1. Mail-boat record 'proves Darwin stole his original ideas from a Welsh scientist'

Comment #184645 by Pieter on May 25, 2008 at 10:34 pm

Having attended Leiden University i would be very suspect of anyone from there claiming to be an expert on anything. What a crappy school.

Besides, didn't Darwin have the Origin of the Species already written, but just unpublished for a decade prior to 1859?

2. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #179805 by Pieter on May 13, 2008 at 7:44 pm

Is anyone else here suddenly reminded of that South Park episode with the Gelgamek Catholics?

"The Gelgamek vagina is over three meters wide and filled with razor sharp teeth. Do you really expect us to have sex with them?!?"

surreal.

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

Comment #166069 by Pieter on April 22, 2008 at 5:43 pm

Willam LaSor should learn a little about relativity. Time is a function of the universe: ie. spacetime. Time started with the universe, and there was therefore no time before it. If that means the universe has existed forever then so be it.

4. A New Flea

Comment #160166 by Pieter on April 13, 2008 at 6:52 pm

This parade of anti-Dawkins books seems reminiscent of the pamphlet "100 Authors Against Einstein" to which he famously retorted; as should we; "If [we] were wrong, one would be enough."

5. Vatican: Islam surpasses Roman Catholicism as world's largest religion

Comment #152997 by Pieter on March 31, 2008 at 8:20 pm

Children should not be labelled as belonging to a particular religion. There's 300 million "muslims" you can cross off your list.

6. Survey shows Non-Religious Outnumber Those of Every Single Faith (But One)

Comment #137666 by Pieter on March 3, 2008 at 10:22 am

I think this is a pretty big deal. This makes the non-affiliated a larger demographic than evangelicals in the US. The problem is precisely that evangelicals are easily mobilized and herded- independent minds are harder to corral. But this survey also indicates that the non-affiliated atheist/agnostic group is one of the fastest growing groups, and is also disproportionately young- so it will only continue to grow.

7. Top 10 Reasons to Believe Logic Over Religion

Comment #114758 by Pieter on January 22, 2008 at 6:14 pm

Ok, time to clear up some nonsense about Dr. Paul here. 1st, that new republic article is part of smear campaign- his newsletter was not written by him, it certainly wouldn't have been published had he known about it, and he's already apologized for its contents and promised to be more aware of what gets written in his name- all this years ago after the original article was published.

Second, the Ron Paul doesn't believe in evolution nonsense. Go back to when McCain was asked if he believed in evolution, and the the field of candidates was asked which did not. The 3 who raised their hands were Huckabee, Hunter, and Tancredo. The clips showing Paul apparently not believing in evolution are taken out of context.

Next, on abortion, a moral issue that for him ranks life ahead of liberty, and property, but it remains for him a personal moral issue. What he has against roe. v. wade is that decisions on abortion (ie, the legality of it) should be made at state and local levels, and that it's not a federal issue. Thus if roe v. wade is overturned federally, and it become a local issue (and roughly 65-75% of americans are pro-choice) it may only be banned in some areas. (so if you need an abortion just hop in the car across a state line and you should be ok). and at least he's not a true nutter who would be anti-abortion and anti-contraceptives.

anyways, i encourage everyone to check him out at ronpaul2008.com. the man has a record truly a cut above most people in the race for US president.

8. Violence fear over Islam film

Comment #113707 by Pieter on January 20, 2008 at 11:28 am

The VVD is not an extremist party! Wilders isn't even a member of VVD anymore. The VVD is the Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie- People's party for freedom and democracy (essential a socially and economically liberal party). Wilders has his own party, Partij voor de Vrijheid, it's similarly named but he's running it. and even his party is hardly an extremist party. dutch politics is incredibly banal, but people should still get their parties right.

plus the country is so damn socialist that it's small wonder you get idiots like foreign minister maxime verhagen who fundamentally misunderstand the nature of liberalism. i'd sooner call that socialist boob an extremist than Wilders.

9. Turkey probes atheist's 'God' book

Comment #91406 by Pieter on November 28, 2007 at 8:41 am

I agree with fanushi, and was always kind of surprised TGD and other books didn't kick off more of a firestorm sooner in the muslim world. it may be that unlike Salman Rushdie Prof. Dawkins is not in their minds an 'apostate'. Nevertheless, i would not count on this being the end of it.

