““islam is a religion of peace, tolerance, kindness and integrity. that is why we have told him if he regrets what he did, than (sic) we will forgive him.“

so says the judge concerning the trial where they want to kill the guy for converting to christianity. does anyone else find that line funny and stupid? i have equal disdain for most of the major religions of the world, but this is the height of stupidity. this is why im happy i dont live in a country run by fundamentalists. wait…forget i said that. they claim its their country, their laws, their traditions. so what? that doesnt mean its not stupid. hello sharia, welcome to the 21st fucking century. no country is without flaw, but this goes beyond nationality and cultural institutions. they want to kill someone for not believing in the religion they believe in? thats stupid on a humanist level.

> i still dont like religion (via bbc)

eek…this is the second article in two weeks about intelligent design. i didnt bother posting about it the first time around because it wouldve been repetitive (religions stupid, blar blar blar). but seeing this topic pop up so frequently these days just worries me. while i have no problemos with peoples beliefs and whatnot, the last couple of years have seen a rise in the brashness of stupid religious organizations flailing about to point attention to themselves. and the topic of intelligent design in particular seems to have caught on with the masses of dumb people out there who would kill to see a religious foothold in public education.

here is the gist of the article, even if they dont use as eloquent wording. intelligent design is dumb. intelligent design is creationism written in legalese, and teaching it as an alternative in schools is not a “freedom of expression” or whatever because it has no basis or foundation or any right whatsoever to even be considered being taught in schools. and for all those who argue it should…they need to be beaten stupid and hopefully neutered, as so they cannot continue to produce offspring. my freedom of expression allows me to believe that gravity is actually controlled by benevolent alien sherpas who live on clouds and hop around with mallets, smacking us down whenever we float too far off the ground. is it freedom of expression? you betcha you sherpa-lover. should it be taught in the schools then? fuck no, because its dumb. and so are you if you think it should be taught.

> faith and education (via ny times)

[ audio selection | silc – himegoto ]

welp, nothing overly exciting to talk about today. movies pretty much suck at the moment, my new credit card still hasnt arrived, a bag i ordered a few weeks ago hasnt arrived either, and tomorrows september (holy crap). so im just going to whine about creationists today. ny times has an article today about a new poll that shows that almost 2/3rds of those polled favored teaching creationism! gah! who the hell did they poll? the article explained that while 42% believed in creationism and 48% evolution (still a sucky ratio), 18% of the people who believed in evolution felt it was being guided by a higher power. they explained the skew as “american pragmatism”…teach it all and let the kids sort it out. sure, ban every toy that could potentially choke a kid, but fuck their minds with ideological decisions.

> creationism…*sigh* (via ny times)

i did my laundry last nite, then cooked some pasta and cleaned my room. i know, contain your enthrallment. what did you really expect? it was a monday for chrissakes. sky-diving and emu-wrestlings usually reserved for weekends and holidays.

anyhoo, just as i was wondering when a decent religious article would come up again, this article pops up on the radar. just when it seemed like everybody and their sisters had jumped on the health food band-wagon and rolled out their own diet plans, the right-wing christians prove them wrong and create their own dietary regimens. introducing…diets by god! god knows how to stay trim, and concurrently lead you down the path to his righteous kingdom. theres the hallelujah diet by rev. malkmus, what would jesus eat by dr. don colbert, the makers diet by jordan s. rubin, and the weight down diet by gwen shamblin…all diets that outline eating habits that are god and jesus approved. word…because anyone whos ever been to church knows that jesus is not only trim, but has a rockin’ six-pack.

the good reverend george malkmus, creator of the hallelujah diet, points out that at the dawn of life, humans lived an average of 912 years (right) by living off a wholly vegan diet of fruits, nuts, and vegetables. read as malkmus is a little surprised when a researcher determines that his diet seriously lacks vitamin b-12. “This shocked me, that God’s perfect eating plan could have a flaw,” Malkmus said. “But we realized that fruits and vegetables back then were more nutritious because of the topsoil.” good george…*pet pet* a columbia psychologist, stephen barrett, points out that malkmus is probably “the best of a bad lot“…which isnt really that comforting.

revelation one, theyre stupid. ive always had this thing against habits and lifestyles dictated by a belief system (religious or not). especially when it comes to things you should or should not eat, youre treading on especially sensitive topics. so first and foremost, these people are basing their dietary regimens wholly on religious beliefs and mythologies (yes…mythologies), and very little on actual scientific information. granted many are based around organic eating, which while pretty healthy isnt really well-rounded. and knowing that a good majority of the u.s. population are as dumb as a poo-stick, they might just go out and eat what jesus (according to dr. colbert) tells them to. which incidentally might be better than what they eat regularly, but they could potentially be trading in their shite eating habits for another set of shite and deficient eating habits. personally…ive eaten pretty shit for most of my life, and always had my superhuman metabolism to see me thru. but my superhuman metabolism revolted back in freshman year of college and left me, so now i eat more conscientiously (thanks to dr. flatgreg). healthy eating isnt dictated by god or jesus or what adam and eve ate in the frickin’ garden of eden. chances are, the naked buggers didnt have pans, stoves, or sharp pointy objects back then, so im sure that if they had the right kitchen utensils, they wouldve jumped right on those animals roaming around. healthy eating is actually just using your evolved cognitive abilities to eat a little more wisely and taking responsibility for what you eat. if you want to follow a “religious” diet regimen, imagine in your mind that jesus ran 6 miles a day. jesus was a tai-chi master. jesus spent a day tracking down dr. colbert and kicked his ass for profitting from his name. ass kickings ive heard burn a few thousand calories.

> bible-based diets (originally via wired)

and thanks to flatgreg for this fascinating look at how evolution almost worked. a couple in germany went to a fertility clinic to find out why, after 8 years of marriage, they still hadnt conceived a child. after an extensive series of examinations, and then determining that they were both quite healthy and fertile, the doctors finally deduced that the reason they hadnt borne a child was because they werent having sex. yea, you read that right. the fucking idiots didnt know he had to stick his thing in her thing, do their thing, and out pops a thing. “When we asked them how often they had had sex, they looked blank, and said: “What do you mean?“.

retards. oh wait, the quote continues…”We are not talking retarded people here, but a couple who were brought up in a religious environment who were simply unaware, after eight years of marriage, of the physical requirements necessary to procreate.” no…theyre retarded. its just too bad they wised up…their stupidity almost assured that their crappy genes would not have been propagated. i still wonder tho…what exactly were they expecting to happen in that 8 years time they had their heads up their asses? that the second they were married by a religious institution, that a baby would get pooped out one day?

> stupidity tries to give birth (via flatgreg)

gosh, i dont even know what to make of this. on the way to the delta grill saturday, i passed by this in a window in midtown.

bibleman. defender of all things that are um…bible-related. w…tf. its not everyday i see super-heroes in funny rubber outfits based off of holy doctrine, so i did a little researching on the web. apparently the bibleman thang is a whole franchise…with bibleman (aka miles peterson) and his um, bible adventure team fighting against the evil prince of pride, el furioso, and other dorks that have odd contraptions strapped to their head. biblemans decked out in his “full armor of god”, which not only protects him from evil, but also keeps a ready supply of twinkies and little debbies…while his sidekick cypher is a computer wiz and has a bottle opener over one eye. they fight evil in the name of their god…because isnt that what we all want to do? fight in the name of god?

i suppose commentary at this point would be pointless. and to be honest, my mind is still processing it all at the moment. bibleman…egad. it would however be coo if they did a justice league-type thing, where bibleman teams up with torah-boy, rig vedonna, and the koranator to battle the forces of A.T.H.E.I.S.T.

> bibleman…right then

AIR JESUS
and why not…ill toss this little baby into the mix too. if you werent aware, jesus was a pretty athletic dude. he was all over the place…hockey, baseball, football. the dude was diesel. so now you can remind yourself everyday that your saviour was a jock by getting your own jesus sports figure. word.