1. These dim-wits believe in anything but God

Comment #181529 by Mr. Grape on May 17, 2008 at 11:05 am

"That may be worth pondering when a sufficiently mature and intelligent under-16 says he or she doesn't want to study the Abramic faiths "because they're boring", which is all too often what a matter of conscience amounts to when you're young."

Completely useless "education" IS boring. Why would you want to waste your time learning about more ignorant ways to pray to a god, when you can be taking on literature, science, arts, etc? I understand wanting to be well rounded in religious history, if only to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

I don't know what world this writer is living in, but where I'm at when a person turns 18 they do not receives gifts of "maturity" or "intelligence." Throughout my life I've generally found out from the people I've met that if you are an immature asshole at 16, the trend will continue.

2. $271 Million for Research on Stem Cells in California

Comment #178671 by Mr. Grape on May 11, 2008 at 9:56 pm

By mjwemdee "Bravo California! However, as a Brit who is rather ignorant of US state politics, I had to smile at the irony of this progressive step being made only months before a new presidency might have facilitated it anyway.
Good to know that other countries besides the UK fall victim to this sort of political idiocy. "

For the past decade America has literally been 50/50 when it comes to republicans and democrats. I would not feel comfortable in leaving the future of stem cell research in the states, to a coin toss. Especially when the next candidates to be ok with the research is a black man and a woman. Call me cynical, but there is no way in hell america will be electing them. Plus, CA is being smart by making it the "capital" of stem cell research. Lots of bright minds will be flocking here.

To quote another member, "I live in California and am mighty damn proud it, for now."

3. Gunk in T. Rex Fossil Confirms Dino-Bird Lineage

Comment #169351 by Mr. Grape on April 25, 2008 at 8:01 pm

jeremynel - I remember seeing a report about the discovery a little over a month ago and the Paleontologists who discovered the tissue still retaining its elasticity were just as surprised as anybody else. :)

4. Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital

Comment #167889 by Mr. Grape on April 24, 2008 at 12:05 pm

I don't know which is more unbelievable, that they believe in penis-shrinking witches or that they were able to operate a radio show.

5. Responses to 'Gods and Earthlings' by Richard Dawkins

Comment #167850 by Mr. Grape on April 24, 2008 at 11:28 am

Responses from Palm Desert, Bakersfield, Apple Valley...?

I live in SoCal and know these places are wastelands of dumb. Feeding on the left overs of L.A. just on the outskirts like a pack of starved coyotes. You can't see them, but once in a while you are reminded of their creeping existence by their depraved yips and yowls.

(Not just a joke post. Look at this link http://www.city-data.com/top18.html . CA and TX duke it out for dumbest in the states.)

6. Flea of the week

Comment #163708 by Mr. Grape on April 18, 2008 at 8:37 pm

Excellent post Paula, another good reason to not pick these books up. I imagine the child-like naivety and negativity in the books would bring you down in a similar fashion as listening to mr. bush give a speech. After about 5 minutes you feel like you've caught some kind of "dumb" virus.

I see some positives for all of these fleas.
1. Dawkin, Harris, Dennet and Hitchens must really grind their gears. Hit a soft spot. They got butt-hurt.
2. More evidence of their petty ideals and
3. The market for these book are spread very thin. The profit spread across 25 books must suck.

7. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #160370 by Mr. Grape on April 14, 2008 at 2:08 am

They had me vomiting at, "Falling at his feet? Worshipping? It all seems oddly reminiscent of the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in the days before his Passion..." I knew that Russel Davies quote was going to be eaten up like this the second I read it. Is this "journalist" completely retarded or can he actually differentiate colloquialisms from real life actions? Either way it's a shady practice. The article even has spelling errors!

Is the guardian the British equivalent of fox news?

8. Ore. Court: Boy Has Say in Circumcision

Comment #116395 by Mr. Grape on January 26, 2008 at 11:48 am

"I'm surprised the case was able to get this far without anybody thinking it might be a good idea to ask the boy what he wants..."

Here in the U.S., children are mostly treated as sub human. What can you expect from a country that likes to kill 14 year olds for crimes.

9. Religious Freedom in Military Questioned

Comment #100911 by Mr. Grape on December 19, 2007 at 3:19 pm

"Well, it was under such a 'restriction' that the UK was able to ensure that the dispicable Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.

Care to re-consider your position? :)"

In the same sense, Charles Manson is behind bars in the U.S., though he never directly murdered anybody. There is a profound difference between "hate speech" and murder in the second degree. Hate speech is a term used by people who want to silence critics. No matter how well guided you feel, it can swing back your way. I'm glad in the U.S. we at least have the first ammendment.

