1. Richard Dawkins Public Lecture - Liverpool 08

Comment #201147 by Divineosaur on June 29, 2008 at 7:14 am

"Just use http://www.keepvid.com and type in the Google vids url there and you should be able to save it locally."

Thanks!

2. The Mother, The Child, The School Board And The Psychic

Comment #196272 by Divineosaur on June 19, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Comment #195976: "I sense..... a presence.... a presence of.... bull shit."

Gotta be more vague, dude. Like this: I sense... a presence... a presence of... I'm getting a "B" and an "S".

3. Senate bill allows display of Lord's Prayer, 10 Commandments

Comment #186479 by Divineosaur on May 30, 2008 at 10:45 am

I'm sure the point has been made but if these are being put up as "historical documents" and not out of an effort to subvert the Constitution by endorsing religion, then why are these politicians so afraid of what the constituency thinks? Their concern is that these religious people will not like it that their religious nonsense is being kept where it belongs and that belies the notion that this is an historic endeavor.

4. Animal Science Without Evolution

Comment #185021 by Divineosaur on May 26, 2008 at 5:40 pm

"...Christian book stores are already selling out of this well researched, scientifically profound book..."

I'm giggling.

5. Scientists Know Better Than You--Even When They're Wrong

Comment #178543 by Divineosaur on May 11, 2008 at 3:02 pm

If a person must study theology to criticize religion then why aren't theologians also pointing out that you should study it to be religious as well?

6. Regulating Evolution: How Gene Switches Make Life

Comment #178534 by Divineosaur on May 11, 2008 at 2:49 pm

This recalls to my mind punctuated equilibrium. Would this allow for a more rapid than typical (whatever that means!) adaptation to a sudden environmental change? Or would it all still be subject to whatever useful mutations happen to occur and not necessarily speed things up? From my limited perspective I think I can see how either may be true. On the one hand it would be less time consuming to flip a few switches and alter the expression of relatively more necessary genes and on the other hand the mutations still have to occur. But the probability of the necessary useful mutation occurring in the relatively less essential switches would be greater due to the indispensability of the genes for body building. Any mutation to the body building gene would have more implications for the rest of the body, right? I am SO confused right now I don't even know if I just said or asked anything at all.

7. Responses to 'Gods and Earthlings' by Richard Dawkins

Comment #166993 by Divineosaur on April 23, 2008 at 2:30 pm

Doesn't it kind of not matter how unlikely it is that the universe has simply always existed compared to how unlikely it is that a creator created it, since it is a fairly undeniable fact that all we can say we know about either is that the universe is? I should say the reason anyone would favor the idea that the universe has simply always existed is because it is lacking the unnecessarily complicating variable that the alternative has. Why should something like that be tacked on? There is just no reason if you are a one who simply wants to know the universe as it is.

8. Mecca should become core to measure time zones: scholars

Comment #165353 by Divineosaur on April 21, 2008 at 11:38 am

Yeah, good luck with this. Time zones being the worlds leading problem and all.

9. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #165323 by Divineosaur on April 21, 2008 at 10:44 am

So in order to get a personal letter from Richard Dawkins I have to be a suggestible dupe? Well, shit. I guess I'll just have to keep reading his books!

10. Darwin told us so: Researcher shows natural selection speeds up speciation

Comment #155131 by Divineosaur on April 4, 2008 at 7:35 am

Ah! Thanks for answering that. So a simple separation that is not accompanied by any changes in selection pressure allows for a kind of "selection down-time" which lets mutations accumulate. I'm trying to put it in a way my brain likes for remembering.

Those mutations would be limited though by bumping into whatever selective pressures are present that acted on the genes of the species in question in the first place. Right? This is why I am the laity! Thanks again.

11. Darwin told us so: Researcher shows natural selection speeds up speciation

Comment #154529 by Divineosaur on April 3, 2008 at 12:00 pm

Isn't it NECESSARY for speciation?

12. Iowa county board gives initial OK for ghost hunters to investigate asylum

Comment #151670 by Divineosaur on March 29, 2008 at 7:09 am

There is no Dana, only Zuel.

13. Expelled from Expelled: PZ story goes global

Comment #150604 by Divineosaur on March 27, 2008 at 6:55 am

A lot of people say "What was Mathis thinking!?" But here is a guy who advocates so called Intelligent Design. I say what is he ever thinking?

14. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #150001 by Divineosaur on March 26, 2008 at 11:46 am

They were not praying to me! Now when the velocirapture comes, they will be left 70 million years behind!

I know this is nothing to joke about but when you can do nothing else...

15. Flipping particle could explain missing antimatter

Comment #149697 by Divineosaur on March 26, 2008 at 6:25 am

What a shame that so many have traded true magnificence for mundane anthropomorphisms. I think this a fair dichotomy. I can only hope we won't kill ourselves off completely before at least someone gets to know the half that is.

16. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #148452 by Divineosaur on March 23, 2008 at 5:52 am

Ummmm, did he (Hume) say something and I missed it? I just want to know how to address the nothing in my brain that this little article left behind.

17. The Great Tantra Challenge

Comment #144938 by Divineosaur on March 17, 2008 at 4:31 am

I think I should be cheered by this or, at the least, feel indifferent. However, I find that all I can think is that somehow people will find a way to use this to reinforce their belief in such nonsense. Cognitive dissonance indeed.

18. The Repeater

Comment #119113 by Divineosaur on January 31, 2008 at 10:28 am

Gould may well be wrong but doesn't this fail to prove that in that it is a false analogy? 10,000 planets starting from scratch (which is the way I took it but I could be misunderstanding) would be quite a different thing from 10,000 lakes starting off with fish that share genes, I would think.

