April 6 Link Round-Up

Last weekend was the American Atheist's 50th Anniversary Conference in Austin.  I wish I had gone!  I used to live in Austin, and I missed it a LOT this winter!  Some videos:

• Richard Carrier on Atheism Plus (summary: don't be a dick)
• Matt Dillahunty on Atheism & Skepticism (summary: don't be a sucker)
• Hector Avalos: Religion and Violence (summary: holy books say go ahead and be a dick)

North Carolina wants to assert states' rights over the Establishment Clause 

Man who defrauded Christians receives sentence of 65 months in prison.  No word on his time in Purgatory.

Apparently Christians are easy marks for Ponzi schemes.  The Foundation for New Era Philanthropy scammed $135 million in the 1990s.  Members of an Atlanta megachurch and other churches (including Osteen's church) were fleeced to the tune of  $11 million.  "He quoted scriptures!"  Well then of course he was trustworthy!  the term for this is "Affinity Fraud."  Let us prey!

Nevada legislator receives death threats after admitting she had an abortion as a teen.   If you threaten to kill someone are you still "pro-life?"

The Psychiatric Treatment of the Fundamentalist Patient in Medscape Today accuses psychiatrists of not being understanding enough of the benefits of religious belief.

50 Ways to be a Loser in Life (Note that reading blogs isn't one of them)

Get into your wayback machine and check out Frank Zappa defending music against censorship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISil7IHzxc  He mentions incest in the Bible and says the biggest threat against the U.S. is movement toward a Fascist Theocracy in 1986.  The conservatives are heated up over Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher."  The conservative resorts to Hitler, predictably.

And now for something completely different, your favorite Biblical characters do the "Harlem Shake"



The cast of "Jesus Christ Superstar" has way too much fun with "The Harlem Shake"



A Christian youth group jumped on the meme and they're finding out how sensitive their religion is now! 180 downvotes vs. 69 upvotes. Let's upvote the poor kids! They need encouragement.



Pentecostal Style!

Ladies, Stand up and Be Counted!

According to the results of the atheist census so far, 75% are male!  Can this be true?  Or is it just that more male than female atheists have been counted?  I only just discovered the census this week, so maybe it's not getting enough exposure.  Well, I'm exposing it here:

http://www.atheistcensus.com/

Go get counted, whoever you are!  Fewer than 200,000 have been counted so far.

Acquire the Fire: Coming Soon to an Arena Near Me (and probably you too)

I'd never heard of this until it hit the local paper today:

Ball State to "Acquire the Fire" this Weekend

MUNCIE — Acquire the Fire youth ministry is back in Muncie this weekend, gathering thousands of young people in Worthen Arena for what its website bills as “a highly charged spiritual event.”

The two-day rally has become a repeat visitor to Muncie, using Ball State University as one of its many venues nationwide for years now.

Ball State, in turn, is happy to welcome Acquire the Fire each year, according to Dan Byrnes, director of sports facilities.

Worthen is primarily a sports venue, so it doesn’t bring in a lot of non-sports events such as this one, but Brynes called Acquire the Fire “a very positive event, full of energy, and we love it have it. We’re glad they keep coming back.”

Who are these wonderful people?  A few minutes on google, which is apparently more time than the author of this post was willing to spend, and I saw that it is a cultish Christian organization that has been profiled on MSNBC.   Acquire the Fire is a high energy rock concert that is a "ministry" though it seems totally for-profit to me.  It is the hook to reel in kids for their Teen Mania internships.  The internships cost $8,000 for a year of abuse and working as slave labor in a call center.  Teen Mania has (belatedly) dropped their ESOAL hell week ritual, which drew complaints for years, and was broadcast to the world on the MSNBC documentary and a local television news show (linked below).

ESOAL was modeled on Navy Seals training, but with one big drawback: no medical or psychological screening for the program.  Some kids graduated from their "internship" and claim it did wonders for them.  Others were traumatized and now need therapy for PTSD.

