/atheism/ - Atheism

Does Dick Dawkins really have nothing better to do or is that headline bullshit? A white kid carrying a suitcase with wires sticking out and a digital clock display on the side would still have been suspicious. Obviously authorities went too far but you really can't blame them for being initially suspicious.

That aside, who cares if he's misusing the word "invent"? He's a kid with an interest in building things. Whether he's religious or not that should be encouraged. Kid's American anyway, so he won't get beheaded if science turns him off Islam later. This is why I doubt he really said that. He spent so much time reaching out to kids doing science education. It seems uncharacteristically butthurt and autismal of him.

>>11303

But the kid didn't invent the clock, he just dismantled it and put the parts together in a suitcase, probably because it looked cooler when you can see the circut board.

>>11304

Right but does that really matter? He's a kid tinkering with electronics and learning. He should be a positive example to other kids. "Inventing" is inaccurate, but now is a bad time to be going to the kid and telling him he's wrong. He's unlikely to be receptive to criticism in the current context. Dawkins is serving as a poor ambassador of skepticism, science, and atheism by doing that, because the kid (and anyone else who sees) is more likely to lump him (and what he represents) with the people who gave the kid a rough day, rather than learning anything from the exchange. Someone experienced in education should have the wisdom to know now is not the time and the restraint to honor that.

>>11307

How was he acting strange? I'm not that familiar with the story. I don't see how that affects my point anyway; it's not the right context to lecture someone over something pedantic if you want them to see you in anything but a negative light.

>>11309

I don't care what light you see me. I'm simply not going to allow people peddling this victim routine shit here without any opposition. This is a board for skeptics. Now none of us know what actually happened but I'm not going to buy into the "poor oppressed Muslims" narrative and Dawkins is right to challenge it.

Anyway this is what the authorities said:

>“We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only tell us that it was a clock,” McLellan said, who claimed Ahmed was being “passive aggressive” in his answers to their questions. “It could reasonably be mistaken as a device if left in a bathroom or under a car. The concern was, what was this thing built for? Do we take him into custody?”

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2423721/ahmed-mohameds-bomb-clock-gets-muslim-teen-arrested-over-911-fears/#cbAjtEBIjHhZ6KRv.99

>>11310

>“We attempted to question the juvenile about what it was and he would simply only tell us that it was a clock

So he would only tell the truth? I don't get it, what else was he supposed to say?

> claimed Ahmed was being “passive aggressive” in his answers

Good. As long as he was giving truthful answers I can't say I blame him for giving the cops some attitude. I'd be in a pretty bad mood too if I were in his place.

>The reason everyone was so upset is because the digital clock was contained within a briefcase.

Holy fuck, that's retarded. Because briefcase+wires=bomb, right?

It did not help when Mohamed plugged the briefcase into an electrical outlet in the middle of English class and it began to make a beeping noise.

A BEEPING NOISE? WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!

>>11313

>So he would only tell the truth? I don't get it, what else was he supposed to say?

It could be the manner in which he said it. Oh it's just a clock nothing to worry about while having a stupid grin on his face as though he's lying.

>I can't say I blame him for giving the cops some attitude. I'd be in a pretty bad mood too if I were in his place.

And that's why you'd get arrested. You shouldn't give officers attitude. Learn to deal with your juvenile rage, it could save your life. Video very related.

>Because briefcase+wires=bomb, right?

It could very well be. That's the point. They wanted to make sure, seriously school shooting and bombing does go down in the US.

They acted as they should've. The little shit gave the officers attitude and had a very suspicious device on him. They did the right thing detaining him.

Based Maher putting this in perspective.

Pretty good video on this by a research scientist involved in medical electronics.

>>11324

>>11330

Ahmed's invention was pretty good for his age, but overall not overly impressive. I can understand why people thought it was a bomb though.

Still, this is less abotu racism and more about America's general level of paranoia.

>>11348

The whole shebang is a setup by his dad, the boy is probably innocent. He probably doesn't even write these tweets.

>>11354

He did disassemble a clock and put it into a briefcase.

It's on a PCB and not a breadboard. That's the dead give away.

>>11356

And by disassemble I mean pull out the electronics. Not rewire a single fucking thing.

Also this whole thing reeks of a tryhard attempt to use this kid to 'raise awareness of "Islamophobia"'.

