~UPDATE: My friend Doug fought through his drug haze (he just had surgery and is on painkillers) to tirelessly help me figure out what was wrong. Apparently it is a plugin! So now the links work, but you’ll notice that some little features are gone. I will be working on it.

Thanks so much Doug, you rock!

~

Somehow I have developed a problem with all of my links on Heaving Dead Cats. I just wanted to let you know I’m working feverishly to figure out the problem and fix it.

So far I’ve figured out that there’s some magical file called .htaccess. And there are pretty permalinks that won’t behave (only the default ugly one works… there’s a moral to that story, I bet). And I am pulling my hair out.

I might start praying to the Geek Gods or something. If you know about htaccess and permalinks, please email me. I will be so grateful!

Related posts

• Tweenbots Show How Wonderful Humans Can Be (4)
• The Holidays are Fast Approaching! (3)
• Thanksgiving and Family Fundie Nonsense (6)
• Social Obligations and Avatars (12)
• Skeptic? Atheist? Then Help Fix Wikipedia (3)

The parents don’t want their kids to feel like freaks and also want to help them counter the exasperated ‘you don’t believe in god!’ remarks. Sam, the father, admits that it can be lonely to not believe in god sometimes. I understand. I feel that way too, although not as much as before I belonged to Morgantown Atheists.

Diane, the mother, says they are open to ideas and suggestions. She says they have friends who aren’t religious but still believe in god. It’s not the same thing.

Seeing as how only about 10% of the population would go so far as to actually use the dreaded A-word, it can be isolating to be godless in a sea of believers. As I’ve mentioned, I still keep my atheism to myself when around Butch’s family. Some of them know we’re atheists but it’s never been brought up or mentioned. This means that a huge part of what I spend my time thinking about and being an activist over can’t be talked about when I spend time with others. It’s kind of lonely, in a way.

For Sam and Diane, I suggested they join a local atheist/humanist/freethinker group to get some community support. There’s nothing like simply hanging out with like-minded people to feel more connected. In my personal experience, the benefits of belonging to a local organization are numerous. I have felt much happier since joining. Just knowing there are others who think like me is a great relief, in a way.

I know, many atheists are loners and not into joining. I used to think I was like that too. Then I realized I am just picky. I don’t want to belong to a group that has wildly different values than me. But having a coffee and talking to someone who is also a godless heathen is, well, liberating and intellectually stimulating.

I have to say something now regarding children and atheism. One of my friends, I think it was Dan, recently commented ( I can’t remember if it was here on HDC or Facebook. And I think it was Dan… or Steve. I’m sorry, my friends, I am not positive. Please feel free to correct me) about a conversation he had with his 9 year old daughter. She asked her dad about god. Dan gave a good answer about what god is, and said something along the lines of that’s how a lot of people believe. His daughter asked him what he believed, if he believed in god. Dan explained he is an atheist and that no, he doesn’t. Then he asked her what she thought about god. She said the smartest, most amazing thing, which told me he’s a wonderful dad. She said, “I think I’m too young to decide.”

What that tells me is that Dan is raising his daughter, not to be an atheist, but to think for herself. I think the most important thing you can ever do for a child is to teach them critical thinking. Let them figure things out for themselves. Let them reason and make mistakes. Teach them how to think. Not what to believe.

I’m still thinking about what to tell Sam and Diane’s kids, in how to deal with other kids who are brainwashed with religion already. Do you have any suggestions, websites, or books that might help them?

Related posts

• De-Christianizing (22)
• Atheists Deserve A Community Too (19)
• Atheism is the Default (46)
• Not All Atheists Are Evolved Alike (17)
• I’m Godless And I Want My Freedom (2)

It’s free and easy to contribute either a small correction or whole pages. You just need to be able to cite references. If you can add a resource to the page, you can even link directly to good skeptical websites for people. You don’t need permission, and with simple edits, you don’t need any coding skills.

Best of all, it’s rewarding and fun to use your skeptical knowledge to enhance an essential public resource. Furthermore, we know from our internal traffic statistics that people really do follow up on the skeptical resources cited in Wikipedia articles.

Tim Farley gives an in-depth primer on Why Skeptics Should Pay Close Attention to Wikipedia.

You can read a rundown of some basics and rules, as well as get a bunch of useful links on how to get started here.

The Wikiproject Rational Skepticism is an association of skeptical Wikipedia editors. They vigilantly keep track of articles to make sure vandalism doesn’t happen. When it does, they make sure someone can go in and fix the problems quickly to get the right information back up on the site.

Another project is the Skepticwiki, which is a standalone site devoted exclusively to skepticism. It shares the wiki encyclopedia format.

Many skeptical topics are well covered on Wikipedia. But where a skeptical eye is really needed is in paranormal topics.

When people turn to Wikipedia for information on iridology or “reptoids” or chiropractic, that article may often be the only source they consult. Or, if they do consult further sources, these may often be the sources cited in the Wikipedia article. Either way, paranormal proponents have been quick to load Wikipedia with content and citations that are friendly to their own claims. Sometimes, these articles are virtual commercials for paranormal industries. In those cases, skeptics can perform a valuable public service by bringing paranormal articles up to the NPoV standard with descriptions of skeptical criticism and references to relevant skeptical sources.

On lesser-known subjects, paranormal proponents have the freedom to make sweeping, biased, and wildly unsupported claims. These low-quality articles stand unchallenged until a skeptic eventually happens to review them. Finding and fixing these is fun and satisfying for skeptical editors. Because those articles are so bad, they are easy to improve — and edits will tend to stand for a longer time.

If you have suggestions for topics to edit, or if you have edited articles, let us know!

Related posts

• What Level Of Woo Would Make Someone Undateable? (20)
• What Are You Doing November 19? (10)
• We Are Lions! (4)
• Podcasts and Internet Radio Stations You May Enjoy (0)
• Morals, Ethics and Pope Benedict Evil (13)

Unlike most atheists I know, I don’t really consider myself a humanist, but maybe that’s because I really don’t know the full definition. Let’s look it up.

Humanism affirms the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal human qualities, particularly rationality, without resorting to the supernatural or alleged divine authority from religious texts. Humanism can be considered as a process by which truth and morality is sought through human investigation; as such, views on morals can change when new knowledge and information is discovered. In focusing on the capacity for self-determination, humanism rejects transcendental justifications, such as a dependence on faith, the supernatural, or texts of allegedly divine origin. Humanists endorse universal morality based on the commonality of the human condition, suggesting that solutions to human social and cultural problems cannot be parochial.

While I agree in principle with that definition, I have become rather cynical and jaded. My experience of people is less noble and dignified. Most people seem self-serving, narcissistic and self-centered. I’ve found that many people refrain from immoral acts only out of fear of punishment or guilt. Also, I’ve found that people in general don’t seek truth or look outside themselves much at all. They simply go about their lives to get by as comfortably as possible, mitigated by guilt and fear.

Of course there are lots of exceptions of extraordinary people. But in general my view of the human race is more like children in adult bodies, basically just going through life like a ball in a pinball machine, bouncing off of things and careening around randomly. I think it takes supreme effort to break free of this thoughtless kind of life, where you run on belief systems formed in early childhood. It takes critical and creative thinking to break free of the mold we are indoctrinated into as children.

But, sometimes I am surprised and delighted by humanity. It doesn’t happen often, so when it does, I feel the desire to share my warm fuzzies with everyone. This is one of those moments. I was stumbling around the interwebs when I came upon Tweenbots. In this 3 and a half minute video, Tweenbot is traversing Washington Square Park. He does it in 42 minutes with 29 people helping him.

From the site:

In New York City, we are very occupied with getting from one place to another. I wondered: could a human-like object traverse sidewalks and streets along with us, and in so doing, create a narrative about our relationship to space and our willingness to interact with what we find in it? More importantly, how could our actions be seen within a larger context of human connection that emerges from the complexity of the city itself? To answer these questions, I built robots.
Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.
Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost little robot, I initially conceived the Tweenbots as disposable creatures which were more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination. Because I built them with minimal technology, I had no way of tracking the Tweenbot’s progress, and so I set out on the first test with a video camera hidden in my purse. I placed the Tweenbot down on the sidewalk, and walked far enough away that I would not be observed as the Tweenbot––a smiling 10-inch tall cardboard missionary––bumped along towards his inevitable fate.
… Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, “You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”
…this ad-hoc crowdsourcing was driven primarily by human empathy for an anthropomorphized object. The journey the Tweenbots take each time they are released in the city becomes a story of people’s willingness to engage with a creature that mirrors human characteristics of vulnerability, of being lost, and of having intention without the means of achieving its goal alone.

