Posts Tagged ‘BBC’

Caption Contest #3

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

Okay, last week’s Contest entries were utterly hilarious. I wish I didn’t have to decide. Seriously, I laughed at each and every entry. After much difficult pondering, I settled with Red McWilliams’ entry. 1 Congratulations, Red. Your prize is a coupon for a free Arch Deluxe at any participating McDonald’s that still serves it.

Okay, this week’s Caption Contest photo comes from a BBC video of a recent “tragedy.” Good luck!

Caption this photo:
cratesuck

  1. “Chris Hansen unceremoniously informs Ronald that, despite her stating otherwise, Birdie is only 15.” [<]

Commuter Plane Crashing and Killing 49 is “Remarkable” – Not Miraculous?

Friday, February 13th, 2009

The first domestic plane crash with accompanying deaths since 2006 occurred late last night on a Continental Express flight from Newark, NJ to Buffalo, NY.

NBC’s Today show, and all other media, thus far, has either called this sad event “remarkable” with regard to the fact that when it crashed into a home, it didn’t kill more people. No references to the “Miracle in Buffalo.” Again, another example of how the media gives credit to God when good things happen, and seems to ignore God when disasters strike. I’m waiting for the first signs of a church to blame someone’s promiscuity or homosexuality or choice of liberal black president as the reason for God crashing the plane.

Reality Check: Yes, I’m human. I have emotions. I can see how a plane crash is a terrible thing, especially when it kills people. I’m not at all advocating that we treat the situation any differently than we do the reality that people are dying in droves every day from auto accidents, from starvation, violence, disease, war. It’s not helpful to ignore those, in light of a more media-hyped plane crash that seems to excite more people. What I’m bringing attention to by writing a post like this is the fact that the media (and many people in general) manipulates the reaction to satisfy their desire to praise a greater being, but only when they like or want to highlight some positive aspect of the event. God isn’t given due credit for disasters, only the “miraculous” survivors of those disasters. This ends up hurting humans in two ways. First, it doesn’t give due credit to the humans in situations who save the lives of others — like when Captain Sullenberger was asked if he had prayed before deftly landing his plane in the Hudson (he said that he expected that others would be doing that – implying that he had more pressing matters to attend to). The media immediately called it the “Miracle on the Hudson,” and God was thanked all around. Except, of course, by the expert captain, who thanked his training and his crew, as we should have done, profusely.

And second, it perpetuates the notion that God is a real thing that, for whatever reason, makes these “miracles” occur. The media should stay out of the God business, just like government.

State of Protest

I am a god

Tuesday, January 13th, 2009

I am a god

Arrogant? Egotistical? Maybe…

I am faced with the seemingly inevitable conclusion, however; that it is dead on. In fact, not only am I a god, but everyone else is too. You may have noticed two things. One, I did not say, “I Am God” and two, I did not say, “I Am THE God”. Before I continue, it will be necessary for me to define god.

According to Dictionary.com, the term God is “The one supreme being, the creator and ruler of the universe.” Further, god is defined as one of several deities, esp. a male deity, presiding over a portion of worldly affairs. The term “God” is shunned by some religions like Buddhism.

Now in no way am I claiming to be God. That would be ludicrous. I am saying that I am a god in the second sense. As in I do indeed preside over a portion of worldly affairs. We all do, it is a no-brainer. This dictionary may be incomplete, but have you met any non-human that presided “over a portion of worldly affairs”?

So let me take it a step further. I also think that we are the only gods around. Now, there is a possibility that there are other alien entities present in the universe. They, in their own way, are probably gods as well. But their presence is not the one I am referring to when I say that we are the only gods around. I am more referring to supernatural deities: entities that supposedly exist right here on earth.

I will pull my punch a bit and say that I cannot definitively prove that there are no supernatural entities. That WOULD be arrogant. I just do not see any clear evidence for any being present. What is also becoming clearly evident is that the human brain has an area that, when deactivated, fosters religious experience.1 And to add to that, there is a brain area that controls the amount of religious experience.2

Apparently the right parietal lobe of your brain is responsible for a large percentage of you sense of self. The researchers refer to someone with strong activity in this area as a “Me-Definer”. Suppression of this area causes a person to experience a “oneness” or other spiritual experience. This experience is consistent with one’s own personal belief system, but occurs across a population of people that believe in different religions. That means if you believe in Muhammed, then that is the deity you will have a religious experience with. If you are a Christian, then Jesus will, “come into your heart” or some other experience of oneness with the Christian god.

In combination with suppression of the parietal lobe and stimulation of the temporal lobe, there is a combination of brain activity that “creates” god. Everyone has a brain and everyone is different. Everyone has the capacity to experience god through stimulation of the temporal lobes and suppression of the parietal lobe of the brain. People who have spiritual or religious experiences of god as being a “oneness” of being and/or a connection with “all-that-is,” conclude that the experience is externally originated. The reality is that psychobiology has taken god and packaged him up into two small areas of the human brain. I have a brain – I am a god, and so are the rest of you.

-Noumenon

  1. http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20081224/sc_livescience/spiritualityspotfoundinbrain [<]
  2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2003/godonbrain.shtml [<]

DC Metro Bus Anti-God Campaign Watch

Monday, December 1st, 2008

I’m “in” DC, and very interested in the development of the DC Metro bus ad campaign (reminiscent of the London bus “no god” ad slogans in October) by the American Humanist Association, which, according to the Association’s press release, “will raise public awareness of humanism as well as controversy over humanist ideas.”

Why Believe?
“Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake.”

In order to help readers keep tabs on this historic event, State of Protest will be monitoring the news and the blogosphere for related articles. Keep an eye out here for interesting developments.

I’m also going to try to get some pics and video of the actual buses, as well as some on-the-street interviews with observers.

American Humanist press release: Humanists Launch Godless Holiday Campaign

News

MyFox DC: “Why Believe in a god” Ads on Metro Draw Scorn
(Apparently the local Fox station in DC likes to delete all of its old or controversial web articles, so I apologize for this link no longer working. I haven’t been able to find the full article anywhere else thus far.)

CNN: Group’s New Christmas Message: Be good, not godly(this URL has been removed from CNN. It referred to the AH press release)

ABC: God Humbug: Humanist Holiday Ads Say Just Be Good

Nov 12 – FoxNews: “Why Believe in a God?” Ad Campaign Launches on D.C. Buses

More Fox News (again, deleted by MyFoxDC, the DC Fox News station), plus silly comments like “Lots of people are going to have a funny look on their faces, when they find out that God is real. Especially when they are falling into the fires of Hell.”

Blogs

(Related): Joystiq.com: Fallout 3 ads criticized by Washington D.C. metro rider

American Atheists: It Begins: Godless Ads
(if you get a 403 error, just click through — trying to get in touch with the owner to fix this [if you're out there, contact me!])

Ex-Christian.net

Oz Atheist’s Weblog

Pharyngula (PZ Myers)

Rant & Reason: Blog of the Humanist Magazine

ReligionBlog (at DallasNews)

If you have others to suggest, please link them in the comments. Thanks!

UPDATES:

12-01 – On the metro train this morning, I saw one of the campaign posters in a corner of the train. By the time I saw, it, it was my stop, so I wasn’t able to take a photo of it, but I did notice that absolutely no one was looking at it, gawking, or whatever. I think people generally ignore ads in the metro, but I would have liked to have been able to interview someone about it. Now that I know the posters are in the trains as well as on the buses, I’ll be more on the lookout. More soon! And happy Thanksgiving!

12-02 – According to the DC Examiner (the free DC local newspaper that endorsed John McCain), there have been 251 complaints so far about the metro ads, and only one compliment. 1
Although the ACLU stated that it would defend the First Amendment right of the American Humanist Association to post ads, even if others find them offensive (because no one has the right not to be offended), complainants have still contended that the ads are offensive, because they question the existence of God — “That ad is obscene to me!? I wouldn’t want my children reading that,” wrote one.

If you’d like to compliment or complain about Metro, click HERE. (they call compliments “commendations”). Other contact info for Metro can be found HERE.

Here’s my commendation:

Please accept my thanks for granting equal opportunity to both the religious and non-religious advertisers. I ride the metro daily, and it’s nice to see that Metro hasn’t stifled the speech of any side, and has played fair, despite controversy.

Also, if you could get the escalators working, that’d be great, too.

Update 12-15-2008

Read my criticism of the counter-ads.

  1. Thanks to pstryder for the link on Reddit’s atheism sub-Reddit. http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/120308_Metro_fields_hundreds_of_complaints_about_bus_ads.html [<]

Shar’iah Law Rocks

Wednesday, November 5th, 2008

There are people on this earth that deserve not only to die, but also to suffer greatly prior to their deaths. The process by which their lives will end needs to begin soon, and it needs to be thorough enough to eliminate everyone who believes what they believe and acts upon those beliefs.

The targets of my deep-seated, unrelenting, merciless hatred?

The men and women who condone the stoning to death of a 13-year-old girl.

For being the victim of rape.1

No one on this planet should ever sit back and relax comfortably with thoughts of how pleasant this world is (for them) until everyone even remotely considering such a heinous act are utterly wiped from the face of this earth. I’m not advocating genocide. I’m advocating justice, and an end to fatal sexism, fatal racism, and any other type of discrimination founded on religion or prejudice that ends in pain, suffering, death, or other injury.

She begged for mercy.

As she was taken to the place to be stoned, she asked what they wanted from her.

“We will do,” they replied, “what Allah has instructed us.”

She pleaded for her life. “Don’t kill me,” she pleaded, “Don’t kill me.”

In a football field, the men forced her into a hole and buried up to her neck.

A thousand witnesses stood by, watching.

Then, over 50 men hurled stones at the 13-year-old Somali rape victim.

They hurled stones until they thought she was dead.

There was some confusion. Nurses went over to her to determine whether she was still alive.

Yes, she was still alive.

So, they re-buried her and the men continued to stone her.

To death.

She died because three men raped her.

This is Shar’iah law.2

This is religion manifest in law.

We consider ourselves icons of worldwide justice. We rescue small countries like Kuwait from oppressive dictator invaders like Saddam Hussein. We later oust him and advocate for his death for his crimes against humanity. We stick our aquiline nose into whatever business around the world seems to favor our own interests, but we ignore these little religious sacrifices because, well, we can’t be intolerant, can we?

We do need to be intolerant. We do need to protect one’s right to think and speak freely, but we do not need to protect one’s right to act, especially when that action results in injury to another, and even more especially if that act has somehow been justified by the actor based on religious belief. Religion itself may be untouchable — it’s a concept. But the religious are not, should not be untouchable. Why aren’t we sending in forces to stop this? What happened to the sanctity of life? Is it void because she’s Somalian? Has she somehow waived her right to life because she was forcibly penetrated by the men who likely participated in her stoning? Is it because she’s not white? How about because Somalia doesn’t have a lot of oil? Or that because last time we went there, we got our asses kicked — by the people we went in to “protect”?

We are hypocrites.

Our leaders are hypocrites.

Our religious neighbors are hypocrites.

If we have the ability to do something to help people like this poor girl, why the fuck aren’t we doing something about it?

I’m getting fucking sick of this planet.

-Procrustes

Stop Stoning (dot org)

Stop Honour Killings

Links to this article:

The Whited Sepulchre: Shar’iah Law

UPDATE / Related News: Saudi judge sentences pregnant gang-rape victim to 100 lashes for committing adultery (found via Deep Thoughts)

A Saudi judge has ordered a woman should be jailed for a year and receive 100 lashes after she was gang-raped, it was claimed last night.

The 23-year-old woman, who became pregnant after her ordeal, was reportedly assaulted after accepting a lift from a man.

He took her to a house to the east of the city of Jeddah where she was attacked by him and four of his friends throughout the night.

A judge in the Saudi city of Jeddah, pictured, ruled that the woman was guilty of adultery and should be jailed for a year

She later discovered she was pregnant and made a desperate attempt to get an abortion at the King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces.

According to the Saudi Gazette, she eventually ‘confessed’ to having ‘forced intercourse’ with her attackers and was brought before a judge at the District Court in Jeddah.

He ruled she had committed adultery – despite not even being married – and handed down a year’s prison sentence, which she will serve in a prison just outside the city.

She is still pregnant and will be flogged once she has had the child.

The Saudi Arabian legal system practices a strict form of medieval law. Women have very few rights and are not even allowed to drive.

They are also banned from going out in public in the company of men other than male relatives.

Isn’t Saudi Arabia a U.S. ally? Isn’t what the judge there did (and thus the government) equivalent to terrorism? Why aren’t we attacking Saudi Arabia? We went to war with Iraq because we alleged that 9/11 attackers had support from Iraq. Most of those attackers were from where? Saudi Arabia. The last eight years were a terrible joke, and we’ve paid a terrible price, and made women pay an even worse price. Can’t we please fix this?

  1. Stoning Victim “Begged for mercy”, BBC NEWS. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7708169.stm [<]
  2. Or “Sharia law” or “Šarīʿah law” or “Islamic law” or whatever you want to call it – it’s disgusting that anyone would want or allow people to be punished in accordance with the Islamic faith (or, more specifically, an interpretation of that faith). It’s akin to Americans stoning people to death who claim to believe in Buddha, or Allah, for that matter, or for not believing in the Christian god. I mean, that’s biblical law, right? If we practiced that (and it resulted in death), others would be justified in criticizing us, if not ending the practice by killing those of us who perpetuate it. [<]