Dawkins/Pell on Q&A

It’s about to be a long weekend of triumphant atheism in Australia, and Richard Dawkins set things up by sacrificing that idiot, George Pell, on the altar of reason. The whole debate is now online.

I was really unimpressed with most of the audience’s questions, and even less impressed with Pell. Pell threw in Atheist Hitler at about 11 minutes in, and some smug audience member exhibited his confusion about atheism and agnosticism at 14 minutes. Also, the guy at 21 minutes with a video embarrassed all Australians, I think.

It’s a good warmup for the rest of the week, though.

It was also a warmup for Richard: here he is the next morning on the radio.

Let’s do another Blaze poll!

That last poll at the Blaze was such a one-sided stomping — we inverted the results, from 8% pro-atheist to 92% — so let’s do it again.

Did Jesus Christ Really Exist?

Absolutely, but he wasn’t God’s son. 10.17%

Yes, and He was the Son of God. 69.89%

No way. 17.66%

I’m in the middle on this one. 2.3%

We might have a split vote on this one, but the least we can do is smash the currently leading option.

A good suggestion: since The Blaze likes to block particular referrers, go straight to the poll.

How it’s done

I’m not against diplomacy; I don’t think you need to beat up the religious; I like nice people who represent atheism and humanism. What I can’t stand are the simpering suckups who give away the store in the name of getting along.

If you want to see how it’s done right, watch Andrew Copson, the British humanist. He’s all friendly and understanding, offering helpful, reasonable explanations, without budging an inch on principle. Can we have more American humanists like that?

In defense of John Derbyshire

You may have heard that John Derbyshire, troll-like conservative creature lurking on the National Review, has been fired for an awesomely racist article, full of overt, unashamed, joyful bigotry.

They shouldn’t have.

Derbyshire is a racist, misogynistic hack who has been saying this stuff for years. It’s a non-story, something that everyone with any sense has been pointing out for years: for instance, I’ve talked about how Derbyshire claimed Obama will destroy science because he is black, and science would expose him as genetically inferior. This is the guy who thinks women shouldn’t be allowed to vote and wants to repeal the civil rights act. He’s a nasty piece of work.

But he shouldn’t have been fired. He’s just been saying what the right wing has been thinking all along. And he’s been saying it for at least the last 10 years (which is about how long I’ve been aware of him), and no one on the right has been complaining about him. If his unashamed haunting of the cesspools of racism didn’t get him fired, why now? And if the wingnuts are just now getting around to cleaning house, can we expect Jonah Goldberg, Victor Davis Hanson, and Michelle Malkin to get the axe next? I mean, Derbyshire just whined about avoiding those black folks; Malkin has written a whole book advocating racist internment camps.

Besides, if Republicans start draining the racist swamp of their electorate, they won’t have anyone to vote for them ever again.

I get email

Man, you guys don’t even know what shrill and militant means. I get some doozies in my mailbox.

Two days ago, on the Saturday prior to Easter, I attended a Memorial Service for a fine young man who died tragically. In attendance were his family and friends, many of whom spoke of his deep love for people, his zest for life, and his profound spiritual and intellectual curiosity. Afterwards hundreds of people gathered at the family home, consoling each other with stories about their beloved friend. As I watched them drinking and smoking their grief away, I thought of those Masters of Intellectual Malice, the college professors who teach these young people that their lives are purposeless and meaningless, devoid of rhyme or reason, filling them with nihilistic despair. I realized that these Darwinists are the true terrorists threatening our society and our world. For while our “War on Terror” targets those who allegedly threaten our physical safety, the Darwinist Demons, who mock God and demean His creation, fail in their duty to serve as role models for our young people and thus attack the very soul of America and the world that they poison with their fraudulent and misanthropic ideology.

Oh, gosh, caught me. I just checked my syllabus, and he’s right: there’s a section on apoptosis — death and despair. And then there’s the unit on signal transduction cascades, in which I teach them that the only purpose in life is phosphorylation. I probably squeezed something about nihilism into our discussion of genomic integrity, because that’s just the kind of guy I am.

Now what does my correspondent suggest we do about us “terrorists”?

