I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, 'wouldn't it be much worse if life *were* fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them?' So now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. – M. Cole
Just some photos of the garden and my deck top veggie “farm”. I rather like the “crop cages” I found on amazon to keep the squirrels and other pests out. They also seem to give just enough diffusion of strong sun and keep in a bit of moisture too.
Currently, I have various herbs, culinary and medical; Black Krim tomatoes; fennel; butter lettuce; and yellow, serrano, and heatless jalapeno chilis growing. I’ve used felt grow bags, some random pots and some kitty litter buckets with holes drilled through them.
You’ll also see bottles that I’ve painted in the pots that I use to keep a constant source of moisture near the roots. I drilled a small hole in the bottles’ original corks and let the water seep through.
Scientists still working on how the universe works and disappointing creationists who depend on no more research being done so they can cling to their gods.
I seem to have a new follower called “Evangelist Sam Davis”, at “The Spoken Word” blog. His blog seems to be quite new. All he has on it is this nonsense:
“Anybody that is racist and different destroys that would be the democratic party and the Democratic Party knows it is racist and hates America and tries to be very divisive”. He also follows the nonsense on Gettr, a rather sad trumpee/magat attempt at Twitter populated by the usual failures. It was started by Jason Miller, a classic QOP nitwit, fathering children out of wedlock, you know, all sorts of “family values”.
This should be fun to see if Sam decides to comment.
On to other things…
It wasn’t too surprising that the QOP lied about veterans supposedly be kicked out of hotels by immigrants. For all the wannabee nazis whine about veterans, they do their best to cut funding for anything that helps them. Laura Ingraham, a well known Fox News liar, had to issue an admission that she used a lie, and she hilariously claims she just has no idea why anyone would have made such a thing up. For more info, you can click here: Fox News Stoked Outrage Over Migrants Displacing Homeless Vets. It Was a Hoax.
Amazing how these TrueChristians(tm) just can’t stop lying.
The orange former occupant seems likely to be sued again by the woman he attacked, because he’s simply too stupid to shut up. It must just be such a fun job to be that idiot’s lawyer, but they dont’ seem to swift either.
Seems there was an idiot who drove a truck into barriers at the white house. Sai Varshith Kandula is the fellow, so I do wonder if these nitwits even know what Nazis beleived.
well, so much for now. I’m sure there’ll be another mass shooting here in the US just any time now.
Yet more wannabee nazis were marching around Washington DC a couple of days ago. And gee, they were in white masks, just like any good klansman would be. Always fun to see just how cowardly these poor lil’ idiots are.
this book looks really good. we have a subscription to scribd, and they have the audiobook. Alas, no actual book, since i can read far faster than people can talk. Oh well, better than nothing.
As an atheist seeing this book in the British Museum shop, I was very pleased to buy it! The author is a specialist on Ancient Greek literature, and has an engaging, bracing writing style. Although the subtitle suggests a general overview, in fact the book focuses on Ancient Greece in three phases (archaic, Hellenistic and Classical), and on the Roman Empire. The thesis of the book in fact is to show that atheism is not a post-Enlightenment social construction, rather one with a much longer history.
Much of the book is given over to a study of Greek religion and philosophy, pointing out the complete lack of centralisation, and the status of religion in typical Greek city-states. It’s fascinating stuff, deeply informed by the author’s understanding of Ancient Greek society, and by his grasp of sources in particular. A delight of this…
A rather unpleasant Christian, Caroline has come out with the claim that surely christians would never ever do a mass shooting. Caroline is unfortunately a real life “Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian” with out Deven’s wit and intelligence. Caroline has been on this blog before, consistently showing how dishonest she is with everything from the sciences to her ignorance about anyone not like her.
quite a set of lies.
“We needn’t fear those who fear God And the third factor that should be fostered if we want to end these terrible tragedies is genuine faith in God. I know my children will never be on that list because they know the God who is Love and who said to love our neighbor as ourself. They know that he loves them and that they could never do something so contrary to his character and his will.”
Funny how this god said to murder people who don’t agree with it and that people deserve death and worse if they dont’ agree with it.
“Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6
“26 “I tell you, to all those who have, more will be given; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 27 But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.”’” Luke 19
We also have christians blowing up abortion clinics, murdering staff and doctors, and attacking members of religions not their own. I do have to wonder, does Caroline think she can lie about such things when they are public knowledge. Oh I’m sure she will claim they aren’t TrueChristian(tm), at all, the typical maneuver of someone unable to take responsiblity for what her religion causes.
and then Caroline goes onto say exactly what she claims she’s not. it’s a typical tactic from a liar who wants to be able to disavow her lies:
“Children who are raised by both natural parents who genuinely and demonstrably love them are much less likely to get up one day and decide to murder innocent people. But young men in particular who grow up without the irreplaceable influence of a father who loves them carry a void that they must find a way to fill. Many young people have never known an intact family, and others have had one irreparably broken by divorce, which can harm them just as much.”
yep, “natural” parents, showing Caroline’s bigotry and lies yet again.
“Of course I’m not saying that kids who are put in daycare will grow up to be criminals. What I am saying is that children whose mothers sacrifice a career and all the perks that go with it, who are willing to take on the responsibility of diapers, discipline, and domestic drudgery so that their little ones know the security of a mother’s near-constant presence, will probably not be on a list of mass shooters.”
Oh the poor martyr Caroline. No evidence for Caroline’s claims at all. And damn, “near constant presence”?
“Again, I’m not saying that individuals from single-parent homes who don’t believe in God are destined to be involved in criminal activity. Only that a strong foundation of family and faith is an excellent predictor of someone who will never cause such grief, heartache, and anger as every mass shooter has.
So we can talk about gun control. But it will be immensely more productive to focus instead on how we can foster stronger families and encourage rather than ridicule and restrict real, life-changing faith.”
yep, again she is exactly saying what she claims she is not. Caroline is just one more Christian nationalist, more concerned with guns than caring for people. Funny how she’s out there attacking this supposed ever so important faith, if its not her own. She typically is quite sure any christianity other than her own isn’t true.
Happily, these cults are dying out, slowly, but surely. The ignorance, fear and hate they are built on are not needed by anyone.
I’ve found a curious article about the moral argument for a god. The pastor finds it a weak argument, and I would agree with him.
The typical argument is as he presents it:
“(1) If God does not exist, then objective morality does not exist.
(2) Objective morality does exist.
(3) Therefore, God exists.”
He claims it is a “valid argument”, which should mean that the premises are true, and demonstrably so, and thus the conclusion is true.
The problem is that neither he, or any theist who offers this as an argument, can show that objective morality exists at all. The term objective can mean a few things and this is what it seems to mean in this context: “of, relating to, or being an object, phenomenon, or condition in the realm of sensible experience independent of individual thought and perceptible by all observers : having reality independent of the mind and/or “expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations” (merriam-webster).
There is nothing to indicate that there morals that fit either definition.
So, #1 premise fails since there is nothing to show that any god exists, and #2 fails since there is nothing to show that objective morality exists. This makes the conclusion fail.
I’m not aware of any atheists arguing for objective morality. There could indeed be some, and there could be objective morals. We simply have no way to know as far as I can determine. (let me know if you think there is a way).
The pastor is honest in that he believes that objective morals must exist, because he thinks there is a god, not that since there is a god there must be objective morals. The problem is that he must assume that the morals he claims his god wants are indeed objective. In that eveyr other Christian makes the same claim, about different sets of morals, he, and they, must present evidence their god exist, and agrees with them.
That has yet to happen.
They also have the problem that they must assert that everything is their god’s will. Which would make the pastor’s reference to the Holocaust a problem.
“I don’t believe in objective morality.”
“Really? So, you’re saying that the Holocaust was okay?”
“No, the Holocaust was a horrible evil.”
“If there is no objective morality, then the evil of the Holocaust is just a matter of personal opinion. It would not be evil from the perspective of the participants.”
“All I know is that based on what I understand about human flourishing, the Holocaust was wrong.”
“But without objective morality, there is a possible world in which gassing and burning Jews was a good thing…”
This does not make the person asserting subjective morals look bad, it makes the theist’s base argument, “God is good” fail.
The moral argument does indeed show that many people think there is objective morality; it doesn’t show it does.
There is no absolute measure, and thus we are not moving toward or away from something that doesn’t exist. What we do see is that morals change and generally change to those that improve the existence of humans, assisting civilization. Morals may not be objective but they can be common.
The claim that objective morality is based on the will of god fails since again, there is no evidence for objective morality at all *and* that morality for Christians depends on who or what is doing something, not an objective relationship to morality and an action. If the will of this god is that it is okay for it to commit genocide, but not for humans, then morality becomes subjective.
The pastor claims this “But I believe in objective morality because I believe in God, rather than believing in God because I believe in objective morality.” Otherwise
“(1) If God does exist, then objective morality does exist.
Yet more nonsense from christians and “ministries”. This is from a Jim Weikal on a website for Bill Rudge Ministries, which seems to be the typical conservative christian nationalist group. It’s not terribly far from where I grew up.
There is nothing new here at all. But it’s something for me to do.
this is the standard raft of what christians try:
“1.God provided a written account of His creative work, but the atheist believes the Bible to be a human invention.”
no evidence for this at all. There is nothing about the bible to show it is some work by an omnipotent being. This god is as ignorant as the people who invented it. Add that to the fact that christians can’t figure out what it means to agree on it, and you have nothing to support this claim.
“2. God created this material universe from nothing in six days, but the atheist believes evolutionary processes over billions of years to be the cause.”
Even other christians don’t buy this.
“3.The Bible describes many miraculous accounts in its 66 books, but the atheist believes that miracles can’t happen.”
And surprise, no evidence for them at all. Other supposed ‘holy books” also make magical claims. No evidence for them either.
“4.God raised Jesus from the dead, but the atheist believes the resurrection never occurred.”
Yep, no evidence for this either.
“5.God brought the Jewish people back to Israel after thousands of years, but the atheist believes this return to be nothing more than political coincidence.”
And funny how the clock is running out for this claim. This god did nothing, just the action of guilty feeling countries.
“I feel for the elderly atheist who committed his eternal life to the belief system of this world. But remember, it’s not by lack of evidence. Romans 1:18-20 tells us that people “suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse.””
Every cult makes this claim.
Addendum: Hey, I *thought* had had crossed swords with these christians before.
I found this rather silly post here. Theists do get upset when we dare not to believe them. That’s the only being that would get upset with “hubris”.
This person believes…. well, I’ll let them say it:
“
I am a devotee of Death.
Specifically, I am a student of closed occult traditions around San la Muerte. My practices are a blend of folk and high magic, along with a fascinating and complex Gnostic tradition. Part necromancy, part ancestor veneration, part magical sorcery, part mystical devotional practice, with just a dash of good old-fashioned paganism.
If the previous paragraph made absolutely no sense to you, or if it evoked any sort of strong emotions, such as confusion, anger, disgust, outrage, or a strong desire to “bring me to Jesus,” let me take a moment here to address that. First off, not everything is for you, and it’s okay if my blog is one of those things that isn’t. Fare thee well, with my blessings. Second, I’ve spent a considerable amount of time hanging out with Jesus, and there’s a good chance that I know more about the dude and what he actually taught than you do. I think that following in the footsteps of Christ is a great way to live, and I wish that more than a tiny handful of modern Christians would give it a try. Sit with your need to “save” others and ask yourself who is truly being served by that kind of presumption and self-righteous invasiveness.”
this is my answer to it. Unsurprisingly, the ever so convinced theist doesn’t want to see comments showing them wrong. –
Considering how theists aren’t respectful in a “live and let live” kind of way, many of us atheists find we must stand up against theist attempts to force their religions on us. We don’t have a spirituality at all being pan-atheists and being quite sure that there are no gods. Love and respect for nature doesn’t require belief in magic.
All religion is organized and Christianity is a religion, though many Christians would try to falsely claim otherwise, many times in order to try to divorce themselves of the violence and hate caused by their religion. What religion you are seems to be somethign you’ve made up yourself. You are all “so-called men of god”, and not one of you can show that your version is right and the others wrong.
Alas, not believing in your religion doen’t mean hubris at all. It’s just realizing that there is no evidence for your claims. There’s nothing to have hubris against since your god is imaginary. Alas, so every many theists don’t find it a problem when they try to take every opportunity to tell us what you believe and try to force your religion onto us.
No problem in pointing out how a priest’s false claims are false. Unfortunately, for theists, the truth doesn’t run “every party”; they simply don’t like to have their claims shown as false, so they try to hide behind claims of “respect” and “politeness”.
A true atheist can be an anti-theist, and considering how much harm theist claims have done in the world, there is no problem with that. Alas, it is theists who tell us about how stupid we are, and that we deserve eternal torture if we don’t agree with you. Happily, those sadistic fantasies will never come true. Most of us atheists are former theists, including being Christians, like me. I know quite a lot about the religion and its many many versions, have read the bible in its entirety and know about other religions too, many things that current Christians don’t do. There is no reason to keep “searching” when there is no evidence for the claims of theism. It’s rather like saying I should still seek fairies when I’m quite sure that they don’t exist, just to put off the inevitable conclusion that you are wrong.
Theists claim that their god exists but cannot show evidence for it, and alas, the “most simplest and most basic proofs” fail too, sicen no religion can show that their claims are true. You seem to be trying a common theist bit of nonsense, that since there are many humans who have some god, then your god must exist. No evidence for that at all.
Death has nothing to do with your gods. Death is the end of biological function, no god needed. You seem to need to appeal to death to gin up fear so people will join your cult. Your god is imaginary, and yep, I’m immune to your imaginary friend.
Yep, the sun exists, still no evidence for your silly gods. Yep, worshippers of a ball of fusing hydrogen were indeed ignorant, as you are. It doesn’t care about humans; its radiation causing harm, no matter what supplications are made to it.
Yep, the moon, love oceans etc exist. No gods needed. Nope, they aren’t powerful beyond measure.
Phoenix, you are quite a silly person with your baseless claims. Ignorant humans didn’t know any magic truths as you try to make up. Happily, lightning rods do show that these people weren’t aware of reality.
You have no truth, and you make up your nonsense just like any other theist. Unsurprsingly, each theist makes the claim that they and only they have the “right” one, with no evidence at all. At best, you claim each other has only “part” of this truth.
You all claim to be the voice of some god and yep, you are all tyrants, wanting people to agree with you. I can indeed reject your god and your claims that somehow something supernatural created anything at all. There is no evidence for this.
Happily, the fantasies of hell and heaven are just that, fantasies. Your baseless nonsense is nothing new, a false promise that most if not all cults make to try to get members.
There is no scientific support for your false claims. I am not only allowed to think that, I know that. You don’t’ get to have your own facts. You will be shown wrong. You simply are another human who needs to pretend that they and they alone have some special knowledge.
I have no respect or compassion for someone who tries to spread harmful nonsense. I don’t need to consider a liar my equal at all.
AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan has launched a $100 million master plan aimed at attracting 1 million Christian pilgrims to celebrations of the second millennium of the baptism of Jesus in 2030.
The ambitious plan was unveiled by a foundation created by the Jordanian government to develop the “Bethany Beyond the Jordan” area, on the east bank of the Jordan River, long venerated as the place of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. Archaeological discoveries of an ancient monastery at Al-Maghtas, Jordan, became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2015.
Samir Murad, chair of the new foundation, said his group plans to provide Christians access to visit and worship at the site while respecting its integrity.”
Club Schadenfreude 