Friday 8th of November 2024
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evolution...

evolution

In a week where we are told that chimps are using clever sign language to transfer information, it reminds me of my great uncle. "The difference between chimps and man, is god" once said the great Артур Leonisky. Here, my great uncle was being discreetly satirical, like a chiding precursor of Bertolt Brecht, though Bertold had to rewrite some of his "Mother Courage and Her Children" so the satire could be more obvious to the plebs.

 


And of course, as a gentle progressive intellectual, Great Uncle deliberately excluded women from this sarcastic equation. 
To tell the "truth", there has been a lot of mistruth promoted by powerful organisations fomenting and fermenting in that great land of freedom —Yamerika. One of these organisation being "Conservapedia — the Trustworthy Encyclopedia — the main aim of which is to promote religion against any form of proper scientific views — especially against evolution and against atheism.

The "Trustworthy Encyclopedia" buries atheists under tons of fabricated stats and cooked-up mud — for no other reason than to promote its illusionary arcane gold-plated lead wares.
Of course, these attacks on atheism are both vicious and erroneous. If people wonder why atheists SOMETIMES get annoyed and respond in kind, it is because more often than not Atheism is thus attacked by rabid religious mobs in search of a fist fight. And I mean a fist-fight, not a philosophical debate.

From time to time, there are "meetings" of atheists, but these are described by the religious information network, such as this Conservapedia, as sexist and designed to encourage polygamy "with amoral relationships"... According to this "Trustworthy Encyclopedia", the atheist group is full of rapists. Yes, I am not kidding: this encyclopedia equates rape and atheism, with no second thoughts (In fact, in some Muslim sects, rape is executed as a punishment against women, would you believe.) ...
One would ask why would such "trustworthy" organisation claim that atheists are rapists? There has been a lot of exposure of sexual misconduct, especially with minors, in the churches — institutions designed to uphold the moral flame of humanity but failed quite miserably... It thus a revenge on the atheists... as if atheists had something to do in exposing the sexual deviousness of some priests...

Let's not beat around the bush: atheism is pissweak. Atheists do not have a church nor a central tenet with pillars, nor sacred books, nor promises of better life beyond death. Atheism has nothing to sell or to promote. 
And in the age of deceitful capitalism, having nothing to sell is far worse than the original sin. 

So, let me say that the only thing that atheism does — which the religious mob hate — is to give people the freedom to be human. 

Of course one of the offences levelled by such Christian loony organisations against atheists is related to suicide. They claim that far more atheists suicide than believers do... I have no idea where they get these stats from, but this sort of stats are not unlike that of the Tobacco Industry... Elastic to suit a sales pitch and a narrative... For example, most of the "youth" suicide I personally know of, relate to youngsters who could not reconcile their religious beliefs with whatever. Do we place these in the non-believer category or in the believer category, considering most of them when they topped themselves wanted to be "re-united with god" or see again "their very religious granny" who just died?. We have suicide bombers who think of killing themselves as a duty to their religious fervour. 

There are many shades and strength of religious beliefs used by one to kill oneself. 

But I suppose "old" people — possibly atheist or people not properly committed to a religious view and who have had enough of life — might consider suicide because a) they had a great life and b) old age has brought them intolerable pain that is only managed by drugs that wipe-out their quality of life, can count as atheistic suicide... 

Meanwhile the religious person will plough on with the opium of god and are full of morphine to the eyeballs, wishing the end would come sooner, though more often than not, they are in lalaland... having lost contact with the past, the present and the future.

In all account statistically, there are also more suicide amongst war veterans than in the general community, and many soldiers that have been involved in war butchery cease believing in god, quietly. Because the express commandment of god is to "Not Kill"...
 Most atheists are happy to be alive, unlike many religious nuts who are always on the lookout for sins and sinners so they can blame something, though they profess (but rarely apply) forgiveness... Often this nosy attitude leads to a form of communal sadism, which as inscribed in the good books — books which are full of stories about wars, polygamy, vengeance, murders and sadistic retribution — deserve a corporal punishment as if the loss of eternal life was not good enough... Puerile and truly nasty... Talk about managing pain, with pain and idiocy.

Thus the history of atheism is very sketchy. Mostly because atheists have not made waves, have not rocked the boat for fear of being cooked alive, by inquisitions and slanted cheap trials.

The key word in religious beliefs in not god, belief, you, me or grand doodah but SUBMISSION (or in my parlance submissiveness). Everything that is performed under the umbrella of religion is imbue with this concept. The greatest con of course if to convince you and many other people that if you SUBMIT to the will of god through his (self-appointed) representatives here on earth, you WILL HAVE freedom. 

Never seen so much contradicting rubbish in my life, but that's "the sell".  This is why we have to oppose chaplaincy in public school. These men (far more men than women doing the gig) of god are vacuum salesmen. Nothing more. Well, sure, their vacuum is faulty but who's to know since you have die to find out... Meanwhile you would have been entertained with rituals and theatre as you look up to the blue sky...

 

Ugly.

 

 

Gus Leonisky

Your local atheist with no fancy hat nor sacred grail.

napoleon and the jewry...

 

The French Revolution abolished the different treatment of people according to religion or origin that existed under the monarchy; the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen guaranteed freedom of religion and free exercise of worship, provided that it did not contradict public order.

 


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Napoleon's personal attitude towards the Jews is not always clear, as some feel that he made a number of statements both in support and opposition to the Jewish people at various times. Historian Rabbi Berel Wein in Triumph of Survival claims that Napoleon was primarily interested in seeing the Jews assimilate, rather than prosper as a community: "Napoleon's outward tolerance and fairness toward Jews was actually based upon his grand plan to have them disappear entirely by means of total assimilation, intermarriage, and conversion." 


 

An Assembly of Jewish notables was summoned in April 1806 by the Emperor to consider a set of 12 questions. Those who attended were largely from the Bordeaux or Rhine regions (Alsace and Lorraine). They were led by Rabbi David Sinzheim of Strasbourg, who presently became the president of the Sanhedrin.

The questions presented were:

  1. Is it lawful for Jews to have more than one wife?
  2. Is divorce allowed by the Jewish religion? Is divorce valid, although pronounced not by courts of justice but by virtue of laws in contradiction to the French code?
  3. May a Jewess marry a Christian, or [May] a Jew [marry] a Christian woman? or does Jewish law order that the Jews should only intermarry among themselves?
  4. In the eyes of Jews are Frenchmen not of the Jewish religion considered as brethren or as strangers?
  5. What conduct does Jewish law prescribe toward Frenchmen not of the Jewish religion?
  6. Do the Jews born in France, and treated by the law as French citizens, acknowledge France as their country? Are they bound to defend it? Are they bound to obey the laws and follow the directions of the civil code?
  7. Who elects the rabbis?
  8. What kind of police jurisdiction do the rabbis exercise over the Jews? What judicial power do they exercise over them?
  9. Are the police jurisdiction of the rabbis and the forms of the election regulated by Jewish law, or are they only sanctioned by custom?
  10. Are there professions from which the Jews are excluded by their law?
  11. Does Jewish law forbid the Jews to take usury from their brethren?
  12. Does it forbid, or does it allow, usury in dealings with strangers?

 


The Notables convened again on March 25, prepared an official report, and presented it on April 6, 1807; then the imperial commissioners declared the dissolution of the Assembly of Notables.

The decisions of the sanhedrin, formulated in nine articles and drawn up in French and Hebrew, were as follows:

  1. that, in conformity with the decree of R. Gershom ben Judah, polygamy is forbidden to the Israelites;
  2. That divorce by the Jewish law is valid only after previous decision of the civil authorities;
  3. That the religious act of marriage must be preceded by a civil contract;
  4. That marriages contracted between Israelites and Christians are binding, although they cannot be celebrated with religious forms;
  5. That every Israelite is religiously bound to consider his non-Jewish fellow citizens as brothers, and to aid, protect, and love them as though they were coreligionists;
  6. That the Israelite is required to consider the land of his birth or adoption as his fatherland, and shall love and defend it when called upon;
  7. That Judaism does not forbid any kind of handicraft or occupation;
  8. That it is commendable for Israelites to engage in agriculture, manual labor, and the arts, as their ancestors in Palestine were wont to do;
  9. That, finally, Israelites are forbidden to exact usury from Jew or Christian.

 

the homni monkey killing gaia...

