December 7, 2008

Many Americans choose to be ignorant. It's safe. It's warm. It's comfy. But for those of you who don't want that as your fate, check out TED


Here's a good preso on TED on galaxies, the big bang and the creation of the universe.

But hey, if you want to believe that the earth is 10,000 years old and that humans and dinosaurs hung out together, that's your choice.

Silly Americans. Silly GOP "base".

Scared of what's out there. Scared of science. Scared of the truth. Scared of knowledge. Ignorant and intellectually stunted adults scared to question their indefensible childhood beliefs.


46 comments:

Anonymous said...

You need a picture of a sheep. You know, like the fools who voted for Obama. They would follow him off a cliff.

Anonymous said...

As opposed to those who voted for McCain? Come on now. Come on.

Anonymous said...

The intelligent design cretards have no problem with modern cosmology. The americans that you are refering to are a dwindling number. Bush, O'Reilly, etc, are ID proponents. This is pseudoscience that good science has to guard against politically and pedagogically.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=CRETARD

http://www.talkdesign.org/cs/

Anonymous said...

Didn't Jesus kill all the dinosaurs?

blogger said...

I agree - the ignorant base number is thankfully declining. They're loud, but they're declining, and they've now lost power forever in America.

They've also mainly isolated themselves (see McCain's dwindling red state map)

But still, there are a lot of them out there. Including many even on this blog which is surprising.

Religious doctrine is powerful. It makes people reject truth, information, science and education. And yet, if one is enlightened, science and information can actually make one even more religious.

All in all, ignorance is just unfortunate. You only get one life. To go through it closed minded and ignorant is quite frankly a waste of what god likely intended.

Anonymous said...

Talk about generalizing Keith. It's only a fringe segment of the GOP that believes the world is 8 or 10k years old or whatever.

Btw, preso in Spanish and Italian means 'convict'. Do what you will with that tidbit.

blogger said...

I stand corrected. I added the word "base" after GOP.

You know, the lunatic born-again closed minded Pat Robertson Ted Haggard Sarah Palin speaking in tongues fundamentalist right. The part of the party that will eventually be cast off, left to go form their own fringe crackpot party.

Does that help?

Anonymous said...

I am not religious and have a disdain for all organized religion especially christianity, judaism, and islam. But, I do know some people who believe in that garbage. Even one family that prays to thank god for a safe drive home from the mall - I'm not making that up. But, I live in NYC which is a democrat stronghold. Every single religious person I know is a registered democrat and voted for Obama. Recognize the fact that stupidity is not limited to one party. It is the opiate of the masses, not just the right-wing.

blogger said...

Oh, another clarification. Americans haven't cornered the market on ignorance.

Boy, you should see some of the folks over here. Reading their Sun and News of the World. Watching their reality TV. Getting their government money. Drinking at the pub by noon.

Morons. But they don't do the religion thing. They're just morons. What's dangerous is when you combine the two, and then add hubris.

Like Palin. Or Bush.

Anonymous said...

HE is still not changing Keith...

-The same yesterday
-Today
-Forever

As long as you have breath there is time to pick up a Bible and read it...The moment your heart stops you will understand who GOD really is.

Lets look at the possibilities when we both close our eyes in death (Sounds so final...but its not)

I die and you are right...No biggie cause I am just like the old Kansas song I am dust in the wind.

You die and the Bible is right...
You burn like a flaming coal in a lake of fire with you old pal Lucifer FOR ETERNITY.

God loves you...Read the KJV & Find out how much.

PS...Enjoy your blogs (most of the time) and I am sure you are a good person but the Bible says all your good is like filthy rags unless you trust one name... JESUS.

Anonymous said...

I believe this is the only time I have disagreed with you. The bible was given to us from God because he loves us. Jesus teaches love. Please do not be hurt (disheartened and distracted) by false people (e.g., George Bush).

Anonymous said...

Keith said...

