And a Roman one on the same site. Yeah. okay, I’ll stop now,
Update – BAH. Ignore that, this one’s rubbish – it only gives you Spartacus as far as i can see. Bah. But the Viking one mentioned in the last post is OK.
Tags: Roman, names, generator, Roman names generator.
I like this – Viking names generator, on archeoastronomy
Tags: Viking, names, generator, Viking names generator,
Following from my last, mercifully brief, post here, I obsessively decided to find out about the YouTube comment posters I mentoned a few minutes ago. I guess that already shows I’m too odd.
Because, obviously I was going to be deeply depressed about the state of American society, humanity in general, yada yada.
Well, duh. No surprises then. I have indeed became deeply depressed about humanity in general. Looking at the YouTube page of “pimpsxycute” – doesn’t the name say it all? – s/he is obviously just not very bright. And, yes, I know I shouldn’t insult people’s intelligence. Obviously no one can help how they are born.
“earmuffs420” is another matter. I still don’t know if the YouTube comment is a joke in any sense of the word , as earmuffs420 seems to be a white racist. Then again I don’t know if the YouTube persona is a joke but this time I am really praying to (insert name of any deity or natural phenomenon of choice) that the whole YouTube personal page is some wierd post-modern ironic joke. Although it’s not even remotely funny. The page is filled with obscure racist crap, an offensive but incomprehensible background and links to racially offensive posts by the writer, with only barely less incomprehensible complaints about them.
Now, people can’t help the level of intelligence they were born with, as I said before. Maybe they can’t even help being complete (insert most offensive word you can think of). But other people don’t have to like it. What you can do about it is another matter. I just don’t know.
My point here is not just the weakness of rationality to deal with the people who are off the scale, which I’ve already whined about. It’s that the Internet lets you see a lot further into the murky depths of humanity than anyone would reasonably want to go. How many aliens are walking amongst us who are seem to be getting mistaken for members of the homo sapiens species by accident?
This is just a link to a clip from The Wire on YouTube There are thousands more. I suspect you could watch half of all 4 series if you look at the clips in the right order. Not recommended.
I only picked this particular clip because
A) it like the way the actors get across the characters of Bunny, Naimond and his evil Mom with a few words and expressions.
B) it has the weirdest comments on YouTube. I really really hope that these people are joking:
earmuffs420 (2 months ago)
naymonds a little bitch. i hate that fuckin kid. his mom has more heart than him naymonds a little bitch. i hate that fuckin kid. his mom has more heart than him
pimpsxycute (2 months ago)
put yourself in his postion . he just a bpy whp grew up in money . he doesnt want to live that life . he mayt be soft . but thats all he knows how to be . i still love namond . and the rest of the cast
After scouring several blogs, both theist and atheist, I have come to the conclusion that there is a simple method of telling if your own ideas and beliefs are rational and sane, or off the wall and hatstand. It really is simple.
When you are thinking something, and we will use a theist belief for the example, try replacing words and see if make sense. For example:
God is omnipotent and guides me in all my actions
changes to
C3PO is omnipotent and guides me in all my actions.
If you think the sentence still makes sense, the idea may well be rational. If the changed word would invoke ridicule, then you may want to rethink a little.
Sending a response to one of the blog posts here by the contact form is not the easiest way to go about things, as it makes any ensuing debate a bit harder. That said, it is reasonable and we will try to respond as much as possible.Following a post made here (about why Christians don’t Get It), we had a response sent in over the contact form. Below the fold is the message in full with my return comments. The main reason I want to address these points is that there is the inference I have committed many logical fallacies, so I take it fairly seriously 🙂
It looks like the post on “Misunderstanding Atheism” has made it to Digg.com. Thanks to whoever spotted it and dugg it. Please, feel free to add to the digs! 🙂
The Wire series 4 will be shown on British TV from Tuesday. (On Sky FX, which you should also have if you get cable.) There is almost no way to express how good it is, if you haven’t seen it. In which case, get the DVDs or something and watch the previous 3 series first or you’ve already missed 36 hours of tv genius and you won’t understand the back-stories. You should still enjoy it though. Series 4 is the one with the kids.
The Guardian’s TV Guide introduces the new series with a few pages of the obligatory paeans of praise and with pictures of some of the characters from series 1 to 3. I can’t help feeling the writer has missed the point a bit but that’s all part of the Wire’s magic – you’re alwys going to miss whole levels of meaning because it’s so multi-layered. In fact the TV Guide brought home a huge point that I had missed – Series 3 opens with the blowing up of two towers that is followed by “a dumb and protracted war” (quoting David Simon.) “..Is there a metaphor there? Well what the fuck do you think?…American power and American weakness is the subject. Well one of the subjects.”
The review says that the Wire is “so rich in character and nuance, and so powerful in its anger and painful with its humour that is has been compared to the darkest classics of literature.” The Guardian writer quotes from the New York Times “If Charles Dickens was alive today, he would watch the Wire, unless that is, he was already writing for it.”
He says that the difference between the Wire and Dickens is the absence of a kindly old gentleman to set things right. There is indeed a kindly old gentleman, Bunny, the retired police chief, who has never put a foot wrong and becomes even more virtuous throughout series 4. I am unsure whether this is a weakness – having a truly good man in a world of infinite moral complexity. At first, I was a bit irritated that there was a character who was a genuine hero, in a series in which there is no clear right and wrong. In fact series 4 is much better at engaging one’s sympathies for the innocents – firstly by focusing on the kids, you come to feel more empathy with the adults. Bubs, Prez, Bunk, the boxer and Bodie are all playng “nice guy” roles, as well, all doing their best to follow some codes of decency. (And what about di Angelo in the first series?)
In the end, I feel that having “good” people isn’t a weakness but a narrative imperative – Bunny consistently shows how a single person of character can bring about small positive changes. He stops the Wire from being infernally pessimistic and shows how rationality and goodwill can be maintained in a sea of crap. That is, despite its darkness, the Wire always holds out the possibility that things could change. If it didn’t do this, it would lose a lot of its brilliantly expressed anger at the way things are now.
It seems that people who are guided by their belief in an imaginary being often get confused over what Atheism means. Atheism is not not “just another form of belief” and it is not a religion. Remember, Dawkins, Harris, Myers (et al) are not the Prophets of Atheism. They are not Ministers of Atheism.
People who follow a religion, and let it guide their lives sometimes have difficulty coming to terms with the concept, but part of being an Atheist is making up your own mind. There is no doctrinal book which says what all Atheists must believe, or how they should behave. Atheism allows the human to make their own choices. While this should be common sense, it seems some people really can not grasp it (for example Debbie Schlussel is convinced all Atheists are Muslims or brainwashed).
It is not just the offensive and idiotic theists who make these mistakes as well. Otherwise normal, decent followers of various religions can, sometimes, get confused over the matter. Take this example:
At the end of the day, we all have faith in something. Even an atheist has a kind of faith; faith in the absence of any god. (The Sleepless Nights Reading File)
Now, sorry to say, but no. Not all Atheists have faith in the absence of any God (see above for why I do not speak for any Atheists other than myself though). My understanding of the word “faith” is it means a belief in something without any evidence. A quick visit to Google and I can’t find any better definition.
Given this, I feel fully confident when I say I do not have faith in the absence of any god.
I have mentioned in the past the problem of debating matters of faith with theists, and this is a good example. I can think of nothing that I “believe” which can not be falsified. Every concept and I idea I hold, I can think of a way in which it could be proven wrong and I would (reluctantly maybe) have to rethink. I suspect the majority of theists are similar to Andrew Sullivan, in that when it comes to their religious faith, not only will they hold it without any supporting evidence, they will hold it in the face of contradictory evidence.
Maybe this is why some people think of religion as a mental illness. If I went about my daily business, believing (for example) that Cars could talk to you and gave you guidance as to how to live your life, I wouldn’t spend long before I started sleeping in a padded cell. Is it a double standard that we allow people to make the same apparently insane commentary simply because they can claim their “religion” has lasted for a few centuries?
Well, we always seem to run out of blogging steam towards the end of the week, with a big push on Saturdays! If you were Debbie Schlussel you would probably jump to the conclusion this was because all Atheists had to attend Friday prayers at the local mosque. This so obviously is not the case.Anyway, this is a short and fast blog to let everyone know about a new addition to the links list here.
I was fortunate enough to come across a fantasic site:
Fundies say the darndest things!
And you really have to visit it to see what I mean. The best bit is the top 100 quotes, some are breathtakingly stupid and I don’t want to spoil your fun but here are some examples:
“No, everyone is born Christian. Only later in life do people choose to stray from Jesus and worship satan instead. Atheists have the greatest “cover” of all, they insist they believe in no god yet most polls done and the latest research indicates that they are actually a different sect of Muslims.”
“There are a lot of things I have concluded to be wrong, without studying them in-depth. Evolution is one of them. The fact that I don’t know that much about it does not bother me in the least.”
“I often debate with evolutionists because I believe that they are narrow mindedly and dogmatically accepting evolution without questioning it. I don’t really care how God did what He did. I know He did it.”
Brilliant. It really is brilliant. To make things better, the quotes are linked to where they appeared. I am sure you can guess how many “MySpace” sites there are on the FSTDT site…. Typical really.
This really is a site worth visiting.
Wow. It is not often I stumble across a website of the truly insane. It is even less often that the insane person is a “media personality” who gets invited onto CNN and the like. (Well maybe it is often and I haven’t noticed… Do Americans like seeing the mentally impaired making fools of themselves on TV?) In this, I am not talking about the comedy nutters who make everyone laugh. This is someone who seems to me to be actually mad. I may be wrong – read on and decide for yourself
I mentioned the CNN programme a few days ago (Insanely Devout) in which a panel of idiots were asked about Atheism in the US. During the programme each of the panellists embarrassed themselves showing not only a lack of intelligence but a total lack of understanding about what atheism actually is. It seems that at least one of them felt that she hadn’t done enough to prove her mental state and needed to continue to blog about it.
Following a post on Pharyngula about Debbie Schlussel, and a following Digg picking up on the story, it appears Debbie Schlussel was subjected to a quantity of email from Atheists. I don’t know what these emails said, but Ms Schlussel claims it was offensive hate mail, so we will take her on face value. She did say things like:
I think that the real discrimination is atheists against Americans who are religious. Listen, we are a Christian nation. I’m not a Christian. I’m Jewish, but I recognize we’re a Christian country and freedom of religion doesn’t mean freedom from religion. And the problem is that, you have these atheists selectively I believe attacking Christianity. …I really believe that they are the ones who are the intolerant ones against Christians.
and
Look where there are more atheists and where they’ve lost God, where the church is not that strong. Europe is becoming Islamist. It’s fast falling and intolerance is increasing. That’s the one reason our country has not become like Europe because we have strong Christians and because atheists are not strong. And I think that’s a good thing.
Now we are not condoning hate mail at all, but this gives an idea where she is coming from.
Anyway, following the deluge of email, she felt the need to make a blog titled: “When Atheists a/k/a Future Muslims Attack.” Seriously. She appears to honestly think that all Atheists are going to convert to Islam. What planet is she on? part of me actually thinks she is just doing this for the attention and notoriety she will get from such madness (which is why I have avoided her name in the title and put “nofollow” on the link).
This blog post has some amazing lines of nonsense, so much so I am convinced she is either insane or making all this up. Some examples: (emphasis mine)
But it is entertaining and amusing. It’s hard to believe their letters because they were all attacking me for my appearance on CNN’s “Paula Zahn Now,” a week ago, but coincidentally each letter claims the sender just watched me on CNN. First of all, the video of that segment appears nowhere on the net. Believe me, if it did, I’d link to it. Secondly, since I appeared on the show a week ago, that all these “seminar” e-mailers are now all e-mailing me the same basic hate message, populated with a diversity of obscene insults, it’s easier to believe that they were easily brainwashed into sending me the missives as a result of an atheist blog that just put up an attack on me, yesterday.
This is about the Pharyngula blog post. She is obviously incapable of using the internet as a quick Google search finds it on YouTube. So, taking her at her word we should no longer believe her. Seems reasonable enough to me, as the rest of her post is just as much gibberish.
The second sentence she uses highlights how she is actually incapable of stringing a real sentence together. So many words, so little sense, you almost feel sorry for her. If she honestly believes Atheists are all easily brainwashed into believing anything, why aren’t they Christians? Is this more of her projectionism showing through? Was she easily brainwashed into believing the Christian doctrine, so she thinks everyone else is equally incapable of rational thought? Probably.
I don’t mind receiving the atheist hate mail, since I know that in a few years, many of these same people will either be Muslim extremists (redundant) or helping the country fall further in its fight against the creep of Islamic imposition on America . . . or both.
I really have no idea where she gets this from. First off, she obviously thinks all Muslims are extremists (projecting again?). I would love to know why she thinks (is think the right word?) all Atheists are going to become Muslims, but this next bit might give an insight:
Look at famous atheists and what happened to them. Adam Gadahn a/k/a Azzam Al-Amriki –now a top Al-Qaeda video “personality”–was raised by his hippie Jewish father and equally bizarre gentile mother as an atheist. And look how he turned out. Ditto for hippie-spawn John Walker Lindh.
See, it is easy if you have a different definition of the word “famous” than sane people, and more importantly you have a very different understanding of the word “atheist” than every one else. From this point, she turns her post into a rant against Islam (with a bit of Atheism thrown in):
Those two people are enemies of America, and many of those who think like them are of equally weak mind. If you don’t believe in anything, you’ll easily fall for virtual nothings. That’s why Europe is so quickly turning Islamist–because atheism dominates and Christianity is rapidly dying there. Over there, the number one cause for which atheists are suddenly finding “god” is Islam.
Over here, as I pointed out on CNN, atheists are on the attack against religion and G-d only when Christians and Jews are involved, not when Muslims and Islam are. A Christian prayer at a public school graduation or football game? Send in the ACLU lawyers. A Muslim prayer at a high school football game in Dearbornistan? Suddenly, when the “Religion of Peace” is involved, atheists boast extreme tolerance and display ultimate deference. No lawsuits. Ever. And the Muslim prayers continue.
So to you hate-filled atheists a/k/a future Muslim extremists (redundant), your e-mails have no effect on me. Ditto for your creative obscenities which don’t impress upon me the civility of the atheo-fascisti set.
Personally this is enough evidence she is insane. You may think differently. If there is any lingering doubt, how about this from another one of her posts:
[about arming pilots]Well, now the U.S. is asking foreign countries to allow pilots to carry guns in the cockpit when they fly overseas. Now, we’re makin’ progress.
Unfortunately, the wimpish, effeminate, and quickly-becoming-Islamic Sweden is resisting. Figures. Screw ’em.
One of the commenters, disagrees with her and writes:
The government wants our pilots to carry guns into EVERY country, not just countries that hate us. This is for good reason, because countries like Sweden do not have the precautions against terrorist like we do.
See, we will not let them carry guns on in-country flights because we are secure in our security precautions (and the fact that we have air marshals on most of our in-country flights but not on our international flights).
Now, I am not going to go into how “wrong” this person is (with the implication that the US is more secure in its airport controls than other countries), because there is a funnier side to this sub thread. This comment poster takes task with Debbie “Insane” Schussel accusing Sweden of becoming Islamic (as less than 0.5% of the population are Muslims) and this is the response:
ISLAM IS THE FASTEST GROWING RELIGION THERE AND THE NAME MOHAMMED IS THE MOST POPULAR BOY’S NAME IN SEVERAL BIG CITIES THERE. BUT I’M SURE ISLAM IS NOT GROWING QUICKLY THERE–IT’S ALL JUST MY IMAGINATION. DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL
Am I alone in thinking she is mad?
Often, there are calls for debate and discussion regarding belief and the concepts which underpin it. Mostly (online anyway) these seem to come from those who already hold to a belief and want to debate with those poor heathens who do not agree.
Now I think it is more than possible that some of the people making these calls are doing so for honest reasons, and actually want to have a debate. Sadly, I also think that most do not actually want a debate but, instead, seek to convert others. Shame on them.
In this, I am not talking about the fallacy of scientific debate, I mean things like the “blogwar” between Sam Harris and Andrew Sullivan (which was mentioned yesterday). This happens on television and radio as well (especially on Radio 2 in the UK, during the lunchtime phone in show). It creates the impression in the observer that both parties are open to new ideas and are open minded enough that they are willing to listen to others and possibly become swayed by a new point of view.
In science, and in rational people, this is common. For a long period of time Newtonian gravity was believed to be the best model, but then along comes general relativity. For a long period of time people believed the Earth was the centre of the solar system (and indeed, the stars were part of “our” solar system) but then along came telescopes, mathematics, Copernicus, Tycho Brahe et al. Rational people accepted the new information and changed their world out look as a result of it.
There are always nutcases who ignore the new evidence and, normally, they are marginalised and laughed at. Flat Earthers, people who think the moon landing was a hoax etc., are not even given the respect of normal kooks (alternative medicine practitioners for example).
Oddly, this doesn’t happen if the irrationality is based on a Religious Belief. The assumption that a “religious belief” is due more respect than any other belief weighs hard with people and I think this alone will ensure any debate is meaningless. As soon as any points are made, the defence “it is my belief” becomes unsurmountable – even if the religious belief is based on as much evidence as Flat Earthers have (i.e. none). Even religious moderates, and people who profess to have minimal religious belief argue from a position on unshakeable conviction. Take this excerpt from Andrew Sullivan, where he is replying to a question in which Sam Harris asks what evidence it would take to make him give up his beliefs: (emphasis mine)
I have never doubted the existence of God. Never. My acceptance of God’s existence – of a force beyond everything and the source of everything – goes so far back in my consciousness and memory that I can neither recall “finding” this faith nor being taught it. So when I am asked to justify this belief, as you reasonably do, I am at a loss. At this layer of faith, the first critical layer, the layer that includes all religious people and many who call themselves spiritual rather than religious, I can offer no justification as such. I have just never experienced the ordeal of consciousness without it. It is the air I have always breathed. I meet atheists and am as baffled at their lack of faith – at this level – as you are at my attachment to it. When people ask me how I came to choose this faith, I can only say it chose me. I have no ability to stop believing. Crises in my life – death of loved ones, diagnosis with a fatal illness, emotional loss – have never shaken this faith. In fact, they have all strengthened it. I know of no “proof” that could dissuade me of this, since no “proof” ever persuaded me of it.
Now, in all fairness to Andrew Sullivan, this is the cornerstone of “belief” but it does make a mockery of any debate. In science a theory is “believed” to be true until some evidence is discovered to show that it is not. In belief, there is no need for evidence one way or another because people are indoctrinated from childhood to accept it as true. The idea that “faith chose [me]” is laughable. This is an otherwise intelligent, educated person creating a “supernatural” force to explain the fact that growing up in a Christian family, learning about Catholicism (in this case) pretty much from birth and the attendant “brainwashing” (for want of a better word) has created an unshakable faith in him. I am 100% sure that if he had grown up in a Pentecostal, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Jain (and so on) family he would be equally saying the “faith chose him” but it would be a different faith.
Now, even though I am an Atheist there are numerous ways in which any Deity could convince me of his or her existance. That does not mean I have “less” faith than a “believer,” it simply means I am rational. I have not been brainwashed. I am not insane. If Andrew Sullivan was talking about a teacup floating in orbit around the Sun, people would laugh at him. Because he is talking about the other invisible fantasy, people respect him
Is that not madness?
After the faux-spring we had a few days ago it seems winter has arrived at last. At last the weather has reverted to what you expect for this time of year, possibly going further as an excited presenter on local radio today exclaimed this was “the first snow in ‘this’ area for nearly 10 years.” I am not convinced how true that is, but nevertheless, snow is rare here.
While the snow does indeed make everywhere look beautiful and is always fun to play in, this is a big shame. Following the blinding sunshine and really warm days we have been having, lots of plants and flowers (and I can only assume insects and animals) must have assumed it was really spring. I suspect this “sudden” cold snap will prove fatal to lots of them.
This really is a shame. Especially because snow is great.
The NHS budget has been battered recently, not least by the scandal of over £6 billions spent on a central computer system, that mercifully doesn’t work and that anyone with any sense will be able to opt out of.
So this particular example of a mad waste of NHS funds is small potatoes in comparison. A/c to the BBC, Peter Hain has set aside £200,000 to be spent on a year’s trial of providing “alternative therapies” at two general practices in Londonderry and Belfast.
Don’t waste the year, I can tell you now how useful they are for half that amount. Please.
If they worked, they wouldn’t be “alternative”.
