#friendlyatheist

[daviddeeey-blog]

Still love my firsts 💖 --- first time an interview is formerly published in a book! The amazing “Queer Disbelief” by the all talented #Queer #Atheist writer, @camiiiiiiille, published by @friendly.atheist Press. The book is available on @amazon, check it out, and buy it! #queerdisbelief #friendlyatheist #queeratheists

[poisonivyjones]

[weirdmormonshit]

It's a wonderful day for podcasts #atheist #exmormon #friendlyatheist #infantsonthrones #irreligiosophy #podcast

[adventist-science-blog]

Noah's Ark

Noah’s Ark is also a fairy. In the United States a tremendous number of the people, men and woman, believed the Bible to be a true story, and that it is the word of a deity. I was once part of this vast group. Brought up in the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, I was taught to believe that the universe was created in literally 7 days (well 6 because God needed a day off on the 7th). Like many other creation myths however this one is no different. If you take the time to critically think about it, it is filled with fable, fantasy, supernatural and just plain nonsense. To the child that grows under a religious roof there is really no reason to question these amazing stories. They simply take them as fact. In fact, pretty much everything your parents tell you is as real as the words you are reading right now. As a child, the rule of thumb is to believe everything your parents tell you, because think about it; if children question everything their parents tell them like: “Look both ways before you cross the street” or “don’t touch that pan, it’s hot!” then I think those children run the risk of being weeded out by natural selection. But as I’m sure many of you have seen, rules of thumb are not always right Like a virus, the Bible stories are passed down the generations as fact, by either force or manipulation. Obviously none of them can be supported by universal evidence, but rather are enforced by culture, traditions, rituals, celebrations and more importantly conditioning. Grown men and woman actually believe in a talking snake, and that we have to suffer and die because a woman ate an apple. The power of influence, and conditioning is next to extraordinary. In the hospital where I work, most doctors I talk to absolutely believe that Noah’s flood destroyed all living animals except for Noah, 7 others, and 2 of every animal. Imagine all the inbreeding that had to have gone on afterwards to repopulate the earth. Think about Noah’s 400 and something foot long wooden coffin, with a cargo of millions of species of animals, and enough food and water for a year. Even if there is only 1 million species of animal (Which there is most likely billions, but for the sake of argument 1 million) what would 1 million animals weigh? I do not have any references with me, and I do not wish to look for them for the sake of just using critical thinking skills, but I imagine that even today’s steel ship cannot accommodate a million passengers, much less hold enough food and water for them for a year. A crew of 8 feeding a million animals and trying to keep them from eating each other, and cleaning all their shit, and for a full year. But this is just where the fun begins, let’s not forget about the murder by drowning. God makes the cosmos in 6 days, takes a break on the 7th, says “it is good”, then some time later is angry with humanity, and decides to drown everyone and everything on earth. Even the plants and animals that had nothing to do with humans. The dinosaurs apparently had to go as well. Men, woman, children, young, middle aged, old, pregnant woman too. Unrelenting, indiscriminate, vindictive, murder. As Thomas Pain said, 'more like the doings of a demon than an all merciful and loving God'. Mass murder and ecological mass extinction at the flick of a godly finger. As silly as this story may seem to some of you, and would like me not to take it serious the matter of fact is that a unimaginable number adults and many others in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Mexico do take these fantastic stories as fact. You literally see wannabe Indiana Jones style “Ark Hunters” using satellite images, climbing mountains in Turkey and using pseudo-science to try and prove something that isn’t. Some of these people are sincere and respectable, like an Apollo Mission astronaut, and other well-meaning people trying to bring to life the epic fairytale told to them by their parents. As if someone 2,000 years from now were trying to find parts of Star War’s Death Star, or evidence of the ruins of District 12 after the abolishment of The Hunger Games. It seems silly, but I take it as no laughing matter if a mass audience takes the murder of all living creatures by drowning as a holy thing. To teach children these stupid tails as truth, a liberal might say that it is nothing less than child abuse. Hollywood classifies its tales as PG, PG-13 and rated R while the Bible, full of homicide, genocide, infanticide, incest, debauchery and more, is taught every Sunday (Saturday if you’re a Jew or Adventist) and without any disclaimer or regulation. I sometimes wonder if that has anything to do with the observation that almost all people in US prisons are Christian’s and not Satanists. The fantasy later goes on to say that God felt bad about what he did and invented the rainbow as a promise to show that he would never kill everyone again. Which if you are part of the Dooms Day Christian belief system, he actually hasn’t had enough blood, and will soon burn everyone that falls into the naughty part of God Christmas list. I guess the visual spectra of light didn’t exist before the Flood even if any non-American high school student can tell you otherwise. The pot of gold at the end of a rainbow is no different than the rainbow being a sign of God’s apology. Even though all the murder and mayhem of the Old Testament seems like a horror movie, the good thing to know is that it never happened. Once again, I do not wish to use any references, but only critical thinking skills. Through reason, we know that it can’t be true. Mount Everest is something like almost 9,000 meters above sea level, there is not enough water on earth to cover Mt Everest. Salt water 5 miles high, over the whole earth for 365 days just like Kevin Costner’s Water World. It sounds fantastic for a movie, but doesn’t live up to a real life scenario. Also, did nobody but Noah have a boat