Comments by qomak

51. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #206705 by qomak on July 8, 2008 at 5:07 pm

Joe Morreale:

Do you read this? Do you know what is spamming? Do you know you have already pasted multiple identical copy/paste comments? Do you have any sense of decency?

52. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #206603 by qomak on July 8, 2008 at 2:19 pm

Vin,

I don't see why the discussion of Mashriq Al-Shshams is really relevant. As far as I have seen, even those who interpret Quran do not dispute the general meaning of the verses.
What they do through a very spectacular spin of the text is to claim that the verse means "sun sets in a spring/lake as seen from the perspective of the eye" and in general interpret it as "he thought he saw sun doing down a lake". Obviously, text doesn't read like that.

53. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #206510 by qomak on July 8, 2008 at 12:32 pm

There is no historical data about Abraham to suggest any religious affiliation, or any data at all. Of course there IS historical data about Alexander, enough to say, certainly, he wasn't a Muslim, even in the wide definition of that term.

Good point. Alexander doesn't fit the definition of a muslim even with special prophet privileges.

54. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #206460 by qomak on July 8, 2008 at 11:38 am

You know, Dhu al-Qarnayn is Alexander. And of course the Qur'an fucks this up, saying he is a "Muslim" (he obviously wasn't) and that he lived to be very old (which he didn't).

Exactly. According to Quran Abraham is also a muslim too.

55. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #206449 by qomak on July 8, 2008 at 11:29 am

Everyone seems to know this, but for the heck of it:
Flat earth in Quran:

YUSUFALI: They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain. Say, "I will rehearse to you something of his story."

018.084
YUSUFALI: Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him the ways and the means to all ends.

018.085
YUSUFALI: One (such) way he followed,

018.086
YUSUFALI: Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it set in a spring of murky water: Near it he found a People: We said: "O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority,) either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness."

...

018.089
YUSUFALI: Then followed he (another) way,

018.090
YUSUFALI: Until, when he came to the rising of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had provided no covering protection against the sun.

56. [UPDATED] Venomous Snakes, Slippery Eels and Harun Yahya

Comment #206361 by qomak on July 8, 2008 at 9:57 am

In 627, Mohammad was busy arranging a raid of some local tribe and had chosen A'eisha to be his accompanying fuck machine, since we all know he cannot function four hours without any screw.
Now, A'eisha was possibly hurt by Mohammad's lewd behavior and thus she deliberately missed the caravan and was stranded in the dessert for a while. Safwan b. ol-Mo'attal who was responsible for collecting left overs sees her and rides her on his camel to Madina.

This is of course big news. A married wife riding the camel with a stranger make it ripe for rumors and the rumors starts to circulate about A'eisha's infidelity and Mohammad is deeply furious about the whole incident. Worst, he has no idea whether A'eisha has been innocent. Unfortunately, an imaginary God can never tell you if one of your wives is cheating on you. So, there goes your Mohammad, tormented by the thoughts. One of his closest allies, Ali ibn-e Abi-Taleb beats up A'eisha's maid badly trying to uncover the truth and she swears A'eisha is innocent. But the all knowing prophet is still unsure. So he decides to do what every ignorant human would do in that position. He declares that adultery is punishable by death and spreading unproved rumors of adultery is punishable by 80 lashes.

So, there you go. Another story from your pathetic prophet's life.

57. Conversation between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox

Comment #206301 by qomak on July 8, 2008 at 8:42 am

Throughout the debate, for some reason I was expecting John to burst into ...

"dumb, da da, dumb dada, ... Sweet dreams are made of this .."
"Who am I to disagree? dumb da da ..."

58. Prayer refusal pupils 'disciplined'

Comment #205407 by qomak on July 7, 2008 at 8:42 am

Irate:

Pff. Argument from authority.

Doesn't carry much weight here, sunshine.

Get a clue and learn what argument from authority is.

The children must be disciplined if they go against the teacher if she is not over stepping her boundaries. That is not argument from authority, sunshine, it is a fundamental way to keep it a classroom.

Now, arguing that I see little evidence that the teacher was wrong, I concluded she has the right to discipline the students.

Personally, I believe the most probable scenario is that the children were indoctrinated under Christian dogma which vehemently tries to force itself as the primary dogma upon the children. Religions fight for resources and this mock Islamic prayer is seen by the Christian faith as a serious threat to their "resources". This is one reason I support the teacher and believe this story is possibly another attempt in fear-mongering.

Edit: Let the children learn, observe and do all the religious practices because after that, it is very difficult to persuade them one of them is special since all are equally random and arbitrary.

59. Prayer refusal pupils 'disciplined'

Comment #205367 by qomak on July 7, 2008 at 7:39 am

I wonder why everyone is trying so hard to miss the point.

If you are an atheist, there is no real reason to refuse demonstration of any religious belief, be it muslim, christian, indian, or other random combination of body gestures and syllables.

The only reason someone would be outraged would be if they are subscribing to a dogma in which certain body gestures and syllables are "good" and "special" and others "wrong" and "misleading".

I mostly side with the teacher here. The children refused to take part in the course (we do not know the full story here) and the teacher has every right to challenge such behavior in the classroom.

60. Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices

Comment #204305 by qomak on July 4, 2008 at 4:46 pm

From: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070912093556.htm

"An additional $1 in real gasoline prices would reduce obesity in the U.S. by 15 percent after three years," suggests Charles Courtemanche, an economics researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.

Since then we had a few dollars on the gas prices, I wonder how americans are doing...

61. Group Asks for Divine Intervention to Ease Oil Prices

Comment #204303 by qomak on July 4, 2008 at 4:42 pm

"Our people are really suffering through this crisis," Twyman told Cybercast News Service.

Quill:

It really takes some degree of religious inanity to go to the developing world and complain to the people there about YOUR suffering.

Same sentiments. Someone has to tell this cocksucker there are real people who are really suffering specially in the same country he wants to be friends with (i.e., Saudi Arabia).
Yet another sign of arrogant and egocentricity where you and YOUR little pathetic problems are at the center of divine attention.

Go buy a fucking bicycle chubbies.

62. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203828 by qomak on July 3, 2008 at 6:26 pm

Comment #203659 by Bonzai

It seems that some Europeans would rather keep their immigrants on the welfare roll and stay out of sight than to let them work and mingle with them.

I have a friend who emigrated from Sweden where he was living for a while after he left Iraq...

I can also share similar anecdotes from other "dark-haired" people who have stayed in Sweden. That is why I generally believe some of these European countries are doing a lousy job at assimilating their immigrants. So, a part of their troubles with fundy Islam is their own fault.

63. New Zealand man sells his soul to 'Hell'

Comment #203611 by qomak on July 3, 2008 at 8:33 am

Quick, we all have to sell our souls before supply surpasses the demand.

64. Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Comment #203086 by qomak on July 2, 2008 at 11:08 am

Muslims outraged at police advert featuring cute puppy sitting in policeman's hat

Let me guess ... is it because the ad uses the image of an animal in a way which is some form of appeal to emotion without having any connection to the actual performance of the police force?

65. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #202508 by qomak on July 1, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Since we were doing ontological arguments and I just happened to stumble upon this I could not stop myself from posting!

66. Jesus and Mo on Militant Atheists

Comment #202112 by qomak on June 30, 2008 at 9:58 pm

~manic-depressive:

"Evolution is cleverer than you are."
Orgel's second rule

Hahaha, a nice one. True it's not really what I mean but I got it.

67. Jesus and Mo on Militant Atheists

Comment #202000 by qomak on June 30, 2008 at 3:00 pm

Haha! Love it!
They have more in their site by the way.
They'll be wasting my next hour, bastards! But it's time well wasted anyways.

Edit:
My favorite so far:
http://www.jesusandmo.net/2008/03/21/cake/

68. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201892 by qomak on June 30, 2008 at 11:33 am

bugaboo:

I tend to agree qomak. But if all Robert ever does is refer us to the ontological argument could we ban him for being boring?

Personally, I think the only reasonable excuse for banning somebody is spamming. If someone insults your sister, ignore them. If you find someone boring do not join the discussion or read their comments. It is as simple as that. I personally go for less rules and more freedom.

69. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201858 by qomak on June 30, 2008 at 10:39 am

PZ Myers' policy of banning people for stupidity is really stupid. Hopefully, he will not get banned here.

70. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201853 by qomak on June 30, 2008 at 10:30 am

Robert O'Brien

Godel's model for ontological argument is a mathematical construct. Why it has anything to do with reality? Classical mechanics can be modeled with similar clarity:

Axiom 1: Every object has a position.
Def 1: The change in distance is defined velocity.
...
...

This results in a very intuitive consistent mathematical model which although mathematically consistent has nothing to do with our universe.

71. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201743 by qomak on June 30, 2008 at 7:56 am

What I find most confusing is the assertion that modal logic describes our world. As with the rest of mathematics, it is a mathematical construct.

72. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201709 by qomak on June 30, 2008 at 6:06 am

MPhill:

actually, many theists claim that God is the ultimate source of reason, and of abstract entities/universals

I am not claiming that you can find holes from mathematics but having studied math helps you tread very cautiously when trying to proclaim such and such exists when you don't even have a formal definition of that such and such thing.

Hmm... I'm not sure if the analogy is sufficient to make this into a formal criticism. "Greatness" may have degrees, but does mean there is an ordered set of greatness-instantiations with the properties of the set of real numbers?

It is the same objection. Sure you can define God to be maximally great but that does not prove such a maximally great thing exists. In the case of real numbers, you can define X to be the maximum number which is smaller than 2 but we all know no such maximum exists. It is the same kind of objection really

73. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201583 by qomak on June 29, 2008 at 8:35 pm

actually, many theists claim that God is the ultimate source of reason, and of abstract entities/universals...

Yes, I've heard about that. That is basically assuming God exists without an argument. Personally, I find such an option unworthy of any answer.

Furthermore - I really don't see how a mathematical model of the universe could potentially dismantle the ontological argument.

But assume that we all agree mathematics is independent of God. Let's assume that a set of axioms A results in a sound logical system that mathematically describes our universe such that the statement that "God exists" is false in this system. That basically proves you cannot prove that God exists given the existence of this universe.

P.S: Edit for clarity.

74. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201579 by qomak on June 29, 2008 at 8:25 pm

Finally, if you have had even a brief introduction to mathematics (set theory, algebra and the rest) these ontological arguments will be utterly painful to read as they are riddled with holes.

I scrolled this page to a random location and urgh, behold!

Since God, by definition, is maximally great, she should have an answer.

Doesn't that remind you the typical undergraduate mistake that the maximum of any set of reals exists?

75. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201573 by qomak on June 29, 2008 at 8:17 pm

I cannot understand why people waste so much time with ontological arguments those fallacies can be shown in two sentences:

It is possible to build a mathematical model of the current universe which cannot be contradicted by our (current) observations. Thus, unless you want to claim the baseless assertion that God must exist for mathematics to be true, the existence of a universe is independent of existence of a God.

76. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201489 by qomak on June 29, 2008 at 6:22 pm

@Robert O'Brien

Regarding existence of God:

Consider a multi-universe with many dimensions in which many big-bangs take place, each with its own values for essential parameters of physics. In one of them, these values together with total mass contained in the universe turn out to be just right for formation of many galaxies, planets and solar systems and so on (I assume you are familiar with the rest of the story).

Now, I am not claiming this is reality. What is obvious is that this world can be described with mathematics (and thus hopefully proved to be completely consistent) but the most important property is that there is not a single observation which we can violate the assumption that we live in such a universe.

This universe does not contain any notion of God or creator. Mathematically speaking it means you cannot prove the existence of God via philosophical games (because here is one example of a consistent universe which does not contain a God; and furthermore, physically speaking it is indistinguishable from our universe).

77. Aliens need Christ's redemption, too

Comment #201460 by qomak on June 29, 2008 at 5:02 pm

I gave up after this:

"Of the great public figures the only one speaking in favour of the role of reason in modern life turns out to be the Pope. "

78. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201379 by qomak on June 29, 2008 at 3:55 pm

So, Robert O'Brien, why do you believe?

79. Mormons urged to back ban on same-sex marriage

Comment #201296 by qomak on June 29, 2008 at 2:58 pm

Robert O'Brien said:

Apparently, there was a flood in the general area of the fertile crescent thousands of years ago. That was the world for the Ancient Hebrews, so in that sense, it was a "worldwide" flood.

Here is a serious question. By examining genetic evidence we know that no creature has suffered population bottleneck in the past few thousand years which means Noah's story in bible is highly doubtful and factually incorrect.

How do you reconcile that? And how do you reconcile the implications of this observation?

80. I believe that there is no God.

Comment #200992 by qomak on June 28, 2008 at 5:31 pm

Gosh, I hate it when a troll with severe psychological problems hijacks a thread.

I know sometimes it gets boring arguing among ourselves because it is very difficult to find points of disagreement but that doesn't mean it would be worthwhile to debate anyone who is a random argument/swear word generator.

Finally, we all agree that there is no serious evidence for God, soul, ghosts, higher powers, angels and the rest and we all know why the existing claims are non-sense; what I am saying is that these discussions with trolls with mental problems hardly adds anything new to the discussion and rarely (if ever) has any positive effect on the troll.

81. Texas Supreme Court rules church can't be sued in exorcism

Comment #200974 by qomak on June 28, 2008 at 4:50 pm

I can understand if they claim the emotional damage was caused in Africa. I can convince myself that maybe they did not mean harm. But I'll have to join the people above me who express their shock on this:

For the court to impose any legal liability for engaging in a religious activity "to which the church members adhere would have an unconstitutional 'chilling effect' by compelling the church to abandon core principles of its religious beliefs," Medina wrote.

In other words, let the Catholics psychologically torture their young, the mormons physically rape them and muslims honor kill their kids because they are supposedly participating one of their core principles? What the fuck is wrong with these people?

82. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #200810 by qomak on June 28, 2008 at 9:02 am

And even more so once he said Holocaust denial is not anti-semitis,

Holocaust denial is not necessarily racism. Some people are really suckers for conspiracy theories. Given that there are people who genuinely believe David Icke on George W. Bush changing into a space-lizard, you'll have a hard time proving Holocaust denial is racism.

83. Your Brain Lies to You

Comment #200750 by qomak on June 28, 2008 at 7:41 am

What amazes me is people like Ken Miller who know these facts about our imperfect memory and also know that our minds is a perfect illusion factory, they all know about false positives and our tendency to seek patterns. Yet, they believe that thousands of years ago when people were much more ignorant and superstitious miracles happened and got narrated perfectly after generations. That really really really puzzles me.

84. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #200252 by qomak on June 27, 2008 at 7:12 am

... the solution is integration. (The "lead containers" would be educated secular communities.)

Except this ugly thing called 'reality' rears its head. There is no evidence whatsoever that this works. However, if Muslims are confined to the dar al-Islam, their ability to cause trouble is drastically diminished.

How about Canada? Or united states? Muslims in these countries are well integrated. The reason Europe is having trouble with islam is because 1) they are receiving too many 2) they are doing a lousy job at integration.

85. Stop distorting young minds!

Comment #200231 by qomak on June 27, 2008 at 6:06 am

As for a healthy sex life, ask a sex expert. Don't ask a priest..

A priest can give advice for just one type of sex, sheesh!

86. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199968 by qomak on June 26, 2008 at 2:57 pm

You guys are seriously fighting over a misunderstanding. I'm pretty sure you both hate these Wahhabi fucktards as much as anyone else.

87. Creationist critics get their comeuppance

Comment #199910 by qomak on June 26, 2008 at 1:42 pm

Okay I'm really confused. So Objective ministries is a joke, right? Damn poe's law.

88. Creationist critics get their comeuppance

Comment #199827 by qomak on June 26, 2008 at 11:48 am

You can read Lenski's entire response on Pharyngula. A veritable masterpiece.

Totally agree. I really recommend reading the original response.

I also gasped in horror when realized a university educated guy in Schlalfy's gang would say something like this:

The real data that we need are not in the paper. Rather they are in the bacteria used in the experiments themselves. Prof. Lenski claims that these bacteria 'evolved' novel traits and that these were preceded by the evolution of 'potentiated genotypes', from which the traits could be 'reevolved' using preserved colonies from those generations. But how are we to know if these traits weren't 'potentiated' by the Creator when He designed the bacteria thousands of years ago, such that they would eventually reveal themselves when the time was right?

89. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Comment #199794 by qomak on June 26, 2008 at 11:10 am

We can throw the numbers into the biggest computing clusters the world has ever seen and let statistical algorithms find patterns where science cannot.

Ah, more juicy stuff. This just shows how ignorant he is of the status of current clustering algorithms.
At this very moment, there is almost no satisfactory theoretical model of clustering. Clustering is still in its infancy and the field is really chaotic. There are some statistical models but if you don't like models, I have no idea how you are going to use these algorithms.

Even worst. How do we test which of the algorithms based on these models is correct? We pick a data set for which we know the answer, run the algorithm, then sit back and see how close we get. Repeat this for a few times (maybe nudge the data a bit here and there) and you have a new paper in clustering.

The nail in the coffin is that to write an algorithm you will need a model, either a theoretical framework or at least some practical heuristic assumptions. To claim somehow these algorithms can help us get rid of the models is like trying to saw off the branch you are sitting on.

90. The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Comment #199781 by qomak on June 26, 2008 at 10:58 am

What a ridiculous article. Google's founding innovative idea was that internet users can decide more efficiently than some code written in AI; this idea was not really revolutionary. It was simply a cheap and code-wise efficient way to get around the semantic analysis of the documents.

Now, how the hell the author can generalize this to the above article and at the same time claim it is logically sound is a mystery.

The simplest objection than data cannot give you any prediction and without prediction, whatever you're doing is useless.

91. A War On Science

Comment #199713 by qomak on June 26, 2008 at 8:28 am

you know anyone can do an experiment with two different outcomes and argue their findings to the grave

I would like you to do an experiment showing heavier objects fall faster in vacuum.

92. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199677 by qomak on June 26, 2008 at 7:20 am

First off, I find this news not totally surprisingly. For once, if you try to examine Mohammand's character, you don't find him any different than any other person at that time. He seems the norm for the time; I think I know all the brutality that he caused, killings, assassinations, double crossing the Jewish tribe, executions on petty reasons, treating women as stupid subhuman species (e.g., he boasted among his followers that whenever he ponders a difficult matter he consults his wives and then does the opposite), all the womanizing that he did but despite that I don't think he really stood out among the people of his time.
The problem is Saudi Arabia's culture has not moved much since that time. This means you shouldn't be surprised to see Muftis in that country declare him the perfect role-model; he is still the perfect role-model for them.

On the other hand, that doesn't really generalize to all muslims. We all agree that religion fervor and indoctrination go hand in hand. Thus, if we are able to "indoctrinate" the model day morality in the young children, they will not grow up to be sick fucks like their prophet. They might engage in lengthy logical fallacies to apologize for his behavior but hopefully they won't be like him. We have seen this happen to all the other religions, to other ideologies and it can happen to Islam as well.

93. Galaxy map hints at fractal universe

Comment #199354 by qomak on June 25, 2008 at 2:57 pm

What is the motivation/purpose of attaining the first post, hastily composing a short comment, and then stating that you have the first post in the first post?

The answer is attention-whoring, otherwise one would think they will post something intelligent. Sort of reminds me of kids who just want to be on TV.

94. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199119 by qomak on June 25, 2008 at 7:55 am

Al, my favorite is devil gets horny when he sees a man's schlong.

95. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #199100 by qomak on June 25, 2008 at 7:25 am

Embarrassing things to mention to a liberal Muslim

1. Muhammad took 'Aisha to be his wife when she was six, but he had sex with her only when she was nine.

2. Destroyed the marriage of his son to grab his son's wife.
3. Married his second wife the day after his first wife died.
4.Attacked caravans to stole their goods to fund his own political agenda.
5. Ordered the assassinations of some of his opponents and shrugged and laughed when some innocents were killed by mistake.

And that's all just off the top of my head. Others will probably be able to add more.

96. Saudi Marriage Officiant : 'It Is Allowed To Marry A Girl At The Age Of One'.

Comment #198927 by qomak on June 24, 2008 at 7:03 pm

Regarding the notion of Mohammad being a pedophile I don't think he really fits into the description. He does not show a preference for children. Actually, I have not made up my mind about his character completely. There are very good reasons to believe he was a complete fraud (i.e., sometimes faking epilepsy during revelations to impress more people) but there is also a good source of evidence that he actually believed the superstition of the day and perhaps his connection to divine.

97. World Youth Day condom protest against Pope

Comment #198585 by qomak on June 24, 2008 at 9:20 am

Raelian members Eden Bates and Gerry Texeira said it was unfair that their leader, Claude Vorilhon, known as Rael, was denied a visa upon application while the Pope was being feted by Australian governments.

I agree. It was quite unfair that they did not imprison this Rael bastard for the juicy fraud that he is.

98. 'I despise Islamism': Ian McEwan faces backlash over press interview

Comment #198573 by qomak on June 24, 2008 at 9:09 am

Unless you have studied Judaism very carefully for YEARS, you have no understanding of it.

Religion is not quantum physics. Religion has never been nor ever will be anything deep or intellectually challenging which would need years of research to *understand*. You might need to spend years to read the heaps of religious books to know the history or the culture but it would only take five minutes to realize Judaism is yet another primitive dogmatic false collection of myths and irrelevant legends.

99. The Flea Delusion

Comment #198491 by qomak on June 24, 2008 at 6:22 am

Barry Pearson

I enjoyed reading through your conversion website and I liked it. You can polish a few things here and there but in general I enjoyed the confident and sober style of argument displayed there.

I find it very unlikely that you've received any high quality conversion material (probably we've seen them all) but I wonder whether you have received any serious attempt to conversion which is not an attempt to preach.

100. Divine Impulses: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #194631 by qomak on June 17, 2008 at 5:44 am

Is there anyone serious who wouldn't heave a huge sigh of relief?

Nope, don't be delusional. FGC was being practiced before Islam, after Islam and will be practiced if the same ignorant crowd adopts another big fat dogma.

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