Category / Skepticism
Noah’s Ark-God, Giraffes & Genocide
Don’t get caught using logic!
Great stuff by The Thinking Atheist
Via: Atheist Media Blog
Merry Christmas
And Remember…
Nell McCafferty gives the church a piece of her mind
Nell McCafferty lashes out at the catholic church, questioning their continued use of titles like “Father”, “Your Grace” and “Lordship” in response to the Vatican’s cover-up of sexual abuse of children by catholic priests and how the reputation of the church was deemed more important than the welfare of children.
I love when she goes off on “What’s holy about the Vatican?” and “What’s holy about the Pope in this context?”
Via: Pharyngula
Super powers: XKCD style
They laugh now, but within 10 years the city’s entire criminal class will have quit to work on space research.
I didn’t post anything for Carl Sagan Day or his birthday. I’ve been a little busy lately with a couple of projects. XKCD does a great job as usual. It makes me wonder how many would-have-been criminals are actually working on space research because of Carl Sagan’s amazing influence.
Waiting to be known.
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. – Carl Sagan
We Are All Connected
Symphony of Science has done it again. This time with appearances by Carl Sagan, Richard Feynman, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye.
Check out their previous video, grab MP3 and FLAC files of the songs as well as video downloads at their website.
Surrounded by ignorance
Just watch this… as the video progresses, try to NOT let your mouth hang open in disbelief.
Oh… My… God! Now, I know many people are genuinely ignorant of things that don’t really affect them in their day-to-day lives. But really, America? This level of ignorance is just absurd. Apparently there are people living among us who don’t know how many sides a triangle has and don’t see something wrong on a map where the entire country of Australia is labeled “Iran” or “North Korea”.We also seem to have had THREE world wars and Hiroshima and Nagasaki are only famous for sumo wrestling.
Wow.
Via: Unrelated TechCrunch post.
Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort are giving away copies of ‘Origin of Species’
So, banana man and his right hand guy will be giving away some 50,000 copies of Charles Darwin’s ‘Origin of Species’ at universities across the country. There’s only one problem.
Each copy will include a 50 page intro attempting to explain how evolution has never been proven and how Darwin helped inspire the Holocaust.
This is sad and pathetic at the same time. But something good can come of this.
If you are in college, then you are in a good position to help. Check your campus on November 19th, and if you see a group distributing copies of the book, then get as many as you can. Get a copy for yourself, ask if you can have extra copies for your friends, ask your friends to go ask for copies, and ask other people you see carrying the book if you can have their copy. Remove the 50 page intro, and then donate perfectly good copies of ‘Origin of Species’ to schools, libraries, and Goodwill. We can actually make this into something positive.
I guess the banana wasn’t enough proof after all.
You can watch this video for more information.
Via: Richard Dawkins
UPDATE: The NCSE has created the Don’t Diss Darwin site to combat Comfort’s copies of Origin.
God: The Computer
A very humorous take on Genesis as a 1980’s computer program.
Whoever created this, it’s hilarious. Day 6 is particularly brilliant.
Via: Daily Cup of Tech
Science flies you to the moon…
Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings. – Victor Stenger
Merry Christmas
Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. And remember…
Happy Freethought Day!
From FreethoughtDay.org:
Over 300 years ago, on October 12, 1692, Governor William Phipps of the Colony of Massachusetts made a decision that brought to an end the horrendous Salem Witch trials.
A Christian, nevertheless he declared that spectral evidence (supernaturalism) would no longer be admissible in court, and so the trials, due to lack of appropriate evidence, came to an end. The governor’s decision was a distinct departure from the general community’s extant thinking and a giant step on the path toward the principle of legal neutrality that would, when the United States incorporated into its brand new Constitution a Bill of Rights, assure each U.S. citizen the freedom to follow his/her conscience regarding matters of ultimate belief.
Spread the joy of being a freethinker and support these fine organizations that fight to uphold these American secular rights we all enjoy.
American Humanist Association
Secular Coalition for America
A Concerned Matt Damon
And rightfully so.
Via: Ungodly Cynic
Live LHC Webca…
As funny as this is, bad things can happen when people don’t have the critical thinking skills to weed out silly arguments and understand the truth.
Via: The Bad Astronomer
How does the Bible explain suffering?
Bart Ehrman has done extensive research into the historical roots of Christianity as well as written several books on the subject. His latest book is ‘God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer‘ dealing with, as you might guess, how the Bible tries to explain suffering in a world ruled by an all-loving and all-powerful benefactor. He recently gave this lecture at UC Berkley on the same subject and I think its worth watching.
Although I agree with pretty much everything Ehrman has to say regarding the lecture’s topic, one of his answers at the end struck me as odd. Ehrman seems to think Sam Harris blames religion for ‘all’ the evils in the world. I think he may have mixed up some of the ‘New Atheist’ authors since Harris, if any of them, pleas for more scientific study of all things spiritual. Christopher Hitchens’s book ‘God is not Great’ carries the subtitle ‘How Religion Poisons Everything’ and Richard Dawkins created the BBC series ‘Root of all Evils’ (though he disagreed with the BBC’s title choice) but Sam Harris’s main argument is that an evidence-based reality trumps a faith-based one.
My other main problem is Ehrman’s apologetic claim of a fundemental divide between science and religion. He belives in a point where the questions must be handed off to theologians to answer. But the supernatural beliefs at the core’s of religions are scientific claims. The question of the existence of a supernatural creator being in the universe is a scientific question with a yes or no answer. There is no philosophical, historical or theological way around that statement. The supernatural being that a large percentage of the world believes in either exists within reality or it doesn’t.
Aside from those small observations I highly recommend Ehrman’s previous books and his Teaching Company lectures. I’ll be picking up God’s Problem soon.
