1. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #179187 by quill on May 12, 2008 at 8:57 pm

How much you wanna bet these idiots voted for Bush?

2. The History Channel might do something right

Comment #176088 by quill on May 6, 2008 at 2:14 pm

They should show intermittent clips from Ben Stein throughout the series just to highlight his ignorance on the subject. "And somehow that MUD..."

3. Was the new finger a 'natural' miracle?

Comment #174409 by quill on May 2, 2008 at 11:43 am

Wait a minute. He didn't even cut into the bone? Unless I'm reading this wrong, it seems he only cut off a part of the tip of his finger, and only superficially. Yet when it grew back - a miracle!!

4. Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust

Comment #173742 by quill on May 1, 2008 at 7:42 am

Oh the irony. I find it extremely annoying, the way people like this (the Anti-Defamation League) try to co-opt the Holocaust and make it about Jewish people, to the exclusion of all the other groups, including homosexuals and atheists, Hitler tried to exterminate. The holocaust was not "Hitler's plan to destroy the Jewish people". Ugh..

5. Judge orders La. school district to stop Bible giveaways

Comment #167125 by quill on April 23, 2008 at 4:33 pm

Azven,

In my public school (in Illinois) we went over various religions during the course of our "world history" classes, but you are correct, religion itself cannot be a subject in American public school currculae because our government is supposed to be entirely secular and even discussing religion under the pretense of objectivity opens the door to religious indoctrination.

This is one case in which our church-state separation might actually be counterproductive to the goal of spreading atheism, but for my part I would not change the law, as I think it prevents more problems than it creates.

Besides, an hour spent on a comparative religion class is an hour not spent on science.

6. Pope's Views on Science Invoke Spirited Debate

Comment #165362 by quill on April 21, 2008 at 11:48 am

In fact, in a July 2007 speech in Italy, Benedict called the debate between evolution and creationism "an absurdity." He noted that "there is much scientific proof in favor of evolution" but that the theory still had room for God to play a role.

Okay, he gets some credit there. Thank goodness I can still say, "even the Pope accepts evolution". Still a prick, though.

7. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160305 by quill on April 13, 2008 at 11:15 pm

As an artist myself I feel compelled to point out that the field of art has been dominated by nonbelievers over the past century or so, just as the sciences have been. This is even true here in the "culturally poorer" USA, which incidentally has been the center of the modern art world for much of that time.

8. 'Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation

Comment #159266 by quill on April 11, 2008 at 7:47 pm

Of course this kind of makes the case for them, since plagiarism is one of many things that actually does get people expelled. :/

9. Rep. Davis: The Worst Person in the World

Comment #158551 by quill on April 10, 2008 at 5:48 pm

Good for Keith! This woman really does appear to be one of the worst people in the world regardless of what she said about atheists. Kids in chicago schools are gunning each other down and she, a member of the House educational committe, has nothing better to do than milk the state's treasury for the benefit of religious groups.

10. Rep. Davis: The Worst Person in the World

Comment #158542 by quill on April 10, 2008 at 5:37 pm

Davis sits on the House committee responsible for public schools. One of the bills she sponsored last year was the "Moment of Silence and Student Prayer Act" which attempted to sneak prayer into them. Meanwhile as public school students continue to be killed, her priorities seem to be finding ways to funnel millions of dollars into churches instead of, say, metal detectors? So in my opinion it does seem clear that the reason our educational system is in such a mess is due to the gross incompetence of people like her.

What makes it even worse is that, according to VoteSmart, not only does she attend Jeremiah Wright's church, but in the past she's actually been on its board of directors. What kind of church even has a "board of directors" in the first place? There is something seriously rotten going on in that parish.

11. Rep. Davis: The Worst Person in the World

Comment #157856 by quill on April 9, 2008 at 4:01 pm

Wow, I almost choked when I saw this. So nice to have someone in the national news media on our side for a change. It would've been even better if he'd quoted Lincoln directly, but still, amazingly gratifying that he did this much. Thanks Keith. :)

Time to apply some additional pressure. Please, everyone send a polite email to the Honorable Representative Jack D. Franks (jack@jackfranks.org), chairperson of the Government Administration Committee at which Davis' remarks were made, asking him to censure her for her disgraceful behavior.

12. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156555 by quill on April 7, 2008 at 9:04 pm

Some other suggestions:

1. Write a letter / send an email to the Chicago Tribune's opinion section.

2. I don't expect it to come to anything, but I sent Keith Olbermann (countdown@msnbc.com) a link for his Worst Person segment just in case.

13. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156540 by quill on April 7, 2008 at 7:28 pm

No, things are not all bad here. Just a couple of weeks ago, the IL House of Representatives voted to repeal the "Moment of Silence" law which was enacted briefly at the end of last year as a way of sneaking prayer into schools. I can only guess that was what Mrs. Davis was so upset about. We secularists won that battle. And we'll win this one, too. That money is not going to any church.

14. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156529 by quill on April 7, 2008 at 6:44 pm

Representative Davis' email address:

mdavis2147@aol.com

Provided by VoteSmart.org.

And regarding Obama - she supports him now, but doesn't seem to like him. She's told reporters that she felt he had "snubbed" her when they worked together in the state legislature. Now we know why!

15. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156406 by quill on April 7, 2008 at 1:16 pm

Don't write - phone! Her contact information is as follows:

Springfield Office:
241-E Stratton Office Building
Springfield, IL 62706
(217) 782-0010
(217) 782-1795 FAX

District Office:
1234 West 95th Street
Chicago, IL 60643
(773) 445-9700
(773) 445-5755 FAX
Cook County

I called earlier and although she wasn't in, they said the phones had been ringing all day.

16. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156396 by quill on April 7, 2008 at 1:01 pm

Apparently she actually goes to Rev. Wright's church as well.

17. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156383 by quill on April 7, 2008 at 12:39 pm

"My earlier views at the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years, and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them." - Abraham Lincoln

18. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156377 by quill on April 7, 2008 at 12:25 pm

Comment #156367 by TheSwede:
To all:
If this had happened in my country... By Thor's hammer! - there would be no end the the following debate, but there would be a very quick end to her career!

This wouldn't happen in your country, because in Sweden your tax money already goes toward building churches and there's nothing you can do about it.

I read about this, actually, and I do hope she loses her job. It might happen since she is a Democrat and all. But then she's also black and as we know, the black community is exceedingly religious.

19. Christian Founders 3D Adventure Computer Game

Comment #153902 by quill on April 2, 2008 at 7:40 am

These games - including Zoo Race and Noah's Adventures - are really something remarkable. As someone involved in game development, it looks as though they were made on a budget of approximately $2000 each. I would say it appeared they simply bought premade stock objects (crates, ladders) off of websites, except I don't know where in 2008 you could find stock meshes that look this bad.

20. The science of religion: Where angels no longer fear to tread

Comment #148878 by quill on March 24, 2008 at 12:44 pm

Similarly, signs of religious commitment that are hard to fake provide a costly and reliable signal to others in a group that anyone engaging in them is committed to that group. Free-riders, in other words, would not be able to gain the advantages of group membership. [...] Religion might have emerged as a way of improving group co-operation while reducing the need to keep an eye out for free-riders.

I assume we're talking about "free riders" other than priests, haha.

21. Oklahoma: One Step from Doom

Comment #141411 by quill on March 10, 2008 at 11:11 am

E. O. Wilson is from Alabama, I think. I know a lot of intelligent people are. It's just that if these people are so determined to create their godly society of true believers, they should be allowed to do it. I just wish it weren't part of my society. :/

22. Oklahoma: One Step from Doom

Comment #141397 by quill on March 10, 2008 at 10:54 am

The people of Dover voted OUT their school board when that happened.

23. Oklahoma: One Step from Doom

Comment #141393 by quill on March 10, 2008 at 10:44 am

Just let them secede!

I'm sorry, I know it's wrong, but every time I open the news, something hopelessly and tragically stupid is going on in Texas, or Kansas, or Oklahoma, or Florida, or some other former confederate state.

24. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #135403 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 11:10 pm

Well, to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if most of the Popes throughout history had been more often atheists than Christians. You could probably say the same for Ted Haggard, Jimmy Swaggert, Jerry Falwell, Benny Hinn, and on, and on, and on. I'm sure none of those guys believe that God is actually going to punish them for stealing money from the gullible. But these people are still religious figures and the movements they lead are religious movements. In the future I will probably just point out that Hitler was at least outwardly Christian, without making claims as to what he privately believed.

25. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #135394 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 10:45 pm

No problem, same here. We'll never know what Hitler believed in his own diseased mind, but I don't like being told that he was the leader of an atheist regime. Especially considering the large number of atheists he had shipped to the furnaces, it seems almost a crime against history. I am not primarily upset with you, as much as I am with the people who propagate this stuff. You have to understand that the "Hitler was an atheist" thing comes up in every single debate an atheist ever has with a Christian - it seems church pastors like nothing better than to spend their Sundays reminding their flocks that atheists are all Hitlers in waiting - and it gets very old.

26. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #135385 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 10:31 pm

"In the years to come I shall continue on this road, uncompromisingly safeguarding my people's interests, oblivious to all misery and danger, and filled with the holy conviction that God the Almighty will not abandon him who, during all his life, had no desire but to save his people from a fate it had never deserved, neither by virtue of its number nor by way of its importance."

- Adolf Hitler, radio address, 30 January 1945

I don't have to defend other atheists who think Hitler's Table Talk is reliable. Some atheists are boneheads and others are just ill-informed. The fact is, those quotes were never written down or published during Hitler's lifetime and the only thing we have to verify them with is the word of the one man who claimed years later that Hitler told them to him in person. Or in other words, not verifiable, sorry.

Edit: And anyway, even supposing that Hitler did believe in private that Christianity was bogus, which is entirely possible, it doesn't change the fact that he was in public a committed Christian, and the millions of Nazis who believed his every word believed that he was a Christian. National Socialism was a Christian movement regardless of what Hitler may have believed in the privacy of his own thoughts. Hitler's Germany was not an atheist regime, it was a religious one.

27. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #135370 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 10:01 pm

Hitler identified himself as a Catholic. If you want to call it simplistic, argue with him.

28. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #135366 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 9:55 pm

More Hitler quotes:

"I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work." - Speech before the Reichstag, 1938

"I am now as before a CATHOLIC and will always remain so." - Letter to a general

"We were convinced that the people need and require this faith. We have therefore undertaken the fight against the atheistic movement, and that not merely with a few theoretical declarations: we have stamped it out." - Speech in Berlin, 1933; this refers to Hitler's widespread persecution of atheists, whom he deported to concentration camps because he considered them affiliated with Communists.

Under Hitler, all Nazi soldiers were issued belts inscribed with the words "Gott mit uns" ("God is with us"), which became the German national motto. You can still buy them on eBay today. All Waffen SS took their oath of loyalty first to God, then to the Fuhrer.

And how about these words:

"Secular schools can never be tolerated because such schools have no religious instruction, and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith... We need believing people."

Pat Robertson? Jerry Falwell? No, it was Adolf Hitler, when he introduced SCHOOL PRAYER and Catholic religious instruction into all German schools in 1933, abolishing secular schools.

Again, some atheistic regime. Please do yourself an intellectual favor and read some actual history books sometime and stop relying upon church-sponsored propaganda for your information.

29. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #135363 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 9:45 pm

wyattroberts,

First of all, it's "Quill", not "Quinn". How hard is it to spell someone's username?

Second, the quotes you gave all came from a book called "Hitler's Table Talk," which is widely refuted. They were never written down, published or broadcast during Hitler's lifetime. They come to us secondhand from one man who alleged to have conversations with Hitler years later, but is widely considered a fraud.

Here is an ACTUAL Hitler quote:

"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter.

In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was his fight against the Jewish poison. Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross."

This, unlike the BS quotes you provided, was written by Hitler himself in Mein Kampf and you can read it anytime you like.

Anyone who understands the history of National Socialism in Germany knows that it was a Catholic movement, not an atheistic one. Every senior ranking member of the Nazi Party was a Catholic. Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Goering, all Catholics. Any biography on Hitler will confirm this fact; it is in no way controversial. I have hopes that someday you will look beyond the propaganda you've been reading, but to be honest, I don't expect you to.

30. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #135336 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 8:56 pm

Bonzai:

To argue against it we have to get at the source of the fallacy and explain clearly that no, God is not necessary for meaning and that atheism doesn't logically leads to nihilism.

I usually prefer just to quote Hitler on God, the importance of religion, and the evils of atheism; and to mention that Josef Stalin was a priest.

31. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #135332 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 8:52 pm

Haha, this is fabulous. The woman clearly does not want to conduct this interview.

