Quote of the Day

Here is Today's Quote. I felt that I would include one that clearly reflects the generalized view of women found in the Bible. Here it is:

1 Timothy 2:11-12 (New International Version)

¹¹A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. ¹²I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.

A Retraction

This quote does not include fish. It is anything that is not fish, such as lobsters, scallops, etc. Nevertheless, this means trouble for many.

Quote of the Day

I am going to try something new today. I am going to find a quote from the Bible everyday that I find absolutely absurd. Today, our gem is about the sinful practice of eating fish. Here it is.

"Whatever in the water does not have fins or scales; that shall be an abomination to you." (Leviticus 11:12)

I don't know about you, but I suspect that many Christians eat fish. And, I am sure that many fundamentalists eat fish too. If the Bible is to be used as a catalyst to deny civil rights, such as gay marriage, should we not all remind those people that they are sinning in the eyes of God when they eat fish?

Another Gem from Mary Ann

Mary Ann Gives me the Best Stuff for This Blog

Here is a great article from the Telegraph UK about how an atheist group is offering, for a small fee, to care for the pets of Christians after they ascend to heaven in the Rapture. Of course the rest of us atheists, sinners, and non believers have to stay here and suffer under the brutal wrath of Satan for seven years. Sounds good to me, kinda like "Imagine" by John Lennon.

Here is the article:

Atheists offer to care for Christians' pets after the Rapture

It's a question that all animal-loving Christian evangelicals must address: who will look after their pets on Earth when the Rapture comes and they are taken up to heaven?

By Matthew Moore
Published: 8:00AM BST 29 Aug 2009

Beflief in the Rapture is widespread among US Christians Photo: REUTERS

Now a group of atheists in the US have come up with a tongue-in-cheek solution, offering to take in the cats and dogs of "saved" believers in return for a small fee.

All the atheists signed up by Eternal Earth-Bound Pets are self-confessed sinners and blasphemers, guaranteeing they will be left behind when the chosen are selected

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The business idea is an irreverent attempt to cash in on the belief – widespread among US Christians – that the pious will be carried up to heaven by God in a sudden swoop, leaving unbelievers to endure the seven-year reign of the anti-Christ on Earth.

According to some polls, as many as 55 per cent of Americans believe in the notion of the Rapture.

"You've committed your life to Jesus. You know you're saved. But when the Rapture comes what's to become of your loving pets who are left behind?" the group's website asks.

"Eternal Earth-Bound Pets takes that burden off your mind."

For $110, the firm promises lifetime care for almost all domestic pets if their owners are transported to heaven within the next ten years.

The offer may sound far-fetched, and even a little provocative, but the group insists it is not joking.

It claims to have a network of pet-loving atheists spread across 20 states to ensure speedy, local animal care wherever the Rapture occurs, and has established a PayPal account to take subscriptions.

The founders also assure believers that their animals will enjoy an excellent quality of life: "All pets will live in loving homes, not in animal shelters or pet 'mills'."

And while the company promises that all its atheist carers are moral people with no criminal records, it stresses that they are not too saintly.

"Each of our representatives has stated to us in writing that they are atheists, do not believe in God / Jesus, and that they have blasphemed in accordance with Mark 3:29, negating any chance of salvation," the website states.

But potential customers would be advised to read the terms and conditions before forking out their $110; if the subscriber loses their faith or is not Raputered in the next 10 years, they are not entitled to a refund.

The venture follows the launch last year of a new internet service designed to allow Christian subscribers to send emails to non-believing friends and relatives after the Rapture.

Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design

This term has been fascinating me lately. So, I found this great article from the National Center for Science Education. Their agenda is to promote the teaching of evolution in public schools. To us Canadians, this debate is really not all that relevant. However, the rationale behind intelligent design is. Here it is:

"Intelligent Design" Not Accepted by Most Scientists
August 12th, 2002 general Intelligent Design Creationism
Reprinted with permission from School Board News, Aug. 13, 2002. Copyright 2002. National School Boards Association. All rights reserved.

by Eugenie C. Scott and Glenn Branch

This spring, a subcommittee of the Ohio Board of Education charged with supervising the preparation of the state's science education standards was petitioned by a citizens' group to include "intelligent design" (ID) along with evolution. As ID becomes better known, other state and local school boards might face similar requests.


