1. Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination

Comment #207121 by wagnerpe on July 9, 2008 at 8:06 am

"Do you believe in Jesus now"

2. Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab

Comment #192505 by wagnerpe on June 13, 2008 at 8:26 am

Anyone else hear about the strains of bacteria that feed on antibiotics? It's was a great story on NPR recently. Fortunately, none of the strains they found are infectious to humans...but given their proclivity towards rapid evolution and adaptation I would say it's not too far off. Love this stuff...

3. Godless

Comment #192503 by wagnerpe on June 13, 2008 at 8:22 am

I liked this article. It's always great to point out the hypocrisy among these evangelical nutjobs, but even better to just quote them verbatim and let their craziness speak for itself.

4. Debating creationism in Louisiana schools

Comment #192023 by wagnerpe on June 12, 2008 at 10:33 am

Dumb dumb dumb. A perfect example of somebody who talks around the questions and a reporter who doesn't have the energy (or intelligence?) to give a reasonable answer. It leads people to believe that both sides have legitimate cases.

5. Car dealership advert tells atheists to 'shut up'

Comment #185396 by wagnerpe on May 27, 2008 at 5:56 pm

So I guess all of the Californians who believe in Mohammed, Jesus, Poseidon, Thor, and Buddah all consider themselves "Christians?"

Somehow...I doubt that.

6. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist

Comment #126749 by wagnerpe on February 14, 2008 at 6:21 am

I'm glad JP.DK had the cohones to publish a picture of the cartoons. That's more guts than any American news station had when covering the story. I refuse to believe that censoring these images is an effort to be culturally sensitive. All it does is make these extremists think that when they rant and rave and threaten violence that we are going to give in to their demands.

7. A Tyrannical Romance

Comment #126747 by wagnerpe on February 14, 2008 at 6:17 am

Very interesting article. I'm just glad I'm not a blue-billed duck.

8. A Letter From Hell

Comment #117201 by wagnerpe on January 28, 2008 at 12:03 pm

Disturbing, horrible, and disgusting. But, at the same time I must admit it is brilliant campaigning on their part. After watching this video, what child won't turn around and start praying to their new imaginary god purely out of fear. It's hard to counteract these brutal scare tactics.

9. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #113336 by wagnerpe on January 19, 2008 at 10:07 am

Too bad, I kind of liked this guy as a person and he did some good things as governor. It's just unfortunate that he's a looney toon.

10. 'Boycott Worked': Compass Flops - Opening Weekend $26 Million; Narnia $63 Million

Comment #97007 by wagnerpe on December 11, 2007 at 9:06 am

I didn't even hear about this boycott. I doubt it influenced the turn out for this movie much at all. It just got bad reviews and most people probably thought it wasn't worth their time.

11. Poll finds more Americans believe in devil than Darwin

Comment #92292 by wagnerpe on November 30, 2007 at 8:41 am

Every Repug candidate said they believed the Bible (which Bible?) was the word of God. They know nothing of the books real history.

12. For the glory of God

Comment #88499 by wagnerpe on November 17, 2007 at 6:07 am

This is an excellent article. Right up there with "Those fanatical atheists" in my book.

13. Arrogance, dogma and why science - not faith - is the new enemy of reason

Comment #61905 by wagnerpe on August 7, 2007 at 10:52 am

The most conspicuous example of this is provided by Dawkins himself, who breaks the rules of scientific evidence by seeking to claim that Darwin's theory of evolution - which sought to explain how complex organisms evolved through random natural selection - also accounts for the origin of life itself.<

14. Could these books be part of the problem?

Comment #60909 by wagnerpe on August 3, 2007 at 5:40 am

Haha I saw The Complete Idiot's Guide to Faith at the checkout counter of my local grocery store. I had a nice little chuckle to myself.

15. The Out Campaign

Comment #59983 by wagnerpe on July 31, 2007 at 10:53 am

One important point to make is that this campaign will not breed intolerance and hatred towards religious people, as the Reverend (a.k.a. WeeFlea) seems to think. Reverend, do you honestly think that this campaign is going to cause atheists to band together at their local churches with pitchforks and torches? This campaign is not a "call to arms" for anti-theists around to world.

