What Does She Know?

I've been having trouble containing my anger regarding McCain's VP Pick. To avoid saying anything unamiable, I will just let Jon Stewart do the talking:



Thanks to Parenting Beyond Belief for the link.


Visit here to Learn more about Palin.

Comic Relief

I almost busted a gut watching this. You will either laugh or be completely annoyed...



Thanks to The Skeptical Sorcerer

Why I don't Kill People

This is a very amiable video from Troylus2 on YouTube that attempts to explain to a believer where atheists get their morals from, and that belief in your god is not required to be a moral person. Also, the dog in the video is entirely adorable.




Thanks to Raytractors for the video.

Every Sperm is Sacred

A 44 year old woman in Canada just gave birth to her 18th child.

"We never planned how many children to have. We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that's the reason we did not stop the life," said Mr Ionce, who works in construction.

None of the couple's children were multiple births and all were born naturally apart from their four-year-old son Filip, who was born by Caesarean-section.

"[W]e strongly believe life comes from God"

Someone needs to explain to these people where babies actually come from! They seem to have some confusion on the subject if they think it is only because God wills it. I just hope they have the finances and patience to raise all 18 of these children properly.

Normal Thinking

In Germany you are required to register in each town you live in.

One of the things they ask you is your religion.

They asked my boyfriend, and he told them he was atheist.

The woman wrote "VD", and he asked, "What does that stand for?"

She replied "verschieden denkend", which means different thinking.

"No," he said, "normal denkend" (normal thinking).

Twain's Hoax

In Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Hank Morgan watches his medieval companion wallow with pigs she believes to be enchanted nobles and proclaims, “I was ashamed of her, ashamed of the human race.” Twain’s own shame at the human race’s partiality to superstition and pseudoscience was revealed on a much larger scale by his audacious hoax that claimed a petrified man had been discovered in Virginia state - complete with wooden leg and rude gesture.

Twain’s hoax appeared in the Territorial Enterprise newspaper on October 4th, 1862. It claimed that a petrified man had been found in the mountains near Gravelly Ford with his limbs preserved perfectly - even his wooden leg: “Every limb and feature of the stony mummy was perfect, not even excepting the left leg, which has evidently been a wooden one during his lifetime.”

The account included a number of geographical inaccuracies that anyone familiar with the local area would have immediately recognised, or so Twain thought - he was shocked by the credulity of his readers as they not only accepted the story, but enthusiastically reprinted it around the world. A local politician, Judge Sewall, was even bombarded with inquires and requests for information about a body he knew nothing about.

If a careful reader pieced together the positions given for the hands and fingers of the petrified man it would have become apparent the article was a spoof. Most alarming was the position of the hands and here perhaps his readers should have started to twig something was not quite right: “the right thumb rested against the side of the nose; the left thumb partially supported the chin, the fore-finger pressed the inner corner of the left eye, drawing it partly open; the right eye was closed, and the fingers of the right hand spread apart.”

Although the description is oblique a careful reading reveals that the ‘petrified body’, just like Twain’s article, was literally thumbing its nose at posterity.

Originally posted at EnvironmentalGraffiti.com

Sylvia Browne

Robert Lancaster, of Stop Sylvia Browne recently attended a show of hers in Las Vegas.

Read his account of what happened when Sylvia Browne and him exchanged words during the show and she called security on him.

Cheers to The Lippard Blog

Simply Amazing

Sorry, for some reason I couldn't embed this video.

It is Susan Savage-Rumbaugh talking about Bonobos. Really cool.

If you haven't visited the Ted website yet, you should. Lots of cool videos, you can waste tons of time there...

Workplace Wars Over Religion

Wars over religion seen in one-third of workplaces, says an article at ReportonBusiness.com

The survey was conducted with 100 Canadian senior executives by staffing service Office Team.

Nearly one-third of employers have seen clashes connected to religion in their workplaces, 31 per cent said that the "unsolicited sharing" of religious views has been a problem, and 13 per cent have seen employees refuse to do certain work or associate with certain co-workers because of their religious beliefs, a survey of 278 organizations by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) finds.

The survey also found that 61 per cent of respondents said they have made an accommodation for an employee based on his or her religious beliefs, 55 per cent of companies provide flexible scheduling to let employees attend religious services, and 33 per cent offer paid time off for religious holidays.

Still, 68 per cent said they "make reasonable accommodations for beliefs and practices," implying the remainder don't. "This is interesting because, by law, all companies are supposed to offer reasonable accommodations," noted i4cp research analyst Anne Lindberg.

The survey also found that almost two-thirds do not have any written policies that specifically address religious bias and just 12 per cent have any written definition of what constitutes a religious belief.

I have the feeling that those who were sharing their religious views without solicitation were not atheists. There would be less of a problem if religious people could resist the urge to convert and conquer.

And where are my paid religious holidays? I think we atheists should make some up...

Atheist China top Bible producer

Atheist China set to become world's top Bible producer

The factory looks like it could be any plant in this export-driven nation. Hundreds of Chinese workers huddle over loud machines churning out large orders for customers at home and abroad.

But what they're making might surprise you: Bibles.

