Stats on Quiz Entries from Pharyngula

Right, so I was bored... yeah, REALLY bored and I thought, wow! what a great idea to teach myself some basic spreadsheet stuff and perform some dopey statistical analysis on everyone's entries! yay! Numbers!

***** JUNK SCIENCE WARNING!!!! ******
Take this crap seriously at your OWN RISK.
***** JUNK SCIENCE WARNING!!!! ******


So, here's a quick breakdown:

Scientific -
High:100% (17/38 Full Disclosures)
Low:67%
Average:93%

Militant -
High:100%
Low:8%
Average:52%

Angry -
High:92%
Low:8% (2/38)
Average:46%

Apathetic -
High:83% (3/38)
Low:17% (3/38)
Average:52%

Spiritual -
High:75%
Low:17% (3/38)
Average:45%

Agnostic -
High:75%
Low:0% (2/38)
Average:37%

Theist -
High:33%
Low:0% (7/38)
Average:14%

No suprises there. However, things got more interesting when I computed rationality.
For rationality, I took the entries and applied the following formula (yay excel!)

R = Avg(Scientific, Militant, Agnostic)/Avg(Spiritual, Angry, Theist)

Rationale:
Rational Side:
Scientific - Self Explanatory
Militant - Forthrightness with worldview.
Agnostic - Intellectual honesty

Irrational Side:
Spiritual: Wonderment
Angry: Self Explanatory
Theist: Self Explanatory

Apathy, being relatively neutral, was ignored.
Now, let's look at rationality:

Rationality -
High:3.1
Low:0.84
Average:1.86

A rationality score of 1.0 would mean that your rational and irrational sides are very nearly balanced. The higher the number goes, the more your rational side dominates. Scores near the top of the range have a roughly 3/1 dominance ratio (this is proof of aliens btw: they're obviously Vulcans), whereas the average over the group settles down to a much more moderate 1.86.

Personally, I scored a 1.68, due to that huge spirituality score.

What Kind of Atheist are You?

A post light on thought today. Found it on Pharyngula today. Nice to see that I score with that guiding light of rationalism, PZ Myers. You scored as Scientific Atheist, These guys rule. I'm not one of them myself, although I play one online. They know the rules of debate, the Laws of Thermodynamics, and can explain evolution in fifty words or less. More concerned with how things ARE than how they should be, these are the people who will bring us into the future. Scientific Atheist 100% Militant Atheist 75% Spiritual Atheist 67% Agnostic 50% Apathetic Atheist 50% Angry Atheist 50% Theist 17% What kind of atheist are you? created with QuizFarm.com

Ten things Christians and atheists can - and must - agree on. Before it's too late.

An interesting article came up on Digg today. The author, a christian, tries to make a good case for discussion between a-theists and believers. The problem with this nice little article is that the author seems to want to have the discussion on his terms and really has no understanding of the a-theistic position. I critique his piece, adding my thoughts to each of his points below:

1. You Can Do Terrible Things in the Name of Either One.
Wrong. Pol Pot, Stalin et. al. did NOT commit atrocities in the NAME of atheism. There is nothing to believe in with atheism. There is no system of beliefs that comes with refusing to comit intellectual suicide. Whereas the seemingly endless list of atrocities committed by the overtly religious was EXACTLY because people's religious views differed from the persecutors. The author confuses atheism with a positive belief system. Just as darkness is the absence of light, atheism is the absence of credulity.

2. Both Sides Really Do Believe What They're Saying.
Wrong. I don't BELIEVE in atheism. Non-belief is the default position of humanity, and belief IN something has to be inculcated. Again, do not confuse positive religious belief with what everyone in this world is born as - atheist.

3. In Everyday Life, You're Not That Different.
Only for very strange values of 'Not that different'. I don't spend one day a week of my time singing to invisible old men. I don't have a religious tax - tithe - on my income going to visible old men who would like me to continue in the tradition of 'thinking' that an "Appeal to Authority" is a good let alone a logical argument.

4. There Are Good People on Both Sides.
Wrong. Religion itself is evil. It inculcates credulity, allows - no demands - that people accept authoritarianism, spreads bigotry, hate and the belief that 'the other' is bad, evil and/or wrong. In no way can a person who spreads these beliefs be called GOOD.

5. Your Point of View is Legitimately Offensive to Them.
Good. Their point of view is reprehensible, inexcusable, immoral and disgusting.

6. We Tend to Exaggerate About the Other Guy.
I'll quote the article for this one:

To move on, we only need to agree that rejecting science on one subject doesn't mean you reject all science on all subjects, and that rejecting Christian morality doesn't mean rejecting all morality.Interesting sentence.

The first part isn't logically possible and the second is a straw-man. If you reject science on ONE subject, you do indeed reject science as a whole because you are rejecting the scientific method. You don't get to have an order of physics with a side of sociology, hold the evolution. It's an interconnected whole.

