There’s been a few items popping up this week to fan the flames of my rational indignation… For one thing we have Pope Ratzo (aka Palpatine) whining about the "seductive" power of science wooing people away from the dignified human values instilled by religion, like worshipping an invisible sky fairy, pretending to eat his flesh and drink his blood, and inserting penises into no orifices other than vaginas– apparently God only likes to watch his children have vanilla sex (missionary style one would also presume).

"When human beings in the weakest and most defenseless state of their existence are selected, abandoned, killed or used as pure ‘biological material,’ how can one deny that they are being treated not as ‘someone’ but as ‘something,"’ he said.

Yes, you probably weren’t aware of this but at this moment hordes of scientists stalk the land snatching defenseless babies from the womb in the course of research directed to the eternal preservation of the body of Richard Dawkins.

"In an age when scientific developments attract and seduce with the possibilities they offer, it’s more important than ever to educate our contemporaries’ consciences so that science does not become the criteria for goodness," he told scientists.

Actually, science makes no claim to "goodness", and religious dipshits often construct this straw-man argument: if science observes that strong organisms tend to perpetuate their lineage more effectively than weak ones, therefore people like the handicapped and infertile should be killed because they are "weak" from an evolutionary perspective. Funny, science also tells us that microorganisms can kill us, but rather than saying that is a good thing, science helps us come up with ways to stop microorganisms killing us. Unlike religion, which in its various guises has suggested that sickness was caused by demons, witches and God’s displeasure with us, science is a tool we can use to measurably improve the lives of billions.

The Catholic church especially is not equipped to "educate our contemporaries’ consciences" – they can’t even educate their own priests well enough to discourage them from sexually interfering with children. Oh, was that a cheap shot? Sure, not all priests are child-molesters, but if the church really holds this magical moral highground, why are any of them child-molesters? If God is the font of all the love and justice in the world, then surely being so close to him should displace such foul proclivities? If you were to pick a random priest and a random person off the street, I seriously wonder who is more likely to have abused children…

While science is essentially amoral, I think its adherence to the principal of seeking objective truth has a lot more good to it than the insidious sophistry of religion, which promises everything and delivers nothing. Which makes absurd claims which are untestable, then lauds the fact that these claims are somehow beyond scrutiny.

The other thing I was going to bitch about here was that an Athiest & Agnostic group on Myspace– 35,000 members strong– was deleted with no explanation or consultation, but that has since been restored, taking the hot air out of my sails somewhat, so if you want to know more you can just go read about it here and form your own opinion. God, I hate MySpace.