I don’t often write about religion as I don’t mind it as long as you’re not either pushing it on others or attacking science in the name of it. As an atheist I might consider it an unsupported position, but it’s called faith for a reason. The most you’ll get from me is a shrug or me rolling my eyes if it’s a particular strange belief. But sometimes the religious say or do something that just doesn’t go down well with me; this time it actually got me quite angry.
Before I go into what this was there’s something you need to know about me. I have a disease called X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, as it’s a bit of a mouthful this is often abbreviated to X-ALD. It’s a metabolic disease caused by a mutation on the X chromosome, people who have it can’t produce a certain protein. Without it very-long chain fatty acids — a type of saturated fats — cannot be transported to the mitochondria in cells and metabolised. This is problematic as fats do not dissolve in water so your body cannot get rid of them, these fats then will start to accumulate in cells and organs.
Continue reading Suffering, Euthanasia, And The Passion Of Jesus Christ
Not everyone might be aware of this but Dr. Roy Spencer is someone who believes in Intelligent Design. He has often defended his support of Intelligent Design and his rejection of the Theory of Evolution quite vocally. Something I mentioned briefly in one of my blog posts.
That Spencer rejects the Theory of Evolution and replaces it with Intelligent Design brings into question his ability to assess evidence in a detached way. This because Intelligent Design is nothing else than the attempt of dressing up creationism (religion) in a lab coat to make it seem more legit. Which might sound harsh but it is an accurate description, anyone familiar with the book ‘Of pandas and people‘ will be well aware of that.
I’m writing about this as Ethan Epstein made the following remark in his article ‘What Catastrophe?‘ (on page 3):
Continue reading Dr. Roy Spencer, Please Keep Your Religion Out Of Science
Before I became active on YouTube I wasn’t aware of the NCSE, but I’ve become a big supporter of this organisation in the past few years, as they provide a very valuable service: NCSE is a not-for-profit membership organization that defends the teaching of evolution and climate change in the public schools. NCSE provides information, resources, and advice to schools,…
I’ve written before on how the creationism and intelligent design movement, and the discussions surrounding it in the United States, is quite the alien concept to me. With the very few things that I do know about biology, evolution and the scientific method that these proposed “theories” have absolutely no scientific merit whatsoever.
So I’m still amazed at how effective they have been, and still are, at spreading their disinformation. They have been especially effective with creating arguments that sound convincing, but when you take a closer look you find out that it’s just not supported by anything in science. In almost every single case it’s an argument/question that has already been dealt with by scientists.
This is the reason the following post on SkepticTV caught my attention. It also shows why it is important that organisations like the NCSE exist, and how important they are with helping teachers and schools in countering the nonsense:
Continue reading Teaching Evolution In A Climate Of Science Denial
The whole creationism and intelligent design movement and the whole discussion surrounding it in the United States was, and still is, quite the alien concept to me. With the very few things that I do know about biology, evolution and the scientific method that these proposed “theories” have absolutely no scientific merit whatsoever. As such the documentary Kansas vs. Darwin…
We can’t take the genetics of two different kinds like, ape and human, and mix them together. Or a reptile and human, or an insect and a human, and mix them together and create a viable living creature. According to modern biology, that’s impossible.
But we can mix the genetics of different ‘kinds’ together and create viable living creatures. The most well known examples are plants that have been genetically modified to express certain characteristics they normally don’t have.
Continue reading NephilimFree and genetic modifications
Pastor Terry Jones is using an argument that I’ve heard over and over again while discussing Islam. Which is that the Qur’an is hateful and thus Islam itself is evil. The latest surah someone used as an example of that in a discussion was the following:
A lot of Christians on YouTube preach bible verses and base their views on them. However, there are a lot of bible verses that they ignore or interpret differently. So when Shockofgod said “Hey I just say things like the bible says homosexuality is a sin. You know I just say it!” I had to make a video response about…
Not everyone might be aware of this but Dr. Roy Spencer is someone who believes in Intelligent Design. He has often defended his support of Intelligent Design and his rejection of the Theory of Evolution quite vocally. Something I 