December 31, 2005

Bacon and God: Sneezing


What happens when you sneeze in front of God? Click on cartoon to enlarge it.

NFL PICKS FOR WEEK 17

Last week I went 3 and 3. My record for the year is 50-44-4, Bacon Specials 5-9-2.
Lots of meaningless games this week. Might as well focus on the dogs.

Arizona getting 6 and a half against Indy.

Jets getting 1 and a half against the Bills.

Atlanta getting 3 and a half against Carolina. Carolina needs the win but have a lousy
record in Atlanta.

Philly getting 7 against Washington. I thought this spread would be higher. Watch Washington struggle to get into the playoffs.

St. Louis getting 12 and a half against Dallas. This game might be meaningless by the time it is played, but even if it means something to the Cowboys, they just aren't a blow out type of team.

Bacon Special is Oakland getting 8 points at home to the Giants today. No matter how much the Giants need this game, they are still going to the West coast against a team that was a major disappointment this year. I can't see the Giants winning by more than 4 or 5, if they win at all.

December 29, 2005

The Earth Isn't Young, Get Over It, Move On

It is almost 2006 and I just can't get over the ignorance of Young Earth Creationists.
They deny overwhelming scientific evidence, just so that they can take the bible literally. The bible is their imagination. They can't handle an allegorical bible.
Of course, these are the same people who can't accept evolution either despite mounds and mounds of evidence.
There is no logic in their belief system. None, zero. Some are proudly ignorant. Some think they know it all. Some admit, faith is the overwhelming factor in their psychosis. But the ones who argue are the ones who really disturb me.
They have no independent peer reviewed scientific data going for them. Their argument is strictly based on semantics, not science. The same dishonest semantic approach can be used to prove the earth is flat, square, or made of chocolate. But it isn't reality.
Who is right about science? Scientists, or the bible or a YEC high school drop out?
I'll go with scientists. And 95%+ scientists around the world know that evolution is fact and know that the earth and universe is billions of years old. And I'm still not sure of the credentials of the other less than 5% who are YEC and anti-evolutionists. Are they political scientists who answered the survey under the pretense they were scientists? http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_publi.htm
Please note, that believing in an Ancient Earth and Evolution doesn't mean you can't believe in God. 40% of scientists still believe in God.
The Catholics are catching on. They called ID BS recently. They must have scientists in the Vatican who just happen to believe fact and scientific proof.
Even some Evangelical types are now trying to make sense of the reality of science.
Orthodox Jews too, seem to be getting it in most cases.

Here is a very interesting and very telling example of the dishonesty of YEC "scientists" by a geologist who used to believe in a Young Earth:
But eventually, by 1994 I was through with young-earth creationISM. Nothing that young-earth creationists had taught me about geology turned out to be true. I took a poll of my ICR graduate friends who have worked in the oil industry. I asked them one question. Note ICR is the Institute for Creation Research

"From your oil industry experience, did any fact that you were taught at ICR, which challenged current geological thinking, turn out in the long run to be true? ,"

That is a very simple question. One man, Steve Robertson, who worked for Shell grew real silent on the phone, sighed and softly said 'No!' A very close friend that I had hired at Arco, after hearing the question, exclaimed, "Wait a minute. There has to be one!" But he could not name one. I can not name one. No one else could either. One man I could not reach, to ask that question, had a crisis of faith about two years after coming into the oil industry. I do not know what his spiritual state is now but he was in bad shape the last time I talked to him.


http://home.entouch.net/dmd/gstory.htm

And then there is Keith Miller, the Geology Professor at Kansas State University.
An evangelical evolutionist:
I am very involved at both the state and national levels in the advocacy for quality public science education and public science literacy. Much of my efforts have focused on the historical sciences and particularly evolutionary science. The public "Creation/Evolution" debate has been destructive to both the public understanding of science and to the discussion of important theological issues within the Christian community. The widespread perception of a "warfare of science and faith" is an historically false caricature. Christian theologians and scientists, including evangelicals, since the time of Darwin have seen no necessary conflict between orthodox theology and an evolutionary understanding of the history of life. Modern science is not a threat to Christian faith, and people need not feel forced into a choice between evolution and Creation.

Challenges to modern evolutionary science are often rooted in fundamental misperceptions of the nature of science itself. There is a widespread perception that the focus of science on natural cause-and-effect explanations is a thinly disguised effort to promote a godless worldview, rather than an inherent methodological limitation. Furthermore, many people view "theories" as merely unsubstantiated guesses, rather than as the unifying concepts that give our observations coherence and meaning. Science for many is simply an encyclopedic accumulation of unchanging observational "facts." But science is a dynamic process with the continual construction and revision of theories based on new discoveries. It is that dynamic process which makes science so inherently exciting. Lastly, much of the popular critique of evolutionary theory is based on completely false views of its theoretical content and observational foundation. As educators we need to improve how we teach both the content and methodological foundation of science.

http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~kbmill/

These guys don't bother me in the least. Believe in God if you choose, but don't put your head in the sand when it comes to proven reality.

December 24, 2005

WEEK 16 NFL PICKS

Two excellent weeks in a row. Last week I was 5 and 1, the week before 4-1-1. I'm hot, but every time I pat myself on the back I usually hit myself too hard and fall back to the ground. On the year my record is now 47-41-4 and the Bacon Special's record is 5-8-2.

My heart goes out to Tony Dungy. His son committed one of the most selfish acts I've ever seen due to it's timing. It is now going to be impossible for him to enjoy winning the Superbowl, and in fact, his son's suicide will probably cost Indy the Superbowl. Football is a very emotional game, played by mainly believing Christians. The suicide is going to mess these dudes up in my opinion and bring out the wrong type of emotions. Talent and coaching is out the window when this happens.

Here is todays picks:

Carolina by at least 5 against Dallas. Dallas will see their playoff chances crushed today. Carolina looks like a much better team these days.

Cleveland getting 7 against Pittsburgh. Cleveland is not that bad a team, and this line looks fishy to me.

KC getting 1 against San Diego. I really want San Diego to win, but I just think even though they need the game very much to make the playoffs, they are going to come up short, coming off the high of beating Indy last week and then playing in the noise cripping Arrowhead Stadium.

Baltimore by 3 against Minnesota. Baltimore is a December team. Minnesota was on a streak, until they met a good football team last week, putting Minny back in their place. I think a Raven victory is in the bag this week.

Washington by 3 against the Giants. Washington was completely humiliated earlier this year when the Giants shut them out in blow out fashion. I ask, why is Washington 3 points? They would get the same action at Pick em. The answer is that they will win decisively today. This is payback time, the Skins have been waiting for this one. And they really really really need to win to stay alive for a playoff birth.

And my Bacon Special is Tennessee getting 5 and a half against Miami. Miami should be favored by more and the over under number is high. Look for a high scoring game going down to the last play.

Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukkah, and to my Atheist friends, have a good weekend.

December 23, 2005


Kicking ID out of science class was a no brainer. Speaking of no brains, the Fundies are pissed. Most of them don't know that Behe believes in an ancient universe and evolution but lets not tell them.

December 22, 2005

Bacon and God: Why God created dinosaurs


Click cartoon to enlarge.

December 21, 2005

Bacon and God: The Dover Trial


Click Cartoon to Enlarge.

December 20, 2005

Arab Evolution?


Arab Evolution is in the Koran? Well this explains a lot.

December 19, 2005

One of these days she might figure it out


I told my wife before she took the pic of me with a beard that she has a tendency to only get half to two thirds of my head in the pics she takes. It obviously just doesn't matter what I say.

TV Addiction


Daisy watching TV. Usually she watches from under the table about 15 feet away. If she starts watching from this close distance more often, she'll need glasses.

Finally heard the song I could not remember

I can't believe it took this much time for me to finally hear the song that I liked so much but couldn't remember. I'm talking since August. They just don't play it on the National Geographics channel or Animal Planet or the Discovery channel, or on the Sopranos or on Curb Your Enthusiasm, or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, or the horse racing channel. I had to resort to playing the radio and getting lucky.



The Way by Fastball

They made up their minds

And they started packing

They left before the sun came up that day

An exit to eternal summer slacking

But where were they going without ever knowing the way?

They drank up the wine

And they got to talking

They now had more important things to say

And when the car broke down they started walking

Where were they going without ever knowing the way?

