Only The Walking Dead (Or Liars) Need Apply

Sounds like a fun place.

With the potential for a Jimmy Swaggart or two I shouldn't wonder. Here and here, a must watch if you haven't previously.

Religious University Employees Should Know What They're In For at Work
by Maressa Brown
November 1, 2011

Shorter University, a small, extremely conservative private Christian Baptist school in Georgia, is under fire today for demanding its employees sign a "Personal Lifestyle Statement." If it sounds discriminatory already, that's because it really, really is. Basically, the statement would require employees to pledge that they reject homosexuality, adultery, and premarital sex. They would also be vowing to go to be active in local churches and to not take part in drug use or drinking alcohol in the presence of students (probably not a wise idea anyway). (Wow, they should just add dancing to this while they're at it, so the employees can rebel by grinding in a barn.) As for anyone who doesn't sign the statement? They're at risk of gettin' the ol' pink slip!


Yeah, the school's president himself, Don Dowless, says, "Anybody that adheres to a lifestyle outside of what the biblical mandate is would not be allowed to continue [at Shorter]." Gotta love tolerant people!

But the fact of the matter is that people who have been hired to work at this university can't exactly be surprised by this. The school is known to be uber-conservative, and it's private, so that pretty much means they can hire and fire whomever they please, based on whatever criteria they choose, right? As long as their criteria doesn't break a discrimination law -- which it very well could -- they can probably get away with it. If anything, a case would probably go to trial for a long time anyway.

Sure, it sounds like a "witch hunt," as some worried employees have described it. One anonymous employee told an LGBT-oriented paper in Atlanta:

We now will live in fear that someone who doesn't like us personally or someone who has had a bad day will report that we've been drinking or that we are suspected of being gay.

It really stinks to have been hired under the assumption that you could be who you are -- gay, horny, a cheater, a drinker, an atheist -- without it being an issue. But oops, oh well, rules have changed! Now it is apparently a problem at Shorter, and if I were someone who was worried about being canned because of this statement, I'd high-tail it out of there, jobless status be damned! Who would want to feel like they had to hide or walk on eggshells just to fit in at some holier-than-thou place of employment? Screw that! Should these people be driven from their jobs for who they are? NO way! But it doesn't seem like, at least in this case, there's much they can do to avoid it. cafemom

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Swedish Churches 'Obsolete' Blow 'Em Up Say Half of Country

Yanky free thinkers, eat your heart out.

Swedish churches open SPA salons and Chinese medicine centers
Anatoly Miranovsky
28.10.2011

Sweden will get rid of its churches. There are not enough funds to maintain numerous church buildings as the country, according to opinion polls, has over 80 percent of the people who classified themselves as atheists. The methods for enticing people into churches would not be approved by the founders of the Protestant denominations. Places of worship now have SPA-salons and centers of Chinese medicine.


Professor of Ethics Swedish, pastor Hans Hammar Berryer, sent an open letter to the nation, in which he proposed to blow up churches or find a different application for them: turn them into cafes, pizzerias, houses, or industrial facilities.
In Sweden there are 3,384 church buildings. At best, five hundred of them are used for religious services once a month. Sweden is the least religious country in Europe.




The funding of confessions in many European countries is now obtained through the so-called church tax or its components. The payments are voluntary. This form of financing of religious infrastructure is used in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Iceland, Spain and Italy.


The tax is paid in favor of a religious community. Refusal to pay means leaving the church, which takes away from a former community member a place at a church cemetery and some other temple services. Incidentally, it is not always possible to get a church tax on hand in the form of money. In some places this part of income on tax payer's request can be redirected to other purposes - charity or scientific development.

After the separation of church from the state in 2000, the right not to pay the clerics was granted to the Swedish Lutherans. Apparently, expecting a mass fleeing of the nourished herds from their pastors, the Swedish government decided to allocate 50 million euros annually for the maintenance of temple buildings through the support of the objects of cultural and historical significance.


