The Secular One's Blog (15)

I hate it, but from the way things are in the world right now, I am officially removing my name from this account.  People are being fired for all sorts of nonsense reasons, and I think it is time I got OUT of the game.

 

My account will still be here, my image will not change, but the name will be removed.  For those of you who know my name, please do not use it in response to me here.  The fewer Google an Yahoo hits the better.



I will still be an open atheist, but my…

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That is to say, I will be graduating in June 2012 with a Masters of Education in Life sciences and Chemistry and will hopefully be able to find a job teaching somewhere.  There were about 5 job openings for science teachers in the Dayton area this summer, but how many people entered the job market as a science teacher?  Will next year be any better?

 

Can an open atheist get hired to teach high school in Ohio?  That's a good question, and one I don't have a good answer to.  I…

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I ran into a couple of great moments of religious intolerance over the holidays. One involved a friend of my wife, and another involved myself.



The instance with our friend involves a clash of religions between her relatively recent conversion to Islam and her family's strong Hindu stance. It has come to the point where I am worried about violence against her from her family as they punish her for being the wrong religion and threaten to disrupt her education (she is in medical… Continue

Obama caves, kills federal budget and Social Security with useless tax cuts



Obama fights to keep don't ask don't tell in place



Obama keeps faith-based… Continue

Okay, not really, but it really seems that way lately. I've finally started back to school, taking an intro to Geology course as my last prerequisite for a Masters in Education. Trying to take any school with my job though is pretty crazy. Throw on top of that health issues (my migraines are in full swing again...I'm guessing from trying to do too much) and dental fun time (I'm getting my wisdom teeth cut out soon) and I've been too busy to really think enough to be on Nexus.



I will… Continue

My wife would be the poufy-haired one on the right. This won the Med school talent show!…



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It has been a rough month for me. I've twisted my knee at work over two weeks ago, and I'm just now getting full mobility back. Luckily work is paying for it due to the fact I slipped on an unmarked wet floor. I also have a harsh respiratory infection kicking my butt. Talking is hard, and laughing hurts. I miss laughing.

All in all, I look forward to being healthy again and getting back to reading/posting Atheist News. I miss those folks!

I've been with my wife for three years this weekend. I thought I should just take a moment to reflect on how lucky that makes me. Okay, enough mushy emotional stuff, on to more posting of news and science and whatnot!

She joined the ranks of the Youtube posters...who knows maybe I'll eventually manage to drag her over here.





It is kind of weird being a white guy that cares about the state of hair fashion and culture in the United States brown people population. All I have to say is let your hair be what it is! Curly is definitely… Continue

LDS apostle says religious freedom is under attack (link)



And damnit, Pharyngula, aka PZ Meyers, beat me to this, but I'm doing my rant without reading his...should be interesting to compare afterward.



Elder Dallin H. Oaks, an Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spoke out in a spew of logical fallacies… Continue

1) I am an agnostic atheist. Generally speaking, I find the definition of "god" to change depending on what theist I talk to, so I can therefore not say that all definitions of a god do not exist. I, however, know that Abrahamic religions are false, as they have a definable deity and belief structure which are shown to be false through history and science.



2) I prescribe to… Continue

I've been pondering this for a couple of weeks now, and I think I've come to a conclusion. The current "cultural conflict" between atheists and the religious has little to anything to do with belief in any gods. It has to do with what the "New Atheists" believe and what the relgious don't believe.



This isn't a battle between theists and atheists. This is a battle between naturalism and supernaturalism. This is a battle between rationalism and irrationalism. This is a battle between… Continue

Stolen in its entirety from the Atheist Experience Blog.



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NOTE: HUGE DISCLAIMER - the 'Agnostic' in this story represents a particular type of intellectual agnostic that makes assertions about the unknown and unknowable (and sends me countless e-mails) - this doesn't represent EVERY type of agnostic or everyone who uses the label. Many of us have used or currently use the… Continue

This is a post in progress. I am trying to come up with a (somewhat) basic argument that shows the pointlessness of the irreducible complexity argument. Please leave comments, questions, and ideas for improvement.



Let us suppose a biological system. Gene A performs action X. Gene A evolves to function as a tetramer.

In the format:

Gene group -> action



AAAA -> X



Now, suppose gene A duplicates in the genome (see the case of the Hox cluster). Gene A… Continue

How to you Pendulums for Dowsing and Divination!



New Age "psychics" are incredible inventive when it comes to finding ways to do supernatural stuff with everyday crap. One of these is pendulum dowsing: a technique done with a paper clip and string that can tell the future!



The article gives clear directions:



1) Make a pendulum out of something… Continue