Blog Against Theocracy March 21-23, 2008

"THEOCRACY: Government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided. In many theocracies, government leaders are members of the clergy, and the state's legal system is based on religious law. Theocratic rule was typical of early civilizations. The Enlightenment marked the end of theocracy in most Western countries. Contemporary examples of theocracies include Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Vatican."

I found this via our old friend Beepbeep on YouTube! Thanks for this Beep!

OSTARA: Spring Goddess of Fertility.

I love Godchecker.com and their "Deity of the Day. Today's featured deity is Ostara. It was studying mythologies of other societies in ancient times that brought me to understand that humans create their gods, their religions, legends and myths and many of them influenced the religions and myths that came after them.

From Godchecker.com

"She has her own festival on 21 March, the Spring Equinox, in which bouncing springy behavior is encouraged."

OSTARA was very popular with the Anglo-Saxon pagan brigade who worshipped her under the name EOSTRE — and kicked off the whole Easter business without a JESUS in sight. If you ever wondered what eggs and bunnies have to do with crucifixion and resurrection, the answer is: absolutely nothing.

OSTARA's sacred animal is a cute wittle wabbit — an obvious symbol of fertility — and the egg is her symbol of fertile purity. So Easter Egg hunts are actually packed with symbolic meanings of rebirth and renewal. And Elmer Fudd is obviously just a high priest of the Great Easter Bunny.

In case you think we're being flippant, recent research suggests that OSTARA herself was actually invented during a mischievous moment by the Venerable Bede. This well-known monk mentioned her in connection with the pagan festival Eosturmonath in a book written in 750 A.D. — but extensive research has failed to find a trace of her prior to that. Could he possibly have been fibbing?

Rabbits and hares are ubiquitous in mythology. Every culture seems to have a Rabbit God — and they're nearly always trickster spirits. This, we feel, explains a lot. We also have a terrific theory explaining why stage magicians love doing tricks with eggs and rabbits. Was OSTARA pulled out of a hat?

Ten Most Historically Inaccurate Movies

Too many people take what they see in Hollywood films as fact without investigating the true stories and histories themselves. I was guilty of that for awhile until I became a parent and started educating my own children and taught them to question everything that someone tells them. Verify it, and get the real facts. Hollywood embellishes and changes things to enhance the entertainment value. One of them that should be on the list is The Passion of the Christ which was so incredibly overdone with bloody violence because we all know how many fundamentalist Christians love their gore. I've only seen about three or four of these films listed below, and really don't have any desire to see the rest, especially the idiotic looking 10,000 B.C. which looks like an animated documentary about the dumbass Creation Museum.

You could probably just click on the site and read these from the Yahoo page, but I thought I would make it easier for you all by just reposting them here.

From Yahoo Movies: "We all accept that movies stretch the truth in the interest of building drama. The following ten flicks, however, treat the truth like it was Silly Putty -- pulling and twisting it until it's unrecognizable."

10,000 B.C.
"Woolly mammoths were not used to build pyramids. Woolly mammoths weren't even found in the desert. And there weren't any pyramids in Egypt until 2,500 B.C or so."

Gladiator
"Emperor Commodus was not the sniveling sister-obsessed creep portrayed in the movie. A violent alcoholic, sure, but not so whiny. He ruled ably for over a decade rather than ineptly for a couple months. He also didn't kill his father, Marcus Aurelius, who actually died of chickenpox. And instead of being killed in the gladatorial arena, he was murdered in his bathtub."

300
Though this paean to ancient moral codes and modern physical training is based on the real Battle of Thermopylae, the film takes many stylistic liberties. The most obvious one being Persian king Xerxes was not an 8-foot-tall Cirque du Soleil reject. The Spartan council was made up of men over the age of 60, with no one as young as Theron (played by 37-year-old Dominic West). And the warriors of Sparta went into battle wearing bronze armor, not just leather Speedos.

