1. Stem cell breakthrough

Comment #90405 by aparlak on November 25, 2007 at 3:31 am

Don't expect religious people be happy with this.

In my opinion what religious people oppose (consciously or not) is the scientific advance itself. They fear that all this will eventually lead to totally artificial life, even humans - and they are right!

And they also know that when this happens, all their beliefs will crumble.

2. The New New Atheism

Comment #56729 by aparlak on July 17, 2007 at 4:16 am

The part of the article that is really interesting to me is the issue of Abraham and sacrifice of Isaac.

The writer says that sacrifice of children at Abraham's time was widespread and that this story actually serves to stop this practice!

This brings about a million questions and conclusions:

1. God actually never asked for the sacrifice of children in history. *** Really!
2. People that did sacrifice their children before Abraham were deluded and God didn't actually demand this. *** Really!
3. Abraham was also deluded when he thought that he was called by God to sacrifice Isaac, or, God did actually call him, but this was part of the plan to keep humanity from sacrificing children. *** Really! Are you sure?
4. Were people simply dreaming? Were they mentally ill? If yes how can you be sure that anybody is actually hearing from God? If not, was Satan the deceiver? If yes, how come there is no talk whatsoever of Satan in those passages of the Old Testament? Moreover how do you know that the one that asked for the sacrifice of Isaac is Satan, and the one that prevented it is God and not vice versa?
5. If it is OK for someone to attempt sacrifice of his/her child according to God's request. How can you blame people that genuinely believe for sacrificing their children?

I can write hundreds items more, but I'm bored.

3. Interview with Dan Dennett on Danish TV

Comment #54608 by aparlak on July 8, 2007 at 6:07 am

"a worm takes over an ants brain and induces an abnormal behaviour, beacuse the worm needs to get into the belly of a cow to reproduce..."

I can hear the religious screaming "This is design!". Although this story is told to show that religion is a meme that spreads itself like a virus, that same example is prone to be used out of context as supporting religion.