Skip to Main Content (access key 1)
Skip to Search (access key 2)
Skip to Search GO (access key 3)
Skip to comments (access key 4)
Skip to navigation (access key 5)
Skip to top of page (access key 6)

Comments by Serdan


1. Christianity 'could die out within a century'

Comment #197473 by Serdan on June 22, 2008 at 7:20 am

Muetze:

[...] Cristianity (which is already quite benign) [...]

No, it's not. It's just not as bad as Islam.

2. Kerry O'Brien's exclusive interview with the Dalai Lama

Comment #193923 by Serdan on June 16, 2008 at 8:10 am

Where's Henri when you need him?

Could someone explain to me why "pure, disinterested altruism" should be preferable to rational self-interest?

3. Breaking the Silence

Comment #193379 by Serdan on June 15, 2008 at 1:31 pm

I think I saw that first "debate". She's awesome.

4. Prayer to feed the hungry

Comment #190094 by Serdan on June 8, 2008 at 11:17 am

@unmolested.altar.boy: Yes, necessarily. Even a quick fix solution is better than to let another child suffer a horrible death from starvation. Or did you forget that this is a matter of life and death?

GMO's may even help solve some of those problems. Interestingly, instability tends to decrease when people have enough resources to feed their children. Funny how that works, huh?

5. Six 'uniquely' human traits now found in animals

Comment #184210 by Serdan on May 23, 2008 at 11:54 pm

@calyx:

Does anyone remember that crow video that was posted the other day, showing the crow in the lab making a hook out of a piece of wire and using it to get some food out of a pipe? In the video it was suggested that the crow had figured out that a hook was the instrument that needed to be used and then made one, it seems that these birds have been making hooks in the wild, it's quite a bit less remarkable. (Although the video is pretty cool)

Am I wrong about this?

I actually think that it makes it more remarkable that all crows intuitively know how to make such a useful (and quite complex) tool. Most people from the "civilised" world would be absolutely clueless if they were left on some deserted island and would take a long time to figure out even the simplest of things.

EDIT: It would seem that most americans are overweight or obese. They would probably just sit down and whine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity#Prevalence

6. Mayor challenges pope during Genoa visit

Comment #182283 by Serdan on May 19, 2008 at 3:15 pm

I support these guys:
Church of Euthanasia

Save the planet - Kill yourself

7. Pelosi, Reid shunning Ten Commandments?

Comment #181840 by Serdan on May 18, 2008 at 11:11 am

While we're at it:

1. Do not give opinions or advice unless you are asked.

2. Do not tell your troubles to others unless you are sure they want to hear them.

3. When in another's lair, show him respect or else do not go there.

4. If a guest in your lair annoys you, treat him cruelly and without mercy.

5. Do not make sexual advances unless you are given the mating signal.

6. Do not take that which does not belong to you unless it is a burden to the other person and he cries out to be relieved.

7. Acknowledge the power of magic if you have employed it successfully to obtain your desires. If you deny the power of magic after having called upon it with success, you will lose all you have obtained.

8. Do not complain about anything to which you need not subject yourself.

9. Do not harm little children.

10. Do not kill non-human animals unless you are attacked or for your food.

11. When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.


I really, really, really like #8.

8. Face to faith

Comment #181657 by Serdan on May 17, 2008 at 8:18 pm

Henri Bergson

However, humanism, as a secular western moral outlook, derives from 2000 years of Christianity.

How so? Christianity is neither secular nor moral.

Real atheism should be taught to school children [...]

What's not real about the atheism of humanism?

Besides, atheism is a non-subject.

9. Pelosi, Reid shunning Ten Commandments?

Comment #181246 by Serdan on May 16, 2008 at 6:18 pm

"Both of these [resolutions] would authorize a Ten Commandments weekend in order to recognize the Ten Commandments as the foundation of law in this country,"

The foundation of law?!

Let's have a look at them.

You shall have no other gods before me.
Riiight...

You shall not make for yourself an idol.
Riiight...

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God.
Lulz.

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
ROFL!

Honor your father and mother.
Whatever.

You shall not murder.
Sounds good.

You shall not commit adultery.
Unless I want to.

You shall not steal.
Sounds good.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
Yes, I shall.

You shall not covet your neighbor's [stuff].
It's none of your business what I covet.

So two out of ten. And this is supposed to be the foundation of law? Fucking retards.

10. Richard Dawkins Interview on TVOntario

Comment #181195 by Serdan on May 16, 2008 at 3:31 pm

Hehehehehehehehehheheheheheheheh...
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

ROFLMFAO!!!

