Atheism

Holly Ghost vs Pendulum…. this is some funny stuff

Was watching the following clip of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens talking about anti religious sentiments.

It’s amazing! Smoking? Drinking whiskey and Martini’s? Is it possible to look any more like liberal elitists guys, come on? Perhaps next time the proceedings should take place over a fine bottle of Cristal perhaps having an interlude for a caviar tasting.

One of my friends who has family and friends in Israel recently tried to show people the sizes of the places involved when we talk about the conflict in Gaza. I found his comparisons enlightening and thought I would repost his comparison supplemented by the following discussion/argument.

Comparison (Courtesy of Dan)

“i was wondering to myself, just how big exactly is Israel?!?!?!
and can i demonstrate its size in a way that cant be disputed and that everyone can check my workings….

So I fired up google earth and Went to an Altitude of 1200 Km
here we can see Israel…”

“so here we have a much closer screen grab of Israel (transposed over the top of England) see the tiny area that is the gaza strip….”

“the altitude of view is 425 Km”

“So now I have zoomed to an altitude of just 150 Km so you begin to get a feel of just how tiny this bit of land is….”

This zoomed in image of Israel and the Gaza strip is transposed over Manchesters relative google earth image.

I found the size of Israel compared to UK towns and places to be interesting as i always imagined it to be much larger, it also brought the death tolls into a better perspective for me.

Maybe the argument got a little heated and nothing revolutionary was actually said but at least we care enough to have opinions backed by knowledge. One of the main problems I find in discussing these topics with people is a general apathetic studied disinterest of anything that does not directly affect them.

I would be kidding myself to say this apathy is a recent malaise on society because in truth I think it has always existed. I am not free of apathy and care little for some things it might seem “right” to have an interest in such as animal cruelty and environmental issues. Perhaps humans are only capable of so much empathy before mental exhaustion ensues?

Both sides commit horrible acts: