Orient Yourself - Victoria University - A New School of Thought

Orient Yourself - Victoria University - A New School of Thought

What is a logical fallacy?

1. Ad hominem
An ad hominem argument is any that attempts to counter anothers claims or conclusions by attacking the person,
rather than addressing the argument itself. True believers will often commit this fallacy by
countering the arguments of skeptics by stating that skeptics are closed minded. Skeptics,
on the other hand, may fall into the trap of dismissing the claims of UFO believers, for example,
by stating that people who believe in UFO's are crazy or stupid.



2. Ad ignorantiam
The argument from ignorance basically states that a specific belief is true because we don't
know that it isn't true. Defenders of extrasensory perception, for example, will often
overemphasize how much we do not know about the human brain. UFO proponents will often
argue that an object sighted in the sky is unknown, and therefore it is an alien spacecraft.



3. Argument from authority
Stating that a claim is true because a person or group of perceived authority says it is true.
Often this argument is implied by emphasizing the many years of experience, or the formal degrees
held by the individual making a specific claim. It is reasonable to give more credence to the
claims of those with the proper background, education, and credentials, or to be suspicious of
the claims of someone making authoritative statements in an area for which they cannot demonstrate
expertise. But the truth of a claim should ultimately rest on logic and evidence, not the authority
of the person promoting it.



4. Argument from final Consequences
Such arguments (also called teleological) are based on a reversal of cause and effect, because
they argue that something is caused by the ultimate effect that it has, or purpose that is serves.
For example: God must exist, because otherwise life would have no meaning.



5. Argument from Personal Incredulity
I cannot explain or understand this, therefore it cannot be true. Creationists are fond of arguing
that they cannot imagine the complexity of life resulting from blind evolution, but that does not
mean life did not evolve.



6. Confusing association with causation
This is similar to the post-hoc fallacy in that it assumes cause and effect for two variables simply
because they are correlated, although the relationship here is not strictly that of one variable
following the other in time. This fallacy is often used to give a statistical correlation a causal
interpretation. For example, during the 1990’s both religious attendance and illegal drug use have
been on the rise. It would be a fallacy to conclude that therefore, religious attendance causes
illegal drug use. It is also possible that drug use leads to an increase in religious attendance,
or that both drug use and religious attendance are increased by a third variable, such as an increase
in societal unrest. It is also possible that both variables are independent of one another, and
it is mere coincidence that they are both increasing at the same time.
A corollary to this is the invocation of this logical fallacy to argue that an association does not
represent causation, rather it is more accurate to say that correlation does not necessarily mean
causation, but it can. Also, multiple independent correlations can point reliably to a causation,
and is a reasonable line of argument.



7. Confusing currently unexplained with unexplainable
Because we do not currently have an adequate explanation for a phenomenon does not mean that it is
forever unexplainable, or that it therefore defies the laws of nature or requires a paranormal
explanation. An example of this is the "God of the Gapsâ" strategy of creationists that
whatever we cannot currently explain is unexplainable and was therefore an act of god.




8. False Continuum
The idea that because there is no definitive demarcation line between two extremes, that
the distinction between the extremes is not real or meaningful: There is a fuzzy line
between cults and religion, therefore they are really the same thing.



9. False Dichotomy
Arbitrarily reducing a set of many possibilities to only two. For example, evolution is not
possible, therefore we must have been created (assumes these are the only two possibilities).
This fallacy can also be used to oversimplify a continuum of variation to two black and white
choices. For example, science and pseudoscience are not two discrete entities, but rather the
methods and claims of all those who attempt to explain reality fall along a continuum from
one extreme to the other.



10. Inconsistency
Applying criteria or rules to one belief, claim, argument, or position but not to others.
For example, some consumer advocates argue that we need stronger regulation of prescription
drugs to ensure their safety and effectiveness, but at the same time argue that medicinal
herbs should be sold with no regulation for either safety or effectiveness.



11. The Moving Goalpost
A method of denial arbitrarily moving the criteria for "proof" or acceptance out of
range of whatever evidence currently exists.



12. Non-Sequitur
In Latin this term translates to "doesn't follow". This refers to an argument in which
the conclusion does not necessarily follow from the premises. In other words, a logical
connection is implied where none exists.



13. Post-hoc ergo propter hoc
This fallacy follows the basic format of: A preceded B, therefore A caused B, and therefore
assumes cause and effect for two events just because they are temporally related (the latin
translates to "after this, therefore because of this").



14. Reductio ad absurdum
In formal logic, the reductio ad absurdum is a legitimate argument. It follows the form that
if the premises are assumed to be true it necessarily leads to an absurd (false) conclusion
and therefore one or more premises must be false. The term is now often used to refer to the
abuse of this style of argument, by stretching the logic in order to force an absurd conclusion.
For example a UFO enthusiast once argued that if I am skeptical about the existence of alien visitors,
I must also be skeptical of the existence of the Great Wall of China, since I have not personally
seen either. This is a false reductio ad absurdum because he is ignoring evidence other than personal
eyewitness evidence, and also logical inference. In short, being skeptical of UFO's does not require
rejecting the existence of the Great Wall.



