1. Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?

Comment #127479 by jakelovatto on February 15, 2008 at 10:36 am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/901723.stm

"A hospital paediatrician has hit out at vandals who forced her to flee her home after apparently taking her job title to mean she was a paedophile.

South African-born Yvette Cloete - a 30-year-old trainee consultant at the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, south Wales - said she planned to move home after returning to find the outside of her property daubed with the words "paedo". "

2. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126940 by jakelovatto on February 14, 2008 at 2:30 pm

From the sickly religious moderates to the blunt bible-believing christians.

http://library.digiguide.com/lib/uk-tv-highlight/Wonderland:The End of the World Bus Tour-2611/Documentary/

"Most package-holiday tourists are seeking sun, sex or adventure, but the customers in Sharon Stolebarger's charge are looking for something rather different. Sharon is the tour rep on a special ten-day holiday for people who believe the Apocalypse is only a few years away. Her customers are off to Israel to take a last-chance look at the "valley of Armageddon" - before it's awash with the blood of unbelievers - and to be baptised in the very waters that Jesus once walked on. They even get the chance to spend a day helping out at an Israeli military base - the highlight of the holiday for many of the tourists."

For those who have access to BBC iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/page/item/b008yykd.shtml?q=wonderland&start=1&scope=iplayersearch&go=Find Programmes&version_pid=b008yyhx

3. Debate between Richard Dawkins and Madeline Bunting

Comment #126925 by jakelovatto on February 14, 2008 at 1:56 pm

It was hard to keep my food down listening to Madeline Bunting's piffle.

4. Bill Maher on Larry King Live

Comment #125933 by jakelovatto on February 12, 2008 at 9:38 am

Ye there is no real reason to it just seems pompous to describe oneself as an apatheist.

5. Bill Maher on Larry King Live

Comment #125916 by jakelovatto on February 12, 2008 at 8:55 am

notsobad

Bill Maher
"I'm not an atheist. There's a really big difference between an atheist and someone who just doesn't believe in religion. Religion to me is a bureaucracy between man and God that I don't need. But I'm not an atheist, no. I believe there's some force. If you want to call it God... I don't believe God is a single parent who writes books"

"Simply put, theists don't deny, agnostics don't know, atheists don't believe, and apatheists don't care about the existence of gods. "
http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Ginohn/cetera/apatheism.html

"Apatheism -- a disinclination to care all that much about one's own religion, and an even stronger disinclination to care about other people's"
http://www.jonathanrauch.com/jrauch_articles/apatheism_beyond_religion/index.html

He may say he is but the notion that is often coupled with apatheism is the "disinclination to care about other people's". Apathy is not rational.

6. Sharia fiasco

Comment #125000 by jakelovatto on February 10, 2008 at 4:21 pm

Bill Maher
"I'm not an atheist. There's a really big difference between an atheist and someone who just doesn't believe in religion. Religion to me is a bureaucracy between man and God that I don't need. But I'm not an atheist, no. I believe there's some force. If you want to call it God... I don't believe God is a single parent who writes books"

7. Sharia fiasco

Comment #124997 by jakelovatto on February 10, 2008 at 4:06 pm

I've always thought Bill Maher was quite poor. He's terrible at the minute without his writers his monologues are pathetic.

8. Sharia fiasco

Comment #124862 by jakelovatto on February 10, 2008 at 11:27 am

bujin
Like Peter Griffins
"You Know What Really Grinds My Gears?"

9. Conservative Rabbis to Vote on Resolution Criticizing Pope's Revision of Prayer

Comment #124828 by jakelovatto on February 10, 2008 at 10:39 am

Richard Morgan
This kind of comment is typical of the kind of stupidity and childishness we could well do without on this site.

10. Conservative Rabbis to Vote on Resolution Criticizing Pope's Revision of Prayer

Comment #124820 by jakelovatto on February 10, 2008 at 10:24 am

Opisthokont
Ye I can remember the furore that was caused when Ann Coulter said that Jews needed perfecting. That is what Christianity is.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301216,00.html

sorry about the link being Fox News. I feel dirty.

