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An Ogre, A Cake And A Pistol – How To Explain Morality To A Christian

Skeptic Money

Well done.

Why women should be skeptical of religion:

See: "College Age Millenials Far Less Religious Than Older Americans" Skeptic Money

Really nice 4 minute roast of William Lame Craig, and the Christians lying about the fellow who roasted him:

here

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Something I came across today, a very old ruling by the Supreme Court, on religious belief/opinion vs actions.

It's found in the case of Reynolds vs. United States.

"The most important ruling of the case was over whether Reynolds could use a defense due to religious belief or duty. Reynolds had argued that as a Mormon, it was his religious duty as a male member of the church to practice polygamy if possible.

The Supreme Court recognized that under the First Amendment, the Congress cannot pass a law that prohibits the free exercise of religion. However it argued that the law prohibiting bigamy did not fall under this. The fact that a person could only be married to one person had existed since the times of King James I of England in English law, upon which United States law was based.

Although the constitution did not define religion, the Court investigated the history of religious freedom in the United States. In the ruling, the court quoted a letter from Thomas Jefferson in which he stated that there was a distinction between religious belief and action that flowed from religious belief. The former "lies solely between man and his God," therefore "the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions." The court argued that if polygamy was allowed, someone might eventually argue that human sacrifice was a necessary part of their religion, and "to permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself." The Court believed the true spirit of the First Amendment was that Congress could not legislate against opinion, but could legislate against action."

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Forget about Noah's Ark; There Was No Worldwide Flood

In order to even entertain the possibility of a worldwide flood, one has to bypass all laws of physics,
exit the realm of science, and enter into the realm of the miraculous, which many believers are willing to do.

Excerpt:

"THERE NEVER WAS A "GENESIS FLOOD." The floodgates of heaven hold back no great water supply such that God has to "promise" not to "open them again." If all of the water in the atmosphere rained down at once, it would only raise the world's water levels an 1 inch. What about the "fountains of the deep?' Only 1.7% of the earth’s water is stored underground, not nearly enough groundwater to flood the entire earth to the extent described in the Bible. Simply put: there is not enough water in Earth’s atmosphere to raise the ocean’s levels over an inch, much less to cover Mt. Ararat with water from 40 days of rain. There is simply not that much water in the system. (But the ancients thought in terms of a flat cosmos surrounded by primeval water of seemingly limitless supply, which is why God had to promise not to reopen the floodgates of heaven and fountains of the deep.)"

LINK

Darrel wrote:In order to even entertain the possibility of a worldwide flood, one has to bypass all laws of physics,
exit the realm of science, and enter into the realm of the miraculous, which many believers are willing to do.

Missed some fun things:

avg radius of earth: 6371 km
height of tallest mountain: 8.8 km

So to cover the tallest mountain requires (we'll go easy on the creationists) 8 additional kilometers of water, or

(4pi/3)((6379km)^3)-(4pi/3)((6371km)^3) =

over 4.0×10^9 cubic kilometers of water

One liter is one cubic decimeter, so this is

(4.0×10^9 km^3)(1000^3 m^3 / km^3)(1000 dm^3 / m^3) =

over 4.0×10^21 liters of water, which is over 4.0×10^21 kilograms of water.

(For you people stuck on the stupid imperial system, that's over 1×10^21 gallons and 8.8×10^21 lbs... not that you can conceive these values accurately anyway.)

Now for the fun:

If the "firmament" was a vapor canopy that condensed and fell to earth to cause the flood (which many creationists believe), what effect would this have?

One mole (18.016 grams) of water vapor releases 44 kJ when it condenses. If 4.0×10^24 grams of water vapor condensed, this would release about 9.8×10^24 kJ of energy.

How high was this vapor canopy? Let's presume that the vapor canopy was 9 km above the earth, just high enough to be higher than Everest. What would happen if 4.0×10^21 kg of water fell from that height? Unless my math is wrong, I'm being generous to the creationist by using an average falling distance of 4 km:
(4.0×10^21 kg)(4000 m)(9.8 m/s/s) = 1.5×10^23 kJ of gravitational potential energy released.

So we're talking 10^25 kJ of energy being released from a falling, condensing vapor canopy.

How would this affect the temperature of the atmosphere if it would not simply just re-vaporize any water? At about room temperature, air has a (constant-volume) heat capacity of about 0.718 kJ/kg/K. Using 5×10^18 kg for the mass of the atmosphere,

(10^25 kJ/5×10^18 kg)(1 kg·K/0.718 kJ) = 2.8×10^6 K

That is, Noah and family would be surrounded by water on the verge of boiling (100ºC) and air at 2.8 million degrees Celsius.

It's funny how creationists think that the laws of thermodynamics are on their side.

Big Win for FFRF:

Gubernatorial Colorado Day of Prayer proclamations unconstitutional
May 10, 2012

Excerpts:

"A unanimous three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled today in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation’s challenge, originally filed in 2008, against gubernatorial proclamations of a Colorado Day of Prayer.

Judge Steve Bernard, with concurrences by Judges Alan Loeb and Nancy Lichtenstein, overturned a lower court decision, ruling in favor of FFRF’s challenge of Colorado Day of Prayer proclamations: “A reasonable observer would conclude that these proclamations send the message that those who pray are favored members of Colorado’s political community, and that those who do not pray do not enjoy that favored status.”

Bernard wrote that “the six Colorado Day of Prayer proclamations [2004-09] at issue here are governmental conduct that violate the Preference Clause [of the Religious Freedom section of Colorado’s Constitution].” The content is “predominantly religious; they lack a secular context; and their effect is government endorsement of religion as preferred over nonreligion.”

The proclamations “have the primary or principal effect of endorsing religious beliefs because they convey or attempt to convey a message that religion or a particular religious belief is favored or preferred.”

The proclamations “reflect an official belief in a God who answers prayer. At the same time, for those who do not believe in such a God, the proclamations tend to indicate that their nonbelief is not shared by the government that rules the State. In so doing, they undermine the premise that the government serves believers and nonbelievers equally.”

The judges prefaced their decision by pointing out that “our decision does not affect anyone’s constitutionally protected right to pray, in public or in private, alone or in groups,” but that religious liberty is “abridged when the State affirmatively sponsors the particular religious practice of prayer.”
FFRF

Local version of this being discussed on NWAonline: Group targets cities’ mayors, prayer events

Kent Hovind's son. The nut does not fall far from the tree:

We are very concerned by the fact that most Christians can not defend their faith in God.

I was speaking at a church recently when I asked the audience, “If you were born in India would you be a Hindu right now?” Most nodded their head and said yes, they thought they would be. Then one gentleman responded, “But we would only be Hindu out of ignorance.” To which I asked, “How do you know you’re not a Christian out of ignorance?” They didn’t have an answer.

When I ask church members around the country, “Why are you a Christian?” approximately 95% are unable to do what God commands us to do and, “give an answer for the REASON of the hope that is in us.” That is exactly the reason we are holding the Proof of God Conference in Orlando, Florida this October!

I would like to personally invite you to join myself and several other dynamic and engaging speakers as we teach people how to defend the God of the Bible.
The message is needed, the speakers are booked, the date is set, now we need you to respond. Go to proofconference.com and register today!

For God’s Glory,
Eric Hovind
President, Creation Today

Via... Skeptic Money

Darrel wrote:

But we're the arrogant ones...

Another word from our American Taliban....

Kansas pastor calls on U.S. government to kill LGBT people



"Knapp went on to read from Leviticus 20: “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death.”

“They should be put to death,” Knapp declared. “‘Oh, so you’re saying we should go out and start killing them, no?’ — I’m saying the government should. They won’t, but they should.”

Raw Story