So what if my science is wrong? The bible is wrong – part 1:

I remember back in the 1980s when a story was circulating around within the religious community, that “genetic science,” had finally proven that the description given in the bible of “human creation,” was in fact true. That science had proven that the ancestry of every human alive on the earth today, had all been traced back to one single woman – that science had proven the story of Adam and Eve in the bible, was in fact true. The only problem was that the “proof” which they were offering, was not based on real science – in fact, in the 1980s; we simply hadn’t yet developed the technology to base such a conclusion on. So just what was the big deal about proving that the story of Adam and Eve in the bible was in fact true, and why were the religious (mainly the Christians) even willing to manufacture stories, and even tell outright lies? Because the theory of evolution was fast gaining acceptance as a fact, and without dirt man and rib woman, and the talking-snake and the original “sin” (sex) that opened up the door for every other type of “evil,” then there was also no need for a savor – the whole story about Christ dying for our sins, then all falls apart like a house of cards in the wind.



So fast forward to the twenty first century; there are mountains of evidence, which all support evolution as a fact, and with 99.999% certainty; we now know that there was never any less than 5,000 pairs of genes (10,000 almost human and human beings) involved on the road to becoming the human beings that we are today; and we now know with 99.999% certainty, that both humans and all of the great apes, all evolved from a common ancestor – so where does this leave both the stories of Adam and Eve, and the story of “our” “savor” “Jesus Christ”? It leaves them all in the dirt, where they all belonged in the first place.



You really wouldn’t think that there would be much more here to debate on this subject? But there are current debates going on among the Christian scholars:






From NPR:


According to the Bible (Genesis 2:7), this is how humanity began: "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." God then called the man Adam, and later created Eve from Adam's rib.


Polls by Gallup and the Pew Research Center find that four out of 10 Americans believe this account. It's a central tenet for much of conservative Christianity, from evangelicals to confessional churches such as the Christian Reformed Church.


But now some conservative scholars are saying publicly that they can no longer believe the Genesis account. Asked how likely it is that we all descended from Adam and Eve, Dennis Venema, a biologist at Trinity Western University, replies: "That would be against all the genomic evidence that we've assembled over the last 20 years, so not likely at all."


Researching The Human Genome


Venema says there is no way we can be traced back to a single couple. He says with the mapping of the human genome, it's clear that modern humans emerged from other primates as a large population — long before the Genesis time frame of a few thousand years ago. And given the genetic variation of people today, he says scientists can't get that population size below 10,000 people at any time in our evolutionary history.


To get down to just two ancestors, Venema says, "You would have to postulate that there's been this absolutely astronomical mutation rate that has produced all these new variants in an incredibly short period of time. Those types of mutation rates are just not possible. It would mutate us out of existence."






You can click (here) or anywhere in the above text and the link will take you to NPR and the whole story – it is well worth the read.


In the video below Ken Miller (a catholic) does an excellent job of explaining of how we now know that both humans and the great apes, both evolved from a common ancestor.






I’m going to explain what all of this really means to me in part 2 of this story – but I forewarn you, it will be done in the foul mouth style of The Dyslectic Atheist! But what does this all mean to you as an atheist?

Bilberry – better than having “Jesus” in a bottle:

As far back as I can remember I have had extremely poor night vision. Then as I have gotten older, my overall vision has been in steady decline, and I had simply accepted that I would be needing eyeglasses soon - and real soon. Then about 5 months ago, a friend suggested that I try bilberry extract; I had heard about bilberry many times before over the years, and about how some folks claimed that it had helped their vision, and even allowed some to retire their eyeglasses. I have always been a little skeptical about these types of claims, like peach pits curing cancer, or "Jesus" raising the dead. However, my vision had gotten so bad, that I was almost willing to try anything (“Jesus” aside) that was safe to avoid wearing eyeglasses. So I decided to give bilberry a try.



I took the first dose of bilberry at about 7pm on a Tuesday, the next day I took 3 doses – about every 6 hours. When I awoke on Thursday, I didn’t notice any improvements in my vision. Then that night, my vision started improving, and by the next night, my vision had improved big-time – I was able to see and read words and numbers about five times further than I could that past Monday (things were so bright that I started getting a headache). Then that weekend, I was at home and decided to watch a movie on my HDTV; I turned off the lights, and when the movie started, the colors were so brilliant and bright that it was almost irritating me – my color recognition, was better than any other time in my life, and for the first time since I was in my 20s, I could differentiate between colors like red and orange – I couldn’t even believe the improvements myself. So I decided to buy a new HDTV.


Then about 2 weeks later, one of my fingers that I had lost the feeling in, after I had severely injured it about 4 years ago, started aching and hurting. About a week later, the feeling in my finger was completely restored. And today my hearing is better than it has been in many years – today I almost feel like I have been “reborn.”


I was going to do a post about this stuff back in January, however, I decided to wait and see just how long the effects would last. From what I have read, and from my personal experience, bilberry seems to repair nerve damaged, as well as do other good stuff. For at least the last 10 years or so, I could only read small print like in a news paper, if I held the print about 18 inches from my face (it was like my eyes had a fixed focal point, but the print was still blurry at times). Today however, I can read almost any size print, and the contrast between the print and the paper in simply incredible. I can even read the real small print over a wide range of distance.


