Comments by bharmount

Comment #252552 by bharmount on September 23, 2008 at 10:18 am

Just sent the following to a Religious friend:

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National Emergency!

I think that you must be somewhat mystified as to why a growing number of very intelligent people are beginning to fear certain aspects of Christianity, and are very opposed to the election of Sarah Palin, a fundamentalist Christian.

It is because of the firm belief held by millions of fundamentalist Christians that:

Evolution never happened despite the now massive evidence accumulated from almost every corner of the globe.
Some people have been raised from the dead, & at least one person was born of a virgin.
Consciousness that is generated by a billion neurons survives the death of those neurons.
A place exists where some people (the unbelievers) are punished eternally (by a loving god) after they are dead.
The earth is less than 10,000 years old and dinosaurs never existed, or existed along side humans.
An invisible being can be talked to and can intervene in human affairs.
The "End of Days" and Armageddon are at hand, and will usher back a person dead for 2000 years to "rule" the earth.
Humans, but not animals, have "souls".
It is possible to "redeem" one person by the sacrifice of an other person before the birth of the "redeemed".
A "magic" book was written 2000 years ago that contains all truth and morality. (Written by men ignorant of almost everything now known by modern science.)
An invisible supernatural being (God) that lives somewhere in the sky, and the "Devil", "Demons", "Angels", & other supernatural beings actually exist.
Some people have the "gifts" of prophecy, and can speak in "tongues".
The "Rapture" is coming soon and thousands of true believers will be swept up into the sky somewhere.
It would be good to ban some books.
Women should not have control over there own reproduction capacity, and should be subservient and submissive to men.
Sex education should not be taught in schools.
Stem cell research should be banned.

All of the above beliefs are unsupported by even a shred of empirical evidence, and would only be an indication of a form of insanity, lack of intelligence, or group delusion if held by the average person, but held by someone within reach of the white house, one heartbeat away from from having her finger on the red button to speed along Armageddon, I think it rises to the level of a national emergency.

See the article just out in Newsweek, by my "friend" author/neuroscientist Sam Harris below:

Bob

2. The Science of Religion and the Religion of Science

Comment #200478 by bharmount on June 27, 2008 at 5:42 pm

3. Comment #200419 by Prosthetic Head on June 27, 2008 at 2:59 pm

I for one often prefer the audio, and i think it should always be an option where there is a video. Its good for the bandwidth impaired and also for listening to on my MP3 player when I don't have time to sit and watch a video.

I agree!
Bob

3. CNN Request for 'I-Reports' on religion

Comment #65173 by bharmount on August 23, 2007 at 4:58 am

My response to CNN:

"Are you one of the millions of people who live by faith?"

NO! Faith is the acceptance of ideas apart from, or in contradiction to, empirically observed facts of reality. Humans throughout history have had total "faith" and acceptance of all sorts of ideas that have later proven to be false. (Flat earth, fairies, 2,500+ different gods, dragons, demons, angels, etc., etc.)

"Do you believe religion is under attack in modern society?"

YES! And it should be attacked by all rational people! The fate of humanity and the survival of civilization itself may rest on whether or not enough of this planets population wakes up from the kind of group insanity, brainwashing, hatred and intolerance that is generated by religion, and instead embraces science, reason, freedom, democracy, naturalism, humanism & atheism.

"Have the lines blurred too much or not enough between religion and politics?"

TOO MUCH. Thomas Jefferson said we should have a wall between church & state. That wall should be an impenetrable barrier and should extend worldwide and include all religions.