The madness that is Muhammad strikes, and strikes again. It induces a rabid frenzy in its followers, and rains horror upon believer and non-believer alike:

Thousands mourn Karachi bomb dead

Thousands of mourners have attended funerals for those killed in a double bomb attack targeting Shia Muslims in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

The death toll from Friday’s bombings rose overnight to 33, with 165 injured.

A police official told AFP news agency more then 10,000 people had attended a funeral for 14 Muslim victims. Five Christians are to be buried later.

The attacks – the second at a hospital where victims of the first attack were being treated – targeted Shia pilgrims.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani appealed for calm amid fears of growing tensions between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

Security was tightened in Karachi as the mourners gathered.

Security in a predominantly Muslim country where all sorts of crazies are running about ready to kill and die for their ridiculous beliefs must be a nightmare. And especially in Pakistan, a country primarily founded on Islam.

And by all accounts, Pakistan is among some of the worst offenders when it comes down to any kind of tolerance whatsoever:

An old blasphemy law, which was written in 1927 during during colonial days, banned insults directed against any religion. In 1986, dictator General Zia-Ul Haw modified the law to protect only Islam. The law require a life imprisonment or a life sentence for anyone who defiled the name of Muhammad or committed other blasphemy. In 1990, a religious court ruled that the penalty for crimes under the law (Section 295-C of the country’s Constitution) is execution. ₆ The law states: "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representation, or by inputation, innuendo, or insinuation, directly or indirectly defiles the sacred name of the Holy prophet Mohammed…shall be punished with death and shall be liable to a fine." The law is being used in Pakistan to discriminate against religious minorities: largely Christians, and Ahmadis. Under the present law, a Muslim may blaspheme Christianity with impunity. But a Christian doing the same against Islam can theoretically be executed.

Small wonder that these uglinesses continue, considering that Pakistan was a country born in the blood of its people. The body count continues, and the texts of alleged ‘holy books’ continue to cut swathes through the populace to this day.

Religion – it brings out the best in people? When? Never. It’s gotta go.

Till the next post, then.

Pursuant to a thread at Pharyngula, a particular book was mentioned. So Googling it up, I found this wonderful bit of folderol:

By now you’ve probably heard about that infamous movie so many people are talking about called EXPELLED, starring Ben Stein. No? OK, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you should. This film played for a limited engagement in theatres across the USA in 2008 (but don’t go rushing out to buy the video until you’ve visited the offers from our partners at the "Order Online" tab above). If you missed the movie (or just want to read up on what others are saying about it) you can check out another movie trailer here, and read some reviews and commentary about it here.

‘Limited engagement’ actually translates to ‘invitation only’ across a limited amount of showings, and I’m sure we’re all up on this non-issue that Stein tried to stoke a non-fire in the intellectual underbrush.

So why am I even mentioning this movie? Because the book Slaughter of the Dissidents (SOD) picks up where the movie "Expelled" leaves off. If you thought Expelled was mind-blowing, then this book will educate you even further about this important issue of repression of freedom and discrimination currently playing in academia today, along with many case studies of expelled scientists and educators (some of the SOD case studies also focus on some of the "Expelles" introduced in the movie).

I thought it was mind-blowing that Stein imagined he even had a controversy, let alone a point.

"Expelled" has taken many Americans by surprise. Suddenly, a growing number of people are wondering: what is this discrimination against Darwin skeptics all about? What do you mean we kick people out of academia just for asking questions about evolution! Is this really true? And just how bad is it really.

Like all empty incendiary rhetoric, it’s really not all that bad. Nobody’s been ‘slaughtered’, either physically or metaphorically. It’s simply scare-mongering, is what it is.

Well, in a word, the treatment of Darwin skeptics in our culture (scientists, educators, and students) is very poor. Many of them endure incredible humilation and eventual loss of their jobs. But even worse, being a Darwin skeptic for many of these people is a complete career-ender. Of course, there are many who try to argue against such claims, as you can see by visiting sites like "Expelled Exposed." We plan to provide some rebuttals to those arguments at some point in the future. But for now… SOD will serve as a starting point.

You won’t believe some of the reasons many educators have lost their jobs, and how they often get blackballed from academia, or why some students failed to get an otherwise earned degree. This pernicious form of discrimination is not only widespread in the U.S. but is also nauseating to most Americans. SOD goes into great detail about how and why it occurs, and provides you with scores of actual case studies. As you read this book you’ll discover that one of the most precious things we own is at risk, right here in America. What is that?

