There's a great article in the times online by Richard Dawkins about the loathsome attitudes of the religious when natural disasters happen such as the recent one in Haiti. Further religious loathsomeness was in evidence the other day also when a group of US baptists were caught trying to smuggle children out of Haiti no doubt to take them back tothe US to save their souls and have them adopted.
The fact that they had not bothered to check if all the children were in fact orphans or, even worse, follow the necessary procedures for getting approval to take the children out of the country illustrates once again the arrogance of the religious when they are "on gods mission". Law, morality, common sense , logic - none of it matters when the religious think they have Gods calling to do his work.
Fortunately these Baptists were caught before they could spirit the children away and they are going to be dealt with by the Haitian law. No doubt they will get a slap on the wrist and sent on their way given that the US is the major player in the disaster recovery operation. Haiti unfortunately simply cant afford to have problems with the US at this point. These child stealing baptists really deserve to be in jail for child abduction..
Feb 1, 2010
Jan 8, 2010
Atheism or Critical Thinking
Is Atheism the same as Critical or Rational Thinking? Should atheists organise around atheism or around the ideas of rational thinking? It's a debate that crops up regularly in atheist circles. My view is that atheism and rational thinking are closely related but distinct things. Atheists should not therefore simply organise under a banner of "rational thinking" or "critical thinking".
Atheism at it's most basic is simply defined as an absence of belief in a god - any god of any kind. There can never be absolute proof or disproof of the existence of god. The non belief of Atheists is, in it's deepest roots, always a conclusion that rests on probabilities. Atheists see no evidence for the existence of a god and are unafraid to conclude that there is no probability worth speaking of that there is a God. Absence of evidence though is not conclusive evidence of absence. It does not prove that God is absent - it merely makes it highly unlikely that there is a God.
For most people who choose Atheism ( and few Atheists were brought up as Atheists) the lack of absolute proof either way is not a problem. Atheists by and large in my experience generally understand that the realm of absolute proof doesn't apply to the real world. The idea that humans may not posses the absolute truth is not one that many religious believers, and particularly fundamentalist literalists, are comfortable with. Their faith rests on believing that they have been handed down absolute truths - that our ancestors had dealings with gods and that we have been handed down holy works which contain absolute truths.
So atheism and rational or critical thinking are very closely related but even so I think it would be misleading to wholly equate the two. It is entirely possible for an Atheist to be less than rational on other issues.
The essential elements of critical or rational thinking is a willingness to examine arguments rationally and, importantly, a willingness to change your views if the evidence points in another direction.
This is the essential contrast between rational thinking and most fundamentalist type religious thinking. For believers faith is the key - not evidence. Religious faith without faith becomes merely the following of ceremonies and rules. The religious believer must have faith if they are to believe and faith is not the same as evidence.
Just like an atheist may be rational in their atheism but not rational on other subjects then also a god believer may be irrational in that respect but perfectly rational in the way they think about other issues.
A prime example of this is the way that most of the mainstream churches have accommodated to science over the last few hundred years. As the evidence about the real nature of the earth, the universe and man's place in it has stacked up so most non-fundmantalist believers have accepted this evidence.
If atheists try to grab for themselves the "rational thinking" label then we deny the rationality of the many millions of people around the world who are rational enough to understand basic scientific evidence and theories but who happen also to be less than rational in their god believing.
For me Atheism is the rational conclusion that I come to when I consider the evidence for and against the existence of a god - any god. I am also anti - religious because again I think that on balance religion is a more destructive force in the world than a constructive one. Not all religions or religious views however are equally damnable. I know that I share many political and ethical views with moderate believers of different faiths. There are also atheists whose political and ethical views I may not share.
Essentially Atheism is a subset of rational or critical thinking. It is rational or critical thinking as applied narrowly to one question - the existence or non existence of a god - any god.
Atheism at it's most basic is simply defined as an absence of belief in a god - any god of any kind. There can never be absolute proof or disproof of the existence of god. The non belief of Atheists is, in it's deepest roots, always a conclusion that rests on probabilities. Atheists see no evidence for the existence of a god and are unafraid to conclude that there is no probability worth speaking of that there is a God. Absence of evidence though is not conclusive evidence of absence. It does not prove that God is absent - it merely makes it highly unlikely that there is a God.
For most people who choose Atheism ( and few Atheists were brought up as Atheists) the lack of absolute proof either way is not a problem. Atheists by and large in my experience generally understand that the realm of absolute proof doesn't apply to the real world. The idea that humans may not posses the absolute truth is not one that many religious believers, and particularly fundamentalist literalists, are comfortable with. Their faith rests on believing that they have been handed down absolute truths - that our ancestors had dealings with gods and that we have been handed down holy works which contain absolute truths.
So atheism and rational or critical thinking are very closely related but even so I think it would be misleading to wholly equate the two. It is entirely possible for an Atheist to be less than rational on other issues.
The essential elements of critical or rational thinking is a willingness to examine arguments rationally and, importantly, a willingness to change your views if the evidence points in another direction.
This is the essential contrast between rational thinking and most fundamentalist type religious thinking. For believers faith is the key - not evidence. Religious faith without faith becomes merely the following of ceremonies and rules. The religious believer must have faith if they are to believe and faith is not the same as evidence.
Just like an atheist may be rational in their atheism but not rational on other subjects then also a god believer may be irrational in that respect but perfectly rational in the way they think about other issues.
A prime example of this is the way that most of the mainstream churches have accommodated to science over the last few hundred years. As the evidence about the real nature of the earth, the universe and man's place in it has stacked up so most non-fundmantalist believers have accepted this evidence.
If atheists try to grab for themselves the "rational thinking" label then we deny the rationality of the many millions of people around the world who are rational enough to understand basic scientific evidence and theories but who happen also to be less than rational in their god believing.
For me Atheism is the rational conclusion that I come to when I consider the evidence for and against the existence of a god - any god. I am also anti - religious because again I think that on balance religion is a more destructive force in the world than a constructive one. Not all religions or religious views however are equally damnable. I know that I share many political and ethical views with moderate believers of different faiths. There are also atheists whose political and ethical views I may not share.
Essentially Atheism is a subset of rational or critical thinking. It is rational or critical thinking as applied narrowly to one question - the existence or non existence of a god - any god.
Jan 5, 2010
The Atheist Ten Commandments
1. Do not believe in any god or gods or be bound by any religious doctrine. Neither shall you make for yourself an idol in the form of a god or bow down to a god or worship any god whatever name they may go by.
2 You shall only say "oh Jebus" or OMG! when the car breaks down or in other severe circumstances.
3. Do not work everyday - take at least one day a week off work and chill out..
4 Honor your father ( if you know who he is) and your mother.
5 You shall not murder but you shall mock.
6 You shall not lust after re-touched photos of glamour models.
7 You shall not get caught downloading file shared copyrighted materials from the internet.
8 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour even if he is a lying toe-rag.
9 You shall not covet your neighbor’s MP3 player; your neighbor’s trophy wife, or your neighbours 4x4
10 Start again at commandment 1
As you can see my Atheist Ten commandments actually consist of nine commandments plus a tenth recursive commandment . This is in keeping with the spirit of the Biblical ten commandments which come in at least three different flavours ( two in Exodus and one in Deuteronomy) and also don't add up neatly to ten.
2 You shall only say "oh Jebus" or OMG! when the car breaks down or in other severe circumstances.
3. Do not work everyday - take at least one day a week off work and chill out..
4 Honor your father ( if you know who he is) and your mother.
5 You shall not murder but you shall mock.
6 You shall not lust after re-touched photos of glamour models.
7 You shall not get caught downloading file shared copyrighted materials from the internet.
8 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour even if he is a lying toe-rag.
9 You shall not covet your neighbor’s MP3 player; your neighbor’s trophy wife, or your neighbours 4x4
10 Start again at commandment 1
As you can see my Atheist Ten commandments actually consist of nine commandments plus a tenth recursive commandment . This is in keeping with the spirit of the Biblical ten commandments which come in at least three different flavours ( two in Exodus and one in Deuteronomy) and also don't add up neatly to ten.
Jan 1, 2010
Help Save MySql from Oracle
Please sign the petition to save MySql
If you are an ordinary Internet user then you may be in the dark about what LAMP is. But without doubt a large number of the sites that you visit would not have existed without this behind the scenes combination of software packages and in particular one part of it - the Open Source Database software MySql. MySql is now threatened with takeover by a large commercial rival and people are organising to counter this threat.
LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySql and PHP(1) - a combination of software that provides the most common framework used for delivering internet services. These four parts of the LAMP package are Open Source software - free for anone to use or develop. This free Open source nature of the elements of the LAMP package is undoubtedly one of the things that has driven the incredible growth of the internet.
(1) Sometimes Pearl or Python rather than PHP
It is not difficult to understand in a simplified way the basic role that each of the elements in ths package plays. Linux provides the operating system that runs the computers that host the websites. Apache is the webserver software that controls the basic delivery of webpages to visitors, MySQL is database software which is used to store the information that the website serves to visitors and PHP is the software that is used to create the webpages and provides much of the "logic" of a site that glues these parts together.
Although there are other packages that provide these functions they are sually controlled by big corporations like Microsoft or Oracle. These other packages charge purchase and licence fees that are generally well outside the costs that any small to medium business or organisation can sustain.
Without Open Source Software the Internet would be a much smaller and less interesting world and those companies that could afford a web presence would almost certainly be under even greater pressure to charge for web services to recover the costs of software licences.
MySql currently faces the prospect of takeover by Oracle. The reason this is a problem is that Oracle already owns one of the most widely used database packages. It seems unlikely that Oracle has the intention of buying MySql in order to nurture and grow it's current Open Source competitor. No, Oracles purpose is clearly to remove Open Source database competition in one swoop.
Now maybe anti-competitive practice is not something that keeps you awake at night. It's a subject for courts and ministers. But it should worry you that major parts of the Interent run on LAMP and that if MySQL goes down to a commercial predator then the survival of the other parts must be in question.
I doubt that many people want an internet which is fully controlled by major corporations which start charging a fortune for their services. Please consider following the links in this story and adding your voice to the campaign to stop Oracle getting MySQL.
Here's the MySql petition link again
If you are an ordinary Internet user then you may be in the dark about what LAMP is. But without doubt a large number of the sites that you visit would not have existed without this behind the scenes combination of software packages and in particular one part of it - the Open Source Database software MySql. MySql is now threatened with takeover by a large commercial rival and people are organising to counter this threat.
LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySql and PHP(1) - a combination of software that provides the most common framework used for delivering internet services. These four parts of the LAMP package are Open Source software - free for anone to use or develop. This free Open source nature of the elements of the LAMP package is undoubtedly one of the things that has driven the incredible growth of the internet.
(1) Sometimes Pearl or Python rather than PHP
It is not difficult to understand in a simplified way the basic role that each of the elements in ths package plays. Linux provides the operating system that runs the computers that host the websites. Apache is the webserver software that controls the basic delivery of webpages to visitors, MySQL is database software which is used to store the information that the website serves to visitors and PHP is the software that is used to create the webpages and provides much of the "logic" of a site that glues these parts together.
Although there are other packages that provide these functions they are sually controlled by big corporations like Microsoft or Oracle. These other packages charge purchase and licence fees that are generally well outside the costs that any small to medium business or organisation can sustain.
Without Open Source Software the Internet would be a much smaller and less interesting world and those companies that could afford a web presence would almost certainly be under even greater pressure to charge for web services to recover the costs of software licences.
MySql currently faces the prospect of takeover by Oracle. The reason this is a problem is that Oracle already owns one of the most widely used database packages. It seems unlikely that Oracle has the intention of buying MySql in order to nurture and grow it's current Open Source competitor. No, Oracles purpose is clearly to remove Open Source database competition in one swoop.
Now maybe anti-competitive practice is not something that keeps you awake at night. It's a subject for courts and ministers. But it should worry you that major parts of the Interent run on LAMP and that if MySQL goes down to a commercial predator then the survival of the other parts must be in question.
I doubt that many people want an internet which is fully controlled by major corporations which start charging a fortune for their services. Please consider following the links in this story and adding your voice to the campaign to stop Oracle getting MySQL.
Here's the MySql petition link again
Dec 30, 2009
Light From Day to Night
There's an interesting article in The Guardian which reports some developments in the field of new forms of lighting and display called OLED ( Organic Light Emitting Diode).
OLED is a leading edge technology that is being developed for the next generation of PC and TV screens but it has other potential uses for example as home lighting - an idea that Lomox, a small UK company is developing.
OLED is built upon the principle of exciting organic molecules by the application of a small electrical voltage. It is potentially a very flexible technology because of the prospect that OLED displays can be printed by laser jet technology. The most efficient form of OLED is Phophorescent OLED technology or PHOLED . OLED produces light very efficiently but at present OLED displays are still costly and have relatively short lifetimes.
Lomox reckon that their approach which is backed by seven patents deals with these problems and will let them produce lighting displays for indoor or outdoor use and deal with both of these problems.
There is an interesting convergence of two technologies now happening. More efficient Solar panels(1) together with increasingly commercial and efficient light production system means that it may soon be possible to realistically provide indoor or outdoor illumination at night from power collected from the sun during the day.
The day looks closer when it will become attractive to build these types of technologies into new build houses. The buyers will have the prospect of cheap and probably very flexible low voltage lighting systems. We may for example be able to buy GlowPaper to replace our wall coverings with flat panel lighting.
What will the house designer of the future do with these new forms of lighting I wonder?
How about a "forest" wallpaper that stretched around your room that glowed to give you the impression of sitting in a sunlight forest clearing?
If you had the chance to design your own wallpapers or panels what would you put on them?
(1) There were for example recent reports that good progress has been made on producing solar panels that collect nearer to the infrared and which are less dependent on direct sunlight.
Here's an Amazon link to the Sony OLED TV
OLED is a leading edge technology that is being developed for the next generation of PC and TV screens but it has other potential uses for example as home lighting - an idea that Lomox, a small UK company is developing.
OLED is built upon the principle of exciting organic molecules by the application of a small electrical voltage. It is potentially a very flexible technology because of the prospect that OLED displays can be printed by laser jet technology. The most efficient form of OLED is Phophorescent OLED technology or PHOLED . OLED produces light very efficiently but at present OLED displays are still costly and have relatively short lifetimes.
Lomox reckon that their approach which is backed by seven patents deals with these problems and will let them produce lighting displays for indoor or outdoor use and deal with both of these problems.
There is an interesting convergence of two technologies now happening. More efficient Solar panels(1) together with increasingly commercial and efficient light production system means that it may soon be possible to realistically provide indoor or outdoor illumination at night from power collected from the sun during the day.
The day looks closer when it will become attractive to build these types of technologies into new build houses. The buyers will have the prospect of cheap and probably very flexible low voltage lighting systems. We may for example be able to buy GlowPaper to replace our wall coverings with flat panel lighting.
What will the house designer of the future do with these new forms of lighting I wonder?
How about a "forest" wallpaper that stretched around your room that glowed to give you the impression of sitting in a sunlight forest clearing?
If you had the chance to design your own wallpapers or panels what would you put on them?
(1) There were for example recent reports that good progress has been made on producing solar panels that collect nearer to the infrared and which are less dependent on direct sunlight.
Here's an Amazon link to the Sony OLED TV
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