Believers

I have a slightly askew relationship with the "organized atheism" movement, not so much ideologically but tactically - I think some facets of the movement can be a little petty and mean-spirited sometimes (re: the "you know it's a myth" billboards that amount to a neener-neener against various faiths during their holidays); and I'm unable to subscribe to the tenet that "All religions are bad." Sorry, I can't go there - they're all a little silly, conceptually, sure... but not only are most self-identified persons of faith either decent or at least harmless; the vast majority of the world's hundreds of thousands of organized-religions are fairly benign.

That having been said, I'm fairly comfortable in my infrequent calculation that while not ALL religions are bad... between three and four of them (the religions) ARE bad - or, at the very least are a net-negative influence on the modern world as a whole to a degree that is not offset by whatever good is done by individual adherents. And this kind of shit is WHY...



That's Pastor Sean Harris, rather explicitly suggesting that parents should - upon witnessing their children behaving in homosexual and/or gender-non-normative ways - essentially beat the behavior out of them. Charming.

He has, of course, offered a toothless apology on his blog.

There are two kinds of people in the world: Thinkers and Believers. This fellow, and the cheering/clapping ignoramouses hanging on his every word, are Believers; and that designation has NOTHING to do with their being religious and EVERYTHING to do with the words coming out of his mouth.

Oh, and have you heard? Activision has hired right-wing folk hero Col. Oliver North - convicted (later overturned on appeal) in the Iran-Contra Affair - to do commercials shilling next "Call of Duty" video-game.

Yeah, things are goin' swell...