or raft? I’m certain if you choose to investigate either through scientific literature or go to your local college and ask your geologist if this story is possible you’ll find the answer to be ‘no’. The epic fantasy later goes on to say that Noah anchored off of Mt. Ararat, it does not say if he tendered the passengers off the ship or shipwrecked as far as I remember the story. But the point is that they disembarked on a mountain somewhere in the Middle East. From there, the millions of animals and 8 crew members got off the ship and went about their way. Carnivores somehow made their way to their specific niches in the world without eating their prey until they had enough offspring to support a viable ecosystem. I wonder what they ate along the way? The person that wrote Genesis obviously knew nothing about the carnivorous diet. But before I go on to how the animals repopulated the earth I want to focus a little on the fresh water fish. As far as I know, Noah did not take fresh water fish with him on his boat. Most river fish, if you study a little biology, cannot live in salt water, as most ocean animals cannot live in drinking water. Sea Word would lose a lot of money if it tried to move its prized orca, Tilikum, into a drinking water tank or if they transferred their freshwater exhibit into salt water. Let us think a little more about these animals somewhere in the Middle East marching their way home. The million mile March of The Penguins. It may sound funny, but this is what the story implies. A story as I have said before, many Western World Christians believe. That by some divine guidance all the penguins, fresh off Noah’s ark, said “Hey penguins, Antarctica is that way!” and they wobbled (or Happy Feet’ed) their way thousands of miles south. All the marsupials (pouch mammals) said “Hey, let’s all us pouch mammals swim to Australia, no non pouch mammals allowed” and they made their way to Australia, where before the arrival of homo sapiens on that island, only marsupials could be found (I encourage the reader to at least Wikipedia the word “marsupial” to explore their wonderful characteristics and how they came to be). Where I live, in California, we have many species of plants and animals that can only be found in California. The California Salamanders for example, did they walk and swim from the Middle East only to California? The Torrey Pine which can only be found on the coast of San Diego, did its seeds only drift to San Diego, and San Diego alone? As a smart and intelligent person, leave all the bigotry and prejudice aside for a moment and reflect on these questions. I encourage you to look for a species of animal or plant that can only be found in your country, state or town, and ask the same questions. (I guarantee if you look for it, you’ll find some animal or plant that is native to your neighborhood only, it may bring you great joy in finding that you have a living creature as a symbol of your home). I will name a meager amount of plants and animals that can only be found in small areas of earth: The Galapagos Tortoise, form the Galapagos Islands. The Lemurs for Madagascar. The Snow Leopards of the Himalayas. The Polar Bears of the Arctic. The Island of New Zealand were only birds are native. I challenge you to think of some. And I can go on and on, but for the sake of making my point I’ll stop there. All living creatures did not escape a worldwide flood on an archaic wooden boat that shipwreck somewhere in the Middle East. They did not travel from Noah’s boat all the way to their specific homes. If you are a normal, intelligent person, that is honest with yourself, you cannot possibly think that this crazy fable is nothing more than a myth made by primitive man. As a species, we have moved on from primitive tales to scientific accomplishments. We now live in an age of cell phones, air travel, space exploration and an innumerable amount more of technological achievements that have enriched our lives, and have made us a better society (except for atomic weapons I guess). In the United States, we do not punishing Sabbath breaking, adultery or other imaginary crimes (sins) with death. I encourage you to join the real world, which it much more fulfilling and rich than any fantasy or myth that humans can dream up. If you chose to hold on to fiction, I feel you are losing out on the truth, and soon the world will leave you behind. As in the Dark Ages where science was repressed, and blind following of priests was a virtue, history is repeating itself with the Anti-Evolution movement in North America. Seen from the perspective of an outsider, the Islamic State in Syria, Al-Qaeda, suicide bombers and suicide hijackers, are no different than the Christian fanatics of Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia. They both kill thousands of humans in the name of their holy book, and they both believe that their fairy tale is true, and the only way to prove that it’s true is to make you believe it’s true or kill you if you don’t give in. This way of thinking is hurting us as a species. Think for a minute if instead of a church on every corner of the US, there were a research building. If instead of Sunday school there were a Sunday science school. The people that lived during and enforced the Dark Ages are no different than you or I. We both have the same reasoning skills and merit. They made the mistake of following the heard as the German people did with following the Nazi party. The poor fanatic people for the Middle East are enslaved by the mental virus called Islam, which has reduced many of them to primitive goat herders, and cannon fodder for the Imams. They most likely will never know of the wonders of the West. As they embrace ignorance over knowledge, we here in the West are embracing Desert Dogma over truth. By placing “In God We Trust” on our currency, and “One nation under God” in our pledge of allegiance, and ignoring our own origins though the process of evolution. We are one small step from becoming that vile, ultra-violent reptile that is part of the human character we have grown to fear and loath, so eloquently expressed by ISIS and radical Islam. I have a refrigerator magnet with a quote by Richard Dawkins that says “Science flies you to the Moon. Religion flies you into building” As your genetic relative, stop drinking the punch, Jihad-ing and doing mental gymnastics in an attempt to make your childhood fantasies come to life. Good luck.

