1. Gods and earthlings

Comment #166587 by ghostbuster on April 23, 2008 at 10:18 am

God is a very bad explanation for anything....and more so now that we know a few more things. That being said, we don't know very much about the universe (or universes), quantum mechanics, branes and perhaps a million things not even thought of. Arguing about aliens and alien life is pretty much in that category...who knows how far intelligence can evolve and what will define our reality a million years from now if we are even still here? Certainly in the 12th century, jumbo jets were not a part of human consciousness.
I am sure there's much more that isn't in ours at present...we can't even lift ourselves out primitive warfare yet, an attribute the sponge evolved millions of years ago and we, like the sponge, can't yet shake off. Science is the best we have because it doesn't claim to have the truth so much as it continues to search for it.....only religion claims to know it all and by closer examination, ends up knowing very little. I hope science doesn't fall into the same trap filling in the so-called gaps with pseudoscience..prentending to know something, using scienific jargon to explain it and NOT having the evidence (at least non-biased evidence) to support it. As to the future? Well, there's evidence that the butterfly remembers being a caterpillar but no evidence that a caterpillar knows it's going to be a butterfly. We can't "know" until we do "know". By the way, if one thinks that life is "fuzzy", consciousness is even more so.....even caterpillar consciousness!

2. Christopher Hitchens and Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa

Comment #67024 by ghostbuster on September 1, 2007 at 11:11 am

Bill Donahue wants evidence? References? Tell me, where can I get those things in the Bible?

3. Open letter to Michael Shermer in response to his letter...

Comment #65280 by ghostbuster on August 23, 2007 at 12:59 pm

We do not respect fascism or communism because of the millions of dead people left in their wakes. Yet, we are asked to respect religion that has left millions of people dead in its wake? Sorry. Not me.

4. Artificial Life Likely in 3 to 10 Years

Comment #64524 by ghostbuster on August 20, 2007 at 1:10 pm

Now, now,now....when electrically charged dust is immersed in ionized gas, that dust forms crystals and spirals, possibly double-helices identical to DNA structures. Scientists are now speculating that the dust particles in Jupiter and Saturn's rings form these patterns (and possibly life). Here atheists and christians can agree--dust to dust--however, I refuse to believe that we are therefore the products of God having a bad case of gas.

5. New age therapies cause 'retreat from reason'

Comment #62416 by ghostbuster on August 9, 2007 at 4:39 pm

By the way, some good papers can be found on Canadians for Rational Health Policies. See how a western nation, supposedly educated, can go so wrong!

6. New age therapies cause 'retreat from reason'

Comment #62412 by ghostbuster on August 9, 2007 at 4:34 pm

Boils down to this: when a person's bullshit detector is damaged or destroyed, they cannot reconize bullshit when they see it. New Age fills the vacuum left where religion once dwelled. Alternative medicine (and there IS no alternative--either it works in clinical double-blind studies or it does not) and organic mish mash is yet another form of mass manipulation. In Canada, the Health Directorate that "police" fraudulent claims has majority members on its board that are associated with alternative medicine. That's why we have watered-down policies. In fact, there are alternative clinics opening as I speak. We have to respect "traditional" medicines you know--whether they work or not. Mostly not.
Ahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

7. Why I Believe Anti-Evangelism Is Wrong

Comment #57815 by ghostbuster on July 21, 2007 at 8:47 am

I guess we should have shut up about Nazism and the holocaust too. Since when should anyone shut up about injustices and its causes? Moral relativism working in this argument, (ie) everyone has their own "truth" so nobody is right and nobody is wrong. Sorry, that doesn't fly by me.

8. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57660 by ghostbuster on July 20, 2007 at 1:22 pm

Not hard to figure out why really smart people believe in really dumb things; we have an emotional compartment to our selves, one that frequently will not let go of comfortable beliefs no matter how many facts are presented to refute them. It is the one reason that cult members, presented with undeniable evidence that their cult is false, are even that much more inclined to support the cult's beliefs. That dead stare you get from Jehovah Witness's when you catch them in their faulty logic is a "does-not-compute" signal coming from the emotional side of the brain rather than the intellectual side. This conflict is called, simply, compartmentalization. I think most of us are guilty of it in other ways too.

