Marriage equality according to Christianity broken down

So we all know that opposition to marriage equality is seated in the hate that God and as such that Christians have for homosexuals. So, there is in fact no rational reason to oppose marriage equality unless you believe stuff in the Bible is real. But this got me thinking and well, the Bible actually does not oppose gay sex or homosexuality at all when we look at the commonly used verses. So today I intend to dissect the bible and homosexuality and show what problems it creates for Christians.

Leviticus 18:22 "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."
Leviticus 20:13 " If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

So both of these versus state that man should not lie with man as a man would lie with a women. But I mean, and I am by no means a sexologist, I am pretty certain this is not possible. As well watch the video.....

So if a man does not have a vagina, how on this good earth can a man lie with another man like he lies with a women? The only conclusion I can come to is that the Israelites were very fucking dumb, or that all along Christians (and Jews) have been having sex wrong. That's right, if homosexuality is a sin according to the Bible then all Christians are meant to be having a whole lot of anal sex.


But herein lies even a bigger conundrum for Christians. If this is true and vaginal sex is no banned according to God, then where the hell are the babies coming from? Additionally, this creates even a huger dilemma for Catholics (and the like) where they have some how twisted a verse, see Genesis 38: 8-10, into meaning that masturbation and contraception is immoral.

So there you have it in less than maybe 500 word, I have shown a) that all Christians and Jews are sinners, or b) that the Bible actually promotes homosexuality. Either way its a win in my eyes.

Anita Sarkeesian deserves a lesson in skepticism

Usually, I do not have to much concern with what Anita Sarkeesian says, however this just keeps carrying on and on. The opinion never changes although there is so much evidence against her opinions. However, eventually patience wears thin and after seeing her recent speech I decided its time to say something.

I do not want to get into a flame war here about Anita Sarkeesian. But seriously, why does she only ever focus on the men that have criticized her? Its for lack of a better word misandristic. Its not skeptical and it goes a long way to proving that this form of feminism is certainly not about equality, when its definition is defined as such.
Feminism: the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities.

Here are the just some people that never get mentioned, and they are all ladies. Most of these videos are long, so if you want to chose one to watch, then watch the one (the longest unfortunately) by Rabbit at the bottom. It is probably the best video to watch if you want to see skepticism at work.

I do not know why she feels to need to discriminate. But she is not helping her cause by saying these things. Well unless her cause is misandry.

The Miracle of life from death

This post is heavily inspired by my fellow blogger Deity Shmeity.

According to all Christians, Jesus died on the cross and then rose again three days later. This is something that is accepted as a fact by Christians and is one of the central tenants (if not the most important) of Christianity. If it was not for this miracle of life from death (or living from non-living) then there would be no Jesus dying for our sins. There would be no prophecy fulfillment, and there would certainly be no mega churches leeching money out of communities. So without a doubt it is clear that the resurrection of Christ is the basis for belief in Christianity.

The problem is this though, if Jesus came alive from the dead then essentially what Christians are telling us is that something living came from something not living. Thats is we got life from non-life. This means Christians are accepting that living matter can come from non-living matter without any significant proof. Essentially what Christians are admitting is that the concept of abiogenesis is true. They are saying that life can be created from non-living matter.

But if life came from non-life then that also poses a problem for Christians who believe that this is not true. That is, Christians who believe that the idea of abiogenesis is not true. In fact, I would go a step further and say that Jesus coming back from the dead in a form that is so complex is excepting something that is far beyond what it takes to accept that some elementary molecules starting replicating. In fact, if you are a Christian and accept the resurrection and cannot accept that simple molecules could start replicating from non-living elements you are living a double life. You have a set of standards for one group of thought, yet you do not apply those same set of standards.

So how do you fight your way out of this box? How do you stop living your double life?

My guess?

Ignorance is an echo chamber

People are strange creatures in general.

As some of my readers may know, I am not a fanatic of social media. As such it was with a bit of apprehension that I decided to dip my toe into the Google+ communities. Turns out my apprehension was unfounded as I have found that there are some interesting discussions in certain groups and links to blogs/news articles I cannot people even would consider believing. In this way it has also provided me with enough blog material for a long time, or until I get fed up and delete my account.

In the past have found that many creationists blogs on the Internet do not allow comments or ban any commenter that does not agree with them. This makes these cesspit's of misinformation impenetrable to criticism that they so richly deserve. As such I find Google+ way more helpful as there are communities where people are willing to discuss and these communities have moderators that are not quick on the draw with the mute function. However, there are other communities that are not communities as such but are echo chamber for blogs. In fact after asking a simple question at one "community" I got permanently muted. Maybe my name was too much for the moderator?

My point is why would anyone not be prepared to defend any position. Or even if they do not want to engage, why would a person mute you? Sure, if a person is being slanderous, I can understand muting them. If a person is asking questions, why would you want to mute them. It shows you are an ignorant village idiot that just wants to hear the applause of like minded fools. I want people to question everything I write, I want outrage. On the other hand, I don't want flame wars and slanderous comments. Importantly, I really do not mind dissenting opinions after all the people responding to comments should be open to defending their ideas. This is what positive skepticism entails.

Lastly, on Google+ the one awesome aspect is that even if you are banned you can reshare posts and criticize them anyway. :D

A new and very interesting vaccine

In a recent e-mail from the ACS, I got notification of a really interesting vaccine that is being developed. What makes it so interesting is that it is not to stop a disease but a lifestyle choice. Although, to call it a life style choice here is not correct, as the researchers are saying that it is not a life style choice but rather an addiction that does not necessarily have anything to do with choice. The whole concept of addiction, I have talked about before so I wont go into it again here.

So without further ado, here is a video presenting some evidence for a vaccine that will stop you smoking. Thats right, this vaccine is being developed to stop smoking. Maybe the anti-vaccers will say this is taking away free will, or is the governments method to curb health costs. I am not sure what they will say, but it will be something.

It is rather remarkable to think, that this could be a way to prevent smoking. To be fair, I really do not have a problem with smoking and I do think smokers are very unfairly discriminated against. I also believe that this is based on a lot of dodgy science about second hand smoke. When in reality the reason most people do not like second hand smoke is that it irritates them and has nothing to do with health. Its like a screaming baby on an airplane everyone wants the darn kid to shut up.

To clarify further, I am not sure how a tests can be accurate for second hand smoke when we are exposed to way worse toxins in our air everyday. In this way how are we sure that the effects we are seeing in tests (small increases) are actually related to second hand smoke and not chance. But, the fact that smoking is bad for the individual doing the smoking I will not contest.

Predatory Science Journals

The scientific method is probably one of the greatest, if not the greatest, ideas that mankind has ever embraced. It is for this reason that I am disheartened by creationist pseudo science journals such as Answers Research Journal. But, this is an easy journal to criticize as its based on a very evident pseudo science and any one with half a brain can easily dismiss anything published in this journal as faux. Unfortunately, the problem becomes more severe when we consider what is called predatory open access journals.  Before I delve further, maybe I need to explain some what open access is.

Open access, is the idea that an author pays a fee to publish in a journal. Now, while this may seem like a bad idea as it can get abused. The idea originally is for science (which often is publicly funded) to be available to anyone anywhere. Based on this original idea, research can progress even in poorer institutions, as they have access to journals which normally would be too costly. Additionally, the public who pays for the research can get to see the results and learn at the same time.

So, all in all its a great idea. But, like anything you get people that are willing to corrupt great ideas. This is where predatory journals come in.

A predatory journal works like any good business should by pushing various sales technique. One technique is to go out and entice scientists to publish in their journals. For example, they will send out invitations to get you to publish with them, by asking you to write a highlight pieces etc. However, all they care about is getting your money and the article is just paperwork that gets rolled out. Another technique is to just ignore peer review or do really bad peer review and not listen to reviewers opinions. For example, there have even been cases where these journals have accepted unscientific/fraudulent papers sent as part of a sting operation by Science magazine. Its problems like this that can lead to false results being published and pseudo scientific ideas being propagated.

In closing, the reason I am writing this post is to basically promote skepticism on all levels. When something is published in a science journal it may not always be trustworthy if the publisher is not trustworthy. The idea of open access is good, but we need to be careful.

Science goes forward, but we still need to be careful of the people that want to take it backward.

A modern look into the European Dark Ages

ISIS, as everyone knows is a bunch of retarded children that somehow got a bunch of guns and are now running around Iraq and Syria shouting Allah-U-Akbar as they follow their stone age book written by a pedophile. The murders perpetrated by these idiots are however just one part of the crimes they are committing against the greater world in general. It is due to their total lack of respect for human life and culture that they are offering the world a rare glance into what the European Dark Ages must have been like (link subscription only).

Just as the Taliban defaced and destroyed multiple religious monuments, like the famous Buddhas of Bamiyan, in Afghanistan.ISIS is similarly on a campaign to destroy the heritage of Iraq and the ancient Assyrian empire. After all what we have to remember is that these ISIS idiots believe things like "We were ordered by our prophet to take down idols and destroy them,". Needless to say the have zero proof of the prophet (Muhammad pedophile be upon him?) or Allah actually commanding them to do any of this.

 Buddhas of Bamiyan before the Taliban and after the Taliban.

ISIS has been systematically destroying world heritage sites as they advance in their campaign. Basically where they are, they are destroying culture and lives. Here is a list of major historical sites that ISIS has defaced/destroyed that the Iraqi government is aware of.
Hatra
Mosul Museum
Assyrian capital of Nineveh
Assyrian capital of Nimrud
Assyrian capital of Khorsabad
These people are what we would term barbarian invaders. They are literally destroying everything in their wake. It is also believed that at times they are removing some statues and selling them on the black market. I gather this is been done to fund themselves, which goes a long way to prove that they do not care at all what is written in their Holy Book about graven images.

This destruction that ISIS is waving is a brutal reminder of what the European Dark Ages were like. I suppose we can only sit back and watch as they continue to deface and burn. If they are like their Christian brethren (which it seems they are) and finally reform, we only have about 1000 years to wait. Unfortunately the world does not have that long to wait in my humble opinion.

So, lets hope that the Dark Ages comes for this bunch of retards sooner rather than later.

Insults, trigger words and just words

Trigger words

I have noticed that some blog posts and news articles these days contain a preamble, and in this it is stated that the article may contain trigger words.  Now while, I am not denying the existence of words or images that can trigger strong emotional response. The fact is that we need to be able to use words like rape or torture etc. to be able to effectively discuss situations. We need to be adults and face our fears, and yes I know it is very difficult for some people, to grow and get stronger not only as individuals but as society.

To diverge a little, for me the mere mention of Jesus could be considered a trigger warning. When I hear the word Jesus, it necessarily reminds me every time that I think Christianity is a farce. However, I do not want people to stop using the words Jesus just because it brings back memories of my experiences in church. It is a necessary word to create a dialogue to discuss the situation and expose the flaws of irrational and dangerous beliefs.

Insulting words and well words

Insulting words are interesting as some are necessarily insulting (like chav), while others are just words that are used in so many contexts that they are no longer associated with anything (like gay). I bring this word gay up necessarily as I have heard that many gay men do not like people referring to something stupid as gay. Or as Mr Chang would say.

The problem is that the word gay is meant to mean vibrant and carefree. In fact that is what I learned gay meant when I was at school. A homosexual was a person attracted to someone of the same sex, just as a person who was attracted to the opposite sex is a heterosexual. You can call me straight if you want, but I am not going to be offended if you say "that u-bend is certainly not straight."

On a side note, why are only homosexual men gay and women are lesbians?

Insults

Insults are not necessary. Like the word chav, there really is no reason to use them as they are stereotypes and they are meant to be insulting. However, we are people, and we lose our temper sometime. This is when our primal instincts come through and its when we usually want to do what primal beasts do, i.e. hurt each other. Luckily, we have reached a point (mostly) where we do not want to get into a brawl. The result is often insults and while they are not helpful to dialogue it is something that happens.

On the Internet this is especially true as there is no other way to vent frustration at an opponent as all they see is your words. They do not see your angry face, they do not see your face-palm, they do not see a clenched fist etc. But, even here I would hasten refrain before insult. The reason why I say this is that once an insult is thrown the meaningful dialogue is over.

In closing, words are just that, words. Words in fact can have different meanings to different people. So ease up and use whatever words you want, except words that are only defined as an insult.  If not, perhaps we should start using words according to their correct and original meaning. For example, I am having a gay old time with my homosexual friend.

School Science Teachers and Evolution

A recent editorial in Science magazine delved into some of the reasons "Why many U.S. biology teachers are ‘wishy-washy’" (link is subscription only). This clearly is a very important question, as you want children at school to be taught good science. You want the children coming through the schooling system to be able to advance onto the next level of education not carrying false ideas. We want this, so that these scholars can proceed easily through higher education and eventually be able to contribute to solving world problems with innovative and correct scientific methods.

What the researchers found in their studies about teachers teaching evolution was interesting, in that it exposes the problem with teaching incorrect ideas. It also exposes the problem that creationists want to implement in school when they say "teach the controversy" i.e. teach incorrect ideas. The study showed that the teaching of evolution problem falls squarely with the teachers, as a lot of them do not have the background in teaching evolution. It is not that they may not want to teach evolution, it is that they are either not smart enough and do not understand it, or they were never given a background in the subject to be able to teach it. So in effect what they are saying is that the only way to get teachers teaching correctly is to either get a smarter grade of teacher or teach the teachers.

 
I think, the second last paragraph of the editorial gives a very good summation of the results where the researcher was quoted as folows:
"Reversing direction will require breaking out of a “cycle of ignorance,” the researchers believe. “Many students lack good models for teaching evolution in public schools” because they weren’t taught the subject well in high school or college. More trainees also  need better hands-on grounding in what the researchers call “the nature of scientific inquiry,” such as working in a research lab."

Now that we have some data, perhaps its time for the politicians to listen to the science and ban the teaching of creationism in any form be it home schooling or religious school. Bad ideas should not be allowed into the academic square, when it clearly has a negative impact on children.

Abiogenesis proven or not?

The question whether abiogenesis has been proven or not is a very important question that gets asked by theists, even though it is usually asked incorrectly when talking about evolution. While I have blogged repeatedly on the idea of abiogenesis, this time the question of whether is has been proven is directed at my atheist friends that believe it has been proven. Although, any theists reading this would do well to actually read carefully what I am writing here.

Personally, I believe that abiogenesis is an absolutely credible process for the start of life on our planet. The reason I believe this is really simple: most of the steps of a possible, and logical, abiogenesis pathway have been proven. In this sense it is easy to say that abiogenesis has been proven, however it has not. We need to remember that a lot of the links between a self replicating simple cell and the construction of some of these simple constituents of this cell have not been proven, yet. Surely, before I die there will be some proven pathway for this in place and I can die a happy man, but at present this has not happened.

For example in the figure below, we have the simple molecules forming a primitive cell and then producing proteins. However, we do not have the proof for the spontaneous formation of these simple molecules yet.

The problem when we say abiogenesis has been proven, is that we are assuming that theists accept that facts of the simple proven steps. Most theists do not accept these facts and in fact most theists believe this is evolution and not abiogenesis.

In closing, keep this comment in mind before you present abiogenesis as fact.

"While I agree with you that most of the components of abiogenesis have been demonstrated. Until we can basically do a Stanley-Miller type experiment and get at least a very simple self replicating cell (contained multiple reactions) then many theists will still dismiss it."

Get rid of the Islamic scourge

In the past, on this blog, I have written that I am not a supporter of the death penalty. In fact, I would say I tend no to want to hurt people in general. However, my position I hold on the death penalty is becoming harder and harder for me to rationalize. Ironically, the reason my position is changing is based purely on religion, or more ironically the religion of peace. In fact I would go so far as to say that ISIS is the straw that broke the camels back.

Islam is a very hateful religion, it is also a religion that is stuck in the stone age. If you do not believe this then you either live in a cave or are a Muslim. In fact Cephus over at the Bitchspot blog just finished doing a Horror week show casing Islam in all its horrific hate. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. He also has told me that he has a whole month of blog posts planned about Islam, so keep your eyes open for that.

You may wonder what this has to do with my opinion on the death penalty changing and so let me elaborate. This ISIS group, these excuses for humans do not want to be educated, they only want their Koranic fairy tales. They do not want to change and make the world a better place, just like their warlord prophet Muhammad. These despicable people want to take the world back into the stone age in the name of Allah. Now, when these are the stone cold facts of people that praise a pedophile as one of the greatest men to live. Then you have to wonder if their is hope. But, it gets worse.

There are so called educated people that are leaving civilized society to go join this group of ignorant fools to take the world backward. These idiots come from a place where women have rights and they adapt a society where women are worth half a man. These are people that believe its okay to kill someone who leaves their only real and true religion, when rationality shows they have yet to prove the existence of their god. This is a religion that believes it all right to kill someone for drawing a picture of their favorite pedophile Muhammad, when they cannot even prove that the image looks like Muhammad.

Yes, you can dies for this. (Source)

Perhaps the only way to get rid of this scourge is to treat it like a virus. You get rid of a virus by eradicating it, so that it can not harm others. ISIS will continue to harm others, so perhaps its time to get real and get rid of prison sentences for these scum. Perhaps its time to shoot for the head and make sure they are dead.

Did prayer really restart a teens heart?

There was a report last month that God had restarted a teens heart due to a mother prayer. Basically, in what is deemed as a miracle a boy fell through a lakes ice and spent 15 minutes under ice cold water. Then this boy was rescued, I gather by emergency services and the EMTs took him to the hospital where the doctors then proceeded to try revive him. After 27 minutes Dr. Kent Sutterer then decided it was time to tell the mother her child was dead and called her into the emergency room to give her the bad news. This then lead to the mother praying loudly and she asked God to please bring her son back to life. Then the miracle occured, as someone shouted ‘We got a pulse, we got a pulse.’

Now, lets think about this skeptically. By applying the skeptic hat very quickly we will see that this is not a miracle. I am defining miracle here in the biblical sense, as really it is a bleeding amazing the kid made it.

To make this miracle not so miraculous anymore, I will ask one question. If Doctor Sutterer had called the death of the boy then why was someone monitoring his pulse. In other words, I am pretty sure death was not called and work was still been done to revive the boy. This means Dr Sutterer was really incorrect to be telling the mother her child died. Let me be clear, if time of death is called there is no more work done on the corpse, its dead!

To disprove this theory, I would literally have to see video evidence of the time of death been called and then the boys heart miraculously restarting. Which is clearly no going to happen, as why anyone would anyone be checking a corpse for a pulse?

No miracle here ladies and gentleman, but I am sure the Christians will be milking this for a long time to come.

I found God!

No, I did not become a theist. But I think (its an untested hypothesis at present) I literally found God. It's in the extended Bible and its very clear. The address is found in the Book of Habakkuk, which while not in the Bible it is an important part of the canon. So here I present Gods address. Also, am I not meant to believe the Bible.

Habakkuk 3:3 "God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise."

To be clear, I am a little vague why God and the Holy One are separated as two distinct individuals.  Yet, I am very certain if the Bible is correct that God comes from Teman. Teman is according to the Map shown below located in or near Ma'an in Jordan.

(Source credit Biblos.com.)

 
Ok, granted God might have moved since then but its a good enough as any to go look. So now all we need to do is mount and expedition and go to the required place and prove God exists. Any Christians that wish to donate to my expedition (I will only go when I have all the money to qualify for a full camera crew etc.) please contact me to get this ball rolling and help me help you find the evidence for God.

We have a claim, we can verify this claim. Wonder how long it will be before I have the money to go on this expedition. Not that I really want to be poking around the Middle East now with ISIS going all jihad.

Andrew Wakefiled is not vindicated he is still a quack

I cannot believe that I am doing another anti-vaxx post this shortly after my last few posts. However, I think its necessary as there is a faction of anti-vaxers that believe now that Andrew Wakefield is justified in his assertion that the MMR virus causes autism. This is according to Infowars and some other anti-vaxxer sites due to a colleague of Andrew Wakefield being vindicated. The  colleague they refer to is William Thompson. However, and this is important, he was not a colleague on the original Lancet manuscript. For this MMR-autism vaccine link to be vindicated then this original manuscript has to be vindicated. I will also say here, that this so called vindication (i.e. the CDC lying) has in fact been exposed as a lie. Or to quote William Thompson "I want to be absolutely clear that I believe vaccines have saved and continue to save countless lives. I would never suggest that any parent avoid vaccinating children of any race. Vaccines prevent serious diseases, and the risks associated with their administration are vastly outweighed by their individual and societal benefits."

What I do know is that most of the co-authors (10 from 12 authors, Peter Harvey and Wakefield did not agree with the retraction) on the original Lancet manuscript  withdrew their support and issued a retraction as they stated the manuscript was false. This has not changed, so I am not sure how any one is getting vindicated, especially since Peter Harvey the other co-author who didn't want the manuscript retracted died in 2012.

So there is no vindication, this is all lies. Anti-vaxxer Alex Jones and Andrew Wakefiled are liars.

But there is one more thing I need to address, Alex Jones in his diatribe mentioned that the MMR vaccine causes diabetes, pneumonia, immune disorders, etc etc. Now let me be straight, these are side effects that have been know to occur in some cases and this is not being hidden by the manufacturers of the vaccine. You can get the PDF insert here. However, just like any medicine there can be some side effects in limited cases and that is what this ignoramus failed to mention. So here are some side effects for ibuprofen, a anti-inflammatory drug which most people have taken at some point in their life.
Heart attack
Acute or chronic autoimmune skin disease
Gastrointestinal ulceration/bleeding
Nosebleeds
Kidney failure
Difficulty in breathing
Miscarriage
Yes, these side-effects are rare. But if you are not going to take the MMR vaccine then you should never take any medicine ever.

Here is the so called revelation news story if you want to be bored to tears or scream at the idiocy. Andrew Wakefield comes on at about 43 minutes.