If you think that evolution is controversial, then I’m sorry to inform you that you are an idiot. I can’t say it any other way. If you denied that the earth was round, or that gravity exists, you’d be getting the same reaction. In every educated country around the world, the fact of evolution isn’t disputed. Why would it be? It’s one of the most rigorously tested scientific theory of all time, with so many converging lines of evidence, including fossils, radiometric dating, and of course, DNA. Every time a new discovery is made, it only strengthens the Theory more.

We’re all familiar with the popular image of a monkey slowly “evolving” into a man, and this image alone is enough to send right wing fundies into a frenzy; a band in Sedalia, Missouri was forced to turn in their shirts after parents complained about their logo (see above).

The explination given by school officials is extremely disapointing and weak (expecting anything less?):

Pollitt said the district is required by law to remain neutral where religion is concerned. “If the shirts had said ‘Brass Resurrections’ and had a picture of Jesus on the cross, we would have done the same thing,” he said.

Too bad evolution isn’t actually a religion, or that would almost have made sense. It would be like banning t-shirts with pictures of the solar System because this conflicts with the view that the Earth is the center of the Universe. It’s absolute nonsense to think that this is an Establishment Clause issue.

The school needs to reverse this policy, and rational minded individuals who don’t literally believe in fairy tales need to get involved. We can’t keep letting these idiots win like this. When science is undermined, we all lose.

(via the progressive puppy)

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If I had to write an article every time the pontiff opens his mouth and says something stupid, I would honestly never get any rest. Aside from the fact that this man considers himself the holy avatar between humanity and God, the institution maintains that all popes are immune from error. Catholic dogma states that because they are under the influence of the Holy Spirit, all Popes are immune from even the possibility of error. They call this stupid and obviously wrong assertion: “papal infallibility“.

I can appreciate the efforts made by the Catholic church these days concerning the environment. It’s nice to see that they recognize that Jesus isn’t coming down to fix our problems anytime soon (even though that won’t stop them from praying for it), since the alternative is frightening to say the least.

Experiencing the shared responsibility for creation (Cf. 51), the Church is not only committed to the promotion of the defense of the earth, of water and of air, given by the Creator to everyone, but above all is committed to protect man from the destruction of himself. In fact, “when ‘human ecology’ is respected in society, environmental ecology also benefits” (ibid).

We should keep in mind that this environmental “revelation” is a fairly recent phenomenon. The Catholic Church, for the most part, has always maintained that Earth and every creature on it was the property of man, put there by God for us to enjoy. Now that global warming is such a huge issue, the Pope is quick to put the blame for our environmental problems on his favorite scapegoats: atheists.

Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where is existence is denied? If the human creature’s relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the “final authority,” and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.

Actually, I would venture to guess that the percentage of atheists that care about the environment is probably much higher than our religious counterparts. We also don’t pray for some magical sky-man to solve our problems for us, so I would say we actually have the advantage there as well.

The Pope can deny reality if he chooses to, but I’m annoyed every time this asshole tries to blame the world’s problem on non-believers. Last time I checked, we weren’t telling people dying of AIDS to avoid using condoms, but hey, I’m sure they could make us look like that bad guys on that one too.
(source: examiner.com)

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If I have one solid piece of advice for any readers looking to have some kids, it’s this: choose your partner well. If you’re an atheist and have a religious girlfriend or spouse, you need to keep in mind that once children enter in the mix, it’s very likely that your beliefs will begin to clash. Religious folks have a tendency of trying to indoctrinate children from a very young age, and it usually isn’t a very pretty sight. It’s torn apart plenty of families before.

Take this couple: they had a daughter together, but once they split up, the mother began homeschooling her child to the dismay of her atheist father. He had to involve the court in an attempt to get her to be exposed to public education and away from the fundamentalist teachings of the mother. The courts decided that she should attend public school, but it’s no guarantee that the child will be able to break free of her mother’s dogma.

The courts agreed that the child was becoming estranged from her father because of her intense religiosity, itself only a consequence of her mother’s influence. Could you image this happening to your child? If I had married someone who was teaching my children fairy tales as though they real events, I would lose my fucking mind.

I don’t want to make the blanket statement that all relationships involving believers is bound to failure. I’m sure some couples can make it work. However, if you want to avoid the hassle of having your own child grow distant from you because of their “convictions” (how a 10 year old can even claim to undersatand the world is beyond me), it might be a good idea to have that conversation BEFORE the baby comes. That way, at least you know where you stand.

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Here’s a great article about the Catholic Chruch and their attempt to force the Obama administration to exclude any abortion provision to their reform. Despite the fact that the Church has been asking the government for decades to provide citizens with Universal health care (I’ll give them props for that one), they are now threatening to withdraw their support because women who have been sexually assaulted or who’s lives may be in danger due to their pregnancy would be able to have an abortion.

I think it’s about time that the Catholics drop this issue once and for all. It’s not something they are about to win. In our modern society, we recognize that women ultimately have the right to control their own bodies. The fact that the Church is trying to use its influence to potentially kill reform all because of abortion proves that they are more interested in zygotes than they are living, breathing human beings.

Some bishops argue that they do care about the poor while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge that poor women have the right to determine the fates of their own bodies. Bishop Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y. says, “we strongly oppose inclusion of abortion as part of a national health care benefit.” But he also calls healthcare “not a privilege but a right.” The glaring discrepancy is obvious, but to be fair, spotting neon contradictions and gaping holes in logic are not the Catholic church’s strong suits.

Couldn’t have put it any better myself.

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The hilarious thing about Intelligent Design is that it explains absolutely nothing about the natural world. It’s proponents would have us believe that nature is so complex that only the power of a God (let’s not beat around the bush here) could possibly account for the existence of even the most basic forms of life. Because this hypothesis is built on the “God in the Gaps” argument, there is no need for any ID proponent to try and seek “proof” of their claims. So long as science can’t answer everything, they will continue to try and erode the public’s confidence in one of the most rigorously tested Theories in science: evolution.

Well, it just got a little harder for these idiots to try and undermine science: researchers at Yale University believe that they have discovered how Mitochondria (which provides energy to our cells) evolved from a free-living bacteria to one of the most critical components in our bodies. It’s a big step forward for science, and another blow for ID morons trying to pretend they understand the scientific method.

A discovery like this should be the final nail in the Intelligent Design coffin, but since there are still so many things we need to discover, there will always be those that seek to insert God in there somewhere. These poor, desperate fools want their mythology to be true so badly that they are willing to try and destroy science to accomplish their goal. They are not harmless fools, but rather enemies of science and reason who seek to return us to the Bronze Age out of the stupid conviction that “scientific naturalism” leads to moral and ethical decay (this despite the fact that wars, crime, and conflict is historically at an all time low).

If you want to believe in your precious God, then you’re free to do so; just don’t try to bring him into the laboratory where people are actually trying to get work done, thanks.

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Here’s an interesting article about the growth of atheist groups in Southern Florida. Considering how weird they are, it’s nice to see there are still a few sane and rational people in the “Sunshine State”.

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