1. Fossil find could be Europe's first humans

Comment #150788 by Eamonn Shute on March 27, 2008 at 12:23 pm

Is he missing a rib?

2. Saudi Arabia Leader Calls for Interfaith Dialogue

Comment #149927 by Eamonn Shute on March 26, 2008 at 10:37 am

It looks like the Vatican has a lot to learn about diplomacy:-

"A Muslim scholar who participated in recent Vatican talks to improve Catholic-Muslim relations criticized Pope Benedict XVI's Easter baptism of a prominent convert from Islam as a "provocative" act.

Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born TV and newspaper commentator who has denounced Islam as inherently violently, was baptized by the pope in a vigil service Saturday night in St. Peter's Basilica."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jmjHmHDjMG4Qhj3beZWc-IXP2bOQD8VKJV683

3. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #148710 by Eamonn Shute on March 23, 2008 at 4:19 pm

more than 40 other blogs that have picked up the story

4. EXPELLED!

Comment #147618 by Eamonn Shute on March 21, 2008 at 1:57 am

The producers have shot themselves in the foot with a machine gun!

5. Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

Comment #146375 by Eamonn Shute on March 19, 2008 at 2:38 am

His story "The Star" is my favourite short story by anyone. I am looking forward to seeing the film version of "Rendezvous with Rama" when it comes out, probably next year.

6. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Comment #145442 by Eamonn Shute on March 17, 2008 at 3:21 pm

There is an introduction by Richard of about half a page per article, plus a short introduction to the book, so close to 50 pages by him.

7. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Comment #145346 by Eamonn Shute on March 17, 2008 at 1:52 pm

Sargeist,
Matt Ridley has only one article in the book, you are apparently confused by the fact that another article is by one Mark Ridley.

8. Richard Dawkins' US Tour begins this week

Comment #140382 by Eamonn Shute on March 7, 2008 at 8:23 am

mixmastergaz, I agree that Richard's visit to Liverpool should have been advertised here. I found out about it elsewhere and posted information about it on the Richard Dawkins forum here:-

http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=34242

Richard will be coming again on April 21st but that is also fully booked.

9. Richard Dawkins on five of his favorite books

Comment #132838 by Eamonn Shute on February 25, 2008 at 9:15 am

Five non-fiction books that have not been mentioned here:-

1. Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman? - Richard Feynman
2. QED - The Strange Theory of Light and Matter - Richard Feynman
3. Parasite Rex - Carl Zimmer
4. Power, Sex Suicide - Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life - Nick Lane
5. The Nature of Light and Colour in the Open Air - M. Minnaert.

10. Richard Dawkins on five of his favorite books

Comment #132194 by Eamonn Shute on February 24, 2008 at 12:41 pm

I have also read The Black Cloud, it is one of my favourite SF novels, with a very unusual alien, and calculus! I am a little surprised that several others have read it, it seems to be unavailable new and was first published in 1957. I have it in Penguin, price two shillings and sixpence in 1960.

11. My Saudi Valentine

Comment #126591 by Eamonn Shute on February 13, 2008 at 3:56 pm

Where there's a willy there's a way.

12. Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science

Comment #125117 by Eamonn Shute on February 11, 2008 at 1:58 am

I would nominate Professor Steve Jones:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jones_(biologist)

I have read several of his books and they are very well writtten. He is another biologist, but I don't think that matters.

13. Are Darwin's Theories Fact or Faith Issues?

Comment #123903 by Eamonn Shute on February 8, 2008 at 1:03 am

Simmons has posted comments about this debate at the Discovery Institute. After reading it I can see why they don't allow people to comment - it is pathetic!

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2008/02/dr_geoffrey_simmons_on_his_deb.html

14. Are Darwin's Theories Fact or Faith Issues?

Comment #120313 by Eamonn Shute on February 1, 2008 at 12:54 pm

I posted this comment in the forums:

"Should PZM have taken part in this broadcast?

Richard has said that he refuses to debate with creationists because it gives then the oxygen of publicity and gives the impression that there is a genuine scientific issue. On the other hand, if PZM (and others) had refused to debate with Simmons then Simmons would have been able to spout his nonsense unopposed (which was the original plan by the radio station).

I am undecided."

I wonder if Richard is having second thoughts after PZM did such a good job in this debate?

15. Happy Birthday Josh Timonen!

Comment #118781 by Eamonn Shute on January 31, 2008 at 1:27 am

Happy Birthday Josh! And thank-you for the best-designed website I know of.

16. Ken Ham in Leicester April 2008

Comment #114875 by Eamonn Shute on January 23, 2008 at 5:13 am

He will also be in Liverpool on March 31st.

http://www.answersingenesis.org/events/details.aspx?Event_ID=5944

17. 2007, a bad year for God squadders

Comment #101617 by Eamonn Shute on December 20, 2007 at 3:14 pm

Here is the original article, for anyone who wants to comment.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article3080429.ece?Submitted=true

18. Whale 'missing link' discovered

Comment #101261 by Eamonn Shute on December 20, 2007 at 6:49 am

I wish they would tell us how Indonyus is related to Ambulocetus, Pakicetus etc.