10. The good that comes from belief

Comment #86592 by Pieter on November 9, 2007 at 4:59 pm

Corollary effects of religion are simply one facet of the argument, and plenty of evidence can be dredged up by all sides to support any position. Still, it all simply has no bearing on the far more important question- are religions true?

11. The Year of Living Biblically

Comment #84617 by Pieter on November 2, 2007 at 9:40 pm

I love The Hour. seriously, everyone outside of canada is missing out.

12. Arguments Against Evolution

Comment #81480 by Pieter on October 24, 2007 at 8:08 pm

If humans are not evolved beings then why do we have tail bones, appendixes, and wisdom teeth? If we are intelligently designed beings then our designer was certainly looking out for the interests of surgeons and dentists.

13. Norway flourishes as secular nation

Comment #76130 by Pieter on October 4, 2007 at 7:55 pm

Norway also has a lot of oil. Norway is also not a member of the EU. We should beware of attributing too much cause and effect. After all, wasn't there a paper on this website by some sociologists that claimed the reason why America was so religious was that it lacked a typical european social safety net (no free health care, etc) and therefore more people found comfort, security, and a communal safety net in their religion. Perhaps Norway is so secular because it is prosperous...

14. Polygamist Leader Convicted in Utah

Comment #73690 by Pieter on September 25, 2007 at 9:37 pm

Anyone who's up for a good read on Mormon fundamentalism (and a lot of mainstream mormonism as well) should pick up a book by John Krakauer called "Under the Banner of Heaven." It was published a few years ago but it mentions Jeffs' group and what goes on in their communities.

15. God Talk on 'The View'

Comment #71615 by Pieter on September 19, 2007 at 11:01 am

If you guys want to see something really scary you should have seen the women they interviewed for the new season of 'beauty and the geek.' they make the girls on the view seem like the leading intellectuals of our age.

16. Catholic school board in Halton may ban HPV vaccination

Comment #71398 by Pieter on September 18, 2007 at 5:10 pm

I guess since pregnancy, aids, herpes, the clap, and crabs, don't seem to be working as deterrents to pre-marital sex it would be a shame to lose cancer.

17. Camp Joins Summer Fun With Teaching Hindu Faith

Comment #58580 by Pieter on July 25, 2007 at 8:51 am

I agree, but one of the worst things about hinduism is, and always has been, the caste system. if there's a better example of how a religion is used as a method of social coercion i'd like to hear it.

18. For Muslim Extremists, Religion Matters

Comment #54374 by Pieter on July 6, 2007 at 3:41 pm

I only wanted to point out that the view that muslims were tolerant in the past is an entirely relative construct. by today's standards it would be the definition of an apartheid system. and i wanted to point out that the dhimmi that were tolerated were largely other 'people of the book' (and later some hindus shieks, and buddhists) but i am very doubtful that atheists would be tolerated there. The dhimma reeks of ecumenicism and there would likely be no place for atheists in it.

oh, and one more thing that really bugs me about historical discussions about islam. there was no muslim golden age. it only seemed golden relative to the dark ages the west was going through. what were the major cultural achievements in the islamic golden age? preserving and copying the philosophy of ancient greeks (after they burnt most of it when they sacked alexandria). Preserving and copying, preserving and copying. And a few comments by Averoes. the fact that we even speak of this period with any kind of respect or reverence just show how much we have to reach in order to come up with something admirable about islamic civilization. 'You preserved plato for us.' whoop-dee-do.

In all honesty, if that is the most significant cultural achievement of an entire civilization then i am unimpressed.

19. For Muslim Extremists, Religion Matters

Comment #54355 by Pieter on July 6, 2007 at 1:44 pm

Neil, let's not kid ourselves to the extent of muslim tolerance. They only looked tolerant by comparison to some Xian fanatics in Europe. They allowed non-muslims to live in their lands and worship what they wanted but as second class citizens; Dhimmis. They had to pay a special tax, and depending upon the location, subjected to a variety of other discriminations.

Oh and if such a tolerant system was ever brough about what kind of place would we all have in such a society, since on top of being non-muslims we are also positively affirming atheism? "Kill the unbelivers wherever you find them" is probably what we should expect.

20. For Muslim Extremists, Religion Matters

Comment #54293 by Pieter on July 6, 2007 at 9:42 am

I'm with Giskard on this one. Although it's not really a practical solution, the only reinterpretation of religious scripture that i would endorse would be the one that concludes it is all bunk and bull.

