Burnee links for Thursday

The Rants of Cherry Black » Blog Archive » Oslo
Some people just have to be in the centre of things. Not content with an amazing month in Nepal, Trish now insists on reporting first-hand from the Oslo bomb site. Some people are never satisfied.

You are entering a Shariah controlled zone… | HumanistLife
Yikes, this is disturbing. What's the status of randomly posted notices? Is it an Advertising Standards Authority matter? Maybe some well-placed stickers "NO LEGAL JURISDICTION" wouldn't go amiss.

The Rants of Cherry Black » Blog Archive » Oslo: Part 2
More eye-witness reporting from Trish.

Thomas Monopoly (@thomasmonopoly) — "Dear Google"
A salutary warning to those who put all their eggs in one basket.

A short rant on "explanatory power"

This was sparked off by this week's Atheist Experience TV show, in which Matt Dillahunty encapsulated in very few words why I find intelligent design wholly unsatisfactory:

"...we tend to explain things in terms of things that we understand."

This is science, this is maths, this is software development, this is education in general. This is how we find out how things work and why.

What Matt is describing in that almost throwaway line is the progressive method of explanation. When faced with something complex, which as a whole we might not understand, we tend to break it down into its component parts and seek to understand them. If these components parts are also complex, we will further break them down until we get to a level we do understand. This is a lot like maths. Higher mathematics can be complicated, but it's built up from lesser principles, all of which can be ultimately reduced to something basic and comprehensible.

Likewise engineering, technology, and indeed all of education can be seen as a series of hierarchical steps based on something lower down the tree of complexity. We explain things in terms of other things for which we already have explanations.

Intelligent design proponents don't use this method, so their claim of "explanatory power" is bogus. Trying to explain something in terms of something else that we don't understand is clearly a non-starter. It's not helpful, and it's not explanatory.

http://blip.tv/the-atheist-experience-tv-show/atheist-experience-719-greg-paul-and-the-problem-of-evil-5408591

Theology isn't all hermeneutics and exegesis

Theology is such a useful subject. You can apply it to anything and nobody can contradict you. It uses strange words like "hermeneutics" and "exegesis", which allow you — if you're so inclined — to bamboozle the uninitiated. But the greatest thing about theology is that with it you can sound superficially intellectual even without the big words. All you need to do is link what you're saying back to scripture, and you will imbue your mundane rhetoric with the authority of holy writ.

But be careful not to overdo it, otherwise your fatuous ramblings could be seen for what they are, and you'll be in danger of exposure as an intellectual fraud.

Giles Fraser, Canon Chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral, doesn't use the big words when he's on Radio Four's Thought for the Day. Three minutes isn't really enough to get down and dirty with the exegetical ramifications of a Bible verse, especially not at breakfast time. As for hermeneutics, unless they can be eaten with milk, sugar and added bran his audience probably isn't interested.

On Tuesday morning Giles took his cue from Rowan Williams and talked about debt. He laid out his relevant qualifications, just so we can be in no doubt of his authority on the subject. "I'm not an economist," he said. Nevertheless he went on to explain that America's current problems are the the same as those of Adam and Eve, and the reason Greece needs to be bailed out by the Eurozone is because of "the fall of man".

I'm not a theologian, but it seems to me that the Rev. Canon Dr. Giles Fraser has once again amply demonstrated theology's utility¹ and its relevance to the modern world.

Behold — for thirty days and thirty nights — the Fraser thought here (mp3):
http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/thought/thought_20110727-1110a.mp3

---

1. I think there should be an "f" in that word somewhere.

Burnee links for Sunday

Times Higher Education - Believing Bullshit: How Not to Get Sucked Into an Intellectual Black Hole
I'm currently reading Stephen Law's new book and was directed to this unfavourable review via his blog. As Law says, it's a very weird review. The comments to the review, however, are overwhelmingly in support of the book.

Data and marriage | HumanistLife
Someone's done the work, rather than just repeating the trope, and it turns out that children of cohabiting parents are no worse off than those of legally married parents.

New Humanist (Rationalist Association) — 3 things we have learnt from the Public Administration Committee debate on faith and the Big Society
Caspar Melville links to the transcript of the debate; read it and see how we make a difference.

Science, Reason and Critical Thinking: Why I'm So Sad to See the Space Shuttle Come Home
I'm not convinced that this really is the end of an era — I'm hoping it's just a temporary hiatus. As one who grew up with (and lately rediscovered) the inspiration of science fiction, I eagerly await humanity's next foray across the unknown frontier. Let's hope it's not too long coming.

God and the Universe
It's pondering one that reveals the non-existence of the other (but not vice versa).

I'm starting to think that the Left might actually be right - Telegraph
Surprising to find the former editor who exhibited such buffoonery in his debate about "atheistic fundamentalism" (partnered with Richard Harries and against Richard Dawkins and A. C. Grayling) writing something I could mostly agree with.

Texas SBOE takes final vote, science groups laud choice to pass over Intelligent Design | The American Independent

"In what public interest and science organizations are declaring a “victory” for Texas education, the Board of Education voted Friday to accept new online supplemental materials for science classrooms, unanimously rejecting Intelligent Design/Creationist backed information from digital vendor International Databases, in a 8-0 vote."

8-0 — that's conclusive. Sanity prevails for a change.
(Via James Williams.)

On idiocy « Andy Ellington's Blog
In rational discourse it usually pays to keep a level head and a polite demeanour. One's argument, however correct, can be diminished by charges of ad hominem attack. But when you're trashing the Discovery Institute the gloves can be well and truly off, as this disingenuous coterie of obfuscators deserves all the disrespect it gets.

Why I don't believe in gods : Pharyngula
P. Z. Myers states the obvious.

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.