tumblr4men:

Zombiebeard (zombiebeard@gmail.com) submitted

SUBMIT

(Source: saddlemaker, via scinerds)

(Source: lmaoatheist, via ihateallyourgods)

(Source: abaldwin360)

mamaatheist:

Quit persecuting us!

(Source: helvetebrann, via ihateallyourgods)

theamericanscholar:

Awe meaning dread mixed with veneration. Awe meaning “solemn and reverential wonder, tinged with … fear, inspired by what is … sublime and majestic in nature,” according to the OED.

Toba.

Toba was the largest volcanic explosion of the past two million years. Toba Volcano blew 74,000 years ago.

Priscilla Long discusses volcanoes, destruction, and the true meaning of awesome. Read Toba.

(Photo via The Atlantic. Claudio Santana/AFP/Getty Images)

(via discoverynews)

(Source: ihateallyourgods)

epic4chan:

iz kyoot:

friends for life  画

I’m not the “cute” guy but heck, this is so fuckin cute.

A flood myth or deluge myth is a mythical or religious story of a great flood sent by a deity or deities to destroy civilization as an act of divine retribution. It is a theme widespread among many cultures, though it is perhaps best known in modern times through the biblical and Quranic account of Noah’s Ark, the foundational myths of the Quiché and Mayas, through Deucalion in Greek mythology, the Utnapishtim in the Epic of Gilgamesh or the Hindu puranic story of Manu which has some very strong parallels with the story of Noah.

Parallels are often drawn between the flood waters of these myths and the primeval waters found in some creation myths since the flood waters are seen to cleanse humanity in preparation for rebirth. Most flood myths also contain a culture hero who strives to ensure this rebirth.

[ORIGIN OF FLOOD MYTHS]

Adrienne Mayor’s The First Fossil Hunters and Fossil Legends of the First Americans promoted the hypothesis that flood stories were inspired by ancient observations of seashells and fish fossils inland and on mountains. The ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, and Chinese all wrote about finding such remains in these locations, and the Greeks hypothesized that Earth had been covered by water several times, noting seashells and fish fossils found on mountain tops as evidence. Native Americans also expressed this belief in their early encounters with Europeans, though they had not written it down previously. However, Leonardo da Vinci postulated that an immediate deluge could not have caused the neatly ordered strata he found in the Italian Apennines.

Some geologists believe that quite dramatic, unusually great flooding of rivers in the distant past might have influenced the legends. Also episodes of massive flooding of short duration of ocean coastal areas have been caused by tsunamis. One of the latest, and quite controversial, hypotheses of long term flooding is the Ryan-Pitman Theory, which argues for a catastrophic deluge about 5600 BC from the Mediterranean Sea into the Black Sea. This has been the subject of considerable discussion, and a news article from National Geographic News in February 2009 reported that the flooding might have been “quite mild”.

There also has been speculation that a large tsunami in the Mediterranean Sea caused by the Thera eruption, dated about 1630–1600 BC geologically, was the historical basis for folklore that evolved into the Deucalion myth. Although the tsunami hit the South Aegean Sea and Crete it did not affect cities in the mainland of Greece, such as Mycenae, Athens, and Thebes, which continued to prosper, indicating that it had a local rather than a regionwide effect.

Another hypothesis is that a meteor or comet crashed into the Indian Ocean around 3000–2800 BC, created the 30 kilometres (19 mi) undersea Burckle Crater, and generated a giant tsunami that flooded coastal lands.

It has been postulated that the deluge myth may be based on a sudden rise in sea levels caused by the rapid draining of prehistoric Lake Agassiz at the end of the last Ice Age, about 8,400 years ago.

The great deluge finds mention in Hindu mythology texts like the Satapatha Brahmana, where in the Matsya Avatar (Fish incarnation) of the Hindu deity Vishnu takes place to save the pious and the first man, Manu.

[LIST OF FLOOD MYTHS]

MANY. LOOK UP: 

YOU’LL BE SURPRISED

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_flood_myths

SRC:

http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t208.e567

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/02/090206-smaller-noah-flood_2.html « READ THIS ONE

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/nov/did-a-comet-cause-the-great-flood

http://www.vedanta-atlanta.org/stories/flood.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_view_of_Noah

Noah’s Ark (Hebrew: תיבת נח‎, Teyvat Noaḥ in Classical Hebrew) is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis (chapters 6–9) and the Quran (surahs Hud and Al-Mu’minoon). 

These narratives describe the construction of the ark by the Patriarch Noah at God’s command to save himself, his family, and the world’s animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.

In the narrative of the ark, God sees the wickedness of man and is grieved by his creation, resolving to send a great flood to cleanse the Earth. However, he sees that Noah is a man “righteous in his generation,” and gives him detailed instructions on how to construct a seaworthy ark. When Noah and the animals are safe on board, God sends the Flood, which rises until all the mountains are covered and all life on Earth is destroyed. At the height of the flood, the ark rests on mountaintops, before the waters recede and dry land reappears. Noah, his family, and the animals leave the ark to repopulate the Earth. God places a symbolic rainbow in the sky and makes a covenant with Noah and all living things, by which he vows to never again send a flood to destroy the Earth.

The ark narrative has been extensively studied by adherents of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, as well as other Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic faiths. Such studies have ranged from hypothetical solutions to practical problems (such as the issues of waste disposal and lighting the ark’s interior), to theological and metaphoric interpretations (with the ark being seen as the spiritual precursor of the Church in offering salvation to mankind). Although the account of the ark was traditionally accepted as historical, by the 19th century the growing impact of scientific investigation and biblical interpretation had led many people to abandon a literal view in favour of a more metaphoric understanding. Though there have been many alleged sightings of Noah’s Ark over the years, no concrete physical evidence of the ark has been found. Biblical literalists continue to explore the mountains of Ararat in present-day Turkey, where the Bible says the ark came to rest, in search of archaeological remnants of the vessel.

[IN ISLAM]

Noah (Arabic: Nuh) is one of the five principal prophets of Islam. References to him are scattered through the Qur’an, with the fullest account being found in surah Hud (11:27–51). As a prophet, Noah preached to his people, but with little success; only “a few”[11:40] of them converted (traditionally thought to be seventy). Noah prayed for deliverance, and Allah told him to build a ship in preparation for the coming flood. A son (named either ‘Kan’an’ or ‘Yam’ depending on the source) was among those drowned, despite Noah pleading with him to leave the disbelievers and join him (Surah Hud, 42–43).

In contrast to the Jewish tradition, which uses a term which can be translated as a “box” or “chest” to describe the Ark, surah 29:14 refers to it as a safina, an ordinary ship, and surah 54:13 describes the ark as “a thing of boards and nails”. `Abd Allah ibn `Abbas, a contemporary of Muhammad, wrote that Noah was in doubt as to what shape to make the ark, and that Allah revealed to him that it was to be shaped like a bird’s belly and fashioned of teak wood.

Abdallah ibn ‘Umar al-Baidawi, writing in the 13th century, gives the length of the ark as 300 cubits (157 m, 515 ft) by 50 (26.2 m, 86 ft) in width, 30 cubits (15.7 m, 52 ft) in height, and explains that in the first of the three levels wild and domesticated animals were lodged, in the second the human beings, and in the third the birds. On every plank was the name of a prophet. Three missing planks, symbolizing three prophets, were brought from Egypt by Og, son of Anak, the only one of the giants permitted to survive the Flood.[dubious] The body of Adam was carried in the middle to divide the men from the women.[dubious] Surah 11:41 says: “And he said, ‘Ride ye in it; in the Name of Allah it moves and stays!’”; this was taken to mean that Noah said, “In the Name of Allah!” when he wished the ark to move, and the same when he wished it to stand still.

Noah spent five or six months aboard the ark, at the end of which he sent out a raven. But the raven stopped to feast on carrion, and so Noah cursed it and sent out the dove, which has been known ever since as the friend of mankind. The medieval scholar Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn al-Husayn Masudi (d. 956) wrote that Allah commanded the Earth to absorb the water, and certain portions which were slow in obeying received salt water in punishment and so became dry and arid. The water which was not absorbed formed the seas, so that the waters of the flood still exist. Masudi says that the ark began its voyage at Kufa in central Iraq and sailed to Mecca, circling the Kaaba before finally traveling to Mount Judi (in Arabic also referred to as “high place, hill), which surah 11:44 states was its final resting place. This mountain is identified by tradition with a hill near the town of Jazirat ibn Umar on the east bank of the Tigris in the province of Mosul in northern Iraq, and Masudi says that the spot where it came to rest could be seen in his time.

Noah left the ark, and he and his family and companions built a town at the foot of Mount Judi, named Thamanin (“eighty”) in reference to their number. Noah then locked the ark and entrusted the keys to Shem. Yaqut al-Hamawi (1179–1229) mentions a mosque built by Noah which could be seen in his day. Some modern Muslims, although not generally active in searching for the ark, believe that it still exists on the high slopes of the mountain.

St. Augustin (1890) [c. 400]. “Chapter 26:That the ark Which Noah Was Ordered to Make Figures In Every Respect Christ and the Church”. In Schaff, Philip. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine]. 1. 2. The Christian Literature Publishing Company. Retrieved 2010-07-10.

Plimer 1994

Browne 1983

Young 1995 Chapter: History of the Collapse of “Flood Geology” and a Young Earth

Riss, Richard M.. “Historical Evidence for Noah’s Ark”. Retrieved 7 November 2011.

John D. Morris (2009). “Noah’s Ark: The Search Goes On”. Institute for Creation Research. Retrieved 2010-07-11.

McCurdy, J.F.; Bacher, W.; Seligsohn, M. et al., eds (2002). “Noah”. Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2010-07-11.

McCurdy, J.F.; Jastrow, M.W.; Ginzberg, L. et al., eds (2002). “Ark of Noah”. Jewish Encyclopedia. JewishEncyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2010-07-12.

religiousragings:

plain ridiculous

(Source: majormakaber, via ihateallyourgods)

the-star-stuff:

And now, a chicken grown in a Petri dish

A fertilized, incubated chicken egg takes about 21 days to hatch; and while most of us have seen what chicks look like at either end of the developmental spectrum (either sunny-side-up in a frying pan or newly hatched in a nature documentary), the fact that egg shells aren’t see-through means that not many people have seen what goes on between days 2 and 20.

Well… now you have.

Having said that, it is possible to grow a chicken in a petri dish. Several methods papers have been published on the subject of Petri-grown chicks, beginning with the Auerbach method in 1974. You can check out the full set of images over on imgur.

[Via reddit]

did-you-kno:

Source

famousatheists:

“As for the various religions, there’s no doubt that they are very meaningful to adherents, and allow them to delude themselves into thinking there is some meaning to their lives beyond what we agree is the case. I’d never try to talk them out of the delusions, which are necessary for them to live a life that makes some sense to them. These beliefs can provide a framework for deeds that are noble or savage, and anywhere in between, and there’s every reason to focus attention on the deeds and the background for them, to the extent that we can grasp it.” 

-Noam Chomsky (father of modern linguistics, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, professor of modern linguistics and philosophy at MIT and activist)