Here’s Louis Theroux’s Documentary for BBC 2: The Most Hated Family in America. Louis gets to know the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas. This is the Church that has been picketing the funerals of soldiers that have died in Iraq. They believe that the soldiers are burning in hell as punishment for America’s disobedience to God’s laws. The saddest part of this documentary is when one of the kids gets hit with a cup of liquid from someone in a car that speeds past one of their protests. The brand of hate these guys spew is demonstrated in Pastor Phelps’ last online sermon where he says:

“Westboro Baptist Church has been warning America for 16 years that her disobedience to God and her persecution of His church will result in the outpouring of His wrath. Iraq, Katrina, and now the Va Tech massacre are but small foretastes of God’s wrath against a nation that knows Him not and obeys not the gospel. More and worse is coming. America is Doomed!”

This sounds crazy, but isn’t this the exact same thing the bible teaches about Sodom and Gomorrah? Isn’t this what happened to the Nephites? When a nation turns its back on God, he removes his divine protection from it. The Phelps are only practicing what others preach.

Here are two speeches given by Christopher Hitchens. The first is “The Moral Necessity of Atheism” and the second on Free Speech in response to a proposed hate speech bill in Canada.

In London’s Westminster Central Hall on March 27, some 2,000 people turned out to hear Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and philosopher A.C. Grayling debate a trio of religious authorities on the proposal “We’d be better off without Religion.” (The motion carried, 1,205 to 778.)

Michael Shermer takes us through the strange claims we humans put forth as truth - from alien encounters to Virgin Mary sightings on pizza pies, to hidden messages revealed while playing “Stairway to Heaven” backwards - and explains the evolutionary and cognitive basis for these lapses in reason. Shermer is the founder/publisher of Skeptic Magazine, and author of several books, including Why People Believe Weird Things. Recorded February 2006 in Monterey, CA at the TED Conference.

Notice how when you listen to Stairway to Heaven backwards first you catch only one word or so. Then when Michael Shermer tells you what to listen for, you hear a lot more. Compare this same concept to how “feeling the spirit” is used as a confirmatory experience. You are told what to look for and what it means and miraculously people feel something.

2006 Beyond Belief Conference at the Salk Institute
Will faith and dogma trump rational inquiry, or will it be possible to reconcile religious and scientific worldviews? Can evolutionary biology, anthropology and neuroscience help us to better understand how we construct beliefs, and experience empathy, fear and awe? Can science help us create a new rational narrative as poetic and powerful as those that have traditionally sustained societies? Can we treat religion as a natural phenomenon? Can we be good without God? And if not God, then what?

This is a critical moment in the human situation, and The Science Network in association with the Crick-Jacobs Center brought together an extraordinary group of scientists and philosophers to explore answers to these questions. The conversation took place at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA from November 5-7, 2006.

Video 1. Bill Maher on Mormonism and Religion in Politics

Video 3. Bill Maher on Scarborough Country—Religion Debate

Video 3. Bill Maher & Guests Discuss Religious Fanaticism

Julia Sweeney, a former Catholic, tells the story of how her faith began to crack after reading a most alarming book ... called the Bible. Her story is excerpted from her play, “Letting Go of God,” which ran in Los Angeles.

She is best known for her roles on Saturday Night Live, especially as the androgynous character “Pat.” In 2006, Sweeney was awarded the Richard Dawkins Award and the American Humanist Association’s “Humanist Pioneer” award, and joined the advisory board of the Secular Coalition for America. She also does commercials for the Freedom From Religion Foundation on Air America Radio.

Julia starts with a story about meeting with the Mormon missionaries.