In a word,

FREEDOM

The price you pay for going against the scientific consensus (and especially on a topic that has been proven up and down and sideways to Muskogee) is…well, ridicule is something you’ll have to endure, especially when you don the martyr’s cap and cry ‘poor me!’ when you propound twaddle.

Freedom to disagree about some aspects of evolution without losing your job or being denied an earned degree. Freedom to tell people you dare to question any aspect of evolution on scientific grounds – without referencing any religious text.

Either the author doesn’t understand the definition of ‘aspect’, which is:

1. appearance to the eye or mind; look: the physical aspect of the country, 2. nature; quality; character: the superficial aspect of the situation, 3. a way in which a thing may be viewed or regarded; interpretation; view: both aspects of a decision. 4. part; feature; phase: That is the aspect of the problem that interests me most. 5. facial expression; countenance: He wore an aspect of gloom. Hers was an aspect of happy optimism. 6. bearing; air; mien: warlike in aspect. (6 will do for now), or he’s being deliberately misleading about the ‘any aspect’ phrasing. Either one wouldn’t be a surprise.

And also the freedom to let others know what you personally believe outside of science without having such an utterance turn into a rabid witch hunt.

That’s utter nonsense, otherwise notables such as Ken Miller and Francis Collins would be pilloried in accordance with this ‘logic’.

Do you know it has reached the point in America where, on this subject at least, if you are an educator and you opine that you have reservations about any aspect of evolution based on scientific evidence, you are often immediately labeled as "religious" (whether you really are or not), and you are (often) immediately determined to be ‘unfit’ to teach science or get a science degree?

Unmitigated crap. Maybe a biology degree, but this ‘any aspect’ accusation is ridiculous.

And speaking of religion, it looks like we live in an era where freedom OF religion has been twisted to mean freedom FROM religion. Some groups supporting this type of discrimination proclaim that "Freedom depends on free thinkers," unless, of course, you happen to be ‘religious’.

I don’t think I need to go any further with this. Of course, you can’t have freedom OF religion unless you have freedom FROM religion. This isn’t ‘discrimination’ – this is fact. It’s an equal playing field now – and this is the standard argument from martyrdom, except that we are all now familiar with the lies the Christians tell us, the lies they believe and will fight for, against all odds and evidence.

In addition, I might add that this execratory bit of work has an introduction by none other than “Dr.” D. James Kennedy. For those of you unfamiliar with this particular fuckwit, he was that same idiot who made the repugnant ‘documentary’ titled Darwin’s Deadly Legacy, which has been debunked and repudiated (but is still for sale!). Also, a hardcore theonomist.

One can only hope that this disorder we term religion will wilt away, that the human race can move onwards to greener pastures.

Till the next post, then.

It’s not only the muslims who are into self-flagellation and masochistic acts, many Christians do it too. They love being a martyr for their imaginary friend. And it’s all so utterly unnecessary. When religion isn’t involved when people hurt themselves, they are usually put away in a mental institution for their own protection. When a crazy person hurts himself in the name of religion, they are recommended for “sainthood” instead of the funny farm.

This story caught my eye when browsing the headlines today. Respected leader of the Catholic Church, John Paul II used a belt to whip himself:

VATICAN CITY – Pope John Paul II whipped himself with a belt, even on vacation, and slept on the floor as acts of penitence and to bring him closer to Christian perfection, according to a new book by the Polish prelate spearheading his sainthood case.

*snip*

At a news conference Tuesday, Oder defended John Paul’s practice of self-mortification, which some faithful use to remind them of the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

“It’s an instrument of Christian perfection,” Oder said, responding to questions about how such a practice could be condoned considering Catholic teaching holds that the human body is a gift from God.

In the book, Oder wrote that John Paul frequently denied himself food — especially during the holy season of Lent — and “frequently spent the night on the bare floor,” messing up his bed in the morning so he wouldn’t draw attention to his act of penitence.

“But it wasn’t limited to this. As some members of his close entourage in Poland and in the Vatican were able to hear with their own ears, John Paul flagellated himself. In his armoire, amid all the vestments and hanging on a hanger, was a belt which he used as a whip and which he always brought to Castel Gandolfo,” the papal retreat where John Paul vacationed each summer.

While there had long been rumors that John Paul practiced self-mortification, the book provides the first confirmation and concludes John Paul did so as an example of his faith.

Sneaky bastards! A video from ABC News explains the latest indirect fundie proselytizing tactics:
ABC News – Secret Jesus Bible Codes on U.S. Military Weapons

and this

Michigan defense contractor is putting Bible codes on their weapons which Mikey Weinstein, president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, says, “could give the Taliban and other enemy forces a propaganda tool: that American troops are Christian crusaders invading Muslim countries.”

