Skip to Main Content (access key 1)
Skip to Search (access key 2)
Skip to Search GO (access key 3)
Skip to comments (access key 4)
Skip to navigation (access key 5)
Skip to top of page (access key 6)

Comments by mmurray


251. Iowa county board gives initial OK for ghost hunters to investigate asylum

Comment #151448 by mmurray on March 28, 2008 at 6:02 pm

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors took the initial action on the request from the Johnson County Historical Society, which gives tours of the 153-year-old building.

Brandon Cochran, museum operations assistant for the historical society, said there have never been reports of ghosts or bizarre happenings at the building and bringing in a paranormal team is "kind of taking the pre-emptive approach."


They are checking this building for ghosts because nobody has seen any ? Huh ? It has to be a PR stunt.

Mcihael

252. 'We Make Our Own Heaven'

Comment #151445 by mmurray on March 28, 2008 at 5:57 pm

I guess this might be useful for someone who is at a loss for something to do on a Sunday after leaving an organised religion or is still transitioning and has things they want to talk about but personally I can't see the point. My Sunday consists of sleep in, youngest son's swimming lesson, weekly grocery shopping, odd jobs around the house, cook dinner, wash up, put rubbish out and go to bed. It's not like being an atheist leaves me at a loss for anything to do on Sunday (now that we have beaten the christians on shopping hours :-) )

My reaction to this is the same as to carob based `chocolate' - why bother ?

Maybe we could build atheist temples and have atheist sacrifices where were we sacrifice plastic chickens to non-existent gods. This could be followed by a round of that old favourite atheist hymn:

`We like to think freely, we like to think freely, we like to think freely ... "

Only in California.

Michael

253. Fossil find could be Europe's first humans

Comment #150907 by mmurray on March 27, 2008 at 3:10 pm

"God is not a Ford Focus


I think what he meant to say is `God is not Ford Prefect'. A comment that puts him at risk of attack from extreme Adamists

Michael

PS: On a related note God is apparently a dab hand at wheel alignment:

http://richarddawkins.net/articleComments,2402,Police-Girl-Dies-After-Parents-Pray-for-Healing-Instead-of-Seeking-Medical-Help,Fox-News,page3#150375

254. Fossil find could be Europe's first humans

Comment #150556 by mmurray on March 27, 2008 at 5:26 am

Does anyone know why this is thought to be a common ancestor of neanderthals and ourselves? Why isn't this more likely to be a European descendant of homo erectus who had migrated northwards while we are African descendants of homo erectus. If this is the case and the DNA evidence that we descend from a recent charge (rather than march) out of Africe is correct this isn't part of the same exodus out of Africa that we come from.

Of course we could have descended from these guys in Africa -- maybe that is what the fossils suggest.

Michael

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

Comment #150375 by mmurray on March 26, 2008 at 7:36 pm

Thanks MelM that is so good I can't help repeating it here


Hello brethren. About a couple months ago, our truck was having strange wear on its tires. A Christian friend, who was a tire expert, concluded that there was a problem with the front-end of the vehicle. So we scheduled an appointment for the Toyota auto shop. After listening to David's testimonies from his Wilderness DVD as well as other UBM testimonies, we decided to command the truck to be healed in the Name of Jesus. Well, soon after this prayer, the Lord reminded me about the appointment I had already made. So, our works needed to follow our faith. I called and cancelled the appointment. We considered it a done deal. Well, yesterday, our friend who originally looked at the tires said that the wear was now gone AND in fact there was smooth wear distribution on the tires. The Lord fixed the front-end perfectly! Our friend was praising the Lord too! What an awesome God we have!!!


I wonder if this works for completely worn tires. As it happens I just had a ring from the guy servicing my car and I need $600 worth of new tires. I said go ahead but I wonder if I should pray and then ring him back and ask him to check the tread again ?

Michael

PS: I wonder what they would do if the tires wore in the shape of a crucifix ?

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

Comment #150313 by mmurray on March 26, 2008 at 5:26 pm

jamesspills: "You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

OK that's pretty straightforward isn't it! Jesus really needed a good lawyer and a few political advisors to look through his speeches.

Thanks - Michael

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

Comment #150264 by mmurray on March 26, 2008 at 4:17 pm

These parents however actually believe more in the bible and its fairy tales than the moderates. They are "better" christians than them. According to their bible this should have worked out.


