subprocess

Today is International Blasphemy Day!  And I support what it stands for 100%.  Today is the (4 year I think?) anniversary of the Mohamed comic that outraged many Muslims.  This outrage over the blasphemy of depicting Mohamed in a cartoon erupted in to physical violence and death threats.  National Blasphemy Day was created to remember this ridiculous reaction to blasphemy and, I like to think, to help make a change in the world.

I already did a bunch of blasphemy the other day when I made it clear my feelings on Jesus.  I can’t really top that.  Even though it’s quite tame and no where near aggressive (which makes it quite ridiculous that I lost a friend over those very thoughts, or so he claims), my respect for others beliefs does stop me from going further.  But I can point out that you can substitute any of the following for “Jesus” in that list of 10 things I personally believe are better than Jesus.

I believe those things I listed are better than:

• Mohamed
• Yahweh
• Vishnu
• Flying Spaghetti Monster
• Zeus
• Buddha
• The Pope
• Mother Teresa
• The Universal Life Force Theta
• Mother Mary

There are many others, but I think that covers the big ones.  With a shout out to Zeus.

Did you know that it is illegal in many countries to commit blasphemy?

In Ireland, blasphemy is prohibited by the constitution and carries a maximum fine of €25,000. A controversial law was brought into law on 9 July 2009 making blasphemous libel a crime for material “that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of that religion; and he or she intends, by the publication of the matter concerned, to cause such outrage”.

And here is a few of my favorite forms of blasphemy:  humor!

Keyboard Cat Blasphemy!

Jesus and Mo

And one last link over to Mr. Deity!

That’s about it for me, I’m blasphemed out.

September 30th, 2009 | Tags: Religion | Category: Religion | Leave a comment

I read something earlier this week about how bias plays a bigger role in your decisions than you know.  It brought up a specific example of an experiment done, all with references and good stuff like that.  I thought it’d be fun to recreate the experiment.  But, you know, without all the proper science stuff.  Still, it was fun.

I set up two web based tests and had as many people as I could find try one or the other.

Here is test 1: http://subprocess.net/number_test

Eight out of the nine people I got to try it got it wrong.  Only one person got it right.  Examples of wrong answers I got:

• Each number has to be +2 the previous number
• All numbers have to be even and in order from low to high
• All numbers have to be + or – 2 of another number in the set, they can be in any order
• All numbers have to be even, order doesn’t matter

The answer?  If you haven’t figured it out yet: any three numbers makes a valid set.

So now I was curious… maybe it was just too hard to come to that conclusion?  So I made a second test: http://subprocess.net/number_test2.  Notice the only difference is the lack of examples of “valid sets”.

I only managed to find 4 people who hadn’t already been exposed to my first test.  All 4 of these people got the answer right.  Most said “all sets are valid”, which I took to mean “any set of three numbers is valid.”

I thought it was quite interesting.  The same exact script with the same exact instructions… but such amazing differences in results.  The only difference between the two: the first test pushes a bias on you with the “example valid sets”.

And this is an example of a bias being imposed on you.  Think of all the things you might be getting wrong because of a bias you yourself impose on you.

Send the first link to some friends, then send the second link to other friends.  See if you find the same thing and let me know.

September 26th, 2009 | Tags: geek, Science | Category: Science | Leave a comment

Inspired by a Facebook interaction, in which I was permanently self-censored by a friend, I have decided to do a list of ten things that I believe are better than Jesus.  I believe that there are many things better than Jesus.  You are free to disagree with me.  If you don’t agree with me, I don’t mind, and I will not cut you out of my life because you disagree with me.  In fact, many people on Facebook clearly do not agree with me and make it well known in their status updates that they think Jesus is awesome.

It is important that you know this, because it is who I am.  Just as non-Muslims can freely depict Mohamed in humorous political cartoons and Muslims should not care, Christians should understand that not everyone thinks Jesus is the best.

1. My wife, Jillian, is better than Jesus.
2. My kids, all four of them, are better than Jesus.
3. Brian Boitano is better than Jesus AND Santa Claus.
4. The Beatles are bigger and better than Jesus.
5. Natural Selection is better than Jesus.
6. The Big Bang Theory is better than Jesus.
7. Evolution is better than Jesus.
8. Batman is better than Jesus.
9. All of humanity is better than Jesus.
10. Friendship is better than Jesus.

