Events

TAM London DVD coming soon, features Leaguers

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It seems like a long time ago that Th1sWasATriumph and I stood outside the Mermaid Conference Centre in London freezing our nuts off. Actually, it was a long time ago! It was all the way back in October that hundreds of sceptics descended on London to sin their faces off with Reasonâ„¢. Since then, a mighty machine has been secretly grinding away on the DVD, which is now available to pre-order.

Be sure to check out the preview video on YouTube, and pause around the 5:08 mark to see four of LoR’s finest giggling away like a bunch of twats. You can also click the image below to embiggen and gaze upon our collective, annotated beauty. There were several other League/YouTube sceptics there too, and it was great to meet you all! TAM London 2 is official and I still have a large collection of photos to share from the first event. Keep your eyes peeled for a blog post all about this (oh yes, it’s going to be epic!)

Culture, News, Philosophy, Reason, Religion

Moral Castles Made Of Sand

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Here’s a riddle for you.*

Is it better to have flexible, socially contextual morals that may dip below what many people view as laudable behaviour as a result of free will and personal choice . . . or is it better to have a uniformly high moral standard followed, in part or even in whole, as a result of fearing the perceived consequences of not following it?

Of course, you might say that I’ve used Wordification to bias the issue somewhat – and because I have no higher power to feel accountable to I’m perfectly happy to lie, and say that I didn’t bias the point in the slightest.

The question, I suppose, is how worthy or altruistic can a high moral standard be truly taken to be when it’s prescribed rather than acquired? It becomes little more than Utilitarianism if your moral compass is constantly aware that behaving immorally will result in hell, or a few lost brownie-heaven points from God. You’re not acting morally, you’re just protecting your own skin – which is exactly what I would do, of course.

Continue reading Moral Castles Made Of Sand →

Philosophy, Religion

The 2010 Haitian Earthquake: God?

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The 2010 Haitian Earthquake does not constitute compelling evidence against the existence of God because the cause of the 2010 Haitian Earthquake was the sudden release of two hundred and fifty years of tension in the fault lines between the Caribbean and North American tectonic plates.

I say this because David John Wellman, valorious foil to the unapologetic plagiarist Brock Lawley, recently challenged Christian apologists, philosophers, and evagelists to begin a video, as I just have, by saying, “The 2010 Haitian Earthquake does not constitute compelling evidence against the existence of God because…”

Continue reading The 2010 Haitian Earthquake: God? →

Entertainment, Philosophy

So say we all

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Last night on Sky 1 they showed the first two episodes of the Battlestar Galactica prequel series Caprica. I can’t say I was all that impressed, though it is still early days yet, but the show seemed to lack any of the immediacy or tension that the parent show had by the bucket load. Choosing to set the show in a time of peace and having it focus so heavily on the deeply personal loss of two families just seems a rather odd choice to me given the planet spanning, humanity wide issues at stake in the original. That said however it did raise a number of topics that I feel would be more at home on this blog than on a Battlestar Galactica forum, namely the issues of monotheism vs polytheism and the idea of life after death by way of technology. Here are a couple of things the show got me thinking about.

 

Continue reading So say we all →

Philosophy, Religion

The Argument for Atheism from St. Anselm

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(YouTube video here.)

D1. God is that than which no greater can be conceived.

P1. Either it is the case that God is the creator of the universe or it is not the case that God is the creator of the universe.

C1. Given D1 and P1, because the God that created the universe is greater than the God that did not create the universe, God created the universe.

P2. Given C1, either it is the case that the God that created the universe exists or it is not the case that the God that created the universe exists.

C2. Given D1 and P2, because the God that created the universe and does not exist is greater than the God that created the universe and does exist, God does not exist.

Philosophy, Religion

The Argument for Atheism from Christianity

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D1. A proposition is either true or false.
D2. To hold to a proposition is to hold that the 1) proposition is true and to hold that 2) holding the proposition does not cause the truth of the proposition.
D3. When X is a proposition, the reason for proposition X is a proposition which is true and but for it, X would be false.
D4. When X is a proposition, the faith in a proposition X is to hold a proposition without reason.
D5. A Christian is one who has faith that God exists.
D6. An atheist is one that holds that one does not have reason to hold that God exists.

P1. It is the case that one holds that God exists or it is not the case that one holds that God exists.
P2. If it is the case that one holds that God exists, then it is the case that one has reason to hold that God exists or it is not the case that one has reason to hold that God exists.
P3. If it is the case that one holds that God exists and it is the case that one has reason to hold that God exists, then it is not the case that one has faith that God exists.
P4. If it is the case that one holds that God exists and it is the not the case that one has reason to hold that God exists, then it is the case that one has faith that God exists.

C1. Given D5 and P3, it is the case that a Christian holds that one does not have reason to hold that God exists.
C2. Given C1 and D6, both Christians and atheists hold that one does not have reason to hold that God exists.

Simplified Version

A Christian is one who has faith that God exists and because he has faith, he holds that one doesn’t have reasons to believe that God exists. Likewise, an atheists holds that one doesn’t have reasons to believe that God exists. It is somehow absurd, therefore, for a Christian to argue that one ought not be an atheist.

YouTube

What do you expect, I’m ill

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So right now I am laying in bed with nasty flu like illness, periodically shifting between bouts of the shivers, hot flushes and coughing up yellow phlegm. As such my brain really isn’t up to writing anything that requires more than a modicum of thought or effort. However I am also incredibly bored and so thought I would do a quick post anyway on my aging laptop that is currently getting so hot it is starting to burn my legs. Yes, you may feel sympathy for me.

 

Anyway all I really wanted to do with this post is draw some attention to a couple of criminally undersubscribed Youtube channels that I think you should all check out. First up we have:

 

Ainulindale21 – Ainulindale21 is fairly new to Youtube and has only uploaded two videos so far but is already well on his way to being one of my favourite channels. His videos are funny, entertaining, educational and informative. I mean what more do you want. So far he has been targeting Youtube’s creepest cretard NephilimFree and has made the startling, though somewhat obvious now I think about it, observation that the guy looks rather like a potato. I look forward to more from his googley-eyed talking heads in the future.

 

k87jury – Announcing himself as “The Creationist Slayer” k87jury targets many of the less well known creationists on Youtube and does a great job of tearing down their arguments. He may not be to everyones taste but I really enjoy k87jury’s blunt, no nonsense approach to arguments and the way he gives stupid arguments all the “respect” they deserve.

 

Well, that is all I wanted to say. Not a very interesting post but then what do expect from a guy who can’t actually lift his head off of his pillow without feeling like he is going to throw up?

Censorship, News, Religion

UK Government target cover up to no avail

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A French parliamentary committee has recently recommended that a partial ban be put in place regarding women wearing Islamic face veils in public places. Over at the BBC website they have raised the question as to whether a similar ban should be implemented in the UK. I have to say that I am of two minds on this one. As such I thought I would lay out my current thinking on the issue and leave it up to you lot to sway me one way or the other.

 

Continue reading UK Government target cover up to no avail →

TubeGuardian

TubeGuardian reaches 2.3, makes cowards cry

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If you’re a YouTube content creator who loves to play fair, but have been missing the security of a fully capable version of TubeGuardian, the time for rejoicing is here! The assiduous coding hero joshTheGoods has just unleashed version 2.3, and despite GooTube’s best efforts to break it, the ‘Guardian is back to save you from votebots once more. Recently, several larger channels were hit by botters possessing what can only be described as an entirely unprecedented level of cowardice. For example, approximately 24,000 one-star votes were automatically lodged against Thunderf00t. I myself have noticed a new tactic: targetting young videos during their first day in an attempt to hide the act. Sneaky!

But we mustn’t forget about the smaller channels – the newer members of the community – who can be crippled by such an attack. To those of you reading this, there’s not much I need do except implore you to download and run this brilliant application. I also have a novel idea: Every time you’re targeted by a bot and saved by TG, why not use its nifty donate feature to compensate Josh for giving up his spare time? Then we can all enjoy seeing votebotters making their archenemy rich!

For links and full documentation, set course for TubeGuardian.com

>>> Engage <<<

Oh, and Josh… thank you!

Culture, Entertainment

Movie Review: Legion (2010)

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My favorite genre, or perhaps second favorite, is religious horror. Essentially, those horror movies where people die but the bad guys are demons or something and the whole movie follows sort of Biblical plot. It’s the intersection between pointless violence and horror… I mean, pointless violence and the Bible (little joke there.)

The Omen(1976) was good. The Exorcist (1973). The Prophecy(1995).

Legion(2010), for the record, is certainly not a shameful entry into the genre, but it’s certainly not going to be the standard by any stretch of the imagination. It involves a supposed second “flood,” but this one, carried out by angels. An extermination of the human race. Unlike Noah, there is no family earmarked for repopulating the planet and this second destruction of the earth also coincides with the birth of child. This child, incidentally, makes no sense. Is he the second coming? Why would God destroy the earth moments before the second coming? Seems bizarre.

There are far less cool angel scenes and a lot of the violence is just trite, ordinary zombie-like violence. The whole world is being destroyed and our vision is limited to a few small miles of desert boredom – unsatisfying.

The movie does, however, make one interesting stab at Christian fundamentalism, whether they realize it not. The main good guy in the movie is the Archangel Michael and he has been ordered by God to lead the extermination of mankind and kill the child… whoever the child really is. Michael searches his conscience and refuses the order, instead joining the humans and protecting the child. You would have gotten that from the trailer so don’t be too mad!

Gabriel, the equally bronzed archangel who takes over after Michael’s departure, is less sensitive to sympathy but argues that following orders is what really matters. Obviously, sympathy wins over blind obedience in the end, but certain parallels to the story of Abraham and Isaac and the Nazis, of course, are somewhat transparent. Sometimes I can understand Abraham’s decisions; sometimes I can’t. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t kill Isaac, but would that be because I had placed sympathy over obedience as an act of courage or because generally I was scared shitless.

For my part, I’m glad that somewhere in cinema “God told me to do it” isn’t a good reason.

★★★☆☆ If you have the time, go have a little fun. But, if you miss it, you didn’t miss anything.