Invisible Pink Unicorn The Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU) is the goddess of a parody religion used to satirize theistic beliefs, taking the form of a unicorn that is paradoxically both invisible and pink.[1] She is a rhetorical illustration used by atheists and other religious skeptics as a contemporary version of Russell's teapot, sometimes mentioned in conjunction with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.[2] The IPU is used to argue that supernatural beliefs are arbitrary by, for example, replacing the word God in any theistic statement with Invisible Pink Unicorn.[3] The mutually exclusive attributes of pinkness and invisibility, coupled with the inability to disprove the IPU's existence, satirize properties that some theists attribute to a theistic deity.[4] History[edit] The Invisible Pink Unicorn logo used to depict atheism The concept was further developed by a group of college students from 1994 to 1995 on the ISCA Telnet-based BBS. Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. Concepts[edit]
Personal and Historical Perspectives of Hans Bethe Flying Spaghetti Monster The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) is the deity of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster or Pastafarianism, a movement that promotes a light-hearted view of religion and opposes the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools.[3] Although adherents describe Pastafarianism as a genuine religion,[3] it is generally seen by the media as a parody religion.[4][5] The "Flying Spaghetti Monster" was first described in a satirical open letter written by Bobby Henderson in 2005 to protest the Kansas State Board of Education decision to permit teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in public school science classes.[6] In that letter, Henderson satirized creationist ideas by professing his belief that whenever a scientist carbon-dates an object, a supernatural creator that closely resembles spaghetti and meatballs is there "changing the results with His Noodly Appendage". History Internet phenomenon Positions Creation Afterlife Pirates and global warming
Constructor Theory | Conversation | Edge I'm speaking to you now: Information starts as some kind of electrochemical signals in my brain, and then it gets converted into other signals in my nerves and then into sound waves and then into the vibrations of a microphone, mechanical vibrations, then into electricity and so on, and presumably will eventually go on the Internet. This something has been instantiated in radically different physical objects that obey different laws of physics. Yet in order to describe this process you have to refer to the thing that has remained unchanged throughout the process, which is only the information rather than any obviously physical thing like energy or momentum. The way to get this substrate independence of information is to refer it to a level of physics that is below and more fundamental than things like laws of motion, that we have been used thinking of as near the lowest, most fundamental level of physics. Being testable is not as simple a concept as it sounds. This is counterintuitive.
The Myth of Militant Atheism Nine bullets fired from close range ended the life of Salman Taseer last month, making the Pakistani governor the latest high-profile victim of religious violence. Taseer had the audacity to publicly question Pakistan's blasphemy laws, and for this transgression he paid with his life. Taseer joins a list of numerous other high-profile victims of militant religion, such as Dr. With this background, it is especially puzzling that the American media and public still perpetuate the cliché of so-called "militant atheism." In fact, however, while millions of atheists are indeed walking our streets, it would be difficult to find even one who could accurately be described as militant. When the media and others refer to a "militant atheist," the object of that slander is usually an atheist who had the nerve to openly question religious authority or vocally express his or her views about the existence of God. But this reflects a double standard, because it seems to apply only to atheists.
Sokal affair The resultant academic and public quarrels concerned the scholarly merit of humanistic commentary about the physical sciences; the influence of postmodern philosophy on social disciplines in general; academic ethics, including whether Sokal was wrong to deceive the editors and readers of Social Text; and whether the journal had exercised appropriate intellectual rigor before publishing the pseudoscientific article. Background[edit] In an interview on the NPR program All Things Considered, Sokal said he was inspired to submit the hoax article after reading Higher Superstition (1994), by Paul R. After analyzing essays from "the academic Left", scientists argued that some of these critical writers were ignorant of the original scientific documents they were criticizing and, therefore, were making a series of nonsensical statements about the nature and intent of science. The article[edit] Content of the article[edit] Publication[edit] Peer review[edit] Responses[edit] Academic criticism[edit]
Atheism "Divine Fury" by Sabina Nore.Traditionally speaking, most religions were especially hostile towards women. While some atheists consider themselves as spiritual people, most do so because they haven't yet found the appropriate "label" for themselves. Atheism is, simply put and by definition, the belief that there is no God nor divine presence. Some atheists define it as a lack of belief in a God or deity, while others discover that the proper "label" for them would actually be agnostic, rather than atheist. In the words of Penn Jillette, a US-American comedian, illusionist and writer: "Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o, and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have. Here is an article by Ricky Gervais, an English writer, comedian and actor on how he went from "God-bless" to God-less in one afternoon. Further reading
Laws of Physics Can't Trump the Bonds of Love Zack ConkleLIFE LESSONS Jeffrey Wright with his son, Adam, who has a developmental disorder, in a scene from “Wright’s Law.” Jeffrey Wright is well known around his high school in Louisville, Ky., for his antics as a physics teacher, which include exploding pumpkins, hovercraft and a scary experiment that involves a bed of nails, a cinder block and a sledgehammer. But it is a simple lecture — one without props or fireballs — that leaves the greatest impression on his students each year. The talk is about Mr. It has become an annual event at Louisville Male Traditional High School (now coed, despite its name), and it has been captured in a short documentary, “Wright’s Law,” which recently won a gold medal in multimedia in the national College Photographer of the Year competition, run by the University of Missouri. The filmmaker, Zack Conkle, 22, a photojournalism graduate of Western Kentucky University and a former student of Mr. The beginning of the film shows Mr. But each year, Mr. Mr.
Evil Bible Home Page Morality Quiz/Test your Morals, Values & Ethics - Your Morals.Org Azeusism has caused every major atrocity in modern history! It happens far too frequently -- the lame atheism has caused more atrocities/death than Christianity/Islam/whatever argument. This means that a compelling response has not been found. If you are talking to a Christian who makes that argument, consider making the following argument. If he can discover exactly what's wrong about this argument, he has discovered exactly what's wrong with his own argument. Find the flaw in the following argument: Azeusism, or not believing in Zeus, has been the cause of almost every single major atrocity of the past several thousand years. Mass murder. Witch trials -- Azeusists. Crusades -- Azeusists. Holocaust -- Azeusists. Hitler -- Azeusist. Stalin -- Azeusist. Mao -- Azeusist. Pol Pot -- Azeusist. Mastro Titta (executed 516 people ... for the Catholic Pope. Jim Jones -- Azeusist. Also, in modern times, almost every serial killer has been an Azeusist. Jeffrey Dahmer -- Azeusist. Why aren't more editorials written into the newspapers with this kind of reasoning?
Must We Mean What We Say? Stanley Cavell, born in 1926 and now 86 years old, is one of the greatest American philosophers of the past half-century. He was also something of a musical prodigy and like many prodigies his accomplishments struck him as a matter of fraud. During his freshman year at Berkeley, he writes in Little Did I Know, his 2010 memoir, he walked into one of his first piano courses and was asked to prove he had the requisite chops by playing a piece on the spot. Not having practiced anything but jazz for years—this was 1944, and big band swing was at its peak—the budding pianist sat down at the bench, broke into a half-remembered theme from a Liszt impromptu, and “stopped playing as the theme was about to elaborate itself, as if I could have gone on to the end were there time and need.” He could not have gone on to the end, nor even a note further, but his teacher, a brilliant young pianist with some of the look of Marlene Dietrich, was nonetheless taken in.
Jean Meslier Jean Meslier Jean Meslier (French: [melje]; also Mellier; 15 June 1664[1] – 17 June 1729), was a French Catholic priest (abbé) who was discovered, upon his death, to have written a book-length philosophical essay promoting atheism. Described by the author as his "testament" to his parishioners, the text denounces all religion. Life[edit] Thought[edit] In his most famous quote, Meslier refers to a man who "...wished that all the great men in the world and all the nobility could be hanged, and strangled with the guts of the priests Equally well-known is the version by Diderot: "And [with] the guts of the last priest let's strangle the neck of the last king Voltaire's Extrait[edit] Various edited abstracts (known as "extraits") of the Testament were printed and circulated, condensing the multi-volume original manuscript and sometimes adding material that was not written by Meslier. Meslier's significance[edit] For the first time (but how long will it take us to acknowledge this?) References[edit]