I began getting this cryptic error message before Xmas whenever I attempted to access the Admin for the site. Didn’t have the time to investigate further and an urgent email or two to the useless hosting co that I’m stuck with for now wasn’t answered. I gave up expecting answers months ago - unless I whinge about changing hosts!
Google of course came up with a cure - to add a line like ‘php_value memory_limit 16M’ to the .htaccess file - and ‘bingo’ success!
I presume the reason is the shared hosting space is running low on the host’s servers. I don’t really care, all will be resolved soon anyway with a shift to a proper webhost.
Merry Christmas anyways (I prefer Xmas) but I’m feeling generous. I even put on some nice Xmas Carols at the family dinner and got some bemused looks from those who know my beliefs (or lack of them). I take the view that they are pleasant music and they invoke pleasant memories from my past. I can enjoy them without buying into the myth…
After watching the Nova series about the Dover trial I was struck by how clearly the explanation for the differing numbers of chromosomes in apes and humans was presented. I did some searching and found this interesting video of a self-professed roman catholic biologist explaining the process very clearly. His comments at the end of the video are very revealing and also bemusing as well - how can religious scientists reconcile what they believe with scientific knowledge?
Intellectual Compartmentalisation is how they do it and I find this process amazing (and worrying). To quote Richard Dawkins - “There are people who muddle along, and that’s fine if they haven’t really thought either of those positions through very thoroughly,” he says. “But there are others who know that it’s contradictory and still somehow manage to hold the two simultaneously. That, I can’t understand. It’s a feat of psychological gymnastics which, like the splits, I’m not capable of doing. These are people like the American geologist I quote in the book, Kurt Wise, who says in effect: ‘Even if all the evidence, every single jot of it, was to the contrary, I would still believe that the earth was only 6,000 years old, because that’s what scripture says.’ And he knows perfectly well that every bit of evidence does contradict it, and yet he’s holding those contradictory beliefs. I couldn’t do it.”
When I first established this blog, I pondered the whole comment question quite carefully. Most (ie: non-controversial) blogs simply have no worry about keeping spam at bay, but sites like these are of course, more prone to the ‘crazies’ and ‘trolls’.
On a side note about this problem - how many religious sites do you see being bombarded with atheist troll behaviour? I’d venture a guess at very few judging on what I’ve observed. Maybe it’s because atheists don’t feel the need to defend their (lack of) beliefs by engaging in personal attacks, disgusting language (and I’m no prude) and bad speling…
Anyway, back to comments.
I recently enabled a very clever plug-in (WP-PostRatings) and it got me thinking again about whether I should try enabling comments on here. I wasn’t too keen on moderating comments as then I’d be open to criticism that I was not allowing both sides of a topic to be discussed. The problem with allowing un-moderated comments on a site such as this though, is the likelihood of flaming by trolls. If I don’t allow comments at all though, I’d never benefit from insightful ideas and concepts that I others often leave in their comments on other blogs!
So - I’ve made a decision. I’ll implement comments soon - and yes, they will have to be moderated, but I’ll (hopefully) get some sensible arguments and rational (well, maybe that’s asking a bit much..) commenting from those that believe faith is important in their and other’s lives. I’ll keep you posted!
If you are trying to watch any of the GoogleVideo or YouTube videos here and are having trouble, try this:
Press the Pause button on the video control panel and wait while the stream is ‘buffered’ or downloaded in the background. Once you have at least 50% of the video stream buffered, resume playing. The remaining video stream should download while you are watching the first half. If that doesn’t work - then all I can suggest is to change your broadband plan or don’t watch online video!
As a child of the sixties and a teen in the seventies, I feel privileged to have been around when the foundations of modern music were being laid down (sure those from the 50’s would say “what? the fifties were the beginning!”). My favourite bands and singers from my childhood and early teens were the Beatles (of course), Stones, Led Zeppelin, Joe Cocker and this band…
Creedence Clearwater Revival. They were amazing to me then and I still love them - and John Fogerty is still goin’ strong! I bought Cosmo’s Factory (a classic album) around my last year at high school from memory.
Check out this ‘oldie but goodie’ from it - sure they’re miming, but so do all the performers on music videos of today!
In the mid-seventies, a much-overlooked band called Supertramp became a big favourite and I recently ‘re-discovered’ them again (well, Roger Hodgson anyway). Penning such amazing songs as ‘Take The Long Way Home’ and ‘Give a Little Bit’, he had, and still has an amazing voice. ‘Crisis? What Crisis? would have to be my all-time favourite album from Supertramp and in particular these two songs from it. Roger forgets the words to ‘Sister Moonshine’ in the video but hey, the guys knockin’ 60 so cut him some slack! Enjoy.
And here’s one of them. Sure, maybe not in the same league as Dawkins, but that’s being picky. The observations and arguments are great. I wish I could be so eloquent - and this atheist is so young! Sigh…
You know what really blows my mind about Creationists/IDers?
They sneer at science one minute, try their damnedest to ‘refute’ scientific theories, and in the next minute bastardize science in an attempt to create ’scientific proofs’ for their deity. So which is it? Does science have the power to explain the world or doesn’t it? I suspect you believe that science only applies when you want it to apply, and you dismiss it when it doesn’t prove what you’d like it to.
They lie, misquote and misrepresent scientific facts simply to further their own silly agendas. They willfully ignore scientific evidence all while stating that we should accept their evidence because it came from ‘god’ or the ‘bible’. So, I’m to accept evidence for how the world was created that was written over 2000 years ago? Read the whole article here.
I trawl the ‘net researching and often just plain exploring. I often wish there was an educated theist to be found that can postulate a convincing argument in support of his or her beliefs - if only to challenge the free-thinkers a little.
I never really expect to ever find any, but well, it’s worth continuing the quest!
On the other side of the coin there’s thousands like this chap’s website. His ‘Top Evidences Against the Theory of Evolution‘ would be good for a laugh if it wasn’t just so pathetic. The worrying thing is that millions of americans actually agree with him…
I spent a depressing half-hour wading through his diatribes on everything from his obvious homo-phobia and his rants about other religions and his belief that ‘No genuine born-again, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christian believes the nonsense of Evolution. It’s the Devil’s crowd–the whoremongers, warmongers, atheists, and Communists–who adhere to the lies of Evolution.’
Well, according to him I and millions of others who share similar beliefs are all headin’ for the fires of hell. If heaven means having to listen to friggin idiots like him then great… I’m hell-bound.
Ok, enough videos for now. Time for some blogging.
I was watching a response to the ‘Blasphemy Challenge’ on a news show today (watch the Fox News channel one) and it struck me how christians really do love the idea that they are the only ones with altruistic attitudes and actions don’t they?
Sure, many are - and I’d have to say that it’s mostly what I call the ’soft’ christians that have the best attitudes - like the Sallie’s (Salvation Army) and St Vinnie’s (Saint Vincent de Paul) - no, I’m not joking. It’s an aussie thing this shortening of names, display an admirable caring for their fellow man that translates into reality. They just get on with it, with a lot of help of course from non-believers like myself who donate to them.
Human beings like to join groups and this is one of the reasons that organised religion is so successful - so why doesn’t a non-religious group start something similar that is completely non-secular? I would guess that we are going to need an alternative to ‘going to church’ or ‘doing the lord’s work’ for many people when eventually religion just fades away. No mistake, it is fading away - certainly in New Zealand. Don’t believe that? Here’s the documented proof of the fact from official census results.
Considering that NZ has a large polynesian population (who are avid church-goers) the results are surprising - especially if you believe what the crazy fundies like the ‘Destiny’ church will have you believe. Similar trends are occurring in most western countries including Australia. Note the 27.5% increase in the ‘no religion’ census answer! And as for the Poms, well over there religious belief is ‘falling faster than church attendance’. But I’ve gone off on a tangent again…
An alternative ’structure’ (for lack of a better word) that enables like-minded altruistic people to contribute back to society would be a good thing. We have secular groups like parent-teacher associations, volunteer organisations, Red Cross and the Hands On Network for example - do we need something more universal maybe?
As I mentioned Bill in the last post, I just had to share one of my favourite clips of him from a great DVD that I received as a pressie a while ago. Luckily someone else thought it was great too, and posted the excerpt on YouTube.
I am a huge fan of Billy Connolly, but even he is (was? hopefully he’s aged even more irreverently now) sometimes a bit soft on poking the stick at religions and their stupidness.
Edit 9/1/08: He sure has aged more irreverently.
Now, Ricky Gervais has little or no regard for pandering to the fairytale believers.
