Catholicism vs. Scientology

(Picture not entirely relevant, just hilarious)

I found this link on reddit's atheism page. Apparently, the Catholics are pretty miffed about the Sea Org, an organization of members within Scientology who sign a billion year contract with Tom and Xenu. It has come to the church's attention that apart from the gross violations of labor laws that are reported by ex-members, it is standard procedure for pregnant women to be strongly encouraged to have an abortion so that the child doesn't interfere with the higher calling of the mother (or place an additional burden on her bank account).

Now the Catholics are calling for a full government investigation of Scientology, and a re-examination of its tax-exempt status. Of course, personally I think both institutions should be paying taxes, and that the Catholic church has little room to talk of ethical breaches (or is it breeches?). Part of me would like to see an all-out war of lawsuits here...one can always hope that the money that would be otherwise spent on oppressing homosexuals could instead be used to pay legal fees.

"I know the dark side of Scientology...I almost lost my friend to it"

Written for Herald Scotland by Jonny Jacobsen:

"I knew Scientology was in trouble when the media moved on from the usual silly gossip about its celebrity members to much darker, disturbing issues at the heart of the movement.

After a Paris court last month convicted several Scientologists and two organisations associated with the movement in France of organised fraud, and amid other investigations in France looking at a suicide and an alleged abduction, Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis, a long-time member, quit Scientology.

Haggis, who wrote and directed Crash, denounced the practice of "disconnection", which sees members forced to cut off contact with anyone – even their loved ones – if they are deemed an enemy of Scientology.

In Edinburgh in the early 1990s, I found out just what the practice of disconnection could do to ordinary people when a close friend became involved in Scientology. It was an experience which marked me so profoundly that I have been tracking the movement ever since."

Full article here.

Links for the Sabbath - 11/08/09

IF YOU DO ANYTHING TODAY IT SHOULD BE WATCHING THE FOLLOWING 5 VIDEOS!
•1

•2

•3

•4

•5


•The new crybaby theists | www.theage.com.au

"The bottom line is that such special pleading is a way for theists to avoid answering their critics. The cry that religious beliefs are not being treated respectfully often demonstrates incredible arrogance and hypocrisy."

•Healthcare provision seeks to embrace prayer treatments | LA Times

•Why I Am Not A Christian | Bertrand Russell (This is a classic)

•Bishop Richard Malone Collected $500,000 'Out of Concern' For Maine's Gays | Queerty

•Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really) | PopSci

•LAPD to cut ties with group linked to Boy Scouts | MercuryNews.com

"The Los Angeles Police Department wants to stop working with the organization that runs its Explorer program for youths because the group is linked to Boy Scouts of America, which bans gays from becoming members."

•Faith No More: What I've learned from debating religious people around the world. | Slate.com by Christopher Hitchens

•Scientologists convicted of fraud | BBC News

"A French court has convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France."

•The secularist case against "Atheism 3.0" | The Washington Post by Austin Dacey (I am a HUGE fan Ausitn Dacey BTW!)

•Decomposing Humanism: Why Replace Religion? | Religion Dispatches by Austin Dacey

"Humanists are right to think that there is more to life than atheism, but wrong to think that they are the ones to provide it."

•Putting God out of the ethics business | Psychology Today by Austin Dacey (Did I mention that I'm a fan of this guy?)

•GABSYV is Tuesday!  Topic: America: The Great White Lie? Why we think we have the answers

•Maybe some material for GABSYV?

 

"Wilson isn't one of those evasive Christians who mumble apologetically about how some of the Bible stories are really just "metaphors." He is willing to maintain very staunchly that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and that his sacrifice redeems our state of sin, which in turn is the outcome of our rebellion against God. He doesn't waffle when asked why God allows so much evil and suffering—of course he "allows" it since it is the inescapable state of rebellious sinners. I much prefer this sincerity to the vague and Python-esque witterings of the interfaith and ecumenical groups who barely respect their own traditions and who look upon faith as just another word for community organizing. (Incidentally, just when is President Barack Obama going to decide which church he attends?)" - Christopher Hitchens from the Slate article posted above.

