Why I'm terrified of Sarah Palin and of the Tea Party

Quite simply, it's because the two greatest threats to American liberty and security in the 21st Century are religion and stupidity. I'd be happy to cite examples if anyone wants them.

Christian Atheist?

Can someone please tell me why this person titled his book "Christian Atheist?" Is he simply trying to appropriate the term to misrepresent what atheism is? I'm stumped...

http://mtararat.org/blog/2010/04/20/christian-atheist/#comment-1011

Whopping Lie of the Day

Many thanks to the good clerical leaders of Iran for clearing this one up for me. Apparently, promiscuous women cause earthquakes there:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100419/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_earthquakes_promiscuity

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

*Headslap* Of course! It's so obvious, how did I not see it? And to think, I've been listening to geologists and other qualified people this whole time...

More Pope defending

I recently questioned a Catholic blogger on whether he believes the Pope should be held accountable for his role in the Church sex scandal, but my comment was not posted because the blogger did not believe there was evidence that he was involved. Here's the blog post:

http://scecclesia.wordpress.com/2010/04/15/militant-atheism-goes-balistic/

Here's the blogger's emailed response to my question:

"And exactly what do you believe the Holy Father s role in the sex scandal was that you believe he should be held accountable , Dave?

I believe he does have a responsibility - a very heavy one - to continue in the task of healing the wounds of the past and making sure that in the future the Church is the safest place for all people.

We believe he has been very successful at this thus far, and that he is continuing to come up with the goods.

We believe that there is no evidence of culpability for any of his actions in the past - the NYT s journalism not withstanding - except maybe a slowness to realise the serious extent of the problem. As soon as he became responsible for the administration of accusations in 2001 he became very aware and very active, all the more so when he entered into the office of pope.

What is your evidence to the contrary?"

So let's look at what this person is saying:

1) The Pope's responsibility is to the Church, not its victims.
2) We think he's doing a great job.
3) There is no evidence that he covered up Church abuse since taking over responsibility for Church discipline in 2001, despite numerous news reports to the contrary.

Here's my response to the email:
"Many news outlets have reported multiple occasions on which Cardinal Ratzinger's office was notified of the abuse and either ignored the warnings or transferred the perpetrators to other jurisdictions. The most prominent recent example was of the head of a school for deaf children in Wisconsin.

Unless you are specifically closing your eyes to these reports, it is hard to imagine that you have not seen them. If you'd like, I'd be happy to provide links to news articles."

Now let's see if they continue to censor my comment. I'll keep you posted...

...which seems to be a trend today.

Here's a piece by a Catholic blogger in which the author makes a sweeping generalization about all atheists; we apparently suffer from "intellectual insecurity:"

http://lasalettejourney.blogspot.com/2010/04/intellectual-security-of-atheist-and.html

Note who he quotes in coming to this conclusion: other Catholics. Really, it would be much easier to take points of view like this seriously if the people stating them knew the first thing about what they were criticizing.

And the idea of a member of the Catholic Church accusing atheists of violence throughout history tripped my irony detector.

Russian patriarch insults a bunch of people he's never met

With no explanation of why he feels this way, the Voice of Russia has quoted Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church as saying atheism turns people into brutes:

http://english.ruvr.ru/2010/04/16/6522817.html

I'd love to respond to that, but I have no clue what his basis for saying that would be, other than plain old bigotry.

Personally, I find ritual cannibalism brutish, but most Christian denominations require it as a sacrament.

Condoms for religious texts

I love it! An atheist student group in Houston is offering to let people trade religious pamphlets for condoms and educational materials about safe sex:

http://media.www.houstonianonline.com/media/storage/paper229/news/2010/04/15/CampusNews/Holy-Text.For.Safer.Sex-3906394.shtml

It doesn't quite counteract the Pope telling people in AIDS-ravaged African nations not to use condoms, but it's a start.