Seventy five percent of Americans are God-fearing Christians.
Seventy five percent of prisoners are God-fearing Christians.
Ten percent of Americans are atheists
0.2% of prisoners are atheists
Something is truly wrong here. And I don’t mean numbers.
“A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage”
Suppose (I’m following a group therapy approach by the psychologist Richard Franklin) I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you’d want to check it out, see for yourself. There have been innumerable stories of dragons over the centuries, but no real evidence. What an opportunity!
“Show me,” you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle — but no dragon.
“Where’s the dragon?” you ask.
“Oh, she’s right here,” I reply, waving vaguely. “I neglected to mention that she’s an invisible dragon.”
You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon’s footprints.
“Good idea,” I say, “but this dragon floats in the air.”
Then you’ll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.
“Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless.”
You’ll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.
“Good idea, but she’s an incorporeal dragon and the paint won’t stick.” And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won’t work.
Now, what’s the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there’s no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true. Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I’m asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so. The only thing you’ve really learned from my insistence that there’s a dragon in my garage is that something funny is going on inside my head. You’d wonder, if no physical tests apply, what convinced me. The possibility that it was a dream or a hallucination would certainly enter your mind. But then, why am I taking it so seriously? Maybe I need help. At the least, maybe I’ve seriously underestimated human fallibility. Imagine that, despite none of the tests being successful, you wish to be scrupulously open-minded. So you don’t outright reject the notion that there’s a fire-breathing dragon in my garage. You merely put it on hold. Present evidence is strongly against it, but if a new body of data emerge you’re prepared to examine it and see if it convinces you. Surely it’s unfair of me to be offended at not being believed; or to criticize you for being stodgy and unimaginative — merely because you rendered the Scottish verdict of “not proved.”
Imagine that things had gone otherwise. The dragon is invisible, all right, but footprints are being made in the flour as you watch. Your infrared detector reads off-scale. The spray paint reveals a jagged crest bobbing in the air before you. No matter how skeptical you might have been about the existence of dragons — to say nothing about invisible ones — you must now acknowledge that there’s something here, and that in a preliminary way it’s consistent with an invisible, fire-breathing dragon.
Now another scenario: Suppose it’s not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you’re pretty sure don’t know each other, all tell you that they have dragons in their garages — but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive. All of us admit we’re disturbed at being gripped by so odd a conviction so ill-supported by the physical evidence. None of us is a lunatic. We speculate about what it would mean if invisible dragons were really hiding out in garages all over the world, with us humans just catching on. I’d rather it not be true, I tell you. But maybe all those ancient European and Chinese myths about dragons weren’t myths at all.
Gratifyingly, some dragon-size footprints in the flour are now reported. But they’re never made when a skeptic is looking. An alternative explanation presents itself. On close examination it seems clear that the footprints could have been faked. Another dragon enthusiast shows up with a burnt finger and attributes it to a rare physical manifestation of the dragon’s fiery breath. But again, other possibilities exist. We understand that there are other ways to burn fingers besides the breath of invisible dragons. Such “evidence” — no matter how important the dragon advocates consider it — is far from compelling. Once again, the only sensible approach is tentatively to reject the dragon hypothesis, to be open to future physical data, and to wonder what the cause might be that so many apparently sane and sober people share the same strange delusion.
Calculate you GDI. This will show you if you’re a normal human being or a basket case. Highly entertaining though.
Mine GDI is 15.
Good luck
I was just wondering if we allow people like this to procreate.
HAYDEN, Idaho — A man who believed he bore the “mark of the beast” used a circular saw to cut off one hand, then he cooked it in the microwave and called 911, authorities said.
The man, in his mid-20s, was calm when Kootenai County sheriff’s deputies arrived Saturday in this northern Idaho town. He was in protective custody in the mental health unit of Kootenai Medical Center.
“It had been somewhat cooked by the time the deputy arrived,” sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger said. “He put a tourniquet on his arm before, so he didn’t bleed to death. That kind of mental illness is just sad.”
It was not immediately clear whether the man has a history of mental illness. Hospital spokeswoman Lisa Johnson would not say whether an attempt was made to reattach the hand, citing patient confidentiality.
The Book of Revelation in the New Testament contains a passage in which an angel is quoted as saying: “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on the forehead or on the hand, he, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury.”
The book of Matthew also contains the passage: “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for you whole body to do into hell.”
Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2007
My brother is in Bosnia and Herzegovina currently doing research for his dissertation. He lives in our native city of Mostar. There is no war or fighting since 1995 and city fell into what I call “post war comaâ€. Meaning, nobody cares about anything. Everyone minds its own business. No one rushes to do anything. If you are tourist or a stranger, you would not notice any national tensions. Or would you? Story below is a testament that city is still psychologically divided between Muslims and Catholics and my brother experienced it first hand.
Last week he got caught up in the middle of hooligan fight between soccer fans, and this is a short story of his experience in his own words.
Just click on the link to read the story.
For all of you who think that Islam or Christianity is peaceful religion here are some excerpts from the Quran and Bible.
These are the verces that you will not hear in the church or masque. Just to show you how all religions are absurd.
Lets start with Quran:
Quran brutality
-Then he ordered for [sic] nails which were heated and [the tribesmen] were branded with those nails, their eyes, and they were left in the Harra (i.e. rocky land in Al-Madina). And when they asked for water, no water was given them till they died . . . . (Bukhari, Book of Jihad, no. 3018; cf. online source)
-When the Apostle of Allah . . . cut off (the hands and feet of) those who had stolen his camels and he had their eyes put out by fire (heated nails), Allah reprimanded him on that (action), and Allah, the Exalted, revealed: “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Apostle and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is execution or crucifixion.” (Abu Dawud, no. 4357)
-The Quran in Sura 7:124 says through the mouth of Pharaoh: “Be sure I will cut off your hands and your feet on apposite sides, and I will cause you all to die on the cross.” (Yusuf Ali)
-Here is the torture that Muhammad permitted: When he [Muhammad] asked him about the rest, he refused to produce it, so the apostle gave orders . . . “Torture him until you extract what he has,” so [the torturer] kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead. Read more »
I am going to post 11 short (5-10 min each) videos and call them “Cure from Delusion – 11 Steps to rational thinking”
Why I am calling it like that? When you watch them you will know. I am agnostic and I was never a believer in Biblical God or God of any other faith, and I go by the code: Militant Agnostic – I don’t know and neither do you.
Purpose of these videos is to help you reach a “normal” state of mind and cure you from delusions and illusions, and help you use your brain for what it is maid for: “Critical Thinking” and “Common Sense”.
If you believe in biblical God you probably have lot of questions and I know lot of you are having doubts about the whole thing but you are afraid to admit it, and if you live in United States or Middle East, I don’t blame you. These videos are guaranteed to answer lot of them and after watching these videos you still have doubts then I am afraid you only have two choices:
1. Watch additional videos that are provided in this post
2. Or seek professional help. They might have pills to help cure you from delusion.
Here you go:
All videos can be found at the following site.
whywontgodhealamputees.com
If you still delusional after watching all 11 videos please watch following videos:
George Carlin on 10 Commandments
Richard Dawkings Q&A’s from The God Delusion book discussion
Richard Dawkins: The God Delusion BBC Interview
Sam Harris on belief at Idea City 05
Michael Shermer – Why People Believe Weird Things
Johnatan Miller – Interview with Philosopher Colin Mcginn (Really awsome)
Johnathan Miller – Interview with Steven Weinberg
And of course to top all of this pick up the Richard Dawkins excellent book “The God Delusion”. Every question you have about God or faith pretty much can be found in the book and answered with logic and common sense only Dawkins knows how to deliver.
There are many many more but these should do and remember: I don’t know and neither do you.
Give your neurons run for their money and start the process of the critical thinking or at least common sense. If you don’t like any of the videos above BITE ME!!!
