Abortion rights in Mexico.

This is outrageous.

A ten year old girl in Mexico was raped by her stepfather and is now 17 weeks pregnant… and they won’t let her have an abortion. Apparently, “the girl and the fetus are in good health”. Yeah, sure, but for how long? That girl is not old enough, physically or emotionally, to have a child. By denying her right to an abortion, they are putting her health at risk.

Someone should be stepping in and looking after that poor child. Her life matters too.

It’s official: Answers in Genesis does not believe in aliens.

“Answers”, the AiG magazine makes for consistently hilarious reading. I always love it when one of the articles pops up in Google Reader, because it means that one of their staff has taken a topic at random and tried to justify it with the Bible.

The "Answers" team choose the next fascinating blog topic

Today (well, December 2007. Google is a little behind the times), Ken Ham goes to great lengths to show that aliens do not exist, because Jesus is not an alien.

That’s right folks, “Jesus didn’t become a “God-Klingon,” a “God-Vulcan,” or a “God-Cardassian”—He became the God-man.”

Also, the aliens would have died after the Fall, because God only saved humans. To this I say:

Monkey.

Monkey. Clearly alive and well, post-Fall.

Finally, because god created the Earth first, then the stars, he clearly didn’t create other lifeforms.

QED.

What I liked the most were Ken’s references to Star Trek. The image of him, settling in for a night of blasphemous science fiction is one that will haunt me for a long, long time.

Christian Atheists – a study in contradictions

The latest problem to plague the True Christians (TM) are those darn Christian Atheists.

I’ll just pause for a second and let the bizarre title “Pastor calls Christian atheists to shed hypocrisy” sink in.

The pastor in question, Craig Groeschel is described as a “recovering Christian atheist” and he just wants to help. He wants to reach out to all those “infected” (oh yes, their word, not mine) because “the symptoms [are] difficult to recognise”. Yes, I would say that they would be, given that Christian atheism doesn’t exist. It can’t exist, it is a contradiction in terms. One means “I follow the tenets of Christ” and the other says “I reject religion, including the tenets of Christ”.

Figure 1: A Christian Atheist. You'll note the lack of Bible and values means they aren't a True Christian, and lack of fangs means they aren't a True Atheist.

Alas, a closer reading of the article reveals that Christian atheists are merely non-born-again Christians, who Pastor Groeschel is trying to “save”. I have a better idea – guys, come and join us. You don’t have to pray over your meals and you get to laugh at Groeschel and his false piety.

In support of Constance McMillen

Sometimes, people just make me sick.

You will have heard about Constance McMillen, a high school student in Mississippi who got the prom cancelled because she wanted to bring her date, who happened to be another girl. Because, like, seriously, you shouldn’t like be able to bring other girls to the prom, ’cause you’ll like ruin it for everyone and it’s gross and unchristian.

Thankfully, the media got a hold of the story, some money was generously donated to run a non-discriminatory prom, which was then rejected and the school board said they would run another prom. And invite seven people to it. Everyone else got to go to the special secret prom for the “normal” kids.

That is just disgusting. Adults were ostracising kids that were “different” and teaching their children that excluding people who make you uncomfortable is the best way to confront your prejudices. Arseholes.

Even though Constance has had to put up with some juvenile bullying by the adults in her town, she’s come out of this with a lot of support from complete strangers, a scholarship and is a role model to other gay teenagers in small towns, where religious bigotry is the norm.

What makes me sick, is that a lot of the news stories have comments turned on…

From the NY Daily News site:

No wonder Constance is a lesbian. I don’t think she could get a date with a guy anyways. She probably can’t even get a date with another *****. Ellen’s thinking, MMMMMMMMM, nice, young, plump lesbian !!!!! I’ll take her home and break her in.

teenage homosexuals are usually to tattod, too much body piercing, drug addicts, too much into rock. All they needed is parental and academic gurdiance, not a 30,000 dollars bait deposit for a future gig.

if homosexuality is so natural and normal, then how come a same sex couple cant concieve a child?…..just wondering

From Yahoo News (yeah, yeah, I know, I was asking for it):

Isnt it amazing how the morally bankrupt (gays, lesbians, and the ACLU) always claim to be victimized by the American public.

