American Jesus

By Bad Religion (Link)

Elves in Iceland

I have two pen pals in Iceland who live near Reykjavik and never once have they mentioned any belief in elves. So I emailed them and am waiting for their response to my questions. Since Iceland is not a very devoutly religious country as a whole, it would seem that elf-believers are replacing god belief with elf fantasies. This would be yet another illustration of how humans use their imagination to make their boring lives more interesting.

From Slate:
LINK: Elf Detection 101
How to find the Hidden Folk of Iceland

An article on Iceland's de facto bankruptcy in the April issue of Vanity Fair notes that a "large number of Icelanders" believe in elves or "hidden people." This widespread folklore occasionally disrupts business in the sparsely populated North Atlantic country. Before the aluminum company Alcoa could erect a smelting factory, "it had to defer to a government expert to scour the enclosed plant site and certify that no elves were on or under it." How do you find an elf?

With psychic powers. According to a poll conducted in 2007, 54 percent of Icelanders don't deny the existence of elves and 8 percent believe in them outright, although only 3 percent claim to have encountered one personally. The ability to see the huldufólk, or hidden folk, can't be learned; you're just born with it. To find elves, seers don't really need to do anything—they'll just sense an elfin presence. The Vanity Fair article says that elf detection can take six months, but it's usually a quick process that can last under an hour. And although the magazine claims that a "government expert" had to certify the nonexistence of elves, the Icelandic Embassy insists that these consults are performed by freelancers, not government contractors.

Love this part

The huldufólk are thought to live in another dimension, invisible to most.

Just like where the gods live, in other dimensions that are invisible to us! When will all of these believers in fantasies see the correlation between the vast variety of beliefs. What it comes down to is invisible, supernatural beings who live in other dimensions whether it's fairies, elves, ogres, dragons, gods, goddesses, ghosts and whatnot. While we know that these things are only imagination, the article is quite interesting and fun to fantasize about.

Here is a link to the story about the hidden people and a photo below of of the tiny wooden álfhól (elf houses) people build in their gardens for elves/hidden people to live in.

Just when you think you've heard it all . . . there's more.

Eight years of research of Eve riding side-saddle, gone!

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Sacred sand

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Stem cell decision divides god believers

Well, it’s no surprise, we knew the right-to-lifers would react this way. While they fight for the life of a frozen embryo that will never be used and would otherwise be tossed into the trash heap, my bet is that if many god botherers would be faced with a disease that threatens their life or the life of their child, like multiple myeloma, for example, they would be running to science and the doctors for a cure since they understand that faith is not enough.

LINK: Stem cell decision exposes religious divides

The embryonic stem cell research debate is steeped with religious arguments, with some faith traditions convinced the research amounts to killing innocent life, others citing the moral imperative to alleviate suffering, and plenty of religious believers caught somewhere in between.

President Barack Obama’s order Monday opening the door for federal taxpayer dollars to fund expanded embryonic stem cell research again brings those often colliding interests to the fore.

Cardinal Justin Rigali, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Pro-Life Activities, called Obama’s move “a sad victory of politics over science and ethics.”

“Sad victory of politics over science and ethics”? What is sad is to stop science from finding a cure for terminal illnesses and paralysis all in order to save the life of frozen embryos which would otherwise end up being destroyed. How can it be a sad thing when these embryos that would otherwise be destroyed would be used to help save the life of others. Isn’t it better to use what the embryos can give to others?

“This action is morally wrong because it encourages the destruction of innocent human life, treating vulnerable human beings as mere products to be harvested,” Rigali, the archbishop of Philadelphia, said in a statement.

These “innocent lives” are already being destroyed. What is going to happen if they are not used for medical research? My question to them is why are they so concerned about this “innocent life” that is not implanted where that life can be sustained? Take it out of the freezer and it dies quickly.

Some groups and faiths are divided on the issue. Muslims disagree over — among other things — whether an embryo in the early stage of development has a soul. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon church, has not taken a position.

If embryos that would otherwise be destroyed not be allowed for stem cell research, then other lives are lost in addition to the life of the embryo all because of some people’s superstitious beliefs about embryos having a “soul”. Well, they also believe that everyone has a soul. What about the soul of the already living person who was carried to term and born into this world? If they believe that it is “God’s will” to allow that person’s “soul” to “fly up to heaven” then why do they have a problem with the soul of an embryo going to a place they believe they are eventually going anyway? God believers contradict themselves on this afterlife business all the time.

