This is the home page of Wayne's Web site, created by Wayne Paulson. Previously updated 7 Aug 03; now updated 28 Au & 1 Sep 05, after having acquired a newer PC and a laptop.
Shortcuts:
Latest additions ___ Queen's University physics
alumni
Site contents (In alphabetic
order.) ___ Wayne's photos ___ Fractal images
Topics include: fractals, "iterated function systems", cyborg, cyborgotomy, neologism, music, "media players", audio, radio, "radio tuners", "music sources", short-wave, shortwave, news, "news media", noise, "noise reduction", "active noise reduction", religion, Christianity, "Martin Luther", anti-Semitism, Catholic, Hitler, Nazism, atheism, atheist, heretic, agnostic, agnosticism, blasphemy, shariah, Queen's, Kingston, alumni, physics, design, "religious terrorism", Islam, jihad, "design failure", "my beliefs", "poor design", "fractal images", "fractal art", "algorithmic art", health, lymphoma, photosensitivity, gripes, complaints, neurofractals, barbaric, barbarism, barbarity, "Islam is barbaric", "Christianity is barbaric", "clerical fascism", "Catholic Church opposes freedom of religion", "how to get excommunicated", humor, satire, images, photography, "digital photography", "digital images", health, cancer,"crossword puzzles", cryptic, "cryptic crossword", search, "search engines", "random iteration algorithm", "Ken Musgrave", "Michael Barnsley", "Richard P. Feynman", stereograms, satellites, "satellite images", "satellite broadcasting", "improving system performance", "system performance", airlines, "airline schedules", airport, aviation, distance, "how far is it", myths, marijuana, "goodbye to Quebec", "Quebec, please leave Canada", "satellite imagery", punctuation, "comma before the closing quotation mark"*, optimism.
* No apology is offered for the logical (British) system usage of commas in the above, in violation of the ridiculous so-called common system in general use in the USA and (now, unfortunately) Canada! See Fowler and Gowers.
Logo image: The logo image appearing at the top of each page is a scaled-down version of an image that I generated using my program ConjPic. For a more detailed view of it and a summary of how I produced it, visit the Big Logo page.
For an explanation of entries such as (2 p, 20 s), alias (pages, download time, seconds), click here.
About me, Wayne ___ Quotes of the day ___ Latest additions
Site contents (In alphabetic order.)
Fractal images 
__________________ 
Odds & ends ("Test" questions!) ___ Future pages
I offer a Tribute to America, in my poem, and in comments and links on
Religious terrorism ___ What If Islam Ruled America?
Quotes of the day (For some of my own, see Wayneisms.): (Updated 22 Nov 01.)
For more quotes (additional to those below), see Older quotes of the day.
'No, our science is no illusion. But an illusion it would be to suppose that what science cannot give us we can get elsewhere' -- Sigmund Freud
"Finding that no religion is based on facts and cannot therefore be true, I began to reflect what must be the condition of mankind trained from infancy to believe in error." -- Robert Owen
"I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own -- a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism." -- Albert Einstein
Islam itself is a fascist ideology see Islam is a fascist ideology.
"Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy." -- Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary: http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/devils/)
"If we are going to teach 'creation science' as an alternative to evolution, then we should also teach the stork theory as an alternative to biological reproduction." -- Judith Hayes
For more quotes, see Older quotes of the day.
Trip to AZ (Added 1 Sep 05.)
Size' of this Web site as of: 24 Aug 02, 12,588 Kb of 250,000 Kb used, 237,411Kb free; 8 Dec 02, 14.9 MB; 29 Dec 02, 16.2 MB; 6 Jan 03, 17.0 MB; 1 Apr 03, 31.8 MB.
View of Earth at night from space station (Updated 17 Aug 03.)
Impeach President
George W. Bush
-- Vote To Impeach George W. Bush:
http://www.votetoimpeach.org/
View the Articles of
Impeachment, drafted by Former U.S. Attorney
General Ramsey
Clark .
. . , former U.S. Attorney General during the Johnson
Administration, . . . setting forth high crimes and misdemeanors by President Bush and other civil
officers of his administration. (Added 13 Aug 03.)
SARS, Flu, and risk perception (Updated 27 Apr 03.) (7 p, 45 s)
Health (12 p, 59 s) (Updated 14 Apr 03.) (6 p, 44 s)
Fractal images (Updated 13 Apr 03.)
Ottawa Imam supports Jihad against USA forces in Iraq (Updated 8 Apr 03.)
Search utilities (26 p, 80 s) (Updated 6 Apr 03.)
