Weapons of Mass Destruction 404

This is the 404 message seen at the white house:

http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

Top Ten Signs You’re a Fundamentalist Christian

From Evil Bible.com 

10 – You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 – You feel insulted and “dehumanized” when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 – You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

7 – Your face turns purple when you hear of the “atrocities” attributed to Allah, but you don’t even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in “Exodus” and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in “Joshua” including women, children, and trees!

6 – You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 – You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 – You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs — though excluding those in all rival sects – will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering.  And yet consider your religion the most “tolerant” and “loving.”

3 – While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in “tongues” may be all the evidence you need to “prove” Christianity.

2 – You define 0.01% as a “high success rate” when it comes to answered prayers.  You consider that to be evidence that prayer works.  And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1 – You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history – but still call yourself a Christian.

Ricky Gervais’ Godlessness

Here’s a link to an article about how Ricky Gervais lost his faith.  It’s a rather unremarkable story, but perhaps that is what makes it interesting.

God Damn America and the Death of Rhetoric

So what, you can’t say God Damn America now?  Rhetoric is dead?  What the fuck is going on? 

I’ll be the first to admit that I thought I’d be the last to defend a preacher against the media, but well, here goes.  There are a lot of fucked up things about this country, and Jeremiah Wright described some of them effectively – so why crucify him?

The media and politicians treat the American public as if we are 7 year olds.  As if we can only understand things literally – that the tools of rhetoric are just too complicated for our tiny little brains.

Maybe the American public is stupid.  But maybe it is only because those who have the microphone treat them as such.  If we’re going to grow up, it needs to start with those that we listen to.

Obama’s speech on race was good at pointing out that the issues aren’t so black and white (so to speak) – but the fact that the speech needed to be made demonstrates how stupid we actually are.

Getting your Read on is now a Little bit Easier

So here are a couple website I recently discovered:

 GoodReads is a social networking site that allows you to post what books you’re reading, have read, or plan to read.  This in turn allows you to see what you’re friends are reading, read their reviews, and even trade books.  Worth a look around if nothing else.  I don’t see myself spending a lot of time on this site, but I definitely see me reading something that I learned about on GoodReads.

BookMooch is a book trading site.  You tell it what books you have that you’re willing to trade, and what books you’d like to receive.  Whenever you send a book to someone, you get a ‘point’ which then allows you to request a book from someone else.  If no one is currently offering the book you want, you can have it send you an email as soon as it becomes available.  I just sent off Christopher Hitchens’ “God is Not Great; How Religion Poisons Everything” and am thinking about what I want to spend my point on – very cool site.