26 September 2009
24 September 2009
The best riff ever ever
It took me months to track down the band responsible. The first album wasn't even released. They have since had a soundtrack for Mazda and I don't understand how they never 'broke'. I saw them at the Leadmill back in January 2005 and have followed them ever since. The infadels - Give yourself to me.
Asteroids Galaxy tour - Awesome!
Thanks to Maconie and Radcliffe for featuring this on Radio 2. Scandanavian perfection on a stick.
Back to Church Sunday
It's back to church Sunday this Sunday. I heard mention of it on daytime Radio 2 much to my annoyance. I have already complained about the godspot on Wogan and now this. I'm tempted to pop along and see what welcome I get after sitting there glaring at the vicar and not budging to stand and sing or kneel and pray. I don't suppose it's the done thing either to interject my own opinion into the sermon. Perhaps I should clarify at the beginning wether to ask questions during or save them until the end. That should set the tone.
I have found out that the poap is coming in September next year. Apparrantly it got leaked and the papal lot aren't very happy. And because my government asked them, we foot the bill! It cost the Americans £1.2 million per day. Read about it here.
I have found out that the poap is coming in September next year. Apparrantly it got leaked and the papal lot aren't very happy. And because my government asked them, we foot the bill! It cost the Americans £1.2 million per day. Read about it here.
Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society, said: “We
intend to bring together all those groups that the Pope has insulted or
threatened over the years – gays, women’s groups, those affected by HIV, those
damaged by the Catholic Church’s cover-up of child abuse. We want to let the
pontiff know in no uncertain terms that his intransigence and fundamentalism are
damaging real people.”Mr Sanderson continued: “The horrific Vatican cover up of large-scale child abuse by priests is enough to invalidate any state reception for this man. Instead, Britain celebrates and fetes him. But we will ensure that the other side of the story is put as the wrong-doing of the Catholic Church is once more, inexplicably, swept under the red carpet and conveniently forgotten for the duration”
We must protest.
16 September 2009
I must need faith
I get accused of making posts in christian forums that reflect my atheist stance because I'm really there looking for god. That my attacking their ridiculous beliefs is really down to my unmet need for god's love. The dialoge below is lifted from a blog that I set up on a really well laid out faith site which only seems to have a handful of posters, however they really don't like me but seem to be letting me hang out there in the hope of converting me.
Why do I feel the need to make posts in opposition camps about the stupidity of religion? I'm not sure. It started with a letter to my local paper when I was 15 about the requirement for schools to hold a religious assembly every day, something I believe they are still required to do. Some replies were, "One only has to look at the flowers and the trees to know there is a god" and another reader blamed my lack of belief on "All the shameful sex and violence we see on TV".
The internet has really opened up the debate and is bringing atheists together and channeling the evidence in ways that were not possible before. Organised faith has its wealth, heirachy, media spin and hype. Religion is big business. Look at the catholic church. What about the "please donate now" pastors?
So why do I challenge their comfort zones? Possibly because I want to develop my challenging skills, to get them to look at things from a different angle, I'm not sure.
It scares me that there are adults out there who believe in Adam, Eve and a talking snake, that a God made everything and listens to our prayers before deciding to ignore them.
Why do I feel the need to make posts in opposition camps about the stupidity of religion? I'm not sure. It started with a letter to my local paper when I was 15 about the requirement for schools to hold a religious assembly every day, something I believe they are still required to do. Some replies were, "One only has to look at the flowers and the trees to know there is a god" and another reader blamed my lack of belief on "All the shameful sex and violence we see on TV".
The internet has really opened up the debate and is bringing atheists together and channeling the evidence in ways that were not possible before. Organised faith has its wealth, heirachy, media spin and hype. Religion is big business. Look at the catholic church. What about the "please donate now" pastors?
So why do I challenge their comfort zones? Possibly because I want to develop my challenging skills, to get them to look at things from a different angle, I'm not sure.
It scares me that there are adults out there who believe in Adam, Eve and a talking snake, that a God made everything and listens to our prayers before deciding to ignore them.
14 September 2009
Comments on Adam and Eve
Re: Hmmmmm
Submitted by Timothy Luke on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 12:13.
No. Jesus prophesied these
Submitted by Timothy Luke on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 19:10.
Mark 16:18 They shall take up
Submitted by Yiggoto on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 17:35.
Hmmmmm
Submitted by jesseedavis on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 22:46.
Submitted by Timothy Luke on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 12:13.
It is interesting that people can curse God for letting us choose the serpent,
and then tell people to run to the serpent because God must be worse than the
serpent because he did not stop us from choosing the serpent..... If that sounds
confusing, it is because it IS confusion.
We are serving one or the other.
You cannot run from God without running to the serpent. I wouldn't tell a person
to embrace a poisonous snake under any circumstance...
No. Jesus prophesied these
Submitted by Timothy Luke on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 19:10.
No. Jesus prophesied these things would happen. He did not tell his disciples to
do so. In fact, we are commanded "thou shalt not tempt (test) the Lord thy God."
In Acts, Paul was putting wood in a fire and a viper attached to his hand. The
natives said, "see the man is cursed and god has taken his life...." Paul came
away unharmed, though the serpent had attached itself and hung off his arm. They
then believed in Jesus Christ.
If in the course of preaching and proclaiming
we come in contact with such things, they shall in no wise harm us, if we
believe.
You sure took a strange turn in the conversation! :-) You are also
showing how little you know of the basis of this discussion board. Please read
your Bible for yourself in the fulness of its context and you will find you are
laboring under many false ideas. I am not saying this in a mean spirited way. It
is simply that we discuss the Bible here and if you know the source of our
conversations you will better be able to add substance to the discussion.
Mark 16:18 They shall take up
Submitted by Yiggoto on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 17:35.
Mark 16:18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it
shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
Jesus tells people to take up serpents and drink poison as a test of faith.
As for serving either or - How about serving neither!
Hmmmmm
Submitted by jesseedavis on Sun, 09/13/2009 - 22:46.
I will say, I have seen some pretty clever retakes of this story, but this one
by far outdoes the rest. Lord help this man...
Adam and Eve. Like babies off a cliff
This story is like setting your two little babies near the edge of a cliff, telling them “don’t crawl off or you’ll die”, and then leaving them alone.After saying this you just watch, silent and out of sight, while one of your older and more knowledgeable children goads them into crawling off the edge of the cliff one at a time and falling to their deaths.
This would be an easy task since the babies couldn’t possibly understand the meaning of your words.Once they’ve both fallen, then you go down to see their shattered bodies on the rocks beneath and you say “You stupid babies, I told you this would happen! Now that you finally understand what I already knew, I won’t let you live even though I could save you. In fact, I will make you suffer before I let you die. Better yet, I’ll make every living thing in the world suffer and die, and I’ll blame it all on you. Now go away.”You create Adam, you create the Garden of Eden, and then you create “the tree of knowledge of good and evil”. You stick the tree right in the middle of the garden, and then you tell naive Adam (who can not yet know the meaning of good and evil) not to eat from that one tree or he will die.
Ignoring the fact that Adam could not have comprehended death in this deathless world, and the fact that he could not have understood the “evil” of disobeying your command, what possible reason could you have for putting this tree in the garden!? It could have gone outside of the garden, and it would never be a problem, or it could simply not exist, but you chose to put it there.The only reasonable explanation for this is that you knew exactly what would happen, you intended Adam and Eve to eat the fruit, and you are as guilty of instigating this mess as a police officer entrapping a mentally challenged child. You knew what would happen, and you set up the circumstances to allow it to happen, and you never stepped in to prevent this outcome when the serpent tempted Eve.
Being omniscient and omnipresent you must have seen it, and being omnipotent you could have stopped it or at least reminded them not to eat the fruit, but you just sat there and watched them destroy the world with a bite of fruit.You didn’t stop Eve when she put the fruit to her lips, and you didn’t stop Adam when she offered it to him. You didn’t forgive them or repair the damage, you became afraid of them and you set us all on the endless trail of horrible suffering and death that still plagues the world to this day, just because you were angry and afraid. Not only did you punish the entire world forever for the mistakes of Adam and Eve, you set the whole thing up knowing exactly what would happen. If anyone is responsible for “the fall of man”, it is you.
This would be an easy task since the babies couldn’t possibly understand the meaning of your words.Once they’ve both fallen, then you go down to see their shattered bodies on the rocks beneath and you say “You stupid babies, I told you this would happen! Now that you finally understand what I already knew, I won’t let you live even though I could save you. In fact, I will make you suffer before I let you die. Better yet, I’ll make every living thing in the world suffer and die, and I’ll blame it all on you. Now go away.”You create Adam, you create the Garden of Eden, and then you create “the tree of knowledge of good and evil”. You stick the tree right in the middle of the garden, and then you tell naive Adam (who can not yet know the meaning of good and evil) not to eat from that one tree or he will die.
Ignoring the fact that Adam could not have comprehended death in this deathless world, and the fact that he could not have understood the “evil” of disobeying your command, what possible reason could you have for putting this tree in the garden!? It could have gone outside of the garden, and it would never be a problem, or it could simply not exist, but you chose to put it there.The only reasonable explanation for this is that you knew exactly what would happen, you intended Adam and Eve to eat the fruit, and you are as guilty of instigating this mess as a police officer entrapping a mentally challenged child. You knew what would happen, and you set up the circumstances to allow it to happen, and you never stepped in to prevent this outcome when the serpent tempted Eve.
Being omniscient and omnipresent you must have seen it, and being omnipotent you could have stopped it or at least reminded them not to eat the fruit, but you just sat there and watched them destroy the world with a bite of fruit.You didn’t stop Eve when she put the fruit to her lips, and you didn’t stop Adam when she offered it to him. You didn’t forgive them or repair the damage, you became afraid of them and you set us all on the endless trail of horrible suffering and death that still plagues the world to this day, just because you were angry and afraid. Not only did you punish the entire world forever for the mistakes of Adam and Eve, you set the whole thing up knowing exactly what would happen. If anyone is responsible for “the fall of man”, it is you.
Reply to Our place ...
even a small house cann't be
Submitted by sann on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 18:57.
My reply
Enough time
Submitted by Yiggoto on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 19:27.
I refer you to my blog entry,
Submitted by sann on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 18:57.
even a small house cann't be formed of it's own. We have to built it. If so how
such things can be formed on it's own. That to so perfect. sun's light in the
morning and moon's light at night, rotation of earth by itself and around sun,
perfect temp,pressure to live........ Even many times i wonder what a perfect
body we have, eyes to see, nose to breath,....beautiful digestive n productive
system, can this things be formed just by physics,chem n bio.? Where does this
physics, chemistry,biology come from?
My reply
Enough time
Submitted by Yiggoto on Mon, 09/14/2009 - 19:27.
I refer you to my blog entry,
"Our universe is 13.7 billion years old, which is another number so large the
human mind can’t comprehend it. What’s more interesting to me is that Sol, our
local star, is only 4.57 billion years old. It’s a third generation star, which
means that it and the rest of our solar system is made up of material from a
star that sat in this same spot and then died, twice".
We can explain pretty
much everything from the first few milliseconds of the big bang. Then there was
a long, long time befire the first living cell appeared 3 billion years ago.
That is all it would take. Everything could have originated from that one living
cell. As I see it, God had two things to do, light the touchpaper to start the
big bang (having put the laws of physics in place first) and then reappear 10
billion years later to breathe life into the primeval soup. Everything else can
be explained scientifically.
I agree, the chances of all of this happening
are infantesimally small but then the universe is infantesimally big. The more I
understand all the things that needed to happen for me to be here, the more I
value life and the more special I feel.
You see beautiful things but don't
forget the parasites and viruses that have killed and caused suffering to
millions. The humble mosquito has embarked on a killing campaign better than any
despot has ever achieved.
Saying God did it just causes another set of
questions. Should we stop research and asking questions aboout what we do not
yet know because you have your truth?
Our place in the scheme of things
In our galaxy alone there are over a hundred-billion stars. There are over a hundred-billion galaxies in the known universe. In comparison to the grand scheme of things, I can’t even begin to comprehend exactly how small I am. Anytime I think about these things, I am put into a state of awe. I am impassioned by the majesty of the natural world. The Earth itself is so diverse and amazing that it can keep me up at night thinking about how ecosystems and genetic diversity play out and have played out for the last three or four billion years.
Our universe is 13.7 billion years old, which is another number so large the human mind can’t comprehend it. What’s more interesting to me is that Sol, our local star, is only 4.57 billion years old. It’s a third generation star, which means that it and the rest of our solar system is made up of material from a star that sat in this same spot and then died, twice. I often wonder if life had managed to evolve on a planet rotating around the first or second generation Sol. Maybe that life had reached the stars and colonized this whole galaxy, only to eventually die out in the billions of years that have passed since their first sentient thought.
This seems like a lot of rambling but my point is this: the universe is exorbitantly large and remarkably old. Our entire civilization, whether we leave Earth or not, will be more than lucky to even last a blinks worth of time to this universe. I think that one of the most repugnant things about most organized religion is the kind of self centered id they have about our place in this world. The whole universe was created so that our puny planet could come forth nine billion years later, and we puny humans could come about in another four billion years after that? That is a kind of egocentrism and arrogance that even an atheist could never have. I find all of that incredibly unlikely. However, I do feel fortunate to have been able to witness as much as I have so far, and I can only hope to see more of the wonders the natural world has to offer.
Our universe is 13.7 billion years old, which is another number so large the human mind can’t comprehend it. What’s more interesting to me is that Sol, our local star, is only 4.57 billion years old. It’s a third generation star, which means that it and the rest of our solar system is made up of material from a star that sat in this same spot and then died, twice. I often wonder if life had managed to evolve on a planet rotating around the first or second generation Sol. Maybe that life had reached the stars and colonized this whole galaxy, only to eventually die out in the billions of years that have passed since their first sentient thought.
This seems like a lot of rambling but my point is this: the universe is exorbitantly large and remarkably old. Our entire civilization, whether we leave Earth or not, will be more than lucky to even last a blinks worth of time to this universe. I think that one of the most repugnant things about most organized religion is the kind of self centered id they have about our place in this world. The whole universe was created so that our puny planet could come forth nine billion years later, and we puny humans could come about in another four billion years after that? That is a kind of egocentrism and arrogance that even an atheist could never have. I find all of that incredibly unlikely. However, I do feel fortunate to have been able to witness as much as I have so far, and I can only hope to see more of the wonders the natural world has to offer.
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