Why go out for hamburger when you can...

Checkmate

Pathetic...

On Ray's blog, alphageek asked the fundies if they had ever tried to imagine that the bible was not true, God did not exist, etc. Gisela's response to the question was rather pathetic and reveals the fragilest of minds:

Yes sir, I have tried to imagine this. I honestly have. Your question: what does it feel like to me?

To me, it feels devastatingly pointless. I can't understand how I can live, and love, and appreciate beauty, and then just be gone. The futility of life in such a scenario feels horrid to me, particularly now that I have a husband and children.

I think I would be too chicken to kill myself, but I would find a way to destroy myself while living. (such as drinking every night to escape thinking)

Everything I would plan, or attempt to do, in life, would be colored by the ever-nagging thought "but I'm going to die anyway".

Plus, in the scenario of imagining there's no God, truthfully, I can't wrap my mind around "where did all of this come from?"

I wonder how she reacted when she found out Santa Claus was fake?

Ray Is Ruining Hell for the Rest of Us

We all know we're going to Hell for all the babies we have eaten as atheists. Although we're going to Hell, which is a downside, there's definitely an upside: we'll have all kinds of great company like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Albert Einstein, etc. and be devoid of the presence of fundamentalist evangelicals like Ray Comfort, Jerry Falwell, and Pat Robertson,

According to Ray's latest post, "no hypocrite will enter the Kingdom of God."

Well, I have bad news for everyone, then. It seems Ray Comfort will be joining us after all, then, along with all the other televangelists.

Oh, and also all the Christian politicians, pedophile priests, and homophobic Phelps-type people (who have no problem condemning homosexuals while wearing clothes made of two kinds of fabric).

Hell is losing its appeal now. Perhaps we should consider converting?

God Hates McDonald's

From Ray's latest attempt at...whatever it is he's attempting these days;

"One unique aspect to the life of an Academy-Award winning superstar who died recently, was that he was married to the same woman for an amazing 50 years. He once told Playboy magazine (when asked if he was tempted to stray), "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" The problem with such a philosophy is, what happens when the steak gets a little tough? It’s then that a juicy hamburger begins to look pretty inviting."

I really don't think Ray intended that to read as badly as it does. We know that he has trouble understanding metaphors, analogies, fairy-tales, sarcasm, scientific theories and a host of other things. It does look like he's calling Mrs. Newman 'tough', but I can let that slide. It's what comes next that really blows my mind...

"The Christian safeguards his marriage by cultivating the fear of the Lord. That is the sure fire way to fireproof any marriage....

"That knowledge keeps his eyes off all those delicious hamburgers, and that safeguards his marriage."

So Ray is kept from indulging in some crazy, extra-marital, burger-orgies because he's scared that his voyeuristic sky-daddy will see and get all angry and smitey? Has the man no control over his own body? Unbelievable.

The extra-funny thing is; "Newman was also a vocal supporter of gay rights and, in particular, same-sex marriage." - from wiki. Ha!



PS. if all these posts are being published in relation to some crisis in Ray's own marriage, then I hope that they resolve their differences, either way, in a mature and amicable manner - I know there can be some tricky arguments when a multi-million dollar business is involved.

PPS. Dale, I hope 'one of god's watchman' doesn't crash your thread like he did mine!

Lurker's Haven II

It is my opinion that the first Lurker's Haven Post by Expatmat was quite successful and produced some interesting discussions.

Let's try another and check the results.

Any Lurkers, Christians or otherwise, that want to ask questions or speak your peace, please do!

We'll behave!

the origin of life made easy

Maybe some of you already know this one, but it might improve the debate over at AC if some of the Christians had a look at it.
(Well, that's a little bit to optimistic. But if it reduces the amount of completely ignorant comments on abiogenesis, it's a start.)

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=4mrBJ2WVZ8s

It's quite simplified, but at least it makes clear that scientist don't believe life just popped out of nowhere.

Nervous? No. Frightened of people believing in ridiculous, fairy tale guff...? Yes.

Raymond wants to know if I am getting nervous because of the stock market crashes - cos Ray thinks he is about to be beamed up to the magic fairy palace in the sky...

The thing that DOES make me nervous is that the President who is presiding over this cluster fuck ALSO believes that he will be beamed up with Ray.

Raymond and George (now there is a sitcom) believe that the will fly to the heavens when Jesus blows his trumpet. Raymond and George think that they may hear that trumpet sometime soon - which is sad for them and sadder for us.

Raymond and George believe in the rapture.

*That* is scary.

to All Fired Up:

Regarding your comments to Tripmaster Monkey on his use of Mark 10:17-25;

You're so full of shit you squeak. You're so good at spin, you should work for Fox News. I love the way you have to twist and spin what your saviour actually said and meant. What a joke. You say he didn't mean it literally because you don't want to do it. The only way it makes sense for Jesus to say sell all you have, and not to worry about anything, is if he believed he'd be coming back soon to end everything. Well, we're still waiting, nearly two thousand years later. Tell me; how many millenia in a soon?

Dont'cha just love spam?

I recently checked an email account I hadn't used in... well, a while.

It was 100% full with spam, but some of the titles were kinda funny.

The best was this: "Naked chocolate Jesus rises again"

NAKED CHOCOLATE JESUS! How awsome is that?

I'm converting to a born again christian right now! Ray! Wait for meeeee!!!



Others included: "Japan's camera phone craze spreads to funerals", "Second Of Two Stolen Monkeys Being Returned To Owner" and "12 Pounds Of Pot Mailed To Elementary School".

Who are we?

We recently did a survey on the personality types of the various Raytracters members. We used the Myers-Briggs Typology, the test is available here. The results are... interesting. Here's the list, compiled from those who responded.

INTJ, INTP, ENFJ, INTJ,
ENTJ, INTJ, INTJ, INTP,
ENFP, INTJ,INTJ, INTP,
INTJ, INFP, INTP, INTJ,
ENTJ, INTJ, INTJ, INTJ,
ESTJ, INTP, INTP, INTJ,
INTJ, ISFJ, INFJ, INTJ,
INTJ, INFJ, ISTJ, INTJ,
ENTJ, ISFJ, ENTJ, INTJ,
INTJ, INTJ, INTJ

Let's take a look at a few stats. 39 Respondants...

32 Introversion, to 7 Extroversion.
35 Intuition, to 4 Sensing.
32 Thinking, to 7 Feeling
31 Judging, to 8 Perceiving.

The Raytractors are by far mostly INTJ, one of the rarest personality types! From the wikipedia article:

"[David] Keirsey referred to INTJs as Masterminds, one of the four types belonging to the temperament he called the Rationals.[3] One of the rarest of the sixteen personality types (accounting for no more than 1% of the population),[4] the INTJ may also be referred to as the scientist,[5] the free-thinker, or the strategist."

I wonder how this compares to the results of Ray and his followers? I'm submitting a request via comment...

(32)

A Little Taste of Kirktracting

While Ray will disagree, yet more quote mining has popped up on his blog in regards to the article about Mr. Cameron.

From the original article on eonline:

Shia LaBeouf has starred in three straight No. 1 movies. Kirk Cameron hasn't seen his face on a multiplex screen in seven years. Guess who's the hottest ticket heading into the weekend?

Sure about that?

In terms of advance sales, Cameron's Fireproof, an ultra-low-budget marriage-minded family drama opening on about 800 screens, has smoked LaBeouf's $105 million, opening-everywhere thriller Eagle Eye.

