You've never learned do you @ Bro. Eddie Villanueva.
First you told people that you've asked and prayed to God for your candidacy for President in the 2004 election. You lost that bid.
Now...again...you say that you have prayed to God so you can deliver the Filipino people from corruption. And...again you lost.
Why? Is God not listening to your prayers or is there really no God up there who is listening to you?
Nagtatanong lang po.
Oh and by the way, what happened to Cindy Jacob's eh...prophecy?
Friday, May 14, 2010
Oriental Doubt: Atheism in Ancient China.
It is not only in ancient Greece that the seed of atheism started to materialized. In China there were some known personalities that began to disbelief the existence of the supernatural.
Zhu Xi (1130-1200 BCE) the most distinguished rationalist Neo-Confucian thinker downplayed the role of the supernatural in human affair.
Wang Chong (27-97 CE) ridiculed the idea that humans have a special place in the cosmos, did not believe in life after death and that the mind can exist independently to the body. He also wrote Lun-heng, a book of criticism against superstitious beliefs.
Xun Zi (1130-1200) recommended the study of nature rather than its worship.
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Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Why do people laugh at creationists?
These videos were made for the communal and greater good. All these videos are copyright free for educational purposes, feel free to mirror these videos with or without accreditation.
Part of a series of videos exposing the funny stupidity of creationists and why they deserve to be laughed at. In each case the creationist statements are shown to be outrageously stupid by even the most rudimentary knowledge of science. Creationist are tackled at every level from the scientific illiterates like venomfangx who want to play in the scientific arena but don't even understand the words they use, to convicted fraudsters like Kent Hovind who abuse the scientifical illiteracy of people like venomfangx to dupe them out of money. An enterprise which is clearly very successful as merely the tax Hovind didn't pay was about a million dollars. Hovind himself has no discernible academic education, and gets by solely on using his confident delivery of scientific terms to convince his audiences that he knows what hes talking about.
Part of a series of videos exposing the funny stupidity of creationists and why they deserve to be laughed at. In each case the creationist statements are shown to be outrageously stupid by even the most rudimentary knowledge of science. Creationist are tackled at every level from the scientific illiterates like venomfangx who want to play in the scientific arena but don't even understand the words they use, to convicted fraudsters like Kent Hovind who abuse the scientifical illiteracy of people like venomfangx to dupe them out of money. An enterprise which is clearly very successful as merely the tax Hovind didn't pay was about a million dollars. Hovind himself has no discernible academic education, and gets by solely on using his confident delivery of scientific terms to convince his audiences that he knows what hes talking about.
Then of course there are the professional such as the Discovery Institute, the hub and founders of the Intelligent design movement. After the humiliating rout of ID in court where it was found that 'ID is not science', and that 'ID is only a relabelling of creationism' the Discovery Institute do not utter the word once in their latest promotional video. Instead they now have decided to 'teach the controversy' which is an irony as they are the only people who disagree with evolution. What they are really asking is not to teach the controversy, but to teach their views, which are supported by neither research or evidence, in schools.
Videos created by Thunderf00t
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Friday, May 07, 2010
In the Issue of Atheism, Materialism and Evolution. (Part 2)
ALL OF THESE WERE NEVER DOCUMENTED THROUGH FOSSIL EVIDENCES
Not really...evolution can be documented through:
1. In the context of natural selection.
2. Ring species.
3. Understanding of genetics.
4. Anatomical and Molecular parahomology
5. Anatomical and Molecular convergence
6. Anatomical and Molecular suboptimal fuction
7.Through molecular evidences like protein functional redundancy, DNA functional redundancy, transposons, redundant pseudogenes and endogenous retroviruses
It has NEVER been observed in any laboratory that mutations can cause one species to turn into another.
Not really...Just go to the nearest petshop to see how mutation can create new variations. Selective breeding has produced novel features in many species, including cats, dogs, tetras, guppies and goldfish.
