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If I had the ability, or if it was somehow made known to me that, if I sacrifice my life so everyone living today in poverty, will be lifted out of their situation forever. Or that with my sacrifice no one will ever die from cancer, HIV/AIDS, malaria ever again. I may be very tempted to go through with this sacrifice, in fact I probably will and so would many others fighting against these evils.

But how about those who jump on a grenade so that perhaps just one fellow troop’s life will be spared? Or a person using his body as a human shield against a gun wielding maniac for a person he or she has never met? What about the person who swims in front of the shark so that his brother can paddle to shore?

In scenario one, where I sacrifice myself to the whole world, my name will probably never be forgotten. I will be in the prayers of millions of people world wide. My actions will be documented and books written about me, my life and my final sacrifice.

Though we have to question these selfless acts, which one is the greater sacrifice?

We have for to long now been told that we will never be able to reach the Godly status of those who sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the whole world. That every other act is of lesser value. That no act will ever be as great as what an eccentric preacher did for humanity 2000 years ago. This proposition has been declared by Holy Books and has been unsubstantiated kept in place by churches and their priests, without people giving justified critique to this wicked and primitive idea. The proposition that our acts will always fall short, are insignificant and when not done to the glory of God not worthy at all. We have been told that our morality will never be as perfect as that of God, that we are born sinners and have to live with a burden of inherited guilt.

Our morality has long since surpasses the morality of the God of the Old Testament in leaps and bounds. Don’t believe me? Just read it. We are not born sinners, we are born social creatures, with an instinct to learn language, to interact, to love and to care for each other. Without these attributes civilisation as we know it would not exist. It is a bloody good reason to give ourselves a pat on the back.

Now, I submit that the acts of scenario two, where a person sacrifice his life, for the protection of just a single other, is a vastly greater act of kindness, of compassion, of value. Worthy of praise much greater than that of any celestial entity. Though no one will ever witness a gathering of 200 000 men in the world’s largest tent, giving praise to a person who sacrificed his life so another one will live. Instead we give praise to the people in scenario one, even if their sacrifice is done for an utterly immoral and artificial idea of vicarious redemption.

It is time to recognise the justifiable gesture that in terms of noble acts, less is more and more is less. We are all capable of the so called lesser acts, which are worth far more than that which can be attributed to any God. Our acts will most likely go unnoticed by the rest of the world, they will not be documented in a written testimony, nor will they be used in songs of praise and worship. But those acts will have a real impact on the world, the testimony will be the well being of the people and creatures we share the planet with and the livelihood of our descendants.

“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind.”—RALPH WALDO EMERSON

There is a new book at Kalahari, that should provide saddening amusement.

The Culture Wars Are Over and the Idiots Have Won
A veteran journalist’s acidically funny, righteously angry lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States.
In the midst of a career-long quest to separate the smart from the pap, Charles Pierce had a defining moment at the Creation Museum in Kentucky, where he observed a dinosaur. Wearing a saddle…. But worse than this was when the proprietor exclaimed to a cheering crowd, We are taking the dinosaurs back from the evolutionists! He knew then and there it was time to try and salvage the Land of the Enlightened, buried somewhere in this new Home of the Uninformed.
With his razor-sharp wit and erudite reasoning, Pierce delivers a gut-wrenching, side-splitting lament about the glorification of ignorance in the United States, and how a country founded on intellectual curiosity has somehow deteriorated into a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate.
With Idiot America, Pierce’s thunderous denunciation is also a secret call to action, as he hopes that somehow, being intelligent will stop being a stigma, and that pinheads will once again be pitied, not celebrated.

It is a bit expensive, but I will probably get it sometime in the future. I still have quite a few books that I am either busy with reading, or waiting to be read. So this will have to wait for now.

The author explains the book as follows:

The rise of Idiot America, though, is essentially a war on expertise. It’s not so much antimodernism or the distrust of the intellectual elites that Richard Hofstader teased out of the national DNA, although both of these things are part of it. The rise of Idiot America today reflects — for profit, mainly, but also and more cynically, for political advantage and in the pursuit of power — the breakdown of the consensus that the pursuit of knowledge is good. It also represents the ascendancy of the notion that the people we should trust the least are the people who know the best what they’re talking about. In the new media age, everybody is a historian, or a scientist, or a preacher, or a sage. And if everyone is an expert, then nobody is, and the worst thing you can be in a society where everybody is an expert is, well, an actual expert.

This is how Idiot America engages itself. It decides, en masse, with a million keystrokes and clicks of the remote control, that because there are two sides to every question, they both must be right, or at least not wrong. And the words of an obscure biologist carry no more weight on the subject of biology than do the thunderations of some turkeyneck preacher out of Christ’s Own Parking Structure in DeLand, Florida. Less weight, in fact, because our scientist is an “expert” and therefore, an “elitist.” Nobody buys his books. Nobody puts him on cable. He’s brilliant, surely, but no different from the rest of us, poor fool.

From this video it should become clear that God only answers the prayers of Angus Buchan and Fred May. He even claims to be a descendant of Abraham, and that God speaks to him, fascinating stuff. I would like to have put more claim on the lie that no weather station predicted the rain. Absolute bullshit, I am pretty sure it would even have been predicted by a first year geography student. Anyway, enjoy.

Response to Shofar Church on their idea of prayer from Wouter Jonker on Vimeo.

There are quite a few of people on teh interwebs that are awesome promoters of free thinking and skeptical inquiry and general promoters of science.

Here is my list:

With almost 2 million channel views, Thunderf00t promotes science, is the destroyer of youtube creationists and other loonies. Mostly known for his very popular series, “Why people laugh at creationists.”

potholer54 Another promoter of science, popular for his excellent “Made easy series“. potholer54 looks at various scientific models and explanations for our existence.

Theologikos a satirical commentator, makes religion look real stupid with boundless ease.

smpunditz is not very well known, but his videos are very well thought out and articulated, he just needs an exceptional video to ignite his channel.

ZOMGitsCriss is a no nonsense well articulated, pleasant and in many cases hilariously random, but always fun to watch Romanian girl.

patcondell reminds me somewhat of Christopher Hitchens, another no nonsense taker and very well spoken man. He uses a very direct approach to destroying dogma. Fun to watch for those sharing his views, and bound to be offensive to the point of ticking of the terrorist inside the people who claim to hold onto the religion of peace.

EdwardCurrent is arguably my favourite channel on youtube. His videos are satirical comedy at its best. One of his newest videos “My cat is a Christian” is a must watch even for those going to Shofar cult academy.

NonStampCollector does cartoon style movies, which are hilarious but also in a way not for people to take offense. People watching these videos may just notice how incompetent God actually is. Always a good thing in my book.

1GOD1JESUS is from down undah, and while some of his videos where not so obviously satirical, when you have seen fundamentalist videos, but this is satire at its best. “Noah’s Ark is TRUE!!!” is a must watch, it almost had me spill my coffee all over my keyboard while watching it.

DonExodus2 is last on the list. Another science promoter with awesome videos on evolutionary biology. Well worth watching alongside Thunderfoot and potholer54.

Of course there are plenty more, but these guys I particularly enjoy and subscribed to.

I have watched a couple of his video’s before that is in the realm of the evolution/creationism debate on youtube. They have always been a good laugh, but sadly it looks like mental illness caused him to kill himself and a fellow classmate.it cannot be said that religion is the only cause, it may have contributed significantly to his depression. I figure this, because of his reference to “I have no purpose in life” and his emotional views he held against atheists and against the theory of evolution. Either way it sad to see another human take his life and another, due to a untreated mental illness.

I wanted to do something other than making fun of religion, until I watched this.
Keeps cracking me up.

My first Comical Sunday brings you:

Daniel Dennette visit to Stellenbsoch University

The renowned philosopher, Prof Daniel Dennett, is to speak at Stellenbosch University on 1 April. Prof Dennett is the Co-Director of the Centre for Cognitive Studies and the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts in the USA.

According to Prof Anton van Niekerk, Chairperson of the Department of Philosophy and Director of the Centre for Applied Ethics at Stellenbosch University, Prof Dennett is arguably one of the most famous and, at the same time, one of the most controversial live philosophers in the world today.

“Prof Dennett has made hugely influential contributions to cognitive science, and is famous as one of the foremost proponents of evolutionary theory. He is closely associated with Richard Dawkins who is regarded by many as the world’s most influential current-day intellectual - and has written widely, profoundly and provocatively on Darwin and evolutionism.”

The lecture, themed ‘From animal to person’, will be held in the Auditorium of the JS Gericke Library from 11:30 – 12:45 on Wednesday 1 April. In his presentation Prof Dennett will provide an overview of some of his most important arguments in support of Darwinian evolution in relation to humans.

“Although his views may be controversial in certain circles, they have been very influential,” Prof Van Niekerk added. “Prof Dennett must count amongst one of the best-known philosophers that have ever visited our campus. It is a unique opportunity to listen to one of the world’s most famous philosophers.”

Read more here: http://www.sun.ac.za/news/NewsItem_Eng.asp?Lang=2&ItemID=15342
Facebook event: http://tinyurl.com/dxwxkl

Never fails to amuse

Or is it God?

CTFM leader, Pastor Danny Nalliah said he would spearhead an effort to provide every assistance to devastated communities, although he was not surprised by the bush fires due to a dream he had last October relating to consequences of the abortion laws passed in Victoria.

He said these bushfires have come as a result of the incendiary abortion laws which decimate life in the womb. Besides providing material assistance, CTFM will commence a seven day prayer and fasting campaign for the nation of Australia tomorrow Wednesday the 11th February.

CTFM has called upon all Australian Bible-believing God-fearing Christians to repent and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ for His mercy and protection over Australia once again.

Abortion laws to blame for bush fires

So would it be fair to add ~200 to God’s death total of around 2.7 million people? Makes perfect sense to follow such a God.