www.youtube.com/watch%253Fv%253DgNYZH9kuaYM

There is not much in this world that can have me crying from laughing so hard, rolling on the floor absolutely doubled up for minutes.
This is one such discovery. Enjoy.

Oh really now? Oh Churches...

Thank you Harvard. Atheists, spread this around EVERYWHERE! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/7189188/Atheists-just-as-ethical-as-churchgoers.html


Atheists 'just as ethical as churchgoers'
Atheists are just as ethical and have as strong a moral compass as churchgoers, new research shows.


Published: 7:30AM GMT 09 Feb 2010

People who have no religion know right from wrong just as well as regular worshippers, according to the study.

The team behind the research found that most religions were similar and had a moral code which helped to organise society.


But people who did not have a religious background still appeared to have intuitive judgments of right and wrong in common with believers, according to the findings, published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Dr Marc Hauser, from Harvard University, one of the co-authors of the research, said that he and his colleagues were interested in the roots of religion and morality.

"For some, there is no morality without religion, while others see religion as merely one way of expressing one's moral intuitions," he said.

The team looked at several psychological studies which were designed to test an individual’s morality.

Dr Hauser added: "The research suggests that intuitive judgments of right and wrong seem to operate independently of explicit religious commitments.

"However, although it appears as if co-operation is made possible by mental mechanisms that are not specific to religion, religion can play a role in facilitating and stabilising co-operation between groups."

He added that the findings could help to explain the complex relationship between morality and religion.

"It seems that in many cultures religious concepts and beliefs have become the standard way of conceptualising moral intuitions,” he said.

"Although, as we discuss in our paper, this link is not a necessary one, many people have become so accustomed to using it, that criticism targeted at religion is experienced as a fundamental threat to our moral existence."

Quotes I love, from college textbooks.

The following quotes should be taught to every student in the nation around the age of 14.

"ccording to Hobbes, life in the state of nature prior to the formation of government was “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Rather than an era of peace and tranquility populated with noble savages, Hobbes envisioned a nightmare of violence where each individual decided only for himself and against all others. In this version of a state of nature, there could be no industry, no crops grown, no security or peace found, and certainly no rights whose claims were equally understood and honored."

"We are either living in an age of sudden awareness where we have evolved and are now aware of a whole new set of rights, or we are confusing what we want with what is somehow our due. The gross multiplication of rights threatens to make the very issue of rights associated with real claims almost meaningless. It appears too easy to move from 'I want X' to 'I have a right to X.' "

- Ethics of Health Care: A Guide for Clinical Practice, 3e
Chapter 4: The Nature of Rights in Ethical Discourse
ISBN: 1401861830 Author: Raymond S. Edge, John Randall Groves
copyright © 2006, 1999, 1994 Thomson Delmar Learning, a part of the Thomson Corporation

Taken from a mouth with a brain attached that knows.

A transcript of a statement from David Morrison at NASA!

...I'm a space scientist at NASA Ames Research Center. For the last two years Ive been answering hundreds of questions from the public about 2012 and the supposed threat to earth. And so now I want to take a chance to talk to some of you more directly.

There is no threat to earth in 2012. There is no danger. All of the talk about a doomsday is a big hoax perpetuated on the Internet and with people trying to make money. So please dont worry about it. Let me talk about some of the specific things. There has been a lot of talk about a Planet-x, or a Niburu as a giant planet thats going to hit the earth or at least come very close in December 2012. The simple fact is Nibiru does not exist.

Aside from worrying about the weird places, the ideas came from, all you have to do is ask the astronomers. If Nibiru or Planet-X were going to come into the inner solar system in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for the last decade. All over the world, amateur as well as professional. And it would be visible now to the naked eye. Its not there. Its a no-show. Theres nothing to worry about some object coming and striking the earth or damaging us.

Theres also been concern about a so-called galactic alignment. Because in December of every year the sun is roughly in the direction of the galactic center as seen from earth. This happens every year, it really does not mean anything, and there is nothing special about 2012. If youre not worried about December 2009, dont worry about December 2012. In fact, alignments, although it may sound scary to some people, are just not an issue for scientists. There are no special forces when planets align, or the sun aligns. It is sort of a curiosity, but not something of real scientific interest.

Theres also been concern that somehow the earths poles are going to flip. No one quite explains how this could happen, and if youre talking about the rotation pole of the earth, that cant change. It never has and it never will. Some people however are concerned about the change in the magnetic polarity. A shift of the north and south pole which does take place every few hundred thousand years. But there is no reason to think it will happen in 2012, and actually no evidence that it would do any harm to us, even if it did happen. Some people couple this with ideas of solar outbursts, of flares, or coronal mass ejections, which could do great damage to the earth. Well, the solar maximum takes place every 11 years, and occasionally there is some damage to satellites in orbit. And we see bright aurora or northern lights here, but very little real damage is done. And theres no solar maximum predicted in 2012. The next solar maximum is predicted for the spring of 2013, and its actually anticipated that it will be much lower than usual.

Again, all this 2012 talk is just a hoax. Its a fake. Its nothing you should worry about. I get questions from many people who are really scared, even some young people who have said they are contemplating suicide, this sort of thing. Its really sad. And the point of my talking to you now is just to explain to you that there is no problem there. And the many things you see on the Internet and Youtube where people claim that there is some horrible threat about to descend on us are not true. Dont worry about 2012, and enjoy 2013 when it comes...

No-matter what 2012 brings, I'm sure it will be no more than any other year brings, and I bet you we are still here in 2013.

I blatently stole this from Combom's website, a website almost entirely dedicated to Doctor Who. The link to the article directly is here: http://lifetheuniverseandcombom.blogspot.com/2010/01/2012-earths-doomsday-imapct-with.html and the link to the rest of the blog: http://lifetheuniverseandcombom.blogspot.com/ and I sure hope he does not mind me taking it given the need to repost this information as many places as possible so we can prevent loads of people from doing something stupid in 2012. I hope to also convince a few of my friends to repost this on their Athiest/science blogs so as many people out there can comfort the scared that all is well. I thank Combom so much for his blog and for posting this information.

Study hard.

"Seven Blunders of the World"


1. Wealth without work

2. Pleasure without conscience

3. Knowledge without character

4. Commerce without morality

5. Science without humanity

6. Worship without sacrifice

7. Politics without principle


—Mahatma Gandhi

Sick again

Though it's been a year or so...the Alien is sick again. This time with a cold that has morphed again into bronchitus. This time, I will only be taking penicillin (prescribed to me for another unrelated problem currently), NO steroids. Last year, I couldn't control the left half of my body for the first few days. Let me tell you about trying to work while looking like you are in the process of having a stroke. I've had some embarrassing things happen to me while working at this company, but that one won the prize. I do not intend to repeat the situation.

THIS is amazing

Thank you PZ Myers for posting this. This is amazing.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/the_same-sex_marriage_debate_g.php