I hope this one can be easily viewed by people using IE, I have made some changes. Anyone, I'll start cleaning up the old ones as time permits.

Musicians are apparently the most talked about people on the net, with the exception of Richard Dawkins.

Link

Being Offensive.

Who is being offended these days anyway?

From the anals of, "religion makes you a better person" I bring you todays most loving Pastor... 

Kelly O'Connor

Jan 30, 2008

...hypocrisy; cognitive dissonance; higher rates of STD infection, teen pregnancy, abortion, and poverty; mass societal dysfunction; early mortality; homicide; and, in rare cases, delusions and psychosis. Is Living Under the Influence (of religion) less dangerous than Driving Under the Influence?

In the news this week, we have the case of Eunice Spry, a British woman who systematically tortured her adopted and foster children because of her religious convictions. She did pleasant things like forcing the children to eat their own vomit for being greedy, and making a child with nighttime enuresis (bed-wetting) at the age of 4 wear a sign reminding everybody that she was an evil attention-seeker. It doesn't stop there, either. She also prevented a teenaged girl who was injured in a car accident and temporarily confined to a wheelchair from walking in order to collect more compensation money, despite the fact that the prognosis was she would regain ability to walk within 6 months. After moving out, they children submitted to medical examinations which showed evidence of internal scarring due to Eunice's punishment of choice-forcing the children to vomit and then eat it.

WHAT IS A GOSPEL?

By Rook Hawkins

 What is a Gospel?  For the last few hundred years, New Testament scholars, particularly in Germany, have been asking themselves this very question.  Are they the biographies of a miraculous savior written by those who knew him and were closest to him?  If that is the case, were they redacted by later Christians to include specific dogmatic and doctrinal ideals?  Or, were the Gospels written up to centuries after a historical, human Jesus, by which Christians embellished his story into fictional history?  And If that is what they are, do the discrepancies between the four Gospels represent the authors own theological perspectives?  If so, how would one accurately determine which perspective is that of the authors and which is the perspective of the so-called real Jesus?

Once again, more news.

Some people have mentioned they are having trouble reading these blogs in IE, can anyone having that problem plz leave a comment to that effect? Thanks.

A review of “Irreligion” by author John Allen Paulos

This critics review is that its good, but not good enough compared to the others out there.

I know this series of speculation draws a bit of anger from people of faith, but I believe it to be a legit series of conclusions.  What I am attempting to demonstrate here is that a small detail can be taken to extremes to promote what generally all people would conclude is the wrong kind of behavior.  And even though the overall act seems wrong, religiously it can be justified as a very positive thing.

Let me first start out by setting this up that this is specifically targeted a those that believe that babies are sent to either Heaven or Purgatory when they die as a result of their ignorance of religion, and lack of sin up until that point in their lives.  Some of this discussion will focus specifically on Christianity due to my stronger understanding of their teachings.

I manage a coffee shop.

Some people would say that managing a coffee shop is an easy job, and it probably would be if I didn’t care so much about keeping my employees and customers happy. It is a balancing act that can knock you off your feet if you let it. Making the customers happy is actually pretty easy‡give them what they order, be friendly and offer a clean and safe environment in which to consume their product. Sounds simple, right? However, the first step in ensuring this is done is to hire the right people and keep them happy as they are the ones on the front line interacting with the customer.  

Keeping customer happy—pretty easy with happy employees
Keeping employees happy—not so easy.

When you work for me you get 2 things; great training and direct feedback.
The 2 should work fairly well together. I train you in the way you will learn best, changing my approach and style to fit you as well as re-directing where necessary. In return I expect you to listen, absorb and achieve some sort of higher understanding of your role. I take the job very seriously and enjoy being the leader of my group. In addition to constant feedback, both from my leadership team, and myself, every month I sit down with you so that we can talk about things that went well and any things that need to be improved. I strive to keep my finger on the pulse of my employees to enhance the health of the team.

Atheists and others who buck the established religious systems have suffered from a bit of a PR problem since the beginning of recorded history. There are countless stories of the heretics, the blasphemers, and the impious being imprisoned, tortured, and killed. Atheism wasn't even a prerequisite; Socrates was sentenced to death for only believing in one of the gods in the Greek Pantheon. The official charge: impiety. Why is it that this stigma has taken root so firmly within the minds of human beings? Why has this trend persisted for millennia?

The answer is faith. Faith is the cause of this discrimination against the religiously atypical. The situation is as true today as it ever was, although in most civilized lands the punishment is much less severe. Perhaps one will only be ostracized by their family, classmates, or colleagues after revealing their lack of religious affiliation. The Islamic countries appear to be the main protagonists of violence in the name of religion these days, but the particular brand of faith which one uses as justification is not at all important. Faith is an effective tool to not only insulate oneself from reality, but also to vilify those who appeal to reason in its stead.

And yet another blog post.

New atheists or new anti-dogmatists?

More criticism directed at atheists, being too harsh.

Welcome again, hope you are still enjoying these news links. After I have cleaned up this backlog, I’ll also start posting commentary at the start of these blogs.

Anyway, on to the news.

A Poor atheist Speaks in the Philippines.

This post speaks for itself,