Missed some good things today, including the M-Atheists Meet & Greet (promise to make it tomorrow!) in favour of the baseball game and a nap. But I'm tweeting the whole thing at http://twitter.com/theonides. The horrible thing is there are some good talks that are in conflict, like Game Theory at the same time as the trip to the Allegheny Observatory! Will blog about interesting atheist/science stuff when I can. Otherwise, see the tweets!

Sorry I've been so absent lately. I have a bunch of posts to make on Bible commentary as soon as I have the time... it's on the to-do list!

Will also have to mention at some point the fact that I think I'm totally falling for a believer (even after telling everyone who asks me it can't possibly work). Life sucks. But he's brilliant, so...

Oh, that's room service!

One of my former students sent me this email:













Time For God





Read only if you have
time for God
Let me tell you, make sure you read
all the way to the bottom.
I almost deleted this email but I was blessed when I got to the end


Error! Filename not specified.









God,
when I received this
e-mail, I thought...

Error! Filename not specified.

I don't have time for this...
And, this is really
inappropriate during work.




Error! Filename not specified.








Then, I realized that this kind
of thinking is.... Exactly, what
has caused a lot of the problems
in our world today.








Error! Filename not specified.




We try to keep God in
church on Sunday morning...





Error! Filename not specified.







Maybe,
Sunday night...





Error! Filename not specified.







And, the unlikely event
o f a midweek
service.






We do like to have Him
around during sickness....







Error! Filename not specified.





And, of course,
at funerals.




Error! Filename not specified.








However, we don't have
time, or room, for Him
during work or play...













Because.. That' s the part of
our lives we think... We can,
and should, handle
on our own.


Error! Filename not specified.



May God forgive me
for ever thinking...




Error! Filename not specified.








That.... There is a time
or place where..






HE is not to be
FIRST
in my life..






Error! Filename not specified.






We should always
have time to remember
all HE has
done for us.













If, You aren't
ashamed to
do this...



Error! Filename not specified.









Please follow the
directions.






Jesus said, 'If you are
ashamed of me, I will be
ashamed of you
before my Father.'


Error! Filename not specified.



Not
ashamed?






Pass this on ONLY
IF YOU
MEAN IT!!






Error! Filename not specified.




Yes, .....

I DO
Love God.


Error! Filename not specified.



HE is my source of
existence
and Savior.



Error! Filename not specified.


He keeps me functioning
each and every day.
Without Him, I will be
nothing.
But, with Christ,
HE strengthens me.
(Phil 4:13)





This is the
simplest test.






If You Love God...
And, are not ashamed of
all the marvelous things
HE has done for you..






Send this to ten people
and the person who
sent it to you!




Now do you have the
time to pass it on?






Make sure that you
scroll
through to the end.






Easy vs. Hard






Why is it so hard to tell
the truth but Yet so
easy to tell a lie?






Why are we so sleepy
in church but Right when
the sermon is over we
suddenly wake up?






Why is it so easy to
delete a Godly e-mail,
but yet we forward
all of the nasty ones?






Of all the free gifts
we may receive,
Prayer
is the very best one......






There are no costs,
but wonderful rewards...

GOD BLESS!






Notes: Isn't it funny how
simple it is for people
to trash God and then
wonder why the
world's going to hell.






Isn't it funny how
someone can say
'I believe in God'
but still follow Satan
(who, by the way,
also 'believes'
in God).






Isn't it funny how you
can send a thousand
jokes through e-mail
and they spread like
wildfire, but when
you start sending
messages regarding
the Lord,
people think twice
about sharing?






Isn't it funny how
when you go to forward
this message, you
will not send it to many
on your address list
because you're not
sure what they believe,
or what they will think
of you for sending
it to them






Isn't it funny how I can
be more worried
about what other
people think of me
than what God
thinks of me.


Error! Filename not specified.



I pray, for everyone
who sends this to
their entire address
book, they will be blessed
by God
in a way special for them.












And send it back to the
person who sent it,

to let them know that
indeed it was sent
out to many more.











Yeah, nothing quite like a guilt trip, eh?
If I ignore it, will they go away?

Kansas abortion doctor gunned down.

Disagree with us, and we will kill you. That's the only message this sends.

Shit! It's been a month since I last posted in this blog. Sorry, loyal readers. Things have been pretty insane around here, but they should be calming down a tad in the next week or so. I still have notes on a couple books of the Bible I made on my trip to Atlanta at the end of February (shit!) and I'm gonna be driving a bit more tomorrow, so I'm gonna add to that. As soon as I catch up on those, I'll try to go back to semi-regular posting. Things have been insane and plenty to talk about really, just no time to write about it.

In summary:

One of my overly religious students last term got all huffy because she wrote a paper against gay marriage and I failed her on it because she used five logical fallacies (among other problems). She didn't submit a rough draft, so she got no feedback on it. Another student who did the same kind of thing on abortion, but who did submit a rough draft, got the same comments, and for the same reasons. She rewrote her paper, though, and I gave her an A on the rewrite.

One of my math students, though, went and said something dumb, too. It won't affect her grade, but I think she is hoping to be friends with me when the class is over. But when she says idiotic things like "atheist sounds like an animal name, like an ape, don't you think?" and doesn't believe in evolution, and when I challenged her on the atheist comment, she asked why I was offended, did I think it was because blacks were like apes... so she's a racist, too. I may have to deal with people like this while they are my students, but I certainly won't waste my time socializing with them as soon as the class is over.

Oh, and there is this guy I think I like. But it's against even my own advice to think about it because he's a believer... I know! My mom is probably glad it's not a woman, but she is worried he's a closet conservative. I don't think so. But still, what a mess.

Anyway, those are the highlights.

Got an email from a friend with a request for help rebutting climate change denial. I wanted to share the exchange with you because, well, it took a long time to write up!

( cut for length )

Apparently, none of this convinces deniers, but facts are facts. And just a word to any deniers who come across this and want to argue with my statement of the facts, don't send me to your bullshit website. You want to argue with anything, you send me a research article in a peer reviewed journal. Anything else will be dismissed out of hand.