John Lennon - Imagine (official video)

The fact that the right wing "Christian" zealots hate this song makes me proud to be a John Lennon fan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=yRhq-yO1KN8

These religious types never give up....Here is what is going on in Ohio

Gov. John Kasich's $10 million plan to bring mentors into Ohio's schools for students now has a surprise religious requirement – one that goes beyond what is spelled out in the legislation authorizing it. 

Any school district that wants a piece of that state money must partner with both a church and a business – or a faith-based organization and a non-profit set up by a business to do community service. 

No business and no faith-based partner means no state dollars. 

"You must include a faith-based partner," United Way of Greater Cleveland President Bill Kitson, told potential applicants at an information session the United Way hosted Thursday here in Cleveland. 

Asked why the governor is mixing religion with a state program - items usually required to be kept separate - Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said: "The governor believes faith-based organizations play an important role in the lives of young people." 

And Kasich's recorded video welcoming the applicants made the importance he places on faith in this effort clear. 

"The Good Lord has a purpose for each and every one of them (students) and you're helping them to find it," Kasich said on the video.

Yes the Governor believes that "faith based organizations play an important role in the lives of young people" and that "the good lord has a purpose for each and every one of them" because he is an Evangelical. And Evangelicals simply cannot accept that others will be offended by the inclusion of religion into a public school that is supposed to serve students of all faiths, or not faiths.


Here is what Barry Goldwater, the conservative banner carrier said about the evangelicals...


"Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”

The real cancer in this country is fairly easy to detect.

I don't know how prevalant this type of thinking is among all religious people but I know for sure that in one branch of my own family it is how they live their lives.

The real cancer in this country is fairly easy to detect.

Anti-Gay Pastor Who Wants To 'Execute Homos' To End AIDS Is About To Get A Big Surprise

huffingtonpost.com

Organizers of Planting Peace, perhaps best known as the organization that brought you the rainbow-colored Equality House across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church compound, launched the new fundraiser in response to Pastor Steven Anderson's claims that "executing" gays will help eradicate HIV/AIDS.
The Planting Peace campaign is raising funds that will go toward helping people with HIV/AIDS, and for every donation made, a lump of coal will be sent to Tempe's Faithful Word Baptist Church, where Anderson is a pastor, in a festive package to be delivered on Christmas Eve.
"Pastor Anderson calling for the execution of gays is a startling reminder of how much hate and bigotry still exists in our society," Planting Peace President Aaron Jackson told The Huffington Post in an email. "In keeping with Planting Peace's philosophy of countering messages of hate with compassion, we wanted to provide a positive platform to bring people together to not only help people with HIV, but to do so in a lighthearted way that will raise awareness for a very serious issue."
You can read more about the new campaign and donate here.
Video footage of Anderson's bizarre rant went viral earlier this week. In it, the pastor argues that members of the gay community are "filled with disease because of the judgement of God," and that the cure for HIV/AIDS was "right there in the Bible all along.
Citing Leviticus 18:22, he noted, "if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn't have all this AIDS running rampant."
Anderson, who "holds no college degree but has well over 140 chapters of the Bible memorized word-for-word" according to his church's website, has made headlines several times this year for bizarre statements.
Earlier this year, he has argued in favor of keeping women silent in church, and has referred to second marriages as "adultery."

 

Another reason I hate religion and believe me folks this "man of God" is one of many spouting the same nonsense. What is equally troubling is the laughter that is heard in the background as he speaks of annihilating human beings.

The following are excerpts from a Huffington Post article by Jeff Schweitzer, Thank you Jeff!

Jeff Schweitzer Become a fan

Scientist and former White House Senior Policy Analyst; Ph.D. in marine biology/neurophysiology

The association between morality and religion has been established so firmly over the past 2000 years that the link largely goes unquestioned. Churchgoers tend to believe that they have a leg up on moral behavior relative to humanists, or worse that rationalists are a threat to morality. In that environment of religious fervor, any attempt to shift to a strictly secular model of morality strikes many as heretical even today, on par with Galileo's transgression so long ago.

Traits that we view as moral are deeply embedded in the human psyche. Honesty, fidelity, trustworthiness, kindness to others and reciprocity are primeval characteristics that helped our ancestors survive. In a world of dangerous predators, early man could thrive only in cooperative groups. Good behavior strengthened the tribal bonds that were essential to survival. What we now call morality is really a suite of behaviors favored by natural selection in an animal weak alone but strong in numbers. Morality is a biological necessity and a consequence of human development, not a gift from god.

Our inherent good has been corrupted by the false morality of religion that has manipulated us with divine carrots and sticks. If we misbehave, we are threatened with the hot flames of hell. If we please god, we are promised the comforting embrace of eternal bliss. Under the burden of religion, morality has become nothing but a response to bribery and fear, and a cynical tool of manipulation for ministers and gurus. We have forsaken our biological heritage in exchange for coupons to heaven. That more secular countries suffer less social dysfunction is not only unsurprising but fully expected.

Religious morality is fundamentally flawed, resting precariously on the false notion of human superiority. For millennia, peoples of nearly all cultures have been taught that humans are special in the eyes of their god or gods, and that the world is made for their benefit and use. This is revealed clearly in Genesis, which gives humankind the mandate to fill, rule over and subdue the earth. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:

Of all visible creatures only man is "able to know and love his creator." He is "the only creature on earth that God has willed for its own sake," and he alone is called to share, by knowledge and love, in God's own life. It was for this end that he was created, and this is the fundamental reason for his dignity. (CCC #356)

Blinded by this deeply engrained religious bias we keep forgetting that our highly developed cerebral cortex does not confer upon us any special status among our living cousins. People easily embrace the idea that humanity is set apart from all other animals. But nothing could be further from the truth. Humans are nothing but a short-lived biological aberration, with no claim to superiority. If evolution had a pinnacle, bacteria would rest on top. When the human species is a distant memory, bacteria will be dividing merrily away, oblivious to the odd bipedal mammal that once roamed the earth for such a brief moment in time. Our self-promotion to the image of god is simply embarrassing in the face of the biological reality on the ground. There is a loss of credibility when you choose yourself for an award.
This hubris and conceit of human superiority as the only creature close to god is not benign, leading to catastrophic consequences for humanity. The species-centric arrogance of religion cultivates a dangerous attitude about our relationship with the environment and the resources that sustain us. Humanists tend to view sustainability as a moral imperative while theists often view environmental concerns as liberal interference with god's will. Conservative resistance to accepting the reality of climate change is just one example, and another point at which religious and secular morality diverge, as the world swelters

The following was taken from the comments section of an article on Huffington Post discussing the upcoming film on Scientology....Totally agree with this commentator.

* there are no religions

...only “faith-based” institutions with self-anointed lying god-proxies…funding, seeking, demanding, exercising secular powers

…in the Islamic Republic of Iran (shia sect of islam)…in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (wahhabi sect of sunni islam)

…in all USA red-state fundie xian tyrannies…for example, State of Texas, State of Oklahoma, State of Georgia…making up a neo-confederacy, Reaganistan

…all faith-based institutions are corporate bodies…closely held profit-making corporations…with tight hierarchical management control...thousands of employees

…generating illegal untaxed profits from Eternal Life-Wish ponzi schemes…holding profitable investments…vast lands and real property…international banking relations…outstanding examples…closely-held RC church USA, closely-held LDS USA, closely-held Scientology USA

…dead traditional or new godheads…pick a god, any god...deserve no special treatment…in a secular State and an Open Society…a label marked “religion”…provides holy CYA

...sheltering illicit profits from taxation…providing employment…for self-anointed god-proxies carrying out…fraudulent fund raising…cult functions with fetishized “holy” objects and fictional texts…managing educational and charitable subsidiaries…subject to unconstitutional “religious” exemptions from civil laws

…no wonder “religion”…is a much sought-after tax code label…as demonstrated by not yet 200 year old homegrown american xian heresy mormonism…insane american sci-fi nonsense scientology…and zoroastrianism, judaism, islam, bahai, sikhism, buddhism, hinduism…and every variety of 2,000 year old jewish heresy, xianity