Chorus:

Anyone could see the road that they walk on is paved in gold

And it’s always summer, they’ll never get cold

They’ll never get hungry

They’ll never get old and gray

You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere

They won’t make it home

But they really don’t care

They wanted the highway

They’re happy there today , today

The children woke up

And they couldn’t find ’em

They left before the sun came up that day

They just drove off

And left it all behind ’em

But where were they going without ever knowing the way?


Anyone could see the road that they walk on is paved in gold

And it’s always summer, they’ll never get cold

They’ll never get hungry

They’ll never get old and gray

You can see their shadows wandering off somewhere

They won’t make it home

But they really don’t care

They wanted the highway

They’re happy there today , today (repeat)

December 17, 2005

I saw a great documentary episode

It was the last part of the PBS series Evolution. The title was What about God?. In a nutshell, it made it very clear that evolution has nothing to do with how we got here. Evolution explains what has happened since life began on earth. The documentary spent most of it's time on the struggle that Christians have making sense of evolution while keeping faith in God and the Bible.
It was refreshing seeing a biology professor, Keith Miller, who stated he was an Evangelical Christian who knows evolution is fact. Mr. Miller, realizes the facts of evolution are undeniable, yet he still believes there was an Adam and Eve who God made examples of. He acknowledges that Adam and Eve had to have evolved first though, and theorizes that Adam and Eve were the first, or among the first "human beings."
This documentary didn't mock Christians or believers at all. But it did make it clear that "Special Creation" or "ID" is becoming dangerous as exampled by a group of high school kids who went to a board trying to get it implemented in the science program. The board in this instance ruled that Special Creation can not be taught in science class because it can't be defined as science. They said it belonged in Philosophy class.
Again, I would like to see what an ID text book has between the book's cover. I would like to see one testable scientific theory put out by the dishonest IDers.
The one thing that was apparent from the documentary is that anti-evolutionists are scared or ignorant. They either do not want to understand scientific theory or they don't have the capacity in their brain to understand it. It is apparent that anti-evolutionists in almost every case have only spent their time "researching" faulty "scientific" articles that poke holes in evolution, if they have done any "research" at all. Those who read genuine scientific articles with an open mind have to accept evolution as fact, unless they are of below average intelligence. What I find is that Fundies seem to "observe" science with the bible as their reference. If it goes against the bible, it must be wrong.

FAQ about evolution:


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/faq/index.html

Please note, those who say evolution is only a theory:
Isn't evolution just a theory that remains unproven?
In science, a theory is a rigorously tested statement of general principles that explains observable and recorded aspects of the world. A scientific theory therefore describes a higher level of understanding that ties "facts" together. A scientific theory stands until proven wrong -- it is never proven correct. The Darwinian theory of evolution has withstood the test of time and thousands of scientific experiments; nothing has disproved it since Darwin first proposed it more than 150 years ago. Indeed, many scientific advances, in a range of scientific disciplines including physics, geology, chemistry, and molecular biology, have supported, refined, and expanded evolutionary theory far beyond anything Darwin could have imagined.

December 16, 2005

NFL Week 15 Picks

Good week ended. I went 4-1-1 and improved my record to 42-40-4 on the year. The Bacon Special came in to make my pathetic record 4-8-2. With games on Saturday, I am submitting picks early, so here we go:

New England by 4 and a half against Tampa Bay. I noticed this line didn't jump around with the uncertainty of Brady and his knee. I'm thinking New England is a cinch here.

Tennessee getting 7 against Seattle. Seattle thinks they are gonna cakewalk this week. Don't count on it.

Houston getting 2 against Arizona. Houston will win. Watch.

Philly getting 3 and a half against St. Louis. The Rams are deader than Philly this week.

Oakland by 3 against Cleveland. This is a system play. Cold weather eastern team going to sunny California to get their head handed to them on a silver and black platter.

And my Bacon Special: Washington by 3 against the flukey Dallas Cowboys. Watch for Bledsoe to get shut down. This slaughter is gonna be as bad as Custer's Last Stand.

December 14, 2005

A New Religion for the Masses is Needed

I was just checking out the stats again from Religious Tolerance.org with respect to American beliefs about evolution and the earth's beginning. Again, the most disgusting stat is that 45% of Americans believe that the earth is literally less than 10,000 years old and that evolution did not occur. Europe, by the way, has much less people believing this.
I blame poor education partly on this. 65% of high school drop outs are YECs (Young Earth Creationists), while only 25% of college grads are YECs (theology students account for a few of these yo yo's I'm sure).
I have peaked at the bibles and I find it hard myself to believe the nonsense in there and also believe that evolution of man could have occurred, or that the earth even revolves around the sun, but that is another matter.
Getting back to the survey, outside of the 10% of American Atheists, 39% of Americans believe in Theistic Evolution. Theistic Evolution by definition is that "man has developed over millions of years, but God guided this process, including man's creation." This is vague and doesn't necessarily mean that man came from a one celled common ancestor to all living animals who ever existed on earth, but it doesn't discount that idea either.
It is this 39% that need a bible rewrite. The Adam and Eve story has to be scrapped or completely fictionalized. Genesis needs a literal rewrite too. Well OK, both the NT and the OT need a complete do over.
A new religion or two is needed to branch off, so that this 39% of the population (over 100 million people) can go to a house of research and stop laughing at the nonsensical dogmas that are "forced" on them. They must feel like hypocrites in many cases.
I wish I was in that 39%, I would start this thing up myself. But alas, I am not. I have seen nothing in my life that doesn't have a scientific explanation or theory behind it. I see no evidence that God exists or ever existed. But I don't mind someone who believes in God and evolution and an ancient universe. It is unfortunate these people don't have a proper house of worship though.

December 13, 2005

I think my penis just shrank


Miss Palestine

There is no getting around it. Evil still gets into heaven.

December 11, 2005

NFL Picks for December 11th

I fell below 500 thanks to being 2 and 4 last week. My record on the year is 38-39-3 which is bad enough to possibly allow me to pick for a newspaper. My Specials have been horrible (I must like saying horrible) at 3-8-2 this year.

This weeks picks:

Pittsburgh by 6 and a half against Da Bears. Yes I am actually picking Pittsburgh.

Jacksonville plus 9 against Indy. Indy may lose this game.

Carolina by 6 against Tampa Bay. I'm looking for a blow out here.

Dallas by 3 and KC. Dallas really needs this one, so does KC but Dallas is at home.

Detroit getting 6 points against Green Bay.

And my Bacon Special is the Jets getting 3 points against the Collinsless Oakland Raiders.

December 9, 2005

Me and Daisy again


Daisy and Me

December 8, 2005

Bacon and God: The Exodus


Click on cartoon to enlarge it.

December 7, 2005

Bacon and God: Why are there so many religions


Bacon and God

December 6, 2005

Typical Responses from Fundies

I'm spending lots of time debating Fundies these days and I am coming to some conclusions.

Fundies do not want to learn about evolution.

When Fundies are presented with evolution theory; they state that theory is not fact. But when given concrete examples, like the fact that whales have hind leg bones when giving them proof of macro evolution, or pointing out that man has an appendix, they then say that God does lots of things that we can't explain.

Fundies do not read scientific facts and papers in most cases.

Fundies run when asked to explain why the bible calls bats fowls or calls rabbits cud chewers, or if you point out that the bible is full of inconsistencies, for example the glaring mistake in Genesis about the Ark:

GEN 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

GEN 7:8-9 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, there went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

If they don't run, they will say make up excuses, like blaming translation. But they will not make excuses for Eve coming from Adam's rib. Yet they won't believe evolution even they saw it with their own eyes.

America should be ashamed of themselves that their educational system has produced 45% Young Earth Creationists. Canada and Europe isn't even close to that.

On a related topic, tonight I watched Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. It is Teachers week. The last two contestants were two of the stupidest people I have ever seen on that show. And one of them was a history prof who had to ask the audience "What the wheels on the truck" do?

December 3, 2005

NFL Picks for December 4th

Lousy week last week. 2 and 5. Bacon Special down the drain. My record now is 36-35-3. Specials are a horrible 3-7-2. OK enough here is this weeks picks. And I hate this week big time:

Cincinatti getting 3 and a half against Pittsburgh.

Detroit getting 3 at home to Minnesota.

San Francisco getting 3 at home to Arizona.

Philly getting 4 against Seattle.

KC getting 1 against Denver.

And the Bacon Special is Dallas getting 3 in New York.

All dogs tomorrow. We'll see what happens.