Passed to me the other day was this choice quote found in an article on a MMO currently in development:

Ragnar Tørnquist, the lead developer lamented:
“I also think that the Western world has lost the sense of religious mystery too. People knew there was something bigger, but they didn’t question it. Now we question everything, and everything has been reduced to facts or data.”

Cue needle scratching on record.

What?

This quote exemplifies muddled thinking. Moreover, that this phrase was uttered, as if in resignation that people bothered to question how stuff works, boggles the damn mind.

Show me a time in human history when, even under the threat of death, that people haven’t questioned things.

As for the whining that everything has been reduced to facts or data: Ragnar, perhaps you missed the part where the computers and Internet upon which you make your money is the direct result of questioning, of facts, and data. Has that reduced the awe behind computing? Has that, in turn, failed to produce even more wonders and mysteries to be explored?

Questioning everything and reducing it to facts and data is what allows us to build bigger and better things like the Hubble telescope which captures those amazing deep field shots. Look at that image and tell me there isn’t more mystery to be found there than in any millennia-old story that could scribbled down and passed off as religion. In all those stars and galaxies we’re looking at billions of possibilities.

A plague of locusts pales before the devastating power of a supernova. The ability to measure galaxies and send probes into the heliosphere takes us places never before imagined by people who considered themselves separated from the cosmos by a luminiferous ether.

In short, purposely not questioning something in order to retain some sort of mystery is downright the most asinine thing I’ve heard this week.

If I am to understand this correctly, on a rather arbitrary Sunday many years ago, there was a zombie uprising in Golgotha.

So the question remains, is a Roman balista accurate enough for a head shot?

It’s like a babel fish for those trying to understand just what the hell the Right Wing is saying. I mean, they obviously haven’t read their own text the way they act.

112th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. RES. 211

Expressing support for designation of the first weekend of May as Ten Commandments Weekend to recognize the significant contributions the Ten Commandments have made in shaping the principles, institutions, and national character of the United States.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

April 7, 2011

That’s right, 22 Congressmen have been beavering away in the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to bring this job creating, debt reducing, colossal waste of time and money to the floor for a vote.

Yes. The 10 Commandments. You may have watched the movie. Ten outdated laws of ye old bronze age, that have no place in our modern society and often trumpeted as the bedrock of US law (they aren’t, but why would sheep critically think about it?), is once again taking up time in our Congress.

Why? Why would I rail against this? Let’s examine.

1. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Well, no, you’re not. In fact, you’re nothing more than a fairy tale to more than a quarter of US citizens. Moreover, given it’s a tick-box on a census form, a further percentage of that remaining 75% was just too lazy or chicken shit not to check it.

Given this is a secular nation, the 1st Commandment is worthless to us, if not insulting.

2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.

We’re two commandments in, and so far there zero relevance for the national character of the United States. Shit, given how most worship their local sports teams this whole country should be one giant smoking crater.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.

Well, god damn it all to hell. Doesn’t that just violate one of our lovely Amendments. 0 for 3, Congressmen.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Surprise Christians, you’ve been fucking this up for decades! The Sabbath is Saturday. Imagine the collective sphincter tightening if they actually had to honor Judeo values instead of that bullshit Judeo-Christian line they love to spout? 0 for 4.

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

Being nice to your parents isn’t by any means a religious value. It is, however, a catchy Desmond Dekker song. It’s by no means shaped the principles, institutions, and national character of the United States.

0 for 5.

6. You shall not murder.

Wait, a version of this is on the law books! However, it’s also a law recorded in many other places before the Ten Commandments came together. So can we really give it credit? Is this not common sense?

Let’s cut them a break and give half a point. so, 0.5 for 6.

7. You shall not commit adultery.

This certainly isn’t a law in the US. It’s not like we stone people to death for it. It gives some leeway in a divorce case, and that’s about it. On the flip side, it does seem to be a major past time for preachers of mega-churches, often with other men!

0.5 for 7.

8. You shall not steal.

Much like 6, laws against stealing have been around for thousands of years. Kind of hard to give credit here for this being a Christian value that shapes the nation. I’ll be consistent and give it another half point.

1 for 8.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Why, lying is a national past time. Just ask Congressman Kyle.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.

Ho, ho, ho, this is a rich one. Again, keeping up with the Jones is a national past time. Moreover, this one was a classic for arguing the bible actually encouraged slavery (after all, if God didn’t want you to have slaves, why tell you not to covet your neighbor’s slaves?). You want to claim that as a Christian value representing America, be my guest.

So in all two half points out of ten. Did the Ten Commandments have a role in shaping our national character, laws, and institutions?

Fuck no.

Is the GOP wasting a lot of time on this bullshit?

Hell yes.

And this is why religion needs to be out of politics, wholesale.

It’s a waste of all our time. It’s shoddy thinking

It makes otherwise nice and intelligent people do stupid things and make ridiculous justifications.

The Westboro lunatics visited Maryland this week.

Maryland came out and counter-protested. It’s heartening to see people push back against hatred.

Photo: Joshua McKerrow — The Capita

Things I liked

The counter protestors, including a number of men dressed as Jesus, carried signs relaying the Christian icon’s message of love and waving American flags.

The crowd cheered as members of the Freedom Riders motorcycle club passed the dueling protests at the intersection of Disney and Annapolis roads, revving their engines to drown out the shouts from church.

And of course the lunatic side does everything they can to maintain their reps as nutjobs:

“What the heck’s wrong with these people?” said Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokesman for the church and daughter of Pastor Fred Phelps.

“This is their never-dying soul … There isn’t any middle ground, you understand? You’re either going to obey or you’re not going to obey. If you don’t obey, you’re going to hell and you’re going to be cursed in this life, just like what you see happening in this country right now.”

What a horrible god they worship. Kneel in fealty and obey or burn for eternity.

Really, who wants to put up with either of that shit?

Hurray for sanity, and all those that came out to show Westboro’s ideas are fail.

The propensity of people to be willingly mislead so as not to betray their tribal allegiances should not surprise me. So it is with much curiosity I will be watching Newt Gingrich’s announcement on his Presidential bid.

In a recent interview over at the Washington Post, Newt had these interesting things to say:

“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate,” said Gingrich

Wow. So it was his passion for the US that led him to forsake his most holy wedding vows and stuff his cock into one of his own staff members, 23 years his junior (for once, it wasn’t another guy. Possibly a first for an incumbent Republican, at the time).

But, it’s really OK because:

“he had sought “God’s forgiveness”

What an amazing club he belongs to. He can break any of the rules, without repercussion, as long as he seeks forgiveness from the top guy. But wait! Do not be distracted by his infidelity, lying, and misogyny for he’s a True Family Values Man pandering to the evangelicals who should be MORE concerned with:

“On one front, you have a secular, atheist, elitism. And on the other front, you have radical Islamists. And both groups would like to eliminate our civilization if they could. For different reasons, but with equal passion.”

Holy shit Newt – you’re surrounded! Booga Booga, evangelicals – time to vote in fear!

So, secular, atheist, elitism is god damn national threat in his eyes.  I suppose I should thank Newt for upgrading my rank to elite.

Should I start wearing a necktie or bowtie? Which is more appropriate for a newly minted elite threat to society?

But wait! Let’s take a moment to closely examine an aspect of Newt’s fear-mongering. He’s actually postulating that there’s a secular movement that stands as threat to the Judeo-Christan civilization. The movement he is talking about is Humansim.

Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

Wow. That’s some scary shit right there. Why, if it caught on it could very well undermine and empty the coffers of churchs and lobbyists the country over.

Better not let that happen.

CFI is running an interesting new campaign called Living Without Religion.

It’s meant to combat many of the specious arguments put forward by Christian apologists against atheists, agnostics and the humanist movement. I imagine it’s going to provoke some pretty interesting conversations and comments across the news channels.

I think their message would have been a bit smarter if they had targeted all gods. The aim is squarely at the Abrahamic religions (though that is the dominant flavor around here).

Regardless, how does one live without religion?

Pretty damn easy.

If there was a solution that could:

Provide 800,000 women with breast exams,

4 million Americans with testing and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases,

Provide 2.5 million people with contraception to avoid unwanted pregnancies or abortions.

You would think this solution was a great benefit for women and men.

A decision was just made in Congress to stop that solution. Planned Parenthood provided all those services and more, and a vote was just taken to de-fund them.

This is just more another example of what believing in bullshit gets you – politicians that pander to a religious base that has great faith that Planned Parenthood is a great evil in this country.

This is a chance to reverse this decision, but only if you act.

Caught this on PZ’s site. Thought it was incredibly well done.

A few days ago Salmaan Taseer, Governor of the Punjab province, was shot from behind. Mumtaz Qadri, who was assigned to Taseer as a bodyguard, pumped over twenty rounds from his assault rifle into Taseer’s back.

Salmaan’s supposed crime? Defending a woman, by speaking out that she should not be killed. Why was she to be killed? She had been said to have committed the crime of blasphemy.

Here we have Qadri, bouyed by numerous outspoken sharifs, mullahs, and politco-religious groups of Pakistan, not only admitting to the killing, but, with those others, claiming it was a good, justified, and righteous killing.

Over what? Over differing beliefs. In this particular case over an insult to their god, Allah. So here we have a tale, one where mortals must defend the honor of a supposed being – a being claimed to be powerful enough to create a universe and all the laws therein – but apparently not powerful enough to defend itself from possible slander.

This tale is pervasive. Blasphemy laws don’t just exist in Pakistan, and this odd notion that the most powerful being in the universe must be protected from criticism because it cannot protect itself can be found throughout all religious societies.

If that is not a shining example of madness, of the insanity of religious beliefs, I don’t know what is. More frightening, this is merely the beginning of the tale. The shrill cry of religious extremism is fast gaining ground in Pakistan and those who would oppose it are being cowed into silence by threat of death. Taseer was an example to all those that would try to talk sense – it will not be tolerated, your reward will be a
gunshot in the back, blood on the street, and legion are those willing to bring these threats to fruition.

The ramification here is that Pakistan is not without teeth. It has a capable military and possesses nuclear weapons. That thought combined with the open celebrations of Taseer’s death as shown in the Guardian’s article creates quite the queezy spot in my stomach.

Madmen with the weaponry, moreover the willpower to kill based off of a faulty, bronze-age belief system. Rationalism cannot win in the face of that.

It only further proves both Christopher Hitchen’s point, that eventually religion poisons everything, and Steven Weinberg’s quotable, “With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion.”