Guest Post: Slandering the Heretics by Colby Hess

“There is a war going on for your mind;” a war being fought on battlefields and on billboards, in universities and Sunday schools, in blogs and boardrooms, capitol buildings and city parks. From Wall Street to Main Street, from Kabul to Kansas City, the combined facts of seven thousand years of civilization and seven billion human beings struggling to eat, breathe, live and believe are all coming to a head. It has many names and many forms, running the gamut from Terror to Women to Drugs to Christmas—all inextricably linked by the immense power of ideas and the belief systems that propagate them.

Free Will or Free Won't? by ZeFrank

Watch more ZeFrank awesomeness here!

'Why Evolution is True & Why Many People Still Don't Believe It' by Jerry Coyne

via LibertarianSara

Quiet Company Makes Some Loud Statements

Check these guys out. Pop-y, accessible, atheist.

Stream their new album 'We Are All Where We Belong' via Bandcamp.com.

Henry Rollins Ranting Like A Boss

Outdated, but sadly still relevant.

Friday Link Dump ~ 5/25/12

The Center Of All Things We are a tiny, insignificant speck of matter in the vast and indifferent Cosmos.  Good morning!!

Justifiable Fear of Atheism This is a response to Martin S Pribble’s Fear of Atheism.  Mr. Pribble had the good manners to promote his critic rather than just lash out.  This is a gentlemen’s game, after all.  
There are so many logical fallacies in the following paragraph.  At least one per sentence by my count.

"Atheism is dangerous. It claims logic and evidence for itself, but it cannot prove its own position with either logic or evidence. Its main thesis is Materialism which is demonstrably false, being unable to prove its own tenets under its own evidentiary theory, rendering it non-coherent and irrational. Further, Atheist reasoning is post hoc rationalization, and never syllogistic deduction: so it is demonstrably irrational.”

So atheism is dangerous because it uses reason to deny a false positive yet refuses to claim proof for a negative.  The knowledge of reason without the arrogance of faith.  It must scare the blazing hell out of this guy.

How To Explain Gay Rights To An Idiot

Higgs Boson Research Explained With Cool Cartoon

BREAKING: NAACP Endorses Marriage Equality Ask yourself why this is breaking news.  You know, don’t you?

Antibiotic Overuse May Increase Superbug Evolution Rate

Historians unearth a rare Civil War site

NC Pastor: Put all the "lesbians and queers" behind a fence and wait for them to die.

Church Member Defends Pastor Worley. I Subsequently Have An Aneurysm

You see, you can’t say something is taken out of context when the entire context is hateful vitriol.  Watch how angry she gets when Anderson Cooper separates the fundamentalist adherence to scripture from the good ‘ol southern bigotry.  That’s one sly silverfox.  

A Wickedly Beautiful Response to NC's Latest Gay Bashing Minister Brilliant!!

The Escapist : News : DC Says One Of Its"Iconic" Heroes Is Gay They will probably pick someone who does not have a younger sidekick to avoid pedo stereotypes. I'm guessing Plastic Man.  But only because Martian Manhunter has a funny name.

Can You Call a 9-year-old a Psychopath?

Nikola Tesla Wasn't God And Thomas Edison Wasn't The Devil

DARPA Living Foundries plans to make Synthetic Biology ten times faster and cheaper

'Artificial Leaf' Hits Development Hurdle

Our Cyborg Future: Man Embeds Magnets In Wrist To Make Strapless Watch Crazy?  Or bad-ass?  You decide.

How would the public react if Seti found evidence of alien life? Yeah, we tend to try to kill stuff we don’t understand.

My Favorite Mohammed

Group calls on Kentucky church to give up tax exemptions over anti-Obama sermon

Sean Faircloth on Mitt Romney, Liberty University & Religious "Liberty"

A Message to Girls About Religious Men Who Fear You “If you were not powerful, they would not take you so seriously and they take you very, very seriously. You should, too. You can set the world on fire.”  

