Biblical irony. . . .

Endeavor's final launch

Sad to see the shuttle years end, but excited to see the future of the Constellation program.
Here is the video of Endeavor's last launch.

Another "brilliant" statement from Sarah Palin

Most or you have probably seen or heard about this by now. This is funny…but on the other hand it’s also disturbing that this woman just won’t shut up and go away, and even more disturbing that there are still those who would vote for her for president.

A Sun Halo Beyond Stockholm

Click on image to enlarge

Credit & Copyright: Peter Rosén

Explanation: What's happened to the Sun? Sometimes it looks like the Sun is being viewed through a large lens. In the above case, however, there are actually millions of lenses: ice crystals. As water freezes in the upper atmosphere, small, flat, six-sided, ice crystals might be formed. As these crystals flutter to the ground, much time is spent with their faces flat, parallel to the ground. An observer may pass through the same plane as many of the falling ice crystals near sunrise or sunset. During this alignment, each crystal can act like a miniature lens, refracting sunlight into our view and creating phenomena like parhelia, the technical term for sundogs. The above image was taken last year in Stockholm, Sweden. Visible in the image center is the Sun, while two bright sundogs glow prominently from both the left and the right. Also visible is the bright 22 degree halo -- as well as the rarer and much fainter 46 degree halo -- also created by sunlight reflecting off of atmospheric ice crystals.

Now this would be something amazing to see!

Click on image to enlarge

A Total Eclipse at the End of the World
Credit & Copyright: Fred Bruenjes (moonglow.net)

Explanation: Would you go to the end of the world to see a total eclipse of the Sun? If you did, would you be surprised to find someone else there already? In 2003, the Sun, the Moon, Antarctica, and two photographers all lined up in Antarctica during an unusual total solar eclipse. Even given the extreme location, a group of enthusiastic eclipse chasers ventured near the bottom of the world to experience the surreal momentary disappearance of the Sun behind the Moon. One of the treasures collected was the above picture -- a composite of four separate images digitally combined to realistically simulate how the adaptive human eye saw the eclipse. As the image was taken, both the Moon and the Sun peaked together over an Antarctic ridge. In the sudden darkness, the magnificent corona of the Sun became visible around the Moon. Quite by accident, another photographer was caught in one of the images checking his video camera. Visible to his left are an equipment bag and a collapsible chair.

Tucson keeps Westboro Baptist Church protests out of town

But not without a price... area radio stations made a deal to give Westboro Baptist Church airtime to spew their hateful and insane rhetoric in exchange for staying away from the funerals of 9-year-old Christina Green and US District Judge John Roll. 

How Tucson kept Westboro Baptist Church protests out of town

Tucson, Ariz. – United in grief over the Arizona mass shooting, Tucsonans and their sympathizers accomplished what others could not: run the controversial Westboro Baptist Church out of town.

Members of the church have protested outside military funerals across the United States as they attempt to spread their message that America is being punished for its growing tolerance of gay rights. But in Tucson, protesters did not show up at the first two funerals for shooting victims – held for 9-year-old Christina Green and US District Judge John Roll.
Instead, the Topeka, Kan., church will take to the airwaves. In exchange for canceling its planned pickets at the funerals of the six shooting victims, the church announced, it will get air time on two radio shows.

*snip*

Shirley Phelps-Roper is expected to get 30 minutes of air time on a Phoenix talk show hosted by Steve Sanchez. And on Monday, the nationally syndicated Mike Gallagher show will give an hour to Ms. Phelps-Roper.

Therefore, they really aren’t keeping them out of town, just away from the funerals of those victims who lost their lives in Tuscon at the hand of a mentally-disturbed individual.

What’s kind of interesting is that Miss Shirley won’t be able to just simply sit and spew her hateful bullshit for an hour:

Phelps-Roper won’t simply have an open mic, he notes. She will be debating Dinesh D’Souza, president of The King’s College in New York City and author of “What’s So Great About Christianity.”

If they don’t have a good moderator, all that will happen is that this bitch will outshout D’Souza with her screeching voice and babble on with her nonsense about her evil god who kills soldiers and causes bad stuff to happen because there are gays in the world. If there is a god with such powers and he hates the gays he created, then why doesn't this god just eliminate what he doesn't like? No, this god, they say, kills soldiers who are protecting their country, kills children who are just learning about life and many of whom don't even know about sex or sexuality yet, and kills whoever he feels like just because he doesn't like something about his own creations. Makes ZERO sense.

