So much evil.

Look at all these evil, evil people. God-haters, anti-Christs, willing tools of the Devil, all of them. Nothing good can ever come of a group so filled with such hatred and lies.

If you’re anything like them – if you doubt your church’s teachings, or stopped believing in god, or prefer to trust your own reason over the shackles of dogma – then you’re better off joining them than contaminating your congregation with your filth.

They have a Facebook group where they announce regular meet-ups and talk about blasphemous things like thinking for yourself.

Disgusting.

At some point you’ve probably read an article somewhere where priests or religious people ask you to pray for a certain cause. I’ve seen bishops ask people to pray for politicians, for impeachment trials, and for victims of various Acts of God, and it annoys me to no end that of all the good things people could do with their two hands, so many people settle for doing nothing more than bowing their heads and closing their eyes instead.

Wouldn’t the world be so much better if everyone who has ever prayed used that time instead to do something good for others? Instead of praying for typhoon victims, for example, donate a shirt or two at the nearest donation box. Instead of praying for god to end corruption, speak out every time you see it rear its head. Instead of praying for the protection of children, push for the prosecution of those who have been raping them in church, and those who’ve been protecting the rapists.

There’s so much we could accomplish as a society if people only stopped wishing that a giant magic hand would come down from the sky and fix things for us, and instead replaced praying for solutions with actually doing shit. Imagine if the “Global Day of Prayer” and the “World Day of Prayer” were replaced with the “Global Day of Actually Doing Shit” and the “World Day of Actually Doing Shit.” It’s quite a stretch that anything like that could ever happen, so let me help your imagination along.

Churches are often looking for ways to encourage actually doing shit among their people. A great way to get the most people actually doing shit is to design an actual shit-doing initiative — doing actual shit on a theme for a set period of time. Actual shit-doing initiatives disciple people to move beyond fix-it shit-doing for their own needs, and instead do actual People-focused shit that seek the power, blessing, and purposes of People.

Many denominations or organizations encourage a week of actually doing shit or develop materials for a 30- or 40-day shit-doing emphasis. A church can develop its own initiative, but there are lots of good ones available, complete with People-based shit-doing guides, sermon helps, and even promotional materials.

That is what it would sound like if this article was trying to do any actual good for the world instead of just trying to get people more people to do absolutely nothing. And here’s another better interpretation of a statement from yearofprayer.org:

The Year of Actually Doing Shit for Children is a project to encourage people everywhere to set aside a special time to actually do shit for children in their community and in the world.

Individuals are asked to commit 15 minutes daily to actually do shit for children. In addition, congregations and communities are invited to gather together for a “Day of Actually Doing Shit for Children” on the second Saturday of each month. “Nothing ever happens until people make a commitment”, says founder Reverend Harriett Walden. “Not everyone can physically intervene in the life of a child, but all children need our actual shit and everyone can actually do shit. In the tradition where I grew up, the actual shit of the elders kept the young people safe until they were old enough to actually do shit for themselves”.

I am of the personal opinion that the world is not short on good intentions. It is action that we are in short supply of, and it is action that we so desperately need. Anyone can pray for abused children, typhoon victims and world peace, but it is the people who get off their knees and actually do shit who make these prayers come true.

One might argue that there’s nothing wrong with imploring a deity to help the world, that a little prayer never hurt anyone, but when well-intentioned people are convinced that clasping their hands and muttering a few words actually accomplishes anything, all that good intention goes to waste. The conscience that would have driven them to action is sated by the delusion that someone up there will do all the work for them.

If all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing, and idle hands are the devil’s playground, then prayer is all the world needs to go to hell.

Apparently Willie Revillame is giving away P100,000. That’s a lot of money, and in the right hands it could do a lot of good, but instead it’s joining almost 1.5 million pesos put together by Senators, other personalities and lay people for, of all things, cars. Cars for bishops.

Macalintal and former Manila Mayor Lito Atienza are leading the fund raising drive in support of seven bishops who bought utility vehicles from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office donations in 2009…

Macalintal said they are looking at seeking donations from Catholic parishioners to raise P8.2 million, the amount that the prelates received from the state-run lottery.

So let me get this straight:

1. They ask for money.
2. They receive money they know they shouldn’t have.
3. They buy cars.
4. They get called out on their hypocrisy.
5. They return the cars.
6. They get money?

God damn I chose the wrong line of work!

Now I’ve seen a fair share of envelopes passed around the office or classroom – for a classmate whose father died, for a colleague who lost everything he owned to Ondoy, for a friend who had cancer – and none of them were for a reason as shallow as “because I had to return my car.” There are a lot of people who need real help, a lot of severely underfunded charities, a lot of dilapidated public schools and hospitals, and compared to them – hell, compared to anything – buying a half dozen SUV’s for some bishops just doesn’t seem like a worthy cause at all.

Of course, if people like Willie Revillame and other personalities want to donate their own money to this fund, it’s entirely their choice. They are private citizens, and as long as there is no violation of church/state separation going on they are free to do with their money as they please. I just hope that before handing them the money, Willie makes the bishops do a little dance first.

(Image taken from Single Father at Work)

You might remember Pope Benedict’s statements last December blaming the past child rape on the 70′s culture, with the “tu quoque” argument that the “context of the times” somehow justified it because, to paraphrase, “everyone was doing it.” Well now the Church has a genuine study to back them up.

Two weeks ago the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York released a report “The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010″ that supported the Pope’s statement. It concluded that the majority of the child rapes occurred during the 60′s and 70′s, which was “consistent with the rise in other types of “deviant” behavior, such as drug use and crime” and that “perceptions of “normal” sexual behavior are not stable over time, nor are laws governing the sexual behavior that is considered wrong.” The study seems to suggest that child rape was somehow normal during the hippie revolution and is no longer considered acceptable these days, which is why reports are now coming in decades after the crimes.

The study goes on to say that most “pedo-priests” aren’t actually pedophiles because “pedophilia is defined as the sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Yet, the data on priests show that 22 percent of victims were age ten and under, while the majority of victims were pubescent or postpubescent.”

Well then, they’re not all pedophiles after all, so I guess that makes it okay.

You’d think a five-year study into child-raping priests by a College of Criminal Justice would sound more like it was on the side of actual justice than trying to make excuses for the Catholic Church, until you count the number of times the word “Catholic” appears in the donors list. This study, commissioned by the The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is nothing more than another example of the old Catholic doctrine “Downplay the sin, protect the sinner, screw the victim.”

The study can be downloaded from here. A good review about how this report is worthless and dangerous can be found here.

After having been shoved and shouted at last night by pro-life Catholics who call the RH Bill and modern contraception the road that leads straight to death, I may be forgiven for taking the headline “Pope says condoms may be OK in some circumstances” as a joke, especially since the cited circumstance is to prevent the transmission of HIV. After all, this is the same Pope who condemned the use of condoms even in AIDS-ravaged Africa, from the same Church whose self-proclaimed “real” members just hours ago handed out pamphlets that claimed that condoms helped the spread of AIDS. How on earth could condom use ever be justified?

Apparently, if you’re a male prostitute.

Of course, since the Catholic Church is still opposed to contraceptives as a means to prevent pregnancy, we must take it to mean that this justification only applies to male prostitutes whose use of condoms does not affect any potential for procreation.

That’s right, gay prostitutes.

In so many roundabout words the Pope says in a an upcoming book that he thinks it’s a good idea for gay prostitutes to wear condoms, because “the intention of reducing the risk of infection” is “a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility”, but maintains that for Africa, abstinence is the only sure way to combat HIV/AIDS. This begs the question of course of whether the circumstance of monogamous married couples where one spouse is infected are offered the same leniency as male prostitutes, or because using a condom still prevents the potential for conception we are meant to understand that the official Catholic stance remains; condoms are still outright forbidden.

This double standard Pope Benedict seems to have adopted in favor of the protection of male prostitutes and their clients seems all the more sickening in the face of the rising number of HIV/AIDS cases in Africa and around the world. It makes me wonder, perhaps with some amusement, if this was brought about by a rising number of HIV/AIDS cases among the clergy.

A few hours ago, outside the Manila Cathedral, pro-life activists gave out a couple of leaflets attacking the RH Bill. They are attached below for your enjoyment/irritation; click to view in all their falsehood.

For the benefit of our non-Filipino readers, we’ve taken the liberty of translating a few sections:

The RH Bill No. 96 of Congressman Lagman and any version of it is the road that leads straight to DEATH!

2. What is the Reproductive Health Bill 96?
a. The use of contraception (abortifacients – condoms, pills, IUDs, etc.) endangers the health of mothers and children. This results in:

• Cancer
• causes heart attacks and stroke
• the mother and newborn child will have disabilities and health problems like psychological disorders of the mother and abnormalities in the child.

The spread of AIDS – according to the strongest universal evidence, widespread condom usage leads to the increased spreading of AIDS due to complacence as regards to the dangers of negligent intercourse.

Why is there the desire to pass the RH-Bill?
Capitalists who benefit from the producing and distributing of contraceptives use money and dirty politics.

It is just this sort of misinformation the poor are subject to every day, and when the Church itself preaches this to their flock they are sadly compelled to believe.

Simon Singh writes:

This week is the first anniversary of the report Free Speech is Not for Sale, which highlighted the oppressive nature of English libel law. In short, the law is extremely hostile to writers, while being unreasonably friendly towards powerful corporations and individuals who want to silence critics.

The English libel law is particularly dangerous for bloggers, who are generally not backed by publishers, and who can end up being sued in London regardless of where the blog was posted. The internet allows bloggers to reach a global audience, but it also allows the High Court in London to have a global reach.

You can read more about the peculiar and grossly unfair nature of English libel law at the website of the Libel Reform Campaign. You will see that the campaign is not calling for the removal of libel law, but for a libel law that is fair and which would allow writers a reasonable opportunity to express their opinion and then defend it.

The good news is that the British Government has made a commitment to draft a bill that will reform libel, but it is essential that bloggers and their readers send a strong signal to politicians so that they follow through on this promise. You can do this by joining me and over 50,000 others who have signed the libel reform petition at
www.libelreform.org/sign

Remember, you can sign the petition whatever your nationality and wherever you live. Indeed, signatories from overseas remind British politicians that the English libel law is out of step with the rest of the free world.

If you have already signed the petition, then please encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up. Moreover, if you have your own blog, you can join hundreds of other bloggers by posting this blog on your own site. There is a real chance that bloggers could help change the most censorious libel law in the democratic world.

We must speak out to defend free speech. Please sign the petition for libel reform at www.libelreform.org/sign

It’s short notice, but if you’re a Cebuano Freethinker, or any Freethinker currently in Cebu, you’re invited to the First FF Cebu Chapter Meet-up!

Date: Saturday, April 17
Time: 2pm to 6pm.
Place: Starbucks, Ayala Center Cebu

Agenda: Anything goes.

There’s never a shortage of interesting topics for a First Meet-up; introduce yourselves, tell the story of your journey to enlightenment, share what it’s like being a Freethinker in a city built around a rotting cross.

RSVP at the Facebook event page

Robert Sapolsky, renowned neurobiologist, explains how we are not as unique in the animal kingdom as we like to think.

Begin at the 4:50 mark; it’s a long intro, but a very enlightening lecture.

Congratulations Igme, on winning our first ever Essay Writing Contest!

For those who were unable to attend the last meet-up, Igme was awarded for his article Children’s Choice. The decision was reached after factoring in the votes garnered, the original contest criteria and the fact that it was an actual essay (sorry, poets).

The prize, Dawkins’ The Greatest Show On Earth – The Evidence For Evolution, was awarded last Sunday, the 10th of January, in the year of His Noodliness, two thousand and ten.

Also handed out last Sunday was a surprise prize, for most valuable blogger, awarded to PinoyAtheist with 42 (forty two?!) posts! The purpose of this contest was to get members writing more about what it means to be a Filipino Freethinker, and for well after the contest period ended, John has been consistently writing about just that.

Two prizes awarded, two winners well deserved, one contest finally over. We can now start work on a second contest, in time for the first year anniversary of FF.

What contest would you join? What prize would you like to win?

With Mikong’s winter solstice visit to Davao kicking off our first ever regional meetup, I figured I could do the same when I go home to Cebu later this December. And if you’re going home to your province this season as well, why not do the same too?

This is a challenge to FF members going home for the holidays — meet at least one other Filipino freethinker in your area. Whether reaching existing members who haven’t been to our Manila meet-ups or spreading the good news that is FF to Filipino freethinkers who had no idea we exist, the goal is to get in touch with at least one other disbeliever.

And this isn’t just a challenge for members visiting the provinces either. If you’re not from Manila and have been looking for a local meet-up, get one organized yourself!

I’m sure there will be tons to talk about. The state of freethought in the country or in your province, personal stories about living in a Catholic nation where separation of Church and State is almost nonexistent, surviving Christmas among religions friends and family, plans and projects of FF and ideas of what more can be done.

And, of course, the possibility of setting up an actual regional chapter of FF.

We can provide an FF tabletop logo for members who are up to the challenge, which you can set up on your coffee table or on the bar, wherever you choose to organize, but filling up the seats will be up to you. Post a query on our forums, mailing list or in the comments below. Look up old classmates who once questioned their religion. Google your town for existing freethought circles, or send meet-up invites to mailing lists of friends and family. It doesn’t take much to organize a regional meet-up, and this challenge hopes to demonstrate that. Just you and one other person, and FF will have taken that first step in your province.

Oh, and take pictures. We do love pictures.

.. 1095 – At the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade, declaring holy war against the Muslims who had occupied the Holy Land, beginning the first of at least nine Crusades. “The Crusades were fought mainly against Muslims, although campaigns were also waged against pagan Slavs, Jews, Russian and Greek Orthodox Christians, Mongols, Cathars, Hussites, Waldensians, Old Prussians, and political enemies of the popes.”

.. 1895 – Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after his death. The awards for the sciences – physics, chemistry and physiology or medicine – remain widely considered to be the more prestigious award one can receive in those fields.

.. 1978 – Assassination of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, “the first openly gay man elected to any substantial political office in the history of the planet.” The killing was regarded by many as a hate crime.

.. 2009 – First day of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim celebration of one man’s willingness to kill his son for no other reason than his God told him to.

Okay, so last meet-up it was brought to my attention that members did not realize that they had 15 votes to give away for this contest, which would probably explain the low vote count.

So, due to popular demand, voting has been reopened for a second round. Note that the votes made during the first round still count, and you’re still allowed to vote for a particular post just once. (But you can vote for up to 15 posts!)

Fifteen, if you didn’t catch that. 15. Labinlima. Quince. 十五. 열다섯. δεκαπέντε. חמשעסר.

As usual, you can find the list of entries here. The Vote link can be found in the author box at the bottom of each post. The time limit this time is two weeks, to give everyone enough time to read through everything.

On a separate note, what do you think our next contest should be?

Top 5 votes as of 11 am, Nov 18. 25 hours until voting ends.

Tomorrow is the last day of voting and turnout thus far has been quite low. And since we’re eager to get our other contests started, voting with not be extended for this one. If we don’t have enough votes by 24:00 tomorrow, the decision will be left entirely to the judges.

You can find the list of entries here, and you can vote for the entries you like by clicking the Vote link at the bottom.

Remember, prayers don’t win contests, votes do.