Author Archives: Jacob Fortin

Christian Action League supports bullying of gays

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When I was in elementary school, I was bullied by a giant idiot named Clay. Clay had failed a few times, and as such, he was significantly bigger than everyone else in the same grade (he was roughly twice as big as I was). His obvious stupidity and lack of brain power made him detest anyone who appeared intelligent or interested in school. His favorite tactic was to hold kids upside down and shake them until their money fell out of their pockets, which he would invariably steal.

In some schools, bullying is so bad that the law needs to get involved to protect students trying to learn. This is especially true for homosexuals, who are routinely tortured and tormented in schools due to their sexual orientation. In North America, they are attempting to amend existing anti-bullying laws to include protection for gays and lesbians.

That’s something the Christian Action League is attempting to fight. That’s right; the group opposes laws that would protect kids of a different sexual orientation from being bullied. They claim these types of protection only encourages children to express their sexual identity, and eventually, their precious marriages will be threatened.

This is your typical bigoted bullshit being masked as some kind of crusade to ‘save’ marriage. It’s just another way of saying they don’t mind a world where homosexuals are flogged, ridiculed or demeaned. As far as they are concerned, these kids don’t deserve the same protection as everyone else.

Now I know there are a few people out there who wonder why the atheist movement so strongly supports gay rights. This is part of the reason right here: so long as religions continue to treat other human beings as inferior simply because of their hate and bigotry, atheists opposed to these types of institutions will defend the rights of homosexuals. Our goal is to expose the racism, intolerance and hatred of groups like the Christian Action League and their ilk.

Texas Supreme Court gives special rights to religion

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According to the Texas Supreme Court (which should be known instead as the ‘Supreme Being’ Court), religious institutions have special status that regular organizations don’t. A small town tried to prevent two church halfway houses from being built due to zoning violations, but as it turns out, the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act essentially makes it almost impossible for any municipality to deny a religious institution from setting up shop wherever they want.

The law was originally intended to prevent religious organizations from having to conform with anti-discrimination laws, as well as certain drug regulations (like the ingestion of peyote for ‘spiritual’ purposes). It’s now come to symbolize everything wrong with laws that supposedly ‘protect’ religious institutions.

How many more special provisions do we need to give these guys? Is being tax exempt, officially recognized, and lauded as paramount to society’s health not enough for these guys? Freedom of religion is also freedom FROM religion. If a town has specific zoning laws, who the hell are these guys to force them to change?

When is Texas finally going to secede from the Union? These guys make your whole country look bad…

Great speech by Robert Sapolsky on the nature of man

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I’ve always said our biggest ‘fault’ as a species is our inability to come to terms that we didn’t ‘evolve’ from apes: we ARE apes. That fact is perhaps what is indeed so fascinating about human beings; we are a talented and unique hairless ape. Robert Sapolsky is obviously quite brilliant and insightful. I cannot recommend listening to this important lecture enough. He now has one more fan.

More violent rhetoric from preachers

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I’m getting uncomfortably acclimatized to the violent rhetoric of pastors in America. It seems like every other day, some local preacher is defending the murder of Dr. Tiller, accusing the man of all kinds of terrible crimes, and raising his murderer to the status of martyr. It’s not the first time a deranged killer gets an endorsement from the self appointed messengers of god. You may recall Paul Hill (here is a crazy tribute site to him), who was convicted in 1994 of killing physicians John Britton and James Barrett. Hill encouraged others to follow in his example; when he was executed in 2003, he had no remorse and offered no apologies for taking the lives of these two men. Still today many in the religious right consider him a hero.

Now their new man of the hour is Scott Roeder, a man who was diagnosed as a possible schizophrenic (the diagnosis is contested, but all agree the man has serious mental illness) . According to his ex-wife, when he was facing financial trouble, a friend informed him paying taxes was not part of the Constitution, and it was then that he joined an antigovernmental militia and began reading the Bible with ‘zeal’. If that isn’t your stereotypical ‘gun nut’ gone wild, I don’t know what is.

If you have 20 minutes to kill and want to read what passionate and violent vitriol really sounds like, then check out this sermon by pastor David Gray, who had this to say of murder:

Violence is not always wrong. Killing is not always forbidden. Opposition to abortion does not obligate us to oppose all forms of killing. In saying this I make a biblically defensible statement. God has given the power of the sword to the state so that it may judge and execute judgment. This is true internationally and locally. Condemnation of the vile sin of abortion, the murder of an infant, an innocent, in its mother’s womb is not the same as the death penalty, properly applied.

