Porn is More Powerful Than I thought

          Apparently the Indonesian Communication Minister, Tifatul Sembrig, is claiming that the availability of porn and the like, is responsible  for the natural disasters such as the recent earthquake which killed over 1,000 people and the tsunami of 2004. Wow.
          You should probably make a phone call or two because, if you're like me, you probably have a friend or two that you need to go warn before a tornado drops down right on top of their house!

Fundie Friday (On Sunday)

          Sorry everyone, being out of town to see family for turkey day, getting back worried about schoolwork deadlines, and finals coming up, have got me all out of whack, and I forgot to make a Fundie Friday post. Well, here, I'll post a belated Friday Fundie to make up.....

          This one comes from a post on Pharyngula, it's not text taken from a message board, but a photo taken from a church sign in Arkansas. So, it's still an actual statement made publicly by fundamentalists.

          It sounds crazy, but these types of statements are made to religious followers, who eat it up, and we wonder why a believer closes their ears to a logical, rational, reasonable argument.
          It's funny, because I can remember the leader of our church while I was growing up, saying that we should leave much of the hard research in the bible to the Pastor and Elders in the church, who Yahweh has given the proper understanding to interpret the scriptures. Otherwise, he said, you'll "study yourself right out" of the church. Ha Ha Ha, and looking back...it's just so sad :-(

A Reason to Celebrate

          Today (or technically yesterday, considering that it is 2:30am here in Texas) is definitely a reason to celebrate, and a reason to celebrate reason. November 24th 2009 is the 150th aniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's On The Origin of Species. I don't have much to say, because it's late and I'm exhausted, but I just thought I'd put that out there. Just to remind everyone how much of modern medicine and biological research and discovery would not be possible if we did not understand The Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. So, just remember the value of standing up for truth, like Darwin, Galilelo, and Socrates, who were put through a lot of shit just for standing up for the truth.
          And remember, believing in what makes you happy, rather than what is true, gets us nowhere.

They are Angry, Simply Because We Say that We Exist

          I was really impressed by this video. Furthermore, if you like it, you should subscribe to Philhellene's youtube account and give him some support. He talks about the recent popularity of atheist billboards, and shows how people with religious people are getting offended and lashing out toward them.
          Just the fact that people are being offended by us and those like us speaking out and simply stating that we exist (and if you are one of us then you are not alone, and there is a community you can relate to) is angering these people, shows just how important that campaigns such as these billboards are.
          And, with that I'll say no more because he says it all so well in this video:



          If you agree, then please show support to organizations who are putting up billboards, organizing atheist communities, and doing things like running atheist outreach programs (like Atheists Helping the Homeless that I talked about in an earlier post) and donate if you can, contact them and help out, or even start your own local atheist community.

They Want Us to Pay For Their Prayers!

        I just read an article that was posted in the Washington Post today, about fundamentalist Christians trying to get prayer forced into the healthcare reform bill, as something that they can force insurance to have to pay for!
          Here is the first couple paragraphs in the article:

The calls come in at all hours: patients reporting broken bones, violent coughs, deep depression. Prue Lewis listens as they explain their symptoms. Then Lewis -- a thin, frail-looking woman from Columbia Heights -- simply says, "I'll go to work right away." She hangs up, organizes her thoughts and begins treating her clients' ailments the best way she knows how: She prays.

          The woo-woo purveyors who are attempting to push this type of worthless faith healing charge $20 - $40 for this crap, and they are trying to get this put into the new healthcare reform bill so that we all will have to pay for it! Furthermoer there are powerful politicians and others who are allied with them, helping to push this into the Senate Bill. It was originally stripped out of the House Bill that was recently passed, and now they are trying to get it put back in before it is passed by the Senate. 
          The article states that "She doesn't see most of the patients she treats. That isn't necessary, she said, for her prayers to be effective.", and they want our tax money to be forced to pay for this? That really bothers me. Not only are they wasting our tax money, and at the same time putting money in the pockets of complete quacks who are taking advantage of people, but calling labeling this as healthcare is risking the lives of people, including children who fall for this sort of nonsence!
          You should click on the link in the text above, or click here, and read the entire article. These Christian "Scientists" (I wince at the use of the word "scientist" to describe these openly ANTI-SCIENCE people) use writings by people like Mary Baker Eddy as key tennets of the type of healthcare that they are advocating. Here is what the article has to say about this:

In her book, Eddy lays out an alternative system of health care, one with prayer practitioners and nursing facilities where attendants bandage and comfort but do not provide drugs or perform procedures as basic as setting bones.

