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Comments by BicycleRepairMan


1. Is religion a threat to rationality and science?

Comment #166240 by BicycleRepairMan on April 23, 2008 at 3:21 am

No clearer evidence that man created god in his/her image!


Fixed.
Men, not women made all this shit up, which is why women are always referred to as non-persons in religious texts Yet more evidence of the above, by the way

2. Is religion a threat to rationality and science?

Comment #166191 by BicycleRepairMan on April 23, 2008 at 1:37 am

..he seems unable to treat the beliefs and feelings of believers seriously.


And do you have anything particular in mind..?

...the book of Job.


This is why Hitchens rule about simply underlining statements of your opponent may be the best thing I've ever heard anyone say.

4. Who wants to kill the elderly?

Comment #153392 by BicycleRepairMan on April 1, 2008 at 12:43 pm

Janus: I think all religious myths are, well.. myths, but that doesnt mean I condemn them, or the people believing in them. I dont see why you would equal the two.

Condemnation implies a very strong negative stance ie: "I condemn murder" I dont simply "disagree" with murder, or think its "a bad idea" I condemn it. theres a huge difference. There are some ideas in the christian faith that I feel more strongly against than others, but I wouldnt go so far as to condemn any and all christianity, or its myths.

5. I always aim to misbehave

Comment #151575 by BicycleRepairMan on March 29, 2008 at 2:22 am

PZ Myers, biologist, atheist, blogger and the holder of the Chair For the Public Humiliation of Creationists at The University of Minnesota

6. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148046 by BicycleRepairMan on March 21, 2008 at 9:52 pm

The motor protein's walking gave me chills


According to PZ, that particular part is somewhat misleading http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/09/molecular_machines.php

I do have a couple of gripes, though. One is an understandable shortcut: the cell is far too uncluttered, and events proceed in too directed a mannerâ€"there ought to be much more stochastic noise at the molecular level. We're seeing chemistry in action, after all.


In other words, I assume the "walker" etc is actually more or less "pushed" around by chemical reactions.. in the video it moves like a large mammal or something.(But really, I'm just talking out of my ass here, I have no clue, it just seems a little far-fetched to me)

8. Selling science to the masses

Comment #144415 by BicycleRepairMan on March 16, 2008 at 3:06 am

Three words: Your Inner Fish.

That book is how you can sell science, watch Neil Shubin's interview on The Colbert Report:
(http://www.videosift.com/video/Your-Inner-Fish-Neil-Shubin-on-The-Colbert-Report)
Its wonderful. Shubin manages to put the science in context, and to answer those questions we often think of as naive or strange with a straightforward answer.. This is a great approach.

9. Ban anti-Catholic books in schools, says bishop

Comment #143209 by BicycleRepairMan on March 13, 2008 at 4:35 pm

Diacanu: I dont know if you read my comment, but I'm happy to see you concur :)

10. Ban anti-Catholic books in schools, says bishop

Comment #143013 by BicycleRepairMan on March 13, 2008 at 11:02 am

Dear Reverend, I have listened to your arguments, and I've struggled to come up with the appropriately respectful answer it surely deserves, so far I've only come up with a few words, but I ask that you take them into consideration for any future statements you may consider making:

Blow it out your ass.

11. Seven new deadly sins: are you guilty?

Comment #141398 by BicycleRepairMan on March 10, 2008 at 10:57 am

It was a shame that Dawkins only went for the fundamentalist strawmen in TGD, he should have gone after sophisticated theology such as this.

13. Survey shows Non-Religious Outnumber Those of Every Single Faith (But One)

Comment #137919 by BicycleRepairMan on March 3, 2008 at 3:26 pm

What the HELL is this article talking about?

http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

23% are Catholics, but Christians make up 78% of the country, 51% of which are Protestants 26% of which are Evangelicals, which means they alone outnumber both the Catholics and "non-religious"

Talk about crappy research for an article..

The true number would be 10.2% Secular,atheist or agnostics and 5.8% "religious unaffiliated"
Christian at 78,6% and "other religions" at 4,7%

EDIT:I shamefully had to correct some of my own errors, but I stand by my claim that this article is misleading.

14. The Giant Tortoise's Tale

Comment #133736 by BicycleRepairMan on February 26, 2008 at 4:08 pm

The Ancestors Tale is simply crying out to be the next major 13 part series for BBC2.

Yes!! That would be so great. The Ancestor's Tale is one of the best books I've ever read, if you havent already, just buy it!! you wont regret it.
http://www.richarddawkins.net/firstChapter,3

15. Evidence can't shake your faith if your faith excludes it as evidence

Comment #132659 by BicycleRepairMan on February 25, 2008 at 5:03 am

Suppose an angel of the Lord were to appear before Dawkins, even as he was delivering another lecture on the delusion that God exists. Would such an experience change Dawkins' views?


Maybe Dawkins doesnt loose sleep over this because he is intelligent enough to see that if the creator of the universe ever did decide to reveal himself in some form, he would probably find a way to do it.. He could have an angel come down, say "Hi, I'm an angel of the Lord", cut off Dawkins' arms and legs and have them instantly grown back, and recorded it all on film.

16. Don't blame Islam for terrorism, expert says

Comment #131723 by BicycleRepairMan on February 23, 2008 at 4:24 am

The same "secular leader" that had "God Is Great" in his own handwriting inscribed on the flag? The "Secular leader" whose last words were "there is no god but god, and mohammed..."?

17. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129005 by BicycleRepairMan on February 18, 2008 at 1:23 pm

What was the point in talking about language? Troops vs. Soldiers, and that thing about folks. Is this really a problem? Sounds more like a conspiracy theory


Here, I'll prescribe 50 pages of George Orwell for you, come back in 2 weeks if the symptoms have not gone away.

18. Bill Moyers Interviews Susan Jacoby

Comment #129002 by BicycleRepairMan on February 18, 2008 at 1:19 pm

Mitchell Gilks:

If you listen to what she actually says, you are way off, she is not saying everyone should be professors, but we should be able to find Saudi Arabia on the map. What she is advocating is a decently educated public, basic stuff you should have learned before highschool, really. Dont tell me you think its "too academic" to be able to find the country youre fighting a war with on the map.

19. Study: Religion colors Americans' views of nanotechnology

Comment #128447 by BicycleRepairMan on February 17, 2008 at 2:59 am

This is a matter of ignorance, no more. I mean, what was the question? "Is nanotechnology morally acceptable?" People will answer "No" on that just in case, its a strange word they havent heard of, and apparantly, since someone is asking, there could be moral qualms involved. I'll go for "No".

I object to the conclusion that this is a matter of religion, people do not get their sense of right and wrong from religion, its based upon knowledge. Education is the way to fix this, of course, as we see in the creationism debate religion can be corrosive to education, so in that sense its part of the problem.

20. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #125936 by BicycleRepairMan on February 12, 2008 at 9:42 am

Ah, good, its sometimes hard to tell when someone is joking, besides, the jesus-fish reference wasnt really clear enough IMO, and since I'm the "artist" on this half-assed crap of a manipulation, I have no idea if its clear what my idea was.

21. Feb 12th: Happy Darwin Day!

Comment #125883 by BicycleRepairMan on February 12, 2008 at 8:15 am

Richard,
Can you explain to me why the Tiktaalik fossil has that "two tailed" look about it?


LOL, are you serious? thats my (not)fantastic photoshop skills you are looking at, I was trying to get the "Jesus-Fish" look on it.. I did some more work on it, which made the point a little clearer, but I didnt send it in..

Here's the revamped version, again, sorry for my terrible PS/Gimp skills..

http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8577/ddayxl3.jpg

And heres the original image that I used:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/06/tiktaalik_roseae.jpg

22. Charles Simonyi Professorship in the Public Understanding of Science

Comment #125348 by BicycleRepairMan on February 11, 2008 at 9:13 am

One thing I've been wondering about: has anybody seen the "conservapedia" article on Richard Dawkins? Apart from being hilarious and ofcourse ridiculous, they seem to be obsessed with RD's title of "Professor" claiming that the chair he holds isnt really a professorship etc.. Anyway, now that he retires from it, does that mean he's not professor anymore? I dont care much about these titles, but it seems these creationist nutters might, so I'm just wondering..

http://www.conservapedia.com/Richard_Dawkins

Oh, and now when I went to find that url, RD is on their frontpage as "news" that he is , and ÆI quote: "is leaving his Charles Simonyi "post" at Oxford without ever becoming the "Charles Simonyi Professor" that Dawkins claims on his own resume."

23. Sharia fiasco

Comment #124956 by BicycleRepairMan on February 10, 2008 at 1:37 pm

We need Pat to have his own regular 5 minute slot on national TV! Maybe just after the news or something.


He could be the next/british Andy Rooney :)

24. Why Darwin matters

Comment #124265 by BicycleRepairMan on February 9, 2008 at 1:23 am

Here though, Dawkins seems to imply that the theory of evolution has something to say about how life got started.

