Questions for the anti porn people?

Hello there loyal readers! Sorry I’ve been somewhat absent lately – this week has been absolutely destroying me. Guess my professors feel like they have to make up for us having Monday off. Anyway, I’m capping off my week by going to that vile Porn and Popcorn event tomorrow with some other club members because 1) Other people don’t want to go alone 2) I’m a masochist and 3) for yooooouuuuu *insert hearts and sparkles here*. If this event is as mind numbing as I suspect it will be, you all owe me. If you have no idea what Porn and Popcorn is, go here and here.

Does anyone have any good questions they’d like the anti-porn people to be asked? Any scientific studies I should have under my belt (links would be nice)? Suggestions of alcoholic remedies for afterwards? Maybe I’ll have a Sex on the Beach followed by a Screaming Orgasm.

Blasphemy Day Ideas

Blasphemy Day is September 30th, so I’m trying to solidify our club’s plans. Here’s a description from their Facebook group (since their website is continuously hacked):

Blasphemy Day International is a campaign seeking to establish September 30th as a day to promote free speech and stand up in a show of solidarity for the freedom to challenge, criticize, and satirize religion without fear of murder, litigation, and reprisal. It is the obligation of the world’s nations to safeguard dissent and the dissenters, not to side with the brutal interests of those who demand “respect” for their beliefs (i.e., immunity to being criticized or mocked or they threaten violence).

We’re definitely doing something, but the question is what. Part of me is nervous because Purdue is such a conservative, religious campus. Our two most controversial events are our Pastafarian Preaching (how dare you mock religion! My God isn’t anything like a Flying Spaghetti Monster!) and Fiction for Fiction (Are you saying the Bible isn’t completely true?! You’re going to hell!). I’m afraid for our reputation and our member’s physical well being to do anything too blasphemous.

But that speaks loads, doesn’t it? The whole point of Blasphemy Day is to stand up for our freedom of speech and right to criticize and mock religion, just like any other topic. We’re supposed to be fighting this exact feeling of fear that I have. I shouldn’t have to feel unsafe for standing in public and saying “If God was real, he’s a megalomaniac and an asshole. Thankfully he doesn’t exist.” Or something.

Here are some of the ideas I’ve come up with so far. The event will be outside to get maximum publicity, and we’ll have a table or two. Some of these things are more meaningful/positive than others, some are things I find hilarious but probably wouldn’t dare to do.

  • Have a large banner that anyone can write whatever they want on. Only rule is they can’t cross out other people’s stuff.
  • Instead of a banner, have a ton of post it notes that people can stick to something (a wall, maybe). That way one message doesn’t take up more space than others.
  • Have a megaphone where someone can say whatever they want for a predetermined number of seconds. You have to wait in line to get the megaphone.
  • Have line drawings of religious figures (Jesus/Moses/Mohammed/Buddha/Shiva/Thor/Zeus/The Pope) and let people color/deface them however their hearts desire
  • Play “blasphemous” music that mocks or criticizes religion
  • Have a laptop playing a continuous loop of short blasphemous videos from YouTube (Rock Me Sexy Jesus comes to mind)
  • Have a bunch of blasphemous cartoons, including the banned Mohammed drawings
  • Have someone dressed as Jesus…well, doing anything, that would probably be blasphemous. Let people throw pies at him for a dollar? I dunno.

What do you think? Horrible ideas, bad message, pointless, hilarious, necessary? Please let me know any Blasphemous suggestions you have, whether they be whole event ideas or just specific videos/songs/images we definitely need to use.

Best Skeptical Shirt Ever

If you haven’t figured this out already, I’ve been in love with Threadless shirts for a little over 4 years now. They make up the majority of my wardrobe because 1) They’re awesome 2) I hate shopping, and I know they fit me. I actually haven’t bought any in a while because nothing has jumped out at me, but I literally just flailed at this new one released today:Excuse me while I go spend my hard earned money on cynical clothing.

Misuse of evolution by creationists: hardwired to believe in God?

Many, many things about creationism baffle me, but nothing confuses me more than when evolution-deniers use evolution to prove their point. One of the biggest perpetrators of this is probably the Creation Museum itself, which constantly talks about variation and natural selection and change of genetic frequencies over time…and then claim that it’s not evolution, even though that is the definition of evolution. Yes, I know, I probably shouldn’t try to figure out the logic of people who have already demonstrated their completely inability to think logically, but I can’t help myself.

Well, I’ve found another one – Pastor Tom. In his most recent post, he rejoiced that scientists have found evidence to suggest that we are hard wired to belief in God through thousands of years of evolution. This is after he has repeatedly announced his distrust for science and his complete nonacceptance of evolution. But of course, he still really doesn’t understand what science is about because he completely misunderstands the article and twists it for our own agenda. I know hardcore creationists don’t care about how evolution works (but apparently you do, when it supports you?), but let me explain some of the common misconceptions Pastor Tom made.

Science has finally done it. It has finally been able to figure out what Christians have known for thousands of years. I came across an article in the Daily Mail called Humans are Hard-Wired to Believe in God, Say Scientists, and boy did it make me smile.

Oh dear, the Daily Mail? Really? That’s the best news source you can find? I tried to search for the actual scientific paper, but I can’t find it… I have a lot of questions about their methodology (were these children already culturally exposed to religion? How about kids raised in irreligious families?), but I guess I’m going to have to use what I have.

You know how teenagers think they know everything, but when they hit their mid-twenties, they suddenly realize that what their parents taught them was right all along, this is just like that.

Um…actually, we’ve known for a while now that religious and supernatural beliefs probably have a biological basis. No scientist is denying that.

So a belief in God actually increases chances of survival? You mean religion actually helps people work together more efficiently? Say it ain’t so.

Well, it’s not necessarily so. Supernatural belief may have helped humans a hundred thousand years ago when we were evolving in a hunter-gatherer environment. It may have helped when we needed to form cohesive non-familial groups in other to get enough food, protect ourselves, etc. It may have helped when a lightning bolt came down from the sky and we needed some sort of explanation so we didn’t freak out, but we didn’t have science yet. But that doesn’t necessarily apply now.

You see, a trait that is adaptive in one environment may be maladaptive in another. Let’s use another human example. Thousands of years ago, sugary and fatty foods were a rare and necessary delicacy for humans. Humans that craved those foods more were more motivated to go and find them, and were then healthier and more likely to leave descendants. Most modern humans still have that sweet tooth because we are offspring of the survivors. But now that we live in a modern society where sugar and fat is overflowing in all of our food, our cravings aren’t a good thing. We eat too much unhealthy food and suffer from it – obesity, diabetes, heart disease. A trait that was once very adaptive (sweet tooth) is now maladaptive.

Many scientists believe this is the same situation we see with religion. Supernatural beliefs and group-think were once great traits to have. But now that we have scientific explanations for things, irrational thoughts are no longer a good thing. People die because of faith healing when they could have used modern medicine, people fight wars over their imaginary Gods, people fly planes into buildings for rewards in the afterlife instead of enjoying this life. Will it be maladaptive on evolutionary time scales? I’m not sure. When you have religious people like the Quiverfull movement doing their best to pump out as many Christian warriors as possible (btw, congrats to the Duggars for number 19…ugh), they’re doing a pretty good job at keeping their fitness high. But we also live in a time where evolution has less of an affect on us because of modern technology and knowledge, so who knows.

But really, how can all of this be explained? I’m really glad that scientists were able to figure out that belief in the supernatural, or God, is inherent within every individual, but what does this really mean? Why does this happen? If you’re a Christian, or even if you’re not a Christian, but just a rational non-believer, you know the answer; because God exists. Why would every person be born with a belief in God if God didn’t exist?

Evolution doesn’t strive for perfection or truth. It strives for whatever makes you pump out healthy babies more. If believing in something that doesn’t actually exist still made you more fit, humans would evolve to believe in it. It’s that simple. It does not have anything to do with God actually existing or not.

I have said this before, and I’ll say it again, everyone believes in God. Is it possible, later in life to have our mind poisoned, and for one to dismiss the existence of God, I suppose. But notice this study didn’t confirm that everyone believes in Santa Claus, or a tooth fairy, or pink unicorns, just God. Why is that? Simply, because God exists, and Santa, the tooth fairy, and pink unicorns don’t, and that’s the HardTruth.

Um, read the freaking article, Pastor Tom, rather than cherry picking it for your needs:

The findings of Bruce Hood, professor of developmental psychology at Bristol University, suggest that magical and supernatural beliefs are hardwired into our brains from birth. …The professor, who will present his findings at the British Science Association’s annual meeting this week, sees organised religion as just part of a spectrum of supernatural beliefs.

Yep, that includes Santa, the tooth fairy, pink unicorns, ghosts, angels, Zeus, Ra, Thor, Ganesha, and your God. Sorry Tom, looks like science still shows God is all in your head.

Darwin finds the best evidence against his theory

Like always, click for larger.Disclaimer: This is not supposed to mean evolutionary biologists are hostile to any contrary evidence. It’s a joke. I hate to have to include this, but I know if I don’t this comic will get picked up by some creationist site as proof that we’re all dogmatic Darwinists. Actually, that’s probably going to happen anyway, so oh well.

Mmm, his noodliness looks yummy

Society of Non-Theists’ member Bryan was reading the Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (in preparation for our upcoming Pastafarian Preaching, I’m sure) when he had a religious experience:

“Being in the pasta mood after reading the gospels, I decided to make spaghetti and meatballs. Having completed the task I served up my spaghetti and spaghetti sauce with meatballs, parmesan, and a light peppering. I turned around to grab something to drink and to my astonishment the ground pepper coalesced into pepper corns, the parmesan turned into small wafers of cheese, and noodly appendages sprung fourth from the mass of spaghetti. And BEHOLD, the perfect likeness of the flying spaghetti monster. I decided to eat it instead of selling it on ebay.”

Good call, Bryan. That looks too tasty not to eat.

You can be good without God, but you cannot be saved without Jesus

That’s what a new bus ad in Bloomington, Indiana will say in response to the Indiana Atheist Bus campaign’s “You can be good without God” advertisement. It looks like this (sorry, couldn’t find a bigger image):
I can’t find any official website for it, but there is a facebook group with over a 1,000 people with this lovely intro:

THIS IS A GROUP DESIGNED FOR CHRISTIANS TO STAND UP FOR CHRIST. IT IS TIME TO STAND UP! GOD LAID THIS ON MY HEART TO STAND UP AGAINST THE ATHEIST MESSAGE YOU CAN BE GOOD WITHOUT GOD. IT IS TRUE THAT YOU CAN BE GOOD WITHOUT GOD BUT YOU CANNOT BE SAVED WITHOUT JESUS. SO IN A LOVING WAY LETS SPREAD THE MESSAGE WITH THIS AD ALL OVER THE WORLD. THE ATHEIST GROUPS HAVE BOUGHT ADS TO GO ON THE BLOOMINGTON TRANSIT BUSSES. SO I HAVE PURCHASED ADS TO GO ON THE SAME BUSSES.

Reason #28 you know you’re dealing with a fundy: Inability to turn off caps-lock.

I want to make it completely clear that I support their right to make this ad. Unlike some Christians in Indiana who would love to see the rights of groups they don’t agree with squashed, I believe in supporting free speech, even if I disagree with it.

But in addition to upholding the freedom of speech, I think this is important for another reason: it helps our cause. What kind of message is this sign sending? Their “God” is so petty that he doesn’t care if good people rot in hell because he has such a ginormous ego that accepting him is more important than anything else. Does that really sound like a God you want to worship, one with the mentality of a four year old? This sign is just going to make devoted Christians pat themselves on the back for showing those sneaky atheists what’s what…but that’s it. If anything, more moderate people may realize how silly that belief is and start questioning Christianity even more.

Thanks, Hoosier Christians!

More Indiana Fail: Rep Baron Hill

Baron Hill (D) is the US Representative for the 9th district of Indiana (south eastern Indiana). He recently had a town hall meeting on the health care debates, and someone recorded this troubling clip:

Hill, do we have to remind you what the definition of Representative is? You are a public servant elected by the people, not a dictator. You don’t get to do whatever you want. It’s not your town hall meeting, it’s our town hall meeting. We most certainly will tell you how to run your congressional office because you’re supposed to freaking listen to us! That is your job.

At least he was right about one thing: videos end up on YouTube and put him in a compromising position…because he was being a jackass and deserves to be in that position. Maybe instead of censoring everything, you should think before you speak, Representative.

(Thanks to Shawn for the news tip)

I've reached an odd level of fame

Keep in mind this all took place with us screaming and not being able to hear because of loud dance music.

Me: *dancing somewhat drunkenly on the dance floor with a sea of people*
Gal I don’t know: Hey! Uh, I have a random question, sorry.
Me: Uh, what?
Gal: Do you know Josh [last name]?
Me: Yeah, he’s like one of my best friends
Gal: Oh my god, I think I read your blog!
Me: …Blag Hag?
Gal: YEAH! That’s so weird! I totally wanted to join your club too
Me: *attempts to explain the next date and website while mildly inebriated, probably failed*

…It’s one thing for people to recognize me at the Secular Student Alliance conference, but at a dance club/bar? I…am sort of in awe.

It was also around this point that a swarm of cute guys appeared on the dance floor and were actually dancing with me. Then I recognized a couple of them and realized they were all coming from the Queer Student Union’s callout. I shake my fist at you, cute gay guys getting my hopes up!