1. Protests no concern for outspoken atheist

Comment #155091 by nancy on April 4, 2008 at 6:51 am

"I don't think it is fair to call these people dishonest. They are more then likely fully unaware of how irrational their beliefs and behavior are."

Whether or not you're referring to one person or a group, it does matter whether they believe their religion or not. If they're faking it, then they're nonbelieving opportunists who would be dealt with one way, and if they are true believers, they are to be dealt with another way.
But it's worth finding out which is the case, otherwise the cure for religion must take a shotgun approach rather than a targeted one. And you wouldn't (today) try to cure a disease without having some idea of the cause. Of course there are cancer treatments that in the past, and probably still today end up killing the patient in the end, but that's really not an optimal approach to a problem.

2. BBC 'too scared to allow jokes about Islam'

Comment #154724 by nancy on April 3, 2008 at 3:51 pm

"Nancy sights a classic double bind; to paraphrase Jonathan Miller in the Life After Darwin debate at the Darwin Centre with Dawkins and Macleod, either way we're fucked! "

Thanks for noticing.
This is a big problem. Somebody should start asking the lovely liberals here how they're going to feel when they're forced to be Muslim and live by Muslim law.

If Westerners are afraid to even crack a joke, how on earth are we going to defend our freedom?

The opposition is willing to strap on a bomb, and we're not even willing to chuckle. I can guess who's going to win.

3. BBC 'too scared to allow jokes about Islam'

Comment #154428 by nancy on April 3, 2008 at 8:09 am

""Come to think of it, is "The Vicar of Dibley" or "Father Ted" shown in the US?"

The Vicar and Father Ted are shown here in NY, as was Ballykissangel for a time, so priests are definitely OK to laugh at, and laugh we did.

4. BBC 'too scared to allow jokes about Islam'

Comment #154150 by nancy on April 2, 2008 at 6:58 pm

I was just telling a colleague today how compelling Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book Infidel is and her response was that people are racist when they say Islam treats women badly and that it's only the Fundamentalists who do that sort of thing, if anyone at all actually does. I felt I was being called racist, and that I should feel duped, and this from an educated New Yorker. It seems hopeless when I hear comments like that. I don't know what's happened to the New York democrats who used to be completely against this kind of torture, intolerance, and oppression.
And the British should not be patting themselves on the back. Just have a gander at the Slate story on the Archbishop of Canterbury's belief that British Muslims should be allowed to rule their own, superseding British law. http://www.slate.com/id/2184186/
People are thoroughly convinced that it's wrong to object to any behavior whatsoever, that it's somehow bigotry. What a bind the world is in. If Muslim women don't complain, people outside the Muslim world don't believe what goes on; if they do complain, they don't survive. And if they don't complain, the outside world can justify its hands-off policy, maintaining that as long as members of a group are in agreement, they should be allowed to practice whatever traditions they like.
We've got to take back freedom of speech and use it for what is was meant for: to prevent oppression and expose tyranny, not to give license to anyone who wants to cloak themselves in religion so that they can violate the basic human rights of others.

5. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #151395 by nancy on March 28, 2008 at 3:57 pm

Colwyn Abernathy

THAT THEY ALLOWED ONE OF THEIR CHILDREN TO DIE FROM A PREVENTABLE DEMISE ISN'T CHILD ABUSE?!

Now if these parent's had merely beaten their kid and the child had lived, they likely would go to jail.

6. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #150974 by nancy on March 27, 2008 at 9:10 pm

what abut voodoo then? What if my child is sick but I am performing some black magic ritual known only to a small number of people? is that protected too? What neglect that one can attribute to any dogma cannot be protected? where do they draw the line? how big does the religion have to be to get the special privilege that its members can kill their kids through neglect?

7. Jesus saves

Comment #150413 by nancy on March 26, 2008 at 9:21 pm

it seems to me i've heard Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett wonder why people believe and Christopher Hitchens wonder how many of them actually do believe.
I think these were some of the most worthwhile questions on the subject. It's obvious that simply telling a believer that he's wrong only causes him to dig his heels in and probably strengthens his resolve. Understanding the cause is the key. Freud thought it was a disease. Maybe someone will invent a cure and we can put it in the water supply--you know, like flouride:-)

8. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #150406 by nancy on March 26, 2008 at 9:02 pm

To mmurray
when you ask why these people bother eating, I have to agree.
Just watched Jesus Camp and it's unbelieveable how they just don't see the contradiction. The female youth minister stands up and proclaims that God can fix anything and "the world needs fixin'". So, she tells the kids, "we gotta go out and fix the world" or some quote like that.
So, why not just tell god to do it? I mean, which is it? Can he or can't he? Omnipotent or impotent? Time to decide.

9. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #150366 by nancy on March 26, 2008 at 7:16 pm

Is it really restricting religious freedom to force parents to ger medical help for all underage children since they can't choose for themselves?

10. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #149518 by nancy on March 25, 2008 at 7:56 pm

Irate Atheist, you look so much like a reluctant priest I know named Dougal.

11. What are your qualifications to question religion anyway? Just who are you?

Comment #149512 by nancy on March 25, 2008 at 7:33 pm

My own alien superbeing told me I could:-)

12. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #149321 by nancy on March 25, 2008 at 1:10 pm

If the moderate Christians would be more honest about what the bible actually says and just come out with it and admit that they aren't really following it, then we could finally have an intelligent argument with the fundies who do actually do believe it and show them where their errors are.

I definitely have to agree with at least the first part of this statement. How many moderate Christians, or even people who count themselves as Christians but believe none of it, stand by and watch as stem cell research is restricted?
It would be great to see the smoke clear and determine who's left to address.

If it weren't for the bad decisions and misery caused by religion, I wouldn't care if it existed or not.

BTW, if the faithful want to get rid of atheism, all they need to do is get rid of religion. Atheism requires religion, I think.

13. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #149121 by nancy on March 25, 2008 at 6:32 am

To follow up. I've thought about the approach to take if one wants to win the hearts and minds. At the end of the Four Horsemen, everyone mostly says they are not looking for the obliteration of religion and the religious, and all their artifacts, each having their own take on where it all should lead. I have spoken to people who, although not religious, come away from various talks and writings remembering only the harshness. Plenty of the non-religious have somewhat religious parents, a tradition of religion in their family, and so forth and do not want to insult or alienate these people or their friends and neighbors. That's a fact.

Having been a writer and editor most of my life, I do feel people speak mostly to people like themselves--people who have read Kant and Spinoza and Freud--the people who get the references and know the theories. While that's a fun exercise for the writer, as a platform it's likely ineffective.

So I have had to point out what Hitchens, Harris, Dennett and Dawkins say at the end of The Four Horsemen to prove that they aren't practicing religism, don't hate believers, and aren't calling for their demise as individuals.

But that proof is hard to find. You don't hear it much, and chances are that the unconverted happening upon a single video talk on YouTube or a single article somewhere by a prominent atheist will not be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the good intentions that were apparent at the end of the Four Horsemen.

14. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #149098 by nancy on March 25, 2008 at 5:51 am

Spinoza: no, not the javascript comment. You think and write like a developer:-)

15. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #148985 by nancy on March 24, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Spinoza, are you a programmer?

Anyway, about Sam Harris and Hitchens VS Dennett. Remember this. Bush was elected president (or at least nearly was). Now I'm not saying he's a marketing genius, but he certainly knows his audience. While some might love to keep atheism an elite little club, others want to put it to serious use to combat oppression by religious extremists, to ensure the progress of scientific research, and so forth.

While I agree that a movement's spokespeople should be thoughtful in how they present themselves, they are not going to win converts using an elitist tone.

I would venture to guess that Daniel Dennett is preaching to the choir while Hitchens and Harris are gaining new followers.

16. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #148979 by nancy on March 24, 2008 at 8:16 pm

oh, and some men on the street (and women too) can tell the difference between a well-reasoned book and a pot-boiler. But some of us just think "Heaven Hates Ham" is funny. Besides, some of us might not need to be convinced. We already are. And for us, some simple rhyming mantras (or atheistic alliterations) to dish out when confronting the faithful, can be pretty handy.

17. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #148973 by nancy on March 24, 2008 at 8:07 pm

To Spinoza et al

I also think that the "new atheism" may be, at least in part, a result of people feeling more comfortable coming out of the closet. The more public discussion of atheism, the more empowered existing atheists feel.

I recently learned, for instance, that neither my practicing catholic mother nor her favorite priest believe in heaven, and heaven knows what else they don't believe!

That empowered me.

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19. Lunging, Flailing, Mispunching

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