251. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #167432 by Philip1978 on April 24, 2008 at 3:23 am

Billy

I take great issue with someone telling me stuff like that, its like me saying you have no idea of biology!

You don't know about biology enough because you don't love God and His insistence that knowledge, logic and reason is superfluous in face of His wisdom. Furthermore God has not told you about the greater depths of biology and he wont tell you because only He can have such knowledge and thats why he is able to do the things you can't explain!

I mean come on, thats just fucking stupid, downright insulting to all the hard work you do and above all just plain and simply WRONG!

Look, he has even insulted Steve's ability to teach for crying out loud, if Steve is crap at teaching things then my name is Jesus!

Philip

252. Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital

Comment #167406 by Philip1978 on April 24, 2008 at 2:20 am

I was wondering how Dr Benway got hold of her famous incredible phallus!

Dr B, have you been at the Witch doctoring again?

:)

Philip

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

Comment #167396 by Philip1978 on April 24, 2008 at 1:56 am

Count me in!

254. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #167373 by Philip1978 on April 24, 2008 at 1:11 am

Remnent HOW DARE YOU MAKE SUCH BASELESS ASSUMPTIONS!

I seriously doubt that any of you understand how historical evidence is evaluated

Go wash your potty brain out this instant! I am a historian, I have a good degree from Southampton University, England thank you very much! I have a very clear knowledge as to what constitutes Primary, Secondary, Tertiary or bible evidence!

Such arrogance!

Oh and for every crapulent bible quote you keep insisting on vomiting forth I will respond back with anything I can find that shows your Bible is full of utter nonsense.


Lets see, well, I guess we had best go for the one that makes me sick to the stomach and also makes me wonder why you want to worship the God that you do.

Deuteronomy 22

28 If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, 29 he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. [c] He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.

What kind of logic is that?

Worship that god? No sodding thank you!


Philip

255. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #166404 by Philip1978 on April 23, 2008 at 8:15 am

Remnant

So do you hate everybody and your life too?

Luke 14:25
"Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.


Do you approve of Rape like God does?

Judges 21:10-24, Numbers 31:7-18, Deuteronomy 20:10-14, Deuteronomy 22:28-29, Deuteronomy 22:23-24, 2 Samuel 12:11-14, Deuteronomy 21:10-14, Judges 5:30 Exodus 21:7-11, Zechariah 14:1-2

Just to name a few!

Don't quote the bible, its an evil book!

Philip

256. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #166381 by Philip1978 on April 23, 2008 at 7:56 am

The power of the priestly caste would be unchecked

Its true you know, my power has gone unchecked, perhaps its because I spell my surname Priestley! :)


Philip

257. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #166272 by Philip1978 on April 23, 2008 at 4:28 am

I would have put the flying things all on ropes, lift the boat a bit and get out of the worst of the heavy seas! :)

Though Eddie Izzard was right about how the Flying things and the swimming things get out due to a loophole! (Said in the voice of James Mason, who was playing God) Did Noah really have to collect them as well?

258. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #166241 by Philip1978 on April 23, 2008 at 3:22 am

epeeist

Well done you, yes, thats right, have a gold star!


The earliest Sumerian versions of the epic date from as early as the Third Dynasty of Ur (2150-2000 BC) and it supposedly tells of a King from 2600 BC which makes it pretty old! Much older than when Genesis was written which was around 1445 B.C. whose author, Moses, has highly dubious and unreliable historical credentials!

Well done!

Philip

259. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #166196 by Philip1978 on April 23, 2008 at 1:43 am

Remnant

So let me get this straight, you believe that God took 6 days to create EVERYTHING from scratch, including a human male made from clay and a woman made out of that man's rib. (Now, allowing for the Earth to cool down from all the heat and radiation it would take a little more than 6 Days, Adam, Eve, Cain, Cain's wife from the previously unknown land of Nod - EVERYTHING would have fried!)

Then, he tells these two humans that whilst being in the garden they are not allowed to eat fruit from a tree of knowledge. So at this point of course, Adam and Eve are completely lacking in any intellectual credentials whatsoever and would not know that eating the fruit is bad, cos they have no knowledge of consequences of their actions yet! :) (What a kind and clever God, setting them up this way!)

A talking snake, God's most evil nemesis in disguise (He must have known about this or was he still sleeping off the world creating?), is allowed into the garden to chat to Eve and persuade her to eat the fruit and then she gets Adam to scoff some, they shag, they realise they are naked etc

God is really hacked off - quelle surprise- says Eve and the whole of the future females ever to walk the Earth are to have painful births, She and Adam are chucked out of Eden and the snake is forced to slide on the floor and eat dust for the rest of its life ( Now, I have seen a few snakes in my time but no dust eating talking ones, does this mean they have evolved?)

Funnily enough these two are charged with Original Sin despite the fact they were victims in all this, I mean set up or what? Then for a final joke, God sends his only son/him in human form on a suicide mission to Earth in order to make up for the sins of Adam and Eve, he is in effect a scapegoat! (I really do suggest you look up Christopher Hitchen's take on scapegoats, its excellent.)


You then, despite the fact you were not there, either at first light or Jesus's death, still are forced to carry around this guilt, you are made to feel insignificant, unworthy and sinful in the eyes of dear loving THE LORD THY GOD. If you do not repent you are going to be sent to a fiery pit to burn in amusing ways for the rest of eternity.


Now, as a grown up human being, why do you not find this all just a fantastic load of tripe?

Have you seen any dust eating talking snakes lately?


The "Truth" argument, its simply does not wash, you have to back up your claims with better evidence than the plethora of other Gods that appeared before yours did and were worshiped with the same fervour as you do yours.

I can show you many religions prior to your religion that carry exactly the same stories and metaphors, especially those from the Near East. I can show you how the Zodiac has played a significant role in this, I can even point out a few things like the importance of the position of the sun when it sets around th 23rd to the 25th of December or how The Three Wise Men (AKA The stars in Orion's Belt) are connected with the Star in the East.


Now, I can show you all this in greater detail but I doubt you would be prepared to read it.

I suspect you prefer stories of talking snakes or following the rules of a man/god who is quoted in the Bible, Luke 14:25, as saying "Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple."

I for one think it is a cruel thing for someone to have a religion and live under what is essentially Stockholm Syndrome, God is the hostage taker, and no matter how many bad things that occur, people will still love him for it.

I think religion is simply built on lies and untruths created from previous myths and metaphors from the past.

I also think that if God does exist he has gone about it in a such a hideously complicated way of proving it, hiding behind the universe and the way it works is not the most convincing method of getting yourself noticed above all the other gods, past and present.

Ah yes, one small last thing, Billy's knowledge of the Bible is pretty damn good, I would not poke fun at him because his knowledge is probably better than yours


Cheers

Philip

260. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #165741 by Philip1978 on April 22, 2008 at 7:46 am

Irate

Navyjake95 sweetly threatened us with lead an' death earlier, all the name of sweet, dear loving Gawd an' Jebus. This is because either Jebus loves him so much he would send his only navyjake to come and mow us down in a hail of bullets or he made a spelling mistake when writing to Santa and it got sent to the Dark Prince himself!

I think Diacanu summed it up very well indeed!

Sir, you and Al share the property rights to fucktard calling, I couldnt possibly steal the thunder and I much prefer to see you hurl it!

:)

Philip

261. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #165729 by Philip1978 on April 22, 2008 at 6:55 am

navyjake95

What a loving Christian you are sir, Jesus would be so proud of you!

All I have ever done is deny the Holy Ghost, Jesus and God as per instructions LUKE 12:10, MARK 3:29 and MATTHEW 12: 31-32 - I mean I am in the shit no matter what! I think the bible has clearly said what is going to happen to me, isnt that enough for you?

Then you troll up threatening us all! How jolly sweet of you!

And like I said, my side doesn't start anything, we just pray to God that he give us the strength to finish it

You just keep praying sunshine, Jesus loves you for it and it accomplishes NOTHING!

Heck, please, send God after my arse, I am not scared of a figment of your imagination!If your God is so damn powerful why doesn't the big sissy come and fight his own corner?

What worries me is that you have to get yourself in such a state over a few things like evolution and people not believing in your brand of God. Calm down, have a cup of tea and think about why you have to get so angry.

Then I suggest you apologise for such silly behavior, you are an adult I take it? If so, act like a responsible one!

Philip

262. If God Is Dead, Who Gets His House?

Comment #165640 by Philip1978 on April 22, 2008 at 1:05 am

I must have been out having a cup of tea when they were teaching this "atheist faith" business, I don't suppose anyone could fill me in the basics could they?

Artful, this is really difficult isn't it, you really don't understand what it is to have no faith and I honestly think you need to learn more about it.

You cannot believe in atheism, not in the same way as a person can with religion - you can believe in god for there is supposedly something to worship - what on Earth is there to worship in a complete lack of belief in gods?

I think many people have gone blue in the face to explain this very simple fact to you, please take it under consideration next time you type something like atheist faith, like the gods, no such thing exists!


Philip

263. Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists

Comment #165112 by Philip1978 on April 21, 2008 at 4:40 am

I am almost annoyed.


Yes, sorry kids, I have done my best, but my mood status has been upgraded to almost but not quite nearly slightly less than mild mannered Philip.

This article, along with all the other bollocks my poor brain has been subjected to recently over this bloody stupid film, has caused me to think about a few things hence my mood.

Why I hear you ask?


This paragraph is the reason...

The most controversial part of the film follows Stein to the Dachau concentration camp, underlining how Darwin's theories of natural selection led to the eugenics movement, embraced by Adolf Hitler. If there is no God, but only a planetary lab waiting for scientists to perfect the human race, where can Darwinism lead? Stein insists that he isn't accusing today's Darwinists of Nazism. He points out, however, that Hitler's mad science was inspired by Darwinism.

I am not a Nazi or have Nazi tendencies because I don't believe in any god or because I happen to to think Darwin was an utter genius for providing the ONLY good explanation as to how life progressed on this Earth from simple to more complex things as time bounced along. As Richard Dawkins said, Hitler didn't even mention Darwinism, he was following age old ideas about artificial selection to create his master race.


I don't care what this guy says in this paragraph or what the likes of David Robertson want to keep repeating about how they are not "accusing" anyone of this, the implication is there. Its always there, this has to be repeated so people can accuse scientists, or anyone with more than half a brain, of having some inherent qualities akin to that of Hitler ONLY because they want to peddle their hateful bile and lies so their God can remain safe and people remain fearful of anyone who actually knows something about a subject like evolution.

So in the face of reason and logic they want to hold on to their magic, what a bloomin stupid thing to have to argue about! Are we not grown ups? Do we really have to argue about fantasy vs reality? Do we have to be guilty by association?

Hitler was right on one thing when he said "The Bigger the Lie, the More the People will Believe it". The more people actually provide these false accusations the more people will associate the genius of Darwin's Theory with Nazism, its pathetic.

I agree with Diacanu, this is all these bastards have now, they couldn't win by being kind so they want to smear us with enough shit to make it stick.

Really, is this all they have got?

Well, damn them and their soiled trousers, it is not going to work, the one thing about liars is once they are found out how fast and terribly do they fall.


Right, thats the end of my almost but not quite nearly slightly less than mild mannered mood, I will go back to abnormal for now! :)

Philip

264. Interviews with Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermer

Comment #164475 by Philip1978 on April 20, 2008 at 10:00 am

Jayday, something tells me your computer may be buggered! :)

Philip

265. Flea of the week

Comment #164462 by Philip1978 on April 20, 2008 at 9:38 am

Diacanu,

I can't stop laughing, cheers tons for that!

Can you do an English accent?


Paula

Their inability or unwillingness to recognise us for what we are: an animal like every other, with no special place in the universe (other than that conferred upon us by evolution, namely our - so far as we know - unique capacity to reason. And how ironic it is that the ONE thing that really MIGHT make us special in the universe is the ONE thing that the religious want to guard against and subdue with every fibre in their bodies.)

Brilliant post, I think that sums it up beautifully, permission to shout bravo at an annoyingly loud volume? Just for all your superb efforts I might have to nick/borrow my boss's credit card but I am sure he would not notice a first class trip to a country of your choice! :)


I have picked up a few flea books in my local book shop and have had to put them down immediately, they are, as Paula rightly says, just sooo depressing. Just how they manage to gain the impression that they have just refuted Richard, Sam, Christopher or Dan is a mystery to me.

"YES!" they orgasm " I've done it, HA! TAKE THAT DAWKINS!

"Riiiight" says the reader "One quick question, where is this magnificent rebuttal you speak of?"


Writer: "ITS THERE, look in the book!"

Reader: "I have...still can't find it...!"

Writer: "Can't you see, its right there, Jesus is showing it to you right now!"

Reader: "No, can't see Jesus either!"

Writer: "Ah, you have to love Jesus, then he will love you too and then my book will be a perfect rebuttal!"

Reader imitates Graham Chapman in Monty Python's Holy Grail film " You're a looney!"


I am just so glad I am amongst the sane people :)

Beep!

Philip

266. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163340 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 8:08 am

Slippy

I see you are a great optimist, please keep up the good work!
:)

267. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163284 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 6:18 am

Clearmind

Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit

Its good advice! :)

268. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163273 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 5:57 am

If he has Marks & Spencer (Clothes Store/Food place in UK) white Y fronts on whilst also wearing black socks then yes, there is a wrong lack of trousers for a husband!

:)

269. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163248 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 5:11 am

SPS

Clearmind's response might be

Te audire non possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure

:)

270. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163219 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 4:30 am

Logicel

So sad, so lost, I will pray to the Stork so I can have more sex, oops, so the sexists can see the wrong of their ways

Why pray when you can just get your husband to wear the right lack of trousers? ;)

Philip

271. Religious education as a part of literary culture

Comment #163185 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 3:55 am

Wooter

I posted this a while ago, I couldn't be arsed to write it out again so I lazily cut and pasted it.

Now, I have made an effort to learn about evolution and am slowly getting there but here is my take on what you have just questioned. This is probably what others have covered but heck, I just am in the mood! :)

You can breed a dog, cow, horse etc which have all the good characteristics that you are looking for, you can essentially make sure the right genes are passed over to the future generations until you have what you are looking for. You can basically force the outcome of this by sending the rubbish animals away and keeping the good ones - that in a very small, possibly badly explained way, is how I see Artificial Selection at work - you are the overseer in all this.


Natural Selection however is just that, Nature does the choosing of what gets to stay and what doesn't, thats why around 99% of all animals that ever existed on this lovely planet never made it this far. There is no picking and choosing, there is no pattern to it whatsoever and as Steve said, you might just as well watch the TV for all the hope of getting God to appear in it.

Douglas Adams said this in a speech called Is there an artificial God?

"Take a very simple example, maybe a bunch of animals suddenly finds itself in a place where the weather is slightly colder. We know that in a few future generations those genes that favour a thicker coat will have come to the fore"


Now tell me, how does God need to fit into any of this at all?

The cold weather was his idea? The animals with the genes that didn't favour fur coats get buggered if I am not mistaken but he favours those with the fur coat gene...whats the point?

Why not just make sure the weather stays the right way for the right animal to live in? Sod all this chopping and changing lark! Isn't that a bit of rubbish and convoluted way of going about showing God was somehow involved here? I know the old bugger moves in mysterious ways but killing off most of your creations like that comes close to what Eddie Izzard calls the "etcha sketch end of the world!"

"Ahhh bugger it!" said God as he shook the screen to clear it!

I don't buy it, not for one second does any of it make any sense with a god involved, its too complicated, ambiguous and just well, highly improbable - why not just have evolution with Natural Selection at the helm, it works so well, its not that complicated is it? This way there is no need for any "thing" to be involved - God cannot be an artificial selector, not on a planet with such an abundance of life on it - think of all the work that requires!

Having a God pitch up and "Kabloooey" its all there, no need to bugger with the climate, every animal is where it should be, that would rule out the need for drastic things like ice ages, meteors, earthquakes, volcanoes, droughts, floods - every ecological, natural disaster imaginable would be completely pointless.

Natural Selection explains how life came to be if a God wasn't there tinkering with it, it just took a bloody long time!

Hows that?

:)

Philip

272. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #163174 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 3:43 am

But in a grand sense, an atheist must think they exist for no real reason, which I find very disheartening.


You haven't insulted me I promise!

I can promise you that my life has great meaning in the sense that I do my best to live it, that is my reason and its very real! :)

Philip

273. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #163170 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 3:38 am

How would I know? Perhaps it's whatever you want it to be, assuming the powers that be feel you deserve a reward.

Again, I get the feeling that somehow believing in God makes it better than not believing, somehow believing makes you more privileged? How does that work?

Powers that be? Are we in a Joss Wheedon program, where is David Boreanaz or Alyson Hannigan? :)

Philip

274. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #163131 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 2:53 am

Irate

After checking the Tea leaves, I think you will "call" very soon!

Philip :)

275. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #163125 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 2:48 am

Egomaniac

I think the words you are looking for are "De-convert people from their beliefs", atheists do not believe in atheism.

"depriving people of a real meaning to their existence",

That's a rather grand statement to make, are you saying my life has no significant meaning unless I believe in a god? I have a cup of Tea on my desk right now, that's significant to the meaning of my life! :)

Philip

276. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163070 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 12:21 am

There was a commenter on PZ's blog that said this need more Lord Privy Seal moments, I then started to wonder what kind of Lord Privy Seals you could use for this video....and then I had to have another cup of tea, my mind is too filthy for words! ;)

277. Sexpelled: No Intercourse Allowed

Comment #163067 by Philip1978 on April 18, 2008 at 12:12 am

You sexist lot!

That was hilarious, I could not stop laughing when I heard Richard say "As a sex MANIAC...!"

Priceless!

Philip

278. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162598 by Philip1978 on April 17, 2008 at 5:52 am

Sargeist

I think you are right, the moderates ARE lovely people, flippin heck I know loads of them.


Drives me up the wall too, especially the Christenings, I sit there positively seething with contempt. But these guys are my friends, despite their batshit ideas I love them dearly.


My take on it is that religious IDEAS are the problem, spread enough of these stupid ideas and stupid stuff begins to happen. People start acting with an authority they don't have, this can spread into law, politics, medicine etc and that is when it gets dangerous and harmful.

The people are good people, its the religious ideas that are the problem, if the ideas are proved to have faults and the people realise this, then they are still that lovely person. I want people to have better ideas than God but I refuse to force it on them. A fundy wants to force it on me because of the mad authority he got from twisting a moderates silly ideas!

I don't claim to know quite what the right ideas are to have but I can guess not invoking a God's authority is a decent start!

Philip

279. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162588 by Philip1978 on April 17, 2008 at 5:19 am

Epeeist

I think Jon Sociologist said something about Wooter being Russian, I doubt RM is!

RM on the plus side at least knows what syntax and sentence structure is, Wooter is not the world best communicator at the best of times!
:)

Philip

280. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162469 by Philip1978 on April 17, 2008 at 2:33 am

Egomaniac

I see you have begun to praise Quetz, its a good sign!

281. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162430 by Philip1978 on April 17, 2008 at 12:30 am

Cartomancer

Nice scarf!


Clodhopper,

People do the oddest things when thinking under the influence of Gods, wasn't there that guy who ran out onto a Formula 1 race track, cars hurtling towards him at ridiculous speeds and claiming God told him to? He must have convinced authorities with that one because he was back later on at some marathon event and stopped the lead runner because God told him to again!

My conclusion from that is that God was trying to tell us that Formula one racing and long distance running has something wrong with it!

Plus don't get me started with those stupid buggers who actually lobby to get themselves in on a chance to replay the crucifixion FOR REAL! Actually whipped, crown of thorns, nailed up on the cross etc

You are right people do get impaled on their own vanity....!! :)


Sorry, I'll get my coat, TAXI!

Philip

282. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162141 by Philip1978 on April 16, 2008 at 8:14 am

it's gonna take more than a few choccy sprinkles and an injection of hot milk to get us frothing with excitement

Very true, it will be the toxoplasmosis kicking in later on that will cause frothing, I don't quite think its going to be too exciting! :)

Philip

283. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162110 by Philip1978 on April 16, 2008 at 7:11 am

Sargeist

I have nothing against Coffee, Coffee is excellent, love the Costa Rican stuff - (Though I did hear that somewhere in London they are selling Cat Shit Coffee for £50 a cuppa, I mean really, people will drink anything these days!!)

