Deporting for a pastor

I’m a compassionate guy, or at least I try hard to be. The case of Baptist pastor Hector Villanueva pulls at my heartstrings. He’s lived in the US since he was 3, yet never became a citizen. He’s facing deportation back to Mexico because of a crime he committed 15-years ago. Christians are asking for that he be allowed to stay because he’s a Christian pastor who has changed his ways.

His children are American citizens. If he’s deported he will be separated from his family. I don’t want to see that happen. Yet there is a principle at stake here too. Villanueva is a convicted criminal. Other men facing similar circumstances are routinely deported. If I were in his shoes, as an Atheist I would have no change at staying. The truth is, one mistake can cost you your shot at citizenship. The fact that he came to Christ, became a pastor, and lead a good life are immaterial. It might be time for him to move his church to Mexico.

It’s a good think I’m not an immigration judge.

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The Amazing Atheist on The Ground Zero Mosque

One of the best atheist videos on YouTube I've seen in a while:


Unfortunately, I have to agree with him on Pat Condell.  I've always enjoyed Pat's videos, but I think he's been becoming less reasonable recently, and his focus on how evil Islam is might be clouding his judgment.

Anyway, great video.  Now I need to find out where he shot that...


What to do with us pesky non-Jews

A rabbi in Israel wrote a book defending the murders of us non-Jews, whom the author describes as “uncompassionate by nature”, in order to curb our “evil inclinations”. The author also defends the intentional pre-meditated murder of babies.

What do you think some of his peers got together and did?  If you guessed “defended it, of course”, give yourself a cookie (via: Alternet):

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Dragon*Con is almost…almost here

Tonight, the Atlanta Skeptics are hosting their Star Party. A number of luminaries will be there, shining so brightly that we won't be able to see a damned thing. The physics department at Emory is hosting the event. It is the kicking off of what promises to be a positively bonkers weekend. I am going to grab audio and just enjoy the hell out of myself this weekend.

Man, I need this.

HJ

Professor Stephen Hawkins tells the bipedal primates with brains: “There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe”

For the last few centuries Science and Religion have been playing the equivalent of a game of strip-poker.

Religion is now down-to-its last-vestiges of clothing (a frilly pair of woman’s panties as worn by The Pope) and Science is about to place it’s hand, a Royal Flush, on-to the table.

Rather than the conventional deck these cards come embossed with a simple statement of what is about to be revealed as fact.

GOD DID NOT CREATE UNIVERSE

Read some excepts from Hawkins new book ‘The Grand Design’:

“That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings."

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.”


“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.”

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Pastor Rodney Steward arrested

rodneySteward Baptist pastor Rodney Steward was arrested after e-mailing a video of his genitals to what he thought was  a 15-year-old girl.

According to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason's Office, Stewart was chatting online between June 2010 and August 2010 with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl and her mother, but in reality were Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies, who were working as part of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC).

He was associated with Broadview Heights Baptist Church. He makes his living running his own ministry doing speaking engagements.

I love this bit of Christian revisionist history.

He preached several times last year at the Bethel Baptist Church in London, Ontario. Those sermons were removed from the church's website after the arrest. The current pastor was not available to comment.

Do you want to hire pastor Steward?

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We’d like to thank the academy…

Hey, gang, remember that one time when we asked you to go vote for us as best access TV show in the Austin Chronicle? Well, thanks very much for your votes... WE WON!

Got a nice blurb, too:

This international public access show includes debates about religious philosophy while promoting a positive education on atheism. Some of our town's most delightful free thinkers, including Hepcats author Martin Wagner, computer scientist Don Baker, and aerospace engineer Jen Peeples, host this tasteful approach to lively, interactive conversations with viewers of various beliefs.

Oh my gosh, so many people to thank, if we can just stop crying long enough to put on our tiara.

Congratulations also to our good friends at the Texas Freedom Network, who walked away with "Best Activist Organization."

Dodge Jesus

I can’t tell if the driver is an oblivious Christian or a clever atheist… but I love the juxtaposition :)

(Photo courtesy of reader Lorelei, who spotted the car in Lihue, Kauai in Hawaii.)

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Odd Catholic news

I report on Catholic clergy sexual abuse. I can honestly say I’ve never see a story about one priest trying to frame another with child porn.  Now I have.

