Poe’s Law

I love satire. Of most colours. I like it when Christians satirise our own culture, and when non-Christians do it too. Satire is revealing. It is good for teaching. It makes me laugh.

LarkNews is one of my favourite satire sites, I know of a few people who have fallen for its satire in the past…

People reposting satire as real news is pretty funny – like when a couple of mainstream news outlets picked up an Onion piece that reported the moon landing was fake.

Poe’s Law didn’t make the Wikipedia list of eponymous laws I mentioned previously – but you can read it on this page – RationalWiki’s page.

Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.

It’s one of those Internet subculture things particular to debates with atheists (along with the No True Scotsman Fallacy) that comes up all the time. It’s a shorthand thing that prevents any real discussion taking place springing from an extreme position. The problem is that sometimes extreme positions may be correct. This is my biggest problem with all the conversational threads I’ve read on the atheist blogs I follow. If it turns out that God exists (as I believe he does) they’re going to look like idiots. This is the problem with Occam’s Razor, and in fact any other eponymous law that becomes common parlance. There are times when there’ll be a complex explanation for something that is true while a more simple explanation with less steps may be wrong. There are times when it’s appropriate to reference Hitler in an argument (Godwin’s Law). There are times when someone will be claiming to be a Scotsman when they’re not (the No True Scotsman Fallacy).

Using these laws in conversations who don’t know about them makes you look like a prat. Especially if you end up quoting them and being wrong.

I’m going to posit my own eponymous law – and I’d like it to catch on. Campbell’s Law. It states:

“As the length of argument on the internet increases the probability of referencing an irrelevant eponymous law or incorrectly identifying a fallacy approaches one.”

I’ll posit a second law.

“Just because someone, somewhere, has described a common phenomena as a “law”, it does not necessarily render the practice a transgression.”

September 18, 2009

Five cool wikipedia articles

In the spirit of Ben’s listmania here are five cool Wikipedia articles – most of which have been pulled from this blog I discovered called Best of Wikipedia.

  1. Wrap Rage Wrap rage, also called package rage, is the common name for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packagingWrap Rage Wrap rage, also called package rage, is the common name for heightened levels of anger and frustration resulting from the inability to open hard-to-remove packaging
  2. Erdős–Bacon Number A person’s Erdős–Bacon number is a concept which reflects the small world phenomenon in academia and entertainment. It is the sum of one’s Erdős number—which measures the “collaborative distance” in authoring mathematical papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős—and one’s Bacon number—which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the individual is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. The lower the number, the closer a person is to Erdős and Bacon.
  3. Nocebo The adjective nocebo is used to label the harmful or unpleasant reactions that a subject manifested as a result of administering a placebo drug, where these responses had not been chemically generated, and were entirely due to the subject’s pessimistic belief and expectation that the inert drug would produce harmful, injurious, unpleasant, or undesirable consequences.
  4. The Turk The Turk was a fake chess-playing machine constructed in the late 18th century. From 1770 until its destruction by fire in 1854, it was exhibited by various owners as an automaton, though it was explained in the early 1820s as an elaborate hoax. With a skilled operator, the Turk won most of the games played during its demonstrations around Europe and the Americas for nearly 84 years, playing and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Benjamin Franklin.
  5. I found this one by myself when I was looking up this thing called “Poe’s Law” that I hear atheists mentioning all the time when talking about satire about Christian stuff… it’s a list of eponymous laws – from the Famous (like Murphy’s Law, to the obscure internet phenomena – like Godwin’s Law).

Share any favourites of yours in the comments…

September 18, 2009

So that’s how these things work

I’ve wondered what it is that makes Macs cool. I think it might be that they’re powered by guinea pigs.

I’m not sure how they fit them into the laptops…

Actually, this makeshift animal cage is pretty cool. I’ve always wanted to turn an old TV into a fish bowl. But it’s really dangerous. There are things in old cathode ray TVs that can kill you. Apparently. Anyway, kudos to Ali who worked valiantly to find something on the internet that I hadn’t posted before…

September 18, 2009

Books, old and new

I like books. I like old books. I like book titles. You can judge a book by its cover. Normally.

