Comments by ridelo

1. Atheist bus ad campaign provokes bitterness in Barcelona

Comment #315327 by ridelo on January 8, 2009 at 9:20 am

In Dutch:
God bestaat hoogstwaarschijnlijk niet. Hou dus op met piekeren en geniet van je leven.

2. Atheist bus ad campaign provokes bitterness in Barcelona

Comment #315305 by ridelo on January 8, 2009 at 8:51 am

Nobody expects the Spanish Atheist Bus Ad Campaign.

Big smile...

3. Atheists launch bus ad campaign

Comment #313620 by ridelo on January 6, 2009 at 12:04 pm

On the buses!

4. Apes that write, start fires and play Pac-Man

Comment #312753 by ridelo on January 5, 2009 at 1:57 pm

They have to be closer to us than the other chimps. Does DNA confirm that?
But then again, maybe not. The other chimps are warmongers.

5. Ancient African Exodus Mostly Involved Men, Geneticists Find

Comment #312491 by ridelo on January 5, 2009 at 1:58 am

And what about the humans who stayed in Africa? How does the gene distribution there differs from that of the rest of the world? Is it there the other way round? Or is it so that always there are more men in migrating groups? Even inside Africa?
I suppose that when the Europeans colonized America in the beginning the men also far outnumbered the women. Has there also been an investigation in the gene distribution of Americans whose ancestry goes back to the times of the Pilgrim Fathers?

6. Teen trained to be suicide bomber feels tricked

Comment #311353 by ridelo on January 3, 2009 at 6:53 am

Eh.. DamnDirtyApe. I can read English rather well but sometimes the subtleties escape me. What do you mean by ... Penny for the guy?

7. Teen trained to be suicide bomber feels tricked

Comment #311294 by ridelo on January 3, 2009 at 3:42 am

16. Comment #310946 by Steve Zara on January 2, 2009 at 12:28 pm

At the juvenile detention facility, Shakirullah and the others are now being taught a different interpretation of Islam.

I think this is a very interesting strategy, especially as it seems to work.

It may be a long-term desire to remove the influence of religion, but if there are ways to make it less damaging, I say we should support that.

I support that. A Belgian cardinal once said about Islam: "Maybe they need something like a French revolution."
How painful it was, it sort of put religion in Europe in a more humble place. Were it belongs as long as it exists.

8. Teen trained to be suicide bomber feels tricked

Comment #311293 by ridelo on January 3, 2009 at 3:33 am

15. Comment #310942 by Cartomancer on January 2, 2009 at 12:24 pm

Cartomancer, that was really interesting. You could easily write a book on myths about the Middle Ages. Or have you done already?
And I imagine a medieval suicide bomber with a barrel of gunpowder with a burning fuse strapped on his back. Not very effective, I suppose.

9. Vatican divorces from Italian law

Comment #311287 by ridelo on January 3, 2009 at 2:31 am

Well, I hope they abolish that law that you cannot visit the Saint Peter in shorts. I felt as if I was exhibiting my genitals when they removed me from the queue. Never knew that the legs of a sixty year old man were that sexy.

10. Darwin shouldn't be hijacked by New Atheists - he is an ethical inspiration

Comment #308530 by ridelo on December 30, 2008 at 3:15 am

That there is no god is for some people an unthinkable idea, a no go area. Verboten!

11. Storm

Comment #307920 by ridelo on December 29, 2008 at 1:56 am

Who removes those video's? Hadn't the chance to watch it, dammit.

12. Heaven for the Godless?

Comment #307917 by ridelo on December 29, 2008 at 1:29 am

Heaven is not such a dull place as some here believe. According to church-father Tertullian one of the main shows is watching the infidels suffer in hell. Kind of after-life gladiator games. Beats the Olympics.

13. Heaven for the Godless?

Comment #307635 by ridelo on December 28, 2008 at 10:27 am

Religion is like placebo: if you believe in it, it works!

14. Turkey bans biologist Richard Dawkins' website

Comment #306775 by ridelo on December 26, 2008 at 10:07 am

...cause it is exactly what Westerners want from Turkey...

Well, I'm not.

15. Turkey bans biologist Richard Dawkins' website

Comment #306712 by ridelo on December 26, 2008 at 7:08 am

434. Comment #306690 by Just for one comment on December 26, 2008 at 3:19 am
Well I am sorry if we are not perfect.. :)
...
So it is not a problem of ideology in this case but only a problem of internet law in Turkey.

Is there any hope that the Turkish internet laws will be amended in the near future?

16. Origin Of Life On Earth: Simple Fusion To Jump-start Evolution

Comment #305666 by ridelo on December 23, 2008 at 12:31 pm

And now finding a way to speed evolution up a billion times! Et voilà, Homo sapiens! Or something comparable but wiser than most of us.

17. Darwin's Living Legacy--Evolutionary Theory 150 Years Later

Comment #304048 by ridelo on December 20, 2008 at 7:58 am

Saying that evolution is God's way of creation is about the same as saying that an even distribution of 1's, 2's, 3's, 4's, 5's and 6's is God's way of throwing dice.