"I have studied statistics, and it terrified me," Hans Hammar Berryer was quoted by Novye Izvestia. "Since 2000, over half a million people fled from the church (the population of Sweden is 10 million).The situation is even worse with the younger generation. The Rite of Confirmation in the 1970s was held annually by 80,000 children. Today the number has decreased to 35 thousand. There are increasingly fewer parishioners, respectively, our revenues are falling. We just do not have enough to maintain 3,384 churches existing in the country. There are only three ways out: blow the churches up, fill them with people or turn them into pizzerias and production departments. "




The Bolshevik idea to blow up churches does not scare many Swedes. According to the online survey of the Swedish newspaper "Svenska Dagbladet", 46 percent of Swedes are in favor of the demolition of churches, 54 per cent are against it. Over 80 percent of Swedes consider themselves non-believers, that is, they are not paying to those carrying "the word of God."
Abandoned Protestant churches are being looted. Thieves do not only steal what is stored inside, but even take the copper from church roofs. This year 42 such instances have been recorded.

The liberal wing of the Lutheran Church parishioners is luring people with a complex of secular services. Now, the priests offer not taming, but rather gratification of the flesh. The churches offer massages, water treatment and purifying beverages.
Employees of the cult attract therapists and other specialists to their business projects. In particular, clients lying on a sofa under a warm blanket in modern Swedish Lutheran church can complain about their lives not only to the pastor but also a psychotherapist.
Another trend is Asian bodily practices and sale of proprietary Chinese qi energy by qualified instructors. More conservative parishes offer local developments in the form of various diets and exercise.

Thus, Protestantism that arose out of the Reformation of the Catholic Church is becoming the object of another Reformation. In 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 theses against the orders of the Catholic Church on a church door at Wittenberg which, according to official history, marked the beginning of the Reformation.

In 2007, a Protestant Congress was held in Wittenberg that declared the policy of modernization that has already passed the "point of no return." The representatives of Germany stated that the number of believers in the Protestant churches in 2030 could fall from the current 25.6 million to 17 million people. At the same time the annual income of the religious communities will be reduced from EUR 4 billion to 2 billion.

However, these numbers only take into account the income from church tax paid by parishioners. As for the total profits of the evangelical churches of Germany (unification EKD), it is approximately 10 billion euros per year.
It is worth noting that the desire to bring the church to "universal values" often has the opposite effect. Thus, recognition of "normality" of sodomy by the Anglican Church and the introduction of female bishops has led to a massive exodus of parishioners and priests who do not want to deal with those degraded. Earlier this year, members of 20 former Anglican parishes and three former Anglican bishops have left for the Catholic Church.
 Pravda Ru

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Just WHO Does God Want In The White House?

Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) -- Vote for me or burn in hell. I can't imagine someone running for office saying that. And yet four candidates -- Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum -- have said they had a sense that God was leading them to run. How far can we be from "vote for me or burn in hell" when it seems we're already comfortable with "vote for me, I've been called by God"? There was a time when if a candidate wanted to inject faith into a campaign he or she would be photographed going to church or shaking the Rev. Billy Graham's hand. Now it seems many GOP campaigns aren't complete without claiming God's seal of approval, which suggests the other candidates may be running without it. Such a sentiment is an ideological piñata for comedians like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart, but for conservatives trying to secure the GOP nomination, it's a highly manipulative campaign tool. Consider the words of Rick Perry's wife, Anita. During a stop in South Carolina last week she said her husband was being brutalized by the media because of his faith and that while his GOP opponents are "there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them, too ... I truly feel like we are here for that purpose." When Perry was asked about his wife's comments on "Good Morning America," he said "I think she's right in both cases. My understanding is that she said I'm the most conservative candidate in the race and, 'He's a Christian.'" Cain was a guest on the Christian Broadcasting Network recently and recapped a conversation he said he had with God before entering the race. "I felt like Moses when God said, 'I want you to go into Egypt and lead my people out.'" Cain said. "Moses resisted. I resisted. ... But you shouldn't question God." Repeat: You shouldn't question God. OK, fine. But why aren't we questioning the candidates who make these kinds of statements the same way we would question whether God actually wanted a particular athlete to win a game? I do believe a person's faith is personal, but I'm not the one using it to get votes. Four candidates have claimed a level of divine intervention with their campaign, which either means the creator of heaven and Earth is hedging his bets or somebody's mistaken. When a candidate claims to have a plan to create jobs or turn our economy around, we expect thoughtful analysis, as we have seen with President Obama's jobs package and Cain's 9-9-9 plan. Why are we not demanding the same level of critical thinking with respect to these candidates? Is the media so afraid to appear to be attacking someone's faith that interviewers don't bother to ask follow-up questions? If I could trade places with Anderson Cooper, who is moderating Tuesday's debate, I would ask, "Now which ones of you were really called by God and which ones are hearing voices in your head?" then let them discuss among themselves. It seems like a fair line of questioning, especially when you consider Cain is telling a particular voting bloc that he is like Moses and Perry is telling the same voters that Cain and others misheard God. Why wouldn't conservative Christians want to hear this line of questioning, since they are the sheep who are potentially being targeted by deceptive, power-hungry wolves? Now I know it seems as if I'm picking on Republicans, but trust me, I'm equally disgusted by Democrats who use religion to win elections. I still recoil in horror at the memory of then Sen. Hillary Clinton, on the eve of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday in 2008, standing in front of a Baptist church in Harlem, trying to out-black preach then Sen. Barack Obama, who was visiting Ebenezer Church in Atlanta the same day. And at both locations, the crowd was just eating it up, like extras in a Tyler Perry movie. When people ask why I'm not a Democrat, this is one of the reasons I give. But not even in the heat of those moments did I hear them say they were called by God to run. Not because Democrats are not religious, but because they seem to know where the line is. This current GOP candidates seem to have no idea that there is a line, let alone its location. It is beginning to feel like if we don't start pushing back soon, in the next election we're going to see campaign slogans like, "Vote for me or God won't bless America." "Vote for me, or you'll be left behind." "Vote for me... Jesus did." On August 4, 2010, just before 10:30 p.m., former longtime Rep. Pete Hoekstra stood in front of a group of supporters in a small city in Michigan to deliver a concession speech. The Republican had just lost his bid to be governor, a job he said he left Congress to pursue because of "God's plan." "God's got something better in mind for us," he said, and in January he finished his term in the House. Today Hoekstra is back in Michigan. Running for Congress. No word yet if God told him to do so or if this is the "something better" the Almighty had in mind. CNN

Yes, when you talk to God, it's called praying, when he talks to you, it's called schizophrenia. Two from the time before last, I missed the last election, I was busy wasting my time looking for a bit of justice. I think this one was in response to a handful of Repub contenders denying evolution, on national television I remind you. Well I suppose they will have two to go at this year, evolution and climate change. Only in Amerki folks, only in Ameriki. This one is educational. For those of you who might have wondered how Noah built his ark 1500 years before the Iron Age, well here's your answer. That Lord, he really does work in mysterious ways, don't he. Just. And we couldn't have a FSM post without my masterpiece. Tickets please. And sure, isn't it nearly Christmas.
Jeezy!

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Benny Hinn Eat Your Heart Out And Where Do I Get Me Some Of That Anointing Water?

We have already had the 'pray away the gay' from the evangelical crazies of America. Now it appears we have 'pray away the HIV' from some dodgy geezer in Africa, or as the BBC describes him, Nigeria's third richest clergyman, No kidding, whodathunkit?

The only difference between these two charlatans, is one is federally funded and the other ain't. Oh, and perhaps I should mention, in the case of the latter, the results can be fatal.

At least three people in London with HIV have died after they stopped taking life saving drugs on the advice of their Evangelical Christian pastors.

The women died after attending churches in London where they were encouraged to stop taking the antiretroviral drugs in the belief that God would heal them, their friends and a leading HIV doctor said. BBC

So having read the BBC report, I decided to have look at Pastor T B Joshua and his Synagogue Church Of All Nations (SCOAN) and of course, the Pastor's universal cure all, none other than his own branded Snake Oil Anointing Water.

Anointing Water

At SCOAN London, we have seen practical proof that God can truly use any medium to express Himself. To His power, nothing is impossible. One of the mediums He is using in The SCOAN is the Anointing Water. Every week the Anointing Water is ministered in our services and God is using it mightily to bring healing, deliverance and freedom to people. You can read some testimonies of those God has healed, delivered and set free through the Anointing Water in SCOAN London here. Anointing Water

Not bad hey? And free too, well sort of.

Hi, yep I confirm that’s how they do it with the anointing water. It’s different depending on your nationality (so much for no favouritism in the church – James 2).
Nigerian members have to buy a large photo frame which a picture of TB Joshua and a “Quotable quote”. Its classic TB Joshua. He says its all about the words, it’s not about me, well why the picture then??? If it really is about the words on the frame then why on earth have a picture of him? I think it cost members N2000 ($13) or so. If you buy a frame then you wait after the church service and TB Joshua comes round and gives you the water.

That small revelation coming courtesy of dedicated site, TB Joshua Watch. Yes, I can well imagine he needs a bit of watching.

'Eat your heart out Benny Hinn,' my message in the header. Well, after finding this bit below in the comments section, perhaps you will allow me a mini-header?

Eat Your Heart Out Doctors McCann

COMING SOON…WRISTBAND WITH AUDIO DEVICE
The man of God raised people’s spirits when he talked about the new Anointing Wristband and its audio devices that will caution wearers about their behaviour and movements. According to him, the wristband is devised to remind you about your prayers, to ask you to check your tyres or to stop because of armed robbers.

I’m not even joking. TB Joshua Watch

As opposed to TB Joshua Fans UK Blog. I give up! Don't Jesoids talk utter shite.


And to put it all in the right perspective, a few miracle cartoons. I love these first two, they are such shades of Richard Dawkins, when he was questioning the head charlatan at Lourdes about past miracles. After the soothsayer had rhymed off a list of miracles, Dawkins said, ''But none of them provable, I mean nobody has grown a new leg or the like?

h/t http://twitter.com/#!/Atheist_Tweeter h/t Maren for the clip.

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Respect People's Religious Beliefs. Why?

This is a re-up, the reason being, I have captured the clip and uploaded it to Youtube. It needed to be done, that which is depicted in just forty seconds of tape, is as priceless as it is unique, and thoroughly deserving of being preserved.

Pigs In Space, And The Rabbis Too

Whereas I try to treat all religions with equal contempt, I think this is a first for featuring the Jewish faith in these unhallowed pages.


Not by design that Judaism has previously slipped under the radar, unless of course I have subconsciously given them a free pass because I know I'm never going to get a Jew knocking at my door trying to sell me a Bible or their god.

That said, and perhaps after watching the forty second clip, you might agree with me that they are just as loopy and batshit crazy as all the rest of the nutters.

Flying rabbis fight swine flu

A group of rabbis and Jewish mystics have taken to the skies over Israel, praying and blowing ceremonial horns in a plane to ward off swine flu.

About 50 religious leaders circled over the country on Monday, chanting prayers and blowing horns, called shofars.

The flight's aim was "to stop the pandemic so people will stop dying from it", Rabbi Yitzhak Batzri was quoted as saying in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

The flu is often called simply "H1N1" in Israel, as pigs are seen as unclean.

Eating pork is banned under Jewish dietary laws.

According to Israel's health ministry, there have been more than 2,000 cases of swine flu in the country, with five fatalities so far.

"We are certain that, thanks to the prayer, the danger is already behind us," added Mr Batzri was quoted as saying.

Television footage showed rabbis in black hats rocking backwards and forwards as they read prayers from Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism which counts the singer Madonna among its devotees.

The shofar is the horn of a ram, and is used to mark major religious occasions in Judaism. BBC

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American Cancer Society: The sick do not ask if the hand that smooths their pillow is pure

The sick do not ask if the hand that smooths their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known the kiss of sin.