The Last Samurai
The Japanese in the late 19th century did hire foreign advisers to modernize their army, but they were mostly French, not American. Ken Watanabe's character was based on the real Saigo Takamori who committed ritual suicide, or "seppuku," in defeat rather than in a volley of Gatling gun fire. Also, it's doubtful that a 40-something alcoholic Civil War vet, even one with great hair, would master the chopsticks much less the samurai sword.

Apocalypto
This one movie has given entire Anthropology departments migranes. Sure the Maya did have the odd human sacrifice but not to Kulkulkan, the Sun God, and only high-ranking captives taken in battle were killed. The conquistadors arriving at the end of the film made for unlikely saviors: an estimated 90% of indigenous American population was killed by smallpox from the infected Spanish pigs.

Memoirs of a Geisha
The geisha coming-of-age, called "mizuage," was really more of a makeover, where she changed her hairstyle and clothes. It didn't involve her getting... intimate with a client. In the climatic scene where Sayuri wows Gion patrons with her dancing prowess, her routine - which involves some platforms shoes, fake snow, and a strobe light - seems more like a Studio 54 drag show that anything in pre-war Kyoto.

Braveheart
Let's forget the fact that kilts weren't worn in Scotland until about 300 years after William Wallace's day and just do some simple math. According to the movie, Wallace's blue-eyed charm at the Battle of Falkirk was so overpowering, he seduced King Edward II's wife, Isabella of France, and the result of their affair was Edward III. But according to the history books, Isabella was three years old at the time of Falkirk, and Edward III was born seven years after Wallace died.

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
In 1585, when the movie takes place, Queen Elizabeth was 52 years old - Cate Blanchett was 36 when she shot the film - and was not being courted by suitors like Ivan the Terrible (who was dead by then). And though the movie has her rallying the troops at Tilburyastride a white steed in full armor with a sword, in fact she rode side saddle, carrying a baton. She was more of a regal majorette than Joan of Arc.

The Patriot
Revolutionary War figure Francis "The Swamp Fox" Marion was the basis for Mel Gibson's character, but he wasn't the forward-thinking family man they show in the flick. He was a slave owner who didn't get married (to his cousin) until after the war was over. Historians also say that he actively persecuted and murdered native Cherokees. Plus, the climatic Battle of Guilford Court House where he vanquishes his British nemesis? In reality, the Americans lost that one.

2001: A Space Odyssey
[This one I can forgive because it was written looking forward in time instead of back, so don't think I would have included it in this list.]
According to this film, in year 2001 we would have had manned voyages to Jupiter, a battle of wits with a sentient computer, and a quantum leap in human evolution. Instead we got the Mir Space Station falling from the sky, Windows XP, and Freddy Got Fingered. Apparently the lesson here is that sometimes it's better when the movies get the facts all wrong.

Battle of the bat-shit crazies!

Thanks to spirula for pointing me to this over at Zairus Nation. Great site! Check it out.

Following in Dubya's footsteps

Looks like they are draining McCain's brain and getting him primed to continue the legacy.

At a news conference in Amman, McCain said Iran supported the Sunni group al Qaeda in Iraq, until he was corrected by a colleague. U.S. officials believe predominantly Shi’ite Iran has been backing Shi’ite extremists in Iraq, not al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group. LINK

If he is this confused already, what kind of mental condition is he going to be in if he gets that 3 a.m. call?

Good question

It’s that S & M time of year again . . .

Yes, it’s that time of year again to make fun of the self-flagellators and masochists for Jesus. Every year on Good Friday, Christian believers in the Philippines undergo crucifixion as a sign of their faith (stupidity) and desire for penitence (desire to perpetuate their stupidity). These acts of insanity don’t only occur in the Philippines, but also Mexico, Italy, parts of the Middle East and other places around the globe. Crazy that people are still doing this in the year 2008!

And now we don’t have to settle for just reading about it, but we can also watch the stupid people in action on You Tube!

My friend Jimmer saw this article at Pharyngula that was the idea for this post, titled “Department of Duh!” Apparently from THIS NEWS STORY, health officials in the Philippines have issued a warning to people taking part in Easter crucifixion rituals.

"They have urged them to get tetanus vaccinations before they flagellate themselves and are nailed to crosses, and to practise good hygiene."

As PZ Myers points out, “People are flagellating themselves and nailing themselves to sticks in a public spectacle of stupidity, and health officials are warning them to get a tetanus shot? How about “Stop doing that,” instead, or alternatively, “Please use rusty nails and whips clotted with rotting gore so that you’ll die sooner and we won’t have to worry about you idiots anymore”?

And now for a little self-flagellation entertainment from a Sick Friday procession in Taxco, Mexico! Aye Carumba!!

Indonesian "hobbit" debate continues

A team of scientists have discovered fossils of an extinct hobbit-like people on a Pacific Ocean island where they lived up to 3,000 years ago, a South African university has reported. I wonder what stories the creationists are making up to explain this one.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - A team of scientists have discovered fossils of an extinct hobbit-like people on a Pacific Ocean island where they lived up to 3,000 years ago, a South African university has reported.

The former island cave inhabitants, some "as small as just over a metre", shared features with the controversial Homo floresiensis specimens discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2004, said a statement from Johannesburg's Witwatersrand University (Wits) on Tuesday.

The discovery, initially made by South African palaeoanthropologist Lee Berger while holidaying on the Micronesian island of Palau in 2006, features in this week's edition of the scientific journal PLoS ONE.

The subjects of the 2004 discovery, dubbed "hobbits" after author J.R.R Tolkien's pint-sized and hairy-footed fiction heroes, have been at the centre of a scientific argument over their classification.

Some have argued they were a formerly unknown human species, while others maintain the tiny humans had merely suffered from stunting.

"The Palauen fossils exhibit a surprising number of traits that were originally used to describe the hobbit as a unique species," said Berger.

These included a small body size with large teeth, small faces and reduced chins.

After Berger discovered the fossils on holiday, he and a team of scientists from the United States' Duke and Rutgers universities, as well as a group of Wits students, returned for further examinations on a grant from the National Geographic Society.

"What we found astounded our most experienced explorers, even the Palauen officials who accompanied us," said Berger.

LINK TO FULL STORY

Traveling Hellfire preacher

I found this little piece on Yahoo News about a preacher man who goes traveling around university campuses around the eastern United States, shouting warnings of fire and brimstone to students despite a steady stream of mockery from bystanders.

You're going to hell if you drink beer, he says. You're going to hell if you curse. You're going to hell if you smoke dope, masturbate, fornicate, watch a Hollywood movie, listen to rap, read Harry Potter books or attend most Protestant churches, Armstrong says.

Homosexuals are hellbound, too, he says. So are women with low-cut tops, short hair, pants or jobs.

"Women have two places: In front of the sink and behind the vacuum," Armstrong proclaims.

"Ooooh," moans the crowd, now swelled to at least 250 people.

Um...I guess that means everyone is going to hell.

I don't think even most Christian women would want to go that far back in time. We've come to far. But if you look at the Bible in a literal sense, women are no better than slaves. Homosexuals are a weary target for Christian fundamentalists, and so is Harry Potter. This guy must be related to the Jesus Camp bitch.

Responses from crowd members were quite amusing:

"Brother Micah, can God microwave a burrito so hot he can't eat it?" a student with dreadlocks called from the crowd.

"Chuck Norris can!" someone screeched, prompting a roar.

Micah just kept preaching.

"You say sorority girls are whores," another guy called from the throng. "Is there one in particular I could go to?"

Armstrong paused, rubbed his face and kept preaching.

Critics say Brother Micah claims to be sinless and is so focused on scaring hell out of people that he has forgotten the things they see in God — love, forgiveness, charity.

Many Christians may only want to see their God as love, forgiveness and charity, but anyone who has read the Bible who doesn't slough off the bad parts knows that what Brother Micah spews out of his mouth comes right from his awful mythology book.