I have discovered that bilberry works really great for most of the people who take it; however, it can cause side effects when taking some medications. Bilberry can lower both blood pressure and blood sugar, as it did in my case. But I had started taking it at the same time that I had started taking medication for those same problems. And today I don’t believe that the most severe side effects that I have been having, were being caused by the bilberry, but being caused by one of the other medications that I am taking – so next week I will be changing that med.






I would strongly recommend talking with your Doctor if you are taking medication to control blood pressure, blood sugar or both. However, neither of my Doctors had even heard of it before.






The only brand of bilberry that I have found that actually works is the Natures Way brand – I tried at least 3 other (cheaper) brands, but none of them work at all. I started out taking two of the capsules 3 times a day, which worked just great. I even stopped taking it for a week, and I was still seeing, feeling and hearing about the same. But it was recommended that I continue to take it every day, so I do.

What I have found that works best for me, is I now take 2 of the standardized bilberry capsules with 1 of Natures way’s other products (Vision) twice daily.


You can read about bilberry here and here.

This is your brain on creationism:

I grew up constantly hearing about the “good news,” and about just how loving and wonderful their “god” was, and just how wonderful all of “god’s” “creations” were. I had heard that god had “created” the universe and the earth, and all within 6 days, simply by speaking; and I had heard that everything which “god” had created, had a purpose and a reason, and that “god” had seen all of his work as being good, great even -- everything was a part of “god’s” plan, or so I was told.

Then one day when a friend and I, were watching one of those Sunday Christian nature shows on television about fish, a little fish who used a spot on their fins (the red drum fish) that looked like an eye, to fool the bigger fish who were trying to eat them into believing that their fin was actually their head, and then when the bigger fish tries to attacks the smaller fish’s fin, the smaller fish simply laughs, and says: “I fooled you, you big stupid fish,” and then the little fish swims away (okay, this was of those Sunday morning Christian TV shows for young children – we were both about 10 or 11 years of age at the time).


The narrator went on to say that “god” had “created” this little fish and gave the fish the spot on its fin, so that the fish could use its little gift to escape from larger predators – and just like “god” had given humans legs so we could run away from danger (god had designed this fish, and his fin). Both this kid and his grandmother exclaimed: “wow, god is so smart, and “he’s” so great – what man could have ever thought of doing that?”


Even at the young age of ten, I had already totally dismissed the biblical story of “creation,” and the story of the “great flood,” and the story of the” virgin-born” “savior” as being totally contrived bullshit. However, I hadn’t yet, totally dismissed the notion that some other “god-like” being might exist, but I found this fish story, was just a little too fishy for me to believe – but for most noncritical “thinking” Christians, “god” did it was the only true answer – and then if one would question “god’s” handy little fish work, then they ask: “if god didn’t do it, then who did?” And even at age ten, I found this “then who did it" question, was the wrong question to be asking, the more logical question would be what caused this fish to have this spot in the first place, and why? However, most devout Christians believe that questioning any of “god’s” “infallible” “word” is a “sin,” and a “sin” that will earn you a one-way trip to “hell” (you wouldn’t believe how many times that I was told that I would be burning in “hell,” and simply for questioning the deluded bullshit that is written in the bible).


This fishy situation was one of the things that drove my interests in science. I wanted to learn just how this fish had gotten this spot, and understand why – and what was the big deal about a fish having a spot on its fin in the first place – and not simply believe that some fucking “god’ did it. It would take me a few more years before I fully understood why this fish has this spot, and the answers were even simpler than “god did it.’ The spot on this fish’s fin is simply the result of a gene mutation that happened in one its ancestors eons ago. This gene mutation was then passed on to its offspring and then passed on to their offspring and so on. And because this spot fooled so many of this spotted fish’s predators, more of the spotted fish were able to live to maturity, and then pass on the spot causing gene; the populations of spotted fish, then exploded – while the populations of none spotted fish declined (the spot is simply a favorable mutation - natural selection, and the survival of the fittest, or the survival of the trickiest at work, and not the work of some “god”). Is this fish even aware of the functionality of the spot on its fin? Hell no, its not, it’s just a hell of a lot easier escaping from an attack from the rear, than one from the front!


How do I know that this is a better explanation than “god did it,” because its backed up by years and years of research and countless observations – in the end, I had learned more about fish than I had even wanted to know.


There is a big difference between telling children how and what to believe, and teaching them how to learn and understand. But thinking is not held as a big asset within religion; questioning god’s word is seen as being rebellious and as an evil sin – and to some teaching evolution is one of the greatest sins of them all. They fear that children will actually start thinking for themselves, and start realizing that all of that deluded bible bullshit that has been forced upon them every since birth through fear, has all just been simply a pack of deluded lies – this is why child indoctrination is so important to the survival of the Christian-cult – just let them walk up to a well educated Japanese teen, and start spewing that deluded Christian bullshit at them (the 6,000 year old earth, dirt-man and rib-woman, the virgin-born savior…,etc…. and they’ll be in for a rude fucking awakening).


It’s one thing if someone wants to remain enslaved through fear to silly old deluded myths and silly superstitions, but it’s quite another when they try to get our government to force their deluded and asinine bullshit on others – and today, that’s just what some of these deluded morons are trying to do:






From Mother Jones:


State governments are grappling with massive budget deficits, overburdened social programs, and mountains of deferred spending. But never mind all that. For some conservative lawmakers, it's the perfect time to legislate the promotion of creationism in the classroom. In the first three months of 2011, nine creationism-related bills have been introduced in seven states—that's more than in any year in recent memory:


3. Florida

Legislation: SB 1854 would amend Florida law to require a "thorough presentation and critical analysis of the scientific theory of evolution." In 2009, Florida state Sen. Stephen Wise, the bill's sponsor, rhetorically asked a Tampa radio host: "Why do we still have apes if we came from them?"


I guess that it doesn’t matter to these deluded idiots and morons, that creationism has already been ruled as a religion by a federal court judge, and that it has no place in our public schools?

What caused the earthquake and tsunami in Japan? It wasn’t your “God,” you fucking morons:

Our earth is very unique from all of the other planets in our solar system, and not just because it’s the only planet in the solar system which is known to support life. It’s unique because most of its core is comprised of extremely heavy elements that were forged within massive stars eons ago. These heavy elements, as well as the lighter elements, were all ejected into space after the former stars had died in massive explosions. One of the other things that make our earth unique, are that soon after the earth was formed, a large object (possibly another planet) collided with the earth and penetrated the earth right down to its core, which then ejecting about 1/3 of the total mass of the earth into outer space – this is believed to be how our moon was formed.



From its very beginning, the earth was a molten lifeless planet floating in space – for millions upon millions of years as the earth cooled somewhat, and as the earth was forming its outer crust, it was also being constantly bombarded with objects from space including asteroids and meteorites – it is believed that most of the water here on earth, was delivered via these impacts. From the very beginning, the earth has been a very violent and chaotic place for life to exist – we live on an ever changing planet; we live on the surface of a living planet floating on top of a sea of molten matter - one might say that the earth is simply a big furnace powered  by the radioactive decay of the recycled star matter from which the earth was formed. Our earth has been shaped and reshaped many times over the eons by these same forces, and these same forces will continue to change the earth for at least the next few billion years, until the time when our sun begins running out of fuel and starts expanding, at which time it will engulf the inner planets, including the earth (this might come as a comforting thought to some of us to know that some of the atoms, which comprise our own bodies today, may help fuel a future star – or that our atoms might even become a part of some other living creature someday in the future as well).


These same forces that have shaped our world as we see it today; are the same Forces which have driven the evolution of all life here on our planet. And life only exists today because we are currently living in a period of relative calm on an otherwise very violent and chaotic planet. The fact is that everything within the whole universe is constantly moving and changing – everything is headed somewhere, and nothing stays the same; everything is in constant motion; and the earth is simply a microcosm of the universe as a whole. Relevant to our own geological time, it’s easy for some of us to conceive, that everything within reality was made just for us, when in reality, we only exist as a consequence of our current geological time, and the fact that we haven’t had any major extinction level events since the last one which occurred 65 million years ago, that killed off the dinosaurs; although there have been many minor such events, and some of these events have even been catastrophic.




These same forces of nature which keeps everything in motion here on earth, including all of the continents (via continental drift) are the same forces that cause the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions – again, everything in the universe is in constant motion and going somewhere, with the exception of religion – for years, I have compared the beliefs of all three of the major religions, with those of the beliefs of the volcano theists, and anyone who believes that their "god" caused the recent earthquake in Japan, and killed tens of thousands people, and simply to show all of us none believers, just who is in charge – those sick, ignorant and deluded people, need to be institutionalized and treated for their mental illness – they are the ones who elect these same sick and deluded leaders, who believe that everything that happens here on earth, is the plan of some "god," and we are all simply along for the ride until "jesus" "returns." The Japanese leaders knew full well, that Japan is located in one of the most seismically active zones on the planet – and despite knowing this fact; they decided to roll the dice and build nuclear reactors anyway. If we can only learn one thing from these tragic events unfolding today in Japan, I hope that we will learn that we are impart in control of our own destiny, and if we don’t change this ignorant mindset that some "god" placed us all here on earth, simply to test our worthiness as ignorant and mindless sheep, and if we don’t start speaking out in opposition when our allies engage in such reckless activities as building nuclear reactors in these types of unstable areas – and if we don’t stop dictating our environmental policies based on a book of old deluded fairy tales, (god made a promise to an 800 year old man; so it’s Ok to keep pumping carbon into the atmosphere, and finding other ways of fucking up the planet because “jesus” will return soon, so it won’t matter anyway) then the only place where we will all be headed is to “hell” in a fucking hand basket!


Worshiping a god, who you believe causes earthquakes, is just as stupid and ignorant as volcano-theism.

Are We Alone in the Universe?

As far back as I can remember I would look up at the stars and wonder, just how many earth like planets that just might be out there orbiting these billions upon billions of stars. And how many of them just might have life-forms, or even have intelligent life living on them. Back in the 1970s, when I started learning about science and cosmology, through science we already had a real good understanding of how the stars were formed, including how our own star was formed – and it was believed that just about every star in the universe was formed just like our own sun. So I wondered, just how many of these stars might had formed planets out of the leftover dust and gas clouds, just like our own solar system had formed.



Back in the 1970s and 80s, we hadn’t yet developed the technologies needed to detected planets orbiting any other star outside of our own solar system; however, through science, we were almost certain that there were many other planets out there and countless other solar systems.

Then in 1995, with the discovery of the first planet orbiting a star outside of our own solar system – that added weight to another idea in which I firmly believe – that anywhere in the universe where the conditions are just right for life to exists, it most likely does exist. But what kind of life is the only question?