15. Slippery Slope
This logical fallacy is the argument that a position is not consistent or tenable because
accepting the position means that the extreme of the position must also be accepted. But
moderate positions do not necessarily lead down the slippery slope to the extreme.



16. Straw Man
Arguing against a position which you create specifically to be easy to argue against, rather
than the position actually held by those who oppose your point of view.



17. Special pleading, or ad-hoc reasoning
This is a subtle fallacy which is often difficult to recognize. In essence, it is the arbitrary
introduction of new elements into an argument in order to fix them so that they appear valid.
A good example of this is the ad-hoc dismissal of negative test results. For example, one might
point out that ESP has never been demonstrated under adequate test conditions, therefore ESP
is not a genuine phenomenon. Defenders of ESP have attempted to counter this argument by
introducing the arbitrary premise that ESP does not work in the presence of skeptics. This
fallacy is often taken to ridiculous extremes, and more and more bizarre ad hoc elements
are added to explain experimental failures or logical inconsistencies.



18. Tautology
A tautology is an argument that utilizes circular reasoning, which means that the conclusion
is also its own premise. The structure of such arguments is A=B therefore A=B, although the
premise and conclusion might be formulated differently so it is not immediately apparent as such.
For example, saying that therapeutic touch works because it manipulates the life force is a
tautology because the definition of therapeutic touch is the alleged manipulation (without touching)
of the life force.



19. Tu quoque
Literally, you too. This is an attempt to justify wrong action because someone else also does it.
"My evidence may be invalid, but so is yours."



20. Unstated Major Premise
This fallacy occurs when one makes an argument which assumes a premise which is not explicitly
stated. For example, arguing that we should label food products with their cholesterol content
because Americans have high cholesterol assumes that: 1) cholesterol in food causes high serum
cholesterol; 2) labeling will reduce consumption of cholesterol; and 3) that having a high serum
cholesterol is unhealthy. This fallacy is also sometimes called begging the question.

maternity leave

How to deal with pregnancy at work | NEWS.com.au Business

fat revolution

Beautiful, but different: The quiet, fat revolution of Velvet d’Amour | News.com.au Fully Chic Blog

petrol's price is almost A$2 in Melbourne

Commuters ditch cars over petrol high | NEWS.com.au

obama and racism

Racist badge, sex and drugs claims smear Obama | NEWS.com.au

A RACIST "joke" has Barack Obama supporters fuming and Republicans
cringing, as bizarre claims of sex and drugs were allowed centre stage
on the US presidential campaign trail today.

A man who used YouTube to claim he took drugs and performed oral sex
on Senator Obama in 1999 was given free rein at the US National Press
Club, prompting a two-hour press conference that soon descended into
farce.

Appearing with his kilt-wearing lawyer - who said the attire was
necessary to accommodate his amply proportioned genitalia - Larry
Sinclair presented himself for a grilling over his sensational claims.

"I asked him to wear a suit and tie," Mr Sinclair said of his attorney, according to the Huffington Post's bemused correspondent. He offered little evidence of his claims, but promised some in the future.

He also promised to take a police lie detector test to prove
himself. He may get the chance sooner than he thought - later reports
said Mr Sinclair was arrested after the press conference, which might
be remembered as the low point in the toxic margins of this campaign.

A post on Politico revealed Mr Sinclair has an extensive criminal history.

Racist badge

Meanwhile in Texas, the man behind a racist badge targeting Senator
Obama, which was sold at a Republican party convention, apologised
today but said he was just trying to be funny.

A badge bearing the words: "If Obama is President... will we
still call it The White House?" was sold at a stall at the Texas
Republican party's get-together over the weekend.

A blogger for the Dallas Morning News
spotted the stall, sparking a wave of criticism against the vendor and
an almost immediate disavowal of him from the state's Republicans.

The vendor, Jonathan Alcox, said he had received so many abusive and
threatening phone calls he had been forced to disconnect his phone.

He said he did not mean to offend anyone, but now understands why
people are so angry. "We made a mistake. I realise that now. And I
apologise," he told the News.

He said his website, republicanmarket.com,
had been hacked since the badge's became public. "Obviously, it's been
offensive to people. It was not meant to be that way. We're into humour
- not racism," he said.

Al Gore Is Hypocrite?

Gore confronted with inconvenient truth of power bill | The Australian

ENVIRONMENT campaigner Al Gore is using more electricity than ever, despite pledging to cut consumption more than a year ago.

According
to the Tennessee Centre for Policy Research, the annual electricity
usage at the former US vice-president's home in Nashville, Tennessee,
has risen by 10 per cent.

Mr Gore's environmental activism inspired the Oscar-winning
documentary An Inconvenient Truth. But the TCPR branded him a
"hypocrite" in February last year after discovering that his
eight-bathroom house had consumed nearly 221,000 kilowatt hours of
electricity in the previous year - more than 20 times the national
average.

Mr Gore responded by saying he was giving the house an
energy-efficient makeover, fitting solar panels, low-energy lightbulbs
and a geothermal heating and cooling system. However, the TCPR has got
hold of his bill again, this time comparing consumption between the 12
months before June last year, when it says he installed his new
technology, and the year since then.

It says the figures show the Gore residence uses an average of
17,768kWh per month - 1638kWh more energy per month than before the
renovations. By comparison, the average American household consumes
11,040kWh in an entire year, according to the Energy Information
Administration.

