Non believers who love Brokeback Mountain

[Petrus Christus]

i know the Constitution is Great, but an Devote Athiest  as Pesident? I don't think so.

  Tom,

   I'm surpised by this defeatist attitude....!!  

  If it is clear the Constitution does not proscribe atheism, and the precedent setting ruling of the Supreme Court in the above mentioned case, reveals its powerful aegis in this regard, it is ultimately a question of education....., isn't it...?
  Public opinion can be changed!
  Aggressive verbal assaults by atheists against the belief systems of deists can only be counter productive, and inevitably end up increasing the defensiveness of deists, consequently deeping their alienation.
  Here, the success of the Non-violent approach to bigotry and oppression, as espoused by Gandhi ,and later adopted by Martin Luther King, come to mind.
  
  "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

 zad/PC  
 
  

[brokebacktom]

 Public opinion can be changed!
  
  "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

I agree but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

[Petrus Christus]

I agree but I don't see it happening anytime soon.

  On March 21, 1965, 45 years ago, Martin Luther King led the March from Selma to Montgomery Alabama.
It was a momentous turning point in the history of this country.
  What American questioned on that day, could have guessed that an African American would elected President of the United States as soon as 43 years later...?

  Reactive iconoclasm is clearly counter productive; put down the cudgels, lay the armor aside.
There's so much constructive work that needs to be done, if highly qualified atheists are to gain respect and political stature that will enable them to serve their country.
  
  zad/PC
  

[tfferg]

Why religion and atheism need smart women

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/why-religion-and-atheism-need-smart-women-20100805-11imn.html

[desertrat]

Why religion and atheism need smart women

http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/why-religion-and-atheism-need-smart-women-20100805-11imn.html

From the article:

Perhaps we need to promote a different side to atheism that is not so much seen as looking back in anger, as it is about looking forward with hope. While it may be akin to sacrilege, maybe there is room for a type of atheism that isn't so much about being anti-religious, as it is about looking at questions of how to live, how to find meaning and how to end suffering. Maybe we could even celebrate and better use those characteristics traditionally associated with "femaleness", such as story-telling, empathy and understanding.

as a woman, i LOVE that thought! i find extremists from all sides (religious as well as atheist) rather off-putting and feel no interest in fighting with them. open-minded, tolerant people however, i find very inviting and i really enjoy a good exchange of ideas. 

[Jer009]

Mexico City Mayor Sues Guadalajara Bishop for Defamation Over Claims Justices Were Bribed for Gay Marriage Decision

(snips)

Mexico City's Mayor Marcelo Ebrand is suing the Bishop of Guadalajara, Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez, after Sandoval made public remarks that the Mexican Supreme Court was bribed to rule in favor of gay marriage and gay adoptions, the L.A. Times reports

Church authorities were not backing down. Sandoval said Monday he would not retract his comments, and the archdiocese in Guadalajara later said it had proof of the allegations against the Supreme Court justices (link in Spanish).

http://www.towleroad.com/2010/08/mexico-city-mayor-sues-guadalajara-bishop-for-defamation-over-claims-justices-were-bribed-for-gay-ma.html

I am SO tired of clergy meddling in in areas which are clearly basic civil rights. The Catholic Church is relentlessly homophobic. If the archdiocese has proof of the bribery charges, let's see it...I'll bet it's bogus. Otherwise, quit persecuting gays who only want marriage equality.

[tfferg]

Doctors’ religion affects time of death
Julia Medew
August 27, 2010

NON-RELIGIOUS doctors are more likely to make decisions that could hasten a terminally ill patient's death than are religious doctors, a new study suggests.

A survey of 4000 British doctors found that those who described themselves as ''very'' or ''extremely'' non-religious were twice as likely as religious doctors to have provided deep sedation until death, even if it could speed up the patient's dying process.
The results of the survey, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, also showed that non-religious doctors were more likely to have discussed life-shortening measures with patients.

Monash University Centre for Human Bioethics director Justin Oakley said the results suggested religious doctors might not be having frank and open discussions with patients and that some patients might be denied access to care such as deep sedation because of doctors' religious beliefs.

Continues

http://www.theage.com.au/national/doctors-religion-affects-time-of-death-20100826-13udv.html

[Jer009]

The Jehovah's Witnesses redefine irony

(snip)

Unfortunately, I was only able to read as far as the second sentence before I was blinded by the irony.

    A new group of atheists has arisen in society. Called the new atheists, they are not content to keep their views to themselves.

That's right. The door-knockin', rabidly proselytizing cult is rebuking atheists for not keeping their views to themselves.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2010/09/the_jehovahs_witnesses_redefin.php

[oilgun]

I'm still waiting for a Stephen Hawking death fatwa for eliminating the need for god in the creation of the universe.  I guess that nutbar in Florida with his koran burning idiocy is getting all the attention.   

[Jer009]

I'm still waiting for a Stephen Hawking death fatwa for eliminating the need for god in the creation of the universe.  I guess that nutbar in Florida with his koran burning idiocy is getting all the attention.   

Yes, I read about the Hawking business. And, yes, the Florida Koran-burning foolishness is sucking all the air out of the room. I keep telling people: all the bizarre nut jobs are magnetically drawn to Florida. Aren't I lucky?   

[tfferg]

Treat Vatican as a rogue state, says QC
Paola Totaro
September 9, 2010

THE Vatican should be treated as a kind of ''rogue state'' by the rest of the world until it stops using statehood - and the ancient rules of the canon law - to protect paedophile priests, according to veteran human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, QC.
Mr Robertson, a UN judge, argues that the Catholic Church is the only religion permitted under international law to claim the privileges of statehood and its leaders immunity from civil or criminal action.

In his new book, The Case of the Pope: Vatican accountability for human rights abuse, to be published in Australia this weekend, Mr Robertson has laid out a powerful and cogently explained case in which he urges the international community to press the Catholic Church into abandoning canon law, the ancient set of ecclesiastical rules that also define disciplinary provisions for offences ranging from sex crimes to ordaining women.

However, these punishments, sometimes meted out under mediaeval written procedures run by fellow priests, allow ''neither cross-examination and medical examination nor DNA testing'' and ''no punishment worthy of that name''.

''The worst that can happen, other than an order to do penance, is 'laicisation', that is, defrocking, which permits the paedophile to leave the church and get a job in a state school or care home without anyone knowing of this conviction. Canon law has no sex offenders registry.

''While there can be no objection to an organisation disciplining members for a breach of arcane rules, there is every objection when those breaches amount to serious crimes and the organisation claims the right to deal with them internally without reporting them to the police.

''And that is precisely what the Vatican has been doing: instead of reporting to law enforcement authorities those priests who it knows to be guilty of raping children, and to be likely to rape more children in the future, it has been dealing with them under canon law, which demands utmost pontifical secrecy, moving them to other parishes and letting them off with admonitions and unenforceable penances … usually to say prayers for their victims.''

(snip)

Mr Robertson, whose human rights work has spanned the world and included defending Catholics detained without trial in Singapore and Irish accused of terrorism in the 1970s, says the Pope, as head of the Catholic Church and religious leader deserves the warmest of welcome and utmost respect.

But the claim to being a head of state is not a legitimate one: it dates back to the 1929 Lateran Treaty, which was not a true agreement between states but a bargain between Italy and Mussolini and the Catholic Church.

''The purpose of this agreement between Mussolini and pro-fascist Pope Pius XI was to destroy Italian democracy and to privilege the Catholic Church over all others.''

The 228 page book - published in a plain white cover - also asserts that the Holy See has infiltrated the UN as a state rather than a religion.

http://www.theage.com.au/world/treat-vatican-as-a-rogue-state-says-qc-20100908-1518j.html

[Jer009]

This Is An Actual Movie

(snip)

Screening tonight at the Family Research Council's Values Voters Summit in Miami is Christmas With A Capital C, a movie depicting how one Satanic atheist tried to ruin Christmas for an entire Alaskan town.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/09/this-is-actual-movie.html

[Sandy]

Are we sure it wasn't about Sarah Palin?

[oilgun]

Are we sure it wasn't about Sarah Palin?

 
Except that in that biitch's case it's a whole country not just a town that she trying to ruin

[Sandy]

True enough.