I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks. . .

From CNN we find a story about people being 'visited' by a dead loved one. There are lots of these stories and I find a link between them. The visited person is always the only one visited. That is to say, there is never any corroboration. Why isn't a family visited all at once or a collection of co-workers?

Also, consider this from the article:

Did you ever hear a story of a mother who somehow knows before anyone told her that something awful has happened to her child?

Yes I have heard of such stories. Have you ever heard of a story of a mother who somehow 'knows' before anyone told her that something awful has happened to her child. . . and then it turned out to not be true? THAT probably happens WAY more often but is not reported. Why would it be.

Anyway, I'll get on board with all of this as soon as Galileo visits me. . . and buys lunch!

This says it all. . .

Click on panel to see the whole thing.


See more comics from Calamities of Nature

Ron Paul = Idiot

Why do we have to keep writing the same thing? Why aren't people who don't understand the first thing about science or the real meaning of the word 'theory' silenced, ignored and poked with a stick the first time they say:

Evolution is only a theory.

I guess I'll just have to keep pounding this drum. I'll try to get right to the point.

Evolution is a well founded, workable, and tested theory by every measure of what makes a good scientific theory.

Theory in this sense does not mean 'theoretical'. It means a short list of testable assumptions (mutation & and natural selection) that then explain a myriad of heretofore unexplainable observations.

NO ONE working in the field of biology, paleontology, micro-biology, genetics, etc doubts the basic tenets of evolution for one second.

To assume a creator causes more un-explainable assumptions than it explains. That's not a workable or useful theory. It's not a scientific theory at all. It only reveals a desperate expression of faith and a fear of knowledge.

That having been said, why does a man with an education who is running for the presidency of the United States continue to say it and not be laughed out of the race? Why are Americans drawn to potential leaders who are just as ignorant as themselves (Sarah Palin) rather than shooting higher? Why are so many Americans suspicious of intelligent and educated potential leaders?

We HAVE to keep pounding this drum. We HAVE to keep asking people like Ron Paul what he means by only a theory?

Now here's the deal. It won't matter. There is no way in this United States for a Republican to win the nomination for the presidency and NOT say he doesn't believe in evolution.

Think about that.

Any Republican saying reasonable things about a well founded 135 year old scientific theory cannot not win the nomination. Such a person would be seen to somehow be siding with the crazy liberal press, professors and other intelligentsia. GASP! What the hell happened to the party of Abe Lincoln?

So, I suspect that the current batch of Republican candidates will all HAVE to declare their suspicion regarding evolution just to get a whack at the nomination. Who knows whether they all truly believe that or not which makes them all either ignorant or disingenuous. Unfortunately it doesn't make them un-electable! Far from it.

I wonder what would happen to a candidate who made it a point to say that Newton's gravity is only a theory and we should consider other theories as well? Perhaps the sticky-earth theory.

Want some help making arguments for evolution? Try these books:

Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin

Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne

The second one especially makes very clear and simple arguments with plenty of supporting evidence to show what a beautiful and true theory evolution is.

Got to keep on keeping on brother!

Sunday Thoughts

Epilogue

Underway aboard Enee Marie under full sail. I’m stretched out on the leeward side so as to see the tell-tales as I steer with one hand. We’re on course, Enee is heeled over maybe 5 degrees and we’re making 6+ knots on the rolling ocean. Steve Earle is on the stereo. I turn to Sue and say, “This is it Sue. This right here, right now. This is just about as happy as I can get”.

Just about.

Yesterday I watched Lucy dance in front of the band at the street fair. Big smile on her face as she hopped about, head thrown back, jumping up, landing on her butt. I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I couldn’t stop smiling. Just about the happiest she OR I can be I guess. She’s so happy and so un-aware. She knows nothing of 9-11 or terrorists. No bad guys. Doesn’t know about Republicans, Sara Palin, or Tea Party. The economy? What’s that? She’s never been sick. Nobody’s ever died. Of course all of that will come.

Given all of that why would you lay something like “original sin” on a perfect child like this? Why would you scare them with stories of a vengeful big guy who lives in the sky and KNOWS WHAT YOU ARE THINKING! Doesn’t that seem just a little mean spirited? Is it because as we grow into our world the world tends to make us a little bitter and suspicious. We grow up with our regrets. We have war wounds. Is it all of this that makes us not be able to wait to get the children feeling guilty and miserable as well in the name of religion?

Maybe worse, is it fair to have them believe in fairytale goodness when in fact we’re really on our own and goodness is self generated? Do you want self-reliance or hopeful belief that ‘somehow’ things will work out.

