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This article from Al Jazeera is yet another exemplar of how societies, if they wish to have freedom and human rights as key features, must steer away from theocracy and toward rational, secular rule.
Religion: Persecuting and possibly executing human rights activists.
Shiva Nazar-Ahari charged with “warring against God” and having links to opposition groups as trial opens in Tehran.
A court in Tehran, the Iranian capital, has tried a female human rights activist and journalist on charges including “warring against God,” which has the potential punishment of death.
Shiva Nazar-Ahari, 26, went on trial on Saturday “on charges of Moharebeh [warring against God], conspiring and gathering to commit a crime, propaganda against the regime and harming public order,” Mohammad Sharif, her lawyer, said.
How lovely; and sadly, unsurprising as the corrosive effects of religion are clearly on display for the world to see. Where religion is a dominant force we can simply toss away rational thought and belief in reality. You can be put to death for creating war on fictive characters that most likely do not exist.
Consider, if god is omnipotent, does he really need to be defended by mere mortals? I would think that if he existed he could deal quite succinctly with anyone that brought war to his house. However, in context of a human based and perpetuated theocracy that will actually kill people who dare to question its bullshite beliefs the reasons are evident. Persecuting people for calling the deluded on their fatuous nonsense becomes a useful method for dealing with dissent and rational objections to state endorsed mythology.
“But the story here is not about a trial or seeking to get to the bottom of a crime. It is about trying to created a narrative that the authorities would like to portrary about justifying the continued clampdown that we are seeing in this country.
A sham trial that is propping up a vapid theocracy, nothing new here. Expect more to come soon as Tehran roots out more people who dare to make war on imaginary beings.
*Update: The situation is not improving.
Can religion get any more insipidly weird? Apparently the answer is yes.
DIGHTON —
“Phone calls from God still had some children in awe Thursday morning at St. Nicholas of Myra vacation bible school.
“He told me to fish for people,” 8-year-old Noelle Nunes said, “and tell everyone about him.”
“He told me to follow in his footsteps,” 7-year-old Jack Dubois said. “The phone call really surprised me. He didn’t say an awful lot, he just told me to follow him.”
Every child participating in this program received a call from God Wednesday as they took part in games, music and crafts all this week at the church’s vacation bible school.
Impersonating god is a no-no according the christian magic book of choice, but hey if it reinforces the tragic brainwashing endured by children it must be good.
I’m just waiting till someone tries to rig a talking burning bush – Hilarity, I promise, would ensue.
Phone calls from and singing with god!
I am going to use the discussion points found on RichardDawkins.net as the basis of this feature.
Calilasseia is the author of the post and deserves many rich accolades for assembling so much useful information in one spot. This constitutes an open thread of sorts, please leave your opinions and observations in the comment section.
[16] The “evolution is a belief” nonsense.
At this point, it should be sufficient for me to point to [2], [4] and [6] above, and tell those entertaining this fatuous idea to go and learn something. However, I suspect that the attention span of the typical creationist is such that a reminder is needed at this point. And that reminder is now forthcoming.
When scientists provide hard evidence supporting their postulates, in the form of direct empirical tests of the validity of those postulates, “belief” is superfluous to requirements and irrelevant. This has happened time and time and time again in evolutionary biology, and once more, if you can’t be bothered to read the actual scientific papers in question in order to learn this, then you are in no position to critique a theory that has been subject to more thorough critical scrutiny than you can even imagine is possible. Oh, and as an indication of the size of the task ahead of you, if you think you’re hard enough to dismiss the scientific evidence on a case by case basis, you have over a million scientific papers to peruse that have been published in the past 150 years. Be advised that tossing one paper into the bin isn’t enough, you have to toss ALL of them into the bin. Good luck on that one.
Just in case this hasn’t registered here, the critical thinkers regard belief itself as intellectually invalid. If you have to ask why, then again, you are in need of an education, and badly.
As a corollary of the above, I now turn my attention to:
[17] “You only believe in evolution because you hate god”.