We have a society where people must be silent in movie theaters and observe the no talk rules in town meetings, classrooms, courtrooms, etc, but to demand silence during funerals is to be in violation of free speech. There are times when one must follow the rules to shut the hell up.

Hitchens on Women and Religion

Once Western women come to understand that men have used and still use religion to control and keep women “in their place”, I find it puzzling why most women still cling to primitive Biblical beliefs despite modern feminist views and all that we have come to learn about cultures, customs and beliefs around the world throughout time. Why would a woman even find the Christian version of a god comforting when the Bible is full of hundreds of passages which promote the oppression of women and promote the opposite of feminist views and equality to their male counterparts. The same for those whose ancestors were slaves and held in bondage and all justified with Biblical passages. How can they find this religion and this god who condones slavery to be comforting if they have read and understood their religious texts at all? As a female ex-Christian who finally “saw the light” in my early 30s, I can’t see why most women wouldn’t be atheist.

Here is Christopher Hitchens discussing women and religion:

More wild claims with zero evidence

From the top church officials at the Vatican, to the obscure fundamentalist believers, god-botherers continue to make up stories about how their imaginary friend created everything while offering no evidence what-so-ever to support their wild claims — except to offer their ancient mythology book written by ignorant humans centuries upon centuries ago (and of which provides zero scientific or any supporting evidence for the many claims made by all these denominations of Christianity that their god zapped us all into being).
 

We have this story recently from Reuters:

God was behind Big Bang, universe no accident: Pope

God’s mind was behind complex scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident, Pope Benedict said on Thursday. “The universe is not the result of chance, as some would want to make us believe,” Benedict said on the day Christians mark the Epiphany, the day the Bible says the three kings reached the site where Jesus was born by following a star.

What does Pope Benny provide as supporting evidence for his claims?

(Cricket sounds)

The story continues:

Some atheists say science can prove that God does not exist, but Benedict said that some scientific theories were “mind limiting” because “they only arrive at a certain point … and do not manage to explain the ultimate sense of reality …”
He said scientific theories on the origin and development of the universe and humans, while not in conflict with faith, left many questions unanswered.

So, when Christians or other god believers have unanswered questions, what do they do? Yep, they make shit up and no matter what denomination, they all sound alike. Their reasoning is exactly the same.

“In the beauty of the world, in its mystery, in its greatness and in its rationality … we can only let ourselves be guided toward God, creator of heaven and earth,” he said.

In other words, they believe what they want to believe…without evidence, and the church leaders tell their flocks of sheeple that it is close-minded to question what the church leaders say is true. They say it and the masses are to believe it . . . unquestioningly.

Happy New Year!

Atheist New Year’s Show, LA Various comedians welcome in the new year with a comedy show.

Good news

We could all use a little bit of good news these days, and this news gives me some hope that maybe many in the red states aren’t that backwards after all.

A Win In Louisiana: Textbook Council Backs Bona Fide Biology Books

By a vote of 8-4, the state’s Textbook/Media/Library Advisory Council voted to support biology textbooks that uphold sound science and do not allow fundamentalist religious concepts to interfere.

For once, Louisiana has provided a glimmer of hope that maybe it no longer wants to be a science-education laughing stock.

Sadly though, there were still a third of the votes in favor of adding creationism to science textbooks. That is still too big of a percentage in favor of superstition being taught as reality in this day and age.

“There is no major research university in this country that teaches intelligent design or anything like that. It is simply not science,” Kevin Carman, dean of the LSU College of Science told the AP. “We need our textbooks to be focused on what is scientifically accurate and not religion.”

Could officials in Louisiana finally be ready to listen to the experts, instead of Religious Right zealots? We really hope so – but it is probably too soon to call.
In any case, we’ll gladly accept this win.

Richard Dawkings reads his hate mail.

This is quite amusing. We’ve heard these “loving Christian messages” before, but very funny the way Dawkins presents them.

Religious Right’s post-election divisive agenda

The Religious Right is feeling pretty empowered right now after their victory taking control of the House. They are most assuredly going to insist on action in their favor to controversial social issues. Screw the economy and getting people back to work, the pushing will start for creationism taught in public schools, “faith-based” hiring bias, laws allowing electioneering by churches, “Christian nation” resolutions and other measures that undercut church-state separation.

