Fascinating debate

Two atheists, one, Sam Harris, a rather hardline but rational fellow and the other, Philip Ball, an “accommodationists” (at least in the view of PZ) are going at it and it is a pretty fascinating read.

Ball is arguing that it is folly to outright dismiss religious thinking as incompatible with science. He thinks that religion is here to stay and deeply ingrained and that we have to strive for peaceful coexistence. Harris on the other hand, similar to my last few blog posts, thinks that religion is a dangerous mindset that should be taken head-on.

I agree with them both. I agree more with Sam Harris but I am keenly aware of the difficulties surrounding (what appears to be) attacks on people’s sacred beliefs. Even though I think all of our beliefs are fair game, in a sense, many people feel they never have to defend their religious beliefs. So any “attack” (and by that I mean a debate of ideas) is seen as hostile. That undermines our argument if our goal is to convince people to open their minds to our ideas.

Each of these guys had a great quote (among others) that I thought was worth sharing. Sam Harris describes Christianity accurately but severely:

Jesus Christ, a carpenter by trade, was born of a virgin, ritually murdered as a scapegoat for the collective sins of his species, and then resurrected from death after an interval of three days. He promptly ascended, bodily, to “heaven”—where, for two millennia, he has eavesdropped upon (and, on occasion, even answered) the simultaneous prayers of billions of beleaguered human beings. Not content to maintain this numinous arrangement indefinitely, this invisible carpenter will one day return to earth to judge humanity for its sexual indiscretions and sceptical doubts, at which time he will grant immortality to anyone who has had the good fortune to be convinced, on Mother’s knee, that this baffling litany of miracles is the most important series of truth-claims ever revealed about the cosmos. Every other member of our species, past and present, from Cleopatra to Einstein, no matter what his or her terrestrial accomplishments, will (probably) be consigned to a fiery hell for all eternity.

On Mr. Ball’s account, there is nothing in the scientific worldview, or in the intellectual rigor and self-criticism that gave rise to it, that casts such convictions in an unfavorable light.

Ball, who I agree with in the sense I described above, is a bit desperate and outmatched, I think, but he does sum up a view of agnostics that is well said:

I share your view that many of the alleged ‘facts’ that comprise most religious belief – the existence of a deity (or deities), that deity’s capacity to intervene in the world in supernatural ways, the whole paraphernalia of miracles, afterlife, saints, sin, absolution, virgin births, resurrections – are not just outside of science but fundamentally incompatible with a scientific view of the world. And while some agnostics might insist that we cannot ‘know’ that a god does not exist, this does not compel us to give the ‘for’ and ‘against’ possibilities equal weight. We shouldn’t imagine things into being without good reason to do so.

Fascinating debate

Science is god

Yes, yes, yes! I’ve had a revelation of sorts. It’s based on one core concept: that the progress we’ve made in this world is based almost solely on science. Literally, and I mean that in the literal sense, everything we have and enjoy and cherish is given to us by science. 2/3 of your kids would be dead without science. We wouldn’t have the internet or medicine or mobile phones or DVDs to watch. We wouldn’t live in nice little neighborhoods with unlocked doors. Science has pulled us out of the muck and given us the chance to be civilized and socialized. It’s the most important thing in the world.

Yes, of course, science if flawed. It’s wrong a lot and it’s political and manned by humans so as fallible as all of us are. But it is science itself which finds and fixes the errors and scientists and their students who invent the things that become the life-enriching advances of the future. Science, as Carl Sagan said, is a candle in the dark.

And yet this most proven and successful enterprise in human history, that provides the very foundation of all that we do, giving us literally life itself, is the enemy to some! And to others it is merely just one other view, equal to all other views, including the uninformed ravings of astrologers and clergymen.

Science is under attack by people with an agenda that is mystical in nature. They are religious people, “New Age” people, “woo” medicine peddlers and other op-ed nut cases. They demean science and applaud quackery and they lead us away from the mindset which has given us everything we have.

Atheism is the natural worldview of the scientific mind. Oh, I know, many great scientists were theists. Religion is the last stand of mysticism and superstition in human psychology. But it’s not turtles all the way down, we are not special creatures destined to be cuddled by a friendly superbeing in heavenly comfort and nothing lasts forever, not even the universe. It is incredibly arrogant to think that we alone are eternal and happily reunited with our loved ones forever. It’s nonsense. There is no spoon. It is quite peaceful once you accept it.

Be here now.

Science is god

Why I'm happy you are an atheist

The reason I enjoy seeing the ranks of atheism grow is because I think there is still way too much superstition in the world. If you take all the religious activity and then add in ridiculous crap like astrology, psychics, Tarot, “woo”, pseudo-science, etc., etc., it adds up to a shit ton of wrong and dangerous thinking. The less of that the better. While atheists are no better and no worse than other people in other respects, when it comes to critical thinking, they outperform the average and then some.

