Aggressive Atheism

The rest of Pat Condell's videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/patcondell

Irish Police and Clergy Protected Pedophile Priests, Even One Priest who Admits to Abusing 100 Children.

Following a three-year investigation in the Dublin Archdiocese, the country’s largest, the report concluded that four archbishops routinely protected abusers and failed to inform police of the allegations. One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another confessed that he had abused on a fortnightly basis over 25 years.

“The volume of revelations of child sexual abuse by clergy over the past 35 years or so has been described by a Church source as a ‘tsunami’ of sexual abuse,” said the report….

The judicial probe discovered that the archbishops did not report abuse to police until the 1990s as part of a culture of secrecy and to try and avoid damaging the reputation of the Church.

The report said: “All other considerations, including the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these priorities”.

It found children who complained “were often met with denial, arrogance and cover-up and with incompetence and incomprehension in some cases. Suspicions were rarely acted on”.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/irish-priest-admits-abusing-100-kids/story-e6frf7lf-1225804606586



Nell McCafferty rips into representatives of the Catholic church, asking, "What's holy about the Vatican?" and insisting that they ought to set aside the titles of "Father" and "Grace" and so forth, because they've betrayed them.

Temple Tantrum!, Jesus Style

In Sunday school I remember learing the story from the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) where Jesus goes into the temple to "drive out the moneylenders", and he "overturned their tables" because he was furious that people were using the "House of God" as a place to make money. From these three Synoptic Gospels I remember getting the idea that Jesus was just making a calm, but forceful point. But how does the less taught non-Synoptic Gospel of John differ?

John 2:12-15
"After this he went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren, and his disciples: and they continued there not many days. And the Jews' passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;"


"Christ Driving the Moneychangers from the Temple" by Rembrandt van Rijn, 1626

Wiki: A scourge (from Italian scoriada, from Latin excoriare = "to flay" and corium = "skin") is a whip or lash, especially a multi-thong type used to inflict severe corporal punishment or self-mortification on the back.


So jesus took the time to make a special whip that is intended to be used on humans, not animals, and it's purpose is to inflict as much pain as possible (remember the scene where Jesus took a serious beating in "The Passion of the Christ...that was a scourge). He didn't just slap some money changers in the heat of the moment, he actually made a weapon, then took it to the temple like the verse says. And this is the "prince of peace"?

This doesn't seem like the rational actions that an "all knowing, all powerful, all loving" god would take. Jesus should rethink his tactics before a madman follower, hellbent on world domination uses this passage to his advantage. Shit! To late, Hitler is a fan of Jesus' 1,189 chapter book, especially this passage where Jesus is using violence to run out the moneylenders (Jews).

"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice... And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people."
- Adolf Hitler, in a speech delivered April 12, 1922, Published in "My New Order"

Author Sam Harris on the Credibility of Miracle Stories

Sam Harris is a neuroscientist and the author of the international bestsellers, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation. This clip of his debate is taken from the Re-Evolution Festival 2009 in Mexico that took place Nov. 8th 2009.

Sorry about the bad audio

To The Biblical God, Bats Are Just Unclean Birds

"You may eat any clean bird. But these you may not eat: the eagle, the vulture, the black vulture, the red kite, the black kite, any kind of falcon, any kind of raven, the horned owl, the screech owl, the gull, any kind of hawk, the little owl, the great owl, the white owl, the desert owl, the osprey, the cormorant, the stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe and the bat." Deuteronomy 14:11-18

Why Do Atheists Care About Religion?

How does religion impinge upon each American's rights? This video shows the ridiculous, backwards and utterly nonsensical laws that control our lives because of someone's religious beliefs.

