1. We happy hooligans

Comment #185799 by ligfietser on May 28, 2008 at 3:10 pm

Why do these people always use so many words. Can't these people just make their point with a few sentences? I'm getting tired of it. How can they expect us to study their writings if it's a hoggabyte of data with an information density approaching zero?

2. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #176855 by ligfietser on May 8, 2008 at 7:19 am

Podaar:

The problem is, in Europe, fear of muslims IS de facto used as a disguise for racism, and Wilders is a poster child of this. I've mentioned it before on rd.net:
http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=40518&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=50#p786936
and:
http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,1998,Controversial-Anti-Muslim-Dutch-Film-Adds-to-Already-Simmering-Tensions,Fox-News,page1#98046

Mixing up religion and racism is a dangerous game to play.

3. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #176584 by ligfietser on May 7, 2008 at 4:13 pm

al-rawandi,

i think you do not read dutch, so this might be a problem. But maybe you could trust the words of a dutchman who has been flooded by fitna-news for many months ;-)
anyways, this one i could find quickly:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/multimedia/article518532.ece/Moslimomroep_overweegt_uitzenden_film_Wilders

4. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #176564 by ligfietser on May 7, 2008 at 3:27 pm

Mr. Harris,

please check your facts. Wilders is a right-wing, racist nutter who uses islam as a proxy. Also, it is not true the Dutch television did not want to broadcast it. All the editors wanted is a preview before broadcasting. But he refused. He wanted them to broadcast it unseen. The parliament tried to solve this by offering to show the movie in the House of Representatives Chamber as an introduction to a debate about islam. Even the Dutch islamic TV-channel offered to broadcast it, but with a discussion with him afterwards. He refused.

Apparently he wanted to have his movie censored. And rightly so, since it's a really bad film. A Powell-Point presentation with copyright infringement.

5. School bars same-sex partners at formals

Comment #161617 by ligfietser on April 15, 2008 at 1:00 pm

"The Bible is very strong that marriage is between a man and a woman and homosexual relationships are not permissible in a sense, not encouraged, they are spoken very strongly against."

But... isn't this just plain evidence the bible is wrong? It's for sure an argument against the bible, not an argument against homosexuality.

6. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #157412 by ligfietser on April 9, 2008 at 4:21 am

A Heron at night:

The 'Stalin question' was not adequately dealt with by Dawkins and this is surprising because the question is one he has answered before. The best answer is that whether Stalin was an atheist is immaterial. If he was, then that means that a bad person was an atheist. The question is whether there is a correlation between atheism and crime (just like whether there is a correlation between drugs and crime), not whether one person can be an atheist and a bad person; atheism and evil are not mutually exclusive.

No. The answer is: "What reasons do you have to believe stalinism was NOT a religion?"

7. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #156989 by ligfietser on April 8, 2008 at 1:11 pm

Did i miss the part in which the evidence for Britain's moral decline was presented?

8. Interview with Neil Shubin, author of 'Your Inner Fish'

Comment #113383 by ligfietser on January 19, 2008 at 1:17 pm

This is why i don't watch television.

9. Two Ex-Jehovah Witnesses to Tell Why They Became Atheists

Comment #110707 by ligfietser on January 12, 2008 at 4:38 am

fireface, been there, done that. The best advice i can give you is: make sure you have friends outside the organisation (aka real friends). You will need them, and they'll make the transition a lot easier. Since JW's mostly don't do violence, the only power they have is social isolation. Break yours, and they're paralyzed.

10. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106470 by ligfietser on January 3, 2008 at 2:11 am

It makes me think of the dutch automobile-fetisjists, who always act like they are a weak, utterly defenseless, oppressed minority. I'd like to be oppressed that way.

11. Creationists plan British theme park

Comment #99371 by ligfietser on December 16, 2007 at 1:16 pm

Today all they do is binge drink.

Numbers, please?

12. Controversial Anti-Muslim Dutch Film Adds to Already Simmering Tensions

Comment #98046 by ligfietser on December 13, 2007 at 2:54 am

Multiple posters have mentioned this guy is a racist or possibly is one. I think that is a serious enough charge for those people to provide evidence for it. If he is, let it be known with evidence. If he isn't, then what is your point? Letting that sort of garbage float around in a forum like this makes Islam look like a race/ethnicity.

Like i said, the guy only attacks people with a muslim background. For him, you can do whatever you want, as long as you do not have an ethnicity associated with islam. If gays are beaten by men from a marroccan family, he is up in arms, islam did it. When gays are beaten by men with a dutch ethnicity, not a single word.
If a boy with a marrocan ethnicity robs, it's because of islam. If a marrocan boy is battered by skinheads, just silence. When the new government was installed, he attacked two secular, i-go-to-the-mosque-every-ramadan secretaries of state (one Turkish woman, never wearing an headscarf, one Marrocan man, always wearing a tie, famous for bridging the gap between whites and marrocan people). He said they were a danger for our secular society. In the same government, several christian fundamentalists were installed as ministers, who quickly started to undermine the gay rights and women's rights. And he praises them eventually.
In Holland, people with a north-african ethnicity are mostly muslims, whites are christian. How convenient.

13. Controversial Anti-Muslim Dutch Film Adds to Already Simmering Tensions

Comment #97583 by ligfietser on December 12, 2007 at 11:56 am

Wilders an atheist? Don't make me laugh. He is harsh on secular, moderate muslims like Aboutaleb, the man who kept the peace in Amsterdam when Van Gogh was murdered. But he does not have the slightest problem with the christian fundamentalists in the Netherlands, who even entered the government last year. He has repeatedly said christianity is no problem, because that's our tradition and the base of our culture. This guy is a straight-ahead racist, using islam as an excuse.

