A British priest who said the poor should consider shoplifting things like tinned ravioli had a bucket of pasta dumped over him by an irate parishioner. The man lay in wait for Father Tim Jones outside his church in York, northern England, and then sloshed half the messy spaghetti and ravioli over the priest’s robes. Jones stopped to allow the parishioner to pour the remainder. “I was offended by what he said,” the parishioner told the York Press. “I got this thing in my head where I thought I would make my own little protest.” Jones—who stands by his comments—says he was “frightened and humbled” by the experience, but he doesn’t plan to press charges.

See, when I first heard of this guy, I thought, “Thou shalt not steal… sometimes… unless it’s convenient or something…”

Now when I think of this guy, the only image that comes to mind is a bit from Dane Cook:

You know what I’d like to be able to do more than anything else? I’d love to be able to shoot spaghetti out of my fingertips. *Pppthhh.* ‘Cause no one wants to be covered in spaghetti. No. If I’m on a date with a girl and she’s very rude I’ll be like, you know what? *PPpptthhh* Enjoy your spaghetti, you’re very rude. Enjoy your spaghetti, ‘cause you’re rude. *Pppttthh*

(via orbitalteapot)

Christianity

1. Abandon the mythology of Genesis. God did not make the world in 6, 8 or 1000 days or 1000 days of years. Stop squabbling over Hebrew syntax and what you think the Biblical writers meant. They meant what they wrote and they were wrong. We know far too much about how things really came about to believe any of the nonsense written by a Hebrew-speaking priest of the sixth century BCE who thought things came about by a direct act of his hereditary deity.

[..]

Muslims

1. Give up the idea that the Quran is the most beautiful poetry ever written, the most perfect Arabic ever set to ink, the closest we can approach God in the scheme of time. Are you inhaling this stuff or just smoking? You have two hundred poets whose Arabic is better, any one of which could have won in a slam-down with Gabriel.

[..]

Judaism

1. There are no chosen people. There are just people. It is depressing, isn’t it? We all want to be special.

(via friendlyatheist.com)

Like Hemant says on Friendly Atheist, #4 under Judaism might require a bit of an exception, but otherwise this is a pretty dead-on accurate list.

Until your sensory perceptions can be proven infallible, I’ll just take your “personal arguments” for theism with a grain of salt.

Christopher Hitchens clip from Collision (via WhyWon’tGodHealAmputees)

This might be the most straightforward argument I’ve ever seen Hitchens make during a debate.  That’s not to say he’s unreasonable in other debates, but rather that he gets himself a bit convoluted from time to time.

The bishop of Limerick is offering his resignation to Pope Benedict XVI today in the wake of a damning report on the church’s cover up of multiple child sexual abuse cases. Donal Murray acted “inexcusably” in one case and handled others badly, the report concluded.

The report has caused widespread public anger in Ireland and more resignations are expected to follow Murray’s, the Independent reports. The two highest-ranking Catholics in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Marti, have been summoned to the Vatican this week to discuss the report with the pontiff. Brady has promised to resign if it’s found that any child was abused as the result of failings on his part. The Irish government has expressed “deep disappointment” at the Vatican’s failure to offer a detailed response to the report.

I wonder what it would take for the Pope to resign (could he even step down if he wanted to?).  Wouldn’t that be the day…

goodreasonnews:

christiannightmares:

Bill O’Reilly explains why he believes atheists are “jealous” of Christmas.

“Why does the American Humanist Society, who wants to be good for ‘goodness sake’ LOATHE the baby Jesus, HE’S JUST A BABY!”

man, oh, man.

There is just… so.. much.. wrong here… I think I just have to write it off as Fox News doing what it does best: presenting a single bigoted and ignorant side of a story.

Christians Upset Over Government Funding of Medical Reasearch - Atheist Media Blog

I think Art Caplan spoke very well in favor of the scientific community on embryonic stem cells, though, as is typical with Fox News, the interviewer left some impartiality to be desired.

Friendly Atheist by @hemantsblog » A Good Reason for Canceling Church

And in other news, water is being reported as being what some are calling, “wet”.  Hahahaha, I love the Onion.