How well can you pay attension?

Go to this site

...focus very carefully, and count the number of times
the team in the white shirts pass the basketball.

It's tough to do, but if you focus you should be able to get the correct number.

---The point of this is that there is an interesting lesson involved in counting the number of passes that is sort of related to skepticism and science - very cool.


word,

David

Hey! A New Post!

A few things...

1.) THE WAR ON CHRISTMAS

Although I'm sick to death of this phrase, I thought I'd throw it out there.

The concept is ridiculous, because it is assuming that Christmas is a purely religious holiday and that there is a massive, conspiring anti-religious movement attempting to destroy Christmas as an attack on Christianity. The movement of course is the 'Secularists' - the scare quotes meaning that the connotations associated with this word by the anti-'war' protesters.

Just ask Bill:

"See, I think it's all part of the secular progressive agenda to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square. Because if you look at what happened in Western Europe and Canada, if you can get religion out, then you can pass secular progressive programs like legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage, because the objection to those things is religious- based, usually."

name that logical fallacy anyone?

It could not be any clearer that Christmas is not a purely Christian holiday, so I'm not going to get into too much, but consider for a moment the:

-Christmas tree
-Historical background
-Massive amounts of shopping
-Santa Clause

2.)STRANGE CREATURES FROM 2008


The super creepy gnome.

Towards the beginning of the year, a South American town was 'terrorized' by a gnome running around scaring people.

Since then more and more gnome videos have been popping up, indicating that this is an easy thing to pull off.

Do gnomes exist? Maybe, but these silly videos aren't enough to convince me.


The Montauk Monster

Midway through the year this monster was all over the media. The people who took the picture claimed that they had found it washed up on shore. Upon further investigation it was found to be a complete hoax, but more interestingly it was a viral marketing scheme that went amazingly well. I have to hand it them, it was a brilliant idea.


3.) 2009

For the next year, the OU Skeptic Society has a lot on its plate. We have advertising/recruiting, fund raising, and charity work to do - all of which is standard for any decent on campus group. But specific to us, we have:

1.) Darwin Day 2009
2.) Micheal Shermer @ OSU
3.) Skepticamp in Columbus
4.) ID panel in collaboration with Difficult Dialogues
5.) Weekly meetings and socials
6.) Drinking Skeptically meetings
7.) The Amazing Meeting 7 in Vegas
8.) and as always, lots of skepticism and debunking

to look forward too!



So all in all, I made this post to get back into it, and to say a.) the war on xmas is nonexistant, b.) some of the hoaxes of the last year were funny, and c.)the OU skeptic society has just began to get going.

Creationism nonsense infiltrating North Carolina’s school boards

Greetings all,

Here is yet another instance of creationists making ridiculous, ill informed demands in an attempt to indoctrinate children. Normally I would hesitate to post yet another creationist post (David made one earlier today) but this is an absolutely horrendous issue that seems to be gaining momentum. I got the main article from PZ Meyers’ blog Pharyngula .

This is yet another instance of creationists attempting to bludgeon down the doors of logic and force their bullshit doctrine into public policy. This plague of creationism infesting our school boards has to stop. I feel like they simply do not care whatsoever about the constitution (unless it benefits them) which by the way was written by deists who were vehemently opposed to religion being ANY part of public policy. They had witnessed the horror that religion can bring about when state sanctioned and vowed to create the antithesis of the English state.

Okay, no more historical rant now down to the meat and bones of this post. This time the cancer that is creationism has spread to Brunswick North Carolina and as usual the proponents reveal their ignorance of science and lack of logic. As usual a local resident by the name of Joe Fanti brought up this point;

"It's really a disgrace for the state school board to impose evolution on our students without teaching creationism," county school board member Jimmy Hobbs said at Tuesday's meeting. "The law says we can't have Bibles in schools, but we can have evolution, of the atheists."

Evolution of the atheists? Well, thank you for the complement Joe. Evolution, given the evidence available, is the most plausible explanation for the way in which life forms change over time. The key word here is EVIDENCE. I happen to believe in evidence and am also an atheist and I like to be associated with the belief in rational things such as evolution so thank you. Oh and the laws say we can’t have bibles in school because that is a RELIGIOUS book and we have a separation of church and state. Atheism is not a religion it is not a dogma it is simply the choice to not believe in a god that is it. I love how creationists attempt to disregard our separation of church and state guaranteed by our constitution but then, when attacked they hide behind the first amendment.

This is not even close to as bad as the next quote;

Babson(The superintendent) said the board must look at the law to see what it says about teaching creationism, but that "if we can do it, I think we ought to do it."

YOU CAN’T! SCHOOLS ARE RAN BY THE STATE S-E-P-E-R-A-T-I-O-N OF CHURCH AND STATE. This is a serious issue that needs to be curbed. Similar things have happened in Kansas and Texas however the creationists have been thus far thwarted. However they are tenacious and we need to stay vigilant in order to combat this proposed utter violation of our civil liberties. This is bullshit.

Cheers,

Sam

UK Creationism

UK Creationism

"The materialist explanation of the creation has nothing to offer - if we came from nothing and go into nothing, then that encourages people to lead reckless and materialistic lifestyles.

"Evolution is a world-view that leads to futility. It's no wonder people are dissatisfied with it."

This is essentially the heart of Rev Dr Malcolm Brown's view of evolution. In just 3 sentences he states enough idiocy to demonstrate the problems of creationist thinking.

The biggest flaw in creationism, which is also one of the most obvious clues of a psuedo science, is assuming an end (which is usually a belief) and then cherry picking your way through the evidence to satisfy your unchanging bias. Let us deconstruct:

"The materialist explanation of the creation..." Here he is assuming nature as we know it was created. "...has nothing to offer,..." Here he is dismissing the evidence and techniques which have emerged from scientific inquiry outright. It is safe to assume that he puts it this way because the logical conclusion of the evidence ("materialist explanation") is in direct conflict with his belief.

"...if we came from nothing and go into nothing, then that encourages people to lead reckless and materialistic lifestyles."

Here he is assuming a teleological argument as being inherently true while simultaneously assuming (by assume I really mean believe, but I'll be nice) that the implied purpose of people being full filled is the only way to keep them from falling apart at the moral seems, as it were. Also, it is truly an insult to human beings on the whole to assume that 'reckless lifestyles' are synonymous with 'materialistic lifestyles.' If the only thing keeping this man from living recklessly is his belief in duality and creationism, then perhaps we ought not to convince him his beliefs are false. It is remarkably absurd to think that the only reason people are or can be moral and altruistic is if they too drink the creationist kool-aid. There really isn't any time to get into the specifics of this, but there are many people who do not believe in a god/gods, creationism, or Rev. Brown's religion who are not living 'reckless lifestyles.' Since it is apparent this fact of life is not obvious to him lends an explanation to why he believes so many ridiculous things in the first place...

"Evolution is a world-view that leads to futility. It's no wonder people are dissatisfied with it."

Who are these dissatisfied people? I'm assuming creationists, and not 'people' as in people universally. The fact and subsequent theory and hypotheses of evolution are of the highest degree of scientific inquiry and human achievement. The theory of evolution ranks with, at least in terms of certainty, the theory of gravity, electricity, electromagnetism, relativity, chemistry, and medicine. Unfortunately, the phrase 'it is only a theory' is perpetuated by men such as these and by poor science education. To dumb down scientific education (as the Rev. advocates) all the more with creationism will only worsen this further. Also, it will only further allow religion to proselytize in public schools, where the freedom of religion is currently protected. To put it another way, this is one religion seeking to take away religious freedom to further its own cause.

The reduction of intellectual honesty and the violation of the standard of religious freedom is something that I truly find appalling.

I'm not trying to be such a downer about this, but these issues are serious and are already stirring things up.

Word,

David

Loving warnings

Check out how this church near Columbus sends out a "loving warning" to local area teens who watch Mtv


Although this may make you laugh because of how outright ridiculous it is, I think all reasonable people should stop and consider how twisted and well... evil the Christian church is when it's congregation spreads hate like this.
In my opinion, a true skeptic doesn't stand by while people are being taking advantage of, not even when the people taking advantage claim to be holy, or backed up by some all-knowing, all-loving force (who scorches you in flames). In fact, this should give us more reason to speak out against these people because really, how much of a chance do you think a confused teenager feels like they stand against all the fires of hell? I won't get to morbid on you now. I guess that's the christian church's job anyways. I will say that stories like this, that we see very often, are so played down these days, or their just laughed off because they seem so ridiculous, or believed, which is by far the worst of all possibilities. I'll always be willing point them out and remind you how wicked these people really are.

Alright, Quick psychology lesson!

Projection: Projection is one of the defense mechanisms identified by Freud still acknowledged today. According to Freud, projection is when someone is threatened by or afraid of their own impulses and in response, attribute these impulses to someone else. For example, a person in psychoanalysis may insist to the therapist that he knows the therapist wants to rape some women, when in fact the client has these awful feelings to rape the woman.

...Or isn't it possible that some people constantly run around accusing people of being wicked precisely because deep down... they feel pretty wicked themselves?

who knows really, it would take more than a psychologist to understand some of these people I'd say.

That's all the fire and brimstone I've got for now, kiddies

Adam