how to apply crank salt
My bestest blogging buddy and ranting mentor is handsome Egyptian dude, Arkenaten. Like me, he thinks it improbable that invisible deities actually exist, and he doesn’t hold many organised religions in particularly high regard.
I think it’s fair to say that we both poke about the internet looking for pages with interesting information about the absurdities of religion, and particularly Christianity, the religion we are both most familiar with. Something about one of his recent posts got me thinking about the nature of ‘crank’ pages, and problem of the reliability of our internet sources, including the generally very useful Wikipedia.
We’ve all done this before. Think of any random thing you believe and do a search for it on Google. Now search for the opposite, or something ridiculous. There is online ‘evidence’ for anything you want to believe. Here are a few:
Jesus existed: http://carm.org/jesus-exist
Jesus never existed: http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/
Jesus was an alien: http://www.brandonmerhout.com/AlienJesus.html
It’s the end of the world: http://www.arewelivinginthelastdays.com/
The end of the world began on 21 December 2012 and you can buy your gifts here: http://www.december212012.com/preparedness-shop/
I think you get the picture. If you believe climate change is happening you can find 10,000 peer-reviewed papers, if you don’t, you can find 1000 papers and find a page telling you the discrepancy is down to biased funding sources, while the other side will find a page telling you the oil companies are funding the other papers, but another page will tell you this is rubbish. Unfortunately, if you want to know the true story about anything you have to go to all the original sources and make your own mind up. And most have us don’t have the time, or indeed the expertise, to do that for everything we have opinions on.
In a post several months ago where I gave some handy hints on how to tell if your religion is genuine, I fell for this quick, but less than robust method of collecting evidence about mythical gods. I googled what I wanted to believe, or had half heard, and found it quickly enough on Wikipedia. I then did another google for a secondary source, just to ‘confirm’ it was correct and then published. But when I was challenged, I found I couldn’t actually track down any original sources to confirm my solid internet ‘evidence’.
Even more so than with everything else in life, I think it’s best to take most things we read online with a hefty dose of crank salt.
I prefer to use the term, Common Sense.
While I readily acknowledge that I as much as anyone can get sucked in with disproportionate enthusiasm at the sight of another God is Nowhere site, I am inclined to opt for the version that leans towards sites that suggest characters such as Jesus did not walk on water rather than the one that emphatically asserts that he did and goes on to offer a science like treatise to demonstrate this point.
Charming folk like William Lane Craig will gleefully pin your backside to the chair for up to two hours demonstrating through flawless well rehearsed bullshit why Jesus really did rise from death.
But only the brain addled christian will accept his argument has any degree of plausibility.
Sites such as Jesusdidnotexist.com, while laced with rhetoric that is often acerbic are, for the most part, grounded in history pulling together hundreds of threads of previously inaccessible or unknown evidence.
There are many rank charlatans on the unbelieving side without question, yet if nothing else, such sites are ( one hopes) making people question all information relating to religion and not simply accepting the supposed consensus merely because those involved have theological qualifications.
If religious claims were true one struggles to understand why they needed to be enforced with the sword?
BTW the wall is out of focus.
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“I as much as anyone can get sucked in with disproportionate enthusiasm at the sight of another God is Nowhere site” I love this quote.
Your latest copy and paste post from Blogspot looks a bit more like it. I’d love to see a Christian attempt to defend those points.
BTW remember to close your italics
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Yes, I noticed…by the way.
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I am disappearing in your spam again…I think.
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No. All seems okay…sorry.
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One has to patiently sift the information and try as much as possible to not be biased.
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Unfortunately I don’t have much patience and I’m pretty biased! I think I’m just another crank internet presence to be honest. 🙂
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“Don’t believe everything you read on the interwebs”
-Benjamin Franklin
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LOL this is very funny and I am sure some still won’t get it. You’ll probably have to explain it to Violet.
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Ohhh, i’d duck if i were you 🙂
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You will have to explain it. (I’m assuming it’s toilet humour if Ark thinks it’s good)
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This is what happens when you have only muddy black water to drink
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No vitamin D either, there’s hardly any sunlight. And severe shortage of pineapples. It’s like the total opposite of Brazil.
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Well, you do have castles. That’s something.
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I think it is OK for a blog author to link to some other page, that is interresting and relevant to the topic. However, I usually try to awoid making too many links in my comments on other peoples blogs to other pages, that make wild claims that supposedly strengthen my position. Simply because that is when the convesation often boggles. I usually tend to make too long comments anyway, because I’d rather explain what I mean myself, but if I have to answer a set of wild claims behind a link to a completely separate page, then my comments get so long, that nobody reads them. Especially the person who posted the link to bolster their position in the first place.
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Your comments aren’t too long Raut. You’re just a deep thinker with lots of interesting thoughts!
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You okay, Miss V?
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Yes thanks. Just on a blog break. Best do a post to clarify. My blog fan legions will be tearing their hair out with concern! 🙂
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Phew…a few more days and i would have been emailing all the Scottish hospitals and vets and then pubs.
Nice to read your dulcet tones, once more.
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