches.

Judge Hall visited the church last week, and concluded that it was "overwrought with religious symbols". Among things the visitor would encounter that cannot be covered is a large cross on the church's roof, a large central cross at the main entrance, a stained glass depiction of worshippers in the main entrance, and a large cross behind the stage "that undoubtedly constitutes the focal point of the entire sanctuary".

Judge Hall concluded that the school board's idea to "cover all religious symbols" is not only impossible, but that it would also be unconstitutional if possible.

"By attempting to 'neutralize' the First Cathedral by covering up many (albeit not all) of its religious images, Enfield Public Schools unconstitutionally entangles itself with religion," Hall concluded.

Andrew Schneider, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut said that they are "pleased that the court has found that holding a public high school graduation ceremony in an overtly religious setting is inappropriate when comparable secular facilities are available" and that "the Enfield Schools' plan to hold the ceremonies in a church created an unnecessary divisive atmosphere for what should be a positive and inclusive event for all students".

An excellent decision from Judge Hall: every student's right to attend his/her gradution ceremony is ranked higher than the majority's right to force the minority to accept the majority's religion. The judge is saying what I had hoped would be a matter of no discussion in our time: no one can remove any individual's human rights (fx the right to attend school and live free from religion), not even when those who want human rights removed are in majority. Human rights are not a matter of "democratic" decisions, as removal of such rights for the minority violates the very base of democracy, and thus, are undemocratic.

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Christians threw "holy water" on atheist

2010-05-29T04:29:00.001-07:00

Two self-proclaimed christian teachers have been removed from their jobs after throwing "holy water" on an atheist colleague.

What is holy water in the first place? And does it matter whether it's "holy" or not? Any reasonable person realize that you don't throw water on someone else regardless of how you view the water or the person you want to throw it at, just as you don't throw coffee, coke, or fruit juice on someone else for whatever reason. The exception would be if we decide to have a water fight, then it's alright to throw water on everyone who's voluntarily participating.

Religious leaders and tea party members are supportive of the christian teachers. Pastor Alonzo Neal, Greater Antioch Mission Baptist Church of Pompano Beach, lashed out against allowing atheists to teach at all and claimed that the christians “stood up to this type of teaching":

“I think it’s very, very wrong to expose the students, impressionable minds to things that could lead them into a negative mindset against what we believe and who we believe in which is the truth: A Living God.”

Atheist Schandra Rodriguez and christians Leslie Rainer and Djuna Robinson were teaching a religion class together: a mixture of religious and non-religious teachers - isn't that a perfect combination for a religion class?!

But it's the usual sounds from the religious side: don't teach people to think, teach them what to think and leave no room for alternatives perspectives.

It's amazing that religious leaders are so afraid of the freedom to believe whatever you want that they do everything to prevent it from being implemented in our societies. Is it because they realize that students would choose non-religion if they were properly introduced with that perspective as well?

Personally I think we should teach all religions in a religion class, together with non-religious perspectives. Provide all youngsters with as much knowledge as possble about all options and alternatives. Teach critical thinking, and evaluation skills. Then teach that everyone has an absolute right to choose whatever perspective they want. I'm not afraid of such an approach, as I think most people would choose non-religion. A religious person should reasonbly think the opposite (given that he considers his religious perspective superior). How come then that religious leaders are so afraid of teaching people non-religious perspectives, when atheists are not afraid of teaching people religious perspectives?

Religion: don't think for yourself, think as I say.
Atheism/humanism: don't think as I say, think for yourself.

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Yet another day in a Texas secondary school

2010-05-26T04:51:00.000-07:00

Texas school board proves Mark Twain right

2010-05-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Conservatives and evangelists have succeeded in altering social studies standards in Texas - unfortunately they perferred lowering the standards over raising them. But as Mark Twain once said: “In the beginning God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards.”

Primary and secondary school students should from now on learn about God, but not about their country's true history. This week's decision was a followup of last year's decision to change the science curriculum, enforcing teachings of creationism and intelligent design on the expense of evolution. What's next? Intelligent geography? Watch out Galileo, Copernicus, and Giordano Bruno. The inquisition is not over yet.

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Adam and Eve according to Qu'ran?

2010-05-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Texas: educational standard set back 50 years?

2010-05-19T04:55:00.000-07:00

This week the Texas school board meets in Austin in a joint effort to set back educational standard by 50 years. Guardian has the story of the minds of these christian fundamentalists:

"Cynthia Dunbar, one of a clutch of christian evangelists who have grasped control of the Texas education board, does not have a high regard for her local schools. She has called them unconstitutional, tyrannical and tools of perversion. The conservative Texas lawyer has even likened sending children to her state's schools to "throwing them in to the enemy's flames". Her hostility runs so deep that she educated her own offspring at home and at private Christian establishments.

Now Dunbar is on the brink of fulfilling a promise to change all that, or at least point Texas schools toward salvation. She is one of a clutch of Christian evangelists and social conservatives who have grasped control of the state's education board. This week they are expected to force through a new curriculum that is likely to shift what millions of American schoolchildren far beyond Texas learn about their history.

The new curriculum asserts that "the right to keep and bear arms" is an important element of a democratic society. Study of Sir Isaac Newton is dropped in favour of examining scientific advances through military technology. [...] The education board has dropped references to the slave trade in favour of calling it the more innocuous "Atlantic triangular trade", and recasts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as driven by Islamic fundamentalism."

Read the entire piece here.

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Inquisition in Jacksonville

2010-05-18T03:32:00.000-07:00

The Wall of Separation has a story on what's going on in Jacksonville, FLA., that provides a good glimpse of what a religious-right-dominated America would look like.

After Parvez Ahmed, a Fulbright Scholar and business professor at the University of North Florida, was nominated by Mayor John Peyton to the Human Rights Commission, religious right forces took action. Members of the city council started a crusade to prevent Ahmed from being elected. The reason: Ahmed is a muslim.

Citu council member Clay Yarborough, told Florida Times Union that “our nation was founded on Christian principles” and that he “can’t find something lending to the separation of church and state in the Constitution.”

Asked if muslims should be able to hold public office in Florida, Yarborough replied, “I would have to think about that.” Spreading the love, he said he “would prefer” that homosexuals not hold public office.

In the end Ahmad was elected with 13 votes in favor and six against. Three out of the four member belonging to First Baptist Church voted against.

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God needs to learn communication management

2010-05-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

While cleaning up after the flooding, a woman in Nashville has found a bible with only the two pages in Genesis that concerns construction of an ark being discolored. Kristy Elswick says she believes God is speaking through this bible.

Alright. Then what exactly is he trying to communicate by discoloring two pages in a bible? That we should build an ark? That we should believe Noah built an ark? That there's another flooding coming to Nashville? That he created the recent flooding that costed some 20 people their lives?

For being intelligent, aware, good, and almighty, the christian God's messages are surely not easy to understand. God might benefit from taking a course in communication management.

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Pope: homosexuals possess greatest threat to the world

2010-05-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

Those of us who thought the greatest threats to this world were poverty, alarming child mortality levels in developing countries, lack of clean water, starvation, AIDS and other diseases, war, terrorism, or environmental destruction are all wrong.

It's abortion and homosexuals!

Pope Benedict XVI made this macabre statement yesterday to an audience of 400.000 people celebrating mass in Fatima.

The Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, continued down the same creepy road by expressing happiness "that pilgrims hadn't been deterred in expressing their faith despite months of revelations in Europe about priests who molested children". A statement that reveals all too clear the priorities of catholic church: important is that catholics remain faithful, less important are sexually abused children who were not mentioned at all except for a weak admittance of "sins within the church".

Catholic church should be added to the list of greatest threats to our world. Only among religious extremists, sects, and terrorist movements do we find similarly pervert views of human rights, children, and sexuality.

It's remarkable that a billion people still belong to this movement of insanity.

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Cartoon Jesus meets threat from Christian groups

2010-05-14T03:47:00.000-07:00

After prophet Mohammed's appearance in South Park that spurred so many protests some weeks ago it is now time for Jesus to make his contribution to contemporary comedy. A new TV series on Comedy Central depicts Christ as "a regular guy who moves to New York to "escape his father's (who is depicted as an apathetic man who would rather play video games than listen to his son talk about his new life) enormous shadow".

Previous muslim protests against "blasphemous" images of the prophet Mohammed has been considered unreasonable attempts to limit freedom of speech throughout the Western world. One could then think that the same Western world were christians are in majority would be tolerant towards the idea of turning Jesus into a cartoon (since it's of course okay to make humor of Mohammed, it must be equally okay to make humor of Jesus!). But no. Comedy Central hardly even managed to present the series before threats from Christian groups started to arrive.

Catholic League's president Bill Donohue encourages people to take action by posting Comedy Central's CEO's address on its website. He also says that since Jesus is not only praised by Christians but also by muslims, he "will not only contact the Catholic community, but Muslim organizations as well". And together they will do what?

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A car full of... Jesus!

2010-05-11T14:38:00.001-07:00

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Palin wants bible based law

2010-05-10T06:54:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin has once again decided to put her lack of knowledge on public display. While appearing on Bill O'Reilly Factor Thursday night, Palin called for U.S. law "to be based on the Judeo-Christian Bible":

"I think we should keep this clean, keep it simple, go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant," adding, "They´re quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the Ten Commandments."

Before we go on let's remind ourselves of the ten commandments once again:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me (God Yahweh)
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy
5. Honor your father and your mother
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, wife, male or female servant, ox, donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's

This is suppose to represent The Most Brilliant Ideas the human kind has ever formulated in words. What happens if we are to base law on this? Well, read what is NOT prohibited by the ten commandments and it becomes quite clear how well suited religious doctrine is for moral guidelines. Honor your father and mother but feel free to rape your sister, just not on a Sunday?

If we were to build law on the bible the following things would be allowed: rape (Numbers 31:17-18; Deuteronomy 20:10-14; Judges 21:10-24 ), forced marriage (Deuteronomy 22:28-29; Deuteronomy 25:5-10), death punishment by stoning (Deuteronomy 22:23-24), giving your wife away to another man (2 Samuel 12:11), deny "whores" the right to marry (Leviticus 21:7), sell your daughters as slaves (Exodus 21:7), burn people alive (Judges 11:29-40), allow others to do with a daughter what seems good to them (Judges 19:24), consider women as property (Exodus 20-21). Etc.

