1. Atheists launch bus ad campaign

Comment #314503 by sheepscarer on January 7, 2009 at 9:08 am

Noticed that Norwich (my city) is not listed as one of the bus slogan areas....maybe because in a recent survey Norfolk came out top as the most 'godless' county in the UK, it is not needed.

The slogan for this part of East Anglia is 'do different' and it is an area famous for free thinkers despite current comedy standup routines which see it as an easy target for 'inbred jokes'. I think they confuse it with Somerset.

2. Cassini

Comment #280131 by sheepscarer on November 7, 2008 at 2:31 am

When I was a child I once read a coffee-table book full of pictures of Earth from space and the moon.

I was captivated but the accompanying commentary was telling: the American astronauts talked of god's creation and the marvel of his work, the Russian cosmonanuts talked of the awe and wonder on seeing the blue planet below them and even as a child I felt the difference was telling. I was with the Russians with their child-like astonishment and felt short-changed by 'well god made it and isn't great'comments by the Americans. I preferred the Russian poetry to the American fantasy.

3. All aboard the atheist bus campaign

Comment #269447 by sheepscarer on October 23, 2008 at 1:56 am

Don't forget all you spreaders of the word that you can buy tranfer paper for your computer printer which enables you to iron on your own T-shirt slogans, graphics etc.

I'm currently waving my noodly appendage

4. All aboard the atheist bus campaign

Comment #268565 by sheepscarer on October 22, 2008 at 1:49 am

Vaal great comment made me LOL

How about 'there's a LIE in beLIEf' ?

5. More atheists are sharing their views

Comment #255790 by sheepscarer on September 28, 2008 at 8:19 am

Sargeist

Also see Julian Barnes's latest book 'Nothing to be Frightened of' a book about death.

6. More atheists are sharing their views

Comment #255214 by sheepscarer on September 27, 2008 at 3:47 am

I get the impression that some 'new age spirituality' is often a life-style adopted by that hippy mentality of anti-establishment. 'Hey man we're not following that mainstream way of thinking'...(yes you are, you're washed up in the shallows pretending to be deep).

I believe it's a chink in the armour we could exploit. It is atheists who are 'different' and we need to make this point to the crystal-healing, fengu-shui placing, zodiac-gazing airheads we all meet and are too polite (or embarrassed) to engage. Next time tell them you are not into all this spiritual mainstrean nonsense but a freethinker. Tell them that you are a subversive undermining the government's attempts to tell you how to think. They'll probably self-destruct with an incensed incense-scented insensibility.

7. 'Spore' Its for the Little Guys

Comment #244507 by sheepscarer on September 9, 2008 at 1:34 am

Made me wonder if Steve Grand's artificial life game 'Creatures' had evolved into something more complex also made me wonder about the missing apostrophe?

8. Large Hadron Collider readies for world's biggest experiment

Comment #243172 by sheepscarer on September 5, 2008 at 8:29 am

See the BBC4's 'The Big Bang Machine' - a great documentary with Prof Cox looking like a young rock star rather than the geeky wild-haired physicist usually portrayed.

Excellent programme which communicated the excitement at researching the nature of reality. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck when the prof talked about the 'god'particle and the profound truths to be uncovered about our universe. It's astounding and frankly quite moving that our powers of reason can get us this far.

Puts into perspective the belittling nature of religious explanations of truth. Not only does religion wash brains whiter than white; it shrinks the fabric of understanding

9. Bettany and Connelly to Star in Creation

Comment #243160 by sheepscarer on September 5, 2008 at 8:17 am

Looking forward to it - sounds like a British movie so hopefully will avoid the Hollywood sugarcoated pill treatment.

Just watched the BBC's 'God On Trial' which was an excellent portrayal of a theological debate by Jews about to be exterminated in Auschwitz. The ending probably shocking to most believers.

I've criticised the BBC before for not trusting their audience to pay attention to drama or documentary that required some effort on their part but this was great stuff. Catch it if you can.

10. No atheist burials in Co Donegal

Comment #239622 by sheepscarer on August 30, 2008 at 4:07 am

I'm donating my body to Bernard Matthew's turkey nuggets.

11. Last Night's TV: The Genius of Charles Darwin, Channel 4

Comment #234491 by sheepscarer on August 21, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Sounds promising Johnny O but couldn't get your links to work?

12. Last Night's TV: The Genius of Charles Darwin, Channel 4

Comment #234287 by sheepscarer on August 21, 2008 at 5:10 am

Why is this on Channel 4? What's happened to the BBC's stated mission to inform and educate? They jettisoned the Christmas lecturers a few years ago and now seem to steer clear of formats which require the audience to listen.

Imagine how great a wildlife documentary fronted by David Attenborough but told from an evolutionary standpoint. A lot of BBC wildlife documentary is now a dangerously close cousin of all those old Disney anthropomorphic slush movies.

13. Life Is Short...

Comment #234222 by sheepscarer on August 21, 2008 at 2:36 am

Apologies for roaming off track - back on board now with this life-histories cost-benefit analysis: is this why sleep evolved? Minimisation of energy expenditure? Presumably predators could afford to sleep more than prey - kill, eat copulate. Is there data to show that predators sleep more than prey? Margaret Thatcher famously said she needed only four hours sleep and she was a top predator.

14. Life Is Short...

Comment #234199 by sheepscarer on August 21, 2008 at 1:25 am

Very good question Equivocal - I think RD chucked this moral handgrenade in as editor of the recent Dangerous Ideas book in which he was editor. He was surprised as you are that this issue wasn't addressed by any of the contributors.

There was an excellent robust debate in this forum http://www.chickenout.tv/forum/comments.php?DiscussionID=162&page=1#Item_0

It's on a website concerned with chicken welfare (British readers will be aware of Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall's campaign against intensive farming of animals) called Chickenout.

This particular thread is titled Ethics vs Aethetics and in an exceptionally long debate I never saw the vegetarian position defeated by rational argument. Take a look if you are interested - particularly at the arguments of the poster called Phinland.

15. More reviews of 'The Genius of Charles Darwin'

Comment #233677 by sheepscarer on August 20, 2008 at 8:33 am

AA Gill: "It also revealed a sorry truth. He is much happier, and much more accomplished at, knocking things down than building them. He'd rather be against something than for it."

Yes he's AGAINST wishful thinking, susperstition and the threat to education from the religious establishment.

Strangely then this means.....

He's FOR clarity, evidence, rationalism and promoting the awe and beauty of the universe revealed through science.

16. More reviews of 'The Genius of Charles Darwin'

Comment #233657 by sheepscarer on August 20, 2008 at 7:24 am

Remember AA Gill is an expert on catering and watching television. Say no more.

17. Last Night's TV: The Genius of Charles Darwin, Channel 4

Comment #233652 by sheepscarer on August 20, 2008 at 7:09 am

Those mealy-mouthed, weasely-worded weak-willed teachers were a disgrace to science teaching. They should be ashamed of themselves for such double-think.

What hope for our children with such a pawns of multiculturalism? Obviously this lot did not go into education to challenge young minds but to toe the party line.

18. Review interview: Richard Dawkins

Comment #224103 by sheepscarer on August 4, 2008 at 5:56 am

Spot on MatthaiNazrina - it's surprising how many people still don't get the analogy. Understand gene flow and persistant phenomena then meme flow becomes an interesting idea.

Incidentally, I once taught secondary science and was alarmed during my 'professional development' course that the science team leader instructed us to tow the partyline if asked by a student about the existence of god. The partyline was that it was a valid alternative theory!

I seemed to cause massive offence amongst the group (most of them fresh faced biology graduates - I was a mature student)who regarded me as some sort of inflexible arrogant dogmatist when I pointed out that, if asked, and bearing in mind the whole point of the science curriculum was to teach the scientific method, that of course there was no evidence for the existence of a god. And I certainly wouldn't be defending it or giving it credence in my class

At this same school the RE teacher had told me that she resented the fact that science was a core subject and that she also felt it was inappropriate to persuade students to question their sincerely held beliefs by teaching them evolution. Well, we can all guess what kind of teaching went on in her classes. Presumably in her 'professional development' course she was instructed to ensure students understood that belief in god was but one alternative viewpoint and pay fair regard to the scientific version. Not.

Even worse, when studying for my degree I had to ask for a second opinion on an essay marking when a maths lecturer who was some kind of militant Christian told me in no uncertain terms that my essay on Darwinism and morality was bound to be full of 'propaganda' this was before he had even read it.

The forces of resistance are everywhere. We must fight them on the beaches, we must fight them in the chip shops etc etc....

19. Vicar supports Life of Brian ban

Comment #223002 by sheepscarer on August 1, 2008 at 8:30 am

Religious faith must be remarkably fragile if it needs protecting from insult. Where are the modern comedians to carry on this fine tradition of ridicule?
It's not as if there isn't plenty of comic potential.

20. The Return of Religion

Comment #212015 by sheepscarer on July 16, 2008 at 1:24 pm

Lightweight as per usual. Nothing new to see although he seems to attach 'spiritual weight' to consciousness - presumably human consciousness of course as if it is inexplicable and also forgetting for most of the history of the Earth there was no consciousness. Presumably there was no god at this period or perhaps he was practising with simple organinisms like philosophers and sociologists.
I'm sorry (and I know we have philosophers fighting our corner) but what insights or new knowledge has philosophy ever given us?

21. The BBC announces a major season marking the life and work of Charles Darwin

Comment #207610 by sheepscarer on July 10, 2008 at 3:51 am

Great news - just hope Horizon returns to the scientific fold - the last few years it's been so dumbed down I thought I was watching a graphic designers promtional video. Cut the geewizardry and give us the benefit of an attention span of more then 10 seconds.

22. Richard Dawkins Public Lecture - Liverpool 08

Comment #199553 by sheepscarer on June 26, 2008 at 1:01 am

Thought the girl obsessed with the search for the Higgs Boson was great - obviously thought RD was a professor of physics but hey there's something sexy about a girl interested in the deep profundities of the universe rather than the shallows and superficiality of the art world.

Great to see such a large audience but we all know that however large - our views remain mostly tucked away out of sheer politeness. Until we all challenge and ridicule religion and belief in full public view then it will ever be so. Strange then that this week during a debate on Radio 2 on gambling that a rent-a vicar wheeled out as moral authority was given a tongue-lashing by John McCririck (albeit not a likeable guy to have on your side)about his absurd beliefs. It's the first time ever that I've heard in the mainstream media a Gullible being slated as an unworthy opponent - not because of his views on the topic in question but the assumed starting point that he had moral authority to comment.

This is what we need more of but in measured RD fashion.

23. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #177426 by sheepscarer on May 9, 2008 at 4:46 am

Thanks for the link Goldy - this phrase caught my eye -

Dr. Kawecki says it is worth investigating whether humans also pay hidden costs for extreme learning. "We could speculate that some diseases are a byproduct of intelligence," he said.

We all know what this disease is.

24. Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks

Comment #176769 by sheepscarer on May 8, 2008 at 1:56 am

This is a rationalists' worst nightmare - the dead eyes and distorted minds of the believer rejoicing as sacred fires are lit to cleanse the world forever. It begins with burning books.

It's a sad irony that the evolutionary quantum leap in the development of consciousness that has made us such a successful species is probably going to get us all killed.

25. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160530 by sheepscarer on April 14, 2008 at 7:25 am

Religion has deprived us of insights into the real lives of people living centuries ago. I'm always extremely disappointed and bored by the lurid Christian images hanging in most art galleries. In the absense of medieval photography we might expect some incredible revealing images from these times via talented painters. Unfortunately we get variations on a fantasy theme. What a waste of paint.

