John Evo posted a link to an interesting article, Why the Gods Are Not Winning, which makes the case that atheism has been experiencing a steady surge around the world, while most religions are, conversely, on a downward spiral. While all religious groups are growing numerically as the population of the planet increases, most are beginning to shrink proportionally. In fact, the only religion that is actually growing is Islam and that is mostly due to greater than average population growth in predominately Muslim countries rather than by conversions among unbelievers.

The authors go on to make a few arguments about the causes of this global phenomenon:

"Nor is it all that surprising that faith has imploded in most of the west. Every single 1st world nation that is irreligious shares a set of distinctive attributes. These include handgun control, anti-corporal punishment and anti-bullying policies, rehabilitative rather than punitive incarceration, intensive sex education that emphasizes condom use, reduced socio-economic disparity via tax and welfare systems combined with comprehensive health care, increased leisure time that can be dedicated to family needs and stress reduction, and so forth. As a result the great majority enjoy long, safe, comfortable, middle class lives that they can be confident will not be lost due to factors beyond their control".

This helps to explain why the United States is the lone outlier on this trend of increasing secularization.

And I also strongly agree with the conclusion that the authors come to:

"The practical implications are equally breath taking. Every time a nation becomes truly advanced in terms of democratic, egalitarian education and prosperity it loses the faith. It's guaranteed. That is why perceptive theists are justifiably scared. In practical terms their only practical hope is for nations to continue to suffer from socio-economic disparity, poverty and maleducation. That strategy is, of course, neither credible nor desirable. And that is why the secular community should be more encouraged".

Good stuff!

Here are a few interesting science stories I came across this week:

I remember a few years ago when scientists reassessed the age of the universe down from 20 billion to a mere 14.5 billion years. The headlines blared, "Universe Much Younger than Previously Believed" and all the young-earth-creationists started celebrating like the evidence now confirmed their belief in a 6,000 year old cosmos.

Well, I guarantee the same thing is going to happen with this story. New evidence suggests that mountain ranges are able to grow much more rapidly than previously believed, sometimes doubling in height within a 2 to 4 million year period. The Andes Mountains, it has now been discovered, rose to their majestic heights in a geological heartbeat between 10 to 6 million years ago, rather than at a leisurely and steady pace over 40 million years as was originally thought.

The science behind the process is fascinating as well. "When oceanic and continental plates come together, geologists believe the continental crust buckles. On the surface, the buckling manifests itself as a rising mountain range, but beneath the crust, the buckling creates a heavy, high-density "root" that holds the crust down like an anchor. Conventional tectonic theory says that convection of the fluid mantle deep in the Earth slowly erodes this heavy root like a stream wearing down a rock, allowing mountains to gradually rise as the crust shortens and thickens. However, the delamination theory suggests that instead of eroding slowly away, the root heats up and oozes downward like a drop of molasses until it abruptly breaks free and sinks into the hot fluid mantle. The mountains above, suddenly free of the weight of the blob, would rush upward".


Ranchers are now outfitting their cows with stereo headphones and using them to herd the cattle back to the barn. Instead of chasing after the herd with dogs and horses, the rancher now only has to play annoying noises through either the left or the right headphone, making the cows turn away from the racket. Well, at least that helps explain the upbeat sales for the new Britney Spears CD.


A 380 million year old fish fossil was recently discovered with an unborn embryo still inside and a mineralized umbilical cord still attached. This is a type of armour plated shark-like fish called a placoderm that apparently has no modern relatives still alive, yet it is the oldest known example of a creature giving live birth to it's offspring. As well, it is the first recorded species which engaged in sexual intercourse (also known as internal fertilization). And that is truly a breakthrough worth celebrating.

I've blogged about this topic before, but I stumbled onto the Rapture Ready website yesterday and noticed they have an End Times newsfeed which displays all the daily news stories which they feel proves that the world is hurtling towards Armageddon.

According to Luke 21: 10-11, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven"; so most of the stories are about wars, natural disasters, droughts and famines. Hey, what else could a water shortage in California mean except that Jesus is on the way? It's not like those things have been happening since the world began or anything. There is actually a huge write up about how the fact that the cyclone in Burma, the earthquake in China and a bigger-than-average tornado season in the US midwest happening within months of each other are a near impossible coincidence. Freakish weather is not proof of climate change, but a sign that the Lord is finally getting antsy.

