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Comments by quill


101. Murder plot against Danish cartoonist

Comment #126342 by quill on February 13, 2008 at 3:26 am

Torture isn't outlawed because it's unethical. Homicide is unethical, yet it becomes justifiable in the course of national defense. So to claim the moral high ground here, to say that you're against torture because of ethical reasons is a bit hypocritical. It's ethically justifiable to kill for national defense, but not to waterboard?

The reason torture is outlawed is because it's never been an effective means of obtaining reliable information; so unlike battlefield homicide, it does not result in any practical gain for either party, but is counterproductive both ways. Just like the old prohibitions against detaining uniformed messengers during wartime, the purpose of banning torture was not to uphold any high-sounding morals, but merely to make war work more efficiently.

Naturally, I am against torture, but not for humanitarian reasons. I am against war itself for humanitarian reasons. But if it's justifiable to kill someone in war, widowing his wife, orphaning his children, and subjecting him to what is in most cases a slow, painful death, I think it must be admitted that it's justifiable to put a black cloth over his head, pour water on it and make him think for a few seconds that he's drowning. It's just pointless and counterproductive to do so.

102. Exorcism undergoes a revival across Europe

Comment #125363 by quill on February 11, 2008 at 9:31 am

Specifically, it sounds like Claymore
I was actually thinking more of "Gilgamesh", or "Witch Hunter Robin"... but really, this list could go on for days. And we could extend it to recent movies like The Matrix or Underworld. It's such a cliched storyline these days, really I almost pity the guy that his imagination couldn't come up with something fresher.

If you're going to trap yourself inside a fantasy world of your own creation, it should at least have a plotline that hasn't been done into the ground already.

103. Exorcism undergoes a revival across Europe

Comment #125347 by quill on February 11, 2008 at 9:08 am

Reading the article, I kept thinking how nice it must be to have these fantasies, to believe you're some kind of soldier in a secret war between humans and demons, that you have spiritual powers, and then to be given millions of dollars to set up your new ultra-top-secret facility for conducting your campaign, all without the broader public being aware of what's going on, of course, in their lives. It sounds like your typical anime plotline, really. These people are basically children.

104. The challenge of finding peace in Lourdes

Comment #125093 by quill on February 11, 2008 at 12:25 am

I suggested this to Patrick Thellier, the Catholic doctor employed in Lourdes by the Church to verify so-called miracle cures. [...] The last was in 1987 and, in his 10 years working here, Dr Thellier has never confirmed a case himself.
The priest is a species of human who excels at finding jobs that do not require any actual work.

105. Battle of the Chambersburg billboards

Comment #124534 by quill on February 9, 2008 at 6:12 pm

And of course, after quoting "Dusky" on how the atheists deceived her, and Nedd about how atheists hate America, the reporter didn't even bother to go and find out what the atheists being talked about had to say about it.

If the sign said, "Why do Jews Hate America?" or "Why do Muslims Hate America?" it would be pulled down immediately. We'll see...

106. The Passion of 'Anonymous'

Comment #124483 by quill on February 9, 2008 at 3:42 pm

It might actually be good publicity for us atheists if the Scientologists began spinning it that way, considering how much of a hated institution Scientology is. I think the reaction in the minds of most ordinary people who read these stories is something like, "Thank goodness someone is finally doing something about these cultists."

107. The Passion of 'Anonymous'

Comment #124479 by quill on February 9, 2008 at 3:34 pm

Scientology is basically a criminal organization, consolidating its power through coercion, intimidation and occasonal outright murder, so I'm not going to condemn any cyberterrorist actions taken against them as long as it doesn't go too far.

Note how the scientologists continually refer to criticism of their organization as "religious bigotry". They are only capable of hiding behind words like that so long as the US Government recognizes Scientology as a religion and not a cult. Until that changes, it's never going away.

