1. Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them?

Comment #72448 by dr in the house on September 21, 2007 at 6:13 am

Comment #72390 by CHeard

"None of the authors/editors of any biblical book claim that their book, in toto and as it stands, is the word of God."

Bollocks again. For a 'bible scholar' you are sooo wrong. Go to any catholic mass and listen to the priest incant "THIS IS THE WORD OF GOD" after each and every gospel reading.

And the sheep (sorry, flock) bleat back: "THANKS BE TO GOD".

Forgive me, but is this meant to be allogorical too?

2. Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them?

Comment #72422 by dr in the house on September 21, 2007 at 3:07 am

Like Veronique, a fellow Antipodean, I refuse to debate revcort because it is totally pointless. Surely 500+ posts later most of you realise that by now. Or perhaps you have nothing else to do? I guess it is entertaining in some way although I find many of his posts actually offensive. I don't need saving, thank you very much, and the presumptive arrogance inherent in his statements that he thinks he is doing us all a favour by "debating" us is astounding.

As an Oncologist, I felt I had to reply in some small way to the bollocks he spouts with regard to miracles and tumor regression. Revcort, THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. There are many tumors which seem to be immunologically-dependent and can spontaneously regress - the literature is filled with examples. Personal testimony of the kind you quote is meaningless and carries no weight of any kind. And prayer has nothing to do with it. The prayer studies quoted earlier are statistically and scientifically valid and I suggest you source the references before you slag them off. And furthermore, what proportion of disease sufferers who visit Lourdes are "cured"? I think you'll find that there are at most a couple of hundred such "cures " documented to varying degrees of robustness. A couple of hundred out of MILLIONS of pilgrims visiting... a fucking placebo would be more efficacious...! And you still haven't properly addressed the point regarding amputees which is the most devastating argument against the power of prayer.

When you get cancer (and there's a 50% chance you will) then perhaps you would like to act as a personal control of prayer vs chemotherapy?

So carry on praying, reverend. The rest of us will continue to use science and progress to help our fellow human beings.

3. Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them?

Comment #71189 by dr in the house on September 18, 2007 at 2:19 am

OH FUCKITY FUCK

Revcort - just piss off. Please.

Everyone else, do you realise that you'll never get back the time you have wasted engaging that moron? He is the worst kind of godbotherer and has totally hi-jacked this thread.

There is a reason Richard Dawkins refuses to debate Creationists...

4. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #64603 by dr in the house on August 21, 2007 at 1:46 am

"As I have stated many times on these threads, I have no empirical evidence at this time. The only fact is that we all die. If consciousness continues after death, you will get the empirical evidence you seek."

Jeeez, nothing to see here folks, move on....

5. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #63305 by dr in the house on August 13, 2007 at 8:56 pm

Darwin2

If you had really read and understood the many books dissecting the god hypothesis/delusion you would not repeat the same tired arguments here as they have all been robustly rebutted previously by people far cleverer than you or I. At the end of the day, "extra-ordinary claims (the existance of a supernatural being) require extra-ordinary evidence" and therefore it is up to believers (like you) to posit proof/evidence which makes these claims worthy. The onus is glaringly not on the "non-believers" to argue against something that there is no evidence for. Don't you understand this? You put no evidence forward in support of your claims, and yet insist that atheists "disprove" your beliefs. Can't you see the innappropriateness of this way of thinking? I can believe you are 66 as you sound like my catholic mother who has her head in the sand the same as you...

6. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #63288 by dr in the house on August 13, 2007 at 7:56 pm

"Failed solar systems and natural disasters are caused by bad individual and collective Karma."

Please just stop.... stop right there...

7. New age therapies cause 'retreat from reason'

Comment #61571 by dr in the house on August 5, 2007 at 8:15 pm

As a practicing oncologist, I am often put in the position by patients wishing to use "alternative therapies" as an adjunct to their anticancer treatments. Not only is there inconclusive evidence (to say the least) on the efficacy of their supplements and witches potions, there are actually studies which indicate antagonistic effects - ie decreasing the activity of chemotherapy or radiotherapy - with substances such as vitamins, selenium etc. I usually counsel patients against continuing these during their (proven) treatments, but most if not all take them afterwards... Do they actually do harm in that setting? We really don't know, but how homeopathic directors (ie doctors) can encourage patients to take substances in this setting, when our first principle as physicians should be "do no harm", is reprehensible... However, I once had a patient who read about "Magnetic therapy" for pain relief and managed to put herself into ICU when her pacemaker shorted out as she ran her magnets over her chest...