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Comments by Richard Morgan


601. Secrets of bird flight revealed

Comment #115774 by Richard Morgan on January 24, 2008 at 6:45 pm

babrock :

If I wrote 'God says kiss this' on my ass....

Have you stopped taking your pills again, you naughty boy?

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

Comment #115773 by Richard Morgan on January 24, 2008 at 6:33 pm

rod-the-farmer :Well, I've been trying to follow all the discussions here, and when advice is offered, I try to put it into practice.
Keeping the toilet seat down initially seemed a good idea, and certainly makes for more comfortable seating.
The only problem is that after you've done your business you have to scrape it all up off the floor, open the toilet lid and shovel it in manually, taking care not to splash nearby tooth-brushes or reading matter. So my question is this - is one allowed to lift the toilet seat long enough for the time it takes to dump your load?
I personally hardly ever produce fluorescent ca-ca, and what's worse, I never seem to have an ultra-violet lamp with me when I do.
Though I do agree that toilet talk like this raises the level of the discussion when you're talking about WBC.
Do any of you Bible students know what the book of Leviticus has to say about wiping your bum with a tooth-brush? I believe it's allowed as long as you do it with your left hand.
Or am I getting my religions mixed up again?

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

Comment #115609 by Richard Morgan on January 24, 2008 at 11:56 am

Henry Bergson :

My German girlfriend is very proud of her breasts (as proud as I am pleased).
It is good for self esteem "to take pride in the little things."

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

Comment #115527 by Richard Morgan on January 24, 2008 at 9:39 am

Henri Bergson :

If you deny this, you deny there is a substantial difference between Aborigines, Persians, and Inuits.

I would be more than relieved to learn that there is a substantial (genetic) difference between Henri Bergson and me.
But I'm not opening the Champagne just yet....

HEALTH WARNING : This is a morganic ad hominem.

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

Comment #115519 by Richard Morgan on January 24, 2008 at 9:26 am

Apparently, according to an as yet un-published scientific study, an Afro-American with an I.Q. of 128 is just as intelligent as a Hispano-American with an I.Q. of 128, but both have an intelligence superior to that of a Welshman with an I.Q of 92 (forgive my adding personal details here!).
The same remarkable study reveals that there are dickheads amongst Protestants, Catholics AND atheists.(forgive my adding a second personal detail)
Also a close study of the Acts of Apostles shows that Darwin had an unresolved Oedipus complex.
There.
I feel better now.
(I'm trying to climb to the same intellectual heights as Campolo. It's a new sport called Sliding Back Down Mount Vanishingly Improbable.)

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

Comment #115279 by Richard Morgan on January 23, 2008 at 10:44 pm

robotaholic :

I'm tired of just hearing about Origin of the Species. I'm going to read it- make up my OWN mind about the book.
Thank you for your honesty.
But I must confess that I was a little surprised to learn that people who post comments here have NOT read Darwin's original writings.
Sure, it's not "easy reading" like Dawkins or Harris. But I feel we are hardly in a position to defend (neo-)Darwinism if we have not studied the basics.
Please, my fine friends, grab a copy of On the Origin of Species and make it priority reading if you haven't done so already.
(Without forgetting, of course, that often the noisiest Evangelicals have never read the Bible in its entirety....)

607. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #114391 by Richard Morgan on January 22, 2008 at 6:19 am

He was so short, he was always the first to know when there was a flood, but the last to know when it was raining.



A woman should always look up to her husband - even if it's only half an inch.


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

Comment #114388 by Richard Morgan on January 22, 2008 at 6:15 am

The ghost of Darwin smiles approvingly at Neil Shubin (in a laboratory setting) who is saying gleefully, "Eureka! I've found the shell-fish gene!"

609. Mandrake: Charles's letter in support of Islamic 'fundamentalism'

Comment #114101 by Richard Morgan on January 21, 2008 at 11:26 am

Paula Kirby :

...I don't think the institution will last beyond that. And it's probably right that it shouldn't.
I suspect that you have to be a born-and-bred Britisher to understand that: "probably right."
That is so cute.
For most other people, Queens and Lords and Counts and all that aristocraptic stuff belong to history books or fairy tales. It is somewhat difficult to condemn the Indian caste system while defending the social divisiveness inherent in a social system that supports a "Royalty".

