Sperm are Not Intelligently Designed

It semens to me that the Intelligent Design advocates have some explaining to do.  If God made man and woman specially to procreate, then only one sperm should be necessary.  That little guy would hit its target as Adam was made in the image of God and God is perfect.  (Are you picturing God’s penis right now?)  But in reality, 300 million spermatozoa shoot off with every ejaculation, give or take a few million.  I wonder if there are any Christians who cry over all that wasted life?  Richard Dawkins even mentions our excessive production:  “We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?”   

Vaccines - what is not in them!

I recently got into a discussion with an anti-vaccination Christian, and the ending was not pretty, as she was offended by my facts.  However, it always means I learn something while I quickly look up information to counter the emotional anti-medicine, anti-doctor, anti-science, anti-sense sensationalism.
So here is the low down on mercury, taken largely from the source below my writing:

Which is in your vaccines, ethylmercury or methylmercury?  Do you know the difference and do you know the answer?  The answer in most cases is neither.  There are trace amounts of ethylmercury in some flu vaccines and a trace amount in some DTaP vaccines although mercury free options are available, and there are more formulations that are mercury free.  Although I am just beginning to learn about this subject, it seems to me that the normal vaccines given to children are mercury free.

If there are trace amounts of mercury in a shot, ethylmercury does not build up in the system like methylmercury does and methylmercury is never used in vaccines.  Where do we find methylmercury?  In the fish people consume where it accumulates and is concentrated.  I should make a meme with people stuffing their mouths with fish while discussing the dangers of mercury supposedly in vaccines!

There is a chart at the end of the article I attached which shows all the vaccines with no mercury at all and the ones with trace amounts.  (Ethylmercury is a preservative and improves effectiveness of the vaccine.) Although I err on the side of caution and I do not take flu vaccines because I haven’t been sick at all in years, the scientists have done extensive safety studies.  I doubt anyone here has had 1000 times the proper dose, which would cause side effects and does in the tests they have performed!  Even then, there is no link to autism and never has been any link to autism.

If you need to be protected from getting meningitis, you may have to have a vaccine with a little ethylmercury.  I am sure you will be happy to take the risk as meningitis itself causes severe brain injury.
So any time you see a person talking about how dangerous vaccines are and pointing to them containing mercury, you have a handy chart showing that most likely the vaccines they are talking about have no mercury at all; and if they did themselves have a shot containing ethylmercury (in the form of Thimerosal) as a child in the "old days," any ethylmercury has long since left their bodies.


 http://www.fda.gov/BiologicsBloodVaccines/SafetyAvailability/VaccineSafety/UCM096228

Having Fun with The Flat Earth Society!

This is about The Flat Earth Society's beliefs, but see if you can pick up my views about Christianity in general from reading this article. 
I found a drawing of a Flat earth as believed by The Flat Earth Society. The Flat Earthers take the Bible literally and actually believe what is said in the Bible about the earth, i.e., the earth is a circle, spread out, and people can go to the ends of the earth.  Nowhere does it say or imply “sphere” in the Bible, by the way. There is a dome like the Superdome above, and some believe the earth is held up by pillars as it mentions the pillars in a few places in the Bible such as Job, and a rectangular shape is mentioned in the Bible so that is thrown in as well.  The composite looks like this picture!

If the Flat Earthers think differently, they believe they will not be a Christian - and they think all other Christians who believe in a round earth are not true Christians. This is how a religion takes over and pushes logic and common sense off the edge of the earth! : )I can certainly understand how people believed the earth was flat in ancient times, since the people did not have cars or planes to travel and lived in generally flat lands.  But with our satellite pictures, detailed maps of the universe, and pictures our astronauts took, there is no rational reason for anyone to believe in a flat earth.  Think about it: these people have to deny maps, the core of the earth and all the rock layers, the distance of the galaxies, our travels to the moon and all the measurements.  If everyone were to become Flat Earthers, what would happen to space discovery or progress in geography, geology, cosmology or any science?  The Flat Earthers look at a story in Joshua and came up with their belief that the sun and the moon are ten miles apart!  Anyone see a problem with the sun being 10 miles from the moon?  The Flat Earth Society originated in Illinois.  We can be so proud.

I would say the Flat Earthers are entitled to their beliefs, but they should not discount scientists and cannot with any sense of rationality expect for us to “teach the controversy” as if this is a valid “theory.”  There are those who teach their children the earth looks like this picture.  It limits those kids’ abilities to appreciate what we actually have discovered.  Hopefully, we will not see them running for offices of the United States, getting on School Boards so their “science" can get pushed through instead of going through rigorous tests and Peer Review the way real science does, and the worst case scenario would be if one of them were appointed to the National Science Committee.  But we are too rational for that, aren't we?

Picture drawn by Mr. Kari A. Tikkamen

The New Pope and His Irrelevant Opinion about Atheists

I had to laugh at Pope Francis' proclamation that atheists will go to Heaven if they do good while on earth.  This is almost humanistic in thought, and I have heard Unitarians with this philosophy!  It’s quite amusing, since most atheists not only do not think any Heaven exists, but also do not like the idea that Heaven is an exclusive country club when others warrant eternity in Hell due to their circumstances during life.  It’s just too small minded.  It's like watching a child's mind develop when watching Christians slowly change their views to become more accepting.

What it should show to Catholics and other Christians is that this pope just gave his opinion, just as other popes gave their opinions on subjects and that these are not “words directly from God through the popes,”  as each one says something different when he gets into his position as pope.    

Where Do Meat Eaters Get Their B12?

People are still warning us vegans, "You might have difficulty getting all your nutrients - like B12."  They ask us where we get our B12, and our responses vary from "I don't really worry about it," to "I get it from eating dirty vegetables."  Both of those answers are more rare, because the usual answer is more measured; after all, we are careful to get our nutrition.  So most of us list off our special great quality nutritional yeast, fortified soy milks, fortified cereals, supplements, etc. as our sources of B12, and then the meat eaters say, "Oh, that's not natural; you aren't getting your B12 from regular foods."

I have to wonder, do the meat eaters know where they get their B12? 

Sure, they get it from meat, but how did it get in the meat? 

If the animals are allowed to graze, the animals will get their B12 from the dirt, just like the vegans who do not wash their vegetables.  If the animals are factory farmed, they get their B12 from supplements added to their food. 

What?!!!  The meat eaters are eating supplemented B12 by way of an animal's flesh.  Second-hand B12!  That sounds rather putrid.  Further, they have no idea whether they are getting a small amount of B12, none at all (what if the animals did not consume or absorb the B12), or way too much B12?  Chances are, they do not get very much, as vegans often have more B12 in their systems than meat eaters.  That is probably because we do not go through an animal to get our nutrients.

I just found this information enlightening and rather amusing and thought I would share.

What Happened To All the Drawings Today?

Very few people participated in Draw Mohammed Day this year.  It did not get the advanced publicity as it has in years past, and honestly, I think there was too much atheist infighting:  their minds were not on getting rid of harmful religions, but instead their minds were on insulting each other.  I hope it stops soon and they get back to making good videos. 

I am encouraged that I see Thunderf00t with a scientific explosion post on Facebook and a Draw Mohammed Day video.  I think he is taking the hint from his friends that we him to do what he does best!  Hopefully if he no longer responds to his antagonizers, they will stop. 

Anyway, I hope they "resurrect" Draw Mohammed Day next year and have more participants! 

The Damaging Dutiful Christian View

I was listening to some gospel singer on television today who spoke to the audience in the middle of her song.  “Listen,” she said, “It’s been getting hotter here in Atlanta, every year.  We don’t have winters anymore. Something is wrong! “

Here would be a good time for her to talk about global warming a/k/a climate change, and what can be done to slow the process.  But instead, she continued:

“We’ve got to change!!!  We’ve got to change!!!  And without telling the audience what they needed to change, she sang for the next ten minutes.  But even I know she had no intention of addressing the issue of climate change, but was talking about how all people must come to God and take Jesus as their savior.  Of course, her entire audience nodded throughout the song, mechanically agreeing, as they agree with every single thing any preacher says. The duty of these Christians is to believe that God will continue to punish those “made in his image” for their wicked ways. 

So what are these important themes that Christians feel should be changed, besides simply becoming a Christian?  Number one on their list is actually a tie:  1. Give birth to every single fetus, and 2. Only let penises go into vaginas.  Apparently, fixing the two “abominable sins” called abortion and homosexuality will end global warming, tsunamis, droughts, forest fires and tornados.  Less important issues on their list include card playing, movie going, and crossing your legs while dancing, but these will cause hurricanes and earthquakes as well. 

Given our present population at 7 billion and the fact that there are more pressing issues than where someone puts his penis in the privacy of his bedroom, I feel a very strong calling to take Christianity down.  This calling is not coming from God, but from rationality.  We cannot count on religious people to protect our earth.  They are too busy checking vaginas and penises.