Is Barack Obama running for president or Gawd? Or is he running for president as Gawd? His stumping speeches have the air of sermons in hot tent revivals, with throngs of people pressing close to try to get a touch of the candidate’s hand or a glimpse into his eyes. A young boy is passed, mosh-pit style, to within the healing reach of the new messiah. So many women have been given over to fainting in his presence that he has had to requisition a squad of EMTs at each event to tend to the swooners.

Oprah, in her endorsement of the candidate, said that she thinks he is “the One”. One what? Rearrange the letters and you get “Neo”. Swallow the red pill, Oprah.

From here,

At the campaign’s “Camp Obama” - a training programme run ahead of primaries in key states - volunteers are schooled to avoid talking to voters about policy, and instead tell of how they “came” to Obama, just as born-again Christians talk about “coming to Jesus.”

From a site which is an admitted parody site, but uses real quotes and real photographs, for the most part*, we get this:

“It’s almost like the Messiah, you know?” said Young, a woman who said she originally backed Clinton but was drawn to Obama over the last year. “People really, really want change, and you feel it. You don’t just hear it — you feel something coming from him.”

* a few may have had special effects photo-shopped in. There’s even a shot of St. Obama blowing his nose. No kidding. And so much gushing testimony it makes me wonder if all these voters check their brains at the door:

A big black vehicle came past, escorted front and back by mounted police to hold the crowds away. People rushed forward screaming hysterically. Police edged them back and the vehicle moved slowly forward.

I asked a woman, “Who was that?” She’d been one of those who pushed herself up toward the SUV. She turned to me as if I were out of my mind, “It was HIM!” she yelled. “But,” I questioned, “how do you know? All the windows were darkened.” She replied, “I felt it.”

And now, Oh MY! The IRS is investigating Obama’s speech and his church! See here:

In a letter the denomination received Monday, the IRS said “reasonable belief exists” that the circumstances surrounding the speech violated restrictions on political activity for tax-exempt organizations. The denomination has denied any wrongdoing.

But wait, Gawd is above the law, and can speak about whatever he wants, wherever he wants, right?

It’s a feel-good, unification campaign. Hope brings people in the doors and puts money in the collection plate, er, campaign tiller. If Obama wins the Democratic nomination and subsequently, the election, will he be sworn in on the Bible, or on Himself? Instead of singing the National Anthem, will we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya? And what will happen when the people find out Barack is only a mortal and can’t deliver on his promises, just like someone else we’ve heard of?

Saw this in the news this morning and it really burns me up. Once again religious fucktardery threatens scientific research.

Catholics asked to stop Komen donations

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Diocese of Little Rock is urging its members not to donate to a breast cancer foundation known for its fundraising races across the globe because the group supports Planned Parenthood.

The diocese says the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation, which has invested about $1 billion in cancer outreach and research, gives money to Planned Parenthood to hold breast exams and offer education to women in its clinics.

“Donors cannot control how an organization designates its funds,” a diocese statement reads. “Therefore, money donated for a specific service … directly frees up funds to support other areas of an organization’s agenda.”

Marianne Linane, director of the diocese’s “respect life” office, said those other agendas includes abortions and contraceptive services. The Catholic church’s policy is that abortion is wrong in every instance.

[But allowing women to die from breast cancer is ok.]

Linane said the Little Rock diocese, which oversees all churches in Arkansas, used the same statement sent out by the church’s St. Louis diocese last year. However, the end of the Little Rock letter included addresses of Arkansas hospitals parishioners could donate to that would eliminate “the administrative funds for a middle broker.”

Monsignor J. Gaston Hebert sent the statement to parishes and Catholic schools this month and planned to send out a follow-up letter, Linane said. Hebert did not return a call for comment Tuesday.

Little Rock follows other dioceses in raising concerns with the foundation. In 2005, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charleston abandoned its support of the foundation, while in 2006 the newspaper of the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix took issue over Komen’s Planned Parenthood funding.

Rebecca Gibson, a spokeswoman for the Komen foundation, said the group invested $69.6 million in more than 1,600 community-based education and screening programs during 2007. Planned Parenthood received less than 1 percent of that money, she said.

“It’s insignificant in relation to all of the funding we do,” Gibson said. “I think it’s just really unfortunate undue attention is being shed on organizations that are providing vital services in those communities.”

The diocese’s decision comes as northwest Arkansas prepares for its running of the Race for the Cure on April 19.

Officials estimated Little Rock’s running last year brought out more than 43,000 participants and raised more than $1.65 million.

In today’s news: Hinn turns over material to Senate panel

“The enemy is not going to steal what the Lord has won through this ministry, and he is not going to use this attack to bring harm to the rest of the churches and ministries in America!”

NBC Dateline investigated Hinn a few years ago, and this show aired on December 27, 2002. I had not seen it until now.

Ever wonder what televangelists do between their globe-trotting conversion crusades? This NBC Dateline special reveals the dubious financial dealings of prominent Christian evangelist Pastor Benny Hinn, uncovering an extravagant lifestyle that would put most true Christians to shame. Reporter Bob McKeown explains what happens to some of the millions of dollars sent to the Hinn Ministry by his devoted followers.