Other stories revolve around gay marriage and other socially accepted forms of depravity, middle eastern threats of war and various religious events. I can at least understand the rationale for why biblical literalists see signs of the times in such news stories, misguided though they may be, but it boggles my mind how a story about Obama beating out Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination qualifies as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. I'm sure every little political skirmish between the Republicans and the Democrats may seem like a big deal to you, but it amounts to meaningless squat against the backdrop of thousands of years of human history.

And I know most Americans are used to thinking of their country as the center of the known universe, but let's get one thing straight - the United States is not mentioned in the bible. There is a good reason for this. Not, as some would have you believe, because America will be destroyed just prior to the Tribulation, but because none of the bible's writers had even the slightest idea that the continents now known as North and South America existed. I know it must pain you to realize that god wasn't even thinking about the good old US-of-A when he wrote his stupid book, but there it is. Time to get over yourselves people.

Ever notice how the antics of Christian fundamentalists are usually entertaining, yet the stuff radical Muslims do just seems to scare the shit out of everyone? The doctrines of Islam are just as nutty and amusing as the those of Christianity, but for some reason all the hatred and violence just seems to suck the humour out of it. In fact, oftentimes hearing a news story about Muslims has the effect of making me feel sad and fearful and angry all at the same time. I have even felt at times that the extreme version of Islam practiced throughout much of the Middle East is quickly becoming the biggest danger to civil liberties throughout the world. No laughing matter indeed.

So it was nice to come across three good articles in a row that show some hope for the future, a weakening of that hardline extremist mentality which has dominated the Muslim world lately:

The first story is about how the younger generation of Dutch Muslims are turning away from the traditional mosques of their parents, which are "often closely associated with a particular cultural group and country.... The Imams often don’t speak Dutch, preach in Arabic, and know nothing about Dutch society". In the new so-called "polder" mosques "Dutch will be the language used in the mosque, also for sermons. Plus, the form of Islam will be free of cultural influences from other countries. The aim is to make it attractive to young people from a variety of cultural backgrounds, ranging from Moroccan and Turkish to Somali and Surinamese". I say welcome to the 21 century people, glad you could join us!

The second story is about the Alevi Islam movement in Turkey. Although the traditional Sunni authorities are a little uneasy with the growing movement, it appears to be taking root among the Turkish people. "Most noticeable were the girls without headscarves, flirting with boys in the open entrance hall. Then there was the laxity: With no call to prayer ringing from loudspeakers, worshipers straggled in late, while one of the religious leaders joked about having to compete with TV sitcoms. When the service did start, it was far from the austere, silent genuflection associated with Sunni prayer. There were sermons, call-and-response sessions, rituals such as a boy-girl hand-washing session, and a lighting of lamps, along with long stretches of traditional music and singing. And if their style of worship appears out of sync with that preferred by Turkey's conservative Sunni ruling party, consider the Alevis' politics: They are Muslims, but their doctrine is unflinchingly progressive, favoring abortion, gay rights, equal opportunity for women, and pacifism. They praise everyone from Buddhists to Baptists, and admit to liberal borrowing from many faiths. They don't believe in heaven or hell, don't perform the Hajj pilgrimage, and don't face Mecca when they pray. God, they like to say, resides in people, not in mountains or stones".

The final story is from Basra in southern Iraq where the militant clerics have been recently booted out and sanity is regaining a foothold. The story is a collection of interviews with young people eager to embrace modernity and get on with their lives without the stifling repression of extreme Islam.

Scientists in Germany seem to have discovered a new type of explosives that are "more powerful than TNT and other existing explosives, less apt to detonate accidentally, and produce fewer toxic byproducts". This is good news for terrorist groups like the one in the Gaza Strip a few months ago that accidentally blew themselves up in their own basement while trying to put their bombs together. The new explosives are much "less sensitive to shock" which will likely make such premature ejaculations a thing of the past.

And now socially conscious suicide bombers can delight in the fact that they are causing less air pollution when they blow themselves to kingdom come in the middle of a crowded marketplace. After all, we should all work together to make the world a better place. These small acts of environmental responsibility can really add up and make a difference to the planet.

About a month ago I issued a Faith Healing Challenge asking for someone who feels they have been healed to come forth with medically documented proof. So far I haven't had a response, but an older post of mine criticizing old time faith healer, Smith Wigglesworth, continues to draw a steady stream of miracle stories. In between the commenters advising me to watch their favourite televangelist on TV comes the occasional story that rejuvenates my faith in the vapidity of the human mind.

