Christianity

OK, the story of the three teenagers using a skull as a bong wasn't *exactly* the usual fare for UTI. In an effort to make up for that, I bring you this news item:

Kids, mom lived with 90-year-old's corpse for weeks in Wis.

MADISON, Wis. - Two children and their mother lived for about two months with the decaying body of a 90-year-old woman on the toilet of their home's only bathroom, on the advice of a religious "superior" who claimed the corpse would come back to life, authorities said Friday.

he children — a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy — cried hysterically Wednesday after a deputy who came to their Necedah home looking for Magdeline Alvina Middlesworth ordered them out because of the stench from her body.

The children were in foster care Friday. Their mother, Tammy Lewis, and self-described "bishop" Alan Bushey remained in custody on felony counts of being a party to causing mental harm to a child.

Mental harm? That would be the religious indoctrination, right? You know, this part:

So, I popped over to PZ's place to check out what was happening, and in the latest thread found a perfect gem of someone trolling for Jesus:

And this blog confirms what I have found in almost every atheist blog I've visited: atheists lose their moral foundation, when they jetison God, and eventually end up foul-mouthed, pornographic, hate-filled, humorless individuals. It's because the mind can't actually cope with the implications of atheism. The personality begins to deteriortate. It's a mentally unhealthy state of mind. PZ Myers simple confirms it.

Yes, I'd definitely have to say that PZ Myers is the perfect example of how your mind deteriorates when you become an atheist. Definitely.

Anyway, out of a somewhat perverse curiosity I clicked over to the Troll's Home. And found out that:

Our specific mission is to fight the spread of atheism in society...

Well, the Church of All Worlds, it ain't:

Former follower: Sect leader wanted to sleep with teenagers

CLAYTON, N.M. - For 16 years, he followed a man who calls himself Michael, finally settling along with other families on a former ranch in a remote corner of New Mexico.

There were red flags along the way, but John Sayer didn't break away from the apocalyptic church until late 2005.

Michael "said God told him that he was supposed to sleep with seven virgins," recalled Sayer, 36. Two were to be Sayer's daughters, then 14 and 15.

OK, the cheap shot here would be to bash all religions as being about power and exploitation. And I don't go in for cheap shots - I'm better than that.

Because I don't think that is true. However, the magical thinking usually associated with religion makes believers more susceptible to power games and exploitation by crazies and con men.

I thought Jesus was already dead?

[link] A teen accused of plotting to blow up his high school told police that he wanted to die, go to heaven and kill Jesus, federal authorities said Tuesday.

Seriously, though, this kid needs psychological help. He's obviously gone nuts. Christianity's myth structure simply provide him the framework to hang his insanity on.

Jeff Mullin is a "Senior Writer" for the Enid, Oklahoma News & Eagle newspaper. A few years ago he wrote an article "poking fun" at atheists for having the unmitigated gall to suggest that traditional god-belief was exactly the same as belief in an Invisible Pink Unicorn (blessed be Her unseen curly mane.) He subsequently received a letter from an atheist who asked him what gave him the right to ridicule atheists for their lack of belief?

Nothing, apparently. He just likes to ridicule atheists. So, nice Christian guy that he is, he decided to do it again. This time in a column dripping with insincere pity for the poor, deluded atheists.

How very thoughtful of him.

More below the fold...

Nah, not me. That's the title of a new Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi.

Taibbi went 'undercover' to attend an Encounter Weekend at John Hagee's Cornerstone Church in Texas. Hagee, you may recall, has been recently in the news for being batshitinsane, and oh yeah - for endorsing John McCain for president.

And Taibbi is not being metaphorical or ironic in his title. He is referring to the culmination of the Encounter Weekend, where:

I was poking around one of my regular gun-board haunts, and saw a thread about a news report on the BBC about how us gun-crazed Americans are actually more tranquil and civil than might be expected - moreso than British society. Since, as I've noted here recently, I enjoy the UK, I thought I'd check it out.

The discussion was about what I expected, right up until someone started spouting . . . well, here's what the guy said:

First they gave up their guns, then they gave up their God. No Jesus, no peace, know Jesus, know peace.

A friend sent me a link to this NYT post by Timothy Egan, about the historical aspects of the latest fundie Mormon debacle in Texas:

Faith of Our Fathers

Watching the polygamists in West Texas come into the sunlight of the 21st century has been jarring, making you feel like a voyeur of some weird historical episode.

You see these 1870 Stepford wives with the braided buns and long dresses, these men with their low monotones and pious, seeming disregard for the law on child sex — and wonder: who opened the time capsule?

