Is it really possible that in all this time, I've only ever even touched on the glorious disaster that is the cult of Scientology, but once? Yes, it appears that is the case. And even when I did, it was really more about Russia's banning of Hubbard's books, than it was the church itself. Time to fix that. Because as the so-called "church" has been spreading out over the years, it's hit a few... let's call them snags, along the way. In the last few years in particular, along with Russia's efforts to ban Hubbard's writings, countries like France and Belgium have attempted to eject the group, by labeling them a criminal organization, primarily based on charges of fraud. And there are rumblings abound, that similar actions are soon to follow in various other places where scientology has only just begun to spread . All of which, is well and truly deserved, in my opinion.

The newest set of fraud charges the organization is currently facing here in America, are being alleged in a lawsuit filed by a couple in Tampa Florida. Luis and Rocio Garcia claim they were mislead into donating $420,000 into the church for charity and relief efforts, as well as for the construction of  the groups "Super Power building". A building which the Pinellas county Property Appraiser's Office has valued at $80 million, but lists as fully tax exempt, and which has sat unfinished in downtown Clearwater FL, since 2003.

From the Tampa Bay Times (which wrote a surprisingly thorough article on this):

"Plaintiffs Luis and Rocio Garcia of Irvine, Calif., name five Scientology corporations as defendants, including the church's main entity in Clearwater. The former church members say they gave Scientology more than $420,000 for the massive "Super Power" building in Clearwater that has never opened, church services they never received and humanitarian projects that never materialized.

The deception went as far as producing phony videos of church earthquake relief efforts to induce parishioners to give, said the Garcias' attorney, Theodore Babbitt of West Palm Beach.

The lawsuit focuses on Scientology leader David Miscavige, saying he exerts control over an "interdependent network of entities" that extracts as much money as it can from parishioners and denies promised refunds. It alleges the church improperly uses donations to finance Miscavige's "lavish lifestyle" and to stifle critics with private investigators and lawyers.

"We believe that these lawsuits will put an end to these practices," Babbitt said.

Clearwater church spokeswoman Pat Harney said: "The church has not been served and has no comment. However, we understand from media inquiries this has something to do with fundraising, and we can unequivocally state all funds solicited are used for the charitable and religious purposes for which they were donated." "

According to the article, the couple also claims they've spoken to dozens of other former members, and similar lawsuits are coming.

Unfortunately, even if the Garcia's allegations against the church are true, and there are plenty of reasons to believe they are, how much success they'll have fighting an organization as well funded as scientology, remains to be seen. After all, we're talking about an organization whose ranks likely only number somewhere in the tens, maybe, hundreds of thousands* -despite their assertions of Tom Cruise having reached over a billion people with scientolgy's message- who still manage to find the capital and resources to defend themselves against entire foreign governments. But with the growing number of similar suits, potential suits in waiting, and the onslaught of bad publicity, criminal charges, and all of the just plain embarrassing allegations that continue to be waged against the organization, there is some hope. And while I doubt we'll ever see an absolute end to scientology as an entity, it seems to be ever more likely that we are at least seeing the beginnings of the end of what little legitimacy it's managed to create for itself in the eyes of the general public.

Now if we could just get people to apply the same critical eye to "transubstantiation" or the vatican's banking practices.

Baby stepping towards apostasy...

Ba-by steps.... (1,000,000,000 bonus points to you if you get this reference, BTW.)

-CAINE-

Source: Tampabay.com

*The actual number of "practicing" scientologist, is debatable, and ultimately unconfirmable, as the "church" goes to great links to keep said figures as vague and confusing as possible.

Finally, because I simply cannot resist any opportunity to share it, THIS mangled train wreck of crazy. Which you may have forgotten existed. But I didn't, Oh no my friend. I remember it well.

One year ago today,* the world become a slightly less rational, thoughtful, and interesting place to live, because Christopher Hitchens, stopped living in it.

  -CAINE-

*It was actually yesterday, as I apparently don't know how to cue things properly.
 

