Count the Logical Fallacies!

There's an e-mail making the rounds that I saw this morning, which gave me quite a chuckle. So of course I have to share it with you.

Spot the logical fallacies! I've included in parentheses the most blatant logical fallacy, but please feel free to comment with others. I left the original in all caps so that you can appreciate it in all its glory.

IN CHEMISTRY, HE TURNED WATER TO WINE. ("Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Carl Sagan – this applies to many in the list, but I'll just state it once. If something goes against the laws of nature and physics, you're going to need more evidence than just an apocryphal tale. This is also anecdotal evidence.)

IN BIOLOGY, HE WAS BORN WITHOUT THE NORMAL CONCEPTION. (ditto to the above)

IN PHYSICS, HE DISPROVED THE LAW OF GRAVITY WHEN HE WALKED ON WATER AND THEN LATER, ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN. (ditto to the above)

IN ECONOMICS, HE DISPROVED THE LAW OF DIMINISHING RETURN BY FEEDING 5000 MEN WITH 2 FISHES & 5 LOAVES OF BREAD. (once again, ditto to the above)

IN MEDICINE, HE CURED THE SICK AND THE BLIND WITHOUT ADMINISTERING A SINGLE DOSE OF DRUGS. (ditto again. In this case, if this story is accurate, Jesus was one of three things; a magician – common at the time, taking advantage of the placebo effect, or a scam artist in which 'healee' was a plant.)

IN HISTORY, HE IS THE BEGINNING AND THE END. (Meaningless statement)

IN GOVERNMENT, HE SAID THAT HE SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL COUNSELOR, PRINCE OF PEACE. (Again, meaningless statement and irrelevant)

IN RELIGION, HE SAID NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH HIM; (ditto to the above)

SO, WHO IS HE?
HE IS JESUS!

JOIN ME AND LET'S CELEBRATE HIM; HE IS WORTHY.

THE EYES BEHOLDING THIS MESSAGE SHALL NOT BEHOLD EVIL. (Baseless claim, easily disproved)

THE HAND THAT WILL SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYBODY SHALL NOT LABOR IN VAIN. (ditto to the above)

AND THE MOUTH SAYING AMEN TO THIS PRAYER SHALL SMILE FOREVER. (ditto to the above)


REMAIN IN GOD AND SEEK HIS FACE ALWAYS. AMEN. (How can anyone remain in God and his face always, when there is no evidence of his existence?)

IN GOD, I'VE FOUND EVERYTHING! (Even your keys? Baseless claim, easily disproved)

The Greatest Man in History Jesus had no servants, yet they called Him Master. (Appeal to the masses – meaningless)

Had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher. (Irrelevant – there were no colleges back then.)

Had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer. (No one had medicines back then.)

He had no army, yet kings feared Him. (Any rabble-rouser was feared, so Jesus is not special in this sense.)

He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. (In a sense this is true. Just look at the number of Christians in the world today, as well as in history for the last 2000 years. Not to mention the Dark Ages.)

He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. (Jesus was a political dissident and rabble-rouser. The Romans had no tolerance for such problem makers.)

He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today. (Baseless, unfounded claim. Anecdotal evidence. Apocryphal tale.)

I feel honored to serve such a Leader who loves us! If you believe in God and in Jesus Christ His
Son, you may wish to send it on.... If not, just ignore it.

If you ignore it, just remember that Jesus said. 'If you deny me before man, I will deny you before my Father in Heaven. (Open threat, also completely baseless.)

Jesus vs Atheists

On Facebook, elsewhere on the interwebs, as well as among my godless friends, I've noticed that the prevailing thoughts on Jesus' existence are bitterly disseminated, mostly from highly dubious sources like Zeitgeist, the Movie.

Why are atheists so vociferous about Jesus' existence? What difference does it make if there really was an apocalyptic prophet named Yeshua who preached in Judea? Why do they insist on saying he is a complete myth?

Why do they resort to the typical tactics of Christians, cherry-picking information and passing on rumors without researching?

I myself was guilty of this. It's so easy to see something online or hear someone I like say something that fits in with my worldview and just take is as gospel without thinking critically.

The consensus of leading biblical scholars today say the evidence points to a historical figure. We have as much or more information to verify Jesus' existence than we do for some of the great philosophers from Greece. I think Socrates never left any written evidence either but no one gets bent out of shape when we assume he existed, based on other inferences in teasing out his history.