Annapolis Valley Skeptic: http://www.valleyskeptic.com/ THE VOICE OF REASON AND RIDICULE. (Added 3 Apr 03.)
How Bush kicked the [expletive] out of the Geneva Conventions (Added 2 Apr 03.)
Language as a casualty of war (Added 1 Apr 03.)
Genealogy page links (Updated 1 Apr 03.) ___ Science (23 p, 79 s) (Updated 1 Apr 03.)
Cyborgotomy: a neologism? (Added 23 Mar 02. Updated 29 Mar 03.) My neologism not used by others yet, but has been added to the Pseudodictionary.
Pseudodictionary . . . the place where words you've made up can become part of an actual online dictionary!
Impeach Bush (Added 23 Mar 03.)
Satirical limericks about Iraq war: Emperor Bush and King Blair on Holy Crusade (Added 17 Mar 03.)
Could the war on Iraq turn nuclear? (Added 17 Mar 03.)
War on Iraq and international law (8 p, 51 s) (Updated 17 Mar 03.)
Queen's University physics alumni (9 p, 49 s) (Added 2 Dec 02. Updated 12 Mar 03.)
Photosensitivity (23 p, 90 s) (Updated 12 Mar 03.)
Risk (18 p, 66 s) (Updated 7 Mar 03.) ___ Junk law page (6 p, 44 s) (Updated 7 Mar 03.)
Health economics and safety (5 p, 42 s) (Added 5 Mar 03.)
Medical malpractice (Added 5 Mar 03.)
Escape from a burning building (Updated 27 Feb 03.)
Israel Goes Too Far: AlterNet Israel Goes Too Far: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15028 In a development that probably shouldn't shock me, but does, Israel has publicly announced plans to murder people on U.S. soil. . . . (Added 30 Jan 03.)
Where Are the Islamic Moderates? (Added 30 Jan 03.)
Islam page (Islam10) (17 p, 72 s) (Updated 30 Jan 03.)
The Age of Sacred Terror (Added 29 Jan 03.)
Religious terrorism (34 p, 102 s) (Updated 29 Jan 03.) Why all of Islam -- not just the so-called extremist terrorists -- is a real threat to the world. By this, I certainly do not mean that all Muslims -- or even a majority of them -- are a threat.
Itchy tags on T-shirts (Added 28 Jan 03.)
Gripes: (alias Bad design) why things don't work well (16 p, 67 s) (Updated 28 Jan 03.)
Photos page or My photos main index (10 p, 34 s) (Updated 12 Jan 03.)
Crash: why vehicles crash page (24 p, 78 s) (Updated 5 Jan 03.)
Aviation health and comfort
issues
(Added 4 Jan 03.) . . .
. . . Air
travel and pain from air-pressure changes (Added 4 Jan 03.)
. . . Air travel
and Aspirin and blood clots (Added 3 Jan 03.)
. . . Air travel
and Security measures (Added 4 Jan 03.)
Airline
schedules and advice (10 p, 52 s) (Updated 4 Jan 03.)
Humor page (4 p, 38 s) (Updated 3 Jan 03.)
Clone the Messiah page (16 p, 71 s) (Updated 3 Jan 03.)
The Freudian Theory of Religion: http://www.faithnet.freeserve.co.uk/freudreligion.htm Sigmund Freud is part of a group of thinkers who have reacted against religion in its formal expression (E.g. Church, liturgy, the belief that God lives in the heavens etc.), but at the same time seeks to internalise key religious concepts and then relate them to the human psyche. However, unlike modern non-realists who see value in religion as a means for promoting certain social and moral values in society (see God as the Sum of our Highest Ideals), Freud is more akin with the likes of Karl Marx who saw religion as an immediate expression of some deeper human problem which needed to be 'cured' (see Marxism). Although Freud was Jewish he never practiced his religion and in fact he believed that all religion was an illusion which had developed to surpress certain neurotic symptoms in humans. . . . (Added 29 Dec 02.)
Sigmund Freud's view of religion: http://www.casco.net/~tkerns/religsite/lecsite/lec-freud-relig.html Freud believes religion to be a simple instance of infantile neurosis. . . . (Added 29 Dec 02.) This and the preceding link are to be added to a new page entitled 'Religious belief as delusion'.
The Miami Herald 12-29-2002 Raelian says faith costly but legitimate: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/4832263.htm
News Story - canada.com network: http://www.canada.com/news/story.asp?id=%7BD1C60446-4676-429A-A4CC-944C0DE0E273%7D UFOs, Holiday Inns and Raelians: Cloning claim is not science as usual. MATT CRENSON, Canadian Press. Dec. 28, 2002.