The Religious Extremists Who Want to Ban the Internet A mis-named article.   They really want to censor the internet  within their own community.  The funny part is the amount of technology used to coordinate the event.

The Urge to Sext Naked Self-Portraits Is Primal The urge to ignore other people in the room to chat with strangers from the other side of the planet is fairly new.

Hidden Epidemic: Tapeworms Living Inside People's Brains

Sam Harris on Libertarianism

Anti-intellectualism is taking over the US Book banning continues in Arizona schools.  If only I had a list of banned books when I was a teenager.  I would be much more cultured now.

Can Believers and Atheists Work Together?

'How To Tell You're An Atheist' by Daniel Dennett

Will Smith's Son Asks Obama About Aliens

Apostasy: Feelings of Loss & Liberation – By Troythulu

Church Member Defends Pastor Worley. I Subsequently Have An Aneurysm

Good grief...where to begin....

For reference:

NC Pastor: Put all the "lesbians and queers" behind a fence and wait for them to die.

'How To Tell You're An Atheist' by Daniel Dennett

via The Clergy Project

Sam Harris on Libertarianism

Sean Faircloth on Mitt Romney, Liberty University & Religious "Liberty"

NC Pastor: Put all the "lesbians and queers" behind a fence and wait for them to die.

Pastor Charles L. Worley: "I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers…Build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there... Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can't get out… And you know what, in a few years, they'll die."

Congregation: “Amen!”

Nope. No homophobia problem in American Christianity. Move along. Nothing to see here…

via Towleroad

The Center Of All Things

via The Thinking Atheist



This is the recently updated version of the original video from December 2010. The original can be found here.

My Favorite Mohammed

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day

How To Explain Gay Rights To An Idiot

see more below

When Christians Think of Gay Marriage...

I love Community. 

Friday Link Dump ~ 5/18/12

Which side of history will you be on?

Our Father's Not in Heaven: The New Black Atheism

Keep Calm! Teacher Posts Religious Anti-Gay Rant

“...such statements should be encouraged. Do traditional religious values not say that those sins are equal? Perhaps if more people wrote about what their intolerant faith has them believing more often, fewer people would keep such faith.”

I have to agree with Karli on this one.  This teacher has every right to post this on his facebook page.  Contrary to popular opinion, freedom of speech includes speech that I don’t like.

Fighting the the killing of 'cursed' infants I have written about this type of atrocity before.  This is the worst case scenario for tribal superstition.  

James Randi destroys Peter Popoff

Atheist Bingo

God is Love (But He is Also Just)

This View of Life: The New Atheism and Evolutionary Religious Studies: Clarifying Their Relationship

Imagine a world where...

Heavy Penalties for Witches at Liberty University Liberty prefers to dictate the type of magical thinking of its students.

103-year-old man to be buried in coffin made from tree he fought for decades to protect Touching.

Reporting Rates | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network This is revolting.

Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived So much innovation came from this one mind.  But most of us never heard of him because he had no desire to make money from his inventions.

A Flawed Defense of the Catholic Church

NOM Bigots Celebrate Amendment One

Homophobes and Neo Nazis: Behind The Conservative War on LGBT  Can I point out that if you are choosing sides on an issue, and you find Neo Nazis on your side...You may want to reconsider your position.  Just sayin.

Skeptic Money » Blog Archive » 46% Of Americans Under 28 Are Atheists

Isolating the Youth “...available evidence shows that anti-gay activism is souring young people on Christianity.”   

Gay Marriage: Famous Donor Quits Romney, Asks For Refund, Backs Obama

Because Of Abstinence Education, 60 Percent Of Young Adults Are Misinformed About Birth Control's Effectiveness “40 percent of respondents said that birth control doesn’t matter because “when it is your time to get pregnant, it will happen.”

Infographic: The New Planetary Habitability Index

Psychedelic space station stars and cities

MSNBC Host Tamron Hall Throws Conservative Weasel Tim Carney Off The Air Journalism with integrity.  What a revolutionary idea.