Is that really true ? It is a long time now since I read then bible but I don't recall it being specific about how god is going to answer the prayer. Maybe insulin treatment is god's answer ? If the parents really believe that god doesn't want them to help themselves why do they bother eating?

Michael

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

Comment #150213 by mmurray on March 26, 2008 at 3:18 pm

Even if someone believed in God why would they think that she is going to bend the rules of the cosmos and do a miracle just for them. She has already provided them with insulin and made sure they live in a country where then can access it -- how many more miracles do they want ?

This tragedy kind of resonates with this quote on Pharyngula I read last night:

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/03/quote_of_the_week.php

That exemption in the Wisconsin law is scary.

Michael

259. Sue Blackmore debates Alister McGrath

Comment #149030 by mmurray on March 25, 2008 at 2:09 am

Sue Blackmore has a good website at

http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/

Nice report on why she gave up research in parapsychology here

http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/journalism/NS2000.html


Michael

260. It looks like Man crucified

Comment #148888 by mmurray on March 24, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Mick Hume:

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

Started out in the Revolutionary Communist Party and ended up writing a column for the Times.

Michael

261. The death-of-god debate

Comment #148796 by mmurray on March 24, 2008 at 12:14 am

The John Gray article he refers to is here

http://richarddawkins.net/article,2361,The-atheist-delusion,Guardian

The demise of its specific beliefs among most clear-thinking people in no way lessens my admiration for the Sermon on the Mount


What exactly is admirable about the sermon on the mount ? Unless you are a cheesemaker maybe ?

Michael

262. Fleabytes

Comment #148375 by mmurray on March 22, 2008 at 7:55 pm

When I read reports like this I think that Richard and his atheist friends are being very selective with the data they use.


And the Christian Radio Missionary Fellowship are completely honest of course as they have no particular axe to grind. Yeh sure.

Getting rid of cannibalism etc is a good thing but why replace all that with fear of eternal damnation and a lot of other christian hocus-pocus whose track record on keeping the peace is not that wonderful actually. I guess there is a certain irony in replacing eating your enemies with eating the body of christ. Maybe they find that transition easy. But really why not just bring them into the real world?



Assuming you are interested in the transition of less technological societies to more technological societies, and not just here to push the Christian line, you might enjoy reading `Gun's, Germs and Steel' by Jarrod Diamond. He happens to know the PNG area really well having lived and worked with these tribes while studying birds. He has some interesting insight into the prevalence of cannibalism which comes down ultimately more to the shortage of available protein in the ecosystem than the shortage of christian missionaries (except of course in that they would be a source of protein).

Michael

263. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148043 by mmurray on March 21, 2008 at 9:47 pm

While watching that movie I was puzzling over the scale of what I was watching. In case others are interested the mitochondria are (according to wikipedia) around 1-10 micrometres. A micrometre is one millionth of a metre or 10^{-6} metres. By comparison a carbon atom is 70 pico metres or 70 x 10^{-12} metres or about 10^{-10} m. So a mitochondria is about 10,000-100,000 atoms across or alternatively you can line up around 100-1000 of them in a millimetre.

Michael

264. Discussion on PZ Myers being expelled from Expelled

Comment #148035 by mmurray on March 21, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Was it the first video they used ? Interesting to note that it opens saying it is for educational purposes only and any commercial use is strictly prohibited.

Michael

265. EXPELLED!

Comment #147687 by mmurray on March 21, 2008 at 6:08 am

Evolution leads to atheism leads to eugenics leads to Holocaust and Nazi Germany.


Why put atheism in there? I could imagine trying to make the series of implications without atheism but with it is silly. The Catholic church believes in evolution. It is quite easy to argue that evolution is God's wonderful way of bringing life into the His creation.

A better alternative would be Christianity leads to anti-semitism leads to Holocaust and Nazi Germany.

The subtitle `No Intelligence Allowed' really says it all.

Michael

266. EXPELLED!

Comment #147628 by mmurray on March 21, 2008 at 3:03 am

If anyone is interested there are what claim to be DVD rips of the movie available by torrent.

Interesting to see the story is already up on the IMDB message boards.