9. Hitler Was an Atheist Who Killed Millions in the Name of Atheism, Secularism?

Comment #56559 by ghostbuster on July 16, 2007 at 12:14 pm

Hitler had a fascination with the occult, including gaining possession of the spear that pierced Christ. Lots of Christians and non-Christians dabble in the occult but I think the Nazis needed a framework against which to perpetuate their beliefs---occultism, religion, alternative medicine, the usual anti-science, anti-intellectualism stuff which works surprisingly well now as it did then. We must not forget that atheists can fall into dogma just about as well as anyone else, particularly politcal dogma and it is always a good habit to self-evaluate not only what we believe, but WHY we believe it. The latter is often more important than the former.
It may not have mattered what Hitler believed but it certainly did matter how his beliefs influenced his rule and how they were presented to the populace that put him in the position to rule in the first place. It is akin to saying it didn't matter what those who believed in slavery believed about who were enslaved. Yes, it does. Especially to the millions of dead and tortured slaves.
Yes, Hitler used religion to manipulate. Gee, who didn't? Priests have whispered in the ears of Kings for centuries; the Chief and the Shaman have been figures of power for centuries. It was the Catholic Church that formed the so-called "rat lines" that got high-ranking Nazis out of harms way to be fully integrated into Canadian and American society, often at taxpayers' expense. The very men who initiated the deaths of millions, including our soldiers,were brought over to live freely among us--men of God have shaken the hand of the Devil too many times for me to really decide who is who. The faces of the elite look strangly the same.

10. The Republican War on Science Rages On

Comment #56025 by ghostbuster on July 13, 2007 at 11:19 am

One has to remember that the neo-conservative philosophy follows that of Leo Strauss. Check out Straussian principles and his origins--ought to frighten you.
Anti-intellectualism is the province of totalitarianism--always has been--even under the guise of "intellectualism".

11. Facts and fairy dust

Comment #55492 by ghostbuster on July 11, 2007 at 9:31 am

There is an element out there that states religion was (is) just another way to describe the world with the addendum that everything is relative (ie) there is no right or wrong, only that which is believed to be right or wrong. These two thoughts often go hand-in-hand. Unfortunately, they are both wrong and for the reasons Grayling points out, and oddly, because even in the lives of those who believe these two statments, they are often unable to live their own philophical beliefs. Thinking this way has as its foundation a profound lack of understanding of the scientific method and the understanding of the evolution of philosophical thought. Additionally, it is a "cop-out" to having to take a stand where one should take a stand. "Different strokes for different folks", "To each his own" etc all add up to taking a stand on something, idea or action,that is wrong. I think the most ignorant statement I have heard along this line is "science hasn't done anything to make the world better"--this coming from someone who suffers kidney stones. You know what my response was. Those who believe in fairies, large or small, under different names (ie) angels, often go to science first then pray to their fairy, and if cured, thank the fairy. They rarely go exclusively to the fairy for their cure---and a large part of alternative medicine (and origins of organic foods) can be found in fairy dust magic.
Perhaps we should read our small children stories based on facts rather than fairy tales in the first place.

12. Scientists Urge a Search for Life Not as We Know It

Comment #54730 by ghostbuster on July 8, 2007 at 7:10 pm

Kinda reminds me a Gary Larson's cartoon where an alien shows up looking exactly like a tin can on a post and a hunter shoots off the tin can--the caption reading "A tragic end to man's first encounter with aliens"--something like that anyway. Maybe some truth there.

13. Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much

Comment #54514 by ghostbuster on July 7, 2007 at 3:19 pm

The 5th graders are not necessarily more informed or more intelligent---just paid actors.
The x=xy example is something not based on knowledge but on logic. It is an example of a person not being able to put together information properly. Such people, many unfortunately, have the same problem with religion and politics and this inability to see connections makes it easy for false connections to be made and atrocities committed based upon them. Ma & Pa don't need to know a nutron anymore than I need to know complex mathematical formulas for the theory of relativity. But, I should know basic math, basic chemistry, basic biology (the one reason so many people have problems with evolution) etc. otherwise, I am illiterate. Illiteracy makes me easy to control. When I am easy to control, I lose many freedoms, and I can make some bad decisions based on what I don't know. I can be lead to believe falsehoods. I cannot learn basic critical thinking skills if I haven't the ability to be logical. Education isn't just about rote learning; it is about facts and evidence, theory, logic and debate. It is not accepting something as fact just because I want to believe it so.
The 5th graders are paid actors. Paid actors are coached. Notice that the kids are always the same kids? Nothing is what it appears to be.

14. Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much

Comment #54463 by ghostbuster on July 7, 2007 at 10:05 am

Not only is America lacking in basic knowledge, her general population seems to be lacking the ability to want it. Let's take "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" show. Stupid to begin with. Then you have a university graduate presented with: x=xy, xy=3, what number does x equal? She flunked.
If you can't put two and two together, how in the hell are you going to understand evolution, philosophy, or anything relevant like surviving for example. Evidently, she wasn't concerned that she just blew a question that took .5 of a second to figure out even if you were a math dummy--and it is that lack of concern that really bothers me. You can always educate an ignorant person; but not one that isn't even aware of their ignorance. Now, America seems proud that the rest of the world laughs at their ignorance--a badge of honor to let others do their thinking for them?
I agree with Beachbum. It seems to be a choice. My uncle had a sixth grade education but read extensively, reading Scientific American with that sixth grade education, and able to debate many subjects from Anthropology to Zoology. In 1960, he said, the US was one of the worst terrorist nations around; it took me a few years down the pike to realize how right he was. If the population wishes to continue to wallow in ignorance, it will not be long before the terrorism starts at home--if it hasn't already--because the powerful like nothing more than a population that cannot nor will not put two and two together. As does religion.

15. Science of the Soul? 'I Think, Therefore I Am' Is Losing Force

Comment #53918 by ghostbuster on July 4, 2007 at 7:44 am

Possibly there are different kinds of consciousness'. How we measure and perceive it is limited by our own. None are worse or better than the other. How do we experience "ant-ness" unless we are an ant? We can infer things about "ant-ness" by what we perceive against the backdrop of our own consciousness--or "human-ness", but ultimately, being an ant may entail something greater than we think now but can never know. Similarily, being an alien from a different world, perhaps millions of years further along the evolutionary process, may make "human-ness" as irrelevant as we consider "ant-ness".
We are not nor ever will be the end all and be all of evolution; we are not the goal, we are members of life walking along paths of change.
One might add that what is the universe without consciousness? (don't even try to imagine it with no life because you have already failed--you are using consciousness to imagine it). The universe to an ant, a cow, a dolphin, a sea cucumber may all be very different universes, but at least they are there.

16. Doctors' beliefs can hinder patient care

Comment #51722 by ghostbuster on June 24, 2007 at 10:44 am

How about public-private systems? Doctors employed by a secular government provide the treatments as per their job description. You don't like it, set up a private clinic. Much of this is also hinging on moral relativity, that being that all morality is equally moral because of cultural beliefs--not only those based on religion, but on tradition---you see this in the practice of folklore medicine, most of it being "lore", and in Canada, the new Health Directorate now allows the practice of usless and dangerous alternative medicines under the guise of "cultural sensitivties". Science and rationality have been usurped by belief, however non-rational they may be. People are always "screened" during job interviews or even upon reading a resume. No need to get all conspiracy about it, or big brotherly. It is not big brotherly to request standards of job suitability, and if your religious belief does not allow you to perform the job description as outlined, then one either sets up their own business or moves on. What are we moving towards---postmen who won't deliver "questionable" mail, whatever they may find "questionable"? Garbagemen who won't pick up "qestionable" garbage? Journalists who won't write about something because it might be offensive (to them or others)?
If everyone's sensibilities are taken into account for every damned decision on the job, then nothing is ever going to get done.

17. Quackbuster causes too much flak for university

Comment #50062 by ghostbuster on June 14, 2007 at 7:42 pm

By the way Bonzai, the AM industry also funds university/hospital research, using their scientists with PhDs. Gets to be a who believes what, doesn't it, but it has to come down to clinical data, peer reviewed journals. Otherwise, why would we believe anyone about anything--which is precisely what religion would like. Science cannot be relative--it is either true, maybe true or it is not true. Kevin Trudeau thrives on conspiracy theories. We should not.