108. Inventor Doesn't Dare Say 'Perpetual Motion Machine'

Comment #124118 by quill on February 8, 2008 at 12:03 pm

Chun:I'm not sure why people are criticising this guy so much. At the very least, he's improved the efficiency of electric motors, which is no small thing.
I agree. It may not be a perpetual motion machine per se, but where is it written that every new generator design has to be or it fails? If the device performs as advertised, the man has stumbled upon what may be a breakthrough in efficiency. And even if it doesn't, at least there seems to be potential here.

Emmet's explanation seems plausible, except that I don't see how such an obvious mistake could have got past MIT. If he's really just shortcircuiting the device, then some people are going to be very embarassed.

109. Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Comment #123778 by quill on February 7, 2008 at 3:55 pm

"Parliament shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Rowan Williams has definitely lost his marbles. I know you have a lot of Muslim immigrants and such, but living under Shariah law hardly seems "inevitable". I don't see how the British government has any obligation whatsoever to even allow Shariah law within its borders, let alone mandate it. People should be able to practice whatever religion they want on their own, but "law" requires an enforcement of that religion, and that's a business in which no sane Western government has any business dabbling.

110. The New Atheist Movement

Comment #123279 by quill on February 6, 2008 at 7:44 pm

You can always tell a creationist/fundamentalist video because comments are always disabled. Something about these people seems to require them to shield their opinions from open criticism. Hence their retreat (exodus?) to GodTube, I imagine.

111. Apologetic billboard replaces atheistic sign

Comment #123010 by quill on February 6, 2008 at 11:05 am

I'm a member of the FFRF and I very much doubt that either Dan Barker or Annie Laurie Gaylor would have "deceived" anyone. They're very forward about who they represent and why.

112. Richard Dawkins talks about The God Delusion

Comment #122833 by quill on February 6, 2008 at 7:36 am

notsobad:All you need to knock down the ridiculous statements about morality and altruism coming from religion is to show statistics and remind everybody that the world's two biggest philanthropists, Gates and Buffett, are agnostics.
And of course, after those two, the third greatest philanthropist in history was Andrew Carnegie, a completely outspoken atheist. John D. Rockefeller, a Baptist, came in a distant fourth.

I always ask theists, if religious people are supposedly more moral than atheists, simply to explain that fact. The only answer they can ever give is that atheists just have more money.

113. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #122236 by quill on February 5, 2008 at 12:54 am

Egh, "Lord Carey"... If that was his name. It just made me cringe to hear the host say that. Clearly Britain has a lot of bragging rights over the US in the relative progressiveness of its social policies, so don't take this the wrong way, but sometimes I just appreciate the fact that I'll never have to call anyone "lord" over here. The last time I even heard that word, I was ordering peasants to construct a barracks in Warcraft.

114. Putting Candidates' Religion to the Test

Comment #121820 by quill on February 4, 2008 at 7:53 am

ImagineAll, you may be right. I do think the election is pretty much settled, though, at least enough to count everyone except McCain, Obama and Clinton out of it. Super Tuesday is tomorrow and those are the only three likely to be left standing.

I was actually pleased by the backlash that occurred from Huckabee's brief Ayatollah moment. He dropped like a rock in the polls. I think his entire political career may actually be over, which just goes to show you that the zeitgeist has changed, and the influence Evangelicals once wielded over politics is gone for good.

115. Atheists to celebrate at Darwin Day in Coconut Creek

Comment #121812 by quill on February 4, 2008 at 7:44 am

We criticize the religious community all the time for engaging in self-destructive behaviors that only serve to give us ammunition to use against them. But here is an instance of us doing the same thing.

Let's revive Darwin Day ten years from now, when evolution is widely accepted and we're hopefully no longer engaged in a massive propaganda war against the Religious Right. This is one case in which Harris's "below the radar" approach is practical.

