I don’t normally argue the ‘finer’ points of the bible because I’m an atheist; god doesn’t exist, therefore the bible is simply a poorly written book from the Iron Ages. Its only value to me is perhaps a bit of history, but it isn’t even very good with that, because it’s been translated and copied so many times.

That being said, I do have a couple of bibles. Mainly I use the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible when I need one now, though. The thing about being a skeptic/atheist, you have to know more than the “true believer”.

Here are 50 inconsistencies in the old testament that you can keep in your back pocket for arguments.

1. Man was created equal, male and female. Gen.1:27.
   Woman was created as a companion to the man only after he rejected the animals. Gen.2:18-24.
2. Man was created after the plants. Gen.1:12, 26.
   Man was created before the plants. Gen.2:5-9.
3. The birds were created out of the water. Gen.1:20.
   The birds were created out of the land. Gen.2:19.
4. The animals were created before man. Gen.1:24-26.
   The animals were created after man. Gen.2:19.
5. On the first day, God created and separated light and darkness. Gen.1:3-5.
   On the fourth day, God again created and separated light and darkness. Gen.1:14-18.
6. God encouraged reproduction. Gen.1:28.
   He said it was an unclean process. Lev.12:1-8 (Note that bearing a daughter is more unclean than bearing a son).
7. God was pleased with his creation. Gen.1:31.
   God was not pleased with his creation. Gen.6:6. Read more…
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Knowledge is power, my friends! A new study shows that when you lack control, you are more prone to see patterns in random images, or to see conspiracies and be superstitious.

Not long after I became an atheist, some personal stuff happened that made me really realize how little control I had in my life. Namely, I got in a car accident (some kid in his daddy’s car hit me while I was sitting at a light). Anyway, I didn’t have a god, religion or any other kind of magical fairy tales to pin the streak of bad luck I had. None of it was my fault, but bad stuff happened to me for a while.

I became rather superstitious. Unfortunately it’s taken me quite a few years to untangle myself from that crazy woo thinking. I still sometimes knock on wood when I say something bad. But now I remind myself that that is crazy woo thinking and I try to refrain from all superstitious behavior.

Here is a brief of the study:

Lacking Control Increases Illusory Pattern Perception Read more…

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College is expensive. But if you look around, you might find that education can be free. We live in a world full of information, but sometimes you just have to know how to search for it.

A friend of mine wrote about MIT and their free classes online. It sounds great. The only catch is, you don’t get credits for the classes you take, so it can’t get you towards a degree, but it’s Free Information. It’s pretty hard to beat.

While looking into MIT, I found a lot of other great colleges and universities are now doing the same thing. Here’s a brief list. I’m sure there’s much more out there if you look: Read more…