Michael

267. God's cure for gays lost in sin

Comment #146988 by mmurray on March 19, 2008 at 4:10 pm


Bit like those useless blanked off spaces in economy cars to remind you what you saved your money on when you didn't by the higher spec cars :-)


Ah that explains it. My parents skipped on the breasts option. Damn.

Michael

268. God's cure for gays lost in sin

Comment #146975 by mmurray on March 19, 2008 at 3:45 pm

Just out of interest what do people make of the teenage fondness for using `gay' to mean broken in some away. eg `my phones out of credit -- man that's so gay'.

Michael

269. Jesus saves

Comment #146870 by mmurray on March 19, 2008 at 1:54 pm

$4 million cannot be the Tasmanian budget.

Michael

270. Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

Comment #146429 by mmurray on March 19, 2008 at 4:40 am

Yep `Childhood's End' was great and The Star. I also like the short story The Nine Billion Names of God.

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

Michael

271. Atheists claim censorship by billboard company

Comment #146314 by mmurray on March 18, 2008 at 11:51 pm

So you are OK with something like a backpacker hostel not allowing black people to stay. This happened recently in Australia in Alice Springs. As far as I know they were completely privately run.

Michael

272. Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

Comment #146301 by mmurray on March 18, 2008 at 10:32 pm

Sir Arthur's status as the grand old man of science fiction was threatened when, in 1998, allegations of child abuse, which he strenuously denied, caused the confirmation of a knighthood to be delayed.


According to what I read it wasn't the confirmation that was delayed but the conferring of the honour. It was also apparently delayed at his request which is not obvious from the above.

Michael

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

Comment #144950 by mmurray on March 17, 2008 at 4:49 am

It just seems odd (or does it?) that a Bishop should be so ignorant of the facts. It seems that for most people sexuality is not that changeable.


I would assume he would either deny the facts or go back to the old line of `love the sinner but hate the sin' . So it is OK to be gay because you can't help it but to `practice' it is wrong.

It's all mad of course but that's Catholicism for you -- totally sex obsessed.

Michael

PS: A good summary of current Christian thinking on homosexuality can be found here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPUE9xpxjcc

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

Comment #144930 by mmurray on March 17, 2008 at 4:04 am


Well, I think this assumes that sexuality is changeable.


Which, of course, is the hidden agenda behind the choice of the word `lifestyle' by the Bishop to describe being gay.

Michael

275. In Britain, creationist theory is evolving

Comment #144813 by mmurray on March 16, 2008 at 7:36 pm

a bearded old man


The fact he is an idiot is not related to his being a bearded old man. Enough of this ageist and beardest talk :-)

Michael

276. The business of natural selection

Comment #144392 by mmurray on March 15, 2008 at 11:29 pm

There are simpler mathematical models than this. You can subtract the company income from the company expenses and test the resulting number to see if it is positive or negative.

It would be interesting to see how different the test companies were from the training set but I can't see the article on the journal site.

Michael

277. The atheist delusion

Comment #144044 by mmurray on March 15, 2008 at 1:07 am

Presumably this is he:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_N._Gray

Michael

278. The ethics of mixing science and religion

Comment #142697 by mmurray on March 13, 2008 at 3:16 am

I would like to see evidence for this, as I know of scientists who have been funded by Templeton who I am pretty certain would not have said this.


Yes I know one as well.

By the way on the ID question they say on their web page:


Does the Foundation support I.D.?

No. We do not support the political movement known as "Intelligent Design." This is for three reasons 1) we do not believe the science underpinning the "Intelligent Design" movement is sound, 2) we do not support research or programs that deny large areas of well-documented scientific knowledge, and 3) the Foundation is a non-political entity and does not engage in, or support, political movements.

It is important to note that in the past we have given grants to scientists who have gone on to identify themselves as members of the Intelligent Design community. We understand that this could be misconstrued by some to suggest that we implicitly support the Intelligent Design movement, but, as outlined above, this was not our intention at the time nor is it today.


http://www.templeton.org/about_us/about_us_faq/

Michael

279. The ethics of mixing science and religion

Comment #142640 by mmurray on March 12, 2008 at 11:25 pm

From the New Scientist interview:

What do you make of the current debate between science and religion, in which the two are often presented as mutually exclusive?

