Just once...

Just once, I'd like to knock on the door of a Mormon household, clutching my copy of The God Delusion, and say, "Have you rejected Jesus as your Lord & Savior?"

Just once...

A Sign of the Times

I've had repeated problems with who i call Door Christians. I resorted to putting a sign on my door to fend them off.
But my previous sign was not enough to deter these religious zealots who knock and want to share their myths with me.

Since I often sleep during the day, this is usually cause for great irritation.

I had to go to a sign that was more caustic.

{it's really harsh, but it still makes me laugh}.

A Sign of the Times

Propaganda: No Intelligence Allowed

I just watched the documentary by Ben Stein "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" I must say the title is prophetic toward content. There was certainly no intelligence to be found in the slant of this "documentary."

This is essentially another example of right-wing religious propaganda that likes to masquerade as fact. It is at once crucial that readers understand the primary flaw in any argument made by creationists or I.D. advocates: creationism cannot be given equal time as science, since it does not fit the description of science, nor does it hold up to scientific scrutiny. That said, I'll take a deep breath and continue...

Next, allow me to point out that all those whom Stein interviewed who were summarily dismissed from universities for merely uttering the words "Intelligent Design" were not victims at all. This was a distorted and inaccurate representation of what actually happened. Please read Michael Shermer's essay on this here: Ben Stein's Blunder. Shermer was misled and lied to about the content of the documentary, even the very NAME of the documentary, as was PZ Meyers, of the infamous Pharygula. See his blog, The Simple Falsehood at the Heart of Expelled, and just search the word "Expelled" on Pharyngula for other blogs about it. Meyers was even barred from attending a screening of the film Expelled. A police officer told him he was instructed by the producer to be kept out, or he would be arrested. See his blog on this here.

Also, see the Richard Dawkins site, for this article, which I found delightfully delicious in Dawkins' usual intelligent style of prose. There were other scientists who were railroaded in this documentary, due to their acceptance of the tenets of evolutionary theory.

As if these sins were not sufficient, a particularly heinous effrontery was offered by Richard Sternberg, upon whom Stein spent a good deal of focus. Shermer explains:

Stein, however, is uninterested in paleontology, or any other science for that matter. His focus is on what happened to Sternberg, who is portrayed in the film as a martyr to the cause of free speech. “As a result of publishing the Meyer article,” Stein intones in his inimitably droll voice, “Dr. Sternberg found himself the object of a massive campaign that smeared his reputation and came close to destroying his career.” According to Sternberg, “after the publication of the Meyer article the climate changed from being chilly to being outright hostile. Shunned, yes, and discredited.” As a result, Sternberg filed a claim against the Smithsonian for being “targeted for retaliation and harassment” for his religious beliefs. “I was viewed as an intellectual terrorist,” he tells Stein. In August 2005 his claim was rejected.

According to Jonathan Coddington, his supervisor at the Smithsonian Institution, Sternberg was not discriminated against, was never dismissed and in fact was not even a paid employee, but just an unpaid research associate who had completed his three-year term!(Shermer)

Without question, the most offensive part of the film was the overt message that evolution goes hand in hand with Nazism, and the events during the Hitler Regime. In Stein's interview of Sternberg, the latter suggests that Hitler's book, Mein Kampf is clearly an evolutionist document. I have addressed the mistaken idea before that Hitler was an atheist, and therefore atheists are evil. See the excerpt from my book, Supernatural Hypocrisy: The Cognitive Dissonance of a God Cosmology under the blog entry "The A.I. of Theists" where I rebut this claim with the actual text of Mein Kampf). History is rife with corrupt individuals who adapt certain ideas to their own uses. This does not, however, mean the original idea was corrupt.

Stein also offers up the argument that eugenics and euthanasia are patently evil. I wrote about the Eugenics question in a paper I republished here. As for the euthanasia issue, one of those he interviewed said that it was somehow an act of irreverence for human life. I beg to differ and instead assert that it is precisely the opposite. But those types of volatile issues can always be manipulated by emotion and fear by creationists. Creationists come by this method naturally, since they worship a god who also manipulates through emotion and fear. Take, for example the interspersed black and white clips used in Expelled from various historical events like the Nazi gas chambers, bullies beating up a smaller young man, and a scene from the Planet of the Apes where a mean old ape takes a water hose and blasts poor Charlton Heston (Moses, right? a BIBLICAL HERO. The inference is not wasted on me, though its insidious attempt at subliminal propaganda might be lost on those less attentive) Can you say Propaganda? I can. And I will. What Ben Stein has done is nothing less than exploit the Holocaust and all its victims in order to achieve his questionable purposes.

Another alleged victim of the "Nazi-Science machine of evolutionists" in the film was Caroline Crocker. But as the thorough examination of this claim showed in another article by Shermer "Crocker shows either a shocking ignorance of evolutionary science, or a rather shameless willingness to distort the truth."

Richard Dawkins offers an open letter to a commenter on Shermer's site, wherein he tries to clear up the awful misrepresentations and outright lies that Expelled represents.

The Devil is in the Doctrine. Be Aware, and Beware, good readers: there are lies being constantly perpetuated by people like Ben Stein. This is not new. But it is infuriating.

Propaganda: No Intelligence Allowed

Pastor was Moved in Mysterious Ways

Dead Reverend's Rubber Fetish
Autopsy: Pastor found in wet suits after autoerotic mishap


OCTOBER 8--An Alabama minister who died in June of "accidental mechanical asphyxia" was found hogtied and wearing two complete wet suits, including a face mask, diving gloves and slippers, rubberized underwear, and a head mask, according to an autopsy report.

Investigators determined that Rev. Gary Aldridge's death was not caused by foul play and that the 51-year-old pastor of Montgomery's Thorington Road Baptist Church was alone in his home at the time he died (while apparently in the midst of some autoerotic undertaking). While the Montgomery Advertiser, which first obtained the autopsy records, reported on Aldridge's two wet suits, the family newspaper chose not to mention what police discovered inside the minister's rubber briefs.

(from the coroner's report): "The decedent is clothes in a diving wet suit, a face mask which has a single vet for breathing, a rubberized head mask having an opening for the mouth and eyes, a second rubberized suit with suspenders, rubberized male underwear, hands and feet have diving gloves and slippers. There are numerous straps and cords restraining the decedent. There is a leather belt about the midriff. There is a series of ligatures extending from the hands and feet. The hands are bound behind the back. The feet are ties to the hands. There are nylon ligatures holding these in place with leather straps about the wrists and ankles. There are plastic cords also tied about the hands and feet with a single plastic cord extending up to the head and surrounding the lower neck. There is a dildo in the anus covered with a condom. "

Aldridge served as the church's pastor for 16 years.

Immediately following his death, church officials issued a press release asking community members to "please refrain from speculation" about what led to Aldridge's demise, adding that, "we will begin the healing process under the strong arm of our Savior, Jesus Christ."*

A few points:
1. Regarding, "Investigators determined that Rev. Gary Aldridge's death was not caused by foul play" --Death by autoerotic asphyxiation is, by definition, foul play.

2. It seems obvious that someone else was present at some point during this foul play.

3. This other person will not be sought for comment, because the church does not want to know what he or she has to say. Instead, they will defer to their default position of prayer and an injunction that The Lord their God moves in mysterious ways. As do some pastors.

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*http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/1008072scuba1.html

Pastor was Moved in Mysterious Ways

Ukrainian in the Lion's Den

"A man shouting "God will save me if he exists", lowered himself by a rope into the big cats’ enclosure in Kiev zoo, Ukraine, on Sunday, 4 June, when the zoo was packed with visitors. He then took his shoes off and went up to the lions. A lioness knocked him down and severed his carotid artery, killing him instantly. Lions and tigers are kept in an “animal island” protected by thick concrete blocks. "*

Another example of why religious zealotry and the BIBLE can be dangerous. Remember "Daniel in the Lion's Den"?

