Lewisporte Newfoundland

An email describes what happened there on that awful day Sept. 11, 2001. An excerpt is follows.

Below is a 9-11 story from a different prospective.  Re-enforces your faith in our fellow human beings.  Here is an amazing story from a flight attendant on Delta Flight 15, written following 9-11: "On the morning of Tuesday, September 11, we were about 5 hours out of Frankfurt, flying over the North Atlantic. All of a sudden the curtains parted and I was told to go to the cockpit, immediately, to see the captain. As soon as I got there I noticed that the crew had that "All Business" look on their faces. The captain handed me a printed message. It was from Delta's main office in Atlanta and simply read, "All airways over the Continental United States are closed to commercial air traffic. Land ASAP at the nearest airport. Advise your destination." "No one said a word about what this could mean. We knew it was a serious situation and we needed to find terra firma quickly. The captain determined that the nearest airport was 400 miles behind us in Gander, New Foundland. He requested approval for a route change from the Canadian traffic controller and approval was granted immediately--no questions asked. We found out later, of course, why there was no hesitation in approving our request. "While the flight crew prepared the airplane for landing, another message arrived from Atlanta telling us about some terrorist activity in the New York area. A few minutes later word came in about the hijackings. "We decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air. We told them the plane had a simple instrument problem and that we needed to land at the nearest airport in Gander, New Foundland to have it checked out. "We promised to give more information after landing in Gander. There was much grumbling among the passengers, but that's nothing new! Forty minutes later, we landed in Gander. Local time at Gander was 12:30 PM! .... that's 11:00 AM EST. "There were already about 20 other airplanes on the ground from all over the world that had taken this detour on their way to the U.S. After we parked on the ramp, the captain made the following announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, you must be wondering if all these airplanes around us have the same instrument problem as we have. The reality is that we are here for another reason." Then he went on to explain the little bit we knew about the situation in the U.S. There were loud gasps and stares of disbelief. The captain informed passengers that Ground control in Gander told us to stay put. "The Canadian Government was in charge of our situation and no one was allowed to get off the aircraft. No one on the ground was allowed to come near any of the air crafts. Only airport police would come around periodically, look us over and go on to the next airplane. In the next hour or so more planes landed and Gander ended up with 53 airplanes from all over the world, 27 of which were U.S. commercial jets. "Meanwhile, bits of news started to come in over the aircraft radio and for the first time we learned that airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York and into the Pentagon in DC. People were trying to use their cell phones, but were unable to connect due to a different cell system in Canada. Some did get through, but were only able to get to the Canadian operator who would tell them that the lines to the U.S. were either blocked or jammed. "Sometime in the evening the news filtered to us that the World Trade Center buildings had collapsed and that a fourth hijacking had resulted in a crash. By now the passengers were emotionally and physically exhausted, not to mention frightened, but everyone stayed amazingly calm. We had only to look out the window at the 52 other stranded aircraft to realize that we were not the only ones in this predicament. "We had been told earlier that they would be allowing people off the planes one plane at a time. At 6 PM, Gander airport told us that our turn to deplane would be 11 am the next morning. Passengers were not happy, but they simply resigned themselves to this news without much noise and started to prepare themselves to spend the night on the airplane. "Gander had promised us medical attention, if needed, water, and lavatory servicing. And they were true to their word. Fortunately we had no medical situations to worry about. We did have a young lady who was 33 weeks into her pregnancy. We took REALLY good care of her. The night passed without incident despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangements. "About 10:30 on the morning of the 12th a convoy of school buses showed up. We got off the plane and were taken to the terminal where we went through Immigration and Customs and then had to register with the Red Cross. "After that we (the crew) were separated from the passengers and were taken in vans to a small hotel. We had no idea where our passengers were going. We learned from the Red Cross that the town of Gander has a population of 10,400 people and they had about 10,500 passengers to take care of from all the airplanes that were forced into Gander! We were told to just relax at the hotel and we would be contacted when the U.S. airports opened again, but not to expect that call for a while. "We found out the total scope of the terror back home only after getting to our hotel and turning on the TV, 24 hours after it all started. "Meanwhile, we had lots of time on our hands and found that the people of Gander were extremely friendly. They started calling us the "plane people." We enjoyed their hospitality, explored the town of Gander and ended up having a pretty good time. "Two days later, we got that call and were taken back to the Gander airport. Back on the plane, we were reunited with the passengers and found out what they had been doing for the past two days. What we found out was incredible. "Gander and all the surrounding communities (within about a 75 Kilometer radius) had closed all high schools, meeting halls, lodges, and any other large gathering places. They converted all these facilities to mass lodging areas for all the stranded travelers. Some had cots set up, some had mats with sleeping bags and pillows set up. "ALL the high school students were required to volunteer their time to take care of the "guests." Our 218 passengers ended up in a town called Lewisporte, about 45 kilometers from Gander where they were put up in a high school. If any women wanted to be in a women-only facility, that was arranged. Families were kept together. All the elderly passengers were taken to private homes. "Remember that young pregnant lady? She was put up in a private home right across the street from a 24-hour Urgent Care facility. There was a dentist on call and both male and female nurses remained with the crowd for the duration. "Phone calls and e-mails to the U.S. and around the world were available to everyone once a day. During the day, passengers were offered "Excursion" trips. Some people went on boat cruises of the lakes and harbors. Some went for hikes in the local forests. Local bakeries stayed open to make fresh bread for the guests. Food was prepared by all the residents and brought to the schools. People were driven to restaurants of their choice and offered wonderful meals. Everyone was given tokens for local laundry mats to wash their clothes, since luggage was still on the aircraft. In other words, every single need was met for those stranded travelers. "Passengers were crying while telling us these stories. Finally, when they were told that U.S. airports had reopened, they were delivered to the airport right on time and without a single passenger missing or  late. The local Red Cross had all the information about the whereabouts of each and every passenger and knew which plane they needed to be on and when all the planes were leaving. They coordinated everything beautifully. It was absolutely incredible. "When passengers came on board, it was like they had been on a cruise. Everyone knew each other by name. They were swapping stories of their stay, impressing each other with who had the better time. Our flight back to Atlanta looked li ke a chartered party flight. The crew just stayed out of their way. It was mind-boggling. Passengers had totally bonded and were calling each other by their first names, exchanging phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses. "And then a very unusual thing happened. One of our passengers approached me and asked if he could make an announcement over the PA system. We never, ever allow that. But this time was different. I said "of course" and handed him the mike. He picked up the PA and reminded everyone about what they had just gone through in the last few days. He reminded them of the hospitality they had received at the hands of total strangers. He continued by saying that he would like to do something in return for the good folks of Lewisporte. "He said he was going to set up a Trust Fund under the name of DELTA 15 (our flight number). The purpose of the trust fund is to provide college scholarships for the high school students of Lewisporte. He asked for donations of any amount from his fellow travelers. When the paper with donations got back to us with the amounts, names, phone numbers and addresses, the total was for more than $14,000! "The gentleman, a MD from Virginia, promised to match the donations and to start the administrative work on the scholarship. He also said that he would forward this proposal to Delta Corporate and ask them to donate as well. As I write this account, the trust fund is at more than $1.5 million and has assisted 134 students in college education. "I just wanted to share this story because we need good stories right now. It gives me a little bit of hope to know that some people in a far away place were kind to some strangers who literally dropped in on them. It reminds me how much good there is in the world. This is why our societal values are better than theirs.  Canada is a great country and it is an honor to have been born Canadian. Delta 15 commemoration.

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Bill Maher on Mohammed cartoons V2 2012

Bill Maher on Mohammed cartoons V2 2012

The Fuss: summary 

Is this what the furor is all about?

Dennett on atheism denial

Dennett on atheism denial

 

Fun talk by Daniel Dennett  at the recent Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne.

Learn about preachers who are secret atheists 

Enjoy.

 

 

Ontario Bible Ban

"The 8-3 vote at the Bluewater District board barring distribution of any non-instructional religious materials ended months of fractious and emotionally charged debate over the ending of the decades-old practice."

The Board has voted to disallow the distribution of Gideon Bibles.

Christianity which is supposed to be rooted in love resulted in several trustees receiving threats and hate mail accusing them of betraying their Canadian and Christian heritage.

The hypocrisy on display is expected and repulsive.

Nobel Prize in Physics 2011

A trio of scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics on Oct 4, 2011. Their discovery implied that the universe was expanding at an accelerating rate. This phenomenon is best explained by the concept of dark energy which is thought to make up 73% of the material in the universe. Dark matter accounts for 23% and visible matter constitutes the remaining 4%. Trouble is neither dark matter or dark energy has been identified. They are placeholders required to save the Big Bang theory from a radical re-write. Not unlike the mythical Higgs boson of particle physics and its massless cousin the dilaton. These particles are required to explain the rapid expansion (inflation) of the early universe that a modified Big Bang theory requires to overcome the objection that there are objects in the universe that would require more than the 13.7 billion years attributed to the age of the universe to develop.
The Higgs boson is being sought with the assistance of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and the Tevatron outside Chicago. These machines are particle accelerators which fling bits of matter at each other and the resulting collisions are analyzed for more fundamental particles in the resulting explosion. These machines work by accelerating particles via electromagnetic forces.
We know that the electromagnetic force is 39 times as powerful as the force of gravity upon which the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe is predicated. It is interesting to note that the electromagnetic force is not considered for the role of the accelerator in the supposed accelerated expansion of the universe. That would eliminate the need for the heretofore undetected dark energy.
Is there another explanation? See here.
In a universe powered by electrical plasma currents dark matter, dark energy, the Higgs boon and the dilaton would not be required. But an abandonment of the Big Bang theory might follow the exploration of the Electric forces at play in the universe. Does plasma physics hold the answers to cosmological puzzles? We live in interesting times.

