Logical fallacies, Part Two: Chemical Boogaloo

So as most of you know, I'm an atheist. I'm not an atheist because it's the cool thing to do, or because my parents didn't love me (they do, they're awesome), or because I'm an asshole. Well, I AM an asshole, but I don't TELL anyone that because that'd open up another whole can of worms.

I'm an atheist for one simple reason: Evidence. The thing that irritates me most about theists, and Christians specifically, is that they actively deny verified, observable evidence because it conflicts with their fairy tale world. Willful ignorance of the simplest of scientific concepts drives me up the wall.

So I'm a member of a few atheist facebook pages, mainly to get a laugh at the theist trolls who try to start shit for no reason, and I see one thread where this colossal moron named Scot Brandon tries to tell US what OUR beliefs are, most notably, the retarded idea that "living things come from nonliving things". When religious types say this, what they're implying is that atheists think that plants were created by rocks and fish magically appeared from water. This is yet another logical fallacy, brought to you by the mental incompetents of Christendom.

Protip: all matter is nonliving. "Life" is a descriptor used by humans to distinguish between inanimate objects and animate ones. Things we term "living" are nothing more than a complex amalgamation of chemical processes and cellular compounds that can reproduce itself utilizing more chemical processes.

That's it. Anyone who tries to tell you that life is anything more than that is applying romanticized philosophy to a self-aware existence. This is not to say that one should not make the most out of the time they have before their chemical processes no longer function, but to claim that life is a sacred thing that was created by a higher power and we shouldn't question it is, on it's face, completely ludicrous.

For those who don't know, we are all made up of stellar matter. Star stuff. Stars are colossal elemental forges that create every known element in the Universe through a simple process called nuclear fusion. The reason why everything on the planet Earth is based on a carbon-12 template is because when a star runs out of hydrogen fuel to "burn" (parentheses are to keep theists from bombarding me with the 'things can't burn without oxygen dummy' comments), it then starts to fuse helium atoms together. Three helium atoms combine to form stable carbon-12 atoms. When stars go supernova, all of those atoms are blasted out into space, some to be used in the creation of new stars, some remain as gaseous nebulae, and some are trapped in forming planetary systems, such as EARTH.

Carbon-12 is an amazing thing. It is one of the only atoms that can combine with a plethora of other atoms to create a myriad of stable chemical compounds, most notably hydrocarbons, the simplest organic molecule. Add some oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur into the mix (all elements readily found on a prehistoric, volcanic Earth) and you have amino acids. Strings of amino acids form complex proteins, and with a little added phosphorus, you have DNA. Over millions of years, random mutations and adaptations to environments produced the organic systems you see today. This is not something that magically happened in two seconds like Scot would like me to tell him I believe.

The theory of evolution isn't really a theory, as it has been observed to happen over time. Theists latch onto that word "theory" though.

Isaac Asimov has this to say about that:

Even if that were the case, if you have observable, verifiable evidence to support your theory, then it doesn't matter if you were drunk, it's CORRECT.

Returning to Scot (as much as I wish I didn't have to), like a good little Christian he told me he ignored my post after he read that all matter is nonliving, and just posted a link to a wikipedia page on the definition of matter like he had won the argument, even though it proves exactly what I just laid out in terms so simple a 10 year old could get it.

Can't have all those facts polluting your brain now, can we? Have to save those brain cells you refute the existence of to be able to blindly worship an Iron Age, Middle Eastern, tribal sky-god who tells you "You have free will so that you will do what I say".

In the immortal words of Professor Farnsworth:

 

Edit: Scot, the imbecilic monkey, responded with THIS little gem: "you probably think all molecules are alive and there is life on the moon, ha!" I don't even know where to begin. I hope he doesn't breed, I don't think our planet can handle any more abject stupidity.

Death is only the beginning...

Logical fallacies, Part One: brought to you by religious fanatics

Those who know me know I am a man of science and rational thought, of free will and free knowledge. Most people don't know that I grew up in a small town in the middle of the woods in Vermont, and unsurprisingly, it is a very religious place. Now, most of the people there are normal folks, who don't try to push their beliefs on others, and that's fine. The thing that gets me is that, with the advent of the internet, these people that I know have vociferously begun to champion the cause of Christian morals for the poor, benighted heathens who apparently don't know "right" from "wrong"; at least, according to a certain book.

Tonight's rant was birthed by a discussion I was having with one of my former high school classmates, wherein he had posted a pretty disgusting picture of an aborted fetus in a hospital kidney dish on facebook, with some ridiculous tagline that read "REPOST AND SHARE IF YOU WANT TO STOP ABORTION. GOD HATES MURDER" etc. etc. Now, ignoring the fact that capslock makes you an instant retard, why anyone would choose to repost this on a public site like this is beyond me. Several points sprung to my mind:

First- This picture is really repulsive, and I really don't want to see shit like this on my newsfeed reposted by 20 different christian crackers.

Second- How reposting such a disgusting thing is supposed to stop abortion, I will never know. Writing your congressman does that.

Third- Your morality does not get to be projected onto anyone else.

The last point is the most important, and something almost every single religious person either forgets or ignores: Morality is completely subjective. Herein lies the logical fallacy that religious folks absolutely hate to hear: You do not have to believe in God to be a moral person. Let me repeat that.

You do not have to believe in God to be a moral person.

Just because my views on morality, being an atheist, do not coincide with your  views on morality being a theist, does not mean my views are any less valid than yours. The big difference here is that I don't actively try to push my beliefs on how people should live their own fucking lives every goddamn day with sick pictures of aborted fetuses.

Another point I brought up was that "right" and "wrong" are value judgements that completely ignore the legal context of a situation. Let me give you an example.

Say I'm walking past a secluded alley, and I see 3 gangstars beating the shit out of another dude with, say, a lead pipe. Now, the question I posited was this: Is it "wrong" for me to not step in and try to stop them? It depends entirely on who you ask, because morality is subjective. Is it wrong for me to not help the dude, possibly getting beaten/killed in the process? Maybe. Am I within my legal rights to just ignore the situation and walk on by? Absolutely. Do I think I'm wrong for not helping the recipient of said beating? Not at all, and here's why: I have ZERO information on why this guy is getting his ass kicked. He may very well deserve it, and who am I to step in and impose my value judgement on the situation?

The same thing applies to this abortion issue. Just because YOU think it's wrong, does not mean you get to harass, disgust, and irritate other people into thinking you're right and they're wrong. If you want to change the law to make it illegal, then WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN. Shit, the whole Republican party would jump on the chance to take zillions of religious whackjob letters begging to stop abortions, instead of focusing on real political issues.

When you stamp labels of "good" and "bad" on actions/things and claim that this is the way it is because I say so, or because GOD WILLS IT, then you yourself are doing a "bad" thing: imposing your will on other people, whether they like it or not. Free will is just that, FREE. Not "Free unless you do something I don't like" will. The overwhelming arrogance and self-righteousness of these people are what really disgust and sicken me. To think that what you think is "right", just because an imaginary being you can't prove to exist said so, is the height of arrogance. It must feel good to ride so high up on that horse of yours, knowing that all the unwashed heathens have you to guide them, as they live out their lives just fine without your lunacy. My advice to you is this: go drink a gallon of bleach, so the rest of us can be happy without being judged by self-important assholes.

Death is only the beginning...