Comments by Titania

101. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304998 by Titania on December 22, 2008 at 2:24 pm

3898. Comment #304986 by flying goose

Flying Goose,

I am confused. I thought you were a Christian. Do I have you confused with someone else?

102. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304993 by Titania on December 22, 2008 at 2:20 pm

MaxD,

Please pick up your PM from me. Send me your email so I can add you to the Dublin group.

103. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304973 by Titania on December 22, 2008 at 2:04 pm

3877. Comment #304936 by Oystein Elgaroy

Umm, Oystein, I think Brian is looking for submission and your immortal soul, not your admiration. ;)

104. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304971 by Titania on December 22, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Dianelos,

Does god know what red looks like? Does god have eyes? Does god have a brain? I am truly curious.

105. Most 'do not believe in nativity'

Comment #304511 by Titania on December 21, 2008 at 6:47 am

34. Comment #304505 by mconsul

Welcome, mconsul. I look forward to reading more of your posts.

106. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304508 by Titania on December 21, 2008 at 6:37 am

3851. Comment #304472 by Ichneumonid

closing of one gap only serves to open up two more

My son who is studying physics at Caltech says this is what makes science so much fun. He says that scientific discoveries don’t lead to god, only to more questions.

Epeeist, great posts this morning.

107. What Came Before The Big Bang? Interpreting Asymmetry In Early Universe

Comment #304499 by Titania on December 21, 2008 at 5:48 am

I have posted these links several times before in response to creationists. Maybe these articles are what some of you have read here before about cosmic inflation, the possible existence of a universe from which ours sprang into existence as a quantum fluctuation, and how it may not be possible for there to be “nothing.” My apologies to those who have seen these before.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_inflation

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/0505/0505037v1.pdf

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-th/pdf/0410/0410270v1.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_cosmology

http://preposterousuniverse.com/writings/cosmologyprimer/expanding.html

108. Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?

Comment #304419 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 11:56 pm

Thank you, Brian, for being ever vigilant on my behalf. :)

109. Most 'do not believe in nativity'

Comment #304401 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 11:08 pm

Bonzai,

Where have you been???? We have missed you.

Have you seen the latest tripe posted by DG on the Wolpe thread?

110. 'Tis the Season To Be Incredulous

Comment #304219 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 2:21 pm

hawt,

Glad you are back and that you understand.

Wow, you have been doing some reading!

Merry Christmas to all in your family.

My daughter just emailed me her atheistmas list! Somehow I don't think the word will catch on.

111. 'Tis the Season To Be Incredulous

Comment #304214 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 2:18 pm

Rachel,

Are you coming to Dublin? Send me a PM with your email address if you want an invite.

112. Three Godless Christmas shows

Comment #304203 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 2:04 pm

Caudi,

Send me a PM with your email address if you want to join the Dublin group.

113. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304168 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 1:23 pm

MaxD, please pick up your PM from me.

MPhil, please pick up your PM from me as well.

Quine, Mark Smith, SSO, and Alan Baylis please send me a PM if you want an invitation to join the Dublin group.

114. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304166 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 1:19 pm

Mitchell,

I did not send you an invitation because you had at one point said you could not come. If you want an invitation, please send me a PM with your email address and I will add you to the email group.

115. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304008 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 3:56 am

Brian, I am likely overstating it; although, a little niggling thought persists that maybe the "other mentality" is a form of sociopathy.

So you are saying the short step is necessary to become a sociopath?

Do you agree with Laurie that DG's reponse to the death of Laurie's friend was sociopathic?

116. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #304004 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 3:45 am

Laurie,

I am beginning to think that all theists are sociopaths. Chilling thought since rational people are so outnumbered.

117. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303998 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 3:07 am

3728. Comment #303995 by Dianelos Georgoudis

Oystein responded to you at least twice already.

Comment #303592 by Oystein Elgaroy on December 18, 2008 at 10:48 pm

Comment #303673 by Oystein Elgaroy on December 19, 2008 at 2:54 am

118. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303997 by Titania on December 20, 2008 at 3:04 am

3726. Comment #303992 by Dianelos Georgoudis

Or is it perhaps that I am correctly representing what naturalists believe, but that nevertheless a naturalist parent would not feel even more pain because of such beliefs in comparison to a theist parent who on the contrary believes that the child's pain is not pointless, that she will continue living in an even brighter world, and that he will never be really separated from his child?

