Virginity Pledges Don't Work; Increase STD Infection

From MSNBC.com:

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

The new analysis of data from a large federal survey found that more than half of youths became sexually active before marriage regardless of whether they had taken a "virginity pledge," but that the percentage who took precautions against pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases was 10 points lower for pledgers than for non-pledgers.

"Taking a pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior," said Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, whose report appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. "But it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking."

Go read the rest.

Church Attendance to Fall by 90%

The Guardian says that church attendance in the UK will fall over 90% by the year 2050. In Jesus' name I pray that this shall come to pass:

In one of the most holy weeks in the Christian calendar, a report says that in just over a generation the number of people attending Church of England Sunday services will fall to less than a tenth of what they are now.

Christian Research, the statistical arm of the Bible Society, claimed that by 2050 Sunday attendance will fall below 88,000, compared with just under a million now.

The controversial forecast, based on a "snapshot" census of church attendances, has been seized upon by secular groups as proof that the established church is in decline. But the Church of England has rejected the figures, saying they were incomplete and ignored new ways of worshipping outside the church network.

According to Dr Peter Brierley, former executive director of Christian Research, by 2030 just under 419,000 people will attend an Anglican Sunday service. By 2040 the number will be down to 217,200, falling to 153,800 five years later. By 2050, if the trend prediction is correct, only 87,800 will be attending.

The figures stand in contrast to the picture of faith described by the prime minister earlier this month. In a preface to a new report, Faith in the Nation, Gordon Brown said: "Faith in Britain today is very much alive and well. At the last census, more than three-quarters of the population said they belonged to a faith ... people's religious identities go right to the heart of their sense of themselves and their place in society and the world."

Keith Porteous-Wood of the National Secular Society said: "Church attendance has already been in decline for over 60 years, all over Britain, in all major denominations and across all age groups, except the over-65s. Independent statisticians now have enough data to predict confidently that the decline will continue until Christianity becomes a minority sect of largely elderly people, in little more than a generation."

Emphasis mine.

Secular Alliance of IU Visits the Creation Museum

SAIU trip to the Creation Museum from Secular Alliance on Vimeo.

Goddamn GodTube

Broadcasting Him indeed.

Atheists Take On Nativity Scene

From Boing Boing:

An atheist group placed this sign beside a Nativity scene at an Olympia, Washington government building, and some people aren't pleased. The Freedom From Religion Foundation previously posted a sign in Madison, Wisconsin that protestors have reportedly turned around so it can't be read and thrown acid on it.

...

Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher who now heads up the atheist and agnostic Freedom From Religion Foundation, said it was important for atheists to see their viewpoints validated alongside everyone else's...

"It's not that we are trying to coerce anyone; in a way our sign is a signal of protest," Barker said. "If there can be a Nativity scene saying that we are all going to hell if we don't bow down to Jesus, we should be at the table to share our views."

He said if anything, it's the Nativity scene that is the intrusion.

"Most people think December is for Christians and view our signs as an intrusion, when actually it's the other way around," he said. "People have been celebrating the winter solstice long before Christmas. We see Christianity as the intruder, trying to steal the holiday from all of us humans."

This year's War on Christmas looks to be a ferocious one, in part because atheists are increasing their visibility to new levels. So far we've seen a Washington D.C. bus ad campaign, billboards popping up left and right, and Dan Barker himself taking on a nativity scene.

So far we've seen responses from Christians along the lines of phone call complaints, petitions to stop the advertising, and emotional appeals emailed to politicians begging them to stop the atheists. But I've noticed that the Christians have not yet fought fire with fire; that is, they haven't purchased similar ad spaces to put up their own competing ads. Why not fight the atheists fairly by running a counter-advertising campaign?

No, of course, that won't do. Christians have a severe persecution complex, which makes them make phone call complaints to billboard companies and political offices, trying to get outright bans and legislation preventing the atheists from speaking their minds. The last thing a Christian wants to do is have a battle of ideas on a level playing field.

But whatever, it won't work for them. Atheists are too strong in number now, and as a group are growing far too quickly. Money and manpower are pouring into the atheists side, so let's keep it up! More War on Christmas!

Price Fail

see more pwn and owned pictures

The War on Christmas 2008

It's time to declare war on Christmas yet again. For 2008, there is a cool site called Why Believe in a God? And you can donate to an advertisement campaign that puts atheist ads on busses! I'm down, are you?

