The Boy Scouts will now allow girls to join.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

The Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday that girls will soon be allowed to become Cub Scouts and to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest honor. 

"We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children," said Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts. 

The scouting board of directors voted unanimously to make the historic change in an organization that has been primarily for boys since its founding more than 100 years ago.

Starting next year, young girls can join Cub Scout units, known as dens. Local scouting organizations can choose to have dens for girls and dens for boys. "Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls," the organization said in a statement. 

A separate program for older girls will be available in 2019, the Boy Scouts said, enabling them to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

Lots of progressives are really excited about this, and of course the conservatives are in a snit, but is it really a good thing?

When I was a kid and joined the Boy Scouts my complaint against them was that they were too militaristic, and at a time of protests against the Vietnam War I was simply uncomfortable in that environment.

However these days the Boy Scouts have devolved into an indoctrination program seemingly focused on bringing children into the religious fold.

I much prefer the philosophy of the Girl Scouts which is more clearly focused on helping their communities, learning useful skills, and of course cookies. (God I love their cookies!)

Besides the Girl Scouts have been allowing boys to join since 2011.

And by the way the Girl Scouts are not in any way thrilled with this new policy.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

The Girl Scouts of the USA has issued a blistering rebuke of the Boy Scouts of America's decision to begin letting girls into the ranks of its troops. 

"The Boy Scouts' house is on fire," Girl Scouts told ABC News in a statement today. "Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA's senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls."

Yeah, exactly. 

No if the Boy Scouts want to signal a real change, they should give up their charters, let the Girl Scouts absorb them, and start learning some real skills in how to be positive contributing members of society.

Oh, and learn to make cookies too. (Damn I love those cookies!)

Important message for those newly liberated from the shackles of religion.

Courtesy of Syracuse.com:

The billboard going up Monday on North West Street at first glance looks like a church advertising for new members. 

The background is a heavenly blue sky with wispy clouds and the words "Don't believe in God?" A pair of hands on one side holds a sign "You're not alone!" It directs people to the website cnyhumanists.org. 

The billboard is an outreach to the community, said Corrina Allen, president of the CNY Humanist Association. 

"We want to let people in the area to know that if they're not religious, and they don't believe in God, they are not alone and there is a community available to them," she said.

It is really hard to explain how important it is to know that you are not alone when you first start questioning the existence of God.

The thing that churches, and temples, and synagogues do so well is to create a sense of community and to provide a comfortable environment for those who believe as they do.

But when you start to question the religious beliefs prominent in your community, you quickly feel the chill of being ostracized and seen as different, and even as a threat.

I remember the first time I felt that as a very young boy, around eight or nine years of age.

I started talking on the playground about there being no god, or Easter Bunny, or Santa Claus. And while the Santa Claus part really upset my peers, it was the part about god that convinced the teaching staff to have me stay inside and do other activities instead of being outside with the other students.

I learned fairly quickly to keep my questions and musings to myself and after awhile I was allowed to play on the monkey bars and swing on the swings just like my religiously indoctrinated peer group.

But the feeling of isolation is real, and feeling left out and different definitely shapes how you see the world, and how you see your place in it.

Worst case scenario it helps to turn you into a blogger who doggedly chases down stories that nobody else will dare to touch.

Republicans add using Bibles as textbooks in our public schools to their party platform.

Courtesy of The Frisky:

As if this year’s Republican convention couldn’t get any worse, it has somehow managed to top itself already, which, frankly, is saying a lot when you consider the fact that they’re literally nominating Donald-fucking-Trump. The GOP platform committee passed an amendment mandating that the Bible be allowed to be taught in schools as a historical document, according to NBC and Reuters reporters in Cleveland Monday. NBC’s Ginger Gibson tweeted, “Teaching the Bible in public schools remains in Republican platform.” 

This addition to the party platform ignores the whole “freedom of religion” and “separation of church and state” laws conservatives bring up when it comes to having the freedom to discriminate against gay people, and then conveniently forget when it comes to letting gay people marry or women choose to not be mothers. Additionally, it could burden sensible teachers in public, secular schools who would paradoxically have to teach our Constitutional rights regarding religion, but simultaneously teach Judeo-Christian-centric curriculum to impressionable youth who have the right to come to their own intellectual conclusions about religion.

Personally I don't need another reason to vote against every Republican running for office this year, but if you are even a remotely intelligent person and nee one.....well this should be more than enough.

Creationist Ken Ham is really upset that Bill Nye is indoctrinating young children....with actual science.

Courtesy of The Friendly Atheist:

 Nye said in a recent interview that teaching Creationism may be legal, but it’s a form of brainwashing. Referring to Ham, he said, “He can believe whatever he wants. He can run around influencing all the adults he wants; it’s the kids that are gonna be a burden on me. They’re gonna be scientifically illiterate…” 

Ham, as usual, took that to mean Nye wants to take away his rights, somehow, and that teaching evolution was just pushing a different religion onto children.

Here is what Ham tweeted in response:

In TV interview Bill Nye wants to stop me teaching kids as he wants to indoctrinate kids in religion of evolution pic.twitter.com/9KLzg4VHpg

— Ken Ham (@aigkenham) May 26, 2016

Secularists like Bill Nye want to brainwash kids in evolution religion to try to stop them believing creation truth pic.twitter.com/zwrG6FkM7m

— Ken Ham (@aigkenham) May 26, 2016

You know I imagine it is really hard from somebody as criminally ignorant as ken Ham to understand, but teaching children facts is not indoctrination.

It's education. 

Voters may not go to the polls in response to who they like in the presidential election, but rather by who they hate in the presidential election.

Courtesy of Reuters:

Nearly half of American voters who support either Democrat Hillary Clinton or Republican Donald Trump for the White House said they will mainly be trying to block the other side from winning, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday. 

The results reflect a deepening ideological divide in the United States, where people are becoming increasingly fearful of the opposing party, a feeling worsened by the likely matchup between the New York real estate tycoon and the former first lady, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. 

"This phenomenon is called negative partisanship," Sabato said. "If we were trying to maximize the effect, we couldn't have found better nominees than Trump and Clinton."

I think we are learning virtually every day why people dislike Donald Trump, many even in his own party, but is this deep dislike of Hillary really deserved?

Actually no.

Indiana elementary school student isolated from other children due to his lack of faith in God.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

A lawsuit recently filed against a teacher at Forest Park Elementary School in Indiana alleged that a 7-year-old student was “banished” from sitting with other students at lunch after he revealed that he did not believe in God. 

According to the lawsuit obtained by The Washington Post, second grade teacher Michelle Myer interrogated the student, who was identified with the initials A.B., about his religious beliefs after he told his classmates on the playground that he did not go to church because he did not believe in God. 

As a result, the child was ordered to sit by himself during lunch for a three-day period. 

“The defendant’s actions caused great distress to A.B. and resulted in the child being ostracized by his peers past the three-day ‘banishment.'” 

“Ms. Meyer asked A.B. if he had told the girl that he did not believe in God and A.B. said he had and asked what he had done wrong,” the lawsuit explained. “Ms. Meyer asked A.B. if he went to church, whether his family went to church, and whether his mother knew how he felt about God… She also asked A.B. if he believed that maybe God exists.” 

Several days later, Meyer sent A.B. to talk to another adult at the school, who “reinforced his feeling that he had done something very wrong,” the lawsuit said. 

“On the day of the incident and for an additional two days thereafter, Ms. Meyer required that A.B. sit by himself during lunch and told him he should not talk to the other students and stated that this was because he had offended them. This served to reinforce A.B.’s feeling that he had committed some transgression that justified his exclusion.”

Of course this resulted in the child forming negative feelings about school and growing anxious about attending, as he felt both the teachers and children hated him. 

This story really hits me where I live since I went through a similar situation when I was about seven years old as well.

In my case I was ostracized by the other kids, and felt isolated and unwelcome for most of that year.

The next year I learned to keep my opinions to myself.

As you can see that did not last. 

Of course this is just one of the consequences facing those of us who use logic and critical thinking skills to navigate life, instead of relying on the comfort of ancient superstitions.

Child abuse, plain and simple.

“A child is not a Christian child, not a Muslim child, but a child of Christian parents or a child of Muslim parents. This latter nomenclature, by the way, would be an excellent piece of consciousness-raising for the children themselves. A child who is told she is a 'child of Muslim parents' will immediately realize that religion is something for her to choose -or reject- when she becomes old enough to do so.” ― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion

I think I found my next bumper sticker.

Perhaps my biggest criticism of religion is that it targets children too young to separate fantasy from reality.

If I could pass a single law to change humanity for the better, I would make it illegal to introduce religion to people until they were at least sixteen years old.

Then let's see how long it survives.

Ever wonder why people in the deep South seem to have a different perspective on history than those in other parts of the country? Well this textbook might help to explain that.

Courtesy of AL.com: 

The men and women of Alabama – from the Greatest Generation to Baby Boomers like me – learned Alabama history from the famous old textbook "Know Alabama." 

It should be called "No Wonder, Alabama." 

It explains a lot. Fourth graders until the '70s learned how living on a plantation was "one of the happiest ways of life." Just imagine yourself, the 1957 edition says, on your family plantation: 

"How's it coming Sam," your father asks one of the old Negroes. 

"'Fine, Marse Tom, 'jes fine. We got 'most more cotton than we can pick.' Then Sam chuckles to himself and goes back to picking as fast as he can. 

"One of the little Negro boys is called 'Jig' He got that name because he dances so well when the Negroes play their banjos.

The book goes on to describe "Jig" volunteering to be an Indian so he can play with the little white boys and allowing himself to be captured.

After which I imagine the other boys took his land and infected him with smallpox.

And yes, THAT is in an actual textbook.

Here is how the textbook deals with the Civil War, which they call the "War Between the States": 

"The Southerners had a right under the law to own slaves, and the Southern states had a right under the law to leave the United States. Many Southerners did not want to leave the Union. But when Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the South felt that they had to leave the Union to keep their rights."

Those poor patriotic, hard working, southern plantation owners.  Imagine being forced to declare war on your fellow countrymen just so that you could continue keeping human beings as property, like your daddy's daddy did.

And what about the Klu Klux Klan?  

"The loyal white men of Alabama saw they could not depend on the laws or the state government to protect their families. (Does this sounds suspiciously like the Tea Party of today to anybody else?)

They knew they had to do something to bring back law and order, to get the government back in the hands of honest men who knew how to run it. "They (the Klan) held their courts in the dark forests at night; they passed sentence on the criminals and they carried out the sentence. Sometimes the sentence would be to leave the state. 

"After a while the Klan struck fear in the hearts of the "carpetbaggers" and other lawless men who had taken control of the state.... The Negroes who had been fooled by the false promises of the "carpetbaggers" decided to get themselves jobs and settle down to make an honest living. 

"Many of the Negroes in the South remained loyal to the white Southerners. Even though they had lately been freed from slavery, even though they had no education, they knew who their friends were."

Well clearly the folks in those white robes were the friends of the Negroes. That's why they kept inviting them to bonfires and allowed them to "hang around" during cross burnings.

The reporter goes on to say that in the version of this book published in 1970, Martin Luther King Jr. only received one mention and that was to inform the child that he was dead.

Damn I have to say that I found this article pretty enlightening, and not just a little disturbing.

And the real problem is that those politicians who were educated by textbooks like this and others, are working hard to make sure that the children of today leave school just as ignorant  as they were when THEY graduated.

Or as reporter John Archibald puts it:

Education is not a priority in Alabama, and it never has been. The No. 1 priority is and always has been indoctrination.

And you know that if this is what was used to teach Alabama children, that similar "educational" materials were also used to teach impressionable children in every other public school below the Dixie Line. 

Certainly explains a lot. Yes it does.

Science VS Evolution.

From an eighth grade "science" book used in a Christian middle school:

"Since the publication of Charles Darwin's famous book 'Origin of Species' in 1859 a great controversy has raged between evolutionists and people who believe in God as the creator and Sustainer of all things. The controversy has been characterized by many as an argument between science and the Bible, but the opposite is true: the real argument is between science and evolution."

(Say what?)

"Evolution interests almost everyone because of its impact upon spiritual matters. If evolution were true, the Christian concepts of sin, eternity, the atoning work of Jesus Christ, and the truthfulness of the Bible would be open to question. (And we can't have that!) If man is nothing more than a highly developed animal then he is to be congratulated for his struggle upward and is to be excused when he acts like an animal; but if man is the divinely created being the Bible tells us he is, then man is a creature made in the image of God and a sinner in need of divine grace."

Modern Science has a Biblical foundation: Most of the early scientists--great men like Newton, Galileo, Kepler, and Boyle--believed in God. Many wrote about God's infinite wisdom and design in creation. They believed that God created an orderly universe that He governs through laws that men may discover and use. "

And that folks is how evolution is introduced to impressionable young children who are expected to live among their more educated, and less indoctrinated, brethren who have stopped gazing at the shadows on the cave wall and walked toward the truth. (H/T to Plato.) 

(Here is a link to more pages of this pseudo scientific, religiously infused, mumbo jumbo.

Yeah actually they do.

I sometimes get accused of focusing too much on Christianity.

But trust me I am an equal opportunity critic of ALL religions.

Richard Dawkins believes that children should be protected from religious indoctrination.

Courtesy of Irish Times:

Speaking to The Irish Times in advance of a public talk at Trinity College Dublin on Tuesday evening, Prof Dawkins said: “There is a balancing act and you have to balance the rights of parents and the rights of children and I think the balance has swung too far towards parents… 

“Children do need to be protected so that they can have a proper education and not be indoctrinated in whatever religion their parents happen to have been brought up in.” 

Prof Dawkins, who spent Monday in Belfast, praised the work of Atheist Ireland in campaigning to separate church and state in education. 

Warning against the “power of childhood indoctrination”, he said it was futile debating with people who put the Bible ahead of scientific evidence. “You have to write off those people” but you can try to convince younger people to avoid superstition, Prof Dawkins said. 

His plea for reform was backed by Prof Krauss who said: “Parents, of course, have concerns and ‘say’ but they don’t have the right to shield their children from knowledge. That is not a right, any more than they have the right to shield their children from healthcare or medicine.”

I don't think that my position on this is any secret, I believe that if something is worthy of our faith it should be strong enough to attract that faith when we are old enough to have developed critical thinking skills.

Do any of you disagree? And if so, why?

Image of the day.

I think that this picture sums up my feelings about religion perfectly.

Mike Huckabee explains that he is NOT homophobic, he's just a good Christian.

Courtesy of Right Wing Watch:  

Mike Huckabee, doing his best to channel Dr. Jenna Jacobs, said in a recent interview with televangelist Jim Bakker that he doesn’t have any personal animus towards gay people, explaining that he opposes gay rights merely because that is what the Bible commands him to do. 

Huckabee, who once called homosexuality “an aberrant, unnatural and sinful lifestyle” and demanded that the government quarantine people with HIV/AIDS, said he is offended that anyone thinks he is homophobic. 

“The way that we’ve allowed words like tolerance, bigotry — what has happened to us, we allow ourselves to be called homophobic or bigoted, we’re not,” Huckabee told Bakker in the latest segment of their interview recent interview to be posted online. “We are just people who believe that there is a standard that was not ours, it was God’s, it was given to us and for us to change it we have to get his permission.” 

This led Huckabee to rant against the public schools for undermining “core moral values” and teaching that America is an “evil, imperialistic nation,” telling Bakker that “it’s pretty frightening in that there are so many ways in which the education system is not educating but indoctrinating, it’s why we see so many parents who are going to homeschool or pulling their children out of government-operated school.” 

Remember homeschoolers this book has all you need to know about the history of America.

And whatever you do don't let your children read those textbooks in public school because they are edited by none other than Satan himself. And as for college, do you really hate your kids enough to send them to that den of sin?

Just remember folks this is the guy who just quit his Fox News hosting position to run for the President of these United States, and the people watching this show (Damn I thought Jim Bakker was dead.) are behind him 100% of the way.

I swear these people scare me WAY more than Al-Qaeda or ISIS ever will.

This is essentially how I see Fundamentalism.

You know if I was suddenly king of the world, I would make it illegal to introduce children to religion until they were past their sixteenth birthday.

If you can still convince boys and girls at sixteen to believe in your God, and follow your doctrines, then you deserve to be taken seriously.

But I am pretty confident in saying that religion would essentially die out in a generation.

Navy cowardly backs off decision to ban Bibles in military hotel rooms.

Courtesy of Stars and Stripes:

Gideons Bibles are going back into Navy lodges. 

The Navy on Thursday ordered the Bibles returned to rooms and said it is reviewing a decision by the Navy Exchange to remove them from its worldwide network of military hotels. 

Atheists had cheered a victory after a complaint prompted the exchange to begin moving the Bibles to its lost-and-found bins this summer, but the Navy said the decision was made without consulting senior leadership. 

“That decision and our religious accommodation policies with regard to the placement of religious materials are under review,” Navy spokesman Cmdr. Ryan Perry wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. “While that review is under way, religious materials removed from Navy Lodge rooms will be returned."

Yep they're going back in permanently, no doubt about it.

Dammit and I was so impressed with the Navy for showing some balls.

Fine put them back in, but I suggest that if that happens people need to start demanding equal time for other religious tomes such as the Koran, the Tao Te Ching, the Book of Mormon, the Hindu Vedas, and Dianetics just for a start.

After all if a government entity is forced to offer the opportunity for religious indoctrination in their hotel rooms for one religion, then it only seems fair to offer the same opportunity for religious indoctrination for ALL religions. 

Look, a new children's book about being raised in a family of Ammosexuals. Gotta love America.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

The co-founders of Michigan Open Carry have published a children’s book extolling the virtues of having fun while openly brandishing loaded firearms. 

My Parents Open Carry tells the story of “13-year-old Brenna Strong along with her mom, Bea, and her dad, Richard [spending] a typical Saturday running errands and having fun together,” according to the book’s official site. However, “[w]hat’s not so typical is that Brenna’s parents lawfully open carry handguns for self-defense.” 

The book’s authors, Brian Jeffs and Nathan Nephew, claim that they were inspired to write the book because they “looked for pro-gun children’s books and couldn’t find any. Our goal was to provide a wholesome family book that reflects the views of the majority of the American people, i.e., that self-defense is a basic natural right and that firearms provide the most efficient means for that defense.”

I will assume that this book will be found in the fairy tale section of your local book store?

Take a look at this page courtesy of AATTP:

Yep, pure fantasy.

Just what this country needs, another book aimed at indoctrinating youngsters into a fantasy world that bears no resemblance to reality.

Isn't making them read the Bible enough?

Evangelical group operating after school program on public school property teaches children as young as 4 and 5 that they are sinners and deserve death.

Courtesy of TPM: 

An evangelical Christian group plans to try to convert children as young as 5 at Portland apartment pools, public parks and dozens of other gathering spots this summer — a campaign that's got some residents upset. 

They've banded together in recent weeks to warn parents about the Child Evangelism Fellowship's Good News Club, buying a full-page ad in the local alternative weekly to highlight the group's tactics. 

"They pretend to be a mainstream Christian Bible study when in fact they're a very old school fundamentalist sect," said Kaye Schmitt, an organizer with Protect Portland Children, which takes issue with the group's message and the way it's delivering it. 

CEF says Protect Portland Children is a shadow group run by atheists who seek to dismantle Christian outreach. The group said its methods are above reproach. 

"Children are easy to manipulate, we all know that," said CEF's vice president Moises Esteves. "We don't use any of the schemes and high-pressure tactics that we're accused of. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Actually that might be exactly the truth as revealed by a site called  "The Good News Club: Endangering Chidlren."

On that site they have a page dedicated to the curriculum used by CEF, which includes paragraphs like this:

 And this:

These are young children, many who have no religious background in Judeo Christian teaching, and here they are being told on PUBLIC SCHOOL property, that they are evil and will die a horrible death if they do not convert the religion of their instructors.

There is a name for this.

And that name is "child abuse."

Did you ever wonder what happened to that kid Levi from the documentary "Jesus Camp?" Well here you go.

So apparently his indoctrination took.

I find it interesting that he did not find anything wrong with how the documentary portrayed him, and in fact seems to think of it as a positive thing. Yet he is still firmly entrenched in the world that the film exposed.

But wait he's seen babies raised from the dead? Does he work in a ICU?

I can honestly say that I don't think any documentary upset me as much as Jesus Camp did.

At the end of the film I was actually shaking and very upset with how these impressionable children were being lied to and manipulated.

Perhaps the filmmakers should do a follow up to see where all of those kids ended up, and if their faith is still as strong as Levi's?

I would watch that.

Get them while they're young.

I was really only subjected to a limited amount of this as a kid, but my daughter was exposed to the whole enchilada.

Christian homeschool instruction, Bible camps, overnight church sleepovers for teens, trips to the water park, paintball games, you name it she has done it.

My second wife lived a life like that as a kid as well, and told me they were not even allowed to go to the movies, watch television, or listen to modern music. Of course none of that stopped her from becoming a teen mom.

My personal feeling is if your religion is so worthy of acceptance then people should be introduced to it after they are in their late teens or early twenties and have some maturity and frame of reference. If they can be convinced at that stage of their life, then the church really has something valuable to offer.

If not then it deserves to die out.