Also, Proteins in the histidine biosynthesis pathway consist of beta/alpha barrels with a twofold repeat pattern. These apparently evolved from the duplication and fusion of genes from a half-barrel ancestor (Lang et al. 2000).
1. In the context of natural selection.
2. Ring species.
3. Understanding of genetics.
4. Anatomical and Molecular parahomology
5. Anatomical and Molecular convergence
6. Anatomical and Molecular suboptimal fuction
7.Through molecular evidences like protein functional redundancy, DNA functional redundancy, transposons, redundant pseudogenes and endogenous retroviruses
It has NEVER been observed in any laboratory that mutations can cause one species to turn into another.
Not really...Just go to the nearest petshop to see how mutation can create new variations. Selective breeding has produced novel features in many species, including cats, dogs, tetras, guppies and goldfish.
Also, Proteins in the histidine biosynthesis pathway consist of beta/alpha barrels with a twofold repeat pattern. These apparently evolved from the duplication and fusion of genes from a half-barrel ancestor (Lang et al. 2000).
Now...I omitted the said article, but if you want to read the original article where the Christian author copy-pasted his "arguments", it can be found here and here.
I didn't bother too much on those articles. Not that I can't answer them...but come on...there are a lot of books in evolutionary biology that can answer the issue about the evolution of mammalian hair and the evolution of mammalian mammary glands. (BTW, speaking of hair evolution, researchers identified the gene that codes for a protein called hair keratin in mammals, and then looked for those same genes in the feathered and scaly animals. They found several previously unidentified hair keratin genes in the animals, and realized that the genes coded for proteins used in claw and skin formation...it's not in the scale as Christian/Creationists believed. it's in the claw! On the presence of mammary glands, it's a modified apocrine glands. The features of current mammals were gradually accrued through radiations of synapsid ancestors, and the mammary gland is hypothesized to have evolved from apocrine-like glands associated with hair follicles.)
In the issue of of the Cambrian era...why the big fuzz about it?
Well...it was said that in the Cabrian era, there are more phyla existed compare to previous eras. Christian creationists believed that this is the proof that animals suddenly sprang into existance.
And the issue? There are few fossil records before the Cambrian.
Why?
Simple...soft-bodied animals like worms, cnidarians and sponges don't have fossil records. During the Cambrian, there was the first appearance of hard parts, such as shells and teeth, in animals. The lack of readily fossilizable parts before then ensures that the fossil record would be very incomplete in the Precambrian.
The article also have some (usual) quote-mining. I guess he just copy-pasted the article without even reading it. Oh well...Here's a good example of misquote...and it suppose to come from no other than Prof. Richard Dawkins.
... prominent British evolutionist, Richard Dawkins, comments, “… [W]e find many of them already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear. It is as though they were just planted there, without any evolutionary history.”
Now here's the complete quote from Prof. Dawkin's book The Blind Watchmaker :
...already in an advanced state of evolution, the very first time they appear. It is thought they were just planted there without any evolutionary history. Needless to say, this appearance of sudden planting has delighted creationists.Evolutionists of all stripes believe, however, that this really does represent a very large gap in the fossil record.
Now here's another...
In Stephen J. Gould’s popular book, Wonderful Life, he points out that the Burgess Shale Cambrian fossils include “a range of disparity in anatomical design never again equaled, and not matched today by all the creatures in the world’s oceans.” ...
Now here's the complete quote that can be seen in page 208 of his book Wonderful Life :
The Burgess Shale includes a range of disparity in anatomical design never again equaled, and not matched today by all the creatures in the world's oceans. The history of multicellular life has been dominated by decimation of a large initial stock, quickly generated by the Cambrian explosion. The story of the last 500 million years has featured restriction following by proliferation within a few stereotyped designs, not general expansion of range and increase in complexity as our favored iconography, the cone of increasing diversity, implies. Moreover, the new iconography of rapid establishment and later decimation dominates all scales, and seems to have the generality of a fractal pattern.
