religion
pharyngula | May 9, 2010Poland has blasphemy laws, too — and they're applying them to throw a pop star in prison. Dorota Rabczewska (careful there, she has also posed for Playboy) has said something absolutely unforgivably awful:
In a television interview last year, Doda explained that she found it far easier to believe in dinosaurs than the Bible; "it is hard to believe in something written by people who drank too much wine and smoked herbal cigarettes."
Polish Catholics weren't too pleased. Under Poland's draconian blasphemy law, simply offending someone's religious sensibilities can earn you hefty fines and…
grrlscientist | May 9, 2010tags: Did Religion Have an Evolutionary Value?, religion, psychology, social structure, social commentary, cultural observation, Richard Dawkins, streaming video
Richard Dawkins argues that humanity's historical predisposition towards religion and supernatural beliefs may have held an evolutionary utility. "The rule of thumb: 'Believe whatever your parents tell you,' quite clearly could have survival value," says Dawkins.
He's the King of All the Atheists (um, yeah, right), and now Richard Dawkins is hammering home what he sees as his key argument against the existence of God. In his book,…
grrlscientist | May 8, 2010tags: Mexican Bishops Ask for Forgiveness, catholicism, religion, sex abuse, child rape, pedophilia, social commentary, cultural observation, Al Jazeera, streaming video
As the Vatican tries to defuse growing anger over child abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church, bishops in Mexico have released a statement asking victims for forgiveness.
Church authorities in Mexico have now admitted that one of their priests, Marcial Maciel, had over a 40-year period, preyed on nearly 200 young seminarians and children, including two of his own.
The Vatican has continued to deny allegations of a…
gregladen | May 7, 2010A new show called "JC" is planned for Comedy Central. The details of the show indicate that it has potential to be rather funny. But what is even funnier is watching the Catholic League trying to figure out exactly how to be mad at Comedy Central.
"It's not certain what is more despicable: the nonstop Christian bashing featured on the network, or Comedy Central's decision to censor all depictions of Muhammad," said William Donohue, president of the Catholic League...
Which implies that Donohue would feel less bad about his religion being lampooned if other religions also got more lampooned…
pharyngula | May 7, 2010What do you think? Is the Catholic hierarchy cheering or cringing at the words of this Brazilian archbishop* and his excuses for the child abuse scandals in the church?
Archbishop Grings, a 73-year-old priest with conservative views, said the gradual acceptance of homosexuality by the public was a precursor to a possible broad acceptance of paedophilia.
"When sexuality is banalised it is clear that that can have an effect on all cases. Homosexuality is one case. Before, no one spoke of the homosexual. He was discriminated against," he said.
"When we start to say that they [homosexuals]…
oracknows | May 7, 2010
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pharyngula | May 6, 2010Sometimes I am just so embarrassed by my country. Do we really need the government telling people to appeal to an invisible magic man in the sky? Apparently, we do.
"I call upon the citizens of our nation to pray, or otherwise give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I invite all people of faith to join me in asking for God's continued guidance, grace, and protection as we meet the challenges before us," Obama said in his official proclamation.
Get stuffed, you pandering, unprincipled hack.
Let's just hope that the appeal of…
pharyngula | May 5, 2010Chicago has been oppressing the people! They've installed some mechanical deviltry called parking meters on the street, forcing people who want to drive their multiton iron chariots (an offense unto god right there) into the city and then park them somewhere to pay for the privilege. Everyone is annoyed by parking meters, but guess who is whining the loudest? The churches, of course.
"I think it's interfering with my religious activity," said the Rev. Webb Evans, 96, who keeps an office at Israel Methodist Community Church. "We should have the freedom to go to church without having to pay a…
pharyngula | May 4, 2010Finally, the church is beginning to clean up its act. The Vatican has announced that it is investigating three orders of nuns in Washington state — what perverted and revolting acts have these nuns committed to draw the ire of the Catholic church? I'm sure your imagination is working hard right now.
The Vatican says it's following up on complaints of feminism and activism.
Oh, my god … heads will roll. They'll be ostracized, exorcized, and excommunicatized. No mere buggery of children here, but feminism? Jesus is weeping in heaven above, and the angels are grounded with grief.
pharyngula | May 3, 2010When an old thread is suddenly resurrected, it's interesting to try to guess why. Every time Kent Hovind gets a little bit of press, his weird fans start googling his name, and presto, they stumble onto one of my old threads and start waxing indignant. The latest zombie thread is about the Shroud of Turin, and I can guess what has prompted people to start digging on the web for info: that goofy ol' Pope Ratzi is genuflecting before the Shroud.
He said that keeping up that hope is the message of the Shroud of Turin, in which disciples see their sufferings "mirrored" in the suffering of Christ…
gregladen | May 3, 2010"Dick Shake"
I want to start out by restating (or stating more plainly) that the Tokenskeptic podcast should be on your listening list, and that it influenced my own thinking about Boob Quake.
Previously, I had been mainly interacting with people with a positive or neutral view of the Boob Quake, and in observing their relationship to the broader community of skeptics, feminists and atheists, noted that they were getting increasingly crapped upon for their involvement in it by subsets of those communities. The cleavage between pro and anti Boob Quake grew as quakes often do, along pre-…
oracknows | May 3, 2010It just so happens that I was up quite late last night doing--what else?--writing yet another grant application (well, two actually). Even though the grants aren't due until Wednesday, Tuesday happens to be my operating room day, meaning I need to get this done and buried by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. In any case, I had been planning on just posting a rerun or two, as is my wont when real life gets so crazy that even my rapid-fire blogorrhea is curtailed, and then someone had to go and send me something that merits at least a brief bit of Insolence. Try as I might not to get sucked…
grrlscientist | May 2, 2010tags: I'm A Teabagger For Jesus, teabaggers, America, poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, socialism,humor, funny, satire, fucking hilarious, social commentary, cultural observation, Edward Current, streaming video
What would Jesus do to help America? In this video, William Current, one of my favorite social satirists, explains how he decided that he would be a Teabagger. No taxation without representation!
grrlscientist | May 1, 2010tags: Bible Contradictions Quiz Show, religion, christianity, Bible, humor, funny, satire, comedy, fucking hilarious,animation, cults, streaming video
This amusing video shows a quiz show where the two contestants are asked questions about the bible -- unfortunately, the holy word of god is filled with contradictions (more contradictions than the Harry Potter series, for that matter!)
mikethemadbiologist | April 29, 2010I came across this excellent article by Jerry Coyne, which is part book review, part defense of natural selection. I recommend it highly. But, in reading the article, I wondered why people are so threatened by natural selection. Because that's not the philosophically challenging part. Unless you're a biblical 'literalist', the idea of a creator dude who acts through the mechanism of natural selection isn't too theologically challenging. After all, traits that are beneficial (at least locally and in the short term) increase, while the deleterious ones decrease. Surely, this is the best…
pharyngula | April 28, 2010Why would the Pope dislike the internet? Why does Islam rebel at mockery? Why do religions demand unquestioning respect?
It's because open criticism kills them. Thunderf00t explains why.
(via RD.net)
pharyngula | April 28, 2010PBS has a crew in the Vatican, looking to see some signs of light from a secretive organization. Here's an account of one audience — it sounds hopeless. First some flunky came out to make this declaration:
The last couple of months have been very difficult, he went on, with so many questions being raised about things that happened long ago. But he said, "This is the time for truth, transparency and credibility. Secrecy and discretion are not values that are in fashion at the moment. We must be in a condition of having nothing to hide."
Ah, now it's all in the distant past. Once again, they…
pharyngula | April 27, 2010This is really hard to watch: it's a young woman giving the benediction at the graduation ceremony at Midwestern State University, in Texas, and she's so sucked up into her religious fervor that she starts shaking, I catch a hint of speaking in tongues, and finally ends up fainting on the stage.
If it were anything other than religion she was trying to push up there, we'd be getting that poor woman in for psychiatric help.
oracknows | April 26, 2010If there's one thing Christians tell us, it's that Jesus is inside each and every one of us. Who knew that this was literally true? Don't believe me? Take a look at this MRI:
Apparently they've been wrong all these years when they said that Jesus lives in every man's heart. He actually lives in the lung. I guess that's all the more reason for smokers to quit smoking. You wouldn't want to smoke out Jesus, would you?
At least this sort of pareidolia makes it difficult for believers to show up to worship, although if this patient's identity is ever revealed it wouldn't surprise me if he…