Jan
16
Mano Singham has posted an interesting analysis of agnosticism and its difficulty finding an ideological home.
Jan
3
I would like to share my annual report from WordPress.com with everyone so that we can celebrate 96 posts and almost 18k views last year. Thanks everyone!!
A friend of mine has asked me to present the argument against agnosticism and I know I have typed this many times in debates but I haven’t put it up on this page so here is my view on agnosticism and agnostics in general. My basic response is aren’t we all Agnostics?
Gnosticism (when not referring to the 2nd century Christian movement) refers to Esoteric knowledge (Gnosis).
According to the Oxford English Dictionary
gnosis
Pronunciation:/ˈnəʊsɪs/noun
[mass noun] knowledge of spiritual mysteries.
Hence if you are Gnostic you have knowledge of spiritual mysteries. The next question is what is knowledge?
knowledge
Pronunciation:/ˈnɒlɪdʒ/
noun
[mass noun]
- 1facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject:a thirst for knowledgeher considerable knowledge of antiques
- the sum of what is known:the transmission of knowledge
- information held on a computer system
- Philosophy true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion.
So Knowledge is “facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education”, facts, information, and skills are all verifiable and differ from opinion. So to be a Gnostic you must have facts and verifiable information about spiritual mysteries. Belief or opinion will not give you facts no matter how hard you believe it. Since there are no facts or verifiable information about spiritual mysteries (and there isn’t any hard evidence that there are spiritual mysteries or even a spirit) everyone is not-Gnostic or in the Greek “Agnostic”.
However, what my friend was talking about was agnosticism as a position in the God debate. As I have shown everyone is Agnostic as to the point of being meaningless, such as trying to point out that (to my knowledge) everyone involved in the God debate is a human.
So we turn our attention to the question of Theism.
theism
Pronunciation:/ˈθiːɪz(ə)m/
noun
[mass noun] belief in the existence of a god or gods, specifically of a creator who intervenes in the universe:
(Note: Oxford Dictionary defines Deism as not-Theism, this will be important in a minute)
To be a Theist you must actively believe in one or more God(s) that take an active hand in the universe and are credited with creating the universe. So if you don’t actively believe in a interfering creator God(s) then you are a not-Theist or an Atheist.
So anyone that declares themselves to be agnostic is correct but what they really mean is that they are a soft atheist as they don’t actively believe in God(s). It is interesting to imagine our Deist brethren in the debate as well (and the pantheist and panentheists) since they believe in a creator God(s) but in their belief God(s) are non-interferring, under the strictest of definitions of theism then Deists/Pantheists/Panentheists all belong in the category not-Theist (Atheist), but even using a lose definition of Theism in that only belief of a creator God(s) is required the self-proclaimed agnostics don’t actively believe in God(s) and are therefore Atheists.
Oct
20
So, Christians! Tomorrow is the big day, eh? The day you've all been awaiting eagerly for over 2000 years. The day Jesus finally keeps his promise and comes back to Earth.
But.
What if you’re wrong?
What if it’s NOT Jesus but some god from history, like Ra or Apollo?
What if it’s a god you’ve never heard of, say a god only believed in by a tribe of Amazonians or from a Papua-new Guinea mountain valley?
What if it’s a god from some other planet entirely in a far-off galaxy we’ve not discovered yet?
What if it’s a god no one anywhere in the universe knows about because it was too modest to make its existence known – until now; a god who detests religion and has come here looking for free-thinkers...?
Whatever will you say? How will you explain why you told everyone it was a false god and they shouldn’t believe in it? How will you explain telling other people that they’re going to be burned alive for not believing in the wrong god and how your god is going to come and kill everyone who disagrees with you?
I’ll bet you just WISH you had some evidence you could show it to explain yourself; to offer up as an excuse for misunderstanding it.
You see, that’s the problem being fooled into accepting what you’re told and swallowing the notion that ‘faith’ is a virtue so you shouldn’t question, just believe.
And you thought Pascal’s Wager was such a GOOD argument..!
Don’t worry too much though. Both you and I know it’s not going to happen don’t we? It’s just that I don’t mind other people knowing I’m an Atheist because I have the courage to think for myself and don’t mind if others disagree with me; I don’t feel I have to pretend to be conforming to something I suspect most people are just pretending to believe in too, because they’re also too afraid to be honest with themselves.
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Sep
8
Jerry Coyne has posted a rebuttal to critics responding to the mounting evidence that there was no literal Adam and Eve, thus no Original Sin and no need for salvation by Jesus.
