[Quote:]

Creationism and intelligent design should be taught in school science lessons, according to a leading expert in science education.

The Rev Prof Michael Reiss, director of education at the Royal Society, said that excluding alternatives to scientific explanations for the origin of life and the universe from science lessons was counterproductive and would alienate some children from science altogether.

[..]

Reiss agreed that creationism and intelligent design are not scientific theories, but he said that did not automatically exclude them from science lessons. “Just because something lacks scientific support doesn’t seem to me a sufficient reason to omit it from the science lesson.”

Other subjects coming up soon:

Astrology
Phrenology
Alchemy
ESP
Flat earth geography
Transfiguration
Arithmancy
Divination

[Quote:]

The Reverend Richard Hart, 59, from Horsell, Woking, is the vicar of Beguildy, near Knighton in Powys.

He admitted 12 charges of making indecent images of children, four of taking indecent images and five of possessing images on his computer.

He was remanded in custody at Cardiff Crown Court and is awaiting sentencing. He is suspended from church duties.

Three months before she was thrust into the national political spotlight, Gov. Sarah Palin was asked to handle a much smaller task: addressing the graduating class of commission students at her one-time church, Wasilla Assembly of God. She is nuts.

[Quote:]

[Quote:]

As Hurricane Gustav barrels toward the Gulf Coast and residents are fleeing in droves, I am reminded of this “humorous” piece put out by Dobson’s Focus on the Family organization last week:

[..]

Are you listening Stuart Shepard? Hurricanes qualify as “rain of biblical proportions”, don’t they? Perhaps God is trying to tell you something.

To all people in the storm path; I hope you all pull through. I wish you all the good luck and strength you need…

[Quote:]

An Australian pastor who inspired hundreds of thousands of people with his fight against terminal cancer has admitted he faked his illness to hide an addiction to porn.

[..]

His deception was so great his wife quit work to care for him, he forced himseld to vomit regularly at night and even lost his hair to fool his family and the public about the extent of his illness.

[Quote:]

One last thing. Someone on the McCain team has already anticipated the connection between Moses/Joshua and King/Obama. It’s what was driving that weird ad from last month. People recognized the creepy messianic overtones and rightly saw it as a dogwhistle to the evangelical right. The use of Charlton Heston as Moses crossing the Red Sea was meant to inoculate evangelicals against recognizing in Obama the realization of Dr. King’s legacy. Irresponsibly, the McCain campaign raised the imagery of apocalypse and anti-Christ to blunt Obama’s ability to draw upon scriptural language and its particularly American transformations.

That’s why it’s astonishing for me to realize, just now, that Obama ended his speech with a dogwhistle so beautiful and so profound as to make a mockery of Michael Gerson’s most sublte efforts. The final words of his speech were: “Let us keep that promise – that American promise – and in the words of Scripture hold firmly, without wavering, to the hope that we confess.” This is a quote from Hebrews 10, one that would (I think…a MeFite more pious than me can correct me if I’m wrong) have considerable resonance for evangelicals, since it precedes a very dramatic expression of God’s absolute sovereignty and the essential role of a Christian’s complete trust in God’s will.

The actual quote from Hebrews 10:23 is: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful”. In a speech whose theme is “promise” and which invokes King’s legacy of transforming the “promised land” into an American pastoral of freedom and equality, this quote does something quite profound. Obama speaks the first half of the quote, “the hope that we confess”, seeming to be burnishing his Christian credentials. But the second half of the verse “for he who promised is faithful” emphasizes in a very powerful way Obama’s message that his success is not about him. Those of us who are secular see him as an eloquent spokesman for our collective aspirations. But an evangelical could see him as the agent of divine providence. By ending his speech in this way, he challenges religious people either to deny the validity of his hope and his promise (something they cannot do without also denying the providential power of King’s legacy and his death), or to deny the faithfulness of the God who promises (something that would undo their own confession).

To an audience that is used to having its scripture invoked with a nudge and a wink, this beautiful citation is a kind of a puzzle, challenging them to meditate on the relationship between their faith and their citizenship, Barack Obama’s success and their idea of God’s will realized on the landscape of American politics. They may not wind up agreeing with him, of course. But they will still have been challenged to think in ways far more profound than ham-fisted apocalypticism and B-movie portrayals.

The Hebrews quote continues: “and let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. ” This is as devastating a rejection of irresponsible invocations of the apocalypse as you could hope for.

And remember folks, our next president wrote this speech himself.

[Quote:]

The Bush administration on Thursday proposed stronger job protections for doctors and other health care workers who refuse to participate in abortions because of religious or moral objections.

So what if it’s against my religion to serve black people in my restaurant, or rent housing to them?

[Quote:]

Religion is outdoing itself this week. The good old Catholic Church for instance, always vigilant for the well-being of humanity.

A vaccine against cervical cancer will be given to schoolgirls without them receiving any safe sex advice as a result of a controversial deal struck between the Catholic Church and health officials [in Scotland]…The Catholic Church originally raised objections to the jab on the grounds it could encourage promiscuity, but has made a U-turn after reaching an agreement with health and education bosses. The deal means girls getting the HPV jab will not receive any accompanying advice on the need to use condoms to protect themselves from other sexually transmitted diseases.

Typical. A bogus worry about a bogus guessed-at possibility of a non-problem motivates the church to object to a measure that would protect women against a fatal disease.

[Quote:]

[Quote:]

The oldest surviving copy of the New Testament, a 4th century version that had its Gospels and epistles spread across the world, is being made whole again — online.

The British Library says the full text of the Codex Sinaiticus will be available to Web users by next July, digitally reconnecting parts that are held in Britain, Russia, Germany and a monastery in Egypt’s Sinai Desert.

A preview of the Codex, which also has some parts of the Old Testament, will hit the Web on Thursday — the Book of Psalms and the Gospel of Mark.

[..]

Handwritten in Greek more than 1,600 years ago — it isn’t exactly clear where — the surviving 400 or so pages carry a version of the New Testament that has a few interesting differences from the Bible used by Christians today.

The Gospel of Mark ends abruptly after Jesus’ disciples discover his empty tomb, for example. Mark’s last line has them leaving in fear.

“It cuts out the post-resurrection stories,” said Juan Garces, curator of the Codex Sinaiticus Project. “That’s a very odd way of ending a Gospel.”

The simplest answer is that the whole resurrection stuff was made up later.

for those of you who think this means that “the bible has a secure claim of being the oldest preserved book”, the Buddhist suttas of the Theravada tradition would like to have a word with you.

[Quote:]

A Franciscan priest from New York pleaded guilty to raping three teenage boys during overnight trips to Boston in the 1970s and 1980s and was ordered Tuesday to serve time on probation.

Probation.

Why are we treating religion with kids gloves?

[Quote:]

[Quote:]

“Here I would like to pause to acknowledge the shame which we have all felt as a result of the sexual abuse of minors by some clergy and religious in this country.

“Indeed I am deeply sorry for the pain and suffering the victims have endured and I assure them that, as their pastor, I too share in their suffering.

“These misdeeds, which constitute so grave a betrayal of trust, deserve unequivocal condemnation. They have caused great pain and have damaged the Church’s witness.

“I ask all of you to support and assist your bishops, and to work together with them in combating this evil. Victims should receive compassion and care, and those responsible for these evils must be brought to justice.

I worry about his phrasing in the first sentence…. “in this country”…

I know this speech is a big thing, and an important step for the church, but it still gives me the impression all abused people outside Australia can just go fuck themselves…

[Quote:]

Lilian Ladele recently won a suit against Islington Council alleging discrimination after she was punished for refusing to do her job and perform civil partnerships for same-sex couples. A judge ruled that Ladele was within her rights to deny service to homosexuals as a staunch Christian.

However, it has now been revealed that Ladele is also a single mother to a child, now 27, born out of wedlock. So Ladele is so firmly Christian that she can’t possibly marry same-sex couples, but not so religious as to remain chaste until married. Presumably God will forgive the sin of extramarital sex but not the “sin” of joining two people together in a loving relationship.

The discovery that she has an illegitimate son could cast suspicion on some of the testimony she gave at the discrimination tribunal. The tribunal wrote: “Ms Ladele is a Christian. Her unchallenged evidence was that she holds the orthodox Christian view that marriage is the union of one man and one woman for life to the exclusion of all others and that marriage is the God-ordained place for sexual relations.”

“She told us that she believed this to be contrary to God’s instructions that sexual relations belong exclusively between a man and a woman within marriage.”

That’s right, she said marriage is the only god-ordained place for sexual relations. How awkward for her. It’s likely even more awkward for the Christian Institute, a far-right Christian group that helped fund Ladele’s appeal and is firmly against sex before marriage.

However, it’s unlikely the group was unaware of the situation, once again proving that groups like the Christian Institute aren’t really “pro-Christian values”, just anti-gay. You can’t pick and choose your beliefs if you’re going to claim to be a fundamentalist. Hypocrisy is a sin itself.

But first, it went through a car door and a bible. Now, guess which object gets the credit?

It’s safe to annoy Catholics again.

[Quote:]

What would Jesus fly? Senator Charles Grassley investigates TV evangelists. One of whom claims his financial records belong to God. Further Investigation of TV evangelists some of whom are leaving on a jet plane. All thanks to the Prosperity Doctrine

[Quote:]

A couple of years ago, I listened to an interview with James Randi, the skeptic who famously exposed faith healer Peter Popoff and who runs the Million Dollar Challenge. This part of the interview, starting at 40:10, made me about as angry as I’ve ever been. (I’ve cleaned it up a bit for readability):

Randi: They must see the grief that I have seen. I’ve attended a great number of these things, always in disguise of course, and to see these people…. Well, after a Benny Hinn performance at Mapleleaf Gardens a few years ago… I sat across the street in a restaurant during a bit of a break, and there was a woman in there sobbing. A very large elderly woman sobbing, and she had her friend sitting with her.

I could hear her clearly, and she was saying “But I’ve been to eleven of the meetings now. I’ve followed him all over the United States and now into Canada, and I’m trying to get up on the stage. I need to be healed, I need his help. And they keep me back, they won’t let me up there. And I keep giving money. I’m giving money all the time. I’ve gone into the CD’s,” I’ve done this and that.

And her companion leaned across and took her by the hand and she says “But dear, you haven’t given everything yet. And Jesus requires that you give your all.”

I got up and left the table. I wanted to upset their table. So angry, seething. So angry, it frightens me that I can get that angry. At these people, never mind Benny Hinn! He’s only the instigator, the one who’s getting the money. These people are being so bloody stupid! To go along with this kind of thing, to allow themselves to be taken to this depth.”

Shermer: So this is your answer to the question, “Oh, what’s the harm? C’mon, it gives them hope, makes them feel good.”

Randi: Yep. That’s where the harm is. They begin to depend on it and the begin to believe the crap that’s being told them.

As long as there are people who are willing to believe this crap, there will be millionaire preachers and faith healers.