But my point here is, why does it matter at all? I wrote about this last year: The Jesus Horus Link Revisted For Christmas. Who cares if Jesus existed or not? It certainly doesn't change history. The western world is still saturated with Christianity either way, even the increasingly secular countries.

Personally, I've become comfortable with the consensus that there was a man whom the myths are based on. Just because we accept his existence doesn't mean the whole New Testament is factual or that we have to give up our heathen card and become True Believers. It doesn't mean that he walked on water, was born of a virgin, or ascended into heaven, etc. So where's the threat?

I can also look at the Paul Bunyan story. If you told me there really was a man by that name, I wouldn't get upset about it. It still doesn't mean he had a giant blue ox.

I'm no biblical scholar by any means. I will leave that to the knowledgeable people who find it much more interesting than I do, just like I leave the details of what happens at CERN to the scientists there, and all the other brilliant people who can grasp what is going with particle physics, and interpret the data. I understand I don't know even a fraction of the information and nuances of either field, among many others, and that's just fine.

I can bake awesome cookies though, so I'm not completely useless! :)

Nicholas Bruzzesse and I have a Skype talk planned for the near future where we will talk about such things. He hosts the wonderful The Skeptic's Testament, which is all about "thinking skeptically about religion". In fact, he just did an episode which is about what is known of Jesus' birth story, Episode 2:11. I have only had a chance to listen to half of it but it's very interesting, as usual.

We can never know exactly what happened 2,000 years ago. That's not how history works. So let's not quibble over silliness, when what matters is how Christianity impacts our world today. If a man who preached the End Times existed all those millennia ago walked the earth is irrelevant. What matters is that people actually believed the legends and created a religion out of it - and then spawned another religion several hundred years later.

If you combine all forms of Christianity and Islam, the effect is staggering, now and throughout history since their creations. About 55% of the world is either Christian or Muslim, which is about 3.8 billion people. That is what matters. And what we do about it now is the most important of all.

So what about you? What do you think? And why does it matter if he did exist?

Oh, Jesus! I'm So Blessed!

The other day the mail came and there was an unexpected package from my friend Jenny. After having the dogs sniff it for bombs and drugs, I emailed her to see if I could open it. She said yes and lo, what did my wondering eyes alight upon, but my very own Jesus action figure! And he talks! But only in Spanish! He's so awesome!

Fresh out of the box, Jesus is in a nice linen dress with frayed hems. His hair is very neat, and he looks like a surfer or like one of those soulful hippie guys who drink cappuccinos in the local cafe while they write poetry to their mothers.

He also looks worried, doesn't he? I do like the attention to detail in his dress, for example the neckline.

Of course I had to see what he looked like naked! Was he anatomically correct? Inquiring minds need to know! I looked up his dress and there was a note up there! This is what Jenny had left me. HA!

How the Other Side Thinks

I don't like the idea of 'taking sides', but the following five quotes from my cousin's Facebook status disturbed me to the point that I can't help but see that we are in different universes, never mind on a different page. When I talk to her I try to find the common ground, and I seek to understand where she's coming from and her worldview. And in person we really don't talk about religion. But her view of Christianity, God and Jesus is, well, tell me what you think.

Here are the five most recent quotes.

"God disciplines us because he loves us too much to let us continue down a destructive path." -- loving my God and Savior because he brought me back on a path that glorifies Him first.

"Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain." - Touche, 2 Corinthians 7.

"You will not find My peace by engaging in excessive planning; attempting to control what will happen to you in the future." ... (Proverbs 16:9)

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. -- Isaiah 26:3-4 ... taking comfort and rejoicing in knowing that God's plans for me are greater than any I have ever had for myself.

Praying constantly with the help of Galatians 5 today. 'It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.' - Galatians 5:1

I didn't leave any comments to these. My cousin is 18 and has shown a lot of respect to me regarding my atheism. So we are mutually courteous. It's hard to read such things from such a smart, wonderful person. What do you think of what she is saying?

My Pareidolia Has Produced a Miracle!

Recently, I shared my blessing with you of Jesus showing himself to me in a picture in my dining room of pond scum on a creek. I was amazed at your lack of Faith. No one else saw Jesus but me. But that did not deter me! I knew I had a Genuine Miracle in my presence. So I prayed and waited for the Blessings to start rolling in. (and by pray, I mean I sarcastically blogged about it and then promptly forgot about it)

Well here's a big one! My dear husband Butch got a job! He had one but he was offered a better one. Which means he was able to quit the old one that he hated. God always provides!

Of course, my confirmation bias sees the recent pareidolia from August 31 and Butch being offered a job a week later as being magically related. And of course, I have (conveniently) forgotten that Butch had just applied for the job (his mundane, human actions), that he had been looking for a job for quite a few months, and that he had the requisite skills gleaned over many years of hard work to attract the new employer.

In other words, Butch took all the boring, time consuming steps needed to get hired. But I don't have to think about his intelligence, technical skills, people skills and persistence. No, of course not. I just know that Jesus provided through my Faith and Devotion.

Ugh, I think I just threw up in my mouth a little. First, it's incredibly insulting to Butch to ignore all of  his efforts to pin all the accolades on Jesus, an invisible, evidence-free friend who gets all the glory when things go well, and never gets blamed when bad stuff happens.

That is really the evil genius of religion. Whoever first came up with that slick bit of mind-twisting psychology obviously skyrocketed to the top of the game. Heads Jesus wins; Tails you lose. But Jesus loves you and will give you rewards after you are dead. Of course, you'll be dead so you will never know if you wasted your life in servitude for a bucket of lies.  Oh, and don't forget, if you don't love Jesus, he will make you burn in hell forever and ever. How can you pass this deal up?

Oh, you need evidence. I see. That's against the rules. God says you have to have faith. See how I move the goalposts so it always goes my way? Pretty sneaky, aren't I? It's evil genius, playing off of our human weaknesses. Brilliant!

I've Been Blessed With a Miracle!

So I was sitting at my dining room table at 8:42 pm on Wednesday, August 31, 2011 when I looked up at a photograph I have had hanging there for about 5 years. And LO! Jesus appeared before me in all his Heavenly Glory! I took a picture to share this Blessing with you:

Can you see Him? It's much more obvious in person than it is in this humble picture. I was struck by His holy presence and stopped to pray to him in all his Glory. Ok, actually I didn't actually pray. But I sort of chuckled at the pareidolia.

Since He's being coy in this image, I have slightly enhanced the natural image just for the sake of helping you see this Divine Miracle:

Now, can you see him?! I thought so! What an amazing blessing! I mean, here I am, a blasphemous godless heathen, and I see Jesus in a picture that I've looked at for 5 years. By the way my husband's cousin gave us this photograph which is his original work. It's a picture of pond scum on a creek. How apropos!

Ok, I was just playing with the second image, but I did see him in the photograph. I've talked about pareidolia on HDC in the past, so you should be familiar with the phenomena, which is extremely common: it is the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist.

What I found very interesting was that when I first looked up the other day and saw the face, I immediately thought it looked like Jesus. But that made me think, how the hell does anyone today think they know what Jesus looked like? Why do we all see him as looking like a surfer dude out of the Renaissance, with sandy blond, long hair, a full beard, etc?

Wouldn't Jesus actually look Arabic, with dark features and black hair? And why do we always see the same basic vague head and shoulders shape as Mary? How many countless millions or billions of Middle Eastern women, or nuns, have worn the same type of cloak? Only every woman in a burka. And every nun in a habit. But for some reason we all have this idealized idea of what this woman looked like and that affects how we perceive patterns in random noise.

But, now that I've seen him, I can't unsee him. The recognition of a human face in the random pattern of pond scum in the picture is stuck in my head as the classically accepted face of Jesus Christ, Son of God.

And this brings up the most important issue. That of miracles. We all know when images of Jesus or Mary appear, the Miracles start to happen around them. So I figure I had better keep an eye out for them. I think that they start once the image is recognized by one special person (who has their patternicity turned up). That makes sense, right? I mean, maybe the image of Jesus wasn't even in the picture all these years, and now that he has imbued the pond scum with his presence, I think I can expect some good changes in my life.

Do I get three wishes? Do I have to create a shrine? I really don't have the space for a shrine and I hate incense. I will be sure to let you know when the miracles start.

I suppose the first one would be that I should turn into a True Believer. But I'd prefer cash, if I get to put in for my three wishes.

Preying on the Weak

Yesterday I was 'blessed' to receive the following letter. Lucky for me (and you!) I opened it.

Of note on the front of the envelope:

• Postage states this is a nonprophet organization (pun intended)


• A 'very old church' - ooh.. must be hundreds of years old, maybe even going all the way back to Jesus' time!


• Vague message. What does it mean to be blessed, anyway?


• My home first! I'm so blessed!


• Someone went super crazy with the red highlighter. Calm down and step away from the office supplies, Jesus Christ!

The back of the envelope is really trying to get my attention, if the front wasn't enough.

Of note on the back of the envelope:

• Very smart. They give me web addresses I can go to.


• More red underlining. Ok, Jesus. Calm the feck down.


• Oh! the letter is blessed! Awesome!


• Very vague

The two websites are similar. They have a lot of bible verses, text in bold, and text in red. They say if you send in your prayer to them, they will pray 5 times a day for you.

BiblicalPrayer.com offers a free gift, a Blessed Cross,  "one of the most beautiful crosses in the world" which looks cheap even in the pictures. It seems like you can get it for free. In the envelope they have for you to print out to send in your request, there's nothing in there about a donation. Even the postage is paid for you.

Apparently, this church started in 1951. That's not what I'd call "very old". They say on the one site that they used to have revivals where up to 20,000 church members would come. Now, for some reason instead of continuing with those, they are mainly by mail. The sentence sort of just ends at the bottom of the page so they don't explain.

Ok, on to the letter that came in the envelope!

Is God Love?

When I was a child, I was raised to believe that God and Jesus loved me, but that I was a terrible sinner. I was told over and over that Jesus had to die for me, and that I had to accept him into my heart and then be baptized if I wanted to avoid eternal hellfire and damnation. I was baptized three times in three different churches because I was so terrified of eternal torment.

In the past year I have talked to Christians and Catholics who have a very different experience of God than I did. If I mention the hellfire and brimstone preaching of my childhood they tell me how different it really is. They all say the same thing. God Is Love.

Last year my local atheist group (Morgantown Atheists) went to a megachurch together to experience it. While the preacher didn't say God Is Love, the message was very clear. In fact the first emcee guy even said he was there to make our experience as pleasant and comfortable as possible. There was mention of Jesus dying for our sins, and that we needed him, but no mention of hell, no mention of anything negative. It was all very wishy-washy and watered down, all very pleasant and positive.

I would guess that both kinds of churches still exist today. I'm sure southern baptist and maybe pentecostal are more about hellfire and brimstone, putting the Fear of God into people to keep them on the straight and narrow. Maybe the fundamentalist churches too, but that's a guess.

I wonder which kind of message is more prevalent today? (I know some of you Google-mad geeks can help me come up with the perfect terms to search here!) I have a feeling it's the feel-good God Is Love message. It's certainly very pleasant and seems to embrace more people and accept them. But I am definitely an outsider on this so I am not sure.

Please feel free to share your church experiences: Which churches have you been to? What was the fundamental message? God is Love? or Fear God? Or some weird twisted combo package? Or something else entirely?

But is God Love? I've read the bible more than once. The god of the old testament is most definitely an angry, jealous god. He says so himself. In fact even his name is Jealous. (Exodus 34:14)

Happy Easter Fellow Heathens!

Happy Easter, fellow heathens! Jesus died for your sins but came back for your BRAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIINNNNNNNSSSSSS!

I hope you are enjoying ham, chocolate and good company. Here is some irreverent, blasphemous humor for you today:

Now we know how Easter Eggs are made!

 

All Hail the Flying Spaghetti Monster! He is Risen!

Exploring the Historicity of the Bible and Jesus

I think I met Nicholas Bruzzese on Facebook, but now I can't remember. Not that it matters as much as the fact that I now call him a friend. Awhile ago he and his friends down in Melbourne Australia started a podcast called The Skeptic's Testament. As you know, I have a thing for podcasts because I can do mundane tasks while learning about new things from interesting people.

And Nicholas and his friends are very interesting. They tackle the bible from a scholarly perspective and I always learn something from every episode.

One thing that seems to be a big controversy is the historicity of Jesus. Did he exist? Before I heard the Skeptic's Testament, I had met another biblical scholar who told me that the consensus among the people who study biblical history is that he did. But he never really explained.

I used to believe that Jesus didn't exist. I know a lot of atheists hold to this belief, and while I don't have the tools to prove them wrong, when it comes to issues that I am not an expert in (most things, actually) I look to see what the consensus is, as that's a pretty good starting point. What do most experts say? We all have to do this in different areas of our lives. That's the nature of being interdependent as social creatures. I defer to my husband when it comes to cars and mechanical things, I listen to my doctor (and maybe get a second opinion) because she knows more than me about the human body, etc. We get to stand on the shoulders of giants.

So after listening to all of the episodes of The Skeptic's Testament, I asked Nicholas if he would mind answering some questions about this issue that is so contentious among atheists, yet pretty much agreed upon by scholars. The following are my initial questions and Nicholas' answers. This is part 1 of 2.

Q: Please introduce yourself. What are your credentials in talking about the bible?

Even though I grew up a Christian attending Church with my grandma as a youngster, it wasn’t until my teens that I began to take religion seriously, which began my fundamental literal approach to the Bible. If nothing else all that Bible reading and apologetic research built endurance. I am half way through a formal degree in Divinity, so in other words I haven’t any credentials worth talking about. Some may find it strange, an atheist taking ministry courses which are a part of MDiv, the only two points I will make about this are many of these subjects are interesting in their own right and many would be utterly surprised at just how skeptical such a course can be. It is so rigid in its skepticism, the disconnect we see between pastor and parishioner on biblical fundamentals, such as ‘who are the authors of the four canonical Gospels’ becomes bewilderingly odd. So I hope to bridge the gap among atheists and Christians alike.

Q: In conversations and in listening to your podcast, I've learned that you agree with the critical scholarly consensus that Jesus existed. Can you explain?

Seek and You Will Find

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. (NASB)

Ok. Awesome. The bible says all I have to do is ask. All I have to do is seek.

Oh, will you look at that, it's in the following passages as well! (Bear with me. Feel free to skip down a bit.)

Luke 11:9-13 "ditto"
and
Matthew 18:19 Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven.
and
Matthew 21:22 And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.
and again...
Mark 11:24 Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.
and again...
John 14:13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
wait there's more...
John 15:7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
and again...
John 15:16 You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.
and again...
John 16:23 In that day you will not question Me about anything Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.
Ho Hum, even more...
James 1:5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
This is really getting repetitive...
1 John 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
Finally, the last one!
1 John 5:14 This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.

Whew! Sorry for going biblical on you. But obviously if the "good book" repeats the same message twelve times, it must be important and it must be relevant. I should be able to believe in it as a Christian. Right?

I guess this is why people rely on prayer so heavily, even in this day and age when it's pretty obvious that prayers aren't answered any better than chance. But I digress. I have a point to make.

God Is Either Evil Or Incompetent... Or Nonexistent

I was trying to explain to someone recently about the "Why Won't God Heal Amputees" argument. For privacy's sake, I won't talk about what she said, but I did end up with the following questions and arguments of my own.

This is one of those topics where atheists and believers are never going to be in the same book, never mind on the same page. Here is what I think about it.

God answers prayers every day for football players catching touchdown passes, for people finding their keys, for people being miraculously healed of cancer, for people spontaneously being cured of diseases who go to Lourdes. Mary and Jesus show themselves in toast, stains on walls, in bird poop, in window glass streaks. Every day, miracles happen.

But they are only ever events that could happen statistically. They never break the laws of physics, they never break the natural laws of the universe. Sure, it's very rare for someone to have a spontaneous remission in their cancer. But it does happen. It's improbable, not impossible. So it will happen in time.

But God never performs a miracle that is impossible. It's impossible for a limb to regrow on a human. But lizards do it all the time. Why would God let lizards regrow a tail and not some poor girl who had her leg cut off in a tribal war? Or because she was called a witch in Ghana? Or why can't a war hero, if he and his whole family pray hard enough, let him grow his arm back that he lost defending his country?

God is omnipotent, omniscient and all loving. But I've heard from christians many times that God follows his own rules. But why? He's God. Why doesn't he ever answer any really tough prayers? Why only the easy ones and the ones that are statistically improbable but not impossible? Why doesn't he ever cure someone who has prayed fervently to be cured of something like AIDs or cerebral palsy? Because that's impossible.

Videos to Show Your Christian Friends

Here are two videos that I found recently. They would be perfect to show your christian friends and family. They use the technique I've heard of for confronting someone's worldview. Basically you talk about something you agree on, or say something positive about the person, then appeal to that commonality or positive aspect to show the flaws in their thinking.

Why does every intelligent Christian disobey Jesus?



10 questions that every intelligent Christian must answer

The Jesus Horus Link Revisited For Christmas

Quite awhile ago, I shared some information I had found through American Atheists. It was titled What Other Deities Were Born On Jesus' Birthday? I realized after I published it that it might not have been sourced well, but I left it up because it's an example of how even skeptics and atheists trying to disseminate good information can make mistakes. I fell into the trap of an Appeal to Authority when I wrote it. The original information came from American Atheists, and why wouldn't they always be accurate, right? Well, even people or organizations with the best intentions are human and make mistakes.

I listened to The Skeptic's Testament yesterday and they talked about the Jesus/Horus link and myths borrowing from each other in general. I transcribed that part of the podcast for you (the whole episode is great, so if you can, give it a listen):

The Jesus Horus Link is complete rubbish made up by the movie Zeitgeist. Brian Dunning explains in Skeptoid Episode 196 why it's just fabricated conspiracy mongering.

The following is from The Skeptic's Testament, episode 24:

3:27: With the work of people like Robert Price, which many skeptics have read, they

unjustly make the case that all of the Jesus traditions were borrowed from previous sources. Price doesn't even argue that.

It is incorrect to say that one borrowed from the other. Christianity borrowed from Hinduism or Mithraism or vice versa, simply because the nature of history as a forensic science cannot say anything other than that one came after the other.

To establish sharing like that, or borrowing, and taking, would require something very astounding, something that doesn't fossilize. It would require something that history has never dished up to us before.

This is one example of what we're up against.

Firstly, you would have to establish a trade route between the two factions. Then one would have to show that they swapped stories about their holy men, and furthermore, one party or both went home, conflated the information he just learned about the other faction's holy man or men, and then spread that in the community, only about their own holy men.

The Afterlife and Sentient Rocks

Last night our local group of heathens and extended friends had our Winter Solstice/Festivus/FSM Holiday/Christmas/Hanukkah party. It was fun. The conversation was very interesting and incredibly diverse. Here are two topics I discussed.

I was talking to a Buddhist physicist who works for NASA part time. He started talking about how the earth and rocks have sentience. I disagreed, of course. He had this weird logic that was completely flawed. He said something about how humans are sentient, and we need the sun and the earth so they are sentient too. Um, what? And he works for NASA?

My friend Eric works for NASA. He went to his office christmas party where they prayed at the beginning "in jesus name".

This is fascinating and disturbing. I had this idea that people in places like NASA are rational and critical thinkers. But I guess you can be smart in one area and compartmentalize your beliefs and faith in the supernatural in another, and blithely eschew critical thinking. I think early and lifelong indoctrination is definitely a factor. It is disheartening, though.

~

One of my friends, Jim, is a grief counselor so he and I ended up talking about death and the afterlife. Cheery, huh?

We both agreed that as atheists, there is no fear of death. Being dead is natural. It's the end. For about 14 billion years before you were born you didn't exist. Now you do. Eventually (hopefully later rather than sooner, after a rewarding and wonderful life) you will die. We all die.

Where I have problems with death is the actual act of dying. I really don't want to suffer. I don't like pain. I don't want to lose all of my dignity. As Jim said, though, we are really working on that.

Anyway, if you're religious, you are led to believe that there is an afterlife. Well, some religions anyway. Apparently the jews don't hold to that notion. So if you're a muslim and you do good deeds like kill a bunch of innocent infidels you and 72 members of your family go to heaven where you get 72 virgins (see inside label for details).

If you're a christian, you get two choices (well, catholics get purgatory, too). You're going to hell unless you get saved and accept jesus as your savior (rules and restrictions may differ for your denomination. See insert). Then you get to go to heaven to worship god for all eternity.

Followup with Leah And The Case For Christ

I heard from Leah the other day! You might remember that she is my husband Butch's 18 year old cousin who asked me to watch The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel. (Initial post which started because of a Facebook exchange (discussed here)) and (Second post)

One of my friends recommended this article and podcast episode from Brian Dunning: Emergency Handbook: What to do when a friend loves woo. After reading this article I reflected on Leah, her beliefs, her lifestyle and her happiness. I had never had the intention of deconverting her, and I'm glad I replied honestly with facts to what she wanted me to watch. I think that it was a good way to handle it. But while I waited to see if Leah replied, I decided how I'd handle seeing her over the holidays. I didn't really expect to get an email reply after several days went by.

I decided to come up with one sentence to let her know that there was no pressure and we didn't have to talk about religion again if she didn't want to. I never came up with the best wording, but I was looking for a way to let her know it was water under the bridge, and that I wanted to focus on our relationship in a positive way, that was what is important to me, not our religious differences.

But she did reply. It wasn't what I expected. Somehow, she turned around what I was saying about the video to being questions I had about Christ, that I was seeking answers to. So she was seeing me as lost and confused while I see her as indoctrinated and, well, delusional. How interesting! So here is what she said:
~
Know that 1) regardless of if you were family or not, nothing you could say would change the fact that I love you. Being family is merely icing on the cake. 2) You are not at risk to "deconvert" me. I have had too much happen in my short life already to confirm what I believe to be true for you, or any one else, to ever take that away from me. The faith I have in Jesus Christ has never been stronger, and I am completely sold out and in love with Him. It would take a lot more than a lengthy email or two to even put a dent in my relationship with Christ.

For Entertainment Purposes Only

Hi everyone! I probably should have warned you ahead of time, but I've been so busy I really haven't had much of a chance. Labor Day weekend is "family time." Butch (my longsuffering and adoring husband) had his brother and best friend in town for the annual Labor Day family reunion. So I cleaned and polished and got ready for his friend to stay with us for a few days, and then prepared for several days of family events including the reunion on Sunday. I ate WAY too much delicious Italian food and laughed an awful lot. It all wrapped up last night and now I'm trying to recover. It's a lot for a curmudgeonly, grinch-hearted, soulless, socially phobic hermit to deal with every year.

So, I just wanted to say hi and give you some lolcats and funny pictures to amuse you till I can get back on track. I hope you had a great, long weekend as well.

Little did you know that the freezer is a closely guarded porthole to hell.

For a brief moment Basement Cat had the whole world in his hands. Then he dropped it.

How The New Testament Came About

God: Hey Jews.
Jews: Hey.
God: So listen guys, I'm thinking we go in a different direction with this whole religion.
Jews: What?
God: You know, do a non-gritty reboot. Same God taste, new God packaging. That sort of thing.
Jews: We don't follow.
God: Okay, work with me here guys. Remember the whole ‘angry God' thing?
Jews: Vividly.
God: Where I killed a whole bunch of you and-
Jews: Yeah.
God: And forty years in the-
Jews: We remember that.
God: Not to mention Robo-Hitler. Yikes.
Jews: Wait, what?
God: Whoops, forget I said that. "Spoiler Alert", am I right?
Jews: ...
God: Anyway, we're going to re-work this whole “God- thing. For example, kid-friendly is big these days in religion.
Jews: So, like...?

Disturbingly Accurate Portrayal of Indoctrination

I just found this on Facebook and had to share it with you:



I don't know who the artist is, but it's pretty obvious they understand the way indoctrination works.

Here are some other comics and images to amuse you:

Philosophy Airlines:

Touchdown Jesus Struck By Lightning

And Jesus said, "WTF, Dad!? Goddammit!"

The pose of the huge statue looked like a ref calling a touchdown, hence the name.

Here is the AP story:

MONROE, Ohio — Police say a six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a southwest Ohio highway has been struck by lightning in a thunderstorm and has burned to the ground.

The "King of Kings" statue had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

Monroe police dispatchers say the lightning strike set the statue ablaze late Monday night.

The sculpture showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way his arms were raised. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remains.

Police Chief Mark Neu (noo) says the fire spread to an amphitheater next to the statue but was confined to the attic area. He says no one was injured.

So is this  proof of a god that didn't like the statue because it was hideous? Or is it proof there is no god at all? Nah, it's just a hilarious coincidence, of course. :P

Here's a video: