Debate between renowned journalist and author Christopher Hitchens and Dr. Barry Brummett (Chair, Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas at Austin) on the resolution “Religion has been a positive force in culture,” June 4, 2011. Organized by the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo (http://www.english.uwaterloo.ca/), as part of the Literature, Rhetoric, and Values Conference, 3-5 June 2011.
Moderated by Jian Ghomeshi, an award-winning broadcaster, writer, musician and producer. He is the host and co-creator of the national daily talk program, Q, on CBC Radio One and CBC TV (http://www.cbc.ca/q/). Since its inception in 2007, Q has garnered the largest audience of any cultural affairs program in Canada and has become the highest-rated show in its morning time slot in CBC history.
In Part 1, Jian Ghomeshi introduces the two debaters.
Preliminary video-editing by Ken Cooper. Final edits by MetaMedia Productions, Waterloo, Ontario.
The Department gratefully acknowledges the support of a Social Sciences and Humanities Council Aid to Conferences Grant for the Conference on Literature, Rhetoric, and Values.
Archive for the ‘Invisible Friend Crowd’ Category
Christopher Hitchens debates Dr. Barry Brummett
Posted by pwl on September 24, 2011
Posted in Christopher Hitchens, Humbled by Nature, Invisible Friend Crowd, Philosophy, Religion, Scams, Video | 2 Comments »
Where Did EVERYTHING Come From?
Posted by pwl on June 10, 2011
Posted in Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Science Smackdown, Video | 2 Comments »
The Grand Delusion of The Elites
Posted by pwl on March 21, 2011
The Elite Cult members of Government, have been using peoples delusions and fears to trick them as elites of all political persuasions have done throughout history. In this case Obama is using peoples very real god delusions and fears of retribution from their alleged god as a means of connecting with and conning them. Obama also plays the climate doomsday wild claims fear card as well quite frequently.
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Insanity beyond Insanity, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Police State Insanity, Religion, Science over Propaganada, The End is Nigh, The Sky Is Falling, Total Control Over Our Lives, Watching the Watchers, Yikes! | 2 Comments »
On the Follies of Dead Men and the Wisdom of Worms
Posted by pwl on September 26, 2010
“I will not respect a book of lies. I will not tolerate intolerance.
…
What we are witnessing are efforts by authorities to confer special secular and legal privilege on the intangible aura of sacredness — a figment of the imagination of deluded believers, which they insist all we non-believers must honor.I refuse.
… Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Bad Science Attitude, Biology, Do Not Click At Work, Eaten Alive, Eeek!, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Get some perspective people, Hard Science Required, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Insanity beyond Insanity, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Religion, Video, Zombie Environmentalists, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
Arrrrgg! Happy Zombie Jesus Day
Posted by pwl on April 4, 2010
“Jesus Never Saved Anyone From Dying, Not Even Himself. Three Day Rotting Dead Corpses Shall Not Rise From The Dead, So Sayest Natural Biology! Sorry Zombie Fans.“
Posted in Belief Stricken, Double Yikes!!, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ick!, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Live Brains!, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion, Yikes!, Zombie Jesus, Zombies | 14 Comments »
It was the reverend Green who did it with the bible in the nursery. Science flys you to the moon, religion flys you into buildings.
Posted by pwl on December 9, 2009
“Science flys you to the moon, religion flys you into buildings” – Richard Stenger
Posted in Biology, Charles Darwin, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Get some perspective people, Hard Science Required, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, Proofs, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Religion, Richard Dawkins, Scams, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Video | 1 Comment »
Good people will do good things, and bad people will do bad things. But for good people to do bad things, that takes religion.
Posted by pwl on November 14, 2009
Conversation with Richard Dawkins and Steven Weinberg.
Part 1 of 8.
“The whole history of the last thousands of years has been a history of religious persecutions and wars, pogroms, jihads, crusades. I find it all very regrettable, to say the least.”
“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it 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.”
“I can hope that this long sad story, this progression of priests and ministers and rabbis and ulamas and imams and bonzes and bodhisattvas, will come to an end. I hope this is something to which science can contribute … it may be the most important contribution that we can make.”
“This is one of the great social functions of science — to free people from superstition.”
– Steven Weinberg, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin, 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics
Part 2 of 8.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Awesome beyond awesome, Biology, Climate Science, Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Get some perspective people, Gravity, Hard Science, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, Philosophy, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Religion, Science Education, Science Info Educational Videos, Science over Propaganada, Video | 7 Comments »
All belief is religion as belief isn’t based upon verifiable knowledge
Posted by pwl on November 5, 2009
All belief is religion as belief isn’t based upon verifiable knowledge.
“A United Kingdom court has ruled that a man can take his employer to court on the grounds that he was discriminated against because of his views on climate change. …
Mr Nicholson successfully argued that his moral values about the environment should be recognised under the same laws that protect religious beliefs.
In the landmark ruling, Justice Michael Burton said that a belief in man-made climate change is capable, if genuinely held, of being a philosophical belief for the purpose of the religion and belief regulations.” Beliefs on climate like Religion, court rules
The word “belief” is a problematic word with so many definitions that you have to pretty much define what you mean either by the context or by direction definition.
Generally when I’m down on the word belief I specifically mean “religious belief” or “supernatural belief” and not a belief that my car is still parked where it is.
I don’t think it’s responsible to say that “I believe in Newton’s Gravity Theory” as to use the word belief to talk about facts mis-communicates to the masses of people out there without scientific training. It’s better to use other words. Your “belief” that letting go of a stone has nothing to do with whether or not the stone falls.
Common uses of belief basically mean that you don’t know or don’t have evidence and that you assume it is true anyway. Since you do have evidence that dropping a stone on earth will have it fall (unless it’s otherwise supported or blocked) using the word belief is a mistake. One instead should say “I know that when I let go of a stone at chest level, it will fall (assuming that it’s not supported or blocked in some other manner).” This has clarity.
It is a big mistake for Richard Dawkins to be using the word belief the way he does with regards to scientific knowledge. He should be more careful and define his terms more precisely when talking about scientific knowledge and what is know and what isn’t since the religious masses use the word belief differently.
Sure people have a “belief” that X person will be a good political leader, but that is an entirely different category and meaning of belief than “belief that god exists” which is a statement that has no evidence and will never have any evidence in all probability not even mentioning all the evidence against the possibility of any gods existing.
As for climate change caused by man the science isn’t settled and if you think it is that is your “belief” and not a valid scientific statement. The more I learn the more I learn that we don’t yet have conclusive answers and that politics of extreme environmentalism started it and now that mainstream politicians have gotten into the act it’s now even more highly suspect. So I’d say show the evidence in a context where it can be audited by anyone which means showing all the data, raw and manipulated, detailed and comprehensive explanations for the manipulations, the statistics methods involved and why they were chosen, the software and the data used to create the graphs, all the scientists notes, photographs, and other materials used in the preparation of all the science papers. It’s clear that climate scientists (and others) have not been up to the standards of other fields and that all publically funded science needs to have it’s standards of openness and auditability raised.
I’m a very strong show me the hard evidence guy. Belief has no place in science nor in the communication of science nor in the science education process unless it specifically means “we think it could be true or false but we don’t just know yet”.
Believing that murder is wrong is a statement of one’s moral values and the word belief is often used although I’d question it’s use there. I’d not say it that way. I’d rather be more specific and say that “Murder is wrong because human life is valuable.”
Is saying “gravity sucks” a statement of “belief” or is it a succinct statement of the known laws of Gravity? I pick the latter.
“The relationship between belief and knowledge is that a belief is knowledge if the belief is true, and if the believer has a justification (reasonable and necessarily plausible assertions/evidence/guidance) for believing it is true. … Later epistemologists have questioned the “justified true belief” definition, and some philosophers have questioned whether “belief” is a useful notion at all.” – wikipedia
So “belief” is shaky ground at best, and as such it’s best to avoid using it when speaking generally about science or anything that is a statement of objective reality or it’s nature. I also use it carefully. My main use is in talking about the belief and faith stricken members of society.
Is that my belief? No, it’s a precautionary guidance principle based on knowledge gained from far too many conversations with the belief stricken who set well placed linguistic and philosophical traps.
Posted in Bad Ideas, Bad Science, Bad Science Attitude, Belief Stricken, Debunking Bad Environmentalism, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Get some perspective people, Gravity, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Philosophy, Politics, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Reality Based Environmentalism, Science Education, Science over Propaganada | 1 Comment »
Creationists are idiots – Flus for Jesus – EVOLUTION LIVE BEFORE YOUR EYES!
