Atheist News Discussions - Atheist Nexus

Parents Lose a Second Child from Opting for Faith Healing

2013-04-25T18:11:15.105Z

Some parents seem to be slow learners. Having already lost a two year old by opting for a faith healing approach instead of a medical science one to cure it they evidently have now lost an infant as a result of the same choice. They were already on 10 years probation for involuntary manslaughter do to refusing to have the first one medically treated when they lost the second apparently for the same reason. Under the circumstances that existed it is hard to believe that socials services would have allowed them to have custody of the second especially in that it was only an infant. I guess that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. The faith healing approach to curing people has in fact been scientifically tested and proven ineffective. Per the article:

In one of the largest studies ever conducted, researchers at six major medical centers including Harvard and the Mayo Clinic looked at patient outcomes of prayer. The research, “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer ‘STEP’ in Cardiac Bypass Patients,” was published in the American Heart Journal and conducted over the course of a decade. Nearly 2,000 cardiac surgery patients were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: one group was prayed for after being told they’d be prayed for; another group was prayed for after being told they may or may not be prayed for; and the third was not prayed for after being told the same thing. The results: the group that was prayed for did no better than the group that wasn’t prayed for. Intercessory prayer had no beneficial effect at all on recovery time, death rate, or other medical factors.

http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/faith-healing-parents-arrested-over-death-of-second-child-130424.htm

Christian Right Now Outraged At Being Told Their Faith Is Meaningful to Them

2013-03-30T03:30:19.939Z

Christian Right Now Outraged At Being Told Their Faith Is Meaningful to Them

By Amanda Marcotte

Ooooooh, did you hear about the evil liberal and no doubt Satan-worshipping college professor who tried to turn all his students against God by having them write the word “Jesus” on a piece of paper and then stomping on it, at what point the ground underneath them opened up and they were all directly swallowed into hell? No? Well, Rick Scott, otherwise known as America’s Stupidest Governor®, sure has, and he’s super angry about it.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has waded into a religious-infused campus controversy, asking the state university system chancellor to look into a classroom lesson at Florida Atlantic University in which students were instructed to stomp on sheets of paper that had “Jesus” written on them.

Scott said in a letter Tuesday to State University System Chancellor Frank Brogan that he was “deeply disappointed” by the recent incident in an intercultural communications class and said it raised questions about “the lessons being taught in our classrooms.” He said he wanted a report on the incident and how it was handled, as well as a statement of the university’s policies to ensure such “lessons” don’t occur again.

“As we enter the week memorializing the events of Christ’s passion, this incident gave me great concern over the lessons we are teaching our students,” Scott wrote in the letter.

The university has apologized, blah blah blah, but as anyone who follows the Christian right and their love of tall tales (backwards messages in records, anyone?) has probably already guessed, Scott’s insinuation that the professor was trying to teach a “lesson” of hating Jesus Christ or religion or whatever is pure, unadulterated horseshit. I guessed right off the bat that it was either going to be a psychology or communications course where the whole point of the exercise was to examine the power of symbols or taboos or something like that. Sure enough, that’s exactly what it was.

“Ask the students to think about it for a moment. After a brief period of silence instruct them to step on the paper,” the synopsis said. “Most will hesitate. Ask why they can’t step on the paper. Discuss the importance of symbols in culture.”

The point of the exercise was to demonstrate to students that words aren’t “just” words, but have weight and value. Students were told ahead of time that many of them would not step on the paper because of this. Students were expected not to stomp on it, because the point of it was to examine why some words have so much power over us. Not only is this not really that hard an exercise to understand, it’s the sort of party trick to teach an important lesson that church youth groups and camps use all the time. The complaining student, Ryan Rotela, is so incredibly stupid that he has no idea how stupid he sounds.

Rotela, who identifies himself as a Mormon, said that he put the paper back on his desk instead of stomping on it.

“Any time you stomp on something, it shows that you believe that something has no value,” he said. “If you were to stomp on the word ‘Jesus,’ it says that the word has no value.”

