While we’re on the amazing and awesome Jack Chick: Here’s a fabulous bit from his “Light of the World” called “The Lake of Fire”. That’s right, they’re talking about where we’re all going.

Presented without editing or comment, since that would just be gilding the lily:

By me and Jack Chick.

UPDATE: It seems our old pal Robert O’Brien has sashayed by and found this post unRobert O’Brien-worthy, prompting Robert O’Brien to swish off in a huff and email the folks at Chick Publications and tell them that he, Robert O’Brien, in his role as “Robert O’Brien“, Internet Hall-Monitor, has witnessed something so blatant it made Robert O’Brien soil himself in agitation, filling his bloomers with Robert O’Brien and making Robert O’Brien terribly uncomfortable, stewing in his own Robert O’Brien. Poor Robert O’Brien, I feel I owe him an apology, a three-pack of Fruit of the Loom tighty-whiteys, size small, and a hearty; “For Robert O’Brien’s a Jolly Good Fellow”. Oh, Robert O’Brien, Robert O’Brien, Robert O’Brien, how sorry I am.

[Editor's Note: The use above of the Chick tract is parody, and so covered by law as fair use.]

This may be a bit “gushy” for this site, but since many of us are going to be spending Thanksgiving with religious members of our families, and will all have to endure the “saying of grace” and all that other oogey-boogey religious crapola, I just wanted to express that atheists are thankful (though we may hide in the basement during prayer time.) The big difference between atheists and believers is that atheists are thankful to real flesh and blood human beings who make our lives a bit better during our “brief moment in time.”

(originally published HERE on Nov. 23, 2005)

Although I have no religious beliefs, I still am very thankful for the many good things in my life. Who am I thankful to? My thanks and appreciation goes to my dear husband for getting up at 4 a.m. every day to drive over an hour to a job where he works hard all day long to provide for his family. I am thankful to him for his love and committment for more than thirty years of marriage. I thank him for being a loving and helpful father to his three children. I am thankful to my children for their love and the joy they bring into my life. I am thankful to my parents for giving me life. I am thankful to them for raising me and loving me even when I was not very loveable. I am thankful to my doctors for taking care of my health and doing all they can to cure my illnesses, and keep me and my family healthy. I am thankful to the truck driver who hauls my food to the stores where I shop, I am thankful to the farmer who grows and harvests the food. I am thankful to the inventors of all of our modern technology that makes my life so comfortable and convenient. I am thankful to our police officers and soldiers for protecting us. I am thankful to NASA to take us to worlds we cannot see from where we are. I am thankful to the teachers, the explorers, researchers, scientists and others who provide us with information we need to enhance our lives. I am thankful for the entertainers, writers, film makers, artists, musicians, actors, etc. who bring some joy and imagination to our lives. These are the ones to who I owe my thanks.

Thanksgiving is a day to get together with those we appreciate and love and to celebrate that love and appreciation we have for each other. I wish everyone, no matter what your beliefs are, a very happy Thanksgiving Day with all of those who matter most to you, whether there in person or far away but close in heart.

Happy Turkey Day everyone! Hang in there with the relatives!

Addition: A similar theme by Ron from earlier T-days here at GifS:
Thanksgiving and reflective appreciation

So, I just happened to be surfing the internet, and came across this interesting piece of information. On wikipedia, I happened to click a few links and ended up looking at all of the pictures for the evolution of the glyphs used to represent numbers. Check it out

2
3
8
9

This is definitely a great analogy for biological evolution and a great example of evolution in general. This is for all of those “What good is half a wing?” assholes. Go read the reasons for their evolution on the site. It’s absolutely beautiful in my opinion. Especially number nine. Look at how nothing of the original remains by the end. The “mutations” in this case are selected either for their convenience or for aesthetic purposes. Though, by virtue of humans being involved, creationists will just call this intelligent design as well, even though the folks who came up with the first glyph for 9 certainly didn’t plan for it to become what it became and no one decided that they would officially make change x to number 9. But I still think it’s a neat illustration. So there you go.

This is from an article by “People For The American Way”

Robertson Says All Other Religions Worship “Demonic Powers”

Pat Robertson FSM

Originally uploaded by caragana25.

