And why does anyone take her seriously?

I know I've heard Bachmann call herself a small buisness owner, but I had no I idea it was anything like this. I am trying to stay away from politics in general on this blog, becasue being an atheist does not require any particular political stance on any issue. Whatever your views on homosexuality may be, you will probably agree that selling a cure for an ailment without the cure being scientifically verified is immoral and potentially dangerous.

I laughed, I cried

Just saw someone entering the Psychic on Rosedale Hwy near Allen. At first I laughed to my wife and cried "someone is actually going in there!". Then I realized that the poor woman was likely going to spend hard earned money to have someone blow smoke up her ass. Psychic businesses should be illegal.

The Devil's Windpipe

Go ahead and take a look at what stem cell research is capable of. Now place your face firmly in your palm as you realize what religious beliefs have kept American scientists from achieving. Stem cell research represents the most exciting advancements in medicine. I am just a layperson when it comes to these types of things, but even I can understand the profound benefits of being able to grow your own replacement organs. For one, you wont have the fear of organ rejectionion. You won't have to be on immuno supressants. Strain will be taken off of the donor lists because donor organs will be temporary fixes until they can be replaced with your own living tissue.

Life extending medicine is likely the closest thing to being immortal we'll ever achieve. It makes me downright angry to think that what has been standing in the way has been pure make believe.

Justice in the afterlife

In case you have been living under a rock, Casey Anthony was acquitted of murder. It has been called a miscarriage of the justice system. Mothers across the nation are up in arms about the verdict. Who is to say that they are incorrect. Only Casey Anthony knows for sure if she is guilty or innocent. Christians who believe that she got away with murder will readily claim that she will get what is coming to her when she is judged by God.

The idea of divine justice is appealing from a fairness and equity point of view. It would be comforting to know that those who did crummy things in their life had crummy things happen to them in just proportions. And if Casey Anthony did intentionally kill her daughter I would be willing to say that is deserving of something equally as terrible. Unless, of course, her daughter was being unruly:

18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. 20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. -
Deuteronomy 21:18-21s

 And in case anyone wanted to claim that the New Testament changed all of that:

For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ - Matthew 15:4

It seems to me that God would be pleased if that were the case. But even if he weren't the sense of justice we all yearn for, the sense that was bred into us over tens of thousands of years of social living, would not be satisfied. The god of the christians is claimed to have created the ultimate loop hole. All Casey Anthony would be required to do to side step any sort of posthumous reckoning would be to, on her death bed, let Jeebus into her heart and accept him as her savior. It is pink ponies and birthday cakes from there on out.

Those of us who are non-believers know that any recompense for crimes would need to be made in this world: the one world we know we have. Perhaps that is unsatisfying. But reality does not conform to what we find satisfying, otherwise I would be paid to stay at home and play video games instead of trudging into work every morning.

I wonder what He would think of an M1 Abrams

I am reminded of this tastey verse from the bible by the good people over at The Atheist Experience (whose broadcast I enjoy religiously):

"And the LORD was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron - Judges 1:19 "

They even put up a counter apologetics wiki based on the idea. It is a solid resource for some of the more popular apologetic arguments you might come across.

Happy 4th

Hurray for 'Merica. Hurray for religious freedom.

I'm not so sure about that

I happened across as a letter to the editor posted on The Bakersfield Californian website. I find it very stereotypical of the sorts of circular reasoning you find from believers. The evidence they point to is in the Bible. Why should we trust the Bible? What makes the Bible trustworthy? I've yet to hear an answer that satisfies my skeptical mind.

The truth of the matter is that there isn't any physical evidence of a god or gods existing. Studies have shown that intercessory prayer does nothing apart from provide a placebo effect. You can't measure God. If you can't measure something then it has no effect on the natural world we live in. Things that have no measurable effect on the natural world are indistinguishable from things that do not exist.

You have to do more than just assert that a god exists with some vague references to fulfilled prophesies. You have to demonstrate the thing you are asserting.