Nate Phelps is an Atheist

Looks like Fred couldn't keep all the sheep in the flock:

“I do declare myself an atheist now,” affirmed Nate, “although I’m willing to admit that there’s stuff in life that I’m not real clear on yet.”

Heaven the Fantasy Game

Genesis Works, LLC, is developing Heaven the Game, and from the screenshots and videos available on their website, it looks like it could actually be fun to play as well as provide lots of cool visual effects. Although I don't understand why all the female characters look like porn stars.

But this game brings up an important question: Will it increase or decrease belief in Christianity? Genesis Works, LLC, clearly takes the Bible and Christianity seriously, and they are proudly claiming a high level of Biblical accuracy in the game. So obviously this game is intended by the developer to be an evangelistic tool and not solely a fun experience.

Having said that, it needs to be noted that this is a video game, and video games are typically considered to be the realm of fantasy and make-believe. Will people take Christianity and the Bible more or less seriously when, at Amazon.com or the local GameStop, they see Heaven the Game sitting right next to games like Fable, The Lord of the Rings, and Pokemon?

Personally, I can't decide what to predict in terms of this game's effect on faith in Christ. As an optimistic atheist, I would like to think that this video game will make Heaven and the Bible seem like myths or fantasies, but I honestly can't say that it will with confidence. At any rate, the game looks technically impressive, and if it gets good reviews upon release, I might just pirate a copy of it. Ha ha!

Dear readers, what effect do you think this game will have on belief in Heaven? Let me know in the comments section below.

Christian Girls Are the Sluttiest

According to The New Yorker magazine, Christian girls have more out-of-wedlock sex, get pregnant more often, use less condoms (and get more STDs), and are generally bigger sluts than anyone else. Faith fails again!

The gulf between sexual belief and sexual behavior becomes apparent, too, when you look at the outcomes of abstinence-pledge movements. Nationwide, according to a 2001 estimate, some two and a half million people have taken a pledge to remain celibate until marriage. Usually, they do so under the auspices of movements such as True Love Waits or the Silver Ring Thing. Sometimes, they make their vows at big rallies featuring Christian pop stars and laser light shows, or at purity balls, where girls in frothy dresses exchange rings with their fathers, who vow to help them remain virgins until the day they marry. More than half of those who take such pledges—which, unlike abstinence-only classes in public schools, are explicitly Christian—end up having sex before marriage, and not usually with their future spouse. The movement is not the complete washout its critics portray it as: pledgers delay sex eighteen months longer than non-pledgers, and have fewer partners. Yet, according to the sociologists Peter Bearman, of Columbia University, and Hannah Brückner, of Yale, communities with high rates of pledging also have high rates of S.T.D.s. This could be because more teens pledge in communities where they perceive more danger from sex (in which case the pledge is doing some good); or it could be because fewer people in these communities use condoms when they break the pledge.

Dwindling Catholic Devotion is a Good Thing, Says Some Catholic

Leave it to Slate writer Harold Fickett to put a hopeful spin on a story about a dying breed. But behind the spin, this article reveals what I've been saying, and seeing, for years: Belief in religion is dwindling, and the importance of religion is also decreasing within the minds of its adherents.

Though the number of young people entering monasteries, convents, and the priesthood has drastically dropped from the mid-20th century, some new approaches to religious vocations have inspired some young people in America to embrace this idea, replenishing several of the older religious orders and filling new ones.

In other words, a smaller proportion than ever of faithful youths are trying to keep the old gray mare alive. But she ain't what she used to be.

The growth in these orders provides a striking contrast to the continuing decline in Catholic monastic and religious life generally. In 1965, there were twice as many religious priests and brothers as today. There are just one-third as many nuns. According to Sister Mary Bendyna, executive director of the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, the average monk is in his early 70s, the average nun in her mid-70s. The mission of many orders has become simply caring for their aging populations as they sell properties and consolidate with others.

...

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles are the most famous example of the combustible combination of the times and the dissatisfaction of many religious. In 1966, humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers led a series of "encounter sessions" with the sisters, urging them to seek personal fulfillment. Within the next several years, the order nearly vanished. In many orders at the time, the vow of chastity was widely ignored.

I especially like the idea of nuns abandoning their chastity vows. How deliciously blasphemous. It's like a bird unbinding its wings and, ignoring the demands of the invisible bird cage, taking flight into the clear blue sky.

Father Anderson says, "We were only a bunch of bums, but by becoming nothing, you can be a part of something great."

