Archive for September, 2008

I’m still waiting to hear of any potential fallout from the little stunt called Pulpit Freedom Sunday, in which 33 Christian Right churches decided to send an unambiguous message to the government — to wit, “We’re Christians! Rules don’t apply to us!” — by openly politicking from the pulpit. The whole charade was done in the hopes of igniting court cases. But I don’t see why that should be necessary. All the IRS needs to do is send these churches letters informing them that, as they have chosen to violate the laws pertaining to tax-exempt organizations by making formal political endorsements, their tax exempt status has been revoked effective immediately. And if the churches were to respond to such a letter with lawsuits, the courts should simply say, “Well, the tax laws are pretty clear about this one point, and you flagrantly violated it. So your suits are dismissed. Have a nice day.” See…no big deal. You know, if every church in America were taxed — especially those absurd, stadium-sized megachurches that boast weekly attendance in the 10,000-and-over range — can you just imagine how that would help the country out of its financial slump? Apropos of nothing: The post preceding this one was our 600th. Go us!

Got another TV show fan letter today, from this fellow, who voices a common apprehension (and don’t snipe at his poor English, as it obviously is not his native tongue): whats up i been muslim for 11 years after being a roman catholic, and i was shocked but i lost my faith, i was a sunni salafi, now i cant get enough with these atheist vidoes i am still scared about hell, someone told me i should start a show. i cant shake off the fear of hell though everlasting burning Well, you just need to realize that hell is something religion scares you with in order to control you. It should tell you something about religion, that it has to use an idea like hell as a tool of fear/control, and that it can’t just convince you of its truth through evidence and rational arguments. You don’t see scientific journals saying things like, “And if you don’t agree with our findings, you’re going to be tortured unimaginably for all eternity!” Do you? Any religion that has to resort to a doctrine like hell to compel compliance and obedience is, by definition, immoral.

What does it mean to say “God Exists”? That was what I examined Sunday afternoon on The Atheist Experience. The statement is brief–only two words. It should be simple, but for some reason, it’s always disproportionately hard. What is god? Every theist seems to know. Yet no two theists seem to agree. And no one theist seems able to communicate it in a way that actually provides any real, informed data. I think it’s safe to say a concept of god can exist in any mind. But most apologists put forward that god is not merely mental concept–an idea; god is, rather, existent outside the mind. Despite the often used refrain “god exists like love exists,” I have yet to meet the theist who will then declare that god, like love, is a mental concept with no external referent–solely an idea. God does not exist like love exists, to theists, when you explain how love exists, and ask them if this is what they mean by “god.” I have been told on air that god is “ultimate strategy,” and tonight someone told me god is “the set of all Read more
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I wasn’t going to post any follow up to the “I’ll Pray For You…” post, as I’d generally prefer to keep my health issues within my “inner circle”. Fortunately, I was reminded that there are many friends and fans who care and, after receiving a number of kind and encouraging comments, e-mails, text messages and phone calls, I think some minor update is in order. There’s also a point to this post, so if you want to skip the diagnosis and get to the meat, scroll down a couple of paragraphs. Yesterday, I stopped by my doctor’s office to go over the results of my lab work. As suspected, I’m diabetic. He explained the lab results to me, pointing out each number, what it meant and why it was (or wasn’t) a concern. He explained the specifics about the type of diabetes we think I have, discussed what to expect, what changes need to be made, what my potential risks were and then, after he was confident that I had a good grasp on the situation, he went over his proposed treatment plan. I’m now on medication and will be going back in 2 weeks to check my progress and make modifications to the treatment plan. With luck, I’ll be able to avoid taking insulin, but it’s a possibility. With hard work and some difficult changes, I might eventually reach a point where medication isn’t required but as it stands now, this isn’t something that’s going to be corrected by diet and exercise. On my drive home, I stopped by the store to pick up things I needed. As I was checking out the teller asked if I was having a good day. I had to stop and think for a moment. I started to weigh the good and bad events to gauge my day…I got off work early, so that’s good…but I had to go the doctor, that’s bad. I found out I’m diabetic, that’s bad…but it’s treatable, so that’s good. I left the store and headed home, ready to make a few...
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It’s physically painful to realize that someone this thoroughly idiotic is in charge of the Texas State Board of Education. If science is limited to only natural explanations but some natural phenomena are actually the result of supernatural causes then science would never be able to discover that truth — not a very good position for science. Defining science to allow for this possibility is just common sense. Science must limit itself to testable explanations not natural explanations. Then the supernaturalist will be just as free as the naturalist to make testable explanations of natural phenomena. The view with the best explanation of the empirical evidence should prevail. People, that’s thermonuclear stupidity! Precisely how does McLeroy propose we test for those supernatural causes? Is he implying that supernatural explanations are testable but natural ones are not? How does he propose to differentiate the supernatural from the natural when testing it? Hell, how does he even define the supernatural in any context? Isn’t the word just a sockpuppet for “God”? Of course it is. Seems to me the last sentence of the above quote completely negates all the blather that preceded it, because like it or not, the natural explanations science presents us with are the ones with the best empirical evidence behind them. It’s hardly science’s fault if brainwashed, asstard ideologues like McLeroy just ignore evidence that doesn’t flatter their belief in their sky-fairy-of-choice. (Oops, there I go again trash-talking. I guess I’m due for a Kazim finger-wag.) McLeroy raises these questions, to appear as if he’s actually intellectually engaged in the issue, but he provides no answers, of course, because he cannot answer. He isn’t interested in explanations for anything, anyway. Life to him is about belief, not knowledge. He’s just looking for a legal strategy, as are all these Liars for Jesus, by...
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