Category Archives: Blog

Don’t read this version of “On the Origin of Species”

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Creationism is alive and well in the United States. Despite their laughingly terrible arguments, backers of ‘Intelligent Design’ continue to flood educational institutions with materials they hope will throw doubt on the truth of evolution by means of natural selection. Their latest tactic is this book; a republication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species with a twist; the introduction is a 50 page attack on Darwin, accusing him of causing the Holocaust, of being a racist (find me one person living in 19th century England who wasn’t), and of even doubting the truth of his own theory. They misquote him at every turn (a tactic Ben Stein used extensively in his terrible movie Expelled: No intelligence allowed), and suggest Darwin wanted to use evolution to justify genocide.  Here are some choice passages:

Do you think that DNA’s amazing structure could have come together by accident? Or does it point to an Intelligent Designer? Even the director of the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute concluded there is a God based on his study of DNA.

Richard Dawkins, arguably the most famous of atheists, can’t claim the title “atheist”, because he understands that something must have created everything. He said, “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.”

Keeping in mind that the most intelligent of human beings can’t create a grain of sand from nothing, do you think that “something” that made everything was intelligent? It obviously is; and if you do believe the “force” that made the flowers, the birds, the trees, the human eye, and the sun, the moon and the stars was intelligent, you then believe that there was an intelligent designer. You have just become an unscientific knuckle-dragger in the eyes of our learning institutions that embrace Darwinism.

Jesus freak extrordinaire Kirk Cameron is the mastermind behind this project. He wants his copy of Origins to be picked up by schools. Personally, I’m sickened by the idea these intellectual midgets would publish one of the most important scientific theories of all time with a 50 page indictment in the front. What a strange schizophrenic message this must seem to children! It’s not enough for these guys to let the material stand on its own right; they have to try to sabotage the learning process in order to force their sky god down our throats.

Hey guys, how would you like it if I started printing Bibles with a disclaimer at the front that said: “Warning, materials covered in this book are of a racist, bigoted and violent nature. It should be kept well out of the reach of children, and people with a history of mental disorder should avoid reading it. The characters depicted are fictional; and any similarity with persons living or deceased is entirely coincidental.” Would you find that offensive? You know what, I have an idea…

Daniel Hauser story has a happy ending

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Remember a few months ago when I reported Colleen Hauser had fled Minnesota after a judge had ordered her son to undergo chemotherapy? You may remember them as the family who refused to use conventional medicine to treat their son’s deadly Hodgkin’s lymphoma, opting instead to follow the ‘teachings’ of a fake Native American religion called ‘Nemenhah’ (you can find out more about them and their founder, a man with a history of fraud, right here). Well, the story kind of fell off the grid (my bad), but I’m happy to report the parents have come to their senses and have agreed to follow the judge’s ruling.

Colleen spent about a week on the run before she was convinced alternative therapies would not do the trick (she was hiding out in California, the capital of New Age). It’s a good thing too; Daniel’s doctor argued the boy needs immediate and aggressive chemo in order to properly fight off his cancer.

It’s nice to know this story has a happy ending, assuming of course he responds well to the chemo, which seems likely. Kind of makes you hopeful other terribly deluded people can come to their sense with enough persuasion. Who says TGA never has any good news?

Two thirds of UK teens don’t believe in God

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It’s becoming increasingly obvious that religious traditions are fading rapidly. The Telegraph reports over two thirds of teenagers in the UK don’t believe in God, and 59% of them think religion has a negative influence on the world.

In a time where kids are exposed to a huge array of information, ideas and opinions, religion is now seen as antiquated, outdated, and incompatible with our modern values. These religious institutions are sometimes hundreds, if not thousands of years old. The fact they no longer represent our social mores in today’s society should surprise no one;  Bronze Age platitudes are ill equipped to help guide us in the Age of Science and Reason.

I think it’s interesting how many kids have a negative opinion of religion these days. It seems like they are rejecting the old values of their parents. It’s become quite clear modern homophobia, bigotry, and xenophobia is largely the result of the divisive nature of religion. In a world as interconnected as ours, there is no place for these sorts of primitive beliefs anymore.

Now, if only the ‘colonies’ can catch up to this irreligious trend, then we’d be in business…

Woman sets her child on fire in voodoo ritual

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I’ve seen some pretty messed up voodoo rituals in my day. I think probably the most graphic one involved a man, allegedly possessed by the spirit of the dead, who bit off the testicles of a goat. The gonads were spread around for everyone to suck on, until the creature’s throat was cut, with some licking the bloodied knife. Let’s just say I had some trouble keeping my lunch down.

It’s bad enough when these rituals constitute animal cruelty, but this latest story makes this goat stuff pale and seem like child’s play. Marie Lauradin was convinced her daughter Frantzcia was possessed by an evil spirit, and so she decided to douse her daughter in rum, and to burn the demons out. After the Grandmother put Frantzcia out with a bucket of water, they put her to bed, only bringing her to a hospital the next day after another relative begged them to. Frantzcia suffered from second and third degree burns. She will be scarred for the rest of her life, and I can only imagine the pain she must have gone through. I get all teary when I get a little burn on my hand. She has second and third degree burns on 25% of her body!

The mother faces up to 25 years in jail for endangering the welfare of a child, and the grandmother was also charged and faces a possible 7 years. Their version of the story was that she was boiling water and accidentally spilled it on her child when startled. She still has no explanation as to why she waited almost 24 hours before going to the hospital, however. The truth only came to be known when Frantzcia told her foster caregivers what had really happened to her.

I have to wonder how many rebellious or independent daughters have suffered at the hands of their mentally deranged mothers who believe their behavior must be the product of evil forces at work. It’s another example of how dangerous superstitious beliefs can be. It seems burning people alive is a common practice in a number of organized religions. Clearly, this shit has to stop.

I hope both these deranged women get the maximum penalty for their crime, and I hope poor Frantzcia will recover and find a new family that doesn’t think setting people on fire is a good idea. There are still a few sane people in this world, right?

Scientology lays the smack down on members

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According to four former high ranking church members, their leader David Miscavige is a violent bully who randomly and viciously attacks members of his own organization. They claim that on dozens of occasions they witnessed him attacking someone for ‘violations’ ranging from looking at him funny, to not answering questions fast enough. Miscaviage’s huge legal team denies these allegations.

Personally, if this story is true I’m not entirely surprised. I’ve seen the tactics they employ to ‘free’ people of thetans. These often involve a great deal of shaming, screaming, and yelling (where you need to stay absolutely still and show no emotion in the face of such attacks). It’s a form of mental abuse, so news that the physical kind is also prevalent in this organization isn’t very shocking.

This isn’t the first time the church has been accused of abuse, and it certainly won’t be the last. When has an organized religion ever avoided a major scandal? It’s practically a requirement these days. If you aren’t physically abusing kids, advising husbands to beat their wives when they are disobedient, or slapping your staff around, what kind of religion are you?

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…

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?

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?