Updates from November, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Eric P. Metze 10:01 on November 10, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: Science does not have any morals, yet Atheists still worship science? 

    Q: Science does not have any morals, yet Atheist still worship science?
    It seems futile and I don’t understand. Why do you choose hell over the kingdom of God?

    A: Science does not have any morals because science is not a religion. Mathematics and chemistry have no morals, either, and yet people have little doubt in their ability to send rockets to other planets and to create medicines that never existed. Atheists, as you put, do not worship science. Anyone can use science in their approach to anything. If it seems futile and you don’t understand, perhaps it isn’t the atheists that have an incomplete understanding of the universe.

     

  • Eric P. Metze 11:37 on November 8, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    The Yahoo’s at Yahoo! Answers 

    I have had the same Yahoo! account for over a decade. I mostly had it because I collect accounts at every major website. Most of Yahoo’s services are crappy and nerfed, so I’ve never had much of a need for it. But about a month ago I started participating in Yahoo! Answers and found it to be a great place to learn and share all kinds of things. For those that don’t know, Y!A isn’t a normal forum. People ask questions and you’re allowed to give an answer. It’s not really set up for discussions, but people try to do it anyway.

    There have been a ridiculous amount of questions regarding the idea that the world will end in 2012. So many people were asking the exact same question that it was becoming disruptive. No one gave a legitimate answer any time this was asked (myself included) and people generally used it as an opportunity to insult the person unfortunate enough to ask it. Well, I was one of those people that was getting fed up with the repetitious questioning and decided to make a joke.

    I asked a simple, harmless, and silly question in an attempt to highlight the absurdity of the 2012 meme. My question was, “If you believe the world is going to end on 2012, can I have your bank account information?” Within an hour of posting this question, I received this email:

    Hello Metzae

    You have posted content to Yahoo! Answers in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your content has been deleted. Community Guidelines help to keep Yahoo! Answers a safe and useful community, so we appreciate your consideration of its rules.

    Deleted Question: If you believe the world is going to end on 2012, can I have your bank account information?

    Violation Reason: Community Guidelines and/or Terms Of Service Violation

    If you feel this content was removed in error, please read the Community Guidelines and make sure that this content: 1. respects the question-answer format and is not chatty or personal communication; 2. does not contain non-relevant links to external sites or other questions and does not promote your own blog or website; 3. is respectful to other people and does not offend other community members. If you still believe this content has been removed in error, please contact Customer Care and tell us why.

    Regards,
    Yahoo! Customer Care

    My first thought was, “D’oh! Did they really think I was serious? Surely not.” Then I got this email:

    Hello Metzae(ericpmetze)

    You have posted content to Yahoo! Answers in violation of our community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your account has been suspended.

    If you feel you were not in violation, please contact our Customer Care and tell us why.

    Regards,
    Yahoo! Customer Care

    I laughed about it, knowing that I could appeal it and get my account taken out of suspension. So, I took the time to compose this letter:

    Hello there,

    My account was recently suspended because of a bad joke. There are so many people on Yahoo! Answers asking if the world is going to end in 2012 that it is becoming disruptive. Aside from my own question (which was rightfully deleted, I’ll admit), there have been a slew of people asking the exact same question and getting dozens of sarcastic, spiteful, and otherwise meaningless answers.

    The question I asked was intended as a joke, and I realize now why it was a bad joke. My question was “If you believe the world is going to end on 2012, can I have your bank account information?” My point was to say that if people really felt the world was going to end that they would be willing to give up something as important as their bank account. It was intended bring a little perspective to the whole issue.

    I realize that this isn’t a forum, a point that I make to people repeatedly. But I just got fed up with the dozens of people asking the exact same question. Y!A has a system set up to discourage this but people ignore it. And I also recognize the serious of the bank account reference. I can’t imagine someone actually putting their information in there, but I understand your concern. That’s why I completely understand removing my question

    While I understand deleting my question is necessary to weed out genuine abuses of this system, I don’t feel the suspension is warranted. I’m pretty sure I have a good standing with most of the Y!A community, and I enjoy being a part of it. Please consider reactivating my account.

    Comfortable with my attempt to reactivate my account, I forgot about it all until a couple days later when I got this email from them:

    Hello Eric,

    Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers.

    We appreciate your inquiry about your suspension from Yahoo! Answers and/or the deactivation of your Yahoo! ID. We reviewed your case, and decided that your account is not eligible for reinstatement.

    Once an account is disabled for a violation of the Terms of Service, the subscriber to the account will lose the ability to log in and access the account and its contents (including email and content stored with any other Yahoo! service). The account also will not be reactivated.

    Should you choose to create a new Yahoo! account, we invite you to read the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community Guidelines to help ensure your new account is not deactivated.

    Yahoo! Terms of Service:

    http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html

    Yahoo! Community Guidelines:

    http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines.php

    Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers. Your case number for this issue is 65843187. Please reference it in all future communication about this particular issue.

    Regards,

    Lilith Reine

    Yahoo! Customer Care

    And that’s where I am now. My account wasn’t just suspended, it was deleted. They took a big ol’ dump and my account was the victim. I can’t access my friends list, my inbox, or any other service that Yahoo offers. I can’t even access the answers I gave except those that I’d bookmarked (which I’ll be posting to my blog so I won’t lose them forever).

    No true appeal, no fair warning, and no way to undo the “damage” I caused. Thanks again to Yahoo! for being a bunch of humorless pricks. :P


    Tags: bullshit, Yahoo  
     

  • Eric P. Metze 10:50 on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: How come atheists are never haunted by ghosts or spirits?

