801. Why are we Muslims so self-destructive?

Comment #73968 by Richard Morgan on September 27, 2007 at 12:23 am

kaiserkiss You're right.
Thank you for that reminder.
Knickers untwisted.
Normal service may resume.

We should not fall into the same trap as the religious fanatics, or is that just another unavoidable human characteristic we try to suppress, sometimes with less success??

I guess so...*sighs*

802. Why are we Muslims so self-destructive?

Comment #73464 by Richard Morgan on September 25, 2007 at 3:17 am

Prufrock

Try to remember we are simply evaluating ideas, not people.

In my part of the world "ideas" are things that "people" have, they don't just happen on their own, in a neat, impersonal way. And sometimes "people" have "ideas" that push them to slitting children's throats in front of their mothers, before the mother is gang-raped and slaughtered herself.

Suicide bombers are "people" with "ideas" - or hadn't you noticed?

Oh dear, I've just discovered why you go on about "disembodied" people. I've just clicked on your pseudo to try to learn a little more about you, and look what turns up:

The requested user does not exist.

This time, as far as Prufrock is concerned, I really and finally rest my case.

803. Why are we Muslims so self-destructive?

Comment #73431 by Richard Morgan on September 25, 2007 at 2:07 am

Goldy and HunterZolomon

"Best" posters? Eloquent posters or people with the same opinion as you? Evidence please.

Yes, I myself was unhappy with the adjective "best". I think I was talking about sound reasoning. (My English is often a little inadequate - I'm sorry about that.)

Surely you recognize the value in allowing people to post behind a pseudonym.

I most certainly do. But I think that sometimes we need to "stand up and be counted".

Some people may not want their name splashed out for a reason.

I think that people who hide always do so for a reason - resistance fighters, for example.
But it is still clear to me that internet fora have become a haven for cowards and sneerers..
Tell me, how many people do you admire who have always remained hidden behind a pseudonym? (You're not allowed to count God here, ok?)

804. New Rules: A Religious Test

Comment #73318 by Richard Morgan on September 24, 2007 at 5:32 pm

I love this guy, but still prefer Rowan Atkinson.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=eJA9RPX9mRY

805. Talking Action Figure Jesus

Comment #73276 by Richard Morgan on September 24, 2007 at 4:15 pm

I'm looking forward to seeing their Adam and Eve.
Especially Eve.



EDIT : Aw, shucks, I just did. But I meant before the Fall. After is just too plain-long boring!




EDIT 2 : But only to see if they had belly buttons - you bunch of faithless perverts!!!!

806. 1996 Richard Dimbleby Lecture

Comment #73166 by Richard Morgan on September 24, 2007 at 10:19 am

37; Comment #73157 by Bonzai
Nitpicking over grammar and spelling on internet fora is either an occupational hazard for English teachers or the past time of old foggies who have nothing valuable to say,--the type who write to newspaper editors frequently to whine about minor breaches in grammatical correctness. English grammar is just a convention, nothing more.

Good grief, you can be a humourless bunch sometimes.

807. 1996 Richard Dimbleby Lecture

Comment #73154 by Richard Morgan on September 24, 2007 at 9:42 am

24. Comment #73127 by Dr Benway:
Maybe even a cooking show about foods we don't normally eat.

From my experience, most cooking shows are about foods we don't normally eat!
You and I, Dr B. are cynical ol' sods. We don't have the angelic enthusiasm of recent converts to atheism.
We patronisingly listen to the Veroniques and Northern Brights of this site , and it's as if we are inwardly saying, "How cute - they'll grow out of it one day." They display this "jolly hockey-sticks", Head-Girl sort of enthusiasm : "OK chaps, tomorrow morning we change the world, and in the afternoon, Orienteering for everybody in the car-park behind the Odeon."
I am;once again reminded of that marvellous, "fake" ancient poem, "Desiderata"

As far as possible, without surrender,

be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;

and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant;

they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons;

they are vexatious to the spirit.

808. 1996 Richard Dimbleby Lecture

Comment #73147 by Richard Morgan on September 24, 2007 at 9:17 am

No Quarter

Heaven and Earth has thankfully been cancelled.

My English is far from perfect, but shouldn't that be "Heaven and Earth have been cancelled"? Like the old Beyond The Fringe joke, isn't it : "The Earth will be totally destroyed tomorrow at mid-day : tomorrow has been declared a Day of Morning."

