1. Add another flea to the list...

Comment #132981 by wardsie on February 25, 2008 at 1:39 pm

Can American liberties survive in the absence of widespread belief in God on the part of the nations people?

Can French liberties survive in the absence of widespread belief in God on the part of the nations people?
Can Swedish liberties survive in the absence of widespread belief in God on the part of the nations people?
Can British liberties survive in the absence of widespread belief in God on the part of the nations people?
Can Australian liberties survive in the absence of widespread belief in God on the part of the nations people?
Can Norwegian liberties survive in the absence of widespread belief in God on the part of the nations people?
Can German liberties survive in the absence of widespread belief in God on the part of the nations people?
Can Japanese liberties survive in the absence of widespread belief in God on the part of the nations people?

2. Evidence can't shake your faith if your faith excludes it as evidence

Comment #132527 by wardsie on February 24, 2008 at 11:22 pm

The fundamental flaw (there always is one) in Paul Campos's logic.

Would RD believe that there was a large crack in the earth's crust if someone were to tell him so? I don't think so. However, if confronted by real evidence of a crack, RD would, I'm sure, certainly believe it.

It would not be a matter of interpretation. There is nothing to interpret. The evidence would speak for itself.

Why on earth does Campos suppose that evidence for the existence of a supernatural being would be a special case? It's not. It is just another case.

3. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115273 by wardsie on January 23, 2008 at 9:24 pm

a mystical quality in human beings that makes each of us sacred and of infinite worth

And this, as a human being, I truly believe.

4. The real danger in Darwin is not evolution, but racism

Comment #115271 by wardsie on January 23, 2008 at 9:21 pm

Nasty Darwin. Nazi Darwin.
Nobody else, at the time, had any racist biases?
I lived in Papua New Guinea for 4 years.
If you want to have seen racism in action all you had to do was to visit any missionary.

5. The OUT Campaign has its own Flea!

Comment #106432 by wardsie on January 2, 2008 at 11:26 pm

The sincerest form of flattery mmm?

6. Three wise men just legend: archbishop

Comment #101475 by wardsie on December 20, 2007 at 12:14 pm

I know it's weak and inconsistent logic deserving of severe criticism.
But I can't help feeling sorry for Rowan Williams and others who live in this house of cards.

7. An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Comment #96825 by wardsie on December 11, 2007 at 1:34 am

I sometimes feel that the good/evil religion/atheism arguments never seem to get to the root of the problem. When religion, communism and fascism are alternately blamed for causing evil in this world.

I propose that the blame should be laid squarely at the feet of doctrine.

A principle or body of principles presented for acceptance by a religious, political, scientific, or philosophic group.

It is doctrine which all three have in common. The subordination of ones thought processes to that of the body of principles. Whereby one refuses or is reluctant to take a stance which may conflict with those principles.

The fight against religion per se is a valid one because it is based upon false premises. However the fight against doctrine is, in my opinion, more urgent because this is where the real danger lies.

8. Merry Mithras 2007

Comment #95155 by wardsie on December 7, 2007 at 1:10 pm

Entgegen

I live at about 700 metres above sea level just south west of Sydney.

People here have told me that one Christmas there was snow in the morning, but it was hot by lunch time.

9. Are the 'New Atheists' avoiding the 'real arguments'?

Comment #83861 by wardsie on October 31, 2007 at 1:46 pm

If Rowan Williams believes that it is necessary to study theology to gain a sufficient understanding of Christianity in order to criticise it, shouldn't it also be true in order to believe in Christian doctrine?
I wonder what proportion of his Lordship's congregation have done any theological study at all.

10. Richard Dawkins, TV evangelist

Comment #62962 by wardsie on August 12, 2007 at 2:38 pm

My God Northern Bright (post #62872) You've hit the mark perfectly.
I was about to make similar comments, but no need to now.
If that's your picture...how about coffee?

11. Darwin or Design

Comment #56643 by wardsie on July 16, 2007 at 5:55 pm

P Z Myers makes his point very succinctly.

12. The New New Atheism

Comment #56637 by wardsie on July 16, 2007 at 5:19 pm

Just how many holes would Mr. Berkowitz like me to start poking into his article?

'Consider Mr. Hitchens's contention, elaborated at length and with gusto, that religion by its very nature compels people to behave cruelly and violently. According to Mr. Hitchens, religion educates children to hate nonbelievers, encourages grown-ups to engage in slaughter and conquest for God's greater glory, and obliges the "true believer" to restlessly circle the globe subduing peoples and nations until "the whole world bows the knee."'

Christopher Hitchens does no such thing in his book.

'Yet Mr. Hitchens's categorical claim that religion poisons everything is undermined by the common interpretation according to which God's testing of Abraham taught, among other things, that the then widespread practice of child-sacrifice was contrary to God's will, and must be put to an end forever.'

Having just re-read Genesis. I can find no way that Abraham was teaching anything of the sort.

'At the same time, Mr. Hitchens has next to nothing to say about the historical role of religion, particularly Christianity, particularly in America, in nourishing the soil in which our widely and deeply shared beliefs in liberty, democracy and equality took root and grew strong'

Liberty like slavery? Liberty like marginalising the native peoples?
Perhaps Mr. Berkowitz is unaware that democracy has also taken root in many other countries. Including my own former colony.

'And it begs the question of why the 20th-century embrace of secularism unleashed human depravity of unprecedented proportions.'

So it was secularism which unleashed human depravity?
Crusades?
Inquisition?
Child abuse?

'The literalness of Mr. Hitchens's readings would put many a fundamentalist to shame.'

One wonders why anyone would bother to read the Bible at all if so much of it is not to be taken literally. I take heart, as a secularist, that there is ever growing apology for the unpleasant bits. Of which there are many.

13. The fundamentalist delusion

Comment #56285 by wardsie on July 14, 2007 at 6:34 pm

Oh dear. This is such a rant. Barney Zwartz is the religion editor for The Age. I suppose he is breaking out into a sweat because he fears for his livelihood.
His primary complaint appears to be of the style of the proponents. Perhaps he should place his behind on a pew or two.

"Dawkins and many of his followers seem to be resurrecting a short-lived 20th-century scientistic philosophy called logical positivism, which holds that only what you can measure or prove empirically can be called truth. All other discourse is meaningless, especially questions of meaning. It was short-lived, partly because it failed its own test — it couldn't be measured or empirically verified. "

Is this why religion has been so short lived?

14. His word: Attacking religion can seem like breaking a butterfly on a wheel

Comment #51630 by wardsie on June 23, 2007 at 9:46 pm

"The problem for ultra-Darwinians is that they have to assume that all things – including ideas, or memes as Dawkins calls them – progress via the animal narrative of natural selection..."

I see that the gibbons have started talking. It's true it's true. Evolution happens.

15. An Inquisition in science's name

Comment #51130 by wardsie on June 21, 2007 at 3:35 pm

Well, I don't know guys and gals. I love hearing this kind of trash from pretentious fools who imagine that they have come across an original way to argue their point-of-view.

It all helps to promote the case for reason. And helps improve our abilities to find flaws in other people's arguments.

You know, logical expression wouldn't have sounding boards if everyone wrote like Dawkins and Harris.

16. Prayer can improve physical health

Comment #43816 by wardsie on May 22, 2007 at 6:59 pm

I must say that I meditate quite often and have received some training in the practice. And it is true that hurt can diminish in a certain state of mind. I say "hurt" because there still can be pain, but the pain doesn't "hurt".
However I am an atheist and don't believe it is God who does this. People do, too easily, jump to conclusions.