Last night I received a comment on a post I wrote in 2010 "The Pope Says I'm a Nazi (t-shirt available soon)" I was planning to just reply in the comments and move on but, well... There's just too much to deal with, and the claim that Darwin was somehow responsible for Hitler, is one I have yet to deal with here anyway. So I responded briefly to direct the commenter to this entry, where I could address his comment in full without trying to force a small essay into the comment section. So, pop over and read the original entry for context ( Don't worry, it's short) and then read on if you like.


"Ratzinger's statement you quoted is indeed full of incorrect ideas, but not completely. There were indeed many pastors, christians etc. who did speak out against the Nazis (and protected Jews) and that did indeed pay for it with their lives. The church of Rome did nothing but help Hitler most of the time. Roman Catholicism is a false Christianity. According to Nuremberg trials evidence, the Nazis next target after the Jews was the Christian church. The truth is that Nazism was founded in Darwinism - which in turn was founded on materialism (atheism) - and which led to their mission of eliminating the "inferior races" in order to better build the "master race", all by helping evolution along by artificial selection."


I wrote this quite some time ago when I was less careful about my wording, since no one was really reading anyway. So, I agree that my statement that EVERYTHING he said was wrong, was too general. There were of course pastors, ETC., who did oppose Hitler, protected Jews, and died because of it. And though the claim that Hitler intended to attack the christian church is speculative, it seems reasonable to think that Hitler would have targeted outside religions, as he would likely have viewed their position of power and influence in the world as a threat to his own. However, none of that changes the purpose of Ratzinger's statement or my objection to it, as the statement in question was meant to deliberately misrepresent- A) atheism as evil and destructive- B) Hitler's actions as the ultimate example of said evil and destruction- and C) The catholic church, and by proxy religious faith, as the noble savior of mankind. None of which is supported by the facts of reality.

As for the rest of  your comment.

First- materialism is not atheism. There are plenty of materialists who also choose to maintain a belief in god, as Christians are often delighted to point out. There are plenty of otherwise empirically minded scientists in the world who also believe in god; though they are certainly the minority

Second- Your claim that roman catholicism is "false christianity", is problematic. Though you weren't specific as to why you believe it "false". All (or at least all 3 Abrahamic) religious faiths, are ambiguous belief systems. Meaning- because they reject "materialism", the god on which they are based has not -or cannot be- directly observed, verified, quantified, or defined by any empirical means. And because their exact historical origins are also confused and obscured, and their doctrines treated as interpretive, you have no meaningful way (historically or philosophically) by which to assert your definition of "true" christianity, over anyone else's.

Finally- The claim that Hitler was influenced by Darwin or Darwinism, is old, tired, and nonsense.  Darwin's books were banned (as were atheist/freethought groups) by the Nazi regime, because Hitler rejected the idea that Aryans could have evolved from "lower orders" of animals; an interpretation BTW, which is identical to the modern creationist position on evolution. Though Hitler did make statements in Mein Kampf resembling the concepts of natural selection, the views he expresses most closely resemble ideas expressed within social Darwinism;[2] which was created by a British Philosopher and "agnostic realist" named Herbert Spencer;[2] not Charles Darwin. More importantly, there are NO examples of Hitler directly citing Darwin, Darwinism, ETC. as the inspiration for his deeds. So any such links can only be implied through personal interpretation.

When it comes to Christianity, on the other hand. Hitlers writings and speeches are littered with Christ-based justifications for his actions. Such as:


Of course, this does not prove that Hitler did what he did because god told him to, therefore- all religion is evil. In the same way "This idea sounds like natural selection" or " Darwin influenced Spencer" , doesn't prove that Darwin inspired Hitler. But what it does do, is provide a material link between Hitler's stated philosophy, and his stated interpretation of "god's will" and christianity; which, weather you agree with it or not- you have no viable means of disputing. There is no such fact-based historical link between Darwinism/atheism, and Hitler's actions or motivations.

-CAINE-

 

Today's episode of My Favorite Show,  is the last of the episodes we previously recorded. So some of the stories on today's episode are admittedly a bit out date at this point, but we liked it. And it is the first episode where we, in particular I -really start to rail against politics and religion. Which is gonna be a thing that happens on this show, given how much I hate politics, and the fact that we're both godless heathens. So please check out today's episode, share if you enjoy, and we'll be back with newer content next week.

In today's episode, "Mr. Smith Steals A Yeti Hand":  Young girl mistaken for a skunk, shot at Halloween party- a woman questions the logic of placing deer crossings in high traffic areas- Home schooler fears homosexuality may lead to a duck uprising- Rep Paul Broun (who thinks science is from hell) vs Darwin- Charlie Fuqua wants the death penalty for unruly kids, even though he writes like one- Bigfoot attacks an RV - The catholic church has a new saint - I defame Mother Teresa and the Church -Jimmy Stewart Steals a Yeti hand -IOS Games: Tentacles Enter the Dolphin, Plague Inc - and  Bees making technicolor honey.

Tara's favorite thing for the week, is the VERY dark, weird, and vulgar (You've been warned) South African rap-rave group Die Antwoord.

My favorite thing for the week:

The Nerdist Podcast Episode #267 with Tom Hank

-CAINE-

Once again I really haven't had much to say around here for the past month. Which is to say, I haven't posted a damn thing since September. The reasons for this, as always, are varied. And while I have been working on a variety of different things, the project that's been taking up the bulk of my time this month is "My Favorite show". Which is the name of the new Podcast I decided to start, along with the help of my friend Tara.

Much like the last time I tried this whole Podcast thing... I... mean... um... What OTHER Podcast? A month of trials has left me with several weeks worth of unpublished material, that I'm not quite sure what to do with. To be honest, because I am a perfectionist, (and more than a little OCD) particularly when it comes to these types of things, and since some of the things we talk about are now a bit out of date by internet standards,  I was actually just going to scrap our first few tries, and start fresh with an episode on Halloween. Cause, Why not? But, at Tara's urging,  I've opted instead to post at least two of the episodes we've managed to record thus far, over the coming weekend. Though the feed won't be published on iTunes until Wednesday, along (theoretically) with a new Halloween themed episode of the show. Cause, why not?

As for the content of the show. Basically, Tara and I just decided to add a little direction to the weekly conversations we'd be having anyway, and turn it into a show. So, sometimes we have serious discussions about science, the paranormal, politics, social issues and religion, and other times we just dump on shitty TV shows and poke fun at one another. All and all, its fun to make and I think it might even be entertaining. Or not, that parts up to you really.

In today's episode "Cyborgs and Beauty Queens", we cover a variety of things, including:  Man kills masked teen, finds it's his son - The Brady Bunch Reboot - Honey- Boo- Boo ( I didn't know what it was either, blame Tara) - California bans gay conversion therapy for minors - But I'm A Cheerleader - Cyborg Flesh - The future of the internet, as well as some other stuff..

My favorite thing for the week: This, then recently released trailer for Behemoth front-man Adam Darski's forth-coming autobiography, Sacrum Profanum. Which wound up spawning an amusing exchange about book trailers. Which Tara had apparently never heard of.    

According to many of the world's various pimps of the gospel, many people, particularly the youth of today, have a hard time understanding and connecting with the biblical word. Now, I know it might seem obvious to you why a disjointed collection of bronze-age myths and parables forced together to form a book filled with the alleged immutable truths of an unprovable sky-god, might seem silly from a 21st century, we all just watched a probe land on Mars via the Internet, sort of perspective. Because, well, it is.

But did it ever occur to you that maybe the real problem is that those often barely coherent, 2000 year old ramblings, are still being presented to the youth of today in the form of a 16th century old English translation? Ya, me neither.Then again, much like you, I prefer logic and reason over blind faith and denial. Houston pastor Chris Seay, on the other hand. Well, let's just say he CLEARLY prefers option B.

Which is precisely why Seay decided to enlist the help of Frank Couch, vice president of translation development for Nashville based religious publisher Thomas Nelson, not to mention a team of translators, poets and musicians, in order to create his very own modern translation of the bible called, "The Voice". Oh, and did I mention that it's basically written in the form of a screenplay? Ya.

Via The Voice homepage:

"The Voice is a dynamic equivalent translation that reads like a story with all of the truth and wisdom of God's Word. Through compelling narratives, poetry, and teaching it invites readers to enter into the whole story of God with their heart, soul, and mind. This bold new translation engages readers like no other Bible."

Notice that line about it being a, "dynamic equivalent translation that reads like a story"? Ya, that's code for, " we added words as we saw fit, in order to better sell our own interpretation of god's "true" word.". That's right, because merely adding stage directions just wasn't enough, Seay and company also decided to add some lines of their own. Ya know, for the sake of continuity, and maybe to flesh out some of the supporting characters a little.

But don't worry, Seay and Couch's team of re-interpreters was careful to italicize all the things they added to the original. So there's no way anyone will be confused about the original content and context of the text. We'll all just have to assume they've also devised a way of acting "italicized" as well, so the audience won't get all confused about which parts god wrote, and which parts Seay and friends just threw in for the sake of their would be hacky screenplay. Since they choose this format, in part, in the hopes of inspiring x-tian groups to put on more plays.

So if you'd like to have a bit of fun and frustration all at the same time. Then I suggest you head on over to hear the voice, and use their handy-dandy search feature, to read their translation of any bible verse you like. I recommend the tale of Lot and his daughters, which has always been one of my personal favorites. Because I've always felt that nothing summarizes the worth of biblical morality, quite like a tale that manages to glorify god's wrath, genocide, blind obedience, and the many virtues of drunken incest, all at once.

-CAINE-

Earlier this month, May 9th, to be exact, the Godless Geek blog completed it's second year. Yes, I know the title says year one. But being that I'm all science-y and stuff, I thought it'd be clever to start with year zero...What?... Stop looking at me like that.  ANYWAY- Looking back over last year, I'm more than a little disappointed in my overall volume of output, but I'm generally pretty happy with the majority of things I did manage to put out. Plus, depending on your source for the statistics on such things, it's my understanding that the average blog is long dead by now. So if nothing else, at least I'm still here. But my goal, is to do a lot more than just maintain a minimal presence. And now that I've (hopefully) gotten all my brooding over a minor... Okay, major personal crisis out of the way, I think I can get back to doing that.

 The whole reason I started this page in the first place, was not to entertain myself or to feed some some narcissistic need for attention. Sure, I'm here in part to talk about my own interests, share my art and other projects, and, on rare occasions, little bits of my life. And yes, I'm obviously promoting a very specific and personal world view; it's called The Godless Geek Blog, for Araya's sake. What did you expect? But I started doing this, primarily, as a way to try and join the cause of promoting a greater interest in, and understanding of, science and critical thinking, while hopefully being entertaining enough in the process to trick some people into sticking around long enough to get to, all that other stuff. Which is why, looking forward, I've decided to concentrate my efforts into growing this site into something, bigger.

To that end, I have finally registered a domain name for the site, which you can now access by going to, www.godlessgeekblog.com or .net.

As you may have noticed, I also spent some time this weekend making the blog easier for you to share, if you are so inclined. So you can now share individual posts on Google plus by clicking the G + icon beneath each post -or- you can share the entire page, by clicking the same icon in the sidebar; this same function applies to all the other share buttons on the page as well. If you are on Google plus, you'll also now find a link in the sidebar to add my profile to your circles. And if you STILL like Facebook for some reason (why?), I also decided to resurrect Geekblog's Facebook page; which I would greatly appreciate you taking a moment to like since I hate Facebook, and am just looking for an excuse to kill it again. =)

And finally, there's also a very good chance that I've been toying with producing a podcast to go along with the site. So if you're into that sort of thing, keep an eye out for updates on that as well.

So weather you've been following the site for a while or this is your first visit, thank you. You have no idea how much I appreciate even the most minor validation of my efforts. And if you enjoy the site, and would like to see more content from it  more often, please- share it with your friends. And be sure to let me know what you think, and what you'd like to see more/less of,  in the comments.

Thanks again, more to come shortly...

-CAINE-

As you may already be aware, for some time now the Vatican has been dealing with a bit of a "scandal".

What?...No, not THAT one.

I mean, geez, how many times must the Vatican barely acknowledge the church's long standing practice of both harboring and enabling pedophiles by shielding them from prosecution and paying victims to keep their mouths shut, before you, insensitive, immoral heathens, stop harping about it? [What sarcasm?] No, this time it's something - apparently- even more, embarrassing, scandalous, and inconvenient to admit, than the fact that the religious cult on which your city-state is built, is filthy with pedophiles and the men who love to help them get away with it.

Saturday, the Vatican charged the Pope's personal butler Paolo Gabriele, with aggravated theft, in connection with the so-called Vatileaks scandal -Ya, I know. But at least the media's not making everything a "gate" anymore- after claiming to have found him to be in possession of confidential documents. Encouragingly -where public perception of the Vatican's credibility is concerned- many seem to feel Gabriele is not actually the man behind the Vatican leaks, but, rather, a scapegoat in the organization's attempt to save face. Which seems likely, given the circumstances. Me personally, I'm still just trying to process the idea that the pope has a butler. When did he become Batman?

For those of you unfamiliar with the whole Vatileaks thing: For several months now, the Italian media has been publishing leaked letters from the Vatican concerning various conflicts, power struggles, and potential corruptions, within the church-state. As usual, the holy state has done it's best to try and minimize damage from the leaks, and challenge the validity of the claims made within them, by painting itself as the victim of an insidious plot designed to undermine the church's authority and moral standing. But that task got a lot harder this week, with the publication of; Your Holiness: The Secrete Papers of  Benedict XVI.

Published by journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, Your Holiness, is filled with even more leaked documents and letters from within the Vatican city walls, including some directed to Cap'n pointy-hat himself. And following the book's publication, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, head of the Vatican Bank, opted to step down from his position, due to information in the book regarding his mismanagement of said financial institution.

As for the feelings of the man in the silly hat on the subject. Pope Palpatine didn't actually address the scandal or his butler's arrest directly in today's pentecost Sunday address. But he did have the following to say: 

Translation: It's getting way harder for us control information, and people are starting to actually question what the Vatican, as well as the church, say and do, rather than blindly following whatever I say out of fear- and that makes pope-y all sad and junk.

We can only hope he's right, and the current level of distrust surrounding his silly little country spreads to his religion and grows, and grows, until finally- no one cares what he, his alleged country, or his church, has to say about anything, anymore.


-CAINE-

VIA: www.telegraph.co.uk (and various others)

I usually try and reserve most of the photo only stuff to the tumblr, but this one was just too good.

And just in case you don't get the reference:


So remember kids. Before you go calling someone "bald head". You might wanna make sure that someone isn't one of god's crew. Otherwise, the all loving, benevolent super-being in the sky, just might send bears to rip you, and forty of your innocent adolescent friends into tiny, little, bits. And That'll show ya.

NOW  STOP MAKING FUN OF MY PONYTAIL AND GET OFF MY LAWN, YA LITTLE BASTARDS!!!

-CAINE-

-CAINE-

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Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22.

From the IQ2 talks: Stephen Fry & friends, discuss the life, love, & hates of Christopher Hitchens.

Posted by Youtube user: iqsquared

Image credit: Jeremy Saffer

While I am of course over-joyed to know that one of my favorite musicians won't be spending time in jail as a result of the idiocy that is the Polish Blasphemy code. The best part of writing about Nergal, is always the fact that it gives me an excuse to torture you with his music. I realize you probably just won't listen, but I have to at least try to enrich your lives and expand your horizons with a little of what I consider to be art and beauty from time to time.