This (non)religious Universe

How silly is it when theists (particularly Bible-thumpers) claim that the fledgling inhabitants of one single little blue marble floating around in the unimaginably massive void of existence is the center of the entire Universe? This silly (large image below the fold):

Daily Blend: Monday, February 18, 2013

Rhonda McGee

Iowa woman ^[pictured] “arrested and charged with intent to manufacture [crystal] meth” after buying cold medicine for her allergies – without even violating legal limits.
(via @radleybalko)

In case you somehow missed it, Phil Plait has breathless coverage of last Friday’s spectacular Russian meteoric fireball, along with a reassurance that no, the Universe is not out to get us lately (any more than usual, that is).

The Heartland Institute: Still a bunch of lyin’ liars about climate change.
(via @BadAstronomer)

And finally, here be morans. (To be fair, the handrail looks like it broke and slid askew rather than got installed that way.)
(via @RichardWiseman; RT: @pzmyers)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

I’m either too busy to blog or just mesmerized by this video

I’m busy with personal matters these days – who knew helping someone move in blizzardy mid-January Québec all day while clad in a stupidly thin excuse for a coat would be cause for a tough time? – so have this awesomely gorgeous video of the slowly rising Moon in real-time instead:

Full Moon Silhouettes from Mark Gee on Vimeo.

Meanwhile, Phil Plait just couldn’t resist spoiling (or heightening?) the mood with some complementary science.

Daily Blend: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Rev. Louie Giglio

Tulsa, Oklahoma Planned Parenthood clinic forced to shut down due to slashed funding.

Anti-gay Christianist asshat Rev. Louie Giglio ^[pictured] voluntarily backs out from President Obama’s inauguration. Spokeswoman claims the Administration wasn’t aware of his history of bigotry.

U.K. Met Office blog kicks the Daily Mail’s ass over its latest garbage-packed global-warming-denying article.
(via @BadAstronomer)

Jebus: Cops barge into home without warrant or probable cause, shoot sleepy man 16 times (somehow without killing him) when he reaches for a flashlight. But of course, this “perceived risk” meant their actions were “justified”.
(via @radleybalko)

And finally, some good news: We won’t get smashed into Earthling purée in 2036 after all!

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Quick updates: I finally found how to replace the old “Older/Newer Posts” links with actual post titles, something I’ve been trying to do here for quite a while. I’ve also replaced the clunky old search bar with a Google custom search bar, so older posts should now be much easier to find. Oh, and Disqus reactions are finally working again. That is all.

The Atheist Census ^[pictured] is finally back from its DDoS-induced coma, so get yourself counted if you haven’t already.

Speaking of godless representation, a new comprehensive Pew Research Center study reveals that 16.3% of the world is religiously unaffiliated (though not necessarily atheistic, of course).

Not that you need it (I would seriously hope), but the Bad Astronomer has a write-up explaining in detail how and why the world will not end this Friday.

And finally, it looks like the new SimCity will be the first in the series I won’t be spending my money on. It’s a damn shame; I love Maxis, but to hell with EA’s prohibitive DRM fixation.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Ray Comfort presents another hilariously bad analogy for God

Ray Comfort

Leading Internet buffoon and recent WorldNetDaily inductee Ray Comfort presents another one of his famously moronic analogies in his amusing quest to discredit atheists:

A group known as “a/sunists” produced a manifesto explaining why they believe that the sun doesn’t exist:

Firstly. An entire desert tribe of men, women, and children was once killed by the sun. Therefore the sun doesn’t exist.

Second. Intelligent scientists have searched the night sky for the sun, and found no evidence for its existence.

Third. They also entered a pitch-black room and studied a book about the sun. Again, they found no empirical evidence.

Fourth. Beliefs were confirmed by interviewing members of the Braille Institute.

Lastly. The millions who testified that they have seen a brilliant ball of fire in the sky are unscientific dimwitted liars. The a/sunists continue to hold their meetings in a dark room and tell each other that it is intelligent to believe that the sun doesn’t exist.

By professing the blindness of atheism, atheists deny the God-given light that He has given to every sane human being.

First of all, that should be “asolarists”, not “asunists”, given that the Sun’s actual name is Sol (hence, “solar activity” and not “sunular activity”). But then, considering he actually believes the above constitutes a coherent or convincing argument, it seems rather petty to blame him for not understanding the intricacies of basic English.

Ray, do you know why there are no “asolarists” (who aren’t presumably kept in padded rooms)? Why, of course you do – your point is that the existence of the Sun is obvious to anyone who can look up, much less use all of our fancy sciencey tools to study its various characteristics. In other words, only crazy people would believe the Sun doesn’t exist, right?

Well, see, here’s the thing with your argument, Ray. God isn’t like the sun. Anyone can see the sun with there naked eyes (though don’t look into it directly!), but no-one can see God’s beard. We can feel the sun’s warmth; we can’t feel God’s dissatisfied breath down our necks every time a sin is committed. We can measure the exact distance between us and the Sun; yet, God is literally neither here nor there. We can determine nearly everything about the Sun, such as its size, mass, chemical composition, energy output, and expected lifespan; but the Bible makes it clear that God cannot be observed, calculated or quantified in any way, shape or form by even our most sophisticated equipment. The Sun is a major player in the natural world (at least as far as life on Earth is concerned), yet there is absolutely no material (or logical) evidence that any part of our environment was even touched by a divine being, much less poofed into existence altogether.

In other words, even by your own exact logic, while there is tons of “proof” (as you would surely put it) that the Sun exists, there is zero “proof”, or any empirical evidence whatsoever, that any supernatural being exists at all, much less the one described as Yahweh in the Old Testament. If there was, we would have found it by now.

Who, exactly, are the crazy people here, Ray? Those who believe the Sun exists because of its obvious, demonstrable and measurable effects on the world around us, or those who believe in a divine intelligence that supposedly created the entire Universe without leaving any trace of its handiwork, and that supposedly demands veneration despite failing to provide the slightest hint of evidence that it even exists in the first place?

This is is why I don’t spend too much time trying to convince anyone that there is a God. To do so is to waste time and energy.

And yet, you spend your time (at least on your blog) deriding atheists for not believing in God and cooking up ever-more-ridiculous metaphors to try and prove how obvious it supposedly is that he exists. Tomayto and tomahto, Ray.

Neil deGrasse Tyson explains why the Universe (most likely) doesn’t have a purpose

It’s hard to tell who makes just about anything sound cooler, Morgan Freeman or Neil deGrasse Tyson. Here’s the latter as he explains away our delusions about an anthropocentric universe:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

NEIL deGRASSE TYSON: Does the Universe have a purpose?

I’m not sure. But anyone who expresses a more definitive response to the question is claiming access to knowledge not based in empirical foundations. This remarkably persistent way of thinking, common to most religions and some branches of philosophy, has failed badly in past efforts to understand, and thereby predict, the operations of the Universe and our place within it.

To assert that the Universe has a purpose implies a desired outcome. But who would do the designing, and what would a desired outcome be? That carbon-based life is inevitable, or that sentient primates are life’s neurological pinnacle?

Of course, humans were not around to ask these questions for 99.9999% of cosmic history. So, if the purpose of the Universe was to create humans, the cosmos was embarrassingly inefficient about it. And if a further purpose of the Universe was to create a fertile cradle for life, then our cosmic environment has got an odd way of showing it.

Life on Earth, during more than 3½ billion years of existence, has been persistently assaulted by natural sources of mayhem, death and destruction. Ecological devastation exacted by volcanoes, climate change, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, and especially killer asteroids, have left extinct 99.9% of all species that have ever lived here.

How about human life, itself? If you’re religious, you might declare that the purpose of life is to serve God. But if you’re one of the hundred billion bacteria living and working in a single centimeter of your lower intestine, you might instead say that the purpose of human life is to provide you with a dark but idyllic, anaerobic habitat of fecal matter.

So, in the absence of human hubris, the Universe looks more and more random. Whenever events that are purported to occur in our best interests are as numerous as other events that would just as soon kill us, then intent is hard, if not impossible, to assert. So, while I cannot claim to know for sure whether or not the Universe has a purpose, the case against it is strong and visible to anyone who sees the Universe as it is, rather than as they wish it to be.

I’m Neil deGrasse Tyson. I was asked by the Templeton Foundation to respond to a question: “Does the Universe have a purpose?”

Human hubris, indeed.

(via Friendly Atheist)

Daily Blend: Thursday, November 29, 2012

Susan Johnson

Juvenile crime in California dropped by a record-breaking 20% between 2010 and 2011 thanks to marijuana decriminalization.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

South Lyon, MI middle school performing arts teacher plays pro-LGBT music video in support of diversity. So naturally, the school suspends her without pay.
(via @BuzzFeedAndrew)

And finally, new from NASA: Mercury “almost certainly” has frozen water buried at its north pole.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, November 19, 2012

Lisa Biron

Another Bible-loving Christianist “traditional values” advocate ^[pictured] busted for child porn & molestation.
(via Right Wing Watch)

Former Michigan assistant A.G. Andrew Shirvell demanding unemployment benefits after being fired for illegally using government computers to stalk and harass a gay university student.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

100,000 Stars: Take a spectacular virtual tour of the Milky Way galaxy.

And finally, give a stingray an X-ray and you apparently get an alien:
(via Pharyngula)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, November 05, 2012

Karen Castor Dentel

New blog policy! For the sake of convenience, I henceforth reserve the right to fix any broken links in reader comments (leaving an admin’s note whenever I do so, of course). That is all.

It still bewilders me how some cultures perceive teenaged girls showing the slightest interest in boys as a greater “dishonor” than burning them to death with acid.
(via Friendly Atheist)

Stunningly hideous Republican attack ad compares Florida elementary schoolteacher and Democratic House candidate ^[pictured] to Jerry Sandusky for supporting teachers’ unions.

Shorter buzz-killing scientists: Not only is light-speed space travel impossible, it would also irradiate us to death in minutes. (Stupid hydrogen.)
(via The Daily Grail)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Monday, October 08, 2012

Martin Ssempa

Man takes photo of storm clouds, gets questioned by FBI terrorism task force.

Today’s nonsensical threat that supposedly turns men gay and destroys civilization as we know it: Women drivers (in Saudi Arabia)!

Uganda pastor Martin “eat da poo-poo” Ssempa ^[pictured], chief proponent of Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill, convicted with five others for spreading false child-rape charges against another pastor.
(via Dispatches from the Culture Wars)

The anti-Freethought Blogs brigade really is a stupidly obsessed lot.

And finally, have a gob-smacking 3D rotating nebula.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Daily Blend: Saturday, October 06, 2012

Simon Singh

Another bunch of quacks opt for legal thuggery to try and silence debunker Simon Singh ^[pictured]. Let’s hope that libel reform holds up?

Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA): “[E]volution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory […] is lies straight from the pit of Hell.” Phil Plait: Get the f@¢k off the House Science Committee.

And finally, Wonkette live-blogs the Jon Stewart vs. Bill O’Reilly “Rumble in the Air-Conditioned Auditorium” debate that I can’t see and that had better be released on video soon after it’s over, dangit.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Why the night is dark (and the Universe isn’t infinite)

How do you go from asking a deceptively simple question like “Why is the sky dark at night?” to proving that the Universe is neither timeless nor infinitely large? Having a scientific mind helps … or you could just watch this nifty little video from Minute Physics:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

[−]

Why is the sky dark at night?

You might think the answer is obvious: “The sun isn’t on.” But the only reason the sky looks blue during the day is that sunlight scatters off the atmosphere. If we didn’t have an atmosphere, like on the Moon, the sky would always be dark, even when the sun is shining.

So, let’s rephrase the question: Why is space dark? I mean, space is full of stars, countless stars, which are all about as bright as the Sun. And in an infinite, eternal universe, no matter what direction you picked, if you looked far enough in that direction, you would see a star or galaxy. So, the whole sky should be as bright as the Sun, night and day. And since it’s not, does the darkness of the night sky mean that there’s some distance away from us when stars and galaxies just stop? A boundary between something and nothing? An edge to the Universe?

Not exactly. All of our evidence seems to indicate that space has no edge. But the Universe itself does – not a spatial edge, but a temporal one.

As far as we know, the Universe had a beginning, or at least a time about 13.7 billion years ago when the Universe was so small and crumpled up with itself that our standard notion of space and time breaks down. And since only a finite amount of time has passes since this so-called beginning, that means that some of the stars necessary to fill up the brightness in every direction are so far away that light from them plain hasn’t had time to reach us yet. It’s as if the Universe were a big thunderstorm and we’re still waiting to hear the thunder from the really distant stars.

But wait, it’s better than that. Since light takes time to travel across the Universe, when we point our telescopes at something really far away, we’re actually seeing that part of the Universe as it was when the light was emitted. So when we look at 13.5 billion-year-old light, it’s not that we don’t see stars just because the light from them hasn’t gotten to us yet. We don’t see any stars because we’re getting a peak at the Universe before any stars had formed.

A starless Universe! Now that sounds to me like a pretty reason why we look up and see a dark night sky. But … it’s not.

I mean, it is true that we can find points in the sky where they aren’t any stars by looking past the earliest stars and thus farther back in time. But even when we point our telescopes past the earliest stars, we still see light. Not starlight, but the light left over from the Big Bang. We detect this cosmic background radiation coming more or less evenly from all directions, forming a background beyond the stars. So I guess the night sky isn’t actually dark to begin with.

Right. So, if our telescopes tell us that the night sky isn’t dark, then why does it look dark? Here’s a clue to the real answer. When the Hubble telescope photographed the distant stars of the astoundingly beautiful Hubble Extreme Deep Field, it took the picture using an infrared camera. Why?

Well, distant stars and galaxies are moving away from us because the Universe is expanding. So, the same way a record slowing down lowers the pitch of my voice, the Doppler Effect causes stars moving away from us to become redder. And the farther away they are, the faster they move away from us and the redder they become, until they become infrared. And then we can’t see them anymore; at least, not with our human eyes. And that’s why the night sky appears dark.

In summary: If we lived in an infinite, unchanging Universe, the entire sky would be as bright as the Sun. But the sky is dark at night, both because the Universe had a beginning, so there aren’t stars in every direction, and more importantly, because the light from super-distant stars and the even more distant cosmic background radiation gets redshifted away from the visible spectrum by the expansion of the Universe. So, we just plain can’t see it.

Finally, we’ve shed some light on why the night sky is dark – and why it isn’t.

(via Bad Astronomy)

Tags: Minute Physics • redshift • Universe

Daily Blend: Sunday, August 19, 2012 – I’m back!

I haz returned! Sadly, I do not come bearing gifts, if only because of pesky laws of physics making it astonishingly difficult to transmit physical objects through computer screens. But I do have a few links I was able to save up over the last week, along with a few individual posts I’m saving up for a little later, so enjoy:

I know insurance companies are assholes, but it takes a special kind of soullessness to defend in court a man who killed a woman after running a red light to try and avoid paying her full insurance policy. Fuck you forever indeed, Progressive. ^[pictured]
(via @pattonoswalt; RT: @ebertchicago)

Fitting: Christian revisionist David Barton will re-release his bullshit-ridden and recently yanked book The Jefferson Lies through Glenn Beck’s publishing company.

Former Michigan assistant AG Andrew Shirvell finally ordered to pay damages for his ludicrously bigoted campaign against gay U-M student body president Chris Armstrong.
(via Wonkette)

In which top geek John Scalzi encounters the bottomless pit of charm and entertainment that is Vox Day.

Awesomeness: A brand-new (ie. less-than-three-year-old) Martian impact crater.

And finally, those sounds you just heard were Bill Donohue, Pam Geller and other Islamophobes popping a few aneurysms:

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Progressive • insurance companies • Matt Fisher • Katie Fisher • David Barton • The Jefferson Lies • Mercury Ink • Christian dominionism • Christian nationalism • U.S. Founding Fathers • Thomas Jefferson • Thomas Nelson • Andrew Shirvell • Chris Armstrong • University of Michigan • homophobia • Chris Armstrong • Chris Armstrong Watch • Vox Day • Theodore Beale • John Scalzi • misogyny • Mars • impact events • Ramadan • Islam • Muslims • Empire State Building

Daily Blend: Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Hamza Tzortzis

Senators: We want the NSA to reveal how many U.S. citizens it illegally spied on. NSA: That would violate their privacy.

How to tell if a controversial claim is scientifically true. Includes lots of Phil “Bad Astronomer” Plait, always a nice bonus.
(via Bad Astronomy)

Noted Islamic Creationist hack ^[pictured] plagiarizes from noted Christian Creationist hack to “critique” Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion.
(via Pharyngula)

xkcd’s being awesome again, exoplanets edition.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: National Security Agency • NSA • Ron Wyden • Mark Udall • FISA Amendments Act • Lifehacker • Phil Plait • Bad Astronomer • David McRaney • Alan Henry • scientific method • confirmation bias • Hamza Tzortzis • Islam • Creationism • William Lane Craig • Richard Dawkins • The God Delusion • xkcd • comics • exoplanets

Fox Nation: Space mining = liberal socialism!

Socialists!

You may have heard about a certain little press event yesterday concerning something to do with, oh, I dunno, several famous billionaires and private space exploration corporations planning to launch spacecraft to go mine asteroids in space? Phil Plait has the juicy details; the whole thing is quite fascinating and far too advanced for a rube such as I to have anything worthwhile to write about.

Of course, I know what you’re all wondering: What does Fox News think of all this?

Well, behold:

Original headline: ‘Does Asteroid Mining Violate Space Law?’ (Yahoo! News)

Yeah … because wealthy citizens and privately owned enterprises choosing to bankroll an economic venture with their own money – ie. the textbook example of industrious capitalism – is “socialism”.

I don’t think there’s anything more to be said.

(via @bendimiero)

Tags: Fox Nation • Fox News • socialism • space mining

Daily Blend: Friday, March 02, 2012

Michael Arena

Note to Rush Limbaugh: I think I understand your thinking behind saying that college women need to take more birth control pills the more they have sex. That’s why you need your bottles of Viagra when you go visit Dominican hookers, after all.

Maryland officially becomes 8^th state do let gays do the hanky-panky with wedding bands. Opponents predictably vow to put it up to a vote.
(via @BreakingNews)

Man ^[pictured] convicted at 16 on child molestation charges based on lies and ridiculously crap “pedophile test” now appeals his 20-year sentence.
(via @radleybalko)

Holocaust-denying, Hitler-celebrating, neo-Nazi insurance salesman running for Congress in Illinois.
(via RichardDawkins.net)

How to turn anyone (especially celebrities) into atheists: Get Christians to demonstrate their “love” at them.

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Maryland • gay marriage • same-sex marriage • marriage equality • Martin O'Malley • Michael Arena • child molestation • wrongful conviction • Arthur Jones • Republicans • Republican Party • Nazis • neo-Nazis • neo-Nazi Party • Holocaust denialism • Jews • Adolf Hitler • PZ Myers • Miley Cyrus • Lawrence Krauss • Christians

Daily Blend: Sunday, February 05, 2012

Saeed Malekpour

1) Canadian-born man develops photo uploading software. 2) Porn site uses said software without man’s knowledge. 3) Iran accuses man of making porn sites and sentences him to death. 4) Iran court quashes execution after human rights outrage. 5) Iranian supreme court reinstates death sentence.
(via The Agitator)

War on Terror arrives in Canada: Québec Muslim accused of terrorism after encouraging work colleagues to “blow away” the competition.
(via @radleybalko)

I somehow neglected to link to this lengthy, detailed and utterly heartbreaking exposé on the war waged by Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) district of Anoka, MN against gay teens, who are killing themselves in droves amidst endless fundagelical-fueled homophobia.

Money-charging French mapmaker has court fine Google for “anti-competitive” Google Maps (ie. because it’s free).
(via The Agitator)

Awesomely awesome interactive map of the entire known universe. (Includes Minecraft for extra geek cred.)
(via @jooon)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Saeed Malekpour • Iran • War on Terror • Muslims • Canada • Quebec, CA • gay teens • gays • homophobia • teen suicides • Anoka, MN • Anoka-Hennepin school district • Michele Bachmann • Christians • Evangelical Christians • Evangelicals • France • Bottin Cartographes • Google • Google Maps • universe • Minecraft

Christianists: Space telescopes prove Biblical Genesis!

Hubble: Fundy tool?

This is just too funny. The Christian Newswire is all titillated over news that NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes discovered what they believe is evidence in support of the Bible’s account of Creation as illustrated in Genesis. Seriously:

Since Biblical times, people have put their trust in the Genesis account of creation. In recent years however, some have challenged the account and say there is no scientific evidence to support Genesis. It appears now that discoveries made by NASA's scientist are confirming that the Genesis account is scientifically accurate. The idea of no scientific evidence to support it is now being turned upside-down by the very findings made in 2004 by NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Telescopes of proto-planetary disc that surround infant stars.

According to NASA scientist, data from these two telescopes is revealing that planets like the Earth are formed in the exact same fashion as described at Genesis 1:2, 3. According to NASA, planets form inside a proto-planetary disc of dust and debris, starting out in a formless and chaotic state in total darkness, as describe in Genesis verse 2. "Now the earth proved to be formless and waste, and there was darkness upon the surface of the watery deep."

NASA's scientists have discovered that as the planets mature inside their dusty cocoon they suck up all the dust between them and the sun so that the planets slowly emerge from darkness into the light as described in Genesis verse 3. "Let light come to be." Then there came to be light.

Isn’t it just cute the way they scurry around, doing their darnedest to twist scientific findings to fit their little delusions?

Well, okay, maybe not cute. But it sure is amusing.

(via Joe. My. God.)

Tags: NASA • Hubble telescope • Spitzer telescope • Christians • Christian Newswire

Daily Blend: Thursday, April 25, 2011

Dr. Michael Mann

• “Climategate” scientist Michael Mann ^[pictured] cleared of any wrongdoing – yet again (again).

• In a twist no-one saw coming, the majoritarily Republican-led government defense of DoMA is based on bullshit from rotten sources.
  (via @todayspolitics)

• Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector claims that poverty is a Leftist scam based on ^{[citation needed]}.

• NASA discovers stars you could set foot on. (Barring the vacuum. Whatevs.)

• Bill Donohue is upset over NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to keep professional god-botherers out of the families-only 9/11 ceremony.

• How sexists find love: Deconstructing the workings of “Game” (pick-up artistry).
  (via @PersonalFailure)

If you have any story suggestions, feel free to leave them in the comments or send them in.

Tags: Michael Mann • Climategate • John Boehner • Defense of Marriage Act • DoMA • Edie Windsor • Lisa Diamond • Paul Clement • Robert Rector • Heritage Foundation • child poverty • brown dwarfs • NASA • stars • Bill Donohue • Michael Bloomberg • 9-11 • clergy • Game • pick-up artists • misogyny • dating