AU’s Barry Lynn states, ““Americans did not vote to stoke the fires of the culture war, but they may have done so inadvertently.” 

Election Turned On Economic Issues, But Constitution May Suffer Collateral Damage, Says Americans United

Lynn noted that the Religious Right remains a potent political force in some situations. In Iowa, for example, a concentrated campaign by the Family Research Council, the American Family Association and their allies resulted in the ousting of three state Supreme Court justices who voted in favor of civil marriage rights for same-sex couples.

“Church-state separation is going to be under sustained fire for the next two years in Congress and in many state legislatures,” said Lynn. “Religious Right leaders are re-energized by the election results, and they are going to want action. Those of us who believe in individual freedom and equality are going to have our hands full.”

We most certainly are. AU is going to need whatever help we can give them. Click here to make a donation and give your support:

Americans United for Separation of Church and State

‘School Choice’ proponents starting already

They are starting already. Less than two days have passed since polling places closed for midterm elections and proponents of religious school voucher subsidies are already pushing the newly-elected congress to continue a program that funnels federal taxpayer dollars to religious education.

Voucher Revival?: ‘School Choice’ Proponents Are Targeting New Congress

D.C. Parents for School Choice issued a statement yesterday claiming that Tuesday’s election results will increase the chances of continuing a District of Columbia program that funnels federal taxpayer dollars to religious education. “Our representatives have the opportunity to right one of the most severe wrongs of the past two years — the elimination of the [Opportunity Scholarship Program],” said Virginia Walden Ford, the group’s executive director. “The time has come for our new Congress to send a clear message to D.C. parents — that their needs will no longer fall on deaf ears in the highest corridors of power.”

The D.C. voucher program was pushed through Congress by the George W. Bush administration. It passed the House of Representatives by a single vote in 2004 and cleared the Senate only as a result of a procedural move.
The scheme paid up to $7,500 per student for tuition at religious and other private schools and was supposed to be a five-year experiment. The “experiment” was a failure, and after it expired in 2008, Congress limited participation to students already receiving a voucher. No new students were permitted to enter the program – a compromise supported by President Obama.

But despite this compromise, a few members of Congress have sought to reauthorize and expand the program so new students can be admitted. So far, Americans United and our allies have succeeded in stopping these plans.

Unfortunately, it looks like we may have an uphill battle to keep it that way.
D.C. Parents for School Choice said yesterday that it would be mailing packets of information about the voucher program to newly elected House members and senators this week.

The information that will probably be left out of the packets include:

* Approximately 82 percent of D.C. voucher students attended religious schools in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
* In its final report on the program, the U.S. Department of Education found no significant improvement in the reading and math scores of students participating in the D.C. voucher program.
* Studies have also shown that D.C. vouchers have no effect on student motivation, engagement and perceptions of safety. In fact, many voucher schools do not provide key services that public schools do.
* A 2007 Government Accountability Office report found participating private schools lacked occupancy permits and employed teachers without bachelor’s degrees.

AU’s Sandhya Bathija states, “Voucher boosters are blind to this reality. And they want Congress to be, too.” And since the House is made up of mostly bible thumpers, I am sure they will have their blinders on to the facts.

Religious right attempt to control voters with satan scare tactics

This is so ridiculous I can’t believe that this is even being taken seriously in the news media at all. It’s unbelievable that in the year 2010 we are still having these sorts of debates and arguments about a boogieman who is overlord of the underworld and is just out to make people take political stances on issues that are against the will a particular segment of Christianity. Mind boggling! 

Giving The Devil His Due: FRC Staffer Says Americans Who Fail To Toe The Religious Right Line Are Serving Satan 

by: By Rob Boston

Are you an agent of Satan?

Kenyn Cureton is worried that you might be. Cureton is vice president for church ministries for the Family Research Council. During the FRC’s recent “Values Voter Summit,” he warned attendees at a breakout session on churches and politics to be ready for some intense action.
“The battle that we’re fighting,” he said, “is not just a political and cultural battle, it’s a spiritual battle.”

And when a battle is spiritual, you can be sure that some people are serving the wrong side.

“When you think about it, you know, the real enemy is not the poor, deluded souls who are advancing these evil agendas,” Cureton said. “Really, they’re just simply pawns in the hands of their malevolent master. They’re simply doing the bidding of the devil, OK?”

So here’s how it goes: You either agree with the Religious Right on issues like abortion, same-sex marriage, church-state relations and so on or you’re buddies with Beelzebub!

