Untitled Vanity Project

Religious people won't define that way because...

2012-05-16T18:05:56.737-06:00

Religious people won't define that way because they don't want to admit how stupid and anti-intellectual the concept of faith truly is. And yet, what else do they display when they promote creationism or homophobic bigotry? Or use logical fallacy upon logical fallacy in their debates with atheists? If I had a penny every time a christian invoked god of the gaps, I'd be a millionaire. And there are many others that they use just as often.

Hey! The Old Ones command you to attend to your bl...

2012-05-16T18:02:43.450-06:00

Hey! The Old Ones command you to attend to your blog!

2012-05-16T18:01:50.715-06:00

This comment has been removed by the author.

Evolution makes perfect sense. Organisms adapt to ...

2012-05-16T18:00:58.883-06:00

Evolution makes perfect sense. Organisms adapt to their environment all the time. How else do you explain mice developing immunity to pesticides, dhanya? You really need to read some articles on the subject. Furthermore, it doesn't matter how "sophisticated" you think humans are; as Richard Lenski's E. Coli experiment proved, major adaptations may be set up with multiple mutations beforehand (like a primer and then a detonator). You appear to endorsing irreducible complexity, a dogma which has no credibility in science. No "god" is necessary to explain our existence; just good science.

Hey Rhaco!! I had to struggle against myself to ...

2012-01-19T00:37:30.775-07:00

Hey Rhaco!!

I had to struggle against myself to go through your entire passage. NO! It was not the idea which deterred me. I liked it which is why i wanted to struggle and read it through completely. But it was the language which i had to struggle against. Your points are good. Why cant you convey that out of love for your readers. Or is it because God is an epitome of love and you do not believe in Him, you won’t say it in love?

Anyways, let’s come back to your argument. What i see is that you are throwing mud at a person who is claiming that God had foreseen HIV when he asked his people to be circumcised. Well, I cannot join you in this feat as I do not know that person nor do I know what made him say that. But, one thing I know, when God commanded circumcision in the Old Testament He did not give any reason for it except that it was a covenant between Him and those who had faith in Him. Circumcision was a step of faith that a believer of God had to take! The New Testament, what you call Bible, no longer insists on circumcision but entirely on faith. If you have read the book, it makes clear in Romans 2:17-29 that circumcision is not just external. Being circumcised doesn't have any value unless your heart is circumcised. And if you heart is circumcised, it doesn’t matter if you have cut your foreskin or not (well, if you’ll allow me to go to my extreme I would say: if your heart is circumcised, no matter if you have cut your foreskin or not you definitely will not conceive HIV!! Though that’s not the specific point I’ve tried to emphasize here.)

I know you have touched upon many things which demands clarification. I would have loved to answer it all. Evolution is actually one my favorite topics too to prove the existence of the God I believe in. Believe me or not, when I was doing my bachelors in biotechnology, (I was not a believer of God then), I used to come out of my molecular biology classes wondering how can a being so sophisticated as humans could evolve out of primordial “bacteria”!!! Trust me; I am not touching natural selection here. I too agree with natural selection, it makes sense, but not evolution. You just need to learn how the biological systems work to start doubting the theory of evolution!!

It is misleading to define faith as you have defin...

2012-01-01T06:12:01.175-07:00

It is misleading to define faith as you have defined it. Such a definition is not what religious people consider faith to be, although various outspoken atheists try to apply such a definition for the sake of their arguments.

Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies.
Mohandas Gandhi

That's a photoshopped picture of Morning Glory...

2011-11-30T21:48:06.317-07:00

That's a photoshopped picture of Morning Glory Pool, one mile from Old Faithful. Grand Prismatic is much, much larger in size and has a completely different shape. I know, I work there. Morning Glory is dying and has a faded bluish-green color in the middle and a dark green rim. Good science, though.

I'm sorry Anonymous, but in "true believe...

2011-05-20T16:15:48.699-06:00

I'm sorry Anonymous, but in "true believer" fashion, you have misrepresented what is presented here. I choose to believe that you misread the chart, as opposed to maliciously lying.

What the chart says is that Matthew 27:5 contradicts Acts 1:18

Matt 27:5 states that Judas "threw the pieces of silver....and he went away and hanged himself."

Acts 1:18 states, "With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out."

According to this perfect and divinely inspired book, Judas did two different things with his silver, and died in at least two different ways . . . the poor bastard.

Feel free to disagree with my stance on religion, but please (and could you pass this along at the next meeting) please, be intellectually honest about it.

Fail. "158. Who bought the potter’s field? m...

2011-05-20T08:32:12.125-06:00

Fail. "158. Who bought the potter’s field? mat 27:6 ≠ acts 1:18" Those totally support one another & it's the first one I looked at. Drawing some curvy red lines and making false claims didn't convince me - nor should it convince others. Sad.

The catch phrase is fucking GOLD BABY! I grew up ...

2011-04-28T20:59:15.491-06:00

The catch phrase is fucking GOLD BABY! I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school and still find that hilarious. Hope you are doing well kid. Study hard.

Wow... Love Sagan... go Sagan Man!

Sweet Holy Mother of Wibbly Wobbly Goodness!! APRI...

