If prayer really worked, they would be teaching it as a technique in medical school.

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops released an “Ethical and Religious Directive” this month that would ban any Catholic hospital, nursing home or hospice program from removing feeding tubes or ending palliative procedures of any kind, even when the individual has an advance directive to guide their end-of-life care. The Bishops’ directive even notes that patient suffering is redemptive and brings the individual closer to Christ.

Yes, Mr The-Banana-Is-the-Atheist's-Worst-Nightmare has added a new gem to his repertoire of fail.

Are you against science?
Science is a wonderful discipline, to which we are deeply indebted. So, I want every one of the 194,000 individuals who get the book to make sure they read the entire 304 pages When I read On the Origin of Species I was very impressed with Charles Darwin. If he was alive today, I am sure that he would be one of Disney’s imagineers, or earn big bucks as a Hollywood screenwriter for science-fiction movies. He had a fantastic imagination.

From Livingwaters.com's page on Kirk Cameron's Origin of Species giveaway.... abridged of course, and with his own introduction.

http://www.livingwaters.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=346&catid=33&Itemid=74/

1. A TMZ link! Edu-tainment! Video of Kirk taken by students at UCLA: Here.

RELATED: From National Geographic online a short summary of 6 'points of contention' between creationists (sorry, proponents of ID) and evolutionists. (It's dismaying that they use that word, but oh well) You can kind of see a pattern in the evolutionist view of creationist argument...summarized here: "Intelligent design advocates, he said, simply ignore the evidence."

ChurchOuting.org is a clearinghouse for reports of priests who are openly gay men in social settings yet professionally closeted in their parishes. The campaign will also accept reports of heterosexual priests who are involved in romantic or sexual relationships, yet support the Archbishop’s efforts to harm lesbian and gay families.


What do you guys think of this? I'm not for public outings as a general rule, but is there a case to be made for hypocrites who preach intolerance to their flocks and have gay (or straight) affairs on the side?

Saw this on a church sign on the way home: "Real men love Jesus." (They always have the best sayings.)

a) See? Christians do love their gays. /sarcasm
b) Good thing I'm not a man.

Did anyone see these guys at their university? They were a no-go at Washington State.

Since a lot of you guys liked the first one i posted, here's another one of my favorites. I can't remember any more of them, so if you want to see more good ones, you'll have to find them for yourselves ;D

Today I met the Boston Atheists and they were passing around some books of an online comic called "Jesus and Mo". I haven't seen in mentioned here yet, so i thought I'd share.

http://www.jesusandmo.net/

The humor factor oscillates from comic to comic, but there's some hilarity to be found. Being as this is an atheist community, i don't feel like i should have to put the "people of religion may find this offensive" warning on this post, but I'll do it anyway. ...and there it is.

Anyway, here's a taste (this was one of my favorites).

U.S. Christian Right Activists Pushing Death Penalty for Homosexuals in Poor African State

As if this weren't frightening and sickening enough without knowing some US Christians were supporting it.

( Text for the link phobic )

These bus ads from the British Humanist Association have been getting a lot of media attention this week, most recently in the Times Online, which posted the most retarded "expose", written by Ruth Glenhill here: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6925781.ece

Quoting Brad Mason, the father of the kids used in the ads:

“It is quite funny, because obviously they were searching for images of children that looked happy and free. They happened to choose children who are Christian. It is ironic. The humanists obviously did not know the background of these children.”

Gerald Coates, the leader of the Pioneer network of churches, which Mr Mason and his family used to attend before they moved to Dorset, said: “I think it is hilarious that the happy and liberated children on the atheist poster are in fact Christian."

Yes, yes it is ironic, you f*cking idiots! The whole point of the ads is that they aren't Christian children-they are children of Christian parents.

“That’s one of the points of our campaign,” said Andrew Copson, the association’s education director. “People who criticise us for saying that children raised in religious families won’t be happy, or that no child should have any contact with religion, should take the time to read the adverts. “The message is that the labelling of children by their parents’ religion fails to respect the rights of the child and their autonomy. We are saying that religions and philosophies — and ‘humanist’ is one of the labels we use on our poster — should not be foisted on or assumed of young children.”

