How the Mormon Church makes money. My question is, why don't they pay taxes on this loot? (They pay some taxes but not enough!) ... No, wait, my question is what they wear at their Polynesian theme park. Do they have special Polynesian magic underwear? Mormon defenders are out in force in the comments section. If this money from for-profit companies is really being used for charitable purposes why is the LDS so secretive about it?
America for Jesus event in Philadelphia - will it become a dominionist election-year screed? How can they energize their base to vote for a Mormon? Could be interesting.
Tragic but also ironic, Chik Fil-A PR chief dies suddenly. It's too bad he was on the side of people who believe God smites people who are in the wrong. Having to run damage control on his boss's bigoted statement would stress anybody's heart, but it sure seems like a smiting.
Methodist minister used to be a "she." Gotta admit, except for that believing in God business, the Methodists can be cool sometimes: "Weekley, 60, was invited to preach at Morningside as part of the church’s 17th anniversary as a Reconciling Ministry, a movement within the United Methodists Church to welcome LGBT parishioners."
As if to prove themselves as backwards as ever, a Catholic priest blames Satan for Holmes' attack in Colorado. Uhhhh yes, the guy was demon-possessed in the same sense that the 'demon-possessed' characters in the Bible were demon-possessed, i.e., mentally ill.
Meanwhile, in Australia, the identity of a pedophile priest is kept secret and his victim commits suicide. The victim's name appears prominently in this article. What is wrong with the world?
Nuns on the Bus tour ends in Washington, D.C. One of my friends from Wisconsin met them and she thought they were awesome. I used to think nuns were just mean old hags who swatted boys on the hand (h/t George Carlin)
Another nun gets into trouble with the Vatican for saying things like "Any policy that is more pro-fetus than actually pro-life, if the rights of the unborn trump all the rights of those that were already born, that is a distortion." Ahhh those modern-day Eves, trying to drag down the good ole boys... Sister Pat wants to feed the poor and clothe the homeless... *sigh* Silly woman.
The Southern Baptists are having trouble keeping up the bigotry.
Zombies counter-protest the Westboro Baptist Church. Sadly, they found no brains to snack on.
A Baptist Church in Mississippi manages to make WBC look progressive. The pastor, supposed to be a spiritual leader who does what's right, is too much of a coward to stand up to the bigots who don't want him to conduct a marriage ceremony between two black people who attend the church because they are black.
First female Episcopal bishop. I still heart the Episcopal Church except for the part where you have to believe in a supernatural deity, take part in a cannibalistic ceremony, and listen to people read from a collection of fairy tales.
Louisiana's voucher system could pay for kids to go to evolution-denying schools. Supposedly, the schools kids can use state cash for have to meet the same standards as public schools... in everything but biology. *sigh*
Another reason not to fund creationism-based public education: Kids can go to creationism-based Vacation Bible School to learn that drivel.
One of Chik Fil-A's evangelical supporters admits he's gay (or gay-ish?)
Apparently female televangelists can be homosexual hypocrites, too.
With so many of their leaders turning out to be homosexual, why are evangelicals promoting homophobia in Africa? Mormons are in on this, too.
Atheism and secular living from a woman's point of view.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Friday, July 27, 2012
Colorado shooter was seeing whom????
News reports say he was seeing a psychiatrist but when you look her up at Healthgrade, it says she's physiatrist, a physical therapist! But.... UCompare says she's a psychiatrist. Maybe she's both! On the hospital's site it says she is.
Not to be a snob... okay I'll be a snob... but if I'm having paranoid delusions and hearing voices, I would not go to someone who can't make up her mind whether to specialize in the mind or the body. Sure, the mind lives in the body, but seriously....
And checking pubmed, she hasn't published anything in five years. In academia, for someone on a tenure track this is really really weak.
CNN is having trouble verifying her credentials, too. If she's been getting grant money to study schizophrenia, the granting agencies should demand a refund. She hasn't published anything on schizophrenia so where's the evidence she was really qualified to help this guy?
The sadder thing is that after he was no longer a student she probably could no longer see him. That should be the one big exception to insurance company plans. My brother had this problem too. He got fired due to his schizophrenia and then couldn't see his doctor any more. Of course he could have paid cash but... *sigh* When someone leaves work due to a broken leg they can see their doctor and come back when their leg is healed. When they get sick with a mental illness their entire support system goes *poof* due to the very thing they need support for.
You'd think grad schools would have wised up after the University of Iowa shooting. They need good mental health providers and support for people who are disappointed. Instead of having a psychiatrist on their staff who has many duties, they should pay for sick students to go to the best shrink in town. It's not just enlightened self-interest, it's the right thing to do.
Not to be a snob... okay I'll be a snob... but if I'm having paranoid delusions and hearing voices, I would not go to someone who can't make up her mind whether to specialize in the mind or the body. Sure, the mind lives in the body, but seriously....
And checking pubmed, she hasn't published anything in five years. In academia, for someone on a tenure track this is really really weak.
CNN is having trouble verifying her credentials, too. If she's been getting grant money to study schizophrenia, the granting agencies should demand a refund. She hasn't published anything on schizophrenia so where's the evidence she was really qualified to help this guy?
The sadder thing is that after he was no longer a student she probably could no longer see him. That should be the one big exception to insurance company plans. My brother had this problem too. He got fired due to his schizophrenia and then couldn't see his doctor any more. Of course he could have paid cash but... *sigh* When someone leaves work due to a broken leg they can see their doctor and come back when their leg is healed. When they get sick with a mental illness their entire support system goes *poof* due to the very thing they need support for.
You'd think grad schools would have wised up after the University of Iowa shooting. They need good mental health providers and support for people who are disappointed. Instead of having a psychiatrist on their staff who has many duties, they should pay for sick students to go to the best shrink in town. It's not just enlightened self-interest, it's the right thing to do.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Debate Video with TWO unbelievers!
Sam Harris and Michael Shermer take on Deepak Chopra and a woman who can't get in a word edgwise. Listen for a priceless line by Deepak Chopra at 23:39 and at 28:40 one by Sam Harris.
This is one of the rare times when a "debate" included equal numbers on both sides. Usually a lone skeptic/atheist is up against half a dozen believers.
This is one of the rare times when a "debate" included equal numbers on both sides. Usually a lone skeptic/atheist is up against half a dozen believers.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
The week in links
Tom Vilsack is an individual who works for the government and says prayers that appear to be answered but not for the people he prayed for. This is not unconstitutional! (but it is a waste of taxpayer money if he does it on the clock) It pains me when atheists make a fuss oversomething that's not illegal. If anything, he should be taken to task for not explaining to the farmers who voted Republican that they are being punished by God.
Missouri will vote on the stupidest law ever. Someone has told these cretins that the First Amendment can prevent them from praying in public. Someone needs to explain to Missourians the difference between praying in public as a citizen and praying in public as a public official.
Got Prayer? 2700 students gather for "Prayer Fest." Because just praying in your church isn't good enough to get God's attention.
Katie Holmes returns to the Catholic church, which she was brought up in, and enrolls Suri in a posh Catholic school (@ almost $40k/year). I didn't even know there were any posh Catholic schools! If going to the school that produced Lady Gaga is an improvement over a Scientology education, I really wonder about that Scientology "education."
Why Scientologists buy the Xenu story. "OK, so there's a galactic overlord named Xenu. Big deal. That's not the craziest thing you're going to hear on your way to spending three hundred thousand dollars."
An evangelical Christian has written a book called The Mormonization of America. Oh horrors! The other side is prosletyzing too! You can't make this stuff up.
An evangelical blogger takes other evangelicals to task for a lack of intellectual and scholarly integrity. He ends his blog post by saying he's open to criticism.
Referenced in the above blog post: The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, a 1995 book that apparently still holds true. The first sentence: "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is no evangelical mind."
Westboro Baptist Church plans to "super-picket" funerals in Aurora, Colorado. Oh goody. Just what the situation calls for: more theatre.
The Episcopal Church approves same-sex marriage ceremony officially, but they're not calling the ceremony a marriage ceremony. Uhhh okaaaaay
In Australia, priests may be required to report crimes they hear about in confession.
