1. Believing the Unbelievable: The Clash Between Faith and Reason in the Modern World

Comment #57613 by Julius on July 20, 2007 at 7:49 am

Indeed, a great speech. I'd like to see more like this from Mr. Harris, for example an elaborate view on options for the future would be nice. What he thinks will happen, and why, and what he thinks the average human being should or could do.
He might want to check out what End Game by Derrick Jensen is about, both Part 1 and Part 2.

And @ungodlystheist: You're trying hard to bring people down to your level again, if I were Sam, or a fan of Sam, I'd ignore people like you. You do not have a very realistic view on the matters at hand, and it's a waste of time to even have to spend time responding to the drivel you're posting here. Use Google!

2. Interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #57549 by Julius on July 19, 2007 at 6:49 pm

@OhioAtheist: Still, I don't see ANY religion taking over your lives any time soon, because the American masses simply won't allow a dramatic change and attack on their day to day freedoms. When push comes to shove most US citizen will fight for their freedom rather than for their religious leader(s).

@Crono454: Exactly, Ayaan has -figuratively speaking- 'stolen' a lot of money from the Dutch tax-payers doing very little to nothing in The Netherlands as a 'politician'. I think the US speaks too highly of her in that regard. She just had a lot of money. And by the way, she never worked in a factory any more than most Dutch students have. How it really went on is to be read here: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayaan_Hirsi_Ali
The reason she left was because one of OUR atheist heroes (Theo van Gogh) was murdered, and this was caused by him being so kind as to help HER make the movie she wanted to see made. Without Ayaan's smile and liberal party membership, he would never have helped her out. She fled because she feels guilty about it, and because The Netherlands is an overpopulated country, making it technically harder to hide from Islamics.

Of course, I agree with most of her points against Islam, even with her feminist statements, but other than that, the US isn't any more democratic than the NL is. In fact, as far as religion goes, I think The Dutch enjoy more freedoms than Americans do. To compare a nation of 300 million with a nation of 17 million makes no sense either way, although I do believe, on a worldwide scale, The Netherlands shows the closest resemblance to the US of A (in almost everything except their language), so her escape to the US made sense.

3. Town Hall Seattle: God Is Not Great

Comment #57543 by Julius on July 19, 2007 at 5:55 pm

Why on earth have they muted the swearing and cussing? As if! There would be people in/of the targeted audience who would be insulted by that? Oh wait, it's a RULE.

4. Richard Dawkins on his online alterego

Comment #51394 by Julius on June 22, 2007 at 3:44 pm

I, too, have wondered about a little and could not get excited much with it. I don't feel joy or pain there, even though I know actual people are behind it.

Plus, I got banned the first time I tried SL, because I seemingly spoke the wrong words at some important SL person. How was I to know there was no freedom of speech where I was at (or where it did exist, if it does at all)?

I'm actually surprised to hear Richard held out for so long without getting banned ;) There are some really annoying people there, just like in the real world.

5. When Atheists Have Their Say (5 Letters)

Comment #19643 by Julius on January 29, 2007 at 4:23 am

His problem is that he keeps bringing in historic actions as to blame ourselves by, as an argument against fear of a growing Islamic cultus. I see this is being used by many debaters in favor of the religious angle. They claim that we were wrong ourselves (usually past tence) and therefore have no right to be critical towards extremists today. That 'we' have either created or supplied weapons, or that we were first. This is exactly why it is so important to actively destroy a fool's paradise. If you don't they will hold back planet earth and its inhabitants forever, by shutting down critics or thoughtful development, using our own past as if it was unchanged. It's a vicious circle: Apparently they'd rather keep on fighting, or keep up the ongoing (religion-based) wars, because that is their free ride on religious truth. It's almost as if they like to keep it that way so they can say: "See? We told you so!" (right after the first nuke has been fired). Strong believers tend to hope for destruction, because if their belief-structures can't hold, why not destroy everything? What's the use, after that?

People like David Matthews should really learn not to depend on gods for survival. Of course their first reaction is anger and disenchantment, and then we, the vivid upbeat non-believers, should catch them before they fall.

A while ago I wrote some things about being an atheist: http://jult.net/dub/entry.php?id=252