A viewer wrote in to ask Pat Robertson a question

Why [do] evangelical Christians tell non-Christians that Jesus (God) is the only way to Heaven? Those who are Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, etc. already know and have a relationship with God. Why is this? It seems disrespectful.

Robertson replied that it is not all disrespectful because all other religions really just worship “demonic powers.”

No. They don’t have a relationship. There is the god of the Bible, who is Jehovah. When you see L-O-R-D in caps, that is the name. It’s not Allah, it’s not Brahma, it’s not Shiva, it’s not Vishnu, it’s not Buddha. It is Jehovah God. They don’t have a relationship with him. He is the God of all Gods. These others are mostly demonic powers. Sure they’re demons. There are many demons in the world

You can see the short clip of Pat Robertson here:
http://tinyurl.com/ts4pz

I never did get “IT”. “IT” being the idea that one religion had a full blown franchise on the one true and correct god.
What Pat so succinctly points out is that it is Jehovah god who is “THE” one true god. If that is so then why does he and his flock of suckers pray to and worship Jesus? Isn’t that against the injunction of the first commandment that states “I am The Lord your God.” This Jehovah cat didn’t mention anything about no one else, so he must mean himself only, as in one and only.
Pat continues to lay out his claim that all others are praying to demons or some such nonsense. But what really gets me is that his ministry continues to play the “Jesus is Lord” angle. I guess this is actually of some reassurance in that we can infer from this simple logical fallacy that Pat Robertson and his flock are incapable of anything resembling logic and or reason.

For the Xians reading here; I do not have a belief in demons/god and many of you do not either. When you examine your own understanding of this life. If it contains demons and beings of a supernatural origin you are being nothing more than superstitious. To continue in allowing this nonsense to be promoted is just sheer idiocy and cowardice. Many people refuse to stand against someone like Patty boy. They think he has power or that he has a hotline to god. He does not he is human just like the rest of us. One day he too will die and become worm food. Nothing more. To act as if this god/demon thing is true is really a disservice to humanity. To live without questioning this is to live a life devoid of understanding. A life as a follower that never once objected to even the most absurd of claims.

Many of us here in the world of reason are waiting for you to join us. We are here because we asked.Because we could no longer tolerate the lies of absurdities being forced on us on a regular basis. People do not come back from the dead. People do not float up into the sky and live forever. It is all made up. I consider the absurd Ganesh as the same as Jehovah, made up.

Monday Update. The antidote to religion. Atheism. Go to this link and see John Safran go door to door in Mormon town, talking about Atheism. From time to time a very funny spoof comes along and deserves an award this is one.
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2006/11/tolerance_2.html

Warren over at The Indigestible has us blogrolled under “Digestives” — thanks Warren! — and I wanted to point to one facet of his “Dyspepses” category (under “Stool Samples”) called “Dear Christians”:

Intelligent Design is Bullshit [...] Those of you who listen to authorities who tell you ID is worth pursuing: You are being lied to. Ask your church leaders why they are lying to you. Demand that they stop lying to you. You have nothing to lose but your ignorance. Which is not bliss, by the way; it is slavery.Stop Stealing Good Men’s Minds [...] The United States was not founded as a Christian nation; the founders, in fact, very deliberately avoided religious establishment. So stop lying about the roots of democracy, which is actually founded in the ideals of equal justice, intellectual honesty and education. Stop trying to corrupt children away from their birthright. Stop ruining this country. If you really want to experience life in a theocracy, try living in Iran for a while. And please, don’t come back.

Warren rocks. GIFS like Warren. Warren nice.

Some Bad Religion to kick off the weekend:

so you say you gotta know why the world goes ’round
and you can’t find the truth in the things you’ve found
and you’re scared shitless ‘cuz evil abounds
come and join us

we’ve got spite and dedication as a vehement brew
the world hates us, well we hate them too
but you’re exempted of course if you
come and join us
independent, self-contented, revolutionary
intellectual, brave, strong and scholarly
if you’re not one of them, you’re us already so
come and join us

I’m a big fan of The Onion. Both for its brilliant satire and for its non-satirical content. One column I make a point of reading every week is Dan Savage’s Savage Love. Besides being the most open-minded sex advice column in this country, Mr. Savage has used his audience to work for political and social change. I want to share this great response to a letter with you from his November 15th column.

