"It’s all about the truth, people." Haha, easy for you to say...

From friendlyatheist:

“It’s all about the truth, people. And all the evidence is crystal clear right now: the earth is far older than 6,000 years. Evolution is a real, and it is a process built on raw chance driven by the brutal engines of selection, and there is no sign of a loving, personal god, but only billions of years of pitiless winnowing without any direction other than short-term survival and reproduction. It’s not pretty, it’s not consoling, it doesn’t sanctify virginity, or tell you that god really loves your foreskin, but it’s got one soaring virtue that trumps all the others: it’s true.”

—

Confrontation all the way : Pharyngula

Brilliant. Read this, all of it, now.

(via bildungsroman)

YES! GO READ IT NOW! I COMMAND IT!

Dude, why are we still having this conversation? We’ve ALL been saying this shit for years! I’m sick of people telling me to go read stuff I already know.  It’s just replacing one dogma with another.  QUICK! GO READ THIS, IT SHALL REINFORCE EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE!

Gee, thanks, but I’m already pretty firm in my point-of-view. I don’t need to read someone state the obvious. 

And for God’s sake (!) stop using the word “selection” when referring to evolution.  That suggests there’s a thought process behind things that happen.  It’s not “the brutal engines of selection” it’s the brutal engines of FATE. There’s no being or even “unit” that “makes” a choice: “You get to live, YOU do not.”

It’s just random luck meeting random preparedness—fate.

It’s like when people call evolution a “process”.  It isn’t.  It may look like one because we line the evidence up in a nice easy-to-understand fashion. But the reality is that it’s not a process.  It’s a mess of random events that cause things randomly.  It’s not even “survival of the fittest,” it’s more “survival of the lucky.”

When we use words like “process” and “selection” we just give the believers room to wiggle and redefine what “truth” even means.  That, in turn, allows them to keep preaching.  And THAT, in turn, makes me want to walk away from the discussion, sit down and wait for the believers to die.

This is why I asked: why are we still having this discussion?

NPR Pimps for Religion, asks if Belief is an Evolutionary Tactic

>_<

Is Believing In God Evolutionarily Advantageous?

by Alix Spiegel

…

In the history of the world, every culture in every location at every point in time has developed some supernatural belief system. And when a human behavior is so universal, scientists often argue that it must be an evolutionary adaptation along the lines of standing upright. That is, something so helpful that the people who had it thrived, and the people who didn’t slowly died out until we were all left with the trait. But what could be the evolutionary advantage of believing in God?

via npr.org

Greed seems pretty universal but you don’t see NPR or scientists talking about how maybe it’s a good thing people are so greedy they’re willing to exploit and even murder (sometimes indirectly) so they can obtain more money, things and power.

NPR even dignifying this question by repeating it is like asking the question “Is it evolutionarily advantageous to ignore the evidence staring you in the face?”

Obviously, imagination is a good thing, but so is a firm grasp on REALITY.

God is not REALITY and cannot be proven. SO, PLEASE, “reputable” “news” source NPR, STOP ENTERTAINING IRRATIONALITY.

This is why I don’t listen to you except for “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me.”

Some females hit puberty as early as 7--is this a "canary in the mine shaft" kind of thing?

“You can blame chemicals or even obesity..” from coalspeaker:

But either ways girls are developing breasts by age 7 or 8 and going through puberty a lot earlier in life..

In the past, I’ve read about how the number of females born goes up during troubled times. This makes sense from an evolutionary perspective as it only takes one male to impregnate many females.  During times of stability, the birthrate of males goes up.

What if females reaching puberty younger is an evolutionary tactic to defend against an, as yet, unseen instability with humanity?  What if humanity, itself, is failing and this is our genetically instinctive attempt to combat that process of failure?  Females hitting puberty earlier means they can get pregnant sooner in life.  Assuming menopause doesn’t hit earlier, as well, this allows them to extend their child-rearing years, thus giving humanity a better shot at survival.

Is humanity under attack from something that is causing it to fail?  I don’t think so.  I think the effects of humanity’s internal flaws are starting to be felt on a genetic level.

Too bad one of those internal flaws of humanity is an inability to recognize slowly boiling water.

Remember that story about the frog?

I’m not necessarily pointing at Global Warming, either.  We’re facing a lot of challenges that most of humanity is just to frightened to face.

The beauty of the Internet (and Tumblr): Stupid, meet smart. Smart? Just ignore those people.

First, meet stupid:

danielholter:

contrararian:

Bible-belt science classroom horror

This is what happens if you no-one questions your religion…

(via Pharyngula)

“I don’t think God has to have evolution to make a world.” - this was the teacher… a science teacher.

“How can an African-American person evolve from a white person? We’re different skin.” - this was, understandably, one of his students.

I weep for our future.

via friendlyatheist.tumblr.com

Now meet smart:

ivalice:

Perfect

Indeed.

via friendlyatheist.tumblr.com

‘nuff said!