18. Quackbuster causes too much flak for university

Comment #50059 by ghostbuster on June 14, 2007 at 7:35 pm

One must remember there is no alternative medicine; there is only medicine that works and medicine that doesn't. Yes, herbs can be drugs; most of the drugs we take have their origins in nature but at very high concentrations in order for them to be effective. The difference between a poison and a medicine is dosage. The alternative industry is big pharm as well, only without any regulations. There's no Ma and Pa industry here, folks, it is just another ruse to get money. AM doesn't have to prove anything; they can get away with saying it's a cultural folk medicine here in Canada and that's good enough; most people forget the "lore" part of folk and think they have more control over their diseases because AM is "natural" and therefore "better". Wrong. What is worse, people who have deadly diseases choose alternatives believing the conspiracy theories about big pharms and opting out of scientifically proven therapies. Big pharm's major problem is monopoly and through monopoly can secure rights of ownership over medicines (patents) and where they will place their funding (what will make them money). yes, there are many problems with medicine's side effects--that's what the watchdogs are for--but AM has no such watchdogs. Here, in my town, a healthfood store is allowed to advertise colloidal silver as an antibacterial (not so) with no mention of its side effects (turning you blue permanently, affecting your heart and other organs because it sits in the flesh and never leaves--but no watchdogs out there to stop them from advertising or selling this junk). Nothing written on the label about side effects. Another one--essiac tea cures cancer and the saleslady actually advised me to stop chemo as the tea wouldn't work--I don't have cancer but she thought I must have because I was reading the label so carefully. No mention of anything. (Actually, recent studies have shown essiac tea to stimulate the growth of breast cancer cells in vitro) The avergae person goes into a bookstore and sees row upon row of alternative therapies but who is going to see row upon row of articles from science medical journals?
Herbal remedies, like organic food, take a nugget of truth and make a mountain of lies out of it for one purpose---profit. Scare the hell out of you so they'll buy your product. I think medicine should be manufactured by the government, a non-profit adventure somewhere within the same spectrum of universal healthcare, the latter having been proven of great benefit to society as a whole.
Remember one thing; the large pharms now own much of the AM remedies, especially in Europe. Big conventional farms are buying up organic farming industries--and none of them are solving either monopolies or poor agricultural practices.
When exactly were priests NOT CEOs? The Chief and the Shaman ran the show pretty much from the get go.

19. A Compass That Can Clash With Modern Life

Comment #49762 by ghostbuster on June 13, 2007 at 9:38 am

What is it in the human brain that so needs somebody else to do their thinking for them? A cult is a cult; remember that cult in Japan that put sarin gas in the subway? Many of his followers drank his bathwater and wore head gear to read his thoughts--followers that were trained scientists--physicists, biologists--and he had enough people to own a European radio station, build chemical/bio weapons and become extremely rich in a matter of 40 years existence. How much crazier are cults that are a couple of THOUSAND years old? And richer?

20. Atheism is the absence of belief

Comment #49285 by ghostbuster on June 11, 2007 at 11:29 am

Sounds to me that these arguments about the nature of reality sound like that old "everything's relative" stance. Ain't so. Simon Conway Morris also has a different perspective on "accidental" evolution. It simply isn't accidental; it follows the rules of physics, chemistry and mathematics; who makes the rules? Nobody, they just are. In fact, new theory implies the universe(s) are eternal, backwards and forwards, which probably means there isn't anything really new under the stars. It just is.

21. Is Prince Philip an island god?

Comment #49281 by ghostbuster on June 11, 2007 at 10:43 am

Gee, I hope they don't read any of David Icke's books; he, in fact, considers the royal family as lizard aliens in human rubber suits eating up missing children. Sort of makes the Islanders' beliefs rather mundane, doesn't it? (PS) David Icke has a large following. No surprise.

22. Christopher Hitchens on Religion

Comment #48409 by ghostbuster on June 7, 2007 at 7:15 pm

Isn't it interesting that people latch onto Mr. Hitchen's making a verbal error when in fact, people make extremely potent thinking errors not even comparable to that. We all should know that it was and is an easy mistake to make and more importantly, Mr. Hitchens does not believe that the sun revolves around the earth. Should the ever vigilant Christian spot that mistake, he or she will upgrade it to proof that Mr. Hitchens doesn't know very much---not, of course, realizing how fundamentally stupid most of THEIR beliefs are in word and deed.

23. Protesting the Creation Museum

Comment #48407 by ghostbuster on June 7, 2007 at 7:04 pm

Hey, to creationists, The Flintstones was a documentary not a cartoon.
These guys are their own museum; someday they will be seen as that rather funny people who believed incredible things--and here's the museum to prove it.
History in the making, folks. Embarrassing history, no less.

