1. CFI-UN Hamid Karzai Letter

Comment #201901 by info_dump on June 30, 2008 at 11:53 am

I know this has been brought up before, but what else can we do to put pressure on our politicians to do something about this?

I'm in Canada, and I'd love for someone on this forum to provide some suggestions on who to write, what points to address, etc. I'm admittedly ignorant of these sorts of politics...

2. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195080 by info_dump on June 17, 2008 at 4:59 pm

Bravo! Good to have another heretic in the fold.

3. My Response to Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

Comment #177203 by info_dump on May 8, 2008 at 6:35 pm

I know Richard is under no obligation here, but what about all the other points made in Shmuley's letter to which this was a response? There were several other points of interest (interesting to me at least), not to mention an open challenge to a debate.

Or is it best to just let this thing die at this point?

4. Dumb and Dumber: A discussion between Ben Stein and Glenn Beck

Comment #175492 by info_dump on May 5, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Knowing what we know about the Dawkins interview (for example), and how they edited it and put his comments out of context... when you watch Stein discuss it here you can see him flat-out lying about it all. It's beyond "stretching the truth" or any cute little euphemism - he's just bald-face lying.

That's remarkable to me. I don't often get to see that level of outright dishonesty in real time, and know exactly which points are false.

5. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #162937 by info_dump on April 17, 2008 at 5:24 pm

Sweet. New avatar!

6. Upside-down church sculpture on hit list

Comment #155977 by info_dump on April 6, 2008 at 1:02 pm

Blocks Stanley Park? At what angle? Do you even know where this sculpture is?

I thought I did... Isn't it right by the bike/walking path that leads from Coal Harbour to Stanley Park? The path from which there is a view of those floating gas stations and Stanley Park just beyond?

7. Upside-down church sculpture on hit list

Comment #154777 by info_dump on April 3, 2008 at 5:38 pm

There use to be a sculpture of a prostitute in Sydney. A number of people didn't like it and kept knocking it's head off. Eventually it started to look a bit like the Bride of Frankenstein. The point being, if you build controversial public sculpture, it's going to get vandalized.

Yeah, in Vancouver we have this big clock that counts down to 2010 when the olympics will be here. It's controversial because lots of Vancouverites don't want to host the olympics. It gets vandalized all the time. Actually, I think they have guards watching it now.

I don't think the ugly church thing has been vandalized though.

8. Upside-down church sculpture on hit list

Comment #154761 by info_dump on April 3, 2008 at 5:14 pm

I'd like to mention that it's NOT seven stories high. It's two at the most. But it is an eyesore, and it blocks a lovely view of Stanley park.

9. Christopher Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher

Comment #136878 by info_dump on March 1, 2008 at 11:23 pm

it is build on the completely idiotic belief of reincationation

Again, another common misunderstanding. Buddhism is by no means built on a belief in reincarnation (which is idiotic, I agree). I think some forms of Buddhism do believe in reincarnation, but there are major branches of Buddhism, including Zen, which don't believe any such thing. It's not really a central belief, and is by no means a foundational teaching.

I always like when you post - your avatar is, um, titillating.

10. Christopher Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher

Comment #136876 by info_dump on March 1, 2008 at 11:16 pm

Talking about Buddhism, believing that some kind of invisible force that causes bad things to happen to you when you do bad things, karma, isn't any different than an invisible sky god meeting out punishments.

I think that's a misunderstanding of karma. I won't pretend I'm some expert on Buddhism, but you can look up "karma in buddhism" on wikipedia for a start, if you're actually interested. Suffice it to say karma is way more nuanced, and isn't an invisible force.

Your point is well taken though, that there are many aspects of Buddhism that seem like superfluous mysticism, which is not so appealing to me. Some of the ideas are pretty interesting though. Most of what I know about Buddhism comes from listening to MP3 lectures by Alan Watts, which I would recommend to anyone who wants to learn from someone who understands the rather complicated subject, and knows how to teach it.

11. Christopher Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher

Comment #136861 by info_dump on March 1, 2008 at 10:08 pm

There is no consistent dogma about how the Buddha was born.

