Link round-up

"Spiritual Healer" needs cabbage juice to cure cancer. Why not just zap the cancer away with a few voodoo words?

NYT: Warning Signs of Violence Often Unclear  “But most mass murders are done by working-class men who’ve been jilted, fired, or otherwise humiliated — and who then undergo a crisis of rage and get out one of the 300 million guns in our country and do their thing,” Dr. Stone said.

Chilling memoir of militant Islamists in Kashmir forcing Hindus into exile.  (I had to look up the word "Pandit," which is the origin of the word "pundit."  It means learned people)

Catholics amend unsanitary practices during flu season.  I always thought drinking from a common communion chalice was creepy but I was assured the alcohol in the wine killed the germs.

Catholic churches in Germany turn away rape victims rather than deal with the question of abortion. 

Disgraced gay cross-dressing suspended priest busted on meth charges.  What I don't understand is how you can tell if a priest is a cross-dresser when they are required to wear something resembling a dress at work!

Brooklyn is still Jewish!  There are 561,000 Jews in Brooklyn, 1/3 of New York's Jews, and the Jewish population is very diverse.  It was very diverse when I lived there in the 1980s.  That's why Jewish stereotypes make me facepalm.  I knew ultra-orthodox, Hassidic, and ham-eating shiksa-dating reform Jews there.

Evangelicals are starting to come around and drop their bigotry against gays.  Not only have they figured out that gay people are just gay, not evil, they've also figured out that the Bible is ambiguous.

Meanwhile, Untouchable Hindu "Dalits" can finally enter a temple, thanks to the deity setting a price for their sins: a little assistance with funds for decorating.  Anti-gay Christian denominations should pay attention.  This could be the path to rapprochment for them!

It's not just the Catholic church that's been covering up a pedophilia problem.  Evangelicals are being taken to task for it too.

Atheist Experience Classic!

The latest episode had a classic caller and classic closer.  Apparently it even attracted the attention of the Huffington Post!  For those without the patience to watch the whole painful thing, here's the gist:  Shane from Phoenix claims to have a proof of god via morality, but his ideas are all over the place and he keeps moving the goalposts, resorting to straw man arguments, and in general being a very poor debater.

Tracey's final point is the closer to close all closers:

"If I were in a position to prevent a child from being raped, I'd intervene.  That's what makes me different from your god."

My new hero! Mike Lee, the "Religious Antagonist." Now this is what I call "militant" atheism:

A few links...

Catholic preaches to Mormons about evangelizing and says "faith's beauty can lead even athiests to God."  I guess if you can believe in a talking snake and Paul's psychotic experience on the road to Damascus you can believe that too.

 Thursday's school shooter had been bullied.  CBS belittles the kid's experience then quotes witnesses confirming it.   Well, so much for anti-bullying campaigns's effectiveness.  Of course lessening the anguish of the victims was never the true inspiration for those campaigns anyway, it was just to keep kids from snapping and killing the cool kids.  Seems it didn't work at all!

Perhaps evangelical leaders supporting more gun control will keep the cool kids safe from the revenge of the nerds.  ...assuming evangelicals will still call themselves evangicals.  This WaPo editorial says the word needs to be rebranded.

Not new, but new-ish:  Mormon women declare "wear pants to church day."  I have always found the insistance on dresses for women and pants for men really stupid, considering Christ is always pictured in a caftan, a.k.a. a dress!

I ran across the above link after reading this article about the religious objection to contraception coverage at the same site.  The author is Howard M. Friedman, of The Religious Clause blog, which I follow.  I highly recommend the blog and the article.

Catholics and Protestants are going at it again in Ireland.

Being "spiritual" without having someone else's ancient delusional writings to frame and justify your magical thinking is supposedly related to mental illness.   (This article includes a link to a Businessweek page of LOL graphics about Correlation vs Causation)

Huge study being headed up by atheists.  This guy calls Dawkins "philosophically uninformed," which makes me wonder about his aim to study religion's place in human evolution.  I look forward to Dawkins' review of their publication.

Ex-Scientologist talks about how she stalked suppressive persons

A new series on Investigation Discovery channel called "Dangerous Persuasions" opens with an episode on Scientology. Wednesday, December 16, 10:00 p.m. ET/PT Here's the blurb:

Devoted Scientologist Nancy becomes an undercover spy to root out The Church's enemies. Little did she know she'd become immersed in the organization's secret war against its critics. Will her mission lead to her mental breakdown?

It's very courageous of her to do this.  I think this one is worth DVR-ing in case Scientology gets to the owners of Discovery channel!

Amazing Crash Video

This is so scary. I have driven many many miles on roads in this condition (but I don't tailgate, which is what the SUV driver was doing)

One time I was on I-71 in Ohio during a blizzard, and a Chevy Suburban crossed a very very wide median, came within feet of front-ending me, then veered back onto the median. They were so close I could see the driver's & passenger's faces, and I had nowhere to go! This video reminded me of that time.

LOL wut?

I don't know if this has been turned into a meme yet, but It got me photoshopping as soon as I saw it.

The Original:

My immediate thought:

...and I couldn't resist:

...and then I thought the pope needed commentary:

Fox and (Best) Friends?