2011-04-01T12:55:40.227-06:00

Sweet Holy Mother of Wibbly Wobbly Goodness!! APRIL 23!! WOOT!

I truly wonder if the execs, upon demanding that n...

2011-03-29T15:42:38.581-06:00

I truly wonder if the execs, upon demanding that number, laughed maniacally and held their pinkie finger to their mouth while petting their hairless cat...

Wait, damn reality blurring the line with Austin Powers...STOP THAT!

I’m familiar with diglossia, as I was when I wrote...

2011-03-27T18:00:50.088-06:00

I’m familiar with diglossia, as I was when I wrote this post, and I would like to point out that you are using the word incorrectly. Diglossia refers specifically to situations in which the user has the capacity to change dialects based on the situation; in the cases I was referring to, urban areas have been so neglected from an education standpoint that many young people lack this ability.

While I agree that languages change and adjust over time, at this point speaking primarily in ebonics is a barrier to both education and career opportunities, and failing to prepare students for this reality is simply neglectful. As I understand from the original article, one of the purposes of these translators would be for use in courtroom proceedings; regardless of your stance on the evolution of language, the happenstance of an individual being involved in our K-12 system and not being able to understand the charges against them is simply absurd.

I would also like to point out that I never once made reference to anyone’s intellectual capacity or ability to learn how to speak in a more business oriented way. To imply that I felt anything but a deep concern for those being alienated from our society in a very real way is frankly, a bit prejudice of you.

Oh, and I’ve noticed despite your assertion that you’ve been told your language is a corrupt one, you are very clear and communicative . . . thank a teacher for that.

Well said. There is this ambiguous environment in ...

2011-03-27T15:48:26.874-06:00

Well said. There is this ambiguous environment in the USA, with the constitution and laws trying to be neutral but at the same time there is a very assertive Christian and English-speaking majority setting itself as the reference other have to adapt to.

That gives us this panic about the ''ground zero mosque'' and the frustration of many English speakers when confronted to Spanish speakers. Not that USA was ever even remotely neutral in it's language policy. See past or current language policy in Maine, Hawaii, Lousiana, for every Native American nation, etc : it's all about pushing English down everybody's throat.

When the state became religion-''neutral'', an exception was made for public boarding schools in order to crush what was left of Native American culture.

I see we're not compleately past this unhealthy ego trip with the ''ground zero mosque'' panic.

Wow, are you real? That was extremely bigoted of y...

2011-03-27T15:10:28.508-06:00

Wow, are you real? That was extremely bigoted of you and typical of how deepely rooted in your culture unspoken diglossia is.

Where I live, some poorly educated people (who think they are educated) with no clue about linguistics claim we speak a corrupted form of a standart language. A standart that was invented and changed multiple times after our dialect emerged. That dosen't even make sense : We can't speak a form of something that started existing after our actual language.

Back to your concern : Read up a bit about the concept of diglossia, then the history of the dialects of the English language. Educating yourself might help you shed some prejudice off.

Sweet, downloaded it and I'll check it out ton...

2011-03-25T17:29:08.394-06:00

Sweet, downloaded it and I'll check it out tonight.

Thanks

Rhackster, There is a wonderful book "The Pr...

2011-03-25T15:50:54.768-06:00

Rhackster,

There is a wonderful book "The Professor and The Madman" about the writing of the first Oxford English Dictionary. I highly recommend it.

Believe me, nothing would make me happier than to ...

2011-03-24T21:40:15.956-06:00

Believe me, nothing would make me happier than to tell you this was satire, but those people seriously believe what they are saying.

My gods. Is this REAL? No, no, don't answer t...

2011-03-24T19:17:06.384-06:00

My gods. Is this REAL?

No, no, don't answer that question. It's one o'clock in the morning and my faith in humanity has finally been destroyed. I think I'll go and shoot myself now.

You know, i bet that "the general population&...

2011-03-23T00:30:41.979-06:00

You know, i bet that "the general population" didn't ALL live in apartments less than 16 years old. new apartments have a higher rent and thus attract richer people with better standards of living. A house with less than 30 years of industrial dust backed up on the vents is a place not everyone can live.

but no, she's probably right. toxic radiation must be good for us. TV people never lie.

Hahaha. "Play with it". You have to pay...

2011-03-21T10:05:27.571-06:00

Hahaha. "Play with it". You have to pay royalties to me for that action, Jeff.

I downloaded it, you can play with it at the next ...

2011-03-21T02:38:42.863-06:00

I downloaded it, you can play with it at the next Skeptics in the Pub.

Sir, you are ignoring the benefits of the moon bei...

2011-03-19T23:08:46.991-06:00

Sir, you are ignoring the benefits of the moon being large enough to drive off vampires. It's rare we get a moon with enough luminescence to do that. I think that needs to be measured against the werewolf threat.

I LOVE HOW EVERYONE IS DISMISSING THE SUPERMOON...

2011-03-19T18:07:54.688-06:00

I LOVE HOW EVERYONE IS DISMISSING THE SUPERMOON'S CAUSING EARTHQUAKES AND TSUNAMIS, BUT TOTALLY IGNORING THE OTHER BIG ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM...THE REAL THREAT.

SUPERWEREWOLVES!!!!!