Mappy Kwolistmukah
Since I’m not a “real” scientist (as Psychology is really just a bunch of guess work that does not apply to all situations), I prefer to write about things on this website that you can not disprove; my opinions. So sit down and enjoy my wild rantings about why I’m right and everyone else is wrong.
It’s that time of year again. The weather is growing steadily worse and more uncomfortable, the malls are crammed to and beyond capacity, and the credit card companies are licking their chops at the thought of all of the interest that will soon be compiling on numerous accounts. That’s right, it’s the Holidays/ Christmas/ Solstice/ Chanukah/ Kwanza/ Festivus/ insert your other holiday here. Recently, Mr. Dan Grible and I along with a few others (whose names I don’t recall since I’m horrible with names and was only given them once) had a very brief conversation about the phrase “Merry Christmas”. The question posed was, “What do you think about ‘Merry Christmas?’” If my recollection is correct, the answer from all of us was something along the lines of “I don’t care”. That’s right, I don’t care and I don’t understand why most people seem so opinionated on the “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” debate.
I’ve worked retail and I’ve heard horror stories about these kinds of things. “Here’s your change, Happy Holidays!” “IT’S MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!” Really? Why get so worked up about two words? The other day I was wished a Merry Christmas by a man at White Castle. I simply smiled and returned the sentiment. It doesn’t matter what you say, it’s all for the same purpose. It’s a wish of happiness (usually) attached to a certain day. And just because you’re on the “Happy Holidays” team, don’t think you’re safe from guilt.
I recently found a group on facebook about this debate. I didn’t plan on joining but there was one post that caught my eye. In summary it said, “Jesus wasn’t born this time of year anyway, he wouldn’t care what you say, just be nice to each other.” This woman was attacked by three or four people. I joined the group and defended the woman despite the fact that we share differing points of view on religion.
So here’s what it all amounts to. If you want to be wished a Merry Christmas, wear some kind of symbol to let me know that. Same goes for Chanukah. If you want “Happy Holidays”, don’t show any kind of symbol and that’s what you’re going to get. If you want Kwanza, well, you’re out of luck because I’m not sure what that’s all about and don’t know the symbols.
So, I’m done, my food just arrived and I’m too lazy to proofread. So go, reply and tear apart my poor grammar/ sentence structure, post your horror stories, or tell me why I’m wrong (which I’m not). Also, read the previous post about the planning meeting and attend. Although I know that the four to five people that will read this will also probably be there.
EDIT: First mistake found. Sorry Dan.
Category: Uncategorized
Planning Meeting Thursday
Planning Meeting
December 17th, 6:00pm, Raney Commons 001a
(please use entrance by Taylor Tower)
Come and join us and help us in planning the next quarter for the Students for Freethought! Come out and find out how you can get involved, and make a difference within the organization. We will also be briefly discussing constitutional changes.
You can RSVP on our Facebook by clicking here!
(Note: Please use entrance to building by Taylor Tower in case the doors are locked. We will have someone there by that entrance to let people in from 5:45pm-6:15pm. If you are late there will either be a phone number posted on the door to call or one of them will be wedged open with something.)
Category: Uncategorized
Global Cooling?
Greetings Heretics,
“The fact that this whole idea on the global warming, I’m glad that’s over, gone, done. We won, you lost, get a life.” – Senator James Inhofe (R-OK)
Granted, Mr. Inhofe is an easy target for my scorn. I would hope you would find a slightly more intelligent and reasonable argument made by the vast majority of global warming skeptics. To put the quote in context, as many of you know (I’m talking to the four people who read this blog) almost two weeks ago a hacker gained access to thousands of emails detailing correspondence between prominent climate researchers at the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia. According to climate change skeptics these emails show a prolonged effort to silence all dissenting opinion on the matter, and to also use statistical tricks to hide the obvious decline in global temperatures. These claims stem from a handful of aggressively written emails demeaning the integrity and work of skeptical climate scientists. Also this passage from Phil Jones of the CRU is referenced as proof that scientists manipulate the data to suit their own hypothesis.
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) [and] from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline.
Now, when these two pieces of information are presented to the masses on cable news under the scrolling brightly lit heading of “Climate-gate” (whoever decided that adding the suffix “gate” to any noun suddenly creates a dastardly conspiracy needs to be shot) it stands to reason that people would be concerned. The questions true skeptics and freethinkers need to ask themselves are these: What is the context in which these debates have taken place? Can the validity of an entire scientific theory be trumped by a couple of cherry picked emails from one research institution?
Ever since the effects of our hedonistic lifestyles have been made evident in the enormous rise of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere, scientists have warned us that continued use of fossil fuels as our primary energy source would hasten the progress of our planets 6th Great Extinction. CO2 levels today have increased by almost 100 parts per million over even the highest point in the last 400,000 years, and have made the jump from a mere 280 ppm to 380 ppm in less than 300 years. Because the Earth’s surface heats up more slowly than the atmosphere, temperatures have not yet caught up to these escalating concentrations of carbon dioxide. Predictably, the industries and people that rely so heavily on fossil fuels have been fierce in their attacks of these findings. Every year, hundreds of peer reviewed journal articles from around the world are published supporting and challenging the consensus view on climate change.
In most scientific controversies, scientifically inferior viewpoints are quickly discarded and fall to the wayside. That’s why we know that evolution is responsible for the life we see on our planet today, and not intelligent design (the bastard child of Creationism). The same goes for the bygone theories of alchemy and blood-letting. You don’t see peer-reviewed journals claiming these practices and beliefs to be scientific, because they have not withstood the tests of the scientific method. When dealing with climate change skepticism, the game changes considerably. Special interests prop up the flawed science behind this skepticism, and fund its study so as to maintain the massive profits to be gained from our reckless abuse of the only planet we will likely ever have the good fortune to inhabit. Its also no coincidence that these emails were released just prior to the Climate Change Summit in Copenhagen this December.
To address the emails themselves, having participated in my fair share of scientific experiments, I know first hand that sometimes the results you get don’t reflect the hypothesis you posed. In that case sometimes your methods for gathering the data were faulty, the hypothesis you posed was incorrect, or you have failed to manipulate the data correctly in order to draw out the correct correlation behind the numbers. In this case, the word “manipulate” doesn’t always refer to an attempt mislead the scientific community, and within the correspondence between colleagues at the CRU, the use of the word “trick” could refer to that kind of manipulation. UPDATE: Kris Scott provided an explanation for the email in question in a comment below, and I am re-posting it here to shed some light on the issue
Actually you’re a bit off… The “hiding” mentioned isn’t actually a cover-up. Scientists use tree rings to gather temperature data from before thermometers existed. However, there is an issue called the “divergence problem” in which starting in the 1980’s temperatures inferred from tree rings did not match the actual temperatures measured by scientific instruments for the year. Instead, the rings appear to show either cooler or non-rising temperatures. Scientists are not yet aware why this is happening in tree rings, but some speculate it is actually caused by global warming itself.
Notice they added “real temps” to “hide the decline” meaning that they used the actual data collected from weather stations and various scientific instruments to adjust for the decline shown from tree ring data. Why use tree ring data at all then? Because using this data allows them to accurately see temperatures going hundreds of years back. This way current data can be compared to see if we are in a unique warming scenario or if we are just in some sort of natural cycle.
While the choice of words is undeniably poor, when taken in context as an exchange between colleagues who could not have expected their privacy to be breached in such a serious way, it certainly does not automatically infer that these scientists are trying to present knowingly false information to the public.
Even if these particular researchers were trying to cover up mistakes that they made in their research, that hardly implicates the entire scientific community in a vast conspiracy. At this situation’s very very worst (and let me stress that this seems highly unlikely), the only conclusion a reasonable person could possibly make would be that two scientists engaged in some bad science, and that’s something that climate change skeptics are certainly familiar with.
Category: Skepticism
New Orleans Trip
Hey everyone! As you may know, we are going to New Orleans to help re/build homes. We did this last year, and it was an absolute blast! We went down with a church, stayed at a church, and even met some other godless folk down there.
It was so successful, and so much fun – we’re doing it again this year!
It’s going to be the week of spring break, and even cheaper than before. We’ll be going with our friends at The Thomas Society this year, with Reverend Jon Weyer, soon to be famous author (congrats Jon!). Once more we’ll be surrounded by the godly, and once more sleeping at a church. Rest assured though it’s safe, and fun!
It’ll be both work and play. We’ll have a little more time to explore the city this year, and we’ll also be taking our own vehicles (those volunteering to drive must let me know asap).
If you’re interested in coming, you must first sign up for the trip by clicking here! If you’re not on this list, I’m assuming you’re not coming. A $25 non-refundable deposit is due by the end of finals week. The total after that is $175. Half of that must be paid by January 15th, and the remaining amount must be paid by February 12th.
If you have questions please contact info (at) sffosu (dot) org asap!
Category: Activism
Internships now available!
Looking for a job this winter? Willing to be a student ambassador for the godless? We may have an internship for you!
The Secular Student Alliance is based in Columbus Ohio, and currently looking for winter interns. The internship is approx. 10 weeks long, part-time (@ $100/week), or full-time (@ $200/week).
Their office is right off of Lane Ave, a short bus/car ride west of campus.
For more details please visit the Secular Student Alliance’s website by clicking here.
As a board member of the Secular Student Alliance myself, I highly encourage student members of the Students for Freethought to apply. This is a great opportunity for you to see what’s going on in the secular community on both the local and national scale.
Category: Uncategorized
The Perils of Faith Healing
Greetings Heretics,
It’s late at night. I’m trying to fall asleep, so I turn on the TV for some background noise and start flipping through the channels. Predictably, a littany of infomercials greets me, and soon I realize how awful and hopeless my existence is without these brilliant products. It would seem that a life without a Snuggie is hardly worth living. I soldier on, only to be confronted by the promises of miraculous healings by one, Rev. Peter Popoff. Apparently, my pain and suffering is all in vain. All I need do is call a toll free number for Reverand Popoff’s Miracle Mana, and my faith will be rewarded with good health and financial blessings.
These people are on TV all the time, and depending on the environment in which you were brought up, you might have been confronted with these claims personally. When you see anyone exploiting someone else’s pain for financial gain it strikes a chord in you as a human being. Benny Hinn, prominent faith healer and televangelist, rakes in nearly 100 million dollars every year through his “ministry”. Dateline did a story on him recently in an attempt to expose Pastor Hinn for who he really is, a snake oil salesman. When confronted with examples of his healings that had been refuted by doctors or the sick individuals themselves, he responded glibly saying that he was only a vessel through which the Holy Spirit works. He claims that he cannot be held responsible for these unfortunate circumstances and seems to insinuate that a lack of true faith is really at fault. Anyone in their right mind can see what a cop out that response is.
In most cases, people that don’t get the results they desire are at no real loss. These people are desperate and looking for answers the only way they know how. I feel genuine pity for these people. The real crime occurs when a faith healer convinces someone that they are cured only to find out months or years later that the afflicted individual abandoned traditional medicine entirely only to die of the original illness. The idea of this makes me sick to my stomach. Giving false hope is one thing, but to be knowingly responsible for someone’s death is completely unforgivable.
Even more troubling are examples of parents who forbid medical treatment in the event of sickness as a sign of extreme faith in the healing powers of their god. A recent piece in the Washington Post by Jonathan Turley details an example of parents that rely on faith healing to cure their child.
Leilani and Dale Neumann were sentenced for allowing their 11-year-old daughter, Madeline Kara Neumann, to die in 2008 from an undiagnosed but treatable form of diabetes. The Neumanns are affiliated with a faith-healing church called Unleavened Bread Ministries and continued to pray with other members while Madeline died. They could have received 25 years in prison. Instead, the court emphasized their religious rationale and gave them each six months in jail (to be served one month a year) and 10 years’ probation.
These people murdered their daughter, period. Though the punishment seems incomprehensible to me, my only consolation is that these people will have to live with their choices for the rest of their lives.
Now, if you talk to most moderate christians (to single out the most relevant religious group to me), you’ll hear that faith healing doesn’t happen in today’s world. They will say that these gifts were extinguished at the departure of the apostles, and that we should not expect to see miracles in this day and age. This flies in the face of verse after verse in the old and new testament that promises to reward unquestioning faith as evidenced by this verse from John 14.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
I’ve often said that in some small way, I respect those religious people that have the conviction to believe and follow what they see to be the inerrant word of God, and not water it down to mesh with conventional understandings of the way the world really works. Hearing and seeing stories like this has me reevaluating that stance.
Category: Uncategorized
URGENT – Swing by the Oval today!!!
Ray Comfort’s edited edition of the Origin of Species came to Ohio State! For those of you who don’t know what this is about, you can watch a short youtube video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN9zpf5cT0M
I quite frankly, like this response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmHN3JtyUXg
According to Ray’s website, OSU wasn’t supposed to get any copies of this – so please take the time to swing by the oval today and pick up a copy… or two… or three…. we’ll be having a meeting discussing this in the near future so it’d be helpful to get yourself a copy of the book.
If you don’t want a copy, please pick one up anyways and bring it to Students for Freethought this Thursday. We have a a couple of different projects in mind for these books which I’ll elaborate more on Thursday. So please hurry and pick up a couple copies before they’re all gone!
Category: Uncategorized
Gay marriage is gay
Before we start: I’m bad at coming up with titles… it is purely for the irony…
Why is it that “the greatest country on Earth” always seems to be the most frustrating country on Earth? How can people truly claim that this is the greatest country on Earth when we deny certain groups of citizens the same privileges that so many other groups enjoy? I found a link to this article in PZ Myer’s blog. It is a story about Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri. It seems Governor Carcieri has recently vetoed a bill that would add domestic partner’s to the list of people who could make funeral and burial arrangements. His reasoning: “”This bill represents a disturbing trend over the past few years of the incremental erosion of the principles surrounding traditional marriage…”
Really Governor Carcieri? Well, let’s take a look at what “traditional marriage” is shall we? Psychology today outlines the history of marriage. “Through most of Western civilization, marriage has been more a matter of money, power and survival than of delicate sentiments. In medieval Europe, everyone from the lord of the manor to the village locals had a say in deciding who should wed. Love was considered an absurdly flimsy reason for a match. Even during the Enlightenment and Victorian eras, adultery and friendship were often more passionate than marriage.” In ancient Greece, if a woman’s father died without any male she could be forced to divorce her husband and marry a male relative. In Rome, wife swapping was used to further one’s career. In 12th Century Europe, Upper-class marriages were arranged before the couple had ever met. Fast forward two hundred years and peasants had to pay a fee to marry a person of their choice while the tenants of one Lord were forced to marry who the Lord wished. In the 1690’s, passionate love was considered unseemly. Not until the 1900’s did the focus switch to a couple in love. We even see evidence of same sex marriages in history, such as in Rome, Asia, and even Europe. It wasn’t until Constantius II took power that homosexual unions were seen as illegal in Rome. The vetoing of this bill follows a successful movement in Maine to not allow same sex couples to marry.
It’s a disturbing thing to know that there are people (sometimes a majority) who are willing to take right’s and privileges away from others because they seem to think it’s icky or wrong. Who are you to decide what’s wrong? Moreover, who are you to decide who gets what freedoms and privileges and who doesn’t? A link to the article about the history of marriage is below.
Psychology today: Marriage, a History
UPDATE: Found out about something the day after writing this blog. A special thanks to Patton Oswalt, who will never read this, for providing the link on Facebook. There is currently a bill in Washington D.C. that would allow same sex marriage. The Catholic church says they will be “unable to continue the social service programs it runs for the District if the city doesn’t change a proposed same-sex marriage law, a threat that could affect tens of thousands of people the church helps with adoption, homelessness and health care.” This bill would not force them to make space available for same sex couples to marry, just to obey the city law that prohibits the discrimination of them. What would Jesus do indeed…. (Link)
Category: Uncategorized
Jesus Camp
November 12th, 7:30pm – PS 14
Come on out for a viewing of Jesus Camp! Post movie we will hold a discussion on the movie’s content.
A growing number of Evangelical Christians believe there is a revival underway in America that requires Christian youth to assume leadership roles in advocating the causes of their religious movement.
Jesus Camp follows a group of young children to Pastor Becky Fischer’s “Kids on Fire Summer Camp”, where kids are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in God’s army and are schooled in how to take back America for Christ. The film is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America’s political future.
Category: Uncategorized
Atheism: The Expanded Version
Category: Uncategorized
