It isn’t a delusion for one to be an atheist; after all, simply not believing that deities exist is no less rational than not believing that Santa Clause exists.
The delusion, however, comes from religionists who seek to paint atheism itself as a religion.
“It takes as much faith to not believe in God and it does to believe,” they constantly repeat.
But no, it doesn’t, just as it takes no faith to not believe that cats are an invading alien species whose mission is to pacify us with their cute YouTube videos before conquering our feeble planet. In fact, evidence suggests that cats are capable of no such thing and that they evolved right here on Earth with the rest of us.
Not believing in God (or gods, for that matter) is not the exact opposite of believing in them, which typically does require faith (but not always). For most atheists, there is no certainty that gods do not exist, merely the high probability. This concept is excellently illustrated by Dawkins Scale.
Unfortunately, Dawkins’ scale is only two dimensional and, like political ideology, religious belief is much more complex than that. Therefore, we need a compass to illustrate for us a third dimension.
The Compass of Belief
North and south on our compass are represented by theism and atheism, respectively. A theist is one who does believe in deities, an atheist is one who does not. Very simple.
East and west on our compass are agnostic and gnostic, respectively. This is where some people tend to get lost.
A person who is gnostic believes that they are in possession of special knowledge that perhaps only a select few can know.
On December 15th Fred Karger and governor’s Gary Johnson and Buddy Roemer participated in a debate on Wepolls.com, a social polling network. This was the first ever debate to take place on a social polling site, and only the second social media debate in history.
The candidates answered poll questions posed to them by Republican primary voters from a wide variety of topics.
Debate Exclusion
Karger and Roemer have been excluded from every nationally televised debate. Johnson has been excluded from all but two. It’s not surprising that they have strong feelings on the subject.
Former Velvet Revolver rocker Lou Reed unites with Metallica to make an album. When these two forces unite, the result is something that no one can quite expect.
The album is LULU. The writing credit (lyrics and music) belongs to Reed, not Metallica. The composition is not complex. It’s what I’d call boring. And it’s all over the place. Acoustic gulfs running into hard grinding valleys. The resulting sound is haphazard. There’s no reason why Metallica needed to be the backup band here. It could’ve been anyone. Metallica’s strength lies in Hetfield’s song writing skills, which were not employed at all. Every good thing that Metallica could’ve brought to the table, of which there is plenty of, was either left at home or forgotten.
What is Wepolls.com? It’s a social network centeralized around one simple concept: polling. I guess that explains the name “we + polls.”
Stumbling across Wepolls’ Spartan homepage doesn’t reveal the depth beneath the surface. It’s an elegantly simple list of trending polls similar to the presentation of Reddit or Digg, where the most popular items float to the surface. But unlike those social sites where videos, articles, and pictures are shared, Wepolls users ask a question to find out what people think.
It’s an incredibly simple platform that works well and surprisingly has never been attempted on this scale.
Polling taken over the past several months shows an interesting trend. More voters overall are willing to vote for “Generic Republican” than for specific GOP candidates.
From July to August 2011 if the general election were held today and President Obama was running against an imaginary republican candidate, then he might lose. The average of major polls show that “Generic Republican” has a 0.2 percent advantage.
While that’s not much, and while it’s in the margin of error, it is something for Obama democrats to worry about. As a general rule, when survey respondents are voting for a generic candidate, it’s not so much an endorsement for a specific party, but an opposition to the current office holder. Voters are saying that they don’t really like Barack Obama.
Sonic is one of the most widely recognized gaming icons in history, sandwiched between Mario and Pacman in terms of fame and notoriety. Over the past decade, however, he’s become something of a joke. No matter how hard they tried, reboot after reboot, Sega couldn’t make a good Sonic game. Even 2010’s Sonic the Hedgehog 4, which saw the long awaited return of the series to its 2D roots, was anincoherent mess.
Going into E3 2011 I had no faith that Sonic Generations could be good; not given Sega’s recent track record of ruining the reputation of their iconic mascot. However, as a lifelong Sonic fan, I was pleasantly surprised by what they’ve accomplished.
