1. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116501 by Elcristoph on January 26, 2008 at 4:16 pm

I CANNOT belive someone asked where are the transitionsl fossils, in the UK or all places, IM SOOOOO ANGRY.....

2. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #116495 by Elcristoph on January 26, 2008 at 4:07 pm

Ok thats what gets me about RD, and I know this is the worst place to post this, Science makes no claimes about the supernatural, also saying that if someone has a good education they will be non religious, and that if you understand evolution you will become a non beliver, pushing this concept isnt going to help anything, your not going to get creationists to accept one of the most accepted sciences in the world if you tell them if you understand it you will lose your faith, Ken Miller one of the most respected sciencetists in the world and a devender of evolution is a devout catholic....saying if you accept evolution makes you a atheist, or if your religious you accept creationism isnt correct....

3. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116039 by Elcristoph on January 25, 2008 at 11:05 am

this is somthing different. its often been said by dominionists/evangelical's that belif is base on a love of god and praising him, yet here we have the hipocracy of basicaly saying, belive or burn, the "Save your own ass" mentality, if people "Find" god by watching this vid all I can say is there faith has to be the weakest and most pathetic thing, only being as valid as the fear they felt watching this discusting piece of so called "Christian" propaganda. and its targeted at children as well, How is THIS not abuse, ALL just to get people into the church....shame on these people, Im sure they did this with the "Best intentions" but to belive through fear is not faith, its opretion.

4. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115649 by Elcristoph on January 24, 2008 at 1:32 pm

OH this is ironic, I was watching a Creationist video on Youtube about this same subject asking...How?...LOL, oh I love science...hehehehehehehehehe(evil laugh)

5. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115647 by Elcristoph on January 24, 2008 at 1:30 pm

I cannot even begin to describe just how much this angers me......

6. Ken Ham in Leicester April 2008

Comment #114887 by Elcristoph on January 23, 2008 at 5:59 am

You know, Ive just had a re think, this might not be such a bad Idea,....if anything it will encourage people to look into the topics and the so called "Argument", thats how I learnt abount evolution, point counter point...and if theres somthing Ive learnt is this Creationism can only survive or quotemining and misrepresentation. itll be interesting to see what his turn out is, though I have to be honest I have a horrid feeling it'll be quiet a few...

7. Ken Ham in Leicester April 2008

Comment #114567 by Elcristoph on January 22, 2008 at 12:24 pm

, NO F***ING WAY!!!!!!!!!!

8. The Pagan Christ

Comment #102078 by Elcristoph on December 21, 2007 at 2:18 pm

YES THANK YOU....SOMEONE FINALY LOOKS AT THE FACTS

9. The empty myths peddled by evangelists of unbelief

Comment #97111 by Elcristoph on December 11, 2007 at 12:53 pm

These articles are just getting boring, same old arguments, even in debates the only reason people like D'souza win is because they can shout and wave there arms......

either come up with a new argument or just leave it...

Chris

10. Atheists' sign sparks controversy

Comment #96376 by Elcristoph on December 10, 2007 at 1:03 pm

The problem I can see with this is that its making being a atheist like a movement, to put "Imagine no religion" is fine but to put that its an atheist organization after it, I don't think this helps....

I agree with sam harris on this one...

thanks

11. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #96008 by Elcristoph on December 9, 2007 at 5:30 pm

Ive just watched it, I like how the fox news priest started on the offensive but after the called said what I'm sure everyone else was thinking he quickly put his tail between his legs and defended his little side of Christian teachings.....

he said to say Hitler did what he did because he was a catholic was horrid, well I'm sorry but it doesn't change what Hitler believed, weather it goes with his idea of Christianity or not...it was a good interview though RD did look a little board with the same old arguments....like..."well religious people have done good things"....ok but this doesn't prove god..it proves people do good things....

though the arguments do seem like the ones I watch on the Atheist Experience....circular arguments that go no were.....

chris

12. Holy Nonsense

Comment #95224 by Elcristoph on December 7, 2007 at 3:52 pm

well said Christopher

13. Bad Faith Awards: Vote for the winner now

Comment #94772 by Elcristoph on December 6, 2007 at 1:59 pm

The Bishop of Carlisle - I found that comment disgusting, I was in that flood...

Dinesh D'Souza....if you dont know why you shouldn't be posting a comment

14. Romney's Mormonism is fair game

Comment #89422 by Elcristoph on November 20, 2007 at 4:45 pm

LOL, Hitch really knows how to hold is own on fox, he just doesn't let up...hopefully his points will be addressed.

