Enough already! Pope Ratzinger/Benedict/whatever is a malicious sadist. He willing allowed sadistic inappropriate behavior to transpire and furthermore covered it up. As has been pointed out by just about everyone on the planet lately; if he was shown evidence of abuses against children by Catholic priests and did nothing about it, he is guilty and culpable. If he did not understand what he was being shown or was ignorant of it, then he was, and still is, incompetent. He should not be in a position that has the power to influence millions of mindless sheep.  It’s not that difficult. This is an evil criminal that got busted. Plain and simple. Truly ignorant apologists like Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who recently compared Benedict to Christ in the way he is being persecuted, are idiots. Stop apologizing for your boss. He is a liar and pedophile enabler. Actually I take that back. I agree with Dolan. If Benedict is just like Christ, then perhaps we should crucify him. The world would be a much nicer place without him. Then again, keeping him alive will do more to discredit the Catholic Church then we could ever hope for. Maybe people will even doubt church doctrine and start using contraception in third world countries and lives could actually be saved. Tough call.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals formally rejected the lawsuit brought by Sacramento attorney Michael Newdow challenging the 1954 decision to add the words “…under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. Judge Carlos Bea, who wrote the majority opinion, said that the 1954 addition to the pledge was to set America apart from the “godless” communists and was not a violation of the Establishment Clause. He also confirmed that people are not required to say the pledge by law. The truth is, you do not have to say the pledge or even stand for it (West Virginia State Board of Education V. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624). That’s well and good; however, suppose you are a grade school student and refuse to say the pledge. There is really good chance that your teacher and rest of the class will either coerce you into saying it – or you will be severely chastised. The decision is B.S. and Judge Bea is dead wrong. Further, saying “under God” as in one god, rules out polytheistic religions like Hinduism. Explain to me how this does not violate the establishment clause of preferring one religion over another.

In a second ruling the same court also ruled that the motto “In God We Trust” on our currency was also not in violation of the establishment clause either and stated, “the phrase is ceremonial and patriotic and has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion.”

I am deeply saddened by the courts decision. It is clearly not in the best interest our country. And I can only hope that someday when reason prevails, both decisions will be overturned. In the meantime I will most likely continue to refuse to say the pledge and inform my daughter that she does not have to say it in school, however, I will understand if she does.

On the positive side, it should be noted that a federal judge did originally rule in favor of Newdow in 2005, but that decision resulted in it going on to the appeals court. It should also be noted that the current decision was a split one. As non-theists it is critical that we continue to protest and let our voices be heard in this matter. The only way to change the discriminatory status quo is to keep pushing for absolute separation of church and state in the way our Founding Fathers intended.

If you remember, this past January, Christians slaughtered at least 150 Muslims in the town of Kuru Karama and left bodies piled in heaps out in the streets after having burned all of the houses down to the ground. Today Muslims raided a town south of the city of Jos, Nigeria and killed at least 200 Christians (New York Times Report). The raiders were seen using machetes and hacked mostly woman and children to death. The fighting in Nigeria is based on the ethnic divisions that exist in a country that is primarily half Christian and half Muslim. In all fairness, there are a number of issues other than religion that contributes to the rising body counts. But the main division itself is clearly one between Christians and Muslims. Is this a preview as to what could potential happen on a global level in the future? Most assuredly, yes!

Today in the United States tensions continue to rise as Christian Right fanatics continue to bash Muslims, Jews, non-theists, and even other Christians. Unfortunately almost all theists are united in their hatred towards us atheists. Even though we are not the ones attacking and perpetrating violence, we are still vilified. That is why it is so important to stand up as an atheist and as an atheist that helps people and does good deeds. We have the potential to work and live with theists – we are doing it right now. However, theists apparently do not have the potential to live with us – or each other, for that matter. You want see what happens when different theistic groups try to live together? Look to Nigeria. Perhaps if we wait long enough all of the Christian and Muslims will kill each other. Then all we have to worry about are the militant Buddhist and Hindus, and a couple hundred other theistic sects.

Imagine no religion.

How fortunate we are to be atheists at a time like this. The unprecedented meeting last Friday between the Obama administration and the Secular Coalition of America, along with many of it’s member organizations, marks an important milestone in our cultural development. The first time high ranking officials of the United States government actually sat down and talked to us! Wow! Some have argued that not enough was accomplished and that this should be the norm, not an exception. To people like that I say, “Wake up!” We live in a country that is currently dominated by superstitious dogma, by religious zealots who obfuscate reality and cause pain and suffering to millions. The fact that the event happened at all is a clear signal to theists, that, yes, we are a real force in this country. And, yes, we are getting the attention of those in power. What’s more, the ignorant theistic majority has labeled atheists as hostile, disruptive, unpleasant people (some would even argue we are not people at all). Check out the report on Hemant  Mehta’s blog and look at the smile on David Silverman’s (American Atheists) face. Does he look angry and disruptive? Quite the contrary. Collectively we are ecstatic to have an audience with the administration. It is long overdue, but now that it’s here, we embrace it. Hopefully this will mark the beginning of a turning point in the perception of non-theistic groups in this country. Do not let this opportunity pass. Now, more than ever, is the time to stand up and be counted. Now is the time for all of you closet atheists to come out and publicly embrace reason and denounce the dogmatic hypocrisy and hatred of religion.

