Tuesday 31 March 2009

Oppose U.N.'s Resolution Against Religious Defamation

A petition doing the rounds, started up by the Blasphemy Day people over on Facebook.

I've signed it myself, because, really, I'd rather go to prison for a stay, than allow them to take my right to freedom of speech so damn easily.

Fuck the U.N. Fuck them and their inability to stand up against the fundies.

Petition can be found here. Go sign it.

Facebook 'Blasphemy Day' group.

If you're on Facebook, join up and invite your friends.

Thursday 19 March 2009

Belief-O-Matic

Interesting results:

1. Secular Humanism (100%)
2. Unitarian Universalism (91%)
3. Nontheist (80%)
4. Liberal Quakers (72%)
5. Theravada Buddhism (69%)
6. Neo-Pagan (61%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (57%)
8. Taoism (46%)
9. New Age (44%)
10. Reform Judaism (39%)
11. Mahayana Buddhism (34%)
12. Orthodox Quaker (32%)
13. Scientology (26%)
14. Sikhism (25%)
15. New Thought (24%)
16. Baha'i Faith (20%)
17. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (18%)
18. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (17%)
19. Jainism (17%)
20. Seventh Day Adventist (15%)
21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (14%)
22. Hinduism (11%)
23. Eastern Orthodox (9%)
24. Islam (9%)
25. Orthodox Judaism (9%)
26. Roman Catholic (9%)
27. Jehovah's Witness (4%)


The questions are a little non-specific, and very black/white, some of them are actually rather silly.. but there you ahve it. I came out Secular Humanist XD

To take it yourself, go here: Belief-o-matic

Thursday 12 March 2009

More junk science from the Crown Prince

Seriously - do I need another reason to dislike the Royal family? No. Not really. But Charles has gone and given me another one anyway.

He's just released his own brand of 'Detox' supplements! Lovely.

As I'm sure we should all know by now - Detox is a myth. A big one. All that stuff being touted as Detoxifying is little more than a way to make your pee/poo different colours/smells. (Same, amusingly, goes for all these uneccessary 'multi-vitimin' supplements - different pee every time! Ugh.)

There's no proof for it (and the simplest bloody test would provide some, if it did - y'know, blood tests before and after, on some test subjects and controls? Nah. Didn't think they'd want too) there never has been and there never will be. The Prince and his advisors know this.

Even Edzard Ernst told them so. But did Charles listen? Did he heck. And he's selling his bloody stuff for £10 a 50ml bottle!

Anyway - here's the article: Prince Charles' 'detox' quakery

Some quotes.


Edzard Ernst, the UK's first professor of complementary medicine, said the Duchy Originals detox tincture was based on "outright quackery".



But Professor Ernst of Peninsula Medical School said Prince Charles and his advisers appeared to be deliberately ignoring science, preferring "to rely on 'make-believe' and superstition".

He added: "Prince Charles thus financially exploits a gullible public in a time of financial hardship."




Professor Ernst said the suggestion that such products remove toxins from the body was "implausible, unproven and dangerous".

"Nothing would, of course, be easier than to demonstrate that detox products work. All one needed to do is to take a few blood samples from volunteers and test whether this or that toxin is eliminated from the body faster than normal," he said.



Seriously. It's bad enough that the Royal's support Homeopathy. This is just going too far.

Monday 9 March 2009

For those who missed it: Dawkins in Oklahoma






I'm waiting for more to turn up. Hopefully, someone will put the entire lecture and question/answer section, because that bloke in the second video? Made his little protest during the Q&A session, but was being annoying all the way through the lecture.

Oklahoma Representative Todd Thomsen, wrote this bit of legslature, when he first found out Dawkins had been asked to lecture: Download Document

Oklahoma hates Richard Dawkins
Thoughts from Kansas - March 5, 2009 - Josh Rosenau
ScienceBlogs

Richard Dawkins: banned in Oklahoma?
Pharyngula - March 5, 2009 - PZ Myers
Pharyngula

Oklahoma legislator proposes resolution to condemn Richard Dawkins
RDnet - March 6, 2009 - Todd Thomsen
RichardDawkins.net

Dawkins lecture draws thousands at OU
Vocal protester condemns British scientist
The Norman Transcript - March 07, 2009 - Adam Scott
Localnews

Darwin backer’s talk draws foes
Legislative resolutions filed in House over OU visit
Oklahoman - March 7, 2009 - Tim Talley
Newsok

Censorship Is Wrong
Evolution News & Views / The Discovery Institute - March 6, 2009 - Michael Egnor
Evolutionnews



(With that last one, I find myself wondering where they got the idea that Dawkins advocates censorship...?)

Sunday 8 March 2009

Someone's a fan of Ray Comfort...

I checked my mail yesterday, and found this lovely little gem from someone on Youtube, sent to me out of the blue.


The million dollar question: Will you go to Heaven when you die? Here's a quick test. Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, or used God's name in vain? Jesus said, "Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgment Day? If you have done those things, God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart. The Bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in Hell. That's not God's will. He sent His Son to suffer and die on the cross for you. You broke God's Law, but Jesus paid your fine. That means He can legally dismiss your case. He can commute your death sentence: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Then He rose from the dead and defeated death. Please, repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus alone, and God will grant you the gift of everlasting life. Then read your Bible daily and obey it.