Nor do I believe that Dr. Tiller’s killer necessarily acted inappropriately as self-appointed judge, jury and executioner…[Tiller’s] brazen boasting of his practice rendered judge and jury superfluous. He was self-accused and self-convicted.

The rest of this article is followed by your typical “Jesus is Lord, he is King, he commands everything” bullshit that goes on and on. I have to assume the reason they mention it so often is if you just claim something with fervor often enough, everyone will assume it’s true.

No, Jesus is not anyone’s Lord, and boldly declaring murdering innocent individuals is sanctified by God is the kind of hate speech most countries in the world have laws about. This is literally enticing others to continue the works of Hill and Roeder. So long as these pastors continue to entice their flocks to violence, tragedies like Tiller’s murder will be inevitable. Hey Christians, didn’t your God tell you killing is wrong? Didn’t he even make that a fucking Commandment or something? Try following it! It’s one of the few rules that makes any sense in that book of yours.

Bigotry is expensive

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Have you ever noticed the religious right always uses the word ‘pro’ for things they are vehemently opposed to? When they say ‘pro-life’ for instance, they aren’t claiming ALL life is precious; just embryos. I’ve always joked around how pro-lifers write on both side of their picket signs so after protesting at an abortion clinic, they can head over to the local prison to support capital punishment. I also like how these same people try to use the word ‘pro-marriage’ to mean they are opposed to gays marrying. I would think if you were pro anything, you would want to make sure EVERYONE could marry. That’s rather what ‘pro’ is supposed to mean, you know.

Then again, double-speak is a classic tactic of the right. Say one thing; mean the complete opposite. Here is an article about a ‘pro-marriage’ charity crying foul after their coffers were drained trying to prevent gays from adopting from their service.

The Leeds-based charity, Catholic Care, was recently told it must consider gay couples as potential adopters under the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs), despite its belief that children need a mother and a father.

Now I won’t shit on them too much; after all, they probably do an otherwise fine job of finding parents for kids. But that does not mean their bigoted ideological stance is appropriate. Kids need parents; not just a mom and a dad. Human beings require love and commitment, and there are plenty of homosexual couples who would bend over backwards to adopt (what, I’m not allowed a good gay joke once in a while?). I don’t doubt the love these kids would receive would be grand indeed.

I wish in situations like this everyone could agree to be reasonable, but that’s not always possible when someone holds a bigoted view of you. If the charity refused to let people adopt because they were a different color, would we really be too surprised when they found themselves buried in legal documents? It turns out if you discriminate against people, you get bitch slapped back to the Stone Age. How shocking.

The real losers in this whole affair are the kids. Everyone is so busy trying to defend their ideological viewpoint that they forgot the first mandate is to get children cared for by loving people, not to make a political statement.

On a side note: does anyone think it’s weird that a bunch of celibate guys in dresses condemn homosexuals for living a deviant lifestyle? Just asking…

Tired Christian claim #3: evidence for Jesus is overwhelming

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I’ve been seeing this argument popping up more and more often these days. It’s a relative newcomer in terms of claim, but it certainly is one that’s worth discussing. Last article, I mentioned how the word ‘faith’ is a misnomer; I’ve never actually met a Christian who did not think there was a mountain of evidence supporting their claim that Jesus of Nazareth was a God. Really the only time you’ll actually hear the “it’s my faith, and I believe it despite what you say” excuse is whenever you paint them in a corner.

In the early days of Christianity, there really was no debate as to whether Jesus was a real person or not. Most accepted the view that the story of Christ was a parable for living one’s life. Paul of Tarsus, who laid the foundation for Christianity, never referred to Jesus as a real person. As far as he understood it, the story of Christ was an allegory about redemption, forgiveness and finally absolution.

For a long time, Christianity developed many different branches. Some favored a more allegorical approach to the religion (see the Gnostics for more), but in 325 AD, Emperor Constantine convened the First Council of Nicaea, which would be responsible for ‘organizing’ the religion. There, a committee decided what books would eventually become the Bible. The council decided a historical Jesus was needed to codify the religion. The books of Luke and Matthew, which laid the foundation for his genealogy, were included to provide evidence of his blood relation to King David in order to fulfill Old Testament prophesy. Predictably enough, both conflict with one another (with some Christians getting really creative with their explanations).

The Council had succeeded in establishing their creed, but there existed little (if any) historical corroboration of the actual existence of a man by the name of Jesus. Since the Bible was largely considered the only real necessary historical document, there was little attempt to prove his existence outside of Christian doctrine. Why would they bother? Standards of evidence in the 4th century were not the same as they are now.

