Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1856

God Leaves an Impression: Louisiana Man Wanders Through Nature, Finds Uncanny Sign From Above

The Almighty rewarded a devout Louisiana surveyor with a glimpse of a heavenly creature, an encounter that gave the man goosebumps and a spot on the nightly news.

When Randy Marks went to work Wednesday morning, he never dreamed he would have a close encounter with what he calls “someone from above saying, ‘Hello.’” … What he saw was a fossil. Marks has found hundreds in his career, but this one was different.

“As I picked it up and I saw it, to me, it looked like an angel. Actually, a bald-headed angel.”

Heaven’s wig shop was evidently back-ordered when God took the angel’s imprint and placed it in a riverbed for Randy Marks to find.

Molded into a rock left here by the receding waters of the Amite is a small hollow spot. A face seems to smile back from a rough spot in the bowl. Ridges trailing from the face seem to outline a flowing gown and shot wings seem to encircle the face.

Marks admitted that sane people may look at his rock and see it for what it is: a strange fossil from a riverbed

No, sorry, transcription error – some people, not sane. My bad.

But in his heart, Marks likes to think it is something more.

I get that. Me, in my heart, I like to think that Angelina Jolie secretly fantasizes about me when she gets jiggy with Brad.

“I think it’s just something as simple as God letting us know he’s out there. He’s with us all the time. That’s what I think,” Marks stated.

And thinking is clearly what Randy Marks does best.

Other examples of Christian pareidolia here, here, here, and here.

The Woman Who “Audited” an Evolution Exhibit Just Did the Same Thing with the Brookfield Zoo

Megan Fox — the one who gives the other Megan Fox a bad name — has done another “audit” of something she knows very little about. What really makes this whole series *pop* is how she’s so fully convinced she’s uncovering a conspiracy when she actually just showcasing her own ignorance. There’s a Sarah Palin-esque attitude she has that screams: If I don’t get it, it must be wrong.

So enjoy Megan Fox’s visit to the Brookfield Zoo:

Spoiler: In the first 30 seconds — since that’s about as much as most of you will be able to stomach — she complains about a water exhibit because “what does that have to do with the zoo?” Quick answer: The availability of clean water everywhere requires conserving and protecting the environment. Which is something zoos have a vested interest in…

Of course, she could have learned that by turning around and reading the goddamn signs right behind her.

And this is only Part 1, people.

Remember: You can counter her ignorance by chipping in to our fundraiser to benefit the library Fox has been hounding for more than a year. Because, to her, public libraries are also part of a vast left-wing conspiracy.

(Thanks to Andi for the link)

Atheist Billboards in Tennessee Say: “Dear Christians, I Share My Toys. Why Won’t You Share the Season?”

The billboard wars are on in Tennessee.

First, American Atheists put up this controversial holiday billboard in several religious cities around the country, including Memphis:

Eric Hart, a Christian in the area, decided to respond with a sign of his own. So he did some online fundraising and ended up with the following digital ad, which has all the design finesse of a Christmas sweater:

Dear Santa, All I want is to keep Christmas sacred and celebrate with being bullied. With Respect To All

I know, I know. I shouldn’t be complaining about someone else’s graphic design when atheist billboards get mocked repeatedly for that reason. I should also note that I’ve seen two different versions of that Christian billboard with the same message, but this is the one that looked more professional, so I’m assuming it’s the one they went with.

But let’s talk about that message for a second. No one’s stopping him from keeping Christmas “sacred” if that’s what he chooses to do. And if you consider a billboard message bullying, then your tolerance for criticism is way too low.

Hart also added in his fundraising note:

[The atheists] are entitled to believe what they want but using children for their Godless message is pretty low.

Cherish our beloved CHRISTmas holiday with your loved ones and without any regret or second guessing. Even take the opportunity to explore the questions our Atheist friends propose and find the answers that will surely deepen your faith.

The moment Christians stop using children in their own marketing campaigns, we can have that discussion. Until then, it’s an irrelevant concern to me.