Surprisingly perhaps, box-office experts are not surprised...

"I just think that that market is particularly aggressive in group sales," says Exhibitor Relations analyst Jeff Bock.

That market consists of churchgoers and followers of Christian groups—the moviegoers who helped make Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ a blockbuster, and the lesser-known Facing the Giants a fairytale success. (Made for a pittance, a reputed $10,000, the football- and God-grounded Facing the Giants grossed more than $10 million in theaters in 2006.)

Fireproof seems primed to follow those films' paths.

The Christian leader James Dobson's Focus on the Family prominently plugged the film. The Baptist Press urged readers: "Get your church behind it. Mark the weekend of Sept. 26-28 on your calendar. And go see it."

The call was heard.

Fireproof accounted for a whopping 40 percent of all advance sales this week on Fandango, the ticket service said today. Eagle Eye was a distant second, representing 17 percent of sales. (Fandango and E! Online are both owned by Comcast.)

At Movietickets.com, the story was the same. Through Wednesday, Fireproof was leading the week with 23 percent of all advance sales. No other movie, Eagle Eye included, was even in double digits.

Despite the eye-popping advance-ticket numbers, Eagle Eye, not Fireproof, is expected to be the weekend's No. 1 movie.

The LaBeouf movie's shooting for a $30 millionish opening; Bock says Fireproof, which cost well under $1 million to produce, would do well to open with $3-$5 million. (Facing the Giants bowed with $1.3 million.)

"Kirk Cameron has really established himself in the Christian community," Bock says.

A 1980s teen idol of Growing Pains fame, Cameron, now 37, has become better known this decade for his work with his ministry and TBN show, The Way of the Master. He also starred in the first two movies from the Rapture-focused Left Behind series.

This week, Cameron promoted Fireproof beyond the Christian press, including a stop on NBC's Today. And while the movie wasn't screened in advance for critics, Samuel Goldwyn Films, which is distributing Fireproof, hopes the film can build on its base.

Said Michael Silberman, Samuel Goldwyn distribution chief, in an email, "We expect the excellent word of mouth from the opening weekend audience to influence a broader audience to see an uplifting movie with a positive message about marriage."

So the fact that people bought the tickets to see the movie ahead of time proves that Fireproof is the better movie, you see.

Yep, it has nothing to do with:

• The smaller amount of blockbusters in the early fall.
• The limited number of theaters that would actually show Fireproof. (Only 10 screens in the whole New York City area (New Jersey included))
• The Christian organizations that have been promoting the crap out of the film (and making fun little group trips to see it).
  
• Advanced ticket sales don't mean crap.

Nothing to do with those at all...

If all the nonbelievers out there were to organize into a group to go see Religulous, the resulting amount of presales wouldn't prove the movie to be good or not.

Most presales go toward groups going to see a movie, such as day camps seeing a cartoon once a month. This is what can account for the amount of pre-sales. (Groups also tend to get discounts for the number of people they bring (food costs more than the ticket) and for churches, tax exemption.) Is there an organization out there that could group around the movies Eagle Eye, Choke, or Lakeview Terrace?

No.

The article also explains that Fireproof has not been screened by critics before release. Most movies with this qualification were either (1.) big stinkers or (2.) summer blockbusters which are usually not too in-depth anyway.

Let's face it. Christians would see this movie regardless of whether it was a mushy steaming pile of dog shit (which I feel it is) or not, and most of them would be from advanced ticket sales.

What Do You Mean?

Hello all! This is my first post here and I am happy to be contributing in some way.

I just got done listening to the atheist experience and it was a particularly moving episode to me.

It was titled "what do you mean?" and it simply talked about clarifying what certain words mean in an argument.

We all attribute certain meanings to words, for example: "dog". Some will think of a poodle, some will think of a german shepherd.

This happens quite often with many words we throw around when debating about "god", "existence", "moral", etc.

It was especially relevant to me because I outed myself to my best friend who is a christian and we had a fairly decent conversation but at the end he accused me of avoiding the questions he asked. For example: he asked me if I believed in evolution.

I had ask questions to clarify what he believed evolution was (he was misinformed) and if he understood that no one believes in evolution. Can you imagine?? "I pray to evolution every night!" LOL

Upon reflection, I wasn't dodging questions but trying to clarify certain phrases or words he used and he didn't like that. I suppose it is because it forced him to put what he exactly believes into some sort of order. 

But it's important when having a conversation like this to clarify and agree upon what definition of "god" or "moral" you use. And as a newly de-converted atheist, I have to be even more careful!

Fear, not Love

A Constant Flow of Bullshit


Monday, September 29, 2008
For Christians Only

Few within the Church would deny that we are seeing Bible prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes. These are certainly "perilous" times. Mean’s hearts are failing them for fear of what’s coming on the earth. There are suicide bombings, terrorism, nation is rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. The neighbors of Israel are boldly escalating their hatred of the Jews. Lawlessness and the love of sin abound on every side. Economies are collapsing, and as I watch political leaders try and keep a brave face, I can see fear deep in the eyes. I think of how they fail to even acknowledge the God that gave them life, and I think of the psalmist’s prayer "Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in your sight. Put them in fear, O Lord: that the nations may know themselves to be but men" (Psalm 9:19, 20).

In the midst of speaking about the dark and frightening signs of the end of the age, Jesus shone a beacon of wonderful light:

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14).

You and I can be a part of fulfillment pf Bible prophecy. God has entrusted us (as the Church) to be lighthouse keeper, especially at the end of this age. We are to steer perishing sinners into the God-given safe-haven. So make sure you show your brilliance by embracing the work that God has called us to do. If ever you were needed, it’s now.

Maybe it’s not practical for you to open air preach. Maybe you’re a stay at home mom and the daily responsibilities you have, stop you from laboring for God. Or maybe as a husband or father, and your time is consumed in just making sure that your family has food on the table. Then cut your cloth to fit. Do what you can. Carry gospel tracts, and look for opportunities to speak up boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. How do you do that? I have a way that will make it easier for you.

I have experimented for years on how to make a smooth transition with the lost. By the grace of God, I have learned to bring up the subject of the gospel in a way that helps to dissipate my fears. It means that I can bring up the things of God, without bringing up the things that can potentially cause contention--words such as Hell, Judgment Day, sin, righteousness, the Bible, God, Jesus, and the cross.

Let’s be honest about witnessing. Most of us would prefer a root canal. Our fears fuel an over ripe imagination. When we look at a potential “victim,” we think that the moment the things of God are mentioned they will become a violent monster. So here is a fear dissipating plan: You are going to ask the person what they think happens when someone dies. Get this thought permanently fixed into your mind--there’s nothing offensive about that question. Nothing. Think of how you would have responded to that question, before you came to faith. Would it have made you angry? Of course not. It’s not loaded, so it has no potential to cause an explosion of any sort. You are simply asking for someone’s opinion, and most will readily give it by answering something like, "I’m not sure," or "Everyone goes to heaven." The pleasant tone of their answer will immediately get rid of the fear that has been whispering to you. All you need to be ready with are questions such as, "Do you think about it much?" You will often hear replies like, "All the time." Then be ready with "Are you afraid of dying?" and "Do you think you will go to Heaven?"

So, what do you say? Are you willing to completely surrender yourself to the most worthy cause on earth? Will you enlist without reservation to fight the good fight of faith? Ours is the most noble of battles. We are fighting for the eternal salvation of every human being’s most precious possession.