10. THE FOUR HORSEMEN - Available Now on DVD!

Comment #99058 by Mr. Grape on December 15, 2007 at 11:32 am

"I pass a gang of kids in the USA and i usually get a 'hi' (and it took me a while to actually get used to that), in the UK you either get stared down, a 'what the fuck are you looking at' or a stone or two thrown as you walk away, who here in the UK hasnt experienced that?"

I don't know where in the U.S. you were or what age group you're talking about, but a "hi" to a group of kids would result in funny looks, laughs or a confrontation. Maybe it's just the city.

11. Biologist fired for beliefs, suit says

Comment #96052 by Mr. Grape on December 9, 2007 at 9:56 pm

If you were hired as a doctor and told your boss you didn't believe in trying to save people who were going into cardiac arrest, you would be fired. If I, or anybody here, were to tell the boss that you didn't believe in the companies "objectives" you would be fired. The only reason this gets a lawsuit and a headline is because religion gets special privileges.

12. Islam's Silent Moderates

Comment #95420 by Mr. Grape on December 8, 2007 at 10:00 am

lulando - "It is just the same with communism: the reality never matches the ideal..."

I disagree. The saying, 'communism sounds good on paper...' holds true, but the same can't be said about the "holy" books. :D

13. Holy communion

Comment #87689 by Mr. Grape on November 12, 2007 at 9:20 pm

Comment #86986 by Cartomancer

I'm glad you live in the UK where it's tolerated. I, however, live in a place where gays are beaten to death on fences and atheists are bullied into silent submission. To me it's about as tasteful a "satire" as a 1930s caricature of blacks.

14. Holy communion

Comment #86911 by Mr. Grape on November 10, 2007 at 12:24 pm

Not a very flattering cartoon. It's not surprising that somebody who is in defense of religion might subconsciously (or not) approve of their anti-gay stance and find it funny. After what homosexuals have gone through and are still going through, you would think they would be a little more sympathetic being the "true moderates". Maybe we were asking for it by labeling it the out campaign. :/

15. Jury Awards Father $11M in Funeral Case

Comment #84343 by Mr. Grape on November 1, 2007 at 9:08 pm

"Rather than physically assaulting them, maybe we could just take shifts where we could perpetually follow all of them around and verbally assault them 24 hours a day.

I think that is the only way to break these people, and make them see the error of their ways, without overtly breaking the law."

I recently viewed a documentary on the family(I think it was bbc) and they live their lives like that. They do not care that they are verbally abused for their immoral actions, it only makes them stronger. An, 'Us verses the world' kind of mindset.

16. AAI 07

Comment #83073 by Mr. Grape on October 28, 2007 at 9:19 pm

I rarely post, but this issue on Americas social phobia is as important to me as religious tyranny. While nobody can say for certain, these issues do look very closely related. This in group/out hostility is deeply seated in religion and does not surprise me that it goes hand in hand with the ever greedy "conservatives" and republicans ideals. I am pleased to see many atheists here taking a stand against this show of immorality, but very uneasy over the others. If I were you guys, I'd stick with "athiest" and stay away from "humanist" or "brights"

I regret registering as libertarian, because of its unchecked greed, corporation interests and the spite for the ill trodden. I vote green anyways, but I think I'll change it so they won't be able to use me as a statistic. (For the Europeans - Our green party is probably more like your liberal parties.)

17. Atheists arise: Dawkins spreads the A-word among America's unbelievers

Comment #75149 by Mr. Grape on October 1, 2007 at 11:35 pm

Nick Good wrote: "However, my understanding is, that Richard's post is 'Professor of Public understanding of science' at Oxford University, not proto Chomsky, not Robert Fisk, not John Pilger."

I think we've heard that argument before, but it goes a little like this,

"However, my understanding is, that Richard's post is 'Professor of Public understanding of science' at Oxford University, not the leader of the militant atheists fight against religion."

You must be living under a rock if you think the Israeli lobby does not have an unreasonable amount of power in the United States. There's a whole group of rapture ready christian right-wingers who support Israel(IIRC: christians united for israel. Which includes top political supporters) for a glorious armageddon.

18. Messiah

Comment #52983 by Mr. Grape on June 28, 2007 at 11:05 pm

Many planting of ideas and careful word choices. During the atheist conversion, you hear him say to the man who gets on stage something along the lines of, 'don't worry, I'll catch you.' So there is the suggestion that he is supposed to fall backwards. He also uses a sort of 'pavlov'/planting technique on the woman when he touches her. As for the dream machine, it is a cold reading, but the woman was told beforehand that the device can capture dreams. If she assumes that it's catching dreams, obviously she is going to start paying more attention to dreams: something that most people never do. It's then not uncommon to suddenly notice that a couple of dreams don't have color... or spinning wheels and white buildings.