610. The New Theology

Comment #113637 by Richard Morgan on January 20, 2008 at 8:43 am

American Godless - thank you! That was a most refreshing read. Excellent, in fact.
Diacanu - the problem we have here is that all existing human societies and civilisations have been built by the "ill-informed" - because until very recently in human history, EVERYBODY was ill-informed, scientifically speaking. Millennia of gap-filling thought processes (seeing triangles where there none, because this is what brains are good at) are going to take a few centuries of education to get cleaned up and straightened out. Thankfully, we're working on it.
And - we are not alone.

611. Ethical storm as scientist becomes first man to clone HIMSELF

Comment #113574 by Richard Morgan on January 20, 2008 at 4:29 am

Janus :

Better yet would be to keep its brain from forming at all, thus ensuring it doesn't even begin to become a person.

Well, that's already been done so often - how else do you explain phenomena like Falwell, Ted Haggard and Dinesh D'Souza?

612. The New Theology

Comment #113500 by Richard Morgan on January 19, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Steve-the-Man :

....knowing that there always more to learn; more surprises.

Religion certainly does not have that.
But as this article shows, with religion, there's always more to... invent! Ducking and side-stepping the onward march of science.

613. The New Theology

Comment #113496 by Richard Morgan on January 19, 2008 at 7:26 pm

Diacanu :

I hate lies with every fiber of my existence, and I can't fathom a mind that doesn't.

Aw, shucks, I was hoping I could hire you as my lawyer one day.
Seriously, I don't know if I am personally acquainted with all that many believers who have the feeling that they might be living a lie. In fact, I think most of them would echo your words!

614. The New Theology

Comment #113490 by Richard Morgan on January 19, 2008 at 6:32 pm

Steve Zara :

I know this may sound trite but, I think there is a kind of meaning in the Universe, which is meaning we decide it should have.

I agree with you. It only sounds trite because it happens to be true (one of the problems with so many truisms!) and has been oft-reiterated on this site and by RD.
Ever since I first opened up a scientific encyclopaedia at age 5, science has been the feel-good thing for me. But perhaps I am just weird.
Not weird - just lucky, perhaps. (Or unlucky since you're going to burn in Hell for eternity.)
May I ask you this question, in all humility - are you an atheist today because science gives you the feel-good feeling?*
I am - because Dawkins' books gave me the final push into absolute atheism, and a wonderful sensation of liberation, a huge relief in fact. But that only means that the way I lived my beliefs did not give me adequate feel-good compensations.
Doesn't it?

* I'm asking you this question publicly, because I sense that your answer could be very helpful to many people.

615. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #113487 by Richard Morgan on January 19, 2008 at 6:12 pm

Does anybody know what scootemyc's mother tongue is?
Would his babblings make any more sense if we asked him to write a few paragraphs in a language he can handle?
And then let us work on a translation into English (or French or Welsh or whatever)?
However, I must admit that I can't shake off the feeling that in any language he would come across as an arrogant little shit. Just a feeling, mind you, even though he's already given us loads of evidence to back up the idea.



SCOOTERMYC - PLEASE WRITE A FEW REBUTTALS IN A LANGUAGE THAT IS MORE NATURAL TO YOU THAN ENGLISH. LEAVE US THE RESPONSIBILITY OF TRANSLATING IT INTO ENGLISH.
COULD YOU DO THAT FOR US?
PLEASE?
Pretty please....

616. The New Theology

Comment #113483 by Richard Morgan on January 19, 2008 at 5:55 pm

My wife got fired from her job just before Christmas. She lost her job because she is a person of total integrity and preferred the truth to her pay-check.
For her, and many of us here, the truth is so important that it gives us the ultimate "feel-good" sensation that others find in a belief in vanishingly improbable gods.
Paula Kirby and Steve Zara have said it elsewhere, and better than I can, as long as having "faith" makes people feel good, and as long as the idea of no god makes them feel bad, an unrelenting search for the truth will not be on the agenda.
Inventing a more acceptable idea of god will be, for many people, the easiest and perhaps most effective way of hanging onto the feel-good thing.
Go on - explain it to me : what are the benefits of cold, scientific truth compared to the idea of living happily ever after in Daddy God's eternal Happy Hour?
What can tempt a bereaved mother to relinquish the idea of being re-united with her little baby son one day?
We psychoanalysts know that the pathological fear of becoming mad is, in fact, a primal fear of separation from the mother figure. It is possible to make sense of, and allay this kind of fear.
But the glacial fear of a universe devoid of "meaning" would take more than a few years of psychoanalysis to overcome. And the more science keeps reducing the "gaps", the more people are going to invent a God which has nothing little or nothing to do with "gaps" - except the gaps in the "heart" perhaps.
I will worry about Van Till's god when people start flying airplanes into skyscrapers for him.
Why am I not worried about that happening any day soon?

