Remember that hilarious “15 questions Evolutionists can’t answer” pamphlet? The people behind this mongrel document have decided to expand their effort and launched a campaign called “question evolution“. Their goal is simple: to make children question one of the best theories in all of science because it conflicts with their limited world view.

The video tries to make people believe that this campaign is really meant to help kids “question everything”, although it’s quite clear from their own mandate that certain specific questions, such as “does God really exist”, are not really encouraged. What they want is the illusion of skepticism, applied improperly and for the sole purpose of undermining science education.

They want you to buy their swag, with is basically the ghost-busters logo but with Darwin instead. They also have a gigantic url pasted right on the front so anyone similarly stupid can visit their website and learn all about how science isn’t as important as scripture:

By definition, no apparent, perceived or claimed evidence in any field, including history and chronology, can be valid if it contradicts the Scriptural record. Of primary importance is the fact that evidence is always subject to interpretation by fallible people who do not possess all information.

Yeah, you wouldn’t want to trust the words of fallible human beings. You’re better off trusting a book that says diseases are caused by demons and that the Universe was created in 6 days.

I’ll give these guys credit: unlike their moderate religious counterparts, they realize that their concept of a creator God conflicts with evolution. The idea that “God guided the process” would reveal the creator as an incompetent fool who kills off the vast majority of the species for no reason. So, given the choice between abandoning their Bronze Age beliefs or continuing to live in a delusional bubble, guess which one they pick?

I love the comment from this guy in South Africa:

I am a lecturer in the Physics department of … University. Last year I put a few copies of the Creation magazine in our tearoom. The next day I found it lying in the rubbish bin! I removed it, dusted it off and put it on the table again. The next day it was in the rubbish bin again!

I dusted it off, and put it on the table, etc …

This happened three days in a row!

Then I got a better idea. Every week I paste copies of the articles in Creation mag on my door, and since my office is next to the tea room, everyone who goes there has to walk past the office door! Now everyone will get to see the articles whether they want to or not! Since it is on my door, no one (so far) has dared to remove it! Thanks so much for this list of 15 questions. It will be on my door very soon! God bless!

I guess he really doesn’t have a fucking clue, does he?

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The picture contest is over, and the winner of a year’s free membership is…Michael Johnson! To collect on your prize, Mikey, just shoot me an email with your username and I’ll be sure to upgrade you. Thanks everyone who participated in our little contest. We’ll try to do things like this more often, promise!

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Change, even the important kind, takes time. It isn’t easy for people to change their minds, especially when they’ve been told their whole life that [insert minority here] are evil, wicked, bad, or acting against the will of whatever imaginary friend they have.

Afew weeks ago, New York joined the growing list of States that now allow gay couples the same rights as veryone else, and so the “National Organization for Marriage (you may remember them from their “gather stormclouds commerciial) and their dear leader Maggie Gallagher organized a rally to protest this.

“So many good people of every race and colour standing up for what’s right”

Where do you even begin? How wonderful that bigotry has united all of these primates of different skin pigmentation, all under the false assumption that allowing gays to marry will somehow affect their lives. Perhaps it will in some way (like needing to accept the reality of homosexual unions for starters), but not enough to justify their own pride in their ignorance.

If it makes you feel a little depressed, just remember that the more progress we do make, the more close-minded bigots will push back. But this is their last hurrah. They are on the wrong side of history. The legacy of hatred they are leaving behind will, with any luck, not be inherited by their decendants. They can try to spew their hateful nonsense all they want, but the tide has already turned. Now we get to witness the sad bigots fight tooth and nail to defend their right to discriminate. It’s just sad.

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How do ideas spread? Well, that’s what a team of scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute wanted to find out. Their experiments involved using social networks to see how opinions would spread and change over time. They discovered that if 10% of the “population” (defined here as those involved within the network) held strong and intractable opinions, the rest of the group would eventually follow suit in order to avoid any disagreement with the group.

While the research is admittedly preliminary, the numbers make sense to me. I’ve always believed that the opinions of the majority are in fact dictated by a small group of highly influential people who have no quandary about spreading their ideas to others. It’s interesting to note that the authors suggest that ideas that fail to achieve higher than 10 percent, and believers who has too little conviction were doomed to being in the margins. There’s a lesson here somewhere for us. While we hate the idea of holding any belief too firmly (even a non-belief), it is nevertheless the primary way that ideas are spread.

The good news is that so long as we keep talking about our non-belief, and the better we get at dismantling the claims of religious people, the closer we get to that magical “tipping” number. Hey, we already know that over 10% of the population thinks this religion bullshit is a waste of time. Now these people just need to start telling others about it a hell of a lot more.

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While I’m starting to agree that religion was less of a motivating factor in the attack on Oslo, Norway than pure racist xenophobia and fascism, it’s hilarious how Billy-Boy refuses to believe that any mass murderer could be a Christian. You can’t really blame him for his ignorance; this is the same man who is convinced that the tides prove the existence of God. Still you hear this “No True Scotsman” fallacy all the time in regards to who is, and isn’t a “real” Christian. Here’s a working definition: any person who believes that a historically dubious Palestinian Jew who lived 2000 years ago was in fact the creator of the Universe.

It’s tragic to think people like Bill actually believe that devoted religious people are incapable of murder, since faith itself often motivates people to commit the most atrocious acts. The Crusaders who slaughtered man, woman and child indiscriminately did so precisely BECAUSE of their religious convictions. While I agree that Anders probably does not fit in that category, there’s nothing about his behavior that would suggest that he was a “bad Christian”.

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling a little down recently. I guess after recording almost 230 podcasts, you begin to wonder exactly how long you can keep telling people how crappy religion is.

Luckily, my broodiness has passed, and it’s been replaced with jubilation at a recent side project I’ve decided to take on. As some of you may know, I’m a huge gamer, and one of my goals in life is to make my very own old school video game. I was recently watching a documentary on Alexander the Great, and I’ve also been playing a shit-ton of older genesis games, most particularly “Shining Force“. It made me want to draw again, and over the weekend I’ve been feverishly doodling concept drawing for what I hope will be my own Tactical RPG called “Alexander”. The plot centers around the Greek Gods commissioning Alexander the Great to destroy the Persian God, Ahura Mazda.

I’m also planning on making a graphic novel companion, but as you can guess, this is all in the distant future. Nothing fundamental is changing with TGA, of course. All that I’m doing is adding a labor of love to the list of  projects I want to do, and I’m inviting people interested in helping out to message me (a love of old school gaming is a must). In a few weeks I’ll be putting up a website dedicated entirely to the project where people can offer either their labor, or their cash for the project. In the meantime, enjoy some of the artwork I drew!

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When innocent people are killed and the fog of war has yet to be lifted, it’s not uncommon for the press to assume that any terrorist actions must be the work of Islamic fundamentalists. As far as they are concerned, only the Muslim faith can indiscriminately kill innocent civilians. How easily they forget men like Timothy McVeigh or Scott Roeder; men motivated by their religion (in their cases, Christianity) to commit calculated murder. The Oklahoma City bombing was, until 9/11, the most devastating domestic attack on civilians, perpetuted by a home grown Christian fundy angry at the government for the slaughter of 76 people in Waco Texas (he was not entirely unjustified for his anger. The Branch Davidians were massacred by the FBI). McVeigh saw the government as his enemy, and by extention, all those who had any connection with it were deemed enemies.

A similar angry brewed inside Anders Breivik, who viewed the left leaning political Labour Party as the enemy of European (ie. white) hegemony. Multiculturalism -and in particular the Islamization of his country- were the enemy, and so he conjured a plan to attack a youth retreat organized by the party. He believed such an attack would act as a rallying cry for his fellow citizens to take violent action against their darker skinned citizens. In total, he (and perhaps an accomplice) killed 68 people and wounded 90 more.

Breivik counts Geert Wilders as one of his, a man recently acquitted of enticing violence against Islam (makes you wonder if perhaps there wasn’t something to the accusation. In any case, Norway is now deeply scared by these events. It’s a reminder that terrorism is employed by all manner of religious fundamentalists. One does not the promise of 72 virgins to explode a car bomb: any old faith will do, so long as the principle tenants demand the destruction of unbelievers.

When will the headlines of such horrible tragedies finally read “Religious xenophobia (mixed with equally ignoble patriotism) claims more victims”?

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Due to popular demand, God has been invited as a special guest for our next Bonus Show. Yes, the Creator of the Universe took time off his busy schedule to answer your pitiful, unworthy questions, so try and make them count!

The Bonus Show will be a freebie, so that means even if you don’t have any money, you can still tune in if you sign up.

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