By Dan Savage

I live in Colorado Springs, home to the right-wing conservative evangelical movement. As the nation recently learned, the founder of New Life Church, Ted Haggard, was fired after a male prostitute revealed that Haggard bought sex and drugs from him. It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for him, even though I have always hated everything Haggard stood for. How do you view all of this? Does Haggard deserve our sympathy? Or do we point our fingers and laugh?

Confused Coloradoan

We should make a joyful noise, CC, whenever a powerful hypocrite is exposed. God should bless Mike Jones, the male prostitute who exposed Ted Haggard, and you should balance whatever sympathy you feel for Haggard against the misery he inflicted on the countless numbers of gay young people his church has “counseled.” If you want to feel bad for someone, feel bad for Haggard’s kids, not Haggard himself.

Now, I realize Haggard is ancient fucking history at this point—there was an election last week, huh?—but there’s something I just gotta get off my chest: For more than a decade, the religious right has insisted that homosexuality can be cured. Just give your heart to Jesus, and—poof!—you’re straight! If there is any justice in the world—and there seems to be, judging from last week’s election returns—Haggard’s downfall should be the death of the “ex-gay” movement. No more ex-gay ad campaigns, no more credulous stories about “successful” ex-gays in daily papers or on cable news.

Arguing with religious people about the futility of giving your heart to Jesus—at least where “cures” for homosexual orientation are concerned—can be maddening. As with evolution, they aren’t moved by science, data, or irksome facts. Not even the existence of ex-ex-gays gives them pause. Anything is possible through Christ, they blandly insist, and if you’re sincere enough in your devotion to Christ, if you invite him into your heart, he will cure you.

Hello, fundies? I know you’re reading this, because every week I get e-mails from concerned Christians who just happened to chance upon my column—cough, cough—and write to share the wonderful news: I don’t have to be gay! If I give my heart to Jesus—if I have faith—he will cure me!

Well, my fundie friends, did you see that letter of apology Haggard wrote to his congregation? I’d like to wrap it around a brick and shove it up all of your fat asses. But since I can’t do that, I’ll just quote from it. In his mea gulpa (Haggard gives lousy head, according to Jones), Haggard copped to “sexual immorality” and described himself as “a deceiver and a liar.” Those details made it into most of the headlines. These details didn’t:

“Describing a lifelong battle against temptations that were contrary to his teachings,” says the Denver Post, “[Haggard] had sought assistance ‘in a variety of ways,’ and while he had stretches of ‘freedom,’ nothing proved effective. ‘There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all of my adult life,’ Haggard wrote.” [Emphasis added.]

If you believe that Jesus Christ can change the sexual orientation of a believer, why on earth did he refuse to cure Haggard? Haggard founded a church that has 14,000 members! Thousands were brought to Christ by Haggard’s preaching. Mixed in with Ted’s meth-fueled gay-sex romps and hypocritical gay-bashings were, without a doubt, thousands of good works.

Did Jesus help Haggard out? No. Haggard struggled with temptation all his life. He tried to battle off his “dark” desires, but nothing proved effective. There was no cure for Haggard, no miracle. No matter how long he struggled, no matter how much faith he had, Haggard’s sexual orientation remained unchanged. Nothing helped. Not prayer, not Jesus H. Christ on his cross.

Nothing.

If giving his heart to Jesus couldn’t cure Haggard, what hope is there for the likes of me? If Jesus can’t be bothered to work a miracle for the most powerful evangelical minister in the country, what “hope” is there for the average dyke?

None.

The ex-gay thing is over. It’s dead. It was bullshit from the start, and it’s bullshit now. And I will personally track down and bitch-slap the next fundie douche who sends me an e-mail explaining how Jesus can cure me. And I will personally track down and shit in the mouth of the next cable-news anchor who entertains—even for an instant—the notion of a miracle cure for homosexuality.

Consider yourself warned, Paula Zahn.