Here's the full story:

Hellfire preacher stirs up campuses

Origins of Easter

This was originally posted by me on April 4, 2006

Modern-day Easter is a blending of two traditions: one Judeo-Christian and the other Pagan. Both Christians and Pagans have death and resurrection themes on or after the Spring Equinox. Both Neopagans and Christians continue to celebrate religious rituals in the present day. Wiccans and other Neopagans hold their celebrations on the day or eve of the equinox. Christians wait until after the next full moon.

The Venerable Bede, (672-735 CE.) a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (a.k.a. Eastre). She was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Similarly the Teutonic dawn goddess of fertility was known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos." Her name was derived from the ancient word for spring: "eastre."

Many, perhaps most, Pagan religions in the Mediterranean area had a major seasonal day of religious celebration at or following the Spring Equinox. Around 200 B.C.E., mystery cults began to appear in Rome just as they had earlier in Greece. Most notable was the Cybele cult, centered on Vatican hill. Cybele was the Phrygian fertility goddess. Associated with the Cybele cult was worship of her lover, Attis (similar to the older demigods Tammuz, Osiris, Dionysus, and Orpheus). Attis was the god of ever-reviving vegetation. Born of a virgin, he died and was reborn annually. The spring festival March 22 to 25, began as a day of blood on Black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over the resurrection.

Christian worship of Jesus and Pagan worship of Attis were active in the same geographical area in ancient times, Christians "used to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus on the same date; and pagans and Christians used to quarrel bitterly about which of their gods was the true prototype and which the imitation." Many religious historians believe that the death and resurrection legends were first associated with Attis, many centuries before the birth of Jesus. They were simply grafted onto stories of Jesus' life in order to make Christian theology more acceptable to Pagans. Ancient Christians had an alternate explanation: they claimed that Satan had created counterfeit deities in advance of the coming of Christ in order to confuse humanity.

For more information see: www.religioustolerance.org/easter.htm

Previously posted by me April 14, 2006








The sacred day of Easter comes,
When every Christian household hums.
Baskets with eggs and bunnies too,
and kiddies get some clothes, all new.

Just everyone is seen in church.
The preacher sits upon his perch.
Tells of your son whose blood dripped down
to save the sinners of the town.

I squirm each time I have to hear
that torture tale of death and fear.
They put your son then in a tomb,
a big one with a lot of room.

He wouldn't stay; three days went by,
and he was as alive as I.
I find that yarn real hard to take.
God, didn't you make a big mistake?

If you're powerful like they say,
couldn't you find a better way?
All sungods seem to be connected,
`Cause all were killed and resurrected.

reprinted from The Willamette Freethinker,
newsletter for the Corvallis Secular Society, 1999

Borg similarities to Fundamentalists

I have often, in jest, compared fundamentalist religions with Star Trek's "Borg". But actually, they are very much alike. The Borg travels along to other places in the universe, forcing their "Borgness" on every species they encounter in very much the same way Christian missionaries spread themselves all over the planet, attempting to assimilate everyone they meet. Fundamentalist Muslims and Christians are the most interested in assimilating every human on the planet to their own belief system. We don't see it as obviously with other religions.

Nothing is allowed to stand in the way of their "mission" and they are determined to "convert" all who they come in contact with. Sound familiar? Seeing as Gene Roddenberry was an atheist, I have to think that the creation of the Borg was intentionally based on religious fundamentalists. Once a being becomes a Borg, it is very difficult to break away, just as it is difficult for members of fundamentalist Christianity (or even moderate Christianity for that matter) to leave the "flock."

Here is an excerpt I found at Borg Xenobiology Database:

The immense knowledge of all the assimilated Borg minds function as one, and each Borg is part of a giant subspace communications network called the Borg Collective. All critical information is relayed to each Borg through this network, allowing the instantaneous adaptation and reaction to any outside factors. The hive society of the Borg is extremely specialized: the decisions are not made by the Borg themselves, rather, the needs of the Collective determines their actions.

To the Borg, individual thought and action are considered imperfect and weak. They travel through the universe in their cubicles or spheres seeking new civilizations to assimilate into their own consciousness, or in their words, "add the biological and technological distinctiveness of to our own". They don't simply assimilate individuals, they strip cultures, races, entire worlds of their identity. New species encountered are classified with numbers and referred to as such, further eliminating the distinctiveness of the species. The emptied shells of assimilated individuals are integrated into the hive while their understanding and technology are added into the Collective. If a Borg drone dies or is beyond repair, his memory will still be retained by the Collective. So in a sense all Borg are immortal.

Negotiation is irrelevant. You will be assimilated. ~Collective 67kb

Freedom is irrelevant. Self-determination is irrelevant. You must comply. ~Collective 117kb

We are the Borg. Resistance as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. ~Collective 162kb

You will become one with the Borg. You will all become one with the borg. ~Locutus 120kb

“Allowing pharmacists to put their religious beliefs between doctors and patients is a prescription for disaster”

Pharmacists should be not be allowed to refuse to dispense prescribed medication because of personal ethical problems with that medication. Period. Pharmacists are part of a profession dedicated to help, not harm the patient. If they don’t want to fill prescriptions determined necessary by the doctor, then maybe they should find another field to work in.

As About.com's Austin Cline points out;

Refusals to dispense contraceptives because of one’s moral objections to contraceptives is not like refusing to dispense medication that will have a bad interaction with some other medication or because of a health condition that the patient has. In these latter cases, the pharmacist is making a judgment that the physician would have made if they had been aware of the relevant information — the pharmacist is not substituting their medical or ethical judgment for that of the physician or the patient.

That, however, is exactly what is happening when the pharmacist refuses to dispense contraceptives. This isn’t a medical decision and it isn’t a judgment that we can assume the doctor would have made given more information. Instead, the pharmacist is substituting their own personal and religious standards for those of the patient, something that not even the physician has a right to do when it comes to standard medical care.

Here is the latest news from Americans United of just one of the many battles concerning this issue:

Washington State Has The Right To Require Pharmacists To Fill Doctors’ Prescriptions, Says Americans United
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

“Regulations Ensuring Patient Access To Medication Are Neutral And Do Not Single Out Religious Belief, Argues Watchdog Group In Court Brief”

A Washington State Board of Pharmacy regulation that requires pharmacies to dispense all medications in a timely manner does not trample on religious freedom rights and should be upheld, Americans United for Separation of Church and State has told a federal appeals court.

Attorneys with Americans United filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a case pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. In the brief, AU asks the appellate panel to send the decision back to the district court for consideration.

“Allowing pharmacists to put their religious beliefs between doctors and patients is a prescription for disaster,” said Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “These regulations are simply designed to make sure that pharmacists do the job they are paid to do.”

More

Sam Harris - Misconceptions About Atheism

It's well worth the time to watch the whole video at http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=...

Tainted water

Christopher Hitchens Illustrated

I saw these YouTubes on Debunking Christianity

Part 1



Part 2

Rep. Sally Kern of Oklahoma is a bigot

Our friend Barbie pointed us to this video/audio of Rep.Sally Kern as she goes on a paranoid rant about the “gay agenda” conspiracy. I would say that politicians should be more careful of where and when they say things, but then it is a good thing that this is out.

It just goes to show that we must pay closer attention to our local elections, who the candidates are and what they stand for. Too many of us just simply don't bother to know who we are voting for in smaller elections (if we bother to vote at all). The smaller elections are in fact far more important than we realize. Those we elect at the state and local level have a greater influence than we realize.

I looked at her site and the Wiki link and this caught my eye:

“Kern also made headlines for authorizing a bill, which recently passed the Oklahoma House of Representatives, mandating that students who espouse Young Earth creationism still receive passing grades in Earth science classes.”

So, not only is she a bigot, she is also a proponent of ignorance.

Warning, may cause extreme anger.