Everything depends on your concept of rationality. Science is a model of rationality. The question is whether the limits of rationality coincide with limits of the scientific method. If they do, then there is no place for religion or theology because everything outside of the scientific method is automatically irrational. On the other hand, if you agree that they do not coincide then there is a place for rational religious belief. If you look at the recent history of science and philosophy, you can see that the dominating philosophy in western countries was positivistic, it said that the scientific method is identical with rationality and that what's beyond the scientific method is beyond rationality. Nowadays very few philosophers agree with this; we are more pluralistic


But what about rationality in the broader sense of gathering evidence and weighing it ?

-------------------------------------------

Bonzai: I think Templeton is about more than just linking science and spirituality they talk (OK the wikipedia page talks) about `the divine' which implies some kind of God to me.

Edit: OK I looked at their web page

http://www.templeton.org/about_us/about_us_faq/

and they claim to only be about answering `big questions' etc not sure where the divine quote on wikipedia comes from.

Michael

280. The ethics of mixing science and religion

Comment #142635 by mmurray on March 12, 2008 at 11:14 pm

There is an interview with the guy here

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13454-qa-2008-templeton-prize-winner.html

Michael

281. The ethics of mixing science and religion

Comment #142612 by mmurray on March 12, 2008 at 8:59 pm

The money would just be used by the religion for some fancy planes, art, new house of slavery / worship etc. sod it i'll take it and put it to work (probably give half to saving the gorillas, i like Gorillas) and blow the rest on myself. Better then ending up as gold plating to some fucking dome.


The Templeton Prize is not handed out by any religion.

Michael

282. The ethics of mixing science and religion

Comment #142610 by mmurray on March 12, 2008 at 8:44 pm

For what it is worth here is the list of prize winners.

Michael

-------------------------------------------


1973 - Mother Teresa of Calcutta
1974 - Frère Roger, founder of the Taizé Community
1975 - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, President of India
1976 - Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens
1977 - Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare Movement
1978 - Prof. Thomas Torrance
1979 - Rev. Nikkyo Niwano
1980 - Ralph Wendell Burhoe, founder of Zygon: Journal of Religion & Science
1981 - Cicely Saunders, hospice founder
1982 - Rev. Dr. Billy Graham, evangelist
1983 - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Soviet dissident novelist
1984 - Rev. Michael Bourdeaux, founder of the Keston Institute
1985 - Alister Hardy, founder of the Religious Experience Research Centre
1986 - Rev. James I. McCord of the Princeton Theological Seminary
1987 - Stanley Jaki
1988 - Dr. Inamullah Khan
1989 - Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, physicist and philosopher, Lord MacLeod of Fuinary, founder of the Iona Community and Indarjit Singh
1990 - Baba Amte and L. Charles Birch
1991 - Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits
1992 - Kyung-Chik Han
1993 - Charles Colson, founder of the Prison Fellowship
1994 - Michael Novak, philosopher and diplomat
1995 - Paul Davies, theoretical physicist
1996 - Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ
1997 - Pandurang Shastri Athavale
1998 - Sigmund Sternberg, philanthropist
1999 - Ian Barbour, professor
2000 - Freeman Dyson, physicist
2001 - Rev. Arthur Peacocke
2002 - Rev. John Polkinghorne
2003 - Holmes Rolston III, philosopher
2004 - George F. R. Ellis, cosmologist and philosopher
2005 - Charles Townes, Nobel laureate and physicist
2006 - John D. Barrow, cosmologist and theoretical physicist
2007 - Charles Taylor, philosopher
2008 - Michael Heller, physicist and philosopher

283. The ethics of mixing science and religion

Comment #142605 by mmurray on March 12, 2008 at 8:32 pm

... and certainly better than most (all?) government funded research!)


As a mathematician who has done (Australian) government funded research can I ask what is wrong with that? Or with the research funded by the NSF or NSERC if those are nearer to home ?

I am not sure why an atheist would want to take money for a prize whose aim, according to wikipedia, is

"trying various ways for discoveries and breakthroughs to expand human perceptions of divinity and to help in the acceleration of divine creativity."

It has always seemed to me that part of the agenda of this prize is to confuse the public by trotting out scientists who `believe in God'. Here we have someone who thinks he can see God in mathematical equations --- how can the average person argue with that ?

