The-Global-Dispatch-skepticalprobe

Inside the Catholic Church - A short documentary

Labels: Catholic, Paedophile, Priest, Spoof

Just as we all suspected...

A short documentary by an unbiased researcher uncovers some interesting facts about the Catholic Church.

Skepticule Extra Podcast #36

Labels: Podcast, Skepticule

SkepExtra-036-20121104

Skepticule Extra shownotes for episode 036 20121104

This is the thirty-sixth episode of Skepticule Extra — otherwise known (once again) as the Three Pauls Podcast.

Paul Thompson ("Sinbad")
The Skeptical Probe
http://skepticalprobe.blogspot.com/

Paul Orton
https://www.facebook.com/paul.orton.94

Paul S. Jenkins
Notes from an Evil Burnee
http://www.evilburnee.co.uk

Send feedback to feedback@skepticule.co.uk, write a review oniTunes or post a comment below. There is also a Skepticule Extra Forum for further discussion of topics covered in the show (plus other topics). Follow the link to try out the forum.

Skepticule Extra is a production of Willowsoft Communications

Skepticule Extra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.
Direct download:
http://traffic.libsyn.com/revup/SkepExtra-036-20121104.mp3

Hours to stop Uganda's horrific anti-gay law

Dear friends,

In hours, Uganda could pass a law that could impose the death penalty or life imprisonment for homosexuality. An international outcry shelved this bill last year -- we urgently need to ramp up the pressure to press President Museveni to stand up for human rights and stop this brutal law. Sign below, and tell everyone:

The Ugandan Parliament is set to pass a brutal law that may carry the death penalty for homosexuality. If they do, thousands of Ugandans could face execution or life imprisonment -- just for being gay.

We've helped stop this bill before, and we can do it again. After a massive global outcry last year, Ugandan President Museveni blocked the bill's progress. But political unrest is mounting in Uganda, and religious extremists in Parliament are hoping confusion and violence in the streets will distract the international community from a second push to pass this hate-filled law. We can show them that the world is still watching.

We have no time to lose. Let’s get one million voices against Uganda's horrific anti-gay law in the next 24 hours -- we'll deliver it to Uganda's leaders and key countries. Click here to take action, then forward this email to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_stop_gay_death_law/?bvHzFdb&v=19502

Being gay in Uganda is already dangerous and terrifying. LGBT Ugandans are regularly harassed and beaten, and just last year gay rights activist David Kato (pictured above) was brutally murdered in his own home. Now they are threatened by this draconian law which could impose life imprisonment for people convicted of same-sex relations, and the death penalty for “serial offenders”. Even NGOs working to prevent the spread of HIV can be imprisoned for “promoting homosexuality” under this hate-filled law.

Right now, Uganda is in political turmoil -- missing millions of aid money has embroiled the Parliament in scandal. This upheaval has provided religious extremists in Parliament the perfect chance to slip in the shelved anti-gay bill, calling it a "Christmas gift" to Ugandans.

President Museveni backed away from this bill before, after international pressure threatened Uganda's support. Let's build a million strong petition to stop the horrific anti-gay law again, and save lives. We only have hours -- sign below, then tell friends and family:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uganda_stop_gay_death_law/?bvHzFdb&v=19502

Last time, our international petition condemning the gay death penalty law was delivered to Parliament – spurring a global news story and enough pressure to block the bill for months. When a tabloid newspaper published 100 names, pictures and addresses, of suspected gays and those identified were threatened, Avaaz supported a legal case against the paper and we won! Together we have stood up, time and time again, for Uganda’s gay community -- now they need us more than ever.

With hope and determination,

Emma, Iain, Alice, Luis, Ricken, Joseph, Michelle and the whole Avaaz team

MORE INFORMATION

Kadaga wants anti-gay Bill tabled (Daily Monitor)
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Kadaga-wants-anti-gay-Bill-tabled/-/688334/1621218/-/j0h230z/-/index.html

Ugandan Parliament to debate anti-gay bill (AFP)
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/15453168/ugandan-parliament-to-debate-anti-gay-bill/

Order paper Tuesday 20th November 2012 (Parliament of Uganda)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/114102346/PARLIAMENT-OF-UGANDA-Order-paper-Tuesday-20th-November-2012

Pulling Out All the Stops to Push an Antigay Bill (New York Times)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/14/world/africa/14uganda.html

Support the Avaaz Community!
We're entirely funded by donations and receive no money from governments or corporations. Our dedicated team ensures even the smallest contributions go a long way.