24. Atheism is pretentious and cowardly

Comment #48106 by ghostbuster on June 6, 2007 at 3:52 pm

Cuba offered well qualified doctors to help out when Katrina was finished despite that pretensious Christian at the helm. And why do we still need soup kitchens? More of them now with that pretensious Christian at the helm. Secular governments, particularly socialist ones, try very hard to avoid the need for soup kitchens by seeing people as hunam beings with all their faults. In Canada we have a government medical system once promoted by Dr. Norman Bethune--a communist and an atheist--so the natural disasters of disease--prevention, cure or control--are available to everyone, poor and rich. Compassion is not exclusive only to the religious; atheists just haven't been given the press either because it wasn't polite to admit to being one or it wasn't polite to mention that good works do come from those who worship no god.
Tagore, always at odds with Gandhi, didn't get much coverage in the public eye did he? Yet he wanted more for India than Gandhi could ever give, Tagore, an atheist.

25. U.S. a theocratic state, says former Canadian ambassador

Comment #47402 by ghostbuster on June 4, 2007 at 11:55 am

Seems to me history is full of examples of one group of human beings afraid of being over run by another group of human beings. Aren't we over in the Middle East doing exactly that?
I am more afraid of that beady-eyed pooh-bear in the US building up nuclear weapons (and bio-chemical ones) than anyone in the Middle East. Bush has power, wealth, religion and no conscience with a society equally mesmerized by King, God and Country that should some mysterious event occur, he could easily whip up support for any atrocity he could initiate. The Middle East has had its brush with secularism; the US managed to kill it. So, I would think that Islamic's are just as easily capable of a secular society as Christians.One type of crap is as good as another. I keep hearing that Mormonism is the fastest growing religion in the world; nuke Salt Lake City?
This argument has been going on how many centuries now? Brian--you just keep on yelling. Sometimes in the cacaphony of insanity, it is the only way to be heard.

26. U.S. a theocratic state, says former Canadian ambassador

Comment #47374 by ghostbuster on June 4, 2007 at 9:11 am

For all those Harper-lovers out there, I hate to disappoint you but Harper and Bush share the same philosophical outlook; that of Leo Strauss. Look it up. With that in mind, and with American trained people in Harper's government, I, as a Canadian, am not especially optimistic about Canada's future. We have the "Friends of Science" advising Mr. Harper on what to think on environmental policies--just to name a few. And our resources, under NAFTA, are virtually owned by the US corporations who have and are busily taking over many Canadian-owned businesses. Why are we buying back our own oil/gas from the States? Ask NAFTA. And NAFTA laws will destroy our beloved medical system the moment we allow privitization into the equation. This article is a white-wash I am afraid.

27. Groundbreaking Research Has Scientists Talking With Apes

Comment #46485 by ghostbuster on May 31, 2007 at 12:51 pm

By the way, when a female gorilla looks at a picture of a male gorilla, turns away in disgust and signs "toilet water", I think she has communicated her feelings quite well. Been there myself.

28. Groundbreaking Research Has Scientists Talking With Apes

Comment #46484 by ghostbuster on May 31, 2007 at 12:50 pm

The REAL trick is when we learn how to speak bonoboese.

29. The Dawkins delusion

Comment #45959 by ghostbuster on May 29, 2007 at 7:56 pm

The Dubious Delusional Dendrites of Dawkins: Axon-ing the Important Question. Sound more interesting?

30. The Dawkins delusion

Comment #45958 by ghostbuster on May 29, 2007 at 7:52 pm

Perhaps the need for religion, wishy or washy comes from the need to have hierarchy, a safe set-up even if in fantasy. Humans make gods out of just about anything or anyone (although not everyone does)and when our basics needs for survival are met, we tend to abandon hierarchal fantasy systems and substitute real ones, ie. State.We are social animals; we can never abandon some form of social set up. Ever wonder why religions do not like socialism? Yet, they like political systems that leave joe/jane-average to the dogs where joe/jane
average finds comfort and meaning to their unstable and/or bleak existence through fantasy systems where big daddy has his/her best interests at heart. Create a need, offer the solution.

31. It came like yesterday

Comment #45566 by ghostbuster on May 28, 2007 at 8:23 am

All goes to show you that the universe doesn't give a fat rat's ass whether we are here or not. Newest theories have the universe as eternal past and future, so life, wherever it is goes on with or without us; we had better be concerned about our own survival and what we do or don't do to this planet because nobody "up there" is rooting for us friends.
And if we are not intelligent enough to keep our own nest clean, then we do not deserve to go anywhere else mucking around. We can and perhaps are likely to be our own asteroid.
Nobody cares but us. And even most of "us" don't care.

