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In other news, pirates stop global warming.

But if it's for science, I'll have another beer. :)

They can Tax-Exempt Status for Your Organization will get you pointed in the correct direction, I look forward to the latest congregation of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

See also: FSM's Open Letter To Kansas School Board

http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/

So which of Earth's many religions is the correct one with respect to the creation of the universe?

That would be The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Hey, my invisible guy doesn't want to kill me. He wants to give me beer and stripper factories. Unfortunately, he does want me to dress up like a pirate. I think that implies he wants me to go kill all the unbelievers (such as ninjas).

On a related note, I'd like to attract your attention to the statistical inverse correlation between global warming and the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. You know this implies that either global warming kills pirates, or that pirates cause a descent in global temperature - and the lack of them leads to this raising.

"Unfortunately the FSM forgot to provide us with the reference manual, ..."

It appears to me that when you involved the Flying Spaghetti Monster in this discussion you helped create exactly the right tone of seriousness that Kurzweil's statement deserves.

Maybe the nutty one is a follower of The Noodly One.

So each time I have spaghetti, I insult these people?

For vaccines, a good well-sourced overview can be found here: http://astore.amazon.com/medical-bookstore-20/detail/1881217302 [amazon.com].

Ah, yes. That cutting-edge research from 2002 with one out of three reviews on the page commenting on how biased it is. There's a good source of information.

Actually, there have been a number of studies recently looking at the association between vaccines and various illnesses/diseases/symptoms, particularly vaccines and autism. Every single one that I've seen published by a reputable scientist has found no link.

There's also an article in the Jan 2008 Skeptical Inquirer about vaccine safety (particularly regarding autism).

Lots of random charts in a book do not necessarily prove anything, except, possibly, that the shrinking number of pirates caused the rise in average global temperature. You need to have a context and know where the chart came from.

Its clearly the impression of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. See for yourself the picture and indentations match perfectly.

After creating the universe he surely had to stop somewhere for a brief rest. And we all know that since the 1800 there has been an increase in discovering impact craters, colliding galaxies, planets, black holes, cosmic ray bursts, etc. These number of these events are also in inverse correlation to the amount of pirates remaining on earth. Thus this is proof that the 'pirate effect' is clearly not isolated to our planet.

Not everyone who questions evolution is a biblical, 6-day, creationist.

I really hope you were joking, but in the event that you weren't....
Bible infallible? Really? How much flamebait did you want to push? Also, I'd love to find out about your answer to how we came from Adam and Eve and yet our entire human race didn't die off from inbreeding resulting thereof?

Please, I'm tolerant of religion. Do what you want. Don't bother me. But don't dare shove it in my face, or I'm going to give to you in the form of a UFIA. Cept replace the F with fist, or flying spaghetti monster.

If we didn't have religion, people would have one less chance to believe that things "simply can't be explained" and might actually have to realize that you have to figure out how to live your life, and that religion can, at best, only be a guideline for life thousands of years ago. Here, today, 2008, it just doesn't work. The only positives from religion are to be of tolerance and compassion for others. If you ask me though, I believe!

But...but... if we eliminate the pirates, wouldn't that just speed up global warming even further, and make earth totally uninhabitable? Al Gore, come and save us from zee eeevil environmental-unfriendly pirate-bashing pastafarian-rejecting swedes!!!

My god -- I think childhood obesity is directly linked to the decline in pirates!

Or perhaps it is the video game playing that eliminates pirates?

Hmm... is that a good or bad thing?

I suppose it depends on whether you're a ninja or not.

Actually, it should be quite obvious that the number of pirates is inversely proportional to the severity of global warming. Thus a reduction in global warming would lead to a resurgence in pirate populations. But maybe the unintuitive X-axis on this graph threw you for a loop.

Of course, I'm talking about the "Arr, matey!" kind of pirates here. The other kind are indeed coming out of the goddamn walls.

Come on, we all know everything was created by a flying spaghetti monster, not a freaking fairy!

Now I'm convinced, Jesus walked on water with its tentacles.

Not even Touched by his Noodly appendages

Super large version for printing out and covering government buildings

Not even Touched by his Noodly appendages

Super large version for printing out and covering government buildings

The stupid thing is that the FSM was invented as a parody to counter Intelligent Design, not religion in general. I've no idea how they think that FSM makes any telling point against ID, but sure enough:
http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/

Why is this stupid? Because if ID is correct, it allows for FSM as much as Christianity or any other religion that involves a creator. Asking ID to be taught in schools does not entail teaching any specific religion. To make this point clearer - ID is an overarching project that encompasses many religions and materialist scenarios - Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, ancient Egyptian beliefs, FSM, and more. So FSM is a *subset* of all the possible frameworks if ID is correct. So to ask that FSM be taught alongside ID is to show a category misunderstanding. ID does not stand in contrast with FSM, but rather FSM falls under ID (as does directed panspermia and other non-religious creation scenarios). Teaching ID in schools would *not* mean teaching a specific idea, such as Christianity, with it.

The neuron map of the average human brain looks like this. More evidence for the existence of him!

The neuron map of the average human brain looks like this. More evidence for the existence of him!

