Posts tagged belief

atheismfuckyeah:

Western countries have appealed for an end to violent protests targeting their embassies, sparked by a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad.

The EU urged leaders in Arab and Muslim countries to “call immediately for peace and restraint”.

The US is sending marines to defend its embassy in Khartoum and has called on Sudan to protect foreign diplomats.

At least seven people died in protests in Khartoum, Tunis and Cairo on Friday and there are fears of further unrest.

Protests in Egypt have spread, with demonstrators breaking into a base holding multi-national peacekeepers in Sinai, and clashes outside the American consulate in the coastal city Alexandria.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban said their attack on the huge Camp Bastion Nato base, in which two US marines were killed, was carried out in response to the film.

‘Civilised world’

US embassies have borne the brunt of the attacks after clips of the film - which was made in the US - were distributed online.

Marines were deployed to Libya on Wednesday after the attack that killed the US ambassador and three other Americans and to Yemen on Friday after violence in Sanaa.

On Friday, US Vice-President Joe Biden called his Sudanese counterpart, Ali Osman Taha, to express concern over the security of the US and other Western embassies in Khartoum.

“Vice-President Biden reaffirmed the responsibility of the government of Sudan to protect diplomatic facilities and stressed the need for the government… to ensure the protection of diplomats in Khartoum,” a White House statement said.

A crowd of several thousand attacked the US embassy in Khartoum on Friday, and state radio said three protesters had been killed in clashes with security forces.

The German and UK embassies in Khartoum were also attacked, although the controversial film has no known links to either country.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso condemned the attacks as unacceptable and against “the rules of the civilised world.”

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton urged “national authorities in all countries concerned to swiftly ensure the security of diplomatic missions and protect diplomatic staff”.

“It is vitally important that leaders across the affected regions should call immediately for peace and restraint, as has already been the case in many countries.”

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the Sudanese ambassador in Berlin had been summoned on Friday and “unequivocally reminded of his government’s duty to protect diplomatic missions”.

‘Standing fast’

Protests against the film - Innocence of Muslims - began on Tuesday in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

The film depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a womaniser and leader of a group of bloodthirsty men.

However, its exact origin and the motivation behind the film’s production are still unclear.

A man suspected of involvement in its making, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, is being questioned by federal probation officers in California.

Nakoula, who was jailed for bank fraud in 2010, is not allowed under the terms of his release to access the internet or to use aliases without permission.

He has denied involvement in the film.

Two people were killed in Tunisia on Friday after crowds breached the US embassy compound in Tunis and clashed with riot police.

The nearby American school was looted and set on fire. There was also one death during protests in Egypt and another in Lebanon.

On Friday, US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton attended a ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base for the repatriation of the Americans killed in Benghazi.

Mr Obama said the US would “stand fast” against the violence at its diplomatic missions.

—-

BBC News

As soon as this stopped being a conversation and became a mass riot, as soon as people were injured, as soon as people were killed and property damaged, I lost every single fuck I could have given about why the ‘protesters’ were pissed in the first place. 

~Mooglets

atheismfuckyeah:

Bill Nye, the famed “Science Guy,” found himself the center of attention this week after a video in which he saidcreationism should not be taught to childrenwent viral.

“I say to the grownups, ‘If you want to deny evolution and live in your world that’s completely inconsistent with everything we’ve observed in the universe that’s fine,” Nye says in the video. “But don’t make your kids do it.’”

Of course,the Twitterverseand many viewers had a strong response. The Huffington Post reached out to Nye to ask him more about science, religion and teaching creationism in school.

What’s the best scientific argument against creationism?

Unlike science, creationism cannot predict anything, and it cannot provide satisfactory answers about the past. The examples would be nearly limitless. Why does radioactive dating indicate that the world is 4.54 billion years old, if radioactivity is not a feature of nature?

Should teaching creationism be against the law?

Teaching creationism in science class as an alternative to evolution is inappropriate.

Tax dollars intended for science education must not be used to teach creationism as any sort of real explanation of nature, because any observation or process of inference about our origin and the nature of the universe disproves creationism in every respect. Creationism provides no insight whatsoever into nature. Creationism might be taught in a philosophy, psychology, or history of science class, for example.

Is religion inconsistent with science?

If your religion is inconsistent with science, consider tempering your beliefs. For me, the claims of creationism are completely unreasonable.

Judge Jones in Dover, Pennsylvania, used the expression “breathtaking inanity,” meaning so empty, so silly that it took his breath away. The age of the Earth is very close to 4.54 billion years rather than a millionth of that time. The idea that fossils were buried in the Earth by some hidden deity to test ones faith is completely unsatisfactory. We can observe the processes of evolution, physics and especially geology everywhere every day. To deny what I see around me is unacceptable to me. Science is the acceptance of what you observe and seeking the natural laws that cause these effects.

How can science-minded people make it “safe” for believers to acknowledge that evolution is real?