What is ID, and does it have a legitimate place in the high school science curriculum?


ID parallels but is not identical to creation science, the view that there is scientific evidence to support the Genesis account of the creation of the earth and of life.

ID and creation science share the belief that the mainstream scientific discipline of evolution is largely incorrect. Both involve an intervening deity, but ID is more vague about what happened and when.

Indeed, ID proponents are tactically silent on an alternative to common descent. Teachers exhorted to teach ID, then, are left with little to teach other than "evolution didn't happen."

An ID high school textbook, Of Pandas and People, mentions "creationism" only once, but this text is recognized by teachers and scientists as being very similar in content to creation science. Since Pandas was published in 1986, the two major innovations in ID have been Michael Behe's concept of "irreducible complexity," presented in Darwin's Black Box in 1996, and William Dembski's "design inference," presented in Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology in 1999.

Dembski contends that he has developed an algorithm — an "explanatory filter" — that can distinguish the products of "intelligent design" from the workings of natural law and chance. Behe proposes that there are certain biochemical structures that, being "irreducibly complex," cannot have arisen through unguided natural processes.

Neither Dembski's design inference nor Behe's irreducible complexity has fared well in the scholarly world, however.

A search of scientific databases, such as PubMed or SciSearch, reveals that scholars have not applied the concept of irreducible complexity or the design inference in researching scientific problems.

ID has been called an "argument from ignorance," as it relies upon a lack of knowledge for its conclusion: Lacking a natural explanation, we assume intelligent cause.

Most scientists would reply that unexplained is not unexplainable, and that "we don't know yet" is a more appropriate response than invoking a cause outside of science.

A third important book of the ID movement is Jonathan Wells' Icons of Evolution, published in 2000, which claims that biology textbooks promote fraudulent and inaccurate science. Although the reviews of Wells' book by scientists have unanimously regarded it as dishonest and devoid of scientific or educational value, it is being widely circulated among creationists and cited at school board meetings around the country.

ID also includes a "cultural renewal" component, which focuses on ideological and religious rather than scholarly goals.

The Seattle-based Discovery Institute's Center for Renewal of Science and Culture (CRSC) serves as an institutional home for virtually all of the prominent ID proponents, including Dembski, Behe, and Wells. The goals of the CRSC, as stated by the Discovery Institute's director Bruce Chapman, are explicitly religious: to promote Christian theism and to defeat philosophical materialism.

The sectarian orientation of the ID movement cannot be ignored in decisions about whether to include ID in the curriculum.

Courts repeatedly have held that the public school classroom must be religiously neutral and that schools must not advocate religious views. In 1987 the Supreme Court ruled that teaching creationism in the public schools is unconstitutional.

ID proponents may argue that a neutral-sounding "intelligence" is responsible for design, but it is clear from the "cultural renewal" aspect of ID that a deity — in particular, God as He is conceived of by certain conservative Christians — is envisioned as the agent of design. While schools can take no position on this view as religion, it cannot be regarded as science.

Thus, school board members and administrators would be ill-advised to include ID in the public school science curriculum. If the scholarly aspect of ID becomes established — if ID truly becomes incorporated into the scientific mainstream — then, and only then, should school boards consider whether to add it to the curriculum.

Until that day, proposals to introduce ID into curricula should be met with polite but firm explanations that there is as yet no scientific evidence in favor of ID, that ID supporters are wrong to allege that evolution is intrinsically antireligious, and that the sectarian orientation of ID renders it unsuitable for constitutional reasons.

And school board members should be aware that introducing ID into the curriculum is likely to lead to strong opposition — up to and including lawsuits — from those, including parents, teachers, scientists, and clergy, who do not want science education to be compromised.

My favorite part of this article is the following statement: Lacking a natural explanation, we assume intelligent cause. No credible scientific evidence=God. There it is.

This one comes from Mary Ann.

