1. FiveLive debate on faith and discrimination

Comment #17224 by brianeyre on January 12, 2007 at 6:06 am

What it seems to boil down to is that many people still have the attitude that homosexuality is about something you 'do', rather than something you 'are'. This enables them to draw a distinction between gays and people who are black, disabled, Irish or female for example...

Of course, in a secular society this should be beside the point, as what people do in private should always be their own business provided it doesn't cause harm to others, or infringe anyone else's civil liberties.

2. FiveLive debate on faith and discrimination

Comment #17218 by brianeyre on January 12, 2007 at 4:28 am

I couldn't agree with you more, robives. The last caller's mental gymnastics are an excellent vindication of Steven Weinberg's statement that 'for good people to do evil things, that takes religion'...

The presenter made an excellent point of highlighting the fact that the existence of female vicars likely causes considerable cognitive dissonance for many Christians - An irony lost on the 'well-meaning' caller, given her own status. Alas, hypocrisy will frequently fill the vacuum left by rational thinking...

3. Richard Dawkins' Report Card

Comment #17020 by brianeyre on January 10, 2007 at 5:54 am

Clearly the report-card of an antichrist-to-be..!

4. Intelligent design is a science, not a faith

Comment #17018 by brianeyre on January 10, 2007 at 5:49 am

Another frightening example of the mutual exclusivity of articulacy and intellect... and this published in the Guardian, no less!

5. Secret Life of Brian

Comment #16682 by brianeyre on January 8, 2007 at 3:24 am

"If not, why not?"

Out of fear, I would say. The perception is that causing offense to the muslim community is far more likely to result in revenge killings than is realistically the case with Christianity (an older religion which has had time to mellow, at least somewhat).

6. Secular fundamentalists are the new totalitarians

Comment #16368 by brianeyre on January 6, 2007 at 9:38 am

Mr Jones seems to be saying 'pick a god, any god, but make sure you pick one'. Presumably even Thorists are infinitely more virtuous than those 'unpleasant' atheists, by his reasoning.

It amazes me how these people fail to see the irrationality of disliking someone for not believing in something... as though disbelief is something we decide to actively engage in.

7. No religion and an end to war: how thinkers see the future

Comment #15966 by brianeyre on January 4, 2007 at 2:24 am

I think there could be some sense in Pinker's optimism about a continuous downward-trend in violence.

We may not be able to eradicate the natural tendency in humans towards violence and superstition, but the information highway should make it near-impossible to organise large numbers of people under particular ideologies.

This ought to reduce the number of large-scale wars, which depend upon mobilisation through indoctrination, and chip away at organised religion.

8. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #13742 by brianeyre on December 19, 2006 at 9:04 am

Liddle seems to base his whole argument on a common misinterpretation of atheism - that it is a 'belief in absence' (of a deity), rather than an 'absence of belief'.

What more really needs to be said?

9. Blaming 'The God Delusion'

Comment #12997 by brianeyre on December 15, 2006 at 2:09 am

"Dawkins's suggests that the words "nationalist" and "loyalist" are, in their Northern Irish context, merely euphemisms for "Catholic" and "Protestant," respectively.

- well... for all practical purposes, they are pretty much the same thing in that context (speaking, as I am, as an Irishman), so I'm not sure that Dawkins is the one being naive here.

On another note, I feel that many on the left have trouble reconciling an opposition to faith with the need to champion the cause of the world's disavantaged (for whom religion frequently tends to be a coping mechanism). To avoid the cognitive dissonance, faith is given a free ride, and even endorsed outright.

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

Comment #12854 by brianeyre on December 14, 2006 at 4:39 am

Wow, surely the title 'the God Delusion' was made for such people. Dawkins has clearly scored a direct hit here...

The accusation that 'reason' is responsible for as much mass-genocide as superstition is frankly laughable, and I'm tired of hearing it.

By the way, here's a movie with a tagline which may ruffle some feathers:
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30961