Satanic Temple Halts Bible Distribution

The Satanic Temple has done it again. Back in November, I covered the group's plans to distribute the “Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities” at a Florida school in response to a Christian group distributing bibles. Following the announcement from the temple, the school suspended the bible distribution program subject to review by the school board. That review is now complete, and the school has decided to end the distribution of all religious materials rather than include the activity book.

The Satanic Temple intended to distribute the “Satanic Children’s Big Book of Activities” to students, while the FFRF planned to give them pamphlets describing the Bible as “An X-Rated Book.” The school board decided to review its policy about materials made available for students after the groups announced their plans. Atheist materials had previously been permitted, but the board changed its plans after the Satanic Temple asked to include its activity book.

An attorney for the Christian groups said he was disappointed by the change in plans. “It seems like the momentum right now is to a policy that would exclude all religious materials, which is unnecessary,” said attorney Roger Gannam. But a spokesman for the FFRF said the protest worked exactly as intended. “We don’t want our schools to become religious battlefields,” said David Williamson, of FFRF. “We’ve advocated all along to close the forum.”

Personally, I'm in the "religious battleground" camp myself. I've worked to expose my own kids to a variety of religious beliefs so they can make up their own minds about it, and I wish more parents would do the same. But the caveat there is that minority religions like my own rarely have the resources of large, established churches, and I will grant that there are some cases in which the only way to ensure equal representation is to exclude religious materials entirely.

The Satanic Temple continues to do a great job of exposing the hypocrisy of Christians pushing for "freedom of religion," which of course to them means freedom for their religion and exclusion of all others.

Hunt Ghosts Naked!

I suppose with the ongoing evolution of "reality tv" something like this was inevitable. Apparently, a television production company is pitching a new paranormal investigation series with a twist - the investigations will all be done in the nude. The producers claim they're looking to see if a naked team will get "different readings." You know, because they can't just come out and say they want to spend their days filming naked people.

Casting agent Chrissy Glickman of Matador Content sent the email out this week to various paranormal teams and ghost hunting enthusiasts. In the email, she says that she is looking for paranormal investigators that will take "paranormal investigating to the next level" and bare it all for the camera.

"For this paranormal investigating show, we are putting a different spin on paranormal investigating and we are looking for people and/or teams that would be interested in taking paranormal investigating to the next level by doing it in the nude. This is the REAL NAKED & AFRAID! We will have different teams going to different haunted locations around the country," Glickman said in the email.

The producers are using nudity for the concept of the show because they want to see if paranormal research teams get different readings and more evidence than when they are fully clothed. They believe that spirits will communicate with someone more vulnerable.

"This show is not about putting a bad light, causing drama or making fun of the paranormal. This idea was brought to our company after research on paranormal investigation teams in history doing it in the nude and we want to see if their reasoning for doing it in the nude really does get spirits to communicate easier," Glickman said.

But I'm thinking that What really happened was this. At a brainstorming session, somebody threw out the idea, "Hey, people like to watch paranormal shows. They also like to watch naked people. Let's combine the two! Our ratings will go through the roof!" If the people selected for the show all look like models rather than being experienced ghost hunters that will prove it, and if this show ever gets off the ground I'm sure they will.

I've never seen any evidence in the paranormal literature that people have more paranormal experiences when they're not wearing clothes. And I'm sure some investigators tried it at some point, but my guess is that the technique is not very well known because it was potentially embarrassing and seemed to work no better than clothed investigations. As such, I highly doubt that a team of naked ghost hunters will be good for anything but ratings, and the viewers tuning in won't be watching it for the ghosts.

Unconvincing Ghost Chases Car

According to local legend, the English town of Blackburn is haunted by the ghost of a monk who was executed hundreds of years ago. Last week, this video was posted to the Internet purporting to be footage of Blackburn's local phantom. Looking over the video, though, the "ghost" is not very convincing.

The video, posted without explanation on Thursday, is taken from a car and shows a hunched figure in white in the distance. As the car tries to back away, the figure keeps approaching.

Someone in the car can be heard screaming in a foreign language. The Daily Record reports that the person is shouting "Move the car backwards!" and "Faster! faster!" in Arabic.

Local historian and author Simon Entwistle told The Citizen newspaper that the "ghost" in the video may be the spirit of a monk who was executed in Turton Tower.

"It's the actual timing that I find quite unusual, this person was executed in early January 1643, and the ghost will only make an appearance in the early January period," Entwistle was quoted as saying.

But Entwistle may not be the most objective expert. As commenters on that page pointed out, he hosts ghost tours of the area.

Most commenters who have seen the video think it's fake and I have to agree.There's no evidence that this is a paranormal entity rather than a person wearing a costume consisting of a white sheet, a walking stick, and a dark wig. It doesn't appear or disappear, it's not translucent, it moves no faster than a person could walk, and so forth.

As it's not clear whether the people in the car are in on it, this could also be a prank at their expense. But either way, I'm confident that there's a person inside that outfit rather than some sort of undead spirit. For that matter, it might be Entwistle himself. What better way to drum up business for ghost tours than running around pretending to be a ghost and making sure people report sightings?

Florida "Bathing Bigfoot" Photographed

A Florida man claims that he photographed the legendary Bigfoot a few weeks ago while on a fishing trip. The photograph has been making the rounds on the Internet, receiving varying degrees of scrutiny. The picture is extremely clear, one of the least blurry that I've come across. But some experts who have examined it claim that it shows evidence of digital tampering. The blown-up photo is shown above.

The Bigfoot photo was sent by a 66-year-old retired electrician named John Rodriguez, who said he captured the startling image while out fishing the Hillsborough River near Tampa, Florida, on December 26. According to Rodriguez, the Bigfoot creature was making its way through the water before lowering down, at which point Rodriguez took the shot.

“I fish for gar in the river and I bring my camera to take pictures of the birds and what not. I heard a squishing sound, looked over and saw this thing walking through the water and crouch down in the duck weed. It did not look like a guy in a suit — it was definitely an animal. I took this picture and got out of there as fast as I could.”

At the same time, the Huffington Post reporter seems skeptical that Rodriguez actually captured a shot of Bigfoot, who in Florida is known as the Swamp Ape or Skunk Ape. The skepticism arises from some of the characteristics of the Bigfoot photo. For instance, a closer look shows the photo to be “too crisp” with a “jagged line between the hairy beast and the water.” Possible signs that someone tampered with the Bigfoot photo in Photoshop or some other picture editing software.

Apparently the photo's EXIF data shows that it was saved from a version of Photoshop on December 26th, the day Rodriguez claimed to have taken it. But he claims that photos are imported from his camera directly into Photoshop and then saved, so that's not necessarily proof of deliberate tampering. I will say that to some extent it hinges on Rodriguez' ability with the software. I'm a relatively novice user myself, and I know I would have difficulty making the twigs in front of the figure look right.

The first thing I thought when I saw the photo, actually, was that it looked more like a replica than a living creature. The face is so neutral and expressionless it looks like it might be fiberglass, and there are absolutely no ripples in the water as if it were completely stationary. It is possible that the Photoshop EXIF data happened the way Rodriguez said and he actually photographed some sort of Bigfoot mock-up. Still, if he's an expert at Photoshop all bets are off. An expert can make anything look good.

Depending on the kind of camera he uses, Rodriguez could settle this controversy by producing the raw image. Many cameras, especially more expensive ones, save that data and don't necessarily delete it when the image is imported. Raw image data would show whether or not the picture was tampered with, since it's from the camera. Even so, I still think it isn't of a real animal - to me it looks more like some sort of model.

Icelandic Pagan Temple Under Construction

In Iceland, Norse paganism experienced a revival in the early 1970's. Now the Ásatrúarfélag, the organization largely responsible for this revival, is working to construct the first Nordic pagan temple built in almost a thousand years. Land for the temple was purchased in 2008, and construction of the main structure will begin next month.

This will be the first pagan temple to be built in the Nordic countries in nearly a thousand years, said the alsherjargoði Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, head priest of the Icelandic Ásatrúarfélag, in an interview with RÚV.

The Ásatrúarfélag applied for a plot of land to construct a temple in 2006 and was allotted a piece of land in Öskuhlíð in 2008. The 350 square metres (3767 sq ft) temple will have a vaulted ceiling and seat around 250 people. Its construction will be completed next year.

The Icelandic Ásatrúarfélag is an Icelandic Germanic Neopagan religious organization founded in 1972. The organization conducts ceremonies such as marriages, name-giving ceremonies, and burials.

As a huge fan of religious diversity, I wish the Ásatrúarfélag the best of luck as the project moves forward. The temple sounds like it will be a beautiful building, and I look forward to seeing its final finished form. It's good to see minority religions able to gather the resources they need to maintain a legitimate cultural presence.

The "Sounds of Sodomy?"

In May Ireland will vote on a referendum to allow same-sex marriage. Predictably, the impending vote has brought out all sorts of objections from the conservative religious community. But I don't think anyone expected those objections to be this funny. The above image is from a pamphlet being circulated by an unknown Christian group warning of "sounds of sodomy" should the referendum pass.

This pamphlet has been spotted in the town of Wicklow, south of Dublin. “Should children be exposed to sounds of sodomy?” it asks, warning of “dire consequences for the innocent if homosexuals are given access to the scarament of marriage.”

“Should children be exposed to this beastly obsession with unholy acts? Should the sounds of sodomy echo in the halls of a Christian home?”

The church group’s dim-witted attempt to strike fear into the hearts of the public has backfired hugely, with Ireland’s people pouring scorn and ridicule on its ridiculous message.

As one commenter noted, "Does it sound different when straight couples do it?" So far, there have been no answers from the pamphleteers.

Seriously, though, once you pull out the "think of the children!" argument it means you've lost the debate. It's essentially admitting you're an awful person who thinks that the entire public sphere should be dumbed-down to something a six-year-old can easily understand. I have a six-year-old, and let me tell you, such a world would be an abject nightmare.

There's no evidence whatsoever that children raised by same-sex couples suffer any sort of harm from that situation, and it's not for lack of looking. Conservative researchers have been trying to find some sort of connection for the last twenty years, and have come up empty. Opponents of same-sex marriage really have nothing else besides religious objections, and the dictates of one religion should be no basis for civil law.

Because here's a news flash for these pamphleteers - a lot of same-sex couples aren't Christian, and the rest don't share their fundamentalist worldview. So why should such couples be legally obligated to follow the dictates of a faith other than their own?

Tomb of Osiris Discovered in Thebes

Archaeologists have uncovered another fascinating ancient Egyptian site near Thebes. The site itself was located over a hundred years ago, but recent excavations have revealed that it is much larger than previously thought. The tomb appears to be a smaller version of the Osireion in Abydos, a complex dedicated to the god Osiris.

The complex consists of a large hall supported by five pillars. RTVE describes the structure as having a staircase from the north wall of the main room, leading down to the funerary complex, where there is a carving of Osiris, god of the dead, in the middle of a central vaulted temple. To the west of the central temple is a funerary room with the reliefs of demons holding knives.

The leader of the Spanish-Italian team that uncovered the tomb, Dr. María Milagros Álvarez Sosa, told EFE that the demons are there to protect the body of the deceased. Opposite the statue of Osiris is a staircase with a 29.5 foot (9 meter) shaft leading to another chamber. Inside this chamber is a second shaft that descends 19.6 feet (6 meters) into two more rooms, which are currently full of debris.

“The symbolism of Osiris is very evident here, since all the elements recalling the mythical Osiris tomb are present,” writes Luxor Times Magazine, “a big staircase of 3.5 meter long with a 4 meter high ceiling at the bottom leading to the Netherworld and another one leading directly to the Osiris statue, which is therefore at a higher level and ideally isolated on ‘his island’; the Osiris statue itself; the empty corridor surrounding it which symbolizes the channel of water (see Osireion in Abydos); the expected burial chamber below the statue, thus identifying the deceased with Osiris.”

I've always wanted to see what would happen if archaeologists were to discover the original tomb of the actual Osiris, or at least a site identified as such. Then, if a body was present, its DNA could be tested to see if it has extra strands or lizard chromosomes or whatever else the alien conspiracy folks are looking for. When the tests come back as fully human, I'd like to think that it would put to rest the notion that ancient Egyptians were far too stupid to erect monuments and so forth on their own and therefore required alien assistance.

Of course, that's wishful thinking on my part; so far, no amount of scientific data and/or rational analysis has been able to accomplish such a feat. It's not that I think it's impossible that representatives from an alien civilization could have visited Earth at some point in the past, but I do think it's pretty ignorant to cite the supposed incompetence of ancient people as proof such an encounter had to have occurred. The ancients had a different knowledge base, but there's no reason to think that their geniuses were any less gifted than those of the modern world.

The Stupid is Strong in This One

It seems that whoever wrote the headline for this story really earned their keep. The story itself is just as bizarre. A Florida man attacked his "spiritual" girlfriend after she "prophecied" that his dead grandmother would assault him in his dreams with an "adult erotic device."

According to TCPalm‘s Will Greenlee, Casey Molter and his unnamed girlfriend had gotten into a physical altercation earlier that morning, and police were called to break them up. At that time, Molter had only inflicted minor damage to her car and smashed her cell phone.

After police left, however, Molter continued to attack his girlfriend’s car, breaking a passenger side mirror, deflating its tires, and strewing the hood and windshield with used condoms and what the police referred to as “love notes” written in creams and lotions.

When police returned to the scene, they asked Molter why he was so intent on damaging his girlfriend’s car. He replied that she is a “‘spiritual person’ and can tell a person about their dreams.”

He said that she had told him that his deceased grandmother was going to return to him in his dreams, and that she was going to “commit an unusual sex act to him involving an adult erotic device,” the police report stated.

Breaking down the stupid here, Molter (A) believed his girlfriend and (B) decided that the appropriate response was not just damage her car, but cover it in used condoms, creams, and lotions. Because he thought that would make her "prophecy" go away? Truly, this man has a dizzying intellect. Where did he get the used condoms? Was he saving them up? I wonder about the girlfriend, too - why would she come up with such a weird prediction, and why did she think that sharing it with a violent individual was a good idea?

In fact, there's nothing spiritual or magical about predicting dreams, at least not when you tell people what your predictions are ahead of time. A lot of psychoanalytic nonsense has been written about the symbolic significance of dreams, but for the most part they just consist of recent memories being rearranged and recombined. So all you have to do to make someone dream about something is plant a strong enough suggestion in their mind, and it will probably get incorporated.

Of course, since most people only remember a small portion of their dreams, they likely won't remember it - which in this case is a good thing!