So there you go, it’s 100% out in the open now.  No question about it: I don’t think much Jesus.  Sure, that’s mostly because I don’t believe in him as a god or even that he ever lived as a man.

So, go ahead and censor yourself from me if you can’t bare to be friends with someone who disagrees with you.

This post may seem a bit down, depressing and a bit rash.  That’s because it is…  a bit.  It may seem a bit out of character…  Sure, I’ve defended my atheistic morals and have written passionately against Intelligent Design and for equal rights.  But mostly, I’m pretty tame when it comes to talking directly about Jesus.  Because I do try to keep it respectful.

It is a bit of a downer because I’m feeling a bit down.  My friend who dumped me for Jesus was a good guy, although crazy at times.  We went through some interesting years together and I was always there for him, even when others turned him away.  I thought my friendship meant more to him than this, and I’m a bit disappointed to find out how little our history means to him.

Especially since the only damnable offense he can come up with, after I challenged him on the bullshit offenses he tried to use at first, is that I participated in a thread on my own Facebook profile about South Park’s Brian Boitano WWJD parody.  He can’t handle being friends with someone who thinks Jesus isn’t the best.

Really?  REALLY?

What a great way to belittle and spit on what I thought was our friendship.

He did make it clear though:  He doesn’t have a problem with me so much as he has a problem with what I say.  Yeah, once you figure out how that’s different, let me know.  What I say IS a large part of who I am.  You can’t have one and not the other.

/rant

September 21st, 2009 | Tags: athesm, facebook, Religion | Category: Rant | Comments (1)

Coming up soon, sometime in October I think (definitely a few months before the new  year), I celebrate my 10th year of rejecting the Christian God.  Some may think, “Why is that such a big deal?”  To me… it is a very big deal.  I took Christianity seriously.  I’m a bit obsessive.  If you know me, you may have laughed out loud at the words “a bit”.  So when I was a Christian, I didn’t fool around.  I prayed, I studied, and I tried to live/think as I figured a Christian should.  The difference in me, in what I think of myself, post-God is huge.

Today, while out grabbing some lunch, I was handed a card by an nice and calm old man.  It was the perfect example of what I’ve been reflecting on lately.

Truth is Not Relative

Skipping over the obvious flaws in what this card is selling: Seriously?  You want to claim that the “Truth” in the Bible is fully accurate, unchanging and relevant to today?  Including all 10 commandments?  OK, next time you work on the Sabbath I get to throw the first stone…

Oh, and “Man evolved from animals”?  Haha!  Seriously, you need to go read at least the basics of Evolution.

The parts of this card that made them relevant to my reflection on my life post-God are a bit disturbing:

• You do not know what is right and wrong. (Proverbs 21:2)
• You are sinful. (Romans 3:23)
• You alone are not worthy. (John 14:6)
• You are not a good person. (Matthew 19:17)

Quite a motivational message isn’t it?  And when I was a Christian I took it to heart.  I fully believed that I was flawed and incapable of improving beyond a certain point.  I was always going to be in need of a savior, for I am sinful, unworthy, ignorant and just not good enough.

There were several major points in my life when I broke down sobbing over sin.  Sin that hurt no one except an imaginary God.  I was always trying to follow what I believed was right and wrong based off my faith, not of my heart.  I was constantly trying to be who God wanted me to be, not who I was.  I clearly remember several emails I wrote to my best-email-pal ever, Melody.  In these emails I was distraught and confused…  Constantly feeling like I was two-faced.  One person on the outside that everyone knew, another on the inside that only a few knew.

So for me, to finally shed all my faith and be the good person I know I am, my 10 year anniversary of this transformation is important.  My life has been so much happier, so much more “blessed”, and so much more sane, ever since I ditched God.

1. Married a wonderful friend
2. Janelle – Daughter
3. Kincaid – Son
4. Travis – Son
5. River – Son
6. Most of the pregnancies were extremely difficult, yet each baby was born healthy and is healthy now
7. I have not gone a single day without work.  Surviving countless layoffs and actually being laid off twice

Would my life had gone the same path with God?  Hard to say.  But I can definitely tell you, these have been the best, happiest and most blessed 10 years of my life.  We did it all, Jillian and I, with no help from God.  We are good enough, we know in our hearts what is right/wrong and we are sin free.