617. The New Theology

Comment #113255 by Richard Morgan on January 19, 2008 at 5:24 am

This is homeopathy applied to God! He's getting diluted out of existence. But, applying our good ol' Hahnemann's principles, the greater the degree of dilution, the more effective the remedy.
"the consequence of infinite mystery contracting itself - doesn't that sound like homoeopathic magical disappearing tricks? There are no more gaps? That means God is everywhere!
Frankly, I found this article a lot fun. Sure, it's just telling us what we already knew about human nature, but for me it's just as harmless as a handful of homoeopathic pills. And sadly, perhaps, just as insidious as well. The problem isn't the pills - it's what people believe about them.

Frédéric Dard said it before me : "Sometimes I gaze out at the universe and think - if God could create all that without even existing, that truly is a miracle."
Theologians as the Emperor's tailors - yes, I can go for that.

618. The New Theology

Comment #113181 by Richard Morgan on January 18, 2008 at 7:49 pm

All this is perfectly predictable. What could be more logical than re-writing God? Or re-inventing God, if you prefer.
God is a human creation, so why shouldn't we humans be allowed to up-date our creation?

What keeps him from dropping his belief is an overpowering feeling....

"Feeling" - get it?
When you have to choose between feelings and facts, people usually end up choosing the facts that fit the feelings. That's what people do.

619. Gigantic fossil rodent discovered

Comment #113076 by Richard Morgan on January 18, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Other finds have included car-sized armadillos,
And Smart invented the armadillo-sized car!
No room for a creator-god in all that, I'm afraid. (Though I sometimes wonder what supernatural force could have created the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano...)

620. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112787 by Richard Morgan on January 18, 2008 at 4:56 am

BAEOZ : "Rem acu tetigisti" is the equivalent of "Hitting the nail on the head"!
Back to Latin Expressions 101!

621. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112784 by Richard Morgan on January 18, 2008 at 4:50 am

Paula Kirby :

I suspect such simplistic interpretations of other people's problems are necessary in order to be able to immure yourself to them as you seem to aspire to do.

You've done it again!
Rem acu tetigisti!
This observation goes straight to the heart of scooter's problem. And, perhaps, most people's problem. I can empathise with him on that one.

BAEOZ :
But if you live your life assuming every person is out to take from you, well, you're not living.
In the music industry, this is the only way to live your (professional) life. Unless, of course, you happen to specialise in producing music that nobody wants to listen to...
;-)

622. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112767 by Richard Morgan on January 18, 2008 at 4:10 am

BAEOZ :

Scooter. I'm a bit lazy. So can you tell me the gist of the discussion you're having?

You're asking scooter to give you a gist?
If he replies to your request, that should be a fun read!

623. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112753 by Richard Morgan on January 18, 2008 at 3:35 am

scooternyc :

Well, Richard, then why don't you answer the question ...

Oh dear, my fine young friend, this is an old debating trick, but I'm afraid I am too old to fall for it. On television politicians bully each other, trying to force the other into committing himself when the terms of reference have not been clearly defined, saying things like, "Don't beat around the bush, just answer the question!"
Sounds so reasonable ( to the young, the gullible and the uninformed masses) but in fact it's just bullying.
Scooternyc - have you studied the brain chemistry of empathy?

Try this test before posting again.

http://www.questionwriter.com/samples/eyesquiz/

When you start using a more scientific approach to this whole question, I think you'll find that Steve will be able to enter more fully into what is becoming a sterile debate.


EDIT : I am not wont TO descending to this level of petulant silliness.

624. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112750 by Richard Morgan on January 18, 2008 at 3:24 am

scooternyc :

Steve, you keep wont of distraction.

Er... what language is this, please? (Did you manage to parse this one, Steve?)

625. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112748 by Richard Morgan on January 18, 2008 at 3:21 am

This discussion between Steve Zara and scooternyc is starting to look like a mini-debate between an intelligent Christian and an intelligent Rationalist. Seen from the outside, one can understand what both of you are getting at, while it is patently clear that you do not use the same terms of reference.
Steve is patiently trying to unravel the rather confused use of language by scooternyc, whereas the latter keeps getting carried away by all those things which seem obvious to him.
This happens so often, doesn't it? And usually, alas, the two parties end up having to agree to differ when all along it's just a problem of language.

