This is just plain weird: convinced of the superiority of their “argument” (mainly that their super-dad made everything so a few white people can enjoy it), they’ve decided to specifically target Penn Jillette to a debate on evolution. Firstly, they want him to answeer their “15 questions evolutionists can’t answer”, a grab-bag collection of old creationist canards they think has merit. I’ll summarize them here:

1. How did life originate?
2. How did the DNA code originate
3. How could mutations create the variety of life we have?
4. Why is natural selection taught to explain the diversity of life?
5. How did Biochemical pathways originate?
6. We think it looks designed. Why don’t you agree?
7. How did multi-cellular life originate?
8. How did sex originate?
9. Why are transitional fossils “missing”?
10. Why hasn’t evolution transformed everything into something super-smart?
11. How did evolution create morality?
12. Why does society “tolerate” the teaching of evolution?
13. Where are all the scientific breakthroughs due to evolution?
14. Evolution deals with history. Why is it a science?
15. We think evolution is a religion. Why is it taught in science class?

I recommend you actually read the fully phrased version. It’s fucking hilarious. Anyways, they also make a few stabs at his weight, which has become their new obsession as of late. They wrote an article recently suggesting that the despair of abandoning God, or being angry at him, creates depression which leads eventually to obesity. It’s rather deranged logic, especially since there’s actually data to suggest the opposite. Regardless, it seems like a ploy to try and piss him off. I’m willing to bet it doesn’t work.

Penn has nothing to gain from engaging these bozos, since they’re so caught up in their little delusion that they actually think the “evidence” of evolution points to their creator God. It makes me wonder how anyone can accept “God did it” as a satisfactory answer to all 15 of their little questions.

Spread the outrage

What happens when you substitute the word “evolution” with “gravity” on the embarrassment that was the Miss USA “Let’s Ask These Bimbos if the think proper science should be taught in school” video? You get something funny enough to make you shart a little…Enjoy the weekend!

NOTE: Miss Washington is still awesome. I love facts too, baby!

Spread the outrage

What better way to celebrate the majesty of the uber-exploitive parade of vapidity that is the Miss American Pagent than to feature a video with contestants telling people about their “thoughts” on evolution. Most of these airheads tow the “teach the controversy” line, as though “students” deciding between fantasy bullshit and rigorous science isn’t a total waste of time.

Thankfully, a few actually believe, but the general feeling I get is that even those that do probably have no idea why it’s true. So which one of these geniuses does the best job of embarrassing the rest of humanity?

Spread the outrage

I love getting these kinds of letters:

Jacob,

Just wanted to drop a quick line to share an encounter I just had with a Jehovah’s Witness while walking my dog. She stopped to ask me about my religious views and I told her I was an atheist. Then she asked if I believed in evolution and I said “Of course, but I don’t have to believe in it, it’s a scientific fact.” She replied with “Well, it’s only a theory.” Of course I had to explain to her what the word theory meant and bring up the example gravity, etc. Then she tried to go into the intelligent design stuff. I won’t bore you with the details, but I was calm and genial with her and at the end she kept trying to excuse herself as I was answering her points and bringing up new ones. After five minutes she literally had nothing else to say other than there was a ‘publication’ about creation vs. evolution that I should read. So sad, these people. I know I won’t convert someone like that but it was satisfying for her to realize there are people who aren’t gullible idiots who can trump her mythology with reason every time. Love the show. Keep up the good fight!

You really can’t “convert” anyone over night. It’s a slow process, but trust me when I say that it’s experiences like this that starts to chip away at the certainty people have in regards to their faith. The more we challenge these bozos, the better. You keep up the good work, Joel!

Spread the outrage

This, my friends, is stupidity: the inability to even understand the arguments of others. I mean, how could anyone reading any of Richard Dawkin’s books think he was in favor of design? It’s obvious here that the gentleman asking the question has a world view that precludes him from properly understanding natural selection. Failing to grasp how this evolutionary pressure morphs and changes organisms in order for them to adapt to their environment, and focusing instead focused on the “chance” portion of the process, is a classic symptom of religious indoctrination.

As far as religions are concerned, our existence is the product of the creative force of something worth venerating. Evolution says otherwise. The creative force is merely a chain of self-replicating amino acids that occasionally mutate, giving some a better chance to continue their duplication. What powers this process isn’t some bearded man in the sky, but rather the simple forces of physics acting on one another. How anyone can continue to believes in a God after understanding this simple idea is beyond me. It asks the impossible: to abandon one’s intellectual integrity in exchange for easy answers and a promise of eternal boredom.

Spread the outrage

Guess who managed to weasel his way into the news? It’s everyone’s favorite “ex-atheist”, Kirk Cameron, criticizing Hawking for declaring that Heaven is a fairy-tale. He posted this on his facebook page:

to say anything negative about Stephen Hawking is like bullying a blind man. He has an unfair disadvantage, and that gives him a free pass on some of his absurd ideas.

That’s not passive aggressive in the slightest. He’s right: science must seem absurd to someone as ignorant as Cameron. Black Holes deteriorating over time? The Universe not needing a prime mover in order to exist? It’s enough to make anyone’s head explode, especially when that head happens to be jam packed with crazy bullshit.

What really irritates me is when clowns like Kirk are given a spotlight for regurgitating the same old tired non-arguments. Faith is not evidence. Belief is not evidence. Yet the likes of Cameron would dilute objective truth to fit their narrow world views, and the media gladly provides them a platform to accomplish this. How many gullible fools have been lured by their promises of eternal life and a paradise awaiting the obedient? Presumably a few more now.

This other passage really irritates me:

(Hawking) says he knows there is no Heaven. John Lennon wasn’t sure. He said to pretend there’s no Heaven. That’s easy if you try. Then he said he hoped that someday we would join him. Such wishful thinking reveals John and Stephen’s religious beliefs, not good science.”

What the fuck does he know about good science? This is the same brilliant mind behind the “crocoduck” anti-evolution argument for god’s sake. And if he thinks Lennon’s “I hope some day you’ll join us” message is religious in nature, he’s only proven how hollow his “ex-atheist” claim is.

Spread the outrage

Remember Harun Yahya? He’s the Turkish creationist that published a book called “The Atlas of Creation”, his attempt to “prove” that animals were created spontaneously by his personal God. Most of the pictures in this massive 768 page monstrosity are ripped right off the internet. One picture of a fly is in fact a metal lure. Yes, he’s that fucking incompetent.

Harun Yahya is the pseudonym of Adnan Oktar, 55, a preacher who keeps secret the sources of the ample funds that allow him and a group of followers to produce hundreds of thousands of slick and simple books on Islam under his pen name.

Harun has a following of young, wealthy religious aristocrats that fund his various schemes. He keeps them in line by filming them having sex with his various private prostitutes, and in exchange for their silence, they fund his various enterprises. Although he claims to have written a dozen books, all have been found to be ghost written, and he’s clearly authored none of them. He’s an opportunist, interested in the money, fame and power that comes from “defending the faith”.

Koran-based creationist views are traditional in the Muslim world. Advised by U.S. creationists, Harun Yahya has developed a series of books that have helped spread this view in recent years beyond the Middle East, including to France, whose five million Muslims make up Europe’s largest Islamic minority.

Right now, he’s on tour in Europe trying to “teach” students how to challenge evolution, which he believes is science’s way of promoting atheism. Is it our fault that evolution by means of natural selection does more to explain our existence than a 7th century book of mythology?

Spread the outrage

A fan of the site sent me this Buddhist exchange that I had to say something about:

Curious Buddhist:

I have an odd question which was raised by a friend, who was asking me questions about Buddhism. They wanted to know how Buddhism deals with the concept of evolution? Are Buddhists creationists? Our teachings don’t seem to deal with such matters and I was rather at a loss as to how to answer them.

Lama Shenpen:

I suppose one would have to say Buddhists are evolutionists in the sense that they do not think God created everything in seven days.

That’s not really a good start. Creationists don’t all believe in that exact nonsense. Some are far more sophisticated in their stupidity.

The Buddhist view is that everything emanates from the Primordial expanse of Openness Clarity Sensitivity and is illusion-like, never really coming into existence but the illusion is created by infinite intricate connections that are not anywhere and not in time.

Wow, the bullshit train is riding hard right now. Am I to believe that the Universe is an expanse of Sensitivity? I would argue that stars exploding in massive gamma ray bursts might not be entirely too sensitive to the feelings of nearby planets.

Time and space are part of the illusion that is emanating from that Primordial expanse – so it’s all very mysterious. From the Buddhist perspective there is no problem with life on earth having evolved somehow – but evolution is not in itself a full story or full account of life on earth – it leaves quite basic questions left unanswered.

Yes, evolution leaves tons of unanswered questions for Buddhists, such as “how did the first human exist if we’re all reincarnated”, and “how can human beings be so fucking gullible”?

In a way one might want to argue Buddhism is closer to creationism because our world is created by awareness – the awareness of the beings that inhabit it – evolution only gives a kind of history of how that illusion unfolds.

They love their whole “illusion” angle, don’t they. It’s a great way to avoid having to explain anything concrete about your stupid belief system. Hey, how do protons and electrons work? It’s all an elaborate illusion, so don’t bother trying to find out!

Buddhist do indeed share much in common with creationists: for starters, they have no desire to discover the natural world, and rely on tradition and superstition to tell them about the Universe. While they smugly assert that all the Cosmos is Maya (or illusion),this impossible to disprove condition is just another example of the nonsense of religion. If they had their way, scientific progress would end as we know it, in favor of mumbling some shitty prayers and believing that justice is handed out by an invisible force.

Isn’t religion great?

Spread the outrage

When I think of someone famous taking off their clothing for money and more attention, it’s rare that I compare their actions to those of great revolutionaries. Of course, that’s probably because I live in a society that values freedom of expression, and where the female form isn’t something we like covered up (which is why winter sucks so hard). That’s why I had to take a few moments to appreciate the fact that a German Muslim actress named Sila Sahin has received death threats after posing nude for Playboy.

Her Turkish parents are apparently uber-conservative and called her all kinds of nasty names for doing what she wants with her own body.

“For years I subordinated myself to various societal constraints. The Playboy photo shoot was a total act of liberation.”

You know you’re on the side of good when you’re trying to defend a society that has citizens who feel liberated when they show people their naughty parts!

Spread the outrage