Comments by sidelined

Comment #313820 by sidelined on January 6, 2009 at 2:32 pm

Comment #313681 by dvophoto

No, none of the strong christians I know are in the "christian but gay" boat. I wasn't accounting for ALL christians, just those I know personally.

Perhaps you would be so good as to qualify what you mean by STRONG christian as you use in your posts?

2. Teen trained to be suicide bomber feels tricked

Comment #310919 by sidelined on January 2, 2009 at 11:49 am

I do not know what goes through the mind of a 14 year old in a tribe in Pakistan but at that age my response to someone wanting me to kill in the name of whatever would be "You first and I promise to follow."

3. What Will Change Everything?

Comment #310913 by sidelined on January 2, 2009 at 11:44 am

Sorry for the confusion dispiricist, I was speaking not of weapons but of fusion reactors which harness the same power as the sun and not, as you mistook it, weapons of thermonuclear capability.

4. What Will Change Everything?

Comment #310613 by sidelined on January 1, 2009 at 6:39 pm

I expect that there are two necessary breakthroughs.
First dealing with human social enforcement of worldwide birth control to limit the burgeoning population so damaging to our potential survival and,second,the actual implementation of successful commercial fusion energy to allow for sufficient means to deal with many problems pertaining to energy demand and waste management.

I expect it will occur in my lifetime but it will require the sober realization of enough of society to force a concerted effort to fund the necessary technology. I believe it would be a better investment than oil and would go a long way to mediating conflicts in much of the world.

One can dream anyway.

5. The Joke's on Him: Bill Maher could use a lesson in civility from Michael Moore

Comment #265423 by sidelined on October 16, 2008 at 5:04 pm

Big City writes

"I actually agree with a lot of what this article says. Maher did come off like an ass throughout the movie."

Perhaps you might give an example to express in what way Maher appeared this way to you?

6. Art teacher made student pray to Jesus for forgiveness

Comment #250912 by sidelined on September 20, 2008 at 8:00 pm

Mitchell says

"I fail to see why it is so much worse when you make someone pray to your imaginary friend"

How can you fail to see that forcing someone to their knees physically and demanding they pray to any deity at all is a step up the scale from mere abuse of authority into the realm of assault and battery? Authoritarian pressure is one thing physical assault is quite something else.

7. Texas State Board of Education approves Bible course for high schools

Comment #213572 by sidelined on July 18, 2008 at 3:16 pm

I do fail to see how, having here set precedent,they will be able to prevent the teaching{as an elective} of The Koran,Torah,Tibetan Book of the Dead etc..

For that matter why would there not be a case made for the introduction of new age codswallop as well.
Yaaaaay... Texas! Remember to be careful what you wish for.

8. Calling World Conference on Dialogue a Symbol of Unity Among Different Traditions

Comment #213487 by sidelined on July 18, 2008 at 1:36 pm

And so it begins, the slow, relentless tread of reason shining a light into the darkness as the creatures therein set aside their differences while fleeing for the dark corners remaining.

You can almost hear the pieces of superstition starting to crack and fall away.

9. Car dealership advert tells atheists to 'shut up'

Comment #185428 by sidelined on May 27, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Some backwoods Podunk dealership assumes that their little advertisement is an earthshaking event that would obliterate our tiny secular minds fragile hold on some imagined belief system? AM I reading this right?

As isolated as they are in their location you would think that they would not be quite so ready to risk alienating any possible clients. A 14% drop in sales could be significant to them don't you think?

10. Student's 'Be Happy, Not Gay' t-shirt ok

Comment #168553 by sidelined on April 25, 2008 at 7:49 am

The fact that a phrase is insulting is not an arguement against the freedom to express the opinion he has. Having the right to wear that shirt means he also cannot, later on, complain about what others are wearing when they express their opinions as well.
Freedom for one ,freedom for all.

11. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #165562 by sidelined on April 21, 2008 at 4:57 pm

TheTruthID says

"Why do you believe in evolution?"

It should first be emphasized that it is not necessary to "believe in evolution" since, unlike the creationist or IDer, evidence and experiment are the order of the day and are demonstratable to anyone with a modicum of common sense and an ability to do the hard work of actual thinking and testing the phenomena.

SO... how about we start with the basic fact that all life is based on chemistry which in turn is the result of physics.These sciences bring clarity to the mechanisms that underlie all phenomena ever investigated.

Since all the life processes are dependent upon chemical interactions and we can show these interactions in great detail we can state with a high confidence that evolution of life follows according to the rules of chemistry.

We also have further evidence in diverse fields of geology, plate tectonics, etc that lend weight as well.But all this knowledge is useless unless and until you learn how this knowledge was properly obtained and tested.

That we do not have the specifics of it all as to how the entire fabric of life unfolds is not a failure on our part but simply a matter that we have only been unravelling the mysteries for a few centuries while nature has spent billions of years producing.

Now that I have given you a brief overview of things will you finally answer the question concerning ID or would you prefer to run away before you fully embarrass yourself?

12. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #165220 by sidelined on April 21, 2008 at 8:27 am

I do not wish to seem callous ifthis letter is genuine, but has the following excerpt struck anyone else as oddly out of sync?

"You know, I respect you as a human being and you have done great work exposing psychics and frauds, but this is a very touchy issue that affects me and family emotionally. Our family business was affected because of Auschwitz because now, our family has nothing. It is gone."

