College graduates are more religious than high school grads who are more religious than high school dropouts

President Obama ("bitter clingers") and Democrats would like to associate religion with lack of education and sophistication. The facts are otherwise says W. Bradford Wilcox, a professor of sociology at the University of Virginia. He and his colleagues have looked at the relationship between education and church attendance and found, as US News reports:

In the past decade, 23 percent of the least-educated whites attended religious services monthly or more often, compared with 37 percent of moderately educated whites and 46 percent of college-educated whites, the researchers said.

In other words, college grads are twice as likely (46% vs. 23%) to attend church regularly as compared to high school dropouts.

This work was presented last Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in Las Vegas.

Hat tip: Instapundit.

PREVIOUSLY on liberals and religion:
•Liberals are religious. Who knew?
•The socialist war on Christmas, circa 1941
•Pew study: Democrats believe in ghosts
•Obama declares he is on a mission from God
•Keith Olberman professes belief in God!
•Democrats declare that God directs the weather
•Obama campaign becomes a "transcendent" "religious" movement
•Atheism is a belief shared by Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, and Democrats
•Obama supporters tell of spiritual conversion

Sharia Law practiced in Australia

According to this TV report, women's rights are disappearing as Sharia Law is being practiced in cities across Austrialia:

Some clerics have defied government bans to establish their own courts to decide divorce cases, child custody issues, and financial disputes. Brian Seymore reports that's just the start as Muslim leaders call for traditional Islamic Law to be fully adopted in Australia.

Hat tip: Leonard

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of Islam
•The Islamic Bomb
•Why is Islam popular in prison?
•Obama and the stifling of dissent
•Hate crimes statistics, Jews, and Muslims, and more
•The philosophy that shall not be named
•Turkey wants to try Pope for insulting Islam

Liberals are religious. Who knew?

Jill Abramson has just been promoted to Executive Editor of the New York Times. In an interview with the New York Times, she explains her view of "absolute truth":

Ms. Abramson, 57, said that as a born-and-raised New Yorker, she considered being named editor of The Times to be like "ascending to Valhalla."

"In my house growing up, The Times substituted for religion,” she said. “If The Times said it, it was the absolute truth." [Emph. added]

That seems like an unlikely article of faith, but it is one shared by many liberals.

UPDATE: Jay Nordlinger (hat tip: Instapundit) points out that the New York Times has now re-written the article removing most of the above quote. What is one to think when "the absolute truth" changes?

PREVIOUSLY on liberals getting religion:
•Pew study: Democrats believe in ghosts
•Obama declares he is on a mission from God
•Keith Olberman professes belief in God!
•Democrats declare that God directs the weather
•Obama campaign becomes a "transcendent" "religious" movement
•Atheism is a belief shared by Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, and Democrats
•Obama supporters tell of spiritual conversion

San Franciscans prepare for The Rapture

People from around the San Francisco Bay Area gathered at the headquarters of Family Radio International, home to evangelist Harold Camping who had predicted that today would be The Rapture, the day when the souls of the faithful would rise up to heaven. On this day of spirituality, one man saw the opportunity for profit:

"Can I have your stuff tomorrow?"

Concerned that not all the worthy would rise to heaven on their own, some provided help using the laws of physics. Here is Sponge Bob Square Pants experiencing the joy-of-rapture via a helium-assist.
Santa Claus arrived and passed out the favored drink of true-believers, Kool-Aid. Some people couldn't get enough:
Also there in force were members of the Calvary Bible Church of Milpitas, CA. Some thumped bibles, some preached, and some just went about the prosaic mission of poaching from the soon to be disappointed members of Rev. Camping's flock to expand their own:
The message of the Calvary Church seemed to be that the judgment day was coming soon, just not today.

Others took a different approach to finding the truth:
The sign in the center above is "Science: we won't make a fool of you." On the left, the sign reads "The Bill is Nye." Apparently, Bill Nye, the Science Guy, has a fan. Showing the diversity present at this gathering, the woman on the right places her faith in British science fiction.

