January 5, 2016::End of the day round-up

This Pastafarian just schooled Georgia officials for refusing to respect his spaghetti-worshipping religion

A so-called “Pastafarian” who claims to worship the “Flying Spaghetti Monster” is fighting Georgia officials for the right to wear a spaghetti colander in his official driver’s license photo.

Chris Avino said the state’s decision to bar him from wearing the religious headgear violated his First Amendment rights — and on Twitter he suggests he’s preparing legal action against the state.

The state initially allowed Avino to wear a colander on his head for a temporary driver’s license photo, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution explained, but officials recently decided that he would need to take a new photo — without the colander.

A follow-up to a story posted previous,,,

Raw Story Uses Video Editing To Defame Kent Hovind

The section that Raw Story excerpted from starts around 4:56 and runs to around 8:00 for a total of over 3 minutes of which Raw Story included less than half. The part that Raw Story left out was Kent explaining why he did not think the particular passages from Acts under discussion were contradictions. Kent's riff, included by Raw Story was about what purpose apparent contradictions might serve. There is a bit of Hovind grandiosity there as he indicates that the heavenly father is doing things much as Kent would if he were the big guy, but Kent Hovind is not saying that there are contradictions in the bible,

 Pennsylvania Man Fakes Tumor To Swindle Church, Friends: Cops

To pay tribute we wanted to reflect on what she meant to others and listen to their stories and experiences with this amazing individual who has passed away on December 25, 2015. To honor her legacy, a panel made up of Aron Ra, David Fitzgerald, Miguel Conner, and Dr. Robert Price along with the Mythicist Milwaukee team, discussed the impact that Acharya’s work and friendship had on their lives.



A New Year's Resolution For Science Advocates: Don't Cry Wolfe

A Challenge to WND and David Barton on Thomas Jefferson and Slavery

Let me issue a challenge to Barton and World Net Daily: Allow me space to rebut these promo pieces. Stop misrepresenting my arguments and the evidence and link to this post. Right now, your behavior is a right wing version of the liberal bias you assert is true of the mainstream media. If you are so sure you are correct, then have the courage to back it up.

 Gordon Klingenschmitt Blames Demonic Influence For Failure To Defund Planned Parenthood

"So you see the invisible spirits, the Holy Spirit of God with his angels and the demonic spirits are speaking to each of these human actors in this scenario. And we can discern, for example, upon those who promote a pro-abortion agenda the demonic spirit of murder who is influencing them and forcing us, as taxpayers, to collaborate with them to fund the killing of innocent children and that is wrong and that is evil and that is demonic."

Pondering,,,

We all know that Ray Comfort is an idiot and any other adjective you would like to assign to him. I like to "know thine enemies" and came across this gem whilst looking for something else. I didn't make it past the first 10 minutes of the promo before vomit began to rise.

Anyways, I know this hack job is a few years old but the first thing that jumped out was Comfort's attempt to equate evolution to a religious belief.. But there is no "faith" involved (something he tries to make a point of further along). 

One either accepts the evidence for evolution or one does not. Evolution is based in the scientific method, religion is not. Religion is based on revelation and can not be objectively verified.

Evolution answers "how" life came to be where it is today. Religion tries to provide an answer for "why" we are here. Two distinct questions. Regardless of whether Creationism or ID, evolution is scientific fact.

I know I'm speaking to the choir but there is a point that I hope to get to later in the month (maybe,,,lol) that goes along the line of, "woo" never saved anyone's ass but science does. It is something I am reminded of every morning since July when I wake up and pop my pills that keeps my brain from exploding again

Theocracy alert! Justice Scalia says U.S. honors ‘God,’ not religious neutrality

Clearly, Justice Antonin Scalia does not understand what the framers understood. In a speech Saturday at a Louisiana Catholic high school, he claimed that the Constitution doesn’t require governmental religious neutrality. He also made an embarrassing show of “God is on our side” hubris by proclaiming:

“God takes care of little children, drunkards and the United States of America. I think that’s true. God has been very good to us. One of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor.” (The first part of the quote was lifted from a very similar one that first appeared in 1856 in Harper’s magazine.)

According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Scalia told a small audience at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metairie that just because the First Amendment forbids the government from playing favorites among the various sects, that doesn’t mean the government can’t favor religion over nonreligion.

If people want strict prohibition against government endorsement of religion, let them vote on it, Scalia said, adding ungrammatically, “Don’t cram it down the throats of an American people that has always honored God on the pretext that the Constitution requires it.”

Scalia thus denied that the Bill of Rights was adopted, in part, to ensure that some rights, such as freedom of conscience, would be placed above the vicissitudes of tyranny of the majority.

 Kim Davis Predicts She Is 'Just The First Of What's Going To Be Very Many'

“The stand I took affects every church, every person that lives and loves God, that holds the word of God precious and dear and intimate in their lives,” Davis told EWTN’s Catherine Szeltner in an interview broadcast on December 17. “I’m just the first of what’s going to be very many. You can rest assured of that. And it’s not if it happens, it’ll be when it happens. And maybe my stand will encourage others who will be in the same position.”

Szeltner reported that Davis told her that her time in jail was a “joyful and peaceful time” and that she “knows that it is a possibility” she’ll return.

 

5th Annual International Day of Protest Against Hereditary Religion - taking place on January 23rd of 2016

Cancer quack Dr. Stan Burzynski is attempting to dodge his court hearing date. He brought a doctor's note. Really, it's a note. "Please excuse Stanley (sic) from gym, I mean, the hearing." He is suffering from heart artery blockages. See the court filling here. https://t.co/NcsRq8MLUG

Creationists say theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss is like Hitler: ‘Very, very terrifying’

I find it quite interesting when religionists attempt to cite history, as they usually get it wrong. Very wrong: “Hitler said some similar things,” Comfort interjected. “Hitler’s Youth.”

First off, it was Lenin who said, "Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world." In reference to Emeal Zwayne's statement, "But the way he said that, ‘In a generation — that’s what we should do, plant those seeds of doubt, it’s our responsibility.’”

Second, the sole purpose of the Hitlerjugend (male youth aged 14 to 18), the Deutsches Jungvolk (German Youth for younger boys), and the Bund Deutscher Mädel ( League of German Girls) was indoctrination, to fight faithfully for the Third Reich. To not question authority and accept instruction like good little soldiers (of God).

Science is not indoctrination; it is a methodology

Science is not a religion; it is knowledge, organized systematically.

Science has no god nor prophets; just many very smart people.

Whether I agree with Krauss's statement or whether his statememnt is a correct observation is moot for the moment. What I find ironic with both Comfort's and Zwayne's implied trope, they need to re-examine their own statements, dogma and doctrines. They are so concerned by the ability of science to de-legitimitize their ideology, they fail to see the harm and fear they themselves cause.

"When one provokes in a child a fear of the dark, one awakens in him a feeling of atavistic dread. Thus this child will be ruled all his life by this dread, whereas another child, who has been intelligently brought up, will be free of it." (Adolf Hitler, "Table Talk" discussions on the night of July 11-12, 1941, p. 12)

When one is injected with the god virus at an age before the ability to think critically for one's self you will remain that way for life unless you are exposed and taught to question dogmatic authority.  Religion has no rightful place, it preaches intolerance against anything deemed as sinful in the minds of those most afflicted with this virus.  Playing Godwin’s Law, as Comfort and Zwayne did, is a sign of a flawed argument. When you are backed against a wall and see no logical way out, playing the Hitler card is an attempt to demonize your opponent.

"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration-courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."

H.L. Mencken"

Creationists say theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss is like Hitler: ‘Very, very terrifying’

USC Professor Claims Ray Comfort’s ‘Evolution vs. God’ Documentary Is ‘Biblical Porn’ | Christian News Network

",,,Comfort told Christian News Network that Evolution vs. God is effective because it shows how evolutionists struggle to provide evidence for their theory,,," Uhm dude obviously suffers from a delusion of the mind as there is ample evidence supporting evolution. Creating a "controversy" where there isn't one,,,

Craig Stanford is a professor of anthropology and biological sciences at the University of Southern California. Known for his outspoken evolutionary and atheistic beliefs, Stanford appeared on The No God Cast Podcast—a weekly program that, according to the show’s website, provides “a platform” from which atheists can “share their stories and speak their minds.” Though the podcast’s weekly audience is rather small, comments Stanford made on the September 20th episode have generated controversy.

During the program, Stanford criticized Evolution vs. God—a new documentary created by Ray Comfort that challenges evolutionary thought. In the interview, Stanford said it is best to ignore evangelical Christians like Comfort.

“The best approach to people like him and the evangelical community that might be making films like this, in general, is to just ignore them because they’re obviously preaching to the converted; they are not winning over any hearts and minds of anybody else who is not evangelical,” Stanford argued. “It’s a bit of a silly approach that they have that’s all about trying to validate their increasingly marginalized beliefs.”

USC Professor Claims Ray Comfort’s ‘Evolution vs. God’ Documentary Is ‘Biblical Porn’ | Christian News Network

American pastor blames mass murder of children on 'British redcoats' Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens | God Discussion

This coming from a guy who believes (although he has rescinded that belief,,,kind of) that a banana was perfectly designed, forgetting that we humans have domesticated said fruit by manipulating the genetics,,,

,,,The reason for mass murders and violence in America, according to Comfort, is because "British redcoats" have "invaded our nation" and "stole the hearts of our children," thus turning the nation into one that does not fear God.  Those redcoats, he went on to say, are evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and the late author, Christopher Hitchens.

[,,,]
Comfort's co-host Mark Spence warned that ideas have consequences and that people need to think about the consequences of the nation  "opening its arms wide to these men that are coming in and that are infiltrating the minds and the hearts of the youth of America with these ideas, and people aren't thinking about where that leads, when you devalue the fact that man is made in the image of God and you remove the intrinsic value of the human being, and you also subscribe to evolutionary theory — survival of the fittest — you know, it's kind of like there's this hypocritical doublespeak, if you would, in terms of what, you know, people adhere to and then what the ultimate or the logical ramifications are to that and they just kind of don't want to go there."

American pastor blames mass murder of children on 'British redcoats' Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens | God Discussion