1. Golden Compass author hits back

Comment #91835 by Thrall on November 29, 2007 at 12:30 pm

amazingly, the most offensive comment in the story is this:

We think this is a great shame. The fight against the Magisterium (Pullman's thinly-disguised version of the Catholic Church) is the whole point of the book. Take that away and the most original and interesting element of the story is lost."

That's a pretty narrow reading of the book. That's like saying The Lion the Witch And the Wardrobe's most interesting part is the Witch, which is preposterous.

The story does not focus on the Magisterium, and shouldn't. What tosh.

2. Tests of faith over 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #83541 by Thrall on October 30, 2007 at 11:19 am

Edit: SPOILERS, Sort of. Main plot points follow.

The subtle knife is described as "A knife sharp enough to cut a god". The point of the second and third books is to stop the self appointed "god" angel, and to kill death. Death is a bland place, where nobody can feel anything and everyone is pretty forgetful, and the preist in death says "Ah, but this is the best possible afterlife, this must be heaven!", to which the main characters are extremely confused.

Pullman clearly sees the afterlife as perscribed by religion to be pretty attrocious, and would rather just become one with the dust. He equates the cutting of daemons from children with the castrotti/circumcision. The church kidnaps children to experiment on them/kill them to find heaven.

Without these story points, you end up with a story about polar bears, a compass, and witches, and little kids.

Way to cut the daemon from the book New Line.

I'm not very optimistic, because I loved the books and the subtle points it made about history, religion, death, puberty, friendship, loss, responsibility, and "good and evil", or the lack thereof of true "evil" and true "good". I'm sure they'll bring out the bludgeoning stick to explain such things to the holiday movie going audience. :P.

To call this a religious book, as someone above does, is silly. Yes, there is metaphysical hoo-ha in it, but it's a pretty damning condemnation of organized religion, anyone who tells you what god says, and only attempts to describe consciousness, and where consciousness comes from. Yes, it might be hoo-ha, but what fantasy/sci-fi book doesn't have hoo-ha??

3. Christopher Hitchens and David Allen White discuss the impact of Christianity on Western Civilization

Comment #63195 by Thrall on August 13, 2007 at 1:11 pm

When you refer to Dante as docterine, I get to refer to The Hitchhikers' Guide as Scientific fact.

More cherry picking of information, more diversion, more "scientism". Can we please hear a new argument about this please? Why does hitchins continue to argue on this guys radio show? DAW isn't even sure of what he believes, completely agreeing with hitchens that 'you must be a catholic to be saved', and then refers to Dante to show that it's entirely not true, even though he said it was moments earlier. How dishonest of him to believe both things. I wonder if he even has considered the conundrum before him on this point.

4. Response to the God Delusion

Comment #58092 by Thrall on July 23, 2007 at 11:25 am

5) "genesis isn't literal, more like a poem, but it should be taken seriously" So, that's the ONLY thing wrong with the bible... it's account of evolution. Um.. yeah. I don't need to go further. Everytime they use the "figurative" explaination of the bible, they are only hurting themselves.. "lets take this as figurative, and then take this part as literal."

This is just like every other "rebuttal" by a religious figure, where he sets up dawkins arguement, and refutes it with the bible. You cannot use an Invisible clothing tag to prove that you are wearing invisible clothing...

5. Response to the God Delusion

Comment #58088 by Thrall on July 23, 2007 at 11:08 am

This guy, as a logical thinker, is pretty piss poor... A couple of rebuttals to his points

1) "Dawkins gets into things he doesn't know enough about"... See the new introduction of TGD, and the PZ Myers "emperor has no clothes" analogy.

2) "For dawkins, the sky crane only brings up the fact of who made the sky crane." Exactly. If a building was built on Dawkins property, he would like to know where it came from. Religous people would point to the sky crane and say "see, it came from the crane". Dawkins would say, "yes, but who OWNS the crane!? Get this off my property", and they would say "you doubt the crane? You can't question the crane. You can't even question where the crane came from, because I believe in the crane. It's proposterous to ask where the crane came from!"

3) "god is BOTH the stones and the gaps, not just the gaps". Is this even an arguement? Or is this just saying "i'm right."

4) "Dawkins designed a computer program to simulate evolution, so evolution must be designed." Bad logic there bud. that's a bad if:then statement if you ask me. Humans can design =/= god designed man?


More as I listen..