Weren’t there a load of recent news items about medical treatments (for cancer, Alzheimer’s, blindness) that people believe they need but which can’t be funded because the national body for clinical excellence says the medicines are too expensive and not cost-effective?
The alternative therapies (acupuncture, massage, homeopathy) will apparently be offered for stress and musculoskeletal disorders.
Well, for musculoskeletal disorders, I thought we had physiotherapy? Even, more “alternatively”, subsidised gym memberships for people recovering from MSDs to get strength back through their own efforts?
And stress? Come on, what is stress? If your life is a bit crappy, then you will be stressed. A backrub massage won’t help much for more than half an hour, and so might a good walk in the park. Or a good comedy show. Or a nice cup of tea. Whatever. Is it a doctor’s job to give you little treats from public money when your boss treats you like dirt?
More serious stress, showing up as depression or breakdown, needs more serious treatment. Granted that most current treatments may be pretty poor at dealing with mental health problems, it doesn’t mean that expensive placebos are ever going to be a better alternative.
Give out sugar coated chalk pills if you can’t do anything for patients but want to look as if you have a solution.
In any case, can you imagine how slighted you’d feel if you went to your doctor with a bad back or a case of agaraphobia and s/he said words to the effect of “Go to this charlatan, please.” Doesn’t that say that your doctor thinks you are a hypochondriac?
But then Peter Hain has outed himself as a hypochondriac, by saying he uses alternative medicine himself and thinks people who can’t afford it should be able to. How egalitarian of him.
This is too much like somone who keeps falling for email scams (“Esteemed person of repute. Help me get my money out of “wherever) offering to fund those of us who can’t fall for them because we have no cash to send.
Technorati Tags: alternative, medicine, woo, NHS, Peter Hain, health, waste, acupuncture, homeopathy
(as if proof was needed).
Without going into too much detail as previously mentioned in passing, a group called the “Rational Response Squad” have created something they call the “Blasphemy Challenge” in which they encourage people to YouTube themselves saying they do not believe in the Holy Spirit. To an atheist this seems like a trivial way to get a free DVD. To a Christian this seems to be the worst thing on Earth. Strange people, aren’t they?
It is entertaining that the main accusations thrown against the Rational Response Squad is that they are trying to seduce children into atheism. Does any one really think children are born Christians? If so, why the need to indoctrinate them from as early an age as possible? Hypocrites.
Anyway, there is a blog, oddly titled “The Blasphemy Challenge” (I can only assume it is to lure the unsuspecting) which tries to refute the (real) Blasphemy Challenge. It has this as its tagline:
This blog is in response to the Rational Response Squad’s (RRS) Blasphemy Challenge. Here you’ll learn the true nature of this so-called challenge and who RRS are and what they’re all about. We’re also myspacing.
Now, as a naive atheist I would have assumed if you were going to counter the arguments put out by the RRS, you would actually counter the arguments. It seems that this blog would rather attack the RRS themselves and ridicule even the thought that people could deny the holy spirit. For the record, I think of the holy spirit in the same category as I think of Father Christmas, the tooth fairy, goblins, elves, dragons (etc). I find it difficult to “deny” the existence of something which does not exist as to me “deny” is a faith based term. The holy spirit is as real as the unicorn on the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon all those years ago.
Still, I suspect that as theists have no evidence to support their arguments use of ad hominems and arguments from a false premise are pretty much par for the course.
One part that really got me, and proved the Christians on this blog really do not get it (the point of the blasphemy challenge or what atheism actually is) was this: (emphasis on the original)
Well, it’s quite easy to see now. Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is to attribute the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to Satan. That’s all it is, folks. And it’s plain for anybody to see that.
Priceless. There you have it. If you are an atheist, and don’t believe in the holy spirit you are actually saying the holy spirits power belongs to Satan. What unadulterated madness. Adding an argumentum ad populum at the end does not make this resemble any form of logical reasoning.
I presume if you blaspheme or deny the existence of Father Christmas you are actually attributing his present giving power to the grinch.
Nutcases. All of them.
Tags: Religion, Religious Fools, Blasphemy, Christianity, Blasphemy Challenge, Rational Response Squad, Society, Philosophy, Nutcases, Atheist, Atheism, Logical Fallacy