Posts tagged: Religion
I’m A Six On The Dawkins Scale
In The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins created a scale of points along the spectrum of humanity’s belief in God. The scale ranges from 1 (total belief in God) to 7 (total non-belief) with 4 being exactly 50/50.
I put myself in category 6 along with most of the atheists I know. I find it amusing how many people include themselves in category 1 with absolutely zero skepticism. They KNOW! Give me a break. It’s very difficult to know anything when it comes to really complex things. We can be 99% sure - like really, really positively sure about things, like gravity, but there’s always the chance we’ll discover something new. That’s the beauty of science. It’s assimilating new data as it comes in instead of relying on an ancient book written in the first century.
I liked Dawkins’ scale and wanted to do a little more than just write about it, so I created a set of 14 images (7 for light backgrounds and 7 for dark) that you can download and put on your blog to show where you stand on the scale. Some of the text on the images differs slightly from Dawkins’ but, I think, maintain the meaning. If you edit or improve the images, let me know in the comments and I may update the whole set.
On Omnipotence & Omniscience
Can omniscient God, who
Knows the future, find
The omnipotence to
Change His future mind? - Karen Owens
Bible Study In Tennessee Public Schools
What on Earth was Tennessee thinking this week?
SB4104, a bill authorizing the state board of education to approve a curriculum for an elective state-funded course of a nonsectarian, nonreligious academic study of the Bible, passed the state senate on Thursday.
This mockery of legislature was introduced by Sen. Roy Herron (D) who has let his personal religion get in the way of his reason and understanding of our constitution and the separation of church and state. The whole thing is entirely unnecessary as the state already allows schools to teach the Bible and has a process for approving the curriculum local schools want to use.
The bill slipped past the Senate after three (3) amendments were made to include more ‘constitutional-friendly’ wording and is now on its way to the house as HB4089. If you life in Tennessee, you know what to do. Load up your email and send one off to your house representative telling them what a crock this bill is… Use nicer language though. I’ve already sent one to my representative, Judd Matheny (R). He’s a pretty cool guy. I have a good feeling he’ll do right on this one.
You can read the full bills in PDF: HB4089 | SB4104
Find your House Representative at the bottom of this page.
How To Evolve An Eye
As part of the series of educational videos to counter claims made in Ben Stein’s Expelled movie, the NCSE has made this video explaining how an eye evolves and how we see and study this in nature.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOtP7HEuDYA
Take That, Atheists!
It’s amazing there are any skeptics left with ‘evidence’ like this pouring in from all over. According to Chuck Missler, if evolutionary theory stood up, jars of peanut butter would occasionally contain new life when you opened them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZFG5PKw504
Oh. My freakin’ gourd! That’s the kind of profound misunderstanding of evolution we’re dealing with. And when I say, “we’re dealing with,” I mean this is the kind of stuff being peddled to people who understand even less about evolution.
An Atheist Goes Undercover
What happens when an atheist goes undercover to attend a major Southern evangelical church’s ‘Encounter Weekend’ retreat? Matt Taibbi tells us exactly what happens in this excerpt from his new book, The Great Derangement, about his experiences at a Hagee’s boot camp for new converts. And it’s not very pretty.
Apart from the grim descriptions and assumptions about various church goers, there’s not that much in here that really surprised me. If you’ve seen Jesus Camp and know what these kinds of people put their children through at these retreats, then it should come as no surprise the adults get it just as bad. In fact I think its a little worse. The kids are just being misled and abused. These idiots should KNOW better.
I guess I’m just asking too much of these folks to stop thinking an imaginary god wants them to worship it so their imaginary souls can get into his imaginary heaven.
Via: AlterNet
I’m A Math Atheist Too
‘Don’t Believe In God?’ Billboard in Philadelphia
That’s the billboard drivers on Interstate 95 north of Philadelphia will see as they head out of town. Placed to coincide with the National Day of Reason, the billboard faces outbound traffic and helps to “make nontheistic people, such as atheists and agnostics, aware that they aren’t alone.” says Joe Fox, president of the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia.
The billboard will be up for three months and is one of a series that will appear around the country, raising the public profile of humanists and freethinkers. The billboard is backed by an active Web site at PhillyCOR.org that sets forth the larger mission of the effort and offers ways that individuals can get involved. An image of the billboard appears on the site, but people can also phone 1-800-NEW-REASON. Either way they will be able to learn more about the national and Philadelphia organizations behind the effort.
I’d like to see more of these all over the country. If nothing else, just to even the playing field against all the religious crap you’re forced to look at every time you hit the interstate. And three months just isn’t long enough.
The billboard is a joint venture by national humanist and freethought organizations, including the American Humanist Association and it’s independent marketing adjunct FreeThoughtAction, Atheist Alliance International, the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia, the Humanist Association of Greater Philadelphia, and Temple University Secular Students.
Via: Press Release
If We Wish To Feel Small
Many religions have attempted to make statues of their gods very large, and the idea, I supposed, is to make us feel small. But if that’s their purpose, they can keep their paltry icons. We need only look up if we wish to feel small. - Carl Sagan
Even Creationists Thumb Down Expelled
Reason To Believe, an old-earth creation science ministry has been going out of its way to distance itself from Ben Stein’s Expelled and has issued a statement against the film and its claims.
In Reasons To Believe’s interaction with professional scientists, scientific institutions, universities, and publishers of scientific journals we have encountered no significant evidence of censorship, blackballing, or disrespect. As we have persisted in publicly presenting our testable creation model in the context of the scientific method, we have witnessed an increasing openness on the part of unbelieving scientists to offer their honest and respectful critique.
Our main concern about EXPELLED is that it paints a distorted picture. It certainly doesn’t match our experience. Sadly, it may do more to alienate than to engage the scientific community, and that can only harm our mission.
- Hugh Ross, Fazale Rana, Jeff Zweerink, David Rogstad, and Kenneth Samples
You know you’ve made a high quality, documentary when people on your own side say you’re full of it.
Via: Post-Darwinist