Email about who controls Islam

I don't know about the first paragraph, but his point about the "peaceful majority" or "silent majority" is well taken. This appeared in a circulating email which continues on its way.

German View of Islam 

  This is by far the best explanation of the Muslim terrorist situation I have ever read. His references to past history are accurate and clear. Not long, easy to understand, and well worth the read. The author of this email is said to be Dr. Emanuel Tanya, a well-known and well-respected psychiatrist.
 A German's View on Islam
 A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.'
 We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
 The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
 The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.
 Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
 The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.
 And who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?
 History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:
Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.
Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts--the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
 Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world-wide, read this and think about it, and send it on - before it's too late.

 The following is encouraging. It was found at: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/100109/canada/canada_canada_muslim_fatwa_attack_canada_united_states

Attack on Canada, U.S is attack on Muslims: imams

MONTREAL (CBC) - A group of Canadian and U.S. Islamic leaders on Friday issued a fatwa, or religious edict, declaring that an attack by extremists on the two countries would constitute an attack on the 10 million Muslims living in North America.

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The 20 imams associated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada said this marked the first fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the U.S. to be attacks on Muslims.
"In our view, these attacks are evil, and Islam requires Muslims to stand up against this evil," the imams said in their fatwa.
Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy, founder of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, said attacks on Canadian or U.S. soil are essentially attacks on Muslims.
"We are part of this society," he said. "This is my home, and if anybody attacks on Canada, in fact, attacks on my home."
The imams said it is a duty of every Muslim in Canada and the U.S. to safeguard the two countries.
"They must expose any person, Muslim or non-Muslim, who would cause harm to fellow Canadians or Americans," they said.
"It is religious obligation upon Muslims, based upon the Qur'anic teachings, that we have to be loyal to the country where we live," said Soharwardy. "We have no problems in Canada; we can practise our religion freely."
In Montreal, one of the signatories of the edict, Imam Nasir Qadri of the Anwar Musallah Mosque, said he spoke to his followers at his mosque about the issue Friday.
Most of them call Canada home and feel personally threatened by the attempted attacks, he said.
The 20 imams who signed the fatwa come from British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and Houston.
The fatwa comes just weeks after an attempted bombing on Christmas Day of a U.S. jet bound for Detroit from Amsterdam.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian man, has been indicted on six charges, which include attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder.

Guardian Angel on the Job

A man was walking in the street when he heard a voice: "Stop! Stand still! If you take one more step, a brick will fall down on your head and kill you."

The man stopped and a big brick fell right in front of him. The man was astonished.He went on, and after awhile he was going to cross the road. Once again the voice shouted: "Stop! Stand still! If you take one more step a car will run over you and you will die."

The man did as he was instructed, and a car came careening around the corner, barely missing him.

"Where are you?" the man asked. "Who are you?"

"I am your guardian angel," the voice answered.

"Oh yeah?" the man asked. "And where the hell were you when I got married?"


This quip reminds us that we live in a world of opposites. Good things happen but so do bad things occur.

Any theory of God must note both and account for both. It cannot wear rose-colored glasses or only see the glass as half full. It is nice to define God as benevolent but when bad things happen in His universe He must bear the responsibility for them.

If a human seeded a resort with toxic water, venomous snakes and poisonous fruit the perpetrator would be apprehended and thrown in jail as a criminal deserves. We seem to have a double standard where God is concerned and excuse the existence of elements inimical to human life as  necessary for God's plan which we humans are too dim to comprehend. We save God from censure and irrelevance and allow Him to act in mysterious ways even when we know that if He exists and dangers exist that He does not warn us about He is committing a sin. Our defense of His immorality is a double standard that we so often deplore when we find it amongst ourselves. We don't hold God to the same standard because that would destroy our faith in Him. We hang on in the hope that the existence of good AND evil somehow makes sense and we try to explain away natural evils such as disease as being necessary to teach us a lesson if we would only take time to discern what it was.

What lesson is the criminal teaching us?

The existence of God depends upon faith and ignoring the obvious. Religion teaches us to close our minds to reality and just believe.

Fortunately not all of us think that way and science acknowledges that there is evil in the world that needs to be understood in natural terms so that it may be overcome with knowledge and technology. We want to conquer disease not excuse or accuse its creator.

In a godless universe guided by evolution disease is an unsurprising outcome. The universe may be such that life can emerge from its interacting elements but that does not mean that life was in any way intended as an outcome. Disease and other natural events that are precarious for life don't care if humans are here or not. They just do their thing impersonally, without malice and will uncaringly snuff life out if life gets in the way of its activity.