26. The books that inspire me

Comment #158952 by sheepscarer on April 11, 2008 at 8:22 am

Interesting j.mills - I'll give your recommendation a go. Another interesting book with Hitler as its central theme is 'Making History' by Stephen Fry - unusually for him a science fiction book about travelling back in time to prevent Hitler's rise to power and without giving too much away in case you want to read it, resulting in unexpected consequences.
Sargeist - you're right about CS Lewis and the barely hidden agenda but I reckon most children reading these fantasies don't get the religious connection.

27. The books that inspire me

Comment #158019 by sheepscarer on April 10, 2008 at 1:43 am

I agree with the comment about Waugh's flawed character but this should not detract from the body of work. As a teenager I loved HG Wells' short science fiction stories and was alarmed to read of his eugenics background, however this does not alter the fact that the stories are hugely enjoyable. It does raise an interesting point though - do we censor the art because the artist is a monster? If Hitler had written a great literary novel, would it be lauded as such?

28. Happy Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #149902 by sheepscarer on March 26, 2008 at 10:24 am

Happy Birthday Professor Dawkins

That's 67 in human years but countless millions in your unbroken link to replicant startup.

29. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148148 by sheepscarer on March 22, 2008 at 7:35 am

Sent2null's comments about the 'lack of faith' in their own faith are spot on. It's this compartmentalisation of the thinking process that I find so difficult to understand. It seems that their all-seeing and all-knowing superbeings need a little sleight of mind when confonted with uncomfortable truths.

30. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Comment #145940 by sheepscarer on March 18, 2008 at 11:03 am

Well I'm just pleased that Matt Ridley is represented - thanks Sargeist.

How much more tantalising and exciting to read about real discovery rather than the theological nonsense that wastes so much paper (and lives).

31. The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing

Comment #144464 by sheepscarer on March 16, 2008 at 6:16 am

Surprised not to see Matt Ridley on the list - The Red Queen and Genome - absolute classics.

32. The Giant Tortoise's Tale

Comment #137157 by sheepscarer on March 2, 2008 at 12:42 pm

Not sure about trusting the BBC to make such a series (The Ancestor's Tale)- it's generally dumbed down its science documentaries in the last few years - witness what has happened to Horizon with its ridiculous camera geewizardry and 5 second attention span soundbites combined with tending to deal with 'human stories'. The best place for this is Radio 4 still the only thing that can justify the licence fee. BBC television, I'm disappointed to say has fallen way behind even the commercial TV stations where science education is concerned.

33. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #104649 by sheepscarer on December 29, 2007 at 4:18 am

Rowan Williams: woolly eyebrows - woolly thinking

34. 2 fleas for the Christmas week

Comment #103542 by sheepscarer on December 26, 2007 at 7:11 am

As an old-timer on this site and in the spirit of Christmas I nearly allowed myself grant a little leeway to theists new to this site and unaware of the tired nonsense that has been dealt with soooooo many times. But the pain is too great to bear.

That's an inherent problem with this site - of course as rationalists we expect rational arguments but our very rationality tells us this is extremely unlikely given the opposing positions. It reminds me of The Three Minute Argument in Monty Python - it's unwinnable given the opposition and the definition of an argument.

I'm still waiting for the kind of miracle which will satisfy us all: fossil evidence of human footprints in coal seams, an example of irreducible complexity in the natural world, a statue in Trafalgar Square weeping blood in front of the scientific community (not some turniptop in remotest Braindonia) or maybe I'd settle for religions spreading love and peace around the world by their own example and actions....no need to hold our breath

35. Interview with Richard Dawkins: On Christmas

Comment #101157 by sheepscarer on December 20, 2007 at 2:51 am

I agree with flying goose:

I celebrate Christmas because it's an excuse for good company and good food.

