Further Damnation of the Catholic Church

In the recent wave of Catholic Church child sexual abuse scandals, U.S. bishops claimed that they were unaware that there was a danger of the accused priests re-offending if they just moved them to different a parish. As if that blatantly ignorant (and, IMO, criminal) behavior wasn’t easily dismissed using basic human compassion, now, letters have been recovered from the 1950’s by the the Servants of the Paraclete, lead by Rev. Gerald Fitzgerald, written to Pope Paul VI that address that very issue. From the article:

The founder of a religious order that treats Roman Catholic priests who molest children concluded in the 1950s that offenders were unlikely to change and should not be returned to ministry

From the letter:

Moreover, in practice, real conversions will be found to be extremely rare,” he continued. “Hence, leaving them on duty or wandering from diocese to diocese is contributing to scandal or at least to the approximate danger of scandal.

This new evidence is quite damning to the church. Their willingness to put children in the paths of pedophiles merely to protect their own self image is inexcusable. They now have evidence leading directly to the office of the Pope, making this no longer isolated cases but full fledged conspiracy. What is wrong with these people? The Catholics congregations should find new leadership. IMO, they will find more spiritual guidance from a Scooby Doo cartoon.

James Randi Suspended from You Tube

The James Randi Educational Foundation has had it’s videos removed from You Tube. That’s what you get when you dare to question Big Religion.

Hang Nails: A Result of The Fall?

Ouch, my ear!

According to creationist bullshit, everything that is bad in the world is the result of The Fall. Homosexuality – The Fall; crime – The Fall; bad test scores – The Fall!

We were made in God’s image: perfect. So, without the Fall, we would be immortal, we would be without sin, and we would all have 6 pack abs (though we wouldn’t know what to call them because we wouldn’t have those sinful 6 packs!).

God is a perfect being. So man kind would not have been created with the imperfection of hang nails, they must be the result of original sin. As is everything else that doesn’t neatly apply itself to human beings being immortal and the Earth and animals being under our dominion. Like parasites, tumors, farts, headaches, sneezing, bad teeth (the British must be very sinful), runny noses, boogers, bad breath, joint pain, toe jam, thinking sitcoms are funny.

The salt in ocean water would also be the result of original sin. If the earth was made for man, the oceans, 3/4 of the earth, must have been made for us, as well. But, there is very little we can use the oceans for since they are salinated. The simple act of drinking from the ocean would be fatal. Since they were made for us, they must have originally been fresh water and the salt currently in must have been the result of The Fall.

I think I’ve getting the hang of this “religious thought” thing I’ve heard about.

Dan Quote

How much respect should you have for a doctor that cuts you with a knife in order to sell you a bandage?

Dan Barker

Pope Condemmed For Ignorance on Condoms

This has already been on Pharyngula, but I have to publish it simply because it is such a powerful statement from the medical journal Lancet:

But the London-based Lancet said the Pope had “publicly distorted scientific evidence to promote Catholic doctrine on this issue”.

It said the male latex condom was the single most efficient way to reduce the sexual transmission of HIV/Aids.

“Whether the Pope’s error was due to ignorance or a deliberate attempt to manipulate science to support Catholic ideology is unclear,” said the journal.

But it said the comment still stood and urged the Vatican to issue a retraction. “When any influential person, be it a religious or political figure, makes a false scientific statement that could be devastating to the health of millions of people, they should retract or correct the public record,” it said.

“Anything less from Pope Benedict would be an immense disservice to the public and health advocates, including many thousands of Catholics, who work tirelessly to try and prevent the spread of HIV/Aids worldwide.”

I am very glad they aren’t pulling punches here. What Joseph Ratzinger said was irresponsible. He’s not helping anyone with his dogma, he’s hurting them. Anyone that puts their theology above real human suffering is a jerk, plain and simple.

Priests Steal $8 Million From Their Church

Yes, Jesus likes that.

Two Catholic Priests from the St Vincent Ferrer Church of Delray Beach, Florida have been sentenced for stealing $8 million dollars from their church. John Skehan, 81, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and Francis Guinan, 66, was sentenced to 4 years, even though he was only found guilty in the theft of $100,000.

