The Life of Muhammad — BBC2

As discussed on Skepticule Extra 009, The Life of Muhammad is a three-part BBC TV documentary presented by Rageh Omaar. I've watched the first two — the final episode is next Monday at 9 pm.

It's engaging stuff, with eminent talking heads punctuating colourful location reports, but I've been struck by the singular lack of provenance for most of the events related. The story is fascinating, but it sounds like pure fantasy. For example, in the second episode we are told of the Prophet's so-called Night Journey, when he was apparently teleported to Jerusalem and then on up to heaven for a brief conflab with God. We know this happened because Muhammad said it happened. At night. When he was praying. When the Prophet returned from this extraordinary sojourn — to which there were no independent witnesses — he announced that God had told him that Muslims must pray five times a day.

Throughout his life Muhammad experienced a series of revelations from God — at least that's what the source says happened. And just who is the source of this "historical" information? (I'll give you one guess.) Some of these revelations were awfully convenient, to say the least. One of them, related in the second episode, was that Muslims should no longer pray towards Jerusalem, but towards Mecca. In discussing the significance of this change (regardless of whether or not it was a true revelation), much was made of how it marked Islam as being different and separate from previous religions, but nothing whatever was said about why the direction of prayers should matter. (Visions of some kind of inaccurately focussed prayer-beam spring to mind, with prayers dissipating ineffectually into space.) Presumably the direction of prayers is determined by which way the people praying are facing — except they aren't facing anything except the ground when their foreheads are touching it. It's all very confusing.

Rageh Omaar makes much use of the phrase "according to Muslim tradition" when talking about events that if they actually happened would be described as historical. I can't help concluding that this choice of words is probably an editorial decision to deflect possible accusations of making unsubstantiated factual claims.

The programme's website is here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012mkh7

Episode 1 & 2 are currently available on the iPlayer until 1 August 2011:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012mkg5/The_Life_of_Muhammad_The_Seeker/

Religion 101: Final Exam

A link to this was posted by Peter Chervenski in the Atheism Facebook Group. It was too good merely to link to, so I've pasted it below:

Religion 101: Final Exam
by Terrence Kaye

The author gratefully acknowledges the inspiration provided by E.T. Babinski, Dan Barker, George Carlin, Richard Dawkins,, Sam Harris, Judith Hayes, James Haught, Robert Ingersoll, Adam Lee, John Stuart Mill, Pablo Neruda, Blaise Pascal, Seneca, Julia Sweeney, Jethro Tull, Mark Twain, and Mark Vuletic.

1. Which of the following is the most compelling evidence for the existence of an intelligent and loving Designer?
   
   
   1. The little girl born in Egypt with two functioning heads
   2. The screams of a baby seal as it is torn apart by a shark
   3. The superiority of the octopus eyeball to the human
   4. A Caribbean sunset
   
   
2. A Christian couple has just returned from their fiftieth anniversary celebration, when suddenly the husband falls to the ground, clutching his chest. Assuming the morally proper action is to try to save his life, what is the most morally proper action the wife could take?
   
   
   1. Call 911
   2. Put him in the car and race to the hospital herself
   3. Administer CPR
   4. Fall on her knees and pray to the Lord to spare his life
   
   
3. You are a product tester and frequently bring your work home. Yesterday, while dressed in a flame-resistant suit (up to 3,000 degrees) and carrying the latest model fire extinguisher, you discovered your neighbor's house on fire. As the flames quickly spread, you stood by and watched the family perish. Which of the following best describes your behavior?
   
   
   1. All-powerful
   2. All-knowing
   3. All-loving
   4. Mysterious
   
   
4. One day while jogging in the park, you see a maniac with a butcher knife about to attack a six-year old girl. What should you do?
   
   
   1. Grab the nearest rock and club the attacker
   2. Call the police on your cell phone
   3. Yell "POLICE!" and run toward the attacker in a threatening manner
   4. Calmly walk away, because God works in mysterious ways, and what appears "evil" to our finite human mind, may in fact be part of a vaster plan in God's infinite mind, so it's best not to interfere
   
   
5. You are a loving family man who volunteers as a Big Brother and also at the local hospice when not working as the director of the community food bank. You awaken this morning to discover the global news media ablaze with the first-ever, easily understood, irrefutable scientific proof that there is no God. What will you probably do?
   
   
   1. Quit your job and become a full-time rapist
   2. Abandon your family and go on a murder rampage
   3. Become a professional burglar
   4. Continue your life pretty much as usual
   
   
6. Since we can never "know" whether or not a God exists - it is fundamentally a matter of "faith" - it's best to be a believer since you have nothing to lose, but everything to lose if your disbelief is incorrect. Keeping in mind that the fate of your soul depends on the right choice, in which God should you place your belief? For extra credit, include a brief essay justifying your choice, along with the reasons why you reject the other three.
   
   
   1. Zeus
   2. Odin
   3. Vishnu
   4. The Holy Trinity
   
   
7. You are the Creator of the universe. Your chosen people are a tribe of nomadic herdsmen, presently in bondage on one of the millions of your planets. Their ruler is being quite obstinate. Keeping in mind that you possess not only infinite power but also infinite love, your best course of action would be to:
   
   
   1. Cause the ruler to drop dead of a heart attack
   2. Cause the ruler to fall off a cliff
   3. Visit the ruler in a dream and persuade him to let your people go
   4. Slaughter a great number of innocent babies who had nothing to do with the ruler's policies
   
   
8. You are a Starfleet Federation explorer in the process of cataloging two newly discovered planets. The majority of the inhabitants of each planet believe in a deity, but they are two different deities. Deity "X" is said to be not only all-powerful, all-loving, and all-knowing, but the designer of a marvelously complex and ordered world. Deity "Y" is said to be indifferent, absent, unconcerned with the affairs of his planet, and some even say evil. Which god rules over which planet?
   
   Planet A: Has apparently achieved a state of advanced benign equilibrium in which there are no viruses or diseases, and only a very small number of natural disasters, which, when they do strike, always eliminate only the sinful and evil. The inhabitants, both plant and animal, have learned to maintain their existence through photosynthesis, and thus do not have to kill and eat each other in order to survive. There are no "birth defects"; every inhabitant comes into existence perfectly formed and equipped for a long and productive life.
   
   Deity X_____
   Deity Y_____
   
   Planet B: Adorned with many examples of beauty and order, it is also constantly beset by hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, volcanoes, lightning bolts, viruses, disfiguring diseases, parasites, leeches, flies, crop-destroying pests and many other phenomena which afflict both the innocent and the evil. Every life form on the planet can only sustain its existence through the destruction and consumption of other life forms. Some of the inhabitants are born with a crippling condition called a "birth defect" which condemns them to living extremely limited, short or painful lives.
   
   Deity X_____
   Deity Y_____
   
   
9. What is the number of children born without arms or legs that have been miraculously restored by a visit to the shrine at Lourdes, France?
   
   
   1. Too many to count
   2. Over 1,000
   3. Several dozen
   4. Zero, but only because their faith was not strong enough
   
   
10. As we all know, there is only one true religion. What is the one true religion in each of the following circumstances?
    
    
    1. You are born in Karnak in 3000 B.C.
    2. You are born in Bombay in 300 B.C.
    3. You are born in Baghdad in 900 A.D.
    4. You are born in Mexico City in 1956 A.D.
    
    
11. Although you are new at golf, you have just hit a beautiful 200-yard drive and your ball has landed on a blade of grass near the cup at Hole 3. The green contains ten million blades of grass. The odds of your ball landing on that blade of grass are 9,999,999 to one against, too improbable to have happened by mere chance. What's the explanation?
    
    
    1. The wind guided it
    2. Your muscles guided it
    3. There is no need for an explanation
    4. You consciously designed your shot to land on that particular blade
    
    
12. Which of the following is most likely to be true, and why?
    
    
    1. Romulus was the son of God, born to a mortal human virgin
    2. Dionysus turned water into wine
    3. Apollonius of Tyana raised a girl from the dead
    4. Jesus Christ was the son of God, born to a mortal virgin, turned water into wine, and raised a man from the dead
    
    
13. Conceding that torture is permissible under certain conditions, which of the following would be the best justification?
    
