Ok, I am going to probably stir up trouble again but this is something that I have been thinking about, and maybe many of you have been, too.

While many of us here in the U.S.A. are struggling against the Xian right on issues concerning separation of church and state, Intelligent Design being taught in public school science classes, women’s right to choose, etc., we may be overlooking the growth of another rapidly growing religious group whose numbers are becoming significant enough to sway the outcomes of the above-mentioned issues. Some might call me an “alarmist”, but I see that our challenges as atheists are only going to get larger, and maybe sooner than we think.

This may not be of immediate concern for Americans, but it is for the atheists and mainstream religious in Europe. Statistics show that birthrates among Europeans are in decline (along with meager economic growth) while there has been a steady flow of Muslim immigrants who settle in countries all over Europe, produce large numbers of children (who are then natural born Europeans), and are being raised to perpetuate the Muslim faith AND whose votes have a strong influence in the outcome of elections.

Omer Taspinar of Global Politics writes in his essay Europe’s Muslim Street: “Islam may still be a faraway religion for millions of Americans. But for Europeans it is local politics. The 15 million Muslims of the European Union (EU)—up to three times as many as live in the United States—are becoming a more powerful political force than the fabled Arab street. Europe’s Muslims hail from different countries and display diverse religious tendencies, but the common denominator that links them to the Muslim world is their sympathy for Palestine and Palestinians. And unlike most of their Arab brethren, growing numbers of Europe’s Muslims can vote in elections that count.”

From BBC News:Islam is widely considered Europe’s fastest growing religion, with immigration and above average birth rates leading to a rapid increase in the Muslim population.

The exact number of Muslims is difficult to establish however, as census figures are often questioned and many countries choose not to compile such information anyway.

Quote from: HARUN YAHYA : The Most Rapidly Expanding
Religion in Europe

When all the facts are brought together, they reveal that there is a strong movement toward Islam in many countries, and that Islam is increasingly becoming the most important topic of world interest. These developments indicate that the world is moving toward a totally new era, one in which, God willing, Islam will gain in importance and the Qur’an’s moral teachings will spread like a rising tide. It is important to realize that this highly significant development was announced in the Qur’an 14 centuries ago:

They desire to extinguish God’s Light with their mouths. But God refuses to do other than perfect His Light, even though the unbelievers detest it. It is He Who sent His Messenger with guidance and the True Religion to exalt it over every other religion, even though the idolaters detest it. (Qur’an, 9:32-33)

Should American Atheists and Secularists be concerned?
LINK: U.S. Muslims moving into prime-time politics

For Sean, who among many other things, loved history and understood so well why we need to remember it

The Story Thus Far: In 1490, Spanish Inquisitor General Tomas de Torquemada transfers Converso Benito Garcia’s case from Toledo to Segovia and finally to Avila (see pic) so that he can personally conduct the stalled investigation (See The “Rabbi”).

Even then, to reach Avila meant traveling across a dry, brown, mountain-ringed plain, featureless but for immense gray boulders and a rocky hill sprouting suddenly from it. On the flat top of this hill sits Avila, the highest capital city in Spain, then as now surrounded by great brown granite walls topped with a parapet and punctuated by 82 fortified towers and nine gateways. Torquemada’s new Dominican Monastery of Saint Thomas boasted the same dark stone walls and an austere atmosphere only partly due to the region’s long, harsh winters and short summers.

Before he could attend to the case himself, however, the Inquisitor General received a summons to attend Catholic King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and even he could not afford to ignore or refuse his monarchs’ call. Since Avila had no formal Inquisitorial tribunal, he appointed three investigators in his place, including Inquisitor of Valencia Juan Lopez de Cigales and Brother Fernando de Santo Domingo of the failed “Rabbi Abraham” ploy, trusting them to continue the interrogations of the eight suspects according to his exacting standards.

Imagine Benito’s reaction upon discovering that the third inquisitor was none other than his original tormentor, bishop’s vicar Pedro de Villada of Astorga (see The Vicar).

For almost a year, Torquemada’s very special guests commanded the complete attention of his minions in Avila. Regularly scheduled visits to the brand-new torture chamber relieved the tedium of languishing in the light, airy dungeons, and even though the trio now considered the Jew Juce Franco as the “gang’s” ringleader, Benito and his other six co-defendants couldn’t complain of neglect on their part. In addition to the now-familiar whip, rack, and water torture, they probably experienced the also-popular garrucha, better known as the “strappado” in other parts of Europe, which left even less visible evidence of torture than the other techniques.

Captors would tie the victim’s arms behind his back, then attach a rope to his wrists and either throw the other end over a beam or rafter in the ceiling, or feed it through a pulley attached to the ceiling. They would then pull on this rope until the prisoner hung from his hands, his full weight on his extended and internally rotated shoulder sockets. Sometimes they added weights to the rest of his body, increasing the stress on his arms, and after pulling him up, often proceeded to lower him in drops, each drop increasing his already intense pain and joint dislocation to the point of nerve and ligament damage and even broken shoulders.

From defiantly calling the accusations against him the “greatest falsehoods in the world,” a shattered Franco went to “confessing” in July 1491 how three years ago, he had led the group of conspirators in kidnapping, torturing, and crucifying a six-year-old Christian boy in a cave near La Guardia. After supposedly cutting out his heart and draining his blood, they had performed some magic spells with these and the by-now famous Communion wafer that fell out of Benito’s knapsack. Franco even “claimed” that they had hoped one particular incantation would protect them from Inquisitors by driving anyone who touched the plotters crazy.

Elated, the fearsome threesome congratulated themselves, already tasting triumph and Torquemada’s appreciation. But first, to make their case as air-tight as possible, they had to get all eight “testimonies” to agree with each other and most importantly, they had to obtain the answers to a couple of vital questions:

Who had this boy been, and where was his body?

Next: The Child

Our good buddy Matt Bors (HOWDY, MATT!) did an undercover comic about hell houses.

For those who didn’t know, Matt runs a great site called The Idiot Box. Be sure to check it out.

Even though we’ve previously posted on this, I’d guess this particular comic about hell houses might be good for, like, educating the kiddies — you know, without all the blood and screaming and Jesus stuff. (You might have to scroll down a little to see the comic.)

Once again, Matt, thanks for your work. You rock.

Religion has always existed to answer the questions that people feel incapable of answering otherwise, but as Raindogzilla points out in Bob’s latest offering, there is a condensing that occurs as we gain a greater understanding of the universe around us. Many gods, first needed to explain wonderous natural phenomenon which was otherwise incomprehensible without a grounding in science, were eventually condensed into one, which was eventually whittled down to none as we began to understand more about biology, chemistry, physics, logic, geology, and astronomy.

I think of it this way: science and logic is a bicycle and religion is the training wheels. At some point in history, humanity began to learn to ride this bicycle. Our sense of balance was such that we couldn’t keep the bicycle upright without relying on the training wheels, but we still wanted to explore. As time went by, we still used them becuase they made us feel safe, but some people realized there were paths they couldn’t take because the training wheels got in the way. Some reacted by deciding the paths must be bad because they couldn’t conceive of the bicycle working without the two extra wheels providing balance. Other people noticed that the wheels seemed added on to the bike and probably weren’t necessary. All they needed was a basic scrwedriver and the wheels could be removed.

It was a little unsteady riding the bike at first, with only two wheels, but those who learned to do so realized they could go a lot more places on the bike now. The people who ride the bike with only two wheels keep trying to show those who hold on to their training wheels how much better the bike works without them, but those people don’t want to listen. They insist that because since people learn to ride their bikes with training wheels, that we can’t do without them, even though people have shown them differently. They tell us that the training wheels are there to keep us from going down the bad paths, which the other people argue aren’t bad paths, but merely paths that the reliance on training wheels keep people from going down.

The moral of the story: reason is a screwdriver.

Once again, we have the authority on prayer. Man, how I love getting these things in the mail…

Prayer has been known to stop the sun and raise the dead.

Obviously, those examples don’t include stuff that would seem morally obvious to us, such as kids with painful genetic defects.

You might pray for a job transfer, but if God wants your boss to get saved He may ask you to stay put and be a witness.

[*sigh*]

Or maybe we aren’t praying out of a right heart.

Ouch. Kinda rude, wouldn’t ya say?

This is a particularly important issue for me and my family since my brother-in-law died of ALS at the young age of 35. It’s a horrible disease which causes a wasting away of the body while the mind stays intact. Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), the influential senior statesman of Missouri politics and a leader in the fight for stem cell research also knows how important this research is. Danforth’s brother, Donald, died of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2001.

“When you see somebody you love suffer and die from one of these diseases, and medical researchers say this could be the key to finding the cure, then you want the researchers to go forward so other people won’t go through the same experience,” Danforth said.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - It’s the Catholic Church versus actor Michael J. Fox in the two weeks before a hotly contested vote on stem-cell research in the U.S. Midwest, and the actor appears to have the edge.

Missouri Catholic churches have been using Sunday mass to show a film against the research, and have organized a “Rosary Crusade,” with more than 90,000 mailings urging prayers for the initiative’s defeat.

Another very frustrating-to-read article:
ST. LOUIS - Days after actor Michael J. Fox appeared in a TV ad urging Missouri voters to support stem cell research, opponents will unveil their own commercial during the World Series Wednesday night.

It makes me so angry that people are actually PRAYING for this research to be prevented. How can these people say they are for the sanctity of life, when they are willing to throw away TWO lives when the one that would only be thrown away could help the already living?

Entire news story

Toddler gets stuck in vending machine

“I turned around and looked for him, and he said, ‘Oma, I’m in here,” Bierdemann said. “I thought I would have a heart attack.” Store employees couldn’t find a key to the machine, so Robert waited while the Antigo Fire Department was called. “He was having a ball in there, hugging all the stuffed animals,” Bierdemann said. “He was so good-natured, but I was shaking like a leaf.” Firefighters broke one lock but then spotted two latches inside the plastic cube. They passed a screwdriver to Robert. “He stacked up all the stuffed animals and used that screwdriver to open the latch,” his grandmother said. “You should have seen him go.” Eventually, Robert freed himself. But his mother, Marie Moore, and grandmother said they were lucky that he remained calm when another child might not have. He went home safe — but without a stuffed Sponge Bob.