religion
pharyngula | September 7, 2009Not this nonsense again: it's the argument that it's only natural to believe in gods.
Atheism really may be fighting against nature: humans have been hardwired by evolution to believe in God, scientists have suggested.
The idea has emerged from studies of the way children's brains develop and of the workings of the brain during religious experiences. They suggest that during evolution groups of humans with religious tendencies began to benefit from their beliefs, perhaps because they tended to work together better and so stood a greater chance of survival.
The findings challenge…
gregladen | September 7, 2009Since the bloggingheads "diavlog" with David Dobbs and me was the first science-oriented installment to come out (more or less) since the repudiation of Bloggingheads.tv by Carl Zimmer and Sean Carrol, and now Phil Plait and PZ Myers, I think I should say something about why I did it and what I think about the whole thing.
I want to start out by saying that my remarks are provisional. I will not tolerate sophistic mumbo jumbo in the comments. Instead, I employ what my Lese friend JM used to tell me as as staring point: "I've got an idea or two for you. If you don't like them, just give…
grrlscientist | September 6, 2009tags: religion, violence, genocide, fundamentalism, MtlRedAtheist, streaming video
This is the second in a series of videos that address some of the violent, absurd and atrocious Bible stories being taught to children in Sunday School around the world today. This video discusses the Sunday School Bible story Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. This story describes how God ordained the extermination of the people of Jericho, a disgusting and unethical practice known as genocide.
Teaching this to children is designed to teach them to have faith in God. However, it is an excellent example of how…
grrlscientist | September 5, 2009tags: religion, miracle, watermelon, satire, humor, Mitchell and Webb, streaming video
The religious respond to the discovery of a watermelon whose seeds spell out: "There is no god!"
oracknows | September 5, 2009Praying to the porcelain god was never a more appropriate term:
Cue toilet and bathroom jokes...with Jesus!
pharyngula | September 3, 2009I got email from a young former Mormon who has been trying to puzzle his way through some of the craziness that comes out of Utah, and he sent me this strange document by Elder Boyd K. Packer, which is apparently representative of a lot of Mormon scholarship. I think he wants to know if I think it is as bat-rogerin' insane as he does.
Yes. Yes it is.
Basically, it's the Mormon version of the Courtier's Reply. It goes on and on about how the only way to write a true history of the Mormon church is to fully accept all of its superstitions. It's blatant and explicit.
Do you believe that God the…
gregladen | September 2, 2009"You also must rely on Science."
Well, OK, he didn't actually SAY that, but he did DO that...
Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson underwent 10 hours of surgery to repair an irregular heartbeat that put the 79-year-old at higher risk of a deadly stroke or heart attack, his lead surgeon said Monday.
Robertson was back at home in Virginia Beach after his release on Thursday from a hospital in North Carolina. He ultimately will be fitted with a heart monitor, Dr. Andy C. Kiser said.
That is not the kind of surgery the average poor folk are likely to get, it seems to me. Anyway, he had his chance…
pharyngula | September 2, 2009The Catholic church has instructions for you before you get down to business with your sweetie: you're supposed to say a little prayer. This one.
Father, send your Holy Spirit into our hearts. Place within us love that truly gives, tenderness that truly unites, self-offering that tells the truth and does not deceive, forgiveness that truly receives, loving physical union that welcomes.
Open our hearts to you, to each other and to the goodness of your will. Cover our poverty in the richness of your mercy and forgiveness. Clothe us in true dignity and take to yourself our shared aspirations,…
pharyngula | September 2, 2009If you're going to build a massive con to defraud people out of $50 million, you want to pick your marks carefully. You want people who are gullible, don't demand a lot of evidence, and are willing to go along with you as long as it takes to milk them dry, as long as you promise bliss. Where would you go to find a large number of such people? It's obvious: go to church, like Tri Energy did.
Like those caught up in other get-rich scams -- from Bernard Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme, which initially snared wealthy Jews, to an alleged $4.4 million fraud aimed at deaf people -- Tri Energy's…
tqa | August 31, 2009
Judging by the comments, it would appear that I wasn't as clear in my last post as I should have been. I apologize. Let me try again.
Here's what PZ wrote:
I think I'd have a few questions for this pope. Like, "What about over-population, Ratzi dear? What's the devout Catholic plan for dealing with that rather serious environmental issue?" and "Hey, have you noticed all those hell-holes of destruction in Africa? How does catholicism help people achieve economic and individual autonomy, huh?"