You know, the lunatic born-again closed minded Pat Robertson Ted Haggard Sarah Palin speaking in tongues fundamentalist right.

I agree with you keith these people are a somewhat of a joke .However in the the video the guy made many references to a design and creation .Those two words by very definition would imply that there must be a designer or creator.
I think it takes more faith to believe the universe is a product of random chance than a creation by a creator . Scientist believed the earth to be flat at one time .The bible on the other hand made reference too the earth being a sphere from the get go ..
Only one of many examples of the bible complementing science not opposing it .


Is it too far fetched to believe that an intelligence able to create, design and balance the universe could not choose to communicate with human beings by means Of a historically correct and preserved written word (for what ever reason)
I find the critics most opinionated about the bible usually have not even read it .
As for being close minded how open is your own mind .

Anonymous said...

Well people could co-habitate with dinosaurs without 'hanging out' or 'paling around' with them. Infact I believe they used to make dinosaur stew.

That's really the defining line I think. If you make stew out of someone's ass, then you're definitly not 'pals'.

Anonymous said...

I have always had a lot of questions about the fundamentalist protestant religion that was part of my upbringing. At the age of twelve, I questioned why I was standing on top of a hill at dawn for Easter "sunrise services" and eating chocolate bunnies and eggs. I learned later, of course, that it was all part of ancient fertility and equinox rites of spring that have survived attempts to turn them into a religious holy day. And of course the realization that Christmas was originally a solstice celebration finally explained to me the lights and greenery and feasting that are so ingrained in that holiday. As I have become more 'enlightened', I have rejected a lot of the beliefs I once held and am still questioning some of them. I never liked the part where Jesus called his followers "sheep". It seems like an insult to them.

blogger said...

Again, the cool thing about a presentation like this is you realize there must be a god

Religion and science do not conflict.

Except for this bizarre crackpot flavor of man-made religion that believes dinosaurs and humans co-existed, and that men should not touch women at a certain time of month, or not eat shellfish.

That's just some weird-ass sh*t.

blogger said...

And please, someone tell me you checked out TED and fell in love.

So many good presentations there. Make a goal of watching one a day.

Anonymous said...

It's co-habitate, not co-exist.

Anonymous said...

I agree that there is evidence of a conscious being controlling the universe, for example, in the principle of "the Fibonacci numbers" which are nature's numbering system. They appear everywhere in nature, from the leaf arrangement in plants, to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the scales of a pineapple. The Fibonacci numbers are applicable to the growth of every living thing, including a single cell, a grain of wheat, a hive of bees, and even all of mankind. This is science, but can also represent the philosophy of conscious love and order. But the day to day issues of our lives are left for us to use our superior intellect to unravel. We should be competent enough to do the small stuff and let God take care of the big stuff.

Anonymous said...

These evelution retards have been looking for the missing link forever. They will never find it because it does't exist. By the the way read what Einsein had to say about god at the end of his life. I'm sure all god haters are smarter than Einstein including this one. They do not explain the universe and its iaws like he did because they are retards and haters. The laws of the universe point directly to the creator just as eistein said.

Anonymous said...

We researched it...

Sarah Palin is a direct descendent of EVE as in the Garden of Eden.

The only change was that Adam needed to take a bite of fresh moose shit to have his way with Eve to get the whole ball rolling...

GOP is Dead. Clean up on aisle 9...

wink wink...

Anonymous said...

"keith said...
I agree - the ignorant base number is thankfully declining. They're loud, but they're declining, and they've now lost power forever in America."

Due to a lot of funerals I hope.

DIE

Anonymous said...

Haitian Voodoo.

The only way to true enlightenment.

Anonymous said...

The Hidden Face of GOD , by Gerald Schroeder is the BEST book of this kind I have ever read. He has a PhD in Physics and Micro Biology. A very smart man and his presentation to non believers is fascinating.

