When you take ‘Intelligent Design’ and boil it down, this is what you get as an explanation: magic man done it!
Irish citizens want to be more secular
Things are not looking good for Catholicism in Ireland. The Ryan report is a gigantic bleeding wound that shows no signs of healing, and it seems to have seriously shifted the public’s opinion about religion’s place in society.
A poll conducted by Newstalk, an Irish radio station, found 70% of respondents wanted primary schools to be run by the state, and more than half felt religion had no business in schools. Here’s what some people were saying:
“It’s about time that Ireland became a secular state. Theocracy has had its day here”
“The Church can run schools if they want, but they should receive zero funding from the State.”
If things look bad for the Church, they are about to get worse, as another report detailing the handling of sex-abuse allegations against priests in Dublin is about to be released. Considering the history of abuse scandals in Ireland, I’m sure the over 1,000 pages will strike another deadly blow to the already battered institution.
The only thing remaining is the priests and nuns involved in the abuse scandal be put in jail. What we need now is justice, not just secularism. The government needs to act, and I’m hopeful this new report will finally help families that were victims of abuse find some degree of closure.
The Good Atheist Podcast: EP 072
This week Ryan is and to celebrate his return, we’ve recorded this fine show for you today! On the agenda: bias in newspaper down south, capitalism, and yeah, even some religion!
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Now she’s pissed
Sometimes when you’re in this ‘atheist game’, you get a little frustrated and annoyed when religious people make absurd claims like ‘God cured me of cancer’ when they are at a hospital.
Church of England split is inevitable
The issue of homosexuality is the biggest threat to the stability of the Church of England, with many groups within the church actively campaigning against ‘active’ gays (I assume by active they mean having gay sex) in the community according to this BBCNews article.
Over the years, the Church of England has become increasingly liberal, and their view on homosexuality has softened quite a bit. Obviously, not everyone is too happy about that, like Dr. Nazir-Ali, who wants the traditional teachings of the Bible to be upheld.
People who depart from this don’t share the same faith. They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible.
The Bible’s teaching shows that marriage is between a man and a woman. That is the way to express our sexual nature.
We welcome homosexuals, we don’t want to exclude people, but we want them to repent and be changed.
I hate when these assholes pretend they are welcoming and inviting, when in reality they are close minded and bigoted. As far as they are concerned, every gay man and woman should be fighting their sexual desires, regardless of the psychological damage that does.
A split looks like it’s inevitable, anyways. I doubt the liberal attitudes of the Church of England will stop. The UK is a very progressive country, and the Church has tried valiantly to keep up with the times. That a few old school preachers and parishioners despise this should surprise no one. The nature of religion is divisive, and I’m positive we’ll soon see to what degree very soon.
The Good Atheist Podcast: EP 071
This week, Ryan and I discuss patriotism just in time for the 4th of July, and we also talk about the the compatibility of religion and science.
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The Dr. Seuss Bible
Some classic comedy from the legendary Kids in the Hall show. If you’ve never seen them before, then you need to go and watch all their stuff right now!
Tragic proof prayer is useless
For those of you deluded enough to think religion is the greatest thing in the world, and faith, prayer and well wishing has any real effect on the natural world, allow me to point you in the direction of science. If you’re sick, you need science. If you’re hurt, injured, or have an infection, you need science. Hell, if you want something as simple as clean drinking water and the ability to have it on tap, you need science!
Most of us don’t even think about the number of times our lives have been saved by advances in scientific understanding. Most of it is invisible and automatic; from inoculations to ward off deadly diseases (smallpox and polio, anyone?), to antibiotics to help get rid of otherwise deadly infections; the fact that life expectancy has jumped from 40 to 75 is entirely because of the steady march forward of the most powerful and progressive contribution to our understanding of the natural world: science.
Still, plenty of morons aren’t convinced it does anything. These people actively choose to reject it, fearful of its powerful influence on society. They prefer the comfort and certainty of religion, even though they enjoy the benefits of a greater quality and longevity of life due to it. Here is yet another tragic example of parental ignorance based entirely on religious belief. Brent and Raylene Worthington believe in ‘Christian Science’, a fancy way of saying they reject modern science in favor of prayer. When their 18 month old baby contracted pneumonia and had an infection in her blood, they chose not to call a doctor and instead try to use their religion to cure her. For months while she was horribly ill they refused to seek medical help, and predictably, little Ava didn’t make it. Of course, they did have the intelligence to immediately call a lawyer after her death, so we’ll presume although they are ignorant of the power of science, they certainly are aware of the power of the law.
Now this tragedy wasn’t a quick death. The details are pretty gruesome, including the fact that a lump had started growing on her neck for months, and probably impaired her breathing. Both parents insist they were raising their children according to their Christian beliefs, and we are supposed to be sympathetic that they don’t believe in medical treatment, enough to acquit them of child neglect and manslaughter, presumably.
Saving little Ava would have been as simple as draining the cyst and giving her a few doses of antibiotics to cure her blood infection. Instead, we have a dead little girl and her two idiot parents to punish. Their inaction led directly to her death, and the treatments available that could have saved her life would have taken less than an hour to complete. That, my friends, is the power of science. While they prayed for months with no effect, a simple visit to the doctor’s would have saved her life.
What a fucking waste.
There’s a sucker baptized every minute!
You know what I like about the guys who wrote the Left Behind series? They aren’t afraid to admit they fucking love making money. These guys have made millions from their terrible books and movies (starring none other than everyone’s favorite ‘ex-atheist’, Kirk Cameron), selling to the easiest demographic in the world: gullible evangelical Christians.
They’ve already released 16 books, with no real plan of stopping the flow of moneys and book signing/selling tours that follow. There’s no real information out there about just how rich Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins have become since putting pen to paper, but I don’t doubt it’s very substantial.
They have also made a video game, which they released in 2006. It didn’t do so well, but that hasn’t detracted them. They are now creating an affiliate network to get churches to sell an average of 50 games a year. They are courting some 3000 churches, so if they sell the game for even 30 bucks a pop, that would net them a cool 4.5 million dollars in revenue a year. Who wants to play a game your pastor forced down your throat? Beats me. I doubt anyone even cares whether it gets played or not. The key here is the continuation of the money train that is the Left Behind Series.
I find it interesting that the self proclaimed experts on Rapture bother to accumulate wealth, since the End Days, according to these deluded fools, is coming any day now. I seem to recall their own beloved man-God, Jesus, saying it was harder for a rich man to enter heaven than to fit a camel through the eye of a needle. It’s probably the part of church they always skipped. Besides, they’ve learned the most important lesson of all from being lifelong Christians: there’s a sucker baptized every minute!
Medical Miracle? She was on Chemo!
o, this women is on chemotherapy and has surgery to remove her tumors. They luckily didn’t return, and she is cured. While her doctors were busy using science to save her life, she’s given a disgusting old finger bone of some obscure dead priest by friend, and suddenly, we’re supposed to forget the fact she was being treated for cancer and believe a divine miracle saved her. So while the real story is we have another brilliant victory for science, these morons focus on her creepy necklace. Surely her survival must be the work of God! After all, he wouldn’t want this obviously brilliant woman to join him in his magical Funland just yet.
Great job Fox News in proving once again you have no journalistic credibility whatsoever.
How to deal with racists
I love intelligence in all its forms. Here we have ill Doctrine, a hip-hop video blog that I must honestly say is a huge dose of fresh air in an otherwise suffocating sea of ignorance (maybe it’s the stories I read, but you can sometimes go a little nuts out there on the web). I may not be a hard core fan of this genre of music, but I do enjoy his opinions. His Bill O’Reily rap is also something to behold.
Militant atheist
As someone who often is called a ‘militant’ or ‘fundamentalist’ atheist, I find this video to be very succinct and pretty accurate overall. Let’s hope this guy keeps making more of them.
Pale Blue Dot
We need a new Carl Sagan.
Tell it like it is, Bill
This one is a bit old, but I always love to listen to Bill make fun of religion. If you haven’t seen his movie Religulous, what the hell is wrong with you?
Pope not welcome in Ireland
I never thought I’d see the day where the Pope isn’t welcome in Ireland. But hey, a 2,900 page report detailing the sexual, physical and emotional abuse of children by the Catholic Church is enough to make even the strongest believer feel overwhelmed. A new survey reports that until the current Pope does more to compensate the victims, the majority of Ireland doesn’t want him visiting.
I got news for you: even if the Pope does apologize, it doesn’t change the fact that Benedict XVI, prior to holding the position of Pope, was the main guy in charge of investigating child abuses in the clergy, and his report suggested the Church keep quiet about it. In all likelihood, he would have probably heard about what was going on in Ireland, but did nothing to stop the abuses there and elsewhere.
It’s an encouraging sign religious belief isn’t what it used to be in Ireland. Perhaps in a couple more decades, it’ll be as secular as the rest of Europe. We can only hope…