2012 Retrospective

Well 2012 is drawing to a close.
I started this blog in 2012 and I really should work on a regular update schedule for it in 2013.

From its start this blog was designed to be a more personal one. One where I can feel out the boundaries and boarders of what my Atheism means to me.  I feel like that part was a success.

So here is to a bright new  2013!

What I am Not doing the Holiday Season

I like Christmas.  I do.  Holiday, Xmas, Winter Solstice, I don't care what it is called.

But that doesn't mean I turn off my critical thinking for flashing lights and a cup of egg nog.  I am easy, but not that easy.

Here is what I am not going to do this Christmas.

- War on Christmas.  The "War on Christmas" is a myth.  Atheists don't want Christmas or any other Holiday.  I am not going get all bent out of shape if you wish me a Merry Christmas.  I will wish you a Happy Holidays back.

- I am not buying anything from the Boy Scouts.  I left the Boy Scouts because of their stance on atheism and I will not support them today because of their stance on gays.   I know this only hurts the small troops, but too bad.  I have money give to charity, they want it, they are not going to get it.

- Same token I am not giving any money to the Salvation Army.  I used too, every year.  I won't anymore.  Until they change their stance on homosexuals.  Again sorry, but I don't have to give my money to you.

Teen Suicide and the Internet

So there was this page up on Facebook that basically mocked teenage suicide victims.  I am not going to link to it mostly because it is gone now.  Though like anything on facebook or internet in general it is only gone as much as it takes someone to set up new digs elsewhere.  The owner of the page, some shit-for-brains that calls himself ***Luigi*** plans on putting the page back up as soon as his ban is up.

We run into this all the time on Wikipedia.  We have banned the vandals, but there are always more.

My fellow atheism bloggers (can I say that? have I been around long enough?) want to go the petition routes.  I get that. Really. I do.  I have been there. Many, many, many times.
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2012/12/03/help-with-this-petition-regarding-a-facebook-page-on-teen-suicidal/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/brutereason/2012/12/03/please-sign-my-petition-to-remove-the-no-respect-for-suicidal-teens-facebook-page/

I applaud their efforts. I do.
I worked a suicide hotline when I was in grad school. Since 2002 I have donated to the Trevor Project.
I have even worked with a community of friends of mine to raise even more money for the Trevor Project.
(see my other blog for more details on that).

So this asshole is going to come back. Will petitions do the trick?  Maybe. Sure. They have worked in the past. But in my mind they carry less weight than doing something.  Let people know that teen suicide is a terrible reality.
It's been a long time since I was a teen.  Hell, it's been a long time since I was in grad school!  And as adults we forget how things are for teens, were for us as teens.  I had it good.  I was a normal kids with great parents, great siblings and in a pretty decent school.  Not everyone has that.

So for my part I am going to ignore this douchebag and just donate money to the The Trevor Project.
I suggest you do the same. Or donate time. Or help educate others.

The trouble is you can never, ever stop all the assholes.  But you can minimize their effect and you can maximize the things that counteract them.

If you want to give to the Trevor Project this is a great time to do it.
Here is a page to help you. http://www.thetrevorproject.org/Give/Ways%20to%20Give

Or how about this one.  Reach out and help the kids that need it.

Sex

So one of the things you do as a blogger of any sort is read a lot of other blogs.
I do. Lots.

Being an atheist blogger I therefore read a lot of free-thinker, atheism, skeptic and related blogs in addition to science, religion and human rights ones.

One topic that comes up a lot both here and even on my RPG blog is sexism.

So I consider myself a forward thinking guy.  I am a white, hetro-male that identifies as a white hetro-male.  I know most of the songs on the classic rock radio stations, enjoy a big fat steak I like the way women look.
I also consider myself a feminist, gay-friendly and human-rights-centric sorta guy.
I helped raise close to $9k for the Trevor Foundation to help with teens that try to commit suicide or have suicidal thoughts because they are gay.  I write my Senators and Congressmen all the time to push for legislation to help ALL people regardless of race, sex, gender identification or sexual orientation.
It has been my distinct pleasure to know a literal spectrum of people and I consider myself the one that has learned more from them than them me.

Yet I find I have nothing I can say when comes to talking about this.

I mean to many of the people I want to help I look exactly like the Devil and I have run into more "thanks, but no thanks" than "thank yous".

I have no story to tell that would give me reason to help.  My childhood was great. My adult life is great.  So there is no apparent drive for except my own desire to do what is right.

I saw this interesting post on "How to Be a Male Ally", http://www.anamardoll.com/2012/11/deconstruction-how-to-be-male-ally.html
I thought it was great but still put other questions in my head.  None of which I am sure of the answers.

Hmmm.

I guess that is what I am rambling about.  Analysis Paralysis. I am not sure what to do or say because I am blinded by data and questions.

I guess I'll take advice from one of the luminaries of my other blogging sphere.  In RPGS, Sci and Geek culture one of our "voices" is the actor Wil Wheaton.  Yeah Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: TNG.
He is a cool guy in real life and I have met him a couple of times.  He has a saying, in fact it is called Wheaton's Law:  Don't Be a Dick.

I guess that is what I should do.  Don't be a dick.  That's not a final answer, but it's not a bad start.

Sanity vs. Insanity

This post is not about Atheism per se, but more about how we will sometimes, many times, engage in some truly insane thinking.

There was a secret government operation known as A119 which was a plan to blow up a nuclear device on the Moon to impress/scare the Russians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119

The news media is covering this as our plan to "blow up the moon" but I seriously doubt that 1950s nucelar devices could have done this.  In fact the bomb they planned on using was about a tenth of the size of the one dropped on Hiroshima.   Though this is how we get Space:1999.

Who was one of the people that pointed out that this plan was, well, insane?  Carl Sagan.

Listen to the Scientists people. They don't always know better, but at least they know WHY they know what they know.

Mankind Rising

Watched the Discovery Channel special Mankind Rising.
It was interesting, nothing I have not seen or read before, but still interesting.

What is interesting is the number of science denying idiots out there talking about it.
Over at Twitter the hash tag, #mankindrising is generating a lot tweets.

Most are the ones to be expected. A bunch of quotes from Genesis or proclamations of faith.  As if shouting louder would make their side more right.

Sorry. Doesn't work like that.
Though with Twitter it is interesting to see how people respond in real time.  I have never really used Twitter all that much, but I think I need to pay more attention to it.

GONK! Gravity Always Wins

You know what argument makes my blood boil?

"It's just a theory."

It isn't even an argument  It's an excuse.  Worse it also shows how fundamentally ignorant the person I am talking to is.

Evolution is a Theory.  A scientific theory supported by multiple hypotheses, data, observation and yes experiments.  We do know what it would take to disprove the Theory of Evolution.  Scientists look for those sorts of things all the time, but they have not found them. Not once.

Gravity is also a Theory.  We know it works. We know how it is applied and can make observations, collect data and run experiments that confirm the finds and data.  We DON'T know WHY it works.  We know the more massive an object is the more "gravity" it has.  We know that there is a time dilatation effect the further you are removed from gravity.  Astrophysics even uses gravity to hypothesize about other things like black holes, extra solar planets and even parallel universes.  But Gravity is still "just a theory".

