1. Religious education as a part of literary culture

Comment #161281 by Goatboy2012 on April 15, 2008 at 5:39 am

I hope this isn't seen as an overly personal question, but, Professor Dawkins, what on earth did you ever do to Alan Rusbridger to create such antipathy from the Grauniad (since this article is hardly the first example of such)?

Were you at school together and, as a youthful prank, you maybe flushed the young Harry Potter look-alike's head down a toilet? Does he have a favourite puppy which (doubtless by accident) you once kicked? Were you rude about his mother? What?

Enquiring minds want to know.

2. BBC 'too scared to allow jokes about Islam'

Comment #154456 by Goatboy2012 on April 3, 2008 at 9:52 am

IIRC Ben Elton's last series bombed (deservedly so), add to that the BBC recently gave the Iranian comic, Omar Djalili (who makes plenty of jokes about Islam), a prime time series, combined with the fact that BBC comedies such as "Mock the Week" and "Have I got News for You" have never had a problem with including jokes about Islam, remember that the series "Vicar of Dibley" was actually created by his good mate Richard Curtis and then please finish by considering the fact that his comments were made in an interview to a Christian culture magazine…

So, I'd mark this down as bitterness, lying and hypocrisy on his part.

Frankly, Ben Elton should leave the comedy to people who've done something remotely funny in the last twenty years and fuck off back to writing Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals.

3. Make Richard Dawkins a Knight

Comment #80875 by Goatboy2012 on October 23, 2007 at 9:37 am

RE 59 & 61

Matt. I don't think you analysis of Cromwell is particularly fair.

He was an excellent leader, he won the civil war and ruled for, what, twenty years. Although very puritan and anti-catholic I don't recall him setting up a theocracy (he was a social conservative land owner for pete's sake) and while his actions in Ireland were bloody, 'massacring the Irish for a year' makes it sound like he was fighting them just for being Irish, which is rubbish.

4. Make Richard Dawkins a Knight

Comment #80821 by Goatboy2012 on October 23, 2007 at 5:58 am

NJS, you are a citizen.

As of 1949 Subjects of His/Her Brittannic Majesty qualify as Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, changing in 1983 to become plain British Citizen for those of us actually living on this wind-swept isle.

There, that anathemic term, Subject, no longer applies. I hope you feel better now.

Personally I don't give a crap what I'm called, it's how I am treated under the law that matters.

Oh, and on the subject of wealth (if not land) I believe you're also a little off. Messirs Mittal and Abramovich (not to mention a lot of Arab monarchs) have all helped push our home grown aristos down the list.

5. John Templeton's Universe

Comment #79052 by Goatboy2012 on October 16, 2007 at 1:54 am

Ok, here's an idea that struck me the last time the Templeton foundation bubbled up on this board like a fart in a bathtub.

Start a campaign to get Professor Dawkins nominated.

Seriously.

If you check the website;

http://www.templetonprize.org/nom_form_info.html

it seems pretty straightforward, the prize can be awarded "to a living person of any religious tradition who has made a unique contribution to progress in research or discoveries about spiritual realities".

I believe Professor Dawkins work fits those criteria rather well.

Of course he hasn't a snowball's of actually winning; a quick look at the site shows quite clearly these buggers have zero interest in exploring the null hypothesis, only perpetuating their, self congratulatory, ecumenical circle jerk and trying to pretend to themselves it means something, but it would be damn funny.

Not as funny as "spiritual realities" I grant you, but still funny.

6. There Go The Dinosaurs

Comment #73776 by Goatboy2012 on September 26, 2007 at 6:31 am

Don't cheek me, imp, I stand by every word.

May I never again enjoy the taste of sweet kitten flesh, or bask once more in the warmth of a burning and desecrated church if I lie.

};op

7. There Go The Dinosaurs

Comment #73768 by Goatboy2012 on September 26, 2007 at 5:52 am

Ah Jack.

Funny to think that he used to be one of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy's best and brightest.

We trained together, back in the day; disguising ourselves as Xtians to discredit the "One TRUE Faith™", learning to free associate ad-hoc fundigelical bullshit at the drop of a hat, practicing how to foam at the mouth convincingly. He excelled at all the dark arts. No-one in our cell could hold a candle to Jack; he was also a surprisingly good BBQ chef, his hickory smoked kittens were legendary. Happy days.

Then it all fell apart.

The late sixties, Jack had been working deep cover in California. Spreading the lie that Jesus was actually a bit of a hippy. I was his contact with the EAC's high command (or, Satan, as we all called him). Me and Jack would hook up every few months; give him a break from maintaining his cover. We'd get trashed and shoot the breeze, him telling me about the latest deception he'd practiced on the believers, me updating him on how immanentizing the eschaton was going.

Then one day, when we were supposed to rendezvous at a Turkish baths in downtown 'frisco, he just didn't show. I was freaked, I admit it. Jack was a pro, there's no way he'd ever leave his contact hanging; I thought.

Man, I hung around in that Turkish baths for hours, until finally the amyl fumes drove me out into the fresh air, head pounding and fear rising.

The first 'Crusader Comic' hit the stands six months later.

I still wonder what happened, how did Jack of all people, manage to get himself lost in his cover, through the looking glass. Was there something I could have done? Talked to him more often, reminded him that Satan loves all his little children. Maybe if I hadn't given him that economy size box of LSD soaked communion wafers for Christmas '69 he'd still be one of us, fighting the bad fight (if nothing else, I reckon those bloody wafers are to blame for his embarrassingly rabid anti-catholicism).

I've run a lot of guys for the EAC since then, but none of them, not Falwell, Haggard, or even Ratzinger, will ever be the agent Jack was.

So next time you decide to pull a Poe on some Xtian message board, remember Jack and, please, be careful out there.

8. Against the grain: There are questions that science cannot answer

Comment #72051 by Goatboy2012 on September 20, 2007 at 8:10 am

That this person can makes a career as a philosopher reassures me I made the right call when I jacked the subject in for the life of an honest drunk.

Coz even back in my Tequila/gin mixing days I never would have countenanced spouting such egregiously dishonest shit as she's clearly comfortable to have her name associated with.

If I could afford the time off work I'd be sorely tempted to get loaded and head on over to Waterloo on the 3rd and explain to Ms Midgley that, however broad a collection of viewpoints we should take on board, those of obvious and mendacious liars won't be among them.

Also, if a significant enough number of people start espousing the view that Steve Fuller should STFU and go away, do you think the subjectivist cretin would actually do it?

9. Oxford's Christian colleges 'are not suitable for school-leavers'

Comment #71595 by Goatboy2012 on September 19, 2007 at 5:05 am

#71582 by Beer-monster

Here you go

http://www.theocca.org/

No prizes for guessing who the big Oxford name on that side is.


The front page of their site claims that Professors McGrath & Dawkins have never debated.

Shome mishtake shurely?

10. There is no God and Dawkins is his Prophet

Comment #69370 by Goatboy2012 on September 11, 2007 at 2:42 am

He's referring to the "Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities", previously, and rather more honestly, called the "Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion".

Sadly far more respectable people than the Disco Institute are behind the award (which has a larger cash prize than the Nobel) and, frankly, they should be hooted at in the street for it.

Mind you, given the title of the award and the mealy mouthed ecumenicalism they espouse on their site, I think someone might try having Professor Dawkins nominated for the award.

};op

It's not exactly a revelatory work, but the God Delusion is certainly concerned with spiritual reality, it just happens to conclude that the very idea is a contradiction in terms.

11. In God we doubt

Comment #67360 by Goatboy2012 on September 3, 2007 at 5:47 am

"Militant Atheist"

Apparently, pointing out that someone's beliefs are stupid and wrong (and saying why) garners the same appellation for us as blowing people up, or using chemical weapons on civilians, does for theists.

I wonder what Humphrey's would say to a politician on his show spouting that kind of fake equivalence?

Actually, I don't care. This arse claims to have read The God Delusion* and simultaneously that Atheists are the only people he's met with absolute certainty that their beliefs are correct.

But remember, this is a man who interviewed Abu Izzadeen**

So to quote Uma;

"Well, I guess that makes him a liar.."

Still, I'm sure the God which he's not certain he believes in will forgive him for it when they snuggle up together tonight.

*I realize this isn't explicitly stated above, but it was in the Bryan Appleyard interview that accompanied this extract in the Sunday Times, though I guess he must have skimmed over chapter 2.

**22/09/2006 the Today Program, BBC Radio 4