Islamic Militants Warn Austria, Germany

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Islamic militants threatened to attack Germany and Austria unless the two European nations break ranks with the U.S. and withdraw their personnel from Afghanistan, according to a Web statement.

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Australia To Get Muslim Political Party

Sydney - Australia's 300,000 Muslims need their own political party - but it will be open to all faiths, the imam of Sydney's biggest mosque said Monday.

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Catholic Church Accused Of Ignoring 'Laundry Slaves'

A southern Tasmanian child abuse campaigner has accused the Catholic Church of ignoring the state's so-called "laundry slaves".

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Atheist Kid Camp Must Move

ST. CLAIR TWP. - A summer camp for atheist and agnostic youth will no longer be held at a Butler County campground run by a Christian group.

Camp Quest, whose motto is "It's Beyond Belief!," is one of six small camps nationwide that cater to youths who question religion and the existence of God.

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Pulling Muslims From Dark Age

This past week individuals from various professions and different ethnicities sharing a connection with Islam gathered in St. Petersburg, Fla. The meeting was billed as Secular Islam Summit.

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Islamic Extremists 'Infiltrate Oxbridge'

Leading universities including Oxford and Cambridge have been targeted by Islamic extremists who remain widely active on campuses, a prominent academic is warning.

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Man Faces Life In Jail For Desecrating Quran

Karachi: A man found guilty of committing blasphemy by desecrating the Quran has been sentenced to life imprisonment, a court official said yesterday.

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Al-Qaeda Plot To Bring Down UK Internet

SCOTLAND YARD has uncovered evidence that Al-Qaeda has been plotting to bring down the internet in Britain, causing chaos to business and the London Stock Exchange.

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Al-Qaeda: The Second Coming

This weekend Osama bin Laden turned 50, probably on the wild Pakistan border, while Madrid falls silent today to honour its 2004 bomb victims . But what of al-Qaeda? In a major investigation, an expert on terror reveals it is evolving into a potent new threat.

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Drought Blamed On Lack Of Faith

A LEADING Muslim cleric has blamed the devastating drought, climate change and pollution on Australians' lack of faith in Allah.

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Priests To Purify Site After Bush Visit

(AP) GUATEMALA CITY Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday.

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When The Ain'ts Go Marching In

If there really is a Supreme Being who is concerned about how His name is worshipped on Earth, these days He may be wishing he had put a caveat in His scriptures: Please don't irritate the scientists.

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Suicide Bomber Hurts 3 In Net Cafe

RABAT, Morocco (Reuters) -- Morocco said on Monday it was investigating whether an overnight blast was a militant suicide attack after a man with explosives under his clothes was blown up and three others were wounded at a Casablanca Internet cafe.

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Baghdad Car Bomb Kills 31 Pilgrims

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Dozens of Shiite pilgrims were killed Sunday in Baghdad when a car bomb exploded near a minibus that was part of a stream of traffic bringing pilgrims home from a religious ceremony in the holy city of Karbala, police said.

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In New Tactic, Militants Burn Houses In Iraq

BAGHDAD, March 11 -- Sunni militants burned homes in a mixed city northeast of Baghdad on Saturday and Sunday, forcing dozens of families to flee and raising the specter of a new intimidation tactic in Iraq's evolving civil war, Iraqi officials and witnesses said.

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FreeThoughtAction Hero Of The Day - 03/11/07

Douglas Noel Adams (March 11, 1952 - May 11, 2001)

According to Wikipedia, Adams "was an English author, comic radio dramatist, and amateur musician. He is known most notably as author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Hitchhiker's began on radio, and developed into a 'trilogy' of five books (which sold more than fifteen million copies during his lifetime) as well as a television series, a towel, a comic book series, a computer game and a feature film that was completed after Adams's death. He was known to some fans as Bop Ad (after his illegible signature), or by his initials 'DNA'.

"Adams was a self-declared 'radical atheist', though he used the term for emphasis, so that he would not be asked if he in fact meant agnostic. He stated in an interview with American Atheists that this made things easier, but most importantly that it conveyed the fact that he really meant it, had thought about it a great deal, and that it was an opinion he held seriously. He was convinced that there is no God, having never seen one shred of evidence to convince him otherwise, and devoted himself instead to secular causes such as environmentalism. Despite this, he did state in the same interview that he was 'fascinated by religion.' [...] 'I love to keep poking and prodding at it. I've thought about it so much over the years that that fascination is bound to spill over into my writing.' His fascination he ascribed to the fact that so many 'otherwise rational... intelligent people... nevertheless take it [the existence of God] seriously'.

"One analogy that Adams put forward on the subject of religion was that of the 'sentient puddle'. This analogy is intended to refute the suggestion that the existence of God and His love for mankind would be proven by the fact that the world is perfectly designed for our needs. He compared such thinkers to an intelligent puddle of water. He said the puddle is pleased with itself and certain that the hole in the ground it occupies must have been designed specifically for it since it fits so well in it. The puddle looks up to the sun above and worships its divine benefactor. The fate of the puddle is to exist under the sun until it has entirely evaporated".

Adams also said this about religious belief:

"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

Some other Adams quotes:

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.

For a moment, nothing happened.Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.

If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands.

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.

He inched his way up the corridor as if he would rather be yarding his way down it.

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

Humans are not proud of their ancestors, and rarely invite them round to dinner.

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.

I'm spending a year dead for tax reasons.

If somebody thinks they're a hedgehog, presumably you just give 'em a mirror and a few pictures of hedgehogs and tell them to sort it out for themselves.

It is a rare mind indeed that can render the hitherto non-existent blindingly obvious. The cry 'I could have thought of that' is a very popular and misleading one, for the fact is that they didn't, and a very significant and revealing fact it is too.

Life is wasted on the living.

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the drug store, but that's just peanuts to space.

That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting.

The impossible often has a kind of integrity which the merely improbable lacks.

The mere thought hadn't even begun to speculate about the merest possibility of crossing my mind.

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

Time is bunk.

We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!

You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

What Happens When A Country Gives Up Religion

During Franco's dictatorship Spain was a very Catholic country. After three decades of democracy, as the Catholic Church likes to say, Spain is not a Catholic country anymore. Loss of religion first became apparent with the legalization of divorce, contraceptives, and the promotion of sex ed all opposed by the Church. This was followed by the decriminalization of abortion, the acceptance of drug possession for personal consumption (drug users are not criminals in Spain, but treated instead as medical patients) and a general acceptance of premarital sex in society.

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Militant Leader Arrested In Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, leader of the militant group Islamic State of Iraq, was arrested Friday in western Baghdad, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said.

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Kenyans Make Arrest In 2002 Israeli Plane, Hotel Attacks

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) -- Kenyan police have arrested a man they believed to be a key al Qaeda suspect who tried to shoot down an Israeli airliner and helped plan the simultaneous bombing of a hotel in 2002 that killed at least 15 people, officials said.

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Priest, Now Accused Of Theft, Fought Audit

One of two Roman Catholic priests accused of stealing and misappropriating as much as $8.6 million donated by parishioners in South Florida sought to end an audit of church finances, complaining to diocesan officials that the financial scrutiny was undignified and a waste of money, according to documents released by prosecutors.

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Academy Denies Claims From Job Candidate

A teacher applying for a senior job at a Teesside school claims he was confronted by "religious intolerance" at his interview.

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I Hate Religion

While saying religion is the worst thing that has ever happened on earth most likely is punishable by death in West Texas, I believe it is certainly the truth. Jesse Morrell of Open Air Outreach ministries may not be the best example of religious fanaticism, but he certainly exemplifies everything wrong with religion.

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Religion: Public Enemy No. 1

A few years ago I would have been willing, even eager, to enter into a vigorous discussion with any proponent of any religious dogma. I now feel an existential nausea at the very idea.

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Mosque Leaders Sentenced In Terror Sting

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Two leaders of an Albany mosque who were snared in an FBI sting involving a fictional terror strike were sentenced Thursday to 15 years in federal prison. The former imam, Yassin Aref, professed innocence before his sentencing and criticized the government's treatment of Muslims.

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Unholy Conflict In The Holy Land

The majority of Israelis are secular Jews, but the religious Jews in the country wield enormous influence. David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, designed it that way, inadvertently blueprinting a conflict that has yet to be resolved.

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Hard-Liners Forge Leads In N. Ireland Election

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Hard-line Catholic and Protestant parties have won the bulk of seats decided so far in the election for a new legislative assembly in Northern Ireland, a vote designed to clear the way for creation of a new power-sharing local executive that can pull support from across the sectarian divide.

