The Atheist Blogger

This week has been filled with problems, with the server going down from the Digg Effect, and an atheist forums I help run almost driven to extinction. The previous owner (who was meant to be my partner in the scheme) told me he had sold the site and lost the contact details of the new owner. This apparently happened several months ago, and meant that we were left with a forum that we couldn’t upgrade or fix the current errors.

We decided that since we only had 1000 posts, we’d simply move domain and start again. The new forums are running well and everyone is happy. I started a thread in which members could post their picture if they wanted to, and I suddenly realised that other than small gravatar images, most people probably have no idea what I look like.

So without further ado, here is a picture I took this afternoon. It’s not very good quality and I should have done the flash a bit better, but it’ll do. The t-shirt I am wearing is one of my favourites (for good reason). About a month ago I decided that since I had 3 months of nothing all summer, I would grow my first beard and see what it turned out like. I’m not an expert on beards, but I reckon it looks ok, obviously a bit patchy in places. I’m thinking of getting rid of the moustache, only it might actually look better when it connects to the rest of the beard. Obviously I need beard growing advice, so please throw it at me! What should I do? Shave it off? Keep it growing? I need your opinions!

Anyway, here goes.

The essence of a geek.

Also, if the blog goes down in the next hour it’s probably me messing about with the upgrade.

Edit: Justin wanted to know where I got the t-shirt. Why, from ThinkGeek of course! I also have this one, and this one.

It has often been wondered if Ray Comfort is simply ignorant of science, willfully ignorant of science, or simply lying for Jesus. We now have an answer; he is part of the third group.

For anyone who took Biology at high school, you will know that the Taxonomic rank is the way scientists organise the tree of Life. It has many models, both simple and complex. For the purposes of this article, we will discuss the most common and simple version:

Domain -> Kingdom -> Phylum -> Class -> Order -> Family -> Genus -> Species

Using this method of classification, we can show where humans come on the tree:

Eukarya (Domain) -> Animalia (Kingdom) -> Chordata (Phylum) -> Mammalia (Class) -> Primates (Order) -> Hominidae (Family) -> Homo (Genus) -> H. sapiens (Species)

Ray Comfort however, has a different idea of how this all works. It is great because his classification is so much easier to understand!

Wolves, coyotes and German shepherds are of the same species (the canine family or “kind”), but they can’t breed with cats or tigers (which are the felidae family or “kind”).

So that classification would probably go something like this:

GOD -> “Family Species Kind” hybrid

At least we have a reason why Ray Comfort doesn’t understand Evolution. When you redefine basic tenets of Biology so that the theory of Evolution collapses, of course you will think that it doesn’t work! Using Ray Comfort’s methodology I will now debunk a couple of “popular” scientific notions.

1. 1/0 now equals 9,999,999 since I reckon the whole concept of “Infinity” is so flawed we just need to use a really big number to represent it.
2. Think we can’t travel faster than the speed of light? Think again! Now that I’ve redefined the speed of light to approximately 30kph (in a vacuum), I’m pretty sure we can beat it! Welcome to the new world of interstellar travel!!!
3. The boiling point of water will now be set to 50 degrees so it takes half the time to boil an egg!

They may sound crazy ideas, but this is exactly what Ray is doing when it comes to the theory of Evolution. You can redefine as many things as you like and eventually an idea will sound impossible, but it doesn’t make it false. Evolution is supported by evidence and the evidence doesn’t suddenly change. It will always remain. As new and different evidence comes into play, the theory might change, but the fact of evolution will not.

Digg-like site for atheists, “The Atheist Spot” has been holding a series of interviews with atheist bloggers. The latest ones have been all “foreigners” (i.e. not in the USA) like myself, and they show a great diversity of atheism across the world.

The Amiable Atheist tells of growing up a US baptist before discovering atheism, Db0 from Division by Zero tells of growing up in the highly religious country of Greece (99% Christian according to him) before moving to Germany to start a career in the tech industry, and Ramon Garcia from the Philippines who is married to a Christian wife and says that he “respect[s] Adrian Hayter the most” for having the balls the question an entire organisation (Atheist Nexus) despite not having many allies (I’m now blushing…).

All the interviews are very well thought out and great reads, and I would advise subscribing to the Atheist Spot Blog to read the rest (I’m sure there will be plenty more).

If you are an atheist blogger and want an interview, contact The Atheist Spot with your details!