A vision of the future

The funny thing is, I do plan to homeschool. But that's only because based on the years I spent teaching I could see how these yahoos are infecting the public school, and I want my children to have a good grounding in science. Including evolutionary theory.

Gobsmacked

Found on Weather Underground.

And the various churches have spend how much defending pedophiles and child abusing clergy?

"Thou Shalt Shoplift." Says Priest.

Speaking to his congregation on Sunday, Father Jones said: "My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift.

"I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.

"I would ask that they do not steal from small, family businesses, but from national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.

"When people are released from prison, or find themselves suddenly without work or family support, then to leave them for weeks and weeks with inadequate or clumsy social support is monumental, catastrophic folly.

"We create a situation which leaves some people little option but crime."

Imagine if they spent their legal fees caring for the poor....

Thank you Kamilla

I just posted a response to The Brave Lass, aka Kamilla, in response to this post here. Primarily in response to this paragraph.

Tonight I am also considering those who say hierarchy is unnecessary and even harmful in close relationships like marriage. But look what happens when two likes come together in the demonic parody of marriage called pseudogamy. When two men come together . . . well, they can't. Whatever they do physically, even emotionally can never, ever create the one-flesh relationship that comes of the act of marriage. The same with two women. And the vacuum created by two likes repelling each other in very real, if not always apparent, ways is a recipe for violence.

We've all heard the lie that complementarian theology causes, or at least encourages, abuse. Now if you believe that and you think two equals, or two likes, coming together in marriage is a good thing, you best not visit any city ER. Especially not in the wee hours after the clubs close.

She chose to delete my reply, which, as it is her blog, is her right. Sadly, I didn't copy that reply, my bad there. So I'll reply to her here instead.

Kamilla -

Given the nature of your writing it is clear that you come from a very sheltered background. I would be surprised to find out that you know anyone who is openly gay, much less anyone who is both openly gay and openly married. So I am deeply offended by your trying to paint every single homosexual relationship as violent.

You are wrong.

Most homosexual marriages I know are loving and long-lasting. I only hope my marriage can be as strong and last as long as they have.

My husband works in an urban ER. He has, in the past, worked the night shift. I have, at times, volunteered there with him, at the front desk, checking in people coming in after the clubs close, looking for help. I have some experience in these matters, and let me tell you from that experience, the vast majority of people coming in because a spouse or a lover beat them are not homosexual. Or egalitarian. Or a list of other things. They are conservative, evangelical Christians.

"I had to beat her, she wouldn't mind me. The Lord said she was to mind me and she didn't mind me." never came out of the mouth of a homosexual. Of any stripe.

Any hierarchical system where the equal value of each member is not learned from childhood is ripe for abuse. Any system that makes someone the other based on their gender, or sexuality, or skin color, or any other reason is ripe for abuse. Any system that accuses another group for all the evil in the world while taking no responsibility for their own actions (Because Santa Clause God will always forgive you) is ripe for abuse.

And in my experience, any relationship where the adults do not take active control of their sexuality will end up being abusive, or come close to it, at some point. This rarely happens in homosexual relationships. It tends to happen with disturbing frequency in Christian ones.

The definition of the word transference is

The redirection of feelings and desires and especially of those unconsciously retained from childhood toward a new object

.
In my experience it can be applied to the Christian community, when they accuse another group of doing or feeling exactly what they tend to do or feel. Now, you may very well not. I do not assume that you do feel or think that way. I think you are just parroting what you have heard from your elders. This might give you thought to where they are coming from.

Stop it. Just stop it.

Get up from your chair, walk out the church doors, and learn something about the world. Then give us your opinion on things.

Let me guess, he was handing out bibles.

Why I am an atheist #233485787

And, of course, "God" did nothing to stop it. At all.

When equality hurts

Found at Gap.com.

The American "Family" Association (I have to put it in quotes because it hardly represents every family in America) has issued what the LA Times rightfully calls a fatwa* against Gap, Inc, calling for a boycott against Gap stores (Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic) for "not mentioning Christmas in their advertising."

Well, more specifically -

Gap, Old Navy and Banana Republic, the three stores owned by San Francisco-based Gap Inc., are being targeted by AFA in a limited two-month boycott over the company's failure to use the word "Christmas" in its advertising to Christmas shoppers.

Gap has refused to use the word Christmas in its television commercials, newspaper ads and in-store promotions despite tens of thousands of consumer requests to recognize Christmas as well as repeated requests from AFA to do the same.

From the AFA boycott website here

I present this evidence:



Now the above commercial is a bit hard to hear, so let me provide a transcript

Two, Four, Six, Eight, tis the time to liberate
Go Christmas, Go Hanukkah, Go Kwanza, Go Solstice.
Go classic tree, go plastic tree, go plant a tree, go without a tree,
You 86 the rules, you do what just feels right.
Happy do whatever you wanna, and to all a cheery night.

In case you didn't notice, the second line, second word - yea, that one - that would be Christmas. Right there. So, you know, it is mentioned.

However it is given equal weight with the other three holidays around that time of year, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and the Solsitce (which, according to Wikipedia, covers just about every other winter celebration). As the Gap puts is

Gap recognizes that many traditions are celebrated throughout this season and we feel it is important to display holiday signage that is inclusive to everyone.

Inclusivity. Equality. A retailer not wanting to alienate potential customers. Horrors.

AFA has this to say about that:

AFA believes this ad to be completely dismissive and disrespectful to those who celebrate the meaning and spirit of Christmas.

(also found here)

Because putting Christianity on equal footing with, say, Judaism is disrespectful, after all. Christianity has to be special.

Dan Neil in the LA Times makes a very good point -

Why not go after Gap and other retailers for trading in Chinese-made goods, since the Chinese government actively oppresses the Christian faith? Seems like building a case on religious tolerance would have more resonance.

But that misses the point, Dan. When they say "oppression" they mean "Not having an elevated, special, privileged position anymore." If people actually compared religious oppression in places like China to the US these people would be outed for the power-hungry whiners they are. In fact it might even look like the Christians were trying to oppress other religions like they themselves were being oppressed in other countries, but the rational among us were having none of it.

Spare me, please.

Now I would deliberately go to the local Old Navy and buy all my Christmas gifts but I was already boycotting the Gap for oppressing women by dropping plus-sized from their stores while creating sizes 0 and 00, so sadly that's a no go. BUT, on their "Naughty or Nice" list they also complain about Barnes & Noble, for using the inclusive word "Holiday" in their advertising, instead of just Christmas.

So I suggest we all go to B&N and give books for whatever holiday you want to celebrate. Give the gift of knoweldge and piss off the AFA in one fell swoop.

* (Granted it's a Christian leader, not an Islamic one, but the idea of a religious edict is the same)

Photograph of corpses at the Nordhausen concentration camp. Taken from a tribute to the men of the Co. F., 405th Regiment, 102nd Division (2nd Battalion). Please go read the page here.


This is why I'm not a Christian. This, right here:

According to Bodie Hodge at Answers In Genesis:

If we love God, we should obey Him (John 14:15). To love God first means to obey Him first--before looking at our neighbor. So, is the greater good trusting God when He says not to lie or trusting in our fallible, sinful minds about the uncertain future?

Consider this carefully. In the situation of a Nazi beating on the door, we have assumed a lie would save a life, but really we don't know. So, one would be opting to lie and disobey God without the certainty of saving a life--keeping in mind that all are ultimately condemned to die physically. Besides, whether one lied or not may not have stopped the Nazi solders from searching the house anyway.