Way to go, Father Anderson. Tell us over and over again that the way to worthiness in life is by believing yourself to be a worthless bum. And after that, maybe you can explain to us why drenching oneself in blood will result in a "cleansing." Down is up, and up is down, and like Mr. Fickett says, there is hope for Catholicism in it's current withering on the vine of society. Yeah, right!

Bill Maher and Religulous

Salon.com has an article and interview of Bill Maher for his just-released film, Religious.

Religulous is a documentary similar to one of those Michael Moore films, but instead it's making fun of faith. I plan to see it later this week, and I encourage atheist and theists alike to see it too.

Anarchism, the New Atheism

An excellent post from Anarchy in Your Head entitled, "Anarchism, the New Atheism":

I can remember a time in my own lifetime when freedom of religion was frequently interpreted to mean you could be whatever flavor of Christian you wanted to be. In time, the language of religious freedom generally started to include non-Christian religions. It was still more time before the notion of religious freedom began to include the notion of freedom from religion altogether. Atheism used to be a much more fringe viewpoint, so much so that many people didn’t even fully understand what it meant. Atheists with the courage to speak up back when it was still a largely fringe viewpoint played a significant role in promoting freedom of religion. This applies even to those who, while not atheists themselves, held minority and perhaps unpopular religious views.

...

I see many similarities now in the emergence of anarchy as a personal view. It still appears to be a fringe viewpoint. However, just as I suspect there are and were a number of atheists who didn’t label themselves or desire to speak up and subject themselves to ridicule by a theist majority, there may now be many closet anarchists. The word “anarchy” still means chaos to the general public largely ignorant of the subject...

Go and read the rest of this excellent essay.

The Gerin Oil Anagram

Richard Dawkins wrote a scathing attack on Gerin Oil (aka religion). It promted some disturbed Gerin Oil/religion addict to write Dawkins a very angry letter in response. Interestingly, the ornery theist's letter only seems to confirm Dawkin's criticisms, similar to Muslims who call for the beheading of anyone who accuses Islam of being violent.

Richard's article text:

Gerin Oil
by Richard Dawkins
Gerin Oil (or Geriniol to give it its scientific name) is a powerful drug which acts directly on the central nervous system to produce a range of symptoms, often of an anti-social or self-damaging nature. It can permanently modify the child brain to produce adult disorders, including dangerous delusions which are hard to treat. The four doomed flights of September 11th 2001 were Gerin Oil trips: all nineteen of the hijackers were high on the drug at the time. Historically, Geriniolism was responsible for atrocities such as the Salem Witch Hunts and the massacres of Native South Americans by Conquistadores. Gerin Oil fuelled most of the wars of the European Middle Ages and, in more recent times, the carnage that attended the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent and of Ireland.

Gerin Oil intoxication can drive previously sane individuals to run away from a normally fulfilled human life and retreat to closed communities of confirmed addicts. These communities are usually limited to one sex only, and they vigorously, often obsessively, forbid sexual activity. Indeed, a tendency towards agonized sexual prohibition emerges as a drably recurring theme amid all the colourful variations of Gerin Oil symptomatology. Gerin Oil does not seem to reduce the libido per se, but it frequently leads to a preoccupation with reducing the sexual pleasure of others. A current example is the prurience with which many habitual 'Oilers' condemn homosexuality.

As with other drugs, refined Gerin Oil in low doses is largely harmless, and can serve as a lubricant on social occasions such as marriages, funerals, and state ceremonies. Experts differ over whether such social tripping, though harmless in itself, is a risk factor for upgrading to harder and more addictive forms of the drug.

Medium doses of Gerin Oil, though not in themselves dangerous, can distort perceptions of reality. Beliefs that have no basis in fact are immunized, by the drug's direct effects on the nervous system, against evidence from the real world. Oil-heads can be heard talking to thin air or muttering to themselves, apparently in the belief that private wishes so expressed will come true, even at the cost of other people's welfare and mild violation of the laws of physics. This autolocutory disorder is often accompanied by weird tics and hand gestures, manic stereotypies such as rhythmic head-nodding toward a wall, or Obsessive Compulsive Orientation Syndrome' (OCOS: facing towards the east five times a day).