Fortunately, despite their delusional beliefs, there are believers on the side of common sense who look at this stem cell decision in a positive way (and that includes our new president).

On the other side is the Rev. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, a United Church of Christ minister and a professor at Chicago Theological Seminary.

“There is an ethical imperative to relieve suffering and promote healing,” she said. “This is good policy for a religiously pluralistic society that cares about human suffering and the relief of human suffering.”

Obama alluded to religion in announcing the changes, saying, “As a person of faith, I believe we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. I believe we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly.”

As people of faith and non-faith, we are all supposed to care for each other and work to ease human suffering. Obama failed to make that point, implying that only those of faith care about such things.

Some religious traditions teach that because life begins at conception, any research that destroys a human embryo, as this research does, is tantamount to murder and is never justified. The Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention are among those that oppose the research.

How can it be murder when the embryo is outside of its mothers womb and unable to sustain itself on its own? Keeping it in a freezer forever also will kill it. They are only good for so long. Then they are disposed of. These folks should be fighting for the lives of those who were born into this world and who are in need of help them live as long as they can. These two denominations mentioned above are more focused on death and afterlife than they are the here and now so they should be jumping for joy when all these little embryos get their wings and fly up to heaven.

Other more liberal traditions, including mainline Protestant and Jewish institutions, believe the promise to relieve suffering is paramount. In 2004, the governing body of the Episcopal Church said it would favor the research as long as it used embryos that otherwise would have been destroyed, that embryos were not created for research purposes, or were not bought and sold.

This is where I draw the line, also. I think that it would be unethical to create embryos to be harvested specifically for research purposes. They should not be bought or sold, but I can see where that would happen anyway. There are those who will create their own little embryo businesses for profit, and that in my opinions is just wrong. However, the embryos that are frozen and never used will be destroyed anyway, and I think that using them for scientific research would be something good that comes from them ever being conceived.

The good news is:

Polls show some believers are willing to buck their leaders on the issue. Fifty-nine percent of white, non-Hispanic Catholics and 58 percent of white mainline Protestants favor embryonic stem cell research, according to a poll released in July 2008 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

But most evangelical Christians still have a problem with it:

Only 31 percent of white evangelical Protestants, however, favored the research.

Many of those other 60% of evangelicals against stem cell research would be changing their minds if they or their child came down with a terminal illness or paralysis and they see prayers don’t work. Just like they run to medical science now to cure them when they are sick or injured instead of waiting for their god to heal them.

The UN vs Right to Blaspheme

LINK: Freedom Under Fire: U.N. Anti-Blasphemy Resolution - With Christopher Hitchens

While we are usually focused on the Christian Religious Right here in the U.S., we should be more concerned with what is going on internationally with the muslims. Fundamentalist Muslims, with the help of the UN, are trying to get their way in controlling free societies by saying that their wittle feewings are being hurt when others criticize their religion. Their faith must be quite fragile if they need to make laws to attempt to silence the rest of us. This one even has Christians in a tizzy. (Though some Christians are mainly upset that their international brainwashing missions are threatened.)

The United Nations Anti-Blasphemy Resolution aims to curtail speech that offends religion, specifically Islam. Critics, religious groups and free speech advocates say the resolution is spreading Sharia law to the Western world. Christopher Hitchens joined Lou.

Kepler's Streak

click on image to enlarge

Credit & Copyright: Ben Cooper

Explanation: Streaking skyward, a Delta II rocket carries NASA's Kepler spacecraft aloft into the clear night of March 6. The dramatic scene was recorded in a time exposure from the crowded pier in Jetty Park at the northern end of Cocoa Beach, Florida, about 3 miles from the Cape Canaveral launch site. Kepler's mission is to search for Earth-like planets orbiting in the habitable zone of other stars. A planet orbiting within a star's habitable zone would have a surface temperature capable of supporting liquid water, an essential ingredient for life as we know it. To find Earth-like planets, Kepler's telescope and large, sensitive camera will examine a rich star field near the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. Located in the constellation Cygnus, Kepler's field of view will allow it to monitor the brightness of many stars in the solar neighborhood and detect a slight dimming as a potential Earth-like planet crosses in front of the star.