Drew Johnson, the TCPR's president, said: "A man's commitment to his
beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his
own home."

Is Obama even a legal US Citizen

MSNBC - Politics - Is Obama even a legal US Citizen?If not bye bye Presidency

Bloggers are raising questions about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's qualifications to be U.S. president, because of the secrecy over his birth certificate and the requirement presidents be "natural-born" U.S. citizens.

Jim Geraghty, reporting on the Campaign Spot, a National Review blog, cited the "unlikely" but still circulating rumor that Obama was born not within the United States, but elsewhere, possibly Kenya.

Geraghty defined the concerns most clearly, stating: "If Obama were born outside the United States, one could argue that he would not meet the legal definition of natural-born citizen … because U.S. law at the time of his birth required his natural-born parent (his mother) to have resided in the United States for '10 years, at least [f]ive of which had to be after the age of 16.'"

He then points out Ann Dunham, Obama's mother, was 18 when Obama was born "so she wouldn't have met the requirement of five years after the age of 16."

Geraghty continues: " (Interestingly, apparently there isn't much paperwork on Obama's parents' marriage. 'Obama: From Promise to Power,' page. 27: 'Obama later confessed that he never searched for the government documents on the marriage, although Madelyn (Obama's maternal grandmother) insisted they were legally married.' Also note that Obama's father apparently was not legally divorced from his first wife back in Kenya at the time, a point of contention that ultimately led to their separation.)"

The reports released to date show Obama was born in Honolulu to Barack Hussein Obama Sr., of Nyangoma-Kogelo, Kenya, and Ann Dunham, of Wichita, Kan.

According to FindLaw.com, which is cited by Geraghty, the requirements that were in force from Dec. 24, 1952 to Nov. 13, 1986, encompassing the time of Obama's birth, state, "If only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least 10 years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16."

Obama's father, a student sent to the United States from Africa, lived several places in the United States while attending class. He then returned to his homeland. Obama's mother later married another man and moved to Indonesia.

Geraghty said the Obama campaign could "debunk" the rumors about his birth simply by releasing a copy of his birth certificate, but the campaign has so far chosen not to do that.

"The campaign cited the birth certificate in their 'Fact Check' on William Ayers, so presumably, someone in the campaign has access to it," he said.

Hawaii doesn't make public information from birth certificates.

"If the concern of the Obama campaign is that the certificate includes his Social Security number or some other data that could be useful to identity thieves, that information could easily be blocked out and the rest released. (Although I wonder if identity thieves would find Obama a tougher than usual target, since using the name on purchases would almost inevitably bring closer scrutiny.)," Geraghty said.

The Obama campaign repeatedly has declined to respond to WND requests for comment.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., already has gone through the same type of challenge, and the U.S. Senate responded with a resolution in April declaring him to be a "'natural born Citizen' under Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution of the United States."

That article declares that "no person except a natural born citizen … shall be eligible to the Office of president."

McCain was challenged because he was born to two U.S. citizens in the Panama Canal Zone.

According to a report from Michael Dobbs on The Fact Checker, the McCain campaign consulted two leading jurists, Theodore Olsen and Laurence Tribe, and they agreed.

"They argue that McCain is a natural born citizen because the United States exercised sovereignty ove