    
    1. Your prisoner is the only one who knows the date and time of an assassination attempt on the Pope
    2. Your prisoner is the only one who knows where a nuclear device has been planted in Washington, D.C.
    3. Your prisoner is the only one who knows where a vial of nerve gas has been placed in the London water supply system
    4. Your prisoner has announced that the earth revolves around the sun
    
    
14. We know that Christianity is true because the Gospel writers, inspired by God who can make no error, recorded the founding events. For example, on the first Easter morning, the visitors to the tomb were greeted by which of the following:
    
    
    1. A young man (Mark 16:5)
    2. No, no, it was no man, it was an angel (Matthew 28:2-5)
    3. You're both wrong, it was two men (Luke 24:4)
    4. Damn it, there was nobody there (John 20:1-2)
    
    
15. Only human beings have souls, and thus only human beings can go to heaven. What is the cutoff point for entry into paradise?
    
    
    1. Homo habilis
    2. Homo erectus
    3. Homo Neanderthalensis
    4. Homo sapiens
    
    
16. According to at least one sainted church father, one of the pleasures of the saved in paradise will be to behold the agony of the damned in hell. What would be the best time of day in heaven for a mother to behold the agony of her only son who didn't make it?
    
    
    1. Early in the morning before it gets too crowded
    2. Mid-day when she can compare notes and share the celebration with other mothers
    3. Late at night when she can enjoy the flames in starker contrast
    
    
17. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we always look to the Bible as a guide. In this example, your teenage son has returned home from the prom intoxicated. If you want to follow the Bible, you should:
    
    
    1. Sit him down for a heart to heart talk
    2. Enroll him in AA
    3. Take away his driving privilege for one month
    4. Smash his head in with rocks
    
    
18. In this example, your son-in-law, returned from his honeymoon, has just told you he suspects your daughter was not a virgin on their wedding night. Wishing to abide by God's holy rules as laid out in the Bible, you should:
    
    
    1. Ask him if he was a virgin before you do anything
    2. Advise him to forgive her
    3. Talk to your daughter
    4. Go find those rocks
    
    
19. You are eating lunch at a crowded fast food restaurant, occupied mostly by children, when suddenly a gunman bursts in, screams "Do not question or test me," and sprays the room with bullets. Ten people are killed instantly, many more grievously wounded, but somehow you escape unharmed. His ammunition expended, the gunman heads for the door. What should you do?
    
    
    1. Call the police and wait for them to arrive
    2. Call the police and leave
    3. Risk death by asking the gunman why he did it, even though he told you not to
    4. Fall on your knees and give thanks and praise to the gunman for sparing your life
    
    
20. Why did God show his backside to Moses, as described in Holy Scripture, Ex.33:23?
    
    
    1. He invented everything, and this was simply the first mooning
    2. He was really ticked off when Moses dropped the tablets
    3. He was piqued, having just discovered His almighty powers were useless against chariots of iron (Judges 1:19)
    4. Moses was too serious and needed to lighten up a little
    
    
21. Jesus was God, and God knows all things, including all the medical knowledge that will ever be known. Why did Jesus blame demons for the case of epilepsy he cured?
    
    
    1. He was suffering from a temporary case of "brain freeze"
    2. The Aramaic word for "demon" is the same as the word for "cranial malfunction"
    3. Neurology was not his specialty
    4. In first-century Palestine, demons really did cause epilepsy. This affliction only began to be caused by electrochemical brain activity after about 1850 A.D.
    
    
22. Today's paper carries a story about a suburban father who became so enraged with his disobedient children that he carried all nine of them to the backyard pool where he drowned them, along with their puppies, their kittens, and their hamsters. How should this father be treated?
    
    
    1. He should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law
    2. He should be banished from the town
    3. He should be lynched to save the taxpayers' money
    4. The townspeople should gather together to sing hymns of praise to him
    
    
23. This morning I started my day by insulting my mother in public, then punched out my father, my brother, and my sister. Then I gathered up all my clothes, sold them to a second-hand store, and with the proceeds bought a used assault rifle and 50 rounds of ammunition. Next, I went down to the animal shelter and injected all the dogs with a drug that caused them to go insane and dive into the nearby canal where they all drowned. By this time I was hungry, so I went over to my neighbor's apple orchard and burned it down, because I wanted an orange and there weren't any. On the way home, I stopped at the local steel mill to discuss my philosophy of life with some of the guys. They laughed at me and said to stow it, so I tossed them all into the blast furnace. That night I discovered my son looking at a copy of Playboy. Concerned for his future welfare, I cut off his right hand. What historical character did my activities today most resemble?
    
    
    1. Genghis Khan
    2. Charles Manson
    3. Adolph Hitler
    4. Jesus Christ
    
    
24. Down through the ages, who has been most responsible for the medical discoveries that have relieved untold amounts of suffering and pain, and extended the length of that most sacred of creations, the only species made in the divine image, human life?
    
    
    1. Medical doctors
    2. Research biologists
    3. Chemists
    4. The Catholic Church
    
    
25. A great sadness has come into your life which you feel you cannot bear. A friend informs you of a free counseling service which has never failed to aid and comfort many others. You call the counselor; the phone rings and rings with no answer; you finally hang up. What is the most likely explanation?
    
    
    1. The counselor is sitting by the phone but not answering in order to test your faith in him
    2. The counselor is fully qualified and able to help you, but just doesn't feel like it right now
    3. The counselor will not answer because he wants you to profit by the spiritual strength that only comes through suffering
    4. The counselor is not home
    
    
26. ESSAY QUESTION
    While it is true that there have been and still are many different gods and many different religions, they are really just different names by which various cultures approach the same God. Explain how and why each of the following is the same God:
    
    
    • Quetzalcoatl, who wants you to skin a young virgin alive, then put on the skin and dance;
    • Shiva, who wants you to pray over his penis;
    • Allah, who wants you to fly airliners into buildings;
    • Catholic God, who speaks directly through the Pope;
    • Hebrew God, who most definitely does not;
    • Jesus, who wants you to castrate yourself to ensure arrival in heaven
    • Jehovah, who any day now, is going to kill everyone on the earth except for his Witnesses

For more great atheistic resources, go to Ebon Musings: "The Atheism Pages".

The moral argument

One thing that never fails to make me sigh with frustration is the so-called moral argument for the existence of God. I can deal dispassionately with the argument itself, but what wears me down is the prevalent theistic assumption that whatever atheists may claim about the origin of their morals, morality is irrevocably woven into God's nature, and atheists are therefore merely borrowing morality from the deity. This is bunk, but it's such an ingrained assumption that the mechanism of it is adopted throughout theism, with a version of it even evident in presuppositional apologetics.

I've grown tired of explaining that human morality is an evolved attribute (and anyway it seems many theists just can't get it), so from now on I'm happy to leave the explication to QualiaSoup:

http://youtu.be/T7xt5LtgsxQ


Subscribe to QualiaSoup's YouTube channel for subsequent instalments of what will no doubt be an excellent educational series.

Miraculous fiction

I've just started watching the new series of Torchwood. I must admit I'm finding it not a little unconvincing, especially after what seemed like the show's final bow-out — the superb Children of Earth, shown on five consecutive evenings in July 2009.

I'm only one episode into Miracle Day, so perhaps it's too early to judge. But with ten episodes in total, it had better improve or I'll be unwilling to invest more time in it.

Notwithstanding my initial reservations, the theme of the story made me think again about miracles. As I see it there are several ways to define a miracle, two of which are:

1. A miracle is something that can't happen.

2. A miracle is a happening that proves the existence of God.

So if religious apologists insist that a miracle might be an extraordinary event that appears to contradict natural law, they can't use it as proof of God's existence if the event is unlikely but not impossible. God's existence could only be proved by the occurrence of an impossible event. But then you have the problem of defining what's possible and what's not. Taking the Torchwood — Miracle Day example, the miracles are described as such, but there are plenty of people in the story who are looking for some kind of natural explanation, and surprisingly few who take them as examples of God's inscrutable ineffableness. Writer Russell T. Davies is an atheist, but he's not above grappling with religious issues, as he did with The Second Coming.

Personally, I go with the first definition of miracles. Which leaves the second definition high and dry.

Retro-future: "How To Make a Spacious Fortune"

The return of the last Space Shuttle has reminded me of an article I wrote in 2000 for the online magazine Jackhammer E-zine. Eleven years ago — pre-9/11 — the future looked a little different.

How To Make a Spacious Fortune

"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is."

If space is as big as Douglas Adams says (in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy), surely there's ample opportunity for making money from it. Unfortunately, big though it is, space consists mostly of one thing: nothing at all.

But perhaps this very lack of something is what the daring entrepreneur can capitalize on. Wouldn't people pay for the privilege of being among the very first to contemplate such vastness?

What we're talking about is one of the biggest money-spinners on Earth. Whole countries depend on it for their survival in today's competitive, commercial world. It's tourism.

What works here on Earth could also work in space: luxury hotels in orbit around the globe, giving their lucky guests the chance to sample the novelties of astronautic life. Who would pass up the chance to try out a zero-gravity toilet? Who would throw over the opportunity of experiencing that curious multi-dimensional disorientation that leads to space-sickness?

It's possible, of course, to simulate gravity in space. But a slowly rotating wheel, large enough for its centrifugal force to equal even a sixth of Earth's gravity -- like the one in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey -- is too big to be a realistic proposition just yet, despite next year being when it was predicted to be feasible.

Then there's the view: the Earth, spinning in isolation, vulnerable in the void, has been described by some astronauts in quasi-religious terms. "My view of our planet was a glimpse of divinity," wrote Edgar Mitchell of Apollo 14.

After being on vacation for some time, it's natural to have the odd tinge of fondness for the place one has so eagerly left. How much more profound to see it hovering below, in the knowledge that it's farther away from you than ever?

Having established that there's a likely market for space tourism, provided the price is right, it's time to look at the practicalities. Let's assume that the goal is an orbiting hotel, and some kind of regular transit service to ferry the guests to and from such a desirable venue.

The first problem is building the place, and for this it seems sensible to take a cue from that other ongoing orbital project, the International Space Station. The ISS is likely to cost American tax-payers $25 billion, not counting the contributions from the ISS partners in Russia, Japan, Europe, Canada and Brazil. The occupants of the initial few modules, enjoying reasonable life-support and accommodation for a crew of three, remain in orbit for about 90 days, but our tourists will probably want to stay a much shorter time.

Although building an orbital hotel will be a massive technological and financial undertaking, the knowledge gained from the ISS will point the way. The main reason that a hotel is not being assembled far above our heads today, is that to be viable a hotel must be easily accessible. A reliable and frequent transport system is needed. NASA's Space Shuttle is at present the only (partly) reusable transport available, but it has proved itself a flexible and adaptable vehicle.

Each Shuttle flight costs in the order of $300 million, so with a payload of perhaps six guests and one or two service personnel, the cost could be in the region of $50 million per guest at today's prices, for the transport alone. This is astronomic, even for the most exclusive accommodation on -- or off -- the globe.

The Shuttle's very versatility makes it non-cost-effective for the comparatively simple task of getting people into orbit and fetching them down again. A more specialized vehicle is obviously what's required, perhaps one with greater capacity. There are many vehicle designs on the drawing board, several of which could serve our purpose. (For sub-orbital flights only, there is even a self-build kit version, the SpaceCub -- a snip at half a million dollars, plus fuel.)

