Prayer is not the Answer

Whenever we are struck with a great tragedy as a society, often, many people turn to religion for answers or salvation. The recent events at Virginia Tech are no different. Perhaps the grief from the situation is temporarily resolved and there is some benefit to the individuals doing the praying - but even if this is the case, it's an internal phenomenon.

It's relevant to revisit last years study on prayer, a review of which was published in the New York Times : Long-Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer

The findings of the study? We'll, obviously, prayer has zero effect. Ask any compulsive gambler who thinks he can will the dice, sure it might feel like if you think hard enough you can effect some outcome, but the truth is, you can't.

Of course, "people of faith", tend to respond the same way charlatans have responded for years when the rub is exposed. They say something along the lines of, the act of observing the phenomenon interferes as if prayer is some spiritual double slit experiment.

We can do better. Instead of praying, why don't we meditate on strategies to improve our society. We're still murdering people and animals everyday with no thought whatsoever. A little introspection goes much farther that a hundred congregations full of hot "prayer".

New T-Shirt Design, Coming Soon...

Agribusiness journal concedes : The Activists Are Winning.

From Agribusiness journal Feedstuffs recently (April 2) editorialized:

"Very recent developments would suggest that producers are now losing. If producers are losing, others are also losing -- everyone who has a stake in dairy, meat and poultry production... [I]t's not about animal welfare. It's not about cages and stalls... It's about raising animals for food, and the activists' agenda is to end the practice. It will take decades, but they are the ones who are winning -- piece by piece by piece."

It's about a movement toward non-exploitation. If you support the exploitation of other conscious organism, do not complain when you (or other humans) are exploited by another conscious organism. DNA vs. DNA. The same survival of the fittest framework that allows for consumption of our non-human brothers and sisters also allows for slavery, chavenism, racism, etc. If we as a species are to move into the future successfully, we must shed the archaic practice of exploitation, and transcend into a more protective, advanced society.

Dr. Dino is Extinct

I've been toying with the idea of this blog for about a year now, and I encountered something today that turned theory to law -- thus, here is the inaugural post of The Atheist Vegan.

I can across a video of this evangelist, "Dr. Dino", who claims to follow the scientific method yet somehow has neglected, in his scientific pursuits, to question the accuracy of his Christian bible. He repeatedly criticizes evolutionists for "circular reasoning", when in reality, he is simply projecting his own fallacy of putting faith in a Bible whose authority and accuracy are only verifiable within itself. At the end of his video he encourages folks to contact him, so of course, I did.

I simply asked him:

The foundation of Christian belief relies upon circular reasoning.
For example:

"The bible is the word of god, so it's true." - Devotee
"How do you know it's the word of god?" - Agnostic / Atheist
"We know the bible is the word of God because the bible says it is."
"How do you know the bible is accurate?" - Agnostic / Atheist

Your thoughts?

I actually got a reply, however, it seemed to answer a question I didn't ask. I know what 2nd grade English teachers must feel like.Here is the reply:

Thank you for your question!

Life's DNA is exceedingly complex. King David put our organization this way:

Psalms 139:14-16 "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."

When a young mechanic learns how to change a car's spark plugs or change the oil he has gained some understanding of the engine, but he does not possess the ability to replicate such an automobile from scratch himself.

Is any simple automobile the result of random chance? Of course not. Yet today, geneticists have learned how to manipulate a few things within DNA. Aren't we like high schoolers, peering into the complexities of life and barely able to understand what it is we see? We are "fearfully and wonderfully made."

Evolution proposes that "God was not needed." As such it creates a "mental hiding place" where the same person who would admit that a car could not happen by chance will turn right around and claim that organic life happened by chance.

Taking something simple - compare a big oil refinery with the complex human digestive system. The refinery must be retooled if the incoming oil has any change in its composition. Yet your digestive system can handle a slice of pepperoni pizza, a handful of jelly beans, with a glass of soda - breaking down each organic substance down to the molecular level!! Each protein, mineral, fat, and sugar, gets individually processed. And the human digestive system is 100% biodegradable, portable, and was self-assembled. An oil refinery is simple in comparison. Did the oil refinery happen by chance? Does it improve by itself over time? Is it made of biodegradable parts? Do we have to concentrate to digest food? No, it happens while we then turn our attention to read, or talk, or drive a car (...that also did not fall together by time and chance); a car that runs on fuel from a big oil refinery.

If DNA is simple, then why does it take some of our most advanced equipment in order to even study it in the first place? Evolution is a "mental hiding place" to deny God's proper place in our lives. He is our Maker and we each have the choice of making Him our Lord.

Here are two sets of illustrations, FREE to download and use in classes:

http://www.creationism.org/books/BibleInPictures/index.htmhttp://www.creationism.org/images/DoreBibleIllus/index.htm -and-

Sincerely,
Paul Abramson

WTF? DNA? Random chance? Type writers? He doesn't even come close to answering my question. Of course, there is plenty to pick apart, even if that was somewhat relevant answer. It's rather arrogant to assume that if man can't do something now, then it's impossible for it to occur in manless nature. He tries comparing an oil refinery to the digestive system -- dude, guess what, if you eat oil you'll die. How about a furnace? You can burn pretty much anything flamable, and you'll get some sort of energy out - just as you can eat most anything edible. And who said DNA was simple? It's one of the most complex compounds in existence.

It's typical of the Christian human centric world view to assume that if humans have yet to accomplish something, that it's impossible it would happen in humanless nature.

So, my question still stands : how to you verify the existence of a God, whose only "evidence" for existence is a book. It's the same question I asked in Sunday school when I was 6 --- can't I just write a book, and say it's the "Word of God"? Well.. what's the difference? Oh, and your answers may be amusing, but the question is rhetorical -- anyone with at least a brain stem knows, you can't.