Kottke linked to this great little discussion thread featuring old books retitled for today’s market.

It started off with these – and got more fun in the comments:

“Then: The Wealth of Nations
Now: Invisible Hands: The Mysterious Market Forces That Control Our Lives and How to Profit from Them

Then: Walden
Now: Camping with Myself: Two Years in American Tuscany

Then: The Theory of the Leisure Class
Now: Buying Out Loud: The Unbelievable Truth About What We Consume and What It Says About Us

Then: The Gospel of Matthew
Now: 40 Days and a Mule: How One Man Quit His Job and Became the Boss

Then: The Prince
Now: The Prince (Foreword by Oprah Winfrey)”

September 18, 2009

Schaeffer on Fundamentalism

I haven’t watched this yet – but I read the transcript posted on the Friendly Atheist.

Frank Schaeffer is a little bit angry at some of the good parts of “fundamentalism” – and yes, there are good parts of seeing something as objective truth and fighting for it. He is a former “fundamentalist” and the son of Francis Schaeffer.

But when there’s a relatively large population of your country who are using the Bible to justify the belief that their president is the anti-Christ, while ignoring the other things the Bible has to say about governments (eg Romans 13), and the anti-Christ (1 John 2), someone needs to call it for what it is. Stupid shenanigans. And that’s what Schaeffer does.

“The mainstream not just media but culture doesn’t sufficiently take stock of the fact that within our culture we have a sub-culture, which is literally a fifth column of insanity, that is bred from birth through home-school, Christian school, evangelical college, whatever, to reject facts as a matter of faith.”

“Look, a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot. It’s as simple as that, and we have to understand: we have a village idiot in this country. It’s called fundamentalist Christianity.”

One of the problems I have with the way Christianity is viewed comes from the fact that atheists hold up the relative strawmen of the fundamentalist fringe, and the actions of the nominal Christians without actually engaging with what Christianity (through the Bible) teaches.

September 18, 2009

Whey cool game

Test your knowledge of fromage and fontage with this Cheese or Font game.

Who names these things?

September 17, 2009

Reverse charged prank calls

I have a friend who keeps giving telemarketers my number. His name is Joe. He thinks it’s funny when they call me, expecting an easy sale, and I run my standard anti-telemarketer ritual of talking for a minute and then just staying silent.

I decided it was about time I got him back.

My problem with prank calls is that I always laugh in the middle of them. I needed someone else to do my dirty work. So, like every other Australian male who needs a little bit of spring in his step, I turned to the Australian Medical Institute. And they called him for me. You can click the image for a larger version.

I highly recommend this course of action, partly because I’m sick of being inundated with AMI ads, and because it’s free.

September 17, 2009

Butter me up

I won’t be eating deep fried butter anytime soon… not if I want to win the little competition I’m having with Robyn.

But it is real. Here’s how the guy who makes it does it…

“So here’s what Gonzales does: He takes 100 percent pure butter, whips it until it is light and fluffy, freezes it, then surrounds it with dough. The butter-laden dough balls are then dropped into the deep fryer.For purists who just want the unadulterated taste of butter, Gonzales serves up plain-butter versions of his creation. For others who want a little more pizzazz, he offers three additional versions with flavored butters: garlic, grape or cherry.”

September 17, 2009

5 things I’m going to do on holidays

Robyn and I are on holiday for a week next week. We’re going to the Sunshine Coast. In the spirit of Ben’s listmania here are the five activities I’m looking forward to (the fact that I’m spending time with my wife is implied):

1. Sleeping In
2. Going to the beach (a real one, with waves)
3. Reading books
4. Searching for coffee
5. Taking photos

September 17, 2009

Hi five

Ben is top 5-ing all week this week. I’m looking forward to his lists of awesomeness.

