a concern and a review

I like nude art.  However in the last few months I have noticed that there seems to be an aversion/ censorship of nude figures on most social media platforms. Even Playboy has indicated they will not have nudes on their pages.

What are your feelings on public nudity and its display on social and print media?

I just finished reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or Modern day Prometheus. Victor’s desire for knowledge leads him to create a being who in his on eyes is monstrous.

When this being kills the William, Victor’s brother, he swears to kill it and a discussion ensues between them. The being tells Victor that in as much as it has done wrong, he has no right to kill him. On the contrary he makes Victor see that he has a responsibility to him. It is to Victor to make him happy, wretched as he maybe.

The question we must ask here is if the creator of a sentient thing has a right to destroy it?

an astrophysicist, a gay bishop and a bigot

are having a debate

for a good cause

October is breast cancer awareness month. Yesterday, a few of my friends on two wheels and I went cycling as part of the awareness campaign.

time to be entertained by Sarakasi dancers

the team getting road for a morning ride for a good cause

i can’t recall why we stopped

maybe it was to eat bananas, the cyclist’s favourite energy food

And today Nairobi was coloured blue by athletes participating in the Nairobi Stanchart Marathon whose theme is every child deserves to see.

credit to nation.co.ke

somewhere in that multitude, I can be seen

photo from sports news africa

what a pointless existence

if John Baker is to believed is the life of the godless. Because of limited intelligence he is unable to see how others can find fulfillment in a life without gods. Because a person believes that at the grave, all this ends, such a person should not love, laugh, draw or enjoy music. Life is only grand if you will live past the grave. Don’t help others, they will die and that shall be forgotten all this ignoring the other very clear point that helping someone makes their life here bearable and sometimes, just sometimes, dignified. How does the promise of a heaven with gold do to the life of a poor person here apart from filling them with false hopes?

His next qualm is that people are not getting indoctrinated enough. They also don’t get to hate enough gays. He writes

be another reminder to parents to be diligent in training their children to stand uncompromisingly on the Word of God and in equipping them to defend the Christian faith

which in intelligent speak is parents should indoctrinate their children and do it well they never get to reason out of stupidity superstition.

Caroline tells us naturalists are incapable of love. She writes

It would mean the depths of emotion that consume a man’s thoughts of his beloved and drive him to do anything for her, or the lengths a mother will go to care for and protect her child are merely the outworking of chemical reactions in the brain. Nothing more. It would mean that the supreme goodness we attach to the concept of real love doesn’t stick. In the survival of the fittest, why should a quality that seeks another’s good be preferable to selfishness?

At least the naturalist grounds love in the workings of the brain. She on the other hand grounds it in a superstitious, transcendent other. Why is the naturalists idea treated with so much disdain? Is it because it is logical and reasonable?

And it seems to me she hasn’t read much on the subject either, because then she wouldn’t write

I believe we all, consciously or subconsciously, recognize the transcendent nature of love. And I believe this points to the existence of a loving, transcendent God.

because this entry in SEP, would show her statement to be wrong. And no, it doesn’t follow that because a feeling is irrational it points to god. That, my friends, is bad reasoning.

Her conclusion that

Love. We can’t even comprehend it in its fullness. And we can’t reduce it to a material reality. It transcends time, and space, and matter. It is spiritual. It is of God.

unfortunately tells us really nothing.

 

keep your religion to yourself

grandparents told.

In a case that some of the goddites will claim persecution, a judge ruled in favour of a mother’s request that her 4 year old child be kept free from religious influence by the paternal grand parents who belong to the JW cult. The religious beliefs of the mother were not mentioned in the case.

The ruling[pdf]

some people and their guns

There has been a lot of talk about gun violence on the net and especially about its incidences in the US of A. Lawyers have written on it, gun lobbyists have written on it and even people who sound reasonable have added their voice to the debate. I know I am not adding anything new to the debate.