Westboro Baptist Church to Protest Fort Hood Memorial Service Today

As if protesting Sasha and Malia Obama's elementary school yesterday wasn't bad enough, Westboro plans to protest the Memorial Service for the victims of the shooting rampage that took place last week at Fort Hood. Here is the schedule for the protest on the Westboro GodHatesFags.com site. I don't need to comment on it, this insane rambling speaks for itself:

11/10/2009, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM, Killeen, TX
Ft. Hood Rebel Memorial - God hates your solemn assemblies! S. Fort Hood St. & US 190 W WBC members came and spoke words of peace to these brutish, demon-possessed brute military mutts. The Beast will come and speak smooth lies to you. He will tell you that if you will just listen to him and ignore God's servants, and serve him and his policy that he will bring you peace, and no more of these great dramatic, traumatic slaughterings will happen. And you are so arrogant, evil, rebellious and stupid - you will believe and follow him. You believe because you have a lot of numbers, that makes you mighty. And you believe, stupidly, that if you have might, that makes you right. Those concepts are the exact opposite of the truth of God. You silly rebels! God looked upon your solemn assemblies and chose the exact right tool to deal with you raging, good-for-nothing criminals. He chose one of your own, a General, a Psychiatrist, and a Muslim. How absolutely appropriate! He chose that vessel to punish you all, including the demon-possessed fool with the guns. Now, God is mocking you. Who else is going to tell you these words of truth at your time of extreme trauma? Only your friends at WBC: God Sent the Shooter. Thank God for the Killer, and repent of your evil. However, we know (from God's own words) that you will NOT repent. That fact does not change one thing about our duty to you, or your duty to your neighbours. Revelation 9:13 And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, 14 Saying to the sixth angel which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. 15 And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. 16 And the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand: and I heard the number of them. 17 And thus I saw the horses in the vision, and them that sat on them, having breastplates of fire, and of jacinth, and brimstone: and the heads of the horses were as the heads of lions; and out of their mouths issued fire and smoke and brimstone. 18 By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. 19 For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. 20 And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: 21 Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. DOOMED america is not receiving blessings, any more from God. Only curses, all day, every day. Praise that God all ye people. AMEN!

http://www.godhatesfags.com/schedule.html

Westboro Baptist Church Protests Outside Obama Girls' School

Westboro Baptist Church, the fringe-of-the-fringe anti-gay group famous for protesting at military funerals and claiming that God is punishing the country for its tolerance of homosexuality, was spotted yesterday morning protesting outside Sidwell Friends, the school attended by Sasha and Malia Obama.

Protesters were carrying signs with anti-gay, anti-abortion and anti-Obama slogans, slowing down traffic all along Wisconsin Avenue yesterday morning.

This is the actual protest schedule that is posted on the Westboro GodHatesFags.com site:

11/10/2009, 1:55 PM - 2:30 PM, Bethesda, MD
Sidwell Friends Lower School - Littles, run from liars, NOW! 5100 Edgemoor Ln More for the little nasty God-hating Quakers. You will NOT be able to get away from these words by that bloody-handed Antichrist Obama. They will hang around your hypocritical necks for all of eternity. You had a duty to know God's standard. You had a duty to keep that standard. You had a duty to know what manner of creature(s) you are taking money from. You had a duty to know all about these same things that WBC has told you and will tell you. "Look, I've got two daughters. Nine years old and six years old. I'm gonna teach them first of all about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. . ." - The Beast Antichrist Barack Hussein Obama. Those words will burn you all, for all eternity. Shame on you all. Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. Praise God! AMEN!

http://www.godhatesfags.com/schedule.html

Stay classy Westboro!

The Upside of a Religous Upbringing

Sex columnist Dan Savage explains the benefits of having a religious upbringing.

Jack White's Record Label Releasing Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking Remix

Jack White's label, Third Man Records, has just announced plans to release 'A Glorious Dawn,' composer John Boswell's "musical tribute to two great men of science" -- astronomer Carl Sagan and theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking -- on vinyl.

The Auto-Tuned remix takes Sagan's dialogue from his 'Cosmos' TV series with a special appearance by Hawking that will surely make every science nerd jump with glee. According to Third Man Records, "'A Glorious Dawn' is a moving arrangement of Carl Sagan's sagacious words culled from his magnificent 'Cosmos' series. The piece initially gained recognition when composer John Boswell uploaded to YouTube his remixed Sagan dialogue edited, Auto-Tuned and put to a beat and coupled with a guest appearance by Stephen Hawking. At well over one million views, this is a project that goes far-beyond the buzz of 'Internet phenomenon.'"
http://www.spinner.com/2009/11/04/jack-whites-label-releasing-carl-sagan-and-stephen-hawking-remi/

I like this one better. "We Are All Connected" featuring Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Feynman, and Bill Nye. All four are heroes of science and reason.