Religion is a gateway drug to an arbitrary and dogmatic world view that tangibly hurts us day after day in countless issues from birth control to foreign policy.

The only reason we talk about atheism at all is because we are a society ridiculously soaked in religion. In many parts of the US it is just assumed that you not only believe in god but that you are a Christian. In many Muslim countries the state and the church are the same thing. It’s practically or literally illegal to be an atheist. So yes, of course we talk about atheism. It’s important.

Why I'm happy you are an atheist

Democrats, quit trying to legislate everything

It is well known that I find the Republican party detestable. Any party with the support of Coulter, Hannity, Limbaugh and Glen Beck will never get my support. So don’t get too excited, Righties.

But I am seriously getting bummed out with the inept notion that any problem has a legislative solution. It effects me most as a small business owner. New regulations popping up all the time to fix problems that have nothing to do with me or my business. Politicians are experts at taking a good intention and turning it into a bad law. The pandering to the electorate is sad and counter-productive. Listen to me, guys — the electorate are retards. They don’t have the slightest clue what the fuck is going on. They just want free stuff and they want no bad stuff to ever happen and if it ever does, god dammit, someone should do something about it.

I’ve said it many times before, but we have to get out of this 2 party system. The Republicans have the most fucked up agenda in history and the Democrats are trying to pass laws to prevent us from stubbing our toes. We do not have the time or the money to fuck around with all this stuff.

Obama, prioritize these people, keep them on track and get rid of the notion that the government has some extraordinary power to fix every problem. They don’t. The government should work on big issues that can’t be handled by the private sector. We can’t save children from every danger and we can’t have a thriving economy if you regulate us all because of 0.000001% of bad apples.

Get it together, mother fuckers. Focus.

Democrats, quit trying to legislate everything

"Canis Minor" Launch 2

Canis Minor rocket launch

I built a Performance Rocketry Little Dog Dual Deploy. I have a little video which describes the rocket on youtube. The first launch was a disaster which resulted in a cato. (cato is rocket dork slang for a CATOstrophic (sic) failure of the rocket motor.)

Altitude Plot

The 2nd launch was (mostly) a success! I was going to launch with a J motor but because of clouds I used an H motor instead, so a quarter of the total impulse. According to the sim it should have gone about 2000 feet, but it ended up going about 1500 feet.

Velocity Plot

The rocket wobbled a bit early in the burn. The streamer was supposed to pop at apogee and then the main chute at 700 feet but they both came out shortly after apogee. I think the payload pay just fell out of the booster when the nose cone was blown off. But as failures go, that was a pretty good one, as the rocket descended nice and slow and landed in view.

I was happy with the launch because I loaded 2 motors and they both worked fine. My altimeter worked, too, and fired the deployment charges. My failures were the wobble, which might have been solely because of the slow speed, and the fact that the main deployed too early.

It’s fun.

"Canis Minor" Launch 2

Why I hate micadelic

First let me say that micadelic, the Right-leaning commenter on this blog, is someone I know in real life and he is a very nice person. I don’t hate him in real life. But I HATE him in “cyberspace”. Here is why.

There are people I almost instantly like and respect and I’ve been thinking about why that is. I’ve narrowed it down to 2 things: they are intelligent and they are fair-minded. The first criterion is obvious — I’ve always liked smart people because I like to be challenged and I like to learn. I am also constantly seeking self-betterment. So intelligent people are usually people I am drawn to.

But that is only true if they are also fair-minded. Being fair-minded means at least 2 things: they acknowledge the interests of others and the leave room in their thinking to be wrong. They are authentic, genuine people who are confident enough to be willing to listen and willing to be wrong. Often they demonstrate this by giving a nod, if you will, to dissenting opinions.

This is why I didn’t hate John McCain. Some people are like lawyers and they never give an inch under any circumstances. John McCain, among others, was always willing to be fair-minded (with the possible exception of his Presidential campaign).

So when I debate I always try to give in a little, as a show of good faith and to show, hopefully truthfully, that I am not a brainwashed Leftie. Here, I’ll do it right now: I think government should be as small as possible (but no smaller). I think American needs to vigorously defend our interests abroad. I think law-abiding citizens should be able to own and collect virtually any gun on earth. This list goes on. There are many issues that Conservatives hold dear that I agree with. I am not a brainwashed Leftie.

Let’s take Obama. Obama is not my own, personal Jesus. He is less liberal than I am, he is part of a large party that I often disagree with and he will for sure do things that I oppose. I admire and respect him greatly but I expect to disagree with him often. He is not perfect.

