The outraged email from creationist fans of Ken Ham and the Creation "Museum" continues apace. Most of it is forgettable and repetitive — I'm usually accused of being against free speech, as if I had somehow barred the doors of that temple of foolishness in Kentucky, or had personally gagged Ken Ham — but this one stands out for it's opening insult. I am deeply offended. But then I read further, and it seems this poor man is simply incoherent and deeply confused, instead.
Mr. Myers,
I understand that you are creationist - that loves God and real authentic science....right!
Since you so love to spend your time tearing others down (like a coward - that can't handle an open and honest discussion) - so you can exult yourself as God. I am sure God has a special plan in store for you. You can't ignore the truth Mr. Myers & most people are not fooling enough to take your DOGMA as "gospel". You are following right after the Devil himself. I can't believe that you are so AFRAID to allow others to hear an open and honest debate.
Your type of thinking is exactly the stuff that Adolf Hitler is made of. I hope that end up in better place than him - because he is going to be burning in Hell forever, and ever, and ever.
BTW -- Don't be surprised if you have a lot of challenges ahead of you. You are messing with the Lord God Almighty.
Kind Regards,
<Name deleted to protect the ignorant>
They crack me up every time when they accuse me of being just like Hitler, and then close with some cliched farewell, like "Kind Regards".
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To really make somebody stoopid, just add religion. Bye-Bye logic.
Hitler was a christian!!!!!!
Godwin fail.
I'm confused though, did you delete his name or was that something odd he did?
I hear Hitler was an avuncular type who was very nice to children (except for those he killed, of course).
These are real nutcases. I can't laugh at these emails, they worry me.
The kind of garbage these people come up with is unbelievable. Godwin's Law is to be expected, but where the hell did 'I understand that you are creationist - that loves God and real authentic science....right!' come from?
Though incoherent, he did keep his CAPS LOCKS and "quotes" to a minimum. So, perhaps there's hope.
Poorly done sarcasm.
That would be "clichéd" ;)
Sorry, but it took me a second to not read clinched.
PZ you should feel honoured that dog as a "special plan" for you...
when you have further information please pass on as i'm sure i'm not the only curious little george around here...
Ahahaha. Maybe he things only creationists can love "real authentic science" because he is so indoctrinated in their propaganda that only theirs is "good science". So he makes a sarcastic satemen about you, believing you have to pretend you are a creationist to be a real scientist, but tries to mock you because you are clearly not. (But really, you should. Otherwise you can never ever be a "good" scientist!!!)
Because we are paralyzed with fear since we are going to burn in hell forever and ever...
PZ, beware,
you're in real trouble now, because this person has not promised to pray for your soul !
O, dear.
Heh. I like the weirdly loose "You are messing with the Lord God Almighty."
Although it should really be "You are messing with the Lord God Almighty!!!"
I never get over the way godders use words such as "dogma" and "gospel" to describe science, trying to make it out to be just another religion.
They seem to be literally saying "Nyah, nyah, science is every bit as stupid and fake as the stuff WE believe."
I'm wondering if any of them get the irony that is their letter... or in some cases their lives...
A fundie fortune cookie!
I didnt know you were messing with DOG !
Mocking and tearing people down can be and often is a part of useful, open discourse. It is time for people to re-realize that.
Nice "open discussion" - maybe he's going to come back to the forums and continue it?
(goes to pop some popcorn)
That is an assumption I am.
yegads! this person thinks Hitler is still alive!
He didn't say he was going to be praying for you? What an asshole. Just because you're as bad as hitler doesn't mean he shouldn't talk to himself about you.
This person probably just got back from prayer meeting, possibly with a lot of speaking in tongues. After being "touched by the HOLY SPIRIT!" their brains don't work too well, and they find it hard to form an intelligent sentence. This is regarded as a good thing among many Christians, and they strive for it as often as possible.
They like to see this mental paralysis in our politicians and authority figures, too.
am I the only one here who sees his first two lines as an epic failure of sarcasm?
What is it with creationists and thinking that writing select (or all, in some cases) words in caps makes their point any more valid? *rolleyes
@Hank: It's called projecting, and in my time of reading this blog, I've realized how obnoxious and constant a theme it seems to be with Godbotters. i.e. "evolution is your religion", "Darwin is your god", "science is your dogma". They can't possibly understand that not everyone operates in the same mind-numbingly sad way that they're used to. Bubble complex; very sad.
"Real and authentic science"... Interesting distinction.
This is sort of email-trolling, no? Never mind that what I say makes no damned sense whatsoever; if there's a small chance that this heathen PZ will email me back, it's worth the lies and provocations.
And it's a first for me to hear the term "authentic science." Amusing.
...Why is it only the fundies that ever seem to intentionally Godwin their arguments, and actually think they're winning the discussion?
Amen, brother. Speaking from experience?
Sounds somebody was looking in a mirror when they wrote this. Psychological projection, methinks?
Compared to what? Getting on the hate list of everybody out there who actually uses their brain and common sense (which sadly, isn't so common these days)?
I believe you have it the other way around - it's you guys that love begging for a "proper" debate, and yet backpedal every time somebody with actual scientific credentials arranges for one.
Dude, when we said PZ would make a great Pope, we were kidding. He'd make a horrible replacement for Ratzinger.
Unless he learns to shoot lightning out of his hands. Now that would be awesome. Secondly, stupidity and ignorance are ills that are supposed to be called out and utterly destroyed.
I'm sorry - it seems that the naughty me has broken out again. I'm not normally this vicious...heeheehee.
Man, (s)he did not even say (s)he would pray for you. That one must be really pissed.
There must be some kind of template these nuts use to write their letters...
Like...
- Compare PZ to Adolph Hitler
- wrongly accuse PZ of not knowing that any scientific
discovery shows how PZ is wrong. (i.e. flat earth, earth
the center of the universe)
- tell PZ he is going to the 'warm climate'. (like he
would mind right now).
- Thank PZ kindly.
"Best regards" - At least he's polite as he threatens you with eternal damnation.
Well, at least the commandment against paragraphs has been repealed.
@'Tis Himself
Indeed. At least Hitler was a vegetarian and rarely drank alchohol, even if he was a genocidal madman.
How do these people manage to type with their amrs in a straitjacket?
And, as with all fortune-cookie fortunes, it's made hilariously funny by appending the words "between the sheets."
OMG! It's all true! God sent the snow storm to keep PZ from getting to his son's graduation! That's the first of his challenges! I think the next will be either lightning sand or ROUS's.
It's the equivalent of the warning label on certain cleaners that reads 'HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED'.
Ia! Ia! Ken-Hammer-ed! The creotard with a thousand young! If it weren't for the comedy value of these people, I'd be seriously annoyed with them by now. That being said, I don't envy your having and email box chock full o' nuts... have fun with that PZ
You creationist, you! You exult yourself as God! You think like Hitler! Kind regards ...
Am I reading this wrong, or isn't the author ranting to the effect that creationists are blasphemous, fascist, Satanic and somesuch? And if so, wouldn't that be a new twist on the usual delirium that is, in a perverse way, kind of refreshing?
After all, these banshees of the Internet will always be there, screeching out one tirade after another, go figure what the hell they're talking about. But when they start talking about creationists like pond scum, well, isn't at least something moving in the right direction?
Ah, yes, the H word. Like a U Boat, it torpedoes the discourse. Or is it the other H word, the subterranean one beneath the gutter?
"You are messing with the Lord God Almighty."
Hey, Lord God Almighty, you're a festering asshole, & when I catch up with you, I'm gonna smite you, you fecker.
There, that oughta take the heat off PZ for a while.
That's because their politeness is the fake kind which they, ludicrously, regard as more important than the real sort. Just like their "morality", their "logic", their "evidence" ... all fake.
Maybe that's why he was a genocidal madman.
Don't be surprised if you have a lot of challenges ahead of you. You are messing with the Lord God Almighty.
Any sign of a plague of frogs yet, PZ?
You mess with the Lord God Almighty, he messes with you right back! Oooooohhhhh, now we should be a-scared.
It must really perplex these christards when, with all the ranting, raving, and pleading to the L.G.A., nothing ever seems to happen. I can only assume its much like me when I was 6 and kept pleading for Santa to bring me that cool killer robot with the kung fu grip who shot laser beams out its eyes but I never got one. Still pisses me off 47 years later.
Ah, well. Happy Monkey to them and to each and every one of you!
I have to wonder, do these people have any idea how Adolf Hitler operated? Do they have any idea how he ran the Nazi party? Do they have idea how the Nazis were able step into power even as their influence in the polls went down? Do they have any idea about the way the Nazi power structure was set up?
I get very tired of people equally as ignorant of history talk about their equally ignorant knowledge of science.
Actually, Hitler wasn't a vegetarian. Apparently he was particularly fond of sausages, and squab (juvenile pigeon). Since we rightly complain about the "Hitler was an atheist" false meme, could we try to avoid spreading this one?
Full disclosure: I'm not a vegetarian, but I prefer not to devour close relatives, so I refrain from eating tetrapods.
At least he didn't give you massive wall of text Bible quotes.
I for one am offended:
"...stands out for it's opening insult..."
I find it FUNNY when crazy PEOPLE make their WRITINGS even more incoherent BY capitalizing random WORDS. For some REASON they seem to THINK that typing various WORDS in CAPS will SOMEHOW turn their INCOHERENT ramblings into a STRONGER ARGUMENT.
*22
Methinks RamblinDude scored there...
Brainiac just got back from muttering gobblygook and feeling pretty damn proud of himself, probably more coherent in gobblygook anyways, and heard in the coffee and cookie break b'twixt 'n' b'tween uttering childish nonsense and lying to each other as they as they do it , the terrible news that the little trick to hide cretinism behind the skirts of a respectable scientific establishment went pear shaped quite publicly and Kenny baby is a sulking fit ta rapture!
So Creationism/Cretinism is still the laughing stock of the Western world because someone had actually challenged their scientific validity...and seeing as that is not a feeling they are familiar with... they gets all puffed up with wounded ego and righteous wrath...
Probably all the pompous barking and whining led to a mission being issued to all acolytes of fundamental silliness to smite thine enemies and try and get a little trembly smile back on the face of Kenny baby, with an e-mail campaign, and bask in the knowledge of an ignorance preserved.
Being bunnies of little practical brain they get easily confused and incoherent in spluttering their spleen, resorting to weird twisted and irrelevant analogies and outright insults...'Creationist' indeed...that was really not called for..may his delusional deity forgive him...sarcasm or otherwise it was just to far out of bounds to be clever!
@46: I'm reminded of a very clever comment a few posts back about how Poland (or was it Czechoslovakia?) was annexed by a particularly heavy letter writing campaign.
Jimminy Christmas,
He's got a caps lock and he's not afraid to use it, so STAND BACK!
For me too. So I consulted Generalissimo Google™, and found (as the first hit as well) a well-written post in the blog The Truth about India:
The whole thing is well worth reading!
Careful now, or you might summon Pete Rook!
As if the author of that letter can spell his own name, let alone remember it.
Why do the ignorant always resort to a Godwin? Is it because the name infers to them that using it to support God automatically confers them a win in any argument? Godwin= God Wins???
I have to wonder, do these people have any idea how Adolf Hitler operated? Do they have any idea how he ran the Nazi party? Do they have idea how the Nazis were able step into power even as their influence in the polls went down? Do they have any idea about the way the Nazi power structure was set up?
operative phrase:
have any idea?
answer to anything you might apply that question to wrt creobots:
no.
ignorance is strength, after all.
I used to belong to a fundamentalist cult group (Armstrongism) which had many break-off daughter groups when one minister or the other wanted more tithe money. There were always these little minister wars between the groups as low level ministers would jump ship from one group to the other. Of course, those jumping ship were labeled as Satanic and promptly excommunicated from the Body of Jebus. Always amusing were the letters sent out to the defecting ministers- they would be labeled as satanic and under the influence of evil, demonized and slandered (all true of course), but every letter always ended with this:
"In Christian Love, Mr. So and So."
It's pretty funny now.
@28
@45
Closest I can get you is Tom Cruise vs Oprah. Happy Monkey!
Of course, the best perk to being pope is you could declare every word out of Bill Donohue's mouth to be a heresy.
@38
I just realized - combine that phrase with a picture of a bible, you've got a hell of a T-shirt.
That's outrageous. Your blog is miles more entertaining than his was.
