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Comments by Diacanu


251. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180998 by Diacanu on May 16, 2008 at 8:57 am

Caudimordax-

Nope.
keith is more on the mark though.

252. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180785 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 7:45 pm

Well shit, RM, if that's your problem, the internet has no shortage of porno.
Go hog wild, man.

253. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #180783 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 7:42 pm

Got anything that wasn't written 36 years ago by a dead minister?

Y'know, something peer reviewed perhaps?

254. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #180779 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 7:31 pm

txpiper-


Natural selection is not a discerning force which enables an upward evolutionary spiral. It is a weeding out process.


Congratualtions, you've just grasped evolution.

255. Americans pray at the pump for cheaper petrol

Comment #180757 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 5:36 pm

See, Teratornis? This thread is where your little novels belong.

Good boy.

Good boy.

256. Bible Theme Park Faces Opposition in Tennessee

Comment #180749 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 4:59 pm

If christian rock has taught us anything, is that when you mix the Bible with anything, it suuuuuucks!!

Like saccharine, or licorice root.

Oh wait, Judeo-christian mythology makes for the occasional good horror movie.

But only if secular jews write 'em.

257. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180740 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 4:40 pm

MaxD-

Haven't gotten it yet.
Will let you know.

I'll probably wish I had a couple snarky robots to help me through it.

258. Bible Theme Park Faces Opposition in Tennessee

Comment #180718 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 3:44 pm

Ugh, 200 fucking million.
The money they have at their disposal to throw away on this silly shit is nauseating.

Although, thinking of the money raked in by imaginary animated mice isn't too much better for my gullet either.

259. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180695 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 3:05 pm

Oh, alright, send it to me.

*Feels like Mike from MST3K*

260. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #180669 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 1:47 pm

Vergil-


One which apparently failed miserably.


Don't be so hard on yourself.
Being hard on you is my job, you're spoiling the fun.
B)

261. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180645 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Yeah, I'd wish he'd name names on that comment too.

262. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #180632 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 12:24 pm

Galactor-


There's another good example of mutation. It is actually

ducttape

but it's morphed to

ducktape

and this is now common usage.


There's even a Ducktape brand of ducttape.

263. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180614 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 11:01 am

None for me, thanks.
The FCOS posts were enough for me to need Maalox.

264. 'Irrational Atheist' trounces God-deniers

Comment #180608 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 10:12 am

He's a moron from WorldNutDaily.
Nothing good comes out of there, and nothing ever will.
Let's move along.

265. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #180479 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 4:06 am

Quetz-

I think that's his point.
That given that it's cool to insult Hitler, you can criticize him for features he didn't even have.
Therefore, given that the catholics (the church heirarchy anyway) are bad, we've slammed them for things they didn't do.

I'm not seeing it, so I'm asking him to clarify.

266. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #180473 by Diacanu on May 15, 2008 at 3:56 am

Vergil-


I just think that criticising Hitler for having blonde hair isn't very constructive.


Could you point out a post where you think that analogy fits?
I seem to have missed it.

267. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #180425 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 9:49 pm

txpiper-


You simply do not have a statistical case for believing this nonsense.


As opposed to the giant invisible wizard who poofed it all up with magic, Noah's ark, and the super-powered anti-christ?

268. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180351 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 4:34 pm

Richard Morgan-


Please, tell me what you think about the qualia aspect of all this! Nobody else seems to wish to talk about it,


No, you're right, I don't.

IMO it's ultimately another obscurantist gap to try to stuff God into.

All the arguments for qualia being non-physical are ham flavored ass.
Dan Dennett would seem to agree with me, and he does a decent job of stomping them.

Perhaps MPhil could tackle it.
He's better at beating the philosophical detail to death than I am.
I lack the patience.

269. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180345 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 4:15 pm

Richard Morgan-



I don't consider this to be less useful than

Fuck it up the ass with a red rubber dick.



Aw, come on, the buttsecks imagry used to be your favorite, I threw that in there just for you.

Tch, humor is always the first to go under Jesus-freakery.

270. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180314 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 2:51 pm

Quetzalcoatl-


you forgot "gets the credit when small children miraculously survive natural disasters, not blamed for the many other deaths".


Exactly.

Like I've said here a couple times, when you see these football and rapper assholes thanking God/Jesus, I always think "I wonder how many children were being raped and murdered who screamed to God for help while God supposedly gave this solipsistic asshole victory".

It's really a nasty bit of business that isn't worth the sappy comfort it gives the selfish person spewing it.

271. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180312 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 2:44 pm

Hey, Richard, sorry for the confrontational tone, but I gotta ask ya what I asked Ka-ka Shovel.

Did Jesus just tell you a bunch of sappy "I love you", stuff that your own brain could've told you, or did you bother to ask him for the cure to cancer, or the blueprints to warp drive or something?

And given that he apparently didn't give them to you, did he have a really damned good excuse, or did he just say some inscrutible crap like "you know what you need to know", or some crap?

I mean, sorry for the 3rd degree, but skepticism is what this place is about.

272. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #180311 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 2:38 pm

Like I said way, way back, a currency-less society would only be possible with neutrino-powered nano-builders where you could Napster yourself up physical objects. Trinkets, food, medicine, clothing. Everything for free.

But then, like Al said, no one would be rewarded for superlative efforts anymore, and a lot of people would be bored, and head out into space.

So, there'd still be stuff to do.

But, we're not even there yet.
We don't have neutrino-powered nano-builders, so there's still work to be done, and money to shuffle about in doing so.

I don't see how a world without capital would work without the neutrino-powered nano-builders.

Someone walk me through it if you know.

I never hear a workable alternative.

273. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180304 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 2:29 pm

So let's recap.

God- Used to be capable of big Hollywood miracles millenia ago, but now apparently is lazy and out of shape, and settles for fruity-ass hallucinatons in people's heads that have no corrobitory evidence.

Science- Daily delivers REAL fucking miracles like REALLY saving lives, REALLY healing the sick and the lame, REALLY making people fly, etc, etc.

Fuck the numinous.
Fuck it up the ass with a red rubber dick.

274. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180247 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 12:35 pm

Richard Morgan-


It is also interesting to read how atheists here are happy to try to describe an experience they have never had.


You presume much.

275. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180244 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 12:31 pm

Richard Morgan-


or in the "hate'n'bile", mockery posts of the intellectually disadvantaged.


Name names.

*Gets out the popcorn*

276. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180200 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 11:09 am

al-rawandi-

Oh snap!

No you di'n't!!

277. 'Spiritual' dentist fined $10,000

Comment #180191 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 10:59 am

al-rawandi-

Really? I thought all of medicine was a big racket that everyone involved made gravy on.

Why are the dentists left out?

Anti-dentite-ism?

278. The Neural Buddhists

Comment #180187 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 10:55 am

Lucas-


There is indeed a numinous feeling attainable by humans, and this is most definitely attained by the proper coaxing of the brain, with mediation, LSD, or whatever.


Well, I brought up this point some time ago in another thread.

I made the observation how college students drop acid every day, and get deep meaning and messages from the experience, and YET never chalk it up to it literally involving magical goblins or whatever.

But yeah, I guess I'll have to cop to being a hardliner.
I think it's all a bunch of hippy-drippy nonsense.
If it's there in your brain to access, you don't need pills and Jesus.
I get it from learning and friendships.

279. 'Spiritual' dentist fined $10,000

Comment #180167 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 10:15 am

10 grand? Big fucking deal. The way dentists rake it in, that's a piss hole in the snow.
He'll make that back charging a crate of toothbrushes to the insurance company.

280. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #180147 by Diacanu on May 14, 2008 at 9:19 am

Vergil-

Oh man, I'm not going to put up with this whining for a long haul, so I'll make it clear right here.

These people are awful, they harm the world, I'm not going to stop ridiculing them, end of story.

Take it apon yourself you wave your finger at me, I'll bite it off.

I come here to blow off steam.
You don't wanna see me with bottled up steam.
Trust me, it's better this way.

Don't like it, stay out of my way.