Despite the extremely flimsy evidence for the historical Jesus, Christians still maintain that the New Testament is a historical document, despite the fact even the books themselves offer contradictory stories as to the origin and lineage of Jesus. The only evidence that suggests he might have existed are the writings of Josephus, a Jewish historian who makes a brief reference to a Christus figure (which translates literally to ‘Anointed One’), but even this passage is disputed. Clearly, if someone had indeed performed the supposed miracles Jesus did, there would be more corroborating evidence for multiple sources. Of course, if St. Paul and his ilk had simply made it up, it would explain everything.

I can only imagine the need to prove the existence of Jesus is a way for Christians to feel that their religion is not entirely a fabrication. Perhaps they feel if Jesus were in fact a real man then everything else in the Bible must also be true. If you’re familiar with logic, you can quickly understand how flawed this type of thinking is.

Lots of Christians believe the evidence for Jesus and their religion in general is overwhelming. In fact, it’s far too flimsy to even qualify as proper history. It demonstrates, however, human beings need more than faith to believe in something; we demand evidence. It just so happens it’s the standards of that evidence which tends to differ with Christians. They feel that by barely proving his existence, they have somehow proved he was a God.

I might be willing to go on a limb and say Jesus may have been based on a real person (the best candidate is Apollonius of Tyana), but it’s not enough to convince anyone with a sound mind this means a virgin gave birth to an all powerful savior who sacrificed himself on a cross to absolve humans from having eaten a sacred fruit in a mythical garden. Honestly guys, is that the best you can do?

Religious wacko facing dismissal sues school district

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You can’t keep a good psycho down, apparently. John Freshwater is an eighth grade science teacher who denies evolution, used a high voltage lab tool in class to burn crosses on the arms of students, and told them homosexuals are evil sinners. The district first suspended him after hearing the allegations, and announced last June (yeah, the story isn’t exactly “fresh” here) they were canning him. Now Freshwater is suing them for violating his freedom of speech.

They still haven’t been able to get rid of a guy who clearly violated the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by trying to force his religious beliefs in a secular institution. This guy has the balls to then turn around and deny the allegations against him, claiming the school purposefully discriminated against him due to his religious beliefs. Too bad there are a bunch of pictures of burnt flesh to prove him wrong.

First off, he’s in Ohio, so odds are every single board member is a Christian, so I strongly doubt they fired him on purely religious grounds. You can’t burn crosses into students’ arms and then assume getting fired somehow violates your rights. When you work for a public school, there is a code of conduct you must follow, and trying to teach creationism in science class is a big no-no.

I want to know who actually hired him in the first place. I have to assume it’s almost impossible to find any decent science teachers down south, since he somehow passed muster. Here’s my advice to any school administrators: when employing a science teacher, it’s normally a good idea to see where they stand on science. If they have a big Bible in their hands at the interview, odds are there isn’t a lot of valuable information in their heads. I think asking a simple question like “do you believe in evolution” is a pretty simple way to find out just how qualified they are. Don’t you?

Orthodox Jews sue over light sensor

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I actually have a few friends who observe the Sabbath, refusing to use any electronic devices, perform any kind of labor, and not even touching any money. I’ve always found their customs to be rather silly, but then again, that’s how I feel about most types of rituals. I don’t have a problem with people doing what they want, so long as they keep it to themselves.

Well, that’s not good enough for some. An Orthodox couple in the UK are suing over religious discrimination because the lights in their apartment hallway have sensors which automatically turn on whenever they detect any movement. They now say they are unable to leave their apartment as a result.

They want the lights changed and their neighbors to financially compensate them for their troubles. Obviously, people in the building are less than impressed, and I can’t blame them. The light sensors were installed to avoid wasting energy, and as an environmentally conscious person, I approve the use of such devices. The fact they make observing Sabbath a problem is not anyone’s concern but the people who hold these types of useless rituals.

I’m tired of otherwise compromising and reasonable people being sued left and right because the feelings of religious folks are being hurt. The sensors are there for people’s safety and convenience. If Mr. and Mrs. Coleman are unhappy about this type of technology, there are plenty of places in Bournemouth they can move to. Demanding others inconvenience themselves to accommodate some stupid tradition is not only ridiculous; it’s fucking insulting. No one is forcing them to live there. When will religious people stop thinking the whole world revolves around them?

