Absolutely Everything Wrong with Religion Summed UP in One Paragraph

A Jerusalem rabbinical court recently sentenced a wandering dog to death by stoning. The cruel sentence stemmed from the suspicion that the spirit of a famous secular lawyer, who insulted the court's judges 20 years ago, had been transferred into the dog's body.

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Gay Persons Told to Leave Public Facility - for Being Gay

When will these type of stories join history's waste basket?

Activists in Kentucky are planning a peaceful response after two gay men with developmental and intellectual disabilities were kicked out of a public pool.

A maintenance technician reportedly cited the Bible while telling the two men they couldn't swim at The Pavilion, a government-funded recreational facility in Hazard, Kentucky.

When people working with the disabled person pointed out that the actions of the public pool staff were completely and legally-defined as discriminatory, the response was (wait for it)

The man stated that what he was doing was in the Bible and he could do it.

Well THAT settles it.

When I read stories such as this, I forget what it must be to live in "the rest of the world". I have worked for public colleges and universities for so long, where anything approaching this type of behavior has been long proscribed, and indeed where I have a hand in enforcing such proscriptions, that it seems actions like this are coming from a place that has become alien to me.

Anyone have this feeling? Does your atheism/rationality/progressiveness make you feel like an outsider? How do you choose to deal with those feelings?

Full Article.

Atheists Have Better Sex

In case you had any doubt on the matter.

Student Demands Constitution Be Enforced; Christians Whine

Bastrop, La. —For the first time ever, prayer will not be part of graduation ceremonies Friday night at Bastrop High School.

Principal Stacey Pullen said the school received an e-mail on Tuesday from a student who identied themself as an atheist.

“They said if we included a traditional prayer in the ceremony that they would contact the (American Civil Liberties Union),” Pullen said. “We asked our attorney about it, and we are making changes to the program.”

Not only are school officials dropping the prayer from the ceremony, they are being forced to have the programs for the evening’s events reprinted at a cost Pullen said is undetermined at this time.

Mitzi Quinn has been on the staff at BHS for almost 25 years, much of that time as a senior advisor. In the past, Quinn said there have been students who were atheist, agnostic and other non-Christian religions who “had no problems” with the prayer.

“They respected the majority of their classmates and didn’t say anything,” Quinn said. “We’ve never had this come up before. Never.”

The artice is written from a Christian point of view, but good for this young man. To see how you can support him click here.

Are the Religious Capable of Respect?

Isn't the entire point of monotheistic religion that those who believe in a particular religion are the only ones who will be rewarded in the afterlife and that all others will go to hell? Certainly, “polite” believers will not go out of their way to point that out, but it is very clear in their holy books that disbelievers are destined for eternal torture. If someone is required to believe that all but their co-religionists are hell bound, regardless of how ethical they are or how much they say they love them, I find it difficult to believe that such a person can treat “non-believers” with respect.

To quote truth-saves.com, “Most Christians are Moderate Christians, those who take the Bible in moderation. They tend to only treat select claims as truth, the claims related to what they are seeking answers on. Regardless they still claim the Bible, in its entirety, is the inerrant inspired word of an infallible god. Because of this they are still making it socially acceptable to act upon all of the Bible's claims as truth.”

I propose that when you, the polite, sane, moderate Christian claim that the Bible is the word of a god, you are guilty of giving intellectual cover and complete license to those who take the entire Bible at its word (instead of cherry-picking the nice parts) to enact its Neolithic dictates in all of their barbarity.

Pole Dancing for Jesus

While one is tempted to simply laugh at the ridiculous nature of this concept, the real point here is that people will do ANYTHING to deceive themselves into believing that their own, personal preferences can be shoe-horned into the paleolithic worldview of the Bible, Koran, etc.

The Bible doesn't even want you to get a divorce, of any kind, ever for any reason. Do you really think that pole dancing would be OK? Why try to claim that your provocative (nothing wrong with that) workout is Jesus-centric?

Oh yes, the money...

Christian Pastor asks Atheist for Challenging Questions For His Discussion Group

A Christian pastor recently contacted one of my favorite atheists (The Friendly Atheist) to respectfully request challenging questions for his religious study group.

Good for him. He at least has a little courage.

I would like to share the offered questions because they go to the heart of what atheists simply fail to understand about believers, and vice versa.

When considering questions about your religion, do you have lower standards for evidence and sound argument than the standards you use when buying a used car, or sitting on a jury, or considering a religion different from yours? If such standards don’t apply to questions about your religion, why not?

Are you completely unconditional about the answers to which these questions may lead you, or are certain answers off-limits, and you’ll abort the questioning if that is where it seems to be leading?

Are you willing to be never fully satisfied with any answers, never rest on the laurels of an answer that soothes your doubt, but might still be false?

The worst atrocities in history have been committed by people who rendered themselves incapable of doubt. Absolute certainty was their addiction, and “absolute truth” was their drug. Can you see that doubt is not an enemy, and become comfortable with it as a good and constant friend who keeps you honest, humble and human?

People are Better than "God"

I do not understand how educated people can hold the 10 “commandments” in reverence. 1-4 are silly, 5 & 9 should be conditional at best, 6-8 are common sense without need of divine inspiration, and 10 is a vile thought-crime on the level of a police state. These are the directives of a primitive sheep herding society and not the basis for any modern sense of morals or justice. Plus this so called fount of morality doesn’t deal with very important ethical issues: rape, genocide, economic exploitation, slavery. In fact the Bible actually condones each of these.
Almost ANY moderately educated person can do much better. For example:

From Chris Hitchens

1. Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or their color.
2. Do not ever even think of using people as private property.
3. Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations.
4. Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child.
5. Do not condemn people for their inborn nature. (“Why would God create so many homosexuals, only to torture and destroy them?”)
6. Be aware that you, too, are an animal, and dependent on the web of nature. Try to think and act accordingly.
7. Do not imagine you can avoid judgment if you rob people [by lying to them] rather than with a knife.
8. Turn off that fucking cell phone.
9. Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions and terrible sexual repression.
10. Reject any faith if their commandments contradict any of the above.

From Richard Dawkins:

1. Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you
2. In all things, strive to cause no harm
3. Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.
4. Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.
5. Live life with a sense of joy and wonder
6. Always seek to be learning something new
7. Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.
8. Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.
9. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.
10. Question everything

Go ahead and give it a try. Almost any human can come up with a better list than ancient sheep herders who like to talk to shrubbery.