The Emperor Wears No Clothes

"Be thankful that you have a life, and forsake your vain and presumptuous desire for a second one." (Richard Dawkins)

August 24, 2009 • 12:17 pm 0

Ramadan – Is drastically changing the timing of a daily calorie intake any different to depriving one’s self of sleep?

I don’t know about you but I tend to get quite grumpy when I’ve missed a calorie-intake session. I’ve never been a big breakfast fan but by midday the inevitable signals are sent from my stomach to my brain and if I pay them no heed I become less productive and more obsessive about food. If I then go on to miss out on an evening meal as well as lunch I really get ratty.

Ramadan started on Saturday and millions of good Muslims all over the world, this country included, will be observing a daytime fasting ritual as a result. I say “fast” but really it is more like a farce.

Ramadan is not a fast because Muslims are not denying themselves food for long periods. Instead, Muslims do not eat between sunrise and sunset. In the average British summer’s day that leaves a good six hours in which they can stuff themselves to their heart’s content and in fact this is effectively what happens.

No doubt as a result of their “spiritual” concentration on food as well as an internal body-clock disruption to regular calorie intake, many Muslims actually put on weight at Ramadan. In Britain Muslims go all day long with cups of hot lemon tea and then stuff themselves in the evenings when they get home from work.

We are concerned about that great ideal “The British Worker” taking time off to see the dentist because of the number of man-hours that are lost and we have minimum consecutive hours policies for doctors, lorry drivers and for those in any profession where others may be put in danger through a lack of concentration. Why do we allow all these people a choice out of respect for their faith to go for eighteen hours without taking in calories?

Look at it this way. If you were to catch a late bus after a long day at the office and you were asked to choose between a driver who’d been driving solidly for eight hours without a break or one who hadn’t eaten anything for twenty four hours, which one would you choose?

Benjamin Pelham

Filed under: Islam, Special Religious Dispensation,

August 20, 2009 • 7:03 pm 1

Self-censorship – Does Yale University need to take a leaf out of Pat Condell’s book

"The Cartoons That Shook The World"

No Cartoons Here

Yale University Press have just published a book about the Danish cartoons that caused such a fracas among Muslims several years ago – without showing the cartoons.

“The Cartoons That Shook The World” by Danish-born professor Jytte Klausen, is a serious book examining the protest campaign against the caricatures first published in the Danish newspaper “Jyllands-Posten” in 2005. Its publishers, Yale University Press, have said  that having consulted a panel of (anonymous) “experts” it has decided not to include the actual cartoons in the book.

This shameful capitulation, to a threat that has not even been made yet, is a fine example of a disastrous decision having been made by people who Pat Condell would no doubt refer to as “multicultural appeasement monkeys”. Or, to use more of his words, “the kind of people who’d put their own mothers and daughters in birkas to avoid being called intolerant and who occupy such high moral ground that you can hardly see them up there through the clouds of self-righteousness.”

All of these so-called “experts” need to watch his latest video entitled “Apologists for Evil” which was posted on his YouTube channel three weeks ago. I was unable to find a transcript of this video on-line but felt that what he said was so prosaic that one deserved to be made for the benefit of the internet community. So here it is. Are you pathetic pseudo-intellectual idiots at Yale sitting comfortably? Then hit the link below and we’ll begin.

Video and Full Transcript

See also:
“Yale Press Bans Images of Muhammad in New Book” (New York Times)
“Yale Surrenders” by Christopher Hitchens

B.P.

Filed under: Appeasement for Islam, Islam, News, Special Religious Dispensation, Stupidity, , , , ,

August 18, 2009 • 3:11 pm 1

Why are prisoners who don’t even have the right to vote given so many privileges when it comes to faith?

The Advantages of Faith

Belief is its own reward

At the moment convicted British prisoners can’t vote  although a change in the law is under consideration for those whose sentence is less than four years. Why is a real and tangible process such as voting denied to them when something as frivolous as faith is permitted?

It seems that all religions, even the weirdest ones, are well respected in British prisons and prisoners of even minority faiths are furbished with all sorts of accessories and privileges so that they can “worship”.

Pagans can have a hood-less robe, a flexible twig for a wand, incense, jewellery and rune stones. They are also allowed to have Tarot cards as long as a “risk assessment” is made by the prison authorities and no prisoner uses their Tarot cards for fortune-telling with other prisoners. In addition to being allowed to have all this stuff, pagans can choose two holidays per year, from a list, when they are excused from work. This list of days includes Samhain, as Hallowe’en is know in paganism, the vernal equinox and the midsummer solstice.

