religion
oracknows | April 4, 2010Somehow, this picture seemed especially appropriate on Easter:
Now watch for J.B. Handley, some other anti-vaccine zealot, or a quack to quotemine the title of this post. You know it's coming...
In the meantime, it'll be back to the usual topics (and maybe one topic not so usual) next week. Happy Easter, you rabid band of freethinkers!
pharyngula | April 4, 2010It's Easter. Once again, the masses will gawp in awe at a bizarre and unbelievable story…because it is such a good example of how religion will piggy-back on our cognitive biases.
You all know the Easter story: a god turns into a man, gets tortured and killed, rises from the dead, and somehow this act makes us all better. It's a tale best left unexamined, because it makes no sense. We are supposed to wallow in an emotional thrill that taps deep into our social consciousness, not think about what the story actually says.
The part of the story that works for us is the idea of self-sacrifice.…
grrlscientist | April 4, 2010tags: Shroud of Turin, christianity,catholics, religion, cults, History Channel, streaming video
This video is a clip from the History Channel, where they report on the face that is imprinted onto the Shroud of Turin (rumored to be the burial cloth of Jesus Christ). Ho-hum.
grrlscientist | April 3, 2010tags: Vatican Easter Speech 2009, Pope Ratzinger, catholicism, religion, cults, satire, parody, funny, humor, fucking hilarious, streaming video
Just in time for Easter Sunday! Here is an except from the Vatican Easter speech (translated into English, of course). He does forget to mention the hundreds of thousands of children who were raped in His Holy Name (amen), but he does manage to talk about nearly everyone else in the world.
pharyngula | April 3, 2010Poor Paddy K. He wants to formally leave the Catholic church, so he followed the official procedures…and what does he get? A long letter from a priest telling him how wonderful the church is.
Maybe he needs to send the priest this video of Bill Donohue reiterating his claim that the problem is the infiltration of the church by the homosexual agenda. The low point for me was when the really terrible interviewer, Rick Sanchez, asks whether the problem with the church isn't priestly celibacy, and Donohue smugly takes this as a vindication of his point, somehow. I don't get it. He sure seems…
oracknows | April 2, 2010Every so often someone shows me something that so amuses me that I either must have one or must blog about it. This time around, it was my wife. Last weekend, we were reading the newspapers. On the weekend, we happen to get the New York Times as well as our local newspaper. There, ensconsed in the USA Weekend advertisement section stuffed into the local newspaper, I saw it. I saw it, and I had to have it.
Well, not really. But I had to blog about it anyway.
Ask yourself: When you're in pain, what do you need? Is it enough just to have the power of magnet woo to heal you? Of course not! You…
gregladen | April 1, 2010This is not only the true story of easter, but it is also a commentary on which is better, cats or dogs. Verily, many mysteries are explained in this epic documentary:
h/t: Julia
oracknows | April 1, 2010When it comes to detesting woo such as psychics like Sylvia Browne, I take a back seat to no one. But even I think beheading is a bit severe for such nonsense. Apparently, though, the religious loons who run Saudi Arabia disagree:
Amnesty International is calling on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a Lebanese man sentenced to death for "sorcery."
In a statement released Thursday, the international rights group condemned the verdict and demanded the immediate release of Ali Hussain Sibat, former host of a popular call-in show that aired on Sheherazade, a Beirut based…
oracknows | April 1, 2010One of the most persistent and prevalent examples of a modern myth that will not die is the story of Area 51. So ingrained in our culture has it become that nearly everyone (at least in the U.S.) knows what you are talking about when you refer to it. It's been featured in movies as diverse as Independence Day (one of my favorite big budget, brain-meltingly silly end-of-the-world movies about alien invasion) and, of course, Area 51. Forests of trees have been slain in order to publish books on the subject, and cable TV channels serve up near constant stream of documentaries either about Area…
pharyngula | March 31, 2010Donohue is also an amazing fellow, always able to top himself in serial excuses for the crimes of the church. His latest escapade is to pardon a priestly abuser because his victims were over some magical age.
The head of the influential Catholic League says that the priest who allegedly sexually abused 200 deaf boys in Wisconsin did not engage in pedophilia because 'the vast majority of the victims [were] post-pubescent."
Bill Donohue made the argument during a raucous debate on Larry King Live Tuesday night, during which he repeatedly pointed the finger to homosexuality -- rather than…
pharyngula | March 31, 2010He thinks I missed his important distinction.
Christianity flees power as Jesus did; Christianism seeks it above everything else. And there is nothing more powerful than killing others, except for torturing them. Hence my distinction, which I make from no authority. I merely think that declaring a homeless, apolitical, non-violent hippie in first century Palestine as someone who would bless a twenty-first century terrorist militia in North America is a bit of a stretch.
