1. Huckabee Wants A 'Faith-based' Constitution

Comment #112130 by BlaiddDrwg on January 16, 2008 at 11:59 am

At first, I took comfort in the thought that even if Huckabee was elected and tried to push his amendment to the Constitution, it'd still take 3/4 of the states to ratify it...

Then I remembered the picture of "Jesusland"

I don't know about everyone else, but I'd prefer not to have this idiot anywhere near the White House, just to be safe. If he does get elected, then I'm making plans to move to New Zealand.

2. Changing my Mind

Comment #106157 by BlaiddDrwg on January 2, 2008 at 12:39 pm

It's both amusing and sad, the number of christians who claim that atheists don't exist. I've heard dozens of people claim that atheists really do believe in god in their hearts, but only choose not to worship him so they can live "sinful" lives.

In a perfect world, being an atheist should be as much of a non-issue as having brown hair. But, as long as ideas like this persist, then we should proudly identify ourselves as atheists until the christians are forced to admit that you can be a good person and not believe in god. I've been called an example of a good christian man many times because I'm polite and helpful, then the same people instantly look at me like I eat babies after I tell them that I'm an atheist. It's up to us to show the world that god does not have a monopoly on morality, and we can only do that by telling people who we are.

3. Wisdom From The Founding Rationalists

Comment #105412 by BlaiddDrwg on December 31, 2007 at 1:25 pm

I agree that morals and ethics are continuously evolving and society evolves with it. In that sense, many of the issues that were important to the FF when they were drafting the founding documents of the US are no longer relevant today.

However, I think the preoccupation with the FF comes from a nostalgia about the ideals that they represented. Most Americans see the succession of corrupt politicians and wish that we could once again have people leading this country that have a fervent belief in the government serving the people and not corporations, special-intrest groups, etc.

4. Wisdom From The Founding Rationalists

Comment #104380 by BlaiddDrwg on December 28, 2007 at 11:55 am

"So how was the US designed? Not a democracy, not a dictatorship but concentrates power on to a few wealthy, intelligent people, usually white and more or less sociopath, selfish and mostly rational. What 'cracy' is that? I do not know."
Comment #104044 by 82abhilash

I get tired of everyone saying that the US is a democracy. The founding fathers understood that in a democracy, the minority would be subject to the tyranny of the masses. Jefferson, Franklin, and the rest were wise enough to employ the representative government of a Republic in the US instead of a true democracy. However, with the strangle-hold that corporations and religious groups have on the government now, it would probably qualify as an Oligarchy.

5. Teresa, Bright and Dark

Comment #66327 by BlaiddDrwg on August 29, 2007 at 5:39 pm

I agree with LeeLeeOne. I thought this article was a much more sensitive assessment of Mother Teresa's crisis of faith than I had expected from Christopher Hitchens, yet everyone has grabbed on to a single statement and turned it into the sole focus of the discussion. Personally, I don't care if anyone approves or disapproves of abortion as long as they don't try to legislate their opinions on others. Let's try to stay on topic and discuss the article.

6. A Daddy Longlegs Tells the Story of the Continents' Big Shifts

Comment #66323 by BlaiddDrwg on August 29, 2007 at 5:28 pm

I love articles like this, because they illustrate what most christians don't understand about science. Listening to fundie arguments gives the impression that scientists construct elaborate theories around a single piece of evidence. Many I have talked to think that evolution is based solely on fossil evidence. This article shows that most scientific theories have multiple layers of corroborating evidence, all leading to the same conclusion. Keep up the good work!

7. The Bible's literary sins

Comment #63207 by BlaiddDrwg on August 13, 2007 at 1:44 pm

I can't speak for all denominations of Christianity, but what I remember from my mother's baptist church, was that everyone just jumps back and forth through correlated verses in three or four chapters without paying any attention to the context that all of those verses reside in. It's no wonder that the majority of christians have no idea of the purely pointless dribble that composes most of the bible text.

8. Does the Bible have a place in public schools?

Comment #61865 by BlaiddDrwg on August 7, 2007 at 7:32 am

My wife had a friend in college who was majoring in English. She had never read a bible in her life and, as a result, she was completely lost in many of her classes. So, I can understand some people's reason for wanting the bible to be studied in school. However, the bible itself should be subject to the same literary review that any other text receives.

Much of christianity depends on the followers believing that the bible is a unique revelation divinely inspired by god. It would be very hard to convince new followers of this if they know about the Sumerian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Zoroastrian, Greek, etc. influences on the bible text.