1. Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices

Comment #204289 by vertigo25 on July 4, 2008 at 3:50 pm

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Mark 11:24

Hmmm...

Doesn't seem to be working...

2. New British Petition: Stop the Nightmares

Comment #191575 by vertigo25 on June 11, 2008 at 8:56 am

We would not tolerate it if religion were not involved.

Ummmm...

Doesn't that kind of ignore generations of folk tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Chicken Little, etc.; as well as a ton of popular media that have nothing to do with religion?

Scaring children with stories both true and fictional is not synonymous with religion, nor is it exclusive to it.

Should we attempt to pass laws that prevent parents from telling their children to finish their peas because there are people starving in other parts of the world? Or how about telling them things like "I swear Timmy! If you don't get in this house right this instant, you are *never* going out again! Do you hear me?"

I'd say it's a safe bet that most people on this forum have been exposed this "disgusting" "child abuse."

*sigh*

Nothing irritates me more when I see people whose stance I agree with making horrible arguments for their case.

3. Logical Proof of the Existence of a Divine Creator, Why Atheism is Not Logically Sound

Comment #191100 by vertigo25 on June 10, 2008 at 8:08 am

Let's put aside the fact that I've never heard an atheist or scientist claim that the Universe came about randomly from nothing...

Let's pretend that they *do* make that argument (just for a second).

According to this article:

Universe coming about randomly from nothing == irrational

Divine creator coming about randomly from nothing != irrational.

mmmmmm'kay....

4. Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules'

Comment #121420 by vertigo25 on February 3, 2008 at 11:31 am

Isn't the Daily Telegraph basically a conservative tabloid that is pretty famous for innaccurate, nationalist, and racist wiritng?

5. Out of Thin Air

Comment #73045 by vertigo25 on September 24, 2007 at 12:31 am

Oh... BTW, the creepy dude is named Shawn Boonstra. He's a Seventh-day Adventist and the current speaker/director of It Is Written.

6. Out of Thin Air

Comment #73042 by vertigo25 on September 24, 2007 at 12:23 am

8. Comment #72955 by Yorker on September 23, 2007 at 4:03 pm

(in response to 5. Comment #72929 by _J_ )

Web pages are put together by people who use packages that create the web sites. So don't be overly impressed by fundie 'package users' J, the coding involved, if any, is minimal.

Huh? This kind of rings of "the software does all the work." I can tell you from considerable experience, that someone actually did put a lot of effort in to that site. I would, however, argue that it really isn't all that well designed (it may be neat, and attractive to some, but it is poorly designed).

At any rate...

I think I may actually call the church listed as closest to me to ask some questions about the event. I want to see if there's a price to get in the door and whether there will be a collection during the event. I'm also wondering if they'll have any kind of discussion afterwards.

7. Teachers rebel over atheism promotion

Comment #45017 by vertigo25 on May 25, 2007 at 7:41 pm

ClearBlue:

No, no, no... you said it wrong it's, "if you READ the article it SAYS: "The distribution or display of THIS material is PROVIDED as a community service and is not printed at TAXPAYERS' expense""

8. Christian sports workers degree ridiculed

Comment #44717 by vertigo25 on May 25, 2007 at 8:10 am

"Degree in Christian sports worker" is the new "degree in underwater basket weaving."

9. Hitchens on Falwell, Part 2

Comment #43509 by vertigo25 on May 21, 2007 at 9:27 pm

I love how Hannity, a college drop out with an "honorary" degree from Liberty "University," tries to take jabs at Hitchens' (an Oxford grad) intelligence and intellectual abilities.

10. Dobson, Armageddon, and Foreign Policy

Comment #41892 by vertigo25 on May 17, 2007 at 9:16 am

Rosenberg: ...given the events going on in our world today, people at the Pentagon, people at the CIA, people at the White House are asking to sit down and talk about these issues, to understand the Biblical perspective, because it is uncanny what is happening out there and it deserves some study.

I have to ask if those government agencies are seeking the opinions of these fruit-bags, or if these yahoo's are just pulling a Ted Haggard and pushing themselves on the agencies. If the CIA, et. al. are calling people like this up and asking them, "What's the Bible say is next?" then we're all fucked. If it's the other way around, I just wish someone in those agencies would tell them to stop calling.

And... WTF: Rosenberg is a "scientist?"

11. Faith-Based Fraud

Comment #41883 by vertigo25 on May 17, 2007 at 9:03 am

Limey: nah... us 'Mericans got it, too... but you spelled it wrong. It's "Gawan Ma-sun."

At any rate.

Not just to play devil's advocate, but don't you think it's ironic that Hitch's point is that because Falwell (an others) was a "man of the cloth," he could get away with saying hateful things, but those who aren't "faithful" don't get to?

I mean... Hitch, himself, has a reputation of vitriolic discourse.