11. Conservative Rabbis to Vote on Resolution Criticizing Pope's Revision of Prayer

Comment #124794 by jakelovatto on February 10, 2008 at 9:31 am

"A person who uses threatening words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred." quoted from the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.

????????????????????????????????????????????????????

12. Hitchens V. Boteach

Comment #124352 by jakelovatto on February 9, 2008 at 7:02 am

Don't know if anyone has already posted the link but here is the youtube link to the full debate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnMYL8sF7bQ

13. Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Comment #124042 by jakelovatto on February 8, 2008 at 8:04 am

Taken from a comment board about the issue:

Our current law states that "A person who uses threatening words or behaviour, or displays any written material which is threatening, is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred." quoted from the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006. Now I refer you to any English translation of the Quran: Quran tells Muslims to kill the disbelievers wherever they find them (Q. 2:191), to murder them and treat them harshly (Q. 9:123), slay them (Q. 9:5), fight with them, (Q. 8: 6 )

14. Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Comment #124019 by jakelovatto on February 8, 2008 at 7:07 am

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1575

That's the lecture

15. Sharia law in UK is 'unavoidable'

Comment #123829 by jakelovatto on February 7, 2008 at 5:21 pm

http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/1573

Here's a transcript if anyone's interested.
His comments when taken in context are not as bad as mine and I assume most peoples knee jerk reaction was.

Couple of quotes that seem to sum up his argument:

It's very important hat you mention there the word 'choice'; I think it would be quite wrong to say that we could ever licence so to speak a system of law for some community which gave people no right of appeal, no way of exercising the rights that are guaranteed to them as citizens in general, so that a woman in such circumstances would have to know that she was not signing away for good and all; now this is a matter of detail that I don't know enough about the detail of the law in the Islamic law in this context; I'm simply saying that there are ways of looking at marital dispute for example within discussions that go on among some contemporary scholars which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them. In some cultural and religious settings they would seem more appropriate.

...we already have in this country a number of situations in which the law the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justified conscientious objections in certain circumstances in providing certain kinds of social relations

the ideal situation is one in which there is one law and only one law for everybody; now that principle that there's one law for everybody is an important pillar of our social identity as a Western liberal democracy, but I think it's a misunderstanding to suppose that that means people don't have other affiliations, other loyalties which shape and dictate how they behave in society and the law needs to take some account of that, so an approach to law which simply said, 'There is one law for everybody and that is all there is to be said, and anything else that commands your loyalty or your allegiance is completely irrelevant in the processes of the courts'. I think that's a bit of a danger.

according to Christian Moe, Norwegian Institute of Human Rights, published at the site of The Strasbourg Conference:

"[T]he Court considers that sharia, which faithfully reflects the dogmas and divine rules laid down by religion, is stable and invariable. Principles such as pluralism in the political sphere or the constant evolution of public freedoms have no place in it. […] It is difficult to declare one’s respect for democracy and human rights while at the same time supporting a regime based on sharia, which clearly diverges from Convention values, particularly with regard to its criminal law and criminal procedure, its rules on the legal status of women and the way it intervenes in all spheres of private and public life in accordance with religious precepts."

16. Atheists to celebrate at Darwin Day in Coconut Creek

Comment #121789 by jakelovatto on February 4, 2008 at 7:08 am

I agree. In a documentary "The Trouble with Atheism" by Rod Liddle

He trots out all the old favourites, Stalin, Hitler etc but then says

"They even have their own Holy Book" referring to On the Origin of Species. There's an atheist in it who changed his name to Darwin as well. Its not a good advert.

17. Female Muslim medics 'disobey hygiene rules'

Comment #121546 by jakelovatto on February 3, 2008 at 3:54 pm

It really is hard to understand this behaviour. The brainwashing that showing your fucking arms is an affront to a despotic maniacal fairy is beyond comprehension. Oh no sorry just prescribe genuflected grovelling 5 times a day from cradle to grave.

