In 1633, Galileo was charged and found guilty of the crime of heresy for suggesting the earth was not the centre of the universe. He was sentenced to life imprisonment (reduced to house arrest) and forced to read and sign the following:
Category Archives: Christianity
Awww, how embarrassing for you.
The following photo was posted by @LoveGod50. He’s been one of two people (the other is @GodsWordIsLaw) who have been openly harassing Ricky Gervais on twitter. Continue reading
Three jeers for Christian charity!
In response to the American Atheists “What myths do you see?” billboards, the Catholic League just launched a new holiday campaign of their own — Adopt an Atheist:
Today we are launching our “Adopt An Atheist” campaign, the predicate of which is, “We want atheists to realize that there may be Christians in their community, even if those Christians don’t even know they are Christian.”
Here’s what our campaign entails. We are asking everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area [click here], letting them know of your interest in “adopting” one of them. All it takes is an e-mail. Let them know of your sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. They may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along.
If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us. As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who “believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.”
Where to begin? JT does a good job untangling most of the dreck above, but the last lines of the campaign’s page are what get to me the most.
First of all, “closeted Christians?” Um, no. I’m not sure how much clearer I can be when it comes to Christianity — I didn’t “lose” my faith, I rejected it. Plus I resent the implication in those last lines that as a non-believer, I’m somehow not able to celebrate Christmas like “the rest of us”.
But the most revealing part of the campaign is the last few words of the release — atheists are people who “believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.” Wow.
I suppose I should expect no less from the likes of Bill Donohue, the same man who said that atheists should apologize for the “anti-religious” impulse that motivated Stalin, Mao and Hitler’s actions.
That said, if there’s a multimillionaire Christian out there who’s willing to take me on as his or her pet project, do feel free to contact me. Fair warning: I’ve been told I’m a bit of a problem child.
Grasping at the funnest straws ever!
I absolutely loved the first Austin Powers movie. I thought it was a brilliant piece of parody – the fact that it spawned not only the two godawful sequels and inspired a generation of people to start describing things as “shagadelic” are lamentable, but all in all I loved the movie. It’s hard to pick an absolute favourite moment from that movie, but a recent news item kind of reminded me of one particular scene. The story:
In increasingly secular Canada, how do you bring people to God? “Through parking and bathrooms,” says Scott Weatherford, lead pastor of Calgary’s First Alliance Church. He’s only half joking. On Sundays, the evangelical church’s 1,350-spot parking lot is overflowing. The $25.7-million, six-year-old campus feels more like a convention centre than a cathedral. Weekend services are high-tech, multimedia spectacles. The church provides free fair-trade coffee, with cup holders in every one of the 1,704 seats in the sanctuary. Whether it’s the caffeine, the big-screen monitors or the rock band, no one appeared to be drifting off when Mr. Weatherford, equipped with a wireless microphone and an iPad, took the stage at a recent weekend service.
The scene:
Dr. Evil – “I’m with it, I’m hip”
(Canadian Atheist’s server doesn’t like embedded videos, so you’ll have to click through)
I just love how blatant the sucking up is. “What do kids like? Let’s get some of that hippity hop music in here, and some of those Justone Beavers people keep talking about! I don’t care what they are, get fifty of them! And a bouncy castle!” It’s like watching your 60 year-old uncle try skateboarding for the first time to try and impress his midlife crisis girlfriend, or catching your mom shopping at Sirens – embarrassing and a little creepy. Continue reading
Anti-Gay Teen Study Bible
So I cracked open my old Teen Study Bible…. Continue reading
95 % of Statistics are Made Up.
OK so I am sure that Ipsos Reid, being in the business of statistics is a little more careful with their numbers, and how they portray them, than the title would suggest. Statistics can be quirky things, they can be made to say a variety of things, even the truth. No that is not my quote. The author is unknown.
A Shorter Education…
It still bothers me that modern areas of the world can be so culturally behind the times. Shorter University in Georgia is forcing over 200 employees to sign a “Personal Lifestyle Statement” that rejects drug use, premarital sex, and homosexuality. This is apparently within the confines of the legal system (for now) because the university is not publicly funded. Employees who chose not to sign the statement could risk losing their job. Continue reading
Thank You Jesus
Here’s a photo that showed up on my Facebook yesterday. It drew quite a few comments; though the controversy drifted into a debate about whether this was “bashing” someone else’s beliefs.
The original poster, who is not one of my Facebook friends, tagged a friend of mine in the photo. My friend is actually starting his own ministry near the University of Calgary. He’s definitely one of the nicest and most patient people I’ve ever met. And while I don’t agree with his underlying reason for spreading peace and forgiveness, his mission is truly about love. Continue reading
I hate your god
I haven’t really believed in any theistic concept of a god for many years now. It took me a while to admit that I was ‘an atheist’, but I was one in fact long before I was one in name. It wasn’t until I rounded that corner that I began to really think of the implications of theistic belief. Before that happened, I fully participated in the ‘pick and choose’ attitude that I now find so galling in others – taking the bits of the articles of faith without fully thinking them through.
Now that the wool has been fully removed, however, I will not hesitate to lambaste believers in the same way I wish someone had lambasted me when I took the easy duck-out routes from having to deal with the full implications of the god I believed in. An all-powerful being that sees human suffering, suffering that it created itself, and does nothing to intervene – or does intervene but only in the most inconsequential ways – is a monster. To call your god “love” is a complete betrayal of everything virtuous and honest in that emotion. This grotesque perversion is on display no more obviously than in the headline of this story: Continue reading