An Honest Atheist?

Without going into details, I placed an order for a certain product and received much more than I ordered and payed for.

I called the company and explained the situation. The girl that I spoke with on the phone was very impressed that I had returned the extra product when I could have easily kept it. In fact, she said it was "very rare" that a customer is honest when a mistake of this nature is made.

Really? It's rare? We live in a country where 85 to 90% of the population claims to believe in god. It should be a rare thing for a person to not be honest in a situation like this.

They can preach up god all day long, but in the end their actions speak louder than their words.

This Just In! Taking Aspirin Always Leads to A Headache

A recent study has shown indisputable proof that taking aspirin causes headaches!

No really, it's true! We surveyed 100 people and asked them to report each time they take an aspirin (or any type of pain killer). The associated symptom: headache. There you have it. A headache correlates 100% with taking aspirin. The results speak for themselves.

Stupid, right?

Of course it is because we all know that people take aspirin when they already have a headache to make it go away.

Well, the LDS church uses logic like the example above to try and convince people to hand over their hard earned dollars.

From the book Why? Powerful Answers and Practical Reasons for Living LDS Standards, page 144 there is a graph comparing two families and their income. Quote:

"Studies show that charitable giving makes you wealthier. Imagine you have two families that are exactly the same... the only difference is that the first family gives $100 more to charity than the second family. It turns out that the first family will earn, on average, $375 more than the nongiving family. If giving to any charity produces this result, then giving to the Lord will do even more!"

So if I follow this "study" and choose to give all my money to charity, then the dollars should come rolling in! No! How about a reality check.

Did the family MAKE more because they GAVE more?

Or did they GIVE more because they MADE more?

This is the LDS church using statistics in a dishonest way to convince people to fork over the dough.

I would have scanned the page and posted it, but my hardware is currently nonfunctional.

In LDS land, taking ASPIRIN leads to HEADACHES, and GIVING more means you'll MAKE more.

In real life, taking ASPIRIN relieves HEADACHES, and MAKING more means you have the ability to GIVE more.

So make more money by NOT giving it to the LDS church so that you can give it (if you wish) to a more beneficial charity.

The Collapse of Evolution

To be fair, I found an 8 part video documentary on YouTube that claims to be able to refute evolution. I will post them all here. This video is pro-creation and even quotes passages from the Quran. Many times, it refers to the creator, Allah.

This video does bring up some very good arguments. Some of the arguments are better than others. If evolution is accepted by the scientific community in spite of these arguments, then they must have a good reason for rejecting them. I will attempt to find pro-evolution refutations to these arguments.

This first video establishes well that the origin of life is still unknown.



This second video makes the argument that even a single cell is so complex that it couldn't have possibly come about by chance.



The third video makes the argument that "natural selection" has no evolutionary power. Acquired traits, such as losing an arm, does not change the genes that are passed from generation to generation.



Video 4 argues that "irreducible complexity" makes slow, gradual changes over time impossible. It also argues that the idea of "mutation" is always harmful to the species and never beneficial. And it argues that no genetic mutation or evolutionary process can increase the information in the genome, thereby leading to more complicated organisms.



Video 5 argues that "transitional forms" are not present in the fossil record. Species appear suddenly in the fossil record in their fully developed forms.



Video 6 talks about some supposed "transitional forms" found in the fossil record and how they actually were not.



Video 7 talks about how man could not have possibly evolved from apes.



Video 8 talks about evolutionary fraud.



By posting this documentary, it does not mean that I agree with it. I am posting it here so that no one can accuse me of cherry picking. However, if the video brings up valid points, which it does, then they must be given some credit. I will attempt to find pro-evolution refutations to these arguments and post it here at Mormon411.

Before You Attempt to Refute Evolution...

...you should learn what it actually is!



First of all, before you can refute evolution, you need to understand the theory. If you don't understand it, how can you refute it or even have an intelligent conversation about it?

You have read the book, haven't you?

Richard Dawkins: One Fact to Refute Creationism

Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, talks briefly about the evidence for evolution and why he doesn't debate with creationists. And finally, he answers the question, "What if you're wrong?" This man is my hero.

When You Really Think About It, God Is Amazingly Absent From Your Life

Tonight I had a short but progressive conversation with my TBM wife. Don't worry, I'm not going to badmouth her! I am, however, going to summarize our conversation. I think I might, just might, have made a slight impact.

We were discussing, of course, my disbelief in a supreme being. She stated to me that she believes because of all the times when god has been with her. Curious, I asked her to share so that we could analyze and see if god was really there.

The first experience that she related was when she, as a young child, was very sick. She prayed to god and eventually recovered.

My reply: So your immune system did nothing? Your immune system did all the work and god gets all the credit? Not impressed.

The next experience was when her and her sister were swimming and her sister, for whatever reason, was drowning. A nearby "good Samaratin" jumped into the water and saved her.

My reply: How disappointing... Now if an invisible hand had come out of the sky and pulled her out of the water, then I would be damn impressed. So, a passerby saved your sister and god gets the credit? Not impressed at all.

Her third experience was when her brother was in a motorcycle accident and was severely injured. She prayed and was comforted. Eventually her brother recovered.

My reply: God comforted you but left your brother in pain? First of all, that's just wrong. Secondly, the doctors and hospital staff that helped your brother deserve no credit at all for actually being there to care for him? God is amazingly absent from the scene and yet gets all the credit? Not impressed.

At this point I was asking my wife, "Is this seriously all that you have to base your faith on?"

As a young child myself, I lived in a heavily wooded area. Once, while playing in the woods, I lost a very small piece to a tool of my dads. Not knowing what else to do, I prayed that I would be able to find it. No sooner had I said the prayer, than I opened my eyes and there it was.

It was seriously as unlikely of being found as the "needle in a haystack".

Now looking back, I have to say that if god did help me find that little piece, then his priorities are really fucked up.

Seriously, he will help you find your lost keys but ignores the sincere pleas for help from starving children all over the world?

Score one for satan...

... my wife had to admit that I had a good point.

Don't Ask the Question If You Don't Want to Hear the Answer

Today I was sitting in a crowded restaurant. The table next to us had a family that was OBVIOUSLY Mormon. I could just tell by their mannerisms. It was a young couple with two young children. The older of the two was a normal, inquisitive boy. The younger was still an infant.

I wasn't purposefully eavesdropping, but I couldn't help but hear some of their conversation. The young inquisitive boy asked his parents, "Why isn't everybody happy?"

This young boy is already being brainwashed with Mormon propaganda. He has been taught that only by being Mormon can a person be happy. People outside of the church might think they are happy, but it's just an illusion.

The fathers answer confirmed it for me; for sure they are LDS. "Because they don't have ___ in their lives." I leave the word blank because I did not hear it over the conversation of the crowd. However, I didn't need to hear whatever word it was. That was a typical Mormon reply.

Just seconds after the fathers answer, the young child, who was sitting in an akward position at his table, slipped from the chair and landed on the hard floor right on his head. He didn't scream as much as I was expecting. He did hit the floor pretty hard!

As his mother comforted him, I couldn't help but think of his question, "Why isn't everybody happy?"

I hope the fall on his head helped answer that question for him...

... because shit happens, kid! Even to happy Mormons.