101. Repulsive but right

Comment #184523 by lol mahmood on May 25, 2008 at 2:58 pm

hitch can be rude and aggressive, but i've never seen or heard RD be anything other than courteous. Sometimes he obviously gets a bit frustrated with the low calibre of arguments he's confronted with, and presses people on particular points of logic or fact, but who could blame him? Hitch though, much as i love listening to him, is often quite deliberately arrogant, frequently to very entertaining effect!

102. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #183918 by lol mahmood on May 23, 2008 at 7:36 am

heh.... Reminds me of the first time i heard McGrath delivering a line of theological gibberish to justify his faith; it struck me then that he probably doesn't, in his heart of hearts, really believe all that crap; he's just a functional autistic bloke who's in love with the exclusive, twisted, geeky bureaucracy of theology. Every sentence is laden with quotes and references, with little relation to actual reality. He's a religion nerd, safe in his little academic haven, with no concept of the damage his 'harmless' enthusiasm can cause when cultivated in a less abstract context by less educated minds!

103. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #183889 by lol mahmood on May 23, 2008 at 5:33 am

Sooooooo...let's get this straight...we know a lot of fundies are really looking forward to the rapture, when they get to laugh down at our shocked faces as we are all condemned to hell, right? And, crudely speaking, there is a consensus that it'll kick off when the chosen people are back in the promised land and armageddon comes.

So, surely Hitler was doing god's work by driving the jews out of Europe and facilitating the creation of Israel? Rev John Hagee, who until recently was John McCain's fundie of choice, certainly thinks so.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7416257.stm

Does that mean that if atheism leads to Nazism leads to holocaust leads to Isreal leads to end times and rapture, etc., then atheist are all part of god's grand ineffable plan, same as Judas was?

Cool.

I could do with 30 pieces of silver.

104. Anti-Evolution Film Misappropriates the Holocaust

Comment #180342 by lol mahmood on May 14, 2008 at 4:11 pm

Expelled is a fairly blatant and easily refuted piece of propaganda. On the other hand, this afternoon I sat down and watched 'Horton Hears a Hoo' with my 5 year old, and was appalled by the Christian symbolism and 'good faith vs. evil rationalism' plot. Someone defending the film's approach on IMDB posted the following:

"the end part portrays horton in the same position as Jesus where his beliefs placed him in a position of being attacked by the populace....they told him if he didn't denounce his own beliefs that he'd be roped and such... same as jesus was told to do...Jesus refused to deny being God and he was crucified....has nothing to do w/ atheists...but persecution for your beliefs....it's telling ppl to open their minds and realize there's more to this world and universe than what we can touch, smell, see, and hear...its a lesson about faith"

At no point is Christianity mentioned, but Horton and the mayor are both persecuted and accused of lunacy for acting on voices only they can hear, the chief 'villians' of the piece (who are evntually won round to accepting the protagonists' respective faiths) say things like: "if you can't see it, touch it or hear it then it isn't there", Horton himself makes a goddish speech at the end to the effect that he'll "always be watching over you", I could go on and on...

This is insidiously co-opting a childrens' film for subliminal religious meme programming; it's using a medium designed for children to perpetuate the message that faith trumps rationality. I'd urge you to try to see the thing and form your own opinions. I'd also urge you not to pay to see it!

105. God seekers go public

Comment #180337 by lol mahmood on May 14, 2008 at 3:56 pm

I've been looking for a new job for a while. I wonder if Biologic needs a British liason? My science education stopped at 16, but I don't see that as a barrier to 'understanding' ID.

106. God seekers go public

Comment #179549 by lol mahmood on May 13, 2008 at 11:41 am

"Bioscientologic Designology"

It's got so-o-o many more syllables than boring old evolution. If it looks like science and spells like science; it must be science, right?

107. Museums teach society lacking in science literacy

Comment #172937 by lol mahmood on April 30, 2008 at 7:32 am

I grew up in london and had many happy hours in the science and natural history museums. Oddly enough, it was often my Methodist aunt who took me, and i have a very clear early memory of passing a large stone lion in kensington and suddenly feeling a rush of both joy and sadness ('cos the statue reminded me of Aslan) probably similar to the kind of revelation theists talk of. Even as a child i knew it was just an emotional response

108. Religion a figment of human imagination

Comment #172174 by lol mahmood on April 29, 2008 at 10:02 am

Apropos of nothing, really, but I was reading an article about the new series of 'Peep Show' (British sitcom about a disfunctional relationship between two friends) over the weekend. The article previewed a scene in which one of the characters is wandering around a Christian rock festival in a state of depression, enviously thinking to himself: "Look at them. They're all so happy! Perhaps I could be happy too if I believed in a load of old shit."

