October 2008 Blog Posts (14)

Night Eyes

Night.

The darkened day.

The time of midnight life.

A new universe creeps silently to the stage.

Another world to see.

Another life to live.

The sun is now the moon's shadow.

The white orb's reflection through a pool of black.

The creatures, fluid and fading in form.

This swift veil of drear fogs our virgin eyes.

Dawn.

A burst of light wakens the horizon.

A wave of sunny demise.

Another murder of the shadow… Continue

Added by Morticia on October 27, 2008 at 8:14pm — 5 Comments

And the Planchette Remains Still

I just used a Ouija (Talking) Board for the second time in my life, and for the second time of my life the Planchette (pointer) remained, regrettably, still. It's amazing how many horrible stories are apocryphally accepted. If a particle board with letters on it, accompanied by a plastic 'Planchette', could affect the spirit world, I'm so incredibly surprised, as should you be, that our modern science hasn't found a way. Maybe we should tell them about the Ouija. (The Mass Produced version ...… Continue

Added by Benji on October 27, 2008 at 4:29am — 1 Comment

40 Unwritten Rules to Live By

1. Never ask a woman if she wants to have sex by asking her if she wants to have sex.

2. It is more important to have good health insurance than good health.

3. Don't bluff more than once in a poker game with friends.

4. When one of the big bosses at work unexpectedly says something really cheery and friendly to you, he means absolutely nothing by it. Not even if he's your father.

5. Wear as much black as you can. It makes you look slimmer and cooler.… Continue

Added by Kate on October 26, 2008 at 1:54am — 5 Comments

I've Lost My MySpace and Some Friends

Due to a minor infraction at MySpace.com (ie. being an atheist and speaking out,) my account was deleted. I opened another account, just to keep in touch with old friends, and marked it 'private'.

So far only a few have accepted my friend request.

While this could be a coincidence, I can't help feeling that some of them just couldn't reconcile my beliefs .. or, non-beliefs. I was never critical of them directly, but I made quite a few anti-evangelical postings (usually… Continue

Added by Benji on October 23, 2008 at 12:12pm — 7 Comments

Atheist buses ready to roll across country after making £31,000 in a day

Atheist adverts declaring "there's probably no God" could be placed on buses across the country after a fundraising drive made five times the target amount in just one day.

Even religious groups donated money to the cause in the belief that the campaign, highlighted in The Daily Telegraph, would encourage people to think more about faith and could actually enhance support for Christianity.

Organisers needed to raise just £2,750 from supporters in order to pay for adverts… Continue

Added by Morgan Matthew on October 23, 2008 at 3:40am — No Comments

Creationists declare war over the brain

"YOU cannot overestimate," thundered psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz, "how threatened the scientific establishment is by the fact that it now looks like the materialist paradigm is genuinely breaking down. You're gonna hear a lot in the next calendar year about... how Darwin's explanation of how human intelligence arose is the only scientific way of doing it... I'm asking us as a world community to go out there and tell the scientific establishment, enough is enough! Materialism needs to start… Continue

Added by Morgan Matthew on October 23, 2008 at 2:58am — No Comments

Five steps to happiness

Five steps to happiness

Connect

Developing relationships with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours will enrich your life and bring you support

Be active

Sports, hobbies such as gardening or dancing, or just a daily stroll will make you feel good and maintain mobility and fitness

Be curious

Noting the beauty of everyday moments as well as the unusual and reflecting on them helps you to appreciate what matters to… Continue

Added by Morgan Matthew on October 23, 2008 at 2:51am — 1 Comment

Forgotten Experiment May Explain Origins of Life

Originally considered a dud, an old volcano-in-a-bottle experiment designed to mimic the conditions that may have given rise to life may have been right on target.

After reanalyzing the results of unpublished research conducted by Stanley Miller in 1953, chemists realized that his experiment had actually produced a wealth of amino acids — the protein foundation of life.

Miller is famed for the results of experiments on amino… Continue

Added by Morgan Matthew on October 17, 2008 at 1:54am — 1 Comment

McCain lacks the character and temperament to be president. And Palin is simply a disgrace. By Christopher Hitchens

I used to nod wisely when people said: "Let's discuss issues rather than personalities." It seemed so obvious that in politics an issue was an issue and a personality was a personality, and that the more one could separate the two, the more serious one was. After all, in a debate on serious issues, any mention of the opponent's personality would be ad hominem at best and at worst would stoop as low as ad feminam.

At my old English… Continue

Added by Morgan Matthew on October 13, 2008 at 11:21pm — 1 Comment

How Miracles Work - from the Atheist Revolution

Believers sometimes struggle to explain exactly how miracles work to we atheists. This is understandable. Explaining something that doesn't exist can be tough. Fortunately, I found two Christians who were at least willing to try amidst a sad story from Florida. Maybe we can learn something about miracles together.

The driver of a tractor-trailer, talking on his cell phone while driving like virtually every bad driver I see on the road these days (can you tell this is a pet peeve?),… Continue

Added by Don Fox on October 8, 2008 at 12:06pm — 5 Comments

Professor explores 'the God gene'

Why do so many people believe in God?

St. Augustine thought he knew the answer.

“You have created us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”

But since the Darwinian revolution and the human genome project, biologists increasingly have suggested another answer: Natural selection and genetics have hard-wired us for religious belief.

After all, we attribute everything… Continue

Added by Morgan Matthew on October 7, 2008 at 7:29pm — No Comments

Atheist group sues Bush over National Day of Prayer

MADISON, Wisconsin (AP) — The largest group of atheists and agnostics in the United States is suing President George W. Bush, the governor of Wisconsin and other officials over a federal law designating a National Day of Prayer.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sued Friday in U.S. district court, arguing that the president's mandated proclamations calling on Americans to pray violates a constitutional ban on government officials… Continue

Added by Morgan Matthew on October 7, 2008 at 7:00pm — No Comments

The Power of Unconscious Thought: Does It Result in Creative Problem-Solving?

No doubt many of us have all experienced a situation where, after long hours of trying to solve a certain problem, we give up, and go get a break, only to come back and solve the problem within moments. This appears to be a somewhat commonplace situation. However, the science behind it is much more complex.

According to the authors of the study – Professor Adam Galinsky of the Kellogg School of Management, Chen-Bo Zhong from the… Continue

Added by Morgan Matthew on October 5, 2008 at 5:57pm — No Comments

An oldie but a goodie

Last fall I went on a "LifeCrest VisionQuest", which included a stop-over in Groom, TX.

Eek.

Here, some "fellow travelers" (although far more faithful than I) asked me to take their picture in front of the 20-story cross at the foot of the stairs. I said, "Only if I can video tape it and post it on YouTube." They said,… Continue

Added by Paul Tourville on October 1, 2008 at 11:00am — No Comments