Humbuggery

So- you may have noticed the neat bit of new javascript on the sidebar. I’ve been officially added to the atheist’s blogroll, you folks should add the feeds to your RSS reader- there’s some really excellent stuff on there.

I hope to have that final installment for the Deconstructing God series done soon- I’ve been terribly busy though.

So- I missed the boat when this was a hot item, my sister told me about it, I hadn’t been able to sit down and (attempt) to watch it till now.

I’m 16 minutes, 47 seconds in, and already I have to stop it, There is just so much that makes my brain hurt. For instance, one of the kids in the beginning ‘got saved’ because he was missing something in his life?!

Get this, he was five years old when he came to the conclusion that he was missing something in his life. For FSM’s sake, all I remember from when I was five is shooting a bubble-gun off of the cess-pool cover in my front yard[1]!

Then, it gets better. “Creationism Adventures”, in which an archaeologist-looking man[2] asks whether we came from “goo” which he promptly plays with some combination of xanthan gum and borax, to be sure[3]. He further places a triceratops reading the news, the earth exploding in the “big bang”, and numerous other horrific misunderstandings of solid science.

But minutes 14-16:47 are the best, when the mother — who homeschools her lovely, born-again-from-5-years-old-cause-he-was-missing-something son science. But Science notsomuch, it is in fact science falsely-so-called. Ranging from global-warming denial, “The average temperature has only gone up 0.6 degrees over the last few years.” To “Creationism is, when you look at it, the only possible answer.”

Ma’am, I direct you, if Creationism is the only valid argument for existence, to the creation myths of the countless religions preceding and post-dating your own dogma. Ma’am, global warming is more than just an increase in temperature. Global warming is about an increase in carbon emissions, every region of the world doesn’t necessarily get “hotter”, it’s about the average temperature of the whole planet. Your data is probably okay, the average temperature of the US has gone up a little, but we’re in a temperate zone, the average temperatures of other parts of the world have gone up much more.

And in any case, even if global warming isn’t a problem now, why not do something to prevent it? Doesn’t your God give a shit about the world? I mean he supposedly created it, you’d think he’d want to keep it clean.

I can’t watch any more of this right now, I think I’m going to start working on a commentary for it. The documenters, from what I’ve seen so far, seem to have a fairly balanced look at this whole thing. There is no commentary in the actual film, it’s simply recordings of these peoples lives.

Astounding that I managed to crawl out of that kind of thinking.

[1] that is my actual first memory, it informs much of my life, I think…

[2] Why an archaeologist is explaining evolution, I know not. Maybe he was a paleontologist, but he looked like a fat Indiana Jones

[3] Thank you “Home slime kit” I won from my VBS at the ripe old age of 8.

So, I was showing this blog to someone this evening, who didn’t believe I was capable of writing a blog. Sure showed them. But they commented on the fact that all of the ads on this site, which I use in an attempt to pay server costs, tend to point towards things which are fairly contradictory to my philosophy as presented in this blog.

I responded with a hearty “I know, isn’t it great?”

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So, Indiana Jones friggen rocks. I haven’t seen the new movie yet, but when I do, I don’t think I’ll be disapointed. Sure, PZ said the writing was crappy, but if you go to Indiana Jones looking for a strong storyline, than you’re missing the point of Indiana Jones. That said, there has been a rash of late-night TV specials about this damn crystal skulls, so allow me to point you folks to the facts.

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Welcome to the new Humbuggery Host, please update your bookmarks/rss feeds, I’ll be back to regular posting ASAP.

~~Joe

Dear Reader,

My posts, you may have noticed, are thinning

But friend, in reality, you’re winning.

A new provider I’ll find

Then leave wordpress.org behind.

And Humbuggery will continue blaspheming.

~~ Your humble Author, Joe

So- Apparently California overturned a statute that banned gay marriage. Let me take this opportunity to give one hearty “Fuck Yeah!” to the Californian Supreme Courts, thank you for not bending to fundie christianist idiocy.

I’d like to address the GLBT community now, I don’t know if there are any GLBT readers out there reading this, but I’d like to say that I think science and logic are on your side. Science has found some genetic basis for sexual preference, and logic tells me that — if it’s not your choice, then it shouldn’t be deemed “Wrong”. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m happy for you guys and girls, we in the skeptic community know that winning even a small victory against idiocy is satisfying, encouraging, and I just wanted to wish all the californian couples getting married in the near future good luck on their new, official, legal lives together.

Once again, Go Californian Supreme Court! May the FSM bless you and guide you by his noodley appendage!

Ramen!

Ahh the classic, the problem of evil. Stated simply by Epicurus as follows:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?

Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?

Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able, and willing?

Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?

Then why call him God.”

In this episode, we’ll explore two ideas, omnibenevolence, and another interesting idea, omnimalevolence.

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I have 3 rules for comments:

1. In general, I do not delete comments.
2. If the comment disagree’s with any belief or idea presented in this blog, fine, as long as it’s substantive.

I will not allow comments that are simply “This post sucks”, “You suck” or any variation of that sentiment, unless you can offer a convincing argument, or at least attempt to make a convincing argument.

This time, it’s omnipresence. I happen to like this one, it’s probably the most practical ‘power’ people ascribe to the deity. To be everywhere at once may seem to be a completely benign power, but as we’ll see, it really implies much more than might be thought at first glance. Without further pause, The Omnipresent God.

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