Anyone posting this particular piece of drivel, and make no mistake, it IS drivel, is quite frankly beneath deserving of a point of view. Erectors of this sub-amoeboid, cretinous, verminous, pestilential and thoroughly decerebrate cortical faeces are not considered to be worth the small amount of effort required to treat them with utter disdain, let alone the greater effort required to subject them to actual contempt.
Aside from the fact that I have dealt with the “belief” bullshit in [16] above, and aside from the fact that I’ve dealt with the complete failure of supernaturalists to provide any evidence for their pet magic man back in [1] above (yes, you need a proper attention span if you’re going to engage in debate here), and as a corollary of this latter point, we’d like to know how one can “hate” an entity whose very existence has only ever been supported by vacuous apologetics instead of genuine evidence, this particular favourite meme of creationists is singularly retarded because it misses the whole point by several thousand light years. Allow me to remind you all once again, first that the critical thinkers do not regard “belief” as intellectually valid full stop, and that the critical thinkers accept the validity of evolution because REALITY supports it. THAT is what counts here, because it is what counts in professional scientific circles. You can whinge, moan, bitch and bleat all you like with respect to this moronic canard, but be advised that people who paid attention in classes at school regard this canard as one of the most utterly spastic pieces of apologetics in existence, and given the fulminating level of stupidity that has emanated from apologetics over the years, this makes the above canard rather special.
While we’re at it, let’s deal with one polemical argument that was presented to me recently, and one which is again entirely specious. Namely, the argument that evolutionary theory was erected “to kill off the idea of a creator”. Er, no it wasn’t. Anyone who follows the actual history of the development of evolutionary theory will know that it was erected to provide an explanation for observed biodiversity, and to provide an explanation for observed dynamic change in populations of living organisms. I know that creationists love to erect specious doctrine-centred arguments such as this (which dovetails with the doctrine-centred thinking and specious apologetics covered in [15] above), but such specious doctrine-centred arguments are, not to put too fine a point on it, blatant lies. Just because creationists can’t accept that someone might alight upon a view of the world that doesn’t rely upon doctrinal presuppositions doesn’t mean that such a view cannot exist. But then, the entire creationist argument consists of asserting that the world conforms to their ignorant wishful thinking, so it’s no surprise that they adopt the same view with respect to the development of scientific theories. So, if you erect any of the “you hate god” or other specious polemical pseudo-arguments here, be prepared to endure much mockery for doing so, especially if you do so after being directed here and told to learn from this.
The infidels are swarming in the middle east. Measures must be taken to combat this outbreak of critical thought and rationality. Fortunately brothers (any sisters present get out now, double shame if you’re not barefoot and burqa’d) action is being taken.
“CAIRO – Egypt’s most prominent democracy advocate accused President Hosni Mubarak’s government Saturday of posting Facebook photos of his daughter in swimsuits and at events where alcohol was served in an attempt to discredit him.
Keep your eyes on this 'atheist'!
Mohammed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former U.N. nuclear chief, was quoted in the independent Al-Dustour newspaper as saying the government is “waging a campaign of sheer lies” by using the photos to portray him and his family as nonbelievers — a politically damaging accusation in an increasingly conservative Muslim country.
We have the infidels, women in public with bathing suits and even a greater sin, dare I say it? Alcohol. Warm up your stoning arms people.
“The more than 30 photos were posted under the title: “Secrets of 
the ElBaradei family.” Some show his daughter in swimsuits at the beach and sitting at events in front of what appeared to be bottles of alcohol. Drinking is forbidden in Islam and conservative Muslims would generally consider a woman appearing publicly in a bathing suit to be immodest.”
The scandal. It is shocking. Truly shocking.
“ElBaradei has drawn the government’s anger with a campaign he started early this year boldly calling for electoral reform and constitutional amendments that would allow a credible candidate to challenge the ruling party in next year’s presidential election.
Respected internationally and untouched by the corruption tainting much of Egypt’s regime, ElBaradei brought together a coalition of young activists and opposition groups to push for change.”
Yes! We shall smear this activist for opposing our regime. There may be a few rotten apples in the barrel of the Egyptian government, overall we are a transparent, open democracy.
“The Facebook site also says his daughter is married to a Christian and shows an image of what it purports is her real profile from the social networking site listing her religious status as agnostic.