Veronique

It could be a consciousness-raising programme that encompasses much more and very interesting bits and pieces.

Oops - for regular TV programmes, the reasoning works in the opposite way : you finance a programme when consciousness has already been raised, not the other way around. RD's TV programmes were relatively successful one-offs, but the Zeitgeist was ready for them.
I found your list of topics jolly interesting, but reading those subjects would have most young people zapping directly to Disney Channel.

809. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #73075 by Richard Morgan on September 24, 2007 at 3:35 am

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fTzXJMU1sLc

810. Scientific Literacy and the Habit of Discourse

Comment #73048 by Richard Morgan on September 24, 2007 at 1:00 am

Changing one's mind is the essence of intellectual growth.

Of course that's true. The article is excellent and complete.
However we are left with one sad problem - instilling or encouraging the desire to "grow" intellectually. Does anybody have a method that works?

811. Religion advances despite science (and thanks to Dawkins)

Comment #72950 by Richard Morgan on September 23, 2007 at 3:54 pm

Plus ça change...

812. Why Christians should take Richard Dawkins seriously

Comment #72904 by Richard Morgan on September 23, 2007 at 11:47 am

I suppose the probability of the earth, the entire universe, all creatures great and small and Russell Blackford and me being created by a super-intelligence which orders some of its creatures to chop off the foreskins of baby boys must be at least 1/10^40000.
Or... 1?
I need the statisticians to help me out here, please.

813. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72898 by Richard Morgan on September 23, 2007 at 11:24 am

Richard Dawkins

His address is:-

Dr Paul Kelley
Headmaster, Monkseaton High School
Seatonville Road
Whitley Bay
Tyne and Wear
England NE25 9EQ

Hey you guys - welcome to the 21st century!


http://www.monkseaton.org.uk/


Save the TREES! Send an e-mail, please.

814. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72832 by Richard Morgan on September 23, 2007 at 5:33 am

the Great teapot and Newton30
Thank you.
From the bottom of my heart.
Merci.
Du fond du coeur.
Hey, Russell - loosen up a bit!

815. Why Christians should take Richard Dawkins seriously

Comment #72800 by Richard Morgan on September 23, 2007 at 2:14 am

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGH!!!!

Please stop replying to Dianelos Georgoudis - you're only encouraging him!!!!

816. Monkeys show sense of justice

Comment #72799 by Richard Morgan on September 23, 2007 at 2:11 am

Northern Bright : You're talking about "The Cucumber Delusion", right?
Oh, and somewhere else you related an amusing anecdote , introducing it with an apology for being "off-topic". Well, you weren't "off-topic' at all, since your recipe for beef stew is an irrefutable argument against Intelligent Design!

817. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72792 by Richard Morgan on September 23, 2007 at 1:50 am

Bremas :

They were using it as proof that a secular society doesn't make it scientifically literate.

So what?
It's no secret that in all the PISA comparative studies published to date, the French Education system does rather poorly. The French motto is "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." - no mention of "scientifically literate" there, as far as I can see.
The point is that whatever else may happen to French kids at school, they don't get religious doctrine forced on them.
As far as I know it's possible to be a scientifically illiterate atheist...innit?

EDIT:

Russell Blackford

Sometimes I really hate journalists. I want precise information and instead get these waffly stories written in the ghastly "inverted pyramid" style that they are taught to use in order to pander to the short attention spans of cretins.

Never heard of the KISS formula for journalists? Anyway, thank you for explaining the brevity of your posts, it's always nice to know.
(LOL)

EDIT 2

But the video is an eye opener I was always under the impression that the French were perfect.

The French have this same impression.

818. Crisis of faith in first secular school

Comment #72782 by Richard Morgan on September 23, 2007 at 12:46 am

There's still lots of reasonably priced property for sale here in the South of France... and all State schools are 100% secular - no daily grovelling sessions required.

819. New Rules: A Religious Test

Comment #72779 by Richard Morgan on September 22, 2007 at 11:57 pm

EastCoastAtheist

Listen to the audience response after that line, and you'll notice that people are applauding more than they are laughing. I don't know if thinking people in America would necessarily split their sides over such a line, but they would definitely appreciate that somebody was saying it on television. I don't know what television is like in other countries, but these sorts of comments are very taboo here. If a 'rationalist' laughs, it's probably because they are thinking of all the people who are taking offence.

