A good reverend... a good man.

You know why I'm not a Republican?

Because I have a heart.

All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they’re “phony soldiers”; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he’s faking his Parkinson’s symptoms; if an injured 12-year-old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he’s a fraud.

Paul Krugman Explains

Rachel Maddow adds her two cents.

If that's not enough, read this on some fuckin' retarded 'Publican "think"-tanks, this on Ann Coulter being a mother fucking douchebag, and this, on how some dog-fucking, shit-eating members of the Bush administration can choke on it. Fuckers.

Thanks for fucking everything up, assholes.

Oh, and sorry for not posting.

What the Hell?

This turns my stomach. It was an accidental trial run to see how we'd react to military occupation... and we failed.

I Say, Let Them Speak

Is it me, or am I the only one that thinks the Phelps clan should be lauded as examples of the sincerity of religious belief? This cult is perhaps the greatest single turnoff to the 'in group' of the mentally unstable. Their obsession with hating 'the other' -- this painful xenophobia --, the eliminationism, anti-intellectualism and fear of all things sexual is little more than a wonderful example of the worst parts of religion. They are paralyzed by hate. Give them bullhorns and a fucking medal for doing the job philosophers could never accomplish with mere ideas. Let them make the loudest, most offensive racket they can. Sometimes a visceral reaction to such venom does the trick.

We're all atheists in respect to Phelps' god.



Reminds me a bit of Lynch's Angriest Dog in the World.

You know who was a great man?

Pat Tillman, that's who.

Fucking trepan me already

Someone just beat me over the head with a log. Make the pain end with a good, swift thwack to the back of my skull, motherfucker. I've had enough. I want fucking out of this planet.

Who gives a shit was the Catholic Church has to say anymore? And why the fuck should this institution care more about 'obscenity' (Oh fucking shit! He said a filthy word!) than doing something about the fact that people keep dying over a piece of Saran Wrap on your dick! Really, where are their priorities? It's like when the jackasses in America went after Harry Potter for spreading the 'message of witchcraft' (What the fuck is wrong with these people!? Did all their mothers take the brown acid while pregnant? Or only some? Were the others as children all dropped on their heads - down - down - down the stairs?); what kind of Bizarro-world are they living in?

Go. Just bash my brains in. Maybe after it's all over it will start making some sort of sense. Bring me over to the other side. Show me that goddamned light.

Fucking trepan me already.

Button!

Buttons! (From Charles Darwin has a Posse)

Holy S**t! Paris Can Read?!

Holy S**t! Paris Turns to Religion?!

Vertigo

You scored as Scientific Atheist, These guys rule. I'm not one of them myself, although I play one online. They know the rules of debate, the Laws of Thermodynamics, and can explain evolution in fifty words or less. More concerned with how things ARE than how they should be, these are the people who will bring us into the future. Scientific Atheist 92% Militant Atheist 50% Angry Atheist 50% Apathetic Atheist 50% Agnostic 33% Spiritual Atheist 33% Theist 17% What kind of atheist are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Truth

So I get a call sometime around 3 today: it's a good friend of mine. Turns out, he has tickets to see Al Gore speak at the Maryland Forum at UMBC. I must say: it was the greatest fucking slide show I've ever seen. I must explain that up until now I hadn't seen An Inconvenient Truth. This was my first. So, I guess I'll be buying a DVD any day now.

Some highlights/lowlights:

1. LaRouche supporters showed up en masse in opposition to Al's speech, handing out flyers before the show. Now, I do not tolerate shit that low, so I did the natural thing: asked them politely if they knew that LaRouche spent fifteen years in jail for mail fraud.

2. A heckler stood up in the middle of the talk; Gore has probably had to deal with assholes like this plenty of times, but eventually the man sat back down.

3. The slide with Adam & Eve is true. I had to see it for myself to believe it.

A Random Musing

My girlfriend and I were out walking this afternoon, holding hands. We stopped for ice cream and enjoyed the fresh air. After we had finished eating the cones, we stopped for a minute. She abruptly stood up on her toes and went to whisper in my ear. I turned my face, not expecting her to whisper, and the two of us looked into each other's eyes. We stood for a moment, and then kissed.

She then pointed behind me: there was a church and a church sign.