No shit, Sherlock. That was the point of the exercise. Too bad you’re literally so stupid that you can’t even learn something after you fucking learned it. I’m serious; I wouldn’t be surprised if this lesson was adapted from a Sunday school class or something. Sadly, however, Rotela is far from the only imbecile in this situation. He’s got an entire law firm backing up his claim that people of faith are deeply insulted when you put together classroom exercises to demonstrate that people take their faith very seriously.

Next they’re going to sue someone for praying in church. That’s high level paranoia right there. A stiff breeze will set off what Charles Pierce calls the “raging and Bible-banging and poo-flinging”. The university should have never apologized for a lesson teaching that religious people take religion seriously. No good can come from rewarding drooling levels of stupidity like this. These people are making Jenny McCarthy look like a fucking scientist.

The student in question got suspended, and I’m venturing a wild guess that it’s not, as he claims, in retaliation because he wouldn’t stomp on the word “Jesus” during a lesson where students were expected not to stomp on the word “Jesus”. He has already demonstrated that he’s either a terribly dishonest person or just too stupid to grasp the difference between up and down, so his claims to have been suspended unfairly need to be handled with a giant grain of salt. My initial guess is that he’s on academic probation while the administrators try to figure out how a student who filled his application out in crayon got in, but a little research suggests that it might be something else entirely:

However, according to a letter written by Associate Dean Rozalia Williams, Rotela is facing a litany of charges – including an alleged violation of the student code of conduct, acts of verbal, written or physical abuse, threats, intimidation, harassment, coercion or other conduct which threaten the health, safety or welfare of any person.”

“In the interim, you may not attend class or contact any of the students involved in this matter – verbally or electronically – or by any other means,” Williams wrote to Rotela. “Please be advised that a Student Affairs hold may be placed on your records until final disposition of the complaint.”

Hmmmm, he’s being accused of harassment and threats and specifically told not to contact any other students. Gosh, I wonder what’s going on? I mean, I’m the kind of person who understands that a lesson about the power of symbols might involve demonstrating the power of symbols, giving me apparently super-duper fucking brain powers that are well beyond those of all the wingnuts up in arms about this and the governor of Florida, so I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that Rotela got in trouble for harassing students who did step on the paper. Hey, just a guess, but generally speaking, you don’t get suspended for harassment and told to stop contacting specific people unless you were harassing those people.

Jesus, had he ever actually existed, would no doubt be proud.*

*For those with Rotela-levels of intelligence, this is what’s known as “sarcasm”.

Good journalism

2013-03-25T19:11:53.733Z

"Is it fair?" Vincent Browne, Ireland's premier journalist likes nothing better than eating a politician's liver with fava beans and a little Chianti.

Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=495_1349825885#kkMlWxxLwLEZ0fK6.99

Military sexual assault victims testify before Congress (CBS News)

2013-03-13T23:33:53.664Z

Sgt. Rebecca Havrilla, the lone female member of a bomb squad in eastern Afghanistan, was allegedly raped days before she was supposed to go back to the United States.

"The rape," she said, "was the 'ironic icing on the cake.'"

What started in basic training in January of 2004 with sexual jokes, innuendoes and simulated sexual play escalated to groping, slapping, harassment and ultimately ended with a rape before she left Afghanistan in September 2009, she said.

Havrilla's story gets worse before it gets better: she ran into her alleged rapist at a shop on Fort Leonard Wood; says she was told by a military chaplain that "it must have been God's will for her to be raped"; and says a friend found pictures of the attack on a pornography website.

Havrilla finally reported her case only to have it dismissed by her military commanders. On Wednesday, however, Havrilla is testifying in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel and share her story.

Havrilla's story is one of many and the statistics are grim: an estimated 19,000 service members experience sexual assault a year, according to the Department of Defense's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO). Eighty percent of military sexual assaults have gone unreported. In 2011, a mere 3,192 cases were reported but only 1,516 of those cases were considered actionable.

Prosecution rates are even lower: a reported 8 percent of cases actually went to trial, and of those, many accused sex offenders walked free, some even returning to the military. The Department of Defense also does not maintain a military sex offender registry.

Read the rest here.

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To say that I was astonished by such an utterly insensitive and boorish response as the chaplain made to a woman who had been raped is to understate badly. It is yet one more reflection of the religious tendency to devalue women, even those who are risking their lives in serving their country. If there is anything good about this business at all, it is that New York Senator Kirsten Gillabrand is heading up the investigation into these assaults, and she is clearly taking a most serious attitude toward it.