So many suckers…unbelievable that so many can be fooled by Hinn and others like him.

Christian Crotchtalk’s crusader for gawd would probably blame Hinn’s exploitation of his followers on the “atheist influence” in America.

From here. For a larger print version, try here. Hat tip to PZ.

I was so psyched that this tidbit came, once again, from the banana republic of Floridastan but it was not to be. In fact, it seems the voice of reason in this case arises from the Tropic of Crapricorn(sorry Eve).
It’s an all too familiar story of a young boy abused by his addict parents, taken in by extended family, and indoctrinated into the cult of the Jehovah’s Witness. Sad in and of itself, were it to end there but the young man’s asshole of a god wasn’t quite done with him. Dennis was diagnosed with leukemia but, with radiation and a blood transfusion, doctors were fairly optimistic- 70% odds, that he would recover. Except…

“…Jehovah’s Witnesses believe there is no substance more sacred than blood, which is not to be “eaten” - taken into the body as in a transfusion.”

and

“‘If someone knowingly and unrepentingly undergoes a blood transfusion,” said J.R. Brown, the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ national spokesman, “we would regard that person as no longer a member of our church because, obviously, he does not believe what we believe.’”

Doh! While his aunt and uncle- who raised and brainwashed him, accepted his decision (That’s right, his decision. Did I mention he’s 14 years old at this point?), the calmer heads at the State of Washington’s Child Protective Services and the boy’s grandmother in Florida raised a ruckus. On the telephone…

“…‘Oma*, it’s okay,” he told her. “I’m going to meet Jehovah. I’m going to have eternal life.”

“You need blood now,” she said, before the phone connection abruptly ended.

Whenever Olga tried to reach Dennis’ room after that, a nurse told her he was sleeping.‘”

*- “Oma” is German for Grandmother.

I’m just curious. Assuming we go along with their fanciful creator deity notions for a moment, wouldn’t that imply that, say, the scientists and doctors who came up with the transfusion procedure were created by that deity? And wouldn’t refusing potentially lifesaving measures be tantamount to suicide- and we all know how that deity feels about that?

Anyway, Grandma Olga is on a crusade against the Witnesses/murderers, interrupting a JW meeting to inform a children’s group that, should they get sick, their parents would let them die- I must admit I got a charge out of that. Unfortunately, she seems reduced to haranguing strangers at the supermarket now- well, except for the St. Pete Times, Fark.com, and yours truly.

Did I forget to mention Dennis died? Or that his favorite color was pink.

Rest in peace, kid.

“If a million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing” - Anatole France

Normally, one of my favorite websites is ‘How Stuff Works‘ - chock full of all sorts of neat little ditties and factoids.

So I was reading up on evolution there, and I gotta say…how on earth does this invidious crap seem to seep into it?

Everything’s fine up to about this article - the example’s pretty bad, as Chihuahuas and St. Bernard’s are the same species. Then, the next article starts the rapid deterioration of the author’s ‘objectivity’.

It defines the word ‘theory’ pretty well:

A set of statements or principles devised to explain a group of facts or phenomena, especially one that has been repeatedly tested or is widely accepted and can be used to make predictions about natural phenomena.

It says this:

Many theories are works in progress, and evolution is one of them.

Ahem. All theories are works in progress. I’m going to skip to the more egregious errors in this. Onwards to the evolution of the human brain:

Modern human brain size averages about 1,500 CCs or so. In other words, in about 2 million years, evolution roughly doubled the size of the Homo erectus brain to create the human brain that we have today. Our brains contain approximately 100 billion neurons today, so in 2 million years, evolution added 50 billion neurons to the Homo erectus brain (while at the same time redesigning the skull to accommodate all of those neurons and redesigning the female pelvis to let the larger skull through during birth, etc.).

50 billion neurons sounds like a great deal, doesn’t it? Actually, no it isn’t.

None of these scenarios is particularly comfortable. We see no evidence that evolution is randomly adding 250,000 neurons to each child born today, so that explanation is hard to swallow. The thought of adding a large package of something like 2.5 billion neurons in one step is difficult to imagine, because there is no way to explain how the neurons would wire themselves in. What sort of point mutation would occur in a DNA molecule that would suddenly create billions of new neurons and wire them correctly?* The current theory of evolution does not predict how this could happen.

Randomly? Is this cat for real? ‘Wire them correctly’? And yes, evolution does predict how this could happen - punctuated equilibrium.

Get ready - here come some of the eye-crossers.

Question 3: Where Did the First Living Cell Come From?

Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me. Evolution doesn’t concern itself with the origins of the living cell - it deals with the process of how diverse life came to where it is today.

This is where I get a little heated:

These examples do simplify the requirements for the “original cell,” but it is still a long way to spontaneous generation of life. Perhaps the first living cells were completely different from what we see today, and no one has yet imagined what they might have been like. Speaking in general terms, life can only have come from one of two possible places:

• Spontaneous creation - Random chemical processes created the first living cell.
• Supernatural creation - God or some other supernatural power created the first living cell.

