Indistinguishable from fiction

29 June 2009 by lolife
Filed under Atheism + Religion

When we see thinking that is wrong we have to say, in the kindest and most helpful tone possible, perhaps, that it is wrong. For example, the earth is roughly 4 billion years old. If someone wants to claim it is 10,000 years old, they need to be told they are wrong. The writings of superstitious Bronze Age mystics can’t be taken as credible evidence for such a theory given the overwhelming evidence for a very old earth. The two theories are unequal by a long shot.

When I dismiss the Bible as “the writings of superstitious Bronze Age mystics” I am not trying to be disrespectful, I’m trying to be accurate. A depiction of the authors of the Bible as holy men in direct contact with god is fanciful in any rational sense. The same is true with the notions of heaven, hell, original sin, divine conception, resurrection, Doom’s Day, and so on. They are indistinguishable from fiction. None of it meets any of the standards that we have for considering something “believable”. Every religion has as much direct evidence as the ancient Greeks and Romans had for Zeus and Venus. I’m not trying to be unkind, I’m stating an obvious fact.

But I recognize that this fact still befuddles many people. They believe in god and they believe in an afterlife and they are not at all ready to listen to what I’m saying. That’s fine. I’m not on a mission of conversion. I think it is important that people think rationally — religion is a corruption of the mind in this sense. It helps keep the door open to dogmatic, arbitrary and wholly unsupported thinking. Furthermore, such beliefs are considered to be “off the table”. Under the guise of respect we treat fanciful mythology as perfectly acceptable.

Why? The more you think about it the more it boggles the mind.

I must add my standard atheist disclaimer: I don’t know if there is a god or not and I don’t know what happens when you die. I’ve calculated the odds of each and found the likelihood vanishingly small. My calculation is subject to change. There is no faith in my position.

(This started as a comment.)

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Fascinating debate

24 June 2009 by lolife
Filed under Atheism

Two atheists, one, Sam Harris, a rather hardline but rational fellow and the other, Philip Ball, an “accommodationists” (at least in the view of PZ) are going at it and it is a pretty fascinating read.

Ball is arguing that it is folly to outright dismiss religious thinking as incompatible with science. He thinks that religion is here to stay and deeply ingrained and that we have to strive for peaceful coexistence. Harris on the other hand, similar to my last few blog posts, thinks that religion is a dangerous mindset that should be taken head-on.

I agree with them both. I agree more with Sam Harris but I am keenly aware of the difficulties surrounding (what appears to be) attacks on people’s sacred beliefs. Even though I think all of our beliefs are fair game, in a sense, many people feel they never have to defend their religious beliefs. So any “attack” (and by that I mean a debate of ideas) is seen as hostile. That undermines our argument if our goal is to convince people to open their minds to our ideas.

Each of these guys had a great quote (among others) that I thought was worth sharing. Sam Harris describes Christianity accurately but severely:

Jesus Christ, a carpenter by trade, was born of a virgin, ritually murdered as a scapegoat for the collective sins of his species, and then resurrected from death after an interval of three days. He promptly ascended, bodily, to “heaven”—where, for two millennia, he has eavesdropped upon (and, on occasion, even answered) the simultaneous prayers of billions of beleaguered human beings. Not content to maintain this numinous arrangement indefinitely, this invisible carpenter will one day return to earth to judge humanity for its sexual indiscretions and sceptical doubts, at which time he will grant immortality to anyone who has had the good fortune to be convinced, on Mother’s knee, that this baffling litany of miracles is the most important series of truth-claims ever revealed about the cosmos. Every other member of our species, past and present, from Cleopatra to Einstein, no matter what his or her terrestrial accomplishments, will (probably) be consigned to a fiery hell for all eternity.

On Mr. Ball’s account, there is nothing in the scientific worldview, or in the intellectual rigor and self-criticism that gave rise to it, that casts such convictions in an unfavorable light.

Ball, who I agree with in the sense I described above, is a bit desperate and outmatched, I think, but he does sum up a view of agnostics that is well said:

I share your view that many of the alleged ‘facts’ that comprise most religious belief – the existence of a deity (or deities), that deity’s capacity to intervene in the world in supernatural ways, the whole paraphernalia of miracles, afterlife, saints, sin, absolution, virgin births, resurrections – are not just outside of science but fundamentally incompatible with a scientific view of the world. And while some agnostics might insist that we cannot ‘know’ that a god does not exist, this does not compel us to give the ‘for’ and ‘against’ possibilities equal weight. We shouldn’t imagine things into being without good reason to do so.

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Science is god

16 June 2009 by lolife
Filed under Atheism + Science

Yes, yes, yes! I’ve had a revelation of sorts. It’s based on one core concept: that the progress we’ve made in this world is based almost solely on science. Literally, and I mean that in the literal sense, everything we have and enjoy and cherish is given to us by science. 2/3 of your kids would be dead without science. We wouldn’t have the internet or medicine or mobile phones or DVDs to watch. We wouldn’t live in nice little neighborhoods with unlocked doors. Science has pulled us out of the muck and given us the chance to be civilized and socialized. It’s the most important thing in the world.

Yes, of course, science if flawed. It’s wrong a lot and it’s political and manned by humans so as fallible as all of us are. But it is science itself which finds and fixes the errors and scientists and their students who invent the things that become the life-enriching advances of the future. Science, as Carl Sagan said, is a candle in the dark.

And yet this most proven and successful enterprise in human history, that provides the very foundation of all that we do, giving us literally life itself, is the enemy to some! And to others it is merely just one other view, equal to all other views, including the uninformed ravings of astrologers and clergymen.

Science is under attack by people with an agenda that is mystical in nature. They are religious people, “New Age” people, “woo” medicine peddlers and other op-ed nut cases. They demean science and applaud quackery and they lead us away from the mindset which has given us everything we have.

Atheism is the natural worldview of the scientific mind. Oh, I know, many great scientists were theists. Religion is the last stand of mysticism and superstition in human psychology. But it’s not turtles all the way down, we are not special creatures destined to be cuddled by a friendly superbeing in heavenly comfort and nothing lasts forever, not even the universe. It is incredibly arrogant to think that we alone are eternal and happily reunited with our loved ones forever. It’s nonsense. There is no spoon. It is quite peaceful once you accept it.

Be here now.

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Why I’m happy you are an atheist

11 June 2009 by lolife
Filed under Atheism

The reason I enjoy seeing the ranks of atheism grow is because I think there is still way too much superstition in the world. If you take all the religious activity and then add in ridiculous crap like astrology, psychics, Tarot, “woo”, pseudo-science, etc., etc., it adds up to a shit ton of wrong and dangerous thinking. The less of that the better. While atheists are no better and no worse than other people in other respects, when it comes to critical thinking, they outperform the average and then some.

Religion is a gateway drug to an arbitrary and dogmatic world view that tangibly hurts us day after day in countless issues from birth control to foreign policy.

The only reason we talk about atheism at all is because we are a society ridiculously soaked in religion. In many parts of the US it is just assumed that you not only believe in god but that you are a Christian. In many Muslim countries the state and the church are the same thing. It’s practically or literally illegal to be an atheist. So yes, of course we talk about atheism. It’s important.

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What is a racist?

30 May 2009 by lolife
Filed under Politics

There is a lot of attention being given to this quote by Sonia Sotomayor:

A wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.

Do you think this is a racist quote? What is your definition of racist?

As usual, there is what she said and then 9 million interpretations of what she said. If you take her literally at her word, you’d take the meaning to mean “a Latina women has better judgment than a white male”. If you take the most unflattering and literal opinion, I do think you could call that a racist statement and I do think we would call a white male who said the opposite a racist.

But I think such an interpretation is wrong and out of context. She is talking about people who struggle as minorities compared to people in the majority who don’t face challenges related to racism or what I could call “economic racism” — considering certain people to be worthy of lower positions in the social hierarchy. I think people who have struggled economically and people who have faced the adversity of racism may very well have better judgment than someone lucky enough to have not faced those challenges.

Do I think she is a racist? Of course not.