And this is why my children are homeschooled. There is a place for everything. The high school prom isn’t it. Why do they have to flaunt being different? I say the school is right. If there is going to be such issues, then they should just cancel the event.

The girls could have simply dressed in Prom formal and followed the traditions of the Prom, instead they choose to dress in tuxedos and pressure the rest to like it.

Not in my school, not in my home. And for the statistic keepers, there are now currently 1.5 million homeschoollers and growing. Seven years of this and I don’t miss the attitudes from the community poluting my children’s minds and forcing them to confront other people’s beliefs instead of forming their own.

What a waste of my tax dollars!

Uh huh, we mustn’t let teenagers think its alright to be themselves…

This is what homosexuals do they NEED to be be treated better, not equal. Shame on you for ruining your classmates Prom. Thanks ACLU for screwing up another American Pastime for these students. Wake Up Americans enough is enough.

It was at this point that I was frothing at the mouth and the people I share an office with were starting to stare. I’ll finish with this comment, which made want to give this kid a hug and tell him that he will go far.

Austin:

My Name is Austin. I’m 15. I myself have dealt with hate for some time. Its sad to me that the majority of you all are only increasing the amount of hate in our world. Most of you are no better than teenagers. Callings names, pointing blame, fighting. It’s childish. Fact of the matter is, Constance was not treated fairly. Point blank. No arguments. You can’t debate that one. But the problem won’t be fixed by a bunch of adults fighting online. Fighting fire with fire only creates a bigger fire. Someone stand up and be the bigger person, the bigger community. If you’re going to call someone crude, vicious names, you can’t expect them to do any different. Please, for the future, lets not act like children. My love goes out to Constance and the countless others facing hate.

Good kid.

The hatred out there towards homosexuals is staggering. I just don’t understand – why do people care so much about what people do in their private lives? It isn’t anyone’s business who they choose to love, or sleep with or take to a dance (and for heaven’s sake, it’s just a dance.). They aren’t threatening you, they aren’t trying to convert your children, they are just living their lives. And they have the right to live that life with whomever they chose, just like you do.

Answers in Genesis – The Comedy Hour

Oh man, are you up for a laugh this morning?

Go, now and read The Gospel Message – Written in the Stars? by resident astronomer Danny Faulkner. I’d summarise it for you, but it is difficult to do without sounding as though I think it’s nonsense. Because I do.

It is a tale of Frances Rolleston, a 19th century crank who thought she could find the Genesis story in the stars. Now, that isn’t wholly crazy – I mean, you can find just about anything in the stars:

But she chose to go about it in a weird way (and WRONG, according the highly scientific methods of Answers in Genesis), where she looked for similarities in the names of the constellations to biblical myths. She decided that Orion might have been Jesus. The reason this can’t be true is because Orion, which they decide translates as chesil, means “fool” and that’s blasphemy and therefore Rolleston was wrong.

I think Faulkner might have missed the point here. For a start, there are aspects of ancient mythology that pops up in biblical mythology. The idea of a virgin birth isn’t novel, neither is the resurrection. So there is every chance that there will be a bit of crossover.

Secondly, the constellations discussed in the article are the Greek ones – they found their mythology in the stars, and we’ve accepted those names as the official names for the constellations. If, (and that’s a big IF) god did write his messages in the stars, does that mean that we might be talking about the ancient Greek gods? Perhaps Zeus did the writing? Does this imply that God might actually be Zeus?

YEAH! Now that's a god I can get behind!

No, of course it doesn’t mean that God is Zeus. It means that like most other civilisations, the Greeks looked to the stars, did a bit of pattern recognition and saw their gods in the sky. Just like the Native Americans, Australian Aboriginies, the Celts, even the Middle Eastern societies. The fact that we don’t see ancient Hebrew mythology in the stars is a bit weird.

Now, after Faulkner had wasted a few hundred words claiming that you can’t find the bible in the stars because of heretic mistranslations, he says the following gem:

The beauty of Christ’s work does not require us to embellish it with half-truths or outright errors

Coming from Answers in Genesis, the epicentre of outright errors, that is one of the most hilarious things I’ve read all week.

