The Atheist Blogger

Human error will always be the bane of technology, and the more people who look at something, the more errors will be found. This is certainly shown to be true when you compare something like Windows to Linux (the latter being more stable and secure because of all the people who can look at the code). Another example cropped up in Wales the other day:

Lost in translation...

For those who don’t live in the UK, Welsh road signs are put in both English and Welsh since both are official languages of the country, and us English-born chaps are too arrogant to learn Welsh. The English in the sign above is perfectly readable. Unfortunately the Welsh reads:

I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.

Apparently the English people who make the signs needed a translation and emailed what was needed to their Swansea council colleagues. The “out of office” auto-response replied, and they assumed this was the translation they needed.

Of course, there are two people at fault here. Firstly there are the people who make Welsh road signs and yet don’t have anyone who speaks Welsh on their team, or anyone to confirm the translation. Secondly, the person who thinks that out of office auto-responses should only be in Welsh, when they know full well that people are emailing them for translations.

It’s common sense really…*sigh*.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

Now that “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” has come out on DVD, it seemed only right that I watched it to see what all the fuss was about. For those who are unaware, Expelled is a science fiction thriller that revolves around a post-Nazi, communist Darwinian world, ruled by tyrants, where anyone who simply mentions “God” is quietly removed from academic positions.

The film starts out by highlighting the relationship the story has with oppression and Communism; images of the separation of East Germany from West Germany and the building of the Berlin Wall is shown as the opening credits are edited onto signs in the archive footage (an applaudable effort by the visual effects team). A ball is accidentally kicked over the wall by a group of young boys playing football in the streets, and this foreshadows the people who are “expelled” later in the film. They too are “kicked” over the wall of oppression and their freedoms taken from them.

Ben Stein, the narrator and hero of the film, is introduced in a lecture set in the present day, where he is planning to tell his amazing story to a group of eager listeners. As Ben walks down the long corridor to present his talk, the faces and voices of the villains of the movie are seen and heard, each one arguing their position as the absolute truth, and therefore absolute law.

Ben Stein stars as the film's hero, locked in a war with SCIENCE.

Our hero talks about how freedom made America great, but how he has seen those freedoms torn down by the neo-Nazi organisation known collectively as “SCIENCE”. Over the course of the film, Ben meets in secret, the people who were kicked out of the organisation for questioning the methods used in controlling the people. Those who questioned the doctrine of Darwinism and the Dawkinsian Act (enforced to crush opponents of SCIENCE) were branded as “Intellectual Terrorists”, and forced to live in hiding from the brutal regime, their lives in ruins.

Ben’s view of the SCIENCE organisation begins to crumble, and he realises the corruption that has been hidden from the public view. Confused and scared, he visits his close friend Michael Shermer, a propaganda writer for SCIENCE, who attempts to explain the actions of SCIENCE in a purely positive way. Ben’s realisation that Shermer is just as corrupt as the leaders of SCIENCE leads to some dramatic scenes between the two friends, and ends with Shermer betraying Ben to the authorities.

Now on the run from the SCIENCE police (led by Richard Dawkins himself), Ben seeks out the resistance movement in the confusing back-alleys of Seattle. He seeks refuge with the anti-SCIENCE organisation “The Discovery Institute”, and from there sets out on his missions to bring down the evil leaders of SCIENCE.

The finale of the film comes in the confrontational encounter with the ruthless SCIENCE leader, Richard Dawkins. Ben is captured and interrogated by Dawkins, although Ben gets the upper hand in the process and forces Dawkins into a intellectual trap. The film ends with Ben escaping the clutches of SCIENCE, and pledging to tell the world about the corruption in the organisation.

This was an exciting movie, very well written, with plot twists that even M. Night Shyamalan would have trouble coming up with. It is so amazingly well done that at points I was actually convinced that this could happen in the real world, which is yet another credit to the realism the writers managed to convey in the film.

Both Ben Stein and Richard Dawkins gave fantastic performances in their roles as hero and villain respectively. I suspect an Oscar nomination might be just around the corner for such talented people; they certainly deserved one!

Overall, this movie scores 9/10. Very enjoyable.

So there is a new PC game coming out called “Heaven: The Game“, made by a company called Genesis Works. It features a fully explorable version of Heaven, complete with angels, gold lined streets, and even Jesus! The website for the game (which I linked to above) is entirely flash based, and although that alone makes me want to throw my laptop across the room, the content is really even worse. Seriously, if these guys really wanted to please the Lord, how about buying a spell checker? There are spelling errors on literally each page of the site.

The game features list is ridiculous though, because it contains a load of useless references to pretty common game standards:

Animated lens flares!!!! OMG!

360 degree panning world with stereo sound? Yeah, that’s in pretty much any game with a 3D world these days. The next 3 points are all about video animation, and thus are all simply padding for the list. A “game feature” has nothing to do with how cut scenes are shown (at least in my opinion).

No idea how their 3D menu interface is unique, but it doesn’t need mentioning unless it’s as awesome as the implementation in Sauerbraten.

Animated lens flares? Seriously??? Personally, I find lens flares very annoying in video games unless you have a very good reason for them. If your character has a visor, then sure, it adds to the realism. I have no idea why anyone would be wearing a visor in Heaven though, unless you are a Christian astronaut that died whilst on a mission. Of course, that also means that when you die you don’t get to change clothes. Christian Top Tip: Wear something casual when you die…you’re stuck in it forever remember!

Same thing applies to “animated game cursors” really. It’s just not a game feature. Powerful Biblical content is though, and I reckon there could be a heck of a lot of that. The game features list really doesn’t tell me anything about the actual game, only that it has a explorable world based on Biblical heaven, and you have to complete several levels (who reckons most of them involve worshiping the almighty?).

Did anyone spot the 5 spelling errors? Answers revealed when you click the button below (JavaScript needed):

For those who haven’t been following the “Coveted Golden Crocoduck” awards on YouTube, you may wish to have a look at some of the entries. Voting started about a month ago and “Dr” Kent Hovind won in a landslide:

Total Votes: 1061

Kent Hovind: 575

Ben Stein: 160

VenomFangX: 78

Kirk Cameron: 68

NephilimFree: 48

(For full list see the awards video below)

Due to the overwhelming success of the “Atheist Bus” campaign, the British Humanist Association (BHA) have started a new campaign against faith schools in the UK. They are asking for only £30,000, and judging by the response of the last campaign, they will probably get a lot more! The money will be used to hire more staff for campaigning, as well as support movements through parliament.

The BHA released a newsletter thanking those who donated to the original campaign:

We have been overwhelmed with the support given to this campaign, and so the first thing to say is thanks to all of you! Many of you have been emailing or calling us, or leaving comments on the Just Giving site to say that you want a way to continue supporting our efforts and so we are emailing now with two suggestions: joining the BHA and donating to the campaign against faith schools.

The British Humanist Association is the national charity supporting and representing non-religious people. We promote humanism, and campaign for a secular state with an end to religious privilege and discrimination. Our campaigns include promoting an inclusive education system with no religious discrimination in admissions, balanced beliefs and values education, and an end to faith schools; removing Bishops from the House of Lords; opposing the contracting out of public services to religious organisations.

We realise many of you have already donated an extraordinary amount, but judging from your comments to us so far, many of you are keen to donate to the campaign against faith schools in particular (which is in fact one of our biggest campaigns) - and we certainly need the funding! Even if everyone who has given to the Atheist Bus Campaign so far gave only £10 to the campaign against faith schools, it would boost our campaign in the coming year to an incredible extent. At the moment our faith schools campaigner is only on a short term contract and we would love to raise the £30,000 needed to keep the post for another year!

So next year we can expect two things; buses and trains across the country with atheist slogans, and fewer faith schools (we hope).

Who says atheists don’t donate to charity now eh?