51. Anger over 'blasphemous' balls

Comment #65928 by Russell's Teapot on August 27, 2007 at 11:50 am

On the whole, it disgusts me more that it appears the US military did not put any consideration into whether or not there'd be a problem than what ridiculous beliefs these Afghans have in the first place. It's the same ignorance of people and culture that now has us despised world-wide.

52. The vanishing jihad exposés

Comment #62992 by Russell's Teapot on August 12, 2007 at 7:44 pm

It seems to me (and perhaps, as an American, I'm not getting the whole story) that these British libel laws are largely abused, judging from both this story and several others I've read. Not only that, but they just plain seem to be unfair. Is there any sort of movement over in the UK to reform them?

53. Pentagon: Hold On, Christian Soldiers!

Comment #61953 by Russell's Teapot on August 7, 2007 at 2:46 pm

Campus Crusade for Christ...sheesh.

54. Arrogance, dogma and why science - not faith - is the new enemy of reason

Comment #61792 by Russell's Teapot on August 6, 2007 at 10:41 pm

It was GK Chesterton who famously quipped that "when people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing - they believe in anything." So it has proved.

55. Interview with Michael Behe

Comment #61058 by Russell's Teapot on August 3, 2007 at 1:27 pm

Colbert brilliantly refuted the mousetrap analogy, and Behe looked (and responded like) his brain short-circuited.

The ending of the interview was perfect as well. "I was what?" :D

56. Could these books be part of the problem?

Comment #60898 by Russell's Teapot on August 3, 2007 at 5:15 am

It's rather obvious that these are real...both link to their respective Amazon pages.

57. God Answers Prayers Of Paralyzed Little Boy: 'No' Says God

Comment #60764 by Russell's Teapot on August 2, 2007 at 7:53 pm

You've totally ruined my fun as well, toastmaster. Next time, keep your damn spoilers to yourself! I was about to reconvert to Christianity!

58. God-Fearing People: Why are we so scared of offending Muslims?

Comment #60020 by Russell's Teapot on July 31, 2007 at 1:41 pm

I can't for the life of me imagine Hitchens using the word "tummy" while talking...

59. Don't eat at the Outback Steakhouse on Route 3...

Comment #59121 by Russell's Teapot on July 27, 2007 at 12:56 pm

I don't see what O'Reilly's problem is in the clip that Colbert showed...The pope IS a primate, like the rest of us, and evangelicals ARE nutcases.

The first is an objective fact, and the second is, if not a critique of someone's views, surely not hate speech. I don't watch the O'Reilly Factor and rarely listen to his radio show, but there's no way that O'Reilly has never called someone a nutcase because of their political views.

60. Don't eat at the Outback Steakhouse on Route 3...

Comment #58956 by Russell's Teapot on July 26, 2007 at 6:36 pm

Note that they disabled ratings after 15 of them resulted in an average of 1 star :)

I really don't think that these right wing Christian types understand the concept of an open forum for discussing ideas. There's this guy, the story Colbert talked about, and the other day on O'Reilly's radio show, he scoffed at a woman who called in and said that university students need to be exposed to ideas and decide for themselves what to believe.

61. Why I Believe Anti-Evangelism Is Wrong

Comment #57383 by Russell's Teapot on July 19, 2007 at 4:40 am

I have to disagree with the sentiment that "If there's one thing worse than an evangelical Christian, it's an evangelical UNBELIEVER". The only thing worse than an evangelical Christian is an arrogant, evangelical moderate unbeliever *cough*

62. Using the 'Beauties of Physics' to Conquer Science Illiteracy

Comment #56928 by Russell's Teapot on July 17, 2007 at 9:26 pm

I agree with the sentiment that too many 'good' students, especially in an area such as physics, go well because of memorization. Back in high school (this is in the USA, by the way), there were two types of A students in my physics class.

One group genuinely understood the concepts and strove to have an actual comprehension of the subject matter, and the other worked at trying to memorize formula tables and how to "plug and chug" into each category of problems. The latter group would only get slightly lower grades, but you'd always hear them mumbling at the end of tests (where the extended-answer comprehension questions were) "I don't get it..."

Unfortunately, teachers in this country (and unfortunately many introductory-level professors) only seem to care about teaching students enough to pass the standardized tests and pass the course. I'd love it if public schools genuinely taught SCIENCE and the process of science instead of trivial applications for rote memorization...

63. Bill O'Reilly and Kirk Cameron on Atheism

Comment #51177 by Russell's Teapot on June 21, 2007 at 9:05 pm

Buddha created the universe? Really Bill?

64. I Believe In Evolution, Except For The Whole Triassic Period

Comment #46405 by Russell's Teapot on May 31, 2007 at 6:15 am

Hopefully this will do a bit of good towards changing the opinions of those nutters who believe in evolution but think that Gawd created human beings :)

65. Mr. Deity

Comment #22057 by Russell's Teapot on February 12, 2007 at 8:37 pm

Mr. Deity is great- I've been watching it since the first couple of episodes.

And I love your avatar, melisande :D