Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Fun To Imagine

Richard Feynman: 'Fun To Imagine'


Feynmans enthusiasm is contagious!
Informative and fun :)

Posted By Bradyns

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Just As Bad

Just As Bad
If you are and atheist, and have had an argument with a theist, you will more than likely have heard the argument:
"Atheism is just as bad!
Followed by examples of bad political ideologies.."
Well, I just wish to throw this analogy out there for use.

Think of atheism as non-smoking (asmoking?)

This takes into account, every single act and event that is considered not smoking.

Now, If I were then to say that Cigarettes cause you harm, this is fact.

A smoker could then to say, that non-smokers and non-smoking:
Car crashes kill, and those people didn't smoke.
War's kill, and those people didn't smoke.
Suicide kills, and those person didn't smoke.

Just those 3 alone, accounts for a large amount of pain, suffering and death inflicted in the past, present and future.

Therefore: non-smoking is worse than smoking.

Now, do you see how the negative of an act cannot be considered an act?

Posted By Bradyns

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Freedom & Happiness

You, The People!
Hope… I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor – that’s not my business – I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful.

But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls – has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in: machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical, our cleverness hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little: More than machinery we need humanity; More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish…

Soldiers – don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you – who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate – only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers – don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written ” the kingdom of God is within man ” – not one man, nor a group of men – but in all men – in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power – let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers – in the name of democracy, let us all unite!”
- Charlie Chaplin
The Great Dictator (1940)

Posted By Bradyns

Monday, July 4, 2011

Curve Ball #14 - Unexplained Explanation.

The Unexplained Explanation
To demonstrate that what a theist has faith in is real, they rely on first hand (subjective) accounts of experiences in their lives.

Being humans with fallible memories, and misperceptions in relation to transpired events, people can think something happened which may not have happened quite the way they remember it.

Or may have been in a subjective mindset at the time, which influenced the over-all perception.


Relying on these accounts, a common argument is that they experienced an event, or witnessed something that was seemingly inexplicable to them.

The perception can be altered by the brain state as time goes along, allowing them to convince themselves that something may have occurred, which really didn't [a 'Mental Chinese Whispers', if you will.]

This seemingly unexplained event, being just that, is attributed an explanation, simply because of inexplicable nature.

Eg. I can't how Uncle Bob was resuscitated, therefore 'God did it.'
The attributed explanation is based of something that is unexplained.

Without any means of repeating an event, attributing something to the unexplained is very irrational.

Also, with situations like this..
Seemingly naturalistic causes are overlooked, simply by the persons unwillingness to accept that their unexplained experience, cannot be so simple in nature.

Eg. I saw a quick flash of light outside my window at night; Therefore aliens!
In reality, it was a car driving by with high-beam lights on.

Explaining an 'unexplainable' event, is juvenile in nature [This should go without saying.]

Conclusions to something that you can't explain should be withheld, until there is something more substantial that would support your conclusion.

Seeking a supernatural explanation over a natural one, is also a child-based mindset.
More Christian Curve Ball
Posted By Bradyns

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Observed Instances Of Speciation

Observed Instances of Speciation (Macro-Evolution)
Speciation:
Crossley, S. A. (1974). Evolution 28: 631-647.
de Wet, J. M. J. (1971). Taxon 20: 29-35.
Dobzhansky, T. and Pavlovsky, O. (1971). Nature. 230: 289-292.
Feder, J. L. et al. (1988). Nature 336: 61-64.
Gottleib, L. D. (1973). Am. J. Bot. 60: 545-553.
Macnair, M. R. and Christie, P. (1983). Heredity 50: 295-302.
McPheron, B. A. et al. (1988). Nature 336: 64-66.
Pasterniani, E. (1969). Evolution 23: 534-547.
Shikano, S., et al. (1990). Ecology 20: 75-84.
Smith, D. C. (1988). Nature 336: 66-67.
Waring, G. L. et al. (1990). Evolution 44: 1648-1655.
Weinberg, J. R. et al. (1992). Evolution 46: 1214-1220.

Transitional Fossils:
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Anderson J. S., et al. (2008) Nature 453:515-518.
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Brazeau, M.D. and Ahlberg, P.E. (2006). Nature 439: 318-321.
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Zhu M., el al. (2009): Nature 458: 469-474.

Miscellaneous:
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Ahearn, J. N. 1980. Evolution of behavioral reproductive isolation in a laboratory stock of Drosophila silvestris. Experientia. 36:63-64.

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Reproductive isolation as a pleiotropic effect of copper tolerance in Mimulus guttatus. Heredity. 50:295-302.
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New hypotheses of the cause of cytoplasmic incompatability in Culex pipiens L.
Check Out Talk Origins

Posted By Bradyns

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Asking Questions

Asking Questions
Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself:

If your convictions were wrong, would you want to know about it?
Or would you prefer not to know and continue living in blissful ignorance?

Do you seek out books, web sites, people, and ideas that challenge your currently held opinions, ideologies and beliefs?
Or do limit the ideas that make it to your brain by submerging yourself in thoughts that promote your pre-determined faith?

Do you seek out the weaknesses in your current opinion and the strengths in competing opinions?
Or do you dwell on the strengths of your own position and the weaknesses of your opponent's position?

Do you hold your current beliefs because a thorough analysis of the evidence demands that you hold them?
Or do you hold your current beliefs because they are the beliefs that you want to have?

Is your highest value to be faithful?
Or is your highest value to have intellectual honesty?


Trust those who seek the truth.
Don't trust those who claim to have it.

Conducting your search for truth with intellectual honesty is harder than it sounds.

There is a significant difference between building your convictions upon integrity and being sincere in your convictions.

Just about everybody in the world believes that their personal beliefs are the correct ones.
As a matter of fact, most of us are absolutely certain that our beliefs are the correct ones.

When we see certainty in others we call them obstinate.
When we see it in ourselves we call ourselves faithful.

When our faithfulness causes us to be obstinate so that we refuse to consider new evidence and potentially better paradigms, we may still be sincere in our convictions, but our convictions will no longer be based upon intellectual honesty.

Posted By Bradyns