Oh Larry, if religious people DID keep their insane opinions to themselves, then I’d be out of a job, and the world would be a very different place. I guess instead of making fun of religionists, I would have to get out in the real world and get a 9-5 job…oh the horror!
Author Archives: Jacob Fortin
Religious parents beat adopted child to death
You know, in life, you have to appreciate the little things; a nice sunset, a good meal, and the subtle joys of disciplining your children with large plastic tubes. About 3 years ago, Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz were punishing their adopted daughter for being silly, and because their religion puts heavy emphasis on using physical domination to make children more obedient to God, they decided it was time to really teach her a lesson. They held her down for hours, and beat her with a plastic tube. She died from internal injuries.
If you’re a parent and want a little glimpse into their fucked up belief system, visit the site of their religious guru, Michael Pearl, who states the foolishness of children (you know, when they act silly and shit, like most kids do) needs to be beaten out of them so they can be more obedient to God. The site loves quoting the Bible as proof of their claim, and as you might guess, it’s some pretty scary stuff:
You must also condition their bodies to obedience by seizing many opportunities throughout the day to walk them through acts of obedience. As the military drills their soldiers, you must drill your children.
As a rule, do not use your hand. Hands are for loving and helping. If an adult swings his or her hand fast enough to cause pain to the surface of the skin, there is a danger of damaging bones and joints. The most painful nerves are just under the surface of the skin. A swift swat with a light, flexible instrument will sting without bruising or causing internal damage. Many people are using a section of ¼ inch plumber’s supply line as a spanking instrument.
That’s exactly what 7 year old Lydia was beaten with, and so was her 11 year old brother for supposedly being a bad influence.
I hate this kind of sadistic shit. It reminds me of the Protestant edict that children “should be seen and not heard”, as though the laughter and exuberance of children is an annoyance rather than a blessing (I’m taking that word back). If you can’t let kids be kids, opting instead to beat the “silliness” out of them, you deserve the fucking beating.
Read your damn Bible, atheists!
It’s not often I’m in agreement with believers regarding religious education, but I have to admit that I found myself partial to the arguments of one William Ingram. In this article, he argues atheist should be carefully studying the Bible. It’s also extremely necessarily to have Bible literacy, as Ingram points out, to understand the narratives fundamentalists subscribe to.
So much of our society is awash in Biblical parables and metaphors that a proper scholarly pursuit of the Bible is highly desirable. The difference between Ingram and I, obviously, is I approach this book the same way I do the Iliad, or the Koran. All of these texts are nothing more than mythological and allegorical, and many of their moral tales are antiquated and even cruel by today’s standards. It does not mean, however, they have no value. They are a window into a different world, and the very fact the Bible still has so much sway in society is a testament (pun intended) to the reverence we place on traditions or anything that’s “really old”.
So if you haven’t yet read your Bible, but want to have a great analysis along the way, try reading the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible. It almost makes the job bearable.
Let the fairy into your heart!
Best part of the video: when he called Barack Obama “Super Jesus”.
Hasidic Jews want to ban Internet for believers
It can’t be a normal day without some religious organization trying to censor the materials their flock is exposed to. Today’s unreasonable ban comes from Hasidic Jews in Israel who want to ban or heavily restrict the Internet for their congregation.
Although I’m not surprised these religious idiots would be so scared by the information super highway (remember when we all called it that?), I do find it telling they apparently think their own members aren’t mature and disciplined enough to control their own consumption. Do they not trust their own fellow Jews NOT to visit licentious sites on the World Wide Web? I think it’s telling just how paranoid and distrustful the religious sect is of their own flock. Better in their view to outright ban anything that might open up their eyes to the wider world; it’s sad, really.
Morality without God
Man, I hate the accusation that just because I don’t believe in a sky-deity I suddenly don’t possess any morals whatsoever. Who decided the only way to “be good” was by blindly accepting the moral edicts of a 6000 year old manuscript? Did everyone suddenly forget the fact things were pretty fucked up back then? What parts of the Bible are still moral by today’s standards? How about selling your daughter into slavery, or murdering your family members if they didn’t believe in the same God as you? Talk about a great moral tome!
Party Jesus causes stir in India
I need to get my hands on this book: Apparently a publishing company in India released a book with a picture of Jesus holding a beer and a cigarette in the state of Meghalaya in India. Government officials have been busy confiscating all the textbooks, and making sure everyone know just how offensive this is.
Personally I want to ask why they included this awesome image. Was this an accident, or a hilarious jab intended for Christians? Either way, I suddenly wish I had a few more fans in India so I could get my hands on it. They’ll probably destroy them all and punish the publisher for their blasphemy.
Now I know for a fact few Christians have much of a sense of humor when it comes to their Messiah (probably also because their own religion suggests blasphemy is a sin), but why would God punish you for having a good laugh? Lighten up, God!
Belief in God makes you more racist
Perhaps it can be said at one particular time (although I’m unaware of exactly when), religion offered a way for individuals to feel some degree of community with others who did not share any direct family lineage. Whatever advantage religion conferred to our ancient ancestors, the inevitable tendency for religionists to favor only those with precisely the same belief as them has fostered some of the most genocidal racism and xenophobia. For proof of this, look no further than the Old Testament, which proudly boasts the genocide of the Canaanites and other small tribes unfortunate enough to live in the land of the “chosen” people.
A new study recently found a person’s religiosity is often a very good indicator of their racism. Both conservatives and fundamentalists tend to share the same degree of prejudice, although the orthodox are usually far better at trying to mask it.
All this is nothing new for the rest of us rational enough to have long ago abandoned the divisive clutches of religion. The fact that this same study found those with no religious affiliation tended to be less racist does not surprise us, for we know full well the acidic rhetoric of the faithful. How hollow is the accusation of moral failure on the part of atheists? Shallow and uninformed indeed!
Young Americans are less religious than their parents
Religionists are going to lose their shit when they read this: a new Pew poll conducted recently found today’s younger generation isn’t as religious as their parents, and a full 1/4 of those interviewed identified themselves as either atheist, agnostic, or simply “non-religious”.
I’m not entirely surprised by these results, although I did like how the CNN article tries to reassure readers by saying people tend to become more religious with age. It kind of sends the message that “well, they’ll wise up eventually and embrace God”, but I think they underestimate just how non-religious we really are. The reality is without religion being shoved down our throats, fewer and fewer individuals are subscribing to it. If it’s up to 25% now, what happens when these young people have kids? I’m not suggesting it’ll mean the end of religion, but it’s interesting to consider just how fast people are jumping off the religious bandwagon.
Does that mean that within my lifetime a significant portion of the population will cease to believe in fairy tales? Probably not, but it’s good to know we’re all getting a little bit wiser.
Hitchens lays the smackdown
I still find it telling no religious person has yet seriously dealt with Hitchens’ challenge asking to show evidence that any moral action inspired by religion could not also be accomplished without reliance on the supernatural. I’ve said time and time again: there is no reason to believe in a world beyond the material reality of this one. The only reason we think there is one is because for the longest time in our history, it was a necessary way to explain this confusing and often cruel world. Now we know better and adherence to this superstitious belief is, quite honestly, rather embarrassing. When you were old enough to know there were no monsters under your bed, did you continue to believe out of fear of being wrong?
Catholic Church doesn’t want people being married at sea
I don’t get these guys. You would think it doesn’t really matter where people get married; so long as it’s a Catholic wedding, the folks over at the Vatican should be happy, right?
Well, It looks like Jesus hates water, as the Church has issued their latest guideline for priests on cruise ships, and one of the stipulation is that they are not to perform wedding ceremonies on these open waters:
Among its provisions, the document stipulated that priests should not celebrate Catholic weddings on a cruise, but they should be available to offer blessings for newlyweds or couples celebrating wedding anniversaries.
I figure this move is more practical than ecclesiastical; with church attendance at an all time low, weddings are still a big money maker, and I have to think cruise ship weddings would cut into their revenue pretty seriously. So what better way to avoid this than by issuing an edict that, at face value, makes no fucking sense whatsoever. You have to LOVE the infallibility of the church sometimes!
Senator Shultheis wants to open schools to proselytizers
Religious proselytizers have a new buzzword their throwing around to try and justify their renewed efforts to break down the wall separating church and state; they are arguing that their religious freedoms are being threatened. Take this example: Sen. David Schultheis is proposing a new bill that would allow students and faculty members to actively try and recruit on school grounds.
Schultheis, a Republican from Colorado Springs, believes school administrators hamper expressions of faith because the issue can be controversial and they don’t always have a clear picture of a student’s or a teacher’s constitutional rights. “This is designed to make students, parents, teachers and administrators aware that they can’t be denied religious freedom,” he said.
This is the new rhetoric that you’re going to see being used to justify the increased involvement of religion in politics. It hasn’t occurred to any of these clowns that the Separation of Church and State is precisely WHY America is such a diverse religious nation; the promotion of any religion (in particular, Christianity) threatens the religious liberties of other faiths. Look, I’m not a big fan of any religion, but I recognize the fact that everyone has a right to believe what they will, so long as the rest of us aren’t forced to. Religious freedom isn’t threatened by secularism; if it was, there would be no religious diversity in America to begin with.
Expect more of this kind of rhetorical nonsense in the future, if only because it appears to be extremely effective; there’s no better way to scare Christians than to make them believe that their religious freedoms are threatened, even when these fears are totally unjustified.
No more nails!
No More Nails: eliminates the cruel need to have someone hammered to a cross for the supposed sin of a man who never existed!
Deconversion
Here’s a great video about how one Christian slowly came to realize his religious beliefs were entirely a human invention, and not the result of divine will. Having never believed myself, I find this kind of thing totally fascinating. Also, the music is totally trippy. Be sure to watch it!
You mean Religions aren’t allowed to dictate civil rights?
In case you were unaware, Mormons typically don’t like gays. They hate them so much they devoted a significant portion of their resources to pushing for Prop 8, using all kinds of ridiculous fear mongering and veiled bigotry to convince people that allowing marriages between individuals of the same sex would somehow torpedo their own unions. It didn’t matter to them this was a complete and utter fabrication; remember, these are the same folks who believe Native Americans were actually cursed Jews .
The religious authorities of the Church, known commonly as “Elders”, have been pretty clever with their use of rhetoric to mask their bigotry and disdain for civil rights, but recently one of their old fogies started complaining about Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the court case challenging the legality of Proposition 8. Elder Lance Wickman believes this case will specifically erode the “liberty” religions have in influencing politicians, something he believes is the fundamental right of all crazy conservative religions:
I believe that the greatest challenge faced by the church,” Elder Wickman said, “is the challenge to religious liberty that is growing worldwide. … A battle is looming over the effort to acquire civil social rights at the expense of civil religious rights. This battle, I believe, represents the acceleration of a disturbing slide downward in the law regarding the place of religion in the public square.
Perry seeks a court declaration that, as a matter of law, religious views may not be used to justify the denial of a social civil right.
Wow, I guess that says it all, doesn’t it? The fact this idiot actually BELIEVES religions have a right to impose their twisted and bigoted world view on the rest of us is telling. Finally, a little bit of honesty coming out of the Mormon camp. Luckily, Americans still benefit (for now) from the separation of church and state, which dictates quite plainly religions have absolutely no fucking business in politics, for exactly the reasons outlined by Elder Wickman; they seek to impose their limited view of civil liberties on others, and that simply isn’t acceptable.