Skeptical Ponderings

Life's to short to spend it with people who annoy you.

Top Ten Signs You're a Fundamentalist Christian

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees! And lets not forget the Crusades and Inquisition.

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans and animals, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering and burning in a lake of fire. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving."

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity.

2 - You define 0.01 % a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you believe that the remaining 99.99 FAILURE was simply the will of God.

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

Intelligent Design is the idea that life is too complicated to have just happened, something had to design it.

Most people who back up ID are theists, however, all theists do not back it up.

President Bush endorsed it as a good arguement to evolution. (Article here)

***

From my point of view:

Intelligent Design is not a theory, it is only an idea. A theory has evidence supporting it, and can be disproven. This has niether aspect.

So, if this idea is investigated, there is no way of looking for evidence for it. Even if someone can conclude that yes, we were all designed by an intelligent thing, that does not prove that that thing is any sort of god or supernatural being. There is no way of proving that that thing was not in turn, created by something else. Then you have to look for what intelligence created the intelligence that created. However, that can't be proven.

Why is it always creationism vs. evolution? And why do people view that as theists vs. atheists? An atheist can believe in creationism and a theist can believe in evolution, however, fundamental Christians constantly attack evolution for it's "Ungodliness". There is nothing "ungodly" about evolution and nothing "godly" about Intelligent Design.

However, Intelligent Design is being used by fundamentalists as some sort of scientific way of the god of the Bible in to the world. There is such a thing as a "militant atheist" as they call it, and they are trying to use evolution to incorporate atheism in to the world.

There IS evidence for evolution. Strong evidence. That is why evolution is a theory and ID is just an idea. ID does not oppose evolution or vice versa, and niether one prove there is or is not a diety.

ID should NOT be taught in schools, because it is NOT a theory, it is an idea lacking evidence.

Here's a "debate" a friend and I had. I'm justice4all_silence and he's sethhavoc.


justice4all_silence : did you ever hear of intelligent design

sethhavoc : dont think so why?

justice4all_silence : it's a theory that something intelligent had to create everything

justice4all_silence : that everything is to complicated and well thought out to have just "Happened"

sethhavoc : oh yeah ofcourse

justice4all_silence : it doesn't say a god or anything made everything though

sethhavoc : </b></font>i know, go on

justice4all_silence : well president Bush is endorsing it as the counterpart of evolution

justice4all_silence : who made Bush a scientist?!

( Read more... )

DREAM TIME!

Reoccurring dream:
Someone's trying to get in to my house. I'm running around barracading the doors and windows. Sometimes they get halfway in, and I hit them and kick them until they're back out. Sometimes the locks on the doors don't work.

I used to dream about flying.

Last nights dream:
I was walking about with these two men. I don't know who they are, but I knew them in my dream. We passed a native american store, and this old indian woman was sitting in there, smiling at us. The men talked to her, then she opened this hidden door way. We all crawled through and on the other side was some sort of spiritual room. Then, a ritual began with the four of us. I stood observing, confused.

The tall man carved a symbol into his arm with a ceremonial knife, alarmingly close to his wrist. Then, the woman said things, and threw various powders at him. Finally, she did something... and it caused a great wind with powder in it to hit and surround only him. It burned his eyes and was absorbed into his body and spirit. When it stopped he looked in a mirror near by and saw a.. wierd demon like thing, with red skin, black hair and his eyes were never ending spirals. Everyone else saw him as he was, but he saw his new spirit. After him, the shorter man went, and looked at his reflection.

It was my turn. She told me not to carve a symbol in to my flesh, that I was too young for that. She threw powder on me and images of starving people and deformed children flashed through my head. She kept saying, "Make her aware! Show her!" I kept telling her I already knew about what she was showing me. I looked at my reflection, studying my face, then the blast of powder hit me. I don't remember what happened after that.

Just submitted stuff to Baycrest Publishing. They said they'll let me know in 2-3 weeks if they want to see my manuscript.

Does love really exist... or is it something we convince ourselves of? I become quite cynical out of nowhere, the littlest things make me think that this is a fairy tale and nothing more, that I shouldn't let myself fall into it because I'll be caught up in a lie and hurt all the more when it ends. All things end, do they not?

I realize I'm young and I can't possibly expect to be with someone forever, not yet... but the words sound so sweet when they are said to me, and I wish it could be true, so much so that I almost weep in his arms. I think, "I wish I could believe you mean that..." I don't say it out loud. Maybe he does mean it, but someone can mean something when they say it... that doesn't make it valid.

I wish the romance told of in story books and movies could be real. However, I quickly dimiss placing myself with him in the future. I see little red headed girls with curly hair and think of a life I could have with him, a family, a house... to wake up with him at my side. Then I dismiss them, a hatred for myself developing. I must't allow those illusions to appear. I can't let those thoughts be realized, because that can never be, will never be.

If we are still together in a year, he'll be going to Boston for college. That's too far a distance for me to bare. It would most likely be over then, he'd find someone new and I would move on myself... to the next painful relationship. Strange, how all this is so painful yet for some reason it's all people long for... to love and be loved.

Only a fool would allow themselves to believe in a love that lasts forever. Love breeds only tragedy and tragedy breed love... a vicious cycle that I don't want to fall into, I can't let myself be hurt.

I can't believe him. I can't believe in love.

Oh, how I loathe fake hair, fake tans, fake nails, fake faces, fake smiles, fake eyebrows...