The spontaneous ‘creation’ scenario is the only possible explanation. Where the fuck do these dimbulbs come up with this ’supernatural’ nonsense? Is there some secret lab somewhere that specializes in ’supernatural’ experiments? Has there ever been just one time in the history of science where it can be proved that the supernatural played a pivotal role in any experiment whatsoever? The answer to this, is of course, a big fat zero, zilch, nada, nil, or any other placeholder word for nothing.

The following section tends to skin my lip back on my teeth:

• Scientists will develop a new theory that answers the questions posed above to almost everyone’s satisfaction, and it will replace the theory of evolution that we have today.

First off, it’s highly unlikely that some ‘new theory’ will come along and ‘replace’ the ‘theory’ of evolution that is in place today: what we have now spans multiple scientific disciplines. That there will be modifications and changes in paradigms is a strong likelihood: but it’s highly improbable that the whole shebang will be chucked overnight.

• Scientists will observe a completely new phenomenon that accounts for the diversity of life that we see today. For example, many people believe in creationism. In this theory, God or some other supernatural power intervenes to create all of the life that we see around us. The fossil record indicates that hundreds of millions of new species have been created over hundreds of millions of years — Species creation is an intense and constant process with an extremely long history. If scientists were to observe the creation process occurring the next time a major new species comes into existence, they could document it and understand how it works.

Who cares what ‘many people’ believe in, anyways? Are any of these folks scientists? We both know the answer to that one - NO.

For the most part, this group of articles sacrifices objectivity with this ‘fair-mindedness’ garbage. It echoes a number of creationist talking points (the media echo chamber metaphor is particularly cogent here), it drags in a discussion of the supernatural where it doesn’t belong, and while the articles admit that evolution is a working mechanism, it plays the old ‘macroevolution vs. microevolution’ sleight-of-hand nonsense.

I for one, get more than a little tired of this political correctness garbage - the ‘everyone’s got an equal opinion’  horse manure. No, not all opinions are equal. Or, as Harlan Ellison put it so eloquently: “Nobody’s entitled to an opinion. Everybody’s entitled to an informed opinion.”

And science isn’t a democracy, either. Sorry, anyone who thinks that is SOL.

Till the next post, then.

God will fuck you up!

In case you missed it in the post below, here is a fun video Spirula pointed to.

This is the basic message of Christianity, isn’t it? (And also Islam.) My husband’s Christian co-workers couldn’t help but smile when he showed it to them, and they could not dispute it. It’s what they believe, so what can they say!

I might just send this as a response to any god forwards or evangelizing messages I get via email in the future.

Sing along, kids!

I’ve been going back and forth with Christians for quite some time now about this free will thing. I say a deity who gives humans free will and then punishes them for using it makes humans mere slaves to this god (and makes this god nothing more than a big dick). Christians are quite imaginative when it comes to making up little stories and scenerios when they are put on the spot and don’t have answers. They just invent the answers and some are quite ridiculous.

I was surfing the net on the topic of free will and came across this site where Christians can write in questions they want answered. A mother wrote and asked, “My son wants me to explain to him how the bible says we have free will but if God already knows the choices we will make then this is not free will. I don’t know how to answer this.”

First of all, I would sarcastically ask, “why don’t you ask your god to explain it to you?” But we all know why she doesn’t…she would hear nothing but white noise. Do these people go seek answers to these questions themselves? Do they stop to really think about the question the child is asking? No intellectual pondering, no questioning, just follow like sheeple and when they don’t know something they go to the shepherds who will show them how to brainwash their young lambs.

Here is Timothy James O’Hearn’s of Riverside Church of Christ in Albuquerque NM response to this woman:

This can be a difficult question to answer. Does the fact that God knows something will happen/has happened cause it to happen? Can we change what God knows? I can understand your difficulty.

One possible way of explaining it, if your son is of an age to know computers (and what child isn’t these days) relates to memory. A computer stores input. That input is knowledge. At any given time a computer knows a lot of things. If it is a computer used for inventory for a business one of the things is may know is that Company A has a standing order for 1,500 units of a certain item. Company A decides that they want to increase their order to 2,000 units. They make the choice (free will) to change their order. Now the computer knows that Company A has a standing order for 2,000 units. Depending on its programming it may also know that the order has changed, and what the old order was. Free will has changed the knowledge in the computer.

This is not a perfect example, of course. God’s knowledge is more complex than any computer. However, it gives some idea of how free will affects God’s knowledge. What we choose affects what God knows. He may know equally well how things would have occurred if we had made a different choice.

Interestingly, the same example can be used to show God’s forgiveness. He knows all about our sin. Nevertheless, when we are buried and begin our new life, God hits the delete button and runs a “clean sweep” program to totally and irrevocably remove that sin from his memory banks.

The boy will probably think it will be better to just keep his mouth shut and stop asking questions.