On arrival, what entertainment would be available for these exclusive guests? Naturally a fully equipped fitness room would be a priority. Even during short periods of microgravity, the human skeleton loses a significant amount of calcium -- a process called demineralization -- due to lack of muscle-stress on the bones, so a daily workout would be an essential part of each guest's routine.

There would also be periods of training. Life in space involves many hazards, and though the residents would receive instruction before traveling to orbit, there would be no substitute for learning to cope in the environment itself. This hotel would be far away from the usual facilities found in most large cities on Earth; the residents would need to know what to do in any eventuality. It's unlikely that the rear of the bedroom door would be large enough to contain all the emergency instructions.

Apart from that, they can simply admire the view.

There is a downside. Prospective guests will be aware that this would be a high-risk vacation -- one for which they are unlikely to get adequate insurance cover. Holidaying in orbit, at least at the start of the enterprise, would be for those prepared to accept that they might never come home. And such a vacation would only be for those who could afford it.

David Ashford, director of Bristol Spaceplanes in the United Kingdom, in his paper, "Space Tourism -- How Soon Will it Happen?" has estimated that at a ticket-price of $10,000, "...probably more than one million fare-paying passengers would visit space each year as tourists, requiring a fleet of more than 50 spaceplanes."

There's money to be made here. Get in on the ground floor, and you'll go to the stars -- or at least take the first major step on the way.

Copyright © 2000 Paul S. Jenkins

Note: This article was originally published in Jackhammer E-zine in July 2000. Used with permission.

Creation — a bad move?

In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move. Many races believe that it was created by some sort of God, though the Jatravartid people of Viltvodle Six firmly believe that the entire Universe was in fact sneezed out of the nose of a being called the Great Green Arkleseizure. The Jatravartids, who live in perpetual fear of the time they called The Coming of the Great White Handkerchief, are small blue creatures with more than fifty arms each, who are therefore unique in being the only race in history to have invented the aerosol deodorant before the wheel.¹

As creation myths go, that's pretty ridiculous, but compare it to this (more or less random) alternative:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.²

It then goes on a bit, tending to lose its way regarding the logical order of events, but we can cut it some slack as it's a myth. But the point of contrasting these two accounts of how things got started is to show that neither is more likely or more convincing than the other. It's possible to pick holes in both stories: the first one, for instance, simply states the creation of the Universe as bald fact — this is not exactly explanatory. The second example does exactly the same: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." It just happened. It was done, by this character called "God" who is simply assumed to be there without any sort of explanation of who he was or where he came from.

Both examples may yield some insight from the application of literary criticism — but as explanations of how things came to be, they are equally misleading and uninformative. If you're seeking an explanation that correlates with reality, I suggest you look elsewhere.

---

1. The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (original radio scripts), Douglas Adams, London 1985, Pan Books, p 90, "Fit the Fifth"
2. The Bible, Authorised King James Version, "Genesis" chapter 1, verses 1-5

Some late night Burnee links

Grassroots Skeptics — Skeptical Activism Campaign Manual
Skeptical resources continue to grow.

Where Can I Find the Really Good Theology? Part One. : EvolutionBlog

"I came to see theology as a moat protecting the castle of religion. But it was not a moat filled with water. No. It was filled with sewage. And the reason religion's defenders wanted us to spend so much time splashing around in the moat had nothing to do with actually learning anything valuable or being edified by the experience. It was so that when we emerged on the other side we would be so rank and fetid and generally disgusted with ourselves that we would be in no condition to argue with anyone."

Jason Rosenhouse follows Jerry Coyne into that unappetizing moat.
Part Two here:
Where Can I Find the Really Good Theology? Part Two : EvolutionBlog
(Via Malcolm Stein.)

My position on communicating skepticism : Pharyngula
P. Z. Myers' position is "no truck with accommodationism". It's not everyone's position, and might not work with some people. But it does work in certain circumstances, and is therefore a valid approach.

Is It Cold in Here? | Cocktail Party Physics, Scientific American Blog Network
So, yes, it's been blown up out of all proportion. But there's apparently a reason for this, and the "atheist and skeptic movement" ignores that reason at its peril.