Gerin Oil in strong doses is hallucinogenic. Hardcore mainliners may hear voices in the head, or experience visual illusions which seem to the sufferers so real that they often succeed in persuading others of their reality. An individual who convincingly reports high-grade hallucinations may be venerated, and even followed as some kind of leader, by others who regard themselves as less fortunate. Such follower-pathology can long post-date the original leader's death, and may expand into bizarre psychedelia such as the cannibalistic fantasy of 'drinking the blood and eating the flesh' of the leader.

Chronic abuse of Geriniol can lead to 'bad trips', in which the user suffers terrifying delusions, including fears of being tortured, not in the real world but in a postmortem fantasy world. Bad trips of this kind are bound up with a morbid punishment-lore which is as characteristic of this drug as the obsessive fear of sexuality already noted. The punishment-culture fostered by Gerin Oil ranges from 'smack' through 'lash' to getting 'stoned' (especially adulteresses and rape victims), and 'demanifestation' (amputation of one hand), up to the sinister fantasy of allo-punishment or 'cross-topping', the execution of one individual for the sins of others.

You might think that such a potentially dangerous and addictive drug would head the list of proscribed intoxicants, with exemplary sentences handed out for pushing it. But no, it is readily obtainable anywhere in the world and you don't even need a prescription. Professional traffickers are numerous, and organized in hierarchical cartels, openly trading on street corners and in purpose-made buildings. Some of these cartels are adept at fleecing poor people desperate to feed their habit. 'Godfathers' occupy influential positions in high places, and they have the ear of Royalty, of Presidents and Prime Ministers. Governments don't just turn a blind eye to the trade, they grant it tax-exempt status. Worse, they subsidize schools founded with the specific intention of getting children hooked.


I was prompted to write this article by the smiling face of a happy man in Bali. He was ecstatically greeting his death sentence for the brutal murder of large numbers of innocent holidaymakers whom he had never met, and against whom he bore no personal grudge. Some people in the court were shocked at his lack of remorse. Far from remorse, his response was one of obvious exhilaration. He punched the air, delirious with joy that he was to be 'martyred', to use the jargon of his group of abusers. Make no mistake about it, that beatific smile, looking forward with unalloyed pleasure to the firing squad, is the smile of a junkie. Here we have the archetypal mainliner, doped up with hard, unrefined, unadulterated, high-octane Gerin Oil.

Whatever your view of the vengeance and deterrence theories of capital punishment, it should be obvious that this case is special. Martyrdom is a strange revenge against those who crave it, and, far from deterring, it always recruits more martyrs than it kills. The important point is that the problem would not arise in the first place if children were protected from getting hooked on a drug with such a bad prognosis for their adult minds.

Now click here to see an image of the afterlife-addict's response (via Pharyngula).

Offspring Murder Club: Prayer Never Ever Works

Prayer never works. Just ask Javon Thompson and 1 Mind Ministries:

Baltimore, MD and Philadelphia, PA - When Javon Thompson died, he was only about 18 months old. Sometime between December 2006 and February 2007, the toddler was killed and left in a green suitcase in a shed in Philadelphia. Little Javon was starved to death by the members of his mother’s cult because he wouldn’t - or couldn’t - say “Amen” at mealtime prayers. Now Javon’s mother, Ria “Princess Marie” Ramkissoon, and four other cult members are charged with his murder.

Queen Antoinette’s punishment for Javon not saying “Amen” was simply to withhold food and water until the next meal, when he was given a chance to say it again. When he couldn’t or wouldn’t comply, Javon got no food and water for that meal either. At no time did Ria Ramkissoon pick up her baby and get the hell out of there. At no time did anyone call for medical assistance. The group watched baby Javon’s eyes go dark. They watched him dehydrate and starve. And they watched him die.

Once Javon was dead, Queen Antoinette put him in a room and told the cult members that God would resurrect the toddler. But she was apparently unclear on the resurrection process, and Javon did not come back to life.

Unclear on the resurrection process? Quite. Specifically, she was unclear that resurrection doesn't happen, and prayer never does shit!

What a stupid bunch of people. Jevon would have been better off if he were put in a basket and floated down a river than left in the care of his own mother, that's how bad Ria's brainwashing was.

Ria made an incredibly stupid series of mistakes. First of all, she believed in and prioritized her religion and her God over her own child (the mere fact that all religions require you to prioritize the faith over your own family should have been a big enough warning). Secondly, she made the mistake of thinking that prayer can somehow override the need for food. Third, she mistakenly thought that prayer could overcome the biological facts surrounding death. For these reasons, Ria Ramkissoon and 1 Mind Ministries are the newest members of the Offspring Murder Club!

