religion
pharyngula | May 30, 2010What is it with some English professors and their contempt for science? Some of the noisiest, most obnoxious, most self-indulgently prolix and goofy critics of the New Atheism are full-of-themselves pomposities like Eagleton and Fish, and now we can apparently add another, Marilynne Robinson. She's a novelist — I have not read any of her books, but they have received quite a bit of critical acclaim — and she recently gave a series of lectures, now published as a book, Absence of Mind, in which she is going to give the godless a piece of her mind. Unfortunately for her, it seems to be a small…
grrlscientist | May 30, 2010tags: The Clearwater Beach Diet, Scientology, cults, diet, weight loss, satire, humor, funny, offbeat, streaming video
This satirical video offends two groups of people at the same time: Scientologists and people who are on "the diet fad of the week."
Unfortunately, Scientology does not help people: Kirstie Alley is still fat, and Lisa McPherson is still dead.
grrlscientist | May 29, 2010tags: The Thinking Atheist, Scientology: Circus of the Stars, L Ron Hubbard, Dianetics, Thetans, Xenu, operating thetan, E-Meter, auditing, humor, funny, offbeat, streaming video
Shake off those physical chains and become the god you were meant to be! This video by The Thinking Atheist provides a look at the history and philosophy of the popular mind-control cult known as Scientology.
pharyngula | May 28, 2010It's been a great week for vapid defenses of religion…at least for atheists, that is. It's been a sad week for the godly, given that their paladins are all such flabby purveyors of tepid tea.
First up, let us consider the Dalai Lama, revered all around the world because he's such a nice guy and is always smiling — and I agree that he is an awfully nice fellow, considering that he's the representative of a medieval theocracy. He has an op-ed in the NY Times, sadly, which reveals that behind his happy face is a bubble of confused cortex. Anthony Grayling has already dealt with the core of his…
pharyngula | May 28, 2010There are no atheists allowed in Catholic schools.
A teacher at a Catholic HS in Iowa was fired because she answered a poll about personal beliefs in a way her employer didn't like. Apparently, Abby Nurre was surfing around Facebook last summer (before she started her job at the Catholic school) and decided to answer a poll question she found. The poll asked whether she believed in God, angels or miracles - she answered "no".
Now she's out of a job because, as the school board put it, she violated "a policy that prohibits employees from advocating principles contrary to the dogmatic and…
pharyngula | May 28, 2010Bill Donohue will be so relieved. Here's a story about a youn girl being raped, her assailant protected by the church, and the girl herself getting all the blame…and it's the Baptists! Tina Anderson was raped by Ernest Willis, a Trinity Baptist Church member, when she was 15, and got pregnant. She accused Willis in the church, and here's what happened:
When the pastor heard Anderson's allegations, he told her that if she had "lived in the Old Testament," she would have been stoned to death for not reporting the attack sooner.
"He also said I had 'allowed myself to be put in a compromising…
pharyngula | May 28, 2010The American Humanist Association is making a push to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy of the American military. They want you to write a letter to your representatives supporting the repeal.
Here's another reason besides simple common decency to end a discriminatory practice: It will drive Bryan Fischer insane(r). Fischer is the unpleasant Idaho bigot who thinks homosexuals should be imprisoned, and he's got his own peculiar take on gays in the military.
Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six…
grrlscientist | May 28, 2010tags: Inside a School for Suicide Bombers, Taliban, brainwashing, mind control, suicide bombers, propaganda, religion, cults, Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, TEDTalks, TED Talks, streaming video
Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy takes on a terrifying question: How does the Taliban convince children to become suicide bombers? Propaganda footage from a training camp is intercut with interviews of young camp graduates. A shocking vision.
TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in…
pharyngula | May 27, 2010A Muslim cleric thought he'd discovered a loophole in Islamic religious law that would allow the restrictions on Muslim women in the workplace to be loosened.
He said that if a woman fed a male colleague "directly from her breast" at least five times they would establish a family bond and thus be allowed to be alone together at work.
"Breast feeding an adult puts an end to the problem of the private meeting, and does not ban marriage," he ruled.
"A woman at work can take off the veil or reveal her hair in front of someone whom she breastfed."
Just when you think the Abrahamic attitude…
pharyngula | May 27, 2010A couple of years ago, I sat down one morning, bemused by yet another bit of empty apologetics from god's sycophants, and banged out a short bit of amusement called The Courtier's Reply. It got picked up everywhere, to my surprise. I mean, seriously, I have to confess that I whipped that out in 20 minutes, no edits or rewrites, just shazam, it's done. I'm really peeved at myself for anguishing over this book I'm working on, because apparently, all I've got to do is get a big glass of root beer, pop some bubblegum in my mouth, put something bubbly and light on the stereo, and once I enter a…
jrosenhouse | May 26, 2010Or so Karl Giberson seems to think. Early in his essay he writes:
This might suggest that Ken Ham and his Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., are becoming less relevant, as they speak for -- and to -- an increasingly smaller band of hyperconservative biblical literalists. Ham's followers, ironically, are exactly what Waltke warned us about -- a cult, with their own separate science.