Auschwitz ,while a horrible tragedy, was 60 years ago. What does the present state of the family business have to do with Auschwitz? Surely enough time has passed to be able to have recovered from that event.

My apologies if this is a crass observation, but I am genuinely puzzle by this sentence in the context of the letter.

13. 'Expelled' ripped off Harvard's 'Inner Life of the Cell' animation

Comment #160316 by sidelined on April 13, 2008 at 11:44 pm

Looks like the Expelled crew is issuing a Nuh-uh rebuttal to the plagiarism charge at their blog.

"Editor's Note: Questions have been raised about the origination of some of the animation used in our movie EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed. Claims that we have used any animation in an unauthorized manner are simply false. Premise Media created the animation that illustrates cellular activity used in our film.- The Producers of "EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed""

There you have it. ID evidence at its finest.
I wonder if the movie will be out on Friday or if there will be a technical, beyond our control, delay?

14. Richard Dawkins: 'Growth in creationist beliefs a problem for schools'

Comment #156306 by sidelined on April 7, 2008 at 9:43 am

I think perhaps from now on I will,when pressed for a position by people, adopt the term evidentialist. In this way they can argue the phenomena instead of their miscomprehension of a position based on the presence or absence of a deity to whom they have no real ability to either identify or define.

15. Dawkins warns of human extinction

Comment #155330 by sidelined on April 4, 2008 at 10:37 am

Artful Dodger writes

"Based on a growing awareness of the reality of God, a call. If I still it is because, apart from the inward awareness of this reality"

It is hopeless to ask but exactly what do you mean by inward awareness?

16. Dawkins warns of human extinction

Comment #155243 by sidelined on April 4, 2008 at 9:09 am

Artful Dodger: Will you bother to listen to Lennox's response in October? Will anyone here? Or have you taken Dawkins' statements as unanswerable ex-catedra pronouncements?

Paula Kirby: I booked my ticket this morning, as it happens. And requested a seat near the aisle so I can easily get to the queue for the microphone for the Q&A. Can't wait.

So Artful Dodger,if you can pry yourself away from the grief you have over losing Nancy to Oliver, perhaps you could inform us of the occasions where you have attended Richard Dawkins lectures and placed yourself on the microphone to ask your own question hmmm?

Or do you fear to lose your Pascals wager?

17. Thy will be done

Comment #154437 by sidelined on April 3, 2008 at 8:48 am

I, of course , would emphasize that all religions should be allowed ridicule and that there really should be no subject that comedy not attempt humour upon. If we cannot laugh at the silliness that 90% of our life entails I fear we might end up looking like ann coulter.
Anyway I found a stand up routine along the lines I was aiming for {thanks to my daughter for introducing me to this one} by a man name of Jeff Dunham.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uwOL4rB-go

Enjoy. By that I mean laugh your collective asses off.

P.S. Make sure to check out the clip with "walter" in it.

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

Comment #154135 by sidelined on April 2, 2008 at 6:29 pm

I can see how the phrase "'If the mountain won't come to Mohammed, Mohammed must go to the mountain."could be upsetting to the poor infantile minority of Mohammed's followers who are incapable of maturing to the point of relating to the world around them.

They also are incapable of conceiving of another old phrase from a time when political correctness was not stuffed so far up politicians asses that the stench overwhelmed common sense. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."

To those few followers of Islam who are incapable of understanding that the freedom to criticize religion is not going to be set aside just because you lack the ability to deal with others with any level of competence you can expect to hear another phrase regularly.

"Grow the fuck up!"

That goes double for the politicians and organizations that fold under threat instead of exposing the vermin that employ such actions as a means of hiding the fear that runs through their petty minds.

Now that I have got that off my chest. Anybody heard some good Mohammed jokes lately?

19. My quest to get de-baptised

Comment #152508 by sidelined on March 31, 2008 at 7:10 am

RE: Danny Carr

"Could the refusal to remove my name from church records be against the Data Protection Act? What about the European court of human rights? Clearly, splitting from a whole religion was never going to be easy, but I'm still considering my options."

Would it be possible to go to the Queen of England and ask her to use her position as Supreme Governor of the Church of England to remove the baptismal record? Henry the 8th managed to use it to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so the possibility exists that her position will lend sufficient weight to enable the records to be erased.
Since you are a citizen of the nation she rules I think it would be interesting to she what power she has to grant the "spiritual" wishes of her subjects by confronting the Church on matters of applicability of doctrine.
Then again she might just release the hounds on you. Good luck.

20. Expelled from Expelled: PZ story goes global

Comment #150431 by sidelined on March 26, 2008 at 10:32 pm

One must wonder at the entire structure of an organization that hires a comedian{albeit a poor one} and economist to debate a matter of biology education.
Do they perhaps imagine that if the whole shebang crumbles when the movie comes out that they can perhaps slough it off as a poor joke ,hence the hiring of a second rate comedian to play the fool?

Mike Mathis and his ilk are in no danger of having to own up to anything since the people who side with them are beyond much in the way of rational thought and are completely incapable of debate beyond the brief splash of a 30 second sound bite
that they control the editing of.

That said I would also contend that the movie's subtitle "No intelligence allowed" could not have been more correct since intelligence is the absolute last thing that these people are capable of attaining and the last thing they wish to encounter in a real debate of sufficient length.

Perhaps Ben Stein can become the new laughing stock of Hollywood to replace the tiring escapades of Tom Cruise and Scientology.