116. Atheists to celebrate at Darwin Day in Coconut Creek

Comment #121793 by quill on February 4, 2008 at 7:13 am

I have to agree, this is silly. Atheists should not celebrate Darwin Day. It just gives ammunition to the other side. It lets them pigeonhole evolution as something atheists believe. Please, if you ever have a friend who's thinking about going to a Darwin Day event, talk him out of it. And whatever you do, do not publicize it.

117. Putting Candidates' Religion to the Test

Comment #121775 by quill on February 4, 2008 at 6:09 am

I really don't think that we should be injecting this kind of dialogue into politics just now. Mike Huckabee has already lost the election, and lost it big. He was the last gasp of the Evangelical voter block. Now the current GOP front-runner is a man who once called the late Jerry Falwell an "agent of intolerance" and Ann Coulter "disgusting". The powerbrokers of the religious community have seen the influence they once held over American politics finally dispelled, at least at the Presidential level, and it won't be coming back.

But only if we're smart about it. Now that we've won, we secular types need to start fostering a positive image of ourselves rather than continuing to attack something that has already been vanquished. Running a piece on atheists doing charity work would have been far more beneficial to us than the article we've just read. Remaining on attack mode will only foster ill feelings against us that carry the potential of feeding a possible religious counterpush in the years to come. If, however, we simply let religion die a peaceful death, dispersing into nothing on the inevitable winds of social tends, we may deprive it of the sense of outrage it will need to rally around in order to muster such a comeback. Right now we should focus on electing the most promising of the remaining candidates and save this single-issue stuff for after the election cycle.

118. Some non-Christians feel left out of election

Comment #121651 by quill on February 3, 2008 at 10:11 pm

Liberalism:
1. A political orientation that favors change.

Conservatism:
1. A political orientation opposing change.

That's what it's all about. Sometimes conservative-minded people like to describe themselves as upholding tradition rather than opposing change, but regardless of the language, it is simply a question of keeping things where they are or moving forward.

119. Some non-Christians feel left out of election

Comment #121475 by quill on February 3, 2008 at 1:12 pm

Geoff: Got to be a Democrat, presumably; but who do you guys see as the "most secular" candidate?
I know I've been saying this for a while, but Barack Obama has been leading overwhelmingly among the educated, and he's probably the candidate who will do most to uphold church-state separation. He has a section on his website about it.

"[Christians] need to understand the critical role that the separation of church and state has played in preserving not only our democracy, but the robustness of our religious practice.

Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."

But no, I won't be a single-issue voter. I support Obama for other reasons--green energy, universal healthcare, his plan to double America's investment in scientific research, his talent for nonpartisan leadership, and of course, his opposition to the war. But the fact that he was a Constitutional law professor at one of our leading universities and actually understands why church-state separation is important doesn't hurt.

Edit: Toddea, part of the reason Obama has been pandering so much to the Christian community is these pesky chain emails, some of them linked to the Clinton camp, that try to paint him as a Muslim. I wouldn't look too much into who he panders to; the positions he supports are more important.

120. Documents detail church coverup

Comment #120771 by quill on February 2, 2008 at 1:27 pm

What I don't understand is how they can be such terrible liars. Why did they even record activities like this in the first place, if they were trying to cover it up? And why didn't they just burn the log entries when they were subpoenaed?

121. 'Irrational Atheist' trounces God-deniers

Comment #117458 by quill on January 28, 2008 at 9:56 pm

"Vox Day"?

I guess Ted is trying to characterize himself as Vox Dei or voice of God, which just goes to reinforce my old hypothesis that "religion" is what happens when ignorant people get too full of themselves.

122. The Science behind the Large Hadron Collider

Comment #116420 by quill on January 26, 2008 at 12:55 pm

Honestly, though, "Large Hadron Collider"... Scientists can be so unimaginative when it comes to naming things. Almost as bad as the military with their insidious acronymspeak.

123. The Science behind the Large Hadron Collider

Comment #116396 by quill on January 26, 2008 at 11:49 am

Beautiful!