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Sonia Sotomayor

27 May 2009 by lolife
Filed under Politics

I want to say this before I know more. Let’s evaluate her the same way we do everybody else. It’s gonna get rough. It should get rough. Hopefully people will be respectful and to the extent they are not, they should be ignored. If you search back on this blog, I was respectful to both Roberts and Alito.

I haven’t yet read up on the nominee herself or the views of her supporters or critics. But obviously I believe that the demographics of the judiciary should reflect that of the electorate. I know there are many qualified people of all races and genders. The notion that this choice is gratuitous is insulting to all thinking people. If you concede that it is possible for women and minorities to be qualified you have to give this woman the benefit of the doubt before you disqualify her.

Rush Limbaugh has already proven himself ignorable on this issue. I fully expect the Right Wing to go hysterical. It appears they have already started.

I loved the headline on fark.com:

Rush Limbaugh weighs in on the Sotomayor nomination, asking for calm from the Republican party, and a straight up or down vote on her nomination. Just kidding, he calls her and Obama racists and warns of the impending race war

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Democrats, quit trying to legislate everything

25 May 2009 by lolife
Filed under Politics

It is well known that I find the Republican party detestable. Any party with the support of Coulter, Hannity, Limbaugh and Glen Beck will never get my support. So don’t get too excited, Righties.

But I am seriously getting bummed out with the inept notion that any problem has a legislative solution. It effects me most as a small business owner. New regulations popping up all the time to fix problems that have nothing to do with me or my business. Politicians are experts at taking a good intention and turning it into a bad law. The pandering to the electorate is sad and counter-productive. Listen to me, guys — the electorate are retards. They don’t have the slightest clue what the fuck is going on. They just want free stuff and they want no bad stuff to ever happen and if it ever does, god dammit, someone should do something about it.

I’ve said it many times before, but we have to get out of this 2 party system. The Republicans have the most fucked up agenda in history and the Democrats are trying to pass laws to prevent us from stubbing our toes. We do not have the time or the money to fuck around with all this stuff.

Obama, prioritize these people, keep them on track and get rid of the notion that the government has some extraordinary power to fix every problem. They don’t. The government should work on big issues that can’t be handled by the private sector. We can’t save children from every danger and we can’t have a thriving economy if you regulate us all because of 0.000001% of bad apples.

Get it together, mother fuckers. Focus.

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Astronomy for stupid people

21 May 2009 by lolife
Filed under Astronomy + Evolution

PZ points out that the retards are at it again. A ridiculous book “What you aren’t being told about astronomy” and its idiotic web site, creationastronomy.com are there and ready to confuse the confused and insult the knowledgeable.

It’s ironic that the author quotes published open questions in solar system research as evidence for his non-theory! You aren’t being told it except that…you are!

They are just using the same techniques they use against biological evolution — any unanswered questions can easily be answered by saying God did it! They don’t have a theory, they have a tactic of subverting honest scientific puzzles into dogmatic dog shit like “creation astronomy”.

If you think the solar system is younger than a few billion years, you are embarrassingly uninformed. You have to ignore virtually every branch of science to embrace a young earth model — geology, paleontology, astronomy and chemistry to name a few.

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Obama stand-up

10 May 2009 by lolife
Filed under Politics

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“Canis Minor” Launch 2

9 May 2009 by lolife
Filed under Rockets

I built a Performance Rocketry Little Dog Dual Deploy. I have a little video which describes the rocket on youtube. The first launch was a disaster which resulted in a cato. (cato is rocket dork slang for a CATOstrophic (sic) failure of the rocket motor.)

The 2nd launch was (mostly) a success! I was going to launch with a J motor but because of clouds I used an H motor instead, so a quarter of the total impulse. According to the sim it should have gone about 2000 feet, but it ended up going about 1500 feet.

The rocket wobbled a bit early in the burn. The streamer was supposed to pop at apogee and then the main chute at 700 feet but they both came out shortly after apogee. I think the payload pay just fell out of the booster when the nose cone was blown off. But as failures go, that was a pretty good one, as the rocket descended nice and slow and landed in view.

I was happy with the launch because I loaded 2 motors and they both worked fine. My altimeter worked, too, and fired the deployment charges. My failures were the wobble, which might have been solely because of the slow speed, and the fact that the main deployed too early.

It’s fun.

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