Thank you, very sincerely, for this explanation.
As Bertrand Russell has remarked (Saturday Evening Post, 3 June 1944): 'It is a misfortune for Anglo-American friendship that the two countries are supposed to have a common language', without forgetting my fellow countryman , Dylan Thomas, in a radio talk "European writers and scholars in America are up against the barrier of a common language".
There are also considerable cultural differences that we Britishers need to understand.
I don't know if RD's publishers are planning a French translation of TGD, because to my mind it would not interest many French people, simply because we don't have those taboos here in France.

820. Why Christians should take Richard Dawkins seriously

Comment #72777 by Richard Morgan on September 22, 2007 at 11:35 pm

mis_spelled

Help me to explain to her that she is the reason she got pregnant with me not god. She said she prayed that she would get pregnant. I know that the reason that she got pregnant was that she stopped taking the pill.

Well, not really.
The reason that she got pregnant was that she had unprotected sex with a biologically adult male. Stopping taking the pill allowed her to become impregnated, but YOU are here amongst us because an accommodating ovum and an enterprising spermatozoa happened to be in the right place at the right time!
If my remark seems to be flippant and beside the point, let me explain that I am mentioning this because your incomplete reasoning reminds me a little of the "God-of-the-gaps" reasoning : God exists because there is no other explanation.
You will notice that here on this site, we all help each other to avoid falling into fallacies and the like.

Concerning getting angry with your Mum, let me just quote from "Desiderata"

As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
they are vexatious to the spirit.

Keep posting. And stop answering the phone!

821. Monkeys show sense of justice

Comment #72746 by Richard Morgan on September 22, 2007 at 3:29 pm

I think that it is important to take into account the social context of such behaviours. If that experiment had been carried out in France, I'm sure the slighted monkey would immediately have gone on strike and staged a demo.
Or if it had been a born-again Christian fundie-monkey, it would have tried to exorcize the experimenters.
An Anglican monkey would have forced itself to eat the cucumber, and look as if it were enjoying it just as long as the experimenters were looking on.
A Freudian monkey would have contented itself with pieces of a phallic cucumber,while worrying about the other monkey's unresolved Oedipus complex.
Whereas a rationalist monkey would have given everything a neo-Darwinian explanation and written a book entitled "God is not Grape".

822. Poll: Are Dawkins and Hitchens good for humanism?

Comment #72726 by Richard Morgan on September 22, 2007 at 1:16 pm

Yes, Messrs. Dawkins and Hitchens have helped to advance the cause of humanism.
So have Cornwell, McGrath and more recently Madge Midgley.
And, to a lesser extent, you (dear Reader) and I.
And even Northern Bright!!

823. New Rules: A Religious Test

Comment #72627 by Richard Morgan on September 22, 2007 at 1:39 am

I really enjoy Bill Maher. But I absolutely must visit the USA sometime soon in order to get the feel of a country where people will actually split their sides laughing at lines like:
"Santa Claus and Jesus are really the same guy"
(PS Does anybody know where I can buy Magic Mormon Underwear? And does it have the same effect as Viagra?)

824. Against the grain: There are questions that science cannot answer

Comment #72432 by Richard Morgan on September 21, 2007 at 4:18 am

Northern Bright:

This is horribly off-topic.

Not at all! Your recipe for beef stew is an extremely convincing argument against Intelligent Design.

825. Is 'Do Unto Others' Written Into Our Genes?

Comment #72431 by Richard Morgan on September 21, 2007 at 4:11 am

Comment #72395 by pewkatchoo
As I keep saying to my wife, who is a catholic, guilt is not morality.

She's probably reasoning like all those good ladies who look at their husbands, raise their eyes to the heavens, and ask "What have I done to deserve that?" Since she's been "punished" she must therefore be "guilty".
Q.E.D. and/or blame her brain.

826. Against the grain: There are questions that science cannot answer

Comment #72069 by Richard Morgan on September 20, 2007 at 9:01 am

Comment #72063 by pewkatchoo on September 20, 2007 at 8:50 am
Northern Bright
You are an absolute joy in an otherwise bleak existence. You and Veronique have an infectiously effervescent view of life.

Evidence, please.

