It would be amusing to just have a contest asking people to guess what the vertical axis on this chart is supposed to represent. The answer is, “reply rate to first-contact messages on an online dating site, as a function of words appearing in the message.” In particular, the site OkCupid, which has a handy rundown of which words and phrases are most likely to garner a reply to an initial contact. (Via FlowingData.) The average response rate is 32%, so you can see how using some specific word increases or decreases your chances of success. Apparently mentioning “God” is a big turn-off, although calling Him by a proper name is slightly helpful. But nothing works at turning a stranger’s head quite like bringing up His complete lack of existence.
Yes, that’s right, kids: If you want to date online, start with you you really are (i.e., atheist), don’t be a jerk when you meet them, and they’ll be nothing to worry about.
By the way, for face-to-face dating, I’d suggest the same thing. Saves a lot of time and aggravation…
TALLAHASSEE — A nationwide anti-abortion group launched an effort in Florida Friday to outlaw all abortions and certain types of birth control, including oral contraceptives and the morning-after pill. The religion-infused movement, called “Personhood Florida,” would define conception in Florida’s constitution at the “biological beginnings,” supporters said — when the sperm meets the egg. The group filed its amendment today but the exact ballot language is still being worked out, said Secretary of State Spokeswoman Jennifer Krell-Davis. The amendment seeks to outlaw all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest. Also criminalized: the morning-after pill and oral contraceptives taken by women, known as the pill. “There are some (birth control) methods that kill a child,” said Pat McEwan, who is leading the Personhood Florida group. [...] At a press conference in Tallahassee, speakers blamed abortion for the financial insolvency of Social Security and the bankruptcy of American auto manufacturers, citing the millions of terminated pregnancies since Roe. v. Wade as costing the nation citizens and customers. They also said that a fetus is a person and should be given protections of law. “It is obvious in our ultrasounds that that little baby, even at just eight weeks old, is a person,” said Brenda MacMenamin, a Personhood Florida organizer. “Their rights our self-evident and they are inalienable. We want to give the voters of the state of Florida the right to vote on personhood.”
Wow…social security, the automobile industry, both negatively impacted through abortion. What else can we blame on abortion?
And it’s obvious at eight weeks that it’s a person? Are you high?
Oh, that’s right, you’re a xian — of course you’re high…
Atheist groups are growing all over the United States, challenging stereotypes and confronting what they consider a big backslide in the separation of church and state. They are chatting online, picking up trash along “adopted” highways, and advertising on buses and billboards. In South Florida, they recently picketed a prayer meeting in a public safety building paid for with tax dollars. “We’re growing by leaps and bounds,” said Bob Senatore, a retired teacher and one of the early members of the Florida Atheists and Secular Humanists, or FLASH. “The attitude is, ‘If we don’t do something about it now, we’ll be living under a theocracy.’” Polls show non-believers are on the rise in the United States, even in places like Florida, where, as Senatore sees it, “There’s a church on every corner and a fish on every car.” [...] The American Religious Identification Survey recently found the number of people who claimed “no religion” had nearly doubled nationally over the last 18 years, to 15 percent. They were the only demographic that increased in all 50 states. Some attribute the surge to outrage over former president George W. Bush and his courting of the religious right. Others mention a slew of best-selling books about atheism that have recently fueled debate. But there’s no doubt the Internet is playing a role too. It offers atheist dating services, and helps nonbelievers meet up — people who might otherwise remain “loners.” [...] For others, atheism is a cause. Along with freethinking and agnostic groups, they are beginning to lobby Congress on everything from stem cell research to civil rights. The Secular Coalition for America represents 10 such organizations. Executive director Sean Faircloth said the coalition was particularly interested in bringing down state laws that give special privileges to religious-based services. Groups like his took note when President Barack Obama nodded to “non-believers” during his inaugural speech. “We’ve gone from where we essentially could communicate only with Congress, to now, where we have some open doors at the White House as well,” Faircloth said. “I see tremendous progress and I feel real hope for the future, that you’re going to hear more of us.”
A federal judge has cleared the way for the government’s seizure of a creationism theme park in Pensacola owned by a couple convicted of tax fraud. A ruling by U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers states that the nine properties that make up Dinosaur Adventure Land as well as two bank accounts associated with the park will be used to satisfy $430,400 owed to the federal government. Kent Hovind, who founded the park and a ministry, Creation Science Evangelism, is serving 10 years in federal prison for failing to pay the Internal Revenue Service more than $470,000 in employee taxes. He was found guilty in November 2006 on 58 counts, including failure to pay employee taxes and making threats against investigators. The conviction culminated 17 years of Hovind sparring with the IRS. Saying he was employed by God and his ministers were not subject to payroll taxes, he claimed no income or property. Hovind is incarcerated at the Edgefield Federal Correction Institution in South Carolina. His wife, Jo, also was sentenced to a year in federal prison for her role in the tax fraud. She’s currently jailed at the Federal Correctional Institution in Marianna. Rodgers’ 16-page order released late Thursday gives the government the green light to divide up the nine properties in and around the 5800 block of North Palafox Street and begin to sell them until the $430,400 forfeiture amount is satisfied. The properties have a combined value of more than what the Hovinds owe, according to Rodgers’ order, and any excess property available after the sales will be returned to the Hovinds.
As he prepares for a court hearing tomorrow, Scott Roeder, the man accused of shooting Dr. George Tiller in the foyer of his church in June, says he’s full of “relief and joy” over the murder of the Wichita abortion provider. In interviews with the Kansas City Star, Roeder, who is in a Sedgwick County, Kansas, lockup, said he’d been thinking about killing abortion doctors since 1992. He praised Paul Hill, who shot and killed an abortion provider in Pensacola, Florida, in 1994 and was executed in for the murder in 2003, and he described several visits to Shelley Shannon, the woman who shot and wounded Tiller back in 1993 and is currently serving 20 years for a series of abortion clinic bombings and arsons. Roeder believes that these acts qualify as justifiable homicide, explaining to Star reporter Judy Thomas: “When a policeman shoots somebody on the street, for example, and stops somebody from taking the life of innocent people, that’s violence, and everybody’s fine with that,” he said. Since the murder of Dr. Tiller, he said, “I’ve heard that three women have actually changed their minds and had their babies because there’s no availability here,” he said. “Wichita has been abortion-free since that time.” He added, “That’s total elation.” Scott Roeder stops short of stating that he is the man responsible for what he considers the heroic act of killing Dr. Tiller, instead saying that “For the man accused of this, things fell together for that day,” and the shooting “would have been earlier if things had panned out.” Such almost coyly circumspect statements can hardly help Roeder’s case, and his attorney, Steve Osburn, would make no comment on his client’s defense strategy. But Roeder himself raised the possibility of introducing “jury nullification,” which holds that if a jury concludes the law is wrong, it can take matters into its own hands, overriding instructions from the judge, to deliver its own version of justice.
Atheism: Bringing the Sexy Back
