Arguments from authority are certainly one of the favorite fallacies used by the “faithful”. So not that it REALLY matters what Einstein thought on the subject but since he is often quoted out of context by religious liars to try to make him seem more “godly” than he actually was, I want to present the following quote from a letter he wrote not long before his death.
The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still purely primitive, legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.
I was approached by a Christian proselytizer this weekend. I was at a car show and saw him coming toward me with his hand full of pamphlets. I thought to myself, if this man ask me about Jesus, I’m not going to just take his paper and move on.
So I didn’t, and I’m so glad I didn’t because he offered me the most rock solid evidence that Jesus was not only a real person but that he is a god as well. Are you ready for this proof? Hold on to your britches folks. He, excitedly, reached in his pocket and pulled out… [drum roll]… a dollar bill.
That’s right, he is so deluded that he thinks the year printed on that dollar bill proves that Jesus existed and was a god. I didn’t need to talk to him for many more seconds to realize that he was a nutty as they come so I told him to move on and tell his lies to someone else.
It’s not unusual for Christians (or any brand of theist) to mention "truth" when they are talking about their faith. And, I’ve dealt with more than one person getting irate at me for suggesting that truth is the domain of science, not religion.
Yesterday, I was listening to a song by Thousand Foot Krutch called "Absolute". The following verse got me thinking about this again and I decided it would make a good blog post.
We want, the truth Give us the absolute We need, your help Cause we’ve got nothing
Now in my opinion, this verse does not describe anything you get from science or religion. Religion gives "absolute answers". Science gives "truth". However, the truth that we get from science is rarely absolute. All scientific theories have an unwritten disclaimer stating “subject to change with future understanding of the universe”. Religion, on the other hand, doesn’t deal with truth; it only deals with answers. And those answers are often presented as absolute and unchanging. This appeals to some people but I’m more interested in truth than answers. I’m not interested in your answer if it isn’t true.
I wish religious people would stop confusing absolute answers with true answers. Religions aren’t interested in truth. Science is the only reliable method to get to the truth and it’s interesting how the scientific method has been around for a thousand years and still has nothing to say on the subject of religion.
Truth is sought for its own sake. And those who are engaged upon the quest for anything for its own sake are not interested in other things. Finding the truth is difficult, and the road to it is rough – Ibn al-Haytham
Most Sundays I get in my truck and drive over to a friends house for some good ol’ geek fun. It is about a 6 mile drive and along the way, I pass by no less than 10 churches. Most of these churches are huge, multimillion dollar businesses. Inside these buildings are thousands of people listening to lies and preparing for their afterlife. That is what religion is all about after all, not this life but the better one that will come after this one. I always think to myself… how much better would this country world be if, rather than obsessing over their mortality for an hour or more every Sunday, they started working on solutions to problems like this? I swear, I can hardly stand the thought of 3, 9, 15 & 16 years old children having to live in conditions like that.
I love The Atheist Experience TV Show. It is a weekly local cable show in Austin, TX. I’ve seen (or listened to) every episode. The show may be taking a 3 month hiatus due to construction and upgrades on the studio that it is broadcast from but they are going to try to continue to do live shows from a home studio. We’ll just have to see how that goes, I hope it works.
At any rate, the point of this post is to say that I thought it was getting a little stale lately. As their popularity has grown and more people from outside Austin started watching them via the internet, there were just too many “I just wanted to say I love your show and tell you a personal anecdote of mine” types of calls. The best calls are the ones where a theist calls to point out where they believe the show’s host is wrong or to give their reasons for their own beliefs.
This past episode (#607) was the best episode I can remember. It had lots of calls from theists who, although desperately wrong, seemed to have a decent grasp on reality. In other words not the kind of crazy that calls in every now and then and ask questions like “why don’t we die when the sun goes down?” These calls are funny but that’s about it. You can’t have a serious conversation with them.
I’m including the video for anyone interested in watching it. I may post about some of the things that are brought up by the callers but really, Matt is such a master at handling these people that I’m not sure I could bring anything new to the table.
A recent argument had me defending assumptions in science. It’s one of those interesting things how theist will defend their untenable position by attempting to show that your position is also untenable.
Sure science makes assumptions. We don’t have any eye witnesses from 65 million years ago so when we find dinosaur fossils, we have to make some assumptions about it. To me, there is a very clear distinction between these assumptions and the assumptions that a Christian must make.
For instance, we assume that the bones were connected together and covered with muscle and skin. On the other hand, a Christian assumes that Jesus had the magical power to walk on water. Those two assumptions are incredibly different. Every creature on this planet with bones, has muscle and skin covering them. It is reasonable to assume that creatures in the past would have a similar design. However, we have never witnessed a human being walk on water. It’s not possible as far as we know. So to assume that someone did it is an incredible leap that is unjustified and in no way comparable to the assumptions that science makes.
The point is this, when science makes assumptions, those assumptions are based on what we already know. Religions like Christianity make assumptions that are completely unfounded and sometimes, even, beyond our ability to verify.
I had a run in last night in the parking lot at Darlington raceway. Unfortunately, I was running late; it was already after 19:00 and the race would be starting by 19:30. And I still had a long walk just to get to the track.
This guy approached me, and he surprised me too because I was looking back at my friend, so I almost reached out to grab the pamphlet he was reaching out to me. But then I noticed the red cross and heard him speak, "do you need Jesus" or something to that effect. I immediately retracted my hand and said "I’m not interested". He looked more than a little surprised, he looked mad and asked "you’re not interested in Jesus?". I said "nope" as I walked away and heard him say "Jesus loves you". I wish I would have had time to talk to him, I wanted to turn around and say "well he can tell me that himself if it’s so". I mean honestly, who outside of elementary school sends their friends out to tell someone that they love them.
When I got to the main road I got a hint about why he seemed so upset when I said I wasn’t interested. There was another one of them on the road catching people. As I was walking by I heard a group of guys that he was forcing his propaganda on making snide comments and such. These guys are presumptuous ass-holes to do this kind of proselytizing but I don’t have any interest in being rude to them. Like I said, I wish I had been in less of a hurry, I’d have enjoyed having a discussion about it with him. But I wonder how many people taunted them, however many did I’d be willing to bet a weeks pay that they went home feeling every bit as self-righteous and persecuted as when they started.
This is a great article about the ridiculous position that Christians have taken over the rights of gays. Their religious bias and persecution complex are so ridiculous and it really shows with how they are fighting this battle.
They behave as if their rights are being taken away right and left but jackasses like Fred are evidence that they have nothing to worry about. As long as he is out there spewing his toxic bile-filled messages, they can be assured that their rights haven’t been taken away.
I love the way people around here just can’t imagine that everyone around them isn’t Christian.
We had a looong devotional in our department meeting this morning. The good news is that we don’t need to worry about anything because Jebus has everything under control. So just sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
I wish Christians would follow their own idiotic advice.
Nope, I can’t take it. After 13 minutes of this movie, it has been one stupid argument after another. It’s an all-star cast of bad arguments and absolutely no Startling Proofs. That’s a totally misleading title.
Some of the jewels so far: entropy, tornado in junk yard, delicate balance in nature proves design.