626. Ben Stein Bribing Schools to See His Anti-Evolution Movie 'Expelled'

Comment #112676 by Richard Morgan on January 17, 2008 at 6:32 pm

If the film comes to France, I'll go and see it if someone pays me hard cash for my ticket stub. I think 250 EUROS should do the trick. Can't promise staying awake, however.
But I'll bet it's not half as good as "Ratatouille".

627. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112675 by Richard Morgan on January 17, 2008 at 6:19 pm

Steve Zara :

I can't parse this statement to get anything meaningful.

Priceless!! (Well, congratulations for trying, anyway!)

628. Questions Delay Creationist Master's Degrees

Comment #112662 by Richard Morgan on January 17, 2008 at 5:42 pm

Well, they had to try, didn't they?
And let us not forget that quite respectable institutions in the UK propose degree courses in Theology. Seems to me all that should go hand-in -hand : you can first graduate in the study of something that doesn't exist, then take a further degree by studying how the non-existent thing created the earth, sun, moon and stars and Ronald Macdonald and Huckabee and quantum pizzas.
All sounds quite exciting to me...
I'm even wondering if you need to be physically present to take an exam in Goddiditologie.
And, please, can we stop knocking the USA and Americans in general. I know quite a few countries, and there are dumb pricks in all of them. And in all of them, a goodly quantity of those DPs get voted into parliament.
I could never criticise a country that gave the world Bluegrass music.
And (edited)Cindy Lauper.

629. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112481 by Richard Morgan on January 17, 2008 at 9:05 am

annabananas :

Please tell me if I'm completely missing the point here.
Unfortunately this whole question is a lot more complicated than it might appear.
Take , for example, the role of competition in the "survival of the fittest". That there is competition between species is clear to everyone. But within the species, there is competition amongst males, and an analysis of the strategies employed for being the lucky one who gets the lady is quite fascinating and far from being straightforward.
Similarly, being able to decode, or "guess" what another person might be feeling is, for most of us, intuitive and spontaneous. (Check out the studies on autism, and the possible roles played by oxytocin in the brain.)But it is more complicated than it seems...
Also computer simulations of social groups with varying degrees of altruism and egoism tend to show that the the groups the "survive" best are neither the most altruist, nor the most egoist, but rather they are the groups where the individuals behave with a balanced mix of selfishness and unselfishness (drawn on empathy and other factors.)
"Things are seldom what they seem!" (G.&S. Buttercup in HMS Pinafore)

630. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #112427 by Richard Morgan on January 17, 2008 at 4:29 am

scooternyc :

because I surmise no one wants to be revealed for their own hidden motivations

Oops - who's just shot himself in the foot? You're now claiming to know (mind-read) why people have not taken what you call a "challenge".

Steve Zara :
People are very complicated.

Aye, there's the rub.
Watching you two debate, it just looks like the age-old problem of the wisdom of years versus the impetuousness of youth.
Go on, scooternyc, give me my hidden motivations for saying that. It could save me a fortune in psychoanalysis! ;-)

631. Canadian fossil makes waves in Huckabee's presidential run

Comment #112276 by Richard Morgan on January 16, 2008 at 5:03 pm

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and an ordained Baptist minister, who publicly rejects the idea that humans came from apes.


I reject it too - in the sense that we are still part of the family of great apes.
Though when I listen to the likes of Huckabee, I wonder about the "great" part....

632. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111122 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 4:25 pm

The French have a saying : "It's obvious that God doesn't like money - just look at the people he gives it to."

633. Fish out of water: Your Inner Fish

Comment #111117 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 4:19 pm

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/ce/4/part2.html


Only a Designer would have had the infinite wisdom and compassion to create the human body such that 70% of us suffer lower back pain, since our vertebrae are better designed to function as horizontal suspension bridges for our internal organs rather than as vertical supports for a bipedal mammal.

Read the whole article - much food for thought.

634. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111107 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 3:54 pm

DasSquid :

Sorry, this is one of my pet peeves, people who believe they need things, money/cars/blah to attract members of the opposite sex.


Hear, hear! Well said, that man!!
(We poor, ugly sods need to stick together, huh?)



