401. Fleabytes

Comment #141942 by clodhopper on March 11, 2008 at 12:43 pm

SG: I thought the final chapters of Island at the Edge of the World very moving and insightful. I wouldn't want you to think that I'm letting the Calvinists off the hook easily, I think they played a big part in the demise of that society, but as you say lots of other factors too.

Thanks for the links....I'm at work but I'll take a peek when it goes quiet.

best

clod

402. Fleabytes

Comment #141929 by clodhopper on March 11, 2008 at 11:57 am

4437. Comment #141720 by clearthinker on March 11, 2008 at 6:20 am

Clodhopper - bile, lies innuendo and hatred. I guess if you can't cope with the argument you resort to name calling. You can do better than that.

3464 Clod hoper - in answer to your question I would use the following from wikipedia --
Evidence in its broadest sense, refers to anything that is used to determine or demonstrate the truth of an assertion. Philosophically, evidence can include propositions which are presumed to be true used in support of other propositions that are presumed to be falsifiable. ...

As it happens one of my best friends is the grandson of the last person to be evacuated from St Kilda and has taken a keen interest in the history of the place. Suffice it to say that the simplistic unsophisticated history of SG and others (which amounts to 'blame it on the Calvinists) is all too typical of the those who would rather perpetuate myth than deal with historical fact. The truth is far more complex.

403. Fleabytes

Comment #141717 by clodhopper on March 11, 2008 at 6:10 am

Yay...clearthinker has returned praise the Lard....getting better with every post! I do so like a refreshing shower of bile, innuendo, lies and hatred. Made my day.

404. Fleabytes

Comment #141658 by clodhopper on March 11, 2008 at 3:20 am

Epeeist: "Of course even if mlearnedfriend managed to predict something 100% of the time it wouldn't mean that a deity existed, or his deity in particular."

Of course. But perhaps if one of us exploded mlearnedfriend might feel a bit better...who knows?

405. Fleabytes

Comment #141648 by clodhopper on March 11, 2008 at 2:37 am

Epeeist: N53:34:41, W2:32:23 That would be a stones throw from the Bolton Wanderers ground.

mlearnedfriend: If you can specify a time and date and location at which either epeeist or I are to explode I will believe.

406. Fleabytes

Comment #141546 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 3:28 pm

Was Fr Jonathan Morris on Romes new list of sins. (sic).

407. Fleabytes

Comment #141544 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 3:25 pm

BBC1 News....NOW

408. Fleabytes

Comment #141542 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 3:23 pm

No Fair...'mancrush' happens in Piccadilly between 4.30 and 6.30.

409. Fleabytes

Comment #141527 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 3:00 pm

C'mon guys.....don't spoil it. I'm still at work and putting a lifeline care package together for...wait for it....a Mr James Bond. Life don't get much better than this. Therefore Q exists.

410. Fleabytes

Comment #141501 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 2:20 pm

Assistant stage manager? Orbital Peter & Wendy? Wendy Flys Through Scenery? Somehow 'deliberate' springs to mind.

411. Fleabytes

Comment #141478 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 1:36 pm

"Paula Kirby and Steve Zara descend on flying wires"

YES. 10 tickets in the Gods please

412. Fleabytes

Comment #141448 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Choc of the day = Moksha Moments

What made the Xtian church flourish? Was it just latching onto the dreams of a madman; someone who seemed to offer something beyond a life of struggle and suffering. A hope that, in the end, there could be some sort of justice if you were a goody two shoes and the nastee pharisees/romans were a pickin on you and life was generally just one miserable round of opression from someone or other. Then, at the end of life, more candy; an eternity of liquorice, sat on yer butt at the right side of Gawd listening to the luvverly harp musak some adapted from the works of the famous atheist composer R Morgan.

There was this idea of original sin too, involving trees and apples and snakes and knowledge and nudity and temptation and a garden without Monty Don (is that possible)? Well, lets just say this is just some sort of 'mistake', metafurkleh speakin? You see, there is sometimes this feeling that humankind, somewhere along it's path, has somehow gone a bit doo lally, a bit wrong, we sort of fit into nature but then we sort of don't anymore, if you see what I mean. Lions fit, yeah lions fit. Frogs, no problem. Robins, Ahhh! pretty little Robins etc. What if the problem is actually IN human consciousness or do I mean self-consciousness?

The fact that we want something means we can be deluded very easily, as the advertising industry well knows. The fact that I want a world without religion and churches leaves me wide open to delusion, no? The fact that Wee Flea wants the Bible to be true leaves him wide open to delusion too, obviously. Then, the only one who cannot be deluded, is the one that does not want 'ANYTHING'

Well, fuck me with the rag end of a rotating pineapple! How can that possibly work?

I'm not making any sense at all.

I'll Shut Up Now.

413. Seven new deadly sins: are you guilty?

Comment #141388 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 10:34 am

St Peters Basilica
0700 - Mass. Sermon: Fr Rivelli "Jesus walks on water."

1400 - Workshop "Searching For Jesus"

414. Fleabytes

Comment #141289 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 8:36 am

clodhopper is lernin LolCat:

All tek kittehs av srownded Jebus lukin everso anxius.

"Wot is mattr lil pussys" e say.

"dey is only 5 fishus left to feed dis 5000 kittehs" dey mewl.

Jebus, e smile a nigmatic smile, "no problm", purs Jebus "bing me dem fishus."

415. Fleabytes

Comment #141083 by clodhopper on March 10, 2008 at 2:27 am

Richard: Wea Flea was just right. Hard to take at first....grit teeth and all that. Marvellous.

Do you have the dots for Comet in Sibelius perchance? I am thinking of an arrangement for my partners flute quoir.

Best. The Clod

416. Fleabytes

Comment #140907 by clodhopper on March 9, 2008 at 5:12 am

Comment #140815 by LorienRyan

I'm sure even if I knew the rational argument as to why I did, I wouldn't care.

Why am I having an impression of deja vu?,

Then a new factory springs up making something called Reason's Pieces. It's pretty good stuff.

I have several quaker friends and it is impossible to get them to speak rationally about the use of violence.

I always go for the nutty ones...

417. Fleabytes

Comment #140881 by clodhopper on March 9, 2008 at 3:00 am

Morning All. T'is Sunday. The Storm Has Passed
Pass the Lard.


I would lift up mine eyes to the heavens....but I dropped them a bit ago and I'm buggered if I can find them now.

418. Fleabytes

Comment #140811 by clodhopper on March 8, 2008 at 4:43 pm

I think Bonzai, (3706), may be right. Religion is a box of chocolates. Believers have to buy the whole box, and they do, but once they've got it home and got the lid off they'll have the vishnu surprise and the jesus praline but leave the tofu tao and the brandy buddha alone. This 'cherry picking' is familiar to us all here.

And there's lots of boxes of chocolates to choose from and because they are ubiquitous, there must be something in those boxes we think we need. So is Bonzai right? To most believers the BIG TRUTH claims are a bit of an add on; important to the bishops and priests (maybe); important to fanatics and zealots like DR, but to your average, run of the mill, day by day believer, not really a big deal; almost a matter of indifference really.

The box doesn't really matter. Gimme the chocolates!

It may turn out that, like it or not, we HAD to have some sort of boxes early on anyway in order to aid survival. What I mean is we had to learn to project purpose and agency and intent onto the outside world. I need to know if you're a threat to me or not and I need to know it fast. I think RD has a chapter on this in TGD so I'm probably wasting my time here, but I think the box may have arisen from having to think in those terms. The chocs (the real payoff), is group cohesion, bonding, mutual aid, empathy, co-operation, compassion, ambition, civil rules (law), moral rules (agreed ecceptable behaviours).

Paula is also (Comment #139574), rightly suggesting that some of the boxes are now downright shoddy, there is crap distribution of the boxes and some of the purveyors are putting toxic chocs in the box. Some of the chocs are ok but don't need the box.

I haven't got a clue where I'm going with this yet other than to think that yes, maybe we are overplaying the rationality card a bit. It's good to have it, but you aint gonna win my box of chocs by playing it.

(sorry if i've misrepresented anyones views in this - I know you'll tell me)

419. Fleabytes

Comment #140774 by clodhopper on March 8, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Can it be shown that atheists are tastier than Xians?

420. Fleabytes

Comment #140661 by clodhopper on March 8, 2008 at 9:11 am

Polydactyl: My wife has been ugging me?

421. Fleabytes

Comment #140658 by clodhopper on March 8, 2008 at 8:46 am

Richard: Set of, class of, "on"
Cut me some slack....it's Saturday.

PS Yer ex FinLaw sounds charming!

422. Fleabytes

Comment #140651 by clodhopper on March 8, 2008 at 8:22 am

oh dear....WTF
"Human consciousness requires a Sufficient Cause "
Demonstrate this.

"People who spend so much time on the Richard Dawkins website arguing against the notion of God and religious belief...snip..."
We are examining religious belief as a phenomena and seeking to account for it. To date it's truth claims do not stand up.

"The reality is as Locke argued there must be a intelligent conscious designer to explain human intelligence and consciousness."

It Aint NECESSARILLY so

"So, not only do you have to believe that the vastly improbable conditions for life in the universe came about by chance, not only that against all probability life 'evolved' by chance but also that on the one planet where conscious life did evolve with the capacity to understand the universe this planet also happens to be in an ideal location with favourable conditions to allow us to pursue science."

Let me count the mumber of ways this is wrong. Oooops, calculators run out of memory. Oh well.

So, now tell us which particular deity (there's a huge choice), YOU believe in and why and also. (if you do think it), why all the other religions are 'wrong'.

423. Fleabytes

Comment #140646 by clodhopper on March 8, 2008 at 7:54 am

Been reliving my adolescence this morning while doing the domestic shit.

Jethro Tull at full blast:

"....and the wise men don't know how it feels....to be thick as a brick.

Nice one Ian.

PS He's playing the Lowry centre in Manchester next month. Gottago.

424. Fleabytes

Comment #140642 by clodhopper on March 8, 2008 at 7:46 am

Comment #140623 by Geoff

This site is where I practise my procrastination regarding all things domestic.

425. Fleabytes

Comment #140621 by clodhopper on March 8, 2008 at 2:56 am

Morning All....good grief - you go to the pub and there's another 100 comments to catch up on!

Doesn't anybody have a Life/Job/Wife/Pub/Dog/Washing Up anymore?.....
....not necissarily in that order you understand.

426. Fleabytes

Comment #140413 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 9:12 am

Can we have a real party in a real pub with real beer when it hits 5k?
......divine nibbles would be good.

I have another way of knowing I am going to the pub later. It is such a warm wonderful loving feeling!

427. Fleabytes

Comment #140338 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 6:39 am

Al: would mannerly prick do? :-)

428. Fleabytes

Comment #140333 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 6:35 am

MPhil: Good night all.

Sweet dreams of the neutrino-propelled tootsies of Jesus in an infinite but unbounded universe in trial run mode.

....I almost envy you.

429. Fleabytes

Comment #140323 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 6:22 am

Comment #140321 by mlearnedfriend
"Just thought I'd throw that in"

Consider it thrown. What do you think?

430. Fleabytes

Comment #140320 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 6:16 am

Comment #140316 by Steve Zara

....that God is at the end of time,

431. Fleabytes

Comment #140314 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 6:08 am

....but I suppose he might have made night vision goggles first. But it doesn't SAY that anywhere.

432. Fleabytes

Comment #140312 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 6:07 am

....and he did it all in the DARK too! Let there be light came after. Kudos.

433. Lords Approve Abolition Of Blasphemy

Comment #140278 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 5:10 am

Allahbleedinlooya! At last!

434. The Salamander's Tale

Comment #140271 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 5:01 am

wootsy; "If we see God then there will be no test."

SATS were always a waste of time anyway.

435. Fleabytes

Comment #140255 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 4:34 am

The-assayer: Thoughts?

Well our state of knowledge about the universe is so limited that Theists are on a hiding to nothing with the fine tuning argument. It's just another opportunity to spout Goddidit. We've only had electric light for (how long?), can we have just a little more time to explain the universe please?

436. Fleabytes

Comment #140247 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 4:25 am

All is well. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, Steve has a new filling, God is in his.....no wait.....doh

437. Fleabytes

Comment #140241 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 4:20 am

Comment #140239 by Paula Kirby

Maybe you should stop now, though? If you go on behaving like this, you'll start giving atheists a good name, and then where will we be? ;-)

438. Fleabytes

Comment #140228 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 4:07 am

I didn't mean to hit 4K Paula *sobs* *beats chest* mea culpa mea culpa mea maxima culpa

EDIT:....who did that. Was that God? Oh Praise Be!

439. Fleabytes

Comment #140223 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 4:03 am

I think he's shacked up with wooter!

440. Fleabytes

Comment #140148 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 2:25 am

Is Steve having root canal work? Can we really make 4K before he returns? Will the Archers ever get the methane digester up and running? Are superstrings REALLY that heavy? Did I put on clean underpants this morning? Is there such a thing as a THINWA?

I know *coat*

441. Fleabytes

Comment #140144 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 2:20 am

Well, the tapioca has to be washed down with advocaat. That's compulsory.

442. Fleabytes

Comment #140141 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 2:14 am

Did I mention tapioca? Tapioca pudding will be served in hell....every godamn day!

443. Fleabytes

Comment #140123 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 1:38 am

There will be dentists in hell....plenty of them. And there will be semolina for pudding.

444. Fleabytes

Comment #140103 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 1:00 am

Um....and dandelion coffee

445. Fleabytes

Comment #140092 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 12:53 am

Is Diacanu really Neo? The One?

446. Fleabytes

Comment #140091 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 12:52 am

What (the hell) are daemonic attendents FOR? Gin & Tonix?

447. Fleabytes

Comment #140083 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 12:45 am

Oh fuck it.....at least tell me there will be some drafts :-(

448. Fleabytes

Comment #140075 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 12:36 am

Comment #140041 by MaxD

"A fellow fallen Catholic"......oh yea, you bet, see you in hell Max...are board games allowed?

While I'm in Catholic bashing mode....they way they attempt to bend public policy to fit their dogma stinks like a skunk.

449. Fleabytes

Comment #140052 by clodhopper on March 7, 2008 at 12:12 am

as I said somewhere else...I believed the earth was round, so I went round it, and it was flat all the way round.

450. Fleabytes

Comment #140031 by clodhopper on March 6, 2008 at 11:56 pm

Morning All......had to go see a man about a dog

Comment #139574 by Paula Kirby

snip.....But it's not content to do this - to act as a sort of informal Social Services. It is intent on declaring certain either FALSE or UNKNOWABLE statements to be TRUE. And worse - on condemning those people who don't agree that those false or unknowable statements are true. It is also intent on portraying those who don't accept these false or unknowable claims as incapable of leading a full and moral life. And on imposing these false "truths" on young, impressionable minds, and on clinging to temporal power and even extending it, wherever it can. And, of course, it clings to the bizarre and entirely reprehensible story of hell, scarring minds for life with images of both the utmost horror and the utmost LUNACY.