32. Adam and Eve in the Land of the Dinosaurs

Comment #44739 by ghostbuster on May 25, 2007 at 8:36 am

In the bible it mentions, among others, fire-breathing dragons and unicorns--yet no fossils of those creatures. Perhaps they'll have a display of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the latter being those small hominid fossils recently discovered. Or Chicken Little running (since dinos and chickens share some DNA) from an asteroid "the sky is falling, the sky is falling! The U.S. is becoming more and more unbelievable as a nation; it's forefathers would be ashamed.

33. Fighting the Fundamentalists

Comment #44724 by ghostbuster on May 25, 2007 at 8:22 am

It would be acceptable if religion were kept to one's self all the time; but it never happens that way. As a manipulative tool, even those who have part of their baloney detectors damaged can be more easily swayed into doing terrible things by appealing to the dectector's parts that are damaged. Somewhat in the same manner as propaganda does. Many populations of Europe prior to WW11 swallowed both, easily so, and we know the results. One can whip up the frenzies of people much more easily with lies than with truth--witch-burnings, political scourges, religious wars, terrorism in all its forms, including economic terrorism (we have to bring them capitalist wealth), propaganda terrorism (we have to bring them freedom), religious terrorism (we have to convert them to the real God), cultural terrorism (my way or the highway), resource terrorism (we'll take but won't give back), ethinic terrorism (Jews run the world so let's get rid of Jews), police/military terrorism (my way or the highway to basically enforce all of the above).
All of the above have their own forms of baloney that can sway the masses to do ugly things or give the masses the idea that doing ugly things is the lesser evil. Then it's done. Religion just happens to be the easiest. Would one say it is all right to be a little psychopathic? A bit paranoid? Or to run a powerful nation by someone a bit stupid?
No. It would be all right if you kept those things from affecting other people's welfare. But the facts say otherwise.

34. Would the World Be Safer Without Religion?

Comment #44304 by ghostbuster on May 24, 2007 at 7:51 am

Philip1978: Go to www.jesusneverexisted.com for the info on Nicea etc. Humphries is excellent, to the point. www.newswithviews.com is a good site for the same illogic you have been arguing against, the rants of the memes so-to-speak, but it allows you to enter the "alternative" views without sounding like you only visit atheist sites. Additionally, there are some, not many, decent journalists on newswithviews as well. I visit Evangelical sites too-they do an awful lot of ranting about Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons etc. but one gets very tired of listening to people advance their ghost as being more important than another's, but it is sometimes interesting how they can dissect words--not only phrases, but words in the bible to twist into different meanings. One should invest time into studying how these people actually think, how they cement their thoughts. Apes are interesting, if nothing else; when Jesus said he who does not accept my reign should be brought before me and slain, well, slain has a real different meaning to the evangelical than the rest of us.

35. A galactic fossil - Star is found to be 13.2 billion years old

Comment #44062 by ghostbuster on May 23, 2007 at 8:41 am

Sure took God more time than a day to fling these things into the sky.

36. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #44061 by ghostbuster on May 23, 2007 at 8:38 am

Brian; you may as well give up. The science is clear, the deniers are unclear about science. It is becoming something of a conspiracy theory among these folks and you can't shake comspiracy theories away from those that cling to them. What works for religion also works for conspiracy theorists--keep arguing bad pseudoscience with actual science, wasting time anotherwords. Let us at least keep in mind the precautionary principle.

37. Scientists Draw Link Between Morality And Brain's Wiring

Comment #43389 by ghostbuster on May 21, 2007 at 8:46 am

I like looking at President Bush's face when he starts moralizing; he neither understands what he is saying nor does he believe it. He simply reads it.
I forget who once said "the rich don't think like us"--but whenever you see them speaking about the poor, whoever they may be, there is often that blank stare enveloped in sincere language of care and concern. Then they place in policies and programs that cause more suffering.
Somewhat like a psychopath. Great scam artists. But they do well in positions of power and do not seem to be terribly upset by sending the common folks' children off to die and add yet more collateral damage so they can reap in yet more profits--or trash the earth for that matter in pure self-interest.
So while there may actually be physical damage to the brain to cause amoral or immoral decisions or suspension of morality, I think the brain can also be altered by what it is taught. Physically altered.