But when I read a comment such as

I hope you will also stop driving as that is responsible for the deaths of 90 people per day. At the very least you should refuse to drive over 55 mph. If only the government would lower the speed limit many lives and carbon emissions could be saved. Obama should politicize that issue and call all the families of the people who die in car wrecks. He could even show up in their town and pretend to cry or whatever.

or

If you weren’t cowering in your home in fear of the illegitimate Kenyan Muslim President coming to take your guns away you really were not part of “gun culture.” If you weren’t walking around the dangerous streets of downtown suburbia with your piece strapped to your waist, you were not part of gun culture.

It’s perfectly reasonable to own a gun or two for self-defense or sporting purposes, or to collect antique guns as a historical interest. That doesn’t make you part of the gun problem in this country. If you are happier now great, but a normal rationale adult giving up a couple of guns is not progress against the paranoid, delusional, conservatives currently controlling the gun debate at a legislative level.

or

Today I went down to the local police station, and I led them out to my car and showed them the cooler in the back with my Budweisers on ice.

“I saw a wreck on the way to the lake,” I explained to the officer. “And I feel responsible. It was horrible — mangled vehicles and glass everywhere. A helicopter landed to take away a little girl. It was heart-breaking. I saw the coroner show up and of course I knew what that means. So, please, please take these beers. I was going to drink them while I fished.”

“Hey,” the officer asked, “was that the wreck down on Smith Road. A black truck and a green SUV?”

“Yes. The black truck hit the SUV. I suspect there was alcohol involved.”

“Nope. That SUV ran the stop sign. She was on her phone — texting.”

“Oh.”

“So, really, you should turn in that nice I-Phone you have there because, in reality, it was the phone’s fault not your beer.”

“My I-Phone? Well, uh, well, you know I wasn’t texting. Or calling. Or dialing a number.”

“Yes, but you’re trying to be sanctimonious. And you need to be accurate while you’re being sanctimonious. So, hand it over.”

“Uh, well, take the beers instead.”

And there are a lot more like these, I am convinced part of the reason the Americans are not going to solve this problem is because a lot of the noise is being made by stupid fucks.

Who designs a car with the intention of decimating as many people as possible, quickly and easily? Only a stupid person brings up such a silly argument.

I have also read those who claim that liberals are applying a double standard in gun rights issue. That we fight for rights such as LGBT rights, rights of women to have access to abortion if they need, right to assisted suicide so on but argue strongly against owning guns and ammunition. I don’t think this deserves an answer.

comments that leave me banging my head on the wall

A guy writes, emphasis by yours truly

Almost all Christians believe that Jesus(pbuh) died for their sins and they wont be held accountable for their sins. In Islam Jesus(pbuh) is one of the prophets of God. Ever since the beginning of time, God sent prophets/messengers on this earth to guide mankind how to live. Adam, Noah, Moses , Jesus and Mohammed (peace be upon them all) were prophets of God. When God created Adam He taught him how to speak and the names of everything just like a mother would teach her one year old. Quran is a book of wisdom. It makes you understand the reason of the creation of the world and universe. The most wisest of men are not scientists or phd holders but those that read and understood the Quran.

And you ask yourself whether such people walk among us. As I told a good friend, men who wrote religious books, because, truth be told, they must have been men, were a blot to the human race.

I am not saying PhDs are wise, look at WLC, he is a PhD holder right? but the things that come out of his mouth are abhorrent to any thinking person. But to dismiss all PhDs and elevate only those who have a 1400yr old book to be wise is a lack of seriousness on the part of the author. One day men and women will ask themselves how they believed such nonsense for so long. I hope that day comes in my lifetime.

Questions for atheists

from a college student

1. Why are you an atheist?

I left the religion I was brought up in

2. Have you ever believed in a Higher Power?

Yes, I was brought up religious

3. If so, Did something traumatic happen to make you stop believing?

Not traumatic. I saw the light

4. If not, why did you stop believing

See #3

5. What do you think happens to us when we die?

If we are cremated, we become dust. If buried, decompose if lost at sea, food for fish

6. Without believing in a Higher Power, where do you think we get our morals from?

I don’t think even the believer gets their morals from their beliefs. They only think they do.

7. Where do you think the universe came from?

Good question, but loaded. It assumes the universe must have come from somewhere. You have no reason to assume this.