Not everyone appreciated the fun. This reporter, Lisa Amin Gulezian from ABC News, Channel 7, could not help but look down her nose at the gathering:
While the Family Radio International offices were closed today (why work when The Rapture is nigh?), some of Rev. Camping's followers were present, including this man with the "repent now" sign:
Anticipating that there would be a tomorrow, he told those assembled that Rev. Camping's numbers were merely approximate and that, while Rapture may not be today, it will be sometime soon. (That interpretation is not in keeping with the Church's website which, as of this writing, still reads "Judgment Day, May 21, 2011, the Bible guarantees it!")

Why didn't God call the faithful to heaven today? One group was their to proclaim it was because of Gay Pride:

All in all, a good time was had.

The Islamic Bomb

If this trailer is any indication, "Iranium" will be a compelling movie:

The movie will be released free online February 8. To watch it then or to obtain a DVD of it, click here

A liberal professes belief in God!

"It is not disloyalty to the Democratic party to tell a Democratic President he is wrong, it is not disloyalty to tell him he is God-dammed wrong." —Keith Olberman, MSNBC, December 8, 2010, Emph. added.

Hat tip: P/Oed Patriot.

UPDATE (10-Dec-2010): Yet another religious conversion! On MSNBC, Chris Matthews mentions Bill Clinton filling in for Pres. Obama at a press conference an declares:

This is the alliance made by God and the Democratic Party.

Watch the video here.

This was the press conference on the tax compromise. Pres. Obama left Clinton in charge because Michelle was waiting and he had to go to a party.

RELATED: From Jim Treacher, via Instapundit: “Say what you want about Sarah Palin quitting her job, but at least she finished her own press conference.”

PREVIOUSLY on liberals getting religion:
•Pew study: Democrats believe in ghosts
•Obama declares he is on a mission from God
•Democrats declare that God directs the weather
•Obama campaign becomes a "transcendent" "religious" movement
•Atheism is a belief shared by Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, and Democrats
•Obama supporters tell of spiritual conversion

Global warming and the religious left

The global warming summit in Cancun this week opened with a prayer to a pagan goddess [image at right]. As the Washington Post reports, with emphasis provided by NewsBusters:

With United Nations climate negotiators facing an uphill battle to advance their goal of reducing emissions linked to global warming, it's no surprise that the woman steering the talks appealed to a Mayan goddess Monday.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also "the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you -- because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools."

She called for "a balanced outcome" which would marry financial and emissions commitments from industrialized countries aimed at combating climate change with "the understanding of fairness that will guide long-term mitigation efforts."

"Excellencies, the goddess Ixchel would probably tell you that a tapestry is the result of the skilful interlacing of many threads," said Figueres, who hails from Costa Rica and started her greetings in Spanish before switching to English. "I am convinced that 20 years from now, we will admire the policy tapestry that you have woven together and think back fondly to Cancun and the inspiration of Ixchel."

Who ever said the environmental left wasn't religious?

REMINDER: Over 30,000 American scientists, including over 9,000 Ph.D.s, have publicly signed this petition skeptical of global warming alarmism.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of liberals replacing irrational old religions with just as irrational religions or spiritualities:
•Orthodox environmentalism
•Democrats twice as likely to think they have seen a ghost
•Obama campaign is a "transcendent" "religious" movement
•Atheism is a belief shared by Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, and Democrats
•Obama supporters tell of spiritual conversion
•Obama's church and its Black Liberation Theology
•Toy guns at Yale: Political correctness as a primitive religion

Liberal true believers

On My Honor writes:

It's always interested me that so-called liberals who reject traditional morality seem to create a new pseudo-religious orthodoxy, such as pacifism or political correctness or environmentalism, which becomes intolerant of those who don't agree. Hence the term "global warming deniers," harking back to "Holocaust deniers," and the frequent parallels between mankind's effect on the environment to original sin. Some go so far as to claim that we ought to become extinct for the good of the planet.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of liberals replacing irrational old religions with just as irrational religions or spiritualities:
•Democrats twice as likely to think they have seen a ghost
•Obama campaign is a "transcendent" "religious" movement
•Atheism is a belief shared by Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, and Democrats
•Obama supporters tell of spiritual conversion
•Obama's church and its Black Liberation Theology
•Toy guns at Yale: Political correctness as a primitive religion

Pew study says Dems have lost their minds

Democrats I know often claim that they are more rational than other humans, in part, because they have cast aside ancient superstitions like Christianity. According to a recent Pew survey (full study-PDF), Democrats may have cast aside Christianity but they have replaced it with primitive superstitions. For example, Democrats are twice as likely to have seen a ghost as Republicans:Hat tip: Byron York.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of liberal spirituality:
Obama campaign becomes a "transcendent" "religious" movement
Atheism is a belief shared by Pol Pot, Stalin, Mao, and Democrats
Obama supporters tell of spiritual conversion

Gay marriage and democracy

Today, Vermont became the first state in the US to approve gay marriage by vote of the legislature. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Iowa obtained gay marriage via dictatorship of the courts.

UPDATE: An excellent summary of gay marriage/civil union rights in the US and around the world is here.

Some Dems revolt against the new religion

The religious nature of the Obama movement has been apparent to outsiders but now a prominent Democrat acknowledges it: "The Obama campaign has become a movement of transcendence that is practically religious, with a wave of money and religious fervor taking over the party" says Darragh Murphy, executive director of PumaPAC. She and other Democrats reject that religion and are currently pleased with having 'rolled' Obama. With respect to that, Robert Costa of the Wall Street Journal asks: "If he can't face down the Pumas, how will he ever face down Putin?"

Being president is above Obama's pay grade

The AFP reports on tonight's McCain-Obama forum:

Both candidates were quizzed for their views on same-sex marriage and abortion, Obama sidestepping when asked directly to give his view on when a baby began to enjoy human rights.

"I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity is above my pay grade," Obama said. [emphasis added.]

The problem with this answer, of course, is that the question is not theoretical: congressman and presidents have to make decisions about such issues every time, say, partial birth abortion comes up for a vote. Since Sen. Obama has voted in favor on partial birth abortion on more than one occasion, he does have a position on this issue. He just doesn't want to defend his position. He is a profile in cowardice.

Contrast Obama's answer with Sen. McCain's:

McCain, who is opposed to abortion, replied bluntly to the same question. "From the moment of conception," McCain said. "I will be a pro-life president and this presidency will have pro-life policies."

Sen. McCain's answer may not be scientifically sound but at least he is willing to state his position clearly.

More discussion of the forum can be found at GatewayPundit. Hat tip to Ed Driscoll.

Bravely attacking safe targets, II

Scott Adams explains his decision to write a series of comics 'mocking' Christianity but not Islam:

This week’s series in Dilbert caused quite a stir. It featured a new guy in the office whose name is pronounced hay-soos and spelled Jesus. I drew those strips a few months ago, and in my typical careless way I didn’t realize they would be running around Easter time. Oops.

You can see the series at www.dilbert.com while they are still in the archive.

As you might imagine, I got a lot of e-mail about this strip. Comments were about evenly divided between people who are deeply offended and people who think it was my best work yet. Interestingly, the people most amused often described themselves as religious, and those offended often noted that they were not especially religious.

My favorite rhetorical question, which I received an alarming number of times, was “Why don’t you mock Mohammed next? Huh? Why not?”

Well, aside from the blindingly obvious reason that I prefer life over death, I didn’t realize I was making fun of Christianity this week. [emphasis added]

At least he is honest about it.

PREVIOUSLY, left-liberal self-censorship was discussed here.

Hat tip: Moonbattery.