 

In Ancient Greek mythology, the Earth Goddess Gaia had nine titan sons, who attempted to control not just the Earth, but the entire Universe. I’d like to introduce another. It’s a new creature who emerged only in recent decades. But it’s a creature who is already as influential over life on the planet as the phytoplankton or forests that regulate global temperature, the weather and the air we breathe.

That new creature is us, or more precisely, what humanity is becoming. The entirety of our species, Homo sapiens, is evolving into a superorganism; I’ll call this new life force Homo omnis, or ‘Homni’.

We have now become the dominant force shaping our planet. Some say that because of our actions we have entered a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene, or the age of man. Homni is a product of this age, a product of human industrialisation, population expansion, globalisation and the revolution in communications technology, and he is immensely powerful. Homni can influence the biosphere, and has needs – currently, he uses 18 terawatts (trillion watts) of energy at any time, 9,000 billion cubic metres of water per year, 40% of global land area for farming, and a plethora of other natural and mineral resources.

read more: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140701-the-superorganism-engulfing-earth

 

does "progress” really means “being an idiot, but faster"?

 

Progress: it's a bit of a mixed bag really. We’re making steps towards sending a team of astronauts to colonise and populate Mars, which is impressive until you realise it's because we’ve knackered our home planet, the Earth doesn’t have a vacant second floor, and it’s easier to send humanity offsite than it is to get our heads around solar power and an economy not based on black dinosaur juice.

Even worse, the whole voyage will be part of a reality TV series, meaning this great advance of humanity’s first extra-terrestrial settlement will be a combination of Survivor and Sex Box. Pfft. Progress indeed. What was it Neil Armstrong said when he made those famous first footprints? “That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap … for the new season of The Bachelor! Hey-oh!”

If all this leaves you with the impression that “progress” really means “being an idiot, but faster”, then you’ll enjoy the brilliant Canadian documentary Surviving Progress, currently available on ABC’s iView.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/australia-culture-blog/2014/jul/07/surviving-progress-advancing-to-hashtag-oblivion

 

See toon at top...

 

the magnificent scientific proof of the creationists...

 

If Earth and the universe were only 6,000 years old, we would only be able to see stars with a maximum distance of 6,000 light-years. Otherwise the light would not have had time to reach us.

Let’s put this in context.

The Milky Way galaxy is approximately 100,000 light-years across, with our solar system about 28,000 light-years from the center. This puts us about 22,000 light-years from our galaxy’s outer edge. If the universe were only 6,000 years old, we would see only a fraction of the 200 billion stars in just OUR galaxy since light from others would not have had enough time to reach us!

Of course, you have seen countless pictures of stars near Earth. There are amazing images of some of the estimated 125 billion galaxies. Of these, 3,000 are visible and can be anywhere from 80,000 to billions of light-years away. Light from the most distant galaxies had to have traveled for billions of years before it reached Earth. Of course, for light to travel billions of years there had to have been a universe for billions of years!

Earth has existed for billions of years. And it was only very recently that God renewed—recreated—the Earth to prepare it for the first human beings, Adam and Eve!

When one allows the Bible to interpret itself, and uses that knowledge to properly interpret scientific data, the truth of creation is not only accurate, but magnificent and awe-inspiring! 

This article extract from something called the real truth...

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Gus: as an evolutionary atheist, I stand corrected... My apologies.

Yes yes yes!... god RENEWED, as recently as 6000 years ago — or was it yesterday —, planet earth to prepare it for its first humans: Adam and Eve... I wish I had been there to see those two effing dorks who stuffed it up for the rest of us, with the original sin... What a legacy. Actually I though it was Eve first and Adam second (see my interpretations at Eve and Adam on this site — sorry, the search engine is still on the blink), but my understanding of such things is muddled...

This elegant solution to the early evolution of the earth — for about 4,599,994,000 years and then a massive godly clean up 6000 years ago to turn this place into paradise that our two ancestors were supposed to live in harmony with (unfortunately they did sumpthin' wrong and got penalised) is a superb awe-inspiring story, with no scientific proof of course, but plausible if one believes in CONtext...

 

when old nick lurks in our disturbed natural hearts...

"The downing of MH17 was not an innocent accident, it was the outcome of a trail of human evil," Sydney Bishop Peter Comensoli told the congregation.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/20/mh17-australian-victims-remembered-mass-sydney

 

Yes, Mr the Bishop Comensoli... "A trail of human evil?".... When did this trail start? With Cain killing his brother Abel?...