Editor's note: I have added a link in my sidebar under Astronomy and Space blogs and websites if you want to keep track of Kepler's progress.

Terrible tragedy in Illinois church

We atheists know the answer to that question…God never shows up because he doesn’t exist. But the believers still cling to the delusion that God is with them even when he doesn’t come to protect even his own followers in their sacred and holy temples.

Recently, there was a shooting at a church in Illinois where a deranged 27-year-old man walked into a Baptist church, up the aisle and shot the pastor to death. While these Baptist folks profess they believe that everything is “god’s will”, they blame the fictitious devil when bad stuff like this happens.

MARYVILLE, Ill. – A man suspected of killing a pastor with a barrage of shots that ripped through the church leader’s Bible was in serious condition Monday from stab wounds he suffered in the confrontation, and authorities expect to charge him soon.

The gunman, identified by authorities only as a 27-year-old from Troy, strode toward the Rev. Fred Winters shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday, exchanged words with him, then fired a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol until it jammed. Winters, 45, later died of his injuries.

I am not here to make light of a man dying in a very violent and tragic way. The reverend was a family man, and doing his own thing inside his own church. However, what the other pastor is telling the congregation and the news media is completely absurd. He is using this terrible incident to control his flock by “reinforcing” to them that this was some sort of an act of evil instead of being honest and saying that this was a mentally-ill person who happened to choose their establishment to take out whatever hidden wrath was built up inside him.

The Rev. Mark Jones, another First Baptist pastor, later urged a Sunday evening prayer service attended by hundreds at nearby Metro Community Church in Edwardsville to be resilient after “this attack from the forces of hell.”

The standing-room-only crowd cried, cradled Bibles and stretched their hands skyward as they packed into the church, many watching the service on large television monitors in overflow areas.

“We need to reassure our hearts and reinforce our minds that Pastor Fred is in that place that we call heaven,” Jones said. “Church, evil does exist. Today, we saw the visible results of evil and its influence.”

There it is, right out of his own mouth “need to reassure our hearts and reinforce our minds” — in other words “we must keep ourselves brainwashed instead of seeing things as they really happened.” What really happened was a mentally-ill individual, for whatever reasons, took his pent-up anger out on a place he either chose by random or had a beef with…

and again, no god came to save his own followers in the “sanctity” of their own “holy and blessed” gathering place. It also goes to show just how fragile their faith is if they need to keep “reinforcing their minds.” Deep down they have to be questioning why their god never shows up in times like these, not even in his own holiest of places.

Some Oklahomans attempt to ban what they cannot refute

H/T to Pharyngula:

LINK: Richard Dawkins: banned in Oklahoma?

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE 1ST SESSION OF THE 52ND OKLAHOMA LEGISLATURE:

THAT the Oklahoma House of Representative strongly opposes the invitation to speak on the campus of the University of Oklahoma to Richard Dawkins of Oxford University, whose published statements on the theory of evolution and opinion about those who do not believe in the theory are contrary and offensive to the views and opinions of most citizens of Oklahoma.

THAT the Oklahoma House of Representatives encourages the University of Oklahoma to engage in an open, dignified, and fair discussion of the Darwinian theory of evolution and all other scientific theories which is the approach that a public institution should be engaged in and which represents the desire and interest of the citizens of Oklahoma.

In other words, some Oklahomans say they are all for "open and fair discussion" as long as it's within the guidelines of what the citizens of that state will allow according to their own personal religious beliefs. Yeah, that's fair (snark).

LINK: How did Dawkins react to the news that the Oklahoma legislature wanted to outlaw him?

PZ Myers responds "With humor, of course. Here's the opening of his talk at the University of Oklahoma last night."

Waking up from the dream

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NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope

I'm excited about this news!

NASA to Launch Planet-Hunting Kepler Spacecraft Tonight

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler telescope is poised for a late-night launch tonight to begin seeking out Earth-like planets circling distant stars.

The $600 million Kepler spacecraft is slated to blast off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station tonight at 10:49 p.m. EST (0349 March 7 GMT) on a mission that could profoundly change how humans perceive their role in the universe.

