Fighting poverty is liberal and thus anti-Christian

Only in the bizzaro world of the Religious Right can one find such tortured convolutions of logic as evidenced in the video below, in which Focus on the Family Action attempts to argue that helping the poor is a liberal cause that should be opposed and the only way to help poor people is to get rid of those goddamned queers and fornicators...while maintaining their staunch Christian credentials throughout, of course:

Quoting Jesus (Matt 25:31-46 NIV):

The Sheep and the Goats



31"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.



34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'



37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'



40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'



41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.'



44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?'



45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.'



46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."

VIDEO: "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?"

For those of you who missed the Green-Price debate on Saturday evening, you missed a great event. Many thanks go to Ryan, Brandon and others in GF for the work they put in to make this event go smoothly.

The room seated 500 people, and we had them lined along the walls and sitting in the aisles by about 15 after 7. By 7:30, people were turned away as there was no longer any standing room. Thus, it was enormously successful in terms of turnout and participation. Thanks to all of you who made it so.

I am in the process of uploading the raw .mpg files to GV, and will also send them to co-President Ryan, who intends to use them to create a much prettier (better-edited) video version. But for those of you who (like me) can't wait:

1. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 1 of 5
2. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 2 of 5
3. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 3 of 5
4. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 4 of 5
5. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 5 of 5

The video is embedded below the fold:

"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 1 of 5


"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 2 of 5


"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 3 of 5


"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 4 of 5


"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 5 of 5


Video for the debate was filmed, processed and uploaded to GV by me. All rights reserved.
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Technorati tags: Gator Freethought

No War with Iran

It's been pretty clear for a while now that the Administration is pushing for another war in the Middle East -- this time with Iran.

Now, their media arm (Faux News) is in full swing helping to move the rapture base towards acceptance of the inevitability of another pre-emptive act of aggression by the U.S. FoxAttacks has put together a beautiful video juxtaposing the buildup for war in 2003 against Iraq versus 2007 against Iran.

Watch it HERE

Quote of the day being

PZ was referring to a pseudo-journal of pseudo-science as the "where" in this quote, but I thought it was a beautiful way to capture the essence of "scientific" creationism generally:

"...where the red-hot anvil of pseudoscience and the inflexible hammer of theology are used to forge the balloon animals of creationism..."

Also, coffee's good for you, if you haven't already heard. And it prevents the plague too.

Oh boy! A cornucopia of RR fun

Look out Tampa: The gay-bashing fundie caravan heads to Florida!!

from Talking with juvenile offenders about gay males and lesbians: implications for combating homophobia (p. 14):

Herek (1987) also found that 64% of the undergraduate students manifested a single function for attitudes toward homosexuality. In contrast, only 33% of all the juvenile offenders did so. A similar percentage of juvenile offenders manifested mixed negative functions. Young offenders' negative attitudes often do not correspond with just a single attitude function. Therefore, attempting to match group teaching strategies with a singular function would not be possible in many instances, and certainly not helpful in trying to overcome anti-homosexual postures. It would be more feasible and useful to target the range of functions, focusing on those which are particularly salient. Defensiveness is such a function for juvenile offenders. Unlike the broad distribution of functions which Herek (1987) revealed, among young offenders there was a preponderance of the Defensive function. Of Herek's undergraduate respondents, only 11% had exclusively Defensive attitudes, violating "a popular bit of folk-wisdom that all hostility toward gay persons results from personal conflicts about gender or repressed homosexual desires" (Herek, 1987, p. 295). In contrast, 24% of the delinquent participants' attitudes were exclusively Defensive. More strikingly, the present study found that defensiveness functioned as the sole or part basis of 84% of the juvenile offenders' negative attitudes toward homosexuals. This suggests that personal conflicts are central to the attitudes of most young offenders in this domain. In Herek's (1987) data, only 35% of the undergraduate students were wholly or in part Defensive. Such contrast between the two groups is not surprising. Adolescence is a period in our culture when there is a pronounced need for establishing personal identity, affirmed in part by excluding and stereotyping minorities (Erikson, 1968). College-age students, such as those who participated in Herek's (1987) study, would have largely resolved such adolescent role confusion.

So what can we say about Tony Perkins et. al? They haven't grown up yet, or haven't dealt with repressed desires? Ted Haggard, anyone?

My favorite aspect of the anti-gay advocates is their tendency to support these "ex-gay" people, 99% of whom are later found in a backseat somewhere joyfully swallowing man gravy. Along with lots of pastors and foaming-at-the-mouth social conservative GOP politicians, of course.

And now I can see why they chose "clean" (non-porn-carrying hotels) places to stay -- they all know they'll whack the weasel all weekend to the biggest, manliest bear porn they can find if it's anywhere within reach. ...the porn, I mean...

Cheney on reasons NOT to invade Iraq in 1994

I find this clip both sad and amusing: Dick Cheney explaining on C-Span in April of 1994 why it would've been a mistake to invade Iraq. The reasons?

1. We would've been alone. Unilateral involvement and occupation is wrong.
2. What would the Saddam government be replaced with?
3. Instability of the country -- it would likely be fractured and pieces would fall to Syria and Iran, as well as threaten Turkey in the north. "It's a quagmire..."
4. Casualties. "How many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth? ... not very many..."

My, how the times have changed. What, was he not a "brutal dictator" back in 1994, but became one by 2003?

Museum Dedicated to Proving Unicorns Walked The Earth

Based on Job 39:9-12 (KJV), Bible believers have now spent another $30M on a museum dedicated to one of Jesus' favorite creatures, the unicorn. This museum will be located alongside her sister museum, the Creation Museum, in Petersburg, KY.

read more | digg story

11 of last 12 years warmest T since recording began

Damn those hippie, tree-hugging scientists.

How would you spend $175 billion?

Roughly $100 billion was flushed down the toilet of religion last year. A large chunk of that goes to fuel anti-scientific lobbying, elect theocratic politicians and further America's national epidemics of ignorance and superstition.

$12 billion every single month goes to further Bush's war, deteriorate our military's readiness and home grow terrorists everywhere.

You want to know how I would spend that $172 billion each year? Technology. Technology that will allow us to get food and fresh water to the entire globe, eradicate epidemics, completely move away from oil and carbon-based energy...

In short, I'd use it to solve our problems, rather than further them.

"Christian Embassy" fundraising video results in military censures

I mentioned Mike Weinstein a while back; now he's making more trouble for himself, standing up for religious freedoms in the military. The RR is predictably blowing it out of proportion. Basically the issue involves a ministry's use of military members in uniform to promote their organization.

The very important thing to remember is the difference between limitations on government religious expression and individual religious expression. Military members are considered agents of the government when in uniform, and they have been held accountable that way for years and years (e.g., many have been court martialed for being in uniform at peace rallies).

In other news, the USA Today has an article on private companies promoting spiritual activities among employees. Tit for tat, I guess...