This is not the first time that I have quoted these very words, employing them now on two previous occasions, and latterly quite recently. The bit that is relevant I reproduce here.

That's the trouble with (self righteous) principles, they do tend to get in the way of purpose.

I have just done a little search of the web, looking for the story of Mandy Rice-Davies in order to use it analogously with how I perceive this statement from Greenpeace. I was then, having found a reference, going to write a few words on charities and my relationship with them. Funny then, that the Google search threw up these few lines on the very subject, not so funny though, that I can't even remember writing them, but write them I did, back in 2005, albeit under a different handle.

And the hooker? yes, she still haunts me on occasion.

~

"The sick do not ask if the hand that smooths their pillow is pure, nor the dying care if the lips that touch their brow have known sin"


MARKED FOR LIFE.

During the mid sixties two, enthusiastic amateur prostitutes, Mandy Rice-Davies and Christine Keeler, gained, in the quintessential English way, great notoriety. The latter was instrumental in bringing the government down.

Whereas a cabinet minister sleeping with a prostitute was hardly new, a cabinet minister sleeping with the same prostitute that was also sleeping with a KGB officer did cause a slight ripple in the then government of Harold McMillan.

Mandy Rice was a beautiful society girl who got her kicks out of hooking. The detail escapes me after so many years, but there was at the time, some terrible famine in the world.

Mandy held a hunt ball, the proceeds to go to Oxfam, the largest famine relief charity in the UK. Now I don't think you have to be in possession of a crystal ball to see where this story is headed. Sure enough Oxfam were too righteous to accept the money.

From that day to this, not one copper penny have I donated to organised charities, (the lifeboat service apart and latterly SSCS)

This attitude being further hardened over the years, when a fellow wises up to the constitutional set-up of some of these so called charities. Ten cents on the dollar, or two bob in the pound so to speak, being considered the best return the object of the charity might possibly hope to receive. The rest of the revenue going to the executive, enabling them to live high on the hog off the donations people had made in good faith. To wit.

All my giving since, has been to the man and woman on the street. I have given directly to those in need.

Whilst I am writing of money and prostitutes, I want to try and get rid of a ghost:

Amsterdam, six am. I am approached by a hooker, a poor wretch of a woman offering her services. Said offer was always going to be doomed to failure, she being possessed of both eyes and both legs, and me being totally off my face.

But there was a fear and hopelessness in those eyes. It was obvious she dare not go home without turning a trick. I could well have afforded to have given her the money and sent her home, I didn't. It haunts me still.

- - -

Is Atheist Money Too Controversial for the American Cancer Society?

The American Cancer Society may have turned down a potential half-million dollar donation because it came from a non-theistic organization.
October 10, 2011

I'll say this clearly, right up front: The American Cancer Society did not explicitly reject a massive donation offer from a non-theistic organization on the basis of it being a non-theistic organization.

That was not the stated reason given for rejecting a matching offer of $250,000 from the Foundation Beyond Belief and the Todd Stiefel Foundation to sponsor a national team in the upcoming Relay for Life. (An offer that, as a matching offer, was likely to bring in a total of half a million dollars for the American Cancer Society.) Nobody at the ACS has ever said, in words, "We don't want our organization to be associated with atheists. It's too controversial. We don't want atheist money." And when asked if this was the case, they have denied it.

It's just difficult to reach any other conclusion. In the place of clear explanations, there has been an ongoing series of evasions, imprecisions, conflicting answers, moved goalposts, apathy, and even hostility.

Here's the deal. A few months ago, Todd Stiefel -- philanthropist and founder of the Stiefel Freethought Foundation, which provides financial support to atheist and other nonprofit and charitable organizations -- approached the American Cancer Society with an offer. He wanted local atheist groups around the world to participate in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life program, as a national team, under the banner of the humanist charitable organization Foundation Beyond Belief. In order to make this happen, he made a generous offer: a $250,000 matching offer from the Todd Stiefel Foundation, which, as a matching offer, was likely to bring in a half million dollars to the American Cancer Society.

And he was stonewalled.