Personally I would rather take it from big pharma -- at least that would be getting back some of what I pay them to keep me alive :-)

Regards - Michael

PS: There is an interview here that I am told is interesting -- haven't listened to it myself.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2008/2188303.htm

284. Fleabytes

Comment #140925 by mmurray on March 9, 2008 at 5:46 am

Thanks for the photos Steve. Nice ones of the UK in that collection - been too long since I was there. We are in the middle of a heatwave here -- just had a week of 35-40 deg C and at least another week coming. Worst March heat in 75 years I think. The photo of your frosty back yard looked very attractive :-)

Kangaroos, wombats ... where is the koala ?

Michael

285. Out of the Blue

Comment #140873 by mmurray on March 9, 2008 at 12:39 am

Well looks to me like we don't need to call the Turing Police yet.

Michael

286. Lords Approve Abolition Of Blasphemy

Comment #139829 by mmurray on March 6, 2008 at 2:34 pm

I have my political issues with the House of Lords, but I do give them credit for amazing vocabulary. I learnt two new words; that is well worth a half an hour read.


Five minutes of Christopher Hitchens does it for me :-)

Michael

287. Crossing the Divide

Comment #139822 by mmurray on March 6, 2008 at 2:27 pm

He looks a bit like Stephen J. Godfrey with that moustache.

I guess it is worth noting, for all the Americans who think they are getting picked on on this website, that this is about Canada.

Having been raised a Catholic and attended some Catholic schools it amazes me how many brands of Christian lunacy there are. I got told some really stupid things but I nobody, including the Marist Brother who taught me biology in Year 11, would have suggested that the earth was 6000 years old.

Why didn't he just decide that all the things that didn't make sense were put there by God to test his faith? That is the usual catch all solution to these problems.

Michael

288. Please Call Earth. We Still Haven't Found You.

Comment #138600 by mmurray on March 4, 2008 at 3:42 pm

Thanks babrock. I think it is `The Man' by Ray Bradbury. See the link in my post just above yours.


Michael

289. Please Call Earth. We Still Haven't Found You.

Comment #138198 by mmurray on March 4, 2008 at 3:49 am

Vadjong: Yes that one is The Star by Arthur C. Clarke

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star_(short_story)

Turns out the one I mentioned is number 9 on this list

http://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/2007/12/the-10-best-sf.html

There is also The Nine-Billion Names of God.

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

Michael

290. Please Call Earth. We Still Haven't Found You.

Comment #138152 by mmurray on March 4, 2008 at 2:11 am

However, once there is serious migration to other solar systems (assuming they are plentiful enough in the first place) then a catastrophe in one system will not be fatal to the whole species. So I think once a civilization gets past that point, then they could exist for hundreds of thousands or millions of years.


Assuming such a migration is possible. Present physical knowledge would suggest it is going to be difficult. I guess there might be solar systems with more habitable planets than earth. If Mars and Venus were habitable then we could have colonized them.

I wonder what would happen if you tweaked a few of the human parameters. Say a slightly less successful reproductive rate and lower aggression. That would give us longer before we overpopulated the earth. Of course it might also mean we never made it out of Africa and moved around the world.

Michael

291. Please Call Earth. We Still Haven't Found You.

Comment #138116 by mmurray on March 4, 2008 at 12:49 am

What's the difference between dedicating your life searching for Jesus, and spending your life searching for aliens?


I remember as a kid reading a short science fiction story about a people travelling from planet to planet searching for Jesus. Everytime they arrived somewhere he had just left.

Does anyone recall who wrote that?

Michael

292. Please Call Earth. We Still Haven't Found You.

Comment #137998 by mmurray on March 3, 2008 at 6:10 pm

While I'm not opposed to spending money on SETI if it means listening or looking (I'm not if favouring of advertising ourselves for lunch) I don't see how anyone can get anything sensible out of Drake's equation. There are at least three unknowns that we have no idea of the answer to IMHO:

fl = the fraction of the planets that could potentially support life which actually go on to develop life (Estimated by Drake as 1.)

fi = the fraction of planets that develop life which go on to develop intelligent life (Drake estimated 0.01)

fc = is the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space (Drake estimated 0.01)


There are so many coincidences and lucky breaks in the rise of the only intelligent life we know anything about. For example -- if my avatar Pikaia gracilens hadn't survived the Cambrian there might not have been any vertebrate animals. If (as Gould points out) a comet or whatever had not taken out the dinosaurs there might never have been intelligent life. More recently it seems likely that anatomically modern humans existed from 100,000 to 60,000 years ago without doing anything very interesting until something happened and a smallish group of us charged out of Africa and took over the world. No-one is sure why that happened -- Jarrod Diamond makes a good case it was the evolution of speech and Arthur C. Clarke thought it was the arrival of a black monolith. Whatever it was there is no way you can guess the probability of that event occurring -- why choose 0.01 why not 0.000001 ?

