Anyone? Anyone?

This morning I was browsing some other blogs here on wordpress and came across a fellow blogger who was talking about Ben Stein’s documentary Expelled.  I have to admit that I have yet to view it myself, but I certainly intend to in the near future.  

Talking about Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed or even intelligent design is not the focus of this post however.  The target is the other blogger who’s post I had been reading.  I considered linking his blog, then decided that there is very little point.  Nothing that I have to say will convince him of the impossibilities or fallacy of his beliefs if he cannot see them on his own.  So I will simply place the name of his blog at the end of this post and allow anyone the option of reading his post without the resulting flame war that might result from my deliberate attack on his blog.  

Said Blogger’s main argument was with an interview of Richard Dawkins during the documentary.  I understand why a doctrinal follower of Jesus Christ would take issue with someone who openly stands against everything that you believe in.  That fact does not mean that you should take things that he says entirely out of context.  One thing in particular that really bothered both the blogger was that Dawkins apparently stated that he believes that this planet was “seeded” by an intelligent alien civilization.  I put the word in bold the word intelligent because he did as well, obviously to allude that Dawkins was actually saying that he believes in “Intelligent Design” which is certainly not true and is a blatant attempt to take Dawkins out of context.

He then went on to say that believing that aliens seeded the earth took much more faith then believing in God “It takes a lot more faith to believe that than it does to believe Genesis 1:1.”  My question is why do you think that?  Do you think that because some trustworthy robe wearing people in goofy hats along with your parents didn’t tell you from birth that aliens created life instead of God?  How is it that Jesus Christ or God being responsible for all life with their magical powers is any less imbecilic then a bunch of aliens dropping DNA all over the place?  Explain this to me because I want to know exactly why it takes more faith to grasp one silly explanation for the complexities of the world then another.  Anyone with some semblance of ability to think clearly needs only take a look back in time and trace various civilizations rising and falling, each with their own views on god.  How can anyone look at that, sit back, then say “Man we really struck the nail on the head with Christianity.” Can you not see the illogical line of thinking that comes along with this?  Your belief is no different from the Cargo Cults of Vanautu, or the polytheistic view of ancient Greece.

He then claims that Dawkins is a fool and cites Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 as his reasons for declaring him such.  I can proclaim that someone is foolish and then cite unrelated antiquated reasons as well.  

You sir Blogger are a fool.  “Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.” – Ben Franklin

What did I prove by quoting Ben Franklin?  The same nothing that citing two psalms that have the word fool in them did.

The main point that he wants to make is not that Dawkins is a fool, though it is hard to figure that out since he certainly went on a nice tangent about it.  This man wants their to be alternatives taught in schools aside from evolution.  I’m fine with this as well, so long as the alternative being taught isn’t so obviously erroneous.  He attempts to cite an example of refusing to teach intelligent design is like.  The example is.  

“It’s as if you can come up with any answer you want regarding the origin of man and the universe, except one (that God had anything to do with it). That’s like a police department investigating a murder and being told by the District Attorney, “Arrest the person the evidence points to, except not if it’s the Sheriff’s son.” Ridiculous!”

No That would be insinuating two very different things.  One being that there is any evidence at all for he existence of god.  (Show me any aside from bibles and faith.  And nothing about how many people believe it, so it must be true.  We used to burn lepers clothing and send them away to islands because we thought leprosy was highly contagious.) Two, your example should actually be stated more along the lines of this.  “This man has a dubious track record of violence, his references are over 2000 years old, he has multiple offenses of blatant sexism, and consistently contradicts himself.”  “However, many people like him so we are OK with this man becoming mayor.”

It is people like this, who feel as though they have closed their mind to any possibility aside from ones that are found deep within an ancient book littered with self contradicting stories about the creation of this planet, think that other people should conform to their close minded view on what has so obviously not created the universe, that makes me ill.

Coram Deo – Name of the blog in case anyone wants to search him out.

Turns out Canada isn’t gonna put up with you

With the recent antics of the Westboro Baptist church quickly becoming numerous I have decided to create a category in this blog just for them.  While I’m sure they will perverse this act (if they ever even read a thing I write.) and thank God for the devilish blogger that details his thoughts and murmurings about the fanatical hate group, I’m really adding the category just to make finding posts about these jackasses all the easier. 

