Aaaaaah.
Monthly Archive for November, 2008
It's Sunday therefore it must be time for another Sunday Heroes from Lee and Herring. This time they give us their own unique take on the story of Lazarus. Enjoy:
Aaaaaah.
Aaaaaah.
I've been reading Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth" series recently. Good fun, for the most part. A lot of interesting philosophy hidden in there, but that's not really what I want to focus on here.
Instead, I want to focus on the existence of "supernatural" versus "natural" phenomena. Those are loaded words, so let's instead talk about things that exist inside of one reality (the super-reality), but impact another (the sub-reality). That is, the rules of the sub-reality do not define those of the super-reality, but are in some sense, a subset.
Examples:
- Ghosts (or disembodied minds) are a part of the super-reality.
- Embodied minds are a part of the sub-reality.
- God would be part of the super-reality.
- Humans would be part of the sub-reality.
The "Sword of Truth" series is about magic, and wizards, and spirits, and ancestors living on in an afterlife similarly to Greek mythology. There is a "Creator" who is supposedly manifestly creative, or good (kind of a mix between the Titans in Greek mythology, and Yahweh... but not Jesus), and a "Keeper of the underworld" who is supposedly manifestly destructive, or evil (kind of like Hades). Even the labels "good" and "bad" are not very good labels, since Goodkind makes the point that death is not manifestly evil, since it is a necessary part of life, but just "is". But I digress.
What does this have to do with the super- and sub-realities?
The point is, in Goodkind's universe, the "super-reality" continually manifests itself in various ways in the "sub-reality". They are constantly making observable consequences (including the Keeper itself attempting to enter the sub-reality). Magic is part of the super-reality that impacts the sub-reality. "Life forces" within people (think "The Force" in George Lucas's mythology of Star Wards, which Goodkind calls "Han") routinely can affect the laws of nature. One can start a fire by rubbing sticks together, or one can start a fire by thinking about "fire" and having the "Han" light it for you.
There are basically no people in Goodkind's world that do not believe in this "super-reality". There are no "naturalists". There are no "atheists", for the most part. Why is that? It's because there are manifestations of the "super-reality" that regularly impinge upon the "sub-reality", over and over again, with marked clarity and an abundance of evidence. There is no need for "faith" or "belief" that there is a super-reality... in fact, in Goodkind's world, you'd have to be insane NOT to believe in the super-reality.
But what does this tell us about OUR reality?
It tells us that there is nowhere near as much evidence for any "super-reality" that exists outside of our own "sub-reality". In our "sub-reality", all convincing evidence points to the fact that the "sub-reality" is just "reality", and there is no "super-reality". I can say with certainty that should I have been born into Goodkind's reality, I would be a firm believer in "Han" and the "super-reality", and would hope to study it myself as a wizard or something. However, I'm not part of that reality. I'm part of this reality. Instead of pretending that there IS evidence for "super-reality", I've opened my eyes and given myself the opportunity to honestly look back at the things that used to convince me that there WAS a "super-reality", and examine them in an unbiased way.
As soon as I did this, I realized that, without a single exception, there was no real true evidence for any "super-reality" whatsoever. No feelings that could not be explained by ordinary brain chemistry. No happenstances that could not be explained by coincidence, or luck (good or bad). No indications that I could communicate with "The Creator" or "The Keeper" via any means. No indications that prayer is effective. No indications that there is a benevolent "plan" for my life, or the lives of those around me.
All I see evidence for is the universe existing, without any super-reality impacting it.
Now, I have told you that should there BE some true evidence for a "super-reality" as per the case of Goodkind's universe, I'd be the first to admit that such a "super-reality" exists and we should take great care in finding out about it. As it is, in our reality, the only reality that is apparent to me, I have no reason to pretend that there IS a super-reality, nor that even if there WAS some hypothetical super-reality, that it impacts us or guides us in any way.
Therefore, I am an atheist in this reality. Specifically, since it doesn't seem to make a difference one way or another, I am an apatheist in this reality. People can talk all they want about "evidence for creation being everywhere", but the bottom line is, it isn't. It's not that it CAN'T be everywhere. Even a mere mortal human being (Terry Goodkind) can describe a universe in which it would be everywhere.
It's just that it ISN'T everywhere, in this reality. There is no evidence for a super-reality. There's only this reality. Deal with it, and move on.
by Rapp of AvC
This is a continuation post (of sorts).
Let's talk about Armageddon/"Doomsday". According to most Christian websites, Armageddon will be the final battle between God and Satan - a theological Smack Down! Different religions and different holy books have varied accounts of what will happen when this battle begins, but they all seem to agree that during the war between God and an anti-Christ, there will be disease, suffering, fires, earthquakes, your "horsemen", and the scariest possible circumstances that the world would ever face. Fear, desolation, and epic terror will, allegedly, rule the day and the only thing that will save your butt is fighting on God's side (or doing one of any number of devotionals/pledges/statements of allegiance to a deity).
This scenario brings several questions to the surface.
* If God is all knowing, then Satan is an idiot. Would you go into a battle knowing that all of your moves will be known through your enemy's omniscience? Satan is said to know the nature of God. In some religions, Satan is said to be Jesus' brother (LDS). If you always lose, why fight the war at all?
* If God is all-powerful, why does he need thugs? Why does he need the horsemen? Which leads me to my next question...
*God must be a tyrannical arsehole. If he's all powerful and he's disappointed in humanity, then couldn't he just blink it out of existence? No muss, no fuss. If he created it all then he can un-create it all. But, no! Instead of exercising his power in this manner, he chooses to draw arbitrary lines in the sand and let chaos, death, disaster, and (if you believe the Bible) the most intense human suffering possible. Claiming that your God is a benevolent wonder while claiming that you believe in the end times is one of the biggest hypocrisies I can think of. These actions are not those of the most powerful energy in the universe. No. It's more like giving a two year old a collection of nuclear weapons and a biological arsenal and saying, "If these people don't choose to put you on a pedestal,...have fun!"
*I'm sure some people are reading this and thinking, "But...it's not that God wants people to suffer. Satan and man's sin will be responsible for the suffering." Ok. Then your God isn't the most powerful being because he can't snuff out Satan. Your God is also a royal jerk. "Eve" bites the apple and your all powerful deity decides that, because of this indiscretion, he will hold billions of people responsible? You'd think he would've created a poisonous apple if it's such a big fucking deal. If you eat the apple, then you die. Again,...no muss, no fuss.
*"But God wouldn't do that...he's giving everyone a chance." No! He's not! If he's all knowing, then he knows who is going to help his enemies or deny him. He's holding a terrorist threat over the heads of humanity and saying, "Choose me or subject yourself to eternal torture." That's not a choice. That's manipulative terrorism. Why not just say "If you don't choose me, you will be denied my presence. You'll just cease to be - no heaven for you." Why hell? Why would the all-knowing, all-powerful master of the universe need to create hell? This also brings up the issue of predestination. Did God allow certain people to be born only to suffer?
* Why would a perfectly just God allow infinite suffering for finite crimes?
* Why are the punishments and scenarios limited to only things that ancient writers would've been able to conceive of? Notice that it's the four "horsemen" and not the four guys driving hybrid cars. There's no mention of pilots vanishing from the cockpit of planes (ala Kirk Cameron's style of "the rapture"). There's no talk of AIDS. No mention of nuclear weapons or biological warfare. There's not even the mention of massive global warming or ferocious blizzards. Why? Because none of these events would've happened, or been foreseeable, to the writers of the Bible! If the Bible had spoke of four, evil mortgage lenders or evolutionists on Segways riding across the skies, then I'd give the Christian God a bit more credibility for being the all-knowing, all-seeing, prophetic master of the universe.
The concept of Doomsday/End Times/Armageddon is a purely human concept. It's about power. You take the people you want to control and scare them into behaving the way you want them to (need them to). That's all this is. Most people don't' want to die and/or suffer. It's that fear that can be the greatest motivator in human experience. Using that fear to gain followers is a joke.
I know I'm not the first person to ask these questions (and I won't be the last).
Let's talk about Armageddon/"Doomsday". According to most Christian websites, Armageddon will be the final battle between God and Satan - a theological Smack Down! Different religions and different holy books have varied accounts of what will happen when this battle begins, but they all seem to agree that during the war between God and an anti-Christ, there will be disease, suffering, fires, earthquakes, your "horsemen", and the scariest possible circumstances that the world would ever face. Fear, desolation, and epic terror will, allegedly, rule the day and the only thing that will save your butt is fighting on God's side (or doing one of any number of devotionals/pledges/statements of allegiance to a deity).
This scenario brings several questions to the surface.
* If God is all knowing, then Satan is an idiot. Would you go into a battle knowing that all of your moves will be known through your enemy's omniscience? Satan is said to know the nature of God. In some religions, Satan is said to be Jesus' brother (LDS). If you always lose, why fight the war at all?
* If God is all-powerful, why does he need thugs? Why does he need the horsemen? Which leads me to my next question...
*God must be a tyrannical arsehole. If he's all powerful and he's disappointed in humanity, then couldn't he just blink it out of existence? No muss, no fuss. If he created it all then he can un-create it all. But, no! Instead of exercising his power in this manner, he chooses to draw arbitrary lines in the sand and let chaos, death, disaster, and (if you believe the Bible) the most intense human suffering possible. Claiming that your God is a benevolent wonder while claiming that you believe in the end times is one of the biggest hypocrisies I can think of. These actions are not those of the most powerful energy in the universe. No. It's more like giving a two year old a collection of nuclear weapons and a biological arsenal and saying, "If these people don't choose to put you on a pedestal,...have fun!"
*I'm sure some people are reading this and thinking, "But...it's not that God wants people to suffer. Satan and man's sin will be responsible for the suffering." Ok. Then your God isn't the most powerful being because he can't snuff out Satan. Your God is also a royal jerk. "Eve" bites the apple and your all powerful deity decides that, because of this indiscretion, he will hold billions of people responsible? You'd think he would've created a poisonous apple if it's such a big fucking deal. If you eat the apple, then you die. Again,...no muss, no fuss.
*"But God wouldn't do that...he's giving everyone a chance." No! He's not! If he's all knowing, then he knows who is going to help his enemies or deny him. He's holding a terrorist threat over the heads of humanity and saying, "Choose me or subject yourself to eternal torture." That's not a choice. That's manipulative terrorism. Why not just say "If you don't choose me, you will be denied my presence. You'll just cease to be - no heaven for you." Why hell? Why would the all-knowing, all-powerful master of the universe need to create hell? This also brings up the issue of predestination. Did God allow certain people to be born only to suffer?
* Why would a perfectly just God allow infinite suffering for finite crimes?
* Why are the punishments and scenarios limited to only things that ancient writers would've been able to conceive of? Notice that it's the four "horsemen" and not the four guys driving hybrid cars. There's no mention of pilots vanishing from the cockpit of planes (ala Kirk Cameron's style of "the rapture"). There's no talk of AIDS. No mention of nuclear weapons or biological warfare. There's not even the mention of massive global warming or ferocious blizzards. Why? Because none of these events would've happened, or been foreseeable, to the writers of the Bible! If the Bible had spoke of four, evil mortgage lenders or evolutionists on Segways riding across the skies, then I'd give the Christian God a bit more credibility for being the all-knowing, all-seeing, prophetic master of the universe.
The concept of Doomsday/End Times/Armageddon is a purely human concept. It's about power. You take the people you want to control and scare them into behaving the way you want them to (need them to). That's all this is. Most people don't' want to die and/or suffer. It's that fear that can be the greatest motivator in human experience. Using that fear to gain followers is a joke.
I know I'm not the first person to ask these questions (and I won't be the last).
Science News is reporting that President-Elect Obama's Transition Team is seeking possible changes to the Ares and Orion projects. The information requested by the Obama Team include how much money would be saved by canceling the Ares 1 and Orion projects, but no real alterations in other NASA projects. The Ares 1 and 5 rockets have been plagued with problems, and Orion has come under fire for poor design. Should Orion be redesigned to be used on current rocket technology? Is the Mars Science Labratory worth scaling back? Should we go to the Moon again?
One positive note in the article, Obama's Team is looking into green lighting several Earth science projects which have been ignored over the last few years.
One positive note in the article, Obama's Team is looking into green lighting several Earth science projects which have been ignored over the last few years.
Following the massacre at Mumbai it has been said that “terrorism does not have a religion”. This is true because only people can have religion. Terrorists are people and it is they who have the religious beliefs. Recent terrorist atrocities are nearly always committed by people infected with Islam. Are we expected to assume that this is just a coincidence? 
What makes these religious mass murderers so difficult to deal with is their core belief in the afterlife and the idea that death is not the end for them. Unlike their hostages and the legitimate armed forces they need not take precautions toward their own survival. The tactical advantages they gain from this enable them concentrate their efforts on the work of killing.