[academicatheism]

friendlyatheist said: Sir, I hope you write a book some day.

The above comment is referring to this post. I no longer have x-kit since Apple no longer supports it. Bummer...

That is the plan. Not to write one but a few. In time. :)

[annadelveys]

the more videos i watch the more attracted i am to hemant mehta

this is a crossover of a good personality and good looks and i am impressed

[yeahadventists]

Are the fundamental doctrines superior to scientific facts? If a scientific discovery clashes with a doctrine, should science be ignored? If so, why? Thanks!!!

Hello!

I don’t think that science should ever be completely ignored. After all, there have been many strides that are very noteworthy and helpful to humankind. However, as you probably know, science is never fully absolute. There are things always being discovered and things always changing. We believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, so it would come above science. However, our understanding of the Bible may change as more is learned and discovered, as well as our doctrines. So I think that each scientific discovery should be researched as well as the doctrines we have based on the Bible. If, after much research and much prayer, the impression is given that a doctrine should be changed, I’m sure that then it could be. But given that you are asking about fundamental doctrine, which is usually taken straight from the Bible, then the word of God would come first.

[donkeyhot]

So well said

Sam Harris said it best:

“People of faith often claim that the crimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were the inevitable product of unbelief. The problem with fascism and communism, however, is not that they are too critical of religion; the problem is that they are too much like religions. Such regimes are dogmatic to the core and generally give rise to personality cults that are indistinguishable from cults of religious hero worship. Auschwitz, the gulag and the killing fields were not examples of what happens when human beings reject religious dogma; they are examples of political, racial and nationalistic dogma run amok. There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable.”

from Friendly Atheist