I feel like my little Grinch heart melted a bit, watching that video. Random strangers helping a smiling, vulnerable robot traverse a huge city just makes me feel good about people in a refreshing and unexpected way. I have always thought of New York City as the epitome of the cold and heartless city, full of self-absorbed people who couldn’t give a damn about anyone but themselves. So this is just so touching to me. I’m dumbfounded that no one stole the little Tweenbots, or damaged them.

Then again a good critical thinker accepts conflicting information appropriately and changes their view of the world as needed, right? I was so moved that I am emailing the creator to tell her how her experiment affected me. I think it’s nice to share stuff like that with people. I like telling people I appreciate what they do. So often people only say something when they want to complain, instead of say something nice.

So have a great day, friends, knowing there’s hope for us yet.

Related posts

• I’m Godless And I Want My Freedom (2)
• What Makes Us Uniquely Human? (2)
• Religulous: We’re On The Road To Nowhere (3)
• Morals, Ethics and Pope Benedict Evil (13)
• islam: Religion of Misogynists, Pedophiles and Barbarians (76)

Hey everyone! How are you today? Hopefully all is well and good with you! So I’ve been trying to think of something really clever to write about for the last day or so and I’ve had terrible writer’s block. A common occurence for me, I know. Then I realized part of the reason I can’t think of anything to write about is because I actually have something going on in my life! So what else is a blog for but to regale people with the minutae of your life?

My friend Jeff is sending me a real microscope next week! Not like a little toy kid’s one, a real one from a lab! It might need some TLC and I know it will need a light, but he says other than that it’s in good condition. I’m sooooo excited! I have no idea what the magnification of it is, either. He hasn’t even shipped it yet but I can’t stop thinking about it.

I’ve started a list of things I want to look at when I get it. I ordered glass slides which I’ll get on Monday. So this is where you come in. First, I had to tell you because I’m giddy over this. Second, because I need your help. What will I be able to see? I really really want to be able to see bacteria.

I am so weird. Since I started on the path of skepticism last year, I’ve rediscovered a huge love of science, namely bacteria, for some unknown reason. When I listen to all the science podcasts I download, I am always amazed at the bacteriological stories most of all. Like all about e. coli, stories, and about how helpful bacteria is to humans and the world, all that good stuff.

I talked to my sister and she said I probably won’t be able to see bacteria. Which totally bums me out. I don’t know what supplies I might need, either. Do I need fancy stuff? I was wondering if any of you wonderful people have any ideas for DIY microbiology… resources, websites, etc. I mean, if people could figure this stuff out as early as the 1600′s, and see bacteria then, why won’t I be able to see them now?

Either way, I think this will be fun and exciting. I sure hope so anyway. So, if you have any ideas, resources, or suggestions, please feel free to share them! Oh, where will I go to identify stuff I see? Do I need fancy supplies? Ohmygosh, this is exciting! So any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Related posts

• Help Identify This Microscope! (4)
• Fold It- Play A Game For Science! (0)
• De-Christianizing (22)
• What Are You Doing November 19? (10)
• We Are Lions! (4)

I’ve been an atheist for around 8 years, most of which I’ve spent in the religious closet, so to speak. Before that, I was an agnostic, searching constantly for answers but not positive that there wasn’t some kind of god out there that created everything.

In all that time, I kept my godlessness relatively private, telling very few people. Mainly I wanted to avoid confrontation. I didn’t really know how to debate or defend myself, so I felt it was a personal issue and kept it to myself.

In the last 8 years though, I’ve watched this poor country polarize itself in politics and religion to an alarming degree and wallow in gross ignorance. I’ve realized relatively recently that being in the closet wasn’t helping anything.

I couldn’t be myself when talking to people because being a skeptical atheist is a huge part of my life. I guess when I fully and finally sloughed off the dead weight of god, religion and superstitions, I also lost a large part of the foundation of my belief system. It really rocked me. I realized a lot of what I believed was nonsense and lies.

So I’ve had to rebuild what I believe in, my atheist worldview, so to speak.

The thing is, being in the religious closet has only served to isolate me from other people of like mind, as well as keep ideas limited to just what I read or experience personally. Then I discovered the atheist and skeptical world. I realized I wasn’t alone, and I finally came out of the damned closet.

This is a lot of what Heaving Dead Cats is all about. A coming together of people asking tough questions, searching for real answers, sharing and growing and learning, and hopefully having fun in the process. It’s also about coming out and being proud to be an atheist.

There’s nothing wrong with being an atheist. In my opinion, if you’re smart and if you think for yourself, it’s a natural progression. Of course religious people are quite threatened by godlessness, so it does mean that there will be conflict.

There definitely is a terrible stigma attached to atheists. I think it’s easier to be gay in most places than godless. But if we all hide away and let the religious automatons run this country into the next dark ages, it’s our own damned fault.

Not everyone has to go the full “Dawkins” path, but if theists realize there are many more atheists and freethinkers out there, if they have to defend their nonsensical lies and bullying tactics of manipulation in politics and society all the time, in every walk of life, maybe as a whole we can get things back on track.

We can’t expect the Four Horsemen to do all the work for us. We can’t expect a select few thinking people to defend our rights all alone. We have to take personal responsibility for ourselves. We have to stand up and be proud that we use our brains to think and reason.

It’s not an easy choice. I have to be honest, I am not aggressive when it comes to being an atheist. But I do walk the walk and talk the talk. I don’t get in peoples’ faces when they talk of their faith. But I don’t lie or try to hide my godlessness. I try to appropriately address issues with reason and common sense.

It doesn’t always work. But if we ALL do it, ALL the atheists, agnostics and freethinkers, it makes it easier for ALL of us, lessens the burden, helps us all share the workload.

Honestly, we can not afford to stay in the closet any longer. I am not suggesting that when everyone bows their heads in prayer at christmas dinner that you should stand up and say, “WAKE UP, YOU SHEEP! RELIGION IS BULLSHIT!” No, but be honest with yourself and be honest with other people appropriately.

Religious people need to see that we’re intelligent, thinking, ethical, rational people who still love life. They need to see that we are everywhere, that there are more of us than they realized. They need to hear even small snippets of reason when they spout out lies. It doesn’t have to be a huge amount of information. It can just be a tiny dose of reality and common sense in the face of their crazy nonsense.

You’re not alone. We don’t have to be alone anymore.

So there is this Survey for Atheists. It is open till December 31, so take it today. It says it takes about 20 minutes, but I think I finished in less time than that. Dr. Tom Arcaro from Elon University wants to know about “coming out” of the religious closet. Once this survey is done and analyzed, it will be published in a trade journal but also online and in a magazine for all of us to see. When it’s published, I’ll be sure to let you know.

We can all make a difference together. So please take the survey if you’re an atheist. Share it with other atheists, and if you are still in the closet please consider coming out soon. It doesn’t have to happen all at once, but we all need each other to make a difference.

Related posts

• We Are Lions! (4)
• I’m Godless And I Want My Freedom (2)
• Separation of church and State Benefits Everyone (26)
• Belief, Unbelief and The Scientific Method (24)
• What Are You Doing November 19? (10)

I’ve seen his videos in the past, but I didn’t realize he has been so prolific. (I know, I live under a rock). He did this latest video about a month ago and it’s awesome, as usual. I decided to do a transcript mainly for myself because I agreed with just about everything he said. So I thought I’d add it here. Thanks Pat, you really did nail what I think!

Godless and Free by Pat Condell

Somebody pointed out to me recently that by focusing on what I don’t want, namely religion, I’m attracting more of it into my life, which I agree would be a very unfortunate irony if not for the fact that I’m focusing on what I do want, and that’s freedom, and lots of it.

You see, I make these videos not because I despise religion as humanity’s way of poking itself in the eye with a sharp stick for no reason, although obviously I do, but because I want to live in a free world full of free people who can say whatever they want to say and who can be whoever they want to be one thousand percent fo the time, and where nobody is allowed to shut them up because their crackpot religious beliefs have been offended.

I don’t care at all about theology, unless it threatens that freedom, and then I care about it the way I care about rabies or typhoid. So you could say that I’m not so much anti-religion as pro-freedom. Indeed if religion was pro-freedom, I wouldn’t have such a problem with it. But then if religion was pro-freedom it wouldn’t exist.

Because religion feeds on a broken spirit, and that’s why it tries to break your spirit the moment you come into contact with it.

Submit. Obey. Do not question.

Those words should be chiseled above the entrance of every church and every mosque. Because that’s the only message religion has, when it comes right down to it – Praise the lord, or else.

The pope spelled it out for American catholics when he told them, “Obedience to the doctrine of the church is the foundation of your faith.” That’s what he said. There was no mention of enlightenment or spirituality or any of these things, because he’s not in this business. He’s in the obedience business, the only business where the customer is always wrong.

Clergy are the only salesmen who don’t have to justify or prove any of the outrageous claims they make for the product they’re hustling, and this leaves them free to engage in the kind of open fraud which in any other walk of life would be a criminal offence.

For the level of investment they demand from us I believe we’re entitled to expect actual enlightenment and wisdom in return. Instead, what do we get? We get dogma, crude coercion, and endless empty pieties about the love of a god who clearly loves us the way a violent husband loves the woman sitting next to him with two black eyes. If we step out of line we pay in the most brutal way.

And it’s this crass violence at the heart of religion which I believe makes it truly evil, and also furnishes proof, as if proof were needed, that this is an entirely manmade phenomenon with nothing divine about it, otherwise it wouldn’t be so damned ugly.

The god of the desert is transparently a false god. He’s a puppet who speaks with the voice of ignorant men who are afraid of knowledge and afraid of freedom and who therefore need desperately to control the thoughts of others for their own miserable survival.

They need us to believe that we’re less than we are, and to diminish ourselves in our own minds, to feel small and helpless, in need of salvation. So what do they tell us? They tell us that strength and virtue lie in submission. Yes, of course they do. With our faces in the dust we are invincible, isn’t that right?

And of course we live forever, either in eternal bliss or in eternal torment, but that’s entirely up to us. Eternal bliss requires that you wear a straitjacket of blind faith, not permanently, just from now until you die, whereas living a joyful, humane, compassionate, but godless life will get you horribly tortured for all eternity.
Fear is religion’s currency of choice. It’s the lowest of human emotions because it’s the most crippling emotion and this is why it’s religion’s currency of choice. It’s pretty obvious when you think about it, but hey, don’t strain yourselves.

But actually it’s religion that has everything to fear because it depends on maintaining the illusion, maintaining the spell, and hoping that nobody manages to burst its artificial bubble of faith, and this is exactly why it wages such determined war on our basic freedoms of thought and speech.

But it’s losing this war, because every day more and more of us are waking up to the damage that this nonsense is doing to our world. We can see our societies being twisted out of shape, being injected with false values that pander to bigotry and superstition, and we’ve realized that this god of the desert has outstayed his welcome and become a liability, and quite frankly he needs us a lot more than we need him.

Because we’ve moved on from the desert, and we’ve discovered a few things about the world, and the universe, and our place in it, and we’re no longer afraid of the thunder and the lightning. Our world is no longer populated by demons and hobgoblins, and we no longer need to be led around by the nose for the benefit of clergy.

And they know this, just as they know that their god’s very existence depends entirely on our belief – belief without evidence and belief that defies reason – and when that belief disappears, as one day it certainly will, this ridiculous god will disappear with it, instantly and forever.

He won’t be able to vent his wrath or visit retribution on anyone, because he won’t exist. He’ll evaporate quicker than common sense in a creation museum, and his vast army of controlling parasitical clergy will find themselves briefly, cartoon-like in mid air, before dropping like fleas into a bucket.

That’s what I’m looking forward to, and that’s what I’m focused on, and it’s why I make these videos, because I think we’re better than this. And I know we’ve got the power to withdraw our belief, and our consent, and put a stop to this nonsense.

All we need is the courage.

Peace and freedom. Let’s not forget the freedom.

This is just brilliant. I wish I had the sunny optimism Pat expresses in this video. I can’t say that I do, but it sure would be nice if people could find the courage and the wherewithall to break free of the shackles of blind faith and dogma.

I want to point out one thing. The argument Pat talks about in the beginning is flawed. He said that someone told him that by focusing on what he doesn’t want in his life, he’s attracting more of it. This is called the Law of Attraction and it’s completely bogus. I’ll write more about it later. Remind me if I forget.

Related posts

• Religulous: We’re On The Road To Nowhere (3)
• Belief, Unbelief and The Scientific Method (24)
• Coming Out of the Religious Closet and a Great Survey For Atheists (3)
• What Would It Take To Make Me Believe In God? (10)
• What Is Atheism To You? Conversations With Craig the Christian 1 (36)