Take homosexuals coming "out," for example. Do gay people band together to oppress those who choose a different lifestyle than their own? Absolutely not. All they ask is that they be allowed the freedom to choose their own lifestyle, and to not be discriminated against because of their choices that in no way harm others. I think, for the most part, this is what most atheists in America are searching for. The fact that many existing institutions do oppress us, although often unintentionally, is nevertheless unacceptable. We want to be recognized as a collective force and want our reasonable arguments addressed.

This is what I'm searching for, at least. I don't understand why I should be ashamed of what I believe and feel compelled to hide it from others. I don't understand why we must all cower before innately theological arguments against stem cell research, the teaching of evolution, and sex education for our youth. I think it's time for these religious institutions to be challenged, and the only way they will adequately respond to these challenges is if they know that we are much more numerous than most people think.

16. God '08: Whose, and How Much, Will Voters Accept?

Comment #58051 by wagnerpe on July 23, 2007 at 6:46 am

There does seem to be at least one bottom line for many voters: belief in God.

17. The New New Atheism

Comment #57913 by wagnerpe on July 22, 2007 at 8:49 am

Ahh...and I used to respect the Wall Street Journal.

18. Convict sues God for broken contract

Comment #57442 by wagnerpe on July 19, 2007 at 11:17 am

I'm going to bring a suit against the Flying Spaghetti monster for not bringing me enough beer and pirate wenches. Damn you FSM!! Where are your Noodly Appendages when I need them!?!?!

19. Neutral evolution has helped shape our genome

Comment #55196 by wagnerpe on July 10, 2007 at 8:30 am

I think it's a pretty cool idea, but not well substantiated by evidence as far as I can tell. I'm hesitant to jump to the conclusion that these sequences are necessarily "neutral."

Something I was thinking of while reading, which wasn't mentioned in this article, is the idea that a larger genome means more mutations. So, with the addition of these "numt" sequences there is more of an opportunity for genetic variation among the offspring, thus propagating the evolutionary trend at a faster rate. It could also be that these are the genetic remnants of obsolete proteins that were silenced long ago because of inutility. It could have been a simple mutation, such as one in the start codon, that may have conferred a minor but significant genetic advantage.

I'm wondering if this is bad research or just bad journalism, but it definitely left me skeptical and wanting more.

20. When is a bishop like a suicide bomber?

Comment #53788 by wagnerpe on July 3, 2007 at 6:45 am

Excellent.

We really need to continue to draw these parallels.

21. Giuliani To Regent University: 'The Amount Of Influence You Have Is Really, Really Terrific'

Comment #52836 by wagnerpe on June 28, 2007 at 7:17 am

Well, not like I was going to vote for him anyways.

22. I believe that there is no God.

Comment #52824 by wagnerpe on June 28, 2007 at 6:30 am

I don't think it was an incredibly interesting or eloquent op-ed piece, but I did like this part in particular.

I don't travel in circles where people say, ''I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.'' That's just a long-winded religious way to say, ''shut up,'' or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, ''How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do.'' So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.

23. The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it

Comment #52580 by wagnerpe on June 27, 2007 at 10:34 am

In a another passage Harris goes even further, and reaches a disturbing conclusion that "some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them". This sounds like exactly the kind of argument put forward by those who ran the Inquisition.

24. Bill O'Reilly and Kirk Cameron on Atheism

Comment #52161 by wagnerpe on June 26, 2007 at 11:40 am

Kirk Cameron truly is our ally in the battle against religious irrationality.

25. Doctors' beliefs can hinder patient care

Comment #52141 by wagnerpe on June 26, 2007 at 9:53 am

As a medical student, I am outraged at stories like this. There are religious people who site dogma as a reason to refuse to give blood transfusions, prescribe birth control, and perform early term abortions. It sickens me that physicians in this country actually think it's morally right to put their own irrational ideologies ahead of their own patients. I am ashamed at the state of the medical community in some parts of the United States and cannot understand why this issue does not get more attention on a national level.

