Recently there was a Supreme Court decision that the Westboro Baptist Church was within its First Amendment rights to protest a military funeral. This is a very interesting case because the First Amendment not only protects free speech but also the idea that the government can not do anything that favors one church over another. This case is about free speech and the government is not doing anything to endorse the ideas and hatred that the Westboro Baptist Church is preaching. If this was another church doing the protesting, then the Supreme Court would have ruled the same way and this is why they are not endorsing this specific church. The great thing about this case is that the freedom of speech was upheld. Do not get me wrong, I do not agree with the Westboro Baptist Church in any way, shape or form. Actually, I think that Fred Phelps is an evil man. However, the freedom of speech also allows me to write this blog without fear that the government will feel the need to shut me down. The freedom of speech does provide us with a great freedom, and it should not be taken for granted. There are many people that I am sure that we all would like to silence, but what happens when they come to silence you or me?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/02/westboro-baptist-church-w_n_830209.html
The other part of the First Amendment stating that Congress should not make any law respecting the establishment of religion brings about some very interesting questions in this case. What would this country be like if the practices of the Westboro Baptist Church were the standard religion? Would this church have been able to come into existence without our freedom of religion and the separation of church and state? I think that the mentality of the Westboro Baptist Church can be very dangerous. The reason why this church is scary is that many people believe that all they need to do in order to get into heaven is simply believe in Jesus Christ and in the meantime do any nasty act they wish, however it seems that they do most of their protesting just for the publicity. This church is a great example of how crazy some religious people can get. Ultimately, if this was the one true way to worship a god, I would actively choose not to worship him for I do not find the god of the Westboro Baptist Church is simply not worth worshiping.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_Am1.html
Friday, March 4, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Chance
One argument against the THEORY of evolution is that there is no way that humans could not have evolved by mere chance. This argument is faulty on so many levels. However, I would like to take a look at some happenings of chance. An average man ejaculates around 180 million sperm (the number was higher before). If we just took this number, the odds that one of these sperm fertilizes an egg is at least 1 in 180 million. Now we can start to look at the number of eggs that a woman produces. If a woman only has 100 eggs the odds are a whopping 1 in 180 billion for each of us to come in to existence. A woman only ovulates briefly each month. If a couple were to try to create a baby once a day for a month, the odd would multiply to a whopping 5.4 trillion. This is simply the odds that a baby is created in one months time. Yet somehow we have overcome these odds to enjoy the reality that there are over 6 billion people on the planet. The chances that each person is who they are are very slim, yet the chances that a couple gets pregnant is not that slim. If we were to look at the lottery the same thing could be found. Usually as a jackpot gets larger, more people buy tickets. As more and more people buy tickets, the odds for each individual ticket becomes much more bleak. However, the odds are increased that someone will have the winning ticket because more combinations of numbers will have been drawn. Even though the odds are slim for each individual is very slim, some lucky ticket holder may find that they hold the winning ticket. The more a couple has sex, the chances for each sperm becomes slimmer, yet the odds that the couple will get pregnant is increased.
Well, I am sitting here typing this. So much for odds.......
Well, I am sitting here typing this. So much for odds.......
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Polyploid speciation
Yesterday was Darwin Day and I hope that everyone had a good one. In the spirit of Darwin Day I am going to again talk about an aspect of evolution. This aspect is polyploid speciation. This usually occurs in plant species as two plants form a hybrid. The reason why this happens in plant species frequently is that they can self fertilize themselves. The hybrids or daughter plants can no longer reproduce with either of the parents, yet they can reproduce with themselves. Not only is this evolution happening within one human lifetime, we can also test it and reproduce the results. The amazing thing is that I really do not remember hearing about this in many of the books that I have read. However, Jerry A. Coyne has mentioned this in his book Why Evolution is True. Now, one of my hobbies is gardening. I love to grow peppers and use them in my cooking. One of the hottest peppers is a hybrid of the habanero pepper. Many watermelons are hybrids as well. The seedless ones are designed so that the fruit is unable to produce seeds. However, there are also other watermelon hybrids that are able to produce seeds. The banana is another plant that can not reproduce. I once saw an argument that the banana was made by God as the perfect fruit. However, the person who made this argument was not aware at the time that the plant was manipulated by man to create the commercial banana. (This is also discussed in Jerry A. Coyne's book. If you want to see the argument for the banana being the perfect fruit, it is on YouTube and has Kirk Cameron in the video. I encourage you to watch it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4) Then it was pointed out that the banana was manipulated by man and the "proof" then became that God gave us the knowledge to formulate the useful banana. Plus, look at bananas and they don't all fit the "divine" design that was described in the video. We can manipulate many plants just like we have done with dogs. This does not mean that the peppers or watermelons have become new species, but it just shows that we do as much artificial selection with plants as anything else. One argument against the idea of artificial selection providing evidence for evolution is that their are no new dog species, they all can interbreed. However, this can no longer refute evolution since we can create new species of plants that are able to self fertilize and are no longer able to fertilize either parent species. Evolution is a wonderful and interesting science.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Geology
Geology is a wonderful thing. We can actively see changes to the earth that support the THEORY of plate tectonics. Thanks to the man made satellites orbitting our planet, we can measure the distance of the continents and actually measure the distance that they are moving each year. We also see a large number of fault lines and volcanoes around the Pacific Rim that outlines the Pacific Plate. The island of Hawaii sits on a hot spot on the Pacific Ocean. We can see the course that the plate has taken throughout history since the older islands used to sit on top of this hot spot. The rocks found on the islands can be tested to show that they are volcanic in nature. We can also see the seafloor spreading in the Atlantic Ocean. The amazing thing is that we can actually see evidence of the seafloor spreading without going below the surface. The island of Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This means that as the sea floor is spreading so does the island. All of this provides evidence that the earth is much older than 6-10 thousand years old and that the continents used to be joined together in a large supercontinent. This also helps to explain the distribution of animal and plant life seen in the world as evolution explains.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
What if you're wrong?
