Terminal Atheist

Some thoughts on conservatism

2009-06-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

Political conservatism - Fear of sticking your neck out where the media might notice you
Social conservatism - Fear that someone might stick it to you in a way you don't like
Political liberalism - Lack of common-sense fear of the media (or a wish to be reelected)
Social liberalism - hippies.

This is why im a centrist.

2009-06-04T12:35:00.000-07:00

Suprisingly, still more accurate than Texas' version.

On the judicial side of things

2009-06-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

Another note on the whole Sonia Sotomayor thing.

The supreme court should be as extremely conservative as possible. while they are responsible for the administration of the law in disputes, those laws should have clear wording that cannot be twisted to any other meaning.

Its it the responsibility of the legislators to ensure that their legislation says what they mean it to say. The judiciary is the filter of the law, since if can be twisted, it has been or soon will be.

A Clarification -
Conservative, as in politically and socially, since the two are often effectively the same thing. The conservative, preservation attitude should serve to temper the liberal force of change.

The relative strength of the wording in laws often reflects the amount of political will behind it. Since this is true, a conservative political view in the interpretation of law serves to stabilize and slow liberalization of the law.

Change in small doses - the key to a stable, forward-looking republic.

Sonia Sotomayor is a racist?

2009-06-02T19:33:00.000-07:00

(this turned into a rant on racism in general at some point)

No, she isn't.

"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

It is an acknowledgment that racism exists, not an endorsement of racist ideas. Criticizing the fact that 106 of the 110 supreme-court judges have been wrinkly white guys isn't racist if its the truth. Seriously, the place of racism in the american consciousness is too prominent for it to go away any time soon. Constantly questioning if things are racists allow the meme that is racism to spread and survive. The only way to kill a meme like this is to stop thinking about it.

If noone ever thinks about the racism aspect of the culture, it becomes a non-issue. Seriously, in many civilized countries people don't even consider the race of a person they are talking to, becuase the concept of race is propagted there any more. Special interest groups that hold the rights of their particular race or screed only promote only the idea that they are different, and thats the whole fucking problem.

There is no such thing as race. In a thousand years, everyone is going to be fucking baje anyways. anyone who preserved their 'racial heritage' past that point is obviously racist, since the only reason to to mix to the pointof homogenity is a beilif that any particualr race is better than another.

To sum up - Anyone who idenifies with a race of proclaims themselves part of a race is a racist.

Animals can tell right from wrong?

2009-05-24T23:15:00.000-07:00

Via the Telegraph.

Scientists studying animal behaviour believe they have growing evidence that species ranging from mice to primates are governed by moral codes of conduct in the same way as humans.

Until recently, humans were thought to be the only species to experience complex emotions and have a sense of morality.

This, if true, blows the whole "morality comes from god" argument right out of the water. If mice and rats are as moral as us, then perhaps we should start asking them what the One True Religion™ is.

Elephants are intensely sociable and emotional animals. Research by Iain Douglas Hamilton, from the department of zoology at Oxford University, suggests elephants experience compassion and has found evidence of elephants helping injured or ill members of their herd.

In one case, a Matriarch known as Eleanor fell ill and a female in the herd gently tried to help Eleanor back to her feet, staying with her before she died.

In 2003, a herd of 11 elephants rescued antelope who were being held inside an enclosure in KwaZula-Natal, South Africa.

The matriarch unfastened all of the metal latches holding the gates closed and swung the entrance open allowing the antelope to escape.

This is thought to be a rare example of animals showing empathy for members of another species – a trait previously thought to be the exclusive preserve of mankind.

This part of the article in particular caught my interest. What seems to be highly complex actions and moral thought from a decidedly non-primate species? I'd never heard of this before, but if its true it really could be used an argument to persuade on-the-fencers to our side, at least on the morality-independent-from-god issue.

The BBC News

2009-05-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

I've finally given up on north-american news networks for accurate, relevant news. I've personally found that the BBC is far better, in terms of a lack of fluff-pieces and news of substance from around the world.

In the last couple days, a few things that the americans haven't really touched:

The bulldozing of the homes of the child-stars from Slumdog Millionaire
The Air India crash leaving around 100 people dead
the end of Civil war in Sri lanka

Makes me angry, so I quit watching networks like cnn, msnbc, fox (ugh) etc.

Chemical Predetermination

2009-05-11T23:08:00.000-07:00

This was sparked by a conversation in the comments on another blog. I'm fleshing out a few idea's, so it might wander a bit.

The concept is fairly simple. We use chemistry to study the interactions between different types and forms of matter and energy, which, due to the way the universe is constructed and operates under, react in certain predictable ways in any given environment.

A vague but accurate description.

At what point does that reaction get free will? What, inside the skull of a human, exerts influence on the outcome of the reactions going on inside? You can poke around in there all you want, you won't find it.

If chemical reactions behave the same way in the same conditions, then everything going on inside your skull right now is happening the only way it can. That means that the reaction going on inside you head, all your thoughts, are the only thoughts you could have had.