I’ll join the fun.

Here are my five favourite posts from elsewhere this week (in no particular order):

1. Ali’s post on how to catch a koala – I didn’t think it was that challenging, a rock and a big net would have been all I’d have used.

2. Ben’s post about signing off letters (and his one about the etiquette of extracting oneself from annoying conversations)

3. Simone’s post about how to make mud pie

4. Izaac’s post about bad bible jokes.

5. Justin for his posts tracking notable quotes from “Inspiring People” a mission running in Sydney

September 17, 2009

Captcha conspiracy

Captchas are pretty annoying. I hate them. Google just bought ReCaptcha – the company that makes captcha forms. And they published this little interesting little piece of info about what you’re actually doing when you fill out a captcha – you’re probably indirectly aiding the development of robots who will one day make captchas pointless.

“The words in many of the CAPTCHAs provided by reCAPTCHA come from scanned archival newspapers and old books. Computers find it hard to recognize these words because the ink and paper have degraded over time, but by typing them in as a CAPTCHA, crowds teach computers to read the scanned text.
In this way, reCAPTCHA’s unique technology improves the process that converts scanned images into plain text, known as Optical Character Recognition (OCR).”

September 17, 2009

What’s in the box

This guy sounds nice, but he’s pretty silly.

The biggest problem with this whole argument is that Christians don’t believe God is out there needing to be defined, we believe he revealed himself to us by his presence, his son, and his word.

His whole argument against theism is fallacious.

His conclusion about how Christians should act is on the money though.

September 17, 2009

Status Synchronicity: Sultanas

I have this weird fixation with Facebook Status synchronicity occurring between non-mutual friends. I’ve decided I’m going to post them as they occur (sans names because I respect privacy). If a random Facebook friends stumbles here and identifies themself I will give them a prize of the value of a Freddo Frog.

 

Here are the first two, from within 15 minutes of each other today.

Friend 1: just received a cheque for $3 because my sultanas tasted minty.
Friend 2: Just found a grape seed in a sultana. Wow, this is the best day eva…

Was this you? Claim your prize…

September 16, 2009

Two questions I want to ask God

I enjoy pointless theology. Questions about stuff that has no real bearing on things and that have no easy answers. These are my two questions about speculative theology (and both find their roots in Genesis but are unrelated to creation or science).

Who were the Nephilim?

If you’re like me this question has bothered you since you were a kid. At one point I resolved that the Nephilim must have been the origins of the Greco-Roman pantheons. But I’m not really sure.

The Nephilim (sons of God) also provide an interesting prospect regarding sex in the new creation… which Jesus seems to rule out when he’s answering the Pharisees who are trying to trip him up on marriage in the New Creation, he says we’ll be like the sons of God – who in Genesis 6 saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they had children with them…

Some people think the Nephilim were just the last of the Neanderthals… which sounds like a Daniel Day-Lewis movie.

It seems everyone has a theory on these from the plausible (that they were just big headed overachievers whose arrogance led people astray) to the wacky (neanderthals or one of the many groups of people the Torah books not included in the canon teach about).

I don’t know. But it’s fun.

Who was/is Melchizedek

This is the other curly one – wherefore and whyfore comes this priestly king with his cameo – and it’s clearly significant because he’s a precursor to the kingly/priestly Jesus – and whofore is this king? Is he an incarnation of the pre-incarnate Christ? Is he just a God fearing king from a city with a similar name to Jerusalem – which does not yet exist. Is he a time travelling budy of Doc from Back to the Future? Share your opinions on these matters – or the questions you want to ask God, in the comments. Do it. You know you want to.

September 16, 2009

Meaty graphic on relative prosperity

Good posts really good infographics – like this one about the average consumption of meat in the ten biggest meat eating countries (Australia doesn’t make the grade but New Zealand does), and the ten smallest meat eating countries.

The premise is that as countries develop they eat more meat.

September 16, 2009