13point7

This Angered Me Enough To Post Again!

joshuacwilliams — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 01:00:15 +0000

I saw this on POPURLS.

I hope to this is not true, but it looks like it is. Yes, everyone is entitled to free speech, even the Westboro Baptist Church. But I don’t think anyone should be allowed this level of inconsideration and sheer hypocrisy! Everything in this image defines the idea of hypocrite. After seeing something like this, I now know the leaders of the WBC do not deserve to be on this planet. No humanity, no consideration, no passion for a fellow human…

R.I.P. Steve Jobs.

Here he is at the 2005 Stanford Commencement. Enjoy.

From xkcd (including hover text):

To be? Or not to be?

joshuacwilliams — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:00:42 +0000

To the few who have actually bothered to stop by briefly to see what’s going on here (or not), I apologize for the lack of posts in the recent weeks. I’ve since gotten a new laptop as my previous post had suggested. However, I’ve been struggling with what I want to do with this blog. I’ve grown tired with a couple of the regular posts that I did (most notably “Beautiful & Complex Things…”) and felt it became more of a chore to write them than something I enjoyed doing. Unfortunately, I think this affected my readership. After having the blog for over a year, I never had that much of a readership to begin with, but I think it has declined even more so.

There’s a chance I’ll end up closing this blog. But I’d like to find it in me to keep this going since I like to think the ideals & philosophies behind this blog are rather important, particularly in these overly-religious times.

If I keep this blog going, I may take an entirely different approach to “Beautiful & Complex Things…” as well as my “In the News” posts. Although what that approach would be I currently have no idea.

I’ve always enjoyed creative writing & spouting my opinion. But I never want it to feel like a chore.

For you few kind souls that are left, bear with me as I try to figure out what to do here.

Down time

joshuacwilliams — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:28:30 +0000

Sorry for the unexpected down time all. My personal laptop decided to go kaput over the weekend. I’ve fixed it up, but I think I’m gonna’ sell it and get a new one. So, until then, have a great time!

A little Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

joshuacwilliams — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 11:00:21 +0000

Quote & Quotables

joshuacwilliams — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:21:12 +0000

“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”

-Seneca the Younger

Town Clerk Won’t Marry Gay Couples

joshuacwilliams — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 12:57:47 +0000

And you guessed it…it’s because of her religious beliefs. A New York clerk put in her resignation papers so that her last day was three days before New York passed legislation allowing gay couples to marry.

“The Bible clearly teaches that God created marriage between male and female as a divine gift that preserves families and cultures. Since I love and follow Him, I cannot put my signature on something that is against God” said Laura Fotusky, the town clerk.

You know what the Bible also teaches? Stoning! You know what else? Slavery! You know what else? Religious intolerance! You know what else? Capital punishment! I could go on, but you get the idea.

Ahhh! I love the cherry pickers.

A little Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

joshuacwilliams — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:42:19 +0000

Quote & Quotables

joshuacwilliams — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:39:52 +0000

“The inspiration of the bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it.”

-Robert G. Ingersoll

Beautiful & Complex Things That God Didn’t Make

joshuacwilliams — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 07:33:48 +0000

The Universe

Photo credit: Hubble Ultra Deep Field

From BestBibleScience.org, stating that the Universe is evidence for creation:

By definition, something must be eternal (as we have “something” today and something cannot come from “nothing”, so there was never a time when there was “nothing”). Either the universe itself is eternal, or something/someone outside of and greater than the universe is eternal. We know that the universe is not eternal, it had a beginning (as evidenced by its expansion). Therefore, God (the something/someone outside of the universe) must exist and must have created the universe. Einstein showed that space and time are related. If there is no space there is no time. Before the universe was created there was no space and therefore no concept of time. This is hard for us to understand as we are space-time creatures, but it allows for God to be an eternal being, completely consistent with scientific laws. The question “who created God” is therefore an improper/invalid question, as it is a time-based question (concerning the point in time at which God came into existence) but God exists outside of time as the un-caused first cause.

Just because we know the Universe is finite, this does not necessitate that an eternal being predates it. It merely means we don’t know what preceded the universe, and hopefully in due time, science will provide the answer. In fact, there are some people currently trying to figure out what came before the universe, or if it just existed in a different state than that which we know now.

One of the most amusing things about this statement though from BestBibleScience is that it’s self-contradictory. In the very first sentence, it states that “‘something cannot come from ‘nothing’”. And the very last sentence states that “God…exists as the un-caused first cause”. These two ideas, when put together, blatantly contradict one another, defeating their own argument.

QED

Children of Africa

joshuacwilliams — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 07:20:27 +0000

Symphony of Science has put out a new video entitled Children of Africa. Enjoy!