Xposted to atheist_parents and exchristians

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is concerned that President Obama's trip abroad has served to bring out "the unhinged among the president's critics."

Not only have the Wall Street Journal and the hosts of Fox News been issuing their usual dark mutterings, but a new slogan has began appearing on bumper stickers, tshirts, and even teddy bears: "Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8."

Verses 8 and 9 of that psalm read, “Let his days be few; and let another take his office. Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow."

Maddow seemed mainly amused by the teddy bears, but when she turned for comment to former right-wing evangelical leader Frank Schaeffer, he emphasized that in a religious context "it means something more threatening."

"The situation that I find genuinely frightening right now," Schaeffer explained, "is that you have a ramping up of biblical language ... and what it's coalescing into is branding Obama ... as 'not us.' ... Now he joins the ranks of the unjust kings of ancient Israel ... who should be slaughtered, if not by God then by just men."


http://rawstory.com/2009/11/evangeli...ing-assassins/

Pretty scary stuff. I don't know how widespread this movement is, but...wow. Has anyone else seen this radicalization of the Religious Right?

Just sharing a bit of personal experience...which leads into a bit of a personal dilemma.

Now, my family ain't exactly classy.
You might say they're white trash - I wouldn't take offense.
I have very little to do with most of them.

My mom recovered from alcoholism and cocaine when I was a kid. Kudos to her!
She is now a recovering Roman Catholic. She's still pretty superstitious but has been questioning the church a lot lately - and even been asking "What kind of god is god anyway?" This is drastically different from the insane christian she used to be. All fire and brimstone!
Babysteps to reasoning.

She kicked my dad out when I was about 14 and took on a household with four kids, worked two jobs and stayed sober. Really, even if she was batshit insane at the time, that is a pretty impressive feat.

Now that my brothers and I are grown up atheists, she makes passive aggressive remarks about how she could have never have done the things she did on her own. That it was god himself who made it possible at all.
I make snarky remarks about how there is "No Magic Feather" and that "The magic was inside her all along".
I insist upon such reality checks whenever my mom attempts to discuss religion with me. Reality really isn't that bad!

Now, her brother, my uncle Jim, has lived on the street as a drug addict for 30+ years. About 10 years ago he sobered up, joined AA and "found god". (Personally, I abhor AA's "higher power" bullshit and that such a thing should be made mandatory, ever. I do not drink, but should I ever find myself in AA I choose Stephen Fry as my "higher power".)

Really, I'm proud that my uncle recovered! But, sadly, his mind isn't intact. So when he starts off on his god-rants and says "I could have never have done this without god!" I hesitate to give him the same reality check as my mom.

My mom is learning to let go of a lot of her prejudices that came with her religion.
(She has come very far from being a god-fearing homophobe!) I feel comfortable knocking down my mom's arguments because she's weening herself off religion and gaining more confidence in her own abilities and judgment. I don't think she's going to break or relapse if I bring down some heavy logic on her.

My uncle, however, I have less confidence in. He is an adult past his prime and has JUST STARTED his life. He has the mind of a 13 year old boy. His body is breaking down and yucky. (liver)
This imaginary friend is really all he has.

I feel like I'm taking candy away from a baby when I respond to his god-rants.
I go easy on him, gently dismiss the discussion and excuse myself. This was my method for a while as it seemed that he was just eager to talk about something positive in his life and not actually trying to convert or lecture me.

Although, lately, he learned that I am atheist and thinks I need to be saved. I get messages from him every other day about how great life is and how I should enjoy it and how god is with me and my life would be so wonderful is I let god in and then I will know true happiness.

This is annoying, of course.
It is pestering.
But also, I'm a very happy, energetic and obnoxiously positive person - I take offense when people assume that I must be miserable if I am an atheist. I'm being lectured on a wrong assumption and I'm sincerely afraid to fire back - even amicably - because of the damage I might do to a family member.

So I've been ignoring the messages.
Even the ones about how GOD has to stay in the pledge of allegiance and in schools and on money and in politics - and it kills me to stay quiet. I keep reminding myself "He has the mind of a 13 yr old. He won't understand or follow anything I say. And if he did, I'd be kicking the proverbial crutches out from under him. Must! Stay! Quiet!"

