Idiots of the week - Iranian Islamic Hardliners

This weeks idiots are the Islamic hardliners from Iran. Although I am not sure why I have to use the term hardliner as pretty much anyone that believes the Koran is a just document is a hardliner. So this post is dedicated too the Iranian Islamists. Note for some irrational readers who like stereotypes: don't think all Iranians are Muslims this is so far from the truth. In fact, it can be said the only way the government stays in power is due to the head honcho Ali Khamenei and the repressive theocracy he has instilled in the nation.

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These idiots want actress Leila Hatami to be lashed for getting kissed on the cheek by the Cannes festival president. Yes, you read that right she did not kiss him, he kissed her cheek as they do in France. Apparently, these idiots think she should have ducked away from what is clearly a violation of Islamic law. Although I have to admit, I do not find anything of this sort in the Koran. It probably has more to do with the fact that these retards believe oppression of women is a good thing.

I suppose she should have also been wearing a burqa, even though she was wearing a head scarf which is completely acceptable Islamic women head covering in Iran. Which brings us to the next dumb thing Islamic hardliners did this last week. It was to imprison and then thankfully release the dancers who made a tribute to Pharells Happy song. So why were the imprisoned, well apparently they hurt the public chastity. What does that even mean? Seriously, I wish they had translations to normal persons speak when they come out with these idiotic phrases.I can only gather that public chastity means not wearing a head scarf and dancing. Heaven (or the Islamic equivalent) forbid that anyone anywhere ever has fun.

This is what religion is doing in Iran. This is why these Islamic retards are the idiots of the week.

One size fits all in Christianity Identity

It is amazing that Christians believe their faith is so good, when you have people that classify themselves as Christian Identity who are using the same tenants to promote racism, anti-sematisim, homophobia etc. So what is this Christian Identity I am talking about? Well, Christian Identity is a form of Christianity that stems from British Israelism and their beliefs that the British are gods lost tribes of Israel. Whenever I write about these types of beliefs it astounds me what brilliant minds these people must have to come up with stories that fly in the face of reason, history, science and well everything else. If it was not so sad that it gets used for discrimination it would be worthy of fantasy writers awards.


This group does not only exist in the United States however as you get racists everywhere like the group down in Australia, who are not ashamed to say that whites are superior " not because we think that the white race is superior, but because there is overwhelming proof in support of this belief ". Generally all these groups believe in the same thing, and that is that white people are magnificent and glorious in the eyes of Yahweh and only they can go to heaven as they fill all the requirements.  Now, I do not have a problem with a person holding a racist view even if I think it is extremely stupid. The problem with these people is this. They hold this racist view based on the Bible and the word of God for which there is absolutely no evidence.

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Its these same groups that had links to the Klu Klux Klan which most Christians shun. Now this is important, these groups use the same Bible other Christians use to prove what they are doing is correct. So, if you are a Christian and reading this I have one question for you and I want you to seriously think about the answer. How is your interpretation of the Bible any different to what these people are doing? Remember, your interpretation that certain things are a sin like homosexuality/pre-marital sex/abortion/contraception (which does not affect you) affects others peoples life when you take a vote or demonstrate.

Sadly these Christian Identity believers are as misguided as any other believer. Its just that what they believe is in the modern age less accepted.

How does peer review work?

It amazes me so often that science deniers (especially creationists) will say something along the lines of "science is biased and is suppressing the research that shows their science is wrong." So I thought I would take the time to explain how peer review works for the publication of an article in an accredited scientific journal.

Once all the research has been done (retested to be sure) and the data has been analyzed, it falls on the lead scientist to write up the conclusions. This initial draft is then sent to all the co-authors and they agree or disagree with the conclusions and give a report. This step is used to refine the manuscript and to make sure there are no data interpretation errors. Importantly, this is done so as not to show bias and conflate findings that are not in fact there.

This information is then used to refine the manuscript for submission to a journal, however before that happens the manuscript is again sent to all the co-authors for approval for submission. This process can repeat multiple times.

Now the manuscript (after a few months usually) is ready to submit to a journal. The manuscript now goes to the desk of the Editor of a journal who determines if the information is relevant to the quality of the journal and if the conclusions make sense. If the editor deems that the quality is not high enough, the manuscript is rejected immediately. If this happens then the authors will revise the manuscript and try resubmit at the same journal or revise the manuscript and submit to a lower quality journal.

