Skip to Main Content (access key 1)
Skip to Search (access key 2)
Skip to Search GO (access key 3)
Skip to comments (access key 4)
Skip to navigation (access key 5)
Skip to top of page (access key 6)

Comments by Sally Luxmoore


1. Judge orders La. school district to stop Bible giveaways

Comment #167649 by Sally Luxmoore on April 24, 2008 at 8:37 am

Shame. This was a missed opportunity.

It would have been the perfect time to sneak a sticker into each book:

"WARNING: This a work of fiction. Do NOT TAKE it literally.
CONTENT ADVISORY:
Contains verses descriptive or advocating suicide, incest, bestiality, sadomasochism, sexual activity in a violent context, murder, morbid violence, use of drugs or alcohol, homosexuality, voyeurism, revenge, undermining of authority figures, lawlessness and human rights violations and atrocities.
EXPOSURE WARNING: Exposure to contents for extended periods of time or during formative years in children may cause delusions, hallucinations, decrease cognitive and objective reasoning abilities, pathological disorders, hatred, bigotry, violence including but not limited to fanaticism, murder and genocide and in extreme cases,endanger your mental health and life".
See: http://www.dankimball.com/vintage_faith/2006/06/bible_warning_l.html

Ever since coming across this sticker, I have wanted to mass produce it and get sticking!

2. Religious education as a part of literary culture

Comment #160849 by Sally Luxmoore on April 14, 2008 at 1:25 pm

Well said, chaps.

Now, about that 'Secular Army' - how do we join it?
Is it like Dumbledore's Army? Do we meet in secret? Will we learn new spells? Where's the Room of Requirement?

3. British schools are falling for the pseudoscience of Brain Gym. Why fill kids' heads with nonsense?

Comment #160472 by Sally Luxmoore on April 14, 2008 at 6:17 am

I'm wrong!
comment no. 3 is MUCH funnier!

4. British schools are falling for the pseudoscience of Brain Gym. Why fill kids' heads with nonsense?

Comment #160469 by Sally Luxmoore on April 14, 2008 at 6:15 am

When I first read the title, I misread it as BRIAN GYM.
Having read the article, my first idea seems to make just as much sense as what's described here, and has the benefit of being funnier.

5. The Atheist Next Door

Comment #159407 by Sally Luxmoore on April 12, 2008 at 6:04 am

Religious people have such a hard time understanding some things. They are so stuck in their own weird mindset.

EG: 'Crisis of confidence':
- They just don't get it!

There is no crisis of confidence when you are NOT trying to believe the unbelievable.

so, for the rational it's, 'Crisis? What Crisis?'

6. Christian Founders 3D Adventure Computer Game

Comment #153566 by Sally Luxmoore on April 1, 2008 at 3:09 pm

Attention Matt Groening!

-Ned Flanders needs to get this one for Rod and Tod.-

7. Who wants to kill the elderly?

Comment #153294 by Sally Luxmoore on April 1, 2008 at 11:03 am

the "militantly atheist and secularist lobby"


How can I join this eminently sensible organisation? It's talked about so often that it must be real. I'd rather not wear a uniform, though - do you think it has a peaceful wing?
How could so many religious believers be wrong?

8. Supreme Court to consider Ten Commandments vs. 'Seven Aphorisms'

Comment #153287 by Sally Luxmoore on April 1, 2008 at 10:53 am

Time for the Pastafarians to start engraving their own monument.

Perhaps we should arrange for a similar stonework version of the atheist 10 commandments that Richard found on the internet and quoted in TGD.

The more, the merrier!

9. Faith healing church parents charged over toddler's death

Comment #153284 by Sally Luxmoore on April 1, 2008 at 10:49 am

There appears to be little danger that this particular brand of religious insanity will be spread via child indoctrination. It seems to be akin to the kind of virus that almost invariably kills its host - definitely frightening, but unlikely to be long-lived.

10. 'We Make Our Own Heaven'

Comment #151401 by Sally Luxmoore on March 28, 2008 at 4:09 pm

RSP.