Do tell us how a suffering child’s pain is not pointless if caused or permitted by your god. While you are at it, please show us your evidence for this brighter world and for the continued existence of the child’s mind, “soul” or body after death. And for the several thousandth time, please show us evidence that god exists.

Your god is a sadistic child torturer. You are making a very strong case for anti-theism.

Also, do you believe that your god answers prayer? Just curious.

The fact that theists do not want to face the reality of physical death and non-existence is no evidence that god exists. Perhaps you would like to meet the grandmother I met at a conference recently who became an atheist after watching her three year old granddaughter die of cancer. She does not consider her own grief as reason to believe in god.

Edit for brain warp.

119. 'Tis the Season To Be Incredulous

Comment #303928 by Titania on December 19, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Hey hawt,

Sorry I wasn't able to get together in Boston last weekend. It ended up I had no time. We'll do it next time!

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Send me a PM with your email address if you want to be included in the Dublin email group.

120. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303866 by Titania on December 19, 2008 at 2:33 pm

Steve,

Got it. I'll reply in an email since I have neglected to respond to the one you sent the other day. Sorry.

121. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303845 by Titania on December 19, 2008 at 1:57 pm

3705. Comment #303836 by decius

decius,

Don't think we didn't catch the edit! Have fun with your girlfriends.

122. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303838 by Titania on December 19, 2008 at 1:47 pm

decius,

Here is what would happen if you let me be the pilot:

http://www.worth1000.com/emailthis.asp?entry=29854

123. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303826 by Titania on December 19, 2008 at 1:31 pm

decius,

Do you really think it is safe to leave the system in my incapable hands? Does it mean you are planning on leaving me alone with the controls? (Takes a drink of Jameson to calm the nerves.)

bollocks,

Why don't you tell us your other username? Your attacks on Steve are unwarranted and cowardly.

124. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303702 by Titania on December 19, 2008 at 5:46 am

DG, my son is a sophomore physics student at Caltech. He dies laughing when I show him your posts on physics. He says it is not worth responding to someone who clearly hasn’t bothered to learn any actual science.

If I responded with how I really feel to your comments on what you imagine atheists think and feel in the face of death and suffering, I would likely be diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome.

Thanks to everyone who expressed concern and compassion for my mother. I’ll post the verdict after the MRI.

My heart goes out to those who have suffered and who have suffered loss – Goldy (hug for the babies from me), Quetz (please don’t delete your post), Philip (I lift my cup to you), Caudi (I lift my glass with the cucumber in it to you), Steve (welcome back, seeing your post made my day), Laurie (my true friend from down under), etc. You have been much on my mind and I thank you for sharing. Your feelings, thoughts and stories are not meaningless to this old atheist.

My father suffered horribly with penile cancer for 17 months before his death. I took care of him on a daily basis for the last four months of his illness in my home. He remained an atheist until his last PAINFUL breath. I asked him a couple of weeks before he died if he thought any part of him would survive death. He said no.

I delivered the eulogy during the atheist part of the funeral. (My mother, to appease her sisters and brother, insisted on having a minister speak who had never even met my father. He stood up at one point to challenge me when I said my father would not have wanted a preacher at his funeral, but my withering glance silenced his protest.)

I read a quotation from a 3 x 5 card that my father carried in his wallet. I still read it at funerals and when I am grieving. Maybe it will help some of you. It is from the last page of Thornton Wilder’s book, The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

But soon we shall die and all memory of those [who have died] will have left earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.

Love, an evolved emotion that has no source outside of our own consciousness, is enough; and when death, coma or dementia robs us and those we love of consciousness, it will have been enough.

So DG, post your insulting rant on the justification of suffering and my friends here will deal with you in short order. It shall be interesting. I have a feeling we have only, despite the verbosity and huge number of your posts, seen the tip of the iceberg of your grand delusion.

125. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303126 by Titania on December 18, 2008 at 6:26 am

Let’s ask DG why his god would insert a foot in this infant’s brain:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081218/ap_on_re_us/foot_in_brain

126. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303116 by Titania on December 18, 2008 at 5:26 am

3341. Comment #303109 by Laurie Fraser

I am taking my 70 year old mother to a neurosurgeon on Monday because of dementia that we hope can be corrected with the insertion of a shunt in her brain. We are hoping the condition is not Alzheimer's (there is no history of this in her family), but is caused by excess fluid build up in the brain.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20040915/1085ph.html

If god is responsible for my mother's current state of consciousness, as DG asserts, then I want no part of such a god. I'll put my faith in the neurosurgeon, thank you.

I am finding this harder to deal with than the cancer that killed my father 20 years ago. My mother is one of the most competent people I ever met and now she can barely dress herself.

Sorry for the rant, but this is one of the many reasons why DG nauseates me.

127. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303105 by Titania on December 18, 2008 at 4:43 am

epeeist, Cartomancer and MaxD, please pick up your PM's from me. Oystein, did you get my email? If so, please respond.

Mark Jones, are you coming to the Dublin meet in July 2009?

128. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #303094 by Titania on December 18, 2008 at 4:16 am

3317. Comment #303077 by Laurie Fraser

Laurie, of course, you are forgiven for using the verboten word in such circumstances. However, I think the word may not be strong enough in this instance. I think irate and Quetz have coined more apt ones to fit this occasion.

I am so sorry about your friend.

129. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302919 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 9:34 pm

2,

Got it and replied.

130. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302916 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 9:18 pm

2,

I don't see a PM in my Inbox. Can you check to make sure you sent it to me?

131. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302908 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 8:47 pm

2,

Send me a PM with your email address and I will add you to the list.

132. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302904 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 8:35 pm

2,

Are you coming to the Dublin bash?

133. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302901 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 8:28 pm

Maybe we should try some Hindu godspeak on DG. I think it's right up his alley.

134. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302899 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 8:27 pm

112. Comment #302896 by Brian English

But the mind of god controls the trajectories of all the little Brians. So, no worries.

135. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302898 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 8:25 pm

Hi 2,

Fine. How have you been since you got back?

136. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302893 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 8:18 pm

Brian, you were brillant. I'm sure once your batteries recharge, you will shower us with more delights. After all, your batteries or little individual brain cells have little minds of their own.

137. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302888 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Brian, even trying in jest to emulate a theist nauseates me. I can't even pretend to be that arrogant or sadistic/masochistic.

138. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302884 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 8:05 pm

Wherever I look, I see transitional fossils. If I pray hard enough, will they disappear?

Sometimes I have this dream that my ancestor was a worm. How can I get this image out of my head?

139. Evan Solomon Interviews Richard Dawkins

Comment #302879 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 7:55 pm

But Brian, I keep conflating naturaliam with science so I can't perceive god moving the apple. I can't stop it...how can I be saved if I can't stop conflating?????

140. Religion in [Australian] schools to go God-free

Comment #302489 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 5:47 am

Anyone notice that the girls never need to be reprimanded in Anvil's class?

Are there any girls in Anvil's class???

141. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #302347 by Titania on December 17, 2008 at 12:27 am

3060. Comment #302300 by Dianelos Georgoudis

Frankly, wooter's dialogues make more sense.

142. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300011 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 7:05 pm

2594. Comment #300007 by decius

You got it.

143. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300005 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:53 pm

Food for thought:
Watching Big Brother
The world is sleepwalking into a surveillance society. A European court ruling offers a timely wake-up call.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v456/n7223/full/456675b.html

144. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300003 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:48 pm

Brian, a friend of mine thinks that she was placed on the list because she wrote emails to the current occupant of the White House criticizing his environmental policies. The emails were not threatening and did not call him names. She could fly, but she had to check in at the airport and could not check in online. She legally changed her name and they have not yet caught on, so she is not on the list with her new name.

145. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300001 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:43 pm

Have a good weekend, Goldy, even if you don't get any sleep!

146. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #300000 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:43 pm

2584. Comment #299994 by Brian English

Only god knows.

147. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299993 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:17 pm

Goldy, read the No Fly article. Many Anglos are on the list.

148. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299992 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:12 pm

Eshto,

You may be interested in this story on NPR this week.

Court Weighs 'Extraordinary Rendition' Case

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98046319&ft=1&f=1001

149. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299990 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:10 pm

Goldy,

We also have the lovely No Fly List:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fly_List

150. Hitchens Debates Rabbi Wolpe on God

Comment #299986 by Titania on December 10, 2008 at 6:06 pm

Goldy,

After 9/11, the US government initiated security checks called "name checks". These checks delay all sorts of applications resulting in oftentimes substantial delays in family unification, visas, grants of asylum, permanent resident status and naturalization.

http://www.fbi.gov/hq/nationalnamecheck.htm

Edit: It's not just arabic names that can be a problem. However, it seems that my clients named Mohammed have a much higher chance of being delayed.