The Futility of Creationism

Today’s Christianity is a highly modified version of a violent oppressive ideology. After Constantine legalized the religion in the 4^th century CE, humanity was treated to torture, oppression, burning at the stake for witches and heretics, the enslavement of women to repeated childbirth, un-divorceable husbands, and a second hand existence, the use of fear of being condemned to Hell as a means of control. The Mother Church greedily sucked up the wealth of the people and countries they operated in, and was to become the richest single institution in the world.  Some of the Popes and other church leaders and priests of the time were so evil and greedy you would think they were in league with a devil, not serving a God.

Over the last hundred years or so Christianity has totally reinvented itself as it realized its bad behavior in the past has alienated the churches from its paying customers.  Nowadays the Church is all about upbeat music, smiles and generally a good atmosphere and attitude.  In only a few quarters is the old fire and brimstone, hell-bound damnation still preached. Today’s rising tide of knowledge and scientific achievement is eating away at the foundational myths and old stories of the Bible and thus the religion itself.  Over the last 20 years or so a right-wing group of fundamentalists has tried to stop the erosion of what it considers a inerrant Bible by denying and lying and making up “science” to try to disprove the real science that disproves their Bible.

The creationists and Intelligent Design lackeys of today are recruiting Master’s and Doctoral candidates in the sciences and bribing those that they can to testify on behalf of religion…making up theories and boldly lying about science in their field.  They never publish in the real science journals, they have no peer reviewed papers to support their “work”, and they only have half-assed theories that are easily dismissed by real scientists in their field.  There is currently no “science” or “scientific theories” by any creationist or ID’ist that has made any real contribution to human knowledge…Its all bogus or junk science.

Hopefully this is the dying gasp of an institution that has outlasted its usefulness—that is if it ever was useful.

see more Political Pictures

Catholic Church Screws Up Again

The Catholic Church just can’t seem to get it together

The news is slowly leaking out…the Roman Catholic Church in Italy is being accused of harboring and hiding pedophile priests.

Speaking through an interpreter, 59 year old Alessandro Vantini spoke of when he was a boy in a Catholic run institute for the deaf and priests abused him so relentlessly he came to feel he was dead. He said it happened night after night, sometimes in the priests bedroom, sometimes in the bathroom, sometimes even in the confessional.

This year something very unusual for Italy happened; Vantini and dozens of other former students went public with claims that they were abused by priests.  For many, many years a culture of secrecy has surrounded priestly abuse in Italy where the church is considered the country’s most respected institution.

Of the 67 victims that came forward in the school for the deaf case, 14 of them wrote sworn statements and filmed testimony that detailed the abuse they suffered at the school’s two campuses in Verona. They named 24 priests, lay religious men, and religious brothers.

Vantini said he was silent for years about being raped.

“How could I tell my papa that a priest had sex with me?’’ Vantini, 59, said about the abuse he endured. “You couldn’t tell your parents because the priests would beat you.’’

The Associated Press has keep count of cases and they report that there are 73 cases of alleged sexual abuse by priests against minors in the past decade, with a total of more than 235 victims so far.

According to the AP information, the Italian Catholic Church has had to pay only a few hundred thousand dollars in civil damages to the Italian victims; compare that with $2.6 billion in abuse-related costs for the American dioceses or $1.5 billion due to victims in Ireland.  The Italian church does not seem willing to release the numbers of cases reported or of court settlements in that country.

In the United States we have about 44,000 priests in our nation of 300 million people.  Over 4,000 Catholic clergy have been accused of pedophilia since the 1950’s.  I’ll bet you this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Some of the Catholic organizations that have been accused of sexual abuse, and pedophilia in Italy and other countries include:

Salesian order
Christian Brothers
Sisters of Mercy
Brothers of the Sacred Heart
Brothers of Charity
Salvatorian Order
Marist Brothers
Passionist Order
Norbertine Order
Kiltegan Fathers
Company of Mary

Rev. Joseph J. Guido, a psychology professor at Providence College, surveyed superiors of a Catholic religious order and found that 83 percent of the North American superiors reported being aware of an accusation of sexual abuse against one or more of their priests. In contrast, 43 percent of superior America and the Caribbean reported being aware of such an accusation. Only one-third of the superiors in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. In ‘America’ magazine, a Jesuit weekly, Guido wrote that research suggests … that the sexual abuse of children is a problem for the church everywhere.” However, he wrote that, outside North America, the religious order superiors were more likely to be aware of sexual misconduct by priests with adults, rather than with minors. Wikipedia Here

In Italy few dare to criticize the Roman Catholic Church, including the mainstream independent and state-run media. Also there is a certain prudishness in small-town Italy, where one just doesn’t speak about sex, much less sex between a priest and a young child.