I'd like to add that "The Buddha" doesn't strictly refer to a single person. Besides Gautama Buddha, there are several people in history referred to as "buddhas", and all people are supposed to be capable of becoming buddhas. As I understand it, Buddhists don't really worship Gautama Buddha or any of the others, and I don't think they're considered "deities". Hitchens' point about gods bypassing the birth canal is interesting, but I don't think it applies to Buddha.

12. Christopher Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher

Comment #136805 by info_dump on March 1, 2008 at 6:10 pm

Nice to see some of my favourite media personalities all in one place. I thought Dan Savage was pretty well-spoken.

13. Pakistan blocks YouTube over blasphemous video

Comment #133146 by info_dump on February 25, 2008 at 5:20 pm

The countries acted after concluding that YouTube videos were subversive (China), immoral (Iran), embarrassing to well-known figures (Brazil) or critical of a country's king (Thailand), the group said.

My reaction to this article surprised me: it made me smile. Honestly I don't fully understand why, but I think it's because the more these countries protest sites like YouTube, which (for the most part) promote free speech, the more I think these sites are doing something right.

I'm also smiling because of the paragraph I quoted above. All of the complaints listed are GOOD things in my mind. We need more web sites that are considered subversive to communist China, and immoral by Iran's standards. Brazil, what's wrong with embarrassing well-known figures? And is Thailand's king really so insecure that he can't handle criticism on the internet?

The freedom allowed by so many areas of the Internet, the freedom to share ideas, is ultimately dangerous to repressive regimes. It promotes the use of our brain, which is bad when you're trying to control people.

I think the Internet is going to cause big revolutions before too long. You can see countries like Pakistan are nervous about it. They can't block out ALL of the offensive material on the Internet. Yes, they can effectively filter out quite a bit of it, but the technology to circumvent their censorship is readily available.

I'm smiling more now. I can't wait for people to wake up and use their brains.

14. How he was sentenced to die

Comment #133136 by info_dump on February 25, 2008 at 4:43 pm

43. Comment #133076 by Tack -

Good to see that some of our MPs are responding. I sent an e-mail to my MP and never heard back.

15. Don't blame Islam for terrorism, expert says

Comment #130886 by info_dump on February 21, 2008 at 12:34 pm

Jolly Blogger,

Those are my thoughts exactly. His arguments don't let Islam off the hook.

Also, I'm from Vancouver too, and I agree. It's definitely not cool to say anything that could be considered offensive to muslims, or anything that would threaten our "multi-cultural" values. I'm beginning to realize that multiculturalism in its present form isn't all it's cracked up to be.

16. Fleabytes

Comment #129707 by info_dump on February 19, 2008 at 1:38 pm

Having been struck one Sunday by a line in the creed that I realised I simply didn't believe, I began to scrutinise every word of every Bible reading, every hymn, every sermon, every prayer to see what else I was unconsciously saying "amen" to without actually believing. What became clear to me was that church services put words into their congregations' mouths all the time, and that congregations are lulled into not even noticing the fact.

Wow. This is exactly what happened to me, but I've never been able to sum it up so clearly. It's like snapping out of a daydream.

Thanks for a great review of these books, and thanks for that paragraph in particular. Much food for thought.

17. Study: Religion colors Americans' views of nanotechnology

Comment #128976 by info_dump on February 18, 2008 at 11:48 am

Has anyone else noticed that this article is bullshit? For example:

Dietram Scheufele, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of life sciences communication, presented new survey results that show religion exerts far more influence on public views of technology in the United States than in Europe.

Remember your very first college science class when they explained the difference between correlation and causation? Can a survey really show that one thing "exerts influence" on another thing?

I'm not sure what the actual study says, but this article about it is taking some liberties, since a survey can't say "A causes B". Who knows, maybe American's views on technology "color" their views on religion! Maybe some third factor "colors" both religion and views on technology. Sorry for the 101 stuff here, but that's why they teach us these things.

Not to mention the somewhat vague details provided about how they gathered information on religious views. And (someone mentioned this already) if they ask a question about whether something is "morally objectionable" that frames it as a controversial issue, and could easily affect the results.