August 20th, 2009 | Tags: atheism, Religion | Category: Religion | Leave a comment

So we all know of the homeopathic remedies. It’s a very out of date theory about how to properly heal our bodies when we’re ill. And we all (should) know that it’s all pseudoscience and bunk. Unfortunately many don’t… hopefully because they just haven’t looked in to the “science” behind this.

So, a quick refresher for you: Like cures like. This is called the “The Law of Similars”. Yes, you may have laughed out loud at that part, and I don’t blame you. Much like we have the law of gravity, this too is a law. What does it mean? Well… say you have a massive headache. To cure said headache, according to this “law”, you need to take something that is natural and causes a massive headache.

I know, I know… that’s just stupid! If it causes a massive headache it will just make your headache worse!

And you’re right! If you don’t dilute it first!

“The Law of Similars” only works if you dilute the agent in water. And when I say dilute… holy crap… not just like the dilution you do to concentrated frozen orange juice. Imagine dropping that frozen orange juice in one of Michigan’s Great Lakes and then you’ll be closer to just HOW diluted homeopathy requires.

You see, once you dilute it to the point that not even 1 atom of the original agent is left in the water, then you get to the true power of the agent! Yes, once you remove all of it, you have it’s essence! And essence is what homeopathy is all about. Essence and like cures like.

But! This can’t only work in the one direction. If you take the essence of snake poison to cure a bite from a poisonous snake, then surely if you take the essence of something that is good for you, you can do great harm. GREAT harm.

And this is the dark side of Homeopathy! *dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuun*

These possibilities are so frightening. Since it’s diluted to the point that no science can detect that it’s anything more than water, it’s impossible to know exactly what is safe and what is not. And it’s impossible to use as evidence!

Date rape water

Warn your daughters: do not drink any untrusted water! The recipe for this drug is horribly easy: 1 small shaving of a caffeine pill to 10 gallons of water. The smaller the shaving the better! Make sure you dilute that shaving evenly amongst all 10 gallons of water.

Caffeine is known for causing alertness and for “waking” you up in the morning. So obviously the essence of caffeine will put you in to a deep deep sleep.

Feverish DEATH water

Again… the ingredients and steps used to mix up this horrific poison are far too easy to get a hold of. Ingredients: 1 small shaving of an asperin to 10 gallons of water. Again, the smaller the shaving the better.

This is a horrific way to go. Asperin is known to ease pain and reduce fevers. 1 full cup of this horrific poison and you will die a painful, feverish death.

Walk on Water water

Perhaps this is the way Jesus did it? Ingredients: 1 very small rock to 10 gallons of water.

You’re probably screaming: “very small rock!?” Well, hear me out on this. What floats on water? A Duck. Right. But what else did we learn from that brilliant medieval logic? VERY SMALL ROCKS were not the answer. Therefore the essence of very small rocks will bestow the power to float on water! Drink a cup, then amaze your friends.

FLYING potion

This one is a bit harder to make. You have to find a really heavy rock. One near your own weight. Then you’ll need to crunch this rock up (maybe with a sledge hammer? or a jackhammer?) in to a dust. Then dissolve this dust in enough water that not a single atom is actually present in the water any longer.

Since rocks fall the same way that you fall when you step off a cliff… Then taking the essence of these rocks should bestow upon you the power to fly!

Homeopathy: this is exciting and dangerous stuff!

July 18th, 2009 | Tags: humor, pseudoscience | Category: Science | Leave a comment

It seems to me that when people write critically of religion that people assume the author feels superior to theists.

I don’t think you’re stupid, if you believe in God. I don’t think I was stupid when I believed in God and prayed to him daily. In general, I don’t think that having faith is stupid. I think it’s important for some people to have faith and I think no less of them for having it.

Believing in God is all about faith. There is no evidence for a supernatural being. But at the same time, there’s no evidence against a supernatural being. Some people believe in God, some people believe in Fairies, some people believe in Santa Clause, and some people believe in multiple Gods. Since there is no evidence at all to support these beliefs, it takes faith. And I don’t think you’re stupid for having faith.