The banality of evil

Not every Canadian is willing to accept Canada's abolition of freedom of speech. The Western Standard magazine published the infamous Mohammad cartoons two years ago. Consequently, the Orwellian-named Alberta Human Rights Commission is prosecuting its publisher, Ezra Levant. They held their hearing on his case last January 11. For some reason, they allowed Mr. Levant to video-record the hearing. He did and it is now on youtube. In the sample below,
the inquisitor, Shirlene McGovern, asks him for his "intent" in publishing the cartoons. Her dry bureaucratic approach in asking about thought crime, reminds us of Hannah Arendt's comment about the banality of evil:

Ms. McGovern has since resigned from the case, reportedly because she was surprised by the strength of the public reaction against such interrogations over alleged thought crimes.

Canada's Human Rights Code forbids, for example, any publication that "is likely to expose a person or a group or class of persons to ... contempt." Contempt is a quite vague concept. (Under Canada's interpretation, as expressed by Ms. McGovern, the issue of contempt is somehow tied into someone's subjective concept of the publisher's "intent.") Nearly any expression of a political opinion can be interpreted by those on the other side as 'exposing them to contempt.' Consequently, to the extent that Canada is willing to enforce the code, it really is the end of free speech.

For instance, the Hadith reads "The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: `The time [of judgment] will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews and kill them; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!' Sahih Muslim book 41, no. 6985." It seems that any discussion of that passage at all would offend ("expose to contempt") one side or the other and thus be illegal in Canada.

PREVIOUSLY, Canada's liberal party rejected a proposal to restore freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

UPDATE: Deborah Gyapong has much more on abuses by Canada's Human Rights Commission.

Bravely attacking safe targets

It has been widely noted that the left-wing media and commentators will "bravely" attack Pres. Bush but will not, say, publish the Danish Mohammed cartoons. The (London) Times reports that an award-winning English artist has taken the unusual step of admitting the obvious about such left-liberal bravery:

Grayson Perry, the cross-dressing potter, Turner Prize winner and former Times columnist, said that he had consciously avoided commenting on radical Islam in his otherwise highly provocative body of work because of the threat of reprisals.

Perry also believes that many of his fellow visual artists have also ducked the issue, and one leading British gallery director told The Times that few major venues would be prepared to show potentially inflammatory works.

“I’ve censored myself,” Perry said at a discussion on art and politics organised by the Art Fund. “The reason I haven’t gone all out attacking Islamism in my art is because I feel real fear that someone will slit my throat.”

Perry’s highly decorated pots can sell for more than £50,000 and often feature sex, violence and childhood motifs. One work depicted a teddy bear being born from a penis as the Virgin Mary. [emphasis added.]

While the left may claim that Christian "fundamentalist" "extremists" resemble the Taliban, somewhere inside, they do know the truth to be otherwise. A psychologist might call this displacement.

Channel 4 (UK) to show documentary skeptical of UN's "global warming" spin

On Thursday, Channel 4 (UK) will show a global warming documentary. This summary includes some quotes from the scientists that they interviewed:

I've often heard it said that there is a consensus of thousands of scientists on the global warming issue, that humans are causing a catastrophic change to the climate system, Well I am one scientist, and there are many, that simply think that is not true. -- John Christy, Professor and Director of the Earth System Science Center, NSSTC University of Alabama.

As for what does cause climate change, if the human influence is not so large:

Solar activity over the last hundred years, over the last several hundred years, correlates very nicely, on a decadal basis, with temperature. --Ian Clark, Professor of Isotope hydrogeology and paleoclimatology at the Dept of Earth Sciences, University of Ottawa

Separately, Russia has been developing more accurate methods to measure solar activity and Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of the St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory in Russia, believes that solar activity accounts for most of the observed climate changes both here on Earth and on Mars. This result seems to be in line with a Danish study noted here.

Previous posts on this subject are here, here, here, here, here, and here.

UPDATE: A list of 76 scientists willing to go on the record as skeptical of global warming is here.

UPDATE: Another physics professor, Bjarne Andresen of University of Copenhagen, has expressed doubts about the UN interpretation about the usefulness of the "global warming" concepts and warming's affects on the climate. His study will be published in the Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics.