A while ago, a man who had been in a coma for 23 years "communicated" via a facilitator, and quacks jumped all over the situtation raving about how he had been conscious the entire time. Months later, people decided to test if it was just the facilitator doing the communicating and not the coma victim, and it turned out to be just that. The facilitator was doing all the communicating, and the brain-dead man in the coma had done nothing.
Source
Source's source
Monday, February 22, 2010
The Bible is true because
The Bible is true, because god said so, in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is true because god said so in the bible, which is god's word, which is true because god said so in the bible.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Accurate Manuscripts? So what?
One of the common arguments for the historicity of the Bible that apologists frequently use is that "We have hundreds of manuscripts of 'x' passage, therefore 'x' must be reliable, and it must have happened exactly as it was written in 'x'.
Unfortunately for the apologist, this is not how reality works. If we are to use this argument in another 2000 years time, and discover that we have millions of copies of Lord of the Rings, and that they are all in perfect agreement with each other about sequences of events and wording, are we then to assume that the events in Lord of the Rings actually happened as Tolkien wrote them? Before anyone mentions it, the events depicted in LotR are no more fantastical than events depicted in the Bible (both old and new testaments). Jesus walked on water, healed the sick, the NT talks about bodily resurrection of all believers (we're talking about skeletons and zombies here), Jesus died and came back to life (so did Gandalf kinda), people were turned into salt and entire cities were destroyed by fire from the sky, the walls of Jericho were knocked down by people playing trumpet, a burning tree talks, a snake talks, the entire world flooded.
I think you get the point.
It doesn't matter how accurate the various copies of a piece of fiction are when compared to each other, it's still fiction.
The battle of Troy no doubt really did happen, it was a real city. However, there is no reason for us to believe that it happened the way it was written in the Iliad. The same applies to most, if not all of the new testament. Some of the events possibly did happen, but the fantastical elements almost certainly did not occur, and most of the people described probably did not exist, or did not do what they were purported to have done.
Unfortunately for the apologist, this is not how reality works. If we are to use this argument in another 2000 years time, and discover that we have millions of copies of Lord of the Rings, and that they are all in perfect agreement with each other about sequences of events and wording, are we then to assume that the events in Lord of the Rings actually happened as Tolkien wrote them? Before anyone mentions it, the events depicted in LotR are no more fantastical than events depicted in the Bible (both old and new testaments). Jesus walked on water, healed the sick, the NT talks about bodily resurrection of all believers (we're talking about skeletons and zombies here), Jesus died and came back to life (so did Gandalf kinda), people were turned into salt and entire cities were destroyed by fire from the sky, the walls of Jericho were knocked down by people playing trumpet, a burning tree talks, a snake talks, the entire world flooded.
I think you get the point.
It doesn't matter how accurate the various copies of a piece of fiction are when compared to each other, it's still fiction.
The battle of Troy no doubt really did happen, it was a real city. However, there is no reason for us to believe that it happened the way it was written in the Iliad. The same applies to most, if not all of the new testament. Some of the events possibly did happen, but the fantastical elements almost certainly did not occur, and most of the people described probably did not exist, or did not do what they were purported to have done.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Fundie Quotes 2
Quote# 70371 is an exceptional example of complete and utter idiocy. It comes from none other than our enlightened friends at AiG
Source Original Source
Quote# 70078, From 'Rapture in the Air'. This is a prime example of someone who thinks they are saying something nice, yet fails to realise how condescending and pugnacious they are being.
Source Original Source
1. If the Bible were not true, logic would not be meaningful. 2. Logic is meaningful. 3. Therefore, the Bible is true.
Source Original Source
Quote# 70078, From 'Rapture in the Air'. This is a prime example of someone who thinks they are saying something nice, yet fails to realise how condescending and pugnacious they are being.
God is using the Disaster in Haiti for his Glory!!! Hallelujah!!!!
I can see this disaster in Haiti being used for Gods glory because I heard from a pastor in Haiti how the people were so poor there they had to eat mud pies now with this disaster the poor people are getting nutritious food they need from all the help they are getting now.
God sure does work in mysterious ways and what the enemy [Satan] used for evil God is now turning around for good and his glory!!!
Praise be to God Almighty how he can turn a disaster into a miracle for the poor people of Haiti!!!
God is so good!!!
Source Original Source
Saturday, February 13, 2010
The List of Steves
The National Center for Science Education has compiled a list of reputable scientists....
Wait for it...
....
called Steve.
The point of the list I imagine is to make fun of the frequent attempt by Intelligent-Design proponents to compile lists of "scientists" who support ID. It is worthy to note that the List of Steves is far more substantial and impressive than any list of ID 'scientists', and they are much more qualified too.
Wait for it...
....
called Steve.
The point of the list I imagine is to make fun of the frequent attempt by Intelligent-Design proponents to compile lists of "scientists" who support ID. It is worthy to note that the List of Steves is far more substantial and impressive than any list of ID 'scientists', and they are much more qualified too.
NASA's Latest Expedition to the Sun
On the 11th of February, NASA launched their Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which is going to be taking thousands of images every day of the sun, in order for scientists to study the sun in more detail than we've ever been able to do before. SDO is supposed to send back 1.5 TB of data every day, composed entirely of footage of the sun, that's more than both my HDD's combined!!! Every day!!!
We might not see the results of this mission for months, but it is certainly something to look forward to.
Source
We might not see the results of this mission for months, but it is certainly something to look forward to.
Source
The Palins
Sarah Palin, claiming the moral high ground, criticized Rahm Emanuel for calling liberals retarded. Obviously liberals as a whole are not retarded, but that is completely beside the point.
She criticized him for it, only because she has a child who was born with down syndrome.
She named her child that was born with down syndrome Trig.
One of the medical names for Down syndrome is Trisomy G.
Trisomy G.
Tri G.
Trig.
Sarah Palin, names her child after after a disease that he suffers from.
Imagine calling a child who was born with a cleft palate, Cleffy, or Clefate.
How about a child born with Spina bifida, Spia, or Spida?
You get the point. This "hockey mom" from Alaska, who thinks that the earth is 6000 years old, that people lived with dinosaurs, who can't remember her 3 main political points so she has to write them on her hand, who claims the moral high ground over other republicans. Named her child after a disease. She has something wrong with her brain.
She criticized him for it, only because she has a child who was born with down syndrome.
She named her child that was born with down syndrome Trig.
One of the medical names for Down syndrome is Trisomy G.
Trisomy G.
Tri G.
Trig.
Sarah Palin, names her child after after a disease that he suffers from.
Imagine calling a child who was born with a cleft palate, Cleffy, or Clefate.
How about a child born with Spina bifida, Spia, or Spida?
You get the point. This "hockey mom" from Alaska, who thinks that the earth is 6000 years old, that people lived with dinosaurs, who can't remember her 3 main political points so she has to write them on her hand, who claims the moral high ground over other republicans. Named her child after a disease. She has something wrong with her brain.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Straw-manning Abiogenesis
Creationists so often talk about how the origin of life is "so improbable" that it couldn't happen, and conclude that there must have been a creator. The will cite numbers like 1 chance in 2.04 x 10390 to form the simplest life forms by "random chance". They make several errors in their so called 'refutations' of abiogenesis, some of them probably intentionally. Essentially, they grossly misrepresent Abiogenesis theory, I'll show you a diagram from Talk Origins to explain the difference between the creationist straw-man and actual abiogenesis theory.This simplified diagram is missing several small steps between the hypercycle and protobiont stages too. A common analogy that creationists use is that "A tornado ripping through a scrap-metal yard couldn't possibly produce a 747". As you can see from this diagram, this is an obscene oversimplification of the theory, and only goes to show that they do not understand anything about science, or that they are too dishonest to find out what science actually teaches.
For more information on this topic read the article on Talk Origins.
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