Holy shit. A fully grown adult woman was unable to discern the facts of reality and, despite her good intentions (trying to bring her baby closer to God), she was unable to properly care for her baby's life. Indeed, she was the direct cause of the death of her baby. I think some well known words of wisdom are appropriate here: Good people do good things, and evil people do evil things, but for good people to do evil things, that takes religion!

The Offspring Murder Club is only a couple years old, and its membership roster is already bursting at the seams. Why don't we try to convince people to stop applying for membership in this club? Why don't we help spread the word that this is not a good club to belong to? Why don't we teach people to Kill the Afterlife, and kill prayer, rather than kill children?

God the Terrorist

Someone is suing God for making terrorist threats:

A Nebraska Senator who filed a lawsuit against God appeared in court Tuesday and ordered the defendant to "cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats."

...

The lawsuit accuses God "of making and continuing to make terroristic threats of grave harm to innumerable persons, including constituents of Plaintiff who Plaintiff has the duty to represent." It says God has caused "fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornadoes, pestilential plagues, ferocious famines, devastating droughts, genocidal wars, birth defects and the like."

Apparently the lawsuit is only an exercise to show some point about frivolous lawsuits, and isn't really meant to criticize religion. Bummer. But it's still funny to see the concept of god being put on trial.

California Invokes God's Wrath

As I was walking back to the office from my lunch break moments ago, I witnessed firsthand God's righteous wrath. God struck Southern California with a magnitude 5.8 earthquake, and it is painfully obvious that He did so because of California's recent legalization of gay marriage.

Unfortunately for God, there are not yet any reports of queer-deaths. It seems that He may have missed, or only have given us a "warning," which means that He will likely strike again with even greater vengeance.

Attention all queer-hating, Abrahamic-religion-believers: What should I as an atheist do now to protect myself from future earthquake-assaults from God almighty? And has God given you any revelations or hints as to when and where he will hit us next for our gay-marriage-allowing ways? Please, please provide a response to these questions in the comments section below. Do it for your fellow human beings that they might be saved from future earthquake-wrath attacks from omnibenevolent God!

LOL Cat Bible

Some LOLCat fans have been translating the Holy Bible into LOLCatSpeak.

Let's take a look at Genesis Chapter 1

1 Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.
2 Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.
3 At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.

Finally, a Bible that makes sense!

The Godly Smiting of Reverend Timothy Wright

What did Rev. Timothy Wright do to bring about God's almighty wrath? Timothy Wright is a preacher and gospel singer from New York, and last Saturday, July 5th, God stuck Timothy and his wife with a vengeance. Rev. Wright and his wife were involved in a brutal car accident in which another vehicle drove the wrong way down the street and caused a head-on collision with the Wright's vehicle. The Reverend was critically injured, and his wife was killed.

While authorities are still investigating the cause of the accident, God recently announced that it was He who made the accident happen. While He refused to give any specifics, He did tell the press:

"Rev. Wright is a sinner, just like everyone else, and his day of punishment was at hand. In my almighty wisdom and benevolence, I have unleashed massive physical injuries upon Rev. Wright, and in order to ensure that his emotional trauma matches his physical trauma, I smote his wife completely and sent her to Hell for all eternity. Let this be a reminder to you all that even when it comes to preachers, I giveth, and I taketh away."

While speculation abounds as to which sin in particular may have caused God to unleash His almighty fist of omnipotent fury, the Reverend's neighbors reported that they saw him talking to his secretary on his cellphone about business related matters the previous Sunday. According to contemporary Biblical scholars, Sunday is known as the "Sabbath," and working on the Sabbath is a "sin" in the eyes of God.

Both God and Jesus declined repeated requests for further comment, and instead instructed the press to wait for more details which would be revealed on the crispy surface of an overcooked bagel that will be put up for auction on Ebay "in due time."

Faith Fails Again and Again and Again

...and it failed one too many times for Neil Beagley, member of the Followers of Christ Church:

Authorities say a teenager from a faith-healing family died from an illness that could have been easily treated, just a few months after a toddler cousin of his died in a case that has led to criminal charges.

...

An autopsy Wednesday showed Beagley died of heart failure caused by a urinary tract blockage.

He likely had a congenital condition that constricted his urinary tract where the bladder empties into the urethra, and the condition of his organs indicates he had multiple blockages during his life, said Dr. Clifford Nelson, deputy state medical examiner for Clackamas County.

