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Category: religion (page 28 of 36)

Oh my FSM! Atheist/Christian debate at UWA

4 August 2008 / / 2 Comments

UWA people: here’s an event that might be worth attending. It’s a debate between ‘UWA Atheists and Agnostics’ and the omnipresent ‘Christian Union’.

I didn’t even know there was an organisation for atheists and agnostics at UWA. So I’ve no idea who will be on the panel. But get a load of the topic: “Christianity: Truth or Fiction?”

Don’t you think that’s a lot to take on? It’s impossible to establish the existence of the Head Supernatural Being, but then you have to demonstrate which religion is his favourite. So there are a lot of places to deflate this kind of argument. I expect to see a lot of ‘Appeal to Scripture’ and maybe some ‘Appeal to Consequences’ because you know how they love that crap. Hitler and Stalin are expected to make an appearance.

That’s tomorrow (5 August 2008) at 1.00 in the Alexander Lecture Theatre. See you UWA people there, and I’ll have a full report for the rest of you.

Paradolia of the daylia

25 July 2008 / / 1 Comment

The workings of god are mysterious, so here’s some mystery meat.

What looks like the Arabic word for God and the name of the prophet Muhammad were discovered in pieces of beef by a diner in Birnin Kebbi.

He was about to eat it, when he suddenly noticed the words in the gristle, the restaurant owner said.

If I were the supreme ruler of a world full of war, crime, violence, and hunger, I couldn’t think of a better way to manifest myself than by putting my name in pieces of gristle. No, wait. Actually, I’d just be dicking with you.

I like Arabic script, even though I’ve never studied it. So I wanted to find out what the name of Allah looks like. Here it is. Not a terribly complex shape, is it?
Look like a match to you? Then you’re not looking with the eye of faith. If you were, you’d see the name of god (well, one of the names of god) any place where there are parallel lines. You’d see it everywhere, from tomatoes

to fish.

I know; it’s like so obvious on the fish. How could you yet disbelieve?

There’s a whole page of this stuff here. As you might guess, it’s pretty weak tea. Finding parallel lines is even easier than finding faces in tortillas, it would seem. And isn’t it strange that everyone finds an image that serves to confirm their own beliefs and not anyone else’s? Truly amazing.

I’d love any Arabic speakers to let me know if they’ve ever seen any blasphemous words in, say, an eggplant. Keep me posted.

Crackergate continues

11 July 2008 / / 1 Comment

PZ Myers has been getting death threats from (apparently) Catholic believers because of his stated intention of cracker cruelty. Seems it’s okay to abuse a person, but not a snack.

Let’s just remember this, shall we? when people tell us that Islam is dangerous but Christianity is comparatively moderate. In fact, religious believers of any stripe will do whatever their culture will allow them to get away with. You just have to hit that sensitive spot to get them into an instant frenzy.

Then there’s Catholic League president Bill Donohue, whose frenzy meter is stuck on ‘maximum’. He’s trying to get Myers fired by falsely implying that Myers’ blog is hosted on the University website.

He adds:

“It is hard to think of anything more vile than to intentionally desecrate the Body of Christ. We look to those who have oversight responsibility to act quickly and decisively.”

I can think of five more vile things off the top of my head:

  1. A priest molesting a child
  2. A church organisation covering up the actions of that priest
  3. Eating and excreting part of a human body
  4. Teaching that babies are born sinful
  5. Teaching children they will go to hell for all eternity for disobedience

Seriously. Twenty-first fucking century and here we are. A cracker. You bet I’m angry.

Jesus kidnapped! Well, part of him anyway.

9 July 2008 / / 2 Comments

I take back what I said about Hinduism. Catholicism takes the cake, though I didn’t realise it until the wafer-napping incident. You must read this article.

A University of Central Florida student, upset religious groups hold church services on public campuses, is holding hostage the Eucharist, an object so sacred to Catholics they call it the Body of Christ.

For me, this was the most surreal paragraph.

Regardless of the reason, the Diocese says its main concern is to get the Eucharist back so it can be taken care of properly and with respect. Cook has been keeping the Eucharist stored in a plastic bag since last Sunday.

I don’t see the fuss. Three days later, it comes back by itself.

No swearing? They’d rather stay home.

9 July 2008 / / Comments Off on No swearing? They’d rather stay home.

What happens when a Christian couple tries to ban swearing in the pub they were running? You’d expect some resistance. After all, language behaviour is social behaviour, and social change doesn’t happen just like that.

The couple have since been fired because of the business fall-off. Now everyone can employ their dialect without fear of reprisal.

The couple, who took over the pub in March this year, imposed a ban on swearing.

It was supposed to make for a nicer atmosphere but regulars disagreed and the pub emptied.
…
Regulars said that Mrs Fleming would walk round the pub with a Bible, and lecture people for bad language.