This also relates powerfully to A|N's Ruth Anthony-Gardner's piece, "Teaching men not to rape". It is past time that the practice of blaming the victims was abolished and that men are more fully held accountable for their brutish behavior. Better, that they understand LONG BEFORE they offend that these behaviors are in no way acceptable.

New Atheist 'Church' in Britain Catching on Worldwide

2013-03-09T18:35:26.711Z

A newly organized Atheist 'church' in Britain is capturing the imaginations of Atheists all over the world. It has entertained some 200 inquiries from throughout the world as to how additional branches of it might be established. The theme appears to be good without god. Of course this type of entity would make it more difficult for theists to have Atheist movements stereotyped as inherently immoral. It is my opinion that a great many people are rejecting Atheism because theists have in large part been successful at having it stereotyped as inherently immoral. Maybe this new 'church' is gaining popularity because people think they can defend it against assertions that it is inherently immoral. Per the article:

Britain's atheist church is barely three months old but it already has more "worshippers" than can fit into its services, while more than 200 non-believers worldwide have contacted organisers to ask how they can set up their own branch. Officially named The Sunday Assembly, the church was the brainchild of Pippa Evans and Sanderson Jones, two comedians who suspected there might be an appetite for atheist gatherings that borrowed a few aspects of religious worship...Jones reels off the locations of would-be atheist "vicars" who have asked to set up new branches. "Colombia, Bali, Mexico, Houston, Silicon Valley, Philadelphia, Ohio, Calgary, all across Britain, The Hague, Vienna... It's so ludicrously exciting that my head occasionally -- literally -- spins round."...The Sunday Assembly's central tenets are to "help often, live better and wonder more" -- themes that would not be out of keeping with the teachings of any major world religion. At last Sunday's service, which had a volunteering theme, songs included "Help" by the Beatles and "Holding Out For A Hero" by Bonnie Tyler.

http://news.discovery.com/human/life/atheist-church-set-to-go-global-130308.htm

Religious beliefs could trump state law: Kentucky bill on fast track to passage

2013-03-07T22:41:38.451Z

(Mar. 7, 2013)

Civil-liberties and gay-rights groups in Kentucky are mounting a last-ditch effort to oppose a bill that would allow people to defy laws and regulations that “substantially burden” their religious beliefs.

The measure, which overwhelmingly passed the state House last week, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee 9-2 Wednesday. It goes to the full Senate, which last year overwhelmingly endorsed a similar measure.

Opponents say it could let business owners and other individuals defy state and local civil-rights laws, including those in four Kentucky cities that prohibit anti-gay discrimination.

[...] At issue is House Bill 279, passed by the House on Friday 82-7. [...]

The House bill says laws and regulations can’t “substantially” burden someone’s “sincerely held religious belief” unless there is a proven, “compelling governmental interest” in it.The bill would prohibit the government from imposing on someone’s religious freedom through any “indirect burdens such as withholding benefits, assessing penalties, or an exclusion from programs or access to facilities.” That would have given the Amish a stronger defense against their convictions on misdemeanor traffic violations [for refusing to use orange-red safety triangles on their buggies].

[...]

[Read the full four-page article at courier-journal.com]

[UPDATE: Kentucky's governor vetoed the bill on Friday 3/22, supporting its intentions but concerned about unintended consequences.]

[UPDATE 2: The legislature overrode the veto by wide margins on Tuesday 3/26.]

Mother Teresa Humanitarian Image A 'Myth,' New Study Says (HuffPost)

2013-03-06T17:58:13.099Z

A new study by Canadian academics says Mother Teresa was a product of hype who housed the poor and sick in shoddy conditions, despite her access to a fortune.

The Times of India, reporting on the controversial essay, wrote that the authors asserted Mother Teresa saw beauty in the downtrodden's suffering and was far more willing to pray for them than provide practical medical care. Meanwhile, researchers say, the Vatican engaged in a PR ploy as it threw aside concerns about her suspicious financial dealings and contacts to forgo the five-year waiting period to beatify her.