Strange faith healing technique: kicking people in the face. The article says the guy is all over youtube so of course I had to check. Many of the videos label him a "false" healer (as if there are true ones) or "false teacher." The Holy Spirit said "Kick her in the Face." Yes, he said it! Then, at other times he sounds like a bad Bill Clinton imitator. (Go to 4:30 to see his imitation of Clinton masturbating)
Missouri will vote on the stupidest law ever. Someone has told these cretins that the First Amendment can prevent them from praying in public. Someone needs to explain to Missourians the difference between praying in public as a citizen and praying in public as a public official.
Got Prayer? 2700 students gather for "Prayer Fest." Because just praying in your church isn't good enough to get God's attention.
Katie Holmes returns to the Catholic church, which she was brought up in, and enrolls Suri in a posh Catholic school (@ almost $40k/year). I didn't even know there were any posh Catholic schools! If going to the school that produced Lady Gaga is an improvement over a Scientology education, I really wonder about that Scientology "education."
Why Scientologists buy the Xenu story. "OK, so there's a galactic overlord named Xenu. Big deal. That's not the craziest thing you're going to hear on your way to spending three hundred thousand dollars."
An evangelical Christian has written a book called The Mormonization of America. Oh horrors! The other side is prosletyzing too! You can't make this stuff up.
An evangelical blogger takes other evangelicals to task for a lack of intellectual and scholarly integrity. He ends his blog post by saying he's open to criticism.
Referenced in the above blog post: The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, a 1995 book that apparently still holds true. The first sentence: "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is no evangelical mind."
Westboro Baptist Church plans to "super-picket" funerals in Aurora, Colorado. Oh goody. Just what the situation calls for: more theatre.
The Episcopal Church approves same-sex marriage ceremony officially, but they're not calling the ceremony a marriage ceremony. Uhhh okaaaaay
In Australia, priests may be required to report crimes they hear about in confession.
Strange faith healing technique: kicking people in the face. The article says the guy is all over youtube so of course I had to check. Many of the videos label him a "false" healer (as if there are true ones) or "false teacher." The Holy Spirit said "Kick her in the Face." Yes, he said it! Then, at other times he sounds like a bad Bill Clinton imitator. (Go to 4:30 to see his imitation of Clinton masturbating)
Friday, July 20, 2012
Relax, America. "Batman" isn't a Religion
Like a dummy, I've been watching the news about the Batman shooting, and just shaking my head. Sure, this is tragic, and the guy who did it is something of a mystery at the moment, but you don't have to be afraid to go to the movies because...
BATMAN IS NOT A RELIGION!!!
Only a religion can spur copycats or fund groups of sleeper cells to attack people because for an idea. When a lone individual becomes obsessed with Batman and wants to make a violent splash, that does not in any way indicate that other people will take the same violent actions. It just indicates that one psychotic individual came up with a plan to kill lots of people at one time for his own reasons. It doesn't mean that movie theatres can't open tonight. It doesn't mean you have to wear bullet proof vests to get your popcorn. It will be okay. Really.
4chan is not promising an afterlife peopled with big-busted cartoon whores to mass killers. Comic Con will not give out free tickets to autograph signings to terrorists. Stan Lee isn't pulling strings behind the scenes preparing a cabal of cult followers to do his evil bidding. (that we know of)
It takes a religion to create an army of like-minded murderous terrorists. When the tear gas settles, it will turn out that the shooter is a paranoid schizophrenic who had been unhinged for awhile before concocting his plot. There will not be a spate of movie theatre killings, just as there has not been a spate of shopping mall killings after the few rare shopping mall shootings.
It is safe to eat at Luby's. Or McDonald's. Or at the food court at the local mall.
Crazy people are everywhere and only some of them have a gun and a chip on their shoulder. They are like lightning or tornadoes. They are not organized terrorists looking for "soft targets" just so they can kill YOU.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, there may indeed be another movie theatre shooting. Or maybe someone will decide he can get a bigger body count at a high school football game. Maybe a college graduation ceremony. Anywhere you can find "targets," some nut case with too many bullets may decided to wipe you out. But what are the odds?
So American Media, settle the fuck down.
BATMAN IS NOT A RELIGION!!!
Only a religion can spur copycats or fund groups of sleeper cells to attack people because for an idea. When a lone individual becomes obsessed with Batman and wants to make a violent splash, that does not in any way indicate that other people will take the same violent actions. It just indicates that one psychotic individual came up with a plan to kill lots of people at one time for his own reasons. It doesn't mean that movie theatres can't open tonight. It doesn't mean you have to wear bullet proof vests to get your popcorn. It will be okay. Really.
4chan is not promising an afterlife peopled with big-busted cartoon whores to mass killers. Comic Con will not give out free tickets to autograph signings to terrorists. Stan Lee isn't pulling strings behind the scenes preparing a cabal of cult followers to do his evil bidding. (that we know of)
It takes a religion to create an army of like-minded murderous terrorists. When the tear gas settles, it will turn out that the shooter is a paranoid schizophrenic who had been unhinged for awhile before concocting his plot. There will not be a spate of movie theatre killings, just as there has not been a spate of shopping mall killings after the few rare shopping mall shootings.
It is safe to eat at Luby's. Or McDonald's. Or at the food court at the local mall.
Crazy people are everywhere and only some of them have a gun and a chip on their shoulder. They are like lightning or tornadoes. They are not organized terrorists looking for "soft targets" just so they can kill YOU.
Now that the cat is out of the bag, there may indeed be another movie theatre shooting. Or maybe someone will decide he can get a bigger body count at a high school football game. Maybe a college graduation ceremony. Anywhere you can find "targets," some nut case with too many bullets may decided to wipe you out. But what are the odds?
So American Media, settle the fuck down.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Saturday, July 14, 2012
The Week in Links
R.I.P. Judith Hayes, a.k.a. The Happy Heretic, 1945-2012. I just discovered her blog today and I'm so sad that I never got to know her work before this. She started blogging before it was called "blogging." Her book is still for sale at amazon.com. They call her the "Erma Bombeck of the secular humanist community.
New Zealand priests have to stop using ipads in the pulpit. I wonder if they use them in the confessional. That has to be the most boring part of their day.
A former nun in India has written a book that I hope gets translated to English. Her advice to young girls: do not go to a priest for counseling or confession. Sounds like she has some tales to tell.
But then what fake priests do in India is also shocking. Child sacrifice to find hidden treasure? Crazy.
Mr. Cranky reviews a film that proves that Christians shouldn't produce films.
A Christian & a Muslim ask hotels to stop selling pay-per-view porn. Apparently they know that religious people are buying this stuff, because they certainly wouldn't care if atheists watched bad porn.
The Washington Post on Elevatorgate Part Deux. My first thought was 'wow we look so bad now,' but then I remembered that some of my friends have been harrassed at professional conferences. Maybe some people just need to be reminded that you should behave at a conference the way you would at home, or better.
As yet another storm passes by my parched Indiana city, I realize we should try performing a frog wedding.
Lutheran church needs a liquor license to serve liquor at weddings (but not for communion?) ... but the law states a license can't be granted within 100 feet of a church. Well, they are the church and no other church happens to be next door, so they get licensed!
New Zealand priests have to stop using ipads in the pulpit. I wonder if they use them in the confessional. That has to be the most boring part of their day.
A former nun in India has written a book that I hope gets translated to English. Her advice to young girls: do not go to a priest for counseling or confession. Sounds like she has some tales to tell.
But then what fake priests do in India is also shocking. Child sacrifice to find hidden treasure? Crazy.
Mr. Cranky reviews a film that proves that Christians shouldn't produce films.
A Christian & a Muslim ask hotels to stop selling pay-per-view porn. Apparently they know that religious people are buying this stuff, because they certainly wouldn't care if atheists watched bad porn.
The Washington Post on Elevatorgate Part Deux. My first thought was 'wow we look so bad now,' but then I remembered that some of my friends have been harrassed at professional conferences. Maybe some people just need to be reminded that you should behave at a conference the way you would at home, or better.