POLL: Are you looking forward to Sonic Generations?
This documentary about absent fathers by young filmmaker Justin Hunt groans under the weight of post hoc statistics and does little more to show that some people who grew up fatherless and made bad decisions while at the same time reminding us that Metallica is cool.
Google is facing backlash for allowing “KG Dogfighting” to be sold in the Android Marketplace. This comes only days after the original app, “Dog Wars,” was pulled after a national outcry, with former dog fighter extraordinaire Michael Vick adding to the dialog.
The question is now becoming whether or not a game which depicts the illegal act of dog fighting dogs should be allowed to be sold.
Vote: Should dog fighting apps be allowed to be sold in the Android Market place?
PHOENIX, AZ – On this historic date, Google has launched it’s newest product dubbed “Google Gas.”
Unlike other product that Google has launched in recent years, such as Gmail, Google Wave, Google Docs, and more, “Google Gas” is a physical, not electronic, product that consumers can look forward to buying.
“[Google] Gas is our most ambitious product to date, “says Alan Eustace, senior Vice President, Engineering and Research. “In the past we have launched digital services, but Gas is the first service that consumers in America can really find to be tangible.”
s I write this I only have enough time to clean up and change clothes, my brother and I have been in Sendai. Back home in Tokyo it’s hard enough to get more water and blankets; this event is very horrifying.
We went there to find his wife and children. Lucky we found them, but while I there I also found so many bodies… even children. I also found great sadness.
I came across a small little girl five years of age. She was stuck under a car, a three door type, and I held her and tried to call help, but my brother said she will die.
Launched in 1995 and continually expanding,craigslist has become the premier web destination for buying, selling, and giving away items locally, particularly large items, surpassing even eBay.
However, even though it has been widespread for a decade, it still feels somewhat shading. That’s because what craigslist lacks is a reputation system that is found on giants like Amazon.com. Now CraigRep.com(cregrep) aims to change all of that.
“craigrep is a free service that allows buyers and sellers to provide reviews on craigslist transactions,” the site prominently displays on its home page.
Simple and easy to use, cregrep allows its customers to use their Google account as a login. During registration, members create a username, select an avatar, and then are ready to start building their rep.
Workers in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio are showing their outrage at bills introduced to strip public sector workers of their right to collective bargaining.
What these states have in common is that in 2010 they voted in Republican governors and state legislatures.
The firestorm began in Wisconsin when 14 Democratic state senators fled the state to prevent a quorum in the chamber, refusing the GOP the chance to vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair” bill.
Excluded from the measure are Walker’s political allies, the police and firefighters unions, both of which endorsed the Republican candidate last year, although the head of the state trooper union now says he regrets that decision. Gov Walker claims that the exemption is not quid pro quo, but that the state couldn’t afford to have its emergency services workers walk out along with teachers and other affected state employees.
The 2010 election cycle has been a strange one. In early 2009 it seemed like the Democrats couldn’t lose. Obama’s approval numbers were untouchable, the liberal agenda was going to be easily passed thanks to vast majorities in both the House and the Senate, it seemed as if Democrats would pick up three to four seats in the Senate, and the idea of losing the House was unthinkable.
It only took Republicans and their allies a few months to regroup. Through their largest PR firm, Fox News, they organized Tea Parties, cast hatred towards the President by spreading rumors that he’s not an American, that he’s a Muslim, and that he’s the black offspring of Stalin, Hitler, and Marx.
But the GOP may have pushed too hard, and got too many crazy people fired up. The extreme fanatic right have bucked the Republican Party’s control over a number of elections, and in the place of party favorites, they’ve installed their own candidates.
As if we didn’t need another reason to criticize either the Catholic Church or former Nazi Youth member, Pope Benedict XVI.
While on his first state visit to England, and the first papal visit to the United Kingdom in 28 years, Pope Benedict’s address didn’t contain a single reference to the Vatican’s massive conspiracy to cover-up hundreds of counts of alleged sexual abuse from within its ranks. Instead the pontiff focused bashing secularism in a very secular nation.