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* http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/strangedeaths/379/an_act_of_faith.html

Ukrainian in the Lion's Den

God Continues His Preacher Killing Spree

http://www.wsmv.com/news/15642032/detail.html
A preacher, killed by a goat. that's right. Although, in the text of the story, we learn that probably the 40 pound, normally docile goat could not have killed this big strapping man. More likely, the guy had a heart attack after he got tangled in the rope and fell. But they killed the goat, just to be sure. So....god is not above sending a goat to do an assassin's job.

Pastor's six family members killed by accident in Kerala
http://salemvoice.org/svmnews286.html
Can anyone say "The Book of Job"?

From http://www.safeatchurch.com/examples.asp :

Gunman Kills Seven, and Himself, In Texas Church
At the "Living Church of God in Milwaukee... a gunman shoots "the pastor, pastor’s sons, and five other church members before killing himself."

"Richard Dearsmith, 39, was killed by police in the bathroom of St. Mary’s Catholic Cathedral in Colorado Springs on Sunday, January 14, 1996. Dearsmith was delusional and mentally ill, claiming that he was Jesus Christ." [See, that's how it starts. First with the delusion of the existence of a supernatural being, and then you think you ARE a supernatural being].

At the First Baptist CHurch in Conway, MO, Rev. Strauch, was stabbed him in the abdomen, leg, and hand.

In Atlanta, Georgia a woman shot Rev. Johnny Clyde Reynolds, and her own mother after Sunday school and before service began. [I guess she didn't like the message.]

Sixteen members of Gustaf Lutheran Church were poisoned by arsenic-laced coffee they drank after service. [I guess someone didn't like that message, either.]

A man shot and killed Pastor Marvin Valentine, at the First Church of the Nazarene in Sarcoxie, MO.

Rev. Teclezghi Ucbaghiorghis of Our Lady of Fatima Monastery in Maryland was killed in a two-vehicle collision on Route 13.


According to a new poll, Americans are becoming less Christian. I guess so, since it's apparently dangerous to be one.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/03/09/us.religion.less.christian/
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-03-09-ARIS-faith-survey_N.htm

God Continues His Preacher Killing Spree

The Religious Have Less Brain Activity

from
http://www.physorg.com/news155404273.html

Researchers find brain differences between believers and non-believers

Believing in God can help block anxiety and minimize stress, according to new University of Toronto research that shows distinct brain differences between believers and non-believers.

In two studies led by Assistant Psychology Professor Michael Inzlicht, participants performed a Stroop task - a well-known test of cognitive control - while hooked up to electrodes that measured their brain activity.

Compared to non-believers, the religious participants showed significantly less activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a portion of the brain that helps modify behavior by signaling when attention and control are needed, usually as a result of some anxiety-producing event like making a mistake. The stronger their religious zeal and the more they believed in God, the less their ACC fired in response to their own errors, and the fewer errors they made.

"You could think of this part of the brain like a cortical alarm bell that rings when an individual has just made a mistake or experiences uncertainty," says lead author Inzlicht, who teaches and conducts research at the University of Toronto Scarborough. "We found that religious people or even people who simply believe in the existence of God show significantly less brain activity in relation to their own errors. They're much less anxious and feel less stressed when they have made an error."

These correlations remained strong even after controlling for personality and cognitive ability, says Inzlicht, who also found that religious participants made fewer errors on the Stroop task than their non-believing counterparts.

Their findings show religious belief has a calming effect on its devotees, which makes them less likely to feel anxious about making errors or facing the unknown. But Inzlicht cautions that anxiety is a "double-edged sword" which is at times necessary and helpful.

"Obviously, anxiety can be negative because if you have too much, you're paralyzed with fear," he says. "However, it also serves a very useful function in that it alerts us when we're making mistakes. If you don't experience anxiety when you make an error, what impetus do you have to change or improve your behaviour so you don't make the same mistakes again and again?"

The study is appearing online now in Psychological Science.

Source: University of Toronto

The Religious Have Less Brain Activity