This question is kind of amusing to me. Basically the question is asking, what if you spend all of your life as an atheist saying that god does not exist and then you die and find out there is a god? Well, I have to ask all religious people, what if you are wrong? What if instead of God we should be worshipping Allah or Yahweh? Or even if we should be still worshipping Zeus, Jupiter, Odin, or any number of other gods that Americans do not worship. Ultimately, I guess that a christian asking this question is wondering why an atheist may say there is no god and risk spending all of eternity in hell. If anyone happens to ask this question, I think that it should be redirected at them. Most people will invariably say that they are not wrong, they know that the one god that they have chosen to worship is the right one to pray to. The crazy thing is that this god is usually the same god that their parents worship as well. Most people do not even give any thought to why they pray to this particular god.
However, to really answer this question, I don't worry about it. I do not believe in god or hell so there is nothing to be scared of. When I die, that is all there is. And really, this life is all that I could ever ask for and that makes me the Happy Atheist.
However, to really answer this question, I don't worry about it. I do not believe in god or hell so there is nothing to be scared of. When I die, that is all there is. And really, this life is all that I could ever ask for and that makes me the Happy Atheist.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
February 12th
This day is one of extreme historical significance. The 16th President of the United States was born on this day in 1809 in Kentucky. He later moved to Indiana and finally found himself in Springfield, IL. He became a lawyer and state legislator. Finally he became the first Republican president in 1861. This man was shot at Ford's Theater in April 1865 by John Wilkes Booth after the South lost the Civil War. Yes, this man was Abraham Lincoln.
On the same day in the same year, but a whole ocean away in England another man was born. This man actually studied to be a doctor and clergyman and soon found himself as the naturalist of the "Beagle". The ship set sail in December of 1831 and finally returned in 1836. He travelled to South America and even the Galapagos Islands. Here he studied the finches and noticed the slight differences among the species. The "Beagle" circumnavigated the globe before returning to England. In 1859 he published On the Origin of Species. This man is one of the most celebrated and most despised men today even though he died in 1882. This man was Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin is associated with the theory of evolution that it is also called Darwin's Theory of Evolution or even just Darwinism. However, we almost would be calling it Wallace's Theory of Evolution or Wallacism. Alfred Russel Wallace was also a British naturalist who independantly came to the conclusion that species evolved through the process of natural selection. Wallace sent Darwin a letter stating that he was going to publish his findings. This prompted Darwin to finish his book.
Another player in the field of evolution was Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck had the idea that traits that were acquired in an animals lifetime would be passed on to the organism's offspring. An example would be if you cut off a rat's tail then its offspring would have short tails. This is not how evolution works and no scientist who studies evolution seriously would suggest as such. I recently read a book by Kenneth Poppe, an advocate of Intelligent Design, who suggested that Darwinists spread the idea that evolution works according to the ideas of Lamarck instead of Darwin himself. If you look at Dr. Poppe's book you can see that he has shows his true colors. He is trying to discredit evolution by misrepresenting facts in order to spread his own false creationistic beliefs. He wants to believe in god so evolution must be false. However, if you look at Richard Dawkins's books or Jerry Coyne's book "Why Evolution is True" you will see two examples of "Darwinists" not explaining evolution as Lamarck viewed it, but as Darwin viewed it using natural selection.
And we can test both ideas of evolution. No matter how many times we cut off a rat's tail, its offspring will never have offspring with shorter tails as a result. This we can test by actually cutting off a rat's tail and then breeding the rat. This is how and why Lamarckian evolution was proven false, by testing its predictions. Darwinian evolution using natural selection has been tested using the fossil record, DNA, and lab experiments (justs to name a few) and has not been proven false yet. Intelligent Design is not even science because it can be tested and it can not be falsified. I do believe evolution to be a fact, however if there was evidence against evolution (and creationists have not found any even though they claim they have, all they do is quote from the bible and misrepresent evolutionary facts while presenting no new facts or ideas of their own) and for a creator, I would change my mind. Claiming that there are gaps in the fossil record, that scientists disagree on certain aspects of evolution and that we don't know how life originated doesn't disprove evolution since all of these are commonly admitted to in the scientific community. Science uses evidence to help tell the story of human origins. When new evidence is found, the story changes. Creationists already have a set story and new evidence must fit into this story, if it doesn't it must be discarded. The rational for this is that god is testing the believers faith. What I see is a believer so desperate to believe in a god that they lie to themselves about the evidence. An example is the way that fossils have been laid down in the sediments of the earth. Evolution predicts that you would find simpler organisms followed by some more complex ones. Creationists must fit this information into their predetermined story. They do this by saying that after Noah's flood the animals were laid down in the order that we see from the fossil data. (The bible says nothing about the fossils being laid in any certain order. The reason for this is that the people who actually wrote the bible (and it wasn't god) didn't know about the fossils that later generations would discover.)
Another important player in the study of evolution and genetics was Gregor Mendel who studied the traits of peas. His findings were revolutionary and gave great insight into how traits are passed on from parent to offspring.
Anyway, on February 12th I will celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday because he was one of the greatest American presidents and is unlikely to be topped anytime soon. Plus, he gave his life for his country. He gave his life to keep the United States as one country and did what was ultimately best for the country, stopping the practice of slavery. Coincidently, slavery is condoned in the bible. I have not yet found a passage saying that slavery is bad. So, based on this issue alone I would not want to believe in the god of the bible.
However, more importantly I will be celebrating the birthday of Charles Darwin. He represents the truth of evolution and the lies the creationists tell themselves. So have a happy Darwin Day.
On the same day in the same year, but a whole ocean away in England another man was born. This man actually studied to be a doctor and clergyman and soon found himself as the naturalist of the "Beagle". The ship set sail in December of 1831 and finally returned in 1836. He travelled to South America and even the Galapagos Islands. Here he studied the finches and noticed the slight differences among the species. The "Beagle" circumnavigated the globe before returning to England. In 1859 he published On the Origin of Species. This man is one of the most celebrated and most despised men today even though he died in 1882. This man was Charles Darwin.
Charles Darwin is associated with the theory of evolution that it is also called Darwin's Theory of Evolution or even just Darwinism. However, we almost would be calling it Wallace's Theory of Evolution or Wallacism. Alfred Russel Wallace was also a British naturalist who independantly came to the conclusion that species evolved through the process of natural selection. Wallace sent Darwin a letter stating that he was going to publish his findings. This prompted Darwin to finish his book.
Another player in the field of evolution was Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck had the idea that traits that were acquired in an animals lifetime would be passed on to the organism's offspring. An example would be if you cut off a rat's tail then its offspring would have short tails. This is not how evolution works and no scientist who studies evolution seriously would suggest as such. I recently read a book by Kenneth Poppe, an advocate of Intelligent Design, who suggested that Darwinists spread the idea that evolution works according to the ideas of Lamarck instead of Darwin himself. If you look at Dr. Poppe's book you can see that he has shows his true colors. He is trying to discredit evolution by misrepresenting facts in order to spread his own false creationistic beliefs. He wants to believe in god so evolution must be false. However, if you look at Richard Dawkins's books or Jerry Coyne's book "Why Evolution is True" you will see two examples of "Darwinists" not explaining evolution as Lamarck viewed it, but as Darwin viewed it using natural selection.
And we can test both ideas of evolution. No matter how many times we cut off a rat's tail, its offspring will never have offspring with shorter tails as a result. This we can test by actually cutting off a rat's tail and then breeding the rat. This is how and why Lamarckian evolution was proven false, by testing its predictions. Darwinian evolution using natural selection has been tested using the fossil record, DNA, and lab experiments (justs to name a few) and has not been proven false yet. Intelligent Design is not even science because it can be tested and it can not be falsified. I do believe evolution to be a fact, however if there was evidence against evolution (and creationists have not found any even though they claim they have, all they do is quote from the bible and misrepresent evolutionary facts while presenting no new facts or ideas of their own) and for a creator, I would change my mind. Claiming that there are gaps in the fossil record, that scientists disagree on certain aspects of evolution and that we don't know how life originated doesn't disprove evolution since all of these are commonly admitted to in the scientific community. Science uses evidence to help tell the story of human origins. When new evidence is found, the story changes. Creationists already have a set story and new evidence must fit into this story, if it doesn't it must be discarded. The rational for this is that god is testing the believers faith. What I see is a believer so desperate to believe in a god that they lie to themselves about the evidence. An example is the way that fossils have been laid down in the sediments of the earth. Evolution predicts that you would find simpler organisms followed by some more complex ones. Creationists must fit this information into their predetermined story. They do this by saying that after Noah's flood the animals were laid down in the order that we see from the fossil data. (The bible says nothing about the fossils being laid in any certain order. The reason for this is that the people who actually wrote the bible (and it wasn't god) didn't know about the fossils that later generations would discover.)