Well, since we're the only family he has....he will be coming to my mom's house for Thanksgiving next week. And I really don't know if I can keep my mouth shut for the whole evening.

Oh, man.

I have a sudden desire to read tons of atheist literature. What are your favorite atheist books and/or authors? I'm reading The God Delusion by Dawkins right now and I love it! Thank you!!!!!

So someone on Facebook sent me an invitation to a cause to put Jesus back in EVERYTHING. Yes that's how they put it. How much of a bad person would I be if I sent them an invitation to "Keep God out of School"?

I don't see this as being serious or anything, randomly joining a cause does nothing, but maybe it would make them think twice about sending something like that out before checking other people's info?

Edit: Did it. I wonder if they'll reply back or just delete it like I did to theirs. I feel like such a bad girl. xD

I apologise because this post is just another one of those annoying, 'I've just met a religious dickhead' posts, but I've just met a religious dickhead, and I'm annoyed about it.

Scene: A French class at an English university
Main Characters: Me (an atheist) and Religious Dickhead (RD)
Supporting Artists: a motley crew of European nationalities
Conflict: We were asked to discuss 'hot topics'

The first hot topic of the class was a discussion of a French lesbian who had just won the right to adopt a child. She had been denied by her government, and appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. And she won, hooray.

RD explains that he thinks it is "wrong" for homosexuals to adopt children because a child needs the influence of a mother and a father; that is, a male and a female.

So this is annoying. Irritating, even.

He goes on to say that homosexuals do not exist in Islamic nations (he is from one of them originally- can't remember which, and frankly IDGAF).

This continues to be annoying and also factually incorrect. I remember a few years ago when Ahmadinejad was in New York and said that there were no homosexuals in Iran, and he was pilloried for it... just because you don't tolerate them, doesn't mean they're not there love.

RD's final comments were that homosexuals are "mentally ill" and have "psychological problems."

I was so upset, I was actually shaking. I have gay friends and a gay sibling, so I was offended on that level of course, I mean, how dare he insult a whole group of people like that.

But what really made me so upset was that he was shocked that I was upset (I called him an idiot-- horribly impolite and inappropriate I know). Like he thought it was completely acceptable to cavalierly announce to a group of near strangers that gay people are sick and wrong and we'd just all accept it as fact. Or not be upset. I have never hated religious ideology more than I did at that moment.

I'm too sensitive, I know (must have that stiff upper lip checked out)... many here have been in similar situations; how do you deal with someone who's such a fundie fruitcake?

Thanks anyway for reading

Not really theist/anti-theist related (though it could be construed that way), I thought it might pique some of your interests.

Boy Won't Stand For Pledge of Allegiance

5th-grader wants liberty and justice for everyone

Updated: Friday, 13 Nov 2009, 9:30 PM EST
Published : Friday, 13 Nov 2009, 9:18 PM EST

By LILY FU

( Here's a video from CNN. )

I feel that I have to make a new post in defence of my previous post "The Inconsistentt Atheist". My internet connection went down soon after I made the post and now I realise that in the absence of a defence many posters have questioned my intentions and the tone of the conversation with my work friend. First, the conversation did actually take place. I didn't go into details about my response to his question about where I get my morals from because we have discussed this together many times. The purpose of using the 'Dawkins Paradox' (Sorry about the poor analogy) was to get him to understand that there wasn't that great a gulf between our beliefs as he thought. The tone was very light as we both like to challenge each other with little questions pretty much all day long. He is an Adventist and I have even attended some Apologetics meetings with him. Hope this clears up any misconceptions anyone might have had of that post.

An Adventist friend asked me at work last week how I was going to teach my kids any morals when I was an atheist. So I asked him if he believed in the Aztec, Roman, Nordic, Egyptian or any other gods and he said of course not. Then I asked him why he didn't believe in them, and he replied because they just didn't make sense and went on to explain why. I told him I agreed totally with his logic, but I applied it to all religions consistently. I said we were both Atheists, the only difference was that I was a consistent atheists, and he is an inconsistent one.