I can't take it anymore. It's ridiculous. Adults talking about what their invisible friend does, thinks and wants from us. Ludicrous! In a sane world they would be locked up! But no, they are actually taken seriously. Lulz.

The world is insane and up is down.

Have a nice day.

11. Pope's Views on Science Invoke Spirited Debate

Comment #168919 by Serdan on April 25, 2008 at 1:00 pm

"He's an excellent mazemaker,"

Fixed.

12. Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital

Comment #166727 by Serdan on April 23, 2008 at 11:53 am

The police chief seems like a reasonable fella. Imagine if he bought into this crap too. *shudders*

Now, for some logic: These idiots accuse others of being mighty "sorcerers", yet they then go out and chase down these "sorcerers" with the intent of beating them up. You would think that they would hesitate to do something like that if they really believed this shit. Surely, if a "sorcerer" can steal your penis he can do much worse as well.

So is it an excuse, or are they just that stupid?

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003348293_congowitches05.html

13. Gods and earthlings

Comment #164450 by Serdan on April 20, 2008 at 9:18 am

#113 by muse

just as there are not groups of primitive humans worshipping visitors who arrive in helicopters carrying ipods.

Lulz.

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


Few Christians believe the earth is 6,000 years old, by the way.

Lulz. Your understanding of the word "few" must be very different from mine.

Whereas 66% of US adults agreed with the statement "God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years."
YEC

14. The Child Preachers

Comment #163593 by Serdan on April 18, 2008 at 3:21 pm

Despicable.

I hate humans.

15. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163420 by Serdan on April 18, 2008 at 10:30 am

#157 by epeeist

Good call. Havamal, yes?

Poetry doesn't translate well. I found a version that seems pretty good though:
http://www.beyondweird.com/high-one.html

I've found more wisdom in that one poem than in the entire bible. Though you should probably skip stanza 84 if there are any women around. ^_^

16. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162399 by Serdan on April 16, 2008 at 9:45 pm

Not. Surprised.

Stealing for Jesus?

17. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #157460 by Serdan on April 9, 2008 at 5:57 am

Badger, wiki is wrong, but since you couldn't give a monkey's I'll just leave it at that.

18. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #157426 by Serdan on April 9, 2008 at 4:44 am

Ygern, I know. Problem is that he was wrong on the facts. Something that is not befitting for The Hitch.

I don't get the vegetarian part..?


Badger, ORLY? Care to show me some references?

19. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #157391 by Serdan on April 9, 2008 at 3:24 am

Excellent! The Hitch at his best.

However,

Someone who says that "Do what you will must be the whole of the law". That's supposedly what Satanists say at their ceremonies. By the way Satanists are not atheists by definition. Their Satanic majesties are not non-entities.


Lulz. Before hearing this I would have thought it a good bet to suppose that Hitch had been reading Satanic literature. His views are perfectly in tune with what LaVey proposed in The Satanic Bible and elsewhere. Indeed, one of the things LaVey felt strongly about was that of the taxation of churches, something Hitch touches upon in this debate.

Aside from that, he is very much ignorant of occultism in general.

1.) "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" - This was popularized by Aleister Crowley. However, even he did not wish to imply that you should just follow any impulse that might occur to you. He believed that following one's True Will would lead to self-realization. Of course one's True Will could supposedly be known through the help of a Holy Guardian Angel or somesuch, so it's all nonsense anyway.

2.) Moreover, the adherents of Thelema did not claim the name of Satan for themselves. LaVey was the first to do that in a coherent manner. He founded Satanism in 1966.

3.) Satanism is inherently atheistic. There is no room for gods when the most important thing in your own subjective universe is yourself.

4.) The "Satanic majesties" used in ritual are actually non-entities.

http://churchofsatan.com/Pages/PentRev.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema

20. 'We Make Our Own Heaven'

Comment #151362 by Serdan on March 28, 2008 at 2:49 pm

I still don't know what to do about the 'Santa' question.

Don't lie to the children in the first place?

21. 'We Make Our Own Heaven'

Comment #151357 by Serdan on March 28, 2008 at 2:43 pm

"I like to think freely, but still I can really think freely whenever I want 'cause I think thinking freely is good,"


The Redundancy Department of Redundancy should do something about that. ^_^

Kids are awesome.

22. Chemical brain controls nanobots

Comment #142544 by Serdan on March 12, 2008 at 5:16 pm

Steve,

The second one would be Michio Kaku, yeah?

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg18624957.300

You're right though, it's hard to tell if you have no knowledge of the subject matter.

It's a lovely article, by the way.

23. Out of the Blue

Comment #140878 by Serdan on March 9, 2008 at 1:17 am

This seems relevant to some of the discussion that has been going on:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080229141032.htm

24. Fleabytes

Comment #129942 by Serdan on February 19, 2008 at 7:40 pm

Bravo! Wonderfully written!

My only objection would be to your comments on Black Metal. It's a genre, not an ideology and the fact that the perpetrators were fans of such music is as relevant as the fact that they were atheists. If I were to venture a guess I would say that the problem lies with their upbringing. They particularly seemed to lack a sense of personal responsibility.

I may have missed something or read you wrong, but this is a pet peeve of mine. If anyone should be blamed in these cases it would be the parents. Pointing your finger at games/music/whatever is simply scapegoating.

PS, Satanism promotes personal responsibility and condemns such vandalism.

25. Dusty Clues: Study suggests no dearth of Earths

Comment #122119 by Serdan on February 4, 2008 at 7:20 pm

Why am I not surprised?

Every time man says "I'm special", he most likely is not.

26. Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules'

Comment #121441 by Serdan on February 3, 2008 at 12:06 pm

We've had similar cases in Denmark. An interesting case I found was that of Nalen Yasin, who made her own custom uniform which lived up regulations as well as her own needs. Yasin also mentioned that "according to Islam I can put aside the rules of modest clothing if I'm treating a sick person."

There's always a solution if all involved actually wants one.

27. How Evolution REALLY Works

Comment #113554 by Serdan on January 20, 2008 at 2:30 am

Cool. I've made something similar to this, except one of my objectives was to make it aesthetically pleasing.

http://www.serdan.eu/ncs.aspx

28. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111569 by Serdan on January 15, 2008 at 2:49 am

Now, there's a hoopy frood who knows where his towel is!

Mr. Scales, I wish you all the best from Denmark.


Sincerely,
Anders Kehlet

29. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109871 by Serdan on January 10, 2008 at 1:36 am

The Bible provides the moral rule, which is timeless and unambigious:

"In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.(Matt.7:12)


In everything? I surely hope masochists will refrain from following that rule.

Oh, wait... Christians are masochists...

30. Changing my Mind

Comment #107106 by Serdan on January 4, 2008 at 4:45 am

qster, homeopathy is not mysterious in any way, it's nonsense and it does not work.

You really need to learn the principle of Ockham's Razor.

31. The Pagan Christ

Comment #106459 by Serdan on January 3, 2008 at 1:51 am

Albondigas,

Now that's interesting because when I look around and see complex things in the world like a computer, a car, or an airplane, there is something more complex behind them.

Hello, little puddle. ^_^

32. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #106443 by Serdan on January 3, 2008 at 12:48 am

Dolce,

And eugenics? We've been down that road before (Stephen Jay Gould wrote about that, too), and it's not a pretty one.


If you are referring to the Nazis, I will just point out that nothing they did was pretty*. That those nitwits totally messed it up does not necessarily mean that any kind of eugenics is inherently bad.

*Except for the uniforms and such. Those bastards did have style.

33. Changing my Mind

Comment #106413 by Serdan on January 2, 2008 at 9:21 pm

qster, are you really suggesting that dogs have access to some mysterious sense of connected energy between all living beings? That they can sense other beings from afar?

That explains why they have evolved such fine noses, I'm sure. Why just sense your prey, when you can go to all the trouble of tracking it down? ¬_¬

34. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105851 by Serdan on January 2, 2008 at 1:20 am

@Comment #77:

Bonzai, the criteria for "fitness" would be decided by the parents. The only way in which the interests of others could come into play would be if the parents were credulous enough to let themselves be influenced by those vested interests or popular prejudice. In which case I really wouldn't care. Let stupid people do what stupid people do best, so long as it does not affect my life. Besides, even stupid people would most likely select in favour of higher intelligence, so such idiocy would only last for a few generations.

Umm... You will have to explain to me why it would be such a bad thing if people were allowed to select against "gay genes".

We can help the poor and develop such technologies simultaneously. It is only unreal if you think it would benefit people in the third world if we ceased to do such research. Actually, I would posit that the opposite is true.

35. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105813 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 9:26 pm

Ashton, I have reason to trust. Any such enhancements would be entirely optional. I only have to look at the history of my country to be reassured of that. Then again I live in one of the most awesome countries in the world. It would probably be best to withhold such technology from USA and similar countries for a while, but the religious are making sure of that, so I'm not concerned.