I love her Wisconsin accent, though. She doesn't have too much of one, but I never tire of hearing it, for some reason. Everyone in the Minnesota/Wisconsin/Michigan area comes from Scandinavian descent, and you still hear a definite Swedish accent all over the place.

32. Are they running for President or Pastor-in-Chief?

Comment #134632 by quill on February 28, 2008 at 4:01 am

I'm not a fan of Hillary Clinton, but anyone can see that her quote in this video, "I think you can sense how we are attempting to try to inject faith into policy," was taken way out of context. Are we actually supposed to believe that she was saying this was a good thing?

What an amateurish video. I'm amazed that this kind of article gets listed here, while the groundbreaking Pew study on American religious attitudes which came out several days ago was not, even though br0k3nglass created a thread for it on the politics forum and I know several people emailed it in to articles@RichardDawkins.net to be listed.

33. Church is paying a high price for its celibacy rule

Comment #132798 by quill on February 25, 2008 at 8:04 am

Plus, this Pope's hard-line tactics seem to be imploding the Vatican. Any thoughts?

Yeah, I don't know what they were thinking, voting in a former Hitler Youth. But then, you could say the same thing about their continued attempts to protect child molesters from the law. The Catholic Church seems to be its own worst enemy these days.

34. Evidence can't shake your faith if your faith excludes it as evidence

Comment #132520 by quill on February 24, 2008 at 11:08 pm

This man is a douche. Please let us leave an overabundance of comments to this effect at the OC register. :L

35. How he was sentenced to die

Comment #132519 by quill on February 24, 2008 at 11:02 pm

And this is the kind of "democracy" that my country is putting in place worldwide.

Disgusting. Why isn't our President doing something about this? Or the US Congress? I'm sure there are thousands more people like Mr. Kambaksh being persecuted by the Afghan government, and yet not one peep of criticism has come out of my country's official administration except for that of Condoleeza Rice.

36. The coming religious peace

Comment #132008 by quill on February 23, 2008 at 10:11 pm

What would be the atheist version of "Jesus saves", or "what would Jesus do?"?

"There is no religion higher than truth."

And yes, that comes on a bumper sticker. :)

37. The coming religious peace

Comment #131990 by quill on February 23, 2008 at 7:09 pm

:)

The more you tighten your grip, Governor Tarkin...

38. The coming religious peace

Comment #131987 by quill on February 23, 2008 at 7:01 pm

DBA,

If you believe the polls, Christianity will drop below 69% of the population this year. This is down from 85% as recently as the '90s. So the odds are pretty good that we'll see the religious dwindle to a minority within our lifetimes.

However, it sure seems like the Christians are really sinking their pious claws into everything. I cannot remember a time when religion was such a large part of politics.

That's true, but I tend to think it's because they see the writing on the wall. Religious groups seem to know that their influence is slipping away, so they're using what power they have now, as kind of a stopgap measure. But it won't work. The more abusive they become, the quicker society will reject them.

Also, keep in mind that while religious groups may be challenging evolution with more ferocity now than ever before, they are also losing every single time.

39. Over half of Britons claim no religion

Comment #131466 by quill on February 22, 2008 at 1:07 pm

In a 23-page report published this evening, a UN rapporteur claims the 2001 Census findings that nearly 72 per cent of the population is Christian can no longer be regarded as accurate. The report claims that two-thirds of British people now do not admit to any religious adherence.

I'm sure someone's pointed this out already, but "no adherence" does not mean "no religion". The fact that people do not attend religious services does not mean they are not religious. We should be counting people based on what they claim to believe, not in whether they adhere to their religious practices.

Honestly, I'd be willing to bet that a slim majority in the US, or something at least approaching one, do not attend church services either, but that does not make them atheists.

40. Bart Ehrman, Questioning Religion on Why We Suffer

Comment #130527 by quill on February 20, 2008 at 7:12 pm

pkruger:

Another response could be:.."But exactly what would he be 'testing ' us for? For all the other times when he decides to, or cannot do anything to prevent us from experiencing misery?"

I usually just point out that an all-knowing deity would have no need to "test" us to see if we are righteous in the first place. He would know already, right?

Btw, I find the shirt funny.

41. Bart Ehrman, Questioning Religion on Why We Suffer

Comment #130326 by quill on February 20, 2008 at 10:34 am

Ah, Moody Bible Institute, where "Bible" is their middle name.

42. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129846 by quill on February 19, 2008 at 4:33 pm

I am surprised other moderate Christians do not condemn them.

You see, it's the unspoken rule. Moderates do not speak out against fundamentalists. Same team and all.

43. State Approves Evolution As 'Scientific Theory'

Comment #129671 by quill on February 19, 2008 at 12:54 pm

You know, that's not as crazy as it sounds. Look how much money Ron Paul has convinced people to give to him.

44. State Approves Evolution As 'Scientific Theory'

Comment #129645 by quill on February 19, 2008 at 12:13 pm

You know...

I wonder if it might be possible to call a kind of general intellectual strike.

As in, teachers, professors, engineers, scientists, serious journalists, artists, newspaper editors, public intellectuals, etc. just STRIKE for a little while until all these nitwits get the message.

Do you think?

45. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129636 by quill on February 19, 2008 at 11:53 am

Tyler Durden:

Terry Durham @ 7:44 "I know that God was speaking to me 'casuse I could hear his voice, sometimes he sounds like me but I say no, it's God."

Yeah, I did that as a kid, too - I attributed some of my thoughts to God, and some of them to the devil. Of course it was me just having ordinary thoughts the whole time, but I imagine a lot of Christians grow into adulthood without ever figuring that out, and it leads to all kinds of weird obsessive/schizophrenic behavior where they start fighting against their own thoughts, pitting one hemisphere of the brain against the other, never finding any peace, etc. Religion really is a delusion in some senses.

And onlysky, you're right, homeschooled kids are 75% evangelical, not 95%. My mistake.

46. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129356 by quill on February 19, 2008 at 2:32 am

Is one of the problems "home-schooling"? Are there any national exams that the children HAVE to take to show that they are being given a general education at home or do they simply withdraw from any recognised education?

Evangelicals who can't afford to send their kids to a private evangelical school home-school them instead. Then when they "graduate", they either don't attend college, or they attend a Christian college, often an unaccredited one. So they basically go through their entire lives without any real education.

Whenever I see anything about home-schooling, it appears to be only the sick/deeply deluded and/or stupid parents who do this. Apologies if I am generalising on very, very little knowledge about it, but that is how it seems from my home in the UK.

No, you're correct, something like 95% of homeschooled kids are evangelical. Or as Professor Dawkins would say, have evangelical parents.

What is going on in the US? I'm not being patronising - I am very much aware that the flow is heading towards Britain, but what can we do to stop this?

I'm not sure that anything can be done at this point. Sometimes a civilization just implodes. There are too many things that have gone wrong all within the span of a generation.

Every year, the percentage of religious people in the US shrinks, and the percentage of nonreligious people grows. But by the time the roles are completely reversed, what kind of society will we have left?

I keep coming back to the media's role in all of this, but the plain fact is that something like this will never be shown on American TV. It doesn't matter how liberal the network, they'll never show it. Even Jesus Camp was never shown in mainstream theaters. Expelled will be; Jesus Camp was not. It doesn't get out there. American bookstores still generally do not sell Dawkins' books. D'Souza's books yes, Dawkins' books no. We have to buy them online, just as we have to watch films like this online, because nothing critical of religion, nothing with any substance whatsoever, is ever presented by our shallow, cowardly, money-driven, ratings-obsessed media.

47. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129324 by quill on February 19, 2008 at 1:32 am

Every atheist should know the Bible inside and out. Did you know the King James Version mentions unicorns six times? It actually talks more about unicorns than about gay people. :)

48. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129297 by quill on February 19, 2008 at 1:11 am

There are much more bizarre things in the Bible than a talking donkey.

This video really should be in the "favorite articles" section, imho. Even though it's deeply disturbing.

MPhil, no, there are no laws against beating children in the US. In fact, it's a national pastime. When we can't beat our own kids, we beat our neighbors' kids. And their grandparents, too. We Americans are an extremely violent people, unlike you Germans.

49. Cutting Edge: Baby Bible Bashers

Comment #129223 by quill on February 18, 2008 at 9:54 pm

Population 80% evangelical...

See, I mean, how do you even begin to change a society like that? It'll take them at least a century to catch up with the rest of the world.

50. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129171 by quill on February 18, 2008 at 7:29 pm

Oh! I get it now.

I didn't associate fairies with wishes coming true. More like missing teeth, which made no sense.