One of the researchers, Serge Larivee of the University of Montreal's department of psychoeducation, told the school's website, “Given the parsimonious management of Mother Teresa's works, one may ask where the millions of dollars for the poorest of the poor have gone?”

The research paper claims that the celebrated nun had 517 missions in 100 countries at the time of her death, but that the majority of patients were not cared for properly and many were left to die, according to the university website. In addition, the Vatican is said to have ignored a doctor's assertions when it concluded that a Mother Teresa miracle healed a woman who had tuberculosis and an ovarian cyst.

Researchers Carole Senechal of the University of Ottawa and Larivee and Genevieve Chenard from the University of Montreal came to their conclusions by examining 96 percent of the originally researched, published works about Teresa, according to the U of M website. Their findings are to be published in French-language journal Studies in Religion/Sciences.

Read the rest here.

=========================

Well, gee whiz, what took them so long? Christopher Hitchens was debunking the supposed saint of Calcutta back in 1995 with his book, The Missionary Position. Why should it take 18 years for the rest of the world to wake up to the fact that Ma. Teresa was a fraud who seemed to worship suffering, particularly that of her charges, rather than take any meaningful action to ameliorate that suffering?

I doubt this will have any impact on the efforts of the RC church to fast-track the process of promoting Ma. Teresa to sainthood, but perhaps it will wake up some others to the propaganda surrounding her and her cult.

Fake Bishop Crashes Secret Meeting of Cardinals in Vatican

2013-03-05T23:27:50.671Z

A fake bishop actually made it into a secret meeting of cardinals in the Vatican. Before doing so he posed for pictures with one of them. He was eventually discovered by Swiss guards who noticed his attire was less than appropriate. Per the article:

Ralph Napierski, dressed in fake ecclesiastical robes with a purple scarf tied around his waist, shook hands and chatted with archbishops and cardinals as they arrived. The imposter dodged Vatican security measures and sneaked into the closed-door conference. But Swiss Guards soon frogmarched him out after noticing his suspiciously short cassock and unusual crucifix...Before he was rumbled, the fake holy man said Catholic bishops had made a mistake by moving priests accused of paedophilia around different parishes...The Catholic Church continues to be rocked by scandals inside and out of the Vatican – including the resignation of Britain’s Cardinal Keith O'Brien, who yesterday admitted that his sexual conduct had “fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal”.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4824375/Fake-bishop-crashes-cardinal-meeting.html

Oklahoma Creationism Bill passes stae house

2013-02-21T20:52:54.177Z

House Education Committee passes Science Education and Academic Freedom Act

The bill is one of six bills in the US being touted by their state's respectives state republicans, the other states being Montana, Arizona, Missouri, Indiana, and Colorado. So far, only Colorado has been able to reject such a bill.

Vassar College Students Raise Thousands In Response To Westboro Protest Threat (HuffPost)

2013-02-14T23:25:04.254Z

Responding to a notice from the Westboro Baptist Church that it intends to protest on the Vassar College campus, the school community has pledged to raise $100 for every minute the group plans to protest, according to a fundraising page set up by a Vasser alumnus. The effort has, however, exceeded expectations, as students have raised more than 482 percent of that total with weeks before the protest's scheduled date.

Word of the notorious group's intention to visit the school traveled quickly across social media after a notice was posted on its website announcing the protest. Mere hours later, Vassar students were contributing to a Crowdrise.com account to raise money for the Trevor Project, an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBT youth. At the time this post was published, $23,104 had been raised, largely through donations between $5 and $25. [Keep an eye on the fundraising total here]

Students also took to Twitter to encourage others to contribute to the anti-protest. Messages repeatedly said they were proud that their college could attract -- and possibly confront -- the anti-gay group.

Read the rest here.

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This. Is. Brilliant! The students, faculty and citizens around Vassar College have come up with what may be the perfect means not just to counter the actions of Fred Phelps & Co, but to actively counter their efforts in an inventive and effective coup fourre. The more the representatives of the Westboro Baptist Church attempt to protest, literally, The More They Strengthen Those They Protest Against!

If the symmetry were any more perfect, I should think that one of us would break into tears.
-- Ambassador G'kar of the Narn (Babylon 5)