1. Breaking the Silence

Comment #193423 by F_A_F on June 15, 2008 at 3:00 pm

The ability to personify the "other" as simply the work of the devil and therefore it's ok to murder is one of the harsher aspects of religion it's true. I still get lots of angry looks whenever I say something which is deemed to offend god. To which the response has to be "If god has that big a problem with me, let him come down and sort it out himself....he doesn't need you helping him out". I somehow doubt that would work in this case however :S

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

Comment #190691 by F_A_F on June 9, 2008 at 11:56 am

Someone needs to let this guy know that arrogance does not improve the validity of an argument....if anything, it weakens it.

3. Reality wins in Texas!

Comment #189794 by F_A_F on June 7, 2008 at 9:33 am

Anyone else start feeling that the war against the teaching of evolution isn't so much about presenting a different set of facts as giving evolution a bloody nose?

I mean as far as I'm concerned, a creationist class need only spend 5 minutes on the day of term telling the students that "God did it", making sure they all heard it right, then handing out the diplomas. What else need it teach?

4. Faith no more as World Youth Day fans flames of disbelief

Comment #189788 by F_A_F on June 7, 2008 at 9:22 am

Even after the slightly pandering tone of this article, it's nice to see that some people see atheism as "accepting the facts" instead of just "bible-basher-bashing"....

It's a commonly held misbelief that us atheists want to eradicate religion. Well as nice as it would be to get rid of it once and for all, I for one will not be going round forcing people to change their minds.....they need to change them because they want to change. Articles like this at least show that there is a change happening across the world, and hopefully as more come to understand what atheism is REALLY about, then they will come join the party :)

5. Physicist Claims First Real Demonstration of Cold Fusion

Comment #187711 by F_A_F on June 2, 2008 at 1:23 pm

gas prices are cutting into my budget big time!

With the stranglehold that oil companies have on the world economy, you really think they would let cheap, easy energy leak onto the market? I expect to see this new technology crushed and derided on every front, especially in the US where petro-dollars fund appear to fund just about every political maneuvre.

Incidentally, next time you worry about the price of gas, consider that the current UK prices are £1.20 per litre for unleaded and about £1.30 per litre or more for diesel. Filling an average small car costs around £50, saloon around £100, and haulage firms are spending about £1k per week per truck on fuel....

6. Repulsive but right

Comment #184710 by F_A_F on May 26, 2008 at 2:50 am

I often find it hard to argue with christians who only have their faith because they want to be nice, kind, decent people.....so taking a contrary position seems almost hurtful.

But any religion is fine as long as you want to keep it to yourself. As soon as your religious belief starts to affect other people, either through action or inaction, then I'll fight you every step of the way. And being soft and cuddly often doesn't cut the cheese, so to speak. I doubt that being soft and cuddly managed to convert Europe to christianity hundreds of years ago, for example.

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

Comment #180214 by F_A_F on May 14, 2008 at 11:33 am

I hope that aliens do arrive down here. Then we can ask them if the space pope really IS reptilian :)

8. Faith in Britain today

Comment #177792 by F_A_F on May 9, 2008 at 5:48 pm

Is it just me or is this article stacked with "get out clauses"? It seems that under the barrage of ever-increasing facts we know about our universe, it becomes ever more common to express the "divine" as being conceieved in terms that humans cannot begin to understand, and is therefore beyond analysis:

Our faith is not founded on the conclusions of reason, but it is grounded in the Logos, the expressive Word that comes from God, and it is compatible with reasoned thought.

God is not a fact in the world, as though God could be treated as one thing among other things to be empirically investigated, affirmed or denied on the basis of observation. Many who deny God's existence treat God in this way, and they simply don't know how to ask the proper question about God.

We should remember that the proper response to God is that of faith, not absolute certainty. God is said by Christian theology to be ineffable, beyond our categories and thought capacity. St Thomas Aquinas after all is quite clear that 'imperfect knowledge belongs to the very nature of faith'.8 And there is a good reason for this â€" we have no positive grasp on the mystery of God. 'The divine substance,' Aquinas says, 'surpasses every form that our intellect reaches. Thus we are unable to apprehend it by knowing what it is.

All of the above are essentially suggesting that it is noble to accept a fact on evidence, but even more noble to accept a fact on no evidence. I'm kind of reminded of the quote from TGD along the lines of 'an even more impressive feat would be to create the universe from non-existance, therefore god does not exist' 8)

And then we go onto the usual inference that god is the source of truth and love, suggesting that to deny god is to deny that source and therefore be without love; a condition that no human being would wish to face.

It's pleasing in a way to see that at least the condition of atheism is being "legitimised" in this way, even if accepting the kudos of a catholic archbishop is the least preferable form. But anything which exposes atheists for the normal, intelligent people that we are can only help in the long run. For once, it would be nice not to be spurned as a heretic anyway ;)

9. Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists

Comment #165116 by F_A_F on April 21, 2008 at 4:53 am

If you want to remember how to do quotes click on the [Comment Posting Guidelines] just above the comment box you are typing in.

Thanks, it seems to have worked :)

10. Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists

Comment #165077 by F_A_F on April 21, 2008 at 3:27 am

Sorry I can never remember how to quote properly, but anyway:

"He assembles a stable of academics �quot; experts all who dared to question Darwinist assumptions and found themselves "expelled" from intellectual discourse as a result."

Surely a more accurate way of putting this would be that they were "expelled" from intellectual discourse for failing to provide an evidence-backed alternative to evolution. Come to me with evidence of how the earth was seeded by aliens and I'll happily sit up and listen. But come to me with a book telling me how an invisible man in the sky who goes around impregnating virgins and threatening unbelievers started it all, and I'll laugh you out of the room.

Evidence works for me, not hearsay, conjecture and theories lacking any factual basis apart from a copy of a book from Waterstones...

11. Lizards Undergo Rapid Evolution After Introduction To A New Home

Comment #164573 by F_A_F on April 20, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Agreed.....and to think they didn't teach this sort of thing in my classes at school, as the beattitudes were considered more relevant!

12. Richard Dawkins: 'Growth in creationist beliefs a problem for schools'

Comment #156505 by F_A_F on April 7, 2008 at 5:08 pm

"The number of school students in Britain who believe in creationism......"

I'm sure that a fair number also believe in Santa and the tooth fairy too, but it's down to our tireless educators to present them with the facts in order to expand their minds and come to the not unexpected decision that it's mum and dad who put 50p under their pillow.

It's fine to teach children about the existance of creationist thought, in the religous studies or sociology class. Then let them come to their own conclusions regarding whether it's to be believed or not.

13. Get out of here, atheists!

Comment #156501 by F_A_F on April 7, 2008 at 5:00 pm

I feel relatively grateful that in the UK the majority of politicians manage to keep their beliefs to themselves. Now if only they could do the same with their extra marital affairs 8)

14. New Atheists Are Not Great

Comment #145125 by F_A_F on March 17, 2008 at 9:31 am

""arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." Such invective clings like chewing gum to atheist polemics and raises the question of why these people are so worked up about a creator they don't believe exists."

Surely all that description stems from what anyone could read and understand based upon the text presented as the basis of many religions.....the old testament. Atheists haven't made those descriptions up, anyone who has read the old testament could come to the same conclusion.