101. Supreme Court to consider Ten Commandments vs. 'Seven Aphorisms'

Comment #153758 by Ygern on April 2, 2008 at 1:59 am

How about a recommendation that people keep their religious graven idols wrapped in canvas & buried in a box under their bed where it belongs?

102. Vatican: Islam surpasses Roman Catholicism as world's largest religion

Comment #153232 by Ygern on April 1, 2008 at 8:53 am

Damn. Either they are going have to become a lot more rabid about their Faithful not using the Evil Condom, or else they are going to have to admit that they are not The One True Faith...

I know I don't care.

103. Vote on freedom of expression marks the end of Universal Human Rights

Comment #153090 by Ygern on April 1, 2008 at 2:52 am

I don't think anything has saddened me more in quite a while, reading this news this morning.

I feel like humankind has taken a giant leap backwards by about 500 years.


It makes Christopher Hitchens' comments here all the more poignant & chilling.
(Link to his Free Speech debate)
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/03/free_speech_6.html

104. Christian Founders 3D Adventure Computer Game

Comment #153051 by Ygern on April 1, 2008 at 1:21 am

How old is this game? Windows 98? 3D graphics?! Wow!

Anyway, as a gamer myself, I think I'm going to give this a miss.

*shudders*

105. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #151126 by Ygern on March 28, 2008 at 7:26 am

PJG wrote

If anyone should be punished, it is the peddlers of this crap, not the "users"

106. Saudi Arabia Leader Calls for Interfaith Dialogue

Comment #150524 by Ygern on March 27, 2008 at 4:09 am

Well, any dialogue is better than none.

I guess it makes sense that a nation informed by religious fundementalism would prefer to talk to those that they have something common with.

But perhaps good can come of it - it has to be better than Saudi Arabia remaining an insular nation. Allowing a Catholic church there would speak volumes about tolerating diffences - it could be in fact an important statement to the more extreme Islamic fundamentalists.

Baby steps, people!

107. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #149841 by Ygern on March 26, 2008 at 9:43 am

Only in America....where child abuse is defended on religious grounds

108. Gay scientists isolate Christian gene

Comment #149826 by Ygern on March 26, 2008 at 9:15 am

:-)

Makes perfect sense.

109. Police: Girl Dies After Parents Pray for Healing Instead of Seeking Medical Help

Comment #149825 by Ygern on March 26, 2008 at 9:11 am

There is no abuse or signs of abuse that we can see

110. Happy 66th Birthday, Richard Dawkins!

Comment #149680 by Ygern on March 26, 2008 at 5:35 am

Happy Birthday, Richard.

Your courage and eloquence are making a difference to the world we live in.

111. Wicked untruths from the Church

Comment #149202 by Ygern on March 25, 2008 at 9:01 am

I was arguing just this point with a group of friends this weekend.

One of the things that struck me was that my friends had no idea what the research was about or even what the research might entail.

Frankenstein & Island of Dr Moreau are exactly right, if I were to sum up my friends' views and 'understanding' (and I use the word sarcastically) of the subject.

112. The Emptiness of Theology

Comment #149040 by Ygern on March 25, 2008 at 3:04 am

A Religious Believer puts me in mind of a feral animal that has a thorn in its paw. No matter how much you try to help to remove the thorn, the animal will snarl and growl at you, mistrusting your intentions, and unable to rise above the pain that it is in.

Humans ought to fare better, being able to reason better than animals, but I rarely find this to be the case when it comes to the God-Issue. Sometimes I just have to shrug and let them go back to licking their paws.

113. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148162 by Ygern on March 22, 2008 at 8:15 am

The 'Expelled' team's rather dramatic persecution complex reminds me a little of the tactics used by the Scientologists a few years back where they deviously likened the negative press they were receiving to the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany.

Pathetic, when a group resorts to soap-opera tactics, not to mention underhanded ones, to defend a rather indefensible position.

114. EXPELLED!

Comment #147661 by Ygern on March 21, 2008 at 4:57 am

@ Jaffas85
Freedom of speech. They must be allowed to make spectacular fools of themselves if that is their wish.

Lets face it : They got their slogan EXACTLY right

No intelligence allowed.

How apt, how fitting, how like scoring an own goal.

115. EXPELLED!

Comment #147629 by Ygern on March 21, 2008 at 3:05 am

The security stuff is so over the top, boy oh boy do these brainless eejits [Tr: idiots] have a persecution complex or what?!

You would think that this film was a brave expose of the dangers of some radical fundementalist group, rather than a bunch of misbegotten morons trying to infect humans with their plague of Anti-knowledge.

116. EXPELLED!

Comment #147622 by Ygern on March 21, 2008 at 2:18 am

Really? That is actually hilarious.

Still, I know I would have enjoyed reading a review by PZ Myers, so that is a shame.

117. Report: 32% Of Prayers Deflected Off Passing Satellites

Comment #147413 by Ygern on March 20, 2008 at 10:26 am

Quite.

Although, you have to understand that for many of the remaining Catholic clergy, the post-boom Ireland is a bit of a culture-shock. Where 25 years ago they would have wielded considerable power and influence, today they are ignored or despised - Ireland has a particularly shameful history of all kinds of abuse. Some of them (like the Archbishop here) clearly can't quite believe it yet.

And I suspect it also has something to do with the pique that some priests feel knowing that on Easter Sunday, like on Christmas Day, the pews will be filled. But no-one goes during Lent. Its wanton displays of wishy-washy faithlessness of this that make a grown priest cry. They are trying to let the people know that Churches are for Life, not just for Christmas. No wait, wasn't that puppies?

Nevermind. Probably at least 7 Irish children were forced to go to church last weekend because of it.

118. Report: 32% Of Prayers Deflected Off Passing Satellites

Comment #147405 by Ygern on March 20, 2008 at 9:52 am

Well, most people have better things to do with their time, I'm thinking.

Superstition is essentially all that remains of Catholicism in Ireland, but it had such a stranglehold on every aspect of society until relatively recently that many of them are still testing out the brave idea that you won't get zapped by a wrathful god if you lie in bed on a Sunday morning.

It's only with Ireland's very recent 'Celtic Tiger' economic boom that people are beginning to shake off the ties that bind. Religion is after all the friend of poverty. Now that many are enjoying a modest to affluent lifestyle, there is no longer an emotional need for a Celestial Being that will reward you for your suffering.

119. Report: 32% Of Prayers Deflected Off Passing Satellites

Comment #147347 by Ygern on March 20, 2008 at 7:46 am

Aaah!

That explains the headline story in today's Irish Examiner 'Losing our Religion'
http://www.examiner.ie/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=ireland-qqqm=ireland-qqqa=ireland-qqqid=58289-qqqx=1.asp

It all becomes clear suddenly :-)

120. God's cure for gays lost in sin

Comment #146714 by Ygern on March 19, 2008 at 9:54 am

@ Al-Rawandi

That's a shocking example, but it makes my point all the more clear: this is torture.

Why aren't groups who inflict this on people being prosecuted?

Is it the cost of such a case?

Or is it another example of that cowardly, mealy-mouthed notion that if it falls under the umbrella of religion, any abuse / torture / murder is ok?

121. God's cure for gays lost in sin

Comment #146675 by Ygern on March 19, 2008 at 9:17 am

Leaving aside (for the moment) the nasty bigotry of our brothers & sisters in Christ, is it possible for a group such Mercy Ministries or Hillside to be prosecuted for abuse or even maybe torture. Because that is what they are doing. The fact that they prey on people already in emotional distress makes it worse.

Seriously, can't the law step in here, or is it strictly a matter for civil suits?

122. Flipping particle could explain missing antimatter

Comment #146562 by Ygern on March 19, 2008 at 7:37 am

@ Geoff

Yeah, know how you feel!