Another important player in the study of evolution and genetics was Gregor Mendel who studied the traits of peas. His findings were revolutionary and gave great insight into how traits are passed on from parent to offspring.
Anyway, on February 12th I will celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday because he was one of the greatest American presidents and is unlikely to be topped anytime soon. Plus, he gave his life for his country. He gave his life to keep the United States as one country and did what was ultimately best for the country, stopping the practice of slavery. Coincidently, slavery is condoned in the bible. I have not yet found a passage saying that slavery is bad. So, based on this issue alone I would not want to believe in the god of the bible.
However, more importantly I will be celebrating the birthday of Charles Darwin. He represents the truth of evolution and the lies the creationists tell themselves. So have a happy Darwin Day.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Call to Action
I am asking that everyone, whether they believe in a god or not, to be nice to someone today (and every day). Do a good deed. Call a family member or friend and just ask how they are doing. Open the door for someone, smile, pay someone a compliment. Try to volunteer some time to a cause that you believe in strongly. Donate some clothes or food for those less fortunate. Offer someone a light or buy someone a drink. Be a friend.
Each of us has a great ability to make someone's day a little brighter. Life is an amazing gift and everyday should bring us at least a little bit of joy. So enjoy your day and help someone else enjoy their day as well.
Each of us has a great ability to make someone's day a little brighter. Life is an amazing gift and everyday should bring us at least a little bit of joy. So enjoy your day and help someone else enjoy their day as well.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Random quotes
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own" Letter to H. Spafford, 1814 (Thomas Jefferson)
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own" Letter to H. Spafford, 1814 (Thomas Jefferson)
"Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together" Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822 (James Madison)
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Treaty of Tripoly, article 11 (John Adams)
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, December 27, 1816 (John Adams)
"Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separated." - Ulysses S. Grant
"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." - Benjamin Franklin
"The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers."
-- Denis Diderot
"Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?" - Robert G. Ingersoll
"The good part of Christmas is not always Christian -- it is generally Pagan; that is to say, human, natural." - Robert G. Ingersoll
"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." - Mark Twain
"Only Sheep need a shepherd!"
-- unknown
"Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men." - Voltaire
"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"Creationists make it sound like a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night." - Isaac Asamov
"Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense."
-- Chapman Cohen
"It is said that men may not be the dreams of the Gods, but rather that the Gods are the dreams of men." - Carl Sagan
"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." - Arthur C. Clarke
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus
"God is not dead. He is alive and working on a much less ambitious project."
-- graffito
"Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk."
-- Tom Waits
You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do. --[from Usenet]
"If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever." - Woody Allen
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx
"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people" - Jesse Ventura
"Humanity without religion is like a serial killer without a chainsaw."
-- unknown
"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
-- H. L. Mencken
"Men never commit evil so fully and joyfuly as when they do it for religious convictions"
-- Blaise Pascal
"Faith is believing something you know ain't true." - Mark Twain
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." - Benjamin Franklin
"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church."
--Ferdinand Magellan
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan
"And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence." - Bertrand Russell
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
-- Stephen Roberts
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own" Letter to H. Spafford, 1814 (Thomas Jefferson)
"Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together" Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822 (James Madison)
"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Treaty of Tripoly, article 11 (John Adams)
"As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?" letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, December 27, 1816 (John Adams)
"Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private schools, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and the state forever separated." - Ulysses S. Grant
"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." - Benjamin Franklin
"The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers."
-- Denis Diderot
"Why should I allow that same God to tell me how to raise my kids, who had to drown His own?" - Robert G. Ingersoll
"The good part of Christmas is not always Christian -- it is generally Pagan; that is to say, human, natural." - Robert G. Ingersoll
"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand." - Mark Twain
"Only Sheep need a shepherd!"
-- unknown
"Of all religions the Christian is without doubt the one which should inspire tolerance most, although up to now the Christians have been the most intolerant of all men." - Voltaire
"In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"Creationists make it sound like a 'theory' is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night." - Isaac Asamov
"Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense."
-- Chapman Cohen
"It is said that men may not be the dreams of the Gods, but rather that the Gods are the dreams of men." - Carl Sagan
"It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him." - Arthur C. Clarke
"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
- Epicurus
"God is not dead. He is alive and working on a much less ambitious project."
-- graffito
"Don't you know there ain't no devil, it's just god when he's drunk."
