Noah's Ark: Found again!

Noah's Ark is thought to be located on Mount Ararat.

Source: noahsarkfound.com

Last year, a group of 'evangelical explorers' claimed to have discovered Noah's Ark on the sides of Turkey's Mount Ararat. Now widely believed to be a hoax, a new group - this time from the Google-anonymous Shamrock - The Trinity Corporation - has made a similar claim; citing CIA records and President Jimmy Carter's White House diary.

Saudi woman beheaded for 'sorcery'

Photo censored by Google Adsense.

Source; Gulfnews.com

A Saudi woman was beheaded Monday after being convicted of practising sorcery, which is banned in the ultra-conservative kingdom, the interior ministry said.

Opinion: Bloody Catholics.

From Catholic News Agency

Gah! Bloody Catholics. It's always about them. Now if religious freedom advocates actually meant religious freedom for all, they would be calling for a day against persecution of people of any faith (or lack of it). But no. They only want to concentrate on their own religious freedom. It is fine to persecute non-Christians, just so long as Christians are not being persecuted.

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I read something that came from the Catholic media that, when reason is applied, is wholly abhorrent.


As proof of this I shall post the next three articles that appear in my RSS reader from the same source:

1. Human dignity central to Catholic faith, Archbishop Dolan teaches A story stating that human dignity is central to Catholic faith, as if it isn't central to non-Catholics.

A blast from the past

Steptoe & son was a popular British comedy about the original rag trade.

I remember a time in my distant past when the rag and bone man used to come around this estate, collecting the junk that was otherwise too big to dispose of. Real life Wombles, with a horse and cart.

"Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish."

Having just returned to the area after a long break away, I have just had the pleasure of having the peace disturbed by today's incarnation. A man and his daughter in a modern pick up truck, clanging his bell for attention. I found myself wanting to give him something for old time's sake, but due to my recent move I find myself with a dearth of the things I actually need, not a glut of things I do not.

Quaint and reassuring in a strange way, but I wonder how indicative of the times it all is. What with onerous recycling programs and financial austerity not seen here since the last time I witnessed such a phenomenon in the 1970's.

Installing husband... Please wait.

A woman writes to I.T. Technical Support.


Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and I noticed a distinct slowdown in the overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewelery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as News 5.0, Money 3.0 and Sport 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and House Defrag 2.6 simply crashes the system..

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed...


Reply, after the break...

Christianity unravelled

Hoodie Jesus

If we are to accept Jesus as our lord and saviour, we should be careful to examine the reasons for our doing so. To ignore, or to gloss over, the facts as they are presented is nothing short of wilful ignorance, and any factual basis for such a belief is unwarranted and unfounded.

Aside from the dearth of credible evidence for the existence of Jesus of Nazareth, I have no real problem accepting that such a person did, in fact, exist; just that divinity claims have yet to be established. Personally, I think it likely that there was such a person, but what we understand of him today has been consumed by a plethora of loose ascriptions that may well have been better attributed to some other historical character. In other words, I find it more likely that when considering Jesus the man, we are talking about a conglomeration of different people's characters and urban myths. For the purposes of this argument, though, I will accept that Jesus did exist, but that the New Testament is a loose and inaccurate account of how we understand him - and by extension, Christianity - to mean today.

In Christian theology the atonement refers to the forgiving or pardoning of sin through the death of Jesus Christ by crucifixion.

- Wikipedia 

Atonment forms the basis of Christianity, inasmuch as the purpose of his coming was so that he might die for our sins, purging us of the scourge of 'original sin' inherited from Adam and Eve. There is no mention of the descent of guilt for that sin, just that we inherit a 'nature of sin' directly from Adam and Eve. Jesus' suffering on the crucifix is the atonement - or absolution - for that sin.

So far, so good. All we have to do now is establish the existence of Adam and Eve as our ancestors, and Christianity is looking like being an acceptable - if not fantastic (see definition 1) - explanation of real events.

111201 Post of the day on Google+

On Michelle Bachmann's 'Teaching only evolution is censorship' 

Rod Brock  -  I wrote something of a diatribe in reply, here, and then lost it somehow in a spastic mouse motion. My own fault for feeling a compulsion to explain/defend myself, when it's not particularly necessary. To those rooted in the real world, it is apparent that she is stupid at best, delusional at worst.

I'll leave you instead with a quote from Robert Browning's "Bishop's Blougram's Apology."

How you'd exult if I could put you back
Six hundred years, blot out cosmogony,
Geology, ethnology, what not...
And set you square with Genesis again,--

This is what she attempts to do. To teach lies and delusion as viable alternatives to truth.

A celebratory toast to Jesus.

Some gadgets really are quite good fun, even if you lose interest in them quite quickly. However, if they have a genuine raison d'être that extends beyond the birthday or Christmas event under which one is most likely to encounter ownership of such items, then perhaps you should consider a toaster as a low-cost gift in these austere times.

Discussion & analysis #1: How many sons did Abraham have?

As part of my research into biblical contradiction, I have posted the 439 instances as presented by Project Reason.


I am not wholly convinced of their validity, so in the interest of intellectual honesty, I am examining the more spurious claims in individual posts. This is the first such 'Discussion + analysis' (or D+A), and I welcome all the feedback I can on all of the following questions that arise from this project.

On the Holy bible and contradiction

We often hear that scripture contains no contradictions. Those studious bods down at Project Reason, however, have gone to some considerable effort to dismiss this argument.


There follows, below the break, a list of some 439 documented biblical contradictions. I have to admit to some considerable use of copy pasta from their rather lovely graphic to post it here, but I hope that this transgression is overlooked once I have edited it in its entirety. Something I am confident my reader will be allow me considering the length of the list.


It will, no doubt, take some considerable time. All contributions will be warmly appreciated as the form of the edits become more apparent.