It was time for the parents to sit their son down and tell him the truth about Santa.
Young Kenny was wide eyes as they sat him down in the couch, each sitting to either side and prepared him for the bad news.
“Kenny,” his mother began, “It’s time you knew the truth about Santa Claus.” She glanced at his father, who they’d decided earlier by a drawing of straws would deliver the shocking news.
“Kenny,” his father said, in a serious tone, ” Santa Claus is not real. Those presents that have come from him over the years have been from your mother and I.”
Kenny couldn’t believe this. How could it be true? Santa Claus had been a reality in Kenny’s life as far back as he could remember. Santa came with his reindeer, every Christmas. He landed on the roof. He laid his finger aside his nose to magically transport himself, and his large bag of toys, down the chimney. He left specially crafted gifts under the tree for Kenny. He ate the cookies that Kenny and his mother had made, drank the milk and left a note on the plate, thanking them. He repeated this billions of times that night, visiting every child in the world. It was probably very difficult, but Santa had magic.
No, Kenny decided, this couldn’t be true. There must be an Anti-Santa. The Anti-Santa had used his magic to change his parents’ minds. He knew that if people didn’t believe in Santa, that he’d lose all of his magic.
Kenny had it all figured out.
In this situation, Kenny is moving the goalpost. He’d believed in Santa because he’d been told by his authority figures, his parents and other well-meaning adults, that Santa was real. When Kenny had approached them with inconsistencies in the story:
Q: How does Santa get through the chimney? It’s too small for me to fit in, and Santa’s supposed to be fat.
A: He lays his finger aside his nose and is magically transported into the house.
Q: How does Santa get to all those houses in one day?
A: Magic.
Q: How does Santa know whether I’ve been good or bad?
A: Magic.
So Kenny has been primed to believe that there are special rules where Santa is concerned. Every time that Kenny attempts to apply his new found rational, critical thinking skills to the Santa story, he’s given a new lie. Kenny is now primed to believe in magic. He’s a smart one, though, and sees through the obvious subterfuge on the part of his poor, deluded parents. They’re not to be trusted anymore, because they’ve been tainted by the Anti-Santa’s magic. His requirements for belief in Santa were originally that his parents said it was true. He found holes in is parent’s stories, and they patched those holes by moving the goalposts using the explanation of “magic”.
When they came clean, Kenny had already bought the idea that Santa existed, and that there was magic. Why not postulate the existence of an evil Anti-Santa, who would work to thwart the magic of the real Santa? Kenny no longer has any limitations on his belief system, because his attempts at critical thinking were laid to waste by the “magic” explanation. Now any kind of illogical events can occur, they’re just explained by magic.
Can you see any correlations here?
Children are given religion at a very early age. Any questions that their rational, critical thinking brains come up with when approached with inconsistencies and lapses in logic are pre-thwarted by stories.
Q: How could Jesus rise from the dead when Grampa can’t?
A: Jesus is magic.
Q: Why does God let babies, puppies and kittens die?
A: Because God knows everything, and he has a big plan.
Q: If God loves us so much, why does he punish people by burning them in hell?
A: Because…uh…he works in mysterious ways.
Q: If the world is only 6000 years old, then where did the fossils come from?
A: The devil planted them to test people’s faith or Science is wrong or the dinosaurs died in the flood.
Q: Why do my prayers go unanswered?
A: Because God knows everything, has a big plan and works in mysterious ways. Or perhaps your faith isn’t strong enough…
So Christian children have been primed to believe that there are special rules where God is concerned. Every time that they attempt to apply their new found rational, critical thinking skills to the God story, they’re given a new lie. They’re now primed to believe in magic. They’re smart, though, and see through the obvious subterfuge on the part of the poor, deluded atheists. Atheists are not to be trusted anymore, because they’ve been tainted by Satan’s magic. Their requirements for belief in God were originally that their parents and churches said it was true. They found holes in their parents and churches’ stories, and the parents and churches patched those holes by moving the goalposts using the explanation of “magic”.
The difference is…no one ever comes clean and says that it’s all a fairy tale. It lasts through adulthood, carried on the shoulders of magical thinking and special exceptions.
These are just my thoughts at the moment…Let me know what you think…
The Daily Mail couldn't help but anthropomorphise this face..
What a beautiful example of pareidolia!
I got this from ABC News (then later from the UK Daily Mail), and it was apparently taken by a photographer. Click the pic for info.
Now, a lot of people think that this is the Virgin Mary, or Mother Nature.
But what it actually is, is an incredible coincidence, which maps onto our brain’s example of a face…sort of. It looks like a woman, because the “eyes” and the “lips” look as though they’ve been enhanced with makeup. The nose isn’t exactly placed in a very good approximation of a face though. But since the “eye” and the “mouth” are placed in good approximation of a face, then our idea of “face” makes us believe that this looks like a face.
The human brain is such a strange and wonderful thing.
I have always thought that people who are obsessed with gays to the extent of starting political action groups against GLBT people, were dealing with their own sexuality issues.
But it came to me today that these people are likely bisexual.
Here’s my thoughts:
1. Anti-gay people believe that being homosexual is a choice.
Otherwise why would they attack gay people. That’d be like like attacking those who were left-handed (which they used to do, but they’ve gotten over it now). There would be no reason to attack left-handed people, because it’s pretty much scientifically verifiable that they didn’t just make a choice to be left-handed. It’s just the way they are…make some scissors for them and go about your day. So I think I can safely state that anti-gay people believe that being gay is a choice.
2. Anti-gay people believe that being heterosexual is a choice.
Well, it stands to reason doesn’t it? If they think that gay people, at some point in their lives, were faced with the choice to live a sinful and disgusting lifestyle of homosexuality, then it would stand to reason that they think that gay people were also presented with the choice of being pure and clean and heterosexual. It is safe, then, to state that anti-gay people believe that gay people were given the choice of being heterosexual.
3. Anti-gay people must feel that all people are presented this choice.
If they believe that gay people were presented this choice and chose poorly (sin, perversion, damnation, etc.), then they must believe that everyone is presented with this choice and that most people choose correctly (purity, sanctity, heavenly bliss, etc.). They think that gay people are bucking the trend, or want to be rebellious, or hate god or are tempted by Satan…or whatever. So it’s safe to state that anti-gay people feel that the choice is presented to everyone as to whether they choose to be gay or straight.
4. Anti-gay people must feel that they themselves were presented this choice.
Well, again, it stands to reason. The anti-gay person is a subset of EVERYONE (see #3).
5. People who are confident in their sexuality state that they were never presented with this choice.
I’m currently searching for numbers in this, but I think that if you asked anyone if they were presented with this choice in their lives, a vast majority of people, I’d say reaching into the 90th percentile, would say that they were never presented with this choice. That when puberty struck them, and they started to be turned on by other people, they were just programed to be attracted to those to whom they were attracted. Straight boys started digging on girls, straight girls started digging on boys, gay boys started digging on boys and gay girls started digging on girls.
6. People who are ambivalent (i.e., bisexual) in their sexuality state that they were presented with a choice.
Those who are open and accepting of their sexuality would accept that they were going to remain in that open state. They would accept that they had some level of sexual attraction to both sexes and they would then date members of both genders. However, in a society in which:
a. Sexuality is seen as a binary (boys like girls, girls like boys),
b. Self-identification of sexuality develops at an early age (12-16ish),
c. People of this age are pretty easily influenced by societal pressures to conform to the sexuality binary.
It doesn’t seem very strange at all that some bisexual people would reject the idea that their attraction to both males and females was acceptable, since it falls outside the socially accepted norm of binary sexuality. The young person would then feel that they had to make a choice in one direction or the other. Those who are being influenced by religion, parental authoritarianism, peer pressure, etc., would feel that they had to make a choice in the direction of the societal binary, aka heterosexuality.
7. People tend to generalize from their experience to society.
If someone believes that they had a choice in the matter, they would believe that everyone else had a choice in the matter as well. Bisexual people I have spoken to tend to think that everyone is bisexual, but in denial about it. So it stands to reason that anti-gay people believe that this is true as well. If their experience is that they had a choice about their sexuality, they’d then believe that EVERYONE had a choice about their sexuality. Thus leading them to believe that being gay is a choice.
8. The bisexual, anti-gay person feels that homosexuality is immoral, and wishes to prevent homosexuality, and therefore becomes vocally anti-gay.
They believe this because they’re still being influenced by the same forces that made them choose to align themselves with the sexual binary to begin with (religion, parental authoritarianism, peer pressure, etc.). Since they made the choice themselves, they then believe that everyone makes the choice (#3 & #7), then they believe that they can influence teenagers and others who are at the point of being presented with the choice to be gay or straight.
9. They believe that any societal message that makes being gay seem normal or natural might lead those who are being faced with the choice to choose incorrectly.
This is the reason that anti-gay people want to ban books, ban gay marriage, and ban positive gay portrayals. It’s also the reason that they promote the negative stereotypes of gay life in their literature. For instance, showing over-the-top portrayals of gay pride parades, and comparing gay people to pedophiles.
10. The bisexual, anti-gay person, is then able to convince others that being gay is a choice.
He or she is able to do this because:
a. People who are part of the societal binary sexuality (Heterosexuals) are unlikely to have ever given the origins of their sexuality much thought; it just is.
b. The bisexual, anti-gay person does not explain that they, themselves are, in fact, bisexual, because they don’t consider themselves to be bisexual because they chose to live the heterosexual part of their duality.
c. Heterosexual people who have never given any thought to the origins of their sexuality are also influenced by bisexual anti-gay people, as well as the same religions, parental authoritarianism, peer pressure, etc. They then are easily lead to vote against gay people, because they are not aware of the motivations of the bisexual anti-gay person, and they do little to investigate his or her claims.
Other evidence:
The fact that a great many public figures, who declare themselves to be anti-gay are caught in compromising gay situations:
Mark Foley
Ted Haggard
Larry Craig
Bob Allen
Glenn Murphy Jr.
Jeff Gannon
Jim West
Troy King
Etc.
I also suspect that Pastor Fred Phelps is also an anti-gay bisexual.
Also: I sense that bisexual people might feel that they’re being made the villains in this piece. I don’t feel that way at all. The inability to accept ones own sexuality is the villain.
Some guy went off at Ft. Hood, an army base in Texas. The suspect’s name is Nidal Malik Hasan. He’s a psychologist and had reached the rank of Major.
The news stories are reporting that he may have been reacting to the idea of being deployed to Afghanistan.
Okay, so we have all this information, but when we go to the news sites regarding the shootings, we see people reacting to it. Many are crying, some are holding one another, there’s a lot of people in uniform expressing emotions. I do not in any way seek to diminish the depth of the pain we see portrayed…
But we don’t see any of the actual damage that was done.
I’m not advocating that there be up close shots of bullet ridden bodies. But I think that we sanitize these things too much. What of the bodies? What of the blood? Why do we see nothing of the actual tragedy?
It is no wonder, in a society where guns are viewed as toys; where representations of gunshot wounds on TV amount to small red dots, where we leave our dead in hospital beds and then next see them in caskets in funeral homes…
We have a denial problem when it comes to death.
Death is a natural part of life. It happens to EVERY ONE OF US. Why do we go to such lengths to hide it?
Murder, accidents, and the like are also a part of our everyday existence. Why do we sanitize them and bleach out all the red?
If we, as a society of individuals, were allowed to see the actual damages of violence, perhaps it might be a measurable deterrent to those who would do violence.
Maybe if we didn’t hide the reality of death from everyone, then everyone wouldn’t be so callous to it.
Those who would preserve the status quo might say that showing the actuality of violence would make us immune to its effects. That we’d become numb to violence if we were to see a realistic portrayal of it’s aftermaths.
I argue that that is just the state we exist in now. We hear of mass murders, and when imagining those things envision bodies with no visible wounds lying peacefully on the floor, eyes closed and at peace; a gentle breeze drifting through the open window. Police shaking their heads in dismay as the bodies are covered in bleached, white linen and wheeled away on stretchers.
This isn’t a deterrent. This is a TV SHOW.
People have wounds! Death doesn’t always come instantly. People cry and are in pain and bleed and then die with their eyes open as too much of their precious blood leaks out onto the floor. There is blood, sometimes lots of it. The life that once animated the person is gone now – forever. There are smells, and sounds, and horrifying stillness. There are disfigurements, broken parts and rigor mortis.
The culture of denial enables us to feel as though violence and death doesn’t touch us. It does nothing to prepare us for those moments when it DOES touch us.
How can we feel a tragedy, if all we’re presented with is a tableau of clean, white, linen…
Sure it’s more comfortable to pretend it doesn’t exist, but that certainly doesn’t help us to attune ourselves to the reality of existence.
