I needed a laugh today, and ZOMGitsCriss certainly put a smile on my face with her video (see below) . Of course Victor J Stenger covers a lot of this in his book “God: The Failed Hypothesis” but without the colourful language!
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
It is in religion’s best interest to close people’s minds, to keep them from truth and reality.
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
I saw a newspaper article today with Baroness Warsi wanting to fight against “militant secularists” and for religion to feature more strongly in government and society. Coyne has his own thoughts on this:
More here:
Religion is a force for control, for suppression, and for barbarity, clothed in dogmas and rituals which the religious hope is mistaken for civility and progress, shielded by the mock claims of “offence” and “racism”. I am tolerant of religion (I don’t go around threatening people for a start) and adults can believe in whatever fairy-tales they wish (and I will judge their competency on rationality accordingly) but I am against those fairy-tales if the religious enforce indoctrinations onto children, when they threaten liberty and free speech, when they threaten and commit violence, and when they encourage a closed-mind view. Religion will abuse, it has a proven track record.
It seems to me that Warsi wants to extend religion’s special privileges where none is warranted. She wants a safe harbour for religious indoctrination to thrive. She wants irrationality to become ubiquitous. She stands for all that is backwards and medieval in thinking and outlook. It is perhaps the religious like her that are the real danger to civilisation.
I will criticise all religions and the religious where they come into conflict with ideals such as reason, rationality, freedom, equality and justice. History has shown that religions will suppress such ideals through use and abuse of whatever powers and controls they have.
It’s quite simple. The religious are not at all comfortable in their delusions and instinctively lash out at those that expose the irrationality and fragility of the religious mind. So much for turning the other cheek!
Religion needs people to be uneducated, to be unquestioning, to be stupid and credulous. This is how religion exerts itself and how it continues to enslave people into backwards thinking. Jerry Coyne explains this quite clearly in the recent “Be stupid” command from Pope Benedict XVI of the Roman Catholic Church.
Religion is institutionalised delusion, a social grouping mechanism for the irrational. But for those within this group who dare to explore with open minds, with the tools of critical thinking, there is hope of a life free from the prisons and poisons of religion.
Religion, contrary to the naivety expressed by some, cannot lay claim to morality. Religion is a source of enslavement, a source of inequality, a source of barbarity. Humans, as a community-based species, have derived morality from within itself, from within the community, influenced by the social interactions that takes place. And morality changes, progresses, as communities advance. But religion stakes a claim on morality, claims itself as a source of morality, and distorts it for its own means. Here we are, in the 21st century, with the inhumanity and unreason of religion exposed by advances in science and by application of critical thinking. Religion has not only passed its sell-by-date but was defective when conceived and manufactured. Let’s move on and free ourselves.
Science is the search for truth. It is a rational mechanism that uses logic, evidence and other facts to formulate theories to arrive at the truth. Religion is at odds with this rationality and thus those who advocate religion are deluded. And those scientists who claim compatibly of religion with truth in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary must do a pretty good job of compartmentalising the irrationality of religion from their rational thoughts. But, then, humans are not always consistent or rational in what they do which makes the scientific process an absolutely critical method to progress.
Religion is not compatible with truth. Religion is an intellectual prison, a method of control, a method of suppression and repression, which blinds the religious to the truth. It’s about time humanity broke free of its shackles, to experience the truth, to experience the excitement, wonders and mysteries of this planet and the universe.
…religion does not deserve any special privileges; it is not immune to criticism and I will object to any laws or “politically correct” influences that seek to protect religion or not cause “offence”. Any “offences” that religious people feel, I think, may be the result of a deep split within their personalities where their rational-self is trying to get to the surface but is pushed back down by the irrational-self. This battle probably goes unnoticed by the person but if they really thought about it they may perhaps know that there’s something not quite right. And rather than explore and understand and admit that they are wrong they, instead, lash out at the external, the rationalists, the critical thinkers. They want this nice, cosy world that they’ve built around themselves and are afraid to venture out, afraid to grow-up, afraid to confront reality.
…religion is used as the canvas and as the brush to paint a veil of terror
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
An interesting discussion between Lawrence Krauss and Richard Dawkins on biological and cosmological origins. The video is also wonderfully shot and presented. Watch in HD!
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
Way to go!
As I wrote in a recent blog:
I will criticise all religions and the religious where they come into conflict with ideals such as reason, rationality, freedom, equality and justice. History has shown that religions will suppress such ideals through use and abuse of whatever powers and controls they have.
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
I’d already written about threats from Christians and Christianity. Recently I’ve noticed a surge in blogs articles regarding threats from Muslims and Islam; I’ve collated these here.
Let this be clear though; criticism of Islam is not racist, just as criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic, although it is probably in the best interests of certain organisations and groups to conflate such ideas. I will criticise all religions and the religious where they come into conflict with ideals such as reason, rationality, freedom, equality and justice. History has shown that religions will suppress such ideals through use and abuse of whatever powers and controls they have. Christianity has abused and committed atrocities in the past, its holy book full of violence and injustice, but Christianity has largely been neutered and is now merely a nuisance. Islam needs to be similarly neutered; their atrocities, their abuses, their unreason, must be highlighted. It is true that the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful and just want to live a life of peace, to love their children, in a world where there are many struggles to overcome, just like people the world over. Unfortunately, other Muslims are carrying their vision of Islam through acts and threats of violence.
Articles on Christianity and the irrationality religions:
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
I actually found this out by accident.
I’d upload some jpeg photos to my website but unfortunately I forgot to convert the profile from ProPhoto RGB to sRGB when saving from PSD to jpeg. I initially saw no problems on my Windows 7 machine using a wide-gamut calibrated profiled display as I use Firefox which handles colour management with aplomb. It was only whilst I was looking at the uploaded photos using Safari on the iPad to check if the resolution was OK on a tablet that I got the shock of my life. Yup, Safari on the iPad does not colour manage…what a mess!
Those images with ProPhoto RGB should never have escaped into the wild in the first place as I knew how broken various systems and browsers are with regards to colour management. I just need to make sure that I am more diligent in ensuring that the profiles are converted to sRGB when saving to jpeg. I normally use Photoshop (CS4) “Save for Web & Devices…” or Adobe Bridge’s Photoshop “Image Processor…” but on this occasion I used Photoshop’s “Save as…” feature. Must be more careful next time.
My earlier findings on colour management of various browsers in Windows 7 remain though:
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012
Coyne blogs about Madison Murphy’s article regarding evolution.
I do wonder if the religious such as Murphy are incompetent, or deluded, or if they deliberately aim to mislead and lie.
The website http://notjustatheory.com/ has more information regarding evolution, theory and fact:
…from this I’ll quote:
Next time someone tries to tell you that evolution is just a theory, as a way of dismissing it, as if it’s just something someone guessed at, remember that they’re using the non-scientific meaning of the word. If that person is a teacher, or minister, or some other figure of authority, they should know better. In fact, they probably do, and are trying to mislead you.
Article by Kulvinder Singh Matharu – 2012