Even if religion is not the primary cause of these conflicts it is their religious indoctrination regarding a post-death fairyland that makes them impossible to deal with.
"Without celebrating Jesus, what is the reason for your celebration of the season?" - first Christmas card of the year note.
I got this card today from an old friend. She's known me for about ten years but only recently figured out I'm an atheist. When she found out, she didn't talk to me for a year. I understood her feelings when I told her, but I can't understand the fact that she can't accept it still. Actually, that's what she's said in her card, "I can't accept that you are an atheist..."
Here's the truth - I'm not asking her to accept it. Accept it or don't. Sending me snippy cards isn't going to change my feelings.
What's our reason for celebrating Christmas without Jesus? Easy. As I said last year, until a reputable authority shows me that the Christian Christ was actually born on December 25, this holiday isn't a celebration of the birth of Christ. If you say it's a symbolic celebration of his birth, then why is the date special? Why December 25th? I celebrate the fact that this time of year brings out the best in people (usually). I love it when I know every person in this house is busy planning little ways to make others feel good and loved. I love it when there's a holiday allowing my kids and I to sit down and paint ornaments for our tree or use clay to craft a keepsake for others. I don't need the holiday excuse, but it doesn't hurt. I celebrate the magic of the holiday as my children see it. P4 ran outside tonight and saw that a neighbor had put up lights on their house. He was so excited. P3 whispered in my ear, last night, that she couldn't wait to make puppy chow. The season is special because it's full of family traditions and rituals that we don't have at other times of the year. My reason for celebrating Christmas is purely selfish- I know my children will grow up and leave my side one day. Christmas gives me an excuse to pull them close and impart upon them all of the wonderful traditions and memories we've made. I get to spoil them with society's blessing. I also get to teach them about how special and privileged they are. I get to see their humanitarian sides grow with the understanding that not everyone has what they have. I celebrate Christmas for the construction paper chains, the time baking sweets with the kids, and the scene set before me on Christmas Eve when all of my babies are sleeping together in the living room in perfect peace with sweet dreams. The lights from the tree make the room glow in pinkish-orange softness, which reflects off their sleeping faces. All is right with the world in that ten minutes when Pdaddy and I watch them sleep. I celebrate their childhood and the child within Pdaddy and I. It's about love. Love is the reason for the season. Even if you're a Christian, your celebration of Christmas is a profession of the love you have for your savior. I love my family every bit as much as you love your savior and that's reason enough to drop the petty concerns of normal life and focus on the love around me.
I got this card today from an old friend. She's known me for about ten years but only recently figured out I'm an atheist. When she found out, she didn't talk to me for a year. I understood her feelings when I told her, but I can't understand the fact that she can't accept it still. Actually, that's what she's said in her card, "I can't accept that you are an atheist..."
Here's the truth - I'm not asking her to accept it. Accept it or don't. Sending me snippy cards isn't going to change my feelings.
What's our reason for celebrating Christmas without Jesus? Easy. As I said last year, until a reputable authority shows me that the Christian Christ was actually born on December 25, this holiday isn't a celebration of the birth of Christ. If you say it's a symbolic celebration of his birth, then why is the date special? Why December 25th? I celebrate the fact that this time of year brings out the best in people (usually). I love it when I know every person in this house is busy planning little ways to make others feel good and loved. I love it when there's a holiday allowing my kids and I to sit down and paint ornaments for our tree or use clay to craft a keepsake for others. I don't need the holiday excuse, but it doesn't hurt. I celebrate the magic of the holiday as my children see it. P4 ran outside tonight and saw that a neighbor had put up lights on their house. He was so excited. P3 whispered in my ear, last night, that she couldn't wait to make puppy chow. The season is special because it's full of family traditions and rituals that we don't have at other times of the year. My reason for celebrating Christmas is purely selfish- I know my children will grow up and leave my side one day. Christmas gives me an excuse to pull them close and impart upon them all of the wonderful traditions and memories we've made. I get to spoil them with society's blessing. I also get to teach them about how special and privileged they are. I get to see their humanitarian sides grow with the understanding that not everyone has what they have. I celebrate Christmas for the construction paper chains, the time baking sweets with the kids, and the scene set before me on Christmas Eve when all of my babies are sleeping together in the living room in perfect peace with sweet dreams. The lights from the tree make the room glow in pinkish-orange softness, which reflects off their sleeping faces. All is right with the world in that ten minutes when Pdaddy and I watch them sleep. I celebrate their childhood and the child within Pdaddy and I. It's about love. Love is the reason for the season. Even if you're a Christian, your celebration of Christmas is a profession of the love you have for your savior. I love my family every bit as much as you love your savior and that's reason enough to drop the petty concerns of normal life and focus on the love around me.
I received an eskeptic email today. I have always been interested in this story since I was young. You can read the article by Micheal Shermer here.
The article is titled "Jonestown and 'confirmation bias'
From Jonestown to tribalism to presidential politics, individuals seek the like-minded
You might expect the EO to be pleased that the Atheist Campaign is alleged to have received £35000 of taxpayer’s money from the Government’s equality watch dog. Certainly, it is fair and we have the right to claim it in the light of the annual millions religious bodies manage to leach from the public purse.
However, the British Humanist movement has long argued against these religious privileges rather than demand that they should also apply to Rationalist causes. The Atheist Bus project does not need the money anyway and the BHA would get valuable publicity for its fight against religious privilege if it made a grand gesture of returning it.
See an article and some of the outrageous, hypocritical comments from a few religious idiots in the Telegraph.
However, the British Humanist movement has long argued against these religious privileges rather than demand that they should also apply to Rationalist causes. The Atheist Bus project does not need the money anyway and the BHA would get valuable publicity for its fight against religious privilege if it made a grand gesture of returning it.
See an article and some of the outrageous, hypocritical comments from a few religious idiots in the Telegraph.
Name: Travis Morgan
Location: Roscoe, Illinois
Age: 31
Biography:
Born and raised in Rockford IL, I was enlisted in the U.S. Marines from 1996-2000, I am a father or four, husband, poet, philosopher, music artist, graphic and web designer, and truth seeker.
