My daughter Deserved To Die

Abder-Qader Ali murdered his child and all it took were a few simple ingredients. First off, find yourself a place in the World where women are treated with less respect than dogs. This might be the 21st Century, but there are still loads of Countries to choose from!

“Sitting in the front garden of his well-kept home in the city’s Al-Fursi district, he remains a free man, despite having stamped on, suffocated and then stabbed his student daughter to death”.

Next, make sure your massively overdeveloped ego, completely disproportionate to your true worth in the World, is re-inforced by the culture in which you live:

“Astonishingly, he said, police congratulated him on what he had done. ‘They are men and know what honour is,’ he said”.

Ok, those are the easy bits, but maybe you feel a bit icky about murdering your child just because you’re embarrassed what other men will think of you? No problem! Just invent something that can’t be argued against to justify your barbarity:

“I know God is blessing me for what I did”.

Well done Ali! How on Earth would men be able to commit all these amazing atrocities if it wasn’t for the idea of God to wash away their confidence and give them some overblown, self-righteous balls. And having balls is very important when murdering your 16 year old daughter. You have to remember us women have our role:

“That girl humiliated me in front of my family and friends. Speaking with a foreign soldier, she lost what is the most precious thing for any woman.”

Speaking with a foreign soldier! What a slut! Didn’t she know the most precious thing for any woman is not to do anything that might upset a man’s fragile self-image. Especially in front of other men. Thank goodness men have their role too, to be brave and manly and strong:

“‘My sons are by my side, and they were men enough to help me finish the life of someone who just brought shame to ours.”

Doesn’t it make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know there are guys “men enough” out there to carry their narrow-minded, state-supported, neanderthal religious backed fear of women to the point of vicious, barbaric murder?

Oh, and if you care, Rand Abdel-Qader spoke to the soldier because she studied English and was volunteering, helping displaced families. Her body was tossed into a makeshift grave and spat on afterwards. But, why would you care? She was only a woman.

Link to the Original Story here

The Argument against Evolution

Mr. C: Do you speak English?

Me: Yes, I do.

Mr. C: So what does “misology” mean?

Me: I don’t know.

Mr C: Ha! Then you don’t speak English!

Me: (confused) Umm…I don’t follow you.

Mr C: (Triumphant) You don’t know what misology means, therefore you don’t speak English.

Me: No, hang on…What does misology mean anyway?

Mr C: (Evasive) Well, I don’t know either, but the point is you don’t know therefore you don’t speak English.

Me: But-

Mr C: (Beaming) Furthermore, as I have now proved you cannot speak English it follows that you must speak French!

Me: I….excuse me? Wait, wait…Even if I don’t speak English, why does that mean I speak French? What about…Spanish? Or Chinese?

Mr C: (Patiently) Ah, those aren’t true languages.

Me: Right…Umm, what?

Mr C: French is the only true language. Things like Chochenyo, Tillamook and Jassic are dead languages. French is a living language! People who speak things like Arabic and Chinese are mistaken and are going to go to Hell. I believe in the one true language, French!

Me: So, even though I know thousands of thousands of words in English and can construct clear, meaningful sentences, I don’t speak English because I don’t know what misology means?

Mr C: Yep.

Me: (consults dictionary). It means “fear of reason”. Do I speak English now?

Mr C: (Pondering) Hmmm, fine. What does “incogitant” mean?

Me: (Shaking head) You got me.

Mr C: (Triumphant) You don’t speak English! Praise be to French!

More God Stuff: Happy Atheist’s Day!

Happy Atheist’s Day! « Fisher of Men

 Interesting little discussion on God and Atheism on this little blog if God and Atheism are your cup of tea…(Click the link above…Or just pray and wait for God to do it for you).

Love Hotels

What Spring shoulod be all about - Have you stayed at a Love Hotel?

Do you believe in miracles?

A blog I happened to stumble upon 

Atheists: Can You Discount Every Single Testimony of Miracles and Answered Prayers?

The following are deemed to be miracles by the blogger. He asks “Can the atheist or naturalist who deny the existence of God or supernatural phenomena claim that every single of these testimonies is false or mistaken, and that every one of the testifiers is a liar or misguided?”

• Hundreds of swarming Christmas beetles simultaneously fall to the ground on their backs and do not get up again, just as the pastor prays for the God-given authority of man over all nature in order to stop this disruption to the service.

• A young man’s heart stops for over half an hour due to anesthesia. The doctors test him and predict that he will not live through the night, will not awaken from his coma, and will have massive brain damage to the point of being a vegetable. The very next day, he awakens with full control of his body. The ECG shows no heart problems at all. The doctors are flabbergasted.

• A younf woman, unsure of whether to accept her new suitor due to still having feelings for her ex, asks God for a speific sign: The suitor will give her something with an apple in it tomorrow. The very next day, he gives her a teddy bear… One that holds an apple.

• After spending a whole night exorcising a possessed man (no 360-degrees head-turning involved outside of Hollywood), a Malaysian Christian studying in New Zealand seeks a sign froim God that the exorcism was successful: His wife in Malaysia will send him her very first letter to New Zealand from 9000 kilometres away, and it will arrive today. That very morning, the first person at the door was the mailman, with the letter in question.

• Seeking advice about how to know God’s will about relationship and marriage, the young man is asked by a church leader what a suitable sign would be. He answers that it would be a clear sign if his next job, out of the dozen applications that have been stewing for a month, sends him to Johor Bahru where his love interest is teaching. That very afternoon, he receives the phone call. They want a Science-educated individual who is good in English and who has worked for a magazine before - which fits him to a T. Not a single other job apllication responds for 6 months more. And the job is in Johor Bahru.

Can the atheist dismiss every single one of these occurences as psycho-somatic healing, pure luck or fraud?

————————–

My responses below.

In each of the examples you gave there are a number of possible answers. Let’s take the first as an example. Either:

The person who recounted the story to you was lying.
The person who recounted the story to you told the partial truth but exaggerated the events.
The beetles really did fall, coincidentally at the same time as the Pastor spoke.
The beetles fell from the sky as the direct result of intervention from a higher being.

Perhaps all of these possibilities seem unlikely, but we know one of them must be true. Therefore, we have to assume the most likely is the case. It might be hard to believe that the person exaggerated their story or got the facts wrong, but this is far more likely than a higher being intervening on the swarming of beetles.

The mistake you seem to make is in seeing a miracle in every coincidence. Coincidences, by their nature are extremely unlikely, but they happen.

You might find it useful to know the standard test for a miracle, devised by David Hume:

“No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish.”

If the beetles story is not a miracle, it means the person who told you either lied, exaggeratted, was mistaken or witnessed a coincidence. All far likelier than a miracle.

Scott Thong Says:
March 21, 08 at “No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish.”If the beetles story is not a miracle, it means the person who told you either lied, exaggeratted, was mistaken or witnessed a coincidence. All far likelier than a miracle.As there was a church full of eyewitnesses, including a board of church executive committee members who later signed the pastor on partly due to the miracle, the lying/exaggerating/mistaken explanation is discounted.As for coincidence… What is the probablility of all the beetles falling, all on their backs, and just when the pastor prays his prayer asking for a divine intervention along those lines?Thus, Hume’s test would establish this case to be a miracle - it is far more likely some unseen power influenced the spontaneous, simultaneous fall of hundreds of beetles at jus the right time, than they all fell by pure random chance.The supernatural intervention of a God is only ‘improbable’ or ‘impossible’ if one assumes from the start that God doesn’t even exist. Whereas Christians believe in a very real, active and listening God.—————————————-

The mistake you seem to make is in seeing a miracle in every coincidence. Coincidences, by their nature are extremely unlikely, but they happen.

On the contrary, I look for the non-supernatural explanation for every event. It is only when the odds of something happening by pure chance become too improbable, that I bring supernatural explanations into the account.

As these intelligent, rational and educated scientists do: Physicists Believe in God (Or At Least a Creator or Designer): A Collection of Quotes

I contend that your mistake is to explain away every claimed miracle as a coincidence. From the offset, naturalists discount the possibility of the supernatural as ‘impossible!’

That runs contrary to the scientific method; whatever result an experiment gets, will be bludgeoned and massaged into fitting the pre-formed conclusion.

As the finale of this skit demonstrates: The Locked Tomb Mystery - Whodunit?

Hi Simon,To quote your original post:“And those are just a handful of the miracle healings, directly answered prayers, and other coincidences so improbable that they can’t be due to chance alone… ”I disagree with your assertion that these “miracles” could be too improbable for chance alone. Improbable events occur all the time. If a lottery were held everyday, every day there would be a winner, despite how improbable winning the lottery is.The letter your Father received is a lovely story but to say “coincidentally, the leter arrived the next day” seems vastly more likely than to say “A God caused the wife to write a letter and a postman to deliver it the very next morning”. This story is certainloy not “so improbable that it can’t be due to chance alone” as you suggest.

But I see where we disagree:

“The supernatural intervention of a God is only ‘improbable’ or ‘impossible’ if one assumes from the start that God doesn’t even exist. Whereas Christians believe in a very real, active and listening God.”

I would say that your position means you want to see miracles, and it is a very natural thing for people to do. When we miss an elavtor by a few seconds or drop a butter covered knife on the floor we have a moment of frustration, as if the inanimate objects and events are conspiring against us. But of course, they aren’t. It’s purely chance.

None of the examples you have given here are miracles I’m afraid, but this isn’t something that should upset you. I assume you have faith in your God and faith requires no proof they say, so stop looking for miracles, have faith in your God and have a very lovely day

We Need More Faith!

 Here’s what I’d like to hear real Christians say:

“I know God is stronger than the Devil and I have faith in my children to see the truth and faith in my God to show them!”

A statement like that would show everyone how utterly certain you are in the realness of God!

Sadly, there are too many Christians who doubt their faith. They show their doubt through their fear of unwholesome forces - As if God were not all powerful!

Take Evolution. It doesn’t say “God is not real” and yet so many Christians don’t want to hear of it. Why can’t Evolution be another part of God’s great mystery? And why should your children not be taught it in School? Have faith and trust in God!

“I know God is stronger than the Devil and I have faith in my children to see the truth and faith in my God to show them!”

Here’s the way to show all the heathens and atheists of the World the true power of the Christian God:

 Let our children hear about all religions. Teach them all about Science. Let them read the Bible and On the Origin of Species both! And then marvel as, granted with all human knowledge and folly, they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord.

Because they would, wouldn’t they? Or do you doubt it would be so?

Questions for Christians

I have a genuine interest in trying to understand and would be very grateful to any Christians who might be able to help. I have a few questions in particular to which I’ve never heard a satisfactory answer. Feel free to answer any or all and thankyou very much for any comments you do decide to leave

1. Are your beliefs based on faith or evidence?

2. Is the Bible meant to be taken literally? And if only parts of it are, how do you know what is literal and what isn’t?

3: What’s to be learned from the following Bible quote:

Judges 19: 22-27

22 While they were enjoying themselves, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we may know him.”

 23 The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this disgraceful thing. 24 Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don’t do such a disgraceful thing.”

 25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. 26 At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.

 27 When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28 He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.”

4. (Assuming you take it all literally, and picking just one example) How did Noah get polar bears, kangaroos, etc onto the Ark?

5. Leviticus 25:44” ‘Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves.” Does this mean slavery is ok?

6. Why are the events of the Bible all situated in one small area of the Globe?

7. Matthew 13: 55-57 “55Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56And his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then hath this man all these things?” Did Jesus have brothers and sisters, and if so, were they all virgin births too?

8. How do you know the Bible isn’t man-made?

9. Is God omnipotent or omnipresent?

10. (One for Muslim readers) When a female suicide bomber gets to heaven does she get 81 male virgins as a reward?

An Atheist’s Heaven

So there’s this book, a big one, and it comes with a big comfy chair. And the big, big book has everything! Every teeny-weeny detail ever. But more than that, every detail is about you.

Every moment of your life described from every single angle. Every utterance you ever made, every twist and turn of your limbs and every effect you ever had on another living soul are there.

Thing is, it’s so well-written you feel for the characters. Deeply. Truly. You called Sally Watkins “fat” in 8th grade. You read it again now, when you’re dead, and you can feel yourself shrivel, feel your poor little heart sob. And you know, you did that.

