51. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #195690 by black wolf on June 18, 2008 at 5:16 pm

RtG,
it's perfectly ok for those many people watching 'with' you to give you helpful advice. You can't think of everything for yourself, and I'm sure at least some of the lurkers are intelligent people. It's ok if you take a few hours or a day off to collect their ideas. You don't have to answer every tangental issue someone brings up on spelling, grammar or style. Let's all just concentrate on the core question, in which I'm very interested.

52. Is the Universe Actually Made of Math?

Comment #195582 by black wolf on June 18, 2008 at 2:39 pm

So, if I divide the universe by zero, will it blow up or turn into the letter 'E'?
Just tell me when it's safe...

53. Diamonds unlock secrets of early Earth

Comment #195457 by black wolf on June 18, 2008 at 8:53 am

So, how long is the minimum time needed for diamonds to form naturally, under the most favorable conditions?

54. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195451 by black wolf on June 18, 2008 at 8:41 am

I'm late, but welcome Oystein from me too. I noticed you're my age and have accomplished so much more (I just sell stuff). But I just love learning about science through the posts and links so many experienced scientists give me here, and I love educating my friends and family about cosmology and biology with the knowledge I've gained. Thank you all! I have just about no personal contact with believers (my family is completely atheist for generations), but I have an ex-mormon friend who sometimes tells me about the ludicrous stuff she used to believe in.

55. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195445 by black wolf on June 18, 2008 at 8:31 am

Strappado,

EDIT: How does the quote function work?

56. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195069 by black wolf on June 17, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Nice one, Roy_H. Our minds, through communication and reflection, compile a concept that we can understand. And that's what McGrath thinks needs an explanation (which is coincidentally exactly the same one he has for everything else)? I installed a program on my computer that someone (yes, someone who exists) wrote to make pictures appear on my screen. Wow, what's this? The program actually makes pictures appear on my screen! How can that be? How can my computer do that? Oh, I know, magicmandunnit.
Is that seriously what passes for a sophisticated argument in theological circles (sic)?

57. Oystein Elgaroy - the Christian defender who became an Atheist

Comment #195060 by black wolf on June 17, 2008 at 4:05 pm

The 'sophisticated arguments against religious faith' line always puzzles me. It is a fact that not a single theologian or other interested scholar has succeeded in presenting a compelling case against the so-called unsophisticated arguments, so why does everybody, Billy and his dog keep demanding or expecting more sophisticated ones? There is absolutely no need to refute waffle in detail when calling waffle waffle and sophistry sophistry is fully sufficient. Elgarøy is not the first ex-theist who is honest and self-respecting enough to be led by the evidence, away from opinions that have none. And he'll not be the last for a long while.
Even the best arguments in favor of faith ultimately rely on presupposing the existence of God as a fact or an axiom. From there, countless arguments can be constructed which seemingly prove the need for a God. No matter how big it is, no matter how old it is, a circle remains a circle. That combined with a belief in belief is all that the theist can come up with. Many of the greatest thinkers in history have struggled with this and failed, century after century.

58. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #194825 by black wolf on June 17, 2008 at 10:04 am

Behe gets his butt handed to him continuously. Every time he draws some design idea from something he writes, real working scientists point him to his omissions and errors. He had to admit at Dover that he was unaware of a mountain of published papers contradicting him, and he is still ignorant and prefers to remain so. And he has some good reasons for that, like making a nice wad of greenbacks from selling his halfwittery to gullible ignoramuses.

59. Rapture site sends unbelievers their last chance ... via email

Comment #194821 by black wolf on June 17, 2008 at 10:01 am

Teratornis,
bah. Cherry picker.

60. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #194819 by black wolf on June 17, 2008 at 9:57 am

epeeist,
now if fundies had these big worms to come riding to our doorsteps instead of just hot air, that would be impressive.

61. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #194803 by black wolf on June 17, 2008 at 9:46 am

Well, Jethro is correct in the sense that natural selection has lead to a species capable of considering and philosophizing about concepts of good and evil. Our developed methods of communication may yet lead to a global consensus on 'doing it right'. If that was some God's plan all along, he has a strange way of carrying it out, and we'll probably never know more about it - but if the fruits are ok for humanity, that's good enough. Even if it takes work on some people's neurons, I'm confident we'll figure it out.
I'll have one Jethro over any ten friendly condescending fundamentalists any time. ;)

62. Rapture site sends unbelievers their last chance ... via email

Comment #194788 by black wolf on June 17, 2008 at 9:21 am

The Rapture already happened in the year 1323. There were no emails back then, and the dozen or so true Christians suddenly gone weren't missed. Christians, get over it, it's too late. You are in Hell, this is it. You are damned, along with all your future descendants, to live your life out until death on this Earth, for eternity. Praying and pleading, going to church and handing out tracts will do nothing for you or anybody else now, the judgment has been spoken. God has chosen those to praise him in Heaven for all eternity, and you are not of them. Now deal with it.

63. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #194473 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 9:33 pm

Brian,
remember the probably most famous fictional Protestant ever?
Man: Look at those Catholics. Every time they do it, they must have a child. We, to the contrary, can do it anytime we like, and we can enjoy it as much as we'd like. I can slip this little baggy on anytime I want.
Wife: Then why don't we?
Man: ...silence...

64. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #194469 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Steve,
and Eve's make-up is sooo bad. Now, Mary Magdalene on the other hand...
Btw, do you know about the fashion store chain called 'Zara'? I have one near my home, so I could take a picture for you, the big ZARA logo with a handsome young guy next to it, if you'd like to have that.

65. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #194455 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 8:38 pm

Quine,
I agree. Also, designer babies yay!

66. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #194453 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 8:35 pm

Kardashovel,
I'm not sure about converting. I don't particularly fancy having coffee mugs thrown at my forehead.
By the way, did you know that the guy playing Saddam in this movie and some others is actually an American professional lobbyist? I even had his office phone number from when I tried to find out if Saddam bowling shirts were available for purchase. Strange episode in my life, don't ask.
Also, I don't own a bathrobe. But I do have a few nice carpets.

67. George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

Comment #194451 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 8:29 pm

The book Ratzi wrote about Jesus last year was widely criticized by historians and some theologians for its 'liberal interpretation' of historical evidence. It amounted to basically saying, 'what I think feels best spiritually about what I believe about the life of Jesus and how it informs my faith, is what I hereby proclaim to believe is true, and any contradicting, missing or omitted evidence is therefore irrelevant'.
I actually laugh out loud every time someone writes or says that Ratzi is an honest and respectable scholar. If anything about his character can be called wise, it is the wisdom of avoiding open debates with historians or dissenting theologians. He has the fortune to be in such a privileged position that everything he says or writes will be automatically promoted and marketed by his own worldwide media network, and most Catholics worldwide unthinkingly lap up every last drivel dropping from his lips (given that most Catholics reside in a state of practically no education or critical analysis skills).

68. Vatican bans Dan Brown film Angels & Demons from Rome churches

Comment #194447 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 8:11 pm

Mike O'Risal,
that's a very typical case you describe on your page, and as I see you have looked at some others. I posted on a thread in this site's forums a while ago, where I collected reports about a score of similar murders. (http://richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=41366&p=804704&hilit=demon#p804704)
As likely in 'your' case (rosary found), the parents often are of a background where they've been led to believe in demons by usually Catholic and sometimes other denominational Christian teachings. Mentally unstable persons often appear very calm and 'normal' in their daily life, especially outside their homes (as long as they still leave home). They collect steadily more 'materials' like rosaries, saint pictures, Bibles and tracts. The only thing remarkable about them would be their belief in demons, which they talk about to their priests and family members. As their cultural environment regards this kind of belief as common and endorses it, nobody raises a finger until something drastic happens. What's really crazy about this is that law enforcement, politicians and psychologists don't make any noticeable effort to pre-empt these teachings at all. Any psychologist encouraging dangerous delusions of his patients would lose his approbation. Again, religion gets a free pass from public criticism, despite the fact that murders like this happen at least about every two or three weeks in the US alone. This is like giving out free guns on the street to people wearing gang colors, handing hunting knives to crack addicts, or explicitly teaching masked radicals how to build bombs. It is criminally and systematically evil, we know where it comes from and who propagates it. The evidence is on the table.

69. Vatican bans Dan Brown film Angels & Demons from Rome churches

Comment #194002 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 9:19 am

On another note, isn't Hanks a Scientologist?

70. Astronomers find batch of 'super-Earths'

Comment #193991 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 9:10 am

Strategy: convince the nutters that those planets are the place God meant them to live on, have them pool their billions, build a generation ship and off they go. I'd like to keep Earth for reasonable people.

71. Gay brains structured like those of the opposite sex

Comment #193984 by black wolf on June 16, 2008 at 9:04 am

What the thick-headed fundies will read out of this is of course that women are just as sinful as gays, scientifically proven by Eve. Which confirms that both need a strong man to tell them where to be and what to do. Women care for the kids, cook and go to church, and the gay men and women are sent to reeducation camps where real men teach them how to clean themselves with Jesus.
If they could, they'd try to develop drugs and brain surgery to un-gay people.

72. George W Bush meets Pope amid claims he might convert to Catholicism

Comment #193524 by black wolf on June 15, 2008 at 7:18 pm

Most religious believers are the type of person who seeks an authority to tell him what is absolutely right and wrong, they crave certainty. George W. is sick and tired of being a leader, and I'm sure he does know that he is widely considered a failure at that. How relieving it must be for him to find the one person in the world many people believe to be the highest authority after the one who doesn't answer. If he does convert, he gives the evangelicals and other fundamentalist Protestants one more justification, one man they can call a traitor, to call for a new Cold War of reformation, or even make a stand against what they believe to be the new Great Whore, the Anti-Christ of Rome. The Pope rejects the idea of ecumenical service anyway. Another few decades or more of religion starving in the West, and the death throes may spark another rekindling of the battle for the remaining believers. If we're lucky, the believers will finally turn away from organized religion, and if we're even more lucky, they won't turn to woo instead.

73. Report: Troubling texts at Va. Islamic school

Comment #192492 by black wolf on June 13, 2008 at 7:30 am

Lycosid,
it's better to stop children getting into schools such as this one in the first place. As Bonzai stated correctly above, it's not about free speech or choice. Not granting the kids college access or promising job training after they complete school will only make them feel victimized for their religion or their 'race'. It would be the fastest road to radicalism. The authoritarian bedrock that muslim families clinging to 'traditional values' are prevents their children from becoming part of a free, enlightened society. Sending the children to schools where faith is so strongly emphasized supports the parents' mindset. If faith schools are closed down, the parents have the choice of homeschooling or public schools. The latter will expose the kids to diversity and education that enables them to set themselves free from the authoritarian family stranglehold later in life.

74. BBC man says 'I was wrong to lose it. But these scientologists are truly scary'

Comment #192373 by black wolf on June 12, 2008 at 10:32 pm

eviltwin25,
that may be a part of it, with their corporate planning and all. Also, note that Hubbard explicitly founded the Celebrity Centers to target and recruit celebrities 'because they were the ones influencing the world of tomorrow'. It's an effective way of advertising any organization or cause when you have well-known and appraised faces to show for it.

75. Saving Us from Darwin

Comment #192352 by black wolf on June 12, 2008 at 8:35 pm

Yes, ID will not sustain itself in a scientific realm, but propaganda is immortal. When something new is discredited, someone dusts off some old text and just drags that up as new wisdom.

76. Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'

Comment #192351 by black wolf on June 12, 2008 at 8:31 pm

As the various fields within neuroscience learn about how the brain functions, it becomes more and more clear that 'intelligence' is a much too broad measure to account for religious beliefs, faith or acceptance of dogma. We just don't know how compartmentalization, cognitive dissonance and logic work yet as a brain process, or how much intelligence correlates with certain functions and mechanisms.
That's like saying a faster processor in a computer will always produce better graphics, ignoring the software and specialized chipsets. From countless debates and discussions, I got the impression that a person may understand logic extremely well, and yet the same logic becomes muddled and overridden in matters of personal beliefs. There's something like a switch up there that works differently for different people, rapidly switching back and forth, stuck in one position, or just 'rusted'.

edit: oh yes, congrats Cartomancer!

