Let me first start with a throat clearing by saying that I was not only expecting but hoping that the heated religious discussions on the blogsphere would have settled down by the time I would be back to blogging, but apparently and unfortunately they haven’t.

Qwaider seems to be still stuck with the issue of accepting atheists as normal beings, who in fact don’t differ in anyway from other humans such as a-dragonists (unbelievers in dragons) except for their nonbelief in the existence of the given matter, but he has to continuously attack and label atheists as irrational, immoral and ignorant beings, which I assume is nothing more than an attempt to make him feel better about himself.

Long story short, this post will be a brief rebuttal to the claims that he made in his latest post: ON BELIEVERS…

Believers are not ”trapped mind” to be liberated, trapped souls with no guidance, ignorant humans with no knowledge, “closed minds” sinking in the ocean of the dark ages, or simply were born believers and don’t know better…

What kind of an introduction is this to a supposed to be an intelligent discussion? To start with, the problem that most atheists have with God and religions is not that the believers are considered by some people as trapped minds, trapped souls, close minded or ignorant humans with no knowledge.

These are two different things, it is just as stupid as disbelieving in evolution because you consider Richard Dawkins to be a rude person, or to disbelieve that earth is round simply because you consider flat-earthers to be kindhearted people.

Second, picking up a couple of stereotypes about religious people and disproving them doesn’t really prove anything of value, I might just as well go ahead and pick up a couple of stereotypes about Swedes and make a whole post disproving them. This in no way would prove that Swedes are any better than people from other ethnicities, or prove that whatever they believe in is true, the only thing that I am really proving by doing this is that stereotypes aren’t always true which is pretty obvious and self evident to any reasonable person.

Most of the modern day believers are people who choose to believe.

Denying people this choice, is the epitome of tyranny. Ridiculing THEM because of it, is as bad as any other form of racism and the complete opposite of all modern liberties

I am sorry but I have to disagree, the faith and religion of the children of religious families plays great importance in their personal relationships with one another within their families and their community. By choosing to abandon the faith one risks almost anything from being abandoned by his community, family, partner, or even in some places around the world, one risks gets killed for it.

There is pressure on religious people who want to apostatize, so its not a black or white thing like you try to put, its not either that they have the free will or absolutely not. For one, absolute free will doesn’t exist, because free will has been forced upon us, we didn’t choose to have free will, therefore one can conclude that we don’t have absolute free will, second even if what I am saying is false and what you said is true, it is no way a counter argument to crack down the stereotypes on religious people.

I am also afraid that I will have to point out that by choosing to continue practicing a religion, or choosing a religion to practice, in no way automatically makes you a free minded, free souled, open minded or a knowledge full person, so I am really hoping that this is not your counter argument to break the stereotypes, the two are independent of each other.

All I can say after all is: if only most Muslim scholars shared your opinion on this subject.

Only person who would find denouncing God “liberating” is a person who is trying to break from the confines of morals guidelines, and ethical rules that come with religion. Don’t mean to disrespect anyone. But if this is the only way an adulterous can live with himself. Or a liar can learn to tolerate himself. Then trust me. You don’t know how forgiving God is.

I will rewrite what you just said to show you how silly it sounds to an atheist:

Only person who would find denouncing Dragons “liberating” is a person who is trying to break from the confines of morals guidelines, and ethical rules that come with the belief. Don’t mean to disrespect anyone. But if this is the only way an adulterous can live with himself. Or a liar can learn to tolerate himself. Then trust me. You don’t know how forgiving Dragons are.

In all honesty, what kind of meaningless bambling is this? You are making definite claims without backing them with any evidence or reasoning. How do you know that people who find denouncing god liberating have done so because they are trying to break from the confines of morals guidelines, and ethical rules that come with the belief?

You not only claim that God exists, you also claim that you know how forgiving he is too, I find it quite remarkable how you have managed to obtain such knowledge about the creator or the first mover.

I have denounced God myself, and yes, I do feel liberated, this in no way means that I have become an immoral being, it doesn’t mean that I don’t care if people do right or wrong, it also doesn’t either mean that I no longer can distinguish between a good act from a bad act.