Actually, he does quite the opposite, what he's saying is however life DID get started, whether it started like it did here on earth, or it started elsewhere in the universe in a completely different manner, Darwinism would still be the mechanism that drives it to complexity. Ie: the little green men might not be carbon-based, their equalent of DNA may not look much like DNA, their form of life may be very strange etc, BUT, they would have to have evolved in a Darwinian fashion, gradual complexity by natural selection.

26. Scientists want rewrite of Earth's time line

Comment #117474 by BicycleRepairMan on January 28, 2008 at 11:03 pm


"This is just the vanity of the human species ... it matters to us but is irrelevant to the planet," Dr Gehling said


Normally, I'd agree, but what about the other epochs, werent they also "irrelevant" to the planet? It all depends on how you define whats relevant or not, no?

27. New atheists or new anti-dogmatists?

Comment #117134 by BicycleRepairMan on January 28, 2008 at 10:17 am

The article is spot on.. for the most part. The problem with replacing words like faith and religion with the "more precise" dogma, is that there is a distinct difference between, say the Nazi "dogma" , the communism "dogma" and most religious dogma. Nazism and communism can be critized, and it is critizised, infact its rather socially unacceptable to say that you are a nazi, for example. And it should be.

But if we had treated islamist fascists the same way we treat neo-nazis, if we said what we really thought of the islamic ideology.. then WE are suddenly the intolerant, the hate-criminals..

I cant speak for other atheists of course, but I demand equal treatment of opinion. if something is ridiculous, whether its nazism or Islam, we should be allowed -- No, -- we have a RESPONSIBILITY, to say so. Bad opinions should be booed, ridiculous opinions should be ridiculed.

For too long, we've been treating religious opinion as if the opinions were disabled, its like we've been building special ramps for these opinions that couldnt climb even the smallest steps. And at the same time, religion is indoctrinating children with wheelchaired opinion as we speak.

(My apologies to the disabled for this analogy, lol. I only want to discriminate opinions, not people..)

29. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115697 by BicycleRepairMan on January 24, 2008 at 2:30 pm

I agree bicyclerepairman. If thats your real name?


Of course thats my real name!, my parents discovered my superpowers when I was 2 weeks old. or maybe they were just Monty Python fans.. or maybe I am.. YOU'RE CONFUSING ME!!! Go away!!

30. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115682 by BicycleRepairMan on January 24, 2008 at 2:19 pm

For the first time ever, I've decided to rank this article "poor" WBC is like 100 inbred idiot based somewhere in the US, and frankly: I just dont give a shit. There. I said it, the kind of attention these people deserve is from people in white coats exclusively. They are not even wrong, in fact, they're not even religion.

This is just a cluster of a 100 braindead people. They dont count and this is the definition of a non-story. Just reveal the stupidity and get the "controversy" reaction. no research or disclosure is needed in journalism like that.

There isnt even anything controversial about what these people are saying: We ALL agree, its just batshit insane.

31. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115483 by BicycleRepairMan on January 24, 2008 at 8:32 am

What a bunch of crap this article is, we should round up some cash and sue this moron for libel. Clearly he has never read the books he recommends to others, "Origin" specifically avoid discussions of humans origin, and here is the relevant chapter summary from "Descent of Man":

ON THE RACES OF MAN.

The nature and value of specific characters—Application to the races of man — Arguments in favour of, and opposed to, ranking the so-called races of man as distinct species — Sub-species—Monogenists and polygenists—Convergence of character—Numerous points of resemblance in body and mind between the most distinct races of man—The state of man when he first spread over the earth—Each race not descended from a single pair — The extinction of races—The formation of races—The effects of crossing—Slight influence of the direct action of the conditions of life—Slight or no influence of natural selection—Sexual selection.


Complete works of Darwin online:
http://darwin-online.org.uk

As any idiot (well perhaps not quite all of them) a stronger scientific case AGAINST racism than what Darwin outlines can hardly be made.

Campolo Makes is's into ought's in this despicable rain of piss he calls an article.

Read a fucking book, Campolo, and no, not that one again, its out of date, you see. And it contains racism, homophobia, hatespeech, and commands to kill by, disguised as fairytales. How about "Origin of Species" or perhaps "Descent of Man"? I've heard they are supposed to be good.

32. Top 10 Reasons to Believe Logic Over Religion

Comment #114518 by BicycleRepairMan on January 22, 2008 at 10:58 am

It's Ron Paul's views on Abortion, Evolution and the separation of Church and State that have me rejecting him...


Again, I'm not a ron pauler here, but he's pretty constitutional about church/state policy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsMEMQf64gU

And here is the abortion video again..
Abortion and Stem Cell Research
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66jpPCIzza8

33. Top 10 Reasons to Believe Logic Over Religion

Comment #114506 by BicycleRepairMan on January 22, 2008 at 10:41 am

Ron Paul? Get real, the man is a racist, homophobe, and misogynist.


I dont want to sound like a Paulbot here, but besides those wacky newsletters (that he claims he didnt write and had nothing to do with) I've never seen or heard him make racist or homophobic statements, I've heard him deny evolution, yes, and in my book, that is nutty, but no actual racism or homophobia

Heres an interview on homosexuality
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIeW0DY64bE (The host is clearly a maniac tho) And this is probably the very worst I've heard from Paul, as he should probably have hung up instead..

Heres an interview on abortion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66jpPCIzza8

He's also pretty clear on racism:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKBlk1Vpeuw

Now, he could of course be a lying scumbag, and I'll accept that possibility, but, being known as the lonely "no-man" he is no stranger of openly expressing unpopular views, I mean, take the abortion video: When was the last time you heard a politician actually even TALK about it? most politicians avoid the A-word like the bulimic plague, because they KNOW they are gonna loose half their voters, no matter what they say..

So, in conclusion: I'm not sure I'd vote or support RP, but I'll admit I'm fascinated by him, and he seems to be the most honest of the current candidates. (honorable exception for Mike Gravel, my personal favorite.)

34. Darwin Day (Feb 12th) E-Cards

Comment #114395 by BicycleRepairMan on January 22, 2008 at 6:32 am

Tiktaalik should certainly feature, given its relative prominence as an evolutionary talking point.

I took you up on that :) my submission
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/1746/darwindayvb8.jpg

Warning:Experienced photoshop eyes may start bleeding. I am sorry.

35. The devilish church practice of exorcism

Comment #114096 by BicycleRepairMan on January 21, 2008 at 11:17 am

It really is insane that this kind of stuff still goes on in today's world.


Couldnt agree more, let me just recommend that you read "Infidel" by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, it gave me a much better understanding of exactly how tribalized and ignorant parts of Africa is..and how Islam especially makes everything worse.

In one passage of the book, from about 1980 or so, Ayaan comes home from school and tells her mother that people had gone to the moon. Her mother called bullshit: "the kristaan (Christians ie: every non-muslim) go to the top of the mountain and thinks that theyve reached the moon!" she said, and told her not to believe such lies. This was in 1980 or so.

37. How Evolution REALLY Works

Comment #112625 by BicycleRepairMan on January 17, 2008 at 3:26 pm

"The emphasis here is in defining evolution in a way that excludes random genetic drift or any other mechanism of evolution. "

Well, It seems to me this video, entirely on purpose excludes a whole lot of evolutionary biology because its trying to show how little it actually takes for natural selection to work, despite the fact that every factor is random. If you added in every factor in the equation, evolution would probably work even better, but it would take a lot more time and brains to explain it.

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

Comment #111356 by BicycleRepairMan on January 14, 2008 at 12:28 pm

A true hero, Lets just strike that one about atheists and foxholes once and for all. Thank you so much for your part of the effort against fascism, George Scales.

We who live our free, worry-free lives here in Europe are in eternal debt to you and all the people who fought for our freedom when it was necessary to do so.

Get well soon.

And Thank Goodness!
http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,280,THANK-GOODNESS,Daniel-C-Dennett--Edgeorg

40. The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief

Comment #110031 by BicycleRepairMan on January 10, 2008 at 10:55 am

Strange, isn't it, that the fundies involved in Intelligent Design are claiming that his "conversion" supports a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Or are they lying yet again?


Oh yes, they are, very, very much so:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,1831,The-Turning-of-an-Atheist,Mark-Oppenheimer-NYTimescom
http://www.richarddawkins.net/article,1859,Antony-Flews-Bogus-Book,Richard-Carrier

41. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106734 by BicycleRepairMan on January 3, 2008 at 11:17 am

There is NOTHING in the Bible that could be remotely construed as providing a mandate or even a pretext for child abuse or any other kind of abuse. As for the mandate "against" such behaviour, the decalogue is actually a pretty good place to start. As Jesus pointed out, the ten commandments can be summed up in the twin commaand to love God with all our heart and to love our fellow human as we love ourselves. LOVE for one's neighbour is not, by the way, mere tribal affinity. In his illustration of this proposition, the Samaritan (as such hated by Jesus' Jewish hearers) who acted in the way Jesus was commending had no tribal affinity with the Jew he helped.