The downing of MH17 was a horrific action by Ukrainian Russian rebels, but not worse that the present Isis invasion of Iraq or even the invasion of Gaza by Israel.

Innocent people get killed...

I agree with you, Bishop Comensoli, the trail of "human evil" is long and has had outcomes over and over... To "human evil" we should add the Iraq war waged by Bush, Blair and Howard which resulted in many people killed, and many displaced, many seeking refuge — that we, in our good heart, send to prison or back to their torturers, like vermin. We chose to define something "evil" when it suits us...

So that particular Iraq war was deemed "just" by the neo-fascists of capitalist politics, with a very weak mitigated and divided reprimand from some religious figures, while others religious fanatics may have seen a crusade in it...

The present "boat people" policy of both the Labor and the Liberal (CONservative) Parties has actually far more "human evil" in its DELIBERATE "evil" than in an accident of war — the shooting down of a civilian aircraft in an air-space that should have been closed to such traffic...

To "human evil" we can also add, the permanent war waged by the US using drones to kill, often accompanied with apologies for having murdered "innocent" women and children. In our subconscious hearts, though, where old nick is forever hypocritically present (our own psychopath-self), we don't bleed or cry for them, since we can roll out the long carpet of excuse they would have been growing up to become terrorists...

That Comensoli decides to call the downing of MH17 "not an innocent accident" and "the trail of human evil" is thus loaded with political meanings, pleasing to politicians of all persuasion, meanings that do not exist in the religious vernacular of Christ, but are convenient words to apportion blame to satisfy our inner psychopath...

The downing of MH17 was a horrific mistake of war, sure. Many were made before that. More will be done. Our blame of the Russians in order to extract political mileage won't win us points in the long run, it will only add to "the trail of human evil"...

Don't get fooled. The Ukrainian Russians are at war with Ukraine whatever their reasons, in the same manner as Israel is at war with the Palestinians.

Actually no. Israel may have more "evil" on its side, because it has far more weapon superiority than the Palestinians.

And please note, there is no such thing as "evil"... I guess that is why the good Bishop chose to cleverly say "human evil" that spell the "inhumanity against humanity" in war, rather than use the broader term of "evil" which is more related to when old nick is in our disturbed natural hearts — Our own psychopath-self with bells and excuses attached...

 

Our sincere codolences to the families of the dead in the tragedy of MH17... I mean it.

 

Gus Leonisky

Your local psycho... See toon at top...

debunking the neuromyth of the 10 per cent...

 

Science journalists are throwing a wet blanket on the premise of the new movie, “Lucy” — that we humans only use 10 percent of our brains, leaving vast expanses of cortex untapped.

The movie features Scarlett Johansson in the title role as an American student abroad who develops extraordinary powers by unleashing the potential of all that unused neural territory.

The 10-percent notion is one of those zombie ideas about the brain that refuse to die.

The short answer is that we already use all of our brain, which makes sense because while it comprises about 2 percent of body mass, the brain gobbles up 20 percent of the oxygen we breathe and 20 percent of the energy we consume. That would be a big fuel bill for an organ that was 90 percent idle.

Other zombie ideas about the brain, sometimes referred to as neuromyths, include the notion that students are naturally left-brained (logical) or right-brained (creative) and teachers should try to balance their instruction accordingly. Short answer: people use both hemispheres of their brain in daily tasks, regardless of personality or skills.

Neuromyths matter for teachers and parents because they may be persuaded to waste time and money on gadgets and techniques that claim to be brain-based, but aren’t backed by scientific evidence.

read more: http://blogs.seattletimes.com/educationlab/2014/08/01/myth-that-we-use-only-10-percent-of-brain-100-percent-bunk/

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Gus: I have officially debunked this myth in 1994. It does not make sense that we only use 10 per cent of our brain.

What is true though is that in our stylistic ventures we might develop the wrong premises and use our brain "badly", This is another story altogether... What I did postulate then was that at some stage, our brains demands "independence" from being told what to do. As well we constantly accumulate "values" and beliefs which new information might challenge, thus our mind — which is the software of the brain (hardware) — can reject the new information (true or false). 

I also mentioned that the brain uses a lot of power for vision and other senses (sensors) and also for "dexterity" in which senses and actions are co-ordinated. Some research has estimated that 60 per cent of brain power is used to control the hands "co-ordination".  

