The Jesus Trailer

The Jesus-trailer. When turning the car to the left, Jesus raises his left hand, when turning right he raises the right hand. Currently, it’s in parking mode and then both arms are outstreched, as if to stop people from passing.

The Truth About Religion

Realistic Caption

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Inspirational Christian Posters

My thanks to Durandal for these beautiful images. Enjoy all!

Atheist Bashing 101

I just love the way that this “Christian” bashes atheism! Wow, such language! Just listen to the hatred and bigotry as it drips from his mouth. (Be sure to watch the facial expressions too. VERY telltale.)

JESUS CHRIST THE BUSINESS. - WHERE BELIEVERS MAKE THE BEST CUSTOMERS

DISCLAIMER: The Christianity that exists in the marketplace today has taken 2,000 years to perfect since Jesus’ death. And although Jesus Christ “The Business” (JC Inc). was founded quickly after the death of Jesus, the church is no longer affiliated in any way with Judaism or the Messiah, nor does Jesus Christ endorse the JC Inc business model. Neither God nor Jesus holds any equity in JC Inc. Jesus was not consulted regarding the formation of this business. Further, the martyr deaths of the founders of JC Inc do not constitute an endorsement of the decisions or direction of subsequent executives within the ongoing business of the firm. Past performance of this business is not a guarantee of future performance, and therefore it is possible that JC Inc may not continue to outperform other busineses in the future. Read more

WOODEN SHIPS ON A LAKE OF FIRE

I just got a message from an evangelical Christian SU member declaring that my ideas about the universe are “false teachings”. Really? Now I feel like ranting about organized religion for just a minute, before we all return to our foundations built on the rock. Read more

The Power of Prayer

Prayer. Your direct connection to God (unless you are Catholic, at which point you would go through your Priest). Two of the main reasons for prayer are communication with your deity and to bring your request to said deity. Can the power of prayer be measured? Yes. And no. Read more

Fundamentalists Hate Noah’s Ark

The story of Noah and the Ark leaves much to be desired, from many different fields of knowledge.

’Tis true, dear friends, ’tis all too true. They loathe, despise, and outright hate that wretched Flood and it’s associated Ark with a malevolence usually reserved for Communists, Democrats, gays, atheists, sex because it feels good, anyone named Clinton, and those who accept the Theory of Evolution, whatever their names & titles.

Of course, you’ll never get the first of ’em to admit that.

It is extremely difficult, nay impossible, to defend the Noachian Flood Story as anything other than a myth; a yarn to be spun and passed on by nomadic, tribal elders around the evening fire. All one needs to do is study the geologic record to cast fatal doubt upon it. Such an event in the so-recent past would have left a huge and unmistakable imprint upon the world; indeed, it would show up all over the world, explainable by no other process. But no such imprint exists, and we’ll be getting into that a little farther along.

Let us begin with simple logistics. The Ark is alleged to have been somewhere between four and six hundred feet long, depending upon which version of the cubit one might prefer — there were several in use at the time, varying widely in dimension. A vessel of this description is not all that easily built.

It would require saw pits, smithies, foundries, rope-walks, cranes and other heavy-lifting devices, and all of the other facilities found in a large, early shipyard. It would have required a master shipwright and a construction crew with experience. And it would require a vast amount of timber to be harvested and processed in a land not noted for its forests. And lest we forget, in the days of the Ark there was little more than Bronze Age technology.

The largest clipper ship ever built is said to have been the Great Republic. She was somewhere, depending upon whose account you read, between 320 and 350 feet long with quite a wide beam to increase cargo space. She was relatively slow and in spite of oak construction, iron bracing and multiple keelsons, her hull hogged and sagged enough to render her a chronic leaker. She was only moderately successful and ultimately was lost in a tropical storm when the sea came in through her sprung hull strakes. There was some 15 feet of water in her holds when her crew abandoned her.

This vessel was built by Donald McKay, one of the world’s premier shipbuilders, on speculation. She was one of the few mistakes he ever made. While she wasn’t a complete and utter failure, she was never the success envisioned by McKay. Wood is simply not strong enough for a ship of her dimensions, even with a hull design and conformation close to ideal for taking heavy weather. What then of the Ark, with its barge’s hull, suitable only for rivers, coastal and inland waters, and with, by design we are asked to believe, no steerage?

Any deck-ape worth his salt & biscuit can tell you precisely what then: broach, hog, sag, twist, founder and break-up with loss of all hands and cargo in the first hour afloat in the maelstrom! Was landlubber Noah a superior shipwright to Donald McKay? Did he have a skilled crew and the necessary facilities at his disposal? The Bible fails to elaborate.

The oceans are never still, never entirely at rest. Even with a glass-calm surface, currents and eddies, often at odds with each other, move huge volumes of water under that surface. Ships, even the largest of them, roll and toss a bit under any conditions. In the conditions that would have been produced by the described Flood, the waters would be anything but calm; indeed, due to severely disrupted weather patterns, it could conceivably be one category-5 howler after another, or worse, and even a great many (most?) modern ships would not survive that for an unbroken year. Certainly their crews could not. After the first couple of weeks, it would be rather like an endless boxing match with Muhammad Ali in the days when he was known as The Louisville Lip. Any livestock aboard would fare even worse than the crew.

And speaking of the livestock… In my experience, and rather to my amusement, the literalists and apologists go all but berserk over the livestock. Remarkable indeed, are the descriptions of the ways in which eight terrified, seasick people were supposed to have cared for a truly staggering number of eating, defecating, ill-tempered beasts locked in the holds with all but no ventilation and less illumination. One conjecture is that many or most of the animals hibernated.

But, nope. Won’t work. Hibernation in the mammals and reptiles, et al., that do it is triggered by length of daylight as well as decreasing temperatures. Under the artificial conditions in the dismal holds of the Ark, it would not happen. The Institute for Creation Research, of course, begs to differ.

I could be wrong, but I think it was one of the rocket scientists at then Answers in Genesis, Australia (now Creation Ministries International), who came up with the automatic feeding systems fantasy. As I recall though, he never satisfactorily explained how such a system might have worked. But then, no explanation is necessary, really, because with the technology of the day, it wouldn’t have. Even with today’s technology, it would have been excruciatingly complicated because so many animals are specialized feeders. Eucalyptus leaves for the koalas; termites for the pangolins; large, aquatic salamanders for the mud snakes; all of that and much, much more would have had to be gathered and stowed in ship’s stores, then readied for the machine.

More here:

http://www.skepticfriends.org/forum/showquestion.asp?faq=4&fldAuto=390

What Won’t They Do?

What won’t the church do to lure in the youth of today? It appears that there is nothing that they won’t stoop to to “hook and reel” in the little would be fish. (Yeah, pun intended.) Read more

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