Every thought you will ever have in your life will be predictable result of what came before it, all determined before it began.

But wait, you say, thought is effected by input! what input? The environment that surrounds you and feeds into your brain is as set in stone as your reaction to them.

Bing bang theory postulates a theoretical beginning to the universe, one that we might eventually understand fully. Observation of the universe as it is suggests that in the end, it will eventually end with universal heat death.

If you have the beginning of the equation, and the solution, the work in between is implied to have a predictable structure.

I'm going to throw this up on the the blog instead of letting it languish in the draft folder like most stuff i've written, so i can remember to flesh it out and work on it. :/

Bleh

2009-05-04T21:52:00.000-07:00

This is utter stupidity.

1. The presence of uncaused, immaterial entities within our reality would point to a reality beyond our finite, material cause-and-effect universe
2. Numbers exist, and are uncaused and immaterial (they do not require the material world to exist, and would exist whether humans were around to "discover" them or not)
3. The rules of logic exist, and are uncaused and immaterial -- they do not require the material world to exist
4. Therefore uncaused, immaterial entities exist
5. Uncaused entities must be eternal (because a cause would indicate a point-in-time)
6. Therefore eternal, immaterial entities exist
7. Therefore the materialistic worldview assumption of atheists is an inadequate depiction of the reality in which we live, and the materialistic assumptions of science are an inadequate methodology to discover all of reality

Part Two:

8. Logic and mathematics are products of mind
9. Therefore there is an eternal mind
10. Whoever possesses this mind would be characterized by earthlings as "God"
11. Therefore, God exists

Lets try this.

1. In a medium in which cause and effect does not apply, logic does not apply, for starters. So the existence of immaterial, uncaused beings actually doesn't imply anything about the space in which they exist, of anything else. The whole concept is a paradox. Thus the first axiom fails.

2. Numbers do not exist. The concept of numbers, and the symbology representing that concept exist, both in a material, very-much-caused way. Thus the second axiom fails.

3. Again, the laws of logic and the process in which they are used is a wholly human-derived concept that exists only within human perspective and perception of the material world. Like #2, it also dependent on cause and effect, a symptom of something very much material. Thus the third axiom fails.

After this, the whole argument is baseless, but I'll continue with observations for persistence's sake.

4. This does not follow, becuase, again, if something is free of cuase and effect, it is, in essence, random noise and chaos, and cannot be regarded as an entity of any sort in the first place At least as i understand the term entity, which is very loosely defined within the argument presented.)

5. Eternality is also a concept with the frame of time. no time is no the same ass an infinite amount of time. It would be more accurate to say these enitity, if free of space and time, exist no-where, and no-when. Which is to say, the never existed anywhere, at any time.

6. Again, the failure of that before precludes this statments validity, along with the inhererent and paradoxical (self-addmitted) non-existance of such beings.

7. This is an unwarranted and terrible logical leap. Even given the situation where the entire supporting argument before this was no a pile of rubish and false assumptions, the existance of non-material "entities" outside of our universe implies no ability to effect any change of interaction on the real, material universe.

Even were this so, only the mechanics of the reality in which we can see and measure and quanifty has any information we can obtain and reliabley assess, and thus learn from. So the existance of any "higher plane" (i assume that he assumes this out of my own arrogant pride, i suppose, but doesnt negate the fact I'm probably right :/ ) is completely irrelevant to scince, atheism, the quest for god, or our own "enlightenment".

Part two, and point 8-12 can be dealt with sumarrily from the argument that both concepts exist with the scope of the material mind alone, as something free of cause and effect can find the product of two and two to be five as easily as four. One cannot use logic to justify the illogical.

I can taste the woo. Bleh.

2009-01-07T02:51:00.000-08:00

The Spirit's plot has more holes than a necrophiliac victim.

Russia-Georgia conflict will raise oil prices

2008-08-10T14:33:00.000-07:00

Russia invaded georgia. I've expected Putin to go expansionist for some time. When he installed Medvedev, long-time Putin-crony, as president, this was fairly clear. You don't start shifting your own position in government until you are absolutely sure that your domestic political security is assured.

Anywho, the war in georgia is going to affect you at the tank. Oil from the Caspian runs through there. or did. I doubt that it will continue to run for long. So, start hoarding fuel and food my friends. As the chinese would say, our lives are about to get interesting.

Heaven Hotter than Hell

2008-06-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

Everyone has seen the first calculations, they can be found on google fairly easy.

The temperature of heaven can be rather accurately computed. Our authority is the Bible, Isaiah 30:26 reads, Moreover, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold as the light of seven days. Thus, heaven receives from the moon as much radiation as the earth does from the sun, and in addition seven times seven (forty nine) times as much as the earth does from the sun, or fifty times in all. The light we receive from the moon is one ten-thousandth of the light we receive from the sun, so we can ignore that. With these data we can compute the temperature of heaven: The radiation falling on heaven will heat it to the point where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to the heat received by radiation. In other words, heaven loses fifty times as much heat as the earth by radiation. Using the Stefan-Boltzmann fourth power law for radiation

(H/E)⁴ = 50
where E is the absolute temperature of the earth, 300°K (273+27). This gives H the absolute temperature of heaven, as 798° absolute (525°C).
The exact temperature of hell cannot be computed but it must be less than 444.6°C, the temperature at which brimstone or sulfur changes from a liquid to a gas. Revelations 21:8: But the fearful and unbelieving... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." A lake of molten brimstone [sulfur] means that its temperature must be at or below the boiling point, which is 444.6°C. (Above that point, it would be a vapor, not a lake.)
We have then, temperature of heaven, 525°C (977°F). Temperature of hell, less than 445°F). Therefore heaven is hotter than hell.

But I, at least, have never seen a response published in the same time-period.

In Applied Optics (1972, 11 A14) there appeared a calculation of the respective temperatures of Heaven and Hell. That of Heaven was computed by substituting the values given in Isaiah 30 26 [1] in the Stefan-Boltzman radiation law, so that (H/E)⁴ = 50, where E, the absolute temperature of the Earth, is 300ºK, whence the temperature of Heaven, H, is 798ºK or 525ºC. This is hard to find fault with.
The assessment of the temperature of Hell stands, I suggest, on less firm ground. As authority we use the data provided in Revelations 21 8 [2], so that the temperature of Hell seems to be 444.6ºC–the temperature at which liquid sulfur is in equilibrium with its vapour–a temperature indeed which is sufficiently reliable to be used in the secondary calibration of pyrometers.
Now this last reckoning fails to follow the argument through. 444.6ºC is the temperature at which liquid sulfur is in equilibrium with its vapour at normal atmospheric pressure. Have we any data as to the pressure likely to be found in Hell?
The answer is "Yes". A nineteenth century mathematician has already provided the groundwork for Us [3] and we may feel confident that by the year 2000 the total number of the damned will be at least 29,422,641,251,519,917,000 souls. Yet the area of the valley of Gehinnom [4] is only 7,000,000 square meters.
We can now apply these figures in the Ideal Gas Equation to calculate what the pressure will be in the valley of Gehinnom. Since surely some souls must have been damned since 1877 [5], the pressure can only have increased since these calculations were made and the equilibrium point on the phase diagram of sulfur must have shifted still further, so that if we can show that at a temperature of 525ºC sulfur would still be liquid at the pressure calculated (which is a minimum value, remember). Hell (Gehinnom) is now cooler than Heaven.
Certain corrections must be applied first, however.
1. Neiht based his calculation on a date of creation of 1658 + 2326 - 1877 = 2107 BC (minimum). Counting generations in the Bible gives a date for the Creation of 4004 BC. However, atomic dating has shown that Olduvai man is at least 2 × 10⁶ years old [6].
2. We should use a Fibonacci series for the expansion, not a simple doubling series. [7] The ancient Jewish laws against inbreeding also act in the same direction. [8]
3. By a fortunate coincidence, the effects of 1 and 2 cancel each other exactly. [9]
4. The human body is not an ideal gas, but
5. A good deal of it is gaseous at 525ºC, and in any case,
6. It could well be that at very great pressures the external pressure may well exceed the pressure of electromagnetic repulsion, when different "gas" laws would apply. This merely explains how the Lord works in fitting so large a number of damned souls into so small a space [10] and it need not be quantitative.
In the calculation the following assumptions are made:
1. The average height can be taken as one meter. This seems a fair figure between the newborn babe and the fullgrown man.
2. The average space needed is about 30 cm × 20 cm. It seems unlikely that any closer packing could be achieved. Neiht uses a figure of 1/20 cubic meters per person, which is nearly identical with my independent assessment. Mine allows a neat cancellation, later.
3. I have assumed that not more than two layers of damned persons can be accommodated, since otherwise those in the middle layers would escape the full rigours of Hell.
So that,
The volume available in Gehenna is 60 × 10⁶ × 2 m³ and
The original volume of the damned is 0.06 × 29.422641 × 10¹⁸m³
Then, at constant temperature (which we assume, taking equilibrium)
P₁V₁ = P₂V₂ or P₂ = P₁V₁/V₂
Substituting,

(1)
P₂ = [29 × 6 × 10¹⁶] / [2 × 6 × 10⁷] = 14.5 × 10⁹ atmospheres
Now let us see what pressure is needed to liquefy sulfur vapour at 525ºC.
We have, using the Clausius-Cleypeyron equation in its integrated form,
Log P = 7.43287 - 3268.2 / T
where P = pressure in mm Hg
and T = the elevated boiling point in ºK,
so that
Log P = 7.43287 - (3268.2/798) = 3.3373813
whence,

(2)
P = 2174.607 mm Hg = 2.86 atmospheres
(1) is so much greater than (2) that Revelations 21 8 indicates a temperature very considerably higher than 525ºC.
Thus, Hell is hotter than Heaven (which remains deucedly hot).

