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Calculating God, by Robert Sawyer
Dec. 18th, 2005 11:03 pmI'm almost done reading Calculating God by Robert Sawyer, a novel about alien races who believe in Intelligent Design. It's a frustrating experience, full of vicarious embarassment.( Read more... )There is a reason that when I want science fiction, I don't go into a Christian bookstore, home of sloppy research, thought-killing sentiments, and a needless, too-easily surrendered despair about ever reconciling morality with reason. Reading Calculating God is like going back there.
I know that a character or civilization depicted in a book does not necessarily represent the viewpoint of the author. I want very badly to believe that's the case right now. ( Read more... )
I am accustomed to disagreeing with conclusions reached by science fiction authors in their novels. ( Read more... )
Here's a timely Doonesbury comic strip that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
treebones sent me just now.
I know that a character or civilization depicted in a book does not necessarily represent the viewpoint of the author. I want very badly to believe that's the case right now. ( Read more... )
I am accustomed to disagreeing with conclusions reached by science fiction authors in their novels. ( Read more... )
Here's a timely Doonesbury comic strip that
treebones sent me just now.The Most Objective Man In The World
Nov. 9th, 2005 02:34 pmAnd so concludes another discussion, this time with someone who says he is "completely objective now as faer [sic] as is humanly possible". According to him, the way to become objective is to stop hardening your heart against Christ, and instead harden your heart against anything other than Christ. I particularly love how he prefaces a statement by saying "LOGIC:" Isn't that cute?
On the one hand he is proud of his higher education and expects me to take his word for it because of this; and on the other hand he simultaneously considers universities to be in the business of deceiving people. He is really impressed with pseudoscientist Creationists who have not published any papers through peer-reviewed journals. In those rare moments where he stops telling me what my motives are and attempts to put together an argument, this is the main thrust. He eventually concludes our exchange with a frustrated series of insults couched in love and friendship. He specifically denies that I got to him, but obviously I did. Poor guy.
Not trusting e-mail alone to keep my records, I am archiving it here even though it will be of limited interest to you. I am also removing the name of my correspondent.
( Read more... )
On the one hand he is proud of his higher education and expects me to take his word for it because of this; and on the other hand he simultaneously considers universities to be in the business of deceiving people. He is really impressed with pseudoscientist Creationists who have not published any papers through peer-reviewed journals. In those rare moments where he stops telling me what my motives are and attempts to put together an argument, this is the main thrust. He eventually concludes our exchange with a frustrated series of insults couched in love and friendship. He specifically denies that I got to him, but obviously I did. Poor guy.
Not trusting e-mail alone to keep my records, I am archiving it here even though it will be of limited interest to you. I am also removing the name of my correspondent.
( Read more... )
Divine Follies
Aug. 26th, 2005 09:29 amAt one time or another I've faced down most of the arguments listed on this site: Over 300 Proofs of God's Existence collected from discussions with religious people on the Internet Infidels forums. It just keeps getting funnier and funnier.
17. ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION
(1) See this bonfire?
(2) Therefore, God exists.
( Read more... )
17. ARGUMENT FROM INTIMIDATION
(1) See this bonfire?
(2) Therefore, God exists.
( Read more... )
'Intelligent Falling' Theory
Aug. 17th, 2005 09:47 amFrom The Onion:
EVANGELICAL SCIENTISTS REFUTE GRAVITY WITH NEW 'INTELLIGENT FALLING' THEORY
KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.
( Read more... )
EVANGELICAL SCIENTISTS REFUTE GRAVITY WITH NEW 'INTELLIGENT FALLING' THEORY
KANSAS CITY, KS—As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.
( Read more... )
Faerie Chainism
Jul. 6th, 2005 12:19 pmVia treebones: "Join the movement to have faerie chainism taught in schools!" Just because objects fell downward yesterday and every day during the life of every being who has ever lived to report about it does not mean it did so before that; and it doesn't mean objects won't fall some other direction tomorrow. Having discredited the theory of gravitation we now can demand equal time for the theory of chains of faeries pulling everything toward the earth.
As anyone knows, a theory is just an unsupported speculation that has not yet been looked into. And yet to this day the entire global scientific community refers to it as the "theory" of gravity. Why just look at Wikipedia's entire page of theories, like heliocentric theory in which the earth orbits the sun instead of vice versa. These are all accepted with overwhelming unanimity by this global community of frauds called scientists, who obviously got into the science biz in order to engage in a massive conspiracy to conceal faeries. And yet they give themselves away by referring to them as theories, so now we can tell the schoolchildren that scientists really support faerie chainism.
Remember, we must always refer to the theory of gravitation as "Newton's theory" and "Newtonists," just like we do with "Darwin's theory" and "Darwinists," because that way we can make it clear that we're disputing one crackpot person and his blind followers instead of disputing with reality itself.
treebones: "Join the movement to have faerie chainism taught in schools!" Just because objects fell downward yesterday and every day during the life of every being who has ever lived to report about it does not mean it did so before that; and it doesn't mean objects won't fall some other direction tomorrow. Having discredited the theory of gravitation we now can demand equal time for the theory of chains of faeries pulling everything toward the earth.As anyone knows, a theory is just an unsupported speculation that has not yet been looked into. And yet to this day the entire global scientific community refers to it as the "theory" of gravity. Why just look at Wikipedia's entire page of theories, like heliocentric theory in which the earth orbits the sun instead of vice versa. These are all accepted with overwhelming unanimity by this global community of frauds called scientists, who obviously got into the science biz in order to engage in a massive conspiracy to conceal faeries. And yet they give themselves away by referring to them as theories, so now we can tell the schoolchildren that scientists really support faerie chainism.
Remember, we must always refer to the theory of gravitation as "Newton's theory" and "Newtonists," just like we do with "Darwin's theory" and "Darwinists," because that way we can make it clear that we're disputing one crackpot person and his blind followers instead of disputing with reality itself.
Biblical Astronomy?
Jun. 10th, 2005 09:53 amDid you really think that every modern bible believer accepts the findings of Copernicus? Witness so-called Creation Science in its purest and least hypocritical form. Geocentricity.com is the homepage of the Biblical Astronomy Association. They attempt to prove the existence of "the firmament" using sophistries and fallacious reasoning clothed in scientific language. All that serves as a good education in how to detect their type of pseudoscience through its comparison with other pseudosciences like Creationism, but when you get to their Credo they unclothe their dishonesty in plain sight:
"...All scientific endeavor which does not accept this revelation from on high without any reservations, literary, philosophical or whatever, we reject as already condemned in its unfounded first assumptions.
We believe that the creation was completed in six twenty-four hour days and that the world is not older than about six thousand years. We maintain that the Bible teaches us of an earth that neither rotates daily nor revolves yearly about the sun; that it is at rest with respect to the throne of him who called it into existence; and that hence it is absolutely at rest in the universe. ..."
{blah blah blah salvation}
" Lastly, the reason why we deem a return to a geocentric astronomy a first apologetic necessity is that its rejection at the beginning of our Modern Age constitutes one very important, if not the most important, cause of the historical development of Bible criticism, now resulting in an increasingly anti-Christian world in which atheistic existentialism is preaching a life that is really meaningless."
So there they blow it by showing their hand and revealing what's really at stake is that they can't mature emotionally and accept the cosmos as it is. As soon as they remove such passages (the same way Creationism was dressed up as Intelligent Design) watch out Kansas school boards. What is really most important about this website is that they acknowledge, and effectively demonstrate with specific passages and arguments about them, that the Christian bible teaches geocentrism and cannot be accepted literally without it. The bible must be taken figuratively.
"...All scientific endeavor which does not accept this revelation from on high without any reservations, literary, philosophical or whatever, we reject as already condemned in its unfounded first assumptions.
We believe that the creation was completed in six twenty-four hour days and that the world is not older than about six thousand years. We maintain that the Bible teaches us of an earth that neither rotates daily nor revolves yearly about the sun; that it is at rest with respect to the throne of him who called it into existence; and that hence it is absolutely at rest in the universe. ..."
{blah blah blah salvation}
" Lastly, the reason why we deem a return to a geocentric astronomy a first apologetic necessity is that its rejection at the beginning of our Modern Age constitutes one very important, if not the most important, cause of the historical development of Bible criticism, now resulting in an increasingly anti-Christian world in which atheistic existentialism is preaching a life that is really meaningless."
So there they blow it by showing their hand and revealing what's really at stake is that they can't mature emotionally and accept the cosmos as it is. As soon as they remove such passages (the same way Creationism was dressed up as Intelligent Design) watch out Kansas school boards. What is really most important about this website is that they acknowledge, and effectively demonstrate with specific passages and arguments about them, that the Christian bible teaches geocentrism and cannot be accepted literally without it. The bible must be taken figuratively.
The Universist Movement will host the famed Professor Richard Dawkins for a live guest discussion at The Faithless Community on Sunday March 20th at 4PM Eastern (9PM GMT).
Richard Dawkins' first book, The Selfish Gene (1976), in which he invented the concept of "memes," became an immediate international bestseller and was translated into all the major languages. Its sequel, The Extended Phenotype, followed in 1982. His other bestsellers include River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), and Unweaving the Rainbow (1998). Dawkins won both the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Los Angeles Times Literary Prize in 1987 for The Blind Watchmaker. The television film of the book, shown in the 'Horizon' series, won the Sci-Tech Prize for the Best Science Program of 1987. He has also won the 1989 Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London and the 1990 Royal Society Michael Faraday Award for the furtherance of the public understanding of science. In 1994 he won the Nakayama Prize for Human Science and in 1995 was awarded an Honorary D.Litt. by the University of St Andrews. Humanist of the Year Award 1996. Since 1996 has been Vice President of the British Humanist Association. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997. Winner of the 1997 (Fifth) International Cosmos Prize in Commemoration of Expo' 90. Recently he spearheaded an effort to introduce the word "bright" into the English language as an atheist analogue to the word "gay." Wired published an excellent biographical article on Dawkins in 1995 (read).
Richard Dawkins' first book, The Selfish Gene (1976), in which he invented the concept of "memes," became an immediate international bestseller and was translated into all the major languages. Its sequel, The Extended Phenotype, followed in 1982. His other bestsellers include River Out of Eden (1995), Climbing Mount Improbable (1996), and Unweaving the Rainbow (1998). Dawkins won both the Royal Society of Literature Award and the Los Angeles Times Literary Prize in 1987 for The Blind Watchmaker. The television film of the book, shown in the 'Horizon' series, won the Sci-Tech Prize for the Best Science Program of 1987. He has also won the 1989 Silver Medal of the Zoological Society of London and the 1990 Royal Society Michael Faraday Award for the furtherance of the public understanding of science. In 1994 he won the Nakayama Prize for Human Science and in 1995 was awarded an Honorary D.Litt. by the University of St Andrews. Humanist of the Year Award 1996. Since 1996 has been Vice President of the British Humanist Association. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997. Winner of the 1997 (Fifth) International Cosmos Prize in Commemoration of Expo' 90. Recently he spearheaded an effort to introduce the word "bright" into the English language as an atheist analogue to the word "gay." Wired published an excellent biographical article on Dawkins in 1995 (read).
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