19. Borders Tags Atheist Book with 'O Come All Ye Faithless' Cards

Comment #100299 by Eamonn Shute on December 18, 2007 at 1:26 pm

Didn't Christopher Hitchens urge people to boycott Borders because of their removal of publications containing the anti-Islamic cartoons, or was it another bookstore?

20. Let us kill all the teddy bears

Comment #94900 by Eamonn Shute on December 7, 2007 at 1:27 am

If I buy a teddy bear for £10, name it Mohammed and sell it for £20, have I made a prophet?

21. Bad Faith Awards: Vote for the winner now

Comment #94410 by Eamonn Shute on December 5, 2007 at 3:58 pm

What, no moslems?

22. Judgement Day: Intelligent Design on Trial

Comment #85923 by Eamonn Shute on November 7, 2007 at 1:38 pm

Didn't they have to pay $2,000,000 as well? B-)

23. Go Ahead, Rationalize. Monkeys Do It, Too

Comment #85560 by Eamonn Shute on November 6, 2007 at 7:06 am

And what we do with presents, we also do with religion...

24. What's Good About Religion?

Comment #84543 by Eamonn Shute on November 2, 2007 at 10:49 am

Pat has a new video in which he asks "Was Jesus Gay?".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReYfDlIa-Z8

25. What the New Atheists Don't See

Comment #84256 by Eamonn Shute on November 1, 2007 at 2:54 pm

Woody Allen said "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve immortality through not dying".

26. Evolution to be taught in SA schools

Comment #82867 by Eamonn Shute on October 28, 2007 at 4:35 am

"Stupid article, I'd have expected better from the science-friendly Guardian."

It is actually a South African paper, not the UK Guardian.

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=323114&area=/insight/insight__national/

27. Evolution to be taught in SA schools

Comment #82839 by Eamonn Shute on October 28, 2007 at 2:27 am

"evolution .... also mixes Genesis with idol worshippers of Babylon"

WTF!!!!!!!!!

28. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. were atheists, and they were terrible! Answer that!

Comment #82686 by Eamonn Shute on October 27, 2007 at 8:33 am

"Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. were atheists, and they were terrible! Answer that!"

I agree, but that is a statement about Hitler, Stalin and Mao, not a statement about the existence of god.

29. A new website addition: Debate Points

Comment #81702 by Eamonn Shute on October 25, 2007 at 3:54 am

"I know god exists because he speaks to me personally"

30. Arguments From Design, First Cause, Something Rather Than Nothing, Fundamental Constants

Comment #81393 by Eamonn Shute on October 24, 2007 at 4:47 pm

If the "something" is matter, then we must remember that matter is just one of several forms of energy (E=mc2). Another form is gravitational energy, which is negative. This means that the universe can have a total energy of zero, so there is no need to explain where it all came from!

31. Arguments Against Evolution

Comment #81347 by Eamonn Shute on October 24, 2007 at 3:54 pm

This site has very good replies to creationist claims of several kinds, not just those which dispute evolution. I don't see why we should try to reinvent the wheel!
http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/

32. A Rational Universe Implies a Creator, Science points towards Theism

Comment #81335 by Eamonn Shute on October 24, 2007 at 3:44 pm

1. We need to distinguish between "prescriptive" laws and "descriptive" laws. A prescriptive law, such as one created by a government, says how we should behave, but we have the ability to break such a law. A scientific law, on the other hand is descriptive - it is a description of how nature behaves, and it is a truism that nature cannot violate such a description.

2. Many fundamental laws of science can be explained, for example the conservation of energy, momentum, angular momentum and electric charge, and the inverse square laws of gravity and electromagnetism. There is even a scientific explanation for the fact that there are four dimensions of spacetime. These laws are the inevitable result of logical considerations, so they do not require a god.

33. Debate between Michael Shermer and Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #80688 by Eamonn Shute on October 22, 2007 at 4:06 pm

I don't understand the title of the Hitchens/D'Souza debate - "Is Religion The Problem?".
Surely there is more than one problem in the world! Shouldn't it be "Is Religion A Problem"? It is such a vague, meaningless title that my literalist mind cannot make sense of it. I hope the debaters can agree on what the question actually means!

34. Richard Dawkins receives the Deschner Prize

Comment #78846 by Eamonn Shute on October 15, 2007 at 4:21 am

I would also like to congratulate Richard.

As for the Nobel Peace Prize, Wiki says that "According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize should be awarded 'to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses'."
I don't think the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change could be described as a person! And I don't see how Al Gores work, however praiseworthy it may be, meets the brief. It seems to me that the Nobel Committee have moved the goalposts quite a bit!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_peace

35. Debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox

Comment #76178 by Eamonn Shute on October 5, 2007 at 1:39 am

There are a number of problems with the fine-tuning argument as scientific evidence for a god, these are some of them.

1. There is no evidence that the god hypothesis is the correct explanation of the apparent fine-tuning - any hypothesis must make predictions which have been tested successfully before it can be accepted as correct, and this has not been done.