The math does check out, and most of the assumptions are reasonable. Unfortunately, even though he sticks to the point for the most point, he seems to assume that sinners bodies, rather than one's incorporeal soul go to hell. But, unless we've been burying a heck of a lot of saints, sinners bodies tend to stay in the ground where they are buried. So the whole argument is based on the assumption that the intangible soul can change the pressure in a given volume, which, unfortunately, is indemonstrable.

Nice try, good luck next time!

io9

2008-05-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

http://io9.com/

An excellent site for all you SF fans out there, with SF literature, TV, movies, art, and all manner of space news. I check it everyday. For inordinate amounts of time, because there are a crapload of stories on there every day.

Gawker owns th site, so expect an ironic bent to most stories. Its Cool Beans.

Jon Stewart

2008-05-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

... is the highlight of my day. Is that sad? Some people look forward to seeing their family, or friends, or having a drink at the pub after work. The only brightspot in the majority of my days is to sit and watch an angry little man eviscerate smaller, angrier little men with his verbal prose.

And I just realized the this man is probably much smarter than me. It sounds arrogant, but I don't see that often. He truly is a man of great vision, clarity, and elegant speech (and childish pranks and giggling, but hey, no one is perfect). I watch him wishing that Man of the Year was real, because I know that unlike Robin Williams, Jon Stewart would do that right thing and not pussy out towards the end.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Also, I saw the new Republican slogan on there tonight. The Change You Deserve. And its true. America, being a hopeless cesspool of ignorance, relgious ignorance, and a morass of political inequality, I think that when, not if but when, the Republicans win the election, Mcainb will give you all the change you deserve. By driving America straight into the ground where it can rot in peace and stop bothering the rest of us.

Hehe

2008-04-15T15:49:00.000-07:00

Via Bad Astronomy

15-Year-Old Defeats Science

2008-04-15T14:44:00.000-07:00

Yep. Its true. Go see for yourself.

"I don't remember how old I was when I started getting into global warming," Kristen says. "In middle school I remember everyone was like: 'Global warming! The world is going to end!' Stuff like that ... so I never really believed in it."

Wow. She actually had us on the ropes when she was, what, 12 or 13? Impressive.

On the March afternoon I visited, there was still snow on the ground in Maine, and Kristen padded around the house wearing green furry slippers.

Ooo, sounds chilly and not warm at all! A mortal wound!

Her Web site includes charts of temperature records, El Nino indexes, isotope measurements. Skeptics loved it: A 15-year-old attacking the mainstream scientific view.

Of course the Climate-Change deniers loved it. Free Publicity without actually having to produce any credible evidence - Every Deniers wetdream! What that, she got this bit wrong? Oh well, she's onlt 15. I assure you that our models and theories are bulletproof, even if they are alternately vigoursly torn to shreds or ignored by mainstream science.

So it came as somewhat of a surprise when Chrissy piped up to say she disagreed with Kristen on climate change.
"I think it's partly because of humans," she says. Asked why she believes that she says she doesn't know. Kristen chimes in: "She just believes what everyone else is making her believe."
It's probably fair to say that most people — even those who have strong opinions about global warming — couldn't make a strong scientific argument for why they believe what they believe.

Agreed. 'Chrissy' and people like her are idiots, even if they do provide some support for the Climate Change movement. Which is why most people should keep their mouths shut about science that it takes years of education and experience to understand. Listen to the experts for once. Believe me, they know what they are talking about.

I get a serious Ben-Stein-of-Climate-Change vibe from this young women. Lets hope we don't hear of any poorly made nazi-made-global-warming shockumentaries anytime soon.

Carnival of the Godless

2008-03-07T02:25:00.000-08:00

The New CotG is up, over at Life Before Death. No fanacy gimmicks or frills this time around, just a sampling of each article. A few stand-outs this time around, particularly Greta's.

The little blurb that Felicia used for Greta's post tweaked my brain a little.

“If there is no God and no soul, and everything we are is comprised of physical things and the relationships between physical things… then when you change those physical things, the self changes as well."

Since we are, obviously, just physical things, we don't really have free will of any kind, do we? Essentially, we are all just enormously complex chemical reactions. And chemical reactions, no matter how complex, are predictable. So, in actual fact, we, as in our 'selves' are actually just byproducts of a system seeking to 'balance the equation'. We are an intermediary on the way to universal stability, that being the future (Depressing) state where everything in the universe is a few degrees above absolute zero and there are no stars left anywhere in the sky.

The fact of the matter is, we know how the end of the equation looks, and we have a fairly good idea of the beginning. Both of those thing indicate that the middle part, the intermediary, us, are part of the calculation, and thus have an inherently predictable outcome.

Sorry about that. I just felt an inexplicable urge to type nonsense, then share it with a small number of people over the internet. Sorry.

At least I didn't also ramble about the equally scary idea that after we hit the Singularity, will the Machines be able to predict us? (Will they eventually have the capacity to know what we are going to do, based on the data that they can collect through observational data? I shudder to think! Damn, I'm doing it again...)

