51. Not Yet The Majority But No Longer Silent

Comment #15489 by Zappi on December 31, 2006 at 7:49 pm

Your point is clear, jhb90277.

Scientology is like the King Midas, with the slight difference everything they touch turns instantly into crap...

It's unfortunate and unfair to all the people in the world with clear views and clear thinking though.

In any case, I defend labeling officially Scientology as UnClear.

52. Not Yet The Majority But No Longer Silent

Comment #15484 by Zappi on December 31, 2006 at 7:06 pm

jhb90277:

Even if the word "clear" is used by this sect, it does not invalidate it for the specific purposes we want it.

I'm clear of religion.

Can't you see clearly?

53. Not Yet The Majority But No Longer Silent

Comment #15479 by Zappi on December 31, 2006 at 5:34 pm

Ok, I would go to the following events:

"The march of clear rights"
"Clear pride"
"You too, can be clear"

I'm clear of religion.

I see clearly now.

All clears must get out of the closet.

Anyone can become clear.

Clear thinkers, Clear scientists, Clear people.

I'm clear of religious guilt.

I don't have a religion. I'm clear.

If you need a religion is because you're unclear about your view of the world.

54. Not Yet The Majority But No Longer Silent

Comment #15476 by Zappi on December 31, 2006 at 4:57 pm

I think the term "bright" has too many religious connotations like "he saw a bright light... it was Jesus himself". If you connect the term with brightness of mind it doesn't make sense either, for it's not needed to be specially bright to see the problem with religious belief clearly.

I like the term sane.

What's your religion? I don't have one. I'm sane.

A slight problem is that the opposite of sane is insane. From the mildly insane to the extremely so. Is this really a problem or a perfectly clear view of what's going on? Is a simple word like sane capable of triggering a revolution?

If it is to be relabeled to bright, I still prefer atheist. Privately I call myself sane.

If you prefer a word that doesn't trigger so many negative connotations, why not "clear"? It's much better than "bright".

55. Ghosts in the Machine

Comment #15367 by Zappi on December 30, 2006 at 7:08 pm

fun2bfree:

I have a problem with your column A, the world seems consistent but it is unclear if it's understandable: it's surely not yet understood.

Being said that, I don't know why people want so desperately to believe in their own whimsical creations.

56. Ghosts in the Machine

Comment #15341 by Zappi on December 30, 2006 at 1:46 pm

I hope the work she did for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize was not as biased by stupidity as this article.

Many people believe showing irrationality makes them more "human", and any demonstration of rationality is machine-like.

I have news for them: machines don't think. Animals are irrational because they cannot know better. Science is not even sure that all animals are irrational. There is no doubt about certain people, though.

57. How Old is the Grand Canyon? Park Service Won't Say

Comment #15336 by Zappi on December 30, 2006 at 1:24 pm

Well, is a matter of choice. Either the scientific evidence is taken into consideration or...

Let's jail all the geologists. Wait a minute, not all. There must be some religious university that churns out pentegeologists that defend "Noah's intelligent hypothesis".

58. God's Enemies Are More Honest Than His Friends

Comment #15246 by Zappi on December 29, 2006 at 11:17 pm

I think "Jedi" is a pretty reasonable answer to a question that ultimately means:

"Are you insane? By how much?"

59. God's Enemies Are More Honest Than His Friends

Comment #15235 by Zappi on December 29, 2006 at 7:31 pm

I enjoyed especially Sam's article "10 Myths – and 10 Truths – about Atheism".

I have a remark to make, however. After so many thousands of years of organized religion, the theist mentality impregnates the vocabulary in a way that makes it difficult to clean up. In this sense, mentioning the word god as a proxy for religion is counterproductive. This is because whenever this word is mentioned it means many different things depending of the religion of the listener. I would propose to avoid using the word god to avoid the common misconception that arises in the minds of religious that you implicitly accept the concept. A religious concept!!!

Sam and Dawkins are in the right track when they avoid the word atheist that was invented by... the religious!!! Never to mention the bad connotations this word arises in their minds.

If there is no appropriate substitute for atheist, I would suggest the word "sane". Sane is someone that will not automatically believe in anything without evidence. It unfortunately would imply mild insanity for mildly religious to extreme insanity for extremists and orthodox. Unfortunately? At least the word "sane" points towards a solution: the more extremist someone is the more he or she needs help to be able to be accepted in the society.

60. Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat

Comment #15086 by Zappi on December 28, 2006 at 9:06 pm

The undeserved respect for religion is the cause for all of this. As societies accept more and more contradictory and absurd claims and costumes on the part of religious people, the clash becomes inevitable.

It is really sad to hear that this happens in a country that is believed civilized.

For all that are curious about the ultra-orthodox jewish sects, I would recommend to watch the movie Kadosh by Amos Gitai:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0189630/