This is getting to be like Jesus Matrix! So many claiming to be Jesus, and so many sheeple who will believe them. And when you get rid of one, more just come out of the woodwork. Never ending supply of Jeebus nutjobs.

Wayne Bent of New Mexico is yet another one claiming to be Jesus. He is going through the whole martyr act, fasting and refusing to eat, and claiming total innocence. He is accused of laying naked with underage virgins. He has also admitted to having sex with a couple of married women and another woman who is “of-age” (which he claims was instructed by Gawd…yeah…ok).

One thing in this news video that got me is how the son of Mr. Bent says that the authorities have “stepped over the line, by forcing children to go into an environment they do not want to go into. Yet these children have been forced to remain isolated in a compound and brainwashed to believe this is where they should be and that there is nothing wrong with sleeping naked with a creepy old fuck.

What will happen to all of these kids when they finally grow up?

Church leader arrested on sex charges in northeast N.M.

A posting attributed to Bent on the church’s Web site Monday said:

“Jesus had not committed any crimes, so the authorities had to invent some crimes to crucify him over. It is the same for me also. I have committed no crimes, but many crimes are being imagined and concocted in the minds of men to try and kill me again.”

Latest news video link: Strong City Cult

Jeez, all this hostility on this blog. Why are atheists so angry?…

McCain’s Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam

The leader of a 12,000-member congregation, Parsley has written several books outlining his fundamentalist religious outlook, including the 2005 Silent No More. In this work, Parsley decries the “spiritual desperation” of the United States, and he blasts away at the usual suspects: activist judges, civil libertarians who advocate the separation of church and state, the homosexual “culture” (”homosexuals are anything but happy and carefree”), the “abortion industry,” and the crass and profane entertainment industry. And Parsley targets another profound threat to the United States: the religion of Islam. In a chapter titled “Islam: The Deception of Allah,” Parsley warns there is a “war between Islam and Christian civilization.” He continues: I cannot tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam, that we see it for what it really is. In fact, I will tell you this: I do not believe our country can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam. I know that this statement sounds extreme, but I do not shrink from its implications. The fact is that America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed, and I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we can no longer ignore.[…] Parsley claims that Islam is an “anti-Christ religion” predicated on “deception.” The Muslim prophet Muhammad, he writes, “received revelations from demons and not from the true God.” And he emphasizes this point: “Allah was a demon spirit.” […] At the end of his chapter on Islam, Parsley asks, “Are we a Christian nation? I say yes.” Without specifying what actions should be taken to eradicate the religion, he essentially calls for a new crusade. Parsley, who refers to himself as a “Christocrat,” is no stranger to controversy. In 2007, the grassroots organization he founded, the Center for Moral Clarity, called for prosecuting people who commit adultery. In January, he compared Planned Parenthood to Nazis. In the past Parsley’s church has been accused of engaging in pro-Republican partisan activities in violation of its tax-exempt status.

I don’t know about all you non-believers. You’re all way too hostile, and you just don’t understand the right path.

Natural disaster could become catalyst to blow away injustice

Even at the best of times, the Irrawaddy delta is one of the least accessible areas of one of South-East Asia’s most closed and impenetrable countries. […] It is too soon to know the extent of the destruction, but there is no longer any doubt that a massive humanitarian catastrophe has struck Burma. Cyclone Nargis, with its 120mph winds, coincided with a 12ft-high storm surge. Even last night there was little hard information about the extent of the damage but it seems clear that fields, houses, roads, ditches, houses and entire communities have been blown and washed away. […] The numbers of injured, it can be assumed, are several multiples of the dead. The numbers of homeless are unknown — the best that Richard Horsey, a United Nations official in Thailand, could guess was several hundred thousand “but how many hundred thousand we just don’t know”. A World Food Programme official said that 90 per cent of houses in the worst-affected zone were destroyed. No one in Burma has seen a natural disaster like this in living memory. But this is a catastrophe whose consequences do not end with the dead and injured. Its ripples will be felt across the region and it has the potential, at least, to reshape the entire country. Apart from the loss of life, the injuries and the destruction of tens of thousands of homes, the disaster may have far-reaching secondary effects. The flooding and destruction of sanitation systems increase the risk of epidemics, including malaria and typhoid; the loss of livelihoods is crippling in communities where many people subsist on less than $1 a day.

Oh, yes, let’s kill the most knocked-down, oppressed, and downtrodden — and, further, let’s kill them in highly remote areas.

How unbelievably loving…

Further reading, for anyone interested…

For those who might not have known…

A beautiful response…

It’s time to raise our voice in prayer,
And pray to–well, there’s no one there.
No god to urge to do our bidding;
Go on and pray–just know you’re kidding.

It’s time to all sit on our asses,
And pray forgiveness for trespasses
(Or is that to forgive our debtor?
Who cares, as long as we feel better.)

It’s time we all embrace god fully,
Feel all righteous, good, and holy–
Or be some atheistic jerk,
Roll up your god-damned sleeves, and work!

It’s time to say “I do not care
To join you in this day of prayer.”
Sure, a day off looks like fun,
But there is work that must be done.

Our problems will not fix themselves
There is no god to send in elves
To do the work of human ranks
So… join, today, in prayer? No thanks.