"It very possibly could tell us that Earths are very, very common, that we have lots of neighbors out there," said Ed Weiler, NASA's associate administrator for science missions. "Or it could tell us that Earths are really, really rare, and we're all alone out there."

LINK: Kepler - A Search for Habitable Planets

Religion: The Family Tree (RUSH)

This shows just how religions have "branched out" from ancient mythologies (many of which are not even shown here), branches grew branches, and more and more religions developed from old myths. Very good illustration to help us realize just where current religions came from and how the "tree of religion" has grown. Sort of spread like an infection.

E-Proselytizing At Public School

This is really stooping low, to stalk children at school to get their MySpace information and email addresses in order to proselytize to them online and invite them to church activities, even offering to pick them up without parents’ consent.

From Sandhya Bathija at Americans United:

LINK: E-Proselytizing At Public School?: MySpace Missionaries Spark Complaints In Washington State

It’s the age of MySpace and Facebook, text messages and e-mail, and for some fundamentalist evangelists, maybe even e-proselytizing.

According to reports from two Washington state newspapers, a local middle school student recently received this MySpace message from a 19-year-old church youth leader.

“Hey, 628 tonight! 6 o clock, free espresso for visitors. Super rad games and activities. Hang out with cool people. Plus you are really cool so it would just make it that much cooler. Are you going to be there? If you need a ride, I can hook it upJ”

“628” is Turning Point Church’s youth group for sixth through eighth graders, and youth group leader Emily Masten sent that message to Rianne Olver’s 11-year-old daughter after meeting her at Totem Middle School in Marysville, Wash.

Olver, concerned that an adult was soliciting her child and offering to pick her up without parental permission, filed a complaint with Marysville School District.

“To me, it’s really disturbing to know there are adults at the school sitting down with the kids saying, ‘Hey, can I have your MySpace and your phone number,” Olver told the Everett Herald. “It’s a huge red flag. It’s really creepy.

And it IS creepy! Who knows who these people are. Are they screened like teaching and assistant staff are screened? I had to be fingerprinted and a background check in order to teach children and be around them.

The public school allows church volunteers to serve as informal mentors, keep an eye on students during lunch and plan games and activities, Assistant Superintendent Gail Miller told the Herald.

Mentors are not permitted to mention religion unless students bring up the subject, and they are not supposed to ask students for phone numbers or MySpace information, she said.

But apparently, they have a secret motive for their volunteering, and while the church of course play innocent and states they tell their volunteers to “follow the rules”, they really are glad for the “witnessing” their volunteers are doing.

Turning Point Senior Pastor Mike Villamor claims he tells the volunteers to follow these rules. The church has sent representatives into the schools for years, and vows it is looking into the incident to figure out what went wrong. He also insists the congregation just wants “to give every person an opportunity to hear about how much God loves them,” and has no desire to recruit anyone.

But it appears Turning Point’s people are known for doing just that. Four years ago, Nick Poling, a former Totem Middle School student, said emissaries from the church would hang out in the school’s open-air hallways and hand out Bibles.

“[They said] that we should all to go to Turning Point Church because it’s a cool place to be,” he told The Stranger. “They were out there waiting for us when we came out for the buses.

“I just was kind of confused,” said Poling, “as to why the administration would let them do that.”

On one hand Villanor states that his church has no desire to recruit anyone, and then he contradicts himself by saying that their church “just wants to “give every person an opportunity to hear about how much God loves them.” The truth is they are being sneaky and scheming just to spread their religion to unsuspecting children. It’s pathetic,and could be downright dangerous.

Really think about it

Angels and Lephrechans

Porn in the USA

Despite how they profess that their God hates pornography, Evangelical Christians just can’t seem to control their sexual lust.

I found this at American Atheist’s Nogodblog.com

Conservatives Love Porn!
“8 of Top 10 Porn-Consuming States Voted Republican in 2008 Presidential Election”

A new study shows that the states that consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption.

A new nationwide study of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.

“When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different,” says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.

However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

“Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by,” Edelman says.

(It was noted that less porn was sold to church-goers on Sunday.)

God is not enough . . .