As yet another storm passes by my parched Indiana city, I realize we should try performing a frog wedding.
Lutheran church needs a liquor license to serve liquor at weddings (but not for communion?) ... but the law states a license can't be granted within 100 feet of a church. Well, they are the church and no other church happens to be next door, so they get licensed!
SkepChickCon: Don't Feed the Trolls (video)
I wish I could have attended the conference but I don't have the funds to fly all over to meet skeptics and atheists. Fortunately, internet people put their stuff up on the internet, for example, this panel about harrassment on the internet:
Women and a few men talking about sexist attacks on the internet and especially in the Skeptical & Atheist realms. If you think they're exaggerating, check out the comments people have posted.
Some of my graduate school professors had to deal with a lot of dirty tactics by their male "colleagues" and of course I have known women who have been victimized in a variety of ways. So... I'm a bit shocked but if you are a guy who hasn't been the confidante of a woman who has dealt with abuse, you may be seriously shocked by what these people have to say:
Men who find women threatening want to shut us up, and we who don't shut up have known this for years. We deal with it in ways that most men would never imagine.
Personally, I don't want to deal with that shit so you won't see my picture and real-life name here.
- Women who blog on the internet get rape threats
- Women on the internet get death threats
- Women do indeed get raped in elevators
- Women get stalked by "trolls" who turn out to be dangerous
Personally, I don't want to deal with that shit so you won't see my picture and real-life name here.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Quote of the Day: Lawrence Krauss
"The purpose of education is not to validate ignorance, but to overcome it."
...at about 30:00 here:
He said it in reference to the assertion that biology teachers should "teach the controversy."
His comments on cosmology are also very interesting. I admit, I sometimes don't understand him but this talk is excellent an very understandable.
...at about 30:00 here:
He said it in reference to the assertion that biology teachers should "teach the controversy."
His comments on cosmology are also very interesting. I admit, I sometimes don't understand him but this talk is excellent an very understandable.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
20/20 "What is Heaven?" videos
The videos are up now! (Flash) Watch the whole 2 hours or the segments:
The whole shebang: http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55216980/2020-76-heaven
The whole shebang: http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55216980/2020-76-heaven
Betty Bowers on Abortion
Your Sunday School teacher never quoted these Bible passages!
If you're not familiar with Mrs. Bowers or Landover Baptist Church check out the True Christian [tm] site.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Some News of the Week
A few newsworthy items of late:
The Demon Defense doesn't hold holy water but this story does help to explain why there are so many tiny congregations in the crazier denominations
Whites-Only pastors' conference in Alabama. These nutters believe that "Europeans and their descendents" are the chosen people. uhhhh have they read the Bible?
Maybe they were just upset about the Black pastors who disagree with Obama about gay rights.
Then there is a pastor who teaches a funny version of genital hygiene. Apparently you don't have to be Catholic to be a pedophile.
The Catholic Church in Philadelphia continues to clean house
Presbyterians decide against changing the definition of marriage. The proposed new definition would be "between two people," which imho is a bad idea because it doesn't imply the two have to be adults. "Man and woman" indicates adulthood on both parts.
The Village Voice exposes Scientology's marriange "counseling" method. If Katie Holmes didn't know the religion was abusive before trying this, she'd know it afterward.
Circumscision: Something Muslims & Jews can agree on
The Demon Defense doesn't hold holy water but this story does help to explain why there are so many tiny congregations in the crazier denominations
Whites-Only pastors' conference in Alabama. These nutters believe that "Europeans and their descendents" are the chosen people. uhhhh have they read the Bible?
Maybe they were just upset about the Black pastors who disagree with Obama about gay rights.
Then there is a pastor who teaches a funny version of genital hygiene. Apparently you don't have to be Catholic to be a pedophile.
The Catholic Church in Philadelphia continues to clean house
Presbyterians decide against changing the definition of marriage. The proposed new definition would be "between two people," which imho is a bad idea because it doesn't imply the two have to be adults. "Man and woman" indicates adulthood on both parts.
The Village Voice exposes Scientology's marriange "counseling" method. If Katie Holmes didn't know the religion was abusive before trying this, she'd know it afterward.
Circumscision: Something Muslims & Jews can agree on
Barbara Walters on Heaven
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/
The full show will be on the site soon, but meanwhile, enjoy some clips. She traveled the world interviewing people about heaven and hell, and let atheists and skeptics have about two minutes out of a two-hour special.
I DVR'd it so I could review it here, but there isn't much to say about it. The various religions all have a different afterlife belief. duh Why she doesn't draw the obvious conclusion from there that heaven is man-made is beyond me. Well, the ratings would tank but still... what an insipid show about an insipid concept.
Sure, we want to live forever, but forever is a long time and even Heaven would get really really boring. And all those people who have near-death experiences never see Hell or their uncle who molested him. Surely at least one person would have a hellish time of it considering how many of us are going there. The explanation offered about the dying brain was immediately countered by the NDE experiencers with "I know what I saw."
*sigh*
The full show will be on the site soon, but meanwhile, enjoy some clips. She traveled the world interviewing people about heaven and hell, and let atheists and skeptics have about two minutes out of a two-hour special.
I DVR'd it so I could review it here, but there isn't much to say about it. The various religions all have a different afterlife belief. duh Why she doesn't draw the obvious conclusion from there that heaven is man-made is beyond me. Well, the ratings would tank but still... what an insipid show about an insipid concept.
Sure, we want to live forever, but forever is a long time and even Heaven would get really really boring. And all those people who have near-death experiences never see Hell or their uncle who molested him. Surely at least one person would have a hellish time of it considering how many of us are going there. The explanation offered about the dying brain was immediately countered by the NDE experiencers with "I know what I saw."
*sigh*
Friday, July 6, 2012
Katie Holmes & Scientology or just another celeb divorce?
Some interesting thoughts here:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/07/why-katie-holmes-may-win-custody.html
Many people have noted that all of Cruise's divorces happened when the wives were 33. Makes me wonder if Scientology has some step-up at that age that makes them go "whoa.... I did *Not* sign on for THIS!" The Daily Beast article is more down-to-earth, referencing child custody practices, and Suri's age, not Katie's as being the trigger.
What I find strange is the hoopla about Suri being brought up in Scientology with its special schools and nutty philosophy, but let someone send their kid to a Catholic, Jewish, or fundy school, well that's okay. Well, no, that's not okay. Brainwashing little kids is a vile, destructive and abusive practice.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/07/why-katie-holmes-may-win-custody.html
Many people have noted that all of Cruise's divorces happened when the wives were 33. Makes me wonder if Scientology has some step-up at that age that makes them go "whoa.... I did *Not* sign on for THIS!" The Daily Beast article is more down-to-earth, referencing child custody practices, and Suri's age, not Katie's as being the trigger.
Katie can probably never tell the whole truth without becoming a Suppressive Person and being stalked for life by henchment for the cause. It's bad enough for her to be stalked by paparazzi.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Book Review: The Believing Brain by Michael Shermer
He begins the book with three personal stories: a guy who sponsors research on belief after a supernatural experience or hallucination (depending on your point of view), NIH director Francis Collins' conversion and exploration of faith and science, and Shermer's own conversion and deconversion from evangelical Christianity. He references the people and books that influenced him during that time of his life in great detail. His own deconversion included a period of Ayn Rand fandom and evangelism for it, sad to say. I have to wonder if he had a harder time giving up authoritarianism than he did belief in a supernatural, because it sounds like he was a true fanboy. At this point in his life he hadn't yet become a big fan of the scientific method (or else he would have been persuaded more by evidence than by teachers and authors).
Fortunately the book does finally get to the sciency stuff I bought it for. His main thesis is that people develop a belief first and then find reasons to support it, and he ranges over a lot of territory developing it. The most interesting thing for me was the phenomenon of sensing the presence of another person (usually) when nobody is there. It happened to Shermer on an ultramarathon bike ride. It has happened to other extreme athletes, especially mountain climbers. This may come as a surprise to some Christians, but the brain is part of the body, and when the body is under extreme stress, that includes the brain!
Another point that's interesting: the ability to find connections between things (pattern-seeking) is related to creativity, which explains why so many brilliant and creative people have fallen for stupid shit like UFOs and "alternative" medicine. The same person who might make a breakthrough in science because he saw a connection nobody else noticed isn't likely to filter out the ones that aren't really there, i.e. false positives. Psychosis is the complete inability to filter out false patterns.
There's a section on political beliefs, which is pretty interesting. There have been studies done on political belief and apparently (hold onto your hats!) people are very reluctant to give up their political leanings! YES!
His libertarianism doesn't really sound like Ron Paul libertarianism, though. He believes in a flat tax, and Ron Paul wants to have no tax at all, and even abolish the IRS. Some of Shermer's other views are really very moderate also. He's much more nuanced than he gives himself credit for, but there's no word for "practical libertarianism." Of course, since I kind of like the guy I may be giving him a pass in order to keep from changing my mind about him!
So... in the end his thesis that people come to their belief first and then find ways to justify it runs through the book but so do other ideas. He lists the typical biases that a lot of us probably already know about, like confirmation bias. These aren't dealt with in depth, though. I wish they were and there was less about libertarianism!
The last section of the book is a long discussion of the development of astronomy as a science, and the scientific method in general. As we should know (if we had the kind of education we ought to have had), the scientific method includes safeguards against natural biases of the scientists doing the experiments, and of the subjects, if they're human. He states that his thesis is that people decide what to believe and then rationalize them, but I think the book makes sense as a study of why the scientific method is the best way to arrive at a true result.
The best take-aways:
- People experience mysterious "others" during periods of stress
- The human brain seeks patterns because of evolution
- The human brain seeks an agent because of evolution
- People with an ability to make more connections than others are "creative" but also prone to conspiracy theories, mental illness, and just plain mistakes
- We are prone to fallacies that protect our beliefs
- The scientific method is designed to mitigate against the human brain's faults
Sunday, July 1, 2012
and in other news...
150 Mormons quit in a mass resignation ceremony. Congratulations to them all!
PTSD victim of priest's molestation strikes back years later
The Devil made him do it? Priest molests woman during "exorcism." uhh yeah
PTSD victim of priest's molestation strikes back years later
The Devil made him do it? Priest molests woman during "exorcism." uhh yeah
Get Yer End-Times Kit Right Hy-ee-ar!
http://www.hisvoicetoday.com/survival-kit.html
That's right. All you need for the End Times! Books, DVDs, CDs, all by the same looney toons apocalyptic nutjob! ...and "5x7 framed four-color picture of Jesus Christ returning on "a white horse" (see Revelation 19:11)." That's right, a 5x7 picture. Who needs 8x10 glossies? 5x7 will dooya. All this, packaged by White Horse Media! ...and if this wasn't enough to prepare you for Armageddon, you have to become a Food Nazi and join the naturalistic fallacy bandwagon! http://www.highwaytohealth.us/. Seriously? If the world is going to end, what would be the point of eating healthy? Why not have ice cream for dinner and gristle dripped with bacon fat for breakfast?
I wonder how much dough this charlatan is raking in. The sad thing is, he probably believes this drivel and also believes he deserves to make a pile of money from his delusions.
That's right. All you need for the End Times! Books, DVDs, CDs, all by the same looney toons apocalyptic nutjob! ...and "5x7 framed four-color picture of Jesus Christ returning on "a white horse" (see Revelation 19:11)." That's right, a 5x7 picture. Who needs 8x10 glossies? 5x7 will dooya. All this, packaged by White Horse Media! ...and if this wasn't enough to prepare you for Armageddon, you have to become a Food Nazi and join the naturalistic fallacy bandwagon! http://www.highwaytohealth.us/. Seriously? If the world is going to end, what would be the point of eating healthy? Why not have ice cream for dinner and gristle dripped with bacon fat for breakfast?
I wonder how much dough this charlatan is raking in. The sad thing is, he probably believes this drivel and also believes he deserves to make a pile of money from his delusions.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Let's experiment: Everyone pray for rain in Indiana!
Forget Colorado and Texas and all the other places that have droughts this year. Just pray for Indiana, or if you are lazy about prayer, just pray for Muncie, so I can stop watering my day lilies every day.
C'mon give it a go.
Squeeze your eyes real hard like you're passing a rock hard piece of people-scat. Pray to whatever god you wish. The more the merrier. If more people praying makes things go your way, then you'd think that more gods being prayed to would be even better.
But skip Allah. He seems to be a fan of desertification. And being fucking evil, he'd probably send a flood. I only want enough rain to green up the lawn, keep my day lilies from dying, and if you have some prayer mojo left over, pray for my baby zinnias. They're so tiny. Letting them die now would be like a zinnia abortion.
Monday, June 25, 2012
More Child Abuse by Christian "Parents"
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120625/NEWS/120625033/Muncie-parents-face-neglect-charges-after-not-feeding-children
What the hell is wrong with this picture? Were they just following the example of their wonderful God who allows babies to starve every day?Muncie parents face neglect charges after not feeding children
MUNCIE — Two parents are in jail after admitting to not feeding their young children for days a time, leaving one child hospitalized for severe malnourishment.
Amy J. Doty, 34, and Jason Doty, 40, were jailed Friday, each facing two charges of neglect of a dependent, one a Class B felony and one a Class D felony. Both were being held without bond....
The family moved to Branson, Mo., in March “to follow a church ministry,” both parents told police according to probable cause affidavits. Once their savings were used up, they didn’t have the resources to feed their children or themselves; as a result, the children would go for 2-4 days at a time without anything to eat besides water and maybe a few crackers, Cook said.
...By the time the Dotys returned to Muncie on June 16, both children were visibly underweight — the 19-month-old weighing only 17 pounds, according to cook — and the toddler had been unable to walk for the past few weeks. Amy and Jason Doty also admitted to police that the children would complain of being hungry.
... Both children were visibly underweight, but the younger child’s appearance in particular resembled photos of starving children in a third-world country, Cook said.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Links of Shame: Religion in the News
Finally a criminal conviction for a Catholic official who enabled priests to molest kids: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-crime-churchbre85l138-20120622,0,7600946.story
The Taliban attacks other muslims at a vacation destination WTF? How do they justify this to themselves?
Ex-Mormons helped to convert to Christianity. Out of the fire into the frying pan?
Religious boot camps http://youtu.be/T5U4prBnQss
SBC’s new name. They want everyone to forget they "used to be" racists. I look forward to the day when they want us to forget that they used to be batshit crazy:
Hasidic Jews are child molesters too: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/nyregion/4-ultra-orthodox-men-charged-with-trying-to-silence-accuser-in-abuse-case.html?pagewanted=all
Oh puh-leeze. Do any real scientists really say that because some old bones are old bones that they have identified a fictional character?
Big surprise: Warren Jeffs' cult discriminates against people from other cults:
Only 15% of Americans believe humans evolved without an assist from a supernatural entity:
A lawsuit over an "emergency" baptism by an Orthodox priest. I want to see more details, like how much money they're demanding because this priest prayed for their preemie. As an theist, I'd be offended but I'd LOL. Oh and this happened two years ago. Lemme guess, they have big debts from having to care for a preemie? http://www.timesonline.com/ap/state/aliquippa-couple-sue-hospital-priest-over-baptism/article_0b9270fd-9987-53dc-8c98-2885066621f4.html
Pastor & wife used church's money for gambling: http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2012/06/former-pastor-wife-accused-of-gambling-with-church-money/ ...lots of it
Apparently God can cure a pastor of his child-pornography habit, but chooses not to despite being prayed to: http://www.news-leader.com/article/20120621/NEWS01/306210096/Southwest-Missouri-pastor-prayed-for-God-to-intervene-in-his-child-porn-problem?odyssey=nav%7Chead&nclick_check=1
Tea party cry baby pastor can dish it out but he can't take it. Oh boo hoo hoo someone made an ad critical of him in a political campaign. Who would do such a thing? http://newsok.com/edmond-pastor-files-lawsuit-over-political-ads/article/3686811
In Ghana: A "Healing camp" pastor's daughter killed by "lunatic" sent there for non-treatment: http://www.dailyguideghana.com/?p=52906 WTH did they expect? God's seers were being confined by chains instead of being treated by healers with training from Bible colleges. *sigh*
Pushback from the Air Force's decision to obey the Constitution and stop prosletyzing. And this pushback comes from people who have sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution: http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/republican-lawmakers-charge-air-force-hostile-to-religious-freedom-1.181080
...but there's a little good news in Israel: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israel-jewish-settlers-say-theyll-leave-illegal-west-bank-enclave-homes-to-be-moved/2012/06/21/gJQAj2EzrV_story.html ... though it would be even better if they'd leave them behind for Palestinians to live in
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
We've Lost One
http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/19/12299214-atheist-blogger-leah-libresco-converts-to-christianity
Moral Law is some kind of Person? Huh? And just coincidentally, one the predominant religions of her culture is the true Truth.
I have put in a lot of thought about morality and never came to the same "conclusion." She apparently wants to believe that some supernatural deity made us behave the way we do, not evolution. If she'd even just take a look at the animal world she'd see that "morality" is natural, not supernatural.
I think it's John Loftus who says "You can't reason someone out of faith because they were never reasoned into it." On the surface this seems to be the rare conversion based on reason, because she argued, philosophized, and researched, but in the end her "reason" for converting was the need for agency in the Big Questions of Life. This isn't reason; it's emotion, or at the very least an evolutionary brainfart. The human mind conceptualizes other minds ("Theory of Mind") and extends that conceptualization into the inanimate/supernatural ("Agency").
Would she have come to the same "conclusion" if she'd been reading skeptical literature instead of philosphy?
I have been wondering what neophytes to atheism need to "know," like how much about science or the history of religion. I'm starting to think that combatting our natural inclination to believe in nonsense really does take some work, just as scientists work to take their biases out of their experiments.
I've never heard of her before. *shrug* Anywho, aside from msnbc, all the "news" outets with this story are Christian sites, of course. They're peeing their pants over this conversion, if it is indeed a conversion. I am always dubious of the claim that deconversions are people who "were never true Christians," and likewise whether atheists who embrace a religion were ever true atheists, but in this case I question whether she was ever truly an atheist. From her final post:Atheist blogger Leah Libresco converts to Christianity
A prominent atheist blogger says she has converted to Christianity.
Leah Libresco made the announcement on Monday on her Patheos blog, "Unequally Yoked." The blog post, titled "This is my last post for the Patheos Atheist Portal," details how Libresco came to her decision.
She said she struggled with moral law, exploring where it comes from and what's behind it. As an atheist, she states that friends told her that her philosophy was unsustainable.
I believed that the Moral Law wasn’t just a Platonic truth, abstract and distant. It turns out I actually believed it was some kind of Person, as well as Truth. And there was one religion that seemed like the most promising way to reach back to that living Truth. I asked my friend what he suggest we do now, and we prayed the night office of the Liturgy of the Hours together (I’ve kept up with that since). Then I suggested hugs and playing Mumford and Sons really, really loudly.
Moral Law is some kind of Person? Huh? And just coincidentally, one the predominant religions of her culture is the true Truth.
I have put in a lot of thought about morality and never came to the same "conclusion." She apparently wants to believe that some supernatural deity made us behave the way we do, not evolution. If she'd even just take a look at the animal world she'd see that "morality" is natural, not supernatural.
I think it's John Loftus who says "You can't reason someone out of faith because they were never reasoned into it." On the surface this seems to be the rare conversion based on reason, because she argued, philosophized, and researched, but in the end her "reason" for converting was the need for agency in the Big Questions of Life. This isn't reason; it's emotion, or at the very least an evolutionary brainfart. The human mind conceptualizes other minds ("Theory of Mind") and extends that conceptualization into the inanimate/supernatural ("Agency").
Would she have come to the same "conclusion" if she'd been reading skeptical literature instead of philosphy?
I have been wondering what neophytes to atheism need to "know," like how much about science or the history of religion. I'm starting to think that combatting our natural inclination to believe in nonsense really does take some work, just as scientists work to take their biases out of their experiments.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Ethics of Genetic Testing on Fetuses
One of my facebook "friends," that I really don't know, posts a lot of anti-abortion crap, and even if something isn't anti-abortion she will post it with an anti-abortion twist. The lastest is this news item, introduced with her editorial comment that "Hitler would be proud."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9315265/Babies-could-be-tested-for-3500-genetic-faults.html
Well, duh! That's kind of the point -- to prevent unnecessary suffering by aborting a fetus before it can feel pain or have sentience. If a baby is going to suffer and die, how is it ethical to force it to be born?
I deleted most of my reply, and decided just to post just this much, because curiously this anti-abortion nutter never seems to post anything about taking care of living people:
Waiting... So far there's been no spate of posts on these topics. Apparently the anti-abortion network that sends links around to scare the Christian saps who are "pro-life" for fetuses doesn't send around links that deal with quality of life for the living. One of the other responders to this post has a child with Down Syndrome. She wrote:
Oh boo hoo. How is Down Syndrome comparable to the other diseases a family would want to know about? So I replied:
I wonder what kind of Reality Show it would be if the Duggars had that gene. Wouldn't that be a hoot? Instead of Stepford children traveling the world we'd have a funeral a year and instead of nail-biting ultrasounds we'd have parents getting the bad news that their latest cooing baby is doomed to die. Now that would be some good TV!
At the end of the article they mention schizophrenia & autism as being de novo DNA boo-boos, but they are also genetic disorders. I've been reading up on schizophrenia & DNA lately (this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Origins-Schizophrenia-Alan-Brown/dp/0231151241). The promise of whoever is touting this test is highly overblown. It's as if they tried to whip up panic in the anti-abortion camp. "In the [near?] future we'll be able to tell ifyour baby has the wrong color eyes! Eugenics to the rescue!"
One of the posters at the original article claims that Stephen Hawking's accomplishments are proof that this test should never be done and abortions should never be done for any disorder. We atheists now should genuflect... [go ahead, I'll wait] ... and think about how all of his findings in science would never have happened if he'd never have been born.
Think....
Think...
Think...
*sniff* Pretend you don't know that every scientific discovery has had its genius and its also-rans who came to the same conclusions or virtually the same conclusions at about the same time because all of them read and studied the same things at the same time.... Just pretend... Now imagine that of all the 7 billion people on the planet, nobody, NOT ONE ... is a genius scientist.
Now, imagine a family finding out that their baby would have a dread disease that would strike when that baby is in his 30s.... and imagine the family having an abortion because of that.
Uh oh my brain just exploded. How many people who want children would really do that? Wouldn't most bet on science coming up with a cure or better treatment by the time the disease hits?
Now imagine a family that finds out their fetus won't survive to tern and their choice is between having an easy abortion now or digging out the stillborn fetus some way later (because a normal labor would be impossible) and that family actually choosing to wait until the fetus dies on its own.
Well, I believe in choice so I think it would be okay to allow them to make the more painful choice especially because they can be such great martyrs. I bet it would be a real tear jerker to waddle up to the podium to tell people how their big belly is harboring a dying baby. Hallelujah. *sniff*
*sigh* Fascists. They only believe in choice when it's their choice.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9315265/Babies-could-be-tested-for-3500-genetic-faults.html
Babies could be tested for 3,500 genetic faults Scientists could soon be able to routinely screen unborn babies for thousands of genetic conditions, raising concerns the breakthrough could lead to more abortions.
A team has been able to predict the whole genetic code of a foetus by taking a blood sample from a woman who was 18 weeks pregnant, and a swab of saliva from the father.
They believe that, in time, the test will become widely available, enabling doctors to screen unborn babies for some 3,500 genetic disorders.
At the moment the only genetic disorder routinely tested for on the NHS is Down’s syndrome.
This is a large-scale genetic defect caused by having an extra copy of a bundle of DNA, called a chromosome.
Other such faults are sometimes tested for, but usually only when there is a risk of inheriting them from a parent
By contrast, the scientists say their new test would identify far more conditions, caused by genetic errors.
