I don’t know why, but our species loves whole numbers. Especially big ones. With this strange human appreciation for whole numbers I happily report that TGA has officially cracked 2000 posts!

On a side note, did you know there are more irrational numbers than there are rational ones, even though there are an infinite amount of both? This little known fact has sent more than a few mathematicians to the insane asylum. Seems as though the Universe is prone to irrationality, mathematically speaking of course. I wonder if that’s also true for human nature…

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If you think America has a monopoly on crazy religious fundies attempting to undermine the secular values of their governments, I’ve got some sad news for you: these nutjobs are also trying to influence Canadian politicians(the site is in French, just so you know).

Because they are well funded and well connected, these pervayors of nonsense find themselves with access to the highest levels of power in the government. Thier mandate -to stifle abortion ad stem cell research, among many other goals- would have disastrous consequences for the country.

I’m sure some of you think I’m overly rhetorical when I say how harmful, dangerous and subversive these people are, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that their goal is to fundamentally change the governments they aim to influence. If we let them have their way, you can say goodbye to gay marriage, euthanasia laws, abortion, stem cell research, and the suppression of other religious minorities. Let these fuckers in, and they’ll totally take over the place.

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I’d like to thank everyone who submitted The Good Atheist Podcast on About.com, and I’m happy to report that we’ve made it to the top 5. It’s now time to vote! I don’t have to tell you that competition is fierce, but considering it’s my birth-month (I slowly celebrate the whole month until the culmination: February 28th), I can imagine a better present than winning this thing.

We’ve been working hard to continually improve the show over the years, and I think you can all agree that we’ve succeeded in this effort. An award would help get valuable attention for the podcast. That’s our biggest challenge in the future. We’re still very small fry, and that’s something that could change with a real award.

I’ll be periodically reminding everyone to head on over atheism.about.com to vote for us. We can’t do this without you!

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Imagine you’re a 14 year old girl and you get raped by your much older cousin. Now imagine that you’re living in a country ruled by Sharia Law. While in the secular world you have the chance of some justice (like the incarceration of the felon), if you happen to live in a country where the religion of Islam is supreme, the best you can hope for is to survive the 100 lashes you would receive for the crime of adultery.

Unfortunately for Hena Begum of Bangladesh, who was handed out the punishment by the town’s ruling Muslim council. she was only able to endure 80 before collapsing and dying in the hospital due to her severe injuries. Justice is served, everyone!

To add insult to injury, he father had to pay a fine of $700. Luckily, Bangladesh’s authorities are getting involved, since Sharia Law is illegal. It’s too little too late in a country where the local mullahs rule in an unofficial capacity.

Congratulations, Islam, on succeeding brilliantly in demonstrating just how barbaric, backwards, and unjust your religion is. Why not celebrate by infabulating a young woman entering puberty for the sake of posterity?

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If you thought a country like France was free from the influence of religion on their science programs, I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you. The government was planning on easing restriction on embryonic cell research, but the Catholic Church lobbied hard to prevent this, and it appears they’ve had some success.

“The Catholics have succeeded in imposing their view on embryos and seem to be succeeding in their attack on this method,” said François Olivennes, a leading fertility expert, told Europe 1 radio. “We already have a very retrograde law compared to those in Spain, Britain, Belgium, Netherlands and all of Scandinavia. Nothing is advancing.”

This can of worms was opened after scientist produced a number of stem cells for a child suffering from a rare blood disorder. And because the Catholic Church opposes abortion because of some confused interpretation of their mythology book, they feel compelled to arrest the development of life saving technology.

If they were still in control, do you have any doubt that medical science would essentially grind to a halt? I think this nonsense is a wakeup call for Western countries. Our religious institutions are effectively preventing a vital branch of science from progressing all because of their idiotic dogmas. In their deluded minds they think they are saving “babies” from annihilation, but in reality they only further our misery in their tireless efforts to save a few blastulas.

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Carl Sagan and what appears to be a pirate/astronomer discuss the search for extra-terrestrial life, and why the advances of science obliterates belief.

“It used to be possible to believe in a personal, benevolent, powerful all knowing god…but now there are very few people who believe that”. Man, I wish that was true, Carl. I think at that time he may have been a little isolated from what life is like for people who don’t spend their time studying the Universe. It’s always easy to be ignorant.

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As you might recall, Superfan Andy Scott was generous enough to donate monies to the site in order for 10 people to get free membership for a year. Andy has picked 8 few winners so far for his “Broke-Ass Scholarship” scholarship, and here is the list:

Roki B,
Sterling
David
Kyle Nicholas
Will Rodbourne
Ashley
Dayton
Tercero

Congratulation to the winners. There are still two spots left, so be sure to include in the comments why you too deserve to be the recipient of this totally not-made-up-in-10-minutes scholarship. Good luck everyone!

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It freaks the fuck out of me whenever you hear this kind of “obey God’s word” rhetoric, especially when the audience is so young, and the consequences of disobedience are so severe. I mean, an ETERNITY of hellfire? What kind of sick fuck torments someone forever? The world may be a cruel place, but at least when you die, the suffering ends. Only the sick and twisted mind of man could come up with such a vile idea as eternal torture…

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I remember when I was a kid, I went to the only English elementary school in my hometown. Because of some stupid laws forcing most children to attend French school in my province, the only way to avoid this was by attending a Catholic school. Try as they might, they utterly failed to instill anything other than complete disdain for religion. Their pathetic religion failed to impress me even as a child, but that doesn’t mean I was a happy camper having this garbage shoved down my throat.

In a sense I’m happy that things worked out the way they did. As religious as the school was, it was pretty mild compared to the way some curriculum are devised. Take South Coast, Australia. It seems that atheist children are being forced to attend scripture class, even though their non-Christian religious counterparts are exempt from this torture.

One parent told the ABC her daughter came home distressed after being told God is going to burn the world, while another parent says her child walked out of class when the religious instructor claimed he could ‘cure’ homosexuals.

Man, I’m proud of that little guy that walked out of the class. There’s a fucking brave kid! It takes balls to stand up to people; most folks would have sit their quietly raging. Hearing that story at least makes me hopeful that in the future, they next generation won’t stand for the kind of bigotry that’s still so prevalent today.

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