Phil Plait is the man behind BadAstronomy.com and is quite popular within the skeptic community.
In this video he answers astronomy questions six graders. He he talks about the Big Bang and the ideas behind it.
Starting at about 3 minutes in he talks about how science works; it learns and grows with new information. Though Phil doesn’t get into it in this video, the contrast between science and religion, which rejects claims that contradict it’s tenants, is obvious.
“The incident happened during a protest against the Church of Scientology on May 10. Demonstrators from the anti-Scientology group, Anonymous, who were outside the church’s £23m headquarters near St Paul’s cathedral, were banned by police from describing Scientology as a cult by police because it was “abusive and insulting”.”
Apparently, it’s illegal to insult people in the U.K. Yikes!
What could the motivation be for these officers to enforce the law in this way?
“The City of London police came under fire two years ago when it emerged that more than 20 officers, ranging from constable to chief superintendent, had accepted gifts worth thousands of pounds from the Church of Scientology.
The City of London Chief Superintendent, Kevin Hurley, praised Scientology for “raising the spiritual wealth of society” during the opening
of its headquarters in 2006.
Last year a video praising Scientology emerged featuring Ken Stewart, another of the City of London’s chief superintendents, although he is not a member of the group.”
Hannah Montana’s dad, Billy, may have something to say about that…the grandson of a Pentacostal preacher, the elder Cyrus grew up singing in a Gospel quartet and a few years ago releases a Jesus-friendly album The Other Side. Not usually rooting for the Christians, in a match between Xenu and Jesus I’m going to shake my pom poms for the Lord.
The banning of same-sex marriage is most often based on religious grounds. While the separation of church and state is supposed to be the norm, that hasn’t been the case in recent years with various church groups lobbying government to impose their morals onto other people.
The main justification used for the attitude that homosexuality is “an abomination” is in the Old Testament in Leviticus 18:22;
“Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination”
Interesting. I wonder what other commandments there are in the Old Testament that Christians must be adhering to? I mean if they just pick and choose what to believe and enforce from the scriptures isn’t that inconsistent?
Here is a fake letter to Dr. Laura that has made the rounds for a few years that demonstrates this nicely I think.
Dear Dr. Laura,
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and I try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind him that Leviticus 18:22 clearly
states it to be an abomination. End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the specific laws and how to best follow them.
a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord (Lev 1:9). The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you
clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?
e) I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?
f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an Abomination (Lev 11:10), it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this?
g) Lev 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev 19:27. How should they die?
i) I know from Lev 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev 24:10-16) Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.
There’s been recent speculation about Will Smith’s interest in Scientology, sparked by his ‘friendship’ with Tom Cruise. Ms. Pinkett-Smith made Collateral with Krazy Kat in 2005, the year in which, coincidentally, a gift from the Will Smith Foundation for $20 grand was made to HELP (the Hollywood Education and Literacy Program, the basis for C0$’s home schooling program) and the Smith’s children began being home-schooled.
Smith has just layed out almost a million bucks to lease Calabasas, California estate Indian Hills High School campus, near his home, which he will rename The New Village Academy of Calabasas. Six confirmed Scientologists are already on staff, and ’study tech’, developed by L Ron himself, will be one of the featured pedagogies.
The letter that definitively dashes theist hopes of claiming Einstein’s allegiance, written by the scientist to philosopher Eric Gutkin in 1954, sold at auction Thursday for an astonishing $330 000. Four times the record price for an Einstein letter, it was expected to fetch $10-$16k.
“For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions,” wrote Einstein.
Google has revoked the AdSense account of Enturbulation.org, robbing the site of a few hundred no doubt much-needed dollars each month. Google is protecting their advertiser, the “Church” of $cientology, because of the nature of Google’s contextual ad service: perusing the content of the site, Google sees the word “Scientology” and serves up ads for C0$. Unfortunately C0$ is paying for those ads, so every click off Enturbulation costs the “Church” a few cents. Hee hee to that state of affairs, which is neither Enturbulation’s fault nor the ideal situation for C0$.
The Register reports Google’s letter of explanation details this reasoning: “While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.”
Fair enough, but this policy is rather selectively enforced - thousands (millions?) of sites must suffer similar advertising conflicts.
Interestingly, a few weeks ago Google’s subsidiary YouTube dealt a similar account-closing blow to Mark Bunker’s XenuTV1, a 10 000-subscriber-strong anti-C0$ channel. The register reports:
“Two days earlier, the site had banned a channel run by Tory Christman, another outspoken Scientology critic and a friend of Mark Bunker’s. Shortly thereafter, a post turned up on alt.religion.scientology in which someone bragged about silencing Christman and vowed to silence Bunker too.”
First of all, mega bejeezus word up mad crazy super props to Anonymous for getting a 9 minute feature on CNN. That, my friends, is the mainest of streams. Here’s the clip, with an interview with Tommy Davis, from May 08:
The reports I’ve read so far of the May 10 protests proclaim many success and show many an unmasked Anon. As the Enturbulation forums warn, don’t get cocky. It’s not a party, it’s a protest
That said, maybe Anonymous and the age they represent really is bringing an end to Co$. With the thetans and the alien whatnot exposed in countless online documents, how is a cult to retain it’s grip on it’s sheep these days? Barring a Fundy-Mormonish lack of computers, any cult whose deepest, most expensive secrets are up for grabs and ridicule on the internet is going to have a much tougher time portioning out the ’secret knowledge’ membership provides. Maybe the veil of ignorance is just too lifted for Scientology to continue cowing members into submission.
Jose Maestre developed a tumor on his lip 35 years ago, but refused surgery because he is a Jehovah’s Witness and will not accept blood transfusions. Over decades the tumor has grown to obscure his entire face.
Yep, that thar religion thing sure does make sense.
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