6. Town Hall Seattle: God Is Not Great

Comment #57443 by Thrall on July 19, 2007 at 11:20 am

Ok. Here we go

but that god created huck (and everyone) with a moral compass,

Ok, but throughout many times in history, that "moral compass" that i believe I have does not agree with ANY of the worlds religions, 100%. Therefore, my "god given compass" is saying that all religions are wrong, therefore, anything they say about god cannot be correct, since my "moral compass" was given to me by god, and should be perfect, since given by god.

Now, this also doesn't say anything about people who think their moral compass is right, and my moral compass is wrong. Did god make 2 versions of the compass? The KKK really think that bloodlines and their rights are being infringed by letting blacks be human, did god break their compass? We don't even have to go that extreme. I feel that women should be treated equally as men, but I'll show you 45% of americans who think that women shouldn't have to work and cannot be as compitent as men and can't work as well as men.

Hitchins usually argues that because our own "moral compass" differs from that in the holy books, one of the two are incorrect, since religion says they are both "given by god".

This is not to mention, that throughout the ages, the compass has changed, and even in the last 100 years, the compass has changed dramatically, showing that the compass is more of a societal compass, than it is a "devine" compass. To think that your 'moral compass' is god given is naieve, and a bit silly, if you start thinking deeply about what that means, and Hitchens has argued this in the past.

@dgr8: You are arguing hitchins point for him, that "a good person does good things, a bad person does bad things, but to get a good person to do a bad thing, that takes religion". Yes, he's admitted that the book title is a bit broad, but you're missing the point of the book, and dodging any argument by saying "well, they aren't ALL bad".

7. An Atheist Responds

Comment #56550 by Thrall on July 16, 2007 at 10:45 am

Of course Gerson will -- and must -- cherry-pick this list (which is by no means exhaustive) and patter on about how one mustn't be too literal. But in doing this, he makes a huge concession to the ethical humanism to which he so loftily condescends.

Exactly. What a beautiful way of putting it.

8. Rats influenced by the kindness of strangers

Comment #55814 by Thrall on July 12, 2007 at 1:05 pm

I agree, the reporting on this is tosh, and the study doesn't do much other than show that rats are altruistic.
The only way this would "violate evolutionary theory." is if atruism never existed in rats before the study was started, which, from other studies that i've read, is not true.

9. A force for good?

Comment #55224 by Thrall on July 10, 2007 at 9:40 am

God is not to me a particular "being" at all, but rather the power of Being itself. God is a supreme moral ideal to be reverenced for its value not for its controlling power.

From what I understand of it, this is what a "satanist" believes. There is no supreme being, and Man is the power of Being, and the ultimate creator, and morality is derived by some unchangable ultimate.

This man is not arguing for religion, he is arguing for tribalism, and does not understand that there are people out there that will kill me if i become a muslim, and then change my mind!

10. Rival to evolution may enter schools

Comment #52882 by Thrall on June 28, 2007 at 11:28 am

Scotland often makes america look like a bunch of athiests. Remind me not to move there.

11. Messiah

Comment #52863 by Thrall on June 28, 2007 at 9:30 am

I wish he would go over how he did these tricks, of course he won't, because most of it is "magic". Suggestion from an authority figure is pretty damn powerful. I bet if he showed up as a guy off the street, dressed in casual duds, without an english accent (yes it does have an effect on us 'mericans), without the "backstory" he provided for each of the characters, and tried this same thing, the psychics would have laughed him out of the room, the alien autopsy lady would still believe him, and the pastor could go either way depending on the "skeptical" crowd reaction.

12. Christopher Hitchens on Religion

Comment #48343 by Thrall on June 7, 2007 at 1:52 pm

Wow, you can hear the interviewer straining not to jump in and not just start yelling at Hitchins. "Those who blow up other mosques... that's a testimony too isn't it"...

Thank God for Hitchins.

13. Christopher Hitchens on Religion

Comment #48342 by Thrall on June 7, 2007 at 1:48 pm

Ha!

"My daughter got sick, got xrays and treated by doctors with chemo, her hair fell out, but MY PRAYER saved her!"

What a rube.

14. Some US Muslims say suicide attacks OK

Comment #44069 by Thrall on May 23, 2007 at 8:50 am

Ok, so what? After the Ok. City bombing, 9% of americans said it was ok to bomb the government if they believed it to be opressive. In the same study (this recent 2007 pew research study), 24% of americans thought it was ok TO ATTACK CIVILIANS in a war. One third of the soldiers in iraq say it's ok to torture, and 2/3 said they would not report a colleauge for harassing citizens (physical abuse or otherwise) or breaking their stuff.