The offer was initially approved, and the Foundation Beyond Belief even brought on an intern to manage the program. But then the American Cancer Society stopped responding. Repeated emails and phone calls from Stiefel were not returned for over a month. And the eventual responses from the ACS ranged from apathetic at best to hostile at worst. As Stiefel told AlterNet:

Reuel Johnson of ACS was completely disinterested in the matching gift. He made no effort to try to gain the money and attempted to ignore that the offer was even made. When I brought it up to him, he referred to it as merely "fine" and then started complaining about how it was a hassle to ACS to have to try to track the challenge. Of course, it should not have to be a hassle; they have an automated system to track team and individual performance. I don't know why he acted like this, but something clearly was amiss.

After many go-arounds, Stiefel was finally told no. He was told that the Relay for Life program was focusing on corporate sponsors for the National Team program, and was no longer including nonprofits in the program. Despite the massive size of the offer from the Stiefel Foundation -- and despite the fact that several nonprofits are currently participating in the program, including Girl Scouts of the USA, Phi Theta Kappa and DeMolay International -- the ACS insisted that nonprofit participation in this program wasn't cost-effective, and would no longer be welcome.

Every attempt to find an alternative form of participation for the Foundation Beyond Belief was stymied. Stiefel offered to participate as a corporate team, since the FBB is a 501(c)(3) corporation. This offer was rejected. Stiefel asked if they could simply be put on the drop-down list of national team partners (which, again, does include several nonprofits). This offer was rejected. Stiefel even offered to have the FBB participate as a National Youth Partner -- they have a network of hundreds of non-theist youth groups who were eager to participate. This offer was rejected, in an especially contradictory series of statements, first telling Stiefel that the youth program was being accelerated, then saying it was being de-emphasized.

he American Cancer Society was certainly happy to accept a $250,000 donation from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation and/or the Foundation Beyond Belief. They made that very clear. They just weren't willing to let them have any sort of national participation in the Relay for Life. They could participate at the local level only. (You can read more detailed background on this story, including comments from both Stiefel and the American Cancer Society, at the Friendly Atheist blog, here, here, and here.)

Now, in case you're wondering if this is standard behavior, find someone who works as a development director for a nonprofit. Ask her what her response would be to a $250,000 matching offer from a philanthropic foundation. And ask if her organization would be drooling, celebrating wildly, and bending over backward to make it happen -- or if they would be evading, delaying, dodging, deflecting, changing their stories, treating the potential benefactor with irritation and dismissal, and finding an endless series of excuses for not accepting the offer?

And now ask: Why did it unfold this way with the American Cancer Society and the Foundation Beyond Belief?

Is it because the Foundation Beyond Belief are atheists?

For those who might be thinking this is just paranoia, a bit of context: Anti-atheist bigotry is an unfortunate reality. And even among people and organizations who aren't personally bigoted, atheists are still frequently seen as bringing unwanted controversy. Atheists put up billboards saying simply, "You can be good without God" -- and people freak out. Atheists march in a Christmas parade -- and people freak out. Atheist veterans march in a Memorial Day parade -- and get booed to their faces. Atheist students in public high schools try to organize groups -- and get routinely stonewalled by their school administrations. Atheists try to take out ads on buses -- and the bus company changes their policy and stops accepting any ads from religious organizations, just so they don't have to run ads from atheists. Atheists get threatened, hounded from their communities, disowned by their parents, denied custody of their children, when they come out as atheists. Atheists customarily get treated as if association with them is a potentially controversial embarrassment at best, a dangerous toxin at worst.

So it's not unreasonable to think that an individual might be personally disinclined to have any dealings with atheists... or that an organization might want to avoid any public association with atheists, for fear of blowback. In fact, just a year and a half ago, the Mississippi chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union rejected a donation from atheist organizations... not because they personally had anything against atheists, but because, "the majority of Mississippians tremble in terror at the word 'atheist.'" (A decision that, to their credit, they later rescinded.) If the freaking ACLU is reluctant to be associated with atheist money because it's too controversial, it's not unreasonable to think the American Cancer Society might be as well.