As Christians, we need to keep in mind that Jesus Christ reigns. All authority has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18), and He sits on the throne of God at the right hand of the Father (Acts 2:33; Hebrews 8:1). Nothing can happen without His say. Even Satan could not touch Peter without Christ's approval (Luke 22:31). Regardless, if one were to lie or not, Jesus Christ is in control of timing every person's life and able to discern our motives. It is not for us to worry over what might become, but rather to place our faith and obedience in Christ and to let Him do the reigning. For we do not know the future, whereas God has been telling the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

(You can read the entire exchange here. H/T to PZ)

Now most of the "Christians" I know are decent people who would never agree with this claptrap. But I firmly believe that they are decent despite their religious beliefs, not because of them. Because from the Pope condemning a mother who kept her 9 year old daughter from having to bear twins while letting the daughter's rapist get off without so much as an angry word, to the FLDS raping and impregnating girls in the name of God while forcing the boys out onto the street so they don't compete with the old men, to now this? I can only believe that the more religious an organization is, the more evil and corrupt they become, which just shows how evil the entire belief system must be.

Why I cannot take this bible thing seriously, #2376

(click on the image to see the whole thing)

http://conservapedia.com/Conservative_Bible_Project

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2009/10/conservatizing-the-bible.html

The top ten net rules

Internet map from Bar Ilan University, via the Guardian

The Top 10 Net Rules (restated)

1) Godwin’s Law - Eventually every argument degenerates into someone claiming his/her opponent is likened to/as bad as/would have been supported by Hitler. Examples:

• The term "Feminazi"
• Comparing any US President to Hitler
• Calling any form of national US health care/legalized abortion the next holocoust
• Saying that Hitler was an atheist, that means atheists are BAD

Crossing Godwin's law means the argument is over and you automatically lose, unless you are invoking Quirk's Exception and trying to win by shutting down the debate.

2) Poe's Law - “Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humour, it is impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing.” Examples:

• Heliocentrism is an Atheist Doctrine
• Christian Domestic Discipline (adult content)
• What God Has To Say About Sex (adult content)
• Christian Nymphos (adult content)
• The Conservative Bible Project

I have no clue which, if any, of those are serious.

3) Rules 34 & 35 - “If it exists, there is porn of it.” and“If no such porn exists, it will be made.”

Does this one really need explanation? Moving on...

4) Skitt’s Law - "Any post correcting an error in another post will contain at least one error itself"

This ususaly applies to grammar, math and politics

5) Scopie’s Law - "In any discussion involving science or medicine, citing Whale.to as a credible source loses the argument immediately, and gets you laughed out of the room.”

It helps to know that Whale.to is a conspiracy listing. I vote we expand that to include not checking Snopes before opening your mouth as well.

6) Danth’s Law / Parker’s Law - "If you have to insist that you've won an internet argument, you've probably lost badly.”

Danth’s Law was most famously declared in “The Lenski Affair”, between microbiologist Richard Lenski and the editor of Conservapedia.com, Andrew Schlafly, who cast doubt upon Prof Lenski’s elegant experimental demonstration of evolution.

After what is widely held to be one of the greatest and most comprehensive put-downs in scientific argument from Prof Lenski, Mr Schlafly declared himself the winner.

7) Pommer’s Law - "A person's mind can be changed by reading information on the internet. The nature of this change will be from having no opinion to having a wrong opinion.”

Look for examples of this during all Presidential election years

8) DeMyer's Third Law - "Anyone who posts an argument on the internet which is largely quotations can be very safely ignored, and is deemed to have lost the argument before it has begun.”

This is the law of Do Your Own Thinking

9) Cohen’s Law - “Whoever resorts to the argument that ‘whoever resorts to the argument that... …has automatically lost the debate’ has automatically lost the debate.”

Please note some of the above laws for examples. ;)

10) Robertson's Law of Exclamation - "The more exclamation points used in an email (or other posting), the more likely it is a complete lie. This is also true for excessive capital letters."

For an example, check your email

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Taken from, quoted from, and h/t to the UK Telegraph