And another good response…

Women Seeking Abortions Must Have Ultrasounds Against Their Will

Under the guise of obtaining informed patient consent, this new law requires doctors to withhold pregnancy termination until an ultrasound is performed. The law states that either an abdominal or vaginal ultrasound, whichever gives the best image of the fetus, must be done. Neither the patient nor the doctor can decide which type of ultrasound to use, and the patient cannot opt out of the ultrasound and still have the procedure. In effect, then, the legislature has mandated that a woman have an instrument placed in her vagina for no medical benefit. The law makes no exception for victims of rape and incest. By existing law, women already must be told where to find information about fetal development and referred to locations for a free ultrasound before a termination can be scheduled. […] In a further reversal of standard medical practice, this bill defines failure to perform this unnecessary medical procedure as “unprofessional conduct” and suggests that the state medical board may remove the physician’s license. Failure to perform the ultrasound also leads to fines beginning at $10,000 and increasing to more than $100,000. By comparison, the highest fine for negligent homicide or driving under the influence in Oklahoma is $1,000.

“Whichever gives the best image of the fetus” — ah, yes, a woman now has to get more stuff shoved into her (against her will) to compound her decision to get an abortion. How nice.

Why not just cut to the chase? Let those goddam sexually active women have their abortions, and then we’ll just smack the shit out of them for ever having sex.

Here is another example of how religion is dangerous when it goes from mild to full-blown whackadoo delusion.

Agent: S.C. teen accused in school plot wanted to kill Jesus

FLORENCE, S.C. - A teen accused of plotting to blow up his high school told police that he wanted to die, go to heaven and kill Jesus, federal authorities said Tuesday.

[Someone should tell him that the way to “kill Jeebus” is to stop believing in this bullshit]

Prosecutors argued in a federal courtroom that the statements are an indication that 18-year-old Ryan Schallenberger needs a psychological evaluation. The straight-A Chesterfield High School senior was arrested April 19 and faces several state and federal charges, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. That charge carries a possible life sentence if he is convicted.

“His conduct is bizarre,” prosecutor Buddy Bethea told Judge Thomas Rogers III, who did not immediately issue a ruling. “I think it screams out in his conduct that he be evaluated.”

[All people who have imaginary friends should be “evaluated” so it won’t get to this point.]

And the mother really has her head up her ass . . .

Prosecutors also played a 911 tape of the teen’s mother calling police after he smashed his head into a wall two days before his arrest. On the tape, she says her son threatened to shoot police if they came.

“He’s not going to do it,” Laurie Sittler told the operator. “He’s just got a bad temper.”

Even though . . .

Schallenberger was arrested after his parents picked up at the post office a package addressed to the teen containing 20 pounds of ammonium nitrate. They got nervous and looked through his room where they found a cassette tape he wanted played after he died, which they took to the sheriff’s office, the agent testified. Authorities found his journal, which lauded the Columbine killers, after searching his room.

The 50-page journal contained notes on more than 10 types of explosives that Schallenberger experimented with and evaluated a year ago, the agent testified. It had a black cover and “Pisces” written on the front, and authorities have said it contained detailed plans to bomb Chesterfield High School.

And fucktard fundies will probably blame this on atheism somehow.

Seriously, at this stage of the game, are we really that surprised?…

Soldier Sues Army, Saying His Atheism Led to Threats

FORT RILEY, Kan. — When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending.

But minutes into the talk, the officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, began to berate Specialist Hall and another soldier about atheism, Specialist Hall wrote in a sworn statement. “People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!” Major Welborn said, according to the statement.

Major Welborn told the soldiers he might bar them from re-enlistment and bring charges against them, according to the statement.

Last month, Specialist Hall and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an advocacy group, filed suit in federal court in Kansas, alleging that Specialist Hall’s right to be free from state endorsement of religion under the First Amendment had been violated and that he had faced retaliation for his views. In November, he was sent home early from Iraq because of threats from fellow soldiers.

So, if people ever uses the old “atheists in foxholes” canard in your presence, you can (1) tell them that they’re probably right, because the other xian soliders in their platoon would turn their guns on them and shoot them if they said anything else; or, (2), simply point them here (or here).

Ah, xians — just gotta love ‘em…

(You know, because they’ll KILL YOU if ya don’t…)

It always interests me how the same arguments are pulled out against atheism. I mean, here’s a guy from Berkeley, who I’m sure is relatively intelligent, and then I read the following:

That led me to re-turn to one of C.S. Lewis’s finest books–and one of his first “Christian” ones–”The Problem of Pain.” And here’s the quote: “We ‘have all we want’ is a terrible saying when ‘all’ does not include God. We find God an interruption. As St. Augustine says somewhere, ‘God wants to give us something, but cannot, because our hands are full—there’s nowhere for Him to put it.’” Lewis is simply right, and even though it’s a tough word, it’s a good one. As he concedes, “It does not matter that I know I must become, in the eyes of every hostile reader, as it were, personally responsible for all the sufferings I try to explain…. But it matters enormously if I alienate anyone from the truth.”

And I feel the same way. I’d suggest that looking at both the amount and distribution of natural and moral evils shows that this “too much on one’s plate” explanation is simply a vapid attempt that goes nowhere.

And then, if that wasn’t enough, I get to read — once again — the values argument from theism.

The existence of good—and the related realities of meaning, purpose, and beauty—present together an almost insoluble problem for the atheist. […] Consider the words of Richard Dawkins, Oxford scientist, and bestselling author of The God Delusion: “In a universe of blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.” That’s a reasonably bleak portrayal of the universe, and, since we’re part of that universe, of our lives as well. It does, however, correspond perfectly with a basic conviction from Philosophy 101—“nothing comes from nothing.” Start with a purely physical system without any Creator, and all you have is brute fact. If the universe is simply a physical system, then why should something non-physical like good, meaning, purpose, or beauty arise? It cannot.

I’ll leave the “physical” and “non-physical” fallacies for the reader for homework.

And this is out of Berkeley?

[*sigh*]