Posted by pwl on May 10, 2009
Posted in Belief Stricken, Biology, Fun, Hard Science Required, Health, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, Politics, Rational Thinking, Video | Leave a Comment »
Proving God Only Exists in your Head with Chocolate
Posted by pwl on May 9, 2009
In the video you prove the speed of light with a microwaved piece of chocolate.
Given the speed of light and that nothing can go faster than it, not even god this means that god can’t be omnipotent, omnipresent, nor omniscient. Since those are defining characteristics of they invisible friends known as god must have in order to be a god, god can’t possibly exist. Enjoy the chocolate while your god delusion melts down.
Sorry, that also means no FTL warp drive for all you sci-fans and Star Trek Fans. No, and no worm holes for you Star Gaters either – you’d be crushed and torn apart in an instant, oh wait you are… never to be reintegrated again, sorry Too Much Critical Information Lost (TMCIL).
Looking on the bright side of life, chocolate tastes awesome especially when microwaved.
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Awesome, Energy, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Humbled by Nature, Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Some Intelligent Designer, Something to think about, Space Travel, Video | Leave a Comment »
Got my Star Trek tickets! First night! Yes.
Posted by pwl on May 3, 2009
In with the new! Yes, a new trailer too!!!
Posted in Awesome, Bad Science, Believe it or your a denier!, Damn it!, Definition of Terms, Energy, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Film, Fun, Get some perspective people, Gravity, Hard Science Required, History, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Live Brains!, Majestic Universe, Philosophy, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Science Education, Science Ficition, Science over Propaganada, Space Travel, Video | Leave a Comment »
Why Humans Believe in Gods and Other Invisible Friends, the science behind the delusional religious insanity embraced by the vast majority of humanity
Posted by pwl on April 25, 2009
“We are risen apes not fallen angels.” – Andy Thomson
Science and Religion are highly incompatible for science is based upon the actual evidence of facts of objective reality while religion is based on nothing but faith that crazy ideas that have no evidence are true. Evidence verses nothing but faith. Science wins.
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Biology, Charles Darwin, Complex Systems, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Rational Thinking, Religion, Science Education, Science over Propaganada, Something to think about | Leave a Comment »
Skynet Is Watching You From The Sky, yes really they are!!! Not black copters, white ones… see…
Posted by pwl on April 25, 2009
These photos and video where taken in Vancouver, BC, Canada a few weeks ago. Yes, it is a real surveillance helicopter… just don’t know who’s they are flying it for… Vancouver Police? CSIS (Canada’s spy agency)? RCMP? News? Someone else?
The chopper was flying near Vancouver General Hospital however it’s NOT a medical chopper as it didn’t land on the hospital like many choppers do. No, it circled for a while, maybe five to ten minutes… My Cannon G9 camera wasn’t going to get any better shots… need an SLR with a telephoto lens for that… besides I wanted closeups with the photo function of the camera. Anyway these are max optical zoom with digital zoom due to cropping and image magnification… otherwise no filters or touch ups… I tried a sharpen but it didn’t really help as the G9 is a bit grainy when you zoom in lots.
Here are some close up shots taken with the same camera in photo mode.
Can anyone tell what kind of chopper this is? What kind of camera is that? What are it’s capabilities? Whose chopper is it?
Posted in Big Brother Planetary Control System, Conspiracy Theory, Double Yikes!!, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Gravity, Hard Science Required, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Human|Ape, Ignorance to Knowledge, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Politics, Rational Thinking, SkyNet Battlefield Earth, Something to think about, Spooky Action at a Distance, The End is Nigh, The Ground is Falling Up!, The Sky Is Falling, To Hell With You Buddy, Total Control Over Our Lives, Video, Yikes! | 3 Comments »
Ha ha, Tea Bagging InsaniTEA
Posted by pwl on April 24, 2009
Definition of tea bagging: the act of lowering one’s balls onto someones face, or into their mouth while they are laying down. Kind of resembles dipping a tea bag into a hot cup of water.
Ha ha.
What is the name of the guest? Cox? Ha ha. Gotta love it.
Oh, there’s more… sure makes for excellent comedy on the nightly news. I gather that it’s clear to many now that The Daily Show and The Colbert Report have influenced mainstream news to have some comedy. It sure is fun.
Not done yet… there are more…
These with Keith Olberman are just hilarious… almost every line is a spicy zinger!!!
Wow, it keeps coming! So to speak.
Posted in Adult Supervision Required, Awesome, Entertainment, Fun, Get some perspective people, Holding those who run the world responsible for their crimes against humanity, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Philosophy, Politics, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Sex, Tea Bagging, Total Control Over Our Lives, Video | Leave a Comment »
God is Petty and Small Minded
Posted by pwl on April 19, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Biology, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Philosophy, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion, Richard Dawkins, Science Education, Video, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
The 911 Nut Jobs are Out In Force Again
Posted by pwl on April 16, 2009
Posted in Bad Science, Belief Stricken, Conspiracy Theory, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Hard Science Required, Humbled by Nature, Invisible Friend Crowd, Proofs Needed, Scams, The End is Nigh, The Sky Is Falling, Total Control Over Our Lives, UFO Proof, Video, Yeah Right, Yikes! | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Hitchens vs. delusional Douglas Wilson
Posted by pwl on April 15, 2009
Posted in Belief Stricken, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Christopher Hitchens, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Hard Science Required, History, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Live Brains!, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Philosophy, Politics, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion, Scams, Some Intelligent Designer, Something to think about, Video | Leave a Comment »
Did Darwin Kill God? Sure why not…
Posted by pwl on April 14, 2009
Even people who believe in Darwin can have delusional beliefs such as this Christian narrator of this BBC show “Did Darwin Kill God?”. Of course it does, it’s the last nail in the cross!
WARNING DELUSIONAL MATERIAL PRELEVANT IN THIS SERIES OF VIDEOS!!! DON’T LET YOUR BRAIN FALL OUT OF YOUR HEAD WITH THESE CRAZY DELUSIONAL BELIEFS OF GOD.
Posted in Baby that became Zombie Jesus, Bad Ideas, Bad Science, Bad Science Attitude, Belief Stricken, Biology, Charles Darwin, Complex Systems, Do Not Click At Work, Double Yikes!!, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Live Brains!, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Really Funny, Religion, Scams, Some Intelligent Designer, The End is Nigh, The Sky Is Falling, Total Control Over Our Lives, Yikes!, Zombie Jesus | 2 Comments »
Darwin and You, the Philosophy of Science
Posted by pwl on April 14, 2009
Posted in Biology, Charles Darwin, Complex Systems, Hard Science, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Religion, Science Education, Video | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Hitchens debates a delusional Paul Edwards
Posted by pwl on April 14, 2009
As the Hitchens points out Paul Edwards is evil precisely because he (Paul Edwards) embraces the notion of being a slave of “god” who will do whatever “god” tells him to do even if it’s committing murder and genocide because that’s what “god” might want. Since “anything is possible” with “god” “god” might want his slaves to commit murder and genocide and in fact the “bible” does advocate such actions in the name of “god” – thus it’s evil. Being a slave to “god” is to be evil because it removes your responsibility for your actions by deferring them to your imaginary super friend who ordered it or who forgives you.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Awesome, Christopher Hitchens, Fun, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion, Scams, Video | Leave a Comment »
The Stagering Ignorant and The Insane who believe that the world is 10,000 years old or less
Posted by pwl on April 12, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Belief Stricken, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Rational Thinking, Religion, Richard Dawkins, Video | Leave a Comment »
My God Has A Hammer!
Posted by pwl on April 12, 2009
Posted in Baby that became Zombie Jesus, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Gravity, Hard Science, Human|Ape, Ideas Crazy Enough to Have a Chance, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion, Science over Propaganada, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
Take no thought for tomorrow – the teaching of Jesus
Posted by pwl on April 12, 2009
Posted in Bad Ideas, Belief Stricken, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Philosophy, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Religion, Scams, Science over Propaganada, Some Intelligent Designer, Video, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
Conventional vs Alternative Medicine
Posted by pwl on April 4, 2009
Posted in Bad Ideas, Bad Science, Belief Stricken, Biology, Business, Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Health, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Philosophy, Politics, Proofs, Proofs Needed, Rational Thinking, Scams, Science Education, Science Info Educational Videos, Video, Yikes! | Leave a Comment »
Sorry Kirk, Spock, Sulu and Piccard no Warp Drives Allowed in Nature
Posted by pwl on April 3, 2009
Warp drives have been the focus of science fiction writers for decades. But scientists kept them at arms length until 1994 when the idea was put on a firm (ish) theoretical footing by the Mexican physicist, Michael Alcubierre. His thinking is that while relativity prevents faster-than-light travel relative to the fabric of space time, it places no restriction on the speed at which regions of spacetime may move relative to each other.
Yes, imagination is wonderful. Nature is beautifully harsh though.
… Physicists have long wondered what would happen if you threw quantum mechanics into the mix? … They … studied a property of a quantum field called the renormalised stress-energy tensor which should be well-behaved under normal circumstances. But in the front wall of Alcubierre’s bubble travelling at superluminal speeds, the renormalised stress-energy tensor grows exponentially.
That strongly implies that such a bubble would be unstable. So it looks increasingly likely that, after a brief few years of excitement, Alcubierre’s warp drive is impossible.
To this someone replied:
When the word “impossibility” appears in discussions re science, I am always reminded of Arthur C. Clarke’s quote:
“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.“
When “impossibility” is ignored and Arthur C. Clarke’s quotes start flying I’m always reminded of The Sagan Principle which states that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” which certainly applies to here and in general to FTL.
Do you object that Newton proves that it’s impossible given the Earth Moon System for a human being al natural to jump from the Earth to the Moon (without the aid of technology, aka space ships)? I gather that you’ll bring out Author’s old men quote for this case too. Gravity Sucks in so many ways, and one of those ways is in keeping you firmly within the Earth’s gravity well (unless you are one of the few to reach escape velocity doing the rest of us a favor).
The Fabric of Objective Reality sucks in so many ways. Not traveling faster than light is one of them.
Optimism or pessimism are both irrelevant to the Nature of Objective Reality. The Universe doesn’t care about us, as it doesn’t care at all about anything.
Each aspect of Nature, each Law of Nature that we learn is what is actually going on gives us insights into what is actually possible and what is impossible. Nature is the limiter not our imaginations. Clearly our imaginations run amok all the time (see Amok Time episode of Star Trek for an example of this).
When you willfully ignore hard earned scientific knowledge that can be tested, that has been tested, you might find yourself crossing into that no man’s land of fantasy and delusion. You are not alone as many if not most humans live their lives in the land of delusional fantasies that simply can’t be true given the harsh Laws of Nature, which are the very Laws of Nature that enable you to exist!
So be optimistic or pessimistic all you want. Nature is the final judge of what is possible and what is impossible. Not that Nature is an is. I choose to embrace Nature in all of it’s beauty and horror rather than have delusional fantasies about it. I save my fantasies for entertainment (like the upcoming FTL fantasy Star Trek movie out in about a month) and private relationships.
So enjoy your invisible friend of FTL all you want, just know that no matter how much you enjoy it your enjoyment won’t alter the Fabric of Nature one iota.
Posted in Bad Science, Complex Systems, Damn it!, Energy, Ethics in Science, Gravity, Hard Science, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Science Education, Science Ficition, Space Travel, Yeah Right | Leave a Comment »
The Rationalists Test for Public Office: If you believe in Judgement Day I have to seriously question your jugement
Posted by pwl on March 31, 2009
Posted in Awesome, Bad Ideas, Belief Stricken, Bill Maher, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Proof God Can NOT Exist, Rational Thinking, Really Funny, Religion | Leave a Comment »
Why Creationists and Other IDiots Get Laughed At and just don’t know why
Posted by pwl on March 31, 2009
A really great series of videos that hit back slicing and dicing the silly inane beliefs of creationists with hard hitting science. As someone with a sister and brother in law who are young earth rapture creationist preachers this series of videos is excellent potential deprogramming materials for the creationist delusional insanity. Enjoy.
These videos were made for the communal and greater good. All these videos are copyright free for educational purposes, feel free to mirror these videos with or without accreditation. Part of a series of videos exposing the funny stupidity of creationists and why they deserve to be laughed at. In each case the creationist statements are shown to be outrageously stupid by even the most rudimentary knowledge of science. Creationist are tackled at every level from the scientific illiterates like venomfangx who want to play in the scientific arena but don’t even understand the words they use, to convicted fraudsters like Kent Hovind who abuse the scientifical illiteracy of people like venomfangx to dupe them out of money. An enterprise which is clearly very successful as merely the tax Hovind didn’t pay was about a million dollars. Hovind himself has no discernible academic education, and gets by solely on using his confident delivery of scientific terms to convince his audiences that he knows what hes talking about. Then of course there are the professional such as the Discovery Institute, the hub and founders of the Intelligent design movement. After the humiliating rout of ID in court where it was found that ‘ID is not science’, and that ‘ID is only a relabelling of creationism’ the Discovery Institute do not utter the word once in their latest promotional video. Instead they now have decided to ‘teach the controversy’ which is an irony as they are the only people who disagree with evolution. What they are really asking is not to teach the controversy, but to teach their views, which are supported by neither research or evidence, in schools.
Any video with nuclear explosions gets headlined on the first page and has my blessing!
Many more parts follow!
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Awesome, Bad Ideas, Bad Science, Belief Stricken, Biology, Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Really Funny, Religion, Science Education, Science over Propaganada | 2 Comments »
Ayn Rand, Objectivism and Modern Physics – some thoughts
Posted by pwl on March 30, 2009
From my perspective.
I find Ayn Rand’s writing and films quite boring and dry although parts can be fascinating.
What is clear however is the notion of objective reality as distinct from ourselves. While this isn’t an idea original to Rand it’s the key notion in her objectivism that forms the foundation for the rest which can be taken or cast aside.
The three core axioms of Existence, Consciousness and Identity are irreducible. And again these ideas are not original to Rand.
Yet the combination of these ideas and others is unique to Rand and that is her value to humanity.
Posted in Awesome, Belief Stricken, Complex Systems, Ethics in Science, Exercise for the Reader (that's you), Gravity, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Philosophy, Science Education | 4 Comments »
The Incomprehenisbile Half Ape
Posted by pwl on March 25, 2009
A full human|ape can’t comprehend these two half apes, self human|ape deniers!
Posted in Fun, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, Live Brains!, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Religion, Scams, Video, Zombie Jesus, Zombies | Leave a Comment »
Hitchen’s polishes off a few topics
Posted by pwl on March 22, 2009
Posted in Belief Stricken, Christopher Hitchens, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, Politics, Religion, Total Control Over Our Lives | Leave a Comment »
Religion Masquerading as Sci Fi, a Knowing CONversion Attempt using Religo Sly-Fi Tactics
Posted by pwl on March 22, 2009
SPOILER ALERT details revealed.
The film Knowing pretends that it’s Science Fiction yet is a full on brain injection of the biblical story of the Garden of Eden, Noah’s Arc and the Rapture with a twist which is that “aliens” aka “angels” steal away, well invite away, a small number of human children in a Noah’s Arc and take them to a new planet to start humanity again, a lush Eden with a giant white Tree of Life. Rabbits are along for the ride to show the kiddies how it’s done. Yes, that’s it.
Posted in Bad Science, Biology, Climate Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Film, Fun, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Religio Sly-Fi, Religion, Science Ficition, Space Travel, TerrorForming Earth, The End is Nigh, The Ground is Falling Up!, The Sky Is Falling, UFO Proof, Video, Yeah Right, Yikes!, Zombie Jesus | 1 Comment »
Infinite Monkeys on Infinite Keyboards Fueled by Yummy Infinite Pi
Posted by pwl on March 20, 2009
Yes, science can prove there is no god, and in fact has done so. Follow the evidence. e=mc^2 means that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, which means that gods can’t be omnipresent, omnipotent, nor omniscient since those properties would require faster than light travel for the disparate parts of an invisible being to communicate. Thus there is no god. This proof is provide by science.
This is as true as saying that Newton proves that a human being can’t fly or jump to the Earth’s moon without the aid of a spaceship.
Science not just proves facts it can equally disprove things that just can’t possibly be DUE to the very Nature of Nature. Newton, Einstein and others have uncovered hard laws of Nature that PROVE aspects of Nature and at the same time these laws disprove anything that contradicts these laws. This hold true for every hard law of Nature.