THIS ISN'T NEWS! If you ask me in a poll if "would it be conceivable to attack certain governments in certain situations", my answer would of course be YES, but you shouldn't take that data and say "look, athiests want to kill our government!"

Sigh.

15. Prayer can improve physical health

Comment #43697 by Thrall on May 22, 2007 at 10:13 am

"Praying could also have a placebo effect on health. For instance, in a study of heart patients, those who were being prayed for by others made significantly better health improvements than those who were not prayed for."

What? The last large study showed that those who were prayed for actually did worse. Why isn't this brought up?

Falwell "prayed" a lot, good thing his bathroom's tile floor was there to catch him from jesus' excellent work "healing his heart" a week back. His heart should have been in tip top shape.

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

Comment #41836 by Thrall on May 17, 2007 at 6:55 am

Hitchens calls for a new Enlightenment. But I notice that the Western Civilization textbook chapter following the one on the first Enlightenment often focuses on the French Revolution, which in part devolved into one of the world's notable anti-religion bloodbaths.

Wow. So now the French revolution, which overthrew an oppressive Monarchy where people were starving in the streets while the people at the top lived in the best conditions perhaps ever, is now considered A BAD THING?!?! All the sudden, I'm starting to see why religion is there for this man (it must be a man, i didn't check the by line).

You darn people with your civil rights! If it weren't for you, i'd be a monarch!

17. Bill Maher - APATHEIST

Comment #35444 by Thrall on April 27, 2007 at 7:16 am

I don't get why so many people hate Maher. I think he raises issues that otherwise would be left to be discussed on athiest websites.

18. Study: Religion is Good for Kids

Comment #35122 by Thrall on April 26, 2007 at 9:21 am

Some info on the publisher of the study

He has published articles in Sociology of Religion, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Review of Religious Research, Social Forces, Sociological Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Journal of Marriage and Family, Gender & Society, and Qualitative Sociology, among other journals. He has served in various officer roles for the American Sociological Association Section on Religion, the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the Association for the Sociology of Religion, and the Religious Research Association.

That said, this study is fundementally (pun) flawed. You might as well ask an employer "does training your employees make them better employees?". If I want you to behave a certain way, and tell you that continuously, and threaten hellfire if you don't do as I say, what do you think the outcome will be? You will do as I say, right?

Yes, talking to your kids will make them happier and better behaved. I'd like to see some info on economic level and child obidience, or anything information they collected other than "went to church weekly"

19. Brian Lehrer interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #34544 by Thrall on April 24, 2007 at 12:32 pm

Spot on. A few thoughts:

1) Many Ancient civilizations believed in dragon like creatures, so does that make dragons real?

2) I've recently read an article that shows that some apes' genes have evolved beyond ours to help them survive. Which is an interesting point to think about.

20. Gay hate church to picket VT gun rampage funerals

Comment #33468 by Thrall on April 20, 2007 at 9:03 am

Quick! Someone tell Danish D'Sousa I found the christians at VT! Now if we could just find those athiests.

21. Dinesh D'Souza says I don't exist: an atheist at Virginia Tech

Comment #33467 by Thrall on April 20, 2007 at 8:59 am

Wishful thinking and delusions can be comforting. Those people are tragically dead and nothing will change that. So what remains is the question of how the families and friends will cope with the loss. The truth, which is that their loved ones died a pointless death and that they are just gone and dead isn't going to comfort them. Reality does not owe us anything.

I'm sorry, but fantasy, as useful as it can be for some people, is completely destructive to others.

Example. I know a lady in her 50's who is very religious. She lost a child at a very young age, and fell into depression. She Knew that she would see her child again "in the afterlife", and talked about how she just wanted to die so there wouldn't be pain anymore. Her kids who were still around didn't have a mother anymore, because of the way she acted and how much she thought that she just wanted to die and be with her child again. This lasted for at least 15 years. Promises of an afterlife can KILL THIS LIFE.

She also gives all credit "to jeebus". If anything good happens to her, God did it, if anything bad happens, it was her fault.

So, how exactly does believing in an afterlife, hoping for something better, improve your life now?

22. Thanks for the Facts. Now Sell Them.

Comment #32243 by Thrall on April 16, 2007 at 11:14 am

Durrr. Sience is hard. Cant you just tell me what it says?