8. What’s your views on Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens?

Hitchens is dead and the two are still living.

9. Do you consider yourself a weak atheist or a strong atheist?

Atheist

10. How can you prove that God doesn’t exist?

You can’t either way. Proof is for mathematics.

11. Do you believe in miracles?

What are miracles?

12. Do you have a support group/system?

Yes, friends and relatives

13. Do you try to get others not to believe?

It is impossible to do that. A person believes as they are convicted.

14. Do others tend to view you differently when they discover you’re an atheist?

On occasion yes

15. Do people tend to try to convince you that your views are wrong?

A few times

16. How does your family view your beliefs? Are they supportive?

Live and let live is the family policy

17. What are your views on Madalyn O’Hair?

None. I have heard about her though

 

A question for atheists

Well, they are many questions and accusations. I think the OP can’t count or forgot they had several questions to ask.

1. Which leads to my question for atheists: where do you get your faith? What faith?
2. But to look out at creation and proclaim: “I know there is no Creator!” is beyond me. How do you know? This is a loaded question. The author has assumed that the universe was created. I can easily ask, apart from the mention in religious books, how else have you come to the conclusion the universe was created?
3. How can one ever be 100% convinced that God does not exist? The same way I know a fronkey doesn’t exist
4. Atheists cannot explain the origin of the universe. They don’t have to and doesn’t make them less atheist
5. Atheists cannot explain the origin of life. Neither can you and this is not an argument against atheism
6. Ironically, atheism is not without its crowned saint – Charles Darwin.- No, saints belong to the church. He was an eminent scientist and naturalist. Get used to it.
7. So what explains atheism’s appeal, especially among the young, urban, and educated? In the words of Ernest Hemingway, all thinking men are atheists. Or Henri D’Holdbach, ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them

From here, the OP goes downhill, never to be rescued. He claims we are atheists because we want to be our own gods. I know I don’t want to be a god, though being Dionysus wouldn’t be so bad. And I find nothing really wrong at having a laugh at the ignorant masses when they make their god representatives rich as they wallow in poverty.

And this canard about atrocities committed in the 20th century by atheists gets boring. I can easily point one to Catholic Rwanda where neighbour turned against neighbour or Congo where Christians and Muslims are slowly decimating each other or Kenya where Christians butchered each other in the name of their political godfathers. If secular men and women have gone to war or butchered each other, I am almost certain it wasn’t for their disbelief. The religious wars on the other hand have been fought in the name of gods.

And no theist post would end without this accusation, either directly or indirectly

This is not to say that atheists are bad people—far from it. There can be and have been many good atheists or agnostics, just as there have been religious people who nevertheless committed heinous crimes.

which is no argument against atheism.

But to write

 But to categorically deny the existence of a Creator is unscientific, and atheism requires far greater faith than Christianity.

is evidence of ignorance on the part of the author, ignorance that is incurable.

 

on a light note

Prince Andrew after returning to Moscow to find Natalie broke their engagement seeks out Kutuzov to be admitted back to the army. He has been summoned to meet the Emperor but while waiting he meets Pfuel, a German theorist of war, and this is how he describes him and others

[]Pfuel was one of those hopelessly and immutably self- confident man, self- confident to the point of martyrdom as only Germans are, because only Germans are self confident on the basis of an abstract notion- science, that is, the supposed knowledge of absolute truth. A Frenchman is self assured because he regards himself personally, both in mind and body, as irresistibly attractive to men and women. An Englishman is self assured, as being a citizen of the best-organised state in the world, and therefore as an Englishman always knows what he should do and knows that all he does as an Englishman is undoubtedly correct. An Italian is self-assured because he is excitable and easily forgets himself and other people. A Russian is self-assured just because he knows nothing does not want to know anything, since he does not believe that anything can be known. The German’s self-assurance is worst of all, stronger and more repulsive than any other, because he imagines that he knows the truth- science- which he himself has invented but which is for him the absolute truth.

I believe most, if not all of you, dear readers may disagree with Prince Andrew’s assessment.