PS Does that mean that life is easier for those who want to attract "members" of the same sex?
Do you have to be a member?
Where do you apply?
Are there conditions for joining?
Does anyone ever get thrown out for not attending the AGM?

635. Two Ex-Jehovah Witnesses to Tell Why They Became Atheists

Comment #111104 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 3:44 pm

Rokand_F :

so is this from Mormon ?
Nah - this is child's play compared to what good Mormons have in store for them.
Their thing is called "eternal progression" summed up in the embarrassing statement "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become."
Yeah, I know it screws up the "God is perfect" idea, but they argue back that God is relatively perfect, and improving and progressing perfectly.
And while he's at it (and I'm not joking, friends) with his countless Goddess wives he's "producing" countless spirit children to populate His own planet.
Makes the Kāma Sutra look like a Sunday School manual, doesn't it?

636. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111103 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 3:34 pm

scootemyc :

That statement isn't just about money, it's about everything.

There's nothing more to add to that.
But people will.
That's what people do.

637. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111055 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 12:07 pm

Diacanu : are you my mother-in-law hiding behind this pseudo?

638. Why people believe weird things about money

Comment #111052 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 12:02 pm

What is amazing and surprising about this article is the way Shermer keeps saying "Amazingly..." and "Surprisingly..."
Like who's amazed and surprised?
Certainly not my mother-in-law.
And have you noticed that whenever an article's title starts with "Why people believe weird things...", the explanation is always an evolutionary one?
My next article will be entitled : "Why people believe weird things about evolution."
Ha!
And, kraut, before you knock the importance of financial social status, read a bit about sexual selection in evolutionary theory. There are some really amazing apparent contradictions. Apparently...

639. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #111043 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 11:43 am

82abhilash :

Are you a religious lurker?

Unless you hadn't noticed, there is a link "Other comments by..." for every poster. Before suspecting me of being a religious lurker, you could have checked out my other comments.
Couldn't you?
People tend to internalize contradictions that form part of their daily lives quite effectively without even realizing it, especially when it pays for bread and butter.
This is true, but in the case in point, ie Hitchens, I think your remark is more a reflection of your charitable nature than Hitchens' "unknowingness". I may be wrong.
walk :
Is it just Hitchens' smoking, drinking, and style of speaking that you don't like?
Just his style; I wasn't just being facetious when I said that perhaps he needed to bolster up his public image with nicotine and alcohol. Many public figures do so - and sometimes worse.
And I accused you of being someone who "hasn't read a few books" because I was having one of my (typical) spates of unpleasantness.
Sorry about that.
But Hitchens does that to me.
Like pollen makes me sneeze.
When it gets up my nostrils.

640. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #110978 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 10:08 am

82abhilash :

Hitchens seems to fall into the trap the many journalists do, quite unknowingly.

"Unknowingly"? You must be rather naive to believe that.
There is a difference between Dawkins, who earns his living AND says and writes things, and Hitchens who earns his living BY writing and saying things.
I was an ardent member of my College's debating Society, and I remember living in dread of those who could wield the word like a weapon as Hitchens does. It was all very impressive for twenty year-olds when it was being done by other twenty year-olds.
Frankly, I am almost embarrassed when I hear a man of his age doing the "smart-ass" thing. But I suppose that if he can make a living out of it chez our transatlantic friends, then he has no reason to grow out of it. And I can also well understand that he would need all the nicotine and alcohol he can get, in order to be able to live with such a public image.
Probably there's a nice, intelligent person behind this mask. I will do the Christian thing, and believe that there is. Until further evidence proves me wrong.

641. Submission, 'Part 1'

Comment #110865 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 4:57 am

Steve Zara :

A little harsh, Richard.

Perhaps...
But even when one is "addressing a specific individual", doing so on a public forum means that the message is intended to be read by many - or at least, could be read by many.
As you may have guessed, this whole subject is a very emotional one for me, and I have so often seen people plunged into even greater confusion by the "just do this..or that" kind of advice.
And saying "just follow the evidence and logic" does seem so...well, logical - and simple. But, as I said, the problem is much more complex.
And my over-harsh reaction was intended to reach out to those who are in the throes of this kind of angoisse existentielle, who believe they are following evidence and (a certain kind of logic) but still feel utterly confused. I suppose it's just my way of saying "We do understand how difficult it can be for you."
Al-rawandi - I knw you're a well-intentioned guy at heart. Believe it or not, so am I!

