Theists actually believe this stuff!

Sunday, February 28, 2010

The IQ differences are statistically significant, but experts say the data shouldn't be used to stereotype or make assumptions.


Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.

Link:

West Wing - President vs Right Wing Loon

Friday, February 26, 2010

Life-like evolution in a test tube

SAN DIEGO: Can life arise from nothing but a chaotic assortment of basic molecules? The answer is a lot closer following a series of ingenious experiments that have shown evolution at work in non-living molecules.

For the first time, scientists have synthesized RNA enzymes - ribonucleic acid enzymes also known as ribozymes - that can replicate themselves without the help of any proteins or other cellular components.


Link: Cosmos Mag

From: Religious Virus Blog

Hamster

Fishes

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Live by the bible for a year:

Unusually tall cabin crew leaves airport agog

COMMUTERS at Melbourne Airport were agog yesterday when a flamboyant - and very tall - cabin crew strode through Terminal 3 towards the boarding gate for flight DJ 857. To celebrate Sydney's gay and lesbian Mardi Gras weekend, Virgin airlines had a special themed Melbourne-to-Sydney flight, complete with a drag queen cabin crew, dance routines and champagne at the boarding gate and the kind of in-flight entertainment one would normally find at the Greyhound Hotel.


SMH:

Fundies will be outraged by this. If there's a natural disaster in the next fortnight they will blame it on this fun flight to Mardi Gras

Interview with Ugandan LGBTI Activist Frank Mugisha

Ugandan LGBTI activist, Frank Mugisha, speaks about persecution of gay people in Uganda, and the draconian penalities proposed under the new Bill which will further criminalise and stigmatise homosexuals in that country if passed.




Pregnant woman jailed for having thought about abortion

It is heard to believe, yet a true story. A pregnant woman in Iowa (USA) had been jailed for "attempted feticide" because she told hospital staff that she once thought about having an abortion.


Link:

It just has to be called thought crime.

How could anyone hope to establish objectively that a woman is considering an abortion. What if she is. Her body is not public property. Not the fertile soil for men to sow seed into.

Atheism book found in home linked to fire suspect

DALLAS - Investigators have seized books on demons and atheism as well as rifles and knives from in a home linked to one of the men charged with setting an east Texas church on fire and suspected in a string of similar blazes.


Link:

Why exactly is it necessary to tell us that the suspect has books on atheism? I have dozens of books on atheism and I haven't burnt down any churches.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

JUDGE 'BAFFLED' BY SIMON SINGH CHIROPRACTIC CASE

The Lord Chief Justice expressed surprise today at the BCA's libel suit against Simon Singh. Padraig Reidy reports

England's most senior judge today said he was "baffled" by the British Chiropractic Association's (BCA) defamation suit against science writer Simon Singh.


Link:

This one is more about skepticism than atheism but the two go hand in hand. Excessive credulity is the same as faith.

Online masturbating priest jailed

A Sydney priest who used a webcam to broadcast himself masturbating to a person he believed was a 13-year-old girl will be behind bars for at least six months.

Robert MacGregor Fuller, 54, has been sentenced to a maximum of 18 months in jail for grooming and procuring a child under the age of 16.


Link:

If we get our morality from religion, how is it that this revealed morality seems to have somehow missed the very person who was explaining it to his "flock"?

Or: "Is this religion teaching people to be good?"

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

MPs deliver their damning verdict: Homeopathy is useless and unethical

Link:

Today the Science and Technology Select Committee delivered its verdict on homeopathy and it was devastating. The committee has called for the complete withdrawal of NHS funding and official licensing of homeopathy.


Hopefully this sort of skeptical, rational behaviour will spread out to encompass the British Chiropractic Association's legal action against Simon Singh.

RDF forum closes

Hello all you RDF forum refugees.

An Atheist Nexus group has been opened so you can get back in touch with your RDF forum friends.

The group will be approved soon. In the meantime go to discussion here and await further instructions.

Atheist Nexus Link:

You'll have to join AN if you're not a member. It's free or you can make a donation to help out if you want.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Woman Nabbed For Chewing Gum On The First Day Of Ramadan

Kuwait : A woman was arrested on the first day of Ramadan for breaking her fast by chewing gum.
According to sources, security officers from the Hawalli governorate spotted the woman chewing gum at 5:30 am while they were on patrol duty. When they questioned her about the act, she said she had the personal freedom to do as she pleased.

Link:

Before you say that you want to live in a world where religion determines our laws take a long, hard look at Arab Times Online. This is the kind of shit that you are wishing for.

Those scamps at WBC cop a dose of their own medicine.

He who must be obeyed? I think not, vicar

"Wives are to submit to their husbands in everything in recognition of the fact that husbands are head of the family as Christ is head of the church," wrote the Reverend Angus MacLeay, rector of St Nicholas Church, Sevenoaks, Kent.


Link:

Even religion's supposedly moderate theists are prone to the odd power grab from time to time. When religions are given exemption from basic secular concepts like equality of the sexes this is the sort of shit that happens.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

St James ethics course starts in NSW schools

PRIMARY school children will be taught if it's OK to lie and will debate whether products should be tested on animals in the state's first ethics lessons.

Ten government schools, including Haberfield, Darlinghurst, Crown Street, Leichhardt and Hurstville, will start the landmark 10-week trial in late April.

Each week, for 30 minutes, students in Years 5 and 6 will discuss the ethics of issues such as bullying, graffiting, stealing and children's rights.

The classes, tipped to be extremely popular, will be offered to students who have opted out of scripture lessons.

NSW University philosopher Philip Cam developed the curriculum and said the classes would encourage children to consider a series of scenarios and make relative judgments.


Link:

Churches have tried to veto this (for some reason they were asked). They then whinged about religious students missing out on these lessons while saying in the next breath that the courses were unnecessary because this is what religious lessons are for.

Sitting around singing "Jesus Loves Me" is the most pointless ethics lesson ever. This sounds like a fantastic idea. I hope that the schools that implement it see a marked decrease in bullying. I suspect they will. Religion can only teach xenophobia and bullying. It relies on inequality for its pecking order power structures (eg: men are the boss of women, you have to do what priests say, the Vatican is always right... shit like that).

Creationists propose "Intelligent Recall" theory to explain extinction of species

"From time to time God reviews his creations (products), and he may decide to recall some of them after the review, which causes that particular creation (species) to go extinct. It's tough, but it's God's will." declared leading creationist Rich Hawkins, hoping that the theory will put an end to all kinds of speculations going on over dinosaur extinction.


Link:

"Atheism's true believers gather" [in Melbourne, Australia]

As religious extremism grows, its opponents are getting organised. Jacqueline Maley reports.

Something you will never see: an atheist boarding a plane with a bomb strapped to him, waving a copy of On The Origin Of Species, before he blows himself up in a violent attempt to further his cause.


SMH Article:

Response:
Metamagician and the Hellfire Club

Friday, February 19, 2010

'Grossly indecent' gay couple face 14 years' jail

A gay couple jailed on charges of "gross indecency" for holding Malawi's first unofficial same sex wedding will be sentenced next month, a court says.


Link:

Africa revels in it's ignorant attitudes towards homosexuality.

Is this religion teaching people to be good?

Study: Young Americans less religious than their parents

A study released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public life appears to bear that out. On the one hand, it finds that young Americans are significantly less religious than their parents and grandparents were when they were young.


Link:

Less but still too many!

Damages for Catholic abuse could cost millions

As more victims of sexual abuse by priests in the German Catholic church in the 1970s and 80s come forward, their lawyers said on Tuesday that compensation could reach into the millions.

Link:

Could it break them... that's what I want. Their power today cost children their innocence. These children grew up to be broken adults. Giving them EUR5 or 10,000 isn't going to fix them. It's not going to stop the priests who are abusing children this very moment.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Fundamentalist Christian Couple's Child Dies After Beating

Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz of Paradise, California, were charged with murder and torture for allegedly beating their two adoptive daughters, causing injuries so severe that one of the two died. The other remains in critical condition.

"For the under one year old, a little, ten to twelve-inch long, willowy branch (stripped of any knots that might break the skin) about one-eighth inch diameter is sufficient. Sometimes alternatives have to be sought. A one-foot ruler, or its equivalent in a paddle, is a sufficient alternative."


Link:

Is this religion teaching people how to be good?

Facts Of Evolution: Universal Common Descent

Thunderf00t with The Dawk

Anti-gay pastor screens porn in Ugandan church to garner support for laws dubbed 'odious' by Barack Obama

A PASTOR seeking to bolster Uganda's anti-gay laws screened gay porn in a church in the capital Kampala overnight in a bid to gain support.

The screening in an evangelical church was attended by around 300 supporters after plans for a "million man march" were thwarted by police.

"The major argument homosexuals have is that what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms is nobody's business, but do you know what they do in their bedrooms?" pastor Martin Ssempa asked the crowd.


Sun Herald article:

Is this religion teaching people how to be good? Breeding hatred and xenophobia is good for generating tithes but is this cynical mood really good for people and society?

Sam Harris picks a fight with God

According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, an amazing 92% of Americans believe in God or a universal spirit-even one in five of self-identified atheists believe in a higher power. Ardent secularist Sam Harris isn't deterred by those numbers, and in fact has made it his life's mission to force the faithful to question their religious faith-Harris would even argue that the future of civilization is dependent on it. Questioning commonly held assertions and wisdom found in the Bible; seeking out debates with theologists across the spectrum, from Judaism to Christianity to Islam; and all but picking a fight with God, Sam Harris takes his secular crusade to Patt's microphone.


Link:

This is a radio interview so there's a mp3 embedded. I have no idea about embedding mp3s and it's their content so I don't want to steal it.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Brisbane Catholic School Kid Stabbed to Death

My comment that wont get published:

The calls for censorship were quick to come. I think that we might need a limit on Catholic education. Wasn't a good Catholic education supposed to teach children how to be good? He probably spent more time at school than watching movies.

This, I understand, is a baseless claim but it illustrates the baseless nature of the claim that any violent movie leads to children killing each other. Could we have more facts before we start screeching for more censorship, please?

This is a very cynical attack on civil liberties by the Qld LNP party. Could we at least bury the poor child before we start using his death to leverage political and religious agendas?


Link:

Typical of politicians the blame is squarely not at the feet of the church that was supposed to teach the killer to be good. Churches, unlike everyone else in the world, don't have to take responsibility for the bad outcomes of good intentions. They can lay the blame away as 'freewill' or 'the devil'. I'm laying the blame on the Catholic School that the kid went to. They said that they could teach students to be good and they failed to deliver. The parents of the killer might have worked a little harder with the kid or sort psychiatric (assuming he was giving them trouble before hand) but instead they spent their time and money on the Catholic placebo.

Thunderf00t is being brilliant again!

The Bible for beginners (Part 1)



The Bible for beginners (Part 2)



The Bible for beginners (Part 3)

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Man Sues to Get 'IM GAY' Car Tag

"West Wing" - Biblical Quotes

President Bartlett silences a right wing critic...

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Is this religion teaching people to be good?



So, cause of a sticker, this dumb fundy is gonna damage someone's car.

Link:

Crazy christian lady at a coffee shop



Is this Christianity teaching people how to be good?

Complaint after Cherie Booth spares religious man jail

A secularist group has lodged an official complaint against Cherie Booth QC after she spared a man from prison because he was religious.
Shamso Miah, 25, of Redbridge, east London, broke a man's jaw following a row in a bank queue.
Sitting as a judge, Ms Booth - wife of former Prime Minister Tony Blair - said she would suspend his sentence on the basis of his religious belief.Well, it's true.



Link:

You're allowed to bash people who aren't like you if you're a theist. It's in the bible/koran/torah.

The Lunar Homosexual Agenda

Philip and the Westboro Church testify about the Lunar Homosexual Agenda.
Join "Philip's Video Club" on Facebook.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Westboro Baptists upstaged by Absurdists


Westboro Baptist Church showed up to protest in front of Twitter's San Francisco office on Thursday, but found themselves severely outnumbered by a crowd of absurdist pranksters, including guest blogger EDW Lynch above.


Westboro Baptist Church's Twitter protest was upstaged by fun loving Absurdists. Good on them. Where do I donate?

Laughing Squid

WBC Tries to Protest at Twitter from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.







Geeked.info