I read that as covering two separate points: overpopulation, and the major problems faced by…
pharyngula | August 31, 2009Steven Novella has an excellent analogy for the Sedalia evolution t-shirt nonsense: What if the Krishnas had complained about a t-shirt that showed a rocket going to the moon? Apparently, they don't believe in space travel at all, so it would have been just as offensive to them — and it's amazing how well the arguments the evolution-sneerers used would apply.
Except, of course, that non-Christian religions do not receive the degree of deference granted to even the wackiest dogma that has Jesus floating around in it somewhere.
razib | August 30, 2009A few months ago I pointed out that minorities don't oppose gay marriage, blacks do. Specifically, there are sometimes assumptions that Hispanics are extremely religious Roman Catholics characterized by very socially conservative views. From what I have seen the data are of much more modest magnitude than what characterizations would suggest, but I thought it would be useful to put some numbers from the General Social Survey up. The years are from 2000-2008, when the "Hispanic" variable was being collected. First I separated into three categories, Non-Hispanics who were not black, which was a…
tqa | August 30, 2009
PZ Myers is upset - and rightly so - at something that Pope Benedict XVI said in a speech he gave at Wednesday's General Audience. The Pope, while speaking on the topic of environmentalism, suggested that disrespect for the environment stems from disbelief in God:
Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where is existence is denied? If the human creature's relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the "final authority," and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to…
pharyngula | August 30, 2009I'm sorry, you are all required to watch this video before doing anything else today. Don't worry, you'll enjoy it.
Penn & Teller, Bullshit! The Vatican from Brewster on Vimeo.
(via Atheist Media Blog)
pharyngula | August 30, 2009The Pope has become an environmentalist, and he has figured out who is causing all our ecological difficulties: the atheists.
Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where his existence is denied? If the human creature's relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the 'final authority,' and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, has a pithy reply.
This is rich coming from the leader of…
oracknows | August 30, 2009It was just a high school marching band, like so many other high school bands in this country, a band that no one outside of the area of Sedalia, Missouri would be likely to have heard of, were it not for a breathtakingly stupid action by its school superintendent. You see, the band had an idea for a clever and amusing way to illustrate their theme for the year of the "Brass Evolutions." It was this T-shirt, to be worn by band members and reported by the Sedalia Democrat:
When I saw it by way of ERV, I thought it was kind of cute and a rather clever way of illustrating the theme. As the…
grrlscientist | August 30, 2009tags: religion, violence, mental illness, fundamentalism, MtlRedAtheist, streaming video
This is the first in a series of videos that address some of the violent, absurd and atrocious Bible stories being taught to children in Sunday School around the world today. This video discusses how Abraham almost murdered his son because he heard god telling him to do so. And people wonder why fundamentalists of all Abrahamic religions are so violent?
This story is about Abraham and Isaac. In the Bible, God wanted to test Abraham's faith by commanding him to murder his son as a sacrifice. Abraham was…
grrlscientist | August 29, 2009tags: religion, violence, mental illness, fundamentalism, MtlRedAtheist, streaming video
In this video, Ali-G interviews religious representatives from several Abrahamic religions about their beliefs. He seems to have confused his mythologies though, which makes for entertaining viewing.
grrlscientist | August 28, 2009tags: coming out, sex advice, homosexuality, evangelical families, Dan Savage, streaming video
Dan Savage moved to Seattle while I lived there and began writing a sex advice column for The Stranger. I never missed reading his column because he was honest and accurate and entertaining. Regardless of where in the world I've been since, I have followed his career. This video clip features Dan at University of Maryland, speaking on the tough subject of coming out to a very Christian family. It gives you a little perspective when you hear the story he tells of the abuse that a boyfriend of his…
pharyngula | August 28, 2009My home state! In a region with some of the highest percentages of godless people in the country! And they have this awful law on the books.
Washington's law specifies that a person treated through faith healing "by a duly accredited Christian Science practitioner in lieu of medical care is not considered deprived of medically necessary health care or abandoned." Other religions are not mentioned.
Christian Science is not science, and it is definitely not medicine. I presume some religious lobby got this evil exemption on the books years ago, but now it's time to remove it—it's killing…