I don't seen anything here that suggest Gould believe in a 6 day creation. The quote was just "abused" to lend spurious credence to a raft of Creationist nonsense about "who created all the diversity then".
How about this so-called quote from Dr. Austin Clark, a leading biologist of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.
"No matter how far back we go in the fossil record of previous animal life on earth, we find no trace of any animal forms which are intermediate between the major groups of phyla. Since we have not the slightest evidence, either among the living or the fossil animals, of any intergrading types following the major groups, it is a fair supposition that there never have been any such intergrading types. There are no such things as missing links. ... Missing links are misinterpretations."
The word "There are no such things as missing links" and "Missing links" doesn't came from Dr. Clake and surely, the said quote seems to be canibalized. The first part of the so-called quote can be seen here on page 189 of his book "The New Evolution" (A.H. Clark, The New Evolution; Zoogenesis Williams and Wilkins, >Baltimore, 1930), and the second and third sentences from page 196.
After that...the article presented so-called "hoaxes" to discredit evolution....read it here.
To challenge evolution, throw in some well known hoaxes. Alas! Evolution is false!
So there are hoaxes...big deal. Just because some con men tried making money in the name of evolution doesn't mean evolution is false. We now have have a rich supply of intermediate fossils linking modern humans to the common ancestors we share with other apes.
Now if showing hoaxes prove something as false, then what about The Shroud of Turin and the James ostuary - does these prove Jesus as a hoax? Nah...I won't level on this kind of mentality.
But for the sake of our readers let us answer the said accusations:
Yes, the Piltdown Man was a hoax (It was said to be perpetrated by an amateur paleontologist named Charles Dawson), but not everything in that list were a joke.
According to the said anti-evolution Christian site, the Neanderthals were regular humans with bone disease (rickets). It was a certain Rudolf Virchow who claimed that Homo sapiens neanderthalensis are modern men who suffer rickets somewhere in the early 1800's. Yet rickets does not produce a Neanderthal morphology; it is clear from many sources (Reader 1981; Tattersall 1995) that the original Neanderthal skeleton was unlike any previously known, even in a century in which rickets was a common disease. Ironically, the Creationist author Jack Cuozzo on his book "Buried Alive" (1998, pp.275-279) said that the symptoms of these diseases bear very little resemblance to the features of Neanderthals.
The Java Man was discovered by Eugene Dubois in 1891 and was classified as Pithecanthropus erectus. Mistakenly considered as a species of a giant gibbon, the Java Man, together with the Peking Man are now classified in the genus Homo as Homo erectus.
It was said that the H.erectus was the first human to come out of Africa. That is why their remains were found from Koobi Fora, to Java and in Majuangau, west of Beijing. Homo Erectus were also the one that discover the idea of cooking food as discovered in Zhoukouien (Dragon Bone Hill), a cave situated about twenty-five miles south-west of Beijing in China.
Another deliberate misinformation in the Christian/Creationist anti-evolution article is about Lucy. They say that Lucy is a mosaic, with bones assembled from different locations and that actually more like a monkey than man.
Er….whatever.
Now “Lucy” is a 40% complete skeleton of an early hominid ever found. She was discovered in 1974 by Donald Johanson in Ethiopia. Lucy is now classified as Australopithecus aferensis. There are now numerous fossils of A. aferensis that were discovered like the “First Family" found at the A.L. 333 locality. Other localities bearing A. afarensis remains include Omo, Maka, Fejej and Belohdelie in Ethiopia, and Koobi Fora and Lothagam in Kenya.
Lucy is our proof that by 3.4 to 2.9 millipn years ago, early humans were bipedal.
The Kenyan Skull came from a chimp…said Ken Ham, Executive Director of Answers in Genesis…Man, I’m not born yesterday. “Answers in Genesis” is a Christian/Creationist website!
