The is Pope Heckled by Protestant Spider in Prague

Just kidding, it's not a Protestant spider, that's silly. This is what I think is really going on here. Underneath the Popes white robe and inside his red Prada loafers are hundreds of thousands of spiders and their eggs, and every time a priest buggers a little altar boy an egg hatches into a spider. Now that so many little boys have been buggered by priests all over the world for so long all of the eggs have hatched into spiders and this spider is actually a result of "priest-spider bugger overflow". That's my theory and it's just as plausible as the virgin birth story that this gruesome elderly virgin clings to.

The Pope is actually in the Prague for three days to try to reclaim the Czech Republic from it's mostly skeptical and atheist citizens.

PRAGUE — As Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the Czech Republic on Saturday on a three-day pilgrimage aimed at battling against the forces of secularism, religious leaders warned that he faced a daunting challenge in a nation of mostly natural-born skeptics.

When the pope comes to town, a city usually pulls out all the stops. Not so here in the Czech capital, where banners heralding the pope’s visit and large crowds were conspicuously absent. The local newspapers that highlighted the trip seemed more preoccupied with the pope’s penchant for bright red loafers than with the substance of his religious mission.

“If the pope wants to create a religious revival in Europe, there is no worse place he could come to than the Czech Republic, where no one believes in anything,” said Jaroslav Plesl, a self-confessed lapsed Catholic who is deputy editor of Lidove Noviny, a leading daily newspaper here. “Add to that the fact that the pope is German and socially conservative and he might as well be an alien here.”

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Velvet Revolution that overthrew Communism in Czechoslovakia, the pope is visiting what many religious observers, unfairly or not, consider the ground zero of religious apathy in Europe. Vatican officials said that he had chosen the Czech Republic for a mission central to his papacy: fomenting a continentwide spiritual revolt against what Benedict labeled Saturday as “atheistideology,” “hedonistic consumerism” and “a growing drift toward ethical and cultural relativism.”

“A majority of people have no interest in the pope’s visit and are more concerned about traffic congestion,” Rev. Tomas Halik said.

Father Halik argued that Benedict’s fierce intelligence and moral resolve made him a worthy opponent of pervasive secularism. But he was philosophical about the chances of his success. “The reanimation of the Catholic Church is a long-term goal,” he said. “And even the pope can’t work miracles that quickly.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/world/europe/27pope.html?_r=1

15% Of Americans Now Claim No Religious Faith

The results of yet another poll are out, showing that the godless are rising and promise to rise for years to come. In 1990, we made up 8% of the population; now in 2009, we're 15%. They're extrapolating forward and estimating that we will make up 25% of the country in 20 years. I'll put this news of the 15% atheist, agnostic, or just non religious into perspective.

Major religious traditions in the US:
Protestant Christian - 51.3%
Catholic - 23.9%

"Nones" - 15%
Jews - 2.1%
Muslims - 0.6%
Mormons - 1.7%
Buddhist - 0.7%
Hindu - 0.4%





By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA Today

Americans who don't identify with any religion are now 15% of the USA, but trends in a new study shows they could one day surpass the nation's largest denominations — including Catholics, now 24% of the nation.

American Nones: Profile of the No Religion Population, to be released today by Trinity College, finds this faith-free group already includes nearly 19% of U.S. men and 12% of women. Of these, 35% say they were Catholic at age 12.

"Will a day come when the Nones are on top? We can't predict for sure," says lead researcher Barry Kosmin.

But if Nones, now 22% of all adults ages 18 to 29, continue to gain among young adults, to draw more people "switching out" from denominations and to replace more religious older people, researchers forecast one in five Americans will be Nones in 20 years.

"Trends clearly favor this," Kosmin says. But he also notes, "There could be a Great Awakening (massive Protestant revival) or immigration may bring in more Catholic believers."

