Jeshua Cottontail

Tis the season…

No meat on Fridays! WHY?

Every person who knows a Catholic person (so… everyone?) is probably aware that during Lent there is to be no meat eaten on Fridays. No one knows why, they just follow blindly. So I looked into it.

Canon 1251
Abstinence from meat, or from some other food as determined by the Episcopal Conference, is to be observed on all Fridays, unless a solemnity should fall on a Friday. Abstinence and fasting are to be observed on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

No justification at all. Religion without reason! So I dug a little deeper. Nothing.

C’mon there has to be a reason! Many speculate that it is just another instance of sacrifice – meat was a luxury back in the day. But today, meat just seems arbitrary.

Side note: It makes me sick that there are at least 1250 other Canonical laws… all man-made. No god involved. If you are Catholic, you are far more likely to be under the influence of the Vatican than you are of Jesus. The holidays Catholics celebrate, the songs they sing, most prayers they pray, the mass itself, even which gospels made it into the bible… all decisions made by regular human beings like you and me. I don’t mean to single Catholics out, either. Other religions are the same, but the “no meat on Fridays” think irks me. I hate that there is no reason for it! Rules need justification!

Peanut butter 666

I probably watch too much of the Catholic and Christian TV channels, but Flying Spaghetti Monster help me, they are just too darn entertaining to turn off.

Today, crazy Rod Parsley is preaching that the end times are coming soon… oh-so-soon… and his evidence? One of his pieces of evidence is the salmonella outbreaks that happened recently. Tainted peanut butter signals the end times.

Ugh. Nine people died and about 700 affected. Unfortunate… but the end of the world? I just read that diarrhea kills 2 million people each year. (And it’s cure? Water. )

The world going to hell and the end of society near? Hard to believe that these are celebration times if you are hardcore christian…

Think twice before electing a person that holds these views to office. (Palin.)

End of rant.

Anti-evolution bill in Iowa

NOOOOOOOOOOOO. I suppose it had to happen eventually. Creationists are trying to pass a sneakily-worded bill. It goes a little something like this:

It is therefore the intent of the general assembly that this Act be construed to expressly protect the affirmative right and freedom of every instructor at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary level to objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution in connection with teaching any prescribed curriculum regarding chemical or biological evolution.

Basically it aims to give all teachers the ability to teach whatever they want in regards to evolution… essentially bringing religion into the classroom.

It’s kind of like a history teacher denying the holocaust.

Just because a teacher chooses to ignore all the evidence doesn’t mean you can infect the minds of all our students with your ignorance.

It will never pass, but I still hate to see this in my own state.

See the full article: Anti-evolution bill in Iowa – The Panda’s Thumb.

Happy Darwin Day…

…a day late. I’ve always respected Charles Darwin because he looked at the world around him and came up with an idea that was so simple and yet so novel. Evolution via natural selection is probably the biggest paradigm shift to ever occur in the biological sciences.

Darwin was the first to clearly articulate how all the diversity of life on Earth could have arisen without invoking a supernatural designer. There was so much evidence to support evolution that it was well-accepted before the discovery of DNA. Today, DNA evidence soundly supports DNA evidence confirmed. Evolution is not at all controversial within the scientific community.

Saying “I don’t believe in evolution” is like saying “I don’t believe that viruses cause colds.” Fine, you are entitled to your opinion… but what you say directly contradicts the evidence.

Natural selection and evolution are so poorly understood by most that I might have to sometime do a longer post on it… but not now.

Click to enlarge. Love the last pane...

Oh good the world won’t end this year…

If there’s one thing I know, it’s that you should never trust a person who speaks in tongues. That’s why I don’t trust toddlers.

Anyways, for some awful reason people actually listen to Pat Robertson’s fantastically insightful (sarcasm so loud it’s deafening!) predictions for the upcoming year.

You see, every year after Pat gets done counting his offerings from his followers, Pat and god sit down and have a nice talk about all the things that will happen in the following year. One year, god said the world was going to end and Pat sold a book about it. $. The funny thing is, the world didn’t end. We lived to see 1983 (well, my parents did, and now here I am). Pat’s explanation: all the peoples’ prayers and offerings must have saved the earth. Hmmm… but god was still wrong. Is that possible? I digress…

Anyway, according to Pat and god’s fireside chat this year, in 2009 the US will adopt socialism and the economy will rebound.

Socialism? C’mon. But yeah, the economy will bounce back.

Maybe next year he can make even more generalized predictions to improve his track record.

Pat Robertson: God says U.S. will accept socialism.

Rainbows and rainforests.

Disease… wars… climate change… the economy…

…there are many real threats to mankind and important issues that need to be tackled. The pope clearly just doesn’t get it. Check out the article at Pope likens saving gays to saving the rainforest. Saving them from what!?

Obama’s first mistake will be on his first day as president

I’ve been pretty happy with Obama lately (and his cabinet picks). He was bound to dissappoint me sometime… it happened.

Rick Warren, uber-Evangelist, will deliver the invocation at Obama’s inauguration.

Another one bites the dust.

The latest victim of the wackiness that is scientology…

Will Smith Gives $122,500 To Scientology. Sad.

Prayer is no way to beat infection…

…or cancer or heart disease or anything else.

Here is an example of praying for the sick… taken to the extreme: a 15 month old girl dies because her parents think healing is best left to a god, rather than a doctor. This isn’t the first time I have seen this in the news.

ABC News: Faith Healing Parents Assert Religious Rights.

Praying for the sick is also a form of faith healing, just not that extreme. A rational person would couple that prayer with medical attention, because rationale people know (deep down) that prayer is as (in)effective as just leaving things to chance.

Major pet peeve: why is it that when a medical procedure goes wrong, people tend to blame doctors, but when it goes right, they thank god! Give credit where credit is due!

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