STORY:
I don’t believe there is a god or gods to believe in or to disbelieve in. It is because, for the most part, just the plain lack of evidence. I know, a lack of evidence doesn’t prove there isn’t a god, but it certainly does not provide a foundation to suggest that there is a god either, especially with the evidence we have for the formation of the universe reflects natural causes. It wasn’t until my late 20’s that I started even caring to question the existence of gods. Up until then, I had accepted what my family, friends, and the people around me had told me. They didn’t say, “believe in god.” No, they had just always acted and talked as though they “knew” god existed, as though it were self-evident, and I, like a child that trusts his parents because he does not have the experience to know such things, trusted the confidence of my elders. But then it all changed. When I suddenly acquired a passion for the pursuit of truth. It must have crept up without me realizing it over the years, as I had studied philosophy on my own starting at a very young age. Of course that, and other experiences, I think must have conditioned me, and ultimately determined me towards the pursuit of truth.
That is when it all started, with this passion for pursuing truth, and with it came learning the methods to uncover truths. I understood over time, that what it usually boils down to come closer to the truth is following the evidence, gathering information, using reason and logic, testing and double testing the results, being aware of and avoiding bias, feelings, ego, logical fallacies, etc… It is with these utensils, that one is guided to come closer to discovering the truth. When re-presented with the god topic, it didn’t take long to realize that the evidence suggested that the god concept is manmade, and simply does not exist.
With this realization, the pieces of life suddenly fell so perfectly in place, it all made sense now. No wonder god didn’t answer my prayers as a child, there wasn’t one, I was talking to the ceiling. And yes, I still hold this belief because I started participating in forums, conversations, debates, rhetoric’s of many sorts, I researched the topic thoroughly, and my position has only been reinforced by the results of my investigations. If anything I have been left with an overwhelming abundance of evidence that suggest the god concept was created by man, mostly to fill in the gaps, the unknowns of life, thus providing a temporary comfort to primitive man and his relative ignorance of the universe. Now that those gaps are being filled by the answers provided by improved scientific research, the god concept seems to have evolved into a meme in order to survive the times overwhelming evidence that suggest better alternatives to explain the origins of the universe and life.
This is “my story” submitted to: http://www.thereprobablyisnt.com/
Submit your 500 words or less story too!
______________________________________
Update! After reading several of stories on thereprobablyis, I decided to create a satirical piece of my own that reflects the common sentiments in many of the stories.
My submission was as follows:
Name: Trevor
Location: Texas
Age: 14-64
Biography:
Born and raised on his favorite planet earth, I am a child of the almighty Father. God gave me free-will to have faith in him and worship him for eternity and to not be tempted by Satan. My life has been dedicated to worship him.
Story:
There probably is a god because that is what my parents, family, and friends, told me. Actually, there MUST be a god so that I can live forever in either heaven or hell, doesn’t matter, as long as I can live forever. I don’t have evidence that god exist, but It is necessary that I believe in him as it comforts my fear of the unknowns in life. God fills in all the blanks and that makes me feel really good! God is love, and my relationship with god and his love is like that of a pen and a hamburger, totally unrelated but it is there nonetheless. There probably is a god because it is self-evident, just look around you, look under a rock and he is there, and sometimes you will find a snail, he created that snail too.
There probably is a god because I exist, as does life, the planet, and the universe. This is his sandbox, and we are his sand castles, individually we are the grains of sand he created to worship his greatness. Wow, I really love god for creating me to worship him, I have nothing better to do with my life. What would I do if he didn’t create me? Some people can not see god because they are too smart, they only follow reason, logic, and their physical brain. They need to open their spirit to god and they too will be blessed with his creative power. This website is a testimony to the fact that there probably is a god. How can all these people be wrong about god? The bible says god is real and I believe that because it tells me to believe it. God created man to write the bible so that other men could read it and know to worship him. Yea, there probably is a god because I have felt his presence and experienced his love. Praise the Lord, the almighty father of heaven and earth.
After four loooong months our new kitchen is FINALLY done (well, mostly).
Old Kitchen Looking South:
New Kitchen Looking South (from a slightly different angle):
Old Kitchen Looking North:
New Kitchen Looking North:
The door on the left is a our newly located entrance door. And the door on the right is the entrance to the new bathroom:
More new kitchen photos:
AND yesterday I baked what may well be the world's best tater tot casserole. I wanted to bring a tater tot casserole to a friend's classy thanksgiving potluck dinner for a little irony, but I also wanted to make it taste fancy. So here's the recipe I made up:
Ingredients:
One whole bunch of fresh garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of water
a little bit of thyme (fresh or dried)
Gourmet Frozen Tater Tots (two small bags or one large)
1 lb ground Bison
bundle of fresh asparagus (cut into 2"-3" chunks)
1/2 stick of butter (4 tablespoons)
large block of blue cheese sliced into good-sized hunks (don't skimp!)
can of high-quality cream of mushroom soup (don't buy the cheap watery stuff, I recommend Amy's brand)
1/2 can soy milk (or regular milk)
Step 1: Roast Garlic
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Peel off all the papery stuff from the garlic but leave the entire bunch attached together. Put the garlic on a sheet of aluminum foil, brush it generously with olive oil, and sprinkle it with thyme. Wrap the garlic in the foil, but before you seal it up, drip some water in into the package. Bake for 35 -45 minutes, until the garlic is soft and smushy. Let it cool a bit, and then rip the cloves apart and squeeze the mushy garlic into a bowl and mash it up with a fork. Set aside. (I learned this from the book "A New Way to Cook" by Sally Schneider.)
Step 2: Brown Ground Bison.
Brown the the ground bison in a large pan on the stove top over medium-high heat. When its mostly done add the butter and garlic mash to the bison and cook until well done, and until most of the watery liquid has evaporated. There will be buttery liquid left -thats good.
Step 3: Assemble Casserole
Mix the entire can of soup with half a can of milk, set aside. In a 2-quart baking dish dump half of the bison/garlic/butter mixture into the dish. Spread it around evenly. Place half of the asparagus pieces, evenly spaced, on top of the bison. Place half of the blue cheese hunks, evenly spaced, on top of the asparagus. Pour half of the soup milk mixture, evenly, over the bison/asparagus/cheese layers. Neatly arrange a snug layer of tater tots over all of this. Repeat the layering with the rest of the bison, asparagus, soup, and tater tots. The top layer is tater tots.
Step 4: Bake
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1.5 hours. (remove the foil for the last 10 -20 minutes of cooking) It's done when the liquid is bubbling and the middle is warm. I had trouble getting the middle of casserole warm in the oven so I had to pop it into the microwave for 4 -5 minutes after baking. That worked well.
Step 5: Eat the world's best tater tot casserole and send me your praises.