You sound like those people trying to prove validity of Bible using some passages from Bible.

...for as we all know, less pirates means more global warming.

http://www.venganza.org/piratesarecool4.gif

With the "14-percent increase in worldwide pirate attacks this year.", it looks like we are finally winning the battle against global warming!
http://www.venganza.org/

The graph he refers to is here

He's referencing this: http://www.venganza.org/piratesarecool4.gif

From http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/. It was kind of a meme a few years ago.

He's referencing this: http://www.venganza.org/piratesarecool4.gif

From http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/. It was kind of a meme a few years ago.

But where were the pirates?

They are working to fight global warming.

I personally feel safer with a noodly appendage protection plan...

the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Clearly this is all an attempt by another universe to build a giant spaghetti strainer using the black holes at the center of all these galaxies to try to kill our great protector the FSM http://www.venganza.org/.

Sir! I think that a flabbergastingly preposterous accusation! I have seen these resplendently detailed plans with my very own eyes!

I will be most delighted to share them with you: Behold!

PS. Please address checks to "My Kool Space Howse", P.O Box...

Wrong. I know the truth

The people who are self-proclaimed "Young Earthers" actually take a stance of the earth being roughly 6,000-10,000 years old. They totally ignore/refute carbon dating practices NOT by saing that God "could have just made it that way" (which, while annoyingly convenient, would at least be irrefutable), but by instead attacking the reliability of the science behind it. The subscribers of this particular belief system take pretty much everything in the Bible (insert your favorite Bible distro here) quite literally. They therefore trace from the very beginning of time, from creation, to 7 days later, then trace the path of every birth and death that is listed in the Bible, all the way to the birth and death of Christ ~2,000 years ago. Since we know that point in time (or at least have based our entire calendar system on it, even the secular descriptions of BCE(Before Common Era) and CE (Common Era) stop and start at the exact same time) the 2,000 years is added to their already defined age of the Earth at Christ's birth.

The interesting thing to note, is that while they take the age to be quite literal, other things in the Bible, that if taken literal, wouldn't make any sense, are suddenly "metaphorical".

Sometimes you find people that take EVERYTHING literally, and indeed still view the earth as seen here in this drawing . Flat Earthers, Young Earthers, Old Earthers, Orthodox, Reformed Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and the myriad of others that would take too long to list, all have some quirk that's kind of interesting. Being a non-Christian myself, I find the Orthodox church probably the easiest, well versed, and more intelligent reasonable faith, and were I ever to begin following Christianity again, it would likely be as a member of the Orthodox church (since there is no room for people like me, however, that's not bloody likely!).

Perhaps the single best defense, and argument, I've EVER heard from someone "defending the faith" is that science essentially teaches us (when we get to the nuts and bolts of things) that we can't really ever know anything for certain (at least such is our current understanding of things). God said that without him, nothing is certain, and nothing can be known, for humanity is flawed (way to go there big guy!). I'm paraphrasing the argument, but it always struck me as possibly the best counter I've ever heard to various things that aim to poke holes in creationsist ideals. It is impossible at present, to either prove, or to disprove the existence of "God". But it sure can make for some interesting, and educational discourse with people capable of forming rational thoughts, and more than the simple "Because God said so!" or because "I can't see, taste, smell, hear, or feel God, therefore he does not exist" arguments which get nothing accomplished.

I actually learned how to type years ago in a channel on Undernet devoted entirely to religious debate, and discussion. I still occasionally venture there today for some good verbal sparring. I personally loved the discussion over Intelligent Design, and a decision that was handed down some years ago, and the flaming I took for my position of "Well, ok if you believe that fine, but it belongs in a theology class, not the science class." After some pretty brutal exchanges (I say brutal because some people were quite upset that I was able to pick apart their "but, but, but, it's SCIENCE, not religion!" assertions, then promptly said "You know what, I agree. It is science. Furthermore, I want this included as well. After all, we must give ALL scientifically founded theories of Intelligent Design equal footing in our science classes."

Amazingly enough, many of them did laugh and appreciate the joke. They still thought it should be accepted as "there was no scientific proof to RULE OUT intelligent design". The fact tha

You joke, but it's a very serious and disconcerting issue.

If ID can't get into the curriculum, how can pirate-based theories make it in?

(Do I even need to link that one?)

- RG>

How much does global warming relate to pirates?

Great, but did they get the FSM right? If not, they must be cast into the great pot.

Better yet, does that mean that global warming have less impact in the land of Vikings? What does Al Gore think about it?

Do the **IAAs have then direct implications with Global warming?
In fact, if we sign a petition and finish with the **IAAs could we save the planet?

We'll see.

As a Pastafarian, I was thinking The Flying Spaghetti Monster's heaven might be a nice place. There are beer volcanos everywhere and stripper factories. Beats the cubical.

http://www.venganza.org/

Actually, it was the Flying Spaghetti Monster who saw her wearing the holy garb, and thus must give up her life of 'teaching' and preach the good word.

So, not for the first time, he noodled the School Board...

She just needs to claim she's a Pastafarian. Arrr!

You damn conservatives. Always anti-piracy, and agaisnt anything else to reduce global warming. Do you care nothing for the environment!?