Carnivalia, and an open thread


Here’s a slew of good stuff to entertain you on a pleasant Friday, the last day of finals week here at UMM. I have to give my genetics students their final exam in a short while—I fear they are not having a happy time right now. When they’re done, though, the sun will be shining, commencement awaits tomorrow … and I will be sitting in gloomy room somewhere, red pen in hand, grading.

Comments

  1. says

    Anyone who prays to God – Scientists’ Manifesto

    Anyone who prays to God
    – for whatever reasons –
    and goes to a congregation
    to listen to some holy man
    talking nonsense on the pulpit
    or doing some holy rituals;
    and gives his money to the
    Church, Mosque, Temple or
    some pagoda of Buddha,
    should be labeled a fool,
    no matter who he or she is,
    no matter how educated,
    how rich or poor,
    how low or elevated,
    how holy or unholy
    he or she is.

    Such people are ignorant.
    They propagate ignorance.
    They do not use their brains
    and believe in unnatural things
    they call supernatural things.

    Educate them.
    Put sense into their heads.
    And if they don’t change,
    ridicule them for their ignorance,
    make fool of them, shun them
    and label them dimwits and idiots,
    no matter who they are –
    Christians, Sikhs, Hindus or Jews.
    Religion is the bane to civilization.
    We do not need it to be ethical.
    Just follow the civil laws of civilized men.

    ~white wings

    http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/05/anyone-who-prays-to-god.htm

  2. says

    Do pimps not lure people to prostitution?

    “There are studies that if you have a collective mass of people, a critical mass of people, who meditate and go into silence, then the Earth’s turbulence will also settle down, because we are connected to those fields.”

    -Deepak Chopra on critical, collective nonsense talking to Larry King on CNN. Quoted by Jeff at http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/05/open_thread_73.html

    ***

    Where are the studies on
    the collective mass of people,
    meditating in silence and
    changing Earth’s turbulence?

    In some quantum guru’s head
    that pours out bucketfuls of shit
    in books, videos and interviews?
    Shame! he calls himself a scientist.

    Publishers, radio and TV interviewers,
    you’re doing science a great harm, like him.
    He makes money selling his holy-cow-shit.
    You make money selling him.

    How are you different from him?
    Do pimps not lure people to prostitution?
    And suckers of the holy shit, you’re a queer group.
    You pay money to get your head fu–ed by gurus.

    http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/05/do-pimps-not-lure-people-to-prostitution.htm

  3. says

    Do pimps not lure people to prostitution?

    “There are studies that if you have a collective mass of people, a critical mass of people, who meditate and go into silence, then the Earth’s turbulence will also settle down, because we are connected to those fields.”

    -Deepak Chopra on critical, collective nonsense talking to Larry King on CNN. Quoted by Jeff at http://www.intentblog.com/archives/2007/05/open_thread_73.html

    ***

    Where are the studies on
    the collective mass of people,
    meditating in silence and
    changing Earth’s turbulence?

    In some quantum guru’s head
    that pours out bucketfuls of shit
    in books, videos and interviews?
    Shame! he calls himself a scientist.

    Publishers, radio and TV interviewers,
    you’re doing science a great harm, like him.
    He makes money selling his holy-cow-shit.
    You make money selling him.

    How are you different from him?
    Do pimps not lure people to prostitution?
    And suckers of the holy shit, you’re a queer group.
    You pay money to get your head fu–ed by gurus.

    http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/05/do-pimps-not-lure-people-to-prostitution.htm

  4. says

    The quantum guru is bullshitting

    “And you say, what does havoc in nature have to do with what’s happening in the turbulence in my mind? Well, the fact is that your mind and the information and energy fields of your mind are part of nature’s mind. And in the old days, they would say, you’re doing bad things. God is punishing you, so he’s going to send you an earthquake.”

    -Deepak Chopra talking to Larry King on CNN.

    ***

    And you ask:
    what’s common in the
    turbulence of nature and the
    turbulence of the mind?

    Earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis
    rapes, murders, killings, shootings
    all arise from the same thing:
    the collective consciousness of the mind.

    You have a mind.
    I have a mind.
    We all have minds
    Nature has a mind (God’s mind)
    All put together is a collective mind
    that makes collective consciousness
    that is an energy field
    that is God
    that is within you
    me, him, her, us all.

    So God rapes women
    God makes earth quakes,
    tornadoes, tsunamis and tells Cho
    to go on a collective killing.
    Spiritually how fulfilling!

    “In the old days, they would say,
    you’re doing bad things.”
    Nowadays the scientists say
    the quantum guru is bullshitting.

    http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/05/the-quantum-guru-is-bullshitting.htm

  5. says

    To the dying old man

    When the candle is
    going to die out,
    it flickers fast,
    it lights bright.

    Old man, you are
    taking your last breaths.
    The sky looks bluer to you
    and you hear your sighs.

    Get past the nonsense of
    finally meeting your Beloved.
    From earth you came
    into earth will you lie
    being eaten by maggots
    till your Jesus comes from
    heaven and makes you rise.
    (if you so believe)

    There’s no heaven, no hell
    no Beloved, no devil.
    It’s all nonsense in your head.
    Your tiny-weeny spiritual brain
    could never comprehend that
    that what’s born here is not
    carried by souls elsewhere;
    here it ends.

    ~white wings

    http://whitewings.sulekha.com/blog/post/2007/05/to-the-dying-old-man.htm

  6. says

    Nothing stops you from bundling up and taking your papers & red pen and a couple of paperweights to the park. That’s how I like to edit at least part of the time.

  7. says

    In my self-education I’ve discovered the Real Mark Twain. It sure sounds as if you and he are singing from the same song-book. On Science Notes, I’ve typed up some exerpts in which I can hear him simmering with truly righteous indignation.

  8. quork says

    How dare you call me a fundamentalist

    Richard Dawkins
    The hardback God Delusion was hailed as the surprise bestseller of 2006. While it was warmly received by most of the 1,000-plus individuals who volunteered personal reviews to Amazon, paid print reviewers gave less uniform approval. Cynics might invoke unimaginative literary editors: it has “God” in the title, so send it to a known faith-head. That would be too cynical, however. Several critics began with the ominous phrase, “I’m an atheist, BUT . . .” So here is my brief rebuttal to criticisms originating from this “belief in belief” school.

    Includes a reference to Pharyngula and the “Courtier’s Reply.”