It was Ariane Noelle Patterson’s 21st birthday, and she was grateful to be alive.

The Gardner-Webb University student took to her Twitter account on Jan. 17 and posted the message: “Thank you God for another year of life.”

Hours later, she collapsed during a religion class and was rushed to nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead, the Associated Press reports.

via Ariane Noelle Patterson, Student, Dies After Tweeting ‘Thank You God for Another Year Of Life’.

The Catholic Church’s pedophilia investigator, in charge of child protection and interviewing adults who as children had been victims of pedophile priests today was jailed on pedophilia charges in England. 49-year old Christopher Jarvis, a married man with four children of his own, began serving his 12-month sentence after serving the Catholic Church for nine years in a dioscese that included 120 Catholic Churches. Jarvis admitted to the charges, which included possession of 4000 images of pre-pubescent boys, including several depicting sadism, child rape, and torture.

via Catholic Church’s Pedophilia Investigator Jailed For Pedophilia | The New Civil Rights Movement.

Nico Alm  is my hero.

More:  Austrian Pastafarian: License Photo Was A Win For Freedom From Religion : The Two-Way : NPR.

If Ray Kurzweil has his way, we’ll need to start Crisis Mapping this thing right away.

The Pythagoreans were a persecuted sect, sometimes violently persecuted.  They were a threat to traditional religion, like many new sects. Plato’s teacher, Socrates, was famously executed for religious heresy.

“The Pythagoreans realized that when we hear beauty and music, when we hear notes harmonizing, that’s because the notes have simple ratios, like 1:2 or 3:4. So the beauty of music is direct perception of the mathematical order underlying the world. They worshipped that mathematics.”

“Simply put, they were threatening to overthrow the gods on Olympus and put numbers and mathematics in its place. Prior to Socrates being executed, a number of other philosophers were banished or fled because of threats to themselves. It was dangerous in those days to be a philosopher.”

Now it appears that Plato may have hidden secret musical message in his writings.  Read More:  A Musical Message Discovered In Plato’s Works : NPR.

The pastor of a Venice, Florida church is organizing a “Blessing of the Gulf” on Sunday with the belief that if enough people get in their cars and drive to the edge of Gulf of Mexico and focus on the healing and restorative powers of prayer, God will magically stop the flow of oil.

Rev. Patricia Reiter of Unity Church of Venice expects to have 10,000 people spiritually joining hands at 3 p.m. Sunday, June 20, along the Gulf coast…not to clean or help in any way other than to think happy thoughts specifically directed towards the Gulf of Mexico:

“To whales, dolphins, manatees, pelicans, seagulls and all aquatic bird species, fishes, shellfish, planktons, corals, algae and all creatures in the Gulf of Mexico, I am sorry. Please forgive me.”

Can prayer repel oil? – The Religion World – Orlando Sentinel.

A six-story statue of Jesus Christ was struck by lightning and burned to the ground, leaving only a blackened steel skeleton and pieces of foam that were scooped up by curious onlookers Tuesday.

The “King of Kings” statue, one of southwest Ohio’s most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

Other names for it:  Super Jesus, Drowning Jesus, Quicksand Jesus, Giant Jesus, 8-Ball Jesus, Big Butter Jesus and Touchdown Jesus

The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m. Monday.  The main body of the statue was made from a core of Styrofoam covered by a thin skin of fiberglass.

via 6-story Jesus statue in Ohio struck by lightning – Yahoo! News.

I LIVE in Florida and I hadn’t heard about this.  My daily news includes reading CNN.com, MSNBC.com, Reddit, Digg and countless others.   How did I hear about it?  From a guy I follow on Twitter who lives in the UK… @Documentally.

CAIR Questions National Silence on Fla. Mosque Bombing – Yahoo! News.

James King says God led him to 11-year-old Nadia Bloom last week.

In fact, the military contractor from Casselberry says the Holy Spirit moved so powerfully through him that, before he entered the woods, he began speaking in tongues.

Unfortunately he waited 5 agonizing days to do it.  I wonder what he was doing the 4 days before that?

Scott Maxwell: Nadia’s story restores faith on more than one front – OrlandoSentinel.com.

I ate dinner at a local Orlando restaurant called “The Loving Hut”.   It’s a vegan restaurant.   This is what happens when you date a vegan:  suddenly you find yourself dining at places called “The Loving Hut”.  My buddy called me while I was there, and after I told him the name of of the joint, he exclaimed, “Oh, are you hugging yet?  Should I let you go?”

But I digress, because the name of the place is not even the beginning of this story.  The place is empty, save for a 20′s-something hipster with a laptop in the corner.  The decor looks like any EXTREMELY BRIGHT asian-ish?…Pizza Hut??

I actually haven’t been inside a Pizza Hut lately, so I’m not sure what they look like…but this place certainly looks like it belongs near a food court.    Maybe it’s the white chairs…or the big flat-screen televisions…

I notice that the flat screens are all Broadcasting the same thing: Supreme Master TV.

Supreme Master Ching Hai International is the corporate entity behind Guanyin Famen/Quan Yin. It is affiliated with World Peace Media, Oceans of Love Entertainment, Supreme Master Television, and several cable television series…all groups and businesses established by Ching Hai.

She also owns the Loving Hut.

I am now her servant.

Peace.   Love.   Be Vegan.

Don’t be afraid.  Just buy her food (which was pretty tasty, I might add)