A Child's Prayer #6

Sith Chimp Visits Houston Zoo

The Dancing Preacher

Like an old uncle trying to be hip.

(So embarrassing)

Original video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmWDuesPTbo

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah

Here's a story from the world famous PC Magazine. The reporter seems to be practicing for the Fast Talking Championship and the guys in the sound booth added some background doof-doof music just to make it harder to understand. See if you can figure out what the reporter is saying.

Original video here:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2476022,00.asp?obref=obinsite

A Child's Prayer #5

One Hundred Years Since World War One

Every ten or twenty years the Australian film and television companies make yet another movie about World War One. The Australian soldier is always depicted as a brave and resourceful warrior who fights for democracy and freedom against overwhelming odds and never, ever, fails. Here is a snippet from the 2015 effort:

My treatment of the standard war story would be a little bit different. In my version we would concentrate on a platoon of soldiers (about 14 men) and follow them as they leave Australia and head towards the Western Front.

During the boat trip to Europe we would learn the back-story for each of the platoon members as they lounge on the deck and talk about what they have left behind in Australia.

After landing in Europe, they would travel by train towards the front line. Then they would transfer to trucks that would get them about ten miles from the front line and after that they would march the rest of the way on foot.

But there would be no heroes in my story. No victories. No brave deeds. No happy endings.

At each point along the way the platoon would be under constant attack: The train would be bombed from the air; the truck would be hit by enemy artillery fire, and during the march up to the front line, stray bullets and shrapnel would kill many of those who had survived thus far.

Eventually just one man would reach his position in the front line trenches.

There would be smiles and hand shakes all around as the old hands greet the new arrival, and then: that last survivor of the platoon would say, "Well let's have a look at this enemy of ours." And as he peeps over the parapet a sniper's bullet hits him right between the eyes!

The platoon is gone with not a single shot fired in anger.

They might as well have stayed at home.

[That would be my comment about the futility of war]

Animal Tormentor Gets His Comeuppance

Benjamin Miller (a typically stupid American from Georgia, USA) thought it might be fun to go to Spain where animal cruelty is not only accepted but encouraged. Public streets are closed and terrified animals are forced to run the gauntlet of sadistic morons like Miller who gain their pleasure by hitting the animals on the head as they run past. 

This time, however, one of the animals decided to retaliate and Miller got a bull's horn driven right up his arsehole!

He was three hours on the operating table and will be walking funny for about another three months.

Unfortunately Miller won't learn his lesson - sadists never do. He'll give up tormenting animals of course - bravery is not his strong suit - but he will probably search about for future victims not strong enough to fight back. I'm guessing he will finish up as a wife-basher and a child abuser. (I could be wrong but I'll bet I'm not.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

A Child's Prayer #4

A Child's Prayer #3

Craig Hicks - Atheist Psychopath

This is Muslim dental student, Deah Barakat, raising funds for some charity work he (and ten colleagues) intended to do in Turkey during the summer break.

Original video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg1oW6hrx-0

Deah's fund raising page is here:

http://www.youcaring.com/medical-fundraiser/syrian-dental-relief/206249

Here he is with his wife and sister-in-law:

Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23

Barakat's wife, Yusor Abu-Salha, 21

and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha, 19

Sadly, Deah Barakat will never be able to help the children in Turkey because he is dead - shot to death by Craig Hicks.

This is Craig Hicks, a gun loving atheist psychopath with a massive chip on his shoulder. He lived next door to Deah Barakat and the two girls. One day he saw them parking their car in his spot, so he pulled out his gun and shot all three of them dead. Two bullets in the head for each of them.

 Craig Hicks - Killer Atheist

That look of concern is for himself.
He has no regard for his victims.


News story here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/11/chapel-hill

45,000 Demoninations

Have you ever come across the claim that there are tens of thousands of different Christian denominations around the world? There were 34,000 denominations in 2005 (say the pollsters) and the number has been growing at the rate of about one thousand per year so we now have 45,000 different denominations in 2015.

Christians love to quote those figures because it seems to suggest that their religion is growing ever more popular at an exceedingly fast rate.

Atheists use the same figures to poke fun at Christians whose one-true-god has been splintered into 45,000 separate parts.

But where do the figures come from? Have you ever seen a list of names of different denominations? What is the biggest list you have ever seen?

5,000?
2,000?
1,000?
500?

