The Ebolaworld Happy Fun Blog Comment Post Page
i refreshed the page and a new blog thing plooped up! wow i jsut witnessed sam updating in real time.
And I get second! Yay!
after watching al gore's speach i feel more patriotic than i ever have-- and the real patriotism, not the bush patriotism that is only fascism. i think that if this was televised on the big stations and that people that were to closed minded to take all this in just listened, well there'd be a revolution. that speach blows the whistle on the bush administration scandal of 2000-???? much like my below article blows the whistle on christianity by naming loop holes and contradictions combined with text to get inside a christian's heart and brain and make them think, resulting in an article that has actually turned two religious friends of mine atheists! sam if u ever read anything i say i'd like you to read this. this was posted on my xanga site btw, so the beginning is talking about something happening locally... http://www.xanga.com/nick_mcd
Hey everyone! I was reading in the paper that Intelligent Design could be coming over to the philadelphian area, and it really pissed me off because that's straight up people pushing their religion on others. It will be taught along with Darwinism, to confuse shit up even more. If you've lost interest already, go away bitch, because this is where McD shows off his smart side. Anyway I read this in the Yahoo news headlines
On Thursday this week, more than two-hundred students from Hazelwood West High School started the beginning of a one week long protest against a new study within the curriculum, called Intelligent Design (ID).
Intelligent design holds that some biological aspects of life are so complex that they could not have evolved randomly, but rather, must have been produced by an unidentified intelligent cause, or designer. Intelligent Design does not specifically aim towards teaching that the Christian God is the creator they speak of, although Christians are the ones pushing this type of teaching. Mark Reynolds, head of the school's Intelligent Design program and also a science teacher himself said in an interview with The New York Times,
"It was all on their own, this small group of students organized a one week long class ditch that has spread throughout the school. Although I certainly don’t approve of this in any way, I do feel a sense of pride in my students for standing up for what they believe in, whether their views are matching to those atheists’ pessimistic views or not. I for one support Intelligent Design and I believe that God will help us spread the Christian way through any measures, from the gunfire going off in Iraq and the powerful words spoken from a priest" Later commenting "The administration has yet to meet to make a decision on the reaction, but I can say that the students involved will nowhere near be left unpunished."
Some students are planning on speaking out against the teachings by marching around a local church, holding signs of protest expressing their views on separation of church and state. One student claimed "Th
(continued) ...One student claimed "They’re pressing their views on us even on our own ground, we're being forced to take this because it is the law to go to school. We’re going to their place of worship and we’re shoving it right in their faces. You should see how powerful it is to unite like this and to fight the other side instead of just letting it happen and letting people force views on us in our most trusted place of true knowledge, schools."
Okay I like the part about atheists being pessimistic, figures it was a teacher, fucking basterd. I am more postive than so many people that believe in god, and I dont like being labeled an atheist. It sounds almost like my religion is to not believe in anything, almost like I worship not worshipping. It's almost like I'm evil. This is funny that I'm considered an atheist when do believe in something. I believe in peace and kindness between all people. I hate the hatred everyone has for each other, just on the street, just the disrespect we show to people we don't even know. I believe in fairness towards all types, a love for the planet that in which we eat off of, breathe off of, and love off of. It's almost like we're not part of the planet, but the planet is part of us, or actually all of us. Everything from the planet is us. Our very material is comprised only of what we have right here. We are the cells on the living, breathing organism called the surface of Earth. How dare anyone tell me I'm pessimistic. I'll shoot you.
Anyway when I heard about the whole intelligent designs study coming to our area, the whole threat of people putting a science class that's based only on the faith that we were created by some invisible dude who can't admit he's real (personal problem?) And this dude in space who was created by no one (how is that possible, by the way? It's like a paradox or something, if everything is so complex that it had to be created by a being, than you're quite obviously saying something even more complex created that being--unless of course just by chance this complex being popped out in the beginning of time for no reason. I decided to write this to all the Christians out there pushing this Intelligent Design. I'm pushing beliefs back, but I have a lot more sense behind my ideas.