Happy Carl Sagan Day!

Today is Carl Sagan Day — I think that means you are officially expected to be filled with awe of the cosmos all day long, while also being thoroughly skeptical of the supernatural. Sagan Day should be every day, not just today! Take a few minutes out of your day and watch these two short Sagan videos. Both are Sagan reading from his amazing book "The Pale Blue Dot".

"Miracles": Then and Now

Iraqi-American Woman Run Over By Her Father For Being “Westernized” Dies

PHOENIX - A young Iraqi woman whose father allegedly hit her with his car because she had become too Westernized died from her injuries Monday after laying in a coma for nearly two weeks.

Noor Faleh Almaleki, 20, underwent spinal surgery and had been in a hospital since Oct. 20, when police say her father ran down her and her boyfriend's mother with his Jeep as the women were walking across a parking lot in the west Phoenix suburb of Peoria.

The other woman, Amal Khalaf, is expected to survive.

Faleh Hassan Almaleki, 48, fled after the attack but was arrested Thursday when he arrived at Atlanta's airport, where he was sent from the United Kingdom after authorities denied him entrance.

Peoria police interviewed him and brought him back to Arizona over the weekend, but have declined to release what Almaleki said to them.

At a court hearing over the weekend in Phoenix, county prosecutor Stephanie Low told a judge that Almaleki admitted to committing the crime.

"By his own admission, this was an intentional act and the reason was that his daughter had brought shame on him and his family," Low said. "This was an attempt at an honor killing."

Family members had told police that Almaleki attacked his daughter because he believed she had become too Westernized and was not living according to his traditional Iraqi values.

Almaleki, wearing a jail uniform, said only his name and birth date during the hearing. He has declined requests to be interviewed.

Almaleki had faced charges of aggravated assault, but Peoria police spokesman Mike Tellef said the charges will be upgraded in light of Noor Faleh Almaleki's death.

Police said the Almalekis moved to Peoria from Iraq in the mid-1990s.

Almaleki needs to be charged with murder, not aggravated assault. He moved his family to America then killed his daughter for acting like a typical young American woman.

The physicist Steven Weinberg said that regardless of religion you will have "good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things." However, "for good people to do evil things, it takes religion." I think that quote sums up stories like this very well.

Hotel Bibles Beware of Sir Ian McKellen!

In an interview with Details magazine the openly gay Lord of the Rings star says he tears out a section of Leviticus, which condemns homosexuality, whenever he finds the good book in hotel suites - and his small-scale vandalism has inspired others to do the same.

Details: Is it true that when you stay at hotels you tear out the Bible page that condemns homosexuality?

Ian McKellen: I do, absolutely. I'm not proudly defacing the book, but it's a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible. And I'm not really the first: I got delivered a package of 40 of those pages—Leviticus 18:22—that had been torn out by a married couple I know. They put them on a bit of string so that I could hang it up in the bathroom.

This would be great if it really caught on! Just think if these groups of people staying at hotels ripped out the parts of the bible that said that they were an abomination or that they just weren't as good as everyone else. The hotel bibles would end up looking like the coupon section in a penny pinchers newspaper.

The Blind, Handicapped, and Midgets - It wasn't their fault but they cannot approach the altar of god. Leviticus 21:17-23

The Fashion Concious - Don't wear wool/linen blend clothing. Deuteronomy 22:11

Glam Rock Bands with their Long Hair and the lineup at Lilith Fair with their Short Hair - 1 Corinthians 11:14-15

Anyone Working on a Second Marriage - Luke 16:18

Menstruating Women - Leviticus 15:19:30 and Leviticus 20:18

Rich People Staying at Swanky Hotels - Matthew 19:23-24 and Mark 10:23-25

Fans of Red Lobster - Leviticus 11:9-12 and Deuteronomy 14:9-10

Women Who Don't Like Being Subservient Pushovers to their Husbands - 1 Corinthians 11:3 and 1 Corinthians 14:34-36 and 1 Timothy 2:11-15