"You just build up so much urea in your bloodstream that it begins to poison your organs, and the heart is particularly susceptible," Nelson said.

Nelson said a catheter would have saved the boy's life. If the condition had been dealt with earlier, a urologist could easily have removed the blockage and avoided the kidney damage that came with the repeated illnesses, Nelson said.

Benton said a board member of the Followers of Christ church contacted the authorities after Beagley died at his family's home. The teen had been sick about a week, and church members and his family had gathered to pray Sunday when his condition worsened, Benton said.

In March, the boy's 15-month-old cousin Ava Worthington died at home from bronchial pneumonia and a blood infection.

Her parents, Carl and Raylene Worthington, also belong to the church. They have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminal mistreatment, and their defense attorneys have indicated they will use a religious freedom defense.

The damn kid bet on the wrong horse. Instead of betting on God, and on faith, he should have bet on a hollow rubber tube being shoved up his pee-hole.

Do you understand the implications here? A hollow rubber tube is more powerful than prayer. Faith was called to task, and faith failed epically.

I'm not surprised, and it's a shame that these faith healers had to be surprised. If only they were regular readers of my blog, they would have already known that faith fails again and again and again and again and again...

Offspring Murder Club: California Chapter

When stories like this appear, as they so frequently do, what else nees to be said about the danger associated with the belief in ghosts, demons, and the like?

Some 27-year-old man in California beat his 2-year-old son to death on a rural road before being shot by cops. The man was heard saying that his toddler son was infested with demons, CNN reports.

Sergio Casian Aguilar, 27, parked his truck on an unlit road Saturday night, removed a 2-year-old boy from his car seat and proceeded to stomp, kick and punch the boy to death, authorities said. The boy was unrecognizable when he was pronounced dead at Emanuel Medical Center, the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department said.

Authorities have not released the boy's name but say they believe he was Aguilar's son. The Stanislaus County coroner and the California Department of Justice are testing DNA to confirm the relationship.

Several motorists called 911 and tried to stop the beating, authorities said.

Dan Robinson, a local volunteer fire department chief, told The Modesto Bee that at first glance, he thought the child was a dead animal in the road. He said when he realized it was a child, he tried to stop Aguilar.

He said Aguilar had a "total hollowness in his eyes" and talked calmly of the boy being filled with "demons."

Witness Lisa Mota told the San Francisco Chronicle that Aguilar told people who tried to stop him that the boy was "trash."

Hey, genius! Even if demons were real, they can't be killed by physical means, right? So what good does killing your son do, even if he was infected with demons? Well I suppose it's like those pigs that Jesus had cast into the ocean, lemming style. He probably thought that the boy would be freed, or would transition to the afterlife, and not have his consciousness totally terminated from any and all existence.

That's what afterlife belief does. It makes the thought of infanticide more bearable because death isn't really death, but just a transition to another life in another dimension. Afterlife belief removes the finality and profundity of death from the equation.

If there's an afterlife, then people can't really "die," can they? And killing your 2-year-old son isn't really an evil act then, but a way of freeing him from demon infestation, right?

This man was a fuckwit and the only shame here is that the cops weren't able to gun him down in time to save the toddler. A 2-year-old is now a victim of afterlife belief.

Welcome to the Offspring Murder Club, Casian.

Jesus' Thought Police

I just found this iReport video of some Kristian Krusaders harassing attendees of a gay marriage ceremony. Listen to the confused words coming out of the guy's mouth with the Jesus shirt on.

He seems harmless enough now, but how much would more it take to get to the point where Kristian Krusaders like these end up having their own anti-gay kristallnacht event?

The Kristian declares at one point that this gay marriage ceremony, where he himself is not getting married, somehow persecutes his faith! Fine. Two can play at that game. Let's assume that this guy's religion is being persecuted by two non-Kristians who are having a gay wedding. Using that logic, it can be demanded in return that all Kristians stop wearing clothes and stop reproducing because doing so likewise persecutes my faith.

If only the government didn't stick its nose into marriage either way, then everyone would be free to recognize or not recognize whatever marriages they want.

Expelled Gets Expunged

The Blue Collar Scientist blog has an excellent post that collects recent movie critic reviews of the creationist propaganda piece, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed":

I just did a quick google search on reviews of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, and have come up with the following gems for your entertainment. And I have to say, my respect for movie reviews has gone up a lot in this process - not that I disrespected them before, but I did not have a lot of (ahem) faith that movie reviewers would be able to engage with the scientific issues as well as they have. In my searchings, I didn’t find any positive reviews that weren’t associated with religious or right-wing political publications - and then only two of those.