My apostasy hasn’t allowed me to sin anymore than I used to when I was a practicing Muslim, It only liberated me from the guilty feeling that I used to feel even when I am not doing anything wrong.

In fact doing a good act now feels much better than doing it back when I was believer. Ask yourself this question, who do you honestly consider a better person? a guy doing a good deed because he wants to, or a person doing the same good dead in fear of punishment and in hope of materialistic rewards?

I would like to end this point with the following quotation:

When I was young, I have always prayed and asked God to give me a bike, but later on I realized that God doesn’t work that way, so I stole a bike and asked him for forgiveness.

—

Perhaps you’re gay, and you find no place for you in any faith. Could it also be liberating for you to denounce god just to “embrace” your sexual preference/choice/whatever you wanna call it? For many it might be. But the truth is, to sin is HUMAN, and very natural. We sin ALL THE TIME. Denouncing our God doesn’t make us any better. Doesn’t make the sin go away either. Some people choose to continue their favorite sin. All while knowing exactly what they chose

No one has claimed that one becomes a better person simply for denouncing God, although it is something to be proud of to be honest, it is the other way around, Christianity, Islam, Judaism and many other religions claim that one becomes a better person by following the named religion, so it is you who has to be doing the explanations and the demonstrations here not me.

Again, you seem to be still mixing up the good/bad argument with the true/false argument, just because one’s religion is against homosexuality or lying doesn’t mean that it is a false religion.

In fact, most people abandon their religions because of the true/false argument and not the good/bad argument, doing the opposite would not only be stupid but suicidal.

“And why seek forgiveness, I’m free, I don’t believe”… Ahhh, but we’re not free. We never are. If we escape the religious rules, we have the social and ethical ones. If we escape those, there rules of nature that no one free himself from…

Is this supposed to mean anything besides that you haven’t really understood the context in witch the word free has been used? why don’t you go ahead and continue on reminding them of all the things that they are not free from such as responsibilities, oxygen, sexual tension etc…

This universe is governed by rules, we can’t exist without them. The more rules you follow, the more civilized, some would argue.

Sure etiquette is mostly optional, although it’s encouraged. If you look at it, it’s a set of rules on top of rules.

The point is not to free yourself from whatever irritates you, it is why practice something that you don’t believe to be true in the first place.

To explain this better to you, Imagine that you are born and raised up into a family who believes deeply that we come from aliens and therefore as a ritual you should visit the communities meeting center every Wednesday and pray to the aliens and thank them for everything that they have provided us.

If you later on in your life denounced your belief in the Great Alien and decided to hangout with friends on Wednesdays instead of attending the meetings, you most likely do so because you don’t believe any longer that what is being practiced by your family carries any truth and not because you want to sin.

The exact same thing can be said about most atheists that I know at least, they didn’t denounce god to sin without feeling guilty, they denounced God and religions because they don’t believe that the teachings that they are based on speak the truth.

I don’t want to start sounding like Dawkins and box every Atheist into this definition. But if you find yourself in this box, then you’re departing from your inner belief, to absolutely worse position. It’s like running from the police to escape a $5 fine.

I assure you, you sound nothing like Richard Dawkins, not even remotely close.

I honestly have no idea what you are talking about here, how did you manage to compare denouncing God to running away from the police for a $5 fine, at least with the police you have a chance to get away with it.

Look at yourself, reflect upon it. Ask the WHY questions, instead of the HOW. Even though most of these “HOW” questions have not been explained satisfactorily yet. But I am confident that eventually they will.

If you think that if atheists or science only thinks of the How question then you are very wrong, science too ask questions such as Why do we fall down? Why do we see stars at night? why do people behave the way they do? etc…

WHY did the universe get created?
WHY did life spark?
WHY intelligence?

Just because science hasn’t yet developed to the point that it can answer your irrelevant questions doesn’t automatically or in anyway make what ever answer we currently have true.

To feel liberated, means that someone was burdened by the morality of their choices. Therefore, deep inside, they are still believers. Even if they think they have been liberated!

Is this really your final word on the subject? what have you really proven? that we all after all believe? of course we do! I believe in man made and developed morals, I believe that gravity exists, I believe in evolution, I believe that I am considered very attractive to the opposite sex if not both, just because I believe in something doesn’t make me a believer in God, its a quite stupid claim to make.

