Tag Archives: Th1sWasATriumph

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 →

News, Reason, Religion

I Don’t Care If It’s Cynical Political Sniping, I Want In

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Seen this?

I’ll sum up – Nick Clegg, Lib Dem leader, wants schools to teach that homosexuality is normal, natural, and basically a non-issue. Good man. This does, in part at least, seem to be as much a reactionary stance against David Cameron and Conservative policy as a genuine issue that Clegg cares about.

Maybe I’m too cynical. It’s possible to score points off the opposition whilst being completely in the right; the two states are not mutually exclusive.

Continue reading I Don’t Care If It’s Cynical Political Sniping, I Want In →

Astronomy, News, Philosophy, Random, Reason

Panspermia, Which Is Sperm In A Pan

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I’m a great fan of sperm in a pan. However, I’m also a fan of panspermia, if you can be a “fan” of a scientific hypothesis. I suppose I like the additional romantic element that panspermia brings to hypothetical speculation on abiogenesis and the origin of life. If that makes me unscientific, well, that’s because I’m not a scientist and took my degree in Wordification and Filmazement.

Panspermia describes the possibility that life on Earth was seeded, catalysed or in some way influenced by material entering its ecosystem from space. And what with various organic compounds being discovered in the chilly depths of space, far beyond the reach of human hands, it’s a hypothesis that is, at the very least, plausible.

Continue reading Panspermia, Which Is Sperm In A Pan →

Philosophy, Reason, Religion, Science

The Qur’an . . ? Really?

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The day I’ve had.

Cold, so very bitterly cold. Anyone who’s been any closer to outside than their own bedroom knows it’s been cold enough to freeze the smile of a Catholic priest in an orphanage. Cold enough to make people who should know better wear beanies. You get what I’m saying; coldness.

Walking down Kilburn high road (note to foreign types; Kilburn high road is a shopping street in London that contains a pub called The Cock, and this is all you need to know) I noticed a couple of trestle tables with brightly coloured pamphlets. A few people stood behind these tables, picking up a sheet from the ground. Initially I thought they’d been breakdancing, poppin’ some sweet moves in the grindstreet dustcore scene, yo.

Nope. Muslims! Continue reading The Qur’an . . ? Really? →

Culture, News, Religion

Balls To The Wall Against Faith Schools

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Ed Balls, who just has a funny goddamn name, could be striking sparks of new hope from the tarnished steel of faith schools.

Balls.

BALLS.

His name is BALLS.

Anyway.

Take a minute to read this recent article. Essentially, the gist is this: A Jewish faith school in the London borough of Brent – which, for any potential murderers, is where I live – got owned in the Torahbox. It was ruled by the Supreme Court that JFS, which selects Orthodox Jews, broke the race relations act by refusing to admit a 12 year old boy – deeming him not properly Jewish, or at least not properly Orthodox Jewish, in the eyes of the Chief Rabbi.

Continue reading Balls To The Wall Against Faith Schools →

Culture, Philosophy, Reason, Religion, Science

If Science Is A Conspiracy, Why Does This Computer Work? And Other Stories

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Believers.

Why can’t I just leave them alone, eh? Why can’t I keep my mouth shut?

Ok . . . because some of them think I’m going to hell, think I have no morals, and think my life is meaningless until I open my heart/wallet to Jesus/Allah. I find that fundamentally impolite. It’s hard to say who casts the first stone in these cases, but since I tend not to take issue with the fuzzy sort of believers – y’know, the nice ones who believe in love and redemption rather than bigotry and scientific wank – I only ever attack someone as a result of something they’ve said.

Then the issue was raised of “who’s to say who is right? Creationists take things on faith, atheists take things on scientific proof. Who’s right?”

It’s generally about this point that my brains start to drop out of my ears. Science is right. It has even been suggested to me that, since I haven’t analysed the data myself, scientists are feeding everyone bullshit.

Two words. Peer review.

Continue reading If Science Is A Conspiracy, Why Does This Computer Work? And Other Stories →

Entertainment, Philosophy, Random, Reason, Religion

Speaker’s Corner

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Some of you may have heard of Speaker’s Corner, in Londonbox – an area of Hyde Park where, for over 100 years, people have turned up (generally on Sundays) to speak their brains about whatever they feel is important. The majority of this consists of religious nutbarness, as you might expect, but with a smattering of political, social and ecological viewpoints.

You’re not protected by law, as many people seem to think – but police do tend to steer clear, so as long as you don’t try to wash the colour off a black man or anything similarly importunate you’re probably ok.

Continue reading Speaker’s Corner →

Literature, Philosophy, Reason, Religion

Why Do We Care?

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One of the most common rebuttals I face, generally from well-meaning friends, is the old chestnut: “Why do you care? What’s wrong with religion if it doesn’t directly affect you? Why can’t you leave people alone?”

This stance neatly condemns any attacks on “soft” theism/deism whilst open-endedly permitting criticism of religion that does directly affect me, or people in general.

I am constantly at pains to sculpt my position with the utmost clarity. I don’t like religion. I don’t like unfounded beliefs that have more in common with delusional fairy tales than a rational response to the universe; similarly I am compelled to wax vitriol against beliefs in the supernatural, in the pseudoscientific. But as far as religion goes, I am restrained.

Continue reading Why Do We Care? →

Censorship, Reason, YouTube

Finally DMCA’d . . . By A Homophobe! RICHNESS

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I got DMCA’d for this video (mirrored by AndromedasWake) by homophobic moron Youtuber JiLAdren.

I feel quite special. Votebotted and DMCA’d – I’m apparently a threat, and if I’m a threat then I’m sure as hell doing something right.

However, JiLAdren has managed to get the video he tried to censor seen by (over the next few days) thousands of people. He’s exposed me to a wide audience just begging to denounce him as a homophobic coward.

Which brings me to my main point – dprjones provided swift legal advice, AndromedasWake recorded a new intro and mirrored my original video, and people are already starting to mirror it themselves. It’s immensely gratifying. To everyone who’s already mirrored, and to anyone that does, or might, or even thinks about it – thanks. And that goes double to AW and dpr.

You could even pre-emptively mirror my new video on JiLAdren . . . I’m sure he’ll DMCA it in short order, and in any case then you’d have the full set lying in your videos.

League of Reason AWAAAAAYYYYY!

Introductions

Compulsory self-conscious introductory post

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A few weeks ago the League sent out a call. They were seeking new bloggers to join them in their fight against the forces of injustice. This was the moment I had been waiting for, a chance to rise phoenix like from the ashes of obscurity, to take my own person style of vigilante skepticism to the forefront of the war against the credulous, nefarious, discriminatory horde. No longer would I have to fight alone, now the League would have my back. And so I answered that call, and yesterday the League invited me to join their ranks, my excitement was boundless.

 

My excitement ebbed some what when I discovered I had just joined the League of Reason rather than the Justice League of America or the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but I guess it will do. I will however have to return the spandex bodysuit and red y-fronts that I purchased specially. I’m keeping the cowl however as it’s dead sexy.

 

Seriously I am unbelievably honoured to have been made a part of this blog. Honoured and incredibly intimidated at the same time. There are some seriously heavy hitters involved in this thing. I love the stuff that these guys, and gals, come up with and I am right now feeling rather out of my depth. I actually think Superman and his friends would be less disconcerting right now. Gulp.

 

Anyway my first task as a newbie League member is to introduce myself. I am RabbitPirate, so named because pirates are awesome and rabbits are, er, fluffy! Unlike many of the bloggers here I do not come to the League of Reason with a massive Youtube following. In fact if you were to visit my page you would discover I have no subscribers, no views and only one video…which is actually a repost of something someone else made. What I do instead is blog, and try to write books, but mainly blog. I have been blogging for a number of years now about anything and everything that peaks my interest. However recently I have turned my attention away from such important issues as what I did at the weekend and how much my job sucks on to stories relating to science, religion, skepticism and critical thinking. It is these areas where my passion lies.

 

I live in the UK just outside of the university city of Cambridge. Alas however that is about as close as I have ever come to higher education as I decided instead to jump straight into the fun filled world of IT support, a decision I regret more and more with every passing day. I spent most of the first twenty odd years of my life as a Christian and even considered going into fulltime ministry work. While I no longer hold the beliefs of my youth I would not describe myself as an atheist, partly because I don’t really like labels, after having the label “Christian” tell people everything about me for so long, and partly because I think it would make my Mum cry if I did. That said if I was forced to call myself anything I would probably go with “skeptic”.

 

When not blogging I like to spend my time reading, writing stories I never actually finish, watching stupidly large amounts of sci-fi on TV, going to the cinema (honestly could I be more of a geek) and arguing with Ray Comfort on his blog…and by arguing I mean he says something stupid, I correct him and he ignores me completely. Meh, it’s a hobby.

 

Well that’s me, hopefully by the time I get to my first real post I will have thought of something interesting to say as right now I’m drawing a complete blank.

 

Thanks for your time,

 

RabbitPirate