1. Letter from Sir Richard Roberts asking Reiss to step down

Comment #248131 by SeaLife on September 15, 2008 at 5:06 pm

Ben Stein just had his first non-procreative orgasm in 32 years.

2. Free Will vs. the Programmed Brain

Comment #233824 by SeaLife on August 20, 2008 at 12:43 pm

Furthermore, through various religious indoctrination, people are made to believe that "determinism" is equivalent reckless behavior and thus people might subconsciously try to fit into this model if they are presented with a anti-freewill passage. This cultural influence is a major source of bias and the author(s) do not address this point at all.

Strange thing is that religious people also use free will as a response to the problem of evil as in "God allows evil to exist because people have to be free to choose it".

I personally think that's where the concept of free will arose. Otherwise, what's the use of it?

There are 2 possible definitions, and the concept is really just a muddling of those:
1. That we have the ability to decide our actions.
Or 2. That we are somehow free from physical determinism, and that we have a sort of "will" that affects our decisions beyond the structure and chemistry of our bodies.

By definition 1, we have free will because I experience making decisions which are translated into actions. This definition of free will is only common among philosophers.

Definition 2 is clearly ridiculous from a materialist perspective. It's the kind of free will theologians use. It is also the one used by most people and the writer of this article.

Also, the whole argument that tiny quantum unpredictabilities gives us free will is a total red herring because random is not the same as free. You would still be bound by physical laws, and it actually undermines free will by the first definition.

3. IT'S A GODDAMNED CRACKER!

Comment #206909 by SeaLife on July 9, 2008 at 1:03 am

hahahaha

If I typed out all the "ha"s that this story deserves, the internet would explode.

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

Comment #137688 by SeaLife on March 3, 2008 at 10:49 am

a "remarkably high" 44 percent have rejected the religion placed on them in childhood.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I think bad, since a lot of us have always assumed that indoctrination from childhood caused nearly all religiosity. Dawkins said that "...it is a telling fact that, the world over, the vast majority of children follow the religion of their parents rather than any of the other available religions."

We may have to consider that ending childhood indoctrination is not enough to create a rational society.