All I can say about this is WOW... are we living in the year 1300?  This show airs on satellite television all over the world.  But don't worry, even though the host

vows to kill and eat all Danish people over the cartoon images of the Prophet Muhammad which appeared in a newspaper

the other host (11 year old girl) says

We are against the death of civilians on all sides.

...apparently, no one in Denmark is an innocent civilian?

ARTICLE: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1037512/Pictured-The-TV-rabbit-preaching-hatred-telling-young-Muslims-kill-eat-Jews.html 

In an interesting article at Slate, it is explained how Saudi Arabia freely distrubutes government produced textbooks that openly tell their readers to hate non-believers [in the Muslim faith] and that you are not a true believer if you do not hate them (this is pointed at you as well Christians/Jews).

Here, for example, is a multiple-choice question that appears in a recent edition of a Saudi fourth-grade textbook, Monotheism and Jurisprudence, in a section that attempts to teach children to distinguish "true" from "false" belief in god:

Q. Is belief true in the following instances:
a) A man prays but hates those who are virtuous.
b) A man professes that there is no deity other than God but loves the unbelievers.
c) A man worships God alone, loves the believers, and hates the unbelievers.

The correct answer, of course, is c). According to the Wahhabi imams who wrote this textbook, it isn't enough just to worship god or just to love other believers—it is important to hate unbelievers as well. By the same token, b) is also wrong. Even a man who worships god cannot be said to have "true belief" if he loves unbelievers.

READ MORE: http://www.slate.com/id/2195684/

A very interesting discussion on how underground salamanders with vestigal eyes make a strong claim against ID (though it is almost pointless to use logic against an illogical claim).  I would love to hear the arguments against that are not the old: "they are put there by God to test your faith" because that one is getting really lame...

Vestigial eyes, for example, are clear evidence that these cave salamanders must have had ancestors who were different from them—had eyes, in this case. That is evolution. Why on earth would God create a salamander with vestiges of eyes? If he wanted to create blind salamanders, why not just create blind salamanders? Why give them dummy eyes that don't work and that look as though they were inherited from sighted ancestors?

READ MORE: http://www.slate.com/id/2195683

Stuff like this makes me fear that we are approaching a new Dark Age.  We may as well live in the Middle East (which I do right now) with all of their overboard fanatacism; ours is becoming much the same.  This is in response to a Florida student who took a communion wafer out of the church and was quickly followed up with death-threats and cries of hate-crime from those 'good' Catholics.  Funny thing is that Fox (who originally ran the story) took down the story... Here is a sample:

 

"We don't know 100% what Mr. Cooks motivation was," said Susan Fani a spokesperson with the local Catholic diocese. "However, if anything were to qualify as a hate crime, to us this seems like this might be it."

We just expect the University to take this seriously," she added "To send a message to not just Mr. Cook but the whole community that this kind of really complete sacrilege will not be tolerated."

 

The saddest part is that Webster (the student) actually feared for his life for what he 'did'. How is this any better than threatening a cartoonist for a portrayel of a prophet? Answer: IT ISN'T!

 

Webster just wants all of this to go away. Especially now that he feels his life is in danger.

 

Things like this make me fear for the US.

 

ARTICLE: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/07/its_a_goddamned_cracker.php

He somewhat quote Jefferson; I bolded the part he seemed to have forgotten...

 

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

 

Isn't it odd that he forgot just that one line?  Then again, in one of his many discussions with God he might have been told to leave it out, because that's probably not really what Jefferson meant anyways.

 

READ MORE: http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2008/07/bush_edits_out_jeffersons_reli.php

I sure hope Louisiana is alone in their utter stupidity to pass these laws.  Disputing a scientific theory is fine, but this is ridiculous when your only opposing view comes froma  story book, while evidence shows time and time again that is at least a viable option.  Why no dispute gravity, thermal dynamics or basic physics?  They are jsut theories after all... get that stuff out of our schools.

the students of the state will be subjected to an "anything goes" approach to science—if it looks scientific to a school board, it can appear in the classroom.

Whatever happened to that concept of seperation of church and state?

 

SOURCE: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080627-louisiana-passes-first-antievolution-academic-freedom-law.html

A very uplifting article presented by the UK telegraph entitled:

 

Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

 

religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time as people became more intelligent

 

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2111174/Intelligent-people-'less-likely-to-believe-in-God'.html

How can so many people put on their blinders and just ignore science?

 

SOURCE: http://www.livescience.com/...Science

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have heard of 'Expelled', the ridiculous pro-ID 'documentary' coming out of which Ben Stein is the creator.  After seeing this, I know without a shadow of a doubt that Ben Stein has no clue what he is talking about, just spewing factless rhetoric like any other religion pusher.

 

This was shown to me by a friend, it's original location is http://www.evilbible.com/Top_Ten_List.htm  Be sure to check out http://www.evilbible.com, even though it's a pretty antogonistic url, there is a lot of good stuff there, a lot of rebuttles in the inevitable war of words with the religious.

 

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.
 
9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.
 
8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.
 
7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees!
 
6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.
 
5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.
 
4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering.  And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

 
3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.
 
2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers.  You consider that to be evidence that prayer works.  And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.
 
1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.