Avaaz.org is a 16-million-person global campaign networkthat works to ensure that the views and values of the world's people shape global decision-making. ("Avaaz" means "voice" or "song" in many languages.) Avaaz members live in every nation of the world; our team is spread across 19 countries on 6 continents and operates in 14 languages. Learn about some of Avaaz's biggest campaigns here, or follow us on Facebook or Twitter.

Eric and Sye... Only in it for the Money

Eric Hovind and Sye Ten Bruggencate are two of the leading proponents of Presuppositional Apologetics today.

But are they genuine True Christians fighting for the advancement of the truth of their particular brand of religion or are they just in it for the Money.

Get Eric's DVD Beginnings:

Exploring Biblical Creation

$24.95

Do they sincerely believe the religious propaganda they promote or have they hit on a good way to make money from their Blogs, Websites, Podcasts, Affiliate Advertising, TV Shows, DVDs, Guest Appearances, On-Line Stores, and a multi million dollar Merchandising organization?

Eric and his recently acquired side-kick, Sye often use the fallacious argument that you can't know anything unless you know everything (or have an imaginary friend that knows everything). They live in a simplistic binary fantasy world where everything has to be absolute... All or nothing. Everything has to be 100% absolute objective fact or it can have no value whatsoever.

Well, there is one thing I believe to be an absolute objective Fact.... Eric and Sye are not REAL Christians. That's just a front. They are in this for the money. And I can demonstrate this using only their own brand of religion.

I'm told by self identified Christians "it's easy to tell who the REAL Christians are".

The real ones are the ones who faithfully follow the words of Jesus Christ. I have met many Christians who behave as though they alone are able to correctly determine the word of God. You probably know the kind of guy I mean. fanatically devout, 100% certain of their own interpretation, unable to even consider that they may be wrong and they're very loud and prolific in their evangelising.

Jesus said:-

Matt 7:15. "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves."
Matt. 24:23-24. "Then if any man shall say to you Lo, here is the Christ, or, Here, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christ's and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the very elect".

In John we read

1John 4:1. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but prove the spirits, whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

These are indeed wise words from the Bible. They're a warning that there are many who tell you they know Christ but will be lying.

So how do I determine if Eric and Sye are false prophets or real Christians?

Many Christians will say that only about 10% of people claiming to be Christians are the real thing. If I just pick any Christian and accept their interpretation of scripture, I have a 90% chance of picking a false prophet who will lead me directly to Hell.

The Bible confirms this when it states:-

Matt 7:13. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide [is] the gate, and broad [is] the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

As I mentioned, In John, it clearly states that I should not believe all these claims of Christians, I must test them to see which ones are really from God. If I am to be saved, It is imperative that I ascertain which Christians are the real thing. If I am to listen to the Truth then I owe it to myself to hear it from a True Christian and not some Hell bound false Christian who's primary interest is financial gain.

Jesus has made very clear the terrible consequences of following the Serpent and his followers. So it is doubly critical that I weed out the False Prophets.

The Bible says in Matthew 7:22-23 that God will reject these self proclaimed believers who were only in it for themselves.

Wise words again from the Bible.

It is a Biblical fact that many who profess to be Christians will be judged false.

In order to get the authoritative answer about Christianity, there is only one source: Jesus Christ. Not the Pope, Not Billy Graham, Not the Arch Bishop of Canterbury, not Eric Hovind and not your own Priest or Pastor or Vicar. Jesus Christ is THE Authority.

If Christianity is the Truth, then the only way to sift through all the different dogmas, denominations, creeds and doctrines is with the guidance of the founder himself.

The word of self proclaimed Christians can't be trusted here because we know most of them are FALSE CHRISTIANS.

For my proof that Eric and Sye are false Christians, in it for themselves, a money making scheme, I'll "Presuppose" that Eric and Sye are correct and that the New Testament is true and reliable.

If they don't accept that the New Testament is the inspired word of God, not necessarily the literal inerrant word of God but a collection of scriptures, inspired by God that represent God's requirements, his new covenant to mankind, the instruction book for salvation...... then the proof ends here and I win by default. You can't reject the Truth of the Bible and still claim to be a Christian.

Jesus expects a certain behaviour from people who profess to be his followers. It doesn't matter what denomination you are or what church you go to, you are expected to conform to the will of Christ. If Jesus says you must love him, could you honestly claim to be a true follower of Christ if you actually hated him. Obviously not.

If Jesus says you must repent of your sins if you want to be saved, would it be Ok to ignore this instruction and boast of your sins instead? Would you consider yourself a true follower of Christ if you deliberately and knowingly ignored Christ's instructions... if you were fully aware of his instructions and chose to do the opposite? Obviously not.

Most Christians are just fair weather Christian? They're happy to follow the words of Christ so long as it isn't inconvenient to their lifestyle. They're just interested in the warm comfortable feeling of belonging to a big loving brotherhood of like-minded people, plenty of fellowship, happy-clappy brothers and sisters all congratulating each other on the wonderful knowledge that they're Saved?

Many are all talk, professing their devotion to Christ while being selective about the commitments and sacrifices they're are willing to make. They come up with excuses as to why they don't adhere to the more difficult requirements? They want all the rewards without any of the hard work and commitment?

However...

Some are genuine and actually try to follow the words of Christ as best they can. They strive to follow his example and his instructions no matter how difficult or uncomfortable? They accept his word in it's entirety without question? This is the difficult narrow way of Matt 7:14. This is the path that leads to salvation.

Luckily for us, Jesus also provided clear tests for us to make sure about whom we are dealing with. Jesus did not lay down volumes of specific demands for his followers, but those he did mention can be readily used. For example:

Matt. 5:39-42. But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

Luke 6:30. Give to everyone that asketh thee; and from him that taketh away thy goods ask not again.

Luke 6:34-35. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do them good, and lend never despairing; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be Sons of the Most High: for he is kind toward the unthankful and evil.

This is the crunch:- I need to see if Eric and Sye really do accept the word of Jesus Christ. talk the talk AND walk the walk as specified in Galatians 5:25 If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.

Jesus said in Luke 6:30 "Give to everyone that asketh thee". No provisos or exceptions are stated or implied. In fact Jesus says you must give more than is asked and you must give to the unthankful and the evil.

The wisdom in this one statement is astounding.

He knows exactly how the recognise his true followers and how to recognise the hypocrits.

Giving to the needy is easy. Everyone likes to do that, it makes them feel better about themselves. It lessens their feelings of guilt, it makes them feel charitable and more virtuous, more pious. It gives them a feeling of higher morality, it makes them look good amongst their peers. But Jesus showed great wisdom... He wanted to see if they would still follow his instructions to 'give' when it didn't feel quite so good.

Would YOU still give if you were giving to people you don't know or don't approve of.

If the giving didn't bring you the same personal pleasure, would you give simply because Jesus instructs you to or would you now try to find excuses not to give.

This was the test set by Jesus to weed out the people who give but only for selfish reasons. However, If someone gives for no other reason than their commitment to the word of Jesus Christ, we have found a REAL Christian.

Someone who professes to be a real Christian but will not "give" as Jesus instructed is a FALSE CHRISTIAN. We already know that you can not deliberately and knowingly reject the words of Christ and call yourself a Christian.

You may buy yourself brownie points and public acclaim by giving to your church or your favorite charity. This is the wide easy path that leads to destruction.

The narrow path that leads to salvation is difficult and uncomfortable. Only a few will find it. It's a difficult path to follow because you must make a choice between your material possessions and your commitment to Christ.

The vast majority of Christians will always choose their material possessions first, Brownie points second and their commitment to Christ last.

So, I'm asking Eric send me $250,000.

Obviously the False Christians who do not follow the word of Jesus will not send anything contrary Christ's instructions. They will do the opposite of what Jesus says. Jesus says "Give to everyone that asks", I know for a fact that Eric will choose NOT to give, because doing as Jesus says has now started to become a little uncomfortable. Following Jesus is now inconvenient. It interferes with those money making schemes.

If Eric and Sye commit to the word of Christ they may not be able to get that new car or that holiday they've been promising themselves.

What do you think they'll choose, Money or Jesus Christ?

I know for an absolute fact they'll start to look for scriptures that will excuse them from having to do as Jesus says.

They will quote the writings of John and Paul even though they say Jesus is the ultimate authority.

They'll quote passages where Jesus says you also have to give to other groups of people and claim this cancels the other requirements to give.

But this isn't so, just because you pay your sales tax, doesn't excuse you from paying your income tax.

The one thing a false Christian can never do is give away their material possessions. When a Fake Christian is asked to decide between their obedience to Christ and their love of material possessions, material possessions win every time.

I know lots of you are saying "Hey, this guy is doing a scam".

But a scam requires a deception a trick. Whereas I am being 100% honest. I'm not selling anything, I'm not promising anything. There is nothing in this for them at all other than to see if they are willing to follow the words of Jesus Christ even when those words start to get a little uncomfortable and inconvenient.

They may also discover what's more important to them, Their material possessions or their salvation through Jesus Christ. Clearly, if they choose the material possessions, it's a damn good indicator they don't actually believe in any eternal salvation.

Jesus said in Luke 6:30 "Give to everyone that asketh thee"... I am asking....

Eric and Sye like to make the accusation that you can be wrong about everything you know. Clearly this is not so, I know for a fact that Eric and Sye will always chose their material possessions in favour of their commitment to Jesus Christ.

I know for sure they will either fail to respond or start making excuses and quoting out of context scriptures.

If they do put their money where their mouth is they will have proved me wrong, I'll even go to church every Sunday for a year.

If they chose to ignore the instructions of Jesus Christ and spit in his face, they will have proved me right.

Therefore by their fruits shall you know them.

Sye is probably not a wealth man so I'm only asking him for $25,000

Note:- This challenge is based on my $1000 True Christian Challenge first posted in 2001 and is still open to any self proclaimed Christian.

Let the excuses begin.....

Skepticule Extra Podcast #30

Labels: Podcast, Skepticule

Skepticule Extra Podcast #30

Play Now

The Skepticule Extra Podcast #30 is out NOW.Featuring a Deconstruction of the Debate by Dr. Hugh Ross and Prof. Lewis Wolpert - (Is there a case for a cosmic creator). Exposing the deliberate dishonesty of Creationists.
Also, a day out at Bletchley Park to celebrate Alan Turing's Birthday.

SkepExtra-030-20120701

Skepticule Extra shownotes for episode 030 20120701

This is the thirtieth episode of Skepticule Extra — otherwise known as the podcast of the Pauline Triad.

Paul Baird
Patient and Persistent
http://patientandpersistent.blogspot.com

Paul Thompson ("Sinbad")
The Skeptical Probe
http://skepticalprobe.blogspot.com/

Paul S. Jenkins
Notes from an Evil Burnee
http://www.evilburnee.co.uk

Send feedback to feedback@skepticule.co.uk, write a review oniTunes or post a comment below. There is also a Skepticule Extra Forum for further discussion of topics covered in the show (plus other topics). Follow the link to try out the forum. Skepticule Extra is a production of Willowsoft Communications

Skepticule Extra is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Direct download:http://traffic.libsyn.com/revup/SkepExtra-030-20120701.mp3

The Magnificent Temple of Solomon

Solomon's Temple was a magnificent structure.

The Bible tells us that Solomon employed 30,000 people to build the temple in 3 shifts of 10,000 at a time. There was a staggering 80,000 people quarrying stone to build the temple. Yet another 70,000 people were employed just to transport the stone from the quarry to the building site. Solomon employed another 3,300 supervisors to oversee the work. That's a total of 183,300 people working for 7 years.. yes 7 years to build the magnificent temple of Solomon.

The temple was about 9 meters wide (10 yards).... Just a minute... that's smaller than my house. It was 27 meters long (30 yards) ... Err... That's a little bigger than my house, but smaller if I include the garage.

The rooms in the ground floor of the surrounding annexe building were 2.2 meters wide, that's barely enough room to lie down. You could fit a king sized bed in there but there would be no room to get out of the side of the bed.

The front porch was only about 4.5 meters long, so its not quite long enough to keep my BMW in the shade.

So, it took 183,000 men 7 years to build a temple less than half the size of your average McDonalds. Exactly what were 80,000 people doing in the quarry for 7 years? Perhaps they had really bad union problems. Perhaps Solomon, his project managers and the supervisors (all 3,300 of them) were just utterly incompetent. Perhaps it's not true. Perhaps the Bible writers just made the whole thing up without paying any attention to the practical reality of what they were writing?

The Bible tells us of the supplies used by this massive workforce. The total volume of all the olive oil consumed by the workers is more than twice the total volume of the temple they were building.

If you assume the olive oil was stored in rounded pots and the pots were piled up in one place, They would be over 4 times the size of the temple.

Perhaps, if they had built the Temple from the empty olive oil pots it would have been a far more impressive building and taken 20 men about a week to build?

If we assume the 30,000 construction workers on the actual construction site were split into 3 shifts of 10,000. If we then assume that we squash all those workers onto the site shoulder to shoulder with only enough room to sit touching another worker on all 4 sides with no spaces for paths to move stone or go to the toilet, that gives us a square of about 2 ft for each of the 10,000 workers on each shift. The workers would have to be placed in 100 rows of 100 workers which occupies a square of 200 ft by 200 ft.

We know that the inner temple was only about 35ft wide. Even if you include all the side chambers, the 10,000 workers could not physically fit onto the site while sitting side by side with no spaces. If you then start to account for the space for the 70,000 men transporting stone, all the supervisors and of course the space for the building they were constructing for 7 years, the absurdity becomes apparent.

Now to go on to the shift workers cutting wood in Lebanon:-
10,000 men working for 313 days a year (Sabbath off). Lets suppose one man cuts down and prepares only one tree a day. that's 3,130,000 trees a year for 7 years which is about 22 million trees to build something the size of a McDonnalds????

It gets more absurd. If you get four 6x6 beams 20 feet long from a single cedar tree. The total number of beams laid end to end would stretch for 333 thousand miles. that's 14 times around the earth.
If you used only the Cedar beams to build the temple as per the stated dimensions it would be 700 miles high.

The bible states exactly how small the Temple was. The magnificent Solomon's Temple was smaller that the smallest church I have ever been in.

Most of you ladies here will know what was going on here. When a self absorbed guy claims it's huge, When you get to see it, the reality is that its usually disappointingly small.

Pareidolia and Tricks of the Mind

This is an aerial view of a geological feature to the east of Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada known as the Badlands Guardian. It clearly resembles a human head possibly wearing some form of traditional head dress.
The feature that resembles ear-buds is a service road leading to a small oil well.

Incidentally, The feature is actually concaved, (it is an erosion valley), however, it looks convex because our brain instantly recognise a configuration that closely resembles a human face. The pattern matching ability of our brain is converting this random geological feature into a face, makes it look convex and calls upon cultural references to give us the perception it is listening to an iPod.

View Larger Map

This picture is a bust of the Mayan King Pacal. Compare this with the image above.

If Erich von Däniken had seen these two images together, he would have had a cow.

Our ability to recognise patterns and to cross reference them to things that are familiar to us is a fundamental function of the brain. All animals that can see also make sense of the world around them by pattern matching.
The brain isn't perfect and often makes mistakes. It often mis-interprets visual cues and gives us false positives. This explains why a child sees monsters and ghosts in their bedroom when the light has been turned out and the moon is casing unfamiliar shadows. The brain goes into overdrive trying to make sense of what it sees... and the brain is excellent at recognising faces in random imagery.

The people in this picture are mostly Catholic and their brains have been fooled into seeing an image of the Virgin Mary in the interference pattern caused by the anti-UV film on this office window in Clearwater Florida.

They have linked the pattern they see in the window to the very strong cultural reference of their belief in the Virgin Mary as depicted in orthodox religious art.

The connection is so strong that they can not differentiate between reality and optical illusion. To them, this is a real supernatural event, Mary is somehow present and many have come to worship her.

Likewise, Christians can easily recognise a Pareidolia image of Jesus Christ in this dog's butt.

Had this image been manifest in a waterfall or a Butterfly wing, no doubt Christians would be flocking to worship it, However, the cultural significance of a dog's asshole is enough to override the cultural significance of an apparent image of Jesus Christ and they will recognise it for what it is, a trick of the mind.

Cultural references and familiar imagery plays a key role in how our brain matches the image we see to how we interpret that image.

In the image below, almost all adults will immediately see two lovers but to a young child, they will only see dolphins. In fact an adult will need to look carefully just to see the dolphins.

Inside the Catholic Church - A short documentary

Skepticule Extra Podcast #36

SkepExtra-036-20121104

Hours to stop Uganda's horrific anti-gay law

Eric and Sye... Only in it for the Money

Skepticule Extra Podcast #30

Skepticule Extra Podcast #30

The Magnificent Temple of Solomon

Pareidolia and Tricks of the Mind

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