Many, if not most, God believers must realize that their god will not protect them since they go so far as wanting to allow concealed handguns in their sanctuaries. They go to doctors when they are sick, they go to counselors when they are depressed, they turn to human assistance when disaster happens. And now they want to be allowed to carry guns that are made specifically for killing others to protect themselves in "God's houses".
Guns in church bill dies in Arkansas Senate panel

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A state Senate panel has rejected a bill that would allow concealed handguns in Arkansas churches, a proposal that divided religious leaders.

*snip*

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Beverly Pyle, R-Cedarville, told the panel after the vote that she may try again with the proposal.

"This is not a gun question, it is a question of religious freedom," Pyle said.

What? A question of "religious freedom"?! Why don't these reporters every ask the questions that would put these idiots on the spot? Why didn't someone ask "why don't you trust your god to protect you?" and see what their answer is?

Fortunately, there are those who can think rationally and though they don't ask the question about "where is your god?" but they legally reject the nonsense that guns are somehow a religious right.

State Sen. Sue Madison, D-Fayetteville, said she didn't see the need for the bill.

"I don't know of any church where the carrying of guns is a sacred belief intrinsic to the doctrine of that church, like the holding of communion might be," Madison said.

Stephen's Moral Dimension

H/T to Bob at GifS

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

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"Crosses to bear"

I often hear people talk about how their god GIVES them terrible illnesses and other "challenges." How the hell people can believe their god gives them terrible illnesses, injuries and tragedies as sadistic burdens they must bear in order for this god to walk beside them as they are on their journey to healing?” It would be like a mother or father intentionally breaking the leg of their child so they can lovingly nurse that child back to health! Ludicrous! But this is what some of my friends and family believe, that god gives you these “crosses” as “burdens of his love”.

I have often heard Xians say that “God doesn’t give us more than we can handle.” Those of us who have stopped to analyze the things Xians say understand how this statement implies that this god is some kind of torturer who sadistically brings pain and suffering on his creatures to get them to be closer to him, or some other “purpose”…and all-the-while they already are devout believers in him. Also, wouldn’t an omniscient, all-power god already know who is a “True Believer” and who is not?

While I will support my friends and family members in hard times, I just cannot stand hearing them talk about the challenges this god asshole is putting on them.

I found THIS on a Xian website “Good News Ministries”:

To serve Jesus, we must follow Him. Where did He go? To the cross! We’ve grown up with the illusion that happiness comes from being right and protecting ourselves from hurts and from crucifixion. To find true happiness in troubled relationships, we must allow these people to crucify us. It doesn’t make sense in the world’s view, but Jesus showed us from the cross that it makes perfect sense from the perspective of love. He said: Stop fighting AND offer no resistance.

Creepy, isn’t it? Their goal is to get the suffering and downhearted to believe that resistance is futile.

I have had that happen even to myself during my hospital stays in recent years. Xians swoop on in with their god crap, hoping to suck another into the god delusion by convincing them that they need the crutch of an imaginary friend instead of simply friends and family being there for them as human beings. That’s who is there to help in reality, anyway.

For the annoyingly cheerful

From The Onion:

Turning to religion in hard times

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Education in Kansas, or lack thereof

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Funny, yet not at the same time

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Creedocide for your infestation problems!

H/T to Bob at GifS and Pharyngula

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Infant married to dog

Just thought this little story would bring a chuckle or two.

LINK: Boy marries dog in India to ward off tiger attacks

BHUBANESWAR, India (Reuters) – An infant boy was married off to his neighbours’ dog in eastern India by villagers who said it will stop the groom from being killed by wild animals, officials and witnesses said Wednesday.

Around 150 tribes people performed the ritual recently in a hamlet in the state of Orissa’s Jajpur district after the boy, who is under two years old, grew a tooth on his upper gum.

The Munda tribe see such a growth in young children as a bad omen and believe it makes them prone to attacks by tigers and another animals. The tribal god will bless the child and ward off evil spirits after the marriage.

“We performed the marriage because it will overcome any curse that might fall on the child as well on us,” the boy’s father, Sanarumala Munda, was quoted as saying by a local newspaper.

The groom, Sagula, was carried by his family in procession to the village temple, where a priest solemnised the marriage between Sagula and his bride Jyoti by chanting Sanskrit hymns, a witness said.

The villagers then ate a feast with rich food and alcohol to celebrate.