But is that really the case? What, exactly, does the American Cancer Society have to say about all this?

Not a lot. When AlterNet contacted the American Cancer Society to comment on this story, Reuel Johnson, the primary person Stiefel had been dealing with over this matter, declined to be interviewed. Instead, the ACS gave this response:

Over the past several months the American Cancer Society has engaged in discussions with Todd Stiefel and the Foundation Beyond Belief regarding a very generous donation offer. We have repeatedly tried to come to an agreement regarding the offer but have been unable to do so. The public debate that has ensued, we believe, undermines the shared passion both organizations have for our mission of saving lives from cancer. Go to page three.

Ref. A woman of No Importance

Update 09-03-15 It never quite struck me before, just what the darling Oscar expected of his players. Learn your lines!

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Not All Head banging Extremists Are Muslim Watch Headbanging Jewish Extremists In Action Against Little Girls

I wouldn't have any problem matching this lot of fucked up demented Jews with this lot of fucked up demented Arabs. Read first.

If a similar situation were to occur, and it were the Jerusalem school that was on fire, I could just see this lot as taking it as a sign from God, and who would know what the outcome might be.

I hate fucking religion, and all its repressed, sanctimonious, intolerant, motherfucking followers. A disgrace to rational thought and a disgrace to our species, the fucking lot of them.

Due to a re-tweet I have just had my twitter space invaded by one of their ilk, closet queen and suppressed raving fag, Tony Bennett, who seemingly couldn't wait to get the news out of a book about some gay man who died in 1996.

I've left him alone of late, well fuck him, he's back on my list of twats, and right at the top. Fucking cunt!

Anyway, back to the post. If you really want to see how batshit fucking insane orthodox Jews are, go to Pigs In Space, and The Rabbis Too and follow the video link.

You could not make it up. Not in a million years.

Respect people's religious beliefs? don't make me piss blood!! Fucking idiots!

Ultra-Orthodox Jews picket girls' school
10 October 2011

In a town on the outskirts of Jerusalem school runs have become the focal point for an ugly struggle over land and power.

Groups of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters have been picketing a new girls' school.

They say their religious sense of modesty is offended by the sight of the girls and their families passing their homes on their way to school, even though the families themselves are also from an orthodox community.

The BBC's Kevin Connolly reports from Beit Shemesh. watch

h/t RDF

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Jesoids Ban Richard Dawkins Event in Michigan Country Club

There is a link to the O'Reilly video in question at the bottom of the page. Personally I couldn't get past the one minute mark. The overwhelming desire to kick someone in the bollocks, having the tendency to interfere with one's viewing pleasure ever so slightly.

Billo is such an ignorant loud mouthed gobshite, or as some disillusion soul described him a while back: 'A great American.' And I'm not making that up, as hard as it might be to get your head around.

Bill O'Reilly, corporate shill and a great American.

Previous: Billo You're So Predictable

Richard Dawkins Event Banned by Michigan Country Club
October 10, 2011

The Wyndgate Country Club in Rochester Hills, MI, cancels Center for Inquiry–Michigan event with biologist Richard Dawkins because of his atheist philosophy.

Prejudice against atheists (video here & here) manifested itself again when The Wyndgate Country Club in Rochester Hills, Michigan (outside of Detroit), cancelled an event with scientist and author Richard Dawkins after learning of Dawkins’s views on religion. The event had been arranged by the Center for Inquiry–Michigan (CFI), an advocacy group for secularism and science, and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.

Richard DawkinsThe Wyndgate terminated the agreement after the owner saw an October 5th interview with Dawkins on The O’Reilly Factor in which Dawkins discussed his new book, The Magic of Reality: How We Know What’s Really True.




In a phone call to CFI–Michigan Assistant Director Jennifer Beahan, The Wyndgate’s representative explained that the owner did not wish to associate with individuals such as Dawkins, or his philosophies.

