1. Kenneth Miller on Colbert Report

Comment #195184 by Traytheist on June 17, 2008 at 8:58 pm

AtheistJon:

Dawkins' appearance on The Colbert Report actually helped me look into my agnostic/deist views and led me to atheism.

After hearing his thoughts on the issue, I realized how much sense it made and it was as if a light went off in my head ; "Of course, it's all so simple, how could I have missed it!"So, I went out and got the book, I began coming to this site, and I continued to look for other ways to interpret what I thought I had all figured out. So perhaps appearing on these shows has some benefit.

Granted, I wasn;t even remotely close to religious, but maybe there are others who have had similar 'conciousness-raising' due to these appearances.

I'm pretty much the perfect example of justaperson's point.

2. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160298 by Traytheist on April 13, 2008 at 10:59 pm

Complete bullshit!

Richard isn't advocating deleting the bible or any of the art or architecture that were inspired by it.

I would think that a large amount of non-believers would be loathe to do that as well, considering the beauty of some religious-themed art, and certain churches, not to mention an understanding of some of the greatest works of literature the world has ever seen.

He has obviously never read TGD, or he would know this.

Dare I call strawman?

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

Comment #61548 by Traytheist on August 5, 2007 at 5:28 pm

-V-
I have not seen Derren Brown, but as soon as I have my computer back and I don't have to use this bottom-of-the-line BlackBerry, I will check him out.

As far as this being a waste of time, bigger fish to fry type of thing, I somewhat agree. My wife's best friend is big on all that chakra garbage, but when ridiculed(by me, naturally) she claims she does it because it's fun, not because she believes it. While there are people out there that take it seriously and get fleeced, you can't save everyone from their own naivety(did I spell that correctly?). Luckily, it's much less "offensive" to mock peoples belief in this obvious chicanery(again, spelling?), than it is to mock religious belief, not that it stops me! :)

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

Comment #61454 by Traytheist on August 5, 2007 at 7:51 am

I'm guessing I'll have to wait for the DVD box set, since I never seem to get any of these programs in Canada. On a somewhat related note, talk of James Randi reminded me of Criss Angel's "Mindfreak" episodes where he exposes charlatans who practice cold readings, psychic surgery and the like. While Criss does use a lot of that mystical mumbo-jumbo on his show, he does an excellent job of demonstrating all the ways these people can fleece you if you aren't careful. And his illusions are fantastic!

5. The Out Campaign

Comment #61250 by Traytheist on August 4, 2007 at 10:47 am

WeeFlea, I, for one, would like to see the loads of evidence. It's silly to assume that we wouldn't accept solid, quantifiable evidence. If it in fact exists, it would be a great way to convince atheists that they are wrong. In the face of such evidence, I'd gladly go back to christianity; wholeheartedly, in fact.
And, on a side note, did it occur to you, WeeFlea, that the child of atheist parents may have picked up that prayer garbage from one of their poor indoctrinated friends and want to fit in? How does a child just decide, on their own, that they want to pray and attend church? They had to have picked it up somewhere. Oh well, I really don't want to wait a week for a weak response. Enjoy screwing with Bulgarian heads, lie-peddler!

6. Who's Minding the Mind?

Comment #61227 by Traytheist on August 4, 2007 at 9:00 am

Uh-oh! That last paragraph could be twisted around by religious folk. "An invisible partner"...gotta be god! ;). Oh, and "First", like it matters!

7. For Some Hispanics, Coming to America Also Means Abandoning Religion

Comment #32136 by Traytheist on April 15, 2007 at 11:39 pm

Ridelo:

It's most likely a reference to Jim Jones and the Jonestown tragedy. If you're unfamiliar, Jones was a cult leader, and he used the grip he had on his followers to convince them all to drink poisoned KoolAid for a mass suicide.

8. Militant atheists: too clever for their own good

Comment #30115 by Traytheist on April 7, 2007 at 1:59 am

@Spinoza:

I can see exactly where you're coming from. I find that I engage in discussions with certain people, and realize that they cannot keep up with me or follow any of the arguments that I lay out there, and I suddenly drop it, because I don't want them "on my team", so to speak. I only continue to try and sway if it's worth my time. It's a judgement call, but if I think someone is wasting their intellect because of their childhood indoctrination, of course I'm going to argue more vociferously, as I'm sure they'll "get it".

I'll be the first to admit that while I have plenty of my own arguments to use against religion, I have cribbed from Dawkins, Dennet, Harris, and others, including many of the fine folks that post here. But the one thing we all have in common, aside from lack of belief in the supernatural, is that we all think independently, and rarely are we all on the same page on every issue. This is the main problem with trying to organize atheists. We are far too non-conforming to , well, conform to a wide-reaching platform, shall we say.

If our detractors wish to call us intellectual elitists, so be it. I'd much rather be an intellectual elitist than a populist moron.

9. A History of Violence

Comment #28888 by Traytheist on March 31, 2007 at 1:29 pm

It seems to me that fundies couldn't possibly twist this information. Religion has been around through a large amount of the aforementioned violence, and, as we began to understand our planet, and the interconnectedness of the species on this planet, we began to move away from violence, despite the protestations of all religions, with the possible exception of Buddhists. But...




