So I managed to contract the flu. As fun as it is to sleep for 20 of the last 24 hours, it’s not the best thing in the world. Expect posting to be non-existent or at least at a minimum for a few days.

(TE)DC

The video game portrayal of the average warrior woman has always amused me. Can you really call armor that only covers about 10% of your body armor?

(TE)DC

I hope you love it.

Parkour perfect faceplant – Watch more Funny Videos

(TE)DC

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

(TE)DC

“Intelligence is alcohol soluble.”

- As quoted on bash.org

(TE)DC

I'm sure I went to school for seven years for some reason.

Well, Oregon is one state that seems to get it right:

An Oregon couple was found guilty Tuesday of criminally negligent homicide for praying over their ill son instead of seeking medical help.

The jury returned the verdict on the second day of deliberations in the trial of Jeff and Marci Beagley, both members of the Followers of Christ Church in Oregon City. Church members gasped as Judge Steven Maurer read the verdicts.

Prosecutors said the Beagleys had a duty as parents to provide medical care for their 16-year-old son, Neil, who died in 2008 of complications from a urinary tract blockage. The defense argued the teenager had symptoms more like a cold or the flu.

Okay, seriously? I’m going to call bullshit right there. Urinary tract blockages have a ton of symptoms including, get this, pain and blood when you pee. But then again, how the fuck would the parents know, since they obviously don’t follow conventional medicine? I fail to see how this point would be even remotely relevant even if it was true.

And get this: it’s not even the first time they’ve done this.

The Beagleys are the parents of Raylene Worthington, who along with her husband were acquitted of manslaughter last year in the March 2008 death of their 15-month-old daughter, Ava, from pneumonia and a blood infection. Her husband, Carl Brent Worthington, was convicted of misdemeanor criminal mistreatment.

The Beagleys were present at the death of their granddaughter, laying on hands after anointing her with oil and praying for her to be healed instead of seeking medical care that church members avoid.

Greg Horner, the chief deputy district attorney who also prosecuted the faith healing trial, argued that the Beagleys should have been alert to the potential for relatively mild symptoms to mask serious and even fatal disease after the death of their granddaughter.

So that’s, what, three strikes on them? It should be pretty obvious that their prayers, at the very least, suck, since they seem to keep resulting in dead children. Really, I don’t have any sympathy for these people. Because of their (astounding) ignorance, their children die. It wouldn’t surprise me if they sought medical attention for themselves whenever they’ve been sick, either. Either that, or their parents did, because since they seem to lose family members at a somewhat accelerated rate, it stands to reason that their odds of survival should have been much lower.

That’s faith for you.

(Via)

(TE)DC

“Usually when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.”

- Malcolm X

(TE)DC

If humans can’t figure out the weather, what the fuck makes you think a groundhog can?

(TE)DC

I suppose statements such as “poor areas tend to have more crime and lower IQs”, “the South is generally poorer than the North”, and “the Bible Belt is pretty much a southern thing” could technically be filed under The “No Shit” Files, but nonetheless, people with even more free time than I do – which is difficult – decided to come up with a massive chart illustrating how each state in the U.S. ranks in various categories while also examining how important religion is in the lives of people in each state.

Are you ready for the massive image? Here it comes!

The Big Picture.

I would normally just host images like that here but the picture really needs to be seen in as large a size as possible.

Looking at the image, a few things jump out as “holy shit” statistics: namely, that religious states seem to be much more conservative, unhealthy, poverty-stricken, and generally much more unsafe. The average IQ also tends to be lower, although the correlation is not quite as strong except at the very top. Again, as I stated before, you can make a very general and very obvious statement that places where murder, crime and poverty are more common lead to lower standardized test scores and generally fewer intelligent people. The really damning thing about the list though is that there is a reasonable link between all of those factors and how many people identify religion as “important”.

I can’t say I entirely like the approach that was taken in creating this – a “generosity” index annoys the hell out of me, and we all know Bostonians are fucking douchebags – but it’s got it where it counts, and that’s what’s important. As is standard procedure on this site, I am going to link everything that is referenced, and I encourage you to examine the findings yourself:

Correlation charts

Religion vs IQ: r = -0.50

Religion vs Poverty: r = 0.69 (woah)

Religion vs Murder: r = 0.58

Religion vs Generosity: r = -0.08 (Not significant)

Religion vs Theft: r = 0.43

Religion vs Divorce: r = 0.20 (Not significant)

Religion vs Health: r = -0.50

Poverty vs Health: r = -0.60

IQ vs Conservatism: r = -0.37

(All correlations were significant @ p = 0.01 except for those listed as not significant).

Boring math work done by Reddit user ReachG.

Importance of religion
Average IQ scores
A more “scholarly” reference to average IQ scores
Poverty estimates
Theft and murder (Theft statistics are not adjusted per household)
Divorce rates (Goes further back than the last time I looked at divorce rates)
Generosity index (And again, it’s a lame statistic. Also, fuck Boston.)
Conservative label
Health and contentment rating/Well-Being index

Thanks to Reddit user cubew00t for putting this together, albeit under the title “God is a noob”.

Is it me, or does God seem to not answer prayers?

(TE)DC

“No man’s error becomes his own Law; nor obliges him to persist in it.”

- Thomas Hobbes

(TE)DC