Is this your dream society? Then perhaps you should consider a move to Saudi Arabia where several of these principles are in affect.

Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, has replied to Palin's breathtaking lack of knowledge about the evolution of law and American history:

"If we didn't know better, we might conclude that Sarah Palin's 'education' was somehow carried out in Texas using textbooks that the Texas Board of Education is now trying to fabricate."

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"No religious test shall ever..."

2010-05-08T11:19:00.000-07:00

While christians fiercely defend "National Day of Prayer" (because it is not possible to pray on any other day or without the president calling for it?), the Freedom From Religion Foundation directs their energy to something more useful: educating people about the constitution.

On Thursday, a new bus campaign was launched in Wisconsin with six freethinking ads about America's secular heritage:

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Churches and school graduations

2010-05-06T06:33:00.000-07:00

American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State has filed a lawsuit in behalf of two students and their three parents to stop a school graduation ceremony to be held in a megachurch in Connecticut.

The Enfield, Conn., school board has decided that this year's graduation is to be held in a baptist megachurch. The decision has of course made students that don't subscribe to the christian religion feel excluded.

Vincent McCarthy, the school board's attorney, says that the bishop will "cover up religious banners that are visible in the sanctuary" and thereby considers the matter solved. A church is no longer a church if religious banners are invisible? Besides: if there's no religious dimension to the ceremony (as McCarthy indicates), then why choose a church in the first place?

The complaints have responded that you cannot "cover up" a church (of course). Virtually the entire architecture "has religious significance, including a lower level that represents Earth, a middle level that represents heaven and a cupola that represents "the throne room of heaven, where God is."

Among the comments sent to USA Today's report on the story, people in general seem to consider it a human right to discriminate and exclude the minority:

Signature "Paul2" writes:

"So the two Enfield High students are not Christians.....so what? This is a typical case of the tail wagging the dog. I fail to see any logic in punishing the rest of the class just to please two petulant kids."

Thus, freedom of religion is only for the majority and not an equal right for everyone. It's also considered "a punishment" for christians to attend a school graduation in a religiously neutral place. Isn't it more of a punishment to be excluded from graduation because you don't share the majority religion?

Signature "Middle America" writes:

"The ACLU is promoting intolerance by the minority against the majority"

Thus, minorities are intolerant if they don't accept not having equal rights. Were black people intolerant towards white when they demanded equal rights? Hardly, it's a ridiculous argument. Intolerance is when you don't accept that everyone else has the same rights as you do, not that you don't accept having less rights than everyone else.

Signature "Simply Practical" asks:

Honestly with hand on heart: How many of you that expressed outrage at the lawsuit would be completely comfortable if you had to attend this event in a mosque or orthodox Hindu/Jewish temple?

... and receives the following answer from "HabanaJoe":

If the majority of students were Jewish or muslim and the majority of the community was the same and if it had been their tradition, there would be no problem at all.

Back to where we started: the majority has the right to determine what religion goes and the rest should shut up and follow.

That's of course unreasonable. In a free and democratic society everyone has equal rights. Public ceremonies are to be held secular to secure that equal rights are upheld and respected. If a majority of the students are republicans, would it then be normal and natural to hold the graduation in a republican headquarter despite that democrats feel uncomfortable there? Perhaps if we cover up the elephant sign and the portrait of George Bush? No, political headquarters are probably not a good place for graduation. Regardless of how political sympaties divide between students.

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Llamas are strictly nondenominational!

2010-05-06T06:20:00.001-07:00

In Georgia, a llama showed up for a bible reading. When Kemper Meadows read aloud from the Old Testament in her King James Bible on the steps of the Bleckley County Courthouse she found herself in front of an unexpected audience: the llama Tootsie. Maybe Tootsie showed up in search for the ark to escape the bible belt floodings?

Macon reports that llama Tootsie is neither baptist or methodist but a strictly nondenominational animal. It's a shame that not the same can be said about homo sapiens.

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National Day of Whatever?

2010-05-05T02:58:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is "National Day of Prayer" (despite that a recent court ruling declared such an event unconstitutional!).

According to a recent survey the prayer day is supported by 57% of Americans, mostly republicans, women older than 50, midwesterners, and southerners. It also notes that an amazing 83% of Americans believes a God answers prayers (then why do we need health care?)

However, among the young the day could just as well be National Day of Whatever. 59% of 18-29 year olds say they don't care whether there's an official prayer day.

That being said the next question is whether the "holiday" makes sense. Why do we need a special day for prayers? Because it's not possible to pray the other days? No, that can't be it. So what is the reason? Religious people would probably turn the question around: does it matter that there's a national day of prayer? If you don't want to pray you can abstain! That's of course a correct observation. But using the same argument we could as well establish a national day of satanism that's declared every year by the president - something I imagine quite a substantial number of religious people would have a problem with - despite that you can abstain from worshipping Satan as well.

The real problem is that the state should not favor religious activities, for example prayer, as it excludes everyone that are not religious. Neither should the state favor atheism, for example by declaring a national day of non-belief as it excludes religious people. National holidays should be including, not excluding.

The Philadelphia Freethinker Examiner writes that "rather than a unifying event, a National Day of Prayer does nothing but exclude those who don’t pray, relegating them to ‘outsider’, second-class citizen status". Instead they suggest we rename the day "National Day of Awareness", which would include everyone.

Then we could also spend the day focusing on something more important than murmuring, for example raise general awareness of environmental issues (for example that the Jordan River will be dead by next year, something that should interest also religious...), poverty, child mortality, and other urgent issues that no God so far has been interested in solving. Despite how much we pray.

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The flood came and Noah prayed and... it didn't help

2010-05-03T12:56:00.000-07:00

And the flood came and Noah prayed and... it didn't help. Obviously prayer doesn't prevent floodings. The bible belt is under water.

Maybe the experience makes one or two bible believers from the area realize the impossible in all of a sudden building an ark, travel around the entire planet and pick up a male and a female of every single species in very short time, and then make them all survive for 40 days on the ark without eating each other.

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The difference of protecting religion and privileging it

2010-05-03T02:02:00.000-07:00

Church-state specialist Martin Marty recently held a series of lectures sponsored by a Baptist religious-liberty organization. Wise Marty told his religious audience that "supporting strong separation of church and state doesn’t mean you also have to oppose religion".

Perfectly correct. There's a wide difference between protecting the right to practice religion and giving religion a privileged position in the society.

Everyone has the right to practice religion, and everyone has a right not to practice religion. One's right ends where the other's right is violated. Therefore religion cannot be practiced during meetings, ceremonies, and other gatherings that are open for both religious and non-religious people.

School graduations, county commission meetings, congress meetings, sports events etc. are all examples of situations that should be neutral, thus contain neither religious or atheist practices.

------------------------------

Evangelicals: don't take away our right to discriminate homosexuals!

2010-04-30T07:41:00.001-07:00

Repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy (meaning that homosexuals should pretend they are not homosexuals when serving the US Army) threatens religious freedom evangelicals claim.

"We believe that normalizing homosexual conduct in the armed forces will pose a significant threat to chaplains' and Service members' religious liberty," says a letter signed by more than 40 retired military chaplains, addressed to President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.

"The best way to protect religious liberty – and avoid lowering widely-respected religious belief to the level of racism – is simply retaining the current policy to prevent open homosexual behavior in the armed forces [...] Some of the ways the chaplains' religious freedoms would be negatively impacted by a repeal include having to water down their teachings or being banned from expressing their religious beliefs on homosexual behavior", the letter lists.

Hmm. Religious freedom gives right to express discriminating opinions about your fellow man? Religious freedom is raised above human rights? What about "avoid lowering widely-respected religious belief to the level of racism"? If beliefs are racist it doesn't matter how widely-respected they are. It's still racism and should be called so.

Homosexuality is a natural condition among humans and the vast majority of all other species living on this planet. Having to pretend that you are not homosexual to please religious people is like having to pretend you're not lefthanded because the bible contains over 100 favourable reference to the right-hand and 25 unfavourable references to the left-hand.

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Smarter and less religious - generation by generation

2010-04-28T04:25:00.000-07:00

Through evolution we develop our intelligence. Each generation represents the intelligence level of their stage in the evolutionary process. And we get smarter and smarter for each generation.

Previous research has shown that there's a link between religion and intelligence: religious people have a lower intelligence level on average than non-religious people.

Therefore we can assume that as intelligence develops over time, the importance of religion will go down. That future seems to be here.

Recent surveys reveal that among young Americans (born 1980-1991) no more than an estimated 15% have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Only 8% read the bible every day, while 67% say they never read it. Approximately the same, one third, never attend church. Fewer than half believe the bible is the written word of God. The most popular belief about life after death is that we don't know what will happen.

Then we have some scary numbers but they have still improved from previous generations: 60% say the devil is a real being and 70% think heaven is an actual place. 60% also believe in a literal hell.

Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, says that "on the current trajectory thousands of churches will close in America each year, placing denominations and other thriving ministries in jeopardy".

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Government sponsored prayers - a clearcut issue!

2010-04-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

Sam Venable - a columnist at Knox News - makes an excellent summary of the issue of government sponsored prayers. It's so great and clearcut that I quote it in its entire length:

"If I might offer a bit of unsolicited-but-heartfelt advice to my Christian brothers and sisters in Sevier County and elsewhere:

If you want to pray, then pray, for Pete's sake. Pray, as the Good Book says, without ceasing. Pray from dawn's first light until long after the sun has set. Pray before meals, after meals, between bites. Pray at school, at work, while texting, when standing in line at the grocery store. Pray on the lake or at the bowling alley. Pray while washing the dishes or mowing the lawn.

Silent prayer is best. In fact, that's what Jesus recommended in Matthew 6:6. Audible prayer has certain limitations, not the least of which are noise ordinances that apply at golf tournaments, libraries and other venues. Your friends can pray with you, too. He, she and thee are free to join hands and offer up all the prayers your collective lips can handle. Pray, children, pray! It is your right, and no court in the land will stop you.

Ah, but I do have one caveat about this prayerfesting. So does the law. Don't ask the government to pray with you or for you. Religion is none of the government's business. The courts have been very clear on this matter.