Old Kitchen Looking South:
New Kitchen Looking South (from a slightly different angle):
Old Kitchen Looking North:
New Kitchen Looking North:
The door on the left is a our newly located entrance door. And the door on the right is the entrance to the new bathroom:
More new kitchen photos:
AND yesterday I baked what may well be the world's best tater tot casserole. I wanted to bring a tater tot casserole to a friend's classy thanksgiving potluck dinner for a little irony, but I also wanted to make it taste fancy. So here's the recipe I made up:
Ingredients:
One whole bunch of fresh garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of water
a little bit of thyme (fresh or dried)
Gourmet Frozen Tater Tots (two small bags or one large)
1 lb ground Bison
bundle of fresh asparagus (cut into 2"-3" chunks)
1/2 stick of butter (4 tablespoons)
large block of blue cheese sliced into good-sized hunks (don't skimp!)
can of high-quality cream of mushroom soup (don't buy the cheap watery stuff, I recommend Amy's brand)
1/2 can soy milk (or regular milk)
Step 1: Roast Garlic
Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Peel off all the papery stuff from the garlic but leave the entire bunch attached together. Put the garlic on a sheet of aluminum foil, brush it generously with olive oil, and sprinkle it with thyme. Wrap the garlic in the foil, but before you seal it up, drip some water in into the package. Bake for 35 -45 minutes, until the garlic is soft and smushy. Let it cool a bit, and then rip the cloves apart and squeeze the mushy garlic into a bowl and mash it up with a fork. Set aside. (I learned this from the book "A New Way to Cook" by Sally Schneider.)
Step 2: Brown Ground Bison.
Brown the the ground bison in a large pan on the stove top over medium-high heat. When its mostly done add the butter and garlic mash to the bison and cook until well done, and until most of the watery liquid has evaporated. There will be buttery liquid left -thats good.
Step 3: Assemble Casserole
Mix the entire can of soup with half a can of milk, set aside. In a 2-quart baking dish dump half of the bison/garlic/butter mixture into the dish. Spread it around evenly. Place half of the asparagus pieces, evenly spaced, on top of the bison. Place half of the blue cheese hunks, evenly spaced, on top of the asparagus. Pour half of the soup milk mixture, evenly, over the bison/asparagus/cheese layers. Neatly arrange a snug layer of tater tots over all of this. Repeat the layering with the rest of the bison, asparagus, soup, and tater tots. The top layer is tater tots.
Step 4: Bake
Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake at 350 degrees for 1 to 1.5 hours. (remove the foil for the last 10 -20 minutes of cooking) It's done when the liquid is bubbling and the middle is warm. I had trouble getting the middle of casserole warm in the oven so I had to pop it into the microwave for 4 -5 minutes after baking. That worked well.
Step 5: Eat the world's best tater tot casserole and send me your praises.
How's your Civics knowledge? You can take a simple test from the Intercollegiate Studies Institute to gauge some of your know-how. The results of the test may be surprising. Americans had an average of 49 percent, while elected officials scored five points lower, at 44 percent.
Throughout the campaigns for and against California's execrable Proposition Eight, faithful HP! reader FearlessLeader compiled the crème of supporters' virulent, idiotic, and unintentionally hilarious statements on her blog Fundamentally Flawed. There was little I could add. But now that the briefing is underway in the California Supreme Court challenge, I must bring your attention to this amicus curiae submission filed by one "D.Q. Mariette Do-Nguyen, Heiress of the Almighty Eternal Creator."Although not an attorney, Ms. Do-Nguyen has done a respectable job of formatting her brief in accordance with typical appellate practice. The Brief begins with the required statement of amicus' interest in the matter: Ms. Do-Nguyen explains that she is "[a]cting on behalf of the Almighty Eternal Creator, who is holding sole ownership to His creations, all planets, including the earth and everything above, below and on it, myself as His heiress...."
Do-Nguyen then provides a Statement of Facts, which informs the court that
Through elections and appointments, Global government leaders and officials are selected by the Almighty Eternal Creator to serve the people.... Without any exception, all human souls are created by the Almighty Eternal Creator! All souls arrive at the time of conception. The power of human souls works through male sperm and female eggs to form human physical bodies!... Earth is a copy of Heaven and this means all things must exist in the spiritual realm before coming down to earth, such as the three branches of global government: the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. These three branches must have rules and regulations that must pass by an executive of the Almighty Creator’s laws.The Statement of Facts goes on to explain that the A.E.C. forbids gay marriage because he has "ordered human souls to be fertile and multiply, fill the earth with human natural bodies!" (For similar reasons, the A.E.C. also takes a dim view of in vitro fertilization and abortion.)
Do-Nguyen transitions to an Argument, in which she explains that the courts of California do not have the authority to reverse the A.E.C.'s ban on gay marriage. She illustrates her contention with the following example:
Example: If an individual attempts to assassinate the State of California's Governor or the United States President, and the person got caught, surely the person would be charged with attempted murder of the State of California's Governor or the President of the United States, and jurors would sentence him to prison without parole or to capital punishment in accordance with established laws.At this point, Do-Nguyen departs from orthodox formatting to include a section entitled "Consequences After Each and All Actions." Here she explains the genesis of her decision to submit an Amicus brief:
After a night full of dreams, before dawn of November 11, 2008, before I woke up in the morning, the Almighty Eternal Creator ordered me, saying, "You explain to them the consequences that follow each and all actions. Once they understand, they will listen!"... [T]he Almighty Eternal Creator instructed me to explain the consequences in writing and file with the California Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court, as well as the United States Federal court regarding certain individuals and government agencies for each and all actions. He seriously emphasized that world government leaders and high-ranking officials are like religious leaders and officials, and they must assist each other to comply with the Laws of the Almighty Eternal Creator/sole Owner of the earth and human race.In particular, Ms. Do-Nguyen appears to be concerned with "the consequences" of "people exercising their free-will rights for wrong purposes." These incorrect exercises of free will include not only homosexuality and abortion, but also the war in Iraq, Eliot Spitzer's interstate transportation of a prostitute, the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, the U.S. Supreme Court's establishment clause jurisprudence, and an ongoing plot by George Bush and the CIA to "rob monies from innocent people after intercepting the telex transfer."
The negative "consequences" of these actions include the present financial crisis, Bill Clinton's coronary artery bypass surgery, an unspecified illness suffered by Sandra Day O'Connor, and global warming.
