The Regal Standard is Not a High Standard

The 2012 Global Atheist Convention is done and dusted, and you know what? All that affirmation has made me hungry for conflict. The muslim protesters this afternoon weren't really to my taste (though I had a polite chat), so fortunately on the way out a little girl handed me a copy of The Regal Standard - a clever ploy to get my attention while circumventing my wrath.

Luckily I was able to find the publication's website. From the site:

"The Regal Standard was designed as a response to the second global atheist convention which is to be held in Melbourne. The atheist convention seeks to deny God, blame Christians for many evils in the world and discourage people from the faith. The Regal Standard acknowledges and honours God, proclaims the many great things he has done through his followers, and encourages people to follow God. The media will not be sympathetic to Christians. We need to produce our own."
 
In their leading article, a former atheist named Anthony Flew trotted out the age old monkey-typewriter fallacy.

I sent them:

"Dear Sir,

In your article 'I Was Wrong', starting on page 1 of The Regal Standard, you focus on an argument by Professor Anthony Flew about monkeys typing a shakespearean sonnet.

'For the whole 488 letters the chances are 1 in 26^488... The bottom line... It's never going to happen'

Isn't that the same as, say, lining up 488 playing cards, or any 488 arbitrary objects, and declaring their specific combination improbable?

By publishing this argument, you implicitly endorse it.

Looking forward to your reply.

A fellow seeker of truth,
-Ryan"

I ended up leaving the paper on the train. Hopefully someone else gets a laugh out of it, especially the article on such unfulfilled biblical prophecies as "there will be a war in the middle east". Good news guys! I think it already happened (several times even).

John Mackay, Creationist

The name "John Mackay" popped up in my RSS feed today. Mackay is a prominent Australian creationist and director of Creation Research, an online ministry funded by donations with the mission of discovering evidence to support biblical creation. 

Mackay has had the good fortune to debate such skeptics as Richard Dawkins and myself (the only time I get to feature in a sentence with Richard Dawkins). Dawkins has since enforced the policy of not debating creationists, but I'm still willing!

Rocky Horror Picture Show

I've just won two tickets to see Time Warp, a musical tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show at a local theatre. The prize includes backstage passes, and as yet undisclosed "memorabilia". To enter, I had to send an email to the competition address for Lifestyle1 magazine. Here is the email that won me the competition:

Chain Email Christianity

I received a chain email from my mother this week. This might not hold the same significance for you as it does for me, but I was fairly certain I had succeeded in training my mother not to do this. Here it is below:

"Money bags
This year, July has 5 Fridays, 5 Saturdays and 5 Sundays. This happens
Once every 823 years. This is called money bags. So, forward this to
Your friends and money will arrive within 4 days. Based on Chinese
Feng Shui. The one who does not forward.....will be without money.

Kinda interesting - read on!!!
This year we're going to experience four unusual dates.
1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11 and that's not all...
Take the last two digits of the year in which you were born - now add
The age you will be this year,

The results will be 111 for everyone in whole world. This is the year of
The Money!!!

The proverb goes that if you send this to eight good friends money will
Appear in next four days as it is explained in Chinese FENGSHUI.
Those who don't continue the chain won't receive.......
Its a mystery, but its worth a try. Good luck."

Rise Up Australia!

Do you like to be entertained and frightened at the same time?

Visit this page and read about the formation of the Rise Up Australia Party. There are a few questions I'd like to ask of the party chairman, Rev Dr Daniel Nalliah, but his email address appears to be dead. My response to his announcement is below:

"Dear Rev Dr Daniel Nalliah

Re: Welcome to Rise Up Australia Party

I hope you will take the time to answer my questions regarding your article. I apologise in advance that some of them may appear antagonistic. I have tried my best to make them as to-the-point as possible.

Youth Beta

When I was a teenager, I fell in love with a Lutheran girl who attended a church-run program called Youth Alpha. The program featured an energetic video of a demon-hunting cowboy and an awkward man in his mid-twenties describing how great it was to not have sex.

Towards the end of each session, we would be broken up into groups to talk about ourselves, and more importantly, Jesus. I used to enjoy stirring up the group leaders by asking reasonable questions about religion.

In my last post about my fake conversion, I touched upon the concept of "busting the group-think bubble". This is the idea that simply by being present, an outed atheist or skeptic causes people to see themselves through the skeptic's eyes. In the context of a youth group, this means they are less likely to casually accept ideas that will make them appear ridiculous or complacent.

So I suggest the following. If there are youth groups in your area, attend. Be polite, reveal yourself as skeptical, and ask well-timed, pertinent questions.

What do you think?