Archive
Creationism is Stupid
And it’s being taught in schools. I know its an issue that has been around for awhile (and isn’t going away), but I think it’s good to remind people this is happening.
"Doonesbury" by Garry Trudeau
PSYCHE! Rapture is ACTUALLY 5 Months From Now!
Harold Camping in 2011. Photo by ChristReturns2011
But seriously you guys, THIS TIME it’s totally 100% absolutely positively gonna happen!
That’s me paraphrasing the disgraced (at least she should be) Harold Camping, the ass-dick who has bilked people of their life savings promoting the end of the world.
It was supposed to happen on Saturday, May 21. But SURPRISE! Nothing happened!
After spending a day in hiding, Camping came out today to reveal what he had done wrong (besides being an ass-dick),
Saturday was “an invisible judgment day” in which a spiritual judgment took place, he said. But the timing and the structure is the same as it has always been, he said.
“We’ve always said May 21 was the day, but we didn’t understand altogether the spiritual meaning,” he said. “May 21 is the day that Christ came and put the world under judgment.”
Ok, so he wasn’t totally wrong, he just wasn’t totally right. That’s completely understandable!
Gah! Sorry about all the sarcasm folks, but this guy is pissing me off.
Bad enough that he has ruined people’s lives with his bullshit, one woman even slit her children’s throats AND her own because of this shit, but now he is actually going to keep doing it for another 5 months!
And what is gonna happen 5 months from now when the world doesn’t end? AGAIN???
Why he’s just gonna come up with some new reason he was not totally wrong but not totally right, and he’ll have a brand new judgment day to promote.
It makes me sick to thing not only of the millions of dollars stolen from gullible-but-still-innocent people. But I think of all of Camping’s money that he has spent on this cause and how it could have been donated charity and done some ACTUAL good in the world.
So while this is not surprising, it is still infuriating. Hopefully a few of Camping’s disciples realize he is full of crap and start saying so.
So Its The End of the World…
Photo by Bart Everson
As you are no doubt aware, tomorrow is the rapture.
Yes, Jesus is going to return to Earth tomorrow to take all the good people with him to heaven. This has been predicted by a multi-millionaire radio station owner named Harold Camping.
How did he make this prediction? I’ve actually seen a couple derivations from Camping on this, but an excerpt from FamilyRadio.com states:
Holy God reminds us that one day is as 1,000 years. Therefore, with the correct understanding that the seven days referred to in Genesis 7:4 can be understood as 7,000 years, we learn that when God told Noah there were seven days to escape worldwide destruction, He was also telling the world there would be exactly 7,000 years (one day is as 1,000 years) to escape the wrath of God that would come when He destroys the world on Judgment Day.
Seven thousand years after 4990 B.C. (the year of the Flood) is the year 2011 A.D. (our calendar).
4990 + 2011 – 1 = 7,000
Amazingly, May 21, 2011 is the 17th day of the 2nd month of the Biblical calendar of our day. Remember, the flood waters also began on the 17th day of the 2nd month, in the year 4990 B.C.
God is proving to us that we have very accurately learned from the Holy Bible God’s time-plan for the end of the world.
So there you have it, irrefutable proof that the world is ending tomorrow.
Sorry :(
So what will become of the sinners? Well we are going to be left behind to think about what we did…until October.
On October 21st, the world will actually be destroyed by fire.
Now, at first I thought that I might be able to escape judgment. I mean, I’m not a bad guy. I donate to charity, I’ve helped old ladies cross the street, and I’ve never murdered anyone.
But then I realized how horrible a person I really was. I eat meat on Fridays. I don’t go to Church every Sunday, and I’ve been spending the past 5 years living in sin with the love of my life.
Not only that, but I believe that homosexuals should be allowed to get married! What was I thinking?!? Camping has clearly pointed out that it is the gays who are to blame for this horrible upcoming Judgement.
Camping says God will punish America and the rest of the world for Gay Pride and same-sex marriages, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were punished with fire and brimstone in the Old Testament.
I should have known better.
So now the only question is: What am I going to do with my last night on Earth before Jesus metaphorically (or perhaps literally) bitch-slaps me?
A good question. I should probably get drunk. But then, it is May 2-4 long weekend, so that was probably going to happen anyway (for my non-Canadian readers, May 2-4 is the colloquial term for Victoria Day, a national holiday in Canada).
I could repent, but that somehow feels like giving up.
I could sell all my possessions and spend it all on strippers and drugs. But then, I might catch a nasty disease and have to spend my last few months on Earth suffering more than I should.
Well I guess I will be getting drunk. If I wake up tomorrow before Jesus arrives, I will blog again. Otherwise, this may be the last time you hear from me. Thanks for being such loyal readers!
How will you all be celebrating Judgment Day?
Sometimes my Mom IS right!
“Don’t get a tattoo. You’ll regret it!” my mom used to say.
I had always considered getting a tattoo, but never went through with it because I could never think of something that would alway seem cool or be relevant to me. (Maybe Maxwell’s equations, that would be pretty nerdy-cool right?)
I was reminded of this from something that PZ Myers posted this on his blog today, and I just had to share it.
PZ points out the problem with the tattoo this wrestler got.
The tattoo reads: "And thou shalt not lie with a man as with a woman, for it is an abomination. Lev 18:22"
People often use this verse from Leviticus to defend their hatred of homosexuals. However, PZ Myers suggests a tattoo for his left arm:
Lev 19:28 And ye shall not make cuttings in your body for a dead body, and ye shall not inscribe on yourselves any marks. I am the Lord your God.
I have another suggestion for a tattoo, possibly he could put it on his forehead:
hy·poc·ri·sy [hi-pok-ruh-see]
–noun, plural -sies.
“There’s Probably No God. Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life.”