Despite what we hear from Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin, we’re in a stage in history where millions upon millions of Americans share a secular perspective on American public policy. We think the real ‘silent majority,’ if you will, is the Americans who say, ‘Enough of this religious and even theocratic nature to American policy.’

—Sean Faircloth
—Executive Director of the Secular Coalition of America

Joe Ratzinger, AKA Pope Benedict XVI, has issued a formal statement condemning child abuse by Catholic priests. So what! The staggering amount of sexual abuse committed by these criminals is only now starting to come to light. The Catholic Church has been abusing children since its inception. Meanwhile everyone just looks the other way. The lip service form the Pope is just that – lip service. In the United States, a victim support group called Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests called the statement “meaningless and self-serving.” These priests should be treated like any other criminal and sentenced accordingly. As to the huge sexual-abuse scandal in Ireland, the Pope has done nothing than issue his meaningless statement and accept the resignation of one priest. It is typically the practice of the Catholic Church to “buy off” anyone making a claim against the them. All we can hope is that more and more people will continue to come forward and perhaps  inflict enough financial burden on the church to get them to curb their criminal behavior.

No matter how hard you hope it will just stop and go away you just cannot seem to escape the fact that Christians care about no one but themselves and will hurt anyone, especially children for their own selfish agendas. And in Haiti – of all places!

I really thought that perhaps most religious organizations would put aside petty self interests and provide some much needed relief to the people of Haiti after their devastating earthquake. You know, forget the religious stuff, let’s just be good people and help. But then, we get this. A group of ten American Baptist missionaries have been detained for attempting to kidnap 33 children and smuggle them into the Dominican Republic. Not much is functioning in Haiti, but fortunately the border police are. The alleged kidnappers have stated that they meant no harm and were only trying to do God’s will. Let’s see, God’s will by rescuing orphans by inculcating them into their Christian sect and stealing them away. I guess they figured in all of the confusion no one would miss a few (33) children. Some of the children do, in fact, have parents and are not orphaned as the kidnappers claim.

As of this morning the missionaries have not been formally charged and the children have been temporarily placed in a Haitian orphanage just outside of the capital city. The missionaries’ Baptist pastor in Idaho has said that they went down to Haiti to help and not to kidnap. We’ll it looks like they got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. You want to help? Send money to organizations that provide food, water, and medical care. If you are a trained health care professional, then go down and treat the sick. If you are nothing but an ignorant, arrogant Christian missionary who is only capable of proselytizing – stay the hell away! Haiti does not need you type of help.

These missionaries are Americans. Stupid acts like this reflect poorly on our entire nation. At a time when the entire world is watching relief efforts in this most unfortunate country, we get American Christian zealots blatantly trying to steal children. In the event that the missionaries did get consent from parents to take their children, they still failed to do it properly. Their covert act is one typical of religious organizations. In the guise of offering a better life elsewhere, the religious will deceive naïve parents and convince them to abandon their children without realizing they will be converted into mindless religious Christbots. If the missionaries are found guilty, they should be punished to the full extent of Haitian law rather than deported where they will most likely go free.

The saddest thing is that these people probably truly believe that they did no wrong. Once again religion has blinded people into acting irresponsibly with the outcome of hurting the innocent. I should have known better. A religious organization that actually does something unselfishly to help people – not in this world.

The UK groups the Sisters of Mercy and Christian Brothers, along with several others, are paying out over €500m (over $750,000,000.00 USD) in cash and property to compensate those that were sexually abused as children in their schools. The money will also be used to pay for counseling and other medical expenses.  What gets me is that today, in the Twenty-First Century; we are still allowing children to be abused. These nuns, priests, and other religious people are criminals. Proportionally the Catholic Church probably has one of the largest numbers of pedophiles, rapists, sadists, of any organized group in the world. The Catholic Church is also one of the wealthiest organizations in the world too. So, like they always do, they just buy their way out of trouble. How much longer are going to allow this vile institution to continue to physically and mentally harm our children? Enough already! If you commit the crime, do the time. Let’s start putting these perverts and child molesters in jail where they belong. How about world governments taking a stand for human rights and censuring the Catholic Church? Any other organization that committed these atrocities would be dissolved and its leaders incarcerated. The Pope in jail with the rest of his perverted sadists; we can only wish.

So, the Vatican is having an unprecedented big conference on what to do if extra-terrestrial life is discovered. To some, this may seem like a shock – but it shouldn’t. The Catholic Church, unlike the wacked-out Protestant Evangelicals in the United States, has recently at least made an attempt to embrace some scientific realities. The Catholic Church’s official stance is that it accepts both Evolutionary Theory and the Big Bang. However, it maintains that the Christian god is the driving force behind them both. But extra-terrestrial aliens! The truth is this is really an important issue for the Catholic Church – and religion, in general. A much bigger issue than most religious people are openly willing to admit.