19. Republican candidates range from ignorant to dishonest, part 2

Comment #49920 by Mr. Grape on June 14, 2007 at 5:22 am

Why any atheist would vote republican is beyond my comprehension. The rep. party has proven time and time again that they are very much against scientific advancement and secular values. There seems to be a disgusting amount of support for mitt romney here too. Did everybody forget his speech about the 'evil cesspool of filth" at pat robertsons "university"?

20. Scientists divided over alliance with religion

Comment #45968 by Mr. Grape on May 29, 2007 at 9:44 pm

Oh please! If a cult believes their leader is attempting to clone people, they are "on the side of science" as much as scientologists are. What Rees said sounded like a deliberately dishonest remark.

21. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Robert Winston

Comment #45603 by Mr. Grape on May 28, 2007 at 12:53 pm

"Dawkins and Winston need to stage a 15-Round Title Fight. I tip Dawkins with a K.O. by Round 9."

"And Richard Dawkins in a ninja suit burst through the window, glass spewing every which direction, his sword glistening in the meager fluorescent lighting as the creationists turned their heads in curiosity. Throwing stars found their marks in the necks of the scurrying pseudo-science promoters who, in a panicked frenzy, hopelessly clung to what remained of their severed, blood spurting carotid arteries as they succumbed to hypovolaemic shock. Swing after relentless swing of the Blade of Truth cleaved into what remained of the crowd as Dawkins bestowed his odious rampage on the stupidity entrenched in the heads of the believers in the form of indiscriminate carnage. Eventually, as the last body collapsed unceremoniously onto the crimson soaked carpet, Ninja Dawkins vanished in a cloud of smoke, eagerly plotting his next skirmish in the war on ignorance."

Don't remember where I picked that quote up, but a little humor here can't hurt :)

22. Hitchens on Falwell, Part 2

Comment #44174 by Mr. Grape on May 23, 2007 at 2:22 pm

#94 scot -

Where did I say that every single news source is not based on facts? Don't twist what I said around. I only stated that there are a whole bunch of opinions. When most americans get their news from cable news network and those networks have many partisan hacks, there is a problem with the general knowledge of the public. Around a third believe WMDs were found http://www.progressive.org/mag_apb080906 the majority of them fox viewers. When watching these shows you hear a lot of "I think this is..." "I believe that..." "My opinion is..." snuck into every issue.

Then when you get to news sources like newspapers who are so afraid of looking "biased" or "unbalanced" that they don't cut into the real issue and unfortunately, reality doesn't lie in between two parties.

23. Hitchens on Falwell, Part 2

Comment #43845 by Mr. Grape on May 23, 2007 at 12:45 am

#86 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Abramoff_Indian_lobbying_scandal

Jack is an extremely corrupt politician with ties to literally hundreds of other politicians.

24. Hitchens on Falwell, Part 2

Comment #43844 by Mr. Grape on May 23, 2007 at 12:37 am

scot - "My experience has been the opposite. As an American living in Ireland for the last 3 years I have found that the variety of opinion and choice for news sources to be far inferior to what could be found on the airwaves, t.v. and radio, in America."

You're right, there are a lot of opinions in the main source of news in america and not FACTS.

25. Jerry Falwell's Hit Parade

Comment #42136 by Mr. Grape on May 17, 2007 at 5:23 pm

-Bizarro- Dawkins - a fitting handle for a person full of irrational beliefs and unquestionable faith. What pleasure do you get coming here to pick at the slightest poor side(and I use 'poor' loosely, falwell was nowhere near a good person) of people and blaming atheism?

Maybe you find relief in your faux moral superiority, but I've seen twice as many christians rejoice at his death on many other boards than athiests here. Claiming "he wasn't a REAL christian, so I love the fact that he's burning in hell" I'd say he was MORE of a real christian, because he went by the scripture.

So, before you claim moral superiority, look at the "normal" christians reactions around you and think about your own objective to hovering around the RD site.

26. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #41771 by Mr. Grape on May 16, 2007 at 11:37 pm

If you've ever seen "Jesus Camp" (Which is what fueled me to become more outspoken about atheism) the correlation between evolution denial and climate change denial is valid one to bring up. http://www.nypress.com/19/37/film/jennifermerin2.cfm
3/4ths of children homeschooled in america are evangelicals. In the documentary you can see parents teaching their children that AGW "isn't really a big deal" and then sending their kids to a camp where they speak in tounges, fall down to the ground crying and literally pray to a cardboard cut-out of george w bush.

27. Television evangelist Falwell dies at 73

Comment #41307 by Mr. Grape on May 15, 2007 at 9:02 pm

Yorker -

While I think some here have expressed hatred, the feeling I get from the comments is more of relief. I know the Hitler analogy is a poor one and diminishes the scope of what he's done, but can we really separate the man from what he's preached and the actions he took? We definitely never hear, "I don't rejoice Hitlers death, because he never realized the error of his ways."