Earlier this week, more than 500 people turned out at the Sevier County Courthouse to pray. Fine. More power to them. I support their faith. But I cannot support the reason they gathered. These folks showed up to demonstrate against a threatened lawsuit by a group called Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

AUSCS, headquartered in Washington, D.C., believes the Sevier County Commission's long-standing habit of starting each meeting with the Lord's Prayer is illegal. I'm neither a lawyer nor gambler, but I recognize constitutional interpretation is, and always has been, a work in progress. My hunch is AUSCS will win this argument. I don't see how the county's position is defensible.

County Mayor Larry Waters didn't start this practice. He says it was in place when he came into office 32 years ago. Again, fine. But that doesn't mean it's legal. It simply means nobody has called the county's hand until now. A similar argument was made last December in Blount County when a private citizen objected to a government-sponsored program that included the reading of the Christmas story from the Bible. The general sentiment was, "But we've always done it."

Perhaps. But, just as with the Lord's Prayer in Sevier County, that doesn't mean the practice hadn't been illegal all this time. Thus, the city of Maryville - wisely, in my opinion - opted out of the program. If you will recall, another private citizen stood up on the night of the Maryville event and read from the Bible. Excellent. If everyday Janes and Joes want to read the Christmas story in public or pray in public or express other manifestations of their religious beliefs in public, fine.

The problem comes when it is sanctioned by a government body. Why is this so hard to understand?"

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Boobs don't cause earthquakes

2010-04-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

"Do boobs cause earthquakes?" was the scientific question of yesterday's world wide experiment. Now the data has been carefully analyzed and the answer is no.

Inspired by the Iranian imam Hojjatol-eslam Kazem Sediqi who claimed last week that women dressing immodestly cause natural disasters, Indiana student Jen McCreight spurred a 24 hour experiment encouraging all women to show a little cleavage to test the hypothesis that we could cause tectonic movements by upsetting one deity or another.

Sorry for imam Sediqi, his hypothesis was falsified. Number of earthquakes do not significantly increase when women dress immodestly.

McCreight has collected data from USGS Earthquake website and conducted a statistical analysis. Read it in full length at Blag Hag.

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Public graduation in church?

2010-04-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

A Connecticut school board has decided to rent a megachurch for its public high school graduation in June. Another five CT school districts have dropped similar plans after intervention from American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Greg Stokes, a pastor who chairs the Enfield school board defends the decision by saying that "you cannot recognize its a church from the inside". How does that make a difference?

Peter Wolfgang, who is catholic, complains about other people's "intolerance" against christianity adding that he would not have a problem with a graduation ceremony in a protestant church or a jewish synagogue. That's good for him, but as not everyone have the same positive experiences of religion as Wolfgang they can't be demanded to share the same view.

The ongoing abuse scandal in catholic church only additionally highlights that many people have utterly negative experiences from religion and religious places. Is it reasonable that a people who might have been subjected to negative religious experiences during childhood should be forced to attend church on their graduation to please people with positive experiences of religion or simple stay at home?

Barry Lynn, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State and an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, takes a more including position. He says the move "violates the idea of neutrality about religion laid out in the U.S. Constitution and makes non-Christian students feel like second-class citizens".

"I can't think of a clearer way to promote religion than to have a public ceremony in a private religious space," Barry Lynn says.

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Boobquake Monday!

2010-04-25T03:16:00.000-07:00

In response to imam Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi's claim that immodestly dressed women cause earthquakes, women all over the planet will reveal a little cleavage on Monday. The aim is of course to examine if we can make the God(s) upset enough to rock the world.

"Many women who do not dress modestly . . . lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes," imam Sedighi said earlier this week.

The response came immediately from Indiana university student Jen McCreight, who used her blog to start 'Boobquake'.

In the name of science, offer your boobs tomorrow!

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More sex abuse - more donations from catholics

2010-04-23T04:42:00.001-07:00

Studies by Joseph Claude Harris, an expert on catholic finance, and several others find that donations by catholics to their church rise after sexual abuse scandals. The more pedophilia the more money the church gets from its followers. In 2006 each of the 22 million registered Catholic households in the United States gave $317 on average according to Harris.

"After hundreds of incidents of priests sexually abusing their parishioners were disclosed in 2002 in the U.S., fundraising by bishops and parishes went up", he says.

And after allegations of abuse emerged in Boston in 2002, pledged gifts to bishops’ appeals and offertory contributions from parishioners went up 18,8% according to the International Catholic Stewardship Council in Washington.

More sexual abuse = more money. Perhaps we can call it "management by rape"?

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The religious supreme court

2010-04-23T03:54:00.000-07:00

In a column in Los Angeles Times, James Oliphant discusses the role of religion in the supreme court. As John Paul Stevens exits, the court will have no protestant judge for the first time and catholics will be in strong majority. Should Obama consider religious belonging for the next nominee?

Mark Scarberry, a law professor at Pepperdine University, says protestant representation was key when about half of Americans identified themselves in that manner. Without it, "you could have an undermining of confidence in the court, a sense of a lack of participation, especially when the court is dealing with high-voltage issues like religious freedom."

For the US being a country where state and church are (suppose to be) separated it is surely a lot of focus on religion when it comes to the supreme court. A judge's religious belonging should of course not matter. That's not to say that it don't. Remember that in 1956 president Eisenhower nominated William J. Brennan Jr. in a bid to woo catholic support for his reelection campaign.

Following professor Scarberry's idea that composition of a court is important to prevent undermining public confidence, then it's of course time to introduce not only a protestant but also a non-believer to the supreme court. But the resistance against a non-believer remains strong. Why?

If religion doesn't matter then there's no reason why a non-believer cannot be elected. If religion matters (which resistance towards a non-believer proves) then it's important that a non-believer is elected. A court should be religiously neutral. That's done through a wide mixture of religious and non-religious people where no individual perspective dominates.

------------------------------

How religion works

2010-04-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Time to dissolve catholic church?

2010-04-21T06:36:00.000-07:00

If catholic church wasn't catholic church it would have been dissolved by now. Or at least subject of major investigations by the police and child protection services. Rules would have been established for children's participation in the organization's activities. But nothing is done. Why?

Between 1950 and 2008, abuse allegations have been filed against 5600 catholic priests in the United States or 5,1% of all priests that served during the time period. We know that far from all victims of sexual abuse report it. The real number is therefore much larger, estimated by Richard Sipe to around 9%. This estimation fits well with facts from individual states. In New Hampshire 8,9% of all priests have been accused of abuse. In Rhode Island the number is over 10%.

Catholic church has claimed it is a victim of "petty gossip". It has tried to cover up and protect abusive priests, and even blaimed homosexuality for the scandal.

Although there's been more outrage and negative publicity than usual, the consequences for the church are still gentle. We wait in silence and hope catholic church will take responsibility, something they've so far been utterly unwilling to do. Why do we wait? Why isn't the police and child protection services investigating the situation? Why don't we see any arrests? Why isn't authorities monitoring catholic church, making policy and law to protect new children from being victims? Why aren't they even demanding transparency and that catholic church releases their internal documents on the scandal to the police and child protection services?

Imagine any other organization with nearly ten percent of the employees sexually molesting children. A school, a sports club, a summer camp, the boy scouts. Authorities would have stepped in immediately. Arrests would have been made. Maybe the organization would even have been dissolved.

Why do we give special treatment to catholic church?

Accounts from victims are available here. The number of victims is now estimated to be between 100.000 - 280.000.

------------------------------

Women baptists, no thanks!

2010-04-21T02:49:00.000-07:00

A storm is gathering in the baptist community. The problem is spelled "gender equality".

According to the bible women are not allowed to teach but should remain silent. With an increasing number of women taking the pulpit, Georgia Baptist Convention and Southern Baptist Convention are cracking down on member churches with female pastors. First Baptist Church in Decatur was disfellowshipped last year for having a woman as pastor. Just this month Georgia Baptist Convention announced its intention to do the same with Druid Hills in Atlanta.

“This is a very big deal within the Baptist church because scripture tells us that a woman shall not teach a man,” the Rev. Bobby Harrell, pastor of First Baptist Church of Leesburg.

“Women are not qualified to preach from the pulpit. That’s the true word of God,” Andersonville Theological Seminary (in Camilla) President Jimmy Hayes said.

So much for all men and women being equal.

------------------------------

Insulted by questions - followup!

2010-04-19T07:35:00.000-07:00

Mr. Lennart W has made a response to yesterday's post on why religious are easily insulted by questions.

The example he suggests to explain the reason I think would insult not only religious people but a lot of others as well, as it in fact contains a personal insult (given that you don't know for sure that someone has beaten up his wife).

I'm not wondering why people feel insulted if you insult them. I'm wondering why people feel insulted by being asked questions about their religion and religious practices, i.e. ideas. Some examples to clarify. Here are three questions I have personally managed to "insult" people with. What is it in these questions that insults?

1. According to Genesis, a snake that convinced Adam and Eve to eat of a forbidden apple later received a punishment from God: "you shall crawl on your belly" (Genesis 3:14-15). How did snakes move around before being punished by God?

Resulted in upset reactions concerning my "disrespect" for the christian faith.

2. Concerning the Genesis flooding: where did the water come from and where did it go afterwards?

Resulted in an argument where the person I asked - a creationist - concluded that atheists are scums of the earth and that we are "not interested in learning". Then he left.

3. If prayer works, then why do you need health care?

Set off an intensive email traffic of attacks on my person.

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Why are religious insulted by questions?

2010-04-18T15:29:00.000-07:00

Why is it that religious people so often don't want to talk about their beliefs, and even claim they are being "insulted" when challenged with questions about their religion?

If you belief in something, and (naturally) consider that belief superior of all other beliefs, worldviews and perspectives, then how can you become "insulted" by having to discuss what you consider a superior idea? Logically this should be an easy and uncontrovercial task if the idea is as superior as you think.

I find only one possible explaination. Many of those who call themselves religious realize the lack of logic in religious ideas. Facing questions then also means facing personal doubts and revealing your inability to explain the superiority you know is not there. This puts people in a trap: either they have to admit that their belief is unrealistic (which to many is an utterly hard thing) or they have to avoid the questions to spare themselves from facing reality. And of course choose the latter.

Normally it's not negative to get a chance to explain the things you believe in the most. I find it very hard to imagine Einstein feeling insulted by questions about gravity.

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National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional!

2010-04-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

"The government may not endorse a religious message", US District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled when declaring Thursday that the US law authorizing a National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional as it violates the First Amendment.

The ruling is a great victory for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which promotes separation of church and state.