After all, we are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in, the difference is that some of us go one god further.

When you understand why you dismiss all the other gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

I am aware that having such a discussion with some people is like explaining algebra to someone who can’t count, but at least I gave it a try.

Maggie Rodriguez spoke with Dr. Jennifer Ashton about scientists that successfully grew artificial sperm and eggs from stem cells.

Next: Male gay couples having kids.

Well, it was a good run guys.

A man got the minimum sentence of 14 days in jail Thursday for possessing child pornography — stories about sex involving teen girls and incest he wrote himself and never tried to publish or share.

Judge Hugh Fraser called the facts in the case of Michael Jay Thomas “rather unique” because it dealt only with written material.

Thomas, 43, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography. The 10 stories found on a computer hard drive are now sealed.

“We don’t have real, live victims in this particular case,” defence lawyer Catherine Huot said in sentencing submissions.

The law defines child pornography as material whose “dominant characteristic is the description, for a sexual purpose, of sexual activity” with someone under 18.

Under the law, an accused could try to argue artistic merit as a defence.

The Crown had sought three to four months in jail.

Thomas was charged after police were contacted in December 2008 by employees of Future Shop — where he worked — regarding written material found on a demo computer.

His resume was in the same folder.

Thomas admitted that he’d written some of the stories and also edited material he found on the Internet.

Fraser concluded the collection was small, involved teens and Thomas poses little risk to kids.

He went to the Royal Ottawa Hospital for help on his own. A psychiatrist did phallometric testing and found him to be a low risk to reoffend. He was even lower risk where “live children” are concerned.

Thomas had no criminal record and has already suffered, Fraser said.

He’s lost his job; his wife of 16 years “wants nothing to do with him”; and his religious community, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, are aware of what he’s done.

Thomas has to submit a DNA sample to the national registry and will be a registered sex offender for a decade.

During a two-year probation order, he has to take any treatment suggested by a psychiatrist, stay off the Internet and away from girls under 18 without supervision.

Source.

I really don’t understand how this court reasons, where is the victim? or even better, where is the crime? the guy didn’t even share or practice any of his thoughts, dreams or fantasies.

A devout Muslim woman from Pakistan who wed a fellow countryman who did not share her faith tried to stab him to death as he slept in their Staten Island home because she claimed he forced her to drink alcohol, eat pork and dress provocatively, officials said today.

Rabia Sarwar, 37, climbed onto her husband Sheikh Naseem’s chest around 3 a.m. yesterday and repeatedly slashed at his neck as he slept, officials said, screaming, “It’s time for you to die!”

Naseem, a 41-year-old high school math teacher who goes by the name Eddie, said he woke up with the knife to his neck and as he wrestled with his wife – whom he wed five months ago in an arranged marriage — for the weapon.

He begged her to consider his two children from a previous marriage.

“She just screamed, ‘They are going to be orphans now!’” he said. “She kept on coming after me with the knife and I grabbed it and broke it into two pieces and ran out of the room.”

He then realized that Sarwar had hidden all the phones, so he ran into the hall and pounded on a neighbor’s door for help. Police were called, and Sarwar arrested. Naseem suffered only surface wounds to his neck, face and hands and was later released from a local hospital.

Naseem – who was born in Pakistan, but is half Norwegian and is a Unitarian – said he moved to the US more than 20 years ago and quickly adapted to American culture, taking to drinking casually and developing a taste for barbecued ribs.

He even twice married outside his culture.

But since both marriages failed, he decided to try marrying within his culture, and wed Sarwar five months ago through nuptials arranged by relatives in New Jersey. Although Sarwar has lived in the US for more than a decade, Naseem said “she had never been exposed to American culture.”

At first everything seemed fine, he said.

“She was getting adjusted. She was trying to live the way I live, but on the same token she tells her parents ‘I went out drinking with him,’ and her mother started making derogatory statements about me,” he said. “There was no gun pointed to her head to do these things.”

Sarwar’s lawyer, Joe Licitra, admitted his client had been hospitalized in the past for depression, but insisted she had been “emotionally abused.”