    A: We are! Everyone is! The difference is that some people recognize those fears as an irrational and natural part of our biological heritage, so we don’t pay them much attention. Our imagination is a power thing.

    “I don’t believe in ghosts but they scare the hell out of me.”
    ~Yogi Berra


    Tags: , , , superstition  
     

  • Eric P. Metze 10:34 on November 5, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: My friend won’t leave me alone about the fact that I’m Jewish but celebrate Christmas?

    A: Christmas is not about Christ.

    People give each other presents on Christmas. Is it to celebrate the birth of Jesus? Nope! It’s because giving gifts to celebrate the winter solstice has been going on for thousands of years.

    People have Christmas trees during Christmas. Is it to celebrate the birth of Jesus? Nope! It’s because evergreen trees in the dead middle of winter reminded people that the cold season would eventually end.

    People worship Santa during Christmas. Is it to celebrate the birth of Jesus? Nope! It’s because St. Nick had absolutely nothing to do with Jesus and simply represented the harvest gifts that would come once the winter ended.

    So, why can Jews (atheists, Buddhists, etc) celebrate Christmas? Because humans have been doing it for thousands of years, and we’re not going to let the Christians claim what isn’t theirs!


    Tags: , holiday, paganism,  
     

  • Eric P. Metze 11:04 on November 4, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: What’s with all of this animosity between Christians and atheists lately?

    A: Lately? This crap has been going on for (literally) thousands of years. It just wasn’t until the invention of the internet that we finally got to see the theism debate argued across the spectrum. We have intelligent people, idiotic people, atheists, theists, agnostics, people that could give less than a crap, people that think this is the most important debate of all time, liberals, conservatives, anarchists, fascists, and all opinions in between interacting over the issue where they normally sat at home and kept most of their opinions to themselves.

    For the most part, the people you read in here are the vocal and opinionated ones. Whether they’re atheists or theists, the opinions you’re most likely to read are those that are the most expressed. And the contention between theists (almost all of whom believe that atheists are idiots) and atheists (almost all of whom believe that theists are idiots) is front-and-center in Yahoo! Answers. The format of this site makes it difficult to have a conversation, so people subvert those restrictions by attempting to spout their opinions instead of answering questions.

    Consequently, you get a lot of people that are mostly just responding out of a knee-jerk reaction to a question they’re passionate about. It doesn’t make their argument any more or less valid; it just makes it more obvious because it’s right there on the page for everyone to read. And the fact that everyone reads it makes people think they can argue instead just answer. So the atheists get annoyed with the idiotic theist questions/answers and the theists get annoyed with the arrogant atheist questions/answers.

    As long as their faith convinces theists that they are correct, they will assume their arguments to be correct. And as long as their reason convinces atheists that they are correct, they will assume their arguments to be correct. And if both sides “know” they’re right, then the debate is fundamentally doomed to being contentious and hostile. Try not to worry about it. We’ll grow up eventually.


    Tags: animosity, arguments, , ,  
     

  • Eric P. Metze 10:52 on November 4, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: What do you guys NOT understand about Islam?

    A: Oh my gawd, this is like asking a cave man what he does not understand about quantum physics. If anyone gives you any grief, just send them this link: http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/quran/good/long.html

     

  • Eric P. Metze 10:59 on October 29, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: Ever heard of a Unitarian Universalist Muslim?

    A: It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Unitarians don’t demand anything from you or your beliefs, so someone could be *any* religion and still be a part of their church.


    Tags: Muslim, , Unitarian  
     

  • Eric P. Metze 10:56 on October 29, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: Should being a Christian who believes in the rapture disqualify you to fly commercial airplanes?

    A: Yes. I believe that all people should be held to their beliefs, especially when they’re ridiculous. I don’t believe *anyone else* should be held to those beliefs, so don’t misunderstand me. I just love the idea of making fundies practice what they preach.


    Tags: fundamentalists, rapture,  
     

  • Eric P. Metze 15:29 on October 28, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: Is Bill O’Reilly bipolar?
    this guy realy creeps me out when he gets pissed at his guests

    A: If he was bipolar we would have more examples of him completely losing it like he did early on in his career. What you’re seeing now is mostly egomania. His cult-like following and the fact that he has a job where he can yell, lie, and manipulate large numbers of people is the perfect place for him…at least in his mind.

    “Shut up!”
    ~Bill O’Reilly

    “Turn his mic off! Turn his mic off!”
    ~Bill O’Reilly

    I’m sure there are other examples.


    Tags: Bill O'Reilly, bipolar disorder, egomania,  
     

  • Eric P. Metze 11:00 on October 28, 2009 Permalink | Comment

    Q: Do you think that ex-president Bush used religion in a manipulative way to gather support for the war in Iraq? 

    Q: Do you think ex-president Bush used religion in a manipulative way to gather support for the war in Iraq? Or do you think he’s a delusional nutbag who has hallucinations?  I know it sounds like a false dichotomy, but it really isn’t: http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=haught_29_5

    A: It doesn’t sound like a false dichotomy at all. He did, in fact, use religion to manipulate people to gain support. And he is, in fact, a delusional nutbag, though I’m not so sure about the hallucinations. (Depends on how real he thought God’s voice was when He was telling Bush to wage the war.) Either way, there’s nothing dichotomous about these two options. They can exist perfectly fine alongside one another.

     

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