I saw that!
-- God, it said.

'Pervert,' I said, and the two of us walked on.

What a joke!

The National Day of Prayer Tanked -- as to be expected of political theater. There's some good comments over at Philaletheia on the subject, if you're interested.

Bill Moyers Rulz!

Check out the Bill Moyers documentary Buying the War. You can read a transcript here.

How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? "What the conservative media did was easy to fathom; they had been cheerleaders for the White House from the beginning and were simply continuing to rally the public behind the President — no questions asked. How mainstream journalists suspended skepticism and scrutiny remains an issue of significance that the media has not satisfactorily explored," says Moyers. "How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?"

Is Bill O'Reilly Mentally Retarded?

Yes.


O'Reilly is so immature, stupid, his mind empty of any constructive concept, it boggles the mind. More faith to be an atheist? You've got to be kidding me! What Twilight Zone episode is this? These are fucking arguments that go out the window in the first class of Theology 101. To think that he represents a large swath of America: the mentally retarded, the immature, the blabbermouth. He is not bound by logic and reason, and it shows. Fuck off, Mr. O'Reilly.

Conservatives need to grow up

See Austin Cline put theocrats and conservative hatemongers in their place.

Why can't the local newspaper print a decent conservative viewpoint on any issue? I open the OP/Ed section to read such utter drivel, anyone could write this shit. There's all these craaazy conservatives that all are either part of insane Right Wing libertarian/neoconservative think tanks; the rest are those Christian nutcases that are just a hop and a step away from Fred Phelps. It's not just my newspaper - it's everywhere I look. These jingoist fuckfaces keep breathing, taking up so much time and space. Where did the Conservative movement that I've always respected go? There are good libertarian ideas - good conservative ideas, even! Come on! I'm friggin' pro-gun!

Where are the arguments?

No wonder they lost the midterm elections.

Fuck Ken Ham

Fuck Ken Ham; fuck AiG. There's no getting around it anymore: they really need to stop making every issue about them. School shootings? Godlessness! Premarital sex? Godlessness! Gays in the military? Godlessness! I guess there's not one positive attribute that can be found in secularism. At least, that's the general picture I've been getting.

We live in an era when public high schools and colleges have all but banned God from science classes. In these classrooms, students are taught that the whole universe, including plants and animals—and humans—arose by natural processes. Naturalism (in essence, atheism) has become the religion of the day and has become the foundation of the education system (and Western culture as a whole). The more such a philosophy permeates the culture, the more we would expect to see a sense of purposelessness and hopelessness that pervades people’s thinking. In fact, the more a culture allows the killing of the unborn, the more we will see people treating life in general as “cheap.”

I’m not at all saying that the person who committed these murders at Virginia Tech was driven by a belief in millions of years or evolution. I don’t know why this person did what he did, except the obvious: that it was a result of sin. However, when we see such death and violence, it is a reminder to us that without God’s Word (and the literal history in Genesis 1–11), people will not understand why such things happen. (Ken Ham is a moron.)

'I’m not at all saying that the person who committed these murders at Virginia Tech was driven by a belief in millions of years or evolution.' I'm just saying is that the Virginia Tech killings (and Columbine. Damn, Ham loves to blame godless, atheistic secular commies.) are driven by this godless secularism, this atheistic naturalism, this science & shit.

From Respectful Insolence

Ken Ham can smoke my cock.

I could have told you that...

Abstinence programs don't do shit...

And this is news?

An Old Man Says Something Stupid

Who would have guessed? The Pope is an idiot.

Why am I not surprised?

"Science has opened up large dimensions of reason ... and thus brought us new insights," the pope wrote. "But in the joy at the extent of its discoveries, it tends to take away from us dimensions of reason that we still need."

Science is by far the best methodology ever to approximating the Truth. No other system comes close. So some douche that knows next to nothing about evolutionary theory is saying this as some kind of authority on the subject? I'll bet anyone all the money in my bank account that Ratzinger couldn't pass a ninth grade highschool science test -- just like 90% of Americans.

"[T]he theory of evolution is not a complete, scientifically proven theory."? Of course not! You can't prove things in science (but then again, like 90% of Americans, I'll bet you Ratzo knows nothing about Karl Popper -- or this thing called a universal statement and the problems it has with induction...), but when did philosophy stand in the way of the ramblings of an old guy in a large hat?