642. Submission, 'Part 1'

Comment #110848 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 2:48 am

al-rawandi :

Just follow the evidence and logic and you shall be delivered from the grips of Islam.

This is one of the most stupid remarks I have ever read about the deconversion process. Why don't you just say that everybody (regardless of their religion) just needs to "follow the evidence and logic" and that will be the end of religion on Earth?
Religious belief is infinitely more complex than that Your simplistic, almost throw-away solution could even be dangerous if taken seriously, as many "just-do-this" solutions potentially can be.
Al-rawandi, I have come to expect better things from you.

643. Two Ex-Jehovah Witnesses to Tell Why They Became Atheists

Comment #110847 by Richard Morgan on January 13, 2008 at 2:36 am

Diacanu :

Hmm, coulda been Mormons too, I think they're weird about that kinda thing too.

I was a Mormon until 1979,having been converted as a teen-ager.
I was a missionary in France 1972-74.
At the time there was some concern about the caffeine in Coke but not much else.
Apart from that, their ideas are pretty reasonable :
they believe that every good Mormon can become a God; He will have countless Goddess wives and will make countless spirit children to populate other planets;
good Mormons wear funny underwear, one of the purposes of which is to prevent them being burned to death when Jesus comes to clean up the Earth;
they believe that the biblical "whore of Babylon" is the Catholic Church...
Nothing to raise eyebrows about, don't you think?
Someone with ideas like that should make a good President.
Shouldn't he?

644. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #110786 by Richard Morgan on January 12, 2008 at 2:03 pm

walk

IMHO, Citizen Hitch is a refreshing blast of fresh air in an overly politically correct world. I love his style and rhetoric. His command of literature, history and politics is astounding.

If I understand you correctly, the "H" in "IMHO" stands for Humble, right?
It never ceases to amaze me, the way somebody who has read a few books can impress somebody who hasn't.

645. Another critic who hasn't read the book

Comment #110783 by Richard Morgan on January 12, 2008 at 1:53 pm

Emily Condon :

...as it stands falls somewhat flat...

Anybody capable of writing like that, is clearly capable of writing that Dawkins is misanthropic and Hitchens, respectful.
"They also serve who only stand and...fall?"

646. Why (Almost All) Cosmologists are Atheists

Comment #110704 by Richard Morgan on January 12, 2008 at 3:13 am

Vinelectric :

...how frail and inept the human form is at handling various trivial worldly insults...

I'm not sure that being sensitive to human suffering means that you need psychiatric help. Though it may help.
Have you read this article on the imperfections of God's perfect creation?


http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/ce/4/part2.html


Might help you smile for a moment.

647. Six Reasons to be an Atheist

Comment #110445 by Richard Morgan on January 11, 2008 at 7:15 am

Roger Stanyard :

very few people are capable of having a single original thought in their lives without at least a Master's Degree and probably a PhD and even then they are likely to come up with no more than one.

Ha! You haven't read what my ex-wife told her lawyer about me!
The Extended Meano-type!

648. The Group Delusion

Comment #110440 by Richard Morgan on January 11, 2008 at 7:03 am

A biology professor said, "God

Must think it exceedingly odd

If he finds that this tree

Continues to be

When there's no one about in the quad."



Reply:



Dear Sir, Your astonishment's odd:

I am always about in the quad.

And that's why the tree

Will continue to be,

Since observed by Yours faithfully, God.



So the next book in the series should be : "RD - God's Delusion?"
"The Invisible WHAT-maker?"

649. The Group Delusion

Comment #110231 by Richard Morgan on January 10, 2008 at 4:52 pm

BAEOZ :

On a completely unrelated note. Richard, is there any possibility of hearing you speak in Australia. Specifically Melbourne sometime in the future? (Preferably sooner rather than later...)

I'm on my way!
(Sulks)...unless you mean the other Richard, the one who writes books that have a laxative effect on wee fleas...

650. The Group Delusion

Comment #110161 by Richard Morgan on January 10, 2008 at 2:57 pm

coelacanth :

I wonder how many faith-heads will use this article to support their attack on reason and the fatuous claim that "even scientist can't agree on anything"
Which will give us the chance to remind the religious about how many of them can't agree about God.

How many different versions of Christianity would you guess there in the U.S. alone? And their differences of opinion do not concern trifling matters like scientific truth, but real important stuff like eternal salvation and the Great Virgin Hand-Out. Or if you're a Mormon, actually becoming a God with loads of Goddess wives!

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