These guys have a lot of nerve.

READ MORE

The religious right seem to think they have the monopoly on values, and I personally am sick of it.

We are all “values voters.” Those of us who disagree with the Religious Right’s narrow theology and burning desire to “Christianize” (as you define Christian) this nation have values too.

Ours are a little different than yours, Kenyn. We value things like tolerance, diversity, secular government and complete religious liberty for all, supported by the wall of separation between church and state. We value the wisdom of the Founders and will defend it.

We value the Constitution, a document you and your pals in the Religious Right claim to revere but all too often treat like a first draft. (How many amendments does the Religious Right want to add? Let’s see – school prayer, government funding of religious schools, anti-abortion, anti-gay-marriage, “parental rights.” Have I forgotten any?)

It has been said many times that politics is the art of compromise. One of the main problems with the Religious Right’s approach to politics is that it tosses that maxim out the window. How can you compromise with people who are Satan’s imps?

Many political analysts believe that the nation is more polarized than ever. I believe it. Attitudes like Cureton’s go a long way in explaining how we got here.

From what I have been seeing, the religious right no longer even care about how stupid their party’s candidates are, as long as they believe in Christianity, AND the right brand of Christianity.

Boo-hooing Christians in North Carolina

I have been hearing via email and on FB all the whining from a few fundamentalist Christians I know  about this story, and how they believe that the minority should stop standing in the way of what the majority want to do:
 

Flag Furor: North Carolina Town Battles Over Christian Banner

The Winston-Salem Journal reported on a situation in King, N.C., where a Christian flag had been included in a veterans’ memorial in the community’s Central Park. An Afghanistan war veteran wanted the city to remove the flag to, as he put it, “bring attention to the fact that regardless of the form of government, it had no right to impose any type of religious belief upon its population.”

On Aug. 11, Americans United wrote a letter to the city urging them to remove the flag. On Aug. 16, the North Carolina ACLU did the same.
City officials, after receiving the letters, consulted with their attorney who also agreed that flying the flag of one particular faith violates church-state separation and does not honor all veterans who have fought for our country. The decision was made to remove the flag.

That’s when the whining and boo-hooing started.

Since then, dozens of phone calls and e-mails have poured in from residents complaining about the move. More than 200 people attended a protest rally at the memorial on Monday night, hoping the council will reconsider. Another rally is in the works for next month, too.
The anonymous veteran who complained has also been personally attacked.

“What a coward,” someone commented on the Journal’s Web site. “He can face the Taliban but not American citizens who are probably his neighbors?”

It’s appalling to see how many misguided people have pounced on this veteran who not only bravely served this country, but has now also chosen to stand up for the Constitution. What’s worse, their comments prove that many know little about the principles our country is based on.

As the article states, and as we have had arguments about many times with fundamentalist Christians, they mistakenly believe that this country is officially a Christian country. They refuse to educate themselves and just believe what they want to believe, and while they can do that with their fictional god and Bible stories, they can’t just make stuff up about the Constitution and the principles on which this country was founded.

Many Americans seem to be confused and believe that because majority of Americans are Christians that means the United States is a Christian nation. Many seem to think that the majority should be able to vote and take away the rights of the minority. That’s simply not how it works.

Confused, or pig-headed? Maybe a little of both.

To Bill Donohue: Atheism is NOT a religion . . .

. . .and we don’t have to apologize for anything. Start focusing on cleaning up the crimes and perversions in your religion which is still ongoing in TODAY’S WORLD. Stalin, Mao, and all those monsters made religions of their regimes. No organizing of horrendous genocide, wars, or other crimes have been committed in the name of atheism. Atheism is just a lack of god beliefs. Catholicism is indeed an established religion which controls a huge number of people in the name of your god. The Pope is the leader of that Catholic religious empire where great atrocities have been committed in the name of that religion in the past, where great atrocities against children still are ongoing today and are covered up by the Church (though with the coming forward of past victims, and the news media it’s getting more difficult to keep quiet). Your request to have atheists apologize for historical events not related to them is just an attempt to divert attention way from the problems of the Catholic oppressive empire.

Bill Donohue writes:

ATHEISTS MUST APOLOGIZE FOR HITLER

The pope cited Hitler today, asking everyone to “reflect on the sobering lessons of atheist extremism of the 20th century.” Immediately, the British Humanist Association got its back up, accusing the pope of “a terrible libel against those who do not believe in God.”

