Tuesday 30 September 2014

Charles M. Schultz, " Peanuts " cartoon

Snoopy is writing a book on theology titled, " Has it ever occurred to you that you might be wrong "

Peanuts: therefore the Old World Gods were figments of the witchdoctors’ imaginations.

Pumpkin: therefore there is no God. None of the superstitions claiming supernatural assistance predicted the Americas
Pumpkin : The Jesus myth is squashed.

Thanksgiving Day could be viewed as a celebration of the Columbian Exchange which I think should put an end to the claim of religion to divine revelation.

Turkey : Jesus is stuffed.

If religion claims a magical Noahs’s flood at 2300 BCE ( see Ussher chronology ) then how come so many important food crops were unique to America? Why would a God have magically put them out of reach of his chosen children of Israel ? Out of reach of Jesus ? Why did Adam & Eve never mention missing chocolate & popcorn or pumpkin pie & maple syrup after being excluded from the garden of Eden ? Our diverse choice of diet now is more a ” garden of Eden ” experience than any Babylonian located one could ever have been. [ in the unlikely event of one existing ]
However if these food crops were evolving due to selective actions by humans, what effect would a large influx of Europeans have had if they arrived in the Americas 2000 or 3000 years earlier? Would some of the crops have been lost, would their breeding have been disrupted ? Would the native American Indians have given up on sweet-corn in favour of wheat ? Or were they already well enough developed by that stage ? I wonder how big tomatoes, potatoes etc grew at 1000 BCE ?
I think I read that Cassava from S. America has been a boon to Africa. Any angel worthy of the name could have transported some American food crop plants over to the Old World tropics without necessarily informing anyone of their origins but no such thing occurred.

The argument from peanuts (Arachis hypogaea)is slightly undermined by the Bambara groundnut ( Vigna subterranea ) & Hausa groundnut (Macrotyloma geocarpum) both native to West Africa. Apologists are going to say the Old World had plenty of nuts. Seems these three groundnuts belong to the family Fabaceae. Does this mean that they have a common ancestor which dates back to before S.America split from Africa 150 Ma ago ? How come peanuts are mentioned in Bolivia, Paraguay & Peru but not so much in Brazil ? Did they die out in Brazil ? How does the eating quality of Peanuts compare to Bambara & Hausa ?

Snoopy : Has it ever occurred to you to ask how come the scriptures never told of this New World and its bounty ? Thomas Paine considered this question

Sunday 28 September 2014

Religion a form of mimicry of reality whereas Evolution by natural selection is reality

Are religions a form of mimicry ? Maybe religion mimics reality ? The stories of religion recorded in scriptures succeed because though wildly improbable they appear to still be ‘possible’ and contain ideas that people wish to be real.
The shaman / priest uses their stories to trap and parasitize their flock. If people had sufficient knowledge of history & science and tried to apply them critically to the religious stories then they would soon see the difference between the mimic of reality and probable reality.
Are the errors of scripture like Cordyceps fungi ?
See. Cordyceps: attack of the killer fungi – Planet Earth Attenborough BBC wildlife on Youtube BBCWorldwide channel
Maybe the opposite of religion is the theory of evolution as it gives the reality that everything evolves by very gradual processes where as religion expects instant mysterious magic. The religious stories can be seen to have evolved from Torah to O.T. to N.T. to Koran to Book of Mormon to Watch tower. Maybe the Koran virus has lost its eyesight like the Mexican tetra or blind cave fish (Astyanax mexicanus) The Koran has had the tolerant ideas found among the N.T. mix stripped out. It has lost the inner conflict of the debate- were we meant to follow O.T. laws or Pauls idea of living by spirit guidance? So instead of healthy doubt there is more unhealthy tendency towards certainty to follow barbaric 7th century morality.

Friday 26 September 2014

Harebraineddim ones on El-AL flight to celebrate anniversary of A&E

From Wikipedia
Rosh Hashanah, Traditional greetings :
Ketivah VeChatimah Tovah which translates as "A good inscription and sealing [in the Book of Life]" (Hebrew: כתיבה וחתימה טובה‎).[24]
The next time the Mishnah gets rewritten there needs to be a minor edit;
Ketivah VeChatimah Tovah which translates as "A good inscription and seating [in the Booking of Life]" (Hebrew: כתיבה וחתימה טובה‎).[24]
Maybe the pilot should have blown the shofar in short, long and staccato blasts that follow a set sequence:
Shevarim (3 broken sounds) Numbers 10:5;
O'Teki'ah (long sound) Numbers 10:3;
Shevarim (3 broken sounds) Numbers 10:5;
repeatedly
Then sung out,
L'shanah tovah tikatevu v'tichatemu meaning "May you be inscribed and seated for a good year"
The Yamim Nora'im are preceded by the month of ELAL, during which Jews are supposed to begin a self-examination and repentance, a process that culminates in the ten days of the Ya mum No sitt'im there, known as beginning with Rosh Hashanah and ending with the holiday of Yo mum Kip & purr next to me.
So the Harebraineddim ones need to accept that there is no good reason not to sit next to women & consider it a privilege. Also reflect on the fact that evolution by natural selection means there was no first Adam & Eve and so no anniversary to celebrate.. However there are other things to celebrate such as the arrival of the winter rains & start of the new growing season. Also celebrate the theory of evolution as it offers the best structure for explaining why life on earth is the way it is and why people so often behave not much better than dumb apes.
In prayers composed by the classical rabbinic sages for Rosh Hashanah found in all machzorim the strongest theme of the prayers is the "coronation" of God as King of the universe in preparation for the acceptance of judgments that will follow on that day, symbolized as "written" into a Divine book of judgments, that then hang in the balance for ten days waiting for all to repent, and be "seated" prior to Yom Kippur. The assumption is that everyone is seated for the flight and therefore the next festival is Sukkot (Tabernacles) that is referred to as "the time of our joy" (z'man simchateinu). Note if God was seated for the Coronation then do thou likewise
Rosh Hashanah is also the day of "Yom Hadin", known as Judgment day. On Yom Hadin, 3 books are opened, the book of life, for those who took their prescribed seat promptly among the passengers, the book of death, for the most evil who stood in the isle will receive the seat of death back in the departure lounge waiting for the next flight ( which might never arrive ) , and the third book for the ones living in doubts with non-evil sins, who were quickly persuaded by the flight chauffeurs to take their appointed seat. The final judgment is not done from Yom Hadin before the start of Yom Kippur, it is sometimes possible to receive the seat of life by asking for forgiveness. 
[ Rafi Norm on Ynetnews.com pointed out
Fact check: LY4 had 24 min delay at departure and 14 min at arrival compared to the average... ]

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Choose an ever evolving, updatable, upgradable, adaptable " God "

When choosing a God, if there is no real cosmic one to be found, then one really ought to at least choose one which is evolvable. If " God " is defined as being the set of ideas currently viewed as being the best structure for society to operate by or the understanding of the world about us which is closest to reality then you would expect that " God " should evolve as new data comes in.
We should have expected the psalms to sing praises to the God who is ever evolving, adapting, learning, updatable, upgradable, adjusting previous conduct manuals to incorporate new ideas which might enhance the lot of his subjects on Earth.
You would expect by now that Allah would be shouting at its followers, " Switch to English common law, shariah isn't fit for the 21st century, it contains arbitrary pointless taboos and unnecessarily severe penalties "
Where are there examples of self analysis, self criticism in the scriptures? Wouldn't a God have tried out policies on his new found humanity, observed how they worked out then changed the bits that were having a negative effect. FEEDBACK ?
Sadly Psalm 102v27, " You remain the same "
Malachi 3v6, " I the lord do not change " [ Except he changed between O.T. & N.T. ]
Hebrews13v 8, "J.C is the same yesterday, today, and forever."
So I expect that after hearing exactly the same joke in heaven for the millionth time the saved will be like, " Grief, this is hellish, God you are boring the socks off me "

For cutting edge ideas on evolution try " Why evolution is true " website by Jerry Coyne and for more reasons to think that there probably is no supernatural realm try John W. Loftus, Victor J. Stenger or Robert M.Price.
 Try a better thinking structure of reason & science with Richard Dawkins

Sunday 21 September 2014

I love the smell of napalm in the morning, Apocalypse now

I love the smell of tobacco smoke in the morning. Condor tobacco is the aroma of the Americas where the Condors glide free and should blow to pieces the claims that the priests of Abrahamic religions were receiving supernatural revelation because they totally failed to predict the existence of the New World or its foods & other resources. Had they done so then they could have enjoyed roast potatoes, turkey & sweetcorn followed by pumpkin pie with maple syrup  at least 800 years sooner or maybe 1500 years sooner than they did. They could also have enjoyed the calming effect of nicotine sooner but perhaps it needed the miracle of personal vaporizers to allow safer delivery mechanism than breathing tobacco leaf smoke. But hey, I like the smell of real pipe smoke. Also the smell of gasoline should be a reminder of the reality of fossil fuel which had its origins in organisms which lived millions of years ago. This also is a solvent to the religious tar which tries to bind people in a macadam mindset which asserts the guess that the world began 6000 years ago is a reality when all the evidence points to that idea being a fantasy based on blind guesswork.

See tobaccoatlas.org World tobacco production peaked in 1997 at over 9 million tonnes and has since declined  by almost a quarter to 7.1 million tonnes in 2009. Tobacco is primarily grown in low and middle income countries, where it is a contributor to undernourishment because land is used to grow tobacco rather than food. In 2009 , six of the top ten tobacco producing countries had undernourishment rates between 5% and 27%

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPT3RFTpSUw

De Sunking of Abrahamic Religions

Condor Pipe Tobacco - Submarine - CDP 1985

The aroma of tobacco smoke of the Americas where the Condors glide free should blow to pieces the claims that the priests of Abrahamic religions were receiving supernatural revelation because they totally failed to predict the existence of the New World or its foods & other resources. Had they done so then they could have enjoyed roast potatoes, turkey & sweetcorn followed by pumpkin pie with maple syrup  at least 800 years sooner or maybe 1500 years sooner than they did. They could also have enjoyed the calming effect of nicotine sooner but perhaps it needed the miracle of personal vaporizers to allow safer delivery mechanism than breathing tobacco leaf smoke. But hey, I like the smell of real pipe smoke.

See tobaccoatlas.org World tobacco production peaked in 1997 at over 9 million tonnes and has since declined by  almost a quarter to 7.1 million tonnes in 2009. Tobacco is primarily grown in low and middle income countries, where it is a contributor to undernourishment because land is used to grow tobacco rather than food. In 2009 , six of the top ten tobacco producing countries had undernourishment rates between 5% and 27%


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPIwFRZXUA4

Parody on Coke ad, " I'd like to buy the world a home & furnish it with love "

If Jesus had had a revelation about the existence of the New World  then he might have said in Luke 22v42, " Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; I'd rather have a coke "  However it would have taken a super size miracle to realize that it was possible to combine the coca leaf from South America, Kola nut from Africa & sugar from Indian sugar cane to make coca-cola. If the old world religions had been able to predict the existence of the Americas then the old world might have enjoyed going to McDonald's 1500 years sooner to enjoy potatoes & tomatoes ( both native to America ). Instead the characters of scriptures had to make do with McLevi's locusts, reptiles & unleaven bread. At any rate it shouldn't take a miracle for people to twig that the existence of America fairly conclusively points to the likelihood that the scripture writers were just making stuff up. Break a bar of chocolate and raise a glass of coke to celebrate science, reason and that you live in  more enlightened times.

I'd like to teach the world to sing that the Old World prophets didn't know
Of potatoes, chocolate or tomatoes
or jet black turkey from U.S.A
I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony
I'd like to buy the world a coke, it shows that religion is a joke
Supernatural isn't real
I'd like to teach the world to sing that priests were making stuff up
and didn't predict the existence of anything really crucial
like the fact of evolution by natural selection
it's the real thing
what the world needs today
its the real things
that science helps us to determine
its the real things


see 

Coca Cola Advert - I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1NeogMh1JI

Monday 8 September 2014

JOHN 18V38, PILATE ASKS JESUS, " WHAT IS TRUTH ?"

John 18v38 has Pilate ask, " What is Truth ? "  and then said, ( ReWrit) " I find no basis for a charge against him, I even asked him to turn some water into his best wine but he refused saying he doesn't like being put to the test "
 Was there no evidence that Jesus could claim to be a king of the Jews, no evidence of an organisation or finances or network structure, no headquarters, no writings by Jesus or about Jesus by others, no evidence of royal birth, no evidence of a significant following among Jewish people,no evidence of miracles having been done,  no evidence of knowing things about the world that weren't already known ?

Maybe Pilate would have said, " What is Truth ? Things aren't truth just because you assert that they are truth. You need evidence that things are true. Think of the fossilized sea shells that can be seen in the stones of many of Roman buildings and most of the quarries and marble of Italy, also high in the Apennines & the Alps e.g. Mount Cenis; clearly they show that life on Earth is ancient and not just 4000 years old like the Jewish scriptures claim. Also they show that the land which used to be under the sea has been pushed up by massive forces to form these high mountains. There have been great changes in Earth geology over countless eons. If you were divine then you would surely at least be able to know more than the common uneducated peasant. You would also know that this idea of Hades you talk about is probably adopted from the ancient Greeks or Zoroastrians. Do you think that Zeus lives on Mt Olympus ? Look these are no more than amusing fantasies. Please go away home and get a proper education and stop making a nuisance of yourself before you meet an untimely end.
   Why not take a study tour of the ossified skeletons Echinoderms.  Eocene fossilized fish from a limestone quarry at Ain El Sira, Cairo. Or petrified fish in the hills of the Barbary coast.
   Now I bid you adieu "

Friday 5 September 2014

PARODY ON, " THE LORD'S PRAYER "

Parody on " The Lord's prayer "
Our fibbing ancestors,who art buried somewhere between the Vatican and the Middle East over 1300 years ago.
ridiculed be thy name
Thy kingdom be consigned to ancient history,
Thy will be denied,
Instead we choose historical reality ( as far as can be determined ) , science & reason to enable us to live decent, civilized lives and attempt to make the best of our evolved predicament.
Give us this day our daily chocolate, coca cola, and any other thing native to the Americas which the above mentioned " Gods " knew nothing of as they could never see more than 6 feet above the Old World ground they stood on.
We regret we did not realize sooner that we had been conned by "scriptures" otherwise known as invented stories and rewritten ' history '.
May we be understanding towards those not yet enlightened as to its errors and help them to become free from the captivity of its " Truth "
Let us yield to the temptation to embrace our doubts and accept that most of the scripture stories have very little historical reality and as such are little more than folklore and fairytales, but at the same time being an interesting reminder of the pre-scientific, superstitious mindset that should have been left behind long ago.
May we be delivered from the evil of Relegion and its myriad delusional voices by reading the books by John Loftus
For Christs Sake
Ramen
Original was :
Our Father in heaven,hallowed be your name.Your kingdom come,your will be done,on earth, as it is in heaven.Give us this day our daily bread,and forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors.And lead us not into temptation,but deliver us from evil.

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Wholly, wholly mistaken, about the bacon, and circumcision as well.

Parody of the hymn, ” Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty ”
Tune, ” Nicaea ” by John Bacchus ( 1823-76 )
eg YT PipeOrganHymnsG0OJF channel
Wholly, wholly mistaken, about the bacon
it is reasonably healthy for you and it has always been
Taboos started by Ancient Egyptians, Cancelled by the Christians
Offered a choice twixt reptile or pork chops (Acts 10v12 )
Pig ignorant about circumcision ? Again started by Ancient Egyptians
recorded on 2400 BCE bas-relief inside the pyramids
Said to make them different, afraid it simply didn’t ( Genesis 17v11 )
Just another example of evolution and adoption of ideas
Was Jesus mainly fiction that for some is an addiction ?
Following cleverly invented stories contrary to what 2 Peter 1v16 says
He didn't know about Germ theory, scored an F minus in geography
Even when shown America & Australia by kindly devil ( Luke 4v5 )
Were the demons being sarcastic when the said Jesus was fantastic ? ( Lk 8v28)
"Oh yes you are the Son of God " but aren't demons supposed to lie
Weren't demons just imaginary, a primitive superstition ?
Legions of stories made up to explain the madness in the world ?
Don't base your life on fiction, rather go with science and reason
It could save you from blowing yourself up for no reason at all
Fantasy is quite funny if you don't let it make your vision blurry
Just laugh at the minister and throw him a banana
{Pig ignorant could have been the term for me for most of my life on this topic until I got the www. In any case I still am ignorant about a vast many things, who can keep up with it all ?}
[ See tabletmag website, Bas Relief Depicts Circumcision in Ancient Egypt
Relic from 2400 BCE believed to be the oldest illustration of the ritual ]