As a demonstration of how experiment and laws of Nature “EXCLUDE” possibilities as well as prove them here is a tidbit from a recent discovery quoted verbatim.
The territory where the Higgs boson may be found continues to shrink. The latest analysis of data from the CDF and DZero collider experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab now excludes a significant fraction of the allowed Higgs mass range established by earlier measurements. Those experiments predict that the Higgs particle should have a mass between 114 and 185 GeV/c2. Now the CDF and DZero results carve out a section in the middle of this range and establish that it cannot have a mass in between 160 and 170 GeV/c2.
This demonstrates the use of science to PROVE that something can’t be via the use of EXCLUSION FROM POSSIBILITY in OBJECTIVE REALITY.
So many atheists are incorrect in their logic – including Dawkins – when they falsely assert that science can’t disprove anything. It does disprove things all the time! Logic must be connected to objective reality to be viable.
It’s a common mistake in thinking caused by a disconnect of logic from objective reality. All logic must be verified and validated and tested against the actual objective reality. Many philosophies of thinking, most in fact, fail to provide any need to connect with objective reality. Science is one philosophical method that attempts to do just that with a high degree of success. You just have to get that e=mc^2 not only proves things about matter and energy it also disproves by exclusion a LOT MORE by far – in fact it disproves an infinite amount of mind garbage. However, e=mc^2 doesn’t disprove everything which is an even larger infinity, but it goes a long way.
So sorry to those of you with invisible friends your friend is just a chemical drug your brain feeds you to make you feel good.
So sorry to you misguided atheists who think that you can’t prove by exclusion that things can’t be in the actual reality we exist in. We can and science and scientists do all the time! In fact science could not progress if it only could prove positives – now let that twist your brain!
Unlike Pi, this is not circular reasoning and in fact is a key essential aspect of scientific reasoning!
Posted in Bad Science, Hard Science, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, Majestic Universe, Proofs, Science Education | Leave a Comment »
The Lord’s Understanding is Unsearchable because the lord is a delusion in your brain
Posted by pwl on March 20, 2009
Cartoon by xkcd.
Yes, I’d have to agree with Knuth that “The Lord’s Understanding is Unsearchable” but not because I agree with Knuth’s meaning but because by viewing the meaning from my frames of reference it’s clear that no Lord exists thus it’s understanding isn’t searchable – you can’t search that which doesn’t exist, now can you?
It’s amazing that humans can invent something, The Lord, and then speak about it as if it’s real. This is one of the wonders of the brain, it’s ability to invent realities that are in reality fantasies that don’t even pretend to connect with the actual reality of Nature were we exist. That’s what is so wonderful about science and the scientific method, it takes the notion of testing our notions against Nature to see insights into the otherwise ineffable qualities of existence. It’s too bad that Knuth chooses to ignore reality when it comes to his spiritual existence. Maybe it’s not that he chooses, maybe it’s that he’s inflicted and has no choice?
Professor Donald Knuth visits Google’s Mountain View, CA headquarters to discuss the interactions between faith and science. This event took place on March 16, 2009, as part of the Authors@Google series.
In the fall of 1999, Donald was invited to give six public lectures at MIT on the general subject of relations between faith and science, during which he touched upon such topics as the interaction of randomization and religion, language translation, art and aesthetics, and the 3:16 project. During his talk at Google, Donald will similarly be focusing on the interactions between faith and science.
Unfortunately this talk demonstrates how clearly insane and delusional Professor Knuth turns out to be. Clearly he’s not thought out many of the issues that were presented to him when asked. He’s obviously got an active “god nodule” providing brain pleasure drugs in his brain.
Yes, Dr. Knuth the human brain, as all brains, are computers of a biological kind. To think otherwise is clearly ignoring the evidence. Knuth makes so many ontological errors that it’s not funny. Now how can I trust his computer science? It’s a good thing that I can test that easily as well as the notions of gods with science.
It was a very sad day when I saw this video. A hero became a nut job par excellence. Very sad indeed.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Belief Stricken, Complex Systems, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, Majestic Universe, Science Education, Video | 1 Comment »
TRUTH, FAITH AND REASON
Posted by pwl on March 19, 2009
TRUTH, FAITH AND REASON: POPE BENEDICT XVI’S LECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF REGENSBURG
By Gerald E. Marsh

The Stupid Delusionals with Invisible Friends, it burns. Cartoon by Plognark dot com - Thanks...
Pope Benedict XVI interleaved two themes in his lecture at the University of Regensburg on September 12, 2006.1 These will be discussed here in two separate parts: Truth, Faith, and Reason and The Dialogue of Cultures. The first addresses the Pope’s proposal to expand scientific reasoning to include the “rationality of faith”; and the second with the threat of radical Islam, and whether a “dialogue of cultures” is possible if the West persists in its belief in what the Pope calls a “reason which is deaf to the divine”.
PART ONE: TRUTH, FAITH AND REASON The essence of the Enlightenment, as put by Isaiah Berlin in his essay The Counter-Enlightenment, “is the proclamation of the autonomy of reason and the methods of the natural sciences, based on observation as the sole reliable method of knowledge, and the consequent rejection of the authority of revelation, sacred writings and their accepted interpreters, tradition, prescription, and every form of non-rational and transcendent source of knowledge”. Notice that Berlin does not say that this approach is the sole method of obtaining knowledge, only that it is the sole reliable method, meaning that knowledge obtained in this way can be confirmed by experiment. This form of knowledge is increasingly coming into conflict with beliefs based on divine revelation.
Knowledge based on reason and the methods of natural science is threatening to many of those who hold conventional religious beliefs because the implications of such knowledge raise the fear that their lives may lose meaning and direction, and that they will no longer have an ethical basis for behavior. They especially abhor a future bereft of personal immortality. If the origin of life, and humanity in particular, has a natural explanation, how can one believe in the immortal soul, or that humanity is central to God’s creation? Belief in the findings of science about our origins will not only destroy the creation myths of humanity, but will also force the acceptance of the proposition that impersonal and indifferent forces were behind its creation, along with that of all other living creatures.
Posted in Belief Stricken, Big Brother Planetary Control System, Complex Systems, Double Yikes!!, Ethics in Science, Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Hard Science Required, History, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Ignorance to Knowledge, Intelligent Designer - Yeah Right, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Majestic Universe, My Invisible Friend Needs Me For His-Her-Its Existence, Politics, Religion, Science Education, Yikes!, Yikes! The sky is NOT falling! | Leave a Comment »
Moral Atheists – No need for invisible friends (gods) for morals
Posted by pwl on March 18, 2009
Posted in Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Religion, Video | Leave a Comment »
I was fine the first time
Posted by pwl on March 18, 2009
Posted in Baby that became Zombie Jesus, Bad Ideas, Human|Ape, Ignorance to Knowledge, Invisible Friend Crowd, Science Education, Video, Yikes! The sky is NOT falling!, Zombie Jesus | Leave a Comment »
Defamation of Humanity by Religion
Posted by pwl on March 18, 2009
Posted in Invisible Friend Crowd, It's a good thing that your god(s) die with you, Religion, Video | Leave a Comment »
2012-12-21 Your kitchen magnets won’t work either!
Posted by pwl on March 18, 2009
Posted in Bad Science, Climate Science, Complex Systems, Film, Fun, Hard Science Required, Human|Ape, Humbled by Nature, Invisible Friend Crowd, Science Ficition, The End is Nigh, The Sky Is Falling, Video, Yikes! | Leave a Comment »
The People Vs Bush
Posted by pwl on March 17, 2009
“We dare not blink at the magnitude, diversity and pervasive impact of the known crimes committed by the Bush administration. Wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Supreme International Crime, have killed hundreds of thousands outright, wounded, sickened and malnourished many more than they have killed and sent millions as refugees to neighboring nations while rendering homeless millions more. Indiscriminate killing of civilians, summary execution, arbitrary seizures of people and property, secret unlimited detention and torture have been authorized, widely practiced and both defended and denied publicly. President Bush, the self-proclaimed “decider,” reached for unlimited dictatorial power whenever he proclaimed the national security was threatened. And he considered himself above the law where domestic affairs were concerned even a he signed Acts of Congress into law.” – William Ramsey Clark, is a lawyer and former United States Attorney General.
Posted in Evil Walks the Earth and Carries a Big Stick, Invaders from Earth, Invisible Friend Crowd, Politics, TerrorForming Earth, To Hell With You Buddy | Leave a Comment »