tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60379674074527053752011-08-08T12:01:47.128-07:00A gallery of analysis of issues important to the Secular community. Dedicated to Galileo Galilei - tried and imprisoned by Christians for asserting that the Earth moved around the Sun.GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.comBlogger321100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-29052365850659746792011-08-08T11:50:00.000-07:002011-08-08T12:01:47.140-07:00

A YouTuber named NonStampCollector (possibly my favorite YouTuber) has posted a video asking two interesting questions of Christians as he is researching issues for a forthcoming piece of work. The essence of the questions is: Can you comfortably stand up as say that stoning people to death or burning them alive is immoral? Does and objective moral precept cease to be objective if there are

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-33949615114081841102011-07-19T08:24:00.000-07:002011-07-19T08:27:26.933-07:00

I have been away for a year recovering form cancer. I am doing well and am feeling fit enough to start paying attention to what some people want to make our government do to other people again. As such, I will be posting regularly on, hopefully, topics of interest to the secular community. For now, i give you the great G3B analysis.

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-81439373040268993052011-01-14T08:46:00.000-08:002011-01-14T08:48:37.771-08:00

2010 was a horrible year. I was diagnosed with rectal cancer in February and I have undergone a marathon of treatments that included chemo, radiation, surgery, and more chemo. I am coming off of my last chemo treatment and I am 100% cancer free for now. I hope to re-start posting here very soon.

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-83074409229844466282009-12-03T09:34:00.002-08:002009-12-03T09:36:44.982-08:00

After a short (hiatus/sabbatical/vacation) from posting I found that somehow my account had gotten screwed up and I have had to re-post all of my old posts. I have kept the text of tehse old posts unchanged and re-posted them all today.

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-23177654252931646232009-12-03T09:34:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:34:30.804-08:00

Today, a white supremacist shot two people at the US Holocaust museum.When the current administration came out with a report in April that said that right-wing extremist groups were a huge threat in our country, people like Rush Limbaugh and Fox News criticized it. Not one month later we have a dead women's health doctor and now an attack on the Holocaust museum with two people shot by white

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-2313166195371072962009-12-03T09:33:00.000-08:002009-12-03T09:34:00.509-08:00

As everyone has likely heard by now, a doctor who performed abortions was murdered in his church. My first thought was, "Another example of how religion can make people do horrible things." I then realized that I did not have any evidence that the murderer was a religious person. I briefly scolded myself, but then realized that it speaks volumes in and of itself that my first thought turned to

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-60762725616950887582009-12-03T09:32:00.000-08:002009-12-03T09:33:15.117-08:00

In a story reported widely today, the conclusions of Ireland's Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse were released. As could be expected, the level of child abuse, torture, and rape in Christian schools in Ireland was found to be astronomically high. The 2,600 page report found that,The report found that molestation and rape were "endemic" in boys' facilities, chiefly run by the Christian

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-55717854147201493212009-12-03T09:31:00.002-08:002009-12-03T09:32:27.612-08:00

In my previous story about Jeff Sharlet's piece for Harper's, I discussed how the fundies have stepped up their infiltration of the U.S. Military. Today, I saw a story on Gawker that showed the cover pages from Donald Rumsfeld's defense briefing presentations. You MUST take a look at these. Notice a pattern? Every one of them has a Bible quote on the cover. Samples include:Open the gates

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-48499069749004420822009-12-03T09:31:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:31:56.802-08:00

WARNING: This story is about very disturbing events. Anyone who does not handle stories about children being abused by their parents well should avoid this! Scroll down for story.In a story today, a local Bakersfield news station is reporting on a father who got high on PCP and ate the eyeballs out of his four year old son's eye sockets. Both eyes are reported to be damaged beyond repair. The

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-76513513530950674232009-12-03T09:30:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:30:37.819-08:00

The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliche. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis. In thought reform, for instance, the phrase "bourgeois mentality" is used to

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-91667598870464835812009-12-03T09:29:00.002-08:002009-12-03T09:30:12.360-08:00

In a story posted today on the Freethinker, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor is caught on video saying, "atheists are not fully human." I will keep this post short and sweet.1) Dehumanization is widely recognized as one of the biggest tools in a regime's arsenal when trying to attack a group of people. (See: The Holocaust.)2) What would have happened if the Cardinal said, "Muslims are not fully

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-52838295037675585842009-12-03T09:29:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:29:43.117-08:00

I just watched the episode of the Colbert Report with Cat Stevens as a guest. I must say that I was pretty disappointed at Colbert for not calling him out. I understand leaving the strange past out of the picture as long as Stevens doesn't make any contradictory claims, but when Stevens said something along the lines of "Islam is a religion of peace. The first thing you learn to say is Salaam

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-56569436806274355892009-12-03T09:28:00.004-08:002009-12-03T09:29:17.645-08:00

As you may have heard, some of the pro-life crowd are protesting up a storm over Notre Dame's invitation for President Obama to speak at their commencement this month. They point to the fact that as the most prominent Catholic university in the nation, they should not allow someone who is pro choice to speak.See here and here.This got me thinking. Is it REALLY a motivation to hold life dear

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-55804192678544332172009-12-03T09:28:00.003-08:002009-12-03T09:28:52.821-08:00

In a story on MSNBC.COM today it was reported that a Minnesota District Court Judge has ruled that[A] 13-year-old cancer patient whose parents want to treat him with “alternative medicine” must seek conventional medical treatment for their son.In a 58-page ruling Friday, Brown County District Judge John Rodenberg found that Daniel Hauser has been “medically neglected” and is in need of child

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-59493539987006485492009-12-03T09:28:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:28:39.252-08:00

Today , CNN.com posted a video. It is a Nancy Grace report on about how a 4 year old girl was abducted out of her own front yard by a carnival worker who had been targeting her. The 23 year old man drove up and chased the 4 year old and beat her 12 year old sister so he could snatch the little girl. Well, it seems that because the 12 year old sister gave such a good description of the man and

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-90329796176690598232009-12-03T09:25:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:27:26.974-08:00

This question always seems to stump the theists I speak with so I thought I would toss it up here for the record:How do the Christians know that Satan did not write the bible? Of course by "Satan" I am thinking of a Satan analog. Some malevolent being that intends to do harm to humanity without just wiping them out in one blow. I have to phrase the question the way I do because it seems to be

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-24716385597009353282009-12-03T09:24:00.002-08:002009-12-03T09:25:22.900-08:00

This month's Harper's Magazine's cover story is entitled "Jesus killed Mohammed:The crusade for a Christian military." The story is only available in the print edition right now, but I STRONGLY encourage everyone to go get a copy and read it. The story contains story after story of how the fundamentalist Christians are trying to take over the U.S. military y using it as a platform to convert

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-58982521126310666422009-12-03T09:24:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:24:44.671-08:00

On today's Hardball with Chris Matthews, Mr. Matthews interviewed Mike Pence, (R) Indiana and Chairman of the House Republican Conference. During the interview, Rep. Pence asserted that Republicans were passionate about many things such as climate change legislation. Raising a skeptical eyebrow, Mr. Matthews asked Rep. Pence if he believed in the theory of evolution. Watching Rep. Pence squirm

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-73019432994355706702009-12-03T09:22:00.002-08:002009-12-03T09:23:23.042-08:00

The Supreme Court yesterday declined to grant certiorari on Oliver v. Quarterman.FACTS OF THE CASEThe facts of the case are as follows. The plaintiff, Oliver, had been convicted in Texas (still not Texsylvania, but getting closer!) of capital murder. After his conviction, the jury sentenced him to death. The appellate court writes:"[Juror] Kenneth McHaney stated that during the jury’s

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-9232172916136710392009-12-03T09:22:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:22:44.739-08:00

The latest from the "Why Ignorance is Great" file:Boing Boing (and most of the rest of the web) has reported that, a few days ago, Texas State Rep. Betty Brown (R) proposed that Americans with Asian names should change their names so that "Americans" can handle the names better. This came after news that "some Americans of Chinese descent were turned away from the polls because the names on their

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-73328462513871607122009-12-03T09:21:00.002-08:002009-12-03T09:22:10.625-08:00

Robert Heinlein's house is for sale. It is a steal at $650,000.00. Two things explain the low price.First, he was the author of the Sci Fi classic, Starship Troopers. As such, the house has a high chance to be infested with sentient creatures who breed like bugs, are hard to stamp out, and who eagerly look forward to a time when the world of mankind will come to a hellish end so they can rule

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-66080198649872353992009-12-03T09:21:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:21:36.829-08:00

Another news article form the "You're not helping" file. This time it is Maryland that is not helping..."A Maryland woman involved with a group described as a religious cult pleaded guilty in the starvation death of her son, but insisted that the charges be dropped when he is resurrected."So starts the article about Ria Ramkissoon, the Baltimore, MD mother who allowed her one year old son to be

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-37372640324298535082009-12-03T09:20:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:20:30.773-08:00

A friend of mine asked me about my belief system and when I finished writing up my email to her, I found that I had a nice little stream of consciousness post. Hope it strikes a chord.Why I am an Atheist - (Besides the fact that the burden of proof is on the theists)Atheism has traditionally been defined as “the absence of a belief in any gods.” Side note: you will note from this definition that

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-90190622360808994172009-12-03T09:19:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:19:37.643-08:00

As you may, or may not, know, the President of the United States is traditionally asked to become the honorary president of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). This has happened to Obama. Every president since Taft has accepted this role. For those who do not know, the BSA is a Christian organization. (There are at least 180 references to Christ on their website.) They ban members who do not

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-86752806110721617302009-12-03T09:18:00.002-08:002009-12-03T09:19:06.222-08:00

According to an AP report, a woman accused of taking more than $73,000 from the Arlington church where she was an administrative assistant blames the devil. Here is the blurb:"ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) - A woman accused of taking more than $73,000 from the Arlington church where she was an administrative assistant blames the devil. Papers filed with a theft charge Wednesday in Snohomish County

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-52706967935427496482009-12-03T09:18:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:18:31.942-08:00

The Globe and Mail, which bills itself as "The most authoritative news in Canada," is reporting that Gary Goodyear, the ex-chiropractor, self-proclaimed Christian, now-federal Minister of State for Science and Technology, has refused to confirm belief in evolution. Normally, I would assume that this is just another case of a politician not wanting to anger the already angry mob of his

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-76973237105558979162009-12-03T09:17:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:17:43.297-08:00

Late last year the General Assembly of the United Nations, for the fourth year running, adopted a new resolution entitled "Combating Defamation of Religions." (.pdf) While this may sound appealing to anyone who believes in religious myths, I encourage you to take a close look at what is being proposed. Seriously. Just read it right now. It's short.OK, now that you have read it, you may

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-5787973140946166362009-12-03T09:16:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:16:31.737-08:00

Chuck is mad and he's not going to take it any more! In his latest tirade Chuck Norris ™ has claimed that, “Thousands of cell groups will be united around the country in solidarity over the concerns for our nation.” Apparently, this is because:"…we've bastardized the First Amendment, reinterpreted America's religious history and secularized our society until we ooze skepticism and circumvent

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-3780785921980804972009-12-03T09:15:00.000-08:002009-12-03T09:16:03.619-08:00

In a story about Obama's reversal of Bush's ban on stem cell research, the news organization used the title of "Obama Moves to Separate Politics and Science." One of the themes of this blog is that the media do not like to call it like it is when it comes to religion, for obvious (financial) reasons. Why wasn't the title "Obama Moves to Separate Religion and Science?" The whole reason the stem

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-54142711420416888102009-12-03T09:14:00.000-08:002009-12-03T09:15:18.665-08:00

Hypothesis 1: As a political or religious movement's ideas are proven to be erroneous and ill-conceived, you would start to see the movement lose members.Hypothesis 2: Assuming Hypothesis 1 is correct; the remaining members in the movement would be on the more extreme end of the spectrum. They would be the type to hold out to the bitter end because they have bought into the concepts of their

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-84981834739032082982009-12-03T09:11:00.000-08:002009-12-03T09:14:25.013-08:00

Comments follow below...From CNN:"A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced a 75-year-old Syrian woman to 40 lashes, four months imprisonment and deportation from the kingdom for having two unrelated men in her house, according to local media reports.According to the Saudi daily newspaper Al-Watan, troubles for the woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, began last year when a member of the religious police

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6037967407452705375.post-77584031226709137112009-12-03T09:10:00.001-08:002009-12-03T09:13:53.887-08:00

Welcome to The Galileo Gallery. This blog is planned to be a gallery of analysis of issues (old and new) important to the Secular community.WHAT IS THIS?I have been an atheist all my life, but recently (the last few years) I have started to realize that I can no longer simply think of people’s religious views as harmless. Day after day I read news stories from around the world that highlight the

GGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06733286596914495552noreply@blogger.com0