Judge Jeffery Colbath said:

The crime of the defendant was pure greed unmasked. There was not a shred of moral necessity to excuse the defendant’s crime

And Judge Krista Marx was quoted saying:

No matter how many good works you have performed in your many years as a priest, your legacy will always be one of thievery and deceit

Skehan had really been living the high life for the last 50 years. He owned a pub in Ireland, a penthouse, and other properties. Colbath was his successor in both the church duties and embezzlement duties.

What’s the Point of an Afterlife Without an After-Afterlife?

What would happen if you got to Heaven and found out that that was all there was? After heaven, there is no more. What would be the point of an afterlife without an after-afterlife? None. It would be totally hopeless, devoid of any significance. How could you cope? You might as well kill your immortal soul.

And what about God’s God? What if you got to Heaven only to find out that God doesn’t have a God? How could God possibly know what is moral and what is sinful if He does not have a God giving Him an absolute set of arbitrary rules to follow? This would make Heaven, God’s domain, a chaotic place full of disobedience, murder, larceny and angel on angel gang bangs.

Book Review: godless by Dan Barker

Dan Barker’s Losing Faith in Faith has been for a very long time not only the best selling book on atheism, but practically the only book on atheism. Even though independently published, it was the number one book about atheism until the God Delusion was released and set the world of atheists books on it’s ear.

Not one to miss out on the post God Delusion wave of free thinking, Dan updated his experiences in godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists. The book narrates Dan’s personal experiences as a preacher that found himself losing his religion,  and also examinations the philosophical arguments and Biblical criticisms that lead him to leave the fold.

The book is divided into four sections; Rejecting God, in which Dan recalls his early life as an evangelical preacher and Christian music composer and his subsequent “fall” from grace; in Why I Am An Atheist he examines the logical arguments against holding a belief in a god or gods; in What’s Wrong With Christianity he examines Biblical contradictions, the reasons why Christianity is not a moral belief system, and the Jesus Myth hypothesis; and in In Life is Good he fills us in on the rich life he has been leading as an atheist activist.

godless is a very comfortable and casual read, especially for an atheist book, that are very often stuffy – full of logical arguments and science. Each chapter reads like a one hour speech, and they seem like they would be best delivered orally. Not that there is anything wrong with that, if you’ve had the pleasure of hearing Dan speak in person you can attest to what a good speaker he is and you will probably hear his voice and see his mannerisms as you read along.

Dan Barker communicates with both reason and emotion, and he does both very well. If I would ask for anything more from this book it would be a deeper insight into his time preaching and his psychological state of mind as he was changing his mind about Christianity. The section on his de-conversion is very short and left me wanting more details. What  Dan does tell, though, is told very well, strongly and intelligently.

Recommended

Trippin’ For God

Drink the tea, take that girl ...

The Church of the Holy Light of the Queen in Ashland Oregon has won the right to drink an “hallucinogenic tea” as part of it’s ceremony. It’s brewed from the ayahuasca plant, which contains DMT.

Is this giving churches special status? There are, after all, real honest medical issues that can be aided with the use of illegal drugs (like glaucoma and recovery from cancer treatment), and they are not given a complete write off (the federal enforcement of medical marijuana may be changing, though).

The only mention of religion in the Constitution are both contained in one sentence in the First Amendment. They are referred to as the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

By asking the members of a religion to obey the laws of the United States, are we “prohibiting” their free exercise of religion?

The church argued it’s case under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which is a law passed in 1993 that, for the most part, only reinforces the Free Exercise Clause.

I really don’t see how a judge can rule that your organization has the right to break the law simply because of a religious claim, especially since it does not work for scientifically proven medical issues. The religious institution doesn’t need to prove a thing, that, for instance, the drug aids them in achieving a spiritual perspective, they only need to make a claim and, because they are a church, it’s protected. It’s silly.

And it’s not an age old religion. It’s a syncretism of Christianity and South American shamanism known as Santo Daime, and was founded in 1930. So, pick the religion of your choice, then find a religion that takes the drug of your choice, and presto, new religion with all the touble free drug use you want.

That being said … how does one become a member of this church?

Harry Potter a Jewish Brainwashing Scam

Of course, it’s all a big Jewish conspiracy.Why didn’t I see it earlier! I’m being sarcastic of course, these guys from Iranian TV are not… they are loonier than a big bag of loons. Separation of Church and State is the most wonderful thing to ever happen to America, it’s a shame they don’t have it everywhere.