Science vs Religion

Muslims

Here is an article that lays out what the whole question is, it's not really about the Mosque at Ground Zero (which is not a mosque and is not at ground zero).

One thing is clear: the feverish discourse about Muslims’ role in American society is not about the proposal to build an Islamic community center a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site. Park 51, as it’s being called, merely let an ugly genie out of the bottle. The dark stain of Islamophobia had spread far and wide long before the controversy erupted.

Related articles by Zemanta

• "Protesters demonstrate for, against 'Ground Zero' mosque" and related posts (islamizationwatch.blogspot.com)
• CNN Continues to Promote 'Islamophobia' Accusation From Time (newsbusters.org)
• "Scenes from Ground Zero Mosque protests [Photos]" and related posts (islamizationwatch.blogspot.com)

Religion 101: Final Exam

Someone has come up with a pretty good religious test, here's a sample:

5- You are the incarnated Son of the all-powerful and all-loving Creator of the universe. What would be a good way to demonstrate your compassion and power?

1. Cure cancer forever
2. Cause all the earth's deserts to bloom with food crops
3. Unite the world with a common language and an end to poverty
4. Conjure up a jug of wine and follow it up by walking on water


6-Since we can never "know" whether or not a God exists - it is fundamentally a matter of "faith" - it's best to be a believer since you have nothing to lose, but everything to lose if your

Image via Wikipedia

disbelief is incorrect. Keeping in mind that the fate of your soul depends on the right choice, in which God should you place your belief? For extra credit, include a brief essay justifying your choice, along with the reasons why you reject the other three.

1. Zeus
2. Quetzalcoatl
3. Vishnu
4. The Holy Trinity


(*Note: Choice D assumes you were born around 400 A.D. or later, after the invention of the Trinity)

7-You are the Creator of the universe. Your chosen people are a tribe of nomadic herdsmen, presently in bondage on one of the millions of your planets. Their ruler is being quite obstinate. Keeping in mind that you possess not only infinite power but also infinite love, your best course of action would be to:

1. Cause the ruler to drop dead of a heart attack
2. Cause the ruler to fall off a cliff
3. Visit the ruler in a dream and persuade him to let your people go
4. Slaughter a great number of innocent babies who had nothing to do with the ruler's policies

My quess would be that the writer of this is an atheist, heh heh. Check out the rest of the exam via the link.

Faith Based Programs

Obama seems to be slipping down my quality scale almost daily. And he's not doing it in little ways, every policy flip he now makes is a huge one. The latest bitter disappointment is that he wants to continue giving government money to religious charities. Here's the article from Huffington's Post:

CHICAGO — Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans to expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and _ in a move sure to cause controversy _ support some ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Obama was unveiling his approach to getting religious charities more involved in government anti-poverty programs during a tour and remarks Tuesday in Zanesville, Ohio, at Eastside Community Ministry, which provides food, clothes, youth ministry and other services.

"The challenges we face today ... are simply too big for government to solve alone," Obama was to say, according to a prepared text of his remarks obtained by The Associated Press. "We need all hands on deck."

So let's recap, shall we? So far Obama has reversed himself on protecting the Bill of Rights, changing NAFTA (he thinks it's pretty good now), taxing the rich (says he might not do that right away), is for the death penalty and doesn't even need murder to be one of the requirements, and now he trashes the wall of separation between church and state. It's beginning to look like Obama will serve Bush's third term just as well as McCain. Obusha? I'd break out Photoshop and drop Bush's features on Obama's head but that would be way too scary.

It seems like the best we can hope for from Obama is that he will not be as bad as McCain, and that's looking pretty iffy right now, or that his first positions on these things were his real ones and THIS is the time he's lying.

Special thanks to vjack at Atheist Revolution for the link to the Huffington's post article.