Carnival of the godless - September 16, 2007

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Eve should have noticed the problem with the fruit.

Here's your submissions with some inane commentary from myself:

Sorry about the formatting... I give up... sigh.. how embarrassing!

FitBuff presents Out of Body Experiences: Medical Mysteries or Scientific Explanation? posted at FitBuff.com's Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog, saying, "Out of body experiences have long been associated with divine intervention and miracles, but scientists claim to be able to now trigger them on demand in volunteers. Does this change the way you feel about these phenomena? It's interesting to note that though they can trigger the experience, they still can't explain exactly how or why it happens."

Everyone heads for the light during 'Near Death Experiences'... could it actually be that most of us get reincarnated as Moths? They do have short lives. I promise not to mention Moths again during this carnival.

Greta Christina presents Does The Emperor Have Clothes? Religion and the Destructive Force of Asking Questions posted at Greta Christina's Blog,It looks at the question of whether questioning religion really is (as defensive believers seem to think) an attack on it. It argues that the mere act of questioning religion and treating it as just another hypotheses about the world does, in fact, act to weaken religion's hold on believers -- more than any specific argument leveled against it."

Ask no silly questions, get no silly answers. Are there any religious leaders or evangelists who would look good naked? I suppose there are some questions that shouldn't be asked.

Felicia Gilljam presents Atheism is a Big Ship posted at Life before death. Since I started getting involved in various non-religious movements I’ve become more and more aware of the tremendous amounts of completely useless infighting going on.

Do atheists infight? There's heaps of different types of Christians on the sliding scale between cute and cult. What about atheists? Am I as good an atheist as Dawkins? Do I less believe in God more? Southpark picked apart the atheist fellowships brilliantly.

Only Three Notes presents Women and Family in Islam posted at Only Three Notes.
When looking into women in Islam it is important to understand that many of these Islamic rules were established during Prophet Mohammed’s era.

Where is Islamia anyway?

Greta Christina presents The Argument From Design -- Now With 40% More Cosmology! Or, Why David Hume Rocks posted at Greta Christina's Blog, saying, "I've been reading that the argument from design is the most commonly-cited reason for believing in God -- even among the more rational, science-loving, non-creationist believers. So I wrote this piece on it, addressing the argument of design as it applies to cosmology as well as evolution. It's a two-parter, but this first part has a link to the second part.

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Albert Decker presents Baboon Headdress posted at Resonant Enigma. I think we, in general, greatly underestimate the power and scope of the mind.It gives us all these wonderful, comforting (or terrifying, as the case may be) experiences, but since we only claim the conscious part as "who we are," we attribute mystical experiences to gods or demons and such.

My car hasn't broken down for over a year or two. I wouldn't have previously attributed mystical things to god, but I'm sure J.K. Rowling is looking after me in some supermuggle way.

Eric Michael Johnson presents Parsimony and the Origin of Life in the Universe posted at The Primate Diaries. Intelligent Design creationists are fond of using the strategy of denial based on personal incredulity. “I can’t explain how protein motors with multiple parts could evolve so, therefore, no one can and Darwin was wrong.”

I have a theory that god is a huge Swiss watch that evolved over billions of years, and along the way he hooked up with an evolved jumbo jet and an ergonomic banana. The three of them got together and invented an invisible spaghetti unicorn and the rest is history.

revere presents Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: the High Priest's vestments posted at Effect Measure, saying, "My weekly atheist screed." I've been thinking more about the significance of the Dawkins-Harris-Dennett-Hitchens-PZ genre of atheism writing. Matt Nisbet and other folks seem to feel very threatened by it, worrying about an anti-secular backlash.

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The Ridger presents did he ever 'carve out time' for the troops? posted at The Greenbelt, saying, "Daniel Cooper bluntly lays out his priorities: reading the Bible is more important than ensuring care for veterans."

Mike Haubrich presents Pentagon Considered Making "Gay Bomb" posted at Latest entries from tuibguy.blog-city.com, saying, "The Pentagon considered a weapon to turn its enemies gay and fall in love with each other. This would destroy their morale, you see. We could then cakewalk to Teheran."



T Ellis presents My Affidavit posted at evanescent, saying,"A detailed explanation of just why we CAN assess a god's morality for ourselves, and then considering the actions of the biblical god as we would any other person to see that this is no moral being; refuting Christianity."

We need to adapt our own morality.... not adopt one. This is my favourite motto for now.

No More Mr. Nice Guy! presents James Kennedy recants on deathbed, embraces atheism posted at No More Mr. Nice Guy!, saying, "A tongue-in-cheek attempt to create an atheist urban legend."Speaking in tongues in cheek?

Greg Laden presents Islam is a religion too ... posted at Greg Laden, saying, "Major religions vie to see who can be more annoying, but the most annoying of all may be the appeasers."

Islam again? Are they a very big religion? What does their god look like?

