Idiotic religions list (updated)

I updated my idiotic religions list. Not that all religions are not idiotic, its just this bunch takes it all to a whole new level.

1) Breatharians. aka idiots

These fools actually think they can live of air. Anyway they are liars who do eat food. Those adherents to the strict doctrine of Breatharians are what we call corpses. Here is a picture of Naveena Shine a celebrity Breatharian before her 43 day experiment and at the end of it, this just shows you what breatharianism starvation is all about.

(Pic Link)


2) Black Hebrew Israelites
These groups believe that they are originated from the lost Jewish tribes (Not to be confused with British Israelisim see below), which I don’t have an issue with, after all who said all Jews have to be white. However, any group where the leadership is determined by birth status is usually something to watch out for. Also interesting that there have been allegations of racism and black supremacy against them. This kind of reminds me about apartheid South Africa, and also lets me have less sympathy for certain factions being denied citizenship in Israel.
2) British Israealis
Not to be confused with the Black Hebrew Israelites see above, which is kind of difficult as these guys are lily white. Although they believe the same thing as before that they are originated from the lost Jewish tribes. Needless to say they have also been associated with racism. Why do all these groups that associate with being a special tribe go so well with racism? Maybe because they feel privileged, after all they are gods chosen people.


3) Raelism
Another UFO story akin to Scientology. Nice thing about this nutty religion, you have to get an official letter of   disaffiliation  from the religion you were involved with prior to becoming a Raelian. Personally this sounds like a nut-job who decided to make a religion pretty much like Muhammed or L Ron Hubbard or Jesus or...... On a plus side these guys seem pretty liberated when it comes to sex. Which is a turnaround from the Abrahmic virgin religions.
Oh yeah and they believe crop circles are created by UFOs.

(Source: Raelian mascot)

4) Scientology
Just because its awesome how screwed up it really is. This info graphic explains Scientology perfectly...or should I say describes the lunacy perfectly.
But then again what do you expect from a religion that was created by a science fiction writer. For that matter he was quoted as saying "You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion."

5) Korean Jesus Church (Okay the real name is World Mission Society Church of God)
These guys are absurdly awesome, they believe that Jesus has already come again.... and he was Korean. Funnily enough the Korean jesus established the church and now the followers pray to him. And no one sees a problem with this? On a plus side they are heavily involved in charity and they believe that salvation only comes through god the mother (no sexism in this church). One more thing I am not saying Jesus was white or that he even existed. What I am saying is I am pretty sure he was not Korean.

6) Mormons
Hey this cult had their leader who was a fraud killed in a shoot out in a jail where he was been held. Just for that they should make the list, but lets not forget about the kink.See the naughty pictures below.

(Source)

Scientology from a Scientology perspective

This week I posted about a Panorama documentary on Scientology by John Sweeney. So to be fair to Scientology I decided to watch their rebuttal of the  Panaorama documentary and give some comments.

Firstly the don’t understand investigative journalism. It means you look at all sides of the story and don’t just listen to the authorities after all they only will show you the good.

The cult claims he barged in to try film a very important event on L.Ron's birthday, but all they show is him on a security camera with no audio and no time stamp. In response they give only their accounts of what happened. They said he would show it in the Panorama episode but he didn’t, so who am I to believe when he has not even commented on this incident. At another point they claim that the people he interviewed are frauds as they tried to extort money out of the church. But they cannot back this claim up with anything no documents, no audio or camera footage nothing.

The one point on which I cannot comment much is that they talk about a 1987 show which panorama made about Scientology. On this I cannot comment as John Sweeney didn’t make it and I have not seen it or studied up about the relevant court cases mentioned in the documentary. So here they could be correct, but I cant say they are correct.

They say Sweeney violated codes of OFCOM and the BBC, but they just say his reporting was biased. What code is that, I mean I can say anything is biased, so you need to be specific. So they try make Sweeney look like a criminal. On a side Sweeney admits he has been sued for libel, as an investigative journalist I am not surprised. I think most investigative journalists have been sued for libel, so lets say bad boy and slap his hand and realise he is the same as every other investigative journalist. Interestingly they also talk about Narcanon which is the Scientology drug rehabilitation program and how he was not interested in seeing the facilities. BTW, this program is so effective that it goes against scientific knowledge and has multiple deaths associated with it.

The one thing that really irritated me and which a huge portion of the show is dedicated too is that they claim he was harsh in his questions to celebrities. But please remember they were the ones that did not want him to put any of the celebrity interviews (apparently the only real Scientologists he interview) into his documentary. So again its their fault. This all comes down to the fact that he used the word "brainwashed" which apparently is slander and insulting.

Then the horror moment at the Citizens Humans Rights Museum is when he finally had his meltdown and screamed at them. Which he did not hide in his documentary and he apologised for it.  What I did find interesting throughout the documentary is that in all the interviews with ex-BBC employees, no one ever used Sweeney's name and criticised him. So who were these journalists speaking about? Then a huge claim is made, they claim that Sweeney staged events and did multiple takes. Now if this is true and they have this footage why did they not show it with time stamps?

They continue to make claims by saying that Sweeney organised a protest in London against Scientology. Here they finally show a letter that they say shows John Sweeney staged a protest, but it does not say that. All it is, is an e-mail asking for consent to film protesters. Then they talk about a terrorist threat against the church. Question, why is this brought up unless they are trying to imply Sweeney is a terrorist.... Just saying.

Finally they play the religious abuse card..... shame my heart bleeds for you. Poor filthy rich religion feels hurt, sorry no sympathy you believe in aliens with no proof you deserve criticism in vast amounts.

Part 1

Part 2

L.Ron Hubbard and Joseph Smith were cut from the same cloth

Mormonism and Scientology do not have much in common besides their strange beliefs in very different strange things like magic underwear or aliens in volcanoes. But the one thing they have in common in abundance is their leaders were both massive frauds. I don’t want to delve to much into Joseph Smith except to say that his fraud lead to his timely death by a mob of angry townspeople.

L.Ron on the other hand didn’t get killed by an angry mob, but he was noted as a fraud in multiple countries like the UK and France. Interestingly last year the Cult of Scientology got convicted for fraud a second time (that I know of) for fraud in France, guess fools never learn. But hey lets not trust the governments and lawyers lets look what L.Ron himself said and decide if this science fiction writer was a fraud. I will give my thoughts at the end. What follows are real quotes from L.Ron Hubbard.

"Foolishly perhaps, but determined none the less, I have high hopes of smashing my name into history so violently that it will take a legendary form even if all books are destroyed."

"You don't get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, you start a religion."

"The only way you can control people is to lie to them. You can write that down in your book in great big letters. The only way you can control anybody is to lie to them."

"Leukemia is evidently psychosomatic in origin and at least eight cases of leukemia had been treated successfully by Dianetics after medicine had traditionally given up. The source of leukemia has been reported to be an engram containing the phrase 'It turns my blood to water.'"

"When somebody enrolls, consider he or she has joined up for the duration of the universe — never permit an "open-minded" approach... If they enrolled, they're aboard, and if they're aboard they're here on the same terms as the rest of us — win or die in the attempt. Never let them be half minded about being Scientologists. ... When Mrs. Pattycake comes to us to be taught, turn that wandering doubt in her eye into a fixed, dedicated glare. ... The proper instruction attitude is, "We'd rather have you dead than incapable."

If you read these comments and have read Dianetics and you still think L.Ron was a good honest man.....you need therapy. This man was a liar and a fraud who in my opinion got in to deep and could not get out without serious repercussions, but the fact is he created a religion based on science fiction to make money and that’s all there is to it.

The infamous Alientology E-meter that does nothing.

A special manipulation tool that Scientology has in their arsenal is the infamous E-meter or the electropsychometer. Which was described by its creator thief L. Ron Hubbard as: (And I promise I am not making this up)
"For the meter to be read, the tiny flow of electrical energy through the preclear (person) has to remain steady. When this tiny flow is changed the needle of the E-Meter moves. This will happen if the preclear pulls in or releases mental mass. This mental mass (condensed energy), acts as an additional resistance or lack of resistance to the flow of electrical energy from the E-Meter."
Oh and mental mass is:
"In Scientology it has been discovered that mental energy is simply a finer, higher level of physical energy. The test of this is conclusive in that a thetan "mocking up" (creating) mental image pictures and thrusting them into the body can increase the body mass and by casting them away again can decrease the body mass. This test has actually been made and an increase of as much as thirty pounds, actually measured on scales, has been added to, and subtracted from, a body by creating "mental energy."

 (Source)

This machine is a basic lie detector and by that I mean a very very very basic lie detector, in other words it does not work. For that matter lie detectors don’t work, and this is a bad lie detector so do the math. It "works" by measuring the skin resistance/conductivity and as such can apparently be used to measure your spiritual impediments or mental energy. OK, so what this means is it can measure if you are releasing your past life baggage as you strive to become a clear. A clear is a person who has relieved themselves of unwanted memories and traumas...you know things like birth trauma.

In other words the crazies use it to manipulate you to get you to give up deep dark secrets that you don’t want people to know. Remember this is confidential between the auditor (priest) and you. By confidential I mean they do tape it and have it as back up...... in case you maybe want to leave the cult.

The Vice squad even played around with one, and made up rubbish around it as it does not work. I has even been labelled pseudo science by real scientists, not Scientologists. BTW Scientology is a name that means nothing scientific except science fiction.

So hey if you get asked to do an audit, do it and drive these fools crazy by saying you were Xenu in your last life. :)

Psychiatry is an industry of Death!!!!!

Yes the crackpot Scientologists have a museum called Psychiatry: The Industry of Death. It is run by the ironically named Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which is a Scientology non profit organisation trying to get rid of psychiatry. As a psychiatric patient, I decided to spend some time on their website and realised that this is a great conspiracy theory website. I would go so far as to say this organisation is almost as "good" (read mentally deranged) as the anti-vaccers. By the way officially Scientology is not against vaccine use.

On the website you can watch movies and read articles and spend a lot of time misinforming yourself. So I thought I would give some highlights to this website as I don't have time and my readers don't have time to spend all year reading debunking.


Firstly, there is a huge focus on the Nazis and how psychiatry was behind the extermination of the Jews. I think this is really disgusting that they blame the holocaust on psychiatrists, but even if it was true it holds no relation to psychiatry today. I believe the biggest problem Scientology has with psychiatry comes down to the fact that the Scientology bible (Dianetics) by L. Ron Hubbard was rejected by the psychiatric field.

In one documentary I watched they interview a doctor who even says he is a rare breed and not accepted my mainstream psychology. Like on the Internet you can find people who believe the earth is flat, but we don't call them a rare breed. We call them crazy.

They talk about the fact that Major Depressive Disorder is a made up disease. Now as a person who suffers from this fake disorder I find this really messed up and something I have always associated with a very high degree of idiocy similar to creationists. They also say that before the drugs people would not have been treated. Yes, please read that again and see how stupid this statement is.

Finally, this page (Quick Facts About Psychiatry) had me realising what a bunch of crackpots they are.
1)For example they say their are no brain scans for mental illness. So what did my brain get probed for?
2)They say their is no genetic proof for mental illness. Then why are their recent publications (2013) that say otherwise?
3)Psychiatrists cannot predict side effects. Neither can doctors that’s why its called side effects you idiots. As an example Zyban (a non representative anti depressant, nothing like Fluoxetine) has a side effect it stops people smoking......is that a bad thing?
4)Psychiatrists admits it has no cures. Here they are just misquoting a number of psychiatrists and making them sound like fools, when any person not a conspircay theorist can see through the holes.
5) Apparently mental disorders are not real diseases. Yes, and how is a pathogen (like the common cold) relevant to a chemical imbalance in your brain.

If you have time to waste go check it out. If you like conspiracy theories seriously go check it out.

The Cult that is Scientology

Lets make this clear, I don’t differentiate between a cult and religion. I call Scientology a cult because they don’t like it and they are a bunch of manipulative, money fleecing and harassing idiots. In other words the "church" of Scientology acts like any other minor "cult" that we hear bad things about on the news. This post deals with two documentaries from 2007 and 2011 for the BBC Panorama series by John Sweeney, and based on some topics from these two documentaries I will be making a few posts this week about Scientology.

Here are some highlights from the documentaries.

They interview two prominent ex-Scientologists. Pity these two guys (Marty and Mike) that were part of the church, still think Scientology is good they just do not believe that the direction (i.e. the lies, manipulation, spying, harassment, money fleecing, etc.) the church is following is correct. BTW Mike is now part of the reformation movement in Scientology, which is beyond me how the hell can you reform this science fiction.

You can learn how to buy your way to clearness (peace?), after all every level costs money. So with money you can go far :) How this is a good thing is beyond me, but then again you can guy your way into Heaven through the Catholic Church.

You can find out whether their auditing (confession) is secret or not secret. OK you won't find out, as the church is very unclear on this, they say no and yes. In a nutshell they are awesome at lying and good at giving your secrets out when you threaten them.

Learn about their double standards for example the BBC was not allowed to show the celebrity interviews they did. Oh but Scientology is allowed to show these interviews in a documentary they made about the BBC. Fortunately due to this Scientology movie in the 2011 documentary the BBC can now show the interviews.So now everyone gets to see how celebrities deny the existence of Xenu.

You can also hear multiple stories from the Sea Organisation sect.
For example, hear about Claire a lady that had to have 2 abortions because if she didn't she would have had to leave the church. But that’s not all she would have had to leave her husband behind as well.

Or learn about the Sea Organisations compounds. Compounds which you are not allowed to leave and where you are not allowed to contact your family from. Their was another Cult that did that and they had a happy cool-aid finish, you may know it as Jonestown.

Here are the documentaries, the 2007 documentary

and the 2011 documentary.

A kind of Comfort? Ray Comfort proves he is an idiot.

I finally got around to watching Ray Comforts movie which defeats Evolution, if you believe everything that he has to say. Thanks to Cephus at the Bitchspot Report for the heads up about this movie. Let me clarify in this movie Ray Comfort shows us that it is impossible for one "kind" of animal to transform/evolve into another "kind" of animal. So Ray has shown us what every other creationist has tried to show us, Ray has shown us that he is a complete lying idiot! Most creationists either are intelligent and lie or are idiots and don’t lie, but Ray takes it to a whole new level with his mind games.

Ray talks about "kinds" all the time, so what is a kind? In evolution science it has no meaning. So the fact is Ray is throwing a word around which has no scientific meaning, the reason for this is that it needs to be defined. As what do you consider different "kinds"? Ray likes to point out 2 different breeds of dogs are not different kinds as they are still dogs. But this is dishonest as we cannot breed a Maltese Poodle with a Great Dane for fear of death to the mother (if the Poodle is the mother) and impossibility (if the Dane is the mother). So Ray is a liar in his use of the word kind just from a pure logic point of view!

(Source)

In the past Ray Comfort has been shown a multitude of evidence for evolution yet he still refuses to believe any of it. He is a liar when he says there is no evidence or the other option is he does not accept it because he does not understand it. This makes Ray Comfort an idiot, and I don’t say that to be rude about Ray. Evolution can be a complex topic, and clearly he is unable to grasp the basics with all the proof that has been explained and shown to him multiple times, so we have to accept like I said that he is an idiot at least in terms of evolution science.

Here is the full movie, I am happy to say Ray is no longer asking for payment for this. Its on the Way of the Master channel on Youtube.

How The Common Cold Was Intelligently Designed (By Rosa Rubicondior)

This post was written by atheist Rosa Rubicondior and is posted here as I think its one of the finest posts I have seen in a long time which explains why creationism is so wrong. Link to the original article.

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As I'm just getting over a nasty little cold I thought I would write a blog about the common cold for creationists, so they can appreciate the wonder of science too. (Hope the 's' word hasn't put them off already, because creationism is all about science really... isn't it?).

So what is a common cold?

The common cold (also known as nasopharyngitis, rhinopharyngitis, acute coryza, or a cold) is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract which primarily affects the nose. Symptoms include coughing, sore throat, runny nose, sneezing, and fever which usually resolve in seven to ten days, with some symptoms lasting up to three weeks. Well over 200 viruses are implicated in the cause of the common cold; the rhinoviruses are the most common.

Wikipedia - Common cold

All creationists understand that God er... sorry... The Intelligent Designer never makes any mistakes and knows exactly what His Its creations will do and designs them perfectly to do exactly what they do, nothing more and nothing less.

Why the Intelligent Designer wants us to feel miserable for a few days with a headache and high temperature, and to be susceptible to secondary infections causing things like pneumonia and sinus infections is not a matter for us to concern ourselves with. It knows best and is doing it for an ineffable reason. It also wants to cost industry billions in lost production every year for reasons us mere humans can't expect to understand. We just need to be grateful that it's all to the good in the long run.

We conclude that the economic cost of lost productivity due to the common cold approaches $25 billion, of which $16.6 billion is attributed to on-the-job productivity loss, $8 billion is attributed to absenteeism, and $230 million is attributed to caregiver absenteeism.

Bramley TJ, Lerner D, Sames M. J; Productivity losses related to the common cold.
Occup Environ Med. 2002 Sep;44(9):822-9.

 

So how did the Intelligent Designer go about this?

He used a virus - basically some RNA wrapped up in proteins which gets into the cells in the lining of our noses and other parts of our respiratory system and converts our cells into machines for making more viruses. Our bodies react to this in ways which cause the typical symptoms of the common cold - high temperature, runny nose, coughs and sneezes (which help spread the virus to other people) headache, tiredness, etc.

But the Intelligent designer forgot that he had also designed humans to react to things like viruses by making antibodies which kill the viruses, so he had to think of a way to get round this intelligently designed problem.

So he came up with the brilliant idea of making over 200 different viruses which cause the common cold, all of which change a little bit over time so our bodies don't recognise them as the same one we got infected by some years ago. [Important note: this change over time should not be called 'evolution' because that's impossible. The Intelligent Designer does it!] With that many different viruses the Intelligent Designer made it so the average human in developed countries gets 2-4 colds a year on average and children can get 6-12 colds a year. At that rate it takes a whole lifetime to get through them all and by then they've all changed anyway. For some reason, the Intelligent designer decided it wouldn't make any difference whether people believe in him or not, everyone would have the same chance of catching a cold several times a year.

No! We don't need to know why He designed our bodies to fight the viruses he created. He must have had an intelligent reason because He's an intelligent designer! You see how easy Creation Science is? It always provides you with exactly the answer you wanted - which proves it's right.

So that's it, really. Everything a creationist needs to know about how the Intelligent Designer designed the common cold - which is obviously a much more sensible explanation than anything science can offer, and what we don't know we know really because God did it! No! Wait... The Intelligent Designer did it, because this has nothing to do with religion or the Bible and is all about science! Okay! It's not more sensible than science because it is science and should be taught in schools! Got that!

Evidence that life was seeded on earth

Could life on earth have been seeded? A recent article detailing analysis of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite could answer this question. The article is entitled

Processing of meteoritic organic materials as a possible analog of early molecular evolution in planetary environments and is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (The article is unfortunately subscription only.)

The scientists in this study showed that kerogen could be broken down upon heating to form simpler/smaller  organic chemicals which could have helped life develop on earth. Kerogen is simply organic chemicals which are super large in size and are found in sedimentary rock as well as other meteorites. So clearly the scientists were worried about contamination from terrestrial sources.

To check if these organic compounds were not contamination from terrestrial sources, various tests were done and they showed that it was not contamination. One of the tests showed that the fatty acids obtained from this meteorite differed in chain length number compared to what is expected on earth. The scientists found fatty acids with odd numbers compared to the even numbers found on earth. The scientists believe that these fatty acids could have been used in the formation of lipid bilayers or basic cell walls inside of which chemical reactions could have started to take place.

For theists this is a problem as they have to accept that earth is not so special and god did not create it as a special place in the cosmos. This kerogen must have come from somewhere, and while that does not mean there is life outside of our planet it does mean that there are interesting organic and inorganic chemical processes happening. Why do the Koran and the Bible and the Preachers etc etc keep getting the beginning of the universes and life so wrong? I would say because they are wrong!

Run for the hills believers.....run run

We have heard from believers before that there is a god that created the universe. The commonly held reason for this belief is that something cannot come from nothing. Now regardless of if you think this is true is irrelevant to this post. At this time we live in a Universe that had a beginning and that beginning is the singularity or the so called big bang. Now if the theists are correct then before the big bang there was god, after all that is what theists have been claiming with their cosmological arguments forever.

(Source)

Now what are the theists going to say in light of a recent publication which suggests that our Universes was spawned from the collapse of a four dimensional star. Here is the link to the original article, and as a side I don’t claim to understand all the physics. So what dilemma does this create for our believers? Well why did god not guide you in the correct way and tell you how our universe started, or will you start claiming as has already been done (see the comments) that we still need something to create this universe before. So if you are now claiming this, then surely you have to admit that god needs a creator too and you argument is flawed as it regresses into infinity.

Infinity is no longer a problem with this model,  as the scientists show that this 4 dimensional universe could exist infinitely into the past. So now we have something infinite and beyond our universe. Is this god? I will admit this model does have problems, but it also answers questions like another model of our universe which has problems. In case you were wondering this model is the big bang model. I guess some theists have been willing to accept the big bang model because they thought it was perfect and as such they could put something before the big bang i.e. god.

Wonder how theists are going to repackage their argument now?

(Source)

How the world sees atheism :)

These memes are great! I hope you like them as much as I do, even if they make no sense (like all memes) they are still funny. You have to love them stereotypes.

New film by Ghanaian Kwaw Ansah takes on the Christian church

A new film by the Ghanaian director Kwaw Ansah is taking on the church and their money making racketeering in the African nation. The director was inspired by the near death of a little girl who was getting prayed for by a pastor, while been denied medical treatment. Why was the pastor praying for the girl you may ask and not getting medical treatment for her? She was possessed by demons of course! Anyway Ansah did not believe this crap been spouted by the idiot pastor and he took the little girl to the hospital. Turns out she had picked up an infection from something she ate. So guess god was not that almighty, but a rational mind was. The little girl survived and so an idea was born.

The story of the movie focuses on a fake pastors who steal money from the poor. This movie carries a message that the director wants to show that people should not be preying on the vulnerable, which is what the church/religion is so good at doing. What the fall out from this movie will be I am not sure, but lets hope that it breeds doubt in a lot in minds about religion in Ghana.

Here is a brief interview from the TvAfrica News Channel.

Kalam cosmological argument is just dumb

The Kalam cosmological argument forwarded by the likes William Lane Craig's, as well as multiple other theists for the existence of god is just dumb. I feel I mention this argument so often, that its time that I actually explain clearly why this is the dumbest argument for the existence of a god.

In essence the Kalam cosmological argument boils down to the following tenants.
1) Everything that has a beginning of its existence has a cause of its existence;
2) The universe has a beginning of its existence;
3) Therefore the universe has a cause of its existence and this cause is god.
You may hear this argument in many forms but they all boil down to these three tenants, remember theists have no original arguments so they just repackage the stuff that doesn't work and hope no one will realise.

All these premises I would have no problem with (except the god part), and now let me explain why with 2 simple reasons.

If we accept that the cause is god then either this god is part of reality or not part of reality.