2008-03-06T20:53:00.000-08:00

Blah blah blah. Picture!

:0

2008-03-01T20:37:00.001-08:00

So frightfully true... I really, really hate my dreams.

The cake.

2008-02-25T22:48:00.001-08:00

It's A Lie.

Damn.

2008-02-24T21:51:00.000-08:00

After reading most of her blog, I've determined that Kelly Gorksi is far more intelligent than I. You should probably go read her instead. She definitely makes my "above the blog-roll" list.

------------------------------------------

Also, I've begun looking for one or two people who'd join the terminal atheist team, and help keep the posting nice and consistent. So if you read my blog, and have an interest in politics, videogames, religion, books, or have the ability to string together sentences (sensical or nonsensical, your preference) by mashing keyboard buttons, drop me a line.

Aaaaand, I"m done for the night!

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Warrior Cultures in Speculative and Fanatasy Literature I

2008-02-24T00:12:00.001-08:00

I've always been fascinated by warrior cultures in books, ever since I was very young. Whilst i don't subscribed to any formalized honor system myself, the idea is interesting, even entrancing, to a nostalgic romantic such as myself. So I'm going to be posting short little blurbs on my favorites as time goes by, purely for my own enjoyment. I've decided to cover something fresh in my mind, since the author is recently deceased after haivng nearly completed the series.

Aiel - The battle-hardened, incomprehensibly honorable denizens of the Aiel Waste in the Late Robert Jordans Wheel of Time series.

Their culture is the deformed, unrecognizable descendant of the the followers of the Way of the Leaf, a society which preached, and practiced, absolute non-violence. A vestige of this is the cultural impetus regarding swords, that they are the weapons of cowards and cannot be touched.

Their honor system is based on the persons balance of toh, which is honor-debt. Doing something shameful is the eyes of Aiel earns oneself toh. Methods of redress are based on the amount of toh incurred, and usually are paid off via physical testing of the offender. This has bred a hardened people, as the weak do not long survive the harsh climate of the desert like Waste.

Toh can be great enough to make physical redress an impossibility. In cases where this is true, the Aiel in question is made gai'shain, they becomes the property of the person to whom they owe toh for "a year and a day". In this tine, they willingly become meek. It is forbidden to touch a weapon, even in owns defense. To do so incurs toh great enough that exile may be the clans only recourse.

All Aiel belong to a sect of the stratified society, regardless of their clan affiliation. Most belong to one of the multiple warrior societies. However, any woman warrior must be a part of the Maidens of the Spear, an odd contrast in regard to the rest of the cultures gender-equality. Other members belong to the clan chiefs, the Wise woman, the Blacksmiths, or herders. Interestingly, warriors sharing a warrior society will not fight one another, even if their clans are at war.

The weapon of choice among the Aiel is the spear. They use a modified, shorted spear, more suited to close combat slash-and-stab techniques. Often, one is wielded in either hand. They have no aversion to full-scale combat, but they are also trained from a very early age in hand-to-hand combat and stealth. Very few people, and no specific culture, can match an Aiel in stealth, and fewer can track them.

The philosophical outlook of the Aiel reflects several other similarly isolated people whose cultures are derived from before the Breaking. THey view life as a dream, and beleive that death simply allows them to awake. THus, there is little fear of death among the Aiel, and what little there is is internalised and never shown, as to do so would incur toh.

Going with the trend

2008-02-23T02:31:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm a longtime fan of xkcd, and since this one has been making the blog rounds, I figured I'd better throw it up too.

Carnival of the Godless #85

2008-02-23T02:22:00.000-08:00

Theres a Clean Version and a Dirty Version. I like the dirty version, if only for giving me a few old sexy sci-fi books to track down. Nothing really caught my eye this week, but an overall good haul this time around.

-----------------

On a side note, I'm going to try and get at least four blog posts up in between carnival updates. thats about two per week, which works for my schedule. And it'll maybe brighten the place up a bit as well.

Tired

2008-02-23T01:53:00.000-08:00

I'm tired. Now I'm going to go into detail why. I know my readership pool is small, so I"m essentially talking to myself, but here I go anyway.

I'm from Alberta, Canada. For you non-Canadians, that means I live in Conservative Party HQ. The chances that the Conservatives won't control the government in Alberta for the entirety of my lifetime is not 100%, but it is considerable higher than 99%.

Thus, I was raised, quite appropriately, to vehemently oppose anything Liberal simply out of principal. To Be fair, after a decade and a half of a Liberal Federal government the West has good reason to despise them. So I've been a Conservative Party Member since I turned sixteen. And its served me in good stead. But I've come to realise over the last few months, something so utterly alien to my brain, I refuse to accept it emotionally.

I'm a Liberal.

A money-grubbing, welfare-supporting, government-interference-advocating piece of Liberal trash.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I don't back the current government. The Conservatives are using their Minority effectively. And the Conservatives are doing great things in Alberta. Currently, we are the only debt-free province. And they sent me (And every other Albertan) a check for $300 a while back because they had an enormous surplus. Which bought my vote.

But they are all a bunch of- well, I'm not going to use the language I'd like. But they are all christians. I worked as staff at a supper in my small town here, back in November, when the premier, Ed Stelmach, came to visit. There were five hundred people there, roughly half the town, all Conservative Party members. When the prayer was said before the meal (*shudder*) I was the only one, in the entire room, who did not bow my head. THat started this train of thought.

Then a little while ago, Harper got rid of the Science Advisor. Not the Person. The Position. I thought to myself Jesus (yes, I still use those phrases in my head) what the hell is he thinking? I mean, with issues like Global Warming, which he at least acknowledges exists, bouncing around, how can the leader of the nation make sound decisions without any scientific expertise?

Ah well. I may be a dirt Liberal, but in keeping with their Canadian tradtion, I'm going to be hypocritical, and keep on supporting the Conservatives. And hey, at least I can still hate the NDP with no conflict on conscience. Thats always a plus.

Spore!

2008-02-13T18:42:00.000-08:00

Spore, the Soon-To-Be-Widely-Recognized-Greatest-Game-Ever-Made-That-Is-Definitely-Not-Vapourware Game has some news our recently. Mainly its launch date. September 7th. Of 2008. Which is great, since that is 12 days before my birthday. Plenty of time for my three readers to pool their money, buy it, and ship it to me free of charge in time for me to be surprised by it.

Anywho, heres the hands on: BitNet

Carnival of the Godless

2008-02-13T18:29:00.001-08:00

# 84

I enjoyed several of the posts this time around, which is unusual. I always read them all, but alot of them are repetitions of the Carnivalia of Days gone by, and nuggets of newness are always a delicious treat.

Canada increasingly Atheist - Feminism at fault?

2008-01-19T17:40:00.000-08:00

So sayeth Michael Valpy of the Globe and Mail.

Women — the traditional mainstays of institutional religion — in huge numbers abruptly rejected the church's patriarchal exemplar of them as chaste, submissive "angels in the house" with all of the social and moral responsibility for community and family but none of the authority.

Unable to find acceptable religious role models or religious ideals that were not painful or oppressive, they reconstructed their identities as secular and sexual beings.

As they progressed into university graduate and professional schools and entered the work force, their horizons broadened and they discovered ways of serving that were more valuable than doing dishes and running church picnics.

It seems that our young women are less and less enthralled by their god-ordained role as objects worth 20 silver sheckles. I can't imagine why.

Update: It seem PZ has this before me. Damn him and his articulate sarcasm. I notice he quoted the same portion as me though,.... Great minds think alike?

Assassin Creed : Anti-Atheist?

2007-12-29T01:21:00.000-08:00

Game Review: Terrible science; Terribly fun.

THough I doubt I have enough readers to warrant the warning, Spoilers ahead.

Plot: Dystopian future: Desmond, an assassin, is captured by a mysterious corporation, and forced to use a device that allows a person to recount "genetic memory". the main part of the game takes place in his memories, where his assassin's ancestor kills a group of men who are attempting to take over the Holy Land while King Richard and Saladin battle it out.

Now that thats done, I ask, what the hell? The main villains in the game are atheistic Knights Templar. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm, glad to see atheism spread into media like video games. It could only enlighten like-minded thinkers(Except for the eight people who enjoyed the Left Behind game). But the fact that these Templars Atheism is coupled with an overriding desire to conquer and control the world is rather disturbing. The way the game is written seems to imply that the two are one and the same, ans the connection tries to establish the idea that atheists are in and of themselves evil.

The whole game is based around the idea that some artifact, "The Piece of Eden", ostensibly an alien artifact, (according to the Templars, and a... well, from the title you can guess what the christian and islamic characters think is is) can let you control the masses. The Templars ant to use the device to scour religion from the minds of all in the Holy Land(and then control and rule them, but that's a minor detail. Name a political group that doesn't).

I must admit, this is a case where I identify more with the villains than the hero, as much as I enjoyed the game. The Templars were rounding up books of Faith and destroying them for the lies they are, actively converting the learned folk to their way of thinking, blockading the sea to prevent reinforcement from the crusader countries, finding ways to cure things like mental illness and leprosy, and attempting to unite Richard and Saladin to common cause.

And then the Assassin kills them all on faith.

Oh well. The game was fun, anyway.

Edit: Also, did anyone else who played the game noticed that Vidic was a cross between Half-Life 2's Dr. Breen and an evil PZ Myers(of Pharyngula fame)?

Harper on CBC

2007-12-20T19:16:00.000-08:00

Peter Mansbridge interviewed Stephen Harper on The National earlier this evening. I once again got to admire his skill to show how he didn't say those things that made him look bad, ever, and skirt ever single question thrown at him by beating the audience over the head with how against partisanship he is. Which I can understand, since we Conservatives wouldn't stay in power form long in people in Ontario and Quebec realize that they are being represented because they aren't Alberta.

