Christopher Hitchens: Why Fight Religion?

Christopher Hitchens last words in the debate with Turek, answering a question from the audience.

Comedian Patton Oswalt Explains the Origin of Religion

Here’s comedian Patton Oswalt, from his latest standup special My Weakness Is Strong!, explaining how religion was invented.

The Pope Says Atheists Are Responsible For Global Warming

This isn't satire from TheOnion.com, it's actually from Pope Ratzi.

“Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where his existence is denied? If the human creature's relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the ‘final authority,’ and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.”

Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, has a great reply.

"This is rich coming from the leader of an organisation that has plundered the world to enrich itself. As he sits in his golden palaces, surrounded by unimaginable luxury and material wealth, he lectures the rest of us about restraint and greed. We have nothing to learn about environmentalism from this hypocrite."

Here are the top 7 environmentally sustainable countries, based on their 2005 ESI scores. They happen to be some of the least religious countries in the world:

1. Finland
2. Norway
3. Uruguay
4. Sweden
5. Iceland
6. Canada
7. Switzerland

I'd like to ask the Pope a question: The world population is approaching 7Billion people, isn't it about time for the catholic church to lift it's prohibition on condoms?

http://www.secularism.org.uk/113418.html

Blasphemy Day!

Mark your goddamn calenders: September 3oth is Blasphemy Day! Join the Facebook group if you want.

Blasphemy Day International is a campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for the freedom to challenge, criticize, and satirize religion without fear of murder, litigation, and reprisal. It is the obligation of the world's nations to safeguard dissent and the dissenters, not to side with the brutal interests of those who demand "respect" for their beliefs (i.e., immunity to being criticized or mocked or they threaten violence).

This group is not out to promote hate or violence. While many perceive blasphemy as insulting and offensive, this group isn’t about getting enjoyment out of ridiculing and insulting others. This group was created as a reaction against those who would seek to take away the right to satirize and criticize a particular set of beliefs given a privileged status over other beliefs. Criticism and dissent towards opposing views is the only way in which any nation with any modicum of freedom can exist. Without this essential liberty, those in power are those best able to manipulate others will suppress and silence dissent by labeling it "defamation" or "blasphemy" or whatever other bogey words they can use to stifle opposition by turning popular sentiment against it. Please, do not let them do this. Yes, Muslims find images of Muhammad offensive. But which is more offensive to you? Those who would poke fun at a prophet, or those who would murder innocents in his name?Blasphemy Day will take place every September 30th, to commemorate the publishing of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons. The purpose of this event is to set a particular day as a day to support free speech, support the right to criticize and satirize religion, and to oppose any resolutions or laws, binding or otherwise, that discourage or inhibit free speech of any kind. The focus on "blasphemy" is simply because it is such a salient issue, and one for which a lot of consciousness-raising is necessary. Religion has had a free ticket from criticism for too long, and it's time we make it clear to the world that we have a right to oppose it.

“This crime called blasphemy was invented by priests for the purpose of defending doctrines not able to take care of themselves” - Robert Green Ingersoll 1833-1899

Every day should be Blasphemy Day!

"5 Girls and No F**kin' Homo's!"

This is what I had the pleasure of hearing today after I asked two guys in my apartment stairwell if the pool was hot. Me, "how was it up there...miserably hot?" The two guys with Texas tattoos and silver Christian cross necklases, "it was hot as hell but there were five girls, one in a t-back...and no fuckin' homo's!" Lovely. What would make someone who so joyfully advertises a love for the lord say such a thing?

• Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. (Leviticus 18:22)
• If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. (Leviticus 20:18)
• For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. (Romans 1:26-27)

Who, besides Fred "God Hates Fags" Phelps would be spewing such hatred and bigotry? Steven L. Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ. that's who.

What is this god fearing man's opinion of President Obama?



These people are frightening.

"Prahang Andoek" The Turtle God of Cambodia

People believe all types of things for reasons that don't make sense to most of us. But is a belief in a magical healing god turtle that much more crazy than Christianity? The belief that a cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because the first woman in the world was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree?