The examples on wikipedia give values for the number of civilisations that we could communicate with in the range 50 - 5000. If you divide each of fl, fi and fc by 10 you reduce those estimates to .05 - 5. Reduce even smaller and it is a suprise we are here at all.


Michael

293. Christopher Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher

Comment #137469 by mmurray on March 3, 2008 at 12:39 am

I assume most people have seen this but in case not it is an article about Buddhism by Sam Harris:

http://www.shambhalasun.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2903&Itemid=244

Michael

294. Christopher Hitchens on Real Time with Bill Maher

Comment #136892 by mmurray on March 2, 2008 at 12:40 am

Anyway, child-free people like me (and even people who go out of their way to get babysitters) are sick and tired of dealing with people taking their kids places they shouldn't be, i.e. restaurants, movies, shopping. We go out to relax, not deal with other peoples' personal problems.


When did feeding your child become a `personal problem'. Or did you mean seeing a woman breastfeed is a personal problem for you ?

Michael

295. Ayaan Hirsi Ali to get EU protection

Comment #136380 by mmurray on March 1, 2008 at 3:39 am

Just to add to all the other posts. This is from the on-line dictionary.

en·joy (n-joi)
v. en·joyed, en·joy·ing, en·joys
v.tr.
1. To receive pleasure or satisfaction from.
2. To have the use or benefit of: enjoys good health.

Not a good example really as good health is something you might also receive satisfaction from!

Michael

296. Ayaan Hirsi Ali to get EU protection

Comment #136339 by mmurray on February 29, 2008 at 10:59 pm

So what does this mean for people making regular donations to Sam Harris' fund for her protection ?

Michael

297. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #129999 by mmurray on February 19, 2008 at 9:34 pm

We are both atheists trying to be rational. Therefore we should agree on most things where we have equal access to evidence.


You're not married are you ? :-)

Seriously, unless you are talking about agreeing on the proof of a mathematical theorem it is quite easy for two rational people to have the same evidence and disagree. Look at the physicists who believe in string theory and those who don't. Most people bring personality and emotion to any discussion and most discussions also involve guesses because we never have all the evidence we need to be exactly sure of anything.

For example I have the same evidence as you and I also share your emotional attachment to bicycles -- I cycle to work every day and I cycle toured a lot in my younger days. But I don't think bicycles are a replacement for everything that cars do.

As for boredom while cycle touring I recommend Highway 1 going into Christchurch, New Zealand into a head wind while riding a bicycle fully laden with touring equipment.

Michael

298. Fleabytes

Comment #129879 by mmurray on February 19, 2008 at 5:40 pm


An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.


I guess you could interpret this as implying that there are christians whose children might not believe or otherwise why make it a condition ?? Mind you it also seems to imply that Christians might have more than one wife.

Michael

299. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128833 by mmurray on February 18, 2008 at 3:37 am


Linda, I agree with you- this sight could start posting articles about how stupid people are in trinidad or some other country, but instead it focuses on america constantly, it's turning me off to this website- the snobby british attitude, the know it all comments- mabye the first comment really is right on - mabye the citizens of the most important country in the world don't HAVE to care about other countries and therefore don't.


Given the site is registered in the US and the administrator is in the US I don't see where the snobby british attitude comes into things.

The US is the most powerful nation in the world, when someone in the US does strange things it worries people. When someone in Trinidad does strange things they have to be very strange before it worries anyone.

`With great power comes great responsibility'

or something like that :-)

Michael

300. Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks for protection

Comment #128745 by mmurray on February 17, 2008 at 9:51 pm

For those of you who have lost the information on how to support AHA (someone above said they had) or never had it and are interested in supporting her protection here is the link.


http://www.samharris.org/site/security_trust/


Michael

More Pages: Previous | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 | Next