Technorati Tags: obama

atheism quotes

Abu Ala Al-Ma'arri - The world holds two classes of men - intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence
Albert Einstein - Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death
Albert Einstein - Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth
Alena Castle - To live without god beliefs is intellectually stimulating. To find one’s own purpose and be responsible for one’s own life is exciting. To be free of the imagines surveillance of good and evil spirits is liberating
Amanda Bloom - An Idea does not gain truth as it gains followers
Ambrose Bierce - Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge
Ambrose Bierce - Pray: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner
Andy Rooney - Everyone starts out being an atheist. No one is born with belief in anything. Infants are atheists until they are indoctrinated
Anon - A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if no one believes it.
Anton Lavey - Every religion in the world that has destroyed people is based on love.
Aristophanes - Surely you don’t believe in the gods. What’s your argument? Where’s your proof?
Aristotle - A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side
Aristotle - men create gods after their own image, not only with regard to their form, but with regard to their mode of life.
Arthur C. Clarke - It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him.
Arthur C. Clarke - One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion
Arthur C. Clarke - Religion is a byproduct of fear. For much of human history, it may have been a necessary evil, but why was it more evil than necessary?
Arthur Schopenhauer - Religions are like fireflies. They require darkness in order to shine
Ayn Rand - Religion is a primitive form of philosophy, the attempt to offer a comprehensive view of reality.
B.C. cartoon - Religious Cult: The church down the street from yours.
Baron D’Holbach - It is only by dispelling the clouds and phantoms of religion that we shall discover truth, reason, and morality
Baron D'Holbach - All religions are ancient monuments to superstitions, ignorance, ferocity; and modern religions are only ancient follies rejuvenated
Baron D'Holbach - If we go back to the beginning we shall find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that fancy, enthusiasm and deceit adorned them; that weakness worships them; that credulity preserves them; and that custom, respect and tyranny support them; in order to make the blindness of men serve their own interests. If the ignorance of nature gave birth to the gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them
Benjamin Disraeli - Where knowledge ends, religion begins
Benjamin Franklin - Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.
Benjamin Franklin - The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.
Bertrand Russell - I am as firmly as firmly convinced that religions do harm as I am that they are untrue.
Bertrand Russell - if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence
Bertrand Russell - It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for supposing it true
Bertrand Russell - Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand.
Bertrand Russell - So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence.
Bill Maher - I think flying planes into a building was a faith-based initiative.
Billy Joel - I believe all important matters have to be settled here, not in the clouds somewhere after we kick off
Blaise Pascal - Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions
Brenda Cornish - Atheism - Liberation through Reason and Knowledge
Carl Sagan - Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
Carl Sagan - It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Carl Sagan - You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe
Carlespie Mary Alice McKinney - Religion does three things quite effectively: Divides people, Controls people, Deludes people
Chapman Cohen - Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense
Charlie Chaplin - By simple common sense I don't believe in God
Christopher Hitches - What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence
Clarence Darrow - I do not believe in God because I do not believe in Mother Goose.
Clarence Darrow - I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure -- that is all that agnosticism means.
Clark Adams - If Atheism is a religion, then health is a disease!
Coral Yoshi - So you really think that God would plant a bunch of bones in the earth to test your faith? Either you're in denial or God has some serious self-esteem issues
Dan Barker - You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?
Dan Fouts - I'm a polyatheist; there are many gods I don't believe in
Daniel Patrick Moynihan - Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts
David Aaronovitch - The problem is that all monotheisms are by their nature anti-pluralistic. They’ve got one true god and the very latest valid version of his thoughts. It is asking a lot of monotheisms to coexist with other faiths and views. Paganism is much netter suited to modern ideas of tolerance and human rights
David Brooks - To explain the unknown by the known is a logical procedure; to explain the known by the unknown is a form of theological lunacy
David Hume - Errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy are only ridiculous
David Hume - God’s power is infinite, whatever he wills is executed, but neither man nor any other animal is happy, therefore he does not will their happiness
Decca Aitkenhead - trying to defend religion by invoking science is like claiming that three plus four equals ice cream
Delos B. McKown - The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike
Denis Diderot - Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest
Denis Diderot - The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers
Don Henley - We satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds in the name of destiny and in the name of god
Don Hirschberg - Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.
Donald Morgan - Atheist: A person who believes in one less god than you do
Donald Morgan A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism
Douglas Adams - Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?
Edgar Allan Poe - The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind.
Edgar Shoaff - A skeptic is a person who would ask god for his ID card
Edward Abbey - Fantastic doctrines (like Christianity or Islam or Marxism) require unanimity of belief. One dissenter casts doubt on the creed of millions. Thus the fear and hate; thus the torture chamber, the iron stake, the gallows, the labor camp, the psychiatric ward.
Edward Abbey - Whatever we cannot easily understand we call god; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues
Elizabeth Cady Stanton - The Bible and Church have been the greatest stumbling block in the way of women's emancipation
Emma Goldman - The philosophy of Atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical Beyond or Divine Regulator. It is the concept of an actual, real world with its liberating, expanding and beautifying possibilities, as against an unreal world, which, with its spirits, oracles, and mean contentment has kept humanity in helpless degradation.
Engie Mangio - Coming from Apes is so much better than Dirt
Epicurus - Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?
Ernest Hemingway - All thinking men are atheists.
Ernestine Rose - It is an interesting and demonstrable fact, that all children are atheists and were religion not inculcated into their minds, they would remain so
Francis Bacon - Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men.
Frederick Douglass - I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs
Friedrich Nietzsche - Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Faith means not wanting to know what is true.