1) If we accept that god is not part of reality. Then the cause can be pointed towards the singularity that started the Big Bang. Or in a recent theory the cause can be pointed towards the collapse of a 4 dimensional star which created our 3 dimensional universe. Either way we are just calling god a starting point, and then god is meaningless and we may as call god a singularity. So this argument all comes down to the definition of a word, and we know theists love their words games.

However theists are not using argument 1, they are referring to a god that is a creator and sets rules for us (these rules are in our reality, so go exists in our reality).
2) So, if we accept that god is part of reality. Then god exists in this reality and can be tested for. Or god exists outside of the universe however can still effect our reality and as such can be tested. Either way at this point we can test god. Let me note here that every test I know for god fails.

So either god according to the cosmological argument exists in our reality and can be tested or god does not exist in our reality and is useless. So what's your god?

xxxx
If you have a lot of time and patience, here is a fantastic debate between William Lane Craig and Christopher Hitchens.  In this debate the Kalam cosmological argument is discussed.

My hope is you dont see something as stupid as this again this year.

Breathe in and relax before you read this story about the stupidity that is rampant in Thailand at the moment. Apparently, the spate of recent transport disasters in Thailand can be attributed to supernatural powers. This belief has lead to the building of shrines and ceremonies to appease the restless spirits.

Just in case you think these statements are been made by uneducated people, I include a list of people mentioned in the article. They are in no specific order the Thai Airways Managaing Director, a Former Director of Aiport Authorities in Thailand,  a former director of Suvarnnabhumi Airport and the Transport Minister.

But then again what do you expect form a country that considers their King to be a god, but who is in fact an evil tyrant who possibly had a hand in the murder of his brother.

Been a skeptic on the internet

I noticed something about some sceptics (or should I say pseudo sceptics) that spend time on the Internet. That is basically that they do not understand what scepticism is in its entirety. They understand that you should question everything and they should be applauded for that, but this is also where the problem starts.

The problem is that on the Internet you can find any information to fit your bias. This does not mean the information is correct. For example lets look at something completely absurd and see what we can find using a google search.

Here are some results for belief in a flat earth
http://www.theflatearthsociety.org
http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm

But lets be honest no one would call you a sceptic if you believed the world was flat. The information is there and some people believe it, however this does not make it correct. So been sceptical is also not just accepting everything you see and read. While this may sound logical to most sceptics, those with a confirmation bias may not be so sceptical and then take this as the truth.

(Source)

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Inspired by some comments in a post on anti-vaccers at the Richard Dawkins Foundation.

Out of context science in the Koran

The next dose of pseudo science in the Koran comes by doing what theists do best, taking something out of context completely. So let me give you the version as supported by the scienceislam site. According to the following verse in the Koran a lot of information can be garnered regarding the sea.
Or (the unbelievers' state) is like the darkness in a deep sea. It is covered by waves, above which are waves, above which are clouds. Darkness, one above another. If a man stretches out his hand, he cannot see it...

[Noble Quran 24:40]

This verse can be  translated to mean, the darkness in the depths of the sea
Scientists have recently discovered this darkness by means of special equipment and submarines that have enabled them to dive into the depths of the oceans.

and the internal waves in the sea
Scientists have recently discovered that there are internal waves which "occur on density interfaces between layers of different densities."

However, besides at least one glaring scientific inaccuracy this sentence is not in context, it is talking about Allah blessing those who believe and those who do not. Here is the full verse and the preceding verse for context.
As for those who disbelieve, their deeds are as a mirage in a desert. The thirsty one supposeth it to be water till he cometh unto it and findeth it naught, and findeth, in the place thereof, Allah Who payeth him his due; and Allah is swift at reckoning. Surah 24:39
Or as darkness on a vast, abysmal sea. There covereth him a wave, above which is a wave, above which is a cloud. Layer upon layer of darkness. When he holdeth out his hand he scarce can see it. And he for whom Allah hath not appointed light, for him there is no light. Surah 24:40

But what scientific problems are there with the so called Allah science? Well how about the fact that we can only have one internal wave (and the surface wave) between the different density levels? I mean look at the following picture and ask yourself how do you determine what is and isn’t a wave? In this picture I see multiple internal waves, not only one (There covereth him a wave, above which is a wave, above which is a cloud) as Muhammad proclaimed.

(Source)

Also what is darkness in the depths? Does the Koran mean the absence of light? I would love to know what this means. As clearly it does not mean total darkness like occurs in the abyss of the ocean, as someone holding up their hand can barely see it (When he holdeth out his hand he scarce can see it). So again the Koran is found wanting in its interpretation of science.

Dear God XI

The point of this weekly segment is to thank god for all the awesome stuff he/she/it gives to us in the form of a prayer. Not to be taken seriously by atheists, but to be taken seriously by theists.

Dear God

I am wondering about the question of something came from nothing, If something came from nothing how can you exist? As I am absolutely positive you exist through my faith. However this flies in the face of nothing.

Send me an angel that I know exists through my faith to come explain this to me. Or even better send an angel to Lawrence Krauss so he can write a new book.

Allahu Akbar

How creationists arguments sound to me

This is a true story to do with testable claims and the way different people deal with it.

When I was in high school I had a friend who was a decent guy, however he had a serious character flaw in that he was an absolute compulsive liar. This however did not affect peoples relationship with him as he was not trying to deceive. It was just a case of needing attention which made our friend construct these elaborate stories when he was lying. I want to clarify this was not just someone who was telling entertaining stories to friends, this was a guy who wanted to make you believe everything he was saying was the truth. He was always the guy who had the most sex with the most girls, they guy who drank the most beer without getting drunk, they guy who ran the fastest out of everyone. But these lies are not what I want to talk about I want to talk about the extraordinary lies.

On a certain vacation with 7 friends our compulsive liar friend told us the biggest lie ever. In this story he related how a cousin of  his was driving a motorcycle at 200 km/h which is fine, but.........his cousin then drove into a cow. Apparently the cow was split in half, which is very very very unlikely. The story does not end here, he continued to say his cousin did not fall of his bike he just carried on driving with this mutilated cow left in the road behind him. It is at this point that every friend said in a chorus "bullshit", as this was clearly an extraordinary claim that needed extraordinary evidence. Beyond the already extraordinary that a cow can be split in half.

Now this is how the various people present reacted to this story, 6 of us (me included) just ignored the stupidity of this story. However, one of my friends just would not let it go and we were entertained for 3 hours while our friend deconstructed everything to do with this story and eventually got our compulsive liar friend to admit he was lying.

This story can be correlated to theists and why atheists do not believe in a god. The idea of a god is an extraordinary claim and therefore requires extraordinary evidence to back up these claims. Just as the one friend would not let it go, so some atheists wont let theism go. Others just ignore it and move on with their life. This is like a lot of atheists out there, they do not believe in god they just are not bothered in showing you how wrong you are. Atheism is not a minority, it is on the rise as religion continues to lose followers who cannot accept iron age beliefs.

It really is a matter of perspective

I have posted about morality been a matter of perspective (i.e. morality is subjective) before. Actually the whole morality issue comes about fairly often and religion still has no good reason to say morality comes from a god.

So here is an interesting story regarding morality or the issue of perspective. This story deals with Adolf Hitler’s last bodyguard who recently passed away, and more importantly his views on Hitler. Rochus Misch was the last person alive who was inside Hitler's bunker at the end of WW2, he was there when Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun and when the Goebbels children were murdered. Additionally, he was at Hitlers side as a bodyguard as a member of the SS for 6 years (1939-1945).

This is what he had to say about Hitler.
He had called Hitler "a very normal man... he was no brute, he was no monster", according to the Associated Press news agency.
or
saying "He was no brute. He was no monster. He was no superman", "...very normal. Not like what is written", and "He was a wonderful boss". 

 (Source)

With this quote in mind what do most think about Hitler? I am sure the replies vary from evil, horrible, monster, savage etc etc.

(Source)

So surely now you agree its a matter of perspective. 

Pat Robertson the Royal Prick

Pat Robertson is most probably the televangelist that irritates me the most in life. He is an obvious fraud with respect to his predictions he has made about Presidents, end of the world, Tsunamis, etc.

Now there is a documentary called Mission Congo about his so called humanitarian involvement in the Congo after the Rwandan genocide. He was meant to be sending aid and doctors to the Congo to be helping refugees, turns out according to the documentary that this is not the case. He was using the aid money he raised to fund his diamond operations. Although this has been brought to the worlds attention before, hopeful the documentary will show more of the world what a wanker he is. But Pat is fighting back with legal action against the filmmakers, as he does not want his tarnished reputation anymore tarnished than it already is I guess.

Turns out Pat is at least honest with his Operation Blessing, guess the blessing was just for himself. I have said it before but now for bold caps, PAT YOU ARE A DICK!!!!!

xxxxx
Thanks to the Ahab at the Republic of Gilead for the original link.

What I am not.

This post does not have anything to do with reasons behind my atheism, it has to do with me and what I am and what I am not. I am also sure this holds for other atheists although the list may differ. There are assumptions theists will make regarding atheists that are not true by any stretch of the imagination. Let it be clear these are assumptions and they have nothing to do with atheism, the only fact (not assumption) about atheism is that it is the rejection of the existence of a god.

So here is a list of what I am.
I am an anti-theist.
I am a chemist.
I am a sceptic - or at least I always try to be.

Here is a short list of what I am not.
I am not a liberal - I don’t think that religion should have the rights it is afforded in modern society.
I am not a conservative - Fiscally I am could never fit into the conservative category.
I am not a feminist - I believe in equal rights for women, but not special privilege.
I am not a racist - I support equality for all races, I just cant help myself that I find stereotype jokes funny
I am not a grammar stickler - I don’t care, just write and try your best.

I write this post just to show that theists should not make assumptions regarding atheists.  The only thing you should know is that we reject the existence of god as the evidence shows that it is unlikely that a god exists.

Christians dont be children and accept or reject your bible

This is dedicated to all the Christians that will ever read this post and I hope a multitude will read it. This whole post has got to do with your sacred book the bible. The way I see it you must accept the bible if you are a believer in Jesus/God/Holy Spirit. However, I want to show you that the logical position here is that you should reject the bible, and this is not based on moral reasons like slavery/racism/sexism which all exist in the bible. This position rests on historical/scientific and logical/divergence reasons which I want to outline a few of in this post so that you will come to the same conclusion as me. The other option is to reject this position and live in ignorance. While it is true that ignorance is bliss once you have heard the truth you can no longer claim ignorance. So if you want to remain ignorant of the bible stop reading this now!

The bible has historical/scientific falsehoods/contradictions in it, in fact one does not have to look further than Genesis and the global flood. If the global flood occurred and covered the highest mountain peaks then we have to ask where did all the water go, and where did it come from? Additionally, there is no historical/geological evidence for a global flood.  Also Noah built and ark and took two of every animal on the ark, the fact is that the ark would have been to small to accommodate all the animals of the earth.

The bible also holds logical/divergent flaws as can be seen in the first 4 gospels of the new testament i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. All these stories detail the life of Jesus, yet every single one is not the same. This means either only one is right or they are all incorrect. But even if one is correct, that’s only a 1 in 4 chance that we chose the right story, which means 75% of the first four books of the new testament are incorrect.


Using just these two well know examples, it seems the bible is either correct or false, but yet even when it is correct it is wrong. So you have to reject the bible as its default position (if it could have one) is that itself is incorrect.

Dear God X

The point of this weekly segment is to thank god for all the awesome stuff he/she/it gives to us in the form of a prayer. Not to be taken seriously by atheists, but to be taken seriously by theists.

Dear Allah

This is what I think Muhammad looks like.

I know you will now send someone to kill me, but I also know you are the God of peace so I know this person will not be able to kill me.

Allah A-Akbar


xxxxx

Sharia law is the dumbest thing ever. Its morally bankrupt and deserves to be sent back to the middle ages. Countries that tolerate Sharia in my opinion should get kicked out of the United Nations, as they do not respect human rights. If you disagree please weigh in, but realise what you are agreeing with before you comment by reading the laws.

Sushmita Banerjee murdered by religion

The recent murder of Sushmita Banerjee in Afghanistan I think we can say can be linked to the Taliban no matter what the press says. A little background to this lady, she was the person responsible for writing a memoir of escaping the Taliban. According to the report I read no one had yet claimed responsibility, however the police believe it is the Taliban. Why anyone would claim responsibility for a murder is something I will never understand after all the whole point is to get away. Makes you think that theists are dumb as they are the only people that claim responsibility for murders.

Back on topic, I think it certainly is Taliban (or Islam motivated) as her husband (and other people at the house) were not killed in the attack, so they were clearly looking for only one person. Also this is the same lady that had previously escaped the Taliban into India by convincing them she was an Indian citizen (which she was) and should be allowed to go home to India. This is the same women that was under house arrest from the Taliban. This is the same women that did not hold back in her memoir about the Taliban. So they had a grudge against her, and that is why I am pretty sure it was these Islamic retards.

Is this the religion of peace? This picture below I think conveys the mindset.

Then Allah made some mountains, but wasnt sure how

If we believe in the Koran, then we know that Allah made the mountains and the seas. This post deal with the fact that if Allah made the mountains, he then made a horrible mistake in dictating how he did this to Muhammed. We know this because what is written in the Koran about mountains is absolute rubbish.

If we are to believe the writers at scienceislam.com we will see that Allah created the earth to be the bed and the mountain as pegs that are placed inside this bed. In the translation at scienceislam the word bulwark is translated as peg.
Koran 78: 6-7. Have We not made the earth an expanse, And the high hills bulwarks (peg)?
They then go on to explain that in the text book Earth by Frank Press and Raymond Siever talks about mountains having roots. BTW from my research (I may be wrong) Press and Siever never used this "root" language  in their book, the scienceislam people just made their own assumptions.
These roots are deeply embedded in the ground. So mountains have a shape like a peg as is seen in an example on page 220 in the same book. Another illustration shows how the mountains are peg-like in shape, due to their deep roots [p. 158].

Now the concept of roots of mountains is not wrong as this idea is put forward by some geologists to try explain the concept of mountains actually extending deep into the crust. In this way these "roots" would look like pegs, but this is just a descriptive way of explaining this depth. However it seems the people at scienceislam actually think they are real defined roots.
Modern earth sciences have proven that mountains have deep roots under the surface of the ground and that these roots can reach several times their elevations above the surface of the ground.

(Source)

As for mountains been pegs in the ground, this idea is a weird one. It implies the mountains were placed in the earths surface, but this is not how mountains form. In fact various mountains form in various ways and some bigger hills are formed by erosion, so they have no roots. Whatever the authors are trying to convey they do really poorly. Additionally, one would at least expect that Allah would have got the formation processes for various mountains right when dictating?

(Source)

The last portion of the post is where the lunacy starts as it talks that mountains stabilise the earth against shaking.
Koran 16:15. And He hath cast into the earth firm hills that it quake not with you, and streams and roads that ye may find a way.

Uhmmmm, no mountains don’t stop the earth shaking, if that was true there would be no earthquakes. So I think we can conclude that this statement is absurd rubbish, and that it does not deserve a response.

Steven Tari gets his comeuppance

Steven Tari the so called "Black Jesus" of Papua New Guinea finally got his comeuppance when he was hacked to death by villagers. But before you feel sorry for him, maybe you should get the story in perspective from what I have garnered from the Internet. Personally, this is one guy I can say I feel no sympathy for. Even though it would have been better for him to sit in jail it was just not happening as he had escaped in the first place. So effectively by denying the justice systems fate given to him he ended up receiving a far worse fate in getting hacked apart.

Back to the story, this fool got kicked out of seminary school where he was studying to be a minister for theft, I guess he started small. He then took this theistic knowledge and created a cult/church in the mountains using his training to influence people with offers of material wealth. However, this is where it all goes very strange once this cult/church was established.

He was accused of cannibalism, human sacrifice, rape of under age girls and murder. However, at the end once he finally got caught by fed up villagers the first time he only got convicted for 4 rapes. Interestingly enough he tried to escape from jail before but got caught doing it. After his great escape earlier this year with the aid of another reject from ministerial school he and his minion were caught by villagers assaulting a female that they were indoctrinating into the cult. This is when the hacking occurred, so I guess he didn't understand the lying low thing.

So still feel sorry for him?

Dragons or dinosaurs....or humans and dinosaur co-existence Part 2

As promised here is Part 2 of the Dragons and Dinosaurs documentary/comedy. In this post I want to look at a few of the testable claims made, as well as point out some of the obvious lies in the movie. (Part 1 here)

The narrators in the movie say that dragon or dinosaurs myths are the same among nations/cultures and that the dinosaurs depicted are the same. But this is not true as one can see that Chinese dragons and English dragons are clearly different, hell they both flew but one had no wings. Look at the pictures to see how they fail on this claim.

Chines Dragon (Source)

English Dragon (Source)

Their is the claim that the mammoth was the buffaloes grandfather.....not sure what this means. I gather it means buffaloes either are direct offspring of mammoths (incorrect) or that buffaloes are directly evolved from mammoths (incorrect, as they were the last of their genus). So whatever these fools were trying to say they were wrong.

They then go on to  mention the historical accounts of the Chinese Dragon that Marco Polo saw as well as the dragon that frightened Alexander the Greats soldiers. Regarding the Marco Polo story, some historians are not even sure he went to China but rather made his stories from others accounts of China. Add to this that his story was dictated to a romance writer who could have changed the stories it contained, so I guess this is not credible.... well that and that no dragons exist and why did this dragon not fly like other Chinese Dragons? As for the Alexander tale, I am not sure what to think honestly he had a few few thousand soldiers with him yet the only evidence for the dinosaurs come from him. Also consider that Alexander the great stories are also used as evidence for UFOs, and we know they UFOs are not real.

