News and Current Events

How about instead of making a new thread for every news story, we consolidate and post them here as they come up!

Focus is primarly on religion, but anything is game.




Stumbled upon this nonsense today.

This is the sort of filth that really pisses me off.

Was looking up news sites today to keep up with the events when I came across a hilarious article on Islam.

Mecca mosques 'wrongly aligned'

Some 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Mecca, point the wrong way for prayers, reports from Saudi Arabia say.

All mosques have a niche showing the direction of the most sacred Islamic site, the Kaaba, an ancient cube-like building in Mecca's Grand Mosque.

But people looking down from recently built high-rises in Mecca found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Kaaba.

Some worshippers are said to be anxious about the validity of their prayers.

There have been suggestions that laser beams could be used to make an exact measurement.

Tawfik al-Sudairy, Islamic affairs ministry deputy secretary, downplayed the problem in remarks quoted by the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.

"There are no major errors but corrections have been made for some old mosques, thanks to modern techniques," he said.

"In any case, it does not affect the prayers."

Source

The stone is in fact a telepathic microphone that transmits directly to allah, but it only hears you or hears what you're thinking when the axis of your spine is at a 90° angle with the surface of the cube.

Some worshippers are said to be anxious about the validity of their prayers.

Ah ah! This is really ridiculous!

Nor do I. Evolution as optional means biology as optional - not to mention its other fields of study which are reliant upon it a great deal. It is quite remarkable that a minister of education would ease the triumph of ignorance.

Waldheri said:
Nor do I. Evolution as optional means biology as optional - not to mention its other fields of study which are reliant upon it a great deal. It is quite remarkable that a minister of education would ease the triumph of ignorance.

While we're at it lets make math optional also and reinstate the Occult Practices with Sacred Geometry. Or physics! We'll reinstate Astrology to make up for the time gap. And how about Chemistry too, anyone into "Alchemy"?

Whoo hoo, real life experience in the dark ages...my dream come true! I can't wait for "The Inquisition Part II" because I believe in such blasphemous topics as vacuum's existing and infinity being used in mathematics.

So you got another issue where ID is chosen over evolution in school?

So glad this never happens in Sweden... yet anyway.

Neurotheology

All Things Considered, May 20, 2009 · Scientists are making the first attempts to understand spiritual experience — and what happens in the brains and bodies of people who believe they connect with the divine.

The field is called "neurotheology," and although it is new, it's drawing prominent researchers in the U.S. and Canada. Scientists have found that the brains of people who spend untold hours in prayer and meditation are different.


Full story: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=104310443

EDIT: I live in Texas, and yeah they (to be fair - some) were using the strenghts and weaknesses line to stress how evolution is "just" a theory and so on... you know, like Einstein's General Theory of Relativity... pure speculation.

Good news for the godless (and I suppose even for those Christians who choose to use grey matter in a critical manner) in Texas.

School board reins yanked from McLeroy
Supporters say his Christian beliefs cost him the post
By GARY SCHARRER
May 28, 2009, 10:40PM

AUSTIN — In a rare rejection of an appointment by the Texas governor, the Senate Thursday ousted Don McLeroy as chairman of the State Board of Education, with his supporters claiming the Bryan dentist was the victim of his strong religious beliefs.

McLeroy is a devout Christian who believes in creationism and the notion that the Earth is about 6,000 years old. He has steadfastly argued that Texas students should be taught the weaknesses of evolution.



The bad news is that the governor may very well appoint a likeminded nut. This is Texas, y'all.

God booted out of the classroom

I think the biggest problem with "pro-life" is not its alarming hypocrisy, which is bound to appear in any extremist political camp to some degree or other anyway, but the fact that they think in a secular society it is acceptable to base laws and the reasons for passing them on religious teachings above science.
First off, if we are going to go down that sins-are-illegal road, which religions get the vote? The popular ones? What if they discriminate against other religions? Which of the massively contradictory different teachings on, say, slavery in the Bible should be adopted? Why should marriage be legal when Islam is more for polygamous marriage? Do we really want to end up back in the medieval religious-war scenario? No, but obviously pro-lifers dont consider that.

I should point out here that I am talking about religion primarily because the majority of pro-life activists, certainly all the ones I have talked to, have based their views on Christianity or some other religion and, by and large, ignored the science and logic behind the opposing argument.

Another problem with their concepts is the absurdity of campaigning ruthlessly for the rights of what is essentially an amoeba and then, (as most pro-lifers will do, statistically speaking) going home for a nice roast lamb dinner. If removing an unconscious embryo amounts to murder than surely so does carnivorism? After all, a cow or a lamb is much more aware and alive than a foetus. According to science anyway, which is obviously inferior to religion when it comes to properly informing ethics. *rolls eyes*

If they want to be really pro-life they ought to try and ban masturbation, or eggs. "What's that there on your breakfast plate Randall Terry? An egg? Nope, its a chicken foetus you sick murderer. You ought to be given the electric chair for your sins. In fact, I think I might just shoot you myself."

LeaTelamon said:and the average intelligence among extremist groups usually isn't that high, I've noticed. Better to be sheepable.
This is the thing though isn't it? This is why nobody should bother arguing with the sheeple, because to begin with they lack the intelligence to understand (and therefore be convinced by) your argument, and because they don't want to hear it in the first place. When someone shirks debate, its generally a sign that they are unable to satisfactorily defend their beliefs to anyone but themselves, and they only justify them to themselves through the sort of delusion you are talking about in that link. If someone cannot defend their opinions then the opinions are not worth anything.