2012 is coming to a close. We’re going to start our next cycle about the Sun in a couple of days with multiple occasions for celebration. Many of my friends, heathen and otherwise, will be coming to the house on Friday to celebrate the winter solstice. Most everyone will be celebrating Christmas Day with family, The Christmas Story, football, and presents from loved ones and family. Then there will be yet another celebration when December 2012 becomes January 2013. Try as we might we just can’t protect our “time of multiple celebrations” from controversy and tragedy. Scuffling over whether or not there is a “War on Christmas” is mildly entertaining but the tragedy of a mass murder demands that we focus on darker thoughts. If you’d like to delve into the subject of mass murders in American you can find and excellent article on the Mother Jones website.

2012 had some highlight for us. We found out that the “nones,” those people with no religious affiliation, is the fastest growing “religious” group in America. This year the Supreme Court decided to review the “Under God” part of the Pledge of Allegiance. The arguments are now about equal rights and protection as opposed to violations of the First Amendment. In 2012, non-believers are finally recognized as a powerful voting block. This was the year of the Reason Rally in Washington, D.C. A couple of graduates from the Clergy Project came out in 2012 and have taken their place in helping the FreeThought community. Jerry DeWitt is the Executive Director of Recovering from Religion. Teresa McBain was a Methodist pastor for 10 years. She came out at the American Atheist convention and now works for that organization as a communications director. Jessica Ahlquist, a high school student, won a case that removed a banner from her school gymnasium. This year Arizona voted to have an avowed secularist sent to the House of Representatives, Kyrsten Sinema. Also this year the FFRF (Freedom from Religion Foundation) took action over the IRS’s failure to enforce electioneering restrictions. Ten Commandment monuments have been removed from public property in Pennsylvania. Prayer in public schools was fought and won in South Carolina. The fact that Pennsylvania declared 2012 the”Year of the Bible” was addressed. A long standing obvious violation of the separation of church and state was addressed in Montana where the permit for a life sized concrete statue of Jesus on public land was not renewed by the Forest Service. The FFRF is claiming over 140 legal victories in 2012 without going to court!

A scan of the Wikipedia page on science accomplishments during 2012 yields too many to list here. Off the top of my head I remember the discovery of the Higgs Boson and the amazing landing of the Martian rover Curiosity. There were of course many many more. While space science is always interesting we shouldn’t forget terrestrial advances being made by altruistic and dedicated individuals. The Guinea Worm Disease is about to become the second human disease to be completely eradicated. The first was small pox. In 2012 Stem cells were used to ease degnerative blindness in volunteers.

2012 was a year of the young activism. Jessica Ahlquist, Krystal Myers, Jeff Shott, Matthew Nielson, Maia Disbrow and Mayan and Balen Essak were all young activists that were in the news on the front lines of church and state separation. While the “nones” are on the rise generally and represent almost 20% or 1 in 5, the adults under 30 are polling at 33% or 1/3^rd of the population. We’re going into a new year and stats like that give the secularists a reason for hope for the future.

Happy Holidays!

No.

Atheists conduct war on Christmas armed with nothing but credit cards and reason.

Tis the season to be shopping…Christmas season lasts about a month—give or take. It starts with “Black Friday” an ancient holiday tradition dating all the way back to the early 60s. While some say the tradition goes back further than that, it’s a sure bet that it is a product of modern consumerism. This season is marked with a great deal of hope. Store owners hope that they will start operating in the “black” before the end of the year. Shoppers hope that they get the latest Chinese gadget before they sell out and everyone hopes that it won’t take 3 light changes to get through the next intersection. Surveys say that Black Friday this year represents over $59 Billion in sales which is a 13% increase over last year’s sales figures. Not all of these sales are going to “good Christians.” Recent surveys say as many as 1 in 5 in this country are a part of the growing demographic called “nones” meaning no religious affiliation. It is not unreasonable to assume therefore that 20% of the sales figures are going to non-Christians. It is apparent that their participation is appreciated by the stores and recipients of the Atheist’s largess. However, that’s not the “war on Christmas” as described by Fox News and Bill O’Reilly.

The front lines of the war on Christmas this year appears to be in Santa Monica, California where the city council has decided that there will be no more Christmas displays in a public park. Apparently the result, the aftermath, of the bloody battle resulted in Christmas Nativity Scene displays in Santa Monica being moved to private property. Praise secularism! For 60 years the taxpayers of Santa Monica supported scenes celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ in Palisades Park. Last year they tried a lottery and the secularist won all but three of the 21 available slots. This year the city council decided to get out of the nativity scene business and didn’t allow any displays at Palisades Park. The separation of church and state supporters were fine with that decision but the folks that owned the lion share of the religious displays filed suit. They lost and now things are as they should be. The religious displays are up but they are on private property and not at the cost of the taxpayer. Reason prevails.

This year as the Atheists conduct their war, some are facing off with an actual army, the Salvation Army. Atheists are saying to ignore the annoying bell ringers and give your donations to more deserving charities such as Doctors without Borders, the Red Cross, Amnesty International, Unicef, Heifer International, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the Scripps Research Institute, Child’s Play, the Trevor Project, and local food pantries. These organizations are doing good things without the Salvation Army’s discriminatory hiring practices and position on LGBT issues.

With all the “straw manning” that is going on in this it may be hard to remember that Atheists are no more angry at Christmas than anyone else. It is not an act of aggression to defend the constitutional principle of separation of church and state or to point out that an organization is using religious bias to discriminate against a large portion of society.

Finally, saying “Happy Holidays” is not an act of aggression. In fact it is the more inclusive term. But Bill O’Reilly has an answer for that. He says, “You can’t always include everyone.” Well, Bill, that’s just one more thing you got wrong. It’s the end of the year and the beginning of the next. Everyone can celebrate even if it’s only to acknowledge that the days are getting longer. Happy Holidays!

Like it is 12.19.19.17.19!

Harold Camping was wrong last year—twice! He predicted that Jesus Christ would return to the world and put an end to life as we know it. The rapture was nigh but it didn’t happen in May 2011 and it didn’t happen in October. In about 3 weeks, we’ll probably surpass another prediction of doom. This time the end is suppose to arrive on December 21^st—the same day as the winter solstice. Remember that Christmas is on December 25^th a few days later. What’s a “true believer” to do? Will buying Christmas presents indicate to the world that you believe deep in your heart that the world will still be around for Christmas? To be safe, will the true believer have their children open their presents early?

How many people actually believe the world is about to end? My guess, judging by the fact that I have to wait through 3 light changes at every intersection near shopping centers, is that not many are really serious about the ancient Mayan myth that the world will end at the end of the 12^th b’ak’tun. However, there has been plenty of discussion on the subject in the media, on the net, and amongst my friends. The blog entry, http://tucsoncitizen.com/freethought-arizona/2012/09/27/december-21st-2012-is-less-than-90-days-away-so-what/  still gets hits daily. I wrote for another blog, The Yankee Skeptic, on the subject: http://yankeeskeptic.com/2012/11/17/its-the-end-of-the-world-or-maybe-not/ . In that blog, there is a bit more detail about the Mayans and their calendar. It ends with a reference to a NASA site on the internet where a scientist answers questions about Nibiru (Planet-X).

So last night while walking the Sabino Canyon tram road with the Tucson Hiking Meetup Group, the subject of the doomsday prediction came up in conversation and a new question emerged, “What will happen as a result of the doomsday prediction?” How will people react? Is there any benefit to living through a doomsday prediction? Will it make people treat others more kindly or have the opposite effect? We all know that it shouldn’t make a difference on how we treat others. There is a right way and a wrong way to treat other people and that shouldn’t change because of something as insignificant as the world coming to an end. However, if I truly believed in the prediction, I think I’d make some changes. The first thing I’d do is cancel my colonoscopy appointment. I’d stop saving up for stuff, empty my retirement fund, and start traveling everywhere—FIRST CLASS. I’d stop worrying about my diet, my weight, and my cholesterol. I’d forget about painting the house and put off changing the oil in the car.

There’s plenty to do this month!

Don’t forget to go to the Laff’s Comedy Café on the 16^th. Sam Singleton will be there doing his Atheist Revival show. The doors open at 6 PM and the cost is $15 per person and $10 for students.

Thanksgiving has been a part of my life since my earliest memories. There were times when the family went out to a big feast and times when the family would gather and the women spent the day preparing the feast while the men watched football on TV. They were pleasant gatherings mostly and a few that were less than the “Norman Rockwell” ideal. Nearing 60, I have fewer Thanksgivings ahead of me than behind me but that is probably for the best. Now it’s just me and the wife. It’s hard finding a turkey for two. This year’s turkey looks like a huge chicken and we’ll probably be having leftovers for a week but it still will be great to get pleasantly stuffed and enjoy the tryptophan induced sudden nap in front of the TV watching A Christmas Story for the umpteenth time. I’ll make sure that I listen to Alice’s Restaurant first.

But that’s not the point of Thanksgiving. The clue is in the name. As an Atheist I have no god to thank but there are plenty of others that deserve my thanks.

I thank all the people that came before me. I also thank all the people that are still here working to make life a more pleasant experience. I thank the first humans that decided to cooperate with each other and pool their resources and skills. We owe most of what we have now to those first altruistic efforts. I thank those that decided to work to understand the world around them—the scientist and the engineer that applied that knowledge for our benefit.  I thank early leaders, traders, and builders. I appreciate the development of farming and the people that made that happen. I thank the people who chose to protect others through their service—the sentry and the soldier. I thank the well paid and most especially the volunteers. If my parents were still alive, I’d thank them for providing and protecting my life when I was too weak and too ignorant to be on my own. I’d thank them for all the lessons they taught me—some on purpose and some by accident—because they made me the man I am now.

On Thanksgiving nine years ago, my life would have ended if not for the efforts of the doctors, nurses, and all the people that took care of me at St. Joseph’s Hospital. I thank them for keeping me alive that day fixing my heart so I could live a little longer. I thank the firemen and women that drove me in the ambulance to St. Josephs and the support the neighbors gave my wife. But I can’t stop there. I have to thank the creator of the stents and the inventor and builder of the fluoroscope that guided the doctor’s hand when he manipulated the catheter to place the stents. I give thanks to those that educated the professionals that worked on me that day and all the support staff that allows them to do their job…I can’t chalk it up to God’s work. I don’t know there is a god. However, I do know that there are real people with real lives that I owe a lot of thanks to.

Finally, I’d like to thank the Catholic priest that came by to offer what help he could but understood when I told him I didn’t need to talk with him.

Darrel’s presentation style will be fast paced, humorous and engaging. He is not afraid to explore even the most sensitive areas of religious infection from sexual guilt to abstinence only, from the hypnotic techniques of ministers to music’s role in infection and how it all fits together.

The talk will be at 10 AM. There will be time for questions and answers and book signing will follow. There is no admission fee for this talk but donations to keep quality speakers coming to Tucson will be accepted.

You can get more information HERE.

Tonight, there will be a Skeptics of Tucson meeting and we’ll be discussing the end of the world. Actually, we’ll be discussing the next predicted end of the world. There have been many and there’ll be plenty more. Those attending the meeting will hear about the Maya civilization. They’ll hear about their amazing calendar. They’ll also hear a couple of Maya creation myths. We’ll discuss many of the ways the world could end and briefly address some of the probabilities. We’ll be discussing Planet X or Niburu, global war, disease, deadly solar activity, and the possibility of an ecological quagmire. All of which has been proposed as possible ways the world will end. This seems like an appropriate meeting topic given that the next predicted end of the world is December 21^st, winter solstice.

Skeptics should think critically about everything. That is not to say that they must go purely negative and not believe in anything but everything deserves to be questioned. All of the questioning takes effort. It’s not easy to be a Skeptic. Is it worth it? Obviously, Skeptics think so. Where’s the fun? The continuing pleasure of being skeptical is knowing that what you believe has a good chance of being true. While it may not be harmful to believe in the latest urban legend, giving up scientific medical treatments for homeopathic treatments can be deadly.

Back to the subject of tonight’s meeting…what’s the harm in believing that the world is going to end in a few days? If you make decisions that you feel you won’t have to live with…you might be harmed by a doomsday belief. If you didn’t fill your medical prescriptions past December 21^st, you might be harmed by a doomsday belief. If you told your boss what you really felt about him…you might not have a job and be harmed by a doomsday belief. If you’ve ran up all your credit cards to the limit…you might be harmed by a doomsday belief.

Seriously…the meeting will end with a discussion of 20 questions received by NASA about the predicted end of the world. It’s at the Denny’s on Speedway, just west of Alvernon. It starts at 7 PM…

Jim Wilson shares his experience with a bit of pseudoscience from his youth:

I write this today, to share an unusual story from my life, and to raise awareness of a form of quackery that many of our readers may not have known existed. I would like to think that Radionics machines are a thing of the past, but unfortunately we have not done enough to combat this type of superstition, despite it being debunked as far back as the 20s. It just goes to show how tenacious superstition and its profiteers can be.

When I was a kid, upon returning from school my mother once made a rather strange request. She handed me a q-tip and asked me to put it in mouth to get a sample of my saliva. She told me that my Aunt Gladys, who lived across town, had acquired some sort machine that made use of such samples. At the time no further explanation was given to me. It was not until a week or two later when my family visited this relative that I was able to learn more.

Apparently, someone had sold Gladys the item in this picture:

It was called the Ag Enviro, but my relatives simply referred to it as “the machine.” The man who sold it claimed it could be used to cure, heal, or alleviate numerous ailments by transmitting positive energy. Apparently to use it, one takes hair or saliva samples from friends or relatives and uses them to make little glass vials that can channel those individuals. There are also vials that one can make for various ailments and parts of the body (how these are made was never explained to me, and I am not sure I really want to know).

I was told that to use the machine, one places the vials in the three wells located on it, using large rubber-coated tweezers. Apparently, touching the vials with one’s hands compromised the machine’s effectiveness. The user typically places vials for the person she wants to cure, and ones for whatever ailments that person has together. After doing this the user makes seemingly random adjustments to the various dials on it and begins turning the main dial. While turning this one is apparently supposed use his or her other hand to rub the rubber pad mounted to the machine, in a circular motion. Changes in the resistance felt while rubbing the pad, are supposed to give the user an indication of which dial settings make the energy the strongest.

Aunt Gladys would spend hours on end in this way. Her collection of vials took up much of the room where the machine was situated as did a growing number of books about the machine and its various dial settings. Apparently, she spent several hundred dollars on it. I was never sure who she bought it from, or whether the seller was a sincere believer in its powers. It’s possible the was a cynical quack making money by bilking little old ladies.

There was never any evidence that the machine did anything at all. Yet, when word got out that one of us relatives was not feeling well my aunt would make a point of “putting them in the machine”. I never got the chance to take the machine apart, though I badly wanted to see what was inside it. It had no plugs, batteries or a power source of any kind. There was no reason to suspect that it worked, nor any logical reason why it would work. It bothered me to see someone I cared about spend so much time and money on something that was clearly nonsense.

Note that all this happened before the Internet came into wide use, so finding information on this strange device from unbiased sources was probably more difficult. After getting the Internet, I tried look up Ag Enviro to see if anyone else had similar experiences with relatives being sold expensive plastic rubbish. I had little luck until just recently when my friend pulled up a Wikipedia’s list of pseudosciences. On that list, there was a practice called “Radionics” which was described as follows: “Means of medical diagnosis and therapy which proponents believe can diagnose and remedy health problems using various frequencies in a putative energy field coupled to the practitioner’s electronic device… The internal circuitry of radionics devices is often obfuscated and irrelevant, leading proponents to conjecture dowsing and ESP as operating principles.”

This definitely sounded like what I had encountered. I turns out there is actually a whole culture built around using these devices.

Apparently, the radionics devices frequently do not have so much as a single complete circuit. Indeed, Albert Abrams, who started Radionics in the early 20^th century, was declared the “dean of gadget quacks,” by The American Medical Association in the 1920s. In 1923 a man with stomach cancer was treated by a Radionics practitioner who claimed him to be completely cured. The patient died shortly afterward creating a public outcry against such medical fraud.

In 1924 Scientific American Magazine did a study of his machines and found them to have no effect whatsoever. Their study involved having one of Abrams associates use the machine to identify the contents of various vials.  He failed even after multiple attempts. In another instance, the American Medical Association sent a vial to a Radionics practitioner who diagnosed it as a sample from a person with malaria, diabetes, cancer and syphilis. To the practitioner’s surprise the blood was actually from a rooster.

As I continued to learn more about this topic, I found that people who believe in it also tended to combine it with other forms of pseudoscientific nonsense such as the man in this video who uses it with homeopathy and healing Crystals:

All of these are practices are completely unsupported by evidence. Indeed, I found other videos by individuals who decided to forgo using vials and actual medical samples, but instead used pictures of the people they wished to cure, and simply wrote down the names of the ailments they wished to treat. There is no reason why something like this would work; it violates everything we know about physics and biology.

More information can be found online at the Skeptics Dictionary.

I received this submission from “The Liberator.” This one is a guest opinion on “Why I’m an Atheist.”

Being an Atheist shouldn’t be a big deal. I mean, we think science understands the world through its logical, skeptical approach. Scientists don’t believe things without proof, and neither do I.

So why blame me for wanting evidence?

Could it be that I am right and you know it? That you would have to drop your drug, your crutch, see things as they are, not as you’d wish them to be? Now there are various religions and sometimes I talk as though religion is Christianity. But all religion depends on faith—on believing something without proof and taking someone’s word for it. They say it is God’s word, but God didn’t take care to see that the message was clear. Notice how many religions there are? Couldn’t God have revealed the truth to each and so have just one religion? Or do you believe people of other religions believe in different dogma in spite of God?

Let’s look at the New Testament for a bit. There are four gospels: Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. These writers were trying to persuade Jews to become Christians. They would have included all the most important points to convince people that Jesus was God.

Do all 4 gospels have the resurrection? No they don’t. Do they all have the miracles? No they don’t. Interesting, the early gospels don’t have miracles or resurrection, but the later ones do. How could that be?

Simple. At first they told a simple story, but as time went on, they jazzed it up with miracles and resurrection. And if that is not strange enough, they are dozens of clear, simple contradictions in the bible.

But let us say the New and Old Testament is true word for word. I want to tell you a story about a criminal from Ohio who was running from the law back in the 80s. What were his crimes?

1. He killed his children. He burned them alive, some while sleeping. He claimed that he had the right.
2. He allowed two of his other children to play in a garden and pick an apple that was forbidden.
3. He told his children to kill women who commit adultery, children who are disobedient. And sometimes they did.
4. And, he insisted that his children worship him, believe in him. In fact, it is his first rule, thou shall have no other father but me as I am a jealous father.
5. He said not to charge interest on loans, but his organized religious entity decided he was wrong about this.
6. He also said to make no graven image. Why would that matter? Do you get the feeling our criminal was not from Ohio?

Oh, I forgot, it is not right to question why. Just accept what God’s representative says so. And for those who live a good life, but don’t accept this absurd dogma, God sends us to everlasting hell for ever, with no possibility of parole in a billion years.

Seems fair. Right. Why would a fair and just God punish people for not accepting this unbelievable story? I for one can’t worship something so vicious.

So that’s why I am an Atheist. True, there is free will, but not all people have an equal chance of accepting God’s word. Say someone like me, with a logical, rational bent. And why can’t God be as good and fair and you and I? Why is He held to a lower standard? Don’t question that either. Whenever someone says take it on faith, you have hit upon something not defensible, not rational.

Marx, and I am not a Marxist, said that religion is the opiate of the people. True enough. Religion is also the microchip in the brain which controls the people, makes them fear. Imagine Catholics, with all their sexual hang ups, saying that since God sees all, God knows all their most intimate encounters. Nothing is private. That alone would saddle most people with a huge burden, provoking neurosis.

By the way, many believe that their God is male. If their God is male, does he have a penis? If so, what does he use it for? Just sayin’.

So, if I don’t believe in God or gods, what do I “believe in”?

Kindness. Not love. People kill for love. Commit suicide for love. But kindness is just right.  Everyone knows how to be kind. I have seen the power of kindness work overnight on people that hated me. That is evidence. No dogma.  Plain and simple kindness.

Freedom depends on FreeThought

This is a slogan printed on the side of stainless thermally insulated coffee mugs offered as a reward for joining or renewing membership in FreeThought Arizona. There are similar slogans but this one is unique to us. The “board” came up with the slogan. Many were suggested and after a couple of rounds of votes we settled on this simple, short slogan.

FreeThought Arizona is a scientific SkeptiAtheistHumanist organization that supports the Tucson community. That’s a lot of ground to cover and it is very difficult to capture all that in one short blurb. The former editor of this blog shares his thoughts:

Does Freedom Depend on Free Thought? That’s the inscription on the mug. Can there be a free society in which its members all think alike and never deviate from the way the group thinks about anything? In theory, it is possible. If knowledge about every subject is so well distributed that everyone reaches the same conclusion on their own you might have that. Our own society nearly approximates this in regard to certain once-disputed facts like the Earth being round. In practice, knowledge about many things is not so evenly distributed. And there is no way to know, a priori, which side of disputed issues is actually correct. People have historically dealt with this either by conforming to what the majority of the group thinks, or by continuing to discuss their differences as long as there is disagreement. The latter approach is consistent with the idea of free thought, since thinking differently is much more useful if the reasons behind different thinking are discussed rather than concealed. The latter approach is also characteristic of free societies. The more conformist a culture, the less freedom that culture tends to allow. In this sense, I agree with the statement, “Freedom Depends on Free Thought”.

On another note:

Roy Zimmerman will make another pass through Tucson soon. He’s bringing his “Starving Ear” virtual nightclub and global meeting place with him. He’s been on the road for months spreading his message. He’s taken his show through 49 states playing songs such as “Vote Republican,” “Hope, Struggle, and Change,” and “Creation Science 101.”  If you like your music slightly folksy and progressive, you shouldn’t miss his live performance:

Friday, Nov. 2   8 pm   TUCSON, AZ

Hope, Struggle and Change
with special guest Ted Warmbrand!

Southside Presbyterian Church
317 West 23rd Street
Tucson, AZ
$15 or pay what you can

Here is another incredulous entry from Jim Wilson:

Americans display disinterest, distrust, or illiteracy when it comes to science. They enjoy their smart phones and the other toys and conveniences science produces, but few delve further than that. Many felt a sense of nationalistic pride with the landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars in August but these moments seem all too infrequent. On a given day, there is more interest in sports or celebrities than scientific issues. Too many in this country reject scientific thinking in favor of new age superstition or ancient religious nonsense.

Today’s case in point is US House Rep. Paul Broun from Georgia; he recently told an audience at Liberty Baptist Church that:

 God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And it’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior. You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I’ve found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I don’t believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says. And what I’ve come to learn is that it’s the manufacturer’s handbook, is what I call it. It teaches us how to run our lives individually, how to run our families, how to run our churches. But it teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in society. And that’s the reason as your congressman I hold the Holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that.

In other words, we have a superstitious, religious zealot in our government who rejects all scientific findings that contradict his favorite story book. The theories he rejects as being conspiracies from Satan himself are the cornerstones of our understanding of the universe. Evolutionary biology, old Earth geology, and the big bang cosmology are consistent with all existing evidence and are contradicted by none of it. The universe we live in makes no sense without these theories. Scientific literacy requires knowledge of these theories. Representative Broun rejects them in favor of willful ignorance.

Can you believe that this superstitious ignoramus is on the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology which has jurisdiction over NASA, the Department of Energy, EPA, ATSDR, NSF, FAA, NOAA, National Institute of Standards and Technology, FEMA, the U.S. Fire Administration, and United States Geological Survey as well as over federally funded scientific research and development that is not military-related? He shares this position with Todd “legitimate rape” Akin, who recently made news because of his incorrect belief that pregnancies are not likely to result from rape. There is certainly disagreement, among freethinkers about what role government should have in the sciences, but nearly all will agree that if we are to have a science committee the last people on it should scientific illiterates like Broun and Akin.

There are quite a few problems with Broun’s claims that the Bible is a good source of information on how to run society or a family. It is silent on many important issues like Nuclear proliferation, space travel, vaccinations, fossil fuel usage, and television to name a few. The New Testament’s main political instruction is to be obedient to earthly authorities: The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves (Romans 13:1). The Bible’s instructions on family life are completely insane. For example, it prescribes killing rebellious young people as well as family members who suggest you join other religions. Jesus himself was surprisingly anti-family when he said: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple.(Luke 14:26)

Unfortunately, as of the time of writing Representative Broun is running unopposed. We need to free our government from the influence of superstitious crackpots and scientific illiterates who cling to Bronze Age mythology. Science has endless potential for improving our lives and our understanding of the universe we live in. We need law makers who understand this, rather than ones who want to base policy on primitive stories and outdated belief systems.