Human Light

Today is HumanLight! Some info from the website:

In Western societies, late December is a season of good cheer and a time for gatherings of friends and families. During the winter holiday season, where the word “holiday” has taken on a more secular meaning, many events are observed. This tradition of celebrations, however, is grounded in supernatural religious beliefs that many people in modern society cannot accept. HumanLight presents an alternative reason to celebrate: a Humanist’s vision of a good future. It is a future in which all people can identify with each other, behave with the highest moral standards, and work together toward a happy, just and peaceful world.

I’m celebrating. Are you?

Grammar Snobs Unite!

I was reading through the archives at Saint Gasoline and came across this one. As a self-professed grammar snob, I took umbrage. Then I realized that he’s just jealous.

The Tree

My wife and I put up a holiday tree last night. Of course, she calls it a Christmas tree. We’ve been sending out our holiday Christmas cards this week. Sigh. sometimes I feel like Kyle on South Park. It’s tough to be a Humanist on Christmas. I’ll just have to pretend it’s really HumanLight. Maybe, if I disbelieve hard enough, the Happy Human will appear and give me a present!

The Ethic of Reciprocity

Most religions throughout history have espoused some version of an ethic of reciprocity, also known as the “golden rule.” The Christian version is, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” While that’s nice, it’s an incitement to action. It requires people to do unto others, whether those others want to be done unto or not.

My version of the ethic is more passive: “Don’t do unto others what you would not want them to do unto you.” My version implicitly contains the idea of leaving people alone. I like that much better.

A new quote

Found at The Secular Outpost:

Love thy enemy, unless he hath the temerity to criticize thee, in which case anoint his head with oil of vitriol.

It’s my new motto.

On Homeopathy

There is some great info on the ridiculousness that is homeopathy here. This is my favorite bit:

Homeopathic products are made from minerals, botanical substances, and several other sources. If the original substance is soluble, one part is diluted with either nine or ninety-nine parts of distilled water and/or alcohol and shaken vigorously (succussed); if insoluble, it is finely ground and pulverized in similar proportions with powdered lactose (milk sugar). One part of the diluted medicine is then further diluted, and the process is repeated until the desired concentration is reached. Dilutions of 1 to 10 are designated by the Roman numeral X (1X = 1/10, 3X = 1/1,000, 6X = 1/1,000,000). Similarly, dilutions of 1 to 100 are designated by the Roman numeral C (1C = 1/100, 3C = 1/1,000,000, and so on). Most remedies today range from 6X to 30X, but products of 30C or more are marketed.

A 30X dilution means that the original substance has been diluted 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times. Assuming that a cubic centimeter of water contains 15 drops, this number is greater than the number of drops of water that would fill a container more than 50 times the size of the Earth. Imagine placing a drop of red dye into such a container so that it disperses evenly. Homeopathy’s “law of infinitesimals” is the equivalent of saying that any drop of water subsequently removed from that container will possess an essence of redness. Robert L. Park, Ph.D., a prominent physicist who is executive director of The American Physical Society, has noted that since the least amount of a substance in a solution is one molecule, a 30C solution would have to have at least one molecule of the original substance dissolved in a minimum of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules of water. This would require a container more than 30,000,000,000 times the size of the Earth.

Oscillococcinum, a 200C product “for the relief of colds and flu-like symptoms,” involves “dilutions” that are even more far-fetched. Its “active ingredient” is prepared by incubating small amounts of a freshly killed duck’s liver and heart for 40 days. The resultant solution is then filtered, freeze-dried, rehydrated, repeatedly diluted, and impregnated into sugar granules. If a single molecule of the duck’s heart or liver were to survive the dilution, its concentration would be 1 in 100²⁰⁰. This huge number, which has 400 zeroes, is vastly greater than the estimated number of molecules in the universe (about one googol, which is a 1 followed by 100 zeroes). In its February 17, 1997, issue, U.S. News & World Report noted that only one duck per year is needed to manufacture the product, which had total sales of $20 million in 1996. The magazine dubbed that unlucky bird “the $20-million duck.”

Sheesh. Just go to a good physician. At least their drugs are likely to do something.

More on the Televangelists

There’s more on the televangelists under senate investigation here and here.

Russell’s Teapot

I can’t get enough of the webcomic Russell’s Teapot. A child attempts to apply logic to the bible. Hilarity ensues!

Be sure to read through the archives; they’re a scream.