18. Many Americans Say Other Faiths Can Lead to Eternal Life

Comment #303898 by ridelo on December 19, 2008 at 3:40 pm

No, no, no! Everybody goes to heaven as long as you do what you think is the right thing. Even Hitler sincerely believed that he was serving the German people, I suppose. He's now playing cards with Churchill.

19. New 'Molecular Memory' Only 10 Atoms Thick: Massive Storage Possible

Comment #303336 by ridelo on December 18, 2008 at 2:53 pm

Never knew there were so much programming languages. I stopped after dabbling with Visual Basic.
But this kind of memory seems the ultimate. Now we can go after Asimov's positronic brain!

20. Hubble Finds Carbon Dioxide on an Extrasolar Planet

Comment #300106 by ridelo on December 11, 2008 at 2:33 am

CO2? Too many SUV's perhaps?

21. Richard Dawkins interviews Father George Coyne

Comment #299571 by ridelo on December 10, 2008 at 2:46 am

Mr. Coyne (he's not my father so I don't call him Father) does need God and I don't. There!

22. Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People

Comment #299391 by ridelo on December 9, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Comment #299129 by Forti on December 9, 2008 at 6:26 am

Is TGD translated in Polish?

23. SUVs at altar, Detroit church prays for a bailout

Comment #299009 by ridelo on December 9, 2008 at 1:57 am

Holy cow!

24. Muslim pilgrims stone devil amid tight control

Comment #298991 by ridelo on December 9, 2008 at 1:32 am

Having been a catholic I must agree with Steve Zara. I knew a lot of priests: some were fine people, some were bigots, some were bullies etc. just like the rest of the population. They grew up in a community drenched in religion and devoid of other viewpoints. You have to be very intelligent to outgrow that.
And yes, I've known also one who couldn't control his hands in the presence of young boys.
And thank God, we have now modern means of communication like internet. It's an eye opener for a lot of people. He signed His own dead warrant with that. Should never have allowed to be invented.
[EDITED]

25. Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People

Comment #298979 by ridelo on December 9, 2008 at 12:57 am

I never had an epiphany that god didn't exist. He simply dissolved away into nothingness. But for me as a reader of this site his ghost is now more present than ever.

26. Religious 'shun nanotechnology'

Comment #298738 by ridelo on December 8, 2008 at 2:36 pm

People fear what they don't understand. And nowadays there's a lot they don't understand.

27. Britain is 'unfriendly' for religious people

Comment #298325 by ridelo on December 7, 2008 at 9:40 am

I'm afraid that the cardinal sincerely believes what he is saying. So effective is religious brainwashing. Persuasion by reason is out of range.

28. Britain is 'unfriendly' for religious people

Comment #298128 by ridelo on December 7, 2008 at 12:56 am

Where should I begin?

29. What's Old Is New: 12 Living Fossils

Comment #298039 by ridelo on December 6, 2008 at 2:34 pm

If we manage to stay around a 60.000.000 years and still look the same, we can call ourselves also "living fossils".
But if that mantis shrimp would present itself for a role as an alien for a SF film it would be refused because over the top.

30. Terrorism That's Personal

Comment #294364 by ridelo on December 1, 2008 at 2:52 am

If I lived in such a country, I would make sure that my daughter always carried a lot of kleenex and a few bottles of water with her if she went on the street as long as this madness goes on. As a chemist I have some experience with sulfuric acid. If wiped off and rinsed with water fast enough the effects are a lot less severe.
At this moment in my country, Belgium, there is a lawsuit going on for a muslim who murdered four people because of some not allowed sex in his family. 'Honor killing' he called that.
Religion: the way to make good people do bad deeds.
[Edited]

31. Vatican thanks Muslims for returning God to Europe

Comment #293583 by ridelo on November 29, 2008 at 9:44 am

Interfaith dialogue:
"Okay. Let's start with what we can agree all about. What do you say? That there is a god? No, no, that not basic enough. That we should start with evidence based material only? Let's see. Who backs that up? Nobody? Oh yes, you there in the back. Were you invited, mr. Dawkins?"

32. Atheist Foundation of Australia Bus Slogan Rejected!

Comment #291899 by ridelo on November 27, 2008 at 1:00 am

35. Comment #291832 by DingoDave on November 26, 2008 at 9:29 pm

At first I thought: " Oh no! Not Martin Luther King!".
Then I saw it was that other Martin Luther. Would be ashamed to be named after that piece of shit. But I guess you have to see him in his own time. The Middle Ages. What could you expect?

33. Atheist Foundation of Australia Bus Slogan Rejected!

Comment #291889 by ridelo on November 27, 2008 at 12:43 am

...have missed the bus...

LOL

34. Regenerating a Mammoth for $10 Million

Comment #290486 by ridelo on November 25, 2008 at 9:09 am

Maybe someday we learn to store DNA as code on a DVD or something and can we keep the whole fauna and flora of our planet in a little box. Of course with the manual to restore them. And doesn't it matter if they all die out.
Bit cynical here, I guess.