827. Against the grain: There are questions that science cannot answer

Comment #72014 by Richard Morgan on September 20, 2007 at 6:14 am

mmurray

Take Frances Collins for example.

No thank you, you can keep him!


I've just checked out the original article. This somewhat reassured me:

Also in this section
* My First Job: Jenny Eclair, star of 'Grumpy Old Women', was a life model

Madge Midgeley and grumpy old women in the same section? Yeah, makes sense to me.Maybe it's Grumpy Old Women's Day soon or something like that.
Reading this piece reminded me of a description of a woman in one of Frédéric Dard's (Sanantonio) books:

On lisait sur son visage l'amertume d'une femme qui a trop joui sans baiser, et qui a trop baisé sans jouir.

(Google translates the verb "baiser" as "to kiss". Yeah, well, it also had that meaning not so long ago...)


EDIT: Oops - I've just noticed my mis-spelling of "Midgley". Must have been because I took it for an adverb instead of a surname. Sorry about that, Midge, er, oops, Madge!

828. Atheists for Jesus

Comment #71502 by Richard Morgan on September 19, 2007 at 12:15 am

Shane McKee:
Personally, I think that if Jesus had been around today, he would have been an atheist. sounds a lot like "personally, I think that if Jesus had been around today, he would not have believed in himself."

"Atheists for Jesus" T-shirts are interesting in the same way as those T-shirts vaunting the fact that Carrefour is an "official sponsor" for the Rugby World Cup. Who is the winner in this unlikely association? Clearly it is Carrefour exploiting the popularity of Rugby in France.

So, who wants to wear a T-shirt exploiting the popularity of the Jesus myth? Atheists?
Aw, c'mon...
Why not "Vegetarians for MacDonalds" or "Greenpeace for Shell"?
This is certainly one of the silliest ideas to come out of that formerly brilliant biologist's mind.
Yes, I know, we're none of us getting any younger, but all the same...
Also, just a kindly word of warning here:

Could we achieve exponential amplification of the numbers of super nice people?

We?
"We" being this generation? Or "we" being the followers of Richard Dawkins?

829. Larry King Interviews Kathy Griffin

Comment #71365 by Richard Morgan on September 18, 2007 at 2:34 pm

Big John

I love Kathy Griffin!!!!

Me too!!! I just want to thank Jesus for giving me a computer and inventing the Internet and YouTube so I could see this clip.
This would not have been possible if He'd been wasting His time saving lives in Darfur.

830. The Nonbelievers

Comment #71174 by Richard Morgan on September 18, 2007 at 1:47 am

Rachel Holmes

The last thing I want, when I die, is...

Thank you for that one, Rachel, it's one of the best.
I'm making a collection, and I'll post them all when I notice that you guys are taking yourselves too seriously... again.
But I'm not going to knock the idea of an "atheist pastor", because I have been looking for ideas on how to keep myself busy during retirement.
"Saving Souls for pleasure and profit the godless way" sounds like fun to me.

831. Religious education

Comment #71169 by Richard Morgan on September 18, 2007 at 1:29 am

Order a copy of Philip Beadle's book Could do Better: Help your Child Shine at School

When I was young, many years ago, and sent to Sunday school on a regular basis, one of the hymns we were forced to sing was :
Jesus bids us shine
With a pure, clear light,
Like a little candle
Burning in the night.
In this world of darkness
So let us shine—
You in your small corner,
And I in mine.
Nowadays I am invited to call myself a "Bright" - which, I suppose, entitles me to "shine".
Help me out here, please, do I shine waves or particles?

832. Enough religion. Stop shoving it down my throat

Comment #70812 by Richard Morgan on September 17, 2007 at 1:37 am

Another reason why I love the French : according to Le MONDE des RELIGIONS (January/February 2007):

Only 50% of French people declare being Catholic
BUT
only 50%of those Catholics believe in God!!!
And that's official, folks!
So a quarter of the population of France consists of Catholic atheists.... or atheist Catholics....

833. The Rise of Atheist America

Comment #69079 by Richard Morgan on September 9, 2007 at 4:55 pm

Yorker :

Argghh....

Evidence, please.

834. The Rise of Atheist America

Comment #68934 by Richard Morgan on September 9, 2007 at 7:03 am

Yorker :

Don't knock this too much, history shows propaganda works!

Hey, you guys, knock it all you want! History shows that propaganda works in the short term, but that truth and reality have a tendancy to win in the long term.
Never forget, there was a lot of heavy propaganda (and worse) for a geocentric universe going around in the catholic church for years after Galileo's heretical claims of a heliocentric "solar system".
So who won on that on?
Always knock propaganda - and if it's with better propaganda, well, heck...all the better.

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth will have you squealing for Mummy.

Edit:
Young Russell : you have the winner so far with "God-busters", with "Deotergents" a close second.

835. The Rise of Atheist America

Comment #68896 by Richard Morgan on September 9, 2007 at 3:25 am

And nearly half of Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll, would be willing to vote for an atheist for president of the United States of America – a nation founded by devout Christians.

"would be willing" in what conditions.? If all the other candidates were Flying Spaghetti Monsters?
Sorry, I'm being cruel. I've just found a poll that shows that almost one third of Americans would be willing to vote for a FSM.

836. The Rise of Atheist America

Comment #68839 by Richard Morgan on September 8, 2007 at 10:57 pm

"God-denier"? Why do I have the impression that this sounds just a little nastier than "atheist"? But it was bound to happen - sub-editors the world over will be looking for and inventing synonyms for "atheist". Should we help them out or just sit back, amused, and watch their linguistic antics?
Any suggestions?

837. The Fleas Are Multiplying!

Comment #68698 by Richard Morgan on September 8, 2007 at 7:29 am

I suppose I must be the ultimate, mother of all Fleas. I am preparing a book :"The Delusion Delusion"
I hereby invite Cornwell, Alhibai-Brown, Humphrys, Linklater, Vickers and their croneys to publish their reviews/replies BEFORE my book is published. I say this because for many of these people it is clear that reading the book they review is optional and not prerequisite to expressing an opinion. That way we can all save time in this debate and get directly to the heart of the matter - who is telling the biggest whoppers.
Because this is the Biggest Whoppers Competition Forum....innit?
It isn't?
I wish somebody had told me earlier...

838. Bible Belter

Comment #68430 by Richard Morgan on September 7, 2007 at 7:02 am

Henri Bergson :

'The God Delusion' and 'god is not Great' are two excellent books. However, they both carry the same fundamental error, as I see it.
They both conflate emotions with morality. A massive logical error. It is undoubtedly true that emotions are evolved, but morality is not emotions and therefore not evolved.

Yes.
Of course.
These are books for today. They are not "literature" and will hold little interest for readers fifty years from now.

Somebody coming across Dawkins' book in 2207 would probably ask "The what Delusion"? or Hitchen' book - "Who is not great?"
But today they address a real problem, the language and basic notions expressed are appropriate to the present situation.

839. Honest Mistakes or Willful Mendacity

Comment #68341 by Richard Morgan on September 6, 2007 at 11:22 pm

Eric Blair :

I'm not sure suggestions of wilful mendacity help matters. (Then again, I'm not sure where any of these public debates lead...)

Really?
Oh dear.
OK - public debate is a vital part of any democracy, enabling the airing of conflicting ideas/ideologies, usually allowing people to form intelligent opinions after having seen both sides of the case. That is the theory, anyway.(Could somebody say it better for me please, my grasp of the English language is not what it was, sniff. Dr Benway? Russell Blackford? even pewkatchoo?)


Red Foot Ockie :

I haven't heard the interview/debate, but one thing that I think is happening is that...

Thank you for posting a comment, but may I gently chide you on a matter of principle? Never, ever express an opinion on something you haven't fully read or heard or seen. You may be spot on with your ideas, but admitting to not having heard the interview does strip you of some of your credibility.
If listening to streaming audio files irritates you, an MP3 I sent in is now available in the "other" thread.
Incidentally, that doesn't mean we love you any less, but, you see what I mean?

840. Bible Belter

Comment #68296 by Richard Morgan on September 6, 2007 at 4:41 pm

Northern Bright :

But truth + an ability to win people over is even more powerful than truth alone.

Strangely enough, LIES + an ability to win people over is just as powerful and effective. I should know! I was a Mormon missionary for two years (1972-1974) and my sales figures, oops, sorry, conversion figures were pretty impressive.
It's true, so often it's not what you say that matters, it's how you say it.
According to a study, in courts of law, jury-members will be more influenced by an unlikely witness who sounds convinced about what he's saying, than a witness with more reasonable evidence but who expresses himself with less conviction.
But even Hitchens' tantrums will have a positive influence on some people who might otherwise remain indifferent to a Dawkins, Harris, Dennett or Kirby. (Or Morgan. Though I'm more brattish than most here in this forum.)

841. Honest Mistakes or Willful Mendacity

Comment #68259 by Richard Morgan on September 6, 2007 at 2:34 pm

In that wonderful play by Marcel Pagnol: "César",(1937) in the opening scenes Honoré PANISSE is apparently on death's doorstep and is being confessed by the local priest. They go through the Ten Commandments one by one, and when they get to the famous "9th commandment" about bearing false witness - LYING - Honoré confesses to having spent most of his time lying, explaining his sinfulness with the now famous: "If you had to tell the customers the truth all the time, you'd be out of business!"
Clearly the same is true when religites allow themselves to get involved in serious debates - if they had to tell the truth all the time they'd soon be out of arguments. Cornwell lies as they all do. Name of the game. He has to gird up his loins in the woolly underpants of dishonesty in order to avoid having the strong keen wind of reason and truth howling around his goolies.
There are no surprises there.
And since we're talking about French literature, in another scene from the same play, in a beautiful American-English translation, you might appreciate this :

César : "Sometimes I think about something terrible : You see, all those foreigners - the Chinese, the Africans, the Indians, all that billions of people - they all have their own Gods, and those gods are so different from ours... So sometimes at night I think about it and I wonder : "What if our God was not the real one ? What if the real god was African or Indian or something ?" I mean, imagine, you die, you go to heaven, and there you see a God with three eyes and five arms, who speaks to you in some language you don't even understand... What d'you do then ?

Woman: "Bah, if you went to church more often, you would know that there's only one God - ours !

César: "That's okay, our God is the good one, I agree - but that means that in the world, you see, there are billions of people who are getting shafted - and that really pisses me off."

842. Bible Belter

Comment #68242 by Richard Morgan on September 6, 2007 at 1:36 pm

Northern Bright :

At his best, there's no doubt that Christopher Hitchens is formidably good - but at his worst, he comes across (to me, at least) as a bit of a brat.

Yes. I agree.
But let us not forget that this kind of attitude with an English accent is very popular among many Americans, and he has almost certainly cultivated this "persona" with his public in mind.
So even though it does get up my nostril a bit occasionally, overall it's good that we have a variety of "styles" in attacking religion.
We have the "smart-ass brat", the "very reasonable gentleman", the "verbal whizz-kid", and "the kindly but wise philosopher". Each one has his place in this debate. And everybody will have their preferences.
But in the end, isn't it "Truth" that matters more than anything else?
"A rose by any other name...."

843. The Mix Tape of the Gods

Comment #68137 by Richard Morgan on September 6, 2007 at 8:25 am

Johnny? Oh!

It must be amazing for the people who's voices were recorded, knowing that there is a possibility ... that their voices might be heard by other lifeforms.

So what? I'm a teacher. My pupils are mostly teenagers. Which gives me the feeling that my voice is heard by "other life forms" every day!
Hahaha!

No?

OK. I'll just fetch my coat...

844. The Mix Tape of the Gods

Comment #68079 by Richard Morgan on September 6, 2007 at 4:24 am

The probe did all that, transmitting back reams of scientific data and memorable color photos: of the sputtering red and yellow volcanoes of Jupiter's moon Io; of the shimmering blue ice that shrouds Io's fellow satellite Europa, beneath which a liquid ocean is suspected to dwell; of Saturn's myriad rings and the murky mysteries of its orange satellite, Titan, whose hazy atmosphere is thought to approximate that of the early Earth.

With science like that, who needs Bibles and Gods?

This is perhaps one of the most beautiful and moving pieces of writing to have been published here on this site.

845. The God Delusion One-Year Countdown

Comment #68050 by Richard Morgan on September 5, 2007 at 9:01 pm

Northern Bright :

Ok, ok, I'll stop now.

Good. Thank you.

846. In God we doubt

Comment #67933 by Richard Morgan on September 5, 2007 at 8:01 am

Veronique:

I just get cross. So I have to go.

It was quite foreseeable that you were going to say something like that sooner or later. And many react in the same way. There is an increasing intensity in the ideas expressed, one can sense a sort of build up of emotional momentum until one day, Boom - there is burn out.

Take a break. Feed the cats. There's some very good wine coming out of Gaillac these days - try it.
But you'll be back, a little older, a little wiser. Like the rest of us.
I mean, you're reading this aren't you?
You aren't?
Hm.
Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance.
Hal, don't do this to me!!!

847. The Mix Tape of the Gods

Comment #67929 by Richard Morgan on September 5, 2007 at 7:38 am

Our perspective was aptly expressed by the 18th-century science writer Bernard de Fontenelle, in his fictional dialogue "A Plurality of Worlds." "You have made the universe so large that I know not where I am, or what will become of me," complains a lovely young marquise whom Fontenelle is tutoring. "I protest it is dreadful."
"Dreadful, Madam?" Fontenelle replies. "For my part, I am very easy about it."

Mais, reprit-elle, voilà l'univers si grand que je m'y perds, je ne sais plus où je suis, je ne suis plus rien.
Quoi, tout sera divisé en tourbillons jetés confusément les uns parmi les autres ?
Chaque étoile sera le centre d'un tourbillon, peut-être aussi grand que celui où nous sommes ?
Tout cet espace immense qui comprend notre Soleil et nos planètes, ne sera qu'une petite parcelle de l'univers ?
Autant d'espaces pareils que d'étoiles fixes ? Cela me confond, me trouble, m'épouvante.
Et moi, répondis-je, cela me met à mon aise.

848. The Mix Tape of the Gods

Comment #67927 by Richard Morgan on September 5, 2007 at 7:23 am

Cartomancer:

Maybe we could stick a gold-plated copy of The God Delusion on the next one?

An intelligent life-form reading the title would almost certainly ask : "The what Delusion?"

849. Like any half-decent atheist, I'm fond of a bit of religion

Comment #67871 by Richard Morgan on September 5, 2007 at 3:51 am

Graeme :

I've heard that atheist funerals can be very good but I've never been to one...

A good funeral?
A good funeral?
The only thing that would make a funeral good for me would be eliminating the necessity of having somebody die in order to hold it in the first place. Dead people always spoil the fun a bit, don't you think.

"I went to a super atheist funeral the other day. Nobody mentioned anything about God or Jesus or resurrections or sins. I met lots of old friends, had a few good chin-wags with the old crowd, they served some pretty decent claret (even though I'm a burgundy man myself). The only thing that rather spoiled the general ambiance was this dead guy. You know, an actual corpse, right there, in the middle of the room. The flowers were great, but it seemed to me in rather poor taste to have a real live dead body (you know what I mean) in the room, it's a bit of a conversation stopper. Fortunately the C. of E. vicar (he's what you call an intelligent atheist, because he knows exactly what he doesn't believe in) got things going with a karaoke competition - brought along his own gear and everything. People started loosening up (except the stiff, of course) when Pewkatchoo handed round some really good Moroccan ...y'know what I mean.... because Salley always starts seeing angels after a couple of, y'know, the Moroccan stuff, and Salley's angels are always good for a laugh because she claims they haven't got any... you know...credentials!.
And then this guy Blackford turned up in a King Kong outfit and spouted limericks with an Aussie accent, which everybody found absolutely hilarious.
Of course, people started wandering outside after a while because Veronique always gets very heavily into critical thinking after a couple of glasses of the red stuff, and she kept telling the corpse to "stand up and be counted" 'cos nobody had told her he was dead.
She'd noticed that he looked a bit out of it, and wasn't very talkative, but she wrongly assumed that it was because he, too, came from Mullumbimby.
But, all in all, I suppose, yes, it was a good funeral, as atheist funerals go...."

850. Real Out-of-Body Experiences

Comment #67818 by Richard Morgan on September 5, 2007 at 12:08 am

In 1977 I had an N.D.E. and the usual out-of-body experience.
Today, thirty years later, I am still amused by one aspect of all this. I am short-sighted so I wear glasses. I have always seen my image in the mirror as a glasses-wearer, so whenever I imagine my face, I see it wearing glasses.
I had my "out-of-body" experience as I was being trundled from the ambulance into the hospital, and as I looked down on myself, I "saw" my face... without glasses, as they had been removed!
Today all that has been adequately explained by the neuro-sciences, but back then it pushed me even deeper into woo-woo world!