A Hysterical Take On The Trinity

http://youtu.be/mII6-IyaT3o

This is really really funny! It must have required many many reshoots to get the dialogue right. 

Sam Harris - Morality and the Christian God

Worth ten minutes of your time.

Costco Attacks Bible!

Or maybe not.

Costco is caught up in controversy after a pastor tweeted that the Bibles for sale in his store were labeled as fiction. The "Christians are being persecuted crowd" quickly took up the cry even though Costco admitted that their supplier made a mistake on a small number of Bibles and they (Costco) should have caught the mistake.

Interestingly, some Christians are starting to push back, arguing that is an honest and simple mistake and it doesn't mean that Christianity is being attacked or persecuted.  Nice to see some rational voices among the religious folks.

Amazing Knife Throwing Video! But Wait, It Get's Better!

An amazing YouTube video of knife throwing.  Except it isn't - the video explaining how it was faked is more amazing.

An excellent lesson in critical thinking. Our brains can fool us because we evolved over millions of years to use intellectual shortcuts to reach conclusions. And perhaps we just want to be amazed (see religion). Even the most convincing photos or video should be approached with a critical eye.

As Carl Sagan said,

"extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

And with powerful video/photo editing programs in every home, a picture or video no longer rise to the level of extraordinary evidence.

Egyptian Atheists

http://www.salon.com/2013/10/27/a_christopher_hitchens_dream_atheism_on_the_rise_in_egypt/

Absolutely fascinating. This gives me hope. Several of the Egyptians interviewed here related stories that resonate with my path to becoming an agnostic.

What Actually Happened

Abstinence-Only Sex Ed Losing Ground With Evangelicals?

Hopefully this article represents a trend with evangelicals.  The author says she was taught abstinence-only sex "education" ("you shall not have sex before marriage" - end of discussion) and was pregnant the next year - at age 15.  I'm particularly struck by this comment by the author:

Today, nearly half of American high schoolers, aged 14 to 18, are sexually active, according to a Centers for Disease Control survey. Even Christians aren’t waiting until marriage. Among unmarried adult evangelicals under 30, 8 in 10 have had sex. Somebody has to say it: Our approach isn’t working, and it’s time to rethink “the talk.” 

Abstinence-only sex education is worse than worthless - it is counterproductive. Even if conservative parents don't talk to their kids about sex, their kids will get it from other sources - from their friends, the internet, TV, etc. Abstinence-only isn't a conversation with kids about sex, it's basically just a statement - "you will not have sex until you get married".  Studies have shown a very high rate of early sex with kids who have only received the a/o talk.  A high rate of failure resulting in more teen pregnancies, births, adoptions and worst of all, what evangelicals really don't like - abortions.

If you teach ignorance, the results are predictable.