Judge Crabb says that the government’s conduct...

“serves a significant secular purpose and is not a call for religious action on the part of citizens"

and that establishing a national day of prayer...

"goes beyond mere acknowledgment of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context. In this instance, the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience. (...) Recognizing the importance of prayer to many people does not mean the government may enact a statute in support of it, any more than the government may encourage citizens to fast during the month of Ramadan, attend a synagogue, purify themselves in a sweat lodge, or practice rune magic.”

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Jesus is huge

2010-04-16T02:38:00.000-07:00

A catholic church in Oklahoma is losing members because of a controvercial crucifix.

"I think it’s an embarrassment to our Lord", says parishioner Rita Cook. Another visitor, Seannene Smith, said she "was shocked, stunned, and if she hadn’t been prepared already, she think she would have just been ill”.

I don't understand. Doesn't the crucifix just depict how God created the human man in His image? At least according to Genesis. Why would God be embarressed by his own creation? He could have designed us differently in that case, right?

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Tips from Pharyngula.
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Forgiveness (catholic definition)

2010-04-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

Court decides child's religion

2010-04-14T15:25:00.001-07:00

On February 17th I wrote about the former couple Joseph and Rebecca Reyes who were in dispute concerning their three year old daughter's religious belonging.

Upon the child's birth the parents made an agreement(!) that the child should be jewish(!) and raised in the jewish faith. After the couple's divorce the father changed his mind: the child should be catholic instead.

The father said the "case unfolding goes to the heart of the Constitution: Freedom of Religion" - thus interpreting religious freedom as a right for himself to abolish his child's religious freedom by deciding that the child should be catholic. The mother makes the same misinterpretation by upholding the original "agreement" that the child should be jewish.

Yesterday the court ruled against the child. The child shall by the court's order celebrate jewish holidays with her mother and catholic holidays with her father. Fair? Yes, perfectly for the parents but hardly for the girl who is now forced to practice not only one but two religions.

Let's face it. The girl is not jewish. She's not catholic either. She's three years old. As simple as that. Labelling her jewish or catholic makes as much sense as labelling her a republican, environmentalist, or keynesian economist. A reasonable judge would have taken the child's party, educated her parents on the principle of freedom of religion and ruled that neither one of them have the right to impose their personal beliefs on the child.

Religious belonging is a personal decision which we can only make after reaching a certain level of intellectual maturity. Until then, children should receive objective information and education about all religions. We are all individuals, not extensions of our parents.

--------------------------------------------

Catholic church: blaim homosexuals for our sex scandal!

2010-04-13T03:07:00.000-07:00

In a new disgusting attempt to free catholic church from responsibility for the world wide sex abuse scandal, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone - the Vatican's second-highest authority - now claims that homosexuality is the cause of pedophilia.

"I have been told recently, that there is a relation between homosexuality and pedophilia. That is true, said Bertone. That is the problem."

Bertone does not want to state any sources to support his claim. That of course we can expect either since such sources are non-existent.

Hmmm, male virgin in dress offers the world a lesson on sexuality. Catholic church just never learn, does it?

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Megachurch aiming for space

2010-04-12T06:42:00.000-07:00

Evangelist Rick Warren's megachurch Saddleback (CA) is celebrating its success on planet earth by expanding to neighbouring planets. Missions to Mars and Venus start next year, Christian Today reports.

Exactly who Warren expects to attract with his message at Mars and Venus remains unknown. Perhaps California Baptist University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and Fuller Theological Seminary were Warren received his education failed to tell him that according to science Mars and Venus are uninhabited. But maybe God can solve that until Warren arrives. I'm sure more creatures than humans can be created in His image.

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Nonbelieving clergy - a research project

2010-04-11T14:33:00.000-07:00

Daniel Dennett, a leading philosopher of consciousness and professor at Tufts University, is examining an interesting question. How likely is it that members of clergy are atheists, delivering sermons and reading bible passages without any believe in God?

Data is still unavailable on how common the phenomena is, but anecdotal evidence ("Preachers who are not believers") was published last month in scholarly journal Evolutionary Psychology and also on Washington Post's webpage. Dennett also published a column on the topic.

One thing that emerges from the material is that the seminary education itself seems to set ministers off on the road to atheism. Education on how the Bible has actually been put together makes it harder to continue viewing is as sacred scripture. Dennett says:

"...here are these young people in seminary, they have come with the purest of hearts and the noblest of intentions and they’re going to devote their lives to God. And one of the first things they learn is textual criticism. They’re looking at all the existing papyruses and scrolls and so forth and learning about the recension of the texts — the tortuous and often controversial historical path from Hebrew, Greek, and Latin versions of the books of the Bible — and all the Apocryphal books that got rejected — to the King James Version and all the later English translations. And that’s not what they taught you in Sunday school.

That’s the joke that we often provoke from people when we talk about this: Anybody who goes through seminary and comes out believing in God hasn’t been paying attention."

Read a summarizing interview with Professor Dennett in Boston Globe.

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Dawkins and the Pope

2010-04-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

Times Online reports that Richard Dawkins aims to "arrest the Pope" when he arrives for a visit in the U.K in September. However, the story is misleading. It seems to have been headlined by the journalists to create sensation.

Dawkins clarification of what really happened is quoted here from Pharyngula:

"Christopher Hitchens first proposed the legal challenge idea to me on March 14th. I responded enthusiastically, and suggested the name of a high profile human rights lawyer whom I know. I had lost her address, however, and set about tracking her down. Meanwhile, Christopher made the brilliant suggestion of Geoffrey Robertson. He approached him, and Mr Robertson's subsequent 'Put the Pope in the Dock' article in The Guardian shows him to be ideal. The case is obviously in good hands, with him and Mark Stephens. I am especially intrigued by the proposed challenge to the legality of the Vatican as a sovereign state whose head can claim diplomatic immunity.

Even if the Pope doesn't end up in the dock, and even if the Vatican doesn't cancel the visit, I am optimistic that we shall raise public consciousness to the point where the British government will find it very awkward indeed to go ahead with the Pope's visit, let alone pay for it."

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Evangelical professor fired for defending science

2010-04-10T17:19:00.000-07:00

Professor Bruce K. Waltke at Reformed Theological Seminary has been forced out after endorsing evolution at a seminar. Waltke also said that evangelical christianity might face a crisis if continuing to deny scientific facts.

"If the data is overwhelmingly in favor of evolution, to deny that reality will make us a cult ... some odd group that is not really interacting with the world", professor Waltke said.

Michael Milton, president of the seminary's Charlotte campus confirms that Waltke has been dismissed because of "not permitted" views. Milton explains to USA Today:

"...the seminary allows "views to vary" about creation, describing the faculty members there as having an "eight-lane highway" on which to explore various routes to understanding. Giving an example, he said that some faculty members believe that the Hebrew word yom (day) should be seen in Genesis as a literal 24-hour day. Others believe that yom may be providing "a framework" for some period of time longer than a day. Both of those views, and various others, are allowed.

[...] Darwinian views, and any suggestion that humans didn't arrive on earth directly from being created by God (as opposed to having evolved from other forms of life) are not allowed, he said, and faculty members know this. Asked if this limits academic freedom, Milton said: "We are a confessional seminary. I'm a professor myself, but I do not have a freedom that would go past the boundaries of the confession."

So much for science when the "truth" is determined before finding it...

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Pope protected abusive priest

2010-04-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

Recently found evidence support the accusation of Pope Benedict XVI (former Cardinal Ratzinger) protecting an abusive priest in the 1980s.

A letter signed by Cardinal Ratzinger in 1985 shows that Rev. Stephen Kiesle, who was sentenced to three years of probation for lewd conduct of two San Fransisco boys in 1978, afterwards received Ratzinger's help to avoid being sacked. Instead of removal Ratzinger recommended "as much paternal care as possible" for Kiesle.

Kiesle was sentenced to six years in prison in 2004 after admitting that he molested a girl in 1995. He's now on the registered sex offenders list in California.

The Vatican has responded that it "doesn't believe it is necessary to respond to every single document taken out of context", but recognizes that "church has lost public trust and church law can no longer be placed above civil laws if that trust is to be recovered".

A statement that all too well reveals how Catholic Church views itself. Civil law is subordinated religious law. I recognize hearing similar standpoints among fundamentlists and terrorists. Human laws don't comprise them, they answer to a higher authority only.

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The art of wrongful thinking

2010-04-09T07:39:00.000-07:00

Now here's a guy thinking wrong in such an extreme way that it's almost beautiful. Pastor Craig Groeschel, Edmonton, OK., recently published a book with a remarkable title: The Christian Atheist.

Christian Atheists are people who "believe in God but want to do whatever the heck they want to do. They want enough of God to keep them out of hell and enough of God to get them into heaven but they don't want so much of God that it makes them change their lifestyle because at its root they believe in God but they do not fear Him"

This I would label as a confused person. Being a Christian requires willingness to live in accordance with the imagined teachings of God. Being an atheist requires lack of faith in God. People who fit into Groeschel's description don't fit into either one of these categories.

How can you fail to fullfil the definition of a Christian and fail to fullfil the definition of an atheist but still be both? Especially since they're also mutually exclusive...

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TX parent jailed for Bible-style discipline

2010-04-07T08:02:00.000-07:00

Four years behind bars is the well-deserved sentence for a Texas father, David Dill, who raised his children in accordance with teachings from the Old Testament. His duct tape-bound 10-year-old son had to endure whipping, pinching and kicking.

"Up until the jury's verdict, I thought I was innocent. I thought what I did was OK ... based on the Bible," Dill testified.

"What I have a really hard time getting my hands around is how a person of your intellect could ever justify this kind of discipline with a child," Texas Distict Judge Keith Williams said.

What intellect?

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TN parent wants biology text books banned

2010-04-06T08:09:00.000-07:00

Kurt Zimmermann is asking Knox County Board of Education (TN) to ban biology books that according to him shows "a clear bias by the authors towards Christianity", i.e. labels creationism a myth.

Creationism is a myth and should be taught as such. You are free to like or dislike evolution, but it holds scientifically. In schools we teach what we know to be true and not what we want to be true. The evidence of evolution is now so overwhelming that Darwin has a better case than Galileo Galilei had back in his days and Galilei was perfectly right (a fact which took christianity 350 years to admit).

