My god

So, I'm an atheist (obviously), but if I was going to believe in a god, what sort of god would it be?

I can imagine a god that is like someone who is sitting in a chair and imagining the universe as a thought experiment. That someone can imagine an entire universe and has been doing so for over 13 billion years might seem amazing, but, hey, this is a god we're talking about. They'd sit there, thinking about the universe, probably going various places with their mind and examining bits, but basically being the creator of everything we know.

Looking at the Do-It-Yourself Deity test, what would I select? Omnipotent, yep (even able to do logically impossible things... or, at least, make us believe that someone logically impossible has been done, which is as much as we could tell). Omnibenevolent, nope. Omniscient, yeah, why not? (Although not listed, I'd go for a variant of omnipresent as well, in that god could be anywhere god wanted to be.) The Creator, yep. The Sustainer, yep (don't stop thinking about us!). Perfectly Free, yeah, why not? Eternally Existing, nah, they are still just a being. A Personal God, *snort*, not likely.

So how plausible is this god? According to the test: 0.8 (out of 1.0). Pretty plausible.

But I try to limit my irrational beliefs, so while I could believe in this god, I'm not gonna.

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Now she's worried?

Madonna is worried about some sexy pics, and other items, coming out that she created in the early 1990s, for her then boyfriend.

This is the same woman who in posed for nude pictures (which later appeared in Playboy and their own book "Madonna Nudes 1979" (*)) But, hey, that was before she was a star. She needed the money, signed a contract, and now has no control over what happened.

Then, yes, there's Sex (*). Released in 1992, just before what happened in the article, features more nude pictures of her than anyone would need. This was really cashing in on exploitation, just another change in her image.

But Madonna thinks this will be a problem now? She's worried that this will be a problem with her adoption of David Banda. These pictures, not those previous lots that everyone already knows about. Hmm... you know, someone who's cynical might think she's playing this up to yet again get the Malawi adoption into the papers. But that would be the thinking of someone who's used to manipulating the press and getting media attention in any way possible.

Nah...

(*) Yes, I have a copy.

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Meaning

I listen to the Rational Response Squad, although I am rather behind in my listening. In the current shows I am listening to, they are talking about the David Mills (author of The Atheist Universe) response to the Blasphemy Challenge. (You might remember my own take.)

His video involved him picking up dog poop with the holy bible. He got a lot of backlash for this (including one note that proclaimed he set back the atheist movement 3000 years). I'll present the video (embedding denied be damned), and see what you think of it. My own thoughts continue below.



His own response was that his dogs pooped, he needed to pick it up, and just happened to have the bible in hand when he did so. It was just a fun thing he was doing with his 11 year old daughter.

My take... I've often said (and by 'said', I meant 'thought privately without ever letting on') that there is no meaning to anything, just what meaning we insert. People do things and then 'meaning' is assigned afterwards. That he wanted to pick up dog poop and had the bible in hand is explanation enough for this. That he wanted to make a point about the bible is another. That he was having fun with his kid is yet one more.

But what it comes down to is that he probably wasn't thinking deeply about why when he did it. He... just did it. It then got posted to YouTube, meanings were ascribed and things when out of control from there.

There is no meaning to anything. Just interpretation.

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Because you can't have enough Firefly...

You can't touch this!

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It's because of the "goth girl" thing

For some reasons a fair few DW fans are librarians. In which case, they may like this Dunedin duo, Haunted Love. In particular, their "Librarian" song.



(Hat tip to Pharyngula.)
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D&D goes commercial!

Or rather, did a commercial, a long time ago. Ye gads, that's a frightening look back into the past (worse still that I'm still playing it :) ). Some interesting comments too, by one of the people who starred in it.

Check it out at RetroJunk.

(I'm afraid to look around the site. I've got enough things sucking up my free time!)

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Vegans don't have sex with meat

Okay, that's not the title of the article, but that would have been much funnier.

(Given that I make sexual jokes below, I'm going to hide the rest of this below the fold.)

New Zealand now has "vegansexuals", people who only have sex with other vegans. Because, as the saying goes "You are what you eat." Which does give rise to some problems:

'One vegan respondent from Christchurch said: "I believe we are what we consume, so I really struggle with bodily fluids, especially sexually."' I can see that oral sex might cause some dilemmas (certainly with 'spit' vs 'swallow'), and, indeed, vegans might not like the idea of feasting on one's 'meat and two veg' (although presumably then teabagging will be all right).

This comes from a study, but one line in particular caught my attention: "Many female respondents described being attracted to people who ate meat, but said they did not want to have sex with meat-eaters because their bodies were made up of animal carcasses."

Female respondents? I wonder how many males gave this qualification. If it came to a casual pick up at a bar, then I doubt men would be the first to ask "So, I suppose you like to rip raw hunks of bleeding meat off of live screaming animals, and wallow in the blood as you cram pieces of muscle down your gullet?" Men just aren't that picky.

Now, I'm not hassling vegetarians (as long as they don't hassle me), and they are free to have whatever sexual practices as makes them happy. I just find it amusing that this is the story that makes the paper.

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