35. Why we believe in gods

Comment #290291 by ridelo on November 25, 2008 at 1:22 am

Amen for rod-the-farmer. I gave up not being able to read the slides. Maybe it was good, maybe it wasn't.

36. The Religious Support Behind Proposition 8

Comment #289785 by ridelo on November 24, 2008 at 8:08 am

I just heard that in Amsterdam they got a Xmass stable with two Josephs instead of a Maria and a Joseph at a gay-friendly Xmass market...

37. Cheap plaster saint

Comment #289725 by ridelo on November 24, 2008 at 6:09 am

I would have liked to see the sequel!
'It's always Joe who's messing things up. I told you so."

38. Woolly rhino's ancient migration

Comment #286041 by ridelo on November 18, 2008 at 2:19 am

Is the African rhino a descendant from this one who lost his wool or are they cousins, like we and the chimps?

39. Proposition 8 made me quit the Mormon church

Comment #284366 by ridelo on November 15, 2008 at 5:06 am

2. Comment #283360 by Ian Bamlett on November 13, 2008 at 12:47 pm

but he was ok with magic underpants and Jesus walking around in North America.

So the guy is not a bigot, great....

... but he is still fucking insane.

No, not fucking insane. Only misinformed. Being brought up as a catholic I believed that I could swallow the creator of the universe in the form of a small white cookie. How insane was that? And yet it took me some time to get rid of it.
And not long ago many of my friends felt offended when in a marriage mass the bridegroom with the chalice with the blood of Christ turned around to the public and in his innocence said "Cheers!" before drinking it.

40. Dr Adam Rutherford criticises teachers' views on creationism

Comment #281247 by ridelo on November 10, 2008 at 3:15 am

From witch country are those teachers? Lalaland? What education have they got?

41. Vicar supports Life of Brian ban

Comment #281003 by ridelo on November 9, 2008 at 7:49 am

My favourite scene:

Brian: Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't need to follow me, you don't need to follow anybody! You've got to think for yourselves! You're all individuals!
The Crowd (in unison): Yes! We're all individuals!
Brian: You're all different!
The Crowd (in unison): Yes, we are all different!
Man in Crowd: I'm not...
The Crowd: Shhh!

42. Cassini

Comment #280980 by ridelo on November 9, 2008 at 4:55 am

Yeah, but civilization would go extinct. We'll have to reinvent everything: medicine, maths, Human Rights, trip hop and so on. And it is by no means certain that circumstances will allow technological and cultural progress to restart! (Haven't you read any sf at all? :)

Maybe it's a good, but somewhat far-fetched, idea to scatter some sanctuaries around the Earth. They should contain all basic information about our civilisation is such a form that it could be accessed by primitive people after such a disaster. I already get a headache only by thinking about it.
Maybe starting with the quotation: "There is most probably no god." We could speak with some authority after such an event...

43. Cassini

Comment #280150 by ridelo on November 7, 2008 at 3:37 am

71. Comment #280138 by Steve Zara on November 7, 2008 at 2:46 am

Mankind would certainly survive a dinosaur-killer impact, as we live just about everywhere on the planet. Even if our numbers were reduced to a fraction of a percent of what they are now, we would certainly survive.

Yes, primitive man perhaps. But we, depending as we are on so many sophisticated tools?

44. Cassini

Comment #280135 by ridelo on November 7, 2008 at 2:41 am

Those planetary catastrophes are for me a strong argument that there has to be life at other places in the universe. If "life" managed to clinging to Earth for more than 4 billion years in spite of all that turmoil it has to be a very perseverant phenomenon.
If mankind could survive such a collision is another question.

45. Cassini

Comment #280123 by ridelo on November 7, 2008 at 2:11 am

Beautiful. But I only see the pictures. No sound. What am I doing wrong?

[EDIT] OK. Found it.

46. Swatting attacks on fruit flies and science

Comment #275996 by ridelo on November 1, 2008 at 3:19 am

IDIOCRAZY NOW!

47. Sarah Palin's War on Science

Comment #273297 by ridelo on October 28, 2008 at 1:33 pm

Guess there aren't any fruit flies in Alaska...

48. If You Open Your Mind Too Much Your Brain Will Fall Out (Take My Wife)

Comment #270982 by ridelo on October 25, 2008 at 3:31 am

I’ll give you my piano, one of my legs, and my wife...

Only one leg?

49. All aboard the atheist bus campaign

Comment #269689 by ridelo on October 23, 2008 at 8:34 am

Fantastic!
But wait until the first of those buses gets involved in an accident!

50. [UPDATED] Richard Dawkins on Harun Yahya's Atlas of Creation

Comment #264648 by ridelo on October 15, 2008 at 2:40 am

33. Comment #264644 by Heretic on October 15, 2008 at 2:31 am
I agree with Greybishop.
Note to the cameraman: Stop pointing the camera at the audience and show us the bloody slides!

Here you can see some of the slides.

http://richarddawkins.net/article,2833,UPDATED-Venomous-Snakes-Slippery-Eels-and-Harun-Yahya,Richard-Dawkins

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