American Atheists, never backing down from a challenge, has responded to Hart’s sign by putting up another two billboards in Tennessee (using the same girl as in the first ad, just to rub it in):

American Atheists posted new billboards in Memphis and Nashville on Friday that read “Dear Christians, I share my toys. Why won’t you share the season? Happy Holidays for all!”

…

“The hypocrisy is unbelievable,” said American Atheists President David Silverman. “Millions of American children are forced to go to church under the threat of being denied meals, losing household privileges, having their college tuition cut off, or being kicked out of their homes. Many atheist adults are forced to go to church under threat of divorce or lose custody of their children. We must ask the question, who are the real bullies? Those who are unafraid to stand up for our views on billboards, or those who destroy families from the inside out?”

Strong words, but they’re true in some cases. One man’s sacred cow is another man’s albatross.

Your move, Hart.

A Love Song for Science

This video by AsapSCIENCE is adorable. And nerdy. And educational. And awesome. But mostly awesome.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Michigan House Passes Bill That Will Allow Discrimination If It Conflicts With Your Religious Beliefs

Yesterday, the Michigan House passed a version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that would essentially allow people to get away with discrimination if it conflicts with their religious beliefs. (A similar bill was vetoed earlier this year in Arizona by Governor Jan Brewer.)

Rep. Vicki Barnett, D-Farmington Hills, said the legislation could create a new right for service providers to discriminate against people who don’t adhere to their religious beliefs. She cited a scenario in which a pharmacist could refuse to dispense drugs to an individual who’s personal decisions don’t match the teachings of their faith.

“I should not be forced to follow the religion of my pharmacist,” Barnett said.

…

Susan Grettenberger, a Central Michigan University professor and social worker, said the religious freedom bill could have seriously harmful consequences, giving an example of a social worker who refused to counsel people based on religious beliefs that didn’t support homosexuality.

“Social workers who are opposed to war on religious ground could refuse to serve military members,” she said. “If their religion excludes the use of alcohol, they could refuse a client with substance abuse problems.”

…

Barnett and other Democrats said the bill would create legal conflicts with the state’s anti-discrimination law and spawn a rash of new lawsuits.

“That’s something I would concede that we simply cannot control,” said Rep. Kevin Cotter, R-Mount Pleasant.

House Bill 5958 passed 59-50 along party lines. Now, it’ll go to the Republican-led Senate and the Republican Governor. I wonder what’ll happen…

It’s unnecessary, too, since religious rights are already protected under the current law. But that’s what happened when you elect politicians who believe it’s Christians who have it roughest in society. Because the people who need the most protection are bakers who might have to make a cake for a gay wedding, not the gay people.

I’m sure the legislature’s next bill will finally give wealthy people the government benefits they need to stay afloat in this economy.

(Thanks to everyone for the link)

After Trying to Convert Young Children During Their Lunch Periods, Michigan Pastor Suspended by District Officials

Pastor Russ Gabel has a weird way of winning over converts in Grand Haven, Michigan: He just goes to local middle schools (with permission from the administrators) and lures the children into a classroom with candy in order to tell them all about Jesus:

Gabel brags about his experiences on Facebook, too:

It’s just… creepy. To top it off, the whole thing happens without notifying parents. And it’s illegal.

The Michigan Association of Civil Rights Activists (MACRA) says this:

The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly ruled that public school teachers and administrators are expressly forbidden from allowing or in any way facilitating or accommodating religious activities, such as “evangelizing” or “proselytizing” to public students by clergy or other adults, at any time during school hours, including during lunch periods.

To that end, they sent letters to the superintendents of two districts where Gabel frequents:

In separate letters to superintendents Keith Konarska and Bob Szymoniak, MACRA has demanded the immediate removal of Pastor Russ Gabel and his “Freewater Clubs” and/or “Lunchroom Ministries” from all public schools under the authority of the Grand Haven Area Public Schools and Fruitport Community Schools.

Yesterday, they announced some good news; the superintendents will put a stop to Gabel’s proselytizing:

This just in from the Superintendent of Grand Haven Area Public Schools: “… the District will immediately suspend any permission for Mr. Gabel’s Freewater Experience club to continue the alleged use at issue of school facilities during school hours.”