Kosmin and Ariela Keysar of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., directed three editions of the American Religious Identification Survey over 18 years. The 2008 ARIS (pdf), based on a sampling of 54,000 U.S. adults, also burrowed in for a closer look at 1,106 Nones, who answered extra questions about their beliefs and behaviors and views on God.

ARIS: Most religious groups have lost ground in USA
'NONES': Now 15% of population

The report finds:

•Not all Nones are alike. Half (51%) still believe in God or a higher power.

•Nones also are the only major U. S. faith group that's majority male. Even when girls grow up with unbelieving parents, they're more likely to find a faith as adults than their brothers.

"Women are also less skeptical than men and less drawn to irreligious and anti-religious views. They are more likely to reject a secular upbringing," Kosmin says.

"There is a lot of 'churning' going on but Nones gain much more from switching (people leaving religion) than from natural growth (children emulating unbelieving parents)," he says.

•The percentage of atheist Nones — who say there's no such thing as God — hasn't budged in years.

"It's not as though dozens of people at the Methodist Church read (atheist Richard) Dawkins and suddenly decided God doesn't exist," says Kosmin.

"There are so many misconceptions about who the Nones are. They're not New Age searchers or spiritual or even hardened atheists," says Kosmin.

"They're a stew of agnostics, deists and rationalists. They sound more like Thomas Jefferson and Tom Paine. Their very interesting enlightenment approach is like the Founding Fathers' kind: Skeptical about organized religion and clerics while still holding to an idea of God."

One quirky fact: 33% of Nones claim Irish ancestry, although the U.S. Census says only 10% of the USA does.

"We have no idea why," he says. "Maybe you could ask (Fox newscaster) Bill O'Reilly.

In some way, researchers found Nones are very much like the overall, largely religious, U.S. population. There's no statistical difference on education, or income or marital status. They are just as likely to be divorced as anybody else.

"Nones are not a fringe group anymore and are now part of Middle America. They're present in every socio-demographic group, Keysar concludes in their report.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-09-22-no-religion_N.htm?csp=34

Evangelical Cock Rings?

Oh, now I get it.

Frank Schaeffer on the Rachael Maddow Show Talking About Crazy Christians

"We Have a Village Idiot In this Country, It's Called Fundamentalist Christianity"

Pastor Steven L. Anderson: "Killing the President, Abortionists and Gay People is Not Murder"

There is no need for me to comment on this.

Pastor Anderson

Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'

A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.

By Anita Singh, Showbusiness Editor
Published: 4:53PM BST 11 Sep 2009

Creation, starring Paul Bettany, details Darwin's "struggle between faith and reason" as he wrote On The Origin of Species. It depicts him as a man who loses faith in God following the death of his beloved 10-year-old daughter, Annie.

The film was chosen to open the Toronto Film Festival and has its British premiere on Sunday. It has been sold in almost every territory around the world, from Australia to Scandinavia.

However, US distributors have resolutely passed on a film which will prove hugely divisive in a country where, according to a Gallup poll conducted in February, only 39 per cent of Americans believe in the theory of evolution.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".

Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of Creation, said he was astonished that such attitudes exist 150 years after On The Origin of Species was published.

"That's what we're up against. In 2009. It's amazing," he said.

"The film has no distributor in America. It has got a deal everywhere else in the world but in the US, and it's because of what the film is about. People have been saying this is the best film they've seen all year, yet nobody in the US has picked it up.

"It is unbelievable to us that this is still a really hot potato in America. There's still a great belief that He made the world in six days. It's quite difficult for we in the UK to imagine religion in America. We live in a country which is no longer so religious. But in the US, outside of New York and LA, religion rules.

"Charles Darwin is, I suppose, the hero of the film. But we tried to make the film in a very even-handed way. Darwin wasn't saying 'kill all religion', he never said such a thing, but he is a totem for people."

Creation was developed by BBC Films and the UK Film Council, and stars Bettany's real-life wife Jennifer Connelly as Darwin's deeply religious wife, Emma. It is based on the book, Annie's Box, by Darwin's great-great-grandson, Randal Keynes, and portrays the naturalist as a family man tormented by the death in 1851 of Annie, his favourite child. She is played in the film by 10-year-old newcomer Martha West, the daughter of The Wire star Dominic West.