The latest one is the story of a guy who broke his leg, but was completely and instantly healed at a revival service. Of course upon further reading we learn that this healing actually happened to take place after major surgery and two years of physiotherapy. And upon further reading the healing was actually more gradual than instant, now that he thinks about it and it still bothers him occasionally if he kneels, which kind of makes it hard to do much praying. The man was so impressed by the power of god that he has now apparently begun his own healing ministry.

But here is the quote that really got me: "God is more ready to help than we are to ask". Amazing! God is sitting up in heaven wanting desperately to heal everybody and save them from poverty and disaster, but the people are just not asking. What's a god to do?

A reader brought up a question about that picture I used on the post about the rapture. It was a well known picture to me, but I had forgotten that not everybody was forced to read Christian comics as a child. I answered there in the comments, but I thought I would bring the topic up here to the main page and elaborate.

The picture came from the hallucinogenic Hal Lindsey comic, There's A New World Coming (pdf), which of course came out in the seventies. You'll find the whole comic at that link and it is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the full range of delusion to which I was exposed as a child. As a bonus, I was digging around for a reference and I came across this great deconstruction of the comic by fellow Canadian atheist blogger, The Cynic Sage. The post is almost a year old, but he totally nailed it.

On a side note, the comic was illustrated by Al Hartley, an artist known more for his work on the Archie and Jughead series. Al went on to make a whole slew of Archie Christian comics which were long on sermonizing and short on humour. I thought they were a little dull, but that didn't prevent adults in the church from handing them out by the boxload. And boring as they were, I have to admit that they were effective. Next to Jack Chick tracts, these little babies helped shape most of my childhood theological speculation.

I made a reference in that last post to a fairly widespread belief that the rapture will undoubtedly happen during the biblical Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah) and I thought I would take a minute to more fully explain the idea.

Around the middle of the eighties, when the rapture was on the verge of happening and people were busily guessing at the month rather than the year of the apocalypse, the idea began to circulate that major biblical events throughout history had occurred on the special feast days outlined by god in the book of Leviticus. You can see how that appealed to us. Finally, here was a use for all the insane ramblings in the Old Testament. All the stuff that doesn't make sense, the totally irrational instructions, the parts that contradict each other - it was really all just there to symbolically point to what god was going to do in our lives. Why the Old Testament was really about us after all, not some backwards tribe of smelly goat-herders from the ancient near east.

Anyways, as I was saying, each of the feast days was thought to represent a major biblical event. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was the Crucifixion while the Feast of First Fruits (harvest) revealed the Resurrection. The Feast of Pentecost was evidently fulfilled by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the apostles who celebrated by running around speaking in tongues (which is where the Pentecostals get their name). Now there happens to be an obscure biblical reference to the rapture beginning with the sound of a trumpet so it was only natural that the great minds of the fundamentalist movement would think to equate the rapture with the Feast of Trumpets. This feast usually takes place sometime around the end of September and many fundies mark the day on their calendars so that they can be ready to fly up into the clouds at a moments notice.

If only more fundies would follow this guy's example...

A US tourist visiting the Holy Land became even more irrational than usual and jumped off a building at the behest of god, suffering extensive injuries upon landing. Doctors diagnosed the man with Jerusalem Syndrome, a well known psychiatric ailment in which fundamentalists traveling to Israel begin experiencing "delusions of grandeur", believing themselves to be in direct contact with the Messiah. Funny, when they exhibit the same behaviour at home it's just called Christianity.

Of course Jesus almost did the same thing. He once climbed up onto the roof of the temple and listened as a voice told him to jump off and let the angels carry him down gently. Fortunately he was able to resist the temptation long enough to be horribly tortured to death instead, so it all worked out okay. I'm thinking that American tourist maybe should've gotten to know his Bible a little better before he tried becoming the Messiah for himself.

Well the Westboro Baptist Church had a good run, but it looks like things may soon be over for the organization. The last legal challenge preventing their property from being seized in a lawsuit has now been cleared and the repo boys are set to go to work. This will not only bankrupt the Phelps family, but it should prevent them from pulling any more stunts like protesting at funerals (which is what the lawsuit was about).

Good riddance from the public discourse, although their hatred and vituperation probably did more to further the acceptance of homosexuality in the American mainstream than any other group during its time. And maybe, just maybe, that was the point all along.

The Babylonian creation myth is one of the most exciting: war between the gods, vengeance and betrayal, secret plots and bodily fluids everywhere.

Apsu (the god of fresh water) and Tiamat (the goddess of the ocean) were the very first of the deities. It doesn't sound like they'd make a good combination, but they were the original wild couple. His male fluids pulsed into the tempestuous chaos of her tides at every opportunity and their torrid love affair eventually brought the very fabric of existence into being.

