==Day 28==
The "Fallacy Fallacy" AKA Argument from Fallacy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_fallacy
Just because someone has committed a Fallacy, does not mean they are wrong. It means that a Fallacy has been committed.
If you have heard of "Semantic Trolling" Where someone says "You spelled a word wrong, so you're wrong" that is "Semantic Trolling". The Argument from Fallacy is similar, just because you have spotted a Fallacy, does not mean that the statements the Fallacy was meant to defend are themselves invalid. It just means there is a Fallacy.
Have you ever wondered why medicine and law are called "Practices"?
Not many things are called "Practices". Usually when it comes to a job, you only practice when you aren't really working. The practice is for before the work, right?
Well, not in Law and Medicine. You may have noticed something strange about Law and Medicine that you don't see in many other professions. They use ancient symbols for their "Craft". Doctors have the symbol of Mercury, with the staff and the snake and the wings, while Lawyers have Justice AKA Ma'at, the woman with the sword and a scale, wearing a blindfold.
The reason these ancient Symbols are there, and the reason Medicine and Law are called "Practices" is because they started as religions.
Our modern Hospitals originate in Ancient Greece, where Western Medicine was started as well. A man name "Hippocrates" started it after reading about the life of Imhotep/Aesculapius and being educated. Doctors in 2014 (or 2015 if you are reading this later) STILL say the Hippocratic Oath. Doctors are simply passing down the traditions that were started by Imhotep and Hippocrates (Surgery and Medicine). While Lawyers, Judges, etc are keeping society's "Codes".
We have all heard of the child King of Ancient Egypt "King Tut", but why is he remembered? Is it just because he was a child king? That is definitely not the reason.
Akhenaten was KingTut's dad, and he was Pharaoh before King Tut. He decided that he was God, so he renamed himself "Amenhotep" (Amen is an Ancient Egyptian God, weird that Christians say his name at the end of their prayers). And after changing his name, he had all of the scribes go around Egypt covering up the names of different Gods and changing them to "Aten", who was another God. So he made it where they only Worshiped one God, then he told everyone that HE was that God. In later Egyptian records, historians referred to him as "The Enemy" even though they were from the same Kingdom as him.
King Tut came after his father and restored the Ogdoad. Basically, restored Science to Ancient Egypt. When Egyptians worshiped the Nile they were using "Nileometers" to measure the height of the waters, then doing pretty amazing math to figure out what the volume of the river would be during flood season, and then digging ditches to move the Nile.
When they worshiped the Sun, they were making walls that worked as fake Horizons, so they could make marks on the top of the wall and see how the sun was moving across the sky slowly throughout the year.
The "Ogdoad" and the Temples of the Major Gods simply represent different "Sciences" or "Arts", and religions like Christianity (Monotheism) has ALWAYS been the "Enemy".
Entire Garden Update
Everyone likes to think of Hannibal Barca (Not Hannibal the Cannibal) as the worst person in History, but this was simply the way Rome painted him, it is not the truth. Hannibal was responding to the Empirical War Machine known as Rome, who his dad had spent and given his life to keep out of Africa. So he wasn't going to let Rome into Africa, that doesn't mean he was the bad guy in the situation. And even more-so since Rome broke their own treaty to defend a small ally town Hannibal was attacking on his side of the river.
But the Gisgo quote is probably the most amazing quote in the whole story of the life of Hannibal Barca. The setting was Hannibal in charge of 50,000 troops from different nations. Africans, Spaniards & French people who had never seen anyone defeat a Roman force until they met Hannibal.
Rome has 90,000 soldiers, who were all better armed, better armored, better trained, less diverse nationally and supposedly with better leadership.
Gisgo was one of Hannibal's officers and he came to him and said:
"They have many more men than us, we will not win today"
Hannibal replied:
"It seems something has escaped you. In all their vast numbers, there is not one of them named Gisgo".
That day 50,000 men killed 70,000 men and sent the other 20,000 (survivors) out of 90,000 running. And at that time the phrase was coined "Hannibal is at the gates" which businessmen still say today (or did until like the 80s if they don't now) when they have a client who is particularly difficult to deal with.
What Atheism Meant To Me When I Was Atheist, And What I See Now
I am not an Atheist anymore, but I was in high-school. I had a friend who was Agnostic and I had never even really heard of that before. I was going to Church confirmation class and I asked "Do Jews go to Hell?" and the church lady wouldn't answer, so I was just like "Why am I Christian?"
So I became atheist. And to me it meant that I was looking for the "Right God" I was not part of any faith, I was just on the outside looking through all of them, seeing if I could accidentally find a God.
Then I found Shiva and I realized that I am like Rudra. Then I found out that Ancient Egyptian God Temples were really just science classrooms. so it really made no sense to me to be Atheist, unless we are talking about a Magic Man in the sky.
I don't feel like there are any Atheist left who want to know if God exists. They all went through confirmation class or whatever and now they think they know everything about everything. What is that? Can't they just say "I don't know" every once in a while? It is a fine answer.
How Debates Used To (And Do) Work
Atheists and Christians like to go into a Google hangout with 9 other people, shit talk and talk over each other, then later call that a "Debate". I would like to let everyone know, that is an argument. Nothing more.
In the 60s, Malcolm X would go out on stages in from of other Muslims and he would talk about the difference between white and black people in the 60s. And it started a lot of problems, because there were a lot of racists, so what did they do? They found someone to debate Malcolm and they put him on PBS with a moderator.
THAT is a debate. Not where one person decides they want to stomp on another person, so they find some people to fund them arguing some asshole on stage. Debates are meant to be like "Let's figure out whose right, because some of us aren't sure" THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT.
How Debates Used To (And Do) Work pt 2
Over 2,300 years ago (around 300-400 BC) Rome was at war with Carthage (in Africa). The way we usually think about history, we think that these two nations must have not really known each other and they must have been after resources. Not true.
Scipio (leader of the Roman forces) and Hannibal (leader of the Carthaginian forces) met to have a debate after the war. Remember, this is 2,300+ years ago, and these guys were able to do this.
They met somewhere in the middle and they literally debated. Scipio asked Hannibal, "Who is the greatest general in history". Hannibal said "Alexander of Macedonia" and Scipio agreed. Then Scipio asked who the second greatest was, Hannibal said "Pyyrhus of Epirus" because boldness is what qualified a general for Hannibal. Then Scipio asked Hannibal who he named third, and he named himself., because he crossed the Alps faster than anyone, surprised the Roman army and had killed a large portion of the Roman army before putting Italy under Martial Law where he was basically a Batman king, saving people and living in mansions.
Scipio asked where Hannibal would have ranked himself if he had not been beaten by Scipio, he said "In that case I should have put myself before Alexander". And Scipio felt good about that because he beat someone who claims to be the superior of Alexander.
I am not saying this is the best debate or the best outcome, but it's a real debate. An Atheists going in to "argue" with a Creationist, is not a debate. That is an Atheist arguing with a Creationist. You need a more specific topic, and usually a question. Then some form of demonstration, by hand or by words.