26. Hamas Kindergarten Graduation Ceremony

Comment #47623 by wagnerpe on June 5, 2007 at 4:59 am

The movie Jesus Camp portrays something very similar, except it depicts Evangelical indoctrination of little children and shows them putting on a bowstaff show. Whether we like it or not, this scene is not unique to the Middle East and it is happening in America as we speak. As much as I don't like it, we can't go around persecuting people for their irrational beliefs. The best thing to do right now is probably to just keep waging this war of ideas until they realize how ridiculous they are.

27. A Look at Regent University

Comment #46452 by wagnerpe on May 31, 2007 at 9:36 am

These people are a cancerous growth on our society. We need to wake up and realize that graduates coming out of this university are becoming government cronies that are intent on hacking away at the integrity of our democracy.

People are actually saying that judges should be able to rule based on their own personal faith (provided it's Christianity, of course). Imagine people going to jail for practicing sodomy, witchcraft, or countless other imaginary "crimes" that are in the Bible. These people pose a serious and real threat to our democracy. As an American, I'm terrified.

28. Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

Comment #41204 by wagnerpe on May 15, 2007 at 4:02 pm

I'm biting my tongue...hard...

29. The Creation Museum: Prepare to believe

Comment #41069 by wagnerpe on May 15, 2007 at 1:04 pm

Maybe we should start a unicorn museum.

30. One side can be wrong

Comment #40882 by wagnerpe on May 15, 2007 at 6:50 am

Devolved,

I am going to provide you with an analogy, courtesy of Mr. Dawkins. Take the Holocaust, for example. People overwhelmingly attest to the fact that the Holocaust took place. We have eyewitness accounts, photographs, paperwork, and remnants of concentration camps as evidence. Your ranting is equivalent to someone who looks at population records and says that the decline in the Jewish population simply does not correlate with the dates of the genocide. Hence, it must be a highly profitable and carefullly articulated hoax!

It is in this way that your rantings are ridiculous. You are a fundamentalist fool, and I call you a Troll.

31. Does God Exist? The Nightline Face-Off (more info)

Comment #40726 by wagnerpe on May 14, 2007 at 7:45 pm

I agree that the debate seemed rather childish. Neither side presented their arguments very intelligibly, although the efforts of the Banana Twins were arguably much worse.

Hopefully, this will spark some more intelligent public debate, as people who are higher on the totem poles come to the aid of their fallen comrades. Mr. Dawkins, care to fill in the gaps?

32. Atheism in America

Comment #40345 by wagnerpe on May 14, 2007 at 6:43 am

Imagine how different this story would be if this girl was a Muslim, or a Jew. The law would be all over this school like white on rice shouting discrimination and awarding damages to this family. This is what needs to happen...now.

I hope that American Atheists can help them to get there, and that this story gets more national attention.

33. Ted Haggard Is Completely Heterosexual

Comment #39922 by wagnerpe on May 12, 2007 at 9:43 am

His music is on iTunes, if anyone was looking foor it. The full band sounds pretty cool, too.

34. Atheist offers to send letters post-Rapture

Comment #38829 by wagnerpe on May 9, 2007 at 9:13 am

Has anyone ever seen the God Who Wasn't There? The director interviews a guy who has a website just like this one for people who want to send rapture letters. How is this guy's website any different? So, basically Christians can't trust an atheist to do it. Ergo, he deserves hate mail. Is my logic off? I also wonder who this Christian guy in the film is trusting to send the rapture letters after he gets whisked up to heaven. There must be an atheist working behind the scenes. Oh, no.

Doesn't the fact that Christians are responding with such hate basically show that they feel threatened by what this guy is doing?. If they're so sure they're going up to heaven, why do they care if an atheist is the one to deliver their last words to the nonbelievers? Who better than an atheist to deliver letters after all the believers get whisked up to heaven? After all, we're the only ones that are going to be left.

