Argument from Ultimate Authority

In November of '07, I wrote a post about Understanding Atheists. In it I touched on the difference between believing in the existance of God and following the same God.

Before and since that I've heard several times that God is necessary for an "ultimate standard" of morality, whatever that means. The arguments against this attempt at reasoning usually involve the one contending that morality depends on God is assuming God exists (and that it is their specific god providing the morals), that they know what God intends, and even asking where God obtained his own morals. Of course, those are just a few.

I can understand the arguments against the believer conclusion, but what strikes me is the release from responsibility that the believer's view provides. Instead of examining the evidence and circumstances they are only for and against what the voice in their head or what their interpretation of the book supposedly based on God tells them to be. Each time I hear them say that morals come from God as an excuse for their point of view, I picture a child in front of their parents defending their actions by saying "He told me to do it".

Prop. 8 in California, and other instances across the U.S., are prime examples. The argument's I've heard mostly consist of "marriage has always been between a man and a woman", or "if we let man marry man or woman marry woman people will be marrying their pets, vegetables, and children". However, when you point out the history of polygamy and confront them on their fallacious use of the slippery slope argument they try to bullshit their way through it.

We're all fully capable of thinking for ourselves. The problem is that so many don't have the desire to do so. Instead of coming to their own conclusions they either interpret their book in the way they can keep their bias, just accept what an authority figure says, or just listen to the voice in their head.

While I don't agree with everything Anne Lamott believes, there's one quote by her that I think sums it all up nicely.

That's how you can tell you've created God in your own image is if he or she hates all the same people you do.

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New 419 Variation

The last few months have been spent preparing for the arrival of our twins. Between the nursery and restocking newborn supplies, general work that needs to be done around the house and on our property, and my workload at my job I haven't had time for blogging. However, things are starting to slow down a little now.

One thing I have been doing is consistently checking my Gmail. In between the comment moderation notices and subscription emails a piece of SPAM periodically slips through. Most are just advertisements for things that I have no use for (Princess and I have a wonderful love life, thank you very much). However, one came through today that actually made me grin.

from Mrs Tara Muldock
reply-to taramuldock@live.co.uk

to
date Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 8:51 AM
subject Finally Your Compensation Is Here
mailed-by iis.com.br


Dear Friend,

I am Mrs Sara Bagwell. I am a US citizen and i am 34 years Old. I reside here in Dripping Springs, Texa and i am thinking of relocating since I am now rich.

I am one of those that took part in the United Nations Compensation program in Nigeria many years ago and they refused to pay me. I had paid over $20,000 while in the US, trying to get my

payment but all was to no avail.

So I decided to travel down to Nigeria with all my compensation documents and I was directed to meet Mrs Tara Muldock, who is the member of COMPENSATION PROGRAM COMMITTEE, and i contacted

her and she explained everything to me.

She said who ever is contacting us through emails are fake. She also took me to the paying bank (ZENITH BANK) for the claim of my compensation payment.

Right now, i am the happiest woman on earth because I have received my compensation funds of $5,000,000.00 more over, Mrs Tara Muldock showed me the full information of those that are yet

to receive their payments and i saw your email as one of the beneficiaries who have not yet received the payment under CASE FILE 54AC003 and that is why I decided to email you to stop

dealing with those people. They are not with your fund, they are only making money off you.

Therefore, i would advise you to contact Mrs Tara Muldock for assistance and inform her that your CASE FILE is 54AC003. Contact her directly via the information below.

UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION AWARD PROGRAM
Name : Mrs. Tara Muldock
Email: taramuldock@live.co.uk
Phone: +234-802-132-9323.

You really have to stop dealing with those people that are contacting you and telling you that your fund is with them because it is not with them. They are only taking advantage of you and

they will dry you up until you have nothing.

The only money i paid after i met Mr. Pitt Parker was just the bank transfer charges, which is only normal and legitimate as it is in all banks in the world. So please take note of that.

Mrs Tara Muldock shall ensure that you deal directly with the bank(ZENITH BANk).

Once again stop contacting those people. I advise that you contact Mrs Tara Muldock so that she can help you in the collection of your transfer payment instead of dealing with those liars

that will be turning you around asking for different kind of money to complete your transaction.

Thank you and be blessed.

Mrs. Sara Bagwell.

When I read these, it's almost like playing Where's Waldo?, but finding Waldo means trying to find something that might be plausible.

What's really ironic is when I did a Google search on buta@iis.com.br, the email address. One hit gave me a site listing the exact email address (translated from Portugese). When I did some further digging, it gave me a listing for the person (also translated from Portugese). Under the listed name was "Lawyer".

I'm wondering if the account was created just to try to lend credibility, or if the person's account was hijacked for the same reason.

Oh well. Regardless, sending an email for such a thing to my Gmail account automatically discounts it's viability. There are much easier ways to find me than my pseudonymous email account.

Update:

I tried contacting the email address used to send me the message and it failed.

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

buta@iis.com.br

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 554 554 5.1.1 : Recipient address rejected: User unknown (state 14).

Things that make you hmmmmm...

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X-Rays for Alzheimer's

Scientists think that plaques, called amyloid beta (Abeta), are the cause of Alzheimer's. The problem has been trying to find a safe and non-invasive way to track the Abeta's number and size. The Abeta plaques are very small, with the largest being 4 microns. For comparison, human hair is about 100 microns wide and red blood cells are 7 microns in diameter.

Enter diffraction-enhanced imaging, DEI. DEI has a high enough resolution that scientists and doctors can get the information they need on the plaques. It's currently only in the early stages, but hopefully they can find a way to make it safe for use on humans (the current work was done on a mouse).

DEI itself can't be used to treat Alzheimer's, but it will help in comparing the efficacy of treatments. With DEI researchers can compare the size and number of Abetas in the brain before and after treatment.

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