Category Archives: Blog

Feticide laws used to prosecute women, not men

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I’ve written in the past on the dangers of having fetal homicide laws. While originally intended to help prosecute any man whose violent assault causes a still birth. As you might have guessed, the law has yet to actually be used on any guys. Only one dude was ever facing charges, and they were dropped. Meanwhile, hundreds of women have been charged, including a 15 year old whose coke habit is being blamed on a stillbirth. She’s facing fucking LIFE IN PRISON for the crime of being a stupid teenager.

…anti-abortion groups were trying to amend the Mississippi constitution by setting up a state referendum, or ballot initiative, that would widen the definition of a person under the state’s bill of rights to include a fetus from the day of conception.

In Alabama, a women is facing jail time after her Downs Syndrome baby died only 20 minutes after birth. The prosecutor charged her with “chemical endangerment”, even though she flatly denies taking anything leading up to the delivery.

This type of behavior isn’t at all surprising. The Religious Right has a pretty big issue with the fact that abortion is legal, and they’ve found a clever way to bypass the legality of it by prosecuting women they feel need to be punished. What’s surprising is how cozy people are with this law. It seems totally irrelevant that we’re relegating women to the roles of baby ovens, and not much else. Their rights apparently end as soon as you impregnate them.

Ladies, if you need another reason for you to move the fuck out of this bat-shit insane country of yours, how about the fact that in at least 38 states, if anything happens during your pregnancy you could go to jail for the rest of your natural life. Does that sound reasonable to you?

Woman left handicapped after exorcism

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In the slums of Khanewal, Pakistan, the poor and indigent who suffer from treatable illnesses are sent, often by physicians wishing to unload their patients, to the Islamic equivalent of exorcists. They are called Pirs (or Peers), meaning “old man”, and these “saints” often perform barbaric torture rituals they believe can clean people of djinns, or demons.

One victim of their archaic stupidity was a woman suffering from asthma by the name of Zakia. She was taken to a famous local Pir called Safdar Khan, who proceeded to tie her up, sticking a hot poker through her wrists and feet while she howled in agony. He then beat her mercilessly until she stopped moving. This, to Safdar, was proof that the demon had been driven out.

Zakia is now bed ridden and can no longer walk. Her brother Zain – outraged that his superstitious idiot parents would take her to such a charlatan – knows that the police will do nothing to help him. As far as everyone is concerned, Safdar is a respected holy man whose words carry much weight. Zain, on the other hand, is just another unimportant peasant whose story will be forgotten in a few days.

The police know there was no other way which is why they haven’t said anything and the doctors come to us regularly for such things,” he said. Shani said that Safdar often ‘treated’ patients who had been referred to him by hospital officials.

“They always send us the cases that they know are for us. The possessed people are treated here. That is why the doctors will never go against us. Safdar is one of the most famous healers in this city,” he said.

Of course, if you think that’s the worst thing that can happen to you when going to get “exorcised”, you’re in for a horrible surprise:

In Notak Nasheb Sainghar, Pir Javed Shah broke into Shehzadi Bibi’s house late at on Friday night and told her that her house was haunted by ‘evil’ djinns who were causing her daughters to fall sick.

Shah gave Shehzadi and her daughters glasses of water that had been drugged and the family fell unconscious. Javed Shah repeatedly raped Shehzadi the entire night. When the family woke up the next day and went to the hospital doctors refused to treat her for fear of the djinns.

What a fucking shithole of ignorance, all thanks to the power of faith.

Blasphemy dismissed

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When Behemoth front-man Adam “Nergal” Darski tore up the Bible during his show, calling Christianity the deadliest cult in human history, he did more than offend his fellow Poles. He was also facing charges of blasphemy in his own country, but luckily, the charges appear to have been dropped.

I was actually surprised by the comments of one Christian who was relieved by this:

Common sense prevails – he tore up a book, good job it wasn’t the Koran! I’m a Catholic and wouldn’t tear up a bible, but he was making a personal comment and someone chose to make political mileage from it. I don’t agree with what he did, but prosecution is going too far.

If Christians were all like this guy, the world would be a lot less shitty…

This is a travesty of justice!

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Anytime you come out as an atheist, you run the risk of your life becoming more difficult. That’s what EllenBeth Wachs of Florida found out. She was arrested earlier this month by her fundamentalist local Sheriff who didn’t like her activism. What was her crime, you wonder?

EllenBeth Wachs was arrested Sunday [May 1] accused of making noises in her home that sounded as though she was having sex.

