Ken Ham is all smug and indignant over something an atheist wrote about him. And this really hurts to say, but I think Ken Ham has a case. Here’s the bit of “satire” written about a certain despicable creationist.

I’ve decided that for my Christmas dinner I will capture and cook alive, slowly, Ken Ham himself. I’ve a lovely place in a secluded wood all picked out with a human size iron pot of oil just waiting for me to plop Mr. Ham into and bring slowly to a boil. There’s no need for me to gag him either because we’ll be SO secluded, no one will be able to hear even his loudest yelps of pain. Man, this is gonna be a great Christmas. I’m glad Mr. Ham took the time to remind me of how evil and nasty I am just because I don’t believe in his god. He took away any last twinge of morality in me that might’ve said, “It’s wrong to boil people alive in oil and eat them, so don’t.” Oh well, he has no one to blame but himself for becoming my Christmas dinner! Hee Haw! How’s that for imposing my a-theism on you, eh, Mr. Ham?

That’s…unpleasant. It’s threatening. It is allowing a fundamentalist creationist claim the moral high ground.

You know what it isn’t, though?

Funny.

I don’t really care about the goons who sell duck calls and hate, so I’ll just give you two things to read: Ta-Nehisi Coates and this cartoon. I hope that is all clear.

Atheist Group Is Searching for People Who Attempted to Burn Their New Jersey ...
Christian Post
An atheist group is offering a reward to find the people who were seen attempting to torch one of the organization's billboards in Pitman, N.J., that was erected to counter attack a "Keep Christ in Christmas" banner placed within the same town. The ...
Battle over 'Keep Christ in Christmas' sign heats upCherry Hill Courier Post

all 4 news articles »

Christian Post
Andrew Lanza: Atheist Billboard Makes 'Small Evil Baby Steps' Towards Another ...
Huffington Post
“Senator Lanza seems to be unaware that there are millions of atheists right here in New York,” American Atheists President David Silverman said in a statement announcing the new billboard, which is on the Goethals Bridge. “[Lanza] accuses us of ...
State Senator, Atheist Group Spar Over Times Square SignCBS Local
NY State Senator Wants Atheist 'Nobody Needs Christ' Christmas Ad Removed ...Christian Post
The Atheist's Guide to ChristmasThe New Republic
CNN (blog) -Gothamist
all 67 news articles »

Are You An Atheist at Heart? Take This Simple Test to Find Out!
Mother Jones
Less "mentalizing." One of the most surprising scientific findings of the research on the causes of religiosity (or the lack thereof) involves a trait called "mentalizing."....On a social level, mentalizing helps you connect with and relate to others ...

Speaking of hybrids, I was reminded that after my post about the platypus (check it out here), I received a lot of funny depictions of the platypus as a hybrid. Before I share, however, let’s get one thing straight: The platypus is not a hybrid. The platypus is not a hybrid. The platypus is not a hybrid. Okay, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s have some fun. Every time you see... M. Wilson Sayres http://mathbionerd.blogspot.com

Can you believe it’s been EIGHT YEARS since Judge Jones issued a devastating anti-“Intelligent Design” ruling? Ah, the memories of Kitzmas past. Remember “Waterloo in Dover”? “Cdesign proponentsists.”? The “breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision”? I freely admit, this is basically the same post I did two years ago to mark Kitzmas. It’s looking more and more like the Intelligent Design movement is hoping we forget all about this black mark on their movement.... Dave Thomas http://www.nmsr.org

See above. :)... Richard B. Hoppe

TheBlaze.com
What Vandals Attempted to Do to Atheists' Anti-Christmas Billboard Could Lead ...
TheBlaze.com
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, an atheist activist group, is offering a $2,000 reward for any information surrounding an attempt to torch an anti-Christmas billboard the group sponsored in New Jersey. The organization, which claims hate crimes ...
Arson Attempted at Atheist Billboard in NJABC News
Arsonist tries to torch atheist billboard in Pitman, NJ6abc.com
Church Christmas Sign Upsets Atheist OrganizationMyFox Philadelphia
Dailyrecord.com
all 119 news articles »

Morton Grove Library trustees rejects atheist blogger's donation
Chicago Tribune
After a fiery debate that pitted Morton Grove library trustees against one another, the board voted 5-2 on Thursday not to accept a donation of about $3,000 from an atheist blogger. The money is part of a controversy that has embroiled the Morton Grove ...

The cephalopod with the most impressively Goth name ever — Vampyroteuthis infernalis — turns out to be all show and no fangs. It still looks awesome.