-- Tom Waits
You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do. --[from Usenet]
"If it turns out that there is a God, I don't think that he's evil. But the worst that you can say about him is that basically he's an underachiever." - Woody Allen
"Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people." - Karl Marx
"Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people" - Jesse Ventura
"Humanity without religion is like a serial killer without a chainsaw."
-- unknown
"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."
-- H. L. Mencken
"Men never commit evil so fully and joyfuly as when they do it for religious convictions"
-- Blaise Pascal
"Faith is believing something you know ain't true." - Mark Twain
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." - Benjamin Franklin
"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church."
--Ferdinand Magellan
"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." - George Bernard Shaw
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan
"And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence." - Bertrand Russell
"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
-- Stephen Roberts
Saturday, January 29, 2011
The Bible
This may come across as an insulting question, but I mean it with sincerity. How many religious people actually read the bible? The reason why I ask is that many people claim that being gay is a sin. But when we look, who can say that they have not done something that the bible states is just as bad? Even worse, people say that we should have biblical law. I do encourage people of faith and those that doubt to read the bible just the same.
Leviticus 26:1 States that we should not make idols. Someone pointed out that the cross people wear on a necklace (as many Christians do) could be viewed as an idol. But it is a symbol of Christ being crucified!!! Exactly, it is a symbol that is being worshipped, not god.
Leviticus 22:11 This addresses a priest buying a slave or having one born into his household. Well, thanks to something that I call the Civil War, slavery is no longer allowed in our great country called the United States of America.
Leviticus 20:13 This states that any man who sleeps with another man should be put to death. Ok, I give you this one, it does state that men should not sleep with other men.
Leviticus 20:9-10 These verses address children who dishonor their parents and adulterers. And guess what. Both the children and the adulterers should be put to death as well. So why are we not harrassing the children and adulterers like we do people who happen to be gay. This to me seems to be an even greater injustice since science has proven that people do not choose to be gay. Yet people do choose to be adulterers.
(It is extremely convenient to say that science doesn't prove anything when it goes against our beliefs (i.e. evolution and homosexuality) but we readily embrace it when we need medical help and go to the hospital. However, no one gives credit to the doctors. Instead when someone recovers, all we hear is "Thank god." Next time someone gets sick, don't take them to the doctor and see if god will heal them all on his own.)
Leviticus 20:21 This states that a man should not take his brother's wife as his own. They will remain childless. I do not know anyone who has married his brother's wife, but this seems easy enough to be proven false.
Leviticus 19:19 This states that we should not wear clothing of two different materials. So if by now you are fuming mad and want to punch me in the face. Do me this favor. Check your dresser drawers, your closet, your hamper or wherever you keep you clothes. If nothing in your wardrobe is made of two different materials, then I will be extremely surprised.
Leviticus 19:28 This one I love. It states that we should not put tattoos on our bodies. Go into any tattoo parlor and you will most definitely see one of these symbols, 1) a cross, 2) a picture of Jesus, 3) a picture of hands in prayer.
But I guess none of these really matter since all that is required is to believe in Jesus in order to get into heaven. The above examples were just to demonstrate a few things that we do not follow in our society today. Now I will demonstrate two contradictions in the bible and why it is impossible to use a literal interpretation of the bible. (If you take a literal view on the bible, I seriously think that you are lying to yourself and doing a pretty good job of it.)
Genesis 9:3 This verse states that god gave humans everything as food.
Leviticus 11:3 This verse states that we should only eat animals that have a completely divided split hoof and chews cud.
Leviticus 11:10 This also states that we should not eat anything that is in the water that does not have fins or scales.
Now here god either changed his mind, made a mistake or the bible is just wrong. Obviously there are people that do eat animals that god said that we should not eat. Using the verse in Genesis this person can say that they are right. However, Leviticus says that they are wrong. Unfortunately, it seems a little screwy to me.
Leviticus 20:21 This was mentioned above. It aslo states that the couple will dishonor the man's brother.
Genesis 38:8 This states that it is a man's duty to take his brother's wife as his own. This means that if your brother died, as a man you must take his wife as your own.
Mark 6:18 This also states that it is not unlawful for a man to marry his brother's wife.
How can we take the bible literally when it takes two different stances on the same issue. There are many people who want the problems with evolution taught in schools. (This is because there own views are faulty.) I would love to see people in church teaching their kids the problems with religion. This won't happen becuase scientists and atheists are not that worried about what religious people are teaching their children. Yes, we are concerned about what is taught in schools, but we will not raid churches, synagogues or mosques in order for our views to be represented. In this, the "creationists" seem to not be able to handle their losses and will continue, unsuccessfully to get religion in the public school system. This also shows the motivation between the idea that there is no separation of church and state. However, thanks to the first amendment, my children will not be forced to learn these religious perversions and this make me a Happy Atheist.
