1. The Flea Delusion

Comment #197791 by IJM on June 22, 2008 at 5:24 pm

Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.
- Russel Lynes.
http://www.quoteopia.com/quotations.php?type=q&query=journalist

It does sound like Hitchens, although I must admit I actually thought it was Oscar Wilde.....well we can all be wrong occasionally, I know I frequently am.

Ian

2. How to reconcile Richard Dawkins?

Comment #174569 by IJM on May 2, 2008 at 6:33 pm

Does it really matter if it is Socialism or Capitalism? There are going to be people at the top and people at the bottom. There will always be - until we find a system that really works, if that is possible - workers and managers. People need leading; no matter how strongly they feel about something people need a leader, sometimes the leaders are good sometimes they are bad, sometimes they are adequate and sometimes they are impotent.
If Marx had lived to see the 1960's he may well have re-written his book or started slapping people, we don't really know because he never really saw what a balls up the communists made of his ideas. And really and truly Capitalism isn't all that wonderful either. One day a market trader decides a bank is in trouble and hey presto, the UK government has to put 50 billion quid into the private sector to ensure we can all keep our homes.
Sorry ladies and gents I am not an educated man, so I may have made some huge errors here. I do enjoy this site but sometimes it just feels as though you get a bit tied up in intellectual discourse and try and speak for everyone.
That said, thanks for the info it is always very informative reading.
Ian

3. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #109756 by IJM on January 9, 2008 at 4:08 pm

To be honest, having read that article....I er....couldn't read it properly. It seemed to be like full of like really, you know, terrible grammar, and absolutely; horrid punctuation!!!

4. Dawkins - what can't he be blamed for?

Comment #75171 by IJM on October 2, 2007 at 1:33 am

I recently lost a pair of nearly new and quite nice black socks in the wash, do you think..............?

5. Interview with Dan Dennett on Danish TV

Comment #55860 by IJM on July 12, 2007 at 4:48 pm

Great interview, it's amazing to watch someone who's second language is English form questions far more concisely than Hannity did with Christopher Hitchens.
Lord_Satorious, the reason he asked the question,'but can science comfort people?' is because he was conducting an interview for TV and a wide audience. I know that on this web site we hear this kind of thing asked all the time, but not everybody else does and so questions like this must be asked to be asked to give a fair and balanced view, or least to give fair and balanced questioning. That is not to say that I don't think you understand the point or that Dan Dennet doesn't give a balanced view himself. Not everyone reads all the info they should or could and many get all their info from TV, which being honest is an entertainment based meduim. Wow that sounds terrible to say but as someone who left school at 16 with minor qualifications and flunked college, I may be allowed to. I am not accusing here, I was one of those who didn't research anything other than the best insurance/credit card deals myself until a few months ago.
Ian

6. Sean Hannity with Christopher Hitchens

Comment #55570 by IJM on July 11, 2007 at 2:46 pm

I agree that Hannity lost that jousting match with Hitch, he is about as useless is O'Rielly when it comes to interviewing someone more intelligent than himself (as in O'Rielly and Prof Dawkins), but the interviewing style is very much the way of things at Fox as far as I can see.
I was recently involved in a discussion with a friend about Fox vs CNN, both of which I find hopeless as there is too much conjecture and opinion on a party political basis from either camp. He was a Fox fan and a rightist (love that), a CNN basher and a leftist/liberal basher to boot.
After 20 minutes of trying to answer his questions as to why I thought Faux News was barely a news organisation only to be 'told' my answer 3 or 4 times, I bought him a scotch and told him he had passed the interview process and was now eminently qualified to work as an anchor for Fox.

7. Tome truths

Comment #49865 by IJM on June 14, 2007 at 1:04 am

Let's face it if The Wizard of Oz were true, once the curtain was pulled back and the Wizard was revealed, before you could say "There's no place like home" Dorothy and co. would have been in the dungeons and under torture to admit that the Wizard was in fact all seeing, all knowing and all powerful. Not in fact simply a short man in his underpants pulling levers.

Ian

8. Beggars belief: Robin McKie on The God Delusion

Comment #47453 by IJM on June 4, 2007 at 2:37 pm

HarryHUK,

Sorry, I did not qualify my comments and it reads as though I was agreeing with your statement that you do not know the route you took and I then go and explain mine.
I meant to say that I felt that I tried to beleive in god for 39 years and as soon as I realised the truth, I too felt that I had always been atheistic.
Sorry about the confusion, I should have proof read my comment a little better.

Ian

9. Beggars belief: Robin McKie on The God Delusion

Comment #47446 by IJM on June 4, 2007 at 2:22 pm

HarryHUK,

I fell the same. I only really realised that I was an atheist about 7 months ago when I read TGD but I know that it all started when I asked a school or Sunday school teacher at the age of between 6 and 8, "Where are the dinosaurs?" when being told the story of Genesis. It appears that I was not the only child to think this. I thought my problems with religion lay in me, so I got confirmed into the C of E and immediately decided that it wasn't me, it was organised religion I couldn't stand. I found it primitive and boring, it held no answers. Considering that I went to church once a month and fell asleep and every sunday night my father sat me down in front of the TV to watch 'The World About Us'(all praise to David Attenborough) which I absolutely loved, it is not surprising the way I turned out really.
I came up with a theory that I could beleive in god and not religon in my teens. By the time I was 39 and read TGD I realised that all I had done was come up with my own version of Pascal's Wager. Richerd Dawkins set me free, and cleared my mind or at least opened a door and allowed me to set myself free.

10. Beggars belief: Robin McKie on The God Delusion

Comment #47434 by IJM on June 4, 2007 at 1:48 pm

Fedler,

I do know that McCabe was born in the mid 19th century and lived through quite a chunk of the 20th too. He was ordained as a preist, spent 10 years in a monestary and then became disillusioned with the church, the became an agnostic and fianlly an atheist, a free thinker and rather a prolific writer from what I have read. Here is the web site of the peice I read:
http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/bible/library/myth.shtml

11. Beggars belief: Robin McKie on The God Delusion

Comment #47399 by IJM on June 4, 2007 at 11:42 am

As someone who has recently converted to atheism I would like to say what a great find this forum has been for a whole host of reasons, primarily as I don't have the education that a lot of people on this site seem to have I have been able to read a lot of what religious apologists have to say through your eyes and Oh Boy have my eyes been opened . This does make posting a daunting prospect as I am slightly wary of 'getting it wrong', so if I do please be patient with me.
I have noticed a tendency to criticise even atheist friendly articles like this one for the use of certain phrases, in the case of this article I think the use of 'ungodly' and 'amen' are completely humorous. I do think that Pewkatchoo's comments are valid and there is a tendency to sometimes get tied in knots discussing the vernacular of an article because of the use of these and similar words. However, sometimes I have read an atheist friendly article and enjoyed it, thought it well written and informative and then seen some of its logic taken to pieces and realised that it wasn't all that good a piece after all.
This is just a rambling way of saying that, for people like myself (I am sure there are quite a few who are finding their way out of the fog with the help of this site), that these corrections are a great help. I am here to learn and to educate myself. It is not enough to say 'I don't believe in god, because I don't' that is just the same as saying 'I believe in god because I do'. I want to better understand why I don't believe and what I can do to explain to others should I be asked. So thank you one and all for inadvertently continuing my education.
By the way I found a piece on the resurrection myth by Joseph McCabe yesterday and found it fascinating. I am just wondering before I go and look for anymore of his writings whether people on this site think that he is worth reading.

Thanks again.
Ian

12. Londonistan Calling

Comment #39401 by IJM on May 10, 2007 at 2:09 pm

Steve,

I re-read my comment and it does indeed read as though I would condone deporting a British citizen, please know that this is not the case. I would be in favour of deportation of any foreign national of whatever race or creed or colour that was inciting people to commit acts of atrocity against the UK, providing they had been properly processed by the the law and found guilty in the courts. Having said that I've re-thought my position, even though it would be burden on the taxpayer I would rather know that they were sentanced to serve a prison sentence.
Sorry about the confusion, I will try and get my thoughts straighter next time I post. Thanks for pointing it out though.

13. Londonistan Calling

Comment #39214 by IJM on May 10, 2007 at 7:21 am

UncleJJ, I agree, with you. I am not much for CCTV all over the place, but if it would help us identify these people and enable us to prosecute and/or deport them, then I am all for it.

14. Londonistan Calling

Comment #39189 by IJM on May 10, 2007 at 6:36 am

This kind of thing saddens me greatly, I am British and proud of it but this really makes me want to go and live somewhere else. Why should I though?
The Government has to stop pussy footing around these issues, if people are allowed to continue to make these kind statements in public, whether it be on the streets or in their religious buildings they have to be told (and if they are virulent enough, then shown) that it won't be tolerated.
If I walked around with a placard saying something like 'Death to all religious Apologists' or 'Behead those who doubt Darwin' I would obviously and correctly be regarded as a gibbering loon and locked in a rubber room for my own good and the good of the community at large.
I agree that as long as Blair has his way with Faith schools it is going to be increasingly difficult to get a message across that there is a better more rational way to view the world.

15. Supporters of abortion have no future in Church, Pope tells faithful

Comment #39120 by IJM on May 10, 2007 at 3:27 am

Pope Palpatine the first, what a guy!

[/quote]vowing to stem the defections of Roman Catholics to evangelical Protestantism and giving a warning that the penalty for supporting abortion was excommunication.[/quote]

So basically, "if you leave my club, I'm going to throw you out."

[/quote]The Pope observed that "canon law says the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving Communion, which is receiving the body of Christ . . . It expresses our belief that human individuality, the human personality, is present from the first moment of life."[/quote]

But no condoms for 3rd world countries where AIDS is rife, now that makes sense.

Wonderful, this guy is so up to date with 19th Century values he's going to close down the Catholic Church on his own.
OK maybe not quite but hopefully any Catholics with the intelligence of at least a 12 year old will begin to question the sense of accepting the word of an octogenarian looney as 'The Truth'. We can only hope.

16. Atheist offers to send letters post-Rapture

Comment #38887 by IJM on May 9, 2007 at 12:04 pm

This is brilliant full credit to the guy. I love the pet sitting idea too.

I will be in Monaco in a few days and am thinking of leaving flyers on the yachts there regarding, 'Post Rapture Care of the Boats of the Faithful.' Obviously this would be quite an undertaking as they are rather large and I can't do it by myself; anyone feel like a summer job?

17. The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it

Comment #38286 by IJM on May 7, 2007 at 12:20 pm

Anyone who has experienced such a conversion, please email me (with proof).

If someone had asked me 7 months ago, 'Do you believe in God?" I would have answered
"………eerrrrrrrrrr……….yeeeeeeees"
If they ask me now I say
"No"
If they ask
"Why?"
I say
"Because, ner ner ne ner ner!"
Oh no, sorry, I say "Because I read The God Delusion." Is this enough proof ?

He takes the verbal equivalent of an AK47 to shoot down hallowed religious figures,

Verbal equivalent, right. Verbal.

In another passage Harris goes even further, and reaches a disturbing conclusion that "some propositions are so dangerous that it may even be ethical to kill people for believing them". This sounds like exactly the kind of argument put forward by those who ran the Inquisition.

Whilst I am not sure how Sam actually meant this phrase to be taken, the word MAY is there. The Inquisition actually DID!

To paraphrase Eddy Izzard on the Pope's apology (sorry forgot which Pope) for the Inquisition:
The Spanish Inquisition? Sorry, it was supposed to be the Spanish Casual Chat!