Kurt Zimmermann's action reminds somewhat of Galilei's days when Christian churches administered burning of books they didn't like. It's not a very constructive strategy, and it doesn't inspire much confidence either.

Instead creationists should focus on answering all question marks that surround creationism if they want to ever be respected. Here are a few to start with!

1. Humans (homo sapiens) have been around for approx. 200.000 years. Did God just sit in heaven doing nothing for 198.000 years while we struggled for our survival, and then all of a sudden send down his son to offer us his forgiveness 2000 years ago? What's the underlying logic of that?

2. Previous to homo sapiens two other (known) human species existed: homo erectus and homo neanderthalensis. Were they also created in God's image?

3. How did Noah handle the dinosaur dilemma during the Genesis flood?

4. Also concerning the Genesis flood: where did all the water come from and where did it go? And how did it create the Grand Canyon?

5. If creationism is scientifically valid, why is it necessary to emphasize the Book of Genesis as the ultimate authority?

The idea to teach creationism as an "alternative" to evolution and let all children decide for themsleves which one is true is like teaching kids that Washington D.C. is the capital of either the United States or Mexico and let everyone decide for themselves which alternative is true.

------------------------------

Cardinal: sex abuse critic = "petty gossip"

2010-04-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

The Vatican continues to strive for the world record in stupidity. On Friday Raniero Cantalamessa called critic against the worldwide sexual abuse scandal "anti-semitism".

The Pope is continuosly quiet, while it's reported that he perpetuated a climate of cover-up for pedophile priests while being a cardinal.

And so finally, during Sunday's Easter Mass Senior Cardinal Angelo Sodano called the critic "petty gossip".

"Holy Father, the people of God are with you and will not let themselves be influenced by the petty gossip of the moment, by the trials that sometimes assail the community of believers," the cardinal said.

The Pope himself said in his Easter address that "humanity is suffering from a profound crisis and needed spiritual and moral conversion".

The latter is perfectly true. It's a pity that the Catholic Church fails to admit they are causing that suffering. That's usually a good first step towards moral conversion.

--------------------------------------

The evolution of God

2010-04-04T14:51:00.000-07:00

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Critic for sex abuse scandals = "antisemitism"?

2010-04-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Criticizing Pope Benedict XVI and Catholic Church for major sex abuse and pedophile scandals is like anti-semitism, father Raniero Cantalamessa said at Friday's mass in S:t Peter's Basilica.

"The use of stereotypes, the shifting of personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt remind me of the most shameful aspects of anti-Semitism", Cantalamessa claimed.

Funny, this about collective guilt: isn't that a concept Catholic Church supports? After all they teach that everyone have to die because Adam and Eve ate an apple pretty soon after earth's creation and we're still paying for it to this day... Isn't that shifting of personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt if anything?

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Make God proud - forget all about Jesus today

2010-04-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Today is the day christians traditionally spend thinking about Christ's suffering as he died for "our" sins some two thousand years ago.

Today is also the day when 24,000 children die from lack of water, malnutrition, preventable diseases, unsafe births, and lack of shelter.

Let's forget about Christ's suffering and focus on human suffering instead. I think also God himself would be proud of us for making that choice.

Support Unicef's campaign "Believe in Zero" here.

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Finally! Bible museum planned.

2010-03-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

Finally! National Bible Museum is opening in Dallas.

Hobby Lobby Inc., has been hunting for biblical papyri, hebrew scrolls, and bibles, and now plan to open a museum. The initiative comes from the owner family's "Christian commitment to helping tell the Bible's story", according to The Dallas Morning News. Let's hope the museum attracts many visitors. Reading the bible is a good way to loose your faith.

Personally, I think the most impressive bible in the world is The Brick Testament (also note the labels for nudity, sexual content, violence, and cursing!).

Congratulations to Brendan Powell Smith for this achievement, hope you continue to build Lego forever (I can't even imagine what all that Lego costs).

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Free Expression Cartoon winners announced

2010-03-31T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Council for Secular Humanism has announced the winners of Free Expression Cartoon Contest.

Congrats to winners Alexander Matthews in the professional category (picture) and Matthew Medina in the amateur category.

All prize winners and their cartoons are available here.

Sex, tax violations, and religion meet at C-Street

2010-03-31T03:41:00.000-07:00

'The Family' at C-Street, a secretive fundamentalist Christian group led by Douglas Coe (ranked as one of America's 25 most influential evangelicals by Time Magazine in 2009), with an assumed major influence in the White House and the Congress has come under attack.

13 ministers are attempting to derail the tax-exempt status of the organisation's residential property in Washington, expressing concerns that “an exclusive residential club for powerful officials may be masquerading as a church.”

The house on C-street is notoriously known to reside congressmembers and other high-profile officials in Washington. The ministers' claim the organization hides behind religion to shape politics. They therefore demand transparency of its sources of income and that it's determined whether C-Street is being used by corporations and individuals to influence members of Congress on policy.

It's not the first time C-Street and 'The Family' come under attack. Several recent sex scandals have contributed to highlight the secretive nature of the organisation, in which approximately 20 congressmen are members. Jeff Sharlet, author of the bestselling "The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power", provides an insight into the organisation who sometimes refer to themselves as "the christian mafia", here.

Rachel Maddow also broadcasted a story on Tuesday concerning whether the secretive religious group subsidized congressmens' rent and violated tax laws (thanks to POS for tips!).

In Douglas Coe we trust...?

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Focus on real problems, not religion

2010-03-31T03:28:00.000-07:00

Sam Harris, makes an excellent statement at CNN on the topic "Why we should ditch religion".

"We should be talking about real problems, like nuclear proliferation and genocide and poverty and the crisis in education [...] Religion has convinced us that there's something else entirely other than concerns about suffering.

There's concerns about what God wants, there's concerns about what's going to happen in the afterlife. [...] And, therefore, we talk about things like gay marriage as if it's the greatest problem of the 21st century. We even have a liberal president who ostensibly is against gay marriage because his faith tells him it's an abomination."

View Harris's statement here.

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'A' Week on Facebook

2010-03-29T04:33:00.000-07:00

The campaign 'A' Week on Facebook har started.

"Good without God? Imagine Facebook with 'A's all across the site showing the world is full of people who are 'good without God' and don't need religion to influence their lives. Imagine the awareness we can raise during 'A' Week On Facebook if 1000s of people take part"

Participation is easy. Visit http://www.aweekonfacebook.com/, and download an atheist 'A' to use as your profile picture.

Also join the group 'A' Week on facebook and register your participation in the campaign!

Obama is Antichrist

2010-03-27T12:33:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama is likely to be Antichrist, one quarter of American republicans say in an internet poll. 57% of republicans think Obama is a "secret muslim" while 38% says he's doing "many of the things Hitler did".

I have checked some christian forums to see what christians write about Obama and Antichrist. While some try to stay sane, others are completely out in the blue. How about these amusing (however somewhat old) speculations from Christian-forums.net:

"Barack Obama's birthplace is Hawaii having the latitude 21.6... As an assumed term, it is 216, which happens to be 6 cubed, or more simply 6 X 6 X 6 = 216... in other words, associated with the triad "666", the "Mark fo the Beast", and this location "identifies" the birthplace entry into the world of Obama (Antichrist) in the midst of the Great Sea (Pacific, meaning "peace"), for Antichrist will be a "man of peace", the 1st Beast from the SEA. Incidentally, Obama's original first name was spelled "Baracka", being Aramaic and meaning "blessed"... another attribute of a "messiah". Note that 216, like 666, each reduce and sum to the singular digit "9". This is the number that Satanists say that Satan claims as his own. Now look at his birth date... it is August 4, 1961. We consider August to be the 8th calendar month, but that is in the Gregorian calendar... in the original Julian Roman calendar it is the 6th month... when one sums and reduces all the digits (6+4+1+9+6+1=27=2+7="9") the summed singular term becomes Satan's number "9"."

Signature 'Seven Thunders'

====================

"BARACK like "IRAQ"
HUSSEIN line "Saddam Hussein"
OBAMA like "Osama Bin Laden"

3 times in one same name? 3 times the "NAME" !!! God is trying to show something!

BARACK = 36 and 1 + 2 + 3... + 36 = 666 (36 is the triangular root of 666). HUSSEIN = 95. OBAMA = 32. 36 + 95 + 32 = 163 Day 163 is 11.6 (2008 IS A LEAP YEAR). Obama candidate for 2008 ELECTIONS. 11.6.... 11H6 (11 hours 6 minutes) = 666 MINUTES! (also an inverted "911"). Iraq, Hussein, Osama Bin Laden.... 9/11!!!

Also 11.6 is day 162 on a normal year and 162 IS LINKED TO THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH! You said he was born on 4 August 1961??? well this is day 216 of the year or as you said, 6 x 6 x 6 days!!! Also 108 is tied to the Rapture of the Church!"

Signature Anne

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Jesus' latest facebook updates

2010-03-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

God lives in the wilderness

2010-03-24T05:45:00.000-07:00

God is in the wilderness, worship consultant Marcia McFee, reverend Karen Foster and rabbi Jamie Korngold claim in USA Today.

The three have set off for a skiing trip in the silent winter landscape surrounding Lake Tahoe, CA, to appreciate holy days of salvation and freedom. "You can make yourself so breathless with wonder and exhaustion that you can't say no to God", says Korngold, while McFee and Foster add that a ski run or snowshoe trail can make you so "exhilarated and humbled that there are no obstacles to total joy in Jesus' Easter resurrection". Sounds interesting.

The use of natural wonders as "proof" of God's existence builds on a great myth: you have to be religious to appreciate nature. But all humans are part of nature and therefore naturally amazed by it. This breathlessness that nature in its extreme forms can cause has nothing to do with supernaturals.

"I think God shows himself everywhere and you just have to look", Sarah Person, another believer on a ski-trip, says.

Some things you have to see to believe. Some things you have to believe to be able to see.

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Christian philosopher explains atheism

2010-03-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

James S. Spiegel, professor of philosophy and religion at Taylor University (an "evangelical, independent, interdenominational Christian liberal arts college" in Indiana), explains atheism in his new book The Making of an Atheist, with which Spiegel neither aim to provoke nor show that theism is more rational than atheism but only direct people to "the real explanation of atheism ".

Spiegel claims that the atheist use of scientific irrelevance of supernaturals as a foundational base is in fact only cover-up of the real underlying issue: rebellion.

