The world is not a Pick'N'Mix

One of the things that really annoys me about Creationists is their dishonesty; even to their own faith. The other is their Pick’N’Mix approach to Science.

Defying Gods will

Christians believe that everything that happens is a part of Gods divine plan; but they only believe this so long as it is to their own benefit. As soon as they get sick they goto the Doctor or Hospital to obtain some science based medicine, the same science whos process they attack and disrupt at any opportunity and not only are they turning to something they so rigorously deny but they are also defying their god.If gods wants them to be sick and die a slow painful death then isn’t that exactly what they should do? If they are going to die then that is gods wish; according to their own philosophy but many of them are quick to defy the wish of their god as soon as this inconvenience arrives. So much for obeying the will of god.

 

Intellectual Dishonesty

It is no secret that Science and Religion are not compatible, which is why creationist’s reject it. Science must be rejected in order to preserve creationist belief because it highlights the complete fallacy of those beliefs. But they will only reject Science when it suits them for example Churches and their followers have no problem using modern technology which would not exist without the advancement of modern Science. Television, Radio, Cars, The Internet all this things came from Science and yet religious people happily use them sometimes even to attack the Science which developed them, religious stupidity clearly know no bounds.

Our knowledge of the universe is expanding all the time and God simply has no place in it. We once thought the Earth was flat, now we know it is round. We once thought the Earth was the centre of the universe, now we know we are not even the centre of our own galaxy. We once thought the Earth was a few thousand years old, now we know it is 4.55 Billion years old within a 1% margin of error and the Universe is 13.75 Billion years old with a possible error margin of 0.17 Billion years either side. Our knowledge keeps on expanding and creationists whether Christian or otherwise accept most of this new knowledge upto the point where it disproves or conflicts with their beliefs then they throw a tantrum and reject it.

 

No Pick’N’Mix

The choice between Science and Bullshit is clear; both are incompatible with each other and you cannot simply pick and choose the pieces of science that you do like and reject the pieces that you don’t. The world is not a pick and mix. If you embrace Science that’s fine and rejecting it is also fine however you cannot do both simultaneously. I am not talking about legitimate scrutiny, because that is the strength of science I am talking about out right rejection of the Scientific method. A popular hobby in the Creationist camp.

Attorney General fails to grasp concept of free-speech.

When it comes to Freedom of Speech Attorney General; Robert McClelland simply doesn’t get it. 

FREEDOM of speech only goes so far and it does not stretch to racism, Attorney-General Robert McClelland says.

In a speech to a cyber-racism summit in Sydney, Mr McClelland said the Government was tackling the difficult world of cyber bullying and online protection of children.

“It may well be appropriate to set some limitation to public expression of hateful material,” Mr McClelland said.

He said cyber-racism was a growing area of concern for the Human Rights Commission. Eighteen per cent of racism complaints handed to the Commission in 2008-09 were about racist internet material, up from nine per cent in the previous year. –News.com.au

When it comes to Freedom of Speech you cannot simply pick and choose what speech is acceptable and what speech is not, because that is the complete reverse of Free-Speech. You don’t need to agree with the opinions of others but unless you are prepared to defend their right to say it you cannot call yourself a supporter of Free-Speech and nor can you reasonably expect others to respect your rights when you do not extend that courtesy yourself.

Most people don’t understand what it actually means to “Support” Freedom of Speech. When you support Free Speech you often find yourself defending many unpleasant things that you disagree with because all the other so called “supporters” have turned out to be fakes just trying to get some positive credit for a value they do not really hold.

A Jewish person defending Free-Speech needs to support the rights of holocaust deniers just as an African American person defending Free-Speech needs to support the rights of the Ku Klux Klan despite the content of that speech. Given in this context it is easy to see why there are so few real supporters of Free-Speech around.

When supporting the Freedom of Speech content is irrellivent and if you want your rights to be respected you must extend that respect to the freedom of others no matter who they are.

Judge rejects Christian immunity from the law.