This one comes from Mary Ann. This is an article from NPR.org about how the swine flu is affecting the interpersonal contact involved in religious ceremony and tradition. Interesting stuff. Here it is:

Through the eyes of the H1N1 virus, a Catholic church is a playground. The font of holy water near the church entrance is a great place for the virus to leap from one person to another.The passing of the peace, during which parishioners shake hands, is yet another favorite place for the virus. And then there's Communion: The priest puts the host, or wafer, on a parishioner's tongue or into the person's hand, and then does the same for the next person. Often, he then serves wine from a common cup. It's wiped clean each time, but that's no guarantee it's virus-free.Bishop Mitchell Rozanski of Baltimore said these rituals have prompted a flood of questions."How should we deal with the distribution of Holy Communion?" he said. "Should we stop shaking hands at the sign of peace? Should we take [out] the holy water fonts as soon as the flu season begins?"Rozanski is asking priests to use lots of hand sanitizer. But the bishop said a word from health officials that a pandemic has started could lead him to shut down churches.

Slideshow: How To Say 'Hi' In An H1N1 World

Want to stay safe from the flu, without being a grinch? Check out our slide show for tips

Don't Gimme Five!

Like Rozanski, Rabbi Moshe Waldoks at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Mass., has been thinking about swine flu a lot lately. The High Holy Days begin Friday, and he expects about 900 people at services. He'll ask his congregants to greet each other a little differently this year."I'm suggesting bowing to each other with a little Buddhist bow," he said, "or the Obama fist bump could really be very good."And what about passing the Torah around the congregation? Some people kiss it, while others touch their prayer shawls to it."I might say before we walk around with it, 'If you've any concerns about stuff, this year maybe offer a wave instead of a kiss,' " Waldoks said. "I'm sure the Torah will understand."

For Muslims, Friday prayers are the centerpiece of the faith and a potential viral hotbed. Imam Johari Abdul-Malik of Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., says 3,000 people come to worship there each week.

If you've any concerns about stuff, this year maybe offer a wave instead of a kiss. I'm sure the Torah will understand.

- Rabbi Moshe Waldoks

"They stand shoulder to shoulder. They put their faces on the carpet and remember someone's going to come behind them and prostrate with their face on the carpet," he says.Malik says that if flu breaks out, the leaders may ask people to bring in their own prayer rugs. The mosque may tell people to spread out more when they pray and amend the ritual cleansing before prayer, in which people visit a special washroom to gargle and wash their feet.

The imam said believers are loath to change these rituals because they're so deeply rooted in the Quran. "How do you now convince them that what they used to do is now not permissible?" he asked.For example, Malik says, the Quran says that when two believers shake hands in greeting, their sins fall away. Some people may feel cheated of blessing if they have to stop that practice."You come to the mosque, and nobody wants to shake your hand, no one's going to embrace you. You're like, 'What's going on? What's kind of place is this? Where are the blessings?' " he said. "And you have to say, 'Today the blessing is in resisting shaking hands.' "

Okay, little confused by this one. The church is responding to the potential threat that H1N1 poses within their ceremony. However, on September 16, 2009, The Economist reported that Pope Benedict XVI visited Africa as a pontiff. He was quoted as having said that HIV: "is a tragedy ... that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems," the 81-year-old pontiff said. Sub-Saharan Africa is more heavily affected by AIDS than any other region of the world. Nearly two-thirds of all adults and children with HIV live in the region, according to a 2006 report by UNAIDS. It further reports that 60 Catholic groups wrote him an open letter last year urging him to rethink the churches position on condom use. I could be reading this wrong, but here is how I take it. They will work with H1N1. However, condom use will only serve to aggravate the epidemic in Africa.

My Funny For This Holy Sunday

As I was researching this morning, I came across many references to "winning the battle against abortion and euthanasia" in Quebec this week. To be funny, I read the Christian version of these events. The journalism left me confused. I thought to myself "It cannot be so simple and antatgonistic, there has to be a reasonable explanation." So, I went to the CBC to decipher these events. Here is their article:

Quebec abortion clinics excused from new rules

Last Updated: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 | 3:26 PM ET Comments7Recommend7

CBC News

Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc said he would remove abortions from Bill 34 that sets strict standards for private surgical clinics. (CBC)

Quebec Health Minister Yves Bolduc said Tuesday he will remove abortion clinics from a controversial bill that sets strict standards for private surgical clinics.

Bill 34 would have required private abortion clinics to have ventilated operating rooms and surgical clothing for all staff.

On Tuesday, the Quebec College of Physicians said the measures weren't necessary for abortion clinics. Several private clinics had threatened to stop providing the procedure when the province adopted the guidelines this spring.

Bolduc raised a controversy by initially suggesting it was the College of Physicians that wanted abortion clinics included in the bill. But Bolduc said he doesn't think the issue has damaged the relationship between the college and the ministry.

