religion
pharyngula | November 13, 2009A sensible federal judge has struck down South Carolina's plan to proselytize with license plates, pointing out that it violates the separation of church and state for the state to not only endorse religion, but a specific religious sect. Good work, except that it would have been such a useful marker for vehicles to avoid on the road — after all, their drivers could be raptured up into heaven at any moment.
I suppose there will be a compensatory over-reaction to help out, though. All the Christian drivers of the state are still welcome to slap on lots of bumper stickers and cover their…
jrosenhouse | November 12, 2009Here's a delightful article from the Washington Post:
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.
Under the bill, headed for a D.C. Council vote next month, religious organizations would not be required to perform or make space available for same-sex weddings. But they would have to obey city laws prohibiting…
pharyngula | November 12, 2009The man who slaughtered 13 unarmed people in Fort Hood, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, was clearly mentally ill, and should have been treated and cared for before he snapped and went on a rampage. Unfortunately, there's another factor that seems to be getting minimized in the press accounts: he was also a member of an Abrahamic death cult. Ibn Warraq has come out with a strong statement on the Islamic terrorism that motivated the attacks.
It is time to abandon apologetics, and political correctness. Not all Muslims are terrorists. Not all Muslims are implicated in the horrendous events of…
pharyngula | November 12, 2009Wow. I thought our local vets were petty when they threatened to yank scholarships if they weren't allowed to lead prayers in public schools, but now someone has topped them. Who, you may wonder? As if you couldn't guess, the Catholic Church leads the way in small-minded extortion.
The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington said Wednesday that it will be unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn't change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health…
pharyngula | November 11, 2009This is a charming local story for Veteran's day. The American Legion post in Bloomington has been doing a little ceremony at the public schools for 40 years, and has also been giving scholarships to students. Last year, they surprised the school by adding a public prayer to their ritual; this year, the school asked them not to do that. Guess what their reply was?
To announce in a snit that they wouldn't do the ceremony at all if they couldn't make it religious, and that they'd also take their scholarships away.
Nice.
They have every right to do that, of course. I would have thought that…
gregladen | November 11, 2009Today as I was driving into the city, I passed under a bridge, on which stood an older man with a big huge American Flag waving to the passing cars.
"Oh," I said to Julia. "Veteran's day."
It was too late to honk or flash my lights at the old Legionnaire in appreciation for his service. But then later on I heard about a story that made me glad I didn't. I've had a long and ambivalent relationship with both the VFW and the American Legion. And for the most part, they can kiss my ass. Here's the latest reason why:
American Legion Post 550, of Bloomington, Minnesota, has been carrying out…
gregladen | November 10, 2009 I believe this is a violation of the First Amendment!!!!
South Carolina is always trying to enhance its reputation as a conservative crazy backwater that does things like elect Joe Wilsons to the congress and flies the Rebel Flag over its state house and stuff. Recently, the state legislature approved a version of a license plate for the state with a big-ole cross on it and the phrase "I Believe" written on it.
District Judge Cameron Currie said that the plate violated the First Amendment, which enshrines the separation of church and state.
A similar bid by a group in Florida last year…
pharyngula | November 10, 2009The sentencing of a convicted murder, Khristian Oliver, should be an embarrassment to the state of Texas; the jurors consulted the Old Testament to see what should be done with him, found a bible verse they liked — "And if he smite him with an instrument of iron, so that he die, he is a murderer: the murderer shall surely be put to death" — and sentenced him to be executed.
Well, that was just fine with Governor Rick Perry. Oliver has been killed. Isn't it nice to have the importance of biblical morality affirmed for us once again?
gregladen | November 9, 2009It is a good idea to not use religious phrases like this in your newsletters:
The activities that took place inside and outside of the classroom last week were a wonderful example of how blessed I am to serve as the principal here at ____.
We want you to be qualified. Your being blessed or not is a matter to be addressed between you and your minister, or in your prayers at night, or elsewhere.
gregladen | November 8, 2009Those people were gambling and consorting with donkeys. They deserved to die.
gregladen | November 7, 2009When I was a kid, my friend Karl and I illegally snuck into a movie theater to see "The Mark of the Devil" (or words to that effect) then just out. We didn't sneak in because we didn't have the money. We snuck in because we were 13 or so and that was the only way we could see the movie, which we knew, by the way, was fiction.
But some people don't know that this whole "Mark of the Devil" thing is fiction.
There is apparently a lawsuit going on right now by some farmers in Michigan, including but not limited to Amish farmers, claiming that te legally required tagging of livestock with…
emjohnson | November 7, 2009His birthday is actually on Monday, but today marks the first annual event initiated by Broward College in Florida. In honor of the event, here is Carl Sagan's final interview prior to his death. Amazing isn't it that the science vs. religion debate hasn't changed much after 15 years. But it must be the atheists that are to blame!
You may be interested in my earlier post discussing Carl Sagan's principled stance on nuclear winter that I wrote to accompany Seed magazine's interview with biologist Paul Ehrlich.
Think big thoughts today and take Sagan's message of skepticism and humble awe…
pharyngula | November 6, 2009So why is the University of Edinburgh Christian Union pushing to have Bibles put in the students' rooms? It seems like a slippery slope to me—before you know it, they'll have verses emblazoned on the caber, you won't be able to dive into your haggis without reciting a prayer, and they'll be replacing the whiskey with wine.
It's an interesting case of the tyranny of the majority. The Christians are writing this proposal, consciously making it inclusive and saying that any group can take advantage of it and stuff student rooms with their literature…while knowing full well that only the…
emjohnson | November 6, 2009The website Atheism Exposed claims that religion is under attack and that an all out counterinsurgency campaign is needed to defend the godly:
Militant atheism should concern all believers. It is a form of fanaticism on a par with extreme religious movements. Like religious extremism it is characterized by intensity and arrogance. Like religious extremism it tears at, and ridicules opposite viewpoints. It is often aggressive, disrespectful, sarcastic, intolerant and, most of all, blasphemous. Its aim to kill faith and hope and to leave as many victims as possible with a psychological vacuum…
jrosenhouse | November 5, 2009Update, 7:32 PM I have revised portions of the second vignette in response to the first comment below.
Via Josh Rosenau I came across this post from Todd Wood. Wood is an unabashed young-Earth creationist. What makes him considerably more interesting than most YEC's is that he sometimes writes things like this:
Evolution is not a theory in crisis. It is not teetering on the verge of collapse. It has not failed as a scientific explanation. There is evidence for evolution, gobs and gobs of it. It is not just speculation or a faith choice or an assumption or a religion. It is a productive…
emjohnson | November 5, 2009
Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
On this day, in 1604, Guy Fawkes was arrested in his attempt to overthrow the English monarchy by blowing up the House of Lords and assassinate King James I (who would have been present at the time). Since his arrest Fawkes' crime has been condemned as terrorism motivated by fanatical Catholic outrage against the Protestant regime of James I. However, is the religious angle enough to explain his actions and those of his conspirators? What was at…
pharyngula | November 4, 2009At first glance, I thought this story was good news: Oklahoma is going to build a Christian prison! About time, I thought, I can think of a few Christians who deserve a few years for faith-abuse. But no…it's a prison to be administered by Christians to give Christian criminals special privileges. Not quite as appropriate, but more in line with what we've gotten used to from our dominant faith tradition.
We're getting more of the same from Congress, too. Religion is being given permission to intrude on science once again, with the sanctimonious Orrin Hatch (abetted by a pair of Democrats,…
pharyngula | November 4, 2009The vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University has compared atheists to Biblical plagues, which is quite nice of him. He seems to have forgotten that, in his mythology, those are usually sent by his god to chastise people and get them to change — is he going to ignore this divine message that is winging his way in March? Probably.
Anyway, the funniest part his screed is the first line: Attacking Christians is not really clever, witty or funny. It's funny because the rest of it is his clumsy attempt to attack atheists in a clever, witty, or funny way. It's cute in a oh-look-at-the-…
oracknows | November 4, 2009Oh, hell. I actually used to like Smashing Pumpkins back in the 1990s. Unfortunately, its leader, Billy Corgan, has just revealed himself to be as medically ignorant as Jenny McCarthy in a recent blog post:
If you follow some of the links I have been supplying as of late, you'll notice many are focused on the propaganda build up to our day of reckoning with the Swine Flu virus. I say 'propaganda' because, in my heart, there is something mighty suspicious about declaring an emergency for something that has yet to show itself to be a grand pandemic. merican President Obama has declared a…
gregladen | November 3, 2009The current health care reform bill(s) do not address actual health care ... like what procedures to use and stuff ... as much as they address insurance. This is a health insurance reform bill, not a health care system reform bill. (Though there is necessarily overlap.) Nonetheless Republican Wingnuts want a provision regarding prayer as a methods of treatment. Insurance companies would be required to cover prayer treatments:
a little-noticed provision in the health care overhaul bill would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses.
The…