1. Which science book should the next US president read?

Comment #257652 by mind hypnotized on September 30, 2008 at 10:24 pm

Am I getting terrible at math or at reading? I swear the subtitle to this post on the link on the sidebar of the homepage said "six books". Here I only count five.

2. Why There Almost Certainly Is a God, By Keith Ward

Comment #255810 by mind hypnotized on September 28, 2008 at 9:39 am

"What is the point of being a materialist when we are not sure exactly what matter is?"

Okay, what is the point of being a theist when you don't know what God is? Immaterial? WTF is that? Ineffable? Omnipresent? An inherently unknowable being who acts through completely unknowable means. That's what God is. So we can either be a materialist and have some understanding of the world or be a theist and suffer complete agnosticism on all counts. Hmmm, tough choice.

Also, what's the deal with placing an agenda on it? I didn't realize "following the evidence" now constitutes a personal agenda.

3. Richard Dawkins branded 'secularist bigot' by veteran philosopher

Comment #224398 by mind hypnotized on August 4, 2008 at 9:07 pm

Perhaps I'm just old fashioned in my respect for elders. Am I the only one who thinks Flew deserves a better response than "He's a crazy senile sumbitch?" I mean, I read his book, and it was at best an argument for agnosticism based on incredulity. But still. He's freakin' Antony Flew. Address the points, Richard, or you really aren't working any harder than the fundamentalists.

(Of course, I will grant that it is more than likely that Dawkins anticipated these objections in his book and would not have much of a need to restate the claims. But if that's the case, just say that, rather than settling for ad hominems. If Dawkins did in fact say that, then shame on whoever wrote this article for misrepresenting the truth and making Dawkins look lazy.)

4. McDonald's Makes Jesus Cry

Comment #206620 by mind hypnotized on July 8, 2008 at 2:55 pm

If there is indeed a God, and He loves us, then truly the McRib was His heavenly way of showing just how much he loves us. Because the McRib is (was, and forever will be) infinitely delicious. I would be more moved by the ID arguments if they included in it the McRib and tales of the hardships of our Messiah, Ronald, the Son of God.

5. Science teacher dissed evolution

Comment #196970 by mind hypnotized on June 20, 2008 at 6:54 pm

Wait... 11 Years... 11 years? 11 YEARS?! Who in their right mind would watch this happen for 11 years?! This teacher, along with every person who had the power to put this constitutional breech to an end should be fired immediately, and never allowed to work in any form of education ever again. You can't just "tell" a creationist to "stop it". He likely believes that he must continue to "preach God's Word" (AKA spew complete bullshit to children) if he wants to ensure his attainment of eternal life. But he has to "stop it" if he wants to keep his job. Which one would you value more? A teaching job or eternal life? Hmmmm......

6. Logical Proof of the Existence of a Divine Creator, Why Atheism is Not Logically Sound

Comment #190544 by mind hypnotized on June 9, 2008 at 8:44 am

Anthony Flew? I read that book. It was barely more than 120 or so pages long (double-spaced, with wide margins, I might add). It was so devoid of any real content or argument. Actually, it looked very similar to the first half of this article. Allow me to demonstrate by summarizing the central argument of that book (and, apparently, this "original" article).

Look around, dude.... Random? NOOOO WAAAYYYY!

Okay, so that's a bit of a strawman, but my point is still the same. Confusing pure randomness with the processes at work in big bang physics and evolutionary biology is an even worse fallacy than my strawman.