Galileo Galilei - I do not think it is necessary to believe that the same God who has given us our senses, reason, and intelligence wished us to abandon their use, giving us by some other means the information that we could gain through them
Gene Roddenberry - For most people, religion is nothing more than a substitute for a malfunctioning brain
Gene Roddenberry - Religions vary in their degree of idiocy, but I reject them all.
Gene Roddenberry - We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes
George Bernard Shaw - The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.
George Carlin - I used to believe in god, until I reached the age of reason.
George Carlin - Religion easily has the best bullshit story of all time. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky
George Carlin - Religion is just mind control
George Felis - Faith is a moral failing
George Washington - Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.
Gerald Massey - They must find it difficult, those who have taken authority as truth rather than truth as authority.
Giulian Buzila - History teaches us that no other cause has brought more death than the word of god
Gloria Steinem - I hope we raise out children to believe in human potential not god
Guillermo Garcia - Us humans need to be forgiven from our wrong doings by a superior individual to live in peace, Even if it takes an invisible God
Guillermo Garcia - You are a good person because you fear damnation. I am a good person without obligation
Gustaf Lindborg - The sailor does not pray for wind, he learns to sail
Henry Louis Mencken - Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbably. A man full of faith is simply one who has lost or never had the capacity for clear and realistic thought
Homer Simpson - Dear Lord: The gods have been good to me. For the first time in my life, everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is. So here's the deal: You freeze everything the way it is, and I won't ask for anything more. If that is OK, please give me absolutely no sign. OK, deal. In gratitude, I present you this offering of cookies and milk. If you want me to eat them for you, give me no sign. Thy will be done
Homer Simpson - I've always wondered if there was a god. And now I know there is -- and it's me
Homer Simpson - Jesus, Allah, Buddha. I love you all!
Homer Simpson - Our God is vengeful! O spiteful one, show me who to smite and they shall be smoten.
Homer Simpson - Suppose we've chosen the wrong god. Every time we go to church we're just making him madder and madder
Homer Simpson - why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I'm going to Hell?
Iain M Banks - Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present
Ilka Chase - It is usually when men are at their most religious that they behave with the least sense and the greatest cruelty.
Infinity0 - Absence of evidence is evidence of absence
Jacob Bronowski - There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy. All information is imperfect.
James Buchanan - I have seldom met an intelligent person whose views were not narrowed and distorted by religion
James Madison - During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution.
James Madison - Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.
Jean Anouilh - Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know he is.
Jerry Falwell - Christians, like slaves and soldiers, ask no questions
Jesse Ventura - Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers.
Jiddu Krishnamurti - The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Nothing is more dangerous than active ignorance
John Adams - god is an essence that we know nothing of. Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there never will be any liberal science in the world
John Adams - This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it
John Stuart Mill - The time appears to me to have come when it is the duty of all to make their dissent from religion known.
Jonathan Swift - We have just enough religion to make us hate but not enough religion to make us love one another
Jonathon Miller - In some awful, strange, paradoxical way, atheists tend to take religion more seriously than the practitioners.
José Bergamín - A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.
Julian Huxley - Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire cat
Karl Marx - Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, & the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
Karl Marx - The first requisite of the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.
King Alfonso - Sensible men no longer believe in miracles; they were invented by priests to humbug the peasants
Kurt Vonnegut - Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile
Lord Bryon - I do not believe in any religion. I will have nothing to do with immortality. We are miserable enough in this life without speculating upon another.
Lucretius - Fear is the mother of all gods. Nature does all things spontaneously by herself without their meddling.
Mark Twain - [Mr. Clemens was once asked whether he feared death. He said that he did not, in view of the fact that he had been dead for billions and billions of years before he was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.]
Mark Twain - A man is accepted into a church for what he believes and he is turned out for what he knows.
Mark Twain - Faith is believing something you know ain't true.
Mark Twain - It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.
Mark Twain - The easy confidence with which I know another man's religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also
Matthew Arnold - Miracles do not happen
Michael Moore - There's a gullible side to the American people. They can be easily misled. Religion is the best device used to mislead them
Michael Pain - In the absence of fear there is little faith
Miguel De Unamuno - The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found
Mohandas K Gandhi - The most heinous and the must cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives
Napoleon Bonaparte - All religions have been made by men
Napoleon Bonaparte - Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet
Napoleon Bonaparte - Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich
Ned Flanders - Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends! Well I say there are some things we don't want to know! Important things!
Nico Fourie - You need less imagination to believe that the world has just always existed than believing a god magically appeared who then with his magic powers created the world and everything else
Oscar Wilde - Truth in matters of religion is simply the opinion that has survived
Pearl S. Buck - Believing in gods always causes confusion.
Pearl S. Buck - When men destroy their old gods they will find new ones to take their place.
Percy Bysshe Shelley - If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them? If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him? If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable? If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees? If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? If he has spoken, why is the universe not convinced? If the knowledge of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest.
Pierre Charron - All religions have this in common, that they are an outrage to common sense, for they are pieced together out of a variety of elements, some of which seem so unworthy, sordid, and at odds with man’s reason that any strong and vigorous intelligence laughs at them
Richard Dawkins - Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.
Richard Dawkins - I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world
Richard Dawkins - There is all the difference in the world between a belief that one is prepared to defend by quoting evidence and logic and a belief that is supported by nothing more than tradition, authority, or revelation
Richard Lederer - There once was a time when all people believed in God and the church ruled. This time was called the Dark Ages.
Robert Frost - I turned to speak to god about the world’s despair; but to make matters worse, I found god wasn’t there
Robert Ingersoll - As people become more intelligent they care less for preaches and more for teachers
Robert Ingersoll - Our ignorance is God; what we know is science
Robert Ingersoll - Take from the church the miraculous, the supernatural, the incomprehensible, the unreasonable, the impossible, the unknowable, the absurd, and nothing but a vacuum remains
Robert Ingersoll - The inspiration of the bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it
Robert Ingersoll - There can be but little liberty on earth while men worship a tyrant in heaven.
Robert Linder - Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt
Scott Adams - Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. This is the principle of lotteries, dating, and religion.
Seneca - Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful
Shaun Mason - Faith is the unflagging determination to remain ignorant in the face of any and all evidence that you're ignorant
Sigmund Freud - In the long run, nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is palpable
Sigmund Freud - Religion belonged to the infancy of the human race; it had been a necessary stage in the transition from childhood to maturity. It had promoted ethical values which were essential to society. Now that humanity had come of age, however, it should be left behind.
Sigmund Freud - Religion is an illusion and it derives its strength from the fact that it falls in with our instinctual desires.
Sigmund Freud - Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis
Sigmund Freud - The idea of God was not a lie but a device of the unconscious which needed to be decoded by psychology.
Sigmund Freud - Those historical residues have helped us to view religious teachings, as it were, as neurotic relics, and we may now argue that the time has probably come, as it does in an analytic treatment, for replacing the effects of repression by the results of the rational operation of the intellect.
Simone de Beauvoir - I cannot be angry at God, in whom I do not believe
Sir Hermann Bondi - Religion divides us, while it is our human characteristics that bind us to each other
Stephen Roberts - I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours
Steven Weinberg - With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion
Superintendent Chalmers - Prayer has no place in the public schools, just like facts have no place in organized religion
Susan B. Anthony - I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.
Susan B. Anthony - The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God
Susan B. Anthony - To no form of religion is woman indebted for one impulse of freedom
Taslima Nasrin - Religion is against women's rights and women's freedom. In all societies women are oppressed by all religions
Templesmith - Funny how you never see a Christian amputee grow any limbs back
Tennessee Williams - All the western theologies are based on the concept of god as a senile delinquent
Thomas Edison - I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious ideas of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God.
Thomas Jefferson - Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.
Thomas Jefferson - History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.
Thomas Jefferson - I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies
Thomas Jefferson - In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own
Thomas Jefferson - It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
Thomas Jefferson - Political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves [of public ignorance] for their own purpose
Thomas Jefferson - Question with boldness even the existence of god; because if there be one he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear
Thomas Jefferson - The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.
Thomas Jefferson - To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise
Thomas Pain - All natural institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
Thomas Pain - Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and of my own part, I disbelieve them all.
Thomas Paine - It is from the bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder, for the belief in a cruel god makes a cruel man, and the bible is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind
Thomas Paine - Of all the tyrannies that afflict mankind, tyranny in religion is the worst. Every other species of tyranny is limited to the world we live in, but this attempts a stride beyond the grave and seeks to pursue us into eternity
Thomas Paine - The most detestable wickedness, the most horrid cruelties, and the greatest miseries that have afflicted the human race have had their origin in this thing called religion
Tom Robbins - Religion is not merely the opium of the masses, it's the cyanide.
Treaty of Tripoli (Article 11) - The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.
Unknown - A letter to a U.K. newspaper says 'science provides an explanation of the mechanism of the December 2004 Asian tsunami but it cannot say why this occurred any more than religion can.' There, in one sentence, we have the religious mind displayed before us in all its absurdity. In what sense of the word 'why', does plate tectonics not provide the answer? Not only does science know why the tsunami happened, it can give precious hours of warning. If a small fraction of the tax breaks handed out to churches, mosques and synagogues had been diverted into an early warning system, tens of thousands of people, now dead, would have been moved to safety. Let's get up off our knees, stop cringing before bogeymen and virtual fathers, face reality, and help science to do something constructive about human suffering.
Unknown - Don't pray in my school, and I won't think in your church
Unknown - Fundamentalism means never having to say ‘I'm wrong’
Unknown - Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; Give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish
Unknown - God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom?
Unknown - If everything is according to gods plan, how do we have free will?
Unknown - Lear to say: I don’t know.
Unknown - Only the fool says in his heart: There is no god -- The wise says it to the world
Unknown - People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs
Unknown - Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned
Unknown - Religion is the lazy man's path to understanding the wolrd
Unknown - Theists think all gods but theirs are false. Atheists simply don't make an exception for the last one
Unknown - Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer
Unknown - You keep believing, I'll keep evolving
Victor Hugo - There is in every village a torch: the schoolteacher, and an extinguisher: the priest
Voltaire - atheism is the voice of a few intelligent people.
Voltaire - Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.
Voltaire - Men who believe absurdities will commit atrocities.
Voltaire - Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense
Wayne Adkins - How do you choose between believing in Jesus, Bigfoot, leprechauns, witchcraft, Islam, alien abductions, the Tooth Fairy, gold at the end of the rainbow, or the myriad other assertions that people have made over the course of human history?
Whitney Brown - I'm not an atheist. How can you not believe in something that doesn't exist? That's way too convoluted for me.
William Clifford - It is wrong always and everywhere for anyone to believe anything on insufficient evidence
Woody Allen - If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss Bank
Zora Neale Hurston - Gods always behave like the people who created them

haircut

Round

Full-looking face with a round chin and

hairline. Widest point is at the cheeks and ears.

Try

hair styles with fullness
and height at the crown. Off center parts. Short hair styles with a swept-back
direction or hair styles that are longer than chin length. By layering the top to
achieve fullness and keeping the rest of the cut relatively close to the face,
your face shape will appear longer and narrower.

Avoid

Chin length hair with a
rounded line that mirrors face’s circular shape. Center parts. Short-short
crops, straight "chopped" bangs. Fullness at side of ears. A rounded haircut
ending at the chin will certainly add weight to your face shape. Because the
widest part of your face is at the cheeks and ears, you need to avoid having the
fullness of the cut here as it will make your face appear wider.

HAIRSTYLES FOR ROUND FACES

There really is no one "perfect" hairstyle
for a round-shaped face, as many things factor into the total equation.
For example, the length of your hair, its texture and weight, your age
and lifestyle requirements all play a part in what is ultimately the
best.

There are good general guidelines that you can follow, but the best
solution is to find a style that works best for you and all your beauty
needs.

If your face is round, the best hairstyles generally include:

1. Layered bangs rather than straight or heavy bangs.

2. Short styles which give height.

3. Styles that add length.

4. Styles that keep the sides of your hair short or close to the face.

5. Curls around the crown -- but never near the cheeks -- to create
height. Keep the sides of your hair short with a curly style.

6. Longer to very long styles, with bangs and a graduated shag or layers so that the face and the neck are given a slenderizing shape.

MAKING THE MOST OF WHAT YOU HAVE

If you have a double chin, keep the hair around your face above chin level to draw the eyes upwards. The back may be grown a little longer -- a bob would be ideal.

If you have a short neck,
a short cropped style will make a shorter neck appear longer. Long hair
worn up will give the same effect. Well-placed highlights will also
slenderize the face. Highlights that are woven around the face in an
"angel halo" effect will also help an overly round face appear thinner.

Long hair can be worn just as easily as short- or medium-length hair
as long as you wear your hair "forward" onto your face to create a more
"oval" appearance. Don't be afraid to wear your hair any length that
you like!

While you select your style, be sure to take into consideration the texture of your hair. If your hair is thick and coarse, you would do well with a style that benefits from the "bed head" look around the crown.

If you have curly hair,
you can use the curls by letting them add height at the crown. You can
also wear your curly hair longer, with the bulk of your hair pulled
back behind your ears, or with just a very few ringlets along your face
to minimize the fullness.

BREAKING THE RULES

Ghost Whisperer star Camryn Manheim (shown at right) is a
classic example of someone letting her hair be the way she wants it to
be and not following the strict rules for a round face.

Another celebrity who throws the rules to the wind is Baby Spice of
the recently-reborn Spice Girls. Her very round face is often coiffed
in styles that would not normally be considered the "perfect" style for
her face shape -- but they still work!

One great way to find the best style for your face shape is to buy
fashion, beauty and hair magazines and look through them for examples
of hairstyles that you like and think would be flattering to your face
shape and hair texture. Make a special hairstyle scrapbook of the
styles you like best and then take the entire book to your stylist and
ask them to advise you on some styles.

Clever people 'less likely to believe in God' | NEWS.com.au

Clever people 'less likely to believe in God' | NEWS.com.au

* Decline in religion "linked to rise in intelligence"
* University academics the "most likely" not to believe
* Study portrays religion as "primitive"

PEOPLE with high IQs are less likely to believe in God, according to a new study.

A leading psychology professor at Ulster University said many more "intellectually elite" people in the UK, especially univeristy academics, identified themselves as atheists than the national average.

Prof Richard Lynn said a decline in religious beliefs over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, the Telegraph reported.

The study, published in the academic journal Intelligence, has been called "simplistic" by critics.

A survey of Royal Society fellows, the independent academy of science in the UK, found that only 3.3 per cent believed in God - at a time when 68.5 per cent of the general UK population described themselves as believers.

A separate poll in the 90s found only seven per cent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God, the Telegraph reported.

Professor Lynn, who has provoked controversy in the past with linking intelligence to race and sex, said most primary school children believed in God, but as they entered adolescence - and their intelligence increased - many started to have doubts.

"Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population. Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQs tend not to believe in God," he told Times Higher Education magazine.

He said religious belief had declined across 137 developed nations in the 20th century at the same time people became more intelligent.

Professor Gordon Lynch, director of the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society at Birkbeck College, London, said the study failed to take account of a complex range of social, economic and historical factors.

"Linking religious belief and intelligence in this way could reflect a dangerous trend, developing a simplistic characterisation of religion as primitive, which - while we are trying to deal with very complex issues of religious and cultural pluralism - is perhaps not the most helpful response," he said.

Dr David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief.

"Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt institutions."

Weirdest Thing You’ve Done for Money. | News.com.au Squanderlust Blog

Weirdest Thing You’ve Done for Money. | News.com.au Squanderlust Blog

I’m surprised nobody has mentioned being a “guinea pig” - I think its a rite of passage for every uni student smile

I think I tested everything from sunscreen to AIDS drugs. My favourite was being forced to drinka a triple vodka at 9am and then playing with a driving simulator to test my motor skills.

I stopped short at sperm donation, although the $50 cash for having a wank was tempting.......

economy was making many couples think twice before seeking a divorce

Loveless couples are too broke to split | NEWS.com.au




AN increasing number of couples choose to stay in loveless relationships because they can't afford to go it alone in the worsening economic climate, relationship experts say.

The trend, dubbed the "non-divorce", has resulted in married and de facto couples living together like passionless room-mates rather than spouses, sometimes even openly dating other people.

As mortgage and loan interest rates continue to rise, purse strings are tightening.

Add to this the surging price of petrol, and the weekly grocery bill going through the roof.

One bright side to the gloomy financial situation is that more couples are seeking counselling to repair strained relationships.

Others are making extra-sure their marriages are strong to reduce the chance of being left single ... and broke.

Relationships Australia counsellor Fiona Hawkins said the economy was making many couples think twice before seeking a divorce.

"Some people do unconsciously choose to narrow their options down to staying with a difficult partner because of the financial climate," she said.