The letter below is not meant towards any of my Christian friends because most of them are open about talking about the possibilies of everything, like alex, and most of my other friends are cool about shit like this anyway, I just don't want you to get pissed off over this or take it personally. My grandparents are hardcore Christians but that doesn't change anything, I love them with all my heart even though I don't believe in a God. Heh, maybe "atheists" are not so bad, they love their grandparents. BUT, to the rest of you... this letter disses those hardcore close-their-ears-and-say-blah-blah when you try and explain the possibilites to them (roger moore.) It
It's also for the religious folk I don't like the most, those fucking stupid ass people that say things like "Eternity is a long time to be wrong!" Don't people realise that is the catch, the trick that nabs them into fearing err umm worshipping god? Anyway that's the kind of shit I talk about in here. I wrote this in true sincerety and so it might sound harsh.
When I go to school, I want to learn real things that have evidence behind them, that have not been disproved through something so simple as carbon dating or common sense. Intelligen Design teaches just that, things disproved by common sense. Religion was a thing of the past when we really didn’t know anything about life, people have to drop it. Unfortunately a lot Christians are taught from early childhood and are continually brainwashed throughout their lives and it is very hard to get the idea out of their heads. I think it’s unfair that the Christians are pushing their views on us like this though, disguising it as ‘Intelligent Design,’ so I will push my views back on them. I believe that religion is the root of all evil in this country, and without it people would be living for today instead of for an afterlife (you see how this could make the world live in more unity?) and if I could talk to all those hard headed Christians out there I'd say this... And before I write it I'd like to say that this could also go towards any other religion with the same sort of heaven/hell concepts.
I'd say, "Attention to all fanatical Christians out there, for just a minute lose your blind faith, for just one minute, open your mind to what is reality, and not what others tell you, and not to what others want you to believe without asking questions or having proof of it, for just one minute stop being stubborn because others told you to be stubborn and simply listen to me."
"The fact that you will let the government push you around and do whatever it wants to do as long as the guy in charge said ‘God told me to’ should be alarming to you. Think about it, anyone can say they are Christian, and why wouldn’t they if they’re trying to sell a war that only is going to cause them financial gain. I consider human lives for our president’s and administrations money extremely sick. I'm sure you know about Haliburton and Iraq having more oil than Canada, the U.S. and Mexico combined so I won't go into that."
"I find it ridiculous you’d spend your whole life on this one religion when there are infinite possibilities of what life really means. I find it ridiculous that even when you realize that Christianity makes people obedient, sets people inline with their leaders, and makes people cling onto it for comfort out of their fear of the unknown that you’d still believe that people aren’t using this as a tool for control. Truly you do not believe whatever religion your parents picked is instantly the true one forever? I mean, if your parents were Jewish and all you ever heard,
(continued) I mean, if your parents were Jewish and all you ever heard, saw, and were told about was surrounding the jewish religion, wouldn’t you believe in that, and according to your current religion of Christianity wouldn’t that make you go to hell, being jewsih, even though you were a truly good person who was just convinced differently? Can god, the most understanding and gentle being in all the universe, set such a punishment on people that didn’t know there was something else they were supposed to be doing? Truly you do not believe that god lets retards from room 101 go to hell for their sins even though they can never understand better? "
"If you believe in God than you have to also believe that the dozens of solid proof examples we have right now to disprove this God are actually the creations of Him! God created living proof, dead-on examples that he is non-existent, am I not correct? And then you turn around and say god want’s us to believe in him? Do you really think life is too complex that it had to be made by someone, shouldn’t it be the opposite, that life is really too complex to be made by someone?"