I mean the story is hyped beyond what it needs to be, its probably only 30 to 40 people but it's still a problem. The only criticism of this kind of behaviour unfortunately predominately comes from the right with an implicit undertone that is Christian.

There is an unfortunate alliance with the right with the kind of criticism that we are making. Its opening the door for Christian, White Supremacists like the BNP and the more vile wings of the Conservative party. Its hard to know whether to be exited or fearful that this is not taboo any longer.

18. Are Darwin's Theories Fact or Faith Issues?

Comment #120247 by jakelovatto on February 1, 2008 at 11:01 am

Is there a clearer demonstration of incompetence and wilful deception of the creationist critique of evolution. It would be laughable if it didn't have so much political power.

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

Comment #119196 by jakelovatto on January 31, 2008 at 11:40 am

In Britain there is massive censorship going on. Just read about the Samina Malik case 'Lyrical Terrorist' and I think there was another case recently.

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

Comment #119136 by jakelovatto on January 31, 2008 at 10:42 am

Unfortunately Britain put a woman on trial for possessing documents likely to aid a terrorist.
Lyrical terrorist Samina Malik.

21. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #117825 by jakelovatto on January 29, 2008 at 6:26 pm

I was hoping Richard would be asked to make a point about whether John Barryman's comment (The special Guest, the Actor/Singer) that 'God' made him gay.
Richard has a discussion of the evolution of homosexuality on his FAQ at his Oxford website but I found it hard to follow. It's a question that I've never been able to satisfactorily explain, and it is of course such a big issue for the fundamentalists, that being gay is a lifestyle choice etc.
I must add its merely an academic question the answer wouldn't affect the fact that I believe people are free to do whatever they wish with the obvious caveats.

22. Richard Dawkins on The Big Questions

Comment #117821 by jakelovatto on January 29, 2008 at 6:09 pm

I can understand Richard's point about having to lie to protect your private life but the point was lost on the audience.
I think the tactic is a poor one though because it of course doesn't keep matters private it merely makes public a false private life.

23. The Moral Instinct

Comment #110746 by jakelovatto on January 12, 2008 at 9:09 am

"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied." - John Stuart Mill

Morality is better based on solidarity and concern for others well-being, than increase in happiness.

24. The Moral Instinct

Comment #110728 by jakelovatto on January 12, 2008 at 7:53 am

The last rabbit hole?
Where does morality come from if not from Superman?
This article is short enough, 8 pages, to show where morality comes from to the people who make this claim even those with short attention spans.
I agree with Pinker that the more we know about our morality the more 'moral' we can become.

25. Monkey, Business

Comment #106101 by jakelovatto on January 2, 2008 at 11:02 am

Yeah I agree with Out Foxed being a decent film. Shows just the level of control exercised. I read an interview with Murdoch recently, I forget where, when he was talking about how he would like to make Sky News more like Fox but elements of British Law stopped him from being able to. He also said which I found comforting, although I think he protests too much, that he exercised massive editorial control over The Sun but was not able to over The Times.
You find much of the same stuff is reported in all the main papers apart from the odd stand out story from The Independent or The Guardian. Everyone follows Reuters by and large.
The internet is the antidote, I've got a few decent independent sources of news Z Net, UK Indynews to name a few.

26. Monkey, Business

Comment #106088 by jakelovatto on January 2, 2008 at 10:48 am

Yeah I agree with the newspapers.
Id throw in The Times as a reasonable paper. Murdoch has little control. Although the editor is his best mate and goes on family holidays with the Murdochs so I am always wary of it.

27. Monkey, Business

Comment #106058 by jakelovatto on January 2, 2008 at 10:05 am

Sorry for the racism accusation to used to nationalist types. The idea of mass radicalism in the UK comes from a book Londonistan by Melanie Phillips.
Suffice it to say, reading about Melanie Phillips after I read this article,
http://richarddawkins.net/article,1992,This-deadly-religious-resistance-to-vaccinations,Johann-Hari led me to suspect her of bias.
Don't forget the UK had the troubles in Ireland for over 30 years these kind of things shouldn't be scaring the public but they are. Memories are very short.

