Easy pieces

Concocting the ultimate viral idea

What might a powerful viral idea look like? In other words, what elements would an idea that's equipped for survival and impact have?

Lets make some guesses about this hypothetical idea:

• Untestable but ultimate rewards for believing and following idea correctly.
• Untestable but ultimate punishments for not believing in or not following idea correctly.
• Punishment for believing in other contrary ideas.
• All good things that happen are thanks to belief in idea.
• All bad things that happen are from lack of faith in idea or are good things in disguise.
• Idea supported in large body of interpretable literature containing some historical grounding.
• Reward for taking idea without evidence.
• Everything in the world is evidence for idea.
• Reward for convincing others of idea and for having many children.
• Open to all races, ages, and sexes.
• Solutions to fear of death, lack of control, loneliness, powerlessness, and insignificance.
• Reward for outward appearance of happiness.
• Reward for funding idea.
• Reward for dedicating everything to idea.

Sound familiar to anyone?

Any additions to make this bad boy even more infectious?

Leap of astranomical odds

Organic chemist John Sutherland of the University of Manchester was able to show the formation of ribonucleotides (building blocks of rna) under conditions similar to earths early years. That leap of astronomical odds creationists claim is necessary for life to have evolved is becoming demonstratively even less credible with every such discovery.

God is running out of gaps to hide in.

Where the freedom slope ends

Witness as Pat Robertson mounts the most common attack on homosexual marriage. Marvel as he uses a picture perfect slippery slope argument. Gaze in awe as he demonstrates his bigotry once again.

He claims the ultimate conclusion of same sex marriage is legal polygamy, bestiality, child molestation, and pedophilia.

Funny thing though, he's partially right.

You could say that abolishing slavery, giving women the vote, and allowing interracial marriage were all part of a slippery slope towards granting people rights. An awesome slippery slope towards unprecedented freedom.

The line isn't same-sex marriage, its further than that. Like Pat says, polygamy deserve the same rights as same-sex marriage for the same reasons. Bestiality is getting into Grey territory. Child molestation has absolutely crossed the line because it gives someone the right to violate the rights of another (The right to your own body). Giving people rights is good. It's always good until those rights interfere with the rights of others. Your rights end where your neighbor's begin.

Stand, dumbstruck, as Pat leaps off the freedom slope just moments before it ends!

Believe you're not infected?

Theists. Fed up being picked on? Now it's your turn!

It falls on you to show your religion is the real deal. What evidence or arguments do you have? People of other faiths have been just as convinced as you are, what makes your faith different? Why should we ever appeal to faith?

This is an open on-going invitation for you to stand up for your beliefs.

email curefaith@gmail.com, or add a comment and I'll start a new post with your argument or question.

Please be concise and to the point. If your argument or question is terrible, I won't bother posting it.

Occam's Chainsaw

I don't want to come across as all pretentiously existential here, but I'm pretty sure, something exists.

As our understanding of the universe has increased, what appears to be complex has been broken down into simpler and smaller parts. Animals to cells, cells to molecules, molecules to atoms, and so on. Existence ultimately must* be made from building blocks of irreducible complexity.

But where did these irreducibly complex building blocks come from? How do they exist. How does anything exist? Existence appears impossible, but is possible because it does exists. It's a mind blowing paradox.

Whats the answer to all this?

God of course. An all powerful, all knowing, all encompassing creator of the universe. However, even a small child can ask the next logical question; "But who created God?" Well, dear child, you see, God has always existed, he's eternal. He's the alpha the omega. Ah, no worries then, I can sleep soundly tonight.

Not so fast. How does something being eternal help us? We are still left with the question of how it exists. But wait, matter is eternal too, it can neither be created or destroyed. In using God to explain the universe, haven't we just invented, by definition, the most complex thing ever to exist, only to leave us right back at square one? Much much worse than square one even. It's going to take a hell of a lot more to explain God. You'd have to be a small child or completely blinded by faith to go with the God explanation on this one. Never has Occam's razor been needed more in the history of logic! This is the ULTIMATE divide between simplicity (the simplest thing possible in the universe), and complexity (God being infinitely complex).

But back to the impossible sounding question at hand. Just because I cannot comprehend a possible explanation, doesn't mean there isn't one, but I can't even make one up here! My wildest, craziest, fevered dreams don't have an answer. The question of "why does anything exist" is unique in that sense. Magical fairies can at least be used to explain everything else. Anyway, in the end, it doesn't matter if you're religious or a freethinker, the fact that something exist is just totally freaky. I'm freaked out. Really, I am.

*If the universe isn't made of building blocks that are irreducable, then they must be infinitely reducible, which means again infinite complexity.