Author Archives: Jacob Fortin

Exposing the bigotry of religion makes us bullies

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What happens when your privileged place in society begins to erode? Well, like a spoiled child, you relentlessly accuse others of being mean bullies for not letting them have their way. It takes time to become an adult, but expecting religion to mature is unrealistic. Take Matt Barber: He’s accusing secularists of being “bullies”, and his solution is playground fare: punch them in the mouth, Christians!

How are we bullies, you might wonder? It must have something to do with the fact we’re done taking their shit sitting down. When these “culture warriors” try to dictate the reproductive rights of women, prevent gays from enjoying the same rights as the straight counter-parts, and stop stem cell research, fighting back makes us seem like we’re the bad guys. Good. Just try to punch me in the fucking mouth, Matt. See what happens.

Parents acquitted of torturing daughter thanks to “religious freedom”

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In our brave new world, multicultural and diverse as it is, our moral sensibilities can often be rattled by the brutishness and ignorance of many cultural traditions that make their way to our shores. As some of you reading this blog may remember, my heart bleeds for the way African children are tortured due to a dangerous mix of new and ancient religious superstitions. The Christian crusade to possess Africa has re-ignited the belief in witchcraft, and the victims tend to be unwanted children. The sheer amount of suffering happening in places like Uganda and Nigeria is enough to make one ill, but it gets worse when this type of violence is excused as merely a matter of “religious freedom”.

When Swedish prosecutors attempted to bring two Congolese parents to justice after they systematically tortured their daughter, the defense was able to argue that exorcisms were part of their religious freedom. Combined with too little physical evidence (those horrible scars could have been anything, they say), the prosecution was unable to get a conviction.

I find myself in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with my right wing counterparts who despair multiculturalism, albeit for entirely different reasons. I don’t believe that all cultural achievements are equal. I believe many traditions are barbaric, dehumanizing, misogynistic and unworthy of being maintained. Religious freedom is simply a new way of framing dangerous or hateful practices in such a way that masks their true nature. Why are we so fucking gutless in the face of religion? The torture of any child is indefensible, and we have laws to protect them. Why do we chose instead to protect ideas whose time has long since passed?

Living Waters still using “Croc-O-Duck” argument

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Despite the fact the whole world makes fun of Ray Comfort and his lapdog Kirk Cameron over their “croc-o-duck” idea, it seems though the pair has decided this argument still holds water. If this is news to you, let me summarize the “theory”: because animals evolve slowly over time, Ray believes the process of transmutation would create strange hybrids. One such creature he nicknamed the “Croc-o-duck”, and because this animal doesn’t exist, it must mean that evolution doesn’t exist either! See how easy it is to knock a strawman down?

Despite the fact my 12 year old cousin could figure out the flaw in that logic, Ray has learned over the years if you repeat a lie often enough, someone will believe you. How else can you explain them using what is arguably the stupidest “rebuttal” in the world? Do they not realize it’s a fucking joke?

The “Homosexual Agenda”

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Actually, the odds of the Titanic hitting that iceberg were astronomically small; as it turns out, it was a series of poor decisions by the crew that led to the disaster. Had the ship actually crashed head on into the iceberg, it would have survived the impact. Ironically, it was their attempt to navigate around it that ultimately led to the ship sinking. So, if I can use their stupid metaphor against them for a moment, I would say that like all icebergs, the majority of it is hidden underwater. And like all icebergs, there is a ton of stored energy just waiting to be released. Am I done now? Can I stop comparing gay rights to a gigantic floating block of ice? It’s fucking ridiculous!

Student refuses to graduate with ceremony held in church

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I love these kinds of stories. They help give courage to young people who want to fight for what they believe in. Nahkoura Mahnassi has taken a stand: her school is planning on holding their graduating ceremony in the controversial New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. You might remember that its pastor, Eddie Long, had been accused of sexual misconduct with 4 young men (which was later settled out of court. Money solves all problems apparently).

Mahnassi has no religious affiliation, and rightly feels that the school has no business holding their ceremony in a church, especially one mired in so much controversy. Despite her impressive grades, she’s decided to stand up for what she believes in. This is exactly the kind of act that we should be supporting as a community. It’s people like Mahnassi that are out there fighting the good fight, taking all the risks. They should not be alone in their struggle! Share this story with anyone you think will care, people.

Pay the tithe and tell your wife to get back in the kitchen

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You hear that fellas? You’re the “high priest” of the household, which means you can do whatever the fuck you want. Wow, what a great deal, and all because I have a penis! If you’re a misogynistic, gullible idiot who would rather give your money to a bunch of scammers than pay your bills and take care of your family, then the Church has room for you, my friend!

It Doesn’t Get Better – Mormon Edition

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When Dan Savage started his “It Gets Better” Campaign in September of 2010, he hoped it would let bullied teens know life improves over time, and the bullying they experience in school is only temporary. For the most part, these videos are meant to speak to young gays and lesbians in high school, where the majority of bullying takes place.
One serious exception to this rule is Brigham Young University, one of the few Universities in the country that has an honor code that specifically prohibits any gay behavior:

“Homosexual behavior is inappropriate and violates the honor code. Homosexual behavior includes not only sexual relations between members of the same sex, but all forms of physical intimacy that give expression to homosexual feelings”

The video above was made independently by gay, lesbian and straight supporters of the school. While the video seems to suggest to gays at the school there are people around them that “love them”, the truth is the campus is still extremely unfriendly to gays. Since any student can be expelled for engaging in any homosexual behavior, it seems pretty obvious to anyone watching this video the real culprit in all this terrible hate is Mormonism itself. One cannot help but feel as though their message “it gets better” has a hollow ring to it when the very institution has such animosity towards the gay and lesbian community. It would be more accurate to say it does get better, but only if you leave the faith.

The school isn’t very happy about the video, but has decided to take no action, since it claims that:

The honor code…is “based on conduct, not on feeling, and if same-gender attraction is only stated, that is not an honor code issue.

If the message of the religion is still that homosexuality is wrong, then no, it does not get fucking better. Religion, as always, is not the answer.

Shitty journalist thinks ‘militant atheism’ must be fought

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How to spot a poorly written article about atheism. (1) The words ‘fundamentalist’ or ‘militant’ are used in the article without any real justification (i.e., do these words have the same meaning for our religious counter-parts, I wonder) (2) ‘Atheistic’ regimes are blamed for the worst human rights offenses (3) We’re told that secularism is an imposition rather than redressing a clear inequity.

It’s clear religious people have absolutely no idea what secularisms really mean. If it isn’t Romney trying to scare people into believing it’s a new religion being imposed by the state, it’s some close-minded Canadian journalist trying to argue militant atheism must recognize the primacy of the Judeo-Christian tradition*. Here are my favorite tropes:

True wars have been started including the crusades but wars have been started for all kinds of reasons including women – we haven’t done away with women have we?

Well, the Catholic Church did try it’s darndest during the Inquisition, with over 100,000 women burned at the stake for witchcraft. The way the Catholic Church fights against contraception, abortion rights, or even historically their right to property, it certainly feels as though full scale war is being waged on women, doesn’t it?

Did you know why we don’t execute people that are mentally ill? That goes back in the ages and was established because those not in a proper state of mind would not be able to make a proper confession of their sins and therefore killing them would also be condemning them to hell. It was seen as the compassionate thing to do.

Actually, if you were to ask most Canadians if they thought the death penalty should be re-instated in Canada, you’ll find a disproportionate number of religious people in favor of capital punishment. This tends to be a fairly universal phenomenon: highly religious people have no problem with this kind of final solution, and to claim that religion itself is the reason Canada no longer has the death penalty is just plain ignorant. This guy also seems not to really give a shit if the person who gets executed isn’t missing a chromosome, but I digress.

I believe the theory is live and let live. I can put forward my views, you can put forward yours and we can all make up our own minds. From pushing for God to be dropped from our national anthem, trying to make sure you can’t mention Easter or heaven forbid Christmas in a school to now conscience rights – trying to force doctors who have religious convictions to perform abortions against their will – there is no rest for the other side.