21. At a Theater Near You ...

Comment #53936 by Pieter on July 4, 2007 at 9:16 am

The real problem for islamic moderates is that there really aren't that many out there. Of the 1.2 billion muslims that supposedly exist how many are older than 25 years? How many are literate? How many are educated? How many can we say form this elite core of muslim intelligentsia that holds sway over their co-religionists? And how many of these men are not the hate spewing university educated wahhabi funded salafist mullahs?

And then if we do manage to track down the elite moderate core of islamic thought (bear in mind it will probably still seem pretty fundamentalist to us; even Jordan's King Abdullah condemned Denmark for the cartoons, instead of supporting free speech) what do you people think they will be branded as when they being to speak up? Apostates! Traitors! Not true muslims, becasue they have been posioned by western influence. See the case of Irshad Manji if you don't believe me. And here's another possibility to bear in mind, for it is happening as well, that plenty of muslims who are, in a sense, moderated by exposure to non-islamic ideas actually do become apostates. They abandon the religion altogether, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is case and point here.

I think that at its basics Islam is not a moderate religion. As Harris has written, moderation comes from hammer blows of modernity blasting away at faith. Moderate christians and jews do not take the bible/torah literally. How could they, and still seem like reasonable people. The problem for muslims is that they are all essentially fundamentalists. They are scriptural literalists. Whereas the torah and bible are assembled texts by many many different authors, the koran has supposedly one author, is dictated explicitly, and meant to be taken literally and no other way.

In the past islam may have been moderated by bulky amounts of theology and mysticism, but the wahabbi and salafist movements have done away with all that. I don't think we have the time nor the patience to let islam build up centuries of obscure theology again. Supporting the moderates is not going to work. There aren't that many of them, they aren't effective spokespeople, and they won't be what we're looking for.

Better to meet it head on, confront islam for what it is, and at least in the west assert more control over who gets let into our countries and what kind of rabid fascist filth they can spew in their houses of worship. Deport anyone who treasonously supports the destruction of the very political system that grants them the freedom to say what they want. Tolerance cannot abide intolerance, and that does not make it contradictory (read Voltaire). Allow we to close with my favorite south park quote, done in the redneck voice: "if you don't like [America] then all of you can just get out."

22. Floods are judgment on society, say bishops

Comment #53519 by Pieter on July 1, 2007 at 10:11 pm

This kind of drivel always reminds me of the monty python hymn from "The Meaning of Life";

O Lord, please don't burn us.
Don't grill or toast Your flock.
Don't put us on the barbecue
Or simmer us in stock.
Don't braise or bake or boil us
Or stir-fry us in a wok.
Oh, please don't lightly poach us
Or baste us with hot fat.
Don't fricassee or roast us
Or boil us in a vat,
And please don't stick Thy servants, Lord,
In a Rotissomat.

Anyways, what a bunch of toads.

23. Nato accuses Taliban of using children in suicide missions

Comment #53334 by Pieter on June 30, 2007 at 9:13 pm

This is disgusting.

24. The Stupidity of Fox News is Truly Beyond Belief

Comment #52321 by Pieter on June 26, 2007 at 6:01 pm

i am reminded of a quote, from the film Billy Madison no less:

[Father Morris], what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

but Clooney and Jolie are atheists. sweet deal.

25. 4 page German spread on The God Delusion

Comment #52313 by Pieter on June 26, 2007 at 5:40 pm

i don't know, i wouldn't be too keen on TGD being translated into farsi and posted in Tehran. Who knows how soon the fatwa will come down then, ala Rushdie.

it would help to make our case though.

26. In the name of the Father

Comment #51692 by Pieter on June 24, 2007 at 5:48 am

What the hell is this guy doing mentioning Plato. My history may be a bit fuzzy, and i'm not a professional logician or anything, but i don't think that anyone who lived in the 4th century before christ worshipped christ. and to my knowledge ecumenicism amongst believers has not yet extended back towards the dead religions we know as mythology.

27. An Inquisition in science's name

Comment #51375 by Pieter on June 22, 2007 at 2:13 pm

Preston Manning is, and long has been a national embarrasment. As a western canadian o may feel this even more than others. The man's a douche. On behalf of rational Albertans: Sorry.

