Children--Your New Sunday School Teacher is an Atheist

Just how often does anyone think that the phrase above would ever be uttered in a fundamentalist Christian church?

My guess is never.

So, why in the hell would they expect a legitimate scientific institute to hire a nutbag that believes in Creationism? Well, that's exactly what some seem to expect.

It seems that one Nathaniel Abraham of India is suing the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts on the basis that they fired him because he didn't accept the Theory of Evolution. This nutbag's suit was already thrown out by The Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination because "Abraham's request not to work on evolutionary aspects of research would be difficult for Woods Hole because its work is based on evolutionary theories."

But, Abraham the Creationist persists. This would be like me getting upset at a church for firing me because I wouldn't teach about God in Sunday school class. The Woods Institute has a reputation to uphold for work and research based on solid scientific foundations. Allowing some idiot who rejects these foundations to do research and then publish his nonsense as an employee would discredit the institute in the scientific community and ruin the careers of the real scientists who work there, not to mention ruin the educational value of the institute.

Mr. Abraham seems to be doing fine though, because he now has a position as a biology prof at Liberty University which was founded by Jerry Falwell. He should fit right in at this place and will be somewhere that his unfounded, unscientific views on biology will be blindly accepted by the ignorant. Liberty University, however doesn't offer any degrees in science, because they can't get the accreditation necessary to do so, so at least Mr. Abraham won't be training scientists.

Be Careful What You Pray For...

Well folks, the same group of people who are constantly calling for having God put into politics, are now engaged in prayers, because of God being part of politics.

Officials in Uzbekistan have arrested Dmitry Shestakov (a.k.a. Pastor David), a Pentecostal preacher for inciting religious hatred, insulting Islam and distributing banned literature. Evangelical leaders in Uzbekistan, and elsewhere are crying foul saying that Shestakov's arrest is part of a pattern of religious intolerance by the government of this predominantly Islamic nation.

The Russian Orthodox Church is recognized by and registered with the government, as are some other Christian groups, but according to the Uzbek authorities, Shestakov was preaching without permission.

While I, by no means, support arresting people because of their religion, Uzbekistan's government and religious leaders make some good points about Shestakov and his ilk.

Some of Uzbekistan's Imams feel that Shestakov's arrest is a good thing because he and other pentecostal missionaries "set out their traps and our young people fall into them. We must punish in the harshest way those who poison the minds of our youth." Uzbek government spokesmen have questioned Shestakov’s being a real pastor because, "Earlier he abused alcohol and was dependent on drugs and now he presents himself as pastor David."

These claims have been confirmed by Shestakov's wife who also added that the good pastor had been in prison "several times." It has also been confirmed that Shestakov has been officially warned twice before about his "illegal religious activities."

The only person who has been allowed to see the pastor is his personal lawyer. According to Shestakov's followers his getting his own lawyer instead of a state appointed lawyer was in answer to their prayers. They didn't say why they didn't just get him released by praying for that.

Let me reiterate that I don't favor religious oppression, but if Pentecostals and other Evangelicals are going to rant and rave about having religion in government then they should shut up, and obey the laws put in place when a god is put into government. It is this exact type of situation that Jefferson saw happening in the American colonies and was trying to avoid by "building a wall of separation between Church & State." A wall which American Evangelicals are constantly trying to tear down.

Of course the issue here for Evangelicals would seem to be that it is not necessarily religious oppression that is the issue, but rather that this time they aren't the ones trying to oppress. When Evangelical leaders like Pat Robertson call Muslims "evil," and "Satanic," then compare the to Hitler and, say that Islam "is not a peaceful religion that wants to coexist. They want to coexist until they can control, dominate and then, if need be, destroy,", it is alright, but when drug addict/Evangelical preachers are called bad people it is "intolerance." When Evangelicals like Jerry Falwell say that America cannot accommodate ideas "that are diametrically opposed to Christian truth," it is "God's will," but when one of theirs is arrested for trying to control, and dominate children it is oppression.

Where are these self-proclaimed champions of tolerance when atheists are attacked by Christians, because they don't believe in God, or even when Evangelical Christians attack other Christians because they worship the same god differently (occurrences of which have according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have risen sharply in the last few years)? They were standing behind the attackers pressing them on, that's where.

Evangelicals, and other religious folk, need to stand back and face the truth--you can't have it both ways: if religion is involved with government things like this are inevitable, so my advice to these hypocrites is simple:

Shut the Hell up! And, Be careful what you pray for

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Must Be Nice...

It must be nice to live in a country where the government has the balls to stand up to Christidiots.

It seems that there are at least two of them out there.


Country One--Brazil:

Not only does Brazil host Carnival, which could easily be considered the hedonist's party of all parties, but they also consider the American tradition of conning money out of people in the name of God to be fraud, larceny, and money laundering.

Estevam Hernandes Filho (a.k.a. Apostle Estevam), and Sonia Haddad Moraes Hernandes (a.k.a. Bishop Sonia), founders of the Evangelical Reborn in Christ Church in Brazil were arrested in Miami on January, 8 for trying to smuggle undeclared money into the United States--they claimed to have $10,000 on them when they arrived, but in fact had over $56,000; $9,000 of which was hidden in Sonia'a Bible (which marks the first time I know of that this particular book was worth the paper it's printed on.)

What makes Brazil stand out in this case is that they want the apostle and bishop extradited from the US to them, on charges of, among other things, fraud, tax evasion, larceny, and money laundering. It seems that church leaders in Brazil can't get away with making millions of dollars in the name of God and then using that money to buy record labels, broadcast companies, and mansions in Florida.

If the Apostle and Bishop had been a little smarter, and done these things here in the United States they wouldn't be having these problems. Hell they could even be neighbors or business partners with other Evangelicals like Pat Robertson who evades taxes, owns broadcast companiesowns broadcast companies, launders money, makes energy shakes, calls for the assassination of foreign leaders, and engages in gold and diamond mining adventures with African Dictators. But, then again having a mansion in Florida could be dangerous, since Robertson has called for there to be earthquakes there.

Country Two--Britain:

Yes folks, Georgie's only substantial ally in his annexation of Iraq, the British Government, actually seems to have grown a spine, and is http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6309495.stmstanding up to the Catholic Church over a proposed law that would bar discrimination against gay couples in the adoption process.

The Catholics, of course, want to discriminate as they see fit, and have threatened to close Catholic orphanages before they would give one of their orphans to a loving and caring gay couple. An unconfirmed (and possibly fictitious) source has hinted to me that the loss of unguarded young boys would put quite a damper on the priesthood's morale, and place nuns in a bad position.

As anyone who pays attention here in the US knows, damned near any Christian church can get away with discrimination against anyone for any reason. Hell, they can even blame them (gays) for everything from 9/11 to hurricane Katrina. It must be nice to live with such a deluded mind, or better yet to live in a country that stands up to Christian, Islamic, Jewish, etc. bullshit.