"But my biggest wonder is that if someone told you that you have to have blind faith to go to heaven, keyword blind, so that all of this actual sense that I am telling you right now is to be ignored, why wouldn’t that set off a little bell in your head, like an alarm, saying ‘Hey, maybe this so-called priest guy is not right, maybe, just maybe, the things that make sense, the things that are clear as day, that are direct and in my face, are real. Maybe what’s real in my life is what is really actually reality,’ and just think that if you ever start to feel uncomfortable feelings associated with death and the point of life, just remember this: The point of life does not have to lead up to something. The point of things are exactly what they are, the point of random laughter and joy is exactly that, the beauty of it all may rush to you. But of course this can be rejected by you just as easily, just keep in mind that it’s your choice, not mine, and not the priests. Most certainly not the priest's, who you were forced to listen to from as early as you could remember.
I hope this opened some minds.
I found a really good quote that can add even more to this whole "making sense" thing.
"Humans need to lighten up! Their gods and religions are dreary, humorless, wrathful, intolerant, oppressive and generally unpleasant. There is no love, no joy, no fun! Humans are under the dominion of ideologies that are slowly but surely killing them. They need to release them and be free! No one is going to punish them for enjoying life, and there is no point to living if they can't enjoy it. No good god person wants to see people stumbling around in dread seriousness, doing cockamamie rituals and constantly beating up themselves and others. Life is a joke. There is no purpose, so everyone is free to create his or her own, making
making it as amusing, joyous and scrupulous as possible." © 2006 Acharya S.
Anyway there you go. The song below describes my "religion" nowadays. I'm like a fucking hippy.
I'd like to be a fucking hippy.
And by that I mean I'd like to be a hippy, just having sex.
Imagine
Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...
Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
Holy crap! Can't you control yourself The_Zatheist (nickmcdoz new na. Way too long. Anyway, I have a good documentary for you Sam: FRONTLINE by PBS is about contractors in Iraq. Basically it shows that the Army is outsourcing its job to Halliburton. The main goal of the Bush administration is to make sure that as much money as possible goes to stupid white men. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/fr.../warriors/view/
Haha yeah. I can see it now...Fox actually covering real fair balanced news....that will be the day.
z_athiest, on your little intelligent design rant, we already had a discussion on this a while ago. tis bullshit.
http://www.ebolaworld.com/blog/2...n-
grand_06.html
enjoy.
baxshtor, if you're out there somewhere, COME BACK TO THE 800 THREAD!!! PLEASE!!!
http://www.haloscan.com/comments...86423479727835/
Oh, God, he isn't coming back, is he??? IS HE!!????
Zatheist,
What's the matter, kiddo? Got a case of literary diarrhea? Try Imodium's fast acting relief. 
This is classic:
"Attention to all fanatical Christians out there, for just a minute lose your blind faith, for just one minute, open your mind to what is reality, and not what others tell you, and not to what others want you to believe without asking questions or having proof of it, for just one minute stop being stubborn because others told you to be stubborn and simply listen to me."
--So what you're saying is that all the christians should stop listening to 2 millenia of church tradition, the collective theological knowledge of their ancestors, and the "wisdom of the ages" and they should listen to you (a 15 yr. old kid) instead? Next you'll be saying we shouldn't study the ancient philosophers because they're outdated as well?
Forget the Pythagorean Theorum (which came around 500 b.c.e.) - they didn't know anything back then....
cheers,
lets see here.... A squared + B squared = c squared... yep, only a retard would use letters in formulas...
i forgot what what cosine is again.
I would do this: a²+b²=c².
daniel: BCE is stupid.
Daniel: you can prove for yourself that a²+b²=c². You don't need blind faith to believe in it, it's right there! All you need is a triangle and a ruler.
People believed for THOUSANDS OF YEARS that the Earth was flat. They believed for thousands of years that everything was made up of fire, earth, water and air.
Are you saying that they were right, just because their beliefs were based on what some famous philosopers thought?
"--So what you're saying is that all the christians should stop listening to 2 millenia of church tradition, the collective theological knowledge of their ancestors, and the "wisdom of the ages" and they should listen to you (a 15 yr. old kid) instead? Next you'll be saying we shouldn't study the ancient philosophers because they're outdated as well?"
I would say exactly that. That 15-year-old kid represents newfound evidence that those philosophers who lived thousands of years ago did not have. The message is far more important than the messenger. We need to study our philosophers, for history's sake, but we should not be deceived into believing that they were correct on everything just because they were so highly revered back then. The world moves forward, we should move with it.
P.S. To SamT and anyone else interested, I highly recommend "The Corporation" - it's a mindblowing, very well-researched recent film. You can see the trailer over here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/
in...orporation.html
Oh, I should add: Even though they interview Michael Moore in the trailer, it doesn't have any connection with him apart from that, so don't avoid watching it simply because you don't like Michael Moore. It's won a lot of international awards, and it's rated 8.4/10 on IMDB by 3500 votes:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0379225/
Worth watching. 
ESN,
True. You can prove Pythagorus correct on your own. However, how many people do? Everyone accepts a lot of information on blind faith in their sources. After all, one lifetime is not long enough to prove the entire extent of human knowledge on one's own, is it?
If the 15 yr. old represents new evidence, than how do you define the point at which evidence becomes old and outdated? Must we only believe the thoughts of the latest generation? Can we listen to 2 - 3 - or 4 generations in the past?
I've found that the younger a person is, the more likely they are to value their own opinion over the opinion of history. With experience comes wisdom.
We should absolutely engage ourselves with new evidence. However, in matters of the Arts, Philosophy and Theology, we must look to the expanses of History to truly gain an understanding of our current world.
take care,
ps. The world doesn't move forward, it moves round in circles
how do you do exponents on a computer?
last one was from me.
I think theres a button on MS word that lets you do "superscript". There you can write exponents.
ah.
"I've found that the younger a person is, the more likely they are to value their own opinion over the opinion of history."
Except... opinions are not facts. The pythagorian theorem is a fact - it works. Things like art, theology and philosophy are mostly based on opinions - they are (mostly) ways of looking at the world. What is considered good "art" has changed substantially over the years - it's an opinion. Much of the appeal of theology is that it tells you how to live your life - IMO a theology is mostly a set of philosophies with some stories added on to give them credibility (the moral code is the more important part, though, right?). And philosophies, of course, are opinions.
On the other hand, facts are things which are true whether you believe in them or not - opinions are true only for yourself (and whoever shares your opinion).
There's need for both in every person's life, but the trick is that while an opinion that someone holds is NEVER wrong, a FACT that someone believes in can be wrong (when I say "wrong" I mean that in the "incorrect" sense, not in the "evil" sense). For something to classify as a potentially true fact it must be falsifiable. People who don't realize that (like the idiotic ID folks) don't deserve to be listened to, at least as far as facts are concerned.
/Sorry for the rant.
//The universe runs on facts, but human beings run on opinions - those opinions also run on facts (the facts being the interactions between your brain cells). Depressing? Realism always is. I don't think humans were really cut out for complete self-awareness - they don't know what's going on in their own bodies 99% of the time.
ESN,
That's all well and good; but you still haven't answered my questions.
I also find this: "The universe runs on facts, but human beings run on opinions" a fairly amusing statement.
Think about it--how can you possibly know what the entire universe runs on if you are a human being running on opinions? You're tiptoing on the edge of a fairly common theme I hear from this generation -- that being: "There is no objective truth only perceptions of the truth." which often leads to the conclusion "all perceptions of the truth hold equal value". Of course, the extent of this generation's philosophical training generally begins and ends at The Matrix trilogy.... *sigh*
daniel, ok, I'll try:
After all, one lifetime is not long enough to prove the entire extent of human knowledge on one's own, is it?
No, and I'll admit that some things that I don't have much interest in I'll sometimes just cede to someone (supposedly) more knowledgeable. I try not to do it too often, though, because it can be dangerous - I always try to double-check what someone says if it suddenly turns out that I'm relying on their info for something. Like with my grocery bill, for example - it seems to be wrong about a third of the time, but I only started noticing this when I started checking. It's the same thing for philosophies - if I'm going to base an important life philosophy on something that someone said, I figure it's best to check the accuracy of their sources. Many people don't think that their life philosophy is important, though, so they don't bother to check the sources.
If the 15 yr. old represents new evidence, than how do you define the point at which evidence becomes old and outdated?
When I said "new" I meant "recently discovered". Obviously evidence never becomes "outdated" unless even more accurate evidence is found, in which case it becomes redundant.
Think about it--how can you possibly know what the entire universe runs on if you are a human being running on opinions?
The "Matrix" thing, huh? *sigh*
Look, I simply think that it's pointless to think things like "what if I'm actually insane and I don't know it? Insane people don't know that they're insane, right?"
It's bloody stupid. Here, how about this one: "What if the devil created all of your memories before yesterday and you are living the wrong faith without knowing it?"
See, it's useless and leads us nowhere. I live based on my memories, and if they're "wrong" then so be it. I'll deal with that problem if I discover that it's true - if there's no evidence to suggest it, then what's the point of driving yourself insane over it? I assume that the universe runs on what I think it runs until I'm proven otherwise.
SLOW-MO SUPER ACTION THING!!!!!!
Thanks for "The Corporation" clip, ESN!
Esn,
Thanks for clarifying!
What I hear from this generation is more than just a little doubt about reality. It's generally a heart-felt belief that there is NO reality outside their own heads. It's like X-TREME relativism. I don't know if you've encountered this. They believe their own mind creates reality and therefore if they change their fundamental beliefs in the nature of reality, reality will change to match their beliefs. I call this, "wish upon a star" syndrome ... this kind of thinking not only puts the "fun" back into fundamentalist christian; but, I've also seen it affecting people from all walks of life and all beliefs. It's almost like mass schizophrenia ... I suppose that makes sense considering our mass paranoia....
Until I started debating here, I thought my firm belief in objective reality was based on my belief in an objective, tangible God. I'm learning that this belief is actually rooted in my scientific background - a belief in a structured, rational universe that can be quantified to some degree - and that this belief walks hand in hand with my belief in a rational God ... again, a Wesleyan Arminian background. Rational faith for rational people?
I'm still not sure that the rules of the entire universe can be assumed from the tests we run on this tiny speck of dust called Earth. How can we know that we are the rule and not the exception? After all, matter is the exception to the rule in space. It is such an exception that it literally bends space and time (in the form of gravity).
--anyway, sorry for the stream of consciousness writing.
hehehe....big words.....
last from me.
They believe their own mind creates reality and therefore if they change their fundamental beliefs in the nature of reality, reality will change to match their beliefs.
daniel, this reminds me of a certain quote:
“And Jesus said unto them… If he have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” (Mathew 17:20)
So... make of that what you will, I suppose.
In answer to your other question: Scientists assume that "the rules of the entire universe can be assumed from the tests we run on this tiny speck of dust called Earth" until they are given reason to believe otherwise. Much like I assume that the world works in the way that my small mind can observe until I'm given reason to believe otherwise.
...What else can you do? 
BTW, you may find this interesting:
http://www.the-brights.net/
I should also mention that you would've probably fitted right in within certain scientific circles of the centuries leading up to the 20th, when most scientists still professed a belief in God.
Have you read John Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" by any chance? It is amazing how many of the arguments that he debunks there are still used today by so many illogical people.
http://www.philosophypages.com/l...om/locke/
g0.htm
john locke was a dirty hypocrite. while trumpeting his strong support for religious tolerance, he hated catholics and athiests.
One can like the writings without liking the man who wrote them...
yea, i know. i was just pointing out the fact that he was a hypocrite(we're studying him in school).
Super page! waffen in amerika zelte shop dunlopillo matratze
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