“He got her to drink alcohol, eat pork and change her clothes. She wanted to dress traditionally. I think he was a cruel person who preyed on her,” he said.

Sarwar – who appeared in court wearing a blue, velour tracksuit, but later put on a headscarf – was charged with attempted murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. She was released after her family came up with $25,000 bail.

Naseem said he would immediately file for divorce but did not think she should be in jail.

“I think she’s a lunatic and she should be in a mental hospital,” he said. “I want the best for her in her life. I hope she gets herself corrected.”

Source.

Now this was quite different from the usual honor killing crimes that we are used to hear about, which usually involve the husband, father or a brother committing a crime against a sister, daughter or a wife for cultural or religious reasons, I think that the uniqueness of this event made it quite interesting since it is usually the other way around.

Remember the post I published a while ago on my blog about Iron Man 2’s leaked footage?

Well If you don’t, here is the post:

Footage from Iron Man 2 has been leaked to the internet, the quality of the video is not great but is watchable.

[embedded video from youtube]

This movie is gonna kickass, can’t wait to watch it.

That’s all of what the post contained.

A few days ago I received this email from Paramount Pictures:

Dennis L. Wilson
Keats McFarland & Wilson LLP
9720 Wilshire Blvd., Penthouse Suite
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
Tel: (310) 248-3830
Fax: (310) 860-0363
August 11, 2009
*******, Nizar
*********** *
**********, ****** *********
Sweden
******@msn.com
Re: Unauthorized Use of Paramount Pictures Corporation Properties
http://nizars.com
Dear Sir or Madam:
This letter is being written to you on behalf of Paramount
Pictures Corporation (“Paramount”). Paramount is the owner of rights in
and to the “Iron Man 2″ motion picture (hereinafter referred to as “Iron
Man”). No one is authorized to copy, reproduce, distribute, or otherwise
use Iron Man without the express written permission of Paramount.
It has come to our attention that the website located at
“http://nizars.com,” for which you are the service provider, is
reproducing and distributing Iron Man. The specific URL from which these
unauthorized copies are being distributed, displayed and reproduced is:
http://nizars.com/2009/08/08/leaked-iron-man-2-footage/
Paramount has the good faith belief that the use of the material
in the manner complained of is not authorized by Paramount, its agent or
the law. Paramount diligently enforces its rights in and to Iron Man in
all forms of media. Our client rightfully takes its responsibility for
the protection of Iron Man very seriously.
We request your assistance in the removal of infringements of Iron
Man from this website and any other website for which you are the
service provider. We further declare under penalty of perjury that we
are authorized to act on behalf of Paramount and that the information in
this letter is accurate.
Nothing contained in this letter constitutes an express or implied
waiver of any rights, remedies, or defenses of Paramount, all of which
are expressly reserved.
Very truly yours,
/s/
Dennis L. Wilson
Keats
McFarland & Wilson LLP

I have removed the post from my blog but damn, I never expected that one can be sued for embedding a youtube video on his blog, keep in mind that I am not the video’s uploader, I just found it on youtube and linked to it from my blog, that’s all!

Ingredients:
1 serving penne
4 slices bacon (chopped)
1 handful asparagus
1 clove garlic (chopped)
pepper to taste
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon heavy cream
1/4 cup pecorino romano
1 tablespoon parsley (chopped)

Directions:
1. Start cooking the penne.
2. Fry the bacon in a pan.
3. Cut the asparagus into penne shaped pieces.
4. Drain most of the fat from the pan but reserve some to cook the asparagus.
5. Add the asparagus, garlic and pepper and toss to coat in the bacon grease.
6. Mix the egg yolk, heavy cream and pecorino romano in a bowl.
7. Drain the cooked pasta reserving some of the water.
8. Add the pasta to the pan and toss.
9. Remove the pan from the heat and wait for the sizzling to stop.
10. Add the egg mixture and toss to coat.
11. Add a bit of the pasta water and toss to mix and coat.

http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2008/06/asparagus-carbonara.html

Before:

After:

And of course, Ola approves:

I bet that not a single girl in the blogging community cooks better than I do

I got this idea from a forum called Neogaf were members are matched randomly, once the matching is done the matched users exchange adresses and swap candy.