28. The God Delusion - Dawkins Feature

Comment #50803 by Pieter on June 20, 2007 at 2:47 am

thanks my good scotsman. i think i'll head out to the grand opening, or maybe later when it won't be so busy, and have a look-see. i'll fill you all in on how good it is.

29. The God Delusion - Dawkins Feature

Comment #50802 by Pieter on June 20, 2007 at 2:47 am

thanks my good scotsman. i think i'll head out to the grand opening, or maybe later when it won't be so busy, and have a look-see. i'll fill you all in on how good it is.

30. The God Delusion - Dawkins Feature

Comment #50772 by Pieter on June 20, 2007 at 12:10 am

there's a creationist museum opening up in alberta?? this i gotta see!

31. Gamma-Ray Wipe-Out

Comment #47312 by Pieter on June 4, 2007 at 3:58 am

thanks steve. the program i saw was from a few years ago, but it really didn't do much to try and play down people's fears of a gamma wave killing everything without a moment's notice.

32. Gamma-Ray Wipe-Out

Comment #47208 by Pieter on June 3, 2007 at 1:29 pm

I saw a program on the discovery channel (or maybe PBS) about the discovery of these gamma ray extinctions. it didn't posit that any had happened to the earth yet, but the fact that we detect faint traces of hypernovae daily still scares the shit out of me. from what i remember a hypernovae can be a galactic-killer, sterilizing all life-giving planets for hundreds of thousands of light-years. if one happened in the milky way it probably wasn't as powerful as they say they can be.

33. The Paradoxical Hatred of Christopher Hitchens

Comment #42839 by Pieter on May 20, 2007 at 12:45 am

It seems to be a running theme that theists think that tolerant people who are only intolerant towards the intolerant are just as intolerant as the intolerant themselves.

sorry just saw the Colber Report bit, couldn't help myself.

34. Manufacturing belief

Comment #42379 by Pieter on May 18, 2007 at 6:13 am

the way i see it our genes are what are responsible for creating out hardware (our bodies and brains, etc) whilst memes are the software, it guides how we think, includes our languages, philosophies, art, and knowledge not from personal experience.

now it's a perfectly legitimate question to ask how the hardware helps maybe to form and sustain the software, but ultimately if we look at statistics that show people overwhelmingly follow the religions of their parents we see that whether or not someone is religious or not has more to do with their software. finding a god gene is missing the point. it is putting nature much to far above nurture.

35. Intellectual Diversity or Intellectual Insult?

Comment #39068 by Pieter on May 9, 2007 at 11:04 pm

what's the problem here. if you get taken to task for not including some creationist mumbo jumbo one can easily defend oneself because the crap isn't "intellectual". i'm all for diversity, but it should be a rational diversity first and foremost.

36. The moment a teenage girl was stoned to death for loving the wrong boy

Comment #37717 by Pieter on May 5, 2007 at 2:20 pm

Hey if anyone's interested i'm pretty sure this story was already in the news a week ago. It was mentioned becasue sunnis had already taken revenge on the Yezidi when they heard about the stoning. Apparently a bus full of Yezidi and christians in iraq was stopped by gunmen, the christians were let go, and about 20 Yezidi were then gunned down on the bus. Just when you think it can't get any worse....

37. Mormonism: A Racket Becomes a Religion

Comment #35531 by Pieter on April 27, 2007 at 1:49 pm

Just so everyone's all set, Christopher Hitchens is set to appear on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on monday night (one would assume) to promote the new book.

Hopefully Jon wont drag him into a conversation on Iraq like the last time he was on (although it was still a good interview!), it's just that they didn't really get to talk about his book (the one on Jefferson).

Can't wait to see it. Cheers ~Pieter

38. One Hell of a Religious Read

Comment #34449 by Pieter on April 24, 2007 at 5:31 am

If anyone wants to get started on the highly profitable road of professional philosophy the book i would recommend to read first is Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy. It has good sections on just about everyone from the pre-socratic up to himself.

39. 'The Day They Kicked God out of the Schools' & Rebuttal

Comment #34170 by Pieter on April 23, 2007 at 12:38 pm

Was anyone else really bugged by the fact that they place the Taber AB shooting somewhere in SW Manitoba. I mean i know the provincial lines weren't on the map, but still...

nah, you guys are probably more bugged by the content than geography.