Ah yes, this new trope from the religious that we’re trying to ‘impose’ our secularism on others. As though removing what is already government mandated religion out of our anthem, or allowing for non-denominational holiday celebrations is automatically a threat to their advantaged position. Damn right. Secularism is about removing God from the public forum, and making it entirely a private belief again. I share his live and let live attitude, which is why I want his God out of my fucking face.

(Update: The site thankfully no longer exists, and was never web archived)

Do we need religion to be a moral society?

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Honestly, this is a silly question. It would be more accurate to ask “can we still be a moral society despite religion’s influence?” Let’s remember for a moment the world is still made a more miserable place because of sectarian infighting. How many regions of the world are currently engaged in immoral acts of violence against one another specifically in the name of their religion?

When the Catholic bishop chimes in his pointless opinion, he tries to argue religion is needed to provide a framework. Perhaps a few thousand years ago – before the advent of ethics and philosophy – this may have been true. But we’ve made leaps and bounds in our moral understanding since then, and there’s very little in “old world religion” that is in fact compatible with our modern sensibilities. When this pastor says of morality that “We start to make it up as we go along”, you’ve got to wonder if he’s even aware of the terrible irony of the statement he just made. Probably not.

Speaking of delicious irony, did you catch that black guy trying to argue that society is worse than it’s ever been? His audacity to cite his grandparent’s long standing marriage as an example (despite them living during a time of great racial prejudice) is a shocking degree of historical blindness. Try reading a fucking history book instead of the Bible, pal! And what about that woman claiming Islam encourages critical thinking…is that why the woman beside her was draped in a suffocating blanket? Lots of fucking critical thinking going on there, I’m sure.

Romney attempts to use fear of secularism to gain votes

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Oh religious people: you can never be sure if they love religion or secretly despise it. Why else would they resort to calling our free-thought movement “a religion” if not to criticize it? Obviously they recognize the fact that by definition, a religion is a creepy organization intent on pushing through their wacky agenda. While I agree this is a definite aspect of all religion, conflating our lack of belief with their dogma is both insulting and totally untrue. If atheism is a religion, than bald is a hair style.

That hasn’t stopped Mitt Romney from trying to scare the bejesus out of his faithful base. He recently tried to argue that Obama is intent on establishing a “new secular religion” that would reject all doctrine:

“I think there is in this country a war on religion,” Romney replied. “I think there is a desire to establish a religion in America known as secularism…an attack on one religion is an attack on all religion.”

Framing it this way makes sense for Romney: he needs a bunch of denominations that have hated each other for centuries to band together and help him fight the evils of scientific materialism. What is hilarious to note is the government is already in the business of establishing religion, albeit unofficially. Tax exemption, government funded abstinence programs, and religious organizations receiving government monies for their programs amounts to the same thing. For us “secularists” to compete, we would need to receive millions of dollars in subsidies, never pay any taxes, and have government sponsored student assemblies “preaching” common sense and rationalism. As you can probably guess, it’ll be a cold day in Hell when we get this kind of assistance. Hey, we’re the underdogs in this fight, but it won’t stop these fuckos from trying to paint us as the bad guys.

Fire breathing dragons explained!

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Isn’t it fun to pretend to be educated? All you need is a suit, a power-point presentation and a few hundred idiots willing to give you money as you attempt to merge your fantasy bullshit with reality. The key to faking it is simply to make bold assertions, and not to be afraid of the ludicrous. Take Dr. Richard Kent. He believes in Kent Hovind’s insane literal interpretation of Genesis, complete with 6 day creation. He also subscribes to Hovind’s special contribution to idiocy: a floating water canopy, a physics defying explanation for where all the water from the great flood came from.

With all that light having a hard time penetrating this floating liquid ocean (space must have been warmer back then), it also caused the atmosphere to have a lot more oxygen. Once the canopy disappeared, according to this moron, the dinosaurs were breathing so rapidly that they began to expel fire out of their nostrils due to friction. Tada! Isn’t it fun just making shit up?

We’re the ones with magical thinking?