South Florida investigators are looking for a counselor and former Catholic priest who allegedly planted child pornography on the computer of another former priest.

Alfred Justin Boulerice faces charges of trespassing, tampering with evidence and making a false report to law enforcement.

Read more...

Would you trust a priest simply because he’s a priest? I think they have lost the moral high ground, if they ever had it.

christopher hitchens: unanswerable prayers

from vanity fair:


click image to source

'the most comprehensive investigation of the subject ever conducted—the “study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer,” of 2006—could find no correlation at all between the number and regularity of prayers offered and the likelihood that the person being prayed for would have improved chances. but it did find a small but interesting negativecorrelation, in that some patients suffered slight additional woe when they failed to manifest any improvement. they felt that they had disappointed their devoted supporters. and morale is another unquantifiable factor in survival. i now understand this better than i did when i first read it. an enormous number of secular and atheist friends have told me encouraging and flattering things like: “if anyone can beat this, you can”; “cancer has no chance against someone like you”; “we know you can vanquish this.” on bad days, and even on better ones, such exhortations can have a vaguely depressing effect. if i check out, i’ll be letting all these comrades down. a different secular problem also occurs to me: what if i pulled through and the pious faction contentedly claimed that their prayers had been answered? that would somehow be irritating.'

the entire piece here.

Review – Brand Steakhouse in LV

I dinned at Brand on Monday night. It’s a steakhouse in the Monte Carlo Hotel in Las Vegas. I will not bestow Mojoey’s foodgasm on this restaurant. It came close, but missed in a few key areas.

The ambiance is nice from the outside. It’s an open seating area which is furnished in a modern elegant style. The lighting is subdued, but that does not matter because one side is left open to the casino, so outside light pours in. We were seated along the outside edge in seats with a view of the action. What that really meant was the a 2.5 foot wall table level wall separated us from Casino foot traffic. It’s a great arrangement for people watching, but not so good for romantic dinning.

Did I mention it was loud? the casino has flat screen televisions above each gaming table. The broadcast noise, coupled with the noise from the craps tables, coupled with the comments from casino traffic and then music piped in over the top of it all, made for an wall of noise. At times I had trouble hearing the serving staff talk.


I spent $200 on dinner for two. That’s an appetizers, a main course, desert and a bottle of wine for two people. It’s what I expected to spend, but the value for food based on similar dinning experiences was weak. For example, the wine list was nice, but completely priced out of my range. I paid $35 for a bottle of 2007 “The Cab”. It was the lowest price option on the wine list, but I know it retails for $12. The average was $100 for something that retails at $25. I felt abused.

We both had shrimp cocktails ($13). The were four large prawns, but trimmed so they were straight instead of curved. The prawns were large and delicious. Based no similar dinning experiences I would say the dish was $2 too expensive or one prawn short.

I ordered the large cut of prime rib ($37). My cut was small and over priced. I would have felt comfortable with a $25 price. There was no $12 worth of extra goodness to be had. It was just over priced meat. It was cooked perfectly and tender. I enjoyed the meal. My wife had the short rib, which served with fired potatoes and delicious.

The sides are served extra and averaged $9. Our waiter gave use the typical Steakhouse spiel, the sides are big enough for two and mean to share. I took her at her word and ordered asparagus and corn. I figured that I’m 18 dollars in on side dishes, they better live up to their billing. What arrived was five trimmed asparagus stalks cut into ten 1.5 inch pieces. I figure it was short 10 pieces as a single serving and far short of something that could be shared.  The corn was buttery goodness, but no better in size. My guess is three or maybe four large table spoons worth. Both were good, but not sufficient to share, and totally over priced.
Desserts were outstanding and reasonably priced, but their selection was limited. My wife lived off hers for two days.

Were were celebrating a special occasion, it was our wedding anniversary. When we made reservations they were careful to ask about our reason for dinning at Brand. Our special event was never mentioned while we dinned. I overheard the staff congratulating another couple, so my guess is that the staff is inconstant with the application of this service. The restaurant also stresses a dress code. They are careful to tell you about it when you make a reservation. yet they were serving a man is shorts at one table and a dirty looking hustler at another.

Despite all this, my wife an I enjoyed our meal. This was due chiefly to the quality of the food. It was a good meal. Plus, the staff did not bother you while you are dinning. We enjoyed the privacy.