"Seattle resident 'offended' and 'disturbed' by 'cruel' atheist bus ads"

From the Atheism Examiner by Trina Hoaks:

"In a "Letter to the Editor" that appeared on The Seattle Times Web site on Friday, a Seattle resident laments about the latest atheist bus ads (shown above) that have been placed on Seattle buses by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF).

It seems that Carol J. Lundemo was "offended and disturbed" when she saw several Seattle buses sporting the ad. She sees the ad as a "perversion of the original 1897 newspaper reply by Francis P. Church to 8-year-old Virginia, who inquired as to the reality of Santa."

She also believes that the ads are a "completely unnecessary, cruel advertisement campaign." She also refers to FFRF as "selfish" because they spent the money to run the ads.

The most interesting part of her letter is her finger wagging at FFRF for using the money they used for the ads so frivolously. Apparently, this is a clear indication that FFRF does not "value humans." If they did, they would have used the money for something more worthwhile like serving the less fortunate members of the community, like Christian organizations do. She said, "Oh wait, those agencies I mentioned that care about and help people are Christian organizations."

Of course, we know that all of Christian money goes to help the less fortunate. They would never spend any of their funds frivolously. We should recall the millions of dollars that were spent on California's Prop 8 by religious proponents of the measure. That was certainly helpful to the less fortunate. (Talk about being "offended!")

While we are at it, why don't we consider the estimated $1 billion plus that has been paid out by Catholics to settle and (in some instances) cover up sex abuse cases. These child sex offenders and those who covered their rears sure are caring. (Talk about being "disturbed!")

Talk about "cruel!"

I could go on, but won't.

What is that they say about those who live in glass houses? At least the glass house in which FFRF resides only cost a few thousand dollars, which, when compared to the glass houses of the religious, seems like chump change.

Incidentally, there are many atheist groups and individuals around the nation (and the world) working to help in their communities. That Ms. Holier Than Thou, er, Lundemo doesn't seem to realize this does not mean that it isn't happening."

Original article here.

Blasphemy Friday: Transsexual Jesus Sparks Protests

I just found this awesome link for Blasphemy Friday! There is a festival in Scotland called Glasgay! The article describes Glasgay! as "a celebration of Scotland's gay, bi-sexual and transsexual culture." Naturally, when the LGBT community gets together en masse, there are some interesting goings on. In this case, a transsexual playwright named Jo Clifford wrote a play called "Jesus, Queen of Heaven" depicting Jesus as a transsexual. Tim Curry would be proud!

Naturally, Christians in the area are furious. They staged a protest outside the theatre where the staging took place, holding candles and signs that said things like, "Jesus, King of Kings, Not Queen of Heaven" or "God: My Son is Not a Pervert."

Said one pastor: "You can't blaspheme God and use freedom of speech as an excuse for that."

Says UNIFI: Why not?

Thursdays with Seth #4

TOO BADASS!
This week's Thursday with Seth post is too badass to explain, aside from the fact that I have added a new feature (red headings), so I have opted to add a soundtrack to set the mood.

Mood has been set to "badass." Please continue.


COFFEE ANUS!
Have you ever drank a cup (or two) of coffee and soon felt the need to poop? That's because one of the side-effects (or plain effects) of caffeine is a relaxation of the anal sphincter! Perhaps this is just Jesus's way of striking back at the coffee guzzling, capitalist peons of corporate America for their materialist greed. Take that, assholes!


LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!
If you say "ladies and gentlemen" to a group of hermaphrodites, you are technically correct.


FACILITATE SYNERGIZING OUTSIDE THE BOX TO IMPLEMENT SOLUTIONS!
One of the benefits of the information age is the ability to expose BS wherever it can be found. One pile of BS that irritates the holy hell out of me is jargon. You know, those meaningless words that are thrown around in various fields. Science, philosophy, business... they are all packed with jargon. And sometimes it's so excessive that it would be hilarious if it wasn't so depressing. The business world is the worst offender.

I received an email from the UNI Economics department with a job offer from a local company for new graduates of the UNI Business School. The job: PRODUCT ANALYST. For those not familiar with business jargon, I have taken the liberty to translate the job requirements:

• Support product management to ensure the successful implementation of strategic and tactical business solutions
• Make sure the people in charge have an adequate supply of coffee.
  
• Assist in evaluating and implementing product changes by providing data analysis and reporting (new, routine, and ad hoc reports and analyses).
• Stay out of the way. And bring me that report from Steve's cubicle.
  
• Plan, organize, and manage work to continuously improve the benefit design and filing process.
• Organize our filing cabinet that hasn't been touched since 1978.
  
• Work with product management and partnering teams in providing product content for marketing, member relations, and sales materials.
• Take this box of brochures over to our marketing department.
  
• Ensure data integrity among various internal groups and/or between internal and external sources for assigned product segments.
• Look at two spreadsheets and make sure the numbers match.
  
• Support short-term operational activities.
• Show up to work.
  
• Assist in facilitating the delivery of cross-functional special projects or initiatives in a matrix organization.
• Get more coffee.

Remember, if it seems like it says nothing, it is probably because... it says nothing.

GOOGLE LOVES FREE SPEECH!
I recently stumbled upon a glorious invention from Google: Google SideWiki. I would explain it, but this video should do the trick!

This little plugin for your web browser attaches a user-controlled comments section to every web page on the internet. People can write comments, and those comments can be rated up or down by other users. This removes web sites' authors' ability to censor people on their own sites. Anyone can say anything they want about any web site! The content on the Sidewiki is only moderated by the readers of the sidewiki -- they can rate comments up or down in terms of usefulness. So People posting things like "LOLSUCKNOOB" will quickly have their comments whisked away, while people with more informed views will be able to keep their comments up. Here are a few examples of some sidewiki entries:

Ray Comfort's blog:
"With people like this arguing for Christianity, who needs to argue against it?"
- Posted by Eric Hughes (Votes: 1 useful, 0 not useful)

Conservapedia:
"Great website! More reliable than Wikipedia."
- Posted by Ryan V. (Votes: 0 useful, 2 not useful)

Facebook:
"Hate having your Facebook Newsfeed filled up with notifications about the latest quiz or other app your friends are obsessed with? Short of un-friending them, you can quickly hide an app so that it never again shows in your newsfeed. Just hover your mouse to the right of the newsfeed entry and you'll see a link that says "Hide." Click on it and you'll get a choice of hiding all entries from the friend (but they still remain your friend) or hiding that app. To make the notifications of a friend or an app reappear, just go to the bottom of your newsfeed."
- Posted by Mark Traphagen (Votes: 72 useful, 6 not useful)

So we can see that SideWiki can easily become a conduit for useful information. The only problem right now is that it seems to not be gaining much ground. Unlike Wikipedia, which has millions of users, SideWiki has not been promoted, and few people know about it. A lack of posts on some sites has caused posts like Ryan V's Conservapedia post to stay up, though Google adds a disclaimer that when there are few posts, the information may be "less than useful."

Spread the word, and start SideWiki-ing!


SCARE AWAY STRANGERS!

It's not totally clear, but it appears this is a pie chart relating to effectiveness. Though for me, small children and Bibles would be about equivalent. Those little screaming babies with their sticky hands creep me out.


RELIGION IS STUPID!

Unfortunately for some local religious people, UNIFI has a few gay atheists who fight for gay rights on the internet. We offer no apologies.

ATHEIST FINANCE TIP OF THE WEEK!
Finally, it's time for the infamous finance tip. This week, I have some special information straight from the heart of financial management.

Don't buy more than you can afford.

See you next week!

The Problem of Hell and a Loving God

This is a video by youtube user cdk007 covering the topic we discussed last night and last Tuesday with Matt Reisetter at Navs. Now as I've been hearing for the last two weeks, "every analogy breaks down at some point," but I am rather fond of the one used in this video.

Atheistic Evolution?

Today's Northern Iowan brought a new op-ed from Lucas Hewitt. You may recognize his name as the freshman author of other op-eds on why prayer works and how to accept Jesus into your life. As awful as those were, his article today takes things to a new level. He wants to share with you why "atheistic evolution" means there's no reason not to partake in "raping or murdering or stealing."

Humans are no better than a rat or dragonfly. You and all other living things are simply sacks of chemicals. In evolution no one organism takes precedence over another. This is the essence of survival of the fittest. If there is a weak human, he should be left to die for the good of the race.

Oh, Mr. Hewitt, you don't seem to understand what you're talking about. Evolution is fact. It's existence is not contingent upon it's moral qualms. It's demonstratably true, regardless of what you think about it.

Richard Dawkins has made this point and I agree with him: a society based on Darwinian principles would NOT be a good society. Evolution shows what happens in nature to living organisms. It has no moral viewpoint nor can it. We, as humans, use our logic and reason to decide what makes a good society. To most, a good society is one that takes care of the weak, the poor, and the sick - regardless of what would happen to them if they were left alone in nature.

And by the way, what does "atheistic" evolution even mean? I hope Mr. Hewitt realizes the Catholic Church, among other denominations, accepts evolution as true and compatible with their religious views.

Here's the Northern Iowan story.
Here's Lucas' Facebook note.
Here's where you can send a letter to the editor.

Lets not let this molestation of science go unaddressed.

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Ray Comfort joins the UNIFI Bandwagon

As if getting mentioned by PZ Myers wasn't enough for the day, Ray Comfort joined the party in noticing UNIFI as well. Comfort, of the "Atheist Nightmare" fame, came across the Northern Iowan's coverage of Blasphemy Day and decided to post about it.

Not only does he condemn the day, but he calls on the University to sanction UNIFI as well:

I’m not concerned about the childish acts of the atheists. What concerns me is the blatant hypocrisy of the university in allowing such juvenile behavior. I'm concerned, but not surprised.

Comment at your own risk...

UNI Makes Pharyngula!

PZ Myers made a shout-out today to UNI Biology department on his blog Pharyngula. You can check it out at http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/11/hello_university_of_northern_i.php#comments.

He was also considerate enough to give a plug for his visit to UNI, coming in February.

Don't touch that candy, kid!

Kimberly Daniels, a preacher and guest writer for Pat Robertson's website, has declared that your child's Halloween candy might not be safe! In fact, according to Daniels, "most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches."

This lady is certifiable. I wish my limited powers of ridicule could do justice to the idiocy of her column, but the job is too much for any mere mortal. Here is a link to the article at Charisma Magazine (Pat Robertson's website actually took it down!), and here is a link to a great critique from atheist examiner. I'll leave you with some of the more laughable quotes.

"The key word in discussing Halloween is "dedicated." It is dedicated to darkness and is an accursed season. During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure."

"I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference."

"Halloween is much more than a holiday filled with fun and tricks or treats. It is a time for the gathering of evil that masquerades behind the fictitious characters of Dracula, werewolves, mummies and witches on brooms. The truth is that these demons that have been presented as scary cartoons actually exist. I have prayed for witches who are addicted to drinking blood and howling at the moon."

"The word "occult" means "secret." The danger of Halloween is not in the scary things we see but in the secret, wicked, cruel activities that go on behind the scenes. These activities include:

* Sex with demons
* Orgies between animals and humans
* Animal and human sacrifices
* Sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood
* Rape and molestation of adults, children and babies
* Revel nights
* Conjuring of demons and casting of spells
* Release of "time-released" curses against the innocent and the ignorant."

I just want to know what kind of Halloween parties this lady has been going to, and how I can get invited!

Blasphemy Friday: Indie Jesus Plays Gig at a Gay Bar!

This is a picture of my friend Jordan Bancroft-Smithe (sorry it's a bit dark), who was Indie Jesus for Halloween. The best part was that his band had a gig this evening at a gay bar in Waterloo called Kings and Queens. It was a good show, especially with Indie Jesus on the violin! Rock on, Jee!