The Church decided that it was going to protest the funeral of Tim McLean who was brutally murdered and decapitated on board a Greyhound bus in Canada.  Never being the type of group to keep secret about where they are going to be protesting next, news spread to concerned citizens of Canada who through the use of facebook groups, organized with the government an effort to prevent the church members from entering the country.

Shirley Phelps-Roper was pleased that she was prevented from crossing the border into the “fag” country, (something she and her family has said on numerous occasions about America as well) and simply stated that she has other members of the church crossing the border at other locations and she fully intends to be there to protest this man’s funeral.  

Phelps-Roper has repeated stated that this beheading was a “Gift from god.” given to us to show his anger with the way Canadians have allowed homosexuals to live in their country.  I almost want to think that this has to be some sort of joke.  She expects me to believe that God the Almighty, has so little to do with his Omnipotent self that he slew a single person who despite what Phelps-Roper said about him (despite never meeting him or having anything to go on other then her insane beliefs in a tyrannical insane God that smites everyone and everything for little to no reason) was a perfectly good person who did nothing to deserve such a vicious attack.  They would also have you believe that God caused 9/11, the earthquake in China, various mudslides, and was personally responsible for every lost life in the war in Iraq.  

 

This person is in fact an asshole

 

He isn't with social services why?

 

These photos were taken from the Westboro Baptist Church and are being used with permission.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At least in Canada they have expressed to this bigots that their behaviour is unacceptable, deconstructive, and ludicrous.  It is bad enough that Tim McLean’s family has to deal with his loss without a group of lunatics screaming thanks to towards the heavens for this poor mans death.  Unfortunately here in America, freedom of religion allows these people to practice their hateful beliefs free of reprisal for the most part.  The only backlash they get is negative reception in the media, which only serves to fuel their convictions to continue to hate.  If only we didn’t lay back and accept that all religious beliefs are acceptable and should be given free reign to be expressed regardless of if their intentions are positive or not.  

For example, I wouldn’t be allowed to walk about holding signs wishing death on homosexuals just for the hell of it.  That would be a hate crime.  However, if I said that I hated homosexuals because God said I have to, then it’s perfectly fine and nobody will stop me from spreading my hate about like some spraying cat.  It’s stupid that we allow this as a society.  I’m tired of people using God as some super shield to protect them from the backlash they deserve for being hateful human beings.  If you want to show up to soldiers funerals and hold signs similar to this.  

I hate you

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then expect some, if not all of the fallen soldiers friends and family to take offense, but don’t expect any law to come to your aid when they decide to bring their thoughts on the death of their loved one to your face with their fists.  These people are not bringing a message about religion or love or even peace.  In short, when you really read one of their signs about dead soldiers, it does not read “thank God for dead soldiers” it says, “Haha your son is dead”  

And that is just wrong.  Someone please burn these people with napalm.

Westboro Baptist Fire

The Westboro baptist church has sprung up again in the news, but not for picketing anyone’s funeral this time. A Fire broke out on a fence nearby the church and spread to the garage.

A spoke person for the Church Shirley Phelps-Roper stated that the fire was most likely set by an arsonist.  I however would like to guess that it might be possible that God started the fire because I think it is possible that instead of hating Fags, God instead hates belligerent hate mongers that make whatever God normal God fearing people believe in look absolutely bat shit insane.  

However, that more then likely did not happen.  Someone lit a fire hoping to burn that place down, the church of course responded with videos and statements like “Thank god for the arsonist, you’ve made us so happy!”  Though I can’t imagine them being too happy for too long if God or someone else continued to set their precious church aflame.

Happy Birthday Scopes Monkey Trial!

Today marks the 83rd anniversary of the Scopes monkey trial which challenged the Butler act forbidding the teaching of any other origin story aside from the Christian version of genesis in the classroom.  A complete timeline can be found here.

For anyone that doesn’t wish to read the complete timeline I’ll provide a quick summary of the events.

 John Thomas Scopes volunteered to be indicted of violating Tennessee’s anti evolution laws by teaching evolution in his classroom.  He was defended by Clarence Darrow who was attempting to prove that the Butler act which prohibited the teaching of a scientific theory in the classroom was unconstitutional.  The first trial ended with Scopes being found guilty and fined in accordance to the Butler Act, which was then appealed and ultimately found to be unconstitutional by the supreme court.  

Our forefathers knew that we should keep church and state separate, to be fair to all people and all beliefs.  So that we don’t outlaw wonderful advancements in medicine because of what god might think, or convincing our nation that it would be a good thing to genocide people that think differently, or hate people for loving someone of the same gender.  

We are dangerously close to becoming a fundamentalist theocracy hell bent on forcing everyone in this country to conform to one way of looking at and doing things, and if it wasn’t for people like Clarence Darrow and John Thomas Scopes, we would be one step closer to losing our freedom to believe what we chose to, and love who we wish.

Superbishops!

Spell check is informing me that Superbishop is not a proper word, and three days ago it most certainly would not have been.  On the 6th of July the Church of England announced that it would be creating an entirely new class of Bishop called “Superbishop”.  The reasoning behind this new superhero, excuse me, this new Superbishop, is that there is a sizable rebel faction within the Church that refuses to be lead by ordained women.  This is certainly going to go over well without anyone new protesting yet another sharp divide in which once again it is blatantly obvious that you cannot go very far in most main stream religions if you happen to be born without a penis.  

Why are there even women left in these churches?  I don’t think I would willingly include myself in any organization that informed me up front that I had no chance of elevating myself based purely on my birth right, so I find it difficult to wrap my brain around the scores of women that do involve themselves with such things, especially in less theocratic areas of the world.  People throw major fits when any other organizations blatantly discriminate against women, but in this case we have religious taboo shielding to protect any backlash that might come it’s way.  To the Church of England it is more important to prevent a few rebellious church goers from going to the Church of Rome, then it is to not screw over the entirety of the females in their church.

I really hope that one day in the not too distant future, women just get fed up and quit, leaving a bunch of power hungry men with nobody to push around.  They can go start their own churches where men can’t be anything other then Nun’s, which would also make them cross dressers keeping out a large amount of the homophobic nutty men from their new found church.  

Also I find it strange that the Church of England even needed a new subtype of Bishop.  Wouldn’t a normal male Bishop be perfectly capable of residing over these stubborn males that refuse to obey a female Bishop, despite her being ordained and therefore (correct me if I am in fact wrong) clearly capable in gods eyes of performing her duties to the church?  I guess these “Superbishops” are just another way of these “traditionalists” (read bigots) of feeling that they still in fact have more power then any mere women.  

 I however welcome our new Superbishops and all the bigotry and chauvinism they represent, because despite the years upon years of unfair rules being handed down by the our various churches, there is only so far one can push a group of people before things just start to deteriorate and collapse, and well if anybody reads the Internet (most people these days seem to.) far more often then not these days, people are calling out all the insane things that these institutions are finding it OK to do to their paying and caring customers.

 

Yea I meant customers.

 

*Edit

It turns out that the General Synod struck down the amendments by traditionalists to create Superbishops, and are thusly faced now with a potential split of the Church of England.  As far as I am concered though, they can only benefit by allowing these backwards bigots to leave the church and thereby distance themselves from such negative opinions of women.  

Good riddance!

Westboro babtist Church

I’m sure I will be blogging about this wonderful group of religious nuts many many times.

For anyone that is unaware about who these fanatics are, they are a independent Baptist church situated in Topkea Kansas that has actually been officially labeled as a “hate group” by the Southern poverty law center.  Their antics include running websites such as GodHatesFags.com, picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, attempting to link pretty much all terrible events in this country to the “homosexual agenda”, picketing the funerals of homosexuals killed via hate crimes, attempting to picket the funerals of the Amish children killed in a shooting, praised the earthquakes in china, thanked god for 9/11, and is going to picket and protest the funeral for late comedian George Carlin.

Normally I would be slightly more irate at stories like this, but it seems to be the general consensus that these people are just fucking out of their minds, they hate everything and everyone and seriously believe that all the worlds problems stem from homosexuality.  All too often the right to be a religious dickhead is upheld over ones personal freedom and liberty.  It is OK the exclude gays from some school activities because it is a christian based club that is doing the excluding, and forcing them to accept the gay members would infringe on their right to practice their religious tenement to hate gays without any rhyme or reason.  (source the God Delusion, read it)

However in this case laws have been based making it a felony to protest someones funeral in many of the states that the WBC has protested in, along with many lawsuits being filed against and won by family members of those targeted by their insane hate campaign.

