World News Korner

Courtesy of the Friendly Atheist:

The Bible says: “The fool hath said in his heart ‘There is no God’.” Atheists say there is no God. Let me tell you that atheism has never painted a masterpiece. Atheism has never dispelled fear. Atheism has never healed a disease; faith in God has, but not atheism. Atheism has never given anyone peace of mind. Atheism has never dried a tear. Atheism has never given an intellectual answer to the creation. Atheism is bankrupt and empty; it’s brain dead.

If I may, let's take these one by one shall we?

"Atheism has never painted a masterpiece." Well neither belief nor the lack of belief create any actual art, however if the idea is that Atheists cannot create art, well that is simply ridiculous. In fact there are many who believe that Leonardo Da Vinci himself was an Atheist or at least an agnostic.

"Atheism has never dispelled fear." Wrong. It has dispelled the fear of hell and eternal suffering.

"Atheism has never healed a disease." I would argue that atheism, or at least a lack of faith in God's ability to cure disease, is behind every known cure. If doctors and scientists had faith that only God could heal the sick, there would be no vaccines, surgeries, or chemotherapy.

"Atheism has never given anyone piece of mind." Oh, this could not be more wrong. Atheism frees the mind like almost nothing else. The weight that is lifted off of a person once the burden of faith is removed is impossible to adequately explain.

"Atheism has never dried a tear." Well speaking as an Atheist who has worked with children most of my life, and wiped away too many tears to count, I find this argument insulting and unworthy of response.

"Atheism has never given an intellectual answer to the creation." In fact Atheism is the ONLY pathway to truly understanding how everything that is, came to be. Once we remove the barriers that religion places in our way, there is no limit to what we will someday be able to discover and learn about ourselves, our world, and our universe.

Simply put this guy's a moron, and his arguments are pathetic.

By the by, if you think you recognize the name John Hagee, that might be due to the fact that he was the Evangelical pastor that John McCain cozied up to during the 2008 campaign before he had to reject him after finding out that he had said that the Holocaust was part of God's plan.

Oh yeah, THAT happened.

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Courtesy of the LA Times:

Early voting is underway in Albuquerque for an election Tuesday, which will decide whether to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Although similar bans have been passed by state legislatures, New Mexico's largest city is believed to be the first municipality in the country to place such an initiative on a ballot.

The "Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance," which needs a majority to pass, would have statewide impact because the only late-term abortion providers in the largely rural state are in Albuquerque.

Women living out of state also fly to Albuquerque for this type of care, said Micaela Cadena, policy director at Young Women United. The New Mexico-based group is part of the Respect ABQ Women campaign, which is fighting the local measure.

"Albuquerque voters are voting for the whole state of New Mexico and also for the rest of the country," Cadena said.

The Supreme Court's ruling in Roe vs. Wade has been interpreted by lower courts as making abortion legal through 24 weeks of pregnancy, but antiabortion activists are pushing to ban the procedure after 20 weeks — a step in chipping away at the 1973 landmark ruling.

There is little doubt that these people will never stop until they have managed to overturn Roe vs Wade, or else have the laws allowing abortion so watered down so as to make them virtually useless.

Our only hope of protecting a woman's right to choose is to elect as many Democrats as possible to office, and to focus on putting secularists into positions of power.

Remember the entire anti-abortion debate is based on a biblical belief that life begins at conception, and that man has no right to interfere with God's wishes.

If we put rational politicians, who are not manipulated by superstition, into office, we can pass laws that strive to protect people instead of embryos, promote education instead of indoctrination, and who place their faith in science instead of the supernatural.

To my mind that is essentially our only hope of protecting our women, our children, and ultimately our planet.

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I thought you could use a little inspiration this evening.

Every step we take forward into our future, is one more step away from the fear and uncertainty which once frightened us into accepting supernatural explanations for the natural miracles all around us.

We are explorers, we are creators, we are humans. And we have just begun to show what we can do.

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This comes to us from the Daily Beast:

Initially I planned to ignore this week’s release of Good Tidings and Great Joy, Sarah Palin’s book waging war on the war on Christmas. Few political hucksters milking the culture war for an easy buck peddle antics more shopworn than the annual fear-mongering that secularist Scrooges are coming for our creches.

But then I couldn’t stop wondering: What happens when the Queen of Grievance takes up arms on behalf of the Prince of Peace’s birthday?

I’ll tell you what happens. Pure magic.

Don’t misunderstand. Palin’s book is neither well-written nor informative on either a political or a theological level. She does what plenty before her have done: scour the news for any cases of holiday-themed lawsuits or political scuffles, even ones where Christmas emerges triumphant, and whip them into a towering soufflé of proof that Jesus’s, and maybe even Santa’s, days are numbered. Her favorite conceit is to weave unconnected news snippets into over-the-top fantasy sequences—some set in the future! That allows her to mash up real-world episodes with more baroque scenarios sprung from the fever swamps of her imagination (like the lad docked points for using the word “Christmas” in a school essay), jack up the outrage factor with moralizing dialogue, and then proclaim: See, it’s all really happening!