Isn't this exactly why 75% of american's don't think evolution is real? Because they think such perposterous things as "My grandfather wasn't an ape" and "peanut butter disproves evolution"

If all of you haven't seen "Idiocracy" yet, you should, it's so tragically funny.

23. Is God a Delusion?

Comment #29916 by Thrall on April 5, 2007 at 1:25 pm

When both parties are claiming reason is on their side (we are all atheists so this is a given, or at least we think it is), and yet fail utterly to reach a satisfactory conclusion, or even a compromise, something else is going on

Wha? Pardon? You are telling me that because people disagree, some massive plan is occuring? I'm confused at what you are getting at.

Because people are blinded by fundie beliefs, (religious or not) they refuse to see facts and reason.

"A man cannot understand something if his job depends on him not understanding it" (close enough). Same thing goes for YOUR ETERNAL SOUL. You cannot understand evolution if you have been taught since birth that evolution is from the devil, and believing it will send you to hell. This concept can be applied to most reason.

24. Peanut Butter, The Atheist's Nightmare!

Comment #28200 by Thrall on March 28, 2007 at 10:06 am

So, if a banana plant dies before it is three years old, how can a chrispy eat a banana and not break god's law as defined in leviticus?

Oh, but that's just an Allegory, that doesn't apply to bananas.

But that "gay" thing, that's not an allegory. That's for REAL.

25. Germany Cites Koran in Rejecting Divorce

Comment #27930 by Thrall on March 27, 2007 at 9:47 am

Female Genital Mutilation is ok, because it's religously based. Treating Blacks as lesser people is ok, because they wear the mark of Cain. Israel can have nukes, because the bible says so. Anyone who attacks israel will get destroyed by any christian country, because the bible says to. Women should be slaves because it's what the culture says.

Ugh, these stories always make me sick.

26. Debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins

Comment #27182 by Thrall on March 23, 2007 at 12:04 pm

I think that the fact that McGrath cannot see the benifits of Democracy over Facism shows a lot about his science and his understanding of proof and why he can't see how athiesm is not a belief.

27. Ricky Gervais on Atheism

Comment #26439 by Thrall on March 19, 2007 at 10:25 am

PS. According to recent studies, Rats laugh too when tickled, the human ear just can't hear it. The rats, also after being tickled, will come back to be tickled again. Read all about it in the recent NYTIMES article (thanks to Onegoodmove.org for linking to it in the first place). Monkeys also make laughing noises to let each other know they are playing and not fighting..

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/13/science/13tier.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5088&en=d38e48ffa6f719f3&ex=1331438400&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

28. The Current: Part 3: The Religious Right

Comment #21483 by Thrall on February 9, 2007 at 12:09 pm

As much as I hate to admit it, this guy is a better public figure for being anti-relgion than Dawkins. This guy is saying the exact same thing as Dawkins (minus the god=fake part), but comes across as someone who I could show to christians and a lot of christians would probably agree with this guy. Pass this guy around, he's doing good work for the continuation of the species, and as soon as people agree with this guy, then show them dawkins!

29. Interview with Alister McGrath, author of 'The Dawkins Delusion?'

Comment #21030 by Thrall on February 7, 2007 at 10:52 am

"Is atheism based on fear?"

Ah, that's hilarious. I nearly fell off my chair, what a silly question. Who is asking these questions, his co-author?

"death and resurrection of Jesus is extremely well grounded."

Just demonstrating on what a loon this guy is. If you can explain resurrection, please, go ahead.

30. Executing Saddam Hussein was an Act of Vandalism

Comment #15850 by Thrall on January 3, 2007 at 10:34 am

This is a hard thing for most people to understand. I have always thought that studying serial killers and child molesters would be a much better use for them than filling our jails/graveyards. If we know why these people are doing these horrible, horrible things, we might have some insight on how to keep these people from doing such things in the future. Bravo

31. The problem with secularism

Comment #14376 by Thrall on December 22, 2006 at 7:36 am

"This atheist apprehension is well founded, as the latest developments in biology, physics and philosophy all open the door to a revivified theology and a religious metaphysics."

Yes, because Deepak Chopra started as an athiest, and that is what made him what he is today. Everyone who is athiest is just one step away from becoming Deepak.

"if we ran evolution again life would look very different. However, evolution shows biological convergence. As Simon Conway Morris, a professor of biology at Cambridge University, has argued, evolution is not arbitrary: If it ran again, the world would look much as it already does."