Leviticus 26:1 States that we should not make idols. Someone pointed out that the cross people wear on a necklace (as many Christians do) could be viewed as an idol. But it is a symbol of Christ being crucified!!! Exactly, it is a symbol that is being worshipped, not god.
Leviticus 22:11 This addresses a priest buying a slave or having one born into his household. Well, thanks to something that I call the Civil War, slavery is no longer allowed in our great country called the United States of America.
Leviticus 20:13 This states that any man who sleeps with another man should be put to death. Ok, I give you this one, it does state that men should not sleep with other men.
Leviticus 20:9-10 These verses address children who dishonor their parents and adulterers. And guess what. Both the children and the adulterers should be put to death as well. So why are we not harrassing the children and adulterers like we do people who happen to be gay. This to me seems to be an even greater injustice since science has proven that people do not choose to be gay. Yet people do choose to be adulterers.
(It is extremely convenient to say that science doesn't prove anything when it goes against our beliefs (i.e. evolution and homosexuality) but we readily embrace it when we need medical help and go to the hospital. However, no one gives credit to the doctors. Instead when someone recovers, all we hear is "Thank god." Next time someone gets sick, don't take them to the doctor and see if god will heal them all on his own.)
Leviticus 20:21 This states that a man should not take his brother's wife as his own. They will remain childless. I do not know anyone who has married his brother's wife, but this seems easy enough to be proven false.
Leviticus 19:19 This states that we should not wear clothing of two different materials. So if by now you are fuming mad and want to punch me in the face. Do me this favor. Check your dresser drawers, your closet, your hamper or wherever you keep you clothes. If nothing in your wardrobe is made of two different materials, then I will be extremely surprised.
Leviticus 19:28 This one I love. It states that we should not put tattoos on our bodies. Go into any tattoo parlor and you will most definitely see one of these symbols, 1) a cross, 2) a picture of Jesus, 3) a picture of hands in prayer.
But I guess none of these really matter since all that is required is to believe in Jesus in order to get into heaven. The above examples were just to demonstrate a few things that we do not follow in our society today. Now I will demonstrate two contradictions in the bible and why it is impossible to use a literal interpretation of the bible. (If you take a literal view on the bible, I seriously think that you are lying to yourself and doing a pretty good job of it.)
Genesis 9:3 This verse states that god gave humans everything as food.
Leviticus 11:3 This verse states that we should only eat animals that have a completely divided split hoof and chews cud.
Leviticus 11:10 This also states that we should not eat anything that is in the water that does not have fins or scales.
Now here god either changed his mind, made a mistake or the bible is just wrong. Obviously there are people that do eat animals that god said that we should not eat. Using the verse in Genesis this person can say that they are right. However, Leviticus says that they are wrong. Unfortunately, it seems a little screwy to me.
Leviticus 20:21 This was mentioned above. It aslo states that the couple will dishonor the man's brother.
Genesis 38:8 This states that it is a man's duty to take his brother's wife as his own. This means that if your brother died, as a man you must take his wife as your own.
Mark 6:18 This also states that it is not unlawful for a man to marry his brother's wife.
How can we take the bible literally when it takes two different stances on the same issue. There are many people who want the problems with evolution taught in schools. (This is because there own views are faulty.) I would love to see people in church teaching their kids the problems with religion. This won't happen becuase scientists and atheists are not that worried about what religious people are teaching their children. Yes, we are concerned about what is taught in schools, but we will not raid churches, synagogues or mosques in order for our views to be represented. In this, the "creationists" seem to not be able to handle their losses and will continue, unsuccessfully to get religion in the public school system. This also shows the motivation between the idea that there is no separation of church and state. However, thanks to the first amendment, my children will not be forced to learn these religious perversions and this make me a Happy Atheist.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Intelligent Design
For the most part I do not mind religion. Most people of all religious faiths are decent respectable people who do their best to make this a better world. There are times that we see people of certain faiths who would like to cause harm to others. One movement that does a lot of harm to its unsuspecting victims is Intelligent Design.
Intelligent Design is not science first and foremost. Science is based on things that can be tested. There is no way that we can test if something was influenced by a supreme being, therefore nothing that the ID movement can put forward is indeed science. Second, this movement does nothing to improve the knowledge that we have of our world. ID presents no new facts, experiments or even any positive evidence that what they are saying is true. They do not run tests to see if there is another alternative to evolution that can be responsible for the natural world. Instead, the last book that I looked at that talked about ID misrepresented the facts and then said that the science was wrong so god must have created the world. The author stated that evolutionists suggest that animals evolved using Lamarckian evolution. Lamarckian evolution states that if you cut off a rat's tail that its offspring will have shorter tails. This idea was quickly put to rest and no one in their right mind would say that evolution happens in this manner. ID is purposely lying and deceiving its followers, and for what? This is the important question. We should for no reason be teaching this to our kids ever. People wonder why our children are coming out of the public schools so messed up. The reason is that the teachers can not teach the children. Instead they have to deal with lawsuits funded by the Discovery Institute trying to say that there are problems with evolution.
Another thing that is common today is to say that evolution is ONLY a theory. Well, I guess that it is too bad that gravity is ONLY a theory. Why is there no opposition to gravity? Because the idea of gravity does not go against religious beliefs. However, evolution is just as much of a fact as gravity.
I fear for the future of this country since there is and has been a powerful religious force trying to teach our children bogus religion and pass it off as science.
However, I know that the truth will set you free. In this instance the truth is that evolution has happened, is happening and will continue to happen. There are always people who like to say something witty like "I know you evolved from monkeys," our something else just as clever. This also shows that this person has no concept of how man has evolved or even how evolution works.
Well, I am heading to bed. When I wake up tomorrow, I know that when I put my feet on the ground I will be able to stay on the ground and not all of a sudden start to float away. All because of the THEORY of gravity. And that makes me the Happy Atheist.
Intelligent Design is not science first and foremost. Science is based on things that can be tested. There is no way that we can test if something was influenced by a supreme being, therefore nothing that the ID movement can put forward is indeed science. Second, this movement does nothing to improve the knowledge that we have of our world. ID presents no new facts, experiments or even any positive evidence that what they are saying is true. They do not run tests to see if there is another alternative to evolution that can be responsible for the natural world. Instead, the last book that I looked at that talked about ID misrepresented the facts and then said that the science was wrong so god must have created the world. The author stated that evolutionists suggest that animals evolved using Lamarckian evolution. Lamarckian evolution states that if you cut off a rat's tail that its offspring will have shorter tails. This idea was quickly put to rest and no one in their right mind would say that evolution happens in this manner. ID is purposely lying and deceiving its followers, and for what? This is the important question. We should for no reason be teaching this to our kids ever. People wonder why our children are coming out of the public schools so messed up. The reason is that the teachers can not teach the children. Instead they have to deal with lawsuits funded by the Discovery Institute trying to say that there are problems with evolution.
Another thing that is common today is to say that evolution is ONLY a theory. Well, I guess that it is too bad that gravity is ONLY a theory. Why is there no opposition to gravity? Because the idea of gravity does not go against religious beliefs. However, evolution is just as much of a fact as gravity.
I fear for the future of this country since there is and has been a powerful religious force trying to teach our children bogus religion and pass it off as science.
However, I know that the truth will set you free. In this instance the truth is that evolution has happened, is happening and will continue to happen. There are always people who like to say something witty like "I know you evolved from monkeys," our something else just as clever. This also shows that this person has no concept of how man has evolved or even how evolution works.
Well, I am heading to bed. When I wake up tomorrow, I know that when I put my feet on the ground I will be able to stay on the ground and not all of a sudden start to float away. All because of the THEORY of gravity. And that makes me the Happy Atheist.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Heaven and hell.
Yesterday I went to a funeral for my wife's aunt, Pat. The service was very nice and many people showed up out of respect for the family and for Pat. One theme that seemed to come up quite frequently was the idea of heaven. Pat was no longer with us and is in a much better place. Hours before my wife's aunt had passed, she was lying bedridden in the hospital using a machine to breathe. Trying to keep her alive would have kept her in pain and continued her suffering, a purely selfish endeavor. So I also viewed that she was better off.
However, I do not believe in heaven. Or hell for that matter. Some of the people that said that Pat was in heaven seemed to be saying so in order to ease their pain and suffering. Pat was now with other deceased members of the family and everyone else with be able to rejoin them. This does sound extremely comforting for those that have just lost someone. This does not make it true and there is absolutely no truth that either heaven or hell even exists. The way that I live my life is that we only have one shot so it better be a good one. This means that I want to have as good of a relationship with my kids and spend as much time with them as possible during this lifetime.
Now, many Christians may think that it is virtually impossible to be an atheist and be a moral person. Like I just said, I want to spend as much time with my kids as possible. This also will mean my grandkids if I am so lucky. I do not want to spend my life in jail. This to me is a much bigger deterrent to acting immorally than some Christian denominations seem to offer. The pastor at the service stated that all that is needed to enter heaven was to accept Jesus into your life. So my question is, what is needed to make a Christian moral? After all, with this logic, I could be the most horrible person in the world and then on my death bed accept Jesus as my personal savior and then get into heaven. With this logic, I would want to go to hell where all the sane people are. Speaking of hell, why does it even exist. If it was this easy to avoid going to hell, I wouldn't think that anyone would be down there. But wait, hell isn't for the Christians, it is for the people that can see through the garbage that the church is trying to sell them and actually rejects their teachings. If you believe in Jesus, I guess you have no need to worry, you are going to heaven. As for me, I am going to hell. But the thing is that I do not believe in hell, or the devil for that matter (no, I am not a devil worshipper) so I will be just fine.