The bible that is often cited as a guide to natural law has been translated from other ancient languages. There must be countless subtleties and nuances that are literally lost in translation. I got into good bit of controversy, when I showed an audience in Waco, Texas, USA that the bible, as translated into English, claims that the Sun lights the day, and the Moon lights the night. I pointed out that this translation is unsettling. To my ear, it doesn’t seem as though the author realized that the Moon’s light is reflected sunlight. It seems to me that many ancient people may have realized that the Moon casts reflected light, but it’s lost in translation. This being but one example.

Will anything good be lost if creationism disappears?

Because of the robustness of our historical records, creationism will probably never disappear as such; instead, creationism can be used in classrooms and conversations to illustrate the process of science.

To wit, people once accepted an idea that the Earth was built in a week. In recent centuries, we have discovered the actual nature of nature. The process of science debunked and disproved the old idea, so it was cast aside for a better idea.

Did you ever believe in creationism? If so, what changed your mind?

The biblical stories were presented to me, but they never seemed reasonable.

I remember asking about Noah’s ark. Did he look after the invertebrates: the bees, for example? What about the yellow-jackets? And, the black wasps that stung me a few times? All those ants? There’s no mention of the most numerous organisms in my world. As a kid, I remember imagining a series of barges full of soil to be pulled like trailers behind this big boat. Grownups explained that it was just a story (whatever that meant). I remember asking, what was the point of the story? What was this guy’s idea to get animals two-by-two? What did he hope to accomplish, if all the bees, worms, oak trees, and rosebushes were gone? Let alone the question: why did he let the poison ivy come back? He missed a huge opportunity, etc. It was never satisfying to my mind.

If you could speak directly to the children of creationists, what would you say?

Hang in there.

There is another amazing, exciting, inspiring way to know the world, one that will fill you with joy and reverence. Pick your battles with grownups. These creation ideas are important to the grownups in your life right now. Accept that.

Do your views place your personal safety in jeopardy?

We’ll see. You don’t get shot down, if you’re not flying.

We are at a turning point, a crossroads in human history. Climate change or an asteroid impact can only be addressed with science. Shooting the messenger is not going to make creationism able to explain anything in the natural world. It still will be completely unsatisfactory and useless to anyone trying to solve an engineering problem in the real world. No science; no asteroid deflection.

Do you have any superstitions?

None that I know of. I change my socks often, because I had bad bouts of athelete’s foot fungus infections as a kid. I may be able to change socks less frequently and not get the fungus. But, I’d rather not run the test to determine just how infrequently I could change socks. I don’t feel superstitious about it.

Who is your favorite scientist?

Don’t make me pick.

Michael Faraday was amazing. He clearly realized that his discovery of a means to generate electricity, would change the world. I have great admiration for my physics teacher George Lang and my old professor Carl Sagan; he changed the world. My dad was no slouch, either. My older brother Darby continually showed me wonderful scientific principles.

The big step comes when you can convince yourself of the truth of a natural law. It changes the way you think of everything around you.

HuffingtonPost

helvetebrann:

Remember, the Westboro Baptist Church is attending the Reason Rally.

Nate Phelps, estranged son of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church Pastor Fred Phelps, plans to speak at an atheist rally.

“Nate Phelps brings a powerful voice and story to the rally,” Reason Rally organizer David Silverman said in the release. “He shows us all that if you can come out as an atheist in that family, it’s possible anywhere.”

The younger Phelps is described on his website as an LGBT advocate who, “speaks out against the dangers of religion and child abuse.”

The site says Phelps left his father’s home at midnight on his 18th birthday after enduring “extreme physical punishments and abuse, extreme dietary and health requirements, and other extreme expectations,” while growing up under his father, according to the site.

Many people believe that the Westboro Church is a fraud designed by trolls who do not believe what they preach, but rather, try to earn money from lawsuits.  Nate Phelps is proof that, unfortunately, the church and it’s members do believe what they preach.

To those attending the rally, I strongly recommend listening to Nate speak.  His testimony regarding his departure from his family home was riveting.

(Source: The Huffington Post, via skepticalavenger)

helvetebrann:

helvetebrann:

Douglas Adams was born in 1952 in Cambridge, England.  Douglas’s mother, Janet, worked as a nurse while his father, studied post-graduate theology.  However, his parents divorced in 1957.  After the divorce, Douglas and his sister, Susan, moved with their mother to Brentwood, Essex.  His father remarried and the couple had a daughter; his half-sister Heather and his mother’s remarriage resulted in two more half-siblings named Jane and James.

Douglas attended the Brentwood School in Essex from 1959 to 1970.  He first became interested in writing at age ten after receiving a good grade on an English composition.  Douglas’s essay on the revival of religious poetry won him a place at Cambridge University.  Douglas had grown up Christian, particularly as a result of his father’s study, however at age 18 he had an epiphany which led him to become an agnostic.

He stopped to listen to a minister and realized that the minister was talking total nonsense.  Further thought on the topic led him to doubt the idea of a god.

Douglas wanted to join Footlights, a prestigious comedy club on campus, but after his first year, he found the club to be too blasé.  Instead, he joined the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society and performed on campus.

During his attendance at Cambridge, Douglas hitchhiked across Europe.  He worked various jobs throughout his travel introducing him to a variety of lifestyles and individuals.

Douglas graduated from college in three years with a Bachelor’s of Arts in English literature despite his admitted lack of hard work.  In his early thirties, Douglas made the theological move from agnosticism to atheism after exposure to evolutionary biology.

Douglas began his career by writing for BBC2 television in 1974.  His work was discovered by Monty Python’s Graham Chapman which led to a brief writing partnership.  Their work earned Adams a writing credit for a Monty Python episode entitled Part Political Broadcast on Behalf of the Liberal Party in 1982.  Douglas had two brief cameos in Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Douglas continued his career in radio with sketches like The Burkiss Way and The News Huddlines.  However, Adams had difficulty marketing his comedy and worked a variety of odd jobs to support himself.  Douglas achieved comedic success when his first radio series The Hitchhiker’s Guide became successful.  His success led to Adams’s promotion as a BBC radio producer, however, he left this position six months later to become the script editor for Doctor Who.

Adams’s most famous work, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, was a concept for a science-fiction comedy radio that he originally pitched to Simon Brett in 1977.  BBC Radio 4 broadcast the first weekly radio series in 1978.  The series became an instant success and a second set of episodes was broadcast in 1980.  During this time, Adams worked on writing So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish.

In 1991, Dougals married Jane Belson and the two of them had a daughter named Polly Jane in 1994.

By 1992, Adams had published five novels in the series.  These books became adapted into comic books, interactive computer games, and even photo illustration.  Eventually in 2005, the first book was adapted into a box office film.

Adams’s work on Doctor Who originated in 1978 when he sent the script for the pilot to the Doctor Who production office.  Altogether, Douglas wrote three Doctor Who serials staring Tom Baker as the Doctor including The Pirate Planet, City of Death, and Shada.

Douglas Adams had a good deal of influence on a wide range of activities ranging from music to computer games.

Unfortunately, Douglas died of a heart attack in 2001.

In honor of his birthday.

(via sageoflogic)

atheismfuckyeah:

After numerous failed doomsday predictions, Family Radio founder Harold Camping announced this month that he has no plans to predict ever again the day of God’s Judgment. He also issued an apology to listeners, admitting that he was wrong.

“We have learned the very painful lesson that all of creation is in God’s hands and He will end time in His time, not ours!” a statement on Family Radio’s website reads. “We humbly recognize that God may not tell His people the date when Christ will return, any more than He tells anyone the date they will die physically.”

Camping, 90, has made predictions about Judgment Day, Christ’s return and the end of the world for the past few decades – with the May 21, 2011, forecast receiving the most media attention. Each time the date passed, he did not admit to mistaking the timing but instead reasoned that the events happened “spiritually” rather than physically.

But once Oct. 21, 2011 – the day Camping said the world would be destroyed physically – came and went, the Christian broadcaster began to reevaluate his views about being able to calculate and know the exact date of the apocalypse.

“Even the most sincere and zealous of us can be mistaken,” Camping and Family Radio staff stated in their March letter. “We realize that many people are hoping they will know the date of Christ’s return. In fact for a time Family Radio fell into that kind of thinking.

“But we now realize that those people who were calling our attention to the Bible’s statement that ‘of that day and hour knoweth no man’ (Matthew 24:36 & Mark 13:32), were right in their understanding of those verses and Family Radio was wrong. Whether God will ever give us any indication of the date of His return is hidden in God’s divine plan.”

They went further to say that their “bold” insistence that the Bible guaranteed Christ’s return on May 21 was both “incorrect” and “sinful.”

At the same time, they pointed to the good that came out of all their failed forecasts, which were condemned by evangelical pastors.

“Even as God used sinful Balaam to accomplish His purposes, so He used our sin to accomplish His purpose of making the whole world acquainted with the Bible,” the Family Radio letter says.

Though they were wrong, their doomsday predictions directed the world’s attention to the Bible and spurred discussions about the Scriptures among people who might have never heard about Christ, they noted.

Still, that does not excuse them, Family Radio acknowledged.

“We tremble before God as we humbly ask Him for forgiveness for making that sinful statement. We are so thankful that God is so loving that He will forgive even this sin.”

The letter was intended to be mailed out to Family Radio listeners first before being posted on the website. But the content was leaked, forcing the Oakland, Calif.-based broadcasting network to post the letter immediately.

While there are still doomsday dates currently circulating, Camping and Family Radio said they have “no new evidence pointing to another date” and have “no interest in even considering another date.”

“God has humbled us through the events of May 21, to continue to even more fervently search the Scriptures (the Bible), not to find dates, but to be more faithful in our understanding,” they highlighted.

“[W]e must be satisfied to humbly wait upon God, and trust He will guide His people to safety. At Family Radio, we continue to look to God for guidance. If it is His good pleasure for us to continue on with our original mission, the proclamation of the Gospel, God’s Word, then we must continue to look to Him.”

The Christian Post

Wow.

Just.  Just wow.