Through December 20th, 2011 Audible.com is offering the Dalai Lama’s new book Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World for free!

I haven’t read it yet, but after reading a description I’m excited to see what’s in it.

In his new book "Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World" His Holiness the Dalai Lama argues that religion is not a necessity for pursuing a spiritual life. Rather he proposes a system of secular ethics that transcends religion as a way to recognize our common humanity and so contributes to a global human community based on understanding and mutual respect.

I’ll post a review here once I’m done with it, but I have no doubt that it has some good advice to offer, so don’t hesitate to download it from Audible or get ahold of a physical or e-book version.

After a lengthy, involved battle against esophageal cancer, cultural critic, opinionated journalist, and ardent advocate of atheism, Christopher Hitchens has died.

Vanity Fair has published a report confirming and mourning his death.

His passing will be felt by many and he shall be missed by even more.

“Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.”

- Christopher Hitchens: 1949-2011.

In his newest video, Rick Perry makes up confused lies about Obama’s administration and American jurisprudence while pandering to what can only be described as homophobic bigots as the Christian contingent of his audience.

Right now, this video has 257,247 down votes and only 5,493 up votes.

Not only does Rick Perry make himself a liar; but he also panders to Christians as if they’re ignorant, bigoted cretins. If this is the demographic that he wants to reach—homophobic idiots who don’t care about freedom of religion—I hope he loses his Presidential bid based only on that.

Gays openly serving in the military?

According to Rick Perry: non-ashamed Christians are homophobic, unpatriotic troglodytes.

Children not able to openly pray or celebrate Christmas in school?

Perry, Perry pants on fire.

The same laws that protect religious freedom of students to openly pray in school and celebrate Christmas prohibit public school officials from endorsing religion or leading prayer in schools.

Many who dislike the restriction placed on public school officials (acting as agents of the state) against endorsing religion or leading prayer often dishonestly misrepresent the trials of religious students who get in trouble in school as being it for their religion. For example, a student who disrupts class for opening her Bible and reading out loud during Geography gets sent to the principal for the disruption—not the Bible reading.

A student who gets disciplined for praying non-disruptively during lunch would have a case the ACLU would take against the school for suppressing her right to religious expression. Just like when they faced off against Colorado Springs School District 11 over a student’s right to wear religious symbols.

Rick Perry is complaining about the very underpinnings of what guarantees his right to freedom of religion.

Obama’s War on Religion?

I don’t know what people think has been going on under President Obama’s administration but he’s not really been that big of a friend of the separation of Chruch and State. Obama is also openly Christian and faced criticism for the fundamentalist views of the pastor at his church.

Religion—read: Christianity—has not suffered under Obama’s administration.

A vote for Perry is a vote for shameful bigotry and stupidity

If we want strong leaders in America, perhaps we should look for candidates who don’t insult not only the target of their bigotry but essentially portray their audience as unpleasant, shameful people.

America is already stronger than that.

Notable responses

It’s that time again! Time for Brother Jed, aka George Smock, to appear at Arizona State University. This annual event provides enough hostility for the student body immunity to run on for the next year. It’s much like Black Friday for ASU’s immune system when it comes to “old fashioned values” like misogyny, bigotry, and xenophobia. Although he seems to be wearing rather thin, he continues to grace our campus with his presence and he’s brought one his daughters with him this time.

He stated out today by gathering something of a crowd.

As for the big events today, Brother Jed decided to give a long screed about how Muslims don’t fit in with Christian principles—harmless enough, except for when he started wearing his misogyny on his sleeve and pointed out how, “Muslims obviously have much better ideas about how to control their women…” and cherry-topped it with one of his old-dinosaur routines about his wife. He likes to introduce these sorts of narratives and sometimes pointed phrases designed specifically to raise the hackles in the audience. He will sometimes pepper otherwise non-offensive speeches with elements such as, “Well, the women best remain quiet anyway,” in order to get a rise out of the crowd rather than to make any sort of actual point.

Earlier in the day, not entirely related to Brother Jed, a member of the Resistance who posts on this blog, Gadfly, was approached by a female ASU police officer and told to remove her sign. The sign in question, which read “BUTT SEX 4 JESUS” in black block letters on a neon green background, according to the officer was “too aggravating.”

Gadfly felt disinclined to acquiesce to her request and declined the invitation to remove her sign.

The officer then removed herself, possibly to contact her superiors, and did not return.

In finale to the Brother Jed show for Monday a male person unknown filched Brother Jed’s staff-cum-crucifix (aka Jesus on a stick) and made a swift getaway with it. From the descriptions of onlookers, the young man who stole the stave appeared to be quite fleet of foot and although Brother Jed made pursuit at great speed he did not catch up with him.

I must add that I do not condone this act and would prefer that people leave Brother Jed’s person and property unmolested when he visits our lovely campus. While he does open himself up to criticism and ridicule by using the public forum both of these are fair and proper uses of that forum; accosting Brother Jed and taking his things reflects poorly on all of us.

Whosoever took his crucifix from him, if you read this, please return it.

For those looking to join the crowd that Brother Jed and his generous celebrity forms you can find us in Cady Mall between the hours of 10am and 5pm on ASU campus.

BionicDance of YouTUBE paints a picture of discrimination and misunderstanding about the Park 51 "Islamic Cultural Center Near Ground Zero" and why a great deal of criticism of it falls short of actual enlightened discourse.

Today, the "Burn a Qur’an Day" envisioned–and ultimately cancelled–by Terry Jones has caused an equally stupid counter-reaction in Afghanistan where 10,000 people took part in a protest, that sparked violent riots, against what they perceive as America. I bring this up because during this week, as his event fast approached, he suddenly tried to hitch his horse to the Park 51 debate claiming he meant to do it to make the Sufi Muslims who planned the Park 51 community center to move it.

The Park 51 planners should be under no moral obligation to move anything: mosque, synagogue, church, temple, center for brain-slug worship, whatever.

Now all the Terry Jones’s of the world are being given the line that controls the Muslim world by the very people who spawn these counter-protests. When one troglodyte with a Twitter account and a Facebook page can make people go crazy, riot, and burn things, maybe it’s time for those people who are doing that to sit down and think about who exactly they’ve handed their leash over to–why are they wearing that collar anyway? Terry Jones isn’t the problem, churches and communities pull stunts like his all the time. He’s a troll: you’ve let yourself get trolled.

While religion, politics, lapses in critical thinking and morality certainly took part in the 9-11 event, it is not acceptable to paint every Muslim in the world with it. Just as it’s been a poor show by much of the Muslim world to throw up over everyone else in reaction to the stupid actions of Terry Jones’s congregation of 50 in Florida.

From the CNN article about the protest in Afghanistan, though, it makes me wonder if there weren’t other reasons for the protest and riots. Tens-of-thousands of disenfranchised people in a war-wracked country? Religious barbarism and fervor certainly isn’t even needed to get that to go sideways. Ultimately, the responsibility for their actions—riots, looting, burning their own city—falls squarely on their shoulders for not controlling themselves.

Everybody else. Let Terry Jones and his ilk crawl back into whatever hole he emerged from, I hope he didn’t see his shadow, because I really don’t want any further extension to this season of ignorance.

Rodda reports that Maj. Gen. James E. Chambers has started these religious conversion oriented concerts at both bases where he has been the commanding officer, and that they have continued at For Lee even after his departure, at an appalling cost to taxpayers.

The costs may be small compared to the enormous military budget, but any money spent on promotion of a religion by government agencies is unacceptable, and “Spiritual Fitness” programs in the military cost uncounted millions of dollars per year. Millions of dollars taken from citizens who for the most part are not Evangelical Christians and who would not willingly pay to promote that religion, or to coerce anyone into sitting through repeated and extended attempts to convert them.

The fact that military officers are wasting up to $100,000 per act at each concert with the clear intent of promoting Evangelical Christianity is disturbing enough, but punishing soldiers who choose not to attend these “Spiritual Fitness” events where their commanders support these blatant attempts to convert them to Evangelical Christianity is an unmitigated abuse of the rights granted to every citizen by the constitution of the United States of America.

Lest there be any confusion as to the purpose of these bands and the officials who hired them, an article in the Fort Eustis Wheel quotes one member of the BarlowGirl trio who headlined this particular concert as stating that their group is “on a mission to bring the armor of God to servicemembers”, and they are doing it with your money and with the support of your military commanders.

"Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples," Walker, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Ronald Reagan, wrote in his opinion.

"Race restrictions on marital partners were once common in most states but are now seen as archaic, shameful or even bizarre," he added. "Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals."

The written opinion and decision happen to be filled with numerous responses and reasoning why the Prop 8 supporters have failed to make their legal burden. It seems unlikely that an appeal will save them, unless they’ve actually been holding their best arguments in reserve for no reason.

Other sources with much more insight into the opinion have already begun to chime in. I will be compiling them as they fill in over the next few days.

And: “With a stroke of his pen, Judge Walker has overruled the votes and values of 7 million Californians who voted for marriage as one man and one woman.” If that offensive argument is the best that we can expect on appeal, then Prop 8 is certainly not long for this world. In the United States of America you don’t get to vote away basic human rights for a minority because you’re the majority.