It's a bit interesting, but also a little bizarre. No, I'm not talking about the polygamous practices of the Mormons, either historically or in this current manifestation. I'm talking about this passage early on in the post:

I was busy on Sunday with something else, so I missed this news item:

Christians clash at Jesus' tomb on Orthodox Palm Sunday

JERUSALEM - Dozens of Greek and Armenian priests and worshippers exchanged blows at one of Christianity's holiest shrines on Orthodox Palm Sunday, and used palm fronds to pummel police who tried to break up the brawl.

The fight came amid growing rivalry over religious rights at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built over the site in Jerusalem where tradition says Jesus was buried and resurrected.

It erupted when Armenian clergy kicked out a Greek priest from their midst, pushed him to the ground and kicked him, according to witnesses.

Gotta love it. Do these people have *no* sense of irony, or what?

Jim Downey

We have all asked ourselves and each other the same questions lately. Why do religious folks hate atheists? Why do they assert that an atheist is a "militant fundamentalist" when that atheist has merely written a book? Or talked about their lack of religious belief, or their skepticism towards all things supernatural?

After all, we generally don't call a religious person a "militant fundamentalist" unless they are strapping bombs to their chests, flying planes into buildings, stabbing their child for being possessed by a demon, or getting all lathered up at the televised pulpit and calling for a theocracy in America and advocating violence towards the heathen sekoolar hewmanist librul college perfesser elitist homasexshul-loving intelleckshuls.

I think it is the fear of death. In other words, I think it is evolution in action - the survival instinct. Except that it is operating without a guiding intelligence and awareness - just instinct. The blind groping for meaning and structure - any structure. Like the structure that a religion provides.

Well, rational thinking provides a structure too - and it is much closer to reality than religion.

I can only speak for myself, but I am not afraid of death at all. I came to grips with my own mortality years ago. My legacy will survive genetically in my five children and grandchild(ren), and hopefully in the memories of my family and friends. For a while at least. I hold no illusions regarding my importance in the human society comprised of the billions of people on our planet.

But that's OK with me. I will not know any different in any case. I will be dead. No big whoop. Happens to everyone, eventually. Oh, I am attempting to extend my life, because believe it or not, the survival instinct is strong in me too. I look both ways before crossing the street, drive defensively, and I have finally quit smoking (thanks modern pharmacological science!)

But the death thing really doesn't bother me all that much. I mean, why get worked up about it? There is really nothing you can do to prevent it in the end. It'll happen, regardless, so why worry about it? Try and live as long as you can, sure, but don't kid yourself about finding an "out" for the final curtain call. It doesn't exist yet. (The transhumanists may think we are going to eliminate death one day scientifically, but I am not holding my breath for that breakthrough either. If it comes, it comes. Fantastic! If not, well, at least I wasn't holding my breath!)

Most atheists I know hold attitudes towards death similar to my own. I wonder if this is the reason why theists seem to hate the fact that we even exist?

They have created these towering fantasy edifices about lives after their physical deaths. These fairy tales are populated by magical god-men, human non-physical ghosts, and winged supernatural angels and cherubs. There are magic cities with streets paved in gold, and an eternal, glowing, happy-land existence that is contingent on on just shutting your rational brain down and believing it all without any evidence whatsoever, on the word of your local shaman.

Yeesh.

I think that in a way they sense that we have stumbled into the cold, hard light of the truth of the matter. And it irks them at a level that demands that we be shunned as "the other". Hated, feared (much like their invisible angry deity) for having the unmitigated gall to doubt their fantasies, and to show them to be absolutely false in some cases.

Well, that's what I think, anyway. :) What is your take on it? Do you fear death?

Can anyone honestly say that this comes as any surprise?

Scam suspect taps sympathy time and again

Mourning son, ailing asthmatic, down-on-his-luck journalism student.

Alan Farha II told Columbia churchgoers he was all these things as part of a seemingly endless number of sob stories and pleas for money, police and church officials say.

"I need money to get to my dead father’s funeral," he told pastors and parishioners. "I need medication for my asthma." "My car broke down, and I need a lift."

In reality, police say, the 32-year-old native of Dallas is a smooth-talking con artist who has repeatedly preyed on area churches and their unsuspecting parishioners in recent months. His suspected scams have caused a stir among Mid-Missouri churches, with pastors and officials from at least 10 churches in Boonville, Columbia and Jefferson City claiming they’ve been swindled out of thousands of dollars in church funds earmarked for needy causes. Dozens of churchgoers also have said they were conned.

Illinois state Rep. Monique Davis has apologized to Rob Sherman, who has graciously accepted her apology, for attempting to deny him his civil rights in a public hearing that he was invited to testify before last week.

Apparently it's OK to be a bigoted, unconstitutional, theocratic asshole if you're having a bad day.