"The rejection of God is a matter of will, not of intellect [...] Atheism is not the result of objective assessment of evidence, but of stubborn disobedience; it does not arise from the careful application of reason but from willful rebellion. Atheism is the suppression of truth by wickedness, the cognitive consequence of immorality", Spiegel tells Christian Post.

"There is a phenomenon that I call 'paradigm-induced blindness,' where a person's false worldview prevents them from seeing truths which would otherwise be obvious", Spiegel continues.

An obvious truth is at least that evangelical, independent universities are not very good at keeping "science" independent from evangelical fantasies.

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WWJD (Who Would Jesus Deny health care)?

2010-03-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

Why do christians oppose universal health care?, doctoral student in social psychology Nathan Heflick at The University of South Florida asks at Psychology Today's blog today.

"I really cannot fathom how a religion of love and forgiveness is used to SUPPORT a lack of healthcare [...] Do you really think Jesus would oppose universal healthcare because his taxes would get raised? Really?", Heflick asks. Good point.

But I can see a strong reason for christians to oppose universal health care (actually to oppose health care overall). Why support something you don't need? Well, don't christians need health care you'd say? But why would they need it? Doesn't prayer work?

Think about it. Why pay thousands of dollars when you can cure yourself and everyone around you for free just by sitting on the floor murmuring? If God doesn't cure cancer when you pray for it then that's of course because he doesn't want to. Then science cannot be used to disobey God's will can it?

Logically health care should be out of the question for any true christian. Thank God the president is not following christian logic but humanistic rational thinking. Health care for everyone - hallelujah!

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7 months stats

2010-03-22T12:50:00.000-07:00

It's fun to write as visits from new countries constantly find their way to this blog despite that one forth of all countries in the world have already visited after only half a year (including almost all developed countries)!

The 54 countries visiting during first half a year are listed here. During seventh month new visits arrived from United Arab Emirates, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Croatia, St Lucia, Armenia, and Hungary.

United States counts continuosly for 70% of the visits and top five visiting states are now Massachusetts, California, Florida, Washington, and Georgia (great to have a bible belt state among the top visitors!).

Most read stories of the month were consequences of leaving scientology, Vatican procures homosexual prostitutes, and two captured ghosts for sale. The ghosts were finally sold for $2,830.00 btw.

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Growing up with religious fundamentalists

2010-03-20T14:03:00.000-07:00

Nathan Phelps, son of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps, speaks out in National Post about how his childhood in a highly religious environment brought him to atheism.

Nathan and his twelve siblings were required to run 10 miles a day and eat milk curds for dinner, to treat their bodies as the temples the Bible commands. By the age of 7, he could recite all 66 books of the bible in 19 seconds, and was taught that "nearly all humans were sinners, pre-destined before birth to spend an eternity in a lake of fire".

"What has stayed with me all these years is the psychological [effect]," Mr. Phelps says. "It's the message, it's the information that you take in in your youth that you carry with you for the rest of your life."

Nathan, who appeared with Richard Dawkins at the American Atheists Convention last April, also adds;

"[...] it's just as difficult for me to settle on mainstream Christianity as the truth, because the essence of the message is still there. That these miraculous things happened; that this man who supposedly lived 2,000 years ago did this for us; and this is the basis of where we will spend eternity. Those are tough concepts to look at and say ‘yeah, that makes perfectly good sense."

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Do-it-yourself Pope

2010-03-19T11:20:00.000-07:00

Why not make this poseable paper pope (click to enlarge) while waiting for the Vatican's response as the catholic sex abuse scandal now goes global?

After reports of sexual abuse within the catholic church in the United States some years ago, and more recently in Europe, the scandal has exploded in scope. It now spreads to well over half a dozen countries including, above the already mentioned, Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, and Brazil. Only in Germany 300 new allegations of abuse have emerged since January.

CNN provides an overview here, while BBC goes into detail in each country here.

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The paper pope is copyrighted to R. Nance who offers everyone a free download on his webpage www.rnance.com.

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The devil resides in the Holy See

2010-03-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

My apologies for infrequent blog posts the last week - I have been travelling. Normal service has now been resumed.

We'll start with some tips from Patrik, concerning the Holy See. Our catholic friends are in trouble: they have discovered that the devil lives in the Vatican!

Holy See's chief exorcist, Gabriele Amorth, 85, has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession over the last 25 years and he's convinced of satanic infiltration among cardinals and bishops in the Vatican. According to Amorth, "the devil" is responsible for sexual abuse, paedophilia, and violence within the catholic church.

Much convenient if you can deliberate yourself from responsibility by blaiming your criminal actions on invisible ghosts. But wasn't one of the purposes of being a catholic to protect you from the devil? Obviously, catholicism doesn't work then.

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A visit to the mosque

2010-03-14T04:35:00.000-07:00

Religious critic should always be directed towards the majority religion. It is tasteful to avoid criticism of the minority - and also provides better results in the long run. Your blog-master has landed in Arabland (sorry for infrequent blogposts the next couple of days!) and directs attention to islam.

I visited the mosque this morning. It was a nice setup; welcoming, friendly, and informative. I learned that the reason females have smaller prayer rooms than males in a mosque is not in fact discrimination (great!) but for practical reasons. According to islam men can connect with God Allah only in the mosque while women can connect anywhere they are. Thus men are forced to more frequent visits and the mosque needs to be able to accommodate larger groups of men. On the other hand, in shopping malls females have larger prayer rooms than men - because there are normally more women in shopping malls. Fun reasoning!

However, just as christianity, islam fails to explain how evolution fits with religion. There is overwhelming evidence that humanity is not created by any deity at all but developed from other species through natural selection. I couldn't resist the opportunity to ask how muslims make ends meet. Although there is an ongoing debate, the answer is clearcut: evolution is false because it doesn't say in the Quran (the similarity of muslim and christian reasoning is striking!)

The Quran doesn't say anything about carbon emissions and climate change, radiology as part of cancer treatment, traffic regulation, or internet ethics either. So I guess that's just bullshit as well. It's a dangerous approach when anything in a single book is true and anything not in that single book is not true.

Islam and Christianity - because shepards sitting in the desert some thousand years ago knew more about the construction of universe and life on our planet than modern day scientists!

WWJD?

2010-03-12T21:53:00.000-08:00

Women from a biblical perspective

2010-03-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

Today it's International Women's Day. Let's honor the day by having a closer look at how women are viewed in the bible.

God allows rape

Numbers 31:17-18: “Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves”

Enjoy whatever you can get you hands on including women

Deuteronomy 20:10-14: “When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee. And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.”

Raped unmarried women should be forced to marry their rapist

Deuteronomy 22:28-29: “If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.

Raped married women should be stoned to death

Deuteronomy 22:23-24: “If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour's wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.”

Kidnap a beautiful woman and force her to marry you, but if you later find you have no delight in her let her go (however do not sell her)

Deuteronomy 21:10-14: “When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her

David’s wifes are abducted by God and given to another man

2 Samuel 12:11: “Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun”

The women are divided among the men

Judges 5:30: ” Have they not sped? have they not divided the prey; to every man a damsel or two; to Sisera a prey of divers colours, a prey of divers colours of needlework, of divers colours of needlework on both sides, meet for the necks of them that take the spoil?”

On whores

Leviticus 21:7: “They shall not take a wife that is a whore”

How women can deserve being burnt with fire

Leviticus 21:9: “And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire”

How to rape an entire village

Judges 21:10-24 A whole village is raped and killed. Longer text – linked here.

Sell your daughter as a slave

Exodus 21:7: “And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do”

A widow should marry her husband’s brother

Deuteronomy 25:5-10: “If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her”

On making deals with God

Judges 11:29-40: Jephthah burns her daughter after making a deal with God. Longer text – linked here.

"Do with my daughter what seems good to you"

Judges 19:24: “Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing”

Finally: a woman is always someone’s property

Exodus 20-21: Several passages in which the woman is considered property of her father until she’s given away to another man (when she instead becomes property of her husband).

This symbolic is preserved in the United States by fathers giving away their daughters at their wedding. Let's suggest as a gift for all women on our very own day that this tradition be abolished and that man and woman hereafter walk into marriage in equality. That's already the case in many European countries.

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Thanks to Staffan Bengtsson for inspiration and research!<

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The consequences of leaving scientology

2010-03-07T02:49:00.000-08:00

NY Times has an excellent article today on the difficulties and consequences of leaving scientology.

Christie King Collbran and her husband, Chris, were raised as scientologists and as teenagers recruited to work seven days a week for sporadic paychecks of $50. They signed a billion-year contract to keep with the church's belief that humans are immortal.

After 13 years the couple decided to leave, which set them off on a "Kafkaesque journey that required them to sign false confessions about their personal lives and their work, pay the church thousands of dollars it said they owed for courses and counseling, and accept the consequences as their parents, siblings and friends who are church members cut off all communication with them."

Protection of children is a complex matter when their parents are deeply rooted in a sect or a church. But it doesn't change anything in terms of rights: each and everyone has freedom of religion = a right to be religious and a right not to be religious. One way to ensure that also children of highly religious parents have freedom of religion that goes in both directions is to stop allowing parents to homeschool for religious reasons or to put children in religious schools.

Education is human right and it cannot be removed because parents "want to". Being denied proper education doesn't affect the parents but the child that is given a life-long handicap. In this conflict of interest it is important that society take the weaker party's side and defend every child's right to proper education. Some parents that are indoctrinated themselves think they give their children the best possible with a religious education. Other parents are simply unable to view their children as individuals of their own, and can't accept if the child choose something other than what the parents' want. Both groups of kids need protection from the society.

Allowing all children to attend secular schools gives them a chance see the world from more angles than their parents want to allow. It gives them the opportunity to speak to people they wouldn't have spoken to otherwise, hear other perspectives, make friends outside the church/sect, learn critical thinking, develop their own opinion. Be individuals rather than extensions of their parents!

The religious movements' hard core support of parental rights over children and education only reflects their fear of neutral and multifaceted information, and allowing everyone a free choice.

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A message to visitors from anti-gay webpage

2010-03-05T09:38:00.000-08:00

My post yesterday concerning the gay sex scandal in the Vatican has been cited and linked to from a webpage that markets and sells a spray which you're suppose to spray on homosexuals for them to turn into heterosexuals (believe it or not, this even more crazy than most religious things). The "product" is produced by "strait folks in the USA" and has not been tested on animals "as they couldn't find any gay ones".

