1. Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview

Comment #241653 by denizb on September 3, 2008 at 12:52 am

God put the oil in Alaska and not in Texas to test our faith... How else would he know we love Him if we don't destroy human life, animal life and plant life, all in his name.

Seriously though:
These guys aren't religious, they are crooks, raised in crook schools (evangelical churches).

2. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #213290 by denizb on July 18, 2008 at 11:18 am

This talk of the individual soldier being forced to kill civilians because amongst them is hiding a "terrorist" is a lovely story. Tears come to my eyes when I hear of such passion for life.

But my beef is not at all with US military personnel. To use a sleazy phrase: "I have lots of friends in the US armed forces".

I think you all miss the point here. We went into Iraq, to remove Sadam, with everything short of nuclear weapons. None of the justifications were proven true. There was UN inspectors who know the business of inspecting WMDs, and they came back empty handed, yet we still bombed the s*** out of them. Then came lots of lovely reasons why we should stay and bomb them. Like the hundreds of people Sadam tortured. Well, that's no longer a valid argument since the US does the same. Then there was connections to AQ, which were proven false.

Iraq did no threaten the US in any way that would justify a legal retaliation. If you want to talk about Sadam's crimes against its own people: read the Geneva convention - you cannot interfere in a civil war, only an act of aggression by one country to another is grounds for interference.

Thus the illegal retaliation, that lead to the deaths of 100,000s (we can argue how many 100,000s) civilians who previously held regular jobs and went to schools, or were in their mother's wombs - can only be described in my view, in one word: Murder.

We can discuss if it was murder or manslaughter (unintentional killing). But the truth is in the numbers and in the facts: We now know the US went in for oil, and the war killed or caused the deaths of over 100,000 non-US civilians.

I must say, this has gone way off topic - but I must say I have come to learn of the audience of this website - and it really brakes my heart.

I love Dawkins because like the site's name, he provides an oasis for clear free thought - and I see there is blind obedience that still lives in the minds of his readers - even if they have rejected the silly notion of God (an all powerful being) they have not applied the same reasoning to other things in life. Blind obedience to crooked politicians, to ill intended governments who have only the goal of protecting their own economic and political interests - is the same thing!

3. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #212821 by denizb on July 17, 2008 at 5:52 pm

black wolf:

I agree 100%!!! (About how turkish people are stuck between a rock and a hard place).

I have also noticed the similarities between Pakistan's situation and Turkey's. I believe the european influence, combined with the legacy of Ataturk (founder of Turkey) and Turkey's economic strength and potential are what could be the saving grace of the country.

4. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #212780 by denizb on July 17, 2008 at 4:00 pm

black wolf:

And I would vote for Obama even though he thanks the all mighty more often than I would like, and now has decided to have a special office for religious affairs in the white house.

My point was that just because Tayip Erdogan's party is an islamist party, it doesn't automatically mean that they are here to bring in sharia law. They have done some admirable things (along with some bad things) - and as Turkish citizen I did no vote for them. But to dismiss a democratically elected government who has done more to bring Turkey to the 21st century and closer to European ideals, only based on the title of the party is as ludicrous as saying the german army should overthrow the german Chancellor because she is the head of the Christian Democratic Union party.

5. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #212772 by denizb on July 17, 2008 at 3:52 pm

Killing civilians, no matter the way it is done, is a terrorist act. It terrifies the people.

State Sponsored Terrorism is by definition just that!

Whether you try to kill John Smith directly, or obliterate a civilian hospital, a school, or market, the end result is the same.

To get an idea of what is to be gained, read Naomi Klein's excellent book called "The Shock Doctrine"

6. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #212760 by denizb on July 17, 2008 at 3:44 pm

Really? sounding dumb? Some reports say that the causalities of the Iraq war are in the 6 figures. Blackwater, the private mercenary army of America has killer dozens if not hundreds of civilians with no legal repercussions. This is news on CNN, not on some leftist speech by Naom Chomsky.

How many civilians died and were categorized as collateral damage by the bush administration's initial bombing of Bagdad in 2003? If you look it up, you would see the idea is not so dumb.

If you want to say that collateral damage is only accidental and we didn't really mean to kill those people so they shouldn't count, then I think THAT could qualify as dumb.

7. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #212741 by denizb on July 17, 2008 at 3:33 pm

al-rawandi :

I am not siding with the PKK in any way. In fact my argument is that by antagonizing the kurds living in turkey who are only asking for the freedom of the use of their own language and education in that language, they give rise to a more powerful enemy, namely the PKK. This in turn, helps the military continue profiting from a war against kurds. Kinda like how the US does nothing to actually apprehend Bin Laden - because loosing that enemy, would mean loosing the ability to wage war on civilians in the middle east with the pretext of a war on terrorism.

A military force is useless when there are no enemies.

You need to see all sides of the equation.

8. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #212710 by denizb on July 17, 2008 at 3:11 pm

You all seem to think that the Turkish military is some kind of Secular army standing for the rights of free thought and expression. Boy have you all got it wrong!

The war against the Kurds is conducted by this enormous army. It is in bed with the military industrial complex of America. The top generals of the Turkish military are some of the richest people in Turkey as deals are brokered behind curtains. It is absolutely corrupt. Governments and parties have come and gone over the years in Turkey, but the military and the big turkish pharmaceuticals have partnered up to make the life of millions of Kurds living in turkey a living hell. In turn, the turkish civilians are forced to live in fear of "terrorist attacks" because violence is the only thing left for Kurds to hold on to. All kurds who live in turkey wanted was the right to speak their language and send their children to school that teach kurdish and have the same rights as any other Turkish citizen, but this is crime in Turkey.

