Andreas Moritz has stupid followers

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Michael

My posts on Andreas Moritz get a fair number of hits, both here and at other blogs, even though I haven’t really written about him in awhile. That makes me happy because it means I still show up high enough in search results for people to notice my warnings. As a result, it is without exaggeration that I can say there is a good chance I have indirectly saved a life, perhaps several. Of course, this isn’t something that can easily be measured, but anyone who has had a life-threatening disease and decided to get real medical help instead of reading Moritz’s horseshit in hope of a cure has been saved. (Those who have had normal aches and pains have at least had their wallets saved.)

One might think that getting people to a point where they can be helped would be praised by all. Not that I’m looking for praise, especially since I’m acting as little more than a helpful road sign that points people to the hospital, but my actions are far from bad. Unfortunately, Moritz’s supporters don’t see it that way. That’s why they show up in the Recent Comment widget from time to time. In fact, even though I never use the blog, they show up on Without Apology quite frequently. They never say anything remotely intelligent, which is why I generally ignore them bar the occasional trolling, but one recent comment was especially unintelligent. Let’s take a looksie:

You guys who put down an outside opinion on health matters must also be Christians…

After all, before Jesus Christ fell on the scene 2,000 years ago, by their belief, every single human being went to “hell”. Now, there have been humans on Earth for many, MANY more years than Christianity, and I seriously doubt they all went to this fictitious (My Opinion) “hell”.

It is ok to believe what you like. That’s what makes us all learn and grow. But to put others down for their beliefs in this life, especially those well intentioned to helping others, even slightly skewed as you may view it, is a mark of your own character. History remembers these types for what they were, bitter.

Not only is this commenter, Justan Observer, under the incorrect impression that a whole slew of atheists must be Christians, but he has caused the irony alerts in my head to go crazy. “How dare you silly, gullible Christians insult my precious quack! I question your character for putting others down on the basis of their beliefs.” Gold. Absolute gold.

Isn’t it funny how adherents to a cause can be so telling of the cause sometimes?

Filed under: Pure bullshit | Tagged: , , | 20 Comments »

Happy Darwin Day

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Michael

Today marks the 203rd anniversary of one of the most important scientists to have ever lived. I pity those who can’t recognize his greatness.

Filed under: Evolution, Science | Tagged: | Leave a comment »

Thought of the day

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Michael

“I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one.”

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

The asshole dad everyone loves

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Michael

Watch this first:

Everyone is going nuts over this video. I’ve seen it getting passed around my Facebook friends all day, the media is interviewing the hell out of this guy, and CBS has apparently even offered his (Tommy Jordan) family a series, according to his Facebook page. Unfortunately, I’ve only seen one person express what an asshole he really is. Let me explain why I agree with that sentiment.

I haven’t had the certain joy and burden of children. I can only know what it’s like to raise kids by what I hear from others. And I conclude that it is surely difficult. A lot of it seems to be frustration, especially as the kids hit their teens. I have no doubt what I’ve heard is quite accurate and I’m not questioning that in the least. Whereas matters like spanking are moral issues and don’t require a bit of parenting experience to discuss, conversations on parenting in general is something best left to the experts and/or parents. That’s why I have no intention of dismissing the issues Jordan raises. His daughter complaining about being a “slave” and having chores? That’s normal kid stuff that gets exaggerated by kids and I’m sure it can be very frustrating to parents. It sounds like Jordan has put a lot into what he gives for his children, so a lack of reciprocal appreciation is no good and probably deserves some dressing down. Even without children I can understand why he would want to correct his daughter’s attitude.

All that said, he’s an asshole. His frustration as a parent isn’t uncommon and his desire to change how his daughter behaves is understandable, but the way he went about it betrays an underlying immaturity and pettiness on his part. Let’s break it down.

His daughter posted a rant about her parents on Facebook. As a result he felt slighted, probably even embarrassed. He has stated he does not like the idea of his daughter making him look bad in a public forum. So what does he do? He publicly humiliates her, explicitly making sure her friends would see what he had done. If that isn’t hypocrisy, then what is? His position is that X is bad, and that’s fair enough. But what isn’t fair enough is him demonstrating his position by doing exactly what he detests*: “X is bad, therefore I will do X to you!” Moreover, his motivation here is clearly to get revenge on a 15 year old girl. Sure, he also wants to teach her a lesson he deems worthwhile, but if that was his only goal, he would have acted like an adult, sat his daughter down at the kitchen table, and spoken with her. Maybe he would have even grounded her or given her more chores. But he didn’t. Instead he chose to embarrass her in front of her high school friends by making a video. To make matters worse, millions of people have seen it. Good luck to his daughter getting a job now.

I’m all for a parent giving his kid some perspective. There are a lot of ways to go about it, many of which I’m sure have never even dawned on me. In fact, I bet his way has been damn effective. But that doesn’t matter in the least. Not. In. The. Least. Something being effective does not mean it is the right thing to do. In this case, Tommy Jordan got it exactly wrong. He showed his daughter that he’s a hypocrite who seeks petty revenge against those who are powerless to defend themselves.

*For anyone who thinks an eye for an eye is okay, why not start a movement where rapists get raped? Fair is fair, right?

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: | 5 Comments »

Incoherent views

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Michael

I’ve been following a comment thread over at The A-Unicornist that has mostly revolved around the First Cause argument. In it was this gem from family-harasser Jack Hudson:

…causation isn’t logically dependent on time.

This made me literally laugh out loud. It demonstrates what is one of the most incoherent view of reality I think most Christians hold. I’ve explained how it all works on FTSOS as well as in the comment thread, but I think it bears repeating one more time what, exactly, causality is.

Newton’s third law says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Another way of saying this is, for every cause there is an equal effect. Or, to use exactly equal language again, for every force there is an equal opposing force. With that under our belts, let’s look at what force is.

Simply put, force is mass multiplied by acceleration, or f=ma. Let’s break it down further. What is acceleration? It is the change in velocity of an object over time. In other words, find the change in velocity in an object and divide that change by the amount of time it took for said change to occur and you’ve got acceleration.

I think if I left things at this point many people would be able to figure out the implications of what I’m saying. However, since I know Jack (who is obsessed with FTSOS) and other Christians will be reading this, I will spell it out. In order for something to have a force, it must have mass and acceleration. And in order for something to have acceleration, it must have velocity. And in order for something to have velocity, it must go through time. Tie it all together and we see that time is of the essence. At least to introductory physics. Without time, there is no causality. And what did we have ‘prior’ to the Big Bang? Certainly not time as we understand it. Therefore, it is logically incoherent to use the idea of causality in order to argue about how the Universe began.

If more Christians understood science, we wouldn’t have these sort of problems.

Filed under: Astronomy/Cosmology/Physics, Philosophy | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

Here’s a terrible idea

Posted on February 10, 2012 by Michael

I bet it passes:

A bill put forward by Gov. Paul LePage proposes allowing religious schools in Maine to qualify for public tuition dollars.

LePage unveiled the proposed bill with the state’s education commissioner Stephen Bowen in Skowhegan on Wednesday. Currently students in ‘school choice’ communities can attend some private schools and have their tuition paid for by the school district they live in.

I can see both sides of this argument. I went to a Christian school from K through 8 and I know it was an excellent education (minus the time wasted on religion). My class alone produced 4 high school valedictorians around the area. That’s 30 students who spread into various high schools with hundreds of kids per class and managed to succeed at a very high rate. That point acknowledged, none of this justifies using public dollars to send children to such schools. This is little more than an excuse to promote Christianity.

It’s too bad I fully expect to see a few more “Christian children” (as if there is such an absurd thing) running around in the coming years.

Filed under: Local, News, Religions | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Fun fact of the day

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Michael

The camel originally evolved in North America.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: , | 2 Comments »

With what does science deal?

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Michael

Why, reality, of course.