Early reviews have raved about the film. The Hollywood Reporter said: "It would be a great shame if those with religious convictions spurned the film out of hand as they will find it even-handed and wise."

Mr Thomas, whose previous films include The Last Emperor and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, said he hoped the reviews would help to secure a distributor. In the UK, special screenings have been set up for Christian groups.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html

The tired old argument that creationists and Movieguide.org use to try and smear Darwin as having a "legacy of mass murder", "influenced Hitler", and "led to atrocities and crimes against humanity" are completely false, and have been shown to be false over and over again. In Hitler's book "Mein Kampf", Darwin is never mentioned, not even once. A person Hitler does refrence numerous times though is Martin Luther, the German priest and the founder of the Protestant Reformation. Hitler used parts of Luthers book "On The Jews and Their Lies" to justify the killing of 6million Jews. But there is something that does support crimes against humanity, racism, bigotry, and genocide...the Holy Bible. This movie is supposed to be amazing so hopefully a distributor will pick it up.

Swine Flu Prevents Saint's Bloody Kiss

Swine flu fears stop kisses for two viles of blood of Italian Saint Januarius...he died 1,704 years ago in the year 305...Gross!

ROME — The archbishop of Naples has stopped pilgrims kissing two vials said to contain the blood of Saint Januarius because of growing fears over the spread of swine flu.
The decision came only days after a 51-year-old man from Naples became Italy's first swine flu fatality.
Each year thousands of Roman Catholic faithful go to special services at Naples Cathedral where the dried blood of the fourth century bishop is said to turn to liquid, though the church does not officially recognise it as a miracle.
"For health reasons, it will not be possible to kiss the relic," a spokesman for the Saint Januarius chapel told AFP. "However it will be possible to touch it with the forehead."
Saint Januarius is one of the most popular Napolitan saints. Three services a year are held when the vials are displayed. Some people say the blood turns liquid and even increases in mass during the displays.
Faithful believe that if the blood liquifies quickly, Naples will be blessed with good luck and if it changes slowly, the southern city faces a disaster.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5g6zwhbDoOdrp4O5WyieKMg7vkGww

It never ceases to amaze (or disgust) me how obsessed the Catholic church is with blood, death, and old guys in funny outfits. Aparently H1N1 is more powerful that Jesus!

CA “Family Values” State Senator Caught Bragging About Affairs On Tape

Here are some of the hard to hear quotes from the anti-gay, Proposition 8 supporting, married with two children, republican hypocrite:

"She wears little eye-patch underwear," said Duvall. "So, the other day she came here with her underwear, Thursday. And
 so, we had made love Wednesday--a lot! And so she'll, she's all, 'I am going 
up and down the stairs, and you're dripping out of me!' So messy!"

EWWWW!

"So, I am getting into spanking her. Yeah, I like it. I like spanking her. She goes, 'I know you like spanking me.' I said, 'Yeah! Because you're such a bad girl!"

Duvall announced his immediate resignation from the Assembly this afternoon. “I am deeply saddened that my inappropriate comments have become a major distraction for my colleagues in the Assembly, who are working hard on the very serious problems facing our state,” he said in a statement. “I have come to the conclusion that it would not be fair to my family, my constituents or to my friends on both sides of the aisle to remain in office. Therefore, I have decided to resign my office, effective immediately, so that the Assembly can get back to work.”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/9/779248/-GOP-lawmaker-boasts-of-torrid-affair-with-lobbyist

The Vestigial Grasp in Infants

Vestigial traits are characters of organisms which have seemingly lost all or most of their original function in a species through evolution. Some examples are wings on flightless birds, hind leg bones in whales, wisdom teeth in humans, the appendix in humans, hind leg bone "spurs" in some python species...The list goes on and on. The following is taken from biologist and author of "Why Evolution is True", Jerry Coyne:

But behaviors can be vestigial, too. One such behavior is the “grasping reflex” of human infants. When you put your finger into the palm of an infant, it will immediately and securely grasp it. The grasp is so tight that it’s sometimes hard to make the kid let go! It is said — though I have never seen this demonstrated — that up to a couple months of age a baby can hang suspended from a horizontal stick for several minutes.

The grasping reflex is evident in the feet, too. If you put your finger along a baby’s toes from the sole side, it will grasp with those toes. And when a baby is sitting down, its “prehensile” feet assume a curled-in posture, much like what we see in an infant or an adult chimp.

Why do infants show this grasping reflex, but then lose it after several months? A very plausible suggestion is that the behavior is a remnant of the grasping reflex seen in other infant primates, which they use to hold on to the hair of their mothers as they’re being carried about.

Bible in the Classroom: Noah's Ark And The Dinosaurs

Neil deGrasse Tyson at The Amazing Meeting 6.



Dr. Tyson is an astrophysicist ,author, director of The Hayden Planetarium, and host of NOVA scienceNOW on PBS.

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins

The Highly-anticipated new book from the bestselling author of The God Delusion!
US release: Tuesday, September 22nd





Charles Darwin's masterpiece, "On the Origin of Species", shook society to its core on publication in 1859. Darwin was only too aware of the storm his theory of evolution would provoke but he would surely have raised an incredulous eyebrow at the controversy still raging a century and a half later. Evolution is accepted as scientific fact by all reputable scientists and indeed theologians, yet millions of people continue to question its veracity. In "The Greatest Show on Earth", Richard Dawkins takes on creationists, including followers of 'Intelligent Design' and all those who question the fact of evolution through natural selection. Like a detective arriving on the scene of a crime, he sifts through fascinating layers of scientific facts and disciplines to build a cast-iron case: from the living examples of natural selection in birds and insects; the 'time clocks' of trees and radioactive dating that calibrate a timescale for evolution; the fossil record and the traces of our earliest ancestors; to confirmation from molecular biology and genetics. All of this, and much more, bears witness to the truth of evolution. "The Greatest Show on Earth" comes at a critical time: systematic opposition to the fact of evolution is now flourishing as never before, especially in America. In Britain and elsewhere in the world, teachers witness insidious attempts to undermine the status of science in their classrooms. Richard Dawkins provides unequivocal evidence that boldly and comprehensively rebuts such nonsense. At the same time he shares with us his palpable love of the natural world and the essential role that science plays in its interpretation. Written with elegance, wit and passion, it is hard-hitting, absorbing and totally convincing.

The Dark Ages...

"There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages". - Richard Lederer

Ben Stein, Professional Bigoted Douche Keeps the Stupid Flowing

He's an actor, creationist, gay basher, and all around annoying dick and he has a new peice on the right-wing website, The American Spectator.

"We have … an entire party, the Democrats, whose primary constituency, besides the teachers' unions, is homosexual men and lesbian women. I hope it won't come as a surprise to anyone that a big part of male homosexual behavior is interest in young boys."

I think Stein is confusing "homosexual" with "Catholic Priests". To make himself look even more rediculous, here is the very first sentence in the very next paragraph of his article.

"Don't get me wrong. My very best friend is gay."

Well Mr. Stein, your "best friend" keeps shitty company, and I doubt he'd appreciate you calling him a pedophile.

Here's Stein, last year, on the christian tv channel Trinity Broadcast System promoting his anti-evolution, anti-science, pro-creationism "documentary" Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.

Religious fRight

Keith Olbermann talks to Dan Savage about how dangerous the GOP's strategy for the last thirty years of pandering to the religious right has been, and how they're now left with the bat-shit crazy like Michelle Bachmann, Glen Beck, and Rush Limbaugh speaking for them.

Seinfeld - Puddy is a CHRISTian