Sam Harris on Bill Maher 8/21/09

A Cartoon Worth a Thousand Words...

Malaysian Model to be Publically Flogged for Drinking Beer

Models and beer always go great together...models, beer, and extremist Islam, I'm sad to say, do not.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — An Islamic court in Malaysia has sentenced a Muslim woman to be flogged with a rattan cane for having a beer in a nightclub, a court official said Tuesday.

It is rare for a woman in Malaysia to be sentenced to caning – a punishment usually reserved for men in various crimes ranging from rape to bribery.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno was sentenced Monday to six lashes and a fine of 5,000 ringgit ($1,400) for consuming alcohol, said a Shariah High Court official who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to make public statements.

Shukarno, a 32-year-old model, pleaded guilty in the court in eastern Pahang state to a charge of drinking beer when Islamic authorities raided a hotel nightclub in August 2008.

Consuming alcohol is a religious offense in Malaysia only for Muslims, who make up nearly two-thirds of the population. Offenders are prosecuted in Shariah courts, which handle cases mainly related to family and moral issues for Muslims.

Rest of story:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/21/beer-drinking-muslim-mode_n_242312.html

Woman Shouts "Heil Hitler" to a Jewish Man at a Town Hall...

...Then Says She Believes in "Biblical Values" and is Against Obama and Universal Health Care

Two Scams in One

Keith Olbermann: "Worst Person in the World"...Texas State School Board

Camp Quest Dallas

PRINCETON (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
There are Christian camps, Jewish camps and now there's a camp for those who question religion. Local atheists and other non-believers are organizing the first camp of its kind for kids in Texas.

Five year old Joseph Parsons is enjoying some time alone at Cathy's Critters Farm in Collin County. But in less than two weeks, his mother hopes Joseph will be surrounded by kids just like him.

"It's an opportunity for kids who otherwise get ostracized at school," said Amie Parsons.

Amie is organizing Camp Quest Texas. It's camp for children and their parents who are atheists, agnostics, free-thinkers and other non-religious followers.

"It's just a camp, for kids, who want to have a camp experience without having the religious dogma placed upon them," she said.

The one-day event will be held August 30, at Cathy Critters in Princeton. And while it will offer many of the same activities that most camps provide, there will also be a strong focus on science.

"We really want to encourage students to look around them and their surroundings such as the sky, the clouds and the sun," Amie explained. "We want them to ask why and how."

There are other Camp Quests in at least five states and they typically last several days. From billboards that question God's existence to Bill Maher's film challenging religion... atheists are becoming more vocal.

But Dr. Darrell Bock of the Dallas Theological Seminary doesn't believe that being more vocal will have much impact. "People pretty much have their minds made up on these kinds of matters. They're either going to be for or against," he said.

If the one-day event proves to be successful, organizers of Camp Quest Texas say they'll expand next year's event to five days.

So far, 31 kids have signed up for this year's camp and organizers say the list is growing.
http://cbs11tv.com/local/atheist.atheist.camp.2.1132718.html

Camp Quest Texas

http://campquest.churchoffreethought.org/

Chacers War on Everyting: American Late Night Prosperity Ministers...very funny

New York Times: Believers Invest in the Gospel of Getting Rich

FORT WORTH — Onstage before thousands of believers weighed down by debt and economic insecurity, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and their all-star lineup of “prosperity gospel” preachers delighted the crowd with anecdotes about the luxurious lives they had attained by following the Word of God.

Private airplanes and boats. A motorcycle sent by an anonymous supporter. Vacations in Hawaii and cruises in Alaska. Designer handbags. A ring of emeralds and diamonds.

“God knows where the money is, and he knows how to get the money to you,” preached Mrs. Copeland, dressed in a crisp pants ensemble like those worn by C.E.O.’s.

Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the “prosperity gospel” movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message — that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold — is reassuring to many in hard times.

