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."