Besides, we don't even follow the morality proposed in the bible anyway. In the old testament there are many instances of polygamy. Moses told many of his followers to kill people that were unlike the Hebrews and then rape the women. Abraham took Sara's maidservant so that he may have a child. Jesus looked down upon divorce. I see people getting tattoos of Jesus or crosses all the time even thought the bible says not to. People eat shell fish or wear clothing of two different types of materials. Not many people in this country today could ever say that they follow the morality of the bible. I refuse to believe that someone is more of a moral person just because they have some holy book that was written by some oppressive weirdos centuries ago.
Every morning, I wake up and give my kids a great big hug and a kiss, thankful to be alive. I kiss my wife goodbye wishing her a safe trip to work. I also play around with my two year old rat terrier. I do my best to treat everyone kindly and accept them for who they are. My life is much better since I have become the Happy Atheist.
However, I do not believe in heaven. Or hell for that matter. Some of the people that said that Pat was in heaven seemed to be saying so in order to ease their pain and suffering. Pat was now with other deceased members of the family and everyone else with be able to rejoin them. This does sound extremely comforting for those that have just lost someone. This does not make it true and there is absolutely no truth that either heaven or hell even exists. The way that I live my life is that we only have one shot so it better be a good one. This means that I want to have as good of a relationship with my kids and spend as much time with them as possible during this lifetime.
Now, many Christians may think that it is virtually impossible to be an atheist and be a moral person. Like I just said, I want to spend as much time with my kids as possible. This also will mean my grandkids if I am so lucky. I do not want to spend my life in jail. This to me is a much bigger deterrent to acting immorally than some Christian denominations seem to offer. The pastor at the service stated that all that is needed to enter heaven was to accept Jesus into your life. So my question is, what is needed to make a Christian moral? After all, with this logic, I could be the most horrible person in the world and then on my death bed accept Jesus as my personal savior and then get into heaven. With this logic, I would want to go to hell where all the sane people are. Speaking of hell, why does it even exist. If it was this easy to avoid going to hell, I wouldn't think that anyone would be down there. But wait, hell isn't for the Christians, it is for the people that can see through the garbage that the church is trying to sell them and actually rejects their teachings. If you believe in Jesus, I guess you have no need to worry, you are going to heaven. As for me, I am going to hell. But the thing is that I do not believe in hell, or the devil for that matter (no, I am not a devil worshipper) so I will be just fine.
Besides, we don't even follow the morality proposed in the bible anyway. In the old testament there are many instances of polygamy. Moses told many of his followers to kill people that were unlike the Hebrews and then rape the women. Abraham took Sara's maidservant so that he may have a child. Jesus looked down upon divorce. I see people getting tattoos of Jesus or crosses all the time even thought the bible says not to. People eat shell fish or wear clothing of two different types of materials. Not many people in this country today could ever say that they follow the morality of the bible. I refuse to believe that someone is more of a moral person just because they have some holy book that was written by some oppressive weirdos centuries ago.
Every morning, I wake up and give my kids a great big hug and a kiss, thankful to be alive. I kiss my wife goodbye wishing her a safe trip to work. I also play around with my two year old rat terrier. I do my best to treat everyone kindly and accept them for who they are. My life is much better since I have become the Happy Atheist.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Atheism
Plain and simple, I am an atheist. What does this mean? Basically this means that I do not believe that there is a god. I do not hate god. Nothing happened to me that turned me atheist. I grew up as a Lutheran and in an effort to learn more with hopes to become a better christian, religion began to make less and less sense to me. Some people think that a life without god would be a dreary existence. Actually, my view on life has been changed for the better. I am married and have two wonderful kids that I love to spend time with. I live life with the mindset that life is wonderful and worth living. I also believe that everyone should have the opportunity for a good life no matter what color, race, creed, nationality, or sex.
I am not sure who will find my blog, but I am more writing this for me in order to share my thoughts and feelings. I am going to allow for comments and I hope that people do decide to post their own thoughts. If someone does not agree with what I say or what I believe, that is your right. I will not delete posts no matter how bad or mean spirited mainly for the fact that they are more of a reflection on the person that wrote them then anything else.
Anyway, I welcome you to my blog for I am the Happy Atheist.
I am not sure who will find my blog, but I am more writing this for me in order to share my thoughts and feelings. I am going to allow for comments and I hope that people do decide to post their own thoughts. If someone does not agree with what I say or what I believe, that is your right. I will not delete posts no matter how bad or mean spirited mainly for the fact that they are more of a reflection on the person that wrote them then anything else.
Anyway, I welcome you to my blog for I am the Happy Atheist.
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