IMDb Daily POLL:
"Worst Movies of the Year"
http://www.imdb.com/poll/
#47: Correct, Hitler was not a vegetarian, was not an atheist, and was not gay. Yes, several books and an HBO ersatz-documentary on Hitler put forth the utter garbage that Hitler was gay. Get the trend? Hitler = Atheist, Homo, Vegetarian, (i.e. liberal). In actuality, Hitler was fond of sausage, beer, had several mistresses, and stated "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so."
Caps lock is like cruise-control; even with cruise control, you still have to steer.
For a group whose holy book tells them no one is capable of judging except god, they sure seem to always know who's going to hell.
I like the immediate Godwin so you don't have waste your time replying him. Pretty considerate of him.
Who would have known how the godly infiltrate our ranks... PZ is a closet creationist.
This is the first I hear of Hitler being gay. So was Eva a crossdresser?
SOMG! Hitler married Eva Braun the crossdresser before comitting suicide. Hitler supported GAY MARRIAGE!!
And look where THAT got Germany! No sooner had their precious FÜHRER married his gay lover than they died (smitten by G--D no doubt!) and Germany was in ruin, run over by those G--Dless pinko Ruskies!!!
"I hear Hitler was an avuncular type who was very nice to children (except for those he killed, of course). "
That reminds me. My father used to be an executive in the steel industry and used to travel to Europe to make deals all the time. He told me about how many times he would go to Germany, and the hosts would talk about WWII, and comment on just how nice Hitler was to little kids. My father used to tell me about how he used to have to repress himself from saying just what you did above...
PZ, much as I sympathise with you for having to entertain yourself reading one or two of these loony missives, I'm still upset that you use the ineffable S.J.Gumby as an indication of their looniness. By all means continue the Comic Sans, but don't you feel that linking these nutcases to the genius of the Gumby clan is an insult? After all, the average Gumby in The Architect Sketch showed intelligence far surpassing that of your correspondents. Come now, tie a knot in each corner of a handkerchief and roll up your sleeves, feel your inner Gumby and bellow "We hate the architect(s)" (you can leave off the 's' to piss off the ecumenical intelligent designer of the Freemasons) and feel all the gratification of exhibiting intelligence immeasurably more refined than that of your deluded non-admirers!
That would be funny if the author wasn't so serious...
#45:
What do you mean, nothing ever happens? What about 9/11, Katrina, high gas prices, the subprime meltdown, and Bernard Madoff? The war in Iraq is God's vengeance on gays. Didn't you get the memo?
I don't know, but lawyers seem to be afflicted with the same disease. Nearly every contract I've ever read has one or more clauses in all caps, as if that somehow gives it more legal force or makes it more worthy of compliance than the other clauses. Any lawyers in the audience care to explain what's up with that?
Having a special relationship with God isn't necessarily a sign of an incompetent mind, (though that's seemingly the preferred location for God's kookiest output)
Sometimes, if you're special enough, he will reach out and touch the spirit of even those of us who are die hard realists.
And in some instances, CAPS LOCK is called for:
DOCUMENTED CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.
The first INCONTROVERTIBLE evidence of Gods online divinity that has ever been posted to the World Wide Web is here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timtimes/3123978019/
You may find it amusing, or you may find it sacrilege, but I GUARANTEE you it is more honest and fresh than ANYTHING emanating out of the DI or any exhibit at the Creation Museum.
I don't make the news, I just report it.
Enjoy.
P.S. You may have heard that "God works in mysterious ways". That must be true, because nowhere on my own personal agenda did I envision myself becoming such a high profile and outspoken advocate against THE TORTURE OF TODDLER'S TESTICLES.
"I'm usually accused of being against free speech,...
Now why would anyone think that?
http://tinyurl.com/7w5rpx
I'm with RamblinDude: That letter sounds exactly like the author had been freshly "informed" about PZ during some horrible little get-together by god-wankers discussing their enemies in some church basement somewhere, and decided to vent. Probably wrote out the screed right after the meetin'. I bet at least one troll who has infested this site and was recently banished to the dungeon was present, still stewing about it.
I can see it all: so they make something up - say...um...denial of free speech - ah, that's it! - then raise the "issue" of this dastardly act and regular habit performed by that nasty atheist on his blog. They'll hype it up big, even turning it into a sob story about how rudely mistreated they were by you, and request an urgent need to do something about it, they need help to crush your evil influence, and call on their fellows to help smite thee.
I'll wager 20-to-1 that nameless author never heard of PZ before or ever even bothered to visit this site or read anything before dutifully taking up the baton on such a fantasy. Kinda ironic how the letter is signed: "", ain't it?
Incoherence is a general and common affliction with god-wankers, but some patterns can still be made out that suggest quite a few hypothetical histories, even tracts buried brain-deep in blinkered idiocy.
One of the more charming aspects of this particular rant is a common means of exerting a bluster, when the author says, "...so you exalt yourself as God" - THEN closes the letter with the warning, "You are messing with the Lord God Almighty."
You see, they get pissed whenever they IMAGINE somebody ELSE is trying to take THEIR GODHOOD away from THEM. You can't be God, PZ: the lunatics want you to know THEY already have dibs on that position. The brats want all the exultation. Didn't you know? They had it first! It's THEIRS, damn you!!!
That's what that "open and honest debate" thang is all about. According to what bullshit this person HEARD somewhere, you must be a horrible despotic fiend who regularly wrecks "open and honest debate". So this person gives you a what-for in a letter. So there. Take THAT.
Even funnier? Those who managed to enlist this kind of "help" sure have done hurt ya, haven't they? I cannot help burst out laughing whenever I read something like, "Your type of thinking is exactly the stuff that Adolf Hitler is made of. [sic] I hope that [you] end up in better place than him - because he is going to be burning in Hell forever, and ever, and ever."
Left out at least one more "and ever". Evidently, Hitler is plainly regarded as still being alive so that he can better suffer an eternity of sizzling torment. God must prize His Favorite Spatula. But what's that comparison of your thinking with Hitler all about? Well, that's just tryin' to show you HOW low the estimation is of you. Having the brief misfortunatye of seeing a dog crap is a billion times more offensive.
Oh yeah. And BECAUSE you follow "right after the Devil himself" AND presume to be God, you must obviously be "AFRAID" and a "coward - that can't handle an open and honest discussion". Such perspicuity of consequence logically following premise is stunning.
It really makes one wonder that these people have developed the barest functional rudiments of logic at all. Then I think perhaps that their reptilian cortex may be taking care of that and their frontal lobes are completely useless as processors.
Does that mean Adolf is ('was' to most of us) a mental entity, -a thought that materialised, and that he is still with us?
There are those who will beg to differ on both accounts, methinks.
I believe the most respectful way of addressing the deity is "Mr. Yahweh." The Mrs. and I were getting his mail for awhile, so we know what we're talking about.
++++
@twin skies
Indeed. At least Hitler was a vegetarian and rarely drank alchohol, even if he was a genocidal madman.
He was into those methamphetamine and vitamin cocktail shots popular in the Kennedy White House and Andy Warhol's Factory.
After the failed bomb attack by Tom Cruise, add massive pain killers to the syringe.
Most people who prefer those heavy duty shoot 'em ups don't drink because it fucks up the high.
Yup. Little-known fact: over 90 percent of genocidal tyrants are actually tulpas.
Lancelot Gobbo:
Well, we could replace the Gumby pic with this:
http://smartmortgageadvice.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/head-up-ass.jpg
Holydust,
If you were a regular reader who paid attention, perhaps you would know who Hank Fox is and realize there is no need to explain anything to him. He's one of the good guys and smart as a whip and writes a very good blog.
Happy Monkey!
@ Sili
This is the first I hear of Hitler being gay.
You missed the documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K08akOt2kuo
So, it could have been shortened to:
Dear Professor P.Z. Hitler,
You will burn in the eternal fires of hell.
Yours cordially and with much affection,
Cletus Frogwhopper.
Ashes with some melted lead and copper?
"PZ, you're such a COWARD who won't join in an OPEN DISCUSSION. Your kind of SCIENCE is made up by the DEVIL, FRAIDY CAT!!! "
And they wonder why we mock and pity their tiny intellects...
#73:
There are a number of laws that require that certain provisions, such as warranty or liability disclaimers, be CONSPICUOUS. Such language will usually be bolded as well. The theory is that your attention will be more readily drawn to the more important legal rights you are signing away while all the rest remains, by contrast, buried in the boilerplate.
Answer to why some contracts have provisions in all caps:
two reasons and I don't know which is #1 therefore I will call them a & b.
a) actually all caps are hard to read. A long paragraph in all caps will more than not be abandoned before it is read.
b) then if someone gets stiffed the party who used all caps can say, "Well, we put it in all caps so that they couldn't miss it." A clever defense that once more blames the victim.
I am always amused by the 'free and opened debate' clause found in creo letters. Neither evolution by natural selection nor gravity will be rescinded by popular debate.
Cletus Frogwhopper? Cletus Frogwhopper from Texas!?! It's me, Extry Vile. Hey, man, how have you been? We were neighbors in Dumas, remember? Hell, I have to tell the wife I ran into ol' Cletus "Damnation'" Frogwhopper. She'll never believe it.
My "tongue in cheek" detector is on the fritz again, so I'm having to wing it. You were being facetious weren't you Anton?
Crap, I go to the trouble of lecturing people on not underestimating CrIDers and somemone like this comes along.
It's a conspiracy I tell you.
"You are messing with the Lord God Almighty." Sounds like a song by Nazareth.
At #45, Larry wrote:
Lots of stuff happens, it just doesn't always happen to the right person(s). Just a few examples:
Good Christians prayed for God to punish feminists, abortionists, and pagans, so He had some jets fly into the WTC and Pentagon--killing not only people who weren't feminists, abortionists, or pagans, but were "Good Christians" too.
Good Christians prayed for God to punish the gays, so He sent lots of Tornadoes to the mid-West, where everyone knows only good, Christian, non-gay people live.
Good Christians prayed that God would pour down rain and drown out Obama's acceptance speech, so He sent a hurricane to the Gawd-fearin' South--and put a damper on the festivities of the Republican Convention in the process.
That's why Good Christians fear God so much--He's got really terrible aim.
#94:
SO Belief=Confirmation Bias.
[Sh]e's got really terrible aim.
Actually, she has quite good aim. Frogwhopper and the rest of them are known as godbotherers for a reason.
blf:
God smites the hand that feeds him/her?
'He's got really terrible aim'.
Yeah, the fecker hasn't managed to smite me yet.
Hitler killed people for their belief/race.
God tortures people eternally for their belief.
Can you condemn one and praise another in the same breath?
God is infinitely worse than Hitler.
Why would anyone think that I even bother to try aiming?
I win no matter what I hit.
I know, lets take up a collection and send Ken Ham back to Oz.(...and there was much rejoicing. *yay*)
I've recently found myself a bit diverted by issues surrounding the magical thinking that seems to reign in this area of religion. Do they really believe that if they want to believe something strongly enough it genuinely becomes true? Or is it just going to become 'functionally true' in some sense, insofar as everyone believes it, or at the very least says they do, which is close enough and maybe works out okay... I mean, so long as you're not having to track and deal with rapidly evolving viruses and bacteria and the like.
My sense of it is is that it's more: if we shout it loud enough and long enough, we'll forget or at least briefly suppress the uncomfortable reality that we don't really believe it either, seein' as it is pretty ludicrous and really rather thin gruel for the brain, after all. Say we believe we believe we believe we believe oh yes we believe loud enough and long enough and not only might you convince others, but you might even briefly convince yourself...
I wonder how that's workin' for 'em. Honestly, watching 'em, I still think most of 'em are pretty conflicted, myself. They do rather seem to protest too much, much of the time.
God, "Why would anyone think that I even bother to try aiming?"
Yeah, you're quite a piss artist, but it won't get you off the hook over all the genocide, misogyny, and inexplicable sadism towards the innocent. And ya still can't get me!
"...because (Hitler)is going to be burning in Hell forever, and ever, and ever"
IS going?
What's he waiting for?
Has anyone ever seen a post by an atheist that was this bat-shit crazy? I'm just curious because this kind of mental disability is recognizable by most people no matter what the subject. I've really only one time seen a delusional atheist get up and speak at one of Hitchens debates talking about how she was "such an atheist!". Other than the apparently rare cases like that, it seems that theotardism is a common byproduct of mental illness. And the more functional god-bots don't seem bothered that many of their cohorts are ill as long as they loves the Jebuzz too.
No thanks, EV, he's all yours. No returns.
T Bruce, perhaps he is waiting for the second coming with the last trumpet, when the dead shall be raised and all that. There are two conflicting Xian versions of what happens when you are dead -
a) go to hell/heaven/etc
b) nap until Judgement Day.
AJ:
"I reject your reality and substitute my own." Is the best summary I've heard.
"I reject your reality and substitute my own because I refuse to cope with the possibility that human life only has the meaning one gives it and that this meager and short existence is all we're ever going to get bums me out, besides all my authority figures tell me it's true,nyah,nyah, nyah." is their reason.
From Despair.com (one of my favorite sites):
"There is no greater joy than soaring high on the wings of your dreams, except maybe the joy of watching a dreamer who has nowhere to land but in the ocean of reality."
and
"It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others."
Didn't you see the contract you signed when you took him? No takesies backsies
Heh, kind regards from a king retard.
We took back Mel Gibson, the least you guys can do is take back Ham.
Hardly a fair trade. Gibson at least has some redeemable qualities, Ham is just a wackaloon.
The more I read about Christians and the stupid, cruel, rude, offensive, hypocritical, uneducated things they do, the happier I am that I'm not one.
I know, we'll compromise: we'll just drop him off somewhere between the U.S. and a direct route to Australia and do everyone a favor. Perhaps his acolytes will want to go too.
God has no need to get "off the hook", as you say, while I'm around to get "on the hook" for Him.
It's all part of being His sock-puppet.
Well, technically speaking, as a mortal, you're already "got" (pardon my atrocious slang).
Surely you've heard the pithy summation of "You can't win; you can't even break even; and you can't get out of the game"?
Saint Anonymous sez:
Well, he's right on that; many people are not fooling enough to take anybody's dogma as gospel. Another discomfiting lesson from the schools of experience and observation.
Further, quoth he:
Sonny boy, we've been all ears for centuries while you have filled the air with your groundless claims and shrill protestations. In spite of the immense waste of time and attention, we're still listening.
. . . the world holds its breath . . .
"Under the sea" just popped into my head.
Idiot. Adolf Hitler was made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, and trace elements just like everyone else.
No, no Kel, you start with him on top of the sea. If he goes under the sea, that's his choice (or merely the length of time he can tread water) and perhaps how powerful his SkyWizard™ is. Maybe an Ichthyosaur would drop by and give him a lift. ;P
It's very funny. In Brazil they say the SAME trash. You are like Hitler, Satan is waiting for you, God will send you to hell, don't be surprise when you notice you have cancer etc.
And always ends with "God loves you".
Has anyone ever seen a post by an atheist that was this bat-shit crazy? - Fire
Yes indeedy. Go have a gander at "Global Warming is a Scam"'s contributions on "Prospects for Science Policy". Did you realise George W. Bush is a librul?
Can you imagine that if there was a "hel" the problems with such characters as Nero, Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, Hitler & Stalin all vying for power.
Holy Dust wrote
"Godbotters... can't possibly understand that not everyone operates in the same mind-numbingly sad way that they're used to."
This brings to mind my favorite quote:
Other people are really different. They're not just defective versions of yourself.
...this one stands out for it's opening insult
I think apostrophe abusers should go stratight to Hell, PZ...
Satan - Please blast god. I've had enough of this blessing me with ice and snow. The 60 mph winds suck too.
If it isn't too much trouble send some hell fire up the Columbia River. Thanks Satan.
A picture just begging for a caption: From his new lodging in hell, the archbishop wonders how he managed to get things quite so wrong with his biblical selectivity. NB It features not only a form of Godwin but also of selectively ignoring unwanted biblical examples such as the choice to waste the prudent son's inheritance on the prodigal son (Luke 15:30).
PS In reality, the good savers get ripped off because they're the only people with any assets the government can steal. The bankers and ministers certainly aren't going to pay for their various errors themselves.
And now for something completely different!!
FUCK CHRISTMAS http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/140531/detail/
From the Hitler reference I assume he's another "Expelled" fan. Send him a copy of "The Enemies of Reason" inserted in an "Expelled" DVD case, along with a Happy Monkey card for Christmas.
The new pope is praising Galileo. Who'd have thunk it?
off topic but those google peeps alt text on the happy monkey image says happy holidays and not christmas.
think this needs flagging up since hopefully all the gitbags will ask to be removed from the search.
bliss.
happy winterval* one and all
*just in case any daily mail readers are looking or brummie council pr peeps cursing again at the dumb repetition of them getting rid of christmas.
Johnathan Smith @126 - Thank you very fucking much! I laughed so hard watching this that the Bulldogs are barking their fucking heads off. Fucking great!
"Has anyone ever seen a post by an atheist that was this bat-shit crazy?" - Fire
Bill Maher, when he talks about drugs and evidence-based medicine.
For an atheist, he also spends a lot of time trying to distance himself from that term.
Kel, Do you think Maher is really an atheist? I've placed him in the weirdo line.
This guy obviously was home-schooled. I'm guessing he majored in something like "Underwater Basketweaving", with a minor in "Conducting Real Authentic Science with the Bible".
Patricia, OM: You are fucking welcome!!!!
Wouldn't it be much more entertaining if I wasn't?
See, in times of great stress and inauspicious planetary configurations, a community will embody their collective fear, hatred and envy in a single thoughtform. The tulpa quickly rises to power and leads the state into an orgy of violence and destruction, then perishes himself and is vilifed after his death. It's basically a combined bacchanal and scapegoating ritual, mediated by the collective unconscious.
Sometimes a tulpa begins to form, but before the community can infuse it with suficient orgone energy to allow it to dominate the minds of the masses, everyone gets distracted by some piece of good news and the tulpa manifests in an aborted, frustrated state. For instance, two weeks after Black Tuesday, the stock market hit a local minimum and began to slowly climb again. That's the day Fred Phelps was born.
He usually self-labels as an agnostic or apatheist. In the past he's specifically denied being an atheist, and has said he believes in some "force," but I don't know if his beliefs have changed recently.
It seems his view of atheism is an absolute certainty that God doesn't exist, and thus won't label himself in that manner. I'd consider him a weak atheist, though agnostic would probably be better suited for him. It's really a game of semantics.
Bluescat48 [121]
Yes, indeedy, and that was the Heroes in Hell series of SF collections by many contributors, spearheaded by C.J. Cherryh & Janet Morris, with titles like "The Gates of Hell," "War in Hell," "Legions in Hell," and so on.
Enkidu and Gilgamesh were there, too, prowling the remoter regions to hunt.
Happy Solstice, everyone!
My holiday card inscription:
(Feel free to use and enjoy without need for attribution.)
Happy solstice, all!
To make that correct since there is no god (but lots of dogs):
What has been done in the name of god (the xian variety) is infinitely worse than what was done in the name of der Führer a.k.a. Adolf Hitler.
The Nazis worked more expediently, but only for about a decade. Xians have been at it for almost 20 centuries.
When discussing atrocities, have a read here: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175016
That is scary!
That's "Kind regards" with a lower case 'r'! Back to school with ye!
Well, they should have, because the ideologies of the fundies and of the Nazis have all main elements in common, - blind belief, blind loyalty, eliminate those with opposing ideas, total controll, and let the leaders think for the masses.
Little new or original in their tiny world.
To make that correct since there is no god (but lots of dogs):
What has been done in the name of god (the xian variety) is infinitely worse than what was done in the name of der Führer a.k.a. Adolf Hitler.
Certainly not! Hitler was evil, and nothing human is infinitely worse. Only infinite evil can be infinitely worse, like the infinite torture promised by God.
It doesn't have to be real for the concept to be evil.
HK said:
Most emphatically not to be confused with species regards, of course, or even Genus regards.
"BTW -- Don't be surprised if you have a lot of challenges ahead of you. You are messing with the Lord God Almighty."
Challenges? You personally piss off god, the most powerful being in existence, capable of wiping your entire family line from history if he so chose, and all you're going to get are some "challenges"?
Man. What a weak ass god. Look out, PZ! You spoke out against creationism, you might catch a red light or two on your way to work.
Damn. "Forever" would be bad enough; "forever and ever" even worse. But "forever, and ever, and ever"? That's incredibly harsh.
I think this clown must have enjoyed the scene in [i]The Shining[/i] where the twin dead girls employ this very phrase, except that what they tell poor Danny that "forever, and ever, and ever" is how long they'll all be playmates, with Hell not explicitly mentioned.
It's also impossible not to notice that the various and virtually innumerable self-appointed members of God's defense team always place their threats of divine retribution in the future, conveniently out of reach of meaningful challenge. When the most sensible support for an idea you can produce is a variant of "Just you wait!" you should, if in possession of any sense at all, be able to recognize that your position is unfathomably goofy. That's a colossal "if," however.
You know, i'm gonna catch a lot of flak for this, but i think it's very interesting nonetheless and not entirely off topic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JHS8adO3hM&
When I see letters like this from Ken's Minions, I am sadly reminded that I live in a state that says, in their Homeland Security tome, that our first defense against terrorism is god.
Pardon me while I go out and feed my pet Tyranosaurus.
This strikes me as a Poe. It's just too textbook... as if someone had been studying all the posted e-mails on this site to create one of their own.
random CAPS locks and exclamation points
mis-spelled words/grammar
comparison to Hitler
projection (afraid to have a real discussion)
mention of hell
superfluous reference to god (Lord God Almighty)
ironic courteous closing
For some reason, this one just doesn't seem authentic...
That might explain your winter-storm troubles last week...
just sayin...
I LOVE the "Kind Regards" at the end of the hate mail! It is as if the author can't resist to be well behaved or have some kind of reversed Tourettes. *ROFL* :D
I love these "loving," "moral" Christians:
"he is going to be burning in Hell forever, and ever, and ever" They love to apply this to anyone who disagrees with them. (Not that Hitler didn't deserve some serious punishment; but why the hell isn't execution enough for Christians? Why do they require torture? I thought we grew out of torture by, at least, say, 1787?: "8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted")
Their dogma are not moral:
Love me or burn: The central dogma of Christianity are that you must love Jesus and accept him as God and then you will be "saved" and spend eternity in Heaven after you die. If you don't do this, you will be tormented in hell for an eternal (endless, infinite) period of time. (This is good "carrot and stick" psychological strategy to reinforce behavior: religious adherence - power, money, prestige, comfort, solidarity.) These are the simple conclusions that follow from Christian dogma (airy sophistry about mild Jesus bringing love and happiness to your life does not change the basic equation stated.) All non-Christians burn: if you are not a Christian (and many Christian sects extend this to any kind of Christian other than their brand), then you burn in hell forever, EVEN PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER SEEN A BIBLE BURN FOREVER, and there have been many millions (billions probably) of these in the history of the earth. Even insincere Christians burn: those who go through the motions but don't truly believe. This God is asserted to be kind, loving, and forgiving. This is logically inconsistent.
Mark 16:16: "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."
Matthew 10:33: "But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven."
Eternal punishment in hell: Forever is a long time. Punishment is understood by humans to be just when it fits the offense committed*. ETERNAL punishment even of a very mild sort (and hell is described in Christian doctrine as blood-curdlingly nasty, even without the eternal part thrown in), is, by definition, infinite in scope (anything multiplied by infinity is infinite.) The only just offense for which it could be imposed is an infinitely bad one. Humans have finite powers and therefore are incapable of an infinitely bad offense. A person's lack of knowledge of this special God, Jesus, cannot be justly judged to be an infinitely bad offense. The dogma of hell is simply logically inconsistent with the definition Christians provide of their God: all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good, loving, forgiving, kind. Imposing an infinite punishment for any finite offense is unjust and evil. Therefore, it can never be justly imposed on humans, who have finite abilities. The good judge others by their character, not their beliefs, and punish deeds, not thoughts, and punish only to teach, not to torture.
An atheist (or some one who has never been exposed to Christian teaching) who lives an exemplary life, deeply moral, kind, generous, forgiving, public-spirited, devotes themselves and all their possessions to the care of the poor, but who does one lick of work on the sabbath, swears, tells a single lie, has a single thought of lust for his neighbor's beautiful wife or daughter, steals one tiny bit of food when starving (actually, given the Christian doctrine of "original sin" no action of this sort is necessary for the conclusion to follow) will be subjected to an INFINITE punishment. However, if a venally evil murderer, rapist, thief, pederast, whore-monger, child torturer reaches the end of his long life of debauchery, and simply decides to love Jesus and say he's sorry (to whom? the victims of his crimes?) then he gets eternal bliss in paradise. This is not a just or good doctrine.*
(* Magic explains nothing. Standard definitions of English words are required. When one introduces "special" word meanings, one is introducing magic. If good does not mean good by human standards, then it is not good.)
All the best, JB
heh
Sentence fail.
According to Pat Robertson, Hitler may not be in Hell. In his book where he answers common questions about religion, he says that people that do harm to others due to mental illness, and also people who commit suicide, can still get into heaven.
This whole "hell" thing - you'd think Lucifer would be pissed off at Dog for that whole tossed-out-of-Heaven thing and would, in fact, not want to act as his maître d' of Gitmo Prime. If Lucifer ["light bringer" - first patron of science, perhaps?] is in charge of Hell, why wouldn't he act counter to the prevailing picture of the place and make it into a lovely après-vie resort for all those fornicators, blasphemers, abortionists and atheists? That would make much more sense logically.
Is there a dogmum to dogma, as datum is to data?
That screed on Christian dogma would be more persuasive if it got the plural form of the central word right. Or if it were at least consistent in its use of it.
Dogma: singular
Dogmas or dogmata: plural
What's the sense of withholding this person's name? If a person has the brass monkeys to write to a person with a public persona about a topic of common discussion, then why allow them to hide?
This is my favorite line, and I'm glad you picked up on it.
Nothing says courage like calling someone Hitler in a isolated medium like e-mail.
"I reject your reality and substitute my own because I refuse to cope with the possibility that human life only has the meaning one gives it and that this meager and short existence is all we're ever going to get bums me out, besides all my authority figures tell me it's true,nyah,nyah, nyah." is their reason.
what? and actually have to take responsibility for their own lives and actions???
surely you jest.
PZ, just before you are going to die, REPENT!; then, all of your Hitlerian actions will be forgiven by Jebus and you won't have to surf the lake of fire for all of eternity.
"Kind Regards" : ) "God bless you," and the like in religious wingnut posts should be properly translated as "FYATHYRIO".
I think that's the real intent of their ironic complimentary closings. Otherwise, it would have to be concluded that they are insincere hypocrites. Nah, that's not possible.
"FYATHYRIO"
Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Lol, took me a sec to figure that one out ;)
[If good does not mean good by human standards, then it is not good.]
Please give me an objective definition of good.
And by that I mean a definition that is not subjective to human biases,personal human opinion,convention or change.
And please explain, You think one lie is not enough to merit punishment from an infinitely holy God that you offended. How many do merit it? 2, 3 ,4 a dozen....etc.
And please tell me what objective basis You used to make your cutoff number
"FYATHYRIO"
Fuck you and the horse you rode in on. Took me a sec to figure it out ;)
Since your imaginary god doesn't exist, ergo no problem. God only exists as delusion between your ears. So when you die, the delusion is gone. Simple.
Infinite punishment for a finite action, what a malevolent fuck God is.
Why is an "objective" definition necessary? The only understanding that we have of "good" is from our own experience and knowledge of consequences.
Nothing that finite humans do to an hypothetical infinite God can possibly harm said infinite God, therefore no offense solely against said infinite God can ever merit any punishment whatsoever.
[The only understanding that we have of "good" is from our own experience and knowledge of consequences.]
Well of course different people could have different experiences and opinions of "good". Jeffrey Dahmer and Hitler may have different definitions of good than you do.
Hitler was a Catholic. Dahmer grew up in a Xian home. Not references for religion being the domain of good.
Good is independent of the idea of god, and has always been defined by mortal men.
No, their definition of "good" was hypocritical and self-serving. Your own definition might be hypocritical and self-serving, or just poorly thought out, I'm not sure which.
If God said that it was right and proper to kill a group of people, men and women and children and the old, would that make it "good"?
Note that God does exactly that in the bible, as well as performing the ultimate genocide himself.
If there is an objective standard of "good", then God is evil, far worse than Hitler or Dahmer.
(Enters Thoughtful and Slightly Stoned Surfer Dude persona...)
Duuude. That sounds like a bitchin' ride!
(Exits Thoughtful and Slightly Stoned Surfer Dude persona...)
Good and evil are social constructs, explanations for our behaviour. For an individual to do good, it's judged on it's consequences in our society. A better way to look at things is with ethics rather than morality, that way there's a more objective means of determining the worth of an action. Looking at it in simplistic terms and demanding an objective description misrepresents the means in which we act, attributing morality to God is nothing more than an abstraction of how objectives come about.
I would more or less agree, but I am also willing to use "good" as shorthand meaning "in accordance with a consistent set of ethics" and "evil" to mean the opposite.
If facilis has a different definition of "good" and "evil", well, perhaps we'll see what it is, and where it fits in with the Euthyphro problem.
Fair call.
facilis #163 wrote:
An "objective" definition of good is meaningless: "good" is an evaluation. Therefore, it requires preference, and things which have preferences. It can't exist in isolation.
I think what you're looking for is a definition of "Good" which is intersubjective -- shared by all individuals with preferences. In that case, you're only going to get the broadest kinds of general positive values: fairness, kindness, virtue, honesty, and so forth. And you're going to have to appeal to what's considered beneficial to humans-in-general, what all people want for themselves.
A "God" would add absolutely nothing to this process, since, in order to be considered worthy of being God, a supernatural Being would have to be part of the intersubjective standards. It couldn't be above or outside of them, or else humans relating to God's morals would be like humans relating to the morals of some other species.
Those without an argument worth the name frequently resort to demanding definitions - see GWIAS on the "Science Policy" thread, and facilis here. Oddly enough, they very rarely provide their own definition of the term they want defined.
See what religion does to people? And they say it's harmless.
No,they dont say its harmless,they say its good for you...:-)
Your type of thinking is exactly the stuff that Adolf Hitler is made of.
Yes, because making fun of creationists is exactly the same as slaughtering 6 million Jews. Either that, or they don't believe Hitler was really that bad.
FYATHYRIO....I'm so using that as the name of my next RPG character.
[An "objective" definition of good is meaningless:]
So its all up to subjective opinion? Then that guy's point is meaningless.God has an opinion ,I got one, you got one. Arguing morality is like debating your favorite color.
[Therefore, it requires preference, and things which have preferences. It can't exist in isolation.]
Hitler's got his preferences. I suppose the Holocause might be "good" according to his preferences?
[I think what you're looking for is a definition of "Good" which is intersubjective -- shared by all individuals with preferences.]
Not really. People can all agree on something and be wrong.
[In that case, you're only going to get the broadest kinds of general positive values: fairness, kindness, virtue, honesty, and so forth.]
Does everyone consider those values good?
[And you're going to have to appeal to what's considered beneficial to humans-in-general, what all people want for themselves.]
Not really ,that would just be some kind of appeal to consequences.
[A "God" would add absolutely nothing to this process, since, in order to be considered worthy of being God, a supernatural Being would have to be part of the intersubjective standards.]
You haven't demonstrated this
[It couldn't be above or outside of them, or else humans relating to God's morals would be like humans relating to the morals of some other species. ]
Why can't we relate to the morals of other people
[I would more or less agree, but I am also willing to use "good" as shorthand meaning "in accordance with a consistent set of ethics" and "evil" to mean the opposite.]
Now you see Hitler had a consistent set of ethics that Aryans were the master race. He was acting in accordance with these ethics when he did the Holocaust. Does that mean that the Holocaust was good?
facilis wrote:
Not sure about this one, since I'm not too well-versed in the field of ethical debates, but I don't think something can be considered 'ethical' if it has a subjective principle like racism as its basis - and the mass murder of people as its result.
Oh, and if you use blockquotes it makes your posts easier to read. Put the text to be quoted between these <blockquote> and </blockquote> and it'll blockquote it. For example, typing <blockquote>sample text</blockquote> will produce this:
which is much easier to read.
Wrong. "Aryan" was not a consistent standard. Indeed, "Aryan", as used by the Nazis, was an almost entirely fictional concept.
For that matter, the ethics were not internally consistent either. Hitler did unto "Aryan"s who disagreed with him as he did unto Jews, Gypsies, etc. And of course, for Hitler to do unto Jews as he would not have wished for them to do unto him was not a consistent set of ethics.
You fail at ethics.
What the hell is your definition of good, anyway? Do you even have one?
Facilis #182 wrote:
No, you misunderstand what I'm saying. In an objective universe which consisted of nothing but rocks, the concepts of "good" and "evil" would be meaningless. You need beings which value things in order for there to be values.
If you want a set of values to appeal to as a standard -- so that some people would be morally right, and some people would be morally wrong -- then you have no choice but to look for intersubjective, universal values: things which all reasonable people would agree are 'good,' or all reasonable people would agree are 'bad' -- when understood fully, in context. Otherwise reasonable people who do moral wrongs are then wrong by their own values. They are contradicting themselves, making factual errors or failing to consider others as similar to themselves.
This is going to be the only way to bring people together under one internal standard. You can always bring people together by external means like reward and punishment. But obedience in that case will have nothing to do with ethics.
If God exists, then, it would have to embody this shared internal standard. But the standard first has to be possible, or all you've got is a God which some people think is good, and some people think is evil, and no standard to judge against to see who is correct. If God is 'objectively' (ie intersubjectively) "good" -- then God would have to be good by everyone's standards, when properly understood.
Here is a question to consider: If it turns out that God created human beings because it enjoys watching innocent people suffer under torture, would this mean that:
1.) This version of God is not good; it is evil.
2.) In that case, enjoying torture is good, and compassion and empathy are wrong. God sets the standards, no matter what God is like.
3.) This hypothetical is a logical impossibility: torture and the enjoyment of suffering is objectively wrong. Therefore, God could not be like this, and still be God.
The first and third answer assumes an external, human-centered standard which God must meet. Only the second answer anchors 'good' and 'evil' in an objective God.
The second answer has problems.
I would go with this answer, not because of any human standard but because the very definiton of God implies a being worthy of worship with no imperfections . Such a being would not have people tortured
Mauled by bears but definitely not tortured. At least not till after you are dead. Than the burning flesh of the damned is sweet perfume for the righteous.
Facilis god cannot be defined until proven. You are lacking in proof. Shut up until you do so with physical evidence, Otherwise, we both know you are a fraud.
Keep in mind this thread:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/12/warning_proselytization_is_n…
Personally, you are getting well over the line.
Whose definition is that??
And the only being worthy of worship with no imperfections is Angelina Jolie,dont you know that?
Of course you would - it applies the No True Scotsman fallacy to the supposed god at the center of the religion. Standard fare, only it isn't used to explain away human behavior inconsistent with Christian teachings, but rather the alleged deity himself. Man, you're taking fallacy to the next level.
And yet in the other thread you claimed that it was right and proper for God to send bears to kill children: Since bears are not known for being merciful killers, the children were not just tortured, but tortured to death.
And presuming the existence of Hell, since the children were given no chance whatsoever to repent, that means they went to Hell, to be tortured forever.
facilis - You are full of shit, but I don't think PZ bought you at the Troll $1 Store. You look like a $2 stamina troll.
If you want to become the gold medal winner trot out evidence of your gawd. Without proof you have no further arguement.
You uphold gawd as righteous, do you support his causing children to be enslaved for the debts of their parents? 2 Kings 4:1, or David's child being stricken and allowed to die because of David's sin? 2 Samuel 12:14,18?
Facilis dribbled,
So you don't believe in the god of the bible then?
"They crack me up every time when they accuse me of being just like Hitler, and then close with some cliched farewell, like "Kind Regards"."
The conclusion of this: Creationists like Hitler.
Religion and Hitler are indeed the same. The bible would be a great replacement for "Mein Kampf".
Whoaaaaa....
Are you kidding? Please tell me that you are,because that does just not make sense on so many levels.
A cobbled together book of bronze age mythology stories as a replacement of a disabled catholic's extermination and world domination fantasies?
Sorry mate,thats just nonsense.
There is no point in,and no truth in,reversing the Hitler=Atheist argument with a Hitler=Creationist one.
Well... technically speaking, Hitler was a Creationist. There's a quote where he basically repeats the old, old "microevolution cannot possibly be macroevolution" canard...
I can't find it right this moment, but I'm pretty sure it's out there.