Ah, yes, the fucking idiots just keep getting better and better…

Vatican defends abortion expulsions

Doctors said they decided to terminate the pregnancy because the girl’s life was in danger due to her young age, and because she was carrying twins. But Sobrinho, the archbishop of Olinda and Recife, in declaring the excommunication, said the abortion went against “the law of God”. The stepfather was not excommunicated because the church said that his action, although deplorable, was not as bad as ending the life of an unborn child. “It is clear that he committed a very serious sin, but worse than this is the abortion,” Sobrinho said.

Wow, what as fucker-sexist-prick…

Now for the rant: I’ll never understand religious people, but specifically religious women. I’ll never understand catholics, but specifically catholic women. I mean, it’s like gay ‘publicans. I just don’t get it.

And if some idiot told me that my daughter’s abortion was worse than her being raped, I think I’d rip his heart out of his chest and feed it to him before he hit the floor.

(Hypothetically, of course…)

“Hey, why are you atheists so angry?” Oh, I don’t know, dipshit. Take a wild guess…

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.

UPDATE: I heard back from one of my pals in Iceland and she assures me that she believes in no such thing as elves, though she said some older people do, and even her grandmother believed she actually has seen elves. But she says where she lives near Reykjavik, no one she knows of believes in elves.

Most of you have probably seen this before, but I just wanted to share another bit of good news. I posted this image on my personal blog a few days ago along with the title that says simply “Really think about it” and someone put the page on StumbleUpon.com yesterday evening and in just 24 hours I’ve had nearly 4,500 visitors to my site to read it. (I’m usually lucky to get 35 visitors each day, including myself.) Praise the Internet! Ramen!

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.

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.

Feelin’ down, Sparky? Check out a couple of really cool links…

The first one (thanks to Steve), concerns how religious belief is on the decline…

The 2008 results, to be released today, are based on 54,000 interviews with a margin of error of plus or minus 0.5%. It finds that, despite population growth and immigration adding nearly 50 million more adults, almost all denominations have lost ground since the first ARIS data was released in 1990.

There’s also this little ditty associated with the survey:

A closer look at the “Nones” — people who said “None” when asked their religious identity — shows that this group (now 15% of Americans, up from 8% in 1990) opts out of traditional religious rites of passage:

•40% say they had no childhood religious initiation ceremony such as a baptism, christening, circumcision, bar mitzvah or naming ceremony.

•55% of those who are married had no religious ceremony.

•66% say they do not expect to have a religious funeral.

“Your parents may decide for you on baptism and your spouse has a say in your wedding, but when people talk about dying, they speak for themselves,” says Kosmin.

He expects the number of Nones to continue to grow as each generation begets more.

In other news, if you just want to get a good laugh, check out this Amazon book, and all the amazing reviews…

That’s the stuff right there, folks…

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go give my kids a great big hug…

We atheists know the answer to that question…God never shows up because he doesn’t exist. But the sheeple 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 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.

Heaven, n.: A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with talk of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attention while you expound your own.

The Devil’s Dictionary

As per my promise, let us talk, you and I, about that most ephemeral of places, Heaven.

Almost every society since the beginning of recorded history has promised this haven from the blood, sweat, and tears this mortal life visits upon us. A promise of rest, of a surcease of worry, a womb of security and safety when the final breath ceases. From Nirvana to Asgard, from Jannah to Tamoanchan, humanity has ever yearned for peace and quiet, a commodity in any time or place in history.

It is a simple reason why this fantasy evolved so many permutations. After all, life is hard, sometimes excruciatingly so. And our evolutionary heritage, that snake that runs up our back, the reptilian hindbrain that avoids pain and seeks pleasure, that is the root of it. Subsequently, the environment around different tribes shaped various visions of an unglimpsed, unproven utopia.

It perhaps drove our primitive forbears forward – for there have been bleak epics in human history, and the only light at the end of the tunnel was the promise of a hereafter, because life in realtime seemed so bleak. But that was then, and this is the 21st century. Now it is an anachronistic holdover from backward times, but it hangs on like a terrier unto a rat. Why so? Because again, it is a promise of relief from the aggravations of modern life.

But it is a mad belief. It is antagonistic to modern life. For one, this belief channels living energy into a dark void, because the believers of such, instead of investing in reality and humanity, seek to engineer a path towards the unknown, the unproven. And the blood that is spilled , the lives that are spent, the horrors that have been hatched to ensure the building of a stairway to on high, is staggering. It also sends the mentally ill into a destructive downwards spiral, and oftentimes drives others to extremes in an effort to ‘save souls’.

It has been said that atheists don’t talk much about heaven. But this is untrue: I myself rail against the mindset that feels obligated to impinge on our freedoms to ensure that we are ‘saved’ – and not allow any of us any say in the matter. And the dangling of a carrot on the stick is an insult to many who are intelligent.

And, to top this post off, I feel obliged to point out that the Heaven/Hell option is actually a fallacy – specifically the false dichotomy.

I say the illusion of the soul is detrimental to our species. It diverts resources, both mental and physical, funneling them into nowhere. It is a form of Pavlovian terrorism, an argument from force. And last but not least, it leads those that believe to force their metaphysical constructs onto those of us who do not.

Till the next post, then.