If you are looking for a romantic dinning experience, go to another restaurant. Las Vegas is full of options. If you are looking for good value, don’t bother eating at Brand. I felt ripped off. If you’ve got money to burn, by all means, enjoy.
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Hawking: Fuck God

Hawking has something to say:

LONDON - God no longer has any place in theories on the creation of the Universe due to a series of developments in physics, British scientist Stephen Hawking said in extracts published Thursday from a new book.

In a hardening of the more accommodating position on religion that he took in his 1988 international best-seller "A Brief History of Time", Hawking said the Big Bang was merely the consequence of the law of gravity.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist," he writes in "The Grand Design", which is being serialised by The Times newspaper.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going," added the wheelchair-bound expert.

Hawking has achieved worldwide fame for his research, writing and television documentaries despite suffering since the age of 21 motor neurone disease that has left him disabled and dependent on a voice synthesiser.

In "A Brief History of Time", Hawking had suggested that the idea of God or a divine being was not necessarily incompatible with a scientific understanding of the Universe.

But in his latest work, Hawking cites the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star outside our own Solar System as a turning point against Isaac Newton's belief that the Universe could not have arisen out of chaos.

"That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions — the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass — far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings," he wrote.

Hawking argued earlier this year that mankind's only chance of long-term survival lies in colonizing space, as humans drain Earth of resources and face a terrifying array of new threats.

He also warned in a recent television series that mankind should avoid contact with aliens at all costs, as the consequences could be devastating.


Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/create+Universe+Hawking/3473347/story.html#ixzz0yOXX6KgZ

Earth and Moon from Mercury


Earth and Moon from MESSENGER
Credit: NASA/JHU APL/CIW

Another one of those amazing phoitographs of the earth taken by a spacecraft. This time from Messenger. The earth and the moon as seen from Mercury.

From APOD: 2010 September 1 – Earth and Moon from MESSENGER.

Explanation: What does Earth look like from the planet Mercury? The robotic spacecraft MESSENGER found out as it looked toward the Earth during its closest approach to the Sun about three months ago. The Earth and Moon are visible as the double spot on the lower left of the above image. Now MESSENGER was not at Mercury when it took the above image, but at a location from which the view would be similar. From Mercury, both the Earth and its comparatively large moon will always appear as small circles of reflected sunlight and will never show a crescent phase. MESSENGER has zipped right by Mercury three times since being launched in 2004, and is scheduled to enter orbit around the innermost planet in March of 2011.

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Fresh thoughts from Hawking, same old dinopoop from the Creationist lobby

THERE is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.

According to BBC today, Hawking had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science, but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.

The Grand Design, part serialised in The Times, says there was no need for a god to set the Universe going.

He concludes:

Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something.

In his new book, an extract of which appears in The Times, Britain’s most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton’s belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos.

Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said:

That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions – the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass – far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings.

He adds:

Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Sunday Mail reported that primary school students are being taught that man and dinosaurs walked the Earth together – and that there’s fossil evidence to prove it.

Not only did dinosaurs and humans coexist, Jesus actually tamed the critters, if this bizarre tattoo is to be believed. (Click on pic for more wacky Jesus tats.)

Fundamentalist Christians, according to recent studies, are hijacking religious instruction classes despite education experts saying Creationism and attempts to convert children to Christianity have no place in state schools.

Students have been told Noah collected dinosaur eggs to bring on the Ark, and Adam and Eve were not eaten by dinosaurs because they were under a protective spell.

Critics are calling for the RI program to be scrapped after claims emerged Christian lay people are feeding children misinformation. Many of the instructors are from Pentecostal churches.

Education Queensland is aware that Creationism is being taught by some religious instructors, but said parents could opt out. Australian Secular Lobby president Hugh Wilson pinted out, however, that children were ostracised and discriminated against if they were pulled out of the class.

Set Free Christian Church’s Tim McKenzie said when students questioned him why dinosaur fossils carbon dated as earlier than man, he replied that the great flood must have skewed the data.

Queensland Teachers Union President Steve Ryan said teachers were sometimes compelled to supervise the instructors “because of all the fire and brimstone stuff”.

New research shows three in 10 Australians believe dinosaurs and man did exist at the same time. The survey, by the Federation of Australian Scientific and Technological Societies, shows a “worrying” lack of basic scientific principles.