I personally believe that the odds of us finding other human-like life forms living on other earth-like worlds are not all that great. But still, I personally believe that the universe is simply seething with life forms, and including intelligent life. The odds that the conditions here on earth which have allowed us to evolve into what we are today, also happening anywhere else in the universe, are very slim, but not totally out of the question. And if intelligent life did or does exist, did they ever move beyond the current state that we are in today? And if so, how long did it take them to become rational, and move beyond their myths and silly religious superstitions?


One thing which goes without question is the fact that in the last 100 years, we have gained more real knowledge about life and the universe in which we live in, than in all of the other years of our human history combined. And another thing which goes without question, is the fact that we were only able to advance this far, after breaking free from the strangle hold that the church and religion had held on free thought for so many years. Just think of how much further we would have advanced by now, if 3000-4000 years ago, we had started advancing science and technology, instead of creating gods. And what will it take to drag these ignorant and deluded, religious morons into a true post dark-age era – what if we did in fact discover, radio signals or some other form of intelligent communication, beaming from another planet orbiting a distant star somewhere in the universe – would that be enough?


I personally believe that if beings from an advanced civilization, did in fact happen upon us folks living here on earth, that they wouldn’t even attempt to make contact – think about it, how many of us, go out of our way, just to avoid making contact with the religious?

Christian “rock-brain” science – and why my son stopped debating with Christians:

I learned a new term (Christian rock-brain science) last month while watching a video of my son explaining why he no longer debates with Christians on the subjects of science. One of his friends from the university where he currently works, had been in a heated debate with a group young Christians, who had recently received graduate degrees in “creation biology” from a Christian university.



My son’s friend, area of study is in evolutionary biology, and having never been exposed to religious doctrine, and he simply couldn’t understand why these creation biologists, were trying bridge together the science of both cosmology and biological evolution as being the same science (this would be like saying that the same form of science one would use in studying the rings around the planet Saturn, could also be used in the study of plant biology, and the rings in trees here on earth as well).


My son said that he entered this debate, simply out of curiosity, and to help his friend explain to these Christians, the difference in the science of trying to gain insight into how the universe came into being, and the science of how life got started here on earth, and how life has evolved.


To help protect my son’s identity, I will only say that he is currently working with a team of other particle physicists, who just like the tens of thousands of other scientists all around the world, who are currently, or will be analyzing the data from the experiments that are now being conducted at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).


My son said that talking science with these “Christian scientists,” was just like trying to explain the fundamentals of science to a group of pre-school children - creation biology, starts with the same premise as that of the creation myth(s) in the bible. That some creator, created the universe, and exclusively for the purpose of creating life here on earth; and therefore that everything perceived within reality, must also be, all part of this same plan. As I watched the video of the highlights of my son’s part in this debate, it quickly became clear that these Christians had no understanding of the difference between scientific theory, and simple mindless conjecture – and they maintained the argument, that the whole vast universe was simply created for mankind to live here on earth. None of them seemed to have any real conception, of just how large the universe actually is, or the fact that it’s still expanding and growing even bigger with every second of every day. And when my son offered the fact that the universe is still expanding, as evidence supporting the fact that the universe started with a big bang – one of the Christians got up and screamed at my son: “you can’t prove any of this,” and as the other Christians wildly applauded this Christians ignorant remark. My son then simply replied: “and I can’t prove anything to a rock either – but the fact is that no one would argue, whether or not a real rock is in fact a real rock, unless they also, have a rock for a brain.” And at that point, this enraged Christian got up and slammed down a pocket sized copy of a bible on the table in front of my son and screamed: “in this bible is the word of god, and that is all of the proof that I will ever need – and you’ll remember my words today, when you’re burning in hell.” At that point after this ignorant outburst, all of the real scientists decided that it was time to end this debate with these ignorant Christian morons.


Later on in this video, my son expressed that he felt extremely sad for these young Christians, as some of them, had wasted up to 4 years of their lives, learning this mindless and worthless bullshit, and now this was the best that they could do, in a debate with real scientists?






I received this video in a large packet of videos and other stuff that our sons had worked on, and put together last summer, as a gift for my fiftieth birthday - and I must say that this is the best birthday gift, that I have ever received!


This was the first time that I have seen my son in a heated debate with deluded and ignorant, Christian idiots and morons, and the first time I noticed, that he does the same thing that I used to do, when I had ignorant Christians spewing their deluded bullshit at me – he just sat there, with a wide grin on his face. Today, if I would have been there in my son’s position, that video would have been filled with words like: “you ignorant Christian motherfuckers” and the debate would have only lasted about 5 minutes, before it had turned into a fucking brawl!


What I still find the most astounding is what Christians and other religious people, simply can’t seem to understand, is the fact that science has long ago dismissed the relevance in which any of these manmade god(s) and creation myth(s), play in the role of life and the universe – man simply created god(s) and all of these silly stories of creation – and science is no longer looking for who created the universe, and if it was created just for us. Today, we are simply trying to gain real insight into how the universe came into being – and as scientists, today we fully understand that whatever or whoever may have started it all, as humans, we are all just along for the ride – and we’re not trying to understand which “god” is in the driver’s seat either, we are simply trying to understand, what’s doing the driving,






The person giving the presentation of the LHC in the video below is a bright and rising star, in the world of particle physics (Brian Cox). Well worth watching!

Ok, so let me get this one straight, Noah had two of these on his ark too:

Opossum facts:

North America's only marsupial (female has a pouch) mammal. The female carries and nurses her young in her marsupium until they are about 2 to 3 months old; then they are carried on her back another 1 to 2 months whenever they are away from the den.

Size of a cat; grey to black fur; black eyes; pink nose, feet and tail; black ears; and pointed nose.


Solitary and nocturnal: usually slow moving; when frightened and unable to flee may fall into an involuntary shock-like state, "playing 'possum".


Hiss or growl and show their 50 sharp teeth when frightened; but, in reality, they are gentle and placid— they prefer to avoid all confrontations and wish to be left alone.


Omnivorous: eats insects, snails, rodents, berries, over-ripe fruit, grasses, leaves, and carrion; occasionally will eat snakes, ground eggs, corn or other vegetables.


Adaptable; able to live wherever water, food, and shelter exist. At home in trees; uses its prehensile tail to help stabilize position when climbing— it does not, however, hang by its tail.


One of the shortest lived mammals for its size, typically 2 to 4 years. Killed by many predators: humans (and cars), dogs, cats, owls, and larger wildlife.

I remember the night when our son, then 6 years old, first came face to face with one of these ugly rat looking things – he was lying on the grass in our backyard, when a big, really big Opossum walked over and took a look at him – our son pissed his pants!

The BBC: Do We Really Need The Moon:

You won’t find very many of those who both carry the mind-virus, and who also understand the importance that the moon played in shaping our climate, and in the evolution of all life here on earth – and despite this fact, there are few today in the scientific community, who disagree with the fact that all life here on earth, would be totally different today without the moon, or if life would even exist at all today, if not for the moon.  And even fewer in the scientific community, who would disagree today with the fact that all life here on earth, began as a sort of soup in the Ocean, and with the moon playing the role of a chief stirring the pot.  I really liked this program, in part because I can relate to the scientist, who like me has dyslexia and struggled in school, and then found her niche within science and then excelled!    

My Sunday sermon – teaching Christians reality – where do we start?

Dear Christian parents


Do you ever wonder why you never hear of any scientific research tracing the animal migrations after the great flood? Do you ever wonder why you never see any scientific studies analyzing the DNA of the Chiniess people, in attempting to determine which one of Noah’s children that they were the most closely related too – or do you ever wonder which one of Noah’s children that you might even be the most closely related? And if you are a child, do you ever wonder what types of pet dinosaur that your distant relatives, might have played with when they were your age?


If you are a reasonable and intelligent adult, then you already know the answers to the above questions – and if your child is over the age of 9 years old and is still pondering questions about pet dinosaurs, then you are simply raising a little moron – and you are probably proud of it.

When I hear Christians saying that creationism should be taught alongside real science, and then just let the child decide which one to believe, I find at least 2 problems in that kind of thinking, or lack thereof – for one that would not be teaching – why would someone want something taught to children, which has not even one gram of evidence to back it up? The other problem that I have with this asinine and ignorant thinking – as a parent, I spent most of my time teaching our children real science - why should we as atheist parents have to waste valuable time that we could be teaching our children something useful, debunking total bullshit – this is why we don’t let our older children decide if they want to continue to believe in Santa either.


As far as teaching our children bronze aged mythology in the public schools as competing theories with evolutionary theory, and then why just then stop with the Christian-God – why not also teach them about the Egyptian-God(s) as well. Amun the Egyptian God, who created the universe while masturbating, and as he shot-off, and then painted the stars with his ejaculate (talk about a real milky way).


As Christians, you wouldn’t want your children being taught this asinine bullshit as science, and no more than I would want it taught to my children – and I feel the same way about deluded morons wanting to teach my children any other silly myths as well – like the one where your “God,” made the first man from the dirt in a garden, and then made the first woman out of his rib.




Open your eyes Christians, and stop trying to spread your mind-virus – not all of us, take pride in your ignorance – then join the rest of us in reality!




Amen

Life the Universe and reality:

This is one of my favorite images taken by the Hubble of columns of old, cool interstellar hydrogen, and other gases, that are giving birth to new stars. The longest being about 4 light years from top to bottom – it is believed that our own sun, and all life here on earth, all got its start in much the way.



By the time that I had first seen this eerie image of a part of the Eagle Nebula, I had already developed an understanding of the process from which all of the elements within the universe were formed – the creation of all the known elements in the universe, began with the fusion of hydrogen within stars. The fact is that everything here on earth, was all manufacture in the birth, life and death of stars – and there is not one single credible scientist who would dispute this fact. Our current understanding of the universe is derived from the countless observations, experimentation and critical thinking; we then develop theories which are based on the most logical explanations of our observations at the time. These theories are then tested and retested, and subjected to even more meticulous observation and experimentation; however, our current scientific methods, are not about proving anything as absolute truth – it’s more about removing information which is absolutely false – science is simply a tool used to help us understand reality.


Our current understanding of the age of the universe dates it at about 14.5 billion years old, and the age of the planet that we live on, at about 4.5 billion years old. And through meticulous observations, and scientific research, we are now developing a greater understanding of how life began here on earth, and how it evolved into what we observe today. Through science, we are now just beginning understand, just how that all of the elements of which comprise all life here on our planet, were all forged over billions and billions of years within stars.