Well, made me laugh, anyway...

109. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167926 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 12:29 pm

hey, everyone! We all know ttid is a blatant troll. Don't waste your bandwidth on him. Whatever evidence or argument you produce he'll ignore; he's not here for a debate.
His opening line was pretty much: 'is this the right room for an argument?' and with every response you feed his ego just a bit more. The one about dinosaurs that he signed in with today was a neon light saying 'troll'! I'm not even sure he really believes most of his claims himself.
My guess would be he's a teen with too much time on his hands killing a few hours trolling the atheists instead of doing his homework.

Ignore him and he'll eventually get bored and go away.

110. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167829 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 11:09 am

To build on epeeist's point; if a species of frog did suddenly turn into a species of owl that would significantly challenge evolutionary theory and possibly offer significant evidence for ID!

111. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167792 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 10:33 am

seeker_of_truth,

As I understand it, micro vs. macro evolution is a false dichotomy. Evolution is a process of small changes (micro-evolution) that may add up to big changes over time (macro-evolution). Distinguishing between the two is like saying you believe in an individual step, but not a whole flight of stairs.

Edit: Also, I think macro/micro-evolution are terms invented by cdesign proponentists to set up this false dichotomy. I'm happy to be corrected by someone more qualified.

112. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167780 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 10:25 am

5keptical has it right. Respond to serious and thoughtful debaters like seeker-of-truth, ignore trolls like TTID (apart from repeating polite but firm questions).

Trolls have short attention spans. Slippy's gran made 'em that way.

113. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167772 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 10:12 am

TTID,

You've had a good run. I can't believe how so many intelligent, articulate and reasonably web-savvy regulars have fallen for it for so long, but you're getting a bit obvious now.

"...and I'll eat yo-o-o-u,
for supper..."

114. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167750 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 9:56 am

Hi TTID,

Well, it's more likely they hid from them.

Nah, seriously: knowing the audience on this forum and likely response from such a claim I'm fairly sure you're deliberately trolling, hence "Fol-de-rol".

Is there anything in the bible about trolling?

115. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167740 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 9:50 am

"man walked with the dinosaurs"

Fol-de-rol....

116. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #167730 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 9:40 am

"If anyone is trying to restrict choice, it is atheists like you that try to destroy the faith of other people's children with satan's lies that you believe. You and Eve have a lot in common."

Aaaargghhh no-o-o-o!! I can't believe I've just nailed my 'politeness' colours to the mast! This kind of magical thinking is like a red rag!

Remnant, ol' chum: for about half my life I really wanted the certainty of a god. I thought Christians had a core belief in morality and goodness, and I'd sat through enough religious school assemblies and Sunday school sermons to have half-heartedly accepted some elements of the Bible.

I thought there probably had been a flood, and an Exodus, that Jesus was a real person (caucasian and hippy-bearded, like in the church pictures) but I never really believed in a god, even though I wanted to.

Now I'm an adult, and have a roughly average knowledge of science (for a European, anyway), I can see no evidence of a god (or a real historical Jesus, for that matter). I have children, and I feel absolute love and devotion for and to them, I have a great sense of wonder at the scale and mechanics of the cosmos; but I see no sign of a supernatural influence or design.

I am very open minded; and that's precisely why I cannot accept that the bible is true: there are too many contradictions, to many obvious parochial vested interests. So, my mind is completely open to the possibility of a god, but I've not found god in years of church, school, bible...

Can you help me to see your point of view, without quoting endlessly from the gospels? I probably know the bible as well as you do, but beyond being poetically and mythologically interesting at times, it doesn't speak to me.

117. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167628 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 8:15 am

Hi Dr Benway,

Well, I could trawl through the reams of comments (can you have reams of electronic data?), extract some, comment on them, etc. but I really don't think I need to; most regulars will know what I'm talking about. Plus, it's hard enough typing this out on my phone; doing all that would take me forever!

I enjoy your barbed comments, and al rawandi's, and M-Phil's, and those of many others, but there are times when the arrogance displayed has the effect of weakening the content, if that makes sense.

I was listening to a podcast about the film 'A Flock of Dodos' which sounds like it makes a similar point about scientists generally; I'm keen to track it down now.

We are on the side of reason and sense and logic, I feel we should also adopt politeness and courtesy when dealing with those less rational, otherwise, as has been observed elsewhere, we just give them ammunition to feed their passive-aggressive tyranny of dogma.

Now I have to go 'cos my text thumb is killing me! However, I shall continue to lurk.

118. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167613 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 8:01 am

So, was that Underworld song about your Gran?

(Born Slippy)



Lager lager lager lager, etc.....

119. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167607 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 7:57 am

slippy'sgrandidit!

Seriously, to refer back to earlier points about ad homs, etc.: some of the particularly pointed insults are funny enough to breach the nose/coffee boundary, but there's also a lot of rather distasteful triumphalism, and it's done on the site bearing Prof Dawkin's name, and I'm sure he wouldn't necessarily applaud a lot of it.

I'm no prude, and I've got previous as far as sophomoric godbotherer-baiting for my personal amusement goes (Google 'Crucial Christian Crew', for example, that was weeks of fun), but I feel we could cut down the less articulate ad homs and focus on humour and persistent logic.

Again, just my view...take it or leave it..


p.s. How the hell does one insert a hyperlink?

120. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #167512 by lol mahmood on April 24, 2008 at 5:50 am

I'm a committed lurker; reading these fora surreptitiously on my phone helps to keep me sane at work, but I can't help but notice a sad trend for ad homs on the RD side, the side I would classify as mine.

Sure, I know the cretinists are generally annoying, repetitive, dull, narrow-minded and childlike; but we'd all come out of the 'debates' they attempt to engage us in looking better by simply avoiding the ad homs, and politely, but firmly, pressing them for evidence (or even something approaching a coherent argument). Keep the use of 'fucktard' to the private threads suggested above.

Just my two penn'orth - I'm a very polite person, and I can't see any benefit from slinging abuse; if anything it could be viewed as a concession of the moral high ground to the IDiots and cdesign proponentists.

Edited for spelling

121. A Conversation with Expelled's Associate Producer Mark Mathis

Comment #165849 by lol mahmood on April 22, 2008 at 1:11 pm

I've listened to it a couple of times now, 'cos it's just so entertaining! Is there one point he actually manages to make successsfully without being shot down in flames? Pitiful.

122. Science and Religion in Islam

Comment #127465 by lol mahmood on February 15, 2008 at 10:20 am

Hi, could someone mp3 this podcast, please? Thanks.

123. Debate: Ayaan Hirsi Ali vs Ed Husain

Comment #127462 by lol mahmood on February 15, 2008 at 10:17 am

Hi, could someone post this as an mp3, please? I listen to a lot of stuff off here on my phone, which can't play QT files. Cheers, Lol

124. Hitchens and Boteach Debate on God

Comment #127450 by lol mahmood on February 15, 2008 at 9:55 am

Hi all, I'm dying to hear this, could someone upload an mp3 of this somewhere, please? There's a link posted on the first page, but I can't get the site to work.

125. Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan

Comment #106127 by lol mahmood on January 2, 2008 at 11:50 am

One thing that puzzles me about the whole exorcism deal is this: if the sky fairy is omnipotent and omniscient he must know about every demonic possession but chooses not to intervene until a 'trained' priest rocks up to perform the rite. Why the delay?

126. What We Believe: Atheism

Comment #106006 by lol mahmood on January 2, 2008 at 9:18 am

...then again, if the 'theists' believed that following the rules laid down in a cruise dining room etiquette book would satisfy the hidden, watching rescue parties (led by an authoritarian father figure) and ensure their exclusive recovery from the sea the analogy might work better. I'm not convinced though; to my mind the raft analogy needs to much work to keep it afloat (sorry).

127. What We Believe: Atheism

Comment #105978 by lol mahmood on January 2, 2008 at 8:35 am

The raft analogy seems flawed to me. Impending death can make people do things they'd never usually dream of. Your 'atheist' raft survivors might perform beautiful acts of selflessness or they might just crumple into a ball and weep until the end....on the other hand, those expecting rescue, or able to convince themselves that 'salvation' is imminent (or at least possible) might unselfishly strive to keep everyone alive....