14. Daniel Dennett Debates Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #93067 by ligfietser on December 2, 2007 at 5:39 am

Sadly, D'Souza's book is #33 on the NY Times bestseller list. I am not sure how many he has sold so far, but #33 is still pretty high up there. He is just a few places below the lovely(adam's apple and all) Ann Coulter.

But why is it placed under 'non-fiction'?

15. Dutch lawmaker planning film criticizing the Quran

Comment #91794 by ligfietser on November 29, 2007 at 10:36 am

Geert Wilders is a very dangerous man. He's a cryptofascist who is using critique on islam as a proxy for racism. He is harsh on moderate muslims, but eventually praises fundamentalist christians. Really, this has nothing to do with atheism or rationalism. Nothing is more dangerous than mixing religious troubles and racism. He must know this full well, and he is willingly steering in this direction.

16. 'Growing Up in the Universe' now available free online

Comment #88042 by ligfietser on November 14, 2007 at 8:51 am

Torrent: http://isohunt.com/download/19927648/Universe+dawkins

17. War in Heaven: Hitchens Meets D'Souza on Home Turf

Comment #81176 by ligfietser on October 24, 2007 at 10:40 am

Usable link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M05P9gO5Hkg

18. Debate between Michael Shermer and Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #81158 by ligfietser on October 24, 2007 at 9:52 am

I really liked it when Schermer said christianity will claim the emancipation of homosexuals within a century.

19. Gay flamingos pick up chick

Comment #44845 by ligfietser on May 25, 2007 at 11:53 am

Men who pick up chicks, don't seem particularly gay.

20. The Creation Museum: Prepare to believe

Comment #41059 by ligfietser on May 15, 2007 at 12:42 pm

Hmmm, check this: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liberty_University&oldid=131109293
(scroll to bottom)

I really hate Wikipedia-vandalism, but...

21. Kirk Cameron Proves That God Exists

Comment #40052 by ligfietser on May 12, 2007 at 8:58 pm

IQHQ: sorry, but i can't agree. She might a) be a woman, b) have a sometimes shrill voice, c) have large silicons d) a fancy dress, but of all four in the debate, she had the most informed arguments. She did all factual stuff. Brian was a little more calm, but his arguments were not like Kelly's, period.

22. Al Sharpton and Christopher Hitchens

Comment #40044 by ligfietser on May 12, 2007 at 8:01 pm

Wow, this reverend is my favorite type of christian. He is constantly talking about the great christian god, but in the same time sneaking away from any of the consequences of christianity. It's like "Hey, i believe this, but you cannot hold me responsible for what it means".
Generally, Hitchens made the guy just get in trouble with his own words. But i do not agree with his answer to Q7: i would think in reality everyone in the west in his/her daily life just relies on science and technology, not faith. This should be exposed; the religious take every advantage of science and technology, but they don't dare to accept the ultimate consequences.
Q11 was great, by the way. You sure it was AHA?

23. Study: Religion is Good for Kids

Comment #34910 by ligfietser on April 25, 2007 at 2:46 pm

Notice it's the parents themselves and the teachers who rate the kids behaviour. The church-going kids will have religious parents, and, big chance, religious teachers. They will rate the kids behaviour from a religious perspective, like "he might be a wild one, but he is always listening in the church and talks about it with his peers". Also, 'self control' is a key positive feature, and it isn't a hard guess what that means in a religious context.

'Pope discovers: Catholic church probably the One True Faith' 'Microsoft study: Windows better than Linux' 'White House official confirms: Bush intelligent man'

24. Where Is Atheism When Bad Things Happen?

Comment #33517 by ligfietser on April 20, 2007 at 1:10 pm

"To no one's surprise, Dawkins has not been invited to speak to the grieving Virginia Tech community."

I've heard they didn't invite McGrath either. Or the pope. Or the gardener, or the chief.

25. Memo: Stop teaching evolution

Comment #22485 by ligfietser on February 19, 2007 at 10:10 am

Is this website some Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster on steroids, or are these guys for real? If the latter is the case, it's the ultimate evidence religion IS a virus of the mind. And it seems closely connected to conspiracy paranoia.

26. Ancient boy's skeleton sparks evolution debate

Comment #21107 by ligfietser on February 7, 2007 at 3:15 pm

Oh crap, there's reality back again. Let us pray!

27. Do stop behaving as if you are God, Professor Dawkins

Comment #21097 by ligfietser on February 7, 2007 at 2:51 pm

Is the guy asking mr. Dawkins to come into existence?

28. Believing In Things Unseen Is Not Delusion

Comment #21085 by ligfietser on February 7, 2007 at 2:22 pm

"To me, the secularist's reflexive dismissal of the miraculous is as intellectually irresponsible as a believer's blind acceptance. God gave us mind and heart, reason and faith. We must use all the gifts we have been given to the fullest"

Is this guy seriously trying to tell me i have to believe in god because god gave me the possibility to believe in god?

Eehm, wait, isn't this a second-order form of "you have to believe in god because it's true"?

By the way, if faith is a gift we must use to the fullest, we have to believe as much as possible, i presume. Where to start? Pastafarianism? Dungeons & Dragons? Satanism? Flatearthandgreensquirrelism? Questions, questions...

29. Blashpemy Challenge Interview

Comment #20228 by ligfietser on February 1, 2007 at 6:58 am

Hell does exist. It's located in the CPU of the Rational Respons Squad's webserver.

The Nightline coverage seems quite a succes. They hope to be online again tomorrow.