An important Easter message.

Today is a day of celebration in churches all over the world. The zombie Jesus has risen (after a quick tour of the US, if you believe the mormons) and is out to get brains spread the word of God to the masses.

Churches in Australia have taken the opportunity to continue their Easter message – Atheists are the cause of all evil in the world!

Apparently, atheism leads to loneliness and is “the path to a very lonely old age” according to Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen.

I would like to make a suggestion to Peter – meet some atheists. I think you’ll find that you rather like us. We’re nice, normal people. We have jobs, hobbies, families. We fall in love, just like Christians, we have friends and are involved in our communities. Contrary to popular belief, we aren’t all 40 year old virgins who live in Mum’s basement.

Also, because using your brain is sexy and we don’t have weird hang-ups about sex, I’d go so far as to suggest that maybe atheists spend fewer nights cold and alone than the church-goers…

The Easter Message

Ah, Good Friday – the day the Christians mourn the torture and death of Jesus, one of the biggest days of the Christian calendar and an opportunity for the head honchos to get a message out to their twice-a-year congregations. So, what to talk about? The message of God’s love? The nice things Jesus said? A parable or two? Perhaps read from Leviticus?

Nah, let’s bash the atheists.

I kind of get that, I’d probably do that too. But calling us a religion? Firstly, look atheism up in the dictionary, we can’t be a religion. The name gives it away. Secondly, is being called a religion by the religious really an insult?

“Don’t listen to those evil atheists! They aren’t really atheists! They’re as religious as you and I, and we all know how evil religions are! Wait, shit, that’s not what I mean. They’re religious! They can’t think for themselves, their leaders have to tell them what to think because they’re as stupid as any other congregation! I mean, I bet they’d believe as much bullshit as I feed you! Fuck, no, that’s not right either. Um… atheists… they’re like, like, um, HITLER! And Stalin! And Pol Pot! That’s right! They’re PolPotists! EVIL!“

If we were a religion too, wouldn’t the church be celebrating?

Hooray! They’re just like us! Let’s all hold hands and sing Kumbaya. I’ll count us in…

No?

So, I’d like to give my own Easter message. Christians – we know you are a bit threatened by the fact that we had a convention. And we laughed at some jokes at your expense. Doesn’t make us a religion, no matter how many times you say it.

Did you know the LHC confirms the Bible?

Oh yeah, ’cause the guys in Answers in Genesis say it is so.

You see, because the LHC gives us information about the early universe, God did it.

Confused? Me too. You see, God said that he would uphold physical laws and promised to keep them constant (um – where does he say that?) and because the LHC works, physical laws must be constant and because no one promised the “secular scientists” that physical laws are constant, LHC = God.

This is such torturous logic, my brain is starting to implode.

The face of Jesus?

Digital artists have taken the Shroud of Turin, done their magic and recreated the face of Jesus!

And now there is all sort of controversy, because apparently he doesn’t look like the Renaissance Jesus (TM)

Renaissance Jesus with Renaissance Lamb

Um, quick question. Did anyone bother checking up on the Shroud? Turns out it is a fake… remember?

Edit: It just occurred to me, in a fit of optimism, that this may be an April Fool’s joke. Maybe? Please?

Ugh…

One of my facebook friends is a happy-clappy minister’s wife. She often comes out with some astoundingly stupid things (such as joining the “stop teaching evolution as a “fact” to aussie kids!” group.), but tonight there was the following comment on her status update that she is looking to become a primary school chaplain:

Great idea, ACCESS Ministries have openings for Chaplains and CRE Teachers all the time too…a wonderful way to spread God’s Word plus it’s compulsory for state schools to hold such classes in Victorian schools there are not enough teachers to go around…”The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” Matt. 9:37

(Emphasis mine).

Just hold on a sec while I vomit. That is disgusting and if true, something needs to be done about it. I will investigate at a later date, but for now I want to write about the Rise of Atheism convention and I can’t bear to put that in this post.