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

Comment #115735 by Divineosaur on January 24, 2008 at 3:15 pm

As I sit here looking over the discussion I realize that, in the eyes of these Blessed individuals, all I still have going for me is that I am not a homosexual. Now I wish that homosexuality was a choice so that I could be as far as possible from what these cretins believe to be acceptable in a human!

(Not that I like the idea of them having a hand in making me who I am but for the sake of my comment I'll let that go.)

20. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115269 by Divineosaur on January 23, 2008 at 9:19 pm

Many who support the separation of church and state say that the intelligent design theory of creation ought not to be taught in public schools because it contains a religious bias. They dislike its suggestion that the evolutionary development of life was not the result of natural selection, as Charles Darwin suggested, but was somehow given purposeful direction and, by implication, was guided by God.

21. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111463 by Divineosaur on January 14, 2008 at 5:03 pm

Mr. Scales,

A statement and two thank-yous: I certainly do hope you are well soon and I would want that even without the reason for the first thank-you which of course is thanks for contributing so we can have a place like this.

The second thank-you relates to the first in that for being the kind of person you are and doing the things you have done (namely donating) I have a place where I can be assured that the words "thoughts and prayers" will be here in these comments infrequently at best and I have to love that.

Jerry

22. Sam Harris debate with Rabbi David Wolpe

Comment #107455 by Divineosaur on January 4, 2008 at 2:40 pm

Oy vey! No download.

23. Carl Sagan's COSMOS begins airing on Jan 8th

Comment #104712 by Divineosaur on December 29, 2007 at 7:45 am

I haven't seen a scientific study of this, but I suspect that more Americans have adopted critical thinking and abandoned superstition because of exposure to Carl Sagan than any other recent personality.

I would like to propose this as a question to social scientists.

24. Wisdom From The Founding Rationalists

Comment #104709 by Divineosaur on December 29, 2007 at 7:28 am

Certainly I could be wrong but I think that the reason we argue over the intent of the forefathers is because they crafted the founding documents based on certain ideals and if we start to abandon some of the original intent for this nation then we set a precedent for the abandonment of all of it. We adhere to their intent as a guideline less than arbitrary for what it is that as a nation we are. Clearly we have never lived-up to those ideals but there is still the hope that we will and it is worth trying to which leads us back to the beginning and the fathers and their ideas. It isn't an empty custom with a long forgotten purpose that we argue their intent.

25. New journal to target education in evolution

Comment #103972 by Divineosaur on December 27, 2007 at 11:57 am

Don Quix said:

Truly terrifying. I wonder if my health care provider has a list of which doctors on my health plan are creationists/evolutionists? Somehow I think not ;D

26. Survey finds most Americans believe Jesus born of virgin

Comment #102398 by Divineosaur on December 22, 2007 at 3:36 pm

Shenanigans!

27. Whale 'missing link' discovered

Comment #101894 by Divineosaur on December 21, 2007 at 5:21 am

Sweet! More evidence to be dismissed as part of the secular conspiracy to discredit the infallibility of the Word.

28. 2007, a bad year for God squadders

Comment #101892 by Divineosaur on December 21, 2007 at 5:12 am

"...competing implausibilities of faith and unbelief..."

This is just fantastic. I mean really. Fantastically ironic to me, that is. Because here this person is talking about that wrinkly chick having doubt for so long and I have long thought that there is a part in most "believers" that knows their position is untenable. But they carry on. And in carrying on they try to shore up the erosion by stating such nonsense as this. They coolly state it as a matter of fact and they all whistle and act like they don't notice that there is nothing implausible about not believing things for which there is no reason to believe. Maybe I am wrong but I think this person knows better than they have here written.

29. For the Love of Christ

Comment #101889 by Divineosaur on December 21, 2007 at 4:43 am

I must be in a bit of a melancholy mood as right now I find this more depressing than anything else. It is so much easier for people like this one to fill ignorant (no pejorative intent) minds with this stuff than it is for us to fill them with the desire to work to learn things for themselves.

I will, however, not only continue to hold the line but to push forward. I got the chance last night to tell my 6 year old niece (who is taken to church each Sunday) about fossils and the coelacanth and my final point was to make sure to find out things for herself because you never know for sure. I doubt she understood but there may be a seed now.

Hmm, I guess I feel better now! Yay science!

30. Borders Tags Atheist Book with 'O Come All Ye Faithless' Cards

Comment #100840 by Divineosaur on December 19, 2007 at 12:34 pm

I guess they should have also handed out free tissues for the poor, eternally persecuted Christians to dry their delicate tears.

31. CBC News: Sunday - Richard Dawkins

Comment #100151 by Divineosaur on December 18, 2007 at 10:04 am

Even though I know rather well by now what Dawkins' answers will be, it is still such a pleasure to hear him give them. It may be cliche but it IS like music to my ears! Such a dynamic combination of his speaking style and most importantly the sheer reasonableness of what he is saying. Each successive sentence locks into the one before it as puzzle pieces.

Then there is the interviewer and the interview itself which seems a microcosm of the problem in getting through to people. He was not trying to listen and to understand with an eye towards gaining some more knowledge of the world. His sole interest was clearly in refuting. He wants to say that it is demeaning to our impulse to do good things by saying it is an evolved behavior. Never realizing that if anything it is demeaning to attribute it to some other thing for which there is no evidence so that we are not responsible for the good we do. And that aside, evolution seems to me to elevate the impulse to do good because it is such a wonderful and lucky thing that we have this tendency. Natural Selection makes it more precious since there was a chance that we might not have developed it the way we in fact did.