Although privately owned, The Wyndgate facilities are open to the public for special events and occasions. According to Title II of the Federal Civil Rights Law of 1964, “open to the public” means “all persons shall be entitled to the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation, as defined in this section, without discrimination or segregation on the ground of race, color, religion, or national origin.”

After learning of the owner’s last-minute refusal to allow Dawkins to speak, CFI–Michigan asked the owner to reconsider his position, but this attempt to resolve the issue amicably was met with silence. The event, scheduled for Wednesday, October 12, will now be held at a different venue.

“It’s important to understand that discrimination based on a person’s religion—or lack thereof—is legally equivalent to discriminating against a person because of his or her race,” said Jeff Seaver, executive director of CFI–Michigan. “This action by The Wyndgate illustrates the kind of bias and bigotry that nonbelievers encounter all the time. It’s exactly why organizations like CFI and the Richard Dawkins Foundation are needed: to help end the stigma attached to being a nonbeliever.” CFI-Michigan: via RDF - Video link

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America Is Moving Away From Religion: You Reckon?

Hope springs eternal in the human breast.


5 Signs That America Is Moving Away from Religion

If you look closely there are promising signs that American attitudes are changing in a way that may blunt the impact of religion on politics and culture.
By Tana Ganeva
September 28, 2011

In between bragging about the number of people they've killed and vilifying gay soldiers, the GOP presidential candidates have spent the primaries demonstrating how little they respect the separation of church and state. Michele Bachmann seems to think God is personally invested in her political career. Both she and Rick Perry have ties to Christian Dominionism, a theocratic philosophy that publicly calls for Christian takeover of America's political and civil institutions. (Even Ron Paul, glorified by civil libertarians for his only two good policy stances -- opposition to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and drug prohibition -- sputtered about churches when asked during a debate where he'd send a gravely ill man without health insurance.)

GOP pandering to the Religious Right is just one of those facts of American political life, like climate change denial and Creationism in schools, that leave secular Americans lamenting the decline of the country, and of reason and logic. Organized religion's grasp on the politics and culture of much of Europe has been waning for decades -- why can't we do that here?

But there are signs that American attitudes are changing in ways that may tame religion's power over political life in the future.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, founder of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, tells AlterNet that she thinks what happened in Europe is (slowly) happening here. While questioning religion remains controversial -- Gaylor says the group's work on church and state issues often elicits hate-mail strongly suggesting they move to, you know, Europe -- atheism, skepticism, and agnosticism are becoming more widely accepted.

"The statistics show there are more of us ... If you're in a room of people you can count on more to agree with non-belief or to be accepting of non-belief," says Gaylor.

Here are five trends that give hope one day religion will reside in the realm of personal choice and private worship, far away from politics -- something like what the Founders intended hundreds of years ago.




1. American religious belief is becoming more fractured

The intrusion of religion into places where it doesn't belong, like government or public education, naturally requires high levels of organization and control -- it's not something that just happens. So it's a good sign that even many Americans who maintain a personal religious faith are distancing themselves from heierarchical, top-down religion. Polls have repeatedly shown that even among the devout, emphatic proclamations of faith do not translate into actual churchgoing. In fact, church attendance rates hovered at around 40 percent until pollsters realized there's a major gap between what Americans tell them about their religious habits and their actual religious habits. Tom Flynn summarizes the over-inflation of US churchgoing and offers more accurate stats:

Americans may believe in a god who sees everything, but they lie about how often they go to church. Since 1939, the Gallup organization has reported that 40% of adults attend church weekly. (The most recent figure is 42%.) Gallup's figure has long attracted skepticism. Were it true, some 73 million people would throng the nation's houses of worship each week. Even the conservative Washington Times found that "hard to imagine." New research suggests that there may be only half to two-thirds that many people in the pews.

Americans are also actively shaping their religious beliefs to fit their own values. Profiled in USA Today, religion expert George Barna shares recent findings that show religion is becoming increasingly personal. Believers might drift from faith to faith until they find one that works for them, or cobble together a belief system drawn from many religious traditions. The US is becoming a place of "310 million people with 310 million religions" Barna is quoted as saying. Go to page two, or be like me, don't.

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