But to focus on Palin’s narrative or polemic gifts is to miss the point. The book is not, as the subtitle maternally suggests, about “Protecting the Heart of Christmas.” As with pretty much everything the former governor does, this is all about Venting the Spleen of Sarah. And that’s what makes it so gosh darn refreshing. Screw those treacly holiday offerings aiming to melt your heart or lift your spirits. Dickens? Bah, humbug. It’s a Wonderful Life? Sentimental swill. That tear-jerking “Christmas Shoes” song so nakedly exploitative that it makes you want to take a blowtorch to your ears? ’Nuff said. Good Tidings and Great Joy gives the finger to all that, offering instead Palin at her toxic best: snippy, snarky, snide, and thoroughly pissed off.

The review goes on from there to give the ghostwritten future doorstop the savaging it deserves. And never forgets to remind people that this book has really NOTHING to do with Christmas, and everything to do with furthering Palin's brand. Above all, Palin never misses an opportunity to turn the attention back toward herself and how shabbily she has been treated in recent years.

I almost did not post this article, but then I ran across another article posted by a starry eyed Palin-bot and I thought the jarring juxtaposition between the clear headed and those who are still drunkenly stumbling around under the influence of Palin's potent purple potion.

The title of this mash letter is, and I kid you not, "I Dream of Sarah's Eyes," which is all about this person's experiences seeing Palin during a book signing in Naples, Florida.

Here are a few of the low points:

I squatted in front of her. She was focused on her book signing right away and was kind of waiting for me to speak. So when she looked up, I asked: “Sarah, I just want one thing today:

I just want to look straight into your eyes.” She looked up from what she was doing and liked the question I think, and immediately stared right into mine. I was in heaven.

I can’t describe just how powerful that encounter was. I will have to etch it in my memory and sketch it soon, because no one I know has a shot of Sarah’s luscious, penetrating eyes anywhere. Not from the angle I was at – eye level. Not up close.

After Sarah and I looked at each other she asked me my name. I told her it was Isabel and that we had met in New Orleans last year. That’s when something clicked and she knew who I was. I know we’re a community, and I am always happy when someone gets something from Sarah or Chuck, but for two years I have yearned for some type of formal response or a special card from her recognizing something, anything, but nothing. This was so special - just for me and in front of me. I cannot ask for more. The rest is a blur.

I have heard less gushing from faithful Catholics who have had an audience with the Pope, or teenage girls of the fifties who got to see Elvis live in concert.

Yet somehow, from this small pool of deeply disturbed people, Palin is still able to elicit this fanaticism.

Something to keep in mind even as we celebrate how despised and ridiculed she is by a growing majority of Americans.

(P.S. I feel I should mention that I included the link to the Palin-bot blog becasue it is the right thing to do when borrowing somebody's words, but I caution you against going there and trying to mock her or challenge her in anyway. After all, nothing would make her feel closer to her ideal then coming under attack from the "libruls.")

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Courtesy of the CNN Belief blog:

The devil made them do it?

According to a Catholic bishop in Springfield, Illinois, Satan was behind his state's recent legalization of same-sex marriage.

So, next Wednesday, at about the same time Gov. Pat Quinn signs the gay marriage bill into law, Bishop Thomas Paprocki will hold an exorcism ceremony "in reparation for the sin of same-sex marriage."

Paprocki, who's something of an expert on exorcism, says he's just following the Pope's marching orders.

When Pope Francis, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, was an archbishop in Argentina, he called that country's legalization of same-sex marriage "a 'move' of the father of lies who wishes to confuse and deceive the children of God."

In a statement released on Thursday, Paprocki said: "The pope's reference to the 'father of lies' comes from the Gospel of John, where Jesus refers to the devil as 'a liar and the father of lies.' So Pope Francis is saying that same-sex 'marriage' comes from the devil and should be condemned as such."

In my mind I have a picture of this idiot throwing holy water on the ground and screaming the rites of exorcism while a mocking crowd forms, and men with white coats step out of a van with straight jackets at the ready.

Oh, now they won't do that will they? Because you know religion is not classified as a mental illness.

At least not yet.

By the way, speaking of the Pope, it may be time to stop giving him a pass and believing that he is really all that different from those who proceeded him. This is what he said on Thursday:

“The spirit of curiosity distances us from the spirit of wisdom because all that interests us is the details, the news, the little stories of the day.”

Such a spirit, he warned, brings about dispersion and distances people from God. The Vatican leader further noted that Jesus himself warned against a worldly spirit of curiosity, as it causes confusion and impels people to want to feel that God is “here or there.”

So to paraphrase a little, what is being said is that being inquisitive and asking questions damages our relationship with God. And of course that message has been enforced since the beginning starting with the story of the Garden of Eden.