However, they warned it raised “many ethical questions” because the results could be used as a basis for abortion.
These concerns were last night amplified by pro-life campaigners, who said widespread use of such a test would “inevitably lead to more abortions”.
Well, duh! That's kind of the point -- to prevent unnecessary suffering by aborting a fetus before it can feel pain or have sentience. If a baby is going to suffer and die, how is it ethical to force it to be born?
I deleted most of my reply, and decided just to post just this much, because curiously this anti-abortion nutter never seems to post anything about taking care of living people:
Let's see some posts about orphan drugs, adoption agencies that specialize in disabled children & crack babies, charity hospitals, and programs that help families with non-medical expenses of caring for disabled children, and programs to help the older children of families with disabled children who have been basically abandonned by their parents' attention to a severely ill baby
Waiting... So far there's been no spate of posts on these topics. Apparently the anti-abortion network that sends links around to scare the Christian saps who are "pro-life" for fetuses doesn't send around links that deal with quality of life for the living. One of the other responders to this post has a child with Down Syndrome. She wrote:
We have a daughter born with Down Syndrome. Now read this part very very carefully.......I WOULD NOT CHANGE AN SINGLE SOLITARY THING...
Oh boo hoo. How is Down Syndrome comparable to the other diseases a family would want to know about? So I replied:
Nobody would force you to change a thing. But, you would force a family that had lost 4 children to Tay-Sachs disease to lose more children to it rather than aborting a child that's doomed to die. How ethical is that? Seems rather Fascist actually, since it doesn't leave the decision to the individual & family
I wonder what kind of Reality Show it would be if the Duggars had that gene. Wouldn't that be a hoot? Instead of Stepford children traveling the world we'd have a funeral a year and instead of nail-biting ultrasounds we'd have parents getting the bad news that their latest cooing baby is doomed to die. Now that would be some good TV!
At the end of the article they mention schizophrenia & autism as being de novo DNA boo-boos, but they are also genetic disorders. I've been reading up on schizophrenia & DNA lately (this book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Origins-Schizophrenia-Alan-Brown/dp/0231151241). The promise of whoever is touting this test is highly overblown. It's as if they tried to whip up panic in the anti-abortion camp. "In the [near?] future we'll be able to tell ifyour baby has the wrong color eyes! Eugenics to the rescue!"
One of the posters at the original article claims that Stephen Hawking's accomplishments are proof that this test should never be done and abortions should never be done for any disorder. We atheists now should genuflect... [go ahead, I'll wait] ... and think about how all of his findings in science would never have happened if he'd never have been born.
Think....
Think...
Think...
*sniff* Pretend you don't know that every scientific discovery has had its genius and its also-rans who came to the same conclusions or virtually the same conclusions at about the same time because all of them read and studied the same things at the same time.... Just pretend... Now imagine that of all the 7 billion people on the planet, nobody, NOT ONE ... is a genius scientist.
Now, imagine a family finding out that their baby would have a dread disease that would strike when that baby is in his 30s.... and imagine the family having an abortion because of that.
Uh oh my brain just exploded. How many people who want children would really do that? Wouldn't most bet on science coming up with a cure or better treatment by the time the disease hits?
Now imagine a family that finds out their fetus won't survive to tern and their choice is between having an easy abortion now or digging out the stillborn fetus some way later (because a normal labor would be impossible) and that family actually choosing to wait until the fetus dies on its own.
Well, I believe in choice so I think it would be okay to allow them to make the more painful choice especially because they can be such great martyrs. I bet it would be a real tear jerker to waddle up to the podium to tell people how their big belly is harboring a dying baby. Hallelujah. *sniff*
*sigh* Fascists. They only believe in choice when it's their choice.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Magical People Amongst Us
But beyond the individual's psychotic symptoms is the wish within society for someone with magical powers to give the rest of us all the answers. After all, in a large group there will be someone who is better than everyone else at tracking game, and someone who is better at starting fires, and someone who always comes up with the solution to a logical problem, so why wouldn't there be someone who has access to another dimension the rest of us can't perceive?
Shermer has a long discussion of sensed presences, which coincidentally tend to happen under periods of great stress. Not just cramming for your algebra exam stress, but life-threatening stress like hypoxia on a mountaintop, Many religions incorporate rituals that create just enough stress to bring about other-worldly experiences, and then there's peyote... So for some reason not only do we experience these things, we seek it out and normalize the experiences.
When you grow up in a household where these experiences are normal, I guarantee you won't seek them out! The last thing I want to do is ingest peyote in order to experience a visit from my ancestors. And with a paranoid mother who went through my stuff looking for evidence of who-knows-what, I have a heightened sense of privacy and in no way would I welcome the "spirit" entering my body during a voudon ceremony, pentacostal hoe-down, or any other religious ceremony. I also know that people who believe they can hear actual voices in their heads don't really hear other people, because if they did my mom would have heard loud and clear, "STAY THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM!"
But despite these experiences and attitudes, I really did try to be "open" to spirituality for many years. It seemed to be the thing to do, a way to meet people, have community, dispel fears, and in general be a wholesome person. I really wanted to believe that Moses saw a burning bush and that Jesus appeared to his disciples, but I couldn't. It seemed so ridiculous, well no, it seemed CRAZY. Why didn't everyone else see it that way?
And why did I try so hard?
One part of the answer may be that I grew up in the 1960s, and I watched a lot of TV. My favorite genre was comedy, though I did watch some of the spooky anthlogy shows like One Step Beyond and The Outer Limits. Here are some of the comedies my family watched, including my now-psychotic brother:
- Mr. Ed, about a talking horse that only his owner can hear
- Betwitched, about a witch that only her husband knows about (aside from her witchy family)
- My Favorite Martian, about a martian whose origin is known only to his housemate
- I Dream of Jeannie, about a magic woman who seems normal to all but her boyfriend (and later, his friend)
- The Addams Family, about a spooky family in the neighborhood
- My Mother the Car, about a woman reincarnated as her son's car (No, I'm not making that up!)
Worse yet, these paranormal comedies were on prime time TV for adults (presumably) so this trope wasn't invented for the consumption of baby boomer children. There had been some famous movies with the theme of a person who has a paranormal experience (think, "Harvey" and "It's a Wonderful Life"), but not comedies like this. We certainly seemed to be set up for serious gullibility beyond what our parents would have recognized. Is it a concidence that we became the "Age of Aquarius" and wound up being "open" to "new" experiences? Would people have found LSD so appealing if they hadn't been primed by popular culture to think that hallucinations could be real? (or at least entertaining)
The subliminal message isn't just that we should be open to these experiences ourselves, but that we should respect others who "society" would call "crazy." This is a major theme of Scientology, concidentally. The anti-medication movement is also trying to make the case that normal people are being unnecessarily medicated -- that what I would consider "suffering" that should be relieved is considered by them to be normal and to be endured by these people. Is it a coincidence that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was an iconic film of the time?
At the same time, incredible realities were on our consciousness, like space travel and nuclear bombs (yeah it was twenty years earlier but we were very aware of it!) and war. We saw nature shows and variety acts and dramas about law and medicine too. That was the "normal" within which the "paranormal" could hide. Scary times inspire ridiculous fantasies.
In the 2000s and 2010s there has been a spate of "reality" shows about the "paranormal," though it was never a dead topic. The X-Files validated the spooky in the 1990s after all, and George Burns as God spoke to John Denver in "Oh God." Things do seem to be tipping away from respect for psychosis, though.
Recently I've seen commercials for a new show about a doctor who practices out-of-body medicine while in a coma. (Nope, not making that up either). There's currently an idiot-savant show about an autistic child with the ANSWERS if only people would interpret his mathematical ramblings correctly. I haven't seen these shows but they don't seem to validate psychosis. I sure hope they don't.
In the 1960s anti-psychotic medication was still very new. My mom's generation was the first not to be forced to spend the rest of her life in a "home." Although she remained reality-impaired in many ways, she was functional enough to participate in society. Ditto, my step-dad. My bro however, believes his hallucinations are real and we're all just bigass downers.