CNN Can Lick My Balls

Someone, please, please kill me. End it now. I turn on Anderson Cooper 360, and I just can't go on. I'm sure segments of the show will show up on all the big science and atheist blogs in a few days, but I'll cut to the punch: Anderson Cooper took a gander at the Creationist Museum that's opening up soon, interviewed some fucktards, and generally provided superficial talking-points. It was this broad overview of issues, as if both sides were somehow equal, that bugged me to no end. Ooh, a conflict between science and religion! The teach the controversy shtick! An interview with a leading Creationist, then five seconds of a real scientist saying, 'What the fuck? You can't be serious! The earth isn't 6,000 years old!' It just made me want to punt a puppy. Is this how news is done? I lasted ten minutes of jaw-dropping disgust before I had to turn that shit off. It's like Paula Zahn all over again.

CNN Transcript

Darwin Day

So how'd you spend your Darwin Day? (Coincidentally, it's also Abraham Lincoln's birthday today.) I planned ahead, so spent the morning preaching the good news a la Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses. I wore my black suit and tie (comfortable tennis shoes a must), holding my copy of On the Origin of Species. I read to passersby for a bit, but gave up after a while; you have no idea how thick Darwin's prose is, like a poor translation of some ancient Mesopotamian text. There were sentences - I kid you not - that go on for half a page. It was, perhaps, by the second chapter that I uncovered a bookmark I had left - I still have yet to get past the second chapter. It's that obtuse!

I then gathered some friends together, along with skullcaps, overcoats and white beards, dressed up as the old guy, and went out to dinner.

It's a bit silly, I know, but I've been thinking how cool it would be if there was National Darwin Day, and the old Santa guys were all called together, dressed up like a 19th century Englishman, jimmied windows of random people's houses, and accosted them as they entered the house with a brief history of Darwin, controversies, and evolutionary theory. And in exchange, instead of cookies, the homeowners would make baking soda volcanoes, photosynthesis labs, or other science fair projects. Fun for all!

Did I mention that a few years back while seeing family in England, I saw Darwin's grave, along with Isaac Newton's at Westminster Abbey? Damn straight, I did. Now I’ve got to find pictures of me in England to prove it...

Bogus!

Today is Evolution Sunday. The day preachers will say some silly things. Of course, not as downright ignorant as preaching Creationism or Intelligent Design. But frankly, it's silly. Evolution is about nature, not some invisible interdimensional miasma with a god-complex, and when these preachers will say that 'religion and science can be compatible,' it's obvious that they want a stockpile of 21st century cake and to eat it with a Iron Age spoon. Religion and science are light-years apart.

What's religion?

1. Belief in one or more supernatural beings.
2. A distinction between sacred and profane objects.
3. Ritual acts focused on those objects.
4. A moral code believed to be sanctioned by the god(s).
5. Religious feelings (awe, mystery, etc.) that tend to be aroused by the sacred objects during rituals.
6. Prayer and other communicative forms of conduct concerning the god(s).
7. A worldview according adherents a significant place in the universe.
8. A more or less comprehensive organization of one's life based on this worldview.
9. A social organization bound together by (1) - (8). (Audi, Religious Commitment and Secular Reason, p.35)

Doesn't come close to science! (4) and (7) stand directly opposed to evolution [(1) as well if this supernatural being interacts with the universe; the others just to science in general], so I'm just mystified. Why? They actually believe that the 'timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist.'??? That's 601 congregations of magical thinkers that both dance naked around the totem pole and go to work on Monday in a suit and tie. Bogus.

What's better is the adherent's sources of obligation: '(1) scripture; (2) non-scriptural religious authority, especially that of the clergy, but including the relevant community, such as the ... theological community ...; (3) tradition ...; (4)religious experiences; and (5) natural theology,' the latter exemplified by Aquinas's five arguments for the existence of God. (ibid. p. 117)

We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

It's bogus! Bogus, I tell you! Name one complimentary aspect of religion and science - better yet, name one truth found through religion alone!

...But it's an improvement...

Lazy

It looks like I'm moving up in the world!

