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Turek vs. Hitchens Debate: Does God Exist?

Turek vs. Hitchens Debate: Does God Exist? from Andrew Ketchum on Vimeo.

Hm, I sense a trend in the current topics here. Anyway, an entertaining debate that again reveals that theist and atheist often can not understand each other because they think so fundamentally different. I felt that on occasion, both debaters could have done a better job in dismantling their opponents* arguments instead of hammering home their own agendas, but compared to most political debates from the German parlament I witness, I am not really complaining. Still, a few points I like to add:

  • Why does Turek shout so much?
  • I am quite disappointed that Hitchens does not give good answers to Turek’s main points: That the Big Bang had to be initiated by God, that without God, there could be no moral and that DNA is too complex to be not designed.**
  • I think Hitchens actually did a rather poor job, but he still came out victorious easily.

* Still, I love how American debates are basically sports events.
** My answers would be that a) how does assuming an initiator setting off the Big Bang add anything to its understanding? And where would the initiator come from? b) the interesting question is how consciousness is created by molecules alone, morale is a social consequence c) it is not.

Richard Dawkins on the Agenda

Richard Dawkins is interviewed on the Canadian show “The Agenda”. It’s definitely one of the better, more challenging interviews with him, even though the host clearly is a Christian. But he still manages to be a journalist first.

[youtube]whHVI_s2HEA[/youtube]

The first four parts are the interview, after that, it’s a discussion panel that is not that interesting because Dawkins is not present to reply.

K’s Choice – Come Live the Life

Endlich mal wieder neue Musik:

[youtube]Vh6iUAFHUBM[/youtube]

Niedliches Video!

Belief-O-Matic

Belief - Neon sculpture by Joe Rees

Do you believe?
And in what?
By Steve Rhodes,
used under cc license

For everyone who has not yet found his or her spiritual home, you might want to try out the BELIEF-O-MATIC. It did very accurately predict my “faith” (I’m not saying which one). Let me just say that my beliefs have a 0% compatibility-rate with Jehovah’s Witnesses. But, each  to their own.

Religulous

A 100 minutes documentary about religion. Funny for the most parts, with revealing moments and a strong ending. My favorite part: The saddle on the Dinosaur in the Creationism-Museum! Ridiculous! Or rather, religulous. Watch it!

[youtube]5HKHaClUCw4[/youtube]

Hey, es gibt sogar eine deutsche Version:

[youtube]UvW3y4g2rXA[/youtube]

Drinking tea

Strobist Tea

Lets have some tea, shall we?
By Doha Sam,
used under cc license

Via CDT:
” (喝茶) is now a common vocabulary in online political discourse. It refers to the widespread practices by police or other authorities to harass, intimidate and conduct information-gathering on citizens for their political activities. Although each such “Tea” session always comes with the warning to keep the conversation to oneself, more and more netizens have been sharing their “Drinking Tea” experiences; ...

Here is another example of a “” experience, from a college student, shared within a private online community, translated by
Luke Habberstad:

This year (2009) I am 23 years old.

For the most part, prior to my 21st year, when I thought about issues it was always the thinking of a government education. Later, I went online and saw some unimaginable things. Then, after going through some personal experiences myself, such as my family being extorted by the police when they did business, I became very disillusioned with reality. I could not accept this completely inhuman government.

Later I started using my own QQ space, QQ screen name, and blog to disseminate some articles, usually by reposting them. Most of the articles were on bullogger, with Ran Yunfei and Ai Weiwei being the most prominent authors. I used my QQ screen name mostly to post some comments from micro-blogs.

Last year on was the first time that I directly felt the Internet controls. Many domestic websites were temporarily closed, and Twitter and some foreign websites were temporarily blacked out.

That day I was at school in class, and I visited Ai Weiwei’s independent blog. I found an article that he wrote, and I posted it over to the daily journal on my QQ space. I didn’t realize that I had hit upon a taboo word: 64 (i.e. ). The article did not successfully post, and I thought that the taboo words on QQ had increased; I remembered that previously this word was not a problem. Then I added a comma in between the numbers, and was able to post the article.

Half an hour later, a woman who worked as an Internet monitor at the school entered the classroom. She whispered a few words to our teacher and then she came over to my machine to check the computer’s number and then left. Then, the department director came in and ordered me to go to his office. He started to interrogate me with questions, asking if I had entered the Party, if I had considered going abroad, etc. Then he ordered another female teacher to go buy me some food. At noon, I asked him when I would be able to leave, and he said that the school’s Party Secretary was in the Dean’s office waiting for me. Pretending to be naïve, I asked him what for. He also pretended to be native, and said that he did not know, but that they would explain when I arrived. I finished eating and we left. I felt disturbed, and inside I was a mess. The director and this other woman took me to the Dean’s office, and I sat in front of a table. They sat in the seats across from me (the office was large and luxurious), and then told me to wait. After a bit, the school’s Party Secretary came in. He was older, maybe 50 to 60 years old, a shrewd-looking person. He also had a companion who followed him in, carrying a notebook. Then, the old man started to talk.

I will briefly describe his points:

1) During a routine examination, Internet monitors had discovered that my QQ space contained “unharmonious” speech. They called to inform him, at the same time as the city’s Internet censors also called him.

2) He asked how I had obtained this article, since it had appeared on my space. I made something up, saying that I had seen the article on a Baidu bulletin board while surfing, and just posted it on my space, and that I hadn’t really read its content.

3) Then he started to talk about . He said that the Party and the nation had long since come to a conclusion about the affair, that it was an XXXX rebellion. He said that the Falun Gong from abroad is an anti-Party group, and took advantage of the Internet to corrupt young people inside the country. He said that my actions were extremely serious, harmful to social stability, etc. In the end, he wasted an hour jerking off like this. In order to not fuck up my ability to continue in my studies, I played naïve and stupid, and finally I went back and deleted the article off my QQ space.

What D&D character am I?

Alexis Spellsinger, Irda Wizard

Elf Wizard, eh?
By bgautrey,
used under cc license

I have just completed the test “what D&D character am I?”. It was quite a long questionaire, but fun nevertheless (and some interesting questions). The detailed results show that I am on the edge of good (11) and neutral (13) as well as lawful (11) and neutral (10). Looks like I’m quite a balanced character, so I might consider multiclassing. 😉


I Am A: Lawful Neutral Elf Wizard (4th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-12

Dexterity-13

Constitution-13

Intelligence-15

Wisdom-14

Charisma-13


Alignment:
Lawful Neutral A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment because it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.


Race:
Elves are known for their poetry, song, and magical arts, but when danger threatens they show great skill with weapons and strategy. Elves can live to be over 700 years old and, by human standards, are slow to make friends and enemies, and even slower to forget them. Elves are slim and stand 4.5 to 5.5 feet tall. They have no facial or body hair, prefer comfortable clothes, and possess unearthly grace. Many others races find them hauntingly beautiful.


Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard’s strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

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