Some standard religious misconceptions (and how to expose them)

• You can't disprove god

Ah, that's an easy one, abundantly and eloquently addressed by Dawkins et al. To sum it up:

Most things cannot be diproved, this doesn't make them real.

For instance I cannot disprove toothfairies, this doesn't mean their existence is as likely as their non-existence.
The likelihood for the existence of toothfairies, or any kind of supernatural entity, is equally low and can be safely neglected, given that there isn't a hint of evidence for them.

Beauty and design

Simple idea, great execution.

Also, breathtaking pictures from National Geographic, very nice to look at while listening for instance to Portishead.

(Via Webdesigner depot, where one can find all kinds of interesting things. Here a wonderful pencil sculpture by Jennifer Maestre)

Inspired by all this beauty, my wife and I went on to pull the best late brunch/tea time together EVER !

*painful post alert* - the Falun Gong genocide

You're peacefully enjoying your first coffee of the day close to place de la Bastille in Paris. Engaging in idle chit-chat with the waitress, anticipating a very nice and surprisingly warm WE. This is when the trumpets and drums kick in.

The Scandal of Probabilities?

According to the late Bertrand Russel, there is a scandal at the root of probability theory: it is the scandal of induction.

Simply stated, the problem is that what has been verified a finite number of times has no reason to be verified beyond these occasions!

Extirpating religion

I have already compared religion to tobacco elsewhere, slightly varying on Marx. Having been slave to both earlier in my life (not to opium or Marx, mind you), I feel entitled to comment and actually think the comparison is quite warranted.

Pierrot

Here's another beautiful french song. It's been out for a while, but for some reason I only stumbled upon the music video recently. It's from Loïc Lantoine, who I gather has morphed into a collective of four showmen (?!).



The song tells about friendship and how it can bring solace. In the song, Pierrot never fails to come in times of despair to offer the singer some kind of ineffable support, each time embodied in the delicate and pure guitar arpeggios that end the choruses. The clip actually makes this friend much more ambivalent and imaginary, playing with an old french lullaby.