Obviously there are different kinds of atheists just like they are different kinds of everything else. When I say I believe in religious freedom that includes the right to be atheist. It means I don't care if you're religious or not. In fact, I personally find atheists are often more trustworthy than most religious extremists. Part of it is because atheists don't do good for a reward in heaven, they do good based on an internal set of values. Also because extremists in anything are shady.
My brother in law is an atheist and he is a very good person. He was very good to my sister throughout their long marriage before she passed away. That's basically all that matters. Religious extremists are a bit harder for me to process. I find them irritating.
Now let's talk a little bit about science. I know that's sadly become a political term since Covid. Statements like oh I follow the science are a little bit irritating when most of the people saying that aren't following the science they're following the politics. Since Covid we've seen an alarming amount of medical censorship and fake science. Yet the scientific process is very real. It's logical and makes sense. When I was young, science was my favorite subject in school.
When I was a kid I inherited my older brothers' chemistry kit. It was full of test tubes and tiny containers of various chemicals you could experiment with. Let's see what happens when you mix this with that. Obviously the first thing my brothers taught me was how to make gunpowder from scratch. It's pretty basic. Back then you could buy salt peter from the drug store. The same with sulfur. Wood charcoal you could make yourself. In high school I learned that if you mix potassium permanganate with glycerin, it would slowly react and catch on fire. I got in trouble at two different high schools for pulling that stunt. I never thought of using it camping. Chemistry kits are fun.
The periodic table is a part of chemistry. Water is H20 - two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen in each molecule. So we are told. Let's conduct an experiment to see if that is in fact true - electrolysis. You get a container of water and throw in a bit of salt. Then you hook it up to an electric current. You have positive on one side and negative on the other. Once you turn the electricity on, hydrogen gas forms at one electrode while oxygen gas forms at the other electrode.
So yes, our experiment confirmed that water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen. Everything they told us wasn't a lie. Some things they told us were true. This relates to my DEVO post. When I was a kid you used to be able to buy all kinds of science kits from Radio Shack. They were cool. Some had little springs you could hook wires up to to form basic electrical circuits. A lot of people are homeschooling now that school has become a political battlefield of child grooming. Science kits like these would be really good to get. I see National Geographic have some.
Microscopes are cool. In grade 8 we used to study protozoa in water through a microscope. You can also look at blood cells under a microscope. Telescopes are cool too. Now you can buy telescopes that will find the planets and constellations for you.
Looking at stars with a telescope is kind of anti climatic but looking at moons and planets is revealing. Do what Galileo did and look at the moons orbiting Jupiter. Look at the rings around Saturn. If you get a filter you can look at sunspots.
I guess one of the reasons I can't comprehend flat earthers is because science and astronomy was so important to me growing up. The flat earth theory contradicts everything we know about the universe and the laws of gravitation. It just doesn't make sense. People say the Bible says this, the Bible says that, shut up. A lot of people misinterpret the Bible. Facts are harder to misinterpret especially when you are looking at them through a telescope.
If the earth is flat, why are all the other moons and planets spheres? The whole concept of gravitation and the earth's rotation is pretty basic. When I was young my father was an avid photographer. Sometimes we'd go out at night and try and take pictures of a meteor shower with a time lapsed camera. One time he put the camera on a tripod, aimed it at the North Star then set the exposure for a couple of hours. It was a simple experiment anyone can do.
We saw the same thing everyone else saw. The North Star was a fixed point in the centre while the other stars were short lines rotating around the North Star. We know the stars aren't literally revolving around the North Star. The earth is moving and the North Star is the axis of the earth's rotation. So we know that the earth is moving. It is rotating. That's why we have day and night. That's why we have sunrises and sunsets. Gravitation relates to a sphere not a coin.
We see the earth's shadow on the moon. The Hubble Telescope and the International Space station are not fake. Even if the moon landing was faked, that doesn't mean everything was faked. We can see the earth from outer space. This is why I have no time for flat earthers. They are defiant and argumentative. They are wrong and they refuse to admit it so they argue. I have no time for that. The reason I can't even conceive of the theory is because it defies all the laws of science and everything I see with my own eyes. I believe in real science not political science.
