1. Hook, line and rapture

Comment #109435 by Rob Carter on January 9, 2008 at 4:05 am

These links up at the top seem to be broken:


Pat Robertson calls for an assassination
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WlSYo...

God falsely predicts a massive terrorist attack on the US for 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0hWAx...

2. The battle of the butterflies and the ants

Comment #108074 by Rob Carter on January 6, 2008 at 1:17 am

This is another example of the sloppy imprecision of language used in a lot of science journalism.

"In evolutionary terms: if the butterflies want to stay where they are, living the high life at the ants' expense, they need to race one step ahead of the evolving ant defences."

Wrong, wrong, wrong!

These butterflies don't "want" anything, and they are certainly not "racing" -- I can see what he's trying to describe, of course, but that isn't good enough. These days, writers must learn to cast what they are describing in appropriate and realistic terms, rather than anthropomorphizing (and even sensationalizing) the processes. It leaves the layman (and the religiously motivated sniper) lost in a fantasy of intentional evolution on the part of organisms which really don't plot against one another as described.

3. Why Christians should take Richard Dawkins seriously

Comment #72605 by Rob Carter on September 21, 2007 at 10:17 pm

Richard Skinner. The author is a poet, writer, qualified therapist and performer. He is currently undertaking doctoral research in the area of spirituality and evolutionary psychology. He is author of Invocations: calling on the God in all (Wild Goose Publishing, Iona).

Says it all really -- weaselly from top to bottom.

4. Gamma-Ray Wipe-Out

Comment #55708 by Rob Carter on July 12, 2007 at 3:50 am

Hmm, an interesting article, but marred by one elementary error, I quote,

"In the explosion, a super-heated blast of energy from the core rips through the body of the star at almost the speed of light."

There's nothing "almost" about it, they're photons!

Rob

5. The Blasphemy Challenge

Comment #52952 by Rob Carter on June 28, 2007 at 5:17 pm

Guys, this is silly ... you might as well deny the Flying Spaghetti Monster while you're at it.

6. Atheism is pretentious and cowardly

Comment #52396 by Rob Carter on June 27, 2007 at 1:00 am

The appalling Guardian sinks to a new low. This Theo Whoever-he-is sounds like an idiot, but I bet he was paid for the job.

Respect has to be earned, Theo. And you're out of time.