So! I had to respond. Would be rude not to, don't you think?


The million dollar question: Do you have an original thought in your head?

Pretty much the entire message you sent me, was copied from one of Ray Comforts rants - so I'm thinking the answer is 'no'.

Did you honestly think that sending me this was going to convert me? All it's done is make me laugh. I've shared it round with some friends and it made them laugh too.

You can tell me I'll end up in hell all you want, but no-one has yet proven that hell even exists. No-one has yet proven god exists.

Oh, and if you want to be taken seriously, and perhaps make a real stab at converting people, find something other than Ray Comfort's idiotic ramblings to rely on. Oh, and I advise against proselytising to random strangers.

If you wanted to turn this into a real discussion, your opening message should have said so, rather than being one big hate filled speech, copied almost verbatim from one of Ray Comfort's videos.

If you really want to actually talk about this - go ahead, get back to me with something a bit more substantial. And try to make it your own words, rather than someone else's. I may actually take you seriously then.

Thanks.

H



I received a reply today. Admire it's utter brilliance!


umm smarty pants that was copied straight from a tract, not a video and by the way the whole thing is from comfort. your obviously not that evolved.



I felt SO PWND after reading that, that I had to respond immediately.


Oh. Oh my. I feel so small and inconsequential now. You have made me feel so bad! You pointed out that it's copied from a tract! Not a video! I feel so, so.. pwnd.

The point is, that they weren't your thoughts, they were Comfort's (and just to clear this up, he has used the exact same argument, with the exact same wording, in his videos.)

Come back to me when you have learned to use your own brain.

H

P.S. 'Smarty pants'? That was the best you could come up with? A derogatory snipe about my being more intelligent than you? Really?

Oh, and it's 'you're', not 'your' in that sentence. Just to let you know.



I'll let you know if she gets back to me.



Edit: She got back to me:


hah. thnak yuo so mcuh langaugeee atrs taechre.

GROW UP.


Oh, they grow up so quickly these days, don't you think?

And I couldn'thelp it, I responded. Maybe now she'll go away?


I doubt it. I'll get back another snippy little message, I should think.


Seriously? I'm being told to grow up by someone seven years my junior? Someone who basically copy-pasted someone elses words to me, because they couldn't think for themselves? Someone who is apparently SO Christian, that she forgets her own teachings and insults me at every turn? Seriously?

Oh, how I laugh.

In fact, oh how my best friend, who has been a Christian all her life, laughed; and asked me to tell you to read your bible sometime and actually pay attention to it.

But, you know what? I'm thinking this is little more than a lost cause, because you are apparently so mature, so grown up, that instead of talking to me in your own words, you use someone elses, and instead of responding in a civil fashion, you insult me.

Read your bible, look at yourself in the mirror, and then see which one of us needs to 'GROW UP' (as you so delicately put it.)

Thank you for your time ^^

H

Friday 6 March 2009

Brazillian Catho's still at it

My previous post makes mention of the Catho's being COMPLETE arseholes over a case of child rape and the subsequent abortion of the twins she was carrying.

This is the SAME story, but it now turns out the Catho's want to excommunicate all the adults who helped that child get the abortion that SAVED HER LIFE.

Rape Row Sparks Excommunications

This is just SICK. They are in such a fucking tizzy over that poor child (who we now know was repeatedly abused, from the age of six - it's also suspected that her handicapped elder sister was also abused) and her need to have an abortion. They are treating the doctors and her mother as if they were murders in all but name.

I am TRULY disgusted by this.

Apparently the women's rights groups in Brazil are getting up in arms - and they seriously should be. The Catho's there are being absolutely disgusting.

Why are they not taking a step back from their knee-jerk religious reaction and thinking about the fucking children - babies really! - caught up in this?

No. Of course they won't. They don't give a fucking shit, do they? All they care about are the collection of cells that were threatening the life of the baby carrying them. They, of course, have far more right to exist than the child who was repeatedly sexually abused.

Bastards.

It'll be a cold day in fucking hell, before I visit that country.

Thursday 5 March 2009

Brazillian Catholics pissed about 9 year olds abortion, not her rape.

Nine Year Old 'Incest Victim' Aborts Twins.

Doesn't it just put a lovely warm feeling in your chest, knowing that the Catho's get upset over abortions, but don't care to mention the rapes that lead to them?

Hrm. Maybe that warm feeling is actually my urge to go and wring their necks?

I particularly want to throttle Marcio Miranda, the lawyer for the Archdiocese of Olinda. She had the gall to say:

"It's the law of God: do not kill. We consider this murder."


The victim was nine years old! She's nothing more than a baby herself! And this fucking church wanted her to carry the twins to term and have a c-section! Even the doctor involved said:

"She is very small. Her uterus doesn't have the ability to hold one, let alone two, children."


Carrying those twins to term could have killed her. The ordeal of carrying the spawn of her rapist would likely have ruined her for life! Having children at nine would definitely hae ruined her for life!

Yet the church wanted her to do it anyway!

Strike this up as another reason religion should be wiped off the face of the damn planet. Notice also, how the church made no mention of the rape, to either sympathise with the girl or condemn the act.

Bastards.