Sigh.

This is of course qualified bullshit and to those visitors that arrive here from that anti-gay webpage I make the following remarks:

USAtheists are atheists and humanists who rely on rationality, reason, and scientific knowledge as a thinking base. We embrace human rights, and view every man and woman as being of equal value regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, religion, culture, sexual preference, disability, or any other personal characteristic than can be used for discrimination.

Yesterday's post was in no meaning critic of homosexuals or homosexual behavior. It was critic of the catholic church who promotes an anti-homosexual agenda despite that homosexuality is also (quite commonly) practiced within the church.

The claims made by the anti-gay webpage are also totally false and misleading. Homosexuality is natural among humans, as well as in the Animal Kingdom - you can find gay animals and quite a lot of them! 1500 species have been observed practicing homosexuality, comprising everything from worms to crabs to mammals. One of the human's closest relatives - the dwarf chimpanzee - is the most homosexual of all. Their entire species is bisexual. A recent study from 2009 finds that homosexuality is nearly universal.

Homosexuality cannot be "cured" (and heterosexuality cannot be cured either). This was finally recognized by American Psychology Association last year.

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Two captured ghosts for sale

2010-03-04T13:47:00.000-08:00

For sale: two ghosts captured by exorcist from spiritualist church in New Zealand.

The ghosts are believed to be a boy who likes to make himself known and spook people and a girl who likes to move things and turn things on and off. They were bottled on July 15th 2009. The seller says he's had no activity in the house since and that he wants to sell them as they scare him.

They are bottled in holy water as this puts them to sleep. To revive them pour into a little dish and let them evaporate into your house.

139 bids have so far been made in the auction that closes on Monday March 8th. Current bid is $1.161.

Make your bid at trademe.co.nz.

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Vatican procures homosexual prostitutes for the pope's colleagues

2010-03-04T13:29:00.000-08:00

It's hard to understand the catholic resistance towards homosexuality and the promotion of no sex before marriage when a vatican chorister procures male prostitutes for a papal gentleman-in-waiting.

Another sex scandal has hit the catholics, this time reaching all the way into pope Benedict's own livingroom.

The Guardian reports:

"Angelo Balducci, a Gentleman of His Holiness, was caught by police on a wiretap allegedly negotiating with Thomas Chinedu Ehiem, a 29-year-old Vatican chorister, over the specific physical details of men he wanted brought to him. Transcripts in the possession of the Guardian suggest that numerous men may have been procured for Balducci, at least one of whom was studying for the priesthood."

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Forgive me almighty Phone

2010-03-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

French bishops are upset by a new "confession hotline" to God set up by a small company that provides telephone messaging services in Paris. "The Line of the Lord", offers a direct line to God for the price of 0.34 euros (46 cents) per minute.

"For advice on confessing, press one. To confess, press two. To listen to some confessions, press three. The Lord’s line is dedicated to helping you be in the presence of God, in order to receive his grace. In case of serious or mortal sins -- that is, sins that have cut you off from Christ our Lord, it is indispensable to confide in a priest" says the service.

Vanity Fair sinners called the number and confessed at the bargain price $4.60 for ten minutes. Listen to the entire call here.

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Ten Commandments victory in Supreme Court

2010-03-02T13:43:00.001-08:00

The Ten Commandments cannot be on display on the lawn outside a county courthouse in Oklahoma. That's the result of yesterday's decline by US Supreme Court to take up the dispute.

The case, Haskell County Board of Commissioners versus James Green, stems from a conflict after a local pastor put the Ten Commandments on public display in 2004. A federal judge ordered the monument's removal from public property last year after several hearings. The county commissioners had then tried to save it by claiming it was erected for a "secular purpose of acknowledging the historical significance of the Ten Commandments".

Argument of that kind is nothing but bad attempts to grant christianity a unique untouchable position to undermine the separation of church and state. If historical significance can be claimed then anything goes. And historical significance can almost always be claimed.

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Why liberals and atheists are more intelligent

2010-02-28T11:12:00.001-08:00

Intelligent people are significantly more likely to exhibit social values and religious and political preferences that are novel to the human species in evolutionary history. Examples are atheism and liberalism.

A study that's forthcoming in the March 2010 edition of scientifically peer-reviewed journal Social Psychology Quarterly develops a theory which suggests "that more intelligent people are more likely than less intelligent people to adopt evolutionarily novel preferences and values".

The study argues that "humans are evolutionarily designed to be conservative, caring mostly about their family and friends, and being liberal, caring about an indefinite number of genetically unrelated strangers they never meet or interact with, is evolutionarily novel". This is supported by the finding that young adults who subjectively identify themselves as "very liberal" have an average IQ of 106 during adolescence while those who identify themselves as "very conservative" have an average IQ of 95 during adolescence.

By the same logic, religion is considered a "byproduct of humans' tendency to perceive agency and intention as causes of events, to see "the hands of God" at work behind otherwise natural phenomena" leading us to be evolutionary designed to believe in God(s). Young adults who identify themselves as "not at all religious" have an average IQ of 103 during adolescence, while those who identify themselves as "very religious" have an average IQ of 97 during adolescence, the study reports.

The article is titled "Why Liberals and Atheists Are More Intelligent" and conducted by Satoshi Kanazawa, evolutionary psychologist at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

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Let the outrage begin

2010-02-28T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hugh Kramer at the LA Atheism Examiner makes an excellent summary of Christian reactions following the first ever meeting between administration and non-believers at the White House.

Bishop Council Nedd, chairman of In God We Trust, reacts by saying that "it is one thing for Administration to meet with groups of varying viewpoints, but it is quite another for a senior official to sit down with activists representing some of the most hate-filled, anti-religious groups in the nation". On the organization's webpage the group calls the event a "historic meeting with atheist anti-religion hate groups".

Catholic League (an organization that works to safeguard religious freedom but only for catholics) screames out on their webpage that "Obama aides host catholic bashers" and their leader Bill Donohue states that "in an unprecedented move, leaders of a presidential administration are hosting some of the biggest anti-religious zealots in the nation".

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington earlier reported (just as a comparison!) that "Bush-era White House visitor records suggest leading conservative Christian leaders may have had a significant voice in President Bush’s administration , and many seem to have had the ear of the president himself". Data is summarized below:

1. For the period April 2001 through June 2006, Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman Emeritus James Dobson visited the White House 24 times; 10 of those visits were to President Bush.

2. Andrea Lafferty, Executive Director of the Traditional Values Coalition, made an astonishing 50 visits to the White House starting on February 1, 2001, and continuing through March 16, 2008. Six of those visits were to President Bush.

3. Wendy Wright, President of Concerned Women for America, made 43 visits to the White House between May 2001 and August 2006. Four of those visits were to President Bush.

4. Gary Bauer, President of American Values, made 10 visits to the White House, starting with a January 6, 2003 visit to Vice President Cheney and ending with a July 20, 2006 visit to President Bush.

5. The late Jerry Falwell, of Jerry Falwell Ministries, made eight visits to the White House between May 2001 and September 2004. Three of those visits were to President Bush.

6. Tony Perkins, President of Family Research Council, visited the White House 14 times between February 2001 and June 2006, including two visits to President Bush.

7. Louis Sheldon, Chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, made 19 visits to the White House between March 2001 and September 2006, including two visits to Pre1sident Bush.

8. The late Paul Weyrich, the Founder of Free Congress foundation, made 17 visits to the White House between May 2001 and July 2005, including six visits to President Bush and one to Karl Rove.

9. Donald Wildmon, Founder of the American Family Association, made three visits to the White House between July 2001 and March 2003, including one visit to President Bush.

Terrible that non-believers got a chance to visit the White House, isn't it? The world is so unfair towards christians.

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Evangelical environmentalists

2010-02-28T02:59:00.000-08:00

Here's an uplifting story from Michigan. Evangelical pastor Ken Wilson from Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, spent some time thinking about the passages in the Bible containing messages of stewardship for the Earth. Now he's preaching everyone's duty to protect the environment and building organic gardens.

When reading the bible like Wilson no one has any objections. It's only when the bible is used to support reasonings and actions that lack scientific support voices must be raised.

However peculiar it might seem that scientific findings are not enough but there must also be a passage in the bible for some people to take action, protecting the environment is always good - regardless of what convinced you of that.

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Marshall backs off statement on handicapped

2010-02-27T00:18:00.000-08:00

Robert Marshall now backs off his statement that disabled children are a punishment from God for abortions, followed by a citation of the Old Testament, saying firstborns are dedicated to God, and that Christians would suggest there’s special punishment for aborting them.

At his webpage Marshall says that he "acknowledge that my extemporary remarks could have been better chosen to explain the medical research findings which show a high incidence of complications following induced abortions"

and that his

"purpose was to show how authentic medical findings demonstrate that abortion has consequences beyond the death of the child being aborted"

He still refuses to reveal any references to the alleged research.

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Tolerance defined

2010-02-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Disabled children = God's punishment for abortion?

2010-02-23T06:11:00.001-08:00

State Delegate Bob Marshall of Manassas took his chance to spread lies at a press conference arranged by a group called Virginia Christian Action last Thursday.

Marshall stated that "disabled children are God's punishment for abortion", and especially when women aborted their first pregnancy.

"The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children," said Marshall.

Three questions:

1. What's your source Mr. Marshall?

2. How does the idea of a deity creating handicapped children as a punishment fit with the claim of the Christian God being good and fair? (fair ususally doesn't mean punishing someone innocent...)

3. How does handicapped children fit with the idea of every man being created in the image of God? God is also handicapped?

One statement:

Being disabled is not a punishment. No one that is born disabled or later in life become disabled by disease or accident has done anything wrong, or anything to deserve his or her handicap. There's nothing wrong with being disabled - the human value and rights are always equal, or should always be equal!

Mr. Marshall's statement that one person is born handicapped as a punishment for another person's actions is nothing but respectless evidence that he's sadly indifferent to human suffering.

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Half year stats

2010-02-21T16:13:00.000-08:00

Today this blog has been up six months and it's time for some stats summary!

Number of visits have been growing steadily since the start and took a real jump during the last month.

We have now been visited from Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Libanon, Malaysia, Marocco, Mexico, New Zeeland, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Saint Lucia, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, United States, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and a very small island outside the coast of Ghana/Côet D'Ivorie which I can't find the name of.