But if your car talks to you, it's OnStar and you should probably do what it says.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
20 Questions
I found these questions and some excellent answer on Bud's Dead-Logic blog. Bud tore the logic to shreds in a few deft blows, so I'll refer y'all to his excellent post. Still, since Christians so arrogantly think these questions are unanswerable, I'll attempt to answer them. One of my earlier posts was questions for Christians, so I think turnabout is fair play.
One of those explanations is supernatural. Five of them are ordinary and fairly prosaic explanations. Why choose to believe the one supernatural one?
Resurrection appearances: You mean how Elvis appeared to his fans for years after his death? Dunno. I never got that one.
Growth of Christianity: prosletyzing, forced conversions, and making up stories that would appeal to the people being prosletyzed to. Other religions have grown too. Believing in agency, the supernatural, authority figures, etc. predispose us to believe in the fairy tales of our elders and to be converted when we are vulnerable. Add to this the tendency of kings and emperors to dictate which religion the people have to follow, and you get mass conversions like crazy. The Africans who came to the U.S. as slaves were pantheists who believed that they were captured because their god wasn't as strong as their captors' god, so they switched to the team with the better pitcher. Now there are millions of African-American Christians who are their descendents. So the spread of Christianity is pretty easily explainable by anyone who has bothered to read a basic world history textbook.
Well, that was fun. Some Christian really thought these questions were unanswerable? Makes you wonder if they have ever tried to find out alternate answers on their own. Most of them aren't even aware of the ways that other religions answer their deep questions. Certainly the spread of Christianity has been documented well enough that they could learn about their own religion. For someone to add that last question shows an appalling level of ignorance.
Today I was talking to a coworker who went to a fundy university but is actually rather liberal. She complained that so few Christians know much about their religion. I pointed out that the more you know the more you question, and they are afraid to go there. I'm living proof of that. I'm still waiting for her answer to the question of why Jesus refers to God in the third person if Jesus is God.
1. What caused the universe to exist?This presumes an agency, which is a natural way our mind works, but not necessarily true. Our assumption that something causes something else is also due to our pattern-seeking mind. I am currently reading Michael Shermer's The Believing Brain and he addresses the question of why we ask these questions and come up with the answers we do. Basically, we are programmed by evolution to seek patterns even if those patterns are wrong because the cost of not finding a true pattern (e.g., being bit by a predator rustling in the grass) is much greater than the cost of having a false positive (running when we hear a rabbit rustling in the grass).
2. What explains the fine tuning of the universe?There is no fine tuning of the universe. It is a figment of some believers' imagination. We are the center of our own little universes, and when we contemplate the greater universe we want to extend that sense of specialness, even though it's totally wrong. If a Christian really wants to know how people counter that silly argument, they don't have to look far.
3. Why is the universe rational?It's not. Nothing is rational without a prefrontal cortex.
4. How did DNA and amino acids arise?From smaller pieces of matter that got stuck together in bigger and bigger bundles as time went on.
5. Where did the genetic code come from?See the answer to #4
6. How do irreducibly complex enzyme chains evolve?Irreducibly complex anything is a figment of the Christian imagination. Even if there were such a thing, that would not imply a God or any kind of agent or rational entity tinkering with the chemicals. Notice that anti-science Christians never argue that crystals form according to God's plan, only chemicals that happen to be inside the human body. I have windows that have very poor insulation. In the winter crystals form on them every night. They are beautiful even though they are a sign that my landlord is a cheapskate. How does water form crystals on windows in such beautiful patterns? Because of the chemical structure and nature of water. Ditto, everything else.
7. How do we account for the origin of 116 distinct language families?By the spread of humans all across the globe into separate cultural groups. Having one core language group would have been much more of an argument for a God. Language families have family trees that linguists have deduced by studying the relationships amongst the languages. I have never heard this idiotic question before. Kind of makes me wonder if Christians are giving up on trying to out-science everyone with their ignorant arguments.
8. Why did cities suddenly appear all over the world between 3,000 and 1,000BC?This is not true. Mohenjo Daro appeared in India in ca. 5,000 BC and Chinese cities als predate the earliest Middle Eastern Cities. But... the human race is about the same age everywhere, so if we learn from our elders and experiment and adapt our behaviors to various environments, it's kind of inevitable that the same species will do the same behaviors at about the same time in different places.
9. How is independent thought possible in a world ruled by chance and necessity?Ahhh the questions get stupider by the number. Thinking is possible because our brains are adapted for thinking. Not all of use do it very well, as evidenced by this list of questions.
10. How do we account for self-awareness?Neurologists are answering more and more of these things all the time. We have brains that recognize ourselves, but amazingly don't recognize that the brain is what makes it possibe for us to do it. Did Teri Schiavo have self awareness after her brain turned to slush? No. There's your answer.
11. How is free will possible in a material universe?Check out the debate between Jerry Coyne and Richard Carrier (and possibly a few others) on this matter. Our "will" is only as free as our brain allows it to be. And since your "will" is a function of your brain, which is a material object, I think the question is kind of stupid. (Bud, what's the word for this kind of stupidity?)
12. How do we account for conscience?Brains.
13. On what basis can we make moral judgements?On the basis of the moral code that we get from our culture, or that we make up ourselves. Richard Dawkins makes this point very clearly in The God Delusion. Throughout the history of the Judeo-Christian "law" there has been very little relationship between the written word and the morality of the peoples who professed to believe in it.
14. Why does suffering matter?It matters to the being that's suffering because suffering hurts. Owie. We are programmed by evolution to want to live, and to avoid things that hurt. Duh. In a group of beings that are attached by a social bond, the suffering of others matters to us because 1) we have mirror neurons that give us the ability to empathize and 2) the survival of the group depends on the survival of individuals.
15. Why do human beings matter?We don't, except to ourselves and our pets.
16. Why care about justice?Because we live in a social group, and social groups work better when there's a system of justice to punish selfish individuals. Even non-human primates believe in justice, and I swear my smarter cocker spaniel keeps track of how many treats she gets compared to my other dogs.
17. How do we account for the almost universal belief in the supernatural?Michael Shermer to the rescue again. We see patterns because of our neurology, and we also attribute agency to things because not to do so when there's actually an agent would put us at an evolutionary disadvantage. Even Christians know this at heart. It's the basis for Pascal's Wager: being wrong about the supernatural is harmless if we believe in something false, but not believing in it if it's real could be dangerous. It's the snake vs. bunny in the grass wager again.
18. How do we know the supernatural does not exist?You can't absolutely 100% prove a negative in this case, because there could be a supernatural agent on some other planet we can't ever observe. But... so far on this planet things that seem to be supernatural because of some trick of our minds have 100% turned out to be explainable in natural terms, or have not been proved not to be natural.
19. How can we know if there is conscious existence after death?We can't, but it's a safe bet there isn't. If we can be "brain dead," then we're already not conscious. There also isn't conscious existence when we're asleep or under anesthesia. Babies The fact that it can be suspended pretty much points to it being a natural, 100% worldly, phenomenon attributable to the way our brains work. When the brain dies, we die. When others' brains die, they die, but our brains still hold their images and can play tricks on us.
20. What accounts for the empty tomb, resurrection appearances and growth of the church?Empty tomb: here are a few possible explanations. 1) Christ cheated death, 2) it's a made-up story to make Christ seem more supernatural in order to persuade bronze age people who would have expected a story like that of a godlike being, 3) his body was stolen, 4) he wasn't really dead and his pals helped him out of there, 5) he didn't exist, 6) his death was faked and he was never in the tomb.
One of those explanations is supernatural. Five of them are ordinary and fairly prosaic explanations. Why choose to believe the one supernatural one?
Resurrection appearances: You mean how Elvis appeared to his fans for years after his death? Dunno. I never got that one.
