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R.Wreck
SFN Regular
USA
1191 Posts |
 Posted - 04/14/2007 : 20:39:35
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Your tax dollars hard at work. Thirty nine of our Congresscreatures think that what the country needs is more prayer:
quote:
"Our newspapers, televisions, and computers are overwhelmed with negative voices. We have become cynical and lost credibility in many of our institutions," said Forbes. "We hope that God will hear our prayers and heal our land."
Said Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo.: "We deal with all kinds of problems in Congress, but I'm still like a little kid in Sunday school. Jesus is always the answer."
Umm, haven't the self-proclaimed chosen of god been responsible for creating most of the problems facing the country? And shouldn't these Congresscretins be doing what we pay them to do, which would be fixing the problems? Instead they sit on their fat holier than thou asses and whine to their invisible friend.
The offending slugs are members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus. (Didn't know we had one of those, did ya?) Their purpose:
quote:
Throughout the more than 200-year history of our nation, prayer has played a vital role in strengthening the fabric of our society. The purposes of the Congressional Prayer Caucus are to
1) recognize the vital role that prayer by individuals of all faiths has played in uniting us as a people and in making us a more generous, more cooperative, and more forgiving people than we might otherwise have been;
2) collect, exchange, and disseminate information about prayer as a fundamental and enduring feature of American life;
3) use the legislative process – both through sponsorship of affirmative legislation and through opposition to detrimental legislation – to assist the nation and its people in continuing to draw upon and benefit from this essential source of our strength and well-being.
The members of this delusional group:
quote:
Congressman J. Randy Forbes, Founder & Chairman
Congressman Robert Aderholt
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett
Congressman Rob Bishop
Congressman John Boozman
Congressman Eric Cantor
Congressman John Carter
Congressman Mike Conaway
Congresswoman Jo Ann Davis
Congressman Geoff Davis
Congressman Vernon Ehlers
Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson
Congressman Luis Fortuno
Congressman Mark Green
Congressman Robin Hayes
Congressman Pete Hoekstra
Congressman Doug Lamborn
Congressman Jeff Miller
Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave
Congressman Randy Neugebauer
Congressman Steve Pearce
Congressman Mike Pence
Congressman Heath Shuler
Congressman Jim Ryun
Congressman Lamar Smith
If one of these theocrats represents your congressional district, please do what you can to remove him or her from office.
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The foundation of morality is to . . . give up pretending to believe that for which there is no evidence, and repeating unintelligible propositions about things beyond the possibliities of knowledge.
T. H. Huxley
The Cattle Prod of Enlightened Compassion
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2007 : 21:56:53 [Permalink]
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I just learned the other day about a Barna study from 1999 which compared divorce rates among different religious groups, and "atheists and agnostics" had the lowest rates. The highest rates, it seems, are among people who get "saved" after already having been married, with second-highest being Protestants in general. (Unfortunately, the original report isn't available on Barna's site anymore.)
That, coupled with Wreck's OP (because I didn't vote for Jesus, dammit) give us a couple reasons to think that atheism is better than religion, marf.  |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2007 : 22:05:33 [Permalink]
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On a different message board, one tactic I stumbled upon for driving the fundies crazy was unprayer.
The concept is simple: whenever someone very condescendingly says they are going to pray for you, simple respond that it will have no effect because you will unpray their prayer. I boasted that I unprayed all sorts of prayers--I unpray for world peace, I unpray to end world hunger, I unpray to cure various diseases. That's why none of those prayers have been answered, I tell them, because I have unprayed them all.
The reactions are priceless, ranging from denying that such a thing is possible, to wondering whom I unpray to or how it's done. It's quite effective, I think, in demonstrating how prayer is nothing more than magical thinking akin to the ancient notions of spells and curses. Spells have counter-spells, why can't prayers be undone by unprayers?
At any rate, in a world where supposedly educated congressmen really believe that talking to a dead guy will solve all the country's problems, the only satisfying, if not wholly rational response is unprayer. I wouldn't be wholly opposed to organizing an official Day of Unprayer. Remember, the more people that unpray, the more powerful the unprayers are.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 04/14/2007 22:34:55 |
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JohnOAS
SFN Regular
Australia
800 Posts |
 Posted - 04/14/2007 : 22:27:56 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
On a different message board, one tactic I stumbled upon for driving the fundies crazy was unprayer.
...
The reactions are priceless, ranging from denying that such a thing is possible, to wondering whom I unpray to or how it's done. It's quite effective, I think, in demonstrating how prayer is nothing more than magical thinking akin to the ancient notions of spells and curses. Spells have counter-spells, why can't prayers be undone by unprayers?
That's funny. I must try that sometime on some arrogant holier than thou type. Do any of them really expect you to explain the method and, if so, what do you tell them? |
John's just this guy, you know. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2007 : 22:29:56 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by JohnOAS
That's funny. I must try that sometime on some arrogant holier than thou type. Do any of them really expect you to explain the method and, if so, what do you tell them?
It's best not to get too specific on the particulars. Keep any explanations vague and mysterious.
Oh, and you can also whip out statistics. For example, for any given prayer, there is a 50% chance that it will be answered, and a 50% chance it will be secretly unprayed by someone. That's hard evidence that unprayer works!
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 04/14/2007 22:40:36 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 04/14/2007 : 22:55:20 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by H. Humbert
I wouldn't be wholly opposed to organizing an official Day of Unprayer.
I vote for May 23rd. There aren't a tremendous number of holy days on that date to directly offend people (a plus when one is just trying to make a point), and it's already the Day of Disunity, so it should be seen as "pre-disastered" anyway. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 04/15/2007 : 03:47:34 [Permalink]
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The problem I see with a National Day of Unprayer is that the fanatical prayers might finally get a clue and try to unpray the whole thing away. Outnumbered by orders of magnitude, we would have to become at least as devout as they just to survive, and at that point, we might as well install preachers and begin to hold services.
Whence atheism then?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2007 : 04:33:11 [Permalink]
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Unprayer. I love the idea!
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2007 : 11:14:05 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by HalfMooner
Unprayer. I love the idea!
Yes, but we must strike only when opportune, as the Marquise did to the Nazis. We shall drive them insane(er) with cunning, guerrilla tactics until at last we triumph!
Down with prayer! Death to the Vichy traitors and their fellow-traveling quislings and collaborators! Vive la France! Vive d'Gaul! Justice and freedom shall yet be ours!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 04/15/2007 : 13:55:06 [Permalink]
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| As the tune goes in Alice in Wonderland, with a twist of HH.....A very happy un-prayer day to you! |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Call to Prayer for America