Obama spiritual mentor preaching politics from the pulpit

If I was Barack Obama, I would quit this church and stay as far away from it as possible just as he renounced Louis Farrakhan. It’s disturbing to me that a man who says he wants to be a “uniter” supports such a church that seems to be doing little to bring people of different races together, and this pastor is crossing the line when he uses the tax exempt podium to preach his political “sermons” in support of one candidate while tearing down another, and all the rest who were once candidates.

Rev Wright says that Hillary has never been accused by “her own people” for not being white enough. “Her own people” ? I haven’t heard her talk about only serving her “own people” or putting rich corporate America before the needs of poor black Americans. However, I have had some people in my own WHITE family tell me they would never vote for Hillary because a woman does not belong in the Presidency. Most white evangelicals feel a woman has no place as a leader of a nation and should be home washing her husband’s underwear. And let’s not forget…Hillary is trailing and it will take some sort of “miracle” for her to win this nomination.

Hillary and campaigners cannot say anything at all about one’s race, but it is okay for Obama supporters like Wright to bash white people and campaign for a political candidate from the tax free pulpit. Another thing that disturbs me is that Obama seems to be above criticism. All too often, when someone criticizes or questions the Obamessiah, they are accused of being racist. People who oppose Obama must have a team of speech editors to make sure that nothing can be misconstrued as racist.

Getting back to the subject of Rev. Wright, Obama says he doesn’t agree with everything his church pastors say, but how can he be a uniter while remaining loyal to a church that does not promote unity?

Oh…and Wright says"Jesus was a poor black man". That'll piss a lot of folks off from all races. Rev. Wright conveniently overlooks the fact that Obama has a 1.6 million dollar home and is indeed quite “privileged”.Obama is far from poor.

(O/T: I don’t know how people can sit in a church pew and be screamed at by idiots like this.)

Star Forming Region LH 95

click on image to enlargeCredit: Hubble Heritage Team, D. Gouliermis (MPI Heidelberg) et al., (STScI/AURA), ESA, NASA

Explanation: How do stars form? To better understand this complex and chaotic process, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to image in unprecedented detail the star forming region LH 95 in the nearby Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. Usually only the brightest, bluest, most massive stars in a star forming region are visible, but the above image was taken in such high resolution and in such specific colors that many recently formed stars that are more yellow, more dim, and less massive are also discernable. Also visible in the above scientifically colored image is a blue sheen of diffuse hydrogen gas heated by the young stars, and dark dust created by stars or during supernova explosions. Studying the locations and abundances of lower mass stars in star forming regions and around molecular clouds helps uncover what conditions were present when they formed. LH 95 spans about 150 light years and lies about 160,000 light years away toward the southern constellation of the Swordfish (Dorado).

Robin Ince on Creationism

"UK Comedian Robin Ince talks about Creationism and Intelligent Design. From the show "Comedy Cuts" aired 2007/03/15 on ITV in the UK"

Now here's an appealing and useful god . . . .

CAI-SHEN: God of Prosperity and Profit.

He's the Heavenly Treasurer-in-Chief and God of Wealth, having been elevated to Godly status after a spot of mountain meditation.

Once a mortal general named Zhao who fought for the Emperor Zhou (ZHOU-WANG), he rode a black tiger into battle and was armed with exploding pearls.

Fat and cheerful, CAI-SHEN still rides his black tiger and wields a rod of iron. His Godly Accountant is a dab hand with diamonds and pearls, and putting an image of him in your home will do your bank balance no end of good.

Doggie mass

People are so amusing:

Nicaraguans celebrate mass for dogs

MASAYA, Nicaragua (Reuters) - Hundreds of dogs, many dressed as babies or clowns, were taken to celebrate mass in this Nicaraguan town on Sunday, an annual ritual where the owners pray for their pets to be cured or avoid falling ill.

Well, doggies have short lives and are bound to get diseases and no amount of voodoo will prevent that. Taking care of their diets, getting regular check-ups at the vet along with regular vaccinations will help them stay as healthy as they can, but magic chants will not prevent the inevitable for dogs or people.

A long queue of Catholics, carrying their pets or leading them on leashes, waited their turn to pass by an image of a saint in a tiny church in this town 30 kilometres to the south of the Nicaragua capital, Managua.

The faithful thank the saint for curing their pets or ask for the dogs to be protected from illness. The town's priest always conducts a special canine mass.

We lived next to a parking lot of a Catholic church back in the late 70s and one morning in early spring I was awakened by the noise of a bunch of people talking and dogs barking. I looked outside and saw a bunch of people lined up with their dogs and other pets waiting to be sprinkled with holy water by a priest. It was quite a bizarre scene. Some animals were clearly anxious, some dogs were sniffing other dogs, cats were going beserk in their cat carriers, birds fluttered like "wtf?" The whole scene was quite surreal. Like a scene from a movie.

"We brought him so he does not get sick," said local resident Nora Espinosa, talking about her six-month-old Basset Hound, dressed in a soccer outfit.

Like I said before, that isn't going to help your doggie. Feeding it a proper diet, making sure it gets regular exercise, and regular medical check-ups will keep Rover healthy as possible. No need for oogie boogie rituals. And it would also help the dog's mental health if you stop dressing your pooch like a human child! It's a DOG for crying out loud!

Gaping hole in universe

Astronomers conclude a cold region in the constellation
Eridanus is caused by a hole in the universe nearly
one billion light-years across.

Provided by University of Minnesota

From Space.com

The universe has a huge hole in it that dwarfs anything else of its kind. The discovery caught astronomers by surprise.

The hole is nearly a billion light-years across. It is not a black hole, which is a small sphere of densely packed matter. Rather, this one is mostly devoid of stars, gas and other normal matter, and it's also strangely empty of the mysterious "dark matter" that permeates the cosmos. Other space voids have been found before, but nothing on this scale.

Astronomers don't know why the hole is there.

"Not only has no one ever found a void this big, but we never even expected to find one this size," said researcher Lawrence Rudnick of the University of Minnesota.

Rudnick's colleague Liliya R. Williams also had not anticipated this finding.

"What we've found is not normal, based on either observational studies or on computer simulations of the large-scale evolution of the universe," said Williams, also of the University of Minnesota.

The finding will be detailed in the Astrophysical Journal.

Full story at Space.com

also at Astronomy.com

Sunday funnies time

Americans United’s Lynn Joins UVA Debate On Religion And Government

Two activists and a pastor came together on the evening of March 6th at a debate in Richmond, Va. The event was hosted by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.

AUs Lauren Smith tells us:

“One of those well-known activists was Americans United Executive Director, the Rev. Barry Lynn. He was joined by biblical scholar Jacques Berlinerblau of Georgetown University, arguing for a complete separation of religion and government.

The question was a little too black-and-white, so Lynn made it clear from the outset that government sans religion does not mean government sans values. Values mean many things to many people and are often derived from religious belief; that, he said, is where religion’s influence on secular governance must end.”

Here is the link to the whole article at AU: Enlightening Exchange: AU’s Lynn Joins UVA Debate On Religion And Government

Here is the link to the video of the debate at Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia.

And the transcript link is at the end of Smith’s article at AU.

Also, I found these YouTube videos “Discussing Faith in Public Life - Part 1 of 5″. Rev. Barry Lynn is one of the members of the panel.

Parts 2-5 can be found at YouTube and discussion pretty much contains talk about early campaign which is now history.

Kind of looks like FSM and his Noodly Appendages

click in image to enlarge

Vela Supernova Remnant
Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler

Explanation: The plane of our Milky Way Galaxy runs through this complex and beautiful skyscape. At the northwestern edge of the constellation Vela (the Sails) the 16 degree wide, 30 frame mosaic is centered on the glowing filaments of the Vela Supernova Remnant, the expanding debris cloud from the death explosion of a massive star. Light from the supernova explosion that created the Vela remnant reached Earth about 11,000 years ago. In addition to the shocked filaments of glowing gas, the cosmic catastrophe also left behind an incredibly dense, rotating stellar core, the Vela Pulsar. Some 800 light-years distant, the Vela remnant is likely embedded in a larger and older supernova remnant, the Gum Nebula. The broad mosaic includes other identified emission and reflection nebulae, star clusters, and the remarkable Pencil Nebula.