Chances are you have never seen more than 100 named denominations in a single list. Probably not even fifty - and off the top of your head, I'll bet you would be hard pushed to name even twenty.

So where is the list of 45,000 denominations?

Let me know when you find it.

Actually you will never find such a list because it doesn't exist. The people who came up with the figure of 45,000 denominations have this to say about their methods:

The sources used in this database were so numerous and diverse (often a different one for each number in a table) that it has proved impossible to insert them or document them in either the text or the tables. The current total of books on Christianity exceeds 5 million distinct and separate titles. In most cases, the most authoritative sources, published or unpublished, were available to this book and so were used. Most of the materials collected for this survey, however, relate to original and previously unpublished enquiries. A large majority of the data came from field work, unpublished reports, and private communications from the collaborators
http://www.gordonconwell.edu/resources/

The highlighted words make it clear that the poll is based more on heresay than the statistical method.

God Not Required

Check out these inventions and discoveries. All of them the result of work done by humans. None of them designed by god - not one!

15th century
Printing press
Parachute (with frame)
Mariner's astrolabe
Double-entry bookkeeping

16th century
Floating dock in Venice
Mercator Projection map

17th century
World's first newspaper (The German Relation)
First mechanical calculator: the Pascaline.

18th century
First piano built
Alcohol thermometer invented
First steam engine invented by Harvey
Blood pressure measured for first time
Centigrade temperature scale.
Leyden jar, an early form of capacitor.
Spinning jenny.
James Watt improves the steam engine

19th century
Voltaic pile: an early form of battery Arc lamp
Morphine used to control pain
Railway steam locomotive
The pattern-tracing lathe
The friction match
Electromagnetic induction.
Mechanical calculator
Morse Code.Steam hammer.
Refrigeration: Using vapour compression
Crookes radiometerTelephone
Phonograph
First practical light bulb
DC electric motorFirst petrol powered car
Wind turbines for grid electricity

20th century

The zeppelin
Escalator
Gillette invents the double-edged safety razor.
First successfully received a radio transmission.
vacuum cleaner.
air conditioner.
The lie detector
neon light.
crayons.
Bottle-making machine
first airplane.
windshield wipers.
Teabags
Vacuum diode or Fleming valve.
Albert Einstein published the Theory of Relativity
Cornflakes.
Electronic amplifying tube (triode).
First synthetic plastic called Bakelite.
Helicopter
Gyrocompass
Cellophane
Geiger counter.
Instant coffee
Neon lights
Automobile electrical ignition system.
Motorized movie cameras
Life Savers candy
Zipper.
Stainless steel
Pop-up toaster
Short-wave radio
Arc welder
Tommy gun
Band-Aid
Insulin
3-D movie (spectacles with red and green lens)
Traffic signal.
Cathode-ray tube
Self-winding watch.
Clarence Birdseye invents frozen food.
Notebooks with spiral bindings invented.
Mechanical television invented by John Logie Baird.
Liquid-fueled rockets.
PEZ candy.
Quartz crystal watch.
Iron lung.
Penicillin.
Bubble gum
Electric shaver.
Car radio.
Scotch tape
Neoprene.
Jet engine.
Electron microscope
Polaroid photography
Zoom lens
Light meter
Parking meter.
Radio telescope.
FM radio
Stereo records
Road reflectors
Game of Monopoly.
Tape recorder
Nylon
Canned beer
Radar.
Photocopier
Strobe lighting
Teflon.
Nescafe (freeze-dried coffee)
Konrad Zuse builds first programmable computer
Color television
Jeep.
Synthetic rubber
Richard James invents the slinky.
Silly putty.
Aqualung.
Kidney dialysis machine
Synthetic cortisone
Atomic bomb
Microwave oven
Mobile phones
Transistor.
Tupperware
Frisbee
Velcro
Wurlitzer jukebox.
Cake mix
The first credit card (Diners Club)
Super glue
Power steering
Video tape recorder
Mr Potato Head
Barcodes
Edward Teller builds hydrogen bomb.   
Radial tires
Musical synthesizer
Black box flight recorder.
Transistor radio
Oral contraceptives
Nonstick teflon frying pan
Solar cell
Optic fiber
Hovercraft
Lasers
Integrated circuits
Heart Pacemaker
Barbie Doll
Microchips
Halogen lamp
Valium
Audio cassette
Fiber-tip
Silicone breast implants.
Video disk
BASIC (an early computer language)
Astroturf
Soft contact lenses
KevlarElectronic Fuel injection
Handheld calculator
Computer mouse
RAM (random access memory).
The arpanet (first internet)
Artificial heart
ATM
Bar-code scanner
Daisy wheel printer
Floppy disk
Dot-matrix printer
Food processor
Liquid-crystal display (LCD)
Microprocessor
VCR
Word processor
Pong (first video game)
Ethernet (local computer network)
Disposable lighter.
Post-it notes
Liposuction.
Laser printer
Ink-jet printer
VisiCalc spreadsheet
Cell phones
Cray supercomputer
Walkman
Roller blades.
Hepatitis-B vaccine
MS-DOS
IBM-PC
Scanning tunneling microscope
Apple Lisa
Soft bifocal contact lens
Cabbage Patch Kids
The CD-ROM invented
Apple Macintosh
Windows invented by Microsoft.
Disposable camera.
Disposable contact lenses
Digital cellular phones invented
Doppler radar
Prozac
High-definition television
The World Wide Web (WWW)
Internet protocol (HTTP)
WWW language (HTML)
Digital answering machine
Pentium processor
HIV protease inhibitor
Java computer language
DVD
Web TV
Viagra
Artificial liver
Self-cleaning windows
i-Pod
Hybrid Car

Every Prayer Is Answered

http://www.theonion.com/articles/god-answers-prayers

Sean Lock - Lapsed Catholic

What Were They Thinking ?

Check out the comments section at this 'Christian Post' website. Black text on a dark brown background! What were they thinking?

http://www.christianpost.tv

Christians Enjoy Creating Straw Men Because It's Easy To Knock Them Down

Pastor Bo Wagner earned his Bachelor's degree with highest honors in 1997, and then earned his Masters and Doctorate with highest honors from the Carolina Bible College in 2001 and 2003. He founded Cornerstone Baptist Church in 1997, and has been a professor at Carolina Bible College since 2000.

http://www.cbc-web.org/Our_Staff.html

Consider these facts about atheism and atheists and then read Pastor Wagner's article at the end of this post. I leave you to decide whether the pastor is an honest seeker of truth, or a lying arsehole. 

(1) An atheist does not believe that god exists. Atheism is not a belief, it is a lack of belief. 

(2) Atheism is not a religion. Atheists are not religious. 

(3) Atheists don't have faith that god does not exist, they just don't see any evidence for god's existence. 

(4) Atheists don't have faith in the theory of evolution, they just know that scientists have discovered heaps of evidence that suggests the theory of evolution is true. 

(5) Regarding the age of the universe, scientists don't just throw figures around without any evidence. They adjust their estimates based on the evidence they have been able to discover. 

(6) Atheists don't regard scientists as 'gods'. Atheists don't believe in gods. 

(7) Atheists don't worship science or scientists. 

(8) A lecture on atheism wouldn't take very long - because atheism is nothing more than a lack of belief in god. 

(9) Not all atheists donate money to liberal causes. Right-wing atheists will donate their money to right-wing causes, and other atheists don't make donations to anyone.

(10) Atheists don't pray - not to god and not to science and not to themselves. 

(11) Atheists don't regard themselves as gods (atheists don't believe in gods). 

(12) The age of the universe is thought to be 13.7 billion years but those billions of years were not simply "spoken into existence". The scientists have evidence that their estimates are correct. 

(13) Regarding the theory of evolution, "survival of the fittest" does not mean survival of the strongest. In a world full of bullies there will also be docile non-bullies who use their intelligence and/or cunning to overcome all threats and live long enough to pass on their genes to the next generation. 

(14) Atheists don't necessarily say, "there is no absolute truth". For example, it is absolutely true that there are no square circles and no married bachelors.

Now read Pastor Wagner's article (and count the mistakes as you go along).

The article can be found

here and here

Pastor Wagner claims he is being satirical, but, in fact, he is simply employing the straw man fallacy in order to impress his gullible readers. He makes ludicrous (and obviously untrue) claims about atheists and atheism and then attacks those ludicrous and untrue claims.

It would be like me claiming that all Christians think the world is flat and then 'proving' that Christianity is a false religion for that reason (whereas, in fact, Christians don't have that belief in the first place - it is a straw man argument).