The second part is simply untrue. Atheists reject the idea that morality can come from figments of the imagination in the guise of bearded old men with an unhealthy facination in causing irreparable harm to humanity. Morality is a human invention that allows groups of people to get along. Defining morality as coming from some non-observable entity simply allows one to define whatever morality one likes. You say there are no atheists in foxholes, I say that there are no atheist suicide bombers.

7. We Tend to Exaggerate About Ourselves, Too.
Again, a quote from the article:

In reality, there are very few Christians who do or even try to follow the Bible
exactly, including all the obscure rules about church women staying silent and
hatted.

Well then, why bother following religion AT ALL if one can simply pick and choose the rules that one likes? If you find my stance irritating, then it's time for you to examine your own beliefs and find out what it is that is striking such a chord within you. You don't follow the rules set forth by your 'betters', then quite possibly you should come over to our side and work on coming up with some rules that you can live with.

When atheism is the default for educated adults in the US of A, then, and only then will I quiet down and live and let live. But as long as I live in a country where my president can say "I'm not so sure that atheists should be considered as citizens," with the full knowledge that he will not receive censure from the population, I WILL NOT YIELD AN INCH.

8. Focusing on Negative Examples Makes You Stupid.
Wrong. Believing in fairy tales makes you stupid. Wishful thinking and 'gosh, wouldn't it be nice,' makes you stupid. Allowing yourself to be cowed and blackmailed into believing because of a fear of eternal damnation makes you stupid. You christians come across as arrogant, confident and utterly, completely, irrevocably stupid.

9. Both Sides Have Brought Good to the Table.
Right, because anti-gay legislation is good, defense of slavery is good, intolerance, hatred, bigotry and deceitfulness is good. Remind me again what religion has done for me? Has it brought me greater understanding of the universe that I live in? No, I can thank Aristotle, Issac Newton, Albert Einstein and Max Planck for that. Has it brought me great moral teachings? No, christian morals are just rehashes of previous moral systems. Has it brought me great literature? If you call a book written by committee, riddled with more plot holes than a block of Swiss cheese in a machine-gun factory and so contradictory that you could walk away less confused from a house of mirrors, then, yes, I suppose it has brought me great literature. What has rationalism gotten me? Hrmm.. this computer, my car, the lights in my house, advanced medicine, air travel, several men on the moon, the dream of being able to walk on Mars... I could go on and on. The truth of the matter is that religion does so LITTLE good and so MUCH harm, that when balanced against the benefits to rationalism, I can't believe that one could POSSIBLY consider religion of benefit to humanity.

10. You'll Never Harass the Other Side Out of Existence.
No, but I can, and will, shame you out of relevancy.



read more digg story

Digg Meltdown

Wow.

I've never seen a rebellion quite as virulent as this one.

I captured a screenshot of the front page of digg.com on May 1st. It's incredible. Look at the number of diggs some of the stories have!

For those who don't know, this whole kerfluffle started when a couple of diggers submitted stories about the newly discovered AACS code that controls access to HD-DVDs and suddenly found their accounts banned.

Of course, no self-respecting digger is an island. When people found out that they had been banned, they called their friends, who then posted stories about people getting banned for posting the story. Of course, this led those people to get banned from Digg as well. People on Digg noticed that stories were disappearing and were - with some justification - peeved. As the evening went on, more and more people started digging stories about the AACS, about the 'magic' number, and about Digg's banning of accounts, calling Mr. Rose, one of the creators of Digg, a coward and worse. By 9:50pm on May 1st, the entire front page of Digg was covered in stories.

Kevin Rose eventually gave up trying to contain the riot and put up a post on his own blog that was both brave and somewhat sad at the same time. Here's the post, quoted in full:

Today was an insane day. And as the founder of Digg, I just wanted to post my
thoughts…
In building and shaping the site I’ve always tried to stay as
hands
on as possible. We’ve always given site moderation (digging/burying)
power to
the community. Occasionally we step in to remove stories that
violate our terms
of use (eg. linking to pornography, illegal downloads,
racial hate sites, etc.).
So today was a difficult day for us. We had to
decide whether to remove stories
containing a single code based on a cease
and desist declaration. We had to make
a call, and in our desire to avoid a
scenario where Digg would be interrupted or
shut down, we decided to comply
and remove the stories with the code.
But
now, after seeing hundreds of
stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve
made it clear. You’d
rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger
company. We hear
you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or
comments
containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might
be.
If we lose, then what the hell, at least we died trying.
Digg
on,
Kevin

I have to congratulate Kevin on his bravery. At the same time, I fear that Digg may be going down, the DMCA is a scary document and it changes the way we treat intellectual property. Specifically, it criminalizes people who try and make full use of their fair use rights by disallowing the breaking of cryptography.

That's a sad state of affairs and it needs to change, because it's not the denizens of Digg who caused this upheaval, it's not even the AACS's fault, the blame for Digg's meltdown lands squarely on the shoulders of our congresspeople who voted the DMCA into law.