Btw his dad ran to be president of Sudan. Can't trust a politician, especially from such a corrupt country. It's better to assume the worst than assume innocence with these assholes.

>>11358

Sorry but 'innocence till proven guilty' is moronic, it should be 'undetermined till proven guilty'. Because that is the fact, we shouldn't assume innocence like we shouldn't assume guilt.

>>11356

>>11358

Well, you might be right.

Still, pulling something like this so you can pull out the victim card is a gutsy move to say the very least. This could've easily ended poorly for the kid. If not interrogation, put on some FBI watchlist. Seems like a risk not worth taking, even if it did work out in the end.

There's always the third possibility of him just doing that for a school project where he shows how a clock works, and once the incident happened it got made into some invention to further portray him as an oppressed genius when he's probably just school-smart at best.

>his dad ran to be president of Sudan

Under what party? If it's one of the mainstream parties then yeah can't say I trust him.

>'undetermined till proven guilty

I like it. Describes what should happen far better than innocence. For now, I remain neutral but cynical.

>>11360

>Still, pulling something like this so you can pull out the victim card is a gutsy move to say the very least. This could've easily ended poorly for the kid. If not interrogation, put on some FBI watchlist. Seems like a risk not worth taking, even if it did work out in the end.

Sure but we are talking about a religion that uses kids as bullet shields so. They don't value life as sacrifices in the real life mean that much more reward in the make-believe one.

>There's always the third possibility of him just doing that for a school project where he shows how a clock works, and once the incident happened it got made into some invention to further portray him as an oppressed genius when he's probably just school-smart at best.

There were no projects due on that day from what I read, school just started. It's September and a project liek this even if it was assigned on the first day which happens nowhere wouldn't be due by at least mid October. This is highschool in Texas where they even teach creationism in biology, their expectations are very low. So a project of this caliber could be assigned but then every other kid would have it too.

>Under what party? If it's one of the mainstream parties then yeah can't say I trust him.

Idk but even HuffinggluePost mentioned it.

>>11356

To play the Devils advocate, in my high school electronics class we never used a bread board, we etched circuit boards with acid, using ink (sometimes ironed on) to cover the parts we wanted to keep the copper. A breadboard would have been better: our lazy teacher didn't teach shit about electrical law or what the components did, except tell us how to solder and assemble according to the instructions. It was my least favorite class: I got shocked a few times, and a few kids' projects lit on fire and you could smell burning circuit boards and lead every week. The next year our teacher retired, and electronics was discontinued, but I've digressed.

The point is, this does look like a disassembled clock. Its too clean and precise, and the display panel looks exactly like the comercial kind you find in a clock. Either that or he bought some chips from a kit online and assembled them, pre-programmed, (or he programmed them himself) either of which I highly doubt. A third year High School electronics student was barely making a custom dancing led display that wrote his name on wood he had drilled holes into….I seriously doubt a younger twelve year old eight grader would have the knowhow or expertise to figure out something greater on his own, unless his father helped him.

>>11361

>Sure but we are talking about a religion that uses kids as bullet shields

Are you talking about the whole Israel-Palestine thing? Because I'm not sure whether I can trust Israel with being honest about the ordeal.

>>11301

Op, stop shilling New Atheism. It's a shitty feminist front, and copying and pasting your post from /tech/ is a stupid way to out yourself as a shill.

>Atheists starting to realize they're just SJWs

Have you reached self-awareness yet?

>>11379

protip: we're not

fuck off, statuecuck

>>11359

I hate it when people explain something so autisticly that that even when they may have a point they still sound like blithering morons.

Yes, you are correct that without evidence it's impossible to assign an accurate or precise truth value to anything. However, you seem to ignore that what "innocent until proven guilty" means is actually a tacit acknowledgement of the imperfection of the legal system and a nominal preference for erring on the side of definitely not punishing innocent people rather than risk throwing people who did nothing in jail.

Yeah, the media only cares because the dude's a Muslim. They'd probably ignore a white dude doing the same thing and may or may not have shot a black dude doing the same thing.

>>11377

>their own

They just used some kids from a local bumfuck village in durkadurkastan, not their own.

>>11381

I think he just dislikes how it could be interpreted.

>>11301

Fuck off >>>/pol/

Being a spooky nationalist/racialist is the same thing as being a christfag, you are worshipping something that doesn't exist

>>11394

I'm actually pointing out the stupidity of identity politics, specifically how some idiots rushed to his defense because he is brown. SJWs and stormfags are two sides of the same retarded coin. So fuck off >>>/tumblr/

Holy fuck is this kid a fraud. Still asserting he made a clock and under 20 minutes. And say's his next project is a hoverboard. Sheesh.

>>11401

And

>i built cpus

Holy shit, and this is the little faggot sjws are tripping over themselves for. Makes sense as they're both dishonest pieces of shit.

Keep in mind though that a 14 year old in an African village without electricity built a windmill with scrap parts and knowledge from his school library.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Who-Harnessed-Wind/dp/0061730335

>>11396

>lol humanists is dum

>im actually calling out identity politics

What's it like being a retard?

>>11424

But humanists are retarded, they allow religion to persist instead of making a genuine effort of getting rid of it. Humanism isn't anti-religion, it's tolerance to whatever religious status one chooses no matter how detrimental or unfounded in reason. And as one picture shows humanists are tripping over themselves to defend Muslims.

Look when it comes to identity politics people shouldn't be discriminated on their skin tone, what dangles or doesn't dangle between their legs, where they like to stick it or have it stuck or not stuck, whatever. But what they believe in is different. you don't accept sexism or racism so why be tolerant to religion?

Sorry that you're too retarded to get what I was getting at. So you can fuck off, traitor to reason.

>>11429

wow rude

>>11429

Wow you are a retard

Marx neitczhe and stirner to name a few were all humanists

SJWs =/= humanists

>>>/gulag/

>>11438

>wikipedia

SHIT!

WHAT A BRILLIANT SOURCE, THANK YOU

>>11403

See now this is some impressive shit.

>>11401

Call me a faggot but I still want to believe this kid is still just playing along with what his folks tell him. Regardless, we'll see just how well his new "inventions" pan out.

>>11439

There is an actual source for those claims. I'm a bit iffy on humanism and anti-humanism but that anon does make a point.

While I don't think we should be dicks to people over things like racial identities, religion is an ideology, and therefore we should be allowed to criticize both it and it's adherents.

>>11440

Humanism is the rejection of identity, if spooks

Humanism is a belief that people are generally, equal, the phrase "when i was born all i knew is i was human, all the rest is learned along the way" reflects this

The spooky faggots that adhere to such nonsense as nation race religion etc. are always chastised by humanists

TL;DR OP is a faggot

>>11441

>Humanism is the rejection of identity

No it isn't, you still identify as human.

>Humanism is a belief that people are generally, equal

Tabula rasa is moronic. As retarded as believing in gods. People aren't equal, our brains are very complex that small nuanced differences in structure lead to major differences in results. Even if you deny the genetic underpinning, the fact that we are gestated under different conditions results in this.

If tabula rasa was true I could choose to be gay.

>>11477

>you still identify as human

Oh well geez too bad I'm not one of those

>People aren't equal, our brains are very complex that small nuanced differences in structure lead to major differences in results.

Equal =/= the same

>>11481

>Equal =/= the same

Sure different things can have equalities, but they're not ever entirely equal in every respect or they would be the same.

Now with humanity as a whole we're not equal, not in height nor our cognitive abilities which can have an array of different measures (speed to completion, correctness, level of difficulty, amount of study required, etc). Just as we can benchmark computational performance of computers we can do so with humans and on the whole they never score the same.

Look I'm all for giving people equal opportunity to prove themselves, there's no better assessment than an even playing field and it's a shame it's not in play, but to believe people are born equal is delusional. Look at the extreme cases, people with trisomy 21 vs someone like Gauss. Time to put the make-believe away, dude.

>>11436

Nietzsche was definitely not a humanist.

Marx was a humanist? I'm not surprised. Humanism has caused more harm than good by being implicit in the evils of religion.

>>11306

>Right but does that really matter? He's a kid tinkering with electronics and learning. He should be a positive example to other kids.

Dude, fuck you, I invented all sorts of stupid fun shit when I was a kid, I got no fucking medal. This kid just took a clock, fucked it up and put it in a briefcase, if you honestly think this is special you need to slap yourself.

>>13021

This, he's nothing special.