NotesEVERY year around this time, with the college year starting, I give my students The Talk. It isnāt, as you might expect, about sex, but about evolution and religion, and how they get along. More to the point, how they donāt.Unfurl
NotesLast month a judge ruled that religious pamphlets could be distributed in a school district in Orange County, Florida, according to Raw Story. In the wake of this ruling, the Satanic Temple is handing out its own religious literature to Orange County schools: āThe Satanic Childrenās Big Book of Activities.āUnfurl
NotesThe conflation of faith as āunevidenced beliefā with faith as ājustified confidenceā is simply a word trick used to buttress religion.Unfurl
NotesIntellectualism invites the constant assessment of the ācorrectnessā of a person's belief system. That's dangerous ground for a fundamentalist Christian. When you confront them on a particular belief you are not only confronting them on an idea that they have held to more rigidly for a longer time than most other folks but you are confronting the very core of who they understand themselves to be. For them, it is on those core beliefs upon which their salvation hangs in the balance, at least in part. Questioning it doesn't just question the thought but, for them, it puts into question a lifetime of holding on tightly to that thought.Unfurl
NotesAmazing, right? Williams is essentially telling anti-gay Western Christians with a persecution complex to buck up, find some perspective, and get the hell over it.Unfurl
NotesAn outbreak of measles tied to a Texas megachurch where ministers have questioned vaccination has sickened at least 21 people, including a 4-month-old infant -- and itās expected to grow, state and federal health officials said. Unfurl
Notes* All knowledge to all
* The search for knowledge is sacred
* The circulation of knowledge is sacred
* The act of copying is sacred.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesI suspect United States is in fact ahead of the African nations in bringing the dead back to life. It's hard to find a good estimate of how many bodies are resurrected in the U.S. each year, but let's go with this vastly oversimplified figure: 92,000. 92,000 is the number of people the American Heart Association estimates are saved in the U.S. each year after their hearts or their lungs have stopped moving, i.e. by CPR. Or let's go with a percentage: 45.3%. That's the success rate in the bottom-quarter of American hospitals in a 2012 study in restoring circulation to a body whose heart has completely flatlined. 14.5% of the bodies treated managed leave the hospital. And that's in the hospitals with the lowest performance. Wait till you see American rates for getting the lame to walk and the blind to see.FeedUnfurl
NotesThird, I see birth as a firm dividing line because until then the fetus inhabits a womanās body. A womanās body is private property ā itās hers. She shouldnāt be forced to let another creature live in it. Once that other creature is out of her body, thatās when it gets rights. Until then, any rights it gets would be taking away from the womanās rights over her own body. And to me, that matters.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesThe reality is that so-called pro-life movement is not about saving babies. Itās about regulating sex. Thatās why they oppose birth control. Thatās why they want to ban abortion even though doing so will simply drive women to have dangerous back alley abortions. Thatās why they want to penalize women who take public assistance and then dare to have sex, leaving an exemption for those who become pregnant from rape. Itās not about babies. If it were about babies, they would be making access to birth control widespread and free and creating a comprehensive social safety net so that no woman finds herself with a pregnancy she canāt afford. They would be raising money for research on why half of all zygotes fail to implant and working to prevent miscarriages. Itās not about babies. Itās about controlling women. Itās about making sure they have consequences for having unapproved sex.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesWell, Kirk Cameron, hereās the thing. You are correct when you say you should be able to express your moral views on social issues, and as a staunch defender of the First Amendment, I will defend to the death your right to say whatever ridiculous, ignorant and bigoted thing that has been fermenting in that cracked clay pot you call a brain pan. But the First Amendment also means that when you say such things, other people have the a right to mock you and the silly, stupid words that have dribbled out of your skull through that word hole above your chin. If you call someone āunnatural,ā they might call you an āasshole.ā Thatās the deal.FeedEmbedUnfurl
Notes Today we struck a blow for religious freedom in the great state of Mississippi. For too long our children have been unprotected against the nefarious teachings of Richard Dawkins. I have personally talked to many concerned parents who said that they were horrified when their children told them that God was a delusion or that human beings are simply carbon-based robots who took orders from the D-N-A. This law puts the end of that nonsense now. Let's pray that Mississippi will be a beacon of hope for the rest of our Christian nation.Unfurl
NotesIt's graduation time and that means various notables are giving commencement addresses like nobody's business. Last week, Mitt Romney spoke at Liberty University, which provided Bill Maher with a jumping off point on tonight's Real Time. I know this is gonna shock you, but Maher isn't a big fan of any part of it.Unfurl
NotesWhen Occupy Wall Street and similar protests played out over the past year, the phenomenon looked familiar to Emory University primatologist Frans de Waal: He's seen similar moral outrage over economic inequity expressed by monkeys and chimps. And he thinks we could learn a lesson or two from our fellow primates.Unfurl
NotesIn 1979, McDonaldās introduced the Happy Meal.
