Today’s WTF Roundup

SPLC certified hate-group Mission America claims teacher unions are giving financial incentives for students to become gay. Because not only is homosexuality a choice, but the constant harassment and threats are worth the small chance that you get a tiny fraction of your college tuition paid!
Japan is cursed because the emperor had sex with a demon. Duh.

What is Dr. Marcus Bachmann a doctor in? Bigotry? Homophobia? Because it’s certainly not clinical psychology.

Speaking of scary Bachmanns, Michelle is now winning the polls in Iowa. …What.

In lighter news, remember that marriage pledge Bachmann (and Rick Santorum) signed that was full of homophobic bullshit and vowed to ban porn? It also suggested that blacks were better off back when they were slaves, but now they reworded it to not so sound mindbogglingly racist. See? Progress!!! No word on when they’ll remove the stupidity from the rest of the pledge.

70 year old man stoned to death for “homosexuality”

Disgusting:

“I killed a man,” Thomas allegedly told the witness. He then described how he placed batteries and rocks in a sock, and hit Seidman in the head at least 10 times. Thomas then returned to Seidman’s apartment several days later and called police, saying he had discovered the body, according to court documents.

When police interviewed Thomas on Wednesday he said Seidman had been making advances toward him over a period of time. Thomas said he read in the Old Testament that homosexuals should be stoned in certain situations.

Yet another example of the terrible hatred that’s found in the Bible, and what happens when it falls into the hands of the wrong people. The twisted thing is that anyone who claims to be a Biblical literalist and doesn’t do stuff like this is a hypocrite. Thankfully.

I’m such a meanie!

Apparently some Savage Love listeners are in a tizzy because I called religion “silly.”
Oh dear me! Pass the smelling salts! Silly? Silly? How utterly barbaric!

That religion/spirituality discussion got pretty damned dismissive. I do think it’s useful – probably necessary – to be skeptical about everything (even a person’s own skepticism), but I don’t think person shouldn’t be labeled ‘silly’ or ‘wrong’ or be dismissed outright just for being a part of a religion or for having spiritual interests or beliefs. They may very well be thinking critically about their beliefs (plenty of people do, and I certainly wish more religious people would), but STILL find those beliefs to be valid for them on a personal level and useful in their life (helping them to understand themselves, to figure out what their philosophy is about the world, to find a community of people to relate to and find support with, etc., etc.).


And

Dear Dan: Please don’t have an atheist on your show to explain why those silly religious people are so darn stupid. There are plenty of intelligent people out there who also have religious beliefs. This show was just plain insulting.


And

Dan,
Ugh, please don’t have that hypocritical twit back on the show. She was there to challenge you on some ignorant commentary on a previous podcast, but then calls a religion “silly”; a religion of which she is admittedly ignorant.

Look, I get that as a culturally Catholic atheist, you have a narrow view of the variety of religious and spiritual experiences of the rest of the world. You said that you didn’t feel any pull to seek out another religion when you left Catholicism. Your guest so contemptuously surmised that only silly people with mortality anxiety could be drawn to religious practice. Some of us however, feel drawn to express the awe of the numinous, and communion with spirit/the divine/invisible friend(s).

I am really shocked that you chose to dismiss Wicca as something silly. Especially when Wicca is a sex positive, woman positive, queer positive spirituality. Wiccans aren’t out at the polls trying to take away your civil rights. Wiccans aren’t denying your rights to marry, adopt children. Wiccans aren’t beating the shit out of trans people in a McDonalds either.

So, way to go in perpetuating more misinformation about a minority religion. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d shit on people who are, on the whole, supportive of all the things you believe in.

I find this incredibly amusing, as I went out of my way to be nice and diplomatic knowing I was on a sex advice podcast and not an atheist one. Let’s hope they don’t actually click through to my blog, or their heads will surely explode from righteous indignation.

But in case they’re gluttons for punishment, here they go:

Religion – whether it’s something culturally acceptable for liberals to hate on like Christianity, or a minority religion like Islam or Wicca – are all wrong. They’re based on unsubstantiated claims that have no basis in reality. There is not a shred of evidence that any religions, past or present, are actually correct.

Regardless if your religion goes out of its way to oppress others, or just has private naked kissing rituals, I’m still going to point out how wrong it is. Why? Because the search for truth is important to me, and there are too many beautiful, wonderful real things in this world to be wasting our time on pointless rituals and optimistic daydreaming. It’s intellectually insulting to believe in something just for community, or wonderment, or tradition, or answers about the afterlife – when it’s a fucking fairy tale.

And I’m just as happy to point out when non-religious beliefs are wrong. Your bad ideas don’t get a free pass because you invoke an imaginary friend or magic.

