There’s a disturbing new trend in the US. Pharmacists are attempting to prevent the sale of the morning after pill because of their belief life begins at conception. In Washington state, the government has taken the position it is illegal to deny any care based on religious convictions, due to the simple fact that their profession is not subject to theocratic moralization. This hasn’t pleased everyone, and now two pharmacists are suing the state saying their civil rights have been violated.

I’m sick and tired of every religious nut job coming out of the woodwork complaining modern society is imposing its values on them. Apparently not living in the Bronze Age has forced many Christians to compromise their antiquated belief system. These pharmacists are part of the overall health care system of the country, and as such, their priority is first to the well being of its citizens, and not their naïve belief that life begins at conception. If they aren’t happy, then they can open up a fucking hardware store.

Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen, owners of Ralph’s Thriftway, think scripture is clear that life begins at conception. They are sadly mistaken. The Bible is not a scientific document, and none of the writers had any idea what happens during pregnancies. Besides, the biggest abortionist out there is their god; a quarter of all pregnancies are terminated by the body within the first six weeks. If Christians are correct about life beginning at conception, it would appear the human body has no need for such sentimentality. It’s priority is the development of healthy embryo, not just ones that are ‘alive’.

We cannot allow religious beliefs to endanger the health services of any individual. These same pharmacists would love to stop providing birth control pills and other forms of contraceptives. I’m sure there are many who would gladly eliminate condoms as well. Does that sound like a good idea to you?

I’ve always found it amusing how religious folks try to peg atheists. Most of them think we don’t believe in God simply because we were spurned in some way, and in our pettiness, we rejected God. I won’t deny there are definitely more than a few atheists who essentially hold their views more out of spite than reason, but it’s certainly not true for most of us. Pastor Rick Warren would disagree with me. He’s got a rather strange idea of why certain prominent individuals reject the idea of God:

Paul Vitz, who is an author with New York University, wrote a very fascinating book called Faith Of The Fathers, in which he went and studied the 72 most well-known atheists in history, the Bertrand Russells, the Voltaires, the Freuds, and the only thing he could find in common with every one of them is they all hated their dads. Every one of them. They had distant dad, demeaning dad, a dead dad, they had no relationships with their fathers.

So I apparently hate my dad or something. Paul Vitz is a hack who thinks not believing in God is tantamount to a form of dementia, and Warren is the idiot who trusts his conclusions. Yeah, not believing a bearded anthropomorphic entity created human beings in ‘his’ image apparently means my family relationship was damaged in some way. I’m sure if Vitz bothered to actually spend some time with atheists, he’d realize most of us just come to reject the notion of God simply because it just DOESN’T FUCKING MAKE ANY SENSE! It’s a pretty easy conclusion, honestly.

I’m tired of every Christian I speak to thinking their religion makes them more moral than others. What bugs me the most is this stupid idea that the Bible is an adequate moral compass. It really isn’t. If one passage isn’t telling you to stone your children, it’s telling you not to eat shellfish. If pigging out on shrimp is wrong, then I don’t want to be right, dammit.

Here’s an article about Juan Alberto Ovalle, a Spanish narrator for Focus on the Family who just got busted for solicitation of a minor. Undercover agents posing as young girls caught him trying to seduce what he thought was 15 year old girl into sleeping with him. He’s obviously a pillar of society.

I went to the site to see if they would make a statement, but obviously they are too mortified to comment on the arrest. I did, however, find this quote in their ‘About’ page that I thought I’d share with you on the eve of Juan’s arrest:

Since Focus on the Family’s primary reason for existence is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through a practical outreach to homes, we have firm beliefs about both the Christian faith and the importance of the family. This ministry is therefore based upon six guiding philosophies that are apparent at every level throughout the organization. These ‘pillars’ are drawn from the wisdom of the Bible and the Judeo-Christian ethic, rather than from the humanistic notions of today’s theorists (my quote marks). In short, Focus on the Family is a reflection of what we believe to be the recommendations of the Creator Himself, who ordained the family and gave it His blessing.

Would you like to have a ‘good Christian’ like Juan Ovalle reaching out to your family? I think I’ll stick to people with more humanistic notions…

Think about how paralyzing it must be to go to another country as an exchange student only to learn your host’s parents are crazy fundamentalists trying to convert you. That’s what this kid had to live through, and despite the annoyance, he seemed more upset at the fact he had to escape their clutches and leave them feeling hurt. One part in particular was telling about the true motivations of some people:

They wanted me to help them set up a Fundamentalist Baptist church in my home country of Poland. It was God’s will, they said. They tried to slip the topic casually into conversation, but it really shocked me — I realized that was the only reason they had welcomed me into their family. They had already started construction work in Krakow — I was to help them with translations and with spreading their faith via the media.

Not too surprising really. Evangelicals are always looking for new flock members. They must have figured they could just expand their religion and spread evangelism to Poland. Didn’t some German guy take over Poland once before? How did that turn out again?

On a side note, I admire the kid’s patience. I would have flipped the fuck out, personally. Being woken up at 6am every Sunday morning to go to church is a special form of torture.

I understand the reasoning behind the Archbishop of Canterbury warning that humans are the ones who need to clean up the environment. It’s logical, and I certainly won’t argue with the logic. What I will argue with, however, is that Christians fundamentally believe the world going to shit is actually a good thing, since it means their Lord will come back, send all the good people to heaven, and fix everything on Earth eventually.

Revelations is one of the main attractions of Christianity. It’s the promised land; it’s the false hope they’ve been selling to ignorant and desperate people for two thousand years. It wasn’t supposed to last this long. Jesus told his apostles he would be back in their lifetime, but after being 20 centuries late, there are still rubes who think he will return before they die.

Half of the voting population of the US believes the Rapture will occur within their lifetime. I’m sure the hard core Christians in England feel the same. How can any of these people be motivated to do anything towards conservation? These are the same guys who think God put all the animals on the earth for us to eat and dominate. It’s not exactly a very environmentally enlightened position.

I appreciate what this guy is trying to do, but it’s going to fall on a lot of deaf ears. You’ve been telling these sheep that God is all good, all powerful and loves mankind, and in the same breath say he won’t lift a finger to help you. No one’s going to believe you. Funny, huh?

**NOTE** Thanks Courtney for pointing out they are Christians, not Catholics (I’m too used to shitting on the Catholics to notice them creeping into my writing).

The last thing you want to hear on a plane that has a fuel gauge malfunction is the pilot praying out loud. It’s a clear sign the guy has lost his marbles. Turns out the pilot and copilot of a ATR turbo-prob aircraft which crashed at sea just off Sicily will have plenty of time to pray in jail, as both have been sentenced to 10 years for failing to follow emergency procedures.

Let this be a lesson to all you pilots out there: you have been trained not to freak out and start loudly praying to God while piloting a delicate aircraft. Otherwise, the only prayer you’ll be saying is the “please God, don’t let this guy rape me in the shower”.

I used to be a huge online dater. Let’s just say it was insane enough that in the span of 2 years, I went on over 150 dates. So when I say I’m an online dating expert, I’m not joking.

I tried out every major dating site, but the one I purposely avoided was eHarmony. I generally found their philosophy of being able to ‘pair’ people up was deeply flawed, and at the heart of it, they have extremely conservative attitudes about relationships in general. They were sued a few months ago for actively discriminating against homosexuals, and were hilariously forced to provide that service. Why any self respecting gay man would try and use eHarmony is beyond me, but I digress.

The latest bullshit coming out of that website is an article about why people cheat. Apparently, if you aren’t religious you lack the morality not to cheat on your partner. That’s according to ‘Dr. Gian Gonzaga’, who like all eHarmony employees toes the religious line. I personally find it unsurprising that the good doctor provides absolutely no references, and includes the ubiquitous phrase ‘studies have shown’. Yeah, I’m sure they did, Doc. Forget the fact divorce rates are actually lower for atheists and agnostics; these guys think religion is some kind of marriage panacea. It isn’t. Get over it.

It’s always interesting that perception does not usually reflect reality, specifically when it comes to religion. If you looked only at statistics, it would seem as religion were on a comeback, since studies have shown the average person attends church more often than in any period of American history. However, on the other side of the equation, it would appear that every state in the US has seen some significant increases in the number of atheists and general non-religious individuals.

This leads me to conclude, therefore, it isn’t that religion is making a comeback, but rather there is an increase in the marginalization of religion in American life. Individuals who are already religious are affirming themselves more, but I believe the growth of atheism is a direct consequence of this. People who previously did not care are forced to choose sides as Christianity tries to strengthen its foothold in American politics and life.

So long as religion is no longer a private affair, the battle lines will always be drawn, and atheism will continue to grow. Every generation rejects the outdated values of their parents, and religion may suffer a heavy blow in the coming years. Don’t expect this to be the end, however. If we can be certain of anything, it’s that religion has never played fair, and doesn’t enjoy becoming marginalized.

Florida is facing a budget deficit, and the primary concern of their government should be to ensure this economic crisis doesn’t bankrupt their state. Of course, not everyone sees the economy as the most important issue of the day:

Florida Baptist Convention legislative consultant Bill Bunkley is urging Florida Baptists to evaluate budget priorities “through the lens of God’s principles and His priorities and to urge the Legislature to do the same.

Of primary concern to Florida Baptists should be the sanctity of human life from the womb to the tomb, marriages defined and supported as those anchored by a husband and wife, educational honesty about the creation and development of the world as created by God, the further temptation of those experiencing financial hardship by increased gambling venues and incremental moves by government to adopt a socialistic approach to providing necessary services.

Bill wants the issues to be centered around all of this pointless bullshit. Foreclosures? People losing their jobs? It’s all useless to him. That any misery here on planet earth could be avoided seems less important than the eternal souls of Floridians, apparently.

It’s Ash Wednesday today. It’s the first day of Lent, the supposed time Jesus walked around being tempted by the devil. It’s called Ash Wednesday because of the custom of putting a cross of ash on someone’s foreheads as a sign of repentance (looks more like finger painting to me), and it’s the beginning of 40 days of personal sacrifice (not literally, of course). I had to look up this quirky day on Wikipedia, not because I’m an ignoramus, but simply because this isn’t something I’ve actually come across. I live in Quebec; the notion anyone would stop doing something they find pleasurable for more than a day is a foreign concept. These are the same people who smoke in church.

So for now if you’re a practicing Christian, the party is fucking over. You’ve got to sit straight, do your math, file your taxes and give up something you love for a while. I, on the other hand, will be doing the complete opposite. It’s my birthday in 3 days, and the last thing I’d ever do is slow shit down. I think Atheists should use Lent as an excuse to party for 40 days. If anything it should frustrate the hell out of the true believers. Who’s with me?!

It always surprises me how little religious people actually understand atheism. I believe it has something to do with the fact they can’t possibly imagine why anyone would choose to reject the notion of God. It must be doubly confusing if your entire life is defined by your faith. It’s this fundamental lack of understanding that’s behind the latest claim from Jake the Evangelical, who says atheists can’t possible have any passion since they don’t believe in anything.

His article is the standard fare for most of these undereducated yokels; Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is somehow false, atheists deny everything that exists, and for some reason, every freethinker literally worships the ACLU. If it weren’t so insanely wrong and plain ignorant, I might have actually found these claims to be amusing. But the truth is these guys have a strong influence on their poorly read and grossly uneducated crowd, and they continue to spread falsehoods about what it means to be an atheist.

In my time writing for this site, I’ve always tried to put myself in the shoes of others. I try to understand how deeply religious people might feel about others who threaten their world view. Atheism for guys like Jake is the biggest threat to the authority of their church. It’s why they feel the need to continue to spread falsehoods and outright lies to undermine us.

I’m an atheist, and anyone who has ever heard the podcast or who has read my articles knows I’m a passionate man. I’m especially passionate when redneck morons go around making asinine claims like ‘Darwin was wrong’ or atheists are nihilists who are bent on destroying the fabric of society. It hasn’t occurred to these morons that we are happy, moral people who don’t require a Bronze Age deity to tell us what to do. We have faith in the goodness of others, and in the power of human beings to choose their own destiny. I think you’ll find many of us are passionate about truth far more than Jake the Evangelical is.

I’m tired of magazines continuously talking about how faith is good for your health, or how it makes people feel better. You almost feel like there is a salesman at work, trying to coax you into going to church. I’ve already written on the notion being religious makes you live longer. So does cutting off your testicles. I don’t know about you other fellows, but I’d rather die with a smile on my face.

Time is now the latest mainstream magazine to feature an article on the health benefits of religion. The writer argues the brain is hard wired to be spiritual, and it only makes sense use religion to obtain the health benefits spirituality supposedly bestows. Chief among his arguments is people who meditate have better health and improved concentration. Even if that were true, there’s no reason to believe simple non-religious meditation would have the same effect. There’s a fundamental flaw in thinking that meditation is a religious affair. It’s really just sitting down, concentrating, and breathing correctly. Wow, who knew that would help boost memory, eh?

The article goes on to cite studies that show conflicting evidence regarding the power of prayer, despite the fact every serious peer reviewed study found there was no benefit to prayer (or in some cases, actual harm). The author suggests hospitals should work more closely with religious organizations to provide patients with their spiritual issues. I don’t deny for someone who is religious, having the attention and support of a religious community must indeed be great. But it would be irresponsible to assume both faith and medical science always work in tandem. Just ask patients who need the life saving research of stem cells whether or not mixing religion and science is a good idea. Ask Kara Neuman whether the mix of these two often incompatible pursuits is smart.

Even if religion was better for your health, it certainly doesn’t seem like it’s better for our world. How much conflict, bigotry, and hatred stems from religious belief? I wonder if a child being rushed to the emergency room after a suicide bomber attack would benefit from his rabbi being there…