The preachers barely acknowledged the recession, though they did say it was no excuse to curtail giving. “Fear will make you stingy,” Mr. Copeland said.

But the offering buckets came up emptier than in some previous years, said those who have attended before.

Many in this flock do not trust banks, the news media or Washington, where the Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether the Copelands and other prosperity evangelists used donations to enrich themselves and abused their tax-exempt status. But they trust the Copelands, the movement’s current patriarch and matriarch, who seem to embody prosperity with their robust health and abundance of children and grandchildren who have followed them into the ministry.

“If God did it for them, he will do it for us,” said Edwige Ndoudi, who traveled with her husband and three children from Canada for the Southwest Believers’ Convention this month, where the Copelands and three of their friends took turns preaching for five days, 10 hours a day at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

The crowd of more than 9,000 was multiracial, from 48 states and 27 countries. There was no fee to attend. There were bikers in leather vests, pastors, blue-collar workers, professionals and plenty of families with children.

A large contingent came in wheelchairs, hoping for miraculous healings. The audience sat with Bibles open, flipping to passages cited by the preachers, taking notes on pads and laptop computers.

“The folks who are coming aren’t poor,” said Jonathan L. Walton, a professor of religion at the University of California, Riverside, who has written about the movement and was there doing research. “They reside in that nebulous category between the working and the middle class.”

Sitting in Section 316, eight rows up, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on a Bible at lunch time, was a family who could explain the enduring loyalty the prosperity preachers inspire.

Stephen Biellier, a long-distance trucker from Mount Vernon, Mo., said he and his wife, Millie, came to the convention praying that this would be “the overcoming year.” They are $102,000 in debt, and the bank has cut off their credit line, Mrs. Biellier said.

They say the Copelands rescued them from financial failure 23 years ago, when they bought their first truck at 22 percent interest and had to rebuild the engine twice in a year.

Around that time, Mrs. Biellier first saw Mr. Copeland on television and began sending him 50 cents a week.

Others who bought trucks from the same dealer in Joplin that year went under, the Bielliers said, but they did not.

“We would have failed if Copeland hadn’t been praying for us every day,” Mrs. Biellier said.

The Bielliers are now among 386,000 people worldwide whom the Copelands call their “partners,” most of whom send regular contributions and merit special prayers from the Copelands.

A call center at the ministry’s 481-employee headquarters in Newark, Tex., takes in 60,000 prayer requests a month, a publicist said.

The Copelands’ broadcast reaches 134 countries, and the ministry’s income is about $100 million annually.

The Bielliers were at the convention a few years ago when a supporter made a pitch for people to join an “Elite CX Team” to raise money to buy the ministry a Citation X airplane. (Mr. Copeland is an airplane aficionado who got his start in ministry as a pilot for Oral Roberts.) At that moment, Mrs. Biellier said she heard the voice of the Holy Spirit telling her, “You were born to support this man.”

She gave $2,000 for the plane, and recently sent $1,800 for the team’s latest project: buying high-definition television equipment to upgrade the ministry’s international broadcasts.

Mrs. Biellier said some friends and relatives would say the preacher just wanted their money. She explained that the Copelands did not need the money for themselves; it is for their ministry. And besides, even “trashy people like Hugh Hefner” have private airplanes.

“I remember Copeland had to once fly halfway around the world to talk to one person,” she said. “Because we’re partners with Kenneth Copeland, for every soul that gets saved, we get credit for that in heaven.”

But while a band primed the crowd, Professor Walton called the prosperity preachers “spiritual pickpockets.”

“To dismiss and ignore the harsh realities of this economic crisis,” he said. “is beyond irresponsible, to the point of reprehensible.”

The Copelands refused an interview request, but one of their daughters, Kellie Copeland Swisher, and her husband, Steve Swisher, who both work in the ministry, spoke for them.

Mrs. Swisher said the ministry gave away “a minimum of 10 percent of what comes in” to other charities. Her father’s current favorite, she said, is a Roman Catholic orphanage in Mexico.

The ministry has resisted providing the Senate investigation with all the documents requested, she said, because the Copelands did not want to publicly reveal the names of the “partners.” The investigation, which could result in new laws, is continuing, a committee spokeswoman said. Among those being investigated is Creflo Dollar, one of the ministers at the Copelands’ convention.

Mr. Swisher said that even in the economic downturn, the ministry’s income going into the convention was up 3 percent over last year. Asked if they had adjusted the message for the economy, Mrs. Swisher patted the worn Bible in her lap and said: “The message they preach is the Word of God. The Word doesn’t change.”

At the convention, the preachers — who also included Jesse Duplantis and Jerry Savelle — sprinkled their sermons with put-downs of the government, an overhaul of health care, public schools, the news media and other churches, many of which condemn prosperity preaching.

But mostly the preachers were working mightily to remind the crowd that they are God’s elect. “While everybody else is having a famine,” said Mr. Savelle, a Texas televangelist, “his covenant people will be having the best of times.”

“Any time a worried thought about money pops up in your mind,” Mr. Savelle continued, “the next thing you do is sow”: drop money, like seeds, in “good ground” like the preachers’ ministries. “Stop worrying, start sowing,” he added, his voice rising. “That’s God’s stimulus package for you.”

At that, hundreds streamed down the aisles to the stage, laying envelopes, cash and coins on the carpeted steps.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/us/16gospel.html?_r=4

Thomas Paine Quotations

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
One of America's Founding Fathers and holder of the title The Father of the American Revolution.

"Yet this is trash that the Church imposes upon the world as the Word of God; this is the collection of lies and contradictions called the Holy Bible! This is the rubbish called Revealed Religion!" Thomas Paine

"Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good." Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man

"To argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead." Thomas Paine, The Crisis

"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

"Any system of religion that has anything in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true system." Thomas Paine

"It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man." Thomas Paine

"There is scarcely any part of science, or anything in nature, which those imposters and blasphemers of science, called priests, as well Christians as Jews, have not, at some time or other, perverted, or sought to pervert to the purpose of superstition and falsehood." Thomas Paine

"The study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on nothing; it proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing and admits of no conclusion." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

"The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalise mankind." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

"The Christian system of religion is an outrage on common sense." Thomas Paine

"The Bible is a book that has been read more, and examined less, than any book that ever existed." Thomas Paine

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon that the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel." Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

"The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called revelation, or revealed religion." Thomas Paine

Beliefs

Texas public schools required to teach Bible this year

WHITEHOUSE, TX (KLTV) - The school year is almost here, and if literature of the Bible is not already offered in your child's school, it will be this fall.

Books are a common sight in classrooms around the nation, but the Bible is one book that is not. Come this fall, a Texas law says all public schools must offer information relating to the Bible in their curriculum.

"By the end of the year, what they begin to realize is that it is pervasive. You can't get away from it. The kids came back and were like 'It's everywhere,'" said John Keeling, the social studies chair at Whitehouse High School. Whitehouse already offers a Bible elective. "The purpose of a course like this isn't even really to get kids to believe it, per se, it is just to appreciate the profound impact that it has had on our history and on our government."

The law actually passed in 2007, but this will be the first school year it is enforced because the bill says, "The provisions of this act pertaining to a school district do not take effect until the 2009-2010 school year."

This has gained mixed reactions from East Texans.

"I think it is a good thing because a lot of kids don't have that experience, and they already want to take prayer out of school as it is, and you see where our kids are ending up!" said Tyler resident Laura Tucker.

Tyler resident, Havis Tatum, disagrees with Tucker.

"I don't want anybody teaching their religious beliefs to my child unless they want to send their child to my house and let me teach them my religious views," said Tatum. "There is no difference."

School officials said schools have not enforced the law because of confusion over the bill's wording and lack of state funding.