The dog belongs to the groom’s neighbours and was set free to roam around the area after the ceremony. No dowry was exchanged, the witness said, and the boy will still be able to marry a human bride in the future without filing for divorce.

The last line, “the boy will still be able to marry a human bride in the future without filing for divorce” cracked me up.

Indian law does not recognise weddings between people and animals, but the ritual survives in rural and tribal areas of the country where millions are illiterate.

He won’t have to divorce his dog-bride because rational people realize that this is just superstition. I would say the more illiterate the weirder the religion, then I look at the educated Catholics and their ghoulish practices.

Space debris orbiting Earth

From YoPress. Makes me wonder how we see any stars at all.

Beware of Falling Space Junk and Space Debris Here is a map and a chart showing just how much there is.
1) Russians Space Debris
2) Geosynchronous satellites
3) Junk from Scientific Missions
4) Junk from Other Countries - including the European Space Agency, Japan, France, India, and several companies.
5) Space Junk/ Debris that Will Fall Soon - old junk falls back through the atmosphere about once a day.

Is this debris dangerous?
In one case, a collision with a tiny space trash particle (only about one tenth of a millimeter wide) resulted in a 1 millimeter wide crack in a space shuttle window.

What you may have called a “falling star” is probably space junk, which falls back through the atmosphere about once a day. Usually the debris completely burns up on reentry, but several 100-pound-plus fragments have crashed to Earth. Surprisingly, there has only been one report of an injury, a woman in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who was hit by falling space junk.

This brings us to the current news of a bus-sized satellite now hurtling toward earth, which is carrying about 1,000 pounds of toxic fuel. The plan is to shoot it down with a star-wars like missile.

There will be one chance / attempt at getting this right, which is going to be about as difficult as hitting a bullet with another bullet. If successful, it will just create millions of little pieces of space junk, which will probably burn up on re-entry, but if it fails, we can only hope that someone will be able to predict exactly where it will land.

Apparent "honor killing" in NY

A Muslim television executive beheaded his wife a few days after she served him with divorce papers.

Link: Muslim TV exec accused of beheading wife in NY

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. – The crime drips with brutal irony: a woman decapitated, allegedly by her estranged husband, in the offices of the television network the couple founded with the hope of countering Muslim stereotypes.

Muzzammil “Mo” Hassan is accused of beheading his wife last week, days after she filed for divorce. Authorities have not discussed the role religion or culture might have played, but the slaying gave rise to speculation that it was the sort of “honor killing” more common in countries half a world away, including the couple’s native Pakistan.

While investigators are still trying to figure out if this horrific incident was just an act of “domestic violence”, those who work for women’s rights see this crime as something more:

The New York president of the National Organization for Women, Marcia Pappas, condemned prosecutors for referring to the death as an apparent case of domestic violence.

“This was, apparently, a terroristic version of ‘honor killing,’” a statement from NOW said.

Nadia Shahram, who teaches family law and Islam at the University at Buffalo Law School, explained honor killing as a practice still accepted among fanatical Muslim men who feel betrayed by their wives.

“If a woman breaks the law which the husband or father has placed for the wife or daughter, honor killing has been justified,” said Shahram, who was a regular panelist on a law show produced by Bridges TV. “It happens all the time. It’s been practiced in countries such as Pakistan and in India.”

Call it what you want, but it’s an act of gruesome murder. This is not Pakistan or India, and allowances and excuses are not given to those who break the law, period. Many who murder believe they are justified in the killing and that their immoral god is pleased. Most Christians here have learned that they cannot murder in the name of their sky boss or “tradition” and get away with it. Their god cannot save them from human justice.

Acquaintances said Mo Hassan was not overtly religious — co-workers did not see him pray, for instance. But he seemed to adhere to many traditional practices.

Nancy Sanders, the television station’s news director for 2 1/2 years, remembers him asking her to move her feet during her job interview so he would not see her legs. She was wearing a skirt and stockings.

He also would not let women enter his office unless his wife was there, and he blocked the station from airing a story about the first Muslim woman to win the title of Miss England in 2005, Sanders said.

Acquaintances said Aasiya Hassan was trained as an architect. Sanders described her as obedient to her husband, and that she wore a traditional hijab for a time but later stopped without explanation.

