1. Interview with Francis Collins

Comment #68874 by Ricky Ramirez on September 9, 2007 at 2:06 am

Oh man, all Collins needs to do is read a book or take a class on basic cultural anthropology to get an idea on why human societies have a sense of what's "right" and "wrong" (which varies from culture to culture).

A good place for him to start would be to acknowledge the fact that for 99% of our history as a species (and probably before that), we have been social animals living by "hunter-gatherer" subsistence patterns in small egalitarian groups, or "bands." Members of these groups depended on each other for survival and companionship; someone may hunt game well, another may good at finding the tastiest plants, another may usually make the best decisions for the interests of the band, etc.

In short, given that humans didn't evolve to survive solo (we have almost always had a better chance at surviving in groups than all alone), it just wouldn't make any sense for social creatures like us to deliberately cause mischief among those we depends on! If it did, we might have evolved more like bears to survive solo and probably wouldn't be even discussing this. And this is just one of the probably many many natural explanations of human morality to say nothing of reciprocity, "big men," fear of societal punishment, or strict biological reasons...if science can explain why bees and ants can behave without invoking magic sky bugs, there's no reason it can't explain human morality without invoking magic sky people. Though I do applaud Collins for attempting to convince fundies of the fact of evolution.

2. Christians disrupt Hindu Prayer at Senate Invocation

Comment #56572 by Ricky Ramirez on July 16, 2007 at 12:57 pm

room101 said:

"The priest could sacrifice a different senator and mount their heads on the wall"

lmao!

room101 is absolutely right. In order to remain honest, all deities need equal time. So let's not forget about occasionally collecting the tears of the senators before ritually drowning them to appease Tlaloc. Or how about all the senators bring along their wives for a little Bacchanalia in honor of Dionysus? CSPAN would be much more interesting! ;)

3. The Damned

Comment #36916 by Ricky Ramirez on May 2, 2007 at 7:24 pm

"SMILE - There is no Hell"

Brilliant. I'm thinking LOTS AND LOTS of stickers...

4. Debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins

Comment #27403 by Ricky Ramirez on March 24, 2007 at 11:54 am

gimlibengloin said:

"living organisms give every appearance of having been designed by an intelligence."

By that logic the Sun gives every appearance of revolving around the Earth. Have you ever been in space?

"the scientific method is an outgrowth of the biblical worldview - Bacon, Boyle, Descartes, Newton, Galileo, Pascal, Pasteur, maxwell "

You are talking as if the scientific method was derived exclusively from the Bible...I hope you are not suggesting that pagan ancient Greeks like Thales of Miletus, Theodorus, Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Euclid, Aristotle, Plato et al, were Bible readers!

5. Debate between Alister McGrath and Peter Atkins

Comment #27196 by Ricky Ramirez on March 23, 2007 at 1:40 pm

davyB said:

"Atkins fumbled when he was asked why simple explanations are generally to be preferred to complicated ones."

I agree. I didn't watch the whole debate, but this would have been a perfect opportunity to explain Occam's Razor (or parsimony) and its use in the scientific method.

I love Occam's Razor; it really allows one to "slice" through the nonsensical arguments for the existence of supernatural gods.

6. The Salem Hypothesis

Comment #26992 by Ricky Ramirez on March 22, 2007 at 7:02 pm

Yes, I've also noticed this correlation. I remember sitting down to dinner one night (surrounded by fundies) and being delighted to find that a professional scientist was also at the table: an engineer! Surely, a fellow nonbeliever! Someone I can relate to! Right?

Wrong. Very very wrong. This engineer shattered my hopes of having a rational conversation when he insisted that he lead us all in a serious prayer to Jesus before eating.