Sometime after that, it was decided that the Bible teaches that human life begins at conception.FeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesMy two kids at home almost lost their mother because someone decided that my life was worth less than that of a fetus that was going to die anyway. My husband had told them exactly what my regular doctor said, and the ER doctor had already warned us what would have to happen. Yet none of this mattered when confronted by the idea that no one needs an abortion. You shouldnāt need to know the details of why a woman aborts to trust her to make the best decision for herself. I donāt regret my abortion, but I would also never use my situation to suggest that the only time another woman should have the procedure is when her life is at stake. After my family found out Iād had an abortion, I got a phone call from a cousin who felt the need to tell me I was wrong to have interfered with Godās plan. And in that moment I understood exactly what kind of people judge a womanās reproductive choices.Unfurl
NotesWe challenge the whole concept that you canāt be good without God. We challenge the idea that religion is important in the first place, and that really makes them uncomfortable.Unfurl
NotesWhich is sooo close to being correct. The court actually prohibited mandatory school prayer. And that one word makes all the difference. (See: Twain, Mark on lightning-bug vs. lightning.)Unfurl
NotesThere's nothing better than a wild UFO conspiracy theory ā unless it's a UFO theory that wraps in a debunked comet, the Catholic Church, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
...
So will YOU be ready when Jesus of Borg arrives?
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NotesPoe's Law is an axiom suggesting that it's difficult to distinguish between parodies of religious fundamentalism and its genuine proponents, since they both seem equally insane. For example, some conservatives consider noted homophobe Fred Phelps to be so over-the-top that they argue he's a "deep cover liberal" trying to discredit more mainstream homophobes. FeedUnfurl
NotesPoe's Law is an axiom suggesting that it's difficult to distinguish between parodies of religious fundamentalism and its genuine proponents, since they both seem equally insane. For example, some conservatives consider noted homophobe Fred Phelps to be so over-the-top that they argue he's a "deep cover liberal" trying to discredit more mainstream homophobes.
Poe's Law states:[1]Unfurl
Notes"I have never been more of an atheist," writes the waiter, who will likely do horrible things to that diner's food if they ever dared to return.Unfurl
NotesIs the United States sliding toward theocracy? Thatās what Republican presidential candidates have told us for more than a year. Radical Islam, theyāve argued, is on the verge of taking over our country through Sharia law. But this weekend, at an Iowa forum sparsely covered by the press, the candidates made clear that they donāt mind theocracyāin fact, theyād like to impose itāas long as itās Christian.Unfurl
Notes<blockquote>In his new book, "God, No!" atheist magician Penn Jillette tells how he was challenged by conservative radio host Glenn Beck to come up with an atheist's version of The Ten Commandments.</blockquote>Unfurl
NotesRepublicans may be trying to focus their messaging on jobs and the economy ā and hammering President Barack Obama for campaigning ā but they still have time for some red meat base-baiting on the House floor.Unfurl
Notes"This devotion to an idea is one of the amazing things about being human, but you're not much good to the rest of us until you're on to your 3rd."FeedUnfurl
Notes"Standing on the hill at dawn, overseeing a team of 40 Kurdish diggers, the German-born archeologist waves a hand over his discovery here, a revolution in the story of human origins. Schmidt has uncovered a vast and beautiful temple complex, a structure so ancient that it may be the very first thing human beings ever built. The site isn't just old, it redefines old: the temple was built 11,500 years agoāa staggering 7,000 years before the Great Pyramid, and more than 6,000 years before Stonehenge first took shape. The ruins are so early that they predate villages, pottery, domesticated animals, and even agricultureāthe first embers of civilization. In fact, Schmidt thinks the temple itself, built after the end of the last Ice Age by hunter-gatherers, became that emberāthe spark that launched mankind toward farming, urban life, and all that followed."Unfurl
NotesGee, ya think? "God may have created man in his image, but it seems we return the favour. Believers subconsciously endow God with their own beliefs on controversial issues.