I also celebrate Bonfire Night but I don't necessarily agree with barbecuing catholics.

I used to enjoy Halloween (before becoming hijacked with trick or treaters)without ever believing in ghosts and ghouls.

- I'm hoping for a good quality laminator from Santa - my effort in raising consciousness albeit small and local will be to leave small signs and messages in public places asking people to think for themselves. I believe the best weapon against belief is to show widespread disbelief. The time for respecting nonsense is over. Some of the one-liners used by posters on this site will make great headlines. Merry Christmas everyone

36. This deadly religious resistance to vaccinations

Comment #97476 by sheepscarer on December 12, 2007 at 6:52 am

This is the same Melanie Phillips who pipes up with cringe-making drivel in BBC's radio discussion Moral Maze every week. There are good panellists on this programme and I'm amazed that the BBC can't find someone else like of higher calibre like Ant and Dec or Jade Goody?

37. Atheists' sign sparks controversy

Comment #97467 by sheepscarer on December 12, 2007 at 6:27 am

Always that undercurrent of violence with the gullible having their story books torn up.

In my local paper this week there was a letter complaining about the over-commercialisation of christmas and the lack of reverence for the birthday boy. This letter finished with a warning that only the true believers would escape everlasting suffering. So here we have it, the true christian message of loving and giving - believe,worship and love me or my dad will give you pain forever - Merry Christmas everybody....

38. Bad Faith Awards: Vote for the winner now

Comment #94709 by sheepscarer on December 6, 2007 at 10:02 am

What about Rowan Williams - archbishop of Canterbury - his gentle, softly-spoken superstition is just as insidious and appeals to the gullible middle-England masses.

Woolly eyebrows - woolly mind.

39. Chimps beat humans in memory test

Comment #93770 by sheepscarer on December 4, 2007 at 7:29 am

We chimps are more advanced than you think but there are problems with certain sections determined to undermine our rationality with superstition and belief in a great ape in the sky. Extreme forms of this are calling for the death of the pope for taking the primate name in vain and 40 lashes for that schoolteacher in Sudan for blaspheming with her surname...
Monkey see monkey do

40. Christopher Hitchens and Bill Donohue on Mother Teresa

Comment #66692 by sheepscarer on August 31, 2007 at 2:11 am

Let's not forget that those that do good for religious purposes are in it for themselves - to receive salvation in the afterlife.

The definition of altruism is to benefit another at the cost to oneself. Mother Teresa et al are hoping to receive the ultimate benefit from their all-seeing god (who for some strange reason turns a blind eye to this selfish motive).

Some may argue that at least the side-effect of all this selfish do-gooding is a better world but give me the real world with untainted selflessness.

41. Researchers find fossils of 10-million-year old ape

Comment #65139 by sheepscarer on August 23, 2007 at 2:15 am

It's also great because it's another advance in a real-life detective story - it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand out when science gives me a glimpse of the ancient past like this. No fairy story can ever have the same effect.

42. Interview with Richard Dawkins

Comment #63956 by sheepscarer on August 17, 2007 at 2:39 am

Darwin2

You believe in evolution totally!?

Why then has it not registered with you that it is a contingent theory with no ultimate concern with a progress towards Homo sapiens? It's mindless and pitiless and has 'created' a loving world in which most animals end up being eaten alive by parasites or predators. Importantly it does not need a superbeing to set it in motion. This is the whole point of Darwin's dangerous idea - it explains the whole diversity and complexity of life without recourse to a superstition that arrogantly assumes a pinnacle for humans.

If you haven't grasped that you've understood nothing. Grasping at straws is a phrase that springs to mind.

43. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57919 by sheepscarer on July 22, 2007 at 9:57 am

Yes you are quite correct (B T Mutagh) it should have been six impossible things!

In the spirit of Lewis Carroll's fondness for a paradox how about the classic:

God is so powerful he can make a rock so heavy even he can't lift it.

Should just fit on a t-shirt.

Also somebody in an earlier thread said something about the new creation museum in America - something along the lines of being the only museum in the world where you come out more ignorant than when you went in. That's a definite for a t-shirt if you live in the States.

44. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57779 by sheepscarer on July 21, 2007 at 1:50 am

More T-shirt slogans:

There's a LIE in beLIEf

And man created god in his own image

Religion washes all brains whiter than white

(front of T-shirt)
3 impossible things to believe before breakfast
(back of T-shirt)
Santa Claus, tooth-fairy, god

45. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57612 by sheepscarer on July 20, 2007 at 7:39 am

Yes that reminds me of the comment by the late great Linda Smith: 'If god really wanted us to believe in him ......well, he'd exist.'

46. All the mistakes of the godly are merely metaphor

Comment #57584 by sheepscarer on July 20, 2007 at 3:04 am

I love Beachbum's doorsign. The trouble with this website is that many of the cutting phrases which would make great t-shirt slogans are being lost in the sedimentary layers of general wisdom and common sense. I reckon we need a compilation of the best single sentence or short phrase punchlines that would fit on an atheist's t-shirt.

47. Interview with Dan Dennett on Danish TV

Comment #54419 by sheepscarer on July 7, 2007 at 2:03 am

To marcdesm

Science is the alternative - when you realise that religion explains nothing in this wonderfully fascinating universe but science gets you glimpses of the truth then this fact makes me hungry to know more of what human ingenuity has discovered.

To get an idea of what's going on in cosmology, biology, quantum physics, neuropsychology etc etc we look to the latest scientific research. (incidentally can anyone recommend a good follow up to Gribbin's Schrodinger's Kittens - he left many threads dangling and I've not found a recent [written for the layperson] update to the problems posed by the experimental data)?

Religion reveals no truths here and if its only remaining purposes are to set a good example for human behaviour and consolation then I've yet to see the first and the second is based on a deluded sense of human importance.

Live your life as if every day is the last. One day you will be right.

48. Messiah

Comment #52869 by sheepscarer on June 28, 2007 at 9:58 am

One of his better tricks consisted of him giving just met individuals who were part of a small group extemely detailed written descriptions of their personalities (after much fake ritual). Depressingly, all of them were shocked at the accuracy of his scripts and believed he had some magic insight into their minds. The kick came after their rapture when DB asks them to look at each other's scripts. They were all identical. People as we know from horoscopes are apt to see what they expect to see.
Also check out the chess games against grandmasters - ingeniously simple but sharp as a knife.

49. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #50489 by sheepscarer on June 18, 2007 at 12:25 pm

Definitely agree with Rtambree about science literacy being one of the key factors in smashing the fascination with all things mystical. If you don't know how the world works anything seems possible.

The best way to undermine religious belief is to make prominent disbelief. Suspending disbelief at the theatre or cinema is quickly subverted if somebody in the audience starts loudly declaiming 'how it's done'. We need to make it common knowledge that a large number of us think belief in a god is ridiculous and childish (who was it who said something about that 'monstrous father figure'?) Unfortunately, at the moment it is only academics who are prepared to air their views . We need somebody incredibly well-respected and very well-known to make it clear that gods are manmade and offensive to our scientific view of the world. Someone like David Attenborough should produce a series where the fabulous photography is underpinned by a strong evolutionary narrative. The introduction should dispel any superstitious nonsense about creation and the special place of mankind. Remember his programmes are watched by millions in the UK.

We shouldn't respect religion. Religion disrepects human ingenuity and achievment.

Just heard on the news that Salman Rushdie has been knighted - how long before books will be burning in the streets?

50. I'm Sure God is Scared

Comment #44728 by sheepscarer on May 25, 2007 at 8:28 am

Oh the sweet irony in the use of the word 'gullible' in the last paragraph.

Move along people....nothing new to see here.