Thanks

15. Onward Christian teachers?

Comment #87622 by Elcristoph on November 12, 2007 at 3:55 pm

Children should be taught about religion and the various religions as sociological and historical phenomena, and left to make their own minds up

EXACTLY, couldn't have put it better myself..

chris

16. D'Souza - Nothing to Refute Here

Comment #86748 by Elcristoph on November 10, 2007 at 3:52 am

The burden of proof argument always makes me laugh, reason being. you'll usually get the line "Well you don't KNOW god doesn't exist" at which point you can say no I don't KNOW so how can you...D'Souza used the argument from Kant who says that as we can only view the world from our own small perspective, i.e the spectrum of light in that we cant see UV ect. then we cannot fully trust our answers and explanations as we cannot fully trust if what we see/test is true or not, basically its his argument is we cannot know everything so you cannot rule out the possibility of a god. well my answer to that would be this, as I can only go on my human experience just like everyone else including him, I have concluded that I don't believe there is a god, however as he pointed out you cannot be 100% so there is only a chance, but D'Souza takes it further than that and says that even known he accepts there are UNKNOWNS he then gives this unknown a character and a will, when by his own argument he cannot know what it is.

Chris

17. Sir David Attenborough on God

Comment #86744 by Elcristoph on November 10, 2007 at 3:48 am

"Just because someone is religious it doesn't follow that (s)he cannot see there is a boundary between the private and the public. In my country Canada quite a few Catholic politicians voted for same sex marriage, so there you go. We don't need a reverse Inquisition."

Quoted for agreement, I think people can get a bit aggressive, I agree that the biggest issue is religious fundamentalists but theres no need to beat on people who may agree with everything you on every subject but be a theist. I have no issue with people being religious so long as people are willing to discuss ideas and not force them. I have quiet a lot of religious freinds and we all pretty much agree with each other on most subjects the ones we don't agree on...god is never brought into the discussion, they all have secular reasons.

Chris

18. Church row evolves over fossil boy

Comment #86535 by Elcristoph on November 9, 2007 at 1:35 pm

"Bits of it are being disproved by scientists every day,"

Genius, you know why doesn't anyone just gather these people together show them what we have to prove evolutionary theory and then ask them if they understand...least this way they'll know when there talking out there ass...and we'll know they know that.

chris

19. Memo: Stop teaching evolution

Comment #85967 by Elcristoph on November 7, 2007 at 4:06 pm

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA.....man, I went onto that http://www.fixedearth.com/ expecting to see the usual old "Evidence" against evolution and get ready to shout at my computer screen, until I saw the line..."The Earth is not rotating...nor is it going around the sun."

At this point I just burst into laughter, I cannot accept that this is serious, because if it is its to scary to comprehend...

tell me the person who is pushing this as a science lesson is some crazy person on the street and not in a position of power.

Edit, I found this...the first few paragraphs are amusing

http://www.fixedearth.com/athiest.html

Edit again, this is interesting, the site goes on the premise that ALL present day science on Astronomy, Biology, and physics come from a anti-Bible Kabbalist which is some jewish text.

Edit again

heres the usual crap

http://www.fixedearth.com/hlsm.html

Chris

20. Huge Black Holes May Hold Keys to Galaxy Formation

Comment #85949 by Elcristoph on November 7, 2007 at 3:00 pm

sent2nul, has a point, I remember watching a doc on this quiet some time ago...

21. Fox News Discussion on 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #85756 by Elcristoph on November 7, 2007 at 2:42 am

"Its teaching Atheism to 11 year olds", and whats the issue there, for starters Atheism isn't a dogma so pointing out the issues with belief is hardly "Teaching Atheism"....

no one cry or complains when the church puts on events for kids...kinda reminds my of something I heard about not that long ago when Jerry Falwell's foundation appealed to a school to allow religious flyer's, the school allowed it and a pagan organization decided to get involved and send out there own stuff...guess what happened then, the Christians through a fit and threatened to sue, one of the woman who worked for the Jerry organization threatened to sue saying

"This is why we need god back in school"....HAHAHAHA what a hypocrite they got religion involved in the schools but as soon as it wasn't just THERE religion they threw a fit....

And there the Atheism is a religion argument...NEWS FLASH..when you no longer believe in god YOU ARE BY DEFINITION AN ATHEIST....how is that a religion, what the definition of religion, the most common view is the belief in a supernatural being and the following of a dogma/belief system that promotes this supernatural being. OK so not believing in a supernatural being while people may say its a leap of faith in itself however making decisions based on the information available isn't a religion, and Id argue the second point is called COMMON SENSE.

Chris

Fox News needs to grow up...

22. Mother dies after refusing blood

Comment #85575 by Elcristoph on November 6, 2007 at 8:24 am

I remember seeing this in the news paper, very sad. I used to be a witness so I can kinda relate but it is stupid, she gave up the chance to raise a family and at 22 as well, all based on Laviticus, very upsetting.

chris

23. Atheists don't believe in anything

Comment #85359 by Elcristoph on November 5, 2007 at 2:46 pm

Atheism means lack of a belief in a god/gods and the supernatural.

and don't confuse belief with taking a chance, I take a chance that I may win the lotory but I don't believe Ill win the lotory just because I get a ticket

24. What's the evolutionary advantage of offering your place to an old woman on a bus?

Comment #85335 by Elcristoph on November 5, 2007 at 1:53 pm

I offer this for what its worth, (I posted it in another part of the site so Im sorry)

I was watching a documentory about life at the poles and in it was some shots of penguins who had just had chicks, now as you would expect not all of them survive and the parents of the dead chicks will sometimes try to steal another chick from another penguin, now whats interesting is that other penguins who see this will intervene often at rick to them selfs or there own chicks to prevent the impostor and return the chick to its mother/father after which they will make the kidnapper to another part of the colony, now if this happened in humnan society we would see the actions of the person/people who intervened as been moral. now is the bird aware of this, why risk is own wellbeing for another penguin and its chick when it/they have chicks of there own. they have no personal gain that I can see.

I'm not going to draw any conclusions but its interesting.

getting back to the issue, whats the evolutionary advantage to offer your seat to someone on the buss, well I would say this, if you have been raised to be a considerate person they chances are you will be, unless you decide to go your own way later in life we are still a product of our upbringing. which makes perfect evolutionary sense were not born with knowledge of the outside world. Now several good points have been made as to why we would do this in the first place, well its been said in this thread before, we want to be seen in a good light by our peers, and based on our upbringing and the people around us will depend who those peers may be and who we want to look good in front of. now offering a seat on a bus may not seem not get you anything at the time, but think of it this way, lets say you don't have your watch with you and you ask the person you just gave the seat to the time, are they more likely to tell you it or not....(Strange example I know)

We see chimps do this when they groom each other but more to the point...WHO THEY GROOM...they want to look good in from of there Alphas, this is the same in humans, in charity we may not expect something from the people we help but we do look good to the people we look up to and admire...our Alphas,

I think something people are stepping away from in this forum is that Dinesh...if thats his name, was trying to say that its because of a Christian upbringing that you would offer a seat, thats the point he was making between Athens and Jerusalem, that from them we get logic and compassion, personally I wont argue with that. but this doesn't validate the divine.

for what its worth.
Chris

25. Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #85185 by Elcristoph on November 5, 2007 at 8:52 am

I agree with the comment above, after watching the debate again it didn't bother me as much, his arguments were basically that Christianity has done some good things, I wouldn't argue with that in fact there are cases where I agree, my issue is that the good concepts in the bible which people follow are also surrounded by some very evil ideas which are also followed today, take the religious right in america for example, and so long as these ideas are kept as the word of god then we have a problem.

D'Souza then goes to say how Atheism is responsible for the deaths for millions, problem with that statement is that not believing with god doesn't come with a dogmatic list of commandments asking people to preform evil acts, and in this debate I hated the fact the last words were D'Souza saying that people who don't believe in god are just trying to dodge a moral judgment, part of what made me an atheist was the barbaric commandments that god placed on his worshipers, that along with my understanding of science
and the historical inaccuracies of the books themselves. Christianity may have contributed towards western civilization but if the historical accuracy and divinity of the book is so questionable why maintain the pretense, it doesn't have to be portrayed as the word of god to have weight.

By the way, proclaiming that god exists based on lack of a scientific explanation isn't proof. David Attenbourgh put it best by saying.

"Lack of a scientific explanation doesn't by default prove the existence of the divine"

He then talks about punishment and how if its wishfully thinking then why wish for a place for bad people to go. well look at the early church, the concept of hell comes from in my opinion power and those who control it, early catholicism was a time when the church ruled with an iron fist and controlled who could be saved and who wasn't, having a system in which people who didn't accept would burn forever after death is a good way in ensuring people stay in line.

when he talks about how Atheist and Theists are the same when it comes to life after death because neither party knows what happens so whats wrong with believing in something more...I argue nothings wrong with it, what ever brings you comfort in the end, but I'm not using that as a means to promote myself. Not to mention the fact that millions of people declare they DO KNOW what happens and that its there job to tell/force others to follow them and THEIR version.

