#1 requisite for living in America: belief in “something”. In other news, men who believe in murderous deities are welcome

***UPDATE*** This letter to the editor is a hoax. Please see below for information. I’m not going to take the letter down, as I want to hopefully spread the word that it is — in fact — not a true letter from a true Christian.

I would like to offer an apology for all the pain and anguish you, those of you who are my Christian readers, may have gone through. I’m sure you were mildly embarrassed or you wanted to high five ol’ Alice Shannon.

via: http://inthevoid.co.uk

***UPDATE***
I’m not sure how regular of a reader Taylor is, but he stopped in last week, and again today to let us know that this letter was in fact a hoax. He snoped it, and you can find the write up here.

Pizza Puss Photo Blogging

Le Café Witteveen is criticized (again), yawns, wonders how can we top this week of controversy? In other news, retaliation and vengeance are still godly

Yesterday the author of the book I’m reading — the good “doctor” Carl Werner — popped by to read and comment on my reviews of “Evolution, The Grand Experiment”. The “Grand Experiment” is Werner’s inadequate attempt to arm creationists with even more clown clothing and third-class parlor tricks when “defending” their self-defeating effort at supporting Genesis as science.

Here’s what Werner wrote:

February 13, 2010 at 5:20 pm | Reply edit

I enjoyed your review. I especially like this line “Dr. Werner, you are truly a master of evolution.”

The only criticism I have is this: Criticizing the readers is a little unfair. Many people who read the book believe in evolution (like yourself) and to lump all of the readers into the category of “idiots” is like shooting yourself in the foot.

Dr. Carl, author, Master of Evolution

I excitedly responded, and you can see the interaction here.

One would think after the tongue lashing I throw down on the book that he would have been less cool. I can completely respect his curt candidness. Although, I bet he’s not coming back to answer my questions.

I have a feeling that the master of evolution has been lurking for a while, and in a bout of spontaneous liquid courage, he posted his comment. From my blog stats, I’ve been getting notifications that clicks to my blog have been coming from someone googling “dr carl werner” for the last couple weeks. Although yesterday and Friday, there were no such searches.

Surely that means he’s been hovering his mouse over “comment” for a couple days.

Proud of attracting the busy “Doctor” who’s busily disproving evolution being fair and honest about the “controversies” of evolution, I dropped the wonderboys of the Pullman WA WAs a line. Boy how my little guys have not grown. I really thought they would be convinced by my annoyingly supercilious diatribe, and cease supporting the part of the clan catering to ignorant illiterates and children who color in books like Werner’s.

No such luck.

They did however build me a blog shrine explaining their “views” in great detail.

I’m flattered.

I really am.

Thanks Justy and Marky!

What’s the proper etiquette when sending a thank you gift to someone for completely validating one’s perspective? Is it six bags of pampers, six bibs with clever quips stitched in them and a bowl with a plasticky rubbery spoon? Or is that only after the second major validation?

I would hate sending the wrong gift when children are so gracious with their time.

So thanks, boys. It’s such a very sweet gesture.

If you didn’t go read from the link above, go read it.

Be sure to weigh yourself before you go over and then after after you leave. You will probably be happy to have lost so much weight. Unfortunately, it will be weight lost in brain capacity.

Just think how svelte you’ll look in your new speedo …

…New speedo swim cap.

Bah dum pah!

Christopher Hitchens interviewed by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor

Hitchens interviewed on Freethought Radio by Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor. For more videos, updates and info on Christopher Hitchens, please visit http://www.dailyhitchens.com

Play all (2)
February 13, 2010 on Freethought Radio
(via Daily Hitchens)

A winged reptile

A lizard with wings — a/k/a A DRAGON — spotted at the Lambusango Forest Reserve in Buton, Indonesia.

*Update* Biodork found a link for the wiki on this little monster here.

Via: thedw.us <— link fixed. I did thedw.com instead of thedw.us.

“Why are atheists angry?”, in other news, there is no hell and … I love you

A friend said to me the other day, “Atheists come across angry.” I’ve heard this before. You’ve heard this before. Your friend Tom has heard this before.

We all scream for ice scream.

We atheists are accused of smug condescension. I accuse us of condescension. I accuse us of anger. We are an annoyed supercilious group of ragtag ragamuffins. Hell, we’re an annoying one at that.

(I hear the top of ragamuffins tastes better than the bottoms.)

Glenn Beck EXPOSED – Crying On Cue Using Vicks under His Eyes.

via Crooks and Liars

The periphery speaks about the D’Souza vs Loftus Debate, in other news, nobody gives a rat’s ass

There has been minimal Internet discussion about Tuesday night’s debate between Dinesh D’Souza and John W. Loftus. Atheist blogs are discussing it most.

Debunking Christianity seems to be leading the discussion pack. It is a train wreck, and there are plenty of rubberneckers involved.

Should you care to read more about the debate from the periphery, here are discussions I’ve found so far:

• Check out this post and comments from “Why I De-Converted from Evangelical Christianity.”
• This site appears to be a group who want to sit on their knees in front of William L Craig.
• This one is a dead thread. The group discussion seemed very excited about the debate. Judging from the quiet now, they are just as deflated as I am.
• This thread is from an atheist forum. It’s not directly about this debate, but it does reflect that the kid searching for answers has heard about the debate. It sucks that he can’t answer some of those questions on his own. Like I said in my original review, D’Souza’s arguments weren’t factual. He is able to spin information better in a debate setting. Anyone who says anything with confidence means quite possibly that you should spend time checking their information.
• *UPDATE 2/14/10* I just found this insightful review from a blog called Glock21 Op/Ed. Glock21 just commented against zdenny, which means he’s opened a can of lovely worms onto your blog. But Glock’s loss is our gain. Or his gain is our loss, since maybe zdenny will spend more time at yet another blog. Thanks for yet another interesting response to Tuesday night.

I can say from email and phone discussions, we’re all pining for the video to come out. But you know Catholics; they’re in no hurry to do anything. Look how long it took them to forgive Galileo. In 350 years, the Catholics will issue a link for the debate, we’ll all be dead, and the Loftus’ family will still be kvetching about the bad rap they got back in 2010.

Honk.

Chris Hallquist debunks the resurrection

Reposted from this blog here. [Via richarddawkins.net]

I’ve been reading UFOs, Ghosts, and a Rising God: Debunking the Resurrection of Jesus, by Chris Hallquist (Reasonable Press, 2009). Hallquist examines the evidence for the resurrection, a core Christian doctrine, adopting a sceptical viewpoint informed by our modern experience with other extraordinary claims, such as those about ghosts (including the Amityville Horror hoax), levitation, and UFO sightings/abductions. The result is an enjoyable volume, in good, clear prose, that debunks the resurrection myth quite thoroughly. Hallquist leaves few stones unmoved or unturned.