Growth of Christianity: prosletyzing, forced conversions, and making up stories that would appeal to the people being prosletyzed to. Other religions have grown too. Believing in agency, the supernatural, authority figures, etc. predispose us to believe in the fairy tales of our elders and to be converted when we are vulnerable. Add to this the tendency of kings and emperors to dictate which religion the people have to follow, and you get mass conversions like crazy. The Africans who came to the U.S. as slaves were pantheists who believed that they were captured because their god wasn't as strong as their captors' god, so they switched to the team with the better pitcher. Now there are millions of African-American Christians who are their descendents. So the spread of Christianity is pretty easily explainable by anyone who has bothered to read a basic world history textbook.
Well, that was fun. Some Christian really thought these questions were unanswerable? Makes you wonder if they have ever tried to find out alternate answers on their own. Most of them aren't even aware of the ways that other religions answer their deep questions. Certainly the spread of Christianity has been documented well enough that they could learn about their own religion. For someone to add that last question shows an appalling level of ignorance.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Get God or Get Out!
It's an obvious photoshop, but the person who posted it loved it and so did his friends. It really rankled me because:
1) The obvious misunderstanding of the country's history & values
2) The bigotry of it
3) Posting it on Memorial Day sends the message that Memorial Day is about saving the Country for GAWD.
4) I've encountered the message far too often, usually from people whose religion wouldn't have been approved of in the 1780s. If we had adopted Christianity as our national religion, it would be Episcopalianism / Anglicanism, which has its crazies but they are few and far between. They would have to believe what the bishop tells them to believe, instead of making shit up like evangelicals do.
...but I digress.
This bigotry reminds me of the line I heard many times in the 1960s as the adults around me (not my family) debated the civil rights movement. "If the blacks (not always their choice of word) don't like it here, they can go back to Africa." Or they skipped the first part and just said the blacks should go back where they came from.
Atheists being "in the closet," and drawing parallels to the civil rights movement isn't too far off the mark. My friend who posted the cartoon is an otherwise rather enlightened person. In the 1960s some of the nicest people (otherwise) were rabidly racist under the surface.
So, somber Memorial Day everyone. I hope you exercised your right not to believe in God even though some of your neighbors don't think you should have that right.
...but I digress.
This bigotry reminds me of the line I heard many times in the 1960s as the adults around me (not my family) debated the civil rights movement. "If the blacks (not always their choice of word) don't like it here, they can go back to Africa." Or they skipped the first part and just said the blacks should go back where they came from.
Atheists being "in the closet," and drawing parallels to the civil rights movement isn't too far off the mark. My friend who posted the cartoon is an otherwise rather enlightened person. In the 1960s some of the nicest people (otherwise) were rabidly racist under the surface.
So, somber Memorial Day everyone. I hope you exercised your right not to believe in God even though some of your neighbors don't think you should have that right.
Friday, May 18, 2012
Religion Clause: Court Rejects Compelled Religious Speech Challenge To Oklahoma License Plates
Religion Clause: Court Rejects Compelled Religious Speech Challenge To Oklahoma License Plates
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. If atheists have to tolerate "In God We Trust" on our money, then Christians should have to put up with this.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. If atheists have to tolerate "In God We Trust" on our money, then Christians should have to put up with this.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Stupid creationist crap
http://www.waynesvilledailyguide.com/community/blogs/designer_blog/x373013832/evolution-a-religion-in-school-3
You'd think they could find something more Christian to argue about, like ways to feed the hungry, or ending wars. Sheesh
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Penn Jillette on Piers Morgan's show
Jillette gets grilled on atheism by a devout Catholic. I admire him for not busting out laughing and actually answering the stupid questions. "How does an atheist fix the economy?" What the heck? Do Christians run the economy through prayer? Well, actually that would explain a few things.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Humans can be Fucking Awesome!
An eaglet in Minnesota with a nestcam on it got stuck in his nesting, and a brave human scaled the 80-100 foot tree to check on it then brought it down to earth for TLC & vet care, and give him a chance to survive. Unnatural? Yes. But so was the eagles' near extinction due to our use of DDT, so I think we are obligated to help them recover. Instead of getting punished in Hell, rational people realize the error of their ways and then do what they can to correct and address the damage they've done. That's what makes atheists morally superior to Christians. We take responsibility for ourselves.
Go to 15:10 to see it all as it was recorded on the nestcam:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22353672
Go to 15:10 to see it all as it was recorded on the nestcam:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/22353672
Monday, April 30, 2012
Another Crazyass Christian Cult that Abuses Children
http://www.wfaa.com/news/investigates/Waco-religious-commune-accused-of-masking-abuse-149134605.html
WACO, Texas - Homestead Heritage, just outside of Waco, has been revered as a model of Christian values. But is it a Utopian commune, or as some suggest, a extreme group of believers putting children at risk?
Videos posted on the Homestead Heritage web site present to the public the wholesome image, bolstering its perception as a beloved staple of the community for two decades. The estimated 1,000 members, crafting a pristine portrait of communal bliss.
But many who have left the church and its 500-acre, gated compound, paint a much different picture. One of a secretive and tightly-controlled religious environment...
According to Homestead’s membership contract, the aspiring members agree "to never bring before the public outside our church... any accusations or wrongdoing or any charge, lawsuit or court action." Agreeing "that all disputes be settled within the confines of the church."... and in return... "the church agrees to never expose a member's shortcomings and sins to any outside it's covenant."
The greatest sins, some former members say, are committed against children and teens. From emotional to physical, even sexual abuse.
News 8 has learned that in the past seven years, five individuals, either members of, or with close ties to Homestead, have been convicted of sexually abusing a child within the Homestead community...
Becky Crow, a former pastor's wife who left the church ten years ago, tells News 8 the abuse was common.
“Many heartbreaking stories of broken lives have been shared with me,” Crow said. “Some have not only been raped, they have been sold for other's sexual perversion by the ones who should have protected them."
Attorney Greg Love has represented abuse victims across the country, and said the stories of abuse at Homestead fit a pattern.
“When you get these closed communities and part of the fabric of that community is, information stays on the inside, behavior stays on the inside, how we do things stays on the inside,” Love said. “Even if those behaviors are injurious to a child, and you are discouraged from bringing in the outside, you really find children at risk."
WACO, Texas - Homestead Heritage, just outside of Waco, has been revered as a model of Christian values. But is it a Utopian commune, or as some suggest, a extreme group of believers putting children at risk?
Videos posted on the Homestead Heritage web site present to the public the wholesome image, bolstering its perception as a beloved staple of the community for two decades. The estimated 1,000 members, crafting a pristine portrait of communal bliss.
But many who have left the church and its 500-acre, gated compound, paint a much different picture. One of a secretive and tightly-controlled religious environment...
According to Homestead’s membership contract, the aspiring members agree "to never bring before the public outside our church... any accusations or wrongdoing or any charge, lawsuit or court action." Agreeing "that all disputes be settled within the confines of the church."... and in return... "the church agrees to never expose a member's shortcomings and sins to any outside it's covenant."
The greatest sins, some former members say, are committed against children and teens. From emotional to physical, even sexual abuse.
News 8 has learned that in the past seven years, five individuals, either members of, or with close ties to Homestead, have been convicted of sexually abusing a child within the Homestead community...
Becky Crow, a former pastor's wife who left the church ten years ago, tells News 8 the abuse was common.
“Many heartbreaking stories of broken lives have been shared with me,” Crow said. “Some have not only been raped, they have been sold for other's sexual perversion by the ones who should have protected them."
Attorney Greg Love has represented abuse victims across the country, and said the stories of abuse at Homestead fit a pattern.
“When you get these closed communities and part of the fabric of that community is, information stays on the inside, behavior stays on the inside, how we do things stays on the inside,” Love said. “Even if those behaviors are injurious to a child, and you are discouraged from bringing in the outside, you really find children at risk."
Death Threats from a "Christian"
Well, I assume it's a Christian:
http://jesusfetusfajitafishsticks.blogspot.com/2012/04/voicemail-death-threats-dear-persecuted.html
Apparently the commandment about not killing doesn't apply to atheists in this demented worldview.
Sick. Sick. Sick.
http://jesusfetusfajitafishsticks.blogspot.com/2012/04/voicemail-death-threats-dear-persecuted.html
Apparently the commandment about not killing doesn't apply to atheists in this demented worldview.
Sick. Sick. Sick.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
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