Thursday, May 28, 2009

Of Delusions and Suffering fools

According to a link recently sent me by a frequenter of this blog, Pastor Mike is at it again, spreading his infernal delusions about atheists - what they want, what they're seeking, and why they sometimes shut down exchanges when the other side demonstrates an operational IQ not even at room temperature.

He complains for example (sound a lot like that fruitcake Charlotte Allen?):

"Be prepared for some mockery and ridicule. You’ll be told you’re stupid, an idiot, you're insane , demented , you need a frontal lobotomy , that you believe in mythology , and or a combination of them all , as well as a few choice descriptive adjectives . They’ve got it all figured out"

Actually, we don't have anything all figured out, not like the religious nabobs who base their day to day lives on absolute certainty. On believing every syllable in their KJV bible is engraved in stone for all time.

By contrast, the typical atheist fully embraces empirical science, and its standards of objectivity and successive approximation to truth - meaning one cannot grasp it all at once. What do we mean by successive approximations?

You have data, and accessory information which leads to some initial result which tests a particular hypothesis- call it 'x'. (Say, "solar flares' are caused by twisted magnetic fields in sunspots")


You then acquire better data (perhaps because of refined instruments, techniques - such as solar vector magnetograms which give the strength and direction of local magnetic fields ) and are led to a modified (improved) result such that: x (n+1) = x + P(x) where x(n +1) denotes an improvement via iteration, with P(x) the process (acting on x) that allows it.

In this case, the process may be the measurement of the local magnetic fields, yielding the magnetic gradient for example, e.g.: grad B = [+B_n - (-B_n)] / x

where the numerator denotes the difference in the measured normal components of the magnetic field (between opposite polarities of the active region) as measured by vector magnetograph and the denominator the scale separation between them.

If I calculate grad B = 0.1 Gauss/km then I know a flare is 96% probable within 24 hrs. - according to a bulk of empirical work by A. Severny and others. This could be interpreted as the "x(n +1)" enhancement of predictions noted above, to reinforce the hypothesis.

Later, more refined data become available (e.g. magnetograms at higher resolution), such that:

x(n + 2) = x(n + 1) + P'(x + 1)


and so on, and so on and so forth. Each x, x(n+1), x(n+2) etc. being a successive approximation to what the objective, genuine value should be.

Religions - by contrast- simply impose their truth ab initio by fiat or decree. There is no attempt whatever to incorporate any approximation. Or to even acknowledge that 'truth' can't be accessed all at once. Rather, one must set rational truth aside and succumb to ‘faith”.

This should not be surprising, because religions - like the beliefs they promulgate, are not based on anything empirically demonstrable, but on myths, legends scribbled by pre-scientific nomads thousands of years ago.

Like Ms. Allen, the Pastor is also exercised that atheists may dismiss believers as "stupid, an idiot, or demented" - but this is not a foregone conclusion. In other words, it depends largely on who the believers are and what those beliefs entail.

As an example, my religious (Christian) friend in Barbados is always read for an exchange or debate, but he brings logic and smarts to the table - not ignorance. He also possesses a catholic knowledge of religious history, as well as biblical textual analysis which puts him in good stead and renders him a worthy opponent.

Contrast this with a Christian orthodox numbskull who insists "Hell" is a real place and anyone who doesn't believe as he does is headed there. No surprise the atheist will dismiss such a person as an "idiot" or in need of certain cures or therapies. Now, IF this Christian were able to make a solid, logical and plausible case for Hell's existence (outside of his KJV) THEN the atheist might be inclined to hear him...but not otherwise.

Hence, it is a veritable strawman to argue or claim that "they can’t find God because first of all, they aren’t looking, and second they want to avoid Him" and that is why we "attack in milliseconds" on any net blog.

However, the REAL reason we attack is that Xtians of the "Pastor Mike" mold have not shown any ontology for their deity nor even necessary and sufficient conditions for its existence. If they don't even meet minimal criteria for realism, why take their claims seriously? I have been after Mike for donkey's years to give these, even one necessary or sufficient condition, but he's never provided them. Why then must I take his "God" as anything other than a psychotic embolism in his temporal lobes?

Most of the rest of the Pastor's comments are the usual codswallop so I will only address- in light of what I just wrote, his egregious assumption that if an atheist breaks off an exchange on a blog or net forum he is "taking his marbles and going home".

Not at all. What the atheist has actually done (on breaking off debate or discussion) is measured and assessed the intellectual heft and resources of his opponent(s) and likely found them minsucule or non-existent, hence not worth the effort of making continued rebuttals when the already provided ones have sailed serenely over the believers' heads.

This is what is called using one's head and not further "tossing pearls before swine" - according to one bible quote I seem to recall.

Maybe at some distant point the goodly Pastor (like Charlotte Allen) will finally get that, and realize atheists are really in the superior intelelctual and realist position because we have doubts and aren't afraid to express them, as opposed to incessant moral certitudes.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey faux pastor Mike, your the one who got your facts fucked up pastor asshole. Your the one who picked up his marbles, wiped his snotty nose and went home, licking your ass.

You were properly debated to prove the existence of your god and couldn't, plain and simple. All you could do was quote the same bible bullshit that was written by men about some phantom god of theirs and now yours. How fucked up can anyone be, you sound like a totally brainwashed infant.

You've been told over and over, "you can't prove a negative". No matter how much you try to. Same as a little kid wanting to keep Santa Clause and Easter bunny real. Sorry sooner or later you have to grow up realize no matter how much you want to try and talk yourself into a fantasy being real, it just won't happen.

It's really too bad for your types that you can't handle reality on your own, or your own eventual demise by nature.

I feel sorry for assholes like you, your a lost cause and wast of humanity, nothing more than a hippocrate. You can't even run an honest debate without deleting and or sanatizing your blogs to suit your fucking bullshit. Your pathetic.

You call yourself a pastor, yet you attack other religions using your KJV shit bible thats full of nothing but man written pages of falsehoods. You go on acting like your some kind of god preaching such hate and contempt about other religions, that go back thousands of years, before yours was even a thought.

According to your own website you spent most of your life fucking the very people that tried to help you, instead of standing on your own two feet and dealing with the shit you created for yourself.

Hell you even fuck over your own kind, other christians, because they don't accept your particular religious belief.

It really got me the way that one pastor friend of yours helped you out with money and then decided to write an ebook you didn't agree on. You went after him like a rabid dog. Yeah some thanks he got, just another one of your victims. You didn't even have the consideration to post his emails as he wrote them. Instead you took portions out of context and filled in your own blanks to suit your bullshit.

Then you receintly went after another one of your christian buddies that simply got onto a religious blog and posted comments about your type of "hate religion". You posted it under the title "A Man Named Strit", on May 13th under bullshit "From the Pastor's desk". I notice you've since removed that also, yet you forgot to take it off your update sheet. Whats the matter did you get too much flack for being the hippocrate you are from other christians?

Your just a small minded, little, hateful man who is nothing more than a cockroach on this earth. Hopefully some day you'll get back exactly what you've been giving out.

Caleb Shay said...

What a great takedown of an Elmer Gantry style psycho!

I really DO believe that if Pastor Mike had a frontal lobotomy it would cure a lot of the psycho beliefs that ail him.

Or failing that, we can maybe burn all the KJV bibles!