UFOs? I Doubt It.
By bk | May 10, 2008 23:48
Great post from Bad Astronomy on why amateur astronomers, despite their huge amount of time staring at the skies, tend to not report sightings of UFOsкомпютри??????mebeli. The post links to another nice article from NetworkWorld - “10 Reasons You Shouldn’t Believe In UFOs.” There are certainly more than 10 reasons 
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Good Show, Good Show Far Right
By bk | April 22, 2008 22:19
If you ever need to prove you are an ignorant simpleton, just do something like Pastor Roger Byrd and put on the church street sign:
“Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?”
The article points out the pastor claims to be trying to get people to think - but specifically questions Obama’s religious affiliation, and specifically implies that a Muslim would be a terrible thing for the office of the president, and the country.
Friendly Atheist made a comment on a previous article on the topic. I felt the need to comment here in a little more detail for one reason - it is a clear example that the far right is completely devoid of logic, not just when it comes to creation/evolution, but irrationality is open season for these people. I might disagree with Obama’s religious stance, but I’ll happily take him at his word rather than question his authenticity based on his name and/or skin color. This Roger Byrd character is a sad sack who should probably consider reading some of the parts of the Bible that have to do with kindness as opposed to being a shit head.
The complete lack of separation between church and state is making me sick. This separation exists mostly in name, and grudgingly, for most members of both church and government. This leads to a sad state of affairs where a person’s real, alleged or lack of religious beliefs mean more than their abilities and opinions in terms of managing affairs of state.
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Sects Without Sex
By bk | April 20, 2008 19:42
In the irregular, but still interesting theme of “Rituals and Practices” that began with Dai-ajari, we have a little venture off in to some of the more interesting Christian sects in recent memory.
First we have the Skoptsy, and Eastern Orthodox sect which began in Russia in the late 18th century. The group is honored here for the preference for castration of males and females, including the removal of the breasts for women, as well as a preference for not having children, since that would require sex. Not surprisingly, the sect has died out through persecution, but presumably also due to the fact the ideas are not being handed down to children through families.
And here’s another good one from Russia, the Old Believers, who where willing to go through arrests, torture and even execution due to some relatively minor points of difference between earlier and updated points of Orthodoxy, including the number of fingers that should be used when making the sign of the cross (2 versus 3). It appears few if any of the changes are major points of theology.
It will never cease to amaze me what religion will do to people.
Topics: Rituals and Practices | 1 Comment »
Religious Pop Culture
By bk | April 13, 2008 23:28
Many people are familiar with religious pop culture such as Christian rock, but I’m not sure most secular folks (or even moderate religious folks) understand how pervasive and propagandist religious pop culture is. I’m sure it exists in most religious cultures, but in the US, the most familiar is Christian pop culture. With shows such as Veggie Tales and Left Behind explicitly pushing a Christian agenda and many more incorporating a Christian bias.
So, I’m interested to see a recent book by Daniel Radosh called Rapture Ready which “is an insightful, entertaining, and deeply weird journey through the often hidden world of Christian pop culture” according to the book website. This is definately one I’m going to want to read. Having been a fan of Christian rock 15+ years ago, and kept an eye on the growth of this pop subculture through my family over the years, it will be interesting to see this take.
An example showed up here, on the Gawker site with a clip from the Bibleman series. It is no surprise, and no accident, that this propaganda is focused on children. It should be very apparent that memes such as religion and racism require getting children roped in and essentially brain washed as young as possible - before they are capable of questioning, before they can view these ideas with a critical eye. Take a look at the video here and notice the stereotypes presented in a show intended for children. Children won’t understand the stereotype, but but it will no doubt affect them. Stereotypes do stick with us
“Y’know that, women, never really faint,
And that villains always blink their eyes, woo!
And that, y’know, children are the only ones who blush!”
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Hooray for Intelligent Design and Creationism
By bk | April 10, 2008 23:32
BBC News is reporting on a legged snake fossil. This is a huge win for the creationist crowd as this new transitional fossil offers two new gaps the ’stupid evolutionists’ don’t have a fossil for: the one legged snake and the three legged snake. Where previously there was only one gap - legs or no legs, now there are two gaps evolutionists are forced to explain.
Until science can offer specimens of snakes (or fish) with 0 to n legs (where n is an arbitrary number defined by the clueless), evolution is clearly entirely lacking any evidence. There are also gaps between millipedes and snakes as well as gaps between clams and computers. The only possible way these gaps can be filled is the presence of a creator or designer, depending on how coy you want to be.
Speaking for the more rational crowd, this is cool news and can improve our understanding of the history of life on Earth.
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Intolerant?
By bk | March 16, 2008 17:32
This post has seen a few responses, more than I thought it would since it really just links to people funnier and smarter than i am. Yet, I feel the comments need to be addressed.
The first comment I’m convinced is a satire. ‘Nuff said.
The second is more interesting. The implication that atheists are tolerant is on one hand correct, and on another completely in left field (or is it right field, I can never do sports metaphors).
It seems that all non-theists tend to be rather tolerant since there is no ‘holy directive’ to discriminate. We tend to be OK with anyone who follows a good set of logic, thoughtfulness or biology to a reasonable conclusion (i.e. one that does not end in the supernatural). What we’re not tolerant of is appeals to emotion, spirituality, or anything based outside of rational thought. And this includes religion, creationism, the idea the earth is flat, and so many other things.
If you want someone really tolerant, find a pacifist (that’s as close as I can come). If you want someone thoughtful, find an atheist.
So, no, this site is not as bad as godhatesfags - there is no relation. The folks as Westboro Baptist hate something because a book possibly suggests they should, this site dislikes things that don’t make sense and cause people do things that don’t make sense and hurt others. fax guaranteed loan no paydayno fax payday loan missouricheap loan payday,cheap loan long payday termonline payday loan applicationno teletrack payday loan,1000 loan no payday teletrack,check loan no payday teletrackpayday loan 1000info loan message payday post100 loan online paydayfax loan no payday required,fax loan payday,fax loan no payday tillloan payday say until wordpress,loan payday until,loan until paydayemergency loan paydayadvance america cash advance,advance advance america cash,advance america cashcash advance loanpoker roomjugar poker gratiscrack rebel pokertexas holdem,texas holdem estrategia,reglamento poker texas holdemjugar poker en lineadescargar juego de pokercasino pokerdescargar juegos de poker gratispai gow poker portalpoker portal internetreglas pokerjuego poker on linestip poker gratisjuegos de poker gratuitosforo poquerpolly poquerjugar poker en internetstrip poker gratisjuego cartasjuegos de poker eroticosstrip poquerpoker de dadosjuego de cartas poker,cartas poker,poker con cartaspoker pagina webjugar poker onlinejugar poker internetjuego al instante portales interneteuropean pokerinformatica pokertorneos de pokerjuegos de polli pokerjuego al instante portales webno deposit bonus poker,party poker bonus,poker bonusel juego de pokerholdem poker reglaspoker online singanar dinero real portales internet
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Now This is Funny
By bk | February 24, 2008 17:30
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Creationism: funnier than you thought
By bk | February 17, 2008 14:40
It’s easy to skewer the arguments of creationists, especially those as silly as the Answers in Genesis folks, but to do it with with both logic and humor, that is fun. Case in point, a recent post from Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes.
Enjoy.
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What Computers Tell Us About God?
By bk | February 15, 2008 23:12
Here is a fantastically flawed presentation titled What do computers tell us about God?”, supposedly written by a candidate for a dual masters (Computer Science/Technology and Policy) at MIT, which is hard to believe since Comp Sci students should have a pretty good handle on logic, seeing as logic is the foundation of computer science.
To be fair, there are some points that, while not particularly insightful, are at least obviously true, such as “humans can create universes inside a computer” - which is true depending on how loosely one defines the term ‘universe’ - though it is perfectly reasonable to call some of the cellular automata and simulation programs a form of universe. Where things get ridiculous is the completely unfounded jump that because people can’t literally insert themselves in to a computer program and communicate with the inhabitants of the computer universe, a creator god could also not insert itself in to our world. The follow on is that there must be some intermediary to communicate (though what this intermediary might be in the computer universe analogy is conveniently skipped. Immediately following is ‘evidence’ from the writings of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Bahá’í Faith (ah, I love the smell of circular reasoning in the morning).