John Rudkn, 61, a regular for years, said: “Any swearing and you were barred. It was well over the top.”

John’s wife, who did not wish to give her name, said she had been told off by Mrs Fleming for bad language.

“You can’t run a pub and not swear,” she said. “If they are Christians they should run a church, not a bloody pub.”

George Whipps, 68, another regular, said people should expect foul language in a pub.

“She put a sign up outside saying no swearing,” he said. “This pub in the last eight days has perked up 100 per cent. All of the old regulars are back.

Hey, we’re English speakers. We impose language norms on other people.

Jesus rulz u r teh suxxor LOL

8 July 2008 / / 4 Comments

Here are the worst comment threads on the Internets:

3. Facebook Discussion groups. They may no longer be extant, and I don’t dare check. Some intelligent people and some of the most ignorant babbling fools on earth.
2. I Can Has Cheezburger comment threads. I love lolcats, but the comments are unreadable. So cute, you’ll think you’re diabetic.
1. YouTube comments. So many morons, it fills me with despair and makes me want to kill myself.

I don’t know why I bothered, but I made a comment on this YouTube thread, a video about someone whose car was crushed by a truck, but walked away. Believers are hailing it as a miracle. It’s pretty surprising, but in this wide world full of accidents, it would be more surprising if we didn’t see this kind of thing once in a while.

So, me commenting as ‘fontor’:

A miracle? So that would mean…

Thousands of people die in accidents every year. God could rescue any of them, anytime he wants… and for some reason he refuses?

What a jerk!

Response 1, from ‘gorgouesprincess15’:

ur the jerk but dont worrie ur surly going to hell have fun there loser

Response 2 from ‘adriennexxxx’:

yeah ur right
the reason god does this is because its time for us to go to heaven and live happier!!
instead of living in this shitty world!!
ur right gorgousprincess15!!
fuck u fontor!!
watch ur going to hell!!

Hateful of life and gleeful of torment. Behold: extreme Christianity.

Religious calumny ahoy

28 June 2008 / / Comments Off on Religious calumny ahoy

Item: Saudi Marriage Officiant : ‘It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One’.

As long as you wait to have sex with her until she’s, oh, you know, nine. That’s when Muhammed did the deed with his wife Aisha.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Mu’bi: He married her at the age of six, and he consummated the marriage, by having sex with her for the first time, when she was nine. We consider the Prophet Muhammad to be our model.

When your system of ultimate truth is whatever some guy thought up, your spiritual role models become pedophiles and the mentally ill.

Question: Will gay rights trample religious freedom?

The government has acted in some way[s] to forbid gays and lesbians from being demeaned. But allowing same-sex couples to force religious individuals or organizations to act out of accord with their faith is not cost-free either. Their dignity is no less affected. Unless claims rooted in equal protection under the law are to sweep away claims rooted in freedom of religion, a more sensitive balancing approach is essential.

Shorter Marc Stern: Gay people’s right to equal treatment must be balanced by religious people’s right to discriminate against them.

WTF: Hindus in India are sending Barack Obama a rather hefty idol of Lord Hanuman the Monkey God. They think it will help him to win the election.

The idea of sending an idol of Hanuman dawned on him after friends in the United States mentioned a “prominent American politician who carried a miniature Hanuman idol in his pocket for luck,” Mr. Bhama said speaking on the first day of the ceremony on Tuesday.

“After hearing that, I decided to gift Mr. Obama a larger, gold-plated version along with the wishes of thousands of his supporters in this country,” said the leader struggling to lift the 15 kg, 21-inch brass idol.

The first-day ceremony, pranapratishta, or infusion of divine life into an idol, was performed by a dozen priests reciting mantras in tandem. It was attended by Democrats Abroad India chairperson Carolyn Sauvage, who spent over an hour at the venue.

I grew up in a very literal religious tradition, so I tend to think everyone’s a literalist, even when they’re not. Maybe they just think it would be cool to send Obama a brass monkey idol. On the other hand, maybe these are adults who think it’s all real, and they think it would really help Obama. To have a monkey idol. Which has been infused with divine life.

Damn. Hinduism has to be one of the more bizarre outgrowths of the human religious urge.

The Church of Non-Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints

28 June 2008 / / 2 Comments

Res spotted this one:

LDS Church stressing its differences from FLDS polygamous sect

Mormon leaders today said they are stepping up efforts to make the public aware of the differences between the Salt Lake City-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the polygamist Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), which has recently garnered widespread national attention.

The Mormon effort is in response to a church-commissioned survey of 1,000 Americans that found a degree of confusion about the two churches. More than a third of those surveyed thought the Texas FLDS compound, which recently was raided by Texas’ Child Protection Services after allegations of child sexual abuse, was part of the LDS Church. Another 6 percent said the two groups were partly related.

