I LOVE South Park! It is, in my humble opinion, high art.Last night they completely riffed on Scientology, but they also put Tom Cruise in a closet for most of the show — I don’t know what that was about In the past they got the Mormons, Christians, Jews, and yes, even us Atheists. All in good fun. Of course, that’s what it’s all about!

http://www.news10.net/storyfull.asp?id=14267Here’s a great example of patriotism incarnate. In God we Trust, is, by almost anyone’s standards, a lie. Whatever they think about God, most will will admit that you don’t HAVE to be a believer to be a citizen (except Bush I). Isn’t absurd that our national motto is an incorrect statement? Isn’t it odd that the ‘most religiously-free’ nation is the only nation with a religious requirement in the national motto?

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=4102028&nav=23iiI’m still waiting for Orlando to be destroyed because disney allows gay partnership benefits. Now, Lord Robertson decrees that the intelligent people who have turned away ALL the ID-ers in Dover are Anti-God. And we still need to murder that guy in Venezuela!

What a great time we had at the rally! There were only about 200 or so that showed up, but there were several groups represented. Special thanks to the local Girl Scouts who handed out “Hero Chocolate” to all our veterans!I’ll be posting some news articles here if I get any. Please do so yourself if you see them. Start making plans now for Easter in San Antonio!http://www.townhall.com/news/ext_wire.html?rowid=32731

I’m off to the Atheist Foxhole event! Next post on Sunday. Hope to see SOME of you there! In the mean time, check out www.atheistfoxholes.org for information and (hopefully) pictures!

TOPEKA, Kan. (Nov. – Risking the kind of nationwide ridicule it faced six years ago, the Kansas Board of Education approved new public-school science standards Tuesday that cast doubt on the theory of evolution.The 6-4 vote was a victory for “intelligent design” advocates who helped draft the standards. Intelligent design holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power.Critics of the new language charged that it was an attempt to inject God and creationism into public schools in violation of the separation of church and state.

I had two debates on Monday a private Christian school in Connecticut on the subject of Intelligent Design. Their thought and arguments were the standard stuff, and I combatted with the standard stuff….Until the children started asking questions. “What exactly IS evolution?” “Did we really evolve from monkeys”? “Evolution is foreign to me — how does it work?” I realized that these kids, who were SUPPOSED to “hear both sides and make a choice”, weren’t hearing one side at all. These seniors knew less about standard scientific theory than my 8-year-old daughter, which IMO is sure to give them a disadvantage in college.HERE’S SOME GOOD NEWS: Dover ID’ers booted out by smart citizens!http://thequestionableauthority.blogspot.com/2005/11/clean-sweep-in-dover.html

VOTE!!!

Dave Silverman, Communications Director for American Atheists, will be the guest tomorrow (Tuesday, November 8, 2005) on the MSNBC public affairs program “Connected Coast to Coast” with Ron Reagan and Monica Crowley. Dave will be discussing the role of religious belief in the selection of justices to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States, and the prospect of a “Catholic dominated” court. Would such a court take up and overturn cases dealing with abortion right (ROE v. WADE), civil liberties, and First Amendment issues like vouchers, school prayer and “special rights” for religious groups? (see Washington Post article at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/06/AR2005110601134.html Does religious belief and affiliation matter? Dave will be discussing this controversial topic with Ray Flynn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican. Tune in to MSNBC tomorrow, Tuesday November 8, 2005 between 12:00 noon and 1:00 PM ET. WHO & WHAT: Dave Silverman, Communications Director for American Atheists discussing religious belief and the battle for the Supreme Court.

I wanted to make a thread just for the violence spreading through Paris. I hope they can get this calmed down before there are any more deaths.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051107/ap_on_re_eu/france_rioting_127;_ylt=AprLDTehcJ12S5v6CRvQJqngelIB;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

While flipping channels, I came on DateLine NBC, which I rarely watch. This episode was on Internet predators, and being a Dad I allowed myself to watch as would-be pedophiles got caught on tape. One of the alleged offenders was a Rabbi out of Texas, who pleaded that his episode not be aired. Not only did they air it, they mentioned two of his other rabbi acquaintances had also been implicated.OK, so I decided to write about this great show that nailed an (alleged) child rapist to a wall, when they showed the scenes from next week’s show: The life of Jesus. Topics to be discussed include how old was Mary when she gave birth, how revolutionary were Jesus’ teachings?This entire show has a given premise that Christianity is true — A “news” show taking for granted that mythology is real. Then it occurred to me that this is the same show that put explosives under a truck a while back and claimed the trucks were unsafe.Now I have to wonder just how accurate their report about the pedophiles was. Now I have to wonder if they approached the story with the same presupposition used for Jesus. Did they make the Rabbi look more guilty than he was? Do I respect an episode of a show I generally disrespect just because I liked watching a man of God grovel for his right to rape kids? I’m afraid that would be hypocritical — now that DL has reminded me of what kind of show they are, I need to wonder how guilty that Rabbi really is, and how much of what I saw was explosives under the truck.