1. Forget not to smite

Comment #209729 by reason-first on July 13, 2008 at 5:56 am

Just a try

ä ö ü


Seeems to work.


@mordacious1

So type: "w" "&" directly followed by "uuml" directly followed by ";" "rden" to get "würden".

You are right! Same problem. Mmh

Can anyone help?

2. The day of judgment

Comment #189735 by reason-first on June 7, 2008 at 5:49 am

... removed the whole affair into a realm immune to disproof.

Beautifully phrased and well worth remembering, because it will become useful when dismantling "arguments" used by the faith-heads. Isn't this what they are doing all the time, "remove their reasoning into the realm immune to disprove"?

3. Churchgoing on its knees as Christianity falls out of favour

Comment #177471 by reason-first on May 9, 2008 at 6:36 am

"By 2050 there will be just 3,600 churchgoing Methodists left in Britain, Christian Research predicts. Anglicans will be down to 87,800, Catholics to 101,700, Presbyterians to 4,400, Baptists to 123,000 and independents to 168,000."

A minor point only, but I think it is ridiculous to try and project figures to an accuracy of a few hundred so far into the future.

In two or three years time the present numbers may have altered significantly already, hopefully gone down by their thousands.

4. Tyrannosaurus rex protein proves dinosaurs evolved into birds

Comment #168431 by reason-first on April 25, 2008 at 6:25 am

I just wonder what unintellgent turns our creationist "friends" will take to "debunk" this new finding?

5. Ben Stein Vs. Sputtering Atheists

Comment #165225 by reason-first on April 21, 2008 at 8:30 am

I was also wondering about how to get active. My suggestion:

Google for "expelled" and "forum", then go to some of the "pro" forums and challenge posters there to read about the "other side" by going to sites like this one, www.expelledexposed.com/ and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expelled:_No_Intelligence_Allowed

There is a chance - however slim - that this will get at least a few of them reading and thinking.

6. The simple falsehood at the heart of Expelled

Comment #158884 by reason-first on April 11, 2008 at 6:30 am

I have just read through the first few paragraphs of Hilter's "Mein Kampf" as recommended by posting #35
http://www.hitler.org/writings/Mein_Kampf/mkv1ch11.html

To my mind this text clearly shows that Hitler knew extremely little about evolution and had no idea whatsoever about the underlying principle of natural selection. To prove my point, I quote the following from chapter nine:

"the will of Nature for a higher breeding of all life. "

Will of Nature? Higher breeding?

These are teleological, thus religious concepts and have nothing to do with evolution. I could pick a large number of further exmaples that clearly illustrate Hitler's ignorance of evolution and his preoccupation with religious ideas, but for the sake of brevity I will only give one more quote:

"The result of all racial crossing is therefore in brief always the following:

* Lowering of the level of the higher race;
* Physical and intellectual regression and hence the beginning of a slowly but surely progressing sickness.

To bring about such a development is, then, nothing else but to sin against the will of the eternal creator.
And as a sin this act is rewarded."

Can one reasonably doubt that Hitler was a theist at least, more likely however a Christian? Or what other religious group heavily relies on the concept of "sin"?

7. Fossil find could be Europe's first humans

Comment #152134 by reason-first on March 30, 2008 at 8:31 am

@ #29

Hi Roland_F,

I do not want to be overparticular. But while I agree with everything else you say, let me point out a slight error:

"there are astronomical measurements possible like the slowing down of earth rotation (currently 24h some millennia back 25h a day"

Actually days were shorter when the Earth was spinning faster. So the dinosaurs experienced a day that was only between 22 and 23 hours long.

8. Fossil find could be Europe's first humans

Comment #152122 by reason-first on March 30, 2008 at 7:36 am

Hi DavidSJA,

here's a link to debunking the creationists on the speed of light. Many more links from that one!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRmJbP25m-Y

9. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #149000 by reason-first on March 24, 2008 at 10:19 pm

There still seem to be screenings for which you can register:

Santa Clara, CA, MArch 27
http://rsvp.getexpelled.com/events/events/rsvp/200

Tempe, AZ, April 3
http://rsvp.getexpelled.com/events/events/rsvp/198

But you'll have to be quick. Four other screenings filled up yesterday. Actually Santa Clara may have been called off.

10. In Britain, creationist theory is evolving

Comment #145037 by reason-first on March 17, 2008 at 7:46 am

Creationist theory?