Said FASTS president Dr Cathy Foley:

The results underscore the need for students to be exposed to science and mathematics through a well resourced education system, rather than learning about science through Jurassic Park.

PhD researcher Cathy Byrne found in a NSW-based survey that scripture teachers tended to discourage questioning, emphasised submission to authority and excluded different beliefs. She said 70 percent of scripture teachers thought children should be taught the Bible as historical fact.

A parent of a Year 5 student on the Sunshine Coast said his daughter was ostracised to the library after arguing with her scripture teacher about DNA.

The scripture teacher told the class that all people were descended from Adam and Eve. My daughter rightly pointed out, as I had been teaching her about DNA and science, that ‘wouldn’t they all be inbred’?

The teacher replied that DNA wasn’t invented then.

After the parent complained, the girl spent the rest of the year’s classes in the library.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn (Hawkin) and Brian Jordan (Creationists)

Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally – Interviews With Participants

Interviews with the “non-crackpots”:

Our doorstep is dirty. Clearly.

And you gotta love the nutjobs defending that Obama is a racist. Sheesh.

(via)

Nutball Alert: Laurie Cardoza-Moore

Laurie Cardoza-Moore (PJTN) is a hater and a nutball. In fact, she may set the new standard for nutballs. Her words drip with hate. Watch the video and see if you can tell who it is she hates. It should not be hard.

She’s a Christian, can you tell? She hates Muslims, that much is clear. She’s from Tennessee. I wonder if that had anything to do with the arson attack mosque in her hometown?

Anderson Cooper asked the question. Laurie Cardoze-Moore choked on her incomprehensible logic. He words mark her as a racist who is  intolerant of the rights of our fellow America citizens to worship as they see fit. Her words are meant to incite. Her words are meant to stop Muslims from building any mosque, anywhere. She apposes Islam because she make the idiots calculation 911 =Muslims : Muslims = Terrorists. Where is Jesus in this? Where is love? Let’s just call it what it really is, hate.

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Can freedom be a burden?

The mainstream Christian state churches of the Western Europe have in time been transformed into state organs, that are driven mainly by the forces of tradition and continuity.
The right to collect taxes ensures that they can have big organizations running the very versatile daily business of the churches. However they continue to function at the level that they do to because of the extraordinary latency that is built-in to all large organizations.
These west-European Christian state churches are no more a threat to freedom of thought or scientific inquiry and they have largely withdrawn themselves from the political process of the society, if the immediate interests of the Church are not threatened.

Wikipedia

They have in fact in practice accepted the basic supremacy of science and knowledge over faith in our societies.
These churches are quite content if they are allowed to collect their dues and mind their daily business in peace. Very seldom do their leaders venture to the public eye to oppose goings on in the society or in politics anymore.

Much bigger problem for humanity are various fanatical fringe churches, sects and secret societies, whose popularity has risen as the official churches have became more reasonable and well-behaved.
One of those movements that are benefiting from the petrifying of the Western state churches has been Islam, that has gained converts in ever-growing pace in the Western Europe also.

The coolheaded and quite reasonable teachings of Western state churches are not enough for many zealots and these more extreme religious movements like Islam serve this existing demand.
When speaking in tongues and overall religious fervor goes out of fashion in the official state churches, there will inevitably be other places where they can be found.
There will always be people who need to have extremely deep personal experiences in their worship, which the sterile western state religions of today cannot provide anymore.

I do fear that there is a size-able portion of people in also our western societies that see freedom of choice as a real burden for themselves. There is a group of people that feel a great sense of liberation when they are not required making any real decisions on their own anymore.
The job of assembling your own view of the world just is a too daunting task for many people. The ready-made packets offered by religions, sects or religious-like ideologies as communism can be gift from heaven for this kind of people.
After you accept a ready-made package offered by a extremist version of religion you don’t have to think anymore yourself what to think of new things. There is a reverend, a pastor or cell-leader telling you what to think and how to respond to new things.

On this background it becomes much easier to comprehend that also some very well educated women in Western Europe have been converting to Islam.
The oppression of women inbuilt in this religion is so obvious to anybody that is almost beyond comprehension that this kind of things can happen. But the promise of liberation from our own free will can be so tempting, that people are willing to accept almost anything that comes with it, if only they can give up their freedom.

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Powerful video of 9/11 Firefighter

A firefighter talks about what he experienced while responding to the WTC site:

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