15 posts tagged “religion”
So, fundamentalist are always complaining about how science's war on religion. Why aren't they talking about this more:
But Bering, now a professor in his own right at the University of Arkansas, sounds ready to burn down a cathedral. His hunger for the answers to his mother's questions barely sated, his goal is nothing less than to prove to the world, once and for all, that God is a "cognitive illusion" — a figment of our imaginations.
"My meaning in life is to illustrate that there really is no meaning," he says matter-of-factly from his cabin in the Ozark mountains. "I feel that, for the first time in the history of science, we've been able to answer these questions.
"We've got God by the throat, and I'm not going to stop until one of us is dead."
Good thing God doesn't cary a grudge.
Watch Pat Robertson call college professors killers. What a loon.
This will totally stem the decline in church attendance:
A British vicar has created his own version of the Rocky Horror Picture Show to lure the faithful back into the fold -- a new twice-monthly church service for the Goths in his parish, complete with rock music and compulsory black garments.
One o' th' foundin' principles behind Flyin' Spaghetti Monsterism be that th' global decline in seafarin' heartys since th' 1800s be responsible fer global warmin'. Th' FSM`s prophet, Bobby Henderson, suggests that today`s holiday, Talk Like a Pirate Day, ought temporarily reduce global temperatures as we appease th' FSM noodly appendages. This suggests that 't may be possible t' test fer th' existence o' th' FSM usin' his arch-nemesis, science. So I present a simple test o' Flyin' Spaghetti Monsterism: Does th' average global temperature drop on Talk Like a Pirate Day?
T' test this question scientifically would require a times series o' of th' average global temperature o'er many voyages. Unfortunately, I be a social scientist an' be havin' nay idee 'ere t' find this data in a format t' which I could swabbieally apply rigorous statistical methods. However, NASA does be havin' a website 'ere they allow ye t' graph th' average global temperature. Unfortunately, as th' graph shows, September 19 be nay a tide o' drastically colder weather. In fact, 't e'en appears that in some voyages 'tis th' apex o' a considerable rise in temperature. While thar be nay way t' test whether this rise be statistically significant, 't suggests two possibilities:
- Th' FSM only rewards real piracy, nay pseudo-piracy. We must keel haul th' keel haul, nay jus' talk th' talk if we wish t' appease th' lad's. Or …
- Th' FSM, who deliberately uses science t' deceive us, be simply maskin' his existence by returnin' false satellite data.
Either way, th' FSM once again proves that science be a fraud. Arrrrr!
Does anyone else find this advertisement for a local Christian student group a little disturbing? I think the metaphor is unintentional, but do you really want to equate God with drinking Kool-Aide?
Why cults and finance don' t mix:
If the 9,000 members of a polygamous Mormon sect in south-west Utah felt comfortable borrowing from their local bank like there was no tomorrow, it was because, in their minds, that was precisely the case. The world, they had been told, was coming to an end.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints gladly used high-interest funds to finance suspect business ventures. There was the water melon farm on which not a single water melon was planted, and plans to convert old military barracks into homes fell through when they found lead paint and asbestos inside. Now, though, the tap has been turned off. After years of obliging the sect, the local Bank of Ephraim has been forced to shut down after state regulators found it could no longer handle all the loans it had extended.
Not quite, but it does start to get close to it when U.S. Catholics start outsourcing prayers to Indian clergy.
Those crazy creationists, they sure know how to havefun:
Somewhat more creationist in approach is the Nerve-Wracking Ball: a bowling ball on a rope, dangling from a tall tree branch. A child stands before the ball, and then a park guide gives it a shove from a specific angle, so that it comes careering back at the child's face only to stop just in front of it. The child wins if he does not flinch, proving he has "faith in God's laws" — in this case, that a swinging object will never come back higher than the point from which it took off.
That is just one of the many fine attractions at Dinosaur Adventure Land:
creationist theme park and museum [in Florida] that beckons children to "find out the truth about dinosaurs" with games that roll science and religion into one big funfest with the message that Genesis, not science, tells the real story of the creation.
Orcinus has an insightful post on the role of of the The Passion of the Christ in the Culture War and "scourging the schools."
Beancounter Daydreams pointed me to:
The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Seventh Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:
Level Score Purgatory (Repenting Believers) Very Low Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers) High Level 2 (Lustful) Moderate Level 3 (Gluttonous) Moderate Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious) Very Low Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy) High Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics) Very Low Level 7 (Violent) High Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers) High Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous) Low
Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test
I am apparently a virtuous, but violent and gloomy panderer.
