Agylen

Massive Gas Cloud Speeding Toward Collision With Milky Way: “A giant cloud of hydrogen gas is speeding toward a collision with our Milky Way Galaxy, and when it hits — in less than 40 million years — it may set off a spectacular burst of stellar fireworks.”

Looks like we’re safe, as “the cloud will likely strike a region somewhat farther from the Galactic center than our Solar System and about 90 degrees ahead of us in the Milky Way disk.” And we’d have at least 20 million years before starting to worry.

Even if this is the case, though, it’s impossible not to feel awe at the way the cosmos, far from being an orderly, peaceful, and predictable place, is full of chaos and violence on a scale that cannot even be fully understood. Witness the recent discovery of a gigantic beam of matter ejected from a massive black hole and smashing into a nearby galaxy, literally tearing it to pieces like the jet from a garden hose tears apart an ants’ nest.

You might think that those planets that are being hit by such phenomena are not hosting any kind of civilization, or that their inhabitants are not protected by a loving god, or that it’s all part of god’s plan, which we cannot know.

Or you might think that we’re the lucky ones who get an opportunity to live for a brief (on the time scale of the Universe) instant of time, thanks to random chance or contingency, and nothing is pre-ordained or in any way predetermined.

Guess which one I think is the sensible opinion to hold.

… and the world would be a much better place if that obstacle was removed, regardless of what a certain bozo in a funny hat says.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Pope says family promotes peace: “‘The family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace,’ the Pope told worshippers at St Peter’s Square in Rome.

The pontiff said that ‘whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community’.

Pope Benedict has made defending the traditional family a priority.

The Vatican opposes granting legal recognition to gay and unwed couples, though the Pope did not touch on such controversies directly in his New Year prayer on Tuesday.

‘Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman… constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace,’ he said.”

I guess the people killing themselves in the streets in Kenya, Pakistan, Palestine these days are not doing so because of sectarian hatred that is very often grounded in religion. No, they must be fighting for gay marriage, evidently.

The real shame here is that Pope Ratzi can say such boldfaced lies and yet most politicians and so-called intellectuals—at least here in Italy— are applauding him. Personally, he makes me want to puke.

Three Wise Men are just a legend, says Archbishop of Canterbury | the Daily Mail: “During an interview on Radio Five, the Archbishop of Canterbury dismissed the well-known version of events as legend saying: ‘Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t tell us there were three of them, doesn’t tell us they were kings, doesn’t tell us where they came from.

Oh, really?

‘It says they are astrologers, wise men, priests from somewhere outside the Roman Empire, that’s all we’re really told.’

Oh, really?

Turning to the topic of when Jesus was born, he said it was ‘very unlikely’that there was snow.

Oh, really?

He said there was no evidence of animals present - a popular theme of Christmas cards.

Oh, really?

He dismissed the idea that the star of the North stood still in the night sky - because stars just don’t behave like that.

Oh, really?

For good measure, he added Jesus probably wasn’t even born in December. He said: ‘Christmas was when it was because it fitted well with the winter festival’.

Oh, really?

Next time the good Archbishop will tell us that maybe the virgin birth is a legend too… oh wait, he alredy did! What’s left then, the resurrection? After all, there’s just as much proof that Jesus rose from the dead as there is for his birth in a manger. It’s all a bunch of unsubstantiated myths, so why not get over it once and for all?

… and his name is Mohammed.

You can call him Jesus, if you like, it’s just the same old shit.