The folks over at Freethinker just nailed Ray comfort to the wall with this latest accusation, demonstrating that parts of his awful and pointless introduction to his “special version” of the Origin of Species was actually pilfered from one of Charles Darwin’s biography.

The part dealing with Charles Darwin’s biography is actually rather good – almost as if he’d plagiarised the work of someone else?  Sure enough, Googling several key phrases from Comfort’s introduction proves beyond reasonable doubt that he had.  Whole passages were lifted without attribution from Dr Stan Guffey’s work, A Brief History of Charles Darwin.

I don’t find it particularly surprising; Ray strikes me as the kind of guy that isn’t too bright or scholarly, so it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that he would basically rip off the works of others rather than do any actual real research into the life of Darwin. If he bothered, he wouldn’t have accused him of being a racist, or of causing the Holocaust (how fucking insane of an accusation is that, anyways?).  I thought it might be good to break out my old comic I did making fun of this jackass. Enjoy!

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I get emails from Catholics all the time asking me why I’m “picking” on their religion. It’s true that they certainly aren’t the only game in town, but they are perhaps the most influential and financially wealthy religious organization in the world. It must be strange for them to hear so much criticism. It’s only been until recently that any of us have actually been allowed to speak ill of the church without having to worry about being put on a rack, so my dear Catholic friends, you’ll forgive me if I take the opportunity to stretch my legs a little.

Of import is the latest report on clerical abuse straight out of what was perhaps the Church’s last great stronghold: Ireland. You might recall a few months ago the bombshell that was the Ryan report; it was only the tip of the iceberg, and now the Murphy report is outlining the exact extent of the conspiracy of silence and aid for pedophiles from both the Archdiocese of Dublin and the Vatican. Here’s one of the conclusions outlined in the report:

The Dublin Archdiocese?s pre-occupations in dealing with cases of
child sexual abuse, at least until the mid 1990s, were the maintenance of
secrecy, the avoidance of scandal, the protection of the reputation of the
Church, and the preservation of its assets. All other considerations, including
the welfare of children and justice for victims, were subordinated to these
priorities. The Archdiocese did not implement its own canon law rules and did
its best to avoid any application of the law of the State.

Did you expect anything less? The Archdiocese actually took out insurance in the 80′s expecting trouble, proving once more that they were more than aware that something terrible was going on, and it’s doubtful that everyone wasn’t aware at least on some level of the serious issue of pedophilia in their organization.

You might recall that the current Pope also wrote a secret memo (which has since been leaked) urging Diocese to put the interest of the Church ahead of the welfare of children. He was also granted immunity from prosecution in the US by President Bush, so you can thank Dubya for that one too. The Catholic Church has never been particularly interested in stopping the plague of child abuse (or more specifically rape)

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Remember the article on naturopathy I put up a few days ago? Well, the National Post let one of these deluded idiots write a response, and as you might have guessed, it’s pretty weaksause:

While it would be easy to dismiss Mr. Gavura’s opinions as alarmist, there’s something to be learned from it: Many Canadians aren’t aware of how safe, scientific and effective naturopathic medicine is…Naturopathic doctors are likely to undertake additional diagnostic testing to understand what else might be going on, and take the time to talk to patients about lifestyle and environmental factors, all in the interest of identifying the potential underlying causes of a patient’s complaints.

The only reason naturopathy can be considered safe is that it literally has no discernible effect. And how exactly do you and your deluded ilk perform your “diagnostic testing”? It’s not revealed in the article, but a simple visit over at the Vancouver Naturopathic Clinic gives us a a glimpse into their methods:

Electrodermal Testing: Electrodermal testing combines Traditional Acupuncture theory and Classical Homeopathic theory. It enables an experienced practicioner to quickly obtain information about many of these stress factors that come from the enviroment and which are not usually considered in normal medical testing but which can be responsible for many conditions. Unexplainable conditions, conditions in which conventional testing finds nothing wrong, vague or unusual symptoms and failure to respond to treatment. Electrodermal testing is usefull in assessing the following:

• Food sensitivities and intolerances
• Enviromental insensitivities and intolerances
• Organ weaknesses
• Mineral deficiencies
• Vitamin deficiencies
• Potential harmful reaction from medications

Ok, now you might be wondering what the hell “Electrodermal testing” is (I’m curious about “organ weakness”), since even the site doesn’t go into much detail about it. It’s a device similar to Scientology’s e-meter;  it measures the skin galvanic response (in other words, how conductive it is). They claim these devices can be used to test for allergies, and are more effective than regular skin prick tests (which I presume look less exciting). Man, wouldn’t it be great if someone had done a scientific study to see the efficacy of Electrodermal testing…oh wait, someone already has!

Results: …The results of the electrodermal tests did not correlate with those of the skin prick tests. Electrodermal testing could not distinguish between atopic and non-atopic participants. No operator of the Vegatest device was better than any other, and no single participant’s atopic status was consistently correctly diagnosed.

Conclusion: Electrodermal testing cannot be used to diagnose environmental allergies.

See, this is the essential problem with bullshit treatments; the people practicing them are convinced that they are effective, despite the best scientific evidence that shows quite clearly that they aren’t. This is precisely why they are  likened to magic or other superstitious nonsense. If their diagnostic tools fails to detect something as basic as an allergy (which is quite easy for real doctors to test), then what the fuck is the point?

You might recall that these are the same douchebags that undermine current accepted medical treatments. Naturopaths are against vaccination, and this is no joke folks; in many countries around the world, previously eradicated diseases like the measles are back with a vengeance because of consorted efforts of snake oil salesmen to question the validity of vaccines while simultaneously espousing their nonsense. What guys like Scott Maniquet don’t understand is that we’re sick and tired of their stupid bullshit, and we aren’t afraid to get in their faces. Fuck your bullshit therapy, and fuck you for trying to pass your quackery off as real medicine. When you’re sick and tired of being a living joke, you’re more than welcome to come to the grown-up table where we use the scientific method to treat illness rather than magic.

By the way, if you still don’t think there’s any harm in this shit, check out this guy’s site.

(props to James again for being such a good little bloodhound)

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Alright, this might not exactly be atheism related, but this is my website, and I still get to post whatever I feel like. TGA superfan Carisa Hendrix (of atheist panties fame) has just released an instructional DVD on fire eating just in time for the holidays. Odds are you know someone who likes the insane idea of putting fire into their mouths for the purpose of entertainment. Well, thanks to her, you can do so without burning your whole face off. As for her atheist panties, you’ll need to inquire her about that; I’m not getting involved (although I might ask for some photographic evidence of the transaction).

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So, according to this guy, atheists are a plague; a bunch of unimaginative accountants of rationalism, unable to appreciate the beauty of a Picasso because we have yet to surrender our reason to dogma. Likewise, the audience that Greg Craven tries to appeal to (disgruntled Catholics who feel attacked by “new atheists”) believes that every single nonbeliever is a crusty curmudgeon hell bent on ruining everyone’s “good times”.

One thing I find particularly irritating is the baseless claim that we non believers are unimaginative; lacking poetic resolve and supposedly unable to appreciate the beauty of the natural world. I would argue the exact opposite; we don’t feel the need to invoke the supernatural to appreciate the power and subtle elegance of nature. The very fact that we are able to appreciate this beauty fills me with awe, but it doesn’t suddenly make me foolish enough to credit an imaginary friend for its existence.

The author no doubt feels as though his specific religion (Catholicism) is being targeted, but I assure you that most atheist are equal opportunity anti-theists. Sure, we may seem like party poopers once in a while, but you haven’t exactly had the best record, religion. Just look at African countries like Nigeria, where the deadly traditions of witchcraft and Old Testament dogma have resulted in the death and torture of thousands of children suspected of being witches. Do these tortured children worry about the poetic virtues of faith, or are they more consumed with the business of escaping from religious wackos?

Be sure to check out the comment section, where Greg is taken to task for being yet another Catholic crying foul. So sorry that we think your religion is total bullshit, Greg. It’s nothing personal, I assure you. Your beliefs are antiquated, embarrassingly base, and have no foundation in reality. Catholicism is nothing more than primitive mythology taken literally, and so long as you continue to believe in miracles, transubstantiation, and the infallibility of the Pope, “crusty” atheists like myself will be there to remind you that an illiterate Jew 2000 years ago was not a God, and was certainly not the final authority of mankind. I might also need to remind you that Santa Clause is also a myth. Man, I’m such a bummer!

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Man am I sick of creationists making shit up. Unlike real scientists, who have to back up everything they say, ID fanboys like Stephen C. Meyer (head of the ironically named Discovery Institute, an organization dedicated to the ignorance of mankind) can arbitrarily claim something that has no basis in fact. Take his latest article in “CNN Opinion”, a kind of amateur journalism site for anyone desperate enough to give something to the failing news network for free (provided you do all the work, of course). Here’s a bunch of quotes that show what little care he has for intellectual integrity:

Contrary to Darwinian orthodoxy, the fossil record actually challenges the idea that all organisms have evolved from a single common ancestor. [bare assertion fallacy]

DNA functions like a software program. We know that software comes from programmers. [false analogy fallacy]

Despite the consensus view that Darwin showed that “design could arise without a designer” there is now compelling scientific evidence of actual intelligent design in even the simplest living cells. [bare assertion fallacy]

Increasingly, there are reasons to doubt the Darwinian idea that living things merely “appear” to be designed. [bare assertion fallacy]

I’ll cover just these, since the rest is essentially the same bullshit drivel you’ve come to expect from these morons. Nothing about what Meyer’s said is true, except for perhaps the fact that there is increased “doubt” about evolution, although Meyer fails to mention that the doubters are themselves not scientists, but rather terrible ignorant and scientifically illiterate people. The problem here is that Meyer is not being questioned on any of his assertions. He just boldly states them, and has no real worries about proving their validity (despite the fact that they are all fallacies). In his mind, there is a God, and he made everything with his love magic.

A high school biology student could bury this guy’s argument, which essentially boil down to “science is really hard and it can’t explain everything, so I’m going to fill in every gap in our knowledge with magic man done it“. Why don’t you let the adults do their science Meyer, and you can go play with your friends in traffic.

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