List of Hitler quotes — in honor of the papal visit to the UK

Douglas Theobald passed along an interesting collection of quotes from that atheist evolutionist, Adolf Hitler. It's particularly interesting that he outlawed atheist and freethought groups in 1933.

via scienceblogs.com

Posted via email from vichoon's posterous

Immaculately good taste

Why would 40 people complain to the ASA about this fine piece of advertising? It's not as if it featured a priest dispensing his creamy goodies to children, God forbid.

Tim Minchin - Pope Song

via youtube.com

This song wins the internet. Someone give Minchin a stuffed golden lolcat

Posted via web from vichoon's posterous

Warning

via sp0rky-n00b.co.uk

Posted via web from vichoon's posterous

Holy love bullets

via fotomat.tumblr.com

Posted via web from vichoon's posterous

The Morgan Freeman Chain Of Command

via whatconsumesme.com

Posted via web from vichoon's posterous

Zombie Jebus

Loverly lickle venn via Blag Hag. A more detailed version might include aversion to sharp objects aimed at head / hands / heart, or something.

I'll get me coat.

The pernicious appeal of misinformation

Counterknowledge is defined as “misinformation packaged to look like fact” in Damian Thompson’s excellent (and short) book. People’s propensity for swallowing any dozy nonsense has been a pet subject of mine for some time; it is also an important consideration in much of the trends analysis I undertake.
Ah, you might think, here’s a bloke who works in advertising and knows all about misinformation because, hur hur, these marketing machines churn out fibs and deceit all day long. Well, no actually.
For a start, what this industry generates is constantly scrutinised and, unlike the press, takes criticisms from its watchdog very seriously. Any batterings delivered by the ASA reflect poorly on our clients. Not good for business.
Secondly, I believe that ad agencies with a strong strategic planning presence have a better understanding of what makes people tick than most other consumer-facing businesses.
This makes a cosy reason for monitoring all the nonsensical stuff that people believe in.
Here’s the fit.
Modern history (a good summary of which can be found in Andrew Marr’s sweet tome) informs us that over the last half-century, Britain’s traditional authority figures – parents, teachers, doctors, the police etc. – have seen that authority wane. It’s partly true that our fate is no longer determined by birth, but by choice. I say “partly” because it looks like social mobility has declined over the last decade for those unfortunates at the bottom of society’s pile.
The increase in media choice – firstly by more TV and radio channels and then by that internet thingy – combined with social change means that we have new authority figures: brands and celebrities. My book of the year – Professor Geoffrey Miller’s “Spent” – suggests to me that the mass of choices available to us provide a cornucopia of options for building our identities. We choose brands according to the image we are trying to project.
Why this can be a force for good is the subject of another post. It’s the bad stuff I’m interested in.
The counterknowledge problems arise when members of the great British public ignore the traditional authority figures and nail their colours to the masts of celebrities and charlatans. The public is exposed to powerful and seductive influences now more than ever. Attention spans are shorter (more stimulus from the media, most of it innaccurate if you read certain grey-top tabloids).
Remember the Millennium Bug? That was bullshit dreamt up by the media and “new experts” who over-reacted to a minor article published inside a Canadian newspaper in the early 1990s. More recently, the MMR vaccine, a scare over which was manufactured by a dodgy doctor who falsified (poorly executed) research based upon a tiny sample of children. Parents who refused to vaccinate their children are now faced with outbreaks of those once-banished illnesses that the injections were designed to counter.
Being a parent, I was naturally concerned about the MMR issue. Now my kids are no longer toddlers, I’m more concerned about bullshit being peddled in schools. Fortunately I have seen little evidence of misinformation in lessons, except where it belongs – in RE – but there is a need for vigilance if Britain is to avoid a rather pernicious influence that originated in the USA: the undermining of science.
The British Council instigated a survey that suggested over half of Britons want creationism taught in science lessons.
The polled statement was "Evolutionary theories should be taught in science lessons in schools together with other possible perspectives, such as intelligent design and creationism."
I’m having to hold back on releasing a sweary rant at this point. It’s difficult when faced with such ignorance.
“Intelligent design” is creationism. Same wine, different bottles. The idea is that the evidence-based theory of evolution is given equal parity to fairy stories about magical beings creating creatures and people. And you can’t restrict creationist teachings to Judaeo-Christian myths because then you’d have to explain why these are more valid than every single creation myth from the Stone Age onwards.

You see the problem?
Science was once one of the old authorities. Because we are now used to the opinions of self-appointed whack-jobs being given equal weight to those of people trained for years in the scientific method, it’s becoming harder to tell the difference.
It’s not that people are more stupid. This issue is that they’re not taught to think.

Bible dino pic from b3ta

World ends 21st October

The world is ending once again, according to the Rapture nuts who pencilled in the Apocalypse for this time last month. Unbelievers will find their souls riven to pieces tomorrow, apparently.

The greatest PR campaign that'll never be

I'm sure many people have considered the contrast between the earthly wealth of one of the world's richest institutions and the deathly poverty of many of its followers. Comedian Sarah Silverman has hit on the perfect means of resolving the ethical conundrum.


From Pharyngula

Bless

Why? My pet bird appears to be doing just fine.

via

Pesky immigrants

Wonderful stuff from b3ta

Atheists: you're probably too late

I'm writing this on Sunday evening, and timing it to upload first thing Monday morning. Why? Because, if you're reading this then you are most probably damned to hell. Upon hearing the news that the Rapture is happening on Monday 21st September, I renounced my atheism, gave up my soul to Jesus and confessed all my sins.
I wish I had enough warning to save my pet fish (who don't have souls anyway), but at least my American brothers and sisters won't have to worry because, as the Telegraph reports, atheists are offering a post-Rapture service guaranteeing the earthly care of Christian pets for $110.
One thing I'll miss on my holy cloud, spending eternity singing hosannahs to God, is a decent bit of entertainment, including the atheists' favourite Christmas movie, Coincidence On 34th Street.

Holy fart!

by Ad Impact, Australia, via Ads of the World

Before the worship begins

"Pareidolia (pronounced /pærɪˈdoʊliə/) is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon, and hearing hidden messages on records played in reverse. The word comes from the Greek para- ("beside", "with", or "alongside"—meaning, in this context, something faulty or wrong (as in paraphasia, disordered speech)) and eidolon ("image"; the diminutive of eidos ("image", "form", "shape"))." – Wikipedia

via Daily Mail

Self awareness

via Jimmy Carr's Twitter