Religious people aren’t necessarily stupid. Plenty of people have false beliefs – even us godless skeptics aren’t perfect. But I’m willing to listen when someone points out that those beliefs are fucking stupid.

And silly.

I’m a sucker for terrible Christian movies

I want to see this so badly:

From the video description:

“The Waiting Game is about a guy who saves himself for marriage only to have his fiance leave him on their wedding day. He must now decide if it’s worth it to wait again.”

What the movie is really about: only getting married because you want to bang someone. Lovely Christian ethics at work!

Horrible morals aside, this film looks unintentionally hilarious – almost like an atheist parody of waiting for marriage. I’m not going to lie – I lol’d at the Ted Haggard cameo and “You need Jesus! With Jesus comes the wisdom of how to drive!” But it’s real, and they’re looking for people to fund the movie.

I’m torn. Is it okay to want 2 million dollars to go to a pro-abstinence movie if it will inspire ironic godless viewing parties?

(Via Friendly Atheist)

Oopsie! The rapture is actually in October!

Says Harold Camping, the man behind the May 21st rapture nonsense. I wish I were joking:

But Camping said that he’s now realized the apocalypse will come five months after May 21, the original date he predicted. He had earlier said Oct. 21 was when the globe would be consumed by a fireball.


Saturday was “an invisible judgment day” in which a spiritual judgment took place, he said. But the timing and the structure is the same as it has always been, he said.


“We’ve always said May 21 was the day, but we didn’t understand altogether the spiritual meaning,” he said. “May 21 is the day that Christ came and put the world under judgment.”


Isn’t that just so convenient? It’s lovely when you make a testable claim, and then do a whole lot of hand waiving and goal post moving to explain why you were wrong.

I had a great time poking fun at the Rapture – it was basically an atheist holiday. But this just makes me sick. Why? Now Camping can keep scamming people for another five months. And this isn’t just the kind of “lol, gullible people” scamming. People have given away all of their money. People have attempted to kill themselves and their children to avoid post-rapture suffering. This man has ruined lives, and now he gets the chance to do it again.

And on a related note…why do equivalent loonies get quoted as experts, but not rational critics?

Tim LaHaye, co-author of the best-selling “Left Behind” novels about the end times, recently called Camping’s prediction “not only bizarre but 100 percent wrong!” He cited the Bible verse Matthew 24:36, “but about that day or hour no one knows” except God.”

While it may be in the near future, many signs of our times certainly indicate so, but anyone who thinks they `know’ the day and the hour is flat out wrong,” LaHaye wrote on his website, leftbehind.com.


This isn’t an alternative viewpoint journalists can use in an article. LaHaye and Christians who regurgitate that Bible verse believe the same crazy crap, they just don’t put a date on it. Where’s the quote from a skeptic or atheist?

Gays to blame for the rapture

I know everyone is probably sick of hearing about the May 21st rapture. It’s obviously ludicrously false, and it’s getting to the point where we’re beating a dead horse making fun of it. But I couldn’t pass up a quote from this fact sheet at the San Francisco Chronicle:

Q: Why May 21?
A: Camping calculates May 21 is exactly 7,000 years from the date of the Noah’s Ark flood. In his book “Time Has an End,” Camping writes. “The year 391 B.C. is the year when the Old Testament was finished, and 2,011 + 391 – 1 = 2,401, or 7 x 7 x 7 x 7.” There you have it.


Q: Any other reason?
A: Yes. Gay Pride and same-sex marriage. Camping says God will punish America and the rest of the world for Gay Pride and same-sex marriages, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were punished with fire and brimstone in the Old Testament.

…This isn’t even internally logically consistent! Which is it, Camping? Did you calculate a very specific date based on the word of God, or has God decided now’s the time because we reached Maximum Gayness? Or did God know that May 21 would be when he got sick of pride parades, in which case, free will…?


And before anyone tries to point out that this is just some fringe loonie… I think this comic from reddit sums up how I feel pretty well:

Heterosexual marriage is like gravity!

In case you weren’t aware of the parallels, here’s a Focus on the Family affiliate to clear things up:

…Because arbitrary, constantly evolving, man-made social customs are exactly the same as physical laws of the universe that have been empirically tested.

……And because gravity works by making things go downward.

………And planes fly by…no, I can’t even keep thinking about it. I need these brain cells for school.

Thank you, FotF, for adding “fucking scientifically illiterate” to your resume. I’m sure it looks nice below “hateful stone-aged thinking bigots.”

Atheists to the rescue post-rapture!

By now you certainly know the Rapture is scheduled for May 21st. I hope all of you godless heathens have found a bomb shelter and stored some bottles of water in preparation for the destruction that’s about to wrack the earth – because let’s face us, none of us are getting into heaven.