EDIT-

And as for your backhanded eletism, SCREW YOU!

Our humorous posters are as smart as anyone else here, we just like to kick up our feet and be our normal selves now and then, instead of being in stick-up-the-ass debate mode 24/7.
Get over yourself.

281. God seekers go public

Comment #179864 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 10:38 pm

Greyman-


Ah, but can't you see it coming? The claim that "Big Science" is just dismissing their evidence in order to discredit their research and surpress the Truth.


Then we'll just ask them for evidence of their conspiracy theory.

282. Debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox

Comment #179862 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 10:35 pm

MaxD-

We scared Dianelos off ages ago.

And good riddance to the douche-nozzle too.

283. God seekers go public

Comment #179858 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 10:27 pm

MaxD-

What you see as crafty, I see as that they're desperate.
All they've got anymore is monkey-see-monkey-do, and "I know you are, but what am I?".

Insideously applied, but still playground bullshit in the end.


I worry that we scientists and rationalists and humdrum realitists are not up to the challenge of taking it to these liars.


Not me.
To fear that one's beliefs are on the losing end of it is pretty much to not hold them at all.
I'm iron certain that religion and creationism are bullshit.
My courage, confidence, and resolve in the face of it follow from there.

284. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #179807 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 7:49 pm

EvidenceOnly-


How about embracing total equality of everyone irrespective of gender and sexual orientation, contraception, women's right to choose, same sex marriage and a slew of other social issues where they are hopelessly behind the times.


Then they wouldn't be catholics anymore.
;)

It'd be like having a multi-racial Ku Klux Klan.

285. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #179804 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 7:42 pm

rivetheretic-


The problem is that they treated it as a sin and not a crime which is how we expect those who are responsible for children to treat it.


Then "sin", is meaningless junk language, and their estimation of good and evil is equally worthless to me.

286. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #179775 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 5:54 pm

rivetheretic-


Catholics, at least not the leadership, are not part of the young earth, ID, creationist kookiness.


No, just part of the "sex out of wedlock and/or with birth control is evil unless it's banging boys", kookiness.

287. Vatican: It's OK to believe in aliens

Comment #179764 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 4:50 pm

Vatican: It's all right to cry

It's aaall right to cryyyy!!
Cryyyying gets the sad out of you!
It's aaaall right to cryyyy!
It might make you feel better!

Raindrops from your eyyyyyes!
Waaashing all the mad out of you!
Raindrops from your eyyyyes!
It's gonna make you feel better!

(I dunno why that popped into my head. My brain is just a big mixed up Youtube jukebox from hell, really)

288. God seekers go public

Comment #179756 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 4:23 pm

mandrellian-


what exactly is it about America - that makes this kind of facile idiocy even possible in the first place?


Mix slow information travel out to the landlocked areas in the decades before electronic communication, with stubborn traditionalism, with stubborn "I'll show you!", tribalism, magnified by a civil war, and there you go.
Guaranteed formula for anti-progressive anti-intellectualism.
Once you've got that, pretty much the only alternative is superstition.
Then, once you've got superstition in bed with stubborn "I'll show you!", traditionalism/tribalism, you've got the fundie meme.

Pretty easy to figure out, but then, I live here.

289. God seekers go public

Comment #179542 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 11:30 am

morgantj-

Awsome.

See? This is what I'm talking about.
These people can't not fuck up.

290. God seekers go public

Comment #179525 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 11:14 am

Barry Pearson-


I believe that, for them, "evolution" (and some other aspects of science) is a roadblock on the way to a society without what they call a "materialistic worldview", which they believe has bad consequences.


I used to buy that, but I now see that's only what the duped think.

I think the high ups and their think tanks who engineer this shit, they only care about control and money.

The only "bad consequences", from the "materialistic worldview", they fear is the end of their nasty little congame, and maybe even their skins.

And this is what we have to keep exposing.

This "culture war", shit is a big fat magician's distraction.