The Kenyan Skull (KNM-ER 42700) is believed to be a homonid older than “Lucy”. The skull, discovered by Frederick Manthi of the National Museums of Kenya, was assigned to the species Homo erectus despite being a similar size to that of a habilis skull.
The Laetoli footprints are modern human footprints…said who?
Discovered in 1978 by a team headed by Mary Leakey at Hadar in the Awash Valley of Ethiopia’s Afar Depression, the Laetoli footprints led to the stunning revelation that humans walked upright well before they made stone tools or evolved large brains.
New evidence suggested that The footprints were left in a fresh layer of volcanic ash, which is very easily dateable. They were left by a member of Australopithecus Afarensis, a hominid with gracile morphology (in essence, thinner boned) who, despite not being as avid of brachiators and chimpanzees, spent much of their time in the trees. It is believed that our early ancestors did not abandon their arboreal habitat until around 2 million years ago.
According to the recent studies conducted by David Raichlen, an assistant professor in the University of Arizona School of Anthropology and other researchers from the University at Albany and City University of New York’s Lehman College, the Laetoli footprints would resemble those of someone walking with a bent knee, bent hip gait typical of chimpanzees, and not the striding gait normally used by modern human. He also added, “but to our surprise, the Laetoli footprints fall completely within the range of normal human footprints.”
Now does this prove that modern humans produced these footprints? According to Adam Gordon, “The fossil record indicates that our ancestors did not make a full-time commitment to leaving the trees and walking on the ground until well over a million years after these (Laetoli) prints were made. The fact that partially tree-dwelling animals, like Lucy, had such a remarkably modern gait is a testament to the importance of energetic efficiency in moving around on two legs,"
Now let us proceed with the Archaeopteryx. The article said, "Originally thought of as a transitional fossil between the reptiles and birds, it is now considered by most evolutionists to be a true bird..."
What?
The Archaeopteryx lithographica is not a missing link between reptiles and birds. Cladistically speaking, birds and reptile are classified seperately. Birds are more connected with dinosaurs than with lizards.
By the way, two species of dinosaur have recently been found in northeast China which possess feathers (Qiang et al. 1998). Protoarchaeopteryx robusta and Caudipteryx zoui show regiges, rectrices and plumulaceous feather inpressions.
SO MUCH LIKE STRICT MATERIALISM, THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION IS ANOTHER NONSCIENTIFIC, HIGHLY ILLOGICAL AND VERY FAULTY CONCEPT. These very concepts are the very core concepts and principles of atheism and we are not even talking yet of the concept of moral accountability and humanity which are very blurred logical concepts for atheists. ARE YOU NOW AWARE OF YOUR BIG IGNORANCE AND IDIOCY?
Simply put it in, the author of the said article did a very lousy job refuting atheism.
First, ad hominem attacks don’t refute anything. It only proves that the Christian author has the level of a typical palengkera (a noisy store vendor).
Second, think first before you act. To refute atheism one must refute the atheist's reason. Straw-man tactic serves nothing.
And third, well...what can I say...More research please and don't rely too much on copy-paste articles from other Christian sites.
So who's the idiot now eh Mr. Soria...ah I forgot, he already changed his article. hehehe!
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In the Issue of Atheism, Materialism and Evolution.
If you will notice, it is a common mistake from god believers to bring the topic of materialism and evolution when trying to criticise atheism.
So why do Christian evangelists equate atheism with materialism and evolution as if atheism depends of these two? I don't know...maybe it has something to do with er...denying the spiritual world of some sort. You see, the common concept of God reside in the spiritual world, so if one denies the spriritual, that autmatically denies God.
Now here's a good example...
Atheism principally is BOXED and STRICTLY CONFINED to the following conceptually superficial and highly faulty principles and I enumerate;
1. STRICT MATERIALISM
2. EVOLUTION
These two principal concepts are so VITALLY IMPORTANT to atheists that without these concepts, atheism would not even exist for atheists because atheists have a VERY TWISTED and PERVERTED concept regarding what they consider to categorically exist.
Pinoy Atheist: So guys...did you noticed that?
The author assume that when people talk about atheism, we are automatically talking about materialism and evolution.
Let's continue...
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These two principal concepts are so VITALLY IMPORTANT to atheists that without these concepts, atheism would not even exist for atheists because atheists have a VERY TWISTED and PERVERTED concept regarding what they consider to categorically exist.
Pinoy Atheist: Materialism and evolution is NOT THAT VITALLY IMPORTANT to an atheist. You see... in materialism for example, a spiritual entity like a god will not have any room to a materialist's universe, but materialism is NOT atheism.
Obviously the Christian author doesn't even have the slightest idea on what is he talking about (as usual...)
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Let us now critically analyze these concepts to determine its logical UNsoundness.
Strict materialism is a form of physicalism which holds that the only thing that can be truly proven to exist is matter. fundamentally, all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions; therefore, matter is the ONLY substance.
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Pinoy Atheist: Hmmmmmm...So that is materialism.
In philosophical materialism (physicalism)... it is the metaphysical view that there is only one substance in the universe and that substance is physical, empirical or material. It is just matter and energy...THATS IT.
But what does atheism has to do with it?
Materialists are not necessarily atheists (as it is possible to identify God with the material universe, as in Pantheism), but Christians define atheism as materialist because they deny the possibility of a supernatural, spiritual, superior being called God.
OK, Ok enough of the definitions. Let's just have a quick recap on what materialism is and what materialists believe.
1. Materialists argues that matter is the only or primary thing that exists. That means the denial of a material immaterial distinction.To be real, it must become material.
2. They say that all mental stare are really just physical states.
Let us continue...
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However, ATHEISTS DON’T REALLY KNOW WHAT CAUSES MATTER TO EXIST. They will just offer THEORIES full of mathematical improbabilities and will impulsively claim them as SCIENTIFIC FACTS when in fact, THEY ARE PRACTICALLY PURE GUESSWORKS THAT CAN NEVER HOLD LOGICAL WATER.
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Pinoy Atheist: Materialism is really not about where matter came from...as long as there is no other substance other than matter...we're good. Remember, according to the materialists, thoughts, ideas and other non-physical things are merely movements of physical matter or chemical reactions. There is no reality beyond the physical.
So as long as matter is created in a non-supernatural process...a materialist will not have any problems.
Energy cause matter to exist. So what's the logical problem on the issue that matter transform into energy and energy into matter? Following Einsteins famous equation E=mc^2, some energy (not all) condensed into matter. Do I need a supernatural explanation to explain that?
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One very good example is the BIG BANG THEORY which states that the universe came from a very big primordial explosion. HOWEVER, ATHEISTS DON’T REALLY KNOW WHAT CAUSES SUCH EXPLOSION! ATHEISTS WILL NOT EVEN DARE TO ANSWER WHY IS THAT THERE IS A NEED FOR MATTER TO EXIST!
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Pinoy Atheist: Is that how this dullard explain the Big Bang? No wonder he gets confused hahaha... Let's talk about the Big Bang...and I'm not talking about Sheldon Cooper.
When we talk about the Big Bang, we are not talking about an explosion...there was no explosion; there was (and continues to be) an expansion. Maybe the author of this Christian article should blame Fred Hoyle, who coined the term "big bang".
Hmmmm...I just let you guys read this link from Wikipedia for a more detailed explanation.
Anyway, is the Big Bang the origin of the universe? We don't know. What we have are speculations. But when we talk about the Big Bang, what we are just talking about is the state preceded the existence of our time and space.
So what cause the expasion (not explosion)? Well for one thing, it doesn't need a supernatural being to cause it. A typical quantum process happen spontaneously-for no particular reason. Strange isn't it. If you ask why a given nucleus decayed at one particular moment rather than some other, there is no answer. The event "just happened" at that moment, that's all.
I can relate more on a natural explanation compare to a supernatural cause…blame it to Occram’s Razor.
