1. Charles Darwin to receive apology from the Church of England for rejecting evolution

Comment #247444 by noamzur on September 14, 2008 at 12:39 pm

Corylus,
that is not sufficient warning. What you should have said is that there was a picture of a weathered marble statue with uncanny flesh tones of something that perturbs to be similar to Ann Widdecombe. And even that would be an understatement. As for your use of the word "treated", I don't even know what to say about that!

2. Gay support group gets straight 'no' from Brethren

Comment #243754 by noamzur on September 7, 2008 at 9:12 am

< rant from an annoyed (heterosexual) anti-theist > You'd think the religious have better things to do than care about what some people do or don't do in private... yet I am proven wrong by this naive presumption time and time again.
I say let everybody have fun anyway they like as long as nobody gets hurt (at least unwillingly). Some of history's greatest persons were homo- or bisexual, as well as, of course, many heterosexuals. What is important to history is what they did about their respective fields, not who they shared a bedroom with. < /rant >
< annoyance > I don't live in Australia, but still it's the principle I am annoyed with - prove that you are a senseless, bigoted, often racist dogmatic in-group and get away with anything... even be rewarded with tax-exemptions. I'd like ti put < / annoyance > here, but it will still take a while, I'm afraid.

3. 'Rare' mammoth skull discovered

Comment #241419 by noamzur on September 2, 2008 at 8:05 am

Cue the IDiots: Now there are two gaps to fill instead of just the one... How could it have evolved to this one, and then again FROM this one to the next one. Rinse, lather, repeat ad infinitum.
I'm really getting sick of them, and the new GOP VP choice makes me feel happy not to live in that nick of the world. Thank goodness for Europe (the continent, not the moon - at least for now)

4. Petrol pump pilgrims keep faith

Comment #232353 by noamzur on August 18, 2008 at 1:55 am

I feel much better now that I had my daily laugh at the expense of these IDiots!
Ever since I found this site I have unsubscribed from any daily joke listings I seem to still have had going - truth is so much better than fiction! :D

5. Saudi Arabia Bans Dog Walking in Capital

Comment #228780 by noamzur on August 12, 2008 at 2:20 pm

twp, back when I used to work night-shifts in my college days I used to come into the office and greet the previous shift with good night.
I do admit to not doing this anymore, though...

6. Saudi Arabia Bans Dog Walking in Capital

Comment #228593 by noamzur on August 12, 2008 at 8:50 am

@ricky173,

I don't see a problem with killing the dogs for food as they do in Thailand either - it's not different from cattle, lamb or pigs (etc.) in Europe, South America (etc.) or the USA. I *do* say that once you kill the animal you have the obligation to use every bit of it, all the meat, offal, and all.
Eating roaches, ants, etc. - it just proves one thing, life will find a way of sustaining itself anyway it can under dire circumstances.

As for killing, just for the sake of it, as well as banning things because they *might* be construed as something or lead to something, as seems to be implied by this article, that's a different thing entirely in my unholy book.

7. Saudi Arabia Bans Dog Walking in Capital

Comment #228382 by noamzur on August 12, 2008 at 1:47 am

One thing that bugs me about this - as far as I know women are prohibited to walk outside unaccompanied by men (in Saudi Arabia), or am I completely wrong? If this is the case, the men are in charge of stopping them flirting anyway, so this method (for what it's worth) wouldn't quite work there anyway.
Please correct me if I'm completely off target on this one.

8. More than 100,000 rare gorillas found in Congo

Comment #224873 by noamzur on August 6, 2008 at 12:35 am

@ricey:
On a recent trip to the South African bush I was trekking a family of 6 elephants - or rather I tried to trek them... Even 6 tons of pachyderm can disappear if they don't want to be seen, and so can all the other "wild" animals. It's quite astonishing, really.
Let's just hope that these gorillas will be left alone and hone their skills at how not to be seen. I can donate a Monty Python video on that issue if they are interested ;-)

9. Do they really think the earth is flat?

Comment #224478 by noamzur on August 5, 2008 at 3:00 am

And what about the fact that no one has ever fallen off the edge of our supposedly disc-shaped world?

Mr McIntyre laughs. "This is perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions," he says. "A cursory examination of a flat earth map fairly well explains the reason - the North Pole is central, and Antarctica comprises the entire circumference of the Earth. Circumnavigation is a case of travelling in a very broad circle across the surface of the Earth."

10. Religions thrived to protect against disease

Comment #223031 by noamzur on August 1, 2008 at 9:51 am

At the very least it seems to me that they have confused cause and effect. More likely I think they believe (hah!) they found a correlation so they naturally assume causality as well. Been away for a while and catching up on things, so probably others have made similar comments before me...

11. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #212372 by noamzur on July 17, 2008 at 5:21 am

@flobear - that was my point submitting this one - to show that the Middle East is not one big, equally backward place. With all the criticism there is about, we should also have a chance to see the things that ARE working properly!