A Judge has reject Christian pleas for special immunity from the law. There is no way these primitive people are deserving of special treatment; unless of course your talking about psychiatric care.

Christianity deserves no protection in law above other faiths and to do so would be “irrational, divisive, capricious and arbitrary”, a senior judge said yesterday.

In the latest clash between the judiciary and Christian believers Lord Justice Laws said that laws could not be used to protect one religion above another. –Times Online

Apparently a Christian marriage guidance counsellor was sacked for refusing to help gay couples. A perfectly reasonable outcome for someone who refuses to do their job, but Christians are now expecting special treatment so that they cannot be sacked for refusing to help people. What about a Christian Doctor, would it be ok for them to refuse to save someone’s life for religious purposes?

Andrea Williams, the director of the Christian Legal Centre, warned that the judgment would deny Christians a range of jobs because of their beliefs. –Times Online

We also deny plenty of jobs to paranoid schizophrenics because of their beliefs.

So Conroy; What can you get on DVD?

We have all seen Senator Conroy harp on and on about how you can’t get certain content on DVD and so that makes censorship ok. Well I would like to point out that hardly anything is available on DVD these days. The vast majority of content is available online only. Content delivery via physical mediums is dead; very little content ever makes it to DVD or Print in comparison to the wealth of information available online.

Can you hold a conversation on DVD format?

Can you organise highly controversial but legal events such as “The Rise of Atheism” using DVDs?

Can you organise political action via DVDs?

No, physical mediums are useless for all of these things. The Internet has given us the greatest freedom imaginable; the freedom to communicate. Before the rise of the Internet people had to rely on the corporate media for information. Today anyone can be a Journalist; everyone can access and distribute information, there are no barriers. Unless of course Conroy gets his way and and this newfound freedom is revoked and Conroys secret committee, Immune to Freedom of Information Requests steps in as the Gatekeeper. 

The Internet is much more than simply another form of Media. It has taken on a life of it’s own and now serves as a primary communication in our society. It’s time to start calling Conroy out on his false analogies.

This Video highlights the Web 2.0 Phenomenon.

Terrorists strike fear into ComedyCentral

Comedy Central has censored the latest episode of South Park amid fears of reprisal from Islamic terror groups. The shows 200th episode depicts the Muslim prophet Muhammad wearing a bear costume the result of which is a death threat from Islamic Extremists warning that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone will be murdered.

So much for the “Religion of Peace”

In the 200th episode of South Park, which was broadcast last week, a proposal to bring the Prophet Mohamed to town is met with short shrift at a community meeting. “Are you nuts?” one character says. “If Mohamed appears in South Park we get bombed!” “We don’t know that,” another replies. “Maybe enough time has passed that now it’s OK to show Mohamed.”

As it turned out, that hope was a forlorn one. The American broadcaster Comedy Central this week censored the programme after the episode’s depiction of the Prophet Mohamed dressed as a giant teddy bear drew a warning on an Islamist website that the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, would be murdered. –The Independant

There seems to be a new trend of terrorism popping up in the western world where anything that might offend Muslims needs to be censored for fear of reprisal. This is by it’s very definition an act of terrorism.

terrorism

–noun

1.
the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes.

Blogging; some brief opinions.

Are you good in blog? A calling for all Skeptical bloggers; this is my response to an idea put forward by SheThought.com.

How to start a blog? This question has replaced the old “what should my website be about?” and although it is easy to setup a blog with services such as Blogger.com, WordPress.com, Squarespace.com ect. Actually “starting” the blog is another thing all together. The truth is that blogging is not for everyone, it is a personal thing and you need to find a topic that you are interested in and be willing to state your opinion on them. If you are at the point where your seriously considering a blog then you already fill this prerequisite. If you want to write about something then the best advice I can give is to just do it, write something; anything. You don’t need to be perfect or even good because your can always improve in the future, however you can never succeed if you do not start.

Dealing with Trolls. There is an old Usenet saying “Please do not feed to trolls” and it still holds true to this day most trolls are seeking attention and will give up when they do not receive the attention they are seeking. The best thing to do is ignore them don’t take the bait they lay. If you must take on the trolls do so with reasoned debate and any onlookers can draw their own conclusions. The Troll will most likely show themselves up early on; especially if they are anonymous and too cowardly to stand behind what they say.

Why blog at all? As I said before, blogging is a personal thing and it is not for everyone. Some people prefer to spend their time in silent observation, for every blogger there are hundreds more people participating in discussion forums such as SGU-Forums and many thousands more silent observers. But the primary idea behind blogging is to voice an opinion and doing so has opened public debate in ways that where unimaginable only 10-15 years ago.

How has the recent UK libel case vs Simon Singh changed blogging? The recent victory of Simon Singh over the British Chiropractic Association has sent a strong message to suppressors of free-speech that criticism cannot be silenced with lawsuits. I find that when people go running to their lawyers rather than public debate it is because they nearly always have something to hide. Never trust anyone who chooses to file lawsuits rather than addressing their critics; they are hiding something. Fortunately the Streisand Effect ensures that it does not remain hidden for long.

Should the pope be arrested?

Pope Benedict XVI formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger has been implemented in the rape of children by the Catholic Church. Noted atheists Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens have asked human rights lawyers to produce a case for charging the Pope for for his involvement in covering up numerous cases of children being raped by Church officials.

Should the pope be arrested for playing his part in child rape by the Catholic Church?

The lawyers believe they can ask the Crown Prosecution Service to initiate criminal proceedings against the Pope, launch their own civil action against him or refer his case to the International Criminal Court. –Times Online

Nobody would get away with rape in any other organisation and the Catholic Church should be no exception. Most decent people to have the moral standing to report such matters to the authorities.; unfortunately the Pope is not one of them.

Dawkins and Hitchens believe the Pope would be unable to claim diplomatic immunity from arrest because, although his tour is categorised as a state visit, he is not the head of a state recognised by the United Nations. –Times Online

I have always strongly opposed diplomatic immunity, since no civilised nation would grant criminals a free pass. But regardless it is good to know that the Pope is not eligible to even claim such special status. To me it would seem that the Pope is stuck in a very tight spot; if he travels to Britain he faces possible prosecution, and if he cancels his trip there will be much speculation as to why. Even attempting diplomatic immunity will raise the question of why he needs it if the charges are untrue.

In the case of a guilty verdict I would expect the usual barrage of bullshit excuses from true believers in particular “God forgives those who repent”. How I would love to see that excuse tried out in a court of law.

Mike Adams can't be serious; can he?

Some of you may be familiar with Mike Adams over at NaturalNews.com Those of you who aren’t soon will be. Mike Adams is into selling quack remedies and opposes Science Based Medicine. He is a believer in “Big Pharma” conspiracies and perpetuates many bogus claims himself. His newest article is titled. “If mainstream medicine really works, why are Americans so unhealthy?” I really wish I was making this up but unfortunately this is the type of crap Mike produces.

Did you ever wonder why such an alarmingly high percentage of Americans are obese, diabetic, depressed and suffering from cancer, heart disease, kidney disorders and skin problems? Now consider the fact that Americans pay more per capita for health care than any other nation in the world. Americans pay the highest prices, by far, for medications, medical imaging scans, blood work, surgeries, chemotherapy and hospital stays. And yet what does America have to show for it? The most universally diseased population in the world — and a nation on the verge of bankruptcy caused in part by mainstream medicine. –Mike Adams

It is true that Americans spend an insane amount of money of health but here Mike is confusing association with causation. While Americans may pay more for their health care there are many economical factors why this is the case. The biggest of which is their lack of unified health care. Medicine is expensive, due to the extensive research and development that goes into Science Based Medicine. All those extensive clinical trials that medicine must go though in order to prove it’s effectiveness are not cheap to perform and someone has to pay. Unfortunately in the United States there is no socialised health care and so patients must foot the bill themselves. Americans do not enjoy services such as the UK’s NHS. The fact that Americans pay more for health care is nothing more than a Red Herring. It has no relevance.

Mainstream medicine says poison is medicine (chemotherapy) while teaching people that nutrition is useless. This is the system of medicine that dismisses the value of sunlight, colon cleansing, acupuncture and juice cleansing, but it firmly believes in toxic vaccines, chemotherapy, cancer-causing mammograms and dispensing a lifetime of poisonous medications to little babies who are now being diagnosed with depression before they’re even old enough to speak! –Mike Adams

Chemotherapy is a proven treatment for cancer and has had great success. It’s side affects are well documented in Medical Literature and while it is far from an ideal solution, as it makes the patient very sick and can even kill them. It has been proven to work but is used as a last resort. Doctors can sometimes cut the cancer out but when all else fails Chemotherapy may save the patients life.

Yep, out of all the hundreds of other systems of medicine practiced around the world — most of which are based on medicinal herbs and natural remedies, by the way — the arrogant, ignorant promoters of mainstream medicine have no shame standing in a room of chemo patients (most of whom are dying from the chemotherapy) and proclaiming, “This is the ONLY system of medicine in the entire world that has any merit whatsoever!” –Mike Adams

Really? I can’t say I’ve ever seen a Doctor do this. That sort of sales pitch belongs to the “Alternative” Medicine crowd; not real medical practitioners. But wait Mikes claims get even more bizarre.

When it comes to whether mainstream medicine really works, here are ten important “reality check” realizations to keep in mind:

#1) If mainstream medicine really worked, then drug companies wouldn’t have to commit scientific fraud to fake their clinical trials, would they? –Mike Adams

I don’t know where the Alt Medders get their information from but all Scientific Journals are peer reviewed to prevent Scientific Misconduct. There was the case of Dr Andrew Wakefield falsely linking the MMR Vaccine to Autism in children but fortunately such fraud is a rarity in legitimate scientific literature and is amended when found.

#2) If mainstream medicine really worked, then doctors, drugs companies and the FDA wouldn’t be afraid of competition from nutritional supplements and natural remedies, and they wouldn’t keep trying to censor or outlaw those natural remedies. –Mike Adams

So we should sit back and allow fraud to take place because it’s the consumers fault for being so ignorant? Sorry, this is such a stupid statement. I’m sure many people who read this will be able to think up a much better response than I can.

#3) If mainstream medicine really worked, drug companies would gladly test their drugs side-by-side with nutritional remedies to see what works best. –Mike Adams

Legitimate medicine has to undergo extensive clinical trials and face ruthless scientific scrutiny. Many natural remedies have never undergone clinical trials or failed the trial and nearly all of them collapse under scientific scrutiny. This is why you won’t find them in medical literature.

#4) If mainstream medicine really worked, health insurance costs would be extremely low. The only reason health insurance costs so much is because mainstream medicine doesn’t cure anybody, and patients stay sick, which costs more money to keep treating –Mike Adams

Natural remedies are cheap because they don’t work. Medicine is expensive because a huge amount of resources that goes into producing, testing and approving each drug, even the peer reviewed journals are expensive to produce and just about every publication requires a payment of some kind. Natural remedies are not peer reviewed and much of their literature is found for free, it happens to be worthless but that is at least one victory Natural Medicine has; cheap literature.

This is the furthest I can go without supplying an email address to NaturalNews.com but you can read another brilliant master piece by Mike Adams “What ‘skeptics’ really believe about vaccines, medicine, consciousness and the universe“ and the response by Dr Steven Novella “Mike Adams Takes On “Skeptics” It does not take much to see Mike Adams for the nutjob that he is.

Theres a point to Homeopathy?

I just read a very unprofessional article titled “Pill protesters are missing the point on homeopathy” written by one Clodagh Sheehy. Of course being a news site there is little if any avenue for feedback so I will make my quick reply here.

 

Swallowing a pile of homeopathic pills to prove it does not work is a bit like standing in hot sun for two minutes and concluding it does not cause sunburn.

To start off this is an absurd analogy, overdosing on magic water is nothing like short term exposure to the sun. When you consume a substance it remains in your system for as long as it takes for the body to process; whereas short term exposure to the sun is just that (short exposure). If you absorb too much sun especially thousands of times more than normal you will be lucky if a sunburn is all you get. Not only is this a silly comparison but it is also an obvious false analogy.

 

The protesters say the remedies are just sugar pills with nothing in them — hence the overdose to prove their point. Homeopathy does not work the same way as conventional medicine and so they are not proving anything.

We know Homeopathy doesn’t have any active ingredients, and the overdose shows this. Homeopathy works as a placebo which does not work that same way as conventional medicine. Add to the fact that different medicines work differently and you can quickly see how foolish the statement “does not work the same way as conventional medicine” really is.

 

If homeopathy is a con involving sugar pills why does the Irish Medicines Board, the regulating body for all medicines in this country, recognise and regulate homeopathic medicines?

Why is homeopathy incorporated into mainstream medical systems in many countries including Britain, which has specialised homeopathic hospitals? Why do health insurers in this country like Quinn Healthcare and Aviva offer cover for their clients for homeopathic treatment?

Just because something is accepted it does not mean it is automatically true. For example the Earth was once thought to be flat without any evidence to suggest that it was. We all know the fate of that belief. My point is that acceptance does not prove that something it true. Most of the Scientific community will tell you that you cannot dilute a substance beyond avagadros number. Widespread acceptance does not constitute evidence you also need to backup your claims.

 

If they were protesting about some kind of poisonous substance or dangerous drug ruining vulnerable people’s health, their indignation would be justified, but this is not the case. If they are concerned that the public is being conned, they are insulting the intelligence of the 30 million people across Europe alone who regularly use homeopathic remedies.

Again with the bandwagon. Unfortunately those 30 million people are being conned through their own ignorance, fortunate we have skeptics to point out the fraudsters who profit by exploiting the sick.

 

The demonstrators argue that patients with a serious illness might shun doctors and rely instead on homeopathy. Are they suggesting that a sizeable group of Europeans, not to mention millions of others worldwide, are incapable of taking proper responsibility for their own health?

I wrote about this in my article titled “Whats the harm in Alternative Medicine?“. Unfortunately it happens to be true not only do unethical practitioners lighten their victims wallet but can also cause serious harm to innocent people who genuinely believe they are being helped.

People should listen to their Doctors who know infinity more than they do when it comes to health. Listening to the professionals is always the most sensible option. Don’t like your Doctors opinion, seek a second opinion from another Doctor just don’t listen to the snake oil salesman who is trying to sell unproven treatments.

 

Scientists, at one point, believed the world was flat but as their knowledge improved they realised they were wrong. It is likely that in the future, quantum physics will deliver the scientific proof for homeopathy. As a gentle system of medicine, without toxic side effects, homeo-pathy is used by thousands of Irish people for both acute and chronic conditions. No one is suggesting that it is the only system of medicine.

This is the “Ad ignorantiam” the most common Logical Fallacy used by purveyors of Woo. It basically goes “We don’t know it does not work, so it must be true” see how illogical that is?

The whole purpose of the ten23 campaign was to raise public awareness that there is Nothing in Homeopathy. We can just as easily prove this fact with Mathematics but the average layperson on the street would not understand as easily as when it is done right in front of them. The ten23 campaign was a practical demonstration that Homeopathy contains no active ingredient.

You can find out more about the ten23 event here: The 10:23 Campaign

Clodagh Sheehy also draws a poor conclusion.

Maybe instead of opening their mouths to swallow a pile of homeopathic pills, these protesters could open their minds to possibilities.

Science is open to knew ideas. Scientific knowledge is constantly advancing and moving forward with new discoveries. But all these discoveries are evidence based, you cannot just invent anything you like and expect it to be accepted. Evidence is a requirement of Science and for Homeopathy there is none.