Some more disturbing info on the Prayer Warriors. Just a couple of highlights:

Prayer warriors are “mainly conservative Christians who believe that they are in a battle with Satan and Satan’s minions; it’s a pitched battle, and prayer is an important part of it,” said William Martin, a professor of religion and public policy at Rice University in Houston.

“Everybody is praying to whomever they claim is the sovereign God, so we all agree that however this comes out, it will be God’s will,” he said. “In the end, Saddam is going to have to accept the fact that it was not God’s will for him to remain in power.”

Yep, concerning the “logic” of xians, nothing’s changed since the crusades: I have more weapons than you, and I can conquer you; therefore, my god is the REAL one.

Who says blind obedience and a lack of critical thinking skills (i.e., religion) can leave kids vulnerable?

Expert: Smart’s Religion Probably Made Her More Vulnerable to Fanatic

RE: Charleston, SC.

This part totally killed me:

Councilman Robert George said that he would not have been comfortable listening.

“He has a right to speak, and I have a right to walk out,” he said. “He can worship a chicken if he wants to, but I’m not going to be around when he does it.”

Ummm, that’s our mojo, dude. Quit stealing our lines.

Ever wonder why college women aren’t quick to marry? Turns out they don’t understand the holiness of the institution, and are overestimating the value of those degrees (Why College Women Aren’t Ready to Marry):

Don�t get me wrong � degrees and careers can be worthy goals. But neither are holy things, the way getting married and having children are. If the opportunity arises for a young woman to marry, she should stop and ponder what a gift God is offering her � even if it �interferes� with school or work.

And here I was, thinking it was stupid stuff like knowledge and opportunity. What the hell was I thinking?gas credit 76911 800 creditcredit 8100 pin 939 952education form credit 88639 reading test creditcredits 903 902 901offshore credit abn amro kartuabove pools ground buisness credit Map

More on the “religious experience is your brain fucking up” stuff: Some neuroscientist “has devised a helmet that uses electromagnetic fields to induce electrical changes in the brain’s temporal lobes, which are linked with religious belief…. So confident is he that God is all in the mind (or the brain at least) that Mr. Persinger says he can induce mystical feelings in a majority of those willing to don his Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator.” No kidding. He actually got Richard Dawkins to wear the thing.

Test aims to link holy visions with brain disorder advance loan money paydaybankruptcy illinois home after loansloan bad credit agricultureloans agriculture homecompany home alaska loanfree calculator loan amortization0 bad credit loan down homeloan payday re 10 14 Map

Charleston S.C. is trying to dodge the church-state violation problem by letting non-Xians occasionally perform the “invocation” opening the Charleston City Council sessions. But when they let an atheist do it, several City Council members walked out in protest, saying that their religious beliefs compelled them to leave. And, you guessed it, “councilman Wendell Gilliard said the idea of an atheist giving the invocation was particularly wrong when war is going on in Iraq”.

Read it: Invocation by atheist prompts walkout in Charleston

Don’t you wish we could say this about the United States?: “In Canada, secularism is triumphant, and to talk noncynically, nonironically about religion is strange.” (In God We Trust… Canadians Aren’t So Sure)

Pop Quiz: Name the speaker and year.

In this hour I would ask of the Lord God only this: that, as in the past, so in the years to come He would give His blessing to our work and our action, to our judgement and our resolution, that He will safeguard us from all false pride and from all cowardly servility, that He may grant us to find the straight path which His Providence has ordained for the [American/German] people, and that He may ever give us the courage to do the right, never to falter, never to yield before any violence, before any danger…. I am convinced that men who are created by God should live in accordance with the will of the Almighty…. Thus it is that we [Americans/Christians/National Socialists], too, have in the depths of our hearts our faith. We cannot do otherwise: no man can fashion world-history or the history of peoples unless upon his purpose and his powers there rests the blessings of this Providence.

(a) George W. Bush, 2003
(b) Pat Robertson, 1993
(c) Adolf Hitler, 1937
(d) None of the above

Too easy? Or not? It’s AH, of course, in a speech at Wurzburg on June 27, 1937. How’s that little saying about being condemmed to repeat history go again?