1. American kids, dumber than dirt: Warning: The next generation might just be the biggest pile of idiots in U.S. history

Comment #82114 by hotshoe on October 25, 2007 at 5:33 pm

Mark Morford is a crack-up. He's writes a weekly colum for the SF Chronicle and it's always satirical, political, and profane, not necessarily in that order. Still, I think he's not just spouting off his own top fantasies today, but pointing out a genuine problem. I don''t see it as snobbish. I don't see it as merely the crusty old farts decrying 'the youth of today'.
We have a child in our neighborhood school. He was spat upon by a classmate who hates him because he is smart. In the high school we hear of kids who are bullied, have their schoolbooks and papers thrown in the gutter, and sometimes even beaten for the offense of trying to excel in class.
My personal solution - drop the requirement for education over the age of thirteen. Get out all the ones who don't want to be in school and are only there because they have to be. Yeah, they'll still be dumb, or even dumber than before, but at least they won't be disrupting and dragging down the ones who want a chance to learn.
I admit that leaves us with a dreadful social problem having all those ignorant bored teenagers hanging around all day.

2. Debate between Michael Shermer and Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #80438 by hotshoe on October 21, 2007 at 8:49 pm

quote D'souza "universe as a whole is rational, i.e the universe as a whole follows laws"

Actually, this is exactly how science does work; ie start with the premise that the universe follows laws. State hypothesis, propose experiment(s) to test it, collect data, deduce the laws of nature thus revealed. But without such a premise, what could ever be the point of hypothesis or experiment? One would never expect to see answers, nor even correlations, or agreement between one field and another.
Thus in fact this is a direct contradiction of his credit for Christianity. What are the laws which the whole universe would have to follow under the reign of the omnipotent god of the Christian bible? Why none, of course.
Unconstrained by principles of biology, all the kinds of animals of a planet can fit onto one boat. Unconstrained by the principles of physics, Joshua can blow a horn and destroy the walls of a city, Prayer can produce miraculous results, which by definition are not in accordance with the laws the whole universe follows. Absolutely anything could happen due to divine influence. A world ruled by god is an irrational world.

3. The greatest debate

Comment #80329 by hotshoe on October 21, 2007 at 11:03 am

If this is typical of journalism in Australia, then I want to move to Australia! Nice long article, balanced, careful in tone. It sounds as if the various quotations have been taken in context correctly. Too bad about the very first paragraph ("insistently, sometimes stridently") but I would expect that is a grabber to get readers into the article.

4. Help Counter the New Atheist Crusade to 'Evangelize' America!

Comment #79755 by hotshoe on October 18, 2007 at 12:51 pm

Yes, we could sure use the relaxed and accepting environment of "freethinkers summer camp". We have forbidden our son to discuss religion in school because we foresee the problems which admitting a lack of faith would cause him among the local fundamentalist majority. (You can imagine the worries we had when we realized the science teacher is christian of the literal-word bible type)
Sure is funny that anyone, even a christian conman, could stir up concern that summer camp should be something to fight against. How can anyone take him seriously when he complained there were "hundreds of other children..." Hundreds, that's all? There are more than hundreds of little children attending summer bible school here in our small town alone. I'm afraid the atheists have generations to go before they win the war, numerically speaking.

5. Searching for God in the Brain

Comment #79426 by hotshoe on October 17, 2007 at 8:35 am

quote Beauregard, "...such feelings could also encompass awe of the universe or of nature. "If you are an atheist and you live a certain kind of experience, you will relate it to the magnificence of the universe. If you are a Christian, you will associate it with God. Who knows? Perhaps they are the same" "

I posit that they are indeed the same. I posit that the "meaning" of the experience is culturally and contextually determined; if you have been religiously raised or are religiously oriented and have that experience, you would naturally attribute it to God. This pleasurable and perhaps amazing feeling would reinforce belief in God (I prayed, He spoke to me! ). That this is circular reasoning does not disturb their belief, of course.

I think atheists and humanists should be teaching themselves techiques (like Buddhist mediation or Catholic prayer) which predispose one to be able to have this mental experience. Line up for the fMRI and demonstrate that the same brain activity is indeed occuring when an atheist experiences it. Testify that belief in God is neither the necessary foundation nor result of this mental experience.

I understand that you will not convince the God-blinded. But you can by your example provide an alternate, human, context for those persons who are searching for a spiritual explanation. To me, this sounds like what Sam Harris is working towards, and good for him!

God spoke to me once, in a clear, distinct voice. Thrilling! The fact that I was literally stoned out of my mind at that moment provided a context for the experience which allowed me to incorporate it back into my normal atheistic life. I did not have to rush off to church to become baptized and immerse myself in religious work. As Beauregard says "... relate it to the magnificence of the universe...". Yes, or at the least, relate it to the magnificence of the human brain and mind that has evolved to contemplate the universe.

Where do I sign up for his project?

edit - quotation marks