Life may have emerged on earth but it will not survive without a constant struggle to defend itself against a harsh world that is no garden of Eden. Hurricanes have no malice against life but they do act in accordance with their nature and will wipe life out that does not take appropriate action to defend itself. To borrow a phrase from Richard Dawkins, we have grown up in the universe but without benefit of an operating manual. We have been writing our own guide for thousands of years. We learn of the toxic nature of some plants by watching the demise of a fellow human when our ancestors made the connection between death and eating a certain berry or mushroom. No heavenly father gave us a field guide to consult to spare us the necessity of victims to advance our ken. There is no one to care but us.

Life has emerged in spite of all the enemies allied against it. Once life took hold it is loathe to let go. It seeks to perpetuate itself though self-replication. While natural disasters can destroy individual lives catastrophic loss of all life is unlikely without a cataclysmic event. Such an event does await our descendants but not for billions of years. Perhaps we will have escaped into a safer region of space before our sun enlarges to engulf the earth.

In our part of the universe self-conscious life has emerged and in our part of the universe living beings will return to the constituent parts of matter at the end of life.  Life and death. Beginnings and endings. A world of opposites. We can't have one without the other. We battle against the enemies of life because we find that life is worth living. We seek to improve our existence and progress from God's country to a civilisation that is robust and fair. In the process as they are exposed we slough off old ideas that retard our progress.

In enlightened societies, gone or going are misogynist structures, slavery, belief in evil witches, demon possession, homosexuality is evil, masturbation is evil, working on Sunday is evil, human or animal sacrifice, belief that the world is flat, blasphemers should be killed, etc.

To create a fair and just society some old practices, attitudes, ideas and beliefs must be abandoned. They belong to our more ignorant history and should be left there. Unfortunately, to our misfortune, some still hold on to the discredited past with murderous tenacity.

A God theory must explain the good, the bad and the ugly we find in our domain. A god who wears nought but the coat of benevolence is a figment of our imagination. This idea runs smack into the harsh reality we face on a daily basis in our struggle to survive and prosper in a world filled with natural booby traps.

It is my contention that God exists in the same sense that Mickey Mouse, Superman, Santa and the Tooth Fairy do. As the Greeks did with their gods and the Hindus do with theirs: let us have fun with him and not take him too seriously. For we have made him as fallible as we are.

Biblical Burning Bush

Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

Exodus 3:4 And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses.

Although the Bible (KJV) is somewhat unclear as to who is in the bush we can note with certainty that this was the last instance of such an occurrence. There have been no recent sightings of orally enhanced unconsumable burning bushes. Perhaps both the angel and God were in the burning bush. Would it be proper to speculate as to what God and the angel were doing in the bush?

If such a report were to be received in our time (2008) the skeptical antennae of curious scientists would go up while the pious parade of pilgrims to the site of the burning bush would proceed forthwith. No doubt a new shrine would be built to commemorate the occasion. One group seeks evidence while the other seeks salvation. One group wonders if David Copperfield was in the area while the other knows that Jesus was present.

A talking, unconsumable burning bush is indicative of science fiction to the skeptical mind for scientists know that such occurrences do not obtain in our universe. When bushes burn they are consumed and they do not speak with a human voice. It seems ridiculous to be making this point in the 21st century.

Deities must be imbued with supernatural characteristics in order to inspire awe and fear in the credulous and to establish their authority to be heard and followed. Humans who speak for the deity trade on these characteristics as reminders to the pious that God is superior to them and can do terrible things to them if they disobey the commands of the Lord. In ancient times, if a human wanted to be taken seriously his god had better have characterisitcs more wonderful than rival deities. A talking, unconsumed burning bush does quite well in that regard.

To the religious a report of a burning bush that spoke would fit into their world view that allows the laws of the universe to be suspended by God at any moment to suit his purposes. Hope springs eternal. Anything goes in the religious universe. Skeptics perform a useful service for the devout. They weed out charlatans leaving only valid instances of the miraculous.

In the 21st century we know that the contents of the universe have individul identities. That is why we can label an item, say, an apple, and not have to worry that it will acquire the properties of a coconut when we are not looking, Exodus 4:2-4:9 notwithstanding.¹ It is sad that there are those who think that such an occurrence is possible. In a recent survey done for the American Medical Association and published in the August 2008 edition of Archives of Surgery 57 per cent of respondents believe that God can intervene to revive the dying when medical personnel say nothing further can be done for their loved one. Apparently when their own relatives were the assumed ill person 20 per cent of medical personnel shared this belief in divine intervention. And when a patient does recover after doctors have said that further treatment is futile in our glee at the happy turn of events would we wonder about the significance of all the instances in which doctors were correct? Was the deity too preoccupied on those occasions? Was the patient not worthy of preservation? Does the deity play favorites?