Someone should invite the educational authorities in Texas over to CERN so that they can see what real science looks like before deciding whether the "Institute for Creation Research" qualifies.

124. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116390 by quill on January 26, 2008 at 11:40 am

Yeah, my comments disappeared as well. And all I'd said was that I would've liked a letter from Thomas Jefferson or Mahatma Gandhi sometime.

I guess people who actually go out of their way to create a godly alternative to our sinful, secular YouTube in which to cloister themselves off from the world already feel persecuted enough without having to tolerate our criticism.

125. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116388 by quill on January 26, 2008 at 11:38 am

Well, my Christian friends are certainly not like that! (thank goodness)
Nevertheless, it is human instinct to think that way. To a person who identifies himself by his religious beliefs, it's quite natural to feel personally threatened whenever those beliefs are even gently criticized. I wasn't pretending to know what your Christian friends are like; all I'm saying is that there is an instinct.

126. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116379 by quill on January 26, 2008 at 11:02 am

I don't know, Steve. To a person who is thinking rationally, you're probably right. But when a Xian hears words like, "I would like to point out that what you have been told is false," I think the tribalistic instinct kicks in right away and the likeliest thoughts to go through his head are something like, "Here's a member of that evil atheist tribe. I'm not going to listen to what he says, since he's from the other tribe and is just trying to undermine ours."

127. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116371 by quill on January 26, 2008 at 10:48 am

Deepthought is right on this one, Steve. I, too, have found that when criticizing a believer's ideas about their god, they take it as a personal attack on themselves.
That's because they identify themselves according to to those beliefs. I think it's a product of the tribalistic way in which humans have evolved to think that as soon as the group they perceive themselves as belonging to has been defined, an attack on that group or the things that define that group is viewed as an attack on themselves.

For example, if the Rain Tribe is defined as those who live on the eastern side of the river, then as soon as someone else crosses over to the eastern side and tries to live there, it's an attack upon the Rain Tribe.

Similarly, if the Christian tribe is defined as those who believe in Christianity, then any attempt to criticize Christianity becomes an attack upon the Christian tribe, because it threatens the very thing by which they define themselves.

If their identity is based partially upon their beliefs, then attacking those beliefs is no different from attacking the believers themselves. But that's no reason to avoid criticizing Christianity. In fact, just pointing that out during a debate is one way of showing what's inherently destructive about religion to begin with.

128. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116244 by quill on January 26, 2008 at 12:46 am

The best thing we can do to defeat tactics such as this is to draw attention to them. If you do bring it up with your local news media, be sure to stress that not only is this a disgusting method of indoctrination, but that some might actually consider it exploitation. Ordinary people generally find the conscription of twelve-year-old children into the role of religious footsoldiers reprehensible, and so framing it in that context--Church Leaders Enlist Children in Propaganda War--might be beneficial to you. Religious people actually do the cause of atheism a huge favor when they indulge in activities like this, because being exposed to such instances of bad behavior on the part of religious authorities only serves to inoculate the population against them in the future.

129. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116192 by quill on January 25, 2008 at 7:20 pm

As odd as it seems, I was not the least bit offended listening to this. I found myself cracking up more than once, trying to imagine Christian teenagers frightened out of their nerves by such lines as, "They're coming closer! Closer! CLOSER!" I think the person who made this video had a little too much fun dreaming up ways in which us nonchristians are going to be punished. xD

Edit: Interestingly enough, whilst registering for "GodTube", I noticed that they've listed Antarctica as a "country" and actually spelled it wrong: "Antartica."

I think I'm going to have a lot of fun on this website.

130. Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial

Comment #115786 by quill on January 24, 2008 at 7:23 pm

The thing that gets me about the WBC people is that they are Calvinists who accept the doctrine of "Irreversible Grace", which states that God actually chooses who believes in him and who does not, and that therefore, anyone who fails to believe in God and follow his Word does so because God has predetermined him not to.

Can you see what's wrong with this? According to their theology, God decided before we were even born that we would be atheists, or Muslims, or whatever, and not follow the Bible. Hence there is no point in their even telling us to in the first place. They have no religious basis whatsoever for doing what they do; it's simply to feed the hatred to which they've addicted themselves.

If they actually believed that everything that happens was indeed a part of God's plan, as they claim to believe, then there should be nothing stopping them from going over to Afghanistan and preaching their message there. After all, anything that happened to them as a result would only be part of God's Plan(tm).

131. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115465 by quill on January 24, 2008 at 8:13 am

Artful_dodger:"I am truly amazed at the investment of time energy and thought that you are all making to dispute and discredit faith in God and to defend the inherently negative proposition of a-theism."
If atheism is an inherently negative position because it is defined by not believing in God, then freedom is an inherently negative position because all it means is not being restrained.

Under examination, I think you will find that the negativity is in your mind, in the negative way in which you look at atheism and atheists. It's your religion that teaches you to behave that way, just as it's your religion that causes people like the author of this article to reject fundamental scientific truths about the world they live in and to promulgate lies such as intelligent design.

132. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115461 by quill on January 24, 2008 at 8:10 am

Okay, that seals it. Come on, guys, you have got to be on Obama's side now.

133. Ken Ham in Leicester April 2008

Comment #114807 by quill on January 22, 2008 at 10:19 pm

He's gone! Great! Now let's change the address of our country so he can't find us again.

134. Florida in the process of approving new science standards

Comment #114288 by quill on January 21, 2008 at 7:05 pm

I really don't think the anti-evolutionists are going to find a receptive audience for their complaints this time. Weren't these revisions prompted by Florida receiving one of the lowest educational ratings in the country? Normal Floridans seem to be recognizing that the need for better education outweighs these old religious objections, at least for now.

135. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #114269 by quill on January 21, 2008 at 5:12 pm

"Marriage has historically, as long as there's been human history, meant a man and a woman in a relationship for life. Once we change that definition, then where does it go from there?"
I like to make fun of Christian positions like this simply by pointing to the numerous places where the Bible, having been written by ancient Hebrews, clearly says that marriage is between one man and many women.

Exodus 21:10: "If a man takes to himself another wife, he must not deprive the first wife of food, clothes, or sex."

136. Florida in the process of approving new science standards

Comment #114164 by quill on January 21, 2008 at 1:25 pm

Haha, I love this. The new education standards apparently don't just mention evolution in passing, but give it a central pominance in the lesson plans. The carpet is being pulled out from under these simpletons and all they can do is complain.

School boards can pass as many meaningless resolutions as they want, but if the state says it's in, it's in, biatch.

137. Stop revisionist Christian nation House Resolution 888

Comment #114153 by quill on January 21, 2008 at 1:03 pm

dbunker, you probably shouldn't send letters like that on behalf of humanist or atheist groups, or even on the basis that you are an atheist yourself. If politicians think that only atheists are objecting to this, then they're not likely to care. They might even become motivated more strongly in favor of it.

The letter I wrote did not mention atheists. All it did was say that this was historically inaccurate and representative of a growing movement to inject religion into politics. I did point out that 31% of Americans are not Christian, but I didn't say that I was myself an atheist.

138. Stop revisionist Christian nation House Resolution 888

Comment #114089 by quill on January 21, 2008 at 10:55 am

Oh thank the spaghetti monster, no one from my state sponsored that thing.

We may be #13 in murder rate, but we're #1 in common decency.

139. Vatican slams California firm's cloning experiments

Comment #114085 by quill on January 21, 2008 at 10:51 am

I couldn't help but notice the phrasing: "Worst exploitation of the human being, which thus becomes an object of research."

It almost sounds like his principle objection is not the cloning part, but that it's research.

140. Ethical storm as scientist becomes first man to clone HIMSELF

Comment #113705 by quill on January 20, 2008 at 11:23 am

Oh, no! They're murdering human beings! Microscopic, unicellular human beings!

I hope they keep this up, haha. The US population is overwhelmingly in favor of embryonic stem-cell research, and the religious crowd only make themselves look silly when they oppose it on grounds like this.

141. Ben Stein Bribing Schools to See His Anti-Evolution Movie 'Expelled'

Comment #113467 by quill on January 19, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Fortunately for us, Ben Stein's credibility has been slipping away for years now. Remember when he went onto TV to decy the "railroading" of Larry Craig? That is, after Larry Craig plead guilty? Fun times.

142. New Findings Confirm Darwin's Theory: Evolution Not Random

Comment #113465 by quill on January 19, 2008 at 4:18 pm

This just in--evolution occurs by natural selection! x_o

In other news: Moon devoid of atmosphere, astronomers say.

143. The New Theology

Comment #113193 by quill on January 18, 2008 at 8:54 pm

Calvin College... Named for the man who burned Michael Servetus at a stake with a copy of his book nailed to his chest?

144. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #113192 by quill on January 18, 2008 at 8:37 pm

mesomodel: I'd rather he had a position on the insanity of the state of the church. I'll take what I can get.
Obama did take a few shots at "The so-called leaders of the Christian Right," last year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdDsXV4788k&watch_response

And in response, Ann Coulter got to make some smarmy comment on Fox News about how someone with the middle name Hussein should not use phrases like "Faith got hijacked."

But he also said something which is, I think, the most promising reference a Presidential candidate has made to atheists thus far:
"Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers."
Say what you will, but I think that's progress.

145. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #113118 by quill on January 18, 2008 at 3:37 pm

The comment about marriage was fairly incongruous for Obama. It's one of the snags that made him my third choice rather than my first (behind Gravel and Kucinich). Still, I don't think he believes anything supernatural in Christianity, and I can't see him actually vetoing a successful same-sex marriage bill, regardless of what his opinion is, can you?

He's spoken in the past about the need for liberal America to compromise a bit with the religious, so I guess this is that compromise. Honestly, I think giving up on same-sex marriage for another four or eight years is still a bargain for the other policies he promises, especially those pertaining to science and environmentalism. And everything else aside, I think his nomination over Hillary is crucial, because if she (nonGod forbid) wins the nomination, I'm sure we'll have a Republican President next January and at that point, I would regard the fortunes of the United States to be shot for the next 50 years.

146. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #113100 by quill on January 18, 2008 at 2:44 pm

Okay, that's true. We're also in the top 10 for murder rates, haha.

But really, there's no denying that the Republican Party is the party of God these days, is there? I mean can you really picture a Democratic candidate denying evolution? Judge Jones was a stellar exception but an exception he was, or so it seems...

147. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #113095 by quill on January 18, 2008 at 2:41 pm

Aw, Prankster, don't leave. :) I'm not dissed.

148. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #113090 by quill on January 18, 2008 at 2:30 pm

There are parts of the US that are virtually identical to Western Europe by any social indicator, and then there are other parts that are hopelessly backward. The result is that the national averages are always low in every category. But national averages don't honestly mean that much in America because of the regional differences that exist.

For example, I'm from Chicago, where we haven't had a Republican mayor since 1927. I really doubt the percentage of our population that denies scientific principles like evolution or global warming is anything near the national average.

(The rest of this post deleted for politeness.:)

149. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #113078 by quill on January 18, 2008 at 2:20 pm

I won't actually ask whether they "accept" evolution. That would be a leading question. It'll probably have to be multiple choice.

Btw, excellent documentary on a future Israeli scenario, appropriately titled "Endgame":

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=21749

150. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #113069 by quill on January 18, 2008 at 2:14 pm

Or maybe they will have decided to use them all before they have to do that.
Depends; if Israel commands us to attack Iran, what can we say? They know they own us.

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