But from the little I do know, this looks to be really exciting.

123. Religion 'linked to happy life'

Comment #146393 by Ygern on March 19, 2008 at 3:16 am

I'm not sure that this report says much that is useful.

Perhaps they are 'happier', in the same way that someone on Ecstacy is ''happier'.

That doesn't mean that either practice is to be recommended or commended.

124. The Great Tantra Challenge

Comment #145857 by Ygern on March 18, 2008 at 8:19 am

Fair play to Sanal for going through all this bollocks just to prove a (fairly obvious) point. It may have worked in really primitive times when people actually believed in this sort of stuff.

Oh wait a minute. Er...

125. New Atheists Are Not Great

Comment #145848 by Ygern on March 18, 2008 at 8:12 am

They're like the man who perishes in a fire because he refuses to believe the net below will hold

126. I don't believe in atheists

Comment #143643 by Ygern on March 14, 2008 at 9:05 am

This guy confuses me. Or rather, he seems confused. Harris, Hitchen & Dawkins to name but three, all have quite different approaches and philosophies. Trying to lump together in one indistinguishable mass seems a little disingeuous.

But then I read things like
Harris is just intellectually shallow - this is just blatantly untrue.
Either he is not as familiar with Harris' writings or he is hoping that his target audience is.

And on Hitchens: I think he's completely amoral - hardly an honest evaluation. Hitchens may be provocative at times, but I've never thought that anything he says is flippant; on the contrary, he seems to have given everything he says a great deal of thought.

So, to sum up, Hedges is at best being very dishonest.

127. Deadly Sins 101

Comment #143502 by Ygern on March 14, 2008 at 6:56 am

I wish Holy Mother Church in her wisdom would remove the log from her own eye first.

Did I say log? More like an entire forest.

128. Ban anti-Catholic books in schools, says bishop

Comment #143486 by Ygern on March 14, 2008 at 6:42 am

This seems to be the trend since Ratzinger was elected Pope. I've never seen so many Catholic bishops falling over themselves to 'witness to' & promote bigotry, intolerance, ignorance, censorship, dubiously unsafe sex & hate-mongering.

I can't help but think this will push a lot of Catholics (clergy & lay people) AWAY from the Church as they come to realise that they cannot align themselves with this anymore.

129. Bishop accuses gays of 'conspiracy' against the Catholic Church

Comment #143331 by Ygern on March 14, 2008 at 2:37 am

Between this one and the other one demanding that all non-Canon books be banned from schools, I'm beginning to think the Catholic clergy are their own worst enemy. Their increased hardline right-wing, foaming at the mouth rantings of ignorance & bigotry are going to turn their few remaining faithful away in droves.

What sincere, thinking individual would want to be associated with such embarrassing & offensive fools?

"I saw actor Ian McKellen being honoured for his work on behalf of homosexuals, when a century ago Oscar Wilde was locked up and put in jail."

130. Beauty ad banned after Christian outcry

Comment #142707 by Ygern on March 13, 2008 at 3:24 am

You know what I find offensive?

Not this pretty daft ad - it's that 23 uptight Christians have in effect censored the media.

Isn't this what is called the TYRANNY OF THE MINORITY ?

131. Oklahoma: One Step from Doom

Comment #141773 by Ygern on March 11, 2008 at 7:25 am

If I was a kid in Oklahoma I'd be really upset and disillusioned right now. Afraid that my education was going to be worth nothing, that I would struggle to find a place in a legitimate college when I left school.

I have no doubt that this moronic bit of legislation will be struck down by the courts in the end, but I think that its about time that courts got tougher on the groups that keep on wilfully wasting both time and money by persistantly pushing this sort of drivel through over & over again. For two - nearly three decades - various states in the USA have had to deal with this very issue in one form or another.

Justice usually prevails, but what bothers me is that this group of hate-mongering ignorance-peddling liars simply slink off into the shadows to regroup and try again.