I am trying to decide whether to buy a ticket and video part of this or to paper all the cars with flyers about the cult they just supported with their allowance money.

These arena type things are harmless generally, with the rock concert experience culminating in an altar call, but this one in particular gives me the creeps.  Former Teen Mania victims are ambivalent about the event.  It's a happy time rah rah for Jesus weekend, but also the introduction to the abuse they suffered.

Inside Teen Mania from MSNBC (2011)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

A local television station story on the abusive ESOAL program (2010)
Part 2
Part 3
Follow-up


Belated cancellation of ESOAL
 They are justifiably embarrassed but it took years of criticism for them to drop it.

Recovering Alumni blog
Recovering Alumni youtube channel

Secular Leaders' Open Letter to the Secular Community

I'd have changed the title to communities because we agree on only one thing, or non-thing so we come in many stripes.  But otherwise I like this statement linked below:

http://www.atheistrev.com/2013/04/secular-leaders-address-incivility-in.html

Having experienced scathing incivility at a blog that's moderated by someone who thinks it's okay to insult people, I'm rather skeptical of the success of this statement.  Nice people will behave nicely.  The rest make us look bad as a whole, rather than representing only themselves.  They need to be reminded how to be civil.  This statement is a good start.

Debate: Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

Bart Ehrmann vs. William Lane Craig. Craig starts by "establishing" his "four facts." Hilarity ensues.  Happy Easter!

"Baby Moses" laid to rest

A tragic story in Indianapolis:  a dead baby was found in a creek.  The mother has still not been identified.

In the old days, babies like this would be named "Baby Doe" and laid to rest by the city.  When the family is identified, the baby would join the family plot if that's the wish of the family.  The family would have the right to name the baby if they wanted, too.

Today the little guy was laid to rest by some arrogant Christians who took on the right to name him and bury him:

http://www.wthr.com/story/21835067/memorial-held-for-newborn-found-in-creek

Linda Znachko named the baby Moses, and her ministry, "He Knows Your Name" organized Saturday's funeral.

"I have dressed Moses in a white garment. I did that to symbolize his spiritual freedom that he know has with Jesus Christ," said Znachko.

Some Christian group was able to take possession of the body, give the baby a name, and conduct a service in their denomination.  This just strikes me as so arrogant, yet the city released the baby to these people who have NO CLAIM to it!


grrrrrrr


I know that some so-called Christians will take issue with my anger about this but I don't care.  This was a selfish selfish act conducted by self-congratulatory people who really believe they are doing something right... and of course let the cameras show it on television.

It's certainly possible to be respectful toward an unknown person's body without claiming it for Christ:

March 30 link round-up

This is mostly news but I got tired of trying to sift through the Easter crap and the Supreme Court stuff and that stupid trial that a certain supposed "news" station is obsessed with.  So I offer up a mixture of the sublime, ridiculous, scary, and icky:

In Egypt, women are being blamed for an epidemic of sexual assaults against them.

Also in Egypt, a lady cartoonists takes aim at fundamentalists.  She's been charged with blasphemy.  And I worry about offending my fundie coworkers!

Malala signs a book deal.  Good for her!

In Bangladesh, Islamic protesters demand blasphemy laws against BLOGGERS!  OMG we're dangerous!

Berlin's Jew-in-a-Box exhibit more controversial than expected.   

About damn time!  Baptists finally take on something that's actually immoral:  predatory payday loans that hurt the poor. 

Man gets probation in mercy-killing of his wife.

Hindus celebrate the festival of Holi.  Yes, their holiday is Holi day!

A fat naked man called "Billy the Fridge" sat on a fake Phelps family member and yelled "Who's your daddy now?"  The rest is impossible to summarize so I'll leave it to you to read the rest.

Ladies, here's one good reason not to go skinny dipping.
Men, you're not safe, either.

The Huffpo's public service post of the week:  How to be a bitch, bitch! (I'm a natural, so I won't read any of those books!)

Randomly found video:  Scientologist corners James Randi between bites of something that looks rather tasty: