This [...]]]> Phil Plait, rocket nerd and writer for the blog Bad Astronomy on Discover Magazine blogs and of his latest book Death from the Skies, will be speaking at Utah State University on the same topic this Friday, April 27th 2012, at 7 p.m. in the Emert Auditorium, Room 130, of the Eccles Science Learning Center.

This is a free event open to every one (or at least those who are ready to face our imminent doom).

“When I started writing this book, I sat down and brainstormed every single astronomical event I could think of that could wipe out life on Earth,”

If only you had a way of showing them that what they’re saying violates some basic rules in reasoning.

Well, now you do!

Your Logical Fallacy Is is… well, [...]]]> Arguing with someone can be really frustrating at times when the other person doesn’t understand the basics of making logical statements and constructing reasonable arguments.

If only you had a way of showing them that what they’re saying violates some basic rules in reasoning.

Well, now you do!

Your Logical Fallacy Is is… well, exactly what it says it is.

This awesome web site lists some of the main mistakes in arguing one often hears and cringes over. It allows you to link directly to a specific fallacy, complete with a simple explanation and example of said fallacy.

They also have printable vector posters you can print out and display at your favorite arguing arena, be it your cubicle, coffee shop, or church!

The Reason Rally will be held in Washing DC on March 24th, 2012, from 10am to 4pm at the National Mall.

The list of attendees is insurmountably excellent.

Go! Enjoy! Represent our views!

Uh…. maybe I’ll let the Founding Fathers do the reminding:

These awesome posters are [...]]]> In light of the time Congress wasted yesterday passing a bill that reinstates our country’s official motto “In God We Trust,” I would like to remind those in power (especially Sarah Palin) that this country is NOT a Christian nation.

Uh…. maybe I’ll let the Founding Fathers do the reminding:

These awesome posters are part of a bus ad campaign by The Freedom From Religion Foundation. Check out the rest of them on their site. I hope Sarah Palin can read these.

It is about time we start looking at the pope figure for what it truly is: a man capable of great or horrible things. In this case, a man with the weight of years of covering pedophilia cases for the Catholic church who [...]]]> Wow! I just love this cover of the New Statesman this week.

It is about time we start looking at the pope figure for what it truly is: a man capable of great or horrible things. In this case, a man with the weight of years of covering pedophilia cases for the Catholic church who needs to face responsibility.

God is calling

But that is exactly what he did at St. Nicholas of Myra vacation bible school this week. God actually took the time off his very busy schedule causing earthquakes and killing evil people at the Love Parade to call each [...]]]>

God is calling

But that is exactly what he did at St. Nicholas of Myra vacation bible school this week. God actually took the time off his very busy schedule causing earthquakes and killing evil people at the Love Parade to call each of the 21 children at the camp with messages to “follow him.”
The children were between the ages of 6 to 9 years-old, which is the perfect age, of course.

Oh, man, there are so many things wrong here that I don’t even know where to begin.

The first thing that clearly comes to mind is the parallel with Santa Claus (even the name of the school is St. Nicholas!!!) eating the cookie and drinking the milk from the mantle, while possibly leaving muddy footprints and reindeer crumbs on the snow. This is no different and every adult involved in this camp’s little stunt knows that it’s not god at the other end of the line, but Father O’Neal just trying to touch… uh… reach out… I mean, influence the children at his school with a personal phone call from the big man in the sky.
So the level of deceit is beyond me.

As a non-believer, I actually really love this program. Just like the Santa bit, children will smarten up to it eventually, as we all did, and hopefully it’ll be one more notch in their skeptic belt against believing in fairy tales.

They’ve taken on many topics including pseudo-scientific ideas, paranormal beliefs, and popular fads and provided their flavor of debunking [...]]]> Penn & Teller’s show “Bullshit” is as good as it gets on TV these days, amidst an ocean of worthless, cookie-cutter “reality” tv shows and equally repetitive “who’s going to be the next star” type shows.

They’ve taken on many topics including pseudo-scientific ideas, paranormal beliefs, and popular fads and provided their flavor of debunking to each one.
In their 8th season finale, their latest episode, the duo tackles the dangerous Jenny McCarthy and her groupies of anti-vaxers with the truth about vaccines.

Now, I posted a little while ago about Mormons and rated-R movies and how stupid the whole thing is.
My argument then was related to how the church uses an almost random, third-party SECULAR set of standards to dictate what the sheep should avoid in the privacy of their own homes or at the nearest theater.