Our current understanding of the information which is absolutely false, are that the earth only being 6,000 – 10,000 years old, and that the universe and humans, along with all of the other plant life and animals here on earth, all magically appeared, and all in their current forms, and all within the first 6 days of “creation.”


I can understand why at a time, when humans had absolutely no real understanding of life and the universe, just why they simply made up stories, in an attempt to explain the things which they had little or no understanding of – today, however, holding on to such stories as absolute truth, simply verges on insanity – and as a parent, I felt no more obligation for allowing our children, to even being exposed to religious insanity, as I felt obligated in allowing them to be exposed to thieves, liars or pedophiles.


I clearly remember the day, when I first seen this image. A long time friend of mine, and a friend of our family (he is also a physicist and an avid astronomer), who was staying in our home while on his vacation. He had brought with him a few gifts for our children, one of which were large posters of this image. Our children then place the posters on their bedroom walls next to their other posters of space images and other stuff – with the exception of our 5 year old son, who was frightened of the poster, he said because he thought that the image on the poster, looked like monsters – our 2 older children simply loved the posters.


Our house guest spent most of the week, talking with me and the children about cosmology and other science. About 3 weeks after our friend’s visit, our oldest son and I, were looking at the poster of this image, and talking about the origins of life here on earth. That day, he told me that he had realized for the first time – that the universe simply was not made just for us, and that we are not at the center of the universe, or even at the center of our own galaxy either – and we exist, simply of a consequence of the universe existing, and not the other way around. And that he believed that everywhere in the universe where life can possibly exist, that it probably does – I thought, not bad for a 14 year old atheist!

Life and the Universe – the never ending story?

When Christians start asking me, if I don’t believe in Jesus and heaven, then just what do I live for? I start thinking about the day in early May, when I told our 4 year old son, that we would be taking him and his brothers on a trip to Disney land in about a month in the second week in June – he had become so excited over this trip, that he could hardly even contain himself – he awoke the next morning, and asked me if we were going to Disney land today, and I told him not today, and it was not even June yet – then after almost a week of him asking me this same question every day, I finally told him that if he didn’t start being a good boy, and if he didn’t stop asking me this same question every day, that he just might not be going to Disney Land ever – from that day forward, he was on his best behavior, and he never asked me that question again either – he then simply started asking his mom, who then placed a calendar on the wall in his bedroom, and then she started marking off the days until our trip – I thought to myself, why in the hell, couldn’t I have simply thought of doing that myself? And no, I wasn’t being mean to our son.



I believe that it’s always nice; to have something happening to look forward to, but just as long as that something, is in fact real. When Christians ask me (what I perceive as a very hateful question) why if I don’t believe in Jesus and heaven, then just what do I look forward to doing after I die – I then often ask them, if they believe that they’re going to heaven, when they die, and if that’s all that they live for, then why in the hell, don’t they just pick up a gun, and then simply expedite their journey , and I tell them, that I don’t even believe, that Jesus would even mind at all, if they did. Most devout Christian, have about the same level of understanding reality, as most 4 year old children have – Christians await the day, when a loud trumpet will sound, and a supersized Jesus descends from the clouds, and with a big gold sword sticking out of his mouth – and they just can’t seem to understand, just how anyone without something like that to look forward to, could possibly live a happy life at all. Most of the atheists who I know, do in fact live extremely happy lives, simply living within the constructs of reality, and by making the best out of the only life that we know – but, what if this just wasn’t, the only life that we have to live – what if we did in fact discover, that we will all be back someday, and would this change the way we all look at life today?


So just what in the hell am I talking about? Years ago, my physics professor explained a mathematical theory of the cosmos to me, one which is based on a model of the universe that postulates, that the universe is only, in its true natural state, when it’s in the complete state of zero energy, and that the state of zero energy, is the only primacy for its existence – we are all currently, simply living in one of its infinite cyclic states, between our current state of energy, and the natural state of zero energy – and the universe is forever locked into these cycles. In short; the current state of our universe, is not the reason for why it exsist, and therefore, there is no first cause – the universe exists, simply because it does. What this says in effect, is that at a fixed point, sometime in the future, that all of the matter in the universe, will return to the natural state of zero energy, (where it is most happy) and then sometime after that, the opposite of the big bang will occur (all of the particles, of which comprised the former universe, will then coalesce and create the next singularity, and then, bang again – and the universe is off and running again – after which, all of the stars will form again, including our own sun and solar system, and our planet earth). Then, about a billion years after the earth has formed again, the same minor planet will collide with the earth again, and then form our moon again – and then in about 3 billion years after that, you’ll be back here reading this post again as well. And the real crazy things about this theory are, that even if this theory was in fact reality, and you knew it, you still wouldn’t be able to change one single thing in life from one cycle to the next – and even if we did discover that this theory was true, this same discovery would have had to happened in every other cycle also, including the next ones to come.


How would this change your view of life, and how would this effect religion – with all of its silly beliefs  

Helium isotope HE3 and the prospects of clean energy:

In a recent conversation I had with my son, he told me that he was considering taking a job offer working in the field of nuclear fusion research after his current project ends. This conversation took me back to the day when I first explained the difference between nuclear fission and fusion to him, and how I felt that an isotope of helium (he3) just might be the key in making nuclear fusion reactors work. I explained to him how heilun3 is rare here on earth, but quite abundant on the surface of the moon – in fact it is believed that there is enough he3 on the moon’s surface, to supply all of our energy needs for the next 6000 – 10,000 years; however, he told me that wasn’t what stuck the most in his head. Back then I was working on a theoretical idea of producing he3 from plain old helium, and in the process of liberating one of the neutrons, creating energy in the form of heat, which could be converted into electricity while making he3 for fuel. Back when he asked me for my research papers into this concept, I had no idea where he was going with this – he used my research to develop his own concept, and after he published a paper on the subject, he received many letters of interest from intuitions that are already involved in he3 fusion research.



For the past week I have been thinking about and reviewing my son’s concept, and having delusions of him winning a Noble Prize for his work. One of the things that he told me which came as a shock to me was his lack of inertest in financially profiting from his work – he’s always been like that?


Back when I was his age, I dreamed of solving the world’s energy problems by creating a new clean, unlimited source of energy – today that dream just might be closer to becoming a reality than I ever dreamed it could be. The sad thing about all of this is the United States is dead last in this field of research. This comes as no surprise at all to me – over half of Americans believe some very stupid stuff – we are a nation of highly deluded people – it’s hard to express the importance of developing clean energy programs to folks who believe that their space-daddy, is on his way back to save them – so why even care how bad we fuck-up the planet.


I believe my son is on to something good – both of our ideas involve producing energy from converting helium into the isotope he3 – his is more complex in concept. If nothing else, I hope his ideas inspire others in this field.


Just think about the ramifications of a program like this working – cheap unlimited clean energy. I’d bet the right-wing Christians would want nothing to do with it – they would say it came from Satan or something stupid like that.

Time is only relevant within our frame of reference:

Every since I dove head first into theoretical science; I have had this fascination with the possibilities of time travel, and changing the outcomes of past and present events – for example, what would happen if we traveled back in time to the Middle East, let’s say to about 3500-BC; and built a city that was based on our current technology, and with all of the present knowledge and understanding of science that we have today- one could only imagine just how much further advanced in science we’d be today.

I have always wondered just how things might be different today, if at the time in our past when both Arabs and Jews were making major advancements in both math and the understanding of the world through science – just how different things might be today, if Judaism and Islam had never even been in the equation. What would the world look like today if the Egyptians had advanced science, while leaving behind superstition and religion? And without all of this other deluded nonsense, would Christianity have even evolved?


Over the past 25 years or so, I have pondered many of these questions and a lot more of them as well. I have written many stories about what our world might look like today if we had left our superstitious-religious ignorance behind us (some just for fun). In some of these stories, I have contemplated what might have happen if the Jews never had a competing religion – would the rest of the world have simply followed a more cohesive version of religion based solely on the Jewish mythology? Or would most of the Jews have simply found enlightenment much sooner and began working together with everyone else in making the world a better place for all?

Atheists; do we really need faith to be rational?

There are at least two common misconceptions most religious people have who claim that it takes more “faith” to be an atheist, than it does to believe in “god.” These misconceptions are about the same of those who say it takes more “faith” to believe in science than it does to simply believe in their god(s). All of the three major religions, are based on the stories of the OT of the bible; the muslims believe that their “prophet” Mohamed, was sitting in a cave for years talking to an angel, and then he rode a winged-horse into the sky and then went up to “heaven.” But before he departed for his final trip, he met with Moses, jesus, Abraham, and a whole host of other prophets. The Christians on the other hand, believe that jesus was the son of god – or that he was god himself. Most believe he was born of a virgin; and after his mom had been raped by a ghost; however, the Mormons believe that god simply fucked the christ out of her little virgin ass, somewhere in space, and on another planet. And then the Jews don’t believe any of the above deluded nonsense – they simply cling to the bat-shit crazy stories of the Old Testament (dirt-man, rib-woman, the talking-snake, the great-flood, and a 6000 year old earth).And they’re the ones who believe all of this deluded irrational bullshit – why in the hell do they think that we need faith simply to be rational?

The first misconception Christians make when addressing me and this issue of faith in science, VS faith in their “god,” is that they assume that I was once just like them, and that I believed in their “god.” The second misconception is a misunderstanding of science itself; which is simply rooted in their ignorance of science. They speak of the Darwinian Theory of Evolution, as just being another type of religion, and of Darwin as just being some kind of a false god. They talk about the big-bang and Darwinian Theory as if they were both the same science. Some even believe that Darwin was attempting explained how the universe was made, and how life came into being; when the fact is Darwinian Theory only postulates that the species of living things we see today, only survived through natural selection in response to environmental changes (this is why, we don’t have many animals left today, who both eat and shit from the same hole; we just have a bunch of Christians, who still talk out of their asses).


One doesn’t need faith to believe in science; one only needs a working brain, and an understanding of science. Most religious people believe the bat-shit crazy dogmas of their deluded beliefs as truths. They have simply created their own reality – worlds were snakes talk, virgins have children, the dead rise and there’s an all-powerful space-daddy watching them from the sky.


I have always believed that most any child can learn and excel in science; but only if their minds haven’t first been polluted and poisoned by the ignorance of religion. Today we are seeing Christians changing history and teaching fairytales to children as science – no people, “jesus” did not have a pet dinosaur. The mental abuse and intellectual harm you are causing to your children should be a criminal offence – you are simply creating more little idiots and brain-dead morons!