38. Would the World Be Safer Without Religion?

Comment #43385 by ghostbuster on May 21, 2007 at 8:29 am

Religion is more a condition of violence than its cause; however, it has been and still is the greatest manipulation tool to get people to fight, generally so the elite can get rich. The unholy alliance between religion and power has always been an historical fact, and all organized religions are hierarchal at base.
Getting people to abondon yet another tool that foolishly tricks them into wars fought by the poor for the benefit of the rich can only be a good thing and then perhaps humanity can concentrate on what is really going on.
We often hear about Stalin's 23 million dead; what we rarely hear about are the many more millions dead because of capitalism's unfettered greed. No "ism" will ever work unless and until we can grasp the nature of our own minds that invent cultures and practices that sustain hierarchial societies--the conflicts between those that have, and those that don't, those that want and those that have what is wanted. God, King and Country have been the all-time favorite slogans to get people to fight, their duty to anyone of these "icons" must always be questioned. King can now be substituted by corporations, but who lies behind corporations but very rich families?
Interestingly, what Empire could never do with troops (world domination) Empire is doing quite well with corporate take-overs of land, resources, peoples, politics, small businesses, charities, educationa and science.
So, yes, driving out the one biggest delusion of humanity's need for war--God-- leaves us with the other two to contend with---King (Corporate families) and Country (nationalism).

39. Hubble Finds Ring of Dark Matter

Comment #42987 by ghostbuster on May 20, 2007 at 8:23 am

I am thinking that it might not only hold star clusters together but our universe itself. We may indeed be oscillating between expansion and collapse?

40. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #42746 by ghostbuster on May 19, 2007 at 10:21 am

The Great Global Swindle is just that, a swindle. Science is old.
CO2 emmissions from fossil fuels and deforestation have isotopic signatures related to the C13/C12 ratio, found in ice cores, tree rings and coral/spomges. These signatures occur nowhere else in the quanties we've seen for thousands of years. Additionally, methane and nitrous oxide are two othere important GHG, both of which are heavily related to poor agricultural practices; in fact, methane levels took a dive between 1600-1700 when 90% of Central/South American indigenous peoples disappeared--they were great deforestation practioners. Now we have poor tillage practices, over-use of fertilizers (nitrogen in particular), intense animal farming and conversion of forests into agricultural lands--these account for 70% of the methane in the air. Now, if the methane from permafrost is released, we could be facing an extinction event not unlike that of the dinosaurs.
So, whether one believes this or that, at least consider the precautionary principle; don't wait for something to happen that cannot be cured--go for the oz. of prevention worth a pound of cure instead.
As to experts only understanding the facts, that is a dangerous precedent to letting others do the thinking for you. There are oil-financed experts and non-profit experts, just as there are medically professional experts and alternative medicine experts. One needs to do some homework to get an idea of what expert to believe based on references, cross-references, logic, who's paying the piper, peer-reviewed journals (of which no climate change deniers has yet to provide) and just plain critical thinking skills. To leave the thinking to experts of akin to--well, leaving the Bible up to the Pope. I think humanity is quite up to the game of deception on any playing field; religion may be more a condition of all that's gone wrong rather than its cause, because dogma of any sort has the ability to screw things up. We can just as easily kill people for rational reasons as irrational ones--take eugenics for example. Experts. Ayan Rand. Expert.

41. Freethinking Ruins All Things

Comment #42743 by ghostbuster on May 19, 2007 at 10:02 am

And the opposite of free-thinking is? No freedom for thought? non-free-thinking? dogma? Why has it been a very few allowed to "free-think" up religion to hypnotize the masses into non-thought, the kind that ruled the majority during the Dark Ages? Wasn't the "Enlightenment" free-thinking, hence this guy's ability to get on the net and expose his rather silly argument?

42. Why Christopher Hitchens is not Great

Comment #42742 by ghostbuster on May 19, 2007 at 9:56 am

By the way, he doesn't mention the wives who get AIDS from husbands. Abstinence? Gee, no more Catholics!