I understand what you're saying, but personally I just never use the word spirit, partly because I don't like its religious connotations and partly because I am more of a materialist than that.

I feel all those same emotions, but I am happy to ascribe them to thought, emotion, or imagination. To me the word spirit implies something living almost independently outside or even beyond the body. That confuses the issue.

Essentially it's only a word. It's just one I wish atheists didn't use!

11. 'We Make Our Own Heaven'

Comment #151378 by Sally Luxmoore on March 28, 2008 at 3:24 pm

where can non-believers find a spiritual home?


Oh dear. They just don't get it, do they?

Spirit? No such thing. Therefore no such need.

This all reminds me of what Richard says when he talks of the impossibility (and undesirability?) of herding cats. Why should people get together to talk about what they DON'T believe? I don't want to spend my time talking about not believing in fairies, or not believing in tree spirits, or Thor, etc.

Just because people don't believe in something doesn't really mean they have anything much in common - apart of course from superior intelligence!

This seems a peculiarly 'religious' thing to say. These people can't escape from a completely church-centred lifestyle.
Some of us have just got better things to do with our lives - like spending hours on this site, for example!

12. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #150361 by Sally Luxmoore on March 26, 2008 at 7:08 pm

Sorry JAL, didn't quite get that. How about repeating it just one more time?
:)
Couldn't resist that, I'm afraid... We all know how frustrating it can be when you press the button just a bit too often!

13. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #150350 by Sally Luxmoore on March 26, 2008 at 6:50 pm

Richard, I have just followed a suggestion from your Happy Birthday thread (Happy Birthday by the way) and voted on the Movie Nation site.
You may be interested / gratified to know that so far the votes are as folllows:
A (sizzlin') 24%
B (cool) 1%
C(decent) 2%
D(DVD only) 5%
F (VILE!) 68%

Keep voting chaps!
As they say, 'vote early and vote often'.

http://movies.go.com/expelled-no-intelligence-allowed/d942707/documentary

14. Gay scientists isolate Christian gene

Comment #150172 by Sally Luxmoore on March 26, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Great.
Come on world - More like this!
Ridicule is the way to do it...

15. Saudi Arabia Leader Calls for Interfaith Dialogue

Comment #150167 by Sally Luxmoore on March 26, 2008 at 2:10 pm

The nastiest bits of the Qur'an and Hadith are reserved for polytheists


So what makes the Christians feel so safe? How can they be so sure that the Muslims will understand their muddled vision of the 'Trinity'? Looks like polytheism to me, and you can probably add Mary and most saints to the list in the case of the Catholics...

16. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #150141 by Sally Luxmoore on March 26, 2008 at 1:40 pm

A very happy birthday to you Richard.

Your contribution to the greater good has been greater than that of most other good people...

Of course, in the multiverse, you are not only 67, but also every other age that you have already been or still will be.
(See - I've learnt some science on this site! You learn something new here every day if you're not careful) xx

17. Sue Blackmore debates Alister McGrath

Comment #149117 by Sally Luxmoore on March 25, 2008 at 6:23 am

McGrath is the superior public speaker/preacher. Much more pleasant to listen to.


Aagh! I simply could not disagree more!
McGrath has a ghastly patronising and monotonous tone, with - worst of all - a 'dying fall' at the end of his sentences. He sounds like the worst kind of sanctimonious and soporific preacher. I have to fight against irritation at his tone and a tendency for my mind to wander when I am trying genuinely to give him a fair hearing.
His mannerisms remind me of the dreadfully boring sermons that I was forced to listen to at my C of E boarding school.
I also particularly hate the insincere 'thanks' he gives to his questioner or opponent at the beginning of almost every new subject.
He actually gives me the creeps. Shudder!

18. Oklahoma: One Step from Doom

Comment #141278 by Sally Luxmoore on March 10, 2008 at 8:25 am

I see Oklahoma isn't on RD's list. Maybe it should be.
Perhaps a comment on this insanity wouldn't go amiss in his talks. (When are we going to see one of them? Every time I log on I think there'll be one to watch.)