There is no such thing!

Creationism is BS and never comes close to the standard of a (scientific) theory, because its explanatory value is even less than zero.

Not only does it not explain anything, it confuses and misleads the people who fall for it.

11. The challenge of finding peace in Lourdes

Comment #124953 by reason-first on February 10, 2008 at 1:25 pm

Emphasizing the uncertain nature of Lourdes' power, French writer Anatole France visited the site in the late nineteenth century and said, surveying all the discarded crutches, "What, what, no wooden legs???"

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/joe_nickell/miracles.html

A 19th century novelist demonstrated more reason than thousands (millions?) of people in the 21st.

12. Sentenced to death: Afghan who dared to read about women's rights

Comment #119082 by reason-first on January 31, 2008 at 9:56 am

Petition signed. Follows my message to Karzai at

president@afghanistangov.org:

Your Excellency,

I have just come across a newspaper report that informs me about the death penalty inflicted upon journalist Sayed Pervez Kambaksh by a religious court.

According to the article in the British Independent dating from today, January 31st, the jounalist was accused of and convicted for blasphemy. He is said to have read on the internet, downloaded and spread an article "from a Farsi website which stated that Muslim fundamentalists who claimed the Koran justified the oppression of women had misrepresented the views of the prophet Mohamed."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/sentenced-to-death-afghan-who-dared-to-read-about-womens-rights-775972.html

I am truly shocked to learn that in your country a person can get punished for something that we in Germany regard as an act covered by our constitution as freedom of opinion.

Therefore I strongly appeal to you to declare the death penalty against Kambaksh as unlawful and set him free immediately.

Apart from the fact that I consider the death penalty an extremely questionable form of punishment I find it unbearable, when a fellow human being is sentenced to death for an act that in my country is a basic civil right.

With the exceptions of appeals to hatred and violence there should not be a punishment for reading any written content, thinking specific thoughts and passing them on to others.

Please do everything within your power to put an end to this form of punishment in your country.

Yours truly,
(full name and address supplied)

I also posted emails of corresponding content to
-my local MP
- the President of the European Parliament (who happens to hail from my region)
- the German Foreign Minister
- the German Minister of Defence (as we also have troops in Afghanistan)
- the German Ambassador in Kabul
- the Afghan Ambassador in Berlin

13. Honour Killings

Comment #114020 by reason-first on January 21, 2008 at 8:16 am

I wonder if the email is authentic since Iftikhar Ahmed is the very man whose daughter Shafilea was "unlawfully killed" in connection with an arranged marriage over three years ago. For some reason or other the case was reported again by the Guardian on January 12th this year:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2239552,00.html">Copy & paste

I have a feeling that someone fabricated the letter to make it look like it came from a conservative, almost extremist muslim.

However, the fact that most of us believe(d) the letter to be authentic proves that the ideas expressed in the letter are quite often found among muslims. They come as no surprise.

14. Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan

Comment #104679 by reason-first on December 29, 2007 at 5:43 am

The rite of exorcism involves a series of gestures and prayers to invoke the power of God and stop the "demon" influencing its victim.

Should be interesting to learn how they found out which "gestures and prayers" were the right ones to select and which not. Or did they make them up in the process?

What method did they apply to determine the usefulness of their "gestures and prayers"? Trial and error? Or did god tell them how to proceed?

Can they get more ludicrous than this? I am afraid it is only a matter of time.

There seems to be no limit to the lunacy these people are up to.

15. An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Comment #97124 by reason-first on December 11, 2007 at 1:16 pm

when it comes to the materialistic philosophy of atheism — in which Marx, Stalin, and Hitler believed, when here it actually makes sense. They weren't merely indifferent to religion.They, like you, wanted to stamp it out.

Is that rascal actually likening Richard to Marx et al.? I can't believe it!

16. An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Comment #97122 by reason-first on December 11, 2007 at 1:12 pm

You point to the violent behavior of a tiny percentage of Jews and Christians — for example — as proof that religious belief moves people to act unreasonably, and that this irrationality sometimes shows up in violence. You fail to point out, however, that the actions of these radicals are routinely condemned by their religious leaders as contrary to the ideas of their faith. ... (Here I can't help rejecting, once again, what you said in the debate, that Hitler was a Roman Catholic. ...)