It seems like this poor woman was a victim of oppression and domestic violence and only wanted her freedom. Stories like this are unbelievably sad whether religion is involved or not, especially when innocent children are left without a mother and father.

Unusual Red Glow Over Minnesota

Credit & Copyright: Tyler Blessing

What can the superstitious make out of this one?

There is always an explanation for these phenomena whether we have found it yet or not.

Explanation: What in heaven's blazes is that? When landing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA in 2002, just after his flight descended below cloud level in the early evening, passenger Tyler Blessing saw and photographed "huge curved sheets of glowing light extending from cloud to ground." The glow appeared unlike other unusual lights more typically seen, including crepuscular rays, anticrepuscular rays and the glory. A leading possibility, mentioned initially by the photographer, is that the light sheets are setting sunlight scattered off of falling rain. Alternatively, the phenomenon could just be a peculiar window reflection. APOD readers, who have previously shown an impressive ability to pool their collective intelligence to create a better understanding of photographed sky anomalies, are invited to discuss this online. It might help to know that EXIF data indicates that the image was captured on 2002 September 23 at about 8:07 pm in the evening (local time), and that the camera was reported to be pointing north of west at that time. The oval on the ground, visible in the lower right of the above image, is Canterbury Downs race track.

Black Hole Montage

H/T to Cole for this one. Though they are awesome and frightening at the same time, black holes are mysterious and intriguing...spectacularly beautiful:

Out of the mouths of babes

When I was a child and first learned about communion, I was horrified. It was even more grotesque as any horror movies I watched while peeking from beneath a blanket. Eating a dead guy’s body, drinking blood! Gross!

Then later, when I was still a Christian and a Sunday School teacher, I actually was one who engaged in telling horrible things to small children and brainwashing them to believe it was all okay, normal. Now live to regret it. Many of the children sat before me with either puzzled expressions or expressions of horror. And some had lots and lots of questions of which I couldn’t seem to answer very well. Why didn’t I recognize the horrible thing I was implanting in the minds of small children? While Christian parents keep their little ones from seeing scary movies, and violent cartoons, etc. they think that telling them the gruesome stories of Jesus is okay.

The site “Why Won’t God Heal Amputees” has a scenerio that goes like this in the Chapter “Why Do We Eat Jesus?”:

Child: Daddy, what are they doing?

Daddy: Well dear, this part of the service is called communion.

Child: What’s communion?

Daddy: Well, it’s where… Well, it’s… you know, what we do is we eat Jesus’ body to… Well, it’s complicated. Let me see…

Child: We eat Jesus’ BODY???

Daddy: Yes. Well, no, but…

Child: Why do we need to eat Jesus??? I don’t want to eat Jesus!!!

Daddy: No, no, no. It’s OK honey. It’s OK. Be quiet now, don’t cry in church. Shhhh. Shush. Now it’s OK.

Child: But Daddy, I don’t want to eat Jesus!

Daddy: Mom, help me out here.

Mom: Honey, it is a holy sacrament. You see, we eat Jesus’ body and we drink his blood because…

Child: I have to drink his blood too??? Mommy, I don’t want to drink blood!!!

Mom: Honey, calm down! You don’t actually drink his blood.

Child: But that man up there is holding up a cup and he is saying that it is Jesus’ blood! Mommy! I want to leave! I am leaving!

Mom, Dad: No honey! Wait! We can’t leave now!

So what happens to people as they grow older? Why do they come to accept this bizarre ancient ritual as something sacred and beautiful? While the story of Dracula drinking the blood of humans, and cannibalism are things that frightens most people, the ritual of eating Jesus’ body and drinking Jesus’ blood is respected and loved.

WWGHA states:

Because Christians have been participating in the communion rite for many years, they tend to forget just how bizarre this ritual is. But any child sees it with fresh eyes. And many children are, naturally, horrified at the thought of eating Jesus’ body and then drinking his blood. It is grotesque in the extreme and a child implicitly understands that.

So, what happens? Years and years of brainwashing? Parents being trusted to tell them the truth and telling their young ones that it’s okay and nothing at all wrong with it and children accept it because they trust their parents? The point is, when children are small it seems they instinctively know when something is not right, so what the heck happens to make grown-up adults participate in such bizarre rituals?