I certainly hope the instructors find this piece as patently ridiculous as most of the Digg commenters, though I’m a bit surprised it made it to the Digg front page at all (though many very silly things do). Hooman Katirai, if that is your real name (and this isn’t a silly stunt), please let me know if you get a passing score on this so I too can get the easiest masters ever from a supposedly top rate institution.
It has just become so hard to say what is a joke and what is real now days, and I hope this is.
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I Love This One
By bk | February 15, 2008 21:16
The Simpsons Church Sign Generator
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Candidates and Evolution
By bk | January 13, 2008 17:46
The Carpetbagger Report has this article on where the candidates stand on evolution. Not surprisingly, Democrats show better for evolution, and Republicans continue to show great ignorance for science.
I was shocked to see there was something I could agree with Romney on “‘“In my opinion, the science class is where to teach evolution.’” Wow, maybe there is an outside chance he can actually keep his personal religion out of office - that would be good for anyone on either side of the aisle to do.
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Asking the Right Question
By bk | December 31, 2007 0:53
I just watched a video Hemant of Friendly Atheist put up. Well worth the watch, basically a Dateline like look of ‘OMG there are atheists in the universities and bookshelves.’
One of the things that stood out to me was the suggestion that none of these authors, such as Harris, Dawkins, Dennet or Hitchens would survive a book signing in a Muslim country. It may be true that Islamic countries are more overtly coercive, but that has nothing to do with the objective reality these authors are talking about. The argument presented in the video that Christianity is what actually allows these views to be presented, and our beloved authors should be thankful for that is just plain silly, for so many reasons I think I need a whole separate post for it.
So, on to the title of this post - I think we need to change the question from ‘Is there or is there not a god’ to ‘Why is it your version of the truth is more correct than all these others.’ Inevitably, the response turns in to a circular reasoning based on ‘It is correct because this book is true’ and ‘This book is true because the book says it is.’ Yet, in my talks with theists, particularly with younger ones, this question tends to cause great discomfort, and pointing out the logical fallacy of self-referencing proclamations of truth leads to some thoughtful discourse.
In my experience, once someone grapples with the question of ‘why my religion versus all the others’ they usually admit it comes down to faith, but at least there was some thought behind it. This is the first question we need to be asking, and one that theists can hardly argue with - it always come back to an admission of faith, an irrational statement. And admitting irrationality blunts all the arguments the theists lay on us.
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More Debate on Design
By bk | December 30, 2007 14:55
Via Digg, a reprint of a Natural History essay debate between our favorite IDiots, Behe, Dembski and Wells and some more level minded evolutionary biologists. The usual arguments from the ID crowd are present, and the usual strong refutations. This is a good read for anyone new to the debate looking for a clear and concise story from both sides.
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Humor for Friday
By bk | December 28, 2007 16:35
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Silly Advertising
By bk | December 27, 2007 21:08
My lovely wife pointed out that sometimes there are Google Ads on this blog that don’t really fit the content. I put some hopefully unobtrusive Google Ads here in hopes that I can cover the hosting costs for this site (they don’t), while not interfering with the content (hopefully I succeeded there).
What cracks me up is what ads actually end up on the site. It reflects the lack of semantics in search technology - or maybe just how capable Google is at parsing content, and just how stupid the religious advertisers are in paying for advertisements that fall on blind eyes. Anyway, from time to time I get curious about some of these advertisements that show up, and I’m not supposed to click on them (Google TOS) sometimes you do need to know who is advertising on your site. Fortunately, there are ways to find out. Recently an ad ad proclaiming “So Simple, Any Child Can Understand So Complex, No Atheist Can Solve” which leads to a page with little content, but asking for an email address appears.
For my money, anything so simple a child can solve probably isn’t worth too much - I’ve never seen a child to anything real amazing (other than absolutely amazing loads of crap in a diaper), and certainly nothing intellectually incredible.
I wish I could find out just how much they are paying to get this silly ad on my site - but I’m not going to stop them - click along and see what you think.
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