You’ve probably already read Ophelia’s discussion of the latest MRA stupidity: a group of them on Reddit decided to flood Occidental College’s sexual harassment survey system with a collection of fake rape reports. The logic escapes me; people who claim that women make frequent false accusations of rape decide to inflate the statistics with false accusations of their own? Why? It was a spectacular own goal that effectively demonstrated that Men’s Rights Activists don’t actually care about ending rape, but are more interested in throwing up clouds of doubt and confusion to obscure their own repulsive activities and desires.

It was such a backfire that they’re now frantically trying to backtrack (It was so obviously stupid that even MRAs were aware of their mistake? That tells you how stupid it had to have been) and pretend that no, no one with any clout in the men’s rights movement had anything to do with inciting false reports. No, it was 4chan, yeah, that’s the ticket, it’s all the fault of those irresponsible pranksters at 4chan.

Except…here’s John the Other aka John Hembling, bigshot at AVoiceForMen:

A word for Hembling: Yes, rape is a crime. So is falsely reporting a rape.

And gosh, but Hembling is really an awful person.

A woman, alone at a bus stop, late at night. A series of men pass by, leering and sneering. One man accosts her persistently.

Over the course of five minutes, he verbally threatened me with rape, a beating, and kept trying to lurch closer to me. When I barked “BACK OFF” and raised my fists, he took a couple steps back, but unzipped his pants and started pantomiming taking his dick out while continuing to call me a bitch and a stuck-up ho. “I am going to slap you, bitch. You deserve to get raped. You deserve a dick in your ass. Stuck-up ugly slut. You’re gonna get raped because you’re a bitch and bitches deserve whatever they get.” At one point he made a motion as if he was going for something tucked into the back of his pants. I just kept yelling at him as loudly and aggressively as I could. But I was genuinely scared at that point.

Sounds familiar. I’ve seen second-hand that surly resentment from men on the internet — it takes some courage and strength to stand up against it in person. Then the bus arrives, and with it some hope of rescue.

It was the middle of the night. I was alone, without a working phone or pepper spray. But we were in a brightly lit place, so I decided to stand my ground and keep yelling at him to stay the fuck away from me and hope the bus would arrive soon, which it did. I rushed to it. The doors to the bus opened, and I called to the driver, “this man just threatened to rape and beat me and started to expose himself, please don’t let him on.” Blank stare from the bus driver. My harasser actually pushed past me, got on the bus, sat down in the front seat, told the bus driver “pay this bitch no mind, she’s a crazy-ass prostitute” and laughingly told him, “she been harassing ME”.

And the driver shook the man’s hand, and ignored the woman.

The man is calling the woman a “bitch” and a “prostitute”, and the driver seems to find it unlikely that he’s been harassing the frightened woman. He does nothing. He says nothing.

The driver eventually ordered me to sit down. So I did. And then asked him: “why aren’t you doing anything? Why did you shake his hand and laugh? That guy threatened to hurt me and rape me. Why would you do that?” He basically ignored my questions. Ignored me.

I sat there, in shock, while my harasser continued to yell threats and insults at me from the rear of the bus.

And she still manages to remain charitable towards the driver.

This morning I called the Golden Gate Transit hotline and filed a report. I genuinely do not want to get the driver fired. He seemed young and totally clueless and lacking in empathy, but not actively unkind. I just hope that some sort of protocol adjustment happens. Some kind of conversation where it’s made clear to each and every driver that when a woman begs them to call the cops or to bar an aggressive man from their bus, they should DO THAT.

That’s all she wants? I wasn’t even there, and I want more. I want men to stop being accomplices in harassment.

Village Voice (blog)
State Senator Andrew Lanza Called Atheist Billboard "Hateful," So Now There's ...
Village Voice (blog)
On Tuesday, we told you about the American Atheists' latest billboard, a cheery, seasonally appropriate number that wishes everybody in Times Square a merry Christmas, minus the Christ part. Predictably, the godfearing folks at FOX News and on Glenn ...

Mother Jones
Why Obamacare Could Produce More Atheists
Mother Jones
Americans don't like atheists much. It's something we get reminded of every December, as Fox News commentators decry a secularist "war on Christmas." But the distrust spans the seasons: Barely half of Americans say they would vote for an atheist for ...

and more »

What makes an atheist love religious music?
A.V. Club DC
I am not agnostic, undecided, or otherwise straddling the fence about the existence of God; I am an atheist. I also came of age in the punk scene, and one of the first things you figure out is that God and punk mix about as well as funk and metal. Sure ...

 

 

 

 

Written by Johnny O’Coileain (Add him on Facebook!)

