Sad news: Lynn Margulis, advocate of the endosymbiosis theory of eukaryotic origins, has died. She was smart, creative, and promoter of a lot of wild ideas…and to her credit, some of them were even right. I think her greatest strength was her eagerness to step right out to the edge of science and push, push, push — sometimes futilely, but sometimes she really did succeed in pushing back the frontier a bit.
(Also on Sb)
Marines at Camp Pendleton erected a large cross on public land in a spontaneous gesture to some fallen comrades — it’s an understandable sentiment, to memorialize dead friends, and no one can fault their intent. But the action was wrong: it’s using government property to promote sectarian religion. It should be taken down and either something more appropriate put in its place, or it should be moved to private land. Unfortunately, the Marines involved are getting defensive, macho, and stupid (Hey! They’re fitting the Marine stereotype!)
“Marines roll deep and the most dangerous place to be is between a Marine and fallen Marines,” posted one person.
That’s nice if this were a battle. This isn’t, unless they really think the proper response to a legal challenge is to whip out their rifles.
So we also have a stupid poll, in which defenders of this cross have to resort to lying and trivializing their own faith (Hey! They’re fitting the Christian stereotype!)
Yes, it’s not a religous statement but one of respect. 82%
No, it’s clearly a violation of church and state. 18%
A cross isn’t a religious symbol anymore? Yeah, right. I’d be more sympathetic if they didn’t have to resort to blatant dishonesty to make their case (Hey! They’re fitting the theist stereotype!)
I am an atheist because I cannot see any logical reason to be otherwise.
I was raised new age/pagan and used karma to explain why my life was such a mess as I became a heavy drug user and drinker.
I always enjoyed laughing at silly Christian beliefs, but once I gave up drugs and cleared my mind I started to turn that same skeptical eye on to my own beliefs, and found them just as laughable, if not more so.
Despite the 12 step program telling the world the only way to get clean is through god, I found that without drugs clouding my senses god became irrelevant.
Leela Moses
New Zealand
It’s just not right that I’m so drab and the flamboyant cuttlefish can be so…flamboyant.
(Episode CCLXXV: You aren’t in church right now, are you?.)
It really is magic. Whenever atheists put up one of their innocuous billboards, with some mild statement that I find tepid and utterly uncontroversial, the Christians just have to charge in and make it newsworthy. The latest case is in Ohio, where Mid Ohio Atheists planned to put up this billboard:
At the last minute, though, the billboard company yanked their agreement to put up the signs and cancelled the contract. Why?
…the inflammatory nature of the proposed displays would no doubt be considered offensive to much of the community and would be harmful to Lind’s community reputation and goodwill. Lind has always and will continue to reserve the right not to publish advertisements which, in its sole opinion, are obscene, unnecessarily offensive and/or not in the best interests of the community at large.
Oh, yeah, that sign sure is obscene and offensive.
But hooray! The theists have successfully inflamed the issue and made their discrimination the focus of the news! It’s so obliging of them to stand up, put on the big black hat, and paint themselves as the villains.
(Also on Butterflies & Wheels, Blag Hag, and X Blog.)
The IERA, that group of Mohammed apologists who claim repeatedly that the Quran is full of amazing scientific truths that prove the truth of its magical claims, has long been promoting video recordings of Western scientists recruited for an Islamic conference 30 years ago. These scientists were caught on tape claiming that the only way the Quran could contain this information was by divine intervention.
Well, one of them, William Hay, has been tracked down and asked about those statements. It turns out he was quote-mined and edited and his words twisted around. Why am I not surprised?
I’ve also got a copy of Hamza Tzortzis’s new embryology paper that purports to show the amazing and miraculous scientific revelations of the Quran with respect to scientifically confirmed embryology. It’s total bullshit, and actually shows the puerile shallowness of the Quran to good effect. I’ll say more about that later, but right now I’ve got a headache-inducing pile of work to get done.
I’ve heard of the Scoville scale, which measures the potency of spicy peppers. Those boring green bell peppers get a 0; habaneros get a score of 350,000.
The stuff those UC Davis police officers so casually hosed into the faces of peacefully demonstrating students? between 2,000,000 and 5,300,000 Scoville units.
But we’ve taken to calling it pepper spray, I think, because that makes it sound so much more benign than it really is, like something just a grade or so above what we might mix up in a home kitchen. The description hints maybe at that eye-stinging effect that the cook occasionally experiences when making something like a jalapeno-based salsa, a little burn, nothing too serious.
Until you look it up on the Scoville scale and remember, as toxicologists love to point out, that the dose makes the poison. That we’re not talking about cookery but a potent blast of chemistry. So that if OC spray is the U.S. police response of choice – and certainly, it’s been used with dismaying enthusiasm during the Occupy protests nationwide, as documented in this excellent Atlantic roundup – it may be time to demand a more serious look at the risks involved.
Their goal is to cause intense pain. Where has the police gotten this bizarre idea that somehow inducing agony in protesters is somehow humane or reasonable?
(Also on FtB)
I’ve heard of the Scoville scale, which measures the potency of spicy peppers. Those boring green bell peppers get a 0; habaneros get a score of 350,000.
The stuff those UC Davis police officers so casually hosed into the faces of peacefully demonstrating students? between 2,000,000 and 5,300,000 Scoville units.
But we’ve taken to calling it pepper spray, I think, because that makes it sound so much more benign than it really is, like something just a grade or so above what we might mix up in a home kitchen. The description hints maybe at that eye-stinging effect that the cook occasionally experiences when making something like a jalapeno-based salsa, a little burn, nothing too serious.
Until you look it up on the Scoville scale and remember, as toxicologists love to point out, that the dose makes the poison. That we’re not talking about cookery but a potent blast of chemistry. So that if OC spray is the U.S. police response of choice – and certainly, it’s been used with dismaying enthusiasm during the Occupy protests nationwide, as documented in this excellent Atlantic roundup – it may be time to demand a more serious look at the risks involved.
Their goal is to cause intense pain. Where has the police gotten this bizarre idea that somehow inducing agony in protesters is somehow humane or reasonable?
(Also on Sb)
I finally stopped praying, begging and pleading and said, “Fuck you God!” and it literally saved my life.
Growing up, I was subtly aware the way in which I observed the world was somehow off. Everything was just too loud or frightening or difficult. My daily life was filled with intangible despair and angst and the most mundane activities became an existential nightmare: Keirkegaard for kids. I was often too intimidated or lethargic to go outside, the thought of tomorrow was unnerving enough to deprive me of meaningful sleep, and what should have been good times were filled with internalized anguish that often brought me to tears. Looking back I can say that it felt like I was living in a dank subterranean realm looking up at the world, slowly being buried alive and dismembered while everyone else managed their lives and left me behind. But this was alright because I was praying to “God” and asking for “His” help and I knew eventually if I kept at it, I’d be saved.
Begging for help is a more apt description; day after day, year after year. I thought if I went to church I would be saved or at least not be punished more. I sought help from a truly compassionate, yet misguided priest and counselor who indicated I should seek solace in faith. Years went by and my symptoms ebbed and flowed. My high school years of debilitating apathy and fear were spent with very high doses self-medication (i.e., vodka for breakfast). My feigned attempt at college was met with truancy, very real suicide attempts and hospitalizations. And yet, I prayed.
At this point however, the cognitive dissonance was becoming all too apparent. So much of my life had been spent seeking help in this invisible being, yet to no avail and to the persistence of very tangible pain. Finally, after years of delusion, something clicked and I punched myself with some brutal honesty and the fear turned into anger. A subservient to this “God” is what I had been, begging and fearing for a life that was barely worth living. That night, the “Fuck you God!” night, shed my life of the false safety net that was actually enslaving me. It was perhaps the most liberating experience of my life. While still trepidatious, it gave me the kick in the ass necessary to save me. I sought professionals who based their conclusions on the rigors of scientific process. Meeting the criteria for multiple, severe mental illnesses and after years of fine-tuning management techniques, my life is virtually asymptomatic.
Even though it took me seven tumultuous years to finish my Bachelor’s, I have worked four years professionally with success I never thought possible. I’ve even started a part-time Master’s in Earth Science due to my unbounded love for anything scientific; a direct result of my deconversion and the inspiration instilled from the science-based doctors who helped save my life. When I think of the countless, cumulative, backbreaking hours spent in labs and pouring over data, hours that define entire lives that were only seeking the truth, truth that ultimately saved my life… I cry… I am so grateful. I am not of great mind and I’m not going to be known in the scientific community, but in some form, no matter how small, I’d like to contribute to the science that saved me.
I no longer direct my anger toward God because 1) I’m no longer angry and 2) there is no God. I am an atheist because in one sense it was my only choice, but it goes much deeper than that. I am an atheist because I am a truth seeker. I am an atheist because living a finite life allows me to create motivation, meaning and love – through the help of my amazing wife and family – in such a way that isn’t constrained by a “safety net.” At any rate, for old times’ sake, “Fuck you God!”
Jake
United States
The bigoted gelato guy has apologized again, and people are falling all over themselves to accept it. He was classy and sincere!
I don’t think so. I reject his apology.
The guy wrote to me to personally apologize. How nice. I don’t care.
I have never met you, but from what I understand you are passionate about the way you feel and I may have offended you. So, I wanted to personally reach out to you and apologize for my behavior. I hope this statement explains (not excuses) the reason I did what I did. I have posted my statement here: http://redd.it/mkw6h
This is what I wrote back.