I just so happen to be a fraction more of a Tea freak! :)

Philip

284. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162096 by Philip1978 on April 16, 2008 at 6:47 am

Ah yes, before I forget, all those people who said they would pray for me, I have something to say on the matter.

I deny the Holy Ghost, Jesus and God!


Right, thats that sorted, I am hell bound and there aint a thing you can do about it!

Still praying for me now?


Philip

285. Religious education as a part of literary culture

Comment #162044 by Philip1978 on April 16, 2008 at 3:50 am

Wooter,

Please can you answer the question I gave you, I made an honest inquiry, I promise I will not tease you or make fun of anything you say, I just want to know if you drink Tea and what your favourite is?



Philip

286. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162002 by Philip1978 on April 16, 2008 at 1:56 am

Good morning Irate, I hope you have had a pleasant cup of Tea this morning, my very best regards to your wife and Irate Jnr!

That is an interesting post from RM,

Efforts like those made by Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris are enormously useful in helping people who are in the process of curing themselves, or of being cured of their neuroses.

thisisme

I will have a look for your post and see if I can respond!

I know how you feel, I posted my first ever attempt at explaining the difference twixt Artificial and Natural Selection and how God is too complex to be involved in Natural Selection and could never be an Artificial Selector either. Dammit, I even quoted Douglas Adams, *sniff*, I didn't even get berated for my incompetence by Kardashovel before he attacked the wine, I was so upset! :) heehehhe!

Cheers

Philip

287. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161986 by Philip1978 on April 16, 2008 at 1:11 am

Quetz,

I am not sad about RM, its what he wanted, he is a grown man I say good hunting to him. I don't understand his reasoning or his sudden conversion to Jesus when he was one of the more outspoken on the subject of religion but so be it. I imagine David is going to mention this at some point in his usual affable style, but I am not in the least bit bothered.

Hows the head this morning Kardy?

:)

Philip

288. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161725 by Philip1978 on April 15, 2008 at 2:33 pm

Kardashovel

I am a bit new at this but I will give it a go, Steve or Billy please help me out if I arse this up!

This is how I understand it

You can breed a dog, cow, horse etc which have all the good characteristics that you are looking for, you can essentially make sure the right genes are passed over to the future generations until you have what you are looking for. You can basically force the outcome of this by sending the rubbish animals away and keeping the good ones - that in a very small, possibly badly explained way, is how I see Artificial Selection at work - you are the overseer in all this.


Natural Selection however is just that, Nature does the choosing of what gets to stay and what doesn't, thats why around 99% of all animals that ever existed on this lovely planet never made it this far. There is no picking and choosing, there is no pattern to it whatsoever and as Steve said, you might just as well watch the TV for all the hope of getting God to appear in it.

Douglas Adams said this in a speech called Is there an artificial God?

"Take a very simple example, maybe a bunch of animals suddenly finds itself in a place where the weather is slightly colder. We know that in a few future generations those genes that favour a thicker coat will have come to the fore"


Now tell me, how does God need to fit into any of this at all?

The cold weather was his idea? The animals with the genes that didn't favour fur coats get buggered if I am not mistaken but he favours those with the fur coat gene...whats the point?

Why not just make sure the weather stays the right way for the right animal to live in? Sod all this chopping and changing lark! Isn't that a bit of rubbish and convoluted way of going about showing God was somehow involved here? I know the old bugger moves in mysterious ways but killing off most of your creations like that comes close to what Eddie Izzard calls the "etcha sketch end of the world!"

"Ahhh bugger it!" said God as he shook the screen to clear it!

I don't buy it, not for one second does any of it make any sense with a god involved, its too complicated, ambiguous and just well, highly improbable - why not just have evolution with Natural Selection at the helm, it works so well, its not that complicated is it? This way there is no need for any "thing" to be involved - God cannot be an artificial selector, not on a planet with such an abundance of life on it - think of all the work that requires!

Having a God pitch up and "Kabloooey" its all there, no need to bugger with the climate, every animal is where it should be, that would rule out the need for drastic things like ice ages, meteors, earthquakes, volcanoes, droughts, floods - every ecological, natural disaster imaginable would be completely pointless.

Natural Selection explains how life came to be if a God wasn't there tinkering with it, it just took a bloody long time!

Hows that?

:)

Philip

289. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161655 by Philip1978 on April 15, 2008 at 1:28 pm

Ah I see, there are some lovely people in this world, you know Strength, people like you make me laugh so much! Makes me proud to be a non believer it really does!

I mean really, you can't spell your god's name without fear of the kind, loving God wanting to roast your balls over the coals, doesn't he like seeing his own name written?


Oh yes, Praying for us is REALLY going to help isnt it!


What precisely do you hope to accomplish with that? Is it somehow going to stop you from going to hell or something?

"Well g_d, we did our best to convert the @ssholes, but for some reason our abuse and lack of knowledge of evolution somehow didn't wash with the filthy non- believers!"

Give me a break, what did you hope to accomplish by this little raid of yours?

Next time, read a book on evolution, as I said earlier, there are some experts on this site who could correct any mistakes.

Also, check out what atheism is and far removed it is from Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mau, Kim Yong Il and his dead President father.

Learn some manners, that would be a really good start if you want to talk to anyone, you would be surprised how much further you can get without sounding like a religious fanatic!

Ah yes, one final thing, none of us are in the slightest bit afraid of you, god, the devil, hell, or any threat you can come up with that involves the heathens getting hurt in anyway. I personally could not give a shit about any of it, its pathetic, using non-existent things as threats doesn't really make me tremble!


You want a discussion about a decent subject, please, by all means, I am more than happy to type about about it.

So, whats it to be?

Philip

290. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161436 by Philip1978 on April 15, 2008 at 9:41 am

strength

I am impressed by your anger, God, or G-d, would be proud of you for swearing and ranting at us like that, what happened to being nice to everyone? ( G-d??? What is that by the way, are you so scared of your god that you can't even type his name?)

Please, do NOT compare anyone who does not believe in the same god that you do with Hitler, apologise at once. I think its highly insulting and I would not advise you go any further which such ludicrous suggestions.

If you want to chat properly, I am sure someone will chat but sod off if you are going to make trouble, you obviously dont understand what non belief is about and you certainly have a strange and highly wrong view of evolution, should you want it explained to you, I am sure we can help you out with it, there are enough experts on this site to do that.

Your choice, you get trolled, or you get a decent conversation!

Philip

291. Religious education as a part of literary culture

Comment #161255 by Philip1978 on April 15, 2008 at 4:32 am

Irate

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind! :)


Back on topic, this one interests me, I think I have fully read the Bible twice - never again, it is a dreary book. Saying that, I have a great fascination with literature, I love Shakespeare (Sorry Robotaholilc!) I love The Iliad and the Odyssey, I love John Keats poems - the list is endless.

In short its almost essential when reading great works from the olde days to find more about how the writer was inspired, should you so want to. People studying these subjects should have access to works like the Bible or Eygptian Book of the Dead or the Qu'ran etc if it is and aid to discovering the intent of the author or poet. So what if it is religious, doesn't make the subject or author any less interesting.

Philip

292. Religious education as a part of literary culture

Comment #161244 by Philip1978 on April 15, 2008 at 4:11 am

Wooter,

This is an honest inquiry, do you drink Tea?

Philip

293. The simple falsehood at the heart of Expelled

Comment #161208 by Philip1978 on April 15, 2008 at 3:12 am

Steve

I know people usually don't manage to get my heckles up, but I am quite frankly not having people like David saying that precisely because I don't believe in their religion I am wrong and at fault. Not believing in all that somehow, by default, makes me a bad person - in David's case I even have the potential to do something as despicable as what the Nazis are said to have done.

That to me reeks of arrogance and self importance and I am not going to stand for it - I strive very hard to be who I am because I want to, I hope on the whole I have made a load of people smile and have helped them because I am a kind enough, good mannered person. I am not perfect and never will be but I sure as hell am not doing this out of some arrogant belief that this makes me more special "in the eyes of my atheism". That makes no more sense than doing good things "in the eyes of THE LORD THY GOD".

I didn't explain myself well enough earlier and I agree with your correction, cheers. Must be lack of Tea or lack of music blaring in my ears, both can be adjusted soon! :)

I have been reading Climbing Mount Improbable a bit more recently and evolution is starting to make more and more sense to me. This one is taking a long time because I want to learn about it properly, there may be questions later I tell you!. Stuff about the differences between Artificial Selection and Natural Selection are becoming more apparent to me, its jolly interesting stuff. This wiffle about Hitler using Darwinian "Natural" selection does not make any sense at all, does this mean I am learning stuff?

Right, less ranting, more tea and good music!

Cheers

Philip

294. The simple falsehood at the heart of Expelled

Comment #161182 by Philip1978 on April 15, 2008 at 2:29 am

I am not saying that all atheism leads to such disasters as Nazism. Although I do work on the maxim that you shall know them by their fruits. So far the only societies in the world that have claimed to be atheist have not been an inspiring example.

Are you STILL really that ignorant of what atheism is?

How many times have you been told on this site that that sentence alone is one great big fat accusation that all atheists are bad, some can even turn to Nazism?

Let me repeat myself, just for the sheer bloody hell of it

Atheism is a lack of belief in gods, fairies, pixies, unicorns - ANYTHING that is the product of human fantasy. THATS ALL IT IS!

My lack of belief in Odin does not mean I am therefore set to be a Nazi or an equally bad person does it?

Your God is no different and does not deserve special treatment when explaining how lack of belief in him can make people act immorally. That sounds to me like the height of arrogance to even suggest it.

Good people are Good people David, Bad people are Bad People, I have not heard of somebody going out and doing something as a direct result of not believing in Thor or your God

I have heard of people doing things in the name of political idealism, religion, medical problems, football, racism, homophobia - the works.

Not believing in a God is just thinking precisely that, it has NOTHING to do with me being who I am, PLEASE understand this!

Oh and by the way, I suggest you read up on Artificial Selection, people have known about this way before Darwin arrived - cattle breeders, crop growers etc- Making the "Master Race" was just a version of breeding more people with the qualities perceived by Hitler to be worthy of his dream.

So please, no more of this finger pointing at who you think are Fundamentalist Atheists, one there is no such thing and two get to grips with the definition of what atheism ACTUALLY is!

Philip

295. Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher

Comment #160354 by Philip1978 on April 14, 2008 at 1:37 am

Its Ok Quetz,

He will never have the following you have acquired neither can he spell The Name properly!

Philip

296. The List: The World's Worst Religious Leaders

Comment #159449 by Philip1978 on April 12, 2008 at 8:09 am

Bluebird

Thats no 10 Gallon thats for sure, from what I understand of the origins of the famous cowboy hat it might come from the Spanish, tan galan, "so gallant", the pope is the least gallant human being I know of!

297. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #159438 by Philip1978 on April 12, 2008 at 7:40 am

You have a brain?

298. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #159435 by Philip1978 on April 12, 2008 at 7:37 am

My goodness ASMarques have you been taking laxatives? That last post much have you down to the size of a match box right now!

1) Perhaps partly because the German government is formed by folks as naive and ignorant Holocaust-wise as many other ordinary mortals corrupted by religious dogma and the pathos of Jewish suffering.

WHAT?


So let me get this straight, Stew282 and his friends go and visit a place that can be used as evidence for the existence of the Holocaust, he probably has photos from the event, others have given evidence here and I just gave a small example of the sort of people involved, which you then proceeded to claim was my sole piece of evidence that I was dangling to and you think this is part of some governmental religious inspired dogma from someone overly sympathetic to the Jews?


Bloody hell Stew282 is right, you ARE a twat and a racist one at that!

Philip

299. Fleabytes

Comment #159430 by Philip1978 on April 12, 2008 at 7:18 am

My sincere apologies Cartomancer, I know you are a sophisticated gent and your loquacity far outdoes any gutter influenced ramblings of mine own!

I shall deny myself a cup of tea in penance!

300. Fleabytes

Comment #159427 by Philip1978 on April 12, 2008 at 7:12 am

Ah, I listen to him between all the other ghastly cacophonies that manage to offend other people's ears that emanate from my music collection!

I am a big fan though, saw him in concert at Wembley Arena last year, belting stuff! Bless him he even set fire to the Bible on stage!

Robotaholic obviously has the same sophisticated taste as I have, I commend his efforts!