So? So scientists don't agree if things would look the same if ran over again? Isn't this more philosophy rather than science?

"...Matrix hypothesis that we are actually only a virtual simulation run by other universes more powerful and real. So religion finds itself in the strange position of defending the real world against those who would make us merely virtual phenomena."

Isn't this also what religion posits? That we are all just being run by our "spirits?" After we die our "real" selves will come into being and will last for the rest of eternity in another "realm". What a kook.

32. CBC Segment on Evangelist Christians

Comment #14159 by Thrall on December 21, 2006 at 10:21 am

"there is nothing democratic about science"

Bull! I'm sorry, but statements like this SOUND ignorant, even if you don't mean them this way. I just want to clarify, that it is not some "single entity" that decides what is good science. This statement makes it sound like there is some "head" of science that has an agenda. It's the Democracy of Scientists who study a particular subject that decide what good science is. Just wanted to clarify this.

33. Dawkins Delusion (3rd article, Same Stupid Title)

Comment #13796 by Thrall on December 19, 2006 at 1:30 pm

Wait, i'm not sure if someone has said this yet, but "Matter just is just as god just is" arguement doesn't work. I can't reach my arm out and touch god, like I can with matter. Matter is there, unlike any evidence of god. TY

34. Merry Mithras

Comment #13790 by Thrall on December 19, 2006 at 12:57 pm

Amazing, I've never heard of this before. Thanks to onegoodmove for the link. And don't always trust wikipedia, especially about emotionally charged subjects (such as religion).

35. Talk in Class Turns to God, Setting Off Public Debate on Rights

Comment #13766 by Thrall on December 19, 2006 at 10:46 am

An interesting quote for all you christians out there:

"... call[ing] for liberal and secular university lecturers to be removed.
He told a group of students that they should organise campaigns to demand that the liberal teachers be sacked.

'A student must yell against liberal thoughts and the liberal economy.
A student must ask why a secular teacher gives low marks to a student that does not have the same ideas as him.'"

- President Ahmadinejad of Iran

I find it absolutely frightening that the president of Iran, who thinks the Holocaust is a lie, has the same beliefs as many christians in the US. This story just reminded me of this. Sounds like the Principal of this school doesn't mind a little religion taught in his school

36. Atheist Brigade Takes Arguments to the Tolerant

Comment #13566 by Thrall on December 18, 2006 at 12:29 pm

Again, another good portrayal of the issues from NPR. Nice and balanced and gets the point across.

37. Kim Hill interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #13558 by Thrall on December 18, 2006 at 11:00 am

Quick! I have a hypothosis! Somone get some funding. My hypothosis, that converts into religion, from an entire lack of religion, have had a traumatic loss or event in their life that draws them towards an ultimate justice or love. Quick, get on that.

38. Grandparents linked with church-going

Comment #13098 by Thrall on December 15, 2006 at 11:48 am

I wasn't that close with my grandparents, maybe that's why their staunch religious views didn't have any effect on me.

Someone needs to look at the correlation to the difference in ages between the grandparents and the grandkids, and their closeness to one another to see if that also has some effect (I am the last child of my grandmothers last child, the youngest of the entire herd).

39. Intelligent design: The God Lab

Comment #13076 by Thrall on December 15, 2006 at 9:26 am

"Who do you think put the President of the USA into power? And Why?"

I don't want to get into conspiracy theories. I know that companies can throw influence around if something like bush getting elected will affect their bottom line. It's pretty easy to imagine the boardmembers of an oil company saying "we like this boy, he supports oil, let's put all our money into him and Katherine Harris, so they'll help us out too". But I'm not quite sure what bad science has to do with Bush (other than the fact that the White house has blocked several Global Warming papers from being published).

40. The God of the Bible is No Delusion!

Comment #12923 by Thrall on December 14, 2006 at 12:00 pm

That video is hilarious.

41. Intelligent design: The God Lab

Comment #12918 by Thrall on December 14, 2006 at 11:41 am

Astonishing. I think this is dangerous. This is the same as an oil company hiring scientists to refute global warming, so that anybody who disagrees can use the pseudoscience to uphold their case. It doesn't matter where the information comes from, people will use it against science if it helps them prove god.

42. Simon Mayo interviews Keith Ward about his book 'Is Religion Dangerous?'

Comment #12905 by Thrall on December 14, 2006 at 9:59 am

Ha! So religion wasn't used to explain why things happen, (god of the gaps) it's to explain our existance in the world, and why we have feelings. It's all making sense now.

