Here we go again. The hostage standoff in Alabama ended with the 5-year-old hostage safe… and people are calling it “prayers granted.”
Was God the one storming that bunker? No, it was the police. If things had gone horribly wrong, and the hostage had died, would the headlines read, “God denies prayers, kills little boy?” No, they would read “Gunman kills five-year-old.”
It’s a great racket when you always get all of the credit and none of the blame.
A Facebook friend posted a link to this petition on my wall. The entire content of the ‘petition’?
To: US GOVERNMENT
PUT PRAYER BACK INTO SCHOOLS
IF PRAYER IS PUT BACK INTO SCHOOLS KIDS WOULD BE BETTER AND DO BETTER IN SCHOOLS
And, yes, of course it’s in all capitals.
Let’s quickly count some of the problems with this, shall we?
I don’t know why anyone educated on the issue would consider this a good idea, or why anyone would believe I would support it. But as I write this, there are nearly 100,000 signatures on the petition. And, as Ed Brayton likes to point out, some of these people vote.
Look, I’m genuinely thrilled that the Boy Scouts of America are now considering ending their “no gays” policy. It’s long overdue, but it’s a step in the right direction, taking them closer to the Girl Scouts’ policy of equality. But they’re hanging on to their ban on atheists, so I’m still out.
As an Eagle Scout myself, it’s been very painful to me to watch the organization solidify its discriminatory stances over the years. Maybe they’ll eventually wise up on religion as well, but I’m not holding my breath.
I went into a busy few weeks there, with the WFTDA roller derby championships immediately followed by the Denver EDUCAUSE conference, which in turn was immediately followed by a fairly major disaster at my workplace, leading into recovery and mitigation planning, taking us into this holiday week. I’ll probably chill out for a couple more days and then resume shaking my tiny fist at irrationality in the world.
Over at this article on cnn.com, a pastor proclaims his loyalty to Jesus over politicians. In his introduction, he says:
As winners are projected and the electoral map is updated, Christians of many denominations will sing their praises and proclaim their loyalty to Jesus.
It seems ridiculous, even silly.
He’s right, of course, though not in the way he intended.
My GRRRR OBAMA BAD GRRRR Facebook “friend” just posted an image proclaiming, “OBAMA is what happens when ILLEGALS vote! REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER”
That’s… that’s just… they actually believe this garbage? I mean, I know most Americans are innumerate, but…
I generally don’t watch TV, but for various reasons wound up flipping through the DirecTV program guide this morning.
This is verbatim from that guide: “Girls Night Out: Halloween Hotties 2. Every girl loves Halloween cause they get to dress and act like whores! Girls take it all off as they strive to find the perfect slutty costu…”
Wow. And that’s in the 21st century.
I’ve witnessed things similar to this. I just want to give fair notice to all my friends and family that if there’s any overt religious content at my funeral, I intend to defy all reality and haunt your asses.
Current top story headline on cnn.com: “She acts in faith. Who deserves hers?” about a 67-year-old Catholic retiree, waffling over whom to vote for.
Faith can bite my shiny metal ass. This is the future, why the non-existent devil are people still behaving as though it’s a virtue to believe in things that are not only not supported, but actively contradicted, by real reliable reproducible measurements of the world around us?
The other “undecideds” CNN is profiling are “The Millennial”, “The Long-Term Unemployed”, “The Latino”, “The Single Woman”, and “The Evangelical”. So, with “The Catholic”, two different religions are explicitly profiled. Where’s “The Atheist”? Or “The Scientist”? Nobody coming from an explicitly rational perspective.
But we’re talking politics, that’s par for the course.