Quantum physics states that there are things that began to exist without a cause. Believers (for example, William Craig Lane) may say that these uncaused “cause” still has a cause – probabilistically. But “probabilistic causality” is something spontaneous – something not predetermined…something that doesn’t need a Creator or a Designer.
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Now that I have brought up the issue about MATTER let us attempt to answer WHAT REALLY CAUSES MATTER TO EXIST?
For a very long time now scientists claim the atom is the smallest particle of matter BUT RECENT SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES PROVED THEM ALL WRONG along the way. One very good example is the discovery of the NEUTRINO, ...(sorry...I have to cut this very worthless statement about the neutrino. The dullard just keep yapping his so-called "explanation" without touching a single significant issue...too wordy. No wonder Mr. Tony O'Neill didn't wasted his time answering this cant.) SO BASICALLY THE MATTER THAT ATHEISTS USE AS A SOLE BASIS FOR EXISTENCE IS UP UNTIL NOW AN UNRESOLVED SCIENTIFIC PROBLEM.
WHAT REALLY IS THE SMALLEST PARTICLE OF MATTER ? DO YOU KNOW? WHY DO MATTER EXIST ACCORDING TO ATHEISTS?
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Pinoy Atheist: Now what's the connection between quarks have to do with God?
Anyway, it is so obvious...
The issue regarding the Big Bang is not about whether it is true or not. It's just about acceptance. Christian fundies rejects it because it contradicts his belief...his Genesis strory. Which brings us to another of his issue...EVOLUTION.
Till next time...
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Appeal to the Supernatural
For sake of good reasoning and common sense logic in order to produce LIFE from NON-LIFE and SOMETHING from NOTHING it requires more than the work of natural law therefore the NEED for SUPERNATURAL agent is the best explanation.
I was just wondering…why do we need a supernatural agent to create life which is a natural phenomenon?
There’s really a thin line between life and non-life. Nowadays, when we talk about life vs. non-life we are not talking about spontaneous generation…Gosh…that was in the olden days. We are not talking about frogs arising from damp earth, mice from petrified matter, insects from dew, maggots from decaying meat and humans from clay. No siree…we are talking about Alexander Oparin and J.B.S Haldene’s “Abiogenic Molecular Evolution”. Remember, there is no law of biogenesis saying that very primitive life cannot form from increasingly complex molecules.
The Oparin-Haldane hypothesis that was backed up by the Miller-Urey experiment shows that life can emerge with non-life, and that is not impossible. Living systems are composed mainly on nonliving constituents: proteins, amino acids, pigments, water molecules, nucleic acids, and many others. Also some properties of living things are most likely shared by non-living forms: Example: Polymer and crystalline structures can replicate itself – just like DNA molecules. The earliest self-replicator was likely very much simpler than anything alive today; self-replicating molecules need not be all that complex (Lee et al. 1996), and protein-building systems can also be simple (Ball 2001; Tamura and Schimmel 2001).
There’s really a thin line between life and non-life. Nowadays, when we talk about life vs. non-life we are not talking about spontaneous generation…Gosh…that was in the olden days. We are not talking about frogs arising from damp earth, mice from petrified matter, insects from dew, maggots from decaying meat and humans from clay. No siree…we are talking about Alexander Oparin and J.B.S Haldene’s “Abiogenic Molecular Evolution”. Remember, there is no law of biogenesis saying that very primitive life cannot form from increasingly complex molecules.
The Oparin-Haldane hypothesis that was backed up by the Miller-Urey experiment shows that life can emerge with non-life, and that is not impossible. Living systems are composed mainly on nonliving constituents: proteins, amino acids, pigments, water molecules, nucleic acids, and many others. Also some properties of living things are most likely shared by non-living forms: Example: Polymer and crystalline structures can replicate itself – just like DNA molecules. The earliest self-replicator was likely very much simpler than anything alive today; self-replicating molecules need not be all that complex (Lee et al. 1996), and protein-building systems can also be simple (Ball 2001; Tamura and Schimmel 2001).
Now what is supernatural anyway?
Supernatural is defined as being above or beyond what is natural, unexplainable by natural law or phenomena. Hmmmm is there a positive definition of it? Basic ontology tells us that to exist is to exist as something, to have identity, to have positive attributes. It is these positive attributes that give something a character.
Ok, ok...supernatural means something beyond normal. Eh...what is exactly beyond normal? Do we have any knowledge of something beyond normal? Hey if you can explain it, then that is still in the boundaries on normalcy. Supernatural in its context means “above” or “beyond” the natural so in its…er…weird sense when a person is talking about the supernatural, he is talking about something beyond the sphere or the scope of his knowledge (naturally, he is in the natural universe, isn’t he?).
Supernatural tell us nothing positive. To state the supernatural is to NOT provide us any answer. It is well…always shrouded in the unexplainable. To say that life needs a supernatural cause is to answer unintelligently about life. You cannot explain the source of life with reference to the unknowable… (My papaya naman! How can you explain the unexplainable anyway?)
Supernatural also commits the “stolen concept” fallacy. To define the "supernatural" it must steal a natural concept which, by its own admission, it is in contradistinction with. The “stolen concept” fallacy is the fallacy consists of using a concept while ignoring, contradicting or denying the validity of the concepts on which it logically and genetically depends. So to say that something beyond nature, has a nature, is to steal the concept of naturalism...it doesn't make sense.
Supernatural tell us nothing positive. To state the supernatural is to NOT provide us any answer. It is well…always shrouded in the unexplainable. To say that life needs a supernatural cause is to answer unintelligently about life. You cannot explain the source of life with reference to the unknowable… (My papaya naman! How can you explain the unexplainable anyway?)
Supernatural also commits the “stolen concept” fallacy. To define the "supernatural" it must steal a natural concept which, by its own admission, it is in contradistinction with. The “stolen concept” fallacy is the fallacy consists of using a concept while ignoring, contradicting or denying the validity of the concepts on which it logically and genetically depends. So to say that something beyond nature, has a nature, is to steal the concept of naturalism...it doesn't make sense.
So again...How can you explain to me the...er...supernatural? And I don't need Dean and Sam Winchester to prove it to me hehehe!
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Faith in Evolution?
A Christian friend of mine ones asked, “How come you say you lose your faith in faith while believing in Darwinian evolution requires the same faith?"
So is belief in evolution a sort of faith?
Belief and faith are both synonymous with trust…but there’s a difference.
Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true. Well…so far so good…Belief is an attempt to represent your world. That means belief is built because of how you look at the way the world is. In “belief” there must be some causal connection between the fact in question and the acceptance of it. Remember, a belief is based on our trust in the evidence or proof of a matter.
For example: I believe that the Taj Mahal is located in India, “because” there are facts that support this belief.
Notice that the word “because” is very important when we talk about belief. It is what we define as “due to the fact that…”
How “faith” is different to “belief”?
According to Paul Tillich, “faith is an act of “knowledge” that has a low degree of evidence”. Faith is also described as nothing more but a willingness to await the evidence. Faith is also considered to be too personal. It is completely subjective and it serves as no basis for anyone else to draw a conclusion. As Soren Kierkegaard described it, faith is something total and passionately committing to something. Faith is not base on objective reasoning – it doesn’t care whether it is absurd or it doesn’t make any sense.
So that we have differentiate the difference between plain belief and faith, we now again asked the question “is belief in evolution a sort of faith”?
Evolution is a scientific theory and in scientific terms a theory does not mean a “guess” or a “hunch”. Scientific theories are something that has been confirmed or established by observation or experiment, and is propounded or accepted as for the known facts; it is a statement of what are held to be the general laws, principles, or causes of something known and observed.
So it can be observed and experimented. Hmmmmmm…this definition doesn’t fit the definition of faith. Remember, faith is the “evidence” of things NOT SEEN.
Belief in evolution is not a faith. Evolution, like other scientific theories are built and modified with new information. As a 2006 “Statement on the Teaching of Evolution” from the Interacademy Panel on International Issues, a global network of national science academies, said, “Evidence-based facts about the origins and evolution of the Earth and of life on this planet have been established by numerous observations and independently derived experimental results from a multitude of scientific disciplines”.
Evolution doesn’t claim any absolute truth because all such conclusions must be subject to testing against observations. The very essence of science is that one must always remain open to the possibility of superior explanations to those which we currently find convincing. This is the exact opposite of faith.
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Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Acording to Bro. Eli...
While surfing the NET, I came upon this certain website. Hmmmmm...something about an atheist and a certain Bro. Eli Soriano.
Is the story true? I dunno...
A very bold atheist identified himself, marched to the front and before the audience asked Soriano this question, “Who created you?” Bro. Eli answered patiently that it is God who created every living creature. Logically he is included in the creation.
Weh...
Is Bro. Eli created by God? Let see...what I know is that God created the Hebrews. Well that if we will believe the Genesis story. There are many creation story and there are pretty much a lot of "Creators". Anyway, if we will base it to the Biblical Genesis, God created only one man and a woman...or if we will accept the Elohist story (that's chapter 1) God created a man and a woman. He then left them to screw each other to multiply. I don't think God created Adam, Eve and Eli.
The atheist followed up with another question. He challenged Soriano to prove that it is God who created him. He asked, “Have you seen Him while creating you?” Soriano shot back at the atheist, “How can you tell yourself that an open wire has current? Do you need to get electrocuted first in order to believe?” (My papaya naman, you can always look at the wire if it's connected to a plug and if the plug is connected to a MERALCO active line)
“How about your mind? Do you believe you have a mind in your head? If you do believe you have, are you literally seeing it?”
Is Bro. Eli admitting to the fact that his god is nothing but an abstract idea of a material brain? Then why is he comparing his god to the human mind?
Hay my papaya...gullibility does has its effects to the human brain.
Until next time...
ciao!
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Who was Hypatia?

Hypatia was the last scientist, mathematician, astronomer, and physicist head of the Neoplatonic School of philosophy who worked within the Library of Alexandria . Hypatia is also a daring visionary, an educated woman who dared to speak about science in an age when everything was left up to the gods. She was born in the time when women had no choice and was treated as property.
But Hypatia moved freely and without restrain. Those times were dire threat to the intellectual pagans, especially when the growing Christian church plans to eradicate everything pagan. Hypatia was in the center of these turbulent times. Cyril, the arch bishop ofAlexandria eyed Hypatia with contempt because of her knowledge and science.
On a November night in Egypt, 414 A.D Christian fanatics dragged her from her chariot, tore off her robes and flayed her skin with abalone shells, her remnants were burned as well as her works were destroyed, her name was forgotten and Cyril, was turned to a saint!
For me, this is supposed to be one of the most horrifying acts of atrocity by these Christians hypocrites who teaches people to love one another…Before believing these people, always remember the death of Hypatia and how the Christians treated one of the world’s most renounced institution receptacle of knowledge!
But Hypatia moved freely and without restrain. Those times were dire threat to the intellectual pagans, especially when the growing Christian church plans to eradicate everything pagan. Hypatia was in the center of these turbulent times. Cyril, the arch bishop of
On a November night in Egypt, 414 A.D Christian fanatics dragged her from her chariot, tore off her robes and flayed her skin with abalone shells, her remnants were burned as well as her works were destroyed, her name was forgotten and Cyril, was turned to a saint!
For me, this is supposed to be one of the most horrifying acts of atrocity by these Christians hypocrites who teaches people to love one another…Before believing these people, always remember the death of Hypatia and how the Christians treated one of the world’s most renounced institution receptacle of knowledge!
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