1. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #241923 by canatheist on September 3, 2008 at 8:07 am

I read with amusement, the political rhetoric that is being flung from post to post, while the real intent of the article is to raise awareness of Ms. Palin's religious zealotry.

But hey, if that's what turns your crank....

I love the comment she made to one of the parishioners about looking so good, she actually called him a "Red-Headed Sasquatch for Jesus"!! That's hilarious, I have to remember that one!

Come on folks, you gotta see the humor in all this crap :-)

2. Pastor Rick's Test

Comment #233843 by canatheist on August 20, 2008 at 1:09 pm

And while, yes, everybody has some kind of worldview, it shouldn't be necessary in a pluralistic nation of secular laws to publicly define that view in Christian code.

3. Judge says UC can deny class credit to Christian school students

Comment #229166 by canatheist on August 13, 2008 at 7:34 am

All I can say is Hallelujah! Common sense 1 Zealots 0

4. Richard Dawkins, the naive professor

Comment #225962 by canatheist on August 7, 2008 at 2:34 pm

What Ms. Purves, and other "believers" don't get is that if you accept evolution as real, it means that even if there were a "god", it is NOT the god depicted in the Bible! Hence, it's either evolution or religion from which you must choose. Evolution debunks the very foundation of all religious beliefs.

If you want to believe in a supernatural entity that somehow got the cosmic ball rolling, then be my guest. But DON'T, I repeat DON'T try and link that to ANY, I repeat ANY religion.

5. Degrees of religion

Comment #206289 by canatheist on July 8, 2008 at 8:21 am

ALthough the article is pure fluff, I genuinely feel for this lady. She is in obvious conflict between her Islamic upbringing and what she see in the "Western Culture". Because of that conflict, she is trying to rationalize there being degrees of religion.

The resolution to her conflict lies in her first statement "I beleive in God". If you truly believe in God, then are you not risking eternal damnation for not following all 5 tenets of being Muslim? However, if you do not believe in God, then you should be able recognize that the man-made religion holds no sway over you. You are free to choose to do whatever you wish.

If, as a non-believer, you choose to embrace some of the moral tenets and customs, then you do so because you believe in their value, not because you feel threatened, coerced or frightened.

If you believe in God, there can be no degrees, just as you can't be just a little bit pregnant. God is at the heart of religion and the glue that binds an religion's followers to that religion, so say that you believe in God but not my religion is a cop out. I would venture it would be closer to the truth to say that you question the reality of God, but are too afraid to admit it.

However, if you accept that there is in fact no God as depicted in the Bible or Koran or the Torah, then you have the ultimate freedom. The freedom to be moral for morality sake, to be a good person because you want to be, so share your wealth with those less fortunate because you want to help, and not out of guilt.

So to Kia I say, let go of your fear and accept that the God you have been indoctrinated to does not exist and live in peace.

6. Loyal to Its Roots

Comment #191556 by canatheist on June 11, 2008 at 8:11 am

That reminds me of an incident last week when my brother and I were using the toaster and we discussed getting a new one. Between swapping slices out, the toaster suddenly 'decided' to break and my bro is like "woah, spooky!". I tried to explain, toasters generally don't break without being used, or become old without being discussed often about for replacement (of which we did several times before, but was selectively forgotten). Just a coincidence.

7. An Atheist Goes Undercover to Join the Flock of Mad Pastor John Hagee

Comment #176889 by canatheist on May 8, 2008 at 9:10 am

In the name of Richard Dawkins, I cast out the daemons of stupidity and gullibility!

The scary part of this is there are probably countless events like this happening each and every weekend. The techniques used are borrowed straight from the cult leaders handbook.

I had a similar incident when I was a teenager and my cousins had gotten taken in by a local baptist cult. They invited me to a "social", incredulously with the promise that there would be pretty girls there who were looking to meet fine young boys just like me. Being the horny 15 year old I was (still am, only slightly older now) I went along. We played games that ended in humiliation of some of the group for some transgression aginst the Lord's will which was admitted to during the play acting. We had the breaks with the inane singing of Hymns, and continuous barrage of righteousness delivered by the pastor to engender group think. About 3 hours into the what was supposed to be a full day event, almost the entire group of kids (30 or so of us) were totally engaged and converted. They'd seen the light and found new friends to share in their new found glory. I felt like something was wrong with me because I didn't get it. I too went along with the crowd for fear of being ostracized by the group, all the while thing to myself, "what a load of crap". After about 5 hours, the fear of being discovered a fake amongst the new found enlightened ones, I bolted, feigning sickness as an excuse. One of my cousins follwed me out to ask what was wrong, and I told him he was nuts for staying there. Needless to say he didn't take it very well and we didn't speak for several weeks, and even then it was very strained.