But if you’re unprepared, Seattle Atheists are here to help with their Rapture Relief program! (Is that not the best logo ever? Seriously, I’m proud of my group’s design skills)

“While the world is tortured in this terrible Apocalypse, who better to help the world than atheists? Elite squads of godless heathens, who already live all over the Puget Sound, will help bring people out of the rubble and rebuild their lives. The Post-Apocalyptic Pony Express will help restore communication service by carrying letters across the tattered remains of civilization, giving humanity hope with the sight of the cutest ponies money can buy.
Of course, it’s always possible that these religious zealots are wasting enormous amounts of money, time and life with a gigantic fearmongering campaign. It’s happened before. On the off chance that they are completely wrong, Jesus doesn’t come back, and life continues as normal, we will do our part to help the next generation avoid getting into this heartbreaking situation themselves.
If there is a universe left after all this, Camp Quest West, which teaches children critical thinking and science, will receive a check. Why, you ask? Because when children know how to think for themselves, they don’t get taken in by every terrible idea that comes across their desk.”


Isn’t this a fabulous idea? Though I have to admit, now I’m kind of hoping the Rapture does happen, if it means getting my own pony.

You can donate here. Buy Jen a pony if the rapture happens, help freethinking children if it doesn’t. It’s a win-win situation!

When religion protects sexism

For those of you who have seem my talk on the intersection of atheism and feminism, one of my key points is that religion doesn’t necessarily create sexist ideas, but it does make them untouchable. We unfortunately live in a society where criticizing religious belief is viewed with contempt. We can’t question something because it’s protected by the bubble of “Respect my beliefs!” And then you get bad ideas – sexism, racism, homophobia, incorrect science – piggybacking on the theology and persisting through time.

My previous post is a perfect example of this. A Hasidic Jewish newspaper photoshopped Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Director for Counterterrorism Audrey Tomason – the only women – out of the White House Situation Room in what is now an iconic photo. I didn’t comment much on my previous post because I was busy at work. But I need to say more now that the newspaper has responded to the widespread fury over their photoshopping:

The allegations that religious Jews denigrate women or do not respect women in public office, is a malicious slander and libel.

Except that you are denigrating women, soooooo… yeah, not slander and libel.

The current Secretary of State, the Honorable Hillary R. Clinton, was a Senator representing New York State with great distinction 8 years. She won overwhelming majorities in the Orthodox Jewish communities in her initial campaign in ’00, and when she was re-elected in ’06, because the religious community appreciated her unique capabilities and compassion to all communities. The Jewish religion does not allow for discrimination based on gender, race, etc.

Except that you do discrimination based on gender, since that’s kind of what you did. Not that hard to wrap your head around. You do not post photos of women. You happily post photos of men. Discrimination.

We respect all government officials. We even have special prayers for the welfare of our Government and the government leaders, and there is no mention of gender in such prayers.

In accord with our religious beliefs, we do not publish photos of women, which in no way relegates them to a lower status. Publishing a newspaper is a big responsibility, and our policies are guided by a Rabbinical Board. Because of laws of modesty, we are not allowed to publish pictures of women, and we regret if this gives an impression of disparaging to women, which is certainly never our intention. We apologize if this was seen as offensive.

Except it does relegate them to lower status, because your religion is saying the mere existence of women is somehow immodest. You’re not giving an impression – you are being disparaging to women. You have a special rule that women can’t be seen and men can. That is sexist, no matter how much you scream “We’re not sexist!”

And people complain about Islamic extremists who keep their women covered in burkas? At least they can be seen covered up. Heaven forbid if a man knows women actually exist in the world!

Sometimes I think men should be the ones getting most upset about these ridiculous “modesty” laws you see in almost all religions to some extent. They’re all based on the idea that men are brutish pigs who can’t control themselves and will fall to sin and temptation at the mere idea of something with a vagina being in a ten mile radius of them. Isn’t it convenient how the solution to that problem is the oppression of women, and not self control and accountability of the men?

Commenter Chris Lawson had an additional good point that needs to be made:

You know, I might take them seriously if they put a black rectangle over the image of Clinton and labelled it with her name — it would still be sexist and objectionable, but at least it would be honest and it would let their readers know that she had participated. By photoshopping her out, they are lying to their readers and pretending she is a nobody. That is not respectful.

Exactly. This isn’t just about women not being able to be seen. What they’ve done is rewritten history to remove these women entirely.

Hasidic Judaism is an extremist sect, and obviously not all Jews or all religious people agree with these sort of actions. But this sort of defense of sexism in the name of religion is seen over and over again, and is why it’s so important that we speak out. You certainly have the right to practice your religious belief – but I also have the right to say you’re wrong and your actions are harmful.