Don’t you think it’s cute when another man likes you so much that he writes all about you? Well, the noted Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong has a thing for me, it seems. He just can’t get enough.

It all begins with an interesting post, titled Old Habits Die Hard: The Garden Variety Atheist Fairy Tale... and begins with this classic one-two punch. He starts off with a false dilemma, and ends with a straw man:

Dr. Michael J. Behe of Darwin's Black Box and Intelligent Design fame: is he an ignorant fundamentalist creationist-in-disguise? Actually, he is a Catholic and accepts common descent of species, including man.

See the switch? First, just two options are possible, then the only other option is some amalgamation of Dave Armstrong’s creation. As it turns out, Behe is just ignorant. He is not a ‘creationist-in-disguise’ in the classic sense (he must accept common descent, otherwise he would look like a buffoon), but his intent is to posit a supernatural ‘answer’ that is worthless, for Behe makes no argument whatsoever on the mechanism of how such ‘intelligent’ designer operates. In other words, Behe and other IDiots say, ‘POOF!, and that is how it happened. I cannot explain it because I don’t even care to read up on the relevant literature, so it must be magic.’

The rest of the post is ho-hum, a rehash of the argument from here, that is, except for the fabulous signoff he gives. Let’s go for Dave Armstrong’s blow-by-blow assault on atheism with impeccable logic in finesse.

Pray for this man. Do penance for him (I certainly will).

This is too rich. A prime example of a diluted man, Dave Armstrong believes that prayer works. He may lose count of his rosary beads in his rush to save my soul, and have to start over again.

This is one confused, sad, lost soul indeed. When unbelief is this entrenched, only prayer can (as with the demons) dislodge it.

Again, it’s as if wishing it to be so is enough. Dave Armstrong is convinced that prayer will somehow exercise my atheism like a surgeon removes a cancer.

And he believes in demons?

I may have my frustrations and self-torturing moments trying to actually reason with a guy like this (and am as disgusted with all his lies and slanders as any Christian reading this), but in the end, one must compassionately view him as a human being who needs God; who needs meaning and purpose in his life.

As of now, I have plenty of ‘meaning’ and ‘purpose’ – you see that he argues that the only way to have ‘meaning’ and ‘purpose’ is to believe in God. He dedicates himself to a book and an imaginary friend; I think it’s just a book, and I am tired of having people waste their time believing in fairy tales and bumps in the night. He can go on believing what he wants, but one day he might pull a Peter Pan and actually grow up and live in the real world.

I positively love the defense Dave Armstrong gives. If we were on the playground, he’d be the one holding his breath in the hopes that I’d stop insulting his imaginary friend. It’s almost not fair, and may be cruel on my part, but Dave Armstrong cannot seem to take things lightly. It’s as if my soul hangs in the balance.

His self-admitted "hate" will do him no good (like Ebeneezer Scrooge, he will suffer more than anyone else he inflicts with the hatred). He's clearly been hurt and/or disenchanted. He's gotten a raw deal somewhere along the line, to become both so bitter and irrational (not to mention blasphemous).

Can you hear the veiled threat in his first sentence? ‘He will suffer...’ I suppose, for not believing. The image of Jacob Marley shoveling the last bits of coal into the Franklin stove creeps to mind. Am I to burn in Hell? I guess I better believe, then.

You can see that Dave Armstrong attempts to rationalize why I dislike his brand of ignorance: someone has hurt me in the past, it must be, so that is why I do not believe; that also happens to be why I don’t believe in fairies and unicorns. A fairy and unicorn beat me up in an alley and stole my wallet, so I told myself to disbelieve in unicorns, and fight the fairies. It makes as much sense to me.

Dave most likely wanted so desperately to believe, and one day he learned that if he shouted loud enough and long enough, he would talk back to himself, and this was God enough for him.

It's good to always keep this in mind when we meet people who live without God, and (in his case) who have a curious need to mock and get furiously angry about that which allegedly doesn't exist.

Again, he pulls a bait-and-switch: I am angry with god, Dave Armstrong says. To tell you the truth, I don’t get angry with any god, Dave Armstrong’s god, or my neighbor’s god, because I don’t believe any god exists. Once again, Dave Armstrong’s ego obscures his vision.