"Intuiting God's beliefs on important issues may not produce an independent guide, but may instead serve as an echo chamber to validate and justify one's own beliefs," writes a team led by Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."Unfurl
Notes"Tuten will explain how these digestively related tales date back before medieval times and talk of how monastic authors used these undignified deaths to connect sin, divine vengeance, greed and bowel afflictions as examples of the gruesome fate awaiting sinners and the perceived enemies of the monastery."Unfurl
Notes"During the the hours of 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. the Atheist Agenda, a student organization of The University of Texas at San Antonio, had a table on campus with the purpose of exchanging religious scripture for pornography."Unfurl
Notes"Free articles and resources by best-selling author and TV co-host Ray Comfort that will help you to pull the plug on the rising tide of atheism."Unfurl
Notes"We hear so much these days about how traditional religious family values are necessary for raising moral children who can grow into accomplished adults,ā said American Humanist Association Executive Director Roy Speckhardt, father of two. āBut we humanists have known for a long, long time that ethical humanist values build character. The number of moral and accomplished humanists is legion. Weāve been honoring the greatest of them every year since 1953 at our annual conferences. Now Barack Obama has given us the opportunity to share this truth with those from around the country who come to our nationās capital to share in the inauguration experience."Unfurl
NotesNotable if only for the fact that Comic Sans is used whenever the Pope is quoted. "Yeah, the Pope babbles dicta against people who are different from him, so what else is new?"Unfurl
Notes"This is what the Republican Party has done to us this year: It has placed within reach of the Oval Office a woman who is a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus. Those who despise science and learning are not anti-elitist. They are morally and intellectually slothful people who are secretly envious of the educated and the cultured. And those who prate of spiritual warfare and demons are not just "people of faith" but theocratic bullies. On Nov. 4, anyone who cares for the Constitution has a clear duty to repudiate this wickedness and stupidity."Unfurl
Notes"Ask yourself: how has "elitism" become a bad word in American politics? There is simply no other walk of life in which extraordinary talent and rigorous training are denigrated. We want elite pilots to fly our planes, elite troops to undertake our most critical missions, elite athletes to represent us in competition and elite scientists to devote the most productive years of their lives to curing our diseases. And yet, when it comes time to vest people with even greater responsibilities, we consider it a virtue to shun any and all standards of excellence. When it comes to choosing the people whose thoughts and actions will decide the fates of millions, then we suddenly want someone just like us, someone fit to have a beer with, someone down-to-earthāin fact, almost anyone, provided that he or she doesn't seem too intelligent or well educated."Unfurl
Notes"A federal judge says the University of California can deny course credit to applicants from Christian high schools whose textbooks declare the Bible infallible and reject evolution. ... Rejecting claims of religious discrimination and stifling of free expression, U.S. District Judge James Otero of Los Angeles said UC's review committees cited legitimate reasons for rejecting the texts - not because they contained religious viewpoints, but because they omitted important topics in science and history and failed to teach critical thinking."Unfurl
Notes"Christianity is like sticking a fork in your face and your rectum and plugging them into a wall socket. Your insides will smoke and sizzle, you'll glow, sparks will shoot out of you, and you'll become a cooked vegetable."Unfurl
Notes"By the way, I didn't want to single out just the cracker, so I nailed it to a few ripped-out pages from the Qur'an and The God Delusion. They are just paper. Nothing must be held sacred. Question everything. God is not great, Jesus is not your lord, you are not disciples of any charismatic prophet. You are all human beings who must make your way through your life by thinking and learning, and you have the job of advancing humanity's knowledge by winnowing out the errors of past generations and finding deeper understanding of reality. You will not find wisdom in rituals and sacraments and dogma, which build only self-satisfied ignorance, but you can find truth by looking at your world with fresh eyes and a questioning mind."Unfurl
Why Can't We Admit That Religion Is F***ing Crazy? | The Daily Banter
The Satanic Templeās hilarious response to a pro-religion court ruling - Salon.com
Faith in science and religion: Truth, authority, and the orderliness of nature.
Measles outbreak tied to Texas megachurch sickens 21 - NBC News.com
Why Are There So Few Resurrected Corpses in the United States? - Heather Horn - The Atlantic
Reproductive Rights
How I Lost Faith in the āPro-Lifeā Movement
Speech and Kirk Cameron ā Whatever
Religious People Less Driven By Compassion Than Are Atheists And Agnostics, Study Says
slacktivist Ā» The ābiblical viewā thatās younger than the Happy Meal
Abortion saved my life - Abortion - Salon.com
Atheism in America: Why wonāt the U.S. accept its atheists? - Slate Magazine
RealClearReligion - Quit Thinking School Prayer Is Banned
Poe's Law - RationalWiki
Christian theocracy: How Newt Gingrich and the GOP would abolish courts and legislate morality. - Slate Magazine
Your Third Religion
pull the plug on atheism
Sam Harris on Sarah Palin and Elitism | Newsweek Politics: Campaign 2008 | Newsweek.com