Now take as counterpoint to this your average Right Wing retard such as Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck or the entire Fox News network. They guys are shameless hypocrites. They have no credibility whatsoever because all they do, all the time, on every issue, is try to spin it to make the Right look good and the Left look bad. No one should take these guys seriously. On the other hand, someone like George Will, I would argue, is not a brainwashed Right Wing kook. He’s wrong a lot, IMHO, but he is largely intellectually honest and he’s not going to carry the party line if he disagrees with it.

Now back to micadelic. I virtually never get the slightest nod of fairness from this guy. I saw him tweet to the effect that the pirate/hostage situation was a failure of Obama’s! Someone explain that logic to me. Rush Limbaugh criticized Obama and the US military for “shooting teenagers”. Had Bush been President, they would have been terrorists for whom death was too good for. Under Obama they are innocent teenagers. Why would anyone still listen to that asshole?

Micadelic admired Obama before he was a candidate and hated him as a candidate. How does that happen? He repeats the same half-truths that Limbaugh and Beck circulate. His position seems to be that if liberals believe it, it must be wrong. Ann Coulter must be proud.

So here’s my advice to micadelic, Hannity and every other rapid Right Winger. When you debate, agree with some stuff the other side says. Every once in a while, pull your head out of your sphincter and agree with some obvious shit. I do this all the time. I agreed with Bush on immigration. I agreed with McCain on torture. I’m not so stupid that I think that every single thing Bush thinks is wrong. Hell, even dumbshits like Hannity are right every once in awhile. When they are, I admit it.

Be fair-minded. The very best words to start with in a debate are “I agree with you that…”.

Try it sometime. And maybe I won’t hate you so much. 😉

Why I hate micadelic

At least 65,000 Catholics are retards

From Fox News:

Nearly 65,000 people have signed an online petition protesting President Obama’s scheduled May 17 commencement address at the University of Notre Dame, saying the president’s views on abortion and stem cell research “directly contradict” Roman Catholic teachings.

It’s hard for me to even comment on this. How weak is your goddamn faith if you can’t hear THE PRESIDENT OF THE FUCKING UNITED STATES SPEAK AT YOUR UNIVERSITY.

Jesus Fucking Christ, these people are idiots.

At least 65,000 Catholics are retards

10 ways you can help parents enjoy dinner out with their kids

Some lucky people don’t have kids so some things just don’t occur to them. That is understandable. This little post is to enlighten young waiters and waitresses on how they can help a family with kids who are eating at their restaurant.

1. Seat us where we won’t bother other people without dooming us to the shitty table by the trash cans. Any good restaurant should contemplate where to put families with small children so they can enjoy themselves without being self-conscious.

2. Don’t put spillable things right in front of the kids. We had a waitress set 4 full water glasses directly in front of our (then) 2-year old. They were spilled instantly. Do we even have to mention this one? The same goes for the sharp and/or expensive things. Keep all that shit away from our kids. We’ll do it for you, believe me, but if you are aware of it you can save yourself a lot of trouble and mess.

3. Have enough high-chairs so we don’t have to hold our babies in our laps. Complain to your boss if you do not.

4. Get the kids something to eat right away. Breadsticks, carrots, ANYTHING.

5. Give the kids something to do. Crayons are perfect.

6. Be flexible with the menu. Say Yes when we ask for some plain noodles or a simple chicken breast. We are not the first people to ask this. You shouldn’t have to ask your boss or make it seem like some BFD.

7. Bring the kids’ food out first. Do not bring the kids food at the same time as the expensive entrees of the parents. We want to eat hot food, too.

8. Keep things moving. Families with small children don’t want a 2-hour dinner. We need to order, eat and leave in under an hour, generally speaking.

9. Be fun and friendly to the kids. Try out your extra-cool goth vibe on someone else. We are all here to enjoy ourselves. If you don’t like your job, quit. But if you are waiting on my family, treat us to a good time.

10. We’re messy. We know. We will tip you extra for the trouble.

The childless reading this might be thinking — don’t the parents have some responsibility in all of this? Of course we do. We do all 10 of these things every freaking day. We compensate daily for the wait staff that doesn’t get this stuff. We are not really asking for extra special treatment. It’s just that everyone, the servers included, have a better time if there is at least some cognition about this kind of thing.

Finally a bonus item for the other patrons of the restaurant:

11. We know having young children nearby can be annoying when all you want is a quiet dinner. Welcome to Earth, where you were once a noisy, messy child yourself. Cut us some slack.

Thank you!

10 ways you can help parents enjoy dinner out with their kids

sig

Here is what your sig should say:

This email may contain confidential material. If you were not an intended recipient I obviously fucked up and it is my own damn fault. It is insane to assume that I can bind you to some agreement based on my own inability to send a fucking email. I should be fired. Immediately.

sig