Faith schools in Britain try to defend their existence

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When I was a young child, I was sent to a Catholic primary school. It was the only way my parents could ensure that I went to an English institution. The trade off was every day, the teachers would force us to say a morning prayer, and class time was occasionally devoted to learning about Jesus. It was insanely boring and annoying, but I got over it. I already knew how to read and write before I got to class, as my parents had taken it upon themselves to feed my endless curiosity. It may have been part of the reason their indoctrination had little impact; I had by then already made up my mind about the issue of God, and found it wanting.

There are over 7,000 faith schools in Britain, a huge number for an otherwise secular country. Unlike in the US where private schools aren’t publicly funded, these faith institutions receive 85% of their money from the government, something a full two thirds of their population now opposes. Seeing the writing on the wall, they’ve fought back, telling everyone they are a necessary part of a diverse society. Here is a quote from an article that appeared in The Christian Institute:

Most people would accept that parents have a right to educate their children in an ethos of their choosing, however wrong it may seem to others, as long as the law is observed.

I normally don’t take any serious issue with privately funded religious schools. Parents who want to insulate and mentally stifle their children will do so regardless of whether or not these schools actually exist. At least if there is some government involvement, it means we can establish education criteria for them to follow.

But I’m not buying their stupid notion that schools promote diversity. If you’re incapable of sustaining so many schools without government funding, it demonstrates there really aren’t enough ‘diversified’ individuals willing to pay for it. Why should anyone be forced to give their hard earned tax money to religious institutions? These people already get tax breaks. They don’t need our money too.

Religion and science don’t conflict, apparently

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Apparently, the perception that religion has been impeding science is wrong! That’s according to this article in The Guardian, which claims the commonly held belief that science has a history of being suppressed and challenged by religion is false.

Unfortunately, if you’re looking for any compelling arguments in this article, you won’t find any — you’ll be better served by reading this interview with biologist Jerry Coyne on his new book, which prompted the author to write this article in the first place. It seems the author failed to mention the systematic campaign of ignorance that was entirely the product of Christianity’s stranglehold on education and science. Perhaps the most telling example is this story about Archimedes and his notebook. You may remember him from his now famous (and historically inaccurate) story about jumping out of the bath, yelling “Eureka!” after solving the mystery of water displacement. Well, it turns out Archimedes did more than simply discover this scientific gem; he also discovered integral calculus thousands of years before Newton.

This vital discovery in math and sciences in general was almost lost when the only remaining copy of his notebook fell into the hands of the Church. Roughly 700 years ago, a monk took the manuscript, erased the precious notes, flipped it 90 degrees, and converted into a prayer book. It would take another 2000 years for humans to grasp the concept of integral calculus. The loss of this information (and the subsequent recovery by modern scientific techniques) is but one of the myriad examples of how the systematic control of education and information by the Church impeded science.

Now that does not mean the two are completely incompatible. The works of Aristotle and Plato thrived under Christianity, but they did so only because their teachings were found to be compatible with Church doctrine. Anything regarded as heretical was suppressed, locked up, or destroyed. In a world where a religion claims absolute control over all elements of life, any findings or works that contradicted with doctrine was considered seditious and dangerous. We aren’t surprised by this revelation, since still today, religious institutions continue to suppress and undermine scientific discovery. Are there really any creationists that aren’t religious?

Any Dawkins fans here?

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Here is a great interview with fellow Canadian Steven Pinker for fans of evolutionary science. The video is over an hour long, so if you’re going to watch this all in one sitting, might I suggest planning your afternoon accordingly. Trust me, it’s worth it!

EA pisses off Christians, everyone else ignores them

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Guerrilla marketing is all about tricking people into learning about your product. Most of the time, you don’t even know it’s going on around you. Sometimes it’s as subtle as a person at the bar strongly encouraging you to get shots of Jägermeister, and sometimes it’s a bunch of glowing ‘litebrights’ that cause massive panic (do you remember the Mooninites debacle?). This time, the devious minds at EA are attempting to use Christian fundamentalism to create buzz about their new game, Inferno.

Their tactic was simple: pretend to be a bunch of fundies, and make outrageous / cheap looking picket signs and make yourself visible. I have no doubt they were hoping other right wing Christians would jump in on the hate bandwagon. Any publicity is good publicity, and anytime the religious right boycotts something, it’s a good day for everyone’s bottom line.

