Dear Professor Nutt

Dear Professor Nutt

In previous correspondence with you the Government has highlighted the value that we place on receiving high quality scientific advice from the ACMD.

It is precisely for this reason that we asked you to find evidence in support of a pre-determined Government policy that was acceptable to readers of the tabloid press. Your total failure in this regard raises doubts about your independence as a scientific advisor.

Not only have you singularly failed to produce the requested evidence, you have not even attempted to distort existing evidence. There has been no massaging of the statistics, no exaggeration of the significance of minor studies and anecdotal testimony, no attempt to suppress embarrassing data. All contrary to established Government practise. Indeed, I am left wondering what qualifications you have to fulfil this high profile role or whether you have any proper understanding of the role of science in informing policy decisions.

You may wish to take a leaf out of Sir John Scarlett's book. Sir John was given the far more demanding task of finding evidence of WMDs in Iraq, a task that he performed masterfully, working closely with such distinguished professionals as the Prime Minister's press secretary. The resultant dossier was widely regarded as the definitive statement of the threat posed by the then Iraqi regime, and doubted only by some dodgy journalists and one rather eccentric weapons expert, both of whom were soon disposed of. You will note that Sir John's career has blossomed thanks to this fine tradition of public service.

Your recent remarks have highlighted comparable risks among legal drugs and sporting activities. This is totally unacceptable. It is not your role to go around informing people about things and giving them facts. It completely undermines government policy. All of the evidence must be presented to the public through trusted, Right Honourable statesmen, such as myself.

It is for these reasons that I have lost all confidence in your ability to provide me with the evidence that the Government would like to see. Nor do I trust you to keep your trap shut about the true state of affairs.

I would therefore ask you to step down from the council with immediate effect.

Regards

Alan.
See it in context here.
Thanks to Platitude of the Day

No more kosher lifts

It has been decided that lifts and escalators can no longer be used on the sabbath. Lifts used to have a 'sabbath' mode that allowed them to stop on every floor so that no-one had to do any work by summoning the lift or pressing a floor button. Article here.

This is important stuff. Doesn't it say in the bible that anyone who works on the sabbeth should be killed?

Poo and the Bible

Try taking the quiz here to find out how well up you are on biblical references to poo. Seems like God had a thing about poo as well as first born children.

7 reasons why religion is a form of mental illness

Article by Sweet Tea
The Southern Skeptic Fairy

I would like to propose that religious beliefs be placed in the DSM as a category of mental illness for the following reasons:

(1) Hallucinations - the person has invisible friends who (s)he insists are real, and to whom (s)he speaks daily, even though nobody can actually see or hear
these friends.

(2) Delusions - the patient believes that the invisible friends have magical powers to make them rich, cure cancer, bring about world peace, and will do so eventually if asked.

(3) Denial/Inability to learn - though the requests for world peace remain unanswered, even after hundreds of years, the patients persist with the praying behaviour, each time expecting different results.

(4) Inability to distinguish fantasy from reality - the beliefs are contingent upon ancient mythology being accepted as historical fact.

(5) Paranoia - the belief that anyone who does not share their supernatural concept of reality is "evil," "the devil," "an agent of Satan".

(6) Emotional abuse - ­ religious concepts such as sin, hell, cause feelings of guilt, shame, fear, and other types of emotional "baggage" which can scar the
psyche for life.

(7) Violence - many patients insist that others should share in their delusions, even to the extent of using violence.

What is Atheism?

Atheism is, simply, the lack of belief in a god. There are no tenets, no dogma, no rituals, no common socio-political beliefs, no agendas, no ethical code, no "holier than..." or "better than" — there's nothing within atheism that could support your claims. We get told that atheism is responsible for the genocidal regeimes of Stalin and Hitler but those tyrants and murderers didn't kill people "in the name of atheism" and atheism wasn't the cause of their actions. It may have been that they has moustashes!

However lets consider all the people killed by direct intervention from Yehoba, including all the first-born that he seemed to particularly favour.

Exodus 13:2 Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine.
Exodus 22:29 Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.

Add to that, the many wars based on religion, the inquisition and the witchhunts. You say that was men and not god but henious crimes have been committed in the name of god and by your god.

Do we need to believe in a deity to have morals? No we don't. Supporting each other for the common good favours our evolution. I am told that there are more christians in prison than not (as a percentage of the population). Much evil has been carried out in the name of god. Please don't insult me by saying satan makes people do bad things. Remember free will?

The infidel Bush was allegedly a christian yet he reigned over the killings of thousands of innocent people just to satisfy his own twisted ideals. And he had the audacity to tell us that god told him it was ok. There is blood on the hands of every American who voted Republican.

Some things are clear cut, black and white, yin and yang. Others less so. I say live and let live but there are those who want to dictate to me how I live my life because they want their god to be top dog.

God and the big bang

Lets reflect for a moment, god is omnipotent. He creates the universe. What is the point if there is only life on Earth? He could have heated it with a 3-bar electric fire provided it was big enough and there was a cosmic socket to plug it in to. Did he create all the other stars and galaxies as a dot-to-dot passtime for our ancestors?


Just think of all those billions of years when there was no life and no one to worship god. What was he doing in all that time. After all he had created time. Why did he make us out of things that can go wrong? Why put us on a planet that has volcanic eruptions and quakes, the majority of which is covered by water? Consider how many people have died as a result of the design of our planet.


Maybe he just added a few ingredients and sat back, knowing that he will do better next time but needing to see the outcomes of his experiment so that he can improve.
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Banana Man fights back

I love the way that Zomgitschris says it as it is. I can't get enough.