Hopefully this group of hateful god worshippers will never gain any real crediblity and can continue to provide the non insane members of this country something to both laugh at and aspire never to be.

Enough said

http://icantseeyou.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/07/bananas-the-atheists-worst-nightmare.html

I take no credit for this post, I just feel it deserves being linked.

Rebel The Dog

I’ve always been one to assume that most religious idiocy was confined to my wonder country.  However, it seems as if I have been ignorant of just how insane the entire world can be when it comes to religious sensitivity.  

Recently in Tayside Scotland a storm of controversy has erupted because of a new advertising campain by the local police in which they deliver postcards with a picture of their local and somewhat internationally well known police dog in training Rebel.  

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1030798/Muslim-outrage-police-advert-featuring-cute-puppy-sitting-policemans-hat.html

For those of you who do not wish to read the article, it says that Muslims have become offended that the postcard featuring the police department’s new phone number, has a picture of a dog, which they consider to be unclean.   The article reads that the postcards have sparked so much anger that some shop keepers refuse to display the card.  

I want to know why it is such a big deal.  The police department issued the standard “Were sorry for upsetting your beliefs.” statement, but really, how can anyone from any religion expect someone that is not a member of their religion to know every single nuance of it?  Shouldn’t they be a tad bit more understanding when someone who is not a Muslim makes the mistake of not knowing that Muslims consider dogs to be unclean and therefore unfit to be pet.  Oh right, there is that point as well which needs to be brought up.  It is OK for dogs to be used for hunting and guarding ones property, Which is quite similar to what the Police use dogs for.  

(The majority of both Sunni and Shi’a Muslim jurists consider dogs to be ritually unclean, though jurists from the Sunni Maliki school disagree.^[13] However, outside their ritual uncleanness, Islamic fatwas, or rulings, enjoin that dogs be treated kindly or else be freed.) (Though dogs are not allowed for pets, they are allowed to be kept if used for work, such as guarding your house or farm, or when used for hunting purposes.

According to a generally unaccepted Sunni tradition attributed to Muhammad, black dogs are evil, or even devils, in animal form. This report reflects the pre-Islamic Arab mythology and the vast majority of Muslim jurists viewed it to be falsely attributed to Muhammad.) -Two exerts from Wikipedia concerning views on dogs in Muslim culture.

It also tends to bother me that this wouldn’t be an issue if they had offended someone who happened to be the president of the “I hate dogs in advertising club”.  Nor would it be important if someone who just was afraid of dogs had a problem with it.  But as soon as you bring religion into it, suddenly unreasonable opinions and hurt feelings have to be 100 percent taken care of and addressed.  Did anyone who was offended offer up a suitable replacement image?  Most likely not, we live in a world where people have nothing better to do then be offended by petty images, so I’m assuming that any attempt to change the image came from the police department, who has already demonstrated that they do not know enough about Muslim culture to know that dogs were an offensive animal that should never be used in civilized advertising.  Perhaps a snail would be a better animal, they seem innocent enough, though they might a hated animal of another religion, so it might just be best to ignore all images of animals completely and just use a blank white postcard that has the word POLICE spelled out in all capital letters followed by a phone number to be sure not to offend anyone.  

It is impossible to completely avoid offending every single religion on Earth.  Granted I don’t think anyone should be blatantly offensive to any one specific group of people, but mainly people need to just simply get over themselves in how easily they are enraged over trivial things.  It’s black puppy not an image of the Prophet.  

People like to complain just because they can.  Nobody should be upset by an image of a cute black puppy, especially not Muslim shop keepers that stock dog food and accessories.  Since the story was first picked up various people looked into it, and out it came that there is no real outrage about this image, most stores in Tayside have no problem with the postcard and are quite willing to distribute it to help the local police.

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2008/07/02/newsstory11590817t0.asp

So all in all, this story is just a good example of how stupid things can get in a society that takes every single complaint under the protection of the taboo subject of religion so seriously.