The problem is that the game (which looks like a gigantic ripoff of God of War), based very loosely on the book The Divine Comedy, isn’t the kind of thing fundies are really concerned about these days. Sure, maybe 15 years ago it would have caused an uproar, but I have never in my life met a Christian who has bothered to read the actual book. It may have been required reading 400 years ago, but nowadays, only Liberal Arts students bother to pick it up. I’ve only read about 1/3 of it myself before passing out due to boredom. Then again, poetry was never really my thing.

Hilariously enough though, it seems to have generated a little bit of vitriol from a few Christians. Here’s a funny post over at Catholic Video Gamers:

Ok, look Electronic Arts, as much as the hardcore gaming community is full of the risible self-parodies known as the “freethinking” – the Richard Dawkins-loving, fundamentalist atheist, “I’m-so-much-smarter-than-you-are-because-I-don’t-believe-in-God” types, I doubt that even they would actually be more likely to buy a game because they *think* that their ideological foes (the equally risible Fundamentalist Creationist, anti-Catholic, evangelical “Christians”) happen to hate it. Gamers of all varieties will buy this product if its, well, actually a good game. So instead of engaging in a shamelessly anti-Christian stunt to promote your poor excuse of a product, maybe you ought to work on making this game, you know, something better than a blatant God of War rip-off and make it, ya know, something worthwhile?

Well, I guess the ad campaign did work a little, eh?

Quebec priest gets 18 months for child molestation

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It never really stops does it? It seems like every other day, there’s another story involving a priest abusing kids. Luckily, once in a while, the justice system gets involved and someone goes to jail. This week, Paul-Henri Lachance, a Quebec Roman Catholic priest, was found guilty of child molestation and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

I’m still very confused as to why these guys end up serving such small sentences for crimes I consider to be quite serious. Lachance had abused Shirley Christensen for a period spanning three years (from 1979 to 1981), and yet his sentence is only half of that. While I’m happy he’s going to jail, I can’t help but feel the sentence is on the light side. Why are we putting drug dealers away for longer than child molesters? I’m pretty sure the hippie who sells me pot isn’t as big a danger to society as a sicko like Lachance.

I’m hoping this case will bring to light more of the abuses that have undoubtedly happened in this province. If there are two things you can usually count on, it’s the fact child molesters are repeat offenders, and the vast majority of those who are abused never come forward. Like an iceberg, what you see on the surface is deceptively small compared to what is hidden below the murky depths…

Discovery Institute tries to censor YouTube

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There are few institutions as corrupt, intellectually dishonest, and morally bankrupt as the Discovery Institute. Their name itself is a tragic irony; there is no ‘discovery’ going on there. All they are interested in doing is attacking the foundations of science in order to get everyone to abandon evolution in favor of creationism. They are heavily funded, ambitious, and as this video shows, without scruples. Everything is fair game to these guys. So we need to push back, and push back hard.

That’s why I’m so angry they are attacking YouTubers who are simply trying to expose them as the ignorant, anti-intellectual organization they are. Other than a website and a popular podcast, all I can do is spread the word. If any of you have some free time on your hands and happen to know the law, give this guy a hand, will ya?

Parents starve “possessed” daughter to death

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Khyra Ishaq was, by all accounts, your typical happy-go-lucky 12 year old living in Birmingham. Her mother, a recent convert to Islam, pulled her from school and began to isolate all of her children away from the outside world. Her excuse was they had been bullied in school over their attire, but no official complaint was filed with the school, and many of the house’s windows were boarded up.

One neighbor, who had left out some stale bread to feed the birds, was verbally lambasted for allowing the children to eat it (they had, apparently, been sneaking out in desperation looking for food.

The other 5 children were also dangerously malnourished, and at first glance it would appear the reason may have been because the children were not properly observing their religious rituals. It is likely this is why Khyra’s mother felt she was possessed; her natural rebellious nature would have easily been confused with some kind of demonic spirit.

It’s rather difficult to get the real story as to what happened. One thing is for sure, however; religion played a role in the neglect and torture of these children. To what extent, it’s difficult to ascertain, but it’s not uncommon for extremely religious individuals to completely isolate themselves from the outside world, especially if they feel it has a corrupting influence.

Trying to use religion to properly raise your kids is like trying to perform brain surgery with a lead pipe; there’s no room for subtlety. How many more little girls have to have their clitoris removed, or die at the hands of their own family for failing to observe religious traditions?

NOTE:  It seems she was not only starved, but also tortured. More disturbing news is coming to light, such as the systematic torture (using cold baths, beating her with a stick, etc.) of this little girl for no other reason than her mother felt she had an evil spirit. If you’re surprised by these kinds of actions, realize they are common practices in many parts of the world.