Bill Donohue: "Nature Has Ordained" That Only Men And Women "Can Have A Family. Gay People Have Been Disqualified From Nature"  I wonder if regular Catholics are embarrassed by the venom that comes from this representative of their religion of peace.

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine Yuk!  When the modern Christian ritualistically eats the flesh of their religious leader through transubstantiation, it just tastes like bread.

Kansas Senate Stops Anti-Abortion Bill

Manny Pacquiao denounces anti-gay allegations

TYPE YOUR NAME

I saw this on Tumblr and laughed my ass off.

TYPE YOUR NAME: Matt 

TYPE YOUR NAME WITH YOUR ELBOW: m, syhu76tg 

TYPE YOUR NAME WITH YOUR EYES SHUT: matt 

TYPE YOUR NAME WITH YOUR CHIN: znmjsaygh 

SLAM YOUR FACE ON THE KEYBOARD:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

James Randi destroys Peter Popoff

via scragar



via yuutuubu

Thanks to @OnyxOny for the hat tip.

God is Love (But He is Also Just)

                               

Via The Thinking Atheist



.

Imagine a world where...

Thanks to our old buddy Vo! The Polish Voltron. 

NOM Bigots Celebrate Amendment One

If you don't think that homophobia and LGBT discrimination isn't a Christian problem in America then you are kidding yourselves.

The grassroots campaigns are done via churches and church leaders. Where does the money come from for all this campaigning? Churches and church-led groups. The entire justification for their stance is Biblical.

2:00 "...the whole point, is simply that you don't rewrite the nature of God's design for marriage based on the demands of a group of dolts*." 

"That's right!" 





*I listened to this at least a dozen times and I swear she is saying "dolts." A "group of adults" doesn't really make sense in this context.

Friday Link Dump ~ 5/11/12

Agnosticism vs. Atheism – Who Ya Got?

Discovery: Did a Copying Mistake Make Humans So Smart?  By “mistake” they mean mutation.  Evolution succeeds precisely because it is a “flawed” process.  Cells do not always make identical copies of themselves.  Those changes can lead to new specific genetic traits.  This would be a good place for the “Guided Evolution” crowd to stash their Creator.

Submission and Respect for Faith

Since Children Choose To Be Homosexual, They Obviously Deserve To Be Punched This ass-hat got a standing ovation at his church after the media firestorm about his bigoted sermon.

“President” Bartlet Quotes Scripture

Amendment 1 Passes In North Carolina   Seriously.  Fuck North Carolina.  Fuck it right in the ear.

North Carolina Voters Approve Marriage Inequality Amendment

News Anchor Confronts North Carolina Pastor

Penn Jillette on Piers Morgan's show Via Lady Atheist  "Jillette gets grilled on atheism by a devout Catholic.  I admire him for not busting out laughing and actually answering the stupid questions.   "How does an atheist fix the economy?"  What the heck?  Do Christians run the economy through prayer?  Well, actually that would explain a few things."

Life scientists unlock mystery of how 'handedness' arises Discovery: Did a Copying Mistake Make Humans So Smart?  By “mistake” they mean mutation.  Evolution succeeds precisely because it is a “flawed” process.  Cells do not always make identical copies of themselves.  Those changes can lead to new specific genetic traits.  This would be a good place for the “Guided Evolution” crowd to stash their Creator.

Mitt Romney’s Gay Problem

Mitten’s Mormonism

The Trouble with Profiling : A guest post by Bruce Schneier A response to Sam Harris’ blog posts on airport security profiling:

Jeff Bezos's "Blue Origin" Space Company Reveals Spacecraft Design

Discovery: Human Body Part That Stumped Leonardo da Vinci Revealed Now that is the true sign of transcendent genius; When we are surprised that da Vinci didn’t know something 100 years before everyone else.

Republicans Get In My Vagina!

More Evidence of Mars’ Watery Past

Using the Microsoft Kinect to Detect Autism

UN Investigator: U.S. Should Return Some Land to the Indians Ahem, they’re called “Native Americans” not “Indians” you insensitive savage.  *puffs electric cigarette*

The reports of dinosaurs dying of farts are greatly exaggerated What a relief!

Headline-spectrum of the day: Dino-apocalypse by ‘wind’ The Science Bit makes short work of these articles.

Ex-Gay Activist Says Being Gay and Christian is 'Blackface' Wow.  Just.  Wow.

Dawkins on Scientific Education

The Mother Lode of pro-evolution & anti-creationist videos HAIL DARWIN
 
Update on Student Who Wore ‘Life is Wasted Without Jesus’ Shirt OK, so I defended this kid when this story first came out because I thought he should be able to express himself – even if what he said was unpopular.  Maybe the whole thing got blown out of proportion.  But after returning to school with the same t-shirt and the apparent smug satisfaction of a member of the only cultural majority that somehow gets to cry persecution…now he just looks like another obnoxious fundie telling people that they are going to Hell.

Q&BA: Which moon has the best chance for life?

Life scientists unlock mystery of how 'handedness' arises We live in a totalitarian right-handed world.  Don’t believe me?  Try using a chainsaw, weed whacker a decent pair of scissors with your left hand.  For that matter, try signing one of those little credit card screens at the supermarket with that little plastic pen that’s always tied to the right side of the signature pad.  You want to talk about persecution?  It’s about time we got to the bottom of this.

And now, Arnold Schwarzenegger cordially shaking hands with the Predator Give peace a chance.

Random Quotes: The Antichrist is Coming!


I would like to shrug my shoulders and say. "What took him so long?" but then I remember that he is the first president in history to openly support SSM.



This Week In History: Vladimir Putin Wins Russian Presidency After Promising He Can Bend Anything With Bare Hands (2000)

Mitten's Mormonism

Kolob is spelled incorrectly, but that hardly matters when your religion is so obviously* batshit stupid.

Religion is fair game to judge politicians. It is integral to how they think, how they relate to the world (aka “reality”), and their level of rationality. If the lack of religion is fair game, and it is, then what one believes and the veracity of those beliefs is fair game. Mormonism is so quite obviously fraudulent that it hardly warrants the energy to mock it.

…but it is just so easy!

  

*well, that is relative, isn’t it? 

Daniel Dennett - Science & Free Will

Jump to 3:30 to get right into it.



via Edinburgh University

Dawkins on Scientific Education

Random Quotes: The Antichrist is Coming!

Via RightWingWatch

I thought the Antichrist was Nero?

I thought the Antichrist was Jewish?

I thought the Antichrist was Napoleon?

I thought the Antichrist was Adolf Hitler?

I thought the Antichrist was Joseph Stalin?

I thought the Antichrist was to come out of Soviet Russia?

I thought the Antichrist was Ronald Reagan?

I thought the Antichrist was Saddam Hussein?

I thought the Antichrist was Pope Benedict XVI?

Along with nearly every Pope since the Reformation…

I thought the Antichrist was Barack Obama?

On and on…

People are nuts.  And stupid.

Republicans, Get In My Vagina!

Thanks: Funny or Die

.

"President" Bartlet Quotes Scripture

via LadyAtheist

Friday Link Dump 5/4/12

We Are Godless: Our yearly National Day of Reason post.

Two Mayors Issue ‘Day of Reason’ Proclamations in Their Cities

Being an atheist is causing a good man to fight for custody of his daughter: This whole thing broke on Tuesday and blew up real quick! I am happy to report that Jordan hit his needed goal for fundraising in less than 48 hours (if that) and exceed it. I talked to him as the whole thing was breaking and he is overwhelmed with gratitude. We have his back in the future as well. Go to the Facebook page to check everything out for yourself. As a father of a little girl I cannot imagine what he is going through. Hat tip to Reed from The Crackpot Chronicle for the interview.

The Anti-Faithist: Man, someone tell that dude to take it down a notch… 

Sam Harris...I Am Disappoint: Updated to include his rebuttal addendum. I still think he is wrong.

Once more, with feeling: ‘Weather’ is NOT ‘climate’: Seriously, if you’re not reading The Science Bit you are losing out. Brian does a great job of destroying bad representations of science in the media.

Highly religious people are less motivated by compassion than are non-believers

Euphemistic congress: “Everybody knows that it is perfectly acceptable to say anything you like about religion. Anything. Go on, try it. Nobody will care one way or the other.”

God on Trial: The Verdict: I posted this about two months ago but it is just so brilliant I had to break it out again. I put it on my personal Facebook wall with the message: “Today is the National Day of Prayer. I would remind those that believe in the God of Abraham what kind of god they are praying to if it were true.” It got a few likes. Not one response. Keep in mind my Facebook page is intentionally pretty small. I actually know most of the people on there. They are family and friends from high school, college and grad school. The majority are believers of some sort. I always wonder if they actually read or watch the things I post. I wonder what they think...

Dan Savage Discusses the Bible: Obviously he is getting a lot of flak for this. Obviously, I think he is dead on.

Skylon spacecraft: 'Revolutionary' engine design tested: Very cool, but that sounds suspiciously like “Cylon.”

Plasma Rocket Could Travel to Mars in 39 Days: This is more like it! Plus it’s an Amurrican company! Fuck yeah!

(j/k)

Random Quotes: Religious Set Aside Their Differences…for Hate: “…how can we be expected to be tolerant of religions that preach intolerance?”

For Catholics, a Door to Absolution Is Reopened: Indulgences are back! Such convoluted garbage. It amazes and depresses me that anyone would adhere to this.

DEA Left Daniel Chong to Drink Urine in Cell: Awful story. Screw the DEA and the Obama Administration for the rapid and dramatic increase in the ineffectual drug war.

David Barton (*shakes fist*) was on The Daily Show: Lunatic.

VIDEO: Wife Of Key Legislator Behind North Carolina’s Anti-Gay Amendment Claims It Would Protect ‘Caucasian’ Race Why that’s just crazy.

Rationalism Breeds Atheism

Theoretical physicist explains why Moore’s Law will collapse: Michio Kaku

Schools as Scapegoats  via Practical Doubt

Italy scientists say they have found oldest human blood: That Otzi guy is a goldmine!

“Real-Life Superhero” Phoenix Jones Spawns “Real-Life Supervillain” Rex Velvet: I find this hilarious. Of course I am a nerd that remembers an episode of Batman: The Animated Series where Batman is put on trial by the inmates of Arkham Asylum and the question is asked “who created whom?”

Evidence for a Geologic Trigger of the Cambrian Explosion

Much Ado about Nothing:  “For millennia humans simply said, ‘God did it’: a creator existed before the universe and brought it into existence out of nothing. But this just begs the question of what created God—and if God does not need a creator, logic dictates that neither does the universe.”

From Minister To Atheist: A Story Of Losing Faith: "I just kind of realized — I mean just a eureka moment, not an epiphany, a eureka moment — I'm an atheist," she says. "I don't believe. And in the moment that I uttered that word, I stumbled and choked on that word — atheist."

Pastor's loss of faith started with loss of hell: This is a great example of why we cannot be ignorant of theology and think that we will inevitably get through to people via science and reason. For some people it’s much more visceral and emotional than that. We need a multi-pronged approach.

Atheist

Neil deGrasse Tyson: The most astounding fact: Another amazing cartoon from Zen Pencils. I attempted to embed the cartoon as a standalone post, but it just wouldn’t work in Blogger. I hate you, Blogger. I hate you so bad…

God and Man in Tennessee

Scientists Discover The Oldest, Largest Body Of Water In Existence--In Space: This article is from July 2011, but it’s news to me and very cool!

Life in the Sea Found Its Fate in a Paroxysm of Extinction