For now, each school district must find a way to fill the requirement before the seats are filled with students.

http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=10933571


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I fully support having a class in the public schools teaching comparative religion, but I highly doubt that the Quran, Bhagavad Gita, Talmud...will even be mentioned. I may be a bit cynical but I think it's more likely that the teachers of this class will be bible believing fundagelicals as apposed to secular biblical historians. I see lawsuits and lots of tax payer money being wasted on this.

Brad Pitt on Real Time with Bill Maher

Can't be moral without god? Lets examine the Pitt/Jolie duo vs the pope on a few issues regarding human suffering:

Brad Pitt (atheist) shows his devotion to humanitarian causes by helping to build new homes and entire communities in Katrina ravaged New Orleans for displaced residents...because he thinks that's the right thing to do.

Angelina Jolie (atheist) who is the UN Agency Goodwill Ambassador shows her devotion to humanitarian causes by helping the poor and hungry of Sub-Saharan Africa by using her status as a superstar to generate media coverage about the plight of refugees and the conditions under which they live...because she thinks that's the right thing to do.

Herr Ratzinger (The Infallible Pope) who allegedly has a golden telephone to god said at his recent and only visit to Sub-Saharan Africa...the same part of Africa where over 22 Million adults and children are living with Aids (1.5 Million adults and children died of Aids in 2007)..."HIV/Aids is a tragedy that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which can even increase the problem". It's this kind of belief in bronze aged superstition that lets the pope get away with genocidal stupidity...and remain an old white former nazi youth that poor, oppressed, sick Africans still worship!

Sorry I used the good news of Pitt once again affirming that he's a non-believer for a pope rant but I have to use every chance I can get. It's my minor contribution to humanity.

Some wise and moral teachings of Jesus

Here are a few pearls of wisdom.

• don't make any plans for the future (Matthew 6:34)
• don't save any money (Matthew 6:19-20)
• don't become wealthy (Mark 10:21, 25)
• sell everything you have and give it to the poor (Luke 12:33)
• don't work to obtain food, such as meat, because it doesn't last forever (John 6:27)
• don't have sexual urges (Matthew 5:28)
• marrying a divorced woman is committing adultery (Matthew 5:32)
• act in such a way that people will want to persecute you (Matthew 5:11)
• let everyone know that you are special and better than the rest (Matthew 5:13-14)
• hate your entire family (Luke 14:26)
• take money from those who have no savings and give it to the rich investors (Luke 19:23-26)
• if someone steals from you, don't try to get it back (Luke 6:30)
• if someone hits you, invite them to do it again (Matthew 5:39)
• if you lose a lawsuit, give more than the judgment (Matthew 5:40)
• if someone forces you to walk a mile, walk two miles (Matthew 5:41)
• if anyone asks you for anything, give it to them without question (Matthew 5:42)
• if you do something wrong with your hand, cut it off, and if you do something wrong with your eye, pluck it out(Matthew 5:29, 30)

Give Thanks

50 Rabbis circle Israel in a plane while blowing horns and praying to ward off the swine flu virus

This would be about as effective as slaughtering a goat mid air to ward off swine flu...actually, I'd rather be on a plane with someone that was slaughtering goats than with a bunch of old beardy men chanting and tooting on horns. But I know the real reason the Rabbis are afraid of swine flu...it's not kosher!

This is why logic does not work on theists

"I reject your reality and substitute it for my own"

*facepalm*

Virgin Mary came in a condom

...er, I mean showed herself in a condom.

Brad Pitt on New Orleans Mayoral Run: ‘I don’t have a chance’

"If chosen, would you run?" Curry asked in the prerecorded interview that ran Thursday.

"Yeah," Pitt said.

"Would you serve?"

"Yeah. I'm running on the gay marriage, no religion, legalization and taxation of marijuana platform," he joked.

"I don't have a chance," Pitt predicted.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32388425/ns/today-today_entertainment/

Make It Right charity

http://www.makeitrightnola.org/

Monty Pythons worshipers

God attacks church with it's own steeple in Wichita, Kansas.