…

The Superintendent of Fruitport Community Schools has also agreed to suspend Pastor Gabel and Freewater Experience from activities in public schools.

So far, Gabel hasn’t issued any sort of public response.

But I’m glad he won’t be able to coerce any more children into his meetings. The amount of peer pressure those kids are already dealing with is remarkable, and for a religious leader to walk in there to try and get a few more Jesus-approved tally marks for the church walls is completely out-of-bounds.

This wouldn’t even be an issue if we were talking about a local Muslim, or atheist, or Satanic leader. They probably wouldn’t have been allowed into the schools in the first place. And the same rules must apply to Christians.

(Thanks to Julie for the link)

Texas School District Allows Bible Giveaways After School, but Will They Allow Muslim or Satanist Distributions?

The Cleveland Independent School District in Texas is allowing outside groups to hand out bibles to students after school… (pretty similar to what we saw in Florida) leading the local Fox affiliate to ask if this is okay.

Turns out all the parents they asked are totally fine with it. But one legal expert offered the proper answer:

“The courts have ruled students handing out religious material to other students is ok. But Cleveland [ISD] is now expanding that law and saying that another religious group can hand out material that’s not the way the court has ruled,” Fox Legal Expert Chris Tritico said.

Tritico says what’s going on in Cleveland is a stretch and a flat out violation of separation of church and state.

“Now a real test of that is when a Muslim group shows up in Cleveland and says we want to pass out the Koran what are they going to say then?” Tritico asks.

Hey, Satanic Temple, there’s a school district in Texas that could use some coloring books. What do you say?!

(Thanks to Brian for the link)

Texas Prosecutors Are Itching to Execute a God-Besotted Schizophrenic Inmate; Appeals Court Grants Reprieve

On Wednesday, less than eight hours before Texas inmate Scott Panetti was to die by lethal injection, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals granted him a reprieve. Panetti is on death row for killing his estranged wife’s parents in 1992.

His lawyers argued that he was too mentally ill to qualify for capital punishment, and they sought the delay so Panetti could undergo new competency tests. They noted that he acted as his own attorney during trial — dressed in a purple cowboy outfit — and tried to subpoena more than 200 witnesses, including the pope and Jesus Christ. …

The Hayward, Wisconsin, native had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1978, and had been hospitalized more than a dozen times for treatment in the decade before the shootings. At his trial, he took on an alternate personality, “Sarge,” to testify.

The article makes mention of Panetti’s religion, but not the prosecutors’. It doesn’t take a great leap of faith to surmise that, like the convict, they’re Christians — perhaps even the pro-life kind.

In any case, they want to put a man with a mental disability to death despite the Supreme Court ruling that says mentally ill people may not be executed if they don’t have a “factual and rational” understanding of why they’re being punished.

As we’ve seen, the line between acceptable religious beliefs and mental illness is not always easy to draw.

Panetti has insisted Satan is working through Texas prison officials to execute him to keep him from preaching the Gospel.

I’ve heard worse.

Panetti’s lawyers said that he hasn’t had a mental-competency evaluation since 2007,

“[W]e believe that today’s ruling is the first step in a process which will clearly demonstrate that Mr. Panetti is too severely mentally ill to be executed.”

In Texas, that can be an impossibly high bar, as the Guardian reminds us with reference to triple murderer Andre Thomas.

Nearly two decades after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the execution of severely mentally ill people, Andre Thomas was placed on Texas death row for killing his estranged wife, his four-year-old son and his one-year-old stepdaughter while carrying out what he believed was an order from God to exorcise their demons.

He cut out his children’s hearts and part of his wife’s lung then tried to stab himself to death. When that failed he put the organs in his pocket and walked home. Reading the Bible in prison a few days later, he came across a passage from Matthew: “If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out.” He gouged out his right eye.

Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he was subsequently treated and deemed fit to stand trial two months later. In court, prosecutors argued that his violent behaviour was explained by drink and drugs while clawing out his eye was simply a moment of madness. In 2005, a jury gave him the death penalty.

