1. Top Scientists Warn of Water Shortages and Disease Linked to Global Warming

Comment #25420 by Thad on March 13, 2007 at 2:58 am

It is environmentalism which has become a type of religion.

Because of our knowledge and greed we fell from the grace of the Eden of sustainability and communion with Nature. Unless we repent of our sins the hot hot apocolypse will follow.


Narrator: Chicken Little was in the woods one day when an acorn fell on her head. It scared her so much she trembled all over. She shook so hard, half her feathers fell out.

Chicken Little: "Help! Help! The sky is falling! I have to go tell the king!"

Narrator: So she ran in great fright to tell the king. Along the way she met Henny Penny.

Henny Penny: "Where are you going, Chicken Little?"

Chicken Little: "Oh, help! The sky is falling!"

Henny Penny: "How do you know?"

Chicken Little: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"

Henny Penny: "This is terrible, just terrible! We'd better hurry up."

Narrator: So they both ran away as fast as they could. Soon they met Ducky Lucky.

Ducky Lucky: "Where are you going, Chicken Little and Henny Penny?"

Chicken Little & Henny Penny: "The sky is falling! The sky is falling! We're going to tell the king!"

Ducky Lucky: "How do you know?"

Chicken Little: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head."

Ducky Lucky: "Oh dear, oh dear! We'd better run!"

Narrator: So they all ran down the road as fast as they could. Soon they met Goosey Loosey walking down the roadside.

Goosey Loosey "Hello there. Where are you all going in such a hurry?"

Chicken Little: "We're running for our lives!"

Henny Penny: "The sky is falling!"

Ducky Lucky: "And we're running to tell the king!"

Goosey Loosey: "How do you know the sky is falling?"

Chicken Little: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"

Goosey Loosey: "Goodness! Then I'd better run with you."

Narrator: And they all ran in great fright across a field. Before long they met Turkey Lurkey strutting back and forth..

Turkey Lurkey: "Hello there, Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, and Goosey Loosey. Where are you all going in such a hurry?"

Chicken Little: "Help! Help!"

Henny Penny: "We're running for our lives!"

Ducky Lucky: "The sky is falling!"

Goosey Loosey: "And we're running to tell the king!"

Turkey Lurkey: "How do you know the sky is falling?"

Chicken Little: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"

Turkey Lurkey: "Oh dear! I always suspected the sky would fall someday. I'd better run with you."

Narrator: So they ran with all their might, until they met Foxy Loxy.

Foxy Loxy: "Well, well. Where are you rushing on such a fine day?"

Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurkey (together) "Help! Help!" It's not a fine day at all. The sky is falling, and we're running to tell the king!"

Foxy Loxy: "How do you know the sky is falling?"

Chicken Little: "I saw it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears, and part of it fell on my head!"

Foxy Loxy: "I see. Well then, follow me, and I'll show you the way to the king."

Narrator: So Foxy Loxy led Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, and Turkey Lurkey across a field and through the woods. He led them straight to his den, and they never saw the king to tell him that the sky is falling.

2. 12 Year Old Girl Prodigy Paints Pictures of God

Comment #18716 by Thad on January 22, 2007 at 3:27 pm

Dawkins concept that the God Delusion stems from the childhood stage, a type of imprinting, where unquestioned belief in parental stories is an evolutionary development is challenged here if true.

Prodigy in Art is a very rare thing. Chess, math and music seems to be the areas where prodigy is expressed.

There is no doubt she has exquisite talent. It would take a long time to invent a brain scanner that could parse those neurons.

3. Neither intellect nor faith will save humanity

Comment #18710 by Thad on January 22, 2007 at 3:00 pm

Luthien:

OK, I said well thought out solution.

So.
Pearl Harbor.- Somehow we set up "peace schools" in Japan.

9/11- Somehow we set up "peace schools" in the Middle East.
(Where they throw acid in the face of little girls who attempt an education in violation of the Koran.)

Maybe we should all light nice little candles and release balloons the next time a beheading occurs.