"We have the same structure as a Motorola or a Philips," said Dean, a New Zealander who has worked with the company in China since 1991. "They make cell phones and TV tubes, and we're producing Bibles."

Because everything at the factory, including the state-of-the-art equipment and the extra-thin printing paper, is donated, Amity has maintained a decided price advantage over potential competitors overseas. Its Bibles sell for as low as $1.35 for a pocket edition and $2.10 for a hardcover.

All proceeds, Dean said, go back to the company's charity arm to fund social programs for the rural poor in China and help local churches. He declined to provide specifics.

About 21 percent of Amity's production is exported to countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Besides translations in exotic languages including Swahili and Slovak, it produces a Braille edition; nine blind workers were hired to supervise production.

Manager Li's crowded office brims with all shapes and sizes of the foreign gospel. He says he is too busy to read the book to which he has devoted 20 years of his life. Instead, he says, he is preoccupied with the quality and variety of the product.

"Here is a Zulu Bible," he said, picking up a bright pink book with a cover that sparkled like broken mirrors. "Some people may want to throw up just looking at this color. Others see it as a potential bestseller, especially if you market it with a pair of pink high-heeled shoes."

$2 for a Bible, when you can get them for free in hotel rooms? But I guess they don't have pink sparkles on them.

Read the entire Houston Chronicle article here

A Little Pat for your Friday

My favorite bits:

It's our fault for indulging religion and for giving religious opinion a status in our society that it hasn't earned and doesn't deserve.

Your soul doesn't need cleansing and is not dirty, and anyone who tells you otherwise is doing so for their own benefit, not for yours.

Because the purpose of religion is the employment and empowerment of clergy.

Secularism is not atheism, as many of these god-peddling faith jockeys will often try to pretend...

It means religious freedom for everybody, not just religious people.

It means respecting everyone's right to worship freely, but removing the power of the middlemen, the clergymen, to interfere and meddle, uninvinted, into peoples' lives.

I just don't think it's possible for us to stay this stupid for ever. We'll try of course.

I don't want it to take thousands of years, I want it to happen now.

Thanks to Atheist Media Blog.

Offensive Apparel

English metal band, Cradle of Filth, has come out with a shirt that claims 'Jesus is a (expletive deleted)' and depicts a nun masturbating. (swiped from RichardDawkins.net)

A 16-year-old was arrested on Monday for wearing the shirt and was charged with offensive behaviour under the Summary Offences Act 2005 for public nuisance.

I've been informed the expletive removed rhymes with stunt, runt and punt....

Not surprisingly, this is not the first time the shirt has had a run-in with the law.

In 2005, 19-year-old Adam Shepherd was fined £40 and sentenced to 80 hours community for wearing the shirt in England.

In an interview with Kerrang! magazine, Cradle of Filth frontman Dani Filth bizarrely suggested God was working through the band.

"Defaming organised religion openly in public is now a crime? What is wrong with England? Still, the litter problem on our city streets should improve dramatically if they keep handing out 80-odd hour community punishment orders willy-nilly," he said.

"The country will be spotless in no time, a sure sign that God works in mysterious ways, even through us!"

Am I the only one who got a chuckle out of that one?

Thank God For Science

Read Ray Comfort's latest blog entry in which he begins...

"Light is invisible. We can't see it..."

Thank you to The Atheist Blogger for the link.

While reading Ray Comfort's words of wisdoms I came across an entry titled: The Atheist Worldview

"There've been several hundred gay marriages enacted in California in the past few days. Maybe a couple of thousand by now, I haven't checked the numbers. And in the non-gay-marrying Midwest, they're fighting floods, while in California it's fair and dry. How is The Golden State managing to escape the wrath of your imaginary friend, I wonder?" Weemaryanne

Maryanne. At present there are 840 wild-fires that are burning at once in California, destroying many homes. The fires were started by lightning strikes. Guess who’s in charge of the electrical department? These are from thunder storms that have no rain. Guess who gives the rain? You said "while in California it's fair and dry." We are having the worst drought in our recorded history. Last year 1,155 homes were destroyed. You live in an imaginary world. I suggest you get out more.

So apparently Ray Comfort is claiming that the California wildfires and drought are caused by the gays. And I find it especially hilarious that he tells the commentor that they "live in an imaginary world". Words escape me...

Love Guru

Hindu religious groups have been protesting over a soon-to-be-released comedy film The Love Guru. They object to the presentation of Hinduism in a comical way.

The ‘love guru’ is a comic character who helps others with their love-life. Hindus have claimed that their religion has been slighted because the character is shown in traditional Indian yogi attire and is shown to have been trained in Hindu institutions.

The producers of the film deny such allegations claiming that the love guru is a humorous character, not representing any religion. However, Hindu organisations rebut with the argument that whenever an Indian has to be ridiculed in American media, the character is shown in a sari or dhoti. And so is the case with the love guru. (Daily Times Article)

George Carlin

NEW JERSEY - June 23 - GEORGE CARLIN, acerbic and insightful social critic and comedian died Sunday at age 71. Carlin was especially famous for his "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" routine, and his edgy style of witty commentary that made him one of the nation's funniest and most controversial performers.