WASHINGTON – Combat rifle sights used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan carry references to Bible verses, stoking concerns about whether the inscriptions break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops.

Military officials said the citations don’t violate the ban and they won’t stop using the telescoping sights, which allow troops to pinpoint the enemy day or night.

The contractor that makes the equipment, Trijicon of Wixom, Mich., said the U.S. military has been a customer since 1995 and the company has never received any complaints about the Scripture citations.

Because not many know about it, you fucker!

“We don’t publicize this,” Tom Munson, Trijicon’s director of sales and marketing, said in an interview. “It’s not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, ‘Yes, it’s there.’”

Because if you did “make a big deal out of” it, many tax-paying citizens and secular organizations DO have a problem with it. And soldiers who know about it and disagree are afraid to speak up:

Weinstein said he has received complaints about the Scripture citations from active-duty and retired members of the military. He said he couldn’t identify them because they fear retaliation.

Other international aid organizations are rushing food, water and medicine to Haiti’s earthquake victims. A moronic United States religious group is sending Bibles — solar powered ones. Since many poor can’t read, now they are going to try to deliver the delusion electronically.

Solar-powered Bibles sent to Haiti

But these aren’t just any Bibles; they’re solar-powered audible Bibles that can broadcast the holy scriptures in Haitian Creole to 300 people at a time.

The Faith Comes By Hearing organisation says its Bible, called the Proclaimer, delivers “digital quality” and is designed for “poor and illiterate people”.

Faith (delusion) comes by hearing delusional people give a fluffy puffy fantasy message that some invisible sky daddy is going to take care of things, especially when disaster strikes and the poor have nowhere to turn and are vulnerable to people taking advantage of the situation. This god never comes on his own, the god message only comes from sly idiots who want to get as many to board the Jesus train as they can.

It says 600 of the devices are already on their way to Haiti.

The Albuquerque-based organisation says it is responding to the Haitian crisis by “providing faith, hope and love through God’s word in audio”.

How about some real food, water, blankets and helping to build shelters, hospitals, clinics, etc?

The audio Bible can bring the “hope and comfort that comes from knowing God has not forgotten them through this tragedy,” a statement on its website says.

But this god does not bring them their homes back, does not bring back their dead parents, children, friends and family. This god does not bring the money they need to pay for what was lost. No god came to prevent this disaster in the first place. No god ever comes. When will people stop and realize there is no god to help and humans depend on the help of other humans alone.

“The Proclaimer is self-powered and can play the Bible in the jungle, desert or … even on the moon!”

Tens of thousands of Port-au-Prince residents are living outdoors

“The Proclaimer”???? So their god needs electronics made by humans now to make himself be known via audio of a human reading a book that was written by humans. And them living outdoors makes it easier for the fundies to force their message on people in their time of despair and need.

How utterly despicable! I have no words strong enough to illustrate how disgusting this is. This is taking advantage of people in the face of their loss. There should be laws against these kinds of con artists.

By now, unless you’ve been living in a cave, you are all aware that Haiti has been struck down by a powerful earthquake. And no doubt most of you know that religio-fucktard Pat Robertson (shown in the video above) has attributed the tragedy to a ‘deal made with the devil by Haitians to oust Napoleon’. I think everyone’s sick of this asshole, I know I am. Pat’s media career is fraught with some seriously stupid commentary, such as: we (the US) should send in assassins to cap Chavez, Katrina’s the result of dawg’s wrath, fighting the ERA, blaming 9/11 on everyone who wasn’t Christian, advising karateka not to ‘inhale demons’, claiming that Sharon’s stroke was divine intercession, claiming Islam isn’t a religion™, and claiming that the lawd sent him a vision of a terrorist attack in the US in 2007 (which of course didn’t happen, he just probably sucked down a bad milkshake or something).

Easy to discount him as a crazed loon? Well, tristero points out (and is frighteningly accurate) that Pat Robertson is not one to be discounted:

Dear Friends,
You can sneer all you want at Pat Robertson. You can condemn him all you want. And I’ll join right in. He deserves everything you care to say about him, and much, much more. He is a seriously disturbed man.
But you dismiss and ignore him at your peril. Remember: this man used to call up the fucking president of the United States. And he got through. And the president listened to him.
You ever had that kind of access to power? Got it now? Thought not. Me, neither. You got his hundreds of millions of dollars? Got millions of fans giving you hard-earned- bucks? Nope, I don’t have them either.
Sure, go ahead: Repeat the obvious: Of course, it’s a sad state of affairs when an ignorant, moral degenerate like Pat Robertson is so influential to the most powerful men – and yeah, it’s basically men – in the world.So what? Don’t ever forget he had that access, and still has access, to far more powerful men (and the occasional woman) than you can even imagine. So…

There oughta be a law.