 

In the process of using the brain better, there are some tricks, from non-religious meditation to improving methods of learning that lessen the resistance to learn, such as using "discovery" and understanding the pathways others have used to discovery — especially in the scientific and mathematic domains. 

For example, a few years ago, I formulated the cubic atom... It made sense to me in the quantum world... But the idea of the cubic atom had been formulated back in the 1920s. Of course the cubic atom, like the "spherical atom" concept, is fluffy, due to uncertainty. 

 

See also:  10%

 

'I hope they will not forget me'...

Before the newly released Dawn of the Planet of the Apes film, there was a long franchise going back to the first Apes movie - the 1968 classic with Charlton Heston. But before that there was the book.

Today few people have heard of Pierre Boulle. He was the French author who first had the brilliant idea of humans travelling in time and stumbling on ape civilisation. It was in his 1963 novel La Planete des Singes (Planet of the Apes).

But there's more. It turns out that Pierre Boulle was also the man behind another cinema great - none other than The Bridge on the River Kwai. A book on the face of it so quintessentially British - about a British colonel and his conception of duty and honour. How on earth could it have been written by a Frenchman? And how did that same Frenchman then move from wartime adventure to the world of science fiction for his second Hollywood triumph?

Pierre Boulle died in Paris in 1994, after a writing career that spanned more than 40 years and resulted in some 30 novels and collections of short stories.

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28610124

 

See toon at top...

rights for the apes...

 

An orangutan that has lived 20 years at the Buenos Aires zoo is entitled to some legal rights enjoyed by humans, an Argentine court has ruled, a decision the ape's attorney called unprecedented and a ticket to greater freedom.

The ruling comes a month after a local animal rights group filed a habeas corpus writ in favor of Sandra, who was born in Germany but has lived im captivity in Buenos Aires most of her life.

"Following a dynamic ... judicial interpretation, it is necessary to recognise that the animal is subject to rights, and should be protected," said the December 18 ruling, published on Monday by the official judicial news agency and reported by the Associated Press news agency.

Andres Gil Dominguez, who represented the orangutan, said the "unprecedented" ruling paves the way for the habeas corpus rights to be accepted by the courts and for Sandra to be released at a sanctuary.

"It sets a precedent that changes the paradigm of animal guardianship and will impact their rights. ... It will lead to a lot of discussions," Gil Dominguez told The Associated Press.

"From this ruling forward ... the discussion will be whether captivity in itself damages their rights."

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2014/12/argentina-court-grants-orangutan-basic-rights-20141222224116508511.html

 

Gus has always battled for the rights of species... I wrote about it a publication in 1981...

 

the missing link in the rise of homo imbecilus...

 

The discovery of a 2.8-million-year-old partial jawbone in Africa could rewrite the history of human evolution.

An international team of researchers found the lower jawbone, complete with teeth, at the Ledi-Geraru site in the Ethiopian Rift Valley, and published the finding in a report today in the journal Science.

Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-05/fossil-jaw-a-missing-link-in-the-human-evolution-puzzle/6281236

See also: http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/8011

See toon at top...

 

changing tyres on our bicycle...

Eulogy for Evolution is Icelandic producer Ólafur Arnalds' first studio album. With it, Arnalds set out to document the journey of life, from birth to death.

 

Olafur Arnalds is not the first person to have created a work that expresses the journey of life. His musical piece, though, is quite charming and evocative.

All individuals of species go through the "evolutionary" process from birth to death. And here we can also say as others have done before "EVOLUTION SUX"... But evolution is also a phenomenon of life itself on a grander scale than just individuals' existence. Since the beginning of life on this small planet, evolution has created new species and deleted many. Evolution is not an entity but a very complex related chemical process of reactivity to environmental factors, mistakes of duplication and duplication changes that are accidental. 

That EVOLUTION SUX is an understatement. We humans feel cheated by the process, because we developed a greater understanding of the universe (some of it is erroneously religious) we feel evolution should give us eternity in exchange. Evolution does not care. it's only a process of change that is difficult to change. We have to die. It's part of the evolutionary process.  Not much we can do about it, apart from prolonging individuals life while mucking up other species cycle of life and while changing the planet for what often is an illusionary comfort.