I was explaining this to my two kids today.

I was talking to them about gravity and how it always wins.  Gravity can be "just a theory" but if you try jumping out your window.  GONK. Gravity wins.
Try floating away.  GONK. Gravity wins.

For something that is "just a theory" it has an awful lot of power.  Here is the thing, like I said, we still don't know 100% how gravity works.
Our understanding of the mechanics of Evolution is much better. Do we know how it got started? Not that I know.  Can we see it working? Every-freaking-day.

So the next time someone says "it's just a theory" I am tempted to say "GONK."

I Don't Know

Inspired by a post here: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2012/11/the-gap-theory.html 

"But you can't prove me wrong" is one of the most disingenuous arguments you can ever use.  It is the equivalent of saying "I know what you are but what am I!"

It is an argument I hear a lot.

First off it always used when someone wants to argue about things that happened that the believe that happened outside of the observable perview of science.  Like the origin of the universe, or life or geological deep time.  Now let's be equal in our honesty.  I don't know how the universe got started.  I have read some great theories, I have even read some great evidence to support those theories but at the end of the day I don't know.  That is not the same as say we will never know or that it is unknowable.  Lots of things that people once considered unknowable are pretty common knowledge today.

Science is is looking into all sorts of things. They observe and when they can't the devise new ways of observing.  When we hit the limits of what we could see with the naked eye Galileo invented the telescope.  A tool that in a very true sense was a death sentence for him (he was confined to his home for the rest of his life).  I can now buy a telescope a thousand times better at Wal-Mart for under a 100 bucks.   When telescope reached it's limits even when they got bigger and more powerful we used radio telescopes and x-ray telescopes.  Even that wasn't enough so we started launching the things into space.  All the time asking ourselves "What's beyond this?" and coming to "I don't know".

"Not proving it to be wrong" though is not science and you can't show anything that way.

I can say I have a best friend named Harvey.  I can provide you with all sorts of "Evidence" to support my claim and really you can't prove me wrong.  Sure you could follow me around for the next 5 years to see if I interact with Harvey, but I can still say "you have not proved me wrong".

Now say I make the same claim of my great grandfather who died almost hundred years ago.  HE had a best friend named Harvey. You can't follow him around now.  But you can't prove it wrong.

The issue here is "you can't prove it wrong" is not an argument.  It's a dodge, it is there to fill in for what we really have to say and that is "I don't know".  Scientists say I don't know all the time.  Sometimes it is even "Wow! I don't know!" and it's followed by "Let's find out!"

In science and research we look to find something that would "prove you wrong" all the time.  The difference is we are looking for the anomaly, the errant point of data that would cause our hypothesis to fail.  We call this H0, the null hypothesis.  If the null is true then we know we are wrong.  If the null is false though, we know we are right.

I am not sure how the Gap Theory (which is not really a scientific theory at all) has a null hypothesis.

So I have to ask.  What would need to be true to make the Gap Theory false?  For it to be a good theory then there needs to be an answer to this question.

What would need to be true to say prove evolution false?  That is is EASY. Find a newer form of animal below an earlier one in older rock strata.  Show me a fossil of a bunny that is older than a fossil of an Eoraptor. Do that and the whole theory of Evolution goes back to square 1.  Show me a rock that floats and you do the same to the theory of gravity.

Thunderf00t and Atheism Videos

I like watching Atheism videos on YouTube.

I know Thunderf00t was given a Klingon style discommendation over at FreeThought Blogs.
And maybe there were good reasons for that.  I am not here though to talk about those now.

I am here to talk about  his series "Why Do People Laugh at Creationists".

He still makes a lot of great points in the 38 video series.
I still think it worth watching.

Also somewhat shunned by the atheism-internet cognesti is The Amazing Atheist.   I will admit it, I like him too.  Yes he has also had his issues with others but sometimes I want to turn to the faithful and ask them "why are you such a fucking moron!!! Fuck! you are stupid!" but I don't do that here.  He does.  And he offends people along the way.

One of those people is Laci Green, though she talks more about sex now than atheism. I like her too.  I like her style of video.   Laci does not like the Amazing Atheist and he doesn't seem care one way or the other.

I also like Christina Rad, who I am just discovering.

Since they are all "Talking head" videos I can watch, or rather listen, to them at work.  I feel like I am learning something.  Have I learned anything?  Well. It seems there is an odd symbiotic relationship between vloggers.  They tend to watch each other, talk about each other and react to each other.    Even if I didn't know all the background drama you can tell that there is something going on just behind the scenes.  This is no different than it is with bloggers, except the emotions are a bit easier to read.

I also like that these vloggers are out there helping to spread the message of atheism and skepticism to wider audience.  

I don't always agree with them all on every point, but that is fine really.

Carl Sagan Day

I don't celebrate on the anniversary of someone's birth or death after they are dead.
I remember their life, I think about how they touched mine, but don't expect long drawn out posts on it from me.

Carl Sagan is different.

For the longest time he was why I was interested in astronomy, math, physics and yes eventually psychology (Broca's Brain is still a favorite of mine).

Today is the anniversary of Carl Sagan's birth.  I don't say birthday, since obviously he not having anymore.

It is also Carl Sagan day.

I talked a lot about him back in April, http://freedomofnonbelief.blogspot.com/2012/04/s-is-for-carl-sagan.html, but honestly though I really can't say enough about the guy.

I have been tempted to re-read "Demon Haunted World", maybe one of the best books on science (as opposed to a science book) I have ever read.

My lament is that he could not have lived longer.  His cogent and critical voice would have been much appreciated in the last couple of years.  I do take solace though  that we still have Neil deGrasse Tyson around.

New Poll

I was going through Wikipedia's Lists of Atheists.

And I was surprised that there were so many names on the list of people I already had respected them or their work.

This got me thinking.  Would your knowledge of someones beliefs change how you appreciate their work?

I don't have the luxury of saying I would avoid the works of all believers.  That would leave me with nothing to watch, read, see or listen too.  I DO avoid the works though of Scientologists simplly because they don't need my money or encouragement.  I do avoid the works of others on more personal reasons too that have nothing to do with belief or lack thereof.

So note the poll on the right.
The question is: Would your enjoyment of something be lessened if you knew the person who had created it was an atheist?

I also have only two possible responses, yes and no.  If you want to get more detailed post it below.

Now obviously this question is directed much more at the theistic members of my audience.  As atheists we don't often get the chance to say yes to material created by theists.  I will post that question at a later date.

Let me know what  you think.

Vote

I am sure it does not need saying to readers of this blog.  But I will say it anyway.

Vote.

It is not just your right, it is your civic duty.

Monstrous Monday: The True Monster

"They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.

“Spirit! are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.
“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy..."

- A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens

One of my most favorite stories is a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  What? Surprised an atheist can enjoy a Christmas story? Or even a ghost story?  Well I can and I do.

The above scene from the Second Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, is telling.

The greatest monster we face today is Ignorance.

As American we seem to want to embrace our ignorance as some sort of badge of honor.  We watch stupid TV shows with stupid commercials for products we don't need or are even bad for us.    We revel in it.

Of course then it is no surprise that there are those that want to dumb down our schools. Have them learn stupid fantasies because they are too ignorant or too lazy or both to learn the truth.

