Hey, I thought an atheist was just someone who didn’t believe in gods

At least, that’s what people keep yelling at me. But apparently, even an idiot can recognize that there are wider implications to non-belief…of course, if you’re an idiot as big as Satoshi Kanazawa, you get them all wrong.

It is ironic because, according to Dawkins himself, I am actually more atheist than he is in the original meaning of the word. Fellow Big Think blogger Mark Cheney quotes Dawkins as saying “On a scale of seven, where one means I know he exists, and seven I know he doesn’t, I call myself a six. That doesn’t mean I’m absolutely confident, that I absolutely know, because I don’t.” It’s funny, because, unlike Dawkins, I absolutely know for sure that God doesn’t exist, as any scientist would. For scientists, it’s very simple; absolutely nothing exists in the universe, except for those entities for which there is credible scientific evidence for their existence. So I know for sure that God doesn’t exist for the same reason that I know Santa Claus or Superman doesn’t exist

But I am not an atheist.

So why does he argue that he’s not an atheist?

  • Because atheists are assholes.

  • Because religious people are not all evil and oppressive (except Islam! Islam is evil and oppressive!)

  • Because Americans are religious, and a Reader’s Digest survey found that New Yorkers are civil.

It’s a typical Kanazawa-style argument, in other words: stupid, reliant on assumed propositions, and using dubious statistical arguments and inferences, with a repulsive undercurrent of bigotry.

I’m happy to see you disassociate from atheism, Satoshi!

Goin’ Galt

I haven’t been paying much attention to Glenn Beck lately — he’s been plummeting into irrelevance, and seems mainly to show up as a joke — but I had to look at his plan to build a $2 billion Libertarian city.

Savor the unctuous delivery, and think about it. His grand plan is to attract privileged white people by highlighting the fact that he wants lots of immigrants, and that his city will be a place where you start at the bottom and work your way up; where you don’t need none of that there college education, we’ll just stick you in low-paying apprenticeships; there’s a small chunk of land over in this corner where some farmers will raise all the food for the city on a “ranch”; and gosh, we’ll all be happier and have more fun if we shut off all of our gadgets and get off the internet and play with rocks.

Yeah, that’s a great sales job.

I also liked the bit where he says that the entrance is modeled after Ellis Island, because that’s where “we” all came from. I guess “we” doesn’t include black or Hispanic or native Americans.

I wasn’t able to watch the whole thing. There’s only so much Liber-babbling I can stand. But somehow, I don’t think his weird city will ever appear.

Awww, he remembers me!

Ken Ham is complaining about someone lying about the content of the Creation “Museum” (I think the museum is so awful that lying could only improve it — but meanwhile, the student adresses those comments). But what warmed my black heart was that Kenny-Boy remembered my visit a few years ago, and quoted Mark Looy on a detail of that trip.

It helped that all 285 atheists/agnostics signed a statement that they would be civil—they did that when they checked in and got their tickets from their organizer, Lyz (who was a pleasure to work with). By the way, I did not request that the signed agreements were to be done (with the exception of getting the professor’s signature [he is an out-spoken atheist and anti-creationist, who is known for making vile comments], which we demanded in a certified letter mailed to him over a week ago)—to her credit, Lyz, after hearing our concerns about the web chatter about the possible behavior of her SSA group, did not want to see a ruckus in the museum, and she, I understand it, volunteered the idea of having her group sign such a statement (and we did verify with Lyz that the prof signed it).

It’s true! I did have to sign a promise not to be naughty in the “museum” — they were very concerned that we might have gay sex on the exhibits.

By the way, I’m still extra-special. Ham mentions the student’s name — Tyler Simko — and even links directly to his blog, Quantumaniac, but me? I’m still the vile Atheist Professor who must not be named.

I’m a little bit proud of that.

Maybe the conspiracy theorists need to conspire together more?

Would you believe that there are Sandy Hook truthers, people who believe the murders at the Newtown schools were completely faked? Some of them are even college professors! They think it was a cunning plan by Obama to railroad through gun control.

On the other hand, there are conspiracy theorists who have a completely different idea.

My worst fear: Dozens of terrorist sleeper cells, with five or six men each, would activate roughly at the same time and attack designated schools across the country. I’d be at work, and I would be helpless to retrieve my children and keep them safe from maniacs.

I imagined further that, from a terrorist’s point of view, these attacks would have a dramatic, profound effect on our collective psyche: No parent would allow his child to return to school to long as they were not secure from violent, lethal attacks. Our economy and economic security wouldn’t just hiccup; it would collapse.

I have a request. Can we please give them all the guns they so deeply desire, lock them in a room together, and let them…settle…the issue?

Jebus Christ, guess who’s going to deliver the benediction at Obama’s inauguration?

Here’s a hint.

CHAPLAIN:
Let us praise God. O Lord,…

CONGREGATION:
O Lord,…

CHAPLAIN:
…ooh, You are so big,…

CONGREGATION:
…ooh, You are so big,…

CHAPLAIN:
…so absolutely huge.

CONGREGATION:
…so absolutely huge.

CHAPLAIN:
Gosh, we’re all really impressed down here, I can tell You.

CONGREGATION:
Gosh, we’re all really impressed down here, I can tell You.

CHAPLAIN:
Forgive us, O Lord, for this, our dreadful toadying, and…

CONGREGATION:
And barefaced flattery.

CHAPLAIN:
But You are so strong and, well, just so super.

CONGREGATION:
Fantastic.

That’s pretty much a pitch-perfect imitation of Louis Giglio, the icky creepy pseudo-scientific preacher who has been picked to put on a piety show for Obama.

You’ve never heard of him? You’re lucky. You might want to give this video a pass then, because, oh man, he is so treacly stupid he might make you gag.

Here’s the Giglio schtick. He shows a Hubble space telescope photo. It’s really, really big. It’s huge. This thing is gigantic. And our god created it! Therefore our god is really, really, really big. He’s the biggest god ever! Here’s a diagram of the laminin molecule. IT’S SHAPED LIKE A CROSS! Aaaaaaaah! <swoons> <Meg Ryan imitation> <audience cheers wildly>

The man is a gushing idiot. And this is the clown who’ll be praying at the inauguration. Well, I won’t be watching any of it, anyway.

But at least they didn’t pick one of those ranty anti-gay homophobic conservative pastors, right?

Whoops.

Hey, wouldn’t it be great if someday a president just said, “No, we’re not going to bring one of those embarrassing loons onto the stage at all…let’s just have a secular ceremony”?

Alex Jones’ greatest crime: he made me feel a moment of sympathy for Piers Morgan

Alex Jones is a notorious far right wing conspiracy kook, while Piers Morgan is an unethical scumbag. They collided on Morgan’s show, and at last we discover what happens when Yosemite Sam meets a jellyfish.

The sad thing is that a lot of people watched that and thought, “Yes, that angry guy who believes in a New World Order conspiracy is exactly right.”

How dishonest can a Breitbart writer get?

This dishonest:

According to the FBI annual crime statistics, the number of murders committed annually with hammers and clubs far outnumbers the number of murders committed with a rifle.

This is an interesting fact, particularly amid the Democrats’ feverish push to ban many different rifles, ostensibly to keep us safe of course.

However, it appears the zeal of Sens. like Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) is misdirected. For in looking at the FBI numbers from 2005 to 2011, the number of murders by hammers and clubs consistently exceeds the number of murders committed with a rifle.

Think about it: In 2005, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 445, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 605. In 2006, the number of murders committed with a rifle was 438, while the number of murders committed with hammers and clubs was 618.

Yeah, think about it. Notice that he specifically compares deaths by blunt instrument to deaths by rifle? That’s so he can leave out the “8,260 firearm-related homicides in 2011 attributed to shotguns, handguns, and other unidentified guns.”

But let’s be charitable. Let’s assume he honestly believes the most dangerous weapon a person can be armed with is a hammer. Then shouldn’t he be advocating that teachers be issued a hammer for each classroom rather than arming the teachers with guns?

The important things in life

Luis Martinez stopped at the Subway sandwich shop and ordered this thing they call a Philly Cheesesteak…and he ordered it with ketchup. The Subway worker, Lawrence Ordone, objected.

"That’s when I flew off the handle," said Ordone.

"He shoved a chair to the side, like knocked it down to come at me, and I said, ‘This is going to be serious,’" said Martinez.

"I said, ‘Let’s go, fight me like a man,’" said Ordone.

"I was scared. Next thing, I’m thinking a gun’s going to come out," said Martinez.

Ordone said he blocked the customer so he couldn’t get out.

"He threatened to kill me in front of my wife," said Martinez.

These are important issues that a man should engage in battle over: everyone KNOWS that a true Philly cheesesteak is served with ketchup and fried onions. The abomination that the Subway serves lacks both. And now we have learned that Subway employees are willing to fight to the death to preserve their heresy.

Oh, and American cheese? Pffft. It’s supposed to be Cheez-Whiz.

By the way, Ordone was fired — Subway apparently objects to their employees assaulting customers. They still, however, refuse to serve ketchup.

Science journalists accept logical fallacy, therefore journalism is compatible with stupidity

I said I was done with this guy, but his latest includes a bit that annoys me to no end. Keith Kloor interviews Daniel Sarewitz to get ammo for his claim that religion and science are compatible.

Based on your piece, I would presume that you think the two are compatible. However, some of the prominent New Atheists, such as PZ Myers and Jerry Coyne, insist that science and religion are incompatible. Why has this discussion become so binary? Why the either/or mindset exhibited by some atheists?

DS: There are lots of scientists who are also religious, so as an empirical matter science and religion are apparently not incompatible.

Gah. Dumb.

There are scientists who believe the earth is 6000 years old and that there was a global flood 4000 years ago. Therefore, science and creationism are perfectly compatible.

There are accountants who skim off profits and hide them in the books, therefore accounting is compatible with criminal larceny.

There are doctors who smoke, therefore smoking is compatible with healthy lungs.

Why has this discussion become so binary? Easy. Because some scientists have gigantic religious blindspots and want to pretend that their gullibility is part of their science.

I hope this haunts Michael Nodianos for the rest of his life

A 16 year old girl was reportedly drugged and gang-raped by football players in Steubenville, Ohio, and two people, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, have been arrested for it. And now a video has emerged of other players joking about the rape and helpless, unconscious state of the girl. Warning: the video is appalling, not only that they so demean another human being, but that the whole crowd thinks the “jokes” are funny.

This was done by football players. So of course, many people in town are rushing to defend the rapists, including coaches on their football team.

“The rape was just an excuse, I think,” said the 27-year-old Hubbard, who is No. 2 on the Big Red’s career rushing list.

“What else are you going to tell your parents when you come home drunk like that and after a night like that?” said Hubbard, who is one of the team’s 19 coaches. “She had to make up something. Now people are trying to blow up our football program because of it.

I spit on football culture. What should be just a fun game has become a focus for misogyny and abuse in far too many communities.

And I dare anyone who denies that rape culture thrives in the US to watch that video.

Good grief, the girl was unconscious and unresponsive, people were joking that she was dead, and onlookers couldn’t figure out that this was rape. She didn’t say “no,” after all.