Einstein's View of Religion as a Childish Superstitution

In a letter Albert Einstein wrote to philosopher, Eric Gutkind, in 1954, he called religion a "childish superstition".

"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses," he wrote, describing the Bible as a collection of honorable but still primitive legends."

Einstein also noted that he had a "deep affinity" for his Jewish heritage, but didn't believe that Jews are the "chosen people".

The letter was in a private collection for the past 50 years and was auctioned last week in London.

Unfortunately Einstein hadn't heard about the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, so we can understand his lack of faith in religion.

Reformation Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Breaking news: Pastafarians are undergoing dissension in the ranks. A Reformation Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has broken with the evangelical branch.

Read the details here.

Creation Museum Selling Dinosaur Skull

That creation museum in Texas isn't doing well (apparently people are smarter than they thought) and they're trying to sell a mastodon skull so they can continue to spread their anti-science nonsense.

The funny thing about this is that they had to use scientists to appraise the skull which is estimated to be 40,000 years old.

The creation museum claims that Noah had dinosaurs aboard the ark. So what I want to know is did the ark sail 40,000 years ago or did God create the earth 6,000 years ago? How big was that ark anyway? Did it have a T-Rex on board?

Here's a really cool T-Rex.

Condolezza Rice Should be Indicted

A New Smear of Obama

I get a lot of crazy email messages, usually they have been forwarded from and to many other people and I usually can debunk them by going to Snopes but I got one today that Snopes didn't have in their database.

I sent a copy of the email to Snopes and I quickly received a reply. I was so impressed.

First, here's the email I received and following that will be the response from Snopes:

Date: Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:47:45 -0600
From: "rdicks" <2uising@centurytel.net>
Subject: 00ooOOOPS..HERE IT COMES... KEEP WATCHING 3-2-08
X-Originating-IP: [209.235.148.37]
To:
X-Priority: 3
X-Authenticated-User: 2uising.centurytel.net

Just one week ago , I sent out this first piece for your information... to check the site and then I coined the phrase: Messiahship Status... speaking Messiahshipeze ... now with this latest article, and adding up the "Signs in the Heavens, and the Signs on the earth... that reeks with lawlessness and evil in every form, with the church joining in with agnostics, etc, etc, and on the slippery side of life ... YIKES and DOUBLE YIKES...................................

SOooooooo, read on reader, and would you not agree that: time is rushing quickly ahead??? Better not be lagging behind, and thinking there is yet TIME before Revelation is fulfilled.....HHhhmmmm... best you get head off of that cloud, and run like crazy towards GOD... in three persons... Blessed Trinity... Amen & Amen!

Feb.25, 08 Ck This site

Note the language.. Messiahship status....This language is Messiahshipeze...) Louis Farakhan said at his latest annual Saviours' Day celebration....."This young man is the hope of the entire world.... America will change and be made better...A black man with a white mother became a savior to US"

Wow !!!! I believe it is time to re-read Isaiah 9.. and refresh our minds as to what qualifications are necessary for "Messiahship"... then keep those key words in your mind when you hear an illustrious speech that instills HOPE , etc... Messiahshipeze is easy speak, and comes from the opposite side of the truth....

.... Now read what has just come out in Texas, and let me know what you think!! Are we not getting close to something spoken of centuries ago?? P.U.S.H. and spread the WORD... The Messiah is coming... ARE READY??? Remember: not all who say "LORD LORD", will enter into the gates of heaven and spend Eternity with Our Elohim.... Ramona... PUSH PUSH PUSH

_PUSH = Pray Until Something Happens _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Obama heals hundreds!
AUSTIN — Ginny McCallum, 43, who has been confined to a wheelchair for much of her adult life, came to hear presidential candidate Barack Obama speak at the University of Texas. Afterward she found herself in a wheelchair access breezeway as Obama and his entourage exited the arena. The candidate spotted her, came over, grabbed her hand and pulled her up. She found herself standing for the first time in eleven years.

"He smiled at me and said, ‘Yes, you can,’" she says. "I was so stunned I didn’t know what to do."

McCallum is among hundreds of people who say they have been healed by the Democratic candidate, in one of the most surprising and little-acknowledged aspects of his campaign. Reporters have shied away from the story, chalking it up to "Obama-mania" and people’s feelings of elation.

"We don’t talk about it a lot, but yeah, it does happen," says one staffer who says he has seen multiple people healed on a rope line. "We don’t know exactly how or why it’s happening, and the Senator won’t talk about it. He usually insists that people keep it quiet and just report it to their pastor or priest."

Greeting supporters after a rousing speech in Houston, Obama stepped into the dense crowd and spontaneously began touching people: a legally blind woman, a man deaf in one ear, a cancer sufferer and a lame man.

"Yes, you can," Obama said as he laid hands on afflicted bodies.

The people’s reactions were so joyous as to be almost frightening. They jumped and shouted and wept. Before they could thank or embrace the candidate he was well down the rope line healing others. Their excitement was lost in the general din of the crowd.

Aides acknowledge that the phenomenon is occurring with greater frequency.
"His power goes beyond simple inspiration," says one aide. "There is something developing here that I’m not sure any of us fully understands."

They say Obama has told them privately that his time has not yet come, so it would be inappropriate to talk about the healings right now. He says he will wait until the convention to speak publicly about the "special calling" he believes he has to lead the country. They do expect him to start alluding to "the providential nature of what is happening on the campaign trail" in an upcoming address, mostly because word is getting around.

People have begun bringing relatives by the score to campaign events in hopes of a healing touch.

"It’s not the speeches that are drawing people anymore, as good as they are," says a senior staff member. "It’s people wanting to get better, and wanting their friends and relatives to get better. It’s the belief that there’s something more here." •

Here's the response I received from Snopes:

See Lark News, a satire site. It publishes humor pieces, not news stories.

- Barbara

Urban Legends Reference Pages

So these gullible people are now circulating a satire piece as actual news! That's probably why they voted for Bush (gullible). You gotta love it.

Hillary Clinton's Scary Ad

Clinton's scary ad was intended to frighten us into voting for her, but had an unintentional effect on me because that photo of Clinton at the end of the ad looks eerily like that psycho talent agent in Nip Tuck played by Sharon Gless

Here's a video from Nip Tuck





And here's Hillary Clinton's ad

Making Cigarettes Save for Pregnant Women

"Among the most horrifying things I witnessed were the times when baby monkeys were stolen away from their mothers. This was a chaotic, ugly, heart-wrenching scene. A worker wearing thick leather gloves would reach into the cage where the baby clung to her mother's breast, and snatch the baby by one shoulder and arm and rip her from her mother who was screaming and desperately fighting to keep her baby safe. Once the baby was removed, the entire room of monkeys would erupt into total pandemonium -- screaming, thrashing and crashing into the sides of their cages -- some reaching out through the bars in vain to get their babies back."

Eliot Spindel, a researcher at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).... implants nicotine pumps into pregnant monkeys, delivering daily doses of the addictive substance to the mothers so he can cut their babies out at various stages of development and dissect their lungs. Some of the babies are allowed to go full term, only to be ripped away from their mothers, causing severe depression in the adults and terror in the infants.

The hazards of smoking are common knowledge, yet Spindel continues to confine, cut up, and kill these helpless monkeys in a ludicrous quest to find a way for pregnant women to smoke without causing harm to their fetuses.

NIH has funded Spindel since 1992 to the tune of $7.6 million dollars, and this travesty is scheduled to continue though 2012. Money that would be better spent on human studies, smoking cessation education, and prevention programs.

More here

Colony Collapse Disorder & Ice Cream

Supposedly Einstein said that if something happened to the bees, people would die. Snopes hasn't verified if it's an accurate quote, but we might soon suffer. CNN reports that Haagen Dazs has warned that it might have to cut back on the flavors it offers due to the the decline in the population of bees needed to fertilize crops.

Haagen-Dazs, which is owned by General Mills, said bees are actually responsible for 40% of its 60 flavors - such as strawberry, toasted pecan and banana split.

Human Animals and Friendship

Our subscription to CSA (community supported agriculture) is suspended until April because of winter, so we are buying produce at our local natural food store, Last weekend, I was selecting an onion when someone said, "Excuse me. Can you tell me how long a chicken casserole will last in the refrigerator?"

I couldn't answer the question because, I haven't cooked or eaten chickens for many years. I am the caretaker for two Rhode Island Red hens, each of whom has a distinctive personality, and each of whom trusts me. I wouldn't consider killing or eating them or other members of their species, just as I wouldn't consider eating human meat. (I don't eat cows or pigs or sheep or goats either.)

"Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them. " - Samuel Butler quoted in NYTimes.com

The Dangers of Sugar Substitutes

Rats fed a diet of sugar substitutes gained more weight than rats that ate food sweetened with sugar according to a new study. This might explain why people who drink a lot of diet soda have higher rates of obesity, diabetes and other metabolic problems.

Perdue University fed sugar-filled and sugar-free yogurt to groups of rats and found that rats that ate artificially sweetened meals were still hungry afterward and continued to eat more food than did rats whose food was naturally sweetened.

It appears that artificial sweeteners confuse the body which associates sweet tastes with calories. When you eat sweet foods without the calories, you continue to feel hungry.

The rats who ate sugar substitutes didn't have the metabolic increase that typically follows a meal, so they burned fewer calories. The combination of a larger appetite with a slower metabolism results if severe weight gain.