In one chapter , he takes you step by step through the breathtaking and beautiful child birth process on a biological basis. This is so complex that it will make you gasp.

I can never understand those that dismiss things as such as "chance" or "random" process.

This is all designed and "intelligent" is a HUGE understatement.

Peace !

Anonymous said...

We do not destroy religion by destroying superstition.

Paul E. Math said...

I checked out the video on TED - it was cool. I did not fall in love. In fact, it confused me and scared me a little. Maybe that's because I have food poisoning and I'm a little fragile right now.

As for religion, Gandhi says that they are different paths all leading to the same destination.

Even atheism requires faith in something. Which is not to say it's wrong. Just sayin'...

Anonymous said...

TED talks are GREAT!! There was one not too long ago on mycology that was fascinating. To get inside the minds of the most brilliant people on the planet is one of the benefits of expanding the internet community.

Anonymous said...

keith,

where did all the matter in the universe come from? was it just instantaneously created from nothing? and if so, what was that force that created matter? and why did it happen? and what is the universe? how did it get here? was there anything before it?

how is it that something as complex as genetic encoding happened purely by accident (i.e. randon interactions of life forms)?

how does evolution explain homosexuality (evolution argues against this)?

how does evolution explain the concept of mutation (variability)? did this concept arise by accident in the first place, or were most life forms exact duplicates of one another (within the species) and they all died off and the ones to survive were the minority of life forms that retained the ability to mutate their genes?

how does evolution explain our search to understand the origins of life and to do things like fly to the moon? is it purely accidental that humans have such a thirst to explain the origin of life? why would the brain evolve to such an extent when the answer is not necessary for our physical survival? (after all, everything about the theory of evolution has to do with organisms' physical survival in their physical environments).

how does evolution explain civilization itself (99% of what human beings have and do is not necessary for our survival)?

these are just some of the questions big-bangers have not explained...and never will.

i don't know if there's a creator but i know that evolution is a theory full of holes. it is incumbent upon the evolutionists to provide a comprehensive explanation of their theory. they have not done so to date.

as i said in another recent post, both evolutionists and creationists rely on faith to explain their beliefs about the origins of life, matter, and the universe.

Anonymous said...

"Morons. But they don't do the religion thing. They're just morons. What's dangerous is when you combine the two, and then add hubris.
"


Keith, here is a well-reasoned piece that makes the case we should be more concerned about the amoral morons, and that universal, secular education is part of the problem, not a solution.

http://tinyurl.com/59qko3

blogger said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_bang

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution

to your questions

yes

god

we can't know

our neighborhood

god

god

there are no accidents

god evidently wanted homos

evolution is mutation

yes

we evolve, learn, grow, explore

it does not


hope that helps

it's so obvious, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Anonymous wrote: I can never understand those that dismiss things as such as "chance" or "random" process.

Millions and millions of years of trail-and-error evolution will do that. I can see how you'd think it'd be divine intervention if you think the universe is only 10,000 years old, but the proof is in the pudding that it's not.

Anonymous said...

The real mystery is at the quantum level. A strong scientific argument can be made that consciousness affects the existence and behavior of all matter in the universe.

Science has got its share of spooky quasi-religious overtones. Many are embarrassed by the Quantum Enigma skeleton hidden in Schrodingers's Closet. The same intelligent, wise, agnostic scientists who provide the evidence for the premature death of God and rise of secularism also find themselves grappling with the anthropic principle. "Does man happen to exist in this universe (of all universes) simply because the conditions were only favorable here - and therefore only possible here?" What a "silly" thing for Stephen Hawking to spend SO much time writing about.

I think Will Wright will turn out to be the Intelligent Designer of the Universe. He just hasn't done it, yet.

Anonymous said...

keith said, "it's so obvious, isn't it?"....