12. Anti-Darwinists turned away by Israeli academia

Comment #212339 by noamzur on July 17, 2008 at 3:30 am

Found some more information on these scholars:

Apparently, according to a commenter on the original site:

The two Turkish gentlemen turned away are authors in our book:

Seckbach, J. & Gordon, R. (eds.) (2008). Divine Action and Natural Selection: Questions of Science and Faith in Biological Evolution [in press], Singapore: World Scientific.


Write me for details. Thanks.
Yours, -Dick Gordon
gordonr@cc.umanitoba.ca

13. Pope confirms sexual abuse apology

Comment #210148 by noamzur on July 14, 2008 at 2:47 am

The papal flight will land at Darwin airport this morning for refuelling.

14. France rejects Muslim woman over radical practice of Islam

Comment #209514 by noamzur on July 12, 2008 at 1:24 pm

Daniele Lochak, a law professor not involved in the case, said it was bizarre to consider that excessive submission to men was a reason not to grant citizenship. "If you follow that to its logical conclusion, it means that women whose partners beat them are also not worthy of being French," he told Le Monde.

15. Should Strident British Atheist Richard Dawkins Dictate Education Policy to US States? Barbara Forrest Apparently Thinks So

Comment #197065 by noamzur on June 21, 2008 at 2:47 am

I would love to see some SCIENTIFIC arguments against "Darwinism". However, I am afraid we all know what these so-called arguments consist of and how to counter them if the mood strikes us and we don't have something better to do than waste our time on the same old BS again.
Richard, Josh, et al - we are behind you!

16. Teen's death blamed on faith healing

Comment #196518 by noamzur on June 20, 2008 at 5:04 am

As awful and "inhuman" as this might sound - I'm trying and actually managing to see some good in this. At least there is one less person in the next generation who will perpetuate this silly, infuriating and dangerous meme to his own children! And maybe, just maybe, some other backwards-thinker will wake up. Well - even as reality based as I am, I haven't given up all hope just yet...

17. Darwin still causing waves after 150 years

Comment #188731 by noamzur on June 4, 2008 at 12:35 pm

I object to only one thing:

His theories are still rejected by some, notably creationists in the United States, and are less than welcome in the Middle East.

The "Middle East" accepts and welcomes Darwinian ideas in its enlightened and secular parts, and since I originate from there myself I refuse to be branded by the bad apples and stuck in one compartment with them. The fights I have at home are bad enough. Other than that - let the festivities commence!

18. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #178737 by noamzur on May 12, 2008 at 1:32 am

At times like these I actually regret not believing in a hell where horrifying deeds like this one could be revenged. Alas - other than that I am quite stunned into silence!

19. British Airways takes beef off the menu to avoid offending Hindus

Comment #178154 by noamzur on May 10, 2008 at 3:56 pm

Can I ask to avoid flying Bigot Airways in that case? But the competitors aren't much better anymore.
Of course it's a financial decision! Why can't they just admit it?
Although I would wait to see what the official BA statement and not a write-up in a newspaper.

20. The Neanderthal Debate

Comment #174858 by noamzur on May 3, 2008 at 5:01 pm

Truth Seeker:

>> 16 Apr 08: Neanderthal expert Dr Chris Stringer discusses new ideas of how neanderthals and early man co-existed with Telegraph Science Editor Dr Roger Highfield. <<

I have to strongly disagree with his premise.

Dr Roger Highfield probably did no co-exist with early man and neanderthals :-)




But we still ought to teach the controversy!

21. Evolution's Critics Shift Tactics With Schools

Comment #174848 by noamzur on May 3, 2008 at 4:41 pm

On one hand this makes me proud not to be an American and to live in Europe. On the other hand, the utter stupidity of this is absolutely outraging and I am afraid that like many other things this will soon be exported out of the USA. And this sort of "tribalism" to which I just voluntarily admitted to be guilty of doesn't help us further. I guess organizing atheists, Brights, the "reality-based population", or whatever other title we chose to give ourselves really is like herding cats, but if we don't do it for this cause, then we are going to lose the war and not only a few battles!

22. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160375 by noamzur on April 14, 2008 at 2:14 am

True - some, though by all means not all, of the great artists and philosophers of the western (and eastern) world did have a strong sense of faith, but, to quote RD directly - what on earth does that have to do with anything?
Also true - some of these great artists were people I would not have liked to meet in person or have dinner with (e.g. Chopin, Wagner, Beethoven, Shakespeare) but that does not diminish the beauty of their artistic creations.
And absolutely FALSE: "now we're all supposed to travel light, be supple, so that we can swap jobs, partners or political allegiances at a moment's notice" - I'm sorry but I can't agree with this sentiment at all! I have a very strong sense of ethics, aesthetics, morals, etc. which I took a long time to develop and am proud of! I will not claim to travel lightly so I can change at a moment's notice.