Well, you can’t imagine they’d be happy about that. But I find it rankling that Mormons try to disown their polygamous past and try and claim the ‘Mormon’ label for themselves only.

Check out this article from the Deseret News.

The LDS Church has said there is no such thing as a “fundamentalist Mormon,” although an estimated 37,000 people who practice it consider themselves as such. Fundamentalists argue that the LDS Church has strayed from its original doctrine by abandoning the practice of polygamy in 1890.
…
Clinton Hudson, a student at Sonora High School, is a member of a Christian student fellowship. During a lunchtime meeting, he said one student said they should pray for the children taken in the raid. Another student said they should “pray for the Mormons.”

“I approached her and said, ‘They’re not Mormons. They’re fundamentalists. They broke off from the church’ and described our history and how they broke off. It really helped a lot,” Hudson said Sunday. “It was a great opportunity to get them to understand there’s a difference between them and us.”

Fundamentalists aren’t Mormons? Of course they’re Mormons.

Mormons claim they’re Christians, even though other Christians disagree. Latter-day Saints typically respond: Well, what does that matter? We’re Christians because we believe in Jesus. Why should people in other churches be able to tell us who we are? And then they turn around and pull this.

Mormons are Christians because they think they are. Fundamentalist Mormons are Mormons because they think they are. Simple as that.

Or try this clumsy analogy.

An illustration from the business world might give us some insight. Suppose several engineers at General Electric invented an electric motor and decided that their product was superior to other similar products produced by the company. This group of engineers decides then to break away from General Electric and form a new company called Fundamental General Electric or FGE for short. How would General Electric react to this? Would it feel that its brand equity was being diminished or stolen? Of course they would. And they would be right.

But you’d be wrong. While it’s easy to classify the LDS Church as a corporation, the analogy only works if the Utah church were the original. Mormons like to think this, but it ain’t so. In fact it’s just one offshoot among many that emerged during the turbulent time after Joseph Smith. It’s the most populous and successful variant, but that doesn’t confer the naming rights.

The Utah church has made a few videos to show that Mormons are normal and not weird. I think it’s going to backfire.

This one’s 18-year-old beauty queen Kayla. Her interests include beauty contests, sitting around playing Uno with her family, hygiene, and sitting on the porch talking about modesty. Right now she’s doing a Morse Code in reverse with her eyes. She’s trying to spell ‘Help me’ by opening them.


You know, I don’t think these clips are going to help people tell LDS from FLDS. In fact, I think I can actually see more parallels than before. Aren’t the fundies always going on about ‘modesty’? Why doesn’t this young lady try one of those shapeless dresses you see on the compound? This clip makes both cultures seem frighteningly parochial. It’s as though the LDS Church is trying so hard not to attack the FLDS that they’re failing to make any point whatever.

Elderly men show an interest in gay marriage

26 June 2008 / / 5 Comments

Absolutely outrageous.

Even though the LDS Church’s own scripture forbids it to meddle in political affairs, the First Presidency is directly asking Latter-day Saints to vote against gay marriage in California.

A statement called “Preserving Traditional Marriage and Strengthening Families” (PDF) will be read in LDS sacrament meetings. It says, in part:

We ask that you do all you can to support the proposed constitutional amendment [to overturn marriage for everyone] by donating of your means and time to assure that marriage in California is legally defined as being between a man and a woman.

This is abominable. For a church to promote any kind of inequality is wrong. For a church to promote discrimination is wrong. The LDS Church has already given over a million dollars of its funds to defeat gay-marriage laws in Hawai’i and Alaska, which may have come from the tithing donated by its membership.

And all this energy and rhetoric expended in the mistaken (in my view) belief that this will somehow harm straight marriages and children.

You know what this reminds me of? Galileo.

Galileo?

Galileo.

For the Catholic Church, it was such a big deal that the sun went around the earth. They burned Bruno at the stake, and put Galileo under house arrest for espousing the Copernican model. And yet, the earth moved.

And now it doesn’t seem such a big deal. Today we wonder what the fuss was about. Religious dogma, wrong once again, had to give way. The church decided that maybe the whole earth-thing was a non-core belief, and life went on.

I feel embarrassed for Monson et al because they’re just going to have to backtrack that much farther when gay marriage turns out not to be the nation-destroying plague they’re envisioning.

I also feel bad for liberal Mormons who rightly deplore this hateful edict from their leadership. This is exactly the conflict I would have had in my believing days: wanting to support equality, but believing that church leaders were inspired and good. Rationalism has certainly saved me from that conflict.

The death of religion meets the rise of superstition

24 June 2008 / / 5 Comments

Could Christianity die out within a century? This article says:

Christianity ‘could die out within a century’

Research by the Orthodox Jewish organisation Aish found that just over a third of people thought religions like Christianity and Judaism would still be practiced in Britain in 100 years’ time.