But for a growing segment of the American population -- the 13% of "godless" Americans who profess no religious beliefs -- Carlin was especially heroic. George Carlin was an Atheist who often eviscerated religious dogmatism in his special, humorous style. Of religion he said:

"When it comes to bullshit, big time, major league bullshit, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do every minute of the day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry for ever and ever 'til the end of time!" (Commondreams.org Article)

Ridiculous

I wish more people thought like Larry David.


Thanks to Atheist Media

Bananas

Now I know where my fear of bananas come from, they're my worst nightmare!

I have one big problem with all of their arguments. Why does the creator necessarily have to be the biblical god? Why not any other creator that man has thought up? Why not any creator that man hasn't thought up?

This is the kind of thing that makes it hard for me to be amiable.

So I will just shut up and let you watch it yourself.

Failing Grade

Jeannette Catsoulis of the New York Times calls Expelled

One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time

a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry.

Blithely ignoring the vital distinction between social and scientific Darwinism, the film links evolution theory to fascism (as well as abortion, euthanasia and eugenics), shamelessly invoking the Holocaust with black-and-white film of Nazi gas chambers and mass graves.

Every few minutes familiar — and ideologically unrelated — images interrupt the talking heads...This is not argument, it’s circus, a distraction from the film’s contempt for precision and intellectual rigor

“Expelled” is an unprincipled propaganda piece that insults believers and nonbelievers alike. In its fudging, eliding and refusal to define terms, the movie proves that the only expulsion here is of reason itself.

Visit Expelled Exposed.

Exposed

This is an audio of an interview after some of the editors of the Scientific American watched a screening of Expelled. This is a discussion they had with the associate producer of the film, Mark Mathis. This interview is very revealing about the dishonesty of the film.
Also, check out the Expelled Exposed website.

Equality

On Yahoo!Answers someone asked the question:

Why doesn't the U.S. government acknowledge atheists?

And while I would never claim that we are persecuted or treated terribly, I would have to agree that atheists are still generally considered to be the antichrist in America. I know that the public attitude towards atheism could be better, because I have been to Europe. But I still recognize that things are a lot better than when we used to get burned at the stake. But I found some of the answers to be amusing,upsetting, and highly ignorant. Thought I'd share...

Yes, and I guess porn video shops and strip clubs are not enough to show this? (who do they think the majority of these business' customers are?)

the same reason we dont want to acknoledge satanists. you're all mixed up in the head

They are not allowed to talk about and worship God in school. isnt that good enough?
the government allready acknowledges this .... but seperation of church and state... also homo sexuals have the same rights.. but dont force your beliefs on to others.. mind your own busines.. you have the right to think and choose whatever you desire.. as long as it does not stop on others or hurt others ok

Well, the Gov tries to keep religion out of Gov and public organizations already. I'd say that is past equality... seems you have a superior position with them.

Atheist influences have been taking over our government little by little and are winning. No prayer in schools, no public displays of the 10 commandments, public funding for stem cell research... What are you complaining about?

What's your definition of equality? Do you have to pay higher taxes? Do you get to vote? Do you get get refused service at restaurants? You just want the ability to go around telling non-athiests how they should live. Does the presence of a church in your neighborhood infringe on your rights? Nobody's saying you have to attend it.
Nobody is forcing your kids to pray in school. But it seems like a lot of athiests are trying to deny non-athiest children the right to pray. (apparently we have forbidden children to pray? i wasn't aware of that new law)

I guess they are ashamed that we have them in the USA. I know that I am and that most are Godly people here so no one is saying you can't live here just stop putting us down ,,you have taken away the prayer in school and the Ten Commandent,s out of places..what more do you want,,because we will fight it in court because we are
not going to lose our right,s. (you are at risk of losing your right to freedom of religion, which may not affect you today, but could in the future)

It’s called separation of Church and State. (oh, so they have heard of it, then!)

what are you talking about? since when are atheists oppressed? you think you have it so hard when in fact you probably have very easy. how can you say that when in schools you can't pray or even talk about God without getting into trouble for it. they are even talking about taking the "in God we trust" logo off of our currency. I think it's pretty clear just how nice your faith has it in this country. when people tell you that your weak for your beliefs then you can ask this question, until then I suggest that you keep your opinions to yourself.

The US gov't has acknowledged "your" presence. But because you're the minority and the majority still frowns upon "you" the gov't will not start giving "you" special rights. At least they won't right now. Give it a few years and they will. All of this is foretold in the bible. Just wait a few years, you'll have the leader "antichrist" you want or think you want, and you'll have the "world" you think you want. One religion (which is no religion), one currency, one world. Don't get too anxious. (well, since lots of people are claiming obama is the antichrist, guess we're in luck!)

If an Atheist has No Faith, No Belief, then why should the Government believe that you have Faith in them?

Apparently these people have not heard the comments made by representative Davis in Illinois, they have not seen the polls saying that most Americans would never elect an atheist, they have never read the constitution and don't realize what separation of church & state means, and they have obviously not seen the news in the last fifty years or more, to see that religious people are trying to get their unfounded beliefs taught in school. But apparently we run this country, because poor little children aren't allowed to pray in school!