This is perhaps the most persuasive argument for taxing churches:  churches can remain tax exempt, on the condition that they keep out of politics. That folks like Robertson, Dobson, or any of these other clowns can swing votes or call the president and perhaps influence our society, but are tax-free, is a sign of a broken system.

Till the next post, then.

By now we’ve all heard the news – Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab AKA the Christmas Crotch bomber tried to blow up a plane on the holiday.

Reports of these kind of people make me…well, crotchety. And hopefully, the irony is not lost, that he was some Muslim fanatic who packed his jockstrap with explosives, and his religion is one of many that try to control their slave’s genitalia until their slave is married.

Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic were last night urgently investigating the background of the would-be plane bomber, as international attention turned to al-Qaida’s stronghold in Yemen.

Scotland Yard and MI5 want to establish how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was radicalised and by whom, and whether he had accomplices in the UK or the Arabian peninsula. He has told US officials that he met al-Qaida operatives in Yemen who gave him the device which almost brought down Northwest Airlines flight 253 to Detroit and taught him how to use it.

Yesterday it emerged that after attending university in London, the 23-year-old had dropped out of a postgraduate business course in Dubai, telling his family he had gone to Yemen to study Islam. He then cut off contact with them.

And somehow, wistfully, I wish I could be surprised by these events, but sadly, they’re all too prevalent. Another freak tried to blow up an airplane, this time a Bosnian, but apparently he wasn’t as creative as Umar, so now his fellow Al-Qaida-ian isn’t receiving quite as much press.

And I use the term slave in its purest sense, that is in definitions one and two:

1 : a person held in servitude as the chattel of another
2 : one that is completely subservient to a dominating influence

Because that is for the most part what most religions do. They slap metaphorical shackles on their sheep, and use fear and promises of eternal love (in this case, likely a bevy of ephemeral virgins) to enslave the hearts and minds. And the enslavement becomes multi-layered, an onion of tears and scars that smear the life and keep it pilloried, preventing the individual from living a brief life to its fullest.

And while I’d like to claim that education would be sufficient to level these blind shambling monoliths that wreak havoc and wreck lives, that would be insufficient. There were (and are) many educated Muslims (as well as Christians and Judaists) – education alone is not enough. We cannot blame poverty – the men mentioned were not poor, and the 19 zealots who flew the fateful planes on 9/11 came from well-to-do families. Courteous debates are a fool’s dream, as many here can attest. Courtesy is always misinterpreted as either A. weakness or B. the possibility that the other side’s superstition is getting through. Violence begets endless vendettas, a cycle of blood rivers.

So we are left with logical mockery – we point, we jeer, we mock, and using ridicule and logic, we wage a war of metaphorical and rhetorical attrition, so that someday, some way, critical thought will pierce the thick skulls of the religulous. We can only hope.

Let the double entendres and euphemisms now ensue.

Till the next post then.

Christians love to make up warm and fuzzy sayings and stories about their imaginary friend. I received a religious email today that contained several of these dumbass quotes that are the romanticized inventions of delusional folks who think they are the special pet of an invisible god who controls all that they do, say and think while looking down from “up there”, (wherever “up there” is).

Here are a few from just the one email I received today:

“Whenever God Closes One Door He Always Opens Another, Even Though
Sometimes It’s Hell in the Hallway”

So, we are going along fine in life and this sadistic god slams it closed, tortures the shit out of us only to open another one? This statement just shows how much thought this was given….none.

A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.

No, a coincidence is a coincidence. A miracle is when human beings can’t stand not knowing an answer as to why or how something happened, so they make shit up. No grand cosmic puppetmaster is pulling any strings while playing hide and seek.

How about this one?

All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows this love upon his fellows.

Christians choose to disregard the fact that the god of their Bible is a sadistic, evil, destroying bastard. Examples of love and affection come from other human beings. Not from the god who had to create a son for himself to sacrifice (who is also supposedly himself at the same time) to allow to be tortured and murdered (and to commit suicide) in order to appease himself. In addition, many Xians are just nice to other people because they think that will make their god happy and they get extra reward points when they get to Heaven or something.

Here is another one:

“Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.”

I think the correct word here would be “deluded”, not blessed.

This is a good time to go ahead and get all those ghastly religious emails out of your systems.

Go ahead and vent. After enduring the religious holiday season, I am sure many of you will welcome the opportunity for random venting.