After the American Humanists replaced the billboard due to the previous vandalism, the Christians came back and defaced it again.
This time they took my advice and just spray painted over the word “out”.
So, now it reads, instead of “Millions are good without God,” it reads, “Millions are good with God.”
Another Ironic statement. Since there are supposedly billions of religious people on the planet, only “millions” of them are good?
So we can then assume that the rest are evil. Awesome.
Seriously, though, as the American Humanist representative said in their statement to TV station KHQ:
“The irony here is worth noting,” said President of the American Humanist Association, David Niose. “Some individuals are committing criminal acts while apparently claiming that their religious view of the world leads to good behavior. It’s not a very convincing argument on their part.”
The billboard company needs to put up a camera on the billboard. American Humanists shouldn’t have to pay to put up a billboard every time. The billboard company should bear some of the blame, since they apparently have nothing in place to keep people from crawling up and defacing billboards.
Our country takes great pride in touting that we have the freedom of expression. Why do Christians think that they don’t have to grant that right? Why do they think that they get to suppress it?
I tried really hard to watch the 2nd episode of the series today. It was called The Cemetery, or something like that.
So, from what I can remember, there is a couple who live in or near a cemetery because the fellow works there. Neato. There is apparently a “hallucination” of a woman coming out of a laundry basket reported, and the woman gets sick a lot and has unexplained back pain.
So, they say that they want to make certain that there are no scientific explanations for these events.
“Oh, really?” is my incredulous reply, “This I gotta see.”
So they immediately send the woman to a CHIROPRACTOR. Are you kidding me? This was your idea of scientific? There isn’t a doctor on the planet that thinks that chiropractics is a legitimate science. So he runs his magic machines over her and concludes, as have, reportedly, the REAL doctors, that they can’t determine what’s wrong with her.
This simply means that there is no physical explanation that they can see with MRIs and magic chiropractic machines. This does not rule out any scientific explanation, it just means that its inconclusive….
So, enough with this barely perceptible nod in the direction of science. Lets get down to the nutty.
They were beginning the “This is not a seance” seance, and they’d heard something scary on their EVP recording, when I decided I’d seen enough.
The problem with these shows is that there is NO attempt at providing any rational, scientific explanation, but they have all sorts of doodads that look scientific and they talk in pseudo-scientese (my word, thank you), but it doesn’t mean a damn thing. They aren’t even coming close to using science. They’re making up things about how ghosts react to things, how they feel, how they exist, why they do things, etc.
There is not one shred of falsifiable evidence of ghosts. NOT ONE BIT. How do we glean from these mountains of invisible information that ghosts prefer to hang out in certain places? How do we know their deepest underlying desires? How do we know that they’re angry, or evil, or lustful, or obsessed with unfortunate looking cemetery caretakers? We don’t because no one has ever psychoanalyzed a ghost. No one has ever done a survey of ghosts to determine their motivational biases.
So they just get to make shit up, pretend to be sciency, and make enough money to put their kids through college (which they probably won’t do, because they probably don’t want their children to develop critical thinking skills).
But the shows wouldn’t exists if there weren’t saps, like my former self, who weren’t hanging on their every word…
About a week ago, the billboard placed in town by, I believe, American Skeptics, was vandalized.
The billboard read: “Millions are good without God.”
The vandal used black spray paint to darken the word “without”.
The result is: “Millions are good God.”
I’ve been asked several times what I thought of this. Originally, I felt pretty outraged. But then I realized that this is the best message that our opposition can send. They’re intolerant of other viewpoints and do not respect the freedom of others to express, speak and hold viewpoints that don’t align with their own.
This is one more point against them.
I need to get a small camera that I can keep with me so that I can take pictures of things like this. If I can get a picture, I’ll put one up…
So, the Secular Fellowship has been haunting the Moscow Farmers Market in its final month of the year. We got a nice little sign and some pamphlets and have been having great conversations with people passing by. It’s been 100 percent positive so far.
A bit down the way from us is the religion booth. They had a huge sign up today asking some question like, “Where will you go when you die?” or something equally fear inducing, with, tacked to the bottom of the sign, written on paper, “Do you know?”
It was me and a compatriot managing the table this morning (at 7 am). I shuffled off for a wander, and when I came back my compatriot was embroiled in debate with the fellow who ran the religion booth. I’ve been dying for this debate, so I sort of moved myself into it and took over the debate from her, which I will apologize heartily for the next time I see her. It was rude.
The fellow was nice enough. He was polite and didn’t allow his debate style to get marred by emotion. So our conversation was a 2 hour long bandy of ideas.
There was a new idea in there.
One of my favorite arguments against the Christian deity is this: The bible says that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ. But what if you’re in an Islamic theocracy, where prosthelytizing is illegal and can often lead to a death sentence. Though they’re friendly to the Christians in their midst, they will not abide someone preaching any non-Islamic religion. So, it stands to reason that there are going to be a great many Muslims that have never heard of Jesus Christ. If the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ, then what of those who’ve never heard of the guy? According to Christian teachings, non-believers burn in hell, period. So it basically works out to this: God made the person be born in an Islamic theocracy, where they were unlikely to learn about Jesus Christ, and then when the person dies, he’s going to send them to hell for eternity, even though the poor soul had no idea of the rules of the game.
That’s a pretty darn cruel god, if you ask me.
Well, the fellows argument to this was:
“We’re all born with the knowledge of God, we can either choose to embrace or reject salvation.”
To which I replied, “Not in my Islamic theocracy. There are going to be some people there who’ve never even heard of Jesus Christ. What about them?”
He said that they’ll receive a direct message from God about it.
I said, “So, they’ll just spontaneously know who and what Jesus Christ is? That’s ridiculous!”
He said, “I have read many stories where people say that this has happened.”
I told him that I would have to see a study, because that’s a miracle in and of itself.
That’s the problem with Christian prosthelytizing. They believe that the ends justify the means. Lying is just fine, as long as it increases the glory of God. Making shit up is okay, as long as you can win converts.
But all-in-all, it was a good day. We had a very civil conversation, which I commended him on. He didn’t use ad hominem attacks, and he was very polite.
>SIR I HAVE TWO FORMULA TO proove the power of ghost,from first formula you will face the ghost attack on your own body,in second formula you dropp any liquid poison in ghost bunglow from my system .you can face the soon reaction of that poison and ghost attack in your own body.you can be abnormal soon,you will feel death condition in your body,why did it happened, it happened only due to ghost which is dangerous wave.from my formula you can feel this wave at your own body long time,now i am sure thah this is only ghost wave.you can check this formula with your team in ghost bunglow which is shown by discovery channel,you check it decide it .i am 100percent sure this is only ghost wave.if ny formula becomes success then can i get any big prize money by any association ,plz reply very soon.
I think it a combination of poor English skills and mental illness. It’s pretty psychedelic. The best I can gather is this translation:
Sir, I have two methods to prove the power of a ghosts. The first method is to face the ghost’s attack on your own body. The second method is to drop any liquid poison in the ghost’s place of residence from my system (?). You will soon feel death in your body. Why did it happen? It happened due to the the ghost, which takes the form of a dangerous wave, with this method, you can feel the wave in your own body for a long period of time. Now I am sure that this is only the ghost’s wave. You can check this method with your team (?) in the ghost’s place of residence which is shown on the Discovery Channel (perhaps he thinks I’m the Ghost Hunters?), then you can decide. I am 100 percent certain that this is only the ghost’s wave. In any of these methods is successful, then I will win big prize money by association (or from a certain association, or any association that gives big prize money, perhaps JREF?). Please reply very soon…
The second formula is interesting. Dropping liquid poison in the ghost’s lair? So, you take poison into the ghost’s lair, you then proceed to spill it on the ground (I certainly hope he doesn’t mean “drop” like people “drop” acid (LSD). If he’s experiencing a feeling of death, then he needs to stay away from poison.
In reality, if he’s not completely bonkers, which I suspect he may be, then what he’s experiencing as “a feeling of death” is simply of his own creation. He gets scared, and feels scared. I still feel that bodily level of fear when I go into a dark basement or walk down a dark street. It’s just the body preparing for fight or flight.
Do you have a supernatural, paranormal, and/or unexplained experience? Do you have evidence that you think proves the existence of ghosts, gods, bigfoot, or any other supernatural beings?
Send me an email @ skepticalderman(at)gmail.com and include any evidence you might have. You must give permission for the evidence to be posted on the site if it belongs to you.