One more quick thing. You can't say that because things are done in the absense of religion, doesn't justify the fact that religion has influenced some pretty horrible events throughout history.

43. Simon Mayo interviews Keith Ward about his book 'Is Religion Dangerous?'

Comment #12903 by Thrall on December 14, 2006 at 9:46 am

@rob:

Yeah, He sounds like Dean Learner from Darkplace (if any of you have seen it).

Same old "any publicity for god is good publicity" and "he's not talking about MY god".

Yes, we know that religion teaches "goodness and take care of others", but I'm hard pressed to find a religion that only teaches these things.

44. Atheists' bleak alternative

Comment #12885 by Thrall on December 14, 2006 at 7:52 am

With the Minorah problem in the airports in the US (I don't want to get into the story) A jew said he'd sue since there was only a christmas tree in the airport, and no minorah. Yeah, sounds like athiests are the problem.

45. In case you didn't know I'm a fool, here's an article to prove it.

Comment #12883 by Thrall on December 14, 2006 at 7:42 am

*jumping up and down*

I'm sure somebody has brought this up, but DON'T tell me about how athiests are the ones who caused EVERY WAR IN THE LAST 200 YEARS, and then say that HUMAN BEINGS WILL KILL WHEN THEY ARE PASSIONATE ABOUT SOMETHING! Way to talk out of both sides of your mouth you genious!

And does he really say we are falling into "the liberal creed of individualism, greed, AND RIGHTS!?!?!"

Heaven forbid we have Free-F*@#in-will that you christians love to tout so much! Man, i've had enough of these people and their intellectual dishonesty!

What is this asshat a doctor of, theology? Because it sure as hell isn't anything that requires any critical thinking.

46. Dawkins Delusion (3rd article, Same Stupid Title)

Comment #12721 by Thrall on December 13, 2006 at 11:45 am

Joadist:

That, I understand. All america's government has been lately is giving tax cuts to those who follow the christian way (tax cuts for lots of children, marriage, churches, etc.) But they don't say that in public. They say it's wrong because of God, and I don't recall god ever saying it, does anyone? Where is it. That's what I want to know.

Ha! 666th post! (boy you christians are a superstious lot)

47. Dawkins Delusion (3rd article, Same Stupid Title)

Comment #12708 by Thrall on December 13, 2006 at 11:06 am

David:

You have a strange view of this world, and I don't understand it. You keep putting square pegs into god shaped holes, and they don't quite fit.

"How do you determine hurt? Dawkins says god doesn't exist and that hurts me."

Honestly? You are hurt by another person's opinion? If you think that beastiality and euthenasia are on par with homosexual marriage (two things that definately hurt other people and one that doesn't hurt anybody) then I seriously wonder where in the Bible you get your morality from! Do you feel the need to kill the disabled only if God weren't there to stop you from doing it? Amazing, absolutely amazing.

And while i'm on the subject, why is homosexual marriage wrong in christians eyes? Where in the bible does it say that it is wrong. (sorry for the tangent)

48. Religion for a Captive Audience, Paid For by Taxes

Comment #12679 by Thrall on December 13, 2006 at 8:20 am

If I ever ended up in prison (gasp), i'd say "jesus saves" to get music lessons and computers. But that's just me. It's not like my no-god is going to punish me for that.

49. Scientologists get £270,000 subsidy

Comment #12678 by Thrall on December 13, 2006 at 8:17 am

The amazing thing, is that so many people can see scientology as a bunk religion (redundant?), and will get upset about this, but if this were a Roman Catholic church, nobody would blink an eye.

50. An Exercise in Contempt

Comment #12674 by Thrall on December 13, 2006 at 8:03 am

Wow, talk about an "ill-Edited" article, what a rambling and disorganized pile of pap.

Why argue about George Bush being religiously driven and not having any "references". He's said so on several occasions, why drag up the page and paper it was written down previously on. That's like saying you need to reference that Rush Limbaugh has a drug addiction.

Sigh. Another tirade against the strange evolution that doesn't exist. It's not like, whoops! I have legs! or Whoops, I have an eyeball (much like it sounds like he is arguing. Wow, amazing.

Next time I review a book, i'll bring up the enlightenment, Jimmy Carter, and the sliding filiment theory, just to be on par with this awesome writer.