77. Report: Troubling texts at Va. Islamic school

Comment #192348 by black wolf on June 12, 2008 at 8:12 pm

Whatever we may think about the fundies, they are not uniform in accepting that 'talking to Jesus' crap Bush said. Many regard Bush and most other professing Christians as false converts, and they don't accept their honesty. Not that anyone can prove who Jesus is really talking to anyway. You know the whole Scotsman thing.

78. Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech

Comment #192341 by black wolf on June 12, 2008 at 7:49 pm

As a German, I like to say that I have great respect for the free speech laws you have in America. No buts. They work.
The only thing our laws prevent is neo-nazis making much money on merchandise. People who want to still get their flags and propaganda DVDs and Mein Kampfs from neighboring countries. The extremists still get their votes in (racking in as much as 26% of the votes in some communal elections locally).
The best times fundies and extremists ever had was when they were the only ones allowed to spew their ideologies from the pulpits and lecterns, and Joe Public was expected to shut up.
I can understand the gut reaction by many who wish the extremists would shut up and the law would enforce that. But it doesn't solve the problem.
The nazis came to power because greedy industrialists, monarchists and other anti-democracists thought they could use them as sockpuppets. Italian fascism came to power because the government was too feeble to oppose their formation of armed militias. Religious extremists come to power because extra-national secret services and global power players think they can use them as sockpuppets. The best way to expose that kind of scheme is free speech and free publication. Strike them hard when they start forming militias. Gagging them by law doesn't help, it only deafens the noise until something blows up.
Let the fundamentalists alienate the moderates, let the embarassment lie open for everyone to see. The pc and happy-clappy crowd pretend fundamentalists are just a fringe minority, or that opponents misrepresent their views. When free speech allows those views to be seen for the frothing, raving insanity they are, the Three Apes will no longer be able to maintain their hypocrisy or lose the last shred of credibility they so proudly claim in public.

79. Debating creationism in Louisiana schools

Comment #192009 by black wolf on June 12, 2008 at 9:54 am

Don't worry, Purps.
Same for me.

80. Debating creationism in Louisiana schools

Comment #191733 by black wolf on June 11, 2008 at 2:24 pm

The name "Louisiana Forum on Family" is misleadingly incomplete. The full title should read "Louisiana Forum on Families who want to live in Caves".

81. Analysis of SB 733: 'LA Science Education Act'

Comment #191723 by black wolf on June 11, 2008 at 2:09 pm

Jindal is correct in recommending the teaching of different theories (as long as students have enough basic knowledge to understand). The slight problem he ignores is that ID is not a theory. It's not even a testable hypothesis the students could play around with to learn about the scientific method. If Jindal honestly can't grasp the difference, I wonder how he ever got a biology major, or how he managed to forget all about how science works.
Looking at his wiki bio page, he proceeded to study political science and then worked in economic consulting. Apparently he has embraced the idea that promoting a cause is more important than standing in for truth.
Someone should send him the Vatican's statements about ID and creationism. They state clearly that belief in a creator has nothing to do with non-acceptance of evolution. As Catholic scientists all over the world confirm, not even the assumption of a guided creation accounts for the bold and unsupported claims trickling out of all the creationism relabeled ID noise.
Yes, let's teach our kids the very best science. Stuff made up to wedge theocratic ideals into politics don't even touch on mediocre science. Has Jindal been asleep for the last 20 years?

82. New Online Survey

Comment #191601 by black wolf on June 11, 2008 at 9:36 am

I have completed the survey. Overall good questions, with a few very arbitrary ones, depending on the outlook. I'm very curious what the evaluation will look like.

83. Storm erupts over 'virginity' divorce

Comment #191408 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 9:29 pm

Some statements I found googling around:

the article linked by Goldy states:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/11/world/europe/11virgin.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
At the Islamic Center of Roubaix, the Lille suburb where the wedding took place, there is sympathy for the woman.

"The man is the biggest of all the donkeys," said Abdelkibir Errami, the center's vice president. "Even if the woman was no longer a virgin, he had no right to expose her honor. This is not what Islam teaches. It teaches forgiveness."

from: http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060626/NEWS/606260339/-1/State
However, Boubakeur, a doctor and a moderate Muslim, says the Quran does not address premarital virginity, and he is against the deception.

from: http://www.submission.org/sex/virgin.html
"Successful indeed are the believers, who are reverent during their Contact prayers (Salat). And they
avoid vain talk. And they give their obligatory charity (Zakat). And THEY MAINTAIN THEIR
CHASTITY. Only with their spouses, or those who are rightfully theirs do they have sexual relations;
they are not to be blamed. Those who transgress these limits are the transgressors." 23:1-7

"Tell the believing men that they shall subdue their eyes, and to maintain their chastity. This is purer
for them. God is fully Cognizant of everything they do.

And tell the believing women to subdue their eyes, and to maintain their chastity..........." 24:30-31"

http://cyber_bangla0.tripod.com/aa/Chapter_Six.html
"Islam demands virginity of both men and women before and until the time of first marriage, and it is imperative that�"and this is the element of double standard in Islam�"the bride be found virgin on lailat al-dukhul, the night of entry, in common speech the wedding night, for which an intact or unbroken hymen, is a sufficient proof."

http://www.islamicgarden.com/page1007.html
"In Islam, there is no such need to prove one's virginity by bleeding on the wedding night. This is not to say, however, that it is not important that both the husband and wife should be virgins provided that they are entering into their first marriages. Sexual relationships outside the marital union are strictly prohibited in Islam and there are very serious punishments for men and women who violate this rule."

84. Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

Comment #191390 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 7:38 pm

adding to Brian:
And when pattern recognition goes haywire, we get articles like Postelnik's.

85. Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind

Comment #191386 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 7:19 pm

"why a sentence like "people people left left" ties us in knots"

Simple: bad grammar design in languages.
For those interested (while we're at etymology), here's a German sentence:
Fliegen Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen Fliegen Fliegen hinterher.

86. Bacteria make major evolutionary shift in the lab

Comment #191347 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 4:10 pm

This "god" all the kids are talking about must be very, very tiny to be able to hide in such a gap ...

87. The 14-year-old Afghan suicide bomber

Comment #191167 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 10:08 am

Fighting Falcon,
so true. And then once they've got their 7th century happily implemented, the kids learn nothing but the holy books in a language they don't understand, the infrastructure collapses and people get publically beaten and executed. Then some natural disaster strikes, and it's again the international community, the Red Cross and the UN who have to step in. Sometimes I think the rest of the world is being just too nice to dimwits. How about the next time they need help because an earthquake killed thousands or people are starving because Allah doesn't care for their crops much, we say, 'ok, here's the food you need, and the medicine we developed, and the houses we can build for you because our free countries have the capability to produce them - but if you voted for the theofascists in the last election, you're not getting any. Period. We're going to feed your children, you find your own food and a cave to live in. Maybe next year you'll think more carefully about who you're voting for'.
Send them to re-education classes just like the Germans were sent to after the Nazis. Those classes never told the Germans, 'hey, there's a lot of moral value in your Nazi ideology, so we'll just let you keep it'. They should have the same attitude towards Islam.

88. Trailer for Religulous

Comment #191101 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 8:09 am

debaser71,
I hadn't read that Sam Harris quote before, where is it from?
Wouldn't it be great if there was a comic book superhero battling fundies? Imagine someone like Batman rescuing children from faith healers and molestation, exposing the greed and profits of faith-based tax-exempt organizations, or hacking churches' bank accounts to transfer the money to the poor and buy food and build homes.

89. The 14-year-old Afghan suicide bomber

Comment #191096 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 7:54 am

Afghanistan has a diverse climate. It is generally quite dry, but they have anything from blistering heat to freezing cold. A friend of mine is an Afghan who left the country in the late 60s, and he has told me many things about their culture and climate that I had not known.
I'm afraid though that certain groups of Taliban and Al-Qaeda wouldn't hesitate to shell such outdoor congregations. What can be done is establish indoor classes at secret locations, but given that children aren't very good at secrecy, the risks are high. They'd need 24h protection in a relatively safe area, which I think isn't a realizable option at this time. The best they can do is educate the children (and the adults who want) a few families at the time, in someone's home. The West can supply them with school materials, but of course that would make those families a likely target of attacks.

90. The 14-year-old Afghan suicide bomber

Comment #191088 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 7:42 am

I get the impression that Pakistan is gradually coming to its senses, as the crackdowns on radical imams and madrassas seem to be getting more frequent. But that may be just an impression the government wants to give outsiders, balancing foreign support with their slippery position between military rule and theocracy.
The bottom line is that the citizens of a country must be convinced of the values of democracy, and that these values are superior to that of Sharia or any other dogmatic system. The people of eastern Europe found the strength in them to overthrow their dictators, because they could see daily on western media how they were dropping behind economically and the improvement promised by socialism wasn't coming.
If the people don't see the need to stop obeying religious authority figures, and find the strength to overcome their fears of divine punishment, they will not embrace democracy.

91. The 14-year-old Afghan suicide bomber

Comment #191067 by black wolf on June 10, 2008 at 7:04 am

rod-the-farmer,
you asked if there were schools being set up. I read an article about such a school built by the armed forces for a village. A few days before it was to open, terrorists blew the building to bits. They know that education is their most dangerous enemy.

92. Logical Proof of the Existence of a Divine Creator, Why Atheism is Not Logically Sound

Comment #190536 by black wolf on June 9, 2008 at 8:40 am

This idiocy of wasted words resembles any Ray Comfort blog entry in its inaneness. It rehashes pseudo-arguments that have been long refuted. The 'challenge' it poses is so old it's reeking and liquifying. The logical fallacies climb over each other to waste the reader's time. If this is what passes for a reasoned, logical argument for believers, all it does is prove that they don't have the first clue what logic is.

93. Trailer for Religulous

Comment #190529 by black wolf on June 9, 2008 at 8:29 am

The meanness and plotting Maher sees as negative is found in most animals of a-bit-higher intelligence, from crows to primates. They hide food from others while communicating they don't have any, they trick each other out of comfortabe areas despite knowing there are others and so on. It's just not as black/white as Maher seems to think. Call it ironic, but these abilities to trick others are part of what allowed intelligence to be a selective advantage.

94. John McCain: America a Christian nation, needs Christian president

Comment #190227 by black wolf on June 8, 2008 at 3:00 pm

I wonder when a politician will be brave enough to talk about Meosopotamian-Hellenistic values and traditions...

95. Albinos, Long Shunned, Face Threat in Tanzania

Comment #190221 by black wolf on June 8, 2008 at 2:51 pm

Jezus sez witchkraft real. Pope agree. We respect dere kulture. We not be racist. Give place on sekurity countzil. Buks ar dum.

96. Prayer to feed the hungry

Comment #190218 by black wolf on June 8, 2008 at 2:43 pm

When I started reading this piece, I thought maybe they'll have something worthwile to say. After two paragraphs, I thought ok, now in the next paragraph they'll start talking about some practical solutions. Instead, the piece dived deeper and deeper into moronity, sentence by sentence. And then it just ended on prayer and divine love.
This article clearly disqualifies them from taking part in any reasonable public discussion about anything. I wonder how they manage to tie their shoes.

97. Holiday in Hellmouth

Comment #189909 by black wolf on June 7, 2008 at 2:19 pm

qomak, you ask what pisses Jews off? Well, the answer is Jews, of course. All Jews know that.

98. A word for nonbelievers

Comment #189754 by black wolf on June 7, 2008 at 6:55 am

Great message there, Cartomancer! Or shall we call it the 'Better News'?
I'm so glad I don't need to find a guy to get my share of ostracization. However, I find it hard in my part of the country to gain any attention for being an atheist. Just too many of us around here. Maybe I need to become more shrill and arrogant. Any advice, Carto?

99. A word for nonbelievers

Comment #189746 by black wolf on June 7, 2008 at 6:14 am

epeeist,
they can also crank up the volume and convince the inclined masses by shouting at them. I hope it's not a case of 'the more things change, the more things stay the same'.

100. The day of judgment

Comment #189745 by black wolf on June 7, 2008 at 6:06 am

The sad thing about Boone is that when he passes away, others will pick up his messages and continue this style of end-times scaremongering ad infinitum, as McEwan illustrates they've always done for centuries.
I'd love to see laws passed that require proof (in the sufficient evidence sense) before anyone is allowed to do such a dangerous thing. It must be made very clear to the public that uncorroborated scripture and hearsay or personal interpretations thereof will not be accepted without a fiction disclaimer.