Like most passionate young couples they were happy together for a time, until they made the tragic mistake of having children. The kids turned out to be so rude and annoying that Apsu, like any normal dad, decided to slaughter them all. Unfortunately their grandson, Ea, learned of the plan and made a preemptive strike. Ea killed Apsu and made his house on top of the dead body. Shortly after he and his wife moved into the new digs, she gave birth to Marduk - the main god of the Babylonians.

Of course, Tiamat was none too pleased by this turn of events and vowed revenge. She created eleven monsters and used them to wage a brutal war across the heavens. She quickly defeated one god after another until only Marduk, the storm god, was left to fight. After convincing the council of the gods to put him in charge, Marduk went at Tiamat with lightning and hail and hurricanes. He finally defeated the goddess of chaos by trapping her in a net and puffing her full of air from one of his stormy winds.

It was at that moment when the creation of the world began. Marduk killed Tiamat by smashing her head in with a club, then divided her body in half to create the land and the sky (the rain is the leftover spittle dripping down from her cold dead mouth). To make humans, which he needed to perform all the chores the gods were too lazy to do for themselves, Marduk needed to "borrow" someone's blood and bones. To do this, Marduk killed off one of the other gods, Kingu, who had become Tiamat's lover after the death of Apsu and he used the various parts to form our mortal bodies.

This is hilarious! In the comments section of that post about Baptism for the Dead, I'm having a great discussion with a Mormon who is attempting to defend this dubious practice. Nothing wrong with that, but he just pulled out the "it's-so-batshit-crazy-that-it-must-be-true" defense.

I haven't heard that one for a while. It is basically the admission that the belief is so illogical and stupid that no rational person would have made it up, therefore it must actually be true. The reasoning goes that if Joseph Smith were just inventing a new religion to attract followers he would have made it somewhat coherent. The fact that he didn't means it must really have been a divine revelation - direct from god himself.

Anyone convinced yet?

This news is about a week late, but I just found out that sadly I no longer qualify as the sexiest Canadian.

That title has now been taken by Jayde Nicole, recently named Playboy's Playmate of the Year for 2008. She's a small town northern girl who has somehow managed to stay incredibly hot after all those cold Ontario winters. She defines sexy in a land where fleece underwear still counts as lingerie and public broadcasting is often the raciest programming available.

Even her listed turn-ons are pure Canadiana: "Intelligence, honesty, politeness - and hockey fights". Okay, I made that last one up, but apparently she does have the intelligence thing down. At an age when most people are still living in their parents' basement and wondering what to do with their lives, Jayde has already started her own modeling company, written a beauty and fitness book and is currently working on a soon-to-be-released reality show about her life. Presumably the show will be filled with sexy shots of her shoveling snow and drinking beer at the curling rink: Rowwr!

Inquiring minds want to know. Now that we've discovered what Catholics think of aliens, Tommy started pondering about how Young Earth Creationists would react to the arrival of alien beings. I started to reply in the comments of that last post, but it is too juicy of a story to leave buried off the main page.

There has actually been a lot of discussion about this topic within the fundamentalist churches and the consensus seems to be that one day so-called "aliens" really will show up on earth, right during the beginning of the End Times. However they will not actually be aliens at all, but demons in disguise pretending to be an advanced race of godless beings who will trick the masses into rejecting god.

As a kid I was even forbidden to watch the popular TV show A.L.F. because my parents believed at the time that it was a satanic plot to get kids to think that aliens were fun. They went on to assure me that real aliens would probably be more reptilian because Satan was represented by a snake and had once controlled all the dinosaurs, eventually leading them to their doom in an ill advised attack on Noah's Ark. It is assumed that recent UFO sightings and stories of alien abductions were the work of demons laying the groundwork for the eventual rise of the Antichrist.

This story made me laugh. In keeping with freedom of religion laws, pagan prisoners in Britain are now going to be allowed to keep magic wands in their cells.

Have they gone crazy over there? Hasn't anyone in the UK read the Harry Potter series? Once the prisoners get their hands on those wands they'll be stupefying the helpless muggle guards and escaping as fast as they can chant "Alohomora".

Still the actual decision is a bit of a compromise. Critics of the plan were worried that fractious wizards would start beating each other with their 12 inch rods of Yew so the prisoners will only be supplied with short, bendy twigs instead - hardly sturdy enough even to simply Wingardium Leviosa a teacup over to their dinner table.