There is another quote often attributed to G. K. Chesterton.

“Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that monsters exist, but because they tell us that monsters can be beaten.”

Ignorance can be beaten.  But it is going to take a lot more work than most people are willing to do.

Neanderthals, the evolving concept

There is a great article summarizing what we know about Neanderthals over at the National Geographic.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121012-neanderthals-science-paabo-dna-sex-breeding-humans/

The article it also full of great links to more research.
You just have to ignore the god-soaked idiots in the comments section.

What is interesting about this is the picture it paints for us as a species. Most animal types out there have many species that are similar, but not the same.  Think of all the types of birds, or even the various cannid types (wolves, dogs, foxes).

As humans we don't have anything so near to us, unless you want to count chimps and bonobos.
I wonder what the world would have been like today if Neanderthal had survived as an intact species.

Monstrous Mondays: Invisible Pink Unicorn

Invisible Pink Unicorn

It's magical because it is invisible AND pink.

Over at my other blog, The Other Side, I am running a bloghop called Monstrous Monday.

I am going to post a new monster for the D&D Basic game (circa 1980) and it's compatible clones.
Over here, since I focus mostly on my atheism, I wanted to pick monsters that fit the theme of this blog.

Now to this you might say, "ah but I am an atheist, I don't believe in monsters or magic or magical monster for that matter!" which is true.  But I also believe in having a sense of humor.  So maybe my atheism message will reach another audience.

So I present to you the magical, Invisible Pink Unicorn.
Again, I presenting these in Basic Era stats to support my new books "The Witch" and "Eldritch Witchery"

Invisible Pink Unicorn

Armor Class:  2 [17]
Hit Dice: 8d8+5 (50 hp)
No. of Attacks: Bite, hooves, horn,
Special Attack: invisible, rainbows (as Prismatic Spray)
Damage: 1d8, 1d6/1d6, 1d8
Movement: 120’ (land) 240' fly
No. Appearing: 1 Unique
Saves As: Fighter 10
Morale: 12
Treasure: None, Discovering one is Treasure enough
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 1700

The Invisible Pink Unicorn is a unique creature.  At least we have faith she is since only one is known to exist. There could be more, they all would look alike.
As her name would suggest the IPU is invisible.  She moves, lives and attacks all while invisible.  Even to characters that can see invisible she is invisible.
The IPU can attack with a bite, hooves and her horn.  She is in all respects like a normal, non-invisible, non-pink unicorn.  She may also once per day fire a Prismatic Spray spell from her horn.
The IPU most often attacks those that lack faith or have too much faith.  Her victims seem unwilling to be clear on which.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Pink_Unicorn
http://www.invisiblepinkunicorn.com/ipu/home.html

One of us! One of us!

New article at CNN.com from a Pew survey poll.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/09/survey-one-in-five-americans-is-religiously-unaffiliated/

So there are more and more people self-identifying as having no religious affiliation 
Mind you, that is not the same as "Atheist".

Given the recent news reports about various self-identified Christians:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/08/charlie-fuqua-arkansas-candidate-death-penalty-rebellious-children_n_1948490.html
http://www.classwarfareexists.com/dallas-mom-super-glues-2-year-olds-hands-to-wall-beat-her-till-she-suffered-bleeding-on-her-brain/#axzz28nxYJL85

I honestly can't blame these people for wanting no part of that.  But I say why not go the next step as well a get rid of god.

There is obviously no need or use for god.
The truth is everything that people used to think was attributed to god we have found scientific reasons for.  Now it seems god is invoked only when one sports team wants to defeat the other.  God of Gaps as the say.  Only where there is something has yet to explain.

Something to consider.

Why do Muslim's fear women so much?

Maybe I should say the Taliban.

But in any case the question remains.
Why do they fear women?

Read this article.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/10/opinion/ghitis-malala-yousufzai/?hpt=wo_c1
and
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/10/world/asia/pakistan-teen-activist-attack/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

So a 14 year old girl speaks out about the Taliban and in retaliation her and her friends are shot.

Doe this sound like the reasonable reaction of a sane human being?
Does this come anywhere close to the discourse we should find acceptable?

No.

These people are the lowest form of human life possible.

We have a Taliban here in America too.  They are the Christian right.  Whether they want to admit it or not they share more in common with these sub-humans than the decent people in this country.

Monstrous Mondays: Crocoduck

Time for something a little different today.
Over at my other blog, The Other Side, I am running a bloghop called Monstrous Monday.

I am going to post a new monster for the D&D Basic game (circa 1980) and it's compatible clones.
Over here, since I focus mostly on my atheism, I wanted to pick monsters that fit the theme of this blog.

So I figured why not start with one of the most well know fake creatures in atheism circles.

Crocoduck

Armor Class:  5 [14]
Hit Dice: 2d8+1 (10 hp)
No. of Attacks: Bite
Damage: 1d6
Movement: 20’ (land) 45' swim
No. Appearing: 1-2
Saves As: Fighter 2
Morale: 6
Treasure: None
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 25


The crocduck is an odd beast.  Some claim it part of the same experiments that created the owlbear.  Indeed the overall unintelligent design of the creature tends to give proof that whomever created it was insane.
The crocoduck's head is that of a crocodile, but it's lower body is that of a duck. The result is that the head is much to heavy for it's body and the crocoduck  is only found in the water.  The crocduck can not fly and and is awkward and slow on the ground.
The crocoduck is an omnivore and tends to favor the duck's psychology.  Though it prove as dangerous as a normal crocodile if pestered.  The animal is somewhat stupid, even by the standards of ducks and crocodiles.
Of one odd note, the Crocoduck is inordinately fond of bananas.   Tossing a bunch of bananas at a crocoduck has same the effect as tossing raw meat to feral dogs. Many adventurers will even seek out nests of crocducks and toss bananas at them to see the hilarity of these creatures waddling, quacking and snapping at a bunch of bananas.
The crocoduck has no treasure but their eggs are prized by alchemists and wizards alike.





The real crocoduck, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatosuchus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocoduck
http://www.crocoduck.com

Creationism Curriculum

Here is an older news story, but one that focuses on what I think are the things I need to be looking at.

http://www.11points.com/Books/11_Eye-Opening_Highlights_From_a_Creationist_Science_Textbook

For starters this is an easy target.
In truth most Christians are not young Earth creationists and this represents a minor fringe.
But there is another market that books like this are targeting other than conservative schools.  These textbook companies are going after the home school market.

I don't have the data in front of me, but I recall that a significant proportion of home schooling parents site religious reasons as one of the main reasons for home schooling their children.

This goes back to Bill Nye's plea of don't teach kids creationism.  I think that book example explains why.
Even if you don't mention a specific god you basically teaching children that magic exists.   That there is a supernatural agent in the natural world.

I like reading about magic as much as the next person.  I have professed my love for the Harry Potter books many times and I write about witches.  But that is all fiction to be enjoyed as fiction.  Not as science.

Science and history is just as, no, even more fascinating than fiction.

You can't stop these textbook companies from printing this garbage (nor should we try) but we can educate children, parents and teachers on what a steaming pile of bullshit creationism is.

Nude Atheists

There is a new nude/nudish calendar of Atheists being put together by Secular Woman and being funded at Indiegogo.
http://www.indiegogo.com/atheist-nude-calendar-2013
http://secularwoman.org/calendar_2013

So you pay some money, see some atheists au natural and the money goes for funding conferences and other activities at Secular Woman.

This of course means that some people in the atheism/secualr/skeptic community are not that pleased.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/09/25/just-say-no-to-skeptic-calendars/
http://skepchick.org/2012/09/please-stop-making-calendars/

Now Rebecca Watson, aka Skepchick, is many things in this.  She has a great blog, she was the focal point of Elevatorgate* a while back and she also posed nude for a skeptic calendar.  One might think this was hypocrisy on her part.  I say no.

It's not hypocrisy because she is coming at this all from a very different point of view now.

She makes some valid points in her blog post, but I still feel that Secular Woman needs to move ahead with their plans.
Secular Woman is trying to reach out to many types of people here both in terms of audience and in terms who is pictured.  I do feel we can be sexual beings and not be sexualized.

Or if you wish just donate the money and get your naked people elsewhere.

----
*I don't want to get involved in Elevatorgate at the moment.  I don't know enough about it. I am not likely to go to any atheist conferences. And frankly I don't want to choose sides in this till I know more.  I am however interested in how the same sort of issues effect my hobby and I talk about that on my gaming blog, The Other Side.
In the meantime here are some Elevatorgate links. Chosen because they have overviews of what happened.
Please keep in mind I am still learning all this stuff myself.  I am going to have to come back to this sometime.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Watson
http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2011/07/why-we-have-to-talk-about-this.html
http://elevatorgate.wordpress.com/
http://freethoughtkampala.wordpress.com/2011/09/11/elevatorgate/

Fight on Bill Nye

Bill Nye has leveled some serious criticism against creationism.

In a nutshell, he doesn't care what you think or do, but please do not subject you children to this stupidity.

Here is the original video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHbYJfwFgOU

And some recent news articles where the creationists respond back:
http://www.mail.com/scitech/news/1583172-creation-views-threaten-us-science.html#.23140-stage-mostviewed1-3

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/bill-nye-creationism-science_n_1908926.html

My ONLY beef with all of this is this.  Why are we still having this debate?
This is 2012. Not 1712 or 212.

One one hand evolution has the weight of science, data, history, genetics, biology, geology and embryology all behind it.  Creationism has some book of questionable authorship and validity written in a time when people still didn't understand Germ Theory.

It boggles the mind really.

What Makes this Blog special?

There are a lot of atheism, atheism+, skeptic and free-thought blogs out there.
Even the list I have to the right isn't all of them, it isn't even a portion t be honest.

What I need is to find a way to set this blog apart from the others.  Something that makes it unique.

I am not a biologist or classical scientist, so I can't come from that point of view.

I am not really an angry atheist, nor am I particularly a "friendly" one since I still believe that most beliefs in gods are a sign of weakness.

What I am though is an educator.  I teach, I write curriculum.  Maybe that is my niche.
As this blog moves on from one of self-discovery, or at least one of public self-discovery, then maybe that is the direction I need to go.

Who knows really.  I want this place to evolve naturally.

Evolution is True

Some great videos on evolution that were posted to Darwin Killed God.

Simply put this mechanism is far more complex than any of it's critics have or even can give it credit for.

My stance from now is if you deny evolution then obviously are either not smart enough to understand it or are being willfully ignorant.

Part 1




Part 2

An Open Letter to A+

As I have said in the past, I have no issues with Atheism+. Indeed, it sounds like what I have been doing all this time anyway, or at least tried to do it.

There are some in the Atheism+ movement that seem to be doing the same thing that they were supposedly against.  I know...broad stereotypes, but there it is. Out there.

Here is an interesting video about the positives and mostly negatives of the Atheism+ movement.

C0nc0rdance gives us his point of view.


The big issue for me I guess I am not as involved with A+ as a movement as I could be.  I have stayed out of the larger picture of this; something that I used to feel bad about.  Everyone likes to be part of the "cool group" and A+ is the cool group.

Now I think I am happy to stay over here in my little corner of the net and trying to do my own thing.
When I agree with you all, GREAT! When I don't, well that is no big deal really.

I wish A+ the best and I wish the movement success.  I hope they don't fall into the traps mentioned above.

I will still considered what I do to be Atheism+, more or less, or as I have just always called it, Atheism.

Monster Bloghop

It might be a little self-serving but I am joining my own blog hop.
Here is the information from my other blog, The Other Side.  I have the perfect creature to work with this blog too!

This year I wanted to do something extra for Halloween (which in my mind is the entire month of October).  So I am going to be hosting the MONSTROUS MONDAY Blogfest!

The rules are really simple.

1. Sign up below
2. Grab a button and link back to my site
3. Post your Monster on Monday October 29th 2012!

That's it!

What kind of Monster?  Well that is up to you really.  I am going to be posting Monster stats.  You can do that, or post a monster you like/love/hate, or tell us about the monster in your new book coming out.  Anything would be great really.

Here are some buttons/banners for your use.

Right-click on the picture you want and re-size as needed.
Please link back to http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/

You can sign up here now.

Jessica Ahlquist in Illinois

and the Illinois Family Institute is mad about it.

First reported by The Friendly Atheist, the IFI has their granny panties all in a bunch over the fact that Jessica Ahlquist is speaking to some local schools during constitution week.

You can read their diatribe here:
http://illinoisfamily.org/education/constitution-week-at-york-waubonsie-and-downers-grove-north-high-schools/

Hemant Mehta, and I have to say myself, suggested using their own email system against them to praise the schools and condemn the IFI.
http://www.facebook.com/groups/NAPofIllinois/

Well,  it turns out that IFI was not too happy about that either.
http://illinoisfamily.org/education/teen-atheist-friendly-atheist-and-accuracy/

To which Hemant replies, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/09/18/atheists-beat-the-illinois-family-institute-at-their-own-game/


I am glad that Hemant reported that Jessica is doing good with no problems from theistic hate mongers like the IFI.

If you want express your gratitude to the schools that sponsored Jessica please go here.
http://ffrf.org/news/action/tell-illinois-schools-to-stand-by-jessica-ahlquist/

Please remember to be courteous and respectful.  Also, I would like to add, call AFTER 10:00am Central.  Schools get a lot of calls in the morning from parents, please don't tie up the phone lines for them.

The Genre Blogfest

Alex J. Cavanaugh's The Genre Blogfest.

In this blogfest I need to talk about my favorite Genre of Movie, Book and Music.  Plus my guilty pleasure.

So here we go!

Movies
My favorite is still Horror.  I love all that scary stuff.

Music
I would have to say Classic metal or even classic rock.  I still love to listen to Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Dio.  My wife accuses me of living in the past, I prefer to think of it that my tastes are so refined that I know what I want.

Books
Again, gotta say horror, but I enjoy the Modern Supernatural genre as well.  The ones where it's all teh same creatures as horror, but living in the world of today.  Things like The Dresden Files.  I do still enjoy fantasy.

Guilty Pleasure
This is a hard one.  I have so many!! Well, so many that others might call guilty, I don't feel any guilt in these.
But to narrow it down to one...well that can only be my love for really, really bad movies.  I am not talking your average B or C movie, I am talking about Z grade, unfit for human consumption.  Things they might have considered doing on MST3k, but were to bad.

What do you enjoy?
Read what others have posted too: http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/2012/08/bourne-legacy-review-ninja-news-tv.html


See what everyone else is doing!

If it was not for Religious zealots

Then today would only be the anniversary of the release of 3rd Edition D&D.

but that is not the world we live in.

Goodbye Blag Hag

Jen McCreight, AKA Blag Hag, has stopped blogging for the time being.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/09/goodbye-for-now/

I respect her choice and her reasons for this choice, even though it means I am loosing something I liked.
I liked her blog, I liked reading it.  This blog exists partially because I was reading hers.

Here is what sucks the most about the whole deal.
It was not the religious right or creationists or god-soaked morons that caused her to stop blogging.

It was other atheists.

Now I don't expect or pretend that atheists are all so similar that when together it is all hugs and parties. We are loosely aligned group of individuals that have other causes.  I think in a way that is what Atheism+ was all about, to unite more of our similarities.

It sucks that so many though had to violate the common decency to harass Jen.

It is too bad she is gone, but I hope this give her a chance to recharge her mental batteries a bit.

Hopefully I can say, in my own limited way, some of the things she would have wanted to say.
  

Atheism+ is live

The new Atheism+ website is now live.
http://atheismplus.com/

So far I like what they are saying, even if they have not really said much yet.

But again, for me atheism has allays had a healthy dose of Humanism, Skepticism and Social Justice.

Looking forward to more.

Sexual Harassment in the (Atheist) Workspace

With all apologies to Frank Zappa.

The big deal in online Atheism of late is the issue of sexual harassment at various atheist cons and the emerging idea of Atheism+ or A+.

It all got started with this post by Jen/Blag-Hag:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/08/how-i-unwittingly-infiltrated-the-boys-club-why-its-time-for-a-new-wave-of-atheism/

Fellow Game Designer and Atheist Jeff Dee sums it up from how he sees it on his blog:
http://wwjdee.blogspot.com/2012/07/sexual-harassment-amongst-unbelievers.html

Here is the issue I have with Atheism+.  I am not sure how it is different than what I am already doing.
I have never been a "super activist" but I have always taken a stand on what I thought was right against those in power (or otherwise).  Most recently my activism was mostly on raising awareness on various cliches portrayed in the media and advocating same-sex marriage. For me all of this and my atheism come from the same place. It is all about the same thing; "People are more important than imaginary gods".

Why then am I not a Secular Humanist? I suppose I am, but for me, right now, my atheism comes first.

But it seems, painfully, that I am a rare minority, or at least part of a very silent majority.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/08/24/mencallmethings-fuckin-hoe-fuckin-feminazi-slut/

A non-sexual-harassment reasoning to support A+
http://www.atheistrev.com/2012/08/threatening-others-cannot-be-tolerated.html

Lots of reactions linked and listed here:
http://www.atheistrev.com/2012/08/reactions-to-atheism.html

I will continue to monitor this, but I am not likely to change what I have been doing all these years.  I guess I was just ahead of the curve.

Sorry for the Silence

I have been away at Gen Con.

I wanted to have something to say about the A+ movement in Athesism and maybe even talk about why Todd Akin is shit-smear on this country.  But most this you already know.

But I will have something good soon.  Promise.

New links and lists

A couple of new-to-me blogs with some interesting links.

First up. 50 reasons God is Imaginary.
A great list and worth reading all of them.

Next is the blogger Lady Atheist and her "Top Ten Reasons why Religion Is Bullshit".
Also well worth the read.

Conservatives do not want you to learn

A couple of links that "graced" my computer screen this morning.

The first is the "Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries"
http://www.humanevents.com/2005/05/31/ten-most-harmful-books-of-the-19th-and-20th-centuries/
I am not sure what they mean by "harmful" because by my understanding the most harmful book ever published was "The Bible" followed by "The Koran".  But this is a conservative website so who knows what they are thinking.  Let's look at a few of the books.

"The Communist Manifesto" and "Das Kapital"- I am not a fan of communism and I have not read these, so I can't comment.

"Mein Kampf"  ok I can't disagree with them here.

" The Kinsey Report" they are really quote mining this one.  This book pushed the understanding og human sexuality out of the dark ages.  Yes, it has it's problems, to list this one as "Harmful" says more about the people making the list.

"Democracy and Education" now this is just plain stupid.  Dewey was brilliant and I have based most of my educational career on his ideas. Calling this a harmful book is pushing some agenda.

"The Feminine Mystique" again the only reason this is on the list is because these guys want some members of the population to go back to where they were and shut up.  Their reasoning is full of  Ad Hominem attacks as well.

"The Course of Positive Philosophy" and "Beyond Good and Evil" they disagreed with religion therefore they must be bad.  What are these guys afraid of?  I say guys, but there was one woman on the panel.

I really have no words for these people.

The other is "14 Wacky "Facts" Kids Will Learn in ouisiana's Voucher Schools"
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/07/photos-evangelical-curricula-louisiana-tax-dollars

Dinosaurs and men hanging out together?  The nice KKK?  This one has to be seen to believed.

Curiosity killed...no one

The latest Martian rover Curiosity has landed successfully on Mars.

The stated goal of this little robot is to see if Mars was ever capable of supporting life or even had life at one point.

I should not have spell out the ramifications of a positive discovery would have in both science and religion.

Till that happens you can follow Curiosity's Twitter feed. https://twitter.com/MarsCuriosity
And it's official site here: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

Why are You Atheists So Angry?

I just completed Great Christina's wonderful book "Why Are You Atheists So Angry?"

As I have mentioned before it reads a bit like her blog postings only there is more of a newbie vibe to it.  Not her, but for the reader.  It is a great "Second" book for atheism.  The first book would be what ever first convinced you to be an atheist; say the Bible or for me a book on mythology.

I like Greta's easy to read style.  She never makes demands on you as the reader other than to think.  Think critically about the world around you.  Think about others. But above all, think.

There is some good wisdom here, especially the part about not needing to win every argument, that having the argument is often enough to convince others that atheism is not only an acceptable lifestyle, but really the only one if you are a thinking, feeling rational person.

If you are new to this community then I suggest picking it up.
Frankly it is worth it for the links alone.

Videos on Atheism

A few of these are making rounds today and a few I picked up along the way.

Enjoy!

A link of many videos,
http://introducedrat.com/evolution.htm







More here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/EvolutionDocumentary?annotation_id=annotation_390069&feature=iv&src_vid=I91Huv4jbCk

Eating at Chik fil a today

I am not. Obviously.

But if you eat at Chik Fil A on any other day that is your choice.
But eating there today the only message you are sending is "I stand for hate and believe that some people are second class citizens."

Or as my son said when rolled down his window as we drove by "You People are Awful!"

Encouraging Words from Greta Christina

Sometimes arguing atheism more than an uphill battle.  It is vertical climb with people above you throwing rocks at you.

But I took a break today and read a little more of Greta Christina's book  “Why Are You Atheists So Angry?”

She states that these sort of blogs CAN change people's opinions.  Maybe they come here and then go to read Jen's blog or PZ Myers or whomever.   Just one more reason not to believe in fairy tales and lies.

If that is the case then I can ignore the rocks being thrown at me.  I know most of them are in fear that I very well could be right.

Things we Know are Wrong

The trouble with "Bible Literal" Christians (BLC), that is christians that believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God, is they also often treat it as a history text.  The problem with this is that real historians spend a lot of time reading, researching working with other fields of science to determine what really happened.  If the two differ, the historian and the bible, then these people  (and I am not talking about people who use the bible as a guide book; they are for another day) is they opt for a book that we know has changed over the years.

Let's look at a couple of examples, and to be fair I'll stick to the first two books of the Bible.

Myth 1: Adam and Eve
This one is so internally inconsistent that it has given rise to the Lilith myth.  Which I have enjoyed using in my own horror writing, but it makes for shitty reality.  In one passage we see god creating man and woman at the same time, in a later passage man is first and then woman is created (which has lead to 1000 of years of second class citizenship for women).  Instead of looking at this and thinking "ah, well they both can't be true therefore it is all bullshit" BLCs look at it and think "ah they must both be true!"
Ignoring that, there is also the issue of how could everyone on the planet come from just two people?  We would be so inbred as a species that the whole Earth would like some backwoods Appalachian village straight out of Deliverance.   PLUS the Bible doesn't think that.  After Cain is cast out for killing his brother he goes over to some other village and meets his wife.  Where the fuck did these people come from???
You can read the mental gymnastics that BLCs go through to explain who this woman is over at "Answers in Genesis" but you can also go read Time Cube and it makes about the same sense.
So in the Adam and Eve story we have: 1.) Many internal contradictions, 2.) no means of genetic diversity (which we can see everywhere right now) and 3.) justifications of keeping women as second class citizens and the superiority of man.  Why is that last one important? Simple is shows us why it was written the way it was.

Myth 2: The Flood
I knew this one was bullshit as a kid.  The big problem I have with this one is it is a fantasy aimed at little kids  (for the most part) and used to scare adults.  Here is what I mean.
First we have all the animals living in Noah's Ark in peace and happiness. The lions never eat the lambs and the elephants never shit on the floor.  The monkey's don't masturbate all day and the noise is fine.  And it is all bullshit.
First off we know how big the Ark was.  I have had arguments with Christians that will say "oh we don't know how big a cubit was", ah. yes we do.  Type "cubit" into Google.   And given an Ark that size we know for a fact that all the animals in the world could not fit into it. Let alone HOW all those animals got there.  Did the polar bear and penguin travel to the Middle east? What about the Kangaroo?   And even if that did, how was there enough room for all the food and fresh water?  Where the whales also on board? All the fish, the millions of species of insects?
The BLCs then will go into mental gymnastics mode again and talk about "kinds" which is of course is bullshit still.  Well lets say that they got all those animals in and they lived for six months without disease or killing each other.  They get out of the Ark and go back to the world.  Why then don't we see animals of all kinds leaving behind remains?  We would expect to see all sorts of animals remains of ever "kind" in Turkey where mount Arat is.  Except we don't.  There are no polar bears, penguins or kangaroos in Turkey.
the BLCs pull out the "kinds" argument again, say they animals changed.  We have a word for that in the real world.  It's called "Evolution".
Then there is the issue of what is left over after a flood; mud.  Lots of it.  You would then expect to see a nice line of mud in the strata of rock all around the world.  Except we don't.  There is no evidence what so ever of a world-wide flood.
Then we run into the same issues as with Adam and Eve.  Limited genetic material.
Oh and there are other, older flood stories that the writers of the bible plagiarized.
I said Noah's Ark is a kids story and it is.  All those animals living together like stuffed animals in a toybox.  The rainbow at the end to signal that god still loves you.  Except that this is the same god that wiped out most of the population in a flood.  He killed everything and everyone just because he could.
That's not a loving god. That is an asshole.

More reading:
http://www.skepdic.com/noahsark.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%27s_Ark
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/07/30/dutch-millionaire-builds-a-replica-of-noahs-ark/


Myth 3: The Jews built the Pyramids
This one is so deeply rooted in our collective sub-consciousness that to counter it we have to turn to alien astronauts to wedge it out.  The only thing that these two "theories" share is that they are both bullshit.
The Egyptians were many things, but one of those things were avid record keepers. They recorded all sorts of things including all the mundane things that go into making a Kingdom run.  And in all of those records we don't find anything at all about slaves building the pyramids.  What we do find is long ledgers of craftsmen and artists paid for their work on the pyramids.  In fact it was a different sort of religious-mania that seemed to fuel this.  The Egyptians that built the pyramids did it because that was how they got to the afterlife.  They even competed with each other to get more work done.  We have found skeletons, buried in workman's graves that are identified as workers on the pyramids. Their bone structure and DNA identifies them as Egyptian.  These were not pauper's graves either.  They were the honored dead.
This means the Exodus story is in no way true. It never happened because actual historical documents don't support it.

More reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza#Construction_theories
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/who-built-the-pyramids.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html


So if these three fundamental, even foundational, stories are no where near true what does that say about the rest of it?

Sally Ride

Yesterday we learned of the death of a true pioneer in space, Astronaut Sally Ride.

I don't know about Dr. Ride's views on faith or god or she was or was not a theist.

I do know she was the first American woman into space.  She was also the first lesbian and at one time the youngest person that went into space.

I do know she was an inspiration to millions of people, not just girls and women.  I remember when she first went into space I thought to myself that is was kinda sad that this was the 1980s and we still were in a position to have a "First Woman to..." at all.  But as I got older I realized that things were not as far along as I had hoped they would have been.  Plus so few people had gone into space by then and the requirements are so high that few people in general made it.  It took more "First Woman to..."s for Dr. Ride to get that far.

She kept her private life very private and instead focused on her educational efforts like Sally Ride Science.
She flew on two shuttle missions, both on Columbia and she served on both Shuttle disaster commissions.

Dr. Ride was 61.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride
Sally Ride Science, set up be her and her partner.  https://www.sallyridescience.com/

Guess Who Called Me?

I got a call today from Callista Gingrich. Yup the current (for now) of Newt Gingrich.
Well not her, but a recording of her.

I guess she is selling some new book and video called "Rediscovering God in America".  She was going on and on about how the founding fathers were hard core Christians.   Guess she never read the Treaty of Tripoli.

But she was going on also about we, yes the atheists, have destroyed America.  We don't let prayer in the schools and we cause town halls to have to take down their 10 Commandments.


It took everything I had to keep from laughing.  


When I got a real person on the phone all I said was I am a Atheist, they hung up on me.

In truth I should have kept them on the phone.  Every minute they were on with me is one less they could sell their nonsense to someone else.

If you get a call from them let me know how it goes.

All the cool kids are doing it...

I rather enjoy the webcomic Oglaf.

Well much to my delight, admist all the NSFW goings on that is typical of this comic was this little gem.

It was also quickly picked up by Pharyngula and Darwin Killed God.

It does take a fake death to kill a fake god.

New Book

Once I am done with Greta's book I am going to start a new one.  Or rather an old one.

I know there are issues with this book.  I know that biological sciences have advanced far, far beyond this now.

But I want to read it.  I want to see this unfold page by page.  This was the first salvo in the "Evolution Wars" and it was the most damaging one.  I want to read it so I know.

Arguing on Facebook

Is really getting me down.

The crappy logic (when it is used at all), the assumptions of Christian privilege, the gross double standards (it is ok for them to mock my points of view but I don't DARE saying anything against theirs), and just post after post of religious nonsense.

Then there is the constant barrage of religious propaganda. It's like if they are not shouting something about their god they would stop believing in it.  That actually might be true come to think of it.

I think I just need to stop arguing with them on Facebook. And by "them" I mean all of them the Christians the Jews, all of them.  I don't include the Muslims, cause frankly they never argue with me.  Maybe they consider me beneath their notice.  The Pagans leave me alone and more often than not tend to agree with me.

This might end up with more rants here.
If you want, friend me on Facebook so I don't feel like I am the only one out there.
http://www.facebook.com/timothy.brannan

WTF? Cat Buried Alive

I am not an animal lover per se.  Being deathly allergic to them all sorta precludes that.
But this is beyond me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/09/cat-buried-in-concrete-colorado-city-az_n_1660320.html

So a Mormon sect buries a kitten alive as part of a warning?
What the hell is up with these sub-humans?

They are using their faith and belief to justify their cruelty to animals and for some reason we are supposed to see faith as a "good thing".

Granted, this is not as bad as when Muslims stone or shoot a woman, but still.

Conservapedia??

Can anyone tell me what is the REAL deal with Conservapedia?

I know the history, but the more I read it the more I am convinced it is some elaborate joke designed to make fun of the conservatives rather than be a voice for them.  Some of the things there are just shit-eating insane.

Take for example these articles on Einstein's famous equation, E=mc².
Here is the Wikipedia version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass%E2%80%93energy_equivalence
Here is the Conservapedia version: http://www.conservapedia.com/E%3Dmc%C2%B2

I don't know what the hell I just read.  It's like trying to read Time Cube or something.

I would link more, but frankly the entire site is a joke.

Again it comes down to this:  "Conservatives, if you are not smart enough to understand something that doesn't mean there are not others that do and have shown it to be a scientific fact."

101 Reasons Why Evolution is True

Interesting page on 101 reasons why we know evolution is true.

http://ideonexus.com/2012/02/12/101-reasons-why-evolution-is-true/

We should not have to explain this, but yet there it is.
Still, this is a very interesting list.

American Atheists Harassment Policy

I will admit that I am on the fringe of the Atheist movement.  While I do my own thing and that often coincides with other peoples own thing I am not "part" of the inner workings.

I have known about the issues at some of the conferences and I have read the blog posts, except for the most recent batch.

The American Atheists has just released their Sexual Harassment Policy statement and you can read the text here:  http://atheists.org/conferencecodeofconduct

Personally I am glad to see these in place.
I do not see them as limiting or anything of that sort.  These rules are common sense and frankly should not need to be spelled out, but there you go...

I am happy to see the bit about keeping the strong fragrances down.  As someone with severe allergies I appreciate this one.

How the World Sees Us

I like to watch BBC News.  It gives me an unfiltered view of US politics and world news, free from the lens of US political interest.  The antidote to too much Fox News and MSNBC.
It is nice to see how the world views us, even when most of the times that view is unfavorable.

But this next item might be too much.

We all know that there are certain states in our union that are populated with mostly idiots. Well one such state, Louisiana is using the Loch Ness Monster and Godzillia as a means of "disproving" evolution.  Now if this home grown idiocy was bad enough, to make it worse they are talking about it in the Scottish press and laughing at ass.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/education/how-american-fundamentalist-schools-are-using-nessie-to-disprove-evolution.17918511

http://www.scotsman.com/news/odd/loch-ness-monster-cited-by-us-schools-as-evidence-that-evolution-is-myth-1-2373903

http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/25/scotland-is-laughing-at-us/

Great.  Now a much of backwards creationist idiots in Louisiana are making the rest of us look stupid.

Christian Privilege

Last night was my birthday so we went out to my favorite sea-food restaurant.

That is not the subject though of my post.

We parked next to a car that had a bunch of bumper stickers on it like "Don't Mess with Texas" and an old George W. Bush sticker.  They also had a sticker, a newer one, about "Protecting Religious Freedoms" and it had a bunch of little crosses on it.  No Stars of David, no Islamic Crescent Moons, certainly no Pentagrams.
 The understood message was "Protect MY Christian Religious Freedoms".

Christians have a warped sense of reality.  They are the most numerous religion in the country with members in 100s of millions.  Yet they also want to pretend they are an oppressed minority.
It's not that they all woke up and said "hey, I am going act like whiny baby because I am not getting my way anymore."   They have lived in a world of Christian Privilege for so long they have no idea what being a repressed minority actually is.

While the sticker made me groan (it is SOOO bad for you that you can drive a nice car and eat at this expensive restaurant) it also made me smile.  If they feel they are being attacked then the atheist movement is having some effect.  Sure there are other religions also making the poor little Christians feel all scared, but the bottom line is research is showing they are fewer religious type of any stripe and more secularist, atheists and skeptics in this country.

And that is a good thing.

I think I want to make a "Don't Mess with Atheists" sticker.

New Blogs

A couple of new blogs in my blog-roll today.

Zinnia Jones and Ashley Miller.
Both over at Free thought Blogs.

I knew of Zinnia Jones since we have a number of friends in common on Facebook.
Ashley Miller is new to me, but looking forward to seeing what she has to say.

Of course I can't help but think that all the cool kids are going over to FtB and I am stuck here in the ghetto of Blogger.   But I can't really complain.  In truth it is good to have atheist voices all over the internet.  It would be too easy to ignore all FtBs but out here in the hinterlands I can still do my thing.

Plus, and to be honest, I have never had the issues with Google or Blogger that others have had.  They let me do my thing and they leave me alone for the most part.

So stop by their new blogs and welcome them.

Champions of Reason

Nothing deep today. Just some freaking awesome art.

From left: John Cleese, Penn Jillette, Bill Nye, Stephen Hawking, (above) Frederick Nietzsche, (below) George Carlin, Carl Sagan, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Charles Darwin, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Adam Savage, Michio Kaku.

You can see the original and the artist here: http://saejinoh.blogspot.ca/2012/05/champions-of-reason.html

There's a Little Black Spot on the Sun today

If you follow science news (and if you follow this blog, I am sure you do) then you know that Venus is making an historic trip across the sun.  The last time this century.

It's not just that Venus is doing it.  We are all lined up in such a way that we can see it.

I recall reading about the Transit of Mercury back in the late 70s early 80s.  For those of you keeping score at home you know that this is also the same time of my atheist self-awareness.

I can't help but connect the two.

The Copernican Model of the Solar System was revolutionary for a number of reasons.  It helped explain why Transits of Mercury and Venus can occur for starters, but it also took in all the data we had and explained the observations we could make.  It did it all by throwing out one basic assumption. The assumption was that the Earth was the center of the Universe.

This assumption, while observational, was given biblical weight in the passage of Joshua 10:12-13 which talked about the Sun and Moon standing still.  I got into an argument with an adult at the time about this. Again she came from the point of view that if it was in the Bible it had to be true and all other evidence be damned.

Again this flies in the face of not just  Copernicus, but 450 years of data collection after that.  And much before that two since there were Greeks in 250 BCE that also knew this and I am sure the Egyptians and the Chinese astronomers also knew this (but I would have to double check).   What do these all have in common? They never made the Earth-centric assumption.

If we apply this same logic to other fields of science we see once again that once the bible is ignored then fields of evolution and cosmology do quite fine on their own.  It is only when people pull in this ancient text that has already  been shown time and time again to be in error that we have a problem.

So please, enjoy this once in a lifetime event and enjoy knowing that reason can explain why it happens and no supernatural forces are needed.

Better to be thought a fool...

A couple more of the faithful acting like fools.

http://fannin.fetchyournews.com/archives/2259-Atheist-Dont-Exist-God-Said-So.html and

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/hagee-tells-atheists-leave-country-because-they-are-not-wanted-and-wont-be-missed

Normally I would ignore such mindless dribble.  After all, it's not news when a baby drools or craps their diaper. Why should I care when a couple of Christians do the same?

Well there is one issue.  What if, say for example, I said "All Christians need to be deported" or "Jews don't exist because Darwin said so."  Well I had better make sure my address is unlisted then.

I would not say those things though, why? Because they are stupid things to say.

Just like these two bozos. Should bozo be capitalized?

Anyway, is this more of that Christian love I keep hearing about but have never seen?

Existential Crisis

I am having the only sort of existential crisis an atheist can have.

My library card expired.

I am a voracious reader.  Always have been.  I drove out of my way several miles this weekend while on errands to stop at two different used book stores.  I am on Amazon, B&N and DriveThruRPG every day.  Most days I buy something.

To have my library card expire and then WORSE, not be able to renew it because I didn't have proof of my address is just too much.

If I am not a reader then what am I???

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

So I already told you about the douche-bag in NC that wants to fence off all the gay people in the US.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21/north-carolina-pastor-gay-rant-starvation_n_1533463.html
http://www.towleroad.com/2012/05/nc-pastor-wants-to-build-electrified-fence-to-contain-starve-and-ultimately-kill-gays-video.html

This guy is as stupid as they get.

Well sadly, and not surprisingly, he is not alone.

Here is a shit smear from Kansas.
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/05/29/kansas-pastor/

And then there is is this.  I am not even sure what to say about this. It looks like child abuse to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRNbC-aSFLc&feature=youtu.be

If these are the people that are "Going to heaven" then frankly I want no part of them or their stupid god.

Thank you all for reminding me why being an atheist is best thing in the world.  Especially if it means I stand for everything you hate or are against.

Again I have to ask, where are the so called "moderate" Christians, the ones that are quick to say to me "they don't speak for us!"  Well until YOU tell them to shut up or tell them they are wrong they do in fact speak for you.

The Evolution "Debate"

Creationists like to think there is an Evolution debate.  There isn't one.
It's not that Evolutionary Biologists are so set in their ways they can't see other alternatives, it is just that the alternatives have been tested and weighed and retested over the last century.

There is so much support in terms of not just biology (and genetics, and embryology, micro-biology)  but also geology,  and the fossil record.  There is so much data to support it that it would be, to quote Stephen J. Gould, perverse to ignore it.  All of modern biology depends on it.  All our current theories on how organisms live and grow in the environment depend on it.  If it didn't, then we would see it right away.  This is not an arbitrary discussion on something that happened in the past, this is current as how do we create new drugs or gene therapy or even breed animals or plants.

So well supported that Paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey that the evolution debate is over.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/paleoanthropologist-richard-leakey-predicts-end-is-near-on-debate-over-evolution/2012/05/26/gJQAsB8DsU_story.html

Though Leakey, as brilliant as he is, is not taking into consideration that Creationists have a vested interest in evolution not being true.

Here is a video of Jerry Coyne discussing evolution, and more importantly however, why can't creationists see the truth?
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-evolution-is-true-and-why-many.html

Here is the entire series, http://www.hmnh.harvard.edu/lectures-classes-events/evolution-matters-video-lectures-2012.html

The key here is that the amount of evidence gathered makes no difference.  According to the video, 64% of Americans will REJECT a scientific fact if it contradicts their religion.  Of course this is a country of Anti-Vaxers too, so I should not be surprised.

Religion is the biggest obstacle to understanding evolution. 
It should be noted that Evolution is the biggest threat to religion, as stated here: http://richarddawkins.net/articles/645853-conversion-on-mount-improbable-how-evolution-challenges-christian-dogma

Indeed. Darwin killed God.

You can read more on Jerry Coyne at his blog at "Why Evolution Is True" at http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/

We Should Be Better Than This

I don't get involved in Atheist politics.
I also don't get involved in the meta-concerns involved in the online Atheist community.

For the most of my life I was the only atheist I knew. When I got to college I met more, but I never was socially involved with them because of their atheism, I was socially involved with them for other reasons.

This blog was created as a means to collect my own thoughts and to connect with others.

Well that all being said that doesn't mean I am not aware of what is going on in the Online Secular/Atheist community.

For example the latest issue is about how there are some famous (but maybe not famous to me) speakers out there that regularly sexually harass the young female contingent of these talks/conferences.  I have seen this before of course.

Here are the discussions if you wish to follow it.

http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2010/02/what-can-the-atheist-movement-learn-from-the-gay-movement.html
http://freethoughtblogs.com/almostdiamonds/2012/05/20/zero-intolerance/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/21/women-in-secularism-conference-a-summary-part-1/
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/05/22/beating-the-dead-horse-of-sexism-in-secularism/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/05/22/men-behaving-badly-at-atheist-conferences/
http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/05/dealing-with-badly-behaving-speakers/
and finally,
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2012/05/23/its-almost-time-to-start-naming-names/

Here is the question asked.  First, who are these people and how bad are they?  I guess pretty bad if there is all this text spilled on it.  The next question though addresses the first.  Should we name names?

I see this behavior all the time in gaming. I hate to say it, but gamers as a whole are thoroughly slovenly sub-species of human kind.  While the big name cons like Gen Con are trying for more Family-Friendly fare, and thus more female friendly, they are by and large still occupied by men and many that have no idea how to act around a member of the opposite sex.

That is an uphill battle, and one that we might never win.

Atheists and Secularist SHOULD be better than this.

The entire basis of what we do is one of unfettered intellectual discovery.   As a group we can claim high ACT/SAT/MAT/GRE test scores,  or even care what those letters mean.  We are, supposedly, better educated.  We have looked at the tyranny of Religion and have said, no, that is not right.

Yet. We have this too.

I guess in a way (bare with me now) it is great we can talk about these things.  It means were are mature enough as a movement to be able to have dirty laundry to air or even worry about trying to fix.

It is too bad though at the same time.

We lambast the Tea Party and the Republicans because of how they treat women. We deride and detest religions for doing the same.  Should we not hold ourselves to higher standards?  Yes we are all "just human", but we can be better than that.

We should be better than that.

I am never a fan of a public witch hunt.  Despite what my own morbid curiosity demands.
But I am wondering if we do need to call out our own, knowing full well how it will be seen from the outside.

We would expect the groups we criticize to do this and we would lambast them when they don't.