They also say that the geological strata in which fossils are found can be explained by the biblical flood. But if this is true then why are their no humans fossils in the strata where dinosaurs are found? They then put evidence of polystrate fossils forward as evidence that the strata record is wrong, but scientists freely admit with these creationists that polystrata fossils probably come from rapid deposition of layers like in volcanic eruptions. So what they have done here is essentially destroy their own argument, as the question still remains where are the human fossils in they are not either in the same strata as the dinosaurs or spanning dinosaur and other strata as in polystrata tree fossils.

(Source)

The "scientists" then go on to explain that new lava from Hawaii when dated is older than it should be. However, they don’t tell you they are lying and that it was not the lava that was getting dated but rather inclusions in the lava called olivine inclusions.


Now a list of horrible ignorance:

Horrible ignorance from these so called scientists is that they have no idea what half life means. Simply it means that after say 10 years the material will degrade by half, then ten years later this half will degrade by half. This means the material can never disappear i.e. 10 becomes 5 becomes 2.5 becomes 1.25 etc etc etc.

They also talk about the non existence of transition fossils, clearly ignoring all the evidence of transitional forms.

They say Carl Sagan was one of the world leading evolutionist....except he was an astronomer and astrophysicist. So fabrication of truths and this is a big one, as Carl Sagan is one of the better known popular scientists of our recent history.

And then the obvious rubbish about the re-population of the earth over 4000 years from 3 couples, 4 if you include Noah and his wife.

If you watch this movie enjoy the comedy but remember its not real!

Dragons or dinosaurs....or humans and dinosaur co-existence Part 1

I finally watched the infamous documentary called Dragons or Dinosaurs and man what a great comedy.! Unfortunately they really do a good job at convincing non-sceptics that dinosaurs were dragons. It is for this reason that I decided to give my thoughts on the stupidity of their arguments and then follow up in another post about some of the testable claims (blatant lies) that these creationists are so proud of in another post.

(Please if this link is dead leave a comment below, and I will see if I can find another copy somewhere)

Here are the main issues with this movie, or should I say the ones that irritated me enough to write about them as the whole movie is a lie. Just a very important note, before you can believe anything these "scientists" have to say about dinosaurs you have to believe in the global flood according to the Bible. If you do not believe in the global flood, well then their arguments do not work. But for a moment lets forget that and move on.

In the documentary there is the claim that humans must have co-existed with dinosaurs as all the sculptures/paintings/drawings/engravings of dragons that exist are accurate depictions of dinosaurs. But this is not true as anyone that has seen a Chinese dragon picture will know that it does not look like any dinosaur fossil ever found that I know of.  Also remember Chinese dragons flew, yet they had no wings. This means we have a dinosaur with no wings that could fly!

(Source)

Also irritating is that every scientist interviewed works for a creationist institute. This does not mean that in the comedy that quote famous secular scientists are not quoted. However, every scientist that is mainstream quoted was never interviewed. The question  surely must be....why? For example Mary Higby Schweitzer whose work on dinosaur soft connective tissues (collagen) which they frequently cite as a source to show dinosaurs existed with humans is never interviewed. I am sure the main reason behind this is that she is not a creationist, but a firm adherent of evolution. Especially since her work gives credence to the fact that modern birds evolved from dinosaurs.

At some point in the documentary one of the "scientists" points out that dragons hence dinosaurs were all carnivorous which we know is false. However what makes it even more absurd is that they say humans rode dinosaurs. Seriously WTF, why would anyone ride a carnivorous animal that could kill them in a heart beat. I wish they would at least be consistent in their idiocy.

(Source)

While we have all heard of sightings of strange animals which have no verifiable proof. The scientists" point out recent sightings of dinosaurs in the Congo and Papua New Guinea as evidence for dinosaurs still existing today. They use the example of other meant to be extinct animals as proof that this could happen, i.e. the coelacanth. The difference here is that their is actually evidence for live coelacanth but not for any dinosaurs. I suppose they left "Nessie" out of sightings as it has thoroughly been debunked.

A massive irritation is this documentary comes from the non-consensus among these "scientists". For example, one says all dinosaurs died during the biblical flood while the other will say they were taken aboard the Ark. Just before you say the Ark was to small for that, they explain it away by Noah only taking dinosaur babies on the Ark. But if we accept the bible to be correct then dragons existed after the flood (Psalm 74:13-14) which means they were on the Ark, so these fools don’t even get their bible correct. I guess if their science is as good as the bible knowledge we can dismiss everything they said.

In closing one more remark. Beowulf was a true story, well according to these "scientists".

Dont give bad people excuses

If you have been an atheist for a certain amount of time you will find that some theists will say something like "You just want to sin." There are so many things wrong with this sentence like, who says its a sin (morality questions). In this post, however I want to focus on people behaving badly. When I say behaving badly, I will be referring to what us normal minded (relative term) believe is bad. For example a terrorist, a murderer, a thief, a conman etc. are all people I would consider bad. This concept of bad for me comes from what is best for the community and society I live in, and I think most people would agree the examples I have listed above would not be beneficial for most if not all societies.

The fact is some people are just bad, there are reasons in their psychology why they are this way but no god will make them good. However, theistic beliefs give some bad people a reason to do their bad things as they know they can claim some type of good or forgiveness which justifies their actions either in their eyes or the eyes of others. In a similar way by offering up religion as a cure for bad people, we allow bad people to get away doing bad things under the guise of forgiveness or religion. Just think about all the catholic priest paedophiles who have been getting away with their behaviour for years due to corruption in the church and denial by theists.

(Source)

Another bigger screw up is that by allowing bad people to live with the so called religion cure is that it can perpetuate into far worse atrocities. A horrible example of a religion/cult getting out of control is Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre. Another example would be the 9/11 attacks on the USA, which was carried out by delusional Islamic terrorists.

(Source)

Bad people exist, and they will exist with or without religion, but we do not need to give them more excuses. Remember, religion does not stop bad people doing bad things.