His collection of reviews is rather comprehensive, so go check it out. I'll quote just a few here:

The Star Tribune gives it one-half out of four stars:

According to “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” the source of all evil in the modern world is Darwinism, a philosophy that, the film posits, is responsible for everything from atheism to abortion, euthanasia to the Holocaust.

The New York Times leads with:

One of the sleaziest documentaries to arrive in a very long time, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” is a conspiracy-theory rant masquerading as investigative inquiry.

Mixing physical apples and metaphysical oranges at every turn “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.

From Time:

It’s in the film’s final third that it runs entirely off the rails as Stein argues that there is a clear line from Darwinism to euthanasia, abortion, eugenics and–wait for it–Nazism. Theories of natural selection, it’s claimed, were a necessary if not sufficient condition for Hitler’s killing machine to get started. The truth, of course, is that the only necessary and sufficient condition for human beings to murder one another is the simple fact of being human. We’ve always been a lustily fratricidal species, one that needed no Charles Darwin to goad us into millenniums of self-slaughter.

From the Colorado Springs Independent:

Nazis? It’s all about Nazis?

In a parallel universe even crazier than our own, Ben Stein, former Nixon speechwriter turned ironic symbol of the anti-hip, may be making a documentary about how the Nazis used the “controversial” theory of gravity to make bombs fall to earth — so, of course, the theory of gravity must be wrong. But we are here, and in this universe Ben Stein is actually telling us that because the Nazis thought it would be a good idea to breed people like animals, the theory of evolution must be wrong.

It’s nuttiness right from the opening moments of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. Images of Nazi atrocities and the terrors of life behind the Berlin Wall are smugly deployed in an attempt to editorialize away basic scientific fact.

Expelled isn’t about “intelligent design,” about an alternative scientific theory, or even about academic freedom. It’s about Stein believing he has proven that acceptance of evolution leads to atheism (and also, we’re told, to such horrors as birth control). Hence, evolution cannot be allowed to be true. Even if it is.

Ouch. I was particularly tickled at the Colorado Springs Independent in where they pointed out that the Nazis also used the theory of gravity to drop bombs on people.

Anyway, if you want to find out why the "Hitler=Evolution" link is intellectually bankrupt, then you should definitely read my post, "Even the ADL [Anti Defamation League] Agrees its Bullshit," over at Goosing the Antithesis. It will give you an excellent logical argument to refute the ridiculous creationist claim that Hitler's genocidal campaign was in any way evolutionary, and instead show precisely how Hitler's final solution was thoroughly anti-competitive and anti-evolutionary.

Time to Buy a Nintendo Wii

It looks like an excellent game!

Church: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

A criminal was recently sentenced to church as punishment for his crimes:

With a lengthy and violent criminal record to his name, Pachino Hill is going to church.

Hill, 29, of Davenport was sentenced Wednesday by Scott County Associate Judge Christine Dalton to a counseling program offered by Third Missionary Baptist Church. She also ordered him to attend church there eight consecutive Sundays, to pay a fine and be on probation for one year.

To me this looks like cruel and unusual punishment. Not only that, but I imagine its a bit counterproductive to order a criminal to worship, for eight consecutive Sundays, the self-professed highest-scoring murderer ever: the Christian God.

If I were in this guy's position, I would have requested to attend worship services provided by the Church of Satan, just to expose the silliness of the order, and to piss off judge Dalton of course. Failing that, I would try to attend some atheist church service or even a Universal Life Church service.

But hey, I'm an atheist, which means I'm far less likely to be facing prison time than a theist is anyway.

Ballsy-Mitzvah

This kid is badass.

glumbert - Ballsy Bar Mitzvah Speech

Godless Internets Tubes

There is no God on the Internets Tubes. Even sixty percent of US Internet users says there is no God. Throw a vote in and have your say!

Atheist Sees Big Bang in Piece of Toast

I wonder how much it will sell for on eBay?

"I was just about to spread the butter when I noticed a fairly typical small hole in the bread surrounded by a burnt black ring. however the direction and splatter patterns of the crumbs as well as the changing shades emanating outwards from this black hole were very clearly similar to the chaotic-dynamic non-linear patterns that one would expect following the big bang". "It's the beginning of the world" he added excitedly.

