1. Ayaan Hirsi Ali & The Big Ideas Forum

Comment #239561 by gobbles on August 29, 2008 at 11:36 pm

I agree with LeeLeeOne on this and others above. You'de be suprised by how much psychological research is showing that even when we want to seek what is true through objectivity and reason, we are often biased towards one view without even realising it, allowing us to overlook something that might contain a grain of truth.
That's why i think it's better not to think of ones own views as 'Left' or 'Right' because it's just like saying you belong to a religion.

Just look at how many friends Hitchens lost when he supported the Iraq war, it just shows you how liberals can be just as dogmatic.

2. Pope confirms sexual abuse apology

Comment #209681 by gobbles on July 13, 2008 at 2:00 am

I'm really considering rocking up with a couple of my mates on the 19th, drunk, and doing everything we can to piss off him and everyone else. to bad i live in a country that locks people up for annoying overrated people. at least australia is pretty non-religious, and most of us won't be overly happy about the idea of spending tax on this sort of thing, and thus enjoy the sight of people protesting. it will be just like apec all over again...

3. Richard Dawkins on Doctor Who

Comment #201012 by gobbles on June 28, 2008 at 6:47 pm

as good as this is,
isn't it odd that when thee earth is mysteriously moved across space that they ask advice from a biologist? unless richard plays the role of an astronomer that is

4. Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes

Comment #200087 by gobbles on June 26, 2008 at 8:23 pm

i can't find the article at the moment to back this up, but i remember reading a recent new scientist magazine article that showed evidence that the world population level will level off and begin to decline at around 2070.

Either way, if you want to solve the problems of population growth, you only need to see that fertility rates in developed countries are very low and those in developing countries are soaring.
People having too many babies in developed countries isn't really a problem. Help developing countries too become developed (which includes increasing access to contriception and abortion and pressuring nations for the emancipation of women) is really the only humanitarian solution.
The ironies is that if every developing nation were to become developed via industrialisation (like china is), the amount of greenhouse gases produced would be disastrous.

5. Rover instrument to sniff out life on Mars

Comment #175746 by gobbles on May 6, 2008 at 1:00 am

The reason why things in space are happening so slow is because of the lack of interest. I'm by no means saying that space exploration is boring, but a lot of the general public wants one thing and that's life. As soon as that is discovered, whatever form it may be, Nasas budget will go up, and in doing so put pressure on developing new propulsion technology.
If you were desperate for a jump start though, there's always project orion, but although the maths says it will work, the idea of dropping out nuclear bombs behind the ship and riding the explosion never really sat well with most people.

6. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105785 by gobbles on January 1, 2008 at 8:20 pm

-Diacanu

i don't see where you're coming from, are you saying that it isn't possible to repair such genetic abnormalities (such as down syndrome) or are you saying that we just won't bother? Down Syndrome is caused by the presence of replicated part of the 21st genome. I'm not an expert but future genetic engineering should be able to fix this, so why would an abortion be neccessary?

7. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105775 by gobbles on January 1, 2008 at 7:59 pm

- Diacanu

But again, who says what "fit", is?

8. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105769 by gobbles on January 1, 2008 at 7:41 pm

The prospects of such modification would be incredible, but you have to understand the social and ethical implications of it, lets say it becomes legal for parents to use genetic engineering to produce their offspring to optimum levels of fitness. So then you would have part of the human population superiour to the other part in every way, which i don't think i need to explain why this would cause problems. But lets then assume that it becomes available to everyone in atleast all of the developed nations, still there would be an inequality to those in developing nations that need help the most and even in nations where it is available, there will be many parents who would refuse to impliment this on their children for religious and cultural reasons and so on.
If there could be a solution to these social flaws, then i say go for it, but i just don't see how it could happen

9. New Noah's Ark ready to sail

Comment #35768 by gobbles on April 28, 2007 at 7:58 pm

Interesting... in fact, while you're at it, why not make a full-scale labyrinth with a robotic minotaur in the centre that confronts all those who vistits.
Or a recreation of mount olympus with the 12 almighty olympians sitting atop, with Zeus in the middle. Atleast that would be much more interesting than cliched christian BS.

10. Potentially habitable planet found

Comment #35003 by gobbles on April 25, 2007 at 10:52 pm

I think sending a probe their is a bit too much for 20 lightyears. By the way, interstellar flights in a human lifetime is actually technologically feasable today. Project orion, which was tested during the 1960's could reach up to 15% of the speed of light using nuclear bombs detonated behind it. For obvious reasons, many people were against it just from the sound of the idea, but the maths said that it'd work, and the cold war didn't fit very well into the whole americans sending warheads into space. But if they find similar planets, and ones that are within say... 5 lightyears distance, then there's always the possibilty of a 30-60 year mission...

11. Atheists split on how to not believe

Comment #33933 by gobbles on April 22, 2007 at 6:03 pm

How can we be defined as "militaristic"?
We only use words and strongly based arguments to get our message across, not violence.
Besides, Dawkins has said on many interviews that he believes people should belive whatever they want. We still belive in freedom of thought, and freedom of speech. But I think what we are realistically aiming for is for all people, especially people in power, to base their decisions in the believe in something called REALITY.

12. Atheism isn't the final word

Comment #32639 by gobbles on April 17, 2007 at 7:58 pm

I find it strange that they keep insisting how unberable it feels to think that we are all formed by a natural process that occured over billions of years instead of the naive timespand of 6000 years by some old bloke with a beard called God, who can't even cut us one shred of evidence of his existence. As long as i could read and learn, i always as a child read by fathers books on astronomy, atomic energy, evolution etc... and i found it all fascinating. It wasn't until a catholic scripture girl visited our school in year 3, that i got my first preaching of the earth being less than 10 000 years old. When she said this i just raised an eyebrow at her, questioning how this all fitted into the great scheme of dinosaurs, the comet that wiped out the dinosaurs, the slow transformation from the ape to the man.
I think i remember just laughing at her in the end because it seemed so silly.

So i think it's quite obvious that this big gut-wrenching feeling that all these people are talking about, is a direct result of mythological indoctrination that they just can't shake off, and has no bearing on whether sience gives life purpose, or comfort.