In John Lennon’s Imagine he imagines no heaven, hell, nor countries. No possessions, greed, nor hunger. That is exactly the perfect state that Lucy is in right now. It will pass for sure but I don’t see any reason to rush things along by introducing the silliness of magical invisible beings, heaven, nor hell.

All I know is that watching Lucy dance in the street is in fact the happiest I can get*.

*Well, I was pretty damn happy when the Bears won the Super Bowl but I guess that’s different.

I'm BACK Jack!

Thanks to my friend Rich for discovering that this blog had been hijacked so that you couldn't open it at all. You just got a weird page about some blogroll something or other. A little research found that a number of other atheist type blogs had been hacked in a similar manner.

Interesting.

The worst thing for religion is the free exchange of ideas and especially those that question doctrine. This is why children HAVE to be taken to Sunday school and indoctrinated into religious thought BEFORE they can start questioning for themselves.

This is why people from the religious right will deface, tear down, or disallow atheist billboards while atheists themselves find religious billboards (and there are many) rather sad but not threatening.

This is why the religious right wants to have creationism taught in science class in a desperate attempt to muddy the waters in an attempt to create controversy where there is none.

Sticking to Your Guns

Interesting piece by Anderson Cooper (yeah there's going to be a commercial first) with a reporter trying to interview followers of Warren Jeff's church. Warren Jeffs who is now serving 45 year sentence for basically raping 12 and 15 year old girls that he called his 'spiritual wives'. Indeed!

If you watch the clip it is absolutely frightening to see the blank look on the faces of the followers as they refuse to even listen or talk to the reporter regarding the conviction of their prophet. Once guy says, "I know everything I need to know" reminiscent of Nixon's famous, "Don't confuse me with the facts". Another guy says he knows how the government can manufacture evidence.

That's a really interesting and telling comment since Jeffs never even denied having sex with the under age girls! There was nothing to manufacture. And, it shows how you can't convince a religious nut of ANYTHING using logic and when I say religious nut I mean anyone who has adopted a point of view based on faith instead of facts and research. Since the position was just selected because it makes the person feel good there is no way to 'backdoor' that with logic.

Rick Perry

Rick Perry recently had a discussion with a young girl about evolution and creationism. He said something to the effect that evolution was 'just an idea'. He said, " . . . in Texas we teach both. . .isn't that fair?"

No. It's neither true nor fair.

First off Texas recently turned down all additions to their textbooks that dealt with creation 'science' and in fact bolstered the factual and logical deductions of evolution.

Secondly, no it's not fair on two counts.

1. Science is not in the business of presenting every crack-pot idea that comes along (nor is any other discipline come to think of it) but rather the proven theories of science, how they came about (evidence and experiment), and science as a process of gaining truth. We don't (we meaning those of us north of the Mason-Dixon line) don't teach creation 'science' in the same way we don't teach the earth is flat, that gravity is stickiness, or that the universe is steady state and non-changing. We don't because those theories are unworkable, dis-proven, or un-provable.

2. As was decided in Pennsylvania, creation 'science' is just a transparent attempt to sneak Christianity into the public schools. It's faith based plain and simple and therefore has no place in our public schools.

It's sad that now 150 years after Darwin we have to keep beating this drum but beat it we must. Rick Perry is either that deluded by his fundamentalist position or, as I suspect, simply knows that if he says anything to the effect that evolution is 'just an idea' that that turns into significant numbers of votes. Let's not have that work. If your faith (and you are welcome to it) is threatened by well-founded work by decades of honest working scientists then perhaps it is your faith that should be challenged or re-thought and not Darwin.

Everything is FINE!

From today's Trib:

A teenager six months pregnant was shot and killed in the Marquette Park neighborhood on the South Side, but doctors were able to deliver her son, authorities said.

"The baby is pretty much fighting for his life," Debbie Jefferson said of her grandson. "He lost some oxygen and the doctors say there could be health issues. I believe in God, I believe everything is going to be OK."

Sure everything is going to be ok. . .EXCEPT YOUR DAUGHTER IS DEAD! What the hell?

I'm soooooo tired of this reasoning or lack thereof and it is pervasive.

Two Recent Ideas

Walking down Belmont Ave. in Chicago the other day and saw a sign outside the big Catholic church there. It read

Lord, take pity on me.

That's it. I assume 'me' means all of the faithful and they should be pitied why? Original sin I guess. It sounds more like,

Please don whip me massa!

The Lord as straw boss on a chain gang or plantation I guess. Yeah that's the lord I want to pray to.
-------------------------------
One way the God idea works.

One way the God idea works is that you get it screwed into somebody's head (at an early age mind you) that there is a being (not unlike Santa) that not only knows what you are doing but also what you are THINKING. And you know you can think some pretty naughty stuff. So you pray for forgiveness, etc.

I don't have a god but I do have a running goddess. My daughter is my coach, my running inspiration, she picks me up when I have a bad run, she leads by example, she maketh me to lie down by still waters I told myself today, and only in my own head that I could run past my old mark and up north to Fullerton. After passing my old mark I could stop anywhere as that would be farther than my old mark. I didn't have to run to Fullerton. I only said that to me. BUT THE GODDESS WILL BE ANGERED even though I never mentioned to her. That's how religion works! In my head I don't want to disappoint even though I never mentioned it out loud.

Weird.

I ran to Fullerton.

Amen!

SETI is back

Money for the SETI project was recently cut but now some donations (Jodi Foster for one) have raised $200,000 to get the array up and running again. I like that. Seems like we might as well be listening just in case someone is broadcasting.

Contact with alien species would be THE story since the beginning of time on earth. What will the religious say when intelligent aliens have never heard of God (any of them) or Jesus? On one hand it would be nice to think that they'd then drop the whole bad idea but then they could have thought that when they encountered the American Indians. The bend in your brain to convince you to believe in invisible people who have your best interests at heart does not have a back door for un-believing. No. You just figure the people in question (Indians or aliens) just haven't gotten the 'word' YET. Fire up the missionary rockets!

Semi-interesting article by a guy who was a missionary and now thinks that evangelicals shouldn't evangelize. Big deal but then I find this quote:


Funny thing is, Jesus never said, “Go into the world and convert people to Christianity.” What he said was, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”

Even funnier than that, pal, is that no one really knows what Jesus said or didn't say. No one can even prove he existed. The new testament was written by unknown authors 300-400 years after the mythical figure we call 'Jesus' was allegedly around. This is what no one wants to talk about. Everyone wants to argue what the word of 'the Lord' really means or what he really said when and where but there is a HUGE uncertainty hooked on to all of that due to authorship and the effects of time on the written and passed on word.

But I just know people think the New Testament is a real time record of events in the life of Ivan DeJesus Jesus but it is nothing of the kind and biblical scholars are in agreement about this. Pretty easy to put words into the Lords mouth 400 years after he may have existed. And, if he is the son of the creator of the universe why not straighten out any misconceptions.

Ah, that wouldn't be mysterious!

Jesus on a Walmart Receipt

Yes fans another breathless story from CNN and other sources about a South Carolina (hmm...that's in the 'south', right?) who spotted our savior and son of the creator of the universe on the back of a Walmart receipt.

Yep, that's how the omnipotent communicate with us.

You can clearly see that that is Jesus, right? Wait, or is that Charles Manson? Or my bowling buddy, Mel?

What the hell is wrong with people? The couple in question said the image was 'breathtaking'. Yeah, sure is. . .IF YOUR A STUPID CORN PONE LIVING IN SOUTH FUCKING CAROLINA! You can see puppies in clouds too. You can see the image of Isaac Newton in your coffee grounds. We are wired to look for faces so we find faces where there are in fact none.

I've been over this before.

1. Nobody knows what Jesus really looked like so if you saw the image of a round bald guy that MIGHT be the image of Christ. How would you know?

2. Why in the hell do the news idiots cover this shit? Why? And they do it every time.

Somtimes I wish the south had won the civil war.

God at work. . . sometimes

From the Chicago Tribune;

Two Chicago police officers were shot and wounded late Monday in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, authorities said.

The 29-year-old patrolmen from the West Side Harrison police district were expected to recover from their injuries, according to police Superintendent Garry McCarthy, who spoke with reporters this morning outside the emergency room at Stroger Hospital.

"God was with us tonight," McCarthy said.

Where is he on the nights that officers are shot and killed? Imponderables. Who doesn't love 'em?

Illinois seeks scientists to help in Asian carp fight

This headline struck me as funny because the implied message (perhaps) is, "After politicians once again find themselves powerless, clueless, and impotent. . .they turn to science. Wait could it be? Could LOGIC and reason save the day?

Again?

Catholics Take the Low Road Again

Catholic Charities in Joliet, Peoria opt out of adoptions

This decision is in conjunction with the new civil unions law in Illinois. The Catholic church doesn't want to put children in homes with homos. That's it pretty much. Forget the quality of life those kids might enjoy and take advantage of. Forget thinking about the KIDS (except in a biblical way for some priests).

I wonder if they'd place kids in homes with a heterosexual atheist couple?

I'm so sick of people living in the ancient, dark, paranoid, past when the future is really so bright!

Time to Start Bashing Sarah Palin

Here's a great link to the 9 most disturbing beliefs of Sarah Palin. Read it.

I'd like to just point out one example:

Until somebody digs up the remnants of a T. rex with an ill-fated caveman dangling from its jaws, the scientific community, along with most of the American public, will be at peace with the theory of evolution. But this isn't true of everyone. More than 80 years after the Scopes "Monkey" trial, there are people -- and politicians -- who do not believe in evolution and lobby for creationism to be taught in schools. Palin is one of those politicians.

I think this example and others are perhaps not so much an example of how stupid and un-educated Sarah Palin is but how she and a host of other conservative republicans will take ANY STAND if it means votes. I'm not sure which is scarier and perhaps she is both - uneducated and evil.

HEY! It's May 22!

Well, what do you know. The world didn't end. That means the Cubs still have a chance. . . some day.

Surprise!

But to those who believed, their money sure as hell (get it? Sure as hell?) is gone! Interestingly, Family Radio has not been updated and is still predicting the end of times. . . yesterday!

I mean really. . . why would you donate to Family Radio instead of giving your money to family members if you really thought it was the end of times. What the hell is this nut-ball organization going to do with your money if they are really sure that on the 21st they were going to heaven? HEY! You really can't take it with you, right?

On one hand I shake my head at the stupidity of people who believe some nut case can do math based on something in the bible and get more than 3 people to go along with him. Sell their houses, join a caravan, whatever.

Understand that I and other rational people were not standing by to see if the world was going to end. It never entered my world of possible things. Now that it didn't happen I don't feel smug. I didn't go "Whew!" I don't feel like 'I won'. To do that would be to fall into the whole non-thing. A non-happening that attracted thousands. In the same way I could give a rat's ass what the pope says.

No, I only feel sadness. I'm saddened by our educational system that produces people who cannot distinguish between being the ability to go to the moon and numerology. Moreover I am unable to distinguish between the few thousands who gave up a chunk of their lives for a nut case and the millions of devout Christians who basically do the same thing day after day. They give up their reason. They give up some of their money. They miss the truly amazing things about being sentient and getting to observe this amazing universe by imagining a rather boring supernatural universe with pastel clouds and unicorns.

How different is it for a guy to claim he has calculated the end of times from the bible than for some ancient priests to claim the son of god somehow died for my sins (of which I have virtually none and I have the judges decision to prove it!) and rose up into heaven where I get to go too.

Somehow.

If it sounds ridiculous it probably is. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

The whole fucking thing is depressing. . .

Skeptics vs. Conspiracy Nuts

Some are wanting the US to publish the photos of the dead Osama to quiet any critics who say it may be a hoax. I think this would be a mistake.

1. If he's not dead let's have a current picture of him or video holding the day's paper.
2. publish DNA evidence...that's not that hard to read.
3. Ask his wife who was there: "Is your husband dead?"

But none of this would work including the publishing the picture because a conspiracy nut takes his conspiracies as a true hobby. No matter WHAT you show them they just ratchet it up and claim that the conspiracy is that much bigger or more insidious. They are exactly like religious nuts in that they have already claimed their conclusion and facts and evidence be damned. It's a losing gambit to try to 'show' these people anything. You can't win and you just give them more air time.

As my uncle used to say: "Never try to teach a pig to sing. You only frustrate yourself and you annoy the pig"!

Let Osama prove that he is alive!

Finally, being skeptical is different than holding on to a conclusion in spite of the evidence. Being skeptical means that you withhold your conclusions until you've seen some evidence and you want a LOT of it from qualified sources. No cherry picking!

Bin Laden. . . . DEAD!

Well, that's certainly good news and I did have a little, "In your face!" thought. I'm a little disturbed by Americans taking to the streets, waving flags, and chanting USA though. All of that seems so . . . so . . . ummmm....Middle Eastern!

I'm glad we never gave up and that this dirt bag was found and killed. Fair enough. But, I don't care for the public celebrations of death to an individual. Just seems a little tacky.

Surviving a Tornado

From CNN:

The same tornado, Amin said, virtually destroyed the tiny town of Phil Campbell, which has a population of little more than 1,000.

Those who survived the disaster thanked God or simple luck.

Just a quick note about the obvious: How can you tell the difference between God's interference and blind luck? I'll sit back and wait for my answer.