Approximately 70% of all visits come from the United States (thankfully as this is the intention!). Visits have arrived from all states except Louisiana and South Dakota. These two seems really hard to attract! Top three visiting states are Massachusetts, Maryland, California.

Most popular read over the entire half year period was the story about Landover Baptist Church and their webforum discussion on whether the recent snowstorm in D.C. was a sign of God's anger.

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Pastor transforms bible to comics

2010-02-20T12:58:00.000-08:00

Pastor Ayris of First Baptist Church, Leesburg, Fla. has started a company that transforms scripture into comics.

The idea came a couple of years ago after God told pastor Ayris to get involved in film. Ayris says to Christian Post that when hearing God's plan he first thought “Oh this must be the devil”.

Turning the bible into comics is a great idea. It will additionally highlight its imaginary nature.

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Anything can be a tradition

2010-02-18T14:24:00.000-08:00

Vice President Joe Biden showed up yesterday with a large mark in his forehead. You might think he'd forgotten to clean himself or that he'd been hit by someone (that's also what people thought...) but that's all wrong.

Catholic Biden was actually honoring noble christian traditions!

Ash Wednesday occurs 46 days before easter and starts by everyone getting ashes thrown in their face(!) to signify repentance before God.

Let's take this as a reminder so no one forgets that Spaghettimonster Sunday occurs 64 days after Lasagna-weekend.

It's honored traditionally by splashing ketchup in each other's face.

Parents fight over child's religion

2010-02-17T05:20:00.000-08:00

How do you misinterpret freedom of religion? Well, here's one way.

A former couple - a jewish woman and a catholic man - are currently fighting in Chicago over their joint child. The issue is what religion the child should have.

Upon the child's birth the parents made an agreement(!) that the child should be jewish(!) and raised in the jewish faith. After the couple's divorce the father has changed his mind: the child should be catholic instead.

The father says the "case unfolding goes to the heart of the Constitution: Freedom of Religion" - thus interpreting religious freedom as a right for himself to abolish his child's religious freedom by deciding that the child should be catholic. The mother makes the same misinterpretation by upholding the original "agreement" that the child should be jewish.

Why don't they also fight over what political party the child should vote for? These parents are obviously totally unable to view their child as an individual of her own.

First, religion is not a genetic characteristic. No one is born being this or that religion. Religion is essentially an opinion. We're born with an eyecolor, but not with an opinion. No one can decide what opinions someone else should have.

Second, children are neither extensions of their parents or owned property. Children are individuals and freedom of religion includes also them. When attempting to "decide" what religion a child should have both parents are violating their child's freedom of religion: the child doesn't have to be either jewish or catholic. It might be a buddist, a scientologist, or an atheist. It's a personal choice, based on a personal opinion.

An individual's religious belonging is not a matter of parental "agreement".

The best we can do is to allow all children to grow up without onesided religious (or political) influence and let everyone decide for themselves as adults. That's fair, respectful, and honest.

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Bible CDs for everyone

2010-02-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

If you don't come to Christ then Christ must come to you. The baptist strategy is clear; no one gets away.

Armed with an apple pie for each household the baptist movement aims to knock on every door in Texas (9 millions) to hand over a bible CD. You need it the baptists claim, otherwise you might end up killing your children, as one lady on the CD testifies she would have if she had not found the Lord and been rescued through Christ just in time.

One third of all households in Texas have another native language than English. Fortunately the CD comes in several languages.

"The hot apple pie opens the door," says Mitch Wilson, pastor of First Baptist Church in Shallowater.

Interesting with such a strong message that can even prevent you from murdering your own kids that an apple pie is still needed to make people open the door...

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Do ask, do tell

2010-02-14T04:08:00.000-08:00

Pentagon moves to repeal the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy - a policy that allows homosexuals to serve the military as long as they don't reveal their sexual orientation. This is a natural step forward for any society that values basic freedoms and human rights. It is essentially about nothing more than allowing each and everyone to be the person they were born as.

Homosexuality is natural. It exists throughout the entire animal kingdom on this planet. Research has shown that we are unable to choose our sexuality, or change it (a great collection of sources can be found here, and research specifically on the Pentagon policy here).

'The don't ask, don't tell' policy is as logic as the idea to ban all browneyed from serving the armed forces unless they wear blue lenses and don't reveal their true eyecolor.

But not everyone agrees and needless to say it's fundamentalist christians (followers of the 'religion of love, equality, and tolerance'!) that have the biggest problem with homosexuals.

Chuck Colson states in a column in Christian Post that armed forces are based on an “ethos that stresses discipline, morale, good order and unit cohesion” and that "allowing openly gay men threatens this cohesion by raising the possibility of a different kind of love-eros which is individual and exclusive".

Isn't an "individual and exclusive love-eros" exactly what we have today when only heterosexuality is allowed? Why doesn't that threaten the cohesion? Isn't Colson just saying that gays are more tolerant than heterosexuals, as gays obviously can handle the heterosexual norm without causing trouble while heterosexuals would not be able to handle a sexual norm that doesn't favorize any specific orientation?

"[...] a military unit which openly celebrates the gay lifestyle in the trenches is not a military unit I want to serve in", Colson ends his column.

Are you worried that someone might be attracted by you Chuck? ;)

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Happy Birthday Darwin!

2010-02-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

Today 201 years have passed since the birth of Charles Darwin, the man who developed one of the world's greatest ideas to solve one of our big mysteries. Where do humans come from?

Darwin developed a theory that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors (evolution) through the process of natural selection. He published compelling evidence in 1859 in his book 'The Origin of Species'. Evolution as an idea was broadly accepted already in his lifetime but it was not until after his death his theory unified the life sciences. Today the level of support for Darwin's ideas is universal within academia and the scientific community (Myers, 2006; Pinholster, 2006).

Darwin's findings have divided the religious community in two parts. One part who realize that the evidence of evolution is too strong to be opposed, and now instead struggles to find a suitable way to reinterpret Genesis in order to make evolution fit with God's creation of everything over a few days ("good luck!"). The other part opposes evolution and has instead developed a fantasy based on "bible-evidence": creationism. Support for creationist views is very small among scientists, and virtually nonexistent among those in the relevant fields (Larson, 2004; Martz and McDaniel, 1987)

Darwin's complete work is available for reading online.

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Larson, Edward J. (2004), Evolution, Modern Library, ISBN 0-679-64288-9

Martz, Larry; McDaniel, Ann (1987-06-29), "Keeping God out of the Classroom (Washington and bureau reports)", Newsweek (Newsweek Inc.) CIX (26): 23–24, ISBN 0028-9604

Myers, P.Z.(2006-06-18), "Ann Coulter: No Evidence for Evolution?", Pharyngula (ScienceBlogs), retrieved 2010-02-12

Pinholster, G. (2006-02-19), "AAAS Denounces Anti-Evolution Laws as Hundreds of K-12 Teachers Convene for 'Front Line' Event", aaas.org, retrieved 2010-02-12

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Wrong religion entrance

2010-02-11T01:11:00.000-08:00

Click to enlarge!

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Burden of proof

2010-02-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

"It annoys me that the burden of proof is on us. It should be: 'You came up with the idea. Why do you believe it?' I could tell you I've got superpowers. But I can't go up to people saying 'Prove I can't fly'. They'd go: 'What do you mean 'Prove you can't fly?' Prove you can!'"

--------------------------------------------- Ricky Gervais on being an atheist

Snow in D.C. = sign of God's anger

2010-02-06T13:31:00.000-08:00

The human brain has no limits on how much fantasy it can come up with.

Landover Baptist Church (which guarantees salvation since 1620!) has started a discussion on their church forum on whether the heavy snowfall over Washington D.C. is a sign of God's anger at president Obama.

Ezekiel Bathfire, pastor for diversity and tolerance and "Christ's rottweiler", says that "there is little doubt that we are approaching the End of Times! The sky has darkened and, after a period of great Heat and Drought (Global Warming cause by the Gates of Hell bulging with sinners), God has seen fit to send forth Snow and Ice, upon the Just and unjust, as was foretold".

Pastor Isaac Peters thinks the snowfall is "God's way of mocking the new religion of global warming" while "true christian" Mr. Griner speculates that "perhaps the snow is a sign from God our next president should be white?"

My personal bet is that snow is precipitation in the form of crystalline water ice which forms when there's upward moving air around a low-pressure system. If snow was a sign of God's anger then God must be very angry with Canada and northern United States every year while he's never angry with the middle East or Africa...

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Bill Clinton re-interprets the law

2010-02-06T04:06:00.000-08:00

Bill Clinton urges for "solution" to Haiti kidnapping case. Clinton says that "the missionaries could be telling the truth when they argued they simply wanted to help the children and did not mean to violate any laws".

Okay. So kidnapping is alright if you have good intentions? And breaking the law is not a matter of whether you actually break the law but rather if you had the intention to break it? If the missionaries are telling the truth then they are in fact pleading guilty to kidnapping allegations.

Fortunately Clinton has a wife that's wiser than himself in this mattrer. "Obviously this is a matter for the Haitian judicial system", says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Baptists with reputational concerns

2010-02-06T03:09:00.001-08:00

In the aftermath of 10 missionaries being arrested for an illegal attempt to take 33 Haitian children out of the country, the baptist movement are concerned about their reputation.

Southern Baptist Convention calls the incident a “well-intentioned” attempt to help Haitian children. "As the story has unfolded, it has become more and more apparent that these ten individuals were driven by the true selflessness of altruism,” says Morris Chapman, president of the executive committee of the SBC.

In a statement the SBC writes that the world's attention and the relief work will be destracted by the continued detainment and possible conviction of baptist mission volunteers. They therefore urge president Obama to step in and provide full legal representation for the mission volunteers to quickly end the story and bring them home.

The legal representation that was considered unimportant when attempting to cross the border with a truck full of minors has suddenly become important for some reason. Can't missionaries just rely on prayer and the help of God?

"And please find a way to reduce attention to missionaries kidnapping children - it ruins our possibility to do further missons..."

Missionaries trying to kidnap children is a distraction in the relief work. The legal consequences of kidnapping are not. Legal consequences are a necessity if we don't want to open for child trafficing in every disaster.

The mere attempt by baptists to use distraction from the relief work as an excuse to abolish or shorten the legal aftermath and perhaps even save their fellow missionaries from conviction is a disgrace.

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