I am furious, however, that demented, ignorant people waste our time. For example, I pick up the newspaper this morning, and on the front page is the headline In Russia, a test of God vs. Darwin, written by Erika Niedowski: “The student... brought the case, saying the teaching of evolution offends her religion... [and] says her biology text presents a one-sided version of life’s origins and is dismissive of the view that God made man. ‘It’s quite disrespectful. I believe we have the right to learn not only the theory of evolution, but creationism as well.’

Damn right it offended her, and it should. This happens across the globe: someone is ignorant of something, and learning the facts ‘offends’ them, so they reject it in favor of comfort.

Pray.

Prayer doesn’t work.

My job as an apologist is to expose the false ideas and the folly, but there is always a man or a woman behind the facade who needs to accept the love and truth of God and His gospel.

Dave Armstrong’s high horse is invisible, just like the Emperor’s clothes. His backside is muddy, however, because he cannot resist a personal attack: It turns out that I am ‘[a] pompous, condescending ass (and anti-Christian bigot).’

Too bad God doesn’t exist, because that’s some perfect Christian love I’m sure he’d love to see.

Most of us will never meet this man or other atheists we come across online, but we can pray that some Christian who can share love and truth with him, will meet him.

It is interesting to note that as of now, I have. His name is Ben Cheek (soulster), and the two of us started a website called Philaletheia a month ago with the desire to further atheist/Christian understanding, and as the name implies, search for the truth. I enjoy Ben’s writings because he is honest, well-thought-out, and in search of the truth, whatever it may be. His personal religious history is very interesting, and he has committed himself to helping others. He is a good man, and regardless if he were an atheist or a Christian, I would count him as a friend, and someone I can trust.

And we can pray that God will speak to his heart and break down the walls that he has constructed.

Prayer doesn’t work, and God does not exist: God is your imaginary friend.

By the way, I deny the Holy Spirit.

A whole post about me!

Is the World Just off Its Rocker?

Nobody fucks with Pat Tillman or his family. He is a true patriot, and to see someone even attempt to besmirch his image or his family's name turns my stomach. It's on the level of attacking 9/11 widows (Coulter - the harpy from hell - comes immediately to mind) or punching puppies. I can't even muster the energy in me to spew hatred and malice towards Kauzlarich. What an asshole. If I had a time machine and a coat hanger, I know whom I’d abort first. If Christians as a whole want to be tolerated by others, stop cavorting around with the ones making dick moves and begin Christian 2.0 already and do some real issues with Richard Cizik.

Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.

In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."

Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, "I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know." (An American Tragedy: Pat Tillman's Uncertain Death)

Oh Come On!

Another one? Another one? No way. I think I finally get it: When you say something, you really mean the opposite! But if that's true, I'm a little let down, guys; all this time I thought I was an atheist... it turns out I'm a diehard fundamentalist. That, and left is down and red is Jim Carrey.

Christopher Beard, who headed a ministry that trained young adults in leadership skills, stepped down Friday after admitting to "a series of decisions displaying poor judgment, including one incident of sexual misconduct several years ago," said Rob Brendle, an associate pastor at the 14,000- member church... After Haggard's fall in a drugs-and-gay- sex scandal last month, the senior leadership of New Life asked its outside board of overseers to take a closer look at the "spiritual character" of its 200-member staff as a precaution. Brendle said Beard's disclosures came during a meeting with the board, which is made up of four pastors from other congregations. (Leader at Haggard's church out over sexual misconduct)

Just Putting it out There

Religion and homosexuality. Homosexuality and religion. They've got a sorrid history, the two of them. Which brings me to tonight's topic: Westboro has arrived in my own backyard! It's great to know that insanity and bigotry work so well together. Maryland - Northern hospitality and Southern intelligence together at last - has finally been paid a visit by the Phelps clan. Intolerance never looked so good.


[A counter-demonstration taking place.]

Thanks to the controversial church’s appearance, shows sold out for the Baltimore School for the Arts’ production of “The Laramie Project,” said Donald Hicken, theater department director.

The play was written after college student Matthew Shepard was murdered in Laramie, Wyo., in 1998 for his homosexuality and features Westboro’s founder, the Rev. Fred Phelps, as a character, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Counter-protesters the bigger crowd at Westboro Baptist rally