How about lobbying that such groups get prosecuted under the criminal justice system? Why is it always left up to brave private indiduals to take them on under civil law?

132. Seven new deadly sins: are you guilty?

Comment #141382 by Ygern on March 10, 2008 at 10:26 am

I ironically enough, regard anti-abortion laws as an affront to 'the dignity and rights of women'. In fact, I can't think how they explain themselves on that one.

Personally, I don't think many Catholics pay much attention to this sort of thing anymore, which is why the powers-that-be tend to get a little foamy at the mouth about it. I mean, even their very own faithful regard them as bordering on the lunatic fringe.

This is a pathetic attempt to guilt-trip the faithless faithful into falling back into line, a metaphorical yank on the chain.

133. Christopher Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher

Comment #141257 by Ygern on March 10, 2008 at 8:01 am

Schmeezers wrote:

...if people here were to discuss the issues...and ask...Do their views on religion make sense?

134. Oklahoma: One Step from Doom

Comment #141212 by Ygern on March 10, 2008 at 7:08 am

Take a look in Sweden, where it is against the law to teach creationism/ID in private schools

135. Hebrew University researcher: Moses was tripping at Mount Sinai

Comment #140265 by Ygern on March 7, 2008 at 4:52 am

One of our friends over at atheist.ie (yep, the Irish Atheists who bought http://www.catholic.ie/) is writing a book on Moses. It's a work in progress at the moment, but a free downloadable version is available at http://www.therealmoses.com/ if you'd like to give it a read.

136. God, power and money

Comment #139631 by Ygern on March 6, 2008 at 8:46 am

Bonzai wrote

Does anyone know whether children under drinking age are allowed to drink communion wine?

137. God, power and money

Comment #139629 by Ygern on March 6, 2008 at 8:41 am

Gymnopeie wrote:

When you can just claim that any opposition is the work of Satan, you are invulnerable

138. Church exhumes Padre Pio

Comment #139152 by Ygern on March 5, 2008 at 8:18 am

I think the rather ghastly fascination with dead bodies probably stems from humankind's deeply ingrained fear of death.

To show the 'faithful' that by being 'good' you can implausibly escape the horrors of decomposition no doubt gave some people a sense of security. Being able to trot out evidence (or what you call evidence) helps win over the superstitious peasant in us all.

Ironically, how an incorrupt dead body is supposed to be a comforting or even desirable state for anyone who is expecting to be twanging a harp on high is just one of those ineffable mysteries of Holy Mother Church In Her Wisdom.

Have a look at these pics
http://www.catholicpilgrims.com/lourdes/lourdes_photo_aa.htm
of the supposedly 'most beautiful' of the incorruptible saints. They don't even pretend to hide the fact that the face is in fact a wax mask (a la Madam Tussauds).
If someone is supposedly miraculously and perfectly preserved, how come they need a wax mask?

Hmmm, just found this very interesting titbit
http://www.daylightatheism.org/2007/09/on-incorruptibility.html
which offers a few more hard facts about supposed 'miracles' of incorrupt saints.

139. Bulldozers tear down giant religious teapot

Comment #139093 by Ygern on March 5, 2008 at 5:50 am

Sometimes I think it's a shame that there isn't just 5 minutes of Afterlife - just long enough for the world's fundamentalists, true believers, aka crackpots & twits to realise how bloody stupid they spent their entire lives being...

What a waste of what could have been a wonderful life.

140. Hebrew University researcher: Moses was tripping at Mount Sinai

Comment #138410 by Ygern on March 4, 2008 at 9:22 am

@ Bentleyd

I've read an interesting article somewhere that argues that Moses was none other than the Egyptian Akhenaten (book by Ahmed Osman, but I think Freud first came up with the idea).

Needless to say, Akhenaten's motivations had little to do with the Judeo-Christian god.

141. Hebrew University researcher: Moses was tripping at Mount Sinai

Comment #138403 by Ygern on March 4, 2008 at 9:11 am

Well, I always thought Revelations read like a mushroom-tripper's ravings. It would make sense if Moses was a bit of a substance abuser too. I mean, 40 years in a desert has to be a little on the dull side.

Check out this site on the medicinal properties of rue http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/r/rue---20.html
Note, it mentions that it is an acro-narcotic in large doses .

142. Church exhumes Padre Pio

Comment #138387 by Ygern on March 4, 2008 at 8:58 am

Do a google search for any of the pro- Padre Pio sites. Even though these sites are loyal supporters of their favourite saint, to the discerning reader all the descriptions of the man paint the picture of someone with deep mental problems.

It's kind of sad. In more ways than one.

143. Church exhumes Padre Pio

Comment #138342 by Ygern on March 4, 2008 at 8:08 am

@ Hungarianelephant - some Catholics *do* still practice self-flagellation, for example the infamous Opus Dei, the Legion of Christ... there are probably others...

Scary, true.

144. Church exhumes Padre Pio

Comment #138308 by Ygern on March 4, 2008 at 7:26 am

@ Sharrow: Considering the lack of scars, I doubt he was a very committed self-harmer :-)

I (as an erst-while Catholic) have always found the Vatican's obsession with so-called 'intact' corpses of supposed saints macabre in the extreme. Not to mention delusional. I once had the misfortune of being shown a calendar of these 'miraculous intact saints' by a nun, you know the type, a different corpse for every month of the year (charming). What really got me was how decayed and badly mummified all of them were. Not one was 'intact' at all, some were dessicated mummies (but certainly no more miraculous than those of ancient Egyptian pharoahs) others were hideously eroded.

All of this to my mind, points to one thing - the Church is extremely good at ignoring evidence right in front of it's face and deluding itself and its followers with whatever story it wants to believe.

145. God, power and money

Comment #138232 by Ygern on March 4, 2008 at 4:52 am

Agreed, Gymnopedie.

David Millikan may have unintentionally proved everything he needed to about this snake-oil seller, by including this description in his article.

If anything about Hinn's act was genuine, he would not need to resort such obvious parlour tricks.

People are so overwhelmed by the mass hysteria, (not to mention performance anxiety) that they probably don't really notice that they are being played like a cheap fiddle.

Mind you, Catholics pretend not to notice when one of their parlour tricks doesn't work every Sunday: changing wine into blood, except that after the Hocus Pocus bit, it's still wine...but you pretend that it isn't.

146. God, power and money

Comment #138170 by Ygern on March 4, 2008 at 2:59 am

Hinn reached out and with thumb and first finger pushed on Toohey's neck ... and Toohey collapsed

147. Earth's Final Sunset Predicted

Comment #135488 by Ygern on February 29, 2008 at 3:12 am

Dr Nev

Here's the link.
http://csmres.jmu.edu/geollab/fichter/PlateTect/heathistory.html

I'm no scientist, so I don't know how accurate or accepted etc the article is.

148. Earth's Final Sunset Predicted

Comment #135455 by Ygern on February 29, 2008 at 1:59 am

I was reading only yesterday that the molten core of the earth would probably have cooled completely within four and a half billion years (ie long before the sun is expected to go nova), which would leave the planet pretty lilfeless too. This would pre-empt any plans to do any planet-moving, surely?

Or is that theory disputed?

149. Pakistan blocks YouTube over blasphemous video

Comment #133326 by Ygern on February 26, 2008 at 4:22 am

I'm with Dr Nev on this one. Ever since the internet naysayers arrived, I have defended it (sometimes foaming slightly at the mouth) as one of the most effective blows against those who would repress freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas and knowledge.

Those who complain the loudest about it are invariably those who don't like their control over how people ought to think eroded.

150. Church is paying a high price for its celibacy rule

Comment #132804 by Ygern on February 25, 2008 at 8:10 am

Are we caring about this anymore?

I mean, seriously, I know I don't give a tinker's cuss.