51. Interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Comment #56895 by Fire1974 on July 17, 2007 at 5:29 pm

I think it is important for all of us watching this video, and others like it, to follow the links to youtube and rate them with five stars.

So many faith-heads/religious sympathizers have just never given the matter much critical thought. We need people to see these videos on the front page of youtube.

52. Bush, the ethicist-in-chief

Comment #56063 by Fire1974 on July 13, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Apparently, it's a perfectly acceptable Christian principle to destroy lives in order to save souls. That is the idiocy we're up against; laws and lawmakers that protect nonexistent souls at the expense of real lives.

53. Scientists Find Earliest Sign of Cultivated Crops in Americas

Comment #52962 by Fire1974 on June 28, 2007 at 6:37 pm

Fantastic!
I'm right now reading Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond.
If true, this discovery alters a lot of the information and charts in that book. The overall premise of the book is still fascinating. It completely dismantles the relevance of any racist assumption regarding why the Europeans conquered the Americas.

Creationist/fundies have never imagined the depth and explanitory genius in this book. They should all read it and discover that religion was not even possible until there was enough food production to allow for it's promulgators. You can't feed a delusion without extra food.

54. The Great Mutator

Comment #49674 by Fire1974 on June 12, 2007 at 9:29 pm

I'd like to print copies of this article and include it as a free insert to every copy of The Edge of Evolution and Darwin's Black Box.

When will Behe's publishers cease to reproduce this tripe? The man has been so openly and repeatedly discredited. He is obviously a compulsive liar who unfortunately has found a credulous and desperate audience to rip off. What an a$#hole!!!

Thank Random-Mutation for Jerry Coyne!

55. Majority of Republicans Doubt Theory of Evolution

Comment #49522 by Fire1974 on June 12, 2007 at 9:00 am

Hand Raised.
There is an excellent correlation between lack of understanding the theory of evolution and doubting it. All the 'reasons' for doubting come from a perspective of ignorance. The believers relish in their ignorance because it allows them the posibility of faith. The two are inseparable. Hence, when one doesn't understand how heredity came to be on this planet, they assume 'God did it' and their faith allows them to have confidence in this because that's what the 'virtue' of faith is. You get to assume something as a result of your ignorance on the topic and think youself wise and Pascalistically prudent for doing so.

56. Dobson and John MacArthur fantasize about the downfall of America

Comment #49117 by Fire1974 on June 10, 2007 at 12:02 pm

My Christian mother has some John Macarthur material she want's to send me. She thinks it might sway me back into the Lord's fold. I'm so glad to have been given a preview of his intellectual prowess. I think I might be able to take him and Chuck Missler's peanut butter on at the same time. I don't want to bragg, but I'm THAT good. ; )

57. The 'Is God...Great?' Debate

Comment #48085 by Fire1974 on June 6, 2007 at 2:02 pm

I almost thought Hitch had lost this one in terms of the motivations of suicide bombers until the end.

You can't look at the deplorable conditions which Islam imposed on on it's own followers with it's dogmatism and then leave it exempt from responsibility blaming the conditions themselves as the motivation of the Jihadists. Regardless of the fact that they use the Koran itself to justify their actions, anyway you slice it the contamination of religion is ultimately responsible.

This is my own version of what he said, but Hitchens is amazing in his ability to see the whole picture. I hate Bush's war. However, if anyone could turn me around it might be Hitchens. He makes me realize I shouldn't be dogmatic about this issue.

58. My Road to Atheism, What Took Me So Long and The Aftermath

Comment #48039 by Fire1974 on June 6, 2007 at 11:22 am

Fedler and RecoveringCatholic:

Thanks for the input. It's helpful to know there are others struggling with the same issues. I had no doubts there were. Nonetheless. I appreciate you posting.

I am aware that, in the end, it is their beliefs that are the source of their fears. I think the struggle is finding a tone of dialogue that doesn't lend credence to their negetive assumptions about atheism. As much as I support the stridency of RD and others in speaking to the general public. I think a more symathetic tone is necessary when dealing with one's own friends/family. Also, I think the very strength of my argument can be exemplified in that approach. It's just difficult to find.

59. My Road to Atheism, What Took Me So Long and The Aftermath

Comment #48017 by Fire1974 on June 6, 2007 at 9:48 am

carnitine:

Our stories are so parallel that under the guard of my old mind I would surely have thought, 'the Lord hath brought us together'.

Although, I come from a Fundamentalist Christian background, in my hayday, I had many Mormon friends with whom I debated about the scriptural validity of beliefs. Remembering those discussions, I now feel like I was an unwitting contender in an American Pro-Wrestling match.

Although our timelines are similar, I have recently had the difficult experience of "coming out of the closet" to my parents and siblings who are all devout Christians. This is a tough road. It is devastating to my mother. Seeing her tears, I struggle to console her; knowing her road is tougher than mine in that she has yet to re-collect the intellect she sacrificed long ago to her Savior. She takes comfort in believing 'the Lord will again reveal himself to me". She waits.
As for me, my goal is only to comfort her but I feel somewhat hopeless in this task. My mother is a "dyed-in-the-wool faith-head" as R.D. might say. She is a church organist/ choir director, her whole life revolves around her faith. Counting the generations of faithful in my family likely goes back 1,000 years or more! Her fear of my impending trip to Hell weighs heavily on her, and I'm taken to task to end this terrible fear-based conviction. Her beliefs are very real even though her God is not. I love my family. They have all appreciated my honesty in this regard and understand that my illusiveness was driving a wedge. I appreciate our new dialogue. However, they now feel that their Lord has given them a new challenge. And I'm it! Along with my 10 month-old son whom they fear, 'will never have a chance at salvation'.
I suppose I am asking for advice. As I have many friends, none of them share my enthusiasm for the atrocity of faith. My wife is proverbially "lukewarm" on this subject and is frustrated at how seriously we all,(me and my family) take our religion. This forum,(and whole website) has been a fantastic source of support and inspiration for me. My family is willfully ignorant on subjects of science. As infatuated with evolutionary biology as I have become, I feel those evidentiary points will register mute with them. Any advice?

60. Tales of Hay-on-Wye

Comment #45868 by Fire1974 on May 29, 2007 at 12:33 pm

steve99:

I suspected sarcasm and noted so in my post. I was unfamiliar with the author. Thanks for clearing that up.

61. Tales of Hay-on-Wye

Comment #45806 by Fire1974 on May 29, 2007 at 10:31 am

Flagellant:

Your too kind.

62. Tales of Hay-on-Wye

Comment #45799 by Fire1974 on May 29, 2007 at 10:09 am

"Hah! Chalk up one to the Almighty."

63. I Don't Believe in Atheists

Comment #44418 by Fire1974 on May 24, 2007 at 3:36 pm

Sam Harris has to be absolutely sick of religious apologists dodging his logic and re-inventing a new, completely innocuous god that has nothing in common with the one believed in and worshiped by most of the population. Whatever religious organization Chris Hedges claims to represent would no more identify with his argument than Sam's.

If all god-heads believed the way Hedges does than they're all atheists and should just admit it. Hedges should lead the way. He's smart but just can't trust his own logic and that's the problem; he's not allowed to.

Same old s%#t. Just typing to get it off my chest so I don't get pent-up and bark at my wife.

64. Faith-Based Fraud

Comment #41888 by Fire1974 on May 17, 2007 at 9:12 am

"What a fool Don Imus was. If he had paid the paltry few bucks to make himself a certified clergyman, he could be jeering and sneering to the present hour."

65. Hitchens on Falwell

Comment #41845 by Fire1974 on May 17, 2007 at 7:24 am

Hitchens is Great!

However, I don't think he has much basis to say the Falwell was a purposeful charlatan. I think there is more basis for ME to say that Hitchens is too smart to imagine than Falwell really could be the idiot he portrayed on TV and at the pulpit.

As Sam Harris might say, "Hitchens doesn't know what it is like to truly believe in God".

66. Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

Comment #41314 by Fire1974 on May 15, 2007 at 9:34 pm

"I shudder to think where the country would be right now if the religious right had not evolved,"
- Jerry Falwell

67. Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

Comment #41099 by Fire1974 on May 15, 2007 at 1:42 pm

It's too bad he isn't learning the error of his ways right now.
He's just dead.

Real-life & death is so unfair.

68. The Creation Museum: Prepare to believe

Comment #40981 by Fire1974 on May 15, 2007 at 9:22 am

Bayle: As long as were telling personal stories.

I come from a fundamentalist Christian family as well. My younger sister recently found herself with a drug problem (methamphetamine). As was obvious to me, her fundie upbringing did little to sway her from drug abuse. My mothers solution, "send her to a Christian rehab center where she will learn to let Jesus solve all her problems." Basically, replacing one false reality for another. There is not one trained, social worker or clinical psychologist at this place. Only "recovered" Christians.

Since this rehab was less than half the cost of a real place, (not to mention right up my parents delusional alley) I could do little to convince them to send her elswhere.

For the time being, I guess I'd rather have my sister surrounded by fundies than using drugs.

69. Why Christopher Hitchens is not Great

Comment #40586 by Fire1974 on May 14, 2007 at 2:45 pm

What a pretentious and poorly coiled pile of s*#t this is!

"If education is the key, teaching someone that using a condom "may" protect them from a deadly disease is far less helpful than teaching them that a certain action will "always" protect them from it. And to assert that Africans are so animal-like in their ability to control themselves that they are incapable of making such choice is racist and violates the most fundamental of humanist's beliefs."


"Never mind the fact that someone with Hitchens' intimidating intellect wasn't even honest enough in the construct of his argument to note that Christianity is in fact NOT a religion of rules. Rather the message of Christ's death and resurrection was simple, "you're not capable of keeping rules." Hence the sacrifice Jesus Christ went through - to use a biblical word - atoned for our sins. He paid the price we owed."

Mmmm...I see. Christianity is a religion that acknowledges the incapability of humans to keep the rules, but forgives them for it. Yet (and for far too many), this is only after a tortuous death from AIDS as a result of their innate, uncontrollable and faithfully unprotected sex.

Furthermore, I never read Hitchens proclaim himself more or less sexually restrained than anyone of any particular ethnicity.

"He has saturated his mind with the far less believable claims of Marx, Darwin, and Einstein."

Far less believable as opposed to say, Michael Behe or Ted Haggard?

"At night when Christopher Hitchens lays his head on his pillow, there is a truth that washes over him that he can not escape. None of us can. And it is good for us to recognize it...

"There is a God, and I'm not him!"

As transparently a wishful self-projection as the one applied to his god.

70. Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton: A Debate God Is Not Great

Comment #38609 by Fire1974 on May 8, 2007 at 6:34 pm

Romin_Devourin:

I sincerily hope that was ill-communicated sarcasm.

Surely, you meant to inter the religious dogma, and not it's hosts.

71. Christopher Hitchens and Al Sharpton: A Debate God Is Not Great

Comment #38594 by Fire1974 on May 8, 2007 at 5:36 pm

It seems as though Sharpton kept wanting to discuss the cover of the book, rather than the words inside.

I don't know about all of you, but I found this telling.

72. A conversation with journalist Christopher Hitchens

Comment #38546 by Fire1974 on May 8, 2007 at 3:02 pm

John P:
"Hitchens seems to have only one suit jacket. Or maybe, like Tom Wolfe, he has a particular affinity towards that style and color."

I've noticed this about Anne Coulter too. Although, I think she intentionally tries to look reprehensible. That's her gimmick.

I think Hitchens probably just stopped caring about fashion in the 80's.

Isn't it true that Einstein had a closet full of the same suit? I heard he did that so as to not waste energy on deciding what to wear.

73. Interview with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #38543 by Fire1974 on May 8, 2007 at 2:49 pm

Although, I find few peoples opinions more worth listening to than Hitchens; he is a bit of a wild card. I imagine that he's never had a soft opinion about anything and as a consequence, has undergone a few major conversions in his life, ( i.e: the "reformed Trotskyite"). So I wouldn't be surprised to see him converted of his support for a nation-building mentallity either.

I understand him to be supporting the need for war in Iraq, that's plausible, but how could he support Bush's execution of it? That I find disturbing.

Regardless of all that; If he manages to rid the Right of it's faith-chains, I'm all for him.

74. Was Muhammad Epileptic?

Comment #35183 by Fire1974 on April 26, 2007 at 1:55 pm

It is truly staggering to me that most Christians I know would agree with every aspect of this excerpt; accept, of course, the few instances where Mr. Hitchens mentions them directly.

Selective application of critical thought is so rampant among fundamentalists. Truly Amazing!!

75. The Video: Bill O'Reilly Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #34372 by Fire1974 on April 23, 2007 at 10:34 pm

Unfortunately, I think even O'Reilly doesn't agree with what he said. His business is pandering to elderly conservatives. He's only happy because I and many others tuned in to his show when we might else have watched Kieth Olberman's or read a book. O'reilly has shown himself again and again as a shameless ignoramous who never gives due process to any position other than his own.

76. Against God

Comment #32038 by Fire1974 on April 15, 2007 at 10:21 am

Fear IS real. The obvious pilot of religion.

77. Postmodernism Disrobed

Comment #29723 by Fire1974 on April 4, 2007 at 1:00 pm

May I submit this as a definition of Postmodernism?

Postmodernism: An assertion, that through careful examination, it has been observed that current standards of understanding are subjectable to scrutiny by sources of discourse that are readily unavailable to any current interpretation capabilities or relevant corroborative understanding.

Or perhaps this one.

Postmodernism: Assertions generated under direct influence of one's own rectum.

Perhaps Richard Dawkins could regard the latter as a translation into, "clear and meaningful English"