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When trying to defend your religion, you’ve to pick your battles. In today’s modern world, defending the Bible is a full time job. If you aren’t busy arguing that the supposed genocide of the Canaanites or Hittites was justified because a bearded sky-deity told the Jews to do it, you’re hopelessly defending things like homophobia and slavery. What else can you expect from a series of books written thousands of years ago by ignorant herdsmen?

Take Mark Shea. He’s a new writer for the National Catholic Register, and if this article of his entitled New Atheist Magical Thinking is any indication, we’re bound to get more hilarious gems out of this clown. He’s trying to argue that the recent tactic of American Atheist to quote immoral Bible verses is leading us inextricably towards ‘magical thinking’. Here he is answering a letter from a fellow Christian upset that he can’t find a biblical passage declaring slavery to be evil. His response is worth a laugh.

I think that atheists like your friend really need to break free of fundamentalist magical thinking and learn to read books written by and for grownups.

Yeah, you silly atheists! Your books are full of unbelievable magic, like a talking snake or donkey, or bits of food that fall down from heaven to feed hungry Jews. Oh wait, that’s not our books…

People who read the Bible looking for more than Selected Ammunition Verses, would realize that contained within the New Testament is, ultimately, the only thing that succeeded in finally extirpating slavery: namely, the insistence that man is made in the image and likeness of God and that Christ loves the slave as much as the master…Of course, the New Atheists are stone blind to this in their deep ignorance and arrogance and so fail to realize that the first result of extirpating Christianity is the return of slavery

Never mind the fact the Southern Baptist Church fought tooth and nail to keep segregation for as long as it could (arguing that forcing civil rights on them violated their religious freedom…sound familiar?): if you eliminate Christianity, according to this moron, people will be enslaved again. Never mind the fact the Bible specifically condones slavery, and was one of the main tools used by preachers to fight abolition. Like every Christian before him, Mark has chosen to interpret his religion to match his pre-existing belief structure. Facts or history are irrelevant to him, so long as they contradict his specially formed Christianity.

As for the accusation that atheists engage in ‘magical thinking’, how can you convince someone who believes without question that his imaginary friend is real he’s the one living in a delusion? All we can do is shake our heads, impolitely tell these idiots they are wrong, and remind them that accusing us of ‘arrogance’ is not really an insult. We understand reality better than they do, and that merits a little pride, don’t you think?

Cancer is a fungus, says David Icke

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If you’ve never heard of David Icke, then consider yourself fortunate. The man has been giving me migraines for years. While I would like to describe David as a conspiracy theorist, it would be more appropriate to call him THE Conspiracy Theorist. He’s written 18 books, most of which focus on the idea that a Global Elite of (basically) Jewish lizard-men are behind everything that’s ever gone wrong with humanity, from religious division to global wars. Like all CT’ers, David relies on pseudo-history. In the early drafts of his book And the Truth Shall Set you Free, his extensive writings of the great hoax Protocols of the Elders of Zion and his denials of the Holocaust prompted his publishers to drop him.

When he isn’t busy arguing that the moon is actually a space-craft that beams a false reality to us (think a combination They Live and The Matrix), he’s taking on ‘Big Pharma’, and their effort to suppress the evidence that cancer is actually caused by a fungus, and not the runaway mutation of cells:

Big Pharma has no desire to cure cancer when it is making vast fortunes from treating the symptoms with devastating drugs and cell-killing, people-killing poisons like chemotherapy. But it is not primarily even about money. The bloodline families want people to suffer and die earlier than necessary as a way of culling the population.

This is why when anyone outside the Big Pharma cabal discovers an effective way of treating cancer they are immediately targeted by the medical establishment and government agencies.

The fungus he’s referring to is Candidia, lives in the body and is mostly harmless or (in some cases) helpful. Like all inter-species relationships, things can sometimes get complicated, and Candidia can cause yeast infections or even death for people with compromised immune systems. Icke claims all cancer is in fact caused by this fungus alone, and a treatment of baking soda alone would cost almost nothing and cure this deadly disease. This idea was ‘pioneered’ by an Italian scammer named Tullio Simoncini, who has already sent people to early graves peddling this nonsense.