I think most people here can agree that his ignorance led to a sad existence, but rejoice in the fact that his hatred left with him.

28. Hitchens vs. Hannity on Religion and God

Comment #41291 by Mr. Grape on May 15, 2007 at 7:43 pm

To add to what blueollie said - not only do the particular programs on fox news network appeal to the lowest Joe in the USA, but they have direct ties to right wing lobbies and the bush administration. I'm very surprised a lot of people in the United States can take them for a respectable news organization, but the power of the "fair and balanced" meme goes far and wide for the public.

29. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #40755 by Mr. Grape on May 14, 2007 at 10:44 pm

Mikado - "And the proof of AGW is?"

This is a pretty good site to start at http://www.ipcc.ch/

People love their graphs
http://www.ipcc.ch/present/graphics/2001syr/large/05.16.jpg

Thanks for making these videos Brian. Somebody needs to squash faulty logic somehow and what better way than getting the message out through youtube :)

30. Global Warming (includes commentary about creationism)

Comment #40698 by Mr. Grape on May 14, 2007 at 5:48 pm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070419114538.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070427095127.htm

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070511100918.htm

As for the Sun Spots research not being granted , because of political reasons chbg... maybe it's because it has already been debunked??? The research is coming out all the time, these are just recent articles.

I know the climate change theory has nothing to do with Atheism(unless you believe that god is punishing the homosexual with the weather), but this is another example of how the sound-bite "it's just a theory" hurts legitimate science.

If ever the quote "Follow the money trail, you will find the truth." has been true, it's in this situation. Who benefits from these untrue buzzwords and deception... it couldn't possibly be corporations with billions in investment...

Just like the cigarette companies before them, they know the truth, they are just buying time to make another dime.

31. Row over Scientology video

Comment #40659 by Mr. Grape on May 14, 2007 at 4:35 pm

What's really scary is that the things the scientologists do to dissenters is sometimes worse - murder. They are like a brainwashed gang of stalkers.

One of my friends accidentally gave a scientologist "auditor"(recruiter) my address five years ago and they are still sending me creepy personalized handwritten notes. Even scarier is that I live next to their main nest in L.A.

At least with god-believers of abraham you usually only get yelled at...

32. Defenders of Marriage

Comment #40148 by Mr. Grape on May 13, 2007 at 10:58 am

I understand there are a lot of people from Europe and Australia on this board, so I'll try to help in the understanding of what the republican party is. Yes, it is true that the party used to represent smaller government, less intrusion and less taxes, but an ideal called neo-conservatism took over the party in the 60s and 70s escalating with Nixon(you can see where this is going) I believe the ease at which capitalistic greed can thrive in a "don't hold down the business"republican style government, led to the ease of a neocon takeover. Those who follow the old republican ways identify themselves with the libertarian party in america and most don't even pay much attention to what is happening to notice this change. The thirst for power in todays rep. party is why politicians are first and foremost "god-fearing, family orientated manly-men". Those who are easily led are followers of religion and what better way to fascism than that resource :)

33. Republican candidates range from ignorant to dishonest

Comment #37496 by Mr. Grape on May 4, 2007 at 4:27 pm

"Believe it or not, not everyone here is a liberal. I am Libertarian minded (small government, low taxes, no deficit spending, personal freedom...) Giuliani is the closest to me ideologically, and at this point I will be happy to vote for him. Moreover, no one can deny how he turned NY completely around."

Just remember that the libertarian model has no accountability for corporations, which is exceptionally bad for the time we live in where politicians can be bought and sold(by religious nuts or otherwise) I believe a green candidate would bring a much needed balance and benefit to everyday people rather than the top 1%(or 0.1%)

I do agree that a libertarian would make a better president than a democrat and especially a republican. Just remember that the democrats pull the religion card as much as the republicans.

Vote 3rd party, democrats and republicans are two sides of the same coin.

34. 'god is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything' by Christopher Hitchens

Comment #36296 by Mr. Grape on April 30, 2007 at 9:07 pm

I doubt The God Delusion would be on the best seller if only Atheists bought the book. When the bible is the all time best selling book, there needs to be a lot of damage control. Keep getting the word out, keep writing these books :)

35. Convention ends with Satan and immigrants

Comment #36294 by Mr. Grape on April 30, 2007 at 8:55 pm

Comment #21

I live in the United States and it probably made as much sense to you as it did to me. From what I gathered the utah county republicans(right/conservative viewpoint/bed fellows with most christian nuts) had some sort of meeting/rally where they discussed what should be done about the illegal immigration problem. Hilarity and insanity ensue as they talk about satan and the bush administration.