Over the past decade there have been hundreds of extrasolar planets discovered (at least 400 as of this writing). Most of these are really large Jupiter size or larger and orbit their respective stars at a close distance that would preclude any form of life emerging. But that is changing very fast. New telescopes and technology are going to make it possible to detect Earth sized planets very soon. It is only a matter of time before organic molecules are discovered elsewhere. And then, perhaps, the possibility of discovering alien life begins to increase. If we should one day actually discover intelligent life somewhere else in the universe, what happens to God?

Most likely the Catholic will try and adapt the idea of other intelligent life forms into their church dogma somehow.

Just as there is a multitude of creatures on Earth, there could be other beings, even intelligent ones, created by God. This does not contradict our faith, because we cannot put limits on God’s creative freedom.

Rev. Jose Gabriel Funes, Director of the Vatican Observatory.

But the Bible states that God created us in His image. What if the aliens don’t look like us? What if the aliens don’t have a belief in Jesus – or any god for that matter? What if they believe in another completely different god or gods? The point is, Christianity can equivocate all it wants, but the whole concept of a supreme being that created humans in His own image goes right out the window.

What the Vatican is really doing is try to get a jump on a potential problem and save its sorry ass. To date, the Catholic Church is dying. All current surveys show the Church’s numbers have been declining faster than any other religious group. Galileo dealt the first crucial blow when he eliminated our “special, privileged place” in the universe. Darwin followed with the death blow by providing the explanation as to how we were actually created. The Church has been reeling ever since.

Beginning at the end of the Dark Ages, when religion still maintained that virtually every phenomenon in the universe was a divine act,  science has replaced all of that dogma with cold hard non-religious facts. Knowledge replaced ignorance. Can religion still find a home in a scientific future devoid of fantasy and superstition? Unlike others who make the claim that science and religion have “non-overlapping magisteria,” as first proposed by biologist Stephen J. Gould, I completely disagree. Religion has No magisteria period! There is no venue at all that religion is sufficient or necessary for. Today, even intangible emotions like love and hate can easily be explained by secretions of various chemicals in the brain. These facts can be demonstrated and replicated at will. There are very few things that religion can contribute to society other than the ignorance and hatred it breeds.

Whereas I applaud the Catholic Church for at least making a feeble attempt at trying to redeem itself for crimes of keeping knowledge locked up for centuries – so what? The Church’s days are numbered and their alien convention will conclude nothing other than they were wrong; again. If intelligent extra-terrestrial life should ever be discovered it would not surprise me if they concluded that Jesus was really an alien. Then they could claim they were worshipping the aliens all along.

In USA Today’s Faith and Reason (faith yes, reason hardly) column, journalist Cathy Lynn Grossman pokes fun at the Atheist Alliance International National Convention – and atheism and freethought in general. In addition to her own failed attempt at reason, Grossman quotes from Rice University’s Anthony Pinn who makes several false claims and ridiculous statements. Using someone like Pinn as a source illustrates Grossman’s ignorance of a subject she claims to be qualified to comment on.

Grossman compares Oxford Evolutionary Biologist Professor Richard Dawkins to singer Mick Jager and award winning Journalist Christopher Hitchens to guitar player Keith Richards both from the English rock band the Rolling Stones. Her point is to show that scientists, intellectuals, etc are no more than performers. Besides her silly and immature analogy, she misses her mark completely. Perhaps if Grossman would have not made fun of the convention and its participants and tried to form some intelligent criticisms, I might not be so disgusted with her unfounded attacks.

As Grossman points out, Pinn calls himself a humanist. But there are religious humanists and Secular Humanists – the latter calling for holding religion accountable for all of the superstition and dogma that they proliferate as part of their existence. Pimm supports religious dogma and states,

“… Theism, at its core, is about the making of meaning and the establishment of stories and practices related to how and why we occupy time and space.”

–Anthony Pinn

In the above statement, the word “making” should be replaced with “making up.” Theism invents fictions and has absolutely no claim on reality. Grossman also paraphrases Pinn as saying “…religion is never going away.” Oh yes it is. All recent religious surveys confirm that it is declining everywhere and the ranks of non-believers are growing in staggering proportions.

The biggest joke is the closing question that Grossman asks,

“Pinn would like to see atheists, humanists and believers, retaining their distinctions, focus on shared ethical commitments. What are the chances?”

None.

Atheism is not just the absence of god, but the intolerance for harmful and hurtful superstitions and dogmas which cripple societies. Secular Humanism is about removing the harmful and hurtful influences of religion and replacing them with universally recognized humane and ethical worldviews. How can any religious person even understand moral commitments when most religions label actions like murder, rape, incest and just about every immoral act conceivable as acceptable? The horrific god of the Old Testament is brilliant at devising ways to torture people for his own perverted amusement. His devotees have always followed that example with like actions. Where there is a malicious god and subservient followers, there can not be any moral behavior. Until theists can stop burning children alive (see earlier post), stop hijacking airplanes and bombing subway stations, stop lying to people about made up mythical afterlives, and start treating all people with the respect and kindness they deserve, there will be no “shared ethical” endeavors.

Grossman needs to remove the word “Reason” from the title of her column. She obviously does not understand the meaning of it.