291. God seekers go public

Comment #179517 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 11:04 am

Styrer-


Diacanu, I catch myself too often feeling the same, until I smack myself upside the head and remember Harris's message: it is when you realise that these people actually do believe what they say they believe that the ignorant fucking madness of it all begins to make some sense.

I fear that it is equally the shithead faithoholics who truly believe that it is us lot who 'know in [our] heart of hearts' that we're wrong.


I agree and disagree.

I think your average christians do beleive it on the outer layer of their brains, but have doubt past that, and I think even fanatics have that doubt at their core.

Look at Mother Teresa.

Hell, even the 9/11 hijackers had to drone that shit into their heads again, and again, and again, and again, to drive doubt away.

They doubt, they know it's shit.

There is a tiny minority that believe it all the way to their core inside and out, but they're fucking nutcases who can't even function.

To have a functioning mind that makes it through daily living is to have that seed of doubt.

We have to develop and perfect the language to contact that seed, and get it to sprout out of the bullshit towards the sunshine.

I see this as doable.


This will be a long one.

Best,
Styrer


On that, I can wholeheartedly agree.

292. God seekers go public

Comment #179513 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 10:56 am

severalspeciesof-


While I share your outlook, we must also be prepared for the occasional setback, meaning loss of say, one generation for every third. Though I'm not saying we need to accept that, but rather fight to keep the losses at a minimum


Oh, I'm not saying it'll happen overnight like a puff of magic.
But I see it as the inevitable shape of history if we follow the right course.
And the right course is plotted by the right ideas, and I think we have the right ideas.

But like I said, it also isn't pyramid building.
I think there will be a tipping point, and a sudden day like the Berlin wall falling.

293. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #179486 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 10:17 am

al-rawandi-


dogmatism is the root of all evil, religion is a form of dogmatism.


Agreed, Al.

I say first we get rid of the superstitious dogmatisms, then the nationalistic dogmatisms will crumble, because without the religious dogmatisms, they won't have anything to hide behind.

294. 'My daughter deserved to die for falling in love'

Comment #179479 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 10:09 am

Peacebeuponme-

I don't despair.

Not in the bigger picture anyway.

Despite it's bluster, its chest beating, and the good people who get hurt and killed along the way, tyranny is inherently weak.

And each individual tyranny is further weakened in that the seeds of its destruction are right in its design.

And the achilles heel of Islamofascism is its supression of women.

Every culture that supresses women to the degree that islamic states do has historically doomed itself.
Whether it took decades or centuries, they all imploded.

And that's if you do nothing, that implosion can be hastened.

We need more Ayan Hirsi Alis, and we know they're out there.
Armies of them. Waiting.
The screams of that many women can't be bottled up forever.
It's a gas can waiting to be lit.

295. God seekers go public

Comment #179467 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 9:47 am

gr8hands-

And all of those are dirty tricks.

They certainly aren't clean tricks, are they?

All we have to do is get everyone to see that.
And it's not as hard as it may seem.

I honestly believe people know in their deepest heart of hearts those tactics are wrong, and these things they believe are a tapestry of lies.
They know in their heart of hearts it can't be true.
And not just religion, but the whole American propaganda mess.
We just have to tap into that.
People despise being lied to more than they want to hang onto the lie.
The hard part is breaking their deathgrip from the security blanket of lies.

And that comes right back to, we gotta let them see the security blanket is dirty.
And it is.
We don't have to lie to show it.
It's caked in puke, and cumwads, and dog period, and bullshit, and batshit.

We just have to unplug their noses.

There's hard work ahead, but it's not pyramid building.
We just have to shoot the right torpedo into the right exhaust port, and the Death Star will blow.

I think it can be done.

Freedom is humanity's natural state.
You can't crush that for eternity.

We're the side of opening minds, not closing them.
All we need do is remember that, and everything I've posted above will follow.

296. God seekers go public

Comment #179456 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 9:15 am

clunkclickeverytrip-


But, legitimate science can easily be swept under the carpet in the next 100 years if religion wins out over reason. The number of people on Earth who understand the scientific explanation pales in comparison to the number who don't, or don't want to.


That is the one thing to worry about, isn't it?
And I agree.