"I think we should always have a good communication and often when things like that happens, we just try to see what can be improved. One of the things [is] we can communicate earlier when we have problems like that," said Bolduc.

He said he never intended to reduce access to abortions, adding that the decision to include abortion clinics in the bill predated him as minister.

Hmmmmm. So the government has introduced a bill that indicates that all private surgical clinics in the province need to upgrade their services. Well, they really do not need to upgrade their services as it is not required for this type of procedure.
Now, it is no secret that journalism influenced with a religous perspective lacks objective integrity. But, this is a great example. So, here is the article that I initially read from Christianity.ca on the same topic:

Big News from Quebec on Abortion and Euthanasia

These issues, which deal with the value of human life from conception to natural death, were given prominence in the Quebec newspapers recently.
by Don Hutchinson

Two issues of life were given prominence on the pages of Quebec newspapers last week.

First, Quebec’s law governing the operation of abortion clinics will change effective September 30.

It’s about time. I do not endorse abortion, but applaud the Government of Quebec’s decision to require abortion clinics to meet the same medical standards as any other surgical facility. It is a testament to the motivation of these clinics that three have advised they will close their doors rather than comply with the new law.

All three clinics, including Henry Morgentaler’s first clinic which opened in Montreal in 1969, promoted themselves as being open for business “for the sake of women’s health.” The Government of Quebec has given them the opportunity to meet a medical standard “for the sake of women’s health.” And, without effort or expenditure of a portion of the millions of dollars they have made over the decades of ending countless lives of the unborn, the clinic owners will walk away from their “principles.” The reason? They are unprepared to offer their services if forced to comply with general surgical standards – that is the performance of surgery in a sterile environment with basic sterile surgical equipment – and the financial cost associated with those standards.

The Government of Quebec has given [abortion clinics] the opportunity to meet a medical standard “for the sake of women’s health.”

Dr. Francine Léger of the Morgentaler Clinic is reported to have said this requirement is “a double standard.” Reports in Montreal’s Le Devoir newspaper indicate that neither the Quebec College of Physicians nor the U.S. based National Abortion Federation requires this “new” standard.

I’m fairly ignorant about the way the surgical procedure is performed but I do care about basic health requirements for human beings. Women undergoing a surgical procedure should be entitled to the same standard of care as men or women undergoing a different surgical procedure. Clearly, the government is not eliminating the performance of abortions in hospitals or properly equipped private clinics. It seems to me that the action of the Quebec government is not the establishment of a double standard but the elimination of one that has existed for far too long.

Of course, I would take pleasure in announcing the clinics have actually closed, no doubt with a resulting decrease in abortions and the damage, whether emotional or physical in its consequences, that so often accompanies the loss of that little developing life. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if this is grandstanding by the now wealthy owners of these clinics in an effort to test the reaction of the public, the resolve of the government or to seek government funding to upgrade their facilities.

We will soon know if 40 years after the opening of Canada’s first publicly advertised private (and at the time illegal) abortion clinic that same facility will close its doors, as a new age dawns on concern for women’s health. Hopefully this new age will be an age that includes fully informing women of the now verified high likelihood of emotional and physical consequences of having an abortion and the alternatives available. At a minimum, a woman will know if she chooses to proceed with an abortion that the procedure will take place in a proper surgical environment.

Lest we forget, all human life is unique and to be highly valued – from conception to natural death, including standards for surgery.

Don Hutchinson is Vice-President, General Legal Counsel with The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Director of the Centre for Faith and Public Life.

WTF????

First, check out the man's credentials. He is "LEGAL COUNSEL".

Second, he completely neglected to indicate that the forced upgrades are not necessary to the procedure. And, you do not need to create a surgical environment for a procedure that is non-invasive. No skin is cut, no scalpels are used.

Third, all equipment used in procedures is sterile. I think that he is trying to frighten women back to the "hacksaw" era. We have come a long way baby, and that fearmongering will not work with those of us who are able to see when we are being manipulated.

And, best of all. According to the CBC, ABORTION CLINICS WERE REMOVED FROM THE BILL AS THE GOVERNMENT NEVER INTENDED TO RESTRICT ACCESS TO THE PROCEDURES!!!!!!

I may have to write this gentlemen a letter.

Thoughts?