That’s what was postered on the side of buses in Toronto, Calgary and Montreal last year. And they are planning to do it again.
The Centre for Inquiry (CFI) is launching a campaign which would see similar ads on the sides of buses in Toronto starting in January, pending final approval from the Toronto Transit Commission. This year’s campaign is “Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence”, and compares the belief in God and Allah to the belief in Bigfoot and Tarot reading.
Photo From Centre for Inquiry
The campaign’s website says:
Why is belief in Big Foot dismissed as delusional while belief in Allah and Christ is respected and revered? All of these claims are equally extraordinary and demand critical examination
Assuming they get approval to run the ads in Toronto, the CFI hopes to move the campaign into other major Canadian cities.
I’d love it if everyone saw the ads and know the point of the campaign is to emphasize not the kind of knee-jerk debunking to anything suspicious but that we’re interested in a genuine debate, a conversation about so-called extraordinary claims. We’re not here to mock people who believe in these claims
The Adventure of Links: Sept. 13, 2010
Ed Yong of Not Exactly Rocket Science posts a weekly summary of interesting links. Since this is one of the posts I most look forward to reading, I thought I would start my own version.
Welcome to The Adventure of Links for Sept. 13 2010.
Health
The weaknesses of the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Health Check Program.
Doctors warn against homeopathic “vaccines” which may leave patients vulnerable to fatal diseases.
Yet another study which shows absolutely no association between thimerosal and autism.
Crap about electromagnetic hypersensitivity in the Winnipeg Free Press. Once again, they refuse to interview anyone who actually knows what they are talking about but instead opt for scare tactics to increase readership.
More alternative medicine propoganda from the Huffington Post.
Study suggests that when parents are more accepting of children’s sexual habits, it results in a reduction in teen pregnancy.
Astronomy
Large solar flare from September 8 caught in photos.
The ancient Greeks may have documented Halley’s comet back in 467 BC.
Special relativity could explain the origin of galactic magnetic fields.
Physics
“The Physics of Mud and Hair Gel”
The future of nuclear energy could rest on the use of Thorium for fuel. Thorium is theoretically more energy efficient and less likely to produce materials which could be used in weapons.
How breakfast cereal can help physicists explain the universe.
Australian scientists developing a real life tractor beam. It can only move tiny particles about a meter, but its a start.
Researchers at MIT announce they are creating self-repairing solar cells.
Stephen Hawking said some stuff in the past week which had nothing to do with god, but is much more important to our development as a species.
Fun/Funny
Playboy magazine for the blind.
Ways to reduce the amount of cow farts which contribute to global warming.
The first ever Klingon Opera. Yup, Klingon Opera.
Sony Playstation turns 15 this year. Let us celebrate all the wasted hours I’ve spent on mine.
Vancouver using a 3D image of a girl chasing a ball on the road to get drivers to slow down.
You thought we had put this one to rest, but no. “Galileo Was Wrong: The Church Was Right”, the first annual Catholic Conference on Geocentrism is being held in November. I don’t think I’ll go, but I might get myself a mug.
Qur’an Burning Called Off, But Qur’an Now Bestseller at Amazon
We’ve all heard about the whack-job Florida pastor Terry Jones, who was planning to hold a “Burn the Qur’an Day” on Sept.11.
He has now cancelled the event, though I doubt it was because his heart grew three sizes or anything like that. More likely it was the fact that he was going to be billed for the security personnel the government was going to send, and maybe fear of violence against his person or any planning to attend the event.
Thankfully the event has been cancelled, but something else amazing has happened. I heard on the news yesterday that people have been encouraging others to buy the Qur’an in response to the threat of burning it. By buying a copy, they said, you could save it from being burnt, or replace one that may get destroyed.
And do you know what? It worked! As I am writing this, the Qur’an is currently #87 on the Amazon bestseller list. Just behind “The Secret” and “Eat, Pray, Love”.
What? You don’t believe me? Check it out…
The Qur'an is currently #87 on Amazon's Bestseller List
So I guess we could call this a victory for tolerance and freedom. But then again, the fact that this controversy started at all is quite disheartening.
Remains of John the Baptist Found? Unlikely…
A little less than a week ago, Bozhidar Dimitrov, Bulgaria’s minister without portfolio and a former director of the country’s National History Museum, announced that the remains of St. John the Baptist (JTB) have been found in monastery in Bulgaria.
St. John is a prolific figure in Christian history. He foretold the coming of Jesus and even baptised Jesus himself, according to scriptures.
John the Baptist
St. John was beheaded at the hands of King Herod shortly before Jesus is said to have died on the cross. His head supposedly served on a plate to Herod’s stepdaughter Salome.
So why do these Bulgarians think these bones, which include parts of a skull, jaw, arm and tooth, belong to THE John the Baptist?
Evidently, the urn in which the bones were found has the date June 24 inscribed on it, which is the day John was supposedly born and has been celebrated in the Mediterranean and Quebec.
Urn in which the supposed remains of John the Baptist are contained
That’s about it.
No carbon dating has been performed to determine the age of the bones, and no explanation as to how the urn came to the monastery has been given.
I personally find it interesting that the remains include pieces of a head and an arm. Seems strange that after beheading John the Baptist that King Herod would bother to put the head and body in the same place, particularly after the head was so callously served on a plate to Salome.
Of course, records from this time period are sketchy at best. And lets not forget that several other countries also claim to have the remains of John the Baptist, such as Istanbul, Egypt and Armenia.
Skeptics live by the credence that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This evidence is far from extraordinary.
So don’t be surprised if/when this find turns out to be totally bogus. Or the Bulgarian archeaologists simply don’t bother to investigate the remains further and keep shouting to the media that they found something great.
A Quantum of Knowledge 