The mandatory military service sends the young men of Turkey to fight the PKK a so called terrorist organization, only to die in some remote mountain in the east of the country. There is no chance for conscientious objections. This was is also the leading remaining argument that the EU has against allowing Turkey to join the EU.

While the party that was put in place after the coup d'etat in 1980 brought american goods to the turkish market place, it did nothing about (and exasperated) torture, police brutality, limitations on freedom of speech, freedom of though, civil liberties in general, the death penalty etc... The so called leftist party that the military stands next to (CHP) has done everything possible to keep turkey from joining the EU because this would mean the end of the hidden rule of the Turkish military.

In contrast, Tayip Erdogan has made all the changes necessary to the constitution and laws to comply with EU requirements. Eliminating capital punishment and granting the civil liberties and human rights mandated by the EU. Yes they are islamist and that does not make me happy - but lets not kid ourselves by portraying a military regime as viable alternative.

Did you know that in 1980 all labor union workers were imprisoned by the military? The crime they committed was to stand by workers rights. I know people who were jailed for having the "Larousse" encyclopedia in their bookshelf because ignorant military officers thought it was a pro russian/communist book because the words sound similar in turkish.

Democracy is or is not. If we applied your stance on the issue, then you would wish the German army should overthrow the Christian Fundamentalist Chancellor, you would overthrough Harper from Canada, and any President or Prime Minister who openly wears their faith on their sleeves. Replacing them with military dictatorships.

I'll also remind everyone that Turkey started off by being one of only 2 countries in the world that stated in its constitution that it was secular. No mention of god was permitted. Up until the military became so immensely powerful, Turkey was headed in the right direction. The majority of turks were non practicing muslims. Women didn't wear burkas, mini skirts were all the rage in the 60s and on, the universities embraced western thinking... Until Iran came along! After America's helping hand in creating a fundamentalist regime in Iran overthrowing their democratically elected and secular president, Iran turned into a repressive regime that started influencing the entire region with its wealth. After the coup in 1980 in Turkey, money started pouring in from Iran, in the form of land purchases, and funding for islamic schools. There are now more mosques, and islamic schools in turkey than there was before 1980. There are probably more islamic schools than universities in fact. In the 90s I started seeing how the burka started appearing everywhere, head scarfs, and all the non sense ideas that come from such fundamentalist eduction.

I am an atheist turkish man, who lived in Canada and the US. Although for me Canada is closest to heaven, and the US closest to hell, Turkey somewhere in between.

please forgive my use of the foolish concept of heaven and hell.

9. Bisexual Species: Unorthodox Sex in the Animal Kingdom

Comment #208496 by denizb on July 11, 2008 at 1:43 am

Could epigenetics explain same sex behavior in some animals?

10. Vote on freedom of expression marks the end of Universal Human Rights

Comment #163677 by denizb on April 18, 2008 at 6:53 pm

I think the issue is Extremism. The comments that Obama made a few days ago regarding small towns, their bitterness towards a living situation that just does not improve leads to people clinging to their guns and religion is right on the money.

The situation is happening all around the world. I think we have a hard time understanding how we as the wealthy nations of the world have done such a horrible job of managing the world's resources, impoverished billions of people so we could wear fancy sneakers and buy shit we don't need a low low prices . We have done very little to educate and elevate the living conditions of the majority of the world. Applying Obamas reasoning not just to middle America, but to the rest of the 3rd world, its absurd to be schocked by the end result: extremism, intolerence, poor understanding of reality and violence.

We in the west (excluding Americans) have an acceptable standard of living, health care, free and relatively good eduction, food on our tables, clothes on our backs and roofs on our heads. We have gained the luxury to ponder on our own existence, the cosmos, humanity and any other subject we wish to think about. But these luxuries come at the cost of actual human lives or human suffering in places we care not look at. We buy China's goods, we buy diamonds from Africa, we make sure that we can get our oil at cheap price, we destroy world agriculture with Monsanto, we create instability with our Wars for "freedom".

This is a mess we got ourselves into.

The West has it's own crazy religions. Religions that tell us that we are the chosen ones anyway, and that it's our God given right to do as please with this planet. Had it not been for the intolerance and rearward thinking of our electorate, and thus elected officials, I don't think things would have played out as they have. We are so selfish - and I think Religion makes it OK to be that way.

In short my opinion is that without adhering to our own principals we can not expect other to do so either. In our own countries we have labor laws and environmental projection laws, minimum wages that we accept as the bare minimum a person needs to live - in our global economy these laws don't make sense if they are only applied to products and services that are from our own countries. Why not put in place laws to restrict the import of any goods or services that infringe upon those same laws. Why not have FARE trade in stead of the so called "free treade"? Wall-mart would go our of business, and we would pay 10$/gallon for gas, but we wouldn't have to live in a world where a new religion war is impending. I rather buy only one pair of sneakers per year at 3x the current price if I know that everyone who helped build it is able to have their basic needs met.

Once you elevate the world populations living conditions to UN's guidelines, then you can make the case that freedom of speech is a universal right and pass that through. I bet you could even start taking religion out of people's lives and replace it so much better things. I am a dreamer, I believe that aside from the needs that we are programmed to have genetically the rest of our endeavors should be equally divided between Arts and Sciences. And the world would be heaven.