In 2008, he pulled out his left eye and ate it,

… blinding himself for good.

The following year, in rejecting an appeal, a judge with the Texas court of criminal appeals wrote: “This is a sad case. [Thomas] is clearly ‘crazy’ but he is also ‘sane’ under Texas law.”

Like Panetti, Thomas is still alive, but not for lack of God-fearing folks in the D.A.’s office and prison system who want to see these admittedly violent mental patients executed sooner rather than later.

Bill Donohue: Atheists Are Unhappy, Die Early, and Are Disproportionately Insane

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League loves to complain about all the persecution people of his faith have to deal with — for example, other people sometimes put up billboards that offer a different persepctive — but he has no problem saying the very things he’s flip out over if the tables were turned.

He just told Newsmax host Steve Malzberg that atheists are clinically insane:

[Atheists] believe that freedom is license to do whatever you want… They don’t want to be told anything, which is why they die prematurely, they’re unhappy. That’s why we have a disproportionate number of agnostics and atheists in the asylum. All of this is true.

…

["Secularists" have] got to work it out… I’ll help pay for their therapy. Just keep your hands, your mitts, off the Catholics during Christmas.

Donohue added that he was only talking about the “militant” atheists… like the folks at American Atheists who behead Christians put up billboards.

He also complained about how AA’s conference is on Good Friday (and Easter), as if that’s a sign that they hate Christians.

He never considers the possibility that hotels tend to be available for conferences on holiday weekends… and atheists are probably free to travel since they don’t have to go to church.

This is the same guy who once compared atheists to neo-Nazis and Klan members.

But let’s get to the heart of his statements.

Are atheists actually less happy? In some cases, like on Twitter, yes.

Are atheists more likely to die young? In some studies, yes.

Are atheists disproportionately insane? Not really. He’s probably taking out of context research that suggests religious people have better mental health.

In all of these cases, though, Donohue purposely ignores the elephant in the room: None of these things happen because people are atheists. It has everything to do with the social aspects of it.

Atheism correlates with all those awful things because religious people tend to have things like stronger communities and more hope (albeit false hope) and people to turn to when they’re depressed. Atheists have to essentially fend for themselves or create alternatives that are nowhere near the scope or size of what religions provide.

Similarly, when atheists speak about their beliefs publicly, it’s usually in response to events that make us upset or angry — so we come off as more defensive (i.e. unhappy). Christians, on the other hand, tend to talk about their relationship with God when they’re writing blog posts or books. (These are huge generalizations, of course, but you get the idea.)

So back to the point: Donohue is doing what he does best: Lying to make himself look better. He takes general pieces of information, siphons off all the necessary nuance, and pretends that the evidence suggests atheists are inherently immoral, unhappy, and insane.

And Steve Malzberg, instead of pushing back, just irresponsibly laughed it off.

Austin City Council Candidate Says Her Atheist Opponent is Ineligible to Hold Public Office

A couple of days ago, I posted about a runoff race for the Austin City Council in Texas. Normally, it’d be off my radar, but candidate Laura Pressley had posted a graphic on her website explaining the differences between her and her opponent Gregorio Casar. She implied that his atheism was a problem:

Except he’s not an atheist. He’s a self-described Catholic.

More importantly, why would it make a difference even if he were an atheist?

Pressley never apologized for making that unnecessary distinction. Instead, she told the Austin American-Statesman his atheism disqualified him from hold public office:

Pressley pointed to a section of the Texas Constitution’s Bill of Rights that says there are no religious qualifications for holding public office, provided that the official “acknowledge the existence of a Supreme Being.”

You would think someone running for public office would know that such a provision is completely unenforceable.

In response to all this, Casar took the high road, proving once again that he’s the more mature candidate for the city:

“I don’t feel like having a debate with Laura about either of our religious beliefs,” Casar said. “It’s not a relevant part of the discussion about what qualifies someone to be a City Council member.”

(Thanks to Brian for the link)