This way, we the participants can try different sorts of candy that they do not have were they live and of course enjoy this fun experience.

For female bloggers we can match you with other female bloggers that prefer not to reveal their addresses.

Is anybody here in Qwaider Planet interested in making a similar event?

If you like Failblog or lolcats humor then you will probably enjoy this list that I have prepared for you, enough talking already, let’s get down to it.

15. Apostrophe abuse

14. Engrish

13. Men who look like old lesbians

David Sylvian. British musician who subsidizes career pretending to be Wendie Malick at mall openings.

12. Awkward family photos

Somebody didn’t earn his cow.

11. Asleep on the subway

I must find this man and marry him.

10. Fmylife

Today, I received my passport in the mail. They got my birthdate wrong. Then I picked up my birth certificate that I had sent in with the application. Turns out my parents have been celebrating my birthday on the wrong day for 16 years. FML

9. Texts from last night

(863): I was the only open register tonight and I just sold condoms and chocolate frosting to the ex..

8. Passive aggressive notes

7. Photoshop disasters

6. Explain this image

Wolverine is no match for Invisible Man

5. Spoiled photos

I find your lack of faith disturbing

4. Not always right

(I am a phlebotomist and go around drawing blood at the hospital all day. I am drawing blood on the rehab floor where patients are generally doing well. I start to draw one patient’s blood when his wife runs into the room.)

Patient’s wife: “Oh my God! What are you doing?!”

Me: “I’m from the lab and I’m just getting some blood.”

Patient’s wife: “What?! Why?! What is wrong with my husband?!”

Me: “Ma’am, this is all pretty routine blood work.”

(Hearing the commotion, the nurse runs in.)

Nurse: “Ma’am, the insurance company asked we get this blood work since it has been awhile. I assure you nothing is wrong.”

Patient’s wife: “No, you’re lying! My husband is dying and no one will tell me why!”

(Suddenly, the patient himself speaks up.)

Patient, to wife: “D*** it! Sometimes I wish you were dying!”

3. My parents joined facebook

2. English Russia

For sure the owner of this highly modded Russian car would light his way up the Russian roads with so much additional stuff installed on the vehicle.

1. This is why youre fat

The Royal Flush:

A pile of 3 sunny side up eggs, beans, red chile sauce, cheddar cheese, 4 corn tortillas and 3 hash browned potatoes.

I haven’t updated my blog in more than two months now and I apologize for that, I have been busy doing my exam and doing some outdoors summer activities after that, anyway, I am back to blogging now and here is some of what I have been up to when I was away.

Siesta 09:

As usual, I do not attend this festival for the music but rather for the friends company and the camping, however two of the bands that I enjoyed their performances were Sonic Youth and Timbuktu .

Prom:

This was my first to both attend a prom and wear a smoking, it was fun except that towards the end of the night everybody was tired, due to all the dancing, keep in mind that we have been there for more than 10 hours in these outfits.

Graduation:

Finally, it was really awesome to finally get graduated, although the weather was terrible I never had this much fun in my entire life.

Roskilde 2009:

Definitely the best festival I have been to so far, 150 performers, more than 80000 visitors, a whole week, and the weather was perfect.

My only disappointment was Kanye West’s performance, I had high expectations for this guy, he really failed at moving the crowed, totally over rated, I really don’t want to piss his fan’s but his performance sucked big time except for his Heartless and Stronger songs.

Coldplay were awesome, it was a great way to end the festival.

Deadmau5 is my new favorite electro artist, can’t remember the last time I danced this much at a rave party.

Other artists that I have really enjoyed at Roskilde are Trentemøller (Know for his song Moan), Volbeat, Slipknot (although they were fucking messed up in the head) somewhat enjoyed their performance but its uniqueness makes it an unforgettable performance,

Oh, almost forgot, the naked race you will have to google that yourself, don’t want to link to anything like that from my blog, but here is a sneak peak anyway

That’s it for now!

Sorry about the wind, the weather was too nice to film indoors and i didn’t have time for a retake, will be more carefull next time.

What do you think of the video?