I got it. With our power and technology we develope truly "Smart Bombs" that don't kill but raise IQs when they hit someone, and leave them singing "Give Peace a Chance". Ahh I see your well thought out alternative.

4. Neither intellect nor faith will save humanity

Comment #18614 by Thad on January 22, 2007 at 3:37 am

Homo Economist:
You said in part:

"WE tolerated Afghanistan until 9/11, when the dangers were already very clear before our eyes"

Is this an attempted argument for continued tolerance of the intolerable? England tolerated Hitler until there was an administration change and his aggression became intolerable to Churchill.

The Clinton administration tolerated terrorism for years with no credible action or plan. 9/11 ended that fatuous policy with a different administration. Nobody is bound by the mistakes of the past, either your own mistakes or the errors of others.

President Carter did not support the Shah of Iran,a vastly more enlightened leader than the small group of radical religious terrorists and nuts that were allowed to enslave millions in that country. It could have evolved into a more modern state like Turkey.

The only hope for the billion Muslims to be released from a medieval life and future is for the establishment of democracy in the middle east.

It is condescending to think that they are not capable or worthy of it. The same was said of the German and Japanese. The point of the Bush Doctrine is that we now realize that with the ubiquity of modern weapons enlightened democracy, as a replacement for religious radicalism, is our only hope as well.

I would welcome a well thought out alternative to the actual physical destruction of those who seek, at any cost, the end of modern civilization.

5. Neither intellect nor faith will save humanity

Comment #18502 by Thad on January 21, 2007 at 10:02 am

As far as I can tell, President Bush is doing something about the truly dangerous and virulent religious radicals that have murdered thousands and may soon be armed with nukes. Dr. Dawkins and other academics do not even attempt to offer an alternative solution to very real problem that exits and will continue to exist unless confronted. To morally equate Bin Laden and Bush is perverse.

The defeat of those radicals, with the establishment of some modern state in the Mideast is essential. Tens of millions in Iraq think so and approve of that policy , judging by their votes.

George Bush may pray on Sunday, and he may give lip service to the Christians in a nation closely divided between Democrats and Republicans, and even stall federal funding for stem cell research for awhile, but I assure you the US is in no danger of becoming a theocracy.

Is the alternative to be nice to those radicals? Perhaps a warm cup of tea and some pleasant conversation at Oxford will convince them that cutting through the neck of a screaming crying infidel with a dull knife is a bit unnecessary, and pushing that nuke button would not be cricket at all.

The Evangelicals in the US are a threat to education for sure, but compared to the tremendous damage the Postmodernists have done to the system that threat is small. The "truth is just text" crowd has ruined math and science teaching from the lowest to highest levels because they wield real power in the academy.

I must also point out the rather obvious fact that the " Salman Rushdie" effect must be having an influence on our brave esteemed atheists in the west. Is it because they think that the wimpy Christians need to take the brunt of their analysis, or they are cowardly to equally express it about the Moslems?

Perhaps Dawkins et al think that the radicals stated desire to use the tools of the 21st century to return humanity to the 12th is not feasible. Credit to Sam Harris for understanding that point.

6. How Old is the Grand Canyon? Park Service Won't Say

Comment #18499 by Thad on January 21, 2007 at 9:39 am

This entire thread has been a fraud by an anti-Bush environmental group with its typical agenda. We believe lies when we want to believe them, that includes religion and it includes environmentalism

See http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-01-17.html

Thanks to Skeptic for actually checking the facts.

7. Conservative Atheists

Comment #17595 by Thad on January 15, 2007 at 4:19 am

I am a Republican and conservative because "I oppose Pseudoscience, Epistemic relativism and those disciplines or schools of thought whose truth claims are prompted by the political, ideological and moral commitments of their adherents."

I believe in the great ideas of the Enlightenment, which our founders encased in our constitution to provide and protect individual liberty. Those ideas include both a hatred of tyranny from an aristocracy, and deep suspicion of civil power in the hands of the churches.

I am for liberty under law, for private property and pluralism. I think these ideas are still worth defending by not only intellectual expression but also with military might if need be.

Call me Godless,but call me a conservative.