40. Atheists split on how to not believe

Comment #33976 by Pieter on April 23, 2007 at 12:06 am

the problem with humanism is that humans are a pretty awful species when you think about it. -Pieter

41. In the beginning

Comment #33970 by Pieter on April 22, 2007 at 11:30 pm

anyone find it kind of hypocritical that the pope requires an impossibly high burden of proof for evolution (like seeing a process requiring billions of years being reproduced in a lab experiment) but requires absolutely no proof for accepting religious theories.

wait a minute, of course we all do. ~Pieter

42. Praying for the Apocalypse

Comment #30703 by Pieter on April 9, 2007 at 11:58 am

We're thinking about this all wrong. There's money to be made from this nonsense. 'Rapture Insurance' anyone?

43. U.N. Panel OKs Measure on Islam

Comment #28864 by Pieter on March 31, 2007 at 11:52 am

This is absolutely ludicrous. I guess this is what you get when you include coutries such as China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Russia, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Jordan on the bloody Human Rights council.

44. God Is on Our Side. Does That Mean War?

Comment #28247 by Pieter on March 28, 2007 at 1:59 pm

i just can't wait for mothers across America to say to their kids; "put down that Bible right now young man, it desensitizes you to violence. why don't you play some Gears of War instead?"

45. Lewis Wolpert and William Lane Craig on Religion

Comment #23947 by Pieter on March 3, 2007 at 5:44 pm

wait, did this guy actually say "the notion that we should only believe that which can be established by evidence ultimately leads to an unreasonable scepticism."?!?!?!?!?!?!

i beleive this guy's a child molester. let's lock him up in a supermax prison, and don't ask for evidence of his guilt. that would be unreasonalbly sceptical of us.

46. My critics are wrong to call me dogmatic

Comment #22028 by Pieter on February 12, 2007 at 12:09 pm

Alister McGrath = A flea on Darwin's Rotweiller. i like it.

47. Panel discussion on atheism where no atheists are included

Comment #20865 by Pieter on February 6, 2007 at 8:56 pm

personally my "favorite" part was when the panelists began lambasting michael newdow for 'exploiting' his daughter. that the child was to young to know what it was all about, etc. but at the same time we need prayer in schools. hilarious.

personally i'm with chris rock on the issue of school prayer. "we don't need prayer in schools; we need the tossed-salad man in schools. that'll straighten the kids out; jimmy you got a D, you know what you gotta do?"

48. [Warning: Graphic] Children's foreheads slashed in Muslim saint's name

Comment #20279 by Pieter on February 1, 2007 at 1:13 pm

I wonder if anyone has seen the Passionate Eye documentary from a few years ago titled "In the Name of God: Scenes from the Extreme". In it they show a scene from one of these shia rituals, also with screaming children, but mostly psychotic older men dancing around in their own blood. a good movie in any respect, no narration, only what the camera captured.

oh, and in keeping with the child abuse theme of this thread i'm wondering if anyone has been following the story in Vancouver about the sextuplets (well there's only four of them now) that were taken from their jehovah's witness parents to give them blood transfusions. here's a link in any respect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6321363.stm

cheers- Pieter

49. Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #20260 by Pieter on February 1, 2007 at 10:17 am

oh Pantore, i would sincerely have to disagree. as i said they are at best (or worst depending on your POV) a classical liberal party. If you believe that capitalism is a form of fascism then i can see how one draws your conclusion. I do not think this is the case, and i think that a truly free market with minimal government interference, bolstered by strong constitutional protections of liberal rights such as free speech, assembly, habeas corpus, due process, etc, results in the exact opposite of a fascist society. i think the VVD simply wants the netherlands to scale back on its burdensome social programs and taxation levels and make holland more competitive. and by the way- by saying the VVD is evil, and banishing rita verdonk to a deserted island it is you my friend that sounds more like the fascist. watch out for that- but i don't think this thread is the place to discuss these political nuances.

50. Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #20098 by Pieter on January 31, 2007 at 10:50 am

Pantore, how can you charaterize the VVD as an evil political party? It's a centre-right (extremely left by North American standards) libertarian party run by the extremely nerdy Mark Rutte. If anything it was Rita Verdonk who was evil for expelling her from the Netherlands. But my own sneaky suspicion was that she left because of her upcoming film Submission II (and possibly her book), and the Muhammed Cartoon scale incident that it could kick off for Holland. That and she was probably sick and tired of living under guard for three years.