My other argument against all this unnecessary censoring is that “bad words” are just as part of our language as any other word, and thus a very important way of conveying a message; yes, even if that message is one of anger or distaste or hate or anything else.

Take Penn’s closing argument in this clip:

“So even if vaccination DID cause autism, WHICH IT FUCKING DOESN’T, anti-vaccination would still be bullshit!”

While the word “fuck” can be used in many ways as a direct insult towards someone (I do not condone insulting people, whether you use a curse word or not), the word “fucking” in this case was utterly necessary to convey Penn’s disgust with the idea that vaccines cause autism and those who believe such nonsense. Sure, he could have used a different word, perhaps, or reworded the entire thing to avoid cursing, but the message would’ve lost its poignant delivery and maybe failed to highlight the stupidity around the whole anti-vaxer “movement.”

It’s the difference between insulting someone with a curse word and simply being insulted by the existence of such word.

Take these two phrases as examples:

You are a fucking asshole!

and

I fucking hate that asshole (when used towards Glenn Beck)!

It is clear that both phrases use the same curse words, but in very different contexts it is also clear to see that the first phrase is very insulting, while the other is only stating a truthful and accurate observation.

Joseph Smith

As I’ve stated here before, I was not born nor [...]]]>

Joseph Smith

As I’ve stated here before, I was not born nor raised LDS. Although I joined the church at a young age (15) for mostly social reasons, I revisited my beliefs at a later time and can honestly say I really believed (and wanted to believe) the history and doctrine of the church. I became interested early on in its doctrines and eagerly wanted to teach the youth in the church. I was in Scouting and taught Primary. I did firesides and youth conferences and was generally involved in everything good the church had to offer.

Needless to say, the more I learned about the history of the church and its doctrines, the more I started to see the ugly side of it all. Between the obvious dealings with polygamy and racial discrimination to more involved topics such as Smith’s past, the Book of Abraham Papyri, or the Mountain Meadows Massacre ,I found myself truly disenchanted with the responses to such issues provided to me by the church. I became more and more confused about the church to which I belonged.

But my doubts really all started with ol’ Joe, however, so I’ll dedicate my post to him and his genius in conning the folks in this great land. The man is indeed amazing if he foresaw a fraction of the empire he helped build.

So, without further ado, here are 4 reasons why I deny Joseph Smith’s claims:

1) There’s no reliable evidence
“The weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness” said Simon Laplace, which the great Carl Sagan reworded later on as “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
I contend that, in this day and age, at least in most developed countries, Smith’s claims of visions and magical tools would be highly scrutinized and eventually deemed ludicrous and borderline schizophrenic by most (unfortunately there are still plenty gullible people who still believe in enough woo to give credence to such tales). I would hope to believe they would not survive or, at best, it would exist a la Scientology, which is today a laughing stock among anyone seriously considering a theology.

2) His dirty past
From an early age, Smith and his family were actively involved in folk magic and claims of mystical visions which they said were from god. They also practiced treasure hunting via seer stones to augment their income. He was eventually arrested in one of his treasure quests and eventually forfeited his business, double crossing his partners in the process. Smith himself tells of his first vision at age 15, in which god told him his sins were forgiven and no church existed that was true. His wife’s parents never approved of their marriage and his dealing in polygamy were mostly kept secret from her. This portrayal of a young man highly influenced by religion is not unlike the youth of today involved in organizations such as Christ Triumphant Church and others around the country.

Joseph Smith's Past

3) It’s the same old story
Smith was definitely not the only one to have ever created a following or started a new religion, and especially during the early 19th Century’s Second Great Awakening, which led to the beginnings of many new denominations and gave upstate New York the nickname of “Burned-over district,” giving rise to Adventism, Restorationism, the LDS church, and the Holiness movement, among others.

4) The bottom line
“Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course, but we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time; it is therefore at least millions to one, that the reporter of a miracle tells a lie.” – Thomas Paine.
A friend of mine was telling me the story of a co-worker who one day said he had a vision from god and that god had spoken to him. This man took to write down the message on pieces of paper and placed one on each person’s desk. He was called into his boss’ office and told that the workplace was no place to disseminate religious claims. The co-worker repeated the offense and was fired. I’m willing to believe no one in the company thought they had just got rid of a true prophet of a god, but a zealous (or maybe even crazy), religious person. The bottom line is, if Joseph Smith wasn’t outright lying and swindling the people around him, he was just truly delusional.

For a complete, unbiased account of Joseph Smith’s history, check out Fawn Brodie’s No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith.

(post context borrowed respectfully from “Unreasonable Faith.”)