Understanding the WoC

I figured out why Christians get angry when you say, "Happy holidays": they think that you think they are Jews.

That's not change I can believe in

“I know there are some who bristle at the notion that faith has a place in the public square,” Mr. Obama said.

Really? There's a clear difference between the public square and the government. C'mon!

Universal rules

The golden rule--do unto others yada yada yada--is purported to be universal in human cultures. Assuming that is true, why is that?

Some people say it's evidence of a divine hand guiding human philosophy. Others say it's evolutionary adaptation. I hate to break it to both of these camps, but the true reason the golden rule is universal is much more mundane.

Every human culture has at least one thing in common--kids. Wherever we go, we breed. Or at least some of us do. Not only do we breed, but we breed in numbers. Except for pointy-headed academics, families always have more than one kid. And kids are why we all observe the golden rule. At any randomly chosen time, all over the world, there are parents saying to their kids, "Stop hitting your sister. How would you like it if she did that to you?" or "Give that back to your brother. You wouldn't like it if he took your things!"

We don't say these things because we fervently believe them. We don't say them because we want our kids to grow up and be moral people. No, we say these things because we want some quiet. We want to get through dinner without screaming and yelling. We want to have a bit of peace in the middle of the day. We just want to be able to think goddammit.

However else we dress up religion and try to make it transcendant, this is what it comes down to. It's what parents did before television in order to get some peace.

My appeal to you

If I have a deathbed conversion, please kill me.

But I don't respect the clergy!

Baba God-nouj

My wife and I made some baba ganouj this weekend. It was good, but not divine.

Yesterday, Felicia Teske of Boothwyn was slicing a pear-shaped purple veggie purchased at a local produce stand when she noticed the seeds formed a word:

GOD.

"It's definitely there," said her husband, Paul.

In other news, Eric is a stupid hippie.

God I hate agnostics II

Scott Adams, fundamentalist agnostic.

Fishy fishy fishy

I woke up this morning with a Wiggles song in my head--the one about Uncle Noah's Ark. That got me thinking about the Ark and I realized that fish would be a real problem for the Ark hypothesis. But of course those wise creationists have already thought this through!

If the whole earth were covered by water in the flood, then there would have been a mixing of fresh and salt waters. Many of today's fish species are specialized and do not survive in water of radically different saltiness to their usual habitat. So how did they survive the flood?

Note that the Bible tells us that only land-dwelling, air-breathing animals and birds were taken on the ark (Genesis 7:14-15, 21-23).

How indeed? Well there are several hypotheses.
1. The saltwater/freshwater issue could just be a post-flood phenomonon
2. Many fish are able to adapt to fresh or saltwater within their lifetimes
3. Freshwater and saltwater could have remained as separate layers of water in the flood waters

There are many simple, plausible explanations for how fresh and saltwater fish could have survived the flood. There is no reason to doubt the reality of the flood as described in the Bible.

Whew!

God, I hate agnostics

They're so self-righteous. So certain of their uncertainty. You know, with their whole, "there are fanatics on both sides" crap. First, I can't believe they actually equate atheists with theists. Sure, nothing is certain, but atheism is most likely closer to the truth than theism. Especially fundamentalism, which takes as literal truth books that are thousands of years old.

Jesus, even if there are fanatic atheists, I'd take them over fanatic theists any day. And what is even wrong with having an opinion? Are we supposed to withhold judgment on everything that hasn't been proved definitively? Yeah, right. That'll happen.

Hell, as much as I hate Rush, at least back in the day every pretentious high-school wannabe intellectual knew that "if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

More atheism on TV

ABC to Air LIVE Atheist Debate with Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort.

Cameron ("Growing Pains" sitcom and Left Behind movies) will speak on what he believes is a major catalyst for atheism: Darwinian evolution. The popular actor stated, "Evolution is unscientific. In reality, it is a blind faith that's preached with religious zeal as the gospel truth. I'm embarrassed to admit that I was once a naïve believer in the theory. The issue of intelligent design is extremely relevant at the moment. Atheism has become very popular in universities--where it's taught that we evolved from animals and that there are no moral absolutes. So we shouldn't be surprised when there are school shootings. Cameron will also reveal what it was that convinced him that God did exist.