Now I’ve been told that the Catholic Church is not alone in cases of sexual abuse and pedophilia, and certainly there is much pedophilia in the secular world, and I know that secular schools have the problem too, but it seems to me the cases you hear the most about in the secular schools are Men on Girls or Women on Boys, not almost exclusively Men on Boys. You wonder if the priests involved are members of NAMBLA or its international offspring IOMBLA.

Nor is the Protestant church immune to sexual misconduct, but again it is almost always Men on Women or Men on Girls; very little of the homosexual misconduct.  We all know that homosexual people are targets of most evangelical fundamentalist churches wrath and rage, and if you study your Bible you know there is strong condemnation of homosexuality, in fact they are condemned to death by God, which is strange when you realize, if you believe in God, that God made the homosexual just as he made the heterosexual.  They too are his children.

The Church, Catholic or otherwise, are the ones pushing the belief that homosexuality is Baaad. The Church should be the ones who don’t have the problem because it’s in their scripture…you lay with the wrong sex—you die.  I wonder if these priests think that if they are contrite and ask for forgiveness they will get it.

Warning there is some rough language in the following video.

Scriptural Contradictions

“The Spaniards in Mexico and Peru used to baptize Indian infants and then immediately bash their brains out; by this means they secured these infants went to heaven.  No orthodox Christian can find any logical reason for condemning their actions, although all nowadays do so.  In countless ways the doctrine of personal immortality in its Christian form has had disastrous effects upon morals.”  Bertrand Russell

God is seen and heard / God is invisible and cannot be heard

God is everywhere present, sees and knows all things / God is not everywhere present, neither sees or knows all things

God is the author of evil / God is not the author of evil

Adultery forbidden / Adultery allowed;

The father of Joseph, Mary’s husband was Jacob / The father of Mary’s husband was Heli

The infant Christ was taken into Egypt / The infant Jesus was not taken into Egypt

John was in prison when Jesus went into Galilee / John was not in prison went Jesus went into Galilee

Jesus was crucified at the third hour / Jesus was crucified at the sixth hour

Christ is equal with God / Christ is not equal with God

It is impossible to fall from grace / It is possible to fall from grace

God is a man of War / God is a God of peace

I and my Father are one / my Father is greater than I

He said: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” …Jesus, when he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” Matt.

He said: “Father, unto thy hands I commend my spirit:” and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” Luke

He said: “It is finished:” and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” John

“I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy.” / “The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.”

There are over a hundred more of these.  Many of the passages represent “perfect contradictions” that is you cannot affirm the truth of one without asserting the falsity of the other.

Inerrancy…Hah

see more Fail Blog

Darwin Film too Scary For American Weenies

A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.

Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as “a racist, a bigot and a 1800’s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder.”  His “half-baked theory” directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to “atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering”, the site stated.

Silly me, here I thought all this time that Darwin was the father of evolution, not Eugenics.  They may be thinking about Francis Galton, who is actually considered the founder of eugenics.  If you have actually read any of Darwin’s works you would know he was not a racist or bigot. So my guess here is that they have not read his works and are just passing on their made up version of reality.  Also if you read REAL history you know that Hitler was a confessed Catholic and he professed his Catholic religion almost to the end, when he committed suicide. Remember at the time of Hitler the Catholic Church and the Pope were vehemently anti-Jewish and had a pact with Hitler.

As for cloning and genetic engineering Prof. Darwin hadn’t a clue.  Yes those things are possible now, but it is a result of the normal advancement of science…not because Darwin had anything to do with it. Again, this is a really stupid statement by creationists.  Movieguide.org also conveniently forgets about the “atrocities and crimes against humanity” that the various divisions of Christianity have been responsible for down through the ages…millions of souls have died as a direct result of religious fervor.

The religious right is lying it’s ass off trying to bring Hitler and Darwin together, I guess because they think that Hitler’s evil will rub off on Darwin in their followers minds.  Well it’s stupid and untrue; the creationists just keep repeating old totally disproven crap hoping to mislead all who listen.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Religious Clergy and Sexual Misconduct

A study released this past Wednesday by Bayler University researchers found that I in 33 women who attend religious services have been the target of sexual advances by a religious leader. They found the problem so pervasive that is almost certainly involves a wide range of denominations and leaders.

“It certainly is prevalent, and clearly the problem is more than simply a few charismatic leaders preying on vulnerable followers,” said Diana Garland, dean of Baylor’s School of Social Work, who co-authored the study. Link to study:  http://www.baylor.edu/clergysexualmisconduct/ . The study also found that more than two-thirds of the transgressors were married to someone at the time of the advance.

Ms. Garland said, “when you put it (sexual misconduct) with a spiritual leader or moral leader, you’ve really added a power that we typically don’t think about in secular society — which is that this person speaks for God and interprets God for people. And that really adds a power.”

These leaders, ministers, pastors, rabbi’s, fathers, etc. have all studied the Bible, most have gone to seminary and know the Holy Book inside out.  The Bible is nothing if not a guide book on sexual morays. The Old and New Testament both give its readers guidelines about sex and marriage. The words are crystal clear and unambiguous…If married, don’t fool around…if single, don’t mess with married souls—you’ll go to Hell.

Do these misguided and horny church officials know something us peons don’t; do they know there’s no real backup to that hoary old Bible, that there’s no God in heaven looking down on them as the commit the Big Sins?

I just can’t imagine a priest having sex with a young boy, or a pastor having sex with a pretty young married woman and NOT thinking about God looking down on him with disapproval.  Does he really think that, if there is a God, somehow he is immune to the punishment for his crime? Are the rules that easy to break for these religious men? Are there no consequences for his crimes relating to Gods expectations of us?

Or do they perhaps subconsciously know there is no God watching over them and they are free to break vows and screw whomever they choose.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Old Biblical Stories…Redux

I spent a lot of time on this reply, it needs to be on the blog front page.

Hi Marianne, Thank you for writing.

You write:”
I am a scientist that is paying attention. I have spent 30 years in biochemistry, which includes cell biology, toxicology, pharmacology, inflammation, biophysics of DNA and RNA, and medical research in general.

Great, I’ve always wanted to talk to someone in the research. If you are comfortable with it, could you tell me where you received your degree, what degree you have, and what particular field you work in today?

You write:
“Most scientists do not have any proof for what you say. It is all just “tradition.” They just assume evolution did this, and evolution did that. There is no proof. What the lay person perceives as proof is just scientific speculation, based on this traditional thinking.”

So are you saying here that you do not agree with or accept evolution?
How old do you think the earth and our universe is?

You write:
“you make several unsubstantiated comments. Like Noah did not exist. Well there are records of him, just like there are records of Julius Caesar. There was a garden of eden, and the description of what happened to it is consistent with the syrian african rift – most of it fell into this pit. The bible knew about this rift before modern science did. And the descriptions of the Garden match up with local areas, if you understand tectonic plate shifts.”

Here is what I actually wrote in my reply to your earlier post:
“Looking around and paying attention and studying the world we find the evidence that there never was a world-wide flood, which means we are not descended from Noah’s 3 sons. We find that real humans have been walking the earth for at least 200,000 years (means that there was no Adam and Eve as the Bible relates), which also means there was no fall from grace in the Garden of Eden, which means there is no Original Sin…which also means there is no need for a redeemer (Jesus) for our (non-existent) original sin .”

I did not say Noah never existed (although I do doubt that he did) I said there is NO evidence of his supposed flood, and you will find the evidence for this fact is all over the internet. You say there are records of him…could you perhaps guide me to them?

Regarding the Garden of Eden, there are many stories and guesses as to where it was. The Discovery and Nat Geo channels have had a few specials  about that, and it has variously been placed in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The Great Rift Valley which goes through Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania, and goes right by the Afar depression…you know where Lucy and her brethrens bones are found, also the border area between Namibia and South Africa, and probably other places I haven’t heard about.  Yes, I am familiar with plate tectonics

The Largest DNA study on record at this time is the IBM, Nat Geo Genome Project which has over 350,000 DNA samples right now, and they are showing all the existing human bloodlines come from Africa, primarily the Ethiopian, Kenya area and the border area between Namibia and South Africa.

And why would there be a Garden of Eden if Adam and Eve did not exist?

You write:
“I do not accept the Jewish archeologist denying the Exodus or Joshua. I say the opposite. They are uncovering new evidence every day. They have sites where the Red Sea was crossed, and the pharoah’s chariots are still down there, under water. THey also have sites where the Israelites offered sacrifices in the desert, with hebrew symbols. The israelites were instructed to leave markers along their journey, and these markers have been found. “

You do not accept the Archaeological evidence? Do you have other scientific evidence that refutes this? Is this part of your field today? Also it’s not just one archaeologist.

There has never been a discovery of Pharaohs chariots in the Red Sea, or the Reed Sea for that matter, and believe me they have been looked for.  If you insist there is…could you please point me to the evidence, as I have scoured the internet for almost three years now for evidence of this (and other Biblical things) and have had no luck at all.