Do-Nguyen returns to traditional format with a Conclusion, in which she urges the Justices to uphold Proposition Eight, thereby rendering their souls eligible to "receive an energy supply directly from the Creator." (By contrast, striking down the Proposition would result in receipt of "an energy supply 'indirectly' from God, through a destructive channel known as the Devil or Satan.")
When she is finished, Do-Nguyen further complies with the rules by attaching a Certificate of Service listing all parties and their attorneys, and affirming that she has mailed a true copy of her brief to each. She also includes the following language, which I intend to incorporate into all my future Certificates of Service:
I declare that I am, and was at the time of the service hereinafter mentioned, at least 18 years of age and not a party of the above-entitled action. I am an heiress to the Almighty Eternal Creator, and I am fully God and fully human. My natural business mailing address is 9450 Mira Mesa Blvd. B417. San Diego CA 92126.
© 2009. Visit Holy Prepuce! to read and post comments, to search archived posts by topic (e.g. Culture, Smut), and for "fair use" disclaimer regarding use of copyrighted works.
My son was born during finals week of my last semester of college. My husband's parents, my mom, and my grandma all traveled across the mountains to Missoula to greet my son when he was born. It was an exciting, unforgettable day. We moved back to Spokane two weeks later and I settled in as a stay at home mom. Eighteen months later, my daughter was born and we had another celebration at the hospital with all of the family. Even my son came in the middle of the night with Grandma to meet his new sister.
As a mom, I've experienced every emotion: love, fear, happiness, sadness, worry, pride...the list goes on. It's an indescribable feeling to realize that your baby is totally dependent on you. I was confident I could take care of my kids' physical needs. As they've gotten older if I have questions about parenting, I'll do some research and look for the best methods for my kids. If something doesn't work, I'll look for something that might. I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing for my kids....I did not want to screw them up:) It didn't take long to realize that nobody is a perfect parent. However, I promised myself I would do my best.
I know that many people turn to religion when they have children. But, I honestly don't know exactly why this is. Perhaps people who went to church when they were little feel that church is a requirement in childhood. Or maybe some people correlate church with a moral upbringing. I don't know what the feeling is because I never experienced it. In fact, I had quite the opposite experience.
My instinct was to shelter my children from church. Not because I had terrible church experiences when I was little, I didn't. I have fond memories of going to church on Sundays and seeing my friends. Rather, I wanted to shelter them from the ideas that church puts in young minds. Our belief system is right.....everybody else's belief system is wrong......you are a sinner.....if you are not saved by Jesus, god will torture you forever in hell. I wanted my kids to grow up to be tolerant of everyone....and church tends to do the opposite. As one Christian told me, "tolerance is bad".
By this time in my life, I didn't accept a literal translation of the Bible. I had learned enough to realize that many of the stories just didn't make sense logically or scientifically. I thought that maybe everybody in the world was worshipping the same god....we just didn't know it :) That allowed me to account for the different belief systems in the world, and in my mind it exonerated everyone from hell....except for the really bad people of course. This didn't quite add up though. If we all worshipped the same god, why were so many wars fought over religion? Why was everyone so hateful towards people who believed something different? Not to mention the many discrepancies one finds between different religions....if we all worshipped the same god, I think there'd be more similarities than differences.
Then, when my son was 9 months old to the day, we woke up to a phone call from my in-laws. They told us to turn on our TV. The United States was being attacked. I remember feeling numb that day. We had a doctor's appointment for my son and the lobby was silent. Everyone was focused on the TV. It turned out that some commercial planes had been hi-jacked and flown into the World Trade Center. The pilots were Muslims and thought that they were doing what god wanted them to do....they believed they would be rewarded in heaven.
Until that point, I don't think I realized how strongly people believe in other religions. These men truly believed that Allah wanted them to do this terrible thing. Their belief was so strong, that they died because of it. I recalled being told some time ago that this was one of the evidences for Christianity....the early martyrs would not have died for a false belief. Well, if that were true, did that make Islam true? They couldn't both be true because they had teachings that contradicted one another.
OK, well it was time to delve back into the research I had started in high school. After reading Josh McDowell's book, I had not dug deeper even though I had not been satisfied. I think I had been a little scared of what I would find when I was in high school. I just needed to decide where to start. I had two young kids and my time for reading adult literature was extremely limited....almost non-existent. Well, in every other situation, I would examine both sides of a story and see which side made sense and had evidence to back up the claims. If I had not been exposed to new religions, cultures and ideas, I may not have thought to do the research. But, I knew that there were many religions in the world and one's beliefs tend to be highly correlated with their location of birth.
Since I had been raised as a Christian, I knew what the basic beliefs of Christianity are. (I say basic beliefs because there are many different denominations and each has its differences.) So, I decided to look into why people did not believe in the Christian god. Luckily, we live in the age of the internet where information can be found at our fingertips. I quickly found The Secular Web and its library along with many other sites....some good, some not so good.
My first shock came when I found out that some people were not certain whether Jesus even existed! As my heart raced, I thought to myself that this was totally ridiculous, but then I looked at their arguments. The Jesus I had read about in the gospels had many followers...wouldn't there be some other record besides the gospels to account for his existence? Then the shocks kept coming....The gospels authors are not known? The gospels were written decades after Jesus' death....how could they be eyewitness accounts? Wait a second....there were other gods with stories similar to Jesus? There were other "miracle workers" in Jesus time? The more I learned, the more I was blown away. Nobody had told me this in Sunday school!
I read the arguments from the side of the non-believers and I understood why they didn't believe. So, then I needed to look at what Christians answers to these questions were. There had to be some good explanations, maybe some of the claims of these non-believers were not accurate. Surely, the Christian answer would include some good evidence. However, none of the rebuttals I found did that. OK, this was getting scary. My curiosity was overtaking me and I wanted to learn more....but the more I learned, the more my beliefs in god were fading away. Things that I had thought were proven truths....were nothing but stories.
I finally came to the conclusion that the best I could say was, "I don't know if any of it is true". This terrified me...I like to be in control and know exactly what is right and true. But, the evidence just wasn't there. Oh. My. God.(figuratively speaking :))!!!! What was I going to do? It seemed like everyone had a religion. I needed to find a religion to hold on to. I couldn't follow Islam or Mormonism because their stories seemed silly. Wait a second, every religion I looked at seemed silly. Of course, some seemed sillier than others, but I didn't find any that offered me anything that I couldn't have without religion.
Pause....do I needreligion? What would I be if I didn't have a religion? What box would I mark on the surveys when they ask for your religion? I had been marking the Christian box all my life....even when I stopped going to church and didn't believe in the literal Bible. My identity was falling apart....could I be an atheist? NO...I couldn't be!
