tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78121543743460605062024-03-18T20:28:59.651-07:00The Grumpy Anti-theistCharged commentaries on the world from a dogged rationalist.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-38866297086082616822017-07-01T14:18:00.002-07:002017-07-01T14:18:52.598-07:00The More I Look at Trump...
...the more I`m reminded of past experiences with a certain former employer.
In all fairness, Trump himself is more intelligent than the creature for which I worked back then. That said, that`s not a major achievement. As I've said on prior occasions... the notion that Hillary would have been better than Trump is a similarly meaningless statement. So, too, would a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-35146686063976891192017-05-17T09:14:00.002-07:002017-05-17T09:14:50.169-07:00Blog Update... again.
Okay, so it's been over a year... closer to a year and a half since I last wrote anything on this blog. That doesn't mean it's dead -- rather, it's been in hibernation due to a number of other things going on in life that have been major blockers on getting things done. That meant that in that time, I`ve had to take a break from this blog, but now I`m intending to get back in Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-18118316294677062772015-12-12T10:16:00.000-08:002015-12-12T10:16:31.069-08:00Feelings... Nothing More Than Feelings
It used to be that if you asked people to list places they'd like to travel, it was all but certain that a huge percentage of people would include Paris on the list. Well, France in general has a reputation for being one of the great bastions of culture, philosophy, art, literature, and heck, gastronomy for that matter. In days past, it was the hub for the likes of Sartre, Dali, Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-63216067169221738982015-10-01T19:13:00.002-07:002015-10-01T19:13:24.612-07:00On the "Myth" that Science Can't Prove Anything
It's pretty common in the world of religious apologetics to act as if any and all uncertainty is inherent room for God. Belief in a god, is, after all, a philosophy of ignorance, and that type of argument is a popular form of the argument from ignorance. The idea that nothing can technically be definitive or absolute in the realm of science means that a god is still a possibility. &Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-52363822264875151752015-09-10T17:28:00.002-07:002015-09-10T17:32:33.101-07:00Fifty Billion Shades of Grey
There is an argument I hear a lot from delusional idiots like Ray Comfort and his ilk. They make the point that even a kindergartener can plainly see that evolution is false and "God" is real. I often get puzzled by why they use this argument... are they really suggesting that we should base all of scientific fact on the cognitive capacity of a 6-year-old? The thing is Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-23604738879884944122015-09-04T17:57:00.003-07:002015-09-04T17:57:41.246-07:00Blog update...
Hey, there.
It seems like it's been a while since I posted anything on the blog, and well, there are number of reasons for that. The TL;DR version of it is basically that I've been more than a little preoccupied with matters in my actual life. Nothing tragic... just... extraordinarily time-consuming, and they wreak havoc with my schedule and it has taken some time to getAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-17263424366116008272015-06-03T19:10:00.000-07:002015-06-03T19:25:03.978-07:00When IS it the Fault of Religion?
One of the standard behaviors of religious zealots whenever some atrocity is performed in the name of their faith is to try and distance themselves from the criminals. Christians bomb an abortion clinic? Well, then you get the typical "they don't represent Christianity" and "no true Christian would do that!" and so on. Muslim terrorists suicide-bomb a bus? You hear the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-7047132944763679162015-04-10T16:00:00.001-07:002015-04-10T16:00:09.030-07:00Sorry, Billy; You're Living in a Dream World
Everyone's favorite and most annoying fideist, William Lane Craig, has once again trotted out one of his classically moronic and dishonest arguments. He proclaims that atheism negates the existence of something which, in fact, doesn't exist, but according to him, is required to exist because it'd be really cool if it did. Therefore, Christianity is true because it proclaims the Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-18931874731991981962015-04-01T12:06:00.002-07:002015-04-01T12:06:18.065-07:00The Theory of "Intelligent Valuation"
I reject the economic theory of inflation. That's right. I firmly believe deep in my heart that all currencies were created with their real values by intelligent valuators. Inflationists will have you believe that real values of currencies have changed over time and that our modern reality is just the current state of that ever-transient change. But were any of them thereAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-13366501100381391152015-03-12T22:01:00.001-07:002015-03-12T22:01:48.463-07:00On the Fear of Being Wrong
Recently, the anti-vaccine crowd got a taste of reality with a series of necessarily preventable outbreaks that prove that they are a harmful crowd that stupidly denies science with the end result of causing death and disease. In the microcosm of a single topic, these people are every bit as anti-science and anti-fact as evolution-denying religious cretins*, or anti-GMO nutters. To Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-82957463013960312502015-02-18T17:32:00.001-08:002015-02-18T17:32:30.865-08:00On Violence Without Religion
In my Charlie Hebdo response entry, I posed the rhetorical question about the relative rate of violent retribution by people of a religious stripe and people for whom the axe on the grindstone is devoid of religion. Although that piece was mainly pointed at the standard arguments about Muslims who commit violence -- as the context was one involving Islamic terrorism -- the point itself is easilyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-12440932077126155032015-01-13T12:28:00.001-08:002015-01-14T18:21:19.146-08:00Je suis Charlie, que tout le monde devrait
Greetings, readers! It's been a while since I've posted on the blog, and there's really little more to it than being insanely busy working long hours through the would-be holidays and all. It's more than a little bit annoying that CES happens pretty much the first working week of January (after the New Year's holidays and all). Well, it was like this last year as well, and thisAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-22455185307598489182014-10-30T18:51:00.000-07:002014-10-30T18:51:13.326-07:00How Much Context Matters
