The Atheist Mind

Here’s Jerry Coyne explaining why evolution is true:

(via)

This is an excellent response to the furious and unfounded assertions of the right-wing denialists that have followed from the release of private email by climate change scientists.

I'm on a couple of private mailing lists where we exchange views on evolution, and <shock horror> we actually argue it times, and sometimes even disagree heatedly with one another. That climate scientists hash out disagreements in vigorous private debate is no surprise, and no sign of either a conspiracy or intent to mislead the public.

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This is going to go on for years and years, isn't it? Sarah Palin is going to keep on saying stupid things to keep herself in the news.

No one person has all the right answers. It takes a united nation, and it does take godly counsel, and it takes prayer and answers to prayer - and a collective humble heart of a nation seeking God's hand of protection and his blessings of prosperity.

I think if we can get back to that, our country will be a safer, more prosperous and healthier nation.

No, it won't. God does not provide, OK?

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Can you bear yet another case of religion-rationalized child abuse?

Over three months in 2006, as her five children grew more emaciated and listless by the day, Estelle Walker made no move to find a job, no effort to scrounge up a meal, her kids told a jury yesterday.

"We were supposed to wait for God to provide," said Walker's oldest daughter, now 21. "And that's what we did."

At one point, the daughter said, she and her siblings went 11 days without food. When police were at last summoned to the Sussex County cabin by neighbors, investigators found the children so malnourished they had difficulty talking.

You would think that after watching her own children waste away for months, she'd realize that god will not provide. Never has and never will.

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I have not written an Idiot of the Week post in awhile, but that doesn't mean that there has not been plenty of idiocy. I'm back this week with another "winner" from a crowded field.

Props to Obama's inauguration speaker, Christian extremist Pastor Rick Warren, for picking up this week's honor. Pastor Warren sparked outrage from almost everyone outside his extremist circle when he refused to condemn Ugandan legislation that would make certain homosexual acts punishable by death. As if that wasn't bad enough, Warren could do worse (and soon did).

According to Think Progress, Warren recently tweeted the following in a desperate attempt to change the subject:



Clearly, Pastor Warren recognizes the difficult spot in which he now finds himself. On one hand, he risks alienating most moderate Christians by refusing to condemn Uganda's human rights abuses. On the other hand, he probably feels that he cannot do so because his Christian extremist supporters would quickly turn on him.

Doing the right thing isn't supposed to be easy, Pastor. Do you hate homosexuals so much that you cannot speak out against those who would simply kill them?

H/T to Pam's House Blend

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Because of the nature of this site, most of what say about the Bible and quote from it is negative. So here’s something positive for a change:

Bread is made for laughter,
and wine gladdens life,
and money answers everything.

—Ecclesiastes 10:19

Be still my heart…Isabelli Rossellini dressed up as a squid demonstrating their mating ritual.

This is much more convincing than the God Equation.

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We atheists are done for now. Behold, the God Equation, which I received in email and proves that a deity created us all:

Scientists working in the UK have discovered robust evidence that the creation of the earth and moon was a deliberate act. The researchers found that the earth, moon, and beyond were engineered according to a specific equation. They have dubbed it the God Equation. The equation, which looks like this:

shows a constant, unchanging relationship between the speed of light, the ratio between the circumference and diameter of a circle, and the radio frequency of hydrogen in space. Artificial intelligence engineer David Cumming, CEO of the Edinburgh-based company Intelligent Earth, recently discovered the equation, and said: "I am a scientist and as such I didn't at first really believe it myself. But physics is physics, and maths is maths, and you can't argue with it."

The discovery of the equation began with research by engineer Professor Alexander Thom (1894-1985) of Oxford University, into the properties of megalithic constructions such as Stonehenge. He found that their construction did not follow existing measurement systems, but did fit in to a pattern of specific lengths which he called megalithic yards. Two independent researchers Christopher Knight and Alan Butler, based in York, then showed that the megalithic system of measurement was directly derived from characteristics of the Earth's movements through space.

Linking this system of measurements with known constants such as π (pi, the relationship between the circumference and diameter of a circle), Hl, the radio frequency of the hydrogen fine transition in space, Ω (0.0123456789 representing all the characters of the base 10 number system), and the speed of light in a vacuum C0 (C0 = 299,792.458km/sec), and building on research by Knight and Butler, and the work of Professor Alexander Thom, former Reading University doctoral researcher Cumming followed a research programme that resulted in his discovery of the God Equation. The God Equation shows a direct link between the speed of light, the radio frequency of hydrogen in space, pi, and earth's orbit, rotation and weight. As the possibility of the Earth having the exact required characteristics to fit the equation by chance is remote, and the equation has, in theory, been in existence since the beginning of the Universe, this means that the Earth's orbit, rotation and weight must have been engineered to fit this equation.

Cumming states: "Although the ratio of a diameter of a circle to its circumference has been known for thousands of years, we have only recently discovered the hydrogen line, the speed of light, and rediscovered the megalithic measurement system. The advance of science, combined with the uncovering of ancient knowledge passed down through the ages, has only now made the discovery of the God Equation possible."

Well, overwhelming, except for a few little problems.

For instance, the term Hl has units of MHz; the other parameters seem to be dimensionless; and C has units of km/sec. This does not compute. That seems like a rather fundamental error in a very simple equation that must have been formulated by a couple of the geniuses of the age, don't you think?

Oh, wait…there's that mysterious Ω term — maybe we're just missing its units. Except…"0.0123456789 representing all the characters of the base 10 number system". Oh, come on. I call shenanigans on that one. That's completely arbitrary and contrived.

How do you get earth's orbit, rotation, and weight from π?

So I plugged in all those numbers anyway, and did the calculation works out to a value for C of 361,448.9 MHz. This is a bit off.

Oh, but there's more! There's a footnote to the email I was sent that mentions that you have to calculate the speed of light in megalithic yards, derived by some esoteric calculation from the dimensions of Stonehenge. A megalithic yard = 0.82966 meters, which then gets you to the right number for the speed of light.

Not bad for a formula with three terms, one of which is pulled out of someone's ass, and the whole thing requiring a magic fudge factor to bring it into line with neolithic technology.

In case you're wondering who could be crazy and ignorant enough to propose this kind of nonsense, the mail included a handy set of bios for them.

David Cumming is an innovative scientist working in the field of artificial intelligence. A former PhD student of famous Professor Kevin Warwick at Reading University, England, David is also a graduate of Glasgow University, and Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. At Robert Gordon University, he was awarded a rare MSc with Distinction for his work on a NASA space shuttle microgravity experiment that flew as a full canister experiment on the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

David was also leader of the Intelligent Earth team that developed the world's first advertising system that changes advertising according to the gender and age of the person watching the advert - a technology that removes unwanted and annoying advertising and makes advertising appropriate to the watchers. The company also developed Doki, 'the World's most gender aware robot, featuring in the Guinness Book of World Records for several years'

He is also the CEO of Safe Cities, who developed a prize-winning intelligent custody photography system in collaboration with ACPO's Facial Images National Database (FIND) Project and several large Police Forces. These systems are now installed around Britain as an important front end of the National Database.

Christopher Knight's background is in research. From 1976 he investigated the origins of the rituals used by Freemasons before publishing his first book on the subject in 1996. 'The Hiram Key' became an immediate international best seller selling over a million copies and is now in 37 different languages. This was followed by several other bestsellers chronicling his investigations that were taking him further and further back in time. In 1997 he teamed up with Alan Butler to continue his researches, which had taken him back to the late Stone Age. Following in the footsteps of engineer Professor Alexander Thom, Knight and Butler have reconstructed a complete system of measurement that was used in the British Isles and western France 5,000 years ago. These systems, still identifiable in existing artefacts, were more sophisticated than modern units of measure, although both the Imperial and metric systems have evolved directly from this Neolithic origin.

Alan Butler's historical studies extend to an in-depth research into the Cistercian monastic movement and the Order of the Knights Templar, about which he has also written extensively. As a professional writer, who has always possessed an absolute fascination for history, Alan set out on a two decade search that led to the unravelling of some of the most important details regarding prehistoric knowledge and achievement in Europe. Alan has also been writing on the subject of astrology since his 20's and is the most published writer on the subject in Britain.

Crackpots all across the spectrum.

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I hadn't heard anything about it. Apparently, almost nobody else had, either.

In New York, Beck sold 17 tickets. In Boston, another 17. And in Washington, D.C., the hotbed of political activism, his tearful film drew only 30, Raw Story has found.

Glenn Beck's new movie The Christmas Sweater - A Return To Redemption -- released for a viewing Thursday night in hundreds of theaters across the country. While it performed better in the south and in rural, more conservative areas, his ability to draw viewers in major US markets was a bust.

"The theater's almost empty," a representative at Regal Cinemas in Manhattan told Raw Story moments before it began.

The flick features the firebrand Fox News host sharing with willing souls his most profound childhood memories, along with his philosophies on life, love and happiness.

"It is the story of faith, tragedy, redemption and hope," Beck says in the trailer. (Reporter's caution: he cries in it.)

Yeesh. It sounds even worse than Expelled. The trailer (I don't recommend it) evoked feelings of revulsion and disgust, which isn't usually what you want to do to fill the seats.

Although, you never know…maybe he was trying to tap into the "two girls one cup" demographic.

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I think putting more troops in Afghanistan is a mistake. I understand that President Obama indicated that he would do this during his campaign, and I am not surprised that he sent additional troops shortly after taking office. Nor am I surprised that his generals want still more troops now and that he is inclined to send them. Whether I like it or not, he has now taken full ownership of this war, a war my country has been waging for the past 8 years. It no longer matters why this war started or the many mistakes made by the previous administration. This is now Obama's war.

The first thing that bothers me about the war in Afghanistan is that we cannot afford it. The U.S. economy is not doing well, and expanded domestic programs are desperately needed at home. Health care costs continue to rise, and state after state is crippling higher education because of budget shortfalls. We should have learned something from what happened to the former Soviet Union, but we appear to be making a similar blunder.

Beyond the cost and all which must be sacrificed to meet it, I have a very difficult time believing that the situation in Afghanistan is resolvable without a real U.S. military presence in Pakistan and perhaps even other neighboring countries. Of course, this is not going to happen, making the effort in Afghanistan increasingly futile. I am simply not convinced that the nature of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan allows us to make much progress without forces on both sides.

An additional concern springs from the widespread corruption within the Afghan government. It is not that I am trying to point fingers here, for a freely acknowledge that corruption is a serious problem in the U.S. government as well. Still, I am not sure how U.S. efforts to prop up a corrupt Afghan government are going to be productive.

It is difficult to take stock of the fact that we have been at war, fighting multiple wars even, for the past 8 years without reprieve. As we approach a season in which many claim to celebrate the notion of peace, I feel that it is time to take a hard look at ourselves.

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