Ann Coulter is Full of Shit

Today I stumbled across the following quote by Ann Coulter:

(Incidentally, this was posted to Facebook by the same friend who sparked my Athiest, why don’t you just shut up? post)

Is it just me or is that statement by Ms Coulter as insulting as it is absurd?

This is a single-sentence lesson in how to create a giant straw man. Coulter obviously wants to make liberal-minded people seem evil and she does this by concocting a ludicrous position (that abortion is less upsetting than chopping down trees) and then unilaterally ascribes this position to a large and diverse group of people.

Why does Coulter try and sell such an obvious straw man as a legitimate liberal position? Because she is ignorant and likes getting attention for saying outrageous things, I imagine.

I consider myself to be liberal, I’m not sure how liberal I am because I don’t really spend a lot of time trying to fit my thoughts into a narrow definition.

I don’t have a moral or philosophical position on chopping down trees. Sometimes you need to and sometimes it can be avoided and I’d like to see chopped-down trees replaced by newly-planted ones. I understand the ecological impact of logging and am appalled by the damage that is being done to the rainforests.

I do have a moral and philosophical position on abortion. In my opinion it is wrong. When I fell pregnant with my first child I was very young, unmarried and unemployed and I considered abortion. I didn’t consider it for very long, however, and decided that I could not terminate a life to cover up my mistakes. That was the best decision I have ever made and I would never undo it for anything.

Does that mean that my decision would work for every woman who falls pregnant? No.

I have a very supportive family, am well educated and have never had trouble finding employment. I knew that I would be able to cope. But many women are not as fortunate as I am.

I don’t think that what I decide to do with my uterus is anybody’s business but my own. By extension, I don’t think that anybody should ever be allowed to tell any woman what to do with her body, especially when the consequences are bearing a child. That is too big a responsibility to be forced into by anybody.

In my opinion, the people trying to force women to have children against their will are the conservative, religious sectors of society. This is supported by the actions and statements of the religious, condemning women and killing doctors for exercising their rights to do with their bodies as they see fit. And I think it is deeply perverted to try and exercise that kind of power against anyone.

And I’m sure that for every “liberal” out there, there will be another opinion. Some may agree with me, some may differ, and some may not give a damn either way. But I think that Ann Coulter should be more careful about her public statements in the future. Saying demonstrably false, stupid, ignorant things might make her feel all controversial and edgy, but it makes her look stupid and ignorant.

Atheist, why don’t you just shut up?

Yesterday I had a little moment on Facebook when one of my friends posted a picture that repeated the “April Fool’s day is the atheist’s national holiday” jibe. I decided a few days before that I would embrace this meagre attempt at cleverness by the religious crowd, and make the day my own. So I posted a comment to that effect on the image.

I’ll be happy to claim April Fool’s day as international atheist day. And I’ll tuck into some Halaal hot cross buns to celebrate

Were my exact words. I don’t think that this is particularly offensive or dismissive. What I was aiming for was something along the lines of “sure, whatever.” My comment about the Halaal hot cross buns is a reference to a recent tornado-in-a-teacup that erupted when the South African Woolworths chain dared to print a halaal certification on their spicy bun packets and a group of Christians felt that this was an insult to “their” tradition.

Shortly thereafter, another friend posted the following comment:

Do you have doubts about your atheism? Why do you keep on about it? Most atheists just quietly get on with living their lives the way they like. Its not necessary to denigrate other peoples beliefs. They need the support mechanism.

Well, this is exactly why I “keep on” about atheism. Because I am expected to shut up and behave myself like a good Christian while the bible crowd can happily make statements such as:

Fear of God has vanished and that means that humanity has vanished.

~Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa

I pity any offspring you might have produced and can only pray for it.

~J.N Laubscher, via email

I speak out about atheism and religion because it is the right thing to do. Never mind my constitutionally protected right to freedom of speech, if I was to sit quietly by (and if all the other vocal atheists were to zip their lips too) then we would only ever hear one side of the story.

People who doubted their beliefs would never know that there is a large, and growing, community of people who have found a way to live a meaningful and positive life without the fear of post-mortem punishment.

If atheists didn’t speak out, would we know about the Roman Catholic Church’s systematic abuse of children and their decades long protection of the paedophiles who perpetrate that abuse?

Would homosexual people ever be able to openly and freely express love for one another?

Would we even know that the Earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around?

Religion demands obedience and submission intellectually, emotionally, sexually and physically. It demands that you give up your ability to think critically about the world around you and the things you are told by people in authority, and if we do that we are lost.

I “keep on” about atheism because I think that religion is the greatest long con of them all and the sooner we pull the wool from our eyes the better.

You don’t need the “support” provided by believing in a fairy tale. You have a family.

You don’t need the intellectual suffocation of faith, you have a mind.

You need to speak out and not shut up. I do, at any rate.

 

The PowerBalance Theist

This is a guest post by Clinton Birch, a South African blogger whose writing can be found on news24. I hope you enjoy it and please catch up with Clinton on Facebook.

In 2010 everybody was in awe of the Power Balance – the simple holograph equipped silicon rubber-like wristband. This simple device was being credited with giving athletes improved strength, balance and flexibility. The makers claim that almost everything has a frequency inherent to it. Some frequencies react positively with your body and others negatively. When the hologram comes in contact with your body’s energy field, it allows your body to interact with the natural, beneficial frequency stored within the hologram. This results in improved energy flow throughout your body.

So does it work? Well the makers used public demonstrations to show the effect their wristbands were having. The audience was free to feel for themselves the improvements in strength, balance and flexibility that the device was giving to them. The wristbands were selling for approximately R600 and were selling as fast as they could be imported – not only athletes but everybody wanted to use them. Very quickly scores of top athletes were seen sporting them on their wrists – all sports and activities. The public realised with this sort of evidence there had to be something to the maker’s claims and so the sales continued to rise almost exponentially. Even prominent public figures were seen with the colourful wristbands, even if they were not athletes. There are even pictures of Bill Clinton wearing a Power Balance wristband (and not sure where he would need improved strength, balance and flexibility except during his post-work activities). Needless to say soon there were competing brands and cheap counterfeit copies from the east – and it was a well known fact that they did not have the same effect as the genuine Power Balance wristbands.

And then the scientists spoiled the party – and actually started testing the devices (YouTube). They could not detect any physical effect that the device was having on the body to justify the maker’s claims. They then did performance testing using athletes, some wearing the original Power Balance wristbands and a test group wearing the wristbands with the hologram removed. All the wristbands were covered so that the athletes did not know if they had the wristband still fitted with the hologram or if it had been removed. It was soon established that the test group and those wearing the genuine article were indistinguishable from each other when it came to strength, balance and flexibility.
So if the scientists disproved the maker’s claims – how was it that the athletes and wearers of the wristbands could experience the effects? Most of the initial sales were being made based on the personal recommendations of top athletes, but quickly the sales were being based on recommendations of friends and families. As a non-sporting type person, I did not see the Power Balance wristbands advertised in the marathon or cycling magazines, but saw and heard about them from sporty friends, who all claim to have experienced the positive effects the wristbands were having. Surely they would not lie to me? What would the benefit of lying to me be for them? They were not selling them? So surely then they must work?

So now we have to look at this from a different perspective – call it the human mind perspective. Science has shown that the device should have no effect and thus should not improve strength, balance and flexibility but that’s exactly what the wearers are claiming to experience. So if the testing did not show a measurable improvement but the wearers experienced it – then the effect had to be in the wearers minds. The human mind is incredible at creating its own reality – the people wearing them believed there was an improvement and thus to them this is what they were experiencing. This effect is well known in medical science and is called the placebo effect. The placebo effect points to the importance of perception and the brain’s role in physical health. In any testing of new drugs etc. there is always a control group given a substance resembling the real substance – and the difference in effect between the actual group and control group is then measured. It really is a case of if you believe a pill will cure your headache then even a sugar pill could have that effect on you and your headache will go away. The human mind is really an incredible thing.

So back to the Power Balance wristband – the scientists went public with their findings. To cut a long story short the whole Power Balance story was shown to be a scam. Even the makers have admitted that their product was a hoax and there is really no real benefit to wearing one. In January 2011, a suit was filed against the company for fraud, false advertising, unfair competition and unjust enrichment. Power Balance agreed in September 2011 to settle the class action lawsuit. The settlement terms entitled Power Balance purchasers to a full $30 refund plus $5 shipping but this was never finalised because in November 2011, Power Balance filed for bankruptcy after suffering a net loss of more than $9 million that year. I wonder how many Power Balance wristbands are lying in the bottom of draws never to be shown in public again – the owner knowing he was suckered into the scam and may even have helped perpetuate the scam by claiming he had experienced the benefits of the wristband.

So now dear reader – you should be comfortable with a few aspects of this story – and let me recap:
• The maker makes claims about his product
• The product becomes widely successful and is endorsed by very well known public figures
• Your own friends are claiming to have personally felt the effects
• You feel that you also need to experience the same benefits and join the in-crowd and are also seen wearing the product
• The effects can be felt by you – and so you have no question as to the effectiveness of the product and also recommend it to your own friends
• You hear about competing products that are also on the market but believe they are counterfeit and will not work like the original product
• Science then test the products – and claims they cannot determine any effect
• The product is revealed as a scam
• You feel embarrassed and hide your once proudly worn product in the deepest draw drawer – hoping none of your friends remind you that you encouraged them to buy one too
• Luckily they are also embarrassed about their own wristbands and also hide theirs
• You sort of follow the ensuing legal battle between the makers and various groups trying to claim that they have a claim for damages – but would rather have the whole story just go away especially now you know the chance of getting a refund is zero as the company is bankrupt.

Does this whole story sound vaguely familiar in another very important aspect of our lives? The main difference between Religion and Power Balance is that religion has the benefit of many thousands of years of history to counter the scientific proof against it. And we know that Religion will never be dragged into court for false advertising and making claims that it could not deliver on. On the other hand – the mind is capable of producing miracles if you just believe.

The universe was not made for you

The Milky Way Galaxy - photo by the author.

My heading might sound like a line from Fight Club;

“Listen up, maggots. You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You’re the same decaying organic matter as everything else.”

But I mean it in a slightly less poetic way. The universe exists the way it does and we happen to live on a vanishingly small splash of it. It always bothers me when, involved in a theological debate, I am accused of being arrogant for questioning the existence of the divine creator who made this amazing universe perfectly suitable for me to live within it.

Can you spot the irony it that? Isn’t it more arrogant to assume that this incredibly vast and complex universe, with its hundreds of billions of galaxies, its uncountable trillions of stars –  all of this – was made just for us?

I was listening to the January 13th episode of NPR’s Science Friday podcast and a listener called in and asked how we can question the existence of God when the sun shines at the perfect temperature for us.

I have seen many examples of this argument (the teleological argument (also known as the argument from design)) and they all echo the same mantra: “X is perfect for humans, therefore God (or some other creator) made the universe.”

Ray Comfort’s “Atheists Nightmare” is the perfect example. Comfort claims that bananas are perfectly created for human consumption, they fit just right in your hand, they have a tab for easy opening and they are curved towards you mouth to make sure you don’t put them in the wrong orifice. Comfort doesn’t mention watermelons though…

The sun, the planet, our crops, animals, the whole shebang. If it makes life more comfortable you can probably find somebody, somewhere, claiming that it is evidence that the universe was designed to suit our specific requirements.

And it’s all complete and unadulterated bullshit.

I am not particularly well suited to debate the philosophical inaccuracy of the teleological argument. But that’s okay because there are LOTS of people who are perfect for the task, and they have done it.

The only one of the traditional arguments for God that is widely used today is the teleological argument, sometimes called the Argument from Design although — since the name begs the question of its validity — it should better be called the Argument for Design. It is the familiar ‘watchmaker’ argument, which is surely one of the most superficially plausible bad arguments ever discovered — and it is rediscovered by just about everybody until they are taught the logical fallacy and Darwin’s brilliant alternative.

In the familiar world of human artifacts, complicated things that look designed are designed. To naíve observers, it seems to follow that similarly complicated things in the natural world that look designed — things like eyes and hearts — are designed too. It isn’t just an argument by analogy. There is a semblance of statistical reasoning here too — fallacious, but carrying an illusion of plausibility. If you randomly scramble the fragments of an eye or a leg or a heart a million times, you’d be lucky to hit even one combination that could see, walk or pump. This demonstrates that such devices could not have been put together by chance. And of course, no sensible scientist ever said they could. Lamentably, the scientific education of most British and American students omits all mention of Darwinism, and therefore the only alternative to chance that most people can imagine is design.

Even before Darwin’s time, the illogicality was glaring: how could it ever have been a good idea to postulate, in explanation for the existence of improbable things, a designer who would have to be even more improbable? The entire argument is a logical non-starter, as David Hume realized before Darwin was born. What Hume didn’t know was the supremely elegant alternative to both chance and design that Darwin was to give us. Natural selection is so stunningly powerful and elegant, it not only explains the whole of life, it raises our consciousness and boosts our confidence in science’s future ability to explain everything else.

- Richard Dawkins

Evolution really is the answer to this question in most of its incarnations. Why is the sun perfect for us? It isn’t, we have evolved to make use of the sun as it is. Plants have evolved to convert solar energy into food through chlorophyll. Humans and animals have evolved to harness solar energy for warmth. We have adapted to the environment in which we live. People who live in northern Europe are fair skinned, their bodies have evolved to absorb as much light as possible by minimising the amount of melanin in their skins. People who live in the mid-latitudes, around the equator, have evolved to have far more melanin in their skins and they absorb less solar energy, they don’t need to capitalise on every sunbeam that reaches them, like their northern cousins.

The same goes for all the animals and all the plants that live, or have ever lived, on the planet. If a fruit with a sticky-out peel was easier to eat, it would get eaten more often and it’s seeds would be more widely-spread. This, in turn, would supercharge the plant’s ability to spread it’s genes and crowd out competitors.

To argue that the universe was made for us also shows a supreme lack of understanding of the statistics of very large numbers. Proponents of the teleological argument often state that it is statistically impossible for life to evolve on Earth, from inorganic molecules to the complex life forms which crawl between the planet’s crust and its upper atmosphere.

And as far as I understand it, this is, in fact, true. It is vanishingly unlikely. BUT! Given the staggeringly long time scales of the life of the universe (13.7 billion years to our best estimate) and the incredible number of planets in the universe, it is almost certain that life will evolve on one of them during the time between the beginning and the end of the universe. We just happen to be on one such planet. In a study published in the January 11 edition of Nature, astronomer Kailash Sahu of the Space Telescope Science Institute says  that:

We find that, on average, every star has a planet, and since there are at least 100 billion stars, there are at least 100 billion planets.

It is, correspondingly, incredibly arrogant to believe that we are the only sentient life forms in the milky way, let alone the entire universe. This belief is implicit in the “God made the universe just for us” argument.

I would much rather persist in my “arrogance” by questioning the blind faith which encourages the denial of knowledge in order to cling to beliefs that make us feel special.

I will embrace the face that, despite being highly improbable, I exist, and I have a mind equipped with the tools to help me know the universe around me as it truely is.

It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, no matter how satisfying and reassuring.

- Carl Sagan

Religions are perverted

Yesterday I watched Greta Christina’s superb “Why are you atheists angry?” talk at Skepticon 4 last year. I haven’t seen that talk before and I am slightly ashamed of that fact. Today I read Atheists and Anger, her transcript of the same talk, and am convinced that this is one of the single best pieces of atheist writing anywhere. Needless to say I agree with almost every single thing she says (not living in the USA means that some of her points were not directly relevant to me).

One of the things that stands out the most in my mind, after watching that talk and being in touch with some of what is happening in the world, is that religions are perverted. The sickest, most disgusting and despicable ideas and actions – the ones that make me feel ashamed to not be doing more about it – come from religious texts, religious leaders and their obedient followers.

Religions treat women like dirty, stupid sperm receptacles. It is the view of Abrahamic religions that women must be covered up, disdained, hidden, treated like a burden by the oh-so-superior males of the species. A women walking down the street in an Islamic country faces a real threat of being murdered if she is not covered from head to toe in a black sack. Girls trapped in a burning school are left to die instead of being allowed out of the building without their burqas on. Because doing so would bring shame onto their families.

No, leaving the children to die brings shame on the entire community that allows this kind of perverted madness to continue.

In both the Muslim (under Sharia law) and Christian faiths it is explicitly stated that a girl or woman who is RAPED by a man must marry him or be put to death. Women are severely punished and made to apologise and repent their sins after being raped. By men who were far stronger than they are and who are far more respected than they are.That is deeply, disturbingly perverted.

Even if a woman is not forced to marry her rapist, she is not allowed to have a safe abortion. It is considered far better that she raise a child which will always remind her of a brutal attack than that she be allowed to terminate the pregnancy before the blastocyst has attached itself to the wall of the uterus. Even though the Bible itself says nothing of the sort. The Christian god, in fact, is quite fond of murdering foetuses and doesn’t even consider an infant less than one month old to be people. Perverted.

Religions mandate that women be subservient and submit to their husbands, even if they are being abused, raped and terrorised by those men who are supposed to protect and care for them. Perverted.

Children are terrorised by ghastly visions of eternal damnation in a fiery pit if they do not prostrate themselves before a magical fairy in the sky. They are told that this fairy loves them, that he will care for and protect them, but only if they deny the very impulses that mark them as human. They are forbidden to question the unproven existence of this god (whichever one you like). They are told to wish as hard as they can for things they want, that God will provide, that if they don’t get what they asked for they didn’t wish hard enough. Perverted.

Children are denied life saving medical treatment in favour of wishing really hard, or trusting in the will of a being created in man’s own image. A resentful, malicious, hateful bastard who would rather kill 50% of embryos, before the pregnancy is even recognised, than reduce the suffering of one child. And if they don’t feel better, they didn’t wish hard enough. Perverted.

Children are taught by their religious parents and leaders that sexuality is dirty, that if they are not attracted to one person of the opposite sex something is wrong with them and they will go straight to hell. And they are told this while being systematically raped and sodomised by the very same religious leaders who are protected by the highest figures in their churches. Fucking perverted.

Boys have their penises mutilated in the name of one sick god or the other. Perverted.

Girls have their clitorises hacked out to appease some filthy god or another. Perverted.

Children are ritually tortured and killed because their parents or their parents’ religious leaders say that they are possessed by demons. Because they have emotional problems. Or they have epilepsy. Or they are too young to know why their Mommy is witholding their dinner. Perverted.

Religious leaders lie, steal, incite hatred, take sexual advantage of their followers and get away with it because they are “men of god.” Perverted bastards.

Mother Theresa. Sick fucking pervert.

While all of this is going on people like me, people who love their families and friends, people who go out of their way to be courteous to strangers and refuse to judge people for being different. We are the ones who are accused of being morally corrupt because we do not have faith in a malevolent dictator in the sky. We are told that our lives are devoid of wonder and meaning because we choose not to believe in fairy tales. Something is very, very wrong here.