Is it a hate crime to dip a figurine of Christ in urine, or maybe constantly touting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as real, how about tossing a Koran in the can?
Only one of these is considered a hate crime, and Christopher Hitchens asks the questions much better than I.
Christopher Hitchens ably explained this on CNN tonight as well. You can catch the videos here:
Part 1
Part 2
I do have a question, which truly is the hate crime, the Quran in the can, or the felony charging of the student doing it?
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
The spectrum of probability of the existence of God
I have taken this almost verbatim from Richard Dawkin's book The God Delusion, which is my current light summer reading.
1. Strong Theist, 100 percent probabilty of God, you have no doubt whatsoever.
2. De Facto Theist, very high probability but short of 100 Percent. YOu are not completely sure but you strongly believe there is a God.
3. Technically agnostic but leaning to theist, you are higher than 50% but not very high. You are uncertain, but you are inclined to believe in God.
4. Completely impartial agnostic, you are exactly 50% believer and 50% non believer. You believe God's existence is equally probable or non probable.
5. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheist, you have less than a 50% belief in a god. You don't know whether God exists, but you lean towards skepticism.
6. Defacto atheist, very low probability but short of zero. You can't know for certain whether God exists, but you live your life on the assumption God does not exist.
7. Strong atheist, you know there is no God without any doubt whatsoever.
I used to be a category 7, but as I got older (and wiser) I realised that a belief without proof is a religion, so I have drifted more towards 6. I am pretty confident in the non existence of gods, but if I was given proof a god existed I would be able to accept that.
What category are you?
1. Strong Theist, 100 percent probabilty of God, you have no doubt whatsoever.
2. De Facto Theist, very high probability but short of 100 Percent. YOu are not completely sure but you strongly believe there is a God.
3. Technically agnostic but leaning to theist, you are higher than 50% but not very high. You are uncertain, but you are inclined to believe in God.
4. Completely impartial agnostic, you are exactly 50% believer and 50% non believer. You believe God's existence is equally probable or non probable.
5. Technically agnostic but leaning towards atheist, you have less than a 50% belief in a god. You don't know whether God exists, but you lean towards skepticism.
6. Defacto atheist, very low probability but short of zero. You can't know for certain whether God exists, but you live your life on the assumption God does not exist.
7. Strong atheist, you know there is no God without any doubt whatsoever.
I used to be a category 7, but as I got older (and wiser) I realised that a belief without proof is a religion, so I have drifted more towards 6. I am pretty confident in the non existence of gods, but if I was given proof a god existed I would be able to accept that.
What category are you?
Don't be Evil
Don't be Evil is Google's informal motto, but can they really claim that anymore? Google has agreed to comply with the censorship laws of China. The question is, how many more places does Google do censorship for? There is a website that discusses Google Censorship, ironically found using Google...
What I don't understand is that Google will protect the privacy of purveyors of child porn but they are willing to help the Chinese government out.
Maybe their new motto could be "Do a little bit of evil, but make even more money!".
The heavy handed censorship in China is also backfiring, after all, if it never happened, why would this ad generate any response.
Sunday, July 08, 2007
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