Recently, I walked in in the middle of a conversation about microwave cooking, and as soon as I walked through the door, the first words I heard were "microwave food is not good, right?" That sort of question has a few meanings, but the most common meaning I am used to hearing about is just about how food cooked in a microwave generally doesn't taste as good as other modes of cooking. &Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-56060341522735495812014-09-26T20:07:00.002-07:002014-09-27T02:00:43.956-07:00Beyond Logic Lies... NOTHING
I briefly mentioned in my diatribe on astrology that I could dedicate an entire blog post to one particular argument. Specifically, the argument that certain delusional beliefs are "beyond logic." While it came up in the context of astrology and tarot card readings, I'm pretty sure we've all heard this dodge with respect to things like "spirit science" and most certainly theistic Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-28594775434160151782014-08-05T17:32:00.000-07:002014-08-05T17:32:54.921-07:00The Stars Have no F@$ks to Give
Recently, I was invited to take part in a discussion on the validity of astrology. Specifically, this was a Desi audience, so the particular brand of stellar stupidity that people leaned towards is so-called Vedic astrology. I say "so-called" because the oldest sources for it are two collections of texts called the Vedanga Jyothisha and the Brihat Parashara Horashastra (both ca. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-74892661850585736052014-07-02T10:36:00.000-07:002014-07-03T09:38:37.875-07:00Supreme Church of the Corporate States of America
Monday's decision saw the so-called Supreme Court voted 5-4 in favor of Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood to determine that corporations have religious rights. In the most basal of responses, we would most likely see this as a problem of religious encroachment or the anti-science , but in practice, I'd put this down as an issue of corporate power and the corporatist state of the serving Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-31561864720525882872014-06-08T21:13:00.000-07:002014-06-08T21:13:35.875-07:00Scripture as Metaphor
Recently, I was speaking with someone on the value of religion (or rather, the absolute lack thereof), and he raised the question of whether I think the stories themselves have any sort of value. I've said on numerous occasions that I do think that at least being aware of the tales within religion is an unavoidable quantity because of the fact that religion has imbued every corner of Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-76097526031617447422014-05-21T12:26:00.001-07:002014-05-21T12:26:05.226-07:00On Teleological Thinking...
On this blog, I tend to take somewhat different tacks to classical arguments. It's not so much because I think the old counterarguments are invalid, but simply because I think there is so much more that could be said that simply isn't being explored. Reddit's atheism channel had quite a time with my earlier approaches to WLC's favorite -- the Kalam Cosmological Argument -- for a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-80573857888151913112014-05-08T11:24:00.000-07:002014-05-08T11:24:05.441-07:00Arguments That Need Amending
Being in the atheist community means being exposed to the way disbelievers handle the believers. There is a wide array of behavioral patterns ranging from the sorts of immature crowing that lends some credence to the accusations that we atheists are so "angry" and "miserable" all the time to the broadly academic and thorough. People who throw out the clever insights and people who Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-49707863228387930132014-03-18T19:18:00.001-07:002014-03-18T19:18:45.249-07:00Twisting, Tumbling and Rapidly Expanding Space-Time
This is the sort of news that excites me. It's when there's a huge revelation towards advances in science that shows some hard progress. It's the sort of thing that, when I read it, makes me think humanity isn't entirely 120% doomed. I mean, this coupled with the additional pleasant news that Fred Phelps won't likely be alive that much longer (fingers crossed for Pat Robertson Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-41559920630552082362014-03-11T17:54:00.001-07:002014-03-11T17:54:46.213-07:00Dialogues with Hopeless Delusional Idiots ep. 3
This is a little switch from the prior entries in the series, but still fitting in the theme. My previous two episodes involved religion and religious beliefs as the core topics of discussion. This one is more on the alt-med end of the spectrum, mainly regarding anti-vaccine and autism-related nuttery. Nonetheless, I'm still dealing with a hopeless delusional idiot here. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-20347474371551555762014-02-14T17:48:00.001-08:002014-02-14T17:48:50.132-08:00If This is How You Question Darwin...
After the Bill Nye-Ken Ham debate that showed just how clearly Ham has no hope of ever being considered scientifically-minded to any degree, there's been a lot of stressing the point. All over the web, there's a lot of harping about the most important moments of the debate, and most of all, the Q&A where Bill gives examples of evidence that would change his position, while Ken Ham saysAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-23035016553625442182014-02-11T13:00:00.002-08:002014-02-12T09:47:16.220-08:00Transcendental Mental Masturbation
People who straddle their primitive belief system with all that science and engineering and logic have put forth have always put up a sort of wall between the reasoning skills that guide them towards acceptance of scientific facts and the shameless elimination of reason that guides them to believe in the supernatural. Without some sort of barrier, you end up with a sort of universal Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-66698616182469405362014-02-06T16:56:00.000-08:002014-02-11T10:03:26.585-08:00Bill Nye vs Ken Ham : Post-Debate Review
So I, like many of you out there in the atheist blogosphere, watched the big debate between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Answers in Genesis' Ken Ham. Going into it, I was expecting not too much from Bill and pretty much the same old same old from Ken Ham. Mainly why I wasn't expecting much from Bill had not to do with his scientific understanding (which is quite considerable), but Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7812154374346060506.post-42293700798234532862014-01-31T15:16:00.001-08:002014-01-31T15:16:49.461-08:00Theodicy is Really a Contraction of Theological Idiocy
The problem of evil is something of a troubling issue for Judeo-Christian-Islamic mythology, and it also stands as one of the more common arguments used by atheists to raise doubts against the theist position. To be honest, I do think a lot of atheists misuse this argument, or at least fail to follow through on it properly. A lot of times, you tend to see Epicurus' famous quote which concisely Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13709725406901659985noreply@blogger.com0