Funny thing, that: that was my whole point. Modern Christianity is nothing but Christianists, then, and it's a distinction…
pharyngula | March 30, 2010This is nice. Andrew Sullivan has a suggestion to exempt those wanna-be terrorists, the Hutarees, from the fold of the faithful.
Surely we can all assent to the notion that a Christian militia of the type now accused of planning domestic terrorism is not Christian. This is why I call them Christianist. Anyone planning to murder innocents by way of IEDs cannot plausibly call himself or herself a follower of Jesus of Nazareth.
Good thing he threw in that specific bit about IEDs, or I'd have to mention all the innocents slaughtered in Christ's name since, oh, the Dark Ages. They are spared by a…
pharyngula | March 28, 2010At least this will be a useful one. And it is hallowed by the Pope!
Pope Benedict, facing the worst crisis of his papacy as a sexual abuse scandal sweeps the Catholic church, declared today he would not be "intimidated" by "petty gossip", angering activists who say he has done too little to stamp out paedophilia.
Hey, Pope Ratzi. Petty gossip you, too — sideways with a rusty knife. Could you possibly trivialize child rape a little more?
pharyngula | March 28, 2010We've got a good answer from Richard Dawkins:
No, Pope Ratzinger should not resign. He should remain in charge of the whole rotten edifice - the whole profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution - while it tumbles, amid a stench of incense and a rain of tourist-kitsch sacred hearts and preposterously crowned virgins, about his ears.
Oooh, so shrill, so militant, so aggressive…yet somehow so soothing and joyful.
emjohnson | March 28, 2010Sam Harris, Michael Shermer, Deepak Chopra, and Jean Houston square off for a Nightline debate on the future of belief.
Part 1
The entire program lasts about 1 hour 50 minutes. Watch all parts continuously by clicking here.
grrlscientist | March 28, 2010tags: T-Shirts That God Would Wear!, religion, cults, comedy, humor, funny, silly, fucking hilarious, Edward Current, streaming video
As a believer in the Prosperity Gospel, Edward Current prayed for abundance in his bank account. Here's what God -- and his accountant -- told him to do. Better yet, Jeebuz is helping out by pimping his new T-Shirts to the public!
For the record, Edward Current doesn't even know I exist, and I do not get any rewards for placing this ad here -- not even a lousy free t-shirt! That said, I DO know what I want for my Easter gifts, and they ain't armies chocolate…
grrlscientist | March 27, 2010tags: How to Spot a Cult, scientology, branch davidians, religion, cults, mind control, investigative news report, mind control, mental health, beliefs, streaming video
This Inside New Zealand investigative report is long but fascinating and very well-worth watching. It includes plenty of information on Scientology as well as other cults (Branch Davidians, etc) and gives a good overview of cult warning signs.
Part 1:
Part 2:
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Part 10:
pharyngula | March 27, 2010Speaking of the ABC, I revisited their Global Atheist Convention blog, which I can say without hesitation was absolutely the worst effort any of the media put out. I think I prefer the blatant stupidity of a Gary Ablett to the mawkish blitherings of a gang of pious apologists — at least it's honest. And that's all they've got — the blog is still limping along with a series of tepid guest posts by people making weak excuses for their faith. It was supposedly a blog about the convention, but it never quite rose to the standard of even meeting their own aims — instead, it's an exercise in breast…
pharyngula | March 26, 2010The London Times has a piece on Ayala's Templeton prize, and it annoys me early:
Professor Francisco Ayala, who won the £1 million Templeton Prize for scientific thought,
Say what? There's no amount of science you can do that will win you a Templeton prize. It's a prize for religious apologetics, nothing more.
And then Ayala reveals why he won the prize. Not for science, but because he doesn't like those annoying atheists.
said that attacking religion and ridiculing believers provided ammunition for religious leaders who insisted that followers had to choose between God and Darwin. "Richard…
pharyngula | March 26, 2010
The regal figure to the right is Terrill Dalton. He had a vision that revealed that he, personally, was the Holy Ghost, Jesus Christ's dad. Who knew the Holy Ghost would look a bit like the Pillsbury Doughboy?
Anyway, the Holy Ghost has come down a bit in the world. He's now living in a collection of campers and vans on a 5 acre lot in Montana, leading a breakaway Mormon sect that was too crazy for Utah.
Members of the Church of the Firstborn and General Assembly of Heaven had fled to Idaho from Utah last year after their large home in a Salt Lake City suburb was raided by federal officials…