Top Ten Creationist Arguments

Sometimes I just don’t feel like writing, especially when I see that someone else has done a much better job at it, in a more succinct way, with fun graphics and sound.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back, it’s a brand new year, but as usual when it comes to religion, everything old becomes new again. Religion is a meme, and as such without any conscious thought or intention, it continues to work feverishly to maintain its existence.

Science Is Better Than Your God

Nyah, nyah. Do I sound like a petulant school boy? The reason I might is because the sentiment is so painfully obvious, even a child could figure it out and agree. It takes little in the way of critical thinking to do so.

In the Can-Your-God-Do-This? Department, science has done what, as usual, god cannot do. Or, to believe most believers, he could do it, so he apparently doesn’t want to.

In 1974, 13 year old Ima Jean Sanders disappeared. She was never heard from again, and for 37 years her mother has never had a day go by where she didn’t think about her, or wonder whatever happened to her. The remains of a young female were discovered in 1976, but never linked to Ima.

Follow The Money

My good friend JohnEvo (a/k/a The Ancient Atheist, tho’ he’s not so ancient)  sent me a link to this video. This is a really good example of the contention that religion has simply become a big business. Here we have a doctor, one schooled, presumably, in science and the necessity of basing the application of medicine on evidence, who’s simply shilling for a book he wrote that supposedly presents evidence for human resurrection. He travels the Extreme Christian circuit of talk shows, web sites and other forms of media hawking his book. The video blogger who created it makes a good case that there’s big bucks in the process, which, to understate it, somewhat diminishes the credibility of the claims.

God Fucked Up

I have a good friend who I’ve known for about 25 years who died the other day after losing a long bout with cancer. He won the early rounds, but ultimately his opponent wore him down and bested him. I’ll be attending his service later today, and I know it will be a mixed-emotion day, with lots of tears and lots of laughter – tears of grief and the laughter of remembrance. He was not much older than me, which at my age means that he died far too young. But he has a large and loving coterie of family and friends, incredibly supportive of each other, all who will ensure that his wife and children come away with far more positive than negative emotions. They are not having a religious service, but if they did, and they had asked me to give the sermon, here is what I would have said:

What An Incompetent!

click for cartoon

Rick Perry prays for rain to help drought inflicted Texas, way, way back in April, and the drought is worse than it was in April. Damn, is this not the stupidest, the silliest thing you’ve ever seen a Governor do? From the official State of Texas issued Proclamation:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on those days for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal way of life.

It’s now so bad, fires have destroyed whole neighborhoods in Austin, the State capital. Let’s hope he doesn’t issue a proclamation declaring a day of prayer to rid the state of locusts.

God seems to be really fucking up in the oversight department. First we have that earthquake on the east coast which, according to Michelle Bachmann, was to let us know that god disapproves of our current fiscal policy. Then Hurricane Irene forces the cancellation of the Jimmy Buffet concert in Bristow, VA. This is serious shit! Since I had tickets, I can only presume god was pissed off at me for that time I…well, that’s between me and him.

Now, a drought so bad, despite pleas to god for just enough rain to make it go away, it’s clear he has a different agenda than Rick Perry. I hear those people in Austin, the Texas version of San Francisco, can be a little light in the loafers,  if you know what I mean <wink, wink, nudge, nudge> so maybe god’s actually trying to destroy the city.

Obviously, if he was going to fix the drought, his aim is clearly off. We’ve had so much rain here in Pennsylvania, this is shaping up to be the second wettest season in weather-keeping history, yet Texas needs the water. What the fuck is god thinking? That because Texas is south of us the water will run downhill?

Or maybe, just maybe, god’s laughing at Rick Perry for being such a twit in the science department, coming out in favor of Intelligent Design as science and all. He’s saying “if you think prayers make rain, let me show you how nature actually works.”

Perhaps everyone in Texas should stop praying for rain. Because either god is  incompetent, or Rick Perry is.

And we all know god doesn’t exist.

Heck of a Job, Craig.

Sound familiar? After the debacle we remember as Katrina, Bush 2 complimented his buddy, Michael Brown, who he gave what he thought was a plum job as head of FEMA . He said, as people were dying in the flooded waters of New Orleans, or suffering through their hellish stay at the Super Dome, “Heck of a job, Brownie!”.

Forged

Not a bad title for a book about the Bible, you gotta admit. The funny thing is, the book convincingly makes the case that much of the Bible and many of the books and letters and tracts that never made it into the Bible, but were contenders (to quote Marlon Brando in another context), were forged.

Why Do We Care?

That’s a question we atheists get from theists. Often. Almost constantly, when we point out a fallacy in their religious thinking, or try to substantiate why we support the 1st Amendment’s proscription against governmental religious displays, or when we simply say we don’t believe in gods. They want to know why we care that they believe in supernatural spirits, or miracles, or Biblical authority, or other unsubstantiated beliefs. What harm do their beliefs cause, and why are we so damn strident about our opposition to them?

Delusion, Redux

Christians take quite a bit of umbrage at this word delusion, especially when we atheists use it to describe their beliefs. Richard Dawkins wrote a best seller about the god delusion, with just that title, and Christians everywhere called him a strident, militant fundamentalist as a result, when all he did was point out the silliness of religious beliefs.