Sep
8
Documentary Shows How WTC Cross Brought Hope After 9/11 tragedy Christian Post Despite an atheist organization's attempts at having one of the crosses banned from the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, the film's executive producer, Scott Perkins, hopes that the lawsuit will open up the door for more people to learn about ... Brian Kilmeade Attacks "Troublemaking" Atheists While Pimping Christian WTC ... |
Sep
8
Praying for Christopher Hitchens · Should Europe embrace the New Atheism? John Lennox v Christopher Hitchens · A bridge to nowhere: Wilson on New Atheism and morality · Douglas Groothuis Reviews Christopher ...
Sep
8
What we have here is ultra-piety-induced literary pareidolia.
Sep
8
Atheists to speak at 9/11 remembrance event in Harrisburg Examiner.com PA Nonbelievers -- a group of atheists, agnostics and humanists in Central Pennsylvania – has reserved time on the main steps of the Harrisburg state capitol in order to hold a “September 11 10th Anniversary Remembrance” event starting at 8:30 am on ... |
Sep
8
On Sunday night we were hanging out with some friends enjoying a combo playdate and dinner when the conversation turned to God. Charlie is reading a new book by a sober woman who discusses her non-God-related ...
Sep
8
MK Einat Wilf On Being Intermarried But Not Interfaith The Jewish Week (blog) Interestingly, she insists that her marriage is not interfaith, because she and her German husband share the same faith: atheism. Although I'm not atheist myself, as a very liberal agnostic, I wish American politicians could get away with this kind of ... |
Sep
8
Megyn Kelly Takes Atheist Activist To Task Over Ground Zero Cross Lawsuit. Sep 8th, 2011 by TMH. Hat Tip: BB. Read more at Mediaite� Share and Enjoy: Digg · Sphinn · del.icio.us · Facebook · Mixx · Google Bookmarks ...
Sep
8
 News Hounds | Megyn Kelly Carries "Ground Zero Cross" News Hounds She reported the backstory of how the cross was found in the WTC wreckage and how an atheist group is suing to keep it out of the partially taxpayer funded museum. In speaking with atheist group president David Silverman she noted that she respected ... |
Sep
8
ATHEISTS SAY THEY GET KUDOS FOR CHURCH BILLBOARD Bahamas Tribune AP AN OHIO atheist group says it has been commended by some people for a billboard put up by a church's pastor. The road sign in Mansfield features the statement "There is no God" in capital letters. Below that, it says, "Don't believe everything you ... |
Sep
8
(#pharyngula on irc.synirc.net) ScienceBlogs (blog) Antony Flew, "The Presumption of Atheism" God, Freedom, and Immortality, (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984), p. 51. More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula! Science is the litmus test on the validity of the ... |
Sep
8
Evangelist and best-selling author Jason Frenn counters an atheist group leader's claim that Christians' faith in God is irrational by saying that it is more reasonable and rational for a person to believe in a Creator than not. ...
Sep
8
I've listened to this hypocritical fool a few times (I mean, not that I listened to his advice and took it, but that I've heard him on his radio show).
Dave Ramsey stiffed his creditors legally, got back on his feet, and is now making a financial killing by selling rotten investment advice to poor people who do not know enough about investing to recognize that he has been faking his non-existent financial expertise for a decade.
Dave Ramsey is not to be trusted.-How Dave Ramsey Made $55 Million by Being Good on Personal Debt, Naive on Business Debt, Lousy on Investing, and a Loudmouth Bully
Sep
8
Here at Worldwide Wacko Watch, we're alternately working hard finding breaking news stories about the activity of the world's wingnuts and bringing them to your doorstep, and looking nervously out of the window, because it's still raining. Yesterday alone we got over five inches of rain. All of this precipitation is thanks to the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee. Lee seems to have looked down at the Finger Lakes, and thought, "Wow. This would be a nice place to retire." If it doesn't stop soon, I'm going to begin to think that the people in Kentucky who are building a scale model of Noah's Ark may have been right after all. And I hope you appreciate what it took out of me to write that sentence.
Be that as it may, we do have a few interesting bits of news to share with you, so we'll take a break from barricading our offices with sandbags to tell you about them.
First, we have a story from Wales, where an Anglican vicar has declared Wales to be "the most haunted place in the world." Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe, who is not only a clergyman but is a black belt in judo and rides a motorcycle, moved to Wales some years ago and began to investigate its alleged hauntings. He found lots, according to a recent interview in WalesOnline (here).
“I would say Wales has a disproportionate amount of incidents,” Rev. Fanthorpe said. “Welsh friends and Welsh mediums seem to have this highly-developed spiritual sense, a high intelligence and sensitivity – it’s a perceptiveness and degree of awareness that you don’t find in other parts of the UK. It may well be something inherent, something in the genes of Welsh people that carries this extra power and extra awareness with so many spiritual phenomena.”
