Sunday, November 21, 2010

What atheists believe (part 2)

4) Of the Four Causes in nature proposed by Aristotle (material, formal, efficient, and final), which of them are real? Do final causes exist?
Not enough context to give a good answer.

5) Why do we have subjective experience, and not merely objective existence?

We are imperfect beings. Perfection doesn't exist in anything remotely complex. Objective experiences  would require that we process ever input perfectly from all points of view. We simply can't do that, so we are stuck with the alternative. 


6) Why is the human mind intentional, in the technical philosophical sense of aboutness, which is the referral to something besides itself? How can mental states be about something? 
 Question is meaningless to me. If someone will clarify it, I will give it a go...


7) Does Moral Law exist in itself, or is it an artifact of nature (natural selection, etc.)
Morals are simply a sense of fairness. It can be seen in other social mammals. It comes from nature in that treating fellow social members of your unit fairly increases your chances to breed, remain in the group, have your young cared for, etc. 

8) Why is there evil?
If you mean people who do bad things, because some people lack that sense of fairness. We care for all people and their kids. So morality is no longer being selected for in the same sense it would be if our society was under more survival pressure. Again, there is no such thing as perfection in this world. 

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

What atheists believe (part 1)

Michael Egnor has Eight Questions for the New Atheists.  So I will take them on and answer them with my take. 




1) Why is there anything?


Simply. A state of nothingness can't exist. Even nothing is something. When I tell you to think of nothing, you can't. A state of nothingness is unstable and can't exist. 


2) What caused the Universe?
Whatever it was, it wasn't god. When you impose god as the cause, you get too many other stupid questions that pop up. What was god doing before the universe? Why now? Why us? What happens after for that eternity of which the bible speaks? What caused god? etc. I subscribe to the idea that cosmology will find the likely cause and whatever that is, gods will not  be part of the answer.


Watch a pot of water on the stove. As it approaches boiling, bubbles spontaneously form at the base of the pot. Same as our universe in some respects. 


3) Why is there regularity (Law) in nature?
Laws are simply things we see in nature. To assume that something put the laws there is absurd. The are part of nature, just as gravity is a by-product of having mass, that electrons have a negative charge. They weren't made to be like this and to have these laws, but the laws are our way of describing what we observe.

More to come later.....

Monday, October 18, 2010

Ray Comfort really can't learn....

Today Dumbdumb said this:
Monday, October 18, 2010
Some time ago I quoted Steven Hawking saying that gravity was a law. I guess you didn't see it. You may deny that gravity is a law that can be broken. But if you violate its precepts and jump from 10,000 feet without a parachute you will think you are right, until you hit the ground. It's the same with the Law of God. I'm sure you will stubbornly hold onto your belief that you haven't violated it until the moment you die, but then it will be too late. Posted by Ray Comfort on 10/18/2010 06:34:00 AM 


Wow. Yeah, this is stupidity at it's finest. But I recalled we hashed this over once before. 

On 2/24/10, just 8 short months ago, Dumbdumb said this:

If you hit the ground at 120 mph from 1,000 feet, you will suffer the consequences of violating what physics.about.com calls the law of gravity. If you will remember the context in which I called gravity a law--I said that if you break the law of gravity, you will suffer the consequences, and if you violate God’s Law you will suffer the consequences--"The soul that sins, it shall die." 
 He was ROASTED over this. Falling violates the law of gravity?? WTF? 


I feel honored.... Ken Ham quote mines little ol me....

Last night I put some fliers on cars at a church while the Hamster and Weaselnose were spreading their young earth stupidity inside. Today the activity got a mention on his blog. He was nice enough to quote mine my flier and violate his god's 9th commandment. I am not surprised as this is par for the course for him.

The actual text of the flier is here

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Ray comfort getting clock cleaned

Check out comfort's blog. He is getting his ass kicked over his book that fails in it's attempt to prove god exists.




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Friday, September 24, 2010

And people wonder why I hate fundies like Todd Freil.

Watch this video...

This asshole wants you to send bibles to the goddamn Ukraine. These people are starving and need medical care and support. Not fucking bibles! You can't eat a bible (but you can cook with it). You can't cure a disease with a bible.

Todd Freil is a fucking asshole and needs to be called out on his stupidity.

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Ray Comfort (TweedleDumb) thinks he is smarter than Steven Hawking.... How sad.

In today's offering of stupidity, Ray "TweedleDumb" Comfort thinks he is smarter than Steven Hawking. Steven said in his new book The Grand Design,
"Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist."
Funny that. Comfort thinks that his god coming from nothing is acceptable, but the universe coming from nothing isn't. Let's see. Whom should we believe?

Ray Comfort, a high school educated former surf shop owner, turned jacket maker, turned liar for jeebus

OR

a Cambridge educated professor of physics, a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years, Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario., 12 honorary degrees and at least 1 degree of his own, his PhD from Cambridge awarded in 1965.

Yeah.  Only a moron like Comfort would even dream he could successfully match wits with Hawking. Hawking, even though a prisoner of his wheel chair and only having use of a single facial muscle, has done far more with his life than Comfort could do in 10.

Comfort should be ashamed.