The arrest warrant says she made noise in her home on March 13 that “sounded like a woman experiencing sexual gratification in an extremely loud fashion.”

Yes, you read correctly. SHE WAS IN HER OWN HOME GETTING LAID. Somehow, the Sheriff’s office has nothing better to do than harass its own citizens. EllenBeth has put up a donation bar, and as you can expect, it’s barely past the 300 mark. Congratulations my fellow atheists, we’ve proved yet again how cheap we are. Makes me sad we can’t rally together and fight this injustice. They want to arrest an atheist woman for having orgasms in her own home. Is there no justice left in this world?

Conservapedia tries to call out Penn Jillette

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This is just plain weird: convinced of the superiority of their “argument” (mainly that their super-dad made everything so a few white people can enjoy it), they’ve decided to specifically target Penn Jillette to a debate on evolution. Firstly, they want him to answer their “15 questions evolutionists can’t answer”, a grab-bag collection of old creationist canards they think has merit. I’ll summarize them here:

  1. How did life originate?
  2. How did the DNA code originate?
  3. How could mutations create the variety of life we have?
  4. Why is natural selection taught to explain the diversity of life?
  5. How did biochemical pathways originate?
  6. We think it looks designed. Why don’t you agree?
  7. How did multi-cellular life originate?
  8. How did sex originate?
  9. Why are transitional fossils “missing”?
  10. Why hasn’t evolution transformed everything into something super-smart?
  11. How did evolution create morality?
  12. Why does society “tolerate” the teaching of evolution?
  13. Where are all the scientific breakthroughs due to evolution?
  14. Evolution deals with history. Why is it a science?
  15. We think evolution is a religion. Why is it taught in science class?

I recommend you actually read the fully phrased version. It’s fucking hilarious. Anyways, they also make a few stabs at his weight, which has become their new obsession as of late. They wrote an article recently suggesting the despair of abandoning God, or being angry at him, creates depression which leads eventually to obesity. It’s rather deranged logic, especially since there’s actually data to suggest the opposite. Regardless, it seems like a ploy to try and piss him off. I’m willing to bet it doesn’t work.

Penn has nothing to gain from engaging these bozos, since they’re so caught up in their little delusion they actually think the “evidence” of evolution points to their creator God. It makes me wonder how anyone can accept “God did it” as a satisfactory answer to all 15 of their little questions.

More excitement for Flat-Earthers

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After the article I posted a few days ago making fun of Flat-Earthers, there might still be a few of them lurking about, so I thought they might be excited to find out that the Library of Congress was just the recipient of a flat-earth map designed by one of the fathers of “modern geocentrism“, Orlando Ferguson! The map dates back to 1893, and looks a hell of a lot like a roulette table, doesn’t it?

Geert Wilders acquitted

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It looks as though the Netherlands is split down the middle over the courts decision that Geert Wilders did not incite hatred against Muslims.

Judge Marcel van Oosten ruled that some of Mr. Wilders’ comments may have been “crude and denigrating” but they did not amount to inciting hatred against Muslims and remained within the boundaries of free speech.

Even Mr. Wilders’ most inflammatory statements, including the remark that “the core of the problem is the fascist Islam, the sick ideology of Allah and Mohammed as laid down in the Islamic Mein Kampf: the Koran”, amounted to criticism of a religion and therefore were not illegal, the court decided.

I’ve never hidden the fact Wilders is a bit of a rogue, and I consider some of his opinions to be extremely fascist in nature. It doesn’t change the fact, however, that he still just uses words rather than violence to achieve his goals. This, at the very least, makes him better than most of his enemies, who would gladly kill for their beliefs.

Hey, Geert may not be one of the good guys, but he isn’t a baddie either.

You had me at “Dark Energy”

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When you’re busy fighting against the forces of superstition, dogma and pseudoscience, you can often forget about the smaller doses of idiocy that go almost completely ignored. Take Flat-Earthers. I mean, no one even bothers to debunk these clowns anymore. It’s gotten so bad that they end up doing most of the hard work of calling them on their retarded shit for you.

Take the FAQ for the Flat Earth Society. It attempts to lay out all the arguments against their wacky belief, and by doing so, instantly arms anyone with the ability to debunk this garbage. Take a look at these hilarious claims:

  • Satellites are a lie. Sustained spaceflight is impossible, and all signals are broadcast from towers or ground based satellites.
  • The Sun and moon are 32 miles in diameter and are suspended above the earth via Dark Energy [NOTE: oh look, they learned a scientific term!].
  • The Earth is constantly accelerating, thereby providing the experience of gravity. [NOTE: presumably without end].
  • A vast “Icewall” protects the worlds oceans from falling off the sides.
  • The atmosphere is actually an Atmolayer [NOTE: whatever the fuck that means].
  • The sun and the moon have gravity, but the Earth does not, because it’s special.
  • The North pole is cold because the 32 mile wide sun circles around the equator.
  • Time zones exists because the sun doesn’t emit light in all directions, but rather is like a spotlight.
  • Eclipses are caused by the “antimoon”, a mysterious moon shaped black body.
  • If you drive directly southward, you will eventually fall off the edge [NOTE: none of their “scientists” have yet attempted this daring scientific experiment].
  • The Coriolis Effect is a lie.
  • All space-based organizations are involved in a global conspiracy to keep the truth of the earth’s flatness hidden.
  • The giant “Icewall” is guarded by a government agents to prevent people from exploring it. No one has survived the attempt.

Where does one even begin? The antimoon? Government conspiracies to prevent people from realizing they’re are living on a constantly accelerating disk orbited (somehow) by a 32 mile wide spotlight and its glowing cousin? Yes, it all makes sense now! America is going bankrupt trying to pay off everyone to keep the Icewall a secret. Can you imagine what’ll happen if it melts away?

Orthodox Jews sentence dog to stoning

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I learned two things today. The first is that some Orthodox Jews believe in reincarnation. The second is these same Jews actually believe these reincarnated souls can seek revenge on their previous tormentors. That’s what a group of Rabbis thought when a stray dog entered their religious “court” and refused to leave. They were convinced it must have been the re-birthed soul of one of their “secular” enemies that had since passed away.

One of the sitting judges then recalled a curse the court had passed down upon a secular lawyer who had insulted the judges two decades previously.

Their preferred divine retribution was for the lawyer’s spirit to move into the body of a dog, an animal considered impure by traditional Judaism.

Clearly still offended, one of the judges sentenced the animal to death by stoning by local children

Don’t worry: the dog actually escaped. When an animal rights group tried to take action, the Rabbis did the right thing: they totally lied about it, and tried to sweep the whole affair under the rug. Luckily, one of the court’s managers actually has a conscience, and confirmed that Rabbi Ynet is both a liar and a coward. Let’s hope he doesn’t get away with this kind of sick and twisted shit.

Laying a good smackdown

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I love getting these kinds of letters:

Jacob,

Just wanted to drop a quick line to share an encounter I just had with a Jehovah’s Witness while walking my dog. She stopped to ask me about my religious views and I told her I was an atheist. Then she asked if I believed in evolution and I said “Of course, but I don’t have to believe in it, it’s a scientific fact.” She replied with “Well, it’s only a theory.” Of course I had to explain to her what the word theory meant and bring up the example gravity, etc. Then she tried to go into the intelligent design stuff. I won’t bore you with the details, but I was calm and genial with her and at the end she kept trying to excuse herself as I was answering her points and bringing up new ones. After five minutes she literally had nothing else to say other than there was a ‘publication’ about creation vs. evolution that I should read. So sad, these people. I know I won’t convert someone like that but it was satisfying for her to realize there are people who aren’t gullible idiots who can trump her mythology with reason every time. Love the show. Keep up the good fight!

You really can’t “convert” anyone over night. It’s a slow process, but trust me when I say it’s experiences like this that chip away at the certainty people have in regards to their faith. The more we challenge these bozos, the better. You keep up the good work, Joel!

Labeling atheism as a thought crime

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I found this hilariously offensive letter to the editor from an Irish newspaper, and I just had to include it. It’s a complaint regarding a show called “Liveline” that happened to have featured an atheist upset at a law that was passed in 2009 that would fine blasphemers thousands of dollars for “offending” religious rubes (I admit it’s a bit old, but it’s totally hilarious):

Why in the name of God (oops sorry, didn’t mean to be so insensitive/offensive), does RTE give an entire ‘Liveline’ over to a tiny rump of deranged atheists to spout their puerile propaganda? Just what is their gripe?

Well, it turns out they are annoyed at the prospect that proposed legislation will make it an offence to gratuitously offend religion: in reality, Catholicism (their big bogeyman). The big question is, though, what kind of ideology gets its kicks out of gratuitously offending the sincerely held views of others? It seems both immature and vulgar.

Perhaps the best critique of this ideology is provided in the recently published ‘The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens’, by Vox Day.

This brilliant critique clearly demonstrates why a mere anti-blasphemy law is not sufficient. In the interests of rationality and common sense, the legislation should go further and label atheism a thought crime.

Also, why is the publicly-funded state broadcaster giving these airheads a platform for their dangerous juvenalia?

Eric Conway
Navan, Co Meath

How dare atheists be annoyed that Catholics are attempting to use the long arm of the law to silence dissent? In the interest of rationality, we should ban all form of thought that denies the evidence for God! Can you think of a better way to encourage independent thought than by protecting those that hold magical views from criticism using legislation to do so?

And while we’re at it, we should also make thinking about fucking your neighbors wife into a thought crime as well. After all, according to their messiah, any Christian that has a fantasy about someone other than their wife has already done something evil and sinister.

Can you believe these clowns?

This makes atheists look bad

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I think many of you will agree that while TGA isn’t exactly the friendliest atheist site, I’ve never condoned acts of vandalism or violence against religion. I oppose it precisely because I think we need fewer religious martyrs, and there’s no better way to create sympathy for someone that to commit an egregious wrong. That’s why the news of a Church being vandalized in the name of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has me seeing red. Is this the fucking best we can do?

“Praise the FSM”: These are the words written, spray-painted and tagged across not one, but two churches on opposite sides of Bend Sunday night.

When Pastor John Bluebaugh of Christian Life Center got the news Monday morning, his first thought was, “Not again.”
“Really, what went through my mind was, about six months we were tagged as well,” said Bluebaugh. “It was the same kind of deal — different symbols, different sayings, but the exact same places.”

The Friendly Atheist is putting together a posse of generous donors to correct this injustice. Hey, if anyone pushes the boundary too far, it’s up to the rest of us to make it right. Yes, I know that technically we aren’t really a group, and the actions of a few shouldn’t represent the majority, but how often do we throw the immoral actions of believers in their faces? Let’s not add hypocrisy to the list of “sins”, shall we?

I’d like to send a little message to the “artists” who defaced the church: did you think that was a good fucking idea, morons? Did you really imagine your fellow non-believers would be impressed with such a juvenile stunt? We’re having enough of a hard time getting people to stop thinking we’re evil incarnate. This kind of bad press only strengthens people’s prejudice against us. Do we really need to fuel their misconceptions with vandalism? Does that accomplish our goals?

Next time you think about doing something this stupid, please, take a moment to check yourself. The last thing the movement needs is a bunch of idiots running around with spray paint thinking they’re hilarious. In times like these, we all look bad.

The Dutch say no to kosher

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It’s weird how the word kosher, which typically means “proper” or “legitimate”, has become such an important part of our vernacular. It’s especially weird that the concept of kosher is really a series of arbitrary rules that make little to no sense. For instance, according to Leviticus, animals that have clove hooves and chew cud are clean, but animals that have only one of these qualities are not. Jews also have a prohibition against consuming blood, which is about as impossible as you can get when eating meat.

The Dutch aren’t particularly fond of the ritualized slaughtering process either. Kosher forbids the animal from being unconscious when it gets slaughtered, which means that the suffering is much greater. The government has decided to take action and ban the practice. Cue the outrage!

For Mr. Rosenzweig, it is the latest sign of rising religious intolerance in a country where broad-mindedness has been a defining value since the 17th century.

“The country has changed. They’re not friendly any more to any religious needs people may have,” says Mr. Rosenzweig.

If your idea of a religious need just happens to be a set of arbitrary rules on how to kill animals, I’ve got some bad news for you. It looks like you might actually have to buy your food like everyone else. Oh, the horror!

As for the perceived intolerance, it’s less directed at Jews and more about the needless suffering of animals. Yes, we’re gigantic pussies now, but that’s a good thing: we’re no longer interested in causing the unnecessary suffering of our food. It almost feels progressive. Of course, that’s not the way everyone sees it.

There’s some serious debate on the science of the kindest way to kill an animal (Rosenzweig assures everyone that his knife is so sharp, they barely feel a thing), but it sounds to me like the Dutch have just about reached their tolerance limit. Perhaps it has something to do with the failure of religious minorities to properly integrate themselves into society. While I admit to being against laws that take away the rights of individuals, the slaughter of an animal is not a real concern of mine. If some religious rubes are upset that they can’t eat some ritualized consumables, I’m not really going to lose much sleep over this.