28. Monkey, Business

Comment #106051 by jakelovatto on January 2, 2008 at 9:56 am

Steve Zara
I concur.
epeeist
Couldn't agree more.

29. Monkey, Business

Comment #106032 by jakelovatto on January 2, 2008 at 9:40 am

The illusion that Capitalism equates to freedom is patently erroneous. Freedom for those who can afford. Let me back that up with an example.
Recent reports in the UK press talk about
"bright children from poor homes will be overtaken academically at school by less gifted pupils with the wealthiest parents"
source: http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Education-system-favours-children-of.3589742.jp
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/13/npoor113.xml
http://news.independent.co.uk/education/education_news/article3247549.ece

This is an example where government intervention is needed to correct the situation. In a private education system, as we do have operating in the UK also, there are no such problems. Why? Because they are only concerned with 'profits' i.e. better results which enables the ability to charge higher prices, by having a self perpetuating system of only selecting the most wealthy.
The poor are left behind.

30. Monkey, Business

Comment #106014 by jakelovatto on January 2, 2008 at 9:24 am

Roger Stanyard
Hear hear!!!
If only Thatcher had left more things alone

31. Monkey, Business

Comment #106000 by jakelovatto on January 2, 2008 at 9:11 am

Fanusi Khiyal
It seems the vogue to compare the inanity of a persons argument with a parallel religious argument. So here it goes.
You are saying capitalism has "alot of argument against", but that there is a thing called "the real world"

compare with

People need God to be moral.

32. Monkey, Business

Comment #105992 by jakelovatto on January 2, 2008 at 9:02 am

"community interest guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others"
You either agree with that statement or not. You either think that services that cater for basic human rights such as medicine, basic standards of living etc are available to everyone or only those with a wallet of sufficient size. The libertarian critique is painfully ridiculous. Following libertarian principles ends up with a privileged elite of the wealthy. Either solidarity and concern for others or, to quote a recent from a Pharyngula post, a "political movement that seeks to elevate greed and selfishness as a ruling principle"

33. Monkey, Business

Comment #105424 by jakelovatto on December 31, 2007 at 2:17 pm

"Modern industrial civilisation has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilisation has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praiseworthy, on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits in the classic formulation.
Now it has long been understood, very well, that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist, with whatever injustice and suffering it entails, as long as it is possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited. That the world is an infinite resource and the world is an infinite garbage can.
At this stage in history, either one of two things is possible. Either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community interest guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others, or alternatively there will be no destiny for anyone to control. As long as some specialised class is in a position of authority it is going to set policy in the special interests that it serves, but the conditions of survival, let alone justice, require rational social planning, in the interests of the community as a whole, and by now that means the global community."
- Noam Chomsky

34. The empty myths peddled by evangelists of unbelief

Comment #97052 by jakelovatto on December 11, 2007 at 10:49 am

Dawkins deals with this in the endnotes to the Selfish Gene.

If anyone wants to read the quote, its the end paragraph to chapter 11- Memes: the new replicators.

35. An Open Letter to Richard Dawkins

Comment #96595 by jakelovatto on December 10, 2007 at 6:33 pm

"Atheism is a necessary condition for emancipation of the mind, but it's not a sufficient one. You can free yourself from superstition and still end up a nihilist or a hedonist or a Stalinist. What's innate in our species isn't the fault of religion. But the bad things that are innate in our species are strengthened by religion and sanctified by it."
- Christopher Hitchens

36. Daniel Dennett Debates Dinesh D'Souza

Comment #92776 by jakelovatto on December 1, 2007 at 12:44 pm

Dennett, in his kind, soft-spoken, measured voice destroys Dinesh.

37. 'Expelled' Movie: The Extended Trailer

Comment #88210 by jakelovatto on November 15, 2007 at 11:01 am

It is at the 27 minute mark when he is introduced just watching to see if the extended trailer is shown.

Slow streaming unforntunately

38. 'Expelled' Movie: The Extended Trailer

Comment #88208 by jakelovatto on November 15, 2007 at 10:58 am

http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=201624-3&highlight=

ben stein makes a speech and i think it is played at this conference.

I'm watching now and i'll try to say how many minutes in.

39. FFRF 07 Conference Footage

Comment #81304 by jakelovatto on October 24, 2007 at 3:00 pm

It's alarming how misrepresented Hitchens is in the reports on his public speaking. I'm inclined to disbelieve all reports that call him "genocidal", "manacial" etc.
Its akin to the banal, regurgitated platitudes of his book reviews. "Hitchens, who once attacked Mother Teresa and Princess Diana now turns to..."
Hitchens irreverant, bla bla bla, drunk bla bla bla.

I think his foresight on the clash that will take place between Islamic Fascism and Western civilisation is something, as he says we will have to face up to. Complicated by Russias support of Iranian nucleur development one has the ominous feeling its the 1920s.
Blair made a very good speech recently at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. He said:
There is a tendency even now, even in some of our own circles, to believe that they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone. I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone."
Has he been reading Hitchens? I certainly hope so.

I've read critisms of Hitchens, saying hes looking for the next great battle, always looking for defining moments, he wants to emulate orwell and stand on the right side of a great battle. Thats he's hyping the threat of a few desert, cave dwelling fanatics into a great struggle.

I am everyday becoming convinced that Hitchens is on the right side.

40. War in Heaven: Hitchens Meets D'Souza on Home Turf

Comment #81152 by jakelovatto on October 24, 2007 at 9:25 am

What a horrible unrepentingly biased article. The vicious little snipes about Hitchens "Bah!" (takes a drink) trying to ridicule his argument with ad hominem.
The horrible insinuation that he also drunk drove. Horrible vicious bitch.

41. Debate between Christopher Hitchens and Alister McGrath

Comment #79244 by jakelovatto on October 16, 2007 at 2:53 pm

The opening speech by Hitchens is i think the best i have seen from him. Wonderful, powerful, faith-destroying stuff.

42. State Senator Ernie Chambers Sues God

Comment #71319 by jakelovatto on September 18, 2007 at 12:30 pm

There is a similar thing going on in India. Quoting from a bbc news story:

"The Indian government has withdrawn a controversial report submitted in court earlier this week which questioned the existence of the Hindu god Ram."

"...with a case against a proposed shipping canal project between India and Sri Lanka.

Hindu hardliners say the project will destroy what they say is a bridge built by Ram and his army of monkeys.

Scientists and archaeologists say the Ram Setu (Lord Ram's bridge) - or Adam's Bridge as it is sometimes called - is a natural formation of sand and stones."

Here are some links to the stories:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6996621.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6994415.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6990847.stm

In a word ridiculous.

43. Review of Darwin's Angel: An Angelic Response to the God Delusion

Comment #66941 by jakelovatto on September 1, 2007 at 4:02 am

They "know" they are right – that least scientific of attitudes since it precludes changes of heart or openness of mind. If only Professor Dawkins and Co would remember that Socrates was deemed the wisest of men because he "knew that he didn't know". Those who think that not knowing is safer and more attractive than its opposite should treat themselves to this elegant little book.

44. Enemies of Reason

Comment #65248 by jakelovatto on August 23, 2007 at 10:35 am

Did anyone catch the bit near the end of episode 2 when richard is talking to the woman outside and as he is talking to her he looks to the left then a squirrel runs up a tree to make it look like dawkins attention was caught by the squirrel.

lol

45. The Gullible Age: Review of 'The Enemies of Reason'

Comment #61440 by jakelovatto on August 5, 2007 at 7:02 am

Channel 4's online service 4oD?

46. Hitchens vs. Hitchens

Comment #51145 by jakelovatto on June 21, 2007 at 5:51 pm

After listening and watching many atheist/theist debates the seeming trump card of absolute morality is always played.
This idea stands and falls on the assumption that there is a god at all and that you know this god's mind. Only then can you claim absolute morality. As this can't be shown i dont know why this point is consistently raised.