What Einstein said

Albert Einstein’s statement, “God does not play dice with the universe,” is often cited as proof that Einstein believed in God, as though, if he did, we should too. But I think that he was merely expressing his doubt about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, which states that you can’t know everything about matter on a very small scale. In particular, for an elementary particle, the more you know about its location the less you know about its velocity and vice versa.

Einstein later clarified his words, at least in private, as you can read in these exerpts:

“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.”— Albert Einstein, 1954, from Albert Einstein: The Human Side

“I see only with deep regret that God punishes so many of His children for their numerous stupidities, for which only He Himself can be held responsible; in my opinion, only His nonexistence could excuse Him.” — Albert Einstein, letter to Edgar Meyer, 1/2/1915

“From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist.” — Albert Einstein, letter to Guy H. Raner Jr, 7/2/1945

“I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one.” — Albert Einstein, letter to Guy H. Raner Jr, 9/28/1949

“The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish.” — Albert Einstein

Nine-year-old organizes gay rights rally in Denver

The “NOM NOM NOM” campaign would have you believe that children are confused by having two parental figures of the same sex in the same household. Considering the variety of blended families and serial monogamy that they already deal with, that seems a little strained.

In real life and without indoctrination, children are on the side of fair play: Nine-year-old child organizes gay rights rally in Denver,

Sauce for the gander

It’s well known that the LDS church (Mormons) spend time and energy retroactively baptising other people’s dead ancestors into their church. They are famous for their geneological database, which they built for the purpose of retroactively “saving” everybody posthumously. Some people are indifferent to the practice. Others find it rude, ghoulish, offensive, or downright sacrilegious. However, one blogger responded with a humorous case of “turnabout is fair play” and posthumously inducted Brigham Young and Joseph Smith into The Village People.

Follow the link for a view of the results. If the article is gone, look below the fold.

“Eyeborg”

In a “What will they think of next?” moment, a one-eyed film-maker decided to look into his chances of getting a camera that would fit into the socket of his missing eye. I just saw the fellow featured on Daily Planet. Even with a small, circular PCB imitating an iris, it looks pretty weird. The interviewer said that he looked like a cyborg, and he responded that he was an eyeborg—so I looked it up on the Web. Sure enough, he has a blog: Eyeborg Blog (formerly Eyeborg.

Netizen’s guide to Flame Warriors

As we all know, arguments tend to become more heated over the Internet than in real life, erupting into insult-fests called flame wars. Mike Reed amused himself by describing the different kinds of flame warriors.