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Suicide Car Bomber Kills 28 In Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Black smoke filled the skies over central Baghdad just before midday Monday as a suicide car bomber detonated explosives in a busy commercial district, killing 28 people and wounding 56 others, Baghdad police said.

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School District Sued Over Graduation Held In Church

TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Newark public school district, saying a school's decision to hold its graduation ceremonies in a Baptist church violated a Muslim student's religious freedom.

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Georgia Moves Closer To Bible Classes

ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- Georgia is poised to introduce two literature classes on the Bible in public schools next year, a move analysts say would make the state the first to take an explicit stance endorsing -- and funding -- biblical teachings.

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Australian Muslims Go For Surf, Lifesaving And Burqinis

As a teenager growing up in a Sydney suburb, Mecca Laalaa never felt anything but Australian, even though she was for the most part unable to engage in the most quintessential of Australian pastimes: swimming at the beach. "Restricted by my clothing," Ms. Laalaa explained.

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Heaven's Door Closed To Dylan

It was unlikely that the pair would ever be close friends: Pope Benedict XVI, conservative theologian, and Bob Dylan, iconoclastic singer and poet. Yet the pontiff's feelings about the singer run so deep that he once tried to stop him performing at the Vatican.

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Muslim Incited Terror Murder

A British Muslim has been found guilty of encouraging terrorist murder during a protest against cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

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Does Your Candidate Love Jesus?

An atheist presidential hopeful might not have a prayer.

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Two Suicide Bombers Kill 100 Shia Pilgrims

A double suicide bombing against Shia pilgrims killed more than 100 people as Sunni militants tried to incite Shia militias to break their adherence to the US and Iraqi forces' Baghdad security plan.

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Religious Schools May Use Tax-Free Bonds

SAN FRANCISCO -- A government agency may issue tax-exempt government bonds to help religious schools pay for improvements, even if the schools are "pervasively sectarian," the California Supreme Court ruled 4-3 Monday.

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Man Peddles 'Holy' Bottled Water

A Stockton, Calif.-area businessman is peddling blessed bottled water.

The half-liter bottles of Holy Drinking Water are being distributed by Wayne Enterprises. They only carry the blessings of Catholic and Anglican priests, but company President Brian Germann plans to expand to other faiths.

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N.Y. Teacher Fights Modern-Day 'Witch Trial'

A Long Island elementary school teacher is suing the Hampton Bays school district after she was fired because her administrators allegedly believed she was a witch teaching witchcraft to her students. Her lawyer is calling the case a "21st century re-enactment of the Salem Witchcraft Trials."

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Church Hosts Conference On 'Ex-Gay' Therapy

The controversial idea that counseling and therapy can overcome homosexual tendencies is at the heart of what's called the "ex-gay movement." Proponents of ways that gays and lesbians can be "cured" recently held a conference in Phoenix, Ariz.

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Hard Road Against Focus On The Family

How effective can a fledgling faith-based gay-rights organization be in fighting the homophobic multimillion-dollar empire that is Focus on the Family?

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Ex-Steuben Pastor Pleads Guilty To Sex Abuse Charges

BATH -- A former Steuben County pastor faces up to 32 years in prison following his guilty plea Monday to felony sexual abuse charges.

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Trinity Baptist Faces New Abuse Lawsuit

The second negligence lawsuit in just more than a week was filed Thursday against Trinity Baptist Church, also saying the Jacksonville church hid knowledge of alleged sexual abuse of children by former Pastor Robert Gray in the 1970s.

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Evangelical Leader Says Giuliani's Divorce A Problem

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) -- A Southern Baptist leader said Tuesday that evangelical voters might tolerate a divorced presidential candidate, but they have deep doubts about GOP hopeful Rudy Giuliani, who has been married three times.

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Evangelicals' Work In Africa Criticized

Christian evangelicals have been coming to Africa for centuries. Critics accuse them of taking advantage of vulnerable communities - forcing people to abandon traditional beliefs in exchange for desperately needed goods and medicine. Graham, though, says his group is meeting spiritual as well as physical needs, and he's proud of what has been accomplished.

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Lawyer: Priest Not Legally Wed

LOUISA -- The Catholic priest accused of embezzling money from two parishes is not legally married to the woman he lived with in Spotsylvania County, his lawyer said yesterday.