          Today we have antibiotics, vaccines, advanced diagnostic procedures, and advanced treatments that are able to heal more medical problems than ever before,, and our average lifespan is higher than it ever was in the history of our species. Now, these people want to ignore our constitutional seperation of church and state, implement an alternative healthcare program that uses treatments from the dark ages, and pray the broken bones back into place!  And they want to force all of us to have to pay for it, you have got to be freaking kidding me!!!


          If you can contact your local senators, write letters, do what you can to stop government sanctioned prayer, and dangerous anti-healthcare practices. Write letters, do what you can. This worthless crap does not belong in our healthcare bill.

The Kirk Cameron Action Kit!!!!

          If you are like me, and was annoyed by Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron's deceptive tactics of coming to your campus to distribute their mutilated copies of On The Origin of Species a day earlier than they had announced, I bet you wish you would have had this:

The Kirk Cameron Action Kit!!!

This Kid is Awesome: 10 Year Old Student Stands up Against Bigotry

          This kid is awesome! It's so refreshing to see a ten year old child that can use his critical thinking ability to discern something complicated like bigotry and civil rights, and then then to openly make a statement to stand up for freedom, liberty, and justice for all.......



         Also, check out this video of the last episode The Daily Show With Jon Stuart, where Jon offers Will Philips, the ten year old boy, the protection of wrestler Mick Foley...ha ha ha, I'm glad that this boy is getting all this good media support.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Gaywatch - Peter Vadala & William Phillips
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

          And here, Kyra Phillips on CNN had something to say to anyone who wants to bully Will Phillips...

The Earth is Flat! And Other False Beliefs Based on Dogma and Pseudoscience that Stress the Need for Critical Thinking

          I was having a discussion with a couple of friends this morning at a local coffee shop about the prevalence of dogmatic beliefs in our society.  Beliefs that involve the outright denial of logic and rational thinking that takes place when arguing against things like the theory of evolution in the face of the wealth of scientific knowledge that we, as human beings, have gained in out short history of existence on this planet (just a blip on the map, compared to the approximately four and a half billion years since our planet was formed). I find it hard to imagine that a person in this day and age can actually believe in things like the denial of evolution, the embracing of fundamentalist religious ideologies, supernatural existence of things like ghosts and ESP, etc., with not only a complete lack of ANY evidence for these beliefs, but mountains of documented scientific evidence that indicates these things to be so highly unlikely that the probability of there being any truth to these beliefs is virtually nonexistent.
          That being said, I was reminded of something that I overheard in a discussion that two people were having while I was waiting at the plasma center last week. (I am a poor college student at the moment, and I donate plasma every week for some extra gas money) I was sitting there and overheard a 29 year old woman telling her friend how she had just learned that the earth was round! Hearing that, my first reaction was to assume that the woman was not being serious. However, upon a little further listening to her discussion, I am convinced that she was being serious. She even said at one point that she had always thought that the world was flat, and was amazed to learn that it was in fact round.
          I understand that this woman obviously held her beliefs about the world being flat out of ignorance. However, upon hearing things like this, I am constantly reminded of the fact that there are still people in the modern world who either don't understand the facts, or outrightly reject the evidence of reality for their deeply held dogmatic beliefs. This has me constantly being reminded of how important it is to fight against those who continually attempt to push pseudoscience into the school classroom, as well as getting classes in critical thinking into the required core curriculum. It is so sad that there are so many people out there who live their whole lives without ever questioning their own core beliefs, and the fact that there are still people out there who believe that the Sun rotates around the Earth is a testament to this. Here, in this video is a good example. In the video is an Iraqi "Researcher on Astronomy" who is debating with a physicist and arguing that the world is flat, based on Koranic verses:



          This dogmatic belief in the infallibility of the Koran in it's description of the natural world is the faulty premise that he is basing his argument on. This belief that the Koran is infallible is a dogmatic belief that does not stand up to scientific scrutiny when examined, as do the holy books of most religions. This just goes to show how important it is to employ the scientific method, and examine even our most deeply held beliefs, or else the dogma of the past can always lead us down the path of ignorance and halting our moral, ethical, technological, and societal advancement.

Fundie Friday

          This quote came from here, at www.fstdt.com, where they have huge collections of quotes from religious people taken from actual internet message boards.

"After holding back and just reading the comments I feel that I must post yet again. Say what you will but homosexuals are not even human. They are diseased, degenerate creatures who mock humans. The goal that they will freely admit to is to erase any trace of decency or humanity from the planet until we are all wallowing in filth and disease like them. If you are religous at all you recognize that this is the work of satan and that they have no souls, just lust for each other. Someone mentioned that it was Lamda who filed the suit, not Nambla. What is the difference, perversion is perversion, and if you don't think that the ACLU won't soon be filing on behalf of pedos then you are the one being foolish. The ACLU exists for purpose only, to destroy America. Hopefully one day there will be a test to determine if the fetus is gay. Then you could abort it since it is not human. Only the then will we wipe this scourge from the world. Until then we will have to do it one at a time."

          T thought Fridays would be a good day to post outlandish comments from religious people. I was going to call it "Funny Fundie Friday", but some of the quotes like this one are just not funny. This one is more sad than anything. Christians claim that their beliefs are all about love and peace, but look at the hatred for another human being that her beliefs have caused her to express, all because that human being was born different than her.......so sad.
           Seeing that the previous quote was quite sad, I'll end this with another quote, located here, that reminds me how Christians can compartmentalize and ignore their rational mind, or any thought at all for that matter...

"That's the beauty of Heaven... we can leave our brains behind"

Atheists Helping the Homeless

          Over the last decade of two, atheist groups composed of individuals who are proud to come out and say that we don't believe in a god or the supernatural. The benefit of all of these best selling books, billboards, and other media grabbing phenomena, is 1) to let all of the unbelievers who feel alone in their disbelief know that they are not alone, and there are many rational thinkers like themselves out there, and 2) to let the general public know that we are a significant part of the population, that we do deserve respect, and that we are not going anywhere.
          The next step, which was also the overarching there of the 2009 Texas Freethought Convention that I attended last weekend, is that we create real communities for atheists and freethinkers  to be a part of, and to lend our support to each other, which is in itself a huge reason that people stay a part of their local church communities. And, we are doing it. Hundreds, if not thousands of atheist communities are emerging throughout the country, not just to get together and talk about religion, or not believing in a god, but to interact, have fun, and create real communities of likeminded individuals. I'm really happy to see that we now have a camp quest here in Texas! I mean, I has really happy to hear that announcement at the Convention.

          This brings us to another area that we, as atheists need to be focussing on. We need to be contributing to our surrounding communities. We need to show the the population at large that atheists are good, compasionate people. Show people how rational, secular morality, without rules passed down from some holy book, creates moral, compassionate, good people. And I'm happy to see that is happening around the country. I'm seeing more atheist groups doing community cleanups, charities, helping the homeless, etc, and openly saying that we are atheists and we care. The logo lo the left above is, and I'm proud to say, is representing a local group here in Austin, Texas called Atheists Helping the Homeless (check out their website). I am happy to say that they are doing wonderful work in helping the homeless in Austin, Texas. It's starting out small, but it is growing, and as atheist organizations, and the general public, learn about it, it will grow and grow. Here is a video talking a little about what they are currently doing:

          I urge anyone who can spare a few dollars to help them out, and if you have the opportunity, emulate this type of thing in your local towns and communities. Most atheists that I know are charitable people, and do care, and help out. But, unlike religious organizations, we don't say that we are atheists when we do it. That's all good, but it is good to start doing things like this, as openly atheist individuals, because of the false belief that is popular that atheists are immoral, and don't care about others.
          So, come on fellow atheists and freethinkers, step up and show that atheists are compassionate people who do care about their communities and other human beings in general. But, mainly do it just to help out your fellow human being. Also, check out the Atheists Helping the Homeless website and donate a few dollars, if you can spare it. The more support they can get, the more they can do to help.

Here is a video of their last giveaway on November 8th: