Friday Link Dump 4/19/13

Yeah it's been all over the Internet,
but it really just sums up the week. 

Boston Marathon

Of course everyone at LH is saddened by the senseless violence, the suffering it has caused and the ramifications that are yet to come. I do not want to provide a series of news links to articles about the attack that everyone has already read ad nauseum. I just want to provide one:

Atheists Giving Aid - Boston Marathon Tragedy

If you haven’t already donated, please consider doing so. There is no minimum (or maximum!) so please try to help the victims and their families out.  

Also, please consider also donating to the victims of the West Texas Explosion. It’s been a real shitty week, folks.

Ok. Onward.

LH

• The Ocean "Anthropocentric"

Atheism

• Methodological Humanism – Beyond Belief and Disbelief
• Mishegas! The Atheist News Game
• Lots of people are awful, but not everyone who disagrees with you is
• A bizarre critique of Christopher Hitchens: he wasn’t a skeptic about his cancer

Science

• Science and Religion Cannot Be Reconciled by Victor Stenger
• Merely a Taste of Beer Can Trigger a Rush of Chemical Pleasure in the Brain
• Higgs data could spell trouble for leading Big Bang theory
• Happiness is…thinking you get laid more often than your friends
• Justices Appear Skeptical Of Patenting Human Genes
• Researchers May Have Finally Detected a Dark Matter Particle
• The Shadow Biosphere? Life on Earth… but not as we know it
• Why Does Music Feel So Good?
• A Point of View: Science, magic, and madness
• Polar Mapping of Structures in the Universe

Religion

• Orphan Fever: The Evangelical Movement's Adoption Obsession
• and Why We Should Fear the Evangelical Adoption Boom
• Why do people pretend that religion isn’t responsible for creationism?
• Vatican Reaffirms Plan To Scrutinize U.S. Nuns That guy Francis is real reformer. He’ll drag the Church forward into the 18th century if he has to!  
• News Media is Not a Secularist Cabal Essentially, this is just Christian privilege and whining. Nothing new.
• Study: Belief in an angry God associated with variety of mental illnesses A vengeful god makes monsters of men.
• Pennsylvania Democrat Kicked Out of Christian Band for Supporting Marriage Equality
• Portsmouth's 'Messy Church' trying to bring Bible to life Gotta get ‘em while they're young!
• Whatever Happened to the Young Atheist Whose Family Filed a Lawsuit Against a Christian Rapper and a School District?
• Kicked Out of My Church: How I Learned the “Christian” View of Gay People From a liberal Christian. Honestly, I don't know why people try so hard to square the circle. Just leave. Why beg to be deacons of a church that holds these views if you yourself don't believe that crap? And no, they aren't "good people" if that is the way they think. It's ok to say that to.
• Lovers and Haters

Politics/Assholery

• New Hampshire Republican refers to women as ‘vaginas’ How’s that rebranding going, GOP?
• Myth Busted: The GOP Is Through With the Religious Right
• How The Kermit Gosnell Case Is An Indictment On The Anti-Choice Movement

Culture

• Gay-Friendly Scouting Organization Doubles Its Numbers in One Year
• The feminist comedy of Louis C.K
• DC Introduces First Transgender Character in Mainstream Comics
• Snopes: Mr. Rogers quote "Look for the Helpers" When I saw someone posted a snopes link I have to admit I was scared it was a fake quote. Thankfully it isn't!
• New Zealand Lawmakers Break Into Maori Love Song As Parliament Approves Same Sex Marriage

This provided me a much needed laugh on Tuesday AM. Tony Gwynn  Jr. of the L.A. Dodgers expertly mocks a heckler.


Tony Gwynn Jr. Owns Heckler - Watch More Funny Videos