Link, via CNN.

Blasphemy Day can be used to further inflame these psychotic zealots with their “religion of peace”, but there are many other gods to blaspheme as well!

The multitude of Hindu gods don’t get enough blasphemy, so perhaps this would be a good day to bash Brahma, vilify Vishnu, or curse Kali? Or you could go with the more traditional western target and deny the “Holy Spirit” on YouTube as part of The Blasphemy Challenge.

The religious have also taken note of the event. As with so many things they see us infidels doing and saying, this unholiday doesn’t fit with a delusion that is common among Bible believers. This delusion is that everyone knows they’re right, that their god is real, and we’re all just denying it, so they pretend that Blasphemy Day is exactly the opposite of what it is. Albert Mohler, Jr. writes in the Christian Post:

“…see this observance for what it really is – an unintended testimony to the existence of God and the foolishness of those who deny Him. The sheer foolishness of a blasphemy contest with t-shirts and mugs betrays the lunacy of it all. They can do no better than this? One testimony to the power of God is the fact that his self-declared enemies come off as so childish and manic. The heathen rage and God sees the foolish grasshoppers.”

Why is it that people like this guy see everything as a testimony to the existence of their god?

The reality here, Al, is that most of the world does not believe in your religion, and quite a significant amount of us don’t believe in any gods at all. Does not the “sheer foolishness of a blasphemy contest” show clearly that huge numbers of people in fact legitimately do not believe? This is in no way a testimony to the existence of any gods, let alone yours.

You’re right, if we did actually believe that your religion was correct and we persisted in our endless blasphemies, it would be lunacy. The fact that we do persist, despite our sanity, is proof that International Blasphemy day is no kind of testimony to your god, but a clear and undeniable expression of our disbelief.

Might it provoke a drunken Christian to take a swing at you? Sure, but if he doesn’t black out this is an image he won’t soon forget! Images like this may seem mean or distasteful, but they are meant to be taken as twisted humor, and if there’s anything that needs its more humorous side poked, it’s religion.

Today is the last day of our Saint Patrick’s Day sale (17% off $25 or more with coupon code MARCH19), and probably the last day to get a shirt before the holiday without rushing the shipping, so if you think you’re brave enough for Leprechaun Jesus, now is the time to show it.

For those of you considering purchasing multiple items to qualify for the sale, here are a few recommendations:

If you want something funny and you don’t care if you piss people off, we have the brand new design Yahweh? No way!, Pwned Jesus, and of course Let’s Get Hammered.

Those of you who want something more friendly that shouldn’t land you in hot water in most places might want to try Smile, There is no Hell.

If you’re not sure which way you want to go, Faith: Is there anything it can’t do? or Give up God for Lent may help you decide whether you’ve got the nerve for the more offensive end of the spectrum or not without being quite as blatantly offensive to Christians.

If you’re brave enough to face drunken Christians while wearing the crucified LepreChrist though, there really is no better shirt for Saint Patty’s Day.

That is why recent observations of the actions of Santino, a 31 year old male chimpanzee at the Furuvik zoo in Sweden, are so exciting. It is not that he is by any means alone in displaying the ability to think deeply, but his actions are very clear and easily identifiable, and most importantly well observed and documented.

So what did he do that was so special? During the season that the zoo was open, and only during that season, he collected stones while the zoo was closed and made piles of them around the side of the enclosure where tourists would gather to watch him. Later, when the zoo was open and people came to stare at him and annoy him, he would go back to his caches of stones and hurl them at the visitors!

He would even smash the concrete to get more good throwing stones, which became more important once the zoo keepers started confiscating his piles of rocks. Santino’s rock throwing may not seem nice, and we may be tempted to think it’s beneath us, but what would a human prisoner who wanted to look tough and get rid of the gawkers do in his situation? Probably the same thing.

The reason that this particular behavior was so important was that Santino was showing a very clear ability to remember and think about what had happened in the past, and then anticipate and plan for future events. This is an ability which had been widely thought to be exclusively human, but it’s time to either start calling chimpanzees human or admit that other animals may have much greater mental capabilities than we once believed.

Or maybe this is all a mistake and God was just using this poor dumb animal like a robot to stone the horrible sinners at the zoo for him, but more likely Santino just wanted them to leave him alone, and the stones were the best ammunition he had to encourage them with.

Sadly, if it was God using him, and if God had big plans for his future, those plans are probably doomed to failure now because Santino is no longer eligible to enter into the congregation of the lord since he has been castrated (Deuteronomy 23:1). It has curtailed his anger, but what a price to pay!