Hmm, did the Catholic Church condemn Hitler while he was still alive and in power? They should have excommunicated him well before 1945 but they failed to do so.

17. Germany imposes ban on Tom Cruise

Comment #52135 by reason-first on June 26, 2007 at 9:02 am

Also, Germany has had 60 years to make a movie about the von Stauffenberg story. I wonder if they're feeling a little sheepish about having to wait for Hollywood to step in.

Just for the record: There have been a number of production about the "Stauffenberg story". Some movie-type films and countless documentaries.

We Germans are under no obligation to feel sheepish about the topic.

Films: Der 20. Juli (1955), Stauffenberg, Offiziere gegen Hitler, Sie wollten Hitler töten, Stunde der Offiziere, and many others.

For a more extensive list go here:
http://www.zeitgeschichte-online.de/portal/alias__rainbow/lang__de/tabID__40208252/DesktopDefault.aspx

Apart from that there is a plethora of books and newspaper articles on the subject.

18. Man to die over insult

Comment #47077 by reason-first on June 3, 2007 at 1:11 am

@NJS

Its also true as someone said that many, many christians would love to see similar laws (though fair enough without execution).

I would not be so sure, bearing in mind that the christian majority in the USA fervently favour capital damnation. To my mind the death sentence still exists not despite of, but because of the majority of the population being christian.

19. Fighting the Fundamentalists

Comment #44779 by reason-first on May 25, 2007 at 9:24 am

Dembski once wrote to Dawkins: "I know that you personally don't believe in God, but I want to thank you for being such a wonderful foil for theism and for intelligent design more generally. In fact, I regularly tell my colleagues that you and your work are one of God's greatest gifts to the intelligent design movement. So please, keep at it!"

I've read this claim before, but I wonder. Would it be wise of Dembski - if RD really was playing into his hands - to give the game away? Might RD not realize how helpful he was to creationism and as a consequence change his tactics?

RD invokes critical thinking in people. What can be wrong with that? Only those incapable of (critical) thinking would be apalled by his outspoken manner and driven into the creationist camp if they do not belong there already. So nothing is lost.

Of course, RD accused Ruse of appeasement policy towards the moderate believers, so Ruse feels the need to defend himself, however feeble the effort may be.

As RD convincingly pointed out in TGD, there is no such thing as NOMA (non-overlapping magisteria). So why join forces with people whose intellectual basis is simply wrong? Make them realize that they indeed are to be blamed for at least some of the mischief committed by fundamentalist faithheads.

As long as they do not try their utmost to silence people like the late Falwell or Robertson they deserve no respect and it would be a mistake to cooperate with them.

20. I Don't Believe in Atheists

Comment #44348 by reason-first on May 24, 2007 at 11:53 am

... runs in a direct line from the Christian Gospels. ... These religions set free the critical powers of humankind. They broke with the older Greek and Roman traditions that gods and destiny ruled human fate—a belief that when challenged by Socrates saw him condemned to death.

I did not know that Socrates (about 470–399 BCE) was a Christian. Did or did he not break with the older traditions? If anything, "these religions" stole from Sokrates!

It's quite obvious that Hedges cannot think clearly but will utter any nonsense just to "prove" his point. Disgraceful!

21. Manufacturing belief

Comment #42294 by reason-first on May 18, 2007 at 3:20 am

In general, religious people are somewhat healthier than people who don't have religious beliefs.

This may seem so but it isn't. All people who practice meditation show better health, no matter what they believe or do not believe in. It has got nothing to do with being religious.

Performing certain religious rituals may contribute to your health. On the other hand, if you believe in some religious nonsense it can be quite detrimental to your health. Just think of the mental agony fundamentally religious parents suffer when they find out that their child is gay or lesbian or turns away from belief. The resulting stress will definitely not benefit their health.

The fear religious teachings install in simple-minded people must be adverse to their health, too.

And finally, when you think of the deaths that are caused by religion (people driven to commit suicide for religious reasons or killed in religious wars), how can you maintain that religion does do any good for people's health?

22. Facing Off on Evolution

Comment #40747 by reason-first on May 14, 2007 at 10:10 pm

In the conclusions Cameron alleged to be quoting RD from TGD to the effect of RD saying he would still believe in evolution if there wasn't the slightest bit of evidence for it.

Can anyone give us a hint as to the page in the book where this quote is to be found or did Cameron just make it up?