Eric Michael Johnson presents Creationist Lunacy in North Carolina posted at The Primate Diaries. "Even today, both children and adults enjoy seeing gorillas and chimpanzees in zoos. It is reasonable to assume that these creatures were partly made for just this reason, to be a joy and entertainment to us."

So why the Hell did God make toads? Just to revolt us?

Hell's Handmaiden presents I'm sorry! Really. I am. hell's handmaiden posted at Hell's Handmaiden.

Sieow Yeong Huah presents Skeptical Personal Development » Blog Archive » Faith: the Good, the Bad, and the Fallacious posted at Skeptical Personal Development, saying, "An article on the common fallacy by theists of using equivocation on the word "faith"."

Bad presents WorldNetDaily: Romans 13 means “Shoot to Kill” « The Bad Idea Blog posted at The Bad Idea Blog, saying, "WorldnetDaily is convinced that the Apostle Paul said believers should form highly armed militias. There may be a wee bit of a problem with their interpretation.

I knew those cwazee Cwistians were up to no good!

cheerfuliconoclast@gmail.com presents I'm Sure Flying THAT Airline posted at cheerful iconoclast, saying, "Sacrifice a goat to fix a plane!"

Barry Leiba presents Keeping religion out of the justice system posted at Staring At Empty Pages.

Skeptico presents ID Creationist Bingo posted at Skeptico, saying, "Hope you find this amusing. Play it with your friends."

Mike Haubrich presents A Prayer for Dealing With Atheists posted at Latest entries from tuibguy.blog-city.com, saying, "My input on framing science away from atheism. Bad idea."

Austin Cline presents Comment of the Week: It's Immoral to Insult Religious Figures posted at About Agnosticism/Atheism.

Austin Cline presents Modernizing Superstition: Healing Religious Touch of Royalty posted at About Agnosticism/Atheism, saying, "Pick whichever one works best for you..."

Ben D presents Why yes, science can rule on whether your god exists... posted at Principles of Parsimony, saying, "Debunking the myth that science cannot prove or disprove God."

Thad Guy presents Kills The Funny posted at Thad Guy, saying, "When God's existence, morality, power, or general mojo is questioned one response is to ask “who are you to question God?”. This response demonstrates one of my favorite defensive techniques. I call it “blame the problem on the problem.” If done forcefully enough and in the right circumstances it can cause question and anti-question to disappear in an illogical burst of light. This comic explores this defense of belief in God through the analogy of belief in humor. Remember every time you say “I don't believe in a universal cause for laughter” somewhere a joke dies."

vjack presents "End Times" Theology Endangers Us All posted at Atheist Revolution, saying, "Christians are expected to swallow all sorts of nonsense about the existence of supernatural entities, beliefs about the natural world which have repeatedly been falsified, and assorted logical contradictions. The rest of us are expected to keep our criticism to ourselves in the interest of respect or tolerance (yes, to point out someone's religiously-motivated intolerance is regularly considered intolerant). And yet, withholding criticism of certain irrational beliefs imperils us all."

Alonzo Fyfe presents Insulting Religious People posted at Atheist Ethicist.

Mark A. Rayner presents Excruciating Album Cover Art ? God?s Preacher posted at the skwib.

Chris Hallquist presents What changed? posted at The Uncredible Hallq.

That concludes this edition.

Submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of the godless using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for including our article in this big carnival!

Anonymous said...

Lol, you just reprinted my submission text wholesale, stage directions and all. :)

mothpete said...

Sorry... my bad. This whole carnival thing came as a shock to me. I've slowed my blogging way down and I didn't really know that I'd be hosting a carnival. I just submitted to one earlier in the year and didn't read the fine print. Yeah, it's a mess and was slapped together when I worked out what all the emails were coming to me for.

Gregory Lynn said...

Wait, there's fine print?

Anonymous said...

I'm an atheist.

My inaugural address at the Great White Throne Judgment of the Dead, after I have raptured out billions! The Secret Rapture soon, by my hand!
Read My Inaugural Address
At = http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/spaceman

Anonymous said...

I know that there's no such thing as a benevolent god at least. There's no way that such a being would allow the creation of the infernal SnapShots thing that pops up those little speech-bubble-esque previews of linked sites.

Horrible, just horrible.

No matter where your mouse goes there's a new SnapShot to obscure your view of whatever you're reading. Hate, hate, fume, fume.

Apart from that lovely job with the carnival :-)

Anonymous said...

Those who be affiliated to the recognized faiths claim that the expert of their faith rests on uncovering, and that publication is given in the pages of books and accounts of miracles and wonders whose disposition is supernatural. But those of us who take desire discarded the assent in the magical unruffled are in the attendance of revelations which are the purpose of faith. We too entertain our revealed religion. We procure looked upon the clock of men and women that can be to us the symbols of that which is holy. We acquire heard words of venerable shrewdness and reality oral in the possibly manlike voice. Excuse of the quarter there experience be involved a arise to us these sagacity which, when accepted, donate to us revelations, not of abnormal belief, but of a regular and assured fidelity in the clerical powers that animated and live in the center of [a person's] being.