My First Meme

image

…Okay, technically it’s my second.  But my actual first one wasn’t really very good… so…

Being a bit of an old fogey, I am sometimes slow to find things on these new-fangledy interwebs.  Yesterday, I discovered imgflip.com.  I think I’ll have a lot of fun there.

Conversations with Atheists 4

Paraphrased for brevity and clarity:

—–

Atheist: But you are assuming that there has to be some objective moral “truth”.  That’s just an opinion.  Morality is just about bringing the greatest good to the most people.

Me: Here is a fact: If your last statement were true, then it would be an “objective moral truth”.  Here is another fact: without a higher-than-human moral authority, any human “morality” is simply that person acting according to their own nature.  If “morality” is defined as “acting according to one’s own nature”, then “morality” becomes a meaningless term.  Since no human agency has greater moral authority than any other, the only way that morality has meaning is with the acceptance of the existence of God.  An atheist can certainly be ETHICAL, but he cannot be MORAL.

Atheist: You don’t need God to be moral.  It’s just about not increasing suffering.

Me: But without a higher moral authority, all morality—including that statement–become mere opinions.  I know of several groups which would disagree with your opinion VIOLENTLY; and without a higher moral authority, their opinion is every bit as valid as yours.

Atheist: Are you suggesting that ISIS has a seat at the table of a discussion on morality?

Me: Yes; if there is no higher moral authority than a human, then every human has an equal “seat at the table on a discussion of morality.”

On that topic, let’s discuss your fascination with 18th century utilitarianism.  You have made two statements regarding utilitarianism–let’s see how morally coherent they are.  We’ll start with the second: “it’s about not increasing suffering.”

Scenario: You come across a rape in progress.  Do you intervene?  Either way,  the victim has already been raped–but if you act to defend the victim, you risk injury both to yourself and to the rapist, either of which would increase suffering.  So, by your philosophy, the rapist should be allowed to finish–and in fact not prosecuted, since both prosecution and incarceration would cause him to suffer.

Or, how about murder?  Suppose you come across an indigent with no one to miss him.  By your philosophy, there is no moral argument against murdering him–he will no longer suffer anything after he dies, and no one will miss him.

Note that this also applies to any group of people large enough to close the circle of anyone close enough to grieve over a death; as long ENOUGH PEOPLE are killed, your philosophy has no moral objection.

But what about your first statement: “bringing the greatest good to the most people”?

Well, we still have trouble with stopping a rape-in-progress.  While we are certainly bringing good to the victim, we are also still posing the possibility of harm and even death upon ourselves and the rapist by trying to stop the crime.  Moreover, the sort of person who commits rape derives from it not only the physical satisfaction of sex, but the mental satisfaction of domination–both of which we would be denying them by interrupting the rape.  Our moral paralysis would probably result in the completion of the crime, regardless.

But an interesting thing happens when we look at the rape itself: we can say that pleasure of the rapist (as a good for that person), and the suffering of the victim (as a non-good for that person), roughly balance the scales.  Or, we may even put the balance on the side of the victim.  We may even do so by a significant margin.  But what if there are more than one rapist?  Now, many people can receive “gratification” from the same act, while only one person suffers.  Your philosophy not only condones this action, it CALLS for it.  And the more rapists, the more ethical this action is, in the view of utilitarianism.  It would also be more ethical to murder the victim after the fact, so that they no longer suffer…

What of murder in general?  Entirely permissible under utilitarianism, so long as the person was more disliked than liked.  But how about ETHNIC CLEANSING?  Sure, the minorities will object–until you’re done killing them–but their objections are irrelevant to the utilitarian.  The majority is, by definition, the greater number of people–so as long as THEY FIND THE ACTION BENEFICIAL IN ANY WAY, it is a moral action according to utilitarianism.

As much as progressivist-atheists like to whine about “internalized racism”, “internalized misogyny”, and all of your other made-up nonsense, your idea of an ethical system only works if everyone in the world behaves according the pre-existing code of conduct to which you are accustomed from growing up in a Christian society.  What you have just demonstrated is straight-up INTERNALIZED CHRISTIANITY.  Congratulations.

Conversations with Atheists 3

Paraphrased for brevity and clarity:

—–

Him: You can’t possibly be so stupid and uneducated as to dismiss the theory of evolution.

Me: Intelligent Design is a theory of evolution.  There are several.

Him: No, there aren’t!

Me: Certainly there are.  Darwinism, Neo-Darwinism, Catastrophism, and Intelligent Design off the top of my head.  I believe that there are at least two more.

Him: I’ve never heard of any of those.  “Intelligent design” is just another word for Christian creationism.

Me: Why would you say that?

Him: Because it’s true!

Me: They are only tangentially related; Intelligent Design theory does not specify a designer.

Him: Please!  Don’t even start with that nonsense.  It’s just Christian creationism.  Look, here’s a book.

Me: Well, that’s not really the cutting edge of Intelligent Design research…  But let’s assume for argument’s sake that you are correct, and Intelligent Design is just another term for Creationism.  Allow me to propose a new field of study, in which cosmology and biology are examined using information theory to see whether evidence can be found for deliberate design in their construction.  Certainly you can agree that that is a legitimate scientific inquiry?

*crickets*

—–

Her:  This is a victory for Separation of Church and State!

Me:  But ‘Separation of Church and State’ refers to the First Amendment keeping the Federal government from dictating the terms of religious practice.  This is actively preventing American citizens from even expressing their religious beliefs, simply because they hold office.  Or serve in the military.  It is the opposite of Separation of Church and State.

Her:  Whatever.  Politicians shouldn’t be able to force their religion on me.

Me:  Well, I certainly agree with that.  But this isn’t a religious issue, it is a legal and epistemological one.  But if we can agree that no one can force their religion upon you, why should you be able to force your atheism on other people?

Her:  Because of Separation of Church and State!

—–

Me: I believe it likely that the Exodus is a mythologization of an historical event.

Him: How many Israelites left Egypt at what time?

Me: This story was written before the invention of science or history, by a culture which valued emotional impact over accuracy in its writings.

Him: How many Israelites left Egypt at what time?

Me:  The information you are asking for is not available.  It’s like the Feeding of the Multitude; the reader is not to expect that someone actually took a census and counted 5,000 men plus women and children.  A first-century Aramaic author would use a number he felt conveyed the appropriate emotional impact of what he saw.

Him:  So, how many Israelites left Egypt at what time?

Me: More than one, at some time between 2,000 and 10,000 years ago.

Him:  That’s a ridiculous answer!

Me: You are asking a ridiculous question.  The conversation cannot move forward as long as you insist on ignoring the cultural and linguistic nature of the work in question.

Him:  I’m not here to have a conversation with you.  I’m here to show you how stupid you are!

—–

UPDATE: Lamarkianism is another theory of evolution.  It was largely considered debunked for a long time, but has minor support from the emerging science of epigenetics.

My Thoughts on Proposition 8

My thoughts on the topic of same-sex marriage seven years ago. Once again: called it.

Little-Known Blogger's avatarHome of the Little-Known Blogger

A certain segment of society would have you believe that Proposition 8 discriminates against homosexuals by denying them the right of marriage, and that it was created and forced onto the public by gay-hating Christians. I have some thoughts on this matter:

1. Proposition 8 does not prevent homosexual people from getting married. It bans same-sex couples from getting married. Anyone who truly wants to get married is free to find a partner of the opposite gender and do so. Personally, I’m interested in becoming a member of the Roman Catholic communion. I can’t, since they don’t allow Freemasons. If I wanted it badly enough, I’d give up being a Freemason to become a Catholic–but I don’t want it that badly.

2. Of course, I could just say that I’m not a Freemason–but anyone who respects the Church enough to really want to join would know that that lie would…

View original post 279 more words

No War on Christianity..?

Well, I’m back folks.  I was in Germany for three weeks, and recovering from jet lag for another…  I can’t really say that I’m happy about what has been going on in the U. S. while I was away (see below for a brief summary of my opinion on the SCOTUS “marriage” ruling).  Since returning, I have seen several blogs posting about how ridiculous it is that anyone would claim that there were a war on Christianity.  So, according to these sites:

– The Democratic National Convention has never boo’ed GOD on national television

Canada did not rule that Christians quoting the Bible constituted an act of “hate speech”

There have not already been suits brought against Churches in England for not performing same-sex “marriages”

Homosexual groups have not thrown huge public events for the sole purpose blaspheming Christianity.  (Not religion in general; Christianity.)

There is not an ongoing campaign to remove Christians’ free expression of religion during one of our most-holy days

Colleges are not defending professors who fail students for not condemning their own Christian beliefs

A privately-owned bakery was not fined $135,000 dollars and slapped with a gag order for practicing their freedom of religion and association

Christians are not being forced to fund the slaughter of children in their mother’s womb

The Oklahoma Supreme Court did not order the removal of a privately-funded monument to the origins of Western law, simply because those early laws are associated with Christianity

The U. S. State Department did not recently honor a homosexual advocate calling for the destruction of the institution of marriage, and admitting that that was the whole point of the fight over same-sex “marriage”

SCOTUS did not recently make an incredible over-reach of judicial authority by

1. misinterpreting the concept of “Separation of Church and State

2. in order to use a power that they do not actually have (judicial review)

3. in order to overturn the will of a majority of States,

4. in a way which will not only open any Church following Christian doctrine up to lawsuits–but actually destroys the First Amendment (by dictating the nature of religious practices)

POTUS did not make an official statement that the American people need to abandon their religious convictions, nor does he have a long history of condemning Christianity

There is ABSOLUTELY not a new Exodus of Christians fleeing mass-murder in the Middle East, with the slaughter of nearly 200,000 Christians leaving some areas without a Christian presence since nearly the founding of Christianity.

Well, I certainly feel safer.  Of course, now that the RCC is headed by a Marxist and the Episcopal Church has voted officially to move from solemnizing same-sex relationships to endorsing the blaspheming of the Sacrament of Marriage, it appears that there are a lot fewer Christians than the census shows.  And that the war upon Christianity is not being waged solely by external threats.

TAK3N

You know, say what you will about Liam Neeson being a fascist, gun-grabbing lunatic. Or a totally hypocritical jackass in his uber-violent criminal movies. But at least he’s trying to make physics popular!

I’m not sure what constant temperature (T) x The Glaisher-Kinkelin constant (A) x the equilibrium constant (K) x (3N) has to do with a sequel to the two “Taken” movies, but I’m sure it will all become clear when I start entering values into the formula.  
Odd that that they didn’t use “Taken 3” as the title.  Must mean something important!