Although four in 10 people said they would choose to be a member of the Christian religion, almost the same number said they would rather practice no religion at all.

Hmm. The Extinction of the Monotheisms sounds good until you start thinking about what’s going to replace them. The poor thinking that causes religion isn’t going to go away until humans get better brains, and how long is that going to take?

The new religions are probably going to take the form of Teh Secret or something. Some kind of feel-good new-agey proto faith that doesn’t require a lot of time or commitment, but that seems to give results to those who are magically minded.

And that includes a lot of smart people. I just got an email from a smart friend who I love dearly, but he attached a PDF that he thought was wonderful. It’s called “The Master Key” by Charles F. Haanel. Here’s a link to a PDF of the first two parts only. (Even so, it’s 1.2 meg of woo.) Maybe you’d rather read about the Master Key from this site.

It has been said that The Master Key System is the book that Bill Gates read just before leaving Harvard to start his own computer software business, which made him the wealthiest man in the world.

Any evidence for the Gates tie-in?

This book holds the secret of a powerful system of success, which was used by the author, Charles F. Haanel to amass his own mega-fortune through the starting of his own company, which he built into one of the largest conglomerates of his time.

And its name is…?

The Master Key System, which was originally published in 1912, sold over 200,000 copies before it was banned by the church in 1933 and was then lost to the public for some seventy years.

Anyone’s da Vinci Code alarm going off?

The Master Key System lays down the foundation of the principles of creative manifestation through the Law of Attraction, as Haanel understood them. You will learn how to develop and use the creative instrument of your mind—creating true abundance in your life and opening up to the limitless possibilities of the truly creative life.

Wait a minute. The Law of…

It’s Teh Proto-Secret! Well, damn. I am impressed. Haanel must have been a hundred years before his time. Of course, a hundred years early on bullshit’s still bullshit.

Now, that’s not fair. I haven’t even read the thing yet, and here I am being all closed-minded. Bad critical thinker! Bad!

That’s better. Let’s take a look. Here we are, page 7.

22. We are related to the world within by the subconscious mind. The solar plexus is the organ of this mind; the sympathetic system of nerves presides over all subjective sensations, such as joy, fear, love, emotion, respiration, imagination and all other subconscious phenomena. It is through the subconscious that we are connected with the Universal Mind and brought into relation with the Infinite constructive forces of the Universe.

Well, that all seems perfaaaaauuuuggggghhhhhhhhhh…….

Sorry, part of my pre-frontal lobe just turned to goo. I think I just lost algebra.

In one paragraph, we have specious claims about the mind/body connection, conflation of emotions with autonomic nervous processes (hey, kids, did you know that your solar plexus could do all that?), a construct called the Universal Mind but no evidence for it, and enough fluffy talk to put a horse to sleep. That’s some concentrated woo there. I think the jargon to evidence ratio just approached infinity, and when that happens, we run the risk of Universe Collapse.

I’ve written about Teh Secret before. People think the Master Key or The Secret works because of confirmation bias. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don’t, but if you’re focusing on it, you’ll notice when you do, and forget when you don’t. And of course, you’re much more likely to get what you want if you’re working at it than if you’re not. Nothing mystical about it, and certainly nothing to do with your solar plexus.

So I’m in the car with the ropes and the duct tape, ready to tie up my friend and subject him to the Daniel Course for Critical Thinking (which I haven’t even written yet) when I think, “Hey, what does it matter? Is it going to hurt him if he believes some woo here and there? What harm is there in a false belief?”

Here are my answers. See what you think.

1. Magical thinking leaves you susceptible to scams. Buying into a really bad premise makes it possible to buy into more. Examples?

  • If you accept that supernatural beings exist, then it follows that you’d better try to find out what they want you to do. Next it’s joining and supporting a church or some other non-empirical system with your money and time. Bad idea.
  • If you accept that the universe has a Consciousness, then it’s not that preposterous to think that you can influence it to get what you want. Soon, you’re trying superstitious methods to get it (which don’t work). Superstition is a waste of time, and it leaves you helpless before its purveyors.
  • If gurus know the Secret of Life better than you do, then it follows that you should fork out cash to get their wisdom.

On and on. Critical thinking can save us from scammers.

2. Lack of critical thinking harms societies, not just people. A society full of delusional people is not healthy, and will have a harder time solving its problems. The more empirically-minded people we have, the more our collective knowledge grows, and the more likely we are to find working solutions to the problems that face us. I noticed this story about people who are trying to have lower petrol prices… through prayer. So far, somehow, not effective. What if everyone just prayed, instead of a) working to develop technologies for alternative energy, b) changing the way they live to conserve a bit more?

What I’m advocating is acceptance of critical thinking and rejection of superstition. Not replacement of one superstition with another. This is only going to get more important in the post-religion vacuum.

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