If that seems like a simple answer, it’s because the answer is simple. We could break everything down, get more particular, explore general concepts, use specific examples, etc. That would give us a better understanding of how science works, but the answer to the question of with what it is science deals is the same: reality. Unfortunately, not everyone understands this:

Science is great for material things, but by definition it doesn’t deal with immaterial things.

This comes from our friend Neil. I usually reserve him for use in my “Punching Bags” series, but I’m actually still trawling his comment section to find more unique bloggers (not to mention bloggers who actually dare to defend their positions). As a result, I’m not particularly reading his writing – in fact, I’m not going to bother reading the rest of his post – but the above comment did catch my eye. It represents a weak mind.

Making the point that science only deals with material things, not immaterial things, is like saying science only deals with material things, not unicorns. It’s a meaningless statement. Unless, that is, Neil has provided evidence for the immaterial. But wait! Then he would have to use the material world and thus science. Since, by definition, he cannot use these things to study the immaterial (or unicorns), his views are fundamentally anti-science. In fact, the same goes for absolutely anyone who believes in the supernatural. It’s just kooky thinking.

Filed under: Science | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

Washington passes equal marriage law

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Michael

Lawmekers in the state of Washington have approved a law guaranteeing gays equal rights:

The Washington House passed the bill on a 55-43 vote. The state Senate approved the measure last week. And Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire is expected to sign the measure into law next week.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Pedersen, a gay lawmaker from Seattle who has sponsored gay rights bills in the House for several years, said that while he and his partner are grateful for the rights that exist under the state’s current domestic partnership law, “domestic partnership is a pale and inadequate substitute for marriage.”

It is almost certain this will be challenged at the ballot box in November, so freedom has an uphill battle to fight in Washington this year. Apparently a lot of people think the sky is going to fall is gay people have the same freedom as straights.

Filed under: Same-sex marriage | Tagged: , | Leave a comment »

When theory becomes practice

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Michael

When Christians make a stink about their religion being targeted, it is often put to them how they would react if the religion in question was Islam or Scientology. (See the teaching of creationism.) Alternatively, when another religion is seeking to do something which Christians don’t like, it is often put to them how they would react if it was their religion in question. (See the Ground Zero mosque.) The usual response is to either ignore the question or pay it lip service. The former is what I most commonly see, but every so often Christians will give the latter a little air time. I’m sure it is genuine for some, but most are so oblivious to their majority status in everything except science that they’re just espousing principles they pretend to hold but really ignore in practice.

One place where Christians often fight to keep their special treatment is at legislative meetings. They’ve become accustomed to beginning their sessions with Christian prayer. Moreover, elected officials rarely, if ever, reflect the actual population; it isn’t often a state or federal senator will challenge the idea of prayer before commencing (secular) lawmaking. What this means is that people assume they have a legitimate podium for promoting Christianity. However, since they do not, this is often one of those places where it will be put to Christians, What if the religion in question is something other than Christianity? What if Islam is being espoused? And, again, the response is usually to either ignore the question or pay it ever-so-empty lip service.

But there is a third, a-historic option.

This strategy is to claim this is a Christian nation by way of the values encoded in our constitution and the intention of the founding fathers. It is a demonstrably false claim, but it is made nonetheless. And it goes further. In addition to stating such falsehoods, Christians will follow through on their poor grasp of history and actively seek to prevent equal treatment of other religions and non-religious groups. Don’t believe me? You should:

(This is a few years old, but it was recently brought to my attention.)

This sort of thing doesn’t surprise me. It isn’t that people are merely acting like dolts in the name of religion. They are doing it at the behest of religion. It is fanatical shows of theater like this for which religion calls its sheep. Luke 17:3, for instance, tells followers to rebuke evil. Titus 1:10-16 tells believers that non-Christians can’t do anything good and should be, once again, rebuked. I’m sure if I wasted more of my time reading a book which has failed to provide a shred of evidence for its primary thesis I could find several hundred examples without problem. The point is, this is what Christianity (and most other religions) command of its followers. Spreading the word and shouting down ‘evil’ is half of the point. It shouldn’t surprise anyone when Christians and other religidiots do exactly that.

Filed under: Religions | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

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