What caught my ear was his answer to the question "Is Leading more about Canada following what you believe, or you following what Canada believes?" Mr. Harper managed to skirt this one with non-committal line about it being a blend of both. I realized then that Harper us a great politician, but has no idea what a leader is. If your will and the people will is not the same, you shouldn't be leading us. THe question shouldn't come up whether to follow what the people want and what the people need. If they want something the don't need, or need something they don't want, its your job to SHOW them. Thats what a Leader is, Mr. Harper.

Mass Effect: Needs More Substance

2007-12-20T19:11:00.000-08:00

I picked up my copy of Mass Effect last week. Got home, popped it in ye ole ‘360, and spent the weekend amassing as much game time on it as I could. The Verdict?

Need more Mass Effect.

The game is well done, fairly polished, and damn addictive. Once you pick it up, you don’t want to quit. This is why there is a large gap in between this post and the last post. The game stands up to other games of the genre, like the KOTOR series, quite well.

The game UI screens are fairly intuitive, and pretty to look at. The Character Creation screen is a little limited, but this is not oblivion, so I don’t expect that from it. It gives you a nice range, and variable customization options. I have an issue with the navigation UI, and find myself continually swearing at it. The ‘B’ button is exit, and ‘X’ is zoom out. And I press exit every single time I want to zoom out. Every single time.

The main problem with mass effect is near total lack of unique content outside the main mission. Every cluster has only one or two systems, and a system has only one, small square of a barren, desolate world. Every pirate base has the exact same layout, every bunker follows the same exact blueprint. The sky on every nearly identical planetary may is either filled with another looming planet, volcanic ash, or thunderclouds. Mines, for some reason, all follow the same schematic as well.

Every assault rifle looks the same, as well as every shotguns, pistol, and sniper rifle, the only difference between weapons of the same class being stats, and occasionally, a paintjob done by a 4-year old epileptic.

The main campaign, however, make up for the lack of well, anything else, in the game. The rich, interesting worlds of the main quest (there are five), show the potential of what mass effect could have been. The fact that these finally polished worlds are present in the game puts the emptiness of the rest of the world in stark contrast. The multiple ending are all pleasing, and really gets you hooked on the story.

I won’t go into the story, because, well, I don’t want to ruin it, but suffice it to say, there are lots of choices to be made, none of them easy. The only downside to the story bit is the lack of real character interaction. Okay, lack of interaction besides the people you get to fuck.

Overall, I’d give it a 7/10. It lost a mark for reusing the same three pieces of building geometry on every single non-story worlds, a mark for lack of character interaction, and another one for that goddamn B button.

Link now, post later.

2007-12-16T21:36:00.000-08:00

http://www.cracked.com/article_15663_god-fuse-10-things-christians-atheists-can-must-agree-on.html

Angry. Can't type.

Golden Compass

2007-11-10T21:13:00.000-08:00

Antone else familiar with His Dark Materials
Should take note. You've been reading evil, evil hate speech.

From: http://www.catholicleague.org/catalyst.php?year=2007&month=October&read=2306

The Catholic League wants Christians to boycott this movie precisely because it knows that the film is bait for the books: unsuspecting parents who take their children to see the movie may be impelled to buy the three books as a Christmas present. And no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books.

For starters, why are Catholics afraid of children reading these books? Surely, if the books cause some sort of crisis of faith, the local priest will be able to answer any and all of the issues the books might raise with factual, obviously truthful answers. Oh, right. Facts aren’t their thing.

We are launching a major educational campaign designed to alert the public to Pullman's game plan. To that end, we have prepared a booklet, "The Golden Compass: Agenda Unmasked." It contains snippets of what reviewers have said about the film and the books, as well as revealing comments made by Pullman himself; it also contains a synopsis of the trilogy. In short, the booklet is not what we are saying about Pullman's work—it is what he and others have said about it.

Or at least what you want them to hear about it. I’m sure if anything is said that conversely affects the point you are trying to make (because I’m almost certain there is a point to this),it will be included in this informative, unbiased pamphlet.

Pullman represents the new face of atheism: it is aggressive, dogmatic and unrelenting. It is also fueled by hate—by a crusading hatred of all religions, but most especially of ours. His side is counting on our side to lie down and die. He may have experienced little resistance in England, but it's a different story here.

Ah, yes. The “new atheism” is aggressive, dogmatic and unrelenting. So unlike the Catholic League, who believe in tolerance, open-mindedness and meekness And there is nothing wrong with hatred when its justified. Sorta like hatred of the perpetrators of countless Crusades, holy wars, jihads, and ethnic cleansing. Wait, that is religion. And if Catholicism happens to be the form of religion Pullman happens to be most familiar with, what of it? And yes, Catholic league. You are far more aggressive, dogmatic and unrelenting than the English. Congrats.

The reason we are starting our protest early is because it takes time to get the word out, and besides, the media love it when we give them something to chew on. The booklet is being mailed to thousands of influential persons, including film critics and Christian leaders.

May the campaign against the film do for it what the campaign against "Married with Children" did for that series.

While Roman Catholicism is the evil force in Pullman's writings, his real goal is to put a positive face on atheism, getting children to buy his message. Thus, we expect more than Catholics will join our protest.

Because if it doesn’t support Religion, it ain’t free speech.

Anyone who's read the book will also note that they don't kill God. They just kill a Being who built the church, and falsely claimed to have created the Angels and the Universe. In fact, they didn't even kill him. They basically unplugged his life support machine and let the poor guy finally die, he was miserable being alive. Which, oddly enough, is what the Atheist movement is trying to do. Unplug God's life-support machine.

Addendum:

Anyone else find it ironic that the book condemns exactly the same thing what the American Catholic League is trying to do - involvement of religion in politics and personal affairs?

Finnish Idiot.

2007-11-07T19:41:00.000-08:00

A young fellow in Finnland has gone rather stark, raving mad, and shot up a school. In his Manifesto, available as a .doc on his site (for how long I don't know), goes on about natural selection, the strong ruling over the weak and destroying them, and other such nonsense.

This young fool proclaims himself a "godlike Atheist." Despite the ironic contradiction in terms, I'm sure the religious media will snap this up and run with it like a crack-addict and a hundred-dollar bill. This psychopath has done more damage to the atheist cause than any other current individual in contemporary times.

It appears he has killed seven people, but lacked the good grace to off himself. Sometimes, I wish I was religious, so I could relish the idea of this guy burning in hell.

Sources:
http://www.albaani.org/~ilmari/Tuusula/ - his school Page. Contains Manifesto and Attack information, as well as pictures.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2206630,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21669167/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7082795.stm

Damn crazy Aussies.

2007-11-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

Look at this. Don't they know they'll go to hell? Tsk tsk.

The JW's is coming!

2007-11-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

That title makes me [sic]. But anyway.

This is the standard argument I use when attempting to deconvert a Jehovah's Witness, and it has met with limited success.

The consensus among JW's, currently, is that the End will come before the death of the generation of people including those currently 75-80 years old. After the rapture, 144,000 of their version of the 'Chosen Ones' prophecy*, whom they call the "annointed" will acend to heaven. all other followers will age normally (or in reverse, as the age may be) into about their late twenties. THen all will live in harmony.

What I see as the downfall of this argument, is that there will be no more children. I ask them; How can God, fount of all kindness, goodness, and fluffly feeling of every sort, take away the fundamental human joy of having and raising children. Children, I argue, are the true source of happiness in the world. How can paradise be without them?

This generally leads to them leaving rather quickly, but, as those of you familiar with this particular will know, that is sort of the point. I don't like talking God at six in the morning, at my door, in my underwear, with a bunch of creepy smiley people. It has, however, caused a small few to challenge their beliefs and alter to a more progressive or mild form of Christianity, and in one case I've become friends with, created a true, blue Atheist.

* I've found that most Cults and major religions(slightly larger Cults) have some version of this 'Chosen Ones' prophecy(I use 'prophecy loosely). Keeps the Flock hopeful, I suppose.

Defining Atheism

2007-11-02T21:15:00.000-07:00

I'd like to clear up my definitions of the various forms of atheism. These aren't definitive in the traditional sense, but they are the basic distinction, as I see it, between various forms of Atheism.

General Atheism: A non-theistic view of the world
Hard Atheism: The strong disbelief in God's existence in any way. Also: Scientific Atheism.

Militant Atheism: A form of Hard Atheism, this is the doctrine dictating active de-conversion of Theists to Atheism, but, unlike militant theists, militant atheism does not resort to any sort of actual martial force.

Soft Atheism: The non-belief in God as defined in popular religion
Mild Atheism: The default position of the Theist-Atheist debate, neither a negative or positive assertion. Also: Agnosticism, Skeptical Atheism

Addendum:

Terminal Atheism: The end-stage form of Atheism, for which there is no known cure. The belief that there is no evidence for God to had, anywhere, ever. An awful state to be in, but an unfortunate side affect of intelligence in the modern age. I'm afraid I'll die an atheist.

Genesis

2007-10-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

And Lord Terminus said, let there be Blogger, and there was, and it was good. And He said Let there be Faithful, and there were, and they were God. And they went forth and multiplied. And the God got bored. And God said, Let there Be entertainment. And there were heathens. And they were Bad. Very, Very, Very bad. Bad.

And the Heathens chose to write about how there weren't no God, and use words like weren't. And this Blog was born.

Okay, I can't write like that anymore. It's hard. I can't fathom how a bunch of manipulative, barely literate, Iron-age priests managed to write a whole book of that crap. In Latin. Which just makes things that much more complicated.

Well, This is my shiny new blog. I hope you like it. If you don't, then... well, you are probably a Theist or New-ager, or even an agnostic. I tend to offend just about everyone but me.

Yes, "so I started a blog". What's that supposed to mean? Oh well. You'll see me around.