1. Ten Commandments' of race and genetics issued

Comment #213007 by OverUsedChewToy on July 18, 2008 at 2:01 am

I think Equity, rather than Equality, should be what is valued. It's a subtle difference.

Further, race doesn't exist, so I don't know what this article is going on about. statement 1 contradicts statement 2.

2. MnIndy interview: Unrepentant science-heathen PZ Myers still intends to prove 'this cracker is nothing'

Comment #211620 by OverUsedChewToy on July 16, 2008 at 7:52 am

If only telling the religious to "grow the FUCK UP" actually worked. Oh well, the cracker war continues.

3. Atheist soldier sues Army for 'unconstitutional' discrimination

Comment #206988 by OverUsedChewToy on July 9, 2008 at 4:17 am

"In another incident, when he was nearly killed during an attack on his Humvee, he said another soldier asked him, "Do you believe in Jesus now?" "

Yes, because jesus helped so much *rolls eyes*

4. Christians challenge teaching of evolution

Comment #204348 by OverUsedChewToy on July 4, 2008 at 8:53 pm

"The Education Ministry says the unsanctioned material does not breach the Education Act and there are no plans to ban its distribution. "

Then CHANGE THE FREAKING EDUCATION ACT.

And I thought my country was devoid of high-profile creotardism.

5. Galaxy map hints at fractal universe

Comment #199682 by OverUsedChewToy on June 26, 2008 at 7:27 am

"Try looking up at nighttime, thats what it looks like. "

Lol, we can only see the tiniest amount of stars with the naked eye.

Also, this site is really cool:

http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/

"
* Number of superclusters in the visible universe = 10 million
* Number of galaxy groups in the visible universe = 25 billion
* Number of large galaxies in the visible universe = 350 billion
* Number of dwarf galaxies in the visible universe = 7 trillion
* Number of stars in the visible universe = 30 billion trillion (3x10²²) "


Lulz

6. Science is not philosophy

Comment #198965 by OverUsedChewToy on June 24, 2008 at 10:21 pm

Science and philosophy are different, but go hand-in-hand.

7. Muslim countries win concession regarding religious debates

Comment #196391 by OverUsedChewToy on June 19, 2008 at 8:58 pm

Muslims: "Reality hurts my poor walnut brain :("

U.N: "There, there, it's not your fault that Islam violates pretty much every human right on a constant basis globally. I'll shut those nasty, nasty human rights advocates up"

8. New Online Survey

Comment #191563 by OverUsedChewToy on June 11, 2008 at 8:28 am

Too late now :P

"This questionnaire asks you to indicated what you tenerally do and feel when you experience stressful event" Another spelling error. I'm such a nazi when it comes to this stuff.

9. New Online Survey

Comment #191559 by OverUsedChewToy on June 11, 2008 at 8:18 am

The survey asks: "Becoming a success is a matter of hard work, luch has little or nothing to do with it"

What is luch? ;)

Also, it asked my race. Race doesn't exist, so I didn't fill out that part.

10. Teacher tortures, kills boy

Comment #186910 by OverUsedChewToy on May 31, 2008 at 6:36 pm

Islam's just one gigantic Rape the Dog moment;

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RapeTheDog

Except it's real..and some people still defend this utter barbarism. Go figure.

11. Mark Steyn vs. the 'Sock Puppets'

Comment #185865 by OverUsedChewToy on May 28, 2008 at 9:48 pm

""Wanna go to dinner?" he asked.

"No!" Awan yelled back. "

Ohh ,shot down!

12. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185338 by OverUsedChewToy on May 27, 2008 at 2:12 pm

"Well, violence is strongly correlated to a race. " Your argument falls to pieces here- "race" is not an objective concept.

I'm all for dropping the PC bullshit but you have to actually use terms that objectively denote people.

13. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185147 by OverUsedChewToy on May 27, 2008 at 5:00 am

"New toy to chew on, OUCT - why do people here want to lump all muslims together? "

Some do so because being a Muslim requires certain ideological commitments, and by definition they oppose Islam in that sense. For example, I am opposed to all Fascism, and in that sense I group all fascists together in that they all must necessarily make the same basic ideological commitments, but the doesn't necessarily mean they're grouped together in other matters, of course.


Otherwise, the reason people tend to see out-groups as homogenous and in-groups as diverse is because of our psychology.

14. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185145 by OverUsedChewToy on May 27, 2008 at 4:55 am

"That's the usual application of "whiteys" in Goldy's and my part of the world. "

I live in the same part. And oftentimes it's not. Lots of people still genuinely believe race is a legitimate, objective term, including grouping by the colour of ones skin (of course, both of our accounts are from personal experience, so really neither of us can be truly objective in the matter of whether this term is used ethnically or otherwise).


As much as I can see where you're coming from, since culture and ethnicity is something any human can adopt, change, grow up within, etc., I don't think the term "whitey" would actually encompass that much of a meaningful definition. It isn't this particular culture/subscultures "whiteness" that defines who they are ethnically.

15. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185124 by OverUsedChewToy on May 27, 2008 at 3:03 am

"Even us whiteys. " Epic. Fail.

Why would you want to group all "white" people together?

16. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185118 by OverUsedChewToy on May 27, 2008 at 2:45 am

"I think there is a definite undercurrent of racism in Australian attitudes to outsiders. "

Historically it has been so- Check out "White Australia Policy" and "Terra Nullius".

17. Town moves against Islamic school

Comment #185017 by OverUsedChewToy on May 26, 2008 at 5:29 pm

All of the peoples crying "racist" seem to have their wires crossed a little- the complaints of these people, from what I can tell, are from a more consequential basis- i.e. referring to the consequences of letting in a medieval, dogmatic, violence-borne cult to indoctrinate children.

As has been said, even if these people are all members of the KKK their criticism is not made illegitimate since what they are claiming is not necessarily based on a belief in racial division, etc.

18. Animal Science Without Evolution

Comment #184634 by OverUsedChewToy on May 25, 2008 at 9:54 pm

"So how can a Christian child maintain and grow their faith if they want to study animals?"

What's a "christian child"?

19. The Faith of Flanders

Comment #184338 by OverUsedChewToy on May 24, 2008 at 5:17 pm

"Groening is at best a cynical agnostic with no sympathy whatsoever for organized religion or authority in general, and more probably an outright atheist"

He's agnostic.

20. Non-religious summer camps develop niche

Comment #182641 by OverUsedChewToy on May 20, 2008 at 5:49 pm

"
Camp Quest is a not-for-profit backed by the Albany, N.Y.-based Institute for Humanist studies, a think tank supporting the nonreligious Humanist philosophy, which emphasizes science, evolution, compassion and critical thinking."

Science and evolution are mutually exclusive all-of-a-sudden?

21. Girl, 17, killed in Iraq for loving a British soldier

Comment #171827 by OverUsedChewToy on April 28, 2008 at 9:55 pm

On a not wholly unrelated tangent, thereligionofpeace.com features articles like this all the time, including this article.

22. Science leads to killing people

Comment #170664 by OverUsedChewToy on April 27, 2008 at 9:59 pm

Good thing Thunderf00t finally got a feature-his vids are top-notch

23. Gods and earthlings

Comment #163626 by OverUsedChewToy on April 18, 2008 at 4:29 pm

"Clearmind is not a biologist, nor professor. He is just a person WHO CAN THINK!"

Yes...Very, very badly...

24. Vote on freedom of expression marks the end of Universal Human Rights

Comment #153039 by OverUsedChewToy on March 31, 2008 at 11:31 pm

Why is this not featured??

25. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #150538 by OverUsedChewToy on March 27, 2008 at 4:51 am

They're also made a ward here in New Zealand under such circumstances. I think it's fine if people themselves want to deny objective reality (even when they use science and are huge hypocrites- at least they aren't suffering) but there is NO EXCUSE to bring any other being in on your destructive delusions. This article sickens me, but it's sadly only a drop in the pond of religious evil.

26. Fleas on the Horizon: In Defense of God

Comment #138051 by OverUsedChewToy on March 3, 2008 at 8:18 pm

A theist wrote a book called "The End of Reason". Well, at least he's honest about its contents- no misleading titles here :D

27. Blasphemy

Comment #122636 by OverUsedChewToy on February 5, 2008 at 5:42 pm

The only part I disagree with is the bit that says that there is no need, yet, for anger.

Anger is entirely justified in this situation, and possibly necessary.

28. Banishing the Green-Eyed Monster

Comment #92197 by OverUsedChewToy on November 30, 2007 at 3:31 am

"Sex is the one area where VIOLENT jealousy is conventionally thought virtuous. I was just pointing out the oddity, not saying it is inexplicable and not even, necessarily, condemning it -- although I would personally like to rise above it, and I think the sum total of happiness would be raised if we could manage it." (emphasis my own)

Basically, the nail on the head is the "violent" part, that part which causes unnecessary suffering. So perhaps its not so much not feeling any jealousy (which may be impossible to rise above), but with minimizing it as much as possible, and making sure it doesn't cause anybody else to suffer?

It seems to me Dawkins is taking a Utilitarian view of this (I wouldn't be surprised to find out he was a Utilitarian, having seen his work in some of Singer's books etc), which, me being a pseudo-utilitarian hedonist, I tend to agree with.

The original article, is, I find, kind of ambiguous though and could be misinterpreted (as I did originally). Still, it's great to see an article that could start some mainstream ethical debate, where we need it most.

29. Banishing the Green-Eyed Monster

Comment #92132 by OverUsedChewToy on November 29, 2007 at 11:19 pm

What I find strange about some of these comments is that they presume jealousy is bad because it's indicative of caring for your own well-being, rather than the others happiness. What?

Since when was it rational to be completely selfless? Even on the most "selfless" ethical theories, like utilitarianism, some amount of weight is given to ones own wellbeing, including emotional wellbeing.

I have nothing against polygamy, polygyny, what have you, so long as its consentual. But it's perfectly fine to be really, really pissed off if someone just treads on your feelings like that. It's not egoistic to feel this way, it's perfectly justified and, perhaps, unavoidable for many (I know I'd be gutted, and have been gutted in the past by that kind of behaviour)