Archive for the ‘It’s a good thing that your god(s) die with you’ Category
Darwin and You, the Philosophy of Science
Posted by pwl on April 14, 2009
Posted in Biology, Charles Darwin, Complex Systems, Hard Science, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Religion, Science Education, Video | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Hitchens debates a delusional Paul Edwards
Posted by pwl on April 14, 2009
As the Hitchens points out Paul Edwards is evil precisely because he (Paul Edwards) embraces the notion of being a slave of “god” who will do whatever “god” tells him to do even if it’s committing murder and genocide because that’s what “god” might want. Since “anything is possible” with “god” “god” might want his slaves to commit murder and genocide and in fact the “bible” does advocate such actions in the name of “god” – thus it’s evil. Being a slave to “god” is to be evil because it removes your responsibility for your actions by deferring them to your imaginary super friend who ordered it or who forgives you.
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Posted in Awesome, Christopher Hitchens, Fun, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion, Scams, Video | Leave a Comment »
The Stagering Ignorant and The Insane who believe that the world is 10,000 years old or less
Posted by pwl on April 12, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Belief Stricken, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Rational Thinking, Religion, Richard Dawkins, Video | Leave a Comment »
My God Has A Hammer!
Posted by pwl on April 12, 2009
Posted in Baby that became Zombie Jesus, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Gravity, Hard Science, Human|Ape, Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion, Science over Propaganada, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
Yes of course, the resurrection of Jesus is a myth for the laws of Nature can’t be broken by anyone not even mythical figures or invisible friends
Posted by pwl on April 12, 2009
As anyone who knows anything about biology will tell you, dead bodies can’t rise from the dead once they have experienced brain death or their heart stops and their organs die. Sure in a modern medical hospital or with CPR a heart can sometimes be restarted, not as frequently as TV lets us believe, but ~2008 years ago they didn’t know about CPR or have emergency rooms anywhere on the planet!
Nature is a harsh mistress which is to say that not even a man named Jesus can rise from the dead once his brain stopped it’s biological processes, once his heart stopped, once his organs stopped. Also, three days of rotting would also prevent him from looking good.
So enjoy your myth with the sure and certain knowledge backed up by the biological sciences of cold hard objective reality, Jesus’s resurrection is a myth and nothing more.
The purpose of the myth is to get you to suspend your rational thinking process so that you can be a good member of the flock and bow down to the cult of the church or congregation. The purpose of the myth is to compromise your thinking process so much so that you can be controlled by the leaders of the cult who desire to take advantage of your gullibility.
The purpose of the Resurrection of Jesus Myth is to suck you into their death after life cult and all that it entails.
Posted in Baby that became Zombie Jesus, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Conspiracy Theory, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Health, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Philosophy, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion, Scams, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Total Control Over Our Lives, Video, Yeah Right, Yikes!, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
Take no thought for tomorrow – the teaching of Jesus
Posted by pwl on April 12, 2009
Posted in Bad Ideas, Belief Stricken, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Philosophy, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Religion, Scams, Science over Propaganada, Some Intelligent Designer, Video, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
The Wall of Separation Between Politics and Religion protects us all from the idiocy and insanity of the religious
Posted by pwl on April 10, 2009
Posted in Big Brother Planetary Control System, Christopher Hitchens, Human|Ape, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Politics, Religion, Video | Leave a Comment »
Conventional vs Alternative Medicine
Posted by pwl on April 4, 2009
Posted in Bad Ideas, Bad Science, Belief Stricken, Biology, Business, Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Health, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Philosophy, Politics, Proofs, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Scams, Science Education, Science Info Educational Videos, Video, Yikes! | Leave a Comment »
Sorry Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Piccard no Warp Drives Allowed in Nature
Posted by pwl on April 3, 2009
Warp drives have been the focus of science fiction writers for decades. But scientists kept them at arms length until 1994 when the idea was put on a firm (ish) theoretical footing by the Mexican physicist, Michael Alcubierre. His thinking is that while relativity prevents faster-than-light travel relative to the fabric of space time, it places no restriction on the speed at which regions of spacetime may move relative to each other.
