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

Comment #116641 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 10:36 pm

Maybe they could emigrate to Jonestown, Guyana and wait for their "Translation."

102. Ore. Court: Boy Has Say in Circumcision

Comment #116636 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 10:06 pm

I too, could provide a link to support my position.

http://www.doctorsopposingcircumcision.org/info/HIVStatement.html

Sorry, you'll have to cut and paste - the link didn't work.

I particularly like this sentence in the 'conclusion.'

Other men may feel a need to justify their own circumcision by the generation of claims of health benefits.

103. Ore. Court: Boy Has Say in Circumcision

Comment #116635 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 9:51 pm

[edit]I think it falls short of barbaric, horrific or child abuse.[edit]

Well... It is good we have the right to disagree.

104. Ore. Court: Boy Has Say in Circumcision

Comment #116632 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 9:37 pm

"mindless"

If I were 'mindless,' I wouldn't be here - I'd be religious.

105. Ore. Court: Boy Has Say in Circumcision

Comment #116630 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 9:33 pm

Let's not have a mindless knee-jerk reaction to anything and everything with a religious origin.

Don't assume I'm just reacting to it's religious origins - although that's not a bad reason. It is mutillation - pure and simple. As for cleanliness - nothing a bar of soap won't fix.

106. Ore. Court: Boy Has Say in Circumcision

Comment #116624 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 9:08 pm

Comment #116351 by Mango on January 26, 2008 at 9:45 am
I don't view male circumcision as "child abuse" or a "barbaric practice." Maybe some atheists abhor it because of a knee-jerk reaction to anything that has has a conspicuous religious origin. To paint male circumcision in such a dramatic fashion serves to trivialize female circumcision, which is much more important to eradicate.
[edit]
There are worthier fights to engage in than male circumcision and I'm sorry to see such energies wasted towards arguing against it.

It is exactly child abuse.
Its origins are completely religious.
Its only purpose is to assist in numbing the 'sinful' pleasures of sex and make masturbation more difficult.
It's a disgusting practice.

107. Banks are helping sharia make a back-door entrance

Comment #116621 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Why not - as in Michael Moore's exposé of the NRA - the scene with the American bank offering free shotguns to new accounts, does not the Canadian banks offer free "beheading" swords for new Sharia accounts?

108. Loneliness Breeds Belief in Supernatural

Comment #116268 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 5:27 am

I'm sure we could predict that conclusion without the study. If nobody else loves you, surely God does.

109. Sudan demo over jailed UK teacher

Comment #116267 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 5:18 am

Our family dog died last year and now I have this urge to buy a pot-bellied pig so I can name it Muhammad.

110. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116263 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 4:57 am

222. Comment #116257 by Communist on January 26, 2008 at 4:26 am
I see there are lots of people in here who promote ridicule and sarcasm as the proper response to this video. I am against that.[edit]

I disagree - ridicule is a rational and effective response to the ridiculous.

111. A Letter From Hell

Comment #116260 by dlitt on January 26, 2008 at 4:51 am

73. Comment #115934 by angelsegg on January 25, 2008 at 4:38 am
A teacher was suspended and ordered to take sensitivity training after showing this video to an eighth-grade health class.
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/12/11/news/topnews/144235.txt

Thanks angelsegg,

I sent the following to the Bismarck Tribune:

Teachers like Mr. Nider should not teach children. His compartmentalized irrational mind has no place in the field of education. Certainly not for preparing children for a future in science.
The number one threat to America's ability to remain a world leader in science and technology is the attempt of the religious right to 'dumb-down' society with ancient superstition.
I honestly believe that for humanity to proceed thousands of years into his/her future, we have to jettison this Bronze Age, rapture ready, 'sky fairy' belief that has plagued us for millennium, and learn from it as a 'pre-scientific era' explanation for our existence. Granted, there are lots of things we don't know, but I'd rather not know things than give up learning and attribute it to a deity. That's a defeatist mentality that prevents us from trying to find answers to the most profound questions.
If I were in charge of education in America, 'Critical Thinking Skills' would be an academic requirement for all students.
The scientific method of critical thinking applies to everything - including God. 'God' as a scientific hypothesis, doesn't have any testable evidence - therefore wouldn't even make it for peer review, and can be rejected. Teaching critical thinking skills to children is one of the most important gifts you can bestow. It provides them the ability to distinguish between science and pseudo-science, reality and superstition, and all the other nonsense that bombards their intellect from a multitude of sources daily. There are assuredly many incredibly brilliant children in this world that will never be our next Einsteins or Hawkings, because of the mind numbing effect of religious belief.