I searched the term atheism for the first time. As I typed it, it felt like I was doing something wrong. Atheism had been ingrained in my brain as a bad word....those were bad people. Well, the only way to find out was to see what atheists had to say. And it turned out that the atheists I found, felt the same way I did about religion! They just didn't believe that any of the religions were true. They weren't Satan worshippers, they weren't claiming that there was absolutely no god....they just didn't believe in any of the gods that other people believe in. And it hit me.....I was an atheist! I couldn't put my finger on an exact moment when it had happened, but it had happened.
I was free!! Free from a stifling belief in a god who watches everything you do and listens to every thought in your head. I no longer needed to wonder what god's reason was for allowing things to happen in my life....it was just life. And life was so much more precious because it was the only one I'd have. Wow....what a feeling!
***Disclaimer****
Given that this is written in story form, it may seem that events occurred more closely together than they actually did. However, my searching did not take days or even months. This was a very long process because I wanted to look at all angles. I was searching for truth and that is not something that I take lightly. I continue to educate myself about these things today and read articles and books about all different religions. My mind has not been closed....it was opened when I began to consider that my religion may not be true.
As a mom, I've experienced every emotion: love, fear, happiness, sadness, worry, pride...the list goes on. It's an indescribable feeling to realize that your baby is totally dependent on you. I was confident I could take care of my kids' physical needs. As they've gotten older if I have questions about parenting, I'll do some research and look for the best methods for my kids. If something doesn't work, I'll look for something that might. I just wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing for my kids....I did not want to screw them up:) It didn't take long to realize that nobody is a perfect parent. However, I promised myself I would do my best.
I know that many people turn to religion when they have children. But, I honestly don't know exactly why this is. Perhaps people who went to church when they were little feel that church is a requirement in childhood. Or maybe some people correlate church with a moral upbringing. I don't know what the feeling is because I never experienced it. In fact, I had quite the opposite experience.
My instinct was to shelter my children from church. Not because I had terrible church experiences when I was little, I didn't. I have fond memories of going to church on Sundays and seeing my friends. Rather, I wanted to shelter them from the ideas that church puts in young minds. Our belief system is right.....everybody else's belief system is wrong......you are a sinner.....if you are not saved by Jesus, god will torture you forever in hell. I wanted my kids to grow up to be tolerant of everyone....and church tends to do the opposite. As one Christian told me, "tolerance is bad".
By this time in my life, I didn't accept a literal translation of the Bible. I had learned enough to realize that many of the stories just didn't make sense logically or scientifically. I thought that maybe everybody in the world was worshipping the same god....we just didn't know it :) That allowed me to account for the different belief systems in the world, and in my mind it exonerated everyone from hell....except for the really bad people of course. This didn't quite add up though. If we all worshipped the same god, why were so many wars fought over religion? Why was everyone so hateful towards people who believed something different? Not to mention the many discrepancies one finds between different religions....if we all worshipped the same god, I think there'd be more similarities than differences.
Then, when my son was 9 months old to the day, we woke up to a phone call from my in-laws. They told us to turn on our TV. The United States was being attacked. I remember feeling numb that day. We had a doctor's appointment for my son and the lobby was silent. Everyone was focused on the TV. It turned out that some commercial planes had been hi-jacked and flown into the World Trade Center. The pilots were Muslims and thought that they were doing what god wanted them to do....they believed they would be rewarded in heaven.
Until that point, I don't think I realized how strongly people believe in other religions. These men truly believed that Allah wanted them to do this terrible thing. Their belief was so strong, that they died because of it. I recalled being told some time ago that this was one of the evidences for Christianity....the early martyrs would not have died for a false belief. Well, if that were true, did that make Islam true? They couldn't both be true because they had teachings that contradicted one another.
OK, well it was time to delve back into the research I had started in high school. After reading Josh McDowell's book, I had not dug deeper even though I had not been satisfied. I think I had been a little scared of what I would find when I was in high school. I just needed to decide where to start. I had two young kids and my time for reading adult literature was extremely limited....almost non-existent. Well, in every other situation, I would examine both sides of a story and see which side made sense and had evidence to back up the claims. If I had not been exposed to new religions, cultures and ideas, I may not have thought to do the research. But, I knew that there were many religions in the world and one's beliefs tend to be highly correlated with their location of birth.
Since I had been raised as a Christian, I knew what the basic beliefs of Christianity are. (I say basic beliefs because there are many different denominations and each has its differences.) So, I decided to look into why people did not believe in the Christian god. Luckily, we live in the age of the internet where information can be found at our fingertips. I quickly found The Secular Web and its library along with many other sites....some good, some not so good.
My first shock came when I found out that some people were not certain whether Jesus even existed! As my heart raced, I thought to myself that this was totally ridiculous, but then I looked at their arguments. The Jesus I had read about in the gospels had many followers...wouldn't there be some other record besides the gospels to account for his existence? Then the shocks kept coming....The gospels authors are not known? The gospels were written decades after Jesus' death....how could they be eyewitness accounts? Wait a second....there were other gods with stories similar to Jesus? There were other "miracle workers" in Jesus time? The more I learned, the more I was blown away. Nobody had told me this in Sunday school!
I read the arguments from the side of the non-believers and I understood why they didn't believe. So, then I needed to look at what Christians answers to these questions were. There had to be some good explanations, maybe some of the claims of these non-believers were not accurate. Surely, the Christian answer would include some good evidence. However, none of the rebuttals I found did that. OK, this was getting scary. My curiosity was overtaking me and I wanted to learn more....but the more I learned, the more my beliefs in god were fading away. Things that I had thought were proven truths....were nothing but stories.
I finally came to the conclusion that the best I could say was, "I don't know if any of it is true". This terrified me...I like to be in control and know exactly what is right and true. But, the evidence just wasn't there. Oh. My. God.(figuratively speaking :))!!!! What was I going to do? It seemed like everyone had a religion. I needed to find a religion to hold on to. I couldn't follow Islam or Mormonism because their stories seemed silly. Wait a second, every religion I looked at seemed silly. Of course, some seemed sillier than others, but I didn't find any that offered me anything that I couldn't have without religion.
Pause....do I needreligion? What would I be if I didn't have a religion? What box would I mark on the surveys when they ask for your religion? I had been marking the Christian box all my life....even when I stopped going to church and didn't believe in the literal Bible. My identity was falling apart....could I be an atheist? NO...I couldn't be!