If the Editor approves a manuscript, this manuscript is sent to (usually 3 or more) three anonymous referees who will review it for scientific integrity. These referees determine if the data is flawed and if the conclusions are correct. This is necessary as it erases confirmation bias which can happen when the original scientists see what they want to see. These referees then contact the Editor and say whether they think the manuscript should be accepted or rejected. A unanimous decision is required to proceed past this step.

The manuscript now with comments and suggestions is sent back to the authors either with a rejection or provisional acceptance letter. If rejected this process repeats from the beginning with refining and sending to co-authors.

If accepted, the authors will now need to answer all the referees comments and refine the manuscript. This refined manuscript then gets sent back to the referees for a second time. This process can repeat multiple times.

Once this above process is complete and the referee and Editors are satisfied. Then and only then is the manuscript finally ready to be published as a scientific article

Oh, and its not over yet. The manuscript when published can still come under scrutiny and if found to be fraudulent it can be retracted.

God loves Uganda - A review

This last week I had the privilege to watch the documentary God loves Uganda. So I thought I would give my take on why this is a must see movie. When I say a must see movie it is really aimed at Christians that I say this, as most atheists know religion is not healthy.

The movie in a nutshell details the rise of evangelical Christianity in Uganda by American Evangelicals and the formation of the anti-homosexuality bill. These two march along at the same pace and there is no doubt why the bill is passed with the church numbers increasing. What is terrifying is to see first hand how much influence Christianity has in some African nations. In Uganda, they even had Scott Liveley address Parliament and explain his views on homosexuality. To give you an idea of his views, he believes that  homosexuality was behind the Nazis etc. I am not making this up! This guy is a lunatic, or at least a little more than most anti-gay preachers.

The problem is, and this is pointed out in the movie, that this is Africa. The education level is not high and so people buy what these evangelicals are selling and take the law into their own hands. This means deaths of homosexuals by mobs of homophobes. And the root of all this violence is Christianity.

Once you have watched this film, and you still say Christianity is the religion of love. Then I say you are brain dead.

Once you have watched this film, you can truly say Christianity breeds violence.

Lulz idiots of the week - French Catholics

This week are not really idiots more than Lulz idiots. Seriously one of the funnier and most exciting pieces of news I have had to report yet.

It seems the Catholic Church in France is starting an adopt a priest program to get more money into the church. Now I have to say I am relying on the BBC here for correct information, as I cannot read the French but it looks legit. Anyway, the reason the church is doing this is that the numbers in the churches are dwindling and so they are trying to boost their tithe income. This is sort of surprising considering the outcry from the Catholic church in France during the passing of the gay marriage laws last year, but I guess protesting and giving money are two different things. Or said differently, its easier to use the church to approve of your homophobia than to actually believe the rubbish they come up with.

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This is good news really, as it means the Catholic church is losing a hold in France. So much so that they are having money problems. Maybe we will see more of these churches closing and a country more liberated. Its strange to think that the French are not that liberated, but from their protests they do need to wake up.

So Lulz Idiot of the week has to be the French Catholic Church. To you I say thanks for the laughs.

Ken Ham develops A Massive Problem

The Young Earth Creationists cannot be very happy with science this week. After all of their faulty calculations and the fact that they believe that dinosaurs also went in the ark with Noah. The discovery of this new giganitc dinosaur cannot be fitting in well with their stories. Seriously, look at the size of this thigh bone.

The scientists estimate the mass of this dinosaur to be 77 tons, and so at a bare minimum the ark was carrying 154 tons, and thats just two dinosaurs who surely needed some food. Just imagine when it wanted to go to the toilet, Noah must have had a field day shoveling all that poop. After all, I am pretty sure there was no plastic bag to pick it up with.

This is why I love creationists because they are not true to their name. They will never come up with a creative idea of how this dinosaur got onto the ark. All they will probably do is spin the old tale of we only took two eggs and then my wife hatched them. Or Noah only took babies on board, so the average size of this dinosaurs baby was the size of a chicken and it fits easily.

Darn you have to be dumb to believe this creationist tripe. Actually, I would not even classify this as pseudo science as it is not even remotely plausible to someone with absolutely no scientific knowledge.

Dont debate creationism, wont debate thesim.

I am not sure why some atheistic scientists wont debate creationists. I have heard the common reason, which was repeated a lot before the Ham and Nye debate, is that creationists should not be given any credibility. My view is the polar opposite, as I have said before I do not think debating creationists is a bad thing.

Another common reason that scientists or some people dont want to debate creationists is that they believe the case for evolution is settled. The view they hold is that the jury is in and evolution is true. With this statement I agree completely. But now with this in mind, lets extend this argument.

If you are not prepared to debate creationists, then why the hell are you debating theists? Seriously, the non existence of a god is as settled as the evolution case.There is no proof for god, just as their is no proof for creationism. However, we are prepared to debate theists for multiple reasons. One of these reasons is that maybe there is a god. But using this rational, creationism may be correct as well.
 

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In closing, never be scared to debate stupidity. After all, its the only way to expose more people to the lies.

Deists and irrational atheists piss me off

I have come to the startling conclusion that if I ever had to stop blogging about atheism it would not be because of theists.

It would be because or irrational atheists and deists.

Deists are the bane of my life. They think god exists but does not care. So they have even more faith than theists and are even more illogical than theists. Deists are to me the ultimate form of theism and self denial of what the evidence is showing you. They are the people that are too irrational to come to any rational conclusion. They are people who believe 1 = 0.9999999999....(recurring).

The other group that irritates me are irrational atheists. These are those atheists that are only rational about the god question yet still believe in stupid things like vaccines cause autism.  This group makes me double face palm, as clearly they have some type of rationality but it does not extend past one question.

Seriously both of these group piss me off a hell of a lot more than theists. 

That's my rant for the week.

Hope you are having a good weekend, week or day.

Idiots of the week - Pakistani Police

Pakistan is always a place of highly religious idiocy. I guess that happens when you have blasphemy laws on the books that can warrant the death penalty in some cases.

This weeks idiots are the Pakistani police that have decided to charge not 1 or 2 lawyers but 68 that were protesting the detention of another lawyer. Apparently all 68 of them are guilty of blasphemy, which luckily is only going to land them in jail for three years. I say luckily as the other option is the pleasent on way death ticket.

How all 68 lawyers that were protesting all blasphemed (the same words apparently) is still a mystery, but it probably has something to do with the misuse of blasphemy laws in Pakistan. This should not be surprising when you consider theists can't prove anything except shout louder. Surely this translates into the loudest shout being the cry of blasphemy in Pakistan. It could be considered the perfect win for a theist as they lack the moral fiber to actually use logic and rationality.

Lets hope these lawyers can be released and not get prosecuted. The chances are they did nothing wrong, even though the police may disagree.

Oh yeh, one more thing doing what you see in this picture below will also get you the death penalty in Pakistan or is that Koranistan?

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Welcome back to the dark ages, and that is why these are your idiots of the week.

Corrupted memories

Last year a very interesting news feature was published about the memory and how malleable it is. The article deals with the work of Elizabeth Loftus who is a psychologist that studies how memories are shaped. In fact she takes part in court cases as an expert to explain how memories can be created or corrupted by suggestion or what people want to believe. This had lead her to been a highly targeted individual by people that believe she is helping criminals get away with murder, literally. However, her work is sound and It can teach us a lot about how we perceive events. Events such as the miracle healing of a leg in church?

It is amazing that theists still claim miracles when there is so much evidence that points towards corrupted/malleable memory and confirmation bias. Or to put it simply, you can create memories that meet your internal desires. Its self affirmation and its certainly not healthy when the outcomes are so dramatic.

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To bring this back to the law and court cases, this is why your are innocent until proven guilty (in most countries). Simply, if there is not enough evidence there is no case. So, if their is no witnesses to this "miracle" (preferably videotape) then their is no evidence for the miracle. I say videotape, as we know already how malleable minds are and their are even things called group hallucinations.

In conclusion Loftus says the following about the clinical benefits of creating memories:"Parents lie to their kids all the time, about Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. Would you rather have an unhealthy kid, or one with a few false memories?"

While I do not think creating memories is a good thing, she is certainly spot on that children are getting memories created which are based in lies.

Religion is a mental illness

There was an article published in the religion news service by Chris Stedman who gave "5 reasons atheists shouldn’t call religion a mental illness". Multiple atheists have replied to this post in very insightful ways as can be seen here and here. However, I think I would like to chime in with my stance which is very simple.

I believe religion is a mental illness.

Let me elaborate why, and it really is simple. I suffer from depression, so I have a mental illness. This means if I do not take care of myself I will think irrationally and maybe do something stupid like off myself. So I am taking responsibility for possible irrational actions.

In the same way if you are a theist, you believe in irrational things (like hell and god) and you should be responsible for your actions. My depression can lead to irrationality, and religion can lead to irrationality. So they are the same thing.

Some people may scream now "but religion can lead to positive things". This is true, just as it is true that great things have been done by severely depressed people. Here are a few examples below.

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Oh......and this guy below was important in defeating Nazi Germany.

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So in conclusion religion is a mental illness. But then again that's just my opinion when I look at the major disagreements.

Titles dont mean anything- Appeal to authority

I have a confession to make, and its something I hang my head in shame for. But it was something that needed to be done, and as it relates to positions of authority I thought I would share it.

Recently at work I have added Dr. to my signature for my work e-mails. Its kind of embarrasing as I believe a title is not important as everyone deserves the same respect and should be treated in the same way. However, this is not the way things get done in the heirachy and people respect titles and then they do the work (that they should be doing anyway) when asked. As such to bulldoze the beuracratic crap out of the way of getting anything done I took the plunge and did it.

However, this does not mean I am smarter than anyone. It does not mean everyone should believe me over others. It however is an imperfect analogy of how people fall for the fallacious "appeal to authority" argument.

When someone says something, you should not just believe you should check the facts for yourself. If the priest or the PhD in philosophy says something, it is not true because they have a piece of paper or a pulpit. All it means is that they want you to believe them, as they have think they are correct due to the information they have. This is important also, as some of these people may be intentionally deceiving you for their own financial or other gain.

So next time you see a title don't be impressed. It means nothing.

xxxx

P.S. I am sure some theists will now say, "now I can reject evolution as Dawkins uses an authority position." However, this is not the case as all the facts point to it being true.With or without Dawkins.

Idiots of the week - Boko Haram

This story is a sad story but is a good one to show how backward Islam is.

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This week the idiots are the members and leaders of Boko Haram in Nigeria. These idiots have gone an abducted over 200 girls (273 is the estimate) from villages, as they believe these girls have sinned by taking part in education. You see these brain dead fools think that sharia law should be implemented and this means girls cannt be educated. This rule they want to impose is similar to what the Taliban did in Afghanistan by denying education for girls.

While sad however, it makes perfect sense that they tread all over their incubators (females), as they don't want them running away. After all who else is going to produce the next round of suicide bombers? So what punishment do they have for these girls that want to learn to read? If you guessed "sell them into slavery" you were correct. So, is this is how the religious mindset works? Are you meant to abduct someone and then not correct their behavior, but destroy their life?

This is what they want these Islamic retards, and this is why they are idiots of the week.

European Anti Stem Cell Research Theists

The recent editorial in Nature documenting the movement against stem cell research in Europe got me in a bit of a rage. So I decided to give my thoughts on this. Firstly the question is who is behind behind this push would you think?

If you guessed theists, you would get full marks as it usually is stone age thinkers that don't want to think in the silicon age. The One Of Us project who opposes stem cell research is run by theists/churches/politicians and other idiots that think the following types of treatments are not worth researching.
Identical organs grown for transplants.
Alzheimer's treatments.
Spinal Cord injury repair.
Heart Disease.
Rheumatoid arthritis.
etc etc etc.
And of course safer drug testing on real human cells, thereby having less risk of major side effects in human trials. So basically all very humane and caring things.


Which is interesting, as these are the same people that stand in pulpits or on soap boxes and scream about love for mankind. Yet they are too dumb to realize that by denying this research they are effectively killing millions of people. I think they don't understand the concept of love. Then again I don't think they understand much due to the disconnect in their brains.

So I have a counter idea for all those people that oppose stem cell research.

How about this, let us "evil" people do this research and you just never accept the treatment. In this way, you are absolving yourself from the sin of stem cell research. Not that your primitive mind was doing this research in the first place.  As a result, we can watch you die when you get a preventable disease, as that is what you want right?

This is the same argument I use with anti animal drug testing people. Don't take the medicine its that simple. Stand by what you believe in and stop being a hypocrite.

An atheist debates an atheist over invisible pink unicorns.

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Recently I was involved in a debate with a fellow atheist in which we debated the existence of Unicorns. In this debate I took the Con side, and my opponent took the Pro side. We both took the debate seriously, but to be fair I do not believe my opponent believes Unicorns exist. The debate was more an exercise in apologetics techniques.

I was reminded again in this debate what a common apologetics trick is. That is, throw as much information/assertions/baseless claims/etc as possible into the argument. Its effective, as you know that your opponent does not have enough time or enough words to respond successfully to all your arguments.

My opponent even noted in the comments section "I realized it's infinitely easier to use these sorts of arguments and this style of argumentation than it is to defend against them. So, so easy to make assertions after assertions.... Now I know how Kent Hovind feels." Its a perfect response from someone who is honest showing that they do not believe the arguments necessarily, but just make assertion after assertion. My opponent realised the debate cannot be won on logic, so he makes it impossible for me to respond to all arguments and dismisses all my arguments using faulty logic.

If you can I would recommend you read this debate as its really a great example of the kind of arguments you encounter with theists. Also, its a debate I thoroughly enjoyed as I knew what I was up against from the beginning and I was not deceived into taking a debate where my opponent was trying to fool/deceive me.

Preventable disease on the rise thanks to Anti-Vaccers

A very interesting and eye opening editorial was published in Science last week (subscription only) about the eradication of Polio in India and South East Asia. This is great news and it is all possible due to this little injection called the Polio vaccine. This is similar to the great triumph over smallpox now 34 years ago, when smallpox was wiped out worldwide due to a diligent vaccination program. So why are some viruses starting to become prominent again when vaccines exist for them?

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The People at Science believe it has to do with not providing enough solid scientific information for sceptical parents. They even report that the major outbreaks in preventable diseases in the USA can be attributed to people that have intentionally not vaccinated. I have a different reason why some viruses are becoming prominent again while vaccines exist for them.

The answer is STUPID PEOPLE!!!!! Anti-vaccination idiots who think irrational things like vaccines give autism. Idiots who think the government is out to inject micro chips into them when they get the flu shot. There is enough verified scientific evidence showing that vaccines are safe, if you do not believe this you are an either an idiot, conspiracy theorist or mindless sheep.

If you are not getting your vaccines YOU ARE AN IDIOT. You are putting others at risk by not getting these vaccines. If that's the way you want to play, bugger off to your island and do not be part of normal society. If you want to be an outcast and not have access to modern day hospitals, junk food, department stores etc. then don't get your vaccines but also get the hell out of my town.

Idiots of the week - South Korean Christians

This post has been waiting a very long time, basically because I don't want my Internet access revoked for criticizing the South Korean government. However, I think it is something that needs to be said so here goes.

Many times in Korea if you try access certain websites such as communism, porn, government critical websites etc. You will run into the following warning label. Basically translated to "we the government has determined that this is not good for your morality".

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So what does this have to do with dumb Christians? Well unfortunately Christians are becoming a dominant force in Korea and as such they get to decide what is good for your morality. So what you get is a bunch of devoted Christians working for the net cops who go around and block every porn site they can so that you cannot see the opposite or same sex naked.

Firstly, I have nothing wrong with pornography at all. But there is an even bigger reason why this irks me. Here it is, I can go down town right at this moment and walk into a red light district (which ironically is situated next to a police station) and buy sex. Or I could go to one of the multiple motesl and hire a prostitute to come to my room. Or I could go to one of the many clubs that married and umarried people frequent to get sex. May I also add here I have no problems with per-marital sex or prostitution.

When the above is going on and you are worrying about porn on the internet, you are not acting rationally. In fact you are an idiot. It means you are just trying your best to be oppressive in a society that does not want it. You are enforcing your beliefs on people. Your are a tyrant, you are an idiot.

xxxxx

Oh and you may be interested to know about the adultery laws in Korea. If someone has sex with a married person and their spouse finds out, they are either a) able to sue you or b) send you to jail. But let the church keep worrying about their porn and not the freedoms of people. Oh hang on......... thats right they want to stone you to death for this. Idiots.

Jesus and Mo (Too good not to share) - funny

Saw this today and just had to share it.
Please visit Jesus and Mo for more funny.