1. Behe's Empty Box

Comment #193243 by pantsandboots on June 15, 2008 at 3:46 am

I don't know if anyone is updating the links on that page but this link:

"ALTERNATIVE SCIENCE: CONGRESS BRIEFED ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN"

is dead, it's replacement can be found here:

http://www.csicop.org/list/listarchive/msg00056.html

5th article down.

2. Faith healing church parents charged over toddler's death

Comment #153542 by pantsandboots on April 1, 2008 at 2:43 pm

SweatyPalmSunday

This could be a long discussion, but frankly if you haven't hit on a logical reason after a few years of thinking about it, you're unlikely to regardless of how many words I type.

So keep reading the literature, have a go at a good biology textbook and see what you come up with. I think for most who are pro-choice its blindingly obvious.

3. Ban anti-Catholic books in schools, says bishop

Comment #143020 by pantsandboots on March 13, 2008 at 11:16 am

If I walked into a library and found a book denying the Holocaust, I would think that's just the place for a book to be.

Information should be accessible to all, no matter how distasteful the literature in question might be.

4. Sherri Shepherd needs to go away now

Comment #95862 by pantsandboots on December 9, 2007 at 11:19 am

Youtube yanked it.

But, like everything on the internet, there's a half dozen copies making the circulation. Here's one:

http://www.queerty.com/humor/sherri-shepherd-revises-world-history-20071204/

Enjoy!

5. 'Growing Up in the Universe' now available free online

Comment #88053 by pantsandboots on November 14, 2007 at 11:56 am

Yes! I am going to be showing this to my children!

6. Fox News Discussion on 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #85873 by pantsandboots on November 7, 2007 at 11:25 am

Dammit! They stuck *her* in front of the Fox Network, don't get me wrong, poor girl was railroaded by the obviously partisan Fox presenter, but she was very... weak in the face of such antagonism.

7. Don't write off religion - it can be the key to a stable family

Comment #82752 by pantsandboots on October 27, 2007 at 1:19 pm

She's confusing faith with religion. If she DOESN'T follow religious dogma to the letter, then it's not her religion and all she has is personal faith.

And I hardly think it's faith in a supernatural deity that holds the family together; if you go back over those studies, you're more likely to find them from a cultural or economic background that encourages or enables a stable family structure.

8. Sam Harris seems like a nice fellow, but very confused

Comment #77310 by pantsandboots on October 9, 2007 at 2:36 am

I heartily agree with Myers, I answered Sam's point in my blog, without the label we're divided, no-one connects us with the larger group.

And without that larger group, we may as well be silent against the storm of theism that rages at our gates.

9. Enough religion. Stop shoving it down my throat

Comment #70549 by pantsandboots on September 16, 2007 at 2:34 am

"It is a peculiar reversal of social logic that the decline in the practice of religion should be met with such a rise in reference to it."

You never noticed the Alien Queen either, silent and deadly in her little hidey-hole, dishing out pain and death to humanity until someone took the bitch on and killed her... Then it was screaming, threshing and noticing all the way.

10. Christopher Hitchens and Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa

Comment #66906 by pantsandboots on September 1, 2007 at 1:20 am

That was a terrible debate! All Donohue did was yell and repeat he was an Irishman; which is bizarre considering he's so blatantly American.

I would actually like to hear a debate on Mother Teresa. From what I hear she appears very human, not the complete saint, nor total tyrant people claim her to be.

11. Fallen Pastor Seeks Aid to Pursue Studies

Comment #66077 by pantsandboots on August 28, 2007 at 10:56 am

A counsellor?

What maniac is planning to hire him? Did they ever see him on television? What will be his method of counselling?... 'Find God and be cured.'

I'm up for people having a second chance, but I seriously doubt he'll be any less arrogant and deluded than before.

In the meantime, he shouldn't be asking for handouts. There are people in real poverty who need it more.

12. BBC Trust rejects Opus Dei appeal

Comment #66076 by pantsandboots on August 28, 2007 at 10:51 am

It's fiction. I have not watched it, do not wish to, but its still fiction. Shall I start being offended at every fictional misuse of science as a scientist?

Of course not, it would be ridiculous. Fiction is a place for the imagination to run wild, no one should complain about its bearing to real life.

Considering the Catholic faith is built on fiction though, I guess it follows they would worry about fictitious lies.

13. The Pentagon Sends Messengers of Apocalypse to Convert Soldiers in Iraq

Comment #64259 by pantsandboots on August 19, 2007 at 4:47 am

Christ! I sometimes wonder if we're being a bit harsh; that religion gives personal comfort... and then I read something like this and it reminds me we're nowhere close to doing enough.

14. Why Richard Dawkins is right on alternative medicine - but not when it comes to religion

Comment #62654 by pantsandboots on August 10, 2007 at 3:51 pm

Whilst Hume, in his time, may have been right, science is now providing a basis for ethics, as it has for 'conventional' medicine, that is more than a statement of opinion. Religion has no more basis than alternative therapies and Lawson's claim that it's a harmless spiritual comfort lost it's basis before he ever typed the words in the actions of that 'assembly' in both the recent, very recent, and distant past.

For his own credibility, Lawson should have a very good reason ready to roll for blatant ignorance of news reports for the past year alone.

15. Does the Bible have a place in public schools?

Comment #62050 by pantsandboots on August 8, 2007 at 2:56 am

If you want to teach the cultural and literal significance of the bible, teach is in English Literature and social studies. Why have separate bible lessons? You wouldn't have separate lessons on Shakespeare.

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

Comment #62047 by pantsandboots on August 8, 2007 at 2:51 am

That's great! I reached:

"But where Dawkins goes wrong is to assume this is all as irrational as believing in God."

And started laughing. Admittedly, I didn't read the rest, I don't have a life to waste.

17. OUT Campaign Launched, 'Scarlet Letter' Shirts Now Available!

Comment #59875 by pantsandboots on July 31, 2007 at 1:43 am

T-shirt sizes for women go up to a 8-10, UK equivalent is a 12. So if your bust size is a little big or you're overweight, even a little, you don't get to 'come out'.

Cheers guys.

18. In Loving Memory of William Luke Ashton: July 10th 1989 - Dec 25th 2006

Comment #53175 by pantsandboots on June 30, 2007 at 1:09 am

That his father managed to function so well as to carry out what he saw would most likely have been his son's final wishes is a tribute in itself the strength and endurance of the human spirit (I mean spirit, of course, allegorically).

The readings themselves are inspiring and moved me to tears. I shall read 'Unweaving the Rainbow' with new eyes now.

Lastly, to comment 16, 'sorryrichard': I could answer you, at length no doubt, instead I'll settle for calling you an unschooled moron. Not incredibly sophisticated but then I sometimes run out of words since I come into contact with this kind of deliberate ignorance so frequently.

19. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #51198 by pantsandboots on June 21, 2007 at 11:24 pm

Through all the comments I've seen following this article. I haven't heard anyone say how terrible it is that two brothers fight like this in public over religion.

I'm glad all over again to be an atheist since religion has no compunction about splitting kith and kin.