I searched the term atheism for the first time. As I typed it, it felt like I was doing something wrong. Atheism had been ingrained in my brain as a bad word....those were bad people. Well, the only way to find out was to see what atheists had to say. And it turned out that the atheists I found, felt the same way I did about religion! They just didn't believe that any of the religions were true. They weren't Satan worshippers, they weren't claiming that there was absolutely no god....they just didn't believe in any of the gods that other people believe in. And it hit me.....I was an atheist! I couldn't put my finger on an exact moment when it had happened, but it had happened.
I was free!! Free from a stifling belief in a god who watches everything you do and listens to every thought in your head. I no longer needed to wonder what god's reason was for allowing things to happen in my life....it was just life. And life was so much more precious because it was the only one I'd have. Wow....what a feeling!
***Disclaimer****
Given that this is written in story form, it may seem that events occurred more closely together than they actually did. However, my searching did not take days or even months. This was a very long process because I wanted to look at all angles. I was searching for truth and that is not something that I take lightly. I continue to educate myself about these things today and read articles and books about all different religions. My mind has not been closed....it was opened when I began to consider that my religion may not be true.
I thought I was a hard core vegetarian. I gave up jello and twizzlers, and try to be conscious about buying leather. I was living in happy ignorance about dairy products, when someone opened their mouth about rennet, and now cheese is ruined for me. Rennet is an enzyme derived from calve stomach that curdles the cheese. Granted the amount of rennet in cheese is very small ( 1 kg of rennet extract there are about 0.7 grams of active enzymes) but I can't forget that it is still there. The good news is there are vegetarian cheeses, made without animal rennet, mostly organic and kosher cheeses, but those are expensive. I don't know any restaurant that uses vegetarian cheese. I can also pretty much say good-bye to all pizza chains as well. Giving up cheese will be a gradual process, one of withdrawals and relapses. Cheese and I have known each other for a long long time. We all know how hard it is to say good-bye to an old friend, even if that friend is made from slaughtered calf stomach.
Some alleged humanists have been whining that "agnostics, atheists, and other types of nontheists" feel "a little alone" during "the holiday." Why? "Because of its association with traditional religion." (Read this dumb story, if you don't believe me.)
Duh. It's fucking Christmas. It's not "associated" with traditional religion, it's a holiday rooted in religion. That holds true whether one celebrates Christ's birth, the coming of Mithra, a visit from a fat saint, the barbaric Maccabees' victory over civilized Hellenistic culture, the hedonistic pleasures of Saturn's rule, or the rebirth of the sun. Religion, religion, religion. Accept it, you numnuts.
In any case, most of the atheists I know don't need any excuse for having a damned good time. So I'm jumping the gun a little on Christmas to prove my point.
The following pictures can be combined, in groups of three, to form the names of eight characters whom we'll either hear from or about this Yuletide. The images are scattered around. Your job is to figure out which ones go with which. Some of the combinations are straightforward. For example: a picture of (1) a knee, (2) Tim Russert, and (3) a necktie could be combined to form: tie+knee+Tim = Tiny Tim. Other combinations require both your indulgence and your ability to hear yourself as you read aloud. For example: A picture of (1) a gull, (2) a can of Crisco, and (3) a wedding band could be combined to form Crisco+ring+gull = Criscoringull = Kris Kringle.
Please do NOT put your answers in a comment. Send them to me via email. Show your work. Anyone identifying six or more of the clued personae will get an honorable mention. That ought to make you feel less alone, huh?
[Honorable Mentions:
The team of Oobie Doobies - Ubi Dubium & Ubi Dubius (8 correct)
Laurie (8 correct)]
Duh. It's fucking Christmas. It's not "associated" with traditional religion, it's a holiday rooted in religion. That holds true whether one celebrates Christ's birth, the coming of Mithra, a visit from a fat saint, the barbaric Maccabees' victory over civilized Hellenistic culture, the hedonistic pleasures of Saturn's rule, or the rebirth of the sun. Religion, religion, religion. Accept it, you numnuts.
In any case, most of the atheists I know don't need any excuse for having a damned good time. So I'm jumping the gun a little on Christmas to prove my point.
The following pictures can be combined, in groups of three, to form the names of eight characters whom we'll either hear from or about this Yuletide. The images are scattered around. Your job is to figure out which ones go with which. Some of the combinations are straightforward. For example: a picture of (1) a knee, (2) Tim Russert, and (3) a necktie could be combined to form: tie+knee+Tim = Tiny Tim. Other combinations require both your indulgence and your ability to hear yourself as you read aloud. For example: A picture of (1) a gull, (2) a can of Crisco, and (3) a wedding band could be combined to form Crisco+ring+gull = Criscoringull = Kris Kringle.
Please do NOT put your answers in a comment. Send them to me via email. Show your work. Anyone identifying six or more of the clued personae will get an honorable mention. That ought to make you feel less alone, huh?
[Honorable Mentions:
The team of Oobie Doobies - Ubi Dubium & Ubi Dubius (8 correct)
Laurie (8 correct)]
Someone from Houston, Textas found my website by googling for "carribean explosion disproves evolution". I don’t think there’s any explosion in the Carribean islands that can prove that "descent with modification" is false. On the other hand, the Cambrian Explosion does not disprove evolution; it’s a falsehood trumpeted by both Young Earth Creationists and Intelligent Design Creationists. A big tent argument, if you will.
Um....
BWAHAHAHHAHAHAAAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH!!!
P2 was telling me about a discussion in his social studies class. They were discussing the impact of global warming on farmers, especially in historically agrarian cultures. The teacher was sharing that ocean levels in India had risen and the global temperature change had resulted in changes to the cycle of cyclones (or something). I guess this boy put his hand up to argue that global warming wasn't real. The teacher, allegedly, told him that there were people who would agree with the boy's theory, but that he would like to know why the boy felt global warming was nonfactual. P2 says the boy said, the ocean rose because the "Christmas Tsunami" in 2004 pulled so much debris into the water that it was "like dumping boulders in your pool and blaming the spill over on global warming".
*I'll pause while you consider this.
The teacher tried explaining the size of the ocean and the flaws in the boys theory. Boy got angry with teacher. Teacher said that he would like to see where the boy got this information/idea from so that he can read-up on it. Boy tells him that people in Noah's time thought their flood was from global warming, too...or so says the boy's minister.
This is why rational people don't take creation science seriously.
Planet Atheism buttons
FAQ (includes joining info)
RSS feed
Email subscription