And later:
There is something profoundly un-American about demanding that people give up cherished, or even uncherished, beliefs just because they don't comport with science.
Faith Giberson doesn't like?…
jrosenhouse | May 26, 2010The Dalai Lama had an op-ed in The New York Times the other day. Alas, he got off to a very bad start with this:
WHEN I was a boy in Tibet, I felt that my own Buddhist religion must be the best -- and that other faiths were somehow inferior. Now I see how naïve I was, and how dangerous the extremes of religious intolerance can be today.
Though intolerance may be as old as religion itself, we still see vigorous signs of its virulence. In Europe, there are intense debates about newcomers wearing veils or wanting to erect minarets and episodes of violence against Muslim immigrants. Radical…
pharyngula | May 25, 2010We really hurt the true believers of Islam with Draw Mohammed Day. They are angry and frustrated, and they want to strike back against secularists equally well, in ways that will also infuriate us. To their credit, though, some realize that threatening to decapitate heretics isn't exactly smart and civilized…they need something that will illustrate to us how hurtful violating their religious precepts was.
What to do, what to do…
One Muslim genius has come up with the answer: EVERYBODY RESEARCH HOLOCAUST DAY. On 30 June, he is encouraging everyone to engage in "critical study" of "the…
pharyngula | May 23, 2010There was a terrible plane crash in India — a plane overshot the runway and plummeted off a cliff to explode. 158 dead; 8 survived. You can guess where this is going: Koolikkunnu Krishnan, one of the survivors, chose to spit in the dead faces of all the casualties and sneer at their families.
"I've been thinking, 'Why me? Why me?' And I can only think that God wanted to give me a second life," he said from his hospital bed in Mangalore.
Keep this in mind, please. If you're ever in a tragic accident, and you survive while others are seriously harmed, don't claim it's because you're special…
pharyngula | May 23, 2010Angela Wright had a serious heart attack two months ago; she seems to have had a history of cardiovascular problems, because she'd also had a series of blood clots in her leg that required a partial amputation about 20 years ago.
Her very supportive family seems to be the pious sort. They dropped to their knees and started praying fiercely for her. Then she had another heart attack, but she didn't die, and the family prayed harder and also said 'hallelujah, the prayers are keeping her alive!"
Then there was another heart attack. More prayers, more certainty that the prayers were all that was…
grrlscientist | May 23, 2010tags: Scientology, SeaOrg, cults, religion, mind control, offbeat, weird, L Ron Hubbard, A Look at Scientology's Secret Base, Twin Peaks, AnonOrange, Angry Gay Pope, streaming video
The Twin Peaks base houses a vault full of Scientology's precious scripture. It's also a place to hide if WWIII breaks out. And it's a place where celebrities can come and escape. But judging by all the high fences and UltraBarrier, it's also a prison camp. Protesters AnonOrange and the Angry Gay Pope pay them a visit, seeking missing cultists Shelly Miscavige and Heber Jentz. Instead, they meet cultists Sarah…
grrlscientist | May 22, 2010tags: Scientology, SeaOrg, cults, religion, mind control, offbeat, weird, L Ron Hubbard, Scarlett Hanna, Australian Broadcasting Company, streaming video
Scarlett Hanna, the daughter of the president of the Church of Scientology in Australia, speaks out against the organization in this eye-opening interview with the Australian Broadcasting Company.
pharyngula | May 21, 2010Cynthia Dunbar, one of the wingnuts on the Texas board of education, is a revolting human being. She delivered a 'prayer' before a meeting that is an excellent example of grandstanding piety. She seems to be lecturing god on American history…her version of American history.
Of course she wasn't actually lecturing god — that entity doesn't exist, and if you believe he does, then it would be an act of hubris to stand there and tell him what to think — but she was instead taking a moment to harangue the committee and audience with her far-right revisionist baloney without risk that someone…
pharyngula | May 21, 2010Way back in the 1970s, a Spanish songwriter named Javier Krahe made this short satirical video.
Let's take a gaunt Christ for every two persons. Remove the spikes and take the body from the cross, which will be left aside. The stigmas can be stuffed with bacon. Uncrust with warm water and dry carefuly. Abundant butter will be spread on the Christ, which will be then placed on an ovenproof dish, over a bed of onions. Spread over it some salt and pepper, other spices and fine herbs can be added to suit your taste. The mixture is to be left in a moderate fire oven for three days, after which He…
gregladen | May 21, 2010When I was first in the Ituri Forest, I Noticed there were many kinds of plantains grown in the gardens there They varied by size and shape. One version seemed to have numerous black spots on the outside. When asking what it was called, I found its name was the same as the variety without the black spots. Eventually, someone realized that I was asking the wrong question, and gave me the explanation I was unknowingly looking for: "The ones with the black spots were the ones at a certain ripening stage during a storm in which rocks made of water in the form of what you call ice cream, sort…