I wonder how many minds David Icke has poisoned with his insanity? Perhaps in his deluded mind he sees himself as the good guy, but when you peddle this kind of dangerous nonsense for a living, there are terrible consequences for those too foolish to see through the lies.

Church stages kidnapping, facing charges

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When your main weapon in the war of ideas is fairy-tale nonsense, I can see how some religionists might feel a little intimidated with reality. Unlike those ‘heady’ days in the past when any old idea passed muster so long as a man of the cloth gave it a thumbs up (like the 17th century edict that declared the beaver a fish), our modern understanding of the natural world has only served to further marginalize faith. As church attendance continues to fall throughout the Western World (32% of us are faithless, according to this recent Gallop poll), desperation is beginning to set in. How else can you explain this story: a Church in Pennsylvania, called ‘Glad Tidings Assembly of God Church’, is facing charges after members staged an elaborate kidnapping hoax in an effort to ‘inform’ kids of the dangers of ‘religious persecution’.

Adults, including an off-duty cop, brandished weapons and put bags over the heads of the children, ages 13 through 18, and forced them into a church van. The group was driven to the home of an assistant pastor, who was presented before the group with a seemingly bloodied and bruised face, according to Dauphin County District Attorney Fran Chardo.

One of the adults used a real AK-47, though the gun was unloaded, Chardo said.

One of the teens, who can’t be identified, seems to be genuinely messed up from the experience (that’s religion for you). If you’re wondering exactly what these morons hoped to accomplish by brandishing weapons and threatening physical harm to children, the explanation from the pastor Pastor John Lanza won’t do much to enlighten you. He tries to justify it by claiming this staged kidnapping would…

secure the shock value of it and to make it much more real because those who are threatened don’t have a warning. It was a youth event to illustrate what others have encountered on a regular basis.”

Well, considering that holding a minor without their consent is a crime punishable by 10 years in jail, perhaps these adults should be given a taste of things to come by staging an elaborate ‘prison’ scenario so they can benefit from illustrating what they can expect on a regular basis in the big house.

No purity tests needed for Reason Rally

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With only a few days until the big event, there’s a few people fuming about some of the guest speakers coming to the Reason Rally. PZ Myers is upset that Bill Maher will be there because of some of his anti-vaccination statements in the past. Also in attendance is Senator Tom Harkin, a Catholic and a believer in alternative medicine, who plans to address the crowd. Myers is convinced that the very name of the Rally should discourage any person who holds some kind of foolish belief from speaking.

Problem is, if we did that, it might discount most of the crowd. In fact, it might mean that no human could ever hope to meet the criteria of being truly rational, and everyone should probably just stay home. Why? Because humans suck at being rational.

We aren’t a rational species to begin with. Decisions we make tend to be driven by emotion, and if our higher brain (our flaunted prefrontal cortex) does have something to say about it, it tends to only service our emotions by crafting elaborate rationalizations. (You can read all about this in the book: “The Upside of Irrationality“) This explains why extremely intelligent people can believe in utter nonsense: clever minds can rationalize well enough to satisfy their intellectual curiosity. The rest is easy; since we all have a natural bias towards any opposing views (who wants to spend all that effort changing your mind?), they will never be exposed to the flaws in their thinking.

Problem is, it would be hard to find someone who didn’t at least share some of those tendencies. I’m not sure everything I believe in is squeaky clean of the subtle manipulation of a mind which craves certainty and clarity. Are all my assumptions true (at least more conducive to reality, given our current understanding)? In Michael Shermer’s new book “The Believing Brain“, he explains how our awareness of our own biases often makes us overestimate our capacity to look beyond them. In other words, even when we think we have a handle on our irrationality, it tends to only make it worse. Is that what I do as well?

It’s all the objections to this I find irrational. The Reason Rally is a bit of an oxymoron to begin with: swept up by the emotion of the crowd, how can anyone hope to act rationally? The whole purpose of this meeting is a “prep” rally to encourage people to think for themselves, to question their own cherished assumptions, and to hold no truth as sacred. Are we now making purity tests for what constitutes a rational mind? There’s something I profoundly dislike about that idea, and I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so.