It's Official: People Believe in Bullshit

Brains 'are hardwired to believe in God and imaginary friends':

Religion is part of human nature and our brains are hard wired to believe in God, scientists believe.

The evidence includes studies of babies and children which have shown the brain is programmed to think of the mind as being separate from the body.

This distinction allows us to believe in the supernatural, to conjure up imaginary friends - and to conceive of gods, this week's New Scientist reports.

Other studies suggest our minds come with an overdeveloped sense of cause and effect, which primes us to see purpose and design everywhere, even when there is none.
Children as young as seven or eight believe that rocks, rivers and birds have been created for a specific purpose.

Taken together, the two traits mean were are perfectly programmed to believe in god.

Professor Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University in the US, said: 'There's now a lot of evidence that some of the foundations for our religious beliefs are hard-wired.
'All humans possess the brain circuitry and it never goes away.'

Internets 1, Allah 0

Some Iranian Islamic cleric got caught on film fucking a hooker. The video quickly got uploaded onto the Iranian internets. They should stone the bastard, just like they do with all other adulterers, right?

London Atheist Bus Ad Campaign

There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.

That's the message of a bunch of London atheists who have begun a massive ad campaign in response to a silly "Jesus Said" ad campaign already underway:

Today, thanks to many Cif readers, the overall total raised for the Atheist Bus Campaign stands at a truly overwhelming £135,000, breaking our original target of £5,500 by over 2400%. Given this unexpected amount, I'm very excited to tell you that 800 buses – instead of the 30 we were initially aiming for – are now rolling out across the UK with the slogan, "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life", in locations all over England, Scotland and Wales, including Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, York, Cardiff, Devon, Leeds, Bristol and Aberdeen.

From today's launch, two hundred of the buses will run in London, because the campaign was originally started as a positive counter-response to the Jesus Said ads running on London buses in June 2008. These ads displayed the URL of a website which stated that non-Christians "will be condemned to everlasting separation from God and then you spend all eternity in torment in hell … Jesus spoke about this as a lake of fire prepared for the devil". Our rational slogan will hopefully reassure anyone who has been scared by this kind of evangelism.

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.