a hot indian girl in a sari - no connection to the article but very easy on the eyes♪

But let’s face it.  There’s not much activity here except my own.  lol.  And as I stated before, I don’t know much about India except that I love the food.  So bringing up this next story is probably not gonna bring me much more activity.  But anyways, it might be interesting for anyone who read my post about organ donation and reincarnation.

Anyhoo, the other day I heard that DNA evidence supports a claim that India’s caste system is thousands of years old despite an allegedly popular view that the caste system was propagated by colonial system of the British Empire.

Anyways, I don’t have much to comment on this, so I’m just gonna float that one out there for the time being until I know enough about the situation to comment on it myself.

So, here’s the link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/6224560/Indias-caste-system-is-thousands-of-years-old-DNA-shows.html

At first I thought, “well, most Christians I know would say that hell is not literally a lake of fire where you’ll be burned with literal fire.  And any Biblical description of hell is not meant to be taken literally because in reality it’s something we puny humans could never comprehend until after we die.”  Which just sounds like they’re making things up.

Well, in fact, they are making things up.

As it turns out, the Bible is contradictory on the issue of hell, and on the afterlife in general.  Some passages hint at sinners being tormented for eternity, while others indicate that sinners are simply denied an afterlife (annihilation theory).  And guess what?  There are yet other passages which claim that everybody goes to heaven.  Woo-hoo!

The video offered one reason rational people using science can’t believe in hellfire.  But I think that the contradictory nature of the Bible itself leaves Christian theologians just grasping at straws when it comes to the issue of hell.  They actually have to make things up to to legitimize their belief or disbelief in hell.

That said, I always liked this picture from Dante’s Inferno:

Farinata degli Uberti addresses Dante

Hell definitely makes great subject matter for some great art!

If you’ve been keeping up with the big atheist blogs out there, you’ve probably heard about Ray Comfort and his lap dog, Kirk Cameron’s, plan to distribute copies of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” with a 50 page introduction to convince people that the Theory of Evolution by natural selection is false.  And not just false, but leads to misogyny and genocide.

Oh, and they also complain that the Theory of Evolution doesn’t explain the origins of the universe.

Whoa! Way to Teach the Controversy, dude!!!

Anyways, this YouTube user made a great pwnage video. SSSSSSNAKE!!!

Haven’t seen her other videos yet, but I subscribed. Looking forward to see what else she talks about.

http://anthropology.net/2009/09/16/neanderthal-hearths-at-el-salt-reveal-plant-and-fish-remains/

The article states that scientists

have discovered and analysed fat residues and other remains that indicate Neanderthals were not only cooking animals such as wild goat and deer, but quite possibly fish and vegetable matter too. Should the results be confirmed [it] would represent far earlier evidence for the dietary complexity of Neanderthals than those who occupied Gorham’s Cave, Gibraltar, and who were thought to have been eating mussels and dolphin around 25,000 years ago.

It seems the last Neanderthals were thought to have resorted to eating seafood as they were competing for resources with early Homo sapiens.  But since this new site predates that era by such a long span of time, it turns the existing theory on its head.

Anyways, if you have interest in the lifestyles of early humanoid species, it’s a good read – albeit not a light one.

artist's concept of a neanderthal boy

Seems that in India there is a shortage of organ donors because they believe in reincarnation.  In the discussion they mentioned that Hindus place a high value on karma – the idea that positive actions and altruism are returned cosmically.  But this belief is in opposition to the irrational concept of reincarnation.  The probablem being, if you give up that liver in this life, when you’re reincarnated as a fly or dog or human or whatever, you’ll be a fly or dog or human without a liver.  Or something along those lines.

I know very little about India — except that nothing makes me feel as good as a massive bowl of keema curry and some hot nan.  But, I wonder if there is a bit of classism going on here.  I know that India still has a lot of problems stemming from its caste system.  Though officially outlawed, we all know that old habits and old prejudices die hard.  So I wonder if elite families don’t want to donate organs which might end up in the bodies of people of lower social standing.  It’s just conjecture, but I wonder…

If I’m not mistaken, some sects of Buddhism also believe in reincarnation.  I’m curious if there’s a correlation between organ donation and belief in reincarnation here in Japan.  However, Japan is extremely secular.  In fact most people maintain their religious observances as tradition only while openly denying the existence of any deities.  Still there are those who….

reincarnation - how's that karma workin' out for ya?

I’m starting this blog to further discussions about positive atheism. anything is fair game: religion, atheism, rational thought, theocracy, etc.

i don’t claim to be out to change the world, but i just want to be one more voice out there that supports free speech, the separation of church and state. i’m not a lecturer or anything and don’t claim to be an authority on any of this. i’m just an average guy, like many other average people out there who just happen to not buy into the sham we call religion.