Is it more likely that the talking burning bush is an example of science fiction or of a universe gone wild? We have yet to witness the spontaneous transformtion of an apple into a coconut. Things are what they are. It is what it is. Bushes don't talk and when they burn they burn.

While some of us wait for the second coming of the biblical burning bush (and won't we be miffed should it occur in a part of the world far from us and speaks in a language with which we are not familiar) the rest of us will move forward with a metaphyics rooted in reality and focus our attention on promising avenues of research that can assist the human race to improve on the imperfections we find in the universe that we inhabit.

If the verbal instructions from a burning bush would assist us to eradicate disease from the world we wouldn't care who are in the bush or what they were doing. We would have an oracle and the keys to the universe. Science and technology would be so much easier with an operating guide.

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1. Leprosy in the 20th century - the real deal

Popeye

Popeye

So keep "Good Be-hav-or", That's your one life saver
With Popeye the Sailor Man.

On December 8, 2009 a Google Doodle of Popeye The Sailor Man commemorated the 115th birth date of E.C Segar , Popeye's creator. Popeye is shown roughing up the Google logo while preparing to ingest a can of his beloved spinach, the source of his superhuman strength. In their mission to have a little fun with a memorable and adorable American icon, Google may inadvertently have provided a lesson in philosophy - proof of a negative.

 

From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

fiction, noun: something invented by the imagination or feigned; specifically : an invented story

 

If a character is deemed to be fictional is that not proof of a negative? Popeye does not exist as an independent sentient being. Nor could he exist in reality as he is said to possess powers that no human could possess.

Since we know the originator of this comedic character to be a human with an imagination and that Popeye did not appear to the world before January 17, 1929 we know Popeye is fictional. To be a fictional character, especially one with purported superhuman strength (when he eats his spinach), is to have no external presence as a sentient being. Since Popeye is fictional he does not exist except in the minds of those who have become aware of his fantastic exploits through mind to mind communication of some external sort. We do not expect to meet Popeye in person. He is a creature of our imaginations and does not exist without us.

 

To be fictional is to be contained within human minds. We may give existential expression to the character as was done with Popeye via comics, TV, movies etc. but we do not mistake these expressions in reality as anything but the physical representation of a creature of the mind. There is no sentient being with the properties possessed by the imagined character of Popeye. There is no human being with overdeveloped forearms who has superhuman strength after he downs a can of spinach.
 

From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Supernatural, adjective: departing from what is usual or normal especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature

Similarly, we know that theocratic sacred texts were written by humans about the supernatural exploits of gods. Gods share many of the properties, such as superhuman strength, of known fictional characters. Many of us no longer believe in the external existence of Apollo, Odin, Horus, Zeus, Mithra, etc. We recognize them as creatures of the mind belonging to a more unenlightened time. We never expect to meet Superman, Batman or Spider-man in our travels in the real world unless another human is posing in costume.

The supernatural exploits of our favorite god mirror the properties of a creature of the mind and extend them into the realm of the quite fantastic. We can make our gods do anything. The imagination is not limited by the laws of nature, ergo gods can flood the world, walk on water and raise the interred, ergo...
 

We would like the world to be different than it is but prayer to an invented supernatural being will not change the way it is. We must adapt to the difficulties of our existence. Wishful thinking can provide direction but, if possible, only reason will drive us to our destination.

Secrets of the Immaterial Mind

Merriam-Webster's online dictionary defines immaterial as: not consisting of matter.

Ideas are immaterial but they depend for their existence on the substrate of a functioning material brain.

Humans have no experience with any other kind of idea. In human experience ideas require consciousness and consciousness is the means of discovering that which exists. As Ayn Rand puts it: consciousness is consciousness of something.

Humans give expression to their ideas via the material universe employing such media as print, voice, art, music, plays, cartoons, TV, the internet and physical structures. This list is not meant to be exhaustive.

We know that Mickey Mouse was given public expression by Walt Disney somewhere around 1928 and before that MM was known only to the mind of his creator. Mickey was created for entertainment and it is easy to tell that Mickey is a fictional character. We know there is no walking, talking anthropic mouse named Mickey under contract solely to the Walt Disney company.

More nebulous are reality claims for characters such as Big Foot, Susquatch, the Abominable Snowman and the Loch Ness monster. Here we probably lean to the fictional category because of the quality of the evidence so far presented for belief and our knowledge of the propensity for some mischievous humans to commit hoaxes and create urban legends.

Less obvious is the claim made by some that their favorite deity is real, i.e., that there is an external referent for the concept of God heretofore left undefined.

It would seem to me that either the stated deity is made of something or it is made of nothing. If it is made of something then we have the quandary of explaining the origin of that something. Is there yet another being behind the scenes of the worshipped one?

If the assumed deity is made of nothing then what exactly are we talking about? Why make much ado about nothing? It can't affect us in any way. Paraphrasing Delos McKown, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University: the immaterial and the non-existent look very much alike.

The secrets of an immaterial mind have been exposed. It is made of nothing and hence it doesn't exist except in the minds of living self-conscious creatures called homo sapiens. Note the irony.

We don't have a universal definition for the deity because it is a creation of many human minds. We can make a god into anything we want and in theological history it could be claimed that we have done just that. Of the thousands of gods that we now reject we try to focus on one and come up with a self-consistent concept for what it could be.

Unless this god shows up in modern times as he is reported to have done in the past he must be relegated to the plethora of fictional characters that the human mind has conceived throughout its history.

Neither god as nothing nor god as something can predate existence. Existence is the starting point and any call to account for the universe is a question belonging to the same category of meaningless queries as what is north of the north pole.

How could it be otherwise? If ever there were absolutely nothing we would not be here to discuss it.

This is the real secret of the immaterial mind and has proven very difficult for most humans to grasp and accept as the implications are too daunting for minds conditioned by Sunday sermons.

After all, where would morality come from if not from an immaterial mind?

Perhaps from the material minds that created Him?

There are not too many of us that would enthusiastically enforce Exodus 35:2.¹ This verse makes God both irrelevant to our age and an abomination before us. We have left Him behind. Some of us have just not realized it yet.

Q: Prove God doesn’t exist.
A: That’s a tough one. Show me how it’s done by proving Zeus and Apollo don’t exist, and I’ll use your method. ~from Pat Condell

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1. Exodus 35:2 clearly states that anyone working on the Sabbath should be put to death. You really going to feel good about enforcing that one?" -- Penn and Teller on the Bible

Staying Alive

Adam was said to have lived for 930 years. Methuselah comes in with the greatest reported longevity of 969 years.

Fact or fiction?

Heads or tales?

In the 21st century we can be excused for doubting the reliability of these figures since no one was around to authenticate them. The longest lived person with valid credentials was Jeanne Calment who was 122 at her death. See Wikipedia under Methuselah.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

There can be none in the case of the patriarchs.

Tales.

Second Time Around

Jesus is not the only ancient biblical character to have benefited from the practice of resurrection. Apparently, it was quite prevalent in olden days and a skill that was fairly widespread among the biblical elite.

We all know the story of Jesus and Lazarus but Jesus also raised the daughter of Jairus shortly after death and a young man attending his own funeral. See the New Testament.

Peter raised a woman named Dorcas and Paul raised a man called Eutychus.

Elijah vanishes in a whirlwind in 2 Kings (2:11).

If we are to believe John Smith founder of the Mormon Church a resurrected John the Baptist ordained him.

In the modern era William M. Branham founder of the faith healing movement of the 1940s claimed to have raised a boy from the dead in 1950.

Fact or fiction?

Heads or tales?

From the perspective of the 21st century we can be excused for doubting the authenticity of such stories. Dead is dead. Resurrection makes great science fiction though. Zombies are always good for a fright.


Tales.

Religion equals mind control

Religion equals mind control. See it in action.

Individual rights trump religion. See it in action.

It will yet be the proud boast of women that they never contributed a line to the Bible. – George W. Foote

The world holds two classes of men – intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence. – Abu’l?Ala al Ma’arri

Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions. – Frater Ravus

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. – Seneca the Younger

A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows. – Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. – Anonymous

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. – Steven Weinberg

I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires. – Susan B. Anthony

Scriptures, n. The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are based. ~Ambrose Bierce

Blasphemy contest

Winning phrases of CFI's blasphemy contest

* "Faith is no reason." submitted by Ken Peters of California
* “There’s no religion like no religion,” submitted by Daniel Boles of Thailand
* “I wouldn’t even follow your god on Twitter,” submitted by Michael Hein of South Carolina
* “The reason religious beliefs need protection from ridicule is that they are ridiculous,” submitted by Michael Nugent of Ireland
* “I survived the God virus,” submitted by Perry Bulwer of British Columbia, Canada.

Answering Life's Tuff Questions

Like "why isn't tough spelled like tuff?" That would make too much sense.

If there is a god, why would a universe be required?

What purpose would a universe serve for this god?

What would be the marker for the achievement of this goal?

Why create living things? What is the point?

And why create them with lifespans?

Why create a universe with helminth parasites, hemlock, guinea worms and mosquitoes, all of which can result in the death of other living things?

These things are easy to comprehend if we assume the universe had no direction and evolved to its present state without a purpose in mind. We can accept them readily as 'just the way things are' if no designing agent is conjured as a universal director.
Otherwise they would appear to be the expressions of a diabolical mind.

Guinea worms are ingested by humans when they swallow water containing tiny fleas that have previously ingested the tiny eggs of the guinea worm. The eggs develop in the intestine and achieve a length of about three feet after about a year. Then males mate with females in your digestive tract who must lay the eggs in water. The guinea worm now begins to move by burrowing through your organs on its way to your skin. As they get near your skin they secrete an acid that causes extremely painful blisters on your skin to provide them an exit route. As you treat these blisters with water the guinea worm thanks you by bursting through your skin like spaghetti with a head. Over the course of the next several weeks you will want to pull the guinea worm out of you, inch by inch, in such a way as not to cause the worm to split. This would leave the rest of the worm still inside you where it will calcify under your skin. The worm won't kill you but secondary infections in your blisters such as tetanus will see to your demise. And how did humans discover these things? The universe does not come with an operating manual. We had to learn by trial and error. There was no Microsoft helpline to call to get a solution. No direct line to the director. People died so that others could learn to avoid the danger.

And the point of this lovely creature creation to a loving god? Blank out.

The ascaris worm is an example of a helminth parasite that lives in your intestines and can form clusters larger than a softball that can block your intestinal passages. When these guys migrate within your body they can cause deadly conditions like pneumonia and gangrene.

And the point of this lovely creature creation to a loving god? Blank out.

Hemlock is a poison. It can cause paralysis and seizures depending on the variety.

And the point of this lovely plant creation to a loving god? Blank out.

Mosquitoes are a disease vector and are responsible for the death of over a million people per year. Going back to biblical times the number of people whose lifespans were shortened numbers in the billions. If you were god would you create such a creature? Forgetting for the moment why you would want a universe in the first placewhy would you construct it with creatures that attack, maim and kill the humans that you love? If the universe is fine tuned for the emergence of human life it would also seem to be fine tuned for the development of these and many other nefarious organisms? Hell of a design. With thanks we praise thee for the remarkable pests and poisons that assail our persons.

An operating guide to the universe would be a handy aid to living for ignorant humans.

Unfortunately we had to discover a lot of things by trial and error.

If you were god would you supply a manual to your intelligent creations, to the ones for whom you created the universe?

And why did you create them? What do you need from them?

Do you obtain pleasure from watching someone drink hemlock and succumb to the poison?

Why didn't you warn the first person to 'discover' the hard way that hemlock is not a nutrient?

These and many other 'booby traps' for humans exist in the universe. Why did you create them?

When a plane crashes and there are survivors why do we thank you? Were the ones who perished not worthy of saving?

Or should we think that the ones who perished are the favored ones and that the survivors are reviled because you did not want them with you in paradise?

Why do we value life if the objective is to get to heaven? Babies who die take a shortcut to paradise. Do they grow up there? Will their parents recognize them when they get there?

What is the point for you? Amusement? Judging? Adulation?

For how long? For how many? When is it over for you? When will your goal be achieved?

What is your goal? To attract more people to heaven than Satan can entice into Hell?

What is the prize and when is it won? When is the game over?

All of these questions go away if you do not exist. We just accept the curious nature of the universe in which we find ourselves and seek to suck the most pleasure from our carcasses as we can before we can't. We try to figure out how things work without an operating manual and congratulate ourselves when we solve one problem and then we move on to the next.

The future of the human species seems inevitable. If our expanding sun does not wipe us out then our future collision with the Andromeda Galaxy certainly will. If you were god why would you build in that ending?

If you were god why would you need a universe at all?

Need implies imperfection.

Even god is human.

Baby Z

As reported on Yahoo on November 5, 2009, 'MELBOURNE (AFP) - A "miracle" Australian baby has become the first person cured of a rare and deadly brain-melting condition after doctors gambled on an experimental drug tested only on mice, they said on Thursday. The child, known only as "Baby Z", was facing a painful death of seizures and brain damage from molybdenum cofactor deficiency, a genetic defect which causes a build-up of toxic sulphite and usually kills in months.

But she made an amazing recovery just three days after first being given the untested treatment which was flown in from Germany and rushed through the courts.

Within hours after receiving the experimental drug cPMP the child's sulphite levels began to drop and reached normal levels in about 3 days.

God stood by and watched and was prepared to allow this child to suffer a painful death as had many others in the past who had suffered from the expression of this rare genetic defect.

Scientist Gunther Schwarz of Germany had tested cPMP on mice with success and shipped the drug to Australia for use with Baby Z. Biochemist Rob Gianello had discovered the drug which fixes the previously incurable condition.

This is another example of humans correcting God's work.

God comforts while humans save.

The universe may not care that we are here but we do.

Shack Attack

In the fictional novel 'The Shack' by William Young, God is depicted as a triumverate of characters: God Himself takes the human form of a black woman something like Auntie Mame, the Holy Spirit is a somewhat amorphous spirit called Sarayu and Jesus appears to play himself. The nature of the Jesus DNA does not come up in the story. The Shack tells the story of a tragedy that strikes Mack's daughter Missy who is abducted in the midst of another crisis and murdered in a shack in a remote location in the Oregon wilderness. The book attempts to deal with the problem of evil which is essential for theists to resolve if their God is to be saved from analytical oblivion. How can a loving God who created humans as His pets allow the unspeakable evil to befall us and stand by without doing anything? This seems unconscionable to us so theists must find a way to 'explain (excuse)' God from a rather obvious moral judgement. The book repeats the story of 'The Fall' set out in Genesis. Since Adam chose to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil RATHER than trusting in a loving God the human race henceforward had to experience the evils of the world outside of Eden. God can be 'with us' in our pain and suffering but cannot intervene because He respects our choice to live by our minds. So the triumverate in the book assures Mack that Missy was never alone during her terrible ordeal and that Missy took comfort in that fact. This image is supposed to relieve Mack of some pain and allow him to go forward with his life.
God allows evil because He respects the choice made on our behalf by Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.
If you were God why would you create a universe? What would be the point of it?
Asuming we can find a satisfactory answer to that one would you fill the universe with a 'pet' and then subject that pet to all manner of hazards that can attack its very existence?
The answer seems obvious.
And doesn't this answer call into question the very existence of such a superbeing or set of superbeings?
The pet acts to find solutions to the hazards so that they can be neutralized as the pet seeks a better environment in which to live than the one provided by God. Or He doesn't exist in the first place.
We are here. We don't know why. We have no universal operating manual to consult so we must figure it all out on our own. It just is the way it is and we must deal with that.
There is no God, never was a garden of Eden or an Adam and Eve to eat of the fruit of a fictitious tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is just a mythical story created by humans to offer some comfort to their fellow beings.
The Shack will appeal to and serve as affirmation for devout Christians but can offer scant comfort to those facing a denouement to their lives that consists of the excruciating pain of cancer. Humans provide morphine to dull the pain and provide a more comfortable journey into death. Who is more humane: a God who does nothing because of a choice made by the first human or a doctor with pain killer? Who is your friend? Who is really there with you?
In the story there was no one there with Missy. She died a horrible, painful death committed by a sick human being who had executed other young girls. All the prayers in the world didn't help Missy. And the fact remains, God, if He exists, watched it all.
Is He worthy of praise, adulation or love?
Or is it easier to believe that He doesn't exist?
Anger is the proper response to such despicable crimes.
Forgiveness allows the victim's relatives and friends to move on with their lives without allowing anger and revenge to consume them.
We don't need God for that.

Shiloh

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Shiloh, the mermaid girl, died at age ten in October of 2009 of a rare congenital condition known as Sirenomelia. People with this affliction are born with fused legs, hence the mermaid label, and often die within days of birth due to complications from kidney and bladder development and function. Shiloh was an exception. If you were God would you intervene to fix this problem? Would you design your universe to avoid such cruel and unusual imperfections?
These things are easy to comprehend if we assume the universe had no direction and evolved to its present state without a purpose in mind. We can accept them readily as 'just the way things are' if no designing agent is conjured as a universal director.
Otherwise they would appear to be the expressions of a diabolical mind.

If you were God...

why would you create a universe? What would be the point? What need of yours would it fulfil? Why do you need anything?
When will your purpose for the universe be achieved?
Assuming we get by the first question:
What would you put in it?
Would you include life?
How would that life develop? Full blown creation or by evolution?
Would you deliberately include poisons and other hazards to life?
If such hazards evolved would you leave them or intervene to nullify their nefarious effects?
What kind of god would you be? Good or evil?
Would you really want people to live by the laws of Leviticus?
Would you intervene via prayer fulfillment or miracle?
For whom and when?
And what would be the point to this universe?

Thank You for This Food

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A 4-year-old boy was asked to return thanks before a big dinner. The family members bowed their heads in expectation. He began his prayer, thanking God for all his friends, naming them one by one. Then he thanked God for Mommy, Daddy, brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and all his aunts and uncles. Then he began to thank God for the food. He gave thanks for the turkey, the dressing, the fruit salad, the cranberry sauce, the pies, the cakes, even the Cool Whip.

Then he paused, and everyone waited--and waited. After a long silence, the young fellow looked up at his mother and asked, "If I thank God for the broccoli, won't he know that I'm lying?"

This reminds me of Pascal's wager where it is intimated that it is better to believe God exists just in case he does. Of course, an all-knowing God, as implied by the boy in the joke, would know that that was your tactic and you would be off to hell for not being a true believer or at least you wouldn't be allowed into the kingdom of heaven.

It is my belief that families that say grace fare not better in life's allotment of good and bad than do families that don't engage in the ritual.

Has anyone done such a study? Would it be worthwhile?