You feel the joy too. Every moment of happiness you made real is there for you to feel. Really actually feel. Imagine it! Feeling the joy you made!

It’s all there, the good and the bad that you made. And there’s no escape.

Martin Luther King is feeling, individually and in microscopic detail, the supreme welling of pride and hope in 6 million breasts.

Adolf Hitler is feeling, over and over and over and over, the visceral misery of 6 million people. And he understands their pain. He’s feeling it.

The book, of course, takes absolutely forever to read.

And what’s great is, it’s all true. Not “true” in the fragmented, disjointed collapsable “true” we live with, but actually universally, utterly true.

To bring joy into the World.

To have others know our pain.

To know truth.

Sweet Dreams.

Body of a Swan, Head of a Vulture

Anne Coulter - enriches every debate like a turd in a water-cooler. Has there ever been a more wretched mis-use of oxygen? I don’t want to bash America - it’s the land of the free and free re-fills after all - but surely something is broken somewhere when people buy her books? Shampoo commercials, possibly - I do feel the need to shower after hearing her, (I really do!) - but books?

It isn’t her views, as abhorrent as I find them, that bother me. It’s the blindingly obvious, compellingly stark, elephant-with-a-big-red-target-painted-on-it’s-ass clarity of the fact - She isn’t very clever. There aren’t any considered thought processes behind those witch-on-a-sunbed features, just the glowering, vicious petulance of a child.

It would be nice to dismiss Ms Coulter. It would be utterly fabulous to throw her off a cliff. (Remembering to climb down afterward and lop her head off to be on the safe side), but the fact is, people read her words and find something - I am cringing as I type this - appealing in her. How can someone so ill-informed, so quick to judge, so keen to spew nonsense and hate be a poster girl for half the Country?

Mitt Romney is right (God help us!) Washington is Broken, and the trashy lack of class that is Miss Coulter is the first bit of scrap that should be thrown out.

 

God doesn’t need evidence

“The Bible is the word of God. Why? Because, the Bible says that the Bible is the word of God”.

There is no evidence , there is only faith, and so good Christians may proudly state:

“I believe in something for which there is absolutely no evidence”.

What about Evolution?

Sure, it’s a cumulative process which breaks down the problem of improbability into smaller pieces But, not all of the stages of Evolution have been accounted for. Accepting a theory with all those gaps in it as fact would be like convicting a man of murder when you know:

2230: Driving to victim’s house. 2300 Standing over dead victim holding an axe.

But you don’t know:

2240 What radio station was he listening to?

Sure, the fossil records we have tell a compelling story,  but what about the gaps? Making a case for Evolution with all these gaps would be like trying to understand “War & Peace” with 50 random pages torn out.

So again: “I believe in something for which there is absolutely no evidence”.

There is the possibility that the origin of life is something we have not yet discovered but may do some day. This is what atheists believed until Evolution came along. Nowadays most atheists are just very smug.

Confession time: I’m an atheist. I came from nothing and one day I’m going back to nothing, but in between that I’m looking forward to living the rest of my life because being alive really is kinda fab. If there is a purpose for life I favour:

“People are DNA’s way of making more DNA”
 
And you know, to say there is no God does not a bleak universe make. Can’t we live for our own happiness? Can’t we still care about the World enough to want to change some things in it? Can’t we just live for ourselves and the ones we love, rather than living for a made up god?

Love life and enjoy it while you can.

I’ve had the blind luck to have been born, and every moment I’m here is precious. I’m not wasting my time worrying about the words of a book written 2000 years ago, by men living 300 years after the events described, carefully edited and selected and translated through several different languages by people with an agenda. Neither am I worshipping or fighting for a God for whom there is no evidence.

A God may exist. Unicorns maybe too. There isn’t any evidence for either so the likelihood is pretty much the same. 

So, my advice, which may be taken or thrown away is this:

Don’t waste your precious time over something you cannot know and almost certainly doesn’t exist. Believe in those things you have evidence for - you and those you love, and love your life while you can.

 
Oh, and have a fabulously gorgeous day.