“I’ve got to give atheists credit for being so steadfast in their belief in no God, yet they continually use God against those of us that are in relationships with Jesus. It must be hard to keep such a closed mind to other things.”
That’s a response to a philosoraptor meme I reblogged. And it…
I have to disagree. Every atheist I know runs around criticizing others for having religious beliefs, telling them they believe in fairy tales and overall being extremely disrespectful.
I honestly hate seeing stuff like this. There is no way you can convince me that there are no violent, intolerant, or downright idiotic atheists. While I find it unfair that they are often hated/mistrusted, I also find it ridiculous that they think they are exempt from having extremists among them.
Well this is some total bullshit. It’s not exactly what religion (or in this case, lack thereof) you believe, it’s how you choose to assert it. IF YOU’RE A DOUCHEBAG ABOUT IT, WHO GIVES A DAMN ABOUT WHAT YOUR BELIEFS ARE. YOU’RE A DOUCHE.
Just some thoughts:You don’t see atheists going door to door.
You don’t see atheists putting The God Delusion in hotel drawers.
You don’t see atheists telling people stricken with disease not to use condoms.You don’t see atheists telling rape victims (or anyone) they can’t have an abortion.
You don’t see atheists killing others or starting wars for not believing in god.
You don’t see atheists telling gays they don’t deserve equal rights.
You don’t see atheists indoctrinating their children into anything but… education.
You don’t see atheists praying after disasters, we “believe in” donating/actually helping.You don’t see atheists do very many negative things except be upset that the world can be so ignorant.
Thankfully, this image is based off statistics. Not just “all the atheists I know.” And it just so happens to be that studies show those who assert themselves as atheist are more educated, earn higher incomes, commit the fewest crimes, and get divorced less often.
A side note: Many atheists lack respect for specifically religion, while strongly maintaining it for humanity in general.
These myths are hurting people, that’s why we involve ourselves, our humanity denies us the ability to ignore the conclusive evidence for its severe and ongoing damage.
This is The Simplest Example of Evolution from HowStuffWorks. I’ve seen a disturbing amount of misinterpretations/understandings of evolution lately. I’m hoping it will make me feel a bit better to post this.
The process of evolution acts on an E. coli cell by creating a mutation in the DNA. It is not uncommon for the DNA strand in an E. coli bacterium to get corrupted. An X-ray, a cosmic ray or a stray chemical reaction can change or damage the DNA strand. In most cases, a particular E. coli cell with mutated DNA will either die, fix the damage in the strand or fail to reproduce. In other words, most mutations go nowhere. But every so often, a mutation will actually survive and the cell will reproduce.
Imagine, for example, a bunch of identical E. coli cells that are living in a petri dish. With plenty of food and the right temperature, they can double every 20 minutes. That is, each E. coli cell can duplicate its DNA strand and split into two new cells in 20 minutes.
Now, imagine that someone pours an antibiotic into the petri dish. Many antibiotics kill bacteria by gumming up one of the enzymes that the bacteria needs to live. For example, one common antibiotic gums up the enzyme process that builds the cell wall. Without the ability to add to the cell wall, the bacteria cannot reproduce, and eventually they die.
When the antibiotic enters the dish, all of the bacteria should die. But imagine that, among the many millions of bacteria living in the dish, one of them acquires a mutation that makes its cell-wall-building enzyme different from the norm. Because of the difference, the antibiotic molecule does not attach properly to the enzyme, and therefore does not affect it. That one E. coli cell will survive, and since all of its neighbors are dead, it can reproduce and take over the petri dish. There is now a strain of E. coli that is immune to that particular antibiotic.
In this example, you can see evolution at work. A random DNA mutation created an E. coli cell that is unique. The cell is unaffected by the antibiotic that kills all of its neighbors. This unique cell, in the environment of that petri dish, is able to survive.
E. coli are about as simple as living organisms can get, and because they reproduce so rapidly you can actually see evolution’s effects on a normal time scale. In the past several decades, many different types of bacteria have become immune to antibiotics. In a similar way, insects become immune to insecticides because they breed so quickly. For example, DDT-resistant mosquitoes evolved from normal mosquitoes.
In most cases, evolution is a much slower process.