Editor, One Nation Under Nothing/Crackpot Chronicle

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
― Albert Einstein 

 

 

While Occam’s Razor, the Argument from Inconsistent Revelations, or comparing miracles to statistical probability is effective in diminishing miracles, such retorts are too reasonable. What exactly do I mean? Thomas Paine, echoing through the years, answers it effectively:

The hinting and intimidating manner of writing that was formerly used on subjects of this kind [religion], produced skepticism, but not conviction. It is necessary to be bold. Some people can be reasoned into sense, and others must be shocked into it. Say a bold thing that will stagger them, and they will begin to think.

While many reasonable theists can accept a concise debate, such approaches are lost on dogmatists like a caveman in downtown New York. Paine was right: for emotional creatures like Fundamentalists, Dominionists, and their many strains, it will require an intellectual deathblow, not reasonable jabs. A finely tuned argument should knock the stupid out of someone, or as Paine said, “a bold thing that will stagger them.”

In this article, I plan on proposing an argument that attempts just that; a staggering effect that’s hard to deny. While I understand that you can’t reason people from positions they’ve never reasoned themselves into, this can, at a minimum, be a tool in your debating arsenal.  Tentatively speaking, I’ll call my approach the Argument from Better Outcomes. The idea developed from an online debate I had with a religious individual. Here are the theist’s original remarks:

When a plane crashes and a baby survives, or somebody’s parachute fails in a skydive and they survive unscathed, can you say that isn’t a miracle from the Lord? When a kidnapping victim survives an ordeal, or someone with a terminal disease is healed and science can’t say why, can you be an atheist at that point? Can you say those aren’t miracles?

And here is the reply I sniped him with:

The answer as to “why” is quite simple: a real miracle would be none of those things occurring in the first place. A real “miracle” is a plane landing as normal, a parachute that predictably opens, someone never kidnapped, and nobody contracting a terminal disease. Why must suffering/death happen to need miracles, when life as usual is the real miracle and better outcome? The best miracles are no miracles at all.

The idea behind the Argument from Better Outcomes is: when an Argument from Miracles arises, and a better outcome than the “miracle” can be conceived; and God, presumably omnipotent and omniscient, could conceive of said outcome but never implement it, then a miracle never occurred. We don’t call it a miracle. It goes by another name: life as usual. Therefore, real miracles never happen. If supernatural wish-thinking only arises in contrast to a tragedy, then the best miracles are indeed no miracles at all.

Because I drink tea.

I’m drinking some right now. In the middle of the USA.

TheBlaze.com (blog)
Surprise: New Yorkers aren't loving atheists' anti-Christmas billboard
TheBlaze.com (blog)
Earlier this month, Billy reported on a New York atheist group advertising its message of spectacular tolerance with these billboards in Manhattan: “Who needs Christ during Christmas?” Surprise: New Yorkers arent loving atheists anti Christmas billboard.

No, Ken Ham, it’s not. It’s sad to see a “public figure” like yourself preaching hate and homophobia, in response to this story.

Facebook

It’s not just Ham. Here’s a sampling of the comments on that post:

Wow. These folks should actually be offended. They were selected not for merit, but as props. How nice for the Administration to reduce their identity to their sexuality.

Not just sexual preferences, but to their sins.

America is sending a message “we are a ungodly place” that mocks God

We are not so much a diverse place as we are a sinful place continually rejecting God’s word. Pray for repentance before it is too late for this country.

Just hope the Russians arrest these athletes. If it is illegal and they are there, then they are breaking the law – simple as that

Diversity happens in the sewer. You can’t stop it. Unity in the Truth is the high calling.

We have become a place of tolerance, tolerant to everything but the Truth. GOD is not mocked!

Sickness of soul. Pawns of Satan himself.

Seriously? What does being gay have to do with their athletic prowess? Go as athletes, not athletes with an agenda! And WHY does the FORMER DHS Secretary warrant tagging along? She does in NO WAY represent our country, in any facet, anymore. Send someone that does!

So the homosexuals are going to represent me? Even the communist’s deep in Russia reject homosex. I’d never thought that an atheist like Putin would be standing up for American values!

Obama has to be a closet homosexual. My mother has always said that she believed he was, and now I too have become convinced. I think that the wife and kids was just a cover up to get him elected in politics. Onama is a homosexual.

Now all that is sad.

I don’t think they bothered to read the article. The Obama administration is snubbing the Russian Olympics by not sending any high ranking members of the administration as part of the delegation — the most prominent politican in the group is the former head of Homeland Security — but they are including openly gay athletes, Billie Jean King, Brian Boitano, and Caitlin Cahow as representatives, not competing athletes.