And what is the punishment for breaking ANY of the commandments (like displaying religious freedom)?

Death.

Of course, for Jesus, death wasnt good enough, so he invented hell so you could get tortured forever. Classy.

42. Moderates Storm The Religious Battlefield

Comment #106230 by BicycleRepairMan on January 2, 2008 at 2:12 pm

I Think the harsh critique of this article is a bit rushed, its not Pulitzer material, fair enough, but I think it points out an interesting phenomena and some good news. The religious have been forced to tone down their certainty, their beliefs are now, if only slightly, questioned in public.

They have started to re-think their ideas, and perhaps more importantly, how they preach it. Good stuff.

43. Changing my Mind

Comment #106107 by BicycleRepairMan on January 2, 2008 at 11:15 am

Interesting.. I think more and more atheists, (certainly those with some authority) recognize the importance of simply standing up to be counted. Its not nearly good enough to say "agnostic" because believers will take that as some "crisis of faith" or some wishy washy 50/50 position. Crystal clear atheism. Here and unafraid. Thats enough for some people out there who feel like they are the only sane person in an insane world. To someone brought up in a strict religious environment that may be all it takes to realize that there are people like them out there, and they live happy, successful, fulfilled lives, with no threat of hellfire to keep them from becoming mass-murderers.

44. It is possible to be moral without God

Comment #105026 by BicycleRepairMan on December 30, 2007 at 11:33 am

ake an analogy: someone hears a great piece of music and responds to it in itself. But someone else knows that the piece is part of a symphony and can be even more appreciated when heard as part of the whole in which it has a crucial place. As human beings we can recognise and respond to particular moral insights. But a religious believer claims to understand these as part of a much larger whole in which they have a vital place


Perhaps you then should read another of Dawkins books, like the one you all but admit to having read only by title, The Selfish Gene, or better yet, the Ancestor's Tale or Unweaving the Rainbow, to see how all us humans are, in FACT, tiny pieces of music in the greatest symphony of all time, the wonderful real explanation for our origins.

Your narrow, sad, smallish, childish Christian mythology absolutely pales compared to the real world.

46. 2007 Audiobook Download of the Year: The God Delusion

Comment #99248 by BicycleRepairMan on December 16, 2007 at 5:27 am

The Ancestor's Tale is so beautiful, Maybe my re-reading should be in audio format..?

47. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #99007 by BicycleRepairMan on December 15, 2007 at 7:17 am

I think Hitchens invited a response to his Iraq stance here, and I'm kinda disappointed the 3 others didnt confront him more on the issue, his argument that there was no point in engaging jihadists in discussion and only force could stop them it seems to me, is pretty weak, and also a false choice.

The more obvious root the way I see it is would be attacking the problem by political and philosophical persuasion, by abolishing and condemning madrassahs/faith schools, by education, and so on. You can "kill" a jihadist in more ways than the literal one, is all I'm saying and metaphorical "birth control" is perhaps even more crucial to win this fight.

48. U.S. Congress Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith

Comment #98215 by BicycleRepairMan on December 13, 2007 at 9:24 am

To the people screaming Armageddon over this I can at least offer some consolidation, I come from one of the LEAST religious countries in the world, Norway, and we don't even HAVE church-state separation over here, its no big deal that the government spends millions of dollars (or kroner) on support to the churches, we have a cross in our flag, and we are a monarchy. The point is, as much as I'd like these things to change, in the end what matters is how society actually works.

I guess that with as many Christians as the US has, it might be much more important to hold on to the formal separation to ensure equality for the law. I guess to most representatives this is a damned if you do, damned if you dont vote dilemma, on the one hand, it is a violation of the constitution, on the other, its a sure way to ensure that your not anti-Christ.

49. The empty myths peddled by evangelists of unbelief

Comment #97095 by BicycleRepairMan on December 11, 2007 at 11:56 am

Looks like we are back to square one again, Dawkins does something public (an interview on Have Your Say) and the same nonsense comes back once again, "Hitler/Stalin/Mao", this time from a Fox news house-priest, and now "Atheism is also a religion" from this nutter.

Seriously folks, you just HAVE to do better than this. Please, for the love of Goodness, atleast TRY to come up with a good argument in support of Gods existence, just one. Infact, forget "good" , just an argument.

This is just getting boring.

50. Laugh at Sudan

Comment #97010 by BicycleRepairMan on December 11, 2007 at 9:13 am

I challenge you, sir, to a duel!!!

You forgot to add "..You Godless Heathen!" to fill my daily dose of puns.