Now in a testament to my cousin's intelligence and intelect, which I hold in high esteem, he and his siblings eventually parted ways with the Baptists and are able to look able and laugh at it now and say how foolish they felt.

I must say I enjoyed the humor in this excerpt, the clown father was brilliant, and it certainly makes it easier to read. However, it certainly isn't a laughing matter. This kind of brainwashing is much too prevalent and countering is near impossible.

I fear for my normal...

8. Highway to hysteria

Comment #102168 by canatheist on December 21, 2007 at 10:51 pm

This video would be funny if it weren't real. It's scary that there are people with so little self-respect that they need to believe in this insanity.

But what's scarier still is the statement made right here... "Amazing to me that most ex-gays claim it takes years to "recover" from homosexuality, but this guy did it at the touch of a street preacher? I doubt it."

Homosexuality is not something people need to recover from, it's not a disease for Zeus' sake!

9. Sam Harris seems like a nice fellow, but very confused

Comment #77448 by canatheist on October 9, 2007 at 10:39 am

It's unfortunate that the English language is so impresice and that semantics and rhetoric lead debates as a result. I too am struggling to come up with a valid and acceptable label to call myself. I am an Atheist, by which I simply mean, I do not believe in God(s). However, that label does not express what I (and in this case Sam Harris) would like to achieve as a result of our atheism. Likewise what I would like to achieve (freedom from religion) is probably different than what other Atheists would like to achieve. Consequently, there are a number of exiting terms used (eg: Brights, secular humanists, etc..) and I am sure there will be new ones in the future.

Just as Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, or Protestant don't fully define how all followers of each faith define themselves, the term Atheist is too vague to define someone who doesn't believe in God and also .... fill in your own objective here...

What bothers me, significantly more than this semantical debate, is the degree of brainwashing being successfully conducted by the religious right, and that we (whatever you want to call yourself) are not doing enough to stop it.

So, please folks... let's focus on the real issues out there... how do we collectively, get the rest of the world to see reason when they don't want to see it!

10. Open letter to YouTube video

Comment #70385 by canatheist on September 15, 2007 at 8:09 am

The freedom of religion... to kill our freedom of speach....

The Rational Response Squad (and any one else reading this) should be going after Google rather than YouTube. Google now owns them, and the bad publicity against Google will be a lot more effective. People expect controversy from YouTube by it's very nature, but Google presents itself as this benign "don't do Evil" company.

Stand up!

11. The smallest signs of retreat

Comment #68440 by canatheist on September 7, 2007 at 7:33 am

Look up drivel in the dictionary and you'll see picture of Ms. Bunting, I am sure. Misses the point of everything. Only a relatively small portion of religious people are extremists, but a very high portion of extremist are religious.

12. Review of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Response to the God Delusion

Comment #67093 by canatheist on September 1, 2007 at 9:43 pm

I am glad to see so many comments about this lady's rantings, but I have to wonder whether any of them will make a difference.

Yet another case of religious zealotry clouding someone's perception of reality. They believe what the want to believe even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the ludicrousness of their position.

I'm sorry, but the debate over whether their is a god or not, is long over. We're all godless... only a lot of us haven't realized that yet. The debate should not be about whether the bible is truth or fiction, it's clearly the later.

The real debate should be, needs to be, why do these people choose to hold onto their beliefs when faced with the facts and "real" science.

But I digress.... It's very clear that this woman can't attack the evidence in the God Delusion so she feels she has to attack the person.

13. Teach sex and evolution or close, Quebec evangelical schools told

Comment #5535 by Canatheist on November 9, 2006 at 9:02 pm

" Why do parents send their children to such schools? I spent about eight years in a Christian school where I too was forced to recite Christian prayers"

I was forced to recite prayer in a Public school, there was no alternative for me or my parent. My mother was and still is an atheist as well but as a single parent working 6 days a week her hands were tied, she simply had no extra time for protest. Thankfully I was raised to question everything for myself so even if my mother did believe in imaginary friends it would not have rubbed off at all on me.

14. Teach sex and evolution or close, Quebec evangelical schools told

Comment #5527 by Canatheist on November 9, 2006 at 8:38 pm

Well said Godless.

Having grown up in the Ontario Public School system, I was forced to stand and repeat "The Lord's Prayer" on a daily basis in elementary school and for many different assemblies in secondary school. I'm not talking about 20-30 years ago either, this was less then a decade ago.

We were at least taught evolution although I seem to recall a number of students being able to leave the class during these lectures to spend the hour in the library. Being a typical teen, at the time I often wished I too could claim religious conflict and skip class. Now, years later as an adult, I thank Darwin I had had not.