Nope! :-)

by the way, the wiki article on evolution doesn't answer my questions. it just uses the same tired explanations of "its random" or "by chance". these are terms used by evolutionists when they can't explain something...like the entire theory of evolution!

the article on evolution does nothing to explain how encoding of genes happened in the first place. the authors simply start off accepting that genes are what they are but they don't explain how the encoding happened initially! somehow the encoding had to have happened. that is, for example, the code in a gene that says my arm is going to be 36 inches long...it's contained in a microscopic life form called a gene. how did the encoding of both the arm and length of 36 inches happen? now apply that to the rest of the phenotypes. so essentially, how did the physical organism get compacted into genetic encoding? and also, how did the encoding get passed down from one phenotype to another? was there one gene that figured out the encoding and then that one gene mutated into every other gene, carrying along with it the encoding concept? and if so, how did that one gene figure it out?

it's unexplainable by evolution. to say that it was just random processes (as the theory of evolution dictates it to be) just seems very, very silly. really now, how can something so complex as genetic encoding be a result of purely random processes?

as far as the article on the big bang theory, well i'm not talking about that. i'm talking about where matter comes from...that is, the material that comprised the big bang. and also, i'm talking about the origins of the universe. matter, the big bang, and the universe are all different things.

food for thought!

Anonymous said...

Ahhh ... magical thinking.

I say these words - "Alakazam!" and good things will happen to me, and bad things will happen to those who oppose me!

I perform these rituals and invisible, secret forces that control everything in the universe will bend themselves to my will!

Kinda like believing in an "Invisible Hand" in the marketplace, and blathering on about complex CDOs and index funds ... the two go hand-in-hand.

Magical thinking was that the price of houses could only go up. If you accept that some invisible Sky Fairy is going to somehow protect & defend you, how much of a stretch is it to believe in other "faith-based" things ... that Iraqis will greet us as liberators. That Hurricane Katrina will be no big deal. That Wall St. bankers will act responsibly ...

The commenters here prove that even in a fact-based site like this, the damage has been done.

Anonymous said...

Sure, all of the morons and ignorami in America only vote Republican.

Anonymous said...

The intelligent design cretards have no problem with modern cosmology. The americans that you are refering to are a dwindling number. Bush, O'Reilly, etc, are ID proponents. This is pseudoscience that good science has to guard against politically and pedagogically.

I am no creationist, but it always amazes me to see the level of arrogance of the opponents of ID. They believe that they are intellectually superior, but don't realize they are often just as ignorant as the fundamentalists they oppose. Most atheists could not tell the first thing about the theory of evolution.

If I were to ask anonymous to explain speciation, he probably would not even understand the question.

Anonymous said...

Keith said:

I agree - the ignorant base number is thankfully declining. They're loud, but they're declining, and they've now lost power forever in America.

They've also mainly isolated themselves (see McCain's dwindling red state map)

But still, there are a lot of them out there. Including many even on this blog which is surprising.

Religious doctrine is powerful. It makes people reject truth, information, science and education. And yet, if one is enlightened, science and information can actually make one even more religious.

All in all, ignorance is just unfortunate. You only get one life. To go through it closed minded and ignorant is quite frankly a waste of what god likely intended.


He Keith, why no mention of all the morons on the left who believe George Bush destroyed the World Trade Center by firing missiles at it? They are often agnostic and just has ignorant, having no basis for their argument other than their hatred of Bush.

Anonymous said...

"Millions and millions of years of trail-and-error evolution will do that. I can see how you'd think it'd be divine intervention if you think the universe is only 10,000 years old, but the proof is in the pudding that it's not."

To state that "TIME" is reason for molecules and atoms to bump around until life as we know it is brought into existence is hilarious. For everything to fall into place just right by luck. WOW.

Even Darwin himself had a hard time dismissing a form of wisdom at work here. Just read some of his writings.

Anonymous said...

>Millions and millions of years of trail-and-error evolution will do that.

Yeah, and this planet being perfectly suitable, and the laws of physics in sync also.

I've heard it said before, that without gravity, which can't yet be explained, this would all be impossible. Add that to your rescipe.

Anonymous said...

You want to know what's really behind the curtain S&A'ers? Really?

It's quite simple.

Everything in the physical world is a manifestation of God. Physical objects are energy condensed into a slow vibration, thus becoming matter. All life form are also manifestations of God. Humans are the most self aware and conscious of these life forms.

Basically each one of us are separate manifestations of 'God'. The beauty of this is this allows God to experience itself. The world we live in creates the illusions of individualism (we are all separate) and duality (pleasure & pain, good vs evil, etc). Everything in this world is created to give an experience from different levels. Some animals are predators and some are prey- all are necessary to keep the system going. We are just part of this system.

Heaven & hell are illusions- once we die we most likely come back to experience a different viewpoint in this world. Often it's our choice of what next we'd like to experience, but not always. We may get lucky eventually and merge back in with the creator sometime but have to break out of the cycles of karma and re-births. In that realm there is no more duality, just love, oneness and harmony. In fact it's pretty steady and predictable- which is why God (us) created this world so that we can experience ourselves in the most 'true' way possible. The only way to do this is to have no knowledge of the design of the system of the world.

Still don't get it?

Life is a game where you get to experience many concepts, feelings, ideas, and experiences. But it's a game. Economics is an abstraction that is one level removed from the game of life. It's like playing SIMM and getting involved in a sub story within the story.

Yes, it is special. It's your life. But you are in a game that you yourself created. It feels real because that is part of the rules. You are free to do what ever you want without consequences besides that which you invoke in this world. There are physical laws (gravity, thermodynamics) and cause / effect laws (karma) but it's still a game. Heaven and hell exist but only if you create it, whether in your mind or the relationships you cultivate.

Bet you weren't ready to see behind the curtain, eh???

-Mike

Anonymous said...

Keep in mind that religion is the greatest bulls*it story ever told.

Humans learn by story telling so there is nothing wrong with a good BS story. Just don't go around killing people over it. Unless you really want to. In the end, it's your choice.

Me, I'd rather not be bothered with it, knowing it's a game and all.

-Mike

Ross said...

What was this thread about again?

Hey Anons, get a handle or something and stop being Anons. I'm starting to ignore your posts because I have no reference to your belief system. And after all, I'm entitled to whatever I want because I'm JoeSixPack.

Life was easier when religion was a more powerful influence than was Uncle Sam, as he is sticking his pointy nose in ALL of my business ALL of the time. That's my piece. Life in America has turned in to Person A trying to get over on Person B before Person C does, while Person D controls the whole thing and skims off the top.

Religion may be nutty or whatever you care to call it, but it was a much more effective way of bringing a community together than watchdogging and fraudulent manipulation of the masses.

Religion + Politics = Dangerous
Money + Politics = Deadly

Anonymous said...

Here's another way to look at the cosmos:

It’s a 500 TRILLION dollar spiders web of bets and swaps and insurance policies (CDS) and other things related to the derivatives marketplace like Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS) and Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDO), and no one is really keeping track of the whole thing. AND, valuations are fraudulent because the SEC is burying its head in the sand and won’t enforce mark-to-market valuation, and…well, you get the picture. It’s a real mess.

http://ashizashiz.blogspot.com/2008/12/why-derivatives-will-destroy-world.html?ref=patrick.net

The TED video was really terrific, Thanks, Keith.

Anonymous said...

It's nothing but an alien science project folks.

Think Lisa/Bart Simpson and the tooth civilization.

Anonymous said...

What a dumb post Keith.

Everyone knows the earth was created in just 7 days!

DOPES!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Ross: What was this thread about again?

I think it was about how Will Wright is God.

Anonymous said...

Right, right, Republicans are the source of all evil, as well as being ignorant country yokels, yet you never cover the flakes & psychotics of the Democrat party, much less admit they exist. What a joke.

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