An XBox Live Group For Skeptics & Atheists [Free-Thinkers]

Cross-Posted on In Case You’re Interested…

Are you a skeptic? An Atheist? Agnostic? Free-Thinker? Do you love science? Do you appreciate logic and reason? Do you laugh at television “psychics?”

Let me ask you this. Do you love going on “Free For All” rampages on Call Of Duty 4? How about going head-to-head in a Gears Of War death match? Do you love to curb-stomp your enemies into oblivion? How about a friendly game of golf in Tiger Woods PGA Tour?

If you are a skeptic, and you’re on Xbox Live, I have a place for you to go to meet like-minded people. I created a group on MySpace for people like us.

Of course, obviously, this group is pointed toward a narrow audience. But, I think that it’s a good idea.

The group is called Xkeptix. Click the link to join up or take a look. Post your Xbox Live ID after you join.

Tentatively, this group is also on MySpace. I will probably stick with the Facebook location.

Read a book.

Miracle Doggie Door?

Here’s the video :

We have had trees, grilled cheese sandwiches, fences, regular doors, and now we have a doggie door proposed to have the face of  Jesus on it. I don’t quite understand why Jesus doesn’t just get on with and come back already, instead of playing hide and seek on random silly objects? Oh, that’s probably because neither of those are happening.

Roger Bowman and his family claim that in January of 2007 they first discovered the face of Jesus on their doggie door and interpreted it as divine intervention, telling them to keep the out-of-control dogs. Interestingly enough, that “divine intervention” came in the form of taking the dogs to a dog trainer. DUH! They never thought of that before? And interestingly enough, the divine intervention wasn’t enough, as one of the dogs was put to sleep due to being mentally unstable. Thanks for the false hope, Jesus!

Lately though, the Bowmans have fallen on hard times after his wife lost her job and now he, too is out of work, though his wife is working now working. Of course, the next logical step is to call all the TV stations and newspapers to let them know he’s placing the doggie door on eBay.

Right now the bid is up to $1,185! Bowman claims in the Q&A part of his listing that he didn’t intend to make a profit on the door when he first saw it, though earlier in the listing where he posted an instant message conversation with his wife after he discovered the door. He says:

“You know how some people saw the image of Jesus on their toast and put it on eBay?”

I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and just assume he was trying to make a comparison.

Mr.Bowman actually does a pretty good job of debunking his own item in his FAQ section, making such statements as:

I am told humans are genetically predisposed to identify faces, as it is an important survival skill. It is therefore reasonable to presume that different people possess differing levels of that trait. Hence it is likewise reasonable to expect some people would readily see the image while others struggle.

So is this door divine? It is to someone who believes it is.

Of course, these tidbits are drowning in a sea of nonsense that surrounds it, and I find it too ironic that he thinks it’s “far fetched” for people not to see the face. Oh, silly us, it’s much more reasonable that Jesus Christ pressed his face against your mud flap. I really should take a logic course.

Anyway, I think it looks more like John Rambo.

Ghost Hunters Halloween Hoax

I know I’m a little late on this, but it’s just so, so amazing!

I was watching the evidence episode of Ghost Hunters, from their live Halloween investigation of Fort Delaware, on Hulu last night. While watching it, there was a few out-of-place evidences that just seemed too good to be true and too fake looking to be taken seriously. To my amusement I did a little search for the events and found an overwhelming backlash to them all over paranormal websites and on YouTube, from people who actually believed in the integrity of TAPS. I even found an online petition started by a Ghost Hunters fan which calls for the show to be canceled.

The first piece of “evidence” is a very loud, supposedly ghostly voice, saying, “You’re not supposed to be here” twice, which sounds like someone playing a recording. Here’s the video of that:

The other piece of “evidence” consists of 3 blatantly rigged ghostly pulls on Grant Wilson’s jacket. Grant just kind of awkwardly wanders around for a few minutes with his right arm by his side, and then right next to the camera, someone obviously pulls a line causing a point on the back of his jacket to dip a little. The pull happens in the same place each time, while creating a single point where is obvious that 1 line is attached to it. Grant’s over-exaggeration of the force of the “pull” is hilarious. This clip is a little long, but it’s important to view all the odd behavior, as well as him pre-raising the collar of his jacket so it can be pulled down better:

Grant Wilson wrote a childish blog post about how unfair the criticism was, saying stuff like:

I just wish that people would give us constructive criticism and help us figure out what happened rather than just take the easy way out by saying we fake stuff.

As if when fraud is suspected the best people to “figure out what happened” are the people being accused of committing it. There is a bunch of people in jail right now that probably wish the cops and the courts had left them alone to “figure out what happened” in the crimes they were convicted of.

Of course, he finished off the blog with the typical statement of hoaxers and frauds, blaming it all on people hating them and not being true to them. It reminded me of the statement Sylvia Browne made after Shawn Hornbeck was found alive, even though she said he was dead, proclaiming that the people that don’t believe her were never genuine believers of her and her philosophies anyways.

I’ve tried to point out to people for a while now that the the very least Grant commits hoaxes, but this just proves that the whole group lacks any kind of integrity and the fans are finally seeing the light and they are pissed!