So, as you may already know, I’m an atheist. If you didn’t already know that, well… now you do.
As you may also know, I do a weekly show on YouTube, called “NewsUndies: All the news that shouldn’t be news” … again, if you didn’t know that… well, now you do.
In my efforts to promote NewsUndies, I’ve expanded my online presence, including joining some online communities. I’m on ThinkAtheist, AtheistNexus, Twitter, and a page on Facebook.
While snooping around on ThinkAtheist, I stumbled across “Bible Answers”, done by Nick Green, Jesse Larsh and Ben Fishel. Together, they go by the name “Cose2Cose Productions”, and you can see their stuff on YouTube, here.
Well, Nick and I had corresponded a little on ThinkAtheist, I’d mentioned I’d admired BA, and he’d mentioned liking NewsUndies, so… Now that they’re doing a DVD, I thought I might be able to help them out a little, by including their ad in NewsUndies… I asked Nick to cut it back to :30, and pull the “dirty words”, which he did in very short order, and huzzah!
I got the DVD, and am watching it now.
One thing that I noticed the first time I watched BA was that it looks very “videotapey”. In the commentary, almost right off the bat, Nick Green mentions that BA is recorded using a 1980s-vintage VHS camcorder to give it that “public access” feel. That’s dedication! I would have poked around for a plugin for iMovie or Final Cut to make good digital footage look like old videotape.
I recently watched the thunderf00t v. Ray Comfort … encounter … on YouTube.
You can too:
It was interesting, although not especially enlightening or persuasive (for me, anyway, since I’m already firmly rooted in the god-free camp).
It did cause me to think about something, though.
There was a spot in the series (and this thing is about 95 minutes long, and broken up into 10 separate parts, so finding individual quotes really requires more time than I’m prepared to devote right now) where thunderf00t (whom I’ll refer to as TF hereafter) asks Ray whether he believes in demons, and Ray says yes… then TF plows through a list of other imaginary beings, like witches and wizards and so on… to each of which, Ray says “yes”.
At another point, Ray denounces “magic” as being (I’m paraphrasing here) unreal, but, practically in the next breath, declaring miracles to be perfectly real.
Magic, in the sense of witches and whatnot, is practically indistinguishable from miracles, except that a human (or humanoid) is directing it. Magic requires (it seems to me) at least one of the three following modes of operation to be valid:
One or more “gods” exists, like stage hands in black body-stockings, just waiting around to help the conjurer achieve things outside the bounds of natural law
The conjurer is a hybrid natural/supernatural being, able to bend or break natural law at will
What science has revealed as natural law is not really law… more like guidelines, and somehow, conjurers can exceed them, or cause them to be exceeded, with just words, thoughts and gestures
*cough*bullshit*cough*
Put another way, miracles are just magic, except that not only is the means of conjuring obscured, but the conjurer (god) is also hidden.
To buy the concept of miracles, but discount magic, or vice versa, is ludicrous, because they are functionally identical.
To accept the viability of magic or miracles, but also claim that the world operates in accordance with natural laws is dissonant, because the magic/miracle model requires there to be a “trap door” which allows the conjurer to operate “above the law”, but the natural law model insists that the laws simply cannot be broken.
For miracles to be valid, there must be a god capable, with or without prompting, of acting outside the bounds of natural law.
For magic to be valid, the conjurer is a god, or commands gods.
Of course, the idea of saints, angels, devils, demons, gods, and so on (as well as the miracles/magic they perform) requires that these beings depend on the same “Supernatural Physics” as any god requires to simply exist and operate in our universe.
Supernatural physics, at a minimum, has to:
allow energy to order itself without the influence of matter or other energy
allow one collection of supernaturally ordered energy to interact with other collection of supernaturally ordered energy without interacting with the surroundings of either or any intervening spacetime/matter/energy
allow collections of ordered energy to be undetectable (no radiation, interaction with particles, electromagnetic fields, et cetera)
allow a collection of supernaturally ordered energy to be conscious
allow a collection of supernaturally ordered energy to, at will, suspend supernatural physics, and interact with normal matter and energy, but in an undetectable way.
allow sensation without interference (contrary to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle)… its eye casts no shadow.
allow for violation of the second law of thermodynamics, since supernatural activities neither consume anything, nor generate any waste (lest they be detectable and mortal)
allow for faster-than-light communication and transport, which makes no detectable disturbance in the intervening spacetime, matter or energy fields
..AND it has to do all this, while allowing all of us to go about our daily lives catching baseballs, using electrical appliances, cutting down trees, eating food and having sex as if the laws of nature, as discovered and described through the practice of science really worked all the time.
All of this stinks of special pleading.
Without “Supernatural Physics”, there are no gods, no angels, no devils, no demons, no eternal souls, no miracles, and there is no magic.
With “Supernatural Physics”, the universe is a loony unpredictable place, where, today water might freeze at 32 degrees, but tomorrow, it might turn into a chicken at 32 degrees, and there’s no way for you to know how or why it happened, or to predict it next time, or anything… One minute you’re alive, the next you’re dead, and three days later, you’re alive again, as an undetectable “spirit” SOME people can see, but others can’t.
To believe in a god, you have to believe in “Supernatural Physics”, and to believe in “Supernatural Physics” you have to discount the validity of REAL PHYSICS, the consequences of which are readily observable all around you every minute of every day. To actively, consciously discount the validity of REAL PHYSICS, you have to be an idiot.
So, the GF, her son and I went to JesusFest, in Rockville, CT yesterday… and lemme tell you… it was a fest. A Frost Fun Fest, to be sure.
Scarlet Fade, a teeny-bopper Christian-grunge modern reinterpretation of the Go-Go’s (with a barely-male drummer), was the main act. These kids are not incompetent musicians, and they did have some stage presence and energy… but… then Ali [bio - age unspecified] started to tell us about a song she wrote, that they were going to play next… and how it came from “a time in her life” when blah blah blah…. Ali, I’ve got news for you. There hasn’t been enough time in your life to you a phrase like “a time in my life”. You’re in THE time of your life. Wait till you’re 25, washed-up, living in a box on the Sunset Strip… turning tricks to pay for your meth habit. When you turn THAT around, then you can write songs about “a time in your life”
Then there was the Midway.
There was a guy there, in a … what do you call it… a shade tent? He was selling individual kneeling benches… for when you’re home, praying along with the televised mass, I guess… eek. There was a tent with a sign on it: “NEED PRAYER?” …with a few people waiting, apparently, to help people pray for or about things. …? There was a mobile petting zoo, which according to the GF, was fine, except for the rude, pushy Christians.
I missed out on the mobile petting zoo, because I ran into my cousin’s husband there… and lemme tell you, he was SURPRISED to see ME there. We ended up going into the adjacent church, because my cousin was in there… so there was this nice little family reunion thing… that was a little awkward, being that I’m at JesusFest, in a church, wearing one of my famous Reality Check shirts. Still, it was pleasant to catch up, and they didn’t seem too horrified by my shirt…
We wandered around a bit more, then went home.
I have to say it was a little spooky… it was like walking around in a fur coat, eating a raw hunk of veal, at a PETA convention. Apparently, none of us had the “look in our eyes” that said we were “saved”… and then there was my shirt….
So all-in-all… I’d say it was interesting. I mean… good for them… the rented a street, had a little fun… I can’t say I agree with what they believe (and perpetuate with all the merchandise and entertainment)… but they’re free to believe it.
Normally, I’m fairly OK with wacky people if they keep their wacky to themselves.
Westboro Baptist Church seems to have a hard time keeping its wacky to itself…
This video shows some WBC members singing “God hates the world” to the tune of “We are the world”.
So… as parody lyrics go, someone did a pretty good job… I mean the content is INSANE… but… from a mechanics standpoint, for the most part, the rhyme and meter fit the music, and the lyric stays on message without a bunch of needless words, or using words like “o’er”.
BUT… There’s the content. I mean… OK, they’ve yet to present anything convincing to support the existence of any gods, yet they are perfectly comfortable singing that god hates the world, *and*… it seems to make them happy. They’re clearly insane. In a way it’s funny. …and creepy. …and scary.
THEN… there’s the poor, unfortunate child at the end who “sings” the chorus for us one last time. I draw the line of tolerance there. That’s not funny. That’s fucked up. …and that’s what I hate about faith-based religion.
So I’m out with my girlfriend and her 2 kids, at Friendly’s (a local casual dining and ice cream chain), enjoying “sprinkle time”… ice cream… possibly with sprinkles… we’re just about buttoning up the event, when this older lady… hard to peg her age… I’d say 65… maybe more… but rail thin, and kinda sickly/Crypt-Keeper-ey… comes up, and tells me what a lovely family I have.
Well.. My GF knows this lady is kinda asking for it… but… she keeps quiet.
I tell the lady, “No, I don’t.”
“Oh, of course… Don’t say that! They’re lovely!” She says enthusiastically.
“No, They’re not mine,” I say. It should be glaringly apparent… I have dark hair, hazel eyes and tan readily. The kids are blond and fair-skinned, just like mom.
The older lady’s no listening, because she’s too busy telling me how blessed I am by god to have such a lovely family.
So… I kinda thumb at my GF and say, “They’re hers.” She sheepishly raises her hand.
At this point, the boy pipes up, and reports that I don’t believe in god, nor does his mother, nor does his sister, nor does he. “We’re atheists!” he reports, gleefully… heartily… so the whole place can hear..
With incredulity, and without missing a beat, the nice lady asked how we could not feel the touch of god’s loving hand. I readily thought of a couple reasons, but kept them to myself… but I really couldn’t help laughing. The kids were laughing. My GF was laughing. It really was comedic… I mean, this lady was… like… on the prowl to say something nice to a man with a family on Fathers’ Day… and she picked me. She couldn’t be more wrong… and every time she opened her mouth, she just dug the hole that much deeper.
I sort of felt bad for her, her good intentions going oh, so wrong. But we were all laughing so hard that none of us noticed her walking away.
