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One of the thing that scares me the most about religious fundamentalism is that ignorance is not only tolerated but encouraged.  The message is to stop thinking and just believe.  Reason, logic, and critical thinking are discouraged, even considered a sin in some cases.

Never is this “tune in and turn off” message more clearly stated than on the back of a t-shirt I saw some teenager wearing about a year or so ago:

The Simple Life: eat, sleep, pray.

Now this is actually considered virtuous by these people.  In this equation there is no thinking, no discovering the world around us, no attempt to learn how the world really works.  There is no attempt to realize our place on the planet, the solar system, and the galaxy.

This mantra is isolationist, disassociating the adherent …read more »

Who says prayer doesn’t work?

We just went on our first vacation in four years and it really couldn’t have been better.  It was hot, most days the temperature hit around 92 degrees, but the skies were clear all day and the nights were actually cool.  Our last vacation was to Hawaii back in the summer of 2004, right before we found out Traci was preganant with Orson so we’ve been itching to get away for a while ever since.  We spent two and a half days at the park; more than enough to take in everything we wanted to do.  Our last visit to Kings Island was in 2002 and since then the park (along with Paramount’s four other parks) has been sold to Cedar Fair, the same company that owns Cedar Point.  As a result all the movie tie-ins were gone, which really didn’t bother me any, but it bodes well for the future of Kings Island.  Cedar Point is the …read more »

I’ll keep this short and sweet.  This is probably the best comic book/super hero movie ever made.  And Heath Ledger is actually that fucking good.  Seriously.

See it.

Actually there’s not much to post about the final chapters of Genesis; it comes in strong but it really goes out with a whimper.  There’s a great story in chapter 34 about Dinah, daughter of Jacob, being “violated” and her brothers end up revenge killing every male in the city, but only after they trick them into being circumcised and are all then in too much pain to defend themselves.  Seriously, that’s the story.  Anyway, they take all the women and children and plunder the city.  Awesome.

In chapter 37 Joseph, son of Jacob, is sold by his brothers into slavery.  Then in chapter 38 a guy named Judah …read more »

Psalms 14:1

The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”  They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good.

This is the basis for this little montage below.  I’ve already mentioned this before but I thought this video expanded on it a bit.  Get ready for a bit of enlightenment.

I didn’t follow Jesse Helms much, probably because he was a bit before my time and already half-dead, but it appears he’s finally ready to take his dirt nap.  I’d like to reference a few of the more meaningful “advances” Helms made before he decided to call it a day.

• In 1950, Helms became an unofficial researcher for United States Senate candidate Willis Smith. Smith was a conservative Democratic lawyer and former president of the American Bar Association. While working on the primary campaign against Frank Porter Graham, Helms helped create an ad that read, “White people, wake up before it is too late. Do you want Negroes working beside you, your wife and your daughters, in your mills and factories? Frank Graham favors

…read more »

So, for ye of little faith, I’m back with another installment of my Bible Study Project.  I’d wanted to get all the way through Genesis and then post but I’ve been running low on spare time so I figured I’d post what I’ve read and then get back to the rest later.  It might be a while before I get back into it; this book is just so damn boring.

That said, here we go back into the bad old days.

First, in 10:8, we read about Nimrod.  I found it ironic that the name of a “mighty hunter” such as Nimrod would eventually become associated with idiocy.  I also like the Forrest Gumpish sound of this line in 10:9:

He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.”

Genius.

In 11:1-8 we learn of the tower of Babel.  In this story man all speaks the same language and decides to build a tower to God.  God doesn’t want this because working together man can do anything.  So he makes them all speak different languages and transplants them all over the world.  I guess I’m supposed to believe this actually happened.  Why would God be afraid of man?  Aren’t we his creations?  Can’t he just snap is fingers and just make us stop?

In 12:10-20 we have more pimping.  Abram pimps his wife Sarai …read more »