There's a schism among atheists. Should we be nice or rude? Are we suffragettes or poseurs?

But seriously, athiests are just inconsequential. Sure, people hate us, but not enough to go around beating us up.

The FBI's Hate Crime Stats show some interesting patterns with respect to crimes based on religious bias.

From 1995 to 2005 Jews remain the biggest target of religion-based hate crimes across the US. Muslims started to get attacked after 2001. But athiests are way down at the bottom chugging along at under 1% of total attacks every year--with raw numbers that vary between 1 and 5.

I like being an atheist. I tend towards being a meanie. But c'mon, we're not being persecuted.

Set your TiVo

Richard Dawkins will be on O'Reilly on Monday.

Kids say the darndest things!

I realize why the christian literalists are uncomfortable with teaching kids about evolution--it leads to embarrassing questions.

For example, Max has been really into dinosaurs for about 2 years now. Every book we read about dinosaurs points out that 1) dinosaurs ruled the earth millions of years ago, 2) they are no dinosaurs around today, and 3) no one knows for sure what killed off the dinosaurs.

So now Max has a frame for all historical events--anything that is no longer around was killed off. The other day he applied this frame to Indians. He asked me what killed off the Indians "when they ruled the world". I told him it was white people. He got very nervous that those white people were still around and might kill him too. I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was white.

They say

They say that there are no athiests in foxholes. I think that's true. Though it's really a self-selection issue. What I don't get is why theists dig foxholes in the first place.

Holy crap, I'm not a secularist!

Normally when Bill O'Reilly goes on about how secularists are destroying America, I get offended. I assume "secularist" means a person who is secular, which I am, and the 'ist' morpheme is just a rhetorical flourish to make us all look like communists or fascists or something.
But I was listening to a Big Ideas podcast by Jeffery Stout and I realized I am not a secularist.
Stout defined 'secularism' as the belief that religion has no place in public discussions. Wikipedia has something similar in their 2nd definition.

Secularism has two distinct meanings.

1. It asserts the freedom of religion, and freedom from religion, within a state that is neutral on matters of belief, and gives no state privileges or subsidies to religions.
2. It refers to a belief that human activities and decisions should be based on evidence and fact, and not superstitious beliefs, however devoutly held, and that policy should be free from religious domination. For example, a society deciding whether to promote condom use might consider the issues of disease prevention, family planning, and women's rights. A secularist would argue that such issues are relevant to public policy-making, whereas Biblical interpretation or church doctrine should not be considered and are irrelevant.

By definition 2 and Stout's definition, I am definitely not a secularist. Stout was defending the idea that democracy is more like a conversation (something that resonated with me, of course). I think Stout has something like a brainstorm in mind rather than a pissing match or sales pitch. So as a brainstorming conversation, all viewpoints are valid starting points. But the point of the discussion is to come to an understanding or agreement.
Bill O'Reilly has something close to, but not quite like definition 2 in mind when he rails against the evil secularists.

Millions of Americans are now aware that the traditions of Christmas are under fire by committed secularists, people who do not want any public demonstration of spirituality.

Now I can relax, knowing that Bill isn't mad at me, but just those "committed secularists." Whew!

Public expression of religion

Today, the House passed H.R. 2679. This bill would bar citizens from recovering attorney's fees if they win a lawsuit against the government for violating their First Amendment Establishment Clause rights.

Currently, if you sue the government for a constitutional violation and are successful - if the court agrees that the government has acted unconstitutionally - the judge, at his or her discretion, may order the agency that violated the constitution to pay reasonable legal fees for the other side. This is mandated in Federal law under 42 U.S.C. § 1988. HR 2679 would leave that in place, but exempt only one type of lawsuit from that rule - lawsuits based on establishment clause grounds.

You can find more details on the bill at GovTrack.us. It now goes to the Senate (S 3696) where it is expected to pass.

