1. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177543 by Lionel A on May 9, 2008 at 9:19 am

What is it with these theological types? It seems that the more they write the less they have to say.

Comment #177334 by Dr Benway on May 8, 2008 at 11:37 pm

...some sign that the theist knows it's all bollocks, but is trapped in a game he can't stop playing.

Yes Dr B. I think you are spot on. To much time invested as well as face and a pecuniary position to lose.

2. Yoko Ono sues over use of John Lennon videos

Comment #169957 by Lionel A on April 27, 2008 at 6:06 am

Shuggy:

You couldn't make that up, it's like a Zimbabwean election. My guess is some evil Darwinist has hacked the voting. Or else the whole page is a hoax.

I wonder when they will suddenly add a few thousand to the Yes vote and then stop the voting so that it looks like the Yes votes have it?

3. Yoko Ono sues over use of John Lennon videos

Comment #169478 by Lionel A on April 26, 2008 at 7:15 am

How much longer before they pull that poll over at:

http://www.myspace.com/expelledthemovement

Yes 802 0.34%

No (to ID in classroom) 235302 98.68%

4. Yoko Ono sues over use of John Lennon videos

Comment #168680 by Lionel A on April 25, 2008 at 9:30 am

Premise Media and Rocky Mountain Pictures said in a statement that they only used "a very small portion of the song."

ROTFL. You just cannot make this stuff up can you.

Will that match "the very small portion of truth in Expelled".

It does not matter one jot how much of a clip, picture, song or quote you use if it breaks 'fair use' rules.

Take em' to the cleaners - after all the umbrella organizations pushing Expelled have deep pockets.

BTW Dont forget to visit:

http://sienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

and link to the poll at:

http://www.myspace.com/expelledthemovement

Sorry but cannot get links to work right now - cut and paste or go straight to Pharyngula from your Bookmarks/Favorites and see article

Crash this poll

5. Flea of the week

Comment #164090 by Lionel A on April 19, 2008 at 1:56 pm

Comment #163928 by Paula Kirby on April 19, 2008 at 9:46 am

Yes, that IS irritating. Why don't you move it to its proper place next time you're in?

I have been doing just that for some months but somebody keeps moving it back. The bookmark moving too!

6. Flea of the week

Comment #163896 by Lionel A on April 19, 2008 at 9:00 am

8. Comment #163475 by epeeist on April 18, 2008 at 11:49 am

I wouldn't be so sure of that. I wonder how many of these books are vanity published.

How many vanity published? Going by the titles and authors available in local Waterstones quite a few. The only ones I have seen are by McGrath.

A sole copy of McGrath's, 'The Dawkins Delusion' has been on the popular science shelf; irritatingly it should be in with religion, for some months now. How do I know this? It is because one of my special bookmarks is still in it.

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

Comment #157422 by Lionel A on April 9, 2008 at 4:35 am

Here we have yet another own goal by religious ridiculites. It seems to me that this incident points to the need for ensuring that a very thorough investigation into the misappropriation of public funds reaches a satisfactory conclusion. I find the fact that the school concerned was in financial difficulty interesting as is its destruction by fire. Have these occurrences been fully investigated? If not then I suggest they should be. It seems like a can of worms has been revealed here.

Oh! Is it not about time representative Davis' photo' at:

http://www.ilga.gov/house/Rep.asp?GA=95&MemberID=1148

was brought up to date, although perhaps there will not be a need for that page for much longer.

8. I always aim to misbehave

Comment #151640 by Lionel A on March 29, 2008 at 5:46 am

7. Comment #151554 by DamnDirtyApe on March 29, 2008 at 1:13 am

'...Wow, and I never knew about pogrom...'

You would have if you had read Martin Gilbert's three volume 'History of the 20th Century' anybody would think he had a mission in this as he describes pogroms so often that other events are lightly treated or missed, including momentous occurrences in both WW1 and WW2.

Back on topic.

Well done PZ. Spot on as ever.

I looked here after having read his post on Pharyngula first.

Interesting proof that evolution is still occurring and with a story involving Oxford UK.

The rat population is increasing due mostly to fast food and associated wasteful habits by humans and the lack of 'joined-up-thinking' by those in charge, or rather who should be in charge, of controlling the waste problem.

It would appear that a 'super-rat' has evolved that has an extra gene showing up on tests that increases resistance to the usual poison used for rodent control - an anti-coagulant (Warfarin). One expert understands the position very well by pointing out that increasing the use of the poisoned bate will cause selection pressure in favour of the mutant rat.

http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/display.var.2156005.0.super_rat_arrives_in_city.php

Oxford is not alone with this problem.

9. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #150070 by Lionel A on March 26, 2008 at 12:36 pm

Happy birthday Richard and I thank you for the wonderful literature containing such elegant explanations of complex matters, explanations that make it that bit easier to understand how things work.

If only the ID crowd would read and understand a small fraction of it then there would be no more silliness.

The Expelled brouhaha was an early birthday present I am sure and it is a bonus that the religious wingnuts continue to shoot themselves in the foot:

http://pigeonchess.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/contradictory-stories-from-the-id-crowd-on-the-expelled-incident/

where one commentator on Denyse O'Leary fogspot described you thus:

'Richard Dawkins isn't the sharpest tool in the shed...'

The Ancestor's Tale is a masterpiece which contains more of value on any one page than all of the works of the fleas put together, but then you have not produced a dud yet.

If you repeated the exhortation, 'It doesn't matter if you never read anything else of mine then please read this,' would that still refer to The Extended Phenotype?

Thank you again and

Happy Birthday

10. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148184 by Lionel A on March 22, 2008 at 9:09 am

Having revisited:

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2008/03/richard_dawkins_worlds_most_fa.html

so as to click on the 'Click here to read more', at the foot of that page I became astonished at how lacking in self awareness these people are, e.g.

"The legacy media seem to have rediscovered the evolution controversy with the recent lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Georgia," says Rob Crowther, CSC director of communications. "The problem is that many reporters are sadly uninformed about the issue which has resulted in much of the news coverage being sloppy, inaccurate, and often overtly biased.

Have they no sense of how uninformed they are?

Note missing final quote marks on a page difficult to read because of its small type which does not respond to changes in VIEWed text size.

"For too many reporters, the controversy over evolution is simply a rehash of the old movie, "Inherit the Wind," said John West, associate director of the CSC. "They continue to simplify this as a battle between stick-figure fundamentalists on one side and the enlightened champions of science on the other, when in reality there are serious debates amongst scientists. This isn't the old trope of religion vs. science; this is science vs. science."

What BS. Repeating BS does not make it true. The debate is still very much religion v science and any statement to the contrary is being economical with the truth.

Joseph Goebbels himself would be proud of the way in which the Discovery Institute presents this issue.

11. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148167 by Lionel A on March 22, 2008 at 8:27 am

45. Comment #148140 by Beth on March 22, 2008 at 7:13 am

The boys at the Discovery Institute have weighed in, and to no surprise mis-represents the Expelling of PZ.
http://www.evolutionnews.org/2008/03/richard_dawkins_worlds_most_fa.html

Well there is dissembling and downright lying, that Discovery article is replete with examples of both and starting with the title:

Richard Dawkins, World's Most Famous Darwinist, Stoops to Gate-crashing Expelled

'Stoops', indeed!

Dawkins apparently acknowledged that he had not been invited and did not have a ticket. A sophomoric side to his ideological campaign is thus revealed.

This is surely does not reflect how PZ went about showing up with Richard.

Dawkins, understandably is nervous about this film, among other reasons because Ben Stein has him on camera acknowledging that life on Earth may, indeed, have been intelligently designed, but that it had to have been accomplished by space aliens! This is hilarious, of course, because Dawkins is death on intelligent design [Huh! What does this mean?]. But it turns out that that view applies only if it includes the possibility that the designer might be God.

What utter misrepresenting nonsense.

Too bad the film doesn't show (and I wish it had), his promotion of advice to attack teachers and professors who dare question Darwin's theory. The whole point of Myers is that he is a take-no-prisoners, crusading atheist scientist who has made it his purpose in life to harass people who disagree with him. Dawkins turns out to be his buddy and mutual admirer.

So PZ promotes attacks on teachers who question Darwin's theory. This is either sloppy language, which could be said to be a characteristic of the whole sorry article, or tantamount to libel.

…I suspect I'll wish that the film was twice as long and had twice as much from Dawkins, P.Z. Myers, et al. From what I already have seen, they really expose themselves as the anti-intellectual, bullying poseurs they are -- small men who above all are afraid of a fair contest.

Dawkins and PZ 'anti-itellectual, bullying poseurs' , this guy really knows how to lay it on with a trowel.

That appalling article plumbs new depths.

12. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148115 by Lionel A on March 22, 2008 at 5:51 am

I note that Bent Steam has a claim to be a comedian. Well this episode certainly has a Pythonesque overtone.

Like most commentators I had trouble controlling my mirth at this 'Cartoon Caper' involving PZ and Richard.

Is there a danger of giving this more of the free publicity that the sponsor evidently wishes for given his reported comment on that NY Times article

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/business/media/10stein.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

reporting on Roger Moore's experience?

Maybe there is that possibility but to whom will it be dangerous? Personally I think that the increased coverage of these actions taken to expel PZ will cause those actions to be a boomerang that will scythe through the poor fabric that is the ID lobby's raiment and exposing the emperor for what he is.

13. In Defence of Selfish Genes

Comment #147663 by Lionel A on March 21, 2008 at 5:05 am

The article Gene-juggling is cited in the Bibliography of the 30th Anniversary Edition of The Selfish Gene published in 2006 on page 340 of the paperback edition.

There is also an applicable endnote to page 55 in Chapter 4 on page 278 of the same edition. I have no way of immediately checking in which edition this article was first cited as all my earlier editions of TSG have been passed on to others (I am going to have to get yet another copy of The God Delusion as both my original hardback and the subsequent paperback are away with others, with no sign of a return any time soon).

14. In Defence of Selfish Genes

Comment #147430 by Lionel A on March 20, 2008 at 11:45 am

It has been asked here why is an exchange from the early 1980s being discussed here and now.

That is a good question and one answer could be because the same errors are being repeated notwithstanding the responses and rebuttals that Richard has taken care in including in later editions of The Selfish Gene.

I have here a copy of a book, given as a Christmas present, dating from as recently as 2001 which has as its mission, it seems, the demolition of both Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, amongst others.

In 'Alas Poor Darwin' edited by Hilary and Steven Rose in the chapter 'Why Memes' Midgley slates Dennett for his idea of Evolutionary Theory being a 'Universal Acid' as described in Dennett's 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea' and recently republished in 'The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing', having taken a swipe or two at Dawkins along the way. Midgley also signposts the reader to, and I quote, 'Stephen Jay Gould's chapter for a detailed critique of Dennett.'

For the real Dawkins acid in this book then the chapter by Gabriel Dover, 'Anti-Dawkins' is a study which demonstrates that the Selfish Gene is still misunderstood by many.

Need I say more.

15. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #146635 by Lionel A on March 19, 2008 at 8:36 am

Lord 'I have a nasty smell under my nose' Carey, '...there is a secular indoctrination going on which is harming, I think, our kids...'

What tosh. Producing statements like that is an excellent demonstration of why you should not be allowed to have ANY influence in The House of Lords.

Besides, kids are young goats and it is children who should not be indoctrinated in ANY belief.

As for Widdecombe, the least said the better about another self righteous religious apologist. What on earth can she know about raising children?

16. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Comment #145408 by Lionel A on March 17, 2008 at 2:43 pm

Got it Saturday with a Save £4 sticker on it, irresistible.

Wow what a wonderful collection that should be read, and could be read, by many a budding bizarodawkins.

Remember him?

But then by now such, sadly, are unlikely to pick up the book because Richard has his name on the front. This is not a criticism BTW.

Notwithstanding I already have a number of these extracts it is a golden opportunity to read the absentees, particularly as the public library system here in the UK has become more of an entertainment organization.

The excerpt from Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is particularly relevant at this time, what prescient writing, and a couple of lines are worth making a slogan out of IMHO.

17. Hitchens and Boteach Debate on God

Comment #126464 by Lionel A on February 13, 2008 at 9:43 am

Boteach castigates Hitchins for 'making money' from a book by somebody supporting aethism which just happens to have a charitable associated organisation and then pushes his latest book - even to holding up a copy.

Boteach please look up the meaning of hypocracy!

Boteach, 'Stephen Jay Gould didn't believe in evolution he believed in punctuated equilibrium.'

Boteach even if you cannot move yourself to buy one of Richard Dawkins excellent books in which punctuated equilibrium is discussed in some detail then read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuated_equilibrium

and note:

'Punctuated equilibrium is a theory in evolutionary biology.'

As for Darwin and Lamarckism, from the same source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism

note this bit, and in particular the first sentence:

'After publication of Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, the importance of individual efforts in the generation of adaptation was considerably diminished. Later, Mendelian genetics supplanted the notion of inheritance of acquired traits, eventually leading to the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis, and the general abandonment of the Lamarckian theory of evolution in biology. In a wider context, soft inheritance is of use when examining the evolution of cultures and ideas, and is related to the theory of Memetics.'

Boteach you are misrepresenting Darwin, and do that again when stating that Darwin's work 'the Origin of Species...' was '...a theory to explain the fossil record...', and much everything else you shouted about. There are just too many non-sequiturs, deceptive allusions and faulty allegories to counter them one by one.

You spouted, 'they told us the world was 4 billion years old, then they said it was 8 billion and then it went to 16...'.

Boteach you are confusing the age of the earth with that of the universe. Then you go on into the realms of fantasy with 'a trillion years', which only serves to underscore further your profound ignorance, or dishonesty, about the topics you preach on.

And as for 'having dug up the whole world' this is yet another exaggeration. I would suggest that you consider the very special conditions that are required for the creation of ANY fossils and also how much of the earth’s surface has changed, and many times over, during the history of life on earth. But I guess you really know some of that but you just hope that your audience does not, for that is the normal modus operandi of the preacher and preaching seems to be the one thing that you are good at.


Your arguments are driven by rhetoric, which, after all, is all that religious dogma can muster given the poverty of its ideas, and of its intentions.

Boteach, you are so misguided, with forcefullness winning out over intellectual honesty of acedemic accuracy, that I consider you dangerous and that you should be locked up for the public good. Certainly your hot air must be contributing to global warming and climate change.

PS Why are my quote marks being mangled, I note others are having similar trouble?

I have now changed all except, '...earth's surface...' to leave one that barffs.

And, what happened to the preview option?

18. 'Gospel of wealth' facing scrutiny

Comment #118085 by Lionel A on January 30, 2008 at 10:06 am

I have recently discovered that a sister has fallen under the spell of a pair of these charlatans, the Copelands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D74VHiVLROM


Some may recall my previous posts where I stated that I was the grandson of a Baptist minister and indoctrinated into the ways, pursued an extra curricular course of bible study and was baptised. Then, having become suspicious due to the contradictory nature of much of the bible, I suspect few believers have actually read the bible so thoroughly, and my strongly science based curriculum, being especially interested in biology and the history of the earth I picked up a copy of Darwin's, Origin of Species…. In short I was freed.

It would appear that a sister cannot manage this. In many respects she is more like that grandfather than myself or my other sibling. It really makes me wonder if there is a god gene which can lead to some form of brain development that makes one more susceptible to this nonsense.

19. Creationists plan British theme park

Comment #99675 by Lionel A on December 17, 2007 at 9:43 am

158. Comment #99632 by briancoughlanworldcitizen on December 17, 2007 at 8:19 am

I see a few others have been kicking Neil around, if you want to join in it's here :

Thanks for that link but as soon as I read this by Tyler Durden:

Neil said: "If there is an eternal God - and there is!"

And you wonder why we atheists call you arrogant?

having already seen Neil's: 'Continually calling me arrogant or smug just because I am confident in my beliefs is a bad idea on several levels…'

and then read through more of Neil's so called evidence I appreciated that arguing with this guy is going to be such a waste of time, he is a Dim.

20. Creationists plan British theme park

Comment #99656 by Lionel A on December 17, 2007 at 9:03 am

I have since contacted the Charity Commission at:

http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/index.asp

where I had trouble finding an email address other than pressenquiries as the Knowledge Base sent me around in circles.

If another can supply a more appropriate email address I would be grateful.

21. Creationists plan British theme park

Comment #99648 by Lionel A on December 17, 2007 at 8:45 am

'On television today there is so much sex and violence, it is no wonder our youth are binge drinking ... This is a revolutionary scheme requiring innovative people with the vision to bring about change and a new direction.'

So a theme park based around a story with a four thousand year tradition is going to result in a new direction!

Dannett was right, these folk are Dims and condemned by their own words.

129. Comment #99536 by Roger Stanyard on December 17, 2007 at 2:37 am

Moreover it is registered with the Charity Commission but at the same time is offering a competitive commercial rate of return for investing in the project. That means it looks to be in serious breach of Charity Commission rules - it is eiher a charity or a commercial operation and as it is heavily promoting its ability to generate profits and hand them out to investors, it is not, as far as I can make out, a charity.

Methinks that people in this group need to write to the Charity Commission (and to their MPs and European MPs) to complain. You may also want to write to HM Revenue and Customs.

Spot on Roger, this is one of the first things that I looked for when I read:

While the plans for the park are still in their infancy, the trust has big ambitions. A business plan available to prospective investors suggests the park could bring in £4.8m a year - apparently 10 times its estimated overhead costs.

And BTW there is another AH Trust – The Annabel Harwood Trust which, according to their website at:

http://www.ahtrust.org/

aims to provide important support information to parents who have lost their baby to Stillbirth or Neonatal death. As their charity registration number precedes that of the AHTrust in question, Registration No. 1113917 visible at:

http://www.ahtrust.net/

there could be an issue there. Note also the almost identical URL.

22. ...and another FLEA...

Comment #96877 by Lionel A on December 11, 2007 at 3:21 am

3. Comment #96313 by Matt7895

'…Though some bile rose at the back of my throat at the sight of 'The Twilight of Atheism' by McGrath.'

Hum! Another target for one of my special bookmarks, I must print out some more in preparation for another seeding trip to my local Waterstones, which appears to be the final victor in the retail book-chain purchaser over here in UK.

What I object to is the fact that books by McGrath, especially, are misplaced in the Popular Science section when one has to look under Religion for Dan Dennett's 'Breaking the Spell', but this could be more the fault of the publishers and their assignment of ISBN codes.

Is it not a common feature of these fleas that they display a singular lack of originality in the creation of their pseudo-clever titles which are not as amusing as is clearly the intent?

23. Daniel Dennett Debates Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #95031 by Lionel A on December 7, 2007 at 7:41 am

463. Comment #94779 by BrianSmith on December 6, 2007 at 2:13 pm

I've listened to about half of this. As much as I agree with Dennet on most points, I think D'Souza was a better debater. Sure, it was his usual shtick, but Dennet didn't seem to respond very well to some predictable points and was very disorganized at times.

Comments?

I think that it should be considered that just twelve months ago Dan suffered a massive cardiac attack.

I had similar way back in 2000 and am well aware of the distressing situation where well known and apt words will not come to mind as immediately as they once did. Also, when discussing complex issues one can no longer guarantee to be able to digress so as to elucidate a point and pick up again on the main theme where one left it.

The severity of this condition is, but I am no medic, I am sure dependant upon the nature and duration of the interruption of oxygen to the brain when one suffers a myocardial infarction, at least I can bring that term to the front of memory but then so I should as I heard it often enough back in 2000.

The medically trained may disagree with me but I think that Dan is displaying this lack of lucidity and also exhibiting the signs of distress that it induces as one realize the loss of facalty.

24. Daniel Dennett Debates Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #94760 by Lionel A on December 6, 2007 at 1:20 pm

I am only at 50:04 on the video, just after D'Souza checks he has 10 min's left and already I am tired of hearing his staccato, but slick and shifty delivery.

Dennett the thoroughly educated philosopher and eloquent, rational speaker.

D'Souza the Snake Oil Salesman - period.

25. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #77446 by Lionel A on October 9, 2007 at 10:33 am

Comment #76931 by Rational_G on October 7, 2007 at 9:14 pm

Is it just me, or is this Lionel guy rather annoying?

This Lionel has absolutely nothing to do with me.

Anybody with a voice like that should be pitied rather than lambasted, he reminds me of a 'toon character voice-over. Who was that character for ever after Daffy Duck?

26. VOTE on the 'Faith smackdown': Richard Dawkins vs Francis Collins

Comment #73541 by Lionel A on September 25, 2007 at 8:10 am

Anybody else think that cartoon of Francis Collins looks rather like Paul Davies, the 'turtles all the way down' man at the Beyond Belief 2006 conferance?

27. Scientists should unite against threat from religion

Comment #67008 by Lionel A on September 1, 2007 at 10:13 am

34. Comment #65014 by phil rimmer
I bought Collin's book in an airport recently, to entertain me on the trip. It failed. But it entertained my fellow travelers as I threw it down in disgust every few pages.

Woefully, intellectually underpowered. The good bits were all C.S.Lewis quoted verbatim. His one chance of doing good by this hero of his was to explain how the latest science hadn't screwed up a lot of Lewis's ideas. He flunked out, badly. A man of very little breadth I fear...

Well I am very glad in that case that I slipped one of my bookmarks into a copy in my local book store.
See:

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=22645

28. Scientists should unite against threat from religion

Comment #67005 by Lionel A on September 1, 2007 at 10:03 am

8. Comment #64939 by Bizarro Dawkins
Thankfully, humans are not animals. We can choose to repress our instincts. I'm still a virgin. Sure, it hasn't been easy, but I've chosen to wait until I am married. And trust me, if a 20 year old male can do it, anyone can do it.

Oh! Common Bizarro (well you gave yourself that apt name and what you come out with is truly bizarre) what are you studying at Liberty (have I got you right as being one of those who questioned RD at Lynchburg)? I had formed the impression that it was biology of some sort. If so then the 'of some sort' seems to be the operative term here.

As others have pointed out homo-sapiens is just another animal and happens to be at the tip of one of the millions of currently active lines of evolution. As it is looking like we could drive ourselves extinct, taking most other species on earth with us or destroying them before we go, then other branches of that tree of life will evolve in future; therefore man is not going to be the ultimate evolved species on earth.

I hope Liberty provides you with a realistically useful reading list (but I somehow doubt it) and amongst the titles suggested should be Jared Diamond's 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee' also 'Children of Prometheus: The Accelerating Pace of Human Evolution' by Christopher Wills will be of value in case that you consider evolution has stopped.

Those above suggested in case you have been put off reading Richard Dawkins excellent 'The Ancestors Tale' or any of his others. Perhaps Liberty now bans these books or discourages the reading of them.

29. Fallen Pastor Seeks Aid to Pursue Studies

Comment #66070 by Lionel A on August 28, 2007 at 8:36 am

47 Comment #66060 by RickM
OT - Saw a Bush snip on CNN this morning where he says the Islamofacists can't be religious people. He can't see where religious people would do what they're doing. Wonder what planet he's been living on.

That one is easy surely;

Planet of the Apes.

30. Anger over 'blasphemous' balls

Comment #65917 by Lionel A on August 27, 2007 at 11:19 am

I have an idea, perhaps we should stamp a little Saudi flag on chicken eggs (instead of the little Lion we used to see on eggs in the UK and nobody took offence), then we could all walk on the 'broken egg shells'.

31. Fallen Pastor Seeks Aid to Pursue Studies

Comment #65915 by Lionel A on August 27, 2007 at 11:00 am

9 Comment #65909 by mumbles
You guys are forgetting that he's been reformed.

Reformed into what?

An environmentally friendly gash sack? I'll vote for that.

This 'I'm reformed and saved and therefore I am now a good guy' carp could only work with the religiously stupid.

32. Fallen Pastor Seeks Aid to Pursue Studies

Comment #65904 by Lionel A on August 27, 2007 at 9:51 am

Hang on a mo'! Shouldn't this jerk be taking counseling rather than being paid to provide it?

Sickening!

33. CNN Request for 'I-Reports' on religion

Comment #65237 by Lionel A on August 23, 2007 at 9:37 am

Are the words 'In God We Trust' still on your banknotes in the US?

If so is it not time to push for their removal?

I hope a link to 'God's Warriors' comes up here soon.

34. Enemies of Reason

Comment #65230 by Lionel A on August 23, 2007 at 8:52 am

I thought these programmes quite well done. What surprises me is that these people have not refused to allow them to be broadcast.

Spencer, the astrologer, came across as knowingly devious with most of the others being a joke – that is if the probable adverse outcomes from believing in this codswallop were not so full of risk, in this way the business that these people conduct is both fraudulent and treacherous.

Unfortunately I am getting some stick here from my wife who considers me bigoted and blinkered for considering the truth behind Richard's message and the awfulness and danger these quacks pose.

Some of this stick is because I have talked about it to a sister who has used homeopathic practitioners in the past and her husband is accusing me of being as closed minded as those who believe in this stuff and also about that other question of faith in a god. His usual argument is to scoff at the silly idea of a big bang starting the universe from nothing. I try to point out that this isn't quite what scientists think and that an understanding of the nature of the origin of the universe is still a work in progress.

He has demured at my offer of loans of the many books on quantum mechanics, evolution and related topics that I have, many aimed at the lay reader.

What can one do with such people?

I have just been reading Matt Ridley's book on Francis Crick – good stuff.

35. Sikh girl will convert for a place at Catholic school

Comment #64474 by Lionel A on August 20, 2007 at 7:27 am

12. Comment #64457 by PaulJ on August 20
There was a TV drama in the UK not so long ago (called "Perfect Parents" I think - there's a thread in the forums about it) that had an atheist couple faking Catholicism in order to get their daughter into such a school.

Yes, I saw that and as I recall things did not turn out well did they.

Here is a link to some info:

http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/catalogue/browse/?id=50A8E20D1b07227CD2WjT2AD116F

36. Charles Brooker's screen burn

Comment #64472 by Lionel A on August 20, 2007 at 7:09 am

54. Comment #63180 by darwin2
My beliefs give me great hope and comfort but I also realize my beliefs may be totally wrong. If consciousness continues after death, I will find that my beliefs were correct. If consciousness ceases at death, I will never know if I was right or wrong.

I can help you with this. A few years back I suffered an acute myocardial infarction (heart attack) whereby by having had to endure a short train journey, which was in fact taking me away from the nearest hospital, before getting off at a station (would you believe not one person in the carriage came to my assistance even though I could see they were aware) I was only just in time for resuscitation. Indeed my heart had stopped for some while causing all other systems to shut down.

At one point I had one of those infamous out-of-body experiences (rationally explained) and then nothing. No bright lights, no rapid film of my lifes past events, no trumpets, simply nothing.

I didn't believe in life after death before this and I do not now.

When you consider that I, and yourself, are composed of billions of atoms, most if not all of which don't hang around in you long before going elsewhere into another organism or caught up in a subduction zone and descending into the earth's mantle, where is there any basis for the existence of a soul to preserve a form of life after death?

BTW folks I have tried emails to the address under Contacts at the head of these pages but am not even managing a delivered acknowledgement, let alone a read acknowledge or a reply. Are others having similar experiences.

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

Comment #61941 by Lionel A on August 7, 2007 at 1:57 pm

Comment #61878 by anandamide
If people are trying to respond to the site, I think one of the ways past the mods is to begin with a few seemingly positive statements about the article before digging your teeth in.

Good idea in theory but the limit of 1000 characters including spaces is a tough call. Besides there is no portion of this dire Mail article that can have any positive spin put on it.

Still only four replies to that Phillips article so far.

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

Comment #61845 by Lionel A on August 7, 2007 at 5:53 am

Doh! This woman has clearly little idea neither of what science is nor of the origins of science and its relationship to religion over the centuries.

She is either ignorant or willfully misleading her readership, if there are any readers left considering the ranting, blinkered, bigoted stance that she adopts in most, if not all, of her columns. Perhaps she just likes provoking irritated replies in order to bolster the paper's circulation – the financial imperative.

She displays a woefully ignorance of the writings of Richard Dawkins, let alone many others. There is no excuse for anybody who attacks the ideas of another without taking the trouble to find out what these ideas are and the context within which they come about.

Normally I ignore the toxic nonsense spewed out by this would be 'personage' but have been prompted to reply although I doubt that they will include my comment so I'll place it here instead.

Clearly Ms Phillips has not read much by Richard Dawkins, if she had done so she would realise that Dawkins has already pointed to the lack of credibility of 'new age therapies' in for one 'A Devil's Chaplain'.

Her statement, 'The heart of the Judeo-Christian tradition is the belief in the concept of truth…' is risible. Which truth would that be exactly? This could depend upon which section of the Bible one reads. Dawkins, and others, point out the scriptures are self contradictory requiring the faithful to cherry pick their quotes to justify their behaviour – helping the disadvantaged or stoning to death those who transgress.

And, '…which gives rise to reason.' Ms Phillips this is further evidence of your shallow grasp of scientific method, there is nothing reasonable about either religion or 'new age therapies'.

I could suggest a reading list but this would be to insult your intelligence for doubtlessly you already know what to read but only lack the will, and honesty, to do so.

39. New age therapies cause 'retreat from reason'

Comment #61520 by Lionel A on August 5, 2007 at 1:58 pm

Comment #61514 by Duff:
I am so personally over every kind of quackery, be it religious or "new age alternative medicine". The very term is an irritation, hinting as it does that it is just another kind of medicine.

Perhaps we could simply use that old, old description 'snake oil'.

40. The Gullible Age: Review of 'The Enemies of Reason'

Comment #61517 by Lionel A on August 5, 2007 at 1:34 pm

Comment #61372 by Russell Blackford:
I consider mainstream religious conservatives and extremists to be the most important target for attack because of their great political influence, but...

I agree with you there but many of these other irrational or dishonest exploiters of the troubled and gullible are making a nice living out of their activities and I agree with others that by exposing these fraudsters we are demonstrating to the religious, fundamentalist, happy-clapy or moderates, that we are not singling them out (if you can excuse the contradiction in plurals).

Besides one only has to look at the comparatively vast shelf space for all the books associated with so called New Age beliefs, and the small section for popular science, where they stick books by Alister McGrath thus taking some of that precious shelf space with unscientific waffle. I am designing book-marks that I can place inside these McGrath tree wasters.

41. Could these books be part of the problem?

Comment #61303 by Lionel A on August 4, 2007 at 1:57 pm

How about 'Alister McGrath for Dummies'?

42. They let anybody onto the faculty at Oxford nowadays

Comment #61228 by Lionel A on August 4, 2007 at 9:00 am

Comment #60928 by Rtambree: McGrath is a fraudulent intellectual - his statements are just as vacuous as the French postmodernists. Whether he believes his own obfuscation and gibberish is genuine discourse or not, his employers and students are getting ripped off and should demand a refund of salary and fees. He brings the distinguished name of Oxford into disrepute.

I couldn't agree more.

I guess that he thinks that his mangling of titles by other authors into those of his own books is clever, e.g. RD's 'The God Delusion' into The Dawkins Delusion and Dan Dennett's 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea' into 'Christianity's Dangerous Idea'. I call it dumb, being the sort of thinking that Homer Simpson would have after a few crates of Duff Beer.

I must admit I have not read The Dawkins Delusion, I refuse to pay an inflated price for what looks little more than a tract, is there any science in it at all?

If not then we should campaign to have it removed from the Popular Science section in Waterstones, along with all other related tripe by McGrath and others of similar ilk. I have mentioned, twice now, to the manager in our local Waterstones that McGrath should not be in popular science, but he smiles indulgently and does nothing.

I am considering making and printing out suitable bookmarks to slip in with each McGrath book I find misplaced this so that potential reades are warned. Now should I put the richarddawkins.net URL on these bookmarks?

By the same token Dennett's Breaking the Spell should be in that popular science section and not under religion. When will books be judged by content rather than title.

As for McGrath's books, a web search indicates that he has many titles under his belt but then one can waffle endlessly and get away with it by adopting a sense of false intellect. Never mind the quality, feel the width is McGrath's motto it would seem.

43. The infinite wisdom of Richard Dawkins

Comment #52540 by Lionel A on June 27, 2007 at 8:09 am

Comment #51767 by Russell Blackford

Very well put Russell, which makes all the more worrying the information put over by Edward Tabash in:

http://richarddawkins.net/article,1323,The-Present-Threat-of-the-Religious-Right-to-Our-Modern-Freedoms,Edward-Tabash

about the religious right in the US infiltrating the legal system with fundamentalist legal bigots particularly the like of those from Pat Robertson's Regent University School of Law.

The programmed robots typified in the video with the Bill Moyer's Journal article at:

http://richarddawkins.net/article,1206,A-Look-at-Regent-University,Bill-Moyers-Journal

provide chilling evidence, through their own testimony, of how, unless we are watchfull and active, the foot soldiers of the next inquisition will be in place to send people like us for 'extrodinary rendition' after a spell at a vacation camp such as Guantanamo.

Am I being paranoid?

History tells me my fears are justified.

44. Richard Dawkins and Alister McGrath

Comment #46505 by Lionel A on May 31, 2007 at 2:06 pm

I also suffered from the

'We're sorry, but the provider of this video has not authorised Google to display this video in your location.'

when trying to access over NTL (Virgin) broadband here in the UK and I must say that now I have had a viewing (thanks for posting it here) Richard has confounded McGrath and brought him up sharp with a round turn and a half-hitch.



I recently decided to search Amazon UK for book titles by McGrath, I was astonished at the number of titles listed. Very much a case of 'never mind the quality feel the width'

45. Diary of a Deserter

Comment #46501 by Lionel A on May 31, 2007 at 1:41 pm

Brian,

If you have found your way here then welcome, I like yourself had to free myself after being pressured into baptism in the Baptist church here in the UK. Although no where near as oppressive as the JWs seem to be it has caused waves with one side of my family.

You have very much hit one nail on the head with the following:

'The belief that God is going to swoop down one day

and "fix everything" spawns a dangerous apathy for

the earth we live on now, and the lives we lead now.

Why try to save the planet when God is either going

to blow it up or make it a paradise? Why should I

try to lose weight when God is going to give me a

perfect body anyway?',

which points to one extremely dangerous aspect of such religious beliefs.

My son is about to marry a girl who's parents were JWs but are no longer. That is good but they remain extremely repressed people who are trying to avoid the normal duty of acting as hosts at their daughters wedding and also the 'Speech'.

I hope that we can meet these people more often and help them over their disability, a disability which has probably been caused by their unfortunate association with the JWs.

I do hope you manage to continue shaking off the shackles

46. BBC man says 'I was wrong to lose it. But these scientologists are truly scary'

Comment #41664 by Lionel A on May 16, 2007 at 1:58 pm

I also watched the programme and have nothing but admiration for Sweeney's display of calm in the face of the 'Talking Dalek' who kept pushing his menacing face into Sweeney's space.

Also disturbing is the support that the cult appears to be having from the London police in the form of Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley. He should be considering his position on this. Are there not laws against the sort of stalking that this cult employs.

47. Travolta spearheads Scientologists' attack on BBC

Comment #41117 by Lionel A on May 15, 2007 at 2:07 pm

Having seen the programme last night I consider that the police should withdraw from any more association with this odious organisation, tantamount to a cult, who clearly use terrorising and intimidating tactics.

48. Row over Scientology video

Comment #40944 by Lionel A on May 15, 2007 at 8:34 am

Well, having watched the programme broadcast last night then I am amezed that Sweeney kept his cool for so long.

I have waited until I had seen the whole broadcast before commenting but that Tommy Davis was totally creepy. One cannot debate with a moron who cannot tell the difference between a postulation in which Sweeny used the 'CULT' word and a direct accusation. Davis reminded me of a Dalek when he was talking as if somebody had placed a tape machine in his mouth and pressed play.

I guess these obnoxious people will be after me now. Let 'em come and find out what kind of publicity they raise. I will not be intimidated which is their real forte. I feel sorry for the poor suckers who fell for their claptrap in the first place and now feel too scared to get out. Judging by last evening programme, one methodology of the scientologists is a form of terrorism

Well done John Sweeney, you are a brave man and doubtless your courage will be tested in the days to come. Don't forget to keep us posted.

They should never, ever, be granted charitable status and the presence of that Chief Constable at the opening of their new UK HQ was worrying, that one needs watching.

49. Christopher Hitchens Explains It All for You: Move over, Sam Harris; another atheist wants the pulpit

Comment #40933 by Lionel A on May 15, 2007 at 8:12 am

Another faithist that fails to understand the difference between faith and belief based on reason.

'Alas, as the preceding paragraph suggests, we are dealing with a very intelligent and well-read author who, when it comes to "religion," is simply incapable of reason.'

When will they understand that religion and reason are mutually exclusive? Probably never for it is become clearer by the day that they have not the wit to grasp the concepts.

50. Pope says science too narrow to explain creation

Comment #31386 by Lionel A on April 12, 2007 at 8:53 am

This Pope and GW should get on well, they are both clueless about anything important in life, other than their own sorry lives that is but then only they think they are important.