As for your specific example, it was a poor choice since most people do crave to fit in. You don't need some gene sequence artificially applied for that.

36. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105805 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 9:04 pm

Diacanu, I was actually going to put forward such an example myself. Making the atom bomb available to people of Khan's time would obviously be a bad idea, but why is that? We are not all that different from those people genetically, so what is the difference? Well, our culture of course. We have matured culturally along with the scientific advancements that made the nuclear bomb possible. I suspect the same thing will happen with genetic modifications. There will be gradual advancement leading up to this technology and we will mature culturally along with it. Unfortunately it seems we are lagging a bit behind on the cultural side, but we haven't brought about our own destruction yet, so I trust it won't happen with this technology either.

37. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105794 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 8:36 pm

Diacanu, well yeah, so what? I enjoy debate for the sake of debate. If you don't, we can just leave it at that.

38. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105788 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 8:31 pm

Diacanu, so you don't think it would be a good idea to enforce some arbitrary standard? I agree. What I don't agree with is your objections to even making the technology available.

We have been fixing what is broke for centuries. I wear glasses myself. But it seems that when it comes to more advanced biological enhancements you no longer think it's a good idea. Why not? It's just the next step in our technological advancement.

39. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105762 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 7:25 pm

Diacanu, "exactly what?"

What is it you think is obvious about the subjective nature of a standard? It seemed to me that you implied such subjectiveness meant we should disregard it, but that is apparently not the case.

40. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105760 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 7:16 pm

Diacanu, then correct me by answering the question.

41. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105758 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 7:13 pm

Diacanu, exactly what? That something is subjective does not make it useless. Or do you think we should just disregard ethics?

42. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105753 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 7:04 pm

Diacanu, my own subjective standard, necessarily. Though I would claim that most people can agree that sociopaths are "broke".

43. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105749 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 6:52 pm

Diacanu, as Harris points out it is actually broke, so will you help fix it?

44. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #105744 by Serdan on January 1, 2008 at 6:29 pm

Bravo!

More people need to realize the simple fact that the world is utterly indifferent to our survival. The idea that we are somehow special in any objective sense is not only blindly selfish in the extreme, but ultimately foolish and destructive.

45. Man and God

Comment #103413 by Serdan on December 25, 2007 at 1:33 pm

[...] the militant new atheism [...] the terrorism and repression of militant Islamism [...] the new militant atheism is wrong [...]

Excuse me?

Above all, an ideology – for atheism is an ideology – that cannot see its own scientific limitation cannot claim to be scientific.

Is this a serious article or a children's book?
"[...] and then Mr. Tumnus - for that was his name - told Lucy [...]"


Oh, and my name is Anders Kronby Kehlet. Only one of those in the world. ^_^

46. What does atheism say about the purpose (or the meaning) of life?

Comment #98356 by Serdan on December 13, 2007 at 2:05 pm

Like so many things we hear from religites, the question doesn't make sense.

1.) The only thing atheism entails is disbelief in gods.

2.) There can be no objective "meaning of life", since the word "meaning" by definition is subjective.

Of course, what they usually mean by such a question is: "What meaning can there be without God?"
But the answer to that should be obvious given the above. If they cannot take responsibility for their own lives, then that is their own problem. It has no bearing on either the validity of religion or the existence of God.

Sometimes I wonder if they would prefer to live under the rule of a ruthless tyrant over being truly free.

47. Atheism's Wrong Turn

Comment #93175 by Serdan on December 2, 2007 at 11:22 am

Yay! Let's ransack some churches! Who's with me?!


Oh, wait...

48. Sudan demo over jailed UK teacher

Comment #92421 by Serdan on November 30, 2007 at 1:08 pm

You gotta be fucking kidding me.

"The marchers took to the streets after Friday prayers to denounce the sentence as too lenient."

The next idiot who claims that Islam isn't the problem will receive a broken nose.

49. Patience, fairness and the human condition

Comment #78390 by Serdan on October 12, 2007 at 4:22 pm

@Ultraviolet G: Sounds similar to this:

http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,1676,Monkeys-show-sense-of-justice,Dr-David-Whitehouse-BBC

50. Larry King Interviews Kathy Griffin

Comment #71980 by Serdan on September 20, 2007 at 4:13 am

Khiyal

Janus, the sacred is that which may not, under any circumstances be sacrificed or compromised. Not ever.

Cool... I'm Sacred.

More Pages: 1 2 | Next