I think what it comes down to is that Christians can't STAND the fact that atheists like us have the courage to point out the utter inanity of some of their beliefs and actions, especially when we turn a profit while doing it.

35. God Exists. A Formula Proves it.

Comment #37914 by wagnerpe on May 6, 2007 at 8:36 am

Poseidon exists.

36. Republican candidates range from ignorant to dishonest

Comment #37414 by wagnerpe on May 4, 2007 at 12:08 pm

I don't believe for a second that any of these candidates have ever seriously considered the subject. They are just playing to the hands of the conservative nutbars in America, some of whom will actually refuse to vote for someone because they believe in evolution. Politicians aren't dumb, they just lie when its necessary to get the votes. They know the answers that will appeal to the most people, and they pluck at them like a harp.

Notice how the only people who raised their hands saying they don't beleive in evolution were the ones that nobody's heard of? They're just trying to jumpstart their candidacy.

37. Christians and Atheists to Debate Existence of God in First-Ever 'NIGHTLINE FACE OFF'

Comment #37239 by wagnerpe on May 3, 2007 at 8:16 pm

Ha, Banana Twins...I like that.

Has anyone seen the Banana Twins evolution videos? They thought that showing Darwin to be a male shovanist was a good argument against his theories. They also brought an monkey to dinner in order to make a point. These guys are fools.

On the other hand, I'm worried that these guys are going to come off like Wayne and Garth from Wayne's World. They run a radio show out of a basement in an undisclosed location. We don't even know what their last names are. Even though the intellectuals watching this debate will obviously side with them, this isn't going to be an opportunity to change the minds of believers. Anything Kirk Cameron says is, and always will be, gospel for so many people.

Hate to say it, but I don't have very high hopes at all.

38. When Seeing Is Disbelieving

Comment #36823 by wagnerpe on May 2, 2007 at 12:54 pm

Blasphemy!

My FSM shall strike him down with his noodly appendages!

RAmen.

39. Now Muslims Get Their Own Laws In Britian

Comment #36770 by wagnerpe on May 2, 2007 at 8:49 am

There is a simple question here that is begging to be asked...

If these Muslims don't like the legal system in Britain, why would they immigrate there in the first place? They can find systems of archaic law to live under in their native countries. If that is what's most important to them, maybe they should return there.

I'm an American, and I know this may sound harsh, but it seems logical and appropriate to me. Living in another country does not give you the right to establish a replicate of your native country in those lands.

40. Believe in God Spray

Comment #36758 by wagnerpe on May 2, 2007 at 7:36 am

God is "miraculously pepper-minty." I wonder, does God come in spearmint as well?

41. When Seeing Is Disbelieving

Comment #36756 by wagnerpe on May 2, 2007 at 7:32 am

devolved,

I don't think you belong in this free-thinking oasis. We as a community have come here in order to share our ideas without having to consistently engage in childish debates. Rather, you have obviously come here to challenge us with old arguments that warrant neither our time nor our efforts. Your thoughts might be more appropriate for websites like Conservapedia, who I hear are looking for new Biblical explanations for how kangaroos came about. That's a toughie...discuss!


briancoughlanworldcitizen,

Absolutely LOVE the flow chart. I am hanging it above my bed.

42. Army to EO Reps: 'Discrimination Against Atheists OK'

Comment #36285 by wagnerpe on April 30, 2007 at 7:52 pm

I had an army officer come to speak to my class about a medical school scholarship for students. He said "if you have DWI's, whatever," that they can just ignore them. I guess it's better to have convicted criminals in the army than people who have no belief in the afterlife.

43. Against All Gods, by A C Grayling

Comment #36068 by wagnerpe on April 30, 2007 at 5:31 am

In the name of the Ectoderm, the Endoderm, and the Holy Mesoglea...

And the FSM,
RAmen.

44. New Noah's Ark ready to sail

Comment #35960 by wagnerpe on April 29, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Well, I guess we don't have to do anything about global warming after all...just turn to the Bible instead. I hope this guy can fit two of every one of the 1,250,000 different species on this planet on his ark, just like Noah did.