43. Why Christopher Hitchens is not Great

Comment #42740 by ghostbuster on May 19, 2007 at 9:53 am

Man needs to read his Bible. Jesus did say that he who did not accept his reign should be brought before Him and slain. Whether you behead, hang, stab, stone,shoot, burn, drown, crucify, dead is dead, slain is slain. The sacred texts are contradictory and therefore of no value. And the values these texts portray are also contradictory and therefore of no use.

44. Consciousness Comes from DNA

Comment #39932 by ghostbuster on May 12, 2007 at 10:26 am

By the way, consciousness was once linked to language; no more. The ability, for example, for an artist to visualize something comes before his or her inner dialogue (language). I suspect animals have varying degrees of this, along with scents.

45. Consciousness Comes from DNA

Comment #39929 by ghostbuster on May 12, 2007 at 10:23 am

I have always believed that consciousness was not something that has likely just evolved on earth either. Intelligent life with consciousness has been seen as a possible "fluke" on earth, that it is entirely a rare event "out there". Why should it be any more rare an evolutionary advantage than any other trait--like ears, eyes, voice boxes etc. I am with Simon Conway Morris on this topic; biology works with the other sciences. If intelligence is rare, it will only be because it might very well have a built-in mechanism for "self destruct" when it becomes not an advantage to the species that exhibits it or to the other species that must endure the results--case in point, our earth.
By the way, a sideline, I know some people who cannot tell the difference between what they see in the mirror and what they are in reality. The power of the mind!

46. The Case Against Intelligent Design: The Faith That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Comment #39894 by ghostbuster on May 12, 2007 at 7:53 am

CJ: That was going to be my point exactly. I always figured if people want to know the truth they will look for it through knowledge--which means work. Most people fall into, as I've mentioned before, the causaubon delusion and ignore evidence that is contrary to their beliefs because to do otherwise is extremely uncomfortable. In the intelligent believer, they simply compartmentalize (religious scientists for example), in the average person they remove that which is in conflict and replace it with that which substantiates their beliefs. In the less intelligent, no questions asked, they just believe. In cults like Jehovah Witnesses, no book called "The God Delusion" is even allowed to be read because it is "of the world" and therefore, satanic. Is it any wonder that there isn't a high degree of intelligence in this group (but there is a significant number of depressed and psychotic individuals in it compared to other sects). Many people do not even understand science 101; hence they are more inclined to believe simple stories and have no will to look more deeply into the truth of things (both products of a poor educational system). And is that poor educational system a product of religion? Strangely, the more ignorant one is, the more certain they are their beliefs.
In short, they prefer the lie.
And it was very,very wise not to let any social issue be by popular vote alone. It can and does lead to the tyranny of the many.
No one questions the "theory" of gravitation; yet the "theory" of evolution is just a "theory".
I am actually appalled in an age of technological advances, genetic information, the complexities of astrophysical theories that the nation that should know better as a whole, isn't too much better as a whole, than some backwards nations of the Middle East.
A nation that speaks of morality the loudest seems unable to grasp how, as a nation, it has been one of the worst terrorist states around. Like the fallen religious leaders, those who shout the loudest about morality hope to cover their own sins.

47. Unintelligent Design

Comment #39891 by ghostbuster on May 12, 2007 at 7:25 am

Jack Rawlinson: Really excellent points! How easy it is to forget the science behind our daily lives.

48. Mormonism: A Racket Becomes a Religion

Comment #39741 by ghostbuster on May 11, 2007 at 8:02 pm

The root word of fundamentalism is "fundament" which in Old English means "bottom" and "anus"; leads me to think all fundamentalists are full of s**t. Especially their creators.

49. A Bunch of Monkeys

Comment #39614 by ghostbuster on May 11, 2007 at 9:51 am

Well, during the evolution of sponges, when they developed the capacity to move, they also started to develop the capacity to fight, then evolve defenses and counter defenses, fighting over rocks. Isn't it comforting we have evolved so far along?

50. Lou Dobbs w/ Hitchens on Al Sharpton's Bigoted Remark

Comment #39611 by ghostbuster on May 11, 2007 at 9:42 am

sent2null made an important point about religion--you cannot argue nonsense with nonsense and within that nonsense is moral relativity which is nonsense. Within the Bible, specifically, one can find passages to argue from any standpoint meaning that it condradicts itself endlessly and is therefore morally relativistic. In short, wrong.
I hope I didn't misinterpret sent2null.
Good interview and we need more of them. It actually gives Hitchens' position authenticity rather than "here's another angry atheist on the rampage".