301. Halting progress

Comment #17036 by Luthien on January 10, 2007 at 9:51 am

24. Comment #17025 by flashbaby on January 10, 2007 at 6:49 am

"There is no absolute right to privacy that's why I have to hide my bomb factory."

We are tracing your IP as we speak...

:P

302. Halting progress

Comment #17015 by Luthien on January 10, 2007 at 4:58 am

21. Comment #17010 by nickthelight on January 10, 2007 at 4:38 am

"I agree with the general theory. However in the example given (a B&B) the owner of the business, as it is his/her home should be aloud to let into his/her home whoever he/she does or dosn't want. If that means not letting in gay/black/woman etc...then that is their right."

No, nickthelight, you have missed the point entirely. If someone decides to run a B&B from their own home, they have chosen to open it up to the public already. If they were not running this service then they have a "right to Privacy" in their own home, but with a publicly advertised B&B this is clearly not an issue of privacy. To refuse access to people purely on the bases of sex, sexual orientation, or skin colour is indefensible for any reason.

303. Richard Dawkins' Report Card

Comment #17007 by Luthien on January 10, 2007 at 4:22 am

I always got slated in school reports for my handwriting, and told I was lazy etc. because of it. Thank Evolution for the humans who came up with computers, keyboards, and spellcheckers!

304. Halting progress

Comment #16993 by Luthien on January 10, 2007 at 2:17 am

The "challenge" to this legislation here in Northern Ireland was only defeated by the vote of a dead man (The party in question had the right to use it on his behalf, until an election can be called). How scary is that?

Well said Grayling!

305. Open Letter to Rev. John Auer

Comment #16816 by Luthien on January 9, 2007 at 1:12 am

Last year there was at least one diocese of the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland that started taking up a 2nd collection (of money, in addition to the collection they normally take up) which people were told was a special collection "for the Priests". It later emerged that this money was going towards out of court settlements for abuse cases!

306. Hybrid embryo work 'under threat'

Comment #16731 by Luthien on January 8, 2007 at 11:00 am

FYI, the "non human" DNA that would be present in this type of embryo would be mitochondrial DNA, which is well conserved between mammalian species.

I find it ironic that people are complaining about mixing DNA from different species, when Mitrochondria themselves were originally a seperate species which developed a symbiosis with the host organism.

307. Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat

Comment #15198 by Luthien on December 29, 2006 at 1:04 pm

33. Comment #15196 by Anat on December 29, 2006 at 12:50 pm

"Luthien, your post mistakenly attributes a quote from DavidJMH to myself."

Whoops, sorry about that. I fixed it now :)

308. Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat

Comment #15194 by Luthien on December 29, 2006 at 12:37 pm

29. Comment #15173 by DavidJMH on December 29, 2006 at 9:29 am

"It is hardly surprising that Christianity and Islam are as equally bigotted since they are fruit from the poisoned tree."

Reminds me of a Blake poem, actually...

"Pity would be no more
If we did not make somebody poor,
And Mercy no more could be
If all were as happy as we.

And mutual fear brings Peace,
Till the selfish loves increase;
Then Cruelty knits a snare,
And spreads his baits with care.

He sits down with holy fears,
And waters the ground with tears;
Then Humility takes its root
Underneath his foot.

Soon spreads the dismal shade
Of Mystery over his head,
And the caterpillar and fly
Feed on the Mystery.

And it bears the fruit of Deceit,
Ruddy and sweet to eat,
And the raven his nest has made
In its thickest shade.

The gods of the earth and sea
Sought through nature to find this tree,
But their search was all in vain:
There grows one in the human Brain."

I was always taught that Blake was very religious, but it seems to me he is describing your "poison tree" of religion very accurately here ;)

("But their search was all in vain:There grows one in the human Brain" = delusion :P)

309. God's Enemies Are More Honest Than His Friends

Comment #15156 by Luthien on December 29, 2006 at 7:46 am

22. Comment #15152 by JohnC on December 29, 2006 at 6:56 am

"Luthien, agreed that our sense of humour is a precious commodity, and when it starts to slip away we know all is not well. But "cowardice" is pretty strong and serious language, and a serious reply is not inappropriate."

I would say that it is definitely NOT "cowardice" to hide the fact that you are an atheist, for fear of the people around you, but that was not in question. What was in question was the following from Chris: "trying to be one but still reject the simple, common, descriptive word smacks of weakness, cowardice and even hypocrisy".

Strong words indeed (though I am quite sure they were not intended to offend anyone personally), but when a person is open enough to talk about their own non belief in god(s), why would they then say they were not an atheist? From your comments I would say that you are one of the people that have bought into (or at least been influenced by) the "belief" that Atheism is some sort of doctrine? Let me clarify for you, it is decidedly not! What I am is a person who does not believe in any God. When people ask me what I believe I do not repeat this cumbersome sentence to them, because there is a single handy word to describe it.

"By the way, the last person I know of to be charged with blasphemy in this state was a woman activist dressed as nun wearing a placard saying: "I was fucked by the Almighty Steel Prick of the Lord", which was a literal translation from the writings of a famous saint (Teresa, from memory)."

See, that was damn funny! ;)

Perhaps we should go around telling people we are atheists who files off our horns every morning, or better still, sew a big red "A" into all our clothing :P

(…sorry, I'll shut up now.)

310. God's Enemies Are More Honest Than His Friends

Comment #15150 by Luthien on December 29, 2006 at 6:29 am

RE: 17. Comment #15147 by Chris Davis

Spot on Chris!

Perhaps we should have "Athiest Pride" parades with floats celebrating scientific discoveries (I'm picturing giant 'double helix' balloons right now) and fancy dress ranging from "Greek philosoper" costumes to people dressed as Darwin ;)

If we are going to be Athiests let's ENJOY it!

Oh, and lighten up JohnC... go on, have a free 'double Helix' balloon and an 'I [heart] Athiests' sticker :P

311. God's Enemies Are More Honest Than His Friends

Comment #15129 by Luthien on December 29, 2006 at 4:10 am

A little while ago I was accused by a friend of calling myself an Athiest because it was 'trendy' to do so. I thought to myself "Wow, we must be getting somewhere at last!" ;)

312. Woman beaten on Jerusalem bus for refusing to move to rear seat

Comment #15126 by Luthien on December 29, 2006 at 3:57 am

It's this idea that women are somehow 'unclean' or 'sinful' that makes my blood boil! The Catholic church still uses this one too, and here in Northern ireland we have seperate schools for males and females IN ADDITION to the seperate schools for the Catholic religion! My (all girls) school even went to great lengths to make sure our school trips were scheduled not meet any school trip from the all boys school!

I guess if you keep the men seperate from the women, they never learn that women are NOT property to be owned, but individuals to be respected. These people are sick!

313. The Blasphemy Challenge

Comment #14940 by Luthien on December 27, 2006 at 2:31 am

RE: 202. Comment #14935 by Rick777 on December 26, 2006 at 11:38 pm

Have you actually watched any of these videos? These young people are giving their "well reasoned line of thought" in their videos (except for Dean the ballooniac and his balloon Jesus who fought back :P).

As for this being viewed as "the work of satan", let me remind you that this site will also be viewed as "the work of satan", so satan is either a web designer (and HTML is the devil's markup) or non existent.

314. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #14327 by Luthien on December 22, 2006 at 3:27 am

I have put up a thread here in the civic action section of the forum:

http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4515

315. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #14311 by Luthien on December 22, 2006 at 2:15 am

Niels, Logicel, Yorker, Jared, Sancus and any other interested person.

I have access to flash and macromedia director, as well as some experience using them from my days as a student. We could pick a topic and I could generate content based around this. Something simple like "what makes astronauts experience weightlessness?", or "Why is the sky blue?", or "Why do we have summer and winter?" I will look into doing this over the holidays.

(I also think we should have a friendly slogan on the main page, like "Don't Panic" :P)

1. A brainstorm of suggestions about content and format from all interested parties.

2. Then a poll to decide upon the best brainstorm points.

3. Decide upon content and who will provide it.

4. Designate people or teams to carry out specifics and make a start.

For point 3 here, I would suggest that we open it up for anyone to upload a content animation containing their explanation (kind of like youtube), and we have a body of people who verify that it is correct before it is linked into the main content (like wikipedia).

If you move this thread, please post the link here for me so I can find it :)

316. 7 monks injured in clash over monastery

Comment #14114 by Luthien on December 21, 2006 at 7:13 am

13. Comment #14110 by Roy_H on December 21, 2006 at 6:53 am

"Not only are women banned from Mount Athos. So are female sheep presumably for fear they would offer too much temptation to frustrated monks"
Puts a whole new slant on the phrase "Lamb of God!"

Hehe, nice one :)

317. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #14102 by Luthien on December 21, 2006 at 6:14 am

Niels, Yorker, Logicel, and Sancus

The important thing for me as a child was the presentation, not of bald facts, but something that allowed me to directly interact with something to teach MYSELF the concept. That way, a child can spend as long as they need on a concept without feeling that they are 'slow', and can also skip over things that they already understand so they don't get frustrated or bored. Back when I was 7 years old, I had an excellent pop-up book called "The Universe", which taught concepts like 'red shift' and 'how to measure the distance of a star' via very simple push/pull tabs and a little paper engineering. It would be a relatively simple matter to put together a series of interactive 'experiments' to teach a whole range of scientific concepts, using flash or macromedia director, and then tie them together in a website (this could be done like 'Wiki' contributions, and a given concept could have many different animations associated with it, that explain in various levels of detail / complexity). The question is: how do we organise this collection into a 'journey' that can be tailored to each individual that visit's the site?

318. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #13992 by Luthien on December 20, 2006 at 2:21 pm

104. Comment #13973 by Yorker

I tried to get funding for a PhD to develop the AI part of such an educational tool, but was refused a grant. If I can ever afford it I will try to do it on my own. :)

319. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #13960 by Luthien on December 20, 2006 at 9:23 am

...Of course, no government would use the above in their education system, as it would create a generation of independant thinkers immune to the techniques used to control them.

320. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #13955 by Luthien on December 20, 2006 at 9:06 am

Yorker, I am impressed by your insightful comments. Perhaps we should start with getting young people to read and discuss Machiavelli's "The Prince"?

Regarding education, I think that the best way to 'educate' children is to set them on a personal voyage of discovery. It would be possible to write a software package that was 'open source', and allowed children to browse through multimedia content on any subject, taking feedback from their reaction times, and general interest (an "I'm bored" button), and reducing the complexity of the language if it is too advanced, or increasing it if it is too simple. The content could then be provided in an 'open source' format compatable with the software, in a project much like wikipedia.

321. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #13934 by Luthien on December 20, 2006 at 6:34 am

Interesting article on constructing arguments from the BBC website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6193691.stm

"Those familiar with internet culture may have heard of Godwin's law. Coined by the American lawyer Mike Godwin in 1990, it states that the greater the length of an internet discussion, the higher the chances of a comparison involving Hitler or the Nazis."

Discussion of Darwin, ends up with the predictible 'Hitler' in record time, another triumph for 'Godwin's Law'. ;)

322. The Trouble with Atheism

Comment #13697 by Luthien on December 19, 2006 at 6:03 am

If I were being kind I would say that he has not understood the nature of scientific progress, but I suspect it is more the case that he set out to deliberately misrepresent it.

One of his 'arguments' was that Darwin predicted "gradual change", but here is a scientist that says evolution can happen in 'sudden leaps' due to the nature of DNA, therefore...

therefore...

erm...

Oh yes, science has moved on in it's understanding since "The Origin of the Species" was written, what with the discovery of DNA and all that. So this means that atheists are...

are...

erm...

323. The Grinch Delusion: An Atheist Can Believe in Christmas

Comment #13539 by Luthien on December 18, 2006 at 6:38 am

Christmas: A great excuse to buy everyone you know a copy of "The God Delusion".

324. Atheist Chic

Comment #13523 by Luthien on December 18, 2006 at 5:00 am

Oh boy, haven't you got the wrong end of the stick!

Tolerance of children being indoctrinated into a religion is directly equivalent to tolerance for slavery. "It's a parent's right to bring up their children that way" (what about a child's right to intellectual independence?). Many people are 'slaves' to their own superstitions, unable to live a full life because they must not do this or that. Many people have been sexually, physically, and / or mentally abused by a religious 'authority' and did not know that they had the right to complain (the abuser played directly on the beliefs that had been instilled in them to ensure their compliance). Many more people have had money extorted from them, or have refused lifesaving treatment for themselves or (worse) for a child in their care on the basis of 'religion' (a relative of mine died because his 'prayer group' decided they could heal him through the 'power of Christ', and made him stop taking medical treatment). The worst case scenarios are the young men (and women) who have been convinced to martyr themselves by flying planes into buildings, or strapping bombs to themselves, killing many innocent people in the process.

We need to speak up on behalf of all these vulnerable children, so they can be allowed to develop intellectually (without being brainwashed by irrational beliefs) and protect themselves from those who would abuse their power.

325. Ministers to ban creationist teaching aids in science lessons

Comment #13063 by Luthien on December 15, 2006 at 8:30 am

I certainly hope that "Truth in Science" have not been awarded 'charitable' status, or given any kind of tax exemption.

We need to go check this out ASAP!

326. Blaming 'The God Delusion'

Comment #13060 by Luthien on December 15, 2006 at 8:12 am

Regarding Comment #12977 by JONATHAN DORE on December 14, 2006 at 6:29 pm

Yorker (#12974):
>>Eagleton does rightfully take Dawkins to task for his political and historical naivety -- he's particularly baffled when Dawkins's suggests that the words "nationalist" and "loyalist" are, in their Northern Irish context, merely euphemisms for "Catholic" and "Protestant," respectively.<<

"I see it Dawkins' way, because that's basically how they're divided."

"Yes Yorker, precisely: whenever I hear someone say the difference isn't religious (because their disagreements are chiefly political rather than theological) I want to ask them why the Northern Irish therefore need to continue being educated in religiously segregated schools? If it was a mere political disagreement, what would be the justification for them maintaining two completely separate and parallel public education systems? Is there any other conflict in the world in which a purely political disagreement has led to the creation of two separate, parallel education systems? Yet in Northern Ireland we are told that is precisely what is happening, even though the segregation, strangely, takes place precisely along the lines of (an of course arbitrary and totally irrelevant) religious identity! Yeah. Right."

I am from Northern Ireland, and I can confirm that Dawkins is correct to say that "the words 'nationalist' and 'loyalist' are, in their Northern Irish context, merely euphemisms for 'Catholic' and 'Protestant,' respectively".

Your point about the schooling system is bang on the mark too.

The divisions in Northern Ireland can be directly traced back to the religious war fought by the Catholic Church (via the Spanish, and other catholic nations) against the nations that had thrown off their control in favour of Protestantism. Unfortunately Ireland was a convenient 'back door' to England, complete with a ready made army of uneducated people who would do whatever their 'priest' told them to do. The divide is still there to this day, although I suspect that the liberal (for his time) William of Orange would be horrified by some of his modern 'supporters'.