Harris on the immorality of Christianity

Below is as sharp a critique of Christianity, its basic tenets and why Christianity does not offer and alternative, much less a more ethical view of morality that you are likely to find:

The most cogent point, and one that I have referenced frequently, is the problem of unnecessary evil and — take your pick — either the inability or unwillingness of an all-loving, all-powerful, all-knowing God to intervene. Harris says it in unequivocal terms: the God of Christianity is either impotent or evil.

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Sullivan: ‘The American President’

Really good piece from late last night — er, this morning — from Andrew Sullivan: The American President.

While I don’t agree with Sullivan on everything, I certainly appreciate his writing style and his ability to articulate a unique point of view:

The president’s oration (during his acceptance speech) was almost a summation of his core belief: that against the odds, human beings can actually better ourselves, morally, ethically, materially, and we can do so more powerfully together than alone, and that nowhere exemplifies that endeavor more than America. It was Lincolnian in its cadences, and in some ways, was the final, impassioned, heart-felt rebuke to all those, including his opponent, who tried to portray him as somehow un-American. How deeply that must have cut. How emphatically did he rebut the charge.

What he reminded me of was how deeply American he actually is – how this country’s experiment truly is in diversity as well as democracy. And his diversity is not some cringe-worthy 1990s variety. It is about being both white and black, both mid-Westernand Hawaiian, both proudly American and yet also attuned to the opinion of mankind.

As for the next four years, there is time enough for that. But I stand by these words. And one felt something tectonic shift tonight. America crossed the Rubicon of every citizen’s access to healthcare, and re-elected a black president in a truly tough economic climate. The shift toward gay equality is now irreversible. The end of prohibition of marijuana is in sight. Women, in particular, moved this nation forward – pragmatically, provisionally, sensibly. They did so alongside the young whose dedication to voting was actually greater this time than in 2008, the Latino voters who have made the current GOP irrelevant, and African-Americans, who turned up in vast numbers, as in 2008, to put a period at the end of an important sentence.

That sentence will never now be unwritten. By anyone.

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Atheism Plus forum: ‘privileged, observational ass’

A user named d4m10n posted the following on the Atheism Plus forum on Oct. 29:

Atheism Plus vs. SlymePit

I’m posting this on both forums, word for word. My apologies in advance.

I’m working on a post comparing the two forums (which are alike in a number of surprising ways) but so far it is mostly quantitative and historical and oddly dry. I’d like to try and get a sense (mostly from non-mods) of what it is about the moderation rules, stated goals, and unstated ethos of this particular forum which draws you to post here. I have my suspicions, of course, having lurked quite a bit, but I don’t want to paraphrase when I can quote directly from the users themselves.

The writer, of course, got some snarky replies from the folks on the A+ forum, although he clearly said he was posting it on both forums, so as to not to show favoritism.

A person named Sun Countess replied with this gem:

The only thing we have in common is that we’re both like churches. At least that’s what all the idiots seem to think. I think that’s because we both have members.

What we’re not is a zoo or an experimental lab, so you can take your privileged, observational ass back to the slymepit. See, we treat people here like human beings with value, and when you come in asking to perform an experiment on us that you get to walk away from, and even joke and laugh about with people at the slymepit, then you have shown that you are willing to devalue other human beings. You will fit in very well over there.

Wow. So many assumptions, so little time. The first thing to note: the writer gets called a “privileged, observational ass” without provocation, and then in the next sentence, Sun Countess talks about how Atheism Plus supporters treat people like human beings. Nice.

Not only is the writer “privileged,” a favorite word that A+ folks like to throw around like candy at all who have the audacity to ask questions or disagree with their smug point of view, the writer also apparently does not treat people like human beings with value, is performing an “experiment” on just the A+ crowd (again, Sun Countess ignores the point that the writer was posting to both forums verbatim), will walk away and make jokes, again devalues humans and is actually a troll from the SlymePit. And they wonder why so many in the nonbelieving community have such contempt for Atheism Plus.

In any case, here is the equivalent post at the SlymePit. I thought this reply from Michael K Gray provided an interesting observation:

Executive summary:
Slimepit – Exposes Hypocrisy as well as it’s members are able.
FfTB – Conceals Hypocrisy as well as it’s members are able.
A✝Theism – A frightening view into a bizarro-ward of feeble damaged circus-freaks.

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Early human branching

Fascinating discovery:

Fossil by fossil, scientists over the last 40 years have suspected that their models for the more immediate human family tree — the single trunk, straight as a Ponderosa pine, up from Homo habilis to Homo erectus to Homo sapiens — were oversimplified. The day for that serious revision may be at hand.

Credit: Fred Spoor/The KNM-ER 1470 cranium, based on a computed tomography scan.

The discovery of three new fossil specimens, announced Wednesday, is the most compelling evidence yet for multiple lines of evolution in our own genus, Homo, scientists said. The fossils showed that there were at least two contemporary Homo species, in addition to Homo erectus, living in East Africa as early as two million years ago.

Uncovered from sandstone at Koobi Fora, badlands near Lake Turkana in Kenya, the specimens included a well-preserved skull of a late juvenile with a relatively large braincase and a long, flat face, which has been designated KNM-ER 62000 (62000 for short). It bears a striking resemblance to the enigmatic cranium known as 1470, the center of debate over multiple lineages since its discovery in the same area in 1972.

If the 62000 skull showed that 1470 was not a single odd individual, the other two specimens seemed to provide a vital piece of evidence that had been missing. The specimen 1470 had no mandible, or lower jaw. The new finds included an almost complete lower jaw (60000) — considered to be the most complete mandible of an early Homo yet found — and a part of another lower jaw (62000).

The fossils were collected between 2007 and 2009 by a team led by Meave and Louise Leakey, the mother-and-daughter paleoanthropologists of the Koobi Fora Research Project and members of the famous African fossil-hunting family. Dr. Meave Leakey is the wife of Richard Leakey, a son of Louis and Mary Leakey, who produced the early evidence supporting Africa’s central place in early human origins. Mr. Leakey divides his time between Stony Brook University on Long Island, where he is a professor of anthropology, and the Turkana Basin Institute in Kenya.

After looking “long and hard” for fossils to confirm the intriguing features of 1470’s face and show what its teeth and lower jaw were like, Dr. Meave Leakey said this week, “At last we have some answers.”

Read more here.