12. Bible drawn into Hong Kong sex publication row

Comment #41859 by vertigo25 on May 17, 2007 at 8:03 am

oh... man...

What a great idea! :)

Wish truthbible.net had an English version.

13. Your favorite book in the last 25 years?

Comment #37374 by vertigo25 on May 4, 2007 at 9:11 am

My favorite book of the last 25 years isn't on their list:

Metamagical Themas by Douglas Hofstadter

(technically, it counts as being 21 years old, even though some of the work is older)

What's with everybody listing, like, four million books?

14. Now Muslims Get Their Own Laws In Britian

Comment #36590 by vertigo25 on May 1, 2007 at 4:43 pm

I have to agree with weavehole. This is pretty much just an extremely slanted article promoting nationalism and xenophobia.

Every religion has similar "courts," and they are not in anyway a challenge to governmental law. Aside from religions there are other groups who have their own judicial systems such as universities and athletic organizations.

To be honest, even with my disdain of religion (especially the Abrahamic kind), I'm a bit disappointed that rd.net chose to republish this chest-beating piece. It's a not too thinly veiled racist inspired piece, and I certainly hope that the RD crew don't subscribe to this brand of irrational hate propaganda.

15. Evolution Booklet

Comment #35510 by vertigo25 on April 27, 2007 at 11:55 am

Graham: I think in today's environment the things they go over *need* to be gone over, and I think they did it quite well.

Not related, but here are the links to the rest of the Big Picture series:

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/node5950.html

And Wellcome Science:

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/node5061.html

All available as PDFs

16. Study: Religion is Good for Kids

Comment #34885 by vertigo25 on April 25, 2007 at 2:03 pm

Did the study even consider non-religious and atheist families? The assumption here seems to be that those families would argue about religion more, and so on.

My five year old daughter is constantly rewarded at school for being the most attentive in class, the most "helpful," the most well behaved, and she is regarded by her teachers and peers as "the happiest kid in class."

I'm not making this up, either. Barely a day goes by where her teachers don't sing her praises to me.

I never go to church, am a vocal atheist, do not spank my child, do not talk to her about religion, tell her that Santa is fun make-believe just like elves and fairies, and very rarely ever feel the need to "punish" her. Instead I've chosen the *crazy* method of loving support, respect, and mentoring.

Does she act up and and act out? You betcha. She can be a "brat" just like the kids who are told they are going to hell if they lie or cheat or touch themselves... only she does it far less often.

17. Atheists split on how to not believe

Comment #33967 by vertigo25 on April 22, 2007 at 11:15 pm

First:

"But Epstein worries the attacks on religion by the New Atheists will keep converts away."

Um... yeah... because "attacking" other's belief systems has been such an unpopular approach for theists (especially Evangelicals) that their number just continue to dwindle... [/sarcasm]

Second:

To the majority of the people criticizing Humanism based on obvious ignorance and the heeby-jeebies that Epstien is giving you: Please go do some research into Humanism, because you have so many things wrong it's not even funny.

I am 100% positive that Richard Dawkins has called himself a Humanist, along with a remarkably impressive list of atheists, agnostics, and free-thinkers which includes Carl Sagan, Annie Druyan, Einstein, Kurt Vonnegut, Daniel Dennet...

I don't really care if you feel that Humanism is a good philosophy with worthwhile goals or not. I just hate it when people criticize out of ignorant first impressions.

FWIW, I've never heard of Epstein before, but I'd bet my last dollar that the title "Chaplain" came from his position at Harvard and is not something that he "chose" to title himself.

18. Kansas science standards evolve again, becoming pro-Darwin

Comment #22292 by vertigo25 on February 13, 2007 at 11:57 pm

This is at least the second time today that I've heard the term "mainstream science" in a news report.

There's no such thing as "mainstream" science. This implies that there is an "alternative" science.

No.

There is only *science*.

Oh, how I wish every single news agency would send their reporters and writers to CFI's Science & the Public.

19. The questions science cannot answer

Comment #21652 by vertigo25 on February 10, 2007 at 10:55 am

I love the way that McGrath only ever paraphrases and "sums up" what Dawkins "has to say" in his book; knowing that his own audience has probably never taken the opportunity to read it.

I'll agree that Dawkins can be abrasive and callous, but his arguments in the book are well formed. I suspect this is why McGrath and others simply go after his attitude rather than speak directly to his reasoning.

I'm not quite sure why McGrath and so many other people believe that religion is the only way to find meaning in one's life. Personally, I'm a secular Humanist, and find a great deal of meaning in my life by taking care of my special needs child, expressing love to those who I care about, and vying for peace, human rights, and compassion in a world which suffers from a severe lack of all three.

Each time I read one of Dr. McGrath's articles I find it difficult to see exactly what he's getting at. I'd love it if he would write something more succinct, and to the point. Something where he actually presented *his* case for whatever point he was trying to make, rather than make (feeble) attempts at discrediting other's arguments.