Tea Fuelled Madness

Goodbye Christopher Hitchens

2011-12-16T08:42:00.005Z

It is with great sadness I type this, Christopher Hitchens has died aged 62 from a disease that has claimed the lives of too many people that I care about.

I am sad. The Hitch was a man I thoroughly respected for his humour, his incredible intelligence, his public speaking and most importantly, his words.

There are going to be more articles written about this incredible man better worded than anything I could possibly muster, but what I would like to say to his family is that I am so very sorry you have lost such a good man.

If I'd have ever had the honour of meeting him I would have simply said thank you.

He has argued on the side of atheism, reason, rationalism, science, history and ho boy were his targets in trouble. So much so the term "Hitchslap!" has become a meme on the internet. - it reads on the Urban Dictionary - The process of having common sense knocked into you by Christopher Hitchens.

If anything can be said about his legacy is that he smacked common sense into a lot of people, so much so that some gave up their religions and became happier and more optimistic people because of reading or hearing what he said.

Believe it or not but he made my life that bit happier, that should probably tell you what I think of the man and what he has left behind.

With that, my promise tonight is to drink some Jonny Walker Black and toast the memory of Christopher "The Hitch!" Hitchens.

Thank you sir.

Atheist = As good as a rapist? Really?

2011-12-01T11:20:00.001Z

If this article is anything to go by, I am, as an atheist, viewed by some people as being on the same moral level as a rapist.

Some religious people actually think that without a belief in gods I am as trustworthy as a rapist.

That is staggering and also incredibly sick minded.

Who the hell is feeding this revolting nonsense to these people?

I admit, I do have reason to not trust religious figures, I have made it abundantly clear that I loathe people like Darth, Pat Robertson, Deepak Chopra etc but for reasons which I can back up with evidence.

I can show how Darth and his evil church for example HAVE committed child rape and encouraged other such suffering - doesn't mean I'm going to label every single Catholic in the same light - just the ones who are being revolting and dangerous.

I can tar people like Deepak Chopra for being liars, charlatans and ultimately dangerous people because of what they do or say to people who do not know any better and are unfortunately credulous enough to be taken in by it.

I can do this easily, I can produce evidence to show you cannot trust them.

I can show why I have good reasons think pretty much most religions are disgusting, full of lies and harmful towards the progress of the human race but once again, I'm attacking the religion and those shouting loudly about it. I'm attacking the people who are responsible. I'm not going after every single Muslim, Catholic, Mormon, Deepak follower - I'm disgusted with the consequences of what their religion or brand of woo does to other humans.

I've been disgusted with atheists too. Some atheists are rapists, murderers, genocidal maniacs etc just as much as some religious people are - but let me say this for the 50 billionth time - IT''S GOT FUCK ALL TO DO WITH ATHEISM!

I do not DO anything with my atheism, I've said this time and time again - I have a lack of belief in gods, that's it.

If I'm the world's nicest man or biggest arsehole, then there will be evidence to show that - I could be anything to anyone, but I cannot be those things because I'm an atheist.

Religious people do things on behalf of an adherence to their rules of religion - some will not eat meat, some will not drink booze, some will go on a genocidal rampage - if it states and commands it in the religion, then there is a high chance the followers will take up the challenge. Got it?

Just to let you know, I was brought up in a good family, I have a good set of friends and I have no criminal record. I have been an arsehole to people who might not have deserved it or have definitely deserved it. I have also been as caring as I possibly can for a few people. I'm an average chap. Weird, Tea drinking loon with a passion for life that cannot be crushed too - but that's part of the package of me.

I also happen to be an atheist, but it is not what makes me who I am.

Trust me! :D

Why I am not a Christian

2011-11-27T19:30:00.010Z

I've had a request from a friend to write down why I am not a Christian and what faith means to me, the following is my answer.

I have never had any faith or religion my whole life, it's because I've never had a good reason to do so. I am not a Christian any more than I am a Satanist, Santa Clausist, Leprchaunist, Buddhist, Mormon, Muslim, Jew or Norse Worshipper -there are a lot of religions, there are a lot of gods, choosing one over the rest doesn't make any reasonable sense to me.

To have me accept that a being as hideously complex as a god exists and affects the universe - we are talking the entire expanding universe which is an impossibly large place to describe with an impossibly large number of things in it- you are asking too much of me. I cannot accept that such a being is possible.

You are talking of a being that is impossibly powerful enough to create universes but a complete failure at confirming it's existence and making it abundantly clear what is expected of it's followers. In fact, the complete opposite is in effect - there is more evidence to show that gods are not involved in the workings of the universe, why would an impossibly intelligent being make it as difficult as possible for people to accept it is real?

With that in mind, asking me then to accept the Christian God over all the other gods did all this is again, asking too much of me.

There is no proper and agreed definition of this god - there are however thousands of denominations of Christianity - roughly 38,000 of them - which one gets to be right about God?

Furthermore, the only descriptions of this deity are from a book, The Bible. I know a little about the creation of this book, I know that the copies we have now are not the originals, what we have are copies made from copies that were copied from a multitude of copies. It is a book filled with contradictions and mostly absurd or highly disgusting stories about mass genocide, rape, torture - it encourages slavery, it encourages women to be subjected to the worst indignities solely because they are women, it encourages bigotry against gay people -the list is as endless as the multitude of interpretations people have managed to twist the meaning of various parts to suit their needs. If this is supposedly the work and wishes of a deity laid out in all it's digusting glory I want nothing to do with it.

The character of God in the book is best described by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

I cannot find a more apt description after reading through the book as many times as I have. The God of the New Testament is not much better, sending a version of himself/his son to go down to Earth in order to sacrifice himself, to appease himself for the things he set up but blames his creations and threatens them with eternal torture should they not please him or do as they are told. I would have to agree with Christopher Hitchens when he compared this to a Celestial version of North Korea, God is not a nice being.

I've often heard God being described as a loving deity - what kind of love are we talking about? Unless I do precisely as this deity wants I will be sent to a place of eternal torture - is that really how you get someone to love you? If this deity created me or had anything to do with my being here at all, then he knew I'd end up an atheist and he knew I would be destined for hell. I was created to go to hell. Excellent.

Or how about this planet? Not the best of creations is it? 99 % of the things that have lived on it are now dead. Extinct. It's constantly attempting to destroy itself through volcanoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters, animals by the trillions are dying all over the place, including those who believe and pray to this deity who looks on with complete indifference to their suffering and pain.

We have better explanations now that our knowledge and understanding increases - facts like evolution by natural selection explain far more about life on this planet than people being created out of dirt and ribs. The knowledge we have accumulated so far is astonishing and the joy of it all is there is more to discover, more to investigate. Bringing gods into the explanations ruins it and it explains nothing - if anything prevents investigation, it encourages us to be satisfied with not knowing things and I cannot bring myself to think that way.

If you want to know what really pushes my buttons then take a look out into space and what we have discovered there - my mind is truly boggled when it comes to space, it's so fascinating. No deity could ever replace my joy and wonder of seeing something like a gas nebula or a galaxy, no way at all.

So, having rejected all that in favour of accepting scientific and historical evidence I find myself thinking of Tim Minchin's song Storm and some lines from it.

I am a tiny, insignificant, ignorant lump of carbon.
I have one life, and it is short
And unimportant…
But thanks to recent scientific advances
I get to live twice as long
As my great great great great uncleses and auntses.
Twice as long to live this life of mine

That's me. I'm good with knowing I have one life to live because I'm going to live it. Of all the possible versions of me, I'm the one who got to be here. With my brown hair, ever changing eye colour and a love of Tea. I don't want to waste it by hoping I'm doing the right thing for a celestial dictator with whom communication and clarification is on the wrong side of completely impossible. I want to be the best I can be for all the people I share my life with. But that's just the person I am. No deity helped me arrive at this conclusion. No religion can ever help me with that.

I'm better off being an atheist.

The Magic of Reality

2011-09-09T14:55:00.003+01:00

Richard Dawkins is back with another book - this time for children and any adults, for example Deepak Chopra, Darth, Ted Haggard, Pat Robertson, Rick Perry and any other delusional ignoramus having problems accepting reality. I know, Richard's adult books were tough to read without the pictures, but I'm sure now there are pictures, all those adults can learn something too! :D

I'm really glad Richard has done this, it is an excellent idea. Richard has an amazing way of writing and comunicating knowledge to people who are new to subjects or need to learn more.

I always wonder in bewildered bafflement as to what is so wrong with reality and what we know or can learn about it that people really have to replace it with mystical good for nothing bullshit which brings more unanswered questions than it does explain things.

Good luck Richard, I'm sure it will do well.

Rick, ask properly you slacker!

2011-09-07T12:52:00.005+01:00

Dear Governor Perry

How dare you let the world down like this - can't you pray to God PROPERLY?

You know, you are supposed to, according to your Bible, ask God in Jesus's name and it will be done - John 16:23-24 clearly says this.

So Rick, why hasn't rain come to Texas yet?

Come on, you and God are supposedly on speaking terms, your mustard seed faith is guaranteed to be able to move mountains (Matthew 17:20), getting the whole of Texas together making it rain should be a doddle!

Your celestial dictator has a lot on his hands you know, committing one genocidal atrocity after another around the world is a difficult business - setting fire to Texas is probably taking up time where he could be doing other things. I'm sure he has better ways to kill innocent people including bbqing a few babies to their screaming, agonising deaths. To stop him in his almighty tracks, you have to ask nicely and properly - now get to it!

OR

You can stop fucking about wasting everybody's time and making it more difficult for the brave human beings committed to putting their lives on the line to stop the fires killing other people etc

I honestly don't know what goes through these people's minds - don't they see that praying does absolutely bugger all to changing anything? Obviously not.

If their God has anything to do with the goings on in this universe, what exactly was he doing setting up the weather conditions to make sure that things became more flammable, that the fire would spread quickly and kill people in it's path?

I am so sick of people saying we need to pray during these times - we need to gather knowledge, using science, to find better ways of dealing with these things, we need to educate people properly on fire prevention, get more fire service people trained and ready to deal with emergencies like this - anything but stand around fucking about with our eyes closed and hands together pleading with nothing to stop natural disasters!

Michelle, that wasn't funny.

2011-08-30T15:17:00.003+01:00

Michelle Bachman has been telling jokes - well, first she spouted a load of religious bullshit aimed at pointing the finger at the sinners, THEN she started backtracking saying it was all a bit of a giggle, why are you lot getting so upset?

Michelle, people are upset because you said this:

“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”
How many warnings do you think you’re going to get, and how many warnings do you deserve? This hurricane that is coming thorough the East Coast, for anyone who’s in the East Coast and has been listening to me say ‘Food storage!’ ‘Be prepared!’ […] If you’ve waited, this hurricane is a blessing. It is a blessing. It is God reminding you — as was the earthquake last week — it’s God reminding you you’re not in control.

What part of that is supposed to be funny exactly?

God is hacked off with government spending and people need to be reminded to store food? HAHAHHAHAHA ROTFLMFAO!

It's a blessing! STOP IT, MY SIIIIIIIDDDES!

Oh wait, what was that? You didn't mean it?

Funny isn't it when people can't tell the difference between some religious dribbling idiot vomits forth nonsense about natural disasters being the fault of gay atheists or some other ludicrous made up drivel that's been yanked out the arse to get people all humble before the celestial dictator.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the victims.

What utter nonsense, that's about as comforting as your first bucket of arse gravy, give it up Michelle!

If God isn't sending natural disasters to make life even more miserable cos he's hacked off with the sinners, sending your prayers up pleading with the bastard if he could perhaps muster up the magic powers to be kind to the poor buggers he has just killed or made homeless doesn't quite cut the mustard either.

Michelle, I have some advice - shut the hell up!

Balls and Boobs shall be the end of the Earth!

2011-08-25T12:36:00.002+01:00

This is a message for us all, those with Boobs and those with Balls - be very careful, for with great Boobs and Balls comes great responsibility, for we all control plate tectonics with them!

Yes, women, you with your catastrophe causing chests and you men with your dangerous dangly bits - forget science, forget everything we thought we knew about the events that lead up to the terrible quakes we have suffered over the millenia - your bits are the real danger!

The latest message from this memberhead combined with last year's Boobquake only confirms that the shaking of Boobs and Balls in the "wrong" places are only contributing to the misery of us all!

Now, I know, there will be some of you wanting to question the wisdom of a man who can produce quotes like

“The Talmud states, 'You have shaken your male member in a place where it doesn't belong. I too, will shake the Earth.'”

Sure, I get it, you think that perhaps this man is talking out of his arse?

You'd be fucking right! What a dribbling idiotic good for nothing bastard! Oh sure, blame Teh Gayz, that's going to help humankind isn't it?

What is it with these religious fundies who swear blind that their chosen deity goes forth and creates gay people, men's dangly bits and women's boobs etc only to lay waste to the planet in the form of natural disasters when people are being gay or showing more boob than some crusty old deluded virgin can't handle??

HAHA! I CREATED THEM, NOW I HAVE FREE REIGN TO PUNISH THEM FOR IT IN SOME COMPLETELY UNCONNECTED CHAIN OF EVENTS!

Well, things is, I would encourage all men to now rise to the occasion and go shake your bits in the same manner as those sinful women did with their chests on April 26th last year. BUT, remember indecent exposure is an arrestable offence unfortunately so be careful you hear?

If I may be a little Treffusian for a moment, if you were, I hope the earth moved! :D

Paula Kirby vs Ignorance

2011-08-25T08:18:00.004+01:00

No contest really, Paula wins by a million miles, here is another exceptionally written article about why people like Rick Perry should shut up about Creationism and why it should be taught in schools.

I think the analogy of walking off the 14th floor of a building, no matter how much you want the results to be otherwise, no matter how much "faith" you put into not falling to your death, you are going to go splat.

Splat.

I like that. Sums up the clinging on to faith instead of discovering more about life the Universe and Everything - splat is the noise you make as you hit the floor of ignorance, you are not going to go any further, you've committed yourself to staying still, not going to accomplish any more after that.

Science never stops, it's going to continue to discover as long as there are people who refuse to be ignorant, forget Rick Perry, he is an idiot. He is the ground at the bottom of the fall you fervently believed you'd never hit.

Science, like Red Bull, gives you wings - you either evolve them over millions of years or you cheat like humans and make them yourself but constantly use science to improve them! :D

New Shiny Broadband!

2011-08-23T16:43:00.000+01:00

Woooo Hooooooooooooooooo!

Finally left the incompetant and completely useless bunch from Talk Talk and am now happily surfing the Internet on something so much better!

Yiiiiiippppppppppppiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee!

Derran made me do it!

2011-08-17T14:09:00.002+01:00

Those of you who want to know the "true" cause of the riots in London, please read this article!

All looters and rioters now have the most airtight alibi in the world, furthermore I think a charity should be set up to help Victims of a Tv Stunt recover from the horrors inflicted upon them by that criminal mastermind/genius called Derran Brown!

:D

World Youth Day horrors

2011-08-17T13:04:00.002+01:00

Ok, so I was sent this article about an attempted gas attack on non-believers protesting Darth who will be celebrating World Youth Day.

What a nightmare

Some religious arsehole with a chemistry set and the desire to kill people who disagree with him is bad enough and I'm very glad they caught the idiot before he did some unspeakable damage on behalf of his dangerous religious views.

But letting Darth and his child raping organisation be the figureheads in celebrating World Youth Day is just taking the piss, as the man who sent me the article said - it's "like having Josef Fritzl to lead the celebrations for Family day."

Seriously, how much more of a mistake could they make?

What right does Darth have to even be anywhere NEAR that event?

If I could make it, I'd be out there protesting too, it would be worth the gas attack.

Christians don't know enough about their Bibles

2011-08-16T15:53:00.002+01:00

Here is a fascinating look at some rather interesting claims about the Bible - now, I'm a little sceptical of the first one, I thought there are accounts in the 4 Gospels of the crucifixion- I seem to remember vinegar, earthquakes and zombies being spoken of after it happened but I will elaborate more on this when I get the chance

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Me!

2011-08-07T15:27:00.001+01:00

WOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

33 years young and still drinking the Tea, rock on!!

PZ drinks Tea in style!

2011-08-03T10:25:00.002+01:00

Saw this on Pharyngula - I'm so impressed with PZ, he is a great ambassador for all good and godless Tea drinkers!

HERE'S TO PZ!

Amazon reviews of the King James Bible

2011-07-29T10:36:00.001+01:00

Here is a link to some of the greatest and funniest reviews of the Bible I have read in a while - so very funny!

Jesus - the worst moral teacher

2011-07-06T08:09:00.002+01:00

Saw this article on Pharyngula and it really caught my eye.

I am fed up to the teeth with people telling me that the character of Jesus had anything nice or worthwhile to say that is appropriate for the 21st Century.

The Bible has a lot of vile and disgusting teachings in it, encouraging a plethora of dangerous and evil ways to treat people - I've had it quoted to me that there is good in that Bible but to be honest, since there is no good evidence to support the authority from which it supposedly comes from - I will not accept anything from that disgusting book.

Don't tell me this mythical Jesus taught love, he did not - don't tell me the Bible teaches love, it does not. It teaches you to be less human and less able to cope with living on this planet with others.

Bible Interpollations

2011-06-02T15:43:00.003+01:00

A very interesting post by Richard Carrier thus proving once again that the Bible is not deity inspired but entirely a human construct, unless that deity is truly the most incompetant or mendacious liar of all time to produce a book this badly written.

I'll add more of my opinions on this article when I can but suffice to say, the more I learn about the Bible, the more I refer to it as the Holy Libel!

I've been immortalised again!!

2011-06-01T08:39:00.002+01:00

Check out the Awesome Blog known as Shemglamonga, I sent Dr Logan W. Herbert a very important question and he answered with Science, I could not ask for more!

Damon Fowler, you have my support.

2011-05-27T11:04:00.008+01:00

I have been reading a lot lately about this brave young man from a Lousianna High School in Bastrop and an article by Greta Christina and here by JT Eberhard who is part of the Secular Student Alliance.

In short -

This guy pointed out to his school that should they attempt to hold Christian prayers at the graduation ceremony they would be breaking the law as it is a violation of the Constitution. The ceremony has to have a clear separation of religion, they cannot give bias to one over the others, they cannot be seen to be forcing Christian prayers like that,all religions or lack of them are to be treated equally.

He posted something on Reddit I found out about on Pharyngula that I found very upsetting

Well, it hit the fan a couple hours ago. They’ve already assembled a group of supporters at a local church and called in the newspaper. I’ve had to deactivate my Facebook account and I can’t reason with any of them. They refuse to listen. The whole town hates me, aside from a few closet atheists that are silently supporting, which I don’t blame them looking at what I’ve incited here.

The Christians were outraged and proceeded to send him death threats and a whole ton of horrible messages from the people at his school, his own teacher publicly and behind his back insulted him and the loving Christian denizens of the community have also sent lots of happy verbal insults and death threats too.

Worse still, instead of backing their son, his parents joined in the community hate and threw him out the house. Their own son!

The poor guy's life has been turned upside down by this and I am horrified at the treatment he has been given by these people simply for pointing out the law to the school and more importantly for the mere fact he is an atheist.

This is becoming a recurring theme - Atheists are scum and the fundies are not afraid to go out of their way to point that out, no matter how unhelpful or disgusting it all is - not even if it is unlawful.

The comments from Greta's link to the Bastrop Enterprise news story from "loving" Christians are telling - "I hope they [Christians] put enough pressure on this kid to convert him and save his soul from the fire of hell." (Cos his life just isn't shit enough you want to add that extra bullshit threat!) - real happy stuff. My favourite being "What he is really doing is trying to shove his views down people's throats." Err hang on a second - who is doing the shoving of views down people's throats here?

I'm posting this because I am getting tired of hearing that some religious bunch think they should have it better than everyone else and woe betide those that question their reasoning.

What annoys me is the Christians went ahead and broke the law anyway by having Christian prayers at the pre-ceremony and the actually ceremony after they specifically said they wouldn't. They are now in big trouble.

Not only have they willingly broken the law, they have sinned as well! Matthew 6 clearly says shut the hell up during prayer time - they should not have done that, God is going to be most displeased!

People like Damon stand up and say "Hey - what about everyone else?" and look what happens - the Christians act all offended, all righteous and then proceed to do their best to ruin that person's life, even to the point of death threats and ostracising from the community and family. Fundies do not change - most religious persuasions will react in the same way, they are the ones being set upon, they are the ones who deserve to react in this way regards less of the way they act.

What did Damon do wrong? He said EVERYONE should be treated the same and it was not solely to do with his being an atheist.

America has a reputation of fearing atheists - Darth's lot do it tons - pin the blame on the atheists of the world cos they have no morals, no code, no law cos they have no celestial dictator ordering them from the invisible special place. All the reprehensible things their religion tells them to do, all the horrible acts as mentioned in this whole fiasco and laws broken are muddied over by their self righteous howlings of superiority and persecution complex.

Well, just take a look what the godless did for Damon!

All is not lost, there is hope for this guy thanks to all the atheists as well, as I am happy to say, some clear thinking Christians as well, who have stepped up in face of this and backed him to the core. Whatever horrible and despicable behaviour that has been hurled his way - the encouragement and sheer scale of the backing he has received is truly incredible. Total strangers have put money towards his college fund, I've been keeping up as best I can with the messages on the Support Damon Facebook page, I'm in awe of how generous people can be - in short The Internet has hit back. It is encouraging to see that in the face of such evil some good can still come out of it, well done The Internet!

A quote from Greta's article that sums it up:

The next time someone tells you that atheists are selfish and amoral? Remember Damon Fowler. Remember the religious community that bullied him, harassed him, ostracized him, and drove him out.

And remember the atheist community that took him in.

I'd like to make special mention of his brother Jarret - the moment the shit hit the fan for Damon, Jarret leaped in to save his brother and has been putting up one hell of a fight over this, kudos to you Jarret, you are one heck of a good man.

I'm not superior because I'm an atheist, I'm not who I am because I'm an atheist - my atheism is superfluous - same as every single one who has backed Damon - we did it cos we care, we want to change a horrible situation, we want to prove that Damon has people watching his back so he doesn't despair.

Religious people also can be this good, they have and do speak out along with those who do not believe the same as they do. I'm not lumping them in one whole massive heap, I'm talking about those who do things like the above Christians did.

So hey there world hadn't you better change your mind about atheists - we are not the monsters the monsters report us to be.

More Rapture nonsense

2011-05-20T14:54:00.002+01:00

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The stupid, it buuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrnnnns!

It burns so bright!

I give up with some people, I really do.

Here is an article I was just sent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20rapture.html?_r=2

I'm almost gob-smacked, I know I shouldn't be, there are some properly delusional people on this Earth but really, this is not right.

“My mom has told me directly that I’m not going to get into heaven,” Grace Haddad, 16, said. “At first it was really upsetting, but it’s what she honestly believes.”

I mean look at that!

"I soooooooooo VERY extra Special, I am I am I am! You are not dear daughter, you are going to hell, I shall be in Heaven, I'm so very pleased about this, isn't God wonderful that I can say this to my own daughter and be really happy about this!"

Moving swiftly on - Mr Gary Daniels, 27 years old

"I know I’m not going to see them again, but they are very certain they are going to see me, and that’s where I feel so sad,” he said. “I weep to know that they don’t have any idea that this overwhelming thing is coming right at them, pummeling toward them like a meteor.”

Brilliant work there Mr Daniels - you are going to look like one magnificent berk on Saturday! Unlike Mrs Habbad, here he is lamenting away - doesn't once stop to think - hang on, isn't this a bit wrong? Is this really the work of a loving deity? Here he is about to be raptured off and his friends and family are going to suffer. No alarm bells ringing Mr Daniels?

Hang on, here is Mrs Haddad to the rescue -

“I have mixed feelings,” Ms. Haddad Carson said. “I’m very excited about the Lord’s return, but I’m fearful that my children might get left behind. But you have to accept God’s will.”

Stockholm Syndrome is alive and well in this woman! I love the way the cognative dissonance clicks in right after she is all fearful for her kids - *click* "It's God's Will, all is right, fine and dandy!"

Those poor kids, they have to suffer so much, I can imagine it is very stressfull and highly embarrassing to have to go through all this.

Religion poisons everything.

Looking forward to a complete lack of rapture!

2011-05-20T09:55:00.002+01:00

So, batshit crazy Harold "I failed in 1994 and I'll fail again" Camping and his equally delusional minions are expecting The Rapture this weekend.

I'm looking forward to Sunday.

I'm actually hoping Harold's excuse is going to be of epic proportions, if you are going to screw up by making such outrageously daft predictions, it's only fair to have an equally Failworthy excuse at the ready, some galactic sized puddle of dribbling nonsense is what is needed. Come on Harold, don't let me down!

I'm actually encouraged by what normal people have planned - some atheist groups are having Countdown to Backpeddling parties as explained in the article here from The Telegraph

Watch the video on that page, it's hilarious. I think it should be played to Family Radio a lot next week.

There is a brilliant post here by Steve Zara about what would be needed to pull off such a feat - I hope Gawd and Jebus have been working out in the gym, they will have their work cut out pulling this one off!

But,Harold says it's going to happen. There are signs you know - pay attention, this is important!

It's the anniversary of Noah's flood, the creation of the world anniversary and wait for it...Divine Numerology!!!!

Well, that's me convinced!

Oh yes, cos the Bible says so.

The Bible is never wrong is it?

Oh and anyone saying - "Don't pick on the poor old man, let him be!" - no, sorry, not going to do that.

This poisonous little toad and his ilk have spent a lot of time and other people's money trying to spread fear and misery which credulous people are taking seriously, read the end of the first article, some people have literally bankrupted themselves cos they firmly believe in this shit - Family Radio deserve to be brought to task for all their bullshit, this has to be mocked and they should be forced to bail out all the people they have lied to.

The other thing that bothers me is that there are people like this who REALLY want the world and the universe to end. I'm talking near orgasmic delight that everything is destroyed and they get to spend eternity fawning in front of the celestial dictator.

How utterly depressing is that?

Is this universe and everything in it really not good enough for these morons? The universe is, without exaggeration, fucking amazing, it's got some mind blowing stuff in it that we lucky carbon based monkeys get to learn about and boggle our minds with. But no, that is not enough, not good enough - it has to go, these people don't care about it.

If at all you wonder why I vehemently disagree with these idiots, the above is a pretty good reason why. I happen to think that even with all the shit in this life of ours there is so much more to learn about, discover and enjoy. Don't dismiss it so eagerly and replace it with such depressing,impossible, moronic, delusional bullshit that will never happen.

So, get ready to mock and mock loudly, I plan to have a post non rapture cup of Tea at the ready which I shall hold aloft in defiance of Harold and his miserable ilk! Screw you Family Radio, I'm going to endeavour to do my best to enjoy this life and this universe!

:P

The Bible is not inerrant

2011-05-12T08:25:00.000+01:00

Here is a fantastic article by Richard Carrier about the forgery that is Mark 16:9-20.

I will post in more detail hopefully later but one paragraph I think sums up what I think of the Bible

Since we are actually lucky the evidence of this meddling survived, we should expect that other instances of meddling have occurred for which the evidence didn't survive, calling into doubt the rest of the New Testament (hereafter NT). Since the survival of evidence is so unlikely for changes made before c. 150 A.D. (fifty to eighty years after the NT books were supposedly written), and in some cases even for changes made before c. 250 A.D. (well over a hundred more years later)—as we have few to no manuscripts of earlier date, and none complete, and scarce reliable testimonies—we can expect that many other changes could have survived undetected

I know from my studies of the Middle Ages that monks and scribes of those ages changed so much of the Bible, influenced either by their own piety or the governing authority whose predomincancy over which denomination of Christianity was the right one after their chats with God! Footnotes became gospel, unicorns appeared here and there - the whole thing is a complete mess from start to finish, so the next time someone quotes the Bible at you, know they are not arguing from authority.

Education Fails!

2011-05-12T08:22:00.000+01:00

I found this blog whilst reading stuff on Pharyngula - I think it is hilarious!

http://shitmystudentswrite.tumblr.com/

I think my favourite so far is:

Macbeth couldn’t have loved Lady Macbeth because he was crazy and too busy hallucinating witches and stuff. Also, crazy people can’t do it without going crazy midway through

.

Crazy people, they just don't have sex properly!

Colombian Adventures Part 3

2011-04-14T17:41:00.005+01:00

So, after surviving the Amazon Jungle, we moved from the very south of Colombia to the very north of it to a place called Santa Marta.

We arrived and were picked up by a couple of lads, really nice guys whose help over the next few days was invaluable - they were happy driving my brother around as he speaks very good Spanish - the rest of my family and girlfriend however get by with the "find the word in the phrase book, speak that sentence and then get completely baffled by the answer!

We got to our residence and found it was very hot and the on switch for the air conditioning was seemingly impossible to locate - we searched and got hotter, dreading the night's sleep ahead until I think my mum found the switch and all was well.

The next day, my brother suggested we go to a beach. My girlfriend loves beaches and had been excited to hear we were finally going to get to one. Now, remember what I said earlier about my dear brother accidentally omitting small but highly important details?

What he failed to say was the beach was a 7 mile hike through the jungle to get there and 7 miles back! It was an enormously hot day and there was plenty of opportunity to get magnificently hot and sweaty with soggy shoes as there were a couple of rivers to cross. I had some good boots on which were waterproof, but others did not and had to put up with soggy feet for a bit!

We were knackered when we got there, but it was a beautiful place to finally sit down and rest, have a swim and investigate around.I managed to get a little roasted in the sun and how the suntan lotion on looked like the tan I had on my poor bitten back had been poured down rather than going all over. Suffice to say it looked properly weird along with my bites, especially on my lip, I was looking pretty foxy!

The walk back was arduous but in places humorous as I offered to give my girlfriend a piggy back across the rivers - I kept my balance but there were times where it could have proven to be more than just soggy feet! We got back fantastically tired and slept very well.

My brother announced the next day we were going to another beach - even the drivers arrived with nervous trepidation that it was going to be a repeat of the previous day's massive hike. Thankfully, this was not the case and we went to a lovely place with swooping v formations of pelicans flying over all the time, camera shy crabs (little bugger, I was attempting to get closer but each time I moved forwards he disappeared down his little hole) and some really cool waves to body surf in.

Our driver spoke very very very little English in the car and we attempted small talk but it was hard going. He plonked some music on - mostly Spanish/Latin music that all sounds the same asides from a few accordion solos here and there, I have to say it was pretty ghastly. Suddenly from nowhere there was a version of "I did it my way" in Spanish which was quite amusing to hear and then Aerosmith and Bon Jovi - at last English we could sing along to! The driver was highly amused by this and did his best to find as many tracks as he could in English and to my highly amused delight and joy suddenly Rammstein filled the air - "Amerika!"

Hell Yes!

\m/

He played it probably a bit too much, but I still love that song and it made the journey back a lot more fun for all of us.

We stopped off at a bar for a beer with the drivers as they we were going to be off the next day and saw one of the most amazing sunsets toasting some really cool lads who looked after us well.

We went out for Pizza in the evening and got to watch some of the stranger sights of the night life. My girlfriend displayed some magnificent haggling skills with the locals, they hardly spoke English and we didn't understand half the numbers they offered us but managed to get some amazing goods for not an awful lot of money, she is Awesome!

There were these rather brightly coloured buses that looked like they had been open topped and then had the tops added on later, hurtling around in true Colombian fashion, ie nearly killing people! Other than the music and drunk people in the front compartment, there was the added bonus of this wire cage on the back where there was a play pen for kids to use a slide and play in the balls - whilst the bus was hurtling around!

We also went around town the next day and saw some truly weird sights - I've mentioned the neglect of road safety quite a lot but nothing prepared us for the sights we saw on the road.

Mopeds were the preferred mode of transport because of the narrow streets around Santa Marta really were not good for cars - ok they still drove cars down these roads but on the whole they were moped fans. So much so that perhaps one passenger or even two might have been bothered to wear a helmet, but I feel that was an extravagance they were not prepared to spread to their children. You had toddlers either squished between mum and dad or on the driver's lap with hands on the steering wheel - I was speechless.

Just when I thought it could not get more dangerous there were parents with one arm around their babies, the other either waving at their sides or perhaps if baby was lucky; holding on to the bike or the driver!

WTF?!?!?!?!?!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yet somehow this was everyday life for these people, they just took it in their strides and got on with it - I was almost beginning to question my more safety orientated upbringing - had I been too worried about not having a seat belt on or safety gear for cycling or other stuff? But I am probably judging things by Blighty's standards and shouldn't complain - just scream a little now and again in horror of what I saw! :D

At the place where we were staying, there were mountains around a lovely outside swimming pool, I enjoyed swimming there - asides from the wasps at either end, that meant swimming without touching the sides, tough but I managed it cos I can't stand wasps- my girlfriend is way braver and just swam from end to end with reckless abandon!

Santa Marta was an amazing place and I have fond memories of there, nice and hot with some properly crazy driving - not from our drivers, they were smart and savvy!

So to end this post, in honour of our driver Juan Pablo - this one is for you young man!

Colombia Adventures Part 2

2011-04-05T10:53:00.002+01:00

We pottered around Bogota for a day to get used to the massive height above sea level - apparently Bogota is the 3rd highest city in the world - well, everyone else had to adjust, I was fine which puzzles me. I had double pneumonia and asthma when I was a kid with repeated bouts of pneumonia up until about 8 - my lungs have taken a bit of damage along the journey, but I really didn't feel any difference at all.

Bogota I think has come a long way since the 80s and 90s after the terrible reign of Pablo Escobar and his drug cartel rule. Sure it's not perfect and Colombia has a long way to go over the whole drugs problem that still exists but they are encouraging tourism to help replace the need for farmers etc turning to grow drugs because it pays the most.

There is a lot of building work going on and the city seems to be repairing itself, albeit very slowly, into a better place. Read this book by June Carolyn Erlick if you want to learn more. There were still places this gringo should not walk around, even during the day, but there are some stunning places to go and visit which I will talk about later.

Our first big trip was to go to a place called Leticia from where we went to the Amazon jungle. Hopping in a very battered taxi over to Brazil, then on a boat, then into a car again (with the SLOWEST driver in the world - I swear he was secretly mocking us who were wedged into the back seat whilst being 6ft tall!) before leaping onto another boat to get to our destination in the jungle.

I have been on the Amazon River - I don't want to sound pompous but wow, what a privilege - I read about it when I was at school but never in my whole life would I had known I would have had the chance to see it with my own eyes. It's truly beautiful and flippin' huge!

I should point out that the temperature and humidity had increased dramatically - coming from a cold and wet February England, it was so welcome to be in temperatures of 30 and above!

We stayed in a big wooden construction that was originally built for the purposes of housing a team of scientists studying the rainbow dolphins in the river. It was beautiful, especially at night when the stars came out - the was a lookout tower (no going up there after two beers!) where you could get some stunning views of the sunsets.

1st day was walking day - we walked for AGES around the jungle with our intrepid guide to witness some truly amazing animals including a rainbow boa snake which was very rare to see.

Now, out here in jungle land it is VERY important to wear a lot of protection from mosquitoes so morning ritual was thus - cold shower, (no central heating here!) suntan lotion, special soap on afterwards which you stood around waiting to dry out which repels mozzies, then stuff called "Skin so soft" apparently used by the SAS to repel the bitey ones and last but not least the toughest Deet we could possibly muster without going further into banned chemical and biological warfare!

There were further applications of Deet as we wondered around, my dad making sure my shoulders were covered enough so that I got bitten the most.

Yes, bastard mozzies decided I was prime meat for chewing, my blood is so tasty that even the strongest repellents known to humanity would not ward them off and I got covered in bites all over my back and shoulders. Oh boy did it itch - it being so hot didn't help and I was forever having to leap in the shower to cool down before I scratched myself to death!

The next day I was bitten on my lip.

Bastards!

I looked properly stupid for a few days afterwards, but thankfully it was not permanent!

We went Kayaking - we managed to make Peru smaller by touching and dislodging some mud, my apologies Peru! We saw a wide variety of animals including birds and a lot of dolphins. Sadly the dolphins were not the jumpy type but they still popped up once in a while to show their backs and tails.

Later on we went fishing for piranhas - they are vicious little buggers! I say fishing, possibly the wrong term, it was more like feeding them bits of chicken and fish using a fishing rod! You put the meat on the hook, send it down, wait for it to be ripped off and then add another - repeat until you have run out of food! I caught one, it came up on deck, bit my mother's t-shirt and made a bit of a hole and then was safely done away with. The worst thing is, once the other piranhas had discovered one of their kind had been caught, they then proceeded to rip that fish apart before it even reached the surface! With that lack of compassion in their cannibalism I did not feel so bad about catching them!

Next activity was a funny one - my brother had said we were going up into the tree canopy to look at the animals - I thought this meant being on a rope, going up a tree, staying there and then back down.

Oh no.

What he failed to explain to me was that we would be climbing 40ft up onto a platform, proceed to walk across a bridge - well, a few planks of wood that looked like they were held together with staples and sellotape and some metal cables to hold on to. Ok, so I had a rope attached to me to make sure I would not fall all the way down if I slipped but now was not the time to discover I have a massive fear of heights!

Over the "bridge" was another platform. Connecting that platform to another a hundred or so metres away in another tree was a zip line. 40 ft up in the trees. The horrible realisation that there was no going back along the bridge started to creep in.

I do not like falling from great heights - even when diving, I have never liked going that fast - I completely and utterly freaked out. Knowing there was no choice but to go on this zip line, I was petrified to the core. It took a great deal of persuasion from the nutters who LOVE heights and being thrown along a zip line but I eventually was hooked up and sent hurtling towards the other side, repeatedly being reminded NOT to stop the contraption too soon or I would be left dangling in the middle.

Bastards!

It didn't go too fast and I was able to go all the way without problems, I was so relieved to have made it, all I had left was abseiling down to the ground - that was easy, I love abseiling!

Yes, I'm weird, I know!

I loved the jungle, it was an amazing place to stay. Very, very noisy at night, the frogs and crickets went berserk, with added creepy crawlies all over the place in the form of massive spiders, cockroaches and grasshoppers! My brother was avidly collecting dead things to look at under his microscope, my poor girlfriend finding the majority of these things being the most terrified of spiders!
There were humming birds too, they are amazingly small and fast yet able to fly in impressive maneuvers.

Saw some bats and I now want to fight crime - just wait till I get over this fear of heights! There was a massive tree in the jungle which 20 years ago had been felled by a bunch of highly ambitious termites which was then taken over by some bats - they were awesome!

The people were lovely and the experience was mind blowing - I'll probably never see it again but I am over the moon to have done it

Ok, from here onto Santa Marta which will be my next post, hope you enjoyed this one!

Colombia Adventures Part 1

2011-04-05T09:47:00.008+01:00

Right - I guess its high time I report on my experiences recently of going to see Colombia in February, it was an incredible, life changing experience that I will never forget for my whole life. Some of this may be very sarcastic and sound like I am grumbling but I assure you, I love Colombia dearly, it is an incredible country with some sights that would blow your mind like it did mine.

First off I can imagine people would be properly taken aback that this was a holiday destination - who goes on holiday to Colombia? You'd have to be mad!

So, with that attribute already firmly in place I ventured forth with my lady to go and meet my family out in Bogota. :D

All was going magnificently, we caught the right flights, people were helpful, food wasn't bad, movies were good - Megamind is a film I would properly advocate seeing by the way - the Guns & Roses moment alone sealed the deal, it was that Awesome! :D

Bogota airport was manic - well, Colombian airports in general are not my favourite places in the world - as I wonder through my experiences you will find that I reference my displeasure a little bit here and there!

We landed and were greeted with a gargantuan queue - in this hallway you have 3 lanes - the middle lane full of people, the right lane for people with connecting flights and the left lane for people committing one of the biggest and most offensive behaviour known to any red blooded English man and woman....

I'm barely holding it together typing this...

The left lane for people who WANTED TO JUMP THE QUEUE!

Ye gods and pixies this was beyond intolerable, this happened a lot on holiday, people pushing in front of us to get to things - oh the English Frowning and Tutting that ensued after these terrible social crimes had been committed! Worse still, no apology after they had been frowned and tutted at - can you believe it?

It was nearly more than my poor Englishman could take but I muddled through it - staying in the queue of more than 300 people in an orderly fashion making sure those behind me did not get in front!

This queue was long and took a terrific amount of time to get through - why?

Immigration - oh boy, did they FAFF! Not only had they disorganised it so that all flights that had landed at the same time, but they took their time looking supposedly studious, careful and completely oblivious to the angry hordes wanting to escape the airport!

With one final ticket check we managed to get outside to be greeted with what would become a familiar sight and sound - traffic!

I will add pictures soon of the craziness of the driving out there, but I will paint a little picture now to give you an idea.

Imagine a place where people beep their horns at EVERYTHING! Be it a taxi driver wanting to grab people's attentions or people beeping to indicate they were going to perform an over taking maneuver which no clear thinking stunt man or racing driver would consider in his right or left mind. Funnier still - 0.05 seconds after a light has turned green at traffic lights apparently is the best time to sound your annoyance that nobody has yet moved let alone shifted into 1st gear!

We gawped at people and their over-taking - well, I call it over-taking, it was more drifting into another lane, indicating afterwards then switching back because the other lane is doing better and it would be a golden opportunity to get those extra centimetres ahead! When you encounter 3 lanes by no means do you obey the rules about doing 40 in one lane, 50 in the next and 60 in the other - no, you drive in the fast lane at 30 - yeeaahhh that will help!

The best I saw was massive truck in front of us, massive truck coming the other way with a car in front of that - the car behind the truck decides it's high time and the right time to get past so uses the forecourt of the garage by the side of the road to over-take the truck and manage to avoid crashing into the car in front of the truck!

Yikes!

Anyways, back to the airport - some stupid idiot decided it would be a great idea to give the police a loud whistle which they blew in a continuous cacophony to alert drivers who could not give even an iota of a crap let alone be told to move.

So, after arriving at our destination, tired as hell we went to a very welcome sleep!

The adventures continue in Part 2

It's just a book.

2011-04-05T08:56:00.004+01:00

I see he eventually did it then, Terry Jones and his truly ignorant morons burned a book.

So what?

Well, 14 people were killed for one thing

I have said it before, Islam picks it's targets over what to get "offended" about and now more people are dead because of stupidity over a book.

I am appalled, especially at the demonstrators who marched in Kandahar, Jalalabad and ended up killing people over nothing. It's just a book and Jones is not worth the effort.

This is a perfectly deluded idiot of a no good, little known, attention seeking church performing a truly moronic ceremony:

Sunday’s event was presented as a trial of the book in which the Koran was found “guilty” and “executed.” The jury deliberated for about eight minutes. The book, which had been soaking for an hour in kerosene, was put in a metal tray in the center of the church, and Sapp started the fire with a barbecue lighter. The book burned for around 10 minutes while some onlookers posed for photos.

Laugh at him. Mock him. Don't rise to it. Make him look as stupid as possible. Burn a Koran or two back at him - show him that he is not getting through.

His attention seeking church would have lapped up the mockery and acted all victimised etc but we could have had a lot of fun with the guy.

But no, people had to die instead and now this is an international incident because certain irascible members the religion of peace can't control their tempers.

My heart felt sympathies go out to all the families who have now lost loved ones over an incident that could have been avoided, why did they have to do it, why did they rise to it?

I'm fed up to the teeth with religious people expecting special privileges - Jones is going to have to be protected now because of his ignorant stupidity and the UN has to get involved to sort this mess out. Obama has got some difficult and in my humble opinion, pointless diplomatic work to do now - all this over a bloody book burning!

The Islamic fundamentalists are loving this no doubt - something to get noticed for, another bit of senseless violence to somehow convince the world we should both respect and fear their religion.

I said before in that spoof post I put up about how burning one of Richard Dawkins' books would not get a reaction except of mockery - why does this book get special privileges - why is it so important?

Is there a Jihad called every time some house pet destroys a copy of the Koran? Is there international outrage when a copy gets old and tatty and that a new one must be bought? Bad things happen to these books all the time, all around the world - they would need to or sales would be lost I imagine - what is the problem?

I know religious books are important to the believers - but just remember when there was a time when your precious book hadn't even been made and people still had their stories and religion - flippin heck it took nearly 500 years to get copies of the Bible out and even then it took until the middle ages to mess around with it some more.

What is one less Koran in the world? Has Islam suddenly stopped? Has Allah finally quit the heavens in disgust laying waste to his believers for letting this happen?

No.

People are dead because of this. That is what has happened and it is very sad indeed.

Circumcising the dead? Really?

2011-02-01T15:25:00.002Z

Of all the practices I have heard of - the religious desire to painfully adjust human genitalia to their peculiar standards has never sat well with me, I think it is positively barbaric and highly unnecessary - cutting bits off the fun bits for religious reasons, is just bloody stupid.

Why would you claim there is a deity who supposedly created you and then agree that his design wasn't so great that bits had to come off to make it all better?

I personally, being male, am not in the slightest bit impressed with the male package and if I was stupid enough to agree that some male deity designed it I would probably hit him repeatedly in the same place for his ineptitude and poor taste.

There are many forms of barbaric mutilation done by several different religions, all of them are evil, but I would just like to address circumcision for now after a friend of mine sent me this link on how one couple took it that bit further.

You have GOT to be kidding me???

Really?

The mother’s best friend called me with the news.

“They’d still like you to perform a bris but don’t want to put him through any unnecessary pain,” she said. “Can you do it after he dies?”

Any unnecessary pain? Can you do it after he is DEAD?

Oh sure says the idiot, my Rabbi says so, lets get to it!

Then, like a candle suddenly extinguished by a gust of wind, life left. A sad emptiness remained, as if the air were pierced by a pungent, thin plume of black smoke, rising and quickly dissipating. He was gone. No future, only a past.

Explaining to those now gathered the meaning of what we were to witness, I began the procedure I had done a thousand times. I took the baby from his father, unwrapped his soft blanket and gently laid him on the utility table. But today there were no squirming legs, no lidocaine injection, no smiling grandparents recalling their own son’s bris a generation ago. Just a drop of purple blood.

What kind of sick and twisted people are they? There are the whole family who have just seen their child die and their first and most important thought was to make sure his foreskin was removed?

This malicious and deranged Sweeney Todd Dr is just as bad - there he is waxing on about how doing that sort of thing to the living involves people smiling away - and there he is cutting off a dead baby's foreskin - someone tell me when any of this became sensible?

I must have fumbled with the instruments a little too long. “It doesn’t have to be perfect, Doc,” the young father called out, breaking the tension that had gripped the room. Cool relief wafted through in quiet chuckles.

Sure, it's a laughing matter!

Two years later they called again: “We’re having a boy, and we’d like you to do the bris.”

Huh?

A month after that, we had a happily pedestrian conversation about date and time. Eight days later, the spring sun radiated through a brilliant blue sky into their home. The smells of brewed coffee, warm bagels and fresh lox overlay the chatter of arriving guests. Suffused with morning light, the living room slowly filled with each of the previous attendees. Wearing giddy smiles and energized with new hopes and dreams, the young parents again handed me their newborn son.

Bloody hell, I give up, I really do.

Mutilating a child - who has no knowledge of what is happening, no choice in the matter and cannot argue against it - isn't really the time for giggles is it?

It's the passive acceptance of all this that I find the most difficult to stomach.

If there was some maniac on the loose who kidnapped 8 day old children to cut their foreskins off he would rightly be branded a sick bastard in need of immediate arrest and incarceration. The fact that this is a religious idea somehow allows butchers like Dr Litwin walk away with a free conscience about this - it's suddenly a happy and beautiful thing.

Worse still, he openly agrees to do that to a recently dead child with the maniac family's PERMISSION after consulting a Rabbi and we are supposed to just accept this?

What a strange world we live in.

Oh but it's religious, they can do that apparently - they have a special free pass that other maniacs would not get.

Look at this

Is any of that sane?

I wonder if the dear Dr would have performed the metzitzah b'peh?

In case you are wondering it's where the mohel sucks blood from the circumcision wound.

Nice.

So where does this genius idea come from? The Hebrew Bible - yes, that's right folks - Genesis 17 and Leviticus 12! It's ok, it's in the Bible - the people who wrote it REALLY knew what they were doing!

Let's completely ignore the fact that this is the 21st century and this is completely insane and immoral - when does this stop being acceptable behaviour?

What utterly deranged and disgusting thing would they have to do before they started saying "Wooaahh, I guess we'd best stop doing that!"

How about now, wouldn't that be a good time?

Read the Bible to the kids - it's lovely!

2011-01-21T10:07:00.002Z

Bloody hell, I keep finding more and more about the Bible that I did not know about - all the porn and violence, my childhood was obviously missing so much - I blame my parents! :D

The Vatican doesn't care at all

2011-01-19T11:51:00.002Z

Yet again, more evidence has been found in the cover up by the Vatican of the evidence of the clergy raping children.

Yet again it all boils down to them caring more about the protection of their faith and doctrines than it does about their victims.

Storero wrote that canon law, which required abuse allegations and punishments to be handled within the church, "must be meticulously followed." Any bishops who tried to impose punishments outside the confines of canon law would face the "highly embarrassing" position of having their actions overturned on appeal in Rome, he wrote.

Is that it?

Thousands of children were subjected to the most hideous and dreadful horrors imaginable and all the bastards had to say about it was that it might be "highly embarrassing" for any maverick Bishops who exposed this outside of Canon Law?

More concern, care and attention was put into making sure their fucked up rules and faith based regulations were adhered to than the rights of raped children.

I'm sure there are words to describe just how disgusting these unfeeling monsters are, but I am having trouble not being violently sick right now.

They simply do not understand do they? Their faith is so drilled into them, so set in concrete, that seeing what they have done wrong is an impossible task.

It boils my blood that they think they can claim the moral high ground, that their religion and faith is so whiter than white nothing can touch it, nothing can question it.

They are STILL arrogantly insisting that THEY be the ones to investigate this - my analogy about asking Hitler to investigate his own war crimes still rings true - what right do they think they have? This is what puzzles me, that they could be so arrogant and ignorant of what is at stake here - they have let children be raped and done their best to cover it up. Their surprise when someone turns around and points out they are not above the law and that they must be brought to justice really irritates me, like hiding behind their religion is something to be proud of.

I'm saying it again, I will keep reporting this kind of thing, I will keep calling for their arrest and I will never stop feeling so incredibly sorry that STILL in this day and age superstitious nonsense claims to triumph over the rights of innocent human beings.

The Hitch and PZ drink Tea - this is all good news!

2011-01-07T09:17:00.002Z

Reading The Hitch's article and then finding out that PZ is in whole hearted agreement with him, I feel obliged on my first post of 2011 to bellow WOO HOO over the rooftops of the world, this is fantastic stuff!

I like The Hitch's article and agree with every single word - good Tea can only be made with the Tea first in the pot or the cup if you are in a hurry and using Tea bags - for goodness sake, what was Yoko thinking? More to the point, why didn't John Lennon stick to what he knew best?

It's a travesty I tell you, putting the water in first and expecting the Tea to have any sort of flavour at all!

Next thing you'll be telling me is putting the milk in whilst the bag is still there...

*Shudders*

Drink hearty my fellow Tea drinkers and keep up the good standards that make this drink one of the greatest in the universe, don't start getting all complacent and idle - or colossally stupid for that matter - if you want to follow Yoko in her delusion you go ahead, but I for one am standing right beside The Hitch and PZ on this one - you want to argue with those two about how good Tea is, HA, good luck on that front!

Tea Fuelled Madness would like to...

2010-12-24T09:34:00.002Z

Wish you all a properly Tea Fuelled Xmas - drink loads of Tea and be merry!

10.8bn miles and still no gods found!

2010-12-16T08:32:00.004Z

An article from Richard Dawkins' site had me boggling my mind again, this is truly incredible news, finally we are close to going into proper outer space.

I boggle because this was built 33 years ago with what could now be described as truly antiquated technology, this things is still running, still sending back the most amazing pictures and information and now it is about to achieve another milestone by heading so incredibly far out.

I boggle because it had gone 10.8bn miles and it is only just reaching the end of the galaxy. That is a bloody long way.

I keep rambling on about this, but I really want to push this idea that space is REALLY flippin' heeeeooowwwwwge - just so fantastically BIG - 10.8bn MILES - that is PEANUTS to space, bloody peanuts!

There is no such "thing" as a god. Nope, not possible. An area that size, under the control of some undefinable "being" where by this "thing" can bugger around with the laws of physics all for little you on little planet Earth? COME ON!!!

Don't be so daft.

It's just too silly for words.

Bravo NASA and all - keep doing what you are doing, keep building magnificent things like Voyager and keep humankind interested in what is around it, interest and discovery are so vitally important.

I don't like your Tweed, Sir!

2010-11-16T14:06:00.002Z

A fine song with strong trousers to boot, Bravo Professor , I loved your Cup of Brown Tea and now this song to take that rapscallion dung livered aubergine, Mr B, to the cleaners, BRAVO again old boy!

Tally Ho!

Of course Hitler was an atheist....

2010-11-11T13:53:00.002Z

See - no evidence at all to show he had even an iota of belief in a god - he was all atheist - ok, he was a vegetarian and didn't eat babies which does not make him a True Atheist, but look at all the really nasty things he did in atheism's name! :D

This ridiculous meme that all the really nasty people in history were acting on their atheism is still being perpetuated even today no matter how much evidence there is to show that it is simply not true. Whether it be in Hitler's case where he was predominantly Catholic and had Papal backing etc or Stalin who used the mould created by the previous Czars who proclaimed themselves gods or chosen by one to make Communism the "religion" and acted accordingly.

I have never accepted that someone can "use" their atheism for anything - the concept is utterly ridiculous - I've said it time and time again, you can be an arsehole or a good person, being an atheist does NOT make you any more or less of an arsehole or a good person - it is just a lack of belief in deities. I will not accept this crap about not having a religion makes you open to do whatever you like because the ultimate law giver has been chucked out the window, that is utter shit.

This video is truly excellent in the way it parodies the Hitler argument and I hope people enjoy it loads. Nonstampcollector's videos are all very interesting and I urge you to watch more of what he has produced.

I stepped out of a super nova - so did you!

2010-11-03T08:28:00.003Z

I cannot begin to describe how impressive this video is, it has everything in it that I agree with and I encourage people to spread the word.

Honest Father vs Anti Abortionists

2010-10-28T08:28:00.002+01:00

First off I would like to send my condolences to Aaron Gouveia and his wife for having to go through this truly horrific time in their lives but also my unending respect for what he did. I know this happened way back in around July and that this article has been around for a bit but I found the article on Pharyngula and have decided to voice my own feelings on the matter.

I do not like the idea of abortion, even though I fully back the procedure as I will explain in a moment, I would like to hope that science will be able to come up with a way of making this procedure obsolete in favour of better methods of detecting medical conditions like the one Mrs Gouveria had and all the others, it's a long and difficult road and I do not expect overnight success but I would like to hope in the future it is going to be possible.

But, since we do not have these methods in place we have to do with what we have, with the best medical knowledge we have.

This story of this poor couple having to cope with the news that their baby would be born with conjoined feet with no bladder or kidneys is heartbreaking, I've seen all my friends and family with their children and I see the love, care and time they put in because they care so much about their kids, losing one like this must be indescribably devastating.

It is testament to proper scientific knowledge that this sort of thing can be picked up at all and I think it was better knowing that the baby was not going to be born properly and be able to do something about it rather than let it suffer horribly in whatever short life it would have had. That is why it makes sense to me for an abortion to take place, it is the most horrible thing I could think of for a mother and father to have to consider but the consequences are far better than the alternative. All couples like the Gouverias have made the right decision, it doesn't end the pain or the misery they had to go through but it is, in my humble opinion still the right one.

So, on top of what they already have to go through, the foul, ignorant and downright despicable poison of religion HAS to make it's evil voice heard through people who have no idea as to the harm they are causing, they are oblivious to everything because it's their religious infection which makes them see only one utterly misguided side to it.

I cannot describe how violently ill these people make me, they really are completely oblivious to the harm and suffering they are causing and the one thing that I am attacking here is their religion. They are just ignorant sheep spouting out all they have been taught by pestiferous monsters who should know better but insist on it anyway.

Religion seems to thrive off of suffering, it seems to gain some orgasmic pleasure in making people's lives worse, it seems if the believers or the unbelievers are not suffering enough there is something wrong with the world. I have said this many times before but Stockholm Syndrome is so true about religion.

In their minds kids should be born to suffer, rape victims should have their attacker's children, if the mother and the child have to die in pain and suffering so be it, if families have to needlessly lose their loved ones over this so be it too. I just don't get it. I don't understand this need and dogmatic drive to insist that life should be as miserable as possible and any chance to make it worse than it already is the better.

"Baby killing" is what it is called, the doctors and parents are called "murderers" - the needs and rights of the mothers is apparently superfluous to making sure unborn kids and their mothers are forced to go through as much misery as possible.

It's called "Pro-Life" - what the heck does that even mean?

It's not "Pro-life" at all, if anything I can gather from it is that it is ANTI life and "pro-suffering" and "pro-torment" - this apparently makes them feel better about themselves - I just don't get it.

I am sure these people do have an empathy gene lurking somewhere in them but how could this cognitive dissonance make them so completely unaware of the situation?

It's God's will?

Well fuck that for a start, I don't care how bloody "mysterious" and "unknowable" his ways are moved about in, that just makes your deity the most genocidal, sadist bastard ever created in what passes for your diseased mind if you want to think that way.

I've probably said this before but from the way I see it this "god" thing has set it up so that around 50/60 % of pregnancies miscarry without so much as a blip, so this god is the ultimate abortionist even without the next part. This happens completely behind the scenes, nobody really notices.

Then there are stillborn babyies who die in the womb, babies born with defects which eventually kill them and possibly the mother too. There is a whole list of things that can go wrong with pregnancy that has everything to do with genetics and medical conditions that are incredibly dangerous and that makes up the majority of pregnancies. The very very small percentage of women who don't have these problems are then possibly rape victims - I have already voiced my opinions on this earlier so I will not go into too much - who would want to have their rapist's baby? I am sure there are some brave people out there who think they can raise a child well enough but in my own opinion that would be a miserable existence.

That is a lot of misery that I have mentioned and I have not been detailed enough about it, but my point stands, they is a whole lot of misery, pain and torment right there.

A very small, minuscule amount of women in comparison simply have an abortion for reasons like they are not ready, it was unplanned, they are too young etc They are perfectly healthy people but for some reason the pregnancy should not go ahead - if caught early enough all the abortion involves is taking a couple of pills, there are small risks to doing this but the mother should be informed about this before going through the procedure. I am also fine with these ideas, it is after all the woman's right to do with her body what she thinks is right after being given all the best information that medical science has to offer.

So these protesters are basically picking on people in pain and torment, I would say, though I could be corrected, that the majority of people who visit hospitals or clinics to get abortions have pretty much no other choice, it is a life and death situation that should not be avoided.

Please, somebody tell me why this is a good thing?

Please tell me why people like the Gouveria family have to suffer even more by being bombarded with this hateful and ignorant nonsense?

Good for you Mr Gouveria, I'm glad you confronted these people with words and made them look positively evil for what they were doing - you didn't use violence, you showed them what they were doing wrong and why you were so offended. That took control and guts sir, you really are a brave human being. I wish you all the best if you and your wife ever have another child because they will have one heck of a mother and father bringing them up.

Hitchslapping!

2010-10-06T11:00:00.003+01:00

A brilliant compilation of The Hitch slapping down religious arguments with his eviscerating wit and intellect, I admire this man greatly for his approach to attacking religious beliefs.

Hitch Slap - from the Urban Dictionary - The process of having common sense knocked into you by Christopher Hitchens

You may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist

2010-09-21T09:49:00.004+01:00

To quote one of my favourite authors, Douglas Adams-

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."

My mind does a brilliant amount of boggling whenever I see things like this - I am sure it has been trotting around the internet for a long time but I love this video.

I cannot fathom how anyone thinks there is a deity or 3 million buggering around out there, it is just too vast, too full of gazzilions of galaxies, hulkingly mahooosive superhypermassive stars 2,800,000,000km in diameter that we know of - it is is just so bloody BIG!

I agree with Carl Sagan, people tend to keep their gods on small scale - it is mostly centred around planet Earth all the time but I do not think people take into account the sheer mind blowingly hugeness of the expanding universe they claim their god is fiddling around with. The ridiculousness of some deity prodding around with the atoms, protons, neutrons, quarks, gas molecules, suns, black holes, the DNA of small blue furry creatures from Alpha Centurai etc is too much for me to comprehend. Such a being would require an unfathomable complexity of the most ridiculous kind and I don't care what Aquinas said, that sort of "being" could never exist, especially before the universe was supposedly created!

Balls to gods, the universe is such an incredibly hoopy place to look at and boggle in it's sheer size and beauty - it doesn't have a personality to give a shit about anything in it, it just does what it does and that is perfectly fine with me!

Pastor Jones, witness our atheist outrage!

2010-09-17T15:47:00.006+01:00

Oh bugger - seems like this was a parody - I still stand by what I say so lets just imagine this actually happened - this would have been my reaction had it been so! :D

P.S - I'm an idiot who can't read articles!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pastor Jones, you colossal moron!

The stupid berk has really outdone himself now!

Hahahhaahahhahahahhahahhahhahahhahhahhahahhahhahahhahahhahahahhahaha!

Help my sides!

Hehehhehehehhehehhehehhehehehhehehehehhehehehhehehhehehhehehhehehhehe

ROTFLMFAO!

I mean really - I agree with Richard Coughlan, what the bloody hell do you expect the reaction to be?

Fundamentalist Islamists got positively insouciant over it, before you sissied out you big wimp, as is their wont when they feel like getting offended. Flags got burned, Presidents threatened world peace and ho boy did you make some of us laugh.

Fundamentalist Christians probably wouldn't hurt you too much over burning the Bible - you might get shot at possibly, but on the whole there would just be offended outrage

The Jews would probably do the same over the Torah, probably would be very upset and offended but I doubt any shooting would occur at all.

The Scientologists would probably stalk you for life, beat you up and sue you and your backyard church whilst calling you a paedophile for your crimes

I'm pretty sure you could offend pretty much every religion around the globe with burning some of their sacred stuff.

But.

I doubt the atheists will care a jot what you do, we will probably make a lot of jokes about you and laugh about it. As you can see from Richard's response to it, he doesn't give much of shit what you do, burn the book for all he cares, you bought it, he got money off you which I am sure he will put to good use.

I love this quote from the article by the way

"Religious leaders responded by saying Dawkins was a dangerous appeaser whose forgiveness of Pastor Jones could be seen as an apologia for the burning of all books, and while they weren't troubled by the burning of his, there was no need to extend the privilege to authors more divine."

They WANT us to get annoyed - I can't believe this, they actually want us to get upset about it and have missed the point completely. If Richard had got outraged and called for this man's arrest I am sure they would have pointed something about about Richard's atheist stridency to further the ridiculous claims that he is evil!

The reason why we will not get upset is that we know nothing is sacred, it's only a book in the end, no harm will come to anyone - except you if you burn your fingers, don't play with fire young man! Richard is setting the right example here - the complete opposite of what all the religious people would do.

If we let Jones get to us we would be no better than you lot who would get all flustered - it only eggs him on - unless it's Islamic Fundies of course, I bet you feel a right plonker for thinking that provoking that lot was a good idea? :D

So go on Terry, if it makes you feel better, go burn the book.

Expect mockery young man, heaps of mockery! :D

Go back to the Vatican't Darth, you are not needed here!

2010-09-17T13:49:00.005+01:00

That's it Darth, shut up and go home, you've over-stayed your welcome.

I'm sick of this constant barrage of abuse against my lack of religion and it's supposed to connection to my moral character, your reprehensible treatment of the children you let get raped and the cover up of it all, the bigotry towards gay people, your treatment and view of women, your religion's contribution to all the death, misery and suffering, the lies, the deluded stupidity - the whole horrific lot of it!

For your information, no I do not live in a third world country and no my moral character has not been shaped by my lack of belief in your tyrannical deity - I actually live in good country of which I am happy to be a citizen of. It's our more secular approach to life that makes it more bearable, the lack of religion has made this place a better one despite the politicians constantly arsing it up.

Your visit to my country will cost well over £12 Million - that could have helped save a lot of lives around the world, see this video from ZOMGitsCriss for a good suggestion, but I am sure something like cancer research or a PROPER third world countries could have benefited from such a large amount - anything but pamper you and your disgusting ilk around the country.

I hear you have been talking to kids about education - how DARE you - you don't even know what good education is considering your reckless rejection of science and your perversions of history - yes, keep calling me a fucking Nazi, your church were the ones that colluded with them instead of condemning them, not me. Bringing up that wonderfly pathetic assertion that Hitler was an atheist, I would like to refer you to this! Considering your conduct in supervising the welfare of kids I really do not think you of all people should be anywhere near them.

Your disgusting book somehow justifies your behaviour towards women, that's it, treat half the population around the world like shit, it works so well!

Don't get me started on your attitude towards gay people - I could be here all rattling off how badly you and your church have treated them.

The same with all the death and misery you and your church cause - I could go on for ages.

Quote from here

There are many temptations placed before you every day - drugs, money, sex, pornography, alcohol - which the world tells you will bring you happiness, yet these things are destructive and divisive.

Oh sure Darth - you don't have any money do you? You must be an expert on sex being the virgin that you are, as I hear it the Vatican't has many pornographic images of naked men and women on paintings and what's that sado masochistic one of that nearly naked man nailed to a cross? I forget, do you lot not drink communion wine?

Drugs? With your horrific and insane delusions I really don't think you need drugs, it's hardly your place to insult people's drug use when you aren't exactly the picture of sanity!

Destructive and divisive? You HYPOCRITE! If you want a competition in what is destructive and divisive look no further than the harm you have caused in the world, I think it outweighs ANYTHING you have mentioned above!

Get out of the UK, go home and leave people alone you horrible criminal.

Do the politics, not the religion, it's not your job!

2010-09-16T09:58:00.003+01:00

What the blue blazes does David Cameron think he is doing?

I read this article and I am unimpressed

First off - it is NOT the role of the governing body of a country to have a religious bias - it is the role of churches, Mosques, Synagogues and other places of religion to spew out their nonsense - that is where people go for their religious instructions etc, that is what those buildings are there for.

I would no more want Cameron and Co to be promoting atheism than I would Cameron's brand of Catholicism - that's not what he and his political party are there for!

I want them to represent ALL the country's faiths in the same way they can represent my complete lack of it - ie NOT AT ALL! The reason why this country is faring better than it used to under heavily religious indoctrination by the religion accepted by the monarchy of the time is because religion has been left to do it's own thing.

Piss off - this is NOT what I voted for -I knew Cameron and co were religious before I voted for them but that is not the reason why I did. I thought my local candidate had done a good enough job with council tax, keeping green belt land unbuilt on, getting schools what they needed etc and so I voted to keep her in because she seemed better and more experienced than other candidates.

Why do we need faith?

I'm doing fine without it, others are going to their respective places of worship, what is the problem? As much as I utterly despised the last government, at least they said, as the article quotes, we don't 'do God' - no smutty comments were made by me when that was announced...no...I didn't! :D

That comment was sensible to me as in at least they didn't let one religion speak for the whole lot of them. Tony Bliar was still a faith crazed lunatic, as is proven by his antics these days, but at least they made the effort to shut up about it more.

Now, not content with kissing Darth's arse as he and his atheist hating minions make insulting and irrelevant comments about us being a "third world country" we have David Cameron and co reckoning they "understand faith" - bullshit, they only understand their own faiths!

"Mr Cameron has spoken publicly about his faith and disclosed that he prays regularly. He backed traditional church teaching against abortion and assisted suicide and also wants more faith schools to open"

So what about those people, like me, who think praying is a waste of time, abortion is a necessary thing and that a woman has a right to chose what happens to her own body, some people would not be allowed to suffer if they are terminally ill and that faith schools should be scrapped in favour of schools where everybody has to get along with each other?

Do I not get a say in this or are my filthy divisive - somehow new - atheist credentials (I'm sure I have read about ancient Greek atheists somewhere...) not good enough?

I want to be represented by a secular government that does not represent one particular view more than they other, I'm not bothered what religion the actual party members follow, that sounds fair and democratic to me. I don't need the government to have their ear bent by some dangerous old man in an expensive dress from Rome whose religion has done it's best to cause as much fear and misery around the world as it can.

Leave religion out of this, history has proven how dangerous it is for a country like the UK to be represented by one faith.

The Demon Haunted Vatican!

2010-09-02T09:45:00.004+01:00

Gaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh OH NOOOOOOEEESS - Satan is after you all!

Yes ladies and gents, there is a good chance Satan will be around to possess you at some point if he is not doing it already - for all I know I am typing this under the influence of the Dark Lord himself!

But, fear not, for Darth has sent forth his mighty men from the Association of Exorcists!

Yes, these brave boys led by the heroic Rev. Gabriel Amorth have been protecting the world by casting that naughty Devil out of here there and everywhere since 1993!

Here is a lovely article from ABC News

Bloody hell - I love the Vatican't, just when you think they have run out of things to bring forth from their big bag of crazy they go and do another batshit crazy stunt guaranteed to be utterly pointless and devoid of common sense.

So here we have Amorth claiming in the last 25 years he has successfully told Satan to bugger off in 70,000 cases of demonic possession. Oh really?

My maths is appalling but isn't that 70,000 cases in 9125 days - nearly 8 possessions taken care of a day! What a warrior this man is - gee gosh, Satan certainly is facing the fight of his life, God must be pleased with him!!

What a pile of crap!

What utter dribbling nonsense!

The devil is pure spirit, invincible.

Oh so God is not as powerful as we were led to believe then Reverend?

It can take six or seven of Amorth's assistants to hold down someone possessed

Seems to be the case then, Satan is one tough cookie!

Often, he says, they choke up nails or shards of glass

Oh dear no - Satan you bastard!

"None of this scares me he says," touching a small pouch where he holds the vomited artifacts. "I know that God is using me for this work."

Wait, sorry - he keeps vomited up nails and glass in a pouch....ok, cos that's the first thing I'd do...! I'm perfectly sure this is all nonsense and that this never happens, but seriously Rev - that's still properly nasty!

God is using you is he? Fallen asleep on the job again no doubt or just too damn lazy to clear up his own mess! I've never understood any of this - what is God actually doing?

God apparently is so powerless/lazy that dickheads like Amorth here are running around in their pyjamas with their bibles and crosses, pinning the vomiting possessed down to send Satan back to hell - cos supposedly Bibles and crosses combined with shouting some of the more insane verses or some Latin gobbledegook are things that repel Satan! How then is it that the place where it probably could not be filled with more "holiness" if it wanted to is a place where Satan can freely wonder around causing endless mischief?

Seems a bit contradictory to me but, hey ho, this is religion and it is not supposed to make any sense in the first place.

"More than 90 percent of the cases of people who are possessed come from spells," he says. "People with anger or vendettas seek out magicians to cast spells and they are paid handsomely."

See - my point proven!

Magicians? I thought this was all Satan's fault? I haven't heard anything from David Blaine in a while, I guess the attempts to drown himself were not as lucrative as I thought! :D

The toll of his work is clear. He recently collapsed from the seven days a week, 24 hour a day, on call schedule. The table in his office is covered with small bottles of medicines. He says that he relies heavily on lay people to assist him in his efforts.

So God isn't protecting him then? All this supposedly dangerous work, out in the front line battling Satan and it's modern medicine keeping him going! Faith is such a powerful tool isn't it! :D

While admitting that it is hard to prove, he says the consequences of the devil's work are evident

See, this is the dangerous part - they can point at or interpret anything their fanatical minds can conjure up to be a sign of the Devil thus helping perpetuate the fear, misery and paranoia that the Vatican't and Darth thrive on. Without all this bullshit people would be more difficult to control so put all this nightmarish garbage around about Satan possessing people - it works too - people buy into this crap and innocent people have to suffer for it. A good example would be the current slaughter of African kids believed to be witches (Read more examples here and here)

I think this is disgusting, insane and highly dangerous perpetuated by evil people who have not got an iota of a clue about the real world and the consequences of their actions. I wouldn't mind so much if it was just Darth and his minions doing this to themselves. I can laugh at them running around in their dresses and pyjamas making complete arses of themselves covered in nail or rose petal vomit all day, that is hilarious - but it is not so funny when they insist the rest of the world joins in to accept, believe and encourage other people to do considerably dangerous things that are harming innocent people.

The only demons to be found around here are bastards like Darth and Amorth peddling their batshit ideas and practices.

PZ, Jawas and Cabbage

2010-08-25T15:28:00.005+01:00

Read here for a very funny account of what happened to him in hospital.

I love the jokes about cabbage and Jawas, I nearly spilled my Tea when I read those parts!

The Jawas came in. They might have been doctors, but they were all covered in robes and hoods and speaking animatedly in some language that wasn't Englisth — it was very buzzy and abrupt. They didn't talk to me anyway, but sometimes told Phil things that he would translate for me. They descended on my right thigh and proceeded to build an airlock so they could crawl inside and party on my left ventricle. I tried to tell them that the Left Ventricle was not some trendy nightclub — it's just a storage unit where I keep my Jesus-shaped hole — but I think what came out of my mouth was a kind of mumbly moan in Ewok, and everone knows Jawas don't understand Ewok.

If they gave him a bad motivator I'm going to be really upset!

Then Phil's giant head floated into view — I think it was mounted on one of the camera tracks—and he announce, "Good news! No cabbage for you!", which was very cheering, since I don't particularly care for cabbage. And then the Jawas stomped on my heart for another hour or so. While I napped.

No cabbage, good thing too, I hear hospital food is revolting and any attempts at cabbage would be nothing short of dangerous!

I'm very happy for PZ and I wish him well in his recovery - the unpraying, the intermittent slaughter of goats and communion wafers is obviously working so I shall continue my efforts on that front! :D

You ain't doomed PZ, now just you get better you hear?

2010-08-24T08:07:00.002+01:00

PZ has gone into hospital for a bit of a lie down whilst medical science sees to it we get more years of his magnificent blog by fixing his heart up.

I would just like to offer any unprayers to PZ and possibly sacrifice the odd goat or communion wafer in an elaborate, squid influenced, ceremony.

I hope PZ recovers as well as he can after surgery and my best wishies to him and his family in what must be a nervous time for them all.

Anyone found praying for PZ, threatening him with religion or wishing him any ill will at all, will be sent laser guided ballistic mushrooms as a token of my disatisfaction of your conduct. Medical science is dealing with this much better than any non-existent being can so please, if you do not have anything helpful to say, don't say it!

All the best PZ

Philip

Beware the Tea Drinking Atheist!

2010-08-11T08:31:00.002+01:00

MWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Look out - I'm going to end the world!

(From Pharyngula)

Yes, tremble with fear all you religious people, me and my godless ilk are going to end humanity's days in a blaze of atheist fervor and in my case with added Tea drinking!

We know who you are and we know how to find you out!

Do you know where your towel is? HA I didn't think so - that is a an atheist pre-requisite as put forth by our Prophet Douglas!

Do you accept that evolution by natural selection is a fact? Ohhhh shit, you don't? That's gonna hurt in the morning!

Do you accept that gay people have equal rights, that women are not second class citizens and that your holy book is full of contradictory and often dangerous nonsense? It's not your lucky day is it....

I mean, seriously, is this really how the mind of a paranoid theist works when confronting atheism? Do the people who put that thing together really think this is what atheism is all about?

Now lets just think about this, take Christianity for an example - they've had 2000 years to prove to the world that their religion is the best one to have and yet look at the place!

This is the one thing their cognitive dissonance cannot get their faith and fear fuelled heads around is they have had their chance and it has not worked. All the blood shed from the early days of the religion up to now has not changed a damn thing except to perpetuate endless fear and misery and they have the gall to say atheists will wreck the world because it would be godless???

Look at the world with God in it!! It's positively dreadful - if their religion is so powerful and good how come they have not managed to convert the whole world or sort out the catastrophic problems? Is Satan really that powerful all of a sudden - seriously when are these people going to take a hint?

My atheism does NOT indicate or influence how much of a nice man or complete and total bastard I could be - why is this such a difficult concept to come to terms with?

What is wrong with these people who cannot understand how they are all atheists too asides from the one deity they choose not to be atheist about? Theists - my message is so simple - think about how you shrug off everyone else's god - think of Zeus or The Invisible Pink Unicorn and then tell me what that does to your way of life! That's all it is - I don't see you going on the rampage with that knowledge do I?

Seriously, by your logic it would be like this -

"What the Invisible Pink Unicorn doesn't exist?"

"So there is nothing standing in the way of me and the ending of humanity? Oh well, tally ho, here goes- BURRRRRRRRRNNN MUTHAFUCKERS, BUUUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRNNN!

It's not is it?

But I do see people from your religion making up all sorts of outrageous excuses to be complete bastards in the name of the religion all the time - it's the dogmas of the religion that make it so easy to bypass common sense, you can use your religion to govern your actions and way of life.

Give me a religion and I could probably point out the impact it has on the welfare of humanity, it's very easy because people are acting on a prepared set of principals and rules dictated by the religion. Atheism simply cannot do that - what is there to drive it along?

No god I hear you say, well - come on then, show me how that works exactly!

Could it be that I am a nice man because of the many influences I have had on my life including my friends, my family and my environment? I don't do anything I do in the name of atheism, I do it because that is who I am.

I could be an evil bastard, I really could let myself go - funny isn't it how I manage to keep the atheist rage at bay? Not really, that's just the sort of man I am, I know that causing harm and misery to people makes me upset and I choose to be the best I can. No way am I perfect at it and never will be.

Please then, don't tell me that being religious makes you better than I am simply because you think you have a deity guiding your actions, you've had all this time to prove to me how your religion could make the world a better place, but it hasn't worked.

How about you give a secularism a chance? You won't will you - taking a very swift look at history a secular, free, society has never been allowed to exist because of your paranoia and the people who have stood up in history have all been stamped down or killed for wanting to do the right thing.

Let me get this straight right now - I do not want any harm to come to you because you are religious, I just disagree with you and don't think your religion is any more special than any other that has been created down the ages - don't be so scared of that.

If anything is going to cause human extinction it is either going to be a horrendous natural disaster or it's going to be stupidity - I'm hoping stupidity is not the winner!

Worshipping a monster.

2010-08-03T10:14:00.004+01:00

Ok, something a friend of mine brought up on Facebook today concerning the maniac killer Raoul Moat and his funeral.

Some people are properly sick and twisted, they really are

Moat's story can be found here - all things considered he was not a very nice man, evil, twisted and capable of strong violence. He killed and threatened to kill whilst on the rampage, he caused a lot of needless fear and misery over a number of days.

Through all the media hype that infected the country Moat has now become a hero in some people's eyes, including about 20 Facebook pages dedicated to him and now people turning up at his funeral grieving along with his family.

Jobless mum-of-eight Theresa Bystram, 45, took three teenage sons on a 300-mile coach trip so they could pay homage.

Theresa, wearing a Chelsea shirt bearing the badge of the Headhunters football thugs, said: "Raoul was a legend, a hero. I absolutely loved him. I never met him but we followed his plight and prayed he wouldn't get caught."

Where to start with this woman?

300 mile coach trip by a jobless mother of 8 kids, 3 of whom joined her in her stupidity - she spent money which she should be putting into the welfare of her kids and herself on a coach trip to go and idolise a murderer!

She PRAYED for him not to get caught???

She actually wanted this man NOT to stop his quest to go and kill people???

"He kept them coppers on the run all that time. Fair enough, people died. But they must have deserved it."

They must have deserved it?

Words fail me.

How can people arrive at this way of thinking?

It is staggering to me that the shocking and horrific things this man did can be twisted into the police being in the wrong rather than him and that innocent people who suffered somehow deserved it.

Please, get this poor woman some professional help as she obviously needs it.

"We're not related but something in my head told me to come today..."

Oh great, that's excellent news, voices in your head is always a good thing.

Unemployed Kenneth Ingham and Peter Hefferin, both 18, said they felt sorry for Moat.

Kenneth said: "I'd have done the same thing if I was in jail and my lass cheated on me.

Sorry, what was that Kenneth? It was not his fault then? Oh sure, blame the girlfriend cos she really deserves it! How about the 9 year old he assaulted to get himself into prison in the first place? I take it she just drove him to it as well?

For fucks sake what is WRONG with people?

It's like the people, mostly teenagers, who I see walking around with Che Guevara T shirts on - do these people know what they are doing? Guevara was a psychopathic murderer - shooting innocent men, women and children was nothing to him and yet people love this guy still even now.

Has violence suddenly become such a blase thing in society today that assaulting and killing people is a noble pursuit to be cheered on in real life? There seems to be little praise for the long hours put in by the police and other authorities whose considerable efforts to protect people from this maniac have gone largely unnoticed and also ridiculed.

Am I now the odd one out for wanting criminals brought to justice and also acknowledging and commending the brave people who put their lives on the line to keep the public safe? The police are not perfect by any means, they have their faults and it would be wrong to have pure blind faith in all their methods and procedures but this strange mentality of not supporting those who are doing the right thing really confuses me.

It works and it doesn't at the same time!

2010-07-29T08:41:00.011+01:00

This video displays a very good example of how a theist's mind works - first you have the clear assertion that some particular phenomenon of pure bullshit is possible by committing yourself to a certain ritual like predicting a future event by reading the Bible upside down whilst gargling Captain Morgan's Rum waving a flip flop around in your left hand.

For all the good it will do of course, it is best just to sit back and enjoy the rum and to hell with all this mystical crap, but the theist will insist on this thing that cannot happen in normal life can actually happen.

So you call them out on it like the lads from the League of Reason do in this video, you point out all the faults connected with their claims as politely as you can.

They insist, no, you lot are wrong, you see if you read the Bible upside down etc blah blah blah I'm so right, this can be done.

So then you set a challenge, in a clear scientific way which would work, since they insist it will, to decisively convince people of it's efficacy. James Randi has been doing this for decades and has offered $1 million to be proven wrong only to arrive at the logical conclusion that whatever is being claimed is pure bullshit nonetheless.

Andromedaswake nails this brilliantly and sets Thickshades a perfectly legitimate challenge to predict something, using the methods Thickshades claims will work and what happens?

"But you can't predict crap!"

"How can you lot even think that way?"

"Don't be daft, I can't predict anything, never happens, what the hell are you talking about?!"

You could go on like this for hours on end with the theist switching sides and not noticing the obvious flaw in their reasoning - it works and it doesn't at the same time. The goalposts are constantly being shifted around the pitch, even around the sides, while all the time the sceptic never gets the answer they want.

I think that is what really bothers me about calling people out on their religion or belief in homeopathy - I'd accept the bullshit if it actually worked but I have yet to see evidence of this - yet somehow that is not the same with most practitioners of woo or religion. They don't seem to worry or even attempt to grasp at the staggeringly huge difficulty of maintaining two completely opposite points of view and regarding them both as correct.

"But it says so in the Bible, it clearly states it all in this passage, it proves me right!"

"Err, that particular passage you pointed out says something about cabbage and doesn't prove your point at all - how can you say that?"

"Well duh!! You stupid idiot I was never saying the Bible says anything like that, of course it is talking about cabbage, why are you even bringing that passage up?"

"So what you are saying is that the Bible does not prove your point because there is no reference to it?"

"If you READ it properly there are still passages in the Bible that prove me right!"

"Even the parts with cabbage?"

"You are not reading the word cabbage properly!"

Do you all see what I am getting at here? No matter where I point out what is wrong, explain it in as much detail as I want - I am still the one made to look as if it is my fault I am not understanding things properly. There is always something I lack which the theist or woo practitioner has, which conveniently cannot be obtained by everyone unless I forgo common sense and rational thinking.

There is always that Deepak Chopra way of "knowing" the "deeper meaning" of things or the Francis Collins way of looking at frozen waterfalls which will forever get on my tits as the most ridiculous form of argument when attempting to convince me of things which cannot happen.

To change my mind all you need to do is present me with the working evidence of it rather than the evidence which cannot even be located let alone be studied.

Periodic Table of Irrational Nonsense

2010-07-20T13:37:00.002+01:00

Hehehhe

I found this today, just perfect, I don't think there is anything on there that is out of place or wrong!

Mel Gibson finally gets Hitched!

2010-07-20T12:06:00.002+01:00

I do not like Mel Gibson.

I used to watch some of his movies, Lethal Weapon was always a favourite - but as his movies got ever more despicable and tiresome I lost great interest - Braveheart was certainly a trigger and his subsequent movies provided me with all the desire to go see his films as I have to now go and join his religion - none at all!!

I have since learned more about his evil and truly dangerous ways and I think this article by Christopher Hitchens says all you need to know about the man - he is, without doubt, a right evil bastard!

I think I read about Gibson's ridiculous comment about his wife going to hell because she wasn't part of his religion in The God Delusion and I soon after that heard a lot more about his religious idiocy - including his drunken outbursts and general weirdness. If you listen to his latest rant to his poor second wife you can hear it all - he wants it all because his religion says he deserves it. He is somehow allowed to call his ex wife a c*nt and other vile misogynistic things because she is not doing what he tells her.

I have heard some dreadful tales from The Passion of the Christ set where the extras were given minimal food, water and access to toilets etc whilst working very long arduous hours for very little in return. Gibson claiming they were doing God's work and therefore should be grateful and humble for the experience.

I also heavily agree with Christopher Hitchens about his massive dislike of the English - Braveheart is a good example of him exaggerating the horrible things that the English did to the Scottish - I am not saying the English were completely faultless in that part of history, they most certainly were not, but it is blatantly obvious there is a bias in the film towards painting the English in much the same way he portrayed the Jews in The Passion.

His dad sounds just as cuddly too - "Our 'civilization' tolerates open sodomy and condones murder of the unborn, but shrinks in horror from burning incorrigible heretics—essentially a charitable act." - I want to hug this man before he sets me on fire, I really do - what a guy!!

Like Christopher Hitchens, I would like to see more and more people shun Gibson and make it perfectly clear his nonsense is not to be tolerated any longer - he needs to realise what an arsehole he is being but he wont.

Now, I know I have just posted a little about how much I really dislike this odious man, but he does have a talent for acting - for I remember back when he spoke out to the Jewish community after his drunken rant that they needed to get together so that they could "discern the appropriate path for healing." My goodness, he even got commended on his probation for his adherence to the letter of it - yet does this latest tirade of abuse and misogyny prove he has not learned a damn thing from his past? All this praise for his eagerness to correct himself is nothing but a sham - thus I stand by my claim that he is a good actor - for he is still accepted in the public eye and as Hitchens says, still going into work and people are hiding away from calling him out for who he really is.

I don't want to hear another apology from him until he can actually prove he means it and considering the ferocity of his latest outburst I can hardly see it happening any time soon.

The Force Unleashed 2

2010-07-14T11:29:00.003+01:00

Read this article in the Guardian - I might start woo hooing a little bit too much in a minute, apologies for the out burst but it might have to be done!

I think to be perfectly honest, there is only one word to describe my feelings on this matter - WANT!

I am really looking forward to the new Force Unleashed 2 game coming out on the 26th of October as the first one was ground breaking in it's approach to Star Wars and the whole Jedi adventure in a computer game.

I have enjoyed other Jedi games - Knights of the Old Republic 2 and Jedi Academy are two that spring to mind readily and I think the Force Unleashed certainly brought something new and exciting to the table.

I think what I liked about it was that you could use your environment more - when things blew up they went Kabooom, you even knocked something it would fall over but best of all your opponents were a little more fun to battle as well.

The Force powers to play with were fun, especially picking up stormtroopers and watching them attempt to grab on to railings or other stormtroopers to prevent them flying off into the sky!

Sam Witwer was definitely a great choice for playing the conflicted character of Starkiller, I like how they captured his likeness so well and his lightsaber stance is soooo cool, a nice new way of hurling sabers around is always welcome with me!

My only big gripe is using the Dark Side - I'd love the game more if you could choose Lightside/Darkside powers or that your decisions determined your destiny a bit more - sure you can still be a good character and ultimately win the day for the good guys and girls but I do feel a slight twinge hurling lightning around and killing Wookies when playing as Vader!

The small gripe I have is the cutscenes which you cannot skip - seeing them once in a while is fine but it is a bit annoying being told no, you HAVE to watch this!

The Force Unleashed 2 looks promising, I like the two lightsabers, I like the look of the storyline and the game as a whole, bring it on!!!

Woo Hoo - New book arrived!

2010-07-14T10:05:00.002+01:00

Jesus, Neither God Nor Man, The Case for a Mythical Jesus by Earl Doherty has arrived!

This is an extended version of his book The Jesus Puzzle after having spent a few years gathering more information which he feels was necessary to add on to his already brilliant case for the non-existence of Jesus. Doherty is continuing to further this argument into mainstream thinking, Richard Carrier said this in the video I posted earlier, it is important to get more historians discussing this with the hope to make this a more accepted point of view - it is highly likely that Jesus did not exist because the evidence is definitely good enough and with people like Carrier and Doherty making waves about it the idea is begining to take off in a big way.

I found out about this after watching Robert Price in a You Tube video and after having read the first book I simply could not resist and leaped on Amazon to get it.

As and when I get to finish this I will post about my findings, suffice to say, I am very excited!

:D

Jonathan D. Sarfati, Ph.D, F.M. - evidence, you're doing it wrong!

2010-07-13T11:06:00.008+01:00

I found something highly amusing on RD.net recently - it's an oldish article that I think they reprinted or this is new, I can't quite remember, but something caught my eye that I thought would be fun to discuss.

Jonathan D. Sarfati, PhD, F.M. has written a book.

He saw Richard Dawkins had written the most excellent "The Greatest Show on Earth", a book showing the evidence for evolution by natural selection to be a certifiable fact. Mr Sarfati decided to jump on the bandwagon of fleas who want to make a packet of money off of all Richard's hard work, by producing what they think is evidence to prove Richard wrong.

To quote from the article

The Greatest Hoax on Earth? meets Dawkins’ The Greatest Show on Earth head-on. Dr Sarfati firmly and comprehensively answers Dawkins’ challenge, chapter after chapter, covering a vast range of disciplines in his trademark crisp, clear style. He convincingly shows, for those with ears to hear, that to believe the Bible’s account of Creation/Fall/Redemption straightforwardly not only does not commit intellectual suicide, it is if anything the intellectually superior position.

Now, if I wanted to prove Richard wrong about the evidence for evolution, what would I have to do?

I'd have my work cut out, I really would - providing a peer reviewed paper or two showing evidence that swats what Richard and all the other experts on the subject know into the educational dustbin would be pretty impressive stuff - I'd have to work bloody hard to produce my Pre-Cambrian Rabbit, I really would!

After the above statement from Sarfati's book description you'd expect if you took that at face value, Sarfati would have some pretty damn devastating stuff to say on the matter - look out Richard, your time is up...

Or is it?

Is it my arse!!

Despite being a scientist himself -PHD no less - his religion gives him all the cognitive dissonance he needs to produce some howlingly bad arguments which hold about as much weight as zero gravity. It's the same tired and ignorant bullshit churned out by every single batshit crazy young Earth creationist, nothing new to find here.

Let me give you an example why I think people like Sarfati are ignorant fools, to paraphrase Tim Minchin's words, who use "bollocks as ammunition"!

Comment 12 by jcs has an extract that caught my eye - this is a quote directly from the book - on page 186

"The same principle applies to the age of the earth. It makes more sense to trust an eyewitness who was there at the beginning: the Creator Himself, who has revealed the age in His Book, the Bible. And there were other eyewitnesses too, including Noah and his descendants who meticulously recorded the years elapsed since the global Flood."

"But Dawkins ignores this eyewitness information, and relies on dating methods that resort instead to speculative and dubious assumptions."

Huh?

Is that it? Is that really what Sarfati thinks trumps what Richard says on the matter?

Noah was an eyewitness and his descendants wrote history?

Are you kidding me?

This is the biggest problem with all creationists and other such dribbling fools when it comes to this whole "evidence" business - things like the existence of God or the reliability of the Bible are automatically assumed to be correct and factual, that it's a given truth - people like Sarfati do not seem to realise this is a very, very, very stupid thing to do.

Let me show you how easy it is to trample on Sarfati's claim of Noah (who was 600 years old by the way - how many people do we see these days reaching that age?) and his 7 other family members being eyewitnesses and writing history and populating the world afterwards etc.

If the flood is true then only Noah's family survived along with the impossible number of animals that leaped on the boat with him - all other people dotted all over the world would have to have been killed off yes?

Lets see shall we?

I'll be fair and say the flood happened around 3000 - 2000BC - now, lets look at world history around this point and see if it all stops dead.

First google check produces this

History seems intact so far - lets check the Pharaohs lineage for example, if the Bible is true, then the line will be broken and one of Noah's family will have been mentioned as helping to repopulate Egypt.

This is Noah's Family - 3 sons apparently - Ham, Shem and Japeth

This, however, is the timeline of the Pharaohs of Egypt - so - where is this gap?

How about the Mesopotamian kings?

Greece, India, Asia Minor - they all had people bouncing around at that timeline and yet nobody seems to have been wiped off the Earth and repopulated by 3 men and women!!

Funny how these eye witnesses never record or mention their civilisations being momentarily wiped out due to the wrath of some deity or even mention of some lads called Ham, Shem and Japeth and their wives pitching up to save the day for the human race!

There are so many other problems with Noah and the flood story that make it the least likely version of historical events, I used a just one example, others can be found here, but this is not the main point of my post.

It's the rather curious manner as to what can be called evidence by the likes of Sarfati that I find reprehensible - just like that of Francis Collins to pick a scientific name at random - this cognitive dissonance to block out any reasonable and more plausible explanations on any subject are overruled by the Bible and their religion.

Sarfati is not stupid - a B.S.c and PhD in Chemistry is not to be sniffed at, he has published peer reviewed papers in Nature - I am guessing that he knows what the scientific method is? How come this man can write a published paper on "A Spectroscopic Study of some Chalcogenide Ring and Cage Molecules" and yet have the balls to tell Dawkins he is wrong simply because the Bible says so? How amateur is that? Time to hand the PhD back Jonathan, you're doing it wrong!

This is the thing that bothers me the most - the most outrageous, delusional, just plain, mind bogglingly and galatically improbable explanation can over-rule much more plausible ones that are not rooted in fantasy! He has the gall to tell Richard he is making "speculative and dubious assumptions" - what the hell does he think he is doing?

Is Richard's book really less compelling than bullshit? Absolutely not - if anyone who- like me - is not an expert at evolution but wants to know the basics, Richard is a good man to go to for answers, he does not use bullshit to explain himself, he uses the best information he has to construct a good and well thought through argument. You want to prove him wrong, prove the science wrong, not just churn out a meaningless flea book telling Richard off for not using the Bible and Dr Sarfati's own version of religion as evidence!

I'm not holding my breath to wait to see if a creationist can ever use religion as an excuse for mindless ignorance, but I do wish they would look up the definition of plausible evidence instead of trying to rake in the money on the gravy train that is writing books that piggy back on the hard work of experts without adding anything new.

We can't meet or talk - I haven't drunk your breast milk !

2010-07-13T09:13:00.005+01:00

Ok, more insane lunacy from our cuddly friends the Islamic Extremists - this one really has me utterly confused.

From RD.net here are a couple of articles which are positively scary and all shades, shapes and sizes of utterly ridiculous.

I mean really, what the hell is going on here?

Islam is well known for it's complete inability to be nice to women, they have structured that religion so rigidly that even the slightest hint of women's rights is quickly jumped up and down on with an extra large steam roller in order to avoid actually being nice, woe betide you should you break the rules.

So some colossal Islamic Fun-to-be-a-mentalist dickhead deems it necessary for men and women to avoid contact at all possible times unless they are related - bad things will happen as a consequence of this as can be seen in the second article on there.

This next bit reminds me of what I learned during my A -Levels about 12th century monks in Europe - monks were pretty much all for the whole life of the best poverty and misery they could muster, often subjecting themselves to arduous tasks for very little reward. After discovering the joys of fantastically hard work, they got into things like agriculture and the building of churches and monasteries which they became very good at indeed plus the labour costs were minimal cos they wanted to do it for nothing. But, this is a difficult thing, you can't run a business like that without accruing a bit of money here and there for supplies and other materials to aid you in this process. The monks were absolutely forbidden to touch money, God would send some seriously bad celestial shit down upon them should they come into contact with the stuff and they would be excommunicated for life etc - the usual fear and misery stuff that religion is so effortlessly good at creating.

So, some bright spark in the monkly order comes up with a genius plan to circumvent this little problem of handling money....they wore gloves!!

"Hey, look at me God, not touching the money am I?" It's not just Iron Chariots that halt all your fun is it? Haha, I have gloves in my arsenal now!" Isn't my religion so good that I can make up the rules as I go along! :D

This is exactly the same thing Islamists have done except this is way more dangerous - they already have the barbaric rules against women set in place, suddenly something turns up which conflicts with this so what do they do? Issue a fatwa that allows breast milk for social occasions - how stupid do you want to get?

I just cannot get my head around this way of thinking - something already completely mad and out of control gets extra add ons! They don't stop to think - "hey, perhaps there is something wrong with these oppressive and dangerous rules we have made up!" - oh no, it's time to do something utterly devoid of intelligence and reason which further complicates things.

I've heard all sorts of horrible stories about how to circumvent rules in Islam - stuff like men are not allowed to visit prostitutes, so they make up some ceremony whereby the man marries the prostitute for the time they shag and then divorces her afterwards! Or perhaps a woman is sentenced to death but she cannot be killed because she is a virgin - easy, get the guards to rape her, problem solved.

This is all directed around the Fun-to-be-a-mentalist and idiotic rules which render the men completely incapable of coping with women, they are trained from day one not to understand or respect any of their rights and making them feel perpetually inadequate and worthless - very much like that Bible stuff I linked to when I was having a go at Darth's attitude to women.

What really bothers me is what THEY would consider to be excessive enough to get people to stand up and question the sanity of it all - what the feck do they have to do to provoke a widespread intelligence check? Clearly whipping unrelated people for not breast feeding before socially interacting is all fine and dandy - where and when does the crazy end? At what point are they going to draw the line and say - "hang on, something is not right here!" - seriously, at what point would they do this?

Breast feeding is for babies, it's completely reasonable and sane to give new born babies breast milk, it is so good for them for when they start out in life, much better than normal milk, full of nutrients etc - fantastic stuff.

Milking women for social occasions and forcing adults to drink it is not so fantastic, it's fucking stupid - treating them like cattle in general makes my blood boil, let alone this more modern lunacy. Whipping the hell out of people who pitch up to give and old woman some bread is inhuman, insane and brutal, this has got to stop.

Jesus's non existence - Richard Carrier

2010-07-05T12:15:00.002+01:00

I stumbled across these videos on You Tube showing a talk by historian Dr Richard Carrier - I mention Dr Carrier a lot when I talk about showing Jesus to have not existed because he brings a lot of good arguments to the table which I had previously not thought about.

This talk is very informative with some convincing arguments but at the same time very light hearted and fun to listen to. I look forward to reading his new book when it comes out because if it is anything like the quality of his books and this talk here then it will be a good one indeed.

So enjoy and post your opinions, it will be good to hear them!

Darth wants the kids to stay raped.

2010-06-30T08:34:00.004+01:00

Another Darth post again, why you might ask am I still bringing this up - well, it is very simple - there are believers out there who think Darth is a force for good in this world and I am utterly staggered at their response to all of this.

What on Earth does this man and his ilk have to do to shake people out of their delusions?

It seems to me that even if Darth was caught by several witnesses raping a child himself there would STILL be people singing his praises and telling people like me to shut up and stop being so mean.

Well, for all Darth is doing right now he might just as well be raping the kids himself because quite frankly he is doing all he can to hinder attempts to bring those who have commited the horrible crime to justice.

Read this BBC Article here.

Now go here to read a fantastic article by my friend Miranda

Miranda links to a roughly translated letter send by Darth to Archbishop Mgr Joseph André-Léonard

Now read what this says, just read it very carefully.

PZ Myers also has posted some very good points on this, especially Darth's reaction not being the right one, why didn't Darth offer to help the investigation?

Now, I want to know WHY Darth is doing this?

Why does he want to dig himself into this hole? Why is child rape so important to him that he will do all he can to perpetuate it?

It says in one of Miranda's links to a Guardian article that Darth is furious that "canon law" was not used alongside civil law to investigate this

What the hell would canon law have done in this situation? Look back at my posts about Darth and how he and his ilk have dealt with situations using canon law - they cover it up, lie, bribe, scare the victims and threaten them and make sure in some cases that offender be secreted off to another area where they can be free to commit their dreadful crimes again.

Darth even has the gall to liken the investigations as Communist - fucking hell, does this man not know how similar his actions are to that of Stalin's? Covering up things and destroying all public knowledge of crimes was one of Stalin's more expert traits as dictator! This is another one of those things similar to their approach to faith - faith is ONLY a good thing when they are doing it - where they accuse atheists or scientists of having faith it's all bad! It's contradictory and circular nonsense to the extreme.

I would not trust Darth and his ilk to be in charge of making a cup of Tea let alone help investigate a crime in which they are involved in. Does that not strike anyone as a bit odd - the accused criminals investigating their own case?

Would it have helped Hitler's case if the Hague had said to him "Adolf old chap, seems you have killed 6 million Jews - would you mind looking into this and seeing if any charges need to be brought up?"

The arrogance is astounding - they do think they are a law unto themselves, doesn't matter what horrific crimes they commit it should all be kept within their power and not those whose approach and investigation would be considerably less biassed!

The authority would be from real beings, with a real sense of justice for the actual victims of the crimes and not the people connected with commiting the crimes who are playing the victim.

I wonder if the Bishop of Croydon is an atheist yet?

2010-06-28T07:40:00.003+01:00

So - England buggered it up in the football - The Right Idiot Nick Baines, AKA Bishop of Croydon must have thrown in the expensive looking man-dress by now and has turned atheist? After all, he did ask God, in Jesus's name, for England to win - as per my explanation in my Please do not pray for me post a while back. At the time of his ridiculous and highly impossible demands for the laws of the universe to look the other way whilst his God prodded away at a few atoms here and there to make the England football team win, he must have done the proper rituals etc.

Surely now Nick will see the light of reason descend upon his head?

The Rules in his magic book and his imaginary friend have let him down big time - not only did England really bugger it up against countries who they should have trampled over, they even had a goal disallowed during that match against the Germans! I'm sure I have read the Bible stories a few times now and when God backs his teams in mass genocide slaughtering, unless of course they have iron chariots hurtling towards them, they get the job done pronto - virgin raping and baby killing aplenty. Though I am not well versed in the rules that FIFA have drawn up for competitions like this I'm pretty confident that no iron chariots are allowed on the pitch, God had no excuse this time!

Sadly, Nick will NOT see this God crushing logic - that no matter how hard you plead with invisible and non existent beings, they will not look after you or your selfish demands - I'll bet Nick has a perfectly ridiculous and outrageously stupid answer to cover up for his invisible friend's lack of commitment to the job and not meeting the specified requirements to any detectable degree.

Or he could chuck in the towel with God and go with Paul the Psychic Octopus who predicted the right outcome - both decisions would be equally as pathetic and irrational!

I made a prediction before England played the rugby world cup and when Michael Vaughn's cricket team started their Ashes winning adventures - I said England would win in the face of some very strong opposition but I did not do it out of any magical interpretation - I saw that they had the teams to do it. They had been working really hard, they had been training and focusing on the job at hand and they acted like teams who wanted to win, they were confident but not arrogant. They had the right captains, the right coaches - they had planned it meticulously - that is why I said they would win. I saw what they were doing and decided they had every chance of winning and oh boy did they go out and win! They worked really bloody hard at it - the games were tough and gruelling and were won by extremely narrow margins, especially in the cricket. But that was the nature of the opposition they were playing, the opposition was pretty mighty but I was confident enough from the evidence I had seen that the England teams really were good enough to win.

I didn't have to consult some bloody stupid octopus (though lets be fair the octopus is probably floating around in the tank wondering what the bloody hell Jonny Human is up to this time, he looks considerably bored if you ask me!) or invisible being and neither did I have to ask them nicely enough if they could change the universe for my selfish needs.

The English football team just did not exhibit one modicum of professionalism or desire to want to play in the world cup and in my own humble opinion were more concerned about preening themselves and moaning but hey ho, I am just enormously cynical when it comes to football and should probably be quiet. (I am right though - they were woefully shameful and rubbish throughout the whole thing!)

As for the world cup in general - don't get me started on how much I loathe the popularity of those effing trumpets....

:D

God is NOT going to help England win the World Cup football

2010-05-27T09:24:00.005+01:00

The Bishop of Croydon is asking the natural laws of the universe to be altered in favour of the English football team to win the World Cup this year.

WTF??

Now lets think about this shall we?

The power of prayer has been shown to be utterly useless in humans getting their own selfish needs attended to for many centuries now, even during some of the most dire of circumstances God has not lifted so much as a magical finger to do anything remotely helpful for any carbon based lifeforms on this planet.

His supposed creation of the universe itself was a colossal balls up from the start considering how bloody dangerous it is out there and also for planet Earth itself. The planet is too big and therefore unstable, not all of it is inhabitable and carbon based lifeforms are being wiped out of existence all over the place or at least in the process of being in terrible mortal danger because of where they are in the world. If that is not enough that there are a multitude of extremely dangerous things on the planet, notwithstanding all the disease we carbon based lifeforms have to contend with but also other incredibly stupid carbon based lifeforms who don't want to share the planet with anyone else and are terribly grumpy and shouty about it all.

There are some carbon based lifeforms who are constantly bellowing and bleating towards the sky in the universe sized vain hope that things might possibly not go as crap as they have been should the deity in question get up off their arse and do a bit of magic for them. Some are more vocal about this than others and there is a tremendous amount of squabbling about which deity is the right one to bellow and bleat at. You'd think with 3 million plus deities to bellow and bleat at the law of averages would finally stop mucking around, do some proper work and come down on the side of the believers. However, there is one staggeringly obvious flaw in all this shouting at the sky that seems to have bypassed the believers - in the words of Blackadder - it is BOLLOCKS!

You'd think that with all this avoidance, over a massively vast stretch of time, to help stop terrible disasters or diseases that believers would finally get the message that their particular god and the universe does not give so much as a diarrhea fuelled poop about what happens to them.

You'd think that if it did actually work it would happen more bloody often - sacrificing the right goat whilst standing on one hand at the right time of the moon or merely sticking your hands together and getting carpet burns for no good reasons IS NOT DOING A GODDAMN THING YOU CREDULOUS NITWITS!!!

Bishop of Croydon - you blithering idiot - first off, shame on you for not thinking the England Team have the talent to win - they don't but that's besides the point :) I still maintain that if the England team are going to win this thing they have to do their football playing best to do it, nothing else is going to aid them in this sporting adventure.

Secondly, is this the best you can ask for? You selfish bastard! You couldn't possibly help sort a few more pressing issues out could you? Oh whoops, sorry, the Lord works in mysterious ways, I get it!

I'm not a football fan and I honestly could not care less who wins this tournament, if England do win I am sure it will make a lot of people very happy and that is not a bad thing, I simply want nothing to do with any of it, but I would like people like the Bishop to shut up and stop spouting such ridiculous nonsense!

A lady in my life

2010-05-17T15:36:00.006+01:00

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Tea Fuelled Madness would like to announce that the Tea drinking lunatic who owns this blog has found himself a lovely lady to share in his adventures.

I managed to find her in the most sideways manner possible - leading expert anthropologists could not possibly begin to explain how the chain of events that led to us getting together came to be. There would probably be a considerable amount of head scratching and sentences like "wooing method - Could Do Better" would have been recorded in any study of it. But what counts more than anything is that it did work and I could not be happier :D

So look out world - here come Laura and Philip, she knows karate and I know Tea, together we are invincible!

WOOO HOOOOOO!!

Oh by gee, by gosh, by gum, by jove!

2010-05-12T09:48:00.000+01:00

Time for something happy!

2010-05-12T08:31:00.001+01:00

OI WOMEN! Just stoppit, you naughty activists!

2010-05-05T07:30:00.007+01:00

Found this on Pharyngula this morning, Darth has finally been stirred into action to....wait for it...wait for it...hunt down feminist nuns!

Yes, not even blinking at the thought that his priests have been raping children, Darth has now set up various probing inquiries into that naughty female practice of doing something more than that downtrodden and worthless gender should be doing!

Now, I have repeatedly said that I do not think all people are equal - you are all tremendously odd and peculiar in your own special way and I am the only sane one here! :P

I do not think that being male gives me any special privileges, just like my sexuality, doesn't mean I get better rights than anyone else, balls to that idea I say!

Darth and other oppressors of women hear me now, just because you can quote magnificently stupid things from your magic books does not mean you get to be beastly to those who have different anatomy to you - it is such an enormously simple thing to come to terms with. I personally think you are all just plain scared of them because your religion has indoctrinated to the point where you haven't a clue how to cope with it all. You poor little boys, I really feel pity - honest...

I can tell from looking stuff up in the Wholly Libel that your view of women is completely misguided and well, if I am being completely honest, completely fucked up beyond all reason.

Does it REALLY have to stem from such a stupid book? Genesis 3:16, Leviticus 12: 1-8, Leviticus 15:19-32, Numbers 5:11-31, Deuteronomy 22:13-21, 1 Corinthians 14:34, Colossians 3:18... oh bugger it, just look here for where I got all this from - IT'S PATHETIC!

You miserable bunch of fools - is this REALLY how you need to treat women? Is this REALLY the best you could be doing? Is this how you have to look at them - merely as objects of your sexual lust, which is their own sinful fault in the first place, which you constantly remind them of, because they are completely worthless other than being your personal baby factory. Steer clear of this unclean 'thing' at some point of the month and woe betide them if they give birth to a daughter - YUK - bloody hell, what were you thinking? Oh yes, one more thing, JUST PUT THAT GODDAMN ANKLE AWAY, JEEESUS CHRRIIST, SOMEONE WILL SEE IT YOU WANTON HARPIE!! Such devilry will NOT be tollerated!

"OH NOOOOOEEES!" I hear you moan, "but those are the practices that were popular when the Libel was written and are NOT what we think now...except when it is convenient to make them know their place!"

When you finally understand that YOU are the ones at fault here, YOU are the one's making it all up to serve YOUR inflated egotistical and contemptible needs, YOU are the one's perpetuating stupidity and misery - then perhaps you might realise the horror you have inflicted upon women.

Until then, shut the fuck up and stay well away from women - it is abundantly clear you have no idea how to treat them as human beings and have no idea what havoc you are causing. This is the 21st century the last time I looked, deal with it!

To all the oppressed women out there - it is simple - don't take this miserable crap any longer, tell Darth and the likes where to get off - there are men out there who DO respect you and WILL treat you accordingly, it's time to show the stupid men what they are missing out on.

Islam is only "offended" when it suits them

2010-04-22T11:46:00.004+01:00

Earlier this year I made the statement on RD.net about how Islam pretty much wants the insults and wants to be outraged over anything that suits them, it doesn't matter what it is. The multitude of things going on in this world that can "insult" Islam are so numerous it's pointless attempting to list them - why? Because they pick and choose from anything they like to get offended in order to cause a fuss.

Take this latest fiasco with South Park, they have now found another outlet for their wont to cause terror and fear.

What convinces me of the hypocrisy and devious nature of those that get offended for Mohammad is that way back in Season 5 of South Park, aired July 4, 2001 - they had Mohammad alongside a load of other religious figures fighting the evils of David Blaine - nobody batted as much as an offended eyelid.

But, mysteriously, an episode which depicts Mohammad as a black block with the white writing CENSORED on it and a man in a bear suit suddenly causes the biggest insult ever so now Mr Parker and Mr Stone must die - according to the nice and fluffy people of Revolution Muslim in New York.

Yes, now the more dedicated followers of the "religion of peace" can now focus on a new target in order to cause public disorder and fear. Really, the fact that it is South Park is irrelevant to me - that is not what this is all about, it could have been my blog for all it matters - it's about following the rules of the Qur'an - as the lovely "gentleman" from Revolution Muslim so eloquently put it in the video halfway down the page on this link - the job is to terrorise the non-believers.

The idiots from Revolution Muslim are really just some really small pathetic bunch of attention seeking sissies from New York, they only have to appear on TV and talk shit about how this is not an "actual" death threat, more like a sort of implied-but-lets-not-get-arrested-over-it kind of death threat. It's ambiguous enough to allow them not to be arrested, I SERIOUSLY doubt anyone of that group would so much as give the South Park chaps a paper cut, but the hint however is where the danger truly lies.

All they have to do is hint at it - fear and paranoia can now do the rest - all it will take now is one or two fervent martyr wanna-be idiots to actually take an iota of this seriously and then Parker and Stone could be targeted. This is one of the biggest tools of fear Islamic Fundamentalists have, there are people dangerous and crazy enough to do the job for them - what is worse is they do not really have to put much effort in themselves, just the words.

Such a simple thing can be so dangerous - I read all the time about how people can't come to terms with terrorists having the funds, training or organisation to pull off things like 9/11 - of course they do and this is how they do it. Watch the film The Dark Knight to see what I mean - the Joker talks of how he can cause a whole load of trouble with just some gasoline and dynamite, it's simple, cheap and effective. Same for this situation, Revolution Muslim only needed to get on TV, say some stupid things and this kicks off.

Will they do it? Do you think it even matters to the likes of Revolution Muslim? They have done their job - people are raving about it, there is the smell of danger in the air and the threat of attack from an unseen enemy.

I don't watch much South Park but what I like about them is that nobody, no culture, no religion, no government - nothing is left out of their ridicule or mockery and it can sometimes be very funny. A lot of people have taken offence to it but none have ever done anything more than express their disgust with it - now Islam wants to go one further, it's not content with the usual hurling of lawsuit threats etc, just by picking on this one thing they know is going to be popular - voila, there is danger on the streets, Parker and Stone are targets.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali might have got it right in that video link, the trick is to provide too many targets for them to cope with, overwhelm the little bastards - what can they do when the whole world is "insulting" Islam?

But part of me says that will not work either, Islam gets to choose what has insulted it, it decides what it is going to be offended about - be it cartoons, films, teddy bears or books - like I said, it's all about the threat of terror for them.

I wish Mr Parker and Stone all the best in this, I hope nothing bad happens to them and this is all just a case of macho posturing from the sexually frustrated men who want to live in the 14th century rather than the real world.

But I also hope that this gets people thinking as to how to destroy the real power of Fundamentalist Islam - their words.

Time for some humour

2010-04-12T10:48:00.002+01:00

I found this on XKCD - I can't stop laughing again, this is brilliant!

The Vatican't's Guide to Shooting Yourself in the Foot

2010-04-08T08:00:00.010+01:00

Just when you thought these people could not shoot themselves in the foot any more with all the ridiculous and vile things they have said recently over the Child Rape scandal they have now brought in a computer guided missile to make sure their foot is well and truly obliterated.

See this magnificent article by my friend Paula Kirby - it lists pretty much all the ways in which the Vatican't and the minions have been slowly but surely coming up with new and inventive ways to really dump themselves in the shit - it boggles me as to why they think any of that is a good idea, but this next bit simply adds to a long list of idiocy of the highest order.

There are gems like "more prayer needed!", "it's the work of the Devil - Darth is doing such a good job Satan is now doing his level best to stop that!", "Oh pish, all this media attention is just petty gossip!" and one of my favourites "Our suffering over this is like that of Holocaust Jews!"

Nice one chaps - I think Paula explains magnificently how bloody awful all of that is, especially the last one so I shall move swiftly on.

Now, you might think after all that they would shut the hell up - oooh no, not the Roman Catholic Church -in for a penny in for a pound - I found this on Pharyngula this morning - the Bishop of Tenerife has now come up with this pearl of wisdom.

‘There are 13 year old adolescents who are under age and who are perfectly in agreement with, and what’s more wanting it, and if you are careless they will even provoke you’

Oh really?

The children WANTED to be raped? Oh it all makes perfect sense now...

Without even blinking he moves swiftly on to contradict himself:

The Bishop claimed that both abuse of children and homosexuality would lead to future problems in society ‘as has occurred in other civilisations’.

What on Earth do you say to that?

According to him there is an army of sexually provocative small kids, even the blind ones, hounding down and pleading with priests to get themselves raped and then in a u turn of epic proportions he seems to pass the buck on to "other civilisations" being the problem for future societies - NOT the Catholic Church, they wouldn't dare get involved in any of that...

Sorry, what was that I read in Exodus 20:16? Something about "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."

EPIC FAIL!

This is staggering - I cannot get my head around any of this - how the fuck can this be in any way shape or form helpful?

I know I keep using the word peerless in my posts, I really ought to find another one, but what other word could I possibly use when these bastards are setting the bar so incredibly high? I am really stuck in my vocabulary because I cannot help but use the word peerless to describe just how evil and ignorant they really are because - how else could I describe them? I called Bill Donohue a peerless bastard in my last post and I meant every bit of it, I now confer that insult onto the whole sinister lot of them - a bit harsh you might say, but let me explain why.

The aforementioned Bishop has just said the kids wanted to get themselves raped - do you think for ONE iota of a millisecond that Darth is going to call for this man to apologise for what he said and on pain of excommunication and firing from his job do his level best to retract that outrageous and hurtful statement?

In fact, has Darth done anything to counter ANYTHING malicious or dangerous that his minions have said - over this fiasco alone?

No he bloody well has not - yet he writes this pathetic letter to the Irish saying whoops, that naughty secularisation of the world is the root cause of all this child rape, sorry - kthnxbai! - Paula touched on this in her post about how he then comes out and says all the media attention is "petty gossip"- this all goes to show he is utterly and completely devoid of any repentance or concern for the real victims.

Sorry to get all Godwin on you all but is this not exactly how Stalin or Hitler ran their regimes of terror? I continually get accused, solely because I am an atheist that I have the capacity to do the terrible things Stalin and Hitler did because I have no moral compass etc etc.

Look at what is happening! What more does this man and his evil regime have to do before people condemn them for what they are? They think they can get away with anything - and they will get away with this unless people react properly to it and stop listening to to Darth or the likes of Bill Donohue who somehow always manage to twist it so that it is never their fault.

A good example is Hitler and the apparent "Jewish Problem" - "...if it wasn't for Jews we would not be in this mess" was pretty much a soundbite from Adolf and his own minions whenever there was something blocking a law to be passed or a scandal facing the Nazis what better than to blame it on the good old Jews, despite their having no part in it whatsoever.

Now swap the word Jew for "homosexual","secularism", "Godlessness", "Abortionists" or anything else repeated in defence of this child rape scandal or any other misdemeanour by Darth or his minions and Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the Roman Catholic Church.

Go to all of Paula's links and mine and see for yourself, they keep doing this.

Those who were alive at the end of the war paid for their crimes by being justly tried in an international court of law and this is the course of action I propose for Darth and his Church.

I do not want any violence done to Darth or his criminal minions, I want justice to be done - I want these evil men to be given a fair trial in order for their crimes to be investigated and for them to be locked away in prison if they are found guilty. As Paula says, if Darth was truly sorry about what he has done then he would put himself forward for arrest but, being a hypocrite to the core, he will not do the right thing - he will continue to lie, cheat and obfuscate in order to protect his crumbling church.

He and his collection miserable bastards will also continue to shoot themselves in the foot - how long I wonder until they run out of feet?

Bill Donahue, you make me sick.

2010-04-01T13:20:00.004+01:00

I found this on Pharyngula today - excellent article by PZ

Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League , has managed to really out do himself this time - look here.

Here is our nice Mr Donohue addressing a rape victim:

"You've got to get your facts straight," Donohue said, addressing sex abuse victim Thomas Roberts. "I'm sorry. If I'm the only one that's going to deal with facts tonight then that'll be it. The vast majority of the victims are post-pubescent. That's not pedophilia, buddy. That's homosexuality."

What a peerless bastard.

It's not enough for Bill to already obfuscate and deflect attention from where it should be now he is adding in attacks on gay people too!

If you look here, he is attempting to deflect facts away from the scandal that is now erupting as more evidence comes in that Darth and the Vatican't knew about this and covered it up.

Some great arguments there ranging from "it was done ages ago so it doesn't matter" to the truly sickening "but there are people out there doing it worse than we are" argument - all perfectly ignorant and not one shred of decency in him at all.

Now I find that he has said this on live television.

What a horribly poisoned mind this man has - am I getting this wrong or is this a rather sickening version of the "not a true Scotsman" argument? It's not bad enough saying that since the kid is in what Donohue calls the age of consent so the crime is somehow lessened in it's horror (Remember, the Vatican't says it is 12 years old) oh no, Bill has to crap on about the rapist being a homosexual and therefore by default not a "proper" Catholic Priest? Yes, that's right Bill - he was gay and that makes ALL the fucking difference in the world doesn't it?

This man is truly diseased - look at what religion has done to this man!

Defending child rape and passing the blame on to gay people - he just couldn't help himself could he?

Richard Dawkins wrote an excellent article here as to why he thinks Darth should be allowed to stay Pope - a great line at the end:

He should remain in charge of the whole rotten edifice - the whole profiteering, woman-fearing, guilt-gorging, truth-hating, child-raping institution

So too should Bill - he should remain in his position so we can all show him up for what he truly is and provide extra reasons why people should shun this evil institution of hate mongers.

The hubris of Deepak Chopra

2010-03-24T12:09:00.011Z

I have just been watching this debate between Sam Harris, Michael Shermer, Deepak Chopra and Jean Houston asking if God had a future.

First off I am going to dismiss Jean Houston completely right here and now and get on to the main bit of I want to discuss in a moment - she was a waste of space and did not contribute anything to the discussion except completely irrelevant and off topic anecdotes with extra poetry quotes added in, I have no idea why she was there at all.

Now, on to Deepak.

Words are all this man has got, nothing more.

Words like "higher", "deeper" or "going beyond" are constantly used by him to force his bullshit nonsense into where it absolutely does not belong - he has also stolen a whole load of words from science - particularly Quantum Physics - and butchered them to suit his ridiculous agenda. As if that wasn't enough he was caught quote mining Einstein and Hawking - bravo Sam for catching him on that! The only thing this man is an expert in is talking a whole load of hairy bollocks which may sound all mystical and clever but well and truly have no scientific backing to them whatsoever.

His claim to God having a future lay in the fact that scientists should study science but they also must add in that extra missing "deeper understanding of spirituality" that is missing from the rigorous work that is already proper science.

When called on the validity of his claims or the use of his words, by Sam and Michael, Chopra does not do the gracious thing and produce evidence to back anything up, instead he resorts to the dirty tactic of acting offended and demanding respect for his bullshit. He automatically thinks what he has to say is right and how dare somebody ask a question about the validity of it - you can't do that apparently!

Well Sam and Michael did just that - they called it for what was and got Chopra all upset about the words "Woo Woo" and "fuzzy words"- WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT IT ALL IS!!

What really hacks me off is that Chopra has not got an iota of a clue what science is, what science does and what science will carry on doing - which is discover things and better our understanding through rigorous and repeatable experimentation. For some reason the adventure of discovery and furthering of knowledge is not enough for Deepak - he wants something more, we do not know what this "more" is exactly but apparently it is a "deeper" way of "knowing". As long as he can piggy back on the amazing knowledge science has discovered and add his mystical nonsense on top of it he seems satisfied that is the way forward. Worse still, as Sam pointed out, he is also piggy backing on religion as well - he has taken the Abrahamic God and dumped his crapulent nonsense on top of what already is already pure nonsense - he actually manages to make it worse!

So satisfied is he that he even had the audacity to tell a theoretical physicist (who actually is working with Hawking at the moment - I loved that bit!) - an expert in his scientific field of knowledge - that he knew more about how to understand the subject than the expert! Sam had already called him on this saying he had no right to make things up about subjects he had no better knowledge of - the expert cemented this by his pointing out that Deepak was buggering around with scientific terminology of which he obviously knew nothing about. Simply claiming there is something deeper - or to paraphrase Sam- repeating it loads and getting louder each time doesn't make it anymore true than the first time it was announced.

See this video of Sam's TED talk to get more info on why it is important not to intrude on expertise!

Talk about the very definition of the word hubris! How arrogant and thick skinned is Chopra? Even in the face of overwhelming evidence that he has not got a clue about, he is talking bullshit and is using overtly elaborate metaphorical words to accomplish his outrageous goal - and there he sits all smug, thinking without doubt that he knows better.

Shermer made a very good point - there is no shame in saying you do not know something - what was it Lao Tzu said? "The wise man knows he doesn't know, the fool doesn't know he doesn't know." - Chopra is an utter fool, the very pinnacle of it, he most certainly does not know that he knows nothing about what he is talking about, he is an expert at it and worse still he is PROUD of it.

If the future of God is in the hands of idiots like Chopra then God is really well and truly screwed.

Darth writes a letter and the kids stay raped

2010-03-19T11:27:00.003Z

I am livid beyond words.

I read this article on RD.net today and I am just disgusted to the core.

Innocent children, some according to a poster on RD.net were even BLIND, were raped and physically abused by some disgustingly repugnant men. A vast number of these crimes were covered up by the head of their organisation and various acolytes around the world, witnesses were silenced and threatened, money was spent re-locating some of these rapists so they could continue doing it.

This is a crime beyond any nightmare I could possibly imagine or describe in words that would accurately express my sheer horror of it all. Anyone found guilty of such a crime should be brought to justice, it's plain and simple - it's against the law, it's reprehensible beyond description, it is one of the worst crimes one could possibly commit in my humble opinion.

So what punishment is in store not only for the rapists themselves but for those who sought to cover it up?

Darth has to write a letter.

A few people might lose their jobs, some will be forced to resign.

Praying might have to be done too.

I AM LIVID.

Any other organisation or collection of people in powerful positions would be arrested for this crime.

WHAT gives Darth and all the rapists special rights that no other bunch of people would get in a case like this?

Is this the ultimate punishment to give to these people?

Will this act in anyway as a deterrent for these bastards NOT to go and do this again?

Do we not have a special court in The Hague to deal with trials of this magnitude? The last time I checked this was still going on - what is stopping someone from arresting Darth and all his bastard minions for the crimes they have committed?

Why is there this respect or immunity given to those who have religion? What special privilege have they got that all the other rapists and those covering it all up have not got access to? This is what really hacks me off is they do not think they have done anything wrong or even if they do they know they will get away with it.

I am disgusted and feel powerless to do anything about it - worse still there are people protecting Darth and his church, there are STILL people who remain faithful and thing that Darth is infallible, even after all these crimes. I cannot cope with this, I cannot believe that people are prepared to blindly support these horrible people any longer.

Arrest them now, please, someone, bring them to the justice they deserve - not bloody well give them the means and encouragement to do it again with no deterrent in place for those who decide to do it again. They are getting off too lightly for their crimes, far too lightly and this has to stop.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update:

Here is the letter, unsurprisingly I am disgusted.

Letters do not stop people from raping children.

This letter is meaningless, it does not show Darth is in the least bit sincere in what he has said and nothing is going to be done to stop this from happenning again - prayer is not going to help in this matter is it?

How about the arrest and incarceration of ALL of the bastards who were involved in the whole thing?

Don't give those poor rape victims bloody letters, give them some proper justice.

Today is a fine day for playing Green Day!

2010-03-17T11:52:00.000Z

Remember to mosh at the appropriate point!

I LOVE this song and the video is damn cool as well - BRAVO Green Day, keep up the good work!

Melanie Phillips, I do not worship Richard Dawkins!

2010-03-17T09:51:00.009Z

Melanie Phillips has truly got no idea what she is talking about, it's almost impressive if it wasn't so nauseating to read such drivel.

Dear goodness - as I said on RD.net - I do not think even King Kong could even come close to matching the size of the defecation that dear Melanie has produced here, it is gargantuan!

Where to start?

One thing I would like to address is this tiresome, yet extremely common, theme that clogs up articles written by journalists like Melanie and that is Dawkins worship.

Quotes like the following are constantly repeated in more and more nauseating quality:

"...a superstar for the legions who loathe religion."

"...self-appointed universal crusader against God"

"...the apostle of scientism"

"Which is why Dawkins can lay claim to being not the most enlightened thinker on the planet, as his acolytes regard him, but instead the Savonarola of scientism and an intolerant closer of minds."

"...the high priest of belief in unbelief..."

This kind of thing really is seriously pathetic, it's bottom of the barrel bollocks, it's for when people can't find any better arguments to hurl and vomit forth. They resort to claiming that anyone with even an iota of respect or agreement with what Richard has written or said automatically means they worship him as some kind of prophet or god.

So, now faith is a bad thing, worshipping something is suddenly turned on it's head and given a negative spin? Make your mind up - either fawning over something you think is a god is a bad thing or it isn't!

Does it only count when it's done to invisible beings described in the Jewish Bible?

But then - why would I want to worship Richard? Will He have mercy upon my DNA? If I ask Him in the correct manner will He get the Richard Dawkins Foundation to pay off my mortgage? Perhaps He will share the extra secrets of Evolution by Natural Selection that He has not revealed unto others and only the select few will be told at the end of days?

What possible benefit could I get from doing any of that?

Why is it so difficult for the likes of this appalling woman to think that I might just happen to agree on a few things that Richard says once in a while and I think he is a good, highly intelligent and interesting chap?

Is that really something so utterly frightening?

Moving swiftly on

She was not even there but still managed to misquote and lie for Yahweh with brilliant and accomplished vigour.

The Nazi quote, as Richard explained, was about the wrong Pope - great investigative journalism there my dear Melanie!

Marching through the article there are more cliched dribblings

Some of the worst horrors in human history - the French revolutionary terror, Nazism, communism - have been atheist creeds

EPIC FAIL!

Sam Harris was right, this "bad people used their atheism to do bad things" is never going to leave us - no matter how many times you bash them over the head with evidence to the contrary, for which there is plenty, this crapulent nonsense is repeated with reckless abandon.

HOW CAN PEOPLE USE THEIR ATHEISM TO DO ANYTHING???

Arseholes are arseholes, good people are good people - they do these things out of a variety of reasons that have bugger all to do with not believing in gods, pixies and fairies at the bottom of the garden!

"...the fact remains that Christianity and the Hebrew Bible form the foundation stone of Western civilisation and its great cause of human equality and freedom."

BOLLOCKS!

Read a history book, religion has not promoted either of the two because they did not, nor do they now, think any other religion is equal to their own, let alone encourage freedom without promising an ever-lasting fiery torment for the non believers.

Bloody hell, she accuses Richard of hubris - how much more presumptuous and arrogant does she want to be?

Well, ploughing on through the article, she endeavours to better this!

Now we come on to another cliched lie for Yahweh

"Just why is he so angry and why does he hate religion so much?"

"And so the great paradox is that the arch-hater of religious intolerance himself behaves with the zeal of a religious fundamentalist and, despite excoriating religion for stifling debate, does this in spades."

"Such indoctrination is a hallmark of the fundamentalist who knows he is not just right but righteous. So all who oppose him are by definition not just wrong but evil. Which is why alternative views must be howled down or suppressed."

Yes, here it is, the Angry Atheist Accusation!

Once gods are questioned that's it, you must be an angry bastard!

A nicely added "totalitarian" bit too - that's right, Richard is a real bastard of a dictator - look at how he stifles everything but his own propaganda and the call for the centralised control over ALL aspects of life! It's why I have to bow down to him and worship or he will do bad things to me....hang on....haven't I seen this somewhere before?

All I have left to say to Melanie is this - my history lecturers would have written a note to me if I handed in this type of badly referenced and lie fuelled nonsense - it would have read - MUST DO BETTER!

Still, I think punishment enough for Melanie is working for that shit stained rag of a newspaper The Daily Mail, a fate worse than a fate worse than religion to be sure!

:D

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Update:

Seems like Melanie was not the only one to attempt to discredit Richard for what he actually said or what the focus of his talk was ACTUALLY about - these journalists seem intent on labelling Richard as an angry venemous man rather than focus on his rather uplifting and interesting speech he made at the convention. This link is to an excellent and balanced article written by Jason Ball on the Young Australian Sceptics site.

Richard is not a perfect man, he is not to be worshipped or idolised, but he is well worth listening to. I have been to one of his lectures and have seen many online - they are full of optimistic, funny, intelligent and highly interesting subjects, that may be just personal opinion from me, but I do wish people would focus on what he actually says rather than label him the villain because it suits their religious beliefs.

I hope to God that's Batman!

2010-03-12T08:39:00.000Z

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I can't stop laughing, this is truly excellent!

Jesus in the shit!

2010-03-10T08:42:00.006Z

Read this.

Great.

Sure, that REALLY looks like Jesus - it would HAVE to wouldn't it - no way does it look like James Mason perhaps?

How about Frank Zappa?

Charles Manson - it has to be him instead of Jesus - right?

How does this work exactly?

A supposed the creator of the universe, whose job at controlling all the atoms in the entire expanding universe (which isn't taxing enough is it?) and the believers, in the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of a galaxy tucked away in the gargantuan area that is space, are beginning to let the doubt creep in so off he goes to Earth to appear as his human incarnation in the inside of a fucking Marmite lid to keep the faith going?

Are you kidding me?

Is this really the way a god should be going about making his presence just a little more obvious?

Is this the best he/she/it can do? I am not impressed in the slightest.

The problem here is very simple, part of it is called the Bible and it also is people's desire to see things how and where they WANT them to be.

See Numbers 6 for an idea of what a Nazirite should look like - I'd go for tremendously hairy to cut a long story short.

So people have this image of Jesus with the beard and long hair stuck in their heads which, over the years, gets drawn a lot and people tend to associate the image of Jesus now as a white man with a beard and long hair, despite his origins supposedly being in the Middle East, but that is besides the point....somehow!

You can see it in the media, especially in more recent times, are we really supposed to believe that Jesus, had he existed, really looked like Willem Dafoe or James Caviezel somehow?

This is the image people have had created for them of what Jesus should look like.

I have read a little, not much so I am not expert, about how the brain when it sees something and cannot quite put it together it will create a familiar image to compensate - I think you can find a pretty decent explanation of this in Climbing Mount Improbable by Richard Dawkins. Rock formations can look like famous people, trees can appear to have boobs, Jesus can appear in Marmite lids - all this and more even though the object in question was in no way designed to look like that, it is simply the brain making the nearest association to make the connection more familiar.

But as I said before, people WANT it to be Jesus and that worries me. They could find Jesus on a lump of shit with this line of reasoning, I can imagine people flocking from all over the world to a toilet to witness the shit that looks like Jesus, never flushing it because it is a holy sign of their redeemer!

Doesn't matter about the smell or the toxic fumes etc - it's holy - it's "comforting" - it's not a lump of shit that has taken on the appearance with which you associate with Jesus, oh no, how could it be?

Cos of course, you can see God - well, one of the Gods that fits the 38,000 denominations version of him - sitting up in heaven thinking:

"AHA, ALL THE POWER IN THE UNIVERSE A GOD WOULD WANT - HUH, WHAT IS THIS? YIKES, MY FAVOURITE CREATIONS ARE DOUBTING THEIR FAITH, WHAT SHALL I DO? I KNOW, JESUS, MY SON, - GO DESCEND TO EARTH AND APPEAR ON THAT TURD DOWN THERE!"

"OH AND WHILST YOU ARE DOWN THERE, APPEAR IN THAT DOG'S ARSE TOO - THAT ONE THERE!"

T'is a mad world my masters!

Gaaaahhh look out - it's ART!!!!

2010-03-09T10:39:00.009Z

OMFG!! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! - see here

LOOOK OUT!

Mind your eyes ladies and gentlemen, it is something you have never seen before, it may burn your eyes out - my goodness there are..... I can hardly muster the vocabulary it's so scary....

SNOW BOOBS ALERT!!!

PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC! PANIC!

I give up, I really do.

Now, had this sculpture been of the most pornographic scene of all time complete with prize winning leeks and a bicycle pump then perhaps there might have been cause to probably put it in a more private showing, everybody to their own ideas of what is acceptable there.

But this is the Venus de Milo.

It is a rather tasteful work of art that someone has taken the time to do a rather good job of in the snow.

What is this hang up people have with seeing the human body on display like this?

Is it just me?

Am I weird in the sense that I really don't mind seeing naked bodies, male or female, it's nothing I have not seen hundreds of times before, what have I got to worry about?

I remember a good friend of mine asking me about the film The Watchmen, she was worried that I would be put off by the sight of a naked man wondering through the film. I see a naked man every day of my life - me - I hardly am going to start worrying about seeing one on a film. Dear goodness, I have showered with a whole group of naked men more times that I can remember after playing basketball or other sports, it doesn't phase me in the slightest.

I have seen a lot of naked women too, I love the female body, can't help it, I think it is way more exciting than men's bodies but that's just me, personally I find it way more pleasing to the eye. It's not just sexual attraction, I honestly think women look better naked, but that is merely my own thoughts on the matter.

I am not going to lose all self control the moment I see a pair of snow boobs on what is meant to be a copy of a famous work of art, is it REALLY that worth getting all worried about?

I agree with the article, the sarong and bikini really cheapens the look considerably, I think it was a perfectly good and acceptable copy of the sculpture and I admire anyone who can do such things with snow, it looked brilliant. After all, it is a very famous sculpture, here is the original.

What is wrong with that?

That is on public display in La Louvre, I've had the fortune to actually see it myself, it is magnificent. I can't begin to imagine the thousands, if not millions of people on this planet who have seen this sculpture - so why the fuss about it being re-created in snow?

I've been around museums and galleries galore, I have seen loads of nude paintings and statues depicting famous scenes from all sorts of mythology - dear goodness, I have seen far ruder statues on display in the British Museum alone - the South American fertility statues are so much more overtly sexual that the Venus de Milo, can you believe my sanity is still intact? It's a miracle I tell you!

It's this obsession with sex that I think is the problem, some people, religious especially, have all these rules and regulations that demand sex and everything to do with it MUST be something that people should be ultimately scared of and repulsed by. So vehemently demanded are these rules that the merest sight of a part of the human body that could be assumed to lead to some sort of sexual behaviour is closely monitored and stamped down upon.

Yes, there are probably some things that kids should not see or hear until they are mature enough to cope with, explicitly pornographic scenes or depictions of strong violence or language are some things they are not ready to confront when so young. Fine, I can handle that, it makes sense.

But naked bodies on show like the sculpture in New Jersey?

Come on, if kids grew up without these stupid fears and hang ups about the sight of a naked body I swear things would be better, if they can walk around a museum or art gallery where depictions of nudity are to be found then what is the problem? Why get worried about it all? Why not just appreciate it for what it is - it's just art, nothing more.

Today is a fine day for playing Muse!

2010-03-09T10:30:00.000Z

Rock on fellow Tea Drinkers, rock on!

Contradictions of Jesus's resurrection

2010-02-26T13:30:00.003Z

I keep meaning to do this, I might do this for the death scene too, is point out the whopping great big differences between the Gospel accounts concerning stuff Jesus did or did not do when busy resurrecting.

I have said that I doubt Jesus's existence and this is one of the reasons why, there are no cohesive accounts of his supposed coporeal existence, this is mainly to provide an example from the historical side of things.

So here we have them from the New King James Bible version of events

Mark 16

1 Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him. 2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 And they said among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away—for it was very large. 5 And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed.
6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. 7 But go, tell His disciples—and Peter—that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him, as He said to you.”
8 So they went out quickly[a] and fled from the tomb, for they trembled and were amazed. And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
Mary Magdalene Sees the Risen Lord

9 Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. 11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

Matthew 28

Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door,[a] and sat on it. 3 His countenance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. 4 And the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.
5 But the angel answered and said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 And go quickly and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him. Behold, I have told you.”
8 So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to bring His disciples word.

Luke 24

1 Now on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women with them,[a] came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. 2 But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. 3 Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 And it happened, as they were greatly[b] perplexed about this, that behold, two men stood by them in shining garments. 5 Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6 He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, 7 saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’”
8 And they remembered His words. 9 Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. 11 And their words seemed to them like idle tales, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter arose and ran to the tomb; and stooping down, he saw the linen cloths lying[c] by themselves; and he departed, marveling to himself at what had happened.

John 20

1 Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 Then she ran and came to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.”
3 Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. 4 So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. 5 And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there; yet he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; and he saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the handkerchief that had been around His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed. 9 For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. 10 Then the disciples went away again to their own homes.
Mary Magdalene Sees the Risen Lord

11 But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. 12 And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13 Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.”
14 Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”
She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to Him,[a] “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher).
17 Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord,[b] and that He had spoken these things to her.

This tallys up as followed

Mark - Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome - 3 women present, early, at the tomb. 1 Young man in white who tells them to go and tell Peter and the others what has happened. 3 women, one white dressed man - no apostles present but were to be informed of Jesus's return - ok?

Matthew - Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb, so 2 women, there was a great earthquake, an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and some guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men. 2 Women, 1 Earthquake, 1 Angel and an unspecified number of guards and no apostles present but were to be informed of Jesus's return - ok?

Luke - They, and certain other women with them? Who? Aha - Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them - multiple but unknown number of them, They behold TWO men in white who tell them about Jesus and then they go off to the others - the 11 and the rest, whoever they might be. Peter, on his own, runs back to the tomb to be surprised. So - multiple women of unknown number, 2 men in white, The 11 and multiple others - ok?

John - Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, runs off to find Simon Peter and the other disciple who Jesus loved, Peter runs back first, Simon Peter next, they both check the tomb and toddle off thinking Jesus has risen. Whilst Mary sobs two angels pitch up, then Jesus says Oh hai and then Mary runs off to tell the disciples about Jesus. So. 1 Mary, 1 Simon Peter, 1 Peter, 2 Angels, Jesus - disciples off in the distance.

I have encountered many a Christian who would still see this as accurate, that the accounts here are good enough and there is nothing wrong with them.

The number of women, apostles, angels, men in white, earthquakes, guards, demon possession removals changes in each one or are missing from all the others.

No way is this accurate.

Earthquakes, Matthew seems to love them, I'll do the same with the death scene at some point to show his love of them in his stories. I looked up earthquakes in Jerusalem and they are very common, so much so that the others missing out this amazing natural occurrence leads me to believe Matthew was over dramatising the situation somewhat.

For this to have been even slightly more convincing the cohesiveness of these events would have to be much better than this - this is appaling by my historian standards.

This is to be expected of course, I would date the account of Mark, the earliest gospel around at a minimum to 80 AD to about 90AD, Luke and Matthew to well into 90AD to 100AD minimum - John from about 90 -120 AD minimum - by their very nature these accounts are NOT primary sources from the start. As secondary evidence they would have to add up way better than this and they do not, not by a long shot. None of them were there at the time - they never witnessed any of this, where did they get their information from?

I actually know the vague answer to this, Doherty explains it at great length in his Jesus Puzzle book and it would take too long for me to say too much, but I will give it a go to make it consise. Mark has managed to cobble together something from an incomplete set of the Q documents and also his own midrashed ideas on the matter - Luke and Matthew without a doubt have copied Mark but had better access to a better Q document plus their own embelishments. John uses a lot of scripture based stuff and obviously all of the above but his work has also been messed about with too - John 8 is a good example - so it is a little complicated. Suffice to say these are not eyewitness accounts, these are midrashed copies injected with scripture based stuff from Q and other mutations. I have explained a little what or who I think Jesus is, these Gospels are a new mutation on the original theme.

Furthermore let us not forget where the original Bibles came from, what their original bias was based on - The First Council of Nicaea and further councils and work by the Church Fathers, Eusebius of Caesarea and people like Pope Athanasius etc. We do not have the originals of all this plus the other gospels, like Philip's were chucked out - they only put in the ones the humans agreed on. By that alone it completely craps on any assertion that these gospels are in anyway an accurate description of what heppened. The above proves their inconsistency - history proves they are all BOLLOCKS!

:D

Exercise - I have to and don't want to.

2010-02-17T10:50:00.003Z

I'm 31 years old right now - my body is not what it used to be 15 years ago.

So I sound like any normal chap my age, but I still marvel at the amount of exercise I used to do and how little I do now.

What really bugs me is now that I am an adult, free of schoolmasters and other people who could make me exercise, I am able to talk my way out of doing any.

It's too cold/wet/icy to go running - do any of you remember at school the teachers would have you out there no matter what the weather? Wind, hail, rain, snow, ice, heat - you just got on with it and cursed the teacher. I find it funny how I had to simply persevere and thus kept reasonably fit yet I balk at running outside unless I REALLY kick myself up the arse to do it.

Ok then Philip, go swimming - does you loads of good...except for the screaming bastard kids, slow people in the wrong damn lane, fast people in the wrong damn lane and those pestiferous teenage boys who insist on emptying full cans of Lynx deodorant on each armpit and gas the place out. Bastards, give my asthma even more hell why don't you? I enjoy coughing my poor lungs up in the pool! Ah yes, the small kids piss in the pool so welcome to germ central and accidentally swallowing the water whilst hurtling along in my erratic manner - yum!!

Gym?

Eff off! £40 to £80 a month to get sweaty with people who don't use deodorant and get 10 mins on a machine before some steroid fuelled caveman comes over and kindly tells you to get off the machine or die. I used to sell gym equipment, I know it gets put away after 3 months never to be used again - going to the gym is the same, you spend all that money and end up not using it!

The other thing is my social life, I get asked out by friends who extremely good at being extremely bad influences, if I start exercising I know full well my social life will intrude on it. I'd have to become a hermit to become super fit and I simply cannot do that - It's weird, some weeks I can get away with 5 days a week where I am doing nothing and then other weeks I am out every night - they do not play fair these people, I love them very dearly, but they still distract me away from exercise!

Gaaaahhh, this is not fair! Don't want to do anything! Why is my body so crap that it needs such punishment done to it before it can function better? Plus whilst doing so I can injure myself loads in the process and not be able to exercise even if I was insane enough to do it in the first place - for goodness sake Philip's body, whose side are you on?

Oh balls, I suppose I will have to discipline myself better, I'll have to kick my arse a lot to do this but I must or face the consequences.

I need persuasion, that's it - motivation! If there are any stunningly attractive women out there, ask me out and set the date in a month's time, that will do the trick! :D

Answers on a blog post, catch you later and enjoy the Tea!

Atheism is...by Richard Coughlan

2010-02-10T14:23:00.007Z

This is an old video from last year which I think sums up atheism so well - Richard Coughlan is a very level headed, intelligent, hilarious and romantic nutter on You Tube who I have a lot of respect for.

I am fed up with religious people thinking it is a good idea to say that atheism is another religion or faith based thinking - it is not that at all and I think this video sums it up brilliantly so enjoy and also watch a few more of his videos, especially his stand up stuff and evisceration's of many an ignorant religious fool.

This is Philip1978 saying BRAVO to Richard "The Dick" Coughlan 666!

Darth, you sicken me

2010-02-03T08:00:00.007Z

That's it, I've had it with the Vatican't and all their miserable ilk, this post will list all the reasons why I do not agree or will ever support such a dreadful organisation.

Their obsession with sex has got to be at the top of the list because it pretty much covers such a wide range of reasons why I find this lot utterly reprehensible, in no particular order here are my points.

Abortion - their stupidity and ignorance in face of actually reading a biology book is more than evident and their stubborn attitude about NEVER allowing one has left many people around the world in very difficult and sometimes horrific situations. The one that springs to mind almost readily is the case I spoke of last year in March about the poor Brazilian 9 year old who was raped by her step father.

I do not understand this stance with abortion, this Youtube video by the excellent Peach outlines nearly everything I feel about the matter, The Vatican't is completely out of it's depth on this matter and it is stubborn ignorance that prevents them from making better decisions.

They don't care about human suffering - that is blatantly obvious by their insistence that no matter if a female is raped, that she or the baby might die during the process, if the baby will be born deformed etc the baby MUST be brought to term or as close enough as that could be. Nothing should interfere with this apparently, life must be lived in pain, suffering and misery - it's all "God's will" or some other equally nauseating nonsense like "life is sacred".

If this isn't bad enough we then go on to another topic related to this:

The AIDS epidemic especially out in the more Catholic areas of Africa and South America is killing tens of thousands of people every year and out of their stance on abortion comes another sex obsessed problem that is getting people killed. No contraceptives say the Vatican't, that somehow, like abortion, kills souls - they think that abstinence only or getting people to ONLY have sex with their partners is the way forward. Abstinence only would be a good idea if it actually worked but people are going to have sex, you are not going to stop it no matter how much fear and misery you spread so using contraceptives as a precautionary measure helps lower the risk considerably.

Here is another YouTube video with Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens wiping the floor with the Catholics set to debate them, Stephen makes a very good speech which hits at the core of what is ultimately wrong with the Vatican't's stance on contraceptive use - see here for part 2. He even makes reference to this despicable act condoned by the Vatican't by Maputo Archbishop Francisco Chimoio, which helps sum up their sheer ignorance on the matter. I cannot help but think that by all their opposition to the solutions offered to help combat the disease, that they actually WANT the AIDS virus to spread and kill people - why else would they do this? Why else would they stick to such arcane and dangerous methods and not listen to rational advice? I can't fathom the reason behind this attitude, it simply does not compute.

So on to the act itself, sex.

According to the Vatican't sex is NOT for gay people - you crazy kids and your normal biologically natural sexual desires are apparently no match for Darth's insistence that you are doing something "Disordered", you are "Guilty of a moral evil" and being so busy with all those naughty desires that "violates natural law" you are pissing God off something chronic - yes those are indeed his words. Apparently, as I said in my last post, me being heterosexual gets me everything I could possibly want - I can go out, drag some poor woman kicking and screaming down to the Church, force her to produce a veritable farm of kids - heck she is only a woman after all, Darth would not allow her to have rights for one second! - and boy do I get all the benefits of the world for doing so!

In all seriousness though, I have seen, heard and read too much about the abuse of gay people to last me a lifetime. The horrors I have heard of where people have been driven to madness and or suicide because of the pressures and guilt heaped upon them by the religious dogma perpetuated by people like Darth. People like Allan Turing have died needlessly because of this fucking stupid attitude which has no reasonable or rational evidence to suggest it is wrong. All because of some horrendously ignorant bilge from a book whose contents can be ripped to shreds for it's authenticity and massive contradictions. This is simply all because of one passage in Leviticus 20:13

13 " 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

The Lord thinks this is detestable so therefore believers must also follow this or end up in massive trouble. That bloody book and it's teachings have no more intelligence than Sarah Palin has about Evolution - ie NONE. Using this terrifyingly ignorant book does NOT give you any right to comment on people's sex lives - you CANNOT justify being a bigot based on the teachings of this book or what some stupid hypocrite like Darth has to say on the matter. Go and educate yourselves on proper biology for goodness sake! Stop getting so frantic about people having sex - contraceptives will increase promiscuity - SO WHAT!!

People are DYING because of this ignorance, what more do they have to do do to convince Darth that something might be wrong with his plans?

While we are still on the subject of sex and what can be considered moral, have a look at this link here - the age of consent in Vatican City is TWELVE YEARS OLD!

Going on to child rape and it's connection with the Vatican't, I don't have to go far on a BBC News search to find evidence of countless events which have been covered up by the Vatican't and then later revealed -
Like here, here, here and here

I could go on indefinitely but suffice to say, after finding out the age of consent considered moral and legal in the Vatican't State is TWELVE YEARS OLD is there really any wonder why all this stuff was hidden away? As Stephen Fry says in that video, Darth himself was in charge with covering it all up in 2003 and yet here he is - voice of God on Earth, Mr Moral - standing around claiming that homosexuality is connected with paedophilia - what a bloody hypocrite!

Oh yes, whilst I remember - the lovely subject of women comes to mind!

The Vatican Hates Women. As seen by the refusal to give rape victims emergency contraception we can also look at the howlings of outrage whenever the subject of women comes up - NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO says the Vatican't, this is men only! They are so strict about this - they even have to check when the new Darth is elected if he has any bollocks just to make sure no meddlesome women get in there!

I got this from some site, Liberated Christians, haven't a clue what they are about but it does have a good point about how the Vatican't wants to keep women under control.

I have come across a few articles, this Guardian one for example, all with the same howlings about not allowing women priests - dear goodness, no, women should be at home producing babies or something - God made Eve suffer for a reason you know, crafty wenches the lot of them!

What a load of crap, it really is - men and women are not equal in my opinion - all men and women are fantastically imperfect in their own brilliant ways and as Brian says in Life of Brian, you are ALL individuals! Celebrate it, don't listen to the Vatican't telling you that you are less or more of a person because of your gender!

So that's it for sex, I think, unless I can come with anything else but lets move swiftly on to Science!

From beating the crap out of Galileo to denying evolution the Vatican't has done a fabulous job of telling experts in their chosen subjects that they are in fact wrong - this coming from the bunch of stupid idiots who get involved in humongous debates about limbo and other such ridiculous nonsense that is of no help to humanity.

I think Dara o Brian sums it up well, these people don't want to rely on evidence, they do not want to accept change to their doctrines and dogmas - the doctrines and dogmas may be total bullshit - but for some reason seem to be much more plausible that real life!

Be it Stem Cell Research - which could SAVE PEOPLE'S LIVES DARTH, DO YOU HEAR ME? - or anything else that could help cure people, you can bet the Vatican't will vote for pain, misery and suffering over medical science any day of the week.

I think that's it, if I think of anything else, I will post it up later - well done those of you who made it this far.

Suffice to say I am disgusted with the whole Vatican't and their making people's suffering a bigger priority than their well being.

(If anyone wonders why I use the word Vatican't it's simple - whatever use and benefit you want to give the world they always manage to find something wrong and say you can't do it!)

Darth, this is not your decision to make!

2010-02-02T07:18:00.004Z

See here Darth is now sticking his nose in where it is least wanted - AGAIN!

Darth is kicking up a stink, he is scared of Teh Gayz again and he has gone vocal - so much so he is willing to stick his nose into a country whose laws and government do not concern him.

What he completely fails to realise is that he is not part of the elected government of the United Kingdom, we are NOT answerable to him, we make OUR laws as we see fit to make them using democratic procedure - this isn't some twisted BNP rant, I am just pointing out we have democratically elected leaders and a parliament which we use to make this country better or worse with as we see fit, Darth can piss off. This is for the whole of the UK, this is so people who are qualified for a job cannot be discriminated against by their would-be employers.

But no, Darth has his very expensive, hypocritical, pants in a twist over it all and wants to throw his "holy" weight around.

Pope Benedict XVI said the legislation "violates natural law" and could end the right of the Catholic Church to ban gay people from senior positions.

What Darth fails to realise that it is perfectly natural to be gay, but since the Vatican't is so obsessed with sex and how it should be done they feel utterly driven to kick up a religious stink which makes about as much a sense as Sarah Palin taking over the Presidency of the US.

I had a quick Google and looked at what this bill entails - simply put, amongst other things, you can't discriminate against anyone about their sexual orientation.

OHHH NNOOOOOEEEESSS!

Darth and his minions won't be able to control sex! People in senior church positions will be able to get up to all sorts of sexual mischief which consenting adults who are not related are at their natural liberty to do in the privacy of their own lives! IMAGINE THAT!!

Oh the horrors! Darth can't cope with it can he? He really cannot come to terms with not being able to control people's sex lives.

I think this is fantastic idea, if the church is forced to accept here in England that it is ok to be gay and that it makes absolutely no difference to how someone does their job, imagine the message this then sends out. Wouldn't it be great if this part of Catholic Dogma was given the boot?

Instead of being able to spread fear and misery, which is the wont of the Vatican't in the first place - woe betide anyone who wants to live a normal life - they are then faced with having to come to terms with sexual orientation, they will preach less about it - they would have to! If they are not allowed to discriminate in the work place, if people are in a job, paying taxes and national insurance who just so happen to be gay, how could they possibly preach all that Leviticus bilge and not be seen to be even more hypocritical than they already are?

I really can't see a gay minister standing up in front of the flock yelling "CEILING CAT SAYZ TO TEH GAYZ - DO NOT WANT! How much authority is going to be heard behind that kind of talk if the church is not allowed to discriminate?

Fantastic!

Face it Darth, democracy is a bitch isn't it?

If any politician is reading this - you poor bastards, I hope your eyes are insured - PLEASE vote on this Equality Bill and DON'T listen to Darth! I want this man's authority completely undermined, this is NOT the Vatican't, it has NOTHING to do with them and their vomit inducing, dogmatic, dictatorial religious nonsense - this is a just and fair law designed to make sure equality is maintained.

I do not want people employed simply because they ARE gay, that's flipping stupid, I want people to be able to prove they can do the work for the jobs they apply for - their sexual orientation should not even be an issue - that's it.

I do not want to work where I do just because I'm heterosexual, I don't anything in life because I am not gay - that is incredibly stupid. I have privileges now that most gay people do not - I can get married, produce a farm of kids and have tax benefits etc all because of some basic biology - how does that make sense?

It's purely past religious influence over society that we have this hang up about people's biology and I think in this day and age it should change. We know so much more now, we can do so much more and we don't have to listen to bigots like Darth in order to progress in this world.

The Coolest Movie Trailer Never Made!

2010-01-29T10:32:00.003Z

I turn up at work on Friday to find the company signs had been stolen...and a Christmas tree wedged into the door handle, like you do, as per normal, yes, this is just what the door was missing!

The criminal underclass obviously was obviously toying with us and I sent out the message on Facebook to ask what had happened.

My friend Kev - he of the Deadpool costume slitting my Zombie throat somewhere on this blog - then posted this..

That IS strange. Especially considering that when I got to work this morning, I found the Easter Bunny shot dead, slumped over the photocopier. Before he died he seems to have managed to scrawl (and copy 50 times, the idiot) the message "protect the microfilm". Perhaps these events are connected? Maybe the tree was a message. WE MUST FIND SANTA! He could be in danger!

After a call to arms from me to save Santa, Kev the genius then typed out what is now to be immortalised as...

The Coolest Movie Trailer Never Made!

Voice over: “In a world on the brink of collapse, one man stands between us and the darkness”
(Ext. shot of North Pole house, Santa stands looking at the setting sun on the horizon whilst stirring music plays – think Luke Skywalker on Tatooine)
“But when his life is threatened by a shadowy conspiracy that could tear us all apart… who stands between the darkness… and HIM?”...

(Jump cut to Phil and Kev back to back, surrounded by ninjas in filthy alleyway. Nobody moves. Close up on Kev’s eye. Close up on Phil’s clenched fist. A ninja moves to draw his sword and ALL HELL breaks loose. Queue wailing guitar music)

(Jump cut to a shot of the Easter Bunny (played here by Bruce Willis), crouched in an empty office building at night, pistol drawn. Men with flashlights and guns drawing nearer. E.B is muttering to self “Dammit dammit dammit, they’ve found me!” (Slow mo now, E.B leaps out from behind desk emptying pistol clip in direction of flashlights)

(Jump Cut to Phil, bruised and bloodied – he’s obviously been in a fight but he’s ANGRY. He is pinning a man not unlike Agent Smith from The Matrix to the wall and growling) “WHERE IS HE? WHERE HAVE THEY TAKEN SANTA? WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH HIM?”

(Jump cut to Kev, crouched over a bomb. The timer is 20 seconds from detonation. He sweats. Talking to himself) “Red wire, green wire, red wire, yellow lorry- damn. I should have paid more attention in bomb class.” (He picks up the bomb and hurls it out of the window, ducking as the ensuing explosion knocks out the windows in the abandoned warehouse he’s in)

(Jump cut, Kev is holding the Easter Bunny’s bullet riddled corpse. Phil Stands behind, head lowered, one hand on Kev’s shoulder.
Phil: “I’m so sorry.”
Kev: “Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!!”
Voice over: “Coming this summer”
(Jump cut to Phil loading a shotgun, more wailing guitar music)
(Jump cut to Kev drawing a sword, more wailing guitar music)
Screen goes black:

Voice over: “The greatest movie ever made not by George Lucas in the early 80s: “Badass Mo’Fo’s Who Fight Everyone And Save Santa”

(Final jump cut to Phil and Kev, stood, exhausted on the crest of a hill at dusk. They turn around to be faced with an approaching horde of the undead).

Kev: “What, it’s Zombies now?”
Phil: “Always with the damned zomibies.”
END TRAILER

A work of genius, it has Awesome written all over it and I want to act in this!

So, if there are any budding film trailer directors out there, with more cash than sense, you know who to contact - I'm right here, I have Kev's number - we can save Santa!

Open your eyes by Richard Dawkins

2010-01-24T10:58:00.003Z

People like to ridicule Richard for being strident, I dare anyone to watch this video and tell me just how incredibly insouciant he is afterwards.

I don't think Richard is a strident or angry man, actually I think quite the opposite, I do think he has got an amazing way with words and is able to produce some very meaningful and intelligent sentences which paint such an incredible picture. What he says in this video sums up so much for me - not only about my time on this planet and how incredibly lucky it was that I got the chance to be the me that I am but I think it also shows just how passionate about life and learning Richard is. This video, along with the many things I have read by him all have that same message embedded in it

"Flippin' heck just LOOK at how Tea drinkingly interesting that all is - lets investigate it, lets see what it does, lets enjoy what we discover, we might be able to put it to good use!"

He has never shied away from saying how passionate he is about learning and has done his utmost best to get that message across and that is why I respect him - it's that scientist in him, that appreciation of knowledge and the value of discovering that which was previously unknown. It's that Star Trek mentality in a way - to seek out new life, to boldly split infinitives like nobody dared before and jolly well have some incredible fun whilst on the journey.

I wish people would appreciate what they have on this planet instead of wanting to bugger it up for the rest of us for their own selfish and usually highly irrational needs.

So thank you Richard for being such a hoopy frood, you obviously have clear knowledge of the location of your towel and I raise my Tea cup in your direction.

To the rest of you who I know and love dearly, I thank you too, my time on this Earth would be meaningless without you all and I am extremely fortunate to have met the people that got to be you and not someone else!

Enjoy the video.

Tea for Two for you!

2010-01-24T10:32:00.003Z

My friend suggested a perfectly good song, made her vote and everything and I being the utter colossal idiot that I am forgot put it up for selection. This is perfectly dreadful of me and so as part of my penance I present Tea for Two by Frank Sinatra and Dinah Shore, it is a magnificent song I hope you all enjoy it.

Bendi wins! Congratulations, the 101st Post is Elvis!

2010-01-22T10:20:00.004Z

Great song!

Thank you to all who voted and to all who help encourage the Tea Fuelled Madness!

Oh yes, Bendi won because he got, in his words -"my cat Grendal mintcake and my 3 hens, cockerel, 2 chicks, about 30 fish, no IDer how many stick insects (standard size)" to vote along with him.

I thought that was very good voting indeed and thus awarded him the prize!

:D

100th POST! YIIIPIIIIEEEE!

2010-01-11T18:20:00.004Z

Magnificent!

I have reached the dizzy heights of 100 posts, this is truly fantastic - bloody hell, my kettle over-boileth, my Assam has never tasted so good as it does this precious moment in history!

Dear goodness, how to celebrate this momentous occasion - I was going to announce my 600th cup of Tea in the office with this post - I accomplished this magnificent feat on the 23rd of December - even put this message on my Stalkbook account -

Cup to the right of him, kettle to the left of him, Tea bag in front of him, Woo hoo'd and Tally Ho'd, Bound'd at with mischief and glee, Boldly he bounced and well, into the kitchen at work, into the kitchen that smells, leaped Philip to make his 600th cup of Assam in the office! YIIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPIIIIIEEEEEEE! (My apologies to Alfred Lord Tennyson!)

It was a truly incredible thing to have done - not only to butcher poor Tennyson's poem for which I apologise but 600 cups of Assam in the office since I started taking note of this lunacy is still pretty bloody amazing by my crazy and abnormal standards!

I love my blog, I really do - I wish I posted more on it, but alas, I get distracted or lost for things to post about, I really want to continue on the history of Jesus for a bit but I hope there will be more craziness and other topics which I can entertain you all with.

Ok - I was going to post a music video on here to express the sheer delight of Tea Fuelled Madness reaching this stage of it's life but then I write this blog for people to read and it would not be what it is without the people who risk their eyes and brains to read all the nonsense I pour forth into this world.

So -

For the 101st post I have decided to let you lovely people decide what song should be sung on this merry blog to celebrate 100 posts.

I'm going to put the word out on Stalkbook and everything and see what you want - I will keep a tally of votes and in whatever time frame I deem fit - possibly a couple of weeks or one - who knows? Then when the time is right I shall let your music sing forth over this merry blog of Tea.

Voting opens now - oh yes, thank you all for reading this stupid mess of ramblings and also posting your views and opinions - they are always welcome... unless you start bad mouthing Tea or Muse! :D

Cheeeeeeeeeeeers!

The Jesus idea

2009-12-08T16:36:00.003Z

I have been meaning to do this for ages and now that I have some spare time I will see if I can explain what I really think about Jesus and his non- existence.

Jesus is an idea.

Perhaps a better explanation is a meme or Chinese whisper that has evolved and mutated into the character he is today, changed over time from a revelatory vision into a miracle working God in human form who people have accepted walked this Earth - miracles or not.

His name for starters means "The Anointed Rescuer" - is it really such a challenge to the imagination that he just so happens to have the right name? I would not want to count up the number of religions that have at the very heart of it some story whose character traits match up to this very criteria of a supernatural being who will save you plus lo and behold is also The Anointed One, the One destined to accomplish this job. Sorry, I don't buy this at all, the lead character having the name of the job he is intended to do?

Imagine if you can 1st century Jerusalem and the surrounding areas - a seething cauldron of religions all piled into a small space - we are talking literally thousands of small pockets and communities all professing this that and the other about daily life being buggered up by demons or some other peculiar, non worldly, threat that can only be avoided by following that particular religion.

I read about this in the Jesus Puzzle, experts agree that there were two sets of preaching movements one situated in and around Galilee, the other in Jerusalem. The Galilee Tradition, according to Doherty, was a collection of Jewish groups who were annoying the establishment at the time believing that a Jesus figure would arrive to judge humanity to usher in the arrival Kingdom of God. This is where all the miracle stories were concocted too, there was no mention of a divine or human Jesus apart from one which may have influenced the Gospel writing. No death, no Resurrection, no messing around in Jerusalem - just judgement and miracles.

The other lot were the Jerusalem Tradition, had a Jewish and Pagan base to it which came to life in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. The message spread was rather confusing as there were small groups of apostles running around talking about a heavenly Son of God figure who was there to rescue and save them. Some gave him the revealer trait which meant being saved through having knowledge of God, others claimed he undergone sacrifice, death and Resurrection in the spiritual world - basically the two main bits were Intermediary Son of God via the spiritual channel. No mention of a human who walked the Earth, everything was all done in the spiritual world.

With me so far?

Here you have a seething mass of small groups hurtling around spreading ideas about a supernatural being who just so happened to incorporate a lot of ideas and philosophies roped in mainly from countries like Greece and Egypt to create this religion's central character.

You also have similar groups hurtling around worshipping Mystery Gods like Attis, Osiris, Mithras - all with very similar ideas but with doctrines and weirdness all of their own. I read in Richard Carrier's book Not the Impossible Faith about the Attis cult about how the men used to castrate themselves just like it was told happened to Attis in the spiritual world. It really is no wonder Christianity got some of its converts later on - "Hmm saviour God AND I get to keep my bollocks intact? Righty ho, sod this Attis lark, I'm off!" :)

My main point here I want to make is that Christianity came from a world where it was the acceptable norm to have your deity and rescuers do all the work in the spiritual world and by these acts done there sanctity and salvation were there for the believer in the real world. Why should we treat Jesus differently?

Doherty writes on Page 22 of The Jesus Puzzle

Would it not make better sense to view that earliest record as representing a belief in the spiritual entity who is a version of the prevailing myths and thought patterns of the day, something upon which a historical garment was eventually hung?

Is it not just incredibly convenient for those who now claim Jesus was on this Earth from what is said in the Gospels and accept that version rather than the record that you get from Paul and the Epistles?

I will discuss Paul and the Epistles in another post but I really wanted to start at this idea of Jesus evolving over time to become the figure he is today. I have already blogged about the First Council of Nicaea and what they were discussing in 325 AD - how come they even had to have that argument? How come by the start of the civil war between the Arians and the Cathars are they still trying to kill each other over it? They were even still discussing self castration for Zark's sake - I thought the whole Attis thing would have been over!

So here are my first musings on the matter, there will hopefully be more as and when I have time, as per usual, if you think I have got my facts wrong, by all means correct me!

A review of The Jesus Puzzle by Earl Doherty

2009-12-08T13:16:00.004Z

I was given a challenge by a theist a few years ago on RichardDawkins.net to go and find evidence of Jesus not existing, not even in human form, ever upon this planet. This prompted me to go and discover all I could about this character Jesus and what really happened in 1st Century Jerusalem that could possibly have prompted this.

Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins have both made the assertion that there must have been someone that the Jesus stories can be attributed to - I suggest they read this book as I am sure it would help change their minds about a lot of misconceptions.

Doherty is a very good writer in my humble opinion, his attention to detail and backing up of his claims are excellent not once does he claim something and then not produce evidence for it, he is a good historian indeed. He knows his Bible, he knows his languages, he knows his history - in short he really knows what he is talking about.

The central part of his argument is how the myth of Jesus evolved from being a collaboration of ideas embeded in the multiple communites who was made human by the later Gospel writers and others as time went on. Doherty writes about how you could compare Jesus to the likes of William Tell and the founding of the Swiss Confederacy - as time wondered on, the myth became a man, I suspect there are still people who would argue strongly in favour of William Tell existing when he did not.

Doherty focuses on many diffrent things in his book, he talks about the arguement from silence and how there is no histotical evidence to be found showing an earthly Jesus was around. He shows very clearly that the letters and sayings of Paul and the Epistles are talking about a spiritual Jesus who is revealed in visions rather than earthly actions. He also covers all the surrounding philosophies, community thinking, mystery cults - basically showing how the character of Jesus was already imbedded into the thinking of the time and that Jesus was no more original than a deity like Attis or Mithras - people accepted at the time that these characters did what they did in the spiritual world, not the physical. Jesus's name litterally translates as "The annointed rescuer", 1st century community thinking did have a lot of the "yikes there are demons around doing all this to me, if I follow [Insert deity of choice] then I will be saved from this demonic torment".

Doherty also attacks and refutes all of the claims Christians make about how historians like Josephus who had their writings changed and how obvious it is when the whole picture is looked at. He also dismantles all the Chriatian Apologists like Tatian, Theophilus of Antioch who were writing well into the end of the Second century. With his great attention to detail Doherty shows how even the Bible has been fiddled with, how Paul's letters are not all genuine showing how passages like Colossians, Ephesians and 2 Thessalonians were written a decade or 2 AFTER Paul's death!

The Gospels are given a very thorough debriefing including their origins, their association with the elusive Q documents, when they might have been written and how much they resemble many parts of the Old Testament in terms of traditions and sayings. He explains the tradition of the Jewish "Midrash" and also the symbolisms that are dotted all over the Gospel stories like the suffering of the religious hero in chapter 23 - all of it shows just how much the Gospels are not to be taken seriously.

I would urge people who want to know more about Jesus and the origins of Christianity to read this book as I think it captures the arguments for Jesus never existing very well indeed. Doherty is no quack, he is a very well read historian who I think has definitely set the bar very high for those who would want to refute this book and it's contents. If people like Richard Carrier are slowly being convinced by his arguements, see here, then I hope to see a lot more people take on board what Doherty has to say. Since reading this book I have become a lot more confident in my knowledge about Jesus, I am now able to hold my ground over a lot of counter arguments from many theists who I speak to about this subject.

My quest for finding a human Jesus is not over, I have so much more to read about this subject but this book has helped me enormously, so thank you Earl Doherty, you have convinced me of many things but also you have informed me of a great deal that I did not know too.

Couldn't agree more!

2009-11-20T12:31:00.002Z

see more Political Pictures

My letter to Ben Stein

2009-11-17T15:40:00.001Z

Oops, I found Mr Stein's email....

Dear Mr Stein

I was recently sent a copy of your CBS Sunday Morning Commentary, I am sorry to say I do not have the date when you did this, but in it, amongst other things, you stated "I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country.. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat."

Far from wanting to shove this down your throat, I know that you will find anything in the American Constitution about atheism and I am amazed that you think there is an atheist agenda being forced upon you, could you possibly elaborate on this and tell me where you got your evidence for this?

You will, however, find that the Constitution was written up to be a secular document which is completely different. Secularism would be the seperating of religion and state so that not one religion has more say than another one, thus giving the people an equal voice in a democracy. Is it not supposed to be for the people by the people and not just for a select few - which includes atheists just as much as it does believers like yourself?

I am English and therefore in no position to influence American government and administration, but I would ask why you have to portray atheists in such a false and unfounded manner? You seem to think, from reading your statement, that anyone who is not a believer in the Abrahamic God of the Christians or Jews is somehow a threat to you.

I wish you no ill at all, I disagree greatly with what you say most of the time and take great exception to your opposition to science, but that is only my disagreement with you, I would not dare wish anything bad to happen to you just because we disagree. You however have said in your statement that something bad will happen to innocent people as a result of my atheism or other non believers in the God that you believe in.

Is it really your God's policy that if someone were to do something contrary to his wishes that he would send a natural disaster or some other means to cause much death and destruction? Did the children and adults all have to die in Hurricane Katrina or any other disaster just because of some people's disagreement with your religion?

Your remedy for this is to force schoolchildren's education to be inundated with religion so that your God may be appeased - You worry about atheism being "forced down people's throats", how is this different from what you are proposing? - Plus forgive me for saying so but exactly how does this make sense? Is your God not a loving one and if he was, would there not be a better solution?

I am a historian, I know a little about periods in time where religion and piety were at much higher levels than they are now and still natural disasters happened then. People still died in hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis etc - do you really thiink there is such a connection between non belief in your God and natural disasters? If so, I would say your God is impossible to please and the exercise is futile.

Forgive the length of this message but if you can find the time I would be interested to hear your views on this matter

Kind regards

Philip

Ben Stein is an idiot, a dangerous one at that.

2009-11-17T09:08:00.004Z

I got an email from my mum today sent on from a friend of her's

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary..

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country.. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her 'How could God let something like this happen?' (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, 'I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?'

In light of recent events... terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school.. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said okay.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with 'WE REAP WHAT WE SOW...'

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in..

My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,

Ben Stein

There is so much wrong with this, I am aghast at the level of ignorance and blind faith this man has, this is so wrong and dangerous.

First and foremost

Ben, be a good chap and read Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli

"As the Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion"

Woooooaaah, what is that I see before me? Ben, I took a few seconds out of my day to look that one up so I could quote it, how difficult is it to read the damn thing? No, America is supposed to be a SECULAR country which means interfering arseholes such as yourself should shut the hell up when trying to influence policy or have your religion favoured over all the rest - that is the whole point you twit, it's called democracy!

Aww feeling discriminated against so you want to peddle more fear and misery and direct it elsewhere?

Funny you use Billy Graham's daughter as a source to quote from, what was it Billy was caught saying to Nixon...something about the Jews being from the "Synagogue of Satan"...

You could have used William Lane Craig as a safer bet but even then I am still going to rip this nonsense to shreds.

God is angry with us is he? Awww poor Yahweh! Not powerful enough to get his message across so he gets to kill innocent people to really drive it home?

Yes that's it, blame atheism for the troubles of this world, you forgot to insult the gays as well, you know, cos natural disasters are caused by their behaviour too, come on Ben, what kind of religious arsehole are you trying to be? You have to get it right and insult ALL the people who don't deserve it!

Sorry, where is this evidence that atheism is being shoved down kids throats?

You fucking liar!

You are hypocrite to boot as well, you moan about something being shoved down kids throats and then make the case that unless we shove your religion down kids throats God is going to be even more pissed off with the world.

Make your mind up, either shoving things down kid's throats is a bad thing or it isn't- trying to make your case by injecting fear and misery into it is a pathetic and dangerous ploy for which you should be ashamed of you miserable bastard.

This case you make, the celestial dictator MUST be appeased should he?

Where is your proof of this?

When the world was more heavily Christian or Jewish back in the day there were STILL natural disasters going on, they were more God fuelled than the world is today, what the fuck were they doing so wrong in their piety that caused those events then?

Am I laughing? No I am fucking not, you mendacious, good for nothing, bully for Yahweh, go ahead if you want to spread fear and misery on behalf of your Celestial Dictator's KGB or SS, but don't expect people to be nice to you after it.

If this message is in anyway too vulgar for you, think about what you have written and how vulgar that is, I personally do not think I used enough obscenities to describe what I think of your idea.

We must shove religion down kids throats in order to prevent disaster? How about teaching kids proper science, proper history, proper education in full whereby they can learn how to be doctors who can save people's lives after natural disasters or work for the countless emergency services who willingly risk their lives, regardless of religion or culture, to help complete strangers as best they can?

How about education to provide knowledge on how to prevent natural disasters - yes Ben, NATURAL, no evil bastard deity behind it - or how to build better housing and defences?

Anything but shove religion down people's throats - praying for this shit to stop is futile, above all peerlessly ignorant and dangerous.

Like hell your God has no choice but to commit mass genocide simply because people are ignoring him, loving God my arse, if God was a loving one he could make it known what he wants without resorting to killing people - but this is what Ben wants, he wants his God to be the vindictive, jealous, monster that he is in the Bible and if people do not find this worrying I worry for the human race. Worship that? I'd rather kiss Hitler!

You and your ilk make me sick, you should be so ashamed of yourselves but are too blinkered by the Stockholm Syndrome that is your relationship with religion.

Zombie Thor!

2009-11-03T12:51:00.003Z

I got ambushed by Deadpool!

Noisy guitars and female singers, magnificent combination!

2009-10-26T09:35:00.006Z

I'm a right old sucker when it comes to this type of music - noisy guitars and female singers get me nearly every time! This is a cover version of the song Wicked Game by Chris Issacs and the band is called Giant Drag, I think this is better than the original in my humble opinion.

A good man recomended this song to me on Facebook, I would like to thank Mr Clark for this, he has a fine taste in music and is a splendid chap to drink with!

Sorry about the video of this, it's good to listen to though, enjoy!

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou sayst, "Tea is truth, truth Tea," -that is all ye know

2009-10-23T13:11:00.009+01:00

So my Tea Fuelled friends and coffee drinking heathens, another milestone day is upon us all.

Today at 1:18pm on Friday 23rd of October 2009, on a small blue green planet, found in the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Milky Way, in a country called England, in a small town called Maidenhead something truly great has occured.

I, Philip, have got in my hand the 500th cup of Tea that I have brewed in the office since I started buying my own.

Count them - 500 cups of Tea!

First I yelled a Spartan yell at 300, a Tea Fuelled Yawp at 400 - now I'm paraphrasing my most favourite line from a poem - that is how truly, inescapably happy I am about this, it's just utterly tremendous!

500 cups of Tea!

How many goodly Tea bags are there here! How beauteous my red cup is is! O brave new world, That has such Tea in't!

So come on people, it's time to celebrate - please leave a comment, I want to hear from you all and what you were doing at 1:18 pm today and what you are going to do now that you know I have reached this new, dizzy, height of my Tea drinking adventures!

Slurp well if you have a cuppa - if not, GET THEE TO A KETTLE!

(Or I'll paraphrase Shakespeare some more, I will - just you try and stop me!)

Kirk and Ray, what the fuck did you say?

2009-10-07T14:15:00.003+01:00

Found this on Pharyngula

Catchy tune, I like the video too, very to the point!

My friend Jim

2009-09-15T09:30:00.005+01:00

I had a 97 year old friend called Jim who died recently and I want to write about parts of his life so I can leave a lasting memory of the effect he has had on my life.

Born in 1912, first name was actually Frank but throughout his army years he was known as Jim and insisted from then on that people call him that. I think the name Jim suited him more, he was not the sort of man you would associate with the name Frank (Frank is a great name, I like it) he was a very Jim sort of chap.

I came to know Jim when I think I was 15 years old, I was working in a pub near to where my parents live as the chap who basically set the bar up before the customers came in. Jim was a regular at this pub, I think he had by the time he died been going there for well over 40 years or so, he loved that pub loads. I got on well with him and so did my Dad who would stop in for a pint to come and pick me up and that's how we got chatting and to be friends. More on his bar antics in a moment, first I shall give you a little more background on him and his character

Very clever chap, he had a good mind for numbers so his first real job I think was in the financial sector, when the Second World War broke out he had been working in London and not doing too bad a job at it. During the war he decided to enlist in the Royal Engineers where he eventually held the rank of Quartermaster, a very lucrative job for someone like Jim. He found out who did not drink and for a small bit of money bought their Rum rations - this was to come in useful come VJ day!

Jim was a hard worker, his antics even got a mention in Dispatches which is something to be very proud of and I think army life suited his meticulous and procedural ways. He also knew the value of a good pint and managed to literally spend weekends in the pub, sleeping when drunk to then get up and have a few more, there was not really such a thing as closing time. One peculiar fact is that Jim never suffered from hangovers and was able to be on parade no matter what he had done the night before, his one and only hangover was suffered after drinking a PINT of Rum on VJ day. I asked him about VE day and he said the Americans just went to sleep, the British chaps drank! :)

Curious fact : Jim never ever owned a passport in his life. He spent time in Egypt, I think India and America yet never had to produce a passport because the army took him everywhere.

After the war Jim went on to work in Natwest where his no nonsense attitude got him promoted very quickly to head cashier where he worked until he retired. He said after that he went on to "drink properly", he always insisted he was not an alcoholic and this was proved when after drinking 8 pints a day for goodness knows how long, his doctor told him to stop drinking for 6 months or there would be consequencecs. Jim promptly did that without hesitation and I think I believe him when he said he was not an alcoholic, he was merely preserving himself for the years to come!

Curious fact: Jim never had a mortgage in life - he manage to somehow get his first house for practically nothing from a friend, I can't remember the full details but with the money he got from selling that got his house which he lived in for the rest of his life.

Jim was a great walker and a cyclist - would bound off for miles and think nothing of it and that kept him very fit in his retirement and that is how my dad and I got to know him was through walking my dog with him before we had a couple of pints at the pub where I used to work, this was a regular event each Saturday. The dog thought the world of him, he sometimes had biscuits which helped!

Jim's health was really quite good for most of his life and he ate very well indeed ( for a man who was about 5'7 he had at least 5 different veggies on his plate - I have no idea where he put it all!) Sadly as he got older things did start to close down and one of them was his eyesight which was a great pity but nonetheless there was humour to be found too.

I remember being out on a walk and we met some people who were a bit lost, they gave Dad a map who then gave it to Jim, Jim stood there looking at the map for a few seconds only to then pipe up and say "What the bloody hell am I doing? I'm blind! - Dad and I were howling with laughter and Jim giggled loads as well. One thing I liked about him is his ability to take a joke.

Jim was definitely a character, I would say it was like having a carbon copy of Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh, around - he would say what he thought and would say it bluntly. Phrases like "That bit of machinery looks like it's been made by and Indian" and "Don't stand around here too long or you will get all slitty eyed" would not have been beyond him. Plus his attention to detail and procedure would cause him to come out with all sorts of complaints, moans and swearing that only those over the age of 80 could possibly muster. He could be incredibly cantankerous sometimes with even the slightest provocation and he would endlessly argue with Dad and myself in the pub about who had bought drinks and when - how many drinks I owed him from when I was 15 was a popular taunt from him despite me paying for my fair share of his pints!

He had an opinion about everything, apparently the future of this world depends on me, I should sort this country out before it is too late! I kept telling Jim I am too honest to be a politician but he still insisted! All these discussions were noted by the excellent barman who now works there and he got the local brass smithy to create a sign above where Jim always sat ( he was so popular he has his own designated stool - people who knew him would always give it up for him if ever he wondered into the pub) - it reads Bullshit Corner! We spoke a lot of bullshit during our time there, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. His sharp and cunning mind was a great one to ask advice from even if we ended up talking total bollocks in the end!

Jim's opinions were cool, his best was on religion and if people should follow one:

"DON'T BE SUCH A BLOODY IDIOT!"

Classic, I remember him describing the Pope as a "bloody idiot in a dress!" Osama Bin Laden earned the title of "fucking idiot", curiously enough so did Tony Blair!

To be honest, those who mucked him around were eventually given the accolade "bloody idiot" - a great catchphrase indeed, I think his gardener was called this the most "Bloody idiot, I had to show him how to dig a hole properly!"

Not only would he say things, he would do things as well.

I sometimes took him shopping, I am never going to forget one day when we were standing in a queue, two people in front with only a couple of things and he promptly marched off to the staff restroom and ordered them to bloody well open up a new till instead of slacking off! I was howling with laughter but also aghast he would do such a thing.

He was a magnificent flirt, Dad and I - in fact any male person he knew - caught the brunt of all his sarcastic wit, moaning and derision - when there was one single woman present he would change into a perfect gent on the spot. Gone was the cantankerous old man, there sat instead a gent who was always full of compliments and kindness - needless to say we teased him endlessly about it!

I'm going to miss Jim, I am sad that he died but he really was in a bad way and passing away in his sleep is something I can cope with, he doesn't have to suffer any more. He had an incredible life and he has left an impact on a lot of people which deserves to be remembered. I wouldn't swap my time with him for anything, I don't regret a second, he was a good friend and I am truly honoured to have been his friend. I have raised a glass to him - well a couple actually, one pint of Brakespare's Ale his favourite ("why would you want to drink anything else, what is that muck you are drinking there?") and a pint of Old Peculiar ale too, just cos he was! If you want to do the same, go right ahead, if anything it's a good excuse to have a glass!

Just don't you dare pray for him you bloody idiots!

:)

So we are all agreed? Excellent!

2009-09-15T08:08:00.002+01:00

see more Political Pictures

President Obama, I like you but can you stop saying "God Bless you!"

2009-09-08T08:37:00.004+01:00

I have been reading an interesting post by PZ Myers over at Pharyngula and I want to ask a couple of questions and provoke discussion.

Something that has cause a bit of furour is when PZ said this

Would it have killed you to simply end with the first two words of that sentence, Obama? Please? You don't have to be anti-religious, you just have to leave the superstition out of public pronouncements

.

There are loads of people saying calm down PZ, it's not worth worrying about and is only a throw away statement - I disagree and I think PZ was completely right to do that.

I posted a comment but I want to flesh it out a bit here.

See Link - In 1797 America made a treaty with Tripoli, declaring that "the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." - it says it clearly and there was a purpose behind this - it meant that no religion would get preferential treatment over another when it came to politics etc.

With this in mind is there any point at all for President Obama to end pretty much all his speeches with "God bless you, and God bless America!" when he should not be saying it at all?

It is about as right for him to say "Inshallah" or "Oromasdes bless you and Oromasdes bless America!" at the end of his speeches for all it is worth. If he is not going to invoke Allah or Oromasdes, there is no good reason for him to go with Yahweh.

This brings me on to my second point - it just so happens I have been ploughing my way through Richard Dawkins' captivating book The Greatest Show on Earth and Richard brings up an very interesting arguement.

Richard has spoken to many vicars, priests, bishops and arch bishops and on the whole has been quite successful in getting them to admit that they accept evolution by natural selection rather than the Adam and Eve story. Yet as soon as Richard leaves them to their own devices there they are standing out in front of the flock belting out the Adam and Eve story. "Oh its only a metaphor, I'm sure the people know that" is the response when he questions what the heck they are playing at.

Now hang on, if that really was the case, why then are biology teachers here in Britain having to confront a load of nonsense from kids who claim the Adam and Eve story trumps evolution by natural selection? Kids will accept stuff from people they trust, especially parents or authority figures, so this spouting of the Adam and Eve story in church really doesn't help does it? It's not being taken as a metaphor, folk are still accepting it and biology teachers are having their time wasted.

So President Obama, bit of a famous chap, something of an authority figure on this planet stands up to make a speach in front of the kiddies or adults. He is the leader of a country that has rules and regulations set up in from the start to make sure that religion and politics are kept seperate, where it clearly says "Don't worry guys, we are NOT a Christian nation!"

Yet there he is saying "God bless you and God bless America!"

Those are impressionable kids and there are certainly going to impressionable adults who will keep taking this on board and providing fuel to the fire over the whole Christian Nation agenda that seems to be so prevalent in the US.

Now, one thing I do think about is that atheism is not a popular thing in America and that getting elected as President is nigh on impossible if you are one. So, yes, you would have to spout this crap from time to time if you did not believe a word of it.

I think that is wrong, I do not think Obama should be under such ridiculous pressure to do so.

I want to know how much it would hurt if Obama kept admitting he was a Christian (which I do not think he is but that is besides the point) but refrained from ending his speeches with it?

Discuss!!

:)

Nothing Else Matters...with Cellos!! :)

2009-09-04T15:55:00.001+01:00

The solo at around 2:06 gives me goosebumps!

I sound my Tea Fuelled YAWP over the roofs of the world!

2009-09-04T13:19:00.003+01:00

Once more unto The Kettle dear friends once more, for joyous times are upon us!

When last our Tea drinking hero gave an update, he had reached the honorable Spartan total of 300 cups of Tea.

Today, at 1:22 pm on the 4th of September, I now slurp at my 400th cup!

This cup is for all you excellent Tea drinkers out there, you lovely people who know what it means to slurp at the elixir that is Tea.

You know who you are and you should be very proud of yourselves - stand tall and proud ye mighty heroes and heroines of the One True Cuppa, whatever life may throw at you just keep that kettle boiling and keep those precious dried leaves nearby so that in even your darkest moments when the world is doing all it can to make you miserable there is one thing that will surely help you through it all - A CUP OF TEA!

CARPE DIEM!!

:)

Why do you think I am angry, I only asked a question?

2009-08-17T08:05:00.004+01:00

I may have posted on this before but I want to bring it up again because it is bothering me.

I have been posting on Lee's excellent blog recently and something has reared its ugly head yet again and I want to wiffle about it, see if I can make any sense whilst I do so...ok sense was never my strong point but here goes anyway.

Am I really that angry?

Do I come across as a total ogre when I ask questions about gods?

I love discussing things, I'm not going to lie and say I do not enjoy a good chat with a religious person on the validity of the claims they make. I really am enthusiastic about it, if I can find someone willing to talk about it, then yay, lets go!

The thing that really gets in the way of all this is being labelled as angry, strident, fundamentalist, hate fuelled and pretty much discriminatory against those who believe what I cannot - if you read the blog entry I have linked to I have been compared to the Taliban.

Why?

Well, in this particular case I was explaining what the historical and scientific method was and how that compares to my way of thinking critically about things.

My reason I stick to this particular line of thinking is easy - I hope to be as objective as I can with the evidence that is in front of me and not to be baised to just one line of argument. I would like to think this means that although I am swayed by the evidence available to me now, I can still have my mind changed should the evidence be presented to me. I will happily change my mind, it's really not that difficult.

No way am I perfect at this, no way is anyone, but I cannot think of a better way of approaching anything that comes along, I cannot think of a better way of being open minded enough - someone please convince me that this is not the case.

When I say "Gosh, that is a pretty outrageous statement to make, wherefore art thine evidence" it is just that, I want to know where you are getting your information from and how valid it is.

That's fine if I was discussing history, politics, why Muse are just happily the greatest live band I have ever seen etc I have had the most wonderful discussions through my school life and university about topics ranging all over the place and it was excellent fun, sure it got passionate but that is the wont of a history scholar - I was still friends with these people, I had no less disrespect for them, ok we disagree on that but don't take it personally, I am not going to go for your throat or anything.

So why religion?

What suddenly earns me the Taliban Fundamentalist label?

Steve Zara once explained that religion was like a love affair where should you question that person's taste in partner then that is it, the walls come crashing down, don't you dare Philip, you heartless bastard can't you see I am happy? etc etc

I got the Taliban Fundamentalist label because of my adherance the historic and scientific method part I explained above, but I think the atheist label in general causes a lot of panic anyway.

Fundamentalist is a strong word, I have had it hurled at me countless times and I think it is a baseless accusation - I really don't think people understand the meaning of the word. They just see a group, see the word atheist and that's it, bang, there is your label Philip, you are no better than them when you insist on adhering to your methods!

I agree with Richard Dawkins on this - yes I am a very passionate man with a big gob when it comes to my take on religion, but the difference between me and the fundy is - I will change my mind and I promise not to maim, beat, threaten or kill you for thinking what you do. I do not follow a strict doctrine of dogma, my preference for the methods I have described are simply preferencecs - I really don't know how much more objective I can be. Has anyone got a better solution? I am as open minded as I can be, if you can think of a better way, then sure, I will take it on board.

Like Richard I am a massive fan of the hunt for things that are truthful, the wonderful thing about education is exactly that, the joy of knowing something that is not bullshit is really useful.

Scientific and historical fact finding is an ongoing process - you wouldn't want us to get bored would you? You don't just stop when you find an intersting discovery - evolution by natural selection is a prime example.

Evolution is a fact now, disputing it is extremely silly indeed - it does not mean to say that it stops there, just because we can prove it - we can put it to good use so we can find out more information - that's what is so incredibly cool about it all, that is worth getting enormously excited about.

When dear olde Charles Darwin first put his head over the trenches and announced what he did that was not the end of discovery was it? No, through further investigation with new technology we have refined our knowledge way beyond what Darwin could have dreamed of and we are STILL doing it.

When someone says to me "Goddidit" that does nothing for me, I think it is a redundant and simplistic take on something that could be so much more interesting.

If someone is going to claim "Goddidit" and then simply demand that further discussion on the matter is futile - where is that going to get anyone? The announcement is like a brick wall - somehow it all stops there, somehow someone "knows" and "feels" that is it god so no more investigation is needed. God is love, he loves everyone, he created the universe for them, case closed.

I keep calling people on this, that if they are going to make these sorts of claims then it has to be proven. When faced with the "Goddidit theory" it's only natural for someone like me to look at that and start asking a tremendous amount of questions.

The only reason I am asking is because I need to clarify and verify that the claims being made can be backed up with the same rigour and intensity as anyone making a scientific or historical claim.

Sometimes we do not have all the answers, in some cases we may never find them, that to me is also utterly brilliant - we can still bloody well investigate it!

I have said this before and I shall say it again - I quote Tennyson in his brilliant poem Ulysses - "To strive, to seek, to find and never to yield"

That is not a fundamentalist rant - that is in my humble opinion an encouragement to keep on discovering, to keep the inquisitiveness going - get out there and learn stuff!

Why does that make me such a bad man?

Answers on a blog thread, bring your own Tea unless you trust my judgement and away you all go - religious people please, if you are reading this, I would love to hear your opinions too - explain to me why my asking questions makes you think I am an angry man.

Cheeeeeeeeeeeeeers!

2 Hughs - My nose is sweating, I need a bowl!

2009-07-29T09:32:00.003+01:00

Filmed and directed by RD.net Poster the lovely Titania starring The Almighty Quetz AKA Jonathan Ward and myself, Philip Priestley

This is my first appearance on YouTube and to be honest, I don't think I could have been happier - I said the line "My nose is sweating, I need a bowl" - Teatastic stuff!

:)