evolution » Heaving Dead Cats

Unexpected Friendship With A Palin Lover

Sometimes you can learn something when you least expect it.

My sister-in-law (we’ll call her Martha) has been dating this guy who we’ll call Steve. I met him the night that she and Steve were reacquainted at the high school reunion last year. It was one of those big affairs where 10 years of classes were invited. Anyway she and Steve have basically been dating ever since. She hasn’t had the best luck with guys in the past but she’s head over heels in love with him and is very happy, which is good.

The night I met Steve, I mentioned to him that I was reading a great book called Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life. It’s a fantastic book that I highly recommend. Butch was there and chimed in that it’s all about evolution, which it is, in a very cool, observable way. Steve rolled his eyes and scoffed. Scoffed! I didn’t want to get into it since we were heading home but I immediately found myself feeling cold toward him.

So, when Martha brought Steve to a family BBQ the next day I was polite but really didn’t have anything to say to him. He seemed nice enough though.

Time went on and I learned from him that he likes Sarah Palin. He thinks she’s got some good ideas. (I think I just threw up a little in my mouth there) Martha told me he’s a full on conservative republican but that they don’t talk about politics. As I do with most people, I was also refraining from political – or religious – talk with him as well.

To this day we’ve stayed clear of those two topics. But we’ve gone out to dinner quite a few times, hung out at family gatherings, and he even invited us over to watch some MMA on a channel we don’t get next month (Woot!) He’s a genuinely nice guy. He’s not stupid by any means, can hold a conversation, has a good sense of humor, and seems to be making Martha extremely happy.

Why am I talking about this? Well, to me, Sarah Palin is a stupid, vapid pentecostal nutcase with only enough brain cells to rub together to help her wink and flap her mouth when someone pulls her puppet strings. The fact that people give her 2 seconds of their time, combined with her views on Armageddon and the end times, makes her extremely dangerous. Usually when confronted with someone who likes Palin, I run the other way. Read the rest of this entry »

Hitchens Is Right, The Creationism Debate Is Over!

Here is a clip of Christopher Hitchens in a debate with John Haldane. (~5 min)

I agree, the debate is over. Creationism has no validity. We are evolved creatures, and part of our evolution is a basic sense of morality. Not a moral absolute, of course, but even apes and dogs have been shown to have morals. We don’t need god to be good. In fact, I’d say god makes it harder to be good for the right reason, especially since the god of Abraham is so amoral.

More Groovy Science 2

Here is more research to interest you:

Scientists Capture Very Moment Blood Flow Begins
New Evidence That Drinking Coffee May Reduce the Risk of Diabetes
Trekking-Poles Help Hikers Maintain Muscle Function While Reducing Soreness
Caffeine Reduces Pain During Exercise
First Large-Scale Formal Quantitative Test Confirms Darwin’s Theory of Universal Common Ancestry
How Smarter School Lunchrooms Increase Fruit Sales
Tibetans Developed Genes to Help Them Adapt to Life at High Elevations
Tissue Engineering Technique Yields Potential Biological Substitute for Dental Implants

Scientists Capture Very Moment Blood Flow Begins: By capturing movies of both the blood and vasculature of zebrafish embryos, each less than two millimeters long, researchers have been able for the first time to see the very moment that blood begins to flow. The observations show that the earliest blood flow, involving what appear to be hundreds of cells, begins all at once. Remarkably, that onset of life-giving circulation takes more than a beating heart. In fact, red blood cells remain stuck to the blood vessel wall initially, even after the heart starts to beat.

New Evidence That Drinking Coffee May Reduce the Risk of Diabetes: Scientists are reporting new evidence that drinking coffee may help prevent diabetes and that caffeine may be the ingredient largely responsible for this effect, in this animal study. The scientists fed either water or coffee to a group of laboratory mice commonly used to study diabetes. Coffee consumption prevented the development of high-blood sugar and also improved insulin sensitivity in the mice, thereby reducing the risk of diabetes. Coffee also caused a cascade of other beneficial changes in the fatty liver and inflammatory adipocytokines related to a reduced diabetes risk. Additional lab studies showed that caffeine may be “one of the most effective anti-diabetic compounds in coffee,” the scientists say. Read the rest of this entry »

Brainwashing Little Kids With Christian Propaganda

Some things are incredibly hard to watch. Watching adults lie to children, manipulate them, turn them away from reality and science all because it’s “easier” to control them, keep them in line, keep them in the church, is sickening beyond the pale.

I found this on Stupid Evil Bastard, who reviewed it quite well. But I had to share it with you because these horrid people, Ken Ham and his ilk, are killing the critical thinking of children with lies and bullshit. Get them while they’re young and you maybe just get them for life.

And the mother who says it’s just easier? I have nothing nice to say so I’ll keep my thoughts to myself about that. But I’ll just say she gets what she deserves with that kind of lazy, willfully ignorant parenting.

Nothing to me is more despicable that cultivated ignorance. Except maybe spoon feeding it to poor kids who can’t reason through the lies yet.

We Need the Science Cops

The Tree Lobsters have said exactly what I was trying to say over a year ago, only much more concisely and with a lol. Don’t you hate it when tree lobsters upstage you? I do!

Evolution is a sham! The earth is only 6000 years old, therefore there hasn’t been
enough time for all the species to have developed from a single origin. All you have to do is look at the…

Hold it right there!

Science Police. We received complaints that you’ve been willfully ignoring centuries of scientific progress.
Therefore, in accordance with bylaw 27B/6, you’ve forfeited your right to benefit from the technology derived from said science. Read the rest of this entry »

A New Pew Religion Survey

There is a new Pew Survey about religion of people coming of age around the year 2000 (called the Millenials) out. It’s quite interesting. I’ve included some of the charts and tables for you.

What is interesting is how the Millenials are less affiliated, but they still believe in the afterlife, miracles, angels and demons to a high degree. I think that’s where atheism is lacking for a lot of people; that comfort that there’s more to life than just the natural, that life doesn’t just end when we take our last breath. Personally I find that it makes life much more precious.

Let’s see some charts and tables!

Note that in the Unaffiliated group are the Religious Unaffiliated, people who describe their faith as “nothing in particular” but say that religion is somewhat or very important in their lives. Whatever that means.

If you take out the religious unaffiliated, you still get a much higher group of unaffiliated than the general population. Note how few people are still willing to label themselves as atheists.

Another chart showing age composition of religions. Read the rest of this entry »

Being Good Without God Is Natural

I walked away from religion when I was 12. While it took me almost another 2 decades to become and accept that I am an atheist, I have basically lived without god for a long time. In fact, I’ve been an atheist for about 9 years and in that time, I have managed to refrain from killing anyone, stealing anything, cheating on my husband, and many other bad behaviors.

I do still drink copious amounts of coffee and swear a lot, but hey, nobody’s perfect.

I’ve met christians who have said they would kill, rape, steal and basically go on a rampage without god watching their every move. I’m very glad those amoral people are afraid of burning in hell because they have no moral compass like most of us do. Those few people who think they need god to be good need to stay religious. They have a screw loose.

Apparently research is finding that being moral is part of our evolution. Recently I’ve been hearing of studies that show morality in other animals. And awhile ago I read about E. Coli and how it sometimes sacrifices itself for the good of the colony. Basically, working within the framework of your given society is beneficial in fundamental ways, and that’s been with us and many other creatures for eons.

Still, religions think they have some kind of monopoly on morality. But if you actually read their “holy” books, you’ll find rampant murder, religious wars, rape, killing of women and children, wholesale slaughter of people who believed differently, and on and on. Recently I read the first part of God Hates You, Hate Him Back by CJ Werleman which goes through every book of the bible. I was reminded how much god hates everyone, even his chosen people, and how much he kills people and has his people kill people, children and animals. It’s heart-warming mind-numbing. That’s the main gist of the old testament. (the other main theme is how the chosen people aren’t worshiping god correctly, how they are worshiping other gods – wait, isn’t there just one? even god admits there are others! – and generally being bad followers and need to be punished. It’s very loving crazy-making to read it.) Read the rest of this entry »

Unexpected Friendship With A Palin Lover

Hitchens Is Right, The Creationism Debate Is Over!

More Groovy Science 2

Brainwashing Little Kids With Christian Propaganda

We Need the Science Cops

A New Pew Religion Survey

Being Good Without God Is Natural

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

Our Cats

Pages

Dead Cats Archive

Neece & Butch’s Zazzle Designs – Sir Lee Tees

Vinyl Decals

Meta

Subscribe to and Contact HDC

Subscribe to HDC by email

Tag Happy

Blogroll

Friends of HDC

Neece & Jenny’s Zazzle Designs

Happy Atheist Love