Posted by Ray Comfort on 9/29/2008 09:13:00 AM 0 comments



They can talk about love all they want; God loves you; Jesus loves you. But it's fear. The natural fear of death that most of us have, and if we've convinced ourselves that there is an "afterlife", the fear of being punished after we die. Whether they admit it or not, most of them would not be "Christians" if it weren't for fear. Their lives are basically built on fear. Am I really saved? Am I going to go to Hell? If I read the word "Fuck" or see some nice boobs or laugh at a picture of a man with a fake dick in his hand, will God punish me? Even the good stuff they do, giving to charities or what have you, is based on fear, on pleasing "god" and not pissing him off. It's not because someone is a fellow human being. Or even out of guilt. Fear. They use this fear to "convert" people into living their lives even more fearfully. And of course, they also use that fear to keep the "love offerings" flowing, to keep those sales of books and DVDs and tracts up. And I love that last paragraph. Wow! I bet Ray has a trunk full of Christian Medals of Honor. They say pride is a sin; Those words are marinated with pride. But it's Christian pride, so it must be okay.

Wrong again

Comments like this from fundies are another reason why I, even when I wasn't banned, never posted over at AC after the strike started.

Check this out:

"Leah said...

Mr. Robert Madwell said "Of course, that could be another lie! Foolish atheists! Why can't we stop lying? Oh yeah, that's because that's what we do!"

Dear Mr. Madwell, please understand that you CAN'T stop lying unless you have Jesus Christ. You are a slave to sin, if you "tried" to stop lying you would not be able to. Please, give it a try, don't lie, you can see how lying is bad, how it hurts people but you cannot stop doing it because sin(lying) makes you it's slave. Freedom is not doing what you want to do, but freedom in Chirst is having the power to do what you should. Read Romans 7 and understand that you are a slave to sin, you DO NOT CONTROL your sins, but your sins control and direct you. I pray that you will see that you need Christ, because once you have made HIM your LORD and Savior HE gives you the power to be free from your sin so that you don't have to serve them, you can serve Christ! "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." Romans 8:2"
September 28, 2008 8:17 PM




Uh....no. I can not even remember the last lie I told. Not even the last white lie I told. Ever since I was a young kid, due to some very negative experiences I had in my home life, I have made it a policy not to lie. I don't have to try not do it, I just don't do it. It's not who I am or who I want to be. And I'm still an atheist.

I realize that it's easier to believe someone is damned, and all the other horrid things fundies think about atheists, if you believe erroneous, demonizing things such as this, but please THINK before you type. Anyone with any common sense would know that the claim made in the above comment is just ignorant bunk.

Fireproof Numbers

Comfort is touting his protégé's movie (Fireproof) as the number three movie in the US. Comfort's young apprentice stars in this mawkish drama(-edy?) about marriage, firefighters and kissing other women. No seriously - his character kisses another woman that clearly is not the character's wife - it promotes adultery I tells you!!

Anyway - Comfort says number three, Box Office Mojo says number four - taking just over six million dollars on a very quiet weekend. Yesterday figures were down 34% on Friday and Saturday. I will take BOM's numbers over Comforts any old day of the week.

If you are interested in seeing the movie - for shits and giggles, it is available through various BitTorrent trackers. "Arrrr me pirate mates, av ye some of this ere god movie. An' be sure to share the laughs." - as an eye-patched, sea-faring purveyor of movies might say.

M.

Jinx Mchue

I just read your post from Ray's Banned from Site thread.

Suck my sweaty balls.

Personality Types

I'm curious to know what type of people we attract to the Raytractors, and even more curious to know what type of people Ray attracts. So:

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

At this site you will find the "Jung Typology Test", which works out your personality type based on answers to a set of questions. This was brought up elsewhere, and we found that we have a surprising number of INTJ's, or "Rational Masterminds" (clicking the type description by D.Keirsey link after completing the test will give you this secondary type name).

So, whether you're an atheist, theist or especially if you're a fundamentalist (and assuming you're willing to tell what type you are, and have the time to take the test), let's find out what sort of people we are, and make comparisons.

For the record, I'm an INTJ: (89% introvert, 50% intuitive, 25% thinking, 11% Judging).

Craptackular

I won't put Ray's latest post here (Jesus has a lot of names; Christianity must be true), but I wanted to mention that he uses some verses from the Song of Solomon. I've always loved it when Christians claim that the Song of Solomon is about Jesus. The Song of Solomon is pure eroticism. Solomon can sing about boobies, but Maragon can't show her cleavage. What idiots.

How appropriate is this?

religious leaders draw up Ten Blogging Commandments

Alarmed by the extent to which religious blogs can descend into vitriol, senior evangelical clergy are calling on bloggers to obey the new commandments or risk perdition.

The commandments order bloggers not to put your blog before your integrity; not to “make an idol” of the blog; not to misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin and to remember the Sabbath by taking one day off a week from blogging. They also order: “You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.”

Have they got Ray pegged or what?

He's calling for a strike, isn't he?

Honestly, is he expecting us to jump at this idiocy?
Why should anybody be interested in details about Kirk's kissing policy? Kirk must really be an extremely bad actor if he needs to get famous this way...
If Ray absolutely wants a discussion about Hollywood values, why can't he say so straight away?


Sunday, September 28, 2008
"Fireproof" and the Kiss

"Ray, "Fireproof" was a great movie. I was curious--Fireproof was a great movie. I was curious, however, as I know Kirk is married to another woman, was that really him kissing that girl at the end of the movie?"

That "girl" was his wife (Chelsea) who was flown in for the kiss:


When it comes to smooching, Kirk Cameron only has lips for his wife.


FOXNEWS.COM HOME ENTERTAINMENT:

Kirk Cameron: I Only Kiss My Wife ... Even on Screen. Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The former star of the TV sitcom "Growing Pains" refused to kiss the actress who played his wife in his new movie "Fireproof," he told the "Today" show on Monday.

“I have a commitment not to kiss any other woman,” he told the morning show. So his real wife, actress Chelsea Noble, was the body double for the onscreen kiss.

"So when I’m kissing my wife, we’re actually husband and wife honoring marriage behind the scenes,” Cameron told "Today."

The former child star became an evangelical Christian at 17 and is involved in The Way of the Master ministries.

Ray and His Minions in Church this Morning

An Atheist Tract

Finally, an atheist track! Take that Jack Chick!




















All credits go to Artist Steve Ellis and writer Fred Van Lente. Original Source.

Lurker's Haven

Good Morning,

With all that's going on over at AC and the potential evolution of this site, I have noticed a new crop of posters emerging that are either totally new or have been lurking for a while but only recently put finger to key. There are also a few, particularly at AC, that post once or twice but get scared off by multiple replies from seasoned skeptics and never raise their face above the parapet again.

I thought it would be nice to have a post where any lurkers, casual observers, visitors from AC and/or others could post a quick 'hello' and let us know that you're there.

So this goes out to everyone; theist, deist, atheist, anti-theist, pantheist and any others that may be out there. Give us a wave!

Come on in, I'll put the kettle on...

Even if Jesus did rise from the dead, it's not a big deal.

I had never thought about it like that, but this person makes an interesting point:

"So no, I’m going to grant that perhaps these kinds of supernatural events occurred. So what’s difficult to believe about Matthew’s account, given that supernatural suspension of the natural order isn’t so hard?

It isn’t that the whole land was in darkness for three hours during midday (leading up to Jesus’ death).

It isn’t that the curtain of the temple tore in half, from top to bottom, by itself at the time of at Jesus’ death.

It isn’t that there was an earthquake that was strong enough to break rocks.

Or that tombs opened up and “many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised … [and] came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.” (Matthew 27:51-54). – See what I mean about how frequently people came back from the dead in these days?

These events, impressive though you might find them today, even after you realize that no other Gospel writer thought to mention ANY of these things, aren’t too hard to believe.

You read correctly, no other account of Jesus’ death and resurrection mentions that other saints were raised from the dead, came out of their tombs, and walked around being seen by many people. Here is an interesting part to ask any Christian that you’re engaged with… how this whole resurrection thing works. If people died and came back to life before Jesus – saints, in their tombs, waking back up and walking around – what was it that made Jesus special? It’s a fun side-topic to explore."

You can read the full article here.

Really?

From Ray's latest mind fart:

"Moses said...Like you, I don't believe in Hindu gods. I don't believe in Chinese Ancestor worship. I don't believe in Shintoism. I don't believe in the Thunder-bird or Old Man Coyote. I don't believe in Thor, Odin or Freya. Heck Ray, I don't believe in the Easter Bunny or Santa."

And I don't beleive in Hmjoyt, Fghwaq, Dnhsua, Jdused, Sodjsf, Kiggdg...

I don't understand how listing out invented human words for man made characters that you don't believe in, helps you reason away the reality of God.

Do you use the same reasoning with math? 2+2= "Oh, there's no answer, because I don’t believe the answer is 1, or 2, or 3, or 5, or Santa, or Thor..."

When you get a prescription from a doctor, do you assume that the pharmacist can pick any drug off the shelf, because there can never be just one right cure?

If you really believe that your argument is valid would you be willing to call yourself an Ahinduist Adaoist Ashintoist Athunder-birdist Aold-man-coyotist Athorist Aodinist Afreyaist Aeaster-bunnyist Asantist Atheist or is your problem really just with the One true and living God? -- Keith

Quick list of my notes for this reply:

1. There is evidence that points to Judaism having polytheistic roots. The reference to God being known as the plural word Elohim (plural for lord) rather than the singular El (lord).
2. Math analogies don't work well for fundies. Why must they keep doing them? 2+2 has a definite answer. So Keith's assertion is that whatever the equation of the universe is the answer is God?
3. Scientist analogies also don't work well for the fundies. Keith is saying one drug is right for what ails you (this one is God) and the others won't do anything (every other religion). A more accurate depiction would be a pharmacy full of placebos except for one that Keith is really, really sure will cure your soul herpes.
4. Atheist just means without belief in God/gods/supernatural. You don't need to make a statement for every supernatural thing you don't believe if they all fall under this one title.
5. As stated many times before on Ray's blog, people who don't have a problem with the God Ray portrays, just the people who want to force the beliefs they have on others.

(P.S. This may not be totally concise; Keith's reply was a run-on non sequitur.)

(P.P.S. I copyright the term runonsequitur.)

Fellow Raytractors, I need some feedback...

In discussions with some of our other members via email and watching the comments, I get the feeling that many of you are beginning to feel the same way I do. We are outgrowing Blogger. We have requests for Forums, and a better way to read/write posts without burying others. Since I was the one that originally created this blog, though the idea came from a discussion on Lance's blog between Lance, The Skeptical Sorcerer, and myself, I kind of appointed myself the lead maintainer. Therefore, I have been looking into other options for us. I would like to get us off of Blogger and on to a hosting service where we can have those options as well as have more control over the back end. That way, IF we ever needed to block someone from posting we could, or else we could do it like Pharyngula does with having a separate place for the ... abusive ones.


In looking at shared hosting services, I have come across 4 that would work. They would include the tools that we would need, as well as our own domain name. I narrowed it down to 2 which are really seems to fit us best cost wise and tool-wise (webhostingpad.com or hostmonster.com). The problem is the cost. I'm a college student, so I'm not that wealthy (My goal it to make as much as an English teacher does, someday :)). I don't want top place adds up, and I am willing to do the maintenance on the back end, but the initial set up cost is the problem. I would like to do a 3 year hosting deal, as that is the most cost effective upfront.


I hate begging for money, but I feel I must. For a 3 Year hosting plan, including our own domain, we would be looking at ~$150-200 (All currencies listed are USD). I am willing to pay for some of that, But my big question would be if some of our members would be willing to help pay for that also. PLEASE DON'T feel obligated to, I understand that some of you may have even less than me, but if you could, that would help me a lot. (I feel like NPR begging for money). We have roughly 50 members and at $3 apiece we could make it. I will look into having some Google-type ads to help support it in the future. I have created a poll to the right and want your feedback before I create a way to donate (probably Paypal).


Finally, If we do end up doing this, I feel that we have outgrown the Raytractors thing. While that will still be part of our mission, and likely a huge part of what we do, I want your feedback on a new name, I will try to keep this same address pointing there though. I was thinking something like creotractors or fundytractors, but I'm open to all suggestions, I just see quite a bit of non-ray focused discussion as well.

Update: Thanks for all the support, both in comments and email. based on the feedback I've gotten so far, I have set up a donate button. Please donate what you feel comfortable with, and there is no minimum (or maximum just in case Warren Buffet is secretly a Raytractor). Keep thinking of names or else if you want to keep the name Raytractors.

Meaning of "Christian" According to a Christian

"Being a Christian means that I know God. I don't know "about" Him; I know Him. That's the biblical definition of a Christian—someone who knows the Lord (see John 17:3). This isn't bigotry or arrogance. That's just the way it is." - Ray Comfort

I had to read this one through a couple of times, because I found it hard to believe. Ray Comfort is a Christian, and he is correcting someone’s misunderstanding (he is a creationist), but at the same time he admits that the word "Christian" means "someone who knows the Lord (but not about him)." This is all we have been trying to get across. The Christian doesn't know about God. Here’s what Scripture says about the subject:

"This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Ephesians 4:17-18).

The Christian life-style, their philosophy, their arguments about there being no evidence that they can see of the existence of God, fortify the truth of the above Scripture.

But it’s not just the Christian that does not know about God. The entire human race walk in futility, with a darkened understanding, and they are alienated from the life of this so-called God. This is why someone who has even been "regenerated" by the Holy Spirit has no awareness of His presence--"God is not in their thoughts" (see Psalm 10:4). They breathe air, using lungs, looking at formation using eyes, and not for one moment be aware of any god. It truly is ignorance and blindness of the heart that Christians believe. I know, because I lived that way.

Jesus Christ did not come so that humanity would no longer be without the life of God (to know about God):

"Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matthew 1:23). See also John 14:6.

Adapted from Ray Comfort's Post.
Original cartoon by Richard Gunther.

Raytionary

Should we expect Thicky McThick to post a new blog everytime he learns the meaning of a commonplace word?

A Catholic Magick Spell to Protect Sarah Palin

Not all spells are Wiccan or Pagan, the Catholics have had their own form of magic in the form of prayers to angels and saints since the beginnings of the church.

Repeat this incantation to the Archangel Michael to help protect Sarah Palin from evil.

Great Archangel Michael Archangel, defend Sarah Palin in battle,
be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the
devil.

May God rebuke Sarah Palin's enemies, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell the Adversary and all other evil spirits who prowl about the world for the ruin of souls.

Amen.

Source

Let us hope this anti-witchcraft blessing on Palin has eroded over time:

Do You Believe in Magic?

From the Catholic League website. (I have to go shower now)

Short version: witchcraft is real.



PUNDITS SLAM PALIN ON WITCHCRAFT

September 25, 2008

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments today on news reports that an African minister once asked God to protect Sarah Palin from witchcraft:

“In 2005, Sarah Palin went to church and found that a visiting minister from Kenya, Bishop Thomas Muthee, was doing the service. He offered a prayer asking Jesus to keep her free from ‘every form of witchcraft.’ Palin said nothing—she simply kept her head bowed throughout the blessing. Why this is newsworthy is one issue, but why it has quickly become the subject of scorn is another.

“For the past two decades, Americans have been lectured by educators and the chattering class that we must respect cultural, religious, racial and ethnic diversity. It seems that exceptions to the creed of multiculturalism are only made when it suits the ideological agenda of the left. Enter Keith Olbermann: He exploited this incident last night as a club to paint Palin as an extremist. Moreover, he used this single blessing to unfavorably contrast the African minister to Barack Obama’s spiritual mentor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The MSNBC commentator incredibly said that Wright—who spewed hate speech before Obama for 20 years—‘seems pretty mainstream’ by comparison.

“Witchcraft is a sad reality in many parts of Africa, resulting in scores of deaths in Kenya over the past two decades. Bishop Muthee’s blessing, then, was simply a reflection of his cultural understanding of evil. While others are not obliged to accept his interpretation, all can be expected to respect it. More than that—Muthee should be hailed for asking God to shield Palin from harmful forces, however they may be manifested. And for this he is mocked and Palin ridiculed?

“We know that many cultural elites have a hard time embracing religion, but is it too much to ask that they at least show some manners when discussing subjects which most Americans hold dear?”

I can smell a second strike coming...

Hey,

With all that's going on over at AC recently - particularly the excommunication of Terry - I get the feeling that there are a lot of folk who are plain fed up with Ray (and not just in the usual "oh that Ray Comfort, look at him being a twat again; bless his little cotton Jesus-socks" kind of way).  Maybe I'm reading this wrong, but I think the air is right to invite some of the newly emerging lurkers and general theists that have cropped up since the Pity Party over here for some serious chat and tell Ray to stick it where the circling-Sun don't shine.

If I'm way off base with this, let me know and I'll Winston Smith this post so fast the Cambrian explosion will look like an epoch (oh, wait...)

I know many of us don't post there any more, regardless, but I think we could draw some new blood in anyhow. Thoughts?

In related news,

A poster by the illuminating name of 'Anonymous' wrote a comment on our friend Terry's post Beware of "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing"  and said, among other things:

"The atheists are the fools, and they will embrace you because "an enemy of my enemy is my friend"...

...By your actions you are a false convert. You really need to let that sink in, but not let it blow you up, your rage is very ungodly....

...By going around and slandering LW for rebuking you, you are acting like a fool, instead of being wise and examining yourself to see whether you are indeed "in the faith"."

So we've got;

1. The 'others' are evil and fools, don't trust them
2. You're not toeing the line and therefore you were never one of 'us' to begin with
3. Do not question the leadership

Cult?

Yeah, I'd say it's a fucking cult.

I think this post lends credence to the idea that Ray - or at least one of his minions - posts under false profiles to up the comment count and generally antagonize people, I have one thing to say to that:

Costly mistakes it seems Ray is making,

Ugly scenes with the fans he's forsaking. 

Not able enough,

To rebuke or rebuff,

So he makes out like they were just faking.

Ok, Wee does it much, much better, but I still had fun writing it.

There's been some cracking stuff done while I've been away - it's taken me a while to catch up - so a massive thanks to all the Raytractors who have provided such entertaining reading over the past week or so, so good job all! Now lets steal Ray's readership and get some proper discussion on the go...

Matt

Subject: Help destroy Palin

I received this email today and thought I'd pass it along. It's not as funny as photoshopping a penis into a picture and sending it to Sarah Palin, but it's the next best thing!


This is the kind of creative genius we need to turn this mad world around while keeping our sense of humor...Since Palin gave her speech accepting the Republican nomination for the Vice Presidency, Barack Obama's campaign has raised over $10 million dollars. Some of you may already be supporting the Obama campaign financially; others of you may still be recovering from the primaries. None of you, however, can be happy with Palin's selection, especially on her positions on women's issues. So, if you'd like to make your opinion known, may I suggest the following fiendishly brilliant idea? Make a $5 minimum donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin's name. A Planned Parenthood donation is tax deductible. And here's the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor.

Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

https://secure.ga0.org/02/pp10000_inhonor

You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the 'in Sarah Palin's honor' card. Use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters:

McCain for President/Sarah Palin
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington, VA 22202

Feel free to send this along to all your women friends as well as your men friends and urge them to do the same. Thanks."

"PenisGate08" Drives Wedge between The Way, and His Master

In a recent slight breach of decorum an avatar appeared on the blog of Ray Comfort, Atheist Central, with a picture of Ray Comfort with a cock in his face.
This set off a shitstorm of opinions between the fundamentalists about how this accidental event should have been handled.

Comfort responded by locking down the site and expelling those who did not toe the party line.

Comfort started a purge of his minions with a total investigation of their personal blogs to see if they has any "objectable material." In one reported case, a picture that was posted of a man's wife in a mini-skirt, the man was banished from the Comfort fold, cast out, ex-communicated, humiliated and beaten by those he was trying to support, yet compassion, they say, is their earmark.

The Godhead of this cult, Comfort, is a slavish adherrent to his own interpretation of the bible, in spite of admonishments from other religious leaders.

More at eleven.

Scientists find the oldest rocks on earth. Big surprise-- --- they aren't 6,000 years old.

From the article:

"The scientists, who describe the discovery in the journal Science, said studying these rocks can give clues about what the planet was like early in its history. The solar system, including the Earth, was formed about 4.57 billion years ago. These rocks date from roughly 290 million years later."

Full story here.

Just out of curiosity, I wonder what the fundies take on his would be? Would the scientists be stupid or misled by Satan or would a deity have put those rocks there just to test our faith? Or maybe they would come up with one I haven't heard before. Just wondering.

Thank you, Mr. Comfort.

Dear Mr. Raymond Comfort,






I would like to personally thank you for the impact your ministry has had on my life. About four years ago, I was questioning my faith. I would go to church every week and think "I don't believe this stuff. Why am I here?" I was on the fence.

Then I found out about your ministry through a reputable website and was inspired by what I witnessed. Your message opened my eyes! I felt inspired to shout the truth of the universe from the mountain tops! Mr. Comfort, you helped me through my conversion and made me more certain of the position I hold today than anything else in the world. The Way of the Master was one of the most influential shows in my life.

Yes, your message was indeed what changed me. After seeing your rigmarole on the internet, I changed my ways. I doubted that things could happen the way the prolific atheist writers and scientist said, but after hearing the inane balderdash of yourself and Mr. Kirk Cameron, I was convinced.

So once more I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to you. You are the reason I first set out on the journey of atheism and thus far the journey has not disappointed me!

Sincerely,
Yaeger

Does the universe need a cause?

Thank you Ray for not quote mining Richard Dawkins

Thank you, Ray, for not quote mining Richard Dawkins.

Even though Ray will probably never read this, I thought it would be nice to quote mine Richard Dawkins for laughs since it seems Ray went out of his way not to quote mine Richard Dawkins which is appreciated. This seems like something Ray might enjoy as well as the atheists here. :)

It sounds so reasonable, doesn't it? Such a modest proposal. Why not teach "both sides" and let the children decide for themselves? As President Bush said, "You're asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes."... Everything about the phrase "both sides" warms the hearts of educators like ourselves.

As teachers, both of us have found that asking our students to analyse controversies is of enormous value to their education. What is wrong, then, with teaching both sides of the alleged controversy between evolution and creationism or "intelligent design" (ID)?

What is wrong with the... sweet reasonableness of "it is only fair to teach both sides"?

Why are we so sure that intelligent design is... a real scientific theory, worthy of "both sides" treatment? ... It is an opinion shared by the vast majority of professional biologists, but of course science does not proceed by majority vote among scientists. Why isn't creationism (or its incarnation as intelligent design) just another scientific controversy?

The argument the ID advocates put... is always of the same character... They offer positive evidence in favour of intelligent design... [We also get] a list of alleged deficiencies in evolution. We are told of "gaps" in the fossil record. Or organs are stated... to be "irreducibly complex": too complex to have evolved by natural selection.

If Theory A has some difficulty in explaining Phenomenon X, we must automatically prefer Theory B without even asking whether Theory B (creationism in this case) is any better at explaining it.

- Richard Dawkins

Meet the New Terry; Same As the Old Terry?

I don't think there is a new Terry. Just someone who is pissed, maybe even hurt, that some people he admired, even looked up to, turned their backs on him. He hasn't apologized for his rants and insults posted here; he still claims they were made by someone else. He used to do the same thing at Comfort's blog. If one of his fellow believers offered Terry the slightest criticism, he would go off on them. Now Ray and Tony have abandoned him and Terry has really went off. He's still making wild claims and accusations without any evidence. If he has evidence of wrong doing by Ray Comfort or anyone else, please share it. "Marlin" made some great points on the Raytractors. I quote:

"The thing that sticks with me is that the things you are now saying did not come from examination of the facts. They come from the results of being slapped down by the very folks that you held in high esteem."

And I like this one even more:

"If what you say is true about Ray and Tony. And you knew this before they slapped you down you REALLY need to take a look at your integrity."

I think Terry is posting here simply because he can't post at Ray's. In fact, in the comments on the post at his site, Beware of Wolves in Sheep's Clothing, he tells Jean that he's posting here because he knows Ray, or someone, reads The Raytractors.

Obviously, I'm not a psychologist or psychiatrist, but Terry, I do think you need professional help. You won't get it from someone who only talks about sin and Hell and the Law. I hope you get the help you need.

Durrrrr

"I wonder if Mr. Dawkins understands the implications of his admittance..." Ray Comfort on Richard Dawkins' statement regarding Pascal's Wager:

"...when two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong."

Ray, not only does Dawkins understand it, you're the only person in the entire universe above the age of 5 who could conceivably be amazed by the entirely obvious implications of the statement.

The Parody

It is done.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
May Ray have mercy on my soul.

EDIT: Source for topmost cartoon.

Do atheists not exist?

My Response to Ray's Invitation

Not sure if this will get posted, but thought you guys might be interested:

Ray,  

I am considering taking up your offer to attend the Transformed event. Based on the comments so far, it seems like I will be quite the heel if I do show up. I have no problem signing up under my own name and letting you know when I've arrived, as long as there is no chance I will be turned away at the gate after a long drive. It's in a great location too. I haven't visited for awhile, but Charlestown, WV has always been one of my favorite towns, and the people of Charlestown are some of the kindest. I have a few questions for you about the event:  

1. Will I be permitted to live blog the event?  

2. Will I be permitted to use a digital recorder at the event?  

3. Would I be allowed to videotape the event?  

Hope to hear back from you soon.  

Your atheist friend, 

Mike Jarsulic  

BTW, sorry to disappoint you Jinxy, but I'm the last person to hide behind the anonymity of a keyboard.

Where's Terry Burton?

I suppose he could be off using his super hero powers to save the world, but I haven't seen him post at Ray's since the big brouhaha. Do you think he's having a crises of faith? Is it possible he might deconvert? Probably not, but have you ever wondered what kind of atheist Terry Burton would make?

I'm agnostic

Something I picked up in the Sluggy Freelance archive...

Edit: Whoops, nearly forgot to cite my sources: www.sluggy.com. This particular comic is from a guest artist in "Chapter 51: Brain Games", and is entitled *Erica Hendersons story*.

I Love "Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal"

Check out more here

Taking photos of people inside their homes is rather unethical, isn't it Tony?

Not that anything the fundies do anymore surprises me, but seriously, should taking photos of people inside their homes and posting them on the net not reek even slightly as being a bit unethical to Tony Miano? (See the 19th photo down from the top.)

Although I would most certainly rather not be within ear shot of it, if they aren't breaking any laws, then they have the right to free speech in their open air preaching. But shooting pics of people sitting in their living rooms is not something that I would ever do. I have no idea if it is illegal or not, but that isn't really the point. Sometimes, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. Personally, I think keeping your camera out of people's living rooms is one of those things that you do out of respect for other people's privacy.

Look Out, Oscar!

I don't recall how to make links work, so you'll have to copy and paste, but man, is it worth it.

Link


I wanna see this even more than Expelled!


Edit: Fixin' ur links.
I'm piggybacking on this post to add some relevant information(hope you don't mind Rufus!).

Here's the description of the movie off of Rotten Tomatoes:
" In this religious romantic drama, Kirk Cameron (LEFT BEHIND) stars as Captain Caleb Holt, a firefighter who is brave enough to risk his life daily but he can't save his marriage. When he and his wife (Erin Bethea) are on the verge of divorce,... In this religious romantic drama, Kirk Cameron (LEFT BEHIND) stars as Captain Caleb Holt, a firefighter who is brave enough to risk his life daily but he can't save his marriage. When he and his wife (Erin Bethea) are on the verge of divorce, Caleb's father steps in and asks him to take "The Love Dare": 40 days of spiritually driven ways to try to get back into his wife's heart. At first, Caleb doesn't have much success...until he realizes that he has to get his relationship with God in order before he can improve his marriage."


My mouth....I puked in it.

-Maragon

A Logical Argument

Religion, and specifically, the brand of Evangelical Fundamentalistic Christianity expoused by Ray Comfort is based primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown (Death without salvation) and partly the wish to feel that you have a kind of loving father (Jesus), who will stand by you in all your troubles and answer your prayers.

Ray claims to have the authority to preach this gospel based on his interpretation of the Bible. An argument based solely on his concept of Biblical inerrancy. Such biblical inerrancy is only supported by the Bible itself. In other words, Ray claims that the Bible is the "Word of God", and the only evidence supporting this is that the Bible itself claims to be the "Word of God". This is merely circular reasoning, not a logical argument.

I present a logical argument that the Bible is nothing but a childish collection of stories. The most childish is the story of the global flood.

Looking at this fable only from a geological point of view, one would realistically expect at least a scant amount of geological or natural evidence for a global flood if the supernatural catastrophe took place, but the signs overwhelmingly point to the contrary. The flood should have created a massive extinction along the floors of the oceans. Likewise, millions of land organisms that would have certainly been victimized by the flood would also have deposited a large layer of terrestrial fossils. Of course, neither one of these evidential necessities is apparent.

Miles of coral reef, hundreds of feet thick, still survive intact at the Eniwetok atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The violent flood would have certainly destroyed these formations, yet the rate of deposit tells us that the reefs have survived for over 100,000 undisturbed years. Similarly, the floodwaters, not to mention the other factors leading to a boiling sea, would have obviously melted the polar ice caps. However, ice layers in Greenland and Antarctica date back at least 40,000 years.

Impact craters from pre-historical asteroid strikes still exist even though the tumultuous floodwaters would have completely eroded them. If these craters were formed concurrently with the flood, as it has been irresponsibly suggested, the magnificent heat from the massive impacts would have immediately boiled large quantities of the ocean, as if it wasn’t hot enough already. Like the asteroid craters, global mountain ranges would exhibit uniform erosion as a result of a global flood. Unsurprisingly, we witness just the opposite in neighboring pairs of greatly contrasting examples, such as the Rockies and Appalachians.

Even if we erroneously assume there to be enough water under the earth’s surface in order to satisfy the required flood levels, the size of the openings necessary to permit passage for a sufficient amount of water would be large enough to destroy the cohesive properties of the earth’s crust. However, the outer layer is firmly intact, and there’s no evidence indicating that it ever collapsed. All this hypothetical escaping water would have greatly eroded the sides of the deep ocean fissures as well, but no such observable evidence exists for this phenomenon either.

We can obtain additional geological evidence suggesting that there will never be records discovered for this particular global flood by examining fossil deposits via radiometric dating. We know that isotopes, specific forms of chemical elements, will naturally convert to other isotopes over time. The rate at which they undergo this change depends on the concentration of the original isotope.

Results from this radiometric dating method unambiguously indicate that many of the less complex fossils are billions of years old. This realization drives a painful thorn in the Creationist hypothesis that attempts to explain how the flood deposited the fossils only a few thousand years ago. Furthermore, time has also neatly separated the earth’s fossils into distinct layers according to their radiometrically determined age. In fact, there has never been a verifiable instance in which two fossils discovered in the same layer were dated appreciably different. Even if we entertain the possibility of the fossils being deposited by the biblical flood, the field of fluid mechanics tells us that the smaller fossils of less complex, more primitive life forms would not sink as fast as the larger fossils, yet the remains of these tiny creatures are the sole occupants of the basement layer because they obviously settled millions of years prior to the deposition of fossils belonging to more complex, more recent life forms.

We can also observe algae deposits within the fossil layers, a phenomenon that could not have formed during the flood because they require sunlight to thrive. It’s quite reasonable to assume that the clouds would have thoroughly obstructed the sunlight during such a tremendous rain indicative of the flood. Setting aside this and all other known fossil inconsistencies with the Bible, archaeologists have found human footprints within the upper layers. Moving water simply could not have deposited these markings. This seemingly endless list of just the geological problems was completely unforeseeable to the primitive authors, thus the Bible offers no justifications or explanations for our discoveries.

If there is such gross factual error in just this one bible story, how can anyone claim Divine Authority and inerrancy for the rest of the Scriptures?

With these and other ongoing discoveries, the outdated concepts of revealed religions must eventually join the other mythologies on the scrapheap of theism. (Sorry all you Thorists and Zuesists)


A good world needs real knowledge, kindliness not predicated upon eternal punishment, and real courage of modern thought; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men.

Dark Flow

"As if the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy weren't vexing enough, another baffling cosmic puzzle has been discovered.

Patches of matter in the universe seem to be moving at very high speeds and in a uniform direction that can't be explained by any of the known gravitational forces in the observable universe. Astronomers are calling the phenomenon "dark flow."

The stuff that's pulling this matter must be outside the observable universe, researchers conclude."

Comfort and Friel will no doubt see this and Friel in particular will take great pleasure in mangling it on air into some sort of "Science fails, but they might have found heaven" tripe.

Anyway, an interesting read... http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080923-dark-flows.html

Consent

Evangelist Tony Alamo was arrested. Former church members accuse him of child abuse. Alamo claims there is a mandate from the Bible for young girls to marry, that consent is puberty.

The Bible is a holy book, God's word, that we all need to live by. There are plenty of stories about older men marrying young teen age girls in it. Back then a older man could go to some 12 year old girl's father, offer him some cattle and a few shekels, and voila, he's got himself a child bride, ready to start pushing out a kid every year until she drops from exhaustion. And I don't believe the Bible speaks against it.

Request for help

Since Ray copied MJARSULIC's "Transformed!!!" post directly to his blog without citation or a link as required by the usage statement at the bottom of the page, please help me to remind him that if he wants to use the post he must provide a link over here. I posted the following comment.

As this post came directly from the Raytractors blog, please follow terms of use listed at the bottom of the page or else remove this post. "Any post or comment represents solely the viewpoints of the original poster. If you would like to use them or reference them on your own site (this means you, Ray), you must provide a link back to "http://raytractors.blogspot.com," (if you are able) and preferably the link should point to the actual blog post that you are referencing."

Thank you,
MacGyverJr - Moderator, Raytractors Blog

Edit: I also forwarded a similar post on to the LW Moderator email address

Need a script

Everyone knows this image, by world class cartoonist Richard Gunther: Ray posted it recently, as an accompanyment to his pity party.

.

I'm going to do up a "What really happened" parody tomorrow, with all three characters drawn... well... as well as I can draw. It's not great, but it's better than this, and I'll be trying to make them look intelligent nice godless atheists rather than ugly evil godless athists.

.

.

I need a script, and volunteers to base the characters off of. Maragon has volunteered herself and the upper portion of half of her right breast, so she'll replace the drag queen on the far left. And the picture is all Nonmagic's fault, so she has to feature as the one who makes the suggestion on the right (Unless you've got a problem with this, NM?). I can base the girls off of their avatars.

.

We need a male character for the middle guy with the laptop. And a script. Don't forget the script.

.

Any volunteers, or objections? Or scripts?

.

Or is this just a stupid impulse idea which I'm going to completely regret tomorrow?

Banned

I guess I'm personae non grata at Atheist Central. I tried to post a couple of times, but no dice. I also tried to post under the name "atheistssuck", but that didn't make it either. But I have been trying to make sure Ray's staff earns their pay. I keep sending in multiple posts of Great Post, Ray. Over and over and over. They can moderate their tight little Christian asses off. Oh, I'm so immature.

The Bunker Mentality Prevails

This recent event has turned out to be a rather unexpected source of amusement.

To me, this is a perfect example of not only the Bunker Mentality, but also a main dichotomy between fundamentalists of all kinds, and everyone else.

I have a couple younger managers that report to me, Steve and Dave. Whenever anybody addresses an email to someone, a dropdown appears after entering the first letter and you can just click instead of typing the whole name. It is handy, but deadly, because it is rather easy to click the wrong name and not notice if they are spelled similarly, in this case Dave and Dale- easy to fuck up. Last week I get this email from Steve and it is an animated frog being tossed into a blender. His comment was, "does the "ol Man" ever make you feel like this?"

I knew immediately what had happened and I know they use that certain term of endearment in reference to me, as does my youngest son. Of course by the time I mentioned it to him, he had already discovered his mistake and I no more than got the word "blender" out of my mouth and he did the perfect double face palm- Priceless! Let me tell you, it was all I could do to not crack up. Did I lock down the security? Filter all emails? Scan/moderate their stuff? No, people have to communicate in their own ways.

It gets worse. About a six moths ago I recieved an errent email from an office assistant and there is a picture of a man with his head cut open with an axe, and there are thousands of little vaginas spilling out all over. The message read, "This is all Joe thinks about." I lost a whole mouthful of green tea. Did I Lock down, et, No. Open communication flow is the key to any successful organization. The moment someone wants to start stifling the flow of communications, the organization must eliminate them.

So, what did I say to that assistant (she is emminently competent and reliable as gravity?)
I said, "I just wanted to confirm that the picture with all the little vaginas in it was not actually intended for me." She looked at me like a cow staring at an oncoming train.

So, instead of all the drama and now the lockdown, more screening, more censorship.... wow, funny how that sounds so.....cultish. Just sayin...... Maybe they'll be heading to Guyana soon.

And so why didn't Ray merely ask Nonmagic why (? How novel?) she posted an avatar with a cock on his face? He forgot to ask why? Of course it is irrational not to ask why, or Rufus, why did you post that light switch thingy? Ol' Ray has exploited this to the max. That fucker is a master at capitalizing on this type of stuff, I must say that for him.

So now the Godhead has taken his minions further into his bunker of ignorance.
/d

Weemaryanne Regrets (But Not Very Much)

(Note: All puns and innuendo intended unless accompanied by disclaimers.)

Believe it or not, Ray, I'd miss you.

(Insert pause while searching for tissue.)

But, the old intertoobs

Have no shortage of boobs

Spouting nonsense about this non-issue.

Invitation to Ray's Pity Party

Transformed!!!

While driving to work today, I had one of those wacky ideas that always seem to pop up. A few months back, I got the urge to visit my one friend in Spain and participate in the running of the bulls while I'm there. Today's idea is even stranger, I am considering going to the Ray Comfort Transformed cult meeting in Charleston, WV. Some of the reasons I have for wanting to attend are to:

• Report back on all the lies that Comfort vomits upon the crowd.
• Witness the mental instability of the the Raytards first-hand
• Meet Terry Burton
• Get my picture taken with Ray
• Attempt to get Ray to autograph a particular photo I saw recently

I'm wondering if you guys think this is a good idea. Admission is free and it is only about a two hour drive. Also, if you have any other ideas for how to spend my time there, let me know. 

GIMP Tutorial II - Let's Take a Few Years off of Ray

Let's pretend that Ray is really pissed off at some people for uploading porno to his website, and you want to cheer him up by touching up a photo of his to make him look younger and more attractive.



First things first. We need to darken his hair. Open up his photo, create a new layer, and set the new layer mode as overlay. Draw black over the hair on the new layer to make his hair darker.



Use the airbrush tool on a new normal layer to touch up any gray spots left.



Next, we need to get rid of some of those neck and face wrinkles. Use the clone tool on unwrinkly skin (ctrl-left click), and draw using the clone tool over wrinkly skin to erase those wrinkles! Use the smudge tool if you need to.



Flatten the image and use a gausian blur on his face to blur any imperfections and smooth things out. Use the sharpen tool again to regain some detail.



Flatten the image again and create a new layer using a soft-light mode. Copy and paste the background image, do a Gaussian blur, and adjust the transparency of the new layer to give Ray a bit more of a youthful glow.



Finally, flatten the image again, do any touch ups with the smudge tool, and we're done. If we wanted to make him look even younger, we could take away the mustache and darken his lips a bit, but then he wouldn't look like Ray anymore!

Old:



New:



Ta da!

I can't beat Ray in a logical argument . . .

. . . for the same reason I can't beat Neptune, my brother's yellow lab, in a game of Monopoly.

Even if he understood the rules -- which he obviously doesn't -- he's clearly far more interested in barking for attention, trampling on the game board, slobbering on the Community Chest, peeing on the other pieces, gobbling up the money, and then wagging his tail with a proud expression, as though he's just accomplished something.


Atheist Central

A few words about the Raytractors reading group I'd like to organize

Some people have been wondering what would happen to the Raytractors if Ray shut down his blog. I really don't think there is any chance of Ray shutting down his blog because I think he likes the attention too much and it would also mean giving up his favorite hobby, which is goading atheists. Anyway, one of the things that I had mentioned a few days ago was the possibility of creating a Raytractors reading group for the purpose of reading and discussing books as a group, or at least with partners. There seemed to be some interest in it, so I'd just like to reiterate that I'm still looking to get this off the ground.

In the meantime, I just closed the last page on Carl Sagan's The Varieties of Scientific Experience, A Personal View Of The Search For God. Wow, what a read. I actually enjoyed this more than Demon Haunted World, and I enjoyed DHW a LOT.

In Varieties, Sagan addresses a few issues and one of which is the issue of why, if there is a deity that created the world, did he leave so scarce evidence for his having created it. Very interesting read for those who are interested in such things from a scientific perspective. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on The God Hypothesis and The Religious Experience. I wasn't particularly compelled by the chapter on Extraterrestrial Folklore. I also wanted to share a couple of my favorite quotes from the chapter on The Religious Experience:

"The story of God's commandment to Abraham to kill his son, Issac, is an example of the transition from human to animal sacrifice. After a while people decided it really wasn't worthwhile killing their own children in this way; they would symbolically kill their own children just by getting a goat and killing it. In fact, the general decline in the practice of human and animal sacrifice in the evolution of religion is worth some attention. The Judaic and therefore also the Christian-Islamic religions began when human and animal sacrifice was all the rage.

What does that kind of propitiation mean? It is a wish for the course of nature to be different from what it otherwise would be. It provides the illusion that by some sequence of ritual actions we are able to influence forces of nature that are otherwise inaccessible to us. And therefore it involves a change from the usual course of nature, which was described very nicely by Ivan Turgenev as follows: "Whatever a man prays for, he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduces itself to this: 'Great God, grant that twice two be not four.'" And from a different tradition, let me quote a Yiddish proverb, which goes, "If praying did any good, they would be hiring men to pray."


And another quote:

"We all grow up in the land of giants when we are very small and the adults are very large. And then, through a set of slow stages, we grow up, and we become one of the adults. But still within us, surely, is some part of our childhood that hasn't disappeared and hasn't grown up. It's just there. In your formative years, you then learn from direct experience, absolutely incontrovertible, that there are much larger, much older, much wiser, and much more powerful creatures in the universe than you. And your strongest emotional bonds are to them. And, among other things, they are sometimes angry with you, and then you have to work through the anger. And they ask you to do things that you may not want to do, and you must propitiate them, you must apologize, you must do a set of things. Now, how likely is it that after we are all grown up we've fully detached ourselves from this formative experience? Isn't it much more likely that there remains a part of us that is still in the practice of this kind of childhood dealing with parents and other adults? Could that have something to do with prayer specifically and with religious beliefs in general?"

Oh, and one more. He also quotes Dostoevsky. From The Brothers Karamazov:

"So long as a man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship."

I wanted to pick something short to read in the interim between now and starting volume 2 of In Search of Lost Time so I chose Zadig and L'Ingenu by Voltaire. If you have a copy yourself feel free to read along with me and discuss as you want. Hopefully, around the end of next week I'll start volume 2 of ISOLT and for those that are interested we can discuss it as we go along.