2. It is an example of the sharpshooter fallacy - he paints his target round the bullet holes in the side of a barn instead of painting the target before he shoots.

3. It assumes that the constants of nature CAN have other values. This is doubtful - every electron in the universe has exactly the same value, which seems to indicate that no other value is possible - if something CAN happen then it will.

4. If the constants were different life as we know it may be impossible, but how do we know that some other radically different form of life would not exist? Or that some other equally interesting phenomena would not exist? What is special about our kind of life?

5. If the universe was designed to produce life, then why is almost all of the universe hostile to life? Life cannot even survive in most of the Earth!

36. Talking Action Figure Jesus

Comment #73278 by Eamonn Shute on September 24, 2007 at 4:18 pm

If you prefer something more tasteful how about a Mother Teresa Singing Doll?

http://ship-of-fools.com/Gadgets/Musical/071.html

37. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72903 by Eamonn Shute on September 23, 2007 at 11:34 am

I tried the "contact us" page, but only got an error message "The page cannot be displayed".

http://www.monkseaton.org.uk/Contact%20Us/default.aspx

38. Do you have to read up on leprechology before disbelieving in them?

Comment #70808 by Eamonn Shute on September 17, 2007 at 1:19 am

I wonder if Stanford and Cornwell are as critical of Christians who believe despite not having read books by the major theologians, ie 99.99% of them.

39. Honest Mistakes or Willful Mendacity

Comment #68287 by Eamonn Shute on September 6, 2007 at 3:57 pm

There is more "Honest Mistakes or Willful Mendacity" (and I think I know which) in an article by Madeleine Bunting at the Grauniad; it has been well and truly trashed.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/madeleine_bunting/2007/09/the_smallest_signs_of_retreat.html

40. What do these atheists understand of religion?

Comment #67327 by Eamonn Shute on September 3, 2007 at 4:17 am

pewkatchoo: "Laugh, I almost started."

Perhaps this will get you going!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-ZnPE3G_YY

41. What do these atheists understand of religion?

Comment #67273 by Eamonn Shute on September 3, 2007 at 2:11 am

I am glad to see that The Heaven And Earth Show has finished. Recently they had an item about "fake" psychics, so they had a "genuine" psychic to criticise them! My only worry is about what they put in its place; it can't be any worse - or can it?

42. Review of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Response to the God Delusion

Comment #66982 by Eamonn Shute on September 1, 2007 at 7:40 am

The Times wants us to buy the book through them, so it is perhaps understandable that they are censoring the comments. However, they shoot themselves in the foot with their summary: "A clarion call to the faithless, the waverers, and even firm religious believers, to follow the author into radical atheism not merely as a private conviction but as a public profession." This is an abbreviated summary from Amazon, but they have completely changed the meaning in the process!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Darwins-Angel-Angelic-Riposte-Delusion/dp/1846680484/ref=sr_11_1/202-5863996-7070240?ie=UTF8&qid=1188658129&sr=11-1

43. Review of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Response to the God Delusion

Comment #66945 by Eamonn Shute on September 1, 2007 at 4:33 am

Still no sign of Richard's comment, or any other comments for several hours. Are they witholding them to save Vickers' embarrassment?

44. A hole lot of nothing found by astronomers

Comment #65670 by Eamonn Shute on August 25, 2007 at 12:58 pm

So much for "Nature abhors a vacuum"!
I wonder who first said that - ah yes, now I remember - it was Spinoza! B-)

45. Rational Atheism

Comment #64812 by Eamonn Shute on August 22, 2007 at 1:01 am

"1. Anti-something movements by themselves will fail."

Rubbish - what about the anti-slavery movement?

46. After Blair, Labour MPs opt for 'God Delusion'

Comment #61597 by Eamonn Shute on August 6, 2007 at 12:34 am

it is nice to see that the MPs are actually reading the copies of TGD that we sent them!

http://richarddawkins.net/article,565,Send-The-God-Delusion-to-your-MP,J-Christie-PledgeBankcom

47. Richard Dawkins on Hardtalk

Comment #58334 by Eamonn Shute on July 24, 2007 at 2:00 pm

>> It blew my mind... are these things real?!?!?

I love Kinesin too. Who would believe that a molecule could have a personality! This video gives more info.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxRgqCjlcPM

48. Islamic Creationist and a Book Sent Round the World

Comment #56951 by Eamonn Shute on July 18, 2007 at 12:18 am

Harun Yahya stole the photos in his website!

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/06/creationist_amorality.php

49. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #50811 by Eamonn Shute on June 20, 2007 at 3:51 am

5. Comment #50751 by Enlightenment
Thanks, USA_Limey, that is classic Hitchens.
I believe he's on BBC question time this week.

BBC1 10:35 Thursday. Also Boris Johnson - should be entertaining!

50. Groundbreaking Research Has Scientists Talking With Apes

Comment #46378 by Eamonn Shute on May 31, 2007 at 4:18 am

I don't think this is particularly new or interesting. It is already known that apes have extremely limited linguistic ability - A three year old human has enormously greater skill than any ape, and this just proves it.