The pope did not go far enough. Radical atheists like the British Humanist Association should apologize for Hitler. But they should not stop there. They also need to issue an apology for the 67 million innocent men, women and children murdered under Stalin, and the 77 million innocent Chinese killed by Mao. Hitler, Stalin and Mao were all driven by a radical atheism, a militant and fundamentally dogmatic brand of secular extremism. It was this anti-religious impulse that allowed them to become mass murderers. By contrast, a grand total of 1,394 were killed during the 250 years of the Inquisition, most all of whom were murdered by secular authorities.

Why should atheists today apologize for the crimes of others? At one level, it makes no sense: apologies should only be given by the guilty. But on the other hand, since the fanatically anti-Catholic secularists in Britain, and elsewhere, demand that the pope—who is entirely innocent of any misconduct—apologize for the sins of others, let the atheists take some of their own medicine and start apologizing for all the crimes committed in their name. It might prove alembic.

No, we don't have anything to apologize for, Bill Donohue. How about Catholics start addressing and doing something about the real and ongoing problems of the Catholic church, and for starters prosecuting the criminals the Vatican protects.

JFK : “I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute”

Religion controls our political system like it never has before. The Republicans are quickly destroying the foundations of this country, choosing to dismantle the established separation of church and state. Fifty years ago, on Sept. 12, 1960, President John F. Kennedy gave one of the most important speeches on church and state in American history. Refuting charges that his Catholic religious affiliation would interfere with his presidential duties, Kennedy outlined the proper constitutional relationship between religion and government.

John F. Kennedy’s Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association delivered 12 September 1960 at the Rice Hotel in Houston, TX

 

Excerpt:

I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute; where no Catholic prelate would tell the President — should he be Catholic — how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote; where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference, and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him, or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

For while this year it may be a Catholic against whom the finger of suspicion is pointed, in other years it has been — and may someday be again — a Jew, or a Quaker, or a Unitarian, or a Baptist. It was Virginia’s harassment of Baptist preachers, for example, that led to Jefferson’s statute of religious freedom. Today, I may be the victim, but tomorrow it may be you — until the whole fabric of our harmonious society is ripped apart at a time of great national peril.

Finally, I believe in an America where religious intolerance will someday end, where all men and all churches are treated as equals, where every man has the same right to attend or not to attend the church of his choice, where there is no Catholic vote, no anti-Catholic vote, no bloc voting of any kind, and where Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, at both the lay and the pastoral levels, will refrain from those attitudes of disdain and division which have so often marred their works in the past, and promote instead the American ideal of brotherhood.

And here we are fifty years later, and the real issues continue to be obscured by the attempts by the religious to dismantle what has been established by our forefathers and turn us into the United Christian Theocracy of America.

Restoring whose honor???

As many of you know, Faux News personality and religious fanatic, Glenn Beck held his divisiveness and intolerance rally  in Washington, D.C. over the weekend.

Prior to the event, Americans United posted this article:

Beck Rallies In Washington Undercut Church-State Separation, Watchdog Group Charges

There is an event tonight at the Kennedy Center called “Divine Destiny,” and is being touted by Beck as a way to “reunite” Americans, and to “heal your soul” and to take a “look at the role faith played in the founding of America and the role it will play again in its destiny.”

However . . .

In reality, a major goal of Beck’s rallies is to undermine the Founding Fathers’ vision of a nation where government and religion are kept separate. Beck propagates a revisionist historical perspective that says America is an officially religious state. Mainline Christians, Muslims, non-believers and other Americans who fail to meet Beck’s religious test are often maligned.
“Our nation’s destiny will be disastrous, not divine, if Glenn Beck has his way,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, Americans United executive director. “The message Beck and his cronies want to send is clear: if you don’t believe in a government based on his religious vision, you should expect to be treated like a second-class citizen. Beck has made it clear that he has no respect for our Constitution’s promise of religious liberty for all.”

On the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, the great civil rights leader is probably spinning in his grave. 

Whose  honor are they seeking to restore? (Bristol's maybe, as a friend of mine jokingly suggested.) Beck and Palin had stated that this was not a political event, but from what I had seen from the interviews of some of those in attendance, it was more of an anti-abortion rally, anti-gay rally, all wrapped up into sort of a campground church revival. If it were up to these people who attended, we would be ruled by a Christian  theocracy in a heartbeat.

I