How dare he speak ill of hockey? And to compare it to Mel Gibson movies, of all things. That just ain't right.


OK, hockey's violent, but no more so than say, soccer (after)games.

10. Creationism Song

Comment #17621 by Traytheist on January 15, 2007 at 6:49 am

Great...now this damned song is stuck in my head just before sleepy-time. Sometimes I wish there was a hell, just so that "singer" could burn in it!

11. Let's Be Rational

Comment #12672 by Traytheist on December 13, 2006 at 7:43 am

"And in his latest book he portrays the typical believer as an ignorant bigot who goes round shooting abortionists, or slaughtering people who deviate in the slightest from his doctrine. You might as well say that Lenin was the typical atheist, who wants to kill all priests - as Lenin had thousands killed in no time at all."

Again, does anyone with a negative review actually read the book? It would seem that that is too much to hope for. Oh well, at least he used Lenin instead of Stalin.

The point about the anti-depressants was already made, so I won't go on about it.

"Religion was useful, that is, from the point of view of improving human behaviour and keeping it lawful."

Key word in this sentence: "WAS"!

12. Book a Day

Comment #11763 by Traytheist on December 7, 2006 at 6:48 am

Given that I live in Alberta, I'm really not going to have much of a say in the next federal election(it's conservatives or nothing out here). That's unfortunate, because while I feel Harper hasn't been as horrible as I had feared, I would very much like to see what it would be like to have someone who went skiing instead of to church holding the top job. Because you all know it would never happen south of the border.

13. Why Are Atheists So Angry? A Debate with Dennis Prager

Comment #10068 by Traytheist on November 27, 2006 at 2:21 am

Please, let's not attack Don, let's allow him the opportunity to explain his beliefs to us in a calm and rational manner and perhaps they will be sufficient to change our minds. Or perhaps our rebuttals will be enough to change his. Gotta start somewhere.

14. Why Are Atheists So Angry? A Debate with Dennis Prager

Comment #10065 by Traytheist on November 27, 2006 at 2:09 am

Don:

Why do you believe in god? I'm not asking this to be mean, or to set you up to be bashed by everyone, I really want to know what your specific reasoning is for your belief in god? I hae to believe you weren't raised Catholic, because I was, and that's about the shortest path to atheism :). I sincerely would like you to respond to this, no ridicule, just discussion.

15. Why Are Atheists So Angry? A Debate with Dennis Prager

Comment #10060 by Traytheist on November 27, 2006 at 1:43 am

To expand on #10052:

Quite often when I point out Biblical inconsistencies to Christians, they respond with "There must be a problem with translaton" or something to that effect, so I propose:

What if the whole book was translated incorrectly? What if the abrahamic god is, in fact, the exact opposite if what is written? What if he rewarded people for thinking for themselves and sent dogmatic, unthinking sheep to hell? Then you go to hell for believing and I get an eternity of bliss, although I doubt god would allow me my idea of bliss; he has a problem with adultery, and I do not! Pascal's wager has been debunked a million times over, so why keep trotting it out to be debunked by someone as unqualified as myself? Try a new argument, if any exist.

16. Doubters do it from the pulpit

Comment #10046 by Traytheist on November 27, 2006 at 12:56 am

Aussie, it's late, so my brain is a little off, but I'm going to assume that was sarcasm.

17. Why Are Atheists So Angry? A Debate with Dennis Prager

Comment #10044 by Traytheist on November 27, 2006 at 12:46 am

Makoto:

For lack of a better term: Amen!

18. Teach sex and evolution or close, Quebec evangelical schools told

Comment #5633 by Traytheist on November 10, 2006 at 7:11 am

Skeptish:

Calgary's not the most religious city in Canada. 3 hours southeast of Calgary(Medicine Hat), and I can't even find a copy of TGD; I had to order it in, and I bet there was an "error" with my order, 'cuz I haven't seen it yet. Same goes with "Letter...". Trust me, this is the most insanely religious city I've ever lived in.

And count me in amongst those that had to say the LP in school. I said it so many times, I just can't shake it from my brain. At least my parents tried to raise me catholic; Guaranteed Atheist!

On the plus side, I have a whole lot of people to attempt to enlighten!

19. God vs. science: Can religion stand up to the test?

Comment #5191 by Traytheist on November 8, 2006 at 12:42 am

Here's an excerpt from a Sam Harris article; It's a little example of how morality has nothing to do with "god".

"Many pious Christians go to countries like Sudan to help alleviate human suffering, and such behavior is regularly put forward as a defense of Christianity. But in this case, religion gives people bad reasons for acting morally, where good reasons are actually available. We don't have to believe that a deity wrote one of our books, or that Jesus was born of a virgin, to be moved to help people in need. In those same desperate places, one finds secular volunteers working with organizations like Doctors Without Borders and helping people for secular reasons. Helping people purely out of concern for their happiness and suffering seems rather more noble than helping them because you think the Creator of the universe wants you to do it, will reward you for doing it, or will punish you for not doing it."


Everyone should check out the website for the full article, especially Anon from #5185, as it makes some excellent points.

www.samharris.org