1. Colouring book warns kids of pedophile priests

Comment #94898 by juandelaforet on December 7, 2007 at 1:25 am

If there were any other organisation where sexual predators were so rife and somewhat protected then there would be outrage and moves to shut it down. How come religion can get away with all of the worst crimes without any apparent reprisals?

2. Agnes on Faith

Comment #94892 by juandelaforet on December 7, 2007 at 1:04 am

In equal measures funny but also depressingly true to life.

3. Sunday School for Atheists

Comment #91079 by juandelaforet on November 27, 2007 at 6:51 am

I'd love my kids to grow up as atheists. My parents would love my kids to grow up as "believers"(tm). What I'm conciously trying to do is to avoid imposing my viewpoint on them. They're good kids and they're pretty bright kids so all I do is to promote science and questioning without making it into an atheism vs. theism lecture. At the end of the day I think that the arguments against a god(tm) vastly outweigh the arguments for one *however* it's their choice, not mine. I think it's my responsibility as a parent to *equip* my kids to make sensible choices, not to force them one way or the other. There's no way I want my kids to be clones of me (I've got waaaay too many faults!). :-)

I do take on board your comments though and I'm not suggesting for a moment that this is some form of brainwashing anti-god camp. I bet that they're all fantastic people and that it would be a great place to meet some great people.

Despite their obvious delusion there are some really nice and genuine religites out there and it's good to meet them as well....

4. Sunday School for Atheists

Comment #91047 by juandelaforet on November 27, 2007 at 4:57 am

The weekend is for spending time as a family. All week kids have school plus homework and there's not much time to spend properly as a family. If I thought I needed to take my kids to a third party to learn proper "values" or "critical thinking" then I'd have to question my own "values".

Group membership is all very well and has its place and it's good to herd the cats of rationalism however don't force it on the kids, let them *play*!!! Forcing a child into a secular group when they'd rather be having fun is more likely to make the result a negative one just like years of regular Sunday School did for me.

5. Sikh girl will convert for a place at Catholic school

Comment #64454 by juandelaforet on August 20, 2007 at 5:40 am

Am I missing the point here? Not the point about faith schools discriminating against other faiths and the population in general (that's obviously bad). The thing that's getting me is the rather glib way in which they've switched gods. Unless Sikism=Catholicism then *surely* they've offended one of the imaginary sky fairies and are damned to hell? Maybe their new god will fight their old non-educationally-friendly god in some kind of universal death-match to decide.... ;-)

6. Curriculum for Baptist School

Comment #62278 by juandelaforet on August 9, 2007 at 7:25 am

Please tell me this is a joke.... Oh, it's not.... I think I've just been a bit sick in my mouth. :-(

7. Almost Human, and Sometimes Smarter

Comment #32663 by juandelaforet on April 18, 2007 at 12:05 am

"Would you masturbate over a picture of a female chimp?"

...I guess it depends on if she was a "looker"...??? ;-)

8. Is God a Delusion?

Comment #29840 by juandelaforet on April 5, 2007 at 5:36 am

There's a Wikipedia link on the "pale blue dot" page (from post #23) that I found really summed it all up. It's from Sagan (of course) and it's extremely humbling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

9. 'God Is Not a Moderate'

Comment #21379 by juandelaforet on February 9, 2007 at 1:06 am

I've been following this one from the start and found that although Sam's been good in the main he hasn't been *exceptional*. I stand corrected. This last response was absolutely on the button, utterly brilliant from start to finish! :-)

I *know* that it's impossible to shake these "because I know it's true" theists from their beliefs but anyone who reads this debate from start to finish with any form of doubt in their mind *must* be convinced by Sam's responses.

You live in hope.... :-)