Ever since news of the discovery made national headlines, local hoteliers have been overwhelmed by an influx of atheists from all over the country who have flocked to Huddlesfield to catch a glimpse of the scientific relic. "I have always been an Atheist and to see my life choices validated on a piece of toast is truly astounding" said one guest at the Huddlesfield arms hotel.

A Vain Motherfucker

A retailer in Singapore recently bowed to pressure from the Catholic Cult Church to stop selling 'Jesus' cosmetics:

SINGAPORE - A cosmetics range with cheeky taglines that extolled the virtues of "Looking Good for Jesus" has been pulled from stores in Singapore after some Roman Catholics complained the items were disrespectful, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Promising to "Redeem your reputation and more," the product line included a "virtuous vanilla"-flavored lip balm and a "Get Tight with Christ" hand and body cream, as well as bags and other items sold by British retailer Topshop and produced by Blue Q, The Straits Times said.

Since when did looking good for Jesus become disrespectful? Don't we always want to look our best in church?

Anyway, some 24-year-old Catholic pipsqueak piped in and said:

"Why would anyone use religious figures to promote vanity products? It's very disrespectful and distasteful,"

But of course! Everyone knows that Jesus/God, who fucked his own mother to father himself, abhors vanity in every form. The last thing Jesus would ever do is exhibit vanity!

We now continue with our regularly scheduled and mandated-by-God worship of Jesus already in progress...

Fuck Celibacy, Not Children

And no, I'm not talking about pregnancy issues here. I'm talking about vows to celibacy. They don't work, even when the person who vows celibacy is a female:

MILWAUKEE -- A Roman Catholic nun who pleaded no contest to sexually abusing two Milwaukee boys years ago will spend a year in jail.

In the late 1960s, St. Patrick's church and school was ruled by Giannini. It's still not clear how many boys she used that power to take advantage of at the school, but two of them -- now in their 50s -- finally had their day in court at her sentencing.

Giannini has admitted to a church panel that she also molested a Chicago boy and at least three other minors.

This is sad on so many levels. It's sad that this woman made the mistake of vowing to repress her biological needs, and it's sad that these young boys were victimized as a result. This woman was not allowed to express her natural urges in a healthy and productive manner. And as I've noted before, repression leads to compulsion, and she ended up losing control and taking out her urges in an unhealthy, coercive manner on young defenseless children.

Fuck celibacy, not children.

Scientology vs. Anonymous

I never liked Scientology. And neither does anonymous. Who is anonymous, you ask? Let the video explain it to you:



Anonymous is basically those who populate the internet. Anonymous considers themselves to have power in numbers, and power in anonymity. I tend to agree, more or less.

But what I really agree with is the war being declared on one of the most notorious modern-day pro-afterlife cults, Scientology. These people suck. I've had a few run-ins with Scientologists before, and it wasn't pretty (in one encounter, the auditor angrily snatched the Dianetics book out of my hand after I politely told him that I don't believe in the afterlife). These people are nasty, and they deserve to have their beliefs ridiculed.

What will come of this? Nobody knows yet. The war doesn't officially start until February 10th. I'm not getting my hopes too high up, as anonymous is notoriously fickle and elusive. But I hope anonymous does something of significance, for the benefit of all the other anonymouses out there.

Hat tip to BlackSun Journal.

Prayer-Powered Permanent Purge of Paedophile Priests

The task? To rid the Catholic Church of pedophiles.

The weapon? Perpetual prayer.

Pope Benedict XVI has instructed Roman Catholics to pray “in perpetuity” to cleanse the Church of paedophile clergy. All dioceses, parishes, monasteries, convents and seminaries will be expected to organise continuous daily prayers to express penitence and to purify the clergy.

Oh yes, nothing works like prayer! Vatican officials reportedly expect to see their power of failure taken to new heights.

Vatican watchers said that there was no known precedent for global prayer on a specific issue of this kind. There are about one billion Roman Catholics worldwide.

Damn, if only they had done this for world war, disease, sin, and atheists, things would have been so much better! I fully expect this perpetual prayer plan to succeed, and quickly. Following this prayer-powered permanent purge of paedophile priests, I expect the Pope to apply it to all other areas of social ill, with equal success.

George H. Smith Endorses Ron Paul

George H. Smith, author of Atheism: The Case Against God, gives his endorsement for Ron Paul.