Yes, imagination is wonderful. Nature is beautifully harsh though.
… Physicists have long wondered what would happen if you threw quantum mechanics into the mix? … They … studied a property of a quantum field called the renormalised stress-energy tensor which should be well-behaved under normal circumstances. But in the front wall of Alcubierre’s bubble travelling at superluminal speeds, the renormalised stress-energy tensor grows exponentially.
That strongly implies that such a bubble would be unstable. So it looks increasingly likely that, after a brief few years of excitement, Alcubierre’s warp drive is impossible.
To this someone replied:
When the word “impossibility” appears in discussions re science, I am always reminded of Arthur C. Clarke’s quote:“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.“
When “impossibility” is ignored and Arthur C. Clarke’s quotes start flying I’m always reminded of The Sagan Principle which states that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” which certainly applies to here and in general to FTL.
Do you object that Newton proves that it’s impossible given the Earth Moon System for a human being al natural to jump from the Earth to the Moon (without the aid of technology, aka space ships)? I gather that you’ll bring out Author’s old men quote for this case too. Gravity Sucks in so many ways, and one of those ways is in keeping you firmly within the Earth’s gravity well (unless you are one of the few to reach escape velocity doing the rest of us a favor).
The Fabric of Objective Reality sucks in so many ways. Not traveling faster than light is one of them.
Optimism or pessimism are both irrelevant to the Nature of Objective Reality. The Universe doesn’t care about us, as it doesn’t care at all about anything.
Each aspect of Nature, each Law of Nature that we learn is what is actually going on gives us insights into what is actually possible and what is impossible. Nature is the limiter not our imaginations. Clearly our imaginations run amok all the time (see Amok Time episode of Star Trek for an example of this).
When you willfully ignore hard earned scientific knowledge that can be tested, that has been tested, you might find yourself crossing into that no man’s land of fantasy and delusion. You are not alone as many if not most humans live their lives in the land of delusional fantasies that simply can’t be true given the harsh Laws of Nature, which are the very Laws of Nature that enable you to exist!
So be optimistic or pessimistic all you want. Nature is the final judge of what is possible and what is impossible. Not that Nature is an is. I choose to embrace Nature in all of it’s beauty and horror rather than have delusional fantasies about it. I save my fantasies for entertainment (like the upcoming FTL fantasy Star Trek movie out in about a month) and private relationships.
So enjoy your invisible friend of FTL all you want, just know that no matter how much you enjoy it your enjoyment won’t alter the Fabric of Nature one iota.
Posted in Bad Science, Complex Systems, Damn it!, Energy, Ethics in Science, Gravity, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Science Ficition, Space Travel, Yeah Right | Leave a Comment »
The Future Belongs to Science
Posted by pwl on March 31, 2009
Posted in Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Rational Thinking, Religion | Leave a Comment »
The Rationalists Test for Public Office: If you believe in Judgement Day I have to seriously question your jugement
Posted by pwl on March 31, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Bad Ideas, Belief Stricken, Bill Maher, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion | Leave a Comment »
Why Creationists and Other IDiots Get Laughed At and just don’t know why
Posted by pwl on March 31, 2009
A really great series of videos that hit back slicing and dicing the silly inane beliefs of creationists with hard hitting science. As someone with a sister and brother in law who are young earth rapture creationist preachers this series of videos is excellent potential deprogramming materials for the creationist delusional insanity. Enjoy.
These videos were made for the communal and greater good. All these videos are copyright free for educational purposes, feel free to mirror these videos with or without accreditation. Part of a series of videos exposing the funny stupidity of creationists and why they deserve to be laughed at. In each case the creationist statements are shown to be outrageously stupid by even the most rudimentary knowledge of science. Creationist are tackled at every level from the scientific illiterates like venomfangx who want to play in the scientific arena but don’t even understand the words they use, to convicted fraudsters like Kent Hovind who abuse the scientifical illiteracy of people like venomfangx to dupe them out of money. An enterprise which is clearly very successful as merely the tax Hovind didn’t pay was about a million dollars. Hovind himself has no discernible academic education, and gets by solely on using his confident delivery of scientific terms to convince his audiences that he knows what hes talking about. Then of course there are the professional such as the Discovery Institute, the hub and founders of the Intelligent design movement. After the humiliating rout of ID in court where it was found that ‘ID is not science’, and that ‘ID is only a relabelling of creationism’ the Discovery Institute do not utter the word once in their latest promotional video. Instead they now have decided to ‘teach the controversy’ which is an irony as they are the only people who disagree with evolution. What they are really asking is not to teach the controversy, but to teach their views, which are supported by neither research or evidence, in schools.
Any video with nuclear explosions gets headlined on the first page and has my blessing!
Many more parts follow!
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Posted in Awesome, Bad Ideas, Bad Science, Belief Stricken, Biology, Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Really Funny, Religion, Science Education, Science over Propaganada | Leave a Comment »
Ayn Rand, Objectivism and Modern Physics – some thoughts
Posted by pwl on March 30, 2009
From my perspective.
I find Ayn Rand’s writing and films quite boring and dry although parts can be fascinating.
What is clear however is the notion of objective reality as distinct from ourselves. While this isn’t an idea original to Rand it’s the key notion in her objectivism that forms the foundation for the rest which can be taken or cast aside.
The three core axioms of Existence, Consciousness and Identity are irreducible. And again these ideas are not original to Rand.
Yet the combination of these ideas and others is unique to Rand and that is her value to humanity.
Posted in Awesome, Belief Stricken, Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Gravity, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Philosophy, Science Education | 3 Comments »
A Big Win for Actual Science and Science Education
Posted by pwl on March 29, 2009
As seen on Slashdot dot org in “Mixed Outcome of Texas Textbook Vote”:.
“The not-so-good news is that in a “compromise,” the board also voted to require that students “in all fields of science, analyze, evaluate and critique scientific explanations… including examining all sides of scientific evidence of those scientific explanations, so as to encourage critical thinking by the student.”
Excellent! Science is all about the pursuit of the truth of objective reality. Every assumption needs to be questioned otherwise it’s not science but rather it’s dogma if you’re not allowed to question the science.
“Score one for the Discovery Institute.”
Utter NONSENSE. These and other anti-science and anti-science-education crowds LOST in Texas: Discovery Institute, Intelligent Designer proponents, Creationists, Religionists, Our-Science-is-Correct-and-we-Don’t-Have-to-Prove-It-And-If-You-Ask-Questions-You’re-Automatically-A-Denier and Delusionals of all sorts had a huge loss.
Asking questions leads people to give up their delusions if they get the power of asking questions. Sure some imaginary friend delusionals will use that to attempt to push their religious agenda but in the end what will happen is that the battle ground shifts to critical thinking skills where it belongs!
Sharpen your pencils girls and boys and get ready to educate people who don’t know about science, about your field of science, in the ways and means of science, the scientific method and critical thinking skills.
The fostering of asking questions and learning to think that my Roman Catholic parents encouraged in me helped me deprogram their attempts to bring me into their faith. Thank ERG (pardon the expression) for all those science books at home and at school.
Without getting the power of critical thinking anyone is lost in today’s world of magical claims, weird fake science, television, government, bogus medical claims, con men of all kinds, parents, friends and family who are constantly attempting to pull you into their delusions.
Every CULTure you interact with has it’s own delusions and often those are the very ones that people use to justify their killing of others one way or the other. Do you even know how many different CULTureS you’re embedded within? How many? How can you tell? What are the beliefs of your CULTure? How do they blind you?
The Human Belief Engine we call the brain-mind is the culprit not what is in a book and the sooner that people realize that the better. Critical thinking skills are the only path to knowledge devoid of delusions, or at least with minimized delusions, about objective reality.
“According to Peirce’s doctrine of fallibilism, the conclusions of science are always tentative. The rationality of the scientific method does not depend on the certainty of its conclusions, but on its self-corrective character: by continued application of the method science can detect and correct its own mistakes, and thus eventually lead to the discovery of truth”.
A guiding principle for accepting claims of catastrophic global events, miracles, incredible healing, invisible friends, or _fill_in_the_blank_ is:
“extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” – Carl Sagan
Sagan’s Principle applies to ALL FIELDS OF SCIENCE as well as ALL wacko claims by non-scientists. To say differently is to assert that any part of science should not be questioned! Asking questions is the fundamental core of science.
“Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.” – Alfred Korzybski
“Science is a search for basic truths about the Universe, a search which develops statements that appear to describe how the Universe works, but which are subject to correction, revision, adjustment, or even outright rejection, upon the presentation of better or conflicting evidence.” – James Randi
Posted in Awesome, Belief Stricken, Believe it or your a denier!, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science, Hard Science Required, History, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Politics, Proofs Needed, Religion, Science Education, Total Control Over Our Lives, Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! | Leave a Comment »
Chololate Egg Time Again
Posted by pwl on March 29, 2009
Thanks again for your insight Jesus and Mo.
Posted in Baby that became Zombie Jesus, Bad Ideas, Belief Stricken, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Fun, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Really Funny, Religion, Some Intelligent Designer, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
The Last Man on Earth
Posted by pwl on March 27, 2009
Get your popcorn, pull up a chair, press full screen and play! Enjoy this full feature film with Vincent Price in his full glory!
The Last Man on Earth (Italian title: L’Ultimo uomo della Terra) is a 1964 Italian horror/science fiction film based upon the Richard Matheson novel I Am Legend. The film was directed by Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow, and starred Vincent Price. The script was written in part by Matheson, but he was dissatisfied with the result and was therefore credited as “Logan Swanson”. William Leicester, Furio M. Monetti, and Ubaldo Ragona were the other writers.
It was filmed in Rome, Italy, and was later released theatrically in the United States by American International Pictures. It has since fallen into the public domain.
…
In the year 1968, every day is the same for Dr. Robert Morgan (Vincent Price). He wakes up, gathers his weapons and then literally goes vampire hunting. Morgan lives in a world where everyone else has been infected by a new disease that turns them into vampire-like creatures. They cannot stand sunlight, fear mirrors, and are repelled by garlic. They would kill Morgan if they could, but fortunately, they are weak and not too smart. At night, Morgan locks himself inside his house listening to jazz on the hi-fi, and in the morning, he kills as many vampires as he can, destroying the bodies.
Posted in Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Double Yikes!!, Film, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Religion, Science Ficition, The End is Nigh, The Sky Is Falling, Waste Management, Yikes!, Zombies | Leave a Comment »
James Randi, a career of debunking the scammers and the delusionals and all manner of their invisible friends and con games they play
Posted by pwl on March 25, 2009
Posted in Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, James Randi, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proofs Needed, Science Education, Video | Leave a Comment »
Hitchen’s polishes off a few topics
Posted by pwl on March 22, 2009
Posted in Belief Stricken, Christopher Hitchens, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, Politics, Religion, Total Control Over Our Lives | Leave a Comment »
Religion Masquerading as Sci Fi, a Knowing CONversion Attempt using Religo Sly-Fi Tactics
Posted by pwl on March 22, 2009
SPOILER ALERT details revealed.
The film Knowing pretends that it’s Science Fiction yet is a full on brain injection of the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Arc and the Rapture with a twist which is that “aliens” aka “angels” steal away, well invite away, a small number of human children in a Noah’s Arc and take them to a new planet to start humanity again, a lush Eden with a giant white Tree of Life. Rabbits are along for the ride to show the kiddies how it’s done. Yes, that’s it.
Posted in Bad Science, Biology, Climate Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Film, Fun, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Religio Sly-Fi, Religion, Science Ficition, Space Travel, TerrorForming Earth, The End is Nigh, The Ground is Falling Up!, The Sky Is Falling, UFO Proof, Video, Yeah Right, Yikes!, Zombie Jesus | 1 Comment »
What are you doing?
Posted by pwl on March 21, 2009
As a woman passed her daughter’s closed bedroom door, she heard a strange buzzing noise coming from within. Opening the door, she observed her daughter with a vibrator.
Shocked, she asked: ‘what in the world are you doing?’
The daughter replied: ‘mom, I’m thirty-five years old, unmarried, and this thing is about as close as I’ll ever get to a husband. Please, go away and leave me alone.’
The next day, the girl’s father heard the same buzz coming from the other side of the closed bedroom door. Upon entering the room, he observed his daughter making passionate love to her vibrator.
To his query as to what she was doing, the daughter said: ‘dad I’m thirty-five, unmarried, and this thing is about as close as I’ll ever get to a husband. Please, go away and leave me alone.’
A couple days later, the wife came home from a shopping trip, placed the groceries on the kitchen counter, and heard that buzzing noise coming from, of all places, the living room. She entered that area and observed her husband sitting on the couch, downing a cold beer, and staring at the TV.
The vibrator was next to him on the couch, buzzing like crazy.
The wife asked: ‘What are you doing?’
Posted in Biology, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Fun, Health, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, Quotations, Really Funny, Sex | Leave a Comment »
The Stuff of Thought – If I held you any closer I’d be on the other side of you!
Posted by pwl on March 21, 2009
This is one of the most fascinating books that I’ve ever read, along with Society of Mind by Minsky, A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram, Science and Sanity by Alfred Korzybski, Frogs into Princes by Richard Bandler, and of course, R. Buckminster Fuller’s Synergetics. Earth shattering! Not only is the author, Steven Pinker, an eloquent writer he brings this same quality into his speaking.
Renowned linguist Steven Pinker speaks at Google’s Mountain View, CA, headquarters about his book “The Stuff of Thought.” This event took place on September 24, 2007, as part of the Authors@Google series.
New York Times Bestseller
Amazon.com Editors’ Picks: Best Science Books of 2007
Choice: Outstanding Academic Titles of 2008“A display of fiercely intricate intelligence and nobody with the least interest in language should miss reading it.”-The Times (London)
“Curious, inventive, fearless, naughty.” -New York Times
“Packed with information, clear, witty, attractively written, and generally persuasive.” -Colin McGinn, New York Review of BooksThe Stuff of Thought is a revelation. In this exhilarating new book, Steven Pinker analyzes how our words relate to thoughts and to the world around us and reveals what this tells us about ourselves.
How does a mind that evolved to think about rocks and plants and enemies think about love and physics and democracy? Why do we threaten and bribe and seduce in such elaborate, often comical ways? How can a choice of metaphors start a war, impeach a president, or win an election? Why do people impose taboos on topics like sex, excretion, and the divine? What does the peculiar syntax of swearing (just what does the “fuck” in “fuck you” actually mean?) tell us about ourselves? Why do some names thrive while others fall out of circulation? How do we control the amount of information that we absorb? And what good does this actually do us? Pinker answers all these questions and many, many more. He shows us that language really can tell us unexpected and fascinating things about ourselves.
The Stuff of Thought is a book for everyone. Steven Pinker has devoted his life to studying the way we think and communicate. And language, in his hands, becomes a profound, and highly entertaining, way to shed light on every aspect of human nature.
Posted in books, Complex Systems, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, Science Education, Steven Pinker, Video | Leave a Comment »
When we talk about higher human mental faculties we have to become mystics for some reason
Posted by pwl on March 21, 2009
For the past forty years Noam Chomsky’s writings on politics and language have established him as a preeminent public intellectual and as one of the most original and wide-ranging political and social critics of our time. Among the seminal figures in linguistic theory over the past century, since the 1960s Chomsky has also secured a place as perhaps the leading dissident voice in the United States.
Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor emeritus of linguistics at MIT and the author of numerous books including Chomsky vs. Foucault: A Debate on Human Nature, On Language, Objectivity and Liberal Scholarship, and Towards a New Cold War (all published by The New Press). He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Posted in Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Video | Leave a Comment »
TRUTH, FAITH AND REASON
Posted by pwl on March 19, 2009
TRUTH, FAITH AND REASON: POPE BENEDICT XVI’S LECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF REGENSBURG
By Gerald E. Marsh
The Stupid Delusionals with Invisible Friends, it burns. Cartoon by Plognark dot com - Thanks...
Pope Benedict XVI interleaved two themes in his lecture at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006.1 These will be discussed here in two separate parts: Truth, Faith, and Reason and The Dialogue of Cultures. The first addresses the Pope’s proposal to expand scientific reasoning to include the “rationality of faith”; and the second with the threat of radical Islam, and whether a “dialogue of cultures” is possible if the West persists in its belief in what the Pope calls a “reason which is deaf to the divine”.
PART ONE: TRUTH, FAITH AND REASON The essence of the Enlightenment, as put by Isaiah Berlin in his essay The Counter-Enlightenment, “is the proclamation of the autonomy of reason and the methods of the natural sciences, based on observation as the sole reliable method of knowledge, and the consequent rejection of the authority of revelation, sacred writings and their accepted interpreters, tradition, prescription, and every form of non-rational and transcendent source of knowledge”. Notice that Berlin does not say that this approach is the sole method of obtaining knowledge, only that it is the sole reliable method, meaning that knowledge obtained in this way can be confirmed by experiment. This form of knowledge is increasingly coming into conflict with beliefs based on divine revelation.
Knowledge based on reason and the methods of natural science is threatening to many of those who hold conventional religious beliefs because the implications of such knowledge raise the fear that their lives may lose meaning and direction, and that they will no longer have an ethical basis for behavior. They especially abhor a future bereft of personal immortality. If the origin of life, and humanity in particular, has a natural explanation, how can one believe in the immortal soul, or that humanity is central to God’s creation? Belief in the findings of science about our origins will not only destroy the creation myths of humanity, but will also force the acceptance of the proposition that impersonal and indifferent forces were behind its creation, along with that of all other living creatures.
Posted in Belief Stricken, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Complex Systems, Double Yikes!!, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Hard Science Required, History, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Politics, Religion, Science Education, Yikes!, Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! | Leave a Comment »
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die
Posted by pwl on March 18, 2009
This evenings full feature entertainment. Enjoy. Get some popcorn, a drink. Sit back and press play and full screen and enjoy. The lines are beyond fantastic into the realm of classic. 72 minutes.
The Brain that Wouldn't Die
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die, also known as The Head That Wouldn’t Die, is a 1962 science-fiction/horror film directed by Joseph Green and written by Green and Rex Carlton. The film was actually produced and completed in 1959, but was not released until three years later. A scientist develops a means to keep human body parts alive. When he unexpectedly must use his discovery on someone close to him, events do not go as planned.
This film has fallen into the public domain and can be freely downloaded from the Internet Archive. A gaffe during the end titles lists the film’s name as “The Head That Wouldn’t Die.”
Posted in Film, Fun, Human|Ape, Ick!, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Live Brains!, Science Ficition, Terrorfying, Video, Zombies | 1 Comment »
Moral Atheists – No need for invisible friends (gods) for morals
Posted by pwl on March 18, 2009
Posted in Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Religion, Video | Leave a Comment »
Defamation of Humanity by Religion
Posted by pwl on March 18, 2009
Posted in Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Religion, Video | Leave a Comment »
We’re some kind of Intelligent Desinger Phd Student Experiment?
Posted by pwl on March 14, 2009
Michael Ruse vs William Dembski on intelligent design. For more information read: “Debating Design” with essays demonstrating the intellectual hollownes of intelligent design.
“Are you seriously suggesting that we’re some sort of lab experiment of some alien phd student?” ~ Michael Ruse
When you make the argument that Life and even the Universe were created by an Intelligent Designer (aka god or gods or your invisible friend) you are making an assertion that a complex being designed us lesser beings and the Universe. This of course begs the question, “who designed the Intelligent Designer?” Until you can answer that you’re simply using your hand on your private parts for self gratification. No serious discussion can really proceed until that question is addressed.
Posted in Bad Ideas, Belief Stricken, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Religion, Science Education, Video, Yikes!, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