"I know a woman in her 50s who has a low-paying job, who feels she is going through the motions of a relationship, but will stay with her husband because the alternative is renting on her own.

"She feels sharing the house makes good financial sense because then the overheads burden is shared. Repairs, rates, and rents are usually the same no matter how many people live there.

"The key issue to consider is whether the cost of housing leaves the person enough money to live on."

Typically, couples who practise the non-divorce hash things out, informally, on their own, to avoid legal fees.

Social analyst David Chalke, director of market research outfit AustraliaSCAN, said sometimes the arrangement even enabled couples to date other people, while keeping the illusion of marriage for the sake of children and the community.

"Many relationships have become more like a house-share for the convenience of sharing bills," he said.

"Rather than passion or love being involved, it's become a case of 'I'm off out tonight' and so, 'Fine, don't ask, don't tell'."

Dr Brian Sullivan, from the University of Queensland, said financial concerns could cause a couple to stay together even when the relationship was hostile.

"If a woman has children and she leaves her husband, she suddenly becomes the breadwinner," he said.

"When faced with this, a woman will often decide to stay in the relationship because if she was to leave she would be on the streets, with no viable means of support."

Ms Hawkins urged couples in a marriage of financial convenience to seek help.

"Often seeking professional support or discussing with a third party can assist the process of deciding what to do," she said.

"Couples need to be open, honest and realistic about what they can afford and what will make them happy."

women are still doing almost twice as many of the household chores as men

Sensitive new-age man just a myth | NEWS.com.au


Sensitive new-age man just a myth

THE sensitive new-age guy who helps with the cooking and cleaning appears to be a myth, with men spending just six minutes a day more on housework than in 1992.

A Bureau of Statistics study of the way Australians use their time has found the amount of time men are spending on domestic activities has not changed in the past 16 years.

And women are still doing almost twice as many of the household chores as men.

The survey found men spent on average one hour and 37 minutes a day on domestic duties, compared to the two hours and 52 minutes a day women spend doing such tasks.

This is exactly the same amount of time men spent on household chores in 1992.

While more and more women are working, the amount of time they spend on household chores has fallen by just 10 minutes a day since 1992.

There has been some progress with men increasing the average amount of time they spend on cooking, cleaning up and laundry by six minutes a day from 37 minutes in 1992 to 43 minutes a day in 2006.

But they have compensated by spending 11minutes a day less on home maintenance, lawn mowing and caring for family pets.

Women took up the slack, spending an extra four minutes a day on average on home maintenance and gardening.

Women spent an average of 35 minutes a day on these tasks in 2006, compared with 31 minutes in 1992.

The time women spent on cooking, cleaning and laundry fell by an average of 16 minutes a day from 2 hours and 27 minutes in 1992 to two hours and 11 minutes in 2006.

The study shows women with young children are also doing more than twice as much child caring as men, 83 hours and 51 minutes a week.

salary in Australia

The best paid job? It's not what you think | NEWS.com.au


The best paid job? It's not what you think

By John Masanauskas June 05, 2008 01:07am

* Email article
* Share article
o Add to Digg
o Add to del.icio.us
o Post to NewsVine
o Post to Facebook
o Add to Kwoff
o Post to MySpace
o What are these?
* Printer friendly
* Text size + -

ENGINEERING managers in their late 30s are the nation's best-paid workers.
The managers are earning average annual salaries of $136,700, more than general managers and financial dealers.

Others earning big money include anaesthetists, surgeons, MPs and dentists, a survey shows.

By contrast, florists are doing it tough on an average $493 a week, as are pharmacy sales assistants ($518), fast food cooks ($520) and livestock farmers ($523).

The survey, What Jobs Pay, is based on ABS data collated by labour analyst Rodney Stinson.

The figures show average pre-tax earnings, including overtime and allowances.

Mr Stinson said the top job of engineering manager was a new classification linked to construction a nd mining.

"This has come out of the blue," he said.

"A decade ago, the only mining employees in the top 10 were young geologists and geophysicists, who were putting in very long hours in the field."

Mr Stinson said the incomes of medical and legal professionals tended to be underestimated due to tax minimisation options open to the self-employed.

"Also, with regard to the best-paid occupations, their averages are considered to be lower than might be expected because of the income cut-off (of $2000-plus a week) for the highest-earning Census and survey respondents," he said.

Mr Stinson said the growth of the security industry showed that people with very basic qualifications could command high wages.

For example, security "consultants" get an average $1813 a week, more than electrical engineers and school principals.

Mr Stinson said the ABS data under-estimated the pay for jobs such as hairdressing ($555) and flower-selling ($493).

"People in these jobs are obviously not telling the truth. The figures are unbelievable," he said.

Mr Stinson said cash payments not declared by employees were a big factor.

Highest earners: engineering manager ($2562), general manager ($2276), research and development manager ($2172), financial dealer ($1976), anaesthetist ($1957), mining engineer ($1955), surgeon ($1953), legislator ($1950), psychiatrist ($1909), internal medicine specialist ($1897).

Lowest earners: florist ($493), pharmacy sales assistant ($518), fast food cook ($520), livestock farmer ($523), cafe worker ($523), cook ($539), waiter ($541), mixed crop and livestock farmer ($543), checkout operator, office cashier ($546), sewing machinist ($554).