Here's how the NJ Representatives voted:

New Jersey
Nay NJ-1 Andrews, Robert [D]
Aye NJ-2 LoBiondo, Frank [R]
Aye NJ-3 Saxton, H. [R]
Aye NJ-4 Smith, Christopher [R]
Aye NJ-5 Garrett, E. [R]
Nay NJ-6 Pallone, Frank [D]
Aye NJ-7 Ferguson, Michael [R]
Nay NJ-8 Pascrell, William [D]
Nay NJ-9 Rothman, Steven [D]
Nay NJ-10 Payne, Donald [D]
Aye NJ-11 Frelinghuysen, Rodney [R]
Nay NJ-12 Holt, Rush [D]

JVI sees bad times ahead for Pluto

In the latest issue of the Jack Van Impe Ministries International Newsletter, Jack makes a prediction about the fate of Pluto. In case you hadn't heard, Pluto is scheduled for demotion since it's not really a planet as The Philadelphia Inquirer puts it:

At a conference in Prague later this month, the International Astronomical Union, which oversees such matters, is scheduled to consider a resolution that defines a planet.

Driven largely by controversy over the status of Pluto, which does not share several key attributes of the solar system's eight other planets, the resolution could mean Pluto's dismissal from that group.

Instead, it could be defined as simply one of thousands of small, icy objects in the decidedly less glamorous Kuiper Belt, just beyond Neptune.

Jack points to Luke 21:26 as the nail in Pluto's coffin.

Christ also spoke of startling calamities in space. After discussing signs in the sun, moon, and stars, He said: "Men's hearts [shall be] failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (Luke 21:26).

Oh, and by the way, the end times are upon us.

The world scene all of history has been moving toward is upon us. We are not confronted with a few facts manipulated by a self-seeking prophet in an effort to gain followers. Instead, we are witnessing an unfolding of divinely designed circumstances that encompass the entire earth and its inhabitants.

The stage is set for closing time, and all the world is the stage.

What a nice message of hope.

Take that Kansas

Huntsu at Blue Jersey notes that New Jersey is only 30% crazy.

So this little piece from the Rasmussen poll that put Menendez up 44-38 over Kean Jr. piqued my interest:

Just 30% of New Jersey voters say the Bible is literally true. That’s the lowestlevel we’ve found in any state.

Thirty percent is the lowest level? Wow.

Since the population of NJ is about 8,717,925, that makes 2,615,377 (give or take) nutjobs*.

*To be fair, Rassmussen doesn't give us their methodology, so we have no idea what these people were responding to. The phrase "the Bible is literally true" is fairly ambiguous--they could be talking about the new testement only or they could have asked whether the Bible was not true and switched the numbers.

The end is nigh

Are you ready?

 

Courtesy of Benjamin Walker at WFMU.

I shouldn't watch Jack Van Impe in the morning

Here's how my commute went today. Two County Sheriff cars parked at the the local train station. I didn't see the sheriffs. I wonder if they took an earlier train. At Secaucus Junction, where I make a switch to a NY bound train, there were State Troopers both in the station and on the platform. In Penn Station there were NY National Guardsmen, and NYPD. Not to mention the big white boxes with weird vents on top of them that look like detectors of some sort.

Somewhere in Penn Station it hit me--this is not going to end. This is how it's going to be now. Forever.

There are people who want to kill me. Well, not me specifically, although I must be pretty repulsive to them. I mean, I'm an atheist. I let my woman walk around uncovered. I eat pork.

But they want to kill me in general. For reasons that I barely understand.

What is their motivation anyway? Is it really religious? Am I an infidel that must be killed or converted? Or is it political? Am I just a citizen of a global superpower and therefore fair game?

I'm also not sure what we're doing to go after these people who want to kill me. There is general talk of security. But I hear nothing concrete. No high-profile terrorist trials. No busted plots. Maybe these things are going on in secret.

But, Jack Van Impe doesn't seem to be bothered by it. Global terrorism is a good thing for him. It means the coming of the end. And the end rocks. That's when Jesus comes back and establishes heaven on earth. Rexella seems so happy.

Update: somehow I got on the earlier train today. I boarded the same time as the cop and the bomb-sniffing dog. Honestly, the dog seemed a little inexperienced. I think it was his or her first day.