To the best of my knowledge many, many archaeologists have scoured the Sinai for a hundred years looking for any evidence at all that over a million Hebrews wandered there for 40 years and have found absolutely nothing.  There is even no evidence at Kadesh-Barnea where a million Hebrews supposedly spent the majority of their time during this 40 years.  You know that the evidence of Joshua defeating the town of Jericho and Ai are lacking also, don’t you?  I haven’t heard anything at all about markers.

You write:
“Most modern church and theology seminaries are getting away from the truth, not going toward it. Much is crap. They need the holy spirit to know truth, not a man getting paid a salary. He is just a hireling.”

I guessing here that you are an evangelical fundamentalist and believe in the literal Bible as being inerrant in all matters. Would I be right?  I think a lot of what the modern church and seminaries are doing is trying to keep up with the emerging science that somehow impinges on religion.  This is what’s going on with the Old Testament and Genesis specifically. The circumstantial evidence against Adam and Eve, Noah’s flood, Tower of Babel, Exodus, Joshua, and the subsequent fallout from these stories being false…nothing but myth, is changing our world of religious thought. Denying facts do not make them go away.

You write:
“As far as time on the earth, no data is any better than the tool that measures it. There is no realistic tool that can measure over 500o years. The rest is speculation, and going off the standard curve, which is bad science.”

Have you heard of Potassium Argon dating?  There are also about 20 or 30 radioactive element methods of dating besides the common C-14

Also there are the following:
Absolute dating
Amino acid dating
Astronomical chronology
Biochronology
Datestone
Dendrochronology
Electron spin resonance
Fluorine absorption dating
Ice-Core dating
Iodine-xenon dating
Law of superposition
Obsidian hydration dating
Oxidizable carbon ratio dating
Principle of faunal succession
Relative dating
Thermoluminescence dating

I’m sure I’ve missed one or two…but then you know all this as a scientist.

Dendrochronology can go back 11,000 years now. Not helpful in the Sinai, but useful in other parts of Israel…to sometimes fact check the old stories.

You might want to check out an older post of mine here: https://thewordofme.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/carbon-dating-and-the-bible

In it I reference a Christian writer and scientist who actually works in the age-dating field. I have there a link to a PDF file about age-dating that the man wrote especially for Christians. Also I will post his contact data here: Dr. Roger C. Wiens RCWiens@MSN.Com Dr. Wiens has a PhD in Physics, with a minor in Geology. His PhD thesis was on isotope ratios in meteorites, including surface exposure dating.

He was employed at Caltech’s Division of Geological & Planetary Sciences at the time of writing the first edition. He is presently employed in the Space & Atmospheric Sciences Group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

He has published over twenty scientific research papers and has also published articles in Christian magazines. Dr. Wiens became a Christian at a young age, and has been a member of Mennonite Brethren, General Conference Baptist, and Conservative Congregational, and Vineyard denominations.
Whole PDF article can be found at: http://www.asa3.org/ASA/resources/Wiens.html

Age Dating in the many ways and methods used by science nowadays works…there is NO real dispute about this…except from YEC’s

You write:
“If you want to know Jesus, he will make himself known to you, in a way that is unique to you.”

Is there really a need for Jesus…if there was no Adam and Eve and consequently no “Original Sin”?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Obama and Secrecy and Human Rights

Obama’s support for the new Graham-Lieberman secrecy law

Sounds like a dry subject, but t really isn’t.
Follow this link if you believe in human rights and want to get really mad
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/01/photos/index.html

I voted for this guy and believed in his platform…what a fool I was.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Pre-History and the Religious Fundamentalist

A study published in the August 13^th. 2009 edition of the journal Science has revealed that early modern humans living around the Southern tip of Africa some 72,000 years ago were using fire to shape their stone tools and weapons

““We show that early modern humans at 72,000 years ago, and perhaps as early as 164,000 years ago in coastal South Africa, were using carefully controlled hearths in a complex process known as heat treatment,” said study lead author Kyle Brown.

Until this point it was the widely held belief that humans began using heat to forge tools 25,000 years ago in Europe, the researchers said.

The study based its conclusions on pieces of silcrete, a type of stone that were found in various states of glossiness, indicating they had been treated with heat.

“Prior to our work, heat treatment was widely regarded as first occurring in Europe at about 25,000 years ago, We push this back at least 45,000 years, and, perhaps, 139,000 years, and place it on the southern tip of Africa at Pinnacle Point,” said study co-author Curtis Marean.