According to figures published this month the population breakdown of faiths in British prisons is as follows:

26,000 Atheist
23,000 Anglican
14,000 Roman Catholic
9,795 Muslim
366 Pagan
340 Rastafarian
6 Nation of Islam

Ignoring the fact that Judaism seems to have been left out of the figures all together it is interesting to note that the majority of prisoners are atheists. Does this mean that there is a greater tendency towards criminality among atheists? I hope not.

I don’t know whether I am in favour of prisoners being given voting rights as it is not something I’ve really ever thought about enough to have formulated an opinion. I am very surprised however that our society affords even prisoners so much respect for their belief in the supernatural.

See:
“Privileges ease spell in prison for pagans”
(The Times 01.08.09)

B.P.

Filed under: Atheism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Paganism, Religion, Special Religious Dispensation, ,

August 16, 2009 • 3:01 pm 2

More “birkini” madness – No longer optional but compulsory at some UK swimming pool sessions

I have just telephoned my local swimming pool in Hornsey and asked if a (fictitious) Muslim friend could use the pool wearing a “birkini”. They told me straight away that she would be welcome. I also said that I had no swimming trunks and asked if I could swim in my jeans shorts. The answer was “no”. They told me that I would have to have “proper” swimming trunks in order to enter the pool.

As if having special swimming times for women wasn’t already bad enough, according to a piece in yesterday’s Telegraph newspaper:

“Across the UK municipal pools are holding swimming sessions specifically aimed at Muslims, in some case imposing strict dress codes.”
and that
“Under the rules, swimmers – including non-Muslims – are barred from entering the pool in normal swimming attire.”

Surely such measures are divisive and fly in the face of common sense and community cohesion. Is this is not bound to cause resentment from non-Muslims towards Muslims?

If I was to go to my local pool dressed in pirate garb on September 19th, which is a holy day for Pastafarians known as “Dress and Talk Like a Pirate Day”, do you think they would let me go for a swim? I wonder.

Having Muslim-only swimming sessions is yet another example of special dispensation for religions. This kind of policy divides people rather than bringing them together and because there are so many religions, taken to its logical conclusion, one that would exclude the majority most of the time.

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Flying Spaghetti Monster

Maybe the saying “if you can’t beat ’em join ’em” applies here and the only way to show some local councils how truly stupid they are being is for all religions and minorities to demand that they have their own special swimming times. Wouldn’t it be great if atheists could get organised and demand atheist-only sessions so that they could swim in peace without being surrounded by weak-minded faith heads.

See:
“Swimmers are told to wear burkinis”
(Telegraph 15.08.09)

B.P.

Filed under: Atheism, Islam, Neo-puritanism, News, Special Religious Dispensation, Stupidity, , , , , , ,

Welcome…

"The philosophies of one age become the absurdities of the next and the
foolishness of yesterday becomes the wisdom of tomorrow."
 Sir William Osler

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“Atheism” – A term that should not exist

"Atheism is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a "non-astrologer" or a "non-alchemist." We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs."
 Sam Harris

For more Harris quotes Click Here

“There Almost Certainly Is No God” says Mr Dawkins

"...most of the traditional arguments for God's existence, from Aquinas on, are easily demolished. Several of them, such as the First Cause argument, work by setting up an infinite regress which God is wheeled out to terminate. But we are never told why God is magically able to terminate regresses while needing no explanation himself. To be sure, we do need some kind of explanation for the origin of all things. Physicists and cosmologists are hard at work on the problem. But whatever the answer - a random quantum fluctuation or a Hawking/Penrose singularity or whatever we end up calling it - it will be simple. Complex, statistically improbable things, by definition, don't just happen; they demand an explanation in their own right. They are impotent to terminate regresses, in a way that simple things are not. The first cause cannot have been an intelligence - let alone an intelligence that answers prayers and enjoys being worshipped. Intelligent, creative, complex, statistically improbable things come late into the universe, as the product of evolution or some other process of gradual escalation from simple beginnings. They come late into the universe and therefore cannot be responsible for designing it."
 Richard Dawkins

For full text Click Here

Hitchins says “Islam. Don’t ram it down my throat”

"Islam makes very large claims for itself. In its art, there is a prejudice against representing the human form at all. The prohibition on picturing the prophet – who was only another male mammal – is apparently absolute. So is the prohibition on pork or alcohol or, in some Muslim societies, music or dancing. Very well then, let a good Muslim abstain rigorously from all these. But if he claims the right to make me abstain as well, he offers the clearest possible warning and proof of an aggressive intent."
 Christopher Hitchins

For full text Click Here

Magician James Randi says “Magic does not work”

"Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work."
 James Randi

For more Randi quotes Click Here

Hitchens declares himself to be an “antitheist”

"I am not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief is positively harmful. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually the case."
 Christopher Hitchens

For more Hitchens quotes Click Here

Atheist Quotes

"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."
Richard Dawkins


"When one person suffers from a delusion, it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion."
Robert Pirsig


"We must question the logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes."
Gene Roddenberry


"I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it."
Mark Twain


"Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned."
Unknown


"I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God. So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake. Religion is all bunk."
Thomas Edison


"I'm afraid that I am severly dissapointed in God's works. All three of him have shown no tendency to improve and He merely sits at the back of the class talking to himselves. He has shown no interest in rugger, asked to be excused prayers, and moves in a mysterious way."
Monty Python (God's School Report)


"People will then often say, ‘But surely it’s better to remain an Agnostic just in case?’ This, to me, suggests such a level of silliness and muddle that I usually edge out of the conversation rather than get sucked into it. If it turns out that I’ve been wrong all along, and there is in fact a god, and if it further turned out that this kind of legalistic, 'cross your fingers behind your back', Clintonian hair-splitting impressed him, then I think I would choose not to worship him anyway."
Douglas Adams


"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
Steven Weinberg


"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."
Stephen Roberts


"After my Christmas Lectures I received letters from the pious saying that they would have no objection if only I had qualified my remarks by saying: 'But I should warn you that many well-informed people think differently'. When did you last hear a priest-in the pulpit, on radio, on television or in Sunday School qualify his statement with 'But I should warn you that many well-informed people don't think God exists at all?'"
Richard Dawkins


"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish."
Unknown


"From the first moment I looked into that horror on September 11th, into that fireball, into that explosion of horror, I knew it, I recognized an old companion. I recognized religion."
Lorenzo Albacete


"If there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence."
Bertrand Russell


"Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
Douglas Adams


If…

"If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:


If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken, And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools


If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'


If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, ' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch, if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you, If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds' worth of distance run, Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it, And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

Rudyard Kipling

Five Thousand Dead Gods

No god I know is still alive
all five thousand and seven
appear to have died.

The great god Huitzilopochtli
led the Aztecs' divine pack -
but He departed awhile back.

Zeus was fun, and had His run,
but while disguised as a swan,
they say, His neck got wrung.

Pluto - God of the Underworld,
offended the ladies of Hades,
and got buried in his own Hell.

Thor, I'm told, was big and bold,
but going out without a cloak,
they say, He died of the cold.

And ghosts of dead Indian gods
can't even haunt a decent tepee,
and many die on late night T.V.

No prisoners tremble on the altar
when their beating hearts are torn
to join Tezcatlipoca in the sky.

And no children scream as they
are loaded onto the simple machine
that feeds them to Moloch's fire.

And for ancient Greece's Dionysus,
no drums sound, no flute plays -
but, oh, weren't those the days!

The goddesses, too, we must include,
for all were dear to some, and lived
in our hearts until the time had come.

There was Athena , Gaia, and Kore,
Xochiquetzal, Minerva, and Astarte,
Ixtab, Kuan Yin, and Kali of course.

Five thousand gods and goddesses -
maybe ten or a hundred fifty thousand
or more, there might have been.

But the goddesses and gods have all
gone, one by one, until there are none
but those that are still willed alive.

- Gods and goddesses kept alive
by people still believing - still
trusting - in their own creations.

Pinocchio becomes god of the wood,
while Pygmalion falls on his knees
before his goddess of stone, Galatea.

We remember the Loving Mother
and the Father the All-Mighty
looming large in an infant's eyes.

For each girl-woman makes the God
she craves and needs - then kneels
before Him and says, "Oh, please!"

And each boy-man makes himself
a Goddess that he wishes,
giving a Mother's hugs and kisses.

And older men and women tend
to make our gods with
wrinkled brow and constant pout.

Still we always make our gods
to look a lot like me and you -
one head, one mouth, two eyes.

But the god of songbirds flies,
and the gods of all the fishes
must swim through ocean skies.

The god of cattle may be a bull,
or just maybe it's a cow -
I can't hope to settle that now.

But I am well informed by
one who ought to know:
the god of dogs is a bitch!

God laughs? Not on your life!
The joke's on us - but I'm told
She's heard this joke before!
glennlogan

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"Elaine Morgan is a tenacious proponent of the aquatic ape hypothesis: the idea that humans evolved from primate ancestors who dwelt in watery habitats. Hear her spirited defense of the idea -- and her theory on why mainstream science doesn't take it seriously."
 Elaine Morgan at TED

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 Pat Condell

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