Religious Movements Homepage Raelians (Added 28 Dec 02.)
Richard Dawkins on Sept. 11 Religious Terrorism (Added 27 Dec 02.)
The Koran (Quran) and violence (Added 27 Dec 02.)
Some samples of Quranic contradictions for you (Added 27 Dec 02.)
The Stupidest Religion (Added 27 Dec 02.)
Blasphemy and religious satire (22 p, 72 s) (Updated 27 Dec 02.)
An Islamic Reformation (Added 27 Dec 02.)
Annual message, Christmas, 2002 (and fractal image of Xmas tree)
The World of Richard Dawkins: http://www.world-of-dawkins.com/ Evolution, science, and reason (anti-religion)
Religion's Misguided Missiles (Richard Dawkins, RelTer25) (Added 26 Dec 02.)
Muslim nations lag in freedoms (Added 26 Dec 02.)
Liver: construction of, using fractal geometry (Added 24 Dec 02.)
Organ donation (Sandrine's Gift) (Added 24 Dec 02.)
Car laughs (1 p, 37 s) (Updated 22 Dec 02.)
The myth that optimism overcomes illness (Added 9 Nov 02.)
News headlines (Added 23 Oct 02.)
News bias in Canada (News12) (8 p, 47 s) (Added 18 June 02.)
In-car satellite-navigation (27 p, 85 s) (Updated 9 June 02.)
In-car satellite-radio (3 p, 38 s) (Added 8 June 02.)
News media (30 p, 86 s) (Updated 30 Apr 02.)
The myth that scalp massage is beneficial (Added 7 Apr 02.)
Unreasonable search of student (Law10) (Added 6 Apr 02.)
World's first cyborg, and neologism 'cyborgotomy'? (Added 22 Mar 02. Updated 6 Apr 02.)
Improving
system performance:
. . . Part 5. Disabling the Image Bar
In Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (Added 17 Mar 02.)
Cost of sports injuries (Added 16 Mar 02.)
Postmodernism Critique by Richard Dawkins. (Added 12 Mar 02.)
Arguments for and against existence of God (Added 12 Mar 02.)
Atheism (15 p, 64 s) (Updated 12 Mar 02.) ___ Megapixel myths about digital cameras (Added 11 Mar 02.)
Marijuana page (9 p, 35 s) (Added 10 Mar 02.)
The myth that exercise causes weight loss (16 p, 50 s) (Updated 9 Mar 02.)
WINDROWS (Wayne's Ironic News: Deconstructing Reportage Others Would Shun) (12 p, 56 s) (Updated 9 Mar 02.)
Negative ions and health This link added.
Odd news (Added 28 Feb 02.) ___ Emptiness of Theology by Richard Dawkins (Added 24 Feb 02.)
Improbability of God by Richard Dawkins (Added 24 Feb 02.) ___ Control cybercasting? (Added 22 Feb 02.)
Pentagon Propaganda Plan (OSI) Is Undemocratic, Possibly Illegal (Added 21 Feb 02.)
Satellite broadcasting ___ Satellite imagery and navigation (Updated 21 Feb 02.)
The myth that sleeping longer is healthier (Added 19 Feb 02.)
Happy Heretic Judith Hayes. (Added 19 Feb 02.) An atheist, she has perceptive commentary on the Islamic terrorism of 11 Sep 01, emphasizing that these terrorists were not extreme Islamisists -- they were acting in accordance with the Koran. I agree with her, as do several theologians. Just as many Christians do not necessarily believe in all of the Bible (stoning to death for blasphemy, for example), not all Islamists believe in all of the Koran (stoning to death and cutting off fingertips and hands). But, millions do so believe, along with their Mullahs and their theocratic governments.
Islam A Religion of Peace? . . . a significant segment of the Muslim world wishes me, my values and my society harm and is prepared to undertake or condone violent means to achieve this. (Added 19 Feb 02.)
Canadian Fascism -- Could it Become Reality? Can Stockwell Day separate church from state? "Standards of Education are not set by government but by God" -- Day. (Added 18 Feb 02.)
Clerical Fascism Convergence between certain strains of Christianity and fascism in the 20th century. (Added 18 Feb 02.)
Religion is a threat to national security and sanity (FreRel20) (Added 18 Feb 02.)
How to get excommunicated It might not be as simple as you think. Hitler, for example, was never excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. Just how bad to you have to be? (Added 18 Feb 02.)
The case against Catholicism (Added 18 Feb 02.)
Catholic Church opposes freedom of religion (Added 18 Feb 02.)