I liked the way Richard Dawkins explained what he means when he says he’s an atheist in his book “The God Delusion”: God is very improbable. He doesn’t believe 100% that a supernatural being does not exist. He just finds that God is very improbable. More improbable than an agnostic would admit.

So to him, an atheist is someone who finds God just as improbable as invisible pink unicorns. It’s not definite that neither exists, but it’s pretty safe to say they don’t. I agree with him much on this.

I greatly enjoyed those parts of “The God Delusion”. As he talked about the beauty and awesome power of non-random natural selection. He gets a bit radical towards the end when he declares that raising kids as a “Christian” or “Catholic” or “Jew” is child abuse…

So to claim that you are an atheist is to claim that God is improbable. No faith required. To claim that you are religious is to claim that God definitely exists. Much faith required.

Given all that… I do get passionate about a few things. But that passion has nothing to do with thinking less of religions.

I get passionate about defending atheist’s morals. I have encountered people who think that to be an atheist means you no longer have a reason to be a nice, moral, positive addition to society. If anything, I have become nicer and a more positive addition to society than when I was Christian.

I get passionate about equal rights. Yes, I do think it’s horribly mean and unjust of religion to try and socially hurt homosexuals as much as they can. Go ahead and declare that homosexuality isn’t for you because you disagree with it… but don’t hold that against the GLBT community and don’t fight against movements to grant them the rights they deserve.

I get passionate about education. My kids are entering the public school system and I want them to have a modern education in the science classroom. So I get passionate about a few things…

The Earth/Universe is old and should be taught that way. This isn’t simply a “guesstimate”, multiple areas of science have independently came to the same conclusion. To disagree with the Earth and Universe being billions of years old is to ignore a freaking ton of evidence. Again, this is where faith is required. If you believe the Earth/Universe is young, you believe that on FAITH. And that’s fine, go ahead. Just admit that it’s faith and keep it out of the science classrooms.

Evolution is true. It has been said “nothing makes sense in modern biology without evolution”. It is both a fact and a scientific theory. It needs to be taught in science classes. The fact is that humans have slowly evolved in to what we are now. The scientific theory is the best explanation (”natural selection” – that is testable and has been tested) for how humans have evolved in to what we are now.

If there were valid evidence against an old earth/universe or evolution… Scientists would gladly change their thoughts. Such evidence would be accepted with open arms and praised by scientists worldwide for proving them wrong. Scientists like it when they’re proven wrong.

So to believe that evolution is false takes faith. And I’m OK with that, go ahead and believe (with faith) that evolution is wrong. Just admit that it’s faith and stop trying to get the public schools to agree with your faith.

So I hope that clears any misconceptions up. I respect your faith and do not think less of you for having it. Just don’t attack atheists for having no morals, and keep your faith to yourselves. Just as someone with Christian faith wouldn’t want someone with Muslim faith forcing their faith on them, they should not force their faith on others.

I do not think having faith is stupid. It’s just not for me anymore and I have strong beliefs that your own personal faith should be just that… yours and personal.

It is true that I also think that the world just might be better off without religion. I highly doubt it’d be any worse. But I recognize that a world with no religion is a long long long… LONG way off. And I don’t think the typical religious person (I’m thinking of just about all the Christians/Catholics/Jews I have known and I am still good friends with) are holding the world back. I’m thinking of the extremes, the militant. Faith inspires some to do crazy things like suicide mass murder missions, or to carry out “justice” with their own two hands and murder an individual. Would 9/11 had happened if there was no religion? With no promise of eternal bliss to the terrorists for striking down sinful America? I personally don’t think so.

July 9th, 2009 | Tags: atheism | Category: atheism | Comments (5)

I present to you for your own reference, the top 10 most frequently asked questions to me. Please consult this list before asking me a question from now on, it will speed things up:

Q1. Would like to help save the environment?
A1. Nope.

Q2. Denver Voice, help the homeless?
A2. No.

Q3. Room for cream?
A3. Yes, please.

Q4. Would you like cream and sugar with that?
A4. No thanks. But leave some room at the top.

Q5. Steak with green?
A5. Please!

Q6. Spare some change?
A6. Change comes from within.

Q7. What’s for dinner?
A7. Tonight it’s broiled cajuny tilapia with buttered noodles and buttered steamed broccoli.

Q8. Did you submit your timecard?
A8. CRAP! No, I didn’t.

Q9. What’s the weather?
A9. It will be hot today, so you can wear short sleeves and shorts if you want.

Q10. How are you?
A10. Doing well. Except for some reason I keep losing hearing in my right ear, then it aches for a few days, and then it’s back to normal. I should probably see a doctor about that.

Also, a freebie: Typing a blog post on a blackberry pearl can be very annoying.

July 2nd, 2009 | Tags: humor | Category: humor | Leave a comment

So, the interview with the colleague of Tiller made it sound to me like they only accepted patients for late term abortion if the baby was not going to live or if giving birth would kill or cripple the mother.

Turns out they also did late term abortions because of “mental anguish”? If that is so, then no, I do not support that. There is no circumstance imaginable where mental anguish from giving birth to a baby would be crippling to the mother.

Jillian also brought up a point. It is pretty darn near impossible to get to the late term with a pregnancy that could seriously hurt the mother. With even basic prenatal care, the assumption is that any complications that would risk the mothers life would be found much much much earlier than “late term”.

In that case… the question becomes: if the mother neglected to get proper care early in the pregnancy, should she be allowed to terminate the pregnancy in the late term in order to spare her self a crippling/fatal injury.

My gut tells me no, it’s her fault for choosing not to get prenatal care. But I’m sure there’s probably some hypothetical situation where it was not the mother’s fault. It doesn’t seem to me that there could be a straight answer to this. It’s never going to be 100% OK in all cases or 100% not OK in all cases. Almost feels like it should be a case by case decision.

So, I have no answer. But if people are getting proper prenatal care, it shouldn’t be a big issue.

June 6th, 2009 | Tags: Politics | Category: Politics | Comments (2)

With the cold blooded murder of Tiller being in the news recently, I’ve thought a bit further on my own views of abortion. I usually just say that I’m pro-life. But I think… maybe I’m not?

I hate that everyone tries to categorize people in to two groups. It feels like a “with us or against us” mentality in all that we do. Either you’re a republican or you’re a democrat. Either you’re liberal or you’re conservative. Either you’re pro-life or you’re pro-choice. Everyone wants everything to be black and white. But they forget about the grays.

Just as political opinion has a bit of a sliding scale, I think abortion rights views should too. And so I decided to try and determine where I sit between pro-life and pro-choice. Near the middle? Mostly pro-life? Mostly pro-choice? A little of one or the other?

And I failed. I’m really not sure.

I support what Tiller stood for. I know that he was going to trial over allegations that he did things beyond what he said he stood for. But, innocent until proven guilty. So I can say that I support what Tiller did at his clinic. Not what he allegedly did. I support what he and the various other doctors supporting him claim he did.

I saw an interview with his colleague who will most likely be taking over the practice. His colleague stressed that they perform late term abortions for only a handful of reasons. Things like: the baby is already dead, the baby has a condition that is not compatible with life, the pregnancy has a complication that threatens the mother’s life or a major function of her body. Not only do they have strict requirements for even beginning to talk about a late term abortion, they regularly and often turned mothers away. They determined that abortion was not medically needed and told mothers outright “no”.

Sure, there were some people who argued against him. They said things like, “I had a baby with a condition that was not compatible with life. I chose to give birth and the hours I had with my baby were wonderful and I’d do it again if I was in the same situation.” And good for her! But that doesn’t mean everyone is capable of dealing with the situation in that way. Everyone is different. The key words there are that she chose to give birth to a baby who would only live for a couple of hours.

So, I am for late term abortions, if there are medical reasons for it. Does that make me pro-choice? Some people would think so.

Also, I am for emergency contraception. People do stupid things in the heat of the moment. Especially when alcohol is involved. Or, there are cases of sexual assault. These moments are perfect for emergency contraception.

So there you go. I’m pro-life, except when you should be able to choose.

June 6th, 2009 | Tags: Politics | Category: Politics | Leave a comment