I have pondered the idea that some kind of creature might have had a hand in creating the universe. However, it’s an insult to say that the made-up Gawd in the buy-bull had any hand in it.


No, Christians, I have never believed that any of your utter deluded religious tripe was true. And stop believing that I need faith to believe in science – I simply understand science – you, simply don’t have a fucking clue, what science really is about.

By Baconsbud; Reposted From My Views and Comments:

Differences between scientists and those that are religious:


I do something still today that used to really piss my ex-wife off. I would find a subject and start thinking about it heavily. I have been reading a few old blogs I used to read often until they quit publishing. The one I was reading that led to this post was about how religious people claim it takes faith to believe in science. It seems to me that this type of statement requires you to redefine the word faith. We know that faith is believing something without the evidence to support that view. I know of no science that is based on no evidence.


I have conducted no studies nor do I plan to about this topic. The points I plan on making here are my opinions and mine alone. Some of the differences I see between these two types of people are scientist tend to avoid saying they are 100% sure and always welcome challenges. I have met a few theist that seem to welcome challenges but once you start showing the evidence against their view they tend to get less and less willing to accept anything but their own words. Most that believe in any religion tend to be 100% sure of their views and will throw any evidence out with the bathwater if it doesn't fit their views. Yes a scientist will have some faith in his/her new hypothesis but will tend to have more trust in his/her abilities. A scientist might not like it but if their idea is proven wrong to them, they will accept it and modify their views to fit the new evidence. Many religious people will ignore any evidence or throw the devil into the mix to avoid admitting they are wrong. Most scientists will keep up with any advances in their fields and those that are related to it. I can't say that i know of any people who are religious that keep up with advances other religions make other then the methods which will get them more followers.

Do both scientist and theist use fear to advance their views? Is money the main reason either of these groups attempt to advance their views? I know theist use fear as a tool to advance their religion but I don't think it is used by most scientists. There are some but most people who use fear to advance science aren't actually scientist. The problem is that most non-scientist see the fear invoked by these other none scientist as coming from scientist. Yes money is always a factor in both fields. The difference I see is that most scientists use the money they struggle to get to help all of mankind while religions tend to use it to just advance their own views and could care less about the harm done to others. I have no way of knowing the full numbers but I would be willing to bet all I have that less than 50% of the money given to churches actually helps anyone outside of that church. I would be about 75% willing to bet less than 25% goes to those in need outside the churches.

God atheism and science; is there actually a god?

I was in my early 20s when I had a crisis of sorts over my atheism. I was about 2 years into my research in the field of quantum mechanics. Things behave much differently on a quantum level than they do within our perceived reality. The mere act of observation will affect the outcome. This has been proven by the Double Slit Experiment in which particles of matter behave differently when their being observed from when they’re not being observed. The simple act of human consciousness changed the outcome of the experiment. I thought how can a particle be aware of the fact that it’s being observed, and are we somehow connected with everything in the universe?




Then as I was starting to feel the mental stresses involved in learning this facet of science; I began wondering and pondering the idea that maybe some form of god was responsibly. I started wondering if all matter in the universe was somehow all connected through a god; or if god was the collective consciousness of all matter in the universe.



Don’t get me wrong; I was never pondering the existence of the Christian god, or any other religious deity for that matter - I had dismissed all of that deluded tripe in my preteen years. One really begins having strange thoughts when one gets into this area of science, and when one starts dealing with the theories and the math involved – the fact is you can’t even mathematically prove that you’re own self is real.



Towards the end of this video below; it gets into the Double Slit Experiment. What do you believe causes this weird outcome?

 
 
 
 
 
 

What has religion contributed to science and technology?

One thing that pisses me off more than anything else is when I hear some ignorant preacher claiming that the reason this nation is so technologically advanced is because of “god’s” blessing; when in reality the fact is, these same deluded-ignorant idiots and morons, preach against anything and everything in science, which proves the “facts” in the bible to be wrong. The truth in this matter is we as a nation, only began to be able to develop the sciences and technologies we have today, only after we separated from the oppressive church – and only then were enlightened people able pursue new ideas in science and in technologies, and without the fear of being burned-alive at the stake. The fact is the church; Christianity, “god” and religion, have contributed absolutely nothing to this process – and in defense of their asinine claims, they will try and start cherry-picking science, just like they cherry-pick the bible; however, doing this with science, only makes them look silly and stupid in the eyes of intelligent people.

They try to claim that all our technological advancements were inspired by “god,” when the fact is over 90% of our greatest inventers were non believers or atheists. Albert Einstein, who laid the foundations of modern physics, was appalled by the notion of the Christian god playing such games as in the bible, and at the same time being credited for creating the universe. Men like Thomas Edison, an outspoken atheist, who contributed so much to advance this nation, and the whole world for that matter, in a technologically direction; wasn’t inspired by the fucking bible either. Men like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who have done more to connect the world than any others are not Christians; they’re both atheists.

In reality what this all boils down to is the fact that “god” and Christianity, has contributed absolutely nothing to our modern concepts and technologies. The fact is that you won’t hear most scientist, thanking god or Jeebus for their latest scientific breakthrough; is because well over 90% of them are non-believers and atheists.      

I believe that we in the rational community have an obligation to set the record straight in these matters; this is the wrong message to be sending to our children  – for if we let the ideas that religion and science can co-mingle  within the same realm of reality; we’ll all be led straight back to the dark-ages!