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U.S. Mint Goof Creates 'Godless Dollars'

PHILADELPHIA - An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including "In God We Trust," and are fetching around $50 apiece online.

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Public Acceptance Of Evolution

The acceptance of evolution is lower in the United States than in Japan or Europe, largely because of widespread fundamentalism and the politicization of science in the United States.

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How My Eyes Were Opened

Is it racist to condemn fanaticism?

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Long Live Satire

In the name of academic freedom, Clare College, Cambridge, should have defended the pupil responsible for printing cartoons depicting Muhammad.

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History Channel Insults The "Godless"

This week, the History Channel was advertising their encore presentation of the Dark Ages. They called it; "600 years of degenerate, godless, inhuman behavior."

I can't think of a period of time in "human" history that is more distinguished by the consequences of belief in God or gods. Aside from the fact that their ad is inaccurate, it is slanderous and insulting to all nontheists.

Does anyone think they could get away with saying the the Dark Ages were "600 years of degenerate, gay, inhuman behavior"? Of course not. The "godless" had about as much to do with the Dark Ages as gays did.

As PZ Meyers at Pharyngula points out in his blog:

If you take a look at their timeline, they define the Dark Ages as the period from 410 AD, when Alaric of the Visigoths (Christian) sacked Rome (Christian), to 1095 when Pope Urban II (Christian, probably) sent an armed mob of knights and hangers-on (Christian) to savage the people of the Middle East (Muslim, mainly). In between, we have the Holy Roman Empire (yeah, I know, not Holy, but definitely Christian) and sundry European wars, and Vikings (pagan, but definitely not godless) running about.

It would be more accurate to say the Dark Ages were "600 years of degenerate, religious behavior."

I have written an email to the History Channel complaining, and I think others who feel insulted should as well. Why should nontheists be maligned for the actions of theists? Why should we allow ourselves to be associated with words like "degenerate" and "inhuman" and not respond?

I think that until we don't see this kind of thing popping up from time-to-time, we can't say we are making any progress to be treated respectfully at the table of public discourse.

See the ad HERE .

Noah and the Teenage Dinosaurs

I have previously posted on Conservapedia, a website founded by US religious activists to counter what they claim is "liberal bias" on Wikipedia.

I ran across this, posted on Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World blog. It is hilarious and disturbing at the same time.

[Note: the image at right is not something associated with the entry, but it seemed like it should fit right in.]

From Conservapedia
Jump to: navigation, search

Biblical evidence suggests that people and dinosaurs coexisted.

The word dinosaur was coined in 1841 by creationist Richard Owen[1], from the Latin for "terrible lizard". Dinosaurs were a group of large lizards that previously lived in abundance on Earth.

Darwinists believe that dinosaurs lived from 230 million until 65 million years ago and that they are all currently extinct (except for birds, which they consider to be descended from dinosaurs). They claim the fossil evidence supports their beliefs.

Creationists believe, based primarily on Biblical evidences, but also drawing on archeological and fossil evidence, that dinosaurs were created on the 6th day of the Creation Week[2], between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago; that they lived in the Garden of Eden in harmony with other animals, eating only plants[3]; that pairs of various dinosaur baramins were taken onto Noah's Ark during the Great Flood and were preserved from drowning[4]; that fossilized dinosaur bones originated during the mass killing of the Flood[5]; and that some descendants of those dinosaurs taken aboard the Ark still roam the earth today[6].

Because the term only game into use in the 19th century, the Bible obviously does not use the word "dinosaur." However, they are mentioned in numerous places throughout the Good Book. For example, the behemoth in Job[7] and the leviathan in Isaiah are almost certainly references to dinosaurs.

h/t reader JX.

... adding, here's some of their source material:

How did those huge dinosaurs fit on the Ark?

Although there are about 668 names of dinosaurs, there are perhaps only 55 different "kinds" of dinosaurs. Furthermore, not all dinosaurs were huge like the Brachiosaurus, and even those dinosaurs on the Ark were probably "teenagers" or young adults.

Creationist researcher John Woodmorappe has calculated that Noah had on board with him representatives from about 8,000 animal genera (including some now-extinct animals), or around 16,000 individual animals. When you realize that horses, zebras, and donkeys are probably descended from the horse-like "kind", Noah did not have to carry two sets of each such animal. Also, dogs, wolves, and coyotes are probably from a single canine "kind", so hundreds of different dogs were not needed.

According to Genesis 6:15, the Ark measured 300 x 50 x 30 cubits, which is about 460 x 75 x 44 feet, with a volume of about 1.52 million cubic feet. Researchers have shown that this is the equivalent volume of 522 standard railroad stock cars (US), each of which can hold 240 sheep. By the way, only 11% of all land animals are larger than a sheep.

Without getting into all the math, the 16,000-plus animals would have occupied much less than half the space in the Ark (even allowing them some moving-around space).

Conclusion

The Bible is reliable in all areas, including its account of the Ark (and the worldwide catastrophic Flood). A Christian doesn't have to have a blind faith to believe that there really was an Ark. What the Bible says about the Ark can even be measured and tested today.

Noah and the Teenage Dinosaurs sounds like a great name for a band. (BTW: I wonder what "Biblical evidence" means... that the Bible says so? I'd also like to see the "archeological and fossil evidence" they claim that supports this).

Also: Tom Tomorrow has a great related cartoon here: This Modern World: You can't trust science! and you should buy a book of his here: The Great Big Book of Tomorrow or more stuff here: http://www.cafepress.com/tomsworld.

And... just in case anyone might think there is anything to the Creationist story of Noah...

I wish I could find the source that figured out how many species per second Noah would have to process to get them all on board in time, but there is a good account of some of the problems here: http://www.biblicalnonsense.com/chapter6.html.

The following is just one section of what you will find at the link above about the problems with the story:

The Water Fiasco

As the title of this section indicates, we'll now look at a few problems created by the water supply, most notably the lack thereof. The amount necessary to produce a flood of global proportions far exceeds the current amount available on, in, and above the earth. While this doesn't prove the water wasn't present, the burden of proof is on those who defend the story to provide it with a plausible explanation. As the "fountains of the deep" (Genesis 7:11) contain only 1% of the necessary water, 99% would have to fall from the supposed sky ocean. Thus, the goal of covering every mountain with only forty days' worth of precipitation would require a rainfall of six inches per minute, which is far too tremendous for the primitive ark to remain intact. In great contrast, we would typically expect a rainfall of only six inches per hour from a category five hurricane. One can only decide that this requirement is hardly feasible to carry out, especially when the heat generated by the impact of the raindrops on the flood surface would have been more than sufficient to boil the water and prevent it from rising.

The water originating from underneath the earth's surface would erupt with noxious gases, such as sulfuric acid, that would make their way into the atmosphere and cause the earth to become uninhabitable. The lava expected to accompany the subterranean water would also bring the already scalding liquid to its boiling point. Furthermore, if the oceans somehow miraculously avoided vaporization, nothing would have prevented the water from receding beneath the earth once the outpour ceased unless the pressure exerted by the water above collapsed the previous passageways. Such a scenario would then force the water to remain or evaporate. Since the water is no longer present and the clouds in the supposed sky ocean don't have the capacity to hold this amount of liquid, we can only assume that it mysteriously vanished. However, the problems of the water's source and destination are moot points since the entire ocean should have almost instantaneously been converted to steam. In fact, the steam rising from the ocean beds would have been concentrated enough to boil off the planet's atmosphere.

Keep in mind that this tale would make sense to the early Hebrew who apparently believed there was an oceanic reservoir in the sky (Genesis 1:6-7). If a mysterious canopy of water existed above the earth at one time, as some Christians have offered as an explanation for the origin of the water, the mass of liquid would raise the atmospheric pressure enough to cause a dramatic increase of oxygen and nitrogen to toxic levels. Such a canopy would also extend beyond the ozone layer, a problem concluding with the denaturation of water molecules by high levels of ultraviolet light. If you subtract the requisite of covering the world's highest mountains, of which we have no reason to believe the story's inventors were aware, most of these problems would conveniently disappear. As it stands, however, the necessary water requirement is too extraordinary for covering the earth's surface by fifteen cubits.

Iraq Attacks On Shiite Pilgrims Claim More Than 120 Lives

HILLA, Iraq (CNN) -- Insurgents stepped up attacks on Shiite pilgrims heading to the holy city of Karbala on Tuesday, with a series of bombings and small arms attacks that left more than 120 people dead and more than 200 wounded.

In the deadliest attack, suicide bombers targeted Shiite pilgrims in Hilla, killing 93 people and wounding 147 others, police said.

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Praying Under The Stairs

Muslim students have claimed that they frequently feel humiliated and under stress because the University does not provide adequate prayer facilities.

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Iraq's Mandaeans 'Face Extinction'

They claim that Islamic extremists in Iraq are trying to wipe them out through forced conversions, rape and murder.

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Atheists Battle Against Religion

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case brought by a group of atheists who claim the Bush administration's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives violates the separation of church and state.

It's just one example of how atheists are becoming increasingly assertive — arguing not only that religion is false, but also a threat to civilization.

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FreeThoughtAction Hero Of The Day - 03/05/07

Penn Fraser Jillette (born March 5, 1955 in Greenfield, Massachusetts)

According to Wikipedia, Penn Jillette "is an American illusionist, juggler and comedian known for his work with fellow illusionist Teller in the team known as Penn & Teller....[He], along with his partner Teller, produces and hosts Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, which is currently in production for its fifth season. In the show, the two analyze cultural phenomena, debunk myths, criticize people and aspects of society they deem "Bullshit," and generally have fun -- with a bit of magic thrown in.... In January 2007, Penn took the "Blasphemy Challenge" offered by the Rational Response Squad and publicly denied the existence of the holy spirit."

See also...

"There is No God," by Penn Jillette, on NPR's "This I Believe"

Executions Must Be Condemned, U.S. Says

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The U.S. military is calling on all Iraqi leaders, Sunni and Shiite, to condemn the recent kidnapping and killing of 15 Iraqi police officers in retaliation for the alleged rape of a Sunni woman.

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The Gospel Of Prothero

A Boston University professor argues that Americans, though 'spiritual,' are woefully ignorant about religion.

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BNP Seeks Anti-Abortion Catholic Votes

The British National Party is building an alliance with radical anti-abortion activists in an attempt to reach out to Catholics and secure their votes in future elections.

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Half Of Muslim Schools Not Inspected

UK - More than half of private Muslim schools have not been inspected for five years, while some have not received a full inspection for a decade.

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See also...

'We are independent - we can choose what we wish to teach'

Rise Of The Funerals That Leave Out God

More than 30,000 funerals in Britain last year were nonreligious, as families turn increasingly to "celebration-of-life" ceremonies rather than church services, according to new figures.

The rise is being attributed to people's growing willingness to admit that they are non-believers, and to their desire to avoid "hypocrisy".

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Blair U-Turn Over Forced Marriages

Tony Blair is to back moves to make forced marriages illegal. The move, a U-turn in government policy, will ensure the introduction of a new law enshrining powerful rights for victims, many of them under age, who have been compelled to marry against their will.

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Girl Lost In Poker Game Pleads For Help

HYDERABAD (Reuters) - A teenage girl in southern Pakistan, whose late father lost her in a poker game when she was 2 years old, has asked authorities to save her from being handed over to a middle-aged relative.

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Pakistan Makes A Deal With The Taliban

KARACHI - The Pakistani establishment has made a deal with the Taliban through a leading Taliban commander that will extend Islamabad's influence into southwestern Afghanistan and significantly strengthen the resistance in its push to capture Kabul.

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Houses of the Holy

A Star investigation into Toronto's Prayer Palace congregation finds that despite the members' dutiful tithing, the church spends little on charitable projects.

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Darwin's God

God has always been a puzzle for Scott Atran. When he was 10 years old, he scrawled a plaintive message on the wall of his bedroom in Baltimore. "God exists," he wrote in black and orange paint, "or if he doesn't, we're in trouble." Atran has been struggling with questions about religion ever since -- why he himself no longer believes in God and why so many other people, everywhere in the world, apparently do.

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Conservative Conference Heralds 'Mission From God'

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- "We're going to get the band back together, and we're on a mission from God."

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Does Cheney 'Validate' al-Qaeda?

Captured al-Qaeda documents reveal that Osama bin Laden's principal goal in the 9/11 attacks was to lure the United States into a clumsy counterattack in the Middle East that would alienate Muslims, help al-Qaeda recruit more jihadists and bog down the American military in a no-win war.

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Looking For A New Home In Iraq

KARACHI - Having solidified its leadership and opened up financial lifelines, al-Qaeda is preparing for its next major step - establishing a new base in the heart of the Middle East, Iraq.

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Ready To Take On The World

KARACHI - Al-Qaeda will this year significantly step up its global operations after centralizing its leadership and reviving its financial lifelines. Crucially, al-Qaeda has developed missile and rocket technology with the capability of carrying chemical, biological and nuclear warheads, according to an al-Qaeda insider who spoke to Asia Times Online.

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The Rise Of The Mighty Evangelicals Filled With The Spirit Of Capitalism

The arrest of two Brazilian religious leaders inspires scrutiny of a growing church.

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Pope Is Warned Of A Green Antichrist

An arch-conservative cardinal chosen by the Pope to deliver this year's Lenten meditations to the Vatican hierarchy has caused consternation by giving warning of an Antichrist who is "a pacifist, ecologist and ecumenist".

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Navy Chaplain Dismissed Over Uniformed Protest

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- A Navy chaplain said Thursday he was dismissed from service following his public protest of the branch's policy on nondenominational prayer.

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Interference Of Religious Groups In Curricula Damages Education

The Kuwaiti daily Al-Qabas recently reported that the Kuwaiti education ministry plans to delete Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from the high school curriculum. This article states that everyone has the right to freedom of religion, including the freedom to change his religion and beliefs. Dr. Rashid Al-'Anzi, chairman of the committee on human rights curricula, explained that the article was deleted "because it is contrary to the Islamic shari'a… and is not in accordance with what we want the pupils to learn."

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Conservapedia - The US Religious Right's Answer To Wikipedia

A website founded by US religious activists aims to counter what they claim is "liberal bias" on Wikipedia, the open encyclopedia which has become one of the most popular sites on the web. The founders of Conservapedia.com say their site offers a "much-needed alternative" to Wikipedia, which they say is "increasingly anti-Christian and anti-American".

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Islamic Group's Wrath Stokes Fears In Gaza

Islamic fundamentalists are suspected of murdering three women thought to be prostitutes in the Gaza Strip. The deaths follow the bombing and torching of businesses and public places that radicals believe to be un-Islamic.

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Life Sentence Upheld In Danish 'Honor' Crime

COPENHAGEN -- Denmark's highest court Wednesday upheld a life sentence against a Pakistani man for plotting the death of his teenage daughter because she married without her family's consent, the court announced.

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Fourth Victim Claimed In Jordan 'Honor' Killings

AMMAN -- A criminal prosecutor has charged a Jordanian with murdering his aunt in a new so-called "honor" crime, after he spotted a man scrambling out of her house, the Jordan Times reported Thursday.

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Saudi Book Fair Under Religious Attack

RIYADH -- Publishers displaying books at an international book fair in Saudi Arabia are coming under scrutiny and pressure by religious police.

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The Silence That Kills

On Feb. 20, The A.P. reported from Afghanistan that a suicide attacker disguised as a health worker blew himself up near "a crowd of about 150 people who had gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open an emergency ward at the main government hospital in the city of Khost." A few days later, at a Baghdad college, a female Sunni suicide bomber blew herself up amid students who were ready to sit for exams, killing 40 people.

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Falwell Says Christians Shouldn't Focus On Global Warming

LYNCHBURG, Va. The Reverend Jerry Falwell says global warming is "Satan's attempt to redirect the church's primary focus" from evangelism to environmentalism.

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Fourth French National Dies After Saudi Attack

Islamic militants swearing allegiance to al Qaeda launched a violent campaign to topple the U.S.-allied Saudi monarchy in 2003, with suicide bomb attacks on foreigners and government installations, including the oil industry.

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Evangelical's Focus On Climate Draws Fire Of Christian Right

Leaders of several conservative Christian groups have sent a letter urging the National Association of Evangelicals to force its policy director in Washington to stop speaking out on global warming.

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The Lively World Of Non-Belief

Stuart Jeffries piece on faith and unbelief is an example of a certain kind of liberal intellectual position which seeks to stand above the current debates about the place of religion in contemporary society, to (using the term Jeffries is so fond of) wryly adjudicate from the sidelines. His claim is that there is a vicious and uncompromising battle going on between two equally intolerant clans - "shrill camps shouting unedifyingly at each other" - the believers and the faithless. The core thesis is that rather than accepting the beliefs of others, secularists have become hysterical in their quest to "airbrush" religion from public debate, to create a soulless, value free public sphere.

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Religious Right Gets Research On Gay Families Wrong

Social scientists who have done research on gay and lesbian families say religious fundamentalists are deliberately distorting their work to make the case that heterosexual married couples provide the best environment for rearing children.

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Scholars Criticize Jesus Documentary

NEW YORK (AP) - To resolve the question of whether the remains of Jesus and Mary Magdalene may have rested in two limestone boxes discovered in a Jerusalem suburb, the filmmakers of a new documentary took novel approaches - including turning to statisticians.

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Ex-Muslims Form Anti-Religion Group In Germany

Berlin - Former Muslims in Germany publicly launched a group Wednesday with the provocative name National Council of Ex-Muslims, and said they would be a voice for non-religious people of Islamic cultural origin.

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Atheists Have Had 'Free Pass' For Too Long, Law Group Says

(CNSNews.com) - Humanists and atheists gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court Wednesday, charging the Bush administration with overstepping its bounds by promoting grants to "faith-based" organizations.

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All School Religious Holidays Dropped

TAMPA - The Hillsborough school calendar will not recognize any religious holidays next school year, but it will continue a traditional day off for students to attend the state fair.

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Church-State Question Before Justices

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation has sued to get rid of crosses in city parks, to end Good Friday public holidays and, most vigorously, to thwart President Bush's faith-based initiative.

Now, the group that for 30 years has sought a firm divide between church and state will be at the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a case that could affect taxpayers' ability to challenge -- and government's ability to defend-- a multitude of public programs that involve groups with a religious affiliation.

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God's Word, Plus Static, On Calvary Satellite Network

Amid accusations over sex, money and control, Pastor Chuck Smith is about to surrender much of the evangelical radio empire to a man he calls morally unfit for ministry.

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Hersh: Bush Funneling Money To Al Qaeda-Related Groups

Hersh says the U.S. has been "pumping money, a great deal of money, without congressional authority, without any congressional oversight" for covert operations in the Middle East where it wants to "stop the Shiite spread or the Shiite influence." Hersh says these funds have ended up in the hands of "three Sunni jihadist groups" who are "connected to al Qaeda" but "want to take on Hezbollah."

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The Conservatives' "Secular Problem"

Lots of ink has been spilled about how Democrats and liberals suffer from a "religion problem" -- a perceived hostility towards Christianity and religion in general.

But Pew Research Center exit poll data from the 2006 midterm elections shows the opposite.

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Jon Matthews, Right-Wing Houston Radio Host Gets 3 Years In Prison

The star of Houston's 24/7 Right-wing line up on Christian owned KSEV, this Law & Order advocate was recently sentenced to 3 years in prison for breaking his probation from a 2004 conviction of exposing himself to an 11 year old girl.

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7 At A Baghdad Wedding Are Killed by A Car Bomb

The attack appeared to be part of a mounting battle in western Iraq between insurgents with ties to Al Qaeda and other local and tribal groups, local residents said.

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Afghan Bombing Sends A Danger Signal To U.S.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 -- The audacity of a suicide-bomb attack on Tuesday at the gates of the main American base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney underscores why President Bush sent him there - a deepening American concern that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are resurgent.

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Taliban: Suicide Army Is Ready

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The Taliban's top military commander said his forces have assembled a hundreds-strong army of suicide attackers poised for a spring offensive against NATO troops in Afghanistan.

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3 Dead In Blast Near Afghan School

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A roadside bomb in western Afghanistan left three civilians dead and 48 wounded, including 10 children, officials said Thursday.

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Accounts Differ On Iraq Soccer Field Blast

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- An explosion at a makeshift soccer field near Ramadi, injured at least 25 people Tuesday, U.S. and Iraqi officials said.

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'The Bishop' Taunts With Letters, Dud Pipe Bombs

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) -- He calls himself "The Bishop." Exactly why is just one of the many mysteries surrounding the increasingly menacing figure.

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Research Links Some Scriptures To Hostile Acts

PROVO -- Chances are, not many people in Utah would like to think of scripture as a violent medium that promotes hostility.

But a study of 490 students -- 248 of them at Brigham Young University -- suggests a correlation between exposure to scriptural violence that is condoned by God and increased aggression.

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