19. The Giant Tortoise's Tale

Comment #134006 by Sally Luxmoore on February 27, 2008 at 6:15 am

Really enjoyed this.

Sad, however, to be reminded of the unthinking cruelty of our ancestors - keeping those poor tortoises on their backs for weeks at a time. Horrible thought.

20. The Lava Lizard's Tale

Comment #130947 by Sally Luxmoore on February 21, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Really enjoyed this. Thanks.

It was nice to have a little extra bit of the Ancestor's Tale , as a kind of treat.

Loved the shorts too - quintessentially Englishman (or even Oxford Professor) in the tropics. :-)

21. Bart Ehrman, Questioning Religion on Why We Suffer

Comment #130941 by Sally Luxmoore on February 21, 2008 at 2:17 pm

I seem to be alone in finding this interesting, but also annoying.
Was the question of suffering really the ONLY issue that bothered him over so many years? How is it possible to be so well versed (pun intended) in the Bible and its human origins and yet have this issue alone as the one that finally tipped him over, no not quite over, just onto the fence.
This seems rather namby pamby to me.

22. Fleabytes

Comment #129834 by Sally Luxmoore on February 19, 2008 at 4:00 pm

I am very impressed at all the hard work and careful critical evaluation that has gone into these reviews. Well done Paula. Thank you.
I am forewarned, however - a Christian friend of mine has given me Alister McGrath's book (groan).
I shall certainly not treat it as bedtime reading! It will instead be treated to the 'annotation treatment', whereby I cope with erroneous, insulting or simply baffling arguments by scribbling my irritated response in the margins.

23. Atheists An Increasingly Outspoken Minority

Comment #129426 by Sally Luxmoore on February 19, 2008 at 5:56 am

Where do you place your hope in the time of a crisis of confidence?" Hanson said.


Doesn't seem to occur to him that there is NO crisis of confidence when there's no imaginary friend.

24. The argument from oranges

Comment #128263 by Sally Luxmoore on February 16, 2008 at 4:27 pm

'One should not mock the afflicted'.
This poor simple and confused old man should be taken by the hand and seated in a rocking chair and told that nobody is going to be arranging a family reunion between him and his fruit bowl any time in the near future.
In the mean time, we need to concentrate on educating his children and grandchildren, who are quite probably embarrassed by him.

25. The Search for Truth, God and Braver Scientists in 'Expelled'

Comment #128256 by Sally Luxmoore on February 16, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Well, if the film is anything like as boring as the clip shown in Roger Moore's review, no-one has anything to worry about.
I nearly fell asleep!

26. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127907 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 5:33 pm

Tooltroll.

You'll just have to mix with your own kind. Some people do still believe in little green men, after all.
As for me, it's 1.30 am here in Engerland, so I'm orf to bed. If I get green on the sheets I'm sending the laundry bill to you.

27. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127893 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Re: Mutagen .

In biology, a mutagen (Latin, literally origin of change) is a physical or chemical agent that changes the genetic information (usually DNA) of an organism and thus increases the frequency of mutations above the natural background level. As many mutations cause cancer, mutagens are typically also carcinogens. Not all mutations are caused by mutagens: So-called "spontaneous mutations" occur due to errors in DNA replication, repair and recombination of DNA sequences.

Well. You learn something every day if you're not careful.
I'll be keeping well clear of you in future, Tooltroll.

28. Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered

Comment #127877 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 5:09 pm

Steve.

Sounds like the set-up envisaged in Carl Sagan's "Contact".

I now have the Casey Jones themetune on my brain!

29. Ben Stein Wins Intelligent Design Money

Comment #127869 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 5:04 pm

This is seriously depressing. Let's hope it never gets made.

30. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127862 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 5:00 pm

What does mutagenic mean?

31. Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered

Comment #127858 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 4:53 pm

The main problems include steering and how to turn the thing off.


The mind boggles. ( I love having my mind boggled ! Thanks.)

32. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127853 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 4:50 pm

Tooltroll & Righton -

My punctuation on a blog has nothing to do with my inteligence


This is a comment board, not a blog.


Yes - and it wouldn't hurt to remember whose comment board it is. You don't hear Richard Dawkins speaking ungrammatically and I would stake money on his having little need of a spellchecker or a grammar check. It is not a waste of time to pay attention to those things if you want to be taken seriously.
So I suppose that means I'm leaning towards Tooltroll. Hope that green doesn't rub off.

33. Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered

Comment #127846 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 4:39 pm

Quick, God -- send a Jesus there.

34. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127842 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 4:36 pm

109. Comment #127831 by tooltroll on February 15, 2008 at 4:28 pm


And there was me thinking you were related to Fungus the Bogeyman.

You do seem to be imbued with pessimism. Remember it's not all that long ago in nearly all countries that there was no universal education. There will always be some people who show little benefit, but there is a definite improvement in the greater good.

Cheer up! I'll ask the FSM to lean down a noodly appendage in your direction.

35. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127819 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 4:19 pm

So -Tooltroll -

I suppose we can take it, then, that your green-ness is not envy ?

Which, in your view is the best system?

36. Map reveals extent of human damage to oceans

Comment #127750 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 3:01 pm

-- Population control-- ?

Someone should have a word with the Vatican.

37. Map reveals extent of human damage to oceans

Comment #127477 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 10:35 am

It would be easier to see what the situation is in the oceans if these people had defined their terms properly. It doesn't sound very scientific, even to a lay-person like me.
I'm not sure what this means.
We all know about oils slicks, pollution from ballast tanks, plastic bottles floating even to remote regions, run off from polluted land, etc but I don't really feel any the wiser from having read this 'report'.

38. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127466 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 10:21 am

Al - Rawandi

That made me laugh out loud.

I did a PGCE (teacher training) some years ago and my then tutor said that his aim was to put The Sun newspaper out of business. This is a paper that requires a reading age of 9 and (I think I'm right in saying this) it out sells all the 'intelligent' newspapers put together, by far.

There's no danger of it losing its readership in the near future.

Who was it who said you can never lose money by underestimating the intelligence of the British population?

39. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127454 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 10:01 am

Before I say this, I freely acknowledge that we have plenty of ignorant people here in England.

BUT - When I went to America for the first time, in 1977, I was asked:
-whether people in England spoke English
-whereabouts in France England was
and - whether we had cars in England.

Being gobsmacked and also reluctant to be rude to people who were being very friendly to me, I failed to make the witty replies that perhaps I should have done.

40. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #127231 by Sally Luxmoore on February 15, 2008 at 4:32 am

gcdavis:

I think I heard RD agree that there is more than one kind of truth and to acknowledge emotional truth. What on earth is emotional truth


Maybe it should be as simple as believing that we should be truthful about our emotions, to ourselves as well as to others - not 'living a lie', for example.
However, I suspect she meant a more woolly version - that feeling that something must be out there, therefore it is and therefore it must be respected - which is another thing entirely.
This was the problem with Ms B's debating style. If she had allowed Richard time to define his terms, it would have been clearer to her that her 'truth' was not at all the objective truth that he meant.

41. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #127025 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 5:27 pm

Hi Goldy

the Great Vowel Shift and Shakespeare


It was earlier than that. More The Great Vowel Shift and Caxton. You can thank that juxtaposition for the difficulties in English spelling that we still struggle with nowadays.

I was really meaning a time when books were too expensive for most households to have more than just the one that would get them into heaven.

Of course nursery rhymes and folk tales existed then too (and mystery plays) but they were part of a verbal tradition, not written down till later.

But as you say, we are diverging from Ms Bunting and her foggy thoughts.

42. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #127008 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 4:36 pm

Comment #127002 by He'sAVeryNaughtyBoy

I wonder if this is related to peoples unwillingness to accept that the brain is capable of explaining conciousness by itself.


I think that's definitely a factor. I have an ongoing debate about religion with a Christian friend who said at one point in exasperation,
" There is always a scientific way of explaining anything; reducing life, the universe and everything to 'nothing buttery' ; nothing but a huge mass of chemicals. ....are your children of no importance? Is your love for them an illusion, merely a chemical occurrence?"
-to which my response was, " you could say that everything in our heads is an illusion" and, "I would not use the word 'merely'. The fact that everything that occurs in our brains is electrical or chemical is absolutely amazing and rather wonderful. I do not feel in the least diminished by that fact",
-but I know I have not convinced him.

This is what Richard was dealing with in Unweaving The Rainbow.

43. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126997 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 3:52 pm

Goldy (Hello again)

couldn't this be a chicken/egg scenario? After all, it had to be understandable to those hearing it to make sense, sa maybe the Bible (in English) owes us, the people.


My view is that for a long time it was the ONLY book available. For generations, many children learnt to read on the family bible. Even sewing was 'improving quotations from - you guessed it. Every Sunday it was read to you from the pulpit. There was little else for most people.

It was common currency then in the way that it is not now. Quotations would not have seemed erudite, just familiar.

44. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126993 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 3:45 pm

Goldy, do you mean Melvyn Bragg?
(Great name, eh?)

45. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126989 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 3:40 pm

Gustav

I'm far from convinced about her hypothesis of where fundamentalism comes from


I'm inclined to agree, but for different (perhaps more simplistic) reasons. I think at the moment fundamentalism in Islam is growing simply because it is being taught, particularly by the Wahabi Madrassas that Saudi Arabia is funding all over the muslim world. If you read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's autobiography, she explains very clearly that no questioning of the Koran is ever allowed. It is presented as absolute truth to which the only permissible response is submission.
There is often no other kind of education allowed, so these people are not exposed to anything like our tradition of questioning and democratic compromise.
I am in favour of Arabic / Urdu /Farsi /Pashtun etc versions of the God Delusion being available on the internet...

46. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126974 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 3:25 pm

Comment #126968 by Jiten --You can shove your Milton.


That's sad. There's room for both!

I've always been interested in science, but my first degree was in English and my second (bit of a perpetual student) is in law.

I've also read all Richard's books and am also interested in astronomy, geology, plate tectonics, paleontology and all sorts of other things.

There's no need to restrict yourself !

47. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126969 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 3:20 pm

Dear Teapot,

Leaving the bible on your bookshelf won't protect you from 'contamination'. It will reach out and affect your life rather like the noodly tendrils of our own dear FSM.
You are probably already infected ....

48. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126964 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 3:08 pm

Comment #126955 by ericcolumba on February 14, 2008 at 2:53 pm

I wish Richard would stop using hitchens arguement that you cant appreciate literature if you don't understand the bible.


It isn't just Hitchen's argument, it's that of anyone educated in English Literature. Try understanding any of the following without any knowledge of the Bible: Chaucer, Langland, Bunyan, Shakespeare, Milton, John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, the metaphysical poets, the list goes on and on...

There are 30-ish pages in my (rather old) copy of 'The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations' that are devoted to the Bible.

It is virtually certain that you yourself have quoted the Bible in everyday speech whether you knew it or not, and the book titles on your shelves are very likely to include biblical quotations.

Like it or not, it is our history and part of our culture.

49. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126935 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 2:19 pm

So, does she believe in the virgin birth or not? She NEVER answered the question.
She may call herself a catholic, but the Carbolic Church would not recognise her weird wishy washy views as theirs.

Irritating the way she interrupted all the time.

Yet again, I admire Richard's patience at putting up with someone who treats her own illogicality as liberal intelligence.

50. Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

Comment #126857 by Sally Luxmoore on February 14, 2008 at 11:10 am

We should ask Bush to call his friend...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s24Fxiwfc5Y&feature=related

More Pages: 1 2 | Next