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dunning-kruger effect…

03 Sep 2009 by admin

i was stumbling on the internet this morning and stumbled across this entry on wikipedia. after reading the first paragraph (below) i was amazed that there was actually a term to describe fox news and far right commentators! it almost (almost, but not) makes me feel bad for the righties. maybe it’s not o’leilly’s fault that he has a hyper-inflated ego. he can’t help it! this can also be applied quite accurately to creationists and evangelicals and their feeling of superiority over atheists.

“the dunning–kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which ‘people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it’. they therefore suffer an illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average. this leads to a perverse result where less competent people will rate their own ability higher than relatively more competent people. it also explains why actual competence may weaken self-confidence because competent individuals falsely assume that others have an equivalent understanding. “thus, the miscalibration of the incompetent stems from an error about the self, whereas the miscalibration of the highly competent stems from an error about others.”

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Dunning-Kruger_effect

1. Incompetent individuals tend to overestimate their own level of skill. (george bush, glenn beck, michelle malkin, ann coulter)

2. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize genuine skill in others. (again, all of the above and i guess you could include most of the republican congress)

3. Incompetent individuals fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy. (this one perfect describes the bush administration. pretty much totally incompetent from beginning to end.)

4. If they can be trained to substantially improve their own skill level, these individuals can recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill. (i think we would be dreaming to think that any of these people named above could be trained.)

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atheism and evangelism…

02 Sep 2009 by admin

after reading this blog post, i’m hopeful and even more firm in my atheist convictions.

perhaps some newly converted atheists are there simply because it’s easier than having to attend church every sunday but i think the majority are there because they have been enlightened. they have learned to look past the dogma and fear and see that reason and logic work.

the argument in this blog is that because of the evangelical fervor and that groups lack of listening skills they are ‘allowing’ the young believers to fall away. as the author says ‘it’s just more fun to have a drink with the non-religious crew.’ i would agree that it’s more fun but it’s also less judgmental, more welcoming and more intellectual.

the author states that atheism is….just easier. (occam’s razor) he thinks the new atheist will ’start thinking more about his friend who recently left his youth group and stop believing anything except the joys of rock climbing.’ he couldn’t be more wrong!

atheism is hard, very hard, especially in today’s climate in the united states. bush brought back a strong evangelical front and encouraged even more discrimination against atheists. he encouraged the fight against the separation of church and state. he even brought religion into our government. how do atheists fight against that? it’s a difficult task but one that we undertake every day.

i’ve seen several blog comments regarding supposed former atheists returning to the church. i don’t believe they were ever atheists then. maybe agnostics but certainly not atheists. a lack of belief in any god is a serious choice and one not undertaken lightly. once you have accepted reason and logic over dogma and fear, if you are a true atheistic, you don’t fall back into the black abyss of religion.

so i will agree with the blogger in stating that the actions of today’s evangelicals are helping to drive their young away from the church. i will wait to see if these young are truly being driven to atheism or just away from the church. i welcome them all if they become non-believers and will continue to wish good thoughts for them if they fall back into the church.

i am far from being eloquent in my blogs but i’m sad when i see the believers trying to belittle atheists by saying newly converted atheists are only there because the church was ‘nice’ enough or was too activist. i give these new converts credit for embracing intellect.

i hope that christians will try to relate to atheists simply by allowing us our views and by not restricting our freedom from religion. when an atheist fights to remove prayer from school or the ten commandments from a government building, it is not to take something away from a christian but to provide a neutral forum that will be inclusive for all beliefs or non beliefs.

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still more things atheists didn’t do……

25 Aug 2009 by admin

i first saw this list on http://www.davehitt.com/blog2/still-more-things-atheists-didnt-do/ and i think it’s amazing! it really brings to light the ridiculous behavior of religious people.

Still More Things Atheists Didn’t Do

By Dave Hitt on Jun 26, 2009 in Featured, Things Atheists Didn’t Do

This is another installment in our continuing series of Things Atheists Didn’t Do.

A pedophile priest, not an atheist, claimed he was only giving his victim anatomy lessons.

Muslims in Pakistan stoned a Christian man to death. His crime? Drinking tea at a roadside stall that was designated for Muslims only.

When a Christian church that tortured a gay teen via an exorcism to rid him of his faggy demon was criticized for their stupidity, Dr Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission slammed the critics, accusing them of intolerance.

An Oregon couple let their 15 month child die of pneumonia, refusing medical treatment and praying for her instead. If her parents had been atheists she would be alive right now.

A orthodox Jewish couple are suing their neighbors, claiming that an automatic hall light, which is triggered by people entering the hall, imprisons them in their apartment. This, they claim, prevents them from leaving on the Sabbath. If they were atheists instead of idiots they could leave whenever they want.

Eight people drowned a 22 year old mother of two trying to lift a curse from her. She would have been much better off with atheist friends.

An Islamic woman starved one of her children to death, after torturing her, because she thought she was possessed. Her other five children were seriously malnourished. Too bad her mother wasn’t an atheist.

By Fr. Alphonse de Valk has declared that Atheism is a threat to civilization. If he were an atheist he’d be smarter than that. Not to be outdone, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor has declared that atheists are not fully human.

Opening a dialog between religions may not be a good idea. Ernest McCullough, a Christan, got into an argument about religion with a Muslim, who ended the debate by shooting him in the leg.

In Maryland, a woman starved her son to death because he wouldn’t say Amen. She’s expecting him to be resurrected. That hasn’t happened so far. Yet another child who would have been much better off with atheist parents.

In India at least 50 people went blind staring into the sun looking for an image of the Virgin Mary. Atheists are never blinded by the light.

When woman with an atheist boyfriend asked Pat Robertson for advice about finding a middle ground with her atheist boyfriend, Pat told her to break up with him because he’s “serving the devil.”

In India a “Hindu Taliban” is attacking woman for drinking in bars and dressing inappropriately, including those wearing bathing suits at the beach and t-shirts with pictures of their deities on them. There are no reports of atheists beating up women over religion.

In Afghanistan a Mullah who spoke out against suicide attacks was murdered by other members of his religion of peace.

In Russia two Jehovah’s Witnesses went on a murder spree killing 13 people to rid the world of sin. (They should have just become vampires.)

In India two seven year old girls were married to frogs to prevent the disease outbreaks in the village. Atheists don’t advocate girl-frog marriage.

A pretty sixteen year old girl was stabbed to death by her Muslim brother for listening to rock and roll and wearing makup. He stabbed her 26 times. He was preserving the family honor.

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can atheists be parents…

24 Aug 2009 by admin

it really makes me wonder how far we’ve come and how far we’ve fallen back when i read an article of this sort:

After six years of childless marriage, John and Cynthia Burke of Newark decided to adopt a baby boy through a state agency. Since the Burkes were young, scandal-free and solvent, they had no trouble with the New Jersey Bureau of Children’s Services—until investigators came to the line on the application that asked for the couple’s religious affiliation.

John Burke, an atheist, and his wife, a pantheist, had left the line blank. As a result, the bureau denied the Burkes’ application. After the couple began court action, however, the bureau changed its regulations, and the couple was able to adopt a baby boy from the Children’s Aid and Adoption Society in East Orange.

Last year the Burkes presented their adopted son, David, now 3 1/2, with a baby sister, Eleanor Katherine, now 17 months, whom they acquired from the same East Orange agency. Since the agency endorsed the adoption, the required final approval by a judge was expected to be pro forma. Instead, Superior Court Judge William Camarata raised the religious issue.

Inestimable Privilege. In an extraordinary decision, Judge Camarata denied the Burkes’ right to the child because of their lack of belief in a Supreme Being. Despite the Burkes’ “high moral and ethical standards,” he said, the New Jersey state constitution declares that “no person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience.” Despite Eleanor Katherine’s tender years, he continued, “the child should have the freedom to worship as she sees fit, and not be influenced by prospective parents who do not believe in a Supreme Being.”

The Burkes are now living in Carterville, Ill., near Southern Illinois University, where John Burke has worked for the past year as a speech pathologist. Nevertheless, Judge Camarata ordered the parents to send David’s sister back to the New Jersey adoption agency. Two weeks ago, aided by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Burkes appealed directly to the New Jersey Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. If they fail in their appeal, Eleanor Katherine may have to leave the only family she has ever known and await adoption by another couple whose religious convictions satisfy the State of New Jersey.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877155,00.html?iid=digg_share

i think that under the bush regime, so many freedoms and rights were curtailed or removed completely. we reverted to a puritan type government. i won’t go into the whole separation of church and state argument again….it’s old news and well known.

but…and it’s a huge but…how on earth in the year 2009 can a judge possibly rule against someone for their belief system or lack thereof. the court has no business interferring with this sort of thing.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,877155,00.html?iid=digg_share

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serious atheists only…

26 Apr 2009 by admin

there is a blog that i have recently started following (walls and gates) after having met the author’s wife through our kids’ school here in zagreb.  i knew what i was getting into when i started reading it (they are evangelist missionaries) and it’s been interesting to read his point of view on life.

one recent post was about atheists and his lament that he has no “serious” atheists to work with.  he says that “the atheists that he knows could care less and have typically not even thought about why they are an atheist – they don’t really know, but it is the best thing to be in their culture”. i’m sure many christians don’t give it another thought either. ( i know i didn’t for years. then i started to think about it and that’s when i began to see the “light”. ) most folks tend to go along with the beliefs they are taught from childhood but a few of us break away and do our own thing.

the first thing that came to mind was – what atheists has he been working with and what work does he need to do with them (other than trying to convert them)?

i feel very strongly about my atheism.  the issue i have with opponents of atheism is the fact that they constantly try to attach some sort of belief system to atheists or to call atheism a religion.  by definition, an atheist is a person who believes that god does not exist.  there is no doctrine, belief system, code or dogma that belongs to atheism.   however, many atheists do have systems of belief that can go hand in hand with atheism. for instance: i’m an atheist but i’m also a secular humanist.

i do hope that my fellow blogger is able to find a serious atheist with whom to debate, question, attempt to convert or whatever it is that he is after because after all, as he says,there is a blessing in having people seriously consider truth, even when they come to different conclusions.

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