Friday, October 21, 2011

Visual explanation of the process of evolution.

Share it. Link to it. Spread this all over the internet. Whoever created this should get a Nobel Prize...

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Mauled: iBear's greatest hits.

The following is a list of quotations (by me) on the subject of religion or mormonism that prompted enough of a good reaction that I'm going to post them here. Feel free to use them should the opportunity arise, but please remember to attribute them if possible. (To Rob Hogue or iBear; entries from iBear's Dictionary for Skeptics should ideally be attributed as such.)

Warning: this will be a lengthy post, as I am compiling my own list of "Greatest Hits." ;)

The second most horrifying idea ever proposed by the human race is that there is some sort of all-powerful voyeur in the sky watching our every move and waiting to punish us after we're dead.

The MOST horrifying idea ever proposed is that those of us who don't believe this nonsense are somehow less honest and compassionate than the fools who do.

***

Christianity is an institutionalization of fear.

Fear of death.
Fear of sex.
Fear of sin.
Fear of judgment.
Fear of guilt.
Fear of Hell.
Fear of God.
Fear that all of this is WRONG and there's nothing to be afraid of.

It's amazing they manage to get out of bed in the morning...

***

Jesus loves me!

Santa knows when I am sleeping, and knows when I'm awake.

Boba Fett thinks I'm no good to him dead.

***

mormon (noun): One who believes that there were horse-riding, steel-forging, elephant-taming, hebrew-speaking-but-reformed-e​gyptian-writing Jews in the Americas before Columbus, and that black people were less worthy in a previous life, women are undeserving of authority positions, and a series of secret handshakes will be required to get into heaven. - iBear's Dictionary for Skeptics

***

If God created everything, why would God want to hide it? He obviously went to absurd lengths to make sure it could NEVER be effectively traced back to him. So the real question is now which of these is true: On the seventh day God rested, or on the seventh day God laid low and wiped off all the fingerprints he'd left at the scene?

***

(In response to the infamous "What if you're wrong and meet God?" lunacy.)

Are you concerned about dying and confronting Allah, Osiris, Shiva, or Odin? Do you carry coins in your pocket on the off chance that the Greeks were right and you'd need passage for the ferry across the River Styx? Does the thought of facing one of these mythical figures that you don't believe in cause you even the slightest doubt or discomfort? No?

Think about that...and then try to imagine that I am no more concerned about meeting your God than you are about meeting any of those.

***

skeptic (noun): one who is willing to examine the beliefs he/she was raised with in the same light as the beliefs he/she was NOT raised with. Especially when actively dissuaded from doing so by friends and/or family members out of irrational fear. - iBear's Dictionary for Skeptics

***

(In response to the suggestion that the 6 days of Genesis were "miscalculated" and were actually "6,000,000,000,000 years.")

So the Bible doesn't mean what it says? What else was "miscalculated"?

Adam and Eve were actually 4000 different people?

Noah's Flood was local, not global?

Mary was not a virgin, and Jesus was not the Son of God?

He simply died, and was not resurrected?

How do you choose which parts are scripture, and which parts are "miscalculated"?

And at what point does this make the Bible entirely worthless?

***

Young-Earth Creationists claim the Earth is no more than 10,000 years old, and that fossils dated to 3 Billion years old are a mistake by scientists.

That's a margin of error of 300,000 to 1. Using that number, we discover that mammoths died out around 2 weeks ago, modern humans have arisen within the past 10 months, and dinosaurs went extinct during the 1790s. That's AFTER the American Revolution.

How do you think the history books missed that one? Was it supposed to be "One if by land, two if by sea, three if by PTERODACTYL!?"

And who can forget Paul Revere, riding through Boston warning the Colonials that "The RAPTORS are coming! The RAPTORS are coming!"

This is so stupid that it defies description.

***

For God so loved the world that he put all our retinas in backwards.

***

I won't get offended if somebody doubts my existence or takes my name in vain. I am cooler than God.

***

Mankind is afraid of the dark, and God is a security blanket.

***

The Emperor is naked...and you know it.

***

Have you seen the bumper sticker? "My karma ran over your dogma."

When will people learn to keep their dogma on a leash?

***

(In response to this direct quote: "Everyone has their own believes, weather you have thoeries or believes. You cant say one is more right or wrong than they other.")

One is supported by physical evidence.

The other is supported by warm fuzzy feelings.

I certainly CAN say that one of those is "more right or wrong than the other."

***

That's the problem with religious beliefs: absolutely NO evidence in the universe would change them. They are immune to evidence. They are immune to logic. They are immune to reality.

That's how you know something isn't real: reality has no effect on it.

***

You ever notice how NOBODY ever says you have to BELIEVE in gravity for it to work? Or that you have to have FAITH in the internal combustion engine and then your car will start?

Reality doesn't give a damn if you believe in it or not.

***

(In response to a passive-aggressive post on a Facebook Friend's status.)

It just seems to ME that if you really care about [name], you would SUPPORT him in his beliefs and even make an effort to understand where he's coming from...as opposed to trying to make him feel guilty for "saddening" you with his atheist point of view and then threatening him with YOUR opinion on "his eternal happiness."

But maybe that's just me. I guess I can't expect religious people to be as supportive and understanding as the atheists I know...