Chris

26. The Turning of an Atheist

Comment #85059 by Elcristoph on November 4, 2007 at 6:20 pm

its disgusting how they could use the poor man like that, I'm just glad this has been exposed, but I have to say I felt a little disheartened when the artical said that atheists had given up on him...shame...

but I have to say I'm a fan of this line

"They're worried about atheists,"

Chris

27. A Rational Universe Implies a Creator, Science points towards Theism

Comment #85045 by Elcristoph on November 4, 2007 at 4:37 pm

Ah the god of the gaps, first cause argument, I would just say that the Universe was around LONG before life on this planet developed so the constants of the universe don't work around us, we work around them, also to imply a majestic design is also false the universe is a chaotic place with collisions and explosions happening all the time, the idea that a god created this for us is like comparing god to a kid next to a ant hill with a magnifying glass. Also for any system to maintain itself would have to work to natural laws, as mentioned earlier for anything to exist it has to work within certain constants otherwise it wouldn't be able to exist as it wouldn't be stable. I remember watching a documentary on this talking about how "Nothing" is unstable as it is unable to maintain itself because theres nothing to maintain it, now as far as the energy or reaction that caused there t be something Ive heard of string theory which basically talks about the reasons why Gravity is so weak compared to the other forces, it provides a promising explanation for the origins of the big bang, no doubt if it is explained we'll get the usual...What caused that...I MEAN COME ON, for the past thousand years science has explained away so many of the strongest arguments for god and now the only ones they can use are the "Gaps" and "First Cause"...

then theres the idea that if these constants were different that we wouldn't be here, Id argue that they may be right, but as I mentioned before as we developed in this universe we would naturally work within its constants. I suppose a comparison would be taking a animal that lives in the ocean depths and bringing it up to sea level, without a pressurized tank it wouldn't survive yet it works perfectly well in its own environment.

Sorry about the rant in the middle
Chris

28. You can't be moral without God!

Comment #85019 by Elcristoph on November 4, 2007 at 2:22 pm

Hey, I was watching something interesting today it was a documentary about penguins at the poles and there was this clip where the birds have chicks with them, now some of the chicks have died/been killed and sometimes, the mothers of the dead chicks will try to steal another birds chick (More than likely driven by a need to Nurture), and thats when the interesting thing happened. the penguins who see this many of them with chicks will help the mother fight off the kidnapped and return the chick to them, and then force the kidnapper to a different part of the colony. now in humans we would call this a moral act in that the birds helped another to which that have no attatchments and often with risk to themselves or there own chick.

now is the bird contentiously thinking "Ill help because I would like the favor returned" or is there something else at play.

I'm not gonna draw any conclusions I just wanted to share that.

Chris

29. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. were atheists, and they were terrible! Answer that!

Comment #84959 by Elcristoph on November 4, 2007 at 10:50 am

Hey, from what I understand and have researched Hitler although not an atheist wasn't a Christian either, he did believe in a creator and that the arian race was the true child of this creator and that all other races were a corruption of the arians, it has to be said that Hitler didn't like Atheists as he said they couldn't follow the divine plan of what he was doing, and this can be seen in his hatred of communism, but when it comes to Christianity he is quoted saying to his inmates while in prison that it was week and he hated the mainstream Christian church, however in his early speeches he did mention that he was a Christian but from what I understand this was mainly for propaganda. but this is where my biggest issue comes in, whatever Hitlers religious convictions he exploited the peoples willingness to follow something that they felt had divine permission or incentive, Atheism is being presented today as something that has a dogma or political agenda behind it when it is simply a lack of belief in a god/gods. I agree with Sam Harris on this point that we need to rethink our use of Atheist as it does carry baggage that the media will continue to use time and time again. the debate with Dinesh D'Souza for example,

Anyway getting back to the point, now Stalin he was an atheist but he wanted to create a state where he was the top the the pyramid and wanted to remove all forms of religious ideas because this was a threat to him. however he also slaughtered millions of people that he considered to be intellectual ie, doctors lawyers ect anyone who would could introduce ideas these people were atheists and theists alike as he saw them as a threat and didn't want any challenged to his dogmatic world view, he wanted a population of weak minded people who he could control and influence. Again I would mention that Atheism is not a political/dogmatic mindset, it simply says I don't believe in god/gods.

Now Mao/Pot these people took things a step further than Stalin and installed into the population that they were gods to be worshiped weather they believed this themselves I don't know but again these people killed anyone they saw as a threat to them. not just religious people but Doctors and Lawyers ect. regardless of weather or not they had a religious conviction as just like with Stalin they didn't want ideas in the population they hadn't placed themselves.

Something else Id add, and I noticed it in the Dinesh D'Souza debate when he said the reason Hitchins donated blood was because of his Christian upbringing....Hitler and Stalin were raised Catholic.

Just a few suggestions.
Chris

30. Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #84733 by Elcristoph on November 3, 2007 at 11:23 am

Good Afternoon, Ive been following these debates for some time now, and decided to join this website to voice my opinions and vent some frustration, what got me about this debate wasn't just D'souza's constant use of god of the gaps, that atheists just want to avoid a higher judgment and wave after wave of strawman logic, it was the fact that he would always get the last word, so the impression that he had won that argument was put to the audience who I'm sorry to say would accept anything he said despite the fact most of it was nonsense purely because they want anything to validate there pre conceived idea that atheists are without morals, such as saying Hitler was an Atheist when Hitler himself said he believed in a Creator

very depressing