So the very thing which makes us humans, and that is behind ALL of the great discoveries which have allowed us to conquer the skies, improve our health and longevity, and explore both inner and outer space, are against the will of God?

I think that is pretty much all I need to know about religion, and its impact on our future.

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I actually only found this mildly amusing until they got to the last part.

I think it is hilarious that after the Benghazi debacle 60 Minutes is now ripe for mocking, which SNL did to perfection.

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Courtesy of the Dallas Observer:

Bohlin looks like a college biology professor, pale, square-jawed, peering out through glasses beneath an Indiana Jones fedora emblazoned with the words "Grand Canyon." It's actually the subject of one of his trademark lectures. He takes his audience on a virtual tour of our national testament to unfathomable geologic time and offers explanations for how the biblical flood may have created it far later than mainstream science would have them believe.

He grew up a Catholic boy on Chicago's south side, destined for the priesthood. He ended up a zoology undergrad at the University of Illinois, where he daydreamed about becoming a park ranger and living a life of solitude. That all changed when he befriended a group of evangelical Christians. Bohlin was fascinated by this passionate strain of belief. He adopted its vibrant spirituality as his own, though he wondered how he should reconcile God with the theory at the root of every life science course he enrolled in. The Catholic Church had long since come to the conclusion that evolution need not contradict faith. Many evangelicals, however, still look upon it as a repudiation of a Bible meant to be taken literally.

In the school library one day, he struck upon the answer to the questions that deviled him. He picked up a book written by Henry Morris, a Rice University civil engineering professor credited for being the "father of modern creation science." Morris opened Bohlin's eyes to what he says was the only scientific rationale he'd ever seen for the six-day creation of earth.

"That raised questions in my head," he says. "I got fascinated by it."

In 1975, he connected with Probe Ministries, a group of campus evangelists who hoped to challenge secularism on its home turf. Bohlin desperately wanted to join them, to spread the gospel of evolution's fallacies. But to take his place in that fight, he needed to understand what he hoped to disprove. "They said, 'You just have a bachelor's degree.' When I got to Probe, my education began immediately. If I'm going to be a critic of evolution, I have to make sure I understand in detail how it's supposed to work."

Bohlin invested years of his life in the graduate program at North Texas and the molecular biology doctoral program at the University of Texas at Dallas, absorbing everything he must refute. While his fellow students accepted a theory that had stood unchallenged by science for more than a century, Bohlin believed he alone was capable of assessing evolution with a critical eye. He admits, though, that his conclusions may already have been deeply entrenched. To alter his view of creation, he says, "would have required a major shift in personal and professional connections with people."

Outside the halls of academia, meanwhile, secularism was spreading before his eyes. "The Catholic and Protestant churches in Europe are museums," he says. "They gave in to that culture war for whatever reason. We can see the seeds of that same process here. These seeds are already germinating in some parts of the country."

To beat back creeping secularism, Bohlin now ministers to Christian high school students, putting on seminars to "arm" them for the godless worldview that will pervade their college education. He teaches them about "current problems with evolution" like the "sudden appearance" of species and the "gaps" in the fossil record, all better explained, he says, by the supernatural, by a "design motif." Biologists have long attested that such "gaps," where they exist, are better explained by organisms that do not readily fossilize than by the divine materialization of whole species. Paleontologists have unearthed incredible troves of transitional fossils bridging the divide.

But there were other ways for Bohlin to reach these college-bound believers — ways to affect the discussion on a scale his ministry never could. His great investment in a field he entered to debunk had led him to the Texas State Board of Education, where he was appointed to be an expert reviewer of high-school biology textbooks.

This, he believes, is where the war against secularism will be won or lost.

"If we were to interview 100 individuals who were raised in the church, believed everything and have since fallen away, I bet a majority would say at least that the things they learned in science class were a part of that pulling away," he says.

"I think there is a definite need and, in Texas, a definite opportunity to have an influence that goes beyond the people I can speak to in a lifetime."

I don't know about you but this makes me sick to my stomach.

To enter the field of molecular biology while predisposed to refute everything you are learning, reminds me of those Soviet sleeper cells that were installed in America and lived as average Americans until they were called into action to infiltrate government agencies, or spy on certain influential Americans, all while inoculated from the seductive call of freedom by their deeply ingrained ideologies.

"To beat back creeping secularism," in other words progress, this man is attempting to damage this countries ability to properly educate our children, solely to protect HIS version of Evangelical Christianity.

Ultimately it will all be for naught, as the article goes on to explain that these "culture warriors" are having less and less influence, and that their input toward textbook creation is being rejected in Texas.

However the article also says that their are more like Bohlin coming out of the wood work everyday and that the battle to protect education in this country is by no means over.

After all they are fighting as hard as they can to keep this country as it once was in our nation's past, while WE are fighting to bring it into the future. The odds may be in our favor, but that does not mean that the war will not continue to wage on for decades to come.

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