The Facebook site also accuses ElBaradei himself of being an atheist and of seeking to deceive Egyptians by touring mosques and being photographed praying.”
The forces of freedom in action.
We saved the best for last a double hit! ElBaradei’s daughter is married to a Christian and ElBaradei himself is an atheist!
Checkmate brothers! We have ferreted out this unbeliever in our midst, he claims he wants responsible government by the people, but we have exposed him. He wants to take our gods away and we all know the sinful immorality that will follow once that happens.
Never fear though brothers we shall keep reason safely at arms length! Allah Ackbar!
The links between the Tea Party and scripture were hazy and undefined. Mr.Current does a wonderful job of illuminating the connections and bringing enlightenment to all.
I am going to use the discussion points found on RichardDawkins.net as the basis of this feature.
Calilasseia is the author of the post and deserves many rich accolades for assembling so much useful information in one spot. This constitutes an open thread of sorts, please leave your opinions and observations in the comment section.
Enjoy!
[11] The tiresome conflation of evolutionary theory with abiogenesis (with Big Bang side salad).
A favourite one, this, among the creationists who come here. Which always results in the critical thinkers going into petunias mode (read Douglas Adams in order to understand that reference). Since so many creationists are woefully ill-educated in this area, I shall now correct that deficit in their learning.
Evolutionary theory is a theory arising from biology, and its remit consists of explaining the observed diversity of the biosphere once living organisms exist. The origin of life is a separate question, and one which is covered by the theory of naturalistic abiogenesis, which is a theory arising from a different scientific discipline, namely organic chemistry. Learn this distinction before posting, otherwise you will simply be regarded as ignorant and ill-educated.
While we’re at it, evolutionary theory does not consider questions about the origin of Planet Earth itself, nor does it consider questions about the origin of the universe. The first of these questions is covered by planetary accretion theory, the second by cosmology, both of which arise from physics. As a consequence of learning this, if you subsequently erect the tiresome conflation of evolutionary theory with the Big Bang or the origin of the Earth, be prepared to be laughed at.
I am going to use the discussion points found on RichardDawkins.net as the basis of this feature.
Calilasseia is the author of the post and deserves many rich accolades for assembling so much useful information in one spot. This constitutes an open thread of sorts, please leave your opinions and observations in the comment section.
Enjoy!
[10] Specious and asinine creationist “probability” calculations.
I’ve already dealt at length with this in this thread. Don’t bother posting copy-paste bullshit from Stephen Meyer or other creationist blowhards from the Discovery Institute or AiG with respect to this, because what they have disseminated IS bullshit. So-called “probability” calculations erected by creationists are based upon assumptions that are either [1] never stated so as to avoid having their validity subject to critical scrutiny, or [2] when those assumptions are stated, they are found to be based upon well known fallacies. The link above addresses two of those fallacies in some detail, namely the serial trials fallacy and the “one true sequence” fallacy. If you post bullshit about “probability” supposedly “refuting” evolution or abiogenesis, virtually all of which arises from the same tired, previously debunked sources, then you will simply be setting yourself up as a target for well deserved ridicule.
[11] The tiresome conflation of evolutionary theory with abiogenesis (with Big Bang side salad).
A favourite one, this, among the creationists who come here. Which always results in the critical thinkers going into petunias mode (read Douglas Adams in order to understand that reference). Since so many creationists are woefully ill-educated in this area, I shall now correct that deficit in their learning.
Evolutionary theory is a theory arising from biology, and its remit consists of explaining the observed diversity of the biosphere once living organisms exist. The origin of life is a separate question, and one which is covered by the theory of naturalistic abiogenesis, which is a theory arising from a different scientific discipline, namely organic chemistry. Learn this distinction before posting, otherwise you will simply be regarded as ignorant and ill-educated.
While we’re at it, evolutionary theory does not consider questions about the origin of Planet Earth itself, nor does it consider questions about the origin of the universe. The first of these questions is covered by planetary accretion theory, the second by cosmology, both of which arise from physics. As a consequence of learning this, if you subsequently erect the tiresome conflation of evolutionary theory with the Big Bang or the origin of the Earth, be prepared to be laughed at.
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