Rational Radio: http://www.rationalradio.com/ Our purpose is to document the growing institutionalization of health fraud and its effects on individuals and society. See Rational Radio for comments. (Added 13 Feb 02.)
An interview with God: http://168.143.173.209/IWGnet.swf This is an audio-video slide show of inspirational aphorisms accompanied by spectacularly beautiful photos. It will load a bit slowly, even on a high-speed connection; however, the wait is well worth it, even for one as skeptical as I about the existence of supernatural beings of any kind! (Added 13 Feb 02.)
Favorite sources of streaming audio (Updated 13 Feb 02.)
Media players (21 p, 73 s) ( Updated 13 Feb 02.) ___ Music links (30 p, 77 s) (Updated 13 Feb 02.)
Radio-TV sources page (23 p, 69 s) (Updated 13 Feb 02.)
How far is it -- and where am I? (Updated 10 Feb 02.)
Short-wave radio (10 p, 47 s) (Updated 2 Feb 02.)
Improving system performanceFeb 02.) (20 p, 78 s) (Added 2
Noisy library: another example of poor design? (Added 28 Jan 02.)
Christianity paved way for Holocaust (Updated 16 Jan 02.)
Diffuse large B cell lymphoma, a type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (28 p, 87 s) (Updated 12 Oct 01, then on 5 & 18 & 27 Nov 01, and 17 Dec 01.)
Keep God out of public affairs: http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,535543,00.html Guardian Unlimited Observer. Aug 12, 2001. Religion will never provide a moral framework for technological change, argues the distinguished philosopher, A.C. Grayling, who says the state must sever all support for all faith-based groups and events in order to foster a rational, ethical basis for science. . . .
. . . as votaries of imported religions grow more assertive in seeking the opportunities and privileges enjoyed by religious organisations indigenous to those democracies, and as the tolerant democracies respond concessively, so the prospect of real difficulty arises. It is obvious that Tony Blair's Government does not see the difficulty, because it is encouraging the spread of faith-based schools, whether Christian, Islamic, Jewish or Sikh, and considering legislation to protect people from harassment or discrimination if suffered specifically on the grounds of their faith. Both developments seem innocuous, even (in the latter case) desirable; but in fact they dramatically increase the potential for social divisions, tension and conflict, and illustrate why the public domain needs to be secularised completely as a matter of urgency.
The world's major religions - especially Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - are not merely incompatible with one another, but mutually antithetical. . . .
This is where the threat of serious future difficulty lies, because all the major religions blaspheme one another, and each by its principles ought actively to oppose the others . . .
It is a woolly liberal hope that all religions can be viewed as worshipping the same deity, only in different ways; but this is a nonsense, as shown by the most cursory comparison of teachings, interpretations, moral requirements, creation myths and eschatologies, in all of which the major religions differ and frequently contradict each other. History shows how clearly the religions themselves grasped this; the motivation for Christianity's hundreds of years of crusades against Islam, pogroms against Jews, and inquisitions against heretics, was the desire to expunge heterodoxy and 'infidelity', or at least to effect forcible compliance with prevailing orthodoxy. Islam's various jihads and fatwahs had and have the same aim, and it spread half way around the world by conquest and the sword.
Where they can get away with it, fundamentalists continue the same practices The religious Right in America would doubtless do so too, but has to use TV, money, advertising, and political lobbying instead to impress its version of the truth on America. It is only where religion is on the back foot**, reduced to a minority practice, with an insecure tenure in society, that it presents itself as essentially peaceful and charitable. . . .
[** That is where religion should be kept. It still has far too much support, even in the USA and Canada, with tax exemptions, calls for prayer by politicians (which should be illegal), separate schools in Canada (which should be outlawed***), . . .]
This is the chief reason why allowing the major religions to jostle against one another in the public domain is dangerous. The solution is to make the public domain wholly secular, leaving religion as a matter of private conviction. Society should be blind to religion both in the sense that it lets people believe and behave as they wish provided they do no harm to others, and in the sense that it acts as if religions do not exist, with public affairs being secular in character. The US constitution provides this, though the religious lobby is always trying to breach it - while George W. Bush's policy of granting public funds for 'faith-based initiatives' actually does so. To secularise society in Britain would mean that government funding for church schools and 'faith-based' organisations and activities would cease, as would religious programming in public broadcasting. It would mean the disestablishment of the Church of England, and the repeal of laws relating to blasphemy and sacrilege, leaving protection of private belief and practice to the safeguards which already very adequately exist in law.
If society does not secularise fully the result will be serious trouble; for as science and technology take us even further away from the ancient superstitions on which religions are based (a separation tellingly emphasised by the current cloning controversy), and as secular values continue to increase their influence, the tensions can only become greater. The science-religion debate of the nineteenth century is a skirmish in comparison to what we are inviting by allowing not just religion but mutually competing religions so much presence in public space. Now is the time to place religion where it belongs - in the private sphere, leaving the public domain as neutral territory where all can meet, without prejudice, as humans and equals.
A.C Grayling teaches at Birkbeck College, University of London
I agree fully with the above. The terrorism of Sep 11 -- inspired by religious belief -- has not taught us the lesson that we need to prevent the public support of all religions. The USA does so, more than any other country.
*** Canada fails badly, in its discriminatory funding of religious schools. So did the Taliban. So does Pakistan, whose religious schools trained some of the terrorists in the Koran, and continues to do so. It is not just the Koran that praises the murder and torture of infidels: the Bible does so too.
The United Nations has repeatedly notified Canada that it is a human-rights violator in this respect. Do you think that the churches are critical of this violation? Only a few non-Catholic ones! So much for the harmful effects**** of religion! That we no longer stone people to death for adultery is no thanks to the major religions --all of whose 'sacred' books advise one to do so -- but to pressure from secular society and its superior ethical values. In those societies in which religion still has too much power (which means any power at all), people still are stoned to death today, in 2001!
**** Amazon.co.uk House Philosopher:
House Philosopher: An Interview with AC Grayling
AC Grayling is lecturer in philosphy at Birkbeck College and fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He was interviewed for Amazon.co.uk by Larry Brown -- programmer for The Public Space, a forum for philosophical discussion based at Nottingham's Broadway cinema. . . .
Amazon.co.uk: The second part of the book [The Meaning of Things] is concerned with some of the things you consider to be enemies to human flourishing and many of them are associated with religion. Would it be fair to describe you as an aggressive atheist?
Grayling: I would certainly describe myself as a robust or uncompromising atheist, and I do indeed think that religious belief has been a massively negative force in human history, causing great suffering and conflict, and standing deliberately in the way of most of mankind's efforts at progress, freedom and flourishing. I tremendously value everything good about the human spirit -- by which I mean our human genius for art and thought, our enjoyment of beauty, our capacity for love, kindness and fellowship -- just as I deeply deprecate our tendency to greed and cruelty. I ascribe neither of these things to supernatural agencies beyond the natural world, and see no reason to think that belief in such things as fairies, goblins, demons, gods and goddesses is in the slightest justified. But the sociological fact of religious belief is inescapable, as its awful record of causing human harm; and that is what I fight against, in hopes of encouraging people to live free of superstition, and to care about their fellow men out of respect for them, and a desire for human flourishing.
Amazon.co.uk: Do you think that science and religion, reason and faith are necessarily enemies? Can't one be a scientist by day and a priest by night or vice versa?
Grayling: Science and religion are direct competitors over all the great questions about the origin of the universe, the question of what it contains, the question whether it has an exogenous purpose, and the question of how it functions. Everything from the various creation myths of various religions to the logical coherence of the idea of miracles is comprehended here and the most rudimentary scientific understanding shows that belief in supernatural agencies and events is nonsense. A simple test demonstrates this: ask yourself what grounds we have for believing that there are fairies at the bottom of the garden; consider what tests might be supposed to test the hypothesis that such things exist; ask yourself how reasonable it would be to organise your life on the supposition that such fairies exist. The evidential basis of belief in gods and other supernatural forces is no different from this.
Amazon.co.uk: George Steiner recently asked questions about art in an atheist age which I'd like to put to you. "Let us suppose" he said, "that a genuine atheism will come to replace the aspirin-agnosticism, the 'blowing hot nor cold' with which our post-modernity is now awash. Let us suppose that atheism will come to possess and energise those who are masters of articulate form and builders of thought. Will their works rival the dimensions, the life-transforming strengths of persuasion we have known?"
Grayling: Steiner assumes that nothing of any intellectual or artistic value can be produced by people who are not motivated by some or other religious motivation. The examples of great intellectual and artistic achievements which have nothing to do with religious inspiration (think of modern science, for one such!) is legion, and it is astonishing that even Steiner should have overlooked it. . . .
Terrorism is a Muslim problem for some very good reasons. Guardian Unlimited Observer Comment Islam has become its own enemy: http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,577787,00.html
Screen Capture the Visual Basic Way (Added 11 Dec 01.)
Ancient Ancestry. Oxford Ancestors, a new British biotech company, will add cachet to your lineage by extending it back at least 10,000 years. (Added 9 Dec 01.)
Online Genealogy Data Sparks Fear of Identity Theft (Added 9 Dec 01.)
Scottish Police chiefs have called for motorway speed limit increase to 80 MPH (Added 30 Nov 01.)
The myth that traffic calming is beneficial (Updated 30 Nov 01.)
The myth that speeding causes accidents (Updated 30 Nov 01.)
Suicide Lethality-Time-Agony Method Calculator (Added 30 Nov 01.)
Humor for car drivers (Updated 30 Nov 01.) ___ Photo radar (Added 30 Nov 01.)
Cloning: Stemming stem-cell research? (Added 29 Nov 01.)
Freedom
from religion page (46 p, 122 s) (Updated 29 Nov 01.)
Freedom
from religion in Canada page (21 p, 74 s) (Updated 28 Nov 01.)
Supreme Being
in Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms
is religious discrimination (Added 27 Nov 01.)
We now know the dangers of Islamic fundamentalism: http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawacitizen/letters/story.asp?id={425D652F-B933-40C0-AC61-C02E31BBF263} Letter by Robert A. Jason to The Ottawa Citizen, 27 Oct. 01. . . . There was an open field in Kuwait where the townsfolk gathered to enjoy the "entertainment" of watching wrongdoers get their just due. Anyone caught stealing had his hand chopped off -- without anesthetic, of course, to increase the pain. . . . A moving account of boyhood observations of the barbarisms of religious law at work in Kuwait. One more reason to keep religion as far removed from government recognition and funding as possible. One more reason to not fund separate schools -- as in Ontario, with its violations of UN rights. (Added 27 Nov 01.)
God Bless America: efforts to remove its state endorsement and display (Added 27 Nov 01.)
In God we Trust: efforts to remove the motto (Added 27 Nov 01.)
END WELFARE AS WE KNOW IT - TAX THE CHURCH (Added 26 Nov 01.)
My religious beliefs (19 p, 74 s) (Updated 26 Nov 01.)
Anti-secularism page (4 p, 40 s) (Added 25 Nov 01.)
The Qaeda's extremism is the logical extension of the extremism at the fringe of the American Christian Right (Added 25 Nov 01.)
The Biblical Ten Commandments violates the U.S. Constitution (Added 24 Nov 01.)
Causation: law vs science (Added 24 Nov 01.)
One Hundred Authors Against Einstein The fallacy of group-think! Should we vote as to whether the Earth is flat? (Added 24 Nov 01.)
Risk-theory page (22 p, 78 s) (Added 24 Nov 01.) ___ Traffic-calming page (30 p, 92 s) (Updated 24 Nov 01.)
Activities that increase chance of premature death by 1 in a million (Added 23 Nov 01.)
number of days lost per lifetime (on average), due to various causes (Added 23 Nov 01.)
Myths (2 p, 19 s) (Updated 23 Nov 01.) ___ The Myth of Man the Killer (Added 23 Nov 01.)
Islam itself is a fascist ideology (Added 22 Nov 01.)
Religious extremism must not be put beyond criticism by legislation - or accusations of Islamophobia: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,563571,00.html Polly Toynbee, Oct. 5, 2001. The Guardian.
The only good religion is a moribund religion: only when the faithful are weak are they tolerant and peaceful. The horrible history of Christianity shows that whenever religion grabs temporal power it turns lethal. Those who believe theirs is the only way, truth and light will kill to create their heavens on earth if they get the chance. Tolerance only thrives when religion is banished to the private sphere, but bizarrely this government is marching backwards, with more faith schools, more use of "faith communities" and now Blunkett's new laws against "religious hatred" to save religion from vulgar abuse.
Wherever religion burns, it seeks power: Israel has become ever more dangerous (to itself and others) as religious parties gain power over secular ones. Religious politics scar India, Kashmir, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sudan ... the list of countries wrecked by religion is long. But the present danger is caused by Islamist theocracy.
There is no point in pretending it is not so. Wherever Islam either is the government or bears down upon the government, it imposes harsh regimes that deny the most basic human rights. Religions never accept universal human rights because their notion of rights derives from a higher revealed truth. Hundreds of emails from Muslims . . . flooded in this week claiming that UN human rights are a western construct, alien to their culture. A moderate one wrote: "Islam has its own understanding on human rights and the social order and the relationship between men and women established 1,400 years ago." . . .
This may be the last chance to say so before emergency measures ban "incitement to religious hatred". To say that religion is dangerous nonsense is indeed intended to incite people against irrational superstition in favour of reason. But this law will insulate religious ideas in a sanctuary beyond scrutiny, refutation or ridicule. Why does religion deserve a realm beyond questioning? . . .
Religions will seek to use these new laws against anything they deem blasphemous. Incitement to religious hatred will be an offence, along with "religious hatred" as an aggravating factor lengthening the sentences of people caught committing a crime. . . .
Ibn Warraq, director of the Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society, is an apostate scion of a Koranic school and author of Why I Am Not A Muslim. He strongly opposes the proposed law: "Already there is an intellectual omerta on any criticism of Islam, great intellectual cowardice in facing up to the Koran and what it actually says. Politicians mouth platitudes about Islam as a peaceful, tolerant religion. . . . New laws risk stifling the golden thread of rationalism that western civilisation is built on." He considers that Blair and Bush have their own raison d'etat for wooing Islam, pretending it is a tolerant faith while needing allies.
But the blood-curdling words of the Prophet are there for all to read: "Kill those who join other gods" (Koran, 6: 5-6). Muslims must "slay or crucify or cut the hands and feet of the unbeliever" (5:34). . . .
There is much more, with smiting above necks and smiting all fingertips off. . . .
But religion must not be placed beyond criticism by accusations of Islamophobia, which has become a code for racism.
Housekeeping note. Yesterday I modified this site so as to make it faster for you to both (a) access this Page, and (b) to return to this Page. The Page, at part of which you are now looking (my Home Page), used to consist of 30 pages. It now (as of 22 Nov 01) consists of 11 pages. The remaining 19 pages have been relocated to two separate Pages of 5 and 14 pages. The total site now contains 143 Pages (files) of text and several dozen image files, occupying 10 MB. At a nominal 25 KB of text per page, that is equivalent to about 400 pages of text. I am grateful to my host, TopCities.com, as this is twice the upper limit of storage (5 MB) allowed by my ISP, Sympatico Bell. My upper limit now is 150 MB -- as the adverts will no doubt remind you! I still have a bit of clutter to tidy up. (Added 22 Nov 01.)
Speed limiters kill ___ Police cameras (Added 20 Nov 01.)
Traffic Calming Programs and Emergency Response: A Competition of Two Public Goods (Added 20 Nov 01.)
Photo of dangerous speed bump: lawsuit pending? (Added 19 Nov 01.)
in Austin, at least 37 people would die because of slower emergency-response time for every one life saved by slower traffic. (Added 19 Nov 01.)
The End of Cheap Oil (Added 19 Nov 01.) ___ High-Tech Solution to Train Noise (Added 19 Nov 01.)
Marijuana Health Mythology: http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/general/gier1.htm
Islamic Mullahs and teachers preach murder If you think that this statement is extreme or that it refers to all Muslims, see Please note for a denial that it does so. (Added 18 Nov 01.)
Theicide: my latest neologism? (Added 12 Nov 01.)
HAARP project (Added 12 Nov 01.)
Subliminal perception (35 p, 105 s) (Updated 11 Nov 01.) ___ Stereogram page (10 p, 51 s) (Updated 10 Nov 01.)
Quotations about religion, atheism, skepticism, freethought, politics (Updated 9 Nov 01.)
Tough Questions for the Christian Church (Updated 8 Nov 01.)
Peter Probst predicted WTC-type attack in 1994! (Added 7 Nov 01.)
Archbishop offers a refreshing dissent re could religious terrorists go to heaven. Yes, they could, but I might not! (23 p, 74 s) (Added 6 Nov 01.)
Dialogue with a Christian (35 p, 107 s) (Added 6 Nov 01.)
Red-light cameras ripe for misuse, alias Ambiguous signage for fun and profit. (Added 3 Nov 01.)
Hotels: why are they not designed better? (Added 2 Nov 01.)
User-unfriendly brake-release example: Bad Human Factors Designs (Updated 16 Oct 01.)
The Termination of israel A Qur'anic Fact It is evident that Allah has Promised to subject upon the corrupted Children of Israel His believing servants who will afflict them with a horrible torment . . . (Added 20 Oct 01.)
BRITISH PROPOSAL AIMED AT RELIGIOUS HATE SPEECH Regressive effort to strengthen blasphemy law -- a law which (rightly) does not exist in the only country having complete freedom of and from religion: the USA. (Added 20 Oct 01.)
What If Islam Ruled America? (Added 14 Oct 01.) The threat of Islam is real. More so than communism ever was, because with Islam, Muslim activists are willing to kill and to die for the cause of spreading their religion. This is called "Jihad," a sacred duty for all Muslims to perform. [You could kiss most freedoms -- especially religious freedom -- goodbye!]
Harm of religion (5 p, 43 s) (Updated 14 Oct 01.) ___ Anti-Christianity links (7 p, 47 s) (Added 14 Oct 01.)
The Ten Commandments (13 p, 59 s) (Updated 14 Oct 01.) ___ Religion (15 p, 65 s) (Updated 14 Oct 01.)
The Bible and Christianity are
barbaric
(Added 7 Oct 01.)
The Koran and Islam are barbaric (Added 6 Oct 01.)
We need less prayer, not more (Added 5 Oct 01.)
Some simple questions about
terrorism (Added 2 Oct 01.)
How to build a nuclear bomb at home (Added
30 Sep 01.)
World Trade Center Satellite images of: WTC, Pentagon destruction; Cannes, France. Photos reveal face of Satan? (Updated 25 Sep 01.)
War crimes by NATO, including USA and Canada, in their war of aggression against Yugoslavia. (22 p, 82 s) (Updated 25 Sep 01.)
America, America, whose dagger has pierced your heart? A poem by Wayne Paulson: a tribute, in this time of sorrow, to America, the chief defender of freedoms that are allowed in only a secular democracy. (4 p, 39 s) (Updated 22 Sep 01.)
Gravitorium: http://www.rightword.com.au/products/gravitorium/index.html A program to simulate the movement of stars, planets and other bodies under Newtonian gravitation. . . . displays celestial objects -- Earth, Moon, the Solar system -- and plots their positions. . . . with good accuracy within a 100-year period. (Added 22 Sep 01.)
Theological Support of Stem Cell Research Pope John Paul II has stated that support of embryonic stem cell research evidences moral corruption. . . . Portraying the stem cell debate as the abortion controversy is at best intellectually misleading, at worst ethically negligent. . . . To not support stem cell research, we have concluded, is unethical. (Added 1 Sep 01.)
Don't leave morals to the madmen: Religious leaders have no role in ordering a just, modern society. (Added 31 Aug 01.)
In the dock bishop who knew but did not tell: French abuse case stirs controversy over secrecy in Catholic Church. (Added 31 Aug 01.)
Dawkins Leads Atheist Revolt Against 'Evil' Church Schools (Added 31 Aug 01.)
These myopic fools: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim leaders queueing up to attack homosexuality are using the same emotional bigotry that they so readily condemn when it is used against their own religions. (Added 31 Aug 01.)
Post The Ten Commandments - Spare Not The Rod. But also, post the penalties -- usually death (for adultery, blasphemy, or swearing at your parents, for example.) (Added 31 Aug 01.)
Infoculture in the Summer: http://infoculture.cbc.ca/newsite/docs/story/summer_07202001_perfectbook.phtml Buy books from vending machines. THE ARTS REPORT - CBC Radio. PerfectBook is a vending machine that prints books while you wait. A laser printer copies the pages, which are then bound, glued and trimmed. In a few minutes, you have a book that a appears to be identical to one found in a retail store. . . . (Added 24 July 00.)
Zoom into homesite -- a half-baked idea of mine -- and Athlete idiocy
View of Earth at Night from space station: http://www.w3pcnet.com/news/online/world_view_at_night.htm (Added 18 July 01.) Awesome!
NASA Neurolab Web Tom Jones (Astronaut) - Aurora and Airglow: http://neurolab.jsc.nasa.gov/jones.htm Some of the most beautiful and breathtaking sights I've seen from the Space Shuttle were encountered while viewing the Earth at night. With a darkened cockpit, astronauts can gaze silently on lights produced by the upper reaches of the atmosphere: the aurora and airglow. (Added 18 July 01.) Awesome!
OneLookŪ Dictionaries: http://www.onelook.com/ Type in your word, and be taken immediately to a list of dictionaries that list that word. 742 online dictionaries now indexed. (Added 18 July 01.)
Google: http://images.google.com/ Google's Image Search is the most comprehensive on the Web, with more than 150 million images and photos. It's still in the beta stage, as of 3 July 01, but it works very well. Or, you could access it through: Google Advanced Search: http://www.google.com/advanced_search.html (Added 3 July 01.)
See The Space Station (Added 24 Apr 01.)
Go up to Site overview directory. ___ Go up to Site contents.
I support the Electronic Frontier Foundation Blue Ribbon Campaign for Free Speech: http://www.eff.org/blueribbon.html.
Wayne's Web site was created by Wayne Paulson on 8 Feb 01 at topcities.com.
You can e-mail me at waynerp@sympatico.ca
Wayne
Wayne R.
Paulson Phone: 613
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617 Fielding Drive E-mail: waynerp@sympatico.ca
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