He stopped just short of saying that there were genes in Irish people that allowed them to see leprechauns and genes in French people that made them obnoxious to tourists.
In any case, Rev. Fanthorpe has visited a variety of sites, including Roch Castle (supposedly haunted by King Charles II's mistress), Pembroke (where a Nessie-like creature has been seen offshore), and Skirrid Mountain (haunted by notorious Nazi Rudolf Hess).
Rev. Fanthorpe is not just doing all of this traveling about for his own entertainment; he's doing it for yours. Yes, he will be featured in a television show, the latest in the fine old tradition of Ghost Hunters, in which they make a lot of stir, strike dramatic poses, and then find nothing, week after week. This one, however, will be unique in that the principal investigator will be a man of the cloth. They did not mention the title for the proposed show, but I suggest "Holy Spirits."
Next, we have a report from Russia that one of their scientists has built a working time machine.
Pravda reports that Vadim Alexandrovitch Chernobrov, of the research institution Kosmopoisk, released a statement last week that he had successfully built a time machine using a "capsule surrounded by intense magnetic fields." The magnetic fields, Chernobrov said, "warped time," and two synchronized chronometers, one inside the capsule and one at some distance from the experimental site, went out of sync during the duration of the experiment.
Chernobrov stated that animals put inside the capsule "experienced serious to deadly effects," but this didn't stop him from conducting experiments on humans, who had no detrimental results other than "seeing colored circles, and experiencing some moderate arrhythmia."
Chernobrov is still exploring his results, and their potential applications. Physicists in other countries, however, are skeptical, and are currently trying to replicate the phenomenon, thus far unsuccessfully.
Chernobrov stated that he is willing to act in an advisory capacity to his colleagues in other labs. "If you can somehow harness the lightning," he said, "and channel it into the flux capacitor, it might just work!"
Next, we have an announcement that will be of great interest to Skeptophiliacs in Oklahoma: McGee Creek State Park, in Atoka, will be the host of the Great Oklahoma Cryptid Fest this Saturday. It will start at 1 PM and go until either they find Bigfoot or all get discouraged and go home, whichever happens first.
Featured guests will be Nick Redfern, of UFO conspiracy theory fame, and a host of "professionals" from the cast of the ThisIsNotHistory Channel's MonsterQuest. A good time is certain to be had by all, and please take note that I am in no way suggesting that it might be a great idea for someone to hide somewhere in McGee Creek State Park on Saturday, wearing a gorilla suit. This would in fact be a really bad idea and if anyone does it, then shame on them and they certainly didn't hear me coming up with such a plan.
Lastly, we have the disappointing news that Comet Elenin appears to be breaking up as it approaches the sun.
Elenin, you may recall, is the comet that was discovered late last year, and then became the subject of a whole host of hysterical predictions - most of them centered around the destruction of humanity. Websites arose like weeds, connecting Elenin to the Planet Nibiru, Mayan prophecies, and the Book of Revelation. Woo-woos began to weep, wail, and gnash their teeth over the imminent cataclysm, which most agreed would occur at the moment of Elenin's closest approach to Earth, on October 21, 2011.
"But wait," the scientists said, "Elenin's tiny! And it will be 22 million miles away at closest approach! It won't have any effect on us at all!" But their voices were drowned out by howls of derision, because of course no one would listen to a bunch of dimwitted scientists when you have nonexistent Mayan prophecies to guide your understanding of the universe.
Unfortunately for the woo-woos, however, NASA announced last week that Elenin's "coma" (the glowing mantle of gas around the comet itself) appears to be dimming and elongating, an observation that frequently precedes a comet's disintegration.
That noise you just heard was the collective sighing of a bunch of disappointed woo-woos, who now are finding that they will actually have to plan on going to their day jobs on October 22.
So, that's the news for today from Worldwide Wacko Watch. I'll now return to my previous occupation, which is watching the rain. I just received a call from our school superintendent to announce that the rain is bad enough that they're delaying the opening of school for two hours, and may actually cancel school if it gets any worse -- a "rain closure," something that has never happened in my twenty-five year career as a teacher. Myself, I suspect that she's just wanting to make sure she has enough time to complete her Ark.
Be that as it may, we do have a few interesting bits of news to share with you, so we'll take a break from barricading our offices with sandbags to tell you about them.
First, we have a story from Wales, where an Anglican vicar has declared Wales to be "the most haunted place in the world." Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe, who is not only a clergyman but is a black belt in judo and rides a motorcycle, moved to Wales some years ago and began to investigate its alleged hauntings. He found lots, according to a recent interview in WalesOnline (here).
“I would say Wales has a disproportionate amount of incidents,” Rev. Fanthorpe said. “Welsh friends and Welsh mediums seem to have this highly-developed spiritual sense, a high intelligence and sensitivity – it’s a perceptiveness and degree of awareness that you don’t find in other parts of the UK. It may well be something inherent, something in the genes of Welsh people that carries this extra power and extra awareness with so many spiritual phenomena.”
He stopped just short of saying that there were genes in Irish people that allowed them to see leprechauns and genes in French people that made them obnoxious to tourists.
In any case, Rev. Fanthorpe has visited a variety of sites, including Roch Castle (supposedly haunted by King Charles II's mistress), Pembroke (where a Nessie-like creature has been seen offshore), and Skirrid Mountain (haunted by notorious Nazi Rudolf Hess).
Rev. Fanthorpe is not just doing all of this traveling about for his own entertainment; he's doing it for yours. Yes, he will be featured in a television show, the latest in the fine old tradition of Ghost Hunters, in which they make a lot of stir, strike dramatic poses, and then find nothing, week after week. This one, however, will be unique in that the principal investigator will be a man of the cloth. They did not mention the title for the proposed show, but I suggest "Holy Spirits."
Next, we have a report from Russia that one of their scientists has built a working time machine.
Pravda reports that Vadim Alexandrovitch Chernobrov, of the research institution Kosmopoisk, released a statement last week that he had successfully built a time machine using a "capsule surrounded by intense magnetic fields." The magnetic fields, Chernobrov said, "warped time," and two synchronized chronometers, one inside the capsule and one at some distance from the experimental site, went out of sync during the duration of the experiment.
Chernobrov stated that animals put inside the capsule "experienced serious to deadly effects," but this didn't stop him from conducting experiments on humans, who had no detrimental results other than "seeing colored circles, and experiencing some moderate arrhythmia."
Chernobrov is still exploring his results, and their potential applications. Physicists in other countries, however, are skeptical, and are currently trying to replicate the phenomenon, thus far unsuccessfully.
Chernobrov stated that he is willing to act in an advisory capacity to his colleagues in other labs. "If you can somehow harness the lightning," he said, "and channel it into the flux capacitor, it might just work!"
Next, we have an announcement that will be of great interest to Skeptophiliacs in Oklahoma: McGee Creek State Park, in Atoka, will be the host of the Great Oklahoma Cryptid Fest this Saturday. It will start at 1 PM and go until either they find Bigfoot or all get discouraged and go home, whichever happens first.
Featured guests will be Nick Redfern, of UFO conspiracy theory fame, and a host of "professionals" from the cast of the ThisIsNotHistory Channel's MonsterQuest. A good time is certain to be had by all, and please take note that I am in no way suggesting that it might be a great idea for someone to hide somewhere in McGee Creek State Park on Saturday, wearing a gorilla suit. This would in fact be a really bad idea and if anyone does it, then shame on them and they certainly didn't hear me coming up with such a plan.
Lastly, we have the disappointing news that Comet Elenin appears to be breaking up as it approaches the sun.
Elenin, you may recall, is the comet that was discovered late last year, and then became the subject of a whole host of hysterical predictions - most of them centered around the destruction of humanity. Websites arose like weeds, connecting Elenin to the Planet Nibiru, Mayan prophecies, and the Book of Revelation. Woo-woos began to weep, wail, and gnash their teeth over the imminent cataclysm, which most agreed would occur at the moment of Elenin's closest approach to Earth, on October 21, 2011.
"But wait," the scientists said, "Elenin's tiny! And it will be 22 million miles away at closest approach! It won't have any effect on us at all!" But their voices were drowned out by howls of derision, because of course no one would listen to a bunch of dimwitted scientists when you have nonexistent Mayan prophecies to guide your understanding of the universe.
Unfortunately for the woo-woos, however, NASA announced last week that Elenin's "coma" (the glowing mantle of gas around the comet itself) appears to be dimming and elongating, an observation that frequently precedes a comet's disintegration.
That noise you just heard was the collective sighing of a bunch of disappointed woo-woos, who now are finding that they will actually have to plan on going to their day jobs on October 22.
So, that's the news for today from Worldwide Wacko Watch. I'll now return to my previous occupation, which is watching the rain. I just received a call from our school superintendent to announce that the rain is bad enough that they're delaying the opening of school for two hours, and may actually cancel school if it gets any worse -- a "rain closure," something that has never happened in my twenty-five year career as a teacher. Myself, I suspect that she's just wanting to make sure she has enough time to complete her Ark.
Sep
8
Theatre Review: Freud's Last Session Capital Public Radio News First, we meet the 83-year-old Freud - a determined skeptic and atheist. He has fled the Nazis and sought refuge in London, and he is dying from cancer, the result of a longstanding indulgence of cigars. Then the 40-ish Lewis arrives - he's an ... |
