A Christian Nation?

Joseph Farrah sounds just like a member of the Taliban talking about Islam in his article, "Why Atheists can't be real Americans", where he said,

"If you want to live in the freest nation on earth, understand why it has been that way for 230-plus years. It’s because of the principles of self-governance that only work in a society of responsible, moral people accountable to the teachings of the One True Creator God found in the Bible."

What an idiot!

He was responding to a sermen by Chuck Hagee where Hagee said America was built for christians, not for non-christians, and if non-christians don't like living in a theocracy, we should leave the country.

These people prey on the ignorance of others in order to use their religion to control people.

Here's the truth quoted from The Thinking Atheist

Personal Loans courtesy of Jesus Christ!

Mother Teresa

Flowchart for choosing a religion

Happy Ash Wednesday!

In acknowledgement of Ash Wednesday, and to celebrate the recent announcement of the pope that he's resigning his position as the Vicar of Rome (I had no idea you could resign such a title) I thought I'd share with you a cute song written for the Pope by Tim Minchin.  Warning, this video is not safe to enjoy at work.

Why I criticize religion

What a great day to be having this conversation!  Happy Darwin Day everyone!!

This morning I woke up to see an interesting question on my facebook page from someone I have alot of respect for .  The question was obviously a response to the many criticisms of mono-theistic religion I've made on my facebook page over the last few months.

Facebook is an inadequate forum for posting a decent response to his questions (it's not the forum that's inadequate, it's the formatting allowed in posts that in inadequate), I decided to post the questions and my responses here, unedited, except to mask the identity of the  people  I've quoted, and in come cases, to add to what I said on facebook, as that forum is designed for sharing short quips and links and not to a deep discussion.

This happens somewhere, every Sunday afternoon

Studying Religion

Polyatheist

Out on the trail

Like the other GOP candidates, Romney is out on the campaign trail giving speeches and campaigning...  Addressing questions about his religion (Mormanism) and whether it should impact your vote at the Values Voters Summit, Romney said "tolerance and civility were conservative values."


What a crock of shit!!!


Is he talking about the same conservatives that brought us Prop 8 in California, and the fight against repealing DADT?  Is he talking about the same conservatives who are fighting the separation of church and state, or womens rights to have an abortion?  Please explain to me how any of that can be described as "tolerance and civility."


Maybe he was implying that those are conservative values that conservatives in the US should aspire to, but have fallen way short of.   Somehow I doubt it...

Another small victory

Another small victory for reason and the law over religious zealotry and indoctrination.  A teacher lost the lawsuit he had filed when he was required to remove religious banners from his class room.

When you're employed by someone else, and you're on time they are paying you for, you don't have freedom of speech...  Especially when that speech is an attempt to indoctrinate our children with your religion in a public school math class!!

I guess that douche bag has never heard about the separation of church and state...  Oh that's right, he'a math teacher, not a social sciences teacher...

To Bradley Johnson, math teacher at Westview High School in San Diego, CA:  If you ever come around my children preaching your bullshit, I'll kick your ass up around your shoulders...  How do you like that for freedom of speech you bastard??!!

10 years later

This morning I took my family to watch the Sep 11 memorial ceremony at San Jose's Fire Station 1.  Among the fire engines and police motorcycles, flashing lights, the sound of bag pipes playing, children running up and down the street, one thing kept nagging at me, trying to get my attention.  It finally succeeded during one of the many long winded speeches made by the various local politicians, bureaucrats, and other empty suits...

"After 10 years, 2 wars, thousands of lives lost, tens of thousands of lives destroyed, and trillions of dollars spent, not a god dam thing has changed..."

What to do when your kids are bored...

For twisted logic, facts are terribly inconvenient

While preparing an article I was writing for my weblog, I came across a christian weblog called "Christian Men - Christian Warriors" where the author, Trent Cotton, was retelling a conversation he had with someone he was interviewing to potentially hire.  The person he was talking with lived in California, and was talking about wildfires that were burning near the persons home.  Cotton said he was told the person was prevented from using their air conditioner out of fear the air conditioner might suck up a burning ember and force it throughout their home using the AC duct.

"If one were to have their air condition on, the unit would pull in air from the air outside and push it through the various ducts throughout the house.  All it would take was one or two of these embers being sucked into the air ducts to begin a raging fire...  The houses burn from the inside out.”

He went on to use that experience as an analogy to explain to people how god "consumes" people's lives, starting as a small ember and growing into a "raging fire."

Attack of the Minnows

A great poem from The Digital Cuttlefish:

Attack Of The Minnows

The big fish in their tiny pool

Where all the world is just one school

Can taunt and tease the godless fool

And bow their heads and pray

But video technology

Means, now the outside world can see

The worst of Christianity

In prominent display

Replacing prayer with silent thought?

Not good enough! And so, they fought!

They never figured to be caught—

And also, it was fun!

So, proving that they have no shame

The cowards held the kid to blame

And broke the law; it’s just the same

As Jesus would have done

A discussion with a christian Zealot

There are few things I hate more than "show and tell piety" (a person who rants and raves in a public forum or on a friends page in order to show everyone how pious they are, but then in a private discussion there is nothing there.


One of the only things worse is a "hit and run" zealot, who makes statements/accusations in a discussion forum and then blocks you so that you can't respond to what they said to you.  Well I can still respond...  I'll post it to my weblog so everyone on the planet can see it.

Gingrich has problems

Gingrich has problems alright...  


He was giving a talk at the University of Pennsylvania yesterday when he was asked by Isabel Friedman how he reconciles his personal history with the religious values he attempts to force onto the rest of us as he runs for president.

Darwin Day

In Celebration of Darwin Day!


Evolution Made Us All from Ben Hillman on Vimeo.

Conservative vs. Liberals

A friend of mine posted this little gem of wisdom to her facebook page, and then tagged me in it, probably because she wanted me to respond to it.  Unfortunately, facebook has many limitations, one of them being they limit how many characters you can type in a reply, and it doesn't allow you to easily hyperlink references in your response, so instead I have posted my response below and sent her a link to this post.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as <sarcasm> I know she will </sarcasm>.

The Catholics are still talking about Homosexuals...

Where do they get off talking about anything?  When the Catholic Church stops covering up pedophilia in the church, and stops protecting pedophiles from prosecution, MAYBE we'll begin to give a shit about what they think about the lifestyle choices of consenting adults....   But probably not...

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