One of our favorite guys, Rob Sherman, testified before the Illinois House State Government Administration Committee on Wednesday related to Gov. Rod Blagojevich's proposed $1 million grant intended for Pilgrim Baptist Church, and was blindsided by wackjob theocrat Rep. Monique Davis who seems to think that atheists don't have any right to exist, and that we are "dangerous to children".

[link] Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy -- it’s tragic -- when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.

I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?

I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous--

Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?

Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!

Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court---

Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.

You can listen to the whole sordid thing here.

(Tip of the ballcap to Twitter and Hemant!)

I'm going to be completely preoccupied with another project for the next several days, but I just could not resist passing on this delightfully wacky site. Here's a little excerpt, from one of their posts titled "WHY ALL EVOLUTIONISTS ARE CRIMINALLY INSANE":

Well, first, for this edition of this web page, we will not be addressing the criminal nature of evolutionists’ insanity. That we will do at a future time. So, for now, why are all evolutionists insane? They are all insane because they have no “legend of empirical advent.” What is a legend of empirical advent? It is “one or more things that demonstrate or imply the existence of something unseen.” And keep in mind it doesn’t matter whether these things are real or imaginary.

OK, just in case you haven't seen this over at PZ's or elsewhere, here's a hilarious and brilliantly done satire:

It takes some deconstructing, but the consensus is that it is indeed pro-science/skepticism.

UPDATE: Here are the lyrics, and here is a brief bit on the 'cast' - kudos to both authors!

Jim Downey

A Christian theocracy in our country? How can you say that? You civil libertarians are all crazy!

[link] Witnesses said the presiding judge, Covington County Circuit Judge M. Ashley McKathan, told some 100 people, including members of the Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church and other spectators and officials gathered for a conference regarding the church records case, to join hands in a circle as he prayed.

At one point, witnesses said, the judge fell to his knees.

Pfft. What's the big deal? A judge orders more than a hundred people in a state courtroom to gather in a prayer circle while he falls to his knees and prays. Who cares? What, are you some sort of atheist commie pinko?

It's a serious question. Many of us who are non-believers nonetheless are in family or other situations where some kind of participation or observation of this most important of Christian holidays.

Many times, even after I had left my Catholic faith far behind, I would attend Easter sunrise services with friends, or spend the day with family. My maternal grandmother always put out a big spread of food, and throughout the day the family would come by and try to avoid eating it (she was an OK cook, but her safe-food-handling skills were notoriously bad, and almost always someone in the family would get hit with a mild case of food poisoning).

Lots of atheists will still decorate eggs, or give the kids candy for Easter, because it is so much a part of the culture.

For me and my wife, it is just a routine day - since my mother-in-law passed on last month, we no longer need to even pretend to observe the holiday. But this is perhaps the first time in several years when I'm not doing *anything* in connection with the day.

So, what are you doing today?

Jim Downey

. . . let's all share our favorite Jesus-related commercial crap. It can be stuff sold to the faithful, or mocking the faithful (sometimes the difference is hard to discern), or just plain oddly related to Jesus.

Here's a couple:

Jesus Deluxe Action Figure

Could you use a miracle today? Maybe he can help. Quite possibly the first action figure to have "turns water into wine" as a selling point on the box, this wonderful Jesus character stands 5 1/4-inches tall and features glow-in-the-dark hands! He comes in an illustrated window box with 8 accessories: a jug, 2 fish, and 5 loaves of bread. Welcome him into your home today!

Classic! And from those same folks:

Jesus Adhesive Bandages

(This post is part of the Blog Against Theocracy Blogswarm.)

OK, now that I have your attention . . .

. . . let's talk about sex. Or, more accurately, how religious nuts want to control your sex life, your access to information about sex, and your sexual health - all through the government.

Theocracy, anyone?

Specifically, I want to talk about how some in the health-related professions think that they should have the "right" to deny you services or information if something about your sex life disagrees with their religious beliefs.

First off, here's a nice bit from Illinois:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A group of pharmacists asked the Illinois Supreme Court on Tuesday to throw out a rule that forces them to dispense emergency contraception despite moral objections, claiming it amounts to illegal coercion.

Update: D'oh! The Manka Bros punked me with this one. Nicely done satire!

Dammit. I missed the obvious "white Christian teen rapper" angle when I was looking for my multi-million dollar record deal.

I strongly encourage all you pagan atheists to have a stiff drink before watching this delightfully insane video. (I'm 100% serious here. Have a drink of something before clicking the Play button. Make sure you swallow first.)

And yes, I am well aware that more exposure for this tweener singing/rapping dynamic duo means that they will probably sell more records - and I am perfectly OK with that. More power to 'em. Fleece the sheep for all they can bear, seems to be their father/producer/manager's motto. It's a textbook lesson in exactly how one can indeed worship God and mammon, contrary to what their holy book says.

Enjoy.