To be fair, there is a point when all of this can go too far. I’ve made a few “slippery slope” statements I’ve come to regret in the past, many of which seem embarrassing in hindsight, and I don’t want to use this line of argument here. Perhaps this is a masked attempt to make religious minorities feel less welcome. That is a strong possibility. But the Dutch are well within their rights to decide how they want animals to be killed for consumption.

In some ways the conflict has brought Jews and Muslims together; the Amsterdam Jewish-Moroccan Council has carried out protests against the new law, with imams and rabbis marching together. Kosher slaughter experts have attended Mr. Altuntas’s conferences to advise halal slaughterers on how to bring standardization to their system.

“I understand that the emotions run high,” says Ms. Thieme, “because you think that your religious community has been doing things the best possible way for thousands of years, and it’s painful to be confronted with scientific facts that show otherwise.”

Yeah, religions usually don’t have the greatest relationship with science, especially when it contradicts their bullshit. Welcome to the fucking 21st century, guys!

What Churches are all about

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If you’re a small church in the West, odds are attendance is at an all time low, tithing is way down, and desperate vicars are looking for ways to attract people into their nonsense. With profits dwindling away, any bit of parlor magic or cheap holy relic is bound to seem like a boon. Of course, it’s important to capitalize on these opportunities while your congregation is still shockingly ignorant and impressionable. Such was the hope for the now defunct “Wax Jesus” in a small church in Wiltshire.

An “image of Jesus” seen in dripped wax by worshippers at a church in Wiltshire has been removed by a cleaner. Created over a four-month period, the wax image was apparently removed by a diligent cleaner last week, although nobody has owned up.

Owned up to what? Doing their fucking job? If cleaners had to keep every stain that looked like someone’s extremely blurry messiah, then no cleaning would ever get done. Remember Christians have been “Waiting for Godot” for over 2000 years, and that’s bound to make anyone restless. They want him to return so badly they’ll start worshiping toast if it looks even faintly like someone in their supernatural pantheon. How do you tell someone in such denial of reality their God is no more real than Santa Claus?

I find the response of the church warden especially revealing:

“I felt really disappointed actually and I wished I’d done more about preserving it,” admitted Mrs. Irwin.

“The Church of England is not very good at this sort of thing and if I’d done something sooner it could have been a bit of a money spinner.”

There you go. Thanks for finally being honest with us! Rather than be upset that their false idol is now gone, the Church regrets that they aren’t as organized and efficient as the other faiths when it comes to exploiting opportunities to scam gullible people out of their hard earned cash. I mean, who wouldn’t want to pay premium monies to stare at a bunch of wax that looks like Cat Stevens?

I will say this for their congregation: most had not been fully convinced of its divinity, and so the loss of Wax Jesus is no big loss to them. I’d say for people who are superstitious and cling to anything that might resemble their hippy messiah, they show a remarkable amount of skepticism when it came to the sighting. It’s a fucking miracle!

Pray your problems away, Rick Perry!

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America is in crisis. Debt is spiraling out of control, and citizens have become consumed by deficit, of both the credit card and student loan variety. Many social programs, brought to their knees by conservative administrations, are being overtaxed by an increasingly aged population. As the average American begins to comprehend the grim situation, many are feeling desperate and afraid. So, as you can image, this is the kind of climate where religions thrive, and where naïve rubes are convinced the best way to solve everything is by asking help from a magical man in the sky (who happens to be a few thousand years late arriving). This, by the way, is the same dude who promised to come back and behead the majority of people on this planet in the worst bloodbath in human history. Who wouldn’t be excited?

The particular offender today is the new governor of Texas, Rick Perry. Now, the job of governor of the great state of Texas requires that the candidate have an overly developed religious muscle and a severely atrophied brain. Ricky has managed to outdo himself with his latest idea to solve the financial crisis in America: he wants to fill up a stadium full of Christians and have them all pray for the bad news to go away.

America is in crisis: we have been besieged by financial debt, terrorism, and a multitude of natural disasters. As a nation, we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles, and thank Him for the blessings of freedom we so richly enjoy.” The Texas Governor called on Americans to join him in asking for “God’s forgiveness, wisdom and provision for our state and nation. There is hope for America. It lies in heaven, and we will find it on our knees.

If America’s only hope is to pray to their imaginary friend for their debt to magically disappear, I’ve got some pretty grim news for them. You’re totally fucked. And considering how the average “IQ” of your government officials continues to plummet as your financial debt skyrockets, I’m surprised most of you haven’t just thrown your hands in the air and said “fuck this shit, I’m out of here”. If guys like Perry keep coming up with such brilliant plans to solve your problems, then it’s probably only a matter of time before you do.