But knowing is half the battle.

We know they're weasels, and what they're up to, we can start there.

And we know they want us to fear that.

I've observed there's an ingredient of intimidation to this whole Expelled thing.

The implied subtext message sent to atheists seems to be "yes, on your side you have evidence, you have logic, you have fair play, you have rule of law, you have modernity, you have church/state separation, but WE control the PEOPLE, that's what religion does, that's its job, and THAT'S the real power, and if you push us too hard, we'll tear this world you've built down around your ears if we have to, so don't push us".

But, scary as that is, we see it, and we know it.

All we have to do, is put the "They Live", glasses on everyone, and let them see it too.

And like I said in post 42, all they have, or ever will have up their sleeves are dirty tricks.

And people who only have dirty tricks at their disposal have the moral low ground, and people who have the low ground WILL fuck up royally.

We just have to exploit it when they do, and it won't be hard, we just have to passively point it out whenever it happens.

297. God seekers go public

Comment #179449 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 9:01 am

Well, we should be heartened by all of this because it just shows again and again that the ONLY tricks religion has up its sleeve are dirty ones.

That's all they have.
That's all they'll EVER have.
We know it, they know it.

All we have to do, is wait for the right moment when they've weaved enough rope to hang themselves with, and then everyone will know it.

298. God seekers go public

Comment #179430 by Diacanu on May 13, 2008 at 8:39 am

They're probably going to try to devise a way to prove that science is actually anything you can make up.

The Christian Science loons have been barking up that very tree for a good long while.
OTOH, they haven't been trying to worm their way into the classroom (as far as I know), they tend to keep their stuff in their little cult/sect.

299. Evolution: What is 'Natural'?

Comment #179082 by Diacanu on May 12, 2008 at 1:49 pm

Artful_Dodger-


Why is it hard to decide to do the right thing?


Yes, why is it?
It must be, even for religites, or otherwise you wouldn't need to seek counsel from your little fairytale books.
Religion wouldn't exist but for the exploitation of this fundamental human struggle.

And guess what?
The arbitrary edicts of an imaginary tantrum throwing bronze age celestial dictator do NOTHING to resolve the issue.

Mind control of people with rigid doctrine may plow through the issue of what is moral like an angry bull, but it does nothing to solve the underlying problems.

300. Evolution: What is 'Natural'?

Comment #179064 by Diacanu on May 12, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Oboy, a whole buffet of stunted narrowminded black & white crap to pick apart.
It all looks so tasty, where to start?

Artful_Dodger-


By the way, Christian parents have the right to teach their kids that the institution of marriage is intended by God to be heterosexual.


They have the right to teach about Santa and The Boogeyman too, so what?


That will form part of what they pass on to their kids, tho it will not be the only part. Will parents also be getting into trouble for teaching their kids about the sanctity and intrinsic dignity of all human life from conception?


Define "trouble"?


It is ironic that many of the people who shout loudest about the supposed psychological torture of parents transmitting their Christian beliefs to their kids are quite prepared to accept with complete equanimity the wanton slaughter of millions of unborn children, even right up to birth, for no other reason than that the woman's right not to have the child outweighs the child's right to be born.


1. A glob of cells isn't a human.
The only argument that says they are, is the case that an invisible spook enters the zygote.
Supply evidence of this invisible spook, and then you can have some authority on the subject.
Otherwise the notion is rightly dismissed.

And I'm no fan of late term abortions, but under some circumstances, even they can be necesary.

So please, do lose this cartoon charicature of hand-wringing, mustache twirling "baby slaughterers", it's tiresome, and cuts no dice here, and wins no one to your point of view.

2. Yes, women have the right to control their bodies. I know the bible says they're meant to cleave unto their husband, and essentially be chattle, but tough crap. We're out of the bronze age. What a bunch of ignorant goatherders had to say about gender equality doesn't cut it anymore.

3. Emotionalistic buzzwords like "wanton slaughter", aren't going to cut it, nor is superstitious nonsense. I'm sure they do with your christian buddies, but this ain't christian turf.
Construct a proper argument, or piss off.

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