Who knows, maybe the study itself is perfectly valid. We'd have to read it. It certainly doesn't offer the broad conclusions suggested by the article though.

18. New meat-eating dinos identified

Comment #127505 by info_dump on February 15, 2008 at 10:56 am

Designoid. I like it.

So then:

"short, armoured jaws and small teeth, well designoided for gobbling guts and gnawing carcasses"

Perfect! In this context, I'd rather use "adapted" or "designed". As I mentioned, I'm quite sure Prof. Dawkins uses the word "design" in this sense (without implication of a designer) at least in The Blind Watchmaker. I'll have to search for some examples though.

19. New meat-eating dinos identified

Comment #127069 by info_dump on February 14, 2008 at 10:11 pm

Well ADAPTED, not "designed".

I'm not sure if it's necessary to avoid using the word "design" just because there's no designer. It's a perfectly useful word without any supernatural implications, don't you think? I mean, you're likely to encounter the word "design" in any of Richard Dawkins' evolution books.

20. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #126081 by info_dump on February 12, 2008 at 12:48 pm

Having recently made the transition from Christianity to intellectual honesty (thanks Richard!), I feel a bit funny about celebrating Darwin Day. Do I really need to replace my former imaginary god with a new, "scientific" one?

I realize for many of us here that's not the case at all. I'm not even criticizing the idea of Darwin Day - do whatever you will. As for me though, with my former superstitious traditions so fresh in mind, what better way to celebrate my freedom from religion than by not celebrating anything at all? I'm sitting this one out. Hope I'm making sense.

21. Christopher Hitchens Debates Timothy Jackson

Comment #123893 by info_dump on February 7, 2008 at 11:22 pm

Jackson keeps calling Hitch "Professor Hitchens". Quite amusing.

22. A Letter From Hell

Comment #115844 by info_dump on January 24, 2008 at 11:06 pm

What a manipulative piece of crap. It sure makes god look nice doesn't it?

One question - how did that guy manage to continue writing a letter as he was being dragged away by angels?

Maybe he was dictating the letter to a scribe angel who also delivered it.

23. US scientists close to creating artificial life: study

Comment #115794 by info_dump on January 24, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Yes! Very good point: I opened the can of worms myself, even if it was more of a meta-comment. It happens in pretty much every science thread though, and while I completely understand - this is an athiest 'hub' of sorts - I still get a kick out of it.

On a completely separate note, I think this article is really cool, and I love the fact that I've seen a handful of similar articles which give me the impression that we're on the verge of something huge (and controversial) in the field of genetics. I'm all for it.

24. US scientists close to creating artificial life: study

Comment #115788 by info_dump on January 24, 2008 at 7:37 pm

When I'm on this site reading a genuinely fascinating science article such as this, I sometimes play a game afterwards. I count the number of comments before someone says something along the lines of "another nail in the creationist coffin", bringing it back to the topic of religion.

Wait for it...

25. Ben Stein Bribing Schools to See His Anti-Evolution Movie 'Expelled'

Comment #112652 by info_dump on January 17, 2008 at 4:57 pm

Actually, that may be true. As far as I know the only clear and complete formation of a true species (as against the process partly complete) that has been observed in Nature was when the marsh grass Spartina anglica arose in Europe.

I recently attended a talk by Peter and Rosemary Grant, two evolutionary biologists who have been doing a longitudinal study of Darwin's finches on Galapagos. The study has spanned three decades, and during that time they have been able to actually see natural selection at work, which apparently no one thought could happen in a single life time. It was pretty fascinating.

Anyway, they have been able to observe the branching-off of new varieties of finches, to the point where they no longer interbreed. Even though the different varieties are still genetically compatible, and will be for a few million years, the Grants have observed that the initial barrier between species isn't genetic. In the case of the finches, it's the different songs that keep them from mating with each other. Their book, "How and Why Species Multiply," is definitely on my ever-growing list.

As a side note, this is my first post on the RD forum. I've been reading for a while and I always enjoy it. Glad to be participating.