112. A Letter From Hell

Comment #115948 by dlitt on January 25, 2008 at 5:37 am

The after-life is more crystal clear than reality? I sometimes wish I were American so I could get 'in the face' of all these nut-bars surrounding me.

113. Top 10 Reasons to Believe Logic Over Religion

Comment #114573 by dlitt on January 22, 2008 at 12:28 pm

Comment #114552 by Neil Schipper on January 22, 2008 at 11:58 am
Articles such as this with a smarmy know-it-all slacker vibe shouldn't really be highlighted here on rd.net

No need to maintain a level of intellectual snobbery - variety is good. Plenty of room here for all.

114. Gay Jesus play blasted by bishop

Comment #114273 by dlitt on January 21, 2008 at 5:25 pm

Comment #114188 by Steve Zara on January 21, 2008 at 1:52 pm

I think it is pretty clear. For reasons that elude me, the leaders of Christian churches don't like men having sex with each other.

They're jealous.

115. Gay Jesus play blasted by bishop

Comment #114271 by dlitt on January 21, 2008 at 5:21 pm

Blasphemy is a crime against what? Nothingness?

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

Comment #113857 by dlitt on January 20, 2008 at 7:32 pm

Isn't the Daily Mail a bit like the National Enquirer?

I don't see a problem with human cloning. The result would be a maternal twin separated by years instead of minutes.

117. Honour Killings

Comment #113853 by dlitt on January 20, 2008 at 7:09 pm

There are now several critical responses to the article above at the site listed at the top.

http://www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk

You can vote in their survey - for or against more Muslim schools in the UK.

118. Honour Killings

Comment #113849 by dlitt on January 20, 2008 at 6:50 pm

Islam came to abolish the dark ages of Pagan- Hindu -Judeo- Christian traditions. Islam is a matter of choice and there is no compulsion at all.

If it were not for Islam's embrace of the "Dark Ages" some thirteen-hundred years ago, they might be leading the scientific community today. What a naive idiot!
As for matter of choice - subjugate, kill, or convert - isn't this the way of Islam?

119. Honour Killings

Comment #113844 by dlitt on January 20, 2008 at 6:27 pm

Comment #113717 by Steve Zara on January 20, 2008 at 11:44 am
[edit]Anyone who thinks things can be improved by segregation and oppression is going to have quite a problem dealing with the consequences when the children start to think for themselves.[edit]

The consequences will be experienced by their thinking children.

120. Gigantic fossil rodent discovered

Comment #112700 by dlitt on January 17, 2008 at 11:08 pm

Only if you saddled it up.

121. Gigantic fossil rodent discovered

Comment #112698 by dlitt on January 17, 2008 at 10:58 pm

If only I'd known about this before I saw that big mouse at Disneyland.

122. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #112344 by dlitt on January 16, 2008 at 11:42 pm

There will be a new ASS for the "Bible Camp" children to kiss.

123. Canadian fossil makes waves in Huckabee's presidential run

Comment #112343 by dlitt on January 16, 2008 at 11:31 pm

Comment #112002 by RationalOlive on January 16, 2008 at 7:30 am
Annabanana,

They reject the evidence because to accept it is hard, very hard -- if one has been programmed from infancy to believe in gods and an afterlife wherein we swing happily through the stars with all of our loved ones. It is a major life-shattering event to come to the realization that it's all a lie and Mom, Dad, and aunt Martha are really gone forever. And, that sooner or later, I'm going to be just as gone. And, that's just for starters. Abandoning belief in god changes most other core beliefs. For years, I pushed the conflict between what I had been taught as a child and what I instinctively believed to be true onto a back burner and didn't think much about it. When I finally came to the acceptance that there is no god, I knew that this changed everything about me.

I found dropping God was as easy as dropping Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. It is much easier to accept new ideas when you are young. This is why 'proper' science is so important to the educational curriculum.

124. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111515 by dlitt on January 14, 2008 at 9:59 pm

Dear George,

Thank you for your selfless contribution to the freedom I've so appreciated for the last fifty years. Get well soon.

David
Pemberton, B.C.

125. It was a bad year for God.

Comment #109379 by dlitt on January 9, 2008 at 12:03 am

That would look good on a billboard in Kansas.

126. Six Reasons to be an Atheist

Comment #108439 by dlitt on January 6, 2008 at 10:14 pm

Roland_F - I'm trying to be optimistic. I do have your fear, though. Especially after seeing "Bible Camp."

127. Six Reasons to be an Atheist

Comment #108432 by dlitt on January 6, 2008 at 9:40 pm

A good read - robotaholic. Moving.

As a child my sister and I also went to church every Sunday with our parents. I remember the children's books on biblical stories. I remember enjoying those stories - but I also enjoyed lots of non-biblical fiction as well. I was about 11 when I first questioned the validity of God belief. I questioned the validity of all the other religions throughout the world. If they all professed to be true then I concluded none of them could be true. I was given a book about paleontology which revealed to me a more acurate understanding of the age of the Earth.
Shortly after, I refused to go to church on the grounds that it was a waste of a perfectly good Sunday morning.

Fortunately, my father was understanding - indeed impressed by my reasoning. We all stopped going to church.

I asked my father, many years later, why we went to church when we obviously didn't believe it. It was to placate my grandmother who was still alive.

Non-belief in God didn't start with me - it started with my parents. It is a generational change and usually starts with the young before dogma sets in. I believe there will be a change toward atheism in two of three generations. As church attendance starts to dwindle, the religious will get more and more aggressive and threatening - with hell-fire and damnation sermons and lots of noisy rallies. That will only accelerate non-belief through the observation of the absurdity of it all.

It is too bad your father had to press you on your atheism. The consequence was not good for either of you.

128. Six Reasons to be an Atheist

Comment #108425 by dlitt on January 6, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Comment #108328 by ADH on January 6, 2008 at 1:56 pm

[edit]As regards the historical reliability of the Gospels, I could point you to a number of sources. All I want you to realise is that there is a lot of very serious historical scholarship which supports their reliability. But I know your mind is made up, so any evidence I could produce would make little impression on it.

I'm sorry - what you produce would not be sufficient evidence. I'm sure everyone here would agree with you were sufficient evidence ever produced.

129. Six Reasons to be an Atheist

Comment #108421 by dlitt on January 6, 2008 at 8:26 pm

The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality

Spiritual is something I'm not. I hope the oxymoron was a deliberate attempt at humour.

130. Huckabee: Guns, God and rock'n'roll

Comment #107011 by dlitt on January 3, 2008 at 9:59 pm

Just wait - this is Norris' introduction to politics. He knows actors can become Presidents. Certainly 'macho' actors can become Governors. What'll you bet that Norris will be in the White House one day? By professing his support for a religious nut-bar, he'll be a shoe-in.

131. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106403 by dlitt on January 2, 2008 at 8:39 pm

Comment #106394 by Jaffas85 on January 2, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Gee, there are quite a lot of religious psychopaths in America.[edit]

A psychopath needs the fear of punishment in the after-life to maintain his artificial sense of morality. I wouldn't try to disillusion a faithful psychopath - you might make him more dangerous.

132. Moderates Storm The Religious Battlefield

Comment #106390 by dlitt on January 2, 2008 at 7:30 pm

"I urge skeptics to wrestle with the unexamined 'blind faith' on which skepticism is based, and to see how hard it is to justify those beliefs to those who do not share them," he writes.

'Skepticism is a 'blind faith' belief.' Did I read that correctly? Wow!

133. A War On Science

Comment #106381 by dlitt on January 2, 2008 at 7:07 pm

Comment #105800 by JDAM on January 1, 2008 at 8:51 pm

...and he was making a lot of sense until he announced that he believed the Earth was only 10,000 years old.

That's a bit closer to reality than 6000 years. Maybe they'll get it right in a few million years.

134. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106373 by dlitt on January 2, 2008 at 6:40 pm

That should set some of them up for ridicule. Certainly by me.

135. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #106369 by dlitt on January 2, 2008 at 6:32 pm

I threw 'church' in as an afterthought - I suppose I could have left it out. I'm not sure WWE fans realize church is fake, though.

136. Submission, 'Part 1'

Comment #106368 by dlitt on January 2, 2008 at 6:27 pm

That was the most heart-wrenching video I've seen in a long time.

137. Mother Nature is Not Our Friend

Comment #106359 by dlitt on January 2, 2008 at 6:11 pm

The fossil record suggests that individual species survive, on average, between one and ten million years.

He might want to change "individual species" to "similar looking creatures," as each species will mutate sufficiently in fifty-thousand years or so into another species by definition.

We will almost certainly transform ourselves, likely beyond recognition, in the generations to come.

With large numbers of our species now meeting at W.W.E. tournaments, monster-truck rallies, and church, we will likely need to shift our definition of 'average I.Q.' gradually downward in the years to come.

138. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #104913 by dlitt on December 30, 2007 at 12:15 am

I was just trying to induce a smile with that comment.

He should have said, "Yes, the BJ was great - sorry I got caught."

Haven't virtually all Presidents been somewhat corrupt? Jimmy Carter was well liked here in Canada. Corrupt or not, we also liked Clinton. Reagan was an ass and both Bushs were morons.

I think the Presidency has been on a gradual slide toward dumbdom since JFK.

I'm old enough that I've witnessed them all.

139. Ask The God Delusion author Richard Dawkins

Comment #104906 by dlitt on December 29, 2007 at 11:42 pm

Pope Benedict has attacked atheism in his latest encyclical. He says it is responsible for some of the "greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice" in history.

"Dark Ages in mirror are closer than they appear" - Scientific American.

If we were to re-enter the Dark Ages (it doesn't require much pessimism to envision that scenario), we will do so with nukes. Then we will see God's face.

140. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #104903 by dlitt on December 29, 2007 at 11:14 pm

I'm only sorry that a President can't get a blow-job without raising the ire of the entire country.

141. Chasers war on everything: Evangelicals

Comment #104900 by dlitt on December 29, 2007 at 11:04 pm

Comment #102953 by Veronique on December 24, 2007 at 3:16 am

I am so glad you understand the travails of living in this benighted country. Whew. Someone who knows. I feel better.

You should be proud to have the true heir to the Throne of England in your country - a 'Michael' somebody - forgot his name. Saw it on the telly a few years back.

142. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #104898 by dlitt on December 29, 2007 at 10:49 pm

Amusing. I have a "Ross Perot for President" t-shirt in my closet that I used to wear when traveling in the U.S.

143. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #104889 by dlitt on December 29, 2007 at 10:31 pm

Comment #104863 by CruciFiction on December 29, 2007 at 7:26 pm
The quality and openness of such discussions on British television when compared to the touchy-feely fantasy crap that permeates American television for our dumbed-down masses is absolutely astounding. Perhaps we'd be better off today if we had lost the Revolutionary war.

You'd be better off today if the Republicans had lost the election eight years ago.

144. Richard Dawkins on 'Have Your Say'

Comment #104886 by dlitt on December 29, 2007 at 10:27 pm

Father Morris' loud and boisterous diatribe would sit well with American evangelicals. No wonder he's a Vatican spokesman.

145. Archbishop of Canterbury Praises Richard Dawkins

Comment #104880 by dlitt on December 29, 2007 at 9:42 pm

Comment #104398 by annabanana on December 28, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Diacanu, you make me laugh. And I think you use the f-word more than I do, which is a feat. I do try to restrict my language here, though. I seem to have a hard enough time getting people to take me seriously as it is, minus the swearing...

annabanana - I hope you don't mind this off-topic interjection. You might be interested in a podcast from "Science on Guardian Unlimited" discussing Stephen Pinker's new book "The Stuff of Thought." Adding the URL below to iTunes and downloading the November 4th episode, may give you a new appreciation for the occasional use of 'bad' words. Jump sixteen minutes ahead if you want to get straight to the bad language discussion. It's these small elucidations that help inspire change to our moral zeitgeist.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/podcast/0,,329442289,00.xml

146. What We Believe: Atheism

Comment #104672 by dlitt on December 29, 2007 at 5:26 am

Imagine you're in a life raft with a half dozen others. It's become clear there will be no rescue. Everyone will die within a few days from thirst, hunger, and exposure. After the initial shock and denial, what's the natural reaction? I believe for most, it would be sadness and compassion.

I'd see a raftload of food packages. ;-)

147. Do stop behaving as if you are God, Professor Dawkins

Comment #104133 by dlitt on December 28, 2007 at 12:56 am

Alister McGrath is professor of theology at Oxford University.

That must be like having a degree in "Hamburgerology," from McDonald's.

I hope he's included Spaghettimonsterism, in his theological studies.

148. 'Atheistic fundamentalism' fears

Comment #104130 by dlitt on December 28, 2007 at 12:48 am

He said it advocated that religion in general and Christianity in particular have no substance, and that some view the faith as "superstitious nonsense".

Isn't it?

149. New journal to target education in evolution

Comment #104124 by dlitt on December 28, 2007 at 12:20 am

I give up on Quantum Theory, though. :-)

150. New journal to target education in evolution

Comment #104123 by dlitt on December 28, 2007 at 12:15 am

Certainly having an indepth understanding of evolution is rewarding, as I have said - but there is a level of knowledge that will provide the sudden insight of understanding. It didn't require a whole lot of details in my case. I do know more of the details now than when I had my 'enlightenment.'