Moses was high on drugs: Israeli researcher

Thanks to Karen for pointing to this one. Interesting find:

JERUSALEM (AFP) - High on Mount Sinai, Moses was on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments, an Israeli researcher claimed in a study published this week.

Such mind-altering substances formed an integral part of the religious rites of Israelites in biblical times, Benny Shanon, a professor of cognitive psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem wrote in the Time and Mind journal of philosophy.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio on Tuesday.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," suggested Shanon, who said he himself has dabbled with such substances.

"The Bible says people see sounds, and that is a clasic phenomenon," he said citing the example of religious ceremonies in the Amazon in which drugs are used that induce people to "see music."

He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991. "I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.

He said the psychedelic effects of ayahuasca were comparable to those produced by concoctions based on bark of the acacia tree, that is frequently mentioned in the Bible.

Religious Right busybodies just can’t keep their hands off children’s literature.

Many of those on the religious right have dirty minds and read meanings into things that are simply not there. A long time ago, we had a friend who turned Baptist and then acquired the belief that Porky Pig and other animal cartoon characters who didn't wear pants or clothes were obscene. When I was a child I never even thought about that. It was a pig, duck, mouse...whatever. Anything "nasty" about it was contrived by dirty-minded religious people who are obsessed with sex so much so that they find it amongst innocent children's books and programs. Here is a good post from AU's Rob Boston:

Terrifying Tango: Religious Right Horrified by March of the (gay) Penguins

As I’ve monitored Religious Right organizations over the years, one thing has provided a lot of amusement: the constant obsession with children’s books and cartoon characters.

We all remember the late Jerry Falwell’s assertion that Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubby, was gay. Alan Sears of the Alliance Defense Fund once opined in a book that SpongeBob SquarePants might be gay as well. After all, SpongeBob’s best friend is a pink starfish. (What more evidence do you need?!) James Dobson of Focus on the Family once called SpongeBob a dupe for the gay rights movement for appearing in a video promoting tolerance.

Religious Right busybodies just can’t keep their hands off children’s literature. They spent years attacking the Harry Potter books for allegedly promoting witchcraft. Heather Has Two Mommies, a book about a girl with lesbian parents, pushed some Religious Right groups over the brink into hysteria.

Now the self-appointed guardians of public morality have another target: two allegedly gay penguins. Religious Right groups are up in arms over a kids’ book titled And Tango Makes Three. The work, loosely based on actual incident, concerns two male penguins at New York City’s Central Park Zoo who adopted a fertilized egg and raised the chick.

Thus did a charming story about unexpected behavior by animals that might amuse and delight young readers become, to the Religious Right, yet another part of the great gay agenda. Angry fundamentalist parents all over the country have demanded that And Tango Makes Three be removed from public school libraries and public libraries.

Focus on the Family was quick to jump on the censorship bandwagon. Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action, said, “It’s very misleading, and it’s a very disingenuous, inaccurate way to promote a political agenda to little kids. What they’re not telling kids is that the supposedly gay penguin who is the star of this story later mated with a female penguin in real life.”

So a kids’ book about penguin sex would have been okay with Focus on the Family – as long as they were heterosexual?

The chinstrap penguins in question, named Roy and Silo by zookeepers, engaged in a partnership that’s not unusual for their species. It is called “paired behavior.”

Male chinstraps are more involved dads than some of their counterparts in the animal kingdom. Male and female chinstraps take turns incubating eggs, sitting on them for shifts of five to 10 days, so males are accustomed to playing a serious parenting role.

Roy and Silo had been observed trying to hatch a rock as if it were an egg. The zookeepers decided to give them the second egg of a male and female penguin couple that had previously been unable to hatch two eggs at the same time. Roy and Silo successfully hatched the egg, and the chick was named Tango. It sounds like a happy, pro-life ending, but leave it to the Religious Right to carp about it.

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