What does bother me is that he actually managed to convince some people that his delusions were true.  Sadly, there are always people willing to believe this stuff.  These people gave him money.  These people sold their possessions.  I feel badly for them.   For Harold Camping, however, I feel nothing but contempt.

So what were you doing when the Rapture was suppose to happen?  I was in a car on my way to a friends graduation party; something worthy of celebration, I think.

I don’t know whether to be horrified that 76 men voted to fire Hartwig or hopeful that 74 voted to not fire him.

But hey – of course they didn’t leave women out entirely:

Women who wanted to ask questions were told to write them on a piece of paper and have a man read them aloud. But some, including Hartwig’s own daughter, said their questions were never read.

Not that it did any good.

“I actually passed three or four questions to a church council member and none of them were read,” said Emily Rae Hartwig. “I guess the way I felt about it, and the way many others felt, was that they were afraid of us (women). A lot of my dad’s supporters are women.”

What I don’t get is why there are even women that are members of that church.  How low does your self esteem have to be to think it’s ok to be thought of as inferior and having no rights?  Seriously.

Here’s Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club talking about the earthquake in Haiti:

The Haitians “were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever,” Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. “And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, ‘We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.’ True story. And so, the devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ “

Seriously?  He believes that?  Aside from the complete and utter heartlessness of his “explanation”, it doesn’t really sound like his god is all that loving or big on forgiveness.  Mr Robertson seems to be light on the compassion as well.  Not that this really surprises me, mind you,  since he and Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on”the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists…” rather than squarely where the blame really was, which was religion and politics.

Some very cool news – on Tuesday, November 13th, at 8pm PBS will be airing a new NOVA program about the Kitzmiller vs. Dover trial on teaching ID in public schools. Check your local listings.

For more information, see the press release or click on the graphic to be taken to the NOVA site on the program.

edited to add: The NY Times also has a pretty good write up on Judgment Day.

Infidel is the story of her life so far. Her story is moving and at times very tragic. This is a very powerful book, full of imagery that shocked my Western mind.

She describes her childhood, being taught to recite her lineage, listening to her grandmother’s frightening stories, being circumcised without anesthetic. During her teen years she embraced Islam, voluntarily wearing a hijab. She wanted to be a good Muslim. She also wanted to understand her religion. However, questioning is wrong in Islam and she was more than discouraged.

When her father arranged for her to marry a man she had never met, she ran. She sought refugee status in Holland, and, unfortunately she had to lie to get it. However, unlike so many of the other refugees, Ayaan did not want to live off the system. She wanted to give something back to the country that took her in. So, she worked as a translator and went to college to get a degree in Political Science and even got Dutch citizenship and became a member of Parliament. She let no one discourage her.

She also saw so many Muslim women in Holland with no more freedom than in Muslim countries. She saw women abused or even killed because they were not obedient enough. Through her office in Parliament, she campaigned for more awareness of the violence done to Muslim women because of religion.

However, even though she had been experiencing cognitive dissonance in regards to her religion for some time, it was not until after 9/11 that she really began to see her religion with a great amount of clarity. She looked up the passages that were used to justify the attacks and was horrified.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is not afraid to speak out against Islam and doing so has brought her many threats on her life. Still she proceeds. She feels (and she is right) that everything should be open to discussion and criticism – even religion; especially religion. She see’s the oppression of women and she wants them to know that even though they may not realize it, they do have a choice. They can break free from submission.

I would love to do justice to her book with my review of it, but, honestly, nothing I could say would convey just how good this book is or how important. I also had the good fortune to get to hear her speak at the AAI conference a few weeks ago. She has a powerful presence and much courage.

Just as I have come to expect from Dr. Dawkins, The God Delusion is a well reasoned treatise. He systematically dismantles the supposed needs for belief in God and pretty much any argument one could have for retaining belief. He mainly goes after the three Abrahamic religions – Christianity, Judiasim and Islam – but his arguments apply equally well to any other religion, past or present.

I had read so many reviews of The God Delusion before I read it, most of them favorable. A few reviews, however, said that Dawkins came off as being arrogant or ignorant about religion. After reading the book myself, I feel both criticisms are unwarranted. Attack the argument, not the man, as they say.

He is confident in his words, though, and maybe that’s what religious folk take for arrogance. And he is definitely not ignorant about religion. He knows his stuff.

Personally, I think everyone could benefit from reading The God Delusion, whether they agree with Dawkins or not. Will it turn believers into atheists? I don’t know, but I do think this book, along with several others on the forefront at the moment will embolden those that are already atheists to stand up and be counted.