Google Maps and Google Earth

I just learnt that Google Maps can now be embedded like YouTube videos within a HTML page. That is quite useful. Below is a Google Maps embed of my home street (Yishun Central):

View Larger Map

You can click and drag the mouse to navigate within the image, or zoom in and out using the "+" and "-" buttons on the left panel.

The "Map", "Sat" and "Hyb" buttons shows the plain map, or the satellite photo, or a hybrid combining both the map and the satellite photo.

Click on the "View Larger Map" link to go to Google Maps directly where you can search for other locations.

Besides Google Maps, which runs in a web browser, Google also has a more powerful standalone desktop application called Google Earth. Google Earth now even includes an astronomy feature (called "Sky"). The new "Sky" function of Google Earth is introduced here:

Google Earth (version 4.2) can be downloaded from here:

http://earth.google.com/sky/index.html

Isaac Asimov's "The Tragedy of the Moon"

I found this great video on YouTube that lists several famous atheists:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdVucvo-kDU

I am often surprised that many scientists like Francis Collins and Michael Behe, with their knowledge of science, still cling to their belief in the supernatural Judeo-Christian god as the creator of the universe. Although I too believed in a god when I was a child, when I first learnt the scientific explanations for life and the universe, I realised that science offered a much more elegant and satisfying explanation for our being as compared to the religious explanations.

As a child, I had read the bible stories in my school library, and I felt that the stories were like fairy tales (Adam and Eve and a talking snake, Noah and his titanic boat, Moses and the killing of all first born children in Egypt etc). However, my adult teachers say these were facts that really happened as they are written in the bible. Luckily, I was also brought up on stories of Chinese and Hindu gods, and I immediately realised that all their creation stories of how the world was made conflicted with one another. By the time I was 13, I already knew that since none of these religious creation stories are the same, the religious explanations were probably all wrong, and the stories are really myths, just like all the other fairy tales I have read.

In 1979, I read a book by Isaac Asimov called "The Tragedy of the Moon", which was actually a collection of his science essays. The main essay, that is also the title of the book, gave Asimov's explanation on why he think it was a tragedy for Earth to have a Moon, and speculated on how much better it would have been for humankind if the Earth had no Moon.

The main premise of that essay is that because of the Moon, which does revolve around the Earth, the ancients were led to the belief that the Sun must also revolve around the Earth, and similarly for all the stars in the sky. Earth must be the centre of the universe, and humans are special and must be created by god since god has put humans to inhabit the Earth.

Asimov argued that if the Moon did not exist, humans would have realised much earlier that the Earth actually revolved around the Sun, and that science and astronomy would not have been set back by thousands of years because of the wrong belief of an Earth-centric solar system instead of the correct helio-centric solar system.

In that essay, I learnt about Christianity's horrible treatment of scientists like Galileo Galilei and Copernicus because they had dared to question the belief that the Sun revolved around the Earth, and to raise doubt that the Earth was not the centre of the universe. I subsequently learnt how harshly the Christians have treated scientists for speaking about science that conflicted with the bible, condemning innocent people for witchcraft, forcing people into slavery, or forcing religious conversions on people of other religions. Christianity certainly did not earn my admiration.

In the following year, I watched Carl Sagan's enormously fascinating "Cosmos" series on TV. By then, I realised that good scientific explanations could be offered for many questions on the aspects of life. There was no need for any recourse to a magical being for explaining why things were so. The religious explanations for life were so insufficient and lacking in so many ways.

From then onwards, I would reply my Christian friends who tell me that "man is made by god " that they were wrong, and that instead, it is god who is made by man.

"Planet Earth" Documentary Series

I was recommending the BBC documentary series "Planet Earth" to a friend who didn't know about it, and thought maybe I should share it with the rest of you.

"Planet Earth" is the most expensive documentary series made to date, and Singaporeans were extremely lucky that Arts Central bought it and screened it a few months back (the telecast ended in June). This documentary series boasts of incredible visuals filmed with High Definition cameras. Even though Arts Central only broadcasts in Standard Definition, the HD quality seeps through the telecast, and the images were simply astounding even when viewed on a normal Standard Definition TV.

To understand what I am raving about, Amazon.com is hosting a trailer for the "Planet Earth" documentary series in their promotion for the DVD. This trailer shows several of the breathtaking visuals from the series, and you will know why I rave about this series once you see them:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/2379

Actually, someone has uploaded some episodes (complete episodes) of the "Planet Earth" series on Google Video. However, these uploaded videos are compressed, and much of the visual quality is lost. However, the documentaries are still excellent for their informational content.

The following link is for the "Caves" episode:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4535193000141776798

One segment of this episode shows how Bird's Nest is made by a bird called the Swiftlet inside a cave in Borneo (Sarawak) called "Deer Cave" ("Deer Cave" is among one of the largest caves in the world). If you are interested in how the Bird's Nest you consume is made, then this video is a must-watch.

If you like this particular episode, you can use the "Related Videos" link to follow other uploaded episodes of the series.

BBC Documentary on Scientology

You probably know that top Hollywood stars Tom Cruise and John Travolta worship a religion called "Scientology". Scientology is highly controversial, and as for me, I just cannot understand why highly intelligent people like Cruise and Travolta would believe in this kind of pseudo-science stuff.

In May of this year, the BBC broadcast a Panorama documentary about Scientology which reveals the creepy way this wacko cult operates - the Scientology people actually hired spies to secretly follow the BBC crew around as they were making their documentary. This, and other devious tactics practised by the Scientologists, are aptly depicted in the BBC documentary which can be viewed on Google Video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-126281853779690652

More facts about Scientology can be found at the Wikipedia website ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology ), and it makes for fascinating but disturbing reading. There is also a 3 minute South Park cartoon satirising Scientology, but which actually contains a condensed but accurate depiction about Scientology's beliefs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAmEO-oLHzA

The End of Faith

After 9/11, the Bali bombings of 2002, and the Jemaah Islamiyah threat to bomb the Yishun MRT Station, I have became more conscious that Islamist religious fanatics can seriously threaten and destroy civilisation. Without doubt, these Islamic terrorists must be stopped before more innocent lives are killed.

Indeed, Sam Harris was so affected by 9/11 that he wrote the book, "The End of Faith", as his response to it (S$17.33 from Kinokuniya). It is a well argued book on why blind acceptance of religious beliefs is a threat to civilisation, and why fundamentalist Islam is particularly dangerous.

Harris wrote a follow up book, "Letter to a Christian Nation", which emphasizes on the dangers of fundamentalist Christianity.

Both Islam and Christianity centre their foundations on the "divine" writings in the scriptures of the Quran and the Bible. The dogmatic interpretations of these ancient writings by fundamentalists in the 21st century poses a conflict with modern civilisation, and makes religion particularly dangerous - especially to people who do not believe in the same faith as the fundamentalists.

Many Christians believe that the Bible is a perfect document written (or influenced) by a perfect god and as such is an infallible text. Harris points out in "The End of Faith" that the Bible is actually riddled with contradictions, and that even way back in 1859, William Henry Burr has actually published a book called "Self-Contradictions of the Bible". The list of contradictions has been published here:

http://skeptically.org/newtestament/id19.html

These mistakes in the Bible should lead thinking Christians to query whether the Bible is indeed the handiwork of a perfect god, or that the book is as perfect as it is being claimed. With such revealing mistakes, it becomes suspect as to whether the writings in the Bible should be treated literally as divine truths.

I like another section in "Letter to a Christian Nation" in which Sam Harris talks about Christians who strongly believe that "The Ten Commandments" in the Bible is the strongest statement about morality which no other religion can improve upon:

The Ten Commandments

1. 1. You shall have no other Gods but me.
2. 2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.
3. 3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. 4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy.
5. 5. Respect your father and mother.
6. 6. You must not kill.
7. 7. You must not commit adultery.
8. 8. You must not steal.
9. 9. You must not give false evidence against your neighbour.
10. 10. You must not be envious of your neighbour's goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbour.

In response, Harris quotes Mahavira, the patriarch of Jainism, who surpasses the morality of the Ten Commandments with a single one:

Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being.

In fact, there is a very humorous skit by comedian George Carlin on YouTube about the Ten Commandments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CitfTtMIx8

There is another George Carlin video on religion in general:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uBAPbOWLxc