So on Hitler’s Hebrew birthday, let’s all say “Heil God Creator of Heaven and Earth” and “Darwinists Sind Unser Unglück” [Darwinists are our misfortune]. Let’s see our schools, colleges, and universities made “Evolution-Rein”. Let’s implement a “Final Solution” to the Darwinist scourge against God and Humanity. Let’s find spiritual concentration camps to restore our relationship with our Creator God, where we can purify ourselves with God’s Holy Fire of the nihilistic and fatuous doctrines of Darwin, who sought to make his spiritual depression and alienation a universal norm.

Wait, really? The answer is to celebrate Hitler’s birthday on 10 April by implementing a Final Solution against college professors? He’s such a good Christian.

Let’s see all the world’s people set free this Passover and Easter from the Darwinist Pharaohs of deceit, deception, and despair.

Let our Children Go, and let God inside them Grow!

IN JESUS’ NAME, AMEN!

Oh. Letting god grow inside children…must be Catholic.

Poll on whether you’d vote for an atheist

Hoo boy, this is such a familiar story.

Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of revered televangelist the Rev. Billy Graham, appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, where she joined other faith leaders in discussing religious freedom and politics. Among the topics debated and the statements made, Lotz said that she would not vote for an atheist — a statement that will certainly ruffle non-believers’ feathers.

In making the bold claim,

STOP RIGHT THERE!

What “bold claim”? We live in a country that’s something around 70% Christian, in which about half the people reject all of science to believe the earth is 6000 years old, in which almost every elected official bends the knee and praises Jesus every time a camera is aimed at them. There is absolutely nothing brave about going on TV and professing the standard, boring dogma.

Lotz is just another sheep. We don’t praise the courage of sheep for bleating.

Well, they do on the Blaze. Bonus here: the Glenn Beck fan site has a poll.

Would you vote for an atheist?

Absolutely. It’s about policies, not religious beliefs. 8.94%

No way. A belief in God is essential. 87.09%

I’m in the middle on this one. 3.97%

No matter how you vote, expect the Blaze to whine about you atheists voting, and they’ll probably shut the poll down or start changing the numbers. Then we win.

“Undeniable” denies itself; changes name to “Forgettable”

There’s some weird Christian sect that is planning on a counter-demonstration on Sunday in Melbourne. I wrote about it before, it’s called Undeniable, and it was definitely billed as a response to the Global Atheist Convention. Here’s the google cache version of their announcement.

The Global Atheist Convention is coming to Melbourne in less than two weeks. They will be mocking our God. I don’t know about you, but I’m not OK with this!

There comes a point when something has to be done and it needs to be done loud!

Ps Dennis Prince (my dad) has produced a Christian newspaper (The Regal Standard) in response to the Atheist Convention, to glorify God and make him known. So far it has sold 75,000 copies and also received secular newspaper and radio attention.

And then twelve days ago the Lord stirred my heart to put on an event in response to the Global Atheist Convention.

Wait, why google cache? Because they have already wimped out. Blinked. Backed away. Run in fear. After a few atheists noticed their game and laughed, pointed out that their show was after the GAC, and suggested that maybe we’d stroll down by the Undeniable event and do some public denying, they completely rewrote their copy to remove any mention of the GAC.

On Thursday 22nd March 2012, my heart was stirred to put on an event. An event to glorify God, with the message that thousands of Christians know God is real because He has changed their lives. This event will be on Sunday 15th April at 7:30pm at Federation Square (the Main Stage).

Heh. It hasn’t even happened and we’ve already won. The original message also talked about having Christians wear white t-shirts and to give testimonies.

And so I’m boldly asking every man, woman and child from every church and denomination to come to Federation Square on Sunday 15th April. Come wearing a white T-shirt (or top) and bring your glow sticks. We will also have a limited number of printed T-shirts with the words “ASK ME MY STORY.” Our message to the media is that there are thousands of us with a unique story to tell. Our testimonies are evidence that there is a God, because He has changed our lives.

That’s all erased now; somebody had left a comment — “Will be attending & would love to get the T-Shirt you speak of” — which is now dangling on an article that says nothing at all about any t-shirt. I may still stroll by the Square, though.

I’ll be dressed in black.