The study was conducted by researchers from universities in Cape Town, Africa, Liverpool, England, Wollogong, Australia, and Bordeaux, France.

Full story found here: http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/08/13/stone-tools.html

or a longer version of story can be found at the link below.

http://www.physorg.com/news169391684.html
A story from October of 2007 at Science Daily describes earlier findings of this primeval human habitation site and relates that “After decades of debate, paleoanthropologists now agree the genetic and fossil evidence suggests that the modern human species — Homo sapiens — evolved in Africa between 100,000 and 200,000 years ago.”

Full story can be found here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071017145252.htm

So the evidence just keeps adding up and the religious right/fundamentalists just stick to their old Bible stories as if nothing is happening.

Think about the ramifications, as regards Biblical history, of just these two discoveries alone…minus the thousands and thousands of other bits of evidence that we already have that totally refutes religion. Some people just never get it.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

God Watches Over Us

Such a loving God watching over us.

“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like a fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.” Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached in his home church… Northampton, Massachusetts in 1741

And out of his mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God, the Almighty. Revelation 19:15

“Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.” Ezekiel. 8:18

“I will tread them in mine anger, and will trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment.” Isa. 63:3

“And the people shall be as the burnings of lime, as thorns cut up shall they be burnt in the fire. Hear ye that are far off, what I have done; and ye that are near, acknowledge my might. The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites,” Isa. 33:12-14.

“And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.” Isa. 66:23, 24

And here I thought we had a loving God looking after us.  🙂

More Lies From Christianity

How much you want to bet that if religion ever ruled the world again that something like the below could happen again?

“On the 7th of December, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII sent forth the bull Summis Desiderantes. Of all documents ever issued from Rome, imperial or papal, this has doubtless, first and last, cost the greatest shedding of innocent blood. Yet no document was ever more clearly dictated by conscience. Inspired by the scriptural command, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live,” Pope Innocent exhorted the clergy of Germany to leave no means untried to detect sorcerers . . . Witch-finding inquisitors were authorized by the Pope to scour Europe, especially Germany, and a manual was prepared for their use [by the Dominicans Heinrich Krämer and Jacob Sprenger]—”The Witch Hammer”, Malleus Maleficarum. . . . With the application of torture to thousands of women, in accordance with the precepts laid down in the Malleus, it was not difficult to extract masses of proof . . . The poor creatures writhing on the rack, held in horror by those who had been nearest and dearest to them, anxious only for death to relieve their sufferings, confessed to anything and everything that would satisfy the inquisitors and judges. . . . Under the doctrine of “excepted cases,” there was no limit to torture for persons accused of heresy or witchcraft.”  Andrew Dickson White, “A history of the warfare of science with theology in Christendom” pp 351-352

Aren’t the pronouncements of the Pope infallible and direct from God. Since the church claims a direct line to God they should never be wrong in any matters of interpretation and dogma…should they?  Have they?

And echoes of the these thoughts below of early church fathers still reverberate in today’s churches, as many denominations still practice unjust quasi-slavery over women.

“In pain shall you bring forth children, woman, and you shall turn to your husband and he shall rule over you. And do you not know that you are Eve? God’s sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil’s gateway; you are she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: Man! Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die. . . . Woman, you are the gate to hell.”  Tertullian 160-220 AD, ‘De Cultu Feminarum,’ section I.I, part 2

I was thinking about the early Christian church (Catholic) and comparing it to today’s church thought and practices, and you know there have been tremendous changes in it. Interpretation of the Bible has undergone a revolution that still continues as we become smarter and less intimidated by religious authorities and realize that it’s not “God breathed.”

Religion has the onus of having to be right from the very start…after all God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Nothing He does or says is wrong…right?

You know what; many of the things in Christian religion were and are wrong. I’m not talking itsy-bitsy matters here such as a word disagreement or two, I’m talking major things the church has screwed up; such as the witch thing, and the holding half of the human population in total disregard, and endorsing slavery for humans.  Look back in the Old Testament and see how God says to kill for small matters that humans do all the time and are meaningless in the grand scheme of things.

I mean do we really want to kill someone for disrespecting their parents or for making fun of a bald man.  Do we want to go around killing homosexuals for something they most likely have no control over…and let’s not forget that if you believe in God…God made that homosexual.

We now know that most of Genesis is lies and most probably Exodus as well.  The “scholars” at Answers in Genesis are right in one thing…if Genesis is wrong (and it is), then the whole foundation of the Christian faith goes down the drain.

I believe that all the evidence points to religion in general, and Christianity in particular, being nothing but a scam against the human race, and it’s guilty of genocide against us.